One Class

[Goddity]

I am very curious to see what comes up to answer the following question:

If your entire PFS legal party had to pick one class and everyone only took that class with no dipping, but any archetype they like, what would it be? Or what would the most viable/effective/fun class be?

I would say alchemist.

[The Crusader]

Viable and effective? Clerics or Druids, I would guess.

Fun? Bards or Barbarians. Maybe Skalds for the best of both worlds!

There was a discussion on the boards once about how viable a party of four Paladins could be. I think it was in the lead up to WotR. Seems like it could work, if you expect a looooottt of evil stuff, though maybe needs some level dipping for skills.

[Imbicatus]

Inquisitors or Bards.

[Chess Pwn]

Well you need magic, and that's about the only requirement. Any 6th or 9th level caster could do an all class team.

Martials could do it too, as long as the campaign was set up for low magic.

[Akari Sayuri "Tiger Lily"]

Synthesist Summoners could work. You have enough spellcasting to cover most of the bases, everyone is pretty rugged, and you should be taking primarily temp HP damage that you can heal with your eidolon specific heal spells. You could also have a ton of skills, since you can tank physical stats and pump Int, plus the various Eidolon skill boosts.

[Thefurmonger]

Oracle, can cover every role really well.

[RoboPorthos]

Alchemist. Glass cannon is covered off the bat with bombs, buff monsters are criminally easy to make for tanks, extracts can be played with to great effect for getting around obstacles, skills are abundant, and everyone is self sufficient for healing if the worst happens.

[Rosc]

Rogues, have the PCs run like a cartel then occasionally gets their hands dirty with wetwork. Work the politics, dip their fingers in every business in town, and see who they can get in their pockets.

Edit: read the OP as PFS legal, but not necessarily PFS scenarios. If that's the case, I'd double up with Akari and go Synthesist Summoners.I'd love to see what sorts of rad Eidolons people come up with!

[lemeres]

Akari Sayuri "Tiger Lily" wrote:

Synthesist Summoners could work. You have enough spellcasting to cover most of the bases, everyone is pretty rugged, and you should be taking primarily temp HP damage that you can heal with your eidolon specific heal spells. You could also have a ton of skills, since you can tank physical stats and pump Int, plus the various Eidolon skill boosts.

Primal companion hunters are a watered down version of that. You just have to kill you animal companion to hoard all those sweet evos for yourself (sure, minutes/level, but that is enough for every fight in a day once you get to mid levels)

Not quite as dominating, but they have things like cure spells and reincarnation on their spell list. 6 skills points per level means that the party can cover all its bases.

You can also mix in feral hunters in order to get pseudo druids for versatility.

[The Alkenstarian]

Clerics all day long.

Good armor, excellent buffs, debuffs and direct damage magics, acceptable hit points, two good save modifiers, two-thirds BAB.

More importantly, fantastic possibilities for interparty roleplaying based on different religous dogma and interpretation.

That'd make for a fun con-scenario ... five or six clerics from vastly different religions, having to come to some kind of agreement without breaking faith ... literally ... with their own dogma.

Wars have started over less.

[Goddity]

Gunslinger? Kill everything before it can move? Split ammo money? Hmmmmm.

[GypsyMischief]

If you're going for functionality essentially anything that can patch it's own wounds after combat is viable as a group.

I think Rangers could be really fun.

[Rennaivx]

The Alkenstarian wrote:

Clerics all day long.

Good armor, excellent buffs, debuffs and direct damage magics, acceptable hit points, two good save modifiers, two-thirds BAB.

More importantly, fantastic possibilities for interparty roleplaying based on different religous dogma and interpretation.

That'd make for a fun con-scenario ... five or six clerics from vastly different religions, having to come to some kind of agreement without breaking faith ... literally ... with their own dogma.

Wars have started over less.

Now I kind of want to make that party, just for the fun of it. We're already going to have one probably lawful-stupid paladin of Iomedae and one nearly-neutral good, very redemption-focused paladin of Shelyn in our next campaign...extending it to everyone in the party sounds FANTASTIC.

[Rennaivx]

Also, for my choice, I'd probably either go oracle or investigator. Oracles have mysteries to support everyone specializing in a different role before you even consider spell choices and archetypes, and investigators seem to me to be one of the most self-sufficient classes in Pathfinder, so getting an entire group of them together would work out pretty well.

[blackbloodtroll]

One flesh, one bone,
One true religion.
One voice, one hope,
One real decision.

Gimme one night, yeah.
Gimme one hope, hey.
Just gimme, ah.
One man, one man,
One bar, one night,
One day, hey, hey.
Just gimme gimme, gimme, gimme
Fried chicken.

[Cap. Darling]

Arcanist, occultist for meatshield, admixture School savant for damage madness, Brown fur for buffing pehaps and every body for battlefield control.

[Headfirst]

Paladins.

Full BAB, ranged or melee variants, tons of healing, fantastic saving throws, high armor classes, and great social skills.

Divine Defender (or Sacred Shield) for your tank.
Divine Hunter for your ranged attacker.
Holy Guide for your scout.
Sacred Servant for your divine caster.

Plus, as a neat little side bonus: You could finally have a party that included a paladin without every single session getting bogged down in alignment debates. :)

[Naggy the Hag]

Im surprised noone has mentioned witch yet... coven, duh.

[Davor]

Bard. Hands down. No contest.

Arcane Duelist
Thundercaller
Archaeologist
Magician

You're ready for everything. Always. Forever. And all your bardic music stacks. Plus, you get to come up with a cool band name.

[Anzyr]

Naggy the Hag wrote:

Im surprised noone has mentioned witch yet... coven, duh.

You need an actual Hag for that. And if you want a loyal Hag you'd best wait til you can cast Simulacrum to make one.

[Zwordsman]

Alchemist. All the damn choices and covers just about every base

[Eltacolibre]

Bards easily.

Bards who can cast druid spells? check. [Voice of the Wild] It should be noted that I would pick the archetype if you knew the campaign was going to be about wilderness exploration.
Bards who can use wizard/sorcerer spells? check. [Magician]
Bards who can disarm magical traps? check. [Archeologist]
Bards who can do melee decently and be a frontliner? check. [Arcane duelist]

Bard who can be a waterbender? Undine Watersinger, because who the hell doesn't want to be a waterbender?

[Blackwaltzomega]

Bards.

Every PC party is a band.

Every. Single. One.

Sometimes you're a rock band centuries ahead of your time. Sometimes you're a Mariachi Band rather out of place in a medieval England-inspired setting. Sometimes you're an utterly dysfunctional gang of musicians and street performers, but you're a band.

Oh, and Bards can handle most of the stuff the game will throw at them and diversify well into various roles.

[Atarlost]

I'd say oracle if you hadn't said PFS. With three to five of them the spells known problems are a lot less gnarly and they have enough skill points to spread the important stuff around and some of the mysteries are okay anvils, but since you said PFS they're not planned to fit together perfectly so cleric is the only option. Only clerics have been given all the tools for recovering from sadistic legacy crap like mummy rot and permanent blindness and level drain.

[UnArcaneElection]

Anzyr wrote:

Naggy the Hag wrote:

Im surprised noone has mentioned witch yet... coven, duh.

You need an actual Hag for that. And if you want a loyal Hag you'd best wait til you can cast Simulacrum to make one.

Technically, you don't need to form an actual Coven (and Coven mechanics seriously needs rework anyway). A party of witches would do fine using different Archetypes, Hexes, and Patrons (but with multiple instances of the more powerful and commonly-used Hexes) to take care of healing each other, removing bad conditions from each other, and horrendously debuffing their enemies.

Beast-Bonded Witch with Animals or Transformation Patron = quasi-Druid
Orc (in non-PFS could be Half-Orc, but not as good) Scarred Witch Doctor with Strength Patron = front line melee type
Hedge Witch (optionally also including Hex Channeler, although weak at low levels) with Healing or Endurance Patron = healing and bad status removal specialist
Medium Witch with Boundaries Patron = arcane defender
Halfling Witch (non-archetyped) focusing on Jinx = debuffing specialist
Winter Witch (optionally including the prestige class as well as the archetype) with Winter Patron = blaster
Non-archetyped Witch with Elements Patron and the appropriate Metamagic Feats = alternative blaster
White-Haired Witch with high Dexterity and Combat Reflexes and Agility Patron = battlefield controller
Gravewalker (optionally also including Hex Channeler, although weak at low levels) with Plague Patron = Necromancer

This probably wouldn't be very good in a small party, but might get brokenly good in a large party, even if the party never technically becomes a Coven.

* * * * * * * *

Also, more generally, you want to see this thread and this thread.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

Inquisitors, Druids, Paladins, Bard with some careful archetyping, Alchemists, Summoners, and I like the witch ideas above but it would be harder.

[cnetarian]

droods.

bards, alkies and inquisitors are also good, but some of the necessary builds don't really come into their own until level 3-5 while droods are perfectly functional from creation. Not sure if the ACG has a class that might also work, skalds?

[Jiggy]

Cleric. You can have one or two that fight better than a fighter, then have a couple Theologians (able to prep domain spells in regular slots) with really good wizard-list-poaching domain choices and maxed WIS. Prepare to roflstomp everything ever.

[Guru-Meditation]

Bards!

Start a band.

[Goddity]

Interesting. Anyone want to try a party of rogues?

Wait. I think we missed the obvious. 4 summoners. 3 master, 1 synth. GO NOVA. OBLITERATION.

[Tiaximus]

I want to see the party of commoners come off of a potato field and rise to glory, crushing hordes of cats, skeletons and kobolds under their 20th level boots.

[Goddity]

Tiaximus: THAT WOULD BE AWESOME...

...until anything over CR 5 shows up

[boring7]

This thread again?

UnArcaneElection wrote:

* * * * * * * *

Also, more generally, you want to see this thread and this thread.

Ah, already covered.

Anzyr wrote:

Naggy the Hag wrote:

Im surprised noone has mentioned witch yet... coven, duh.

You need an actual Hag for that. And if you want a loyal Hag you'd best wait til you can cast Simulacrum to make one.

There's some trick that lets you get past it, let me see...*googles around*

Yep, here we go, just takes some murder and an expensive magic item, maybe two items at worst.

Not that big on coven magic anyway, feels exploity and half-assed.

[Tiaximus]

It would make bringing new characters in a lot more fun.

"Frederick, lord of the celery, dies under the scything blow of the ankheg's mandibles."

"At the tavern, an aged crone hobbles up to you, settling into the seat ol' Frederick used to warm. 'I see you fellers lost a man today. I swore vengeance against those damn bugs when they ate my whole rutabaga crop. I have a feeling in my knees that tells me vengeance is'a coming... or maybe a cold front.'"

[Big Lemon]

Bard in a heartbeat, but doing an all cleric or wizard party would also amuse me, just because it would require a bit more planning and strategy to be effective, I think.

More specifically, my "band" would be...

1. Archaeologist: Catch-all
2. Court Bard: Control
3. Sound Striker: Non-physical damage
4. Arcane Duelist: Melee

[Goddity]

You don't say boring7...

scroll down to the comment by Kain Darkwind

[Kobold Catgirl]

Rogues.

#PCsrOPnerfplox

[UnArcaneElection]

Tiaximus wrote:

I want to see the party of commoners come off of a potato field and rise to glory, crushing hordes of cats, skeletons and kobolds under their 20th level boots.

Somebody actually had this idea already. This is the party of The Simpsons.

[felinoel]

Goddity wrote:

I am very curious to see what comes up to answer the following question:

If your entire PFS legal party had to pick one class and everyone only took that class with no dipping, but any archetype they like, what would it be? Or what would the most viable/effective/fun class be?

I would say alchemist.

Definitely alchemist, it can do just about everything needed for an adventuring party.

[Brain in a Jar]

Bard hands down.

[Lord Twitchiopolis]

Best? Easily Clerics. They are just so versatile.

Let's just say we have the base Cleric, no archetypes. Simply differing gods and domains makes the party versatile.

Gorum/Iomede or some other martially minded god for a frontliner.
Sarenrae/Erastil or some other god with good ranged domain spells or ranged weapon proficiency for ranged damage.
Nethys/Pharasma or other Knowledge/Magic domain granters for knowledges and spell coverage.
Calistria/Norgerber or other Trickery domain gods for the skill set.

Your biggest issue will be traps, but with high Wisdoms and one person picking up Perception through a trait, you'll find them easily enough. TO disable them, Summon Monster spells :D

The most fun? Party of Thassilonian Specialist Wizards who all take proficiencies with polearms and call themselves "The New Runelords" OR the party of Black Blooded Oracles who plop down at a table with one random pick-up player who has no clue that his party members heal off of negative energy.

[Bruno Kristensen]

Back in 2nd Edition I ran a short campaign where everyone had to be a wizard (though multi-classing was allowed), representing an Arcane Academy and being sent out to deal with various arcane issues. Was quite fun.

[Charon's Little Helper]

With archetypes? Bard. (without archetypes their performances can't stack) Extremely effective & awesome. You're a traveling heavy metal band!

Without archetypes? Druids. Have the characters vary from beefy melee to caster heavy. All with a bit of healing mixed in. At high levels druids are up there with monks as having the highest defeneses.

[Inlaa]

Best: Probably Clerics or Druids. Bards with archetypes are roughly equal, I'd think.

Most fun: ...This really depends on the campaign and its pitch.