What build are you most proud of? Come brag here!


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Not that there isn't plenty of time to come up with new builds, but what was your favorite PF1 build? This is a place to brag about awesome tricks you've pulled off with PF1's decade of books.

Obviously, I made this in part so I could brag. Mine was the one for Loro Picrin, my Norgorborite human werewolf. Ashiftah Witch 7, VMC Wizard (Air school, Smoke subschool). Familiar is a centipede, but any venomous or poisonous familiar works. Grab Gift of Consumption and Greater Gift of Consumption. Other hexes included Slumber and Evil Eye (because it can be reused against one target), but I had Flexible Hex in order to use secret knowledge to obtain different hexes as needed. Very flavorful for Norgorber. Finally, grab Master Alchemist and make sure to know the spell Venemous Promise.

Putting it all together, craft a lot of poison. My GM counted drugs to count as poisons, resulting in some very nasty options. Every day of downtime, cast Venemous Promise on yourself once or twice, tying a poison to a unique secret (which could be as simple as "the fifth codeword for centipede venom is legerdemain"). It's important that it's something you won't reveal, and should you forget it, will never accidentally say or write. Before combat, use your Smokesight ability from the VMC to grant your allies the ability to see through fog you magically create. If you've got more time, spam your Fog of War power from Ashiftah to put some fog out. It extends the range of your hexes nicely. During combat, do whatever you like with your standard action. Hex somebody, cast a spell, or put out more fog. As a free action while in range of an enemy, say one of your secrets to trigger Venomous Promise and intentionally poison yourself. Immediate action (on your turn so it's a swift) to activate your Greater Gift of Consumption hex and redirect the poison to an enemy you haven't targeted it with yet. You've just used a hex, so you can take a move action to activate Ghost Walk and turn invisible as Vanish and take a five foot step.

TLDR; You're killing people by using secrets to poison yourself to poison them so you can turn invisible, and you've still got your standard action. That's about the most Norgorber combat style. The battlefield is covered fog that you can deliver hexes through, and which only you and your allies can see through.


raven my constructed pugilist 1/ kineticts x just using grappling hook in his arm to ranged grapple and light up whom i garbed with fire blast with no rolls besides initial grappling roll. I am proud owner of this character.

Scarab Sages

Probably my High Flying Wayang. It's seen some tweaks since then (earlier Wheeling Charge, Pack Flanking and Lunge around level 9) but it's still the peak of my character building I think, and a lot of fun when allowed to work. The freedom and speed are really nice, as is being in the sky all the time.

Dark Archive

The Intimidatrix. Half-Orc Rogue 1 (Thug archetype), Barbarian 2 (Intimidating Glare rage power), Cavalier 2 (Order of the Cockatrice).

It should be pretty clear what this build does. Don't forget to take Intimidating Prowess as you will want to add your Strength in addition to your Charisma, especially when raging. Don't forget that you get an extra +2 morale bonus on Attack Rolls against Demoralized opponents.
Intimidating Glare and Frightening actually don't add that much to the build but they make Demoralizing a bit better.
In addition, you'll have a little bit of Sneak Attack. You can take Precise Strike to add to this with Tactician, making flanking tactics worthwhile. Challenge can give you a +3 bonus on damage rolls against a single target.

Grand Lodge

I should talk about Allie's build in here at some point... it's very me.


I'm particularly partial to Trench Fighter 3 / Spellslinger Wizard 5 / Eldritch Knight. I'm not sure why, as I've never actually used it in play. Maybe it's because it's a rare example of a multiclass spellcaster build that can actually manage with a steeper hit to its casting, or maybe it's because it finds a way to make the underpowered Spellslinger shine. But in any event, it's a build that I find quite elegant in its own way.


I was recently tasked with building several NPCs, all with Sneak Attack or an equivalent. I'm proud that each one of the five characters had different ways of pulling it off:

Stalker Vigilante: feinting
Urogue (shadow walker): darkness
Urogue (Rake,scout):intimidation
Ninja: invisibility
Brawler (snakebite striker)1/slayer 3/swashbuckler 1/Inner Sea Pirate 5: used Familiar Bond to get a flanking partner (it was a mauler).

Liberty's Edge

If we're talking clever builds rather than just bog-standard but fun and powerful ones (like my Str-based Empiricist Investigator with Student of Philosophy) only one really leaps to mind:

You play a Half Orc with Sacred Tattoo and Fate's Favored. Your first level is Oracle and you make sure to take Divine Favor as a spell. You go Oracle of Lore, get Sidestep Secret and spend your Feat on Extra Revelation for Focused Trance. You go with maxed Str, high Cha, decent Con and Int, ditch Dex completely, and take the Lame Curse.

After 1st level you go straight Invulnerable Rager Barbarian with the classic Superstition/Beast Totem lines and the Human FCB for ridiculous saves. You put at least a rank in all knowledge skills and keep the social skills maxed out.

You are now playing a Barbarian who can self-buff before any fight he knows is coming for +2 to hit, +2 damage, can use Wands (including CLW wands), bases his AC on Cha instead of Dex and is thus really well set to be good at social skills (easily on par with most Bards, for example), and can auto-succeed several Knowledge checks per day outside combat. Your Barbarian stuff is one level delayed, you're down 4 HP, and you're at -1 BAB...but that's a small price to pay, really.

So, in short, this character is a Barbarian with about on-par combat prowess who is also excellent at social stuff in general, has very good Saves, and can auto-succeed at investigative-style Knowledge checks as the spirits speak to him and grant revelations. Oh, and you can Rage-cycle for free from 9th level, because why not?

Sadly, I only got this character to around 3rd level when I played him. Still loads of fun, though.


Human Conjurer (VMC Bard), and I took the following Arcane Discoveries - Yuelral's Blessing and Alchemical Affinity

Kind of a hodgepodge of stuff, and the Arcane Discoveries aren't super great, but I adore this guy. His whole deal is that he never received any formal training for being a wizard. Instead, you set becoming a Wizard as a goal of his, and throughout his travels, met a Bard, a Druid, and an Alchemist who taught him various aspects of their own trade, and he cobbled all of these elements together into a functional Wizard.

I'd love it if 2E kept options like these available; I really like the idea of a sort of "tree wizard".

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