Fighting in formation with your team


Advice

Sovereign Court

To tell the short story, my 3 friends and i have played many times toguether and we tend to use high optimiced builds, everything allowed as im usually the master. This time, the four will play with another master. Only problem here is he doesnt allow minmax builds, core and basic clases and not many archetypes.
To compensate for the lack of optimization (which is one of the most fun things at least for me) we want to try fighting in formation and seriously.
So far we have fought in skirmish format, each one hits the one he wants and each one does what he wants, sometimes we work togheter with some BEBG, that's fun but this time we want to do something different.
I was thinking of something basic, a triangle (or a 10 feat cone) with a magician in the center, a tank ahead of him and a bard and a magus at his sides so the squishy one is only vulnerable from the back.
The idea is that everyone will capable to attack at a distance (even if it is not the specialty of each character) and wait for the enemies to arrive while we riddled them with arrows and magic attacks, foccusing one by one in each enemy, and when they approach, the frontline can just grab a big sword and finish the job.

What I have in doubt is the following.
First: would it be worth it if the side flanks use reach weapons to attack from the back (remember is a triangle, they are in diagonal to the tank) so they can attack from teir sites without leaving his places and threating a larger area? How do these weapons work when enemies are only at 5 fts?
Second: Until now we think of something like sorcerer, bard, cleric and magus for the comp. Being the cleric the main tank but everione capable of fighting in melee (of course the wizzard dont, but he can summon something if needed). The non-magic classes are much more limited but if necessary you could put a pally with archetype holy tactician if he allow us or a cavalier for the teamwork feats as we will fight togheter almost all the time (altought we dont like much the idea to have a pally as he has lowered spellcasting than the cleric and is boring to rolleplay for us). What would be your ideal comp to play with this style? (remember only core and base clases)
Third: Do you thing this may work? (at least low levels, as in high ones the things begin to fly and that makes things harder)

Thank you!


1.You might want to look at a melee oracle over a cleric as your main tank. Battle can pick up full martial and heavy armor proficiency at level 1 without burning a feat, still gets Diving 9 casting, and can do so spontaneously. You wont have as big a spell list, but I've always enjoyed the flexibility of Spontaneous casters.

Also, just as an aside, fighting in formation like that leaves you pretty damn vulnerable to area spells.

Reach weapons don't work against adjacent foes, so your softer bard/magus could be in some real trouble if things get close.

A ranger with an animal companion over the magus or bard could give you a lot of room to work with. Archery Combat Style, melee feats at odd levels. They'll hit hard no matter what, and give you an animal companion to help with control or protect your rear flank. If they take quick draw, as a good switch-hitter would, they can carry a bow, a reach weapon, and a great sword and be able to hit from anywhere.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

battle oracle gets all the heal spells for free at appropriate levels also. get armor spikes for a reach build when they get inside your reach. or weapon trick (polearm). reach weapons really come alive if you are large sized. It sounds like your gm will most likely adjust to your tactics and defeat your intention if he's the controlling type that's afraid of books outside of core. core is boring imo. Playing smart and tactical is always a good way to go anyway.


If APG is allowed, have the front 3 take the Shield Wall feat. It'll make you pretty hard to hit. Later on take Precise Strike or Outflank so that you can engage in a little more maneuvering.

The character with the formation bonus should take a ranged weapon like a crossbow instead of a reach weapon. If he's a wizard/sorcerer, take a cantrip that does some damage.

Sovereign Court

Controll spells are a problem indeed but we where thinking on use the feat shake it off (we are 4 so +4 to all salvations) Also the majority will have a high dex score so the reflex saves should be easy to overcome.
Battle oracle is a good idea to replace the cleric, think ill do so.


Look into the Mobile Bulwark feat, lets you set a shield as a move action, follow the line to give total cover to someone behind you. Combine with a cleric casting spells as standard actions.


See if the fighter is allowed the phalanx fighter archetype. They’re designed for this sort of thing.

Grand Lodge

Sounds like you would want everybody to help each other and benefitting from keeping close together. Teamworkfeats are good at that.
Also check out this:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2u0uv?Best-teamwork-group
(Perhaps too many archtypes...)

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