Level 19 Liberator or Redeemer Champion Build Advice


Advice


Hey all, I've played 1E for many years and I've only played 2nd Ed once for a one-shot, but I'm going to be joining my first legitimate 2E game as a 19th level PC and I need some help creating a Liberator or Redeemer Champion. I'll be joining the group in about 3 weeks.

Current group:

Ranger
Rogue
Monk
Sorcerer/Bard

I spoke to the GM and he said the group is in dire need of a strong melee presence because some of the fights are getting so crazy that the rogue spends most of her time standing back and throwing daggers rather than wading into combat to get pulverized, while the monk is running around with his hair on fire trying to tank and protect the group. We're using the Free Archetype Variant Rule. I told the GM that I'd like to play a norse-themed viking-like Liberator or Redeemer Champion and he suggested taking the Barbarian Archetype to accent the viking theme, and I'm considering worshiping Cayden Cailean re-skinned/re-named as a norse deity.

I'm also considering taking the Scare to Death skill feat. I'd like to use a 2h maul most of the time, and pull out the sword/board when a fight gets a little hairy, but I'd like to focus on the 2hander.

Any and all advice is welcome, thanks ;)


Well, barbarian rage reduces your AC (+10% chance to be hit and +10% chance to be crit) and you're long past the point where their extra damage matters. Unless it's to be a skald and take bard archetype for lingering inspire courage, it's best to keep viking stuff in your RP and out of your mechanics.

You have a sorc/bard so they should be running around with lingering dirge for the rogue to exploit dread striker. At that point, intimidate and scare to death might not be worth the investment, but there's no harm in having it in your back pocket, especially if you don't know their actual builds.

The rules behind holding stuff makes switching armanents mid combat a poor use of your time. You should commit either to a two handed weapon (preferably with reach+trip) or 1h+shield (preferably also a reach weapon). Since you are close to 20 to begin with, shield is less bad than usual because you get a feat at 20 to keep it raised. If you don't expect to be at 20 for long, stick with a two-hander.


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If you want to maximize your ability to help your buddies tank, then shield is absolutely the way to go. It'll mean that your own turn is a bit simpler (as you'll be generally hitting one person, plus shield block, plus some third thing) but your reaction phase opens up. Seriously consider going Bastion so that you can cheese in Shield Warden and Quick Shield Block out of archetype feats. Do pick up Shield of Reckoning and Divine Reflexes. Grab Second Ally for your weapon, and make sure that your shield is a Sturdy Shield (as nothing else will stand up to the shield blocking). Consider taking Marshall with the archetype feats you're not spending on Bastion, but compare notes with your bard to make sure that the bonuses don't overlap. Make sure that you keep pushing your crafting skill (you're going to be repairing that shield a lot) and remember that it's better to shield block the low-damage hits and let the high-damage hits through. The shield shaves the same amount off of each one, but the high-damage hits take a lot more out of the shield when the land.

This is a build that is designed to stand with your allies in a relatively tight cluster and protect them. It is very, very good at doing that, and it has some nice reactions to punish and/or thwart enemies who try to go after your friends. If your allies are not interested in staying close to one another... you're probably better off going with a nice beefy two-hander. At that point I don't have nearly as much advice to offer.

You also might consider looking at a Champion guide. If you do a quick search on this forum for "guide to the guides" that should get you where you're going on that one.


A lot of the benefit from having a Champion is lost if the allies won't stay nearby. So make sure the Ranger, Monk, and maybe Rogue are willing to fight shoulder to shoulder with you at least some of the time.

For archetype, there is Viking - which would actually not be mechanically terrible for a flavor pick. Second Shield is unique, and is good if you are going with something other than Shield Ally from Champion. Reactive Shield, Quick Shield Block, and Shielded Stride are good. Many of those are available from Champion feats, but getting them through the archetype would free up taking other Champion feats at those levels.

Grand Archive

Depending on what aspects of the character are more important to you, you might consider a fighter main with champion dedication. When it comes to melee offense, fighter is a much more reliable pick.


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I'll back what Breit is saying that you should grab the viking archetype.

On top of that shield divine ally champion means you can't get critical specialisation, and viking dedication unlocks that for you for the hatchet, longsword, battle axe, shortsword, rapier and Bastard sword.

Bastard Sword would be my go to .

Real fast build would be:

Must have feats from champion:
Attack of Opportunity
Shield warden
Shield of Reckoning
Blade of Justice
Divine reflexes

Suggested feats from viking:
Reactive shield
Quick Shield block
Shielded stride
(these would be if you don't take second blade ally and still want critical specialisation)
Viking weapon proficiency
Viking weapon expertise
Viking weapon specialist

Suggested feats from sentinel (which I would suggest getting 3 feats from if you have the room)
Armored Rebuffed
Mighty Bulwark (allows you to leave dex at 10 without remorse)

Suggested items:
Titan's Grasp
+3 Major striking holy weapon (my suggestion would be bastard sword, but if you want axes go dwarven war axe ?)
+3 Greater resilient Full plate
Supreme sturdy shield.

The rest is flex, pick what you like.

What this does:

You have 3 reactions per turn:
-1 for shield blocking
-1 for champion reaction
-1 at your leisure.

When you engage with an opponent while adjacent to an ally (Like the monk or rogue, the rogue should have gangup btw) what this does is that the opponent has what I like to call ''the triangle of failure'' as options:

-1 They attack you, you shield block... if they manage to hit you cause you're a champion with raised shield, your AC is literally 4 above the benchmark used for the game.
-2 They attack an ally, you use shield of reckoning, your ally takes no damage (substract your 19 Hardness fromy our shield as well as your 21 damage from the damage they take, which is essentially almost always no damage since the champion's reaction is resistance to ALL damage, therefore if a demon hits them with 4d8+20 slashing+2d6 evil+2d6 fire, well your resistance applies once to slashing, once to evil, once to fire) and on top of that they step.
3- They attempt to move away from you, you whack them with AoO.

You're potentially able to do these more than once depending on what they do. It's very possible they'll try to hit you, fail abjectly, try to hit an ally and then get shield of reckoninged.

Most of your turns are then:
Stride
Hit
Raise shield.

If you don't need to stride, use blade of justice.


I'll go redeemer with divine ally shield.

Given the fact you are supposed to be a tower/protector, and also because of the FA variant rule, I'd work towards reactions.

Base reaction
Quick block
Quick shield block
Divine Reflexes

If you can get an indestructible shield, since you start from lvl 19, I say go for it. Otherwise, I'd stick with a sturdy shield.

If you go with a sturdy shield, I'd consider getting 2/3 mending lattice, which should be last the whole one shot.

Then I'll look forward to some ways to increase my shield hardness:

- divine ally shield ( +50% hp, +2 untyped hardness) ( you ll also get shield warden and shield of reckoning to protect allies).
- everstand stance ( damage die increase, +2 untyped hardness)
- dwarven reinforcement ( +3 circumstance hardness)
- emblazon armaments ( +1 status hardness) or soul forged ( extra hp and +2 status hardness once per day).

This would result into a max of +8/9 hardness you can achieve.

Bastion dedication is probably the best you can get, as it gives you quick shield block, reactive shield and nimble shield hand.

You'll be relying on

- 1 generic reaction
- 1 extra class reaction
- 2 extra shield block reactions

Remember that the more you block, the sooner the shield breaks, and once your shield is down you lose everything.

The talisman dabbler would also be a thing with the possibility to keep 2 mending lattice at once on your shield ( resulting into 3x shields if needed)

I'd also go with some potion of haste to get a free stride/strike per round ( it would be cheap to get some by lvl 20 ).

As for ancestries, being an undine would give you a +4 AC once per day, with a huge block if needed ( but you'd probably sustain it the whole fight).

It would require an extra action, but +2 extra AC would be worth it.

Finally, I'd consider refocusing x2 to get 2 lay on hand per fight ( FA would cover for everything).

I might do a little template on path builder 2e, but knowing whether you'd be able to get an indestructible shield or not would be a priority IMO.


Thanks for all the feedback guys, based off everything you guys have said, I'm thinking this:

Versatile Human Liberator of Cayden Cailean

STR 18
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 14

Skills
Athletics T (Martial Disciple)
Crafting T (Free - Cayden Cailean)
Diplomacy T (1)
Intimidation T (2)
Lore: Warfare T (Martial Disciple)
Religion T (Class)

Level 1
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Group Coercion)
Background - Martial Disciple (Athletics - Quick Jump, Warfare Lore)
Versatile Heritage: General Feat - Fleet
Class Feat - Unimpeded Step
Shield Block (Free)
Free Archetype - Viking

Level 2
Class Feat - Deity's Domain (Cities)
Skill Feat - Glad Hand

Level 3
Divine Ally - Weapon
General Feat - Intimidating Glare
Skill Increase - Athletics E

Level 4
Class Feat - Aura of Courage
Skill Feat - Group Impression

Level 5
Ancestry Feat - Clever Improviser (Untrained Improvisation)
Skill Increase - Diplomacy E
Ability Boost -
STR 19
DEX 12
CON 16
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 16

Level 6
Class Feat - Smite Evil
Skill Feat - Quick Coercion

Level 7
Skill Increase - Intimidation E
Skill Feat - Powerful Leap

Level 8
Class Feat - Quick Block
Skill Feat - Intimidating Prowess

Level 9
Skill Increase - Intimidation M
Ancestry Feat - Natural Skill: Deception T; Stealth T

Level 10
Class Feat - Radiant Blade Spirit
Skill Feat - Battle Cry
Ability Boosts -
STR 20
DEX 12
CON 18
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 18

Level 11
Skill Increase - Athletics M
Skill Feat - Wall Jump

Level 12
Class Feat - Lasting Doubt
Skill Feat - Lasting Coercion

Level 13
Skill Increase - Diplomacy M
Ancestry Feat - Incredible Improvisation

Level 14
Class Feat - Divine Reflexes
Skill Feat - Quick Swim

Level 15
Skill Increase - Athletics L
General Feat - Incredible Initiative
Ability Boosts -
STR 21
DEX 12
CON 19
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 19

Level 16
Class Feat - Second Ally (Shield)
Skill Feat - Cloud Jump

Level 17
Skill Increase - Diplomacy L
Ancestry Feat - General Training
General Feat - Multilingual

Level 18
Class Feat - Celestial Form
Skill Feat - Quick Repair

Level 19
Skill Increase - Intimidation L
General Feat - Scare to Death

Level 20
Class Feat - Shield Paragon
Skill Feat - Legendary Negotiation
Ability Boosts -
STR 22
DEX 12
CON 20
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 20


^---- I'm not completely married to any of this, so please feel free to talk me out of it.

I mainly want to be mobile with Cloud Jump and Celestial Form, and I'm going to use a Bastard Sword so I can use it 1h or 2h, and I'll keep my Indestructible Shield in a Glove of Storing and pull it out if things get dicey.

I want to be able to use Intimidate in combat to the maximum, either with Demoralize or Scare to Death. Diplomacy is so I can be a primary/back-up face for the party, but once I have Legendary Negotiation, I can actually stop combat before it starts, or act as a distraction for my party to get into place.


Good nuff,

I'd maybe not take dex at 12 since it doesn't really give you anything if you have full plate, and gives you even less if you go for 3 feats into sentinel.

Int is kinda redundant ? you're probably better off going wis to 18 for better will saves, perception and religion checks.

Not saying what you've put together is bad, but these would be the tweaks I suggest.


AlastarOG wrote:

Good nuff,

I'd maybe not take dex at 12 since it doesn't really give you anything if you have full plate, and gives you even less if you go for 3 feats into sentinel.

Int is kinda redundant ? you're probably better off going wis to 18 for better will saves, perception and religion checks.

Not saying what you've put together is bad, but these would be the tweaks I suggest.

Okay, I think I'm going to move Dex to 10, and switch Viking Archetype to Sentinel Archetype, and then yeah I think that's a good idea to boost Will/Perception. I was mainly doing the Int for the bonus languages so that I could intimidate in more languages, but with Intimidating Glare this becomes less important. Good advice ty ;)

Also, one quick fix:

Ryze Kuja wrote:

Level 12

Class Feat - Lasting Doubt
Skill Feat - Lasting Coercion

Class Feat - Liberating Stride


get both, you can swap out archetypes after taking 3 archetype feats into one.

Go

2: Viking dedication

4: Reactive Shield

6: Shielded Stride

8: sentinel dedication

10: Mighty Bulwark

12: Armored Rebuff

14: Quick Shield Block

16: Viking Vindicator

18: Flex

And my pleasure ! ;) I think your build is very cool btw :)


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AlastarOG wrote:

I'll back what Breit is saying that you should grab the viking archetype.

On top of that shield divine ally champion means you can't get critical specialisation, and viking dedication unlocks that for you for the hatchet, longsword, battle axe, shortsword, rapier and Bastard sword.

Second Ally (lvl 8 Champion feat) will also handle this just fine, and opens up the freebie property rune slot, too. The viking version is an interesting end-around that for people who really don't want to spend the class feat, but it's a level 6 feat that requires level 4 feat that's pure deadweight on a Champion. In general, I'd only suggest that for people playing free archetype who have archetype feats to burn and n particular opinions on how to spend them.


He mentioned that they are using Free Archetype. But that isn't reflected in the build posted.

Unless your table is using a different houserule and just calling it Free Archetype. Normally you would get your dedication (Viking dedication) at level 2, not level 1. And you would get Free Archetype feats along side your Class feats at even levels.

So:

Level 1
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Group Coercion)
Background - Martial Disciple (Athletics - Quick Jump, Warfare Lore)
Versatile Heritage: General Feat - Fleet
Class Feat - Unimpeded Step
Shield Block (Free)
Free Archetype - Viking

Level 2
Class Feat - Deity's Domain (Cities)
Skill Feat - Glad Hand
Free Archetype - Viking Dedication

Level 3
Divine Ally - Weapon
General Feat - Intimidating Glare
Skill Increase - Athletics E

Level 4
Class Feat - Aura of Courage
Skill Feat - Group Impression
Free Archetype - Reactive Shield / Hurling Charge / Viking Weapon Familiarity

And so on.


Ok, update:

I actually doubled up on a couple things throughout the build that the Viking Archetype was giving me for free, so I changed some things around. Now I have Shield Warden, Mercy, and Greater Mercy. I also substituted Clever Improviser, Incredible Improvisation, and Multilingual for Diehard, Bounce Back, and Toughness (I have a feeling my GM is going to try to nuke me from orbit lol :P). I also switched out Titan Wrestler for Quick Swim. I'm not exactly sure what I could trade out to pick up Sentinel Dedication + Steel Skin and Mighty Bulwark, because I really want to get these if I can. I'd appreciate your recommendations on what you'd trade out for this. I could live without it too though, maybe I could put a Rune of Ready on my armor just in case we get attacked while I'm unarmored.

Also, my GM just messaged me and says we'll be starting at level 20, not level 19. We'll be starting in 3 fridays from now.

With 20 Con and Toughness, I've got 328 HP.

====================================================

Versatile Human Liberator of Cayden Cailean

STR 18
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 14

Skills
Athletics T (Martial Disciple)
Crafting T (Free - Cayden Cailean)
Diplomacy T (1)
Intimidation T (2)
Lore: Warfare T (Martial Disciple)
Religion T (Class)

Level 1
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Group Coercion)
Background - Martial Disciple (Athletics - Quick Jump, Warfare Lore)
Versatile Heritage: General Feat - Fleet
Class Feat - Unimpeded Step
Shield Block (Free)

Level 2
Class Feat - Deity's Domain (Cities)
Skill Feat - Glad Hand
Free Archetype - Viking Dedication (Lore: Sailing T)

Level 3
Divine Ally - Weapon
General Feat - Intimidating Glare
Skill Increase - Athletics E

Level 4
Class Feat - Mercy (Fear)
Skill Feat - Group Impression
Free Archetype - Reactive Shield

Level 5
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Toughness)
Skill Increase - Diplomacy E
Ability Boost -
STR 19
DEX 10
CON 16
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 16

Level 6
Class Feat - Smite Evil
Skill Feat - Quick Coercion
Free Archetype - Shielded Stride

Level 7
Skill Increase - Intimidation E
(General) Skill Feat - Powerful Leap

Level 8
Class Feat - Shield Warden
Skill Feat - Intimidating Prowess
Free Archetype - Quick Shield Block

Level 9
Skill Increase - Intimidation M
Ancestry Feat - Natural Skill: Deception T; Stealth T

Level 10
Class Feat - Greater Mercy (Blind, Deaf, Sickened, Slowed)
Skill Feat - Battle Cry
Ability Boosts -
STR 20
DEX 10
CON 18
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 18
Free Archetype - Second Shield

Level 11
Skill Increase - Athletics M
Skill Feat - Wall Jump

Level 12
Class Feat - Liberating Stride
Skill Feat - Lasting Coercion
Free Archetype - Viking Weapon Familiarity

Level 13
Skill Increase - Diplomacy M
Ancestry Feat - Bounce Back

Level 14
Class Feat - Divine Reflexes
Skill Feat - Titan Wrestler
Free Archetype - Viking Vindicator

Level 15
Skill Increase - Athletics L
General Feat - Incredible Initiative
Ability Boosts -
STR 21
DEX 10
CON 19
INT 12
WIS 16
CHA 19

Level 16
Class Feat - Second Ally (Shield)
Skill Feat - Cloud Jump
Free Archetype - Hurling Charge

Level 17
Skill Increase - Diplomacy L
Ancestry Feat - General Training
General Feat - Diehard

Level 18
Class Feat - Celestial Form
Skill Feat - Quick Repair

Level 19
Skill Increase - Intimidation L
General Feat - Scare to Death

Level 20
Class Feat - Shield Paragon
Skill Feat - Legendary Negotiation
Ability Boosts -
STR 22
DEX 10
CON 20
INT 12
WIS 18
CHA 20

=============================================

As far as gear, I was thinking of getting a Shield of the Unified Legion in addition to the Indestructible Shield. With Second Shield and Gloves of Storing, I should be able to swap these out fairly quickly.


Keep in mind that divine ally dwells into a specific shield you choose during your daily preparation.


HumbleGamer wrote:

Keep in mind that divine ally dwells into a specific shield you choose during your daily preparation.

Since the Indestructible Shield doesn't take any damage (except from disintegrate), I'd probably put my Shield Ally into the Shield of the Unified Legion and use that primarily. If poop hits the proverbial fan and it breaks or is about to break, I can swap to the Indestructible Shield.


Given the fact you don't want to invest on an indestructible shield build, as a spare one would be drastically better a sturdy shield.

13 hardness compared to 20 is not even a challenge.

Bt same goes comparing a sturdy shield with the unified legion.

Even with the lvl 20 perk and divine ally, the sturdy shield results better.

By lvl 19, especially against bosses, your shield of unified legion is probably not going to resist 3 hits ( and will block less damage).

For multi block characters, I don't think there are alternatives apart from a sturdy one or the indestructible one.


Check with your GM if they'll allow you to have an adamantine sturdy shield.

I allowed my champion to have one, paid in full for high grade adamantium and level 19 sturdy.

Rules it as adding the difference between high grade adamantium heavy steel shield and basic steel shield, so 32 HP and 8 hardness, giving a base result of 30 hardness and 288 hp, not too shabby for a shield !


AlastarOG wrote:

Check with your GM if they'll allow you to have an adamantine sturdy shield.

I allowed my champion to have one, paid in full for high grade adamantium and level 19 sturdy.

Rules it as adding the difference between high grade adamantium heavy steel shield and basic steel shield, so 32 HP and 8 hardness, giving a base result of 30 hardness and 288 hp, not too shabby for a shield !

That would be a houserule, and a pretty significant buff to shield-bearing PCs.


Critical hits apart, a shield user with the right feats ( and an adamantine + sturdy) would invalidate 99% of the attacks.


Indeed it is a houserule , I found it made sense and ultimately didn't derail too much from the game at the levels where that was pertinent.

But that's definitely a gm call!!


Ok, so I spoke with my GM, and he's allowing the Free Archetype rule to allow for multiple archetypes provided that you get the two Dedication Feats before moving to a different Archetype. I'm not sure if that's a house rule or not, but anywho, here's what I've got now:

Versatile Human Liberator of Cayden Cailean

STR 18
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 14

Skills
Athletics T (Martial Disciple)
Crafting T (Free - Cayden Cailean)
Diplomacy T (1)
Intimidation T (2)
Lore: Warfare T (Martial Disciple)
Religion T (Class)

Level 1
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Group Coercion)
Background - Martial Disciple (Athletics - Quick Jump, Warfare Lore)
Versatile Heritage: General Feat - Fleet
Class Feat - Unimpeded Step
Shield Block (Free)

Level 2
Class Feat - Desperate Prayer
Skill Feat - Glad Hand
Free Archetype - Viking Dedication (Lore: Sailing T)

Level 3
Divine Ally - Weapon
General Feat - Intimidating Glare
Skill Increase - Athletics E
Divine Ally: Shield Ally

Level 4
Class Feat - Mercy (Fear)
Skill Feat - Group Impression
Free Archetype - Viking Weapon Familiarity

Level 5
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Toughness)
Skill Increase - Diplomacy E
Ability Boost -
STR 19
DEX 10
CON 16
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 16

Level 6
Class Feat - Shield Warden
Skill Feat - Quick Coercion
Free Archetype (Viking) - Viking Vindicator

Level 7
Skill Increase - Intimidation E
(General) Skill Feat - Powerful Leap

Level 8
Class Feat - Litany against Wrath
Skill Feat - Intimidating Prowess
Free Archetype - Bastion Dedication (Reactive Shield - Free)

Level 9
Skill Increase - Intimidation M
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Assurance: Athletics)

Level 10
Class Feat - Greater Mercy (Blind, Deaf, Sickened, Slowed)
Skill Feat - Battle Cry
Ability Boosts -
STR 20
DEX 10
CON 18
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 18
Free Archetype (Bastion) - Quick Shield Block

Level 11
Skill Increase - Athletics M
Skill Feat - Wall Jump

Level 12
Class Feat - Liberating Stride
Skill Feat - Lasting Coercion
Free Archetype (Bastion) - Shielded Stride

Level 13
Skill Increase - Diplomacy M
Ancestry Feat - Bounce Back

Level 14
Class Feat - Divine Reflexes
Skill Feat - Titan Wrestler
Free Archetype - Marshal Dedication (10ft Aura +1 vs. Fear)

Level 15
Skill Increase - Athletics L
General Feat - Incredible Initiative
Ability Boosts -
STR 21
DEX 10
CON 19
INT 12
WIS 16
CHA 19

Level 16
Class Feat - Shield of Grace
Skill Feat - Cloud Jump
Free Archetype (Marshal) Inspiring Marshal Stance

Level 17
Skill Increase - Diplomacy L
Ancestry Feat - General Training (Diehard)

Level 18
Class Feat - Celestial Form
Skill Feat - Quick Repair
Free Archetype (Marshal) - Attack of Opportunity

Level 19
Skill Increase - Intimidation L
General Feat - Scare to Death

Level 20
Class Feat - Shield Paragon
Skill Feat - Legendary Negotiation
Ability Boosts -
STR 22
DEX 10
CON 20
INT 12
WIS 18
CHA 20
Free Archetype (Marshal) To Battle!

==============================

I want to capitalize on the To Battle! feat from Marshall with all the neato stuff from the Liberator Reaction.


Looks good to me.

Ryze Kuja wrote:
Ok, so I spoke with my GM, and he's allowing the Free Archetype rule to allow for multiple archetypes provided that you get the two Dedication Feats before moving to a different Archetype. I'm not sure if that's a house rule or not

Well, Free Archetype is a Variant Rule - which is nothing more than a fancy name for a houserule published by the Paizo game devs.

But no, that looks like standard Free Archetype rules. That restriction on taking the two additional feats before getting another dedication can sometimes be loosened for certain archetypes that don't fit in Free Archetype slots well otherwise (ones that start at level 4 or that don't have 3 feats before level 8). Or if the campaign/GM chooses the level 2 dedication (we are using Free Archetype, but everyone has to choose Archaeologist at level 2 to fit the theme we are going with).

I haven't heard of anyone requiring you to stick with the same archetype for all of the Free Archetype feats. The core rules allow for having multiple dedications once the first one is paid off.


Restricting the FA to just a specific archetype is common IMO.

It could be also achieved by giving just extra feats at some levels, rather than giving the full FA rules.

For example, let's assume the DM wants to give the pirate dedication for free.

This can be achieved either by givin a lvl 2,4 and 8 extra feat, or by using the FA variant rule, leaving empty ( this is more a path builder visual thing) the lvl 6 feat and all FA feats from 10 to 20.


It might be more commonly run that way than I have seen. But that isn't the standard way that it is presented in the rulebook.

So if the GM wants to only allow the one archetype for all of the Free Archetype slots, they would need to specify that.

Simply saying "Hey, we are running a pirate adventure. So we are using Free Archetype rules, starting at level 2, and everyone needs to pick Pirate archetype." I would interpret that as meaning that once I have paid off Pirate with two more feats, then I could use the rest of those Free Archetype slots to go into a different archetype.

But again, this is all just one big houserule, so trying to argue RAW about it is actually a bit silly.


I'm wondering if I should drop Greater Mercy for Shield of Reckoning at level 10. It seems like I'd be able to get more use out of that, tbh. Considering we have a Rogue with maxed Medicine Skill and a Sorcerer/Bard, all of those conditions *should* be covered right?


Yeah you should, shield of reckoning is bonkers good.


Shield of reckoning is two reactions for the price of one. So, yeah. It's pretty nice.


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Hey all, I wanted to update you guys on everything.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who helped out, you guys gave some really great advice. This character is doing exactly what I wanted him to do.

Secondly, some of the other guides I was reading say that the Liberator is subpar to the Paladin and Redeemer, and while I haven't played the Paladin or Redeemer, the Liberator doesn't disappoint in the slightest.

I've been having all kinds of fun with 120ft Cloud Jumps ;) Two weeks ago, our first major fight was vs. a Rune Giant and a bunch of Cloud/Storm Giants that he had controlled, and our rogue used an invis potion and scouted the tower, so we decided to breach the wall to the Rune Giant's room and create a chokepoint at the proper entry to the room. I made an Athletics check to burst through the wooden wall, which created difficult terrain, and I was able to Liberating Step the party and myself into position each time the Rune Giant attacked us. Between Shield of Reckoning and Divine Reflexes, I'm able to do 2 Liberating Steps per round, so we were able to step through the Difficult Terrain and get into position. The Cloud/Storm giants heard the commotion ran into the room, and I created a 3-giant pile-up in the entry with two Bull Rush/Trip criticals using my Shield of the Unified Legion, and the 3rd giant critically failed my 52 AC so he fell prone in the entry next to the other two I Bull Rush criticaled, while the rest of the party finished off the Rune Giant. We managed to spare the lives of all the other giants and we freed them from the Rune Giant's control, and I mitigated/absorbed a ton of damage via Shield Warden/Shield of Grace and Liberating Step, and I even put a clutch Lay on Hands on the Monk in round 2 while I was making my way over to make that choke point. We took quite a bit of damage from the Rune Giant while we were entering the room just because of his huge AoO threat range.

We're playing RotRL and we're now in Xin-Shalast, and last sesh we fought a Runelord. I was using To Battle! to cause our Rogue and Ranger to get extra attacks, in addition to using Liberating Step to get us all into position and move people away from danger. This character is insanely fun to play, so thank you again gents ;)


Just one question: You wrote:

Level 3
Divine Ally - Weapon
and
Divine Ally - Shield Ally

(You can take Second Ally at level 8)

I wonder why you took Viking Weapon Familiarity at level 4. You already got everything that this feat gives you.

You can't take Viking Vindicator at level 6. Prereq. is level 8

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