Jaethal - Mortis Invicta
End Game: Inquisitor 10 / Tower Shield Specialist 6 / Stalwart Defender 4
Tank Build

Build Notes: Most tank builds invariably go one of two major ways. The unarmored / one-handed or the heavy armor / tower shield. Jaethal offers some unique abilities and bonuses that aren't available to other characters.

Starting Stats
Inquisitor-1
16 Strength
14 Dexterity
00 Constitution
14 Intelligence
16 Wisdom
14 Charisma
Skills: Athletics 1, Knowledge (Arcana) 1, Lore (Religion) 1, Perception 1, Persuasion 1
Feats: Toughness

Leveling Stats
Level 2 - Tower Shield Specialist 1
Skills: Mobility +2, Perception +1
Feats: Dodge
Notes: For proper tanking, Jaethal needs Heavy Armor and Shield Proficiency, and by TSS-5 the Tower Shield is objectively better than a Heavy Shield in every way. We're going to hold off on Weapon Focus, letting you use the best weapons you find without pigeon-holing her into one specific group. Note that that means no Dazzling Display, which means you'll want one of your other tanks to use it. Dodge gets picked before Armor or Shield Focus because it raises Touch AC as well as overall AC.

Level 3 - Tower Shield Specialist 2
Skills: Mobility +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Heavy Armor Focus, Shield Focus
Notes: Mobility is only going as high as 3 for the Defensive Fighting Synergy.

Level 4 - Tower Shield Specialist 3
Attribute: Strength +1
Skills: Lore (Religion) +2, Perception +1
Feats: Armor Training(FTR)
Notes: Fullplate now has a max Dex bonus of +2 for Jaethal, allowing her to use her full Dexterity for AC.

Level 5 - Tower Shield Specialist 4
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Crane Style
Notes: Assuming you're just about finishing up the Stag Lord and have no magical gear beyond a Ring and Amulet +1, your AC should currently be 35 (10 Base +10 Fullplate, +2 Dexterity, +4 Tower Shield, +1 Heavy Armor Focus, +1 Shield Focus, +1 Dodge, +2 Fighting Defensively, +1 Mobility Ranks, +1 Crane Style, Ring of Protection +1, Amulet of Natural Armor +1)

Level 6 - Inquisitor 2
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +3, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Spells: Cure Light Wounds(1)

Level 7 - Inquisitor 3
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +2, Knowledge (World) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Solo Tactics(INQ), Combat Expertise, Shield Wall
Spells: Shield of Faith(1)
Notes: A level that makes Tank Jaethal stand apart. Most other characters don't have the Intelligence for Combat Expertise, and since many groups will have two tanks, Jaethal's Shield Wall synergizes her AC higher than just about any other character is liable to get to.

Level 8 - Tower Shield Specialist 5
Attribute: Strength +1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Tower Shield Specialist(FTR)
Notes: Between Defensive Fighting and Combat Expertise, Jaethal has a pretty hefty penalty to attack. The TSS ability here negates two points of that penalty, and her bonus to Strength another one.

Level 9 - Tower Shield Specialist 6
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Trip, Greater Trip
Notes: While most Valerie builds will have you spamming Dazzling Display to weaken enemies, Jaethal should have you tripping them. This works great if you're using her in tandem with other trippers like Dog or a companion built for tripping. Since prone monsters are effectively stunned and can't fight back, this should be used on cooldown.

Level 10 - Stalwart Defender 1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: AC Bonus +1(StDe*)
Notes: While Stalwart Defender levels aren't strictly necessary for the build, the 4 level dip for a couple Dodge AC, some great saves and HP and some decent defensive buffs are generally worth the investment.

Level 11 - Stalwart Defender 2
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Tandem Trip, Smash
Notes: Don't take Roused Defense or Internal Fortitude, Jaethal is already immune to Fatigue, Sickened and Nauseated as an Undead.

Level 12 - Stalwart Defender 3
Attribute: Strength +1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Uncanny Dodge

Level 13 - Stalwart Defender 4
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Fury's Fall, Renewed Defense, AC Bonus +2(StDe*)

Level 14 - Inquisitor 4
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (World) +2, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Spells: Inflict Moderate Wounds(2), Cure Moderate Wounds(2)
Notes: While there are some decent bonuses to continue Stalwart Defender levels, conceptually more Inquisitor levels make sense. And there's something to be said for raising her Perception with Stern Gaze and the Inflict spells in her repetoire.

Level 15 - Inquisitor 5
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (World) +2, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Missile Shield
Spells: Find Traps(2)

Level 16 - Inquisitor 6
Attribute: Strength +1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (World) +2, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Back to Back
Spells: Lesser Restoration(2)

Level 17 - Inquisitor 7
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (World) +2, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Skill Focus (Perception)
Spells: Remove Fear(1), Cure Serious Wounds(3), Inflict Serious Wounds(3)
Notes: You're likely at the very end of the game, and this is where Perception really counts for finding top-tier hidden magic items.

Level 18 - Inquisitor 8
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (World) +2, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Spells: Delay Poison, Communal(3)

Level 19 - Inquisitor 9
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (World) +2, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Feats: Coordinated Defense, Coordinated Manuevers
Spells: Heroism(3)

Level 20 - Inquisitor 10
Attribute: Strength +1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Knowledge (World) +2, Lore (Religion) +1, Perception +1
Spells: Remove Paralysis(2), Cure Critical Wounds(4), Inflict Critical Wounds(4)
Notes: All of Jaethal's stats are evens and only Strength really benefits mechanically from raising it to an odd level (slightly more carry weight).

Tristian - Fire Lord
End Game: Ecclesitheurge 6 / Empyreal Sorcerer 4 / Mystic Theurge 10
Ranged Damage / Healer Build

Build Notes: By the time you get him at Cleric 3, Tristian will already be about as powerful a healer as you're going to need for a long time. He has lots of Channels for great amounts and plenty of spell slots to convert to healing. The idea with this build is that between using those Channels or spontaneously casting some Cure Spells, he's just obliterating the battlefield in fire damage as befits the Cleric of the Goddess of the Sun and Fire. Because of his large Wisdom, the sheer number of spell slots that a Theurge gets (including sharing spell slots between classes) and the Sorcerer's innate high spells per day, Tristian can just be toggled to fire off any number of powerful damaging spells in auto-combat.
Warning: This build gets extremely powerful fairly quickly and tends to trivialize the game somewhat. It's next to impossible to run out of spells, and all he has are extremely powerful heals and extremely powerful damaging spells.

Starting Stats
Ecclesitheurge-3
09 Strength
12 Dexterity
12 Constitution
10 Intelligence
17 Wisdom
16 Charisma
Skills: Persuasion 3, Lore (Nature) 3, Lore (Religion) 3, Perception 3
Feats: Extra Channel, Selective Channel, Extend Spell

Leveling Stats
Level 4 - Empyreal Sorcerer 1
Attributes: Wisdom +1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +3
Feats: Spell Focus (Evocation)
Spells: Burning Hands(1), Magic Missile(1)

Level 5 - Empyreal Sorcerer 2
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +2, Lore (Religion) +1
Feats: Spell Specialization (Magic Missile)
Notes: Tristian should be auto-casting Magic Missile for the foreseeable future. Spell Specialization gives him an extra missile with every cast.

Level 6 - Empyreal Sorcerer 3
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +2
Spells: Ray of Enfeeblement(1)

Level 7 - Empyreal Sorcerer 4
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Point Blank Shot, *Spell Specialization (Burning Arc)
Spells: Burning Arc(2)
Notes: Burning Arc is a great, underrated low-level spell. It does as much single target damage as a Fireball, doesn't risk hitting allies, and is available early. With Spell Specialization, you're good for 6d6 out the gate. Elemental Focus and Spell Focus stack for raising its DC. Also, there are a number of ray spells that Tristian will have access to. While you shouldn't put off Spell Specialization, Precise Shot is your next highest priority.

Level 8 - Mystic Theurge 1
Attributes: Wisdom +1
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Combined Spells (1st), *Spell Specialization (Magic Missile)
Spells: Mage Armor(1), Scorching Ray(2)
Notes: Wew! This is the level that Tristian begins to use his 2nd level Cleric spell slots for 1st level Sorcerer spells. Between his Sorcerer and Cleric slots, he can fire off 10 casts of Spell Specialized Magic Missile (although they come in separate stacks).

Level 9 - Mystic Theurge 2
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Precise Shot
Spells: Fireball(3)

Level 10 - Mystic Theurge 3
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Combined Spells (2nd)
Spells: Shield(1), Molten Orb(2), Haste(3)
Notes: Just to give you a sense of his auto-casting firepower, Tristian has eleven 5d4+5 Magic Missiles, ten 7d6 Burning Arcs, and six 7d6 Fireballs, plus a few Domain spells and his channels.

Level 11 - Mystic Theurge 4
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Elemental Focus (Fireball)
Spells: Dragon's Breath(4)
Notes: By this point, Tristian has both Resist Energy, Communal AND Protection from Energy, Communal. This will help him fire off his high DC Fireballs and Dragon's Breath spells with impunity into the party and monsters. It should be noted that Spell Focus and Elemental Focus both stack with one another.

Level 12 - Mystic Theurge 5
Attributes: Wisdom +1
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Combined Spells (3rd)
Spells: Mirror Image(2), Displacement(3), Obsidian Flow(4)

Level 13 - Mystic Theurge 6
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Greater Elemental Focus (Fire), *Spell Specialization (Flamestrike)
Spells: Fire Snake(5)

Level 14 - Mystic Theurge 7
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Combined Spells (4th)
Spells: False Life(2), Dispel Magic(3), Volcanic Storm(4), Geniekind(5)

Level 15 - Mystic Theurge 8
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Greater Spell Focus (Evocation), *Spell Specialization (Hellfire Ray)
Spells: Hellfire Ray(6)
Notes: For those keeping score, Tristian is functionally a 23rd level character and has access to 6th level spells from each list. Hellfire Ray has a higher damage cap than most other spells (15d6) and higher levels produce more rays. This'll be your go-to Specialization for the immediate future.

Level 16 - Mystic Theurge 9
Attribute: Wisdom +1
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Spells: Controlled Fireball(4), Cloudkill(5), Sirocco(6)

Level 17 - Mystic Theurge 10
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Metamagic (Quicken Spell)
Spells: Firebrand(7)
Notes: It's a worthwhile idea to start using Quicken immediately. For example, while Firesnake is a nice 5th level spell, when forced to choose between that and a simultaneous x2 15d6 Hellfire Ray with a Quickened 5d4+5 Magic Missile, you might be better just using the 5th level spells for Quickened slots.

Level 18 - Ecclesitheurge 4
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +2
Notes: It's a judgement call on whether to continue leveling Cleric or Sorcerer at this point. Sorcerer is probably the better pick, but Cleric is more conceptually appropriate.

Level 19 - Ecclesitheurge 5
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +2
Feats: Improved Critical (Ray), *Spell Specialization (Fire Storm)

Level 20 - Ecclesitheurge 6
Attributes: Wisdom +1
Skills: Lore (Nature) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +2

my problem with tristaian theurge is wasted cha and he will never have enough DC to kill stuff. I was actually thinking about changing my tristian build to hardcore summoner instead of flavor fire theme for that very reason. Works fine on normal though. There is a case to be made to take arcane sorc for that +1 DC and offload buffing to it. +1 is not much, but at least he will have all buffs on tap and his cler DC's will be higher. I do confess I didn't test if arcane affects clerical spells, so just saying it might be worth it.

PS Don't have time for PF rn. Did they fix ecc domain spells bug?

Indeed. In my first post I spoke about builds that are useful every level, not ones that spend the first 90% or so of the game being garbage so you can enjoy that powerspike at the end. In all likelihood, you'll not have hit 9th level spells even if Tristian remained single-classed. Tristian's major failing in the group is that he doesn't really have much for offense. Even Linzi can be made into a somewhat competent arbelist with her Dexterity. But Tristian's 12 Dexterity and 9 Strength means he essentially has to go pure caster. So most people just have him standing idle in the back with a bow that never hits waiting to be toggled to pop a Channel or cast a Mass Cure. But with this build, he goes from being nothing more than a healing battery to a healing battery that auto-pilots massive amounts of AoE damage. The 1d8 of his crossbow maybe hitting once every combat turns to him routinely vomiting out hundreds of damage every fight, often trivializing larger combats with many foes.

And honestly, the last tiers of magic aren't really offering you much even if you do manage to get them. By the end of the game, you'll have cast hundreds of Magic Missiles, Burning Arcs and Controlled Fireballs to every one Horrid Wilting or Wail of the Banshee.

The Charisma still feeds his Channels and Persuasion, though you're correct that it matters a lot less when he multiclasses. And I've found his DCs remain respectably high. Since Empyreal works off of Wisdom and you're stacking it exclusively AND Greater Elemental Focus + Greater Spell Focus mean a solid +4 DC on top of everything, I've noticed even late-game he tends to beat saves frequently. For some reason, most of the foes tend to have bloated Fortitudes and/or Wills, but not so much Reflex. This is especially true in encounters where there are several targets and you're more likely to Fireball than Scorching Ray.

The very first character I played this game was a hardcore summoner Theurge and I have to say that it was pretty terrible. From the outset, I acquired all the relevant summoner feats, something you're going to be delayed in with Tristian. But the low duration of the summons made them useless at the beginning ("beware my 1 round dog, kobolds!"), and then you're stuck lagging behind three levels from the newest ones. At any given time the summons I had were laughably weak compared to the foes I was fighting and I discovered more and more that I was just using the Theurge in a lesser capacity as my Tristian build here. Summon Monster I was dropped for all Magic Missiles. Summon Monster II became Burning Arcs, and so forth.

There's definitely a place for a summoner in the game, but my thinking is single-classed dedicated summoner. And even that, I'm leery on using Tristian as a Druid would suit it far better.

Channel will be pretty meh as he will stay cler 3 for most of the game. I do agree it works, but on unfair or even challenging I don't think he will hit much. Or rather he didn't hit much for me and was a buff bot either way. Making ecc tristian was the 1st thing I did on my 1st playthrough in almost this exact build and I was very disappointed by his perfomance. If theurge had dual casting he should have in this one it would be so much better.

Oh, I meant pure ecc as a summoner. No theurge involved. This is how I run him in my games anyway. Just kept fire flavor option in the guide as it's easier to manage for newer players than the summoner.

Do you mean Spell Synthesis? Because Mystic Theurge has Combined Spells in this one. It's why the build is so great, especially with Sorcerer. Dozens upon dozens of throwaway high damage-output spells.

Yeah I meant synthesis. Was lazy and didn't check the name. He doesn't have it. Or am I going insane? He would have at least some nuking potential with that -2 on saves. Even once per day it would be a nice option to have.

Nah, Synthesis isn't in the game. Honestly, I was always felt that 3.X Mystic Theurge was too powerful a class from the get-go. The Pathfinder updates where you get to double-cast with Synthesis and stack spell libraries with Combined Spells just made it obnoxiously so.

With the number bloat this particular game has I would disagree. if anything theurge has an awful tempo in this one and ends up being a utility caster that doesn't do much, imo. Arcane sorc can at least beat DC's reliably and AT's can nuke areas with no-save spells(and murder singles with rays too). Sylvan sorcs get an extra body and theurge gets... more buffs? cause no way he's gonna beat challenging/unfair DC's in more than 25%.

I think In Effect is right here; for Normal (and probably Challenging too) difficulty MT can get by when enemy saves are reasonable. On higher difficulties the DC of his spells just doesn't keep up, and having a bunch of less effective lower level, lowish DC spells doesn't make up for having loads and load of them. It's like bringing lots and lots of knives to the proverbial gunfight - you're not going to contribute as much as the guy with a couple of good guns.

And having lots of buffs, I suppose it can cut down on the number of times you have to rest (assuming you're not traveling on the overland map, in which case you have to rest regularly anyway), but at some point it doesn't contribute quite as much as it becomes redundant. If the campaign featured lots of big, long dungeons with 40 fights in an adventuring day that'd be a different story and huge numbers of buffs would be more useful, but that's not the case.

MT is effectively like having access to 2 lower level spellcasters (one cleric, one arcane) for the price of one, except they can't both act in the same round - sort of like Kielikki/Kinerah if the sisters were always 3 (or more) levels behind - which is a huge drop of power and utility. It's got it's perks and situations where it can shine, but overall it's underwhelming.

I've ran this precise build 6-8 times now. It works and works incredibly well. You guys are stuck in the all-in mentality for Fortitude and Will saves that most other spells schools are governed by. When I'm blanketing an area for 120 AoE damage a round, sure, some of the mobs will make the DC 30 Reflex save and take half. But the 60 they still took isn't insignificant, especially when it was just me auto-casting and the next round the same is coming out. And for fights that matter, saving throws never come up anyway. A Quickened Scorching Ray + Hellfire Ray is 42-252 damage a round of saveless damage. No summoning build will approach this in numbers. No pure channeling build will approach it.

Given this game is about trying to stretch as much time between rests as possible and utilize as many resources as possible, the Mystic Theurge is always the better pick. With Combined Spell you're essentially doubling your pool of damaging and healing spells at the cost of 3-4 casts of one tier higher. When the name of the game is conservation and making each spell count, I'd rather have 14 first, 14 second, 12 third and 8 fourth slots than 7 first, 7 second, 7 third, 6 fourth and 4 fifth.

given your team is buffed most fights are solved in a few rounds with just haste(ok, not on unfair it isn't. The AC's are a bit too high for that there). No need to cast anything, no-save CC and buffs rule the meta as no mage will ever approximate what a phys character can do. Pure rangers OTK most anything. Rogues/alchemists do as well. Dragonform mages... the list of phys characters to murder stuff with goes on. If it wasn't the flavor I'd honestly drop anything but RTA's and no-saves on any given spell-list along with DC talents on most everyone but arcane sorcs.

The buffing is still casting, and the damaging spells are more reliable anyway. The higher you tune the difficulty, the less likely your physicals are to hit multiple times a round (if at all). The AoE always hits. Even at half damage, it always does a lot of damage and as opposed to that sword swing, is good for multiple targets. A Fireball saved down to 30 damage that hits 6 targets is still a single third level spell that was worth 180 damage.

Dragonkind spells don't come along until 6th+, which means you're not getting a lot of casts out of them and furthermore mean a huge chunk of the game is behind you.

Again, look at the raw data when you're playing the build without a bias against how you feel it SHOULD be performing. I guarantee you this build is out-damaging all your other ones by an enormous margin.