petey488: InEffect,

Sorry for all the requests, you may see a trend here. Can you help me with a tank build that is viable in hard difficulty and uses a pet companion? I want to avoid anything Druid and for the pet companion to stay relevant for as long as possible, but I understand if we have to lose some levels somewhere.

InEffect: DW/SB/As broken as possible for Elspyth

Race: Tiefling(Motherless)

Alignment: Any

Stats:
Str: 19 > 24
Dex: 13
Con: 14
Int: 11
Wis: 16
Cha: 7

Final Build: Monk(Traditional) 1/Bard(Archaeologist 2/Vivisectionist 12/Magus: Sword Saint 1

Main skills: Mobility 3, Knowledge(Arcana) 5, Persuasion Max, Perception Max
Suggested secondary skills: Whatever. Athletics is not bad for spare points.

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Sword Saint - Chosen Weapon: Falcata // Dazzling Display
Lvl 2: Monk - Crane Style
Lvl 3: Alchemist - Accomplished Sneak Attacker
Lvl 4: Bard
Lvl 5: Alchemist - Two-Weapon Fighting(Need +2 Dex item) // Feral Bite
Lvl 6: Alchemist
Lvl 7: Alchemist - Outflank // Combat Trick > Shield Bash
Lvl 8: Alchemist
Lvl 9: Alchemist - Improved Two-Weapon Fighting(+4Dex Item) // Feral Wings
Lvl 10: Alchemist
Lvl 11: Alchemist - Shatter Defenses // Combat Trick > Improved Critical: Falcata
Lvl 12: Alchemist
Lvl 13: Alchemist - Double Slice(+2 Item) // Crippling Strike
Lvl 14: Alchemist
Lvl 15: Alchemist - Shield Master // Greater Mutagen
Lvl 16: Bard - Opportunist
Lvl 17: Dragon Disciple - Greater Two-Weapon Fighting(+6 Item) // Any Acid Dragon
Lvl 18: Dragon Disciple - Blind Fight
Lvl 19: Dragon Disciple - Bashing Finish
Lvl 20: Dragon Disciple

Important Magus Spells: True Strike, Shield

Important Alchemist Spells: True Strike, Enlarge Person, Barkskin, Restoration(lesser), Delay Poison, Displacement, Haste, Heroism, Delay Poison(Communal), Greater Invisibility, Stoneskin, Restoration

Important Bard Spells: Remove Fear, Cure Light Wounds, Vanish, Unbreakable Heart, Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Heroism

Gear: Lion’s Claw(Varnhold DLC) any other falcata before that, LG monk robes, Light shield till Shield Master; Heavy Shield after(Ravena when you find it). AC bracers, +stat belt, +stat hat, Ring of circumstances(str, wis, dex, AC), Dreamer ring, Gyronna amulet*, Absolver Cloak, Opportunist’s Boots(ask for kelid weapon the moment you can from artisan).

Not terribly complicated, except abuses a few things in the game.
1. Items allow to qualify for feats. I was rather lenient with supposed item progression, so you shouldn’t have any problems there.
2. Monk AC works with the shield
3. Bites stack. We don’t use those for automatic trips this time around, but you do get some free attacks for even more damage.

Has dazzling and shatter, but realistically doesn’t want to use dazzling himself. Bring a dazzling user with you.

Needs Legendary proportions to reach 52 strength(with bokken elixir), so a full alchemist or arcane caster is advised.

75 melee AC, 72 Ranged AC, 44 touch AC in full gear. Unfair-viable levels of tankiness.
Good saves across the board (27/27/23) with just the mutagen running.

Skipped combat reflexes in favor of opportunist’s boots as we don’t really need more than 3 AoO’s per round at least not at the cost of a feat that we can’t afford. If you really want more you can swap Accomplished with it.

7d6 sneak attack.

That’s that. Not sure what else can be said. Pretty solid all-around tank with good damage and all that.

"Slightly" better than nerds I wager.

Elspyth: Awesome, thanks !
Regarding the mutagen, I guess we're using the STR/CON one, to avoid the malus on Wisdom ?
And shield on magus, is that for the first few level, until we pick a light shield ?

I'd say the only downside is that it's a tiefling build -- so hard to find good female tiefling portraits online, haha :(
But really, thanks. Even on paper, that thing sounds like a murder machine.

Old-Nick: Hi, was hoping for some advice for making a Monster Tactician for hard mode.
My general plan was to worship Shelyn for the luck domain and glaive proficiency, then dazzle everything, but everyone seems to recomemnd taking the animal domain instead. Was looking at taking a monk or two-handed specialist dip as well but it seemed like that would delay ranking up summon monster too much.
Don't need a full build but any help would be appreciated.

InEffect: If you want entirely honest opinion Cleric is a better monster tactician. Especially because the latter is currently bugged and doesn't give your summons team feats.

Old-Nick: Well thats a pain. Thanks for the input though, I'll do some more digging for my summoner.

InEffect: Summoner is pretty easy. Go conjuration Sylvan Sorc and be a happy panda.
Or a specialist conjuration wizard9/Vivisectionist1/AT10 with enchantment and necro banned.
Arcane/Sage Sorc is an amazing conjueror as well

Old-Nick: Perfect, cheers.

InEffect: sure, It'll have to be LG monk-based though or there is no way you can stack enough AC for cheap on a pet class otherwise.
Although I might try how much I can stack on a mad dog with totems.

InEffect: Tank+Pet for petey488

Race: Aasimar(Lawbringer)

Alignment: LG
Deity: Erastil
Domains*: Community, Animal
*In this order, It’ll be important some day.
Pet: Leopard

Stats:
Str: 17 > 22
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 18
Cha: 8

Final Build: Monk(Traditional) 1/Cleric(Ecclesitheurge) 16/Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 3

Main skills: Mobility 3, Persuasion Max, Perception Max
Suggested secondary skills: Whatever. Religion is thematic, I guess.

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Monk - Crane Style // Dodge
Lvl 2: Alchemist
Lvl 3: Cleric - Accomplished Sneak Attacker
Lvl 4: Cleric
Lvl 5: Cleric - Weapon Focus: Quarterstaff
Lvl 6: Cleric
Lvl 7: Cleric - Boon Companion
Lvl 8: Cleric
Lvl 9: Cleric - Outflank
Lvl 10: Cleric
Lvl 11: Cleric - Wings
Lvl 12: Cleric
Lvl 13: Cleric - Dazzling Display
Lvl 14: Cleric
Lvl 15: Cleric - Shatter Defenses
Lvl 16: Cleric
Lvl 17: Cleric - Crane Wing*
Lvl 18: Alchemist - Feral Mutagen
Lvl 19: Alchemist - Crane Riposte*
Lvl 20: Cleric
*They work with 2h as of now. If you don’t want to abuse the game take Persuasive and intimidating prowess here.

Important Cleric Spells:
Lvl 1: Divine Favor, Remove Fear, Unbreakable heart
Lvl 2: Restoration(Lesser), Find Traps, Protection from Alignment(Communal)
Lvl 3: Animate Dead, Resist Energy(Communal), Delay Poison(Communal)
Lvl 4: Divine Power, Freedom Of Movement, Death Ward, Restoration
Lvl 5: Geniekind, Breath of Life, Break Enchantment
Lvl 6: Eaglesoul, Blade Barrier
Lvl 7: Restoration(Greater), Resurrection, Bestow Grace of the Champion, Summon Monster VII
Lvl 8: Frightful Aspect, Legendary Proportions, Mind Blank, Angelic Aspect(Greater)

Alchemist spells: Shield, True Strike.

Gear: Quarterstaff(preferably, Ruin), LG monk robes, Armor Bracers, +Stat Belt, +Stat hat, Opportunist’s boots.
Luxuries: Bokken elixir, Ring Of circumstances, Absolver Cloak, Dreamer ring, Gyronna amulet

Not where I though I’ll land for sure. Oh well.

About Spells. Try to keep equal number of 1m/lvl spells. Same with 1r/lvl. The latter should be a lot more plentiful. Generally 1 copy of 1m/r spells is enough. I usually run at least 2-3 copies of 1r spells.

Technically has Alchemist for self-casted shields. 1m is not terribly long, though but extend rod will help. Once you get jubilost you can just use his shield through infusion. Once you get alchemist 3 it won’t be so painful as 6m(with extend rod) is not so bad.

First decent staff is sold by an old witch in the swamp. It’ll serve you well until you roll something better from masters. Ruin is your wet dream, but it’s high-tier craft, so you might not be so lucky. And you need your master level high.

Does get to 70AC buffed, so I guess tanking part is covered. Also doesn’t hit like a wet noodle. When buffing cast Frightful aspect first and then Legendary or your size bonus will be scuffed.

Turns on fighting defensively from level 1 and rolls that way all game.

Kept the pet competitive till the last hours. And the pet start to fall off by then anyways. Leopard is taken because the size is not too annoying to play with and the pet is ok-ish.

Mutagen is 10m for most of the game, but if you think of it so are your buffs. There is just no other class that’d give us tempo 2d6 damage, and a 4str+2AC buff on demand.

Flurry solves the lost attack issue admirably.

Has shatter and is ok-ish at dazzle, but as all frontliners does prefer that someone else would dazzle most of the time.

Skipped level 9 Cleric spells in exchange for finer things in life. Tempo AC and damage was more important, I believe. Sure, it's not as noticeable late-game, but there is a matter of getting there first.

Works better as a level 20 so either small party or exploiting persuasion for solo exp is advised. Still, gets everything he really needs by 17, so that's good.

raziel7099: Would you be able to create a high DPS knife master core build? I've seen the noble assassin, but I'm not inclined to go lawful and would prefer to be neutral or chaotic good instead. Is this just something that's better served playing as something else and bringing Nok-Nok with the party, or is this something the MC could do similarly effectively as well?

Min-max is okay, I have Wildcards, no race preference, multiclassing is fine, and as I said, I'd prefer to not have to be lawful.