Stumped on a character for a game...

[MyrVesius]

So, I'm playing this pathfinder game that is pretty laisez-faire regarding the rules and limitations. It's 4d6r1k3 for abilities, can use paizo materials of any kind as well as the large bulk of 3pp materials, and homebrew has to be run by the DM. There's also the ability to do this quasi-gestalt where the DM looks at the two classes and removes something from each of them that will limit the variability without gutting the concept to avoid too much of a power ramp, but otherwise let you level both classes with no downsides. NSFW materials are allowed, and a couple books that I will not name here are cited, but that's something that's a thing as well in the rules of the game.

So here's the dillema... I'm the last person to pick a class, because I tend to like trying to balance the party based on what everyone else picks. This usually means I'm some form of support unit, which is fine. The diverse pickings the other players have gone with are as follows:
-Kitsune slayer (longbow and elven curve blade)
-Gestalt Artificer and Ninja
-Gestalt Tetori monk/oracle of the snake (they gave up all of their spells they just wanted to do snake things. They even took that curse that lets you eat people.)

Every single one of them is going dex build. We have no magic. No support. No -actual- front line... and realistically we probably won't actually have ranged since the slayer is going for melee feats.

I'm at a loss of what to do, and decided to give asking the community here a try in regards to what I should play to spice this game up. I literally have a world of options. I've been considering playing a witch, but I'm already playing a witch in another game. I kinda want something interesting and fun... and am not *overly* attached to being helpful to the group considering they literally all went dex build *Insert class here* and don't care what anyone else is playing.

I also haven't rolled for stats yet.

Edit: While I'm thinking on it, no alignment locks are in place (as may be obvious by the monk)

[avr]

If they're all dex builds it's possible that they can slide thru without a front line; the ACs may all be rather good, they can likely acrobatics their way to wherever they need to be on the battlefield and the biggest danger you face in any given combat will presumably be grappled. I expect the artificer can do utility magic. The lack of any kind of healing magic is the worst hole in the group at the mo.

You might like to play a vitalist (Dreamscarred Press psionics) if you want to ace that role. Or, if you want to make the dex builds happy for other reasons an urban skald could help. A third kind of useful character could be a battlefield controller; wizards, druids and summoners are notable at this but there are many kinds.

If you just want an interesting and fun character there are endless possibilities depending on what you find interesting and fun, without some hints I couldn't help you there.

[Matthew Downie]

Lack of divine magic is probably the biggest issue with that party. So my first thought would be Cleric, Oracle, Shaman, etc.

I was recently pointed to a character that can be highly effective even on 1-point buy. It's a cleric that can give bardic performance boosts and summon allies and has an animal companion.

This PC would provide your party with healing and cures for status ailments, minions for your front line, and buffs for all your martial allies. If you roll well for stats, it can perform other roles too.

Whether it's fun or not is not for me to say. Summonings and companions can annoy GMs by slowing down gameplay.

[gnoams]

It sounds like all 3 of them will be stealthy, so whatever you play, be sneaky too. Having a whole party able to sneak opens us a lot of possibilities, maybe even suggest you all take stealth synergy. Being the one person who can't sneak means you will either be ruining their surprise all the time and they will all resent you for it, or you'll be stuck way back waiting for them to call you forward because they are sick of your clumsiness ruining their surprise.

[Scrapper]

For all the options, a straight Paladin or even War Priest would be a solid front line and provide some divine magic, though Arcane is preferred, then a Magus or elven Duskblade would work

[Firebug]

Urban Totemic(Tiger) Skald? More Dex for the Dex gods? Bonus points for eventually becoming a celestial/fiendish tiger(planar wild shape/natural spell) with pounce all day. If you don't want to be Dex Based, just take a level of Bloodrager and use the Str bonus from Bloodrager for yourself and grant them the Dex from Urban. And then go Half-orc with Amplified Rage and a bloodline Valet familiar for +8 str/con. Mine also went Red Tongue because I wanted to grant a feat from Combat Trick as well.

[Derek Dalton]

Might I suggest a Mystic Thuerge build. Yes I know a Thuerge is not an optimal Prestige Class. Here's why I suggest it. You use you Arcane spell for yourself for defense and offense. Clerical for Buffs,Healing and Summoning. Until recently I was never a fan of Summoning spells. Yet our Druid in a current game has summoned two Elementals that have proven more then capable of handling monsters. At worst they can serve as meat shields protecting you.
If you take a Wizard Archtype don't take one that gives up Scribe Scroll. Here's why, you can scribe both Clerical and Arcane and you get it for free. I'm working on retraining my wizard to be a Druid Wizard thuerge to go this route and so far the numbers are pretty solid.

[Decimus Drake]

I don't know anything about 3pp so I can't make suggestions there. Since the group lacks a proper caster I'd probably go witch or lore shaman since their spells/hexes draw from both arcane and divine spell lists. I'd then look at options to boost you stealth e.g. familiar, small race, magic, items etc.

I'm not overly familiar with how gestalt characters work but I imagine combining sorcerer with cleric/druid/oracle (any two casters that share a main stat.) should cover most of your casting needs.

What races are the others and what level are you starting at/expted to get to?

Tbh I don't envy you, in your position I'd be overwhelmed by the number of options.

[Slyme]

Some kind of druid can fill all the gaps...Wildshape into a tanky critter to front line fight, as well as cast spells and heal.

[PCScipio]

A human or half-orc Speaker for the Past Shaman is a good choice for the party's sole caster — full range of healing spells, good buffs and a broad range of utility and battlefield control spells. Ideally you'd want decent strength and a longspear for reach tactics.

[Dave Justus]

So you have 3 strikers. They are all front line (whether they will survive in that role or not that is what they are.)

So you don't have any control or support at all. You can easily make a character that can do both, but it is really hard to make a character that can do both in a single round, especially the critical first round.

It is hard to argue that an evangelist cleric wouldn't be the best choice (that is very often the case.) If I went the animal companion route, I would be looking at it as a mount rather than a melee combatant to give me more mobility. Boon companion probably wouldn't be necessary.

I might look into sacred summons and other summon feats as a means of battlefield control. Once inspire courage is a move action, that and a standard action summons could actually get pretty good round 1 battlefield control and support.

I would also suggest that the artificer/ninja invest in UMD and the party invest in wands for him, so he can do additional support actions sometimes.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Dave Justus wrote:

So you have 3 strikers. They are all front line (whether they will survive in that role or not that is what they are.)

Does he?

MyrVesius wrote:

-Gestalt Tetori monk/oracle of the snake (they gave up all of their spells they just wanted to do snake things. They even took that curse that lets you eat people.)

That's a front-liner.

MyrVesius wrote:

-Kitsune slayer (longbow and elven curve blade)

Maybe a front liner, depends on the build, how bowy vs. how slashy.

MyrVesius wrote:

-Gestalt Artificer and Ninja

I don't know what an Artificier is in this context, some kind of magic craftsman and he's a Ninja. Ninjas aren't usually front liners.

I'm counting 1 front liner, maybe 2 or maybe 2-half front-liners: 1 + 2/2 front liners? So, maybe 2? But only 1 for sure.

I don't think the OP would be out-of-line to have a front-liner.

Derek Dalton wrote:

Might I suggest a Mystic Thuerge build.

I think a Mystic Theurge speaks to what the party needs. They don't have a blaster Wizard. They don't have a dedicated healer. That's a solid suggestion. I have some thoughts on the way to go with this.

MyrVesius wrote:

can use paizo materials of any kind as well as the large bulk of 3pp materials, and homebrew has to be run by the DM. There's also the ability to do this quasi-gestalt where the DM looks at the two classes and removes something from each of them that will limit the variability without gutting the concept to avoid too much of a power ramp, but otherwise let you level both classes with no downsides. NSFW materials are allowed, and a couple books that I will not name here are cited, but that's something that's a thing as well in the rules of the game.

This sounds like the OP has some broad leeway about how to go about being something like a Mystic Theurge. For instance, he be a Gestalt Wizard/Cleric which could let him effectively start off as a Mystic Theurge as a level 1 character. You get the Spells of both classes with the ability to mix-and-match with your spell slots, but none of the special abilities of either class. That sounds like a potentially powerful character. Maybe an Oracle/Sorcerer: more spells/day, but fewer known spells, and delayed access to high-level spells.

There is an old rule the Pathfinder Design Team played with for a while. You used to be able to use races' spell-like abilities to count as the ability to cast spells for early access into Prestige Classes. So you could be a Tiefling with Darkness (a level 2 Cleric Spell) Take levels in Cleric with the Trickery Domain which gives you the SLA Mirror Image (a level 2 Wizard Spell). So you'd take 1 level in Cleric, 1 level in Wizard, then the rest in Mystic Theurge. That should yield a powerful character that the GM might allow. It actually is a Paizo character building option, albeit an outmoded one.

Matthew Downie wrote:

Lack of divine magic is probably the biggest issue with that party. So my first thought would be Cleric, Oracle, Shaman, etc.

So how about Warpriest? You can be the party healer and a front liner.

How about you play a Tengu with Claws. Then you start taking levels in Warpriest doing Sacred Weapon Damage instead of the normally lame Natural Attack Damage. Start off with a level in Barbarian, enhancing your 2 Claws and Bite with Rage. Then start taking levels in Warpriest. If you pick a Deity with a Natural Attack as a favored weapon--a lot of them favor Bite, then you don't need to take Weapon Focus for that one, anyway Tengu Bites do 1d6, so there's no need to take that before your 5th level in Warpriest. A 2nd level in Barbarian, and you get a Gore Attack as a Rage Power, Lesser Fiend Totem. If you dip a level in White Haired Witch, you get a Hair Attack. So, now you can be the party healer with great potential for buffing yourself and the party and you get 5 attacks/round with respectable damage that gets better as you level up. I know a couple of tricks to get even more attacks that do even more damage.

Slyme wrote:

Some kind of druid can fill all the gaps...Wildshape into a tanky critter to front line fight, as well as cast spells and heal.

Crazytown! Take 4 levels in Druid to get Wildshape, then take levels in Warpriest and start doing Sacred Weapon Damage with your Natural Attacks. Take Shaping Focus so that your nondruid levels count as Druid Levels for the purposes of Wildshape. When your character is level 8, you can Polymorph into Huge animals like an Allosaurus with 2 Claws and a Bite. You can play that White Haired Witch and Barbarian trick I described above so you get 2 Claws, Bite, 'Hair, and Gore, only now you are Size Huge and do a whole lot more Damage. Get a Wand of Strong Jaw, and you will inflict damage as if you were a even 2 Sizes bigger!

Plus, you have those Cleric and Druid spells.

Here comes trouble!