Zopenco: Hello,

A question about Valerie Kinetic Knight

If I rush KK level 9 in order to get Blade Whirlwind as soon as possible, would that weaken the overall build?

InEffect: Feyspeaker Shifter

Race: Human
Alignment: LN

Stats:
Str: 18 > 22
Dex: 15>16@4
Con: 12
Int: 7
Wis: 10
Cha: 16

Final Build: Monk(Scaled Fist) 1/Druid(Feyspeaker) 17/Fighter 2
Domain: None
Pet: Leopard

Main skills: Persuasion, Mobility 3, Athletics 1, Stealth 1
Suggested secondary skills: Stealth, Athletics

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Monk - Dodge // Weapon Focus: Claw // Crane Style

InEffect: Don't believe your lying eyes, I guess
https://i.imgur.com/AFfkhV3.png

andvaare: I was surprised to see that you stopped updating your guides, what happened with the devs?

InEffect: Devs are fine. Their community management(and, I guess, general management), however, are not so fine.

andvaare: Can you elaborate why the management is not fine?

andvaare: To be honest I think you had a strong impact on how I and a great many other people play Pathfinder Kingmaker, for the better. I´ve learned a lot of building effective classes and especially spell selection. E.g. I fell into the trap of trying to build wizards as a sort of damage dealers and overrated a lot of their damage spells and underrated the control aspect. This is just one of many examples where you have contributed. So I was not only surprised about your update but also think that the community will suffer for it. Also I was hoping that you would write guides for the new Pathfinder, but I guess that´s out of the question now?

andvaare: Any other games you´re active in and writing guides for?

InEffect: No. I won't stoke any drama. The issue is long in the past anyway.

InEffect: I sure didm't preorder or back it. But if the game finds its way to me(aka be on sale or maybe one of my friends gifts it) I might do something similar since in essense it's just my notes I do for most games anyways with a bit of editing.

InEffect: It's pretty rare that I like the game enough to put in the work or that are complex enough to require it. And the game has to have inadequate guides or none. Pretty sure the only other one that's easy to find is for atom.

andvaare: Where the actions directed against you personally or more bad general decisions made by the management? Would you recommend others to boycott Owlcat´s games based on your conflict? I.e. are their actions immoral?

InEffect: Valerie

Rank: A
Role: Tank/Disruptor

Stats:
Str: 14 > 18
Dex: 13 > 14 @ lvl 4
Con: 19
Int: 9
Wis: 10
Cha: 15*
*If you really want you can take 2 from Str and add +1 to Cha(probably at 8), +1 to Con(at 20), but +1 to persuasion is not worth it. And neither is kingdom management. You’ll be fine.

Final Build: Fighter(TSS) 11/Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 3/Monk(Traditional) 1/Rogue(Thug) 4/Stalwart Defender 1

Main skills: Mobility 3, Persuasion (max)
Suggested secondary skills: Perception (max), Use Magic Device (all spare points)

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 2: Alchemist
Lvl 3: Monk - Armor Focus: Heavy // Crane Style
Lvl 4: Fighter - Shield Focus
Lvl 5: Fighter - Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword
Lvl 6: Fighter - Dazzling Display
Lvl 7: Fighter - Outflank
Lvl 8: Rogue
Lvl 9: Rogue - Accomplished Sneak Attacker // Combat Trick > Shatter Defenses
Lvl 10: Stalwart
Lvl 11: Rogue - Persuasive
Lvl 12: Rogue - Canny Observer
Lvl 13: Fighter - Skill Focus: Persuasion // Improved Critical: Bastard Sword
Lvl 14: Fighter
Lvl 15: Fighter - Greater Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword // Greater Shield Focus
Lvl 16: Fighter
Lvl 17: Alchemist - Blind Fight // Feral Mutagen
Lvl 18: Alchemist
Lvl 19: Fighter - Skill Focus: Perception* // Intimidating Prowess
Lvl 20: Fighter
*Or Weapon Specialization

Important gear: Mithral Plate, Tower Shield, Bastard Sword, Opportunist’s boots

Mostly used as an object with a lot of AC on the battlefield. Especially early on. There is just no way she’d hit anything reliably, so might as well make it so enemies can’t really hit her either. 37 AC by level5 is not so bad, eh?

Dazzling user and that’s pretty much the only thing she ever wants to do apart from poking enemies with a pointy thing, but she does become really good at it.

Alchemist is there for sneak dice and mutagen. We really don’t give a damn about his spells, but if you get your hands on a herbalist’s cape a bit of true-striking might happen.

Due to AC stacking fares quite well on unfair, as far as things fare well on unfair to begin with. Bad thing is there is only so much AC stacking you can do, so she does depends on gear quite a bit. That being said, it’s not hard to break 70AC on her.

Valerie really is a whole lot better than people tend to think of her. She has a lot of stats and all of them can be put to a good use invariably. I gradually upped the ranking for her over time and now I am at the conclusion she is one of the strongest companions in the game Her ranking is still lower than Nok-Nok, but don't let that fool you - It's only because I rank characters compared to what they could be and not what they can do compared to each-other.