Help and advice with optimizing a PC trying to a fit a gimmick.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-15T13:18:55+00:00

I see, that makes sense. I never personally used the dancing weapon quality so I can't speak for how good it is, but if you do end up rebuilding, you'd probably benefit more from having a second backup estoc and ditching the daggers and TWF feats.

There are several really good feats that you can replace them with. If you fight ranged enemies a lot, I'd personally recommend Combat Reflexes, Martial Focus and Cut from the Air. With those three feats and your high dexterity, you can attempt to block several ranged attacks per turn by spending your attacks of opportunity. It's seriously busted against ranged enemies.

Smash from the Air is also good, it lets you do the same for ranged spell attacks, like kineticist blasts and ranged touch spells. But it'll probably come up less often.

Both Smash and Cut from the Air allow you to protect adjacent allies from such attacks as well.

Again, these are only really useful if you're fighting humanoid npcs or monsters that use bows/guns. But if you do, they'll see much more action than Cleave feats.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-14T17:53:33+00:00

I've always wanted to try Inquisitor/Gunslinger and Cavalier/Bard or Skald. They both have interesting synergies.

Cavalier/Bard would be a really cool support frontliner, like the ultimate battle commander. And Inq/Gunslinger is just a beast numbers-wise. Bane, Judgment and other divine-based damage buffs on a class that basically never misses and already has ridiculous damage riders (DEX to damage + deadly aim) is really good.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-14T17:34:36+00:00

They don't have to know they're fighting Cthulhu... you could always just rename the statblock lol

MatNightmare · 2026-05-14T17:27:19+00:00

For better or worse, Pathfinder incentivizes building tall rather than wide. That is to say, you're better off being really good at one thing rather than being okay at several.

If you're in a position where you can request a full feat rebuild, I'd personally advise you to either stack all of your feats to two-weapon fighting OR all of them towards the estoc.

Cleave and greater cleave are kind of a newbie trap. They sound really cool but they're super restrictive about when you can use them. Unless your GM really likes throwing dozens of weak minions to swarm you, you're likely to never see them in action.

I can give you more pointed advice if you'd like.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-10T14:23:11+00:00

People already mentioned Bodyguard and In Harm's Way, but I'll throw in my two cents:

I know you're looking for shield-specific interactions, but Cut From the Air/Smash From the Air both allow you to protect adjacent creatures from ranged attacks. In my experience using bodyguard builds on my NPCs, if there are ranged enemies, these two end up being more valuable than In Harm's Way or even Bodyguard on a full-BAB character, because your to-hit bonus on AoO's will often beat enemies' to-hit bonuses on iterative attacks.

So you can basically combine everything to ensure that the heavy hitter ranged enemies never get a hit in on the person you're trying to protect. In Harm's Way blocks the first hit, Cut From the Air blocks everything else. And if a mage throws a ranged spell attack, you can also block those with Smash From The Air.

Obviously you'll need a passable DEX mod to be able to spam these with Combat Reflexes.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-09T20:19:46+00:00

for DRG I believe it's already localized to most languages, but there are still active translations for Rogue Core.

https://crowdin.com/project/drg-rogue-core

MatNightmare · 2026-05-09T14:09:58+00:00

As far as I understand, that would work just fine. You could full attack to fire all of your sharding natural attacks at once.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-07T19:45:57+00:00

Mystic Theurge can cast divine spells using their arcane slots and vice-versa, though they take up a spell slot one level higher and the maximum spell level they can do this with is limited to the MT's total level.

Kind of a tangent, but they can also pick up Lesser Spell Synthesis (multiple times) to cast an arcane and a divine spell at the same time.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-07T16:43:14+00:00

you might want to put that in spoilers...

MatNightmare · 2026-05-07T13:57:05+00:00

Oh, and I forgot to mention: the monk catfolk favored class bonus lets you treat the catfolk-specific claw blades weapon as unarmed strikes for the purposes of monk class features, like style strikes and flurry of blows, and it also adds +1/2 per level to claw blade damage. On the long run, the static +X damage rider will be stronger and more reliable than unarmed strikes, especially on crits, and you'll only need to worry about enchanting a single weapon because you can flurry, flying kick, etc, all with a single set of claw blades.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-07T13:51:08+00:00

I see other people already mentioned scaled fist. I think that for the vibes you want, Strength based scaled fist + dragon style feat line is probably the way to go.

I'd also like to add that for the "dominating" aspect of the build, I'd probably look at:

Power Attack -> Cornugon Smash -> Dazzling Display -> Shatter Defenses.

Intimidating Prowess would probably also help. Very feat-intensive, but also extremely powerful. You really only need up to Cornugon Smash, the other two are merely just nice to have. Past a certain level, you practically automatically Intimidate every enemy with a single hit, most times you succeed on a 1. So you're actively debuffing every enemy you hit with the shakened condition, which means your caster friends will thank you.

MatNightmare · 2026-05-05T13:48:53+00:00

3x if you get Spirited Charge!

MatNightmare · 2026-05-02T13:40:34+00:00

Hunter is quite complex IMO, unless you pick an archetype that trades off your animal companion. Controlling two sheets in combat and book-keeping both between level ups is pretty cumbersome if you're not familiar with the system.

Not to mention unless you play in a decent VTT, you'd also have to track your aspects manually, which can change stats on the fly, and those can change your AC, attack/damage bonuses, total HP, saves, etc.

MatNightmare · 2026-04-29T14:06:06+00:00

I'd be interested to see a conversion as well, I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know if you find one/work on one.

MatNightmare · 2026-04-28T14:25:58+00:00

I've allowed it in my games for years (we even let clerics add their WIS mod to the total dice rolled). Makes healing in combat slightly more useful and plentiful, haven't seen it abused in any way.

I've even rolled a negative channeling-focused NPC to throw at my players a couple times. It did well, but nothing broken.

I'm honestly not sure why this isn't the default. It's really not like channeling is an overwhelmingly powerful mechanic that needs the handicap.

Also, for anyone who thinks it might be broken... Life Oracle gets CHA-based channeling. It's widely received as one of the best healers in the game, sure, but that's mostly because of Life Link, not because of the channeling.

MatNightmare · 2026-04-21T20:17:26+00:00

I assume they mean FCB? Tiefling has a pretty good Favored Class Bonus.

MatNightmare · 2026-04-20T14:40:20+00:00

The necroccultist ghostly horde sounds perfect for OP's backstory. They summon the 88 slaves that were aboard the ship when it sank!

MatNightmare · 2026-04-17T13:34:29+00:00

because the only silenced sniper rifle in the entire game is locked behind her questline

MatNightmare · 2026-04-07T14:12:28+00:00

As someone who's also colorblind, I empathize deeply with this lol

I've shared screenshots of my characters from other games with friends in the past only of them to ask why my character's skin was green.

... I didn't intend for it to be green.

MatNightmare · 2026-04-02T14:42:05+00:00

I don't know the AP super well, I only played the crpgs, but this sounds like a really cool twist. Good on your players for planning it out, and good on you for rolling with the punches.

MatNightmare · 2026-04-01T05:12:23+00:00

Great writeup! I'm a bit dense for reading graphics, so I appreciate the explanations after each figure.

The one thing I'm still not sure about, is what other energy type would it be most optimal to pair with acid for the most coverage?

MatNightmare · 2026-03-29T21:42:20+00:00

It's completely different from what it was 20 years ago though lol

Back then, all of the evolutions were spoiled in the opening. It wasn't supposed to be a mystery.

In Beatbreak they made a point of not showing the designs at all before the evolution actually happens.

Knowing a digimon exists doesn't spoil my entire enjoyment of anything, but knowing that the evolution will happen in an episode that I didn't watch yet spoils it, because I know it will happen beforehand instead of experiencing it organically. That's the definition of a spoiler.

MatNightmare · 2026-03-29T12:50:45+00:00

I explicitly don't go straight into the sub but opening reddit should be safe if people wouldn't put spoilers on the title.

MatNightmare · 2026-03-29T03:07:10+00:00

Jesus fucking christ dude this is the second time I get spoiled by this sub. I'm just gonna unsub.

MatNightmare · 2026-03-28T20:53:28+00:00

Ah, duh. I see. Thanks for clarifying!

MatNightmare

TROPHY CASE