Starting Kingmaker soon and wanted to try something different than what I've played before. I decided I wanted to focus on being a noncaster support character. What I have in place is a Halfling using his racial feats to add his fighting defensively bonus to his allies. I then wanted to focus on maximizing the aid another action to boost AC and attack for the party.
I'm just having trouble making this work. I can't seem to get him to come online anywhere effectively anywhere before level 8 or so. I've played around with Order of the Dragon Honor Guard Cavalier which delivers on the aid another by level 3, but the tactician side is severely lacking to provide a decent boost from harrying partners.
Holy Tactician fills in the teamwork side, but doesn't provide any bonus to the aid another (and losing the mount means losing additional aid another attempts each round).
And focusing on any of these does not progress "optimizing" fighting defensively which really needs the crane style line, which amounts to five feats because of pre reqs.
Any ideas to make this work or is it a fool's errand?
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I'd have to look into a lot of stuff to help you with your build, so I won't. (Right now.)
What I can do is ask you how this build will contribute to the party. Will it result in a playable character, or will you be holding the party back?
Finally, As you mentioned Kingmaker, how will your character fit into the campaign and party storywise? Have you decided on a leadership role yet?
There are only 3 of us. The other 2 are going in with an intimidation based Vigilante who is aiming to be in the Spymaster role and an Oracle with an animal companion planning to be the High Priest.
In combat my main role is to buff the vigilante's attack and ac with aid another while "tanking" and using AoOs to keep the enemies from the oracle.
I'm planning for him to take on either the General or Warden roles.
When we are at the kingdom set up phase we'll each get secondary characters to fill in another leadership role and have the chance to switch out between them for different adventures.
Sensei monk gets Inspire Courage as the Bardic performace, which is a huge buff without magic. Sensei also stacks with Underfoot Adept, which is a halfling specific archetype, to go with your helpful halfling theme. Maybe take Combat Reflexes, Dirty Fighting, and Greater Trip with a reach weapon for some utility in combat keeping people off the Oracle. Underfoot Adept gives you improved trip and bonuses to tripping. Dirty Fighting gives you bonuses for flanking and tripping. Phalanx Formation I believe is the feat needed to attack with a reach weapon past your allies. Dirty Fighting counts as Combat Expertise, so you can take Swift Aid, for your aid another stuff as a swift action. With Helpful racial trait, it's a +4, which is a nice boost, always.
If you go with the monk, UnChained gets you full BAB at the expense of will saves, but the Sensei monk uses wisdom to attack, so your wisdom should be kept high enough to help will saves anyways. Plus monks add wisdom to their AC. The Guided weapon enchantment gets you wisdom to damage, and might be worth looking at. The Persuasive Insight trait gives wisdom for diplomacy checks. Wisdom of the Flesh could get acrobatics on wisdom as well, but your Dex should be your second highest stat. You might as put good use to those acrobatics bonuses from Underfoot Adept. This puts you entirely on wisdom and dex, with a longspear or whatever reach weapon. You can kick whoever gets inside reach. Greater Trip is nice with your bonuses, just trip whoever gets near the Oracle. Your saves and AC should be on point with a high wisdom and dex.
In a group of three I'm not sure there's room for this character. A buffer of this kind shines in a big group, not a small one. That's even once it starts working, early on this group risks death by bandits. You currently have no battlefield control, no ranged damage, and may have a weak front line.
A reach weapon monk with Inspire Courage fills several roles in battlefield control and buffing. Sensei gets Inspire Courage at level 1, and the Underfoot Adept is on by level 6 with UnChained monk and Greater Trip. At level 10 Sensei can start handing out Evasion and Fast Movement and High Jump and Slow Fall to his allies as needed.
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In a group of three I'm not sure there's room for this character. A buffer of this kind shines in a big group, not a small one. That's even once it starts working, early on this group risks death by bandits. You currently have no battlefield control, no ranged damage, and may have a weak front line.
That's roughly what I was thinking. I'd advice you to pick a role that would add something to the party. There's a website that can help you do that based on the other classes in your party. I just can't find it anymore...
OP said noncaster support character... halfling with their Helpful racial trait gives +4 to aid another.
The halfling specific archetype of monk, Underfoot Adept, gives Improved Trip and bonuses to tripping.
Dirty Fighting counts as Combat Expertise, which is needed for Swift Aid and Greater Trip, both of which can be had at or before level 7.
Combined with Inspire Courage from Sensei, for all 7 of these levels, I don't see how this character wouldn't contribute to a small party.
People should be less discouraging and try help answer the original question.
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OP said noncaster support character... halfling with their Helpful racial trait gives +4 to aid another.
The halfling specific archetype of monk, Underfoot Adept, gives Improved Trip and bonuses to tripping.
Dirty Fighting counts as Combat Expertise, which is needed for Swift Aid and Greater Trip, both of which can be had at or before level 7.
Combined with Inspire Courage from Sensei, for all 7 of these levels, I don't see how this character wouldn't contribute to a small party.
People should be less discouraging and try help answer the original question.
The OP also asked if this would be a fool's errand. Your suggestion may help, but in the end his intention was to buff one character for a single round using a standard action. I'd consider that a fool's errand. Even if he's also using Inspire Courage from Sensei, there would be more efficient things he could do with a standard action.
Such as Swift Aid? Which makes his aid another a swift action? He protects the Oracle, provides aid to the Vigilante, and buffs everyone. Not a bad use of a turn for a noncaster support character.
This doesn't help if you need a spellcaster or another actual melee character in your party, though.
If this is a bad idea for the mission, then there may be better options.
Yeah, I don't see one spellcaster and one melee with nothing in between is a good idea. But he asked for suggestions, so I gave mine.
Honestly, for a third person, I would say Warpriest and build around that. I hate monks, but it answers the original question.
If you want to mess around with aid another, it's worth noting that benevolent armor (which boosts aid another) requires the arcane strike feat to work, which in turn requires an arcane caster level. The arcane caster closest to being a non-spellcaster is a bloodrager, and a halfling urban bloodrager with some str and dex could work both when aiding and when acting on their own behalf. They might even do some ranged combat which is a likely hole in the party's abilities at the moment.