I'm in a group (level 13 now) where one plays a path of war mystic.
For some time he seemed ok with some strong moments but the higher the game goes the more he falls behind.
We have a buffer bard and two other characters wo make good use of his buffs (inspire courage with Discordant Voice and haste) because they are build for multiple attacks. But the mystic, making standard action maneuvers most of the time, gets little from them and thus doesn't seem to be able to contribute as much as he wants to.
The fighter/brawler (iron caster build) has 6 attacks with brawler's flurry, haste and steel headbut. The first 5 of those hit for around 35 damage each unbuffed.
Is the mystic just using the class "wrong" by forgoing iteratives? Because even if his maneuvers have some damage bonuses or save or suck carriers they just can't keep up with the amount of damage dealt by the fighter.
If he, for example, uses one of his maneuvers that deals an extra 6d6 on a hit (essence shattering strike) that doesn't even get near to what an additional hit by the fighter does. Even the chance to daze the target (which I can't remember happening) that doesn't seem worth it.
And besides the damage the mystic is very squishy and easy to hit when compared to the fighter.
I know the fighter is all about damage but the starknife throwing warpriest in the party outdamages the mystic, too because she profits from the extra haste attack and gets the damage buffs on all attacks instead of just one.
The mystic often uses the fire glyph, so he buffs the party damage but that makes things only worse from his point of view because the total of +7 to hit (Inspire courage, haste, glyph of fire) means that most attacks hit and deal +1d6+9 (inspire courage + glyph of fire) additional damage which he doesn't see as "his" work. Instead he looks at the little his character does himself and is not enjoying himself.
Is the mystic meant to be that way or should he just attack normally using iteratives plus boosts instead of strikes?
Seems I`ll have to get a better understanding of the class myself to help him.
This may come a bit late, but as someone who enjoys PoW quite a bit I can say that this is actually about right. The thing is Path of War makes those single attack actions hurt quite a bit if done well and buffed up with the right build, as well as giving them much more utility than many martial can dream of. HOWEVER, a path of war class will almost never (barring cheese builds) match the raw DPS of a full attacking core Paizo martial. They aren't meant to, they are meant to reduce the reliance of standing around swinging at immobile targets. A character hitting with 6 attacks SHOULD be doing more, because that ALL they have to do. Primal Fury and Broken Blade are pretty potent disciplines that he may get some good bang out of, especially the primal fury maneuvers that give pounce like effects.