What class could have Constitution as their key ability score? Should a class have that?

[Temperans]

Thats more or less the idea behind Stalwart Defender and the Stalwart feat line (requires Diehard and Endurance in PF1).

A class that get a rage like ability that increases Con. But instead of granting bonus to attack and a penalty to defense/will, it give a bonus to defense/will at the cost of being unable to move. Imagine a Barbarian planking down and becoming an unmovable wall instead of a bloody shredder.

I guess the paladin has taken a lot of what used to be the Stalwart Defender after I looked at it today. But yes many people would want to play that type of character.

[CorvusMask]

(I would :D)

[Ubertron_X]

Temperans wrote:

I guess the paladin has taken a lot of what used to be the Stalwart Defender after I looked at it today. But yes many people would want to play that type of character.

Thats why I said Campion would have worked for me as a constitution based core class.

Barbarian = raw damage dealt
Fighter = to-hit and critical effects
Champion = defenses and survivability

[Shinigami02]

CorvusMask wrote:

Ignoring all "con to damage/attack boost" debates, couldn't Con key stat class just be focused on defense and tanking damage? Like they could get abilities to reduce damage based on their con modifier as reaction or such.

...Might not be most fun class to play, but I'm sure someone would love it :p

While Resistance and Blocking abilities would of course be on theme, such a class would also need something (preferably something significant) to "draw aggro". Of course, drawing aggro MMO-style (you can only attack me now) has a history of being... unpopular among PF1e players, so it would probably look more like giving the target a penalty on attacks against other people. And honestly, such an ability seems like it would be more effective in this edition than PF1e, given how powerful even a +/-1 can be.

Of course, if you *really* want to draw their attention, your AC can't be so high that even with the penalty they'd be more likely to hit the rest of the party, so you'd probably want more of those Resistance/Block abilities (and maybe Battlefield Control) than AC boosts.

[PossibleCabbage]

The Starfinder Vanguard is a con-class that kind of balances being super tough and taking hits with offense pretty well. PF2 isn't as metacurrency happy as SF is, but something like it could work.

The basic idea is that you have a metacurrency (entropy) that powers up your offense is fueled by (among other things) getting hit or by an adjacent ally getting attacked. You have a built-in damage mitigation effect so you can choose when you are taking damage and when you're not.

You also get an entropic strike that deals bludgeoning or acid damage and adds your Con modifier to damage instead of strength.

The big issue is that Starfinder has an ablative damage pool in stamina which is easy to replenish, and PF2 doesn't have something like that. But the Barbarian has a temp HP mechanic, so you could reproduce something like that.