Pathfinder Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Game of the Year Edition

[Desiderius]

But I don’t need any of that.

Its not about the needing to its about the wanting to. Wanting to not be a wet paper towel, but a horse riding Chad(Or get a level of Beast Rider and have a good boy).

Mount is the single best feature in this game. Spirited Charge is the best feat in the game with a Skald party. 16 levels of Arcane Rider gives you all you need from the class, including the ability to hit touch AC(bye buy playful).

Unless you’ve figured out how to give them Pounce Spirited Charge is single hit and both Reg and Wolj start out with two-weapon fighting. They’re built around landing full attax not one big hit (likewise giving Reg Flurry is just overkill, if he’s landing full attax he’s already slaying).

If either one of them are a wet paper towel you’re playing them wrong - very wrong since you’re somehow turning a strength into a weakness. Start with Reduce and go from there.

Mercs are worse than companions who play their classes, but they’re better than shoehorning an existing companion into a different class that doesn't take advantage of the feats and abilities they already have.

Of course most enjoyable way to play a class is MC and trying to find the Mythic path and party make-up that’s the best fit.

 

[Desiderius]

Reg is full BAB + Weapon Training + Dueling Gloves + Smite Chaos and Reduce gives +1 AB vs Enlarge that gives -1 in addition to the +1 from the extra DEX.

With Crusader’s Edge Force damage and his weapon’s Divine damage along with DEX to damage and Smite damage he’s a truck already.

 

[RunningWolf]

Unless you’ve figured out how to give them Pounce

Yeah Skald should be giving it to all with Greater Beast totem. It worked when i played Cavalier about half a year ago.

Start with Reduce and go from there.

You realize you can make them small and then put them on a mount if you want to? That riding and reducing aren't somehow mutually exclude? Mounts can be buffed to the strength almost matching the another part member, especially with skald which gives dogs something like 3(or 4-5, dont remember) additional attacks and a lot ab.
Maybe its not me not understanding the power of mediocre classes and its you not understanding the power of animal companions in this game?

Nether regill nor woljif qualify for my minimal reload tankiness standard on Hard and Unfair. Even if they can match ac of animal companions, they cannot match their combined HP and most importantly EXPENDABILITY. Likely not a problem on lower difficulties and if you have no problem reloading encounter after getting critter once in a while. I try to never reload if i can help it. Not because of any ego, i just don't like wasting my playtime.

Smite Chaos at max level is plus 20 to damage per attack. Spirited Charge doubles the damage of every attack if pouncing. If your attack damage is bigger than 20(lol), then pouncing regill does more damage. His pet also does double damage with many attacks, given by Skald. Spirited Charge also isn't limited resource.

If you're trying to convince me that Hellknight Regill will deal more damage than a pouncing one, you will have to bring something more substantial than smite chaos.

 

[kangaxx]

I just turned into a

spoiler

dragon

How much longer is there to go in this? I am falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy here, but I've already spent 80h on this game... please don't say another 40h.

 

[Desiderius]

Unless you’ve figured out how to give them Pounce

Yeah Skald should be giving it to all with Greater Beast totem. It worked when i played Cavalier about half a year ago.

Start with Reduce and go from there.

You realize you can make them small and then put them on a mount if you want to? That riding and reducing aren't somehow mutually exclude? Mounts can be buffed to the strength almost matching the another part member, especially with skald which gives dogs something like 3(or 4-5, dont remember) additional attacks and a lot ab.
Maybe its not me not understanding the power of mediocre classes and its you not understanding the power of animal companions in this game?

Nether regill nor woljif qualify for my minimal reload tankiness standard on Hard and Unfair. Even if they can match ac of animal companions, they cannot match their combined HP and most importantly EXPENDABILITY. Likely not a problem on lower difficulties and if you have no problem reloading encounter after getting critter once in a while. I try to never reload if i can help it. Not because of any ego, i just don't like wasting my playtime.

Smite Chaos at max level is plus 20 to damage per attack. Spirited Charge doubles the damage of every attack if pouncing. If your attack damage is bigger than 20(lol), then pouncing regill does more damage. His pet also does double damage with many attacks, given by Skald. Spirited Charge also isn't limited resource.

If you're trying to convince me that Hellknight Regill will deal more damage than a pouncing one, you will have to bring something more substantial than smite chaos.

Ah Skald makes sense. Can tell its been awhile since I dd that myself.

No Tiny characters on Horse will have major reach issues. And you’re wasting half the benefit of Reduce since the big fat Horse will be taking the hits instead of Tiny Regill, not to mention throwing away the 5 AC AoE from Hellknight aura + Inspiring Command.

This is a great example of the one-weird-trickism I’m talking about. Regill doesnt need more damage. If he’s Pouncing he’s already slaying (especially with Leading Strike in RTwP). All you’re doing by doubling his damage with Spirited (if you’re landing without the extra Smites/Training) is wasting his iteratives by one-shotting stuff.

In exchange you lose a great tank, easy pathing, Fearsomeness however you use it, the AoE Aura, Inspiring Command (or whatever orher Domain you want), the Hellknight Capstones, upgrading the Summon, and Fighter’s (Solo) Tactics from the back-end of Armiger.

All because you’re wedded to the one-weird-trick you think you need but dont. If you want it play a Cav or Haplo’s thing on a Merc and enjoy the high-level abilities those classes get.

Not worth it on Reg not close.

 

[Stoned Ape]

I just turned into a

spoiler

dragon

How much longer is there to go in this? I am falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy here, but I've already spent 80h on this game... please don't say another 40h.

You can finish fairly quickly (probably between 15-25 hours depending upon how efficiently you clear everything) from there if you don't want to complete the chapter 5 companion content and aren't going for their good endings (or the hidden ending).

If you are, there's quite a lot of optional stuff including the worst location in the game (they actually made something less fun than HATEOT from Kingmaker for Nenio's special location) and the Codex quest.

Stuff you should do

First build up your army again as it's been wrecked by Galfrey. Use this time to do any item research projects you like the look of.

Following that, visit Hal in Kanabres to unlock the Gold Dragon side quest (It's bloody awful but you need it for your mythic rank up). It's basically a 3-item fetch quest that takes you all over the world map (including visiting the inelucutable prison that moves entrances around the world map in an annoying fashion).

After that, there's a second part to it where you have to visit a fourth location for an easy fight. The rank up actually makes Gold Dragon path suck less than it does at rank 8 so it's worth doing ASAP.

After that, head to Iz and clear it.

Then, go to Threshold for the short act 6.

I'm pretty sure the other content in Act 5 is all optional.

Locations to visit for the previously mentioned Mythic fetch quest

1) The tavern kitchen in Drezen. There's a wheel of cheese with a horse stamp on it. There's also other cheese you don't need so make sure you get the right one.
2) The book is in the corner of the warden's room in the ineluctable prison
3) The special flowers are in a location to the north of Iz. You have to get there by going west from Pulura Falls, then follow the path north and back round to the south again to the field. There are quite a lot of them to pick.

Then traipse across the bloody map all the way back to Kanabres

Then off to the Dragon's graveyard in the north of the map.

Then waste more time trekking off to bloody Kanabres market again. Seriously, this quest is needlessly tedious and shitty with far too much trudging around on the world map.

 

[Desiderius]

Traveling around world map gives army time to develop. Bring high Stealth and its painless.

 

[kangaxx]

I just turned into a

spoiler

dragon

How much longer is there to go in this? I am falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy here, but I've already spent 80h on this game... please don't say another 40h.

You can finish fairly quickly (probably between 15-25 hours depending upon how efficiently you clear everything) from there if you don't want to complete the chapter 5 companion content and aren't going for their good endings (or the hidden ending).

If you are, there's quite a lot of optional stuff including the worst location in the game (they actually made something less fun than HATEOT from Kingmaker for Nenio's special location) including the Codex quest.

Stuff you should do

First build up your army again as it's been wrecked by Galfrey. Use this time to do any item research projects you like the look of.

Following that, visit Hal in Kanabres to unlock the Gold Dragon side quest (It's bloody awful but you need it for your mythic rank up). It's basically a 3-item fetch quest that takes you all over the world map (including visiting the inelucutable prison that moves entrances around the world map in an annoying fashion).

After that, there's a second part to it where you have to visit a fourth location for an easy fight. The rank up actually makes Gold Dragon path suck less than it does at rank 8 so it's worth doing ASAP.

After that, head to Iz and clear it.

Then, go to Threshold for the short act 6.

I'm pretty sure the other content in Act 5 is all optional.

Locations to visit for the previously mentioned Mythic fetch quest

1) The tavern kitchen in Drezen. There's a wheel of cheese with a horse stamp on it. There's also other cheese you don't need so make sure you get the right one.
2) The book is in the corner of the warden's room in the ineluctable prison
3) The special flowers are in a location to the north of Iz. You have to get there by going west from Pulura Falls, then follow the path north and back round to the south again to the field. There are quite a lot of them to pick.

Then traipse across the bloody map all the way back to Kanabres

Then off to the Dragon's graveyard in the north of the map.

Then waste more time trekking off to bloody Kanabres market again. Seriously, this quest is needlessly tedious and shitty with far too much trudging around on the world map.

Thanks mate. I've actually done the fetch quest and a small chunk of the content in Act 5. I have obtained the

spoiler

dragon form

and now I need to go and fight

spoiler

a black dragon apparently

.

In that case my plan is to complete the quests of my party, fuck the others (Nenio in particular), and just get it over with ASAP.

 

[RunningWolf]

In exchange you lose a great tank, easy pathing, Fearsomeness however you use it, the AoE Aura, Inspiring Command (or whatever orher Domain you want), the Hellknight Capstones, upgrading the Summon, and Fighter’s (Solo) Tactics from the back-end of Armiger.

Regill is a shit tank on higher difficulties when you get him. Because that's what matters, not the end game theoretical AC. Pathing is a non-issue and you can also take a leopard. Morale bonus to AC is +3 and there are tons of items and ways to get it on all melees. Hellknight capstone and the rest doesn't even worth the mention to me compared to the damage you get from Animal companion and spirited charge. And every melee need more damage, because you aren't playing level 20 characters since act 2.

Inspiring command is bugged if you have spell resistance and i have a domain zealot cleric for all my domain needs.

Gendarme > Hellknight, at least with a Skald. Gendarme gets most of its features by 8 or 12, including unique cavalier -2 debuff to ac that is untyped unlike either Aura or Domain, so you cant get it from anywhere else. Capstones you get at level 20 are irrelevant to me, because of how little of the game is left by that point.

 

[Yosharian]

Inspiring Command is also blocked by mind-affecting immunity

 

[Stoned Ape]

Satisfying Outflank crit-chain on Shivial triggered by Camellia. Kind of wish Seelah's hit had been a crit too, that would have been a really nice damage roll for 8th level.

Stupidly forgot to cast bless, which didn't really make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but still annoys me.

At this point of the game, only 20s and things that target touch AC really bother Lann. I think this stays true up until the Balor fight:

Shivial needed 18s to hit Camilla, and her AC is only in the mid-30s.

He'll also hit a bit harder now he's wearing the armour he peeled off of Shivial's warm corpse.

 

[Desiderius]

In exchange you lose a great tank, easy pathing, Fearsomeness however you use it, the AoE Aura, Inspiring Command (or whatever orher Domain you want), the Hellknight Capstones, upgrading the Summon, and Fighter’s (Solo) Tactics from the back-end of Armiger.

Regill is a shit tank on higher difficulties when you get him. Because that's what matters, not the end game theoretical AC. Pathing is a non-issue and you can also take a leopard. Morale bonus to AC is +3 and there are tons of items and ways to get it on all melees. Hellknight capstone and the rest doesn't even worth the mention to me compared to the damage you get from Animal companion and spirited charge. And every melee need more damage, because you aren't playing level 20 characters since act 2.

Inspiring command is bugged if you have spell resistance and i have a domain zealot cleric for all my domain needs.

Gendarme > Hellknight, at least with a Skald. Gendarme gets most of its features by 8 or 12, including unique cavalier -2 debuff to ac that is untyped unlike either Aura or Domain, so you cant get it from anywhere else. Capstones you get at level 20 are irrelevant to me, because of how little of the game is left by that point.

Shit tank? If you can't figure out how to tank with a freaking *tiny* character with Heavy + Armor Training and decent CHR for UMD to boot that's a you problem.

He's fine by level 10. He picks up the Domain at 13. That's not Endgame. His Aura hits +2 at lvl 10. I accidently took him to Drezen (he comes automatically if you take the HK option) and he was great. Reg gets HK capstones at lvl 14/15, not 20.

Sohei doesn't get Leopard. Pathing is far from a non-issue, especially indoors. Ask Haplo. Gendarme is whatever. It doesn't get Leopard either. If you like it *play* it, don't tack six dead levels onto it and think you're doing anything good.

Morale *AC* is very rare and so stacks with everything. You don't have Domain Zealot Cleric for all your Cleric needs because there are already so many good Domains. Inspiring is *Insight* AB/AC/dam so also stacks with everything and is WIS + 3 uses per rest with level in Domain rnds/activation so pretty much always up. It's bugged as Mind-affecting so you can take off the ring that gives you immunity that you get if you do Reg's quest a certain way when you use it. Pain but they'll eventually fix it.

How about sucking less instead of talking out of your ass.

Damage, damage, damage - you retards are all the same. As if damage isn't already falling from trees. As I said he's already got DEX-to-damage, Smite damage, Force damage (from Edge), and Divine damage from his weapon and tons of attax from Full BAB + two-handed. I add in Leading Strike because I play RTwP and that thing triggers constantly.

Damage isn't the problem on higher difficulties, it's making sure you can hit and not be hit as well as stopping/surviving high level casts. HK Reg is great at all that.



Are you sure you're not InEfffective's alt?

 

[gurugeorge]

they actually made something less fun than HATEOT from Kingmaker for Nenio's special location

Oh God, don't remind me *twitches from PTSD*

I wouldn't have minded a bit of that area, it's kind of cool at first, but it just goes on ... and on ... and on ... and fucking on.

 

[Desiderius]

Inspiring Command is also blocked by mind-affecting immunity

Yet another Owlcat bug. I haven't run into any trouble from Spell Resistance on it. Player-side Spell Resistance is bugged too so I don't use it much.

 

[Desiderius]

they actually made something less fun than HATEOT from Kingmaker for Nenio's special location

Oh God, don't remind me *twitches from PTSD*

I wouldn't have minded a bit of that area, it's kind of cool at first, but it just goes on ... and on ... and on ... and fucking on.

The gap between the designers that made Old Sycamore and those that made that abomination is really unbelievably wide. So few rewards too for all that work.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Desiderius Haplo

I think I'm edging towards multiclassing Seelah into 2-handed fighter or regular fighter after 11 levels of paladin.

As I've gone for divine weapon bond instead of steed, I think the extra feats and weapon training (+gloves) will probably outweigh the loss of better spellcasting and 17th-level aura (paladin capstone isn't all that useful in my opinion, and 4 (+1 from ring, + half mythic rank) smites/rest will probably be enough, as will 2 divine weapon bonds/day at +3 (for flaming + holy)).

I think regular fighter would be tactically useful for the movement boost from armor training (on mithral full plate at FTR level 3) and probably more valuable than the extra damage from 2-handed chop, but I'm not entirely sure. Will be going for Vital Strike with her whichever of the two I choose, as it helps to make up for the lack of pounce.

Opinions?

 

[Haplo]

Desiderius Haplo

I think I'm edging towards multiclassing Seelah into 2-handed fighter or regular fighter after 11 levels of paladin.

As I've gone for divine weapon bond instead of steed, I think the extra feats and weapon training (+gloves) will probably outweigh the loss of better spellcasting and 17th-level aura (paladin capstone isn't all that useful in my opinion, and 4 (+1 from ring, + half mythic rank) smites/rest will probably be enough, as will 2 divine weapon bonds/day at +3 (for flaming + holy)).

I think regular fighter would be tactically useful for the movement boost from armor training (on mithral full plate at FTR level 3) and probably more valuable than the extra damage from 2-handed chop, but I'm not entirely sure. Will be going for Vital Strike with her whichever of the two I choose, as it helps to make up for the lack of pounce.

Opinions?

Too bad you didn't pick the mount.
Yeah, I'd say its fine to MC a Paladin after level 11. You still get Bless Weapon and Greater Aura of Courage.
The powergaming option would be the Mutation Warrior, of course.

Out of those 2... 2HF for offense or regular for defense. Could go for shield bashing then. Of course for Vital Striking a big weapon is better. But Smite Evil kinda rewards multiple attacks.

 

[Scyrito]

Finished my first playthrough, went with Bloodrager - Reformed Fiend to start with (seemed thematically appropriate), picked Trickster for moar criticals and auto-shaken on fucking everything with Persuasion trick. Played on Core with additional enemy abilities enabled (so more like Hard I guess? Had respecs enabled so game decided on calling it Custom).

Worked well enough, but wasn't totally satisfied so chose Legend for the final path. After "careful consideration" just decided to fuck it and grab Mutation Warrior on top of Bloodrager. Full martial all the way to the bank, baby. Motherless bite + Demon horns + Gore from the helmet + Mutagen secondary attacks to go along with 40 BAB worth of primary attacks (Falchion, Imp crit, Mythic Power attack) by the end was kinda hilarious. Basically just solo'd everything in the end, 1-rounding Deskari etc.

Starting 2nd playthrough now, was thinking Inquisitor - Sanctified Slayer with Animal Domain to grab a pet. Sanctified just seems stacked to the gills; Sneak Die, Solo Tactics, some Slayer talents etc.

Is there any reason to go for Sacred Huntmaster since you get a pet from the domain anyway? Favored enemy is kinda nice, I guess?

Worth it to dip 2 levels of Mad Dog for the Flanking at lvl 2, like does it stack with Outflank and/or the Chainmail of Comradery?

 

[Stoned Ape]

Spoiler

Desiderius Haplo

I think I'm edging towards multiclassing Seelah into 2-handed fighter or regular fighter after 11 levels of paladin.

As I've gone for divine weapon bond instead of steed, I think the extra feats and weapon training (+gloves) will probably outweigh the loss of better spellcasting and 17th-level aura (paladin capstone isn't all that useful in my opinion, and 4 (+1 from ring, + half mythic rank) smites/rest will probably be enough, as will 2 divine weapon bonds/day at +3 (for flaming + holy)).

I think regular fighter would be tactically useful for the movement boost from armor training (on mithral full plate at FTR level 3) and probably more valuable than the extra damage from 2-handed chop, but I'm not entirely sure. Will be going for Vital Strike with her whichever of the two I choose, as it helps to make up for the lack of pounce.

Opinions?

Too bad you didn't pick the mount.
Yeah, I'd say its fine to MC a Paladin after level 11. You still get Bless Weapon and Greater Aura of Courage.
The powergaming option would be the Mutation Warrior, of course.

Out of those 2... 2HF for offense or regular for defense. Could go for shield bashing then. Of course for Vital Striking a big weapon is better. But Smite Evil kinda rewards multiple attacks.

That's kind of what I was thinking in respect to 2-HF vs normal. Will probably go for 2-HF as I have plenty of solid front liners and an enlarged damage dealer with a bardiche to really smash stuff with AOO and Vital Strikes would probably be more useful.

RE:mount; I'm trying a no-pets playthrough this time. It changes up the way I think about fights in an interesting way. I'm using Woljif to snipe casters/archers, Lann to attract aggro (with Cam to assist) and Seelah and my Sorc/EK to fight enlarged with reach weapons for maximum outflanking. So far it works pretty well, although as my MC will go Lich->Legend I'm probably going to switch him from Glaive to Falchion eventually (using Jinx for the synergy with Ember/Cam).

In the short term, I'll have to replace Woljif with Arue, but I'll eventually include both so my combined-arms party will become 2 front-liners, 2 second rank fighters specced for high damage strikes, and 2 archers.

 

[Sarathiour]

In that case my plan is to complete the quests of my party, fuck the others (Nenio in particular), and just get it over with ASAP.

Tell me if it actually works now, because last time I played it was bugged and could not be finished.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Starting 2nd playthrough now, was thinking Inquisitor - Sanctified Slayer with Animal Domain to grab a pet. Sanctified just seems stacked to the gills; Sneak Die, Solo Tactics, some Slayer talents etc.

Is there any reason to go for Sacred Huntmaster since you get a pet from the domain anyway? Favored enemy is kinda nice, I guess?

Worth it to dip 2 levels of Mad Dog for the Flanking at lvl 2, like does it stack with Outflank and/or the Chainmail of Comradery?

Check out Haplo's Sanctified Slayer build if you get the chance, it looks awesome.

I prefer SS to Huntsmaster, overall I just think you can get more out of it.

I wouldn't bother with the dip into Mad Dog personally. The extra flanking probably isn't worth the delay in your SS abilities.

 

[Haplo]

Starting 2nd playthrough now, was thinking Inquisitor - Sanctified Slayer with Animal Domain to grab a pet. Sanctified just seems stacked to the gills; Sneak Die, Solo Tactics, some Slayer talents etc.

Is there any reason to go for Sacred Huntmaster since you get a pet from the domain anyway? Favored enemy is kinda nice, I guess?

Worth it to dip 2 levels of Mad Dog for the Flanking at lvl 2, like does it stack with Outflank and/or the Chainmail of Comradery?

Sacred Huntsmaster is useful if you want to limit the number of Mythic Abilities to spend on Impossible Domain (for example, because you're going Legend and will only have 1 mythic ability + feat). Also nice for minimum investment when you don't want many Inquisitor levels (for example you want Cavalier Mounted Mastery/Mighty Charge and/or Sohei Flurry/Greater).
Not a fan of standard Favored Enemy when Owlcats have split Evil Outsiders into 3 sub-categories. No Instant Enemy for an Inquisitor...

As for the Mad Dog dip... I'm sure its nice, actually. I'd even like to get more for Rage (and Powers), but that'd disable spell-like abilities and spells.
Depends on the priorities. Mine are to get Spirited Charge, Shatter Defenses, Travel Domain Dimension Hop and Vulpine Pounce ASAP. Secondary aim is to also get Cavalier's Charge. To this end a dip in Sohei plus 3 levels in Gendarme Order of the Cockatrice serve my build tempo better, I feel.

 

[Scyrito]

Starting 2nd playthrough now, was thinking Inquisitor - Sanctified Slayer with Animal Domain to grab a pet. Sanctified just seems stacked to the gills; Sneak Die, Solo Tactics, some Slayer talents etc.

Is there any reason to go for Sacred Huntmaster since you get a pet from the domain anyway? Favored enemy is kinda nice, I guess?

Worth it to dip 2 levels of Mad Dog for the Flanking at lvl 2, like does it stack with Outflank and/or the Chainmail of Comradery?

Sacred Huntsmaster is useful if you want to limit the number of Mythic Abilities to spend on Impossible Domain (for example, because you're going Legend and will only have 1 mythic ability + feat). Also nice for minimum investment when you don't want many Inquisitor levels (for example you want Cavalier Mounted Mastery/Mighty Charge and/or Sohei Flurry/Greater).
Not a fan of standard Favored Enemy when Owlcats have split Evil Outsiders into 3 sub-categories. No Instant Enemy for an Inquisitor...

As for the Mad Dog dip... I'm sure its nice, actually. I'd even like to get more for Rage (and Powers), but that'd disable spell-like abilities and spells.
Depends on the priorities. Mine are to get Spirited Charge, Shatter Defenses, Travel Domain Dimension Hop and Vulpine Pounce ASAP. Secondary aim is to also get Cavalier's Charge. To this end a dip in Sohei plus 3 levels in Gendarme Order of the Cockatrice serve my build tempo better, I feel.

My idea was to get Animal Domain from god selection (so Erastil or the dude whose symbol is a leaf can't remember the name). Get Mad Dog for both Flank at 2 and Martial Weapon Proficiency. Make the toon a Shield Basher with the Longsword that gives +3 to hit when used with a shield. Azata (maybe Angel is better?) for mythic path, make Lann a ranger or druid to get Magic Fangs and Acidic Bites on pets (my Smilo and Aivu) and go from there. End up as 18 Sanctified Slayer/2 Mad Dog.

I have a suspicion that I might be trying to do too much on my character, making him a Shield Basher is maybe a bridge too far? Maybe my whole concept is super retarded, only 1 playthrough and 100 hours in (which I believe is classified as "getting a taste" in this game).

By the way, is there any reason to fight unmounted with the pet or is it better to just stay mounted 24/7? Hadn't really considered getting Cavalier stuff to make charges wreck motherfuckers, think I'll keep respecs enabled for this playthrough.

 

[Haplo]

Starting 2nd playthrough now, was thinking Inquisitor - Sanctified Slayer with Animal Domain to grab a pet. Sanctified just seems stacked to the gills; Sneak Die, Solo Tactics, some Slayer talents etc.

Is there any reason to go for Sacred Huntmaster since you get a pet from the domain anyway? Favored enemy is kinda nice, I guess?

Worth it to dip 2 levels of Mad Dog for the Flanking at lvl 2, like does it stack with Outflank and/or the Chainmail of Comradery?

Sacred Huntsmaster is useful if you want to limit the number of Mythic Abilities to spend on Impossible Domain (for example, because you're going Legend and will only have 1 mythic ability + feat). Also nice for minimum investment when you don't want many Inquisitor levels (for example you want Cavalier Mounted Mastery/Mighty Charge and/or Sohei Flurry/Greater).
Not a fan of standard Favored Enemy when Owlcats have split Evil Outsiders into 3 sub-categories. No Instant Enemy for an Inquisitor...

As for the Mad Dog dip... I'm sure its nice, actually. I'd even like to get more for Rage (and Powers), but that'd disable spell-like abilities and spells.
Depends on the priorities. Mine are to get Spirited Charge, Shatter Defenses, Travel Domain Dimension Hop and Vulpine Pounce ASAP. Secondary aim is to also get Cavalier's Charge. To this end a dip in Sohei plus 3 levels in Gendarme Order of the Cockatrice serve my build tempo better, I feel.

My idea was to get Animal Domain from god selection (so Erastil or the dude whose symbol is a leaf can't remember the name). Get Mad Dog for both Flank at 2 and Martial Weapon Proficiency. Make the toon a Shield Basher with the Longsword that gives +3 to hit when used with a shield. Azata (maybe Angel is better?) for mythic path, make Lann a ranger or druid to get Magic Fangs and Acidic Bites on pets (my Smilo and Aivu) and go from there. End up as 18 Sanctified Slayer/2 Mad Dog.

I have a suspicion that I might be trying to do too much on my character, making him a Shield Basher is maybe a bridge too far? Maybe my whole concept is super retarded, only 1 playthrough and 100 hours in (which I believe is classified as "getting a taste" in this game).

By the way, is there any reason to fight unmounted with the pet or is it better to just stay mounted 24/7? Hadn't really considered getting Cavalier stuff to make charges wreck motherfuckers, think I'll keep respecs enabled for this playthrough.

Spirited Charge is not "Cavalier stuff". Its a mounted feat all classes can access (though I think it needs Mounted Combat feat first - if you're not unlocking it via Sohei). And it doubles all damage that round. Stacks multiplicatively with "Cavalier stuff". And with the likes of Mythic Charge, Boots of Stampede, Living Ram armor.

And yeah, I tend to criticize using a shield on a mounted character. I mean it (almost) never gives as much damage as dual-wielding actual enchanted weapons would. Ot swinging that two-hander with x1,5 Str / Dex bonus.
While being WAY more feat intensive. And your mount is your shield anyway. He'll eat nearly all enemy attacks.

And no, not much incentive to dismount for combat. Unless you're ranged maybe. Otherwise always full attacking after movement, being able to freely/fully focus on the offense is pretty great.

 

[Stoned Ape]

The only situations I can think of where it's worth dismounting are if you are running a non-combat focused caster, an archer/X-bow user, or you're soloing and want a second activation in the initiative queue.