What are your favorite character builds?

[The Pale King]

There are a couple of builds I am really partial to.

One is the Archer Paladin, something about smiting things at a distance with a bow just seems so right. It's not a difficult build either, just take all the archery feats you can and shoot the enemy.

Another is the generalist Alchemist introduced in N. Jolly's Alchemist guide. That was quite possibly the funnest character I have ever played, though he ended up dying to an exploding chandalier.

What about you?

[HWalsh]

I have two that I am partial to... Right now...

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1. The Megadin
The Megadin is a smite-machine of the highest caliber. He will smite evil so hard evil will wish that it had stayed home that day.

Deity: Iomedae
Weapon of Choice: Longsword (Used in 2 Hands)

Class:
Paladin with the Oath of Vengeance: 4
Bloodrager "Steelblood" Celestial Bloodline: 1
Sentinel: The Rest

Feats: (By 5th level)
Weapon Focus (Longsword) 1st
Power Attack 3rd (1st if you are human)
Deific Obedience 5th (or 3rd)

At 6th level you go Sentinel, and my word is it fun.

-----

2. The Boomstick
The Boomstick Wizard calls for some trait use, and there are slight differences if the game allows for taking a Flaw to get an Extra Trait *if* the game is using RotRL and one can take Outlander: Loreseeker.

Two Necessary Traits:
Metamagic Master: Fireball
Magical Lineage: Fireball

You need an Int as high as you can, I recommend starting with at least a 19 at level 1, but you have some wiggle room. You can do this with a few races, but I prefer Human for, again, extra wiggle room.

This class comes alive at level 5 and it is glorious to watch people's jaws drop as they think only a Sorc can do this.

Class: Wizard, Evocation specialist: Admixture (all the way baby!)

Feats:
Human: Spell Focus
Level 1: Spell Specialization Evocation
Level 3: Mage's Tattoo Evocation
Level 5: Intensified Spell
Level 5 (Bonus spell): Empower Spell

Why this is amazing:
Well, for the first few levels this kinda fun.
You can burning hands for 3d4+1 at level 1 (4d4+1 if you can get the one from RotRL) and that is enough to put the serious hurt on anything in those CRs. You also start the game with an extra Magic Missile (bonus!), and a few other neat toys.

Though at level 5, the following happens:

You have an Int of 20 (hopefully) so you get 1 Bonus Spell from Int. You get 1 bonus spell from Evocation School. You get 1 Spell from the class.

3 Level 3 Spells...

You take the following and write it on your spell list:
Empowered Fireball

Wait? What? How?

Well Metamagic Master gives you 1 level of boosting for free.
Magical Lineage lowers the level of a Metamagic'ed spell by 1.
Your empower for fireball costs you nothing!

Since Fireball is an Evocation Spell, your Specialization and your Tattoo apply. That is +3 spell levels! Bonus! If you got the Lorekeeper, you can add yet another spell level to this bad boy. That means your Fireball is normally 9d6+2, but it gets better... Now slap that handy, dandy, empower on there and... You get to add 1.5x to all the level dependent spell variables. This means, effectively, you get a 12d6+2 Fireball that you can turn into any element that you want... At level 5...

14-74 damage that can get around any elemental resistances and can take advantage of any elemental weaknesses. At level 5.

Yes. Its not uber optimized for utility with a lot of hastes and such (though you can get them) it is sub-optimal... I guess... But you can, as it levels up, keep pumping up the goodness gracious great balls of fire until even Michael Bay bows down and weeps at your altar.

That is why this is my boomstick.

[Æthernaut]

My favorite is a spirit guide oracle named Captain Tem∏ænaut Fugit. He's a Spirit Guide to the heavens who is also haunted by the mystery of "time".

I always wanted to play a character who mastered both time and space.

Its not really a power build, its just swiss army knife-like and a great role-playing mechanic. At 8th level, I'll get access to threefold aspect spell and can also play a kid as well as an old geezer, all in one. Plus, since I've worked with several airships, the airship captain trait was a must.

[Nigrescence]

Bard

[Ausk Valrosh]

My favorite character concept is a dwarven ancestors Oracle. Get the ability to summon weapons, and roleplay it as the spirits of your ancestors possessing you to fight like they did in their prime.

Ex: "Brinoff the hammer, TO ME!" (A spectral warhammer forms in your palm, and your eyes shine with a pale light) "alright, let's show these maggots how a real dwarf fights!"

[Ausk Valrosh]

More flavor than build, but still ^

[captain yesterday]

Elven Medium that tries to channel The Brightness but mostly gets dead people, calls EVERYONE "friend"

[Pixie, the Leng Queen]

HWalsh wrote:

I have two that I am partial to... Right now...

-----

1. The Megadin
The Megadin is a smite-machine of the highest caliber. He will smite evil so hard evil will wish that it had stayed home that day.

Deity: Iomedae
Weapon of Choice: Longsword (Used in 2 Hands)

Class:
Paladin with the Oath of Vengeance: 4
Bloodrager "Steelblood" Celestial Bloodline: 1
Sentinel: The Rest

Feats: (By 5th level)
Weapon Focus (Longsword) 1st
Power Attack 3rd (1st if you are human)
Deific Obedience 5th (or 3rd)

At 6th level you go Sentinel, and my word is it fun.

-----

2. The Boomstick
The Boomstick Wizard calls for some trait use, and there are slight differences if the game allows for taking a Flaw to get an Extra Trait *if* the game is using RotRL and one can take Outlander: Loreseeker.

Two Necessary Traits:
Metamagic Master: Fireball
Magical Lineage: Fireball

You need an Int as high as you can, I recommend starting with at least a 19 at level 1, but you have some wiggle room. You can do this with a few races, but I prefer Human for, again, extra wiggle room.

This class comes alive at level 5 and it is glorious to watch people's jaws drop as they think only a Sorc can do this.

Class: Wizard, Evocation specialist: Admixture (all the way baby!)

Feats:
Human: Spell Focus
Level 1: Spell Specialization Evocation
Level 3: Mage's Tattoo Evocation
Level 5: Intensified Spell
Level 5 (Bonus spell): Empower Spell

Why this is amazing:
Well, for the first few levels this kinda fun.
You can burning hands for 3d4+1 at level 1 (4d4+1 if you can get the one from RotRL) and that is enough to put the serious hurt on anything in those CRs. You also start the game with an extra Magic Missile (bonus!), and a few other neat toys.

Though at level 5, the following happens:

You have an Int of 20 (hopefully) so you get 1 Bonus Spell from Int. You get 1 bonus spell from Evocation School. You get 1 Spell from the class.

3 Level 3 Spells...

You take the following and write it on your spell...

If you REALLY want to optimize the fireball, take a single level dip into Crossblooded sorcerer with Orc and Red Dragon bloodlines. Both Arcana increase damage by +1 per damage dice. So with both arcana you are looking at +2/dice damage... that combined with Metamagic Master/Wayang Spellhunter and Magical Lineage allows your wizard to do CRAZY damage... grab a goblin war drum and you add another +1/dice damage to a max of +5,unless youbgetbthe greater which.incrases the max to +10. Later you grab intensify and Spell Perfection and Dazing. With Spell perfection you add a free Daze and intensify lets ypur damage increase to 15d6, which also gives you a free 40 damage from your bloodlines and war drum...

Yeah,.. blaster wizards crush encounters... and a reflex save daze is OP as hell xD

[Bilbo Swaggins]

The Pale King wrote:

There are a couple of builds I am really partial to.

One is the Archer Paladin, something about smiting things at a distance with a bow just seems so right. It's not a difficult build either, just take all the archery feats you can and shoot the enemy.

Another is the generalist Alchemist introduced in N. Jolly's Alchemist guide. That was quite possibly the funnest character I have ever played, though he ended up dying to an exploding chandalier.

What about you?

Personally, my favorite build in the ninja shuriken build. I have gotten up to 9 attacks. 2 from base attack bonus, two from two weapon fighting, one from many shot, one from Ki pool bonus attack, two from flurry of shurikens ninja talent, and one from a set of 50 speed shuirikens. I have gotten up to 400 damage a round with splintering weapon feat, the shock enchantment, and a headband I don't know the name to that gives me plus 2 damage per sneak attack dice.

[Use Headbutt!!]

my personal favorites:
Bounty hunter slayer/thug rogue with a reach weapon and either shatter defenses or halfling opportunist so you get SA on AOOs. "What's that? you charge me? well cool, you are now blind, entangled, and frightened so I guess you turn around and try and limp away?"

Lunar duel cursed oracle while your tiger wears a spell storing amulet of mighty fists. Cat charges and puts the spell ill omen on the boss, you cast mass inflict light wounds and confuse everyone (with misfortune, the boss rolls 3 times and takes the lowest roll)

Pugwampis. That is the whole build. First worlder summoner (or the feat summon evil monster if you are evil) summons pugwampis, everyone else flails about ineffectually.

[hiiamtom]

Theologian Blaster
Using the Ash domain and the same metamagic traits a normal blaster would with free metamagic from the archetype. Then my fireballs could be more economically blast and cap and I could cast Dazing Quickened Fireballs. My GM let me take Divine Strategist too so I gave boosts to initiative to the group as well.

Bad Touch Cleric
Core cleric, Madness and Chaos domains abusing their touch attacks. It was like witch but stronger, though witch could skirt combat.

Oracle Zoo
I gave myself a familiar, animal companion, and cohort mount. Then I would turn two of them into other things through Ancient Lorekeeper, and the other was just a cool ride. Sorcerer could probably do it better, but I liked breaking stuff as a nature oracle.

Beastmorph Vivisectionist
I never needed so many arms in any other character. Strength build, buffed to the extreme with Accelerated Drinker, a tentacle, and four arms.

[Ian Meadows]

Mine is a Vivisectionist Alchemist build to make essentially a poison rogue. I've been tweaking this build for a long time including custom races for it.

Currently, the custom race is a variation of a Kobold using the standard guidelines. The options I took were Humanoid(Reptile)0pts; Weakness traits +2Dex,+2Int, -4Str -1pt; Small 0pts; Darkvision 120ft 3pts; Light Blindness -2pts; Negative Energy Affinity -1pt; Prehensile Tail 2pts; Swift as Shadows 3pts; Silent Hunter 2pts; and Flexible Bonus Feat 4 pts.

The character build is 16 levels of Alchemist(Vivisectionist), 3 levels of Unchained Rogue(Underground Chemist), and 1 level of Kensai(Mindblade).

The feat selections are Kobold Sniper, Combat Casting, Extra Discovery x4, Master Alchemist, Signature Skill (Craft Alchemy), Kobold Ambusher, Extra Talent, and Uncanny Concentration.

The Alchemist Discoveries are Chameleon, Extend Potion, Preserve Organs, Poison Conversion, Alchemical Simulacrum, Combine Extracts, Doppelganger Simulacrum, Mummification, Greater Mutagen, Sticky Poison, Eternal Potion, and Grand Mutagen.

The Rogue Talents are Offensive Defense and Quick Disguise.

For the martial weapon choice for the Mindblade I choose Sword Cane and the levels of Rogue let me use Wrist Launchers as my ranged weapons. This way it always looks like my character is unarmed and if his weapons are ever taken away from him he can simply make some temporary replacements with his Mindblade powers.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

My fave is an inquisitor (but can work for nearly any d8/6th casting class). Use a one-handed weapon, a quickdraw light shield, the quickdraw feat. On your turn if you want to attack, stow the shield as a free action, shift your weapon grip to 2 handed as another free action, attack, shift your grip back to one handed as a third free action, and pull the shield out as a fourth free action.

[Klorox]

I have too little experience with PF to seriously have a fave build, but my Alchemist (chirurgeon) bomber healer was great fun, and I'd like to try some spellcasters and/or psionicists some day, though this is unlikely as my gaming groups have shifted to 5e/non D&D style games, it seems the GMs prefer a rules lite approach whenever possible.

[Errant Mercenary]

Multiclassing monk/magus with the Snake Style and Panther Style using Frostbite spellcombat/strike. Too complicated to be in actual play though.

[blahpers]

The ad hoc ones that grow in the direction of the campaign.

[the David]

I've used my Intimidatrix build for just a few sessions, but boy is it fun.

Race: Half-Orc for the ability bonus and the bonus to Intimidate
Classes:
1 level of Rogue with the Thug archetype for the Frightening ability.
2 levels of Cavalier with the Cockatrice order for the Braggert ability.
2 levels of Barbarian with the Intimidating Glare rage power.
Feats:
- Skill Focus (Intimidate)
- Intimidating Prowess
- You've already got Dazzling Display as a bonus feat.
Traits: Any one that gives a bonus to Intimidate.
Skills: I don't know, Intimidate maybe?
Abilities: Your Strength and Charisma are important for this build.

At this point, you should have 5 ranks in Intimidate with the +3 class skill bonus, another +3 for Skill Focus, + 1 from your trait and you've got +12 before adding in Strength (Don't forget to rage for another +2) and Charisma.

The tactic is simple: Starting a rage is a free action, intimidating everyone is a full round action, intimidating someone who is adjacent to you is a move action and alters the duration of the shaken effect to 1d4+1 (The +1 is from the thug archetype.) + 1 round for every 5 points by which the check exceeds the DC.
If the targets is shaken for 4 or more rounds you can decide to make the target frightened for 1 round. You get a +2 bonus on melee attack rolls against demoralized opponents from your Braggart ability.

As you've already got Sneak Attack, you might as well take Precise Strike as your teamwork feat. This would make flanking a better tactic.