My husband has, to my surprise and delight, decided to run a campaign using PF1, and is adopting the Golarion pantheon but otherwise a small homebrew setting (planning to expand it over time).
I have decided that I want a female kython-born tiefling who is ashamed of her Zon-Kuthon links. Not that she is actually part of the faith, but she feels that she embodies too much of his essence to be comfortable. She expresses herself through dance, and I plan for her to be proficient with bladed scarfs. Yes, the echoes of chains > scarfs is entirely on purpose, but that is something she'll have to work out over time.
Currently, I am thinking Vigilante, using the whole disguise theme as a vehicle for her coming to grasp with "inner nature" versus heritage and what you show to others. The bladed scarves being very feat-intensive also works here, since vigilante is pretty forgiving when it comes to picking up abilities.
So, questions...
* A non-dex race is going to hurt, and AC is going to be a real problem. She could easily have ties with a monastery, but Wis isn't likely to be her strong suit, and Scaled Fist is a terrible fit, backstory-wise. Just start with Dex 15 anyway and do what I can (even though the front line's going to be a scary place), or is there a way to weaponize Cha a little better? At least we're using a 25-point build, and Lethal Grace makes a finesse build doable.
As an aside, Con-to-AC would be awesome for (former) ZK ties, but the closest I can find is the racial option to swap some resistances for 1 point of natural armour. And I am not sure I want to saddle her with that, since she already has enough problems accepting who she is.
* Are there ways to get reach on the scarves? I think I would like to dip in trip maneuvers. Probably less easy to implement than feint, but feint hurts on a 3/4 BAB build. I'd much rather work with AoOs.
* A Shelyn affiliation is kind of obvious, but I kind of like the Irori self-improvement angle, too, especially *mental*. She's got a lot of repair work to do and won't be preachy enough to try and use performing as a way of prositelyzing, which seems more or less inherent to the faith of Shelyn (bless their soul).
* Is there a non-terrible way to mix unarmed martial arts with dancing / bladed scarfs? Most trained dancers have very good muscle tone and I can totally see kickboxing mixing well, but the rules angle worries me.
There's a Magus archetype, called the Kapenia Dancer that can use the Bladed Scarf as a one-handed weapon, and can also use Arcana to add reach. The aforementioned archetype also stacks with Bladebound, in case you want a sentient Bladed Scarf.
There's a Magus archetype, called the Kapenia Dancer that can use the Bladed Scarf as a one-handed weapon, and can also use Arcana to add reach. The aforementioned archetype also stacks with Bladebound, in case you want a sentient Bladed Scarf.
I did look at that! But they would likely struggle with the stats even more, since they need both dex and int and get neither from being (this) tiefling. On the other hand, Int to AC would sure help a lot.
Most importantly, though, is that I think I want to avoid being dependent upon magic to function. She's scared enough to tap into her "real self" as it stands.