Personally I think Barbarian. Can anyone else suggest what they feel would be the "easiest" character to play solo and have the campaign not get boring from levelling too slowly? I am a recovering one player runs 4 characters addict,it was just too much. Played 4 sheets in Rise of the Runelords all the way to 13th, dont want to do that any more it is exhausting. Help!
Barbarian? No. You need something with the ability to heal themselves well and often.
Now, anyone with cure light wounds on their spell list at least has a shot at this, because you can pick up a wand regardless of your number of spells per day.
Paladin, Ranger, Cleric would all make strong choices for solo play, as well as the war priest. The war priest is probably the best combination of martial might and spell casting you can muster.
Cleric, Paladin, Bard, Druid, Summoner.
I'd go with Paladin or Bard myself, though druid might actually be the more optimal choice.
I've always found alchemists to be quite good at doing a little bit of everything. Or a bard or inquisitor, maybe.
I second Paladin and Cleric especially. Paladins are full BAB, get Lay on Hands as a Swift Action, and can smite the Hell out of evil things. The only trouble is dealing with non-evil things. Clerics are medium BAB characters with full spellcasting and can be played in a LOT of different ways...
Bards can be impressive combatants, too. The Archaeologist is rather popular, as is the Dervish Bard.
The only other characters that aren't in playtest I might consider optimal choices for solo play: A summoner (dem eidolons) or an alchemist, oddly. Alchemists get a fair mixture of spells, and some of their bombs can mop up large groups of opponents quickly. And then, of course, they can use Mutagen to make themselves stronger... Medium BAB, intelligence-based caster with both arcane and divine spells on their spell list, a boost to their stats, skillmonkey potential, and BOMBS. Fun stuff.
Aasimar would be a solid race for any of these classes; also consider humans, half-elves, and half-orcs.
I'd probably go with the Cleric if I wanted to be as powerful as possible, but the Paladin makes a very, very amazing choice, too.
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Paladin, mechanics as above, and no other players to bother you while being goody goody, so pretty ideal for solo play.
Solid choices thanks! Claxon, in the past when we used to solo before PF came out, cure potions usually fit the bill although i do remember a good many drawbacks with that approach. Essentially, i wasnt going to rule out non casters. Self heals are "wicked" important still so i do see your point.
Personally I would go for Inquisitor. Has healing and status removal, with judgements and bane you are a powerful combatant against anything and you have skills.
Druid is also a solid choice.
Innla those are frikkin awesome points about alchemist! Typically i had trouble figuring out what to do with one in aparty. They seem so varied and complicated when you have three other characters to play...but solo alleviates the load, and allows the campaign to change if one approach gets stale. Im putting alchemist high on my list at this point!
Love inquisitor after 5th. That party i levelled to 13th included one. He was SUCH a BADASS, lol he was built towards melee but when he buffed judged and baned up he was a force even with his bow...just...too...strong. Lot of work but a rewarding class for sure.
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Well, in my opinion, the alchemist makes a great fifth man in a typical D&D group, like the bard. Alternatively, the alchemist can be used in place of an offensive caster because of how powerful and dependable their bombs are, especially in a group whose martials are already partial casters themselves (Magus, Paladin, Ranger, Warpriest, Bloodrager). And they can take the place of a rogue skill-wise with just a one-level dip in any class that gets them trapfinding, so there's that...
Just be warned: The alchemist still has d8 HD and their spell progression is slower than other casters'. You have a lot of tools at your disposal, but you'll probably have to use them all. It can be very, very rewarding to play one though, perhaps moreso in a solo game.
Oh! One last thought: There's a homebrew thing going on where people are combining different classes together into "archetypes" that basically function as alternate classes. If your GM lets you, I'd suggest taking a look and seeing if anything clicks.
Check out what they did to combine the Rogue and Magus, for example.
Interesting,thank you. Also this campaign idea started with a discussion i had with my gm. I wanted to challenge myself by creating a single 15 point buy character using no stat dump that would be strong enough to level quickly and stay fun from 1st to 20th.
Thanks Kahn not doing any 3pp and trying to stay somewhat close to core material, i can be a bit vanilla in my tastes as a player.
druid. the animal companion puts it ahead of the other solid choices imho.
The game isn't designed for a single player, and I don't consider finding a way to make it work worth the effort.. I would let the player choose whatever character he or she wants, and put some house rules in place to cover the character's weak spots. As GM, you'll have to bend a lot of rules.
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Depending on the nature of the campaign, Paladin, Cleric, or Druid can definitely work...but all three are a bit incomplete in terms of skills, since they aren't Int based and lack a comprehensive list.
Rogues have that, but lack a flanking buddy, which makes them well-nigh useless in combat, and lacks the ability to self-heal. Cavaliers, Barbarian, Fighters, Monks, Wizards, Magi, and Sorcerers lack sufficient self healing, and sufficient skills to boot (okay, the Wizards and Magi can have enough skills...healing is still an issue, though UMD and a few wands might do it, those are your two best bets out of this lot).
Summoner technically lacks self-healing, but can heal his Eidolon, and is a Chr based class with UMD on its class list. Probably not quite enough skills, but very solid in combat.
An Oracle's a good choice with the right Mystery, providing healing, offensive casting, and a pretty solid skill list, though not as good as those listed below. You can get an Animal Companion for physical backup with the right Mystery, though. Witch is good for similar reasons (though it lacks the Animal Companion, as good a skill list, and is notably more fragile, it does have better offense spells, however).
Among the top-tier for this, Alchemist is solid (though their skill list has notable gaps, they are Int-based, which helps a lot), and Inquisitor is very solid (you can even give them an Animal Companion with the Chivalry Inquisition) as is Bard (especially Dawnflower Dervish or Archaeologist, since you don't need party-buffs). Ranger works, though it's a bit light on healing for a single player game, and with Boon Companion has an Animal Companion worth talking about.
Personally I think Barbarian. Can anyone else suggest what they feel would be the "easiest" character to play solo and have the campaign not get boring from levelling too slowly? I am a recovering one player runs 4 characters addict,it was just too much. Played 4 sheets in Rise of the Runelords all the way to 13th, dont want to do that any more it is exhausting. Help!
1) Master Summoner is the easiest until about 13th lvl IMO, then the true casters are the best, meaning 1) Oracle + Paragorn Surge, 2) Sorcerer + Paragorn Surge, 3) Razmiran Priest Sorcerer, 4) Wizard, 5) Cleric, 6) Witch, 7) Druid, 8) Sorcerer, 9) Oracle, 10) Summoner
If you start from lvl 1 but you do not want to play a master summoner, consider a druid with an animal companion. Full caster and increased action economy.
Improved Eldritch Heritage on the arcane bloodline would help with that, would it not?
Could have missed it, but I think Synthesist Summoner would be the best one. All the stats of a fighter/barbarian, spellcasting, ability to change size, energy weapons, and if you make an eidolon with the bipedal base build, you can start off able to cast spells. Rejuvenate Eidolon and you're good to go. If you don't make an eidolon with the Bipedal form, just get the arms evolution and you're still good to go.
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Paladin - will work well. If you take Tiefling Favored Class Bonus and Fey Foundling you become really hard to kill. You also got great saves and damage.
The Paladin is a good choice, especially because you want to make it less "exhausting". Just take Oath of vengenance, lean back and Smite/LoH all day. It may not be the most poweful in the list, but the easiest to play by far.
Inquisitor - I'd take this over the Paladin, if you also need to be a skill monkey.
Druid- Strong Animal Companion, can selfheal, is awesome at summoning and fights well himself. You need to Preplan your Wildshape Forms and Nature's Ally spells to get along.
Summoner - You basically hav two characters. A Fighter and a buffer. Watch out for your low Fortitude saves and your squishy Summoner. If the GM is nice and keeps attacking the Eidolon, this might be the best alternative. If no Eidolon is there you can still summon.
Synthesist - You don't get extra actions per round, though you might be better off as a Synthesist, if your GM keeps focussing the Summoner himself hard(which would be mean in a solo campaign, since you lack allies to keep em off you). In you fused form you are really hard to kill.
Master Summoner - Will do a solid job by spamming Summons, but might be as complicated to control as multiple characters.
Cleric - Selfheals, summons, fights rather well - could get the job done.
Monk - Since you should be above most Challenge Rating you have to encounter solo, a monk should shine here. High saves and AC will outscale the enemies and his damage should be sufficent.
ZenArcher- More versatile than the normal monk and more damage. Still great AC and saves
Wizard - You are at level 13 already? Abuse your utility and play a paranoid wizard to win the game.
More IMPORTANT THAN ALL OF THAT: Play whatever you like. Talk to your GM so you guys can adjust your point buy, level and equipment to make up for you characters shortcomings.
If you love Barbarians, play as a solo Barbarian and smash your way through the waves of enemies.
If your GM is nice you could even be a plain old Fighter. With the right equipment, he should be up for the challenge. Since you don't have to compete with other characters, it doesn't really matter other classes could pull off your trick better. Boots of Elvenkind + Ring of Invisibility will make you Fighter great at sneaking even without any ranks. It doesn't really matter, the Rogue could have 20 Points more.
The same can be done with tweaking equipment to adjust saves, Bab etc.
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imho i think a rage prophit 4 barb/1 life oracle 10 rage prophit would be the over all best at self preservation.
*possibly a Champion of the Enlightened for a crazy number of layon hands per day + smite evil and chaos pretty much at will. cool monk stuff and you get to wear armor. i have a crazy high DPR survival build, havent been able to test it yet though.
*a blaster controller/summoner mystic thurge could work if you used celestial armor, 4 fireballs a round for 15d6+ 30 @ level 14 or 15 self healing out the wazoo and utility spells of a sorcerer/wizard.
*a ninja could work if you were willing to play hit and run then hide. its very hard to stop on a hellcat stealth ninja.
*dervish bard is pretty popular, but i wont ever play a bard again since i tried it in 3.5...
stay away from magus!
i would throw my hat into the ring for an EK archer as a completely self sufficient character.
I would recommend a hospitaler Paladin.
The CR system is built around 4 PC, and since each PC (lets assume all level 1) are CR 1 we can apply the gamemastering rules for multiple monsters to find out the equivalent CR of a solo creature that is as powerful as the group.
So, CR1 + 4 = 5.
Therefore a single character of level 5 is effectively as powerful as a party of 4 level 1 characters.
Paladins are a good choice simply because they get spells that let them use their LoH as a last resort when they are brought down to -1 or less HP.
Being a Hospitaler means he has extra healing abilities. Also, ENCOURAGE LEADERSHIP. Seriously.
Go with 25 point buy to make the character as viable as possible. Most SAD characters are "role fillers" but require the other roles to be filled. MAD characters can fill more than one role, and often times are able to reach a livable middle between them.
So, again,
1 level 5 character = 4 level 1 characters.
Paladins can Heal, Deal Damage, Take Hits, and has a good amount of important skills. He isn't a god, but he is pretty close.
One option is to play a maxed out necromancer enchanter. You specialize in charm and domination spells to make the enemies fight for you. Could be viable, but most of your money will go into healing stuff.
Since the character will start at level 5 ensure that the PC takes SQUIRE at level 3 and picks something useful. Survival is more important here.
I'm going with a Hungry Ghost Monk here. Use lots of potions, AC should be good, saves good, damage should be good. At higher than 7th they self heal every time something is killed or crit. I would think they could take on a Rise of the Runelords at +3 levels. 4x them money, 4x the XP should put you 3 levels above. The save or suck spells need to be dealt with and monk does that. Epic Fantasy to start with a couple friendly bonus items to get going.
The other best one I would think would be a druid. Summons and heals. Master Summoner sucks to do anything with unless it is mental masturbation, pissing out that many adds is a pain for everyone and boring. Might theoretically work but why.
Thanks for the continuing ideas. The campaign i went to 13th with is over so whatever i make is going to be 1st level.
Its also going to be free roaming starting out in Magnimar, my gm hated rotrl, but we both like varisia. Closest thing we've found to the silver marches/ sword coast north .
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If you do go monk I have a few suggestions.
(always take quingong)
for a more defensive monk, I actually suggest flowing monk, it has some very nice stuff and is potentially the tankiest character in the game. YOu can oddly enough combine this with monk of the sacred mountain (you flow, yet are immovable as a stone! wut?) for insane AC vs multiple enemies. Also none of these replace FoB.
another is Master of many styles/drunken master. solo is the time for panther/snake to shine.
Hehe and scaling back encounters for 1 character takes some experience which we have plenty. Really, the challenge is mine vs the system, its designed for four 15 pb characters. I am determined to do this one!
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again, the reason I suggest monk is it can really shine here, he has great defense, and through manuvers or attacks has decent to good offense. also, the flowing monk/monk of sacred mountain retain the wholeness of body ability to heal :3.
with this focus on tripping and AoOs. panther/snake would be a good style with this I think.. hmm now I want to stat it out fully :( curse my mind.
EDIT: also, skill points are nice for solo characters, 4-6 is nice.
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Your lack of faith disturbs me...
I only skimmed through the responses, but I think Druid or Inquisitor will be your best picks, in general.
Depending on your GM (or GM style, if you are recommending to a player), any character (regardless of class) will be the best, since the story will be directly for that character.
Rangers could also work pretty well, as could Paladins.
Personally I think Barbarian. Can anyone else suggest what they feel would be the "easiest" character to play solo and have the campaign not get boring from levelling too slowly? I am a recovering one player runs 4 characters addict,it was just too much. Played 4 sheets in Rise of the Runelords all the way to 13th, dont want to do that any more it is exhausting. Help!
Paladin for Martial, Summoner for partial-caster, Cleric or Druid for full caster.
Of those the Summoner or Master Summoner looms largest.
Darn near any martial will shine in early levels, though lack of flight could hurt unless patched up by winged mount. This might sound harsh, but hey desperate times call for such things and you are all alone, commit suicide* (wow, did I just type that?) after level seven or so and then roll up a caster. I know it sounds crazy- perhaps you could plan it ahead of time with the GM. Yet it is less crazy than attacking an adventure path by yourself.
Whatever path you choose, I'd suggest not being too proud to run away as often as needed and then some. Come back with an upgraded plan and then show them who's boss.
*You could call it planned retirement to make it sound better. E.g., after reaching 6th Level Spronx the Barbarian realized he had all the money he needed to get 2 kegs of ale for the next 137 years, so off he went happily into the sunset.
A lot of good ideas here, and most sound very reasonable, too, as any class that could heal itself and fight seems like it could hold its own (cleric, paladin, bard ranger, inquisitor, etc), but we must not forget that different folks may be better using different classes.
For instance, if you handed me a barbarian for solo and said go, it would be a short campaign. I've only ever been able to solo cleric and druid. And there could be many reasons for that, but ultimately they are what i know.
Yet my magus player with cure wands is able to hold his own, as the magus is what he knows, his skills are diverse enough, he can't disable most traps, but he can usually find them and dispel them if the trap is magic. Plus with stealth/Dex, high ac from said dex, good with range too, but again, he is Very familiar with the magus class, hand me the character sheet and I'd lose the character in the first fight.
By no means a beginner, i like "simple" characters. My gm is caster lite as he hates them and he also trap lite. Monsters w lots of specials will be my biggest challenge and i have no qualms fleeing if i need to. To clarify for anyone still confused: NOT doing AP. This is a homestyle set in Varisia.
If you plan to og from level 13? I think a wizard may be a good choice. But also a monk, possibly a zen archer World be good.
Edit: how about a gunslinger? Musket Master and pistolero are both quite lethal at level 13.