Hey everyone! I am making a new character for a new campaign. I am imagining this character as a creature bigger than everyone around him, defending his injured friends with huge magical shields that he attacks very rarely with. What would be the best race/class combination for this?? Thanks, guys
why isnt anyone responding?
Pathfinder is pretty stingy when it comes to changing your size category, you'll generally be stuck as a medium/small character forever, unless you're currently under the effects of a spell. The full arcane casters (Wizard, Sorcerer) have a pretty decent selection of wall spells, and spells that provide growth, but the sort of character you're imagining may be a bit out of this system's reach.
I recommend you check out 2nd ed Mutants and Masterminds.
Maybe pick a large race, make it a paladin, and use the divine shield archetype?
thanks guys for the suggestions. I took out the magic part, and i found three fighter archetypes that interested me. Phalanx Soldier, Shielded Fighter, Tower Shield Specialist. Which one would be best for my idea of shielding my allies with huge shields, and using those shields to hit my enemies?
I personally like brawler fighters after level 9 since they have the "No Escape" ability which gives you an attack of opportunity whenever an enemy tries to leave your adjacent squares (which the designers deliberately want you to mix with the Stand Still feat, which turns movement based AoO into a maneuver to stop that movement). That class can keep enemies trapped to protect the squishier party members (and with a scaling debuff from Menacing Stance they can't even use magic or attack without facing up to a -4 to hit and -7 to concentration)
The fact that it specializes in close weapons, which includes shields, is also a plus for the concept.
Not too much help with being larger than 8' (the limit of medium size) though.
If you want AC, you will want a Tower Shield Fighter. Just for the sake of completeness, is the campaign going mythic at any point?
no i dont think so
Ok thanx a lot
Also, keep in mind that most enemies are not brain dead, if they see a dude wearing full-plate and a tower shield then they are going to ignore that person, and just focus on your less armored friends.
GET THE GLAMERED ASAP, then make your armor look like rags or a wizard's robe.
Then again, maybe your DM doesn't take into account that enemies are not mindless.
I'd say any 8/10/12 HD class, preferably 10/12, and take a lot of the aiding and protection feats for giving AC to other people and so forth.
Keep one major thing in mind, however, the higher level you go the less important it becomes for you to give AC to allies, since if their AC is low then they are just screwed due to enemy bonus to hit.
An odd choice would be the
Summoner class.
So, you make sure your allies take teamwork feats that increase AC, Saves, and so forth, then both you and your eidolon take these same feats, you build your summoner to be a melee summoner complete with power attack--you are high threat, and therefore you are a priority to kill--and just have you and your eidolon be the meat shield. You can heal your eidolon, and the cleric can heal you. Since summoners can't cast while in heavy armor I recommend you put a LOT of points into Con.
You know what is key to playing a good defending character? Being dangerous. Enemies mustn't be able to ignore you.
You want to:
1. Be able to disable any enemy that tries to ignore you - through having a pretty high DPR, especially when flanking, or through being good with some maneuver or
2. Simply make it impossible to move through you, which is very hard.
For 1, look at either picking up a two-handed weapon, or if you really want to have a shield, using a heavy shield and shield bashing with it two-handed (having no weapon in your off-hand).
For 2, consider getting a companion; clerics, oracles and rangers all can have companions and use shields. With a companion you widen the area you can block people in, and someone who has to stop even for a round because of your animal means you can quickly move in to flank with the animal. You can both get teamwork feats to aid you in that.
Also, regardless of tactic, consider reach weapons. And of course, the Enlarge Person spell. You might want to take a one-level dip in Cleric with the Growth subdomain to be able to grow as a swift action.
Ok I'm planning to be a drifter for my race and a tower shield specialist for my first class. How much damage would a large creatures tower shield do as an improvised weapon? I'm guessing about 3d6, but I can never be sure
Not more than a large greatclub I would think. Which is 2d8 or something like that right?
ok so 2d8, thanks ilja
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If 3pp is allowed, the armiger could be of interest. It is the best defensive class in the game. A guy has one of these in a Carrion Crown campaign. He has an AC in the mid-high 50's, at level 12. He supplements offense with low attack and DPR, but being great at slamming people into walls via bull rush.
If 3pp is allowed, the armiger could be of interest. It is the best defensive class in the game. A guy has one of these in a Carrion Crown campaign. He has an AC in the mid-high 50's, at level 12. He supplements offense with low attack and DPR, but being great at slamming people into walls via bull rush.
cant be too sure about that, cuz the fighter gives extra feats, so i can get all of my proficiencies to negate imprvised double weapon penalites
actually, ill choose armiger, but ill start it at lv3 with the GM's consent
Anyone?
But can't I technically shield bash with a tower shield as I am a large creature?
What blade said, and what would be a good random starting age, weight, and height for a drider?
Uhmm... Yes, it would be considered bashing. Just like hitting someone with a bed would be.
It's still an improvised weapon, because just like a bed it's not designed to be a weapon.
If you want to be shield bashing, just go with a large shield.
ok ilja.
You may want to take Bodyguard and In Harm's Way.
Edit: Looks like that armiger class sort of overlaps with the feats I've linked, except that In Harm's Way is better than Safeguard. The rest of the class looks pretty cool, though.
ok thanks detect magic ill stick with my current feats on working with two shields, but ill get those feats when i can
Ok, I have another qustion. Since I am planning to use two TOWER shields, would it be ok if i take the improved shield bash feat? because it doesnt say in the feat that it has to be a legit shield bash. i am going to do an improvised shield bash
ok. yeah insead of armiger, ill choose fighter at lv3 so i can also negate the improvised weapon penalties and have a higher bab. hp can be gotten from feats and stuff
shield bonuses don't stack- there's no need for imp. shield bash because when you use one shield as an improvised weapon you'll still get the other shield's bonus (and the bonus from one of the shields is all you can get). also, a tower shield weighs 45 pounds... that's more than double the heaviest 2-handed weapon in the book (longhammer at 20 pounds), so using a tower shield as a 1-handed improvised weapon is more than a little bit sketchy.
umm im talking about using 2 tower shields. my character is large too,
anyways, i got a seperate question too: Can someone explain to me exactly how the Tower Shield Trainig for the Tower Shield Specialist class works? The explanation isnt helpful
wait... so you're planning to be large but carry two medium sized tower shields?
nope. two large sized tower shields. and cna u plz answer my seperate question that is above?
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Basically, tower shield training increases your Max Dex, the amount of Dex your armor and shield allow you to apply to your AC, by 2. Then at levels 7, 11, 15, and 19, the Max Dex increases by another 1. AND the armor check penalty is reduced by 3 at level 3, and this penalty reduction increases just like the Max Dex increase at each level.
Then Tower Shield Specialist means that the -2 penalty that tower shields apply to attack rolls vanishes at level 5.
ok this is what i mean. do the bonuses from armor training and the tower shield training stack? or does the tower shield training bonuses take out the armor training bonuses?
No it says: At 3rd level, a tower shield specialist gains armor training as normal, but while he employs a tower shield, the armor penalty is reduced by 3 and the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by his armor increases by 2. The benefit increases every four levels thereafter as per standard armor training; if the tower shield specialist is not employing a tower shield, the benefits to armor training revert to the normal bonuses. This means that while u hold a tower shield, your max dex goes up by 2 and the armor penalty goes down by 3 instead of the original armor training bonuses
I am wondering if this bonus doubles if u hold two tower shields.
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I would like to put my two cents in here as an experienced tank in pathfinder ... All I have ever played is tank classed and i have tried them all barb pally fighter even wild shape druid as far as protecting my party goes I have found there is no class better then a phalanx fighter with reach .... If you boost your ac with a heavy shield amulet of armor and bracers of armor then place your character in front of your party and make sure you have combat reflexes anything that wants to get to them usually has to get by you and take an aoo and if they do they have to stop moving also you get to add your shield bonus to an adjacent ally if they do get past at higher levels the only thing more effective that I've used is possibly an invulnerable ranger barbarian