Well last week my group took down Karzoug, barely (I was lying dead on the floor, the fighter lost in a maze), and soon we will be starting up the Jade Regent AP.
As is typical for me I am having decision paralysis. I know the first rule is play what you want to play, but there are many things I want to play. We are not optimisers and we are trying to have our characters more connected with interesting relationships. What do you think will be of more help to the party?
If you are from my group in Highbury stop reading unless you are the DM. Potential Character spoilers ahead.
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The group:
Shoanti Barbarian - Invulnerable Rager (good strength, 2h, considering CAGM)
Elf Ranger - Divine Tracker (longbow)
Dwarf Cleric (buffer and defensive combat)
Gaps I see: Arcane/control , skills and face
Ideas (born out of what I wanted before the group solidified, just so happen to be in the right area):
Kitsune Sorcerer - Enchantment Primary/Conjuration secondary with either Fey, Sylvan, Serpentine bloodline. Tatooed Sorcerer archetype an option for familiar. Due to favoured class bonus can get spell focus in conjuration instead. BUT shortage of skills for face/knowledge/skills.
Kitsune Bard - Still has nice enchatment theme with songs etc. endless skills including enough to support realistic likeness feat to have awesome alter self spy. Inspire Courage will be loved as all 3 party members will be in combat. Limited arcane but careful selection can keep it useful. Considering Dirge Bard.
Gnome bard - Linguist theme, obsessed with collecting interesting words. Same deal as above but also might consider weird words or prankster archetype.
Human Sage Sorcerer - possible hybrid for bonus skills and student of philosophy for limited faceness.
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I'm as interested in coolness/theme as I am power, more concerend about party synergy than personal power. With all the above I intend to not put much energy into direct damage, I like the idea of someone at the back who manipulates/enables. The one aspect of character story that is locked in is that I am from Tian having crossed the crown at young age, caravan all but destroyed and another PC (Ranger) saved me.
Last thought: I have hesitations about whether I like anthropomorphic races and kitsune RP seems very human like where as the gnome has easier traits to distinguish him from humans (note he will not be a silly, trickster style gnome but more serious and obsessive).
Thanks for making it to the end.
Why not a Druid? In PFS I have a Skill Monkey Druid. Half-Elf Druid, you can go Green Faith Initiate for the bonus to Diplomacy and Sense Motive. You can still drop CHA and use your Half-Elf Skill Focus to bring Diplomacy back up.
I went with the Eagle Domain for the Familiar and Alertness Feat, all of which combines to give an amazing perception. The Hawkeye domain power helps with Ranged Touch Attack.
Then I took a Level of Ranger with Trapper (and Wild Shadow but that isn't that relevant) which gives trap finding. At 5th level you take the Shapeshifting Hunter feat which lets your Druid levels count as Ranger levels for Favored Enemy.
If you want to lose some on Diplomacy, you could go Worldwalker Druid instead of Green Faith Initiate and get Favored Terrain too.
Gaps I see: Arcane/control , skills and face
Bard fills all of these gaps.
Our group in Jade Regent consists of a Druid, a Monk/Ninja, a Sorcerer with a two level Ranger dip and a Bard (Animal Speaker archetype, focuses on buffing, melee and being the face).
We made one major change to the adventure path; Ameiko is a player character and she is a Bard. We have just started book three and it has worked very well, particularly because before we started the GM insisted that every PC was one of her close friends (so teamwork comes as second nature to this party).
In case you haven’t already seen the threads about the caravan combat system, it is horribly unbalanced against the party. The system will wipe out the PC’s caravan with encounters that they would normally win without breaking into a sweat if they were played as a normal fight.
Thanks for the heads up. Our GM has already explained his understanding of why it's broken so I assume he has adjustments planned, also he is using the legendary games relationship add-on/expansion.
I would try this your idiea
Kitsune Sorcerer - Enchantment Primary/Conjuration secondary with either Fey, Sylvan, Serpentine bloodline. Tatooed Sorcerer archetype an option for familiar. Due to favoured class bonus can get spell focus in conjuration instead. BUT shortage of skills for face/knowledge/skills.
With Bard ability via feat multi-class option from pathfinder unchained
Bard
A character who chooses bard as his secondary class gains
the following secondary class features.
Bardic Knowledge: At 3rd level, he gains the bardic
knowledge class feature, treating his character level as his
effective bard level.
Bardic Performance: At 7th level, he gains the ability to
inspire courage and inspire competence as a bard of his
character level – 4 for a number of rounds per day equal to
his Charisma modifier + his character level.
Versatile Performance: At 11th level, he gains versatile
performance in one Perform skill of his choice. He can retrain
all his ranks in the two associated skills for free.
Lore Master: At 15th level, he gains lore master as a 5thlevel
bard.
Additional Performances: At 19th level, he gains the ability
to use dirge of doom and inspire greatness as a bard of his
character level – 4.