Hello Pathfinder Community!
Based on the title of this post I am having trouble creating a new character for our shattered star campaign, so to help you understand why my mind is the way it is i'm going to fill you in with a couple details.
I was playing a fairly straight forward Barbarian alongside our party's cleric and wizard. Through 3 and a half books (We are level 12) things were going swimmingly. The man playing the wizard could talk and think his way through most confrontations, and the ones we couldn't my Barbarian could murder his way through. Through mostly good luck on rolls along with the infinite amount heals our cleric was able to dish out, most major fights didn't last too long, aside from a couple near misses.
Going into book 4 we didn't really think we would run into any problems, which was the case until 3 sessions ago. Cleric pissed off the barbarian enough that he left to go handle a side quest alone that the DM had been fishing out in front of me off and on for 2 and a half books. Sadly/Heroically my barbarian was vanquished. It was a really cool side quest that could've ended dead or alive.
I had created another character for me to play in the case that he had died, which was a Astral Sorcerer, which I had a lot of fun building and playing for all of two sessions. We were really looking forward to this new party member, and we were having a lot of fun, and then suddenly through pitiful rolls, on top of good DR and immunity's the session came to a halt. The next 4 hours were an utter slogfest, nothing was getting done. Our group was really coming to facts that this was going to be extremely awful time without a "martial" class up front to dish out non spell damage. We recouped our efforts, the wizard raised some dead etins and we were on our way again the next session to try and get further down into the dungeon...
TLDR Necromancer vs. Enemy Necromancer commanding the same undead, battle of the charisma checks, my sorcerer gets brought to a -142 Health essentially turning him into Taco Meat.
We are high enough level to get resurrections, story driven, any resurrection done by the Cleric would not be accepted by the soul of the barbarian and when we did eventually get my sorcerer back to life he decided he was done adventuring ( he was out 2 days adventuring and got turned to mashed potatoes).
SO NOW the burden falls on me to make another character, one that will last a little longer. My problem being that I really loved my barbarian, and it would be kind of crappy of me to just make another barb who was very similar or something incredibly similar of another class. From a purely meta standpoint the party needs an upfront Physical DMG based class and I plan on making that which can make the shoe fit.
I've been having a lot of trouble building something that is nearly as capable of fulfilling a specific roll in a group of 3 that my barb did.
What have you done for a problem like this?
I am open to life advice or build advice, but thats for you to decide. I've been adamantly against playing a paladin because of the Lawful Good, Paladin Coding, railroading that can happen for character development. You can attempt to persuade me against my reservations, I won't shy away from it.
Thanks and sorry for the long post <3
I guess I could've been a little more clear, Im not having much of any trouble putting together builds but am having trouble not introducing a character who is essentially a reskinned version of my Barb. I AM still interested in your buildS.
A melee/debuff magic/weapon character might work very well for a small group. Like a Cleric/Monk or Warpriest who mostly melees, but uses spells and powers like Aura of Doom, Archon's Aura, Aura of Chaos or Touch of Madness to cripple enemies while fighting.
Or maybe a "spellsword" type character specialized in combining Sneak Attack damage with Dazzling Blade and other ways to roll opposition. You can build a very strong trip-based spell-warrior out of nasty debuffs and the Knowledge is Power Arcane Discovery.
For straight melee, a cold, calculating Weapon Master with some Rogue or Ninja levels can be very lethal while playing very differently than a Barbarian.
For major uniqueness points, you can use 4 levels of Druid and Shaping Focus to build a warrior who lives in medium elemental form - a character shifted into an Elemental form can still take humanoid shape, speak, and wield weapons. So you can be an earth elemental earthbreaker juggernaut, or a flying air elemental blade-storm.
I play a paladin in our shattered star game.
He fell for a girl from sandpoint and needed a job. So when she signed up for the society, he followed.
He is very protective, going out of his way to look after his companions and the people he meets.
Him and his now wife have spend vast amounts of wealth rebuilding underbridge and building orphanages and schools and temples.
It is easy to flavor front liners as people who are protective, it fits the role well. An option that I have not tackled the role from yet is someone who hates pain, a big softy, but knows they are better able to take it than others. A gentle giant so to speak.
Focus on grapples and the like and disable that way.
Basically, it seems like you want a tough martial character who can dish out damage but feels distinct from a typical "rage and point at the enemy" barbarian. Here are a few ideas as starting points:
* Pick a combat maneuver (or two, at most) that will give the character more interesting tactical options. Trip is an excellent choice for setting up frequent opportunity attacks, for example (though it works best with a larger party, or once you get Greater Trip).
* Using a reach weapon can dramatically increase the space you threaten, especially if combined with things like the polearm master archetype (allowing you to shorten your reach as needed) and whirlwind attack.
* Monks and brawlers' unarmed damage scales with level, and depending on the build, they can often bypass some or all DR and hardness.
* A hunter and their companion can be a devastating flanking team. It sounds like you're playing in a smaller than average party, so why not two DPS machines for the price of one? Boon Companion and a few fighter levels can help you load up on more combat feats without sacrificing the companion's advancement.
* Any class with sneak attack increases its damage output dramatically--especially at the level your campaign is at now--but only with a reliable way to deliver the precision damage (flanking buddy, feinting, invisibility, etc.).
* Finally, I know you said you're adverse to playing paladins, but their abilities to smite, self-heal, and shrug off many conditions and effects make them one of the tankiest classes in the game. The key to making a paladin fun to play is making them be more than just their code. J4RH34D gave a great example: their character cares deeply about protecting and helping others, so it's natural for them to behave like a paladin should. They're not some holier-than-thou jerk shackled with someone else's rules. (Of course, you also need a GM whose view of the class is compatible with yours, but that's a very different issue.)
My instinct would be Bloodrager...great balance between the barb and sorcerer you had before.
Coming up with a barkground that would link to one or both of the previous characters (and include a reason to be WITH not against the party) should be doable.
I strongly think though that whatever you do you need to build a character that is going to want to be part of the campaign and will be happy to work with the other PCs.
Coming up with a barkground that would link to one or both of the previous characters (and include a reason to be WITH not against the party) should be doable.I strongly think though that whatever you do you need to build a character that is going to want to be part of the campaign and will be happy to work with the other PCs.
Yeah, There was never really any inter-party conflict, but when it did happen it was a really cool moment ( that the whole party and dm agreed was cool). I would never design a character to be in direct conflict with the group and I think most player's guides for most campaigns tell you the same thing.
My biggest problem I am having is that in a group of 3 my barbarian seemed to fit his role quite well, and being a group of 3 each person needs to be very self-sufficient as well as extremely efficient on a round by round basis as to keep the tide of battle turned towards our favor. I am having trouble not making the same nearly the exact same character.
My biggest problem I am having is that in a group of 3 my barbarian seemed to fit his role quite well, and being a group of 3 each person needs to be very self-sufficient as well as extremely efficient on a round by round basis as to keep the tide of battle turned towards our favor. I am having trouble not making the same nearly the exact same character.
The issue is that you're struggling to make a powerful, self-sufficient melee character who isn't a hulking Barbarian? Barbarians are great, but they're far from the only way to build a powerful and reliable melee character. A million other options exist to do that, and many are much stronger in various ways - defenses, initiative, abilities, even potentially damage.
Badbird's right. Barbarians aren't the only heavy hitters. Hunters can deal a lot of damage with the right teamwork feats that are shared with their animal companions. They also have access to spells and don't have to worry about spell failure from armor. Add in some levels of Rogue for sneak attack, skills, evasion, and trapfinding and you have a pretty well-rounded character.
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There are tons of strong martial characters that aren't barbarians.
Most fighter builds, Slayers, Hunters, a couple Monk builds, Avenger Vigilantes, Wildshape focused Druids, etc.
There are of course tons of hybrid builds too, that add in a little magic. Paladins, Warpriests, Bloodragers, Magus, Kinetic Knight Kineticists, a few Cleric builds, etc.
You can also go for something like a Summoner...have your Eidolon be the martial while you sit back and cast buff spells on it.
Other than being a melee focused character, do you have anything in particular in mind? Race? Theme? etc?
Dwarf with the coolest polearm in the game: Make your saves. Kick ass.