Any details on the Captain Archetype and Followers?

[The Ronyon]

I've heard a smidge, it seems like a great thing for people who like "pets".

[exequiel759]

Its a companion archetype but with people (or followers as that's the name used in the archetype) instead of animals. They advance at the same rate as animal companions, but they do have item bonuses to certain stuff unlike animal companions (the math is still exactly the same though).

It doesn't have as much feat support as beastmaster, but it has more than enough feats to go from 2nd to 20th level if you are playing with free archetype.

[Squark]

There are five follower types: Berserker, Field Medic, Scout, Sharpshooter, and Shieldbearer. Stat-wise, they're similar to animal companions with slightly more extreme highs and lows (They tend to have at least one save that is atrocious)

Mechanical Customization is limited to the follower's ancestry, and by default that's gated behind a feat. They are very specific about what they can and can't do, such as use any gear not part of their kit.

Most of the captain's feats are direct parallels to the Beastmaster's core feats, but a few deal with other leadership abilities. By RAW, Animal/Undead/Consteuct companions and followers are not compatible- pick one or the other. You could probably allow someone to have both, but only have one accompanying you at a time.

[The Ronyon]

Hmm.
I've been wanting a single,powerful, heavily armored Undead Humanoid with a Tower Shield to hide a caster character behind.

What ancestries are there to pick from?
Like is there an Undead Ancestry?
Or does steer away from the previous Companion types?

I notice there isn't a spellcaster of any kind, probably for balance reasons.
The limit on the gear would be for similar reasons.

[Perpdepog]

The Ronyon wrote:

Hmm.

I've been wanting a single,powerful, heavily armored Undead Humanoid with a Tower Shield to hide a caster character behind.

What ancestries are there to pick from?
Like is there an Undead Ancestry?
Or does steer away from the previous Companion types?

I notice there isn't a spellcaster of any kind, probably for balance reasons.
The limit on the gear would be for similar reasons.

Skeleton is an ancestry. For that matter there is a zombie undead companion who is pretty beefy you could use if you wanted.

[Mangaholic13]

The Ronyon wrote:

Hmm.

I've been wanting a single,powerful, heavily armored Undead Humanoid with a Tower Shield to hide a caster character behind.

What ancestries are there to pick from?
Like is there an Undead Ancestry?
Or does steer away from the previous Companion types?

I notice there isn't a spellcaster of any kind, probably for balance reasons.
The limit on the gear would be for similar reasons.

A YouTuber, WisdomCheck, noted in a video on the Captain that it is perfect for playing the "Necromancer with a small number of elite zombie soldiers at their command".

[OceanshieldwolPF 2.5]

That is hilarious. Looking to finally be able to play a meaningful necromancer and your best bet is not to play a…Necromancer. The Captain might just be my favorite archetype.

[Perses13]

RAW all the followers are living humans. You can get skeleton (at GM discretion since its rare) with the Leader for All feat, but currently there's no way to get a non-skeleton undead follower.

Of course you can always homebrew an option for that. And considering there's undead animal companions there may be undead followers in a future release.

[Captain Morgan]

I mean we already had an undead animal companion or three, right?

[Perses13]

Yeah, there's a bunch of undead companions, including a zombie and skeletal servant that can be humanoid.

[The Ronyon]

So the Leader for All feat would let the Follower be Undead, but they are human until you can get that feat?

What if you took the Undead Master Dedication at level 2 and retrained it to Captain at level 4?
That way you could have an undead servant from the begining, and gaining the Follower Type (like Shieldbearer) would be an evolution in capabilities, not a switch in Ancestry.

Of course starting with a human servant and turning them into an undead servant has its own appeal.

Unless I'm mistaken,Undead Companions like the Zombi cannot wear Armor,use a Shield or wield weapons.
I sure hope the Shieldbearer can do those things.

[Perpdepog]

The Ronyon wrote:

Unless I'm mistaken,Undead Companions like the Zombi cannot wear Armor,use a Shield or wield weapons.

Far as I know undead companions can still wear "barding," which you could flavor to armor pretty easy. As for shields and weapons, no, not really, though you could simulate a weapon by having your zombie do a different damage type with GM permission. Shields are the trickiest to do since the zombie hasn't got any way to use the Raise a Shield action or equivalent, though there might be an Undead Master feat that lets you have them defend for you? It's been a minute since I looked at the archetype.

[The Ronyon]

It's been a while since I looked at Companions but I recall being underwhelmed.

I'm hoping a Sheildbearer will be the guardian I want and I can add the undead flavor via Leader for All.

I'm not opposed to other flavors of minions, I just want them to be better guardians than Companions tend to be.

A Groot, Armored Bear or Big Hero 6 style partner are what Id hope to get.

[Mangaholic13]

The Ronyon wrote:

It's been a while since I looked at Companions but I recall being underwhelmed.

I'm hoping a Sheildbearer will be the guardian I want and I can add the undead flavor via Leader for All.

I'm not opposed to other flavors of minions, I just want them to be better guardians than Companions tend to be.

A Groot, Armored Bear or Big Hero 6 style partner are what Id hope to get.

...So you want either Groot, Trinket, or BayMax as a companion?

[The Ronyon]

Those examples were given for examples of acceptable flavor.

What I would like is a medium sized armored humanoid combatant with a Whip and a Tower Shield who can put down the weapons and do basic tasks,and is also not a person.
It could be undead,a plant,a magical animal, a machine,or something else I the player wouldn't feel bad about sacrificing.

Familiars or Eidolons do not meet my requirements.
Neither do Companions, but I make do.
If Followers meet my requirements in full or in part,great.
If not, oh well.

[shroudb]

I don't think the Bodyguard is great atm:

The main issue I have is, from what I recall, you can't equip them with regular items. And while his shield scales with feats, it lags behind an ordinary sturdy shield.

So, realistically, if you want him just to block damage from you, you can every turn order him to move next to you and raise his shield, and then he'll use his reaction to shield block for you.

But for most itnents and purposes, all this chain of class feats is kinda worse than simply using a single general feat for shield block for yourself and simply spending the same 1 action to raise shield for yourself.

It has some benefits, don't get me wrong, like, it opens up the ability for you to use a twohander while there's a bodyguard next to you, or that you only spend 1 action as opposed to 1 action and 1 reaction, but the counterpoint is that it'll be an always-weaker shieldblock, since the hardness of their shield is behind a regular sturdy shield, and that they can die/get cc'ed out of the fight much more easily than you.

Other Companions seem a bit better, like the medic, I really like that one, since battle medicine is on a separate cooldown for each individual person, meaning that you can reliably get use out of him every fight without conflicting with your own abilities, and even his condition removal and action economy enhancers are great.

I haven't run the numbers on the berserker, but it seems iffy for him, since Companions are naturally more brittle than characters, and he relies on getting hit and lowering his defences to get the most out of his abilities.

---

Where the archetype really shines imo is in low count player games. When there's just 3-4 players as an example, you choosing a guardian, a champion, or a rogue, all of whom rely on other melee combatants to truly shine, is not always guaranteed. But with this archetype, there will always be an ally next to you to help with flank, opportunist, champion reactions, guardian bodyguard targets, and such.

[Claxon]

I think where this could shine is enabling solo* adventures. Adjust the player's level up by maybe 1 or 2 compared to where they would be in a normal party, and now you have a heroic leader commanding his elite forces to take on the enemy.

*Defining solo here as one GM and one player.

[Perpdepog]

I just read through the archetype, and I like it, the flavor at least. It looks like a fun archetype and system to design homebrew for, which is always cool. I hope we eventually get a more caster-centered variant to represent having apprentices or acolytes.
The special two-action activity practically writes itself; give them a cantrip to cast, and their normal attacks can be middling dagger or staff strikes, or weak energy damage pew-pews, ones that you'd probably need to pick one of beforehand and change the damage type with downtime.

[shroudb]

I've had some time to go over all the Followers.

I still believe that in a 3 player game, max 4, this is a usable archetype. That said, some followers are (imo always) quite better than some other ones:

Berserker: Can't see this one working. Maybe if you're a guardian or something, but too squishy to get the benefit of his abilities for a sustained period of time in an average setup. Without other party support, I can see him getting off two good Strikes (with his reaction) before getting critted out of the picture.

Medic: I really like this one. Solid condition removal and decent healing. Like, at end levels, (with robust health) he can reliably do 100 points of healing with 1 action from you.

Scout: I would love this one if he had Thievery. Seems like a missed opportunity, but it's still decent utility to hae an extra good Search+Scout Exploration activity beyond what you do already. And due to his stealth he can avoid some potential lethal scenarios (for him), making him a bit sturdier. Sneak attack keeps his damage a bit relevant and not a total waste either while in combat.

Sharpshooter: Imo the best damaging Follower. His damage is not as high as the Berserker, but being able to hit with a +2 makes his attack bonus only 1-2 behind a true martial. Meaning you get a bit of free damage. Plus, being ranged means that even when you don't have action to command him, he still gets his one shot per round usually and doesn't unecessary puts his brittle self in the thick of it like the berserker.

Shieldbearer: This one is bad imo. What nailed the coffin for him is that he's missing an upgrade to his armor proficiency beyond Trained, which almost feels like a bug/errata given his design. He ends up a whole... 1 point ahead in AC compared to all other Followers, with a subpar shieldblock and no meaningful offence.