Good Morning,
I am looking to build an effective level 1 Pathfinder Society character that I can play at level 1 before my level 2 rebuild. Basically, looking for an option that is solid on skills, especially at identifying enemies strengths/weaknesses, decent in combat situations, and is just a bit versatile.
Is there a class that gives bonuses if you identify an enemy, something similar to bonus to hit, bonus to damage or something like that?
A class with many skill points seems obvious, so INT based or a Rogue/Investigator? What other options might be out there?
Thanks all.
2nd Edition, for Society play.
Currently leaning towards an Investigator as they get multiple skill points and can make Knowledge checks to identify enemies strengths/weaknesses.
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So, for knowledge based characters...
If you don't mind mixing knowledge from tomes of occult lore with stories your grannie told you and rumors you heard in a pub, Thaumaturge is the premiere expert at identifying and exploiting weaknesses.
Investigator is a solid choice as well. Known Weakness is a great way to do what you want.
Ranger can also do some of what you want via the Monster Hunter feat, although you often feel like you don't have enough skills to truly maximize that. The Playtest Slayer class (which you can use in organized play as long as your GM is okay with it, so bring a backup) actually has a really interesting trick with its bloodscent feat and the Machuaitl, allowing you to recall knowledge on any creature you hit as long as it can bleed.*
*It can be argued that if a creature is bleeding, you can keep making recall knowledge checks as free actions until you fail. Doing so will likely cause your GM to refuse to ever allow you to run a Playtest Character again, so... don't do that.
Community & Social Media Specialist
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This was flagged as in the wrong forum, but since Krell44 is trying to build a character for Organized Play and there isn't an Advice section for Organized Play, I don't think it is? I'm gonna leave it, but let me know if I'm wrong here!
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This was flagged as in the wrong forum, but since Krell44 is trying to build a character for Organized Play and there isn't an Advice section for Organized Play, I don't think it is? I'm gonna leave it, but let me know if I'm wrong here!
It's in General Discussion for Organized Play, and not the PFS forum.
Looking at the types of posts in both forums, I would argue Advice is a better forum though, but not enough to move it from the PFS section if it started there.
It's asking for advice on how to build a character, the character happens to be for PFS but the question isn't really specific to PFS.
It's not about say what faction lines up with X story, it's just about building an effective level 1 character that happens to be for PFS.
Like when people ask rules questions about their PFS characters.
It's still a rules question, even if it happens to be for a PFS bit. PFS doesn't make the answer any different.
Contributor
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I honestly believe that creating a character for PFS can be a different process than creating one for a home game because you need to plan on being with mixed groups, and in a diversity of situations. I try to build for having multiple strengths. I also think that it is more likely for a person to try to build for a couple of different characters at first level in order to have options to fit different types of parties. Although I don’t mind asking for advice in main PF2 Advice forum, I do get tired of the variants of:
‘I don’t play PFS’
‘I have never played PFS, but I am going to say that it is stupid anyway’
‘Why aren’t you building this for a home game?’
These comments keep appearing in the advice section, and they drive me absolutely bonkers. Although I suppose it does give me the opportunity to make my impassioned ‘Why I love PFS’ speech, and then to gently tell those posters to please stick to character advice or move on to a different thread.
I would love PFS2 and SFS2 advice forums in here, where we’re talking to other people who love Organized Play. Although I make a pretty great OP ambassador, sometimes I just really want character ideas instead of gently deflecting anti-OP curmudgeons.
Hmm
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I don't necessarily agree that we need specific advice forums for questions like these, but I do think that this could be moved to the specific Pathfinder Society forum instead of the more general Organized Play forum.
That being said, I'm not really a big fan of the whole "I'm going to play a certain character that's going to survive first level only to completely rebuild them into the character I actually want to play at second level." I feel it is a disservice to the player to do that, as you don't get a chance to work out kinks or figure out what works for you. The rebuild period exists, in my eyes, as an opportunity to fine tune your build and get rid of things that you thought were cool but end up not using.
Also, survivability is much less a concern if PF2 than it was in PF1. A PF2 Hold-Scarred Orc Wizard with a +1 Con has more than double the health of a PF1 Half Orc Wizard with a +3 Con. There's much less chance of being one-shot by a bad roll.
But, to answer your question, a Mastermind Rogue with a 0/+4/+1/+3/+1/0 statline is possible. You'd want some background that gives either Dex or Int as their boost, and put the free one into the other. The big monster identifying skills are going to be Arcana, Nature, Occult, Religion, Society, and possibly Crafting, so as long as your background also gives you one of those you should be good. Note that your Nature and Religion are going to lag about 2 points behind Arcana etc, because those are Wis based. Being a Mastermind Rogue, if you can identify a creature you can sneak attack them, so get a short bow and plink them with arrows from a distance with sneak attack.
As you level, if you decide that you want to keep identifying creatures, my recommendation is to pick up the Additional Lore skill feat for creatures that fall into your weaker skills like Religion and Nature. Undead Lore, Beast Lore, Fiend Lore, etc can put those creatures into a stronger stat giving you a greater chance to id them appropriately. Thankfully as a Rogue you will get a skill feat every level, and since Additional Lore auto ranks at 3, 7, and 15 you'll never need to put a skill increase into it.
Pick up Medicine at first level, and as soon as you hit a Lvl+Prof bonus of +5, grab Assurance Medicine. You'll be able to do the basic trained level of healing without rolling which can help if there are few other healers. I'm not sure about it's interaction with Battle Medicine off the top of my head, so I'd double check that.
Hope that helps!
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Venture-Agent, Netherlands—Utrecht
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Outwit Ranger with Monster Hunter is crazy effective for Recall Knowledge. With a +2 in INT/WIS your knowledges are the same as a Cleric or Wizard's, with only half the commitment, leaving stat points over for your physical skills. It's not as sexy as the 1d8 precision damage or the -2 on MAP, but it's super good for parties with few knowledge skills.
Heck, if you bump your INT/WIS to +3, you're even better at identifying than the aforementioned classes.
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Contributor
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That being said, I'm not really a big fan of the whole "I'm going to play a certain character that's going to survive first level only to completely rebuild them into the character I actually want to play at second level." I feel it is a disservice to the player to do that, as you don't get a chance to work out kinks or figure out what works for you. The rebuild period exists, in my eyes, as an opportunity to fine tune your build and get rid of things that you thought were cool but end up not using.
Also, survivability is much less a concern if PF2 than it was in PF1. A PF2 Hold-Scarred Orc Wizard with a +1 Con has more than double the health of a PF1 Half Orc Wizard with a +3 Con. There's much less chance of being one-shot by a bad roll.
Just as a note, I do agree with Keirine on this point. But Krell44 does have a dead second edition character in their roster of aliases, so this might be a reaction to that.
For me, I need to play a character at Level 1 to know if their personality is going to gel for me. In general, the mechanics that I choose work fine, but sometimes the character dies for me because I cannot make it live in my head. I had initially created my character Dr. Croaker as a tripkee forensic investigator, and it was super effective, but I could not wrap my head around who Dr. Croaker was, personality wise. So I used the level 1 rebuild to go with the concept of a cranky hydrokineticist from the swamp — and suddenly the character came alive for me.
Krell44, I think that any of the suggestions named above by others could work for your purpose, but I would really rather know about the 2nd level character that you want to create. Who are they?
Hmm
Good Morning,
I am looking to build an effective level 1 Pathfinder Society character that I can play at level 1 before my level 2 rebuild. Basically, looking for an option that is solid on skills, especially at identifying enemies strengths/weaknesses, decent in combat situations, and is just a bit versatile.
Is there a class that gives bonuses if you identify an enemy, something similar to bonus to hit, bonus to damage or something like that?
A class with many skill points seems obvious, so INT based or a Rogue/Investigator? What other options might be out there?
Thanks all.
If I was building a character of this type, I think I'd go for an Investigator with the Alchemical Sciences Methodology and Known Weaknesses as my 1st level feat.
I'd go Elf with the Ancient Elf Heritage for an INT-based Spellcasting Archetype (Wizard, Witch, Magus, Psychic, or Necromancer).
I'd probably pump DEX to 16 and use light armor, a bow, and a finesse melee weapon for backup.
Between being able to use either INT or DEX for ranged or melee attacks you've got a lot of options.
I'd focus on ranged combat. The Elvish movement speed works well with that approach, too.
Cantrips give you a backup when your Devise A Stratagem roll is lousy.
Known Weakness gives you a free action Recall Knowledge as part of your DAS, and potentially gives you and your allies a bonus.
Out of combat you have a ton of skills. And your Alchemy gives you a lot of options both in and out of combat.
I think that's a lot of flexibility for a 1st level character.
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I had just played in a PFS scenario where we lacked many skills, and having the ability to identify creatures strengths/weaknesses would have been unbelievably helpful. Was mostly looking for option on what classes/builds could do so effectively.
That said, I recently discovered a Guardian class feat that would lead me into something that I truly would be fun to play. Basically a strong, charismatic wrestler type. Kholo Guardian with the Wrestler dedication looks like it could do some fun things.
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I had just played in a PFS scenario where we lacked many skills, and having the ability to identify creatures strengths/weaknesses would have been unbelievably helpful. Was mostly looking for option on what classes/builds could do so effectively.
That said, I recently discovered a Guardian class feat that would lead me into something that I truly would be fun to play. Basically a strong, charismatic wrestler type. Kholo Guardian with the Wrestler dedication looks like it could do some fun things.
The perfect character for identifying creatures is a Thaumaturge with their Esoteric Lore. And they can be built in so many ways that at least one will probably be fun for you depending on your tastes.