Help me build............Aquaman

[Sir Eldon's Head]

No, not literaly. I want an idea for a concept that seems lame and useless, but in actuality kicks ass. I don't need a full build, just a wacky concept. Something where they tell me to go talk to a fish, then I beat them to death with a shark. Metaphorically.

[Cass_Ponderovian]

The undine race gives you a swim speed and meshes well with monk for unarmed fighting. You could also go summoner to summon aquatic animals.

[avr]

Any concept which seems lame & useless, not just talking to fish, is that right?

There's a ranger archetype called the Dandy which seems to fit the bill. You're a well-dressed, gossiping party animal - but when push comes to shove you're still a full BAB martial character.

Similarly with a Courtly Hunter-archetyped hunter. There are some nice tricks with sharing intimidate ranks with your shapeshifting animal companion here and using the frilled lizard animal focus, assuming the AnC takes feats to back that up.

A warpriest of Shelyn who talks incessantly about the power of love, then beats people down with a couple of surprisingly dangerous light weapons. Charm and Good blessings, probably.

[Grond]

You would want a build that makes the best use of tridents. I'm a big fan of Aquaman in the comics and he is a complete bad ass with his trident.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

Well first you need to be able to mind control cthulhu.

[Bob Bob Bob]

Is the Monktopus still legal? I haven't kept up on all the changes (especially to Feral Combat Training). Basically, turn into a giant octopus, beat people to death with kung-fu tentacles. More specifically, replace weak tentacle damage with monk fist damage, enlarged and powered up by an AoMF, smack people with 8 tentacles for 6d6 each.

[ProfPotts]

I guess the idea here is that you pick some element of the game usually dismissed as 'useless' and build a character based on that element that actually kicks @$$, right?

There was a Barbarian PC in one of my campaigns who, in encounter #1, before he'd even got a hit in, had the falchion he'd spent all his gold on shattered. He had no back-up weapon, so the NPCs he was with offered him something cheap to be going on with, and he took a spear. Not even a longspear, but just a normal spear... and quickly fell in love with it! It turns out that the brace feature is brilliant (assuming not all your enemies saunter casually into combat), and the added bonus of having a throwing weapon in hand when you need it can be an encounter-saver too (as discovered by that one wounded gnoll who nearly got away to bring reinforcements). Now, I'm not sure a spear as your primary weapon would be considered 'lame' (just 'sub-optimal') but that sort of thing?

You could go 'improvised weapons only' maybe? Or take the 'rough and ready' equipment trait from 'The Adventurer's Armoury' and wade into combat with the tools of your trade (I've had players with halfling cooks duel-wielding frying pans to great effect in past games...).

You could try a 'cantrip master' Sorcerer - just take the human favoured class option to get more cantrips known on your list every time, and spend all your time casting cantrips. Take the abyssal (brutal) wildblooded bloodline and the Point Blank Shot Feat and you can be churning out a not-unreasonable 1d3+3 damage per shot at first level. Plus, you're still a full caster... to be honest, I'm not sure any option that involves being a full caster would ever be considered lame, even on the surface, by anyone who's played the game...

... although, having just typed that, it strikes me as playing a caster with a casting ability score of 11 would qualify: on the surface of it lame, but you still get to fill up all your spell slots with level one spells and get all your other class features too, so there may be some mileage in it? Plus your other ability scores are going to be better than the average SAD caster. A Serpentine Bloodline Sorcerer who focuses on Con, Str and Dex ahead of Cha could be awesome (as the Fort DC for your venom is 10 + 1/2 Sorcerer level + Con bonus), and the Bloodline arcana works with the level 1 Charm Person spell, so that isn't wasted either.

[ProfPotts]

No, wait... Siege Mage with an Unseen Servant loader or two, and a ballista mounted on a Floating Disc...

[Oxylepy]

Dual shield basher. Capable of doshing out about 12 attacks in a round with no penalty, which can do 11 or so damage per combat maneuver. No one expects the armadillo to knock out the BBEG

Feyspeaker druid gone Lich.

At my table, I'd just tell you to play a bard, and read guides on playing a bard. No one does it because they're terrible if you can't play them, and no one has yet been able to play them. Same goes for Summoner, Witch, and Alchemist.

[supervillan]

Bob Bob Bob wrote:

Is the Monktopus still legal? I haven't kept up on all the changes (especially to Feral Combat Training). Basically, turn into a giant octopus, beat people to death with kung-fu tentacles. More specifically, replace weak tentacle damage with monk fist damage, enlarged and powered up by an AoMF, smack people with 8 tentacles for 6d6 each.

It is not. Feral Combat Training no longer allows you to apply effects that enhance unarmed strikes to a natural weapon. Monkthulu is no more.

[VRMH]

Bards get no respect, but they definitely kick arse.