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It's a decent tank build, but you wouldn't want it to be your only tanky party member. It's not a damage avoidance build, it's a damage soaking build. In a game like this, those builds tend to use up resources faster than damage avoidance builds. I wouldn't want to have this character in a party where the only other front liner was a rogue, magus, thamaturge, swashbuckler, or investigator. I'd have to have a monk, fighter, or champion with it.
I partly agree. Definitely, if you are in a normal party, it's better if you have another quite tanky martial with lower damage output than yours. Idealy, a Champion, so you can benefit from it's damage reduction and if the enemy decides to strike the Champion it's also a bad choice as the Champion is tough and does less damage.
But I'd also put this Barbarian in a low healing party. Avoidance tanking is better than buffer tanking only if you have combat healing, otherwise you'd prefer buffer tanking as it is more reliable (as long as you have out of combat healing). Also, a low healing party is certainly very offensive so a normal tank would lack attention to properly function.Incidentally, the Barbarian does have a PF2 Come and Get Me! feat that might also work well here.
Stupid me, I completely missed it. And on top of it, the feat levels (10 and 14) are ones where you have nothing to take. At level 14, with Vengeful Strike, it gets crazy as your AC is close to non-existent while your damage output skyrockets if anyone attacks you.
Man, I was planning to play this Barbarian in PFS but changed my mind due to PFS being low level. But I think I'll give it a try if I ever get to a high level game with a lack of martials.he'd really prefer Free Archetype
Honestly, I dislike Free Archetype mostly because it forces me to take... class feats. I don't find Barbarian feats to be really interesting and would gladly exchange them for Cleric feats.
he'd really prefer Free ArchetypeHonestly, I dislike Free Archetype mostly because it forces me to take... class feats. I don't find Barbarian feats to be really interesting and would gladly exchange them for Cleric feats.
Personally, I think that Barbarian has some pretty solid ones in there. If nothing else, your character here could really benefit from a bit more sticky - Attack of Opportunity and/or some grapple feats... and the barbarian does have some good feat support for grappling. Still, you do you. If you ever get a chance to play this guy, I hope he brings you joy.
I'll take a different approach here with the "hard to kill" idea
Thief Rogue Halfling (FA)
Class feats
lvl 1 Nimble Dodge
lvl 2 Mobility
lvl 4 Archetype feat
lvl 6 Gang Up
lvl 8 Opportune Backstab
lvl 10 Sneak Savant
lvl 12 Preparation
lvl 14 Spring From Shadows
lvl 16 Precise Debilitations
lvl 18 Defensive Roll
lvl 20 Hidden Paragon
Archetype feats
lvl 2 Any dedication you fancy
lvl 4 Archetype feat
lvl 6 Scout Dedication
lvl 8 Whatever
lvl 10 Scout Pounce*
lvl 12 Camouflage
Anything you want after this
Ancestry feats
lvl 1 Distracting Shadows*
lvl 5 Halfling Luck
lvl 9 Guiding Luck
lvl 13 Ceaseless Shadows*
lvl 17 Shadow Self
Retrain all asterisk marked feats once you get Spring from Shadows or Legendary Sneak
Also take Fane's Escape (you can just buy 100 sets of cards and don't bother with reutilisation), Swift Sneak, Foil Senses and Legendary Sneak skill feats
Basically, you cannot be hit by something that cannot see you. It really starts to come into its own at level 13+, before you are just a regular stealth based Thief Rogue (Nothing bad with that, but you will be somewhat easy to bring down).
The general idea is to use stealth as a defensive tool. At low levels, Distracting shadows will be useful if you start adjacent to a melee focused-enemy. Strike, move behind a more durable ally and Hide (or Fane's Escape). At level 10 in the exact same situation, you can use Fane's Escape to ignore Hide and go directly to Sneak and move behind an ally, which Triggers Sneak Savant. At 12, as long as you are on natural terrain, you can ignore Fane's Escape and just sneak. At 13, you don't need allies and you can go wherever (Even melee so you still can use Opportune Backstab). In Natural Terrain you can also use Scout Pounce and Sneak away every single turn.
Once you get Spring From Shadows, you can either use that and Fane's Escape or that, strike and Sneak. Use Preparation when going for the kill.
Basically, enemies need to use at least an action to interact with you. A move action on top if they are melee and you go away.
You can also go for Shadowdancer at level 14 (Or level 10 if you pick a Scout feat instead of Gang Up, which you can afford to once you get the stealth stuff trully going, and another at level 8) and pick Spring from Shadows from an archetype slot.
You don't soak damage for the team, but you are indeed durable.
Only problem is you say to strike, move, then Fane's Escape. That's 4 actions.
You only need to Strike and Fane's scape. It triggers AoO, sadly.
Only problem is you say to strike, move, then Fane's Escape. That's 4 actions.You only need to Strike and Fane's scape. It triggers AoO, sadly.
Did you see the Mobility feat?
Besides AoO is a small fraction of opponents.
Only problem is you say to strike, move, then Fane's Escape. That's 4 actions.You only need to Strike and Fane's scape. It triggers AoO, sadly.Did you see the Mobility feat?
Besides AoO is a small fraction of opponents.
Mobility is already in the build, it is the interact action that comes with Fane's Escape that triggers it.
I know few creatures have it, but combat can get tricky against opponents with it if you want to use stealth, that's all.