An offer to join a game has been made to me, and there is mention of filling the skill monkey (knowledge skills) and damage dealing. The first thing that comes to mind is a rogue, but I am lack the skill necessary to keep one of those alive for long.
I am entering at seventh level, and only "official" Pathfinder material is accepted.
Does anyone else have an suggestions? My primary goal is to have a good amount of skills and be useful in combat (not necessarily damage).
Alchemist.
Blaster Wizard/Sage Sorcerer.
Alchemist.
I am currently playign an alchemist in another game, so this would not be my second choice. But considering the many, many options Pathfinder provides, I can play one that is totally different than my current.
Blaster Wizard/Sage Sorcerer.
I...didn't know Sage Sorcerer existed, so I definitely didn't know how interesting it is. I will pursue these ideas. Thank you!
I currently play an Archaeologist Bard, and I am a massive skill monkey that doesn't do too bad with damage either. With the trait Fate's Favored and the Feat Lingering Performance, at level 7, you spend a swift action every three rounds for +3 to your attack, damage, skills, and saves. The Luck bonus will increase as you level, so you will pretty much stay on par with full BAB classes, though you may miss out on iterative attacks at higher levels. You also get a spell list that has a good number of buffs, featuring Heroism as a Lvl 2 spell.
For the best damage, I'd go ranged.
1: Lingering Performance
1b: Arcane Strike or Deadly Aim (if human)
3: Point Blank Shot
5: Precise Shot
7: Rapid Shot
For skills, you will miss out on versatile performance, but you'll get half your level to Disable Device and Perception checks. With the right spells (Glibness, Charm X, Invisiblity, etc), you can skimp on certain skills and put ranks in those you can't cast your way out of.
Seems like you might've already made a choice, but I'm going to add in another option here. If you're looking for Knowledge skills and damage dealing, I would personally go Inquisitor. Pick your domain or Inquisition (I'd choose the latter) to fit your style, though my favorites are the social skill ones (Heresy and Conversion).
If your GM is okay with it, I'd recommend using the playtest version of the Investigator and updating it to the final version when the Advanced Class Guide comes out in a little over a month from now. A blog preview has revealed the final versions of Studied Combat and Studied Strike which can make him a pretty decent melee combatant. And as far as skills go, with 6 skill points per level and Intelligence as a primary stat, he can easily have over ten skill points per level to work with, he has all knowledges as class skills and can use Inspiration (an extra 1d6) with any trained knowledge skill for free. He also has a load of other good skills and tricks to work with. It's really looking to be a very nice class.
Otherwise, I'll throw another vote into the Archaeologist Bard pool.
Are there any skills other than Knowledge that you're looking to have from your skill monkey? Really, there's a couple main sets of skills that you can get but it can be a bit of a trap to spread yourself too thin. The most valuable skill in the game tends to be Perception and the most valuable social skill tends to be Diplomacy. If you cover those through Trained Skills or Traits you'll cover a majority of your skill rolls, but occasionally you *really* want Bluff with your Diplomacy.
Also, for Disable Device, you're not required to have a good Perception, but it helps. Some classes have Disable Device as a trained skill, but DO NOT allow disabling Magic traps. Be careful of that.
If you're going the Bard route in an archetype that has Bardic Performance, Pageant of the Peacock is an arguably broken route to turn Bluff into Knowledge: Everything.
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For a true skill-monkey, play a rogue as a rogue (i.e., DEX/CHA/INT emphasis), and take Skill Mastery as your Advanced Talent at 10th. Never fail on a UMD check (because you won't have to roll dice anymore).
Skill mastery doesn't do that.
Upon gaining this ability, she selects a number of skills equal to 3 + her Intelligence modifier. When making a skill check with one of these skills, she may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent her from doing so. A rogue may gain this special ability multiple times, selecting additional skills for skill mastery to apply to each time.
Special: You cannot take 10 with this skill.
The limitation on taking 10 is part of UMD. It is never caused by stress or distraction. Skill Mastery does nothing for UMD.
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Depending on just how much of a skill monkey you want, you could just slap the Breath of Experince Feat on a suitably old dwarf, elf, or gnome with a high Intelligence bonus and call it a day. You can get it with a dwarf or elf and not even have hit middle age yet.
Apart from that, I think that Alchemist is the only primary-Int class which gets more than 2 base skill points, but if you don't want another one of those then I'd probably go with the cries for a Bard (Arcane Duelist would be a good one for a more combat-oriented type).
Another option could be a high-Int Wizard or Witch heading into Elditch Knight or Arcane Archer. Or maybe a Kensai archetype Magus? High-Int helps with AC then. The non-magical alternative could be the Duelist PrC: you could then go with a full-BAB type but also have a reason beyond just skills to cultivate that high-Int score.
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For a true skill-monkey, play a rogue as a rogue (i.e., DEX/CHA/INT emphasis), and take Skill Mastery as your Advanced Talent at 10th. Never fail on a UMD check (because you won't have to roll dice anymore).Skill mastery doesn't do that.
But it does.
-- See Marthkus' comments in this Rules thread.
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For a true skill-monkey, play a rogue as a rogue (i.e., DEX/CHA/INT emphasis), and take Skill Mastery as your Advanced Talent at 10th. Never fail on a UMD check (because you won't have to roll dice anymore).Skill mastery doesn't do that.But it does.
-- See Marthkus' comments in this Rules thread.
I don't want to further derail this thread, but Marthkus' argument doesn't prove anything other than the 3.5 warlock also had a useless ability. RAI, I believe it should work. RAW, it doesn't. Expect table variation until an official FAQ is published.
Human Sage Sorcerer seems to fit quite well. Inquisitor would be my first choice though.
I want to thank everyone who commented. I ended up making an Investigator, because the GM wanted to try out the Advanced Classes book. We played last night, but I really didn't get a chance flex his muscles; I started the game near death in a cell, rescued, escaped, then spent 10 rounds stunned.
But, as a recap, here is all the awesome ideas I was given, encase some one else is looking for this basic concept:
Alchemist
(Pupsocket, Imbicatus, ProfPotts)
Blaster Wizard/Sage Sorcerer.
(Pupsocket, Imbicatus, Jaime Sommers)
Bard archer
(Kaiyashi)
Bard Arcane Duelist
(ProfPotts)
Archaeologist Bard
(revaar, Imbicatus, Name Violation, pluvia33)
Inquisitor
(Daelen, ChainsawSam, Imbicatus, Jaime Sommers)
Urban/Guide Ranger
(Imbicatus, )
Negotiator Bard
(Imbicatus, )
Investigator
(pluvia33)
Rogue
(Sir Thugsalot)
Wizard/Witch to Elditch Knight/Arcane Archer
(ProfPotts)
Tactician Fighter to Duelist
(ProfPotts)
Yawl have been a huge help. Since I was asked to another game last night as well, I will be come back to this thread for the next concept. Thank you all, again.