Given I have an Elf who, however inefficiently or even suicidedly, wants to be on the front line, how can we d create this as effectively as possible? That hit to Constitution is painful for what we need to do.
Think Elf in an upcoming, undetermined adventure path which means going from 1st to about 15th level for our group with three other pals. He doesn't necessarily need to do massive DPR, but he certainly needs to hold off bad guys. I'm not looking for a floating, mobile Dervish but someone who holds the line while the others do their thing in the back.
Any and all Pathfinder published material in play, even obscure adventure path material, with a 20 point buy.
While more detail is welcomed with archetypes, feats, and/or traits mapped out,
even outlines of build ideas could help.
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How about the new Spear Fighter archetype with an elf using a branch spear, leave the strength at 13 for power attack but pump dex for AC and accuracy. I figure you will want to get accuracy as high as possible so you can use your parry.
Pick up Combat Reflexes, Lunge, and Pushing Assault and play reach games (a lashing shadowcraft weapon and a UMD'd wand of longarm can make this extra silly) maybe want to do something with trip. Pick up Smash from the Air and Cut From the Air to make you hard to hit with ranged weapons (and rays and boulders.) Get Difficult Swings so people *cannot* get up close to you without provoking.
He doesn't necessarily need to do massive DPR, but he certainly needs to hold off bad guys.
With no artificial aggro mechanic, tanking in Pathfinder requires the tank to be threatening in some way so his enemies will want to focus their attention on him. Otherwise they'll simply ignore him in favor of higher priority targets. Which is to say, the character being an elf is of secondary concern to how you're going to make him threatening enough that monsters will want to attack him.
So tanking in Pathfinder first requires you to consider how you're going to make yourself a threat. Since you're an elf, consider being a martial class that uses combat maneuvers. With your racial intelligence modifier it only costs a single point to up your Int to 11, which after your racial adjustment will bring you to 13, the requirement for Combat Expertise and a bunch of improved combat maneuver feats. At early levels trip is a good combat maneuver to build on. Since trip can be used in place of a melee attack, you can attempt to trip anyone trying to move past you. With your likely higher than average dex because elf, you can take Combat Reflexes to give yourself many AoOs per turn and control an area of the battlefield. Very useful for protecting the squishies.
As you level trip becomes less useful as trip CMDs become higher and higher and flying enemies can't be tripped at all. Since you mentioned playing an adventure path, disarm becomes useful because so many of the big bads in adventure paths are humanoids with class levels who use weapons.
One thought is playing an unchained monk. Start with this stat array:
Str 10
Dex 19 (17+2)
Con 14 (16-2)
Int 9 (7+2)
Wis 14
Cha 7
Take Weapon Finesse as your level 1 feat and eventually get an AoMF with the agile enhancement and you'll be adding your dex to your damage instead of your strength. You'll be able to take several improved combat maneuver feats with your monk feats. At level 1 you'll have an AC of 16, which is decent, 14 hp, and acceptable saves.
Four levels of Phalanx Soldier Fighter, Kensai Magus, Eleven Battle Torrent feat chain, sprinkled with a few appropriate UnChained Monk levels to boost AC and BAB and some applicable bonus feats.
Unhindering Shield is a must, and 4 levels of Fighter gives it to you. Phalanx Soldier allows spears and polearms to be used as one-handed weapons.
Monk and Magus levels are purely to pick your poison. Do as you wish, and enjoy your +1 Fortuitous elven branched spear with infinite AoO...
Have DEX,INT,& WIS to AC. Monk's Improved Unarmed Strike inside your reach. Monk's Robes will make all of this better...
You have DEX to attack, and INT to damage, and you are a Magus using Magus stuffs...
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An occultist can be pretty solid. Medium armor + heavy shield works pretty well on defense and you get enough buffs (including panoply of the warrior for full BAB) to make a respectable offense. Psychic spellcasting means you can cast with your hands full. Shield brace can give you reach if you want it.
And yes, an elf's +2 Dex and +2 Int works well here with medium armor and Int-based 6-level spellcasting (to say nothing of the mental focus an occultist can never have too much of). Attack using Str though, you want to use that off-hand. You have full martial weapon prof so trade weapon familiarity for long limbed to stop medium armor slowing you much.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far. They all look like they could be pretty solid for what I want. You all have given me lots and lots of homework as I'm not familiar with a lot of the classes and feats thrown at me- bravo!
front line elf?
get the Strength of Submission trait.
at the start you can have it triggered by the effects of a bless spell or a bard spamming Lullaby at you (0 level spell. you can't be forced to sleep so trade of -5 to perception for +1 to hit and damage). can later be upgraded for False Belief (2nd level spell) so it last an hour\caster level (without taking perception penalties). and once you can get a friendly caster cast False Alibi (3rd level spell) at you it can last for ever, just have him set the trigger to be 'when i say "that's a waste of 5 minutes" ' then waste 5 minutes doing nothing important at all and trigger it to erase that memory. a +1 to hit and damage for not remembering 5 minutes of your long elf life seem like a good trade.
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You can grab the Antagonize feat and force the enemy to attack you, or get a penalty for not attacking you.My advice: never, ever take Antagonize unless you know your GM's mindset, because that feat is one of the worst-written things in the game.
Antagonize...
....Intimidate: ...The effect ends if the creature is prevented from attacking you or attempting to do so would harm it (for example, if you are on the other side of a chasm or a wall of fire)....
You can drive a truck through that loophole, and your GM will have little choice but to make it rain trucks to prevent you from cakewalking every encounter. E.g., what's wrong with walking through a Wall of Fire? You'd get hurt? Well, so will getting hit by an AoO, so any and all walking through AoOs must be off-limits too. Logically extrapolate to just about everything else going on during combat.
Then, depending upon what you're antagonizing, getting rid of you could be a fairly trivial effort: for instance, anybody with Quick Draw or Rapid Shot can zing a one ranged attack toward you as part of a full-attack, then, the condition of your feat be satisfied, its effect ends and they can ignore you for the next 24hrs.
Or, worse, they might actually make your elf butt their priority target rather than the party dwarf with 20 con. So...yeah. Be careful what you wish for department.
One thought is playing an unchained monk. Start with this stat array:
Str 10
Dex 19 (17+2)
Con 14 (16-2)
Int 9 (7+2)
Wis 14
Cha 7
This uses 50% of point-buy allotment for a mere 14 con, and compounding by taking a class whose schtick is exchanging his armor for a wisdom bonus (currently +2). So, a racial bump was dumped, and a racial dump was bumped -- a classic case of point-buy gimp building. Don't do this, people!
~ ~ ~
With diminished con, rather that fighting it, I'd contemplate builds capable of ameliorating low con. and Magus is arguably most kick-ass for a point-buy elf wanting to mix it up in melee:
STR: 7 or 10 or 14
DEX+ 17 (raise 4th)
CON- 12 (Elf, 15,15,14,14,10,7 20pt array)
INT+ 17 (all other bumps)
WIS: 14 or 10
CHA: 10 or 14 or 7
-- You'll be UMD'ing a wand of False Life out of combat, and casting Mirror Image at 4th. You have all martial weapon proficiencies and can cast in light armor.
It is a careful what you wish for department feat yes, but its effectively trading actions and can help divert enemies away from critical allies (for at least a round).
The moment most intelligent enemies see your pointy elf ears, they'll assume you're a priority target anyway. --You might as well live up to their expectations (see my previous post) and be able to handle the inbound.
With diminished con, rather that fighting it, I'd contemplate builds capable of ameliorating low con. and Magus is arguably most kick-ass for a point-buy elf wanting to mix it up in melee:
STR: 7 or 10 or 14
DEX+ 17 (raise 4th)
CON- 12 (Elf, 15,15,14,14,10,7 20pt array)
INT+ 17 (all other bumps)
WIS: 14 or 10
CHA: 10 or 14 or 7-- You'll be UMD'ing a wand of False Life out of combat, and casting Mirror Image at 4th. You have all martial weapon proficiencies and can cast in light armor.
Any particular Archetype you'd suggest for that Dex heavy Magus build? I like how it does play to the strengths of Elven ability adjustments. With a metamagic rod Mirror Image would be a go to spell that would last my entire career- who needs those stupid hit points anyway!
Between web searches and looking back at the Magus Guidebooks, there's a ton of ideas on Dexterity focused Magi builds. Many even cite Elves as great race for that type of build. Kensai, at first glance I'll have to look into this option, is an Archetype recommended most.
Just about all of those ideas up there look pretty tempting, so thanks again for the input everyone.
The straight magus is usually the better way to go. Hexcrafter is nice though. Big thing for the dex based is to take finesse and dervish dance will be the two feats you will need by level 3. You will be locked into a scimitar but that is usually all you need. If you really want to dump cha take the traits wayang spell hunter (shocking grasp) and pragmatic activator
A magus has no especial need to use a scimitar; they have all martial weapon proficiencies, and can use any one-handed melee weapon during Spell Combat. (The scimitar just has Dervish Dance going for it in a dex build, which is fine until the lack of Piranha Strike starts to ache, in which case you pick up an Agile waveblade along with an Opalescent White Pyramid Ioun, and retrain the feat.)
Phalanx Soldier Fighter
1(Bonus). EWP (Fauchard)
1(Level). Combat Reflexes
2(Bonus). Upsetting Shield Style
3(Level). Shield Focus
4(Bonus). Unhindering Shield
At this point you have:
Full simple/martial weapon proficiency, full light/medium/heavy armor proficiency, the ability to use spears and polearms as one-handed weapons, and your buckler hand is considered free for spells, class abilities, and Monk stuffs. You can attack with your buckler, and if you hit them with it, they take a -2ATK against you. Plus, you can keep your shield bonus when you use your buckler hand to attack, and with Shield Focus as a prerequisite makes your buckler a +2 shield bonus. You could start with heavy armor and just be a typical reach Fighter at first, but you will want/need light armor or Mithral breastplate to cast as a Magus...
Whatever Magus you want
5(Level). Intensify Spell (or Sacred Geometry if you like to gamble)
7(Level). Dirty Fighting
9(Bonus). Improved Trip
9(Level). Great Trip
And at level 11, level 7 Magus, you can cast in medium armor without suffering the Arcane Spell Failure Chance... and you are proficient in heavy armor, so Mithral or Celestial Full Plate it up! Nothing says front line tank like full plate.
@Slim Jim Why go through all that when you can get a effortless lace on the scimitar and be good for piranha strike? Seems a bit cheaper and easier.
@VoodistMonk curious why you put the priority towards the trip, mainly for your build? Just curious is all.
@Epicfail Kensai is kinda nice, but for what you are aiming for it might not be a great idea, kensai's armor is pretty weak upfront..since you can't wear any. I assume the rules must have changed but at one point I thought taking combat reflexes with bodyguard and the trait adopted with halfling (helpful) basically as a attack of opp you could give a ally adjacent to you +4 AC. But that is kinda old
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@OP: If you go with something like VoodistMonk's Phalanx Fighter approach, which seems to closely match what you asked for, make sure you know what he means. VoodistMonk said, "just be a typical reach Fighter at first". Here's an example of reach tactics. The concept 'reach fighter' is well known in the forums but is not actually mentioned in Pathfinder source books.