Monster Tactician (Advice on Domain and Team work Feats)


Advice


I am Building A Monster Tactician
I am Planning to use a Reach weapon with this build

I know i want to be about attacks of opportunity

I am unsure about my Domain (Can Be Any as The one god in the game i play covers all domains)

I'd could also use advice on my feats (mostly my team work feats)


I'm working on what was supposed to be a mini-guide to the Monster Tactician, but it's already ballooned to almost 30 pages of text.

Here are the teamwork feats I think are best (in general - some of these are for archers):

Broken Wing Gambit (5): Useless for most inquisitors, you can make use of this by granting it to your summoned allies. In general, I don’t love feats that only do something while you’re sharing them with your summoned allies. If your summons all die, or can’t act because of Protection from Alignment, or you get separated from them, then your feat is suddenly useless as well. That said, it’s a very easy way to get free attacks in.

Coordinated Charge (14): It comes online late, but this is fantastic free mobility. It’s great for you, and it’s great for monsters that you summoned ahead of combat.

Coordinated Shot (2): Archers only. This does nothing for your monsters, but pretty reliably gets you +1 or +2 to hit.

Escape Routes (1): This feat lets you more or less move around the battlefield as you like, as long as you stay with the pack generally.

Friendly Fire (1): Archers only. This is amazing for you, because you don’t have to risk hitting a real ally. Not only do you get a bonus to hit, but your summoned creature gets a free swing. Best with summoned monsters that have one big attack.

Outflank (6): One of the big ones. This is a very easy +2 to hit for you and your crew, and you can get free attacks out of it.

Paired Opportunists (1): Part of the combo with Outflank that allows you and all of your creatures to get opportunity attacks whenever anybody crits, even if they’re not properly part of the flank.

Precise Strike (2): Good early on, and continues to be good as you’re able to summon things with lots of attacks.

Snapping Flank (12): This one requires a little bit of a walk, as you have to get a bite attack somehow to take it. Once you have, however, everybody gets to make swift-action bite attacks, which is super rad for your giant dino summons.
The easiest way to get a bite attack is to be a race with a bite attack. Kitsune, Most Skinwalkers, and Sahuagin just have one. Ratfolk and Dhampir can get one with a feat. Kobolds, Tieflings, and Goblins can get one as an alternate racial ability. Half-orcs can get one with a feat or as an alternate racial trait. (Many other races have or can get one, but I’ve listed here the ones that are most likely to be reasonable in a typical campaign.)

Target of Opportunity (8): You have to be an archer, and you have to summon another archer (or creature with a ranged attack), but when you do, you both get a free shot every turn. You’ll have to fish a bit for monsters with ranged attacks, as many don’t have them, but there’s enough there to make this work. Note that a literal reading of this feat rules out many of your options, as many of them don’t have a ranged weapon “in hand”.

Wild Flanking (6): Power Attack is good, and this is a second Power Attack that doesn’t impose a penalty. It does carry the risk (a pretty good risk) that you’ll bump your summoned monster for a few points of damage, but that’s unlikely to make a difference. Your summoned creatures will also love this.

In general, I don't think that being a Monster Tactician hugely changes which domains are the best, but my personal picks are these:

Animal Domain: You get a permanent animal companion. Unlike the Summoner’s Eidolon, you do not have to send this buddy anywhere to use your summon monster SLA. You will want to eventually invest in the feat Boon Companion, which can be tricky given the number of good feats available. All three of the Subdomains are nice, and more general-purpose than the base domain’s Speak with Animals power.
Chaos Domain: The Touch of Chaos power is an excellent debuff. You spellcaster allies - including your summoned monsters - will love it. Assuming that enemies don’t cheat it, the Protean Subdomain offers a powerful control ability at level 8. The Whimsy Subdomain (not for PFS) is similar.
Charm Domain: With your summoned allies around to take advantage of it, trading your action for an enemy’s action is awesome. The Charm Person effect lasts a very short time, however. The Lust Subdomain lets you trade it for a pretty funny combat control effect.
Luck Domain: Both of the powers this offers are very versatile, which is a nice advantage. The Fate Subdomain lets you target others with your reroll, which is stronger on the whole.
Travel Domain: You get +10 Movement Speed just for signing up, which is a fantastic benefit. You also get to more or less just ignore difficult terrain, unless you run into a lot of difficult terrain. The Exploration Subdomain gives you a potent scouting power.

The Dark Tapestry Subdomain of the Void Domain is the only domain/subdomain that interacts directly with summoning, but it's not really all that good.


Joyd wrote:

I'm working on what was supposed to be a mini-guide to the Monster Tactician, but it's already ballooned to almost 30 pages of text.

I don't know if you know and like this trick.

Play for monster tactician for Kurgess (you have luck, strength and travel as domains so that is not too shabby)

You get access to the Kurgess worhippers only feat: intrepid rescuer.

Take the staple teamwork feats paired opportunist

Take the feat phalanx formation.

This is melee (reach build). So you do the normal thing where you summon and the creatures attack. Difference is after they attack you order them lie prone. If they are attacked, you can attack the bad guy initiating the attack provided you are positioned well, and so do all the monsters (because of paired opportunist). Sure they attack with -4 because they are prone (but its cancelled out because of the +4 because of paired opportunist). YOU however attack with the +4 of paired opportunist. Also you are probably having bane active so its well worth it.


Spoiler:
Joyd wrote:

I'm working on what was supposed to be a mini-guide to the Monster Tactician, but it's already ballooned to almost 30 pages of text.

Here are the teamwork feats I think are best (in general - some of these are for archers):

Broken Wing Gambit (5): Useless for most inquisitors, you can make use of this by granting it to your summoned allies. In general, I don’t love feats that only do something while you’re sharing them with your summoned allies. If your summons all die, or can’t act because of Protection from Alignment, or you get separated from them, then your feat is suddenly useless as well. That said, it’s a very easy way to get free attacks in.

Coordinated Charge (14): It comes online late, but this is fantastic free mobility. It’s great for you, and it’s great for monsters that you summoned ahead of combat.

Coordinated Shot (2): Archers only. This does nothing for your monsters, but pretty reliably gets you +1 or +2 to hit.

Escape Routes (1): This feat lets you more or less move around the battlefield as you like, as long as you stay with the pack generally.

Friendly Fire (1): Archers only. This is amazing for you, because you don’t have to risk hitting a real ally. Not only do you get a bonus to hit, but your summoned creature gets a free swing. Best with summoned monsters that have one big attack.

Outflank (6): One of the big ones. This is a very easy +2 to hit for you and your crew, and you can get free attacks out of it.

Paired Opportunists (1): Part of the combo with Outflank that allows you and all of your creatures to get opportunity attacks whenever anybody crits, even if they’re not properly part of the flank.

Precise Strike (2): Good early on, and continues to be good as you’re able to summon things with lots of attacks.

Snapping Flank (12): This one requires a little bit of a walk, as you have to get a bite attack somehow to take it. Once you have, however, everybody gets to make swift-action bite attacks, which is super rad for your giant dino summons.
The...

Any chance I can see this guild you have been working on?

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