Hello folks! My group is about to begin playing Kingmaker and I am at a loss as to what to play. The PCs so far consist of a Kitsune Nymph bloodline sorcerer, a human ruffian with martial artist, and either a human bard or magus archer (he hasn’t decided yet). Either way, it seems to leave the tankish melee type to me. I am not a big fan of armor especially heavy and don’t want to step on toes of other characters (the ruffian is likely taking Mt. Stance as part of Martial Artist).
So I need a good idea for a melee based character that has good AC, HP, and isn’t just a walking suit of armor. Thanks.
Considering your choices for AC are angry man, non-plate, plate, monk and champion. Since you don't want plate armor, monk it is.
Monk is simple. The best way to go about it I've seen is dex>str>=con>=wis. So either 16/18/12/10/12/10 or 14/18/14/10/12/10.
Elf is the baseline, but any ancestry that flaws int or cha and boosts str, dex and/or con will produce a better statline.
Wolf stance is the go-to pick for backstabber and trip. At 2 people like to go for stunning fist, but I find it useless. If you want some early cheese, go druid so you can grab animal form at 4 and ride that train until level 10 and retrain it to spellcasting. I don't like much of what monk offers, but stand still is your usual reaction attack feat tax and you'll probably want wolf drag or flurry of maneuvers to put enemies on the floor. Wild wind stance gives you a ranged option.
For general feats, adopted human, fleet, tough, canny acumen.
For ancestry, natural ambition at 5 for ki rush or strike, multitalented at 9 for whatever.
Otherwise, it doesn't matter much. With any luck, between the sorc and flatfooted the potential bow magus will be able to put in work. If it's a bard, maybe rogue archetype for dread striker sneak attacks off of dirge.
Having a melee rogue in the party mean that you really do need to be a slightly tougher melee character to give him someone to flank off and occasionally hide behind if he gets smashed.
Fighter, Champion, Monk all work fine. Though Fencer Swashbuckler and Outwit Ranger can also work in that role if you wanted to be different.
I like the Wily Captain but also Krackers Kobold Deputy, Throwing Paladin, Captain Kam Erikah out of my build doco for that role.
Thanks for those who have made some suggestions. So far, I am leaning to a strength monk using reach weapons; mainly one using a kusarigama and archetype into Dragon Disciple for Scales of the Dragon to make up for lower dexterity. Another idea is also a weapon monk but dexterity based with a Catfolk using a whipclaw.
I want to like trying out a champion, but a lack of damage as well as being dependent on heavy armor makes it far less appealing. I ran one as an NPC at level 10 and all the character seemed good at doing (and was very good at it) was reducing damage to herself and the party. That’s important, but not particularly exciting a role for 1-20.
My experience with barbarians means taking a ton of damage and needing tons of healing, though, also doing good damage. Overall, they seem more a tax to the party than a benefit.
Swashbucklers are not good in my opinion due to the panache action tax that requires a roll which can fail.
A character using the Wrestler archetype or one that does it via their main class has appeal, but the ruffian/martial artist in the party is taking his inspiration from Jack Reacher so will probably want to do a fair amount of athletics checks. I don’t want to double up on that and take his style (especially if I did it better).
A melee build ranger may work. I find myself more concerned with having to use Hunt Prey every round than anything else about the class.
A druid would be a second primal caster that could use Wild Shape. Battle forms are decent, but the spells would be too tempting and would risk stepping on the sorcerer’s toes.
Anyway, I am open to more suggestions and thoughts if anyone has some. :)
I like to use a shield using dex-based monk for tanking when not going tank with plate. Focus on maneuvers using Flurry of Maneuvers to maintain action economy while using maneuvers.
I also like the Fighter with Champion Archetype with a maul or shield and hammer. You can have Champion's reaction by level 6 obtaining the main advantage of the champion with superior combat ability. Then build to smash people into the ground and hit them as they get up. You can use your Champion's reaction once you get it to protect your party, while mixing in AoOs if they don't attack your party or it's a better opportunity.
I recommend a STR based Bo Staff monk instead. 16 DEX is desired at level 1, but not needed, as 14 can be enough. Grab Monastic Weaponry, Stunning Fist, Stand Still, Flurry of Maneuvers and Tangled Forest Stance. With all that, you are an extremely mobile CC machine. AC is nothing impressive early on, but it picks up as you level and it is one of the best frontline options I can recommend to people.
Have you thought about a summoner?
You’ve not got a divine caster, psychopomp or Angelic would give you a divine caster. Go into medicine or take the oracle dedication and try to build a healer or not if you don’t fancy it.
But either way you could stay back and use the Eidolan as a pseudo tank, without having to worry about tanking yourself. Since it doesn’t sound like that’s something you’re particularly excited about.
Could build it to get bigger, for reach and attack of opportunity and build for trip or grab. Wouldn’t have to worry about doing damage, just get people stuck falling over.
Well, the ruffian/martial artist went with an investigator in lieu of the former. Now I feel an even greater need for a solid melee combatant who can also take hits.
This is new territory for me as I almost always play blaster casters for long-term campaigns. Session 0 is tonight so I will see what the final write-ups are, but it seems everyone is else is going with range or support. Ugh.
I’d echoe what Nicholas is saying you don’t need to be a solo melee character and I don’t think it sounds like a fun time to play that character anyway, especially if it isn’t a play style you naturally enjoy.
Anything with an animal companion or that summons or that has an eidolan seems like something worth your consideration.
The fact the rest of the party is ranged/support improves the validity of the idea, not harms it.
I have some experience with a no frontline party (level 1 to level 6 with a rogue as the only melee). It is definitely worse than playing with a proper frontline, but it is doable if you kite enemies a lot and try to spread the damage across all characters. If you do that, be ready to be blown out if you can't properly kite enemies due to encounter design, though.