Pathfinder Pathfinder: Kingmaker Builds and Strats Thread

[santino27]

Hey Pope Amole II any chance you go back to companion builds in PK? This Jaethal tank can be pretty good

I'll do some builds with tieflings and kineticists and stuff but I'm not sure what makes Jaethal to be that great of a tank.Inquisitor is more of a DD profession. Like, you have regeneration etc. but that's not really enough to keep up with enemy numbers on higher difficulties. It's also really trait-dependent and her starting stuff is probably wasted. As well as the pantheon.

Her immunities as an undead. I don't think most people who build her as a tank replacement for Valerie keep her as an inquisitor either.

 

[Efe]

teamwork feats + undead bonuses isnt enough? just with those alone she should be at least on par with valerie (maybe until you get end game tower shields).
+ she gets lots of casts for party buffs

 

[Yosharian]

Hey Pope Amole II any chance you go back to companion builds in PK? This Jaethal tank can be pretty good

I'll do some builds with tieflings and kineticists and stuff but I'm not sure what makes Jaethal to be that great of a tank.Inquisitor is more of a DD profession. Like, you have regeneration etc. but that's not really enough to keep up with enemy numbers on higher difficulties. It's also really trait-dependent and her starting stuff is probably wasted. As well as the pantheon.

Her immunities as an undead. I don't think most people who build her as a tank replacement for Valerie keep her as an inquisitor either.

But you can't heal her...

 

[Efe]

how many times do you heal during combat?
and yes you can totally heal her. she even does it herself.

 

[santino27]

Hey Pope Amole II any chance you go back to companion builds in PK? This Jaethal tank can be pretty good

I'll do some builds with tieflings and kineticists and stuff but I'm not sure what makes Jaethal to be that great of a tank.Inquisitor is more of a DD profession. Like, you have regeneration etc. but that's not really enough to keep up with enemy numbers on higher difficulties. It's also really trait-dependent and her starting stuff is probably wasted. As well as the pantheon.

Her immunities as an undead. I don't think most people who build her as a tank replacement for Valerie keep her as an inquisitor either.

But you can't heal her...

Inflict wounds.

And they're adding (not sure if they already have) inflict wound potions as well.

 

[Yosharian]

how many times do you heal during combat?
and yes you can totally heal her. she even does it herself.

Um, often?

 

[Yosharian]

Hey Pope Amole II any chance you go back to companion builds in PK? This Jaethal tank can be pretty good

I'll do some builds with tieflings and kineticists and stuff but I'm not sure what makes Jaethal to be that great of a tank.Inquisitor is more of a DD profession. Like, you have regeneration etc. but that's not really enough to keep up with enemy numbers on higher difficulties. It's also really trait-dependent and her starting stuff is probably wasted. As well as the pantheon.

Her immunities as an undead. I don't think most people who build her as a tank replacement for Valerie keep her as an inquisitor either.

But you can't heal her...

Inflict wounds.

I don't burn actual spells on healing unless I actually have to, and I sure as fuck don't prepare them.. Plus the Community domain gives some nice heals.

 

[ArchAngel]

how many times do you heal during combat?
and yes you can totally heal her. she even does it herself.

Um, often?

If your tank needs healing often that is a lousy tank. You need to fix your party first.

 

[Yosharian]

how many times do you heal during combat?
and yes you can totally heal her. she even does it herself.

Um, often?

If your tank needs healing often that is a lousy tank. You need to fix your party first.

That seems like a bit of a generalisation. Any bunch of mobs can roll a string of 20s. Tanks are supposed to cope with being a hit a few times, otherwise they don't last very long. It's true I could abuse Mirror Image a bit more than I have been doing, but in my experience even a well-made tank still needs healing from time to time.

 

[axedice]

Since my main was also inq (monster tactician), picking inflict solved my heal problem for Jaethal. And yes, you need to heal your tank from time to time, at least keep her topped up since natural 20s always hit (I'm looking at you double 20 rolling greater enraged owlbear like treant ). If you don't have a spontaneous divine caster, buy some (hundreds of) lesser scrolls and waste time casting them. Inflict wound potions are expensive, we need them moneys to build structures and appease our OCDs. Also Harrim can squeeze in some inflicts (especially the critical one at spell lvl4) for emergency casting.

Jaethal is worth all this fuss since she's immune to mind effects and poison (this is only important for earlier levels but nice anyway). No CC, no ironwill stacking, no event based fears locking her for 30 secs, just pure tank&spank.

Her tank build is pretty straightforward, take 7 lvls of tower shield specialist with all the necessary tank feats (dodge, combat exp, heavy armour focus , shield focus, imp unarmed and crane etc.) , then pick stalwart defender for 3 levels for uncanny dodge, and continue TSS for that juicy max dex bonus. Mithral plates are useless for TSS, since the tower shield also has +1 max dex bonus (are there mithral tower shields in the game? Havent found one yet). I made the mistake of leveling her inq to level 4 (since it gives +3 BAB after lvl1), thinking that lvl2 spells, improved regeneration and a bonus teamwork feat would be worth it but alas they proved lackluster. Pure TSS is the way to go. Her first level is wasted, but being immune to fear/confusion/laughter makes up for it.

One alternative is taking 6 levels of vivi for %75 crit reduction since you only get hit by natural 20's anyway and the extra AC can be obsolete. I just finished bloom and starting act3 now with 54 AC (buffed). If the AC/monster attack difference keeps up, then it's definetely a viable option rather than going 70 AC.

 

[ArchAngel]

how many times do you heal during combat?
and yes you can totally heal her. she even does it herself.

Um, often?

If your tank needs healing often that is a lousy tank. You need to fix your party first.

That seems like a bit of a generalisation. Any bunch of mobs can roll a string of 20s. Tanks are supposed to cope with being a hit a few times, otherwise they don't last very long. It's true I could abuse Mirror Image a bit more than I have been doing, but in my experience even a well-made tank still needs healing from time to time.

You solve most of those 20 rolls with constant Blur on your tank and displacement/improved invisibility for tougher fights.

 

[ArchAngel]

Since my main was also inq (monster tactician), picking inflict solved my heal problem for Jaethal. And yes, you need to heal your tank from time to time, at least keep her topped up since natural 20s always hit (I'm looking at you double 20 rolling greater enraged owlbear like treant ). If you don't have a spontaneous divine caster, buy some (hundreds of) lesser scrolls and waste time casting them. Inflict wound potions are expensive, we need them moneys to build structures and appease our OCDs. Also Harrim can squeeze in some inflicts (especially the critical one at spell lvl4) for emergency casting.

Jaethal is worth all this fuss since she's immune to mind effects and poison (this is only important for earlier levels but nice anyway). No CC, no ironwill stacking, no event based fears locking her for 30 secs, just pure tank&spank.

Her tank build is pretty straightforward, take 7 lvls of tower shield specialist with all the necessary tank feats (dodge, combat exp, heavy armour focus , shield focus, imp unarmed and crane etc.) , then pick stalwart defender for 3 levels for uncanny dodge, and continue TSS for that juicy max dex bonus. Mithral plates are useless for TSS, since the tower shield also has +1 max dex bonus (are there mithral tower shields in the game? Havent found one yet). I made the mistake of leveling her inq to level 4 (since it gives +3 BAB after lvl1), thinking that lvl2 spells, improved regeneration and a bonus teamwork feat would be worth it but alas they proved lackluster. Pure TSS is the way to go. Her first level is wasted, but being immune to fear/confusion/laughter makes up for it.

One alternative is taking 6 levels of vivi for %75 crit reduction since you only get hit by natural 20's anyway and the extra AC can be obsolete. I just finished bloom and starting act3 now with 54 AC (buffed). If the AC/monster attack difference keeps up, then it's definetely a viable option rather than going 70 AC.

That is overdoing it. You can just keep leveling her in Inquisitor and take all defensive feats. With Shield Wall and that other feat that removed enemy flanking bonus and her inquisitor bonus to AC she is pretty good. And then she can buff the party with her spells in addition to it all and she can heal herself. And she is not stuck in one place because of Stalwart Defender. And she can keep being parties best Persuasion character due to her half inquisitor level.

 

[axedice]

In the endgame yes you'll run out of defensive feats eventually and start picking utility ones but leveling up as a fighter base early game makes the process smoother.

Shield wall is a questionable feat in most scenarios since you won't have another melee carrying a shield most of the time (Harrim while doing his touch spells can be this exception). The perception bonus is fine but nothing gamechanging, and in my case I already have another inquisitor as my main, casting the clerical buffs Harrim didn't pick.

TLDR; its not overdoing it for early to mid game, where high AC is harder to get.

 

[Cael]

axedice have you found any good unique medium armors for the inquisitor? Or do you think giving up stalwart is okay with heavy armor?

Mithral plate should be medium armour...

 

[Cael]

axedice have you found any good unique medium armors for the inquisitor? Or do you think giving up stalwart is okay with heavy armor?

Mithral plate should be medium armour...

Yeah. I was wondering if there was a unique medium one . Most of the unique heavy armors are quite good, like the Blessed path.

Wasn't there a good unique blessed mithral plate or something? I remember it being mentioned earlier in the piece.

 

[axedice]

My tank (Jaethal) is only 4 lvls inq, dont have Stalwart. My main has never been hit with a stalwart qualifying attack, but unless some monsters spam these late game, stalwart is a pretty niche talent that doesn't require any build-around. Just ignore it and use the heaviest plate you can find.

 

[Yosharian]

how many times do you heal during combat?
and yes you can totally heal her. she even does it herself.

Um, often?

If your tank needs healing often that is a lousy tank. You need to fix your party first.

That seems like a bit of a generalisation. Any bunch of mobs can roll a string of 20s. Tanks are supposed to cope with being a hit a few times, otherwise they don't last very long. It's true I could abuse Mirror Image a bit more than I have been doing, but in my experience even a well-made tank still needs healing from time to time.

You solve most of those 20 rolls with constant Blur on your tank and displacement/improved invisibility for tougher fights.

Hmm. Ok. I haven't tried Blur much.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Ok, so my previous two-handed fighter got shafted after kingdom management start, so I re-rolled another one. This time, going with an Elven Curve Blade build instead of Greatsword (slightly less damage, and probably harder to find good magic ones, but 18-20 crit roll). With Improved Critical or Keen, that's 15-20 crit threat, so almost 1/3rd of hits have a chance to crit, whereas only 1/5th with Greatsword.

So theoretically, if you add up all the damage modifiers for a 2 handed fighter:

5.5 - Elven Curve Blade avg damage (1-10)

+ 5 (20 strength)
+ 5 (Overhand Chop + Backswing kit skills = double strength mod damage on all attacks)
+20 (greater power attack - +10 at level 16 times 2)
+2 (Weapon Specialization)
+4 (Two Handed Weapon Training)

________________________________________

Total on average strike at level 16 = 41.5
Critical = 83

Total per round (assuming 4 attacks per round at level 16, 3 normal attacks + 1 crit seems reasonable with this build) = 207.5

Not bad, eh?

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Can't put numbers on style. Elven curve blade basically looks like a katana, reach weapons look like peasant implements.

Also, greater power strike just adds an additional .5 strength modifier, but you get the original .5 from the start, so it would be up to +15 instead of +20 before level 16.

I also rolled 14 Wisdom on this toon, and will get the Will Save feat at some point. Should have a decent Will defense versus those pesky casters.

 

[Yosharian]

Ok, so my previous two-handed fighter got shafted after kingdom management start, so I re-rolled another one. This time, going with an Elven Curve Blade build instead of Greatsword (slightly less damage, and probably harder to find good magic ones, but 18-20 crit roll). With Improved Critical or Keen, that's 15-20 crit threat, so almost 1/3rd of hits have a chance to crit, whereas only 1/5th with Greatsword.

So theoretically, if you add up all the damage modifiers for a 2 handed fighter:

5.5 - Elven Curve Blade avg damage (1-10)

+ 5 (20 strength)
+ 5 (Overhand Chop + Backswing kit skills = double strength mod damage on all attacks)
+20 (greater power attack - +10 at level 16 times 2)
+2 (Weapon Specialization)
+4 (Two Handed Weapon Training)

________________________________________

Total on average strike at level 16 = 41.5
Critical = 83

Total per round (assuming 4 attacks per round at level 16, 3 normal attacks + 1 crit seems reasonable with this build) = 207.5

Not bad, eh?

Go here

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...nTet7141EOlFxbFH65C2TjBOXmXd7IcbXsk1/pubhtml#

To see magical weapons that exist in the game

 

[Yosharian]

Can't put numbers on style. Elven curve blade basically looks like a katana, reach weapons look like peasant implements.

Also, greater power strike just adds an additional .5 strength modifier, but you get the original .5 from the start, so it would be up to +15 instead of +20 before level 16.

I also rolled 14 Wisdom on this toon, and will get the Will Save feat at some point. Should have a decent Will defense versus those pesky casters.

Yeah good luck with that. Use your allies to protect you with spells, or expect to get mind-controlled.

 

[Efe]

imho you should just enjoy it without turning it into a spreadsheet exercise.
you definitely dont need it.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Go here

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...nTet7141EOlFxbFH65C2TjBOXmXd7IcbXsk1/pubhtml#

To see magical weapons that exist in the game

Too meta for me. I like to play with some sense of mystery and exploration.

Yeah good luck with that. Use your allies to protect you with spells, or expect to get mind-controlled.

Those are not mutually exclusive. But I mean, lets say you get a few Will save points from levels as a figher (up to +6 at high levels), +2 from Wisdom, +2 from feat(s), some wisdom equipment maybe (i found a hat with +2 wisdom early on), so that's up to +11 will save. Then, you can have almost any caster cast protection from evil or something, and you are up to +13. That's not peanuts, unless the DC against those spells is just insanely high.

 

[Yosharian]

Ok, so my previous two-handed fighter got shafted after kingdom management start, so I re-rolled another one. This time, going with an Elven Curve Blade build instead of Greatsword (slightly less damage, and probably harder to find good magic ones, but 18-20 crit roll). With Improved Critical or Keen, that's 15-20 crit threat, so almost 1/3rd of hits have a chance to crit, whereas only 1/5th with Greatsword.

So theoretically, if you add up all the damage modifiers for a 2 handed fighter:

5.5 - Elven Curve Blade avg damage (1-10)

+ 5 (20 strength)
+ 5 (Overhand Chop + Backswing kit skills = double strength mod damage on all attacks)
+20 (greater power attack - +10 at level 16 times 2)
+2 (Weapon Specialization)
+4 (Two Handed Weapon Training)

________________________________________

Total on average strike at level 16 = 41.5
Critical = 83

Total per round (assuming 4 attacks per round at level 16, 3 normal attacks + 1 crit seems reasonable with this build) = 207.5

Not bad, eh?

Go here

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...nTet7141EOlFxbFH65C2TjBOXmXd7IcbXsk1/pubhtml#

To see magical weapons that exist in the game

Great! can you also list where the weapons are?

Nope. I have no idea.

 

[Haplo]

Yeah good luck with that. Use your allies to protect you with spells, or expect to get mind-controlled.

Those are not mutually exclusive. But I mean, lets say you get a few Will save points from levels as a figher (up to +6 at high levels), +2 from Wisdom, +2 from feat(s), some wisdom equipment maybe (i found a hat with +2 wisdom early on), so that's up to +11 will save. Then, you can have almost any caster cast protection from evil or something, and you are up to +13. That's not peanuts, unless the DC against those spells is just insanely high.

Well, you can meet certain enemies reaching DC 22 at level 5... And trouble is some of them really spam those tests.
Protection from Evil doesn't stack with Resistance items I think. But you'll have those too.