Hello guys, I may need some help.
In my small campaign we are playing as three people, witch, archer, and me as the front line. The thing is that I played a Tengu fighter with a bastard sword and a shield, ~23 AC, died to a Hold Person due to an amazingly lucky roll from a wizard (on fire and with me in melee) plus me failing every single save, quite horribly.
Anyways, I don't want to play another standard bruiser type character. I don't want to be a standard fighter or a ranger, cause I find it boring now, don't like the concept of paladins or barbarians, and we fight very often in close quarters, so no mounted combat for more than 70% campaign; therefore, I can't play a Cavalier or Samurai. Can't be a rogue or a ninja as far as I know, cause no flanking or durability.
Our witches build focuses more on de-buffs and curses for the enemies, no real damage, the archer has a decent damage, but we need more. So there is my question. Is there a build for someone who is a bit more interesting than a sword swinging machine with almost no characteristics behind him, or with nothing to do outside of a fight.
I need decent-ish damage, with decent durability, my Tengu had top damage (without crits) of 1d10+5 (b.sword), 1d4+2(spiked l.shield), 1d3+6(beak), the natural attack isn't that necessary.
We are currently lvl 5, I can acquire basic magical items, like +1 weapon or armor + a minor magical item. A forwarding 'Thank You' for anyone that decides to help :D
PS: Sorry for any grammatical errors and whatnot, English isn't my first language, hope it's not too horrible.
I would recommend a Druid or Battle Oracle. As a druid you can spend most of the day as something like a bear or a wolf. You bring along a second medium combatant at this level to add to the front line and you have access to level 3 druid spells which allow substantial battlefield control or more bodies on the table via summons.
The Battle Oracle can quite happily hang out on the front line wielding a two handed weapon with power attack while buffing themselves or their allies. You only have level 2 spells at this point but you have plenty of them to cover lots of situations. A reach based cleric might also be an option.
A Summoner (not the synthesist archetype) can perform similarly to a Druid; your eidolon is a bit better, you're a little worse in a fight, and you have Haste rather than Druid buffs and a slightly different flavour of BC.
You want a divine caster. Cleric, Druid and Oracle all are front liners who are also full casters. Make strength your high stat and avoid casting spells directly on enemies. You only need a high enough casting stat to access your spells, save DCs aren't how you get rid of enemies, damage is.
There are so many crossed up options these days, you could probably build a 3 man party with all front line characters. When you look at gang-up and teamwork type feats, this can be VERY powerful, while still offering some magic support (a Magus, Paladin/Warpriest, BloodRager trio would be terrifying).
Everyone seems to be suggesting full casters of one sort or another and they are good choices. Given the size of your group, an animal companion will help alot if you need blockers. If you want something more martial, but don't necessarily want a full caster, you can look at the following:
1. Inquisitor - lots of versatility (skills, combat & spell-casting), can also fill in for social skills that the archer and witch lack. If you really want the animal companion you can take an appropriate Domain and Boon Companion. Lots of in-combat and out-of-combat use. A little extra healing doesn't hurt as your group doesn't have any full healing types.
2. Bard - consider Archaeologist or Dervish Dancer archetypes for front-line use. Self buffer, a good mix of skills, special abilities and combat usefulness. Like Inquisitor, lots of in-combat and out-of-combat use. A secondary healer.
3. Bloodrager - From Advanced Class Guide, a Barbarian who can cast sorceror spells. I know you don't like barbarians, but this might be different enough for you.
4. Ninja - Takes some work, but there are Ninja builds that don't rely on flanking. These usually rely on invisibility and greater invisibility, so they come into their own at level 10, when you can get the latter. It's still better to have flanking as an option as that will get you more sneak attacks. It can work, but I'd probably only go this route if you had another PC in the front rank.
5. Cavalier/Samurai - These classes can be very successful unmounted. In fact, I've never built a Cavalier or Samurai that relies on mounted combat - all of mine have been ground-pounders. Samurai will help with the saving throws, they're cool, and their primary weapons are good.
6. Monk - One of my personal favorites. I often build my monks as weapon users - I like the three-piece staff, but unarmed variants work too. You might want to look at a Sohei using a Nodachi, and don't let the mount throw you... like Cavalier and Samurai, I usually build my Sohei with little or no mounted combat ability... the mount abilities are just gravy for those times when you happen to have a mount.
7. Alchemist - Never played one, but there are some melee-type builds/archetypes that are considered very powerful. Some healing ability.
8. Magus - Good at combat and has arcane spell casting.
9. War Priest - Another Advanced Class Guide class. A secondary healer type.
10. Cleric with the Holy Vindicator prestige class - A personal favorite. A near full spell-caster and good at combat. Also, it's not a particularly funky build... pretty straight-forward to design and run.
Hope this helps!
I think I'm either going to go with an inquisitor or a battle oracle, both seem interesting, although oracle seems more diverse and kinda more interesting backstory wise. Anyways, thanks for ya'll for all the help :D
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
I have a Battle Oracle build that you can feel free to play around with. The basic idea is to stack high str, medium dex and cha. Take Improved Initiative and Combat Reflexes. Start each fight by casting Enlarge Person on yourself. When enemies try to move anywhere within 15' of you, trip them with a Horsechopper.
For a front line oracle, look at the battle, metal, or wood mysteries.
If you're going to be casting on the front lines, be sure to take the Focused Mind trait and Combat Casting feat. If you're just going to toss up a single buff before getting to the front line, then those aren't as important.
My melee character builds multiclass extensively. I like weaponless characters.
I like Master of Many Styles Monks with Snake Style. I take Snake Style at Level 1 Monk, Snake Fang and Combat Reflexes at Level 2 Monk, and Monastic Legacy at Level 3 Monk. By level 5, your base Unarmed Damage will be 1d8, by level 13, 1d10.
Since MOMS Monks don't get Flurry of Blows, anyway, I have these characters wear armor and use shields. I like Mithril Lamellar Steel armor and a large shield.
My next high-damage Melee Character will use natural attacks. I might have a Tiefling or a Catgirl if it's not a PFS Character and use Claws. Or I might take the Tentacle Alchemist Discovery. I will take the Feral Combat Training Feat and Improved Natural Attack. At level 5, the damage goes up to 2d6 after level 5 or 2d8 after level 11.
I like grappling. I like to take Greater Grapple, so you can Grapple and Tie Up your opponent in 1 round. If you try to Tie Up your opponent without first pinning it, you take a -10. If you take 2 levels in Cavalier and join the Order of the Penitent, you don't take that -10 due to the class ability Expert Captor.
Tentacle has the Grab Ability. It gives you a +4 to Grapple. Also, you can start a grapple as a free action with a tentacle melee attack. With Feral Combat Training, you can use your tentacle as your attacks of opportunity due to Snake Fang. If you wear Armor Spikes, you will do can do extra damage with every Tentacle hit.
You can get your claws into the bonus grapple game with the Hamatula Strike feat.
I have just described a character that does a high amount of damage/attack and gets many attacks/round. He can wear armor, so he can get a high armor class. Multiclassing will yield high saving throw bonuses.
And it will certainly be an interesting melee character.
Under normal circumstances, I'd say Halfling Cavalier. Stack Power Attack with Risky Striker for big damage on Larger or larger creatures and be mounted all you want.
Really though, a "conventional Cavalier" isn't going to do your party any favors. Your group needs something to act as a barrier to keep the archer and witch safe and not something going back and forth on charge lanes.
Inquisitor or Battle Oracle would get my vote as they would shore up the lack of divine casting within the group. Unfortunately they can both be a bit tough to make resilient and I think Battle Oracles work best with a reach weapon.
At level 5 the Inquisitor gets access to Bane which would somewhat make up for only having a single attack. In your situation I would definitely recommend Toughness and Favored Class Bonus going to HP in order to maximize the survivability of the class. Depending on what sorts of stats you're dealing with I would also recommend some way of getting Heavy Armor for Full Plate since your group needs a lynchpin. Inquisitor can be a wonderfully versatile class with Bane and Judgments and class skills.
Alternatively, the best option for rounding out a 3 man party which needs a front liner is always going to be Summoner. Build your Eidolon to be exactly as boring of a "sword swinging front liner" as your party wants and spend combat buffing/debuffing/controlling with Summoner magic while the Eidolon does its thing.
The Eidolon can be built to be incredibly tough, deal decent damage, and maybe even plug a couple skill holes in the party. If it dies, no one cares because no one loses a character and the Eidolon can just be summoned again later. In the meantime the front line can be easily solved with the Summon Monster ability.
The Summoner itself gets a pretty solid spell list for support and control. It also gets Use Magic Device as an in class skill which is great for picking up any wands or staves the party needs to fill any holes in its functionality.
I'm playing a Cavalier Huntsmaster right now, trades the Horse in for a pack of Dogs and hunting birds. Actually makes for quite the front line if you commit the feats to augmenting the pack. You plus the pack creates a large Threat Zone that is difficult for enemies to get around, particularly if you make certain to give the Dogs combat reflexes. With good use of the Teamwork feats there is a lot you can do.
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