Pathfinder 2e Character Building Tomfoolery | Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 Spotlight (2024)

I'm working on ideas for a gnoll warrior who uses a lot of athletics attacks in combat. I'm currently favoring Ranger, but also considered Fighter and Rogue.

On a Ranger, Flurry for reduced MAP seems nice since trips, shoves, and grabs are attacks. A flurry ranger is more accurate on the second and subsequent attacks than a fighter. The trip and then attack the prone enemy routine seems better for the ranger than the fighter because the trip is a skill roll that doesn't apply the fighter's superior weapon proficiency and the followup attacks will generally suffer from MAP. Gains access to Disrupt Prey at level 4. Wrestler dedication is interesting for the early skill increase and of course coming with Titan Wrestler. My GM is currently leaning against using free archetype, so this would be displacing class feats. Gnoll ancestry feat Crunch enables hands-free grappling.

A fighter has better raw numbers in conventional combat and access to some interesting grappling feats. A rogue has largely worse numbers in combat but it does have sneak attack, some interesting tripping feats, and enough skills to have multiple secondary roles. Both are justifiable choices but not currently at the top of the list for me.

Raxmei said:

I'm working on ideas for a gnoll warrior who uses a lot of athletics attacks in combat. I'm currently favoring Ranger, but also considered Fighter and Rogue.

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For Fighter, Knockdown is pretty great for this kind of thing. No MAP on the Trip, and you have AoO for when the target stands up.

Morty said:

How would you build an effective investigator that uses a gun? Can they do it natively or would dipping into gunslinger be necessary?

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A lot will depend on your GM's attitude to uncommon gear, really. If they're happy to let you have access to guns, then an investigator can use guns just fine all by themselves.

But if you're wanting to be more than just 'a decent shot', you probably want gunslinger archetype to nab some gunslinger feats for better reload etc.

Evil Midnight Lurker said:

I'm wondering about gunslinger/inventor combos, maybe with added Beast Gunner so your sidearm is some kind of taxidermy cyborg.

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i like the cut of your jib awesome idea

So I've had two ideas for potential characters

Steve from Minecraft, but done more creative then fighter with high ranks in crafting skills.

and second

A character based on luck, mostly just being very lucky and having serendipity with ideally little to no conscious control of luck.

Herodarwin said:

So I've had two ideas for potential characters

Steve from Minecraft, but done more creative then fighter with high ranks in crafting skills.

and second

A character based on luck, mostly just being very lucky and having serendipity with ideally little to no conscious control of luck.

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I'm not sure what characterises Steve from Minecraft other than crafting. Inventor seems like an obvious main class if that's the aspect you want to emphasise; possibly with alchemist archetype as secondary to simulate brewing potions.

The luck-based character would depend on exactly what you're looking for. There's no way to have a character that works without the player actively choosing and using abilities. On the flip side, many abilities can be described in game as working due to "dumb luck", even when that's not the only way to describe them. "I have exacting strike, because when I miss, I luckily stumble into just the right place to try again", for instance. Or you could try to design a build that picks up lots of abilities with the fortune trait

Capellan said:

I'm not sure what characterises Steve from Minecraft other than crafting. Inventor seems like an obvious main class if that's the aspect you want to emphasise; possibly with alchemist archetype as secondary to simulate brewing potions.

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That is the key ability I'll give but I'd also say terrain manipulation and the ability to quick build structures might help highlight what i'm thinking someone who can as close as possible treats the world like how "Steve" can act in the minecraft world.

Capellan said:

The luck-based character would depend on exactly what you're looking for. There's no way to have a character that works without the player actively choosing and using abilities. On the flip side, many abilities can be described in game as working due to "dumb luck", even when that's not the only way to describe them. "I have exacting strike, because when I miss, I luckily stumble into just the right place to try again", for instance. Or you could try to design a build that picks up lots of abilities with the fortune trait

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I have no problem with the player choosing abilities, I'm just curious how close to the happy go lucky everything goes my way archetype we can get before getting int, I'm a probability manipulating mage.

Edit: I was being a bit vague to not to bias your choices but might have been too vague sorry.

Herodarwin said:

That is the key ability I'll give but I'd also say terrain manipulation and the ability to quick build structures might help highlight what i'm thinking someone who can as close as possible treats the world like how "Steve" can act in the minecraft world.

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Probably inventor with gadget specialist feat and snarecrafter archetype would do this quite nicely. You could describe the appearance of the gadgets and snares in Minecraft-y ways, while applying their in-game stats unchanged.

Herodarwin said:

I have no problem with the player choosing abilities, I'm just curious how close to the happy go lucky everything goes my way archetype we can get before getting int, I'm a probability manipulating mage.

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At a basic level, you can explain away a lot of abilities as "luck". Nimble Dodge becomes "I trip at just the right moment and the blow whistles over my head", and so on.

If you explicitly want to leverage fortune abilities, swashbuckler has several relevant feats. Unexpected Sharpshooter is a fun option, too. Halflings, Tengu and Goblins all have relevant ancestry feats.

A Jackie Chan-esque martial artist would also be possible.

I don't have time to dig into either build today, but may have a play with them tomorrow.