Pathfinder Pathfinder: Kingmaker Builds and Strats Thread

[Haplo]

Yeah but there's some neat Tower Shields in the game. The one that grants that Deflection bonus is particularly good.

Any Fighter can use Tower Shields, not just Tower Shield Specialists. So it's about what you are gaining for those 20 levels vs some other class, and in my opinion the gain from TSS beyond Level 5 makes baby ghandi weep.

Hmm. Isn't it just a straight up +2 to attack rolls? What do you lose?

Weapon Training (and compatibility with Duelling gloves for even more AB).

 

[glass blackbird]

So guys, gonna restart using a full real companions party.

How to build valerie to use her cha?

Most fun ranged build for avatar?

Just use mod to completely resculpt her into a new character. She's obnoxiously self-centred, poor at diplomacy, lacks people skills... fuck high charisma just because she's supposedly pretty.

Fighter suits her best though from her background. I do not understand what the problem is with Tower Shield figher, it is a good tank and you can splash in Stalward Defender for example.

Oh yeah, I just meant her stats. Her class/archetype isn't bad at all. But a fighter doesn't need 15 fucking charisma

Depends on how much healing you have in the party!
Like Tristian + Linzi can handle it without a sweat.

Yeah I suppose so

Fighter suits her best though from her background. I do not understand what the problem is with Tower Shield figher, it is a good tank and you can splash in Stalward Defender for example.

It’s mostly irrelevant beyond Level 5. Without doing any kind of shenanigans, you can easily make her a solid tank AND DPS/Utility just going TSS5/Thug15 or TSS5/Kin15.

You don’t even need TSS at all, of course. TSS is generally worse than base Fighter.

Yeah but there's some neat Tower Shields in the game. The one that grants that Deflection bonus is particularly good.

you can use her to do cornugon strike and stuff with her high persuasion potential

 

[Yosharian]

you can use her to do cornugon strike and stuff with her high persuasion potential

And you're gonna dump all those points into Charisma just for that? No, it's not worth it.

 

[Daidre]

Valerie's CHA is an extra, you cant get her stats even with 25 point buy when respec and many companions is 20 points only. She also need it to function as Regent/Grand Diplomat. And Dazzling Display line is amazing - there is no save in general sense and Persuasion skill high enough with Thug dip makes it most reliable CC on Unfair, where saves are nuts and getting spell DC's this high is a lot harder.
Even without Thug it is good enough debuff to be free equivalent of ~level 4 spell.

 

[Cael]

Valerie's backstory is that she is a fallen Paladin of Shaelin. For her to not have a high Charisma would be bad metagaming munchkinism.

 

[Yosharian]

Alright that's a fair point about the Kingdom Management role, I hadn't thought about that.

 

[Incendax]

Evasion, immunity to flanking/sneak attack and TS bonus to AC against touch attacks are at the very least worthwhile features to have. Burst Barrier is nice too if you bother to get the reflex save feats. That's like up to +9 to reflex saves which is a lot and considering that she is swimming in feats there should be no problem getting them. There are also some nice extras like moving at normal speed in heavy armor at level 7, 5/- damage reduction, etc.
As for utility, with that many feats you can easily go for dazzling display and the critical debuff series.

TSS 16 for Evasion - Rogues get it at 2.
TSS 13 for immunity to flanking - Rogues get it at 8.
Burst Barrier gives +5 Reflex - Rogues get up to +6 just for being Rogues.
TSS are swimming in feats - Rogues can take Combat Trick multiple times, with the added bonus of special rogue feats like Dispelling Strike.
TSS 7 can move at normal speed in heavy armor - But Swiftwind Boots, Manticore Boots, Onslaught, and even Haste make that irrelevant outside of the early game. Which you are leaving, since you are level 7.
TSS 19 gets DR 5/- - But that's level 19, and DR calculations are applied after difficulty damage multipliers. It's essentially nothing.
TSS can easily go for Dazzling Display - Rogues are easier. They can spend a bonus feat on Skill Focus, and Thug gets Frightening.

Let's keep it simple. TSS1/Thug19 is considerably superior to TSS20 in almost every category that Kingmaker cares about. The TS bonus to AC against touch attacks is quite nice, but definitely not worth giving up 10d6 Sneak Attack dice. The penalty to attack bonus certainly does hurt, but you can just wear the Fox Amulet and/or a Brilliant Energy weapon against most enemies. Undead are common, but there are some really great anti-undead weapons in the game.

 

[Sykar]

Evasion, immunity to flanking/sneak attack and TS bonus to AC against touch attacks are at the very least worthwhile features to have. Burst Barrier is nice too if you bother to get the reflex save feats. That's like up to +9 to reflex saves which is a lot and considering that she is swimming in feats there should be no problem getting them. There are also some nice extras like moving at normal speed in heavy armor at level 7, 5/- damage reduction, etc.
As for utility, with that many feats you can easily go for dazzling display and the critical debuff series.

TSS 16 for Evasion - Rogues get it at 2.
TSS 13 for immunity to flanking - Rogues get it at 4.
Burst Barrier gives +5 Reflex - Rogues get up to +6 just for being Rogues.
TSS are swimming in feats - Rogues can take Combat Trick multiple times, with the added bonus of special rogue feats like Dispelling Strike.
TSS 7 can move at normal speed in heavy armor - But Swiftwind Boots, Manticore Boots, Onslaught, and even Haste make that irrelevant outside of the early game. Which you are leaving, since you are level 7.
TSS 19 gets DR 5/- - But that's level 19, and DR calculations are applied after difficulty damage multipliers. It's essentially nothing.
TSS can easily go for Dazzling Display - Rogues are easier. They can spend a bonus feat on Skill Focus, and Thug gets Frightening.

Let's keep it simple. TSS1/Thug19 is considerably superior to TSS20 in almost every category that Kingmaker cares about. The TS bonus to AC against touch attacks is quite nice, but definitely not worth giving up 10d6 Sneak Attack dice. The penalty to attack bonus certainly does hurt, but you can just wear the Fox Amulet and/or a Brilliant Energy weapon against most enemies. Undead are common, but there are some really great anti-undead weapons in the game.

1.) Rogues do not get immunity to flanking at level 4. Uncanny Dodge at level 2 makes them retain their dex bonus until they act, so they are never considered flat footed even against invisible enemies. Also you can still lose your dodge bonus when you get feinted successfully. At level 8 rogues get Imp. Uncanny Dodge which gives a conditional immunity to flanking if your rogue level is not 4 levels lower than the opponents. Your TSS/Thug example would get that level 9, and the build I was talking about before you chimed in would have gotten it at 13. I checked the list of rogue talents and cannot find any talent there which gives immunity against flanking at level 4. This of course means that splashing in other classes severely reduces the reliability of Imp. Uncanny Dodge.
2.) There is no advantage one way or the other when it comes to feats. When you are swimming in that many feats you can get whatever you want. Rogue gets access to a few special feats but fighter gets a bonus feat already at level 1.
3.) Multiple bonus for movement stacks up. More importantly Haste also cannot give you more than double your speed, so the difference is 20 feet further travel distance, 40 vs 60, or in other words 50% more speed just from that and it goes on from there. Yes it does matter, the faster you get into melee the faster you get your AC bonus from defensive fighting. Movement speed also limits your charge range which is very useful when facing scattered groups of enemies.
4.) A proper tank rarely if ever gets critically hit. Having guaranteed 5 points subtracted is a noticeable reduction, even if the enemy would hit for 50 it would still be a 10% and few if any enemies hit normally for 50 damage from a single damage type, at least physically and if elemental damage is involved that is even easier to reduce.
5.) Human fighter has up to 22! feats to chose from. You can easily fit in Skill Focus: Persuasion if you feel it is needed. Not really an advantage for thug either.
6.) Base reflex save for rogue is +12 and it is essentially +11 for TSS. That means that in addition of having near rogue like base reflex saves you also have a strong con save, leaving only will save as your weak spot which is the same for rogue/thug. How is that not vastly superior?
7.) TSS has superior hit point progression which counterbalances Evasion.

No TSS1/Thug 19 is not considerably superior. It deals superior damage when flanking and adds some utility I can get from at least 4 other character, Linzi, Jubilost, Nok Nok and Octavia, that's about it. Worse HP, worse AC, Worse con save, no up to +8 bonus AC against touch attacks, far worse BAB since you lost +5 BAB and still have the tower shield penalty and do not get the weapon specialization feat series which adds to another +1 to hit and +4 to damage and of course one attack less at a much higher BAB, namely +20 instead if your +15. So just from that you now lost +8 to hit baseline and an attack in total. Congrats, want a cookie?

 

[Haplo]

If you already have 10 levels in Vivisectionist, Archeologist Bard can pick Opportunist Advanced Talent at level 2 (same level he gets Uncanny Dodge). Yay!


Also it seems the Alchemist Mutagen stacking with other sources of Natural Armor works. However Legendary Proportions Natural Armor (supposed to be size bonus) currently does not stack with other enhancement bonuses.

 

[Incendax]

1.) Rogues do not get immunity to flanking at level 4. Uncanny Dodge at level 2 makes them retain their dex bonus until they act, so they are never considered flat footed even against invisible enemies. Also you can still lose your dodge bonus when you get feinted successfully. At level 8 rogues get Imp. Uncanny Dodge which gives a conditional immunity to flanking if your rogue level is not 4 levels lower than the opponents. Your TSS/Thug example would get that level 9, and the build I was talking about before you chimed in would have gotten it at 13. I checked the list of rogue talents and cannot find any talent there which gives immunity against flanking at level 4. This of course means that splashing in other classes severely reduces the reliability of Imp. Uncanny Dodge.

Uncanny Dodge at level 4 makes them immune to being flat footed, so they only suffer sneak attacks from being flanked which you can prevent. Being flat footed is one of the biggest sources of sneak attack damage for the enemies, since it happens at the beginning of every combat if your initiative is less than an enemy. Immunity to flanking comes in at level 8, or 9 in the case of TSS1/Thug8, which is considerably earlier than TSS13.

2.) There is no advantage one way or the other when it comes to feat. When you are swimming in that many feats you can get whatever you want. Rogue gets a few extra special feats but fighter gets a bonus feat already at level 1.

No, Rogues definitely have a bigger advantage here. They can select any non-fighter specific feat, their own small selection of bonus feats, and at 10th level they can also select improved rogue talents.

3.) Multiple bonus for movement stacks up. More importantly Haste also cannot give you more than double your speed, so the difference is 20 feet further travel distance, 40 vs 60, or in other words 50% more speed just from that and it goes on from there. Yes it does matter, the faster you get into melee the faster you get your AC bonus from defensive fighting. Movement speed also limits your charge range which is very useful when facing scattered groups of enemies.

Haste gives you +30 Enhancement. Other sources of Enhancement do not stack, only the highest applies. This includes Swiftwind and Onslaught which are also Enhancement. 50 Movement is sufficient to charge across 80% of the entire screen width wise, and exceeds the screen height wise (4K). Manticore Boots are +10 [Other], so achieving 60 on your tank is common and easy beyond the early game. 60 Movement can cross an entire 4K screen with a single charge.

4.) A proper tank rarely if ever gets critically hit. Having guaranteed 5 points subtracted is a noticeable reduction, even if the enemy would hit for 50 it would still be a 10% and few if any enemies hit normally for 50 damage from a single damage type, at least physically and if elemental damage is involved that is even easier to reduce.

50+ is quite normal on Hard or higher difficulty, with crits exceeding 200+ (damn Undead Cyclops). You might have an argument if you were talking about the early game, but you don't get 5/- until Level 19. That's nothing. You literally get a helmet with 10/Cold Iron muuuuch earlier.

5.) Human fighter has up to 22! feats to chose from. You can easily fit in Skill Focus: Persuasion if you feel it is needed. Not really an advantage for thug either.

Valerie with TSS1/Thug19 also gets 22 feats, and offloading Skill Focus: Persuasion onto your Rogue side is better on her since she starts with Dodge and Toughness already consumed. You can also give her Skill Focus: Trickery without negatively impacting her basic feats if you feel so inclined.

6.) Base reflex save for rogue is +12 and it is essentially +11 for TSS. That means that in addition of having near rogue like base reflex saves you also have a strong con save, leaving only will save as your weak spot which is the same for rogue/thug. How is that not vastly superior?

Valerie already has massive con, which keeps growing with Physical Perfection belts. She almost never fails a fortitude save. Having an even higher fortitude save is unnecessary on her.

No TSS1/Thug 19 is not considerably superior. It deals superior damage when flanking and adds some utility I can get from at least 4 other character, Linzi, Jubilost, Nok Nok and Octavia, that's about it. Worse HP, worse AC, Worse con save, no up to +8 bonus AC against touch attacks, far worse BAB since you lost +5 BAB and still have the tower shield penalty and do not get the weapon specialization feat series which adds to another +1 to hit and +4 to damage and of course one attack less at a much higher BAB, namely +20 instead if your +15. So just from that you now lost +8 to hit baseline and an attack in total. Congrats, want a cookie?

You're flanking almost all the time with summons, so it's dealing superior damage almost all the time. It adds dramatically more skill points and - spoiler alert - Linzi dies. Worse HP is still higher than everyone else in the party, including Level 20 Amiri. Having lower hit DOES hurt, but with Fox Amulet and/or Brilliant Energy you hit on everything but a natural 1 against Wild Hunt (which is the dominant enemy for two entire chapters). The only thing you have any difficulty with at all is undead since constructs are incredibly rare.

So yes. I want all your cookies.
Even though they are probably oatmeal raisin.

 

[Daidre]

TSS1/Thug19 is considerably superior

Not taking at least 1 level of Monk (pref Traditional for +Will) on Valerie with Rogue and Fighter is a crime against optimization!

 

[razvedchiki]

Just take improved initiative and dont worry about flat footed any more.
Tss are nice until you get the tower ac to touch,then you can go for stalwart defender for dem ac and the stance.
Damage reduction from sd is nice when you combine it with an adamantine armor.

 

[Incendax]

TSS1/Thug19 is considerably superior

Not taking at least 1 level of Monk (pref Traditional for +Will) on Valerie with Rogue and Fighter is a crime against optimization!

Hahahah, yeah. I was just trying to keep it simple.
TSS hurt my feelings when I was a child.

 

[Sykar]

1.) Rogues do not get immunity to flanking at level 4. Uncanny Dodge at level 2 makes them retain their dex bonus until they act, so they are never considered flat footed even against invisible enemies. Also you can still lose your dodge bonus when you get feinted successfully. At level 8 rogues get Imp. Uncanny Dodge which gives a conditional immunity to flanking if your rogue level is not 4 levels lower than the opponents. Your TSS/Thug example would get that level 9, and the build I was talking about before you chimed in would have gotten it at 13. I checked the list of rogue talents and cannot find any talent there which gives immunity against flanking at level 4. This of course means that splashing in other classes severely reduces the reliability of Imp. Uncanny Dodge.

Uncanny Dodge at level 2 makes them immune to being flat footed, so they only suffer sneak attacks from being flanked which you can prevent. Being flat footed is one of the biggest sources of sneak attack damage for the enemies, since it happens at the beginning of every combat if your initiative is less than an enemy. Immunity to flanking comes in at level 8, or 9 in the case of TSS1/Thug8, which is considerably earlier than TSS13.

2.) There is no advantage one way or the other when it comes to feat. When you are swimming in that many feats you can get whatever you want. Rogue gets a few extra special feats but fighter gets a bonus feat already at level 1.

No, Rogues definitely have a bigger advantage here. They can select any non-fighter specific feat, their own small selection of bonus feats, and at 10th level they can also select improved rogue talents.

3.) Multiple bonus for movement stacks up. More importantly Haste also cannot give you more than double your speed, so the difference is 20 feet further travel distance, 40 vs 60, or in other words 50% more speed just from that and it goes on from there. Yes it does matter, the faster you get into melee the faster you get your AC bonus from defensive fighting. Movement speed also limits your charge range which is very useful when facing scattered groups of enemies.

Haste gives you +30 Enhancement. Other sources of Enhancement do not stack, only the highest applies. This includes Swiftwind and Onslaught which are also Enhancement. 50 Movement is sufficient to charge across 80% of the entire screen width wise, and exceeds the screen height wise (4K). Manticore Boots are +10 [Other], so achieving 60 on your tank is common and easy beyond the early game. 60 Movement can cross an entire 4K screen with a single charge.

4.) A proper tank rarely if ever gets critically hit. Having guaranteed 5 points subtracted is a noticeable reduction, even if the enemy would hit for 50 it would still be a 10% and few if any enemies hit normally for 50 damage from a single damage type, at least physically and if elemental damage is involved that is even easier to reduce.

50+ is quite normal on Hard or higher difficulty, with crits exceeding 200+ (damn Undead Cyclops). You might have an argument if you were talking about the early game, but you don't get 5/- until Level 19. That's nothing. You literally get a helmet with 10/Cold Iron muuuuch earlier.

5.) Human fighter has up to 22! feats to chose from. You can easily fit in Skill Focus: Persuasion if you feel it is needed. Not really an advantage for thug either.

Valerie with TSS1/Thug19 also gets 22 feats, and offloading Skill Focus: Persuasion onto your Rogue side is better on her since she starts with Dodge and Toughness already consumed. You can also give her Skill Focus: Trickery without negatively impacting her basic feats if you feel so inclined.

6.) Base reflex save for rogue is +12 and it is essentially +11 for TSS. That means that in addition of having near rogue like base reflex saves you also have a strong con save, leaving only will save as your weak spot which is the same for rogue/thug. How is that not vastly superior?

Valerie already has massive con, which keeps growing with Physical Perfection belts. She almost never fails a fortitude save. Having an even higher fortitude save is unnecessary on her.

No TSS1/Thug 19 is not considerably superior. It deals superior damage when flanking and adds some utility I can get from at least 4 other character, Linzi, Jubilost, Nok Nok and Octavia, that's about it. Worse HP, worse AC, Worse con save, no up to +8 bonus AC against touch attacks, far worse BAB since you lost +5 BAB and still have the tower shield penalty and do not get the weapon specialization feat series which adds to another +1 to hit and +4 to damage and of course one attack less at a much higher BAB, namely +20 instead if your +15. So just from that you now lost +8 to hit baseline and an attack in total. Congrats, want a cookie?

You're flanking almost all the time with summons, so it's dealing superior damage almost all the time. It adds dramatically more skill points and - spoiler alert - Linzi dies. Worse HP is still higher than everyone else in the party, including Level 20 Amiri. Having lower hit DOES hurt, but with Fox Amulet and/or Brilliant Energy you hit on everything but a natural 1 against Wild Hunt (which is the dominant enemy for two entire chapters). The only thing you have any difficulty with at all is undead since constructs are incredibly rare.

So yes. I want all your cookies.
Even though they are probably oatmeal raisin.

1.) You are flanked as soon as more than one enemy is attacking you. As a tank that happens all the time unless you are not tanking. And again, it is not immunity. It can be overcome. Summons rarely last long enough and are mere distractions.
2.) Hardly any of these feats improve tanking which TSS is all about. So no for a pure tank build the extra pool for rogue talents hardly matter.
3.) So its 50 vs 60 best case scenario. Still a noticeable advantage.
4.) More is always good and losing +6 to con save hurts even with 19 con. So regardless how you spin it, worse tanking and being more susceptible to anything requiring a fort save. I also doubt that thug Valerie saves against everything fort related.
5.) I do not talk about anything but Challenging difficulty. Anything beyond that is retarded stat bloat, not worth playing that kind of crap. Lower is too easy. Yeah you can crank difficulty up to 11 in the most retarded way possible so it does not matter one jot to me and is therefore a meaningless argument.
6.) Skill points I hardly need because I am not playing solo. Linzi dies, so what? There are still enough characters left to chose from to cover trickery which is the main point. Anything else like Perception is done better by for example Jaethal anyway.
7.) Superior damage is not as much as it seems considering you lose an entire attack and at least +4 to damage which by the way does get multiplied by critical strikes unlike SA, so the damage difference is not nearly as great as you think. On top of that you will miss more often due to the aforementioned minimum of +7 to hit difference.

And no you have not earned a cookie just because you are wanking hard on thug archetype.

 

[Daidre]

TSS hurt my feelings when I was a child.

Poor Valerie became TSS because people were hurting her feelings as a child.

Her class choice is a bit weird though. It is far from useless and easy to build around but why not to make her Aldory? It fits campaign and her background with working for them. There is tons of Dueling Swords around and no companion focused on this weapon.

Lot less reasons for people to whine how horribad TSS is on forums is a nice bonus too.

 

[Incendax]

Summons rarely last long enough and are mere distractions.

Have you passed Chapter 1?

2.) Hardly any of these feats improve tanking which TSS is all about. So no for a pure tank build the extra pool for rogue talents hardly matter.

Once enemies can only hit you with a Natural 20 vs Touch Attack, you are immune to flanking, and have a variety of resistance rings, adding more AC is fairly pointless. You're also forgetting about Crippling Strike, Dispelling Strike, etc.

3.) So its 50 vs 60 best case scenario. Still a noticeable advantage.

I'm saying the difference between 50 and 60 vanishes the moment you wear Manticore Boots. I'm also saying that 50 is enough to charge from further than enemy aggro, so it's largely irrelevant.

4.) More is always good and losing +6 to con save hurts even with 19 con. So regardless how you spin it, worse tanking and being more susceptible to anything requiring a fort save. I also doubt that thug Valerie saves against everything fort related.

No, more is not good. Because that means you have less somewhere else. Somewhere critical. Once you hit certain benchmarks, you get much bigger returns by investing elsewhere.

5.) I do not talk about anything but Challenging difficulty. Anything beyond that is retarded stat bloat, not worth playing that kind of crap. Lower is too easy. Yeah you can crank difficulty up to 11 in the most retarded way possible so it does not matter one jot to me and is therefore a meaningless argument.

There's your issue. What works on Challenging difficulty is not what works on Hard, Unfair, and Unfair + Much Tougher. Inversely, what works on Unfair + Much Tougher DOES work on Challenging.

6.) Skill points I hardly need because I am not playing solo. Linzi dies, so what? There are still enough characters left to chose from to cover trickery which is the main point. Anything else like Perception is done better by for example Jaethal anyway.

I consider beating skill challenges more important that combat. Especially those nice juicy DC40-50 ones.

7.) Superior damage is not as much as it seems considering you lose an entire attack and at least +4 to damage which by the way does get multiplied by critical strikes unlike SA, so the damage difference is not nearly as great as you think. On top of that you will miss more often due to the aforementioned minimum of +7 to hit difference.

I already told you, you hardly ever miss if you are using the Fox Amulet and/or a Brilliant Energy weapon.

 

[Incendax]

Her class choice is a bit weird though. It is far from useless and easy to build around but why not to make her Aldory? It fits campaign and her background with working for them. There is tons of Dueling Swords around and no companion focused on this weapon.

Hahaha, yeah. I really wish they had, for the reasons you mentioned. It would have made so much sense. I can only speculate that they did not want potential Aldori players to avoid it, like how some people avoid going Dragon Disciple because Regongar is already built for it.

 

[razvedchiki]

Poor Valerie became TSS because people were hurting her feelings as a child.

Her class choice is a bit weird though. It is far from useless and easy to build around but why not to make her Aldory? It fits campaign and her background with working for them. There is tons of Dueling Swords around and no companion focused on this weapon.

Lot less reasons for people to whine how horribad TSS is on forums is a nice bonus too.

To be an effective swordmaster you need high either dex or str which valerie hasnt any.

 

[Daidre]

In the game with +8 all physical stats belts and with all Fighter AB bonuses difference between STR 14 and 18 is not all this important even in ch 1 (Bull Strength and first +2 belt available right after prologue) and completely marginal later, when she gets +2 STR from her personal quest.

If STR 14-16 instead of 18 breaks build even on Hard+ then it is not very good build to begin with.

Of course, I get it to at least 16 when I respec her but cries about how 14 STR completely destroys Valerie as tank and melee always seemed bit too dramatic to me.

 

[razvedchiki]

yes,on hard the difference of 2-3 ac on many fights wins them or looses them,especially early on.
for an aldori tank low str is ok but low dex is a death sentence.

 

[Daidre]

I played Chapter 1 on Hard 30+ times and I do not remember any fights there where 2 AC will save you. Most dangerous enemies there has AB 15+ (+++) and being unhittable completely impossible for low level fighter/rogues hybrids. Even caster/monks with 30+ AC hit often there with crazy prebuff.
A played it on Unfair at least twice and 2 AC is laughable in early game. Pathetic kobolds hit you more often than not. Actually, Valerie's huge HP pool is surprisingly useful there - she is still standing after one hit. Real tanking is useless up until Ch 2 and unkillable pets and summons do all heavy lifting.
Skeletons from Animate Dead are much better tanks than any real character for this part and getting them early lets you stop worrying about tank AC for very long time.

 

[Incendax]

I played Chapter 1 on Hard 30+ times and I do not remember any fights there where 2 AC will save you. Most dangerous enemies there has AB 15+ (+++) and being unhittable completely impossible for low level fighter/rogues hybrids. Even caster/monks with 30+ AC hit surprisingly often there.
A played it on Unfair at least twice and 2 AC is laughable in early game. Even kobolds hit you more often than not. Actually, Valerie's huge HP pool is surprisingly useful there - she is still standing after one hit. Real tanking is useless up until Ch 2 and unkillable pets and summons do all heavy lifting.

This has also been my experience. Early game is the hardest part of Unfair. That said, you can really push AC hard and get about a 50% defense against trash mobs, which takes some of the pressure off, but that’s not a very efficient approach.

One interesting build I saw with her was someone who went TSS1/Sorcerer. The player wore no armor. They weapon swap the tower shield away, cast tons of buffs, weapon swap the shield back, and charged in. Worked really well after those tender first few levels.

 

[Daidre]

I can argue a bit about Hard, but imho, any build without Mirror Image is not a tank on Unfair. So yeah, it is where arcane casters in all ridiculous for lower difficulties combinations really shine in this line of work.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I started unfair with cha monk 20 Dex, 18 CHA.
That puts you at 19AC, +1 ring, mage armor potion (monk starts with 2 mage armor potions) and you're at 24. Defensive fighting crane style and you're at 27. At level 1.
You cannot tank shit with this, sure, mobs only have like ~20% THC against you in the tutorial I guess, but they will hit (flatfooted problem) sometimes and you will die. 1 hit-> dead. Every single time. I got critted for 90 dmg with an arrow from the grp of 3 assassins in the library.
Once you have enough levels to actually have an HP pool that enables you to take a hit or two without immediately dying, once you have an AC so high you get hit only on a 20 (plus illusion spells) , only then does actually tanking shit become viable. This is around middle/end of chapter 2.

 

[Daidre]

I did beginning on Unfair as ranger once with humans as favorite enemies and other time as Sacred Huntmaster. Shooting them got me through prologue more or less ok, but Oleg Post fight was still complete hell. Most difficult battle in the game 100%.