Maybe an Inquisitor of Pharasma would be an intresting, more "sneaky & skilled" Undead Hunter
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The paladin is going to be better at fighting one big undead because he can only smite so often, the ranger is good because his favored enemy is constant damage. Clerics and oracles have their benifits of spells to control/kill undead. I think an undead killer could be a mix between an inquisitor and maybe two levels of ranger of the favored enemy.
Think of the bane undead on a composite longbow with favored enemy (+4 extra to hit and damage then 2D6 extra damage with multiple arrows)
Paladin’s make pretty good undead fighters if you want to focus on mostly combat. Detect evil will make it easier to identify undead, and of course smite evil will really boost your combat abilities. Keep in mind that smite evil is only usable a limited number of times per day, and only affects a single target. It is great for the vs.0 BBEG, but does not work very well vs. a horde of lesser undead.
An inquisitor will also work extremely well if you want to focus on investigation more. Bane and judgments will keep you combat abilities up when you need them, but both of them are limited in the number of uses per day. The inquisitor’s skills and other class abilities will make him the best investigator of the game.
Another option is ranger with favored enemy of undead will also do quite well. Unlike both the paladin and the inquisitor his bonus has no limit. The favored enemy bonus also applies to bluff, knowledge, perception, sense motive, and survival. Taking two weapon fighting as your combat style will allow you to deal out significant damage vs. hordes of undead. Unlike most two weapon fighters you don’t need to max out DEX and your favored enemy bonus applies to both weapons. The rangers skills will make him nearly as good at investigation as the inquisitor. Favored terrain underground will probably work very well when you have to assault the lair of the undead lord. Since both bonuses are untype bonuses they stack.
The Paladin is going to excel at taking down the toughest undead, and surviving the attacks of undead. The inquisitor is going to excel at finding out what is going on and will bring a lot of magic to the table. The ranger is going to wade through the lesser undead and be able to spot the undead a lot better than anyone else.
multiclass ranger/paladin!
a 2 level dip with Ranger would go a long way, but you could take more if you want... a sword-and-board pally with 2 ranger levels gains favored enemy [undead] and 2WF without needing to meet the Dex requirement, along with some extra skill points and way more class skill options.
multiclass ranger/paladin!
a 2 level dip with Ranger would go a long way, but you could take more if you want... a sword-and-board pally with 2 ranger levels gains favored enemy [undead] and 2WF without needing to meet the Dex requirement, along with some extra skill points and way more class skill options.
A single classed character is going to be stronger. Both favored enemy and smite evil scale as you go up in levels. Also the paladin usually uses heavy armor which the ranger is not going to be doing. A ranger loses his fighting style in heavy armor so would either have to use medium armor without a good DEX or not use his combat style. Both the ranger and the paladin get other abilities as they level up so this will weaken both classes.
The ranger would not get favored terrain, hunters bond, evasion, and quarry just to name the more important ones. The levels of paladin will really hurt his skills a lot of the skills that will be important have scaling difficulties so the paladins few skill points are not going to help.
On the Paladin side you are delaying a lot of your important abilities. You will not get any spells until 6th level and the durations of the buffs will be less. You don’t get Divine Bond until 7th; Divine grace will be gained at 4th. The damage for favored enemy is directly offset by losing the damage on smite evil.
The other problem is your stats. Normally CHA is a dump stat for rangers, but it is one of the most important stats for a paladin. Paladins can normally dump WIS, but that stat is important for a ranger not only for spells, but the fact that many of his skills are based on it. You could dump INT but that is going to hurt your skills.
Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead.
You have to choose to harm undead, or heal living you cannot do both at once.
a paladin with a 2 level dip in ranger would still prioritize stats as a paladin (and most likely wouldn't take any ranger levels until after getting divine grace). smite evil gives the same bonus whether applied to a 2hander or an off-hand attack, so its one of those abilities that really favors 2WF; the +2 hit/damage from favored enemy will off-set the 2WF penalty and the lost damage from the 2 level dip (and give you skill bonuses, in addition to the extra attack you now have).
losing 1d6 LoH does kind of hurt, but you can always take Fey Foundling to make up for it. likewise, you can take Magical Knack if you're concerned about your spells durations.
as for armor- many paladins (in my experience) opt for Mithril Breastplates anyways. a pally often recognizes that the best person to take a hit is himself (since he can heal himself as a swift action), and if your AC is too high enemies will avoid you for squishier targets; plus its hard to vanquish evil and save innocents when you're slower than everybody around you. at higher levels (when you need some more AC, and can afford a speed enhance) they can pick up Mithril Fullplate and not lose the ranger combat feat.
i'm not saying there is no cost- delaying spells and divine bond is a hassle. the OP asked for the best "undead hunter" so i was throwing out an idea that has a bit more 'hunter' to it than a standard paladin. you want the best 'undead fighter' go straight paladin; you want someone adept at 'hunting' them and you're gonna want some levels of ranger or inquisitor in there somewhere.
Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead.You have to choose to harm undead, or heal living you cannot do both at once.
If you had Quick Channel, you could use it twice a round, once each way, you'd burn 4 channels though.
We're starting an undead themed campaign soon. I'm curious as to what might be the most effective undead hunter. Paladin? Cleric? Maybe Oracle or Inquisitor? If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it. This is being run in a modified Forgotten Realms setting. No talents. Other than that, mostly just normal Pathfinder rules, with all official books available.
Paladin (Undead Scourge) or Ranger (Favored Enemy: Undead) are my favorites.
if you're not overly concerned with optimization- straight ranger or straight inquisitor could both really excel as undead hunters.
paladin is obviously a very strong option for undead slayer, though they tend to really excel against BBEGs and be less effective against crowds of weaker undead... which is exactly where the cleric (who's probably the second best slayer) is at his best: a cleric with sun and glory domains is a nightmare for undead; a reach cleric could be a solid option for this (especially if you're not worried about being MAD), or a 2hand/PA melee cleric with channel smite and guided hand (which reduces your MAD but also your base damage).
we all know that an optimized character is always better at what it does than a non-optimized one, but all of these options are strong enough against undead that if you wanted to you could multiclass between them pretty freely and still really be contributing to the party.
always remember rule #1: have fun
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I think what it comes down to is the definition of undead hunter.
A paladin is going to be the best at fighting undead bar none. They get not only incredible offensive abilities, but some of the best defensive abilities vs. undead in the entire game. Being able to pretty much ignore a lot of special attacks undead use is a huge advantage. A lot of their spells will boost these already high abilities even further. In a straight war vs. undead the paladin is pretty hard to beat. Where he does not do well is if the campaign is more subtle. If the undead are obvious and out in plain sight he will be the best hunter. Where he starts to fall behind is when the undead are hidden. With only 2 skill points per level and INT as a low priority stat he simply does not have the skills either a ranger or an inquisitor has. Detect Evil can migrate some of this, but other things detect as evil besides undead.
The biggest advantage the ranger has is he will do best in long drawn out fights with tons of undead. His favored enemy bonus works vs. any undead all day long. If he maxes out the favored enemy bonus he can also take favored defense to get a boost in AC equal to half of his favored enemy bonus. Since this is a dodge bonus it will affect his touch AC for when he is fighting incorporeal undead. Most undead also hide underground so taking favored terrain underground gives him an even larger advantage. Taking hunter’s bond of companions instead of an animal companion allows him to grant the entire party half his bonus.
Multiclassing any of these classes together weakens them. A paladin with a two level dip in ranger is not getting enough to make up for what he loses. A +2 to hit and an extra attack are not worth delaying weapon bond, or gaining paladin spells for two levels. 8 skill points are not worth giving up, an extra smite evil, an extra lay on hands, an extra dice per lay on hands, and the ability to channel positive energy.
A lot of it is also going to depend on the other characters in the party. If someone is playing a cleric and no one is playing a rogue or other stealth based character a ranger would be best. If on the other hand if no one is playing a cleric or oracle than a paladin is probably going to be more useful.