Excellent work as always InEffect, thank you! I shall give it ago ASAP.

A few extra question as I am not as versed in melees as with casters in this game.
- Since we go into crane style so fast, I assume you click fighting defensively and never turn it off ?
- You mention the build can be done any lawfull ( tbh I'd like to go lawfull evil with this build, which prevents me from picking levels in paladins), what should I go for instead of paladin here. I get that it will block me from very good gear options as well, but I am willing to take the hit.

For hard and above it might actually be more profitable to monitor your AB/enemy AB and turn it on and off as needed. It's relatively low investment for the ability to still kinda hit stuff in defensive stance. To turn it on permanently you'd need either aldori's steel net or at least crane riposte in addition to that. It's just front-line is usually more concerned with not being hit than with actually hitting enemies and that makes crane style so viable.

Main thing about being LG is +5 dodge monk robes, when LE robes are +1 dodge. That's 4 AC at level 12-13 right there. Paladin is bis should you get to 20(which is possible even now with some abuse and totally will be once endless dungeon is out) there but can be swapped with any brand of fighter for some extra feats - it comes too late to matter much anyways.
Tbh if you don't go LG for monk there is a case to be made for going heavy mithral armor instead and stacking armor through vivsectionst or dragon disciple and some such.

I guess there are censor's robes that are +2 dodge AC. That'd be marginally better than LE robes.

====

None of the above means you shouldn't play as you want to play. I just stated what it'd cost you. So long as you are having fun - everything goes and you can always go back with respec mod(to respec) and bag of tricks(to change alignment) if you don't like something.

can you elaborate? one person can't be diverse in any way(ethnically or not) and it wooshed right over me about the rose-whacker must be a more obscure meme. Picture looks like some Elvis fan more than anything.

@InEffect

Thanks for doing this, pretty new the crpgs and with so many class options and stuff I feel like I'm going to make the wrong choices.

Trying to build a longsword and board human Ranger, Chaotic good alignment, wears medium or light armour. 2 classes max

Thanks!!

A half-elf or half-orc is "diverse", yes? As in from two different cultures?

I meant it more as a joke! The picture is of Steve Dallas from the comic strip, Bloom County:

https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybreathed/

But on a more serious note, what about a purely high DPS paladin? I imagine a ranger would do more, though, especially to casters in the opposing back-line and with the pet. Divine Hunter might probably be as close to that as one could get as a Paladin, even with the lack of a pet. What do you suggest?

Thanks for your time!

Monkadin for good DPS pally. Except it uses monk robes and other broken thingies to actually have good AC. Doesn't have to be Aasimar due to broken goodnes of monk AC stacking really. Might as well grab half-orc if you want to. If you'd lack AC - remember that mage armor stacks with armor bracers. both reggie and octavia can provide that.

Divine hunter can be made to work. I'll make you one soon-ish as I already started that ranger thing for pinto10. Archer ranger is a lot more dps though. Like not even funny how much more. Think I can do both at the same time without much trouble.

s/b ranger/human/2 classes max/CG for pinto10

Race: Human
Alignment: CG as requested.
Pet: Smilodon

Stats:
Str: 19 > 24
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 13
Wis: 13
Cha: 7
// You can toss 14 as you like. Int is a bit more skill-points, Dex would allow to make the most out of Heart of valor with just +6 dex item.

Main skills: Mobility 3, Perception, Stealth
Suggested secondary skills: Whatever you feel like.

Final Build: Ranger 16 / Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 4

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Ranger - Dodge // Combat Expertise
Lvl 2: Alchemist - Magical beasts
Lvl 3: Ranger - Shield Bash // Two-Weapon Fighting Style > TWF
Lvl 4: Ranger - Underground
Lvl 5: Ranger - Boon Companion
Lvl 6: Alchemist - Combat Trick > Outflank
Lvl 7: Ranger - Accomplished Sneak Attacker // Fey / Fey
Lvl 8: Ranger - Improved TWF
Lvl 9: Ranger - Shield Focus
Lvl 10: Ranger - First World
Lvl 11: Ranger - Trip
Lvl 12: Ranger - Undead / Fey / Greater TWF
Lvl 13: Ranger - Shield Master
Lvl 14: Ranger
Lvl 15: Ranger - Greater Trip // Forest
Lvl 16: Alchemist
Lvl 17: Alchemist - Improved Critical: Longsword // Combat Trick > Bashing Finish
Lvl 18: Ranger - Double Slice
Lvl 19: Ranger - Fury’s Fall // Outsiders / Fey
Lvl 20: Ranger

Important Alchemist Spells: Reduce Person, Enlarge Person, Expeditious Retreat, True Strike, Restoration(Lesser), Cure Wounds spells.
Important Ranger Spells: Lead Blades, Acid Maw, Barkskin, Sense Vitals, Instant Enemy, Magic Fang(Greater), Aspect of the Wolf.

Gear: Whatever best 1h weapon you can find till very late. Might as well be longsword if you are adamant about using those. Best longsword would be Perfection or Redeemer Depending on what you can get your hands on.
Heart of Valor Breastplate. Singing Steel Breastplate late. Helmet of Battlefield Clarity(sold in town) till lvl 15
Ideal Late-game gear: Hat of mental perfection(crown will do as well, the difference is marginal), Gyronna’s Amulet, Cloak of the Chosen, Greater Ring of Ultimate Protection, Ring of circumstances(+Str+AC), Belt of physical perfection +8, Forest Kight’s Bracers, Alkali Gloves, Opportunist’s Boots, Ravena’s Oath.
Use Light Shield till lvl 13. Because you don’t want the penalties.

Should be fine. Gotta say it’s a huge missed opportunity to make use of the Scimitar of the Bear God(with a bear pet). It would just mesh better and bashing finish would profit a lot too. Oh well...

Combat expertise will help with AC early on. Once you finally let go of the Helmet of Battlefield Clarity - turn it off for good and only turn back on if you lack AC. Same With fighting defensively - only turn it on if the situation is dire.

Don’t forget to right-click Aspect of the wolf: Trip after you cast it so it auto-trips every round. Only use regular trips is you really need a bit of control and are out of aspects.

Wow this is awesome, didn't realise there was such an awesome scimitar and was thinking about a bear companion as well. Definitely think I'll head in that direction.

Bow ranger/pal/diverse for shatterblast

Race: Half-orc // top dog of the intersectional stack. Of color and mixed race. Constantly oppressed. Bonus points if gay.

Alignment: LG
Pet: Smilodon
Deity: Abadar
Domain: Travel

Stats:
Str: 14
Dex: 19 > 24
Con: 14
Int: 7
Wis: 11
Cha: 14

Main skills: Stealth
Suggested secondary skills: Persuasion, Perception, UMD(spare)

Final Build: Ranger 12 / Paladin(Divine Hunter) 2 / Sacred Huntsmaster 6

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Paladin - Rapid Shot
Lvl 2: Ranger - Magical Beasts
Lvl 3: Ranger - Weapon Focus: Longbow // Archery > Point-Blank Shot
Lvl 4: Ranger - Underground
Lvl 5: Ranger - Boon Companion
Lvl 6: Ranger - Fey / Fey
Lvl 7: Ranger - Manyshot // Point-Blank Master
Lvl 8: Ranger
Lvl 9: Ranger - Clustered Shots // First World
Lvl 10: Ranger
Lvl 11: Ranger - Critical Focus // Undead / Fey // Improved Precise Shot
Lvl 12: Ranger
Lvl 13: Ranger - Tiring Critical
Lvl 14: Inquisitor
Lvl 15: Inquisitor - Blind Fight
Lvl 16: Inquisitor - Outflank
Lvl 17: Inquisitor - Exhausting Critical
Lvl 18: Inquisitor -
Lvl 19: Paladin - Extra Bane Weapon
Lvl 20: Inquisitor - Shrug it Off

Important Ranger Spells: Aspect of The Falcon, Hurricane Bow, Sense Vitals, Instant Enemy
Important Inquisitor Spells: Divine Favor, Expeditious Retreat, Remove Fear, True Strike, Restoration(Lesser), Remove Paralysis, See Invisibility, Effortless Armor

Gear: Longbow. Best ones are: Hunter's Blessing, Gamekeeper of the First World, Mirror Bow. Whichever you find - it will be fine.
Lesser extend rods. At least 2 of those.
Whatever armor has the best enchants. You don’t care about AC at all.
Crown, Ring of circumstances(maybe even 2) Belt +8 and so on. Same theme of ignoring all things AC and stacking damage/utility. Bracers of the Ruby Phoenix Champion or just archery.

Should Fare decently well. Keeps almost full animal Progression, Gives it outflank so the cat is fully functional melee in the party(kinda). Has smite evil for bosses, Favored enemy for most common things and Instant enemy for others if they look mildly strong. Instant enemy is pretty much the reason why it’s pointless to take one-off strong enemies there.

We could go higher on the damage if we took some Vivisectionist levels instead of sacred huntsmaster, but I chose to keep the pet functional instead.

I made this portrait couple weeks ago, might be fitting for him:

https://imgur.com/a/B64gYzi

Thank you for taking the time to do this!

I'd like to make a melee character that is durable, uses heavy armor, and uses either a 2h weapon or dual wields. I'm open to multi classing. Magic is optional but I prefer to play something that has some actives (don't want to just walk around and point and click). Vivisectionist is interesting to me but I'm not sure if heavy armor is too much of a feat investment. I enjoy a challenge so I'd be playing on either challenging or hard.

Thank you! Excited to see if you can make this work.

2h tank for mnsigur

Race: Aasimar(Angelkin)
Alignment: LG

Stats:
Str: 19 > 24
Dex: 13
Con: 14
Int: 13
Wis: 7
Cha: 16

Final Build: Paladin(Divine Guardian) 2* / Sorcerer 4 / Dragon Disciple 4 / Eldritch Knight 10
*Whatever really. I guess DG is my a tiniest amount better than regular pal.
Bloodline: Any Draconic.

Main skills: Mobility 3, Knowledge(Arcana) 5*, Persuasion (max)
Suggested secondary skills: Use Magic Device(Max) or max out Arcana and drop spare points into UMD.
*By level 5

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Paladin - Dodge
Lvl 2: Sorcerer - Extend Spell
Lvl 3: Sorcerer - Combat Expertise
Lvl 4: Sorcerer
Lvl 5: Sorcerer - Arcane Armor Training
Lvl 6: Dragon Disciple
Lvl 7: Dragon Disciple - Arcane Armor Mastery // Blindfight
Lvl 8: Dragon Disciple
Lvl 9: Dragon Disciple - Outflank
Lvl 10: Eldritch Knight - Weapon Focus: Greataxe
Lvl 11: Eldritch Knight - Wings
Lvl 12: Eldritch Knight
Lvl 13: Eldritch Knight - Improved Critical: Greataxe
Lvl 14: Eldritch Knight - Dazzling Display
Lvl 15: Eldritch Knight - Shatter Defences
Lvl 16: Eldritch Knight
Lvl 17: Eldritch Knight - Intimidating Prowess
Lvl 18: Eldritch Knight - Greater Weapon Focus: Greataxe
Lvl 19: Eldritch Knight - Arcane Strike*
Lvl 20: Paladin
*or Dreadful Carnage

Spells by level in order of importance:
Lvl 1: Shield, Enlarge Person, True Strike, Corrosive Touch, Vanish
Lvl 2: Mirror Image, Cat’s Grace, Glitterdust, Sense Vitals, Bear’s Endurance
Lvl 3: Haste, Displacement, Resist Energy(Communal), Vampiric Touch
Lvl 4: Animate Dead, Dimension Door, Protection from Energy(Communal), Volcanic Storm*
Lvl 5: Geniekind, Angelic Aspect, Echolocation, Vampiric Shadow Shield
Lvl 6: Heroism(Greater), Transformation, Dispel Magic(Greater)
Lvl 7: Waves of Exhaustion, Legendary Proportions,
Lvl 8: Seamantle
*Or Enervation to use with true strikes to kill immortal stuff like a troll in the endgame. Although the same can be done with stat drain.

Gear: Mithral heavy armors, Best 2h you can find till you get some good axes from masters. +Stat and +AC items as usual, Helmet of battlefield clarity.

Endgame gear:
Helmet of battlefield clarity, Gyronna’s Amulet, Absolver Cloak, Onslaught, Great Dweomer Smile, Ring Of Circumstances(+AC+Str), Any +Dex+Con Belt, Royal Gloves of Valor, Charon’s Touch, Opportunist’s Boots, Vanquisher

Earlygame: forget you have spells for now. Play like a regular fighter would. Use shield and some weapon. And so 1st act will pass.

By Act2 things become interesting. 1st order of business is to grab Helmet of battlefield clarity from the trader. They also have Mithral plate that you’ll be thrilled to get. You should’ve found +1 greatsword in A1 - that’ll do for now, but I’d look to buy corrosive heavy flail as well , but it’s not a priority by any means and any 2h you find on adventures will do if you are short on cash.

Assuming you did everything in A1 you should be level 5 and have 15% ASF in mithral plate. Not too great, but it will have to do. It’s not like you’ll be casting much outside of a few buffs here and there.

By level 7 you will look almost like a real character with just 5% ASF that’ll stick forever. Missing some slots is a bit upsetting, but it’s no big deal. At level 9 Everything is fine as you get outflank like all other melees should.

Cat’s grace and bear’s endurance are taken so you aren’t stretched too thin on items. Pretty much only belt you need to have +Str one. It doesn’t mean you should aim for better as it saves you slots, but if you find +6 belt of str you can put it on and still retain your HP and AC. It mostly convenience, but it’s nice to have.
Given it’s a lvl20 build I guess I have to tell you how to get to said level 20.
1. Collect ALL +persuasion items.
2. When passing Persuasion checks turn off Sharing Exp for skill checks in the options. (don’t forget to turn it back again after to max out the gains)
3. If needed, buff up and equip all those shiny +Persuasion toys. Chocolate meal is also handy as that’s another +3
4. First big buck persuade check is in Armags tomb. Go for big intimidation from the get go and you’ll get 300000+ Exp.
5. There are more here and there, just keep an eye out. Overall you can get more than a million exp from those and when you come to the endgame your companions will be brought to your level.

Alternative would be going as a party of 3 or 4.

Will have in the ballpark of 70AC by endgame if you did everything and grabbed all items on the list(a lot of them are masterpieces from artisans, so get working on those kingdom stats!) and a ton of AB, especially if you turn CE off. Not exactly viable for unfair due to slower AC ramp than other classes, but can tank unfair endgame no problem.

Didn’t pick power attack as we can’t afford it really. CE already cuts into out AB by midgame (not so much thanks to the helmet) And I highly doubt It’d be worth it. You can grab it instead of blindfight if you really want it.

It's one of very few ways to make a serviceable armored tank with 2h weapon of all things. Could use alchemist, but those don't really mesh all too well with 2h. And Aldori DW alchemist had too much problems as well(mostly due to the fact that there are no insanely good duelist swords till the very endgame) and That thing also doesn't break 70AC, so I decided against that.

Dazzling we use to ramp Effective AB even higher. Again could've grabbed Carnage somewhere, but decided against that. Chances are you'll have some Dazzling thug in your party be it Linzy or Valerie and you only really want shatter defenses.

Fighting defensively is not really used here, but you do have it so that's +3AC when you need it.

Can be done as LE. Just grab fighter instead of Pal at level1(focus heavy armor) and grab Thug 1 at level 20. Will cost you a bunch of saves, but otherwise won't affect much(you will fight transformed anyways)

I was looking into making a strength feral mutagen vivisectionist build stacking natural weapons for sneak attacks (Was thinking of using motherless Tiefling for the extra bite, even though the -2 to int is really awkward).
Like the concept of a drugged up Tiefling running amok clawing people to death. I also like the fact that this build seems to spike quite hard early in terms of damage dealing potential even though it's squishy for hard+ (although I don't really care much for micromanaging him similar to when playing with glass canon nok-nok.).

I am quite interested in seeing how you would build such a character, keep the characteristics of spiky early game damage while finding a way to give it a late game plan.

So tl;dr

Strength feral mutagen vivisectionist
- Difficulty : hard viable (don't mind if requires micromanagement)
- Preferred race Tiefling (for esthetics - and motherless for extra bite attack but can sacrifice it if -2 int is too crippling)
- Looking to see if there is a way to transition lategame through multiclassing, don't mind ditching claws for weapons when weapon extra attacks starts making natural weapon fall behind
-(I have all dlcs)

Thanks in advance.