Staff Monkster

Role: Damage Dealer/Off-Tank

Race: Aasimar(Angelkin)
Alignment: Lawful-Good

Stats:
Str: 19 > 24
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 7
Wis: 7
Cha: 18

Final Build: Monk(Scaled Fist)11/Paladin(Divine Hunter) 2/Fighter(Two-Handed)7
Main skills: Mobility 3*, Persuasion(max)
Suggested secondary skills: Use Magic Device(spare)

*asap

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Monk - Weapon Focus: Quarterstaff // Dodge
Lvl 2: Monk - Crane Style
Lvl 3: Monk - Dazzling Display
Lvl 4: Paladin
Lvl 5: Paladin - Outflank
Lvl 6: Monk - Barkskin
Lvl 7: Monk - Shatter Defences
Lvl 8: Monk - Crane Wing // True Strike
Lvl 9: Monk - Crane Riposte
Lvl 10: Monk - Scorching Ray
Lvl 11: Monk - Wings
Lvl 12: Monk - Blind Fight // Spit Venom
Lvl 13: Monk - Power Attack
Lvl 14: Fighter - Dreadful Carnage
Lvl 15: Fighter - Combat Reflexes // Intimidating Prowess
Lvl 16: Fighter
Lvl 17: Fighter - Cleave // Cleaving Finish
Lvl 18: Fighter
Lvl 19: Fighter - Weapon Specialization: Quarterstaff // Improved Critical: Quarterstaff
Lvl 20: Fighter

Gear: Best Quarterstaff you can find(Witch in a2 sells a decent one to start with). +Cha helmet // +Str+Dex+Con gear. +AC items. Armor bracers.

First of all you really-really would love alchemist in the party. Long shield spell and enlarge are good for your health. If not you do have UMD for shield wands. Lead blades wands are nice too.

This is a power attack build. True strikes will help you land the 1st hit if that will become a problem. You will want someone to cast heroism(greater one later on) and haste on you to fix your AB. Bard song is appreciated, as usual.

Paladin is there to fix your saves and to provide extra AB/AC/Damage against bosses/tough foes. It also allows you to use those RTA ki powers for fun. Also smite evil targets have no DR for you so that’s a bonus as well. Sadly, we have no challenge evil spell to check if the thing is evil, will have to metagame.

Main Ki Powers are extra attack and true strike.

To the tanky part. Melee AC calculation assuming +6 mid-to-late gear:
10(base)+7(cha)+5(dex)+2(Monk levels)+4(Barkskin/ammy)+4(ring)+3(wings)+4(Fighting defensively)+4(Shield Spell)+5(monk robes)+5(Bracers+5)=54AC - decent for a 2-hander. 52 when enlarged. Good enough for midgame. Can reach 70/50 with top gear

Will deal about 50 damage per hit, 7 hits per round(assuming haste). 3 of those at max BAB. 8 attacks/4 at max BAB with extra attack ki power. has seize the moment more for himself than his party(I tend to take it on everyone by 9) so they will give him even more attacks. Has good damage so will proc cleaving finish rather often.

Recommended to turn off shared exp and go with a party of 3 or you will never reach lvl20 and that's kinda nice for this one. will still be good, but will be truly amazing when DLC to push us to 20 will come.

Theoretically paladin can be moved to 19-20, but I am kinda scared about will saves.

Shatter defenses is there to help us with AB penalty from power attack.

Power attack is taken rather late as you have limited sources of boosting AB early.

There you have it. Two-handed str monk with tolerable AC and Damage.

Classes and evaluation. Part 1
As a general rule base class doesn’t offer much in comparison to more specialized sub-classes. Sub-classes that are not mentioned are pretty much dumpster-tier and are not worth mentioning.

Alchemist. Rank: S
One of the most OP things in the game. Mutagen is a specific “Alchemical” source that stacks with everything. Very strong class feats(discoveries). Bombs are ranged touch attacks so it means they don’t need much to hit and, being special ability, can be used when Transformed or otherwise denied casting. Can give out "personal" buffs to others with infusion.

Notable sub-classes:
Grenadier. Rank: S+.
Base class on steroids. With cognatogen bombs can grow to an absurd DC’s and control effects of those are as potent as it gets. Basic alchemist can do it too, but Grenadier gets more stuff for free.

Vivisectionist: Rank: SS.
Ideal 1 level dip for mutagen and d6 damage if you don’t know what to spend 1 class level on. One of the best pure class lvl 20 options. Absolute monster no matter how you do it.

Barbarian. Rank C
HP tanks do not work in this game. Ramps AB like nobody else does. Rage gives flat bonuses so number of attacks is paramount for them. Weirdly enough, dex dual-wielding barbarian is pretty much default option for them. Multi-classing is recommended. Doesn’t get much out of staying pure. If you go barbarian best way is to abandon AC and go for reckless stance as it stacks with everything. Bite Rage Power DOES NOT gain reach when enlarged and will force your enlarged guy into melee - do not take it on two-handed guys. For dual-wielders it means extra attack. Extra attacks are good. Especially if you have sneak-attack dice.

Notable sub-classes:
Invulnerable Rager. Rank: B.
Nice lvl8 or 12 class. You get DR and damage aka best parts of the class. Going to lvl12 lets you pick up Greater Totem for pounce. Good enough on dual-wield guys. A lot worse with the damage ramp that comes from difficulty increase.

Mad Dog. Rank: A.
Two-handed archetype. Usually goes for lvl 2/5/14. Fixes his number of attacks through pet interaction and Seize the Moment. Best Barbarian archetype due to the pet interactions.

Bard. Rank A+.
Best party buffers out there. Have good enchantment spell selection for control, although the DC is not good enough for higher difficulties.

Notable sub-classes:
Archaeologist: Rank A.
Nice for 2 level dips. Gets uncanny dodge and a feat in 2 levels. Is not recommended as a pure class, but do make ok skill monkeys.

Thundercaller: Rank A.
Wants to go at least 19 levels in or nothing. Thunder call is nice. Load him with as many extra performances and Charisma as you can. Gets a lot worse with the difficulty increases as the DC is nothing spectacular.

Cleric. Rank B
Cleric Spell list is not exactly Impressive, apart from healing. Domains are nice. Best domains are Animal, Luck, Knowledge, Community, Trickery, and Water. Destruction can be awesome or really bad depending on if the enemy can hit your AC or not.

Notable sub-classes:
Crusader: Rank B-.
Fightery cleric. Don’t think the loss of an extra domain is ever worth it.

Herald Caller: Rank B-.
Summon-oriented cleric. Same deal as crusader. If you want to summon just bite the bullet and learn it through feats. Or better yet - go Druid or Monster Tactician.

Ecclesitheurge: Rank A+. Best cleric archetype out there. Reason is simple: clerics suck at tanking and melee anyway. You will get Bonded object that is really handy and 2 domain slots.

Druid. Rank B.
Some ok support spells, some decent conjurations. Go for summoning feats on this one.
Select animal domain instead of a pet. 1 feat for bonded animal is easily worth 9 extra spell slots. They are shitty sylvan sorcs in my book. But Shitty sylvan sorc is better than a good portion of other classes out there.

Notable sub-classes:
Defender of the True World. Rank A+.
All the things regular Druids get and then some. Considering the amount of Fey enemies in this game, does pretty much have +4AB and Damage against those(mostly relevant to the animal companion)

Feyspeaker. Rank S-.
Get a whole package for doing degenerate things. Are the best druid shifters due to mirror.

Fighter. Rank D
Brings nothing to the table. Slow progression, mediocre damage/AC. Doesn’t even get his AC for free - needs to pump Dex for it. Fighters in general are the definition of mediocrity. Mediocre AC gains, mediocre damage. Everything they have is just 'ok' at best

Notable sub-classes:
Aldori Defender. Rank B.
Base class on steroids. gets a lot of good stuff in just 9 levels, does not need to pump Dex, unlike regular fighters. Solid base for multiclassing, but we can find something better elsewhere.

Two-Handed Fighter. Rank A.
This one is not confused about his role. Ramps damage decently. Gets all the good stuff in 3/7/9 levels. Greater Power attack is nice, but you can get more elsewhere. Another decent enough base for multiclassing with much the same drawbacks as other fighters.

Inquisitor. Rank D-.
Gets all the best stuff in 16 levels. Gets 1 domain. Some Spells and self-buffs. Good Class. Best domains for him are luck and animal, depending on what you are focusing on. Lacking Shield spell, so should be a 2-hader guy to sit as far from danger as possible. Tolerable support spell selection. Don’t even try to learn offensive spells - they are not built for that. Base class can be used as a 3 level dip for Solo tactics if you don’t tend to give seize the moment to everyone in your front-line. With the main mechanic running counter to the idea of having many combats per rest is a poor career choice.

Notable sub-classes:
Monster Tactician. Rank B.
THE summoner. Get animal domain on him. Get summoning feats and go to town. 17 level investment. Conjuerors and clerics do the same better.

Tactical Leader. Rank C+.
Can give out teamwork feats to the team. Likely wants to take 4 levels of Freebooter for even more support. Would be a lot better if there were more good Teamwork feats. At the end of the day it's better to pick good team feats on everyone and inq/fighter tactics on others.

Sacred Huntsmaster. Rank A-.
Good 3 level dip for Mad Dog and Druid. Fine as a 12 level abadar nobility. Best Inquisitor archetype due to pet and favored enemy.

Magus. Rank C-.
Base class has nothing good to offer compared to subs.

Notable sub-classes:
Eldritch Scion. Rank S+.
Amazing spell selection for a gish. Can convert Cha into AB. Bloodlines to consider are draconic and abyssal with the latter being a more demanding on the buff stacking as it lacks AC boosts.


Sword Saint. Rank SS.
More fightery version of Scion. Ramps damage better, but doesn't rely on spells that much. Pretty much is the best no nonsense martial archetype in the game. Buff and stab enemies with a pointy bit.

Eldritch Archer. Rank S+.
Best archer in the game. Or more like 2level dip for any archer for an extra arrow every round and a few true strikes.

Classes and evaluation. Part 2

Monk. Rank B.
Base class is ok. Nothing that’s better than subs, though.

Notable sub-classes:
Scaled Fist. Rank S.
Cha monk. Perfect 1-2 dip for cha classes. Works decently well as a main class. Does prefer some multi-classing.

Traditional Monk. Rank A+.
Base monk with better saves. Ki powers don’t really matter anyways.

Paladin. Rank A-.
Good base class. Has amazing mark of justice. Adds his cha saves. Store at least 1 challenge evil spell on paladins to test if creature is evil before spending Smite charges. Smite lets you pretty much destroy bosses. Has no permanent AC boosters, so wants to be a 2nd row guy. Either archer or 2-handed will do. The lack of evil enemies late-game hurts.

Divine Hunter. Rank A-.
Gives the most for a 2 level dip out of all other paladin options. Not a good full class. Oddly enough, base paladin makes a better archer than this due to mark of justice.

Hospitalier. Rank A-.
One of the better healers in the game. Pure class option. Offers little besides healing and proper parties don't get damaged much.

Divine Guardian. Rank A.
Give saves, smite and AC buff you can cast on yourself for 3 levels. Further investments are rather pointless, but 3 level package is great.


Ranger. Rank A+.
One of rare cases when Base class is amazing. Gets amazing damage and a pet. ‘Nuff said. Pure class is recommended.

Notable sub-classes:
Freebooter. Rank S-
Good option for multiclassing. Freebooter’s bane is good universal damage boost, Freebooter’s bond is a universal party buff. Still gets Style feats. Usually is a 6/10 level investment. Would be rated higher if it wasn't insanely demanding on micro.

Rogue. Rank D
Rogues are a noob trap. Yes, they have good damage, but so do other classes. What really hurts them is slow BAB progression and no ways of AC stacking. And the fact that vivisectionist does their job 10 times better. Useless class feats before lvl10 - best used for combat tricks.

Notable sub-classes:
Eldritch Scoundrel. Rank A
Get no more than 4/7/8 class levels and go for prestige. Good Spell selection, Sneak attack and sense vitals out of the box. Good platform to multi-class, but can't compete with Vivisectionist or Scion/Saint, except for archery.

Knife Master. Rank A-.
Better than default Rogue in every aspect. Still suffers from low AB and AC, but at least gets even more damage.

Thug. Rank A+.
Trades useless danger sense for more utility. Good option, especially as a 4 level dip. Would be higher if chasing enemies wasn't such a pain.

Sorcerer. Rank SS
Draconic Bloodline for anything that might find itself in melee. Same for AT sorcs. Arcane/Sage for everyone else. Arcane wants to stay pure for at least 17-18 levels. Those DC boosting class feats are amazing and you will get respectable spell selection in the process. In general, you name it - sorc can do it.

Notable sub-classes:
Sage Sorcerer. Rank S+.
With +4 profane staff is the best DC sorc out there.

Sylvan Sorcerer. Rank S+.
Full arcane spell-caster with a tank attached? Hell yeah! Pure class option with maybe 1-2 level dip for scaled fist if you want more relaxed gameplay.or vivi for a better DC ramp

Wizard. Rank A-.
Due to limited spell selection and the need to specialize in a school end up being shitty sorcs. Sub-classes are even worse. That being said, being shitty sorc is still a very potent character.

Notable sub-classes:
Arcane Bomber. Rank A+
Best way to go about wizard is not competing with sorc. This one gives us something for nothing. Wizards end up in many ways more limited than sorcs in spell selection since we can't afford to keep a spell we'd need once a blue moon. This one takes the idea further and just adds two more schools to the bad list, which is hardly a sacrifice. Just pick evocation, abjuration, enchantment, divination(or conjuration if you want to go illusions+necro instead of conjuration+necro).

Scroll Savant. Rank A
Fixes some wizard slell-list problems by making scrolls better. Without the ability to scribe them it's quite a bit worse than it could be, but hey, at least it does something sorc doesn't.

Thassilonian wizard. Rank A
Glutton. That's that, pretty much. Again we pay nothing to get more of something. Perfect class for theurges. Other than that it competes too much with a sorcerer to be of any real consideration

Arcane trickster. Rank A+.
Have potential for doing tons of damage. Problem is those tons of damage come late and it has low BaB progression. Best used as a few level dip to buff ray damage a little or as a full lvl10 for doing decent AoE damage late-game. Overall an overhyped class that does amazing things at level 20.

Stalwart Defender. Rank B.
Good for 1 level dip, that gives you +1AC and a stance.. Awful for anything else. Slow AC progression, useless class feats.

Eldritch Knight. Rank A.
Full BAB arcane prestige. Gets a few feats in the way and counts as fighter levels. Lvl 10 feature is welcome, but is not defining. Good option for a lot of gishes, as they don’t really want to cast transformation too often.

Dragon Disciple. Rank S-.
4 levels. No more, no less. 4 str, 2AC, draconic bloodline progression, 3CL and breath weapon at medium BAB. Tailor-made for draconic sorcs and Str Eldritch scions. Good option for all sorts of 2handed users to ramp the damage and get mirror from Scion1/DD4 or Archaeologist2/DD4.

Mythic Theurge. Rank A-.
Meme Class for the most part. DO NOT do this to your main if you value your sanity. Good part is you get both divine and arcane caster in one guy. Bad news is said guy witll be about 3-4 levels behind pure class casters and won’t have any channeling to speak of. Nice as a swiss-army knife for every occasion, but overall is rather underwhelming till high-levels(preferably, 20). If you need a half-cleric take inquisitor with you. If you need half-sorc - take Scion. Honorable mention to Wizard7/Ecc3/Theurge10 and cler8/wiz3/Theurge9 that do get lvl9 arcane spells, and can off-load all buffs to cleric slots. Good pick for a level 20 mercs. Not so much for the protagonist.

Duelist. Rank B+.
Nice for added damage and AC. not many reasons to go beyond 7. Lvl 5 brings all the best the class has to offer. Can be useful for monks and dex aldori, otherwise act as if it doesn’t exist - there are better options out there.

this is incredible, the depth is immense here.

I wish there was like a beginners build, like someone who just started playing, and wants to be OP, due to the difficulty setting.

I mean i can dig through everything you wrote, and come to the conclusion. but it might be useful even more to have this kind.
what to invest on each one?
player class:X(no need, there are plenty of guides for each class form you)
tristan:pure?
the bard:?
Amiri:pure, but what feats..
valerie:?
octavia:?

for the first chapter at least, since he is the hardest??

Race evaluation

Human. Rank SS
Flexible stat boost, more skill-points(very nice as it allows humans to be imbeciles and still gain decent amount of skill-points). Extra feat allows to get crucial feats faster and at a better pace - you won’t believe how just1 free feat can improve progression on some classes. There is literally nothing wrong with humans. Best choice for a lot of builds.

Elf. Rank A.
Decent stat boosts, treats curved blades as martial. Spell pen is handy. Invaluable in rare occasions. Otherwise are bad humans.

Dwarf. Rank B
Nice racial feat. Natural-born Druids and Cleric-based Theurges. They make decent monks and dex-based classes that dip into monk otherwise.

Gnome. Rank D
I have literally no idea what they are for in this game. Illusion spells are rare and weak, cha bonus puts them into direct competition with Halflings(spoiler alert: Halflings are better). I guess you can make a sorcerer with arcane bloodline and focus on illusions if you really want it, but sage humans do it better.

Halfling. Rank A
Stat bonuses in the right places, amazing racial feat, +1 to all saves, size bonus to AC. Make ok bard tanks, but with val being around it's hardly a big selling point. Also are fine as sorcs, although a feat from human will be better in most cases.

Half-Elf. Rank C.
Bad Humans. Bad elfs. None of the things that make elfs good, combined with lost flexibility of humans. Probably have gnome friends. Although if you are taking a skill focus anyway are at least usable.

Half-Orcs. Rank F.
They keep the better part of humans. They don’t, however gain anything meaningful in return for the lost feat. Essentially a bad human, but at least they don’t lose too much. Real problem is their racial that will get you killed all the time. It's worse than nothing and makes the race borderline unusable till very late.

Aasimar. Rank S+
Best race in the game for stat totals. 2 stat bumps with no drawbacks, wings at 11, elemental resistances are whatever - you will cast protections when you face elemental damage anyways. Spell-like abilities are nice too. Most used heritages would be Angelkin, Musetouched, and Plumekith.

for a beginner I'd take either sylvan sorc or str scion.
companions I would really recommend following my guide as they will likely end up pretty useless if followed default progression. 1st post has clickable index for everything I wrote - so you don't have to shovel through it. just cherry-pick what concerns you.

as far as party composition goes I'd say you have to keep Linzy at all times. you need 1 full divine caster 1gish or full arcane caster and fill the rest with whatever you feel like.

I would recommend saving Tristian before sycamore for several reasons:
1.you won't have to do project for him in A2 that way.
2.you will get better divine caster than Harrim is.

you need a sturdy front-line, so valerie is there to stay for a long time. Reggie can be good, but he won't be anything amazing before teens.

to summarize it:
best early composition is:
Valerie(Dazzling+tank)
Linzy(Hideous Laughter, Cacophonous Call)
Amiri(off-tank damage)
Tristian(Fear, Sound Burst)
Octavia(Web spell at lvl4, color spray before that) and some damage
Main Char - whatever you fancy. you can run through A1 with anything on normal/challenging. new players who don't know what they do at all should not play on hard, period.

You should put all this info in the Pathfinder wiki. It's good stuff. :)

I'm in a mood to create a two hander build but I cannot decide which class to choose.

It was either two hander warrior or a Paladin (hospitaler probably).

I suppose the warrior will be better dmg dealer right? The paladin on the other hand will be able to heal. How much worse the paladin is in the combat? Barbarian was an option too, but I do not like the squishines much.

Hospitalier is a lot better at boss killing due to smite. you can check if things are evil with challenge evil spell so you won't waste smites. He is also one of the best (if not the best) healers in the game as he has both lay on hands and channel. as a bonus channel annihilates undead.

two-handed Fighter does big damage with power attacks and has stuff to support it. My monkster is a nice example of that concept.

If I were to go pure class I'd go for hospitalier, as that has more tools.

wiki can use it as long as they give me credit. I am way too lazy to do it myself.

Would you choose Human or Aasimar for it? From what I've seen, some classes are feat starved more than stat as those can be boosted by items. So human can be better choice for Fighters as those are in need of feats most right?

2 Handed fighter is also considered low AC? I'm not familiar with later class stages and development so I do not know how much AC comes from items and how much it comes from the classes themselves.

there are limited ways of bumping AC. those classes have pretty much none. and anything that doesn't get a lot of AC from somewhere should not bother with it. Technically paladin is a tiny bit better at that as smite gives a tiny bit. but that's not enough and is conditional. For AC two-handers I'd direct you to Elven Arcane Warrior and Staff Monkster for ideas how to go about it. both abandon armor in favor of monk boosts and robes. it's just simple math. Best AC you can get from plate+5 is 14. monk robes+bracers+dex+cha/wis = 22AC assuming 16 dex and 16 cha/wis(divided however you want) and +6 items.

To make hospitalier more useable as MC you can take 1 level monk dip, get stat spread of Monkster more or less. except you will likely want 18 str and 19 cha. will also need alchemist for shield and barkskin, but at least he will not die if something looks at it funny.

upd. oh, and bump Cha on level-ups. that would give you both AC and AB with smite on.
upd2 with 1 monk dip it's probably better to be regular pally. mark of justice is amazing.

edited the post quite a bit. just letting you know

Thank you. I'm half way through with Magus at the moment and I simply cannot get to like the class for some reason so I'm looking at something more simpler yet at the same level of dps. I probably lack the self control and patience to make it work properly with buffing and good micromanagement.

I thought that something more straightforward as 2H Fighter or Paladin would suit me more.

what brand of magus are you playing? base class is pretty atrocious for them. I actually love every magus sub-class.