So I'm wanting to flesh out the Aldori Swordlords with different variations of fighting with the Aldori Dueling Sword to represent different philosophies akin to traditional Oriental martial arts and factions within the Swordlords. So to represent this in terms of Pathfinder, different feats and class abilities to represent the differences in these factions.
My group typically uses the Elephant in the Room Feat tax to give martials a much needed boost, so Power Attack, Combat Expertise, etc. is already accounted for, but if other GMs and groups want to use it, it might add some extra levels necessary.
Combat tends to come in a few different manners; one on one, small group, and mass combat. Thankfully, in terms of Pathfinder rules mass combat and small group are essentially synonymous with each other unless we get the Army rules out from Ultimate Campaign.
So compiling every class and archetype that could feasibly make strong use of the Aldori Dueling Sword (ADS from here on out), we'll start sorting them based on capabilities.
Classes include--
Barbarian (representing a high energy burst version of dueling/fighting)
Cavalier (Daring Champion especially, but there's potential for a mounted variant
Fighter (Aldori Defender, Mobile Fighter, Two-Handed Fighter, Free-Hand Fighter, Ustalavic Duelist, Two-Weapon Fighter, and probably a few others)
Investigator
Magus (kensai)
Monk (weapon master and potentially Master of Many Styles)
Rogue (and Ninja)
And there's too many feats to try to list and categorize.
What feats/classes/traits would you pair to create a distinct subschool of the ADS to represent different styles?
