Favourite Dips!


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


There seem to be quite a few classes and archetypes that benefit from dipping elsewhere for certain builds. I've often thought that Evangelist Clerics get a lot from a martial dip for weapon & armor proficiencies if they go for a melee or reach role. 1 level of Steelblood Bloodrager even lets them use a bunch of arcane wands as a bonus.

What are your favourite 1-2 level dips, and why?


Mutation Warrior Fighter

Swashbuckler/Inspired Blade Swashbuckler

Master of Many Styles Monk

Sovereign Court

If it is just a dip, dip into hunter(feral hunter archetype. as you don't need the animal companion anyway), get martial proficiencies, permanent active animal focus bonuses, the enhancement bonuses are not going to be useful to you but stag gives you +5 movement speed no restriction, even if you are a human fighter using a heavy armor, you will be wearing full plate with a 25 movement speed or also Wolf animal focus to get scent.

On top of it you have access to ranger and druid spells, good to get wands , scrolls etc of the early level ranger spells.

Sovereign Court

Rog2 dip: can't beat this yummy classic! ;)


guacamole and sourcream ...

(now I made myself hungry)


Fighter 2 can shore really help any martial build find the feats it needs.

Mutation warrior is great but the one with 4 skill points and free combat expertise is good to.


MONK! Right out of the core rule book.

Well, for many monsters anyway. 2 levels of monk gives ability score bonuses (+4/+4/+2/+2/0/-2) and NPC wealth. It also gives +1 BAB, 2d8 hit dice, +8 skill ranks and many class skills, +3 to all saves and evasion. It allows you to add Wis as a dodge bonus to AC, gives you improved unarmed strike and flurry of blows. It also gives you 2 bonus combat feats that you don't even need to meet the prereqs for.

All for only a +1 to CR. I think you can even add a third level of monk without bumping the CR by more then one.


I'm pretty fond of the Lunar Oracle dip for charisma-to-AC.


I prefer Nature Oracle for the Charisma whore build. Gets CHA to AC as well as CMD. Sure, getting CHA to reflex is a great boon, but it's a waste if you're getting CHA to saves through any other means, since they no longer stack.


Oh woops, I agree, I actually meant Nature. Got which one boosts CMD and Reflex mixed up. I find that bad things happen due to getting grappled more often than bad things happening due to being hit with a fireball.


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Dip is for chips and vegetables.
Or cartoons I want to kill.


A one-level dip in oracle is great for a variety of reasons, depending on mystery and curse.
see through fog (waves mystery)
cha to ac (nature or lore mystery)
immunity to fatigue (lame curse)
+10' movement speed that's not an enhancement bonus (flame and metal mysteries)

Paladin 2 is still a good dip, even with Divine Protection around.

As previously mentioned, fighter 1-2 and MoMS monk 2 for extra feats.

Archaeologist bard 1 can be a nice dip if you already have Fate's Favored and are willing to spend a feat on Lingering Performance.

I know there's an entire guide to dipping 1 level of cleric for grabbing domain goodies.


For a melee build that has a couple feats to spare, a 1 or 2 level dip in Barbarian can be very useful since with an Extra Rage here and there you can maintain plenty of rage rounds.

Urban Barbarian alters the picture to work well with builds that wouldn't necessarily want normal rage, and two levels of Scarred Rager allows for rage cycle, where with the reckless abandon feat you can add 4 strength and 1ab for exactly as long as you are attacking.


Cheese, I don't mind double dipping.

Sovereign Court

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Emissary Cavalier is nice for a dip to get the ability to move full speed in medium armor.

It's hard as a melee character not to take a level or two of Brawler as well. Mmmm, martial versatility.


1. Master of Many Styles - obvious reasons

2. Archeologist Bard - Lingering Performance + Fate's Favored means you get +2 luck to everything pretty much all day when it matters. A level of Bard also opens up the option to take the Pageant of the Peacock masterpiece (albeit as a feat), meaning your skill points just went through the roof as Bluff now functions as all intelligence skills. Some spells are cool too.

3. Dual Cursed Oracle - Misfortune is stupid good, you can now take Extra Revelation to poach any other good ones from the Mystery you picked, and Oracle Curses tend to be pretty ballin' even with slowed progression (your primary) or negligible (your secondary). A couple utility spells and wand access is just icing.

4. Inquisitor 3 (or 4 if you have high charisma) - a pretty deep dip, but Solo Tactics! Intercept Charge and Coordinated Charge are amazingly powerful on a melee character; use both friendly and enemy movement to move yourself into full attack position. Yay pseudo-pounce! The 4th level also opens you up for Divine Protection. The wisdom to initiative and a couple bonus spells are handy too.


Spellslinger wizard 1. Gun feats, wand scroll access and reach spell buffs touch spells with +0-5 to hit or save dcs. For a bad touch cleric I would say its worth the loss of a level. Magic bullet isn't too bad either. The question is does it count as being casted through a pistol dagger if a magus spellstirkes with it. Mmmm x3 crit multiplier. Also shooting healing is glorious.


You'd have a hard time doing that with a regular magus (unless you get the close range arcana, I guess), since spellstrike only works with touch spells, and spellslinger can only shoot ranged touch attacks, last I checked.

Myrmidarch however can get some fun going, especially with named bullet.

Spellslinger Heavens oracle can also get... fun.


Cavalier 1 (heavy armor, a feat, challenge, slightly customizable class skills through orders.
And either a mount or a banner via banner bearer.

Recently the feral hunter became a thing. The permanent feral focus is just too nice. Add spells and, for some classes, the medium armor prof and it is easily worth the dip.

Scarab Sages

Lore warden fighter, unbreakable fighter. Gets me either Combat Expertise or Endurance and Diehard as bonus feats.
Brawler. 4 uses of martial flexibility and Improved Unarmed Strike.
Paladin for 2 levels gives me CHA to saves, some swift action self heals, smite evil, and heavy armor proficiency.
Bloodrager for a level 1 bloodline power (that you can give up for a familiar), a few rounds of rage, and fast movement.


Snakebite Striker 1 is a good one I haven't seen mentioned. IUS + sneak attack with 2 good saves and no BAB hit.

Crossblooded Sorcerer (Draconic/Orc) 1 is another one that has been around for a while and I haven't seen mentioned yet.

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