I'm reading through Pathfinder Unchained. I've never made a variant multi-class character before. I'm a feat-fiend, so losing five feats (four really, it's pretty rare to get to 19th level) was too big a pill for me to swallow.
Still, if your base class is a fighter it would hurt a lot less, given how bursting with feats fighters are--especially you are human. Can anyone think of any great VMC character possibilities whose primary class is fighter?
I am also open to integrating a plan to take a prestige class, as using the fractional BAB and fractional Saves seems like a good compensating system as well.
J
A number of fighter players want to be a leader. The class alone really doesn't support it, but VMC bard or cavalier gets you some of the way there.
I'll also add in that your main class could be a Warpriest.
You end up with only 4 less feats than the Fighter.
If you take the Human Favoured Class Bonus (+1/6 bonus feat) you end up with only 1 less feat than the Fighter, and you're never - at any point - more than 1 feat behind a Fighter (you catch up every 3rd level, then fall behind again at the next even level).
Also it's worth noting that Half-Elves and Half-Orcs can take the Human FCB, and Aasimars/Tieflings/Ifrits/Oreads/Slyphs/Undines/Suli all have an alterate racial trait that lets them count as Human so they can take it as well (maybe double check the half-outsider races, they may not all have it).
Not saying you have to go this route, but it's an option.
Solid VMCs for a fighter are magus (one of if not the best VMC of all), bard (would general VMC, cleric (grab an inquisition as your domain, and don't dump charisma), inquisitor (gives you a scalping bonus to two of the social skills, and you have enough feats from your class to make solo tactics worthwhile), barbarian (great for just adding damage), and rogue in't bad if you are going to be dexed based enough to get decent use out of evasion.
You can wrangle some feat equivalent bonuses out of a few of them.
VMC witch gets you a couple hexes, grabbing ice plant is always nice, and the familiar gets you alertness at the very least and the equivalent of improved initiative with the right familiar.
You can also VMC oracle for a few revelations and the curse can be pretty beneficial in some cases, like lame for barbarians.
VMC wizard is amazing if you go with air/smoke as your school. 5 feats for at will flight, levitate, feather fall, and the ability to see through smoke and fog, is a good trade. The familiar and arcane discovery are just bonus.
For sorcerer, there's an awesome bloodlines guide out there that gives a good breakdown for VMC choices.
There's a case to be made for the others in specific situations, but these are typically worth considering.
Besides the fighter, the kineticist does well with VMC. There just aren't that many critical feats it needs for its builds to work.
Thanks for the suggestions, and I hadn't considered warpriest but that's a viable alternative, esp with the Human FCB!
The problem with VMC'ing with an arcane casting class is casting failure with armor, which is why I ruled out wizard. Magus makes a lot of sense. I really thought about cavalier because I like the idea of playing a mounted character this time around. Does anyone make better mounted characters than cavaliers? The problem is you get the challenge but not the mount.
J
You get, at most, a cantrip out of VMC casters, and it's cast as an at will spell like ability, so no spell failure.
Monks, Rangers, Slayers, and Wizards also get access to a pretty good number of bonus feats if you're worried about the number you're trading away for VMC.
Monks, Rangers, Slayers, and Wizards also get access to a pretty good number of bonus feats if you're worried about the number you're trading away for VMC.
Actually Monks and Rangers can also ignore prerequisite feats so even though they don't get as many as the fighter it can probably balance out (and maybe Slayers? I'm not well versed on Slayers).
There are plenty of other classes who get bonus feats, but (eg. Sorcerers and Bloodragers get bonus feats from their bloodlines), but 5 feats is a lot. I think Monks and Rangers (and slayers?) are a good option though.
Slayers get more bonus feats than rangers. They get 1 talent/2 levels and 5 of the first 6 talents can be feats one way or another - 3 of them obtained via a ranger's combat style.