I quite like the idea of the all martial party being superstitious barbarians or determinedly atheist Radhadomi
There's a definite bard theme happening there. So why no team All Singing and Dancing?
Because additional Bards are redundant ;) A big part of their power comes from their ability to manipulate game math, which doesn't stack.
I just finished AoA last night with my first party, and that party was pretty darned strong.
It was -
Maul Fighter (two handed build, focused on AOOs)
Champion (redeemer with shield)
Bard (inspire heroics focused, eventually with intimidate and scare to death)
Also there was an Alchemist, who stalwartly stuck through the whole thing, but whom we all agree was... not as effective as the other party members, except for the few times when she was insanely super effective due to the particulars of a couple encounters where elemental weaknesses were super exploitable.
But the synergy was especially strong with the initial three, to the point that they cleared many early encounters (books 1-4) more easily than my other party which is -
Archer Fighter
Champion (liberator with shield)
Shark Barbarian
Druid (wildshape/blasting)
Sorcerer (arcane)
And the difference is 100% the Bard.
I think the main take away in PF2 is, every group should have a bard.
Which honestly probably means the bard should be nerf'd.
In my opinion, it's more that some traditions need better buffing spells. Divine and Occult, mostly. With more status bonuses to whatever, the Bard would still be the best buffer but no more the only one.
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I think it's more "bard is good and goes well anywhere" than "bard is busted".
When the APG drops, four dhampir harming font clerics. Just drop 3-action harms whenever possible.
There's a definite bard theme happening there. So why no team All Singing and Dancing?Because additional Bards are redundant ;) A big part of their power comes from their ability to manipulate game math, which doesn't stack.
Three bards are optimal so that you can run inspire courage, inspire defenses, and dirge of doom simultaneously with minimal action losses. Golarion’s version of Napoleon would equip every company of soldiers with this sort of support, plus some counterspelling against AOE bait.
The problem of Bard is not even Inspire Courage, that one is vastly overrated.
The thing is the combination Inspire Heroics plus Synesthesia after lvl 9. Because number stacking means that anyone that targets AC now have basically +5-6 to hit (7-8 if the enemy is flatfooted).
Synesthesia is such a broken spell, heck I would say that every Sorcerer that is not Occult should get that spell with the Crossblooded feat.
Three bards are optimal so that you can run inspire courage, inspire defenses, and dirge of doom simultaneously with minimal action losses. Golarion’s version of Napoleon would equip every company of soldiers with this sort of support, plus some counterspelling against AOE bait.
In terms of an actual battlefield, I feel like it would still be more effective to spread the available bards around. I suppose that depends on how many high-level bards this hypothetical army can muster.
In terms of a party, I think one Bard is fantastic but any more is pretty redundant. A Bard is the most effective when buffing martials, so you probably want one or two of those...
I think a 4 Rogue Comp could work potentially when the APG drops if the Mastermind and Eldritch Trickster Rogue offers some good stuff:
- Ruffian Rogue - front-liner
- Eldritch Trickster Rogue - Magic stand in
- Thief Rogue with Healing support
- Mastermind Rogue with emphasis on Healing support
Since Rogues can kinda flex to cover lots of different narrative holes, and they all perform rather well in combat (as of currently) I think it could work.
Especially if the APG drops new Medicine Feats.
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When the APG drops, four dhampir harming font clerics. Just drop 3-action harms whenever possible.
No-no-no. The way to do it is three separate 1-action Harm Spells every turn per Cleric with Harming Hands. Even a level +2 Extreme Encounter will melt like butter and even if they risk AoO this will only happen once per every 12 casts of harm that it's taking every turn.
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I think some of these are overvaluing Bard and undervaluing other Classes that can do similar things.
Not that Bard isn't great (they are, of course), but they're not so great that there's not overlap with other characters.
I think a Bard/Cleric party composition is usually not optimal, for example. Bards are better buffers and worse healers, but there's a lot of overlap on both elements, and combining them is not what I'd consider optimal, though it certainly does okay.
I think Bard combos much better with something with actual offensive casting, particularly Save-based (and especially Reflex Save based) damage since Bards can hit Saves hard (and, with Synesthesia, hit Reflex Saves especially hard) at higher levels, and every point of Save reduction makes such spells a lot better.
And, Inspire Courage aside, an Occult Sorcerer (or, once they're out, Witch) can presumably do anything spell, rather than composition, based every bit as well as a Bard can, and that's a large subset of the cool Bard stuff.
All of which is to say, I think Bard is great, but not as great as people are making it out to be. Every optimal party does not necessarily have a Bard.
I think my New Classic party would be:
Barbarian
Bard
Champion
Druid
It’s got DPS and Tank martials, and Occult + Primal casters are as good a combo as Arcane/Divine.
Something that has not been possible before, at least in theory, and is thus exciting and new is the idea of a party that never has to take extended rests. In reality most GMs are not going to let that fly and are going to start throwing around fatigue and exhaustion after a few consecutive combats anyway, but this idea that you could have a bard and a champion in the party and thus never need more than 10 minutes to an hour of rest before pushing on, has lots of folks very excited.
Which is fine. People should have fun with their toys.
A bard, champion, ranger, monk party could be a lot of fun. Just like in PF1, the more your party can make attack rolls, the more a bard becomes a super contributor to the team.
Another incredible support character, for a caster heavier team is a scoundrel rogue.
Rogue, cleric, wizard, Druid with an animal companion could be a lot of fun too.
There really is no must have class, and I think with time to Develop together you can probably make any combination of classes work much better in PF2 than ever before.
That said, the rogue champion combo is an incredibly effective martial set. The liberator and ruffian work together incredibly well in my party to deliver massive hits and strong defense against melee opponents. The Druid and bomber alchemist have a pretty easy time blasting away and providing supplemental healing. The party lacks any kind of battlefield control, but Extinction Curse offers battlefields with a lot of terrain options to let tactics fill in decently at lower levels. Eventually the Druid can have some decent Control options that don’t take up top spell slots.
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Our party of Bard, Barbarian, Druid and Rogue has remained incredibly efficient throughout the levels. Can deal with most problems and some very good combos and synergies in there.
Another great combo for party composition is anyone that can cast Magic Weapon and a Barb/Fighter. Basically a cheat code for first 5 levels.
There's a definite bard theme happening there. So why no team All Singing and Dancing?Because additional Bards are redundant ;) A big part of their power comes from their ability to manipulate game math, which doesn't stack.
I just finished AoA last night with my first party, and that party was pretty darned strong.
It was -
Maul Fighter (two handed build, focused on AOOs)
Champion (redeemer with shield)
Bard (inspire heroics focused, eventually with intimidate and scare to death)Also there was an Alchemist, who stalwartly stuck through the whole thing, but whom we all agree was... not as effective as the other party members, except for the few times when she was insanely super effective due to the particulars of a couple encounters where elemental weaknesses were super exploitable.
But the synergy was especially strong with the initial three, to the point that they cleared many early encounters (books 1-4) more easily than my other party which is -
Archer Fighter
Champion (liberator with shield)
Shark Barbarian
Druid (wildshape/blasting)
Sorcerer (arcane)And the difference is 100% the Bard.
How well is Wild Shape working? Is it effective? How are you running it? You letting their unarmed attack bonus including item bonus to attack work for attack rolls?
The problem of Bard is not even Inspire Courage, that one is vastly overrated.
The thing is the combination Inspire Heroics plus Synesthesia after lvl 9. Because number stacking means that anyone that targets AC now have basically +5-6 to hit (7-8 if the enemy is flatfooted).
Synesthesia is such a broken spell, heck I would say that every Sorcerer that is not Occult should get that spell with the Crossblooded feat.
Damn. I need that spell. This is why I read forums. Someone always brings something up interesting.
Okay What!?
That spell is nuts. And it doesn’t have the incapacitation trait.
Literally so good it kinda feels like it’s a mistake.
-3 to AC, Reflex Saves/DC, -10 movement speed, 25% chance to lose concentrate actions, and 20% failure on attacks and opponents can take stealth actions against them.
For 10 rounds on failure. Even the success is 1 round of sheer and near complete ineffectiveness.
And the critical failure is a death sentence.
Am I off here? That’s basically the best single target SoS in the game by a large margin right?
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A lot of these lineups seem better than this one, but given the OP mentioning martial-only builds, I would like to present one for consideration that is pretty good considering how maximally one-dimensional it is:
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Redeemer)
The basic strategy is to deny your foes damage as much as possible. Whoever gets hit, one of the liberators uses their reaction to prevent damage and move them out of the next hit. The redeemer is here for situations where the movement isn't enough but enfeebled will help, like a boss with reach or a spellcaster you want to smack with stupefied (or do the AoE protection version when you get exalt). Damage is healed via lay on hands, preferably from a different champion to grant +2 AC, staying on the move and forcing enemies to close in to melee as their first action whenever possible. Use reach, tripping, and so on to make their lives even more miserable (one action to stand up, one to move up, one to attack, and you move away with liberator, or without a trip it's still one action to move up, one to attack, then you move away with liberator and the last action you're not in range).
The main weaknesses are to AoE (especially pre redeemer exalt) because they tend to stay close together and extreme lack of utility and magical assistance meaning that if an enemy has a gimmick and they aren't prepared for it with magic items, they might be about to feel the pain. However, their extreme resilience grants a significant amount of time to adapt to the situation, even in a pretty hard fight. No soft targets to begin with, and they're all moving around and negating portions of hits too.
Okay What!?
That spell is nuts. And it doesn’t have the incapacitation trait.
Literally so good it kinda feels like it’s a mistake.
-3 to AC, Reflex Saves/DC, -10 movement speed, 25% chance to lose concentrate actions, and 20% failure on attacks and opponents can take stealth actions against them.
For 10 rounds on failure. Even the success is 1 round of sheer and near complete ineffectiveness.
And the critical failure is a death sentence.
Am I off here? That’s basically the best single target SoS in the game by a large margin right?
There are a few caveats- it's only the best when you are actually taking advantage of "no incapacitation" part. Against on-level enemies and below when you first get it, it's already using your highest slot and incapacitation spells are generally better. If you have to heighten your incapacitation spell one slot higher, then maybe it's a tie against on-level opponents. After that it's the best (because it works in a comparatively low slot), and against higher-level enemies it's the best from the start.
Synesthesia is one of the best boss-debuffers in the game. In that role it shines massively.
A lot of these lineups seem better than this one, but given the OP mentioning martial-only builds, I would like to present one for consideration that is pretty good considering how maximally one-dimensional it is:
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Redeemer)The basic strategy is to deny your foes damage as much as possible. Whoever gets hit, one of the liberators uses their reaction to prevent damage and move them out of the next hit. The redeemer is here for situations where the movement isn't enough but enfeebled will help, like a boss with reach or a spellcaster you want to smack with stupefied (or do the AoE protection version when you get exalt). Damage is healed via lay on hands, preferably from a different champion to grant +2 AC, staying on the move and forcing enemies to close in to melee as their first action whenever possible. Use reach, tripping, and so on to make their lives even more miserable (one action to stand up, one to move up, one to attack, and you move away with liberator, or without a trip it's still one action to move up, one to attack, then you move away with liberator and the last action you're not in range).
The main weaknesses are to AoE (especially pre redeemer exalt) because they tend to stay close together and extreme lack of utility and magical assistance meaning that if an enemy has a gimmick and they aren't prepared for it with magic items, they might be about to feel the pain. However, their extreme resilience grants a significant amount of time to adapt to the situation, even in a pretty hard fight. No soft targets to begin with, and they're all moving around and negating portions of hits too.
I don't know how long the freshness of this would keep in a campaign, but as a thought exercise this is absolutely devious and mean. Doing any meaningful damage at all would be... tough. And the amount of healing they pack isn't small...
Oof.
Bard, Monk, Ruffian Rogue, and Liberator Champion is an absolutely disgusting team.
My current group is doing this, and we’ve all tacitly agreed to stop playing as optimally as we can, because our poor GM is close to tearing his hair out every fight. Between all the crowd control, forced movement, speed, trips, Demoralizes, basic Champion shenanigans, the Stunning Fist not being saved against all the time, and everything else going on, if we play as hard as we can, the enemies feel like they’ve been dipped in molasses, and put on quicksand.
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A lot of these lineups seem better than this one, but given the OP mentioning martial-only builds, I would like to present one for consideration that is pretty good considering how maximally one-dimensional it is:
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Redeemer)
I've got 1 champion (redeemer) in my party. The thought of four of them is frankly terrifying. My poor monsters will feel so useless!
My suggestion for a party is the Scary Gang:
* Bard (for Dirge of Doom and Fear)
* Fighter (Intimidating Strike, Fearsome Brute)
* Rogue (You're Next, Dread Striker)
I don't know who the 4th member of the party is, but it should be someone that can reliably inflict or benefit from the Frightened condition.
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A lot of these lineups seem better than this one, but given the OP mentioning martial-only builds, I would like to present one for consideration that is pretty good considering how maximally one-dimensional it is:
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Redeemer)The basic strategy is to deny your foes damage as much as possible. Whoever gets hit, one of the liberators uses their reaction to prevent damage and move them out of the next hit. The redeemer is here for situations where the movement isn't enough but enfeebled will help, like a boss with reach or a spellcaster you want to smack with stupefied (or do the AoE protection version when you get exalt). Damage is healed via lay on hands, preferably from a different champion to grant +2 AC, staying on the move and forcing enemies to close in to melee as their first action whenever possible. Use reach, tripping, and so on to make their lives even more miserable (one action to stand up, one to move up, one to attack, and you move away with liberator, or without a trip it's still one action to move up, one to attack, then you move away with liberator and the last action you're not in range).
The main weaknesses are to AoE (especially pre redeemer exalt) because they tend to stay close together and extreme lack of utility and magical assistance meaning that if an enemy has a gimmick and they aren't prepared for it with magic items, they might be about to feel the pain. However, their extreme resilience grants a significant amount of time to adapt to the situation, even in a pretty hard fight. No soft targets to begin with, and they're all moving around and negating portions of hits too.
In my opinion, it's more than a weakness. It's an automatic TPK as soon as you face an Evoker or a Dragon.
For example, an Adult White Dragon (level 10) will kill them at level 8 in 2 breath (3 if you consider a little bit of damage mitigation + healing) as they will hardly succeed at the Reflex save (they'll need to roll an 18). It flies, has a speed of 120 feet, so basically they can't do anything but die considering their lack of mobility and ranged solution.It raises the question: What is an effective party composition?
If a party obliterates opposition in 80% of the cases and dies in 10% of them, is it better than a party that rarely obliterates opposition but will prevail 99% of the time?
For me, a super effective party composition is a party that can prevail in the maximum of situations. But I can see people prefering a party that kills things super fast but can't reach level 5 without being TPKed.
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Redeemer)The main weaknesses are to AoE (especially pre redeemer exalt) because they tend to stay close together and extreme lack of utility and magical assistance meaning that if an enemy has a gimmick and they aren't prepared for it with magic items, they might be about to feel the pain. However, their extreme resilience grants a significant amount of time to adapt to the situation, even in a pretty hard fight. No soft targets to begin with, and they're all moving around and negating portions of hits too.
In my opinion, it's more than a weakness. It's an automatic TPK as soon as you face an Evoker or a Dragon.
For example, an Adult White Dragon (level 10) will kill them at level 8 in 2 breath (3 if you consider a little bit of damage mitigation + healing) as they will hardly succeed at the Reflex save...
Ancestries and dedication could be used to mitigate these weakness, Champions can just as easily be DEX as strength, and between the Domain Focus spells, and easy dedication to Sorcerer/ Bard and synergy with Innate casting, I'd say this might not be as bad as it looks.
Anyone feeling up to build these 4 champions to lvl 8 for this white Dragon fight?
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Liberator)
Champion (Redeemer)The main weaknesses are to AoE (especially pre redeemer exalt) because they tend to stay close together and extreme lack of utility and magical assistance meaning that if an enemy has a gimmick and they aren't prepared for it with magic items, they might be about to feel the pain. However, their extreme resilience grants a significant amount of time to adapt to the situation, even in a pretty hard fight. No soft targets to begin with, and they're all moving around and negating portions of hits too.
In my opinion, it's more than a weakness. It's an automatic TPK as soon as you face an Evoker or a Dragon.
For example, an Adult White Dragon (level 10) will kill them at level 8 in 2 breath (3 if you consider a little bit of damage mitigation + healing) as they will hardly succeed at the Reflex save...Ancestries and dedication could be used to mitigate these weakness, Champions can just as easily be DEX as strength, and between the Domain Focus spells, and easy dedication to Sorcerer/ Bard and synergy with Innate casting, I'd say this might not be as bad as it looks.
Anyone feeling up to build these 4 champions to lvl 8 for this white Dragon fight?
4 times the same class is abysmal in terms of versatility. If you find a super cheezy combo it can work. But on paper, these are the weakest possible compositions.
As Mark said: "If the enemy has a gimmick...". Thing is: In PF2, all enemies have a gimmick. So it's super strong against super stupid enemies. Archers, casters, air/underwater combat, difficult terrain, hit and runners, etc... So many situations where they will struggle because they have a lot of weaknesses and no party member to compensate.
I agree with @SuperBidi. While 4 Champions might wreck havoc within the confines of our typical close quarters dungeon, I can't see them dealing well with ranged enemies. Champion's reaction is only 15', so if the enemy has effective means to stay at range and attack from afar this group will be shown their limits pretty fast.
...while passing the Thunderhoof graslands our 4 heroes quickly found that all their battle prowess was no match for the speed and archery skills of the local centaur tribe and their trusted longbows...
Maybe I'm misreading something, but I think the champions don't need an 18 to make the ref save. Level 8, training, bulwark, resilient = 14 bonus, so 15 to save (16 without resilient). Add in divine grace, maybe even canny acumen, and it drops to 13 or 11 to save.
You're right, I've forgotten Bulwark. So it's a 15 to succeed.
The thing is: They have bad Reflex saves, but they also lack mobility and effective ranged solutions. It's a multi dimensional problem (3 dimensional one actually) that can't easily been solved by taking a few feats.This would go whether you know they are champions or not ( let's say the dragon fail a recall knowledge check and doens't recognize they wear deity effiges, and stuff like that ).
I don't think the dragon has to make any recall knowledge check. A full plate character is hardly a dexterous and mobile one. On the other hand it's quite surely a strong melee opponent. I would be a dragon, I would start with ranged combat until proven the Champions can retaliate violently.
Right, I forgot to change the name. Multi quoting is clunky on these boards.
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When the APG drops, four dhampir harming font clerics. Just drop 3-action harms whenever possible.
I love the mental image of 4 hooded clerics slowly and methodically moving there way through a dungeon like this.
Because one of them won’t be able to move every turn, but they all want to stay in range, so it will be a slow march with lots of chanting and prayers.
That's somewhat assuming, the dragon has unlimited breath attack, the party doesnt scatter when the realise that the enemy is strafing dragon and that none of the champions have bows.If I were the dragon, I'd fly and just use my breath attack.
Anyone feeling up to build these 4 champions to lvl 8 for this white Dragon fight?
I didn't mention in the outline above, but I was figuring about half of them, or more, should be either primary archers with backup finesse attacks such as whips, or at least dex-based whip but with a strong backup bow, to deal with flying creatures without an issue and to have a slightly better Reflex save at high levels when not using bulwark. You possibly also want to take Canny Acumen: Reflex pre level 9 (such as at level 8). If the dragon is staying aerial at all times, with 1d4 rounds of downtime without being attacked in between two breaths, that's likely to be plenty of time to heal up as well while continuing to shoot at it.
So it's not as guaranteed to wipe against a solo dragon as it might have seemed above. That said, though, sudden AoE is still a big weakness, and as I mentioned, it's still not actually as good a team comp as any of the others here, and I honestly wouldn't be happy if 4 x one class was a dominant meta, so I'm glad it has its weaknesses (replace just one of those three champions with a caster who can solve for tricky situations and you've skyrocketed the ability to handle creature's gimmicks, while also having one very protected caster). I much prefer a situation where a diverse team can become more than the sum of its parts!
Another incredible support character, for a caster heavier team is a scoundrel rogue.
I'd be happy to hear how this type of a support character works out in gameplay because I was thinking about making a "skills" character.
Within that chassis I was considering my options (scoundrel, scoundrel/esoteric, investigator/esoteric, esoteric/rogue, maestro/rogue). A lot of these options seem to slide the scale between very skills oriented to being a mix of skills and combat. Those that are better at combat of the bunch (scoundrel, esoteric/rogue, and maestro/rogue) vary in whether they do combat as melee, skills, or spells.
With all that said, what does the scoundrel do for the party? How much of what they do is just skills? Are the skills mostly Cha skills, or do the knowledge and dex skills keep pace as well? If it's mostly skills, is it anything that some bard with rogue dedication and a bunch of skill mastery couldn't do just as well while having access to full casting? How key is trapfinding for such a character? Prioritize Int, Wis, or Dex as a secondary skill to Cha?
Thanks for any answers you or others get around to!
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Another incredible support character, for a caster heavier team is a scoundrel rogue.I'd be happy to hear how this type of a support character works out in gameplay because I was thinking about making a "skills" character.
Within that chassis I was considering my options (scoundrel, scoundrel/esoteric, investigator/esoteric, esoteric/rogue, maestro/rogue). A lot of these options seem to slide the scale between very skills oriented to being a mix of skills and combat. Those that are better at combat of the bunch (scoundrel, esoteric/rogue, and maestro/rogue) vary in whether they do combat as melee, skills, or spells.
With all that said, what does the scoundrel do for the party? How much of what they do is just skills? Are the skills mostly Cha skills, or do the knowledge and dex skills keep pace as well? If it's mostly skills, is it anything that some bard with rogue dedication and a bunch of skill mastery couldn't do just as well while having access to full casting? How key is trapfinding for such a character? Prioritize Int, Wis, or Dex as a secondary skill to Cha?
Thanks for any answers you or others get around to!
The scoundrel's signature benefit for the party is a relatively easy and reliable ability to make an opponent become flat-footed with an additional -2 to Perception and Reflex saves for a round, at a cost of one action, by level 2. There's a lot more they can bring to the table, but even that can be quite useful. Notwithstanding flat-footed, which is always helpful even if others can probably manage it too, the Reflex save penalty alone is worth quite a bit of damage if paired with a Reflex save spell, and Perception combos well with certain abilities defended by Perception.
This is on top of whatever other benefits you have that other rogues or non-rogues can provide, it's the part that is specific to scoundrels. Since these penalties are circumstance, if you then Demoralize (uses your same good Cha that the Feint does) you can put on a status penalty from frightened too. This could wind up causing you to increase Reflex save spell damage by an extremely high amount, especially if you're lucky or skilled. It works especially well with multiclass monk for Flurry of Blows or other one action two attack flourishes, allowing you to use both debuffs and still attack twice if you're in position.
The scoundrel's signature benefit for the party is a relatively easy and reliable ability to make an opponent become flat-footed with an additional -2 to Perception and Reflex saves for a round, at a cost of one action, by level 2.
I'm under the impression (from my own reading of the rules) that the level two feat to which you refer would only penalize reflex saves from your own effects unless you critically succeed the feint check. Thus, your feints only affect other members of your team (reflex or otherwise) if you crit. Does that happen often against equal level foes? The thought of going toe-to-toe with a foe long enough to get the crit off scares me.
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The scoundrel's signature benefit for the party is a relatively easy and reliable ability to make an opponent become flat-footed with an additional -2 to Perception and Reflex saves for a round, at a cost of one action, by level 2.I'm under the impression (from my own reading of the rules) that the level two feat to which you refer would only penalize reflex saves from your own effects unless you critically succeed the feint check. Thus, your feints only affect other members of your team (reflex or otherwise) if you crit. Does that happen often against equal level foes? The thought of going toe-to-toe with a foe long enough to get the crit off scares me.
It's "Your Feints are far more distracting than normal, drawing your foes’ attention and allowing you and your allies to take greater advantage. While a creature is flat-footed by your Feint, it also takes a –2 circumstance penalty to Perception checks and Reflex saves." which mentions your allies and doesn't say it's just distracted against you for the Perception and Reflex.
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@Mark: It looks like you're following this discussion quite closely.
Personally, for my most optimized party I will post a ranged heavy party. After fall of Plaguestone, I realized how ranged combat is a must as you can avoid most hazards, weird terrains and stay away from brutes (as long as the party members have good mobility).
1. Dexterity-based monk. High mobility for hit and run tactics, Whirling Throw to push enemies away from the party, high AC to be the party tank, Battle Medicine for the long range fights.
2. Strength and Dexterity-based Barbarian with Raging Thrower. High mobility thanks to Barbarian movement, short range but massive damage, the ability to switch to melee easily, Knockback to move enemies away from the party (can be used on ranged attacks), a Composite Longbow for long range combat.
3. Precision Elven Bow Ranger with Bard Dedication. Extreme range, good mobility, excellent action economy with Hunted Shot giving him the ability to also buff the party with Inspire Courage.
4. Fey Sorcerer. Massive AoE blast spells for big groups of enemies (as the party avoids melee range it's easy to position Fireballs) main party healer when he can't blast, Hideous Laughter against AoO enemies (the bane of ranged parties), good mobility with Longstrider and the ability to go invisible as a Focus Spell.
The strategy is to stay as far away as possible from enemies, using high mobility and forced movement to kite the enemies. In tight spaces, the party is still pretty solid with 3 martials so a melee combat should not be a death sentence.
I must admit though, this discussion is making me a little curious - what would be the strongest mono-class party (with multiclassing allowed)?