I am about to begin playing a Skull and Shackles game and everybody but me has their classes picked out and I am stuck between a few classes. Everybody is going pirate/water themed characters (archetypes mostly).
We are not completely optimized (some taking feats that are more for fluff) and I don't dump stats. We are getting 20-25 point buy and all Paizo is legal. I am playing a human (for background purposes) and I have left enough in his background to wiggle either class into the story.
My choices are:
Corsair Fighter
Freebooter Ranger
Picaroon Swashbuckler
Are party make up is:
Sea Reaver Barbarian
Sea Singer Bard
Air Elemental Wizard
Swashbuckler
Alchemist (not pirate themed, but they really want to play a none sailor type role)
I originally was going with a Corsair Fighter, but we have a heavy hitter in the Barbarian, and the Ranger I thought of as a either dual wielding or archery build, as the Bard is unsure if they will focus on melee or range and casting spells. I am worried about taking the Picaroon Swashbuckler due to already having a swashbuckler and not wanting to step on their toes.
As far as the role I plan on playing, I am open to being either melee or range I don't really care. We already know that the captain is going to be between the Bard and Swashbuckler and I am okay not being the captain and don't really want to be. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Personally, I'd go with Freebooter and do archery. The freebooter's ability will help the bard, barbarian, *and* swashbuckler do what they do, and will in turn be boosted by the bard. This means that while rnd 1 isn't insane, rnd 2 is nuts. It will also help the alchemist, now that I think about it, since it should boost both bombs and melee.
It's easy to become too crowded in melee and you already have 2 guaranteed melee guys, with a third debating, which is why I recommend archery. I once had a party with 4 melees and a caster and it was a disaster. 3 is the limit IMO, 2 prefered. In the worst case you'll still have 4 melees even if you go with archery (since alchemist makes a good melee character as well).
Tactically speaking, the Freebooter would be the target painter. He would declare his ability on something then shoot at it, and everyone rushes that guy.
Thats for the quick reply, what you said makes a lot of sense. Would you change to melee if the bard goes range?
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With that party you can play anything you want. That said, they are be weak in these areas:
* They have no divine caster. The bard can do CLW, but that's about it. Your team will struggle, at times, with the lack. That's a big gap! For example, the team has no way to cure ability damage, which is very common.
* Your team has no archer and several melee heavies. They do not need another melee fighter, regardless what the bard does. An archer would be really handy, though.
My recommendation: Archer-style inquisitor. It's not on your list, but it's a class that would contribute a lot. You will be strong in combat, and get the divine spells that everyone else totally missed. Added bonus: no one will try to shoehorn an Inquisitor into a heal-bot role.
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Thats for the quick reply, what you said makes a lot of sense. Would you change to melee if the bard goes range?
Probably not. If both alchemist AND bard go ranged I would consider it, but even then archery is a fair choice. At that point if you expect a lot of small-scale encounters (no more than 4 baddies) then archery is better, but if you expect a lot of larger scale fights (5+ baddies) melee is better since it helps you keep them away from the other ranged characters. Again, though, this hinges on Bard, Alchemist, AND Wizard being the stay-at-the-back types.
I also concur with Magda's assessment that a bit of divine casting would be a good help. Inquisitor or Warpriest would both be good choices, and both have the option of either melee or ranged combat. Hunter is also not a bad choice, what with the ability to nab an aquatic animal companion. Nothin' like having the enemy captain get crushed by a large-sized constrictor snake before he can even give the order to charge.
Thanks you two! That gives me some things to think about. I think the alchemist is going to be a bomber as they were going for the timid, scholarly type. For Divine I figured between the alchemist, bard, and Sandara (NPC) we would be okay on healing, but you guys bring up good points about divine character, especially an archer-style inquisitor.
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Archery is good and will down right be a winning choice. Especially ship to ship parts.
I was going to mention a Kensai Whip Magus. Be and act like a Taskmaster. Your crew not moving fast enough pop him with a whip and he will regret he ever thought about slacking on the job. Looting and battle keep pirates in line on those days...but those weeks at sea between scores of booty really require a strong hand to keep those salty dogs in line.
This AP only goes to level 13 I believe so most problems I think an Alchemist and a Bard with UMD can hand most afflictions. Then the NPC can offer aid.
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Book 6 begins at 13, so you'll be 14 or 15 at the end depending on how much you do I'd suspect. You'll likely do great with any of the suggested roles but you'd certainly not want for things to do if you took up one of the divine ones and it'd nicely fill a gap in the party makeup which could prove dangerous, an Archer Inquisitor or Archer Oracle might be a really good match for this.
Thank you all again for you help. There has been a change in our group. Our Alchemist has dropped complete out of the game now. I was going to go with a ranger, as our GM was going to spec A. Ivey (dont remember his name, but the guys who is suppose to be dead on that island) into a druid and add him as a NPC, potential cohort. Do you think between him (asa druid) and Sandara (as a cleric) is enough healing support or should I change my ranger into something else. It should be noted that our GM plays to us very well, so I have a feeling we will find a wand of cure light wounds relatively easy in the game.
I forgot to add, that our GM said if things get rough, and nobody changes classes, that he will let us take both NPCs I mentioned as cohorts (for leadership) and give them to us early, but we still have to take the leadership feat when we can.
Having just finished a Skull and Shackles campaign where we had a Wizard/Master of Storms (prestiege class), a Swashbuckler, a Bralwer/fighter/warpriest multiclass (mostly brawler), a Bard, and a myself as an archer ranger I can tell you we breezed through things.
It was a fairly similar composition to your party, except you haven't decided what to play. Honestly, between your swashbuckler and your barbarian you have plenty of melee characters. Our party was lacking in divine power, but a wand of CLW did the major healing work. Sandara was able to help us out with longer duration issues like blindness and other disabilities, but it would have been nice to have more divine power.
Honestly, I think the best recommendation I can make to you is to build a Inquisitor to do archery. If you pickup the Wind subdomain you can get yourself a Roc animal companion and practice flying mounted archery. With this campaign being able to fly is spectacularly powerful.
Edit: There is some domain that grants an animal companion. Choose that one.
Double Edit: Feather domain. That's what I was thinking of.
Thanks, I really debated about being a druid, but felt that we needed more range support, especially now that the alchemist dropped out and our bard is going melee.
How the heck did a paladin manage to stay in skull and shackles?
I mean we didn't go full murder hobo, but it's hard to be a pirate and a paladin.
So you encounter a lot of slave ships then? And otherwise leave the trade ships alone? Sounds like a very different experience fromt he one we had.
Excluding our chaotic evil swashbuckler, everyone was chaotic neutral. Surprisingly we were nice to a lot of people and potential enemies and avoided a lot of fights through diplomacy. But we did loot, pirate, and plunder everything we could get our hands on. There was usually some death involved, but only to the extent in which the other ships resisted. We told the crews that if they surrendered they would be spared, with their choice of working for us or being dropped in the first port we came to. For pirates, we were pretty charitable. Usually we would kill the captain and the first mate, and maybe the pilot if it wasn't one of those two, and then the rest of the crew would surrender.
What's funny is, most of the time the rest of us were trying to reel in the crazy evil swashbuckler because we weren't interested in killing, just in looting.
So you encounter a lot of slave ships then?We've actually only encountered one ship since taking charge. That whole 'squib the ship and hey let's kick in the door to Urgathoa's pad' thing.
Ahhhhh! So you havent' had to make the hard decision yet because you haven't got to make many decisions.