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Well the first thing to ask is, whether your "commander-y" bits have to be mechanical. If not, then the field is wide open; any class and some social skill will do. But I'm gonna assume you want some mechanical meat to go with the flavor sauce.
Bards are the obvious starting point when it comes to a class that does buffing/inspiring. I wouldn't say that it's all that hard to make a bard who does some melee, but you're going to be a bit behind full martial classes in weapon proficiency. On the other hand, if you drop from another class into bard, then your bardic powers are going to lag behind a bit.
Let's consider Bard multiclassed into Champion, and vice versa.
First, what does Bard bring to the table? Inspire Courage, obviously. And various other "executive" spells like Soothe (don't give up on me now) and See Invisibility/Faerie Fire (the enemy is over there).
What does Champion bring? Martial power, and champion reactions. Champion reactions are all about working together. The paladin smacks people who try to smack the party. The redeemer weakens the enemy in body or spirit (weight of guilt softens enemies up for your casters, and weakens enemy casters). The liberator is perhaps the most interesting because he lets your party move around. That reaction does perhaps the most to give you a "commander" feel.
A bard with Champion Multiclass needs Strength 14 and Charisma 14. In return, you get proficiency with heavy armor, which reduces the need for Dexterity. The charisma you obviously have as a bard. If you also boost your strength, you also become better at melee. At level 6 you can pick up the Champion's Reaction, which can go well with your theme. You may want to use a whip and Athletics to harass enemies with trip maneuvers, which don't really lag much behind on those of a full martial.
A champion starts out with a reaction and can easily multiclass into bard, because Charisma 14 should be no trouble for a commander-themed character. You don't get Inspire Courage until level 8 though.
I think I'd favor the bard>champion over the champion>bard, because I think the champion has a tight action economy and you'll struggle to also use your bardic abilities. While the other way around, your bard will be a solid second row combatant, and the bardic action economy can fit in a champion reaction more easily.
If casting & magic is part of your imagery, then definitely Bard, and be an archer otherwise you'll need to prop up yourself more than your allies!
(And I don't recommend the MCD Champion which gives you a false sense of melee competence. You'd be a spell caster, and that's what you'd rely on in tougher battles. The armor's nice, but that's a lot of investment, and it'll really slow you down.)
If feeling holy, the Champion's reactions are a great way to say "I got yer' back" and their defense helps them stay in the thick of things. Many of your examples were good (aligned) guys, so you can build his personality along those lines rather than the preachy caricature most Paladins default to. Plenty of options with Auras to give the air of leadership, like the obvious "Aura of Courage" which seems to suit your theme very well.
I wouldn't recommend much Charisma, or the abilities with save DCs that rely on it. Look at domains like Family which has two "Leadership" Focus Spells you could tap into. Worth it even if just for the bonus Focus Points for Lay on Hands.
MCD Bard could work, but you don't get the good stuff until 10th+ (and shouldn't bother with spellcasting) so I'd pass.
An outlier would be Ranger. Their skills allow you to be broadly competent w/o bumping Int, and they can be right down in the battle. Their Perception (and some feats) makes them among the best at surveying a battlefield.
The bonuses Rangers can give to others are modest (and perhaps best avoided)) until 8th w/ Warden's Boon. Add Double Prey to get to Shared Prey and now you're sharing your precious Hunter's Edge for a major buff (assuming there's another martial in the party!) Perhaps add to a second ally w/ an action when able. Now you've got yourself a powerful squad working under your guidance, even if you're wounded and need to pull back.
Monster Hunter & Master Monster Hunter could also add to your "knows the ropes" aspect (if there's space in the build) with only needing to pump Wis (which you kinda have to anyway).
I second the thoughs of Ascalaphus. Most of what you are describing is role playing at its finest.
However as far as mechanics...
What I'm struggling with is finding mechanics where I can aid my teammates in battle effectively. ... There's no "Tactician" ability like there was with the cavalier.
Have you looked at Ranger. Monster Hunter can give a minor mechanics feel to that flavor at level 1. Follow that with Warden's Boon and Shared Prey and you start getting the feel of that 'Tactician' class ability quite a bit more.
Barbarian also has Share Rage, but it doesn't have much else to back it up that I am seeing.
An outlier would be Ranger. Their skills allow you to be broadly competent w/o bumping Int, and they can be right down in the battle. Their Perception (and some feats) makes them among the best at surveying a battlefield.
The bonuses Rangers can give to others are modest (and perhaps best avoided)) until 8th w/ Warden's Boon. Add Double Prey to get to Shared Prey and now you're sharing your precious Hunter's Edge for a major buff (assuming there's another martial in the party!)
Heh. Didn't read far enough into the thread.
Though I think the Ranger feats are actually more spot on for the requested flavor of the build.
I am going to second the monster hunter using ranger focused on knowledge and monster identification.
Your knowledge skills could be seen as the result of your long history of combat- either on the front line, or backing up those that are on the front line.
This can be useful for justifying your flavor- you could have helped with supplies and various tasks as a paige or a child soldier. Even if your personal combat experience is not high (ie- lvl 1), you might have extensive first hand knowledge about various topics and opponents. You could have seen it all and know how to help your subordinates survive because someone has done the same for you (nice potential for inspirational role model you can follow with that kind of path).
This can also allow you to blend both mechanics an roleplay- you don't spend additional actions to identify, so your party will likely rely upon your knowledge and expertise when going into a fight. That gives you an air of authority- and you can get your party some nice little bonuses on top of that.
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The rulebook covers what skills are used for Recall Knowledge and they can be found broken down by creature type here.
The short version is that it's the four you list, plus Society, which is used for Humanoids.
The midway capstone at lvl 10, Master Monster Hunter, reduces the needed skills down to nature, since it lets you use that for all monster identification (it also gives you the monster hunter bonuses as long as you do even a regular success on the check).
However, you probably spent 9 levels building up the other skills so you could crit, and they have their own benefits outside of monster id.
Edit- you might also want to get the pathfinder agent archetype. It has some good recall knowledge feats- and those feats can be taken through the skill feat slot. The only 'class' feat you have to take with it is the dedication, which is actually pretty fun. You are basically pseudo trained in everything; many adventure paths use give specialized lore skills a super low DC, so even level+0 is worth it.
...actually, getting 'pseudo trained' in all lore skills probably helps a monster ID build. You can fake having "orc lore" or "dragon lore". Anyone know how the DCs for those skills stack up against general knowledge skills?
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...actually, getting 'pseudo trained' in all lore skills probably helps a monster ID build. You can fake having "orc lore" or "dragon lore". Anyone know how the DCs for those skills stack up against general knowledge skills?
As stated on p. 504, this is pretty much entirely at GM discretion, but that section does encourage potentially very large reductions in this regard (the example is as much as a -5 to the DC).
...actually, getting 'pseudo trained' in all lore skills probably helps a monster ID build. You can fake having "orc lore" or "dragon lore". Anyone know how the DCs for those skills stack up against general knowledge skills?As stated on p. 504, this is pretty much entirely at GM discretion, but that section does encourage potentially very large reductions in this regard (the example is as much as a -5 to the DC).
Depending on the GM, that could put most level+0 lore skills at about the same bonus as a master rank skill.
Outwit Ranger + MCD Bard.
But that'd make Warden's Boon mediocre.
I wouldn't try to cover so many monsters types, especially aiming for crits w/ skills based on a lower stat (10 Int, I'd think).
Nature & Religion use your better Wis stat and cover a broad swath of creatures. Bump only Nature though (if taking Master at 10th), since as a leader and veteran there are several other skills to acquire and invest in.
I'd say what skills you should focus on are going to vary from campaign to campaign. Society might be a surprisingly good choice if you are fighting a lot of humanoids, and an Int focus helps you cover your bases for basic competency with other skills. If your campaign telegraphs its enemies enough, you might be able to use Additional Lore quite effectively. Not only will that upgrade its proficiency without costing precious skill increases, it can also lower the DC of a check significantly. Giant Lore or Thassilonian Lore would be worth the feat slot in Rise of the Runelords, for example.
Hunters Edge.... Flurry or Outwit? How does outwit scale? Flurry seems like such a powerful skill to pass on. Anyone actually played a mid level Ranger? Is it a big difference?
Flurry is for doing damage and improving accuracy. So if going with Bard Dedication, you may want the double-hit feats for improved action economy (Bard buffs do cost actions) and the increased accuracy from Flurry would be nice.
Outwit is for better for things other than direct combat. You get bonuses to things like sneaking past an enemy, tracking them, intimidating them, stuff like that. So depending on the people at the table it could be really good, or really meh. Depends on how often the goal of an encounter is anything other than 'kill the enemies'.
You are going to want to fit assurance medicine in otherwise trying to heal with a 10 wisdom is a real luck roll. Get a net 5 on the roll or less and you CAUSE damage not heal. 6-14 no affect, 15+ to heal. Real tough if you only have +3 or 4 (lv 1 or 2)
Assurance makes this automatic heal from lv3
Otherwise I like the way you are building the character vs the concept
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Hunter's Edge
Flurry is good if you can leverage it with 2-for-1 feats like Twin Takedown or Hunted Shot
Outwit is good if you want to lean into Monster Hunter, as it will improve your critical success ratio
Precision is good if you want to keep your personal damage output high with minimal per-round action commitment
This is arguably the most important decision you will make for your Ranger character. I would say commit hard to one, then build around that decision, including arranging your Ability Scores to support it.
After that, it will be easier to advise. To be fair, all three of them can be "fun" just in different ways.
Also, one other minor thing to note. The AC bonus from Outwit edge is a circumstance bonus, the same type as that of a shield. So the two don't stack.
Hunter's Edge
Flurry is good if you can leverage it with 2-for-1 feats like Twin Takedown or Hunted Shot
Outwit is good if you want to lean into Monster Hunter, as it will improve your critical success ratio
Precision is good if you want to keep your personal damage output high with minimal per-round action commitmentThis is arguably the most important decision you will make for your Ranger character. I would say commit hard to one, then build around that decision, including arranging your Ability Scores to support it.
After that, it will be easier to advise. To be fair, all three of them can be "fun" just in different ways.
Precision seems like it would be good with a different kind of 2 for 1 feat. Skirmish strike lets you use one action to move and attack.
That means that you've finished pretty much all of your duties as a martial character with two actions to spare. Most of your damage is from that first attack, and the move can cover a lot of your usual tactical maneuvering (approach, retreat, flank, etc.)
I would call precision one of the better options to build into other actions such as commanding animal companions or intimidation.
Yea at first glance I was interested in Skirmish Strike, but it's just a step rather than a stride. Helps get into better tactical position but doesn't really save an action to move around the battlefield.
Whoops, you are right. Well, there are still ways to work with it. Reach weapons are the first option. A monk dedication could let you grab tiger stance (10' steps).