I have some new players with no D&D experience interested in trying a Pathfinder game but there are a bewildering array of classes and something like this would be handy. Has anyone tried to come up with something like that for Pathfinder?
what do you mean with visual guide?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I have some new players with no D&D experience interested in trying a Pathfinder game but there are a bewildering array of classes and something like this would be handy. Has anyone tried to come up with something like that for Pathfinder?
I wanted to, but looking at the linked one it's probably not that helpful - because it's overwhelming for a new player.
At my first campaign I had a player who came totally unprepared and had no clue about DnD. I did the following:
1) Asked him for a concept he might like.
2) Opened up the Core Rulebook.
3) Showed him the single classes, with a few descriptive words per class that did fit more or less to the concept.
4) Dived into detail choices of the chosen class.
So we ended up with a PC that never became a powerhouse - but he considered the PC his character, so he became one of the most loyal and enthusiastic players.
I'd only pull further books if really nothing can be found in the CRB, to avoid choice paralysis. Yes, the PC won't be perfect - but players can come up with new ones later, and I allow them free retraining (unless they abuse it).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Isn't there a guide to class selection on this website somewhere? I'm sure I've seen that thread pip i[ a couple times.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Have them take a look at the iconics.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
yeah, I do similar to SheepishEidolon
what do you want your character to do?
Hit with big stick, attack at range, use magic, etc.
okay, for that role here's 2 or 3 classes. class 1 does it by X, class 2 is different because of Y.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Since new players generally benefit greatly from having someone to consult with during the later stages of character generation, I'm generally there anyway so it's simple enough to guide people through the early stages of character generation by asking guiding questions. Most people, particularly if they're new to this hobby will have some sort of heroic archetype or character from something else they want to try to emulate (often with a personal twist) so if you know "they want to play Legolas, or Korra, or Logen Ninefingers, or Utena, or whomever" it's not too hard to figure out what Pathfinder class does that sort of thing and help them along.
Isn't there a guide to class selection on this website somewhere? I'm sure I've seen that thread pip i[ a couple times.
Don't know about a thread, but as mentioned a couple of times, Paizo made a really neat book called "Strategy Guide" that actually has character designs and archetypes (dang it, that's a game term, uhhhhh, oh!) "basic build advice" called the Strategy Guide.
:)
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
While it may not be as visual as you're looking for, there is my character creation guide, which is pretty awesome.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As mentioned above, it's called the Strategy Guide.
new players don't necessarily need help - just commitment to wanting to play it - I started online by myself and built an elf dancer magus (just a pity the campaign only lasted 1 session) then went into PFS
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For core classes, this works just as well for PF as 5e: https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/flowcharts/which-dungeons-and-dragons-clas s-should-you-play
The forum sneaked in a space, with URL tags it should work fine: Link
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Have them take a look at the iconics.
This is generally a good idea but some of the iconics are not the most typical members of their classes (Harsk, especially) so it shouldn't be the ONLY thing.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What if someone were to just bundle together a bunch of photos from the internet of example Fighters, Warpriests, Kineticists, and etc?
Would that work for you?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks for everyone who answered. Too bad there isn't something like that for pathfinder.
Anyway I ended up asking my players if they had any characters from anime or fiction they particularly felt like playing. We had one vote for a holy knight (inspiration: Sanya from Dresden files) and one for Storm from XMen. So we ended up with a paladin and a lightning focused sorcerer.
Sanya is a paladin, for sure. IMO All three of the knights in the Dresden Files are great inspiration for playing a Paladin in a way that isn't annoying for other people.
I sort of suspect that Sanya was inspired by an "Atheist Paladin" character someone played in a D&D game that Butcher was privy to.
|
One thing about a visual guide is, I'm not sure all characters "look"
like a given class. I have two summoners for example. One is a middle aged aristocrat, nose in the air, not a hair out of place, and his wife, other than the blue skin, similarly colored. The other sports a well worn eagle knight jacket, skin tanned, straw hat, bow in her hand and a giant bird thing who has altered it's plumage to match the eagle knight jacket, only shinier.
She uses words like varmint and critter while he describes monsters as interesting or odd.
The point is, both are the same class.
Similarly, I have a "shaman" whose class is investigator.
Point is characters don't need to look like a given class.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
...
...
...
...
=============================================
=============================================
()
=============================================
Magic: (arcane/divine/psychic), (prepared/spontaneous)
- arcane-prepared: witch, wizard
- arcane-<prepared/spontaneous>: arcanist
- arcane-spontaneous: sorcerer, summoner
- divine-prepared: cleric, druid, shaman
- divine-spontaneous: oracle
- psychic-spontaneous: psychic, spiritualist
========================
Magic/Skill: (arcane/divine/psychic), (prepared/spontaneous)
- arcane-spontaneous: bard
- divine-spontaneous: hunter, inquisitor
- psychic-spontaneous: mesmerist, occultist
- <type-less>-prepared: investigator
========================
Magic/Skill/Combat: (arcane/divine/psychic), (prepared/spontaneous)
- <type-less>-prepared: alchemist
- arcane-spontaneous: bloodrager, skald
- <psychic>-<unique>: kineticist
========================
Magic/Combat: (arcane/divine), prepared
- arcane-prepared: magus
- divine-prepared: paladin/antipaladin, warpriest
=============================================
Skill:
- ninja
- rogue
- vigilante
========================
Skill/Combat:
- brawler
- gunslinger
- monk
- ranger
- slayer
=============================================
Combat:
- barbarian
- cavalier/samurai
- fighter
- swashbuckler
=============================================
I-Don't-Know:
- medium (probably skilled/combat/magic)
=============================================
=============================================
Note: these are not "real" values, and they obscure a lot of information, and they are more-or-less personal, snap-judgments, and lack a solid foundation. But! I hope it kind of helps sort things out!
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
One thing about a visual guide is, I'm not sure all characters "look"
like a given class. I have two summoners for example. One is a middle aged aristocrat, nose in the air, not a hair out of place, and his wife, other than the blue skin, similarly colored. The other sports a well worn eagle knight jacket, skin tanned, straw hat, bow in her hand and a giant bird thing who has altered it's plumage to match the eagle knight jacket, only shinier.She uses words like varmint and critter while he describes monsters as interesting or odd.
The point is, both are the same class.
Similarly, I have a "shaman" whose class is investigator.
Point is characters don't need to look like a given class.
This is why I like the "what do you want to do" question. I can usually point someone at 2-3 good class options using the following:
What the character should mostly do in combat (archery, big sword, blasting, buffing)
What the character should be able to do out of combat (deception, scouting, diplomacy, scholarly, etc)
Important stats (strong, quick, tough smart, wise, charismatic)
I do like to keep non-core classes and archetypes in mind. It helps me to better match what the player wants, newer classes aren't necessarily harder to play than core stuff, and the player doesn't get overwhelmed by the options if I'm the one paring down 39 classes to a top 3.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
...
All the things.
Tacticslion, thank you for your good deed for the day.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
One thing about a visual guide is, I'm not sure all characters "look"
like a given class. I have two summoners for example. One is a middle aged aristocrat, nose in the air, not a hair out of place, and his wife, other than the blue skin, similarly colored. The other sports a well worn eagle knight jacket, skin tanned, straw hat, bow in her hand and a giant bird thing who has altered it's plumage to match the eagle knight jacket, only shinier.She uses words like varmint and critter while he describes monsters as interesting or odd.
The point is, both are the same class.
Similarly, I have a "shaman" whose class is investigator.
Point is characters don't need to look like a given class.
While I agree that characters do not need to look like a given class, when introducing people to Pathfinder classes it helps them to have a mental image of what the class represents. Better if the mental image is something they can connect with. Still, I was not thinking that we find a single image for any given class. Rather a collection of images that cover the scope of the "usual suspects" as it were.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Isn't there a guide to class selection on this website somewhere? I'm sure I've seen that thread pip i[ a couple times.
I believe you are thinking of the Guide to the Guides found under the Advice section as a sticky post. Open the post, navigate to the last post and back up. You should soon encounter the link I gave above, and its companion link to the Builds.
Note this is not a guide to which class to play, but rather, how to play a class. You want a druid? There are several guides available. Some focus on the pet, some to other aspects of the druid, and some to the entire thing. Same for other classes, archetypes, prestige classes, and other stuff. Loads of information.
/cevah
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
Bard: The OG buff bot, but remember: you're buffing yourself as well, so you can easily stand side by side with the other melee DPR classes. Not as good of a pure mage as you'd think.
Cleric: Can do literally anything, except be fun at parties. Have a real life dagger prepared for when people assume that you're just their healer.
Druid: A Cleric if instead of being tied to a god clerics turned into dinosaurs.
Fighter: A martial class that offers endless possibilities but has exactly one possibility. Can be made functional with a sufficiently large number of splat books.
Monk: weaboo fightan man. The go to class if you want to punch people, but with the same caveat as the Fighter.
Paladin: The class for people who want to be completely invulnerable to any and all GM horse s@#@. As compensation, it gives the GM Paladin-specific horse s!&% to ping you with.
Ranger: Fighter with some Druid spells. Far more functional out of the box, a very good beginner's class.
Rogue: The class for people who have way more confidence in the usefulness of skills than they should. Unchained version is 100% required and makes you a secondary DPR that can debuff enemies.
Sorcerer: A Wizard for people who'd rather be sexy than overpowered.
Wizard: For people who relish the irony of being the most overpowered class in the game without doing a single point of damage. Can make the Fighter feel very good about himself.
Alchemist: Can either be a melee DPR machine with mutagen or a ranged DPR machine with bombs. Yes you have both, but no you cannot build for both.
Cavalier: It's a Fighter with a horse and a lance. Alternatively it's a hobbit with a dog and a bow, which is actually far more terrifying.
Gunslinger: For when you want the smug satisfaction of completely breaking the bestiary and are willing to trade out doing anything else of interest for it.
Inquisitor: A Cleric who trades out being overpowered and gets to be fun at parties. I hope you like melee DPR because that's what you're doing.
Magus: A Fighter that gets to use spells to instantly explode an enemy a few times a day.
Oracle: A Cleric who is the MOST fun at parties. Arguably gets the most in terms of not-spells stuff for the 9th level spellcasters.
Summoner: You know what a Summoner is. I don't have to explain what a summoner is
Vigilante: A Fighter that gets class features. There's also this weird "dual identity" thing, but nobody really cares about that.
Witch: There are two types of witches: the type that either instantly wins the encounter with a single Hex or spends the whole combat with her thumb up her butt, and the type that is a Wizard that won't stop f$$!ing laughing.
Antipaladin: The exact opposite of the Paladin in every way, including quality. Possibly the worst spell list in the game.
Ninja: Used to be a better Rogue. Then Unchained came around and made the Rogue not suck, and now the Ninja is just a s#%%ty Teisatsu Vigilante.
Samurai: A weaboo fightan cavalier. I hope you like katanas because you are using a katana.
Arcanist: A wizard that is slightly easier for a beginner to play.
Bloodrager: A Barbarian that gets a little spell casting instead of rage powers. Weighing the second worst spell list in the game against the best class feature given to any full BAB class, and it comes out just about even. Thanks, Paizo.
Brawler: A Monk who signed up for punches, not weaboo fightan. Is better when you know what feats you can pick up with martial flexibility, but not by as much as you'd think.
Hunter: For people who would rather play their animal companion than their character.
Investigator: The true skill god. The rogue's wife says the investigator's name in bed, and sometimes, the rogue does too.
Shaman: For when you want access to the biggest variety of spells of any class. Fair and Balanced(TM).
Skald: A bard, except he's super mad. He's so mad that he doesn't play nice with any of the classes that usually love to have a bard in the party. Barbarians especially hate him, and this just makes the skald even madder.
Slayer: A Ranger without all of the naturey bits. If you've ever thought of showing a new player the Fighter, give them a Slayer instead.
Swashbuckler: The Fighter, except he cut off one of his hands. Not actually required to be dexterity-based.
Warpriest: An Inquisitor who's even better at smashing faces but went back to cleric-levels of being fun at parties.
Kineticist: The game's premier switch-hitter, being very powerful in melee while giving up hardly any of her ranged prowess. The trade off is that you have to kill yourself. Not as much of a weakness as you'd think.
Medium: Jack of all trades, master of none. For when you want to fulfill every possible party role, but not all at once (that would be a Cleric or a Druid).
Mesmerist: For that a!+++@& in your group that declares a roll for seduction at every man, woman, or ghoul he encounters. I don't actually know anything about this class
Occultist: The blingcaster. He casts with his bling. Again, very good in melee combat.
Psychic: Literally just a Wizard again. How did they get away with this
Spiritualist: For when you wanted to play a Hunter but your animal companion is f&%#ing dead.
I hope this helped
Thanks for everyone who answered. Too bad there isn't something like that for pathfinder.
Anyway I ended up asking my players if they had any characters from anime or fiction they particularly felt like playing. We had one vote for a holy knight (inspiration: Sanya from Dresden files) and one for Storm from XMen. So we ended up with a paladin and a lightning focused sorcerer.
This is an outright falsehood. You are ignoring the Strategy Guide.
