A big part of the Paizo playtesting process is just trying to collect data on what kinds of feats players choose and how satisfied they are with them. It can be fun to speculate possible changes and alternative approaches, but usually it seems like the devs already know what likely alternatives they will use and are just stress testing some of the more out there ideas.
I have been looking more and more at this class playtest and I have come to realize it is is incredibly flexible in what you can do with it, but that building a coherent character build is one of the more complex classes to work with as it is almost entirely about feat selection. Unlike the fighter though, the DD class has a lot of weaknesses and gaps that you have to accommodate or play around or you’ll end up getting torn apart.
It has good defensive/tanky feat options that cover almost all of the requests I see people making to have baked in to its core: resist all, temp HP, save boosters, circumstance bonuses to AC, and those abilities tend to be strong, but limited…leaving the daredevil with a lot of chances to get caught with their pants down. Is anyone play testing a DD tank?
They have really powerful synergy with deadly agile weapons. You can build a pretty good striker out of this class, and maybe even use 2 weapons effectively with archetypes, but not having a free hand could rule out a lot of your options too. I am playtesting an open hand, war razor strong strike DD, and my first level 1 turn was move, stunt to leap and trip, then crit a goblin dog for 21 points of damage. Not every turn can go like that but it made the maul fighter jealous.
There are totally free hand builds that look good, but I worry a lot of GMs are going to get tired of players trying to figure out how they are pulling stones to throw out of smooth dungeon walls.
Lastly, I think there are probably some secretly very nasty ranged builds using the archer archetype that can exploit mobility and press actions to be very effective kiters. I would love it if the daredevil could turn out to be one of the best starknife killers, but I haven’t figured that one out yet myself.
What feats are you playing around with as build defining? What opportunities do you see this class opening up?
My elder daughter (I mentioned her at Kittyhawk, Playtest Daredevil, comment #3) saw three possibilities for the daredevil:
So far I'm seeing a few ways to build the class. The positioner, who leans into the maneuvers and first level feats to shift enemies around and crowd control them. The prop-master, also a mobility expert, who's literally bouncing off the walls, throwing stuff and moving to the next prop. The off-barbarian, who grabs the heavy damage feats mixed with the crowd control and stays in the middle of combat much more than the other two.
They should be played like a madwoman zipping through the middle of combat laughing the entire time.
Off-barbarian would be in the center of combat, moving a lot but within the active zone the entire time. Prop-master would be on the edges, always disengaging when they do zip in for a maneuver. Positioner would be all over, trying to move foes around to break up flanks or crowd control a really annoying foe that's aiming for a squishy.
I see my playtest daredevil Kittyhawk as a positioner. In last week's game session, she moved her friend Nourishing Gull (kholo names are strange) out of possible danger. In next week's game session, she might position the enemy into the fireballs cast by her allies.
Back in my PF1 Iron Gods campaign, my wife build a battlefield-control gunslinger. Boffin used a grapple gun to pull flying robots down into reach or entangle an orc barbarian around an obstacle. Later with the Targeting Deed she could debuff enemies. Seeing a non-magical battlefield controller in action was amazing. I think a properly designed daredevil could perform similar control.