I'm not really feeling my current character from an RP perspective, and am thinking about replacing her. I'm currently playing a half orc liberator of Nocticula, and my party is as follows:
Human Abjuration Wizard, focuses mainly on buffs and area control. Serves as the primary out of combat healer.
Elf Occult Witch, focuses on debuffing and healing.
Elf Tiger Monk, plays super aggressively but is kinda squishy.
And a Goblin Thief Rogue, she's kinda new to the party so I don't really know her playstyle yet. Definitely melee, though.
We're playing through Extinction Curse book 1 at the moment. I'm kind of interested in playing a caster because I haven't gotten to play one yet, but I'm not sure what kind would fit into this group, particularly when we have two kind of squishy melee characters.
Probably Druid and I would go to Wild Shape, they are a little bulkier, the Primal list is more blasty and you can frontline with Wild Shape to help as well when needed.
Maybe start with Storm/Plant and then Order Explorer to Wild order for more focus points if you wish.
The other option a non caster one is increase the party damage with a Martial, I like Precision Ranger with a Reach weapon to be honest or because you party is using playtest classes as well, Swashbuckler is a decent option, the gymnast for help to control the battlefield.
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Funnily enough, Champion seems the best fit due to defense at the front and some emergency healing. Maybe you could reshape the PC's personality? Or her cause?
Cleric or Druid after that for the Heal spell which is much better than Soothe, plus you'll have some h.p. in what's pretty much a party of squishies (especially if the one d10 PC is!)
If a Healer, I'd go Warpriest (ironically) since the defensive abilities are worth the loss in spell proficiency if not using spells very offensively. I wouldn't try to go tank + caster though. That defense is enough for yourself, but not to hold a front line (unless you make other sacrifices which hinder you as a caster). You'll get in the habit of using Heal to keep yourself up, then a disrupting AoO will hit at later levels and you'll be royally screwed.
If offensive too (because Heal cannot be avoided, it's that much a game-changer), go Druid for the better blasts, and Storm Druid for the Focus Spell, a free shot per lull. You'll have less healing, but maybe finish off enemies sooner. Wild Shape will get you killed. The combat forms needs a solid martial by their side because they're average (though versatile!).
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If you want to do a caster, I agree that Wild Shape Druid is a solid choice. As would be a Warpriest Cleric, really. If going non-caster, the more durable the better, really.
I mean, with two somewhat squishy melee people, two very squishy ranged ones, and mediocre healing (Soothe is nice but less impressive than Heal, and you only have one person with in-combat healing at all), the best fifth man is another melee character who adds some durability, either in the form of Healing (as both of the above suggestions do), or just being personally tougher.
Funnily enough, Champion seems the best fit due to defense at the front and some emergency healing. Maybe you could reshape the PC's personality? Or her cause?
Yeah, I went Champion specifically because it works so well in the group. And to be clear, I love playing her mechanically. Which is why maybe just reevaluating her personality and goals might be a good idea.
In regards to druid builds, how well would a Wild druid with Order Explorer into Animal work? Is it too feat intensive? Would two decent melee combatants add up into one good one?
And on the topic of non-casters, what Fighter builds would work well here? Out of the non-martial classes I haven't played, this one interests me the most, just because there seems to be something satisfying about just hitting and critting everything.
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If you have 3 or more Characters and need another, your first choice for the last member should ALWAYS be Bard, even if you have another Occult Caster in the party.
They get lots of skills, they get a heal, they make everyone better at what they already do, they're fun to have around, and they always are handy for missing Lore checks that aren't covered by other Characters.
In regards to druid builds, how well would a Wild druid with Order Explorer into Animal work? Is it too feat intensive?
If you don't see yourself using Wild Morph, I'd instead go Animal Order, Order Explorer into Wild. Heal Animal is a fairly solid focus skill. And in my experience, you can typically follow two paths before spreading yourself too thin. That said, it will take up all your feats, so if you were interested in generic Druid feats or potentially taking a dedication, sticking to one order is likely better.
Would two decent melee combatants add up into one good one?
Depends on the encounter. You should expect an AC's two possible attacks to look sorta like a dedicated martial's 2nd and 3rd attacks. I know people have run the numbers on Wild Shape druid attacks; my recollection is that if you are investing in Strength and can use your own attack bonus via Wild Shape, you can do fairly well. In fights against bosses with high AC, you may find that you and the companion are missing pretty often. But if there are a number of foes? Having your own flank buddy can be a beautiful thing.
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Funnily enough, Champion seems the best fit due to defense at the front and some emergency healing. Maybe you could reshape the PC's personality? Or her cause?Yeah, I went Champion specifically because it works so well in the group. And to be clear, I love playing her mechanically. Which is why maybe just reevaluating her personality and goals might be a good idea.
In regards to druid builds, how well would a Wild druid with Order Explorer into Animal work? Is it too feat intensive? Would two decent melee combatants add up into one good one?
And on the topic of non-casters, what Fighter builds would work well here? Out of the non-martial classes I haven't played, this one interests me the most, just because there seems to be something satisfying about just hitting and critting everything.
If this is a group that you believe is really going to be sticking it out through the whole AP, and you are generally digging the mechanics of it, then I would recommend letting something in play cause a cosmic shift in your character's personality motivations and let it build up in some format. I don't know what level you've reached, but Gods and Magic has some interesting feats for letting your character alter their faiith in significant ways and if you talk to your GM about it, I am sure that they will support allowing you to form a splinter faith or be overwhelmed by a new divine force that can be adopted overtime. Extinction Curse seems like a good AP for allowing slower downtime related changes because circuses tend not to teleport quickly from one place to another.
I had a lot of fun having a swarthy ranger be overwhelmed by Sarenrae's might in a Legacy of Fire campaign and eventually become a religious zealot. Nocticula is a pretty interesting Deity as far as her own redemption goes, she might be pretty flexible about allowing splinter faiths to develop involving the worship of multiple gods, just to see what beauty might be created by doing so. I am pretty sure that the AP will maintain Nature themes throughout its entire duration so thinking about MCing into druid, or primal sorcerer, or even cleric, and forging an unexpected marriage of faiths like Nocticula and Gozreh could be a lot of fun depending upon your build.
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I know people have run the numbers on Wild Shape druid attacks; my recollection is that if you are investing in Strength and can use your own attack bonus via Wild Shape, you can do fairly well. In fights against bosses with high AC, you may find that you and the companion are missing pretty often. But if there are a number of foes? Having your own flank buddy can be a beautiful thing.
Actually in Wild Shape Druid will have the same hit rate as a Martial (that is not fighter) if they are investing in STR and some levels they are even better, only at lvl 20 they are actually actively -1 hit behind.
Anyway, for the Wild Shape feats, Animal form will serve you well until lvl 11, where you will need to take another form, either plant that is more defensive or Dragon that is more offense and then finish with Monstrosity. But Dragon can do well as the last shape feat as well but you will be -1AC behind.
Here a comparison Wild Shape
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While wild shape can be powerful, you are strongly encouraged to switch to more and more powerful forms, which can be a problem for theme if you want to just have one really good form (remember good ol' tiger and allosaurous druids).
If you are lvl 6 or over, I think you could go with Wild Morph instead (ie- the one that lets you stay humanoid, but you can grow claws, wings, etc). At that level, your natural attacks get upgraded, and you can deal two different varieties of really nasty persistent damage at once (2d6 bleed and/or poison).
citricking use with a graph comparing wild morph and shape in this thread here. The basic summary- it is a bit behind, but you keep spellcasting and general hand use.
Your liberator champion should be very strong in the party.
What issues are you having Roleplaying the character?
Funnily enough, Champion seems the best fit due to defense at the front and some emergency healing. Maybe you could reshape the PC's personality? Or her cause?Yeah, I went Champion specifically because it works so well in the group. And to be clear, I love playing her mechanically. Which is why maybe just reevaluating her personality and goals might be a good idea.
In regards to druid builds, how well would a Wild druid with Order Explorer into Animal work? Is it too feat intensive? Would two decent melee combatants add up into one good one?
And on the topic of non-casters, what Fighter builds would work well here? Out of the non-martial classes I haven't played, this one interests me the most, just because there seems to be something satisfying about just hitting and critting everything.
For a fighter I'd go Sword-and-Board route and take Battle Medicine. The rest of your party is pretty squishy (2 casters and 2 glass cannon melee), so having someone who can bring people back up and is hard to take down is pretty good, and things like Shield Warden will help actively protect allies too. I'd pick some hammer or flail for the prone critical specialization effect.
Does the tiger monk do any debuffing (stunning fist, maneuvers), or does it just do attacks?
Does the tiger monk do any debuffing (stunning fist, maneuvers), or does it just do attacks?
She uses stunning fist, but no maneuvers. Doesn't have a great strength. I'm the most maneuver-focused character.
One thing to note based off the information you have given is that the monk isn't likely to stay a low durability character. If the monk picks up a shield, it can be the second most durable character in the game behind the champion. With a primary Dex score, that monk can tank.
Does the tiger monk do any debuffing (stunning fist, maneuvers), or does it just do attacks?She uses stunning fist, but no maneuvers. Doesn't have a great strength. I'm the most maneuver-focused character.
Interesting. Maneuvers might be an option.
Fighters can do a pretty good grapple build with combat grab. Maybe grab the knockdown feats for when you want to debuff and keep on moving. No need to specifically build to be tanky- just normal heavy armor.
This could provide you someone focused on close in, dirty, drag out fights. Plenty of ways to go with that for roleplay- crude mercenaries, bullying nobles, etc.
Mechanically, you would aim to pin down an enemy so it isn't murdering your squishy teammates, while also giving the ever juicy flat footed status.