Defender Battle Herald

[JustTom]

One of my friends started this build when he saw everybody else at the table competing over highest DPR so he built a fun support character that had HUGE impacts in combat and was fun to play. We've tweaked it and I got this posted on Zenith's Guide to the Builds page.

Check it out. Please tell me what you think. Did I make mistakes? Are there places to improve? I'm pretty sure this build even works in Pathfinder society, but nobody plays close to me so I can't try it myself.

My hope is that somebody tries this build and lets me know how it works in practice.

Defender Battle Herald - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wDt5Kp05blNK3pTS52_ENwjmFrnUrKBZtPp0770 _tAw/edit?usp=sharing

[Markov Spiked Chain]

Linkified.

(These boards add a space to raw URLS, so it's best to use the url /url tags)

[Markov Spiked Chain]

One part says Paladin(Divine Defender) and then later Paladin(Sacred Shield). I would consider taking a third paladin level with Holy Tactician. Ideally with Torag's Defensive Strategist trait.

This will let you spread lookout to everyone in 30' for sweet no-surprise love. And if you pick up a second teamwork feat, you can swap to that after the fight starts as a swift action. Outflank and Escape Route are both good options.

[Gwen Smith]

I run a similar build, so I can tell you that it works really well in practice. My Unarmed Fighter/Cavalier is 6th level, and I've run her in a playtest at 10th level.

At 6th level with +1 Benevolent Armor and a +1 Benevolent Lance, she aids for +7 AC on an AoO, 3 times a round. In the 10th level playtest, she had that up to +9, 4 times a round (by increasing the enhancement bonuses), and she could transfer an additional +2 from her Guarding shield to an adjacent ally each round.

A couple of notes:

I picked up Crane Style to reduce the fighting defensively penalty and to increase my dodge bonus up to +6, so everyone gets +3. If you're going with a shield wielder, check out the Madu for a similar benefit.

The Bodyguard feat with a reach weapon is awesome. While mounted, you can use a lance in one hand and still use a shield/cast spells/whatever.

I don't see any stats for your mount, but I used the Bodyguard archetype from Animal Archive. So my wolf also has the Bodyguard feat and the "Aid" trick. If I use all of my AoOs in a round, my wolf can start aiding for +2 AC, or we can both aid AC and stack up to +9 AC.

I also used the Call for Help trait to boost everyone's attack when I'm going Total Defense, but that's a deity-specific trait that might not fit your cleric/paladin build.

The aid another increase from Helpful does not stack with the Order of the Dragon Aid Allies ability. They both call out "instead of the normal +2". You need to look for aids that say "increases the bonus by 1", like the Honor Guard ability does. (I went with Order of the Sword to boost my low Will save, but the challenge ability from Order of the Dragon is better than Order of the Sword.)

The primary drawback to this build is that your flat-footed armor class sucks. Lookout will help that a lot, but keep your Perception up or get a high-perception mount. See Invisibility or Invisibility Purge will also help.

Overall:
I am a huge fan of the Helpful Halfling build in general, and your Bard build will provide more general benefits to the party than my martial version.

[Gwen Smith]

Markov Spiked Chain wrote:

One part says Paladin(Divine Defender) and then later Paladin(Sacred Shield). I would consider taking a third paladin level with Holy Tactician. Ideally with Torag's Defensive Strategist trait.

This will let you spread lookout to everyone in 30' for sweet no-surprise love. And if you pick up a second teamwork feat, you can swap to that after the fight starts as a swift action. Outflank and Escape Route are both good options.

I LOVE the Holy Tactician. I've got a Brawler 1/Holy Tactician + Holy Guide 2. Next level, I'll be able to learn a new teamwork feat as a move action and give it to everyone as a swift action. At level 6, I'll be able to give everyone two teamwork feats at the same time, once per day.

It takes a lot of planning and feat investment, but I'm hoping it pays off well.

[Atticus Blackstone]

I love the build but here's a few things I found:

Are you trying to make AoOs, using your bodyguard feat, while using full-defense? It doesn't seem to be possible...

Some of your feats require you to have an intelligence of 13. I would recommend putting 13 right away and raising your 13s or 15s to 14 and 16 respectively at level 4, 8 and 12. That way, you could probably raise your wisdom from 11 to 12, thus gaining a +1 will save, some skills and even gaining a bonus level 1 cleric spell...

Keeping your ally close but using a whip seems to imply all your allies will also have to be at a certain distance. Have you considered a reach weapon instead? I know it means you would have to drop the shield but it might be worth it...

[heyyon]

Bringing this thread back from the dead, but...

Have you considered the use of the Mouser archetype for Swashbucklers? The build already calls for Halflings, so our small size is an advantage here. It hands out a flanking bonus to all allies adjacent to you and to the monster you're mousing. Which is small compared to the -4 on all attacks not targeting you that the monster has to take. It pairs rather nicely with Bodyguard and Blundering Defense, which wants allies to be adjacent as well. You could easily be handing out an effective AC bonus of +10, 4 from Mouser + 4 from Bodyguard (your aid another is strong w/ Helpful trait) + 2 (Blundering Defense).

Another angle not yet explored is the use of Butterfly's Sting. While only making one attack each round to fight defensively, it might be hard to crit fish; however, this feat would pass off that critical hit to the next guy who will hit a TON harder than we will. The pre-requisite feat is Combat Expertise, which should already be on our list of feats.

A final push for Swashbuckler 1 early in this build is that it helps with the stat array. Getting a freebie Weapon Finesse is great and it lets us not pump STR at all. The builds so far seem to pump it to 12 and stop, but it saves us 2 points. Additional savings can be found in dumping INT as well. The Swashbuckler allows us to substitute CHA for INT when qualifying for feats. Since our build is primarily a Paladin base, our CHA could always go higher. This all adds up to the build getting a stat array more like 10 / 16 / 14 / 10 / 13 / 16 or 8 / 18 / 14 / 10 / 10 / 16. In any case, relying on Dex gets higher AC and that will help when we're crammed in the same space as the BBEG.

If that wasn't enough, Swash 1 also gets us a bonus to Acrobatics that could turn up to be rather useful. It would seem like positioning really matters for this character, so moving through the battlefield without the requisite feats might be tough. Adding 1d6 to our check to move through a space unmolested is quite nice.