When Ultimate Combat was released with the Fighter archetype of the same name, I was highly excited; It used a lance and the 15th level ability is very appropriate. However I mostly want the 'Jump' ability. I want to look at a Dragon, a Giant, or other such huge monster, jump in the sky and spear it. Now with Unchained I thought perhaps fighter VMC monk for the ki pool to acrobatics would allow me to use the ki pool to make such amazing leaps, then use 'Death from Above' (the feat) to charge downward if I leapt high enough. However I don't get Ki until level 11, don't get the Ki power to do such things, etc. I don't mind multiclassing at all if necessary, but it's been a huge dream of mine since 3.5 (which I later found out had the class somewhere deep in the game).
So I come to you, Pathfinder experts. Is this even possible?
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Short answer? Yes! Yes it is!
I actually just built one myself, a grippli unchained monk. Recent Player's Companions have had two pieces of love for it: the Akitonian Blade from Melee Tactic Toolbox (triples Acrobatics to jump) and the Branch Pounce feat from Heroes of the Wild. A climb speed is also helpful to get yourself up on a wall or ceiling pre-charge.
With Rod of Balance, Akitonian Blade, and the High Jump ki power you'll really only be limited by your movement speed, which is another reason why monk is going to be the best choice. There's also a pair of ninja tricks (Acrobatic Master and High Jumper iirc) that let you halve the DC to jump, as well as an option for the unchained rogue to add +level to jumps.
Short answer? Yes! Yes it is!
I actually just built one myself, a grippli unchained monk. Recent Player's Companions have had two pieces of love for it: the Akitonian Blade from Melee Tactic Toolbox (triples Acrobatics to jump) and the Branch Pounce feat from Heroes of the Wild. A climb speed is also helpful to get yourself up on a wall or ceiling pre-charge.
With Rod of Balance, Akitonian Blade, and the High Jump ki power you'll really only be limited by your movement speed, which is another reason why monk is going to be the best choice. There's also a pair of ninja tricks (Acrobatic Master and High Jumper iirc) that let you halve the DC to jump, as well as an option for the unchained rogue to add +level to jumps.
Awesome! I'll look into them both. Do you end up using a lance? The ninja trick is not a bad idea... I'm glad Monk was the right direction.
Soooo. I'm having a lot of trouble finding this aktonian blade thing. Google has been no help. I'm thinking thus far, however, that dipping Ninja (the weirdest thing I've ever written) and taking a handful of monk Levels (probably six) would let me round everything out with Fighter levels (not necessarily needing to be dragoon archetype); or just go Monk if I can somehow wield a spear with it.
Archives of Nethys to the rescue!
Any chance of you spoiling the Branch Pounce feat, Shadow?
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You are adept at climbing trees and using the higher
ground to your advantage in battle.
Prerequisites: Climb 3 ranks, Stealth 3 ranks.
Benefit: When charging a target by jumping down from
above (such as when jumping out of a tree), you can soften
your own fall with a melee attack. If the attack at the end of
your charge hits, the attack deals damage as normal and
also adds the appropriate amount of falling damage (1d6
points for a 10-foot fall, 2d6 points for a 20-foot fall, and so
on). This falling damage is not multiplied on a critical hit.
You land in an unoccupied square of your choosing adjacent
to the target, and you take falling damage as if you had
fallen 10 fewer feet. You can attempt an Acrobatics check
as normal to treat the fall as an additional 10 feet shorter
for the purpose of determining the damage you take from
the fall and treat the first 1d6 points of damage you take
from the fall as nonlethal damage. If your attack misses,
you land prone in a random square adjacent to the target
and automatically take the full amount of falling damage.
This seems to be a pretty common desire. I posted a month or two ago my own homebrewed version of the Dragoon. Something about the idea of a person just crashing down on an enemy with a spear feels so good. One day I'm gonna try it with the ninja and multiclassing with...something.
If you're open to 3rd someone has actually homebrewed the FF Dragoon(along with a lot of the other classes and systems) here.
And just a casual search for "Dragoon" shows the myriad and legion versions that jump jump jump up and get down in Homebrew...
If you can live with the Lance being for area control and cool look. A monk with pummeling style and pummeling charge can do the jumping and killing quite fine.
You wont have armor but your jumping will be great.
** spoiler omitted **
Combine that with Boots of Landing: always land on feet (not prone). Plus, takes 2 fewer dice of damage from the fall than normal.