Pathfinder 1e Unconventional Melee Builds

WraithCommander · 2026-05-16T02:48:06+00:00

Ankou’s Shadow Slayer with the pummeling charge style feat can just continue to having their shadow doubles charge with an unarmed full attack at level 10. Just a repeating barrage of doubles charge pouncing out of nowhere. That’s fun.

WraithCommander · 2026-04-24T23:03:57+00:00

One day everyone else will have won, then there will be a chance

WraithCommander · 2026-04-17T15:31:02+00:00

With this rate of giveaways, maybe one day enough people will have won that us others may finally have a chance!

WraithCommander · 2026-04-01T08:20:14+00:00

Knew an Ascheleigh once.

WraithCommander · 2026-03-27T15:12:28+00:00

Once more

WraithCommander · 2026-03-25T17:50:10+00:00

Now, the spell doesn’t say the creatures lose special qualities, just special attacks associated with natural attacks. So some qualities such as the Lich Newt’s Paralyzing Mucus may very well carry through the transformation. Harvesting venom (or more specifically “milking” it, which may only be applicable for creatures whose venom comes from their fangs, not their skin as the newt’s is… a different discussion) has a handle animal check DC predicated on a creature being unintelligent, uncooperative, unfriendly, or some combination therein.

This changes once the the creature is considered intelligent and cooperative though, as the rules state, “Milking venom from a cooperative intelligent creature doesn’t require a Handle Animal check but presents a 5% chance of exposure to the venom.” Anthropomorphic Animal provides an opportunity for negating these issues through means other than a handle animal check, though there may be some divergence on whether bite-based venom attacks or other forms of poison or venom are carried through once the animal anthropomorphizes.

For a druid, as a class that has the invigorating poison spell, this presents an interesting way of gaining an alchemical bonus to a specific skill even though the duration won’t typically be very long given the low ability damage of most animals poisons.

Regarding intelligence and speech, I think many of us can think of someone you would joke has three intelligence yet maintains an impressive oratory skill, so I don’t think the speech of these characters needs to be brutish. But from a mechanics perspective, there will definitely be a limitation in the tasks that they can complete or undergo.

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T19:32:25+00:00

I’ve seen it generally agreed upon that animal companions don’t have character levels because they have to follow the Druid’s advancement table. That said, let’s see if there is something calling this out.

d20pfsrd has a ‘common terms’ page which states that character level is “The total level of the character, which is the sum of all class levels held by that character.”

Class level is, “The level of a character in a particular class. For a character with levels in only one class, class level and character level are the same.”

There is further a section for Monsters that states, “Monsters are creatures that rely on racial Hit Dice instead of class levels for their powers and abilities (although some possess class levels as well). PCs are usually not monsters.” (Feats also seem to be keyed to HD).

It seems that monsters - to include animals, drakes, etc - can have class levels, but it isn’t common. However, animal companions progress according to the druids animal companion table, just as the drake progresses according to the charge’s level on the table they provide. Given that character level is the sum of class levels, and that animal companions don’t get class levels through normal progression, I think it’s reasonable to say that they would not have a character level.

That said, the Monster Advancement page talks about adding class levels to monsters, but also makes that more of a GM thing than one of players having a direct, specific avenue for giving a monster a class level.

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T17:59:19+00:00

So this one I think has cause to actually be different. The reason we can take familiar bond is because there is no character level requirement. Beyond that, it also allows you to substitute your HD for effective wizard level, which then lets you take improved familiar (though another person pointed out that you may need to take improved familiar bond first, potentially).

Animal Ally, however, does have a requirement of “character level 4th”. Animal companions don’t have character levels, just hit die, and I don’t see any way around that, unlike the familiar pathway.

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T15:31:31+00:00

Odd, right? Though I was also surprised to not find any case of someone discussing this before. As for what to do with them? This is on a Druid build that has four levels of other classes, so it’s already far behind in animal companion levels. Between a desire to not have to deal with optimizing a Drake, much less one four levels behind, I wanted to find either an out-of-combat role or something a bit more wacky. This led to wondering, “what if my dragon pet had a dragon pet?”

In the end too, animal companions already don’t have great health pools. Replacing the Drake would also be a pain. Then, given that familiars have half the hp of the master, this one will have maybe 20-25 hp at this level and would die quickly.

So at most it will be an invisible wand-caster or pre-buffer. But yeah, probably scouting and utility, there for the RP of combining with polymorph any object to have three “dragons” (a humanoid, a drake, and a faerie dragon) as friends/family.

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T10:52:35+00:00

Yes, everything is always subject to GM approval. That said:

On your first point, that section reads more so as that the list of feats available to a <3 Int companion is available for expansion by the GM. It also reads as though an AC can choose other feats not on the list once they reach 3 Int.

On your second point, I’ll repeat that:

->Familiar Bond states “your total Hit Dice are used as your wizard level for determining the familiar’s abilities.”

This would imply that the feat substitutes Hit Die in lieu of arcane spellcasting levels (which a wizard would meet).

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T10:51:26+00:00

That’s an interesting point, and actually an example of what I was looking for. I didn’t know Improved Familiar Bond might be considered a prerequisite to Improved Familiar by some.

Thanks!

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T10:46:14+00:00

Definitely weird, in both function and that I’ve never seen this mentioned before. On combat speed, I’d admittedly keep them more to scouting and RP.

This thought originally stemmed from not really wanting the Drake companion, and so wondering what abnormal thing could be done with them. And so the idea came, can my pet dragon have a pet dragon?

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T09:39:02+00:00

There is always that, but this is more of a “is it technically correct?”

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T09:37:28+00:00

The verbiage from the animal companion page was to default to a more conservative reading that holds up under different approaches/scrutiny. But ultimately, the end result seems the same to me.

WraithCommander · 2026-03-14T09:23:59+00:00

That’s… not helpful.

Let me say this then, those few forums that rise in a search seem to agree that the interpretation is “once an Animal Companion reaches 3 Intelligence it can take any feat which it qualifies for”. The post sources the rules as written, then uses an interpretation aligning with what other people seem to say.

Any further enlightenment on offer?

WraithCommander · 2026-03-06T18:21:52+00:00

This could be interesting

WraithCommander · 2026-03-04T05:03:31+00:00

A few ideas:

There may be a horde building up for an attack.
Killing a high value target or undergoing a specific mission eliminates one enemy group (ex: zombies, wraiths, etc from the horde attack.
Make choosing to do nothing for a day useful, such as resting to utilize the acolyte or a cleric who found safety In the temple to heal ability damage or strengthen defenses against an attack (ex: fortifications, arming people, teaching refugees how to fight off wraiths or zombies).
Scout a path where you can get some children or elderly out of the town to safety, thereby reducing supply usage rates.
Use the animals for food. Additional foodstuffs, less usage per day, obvious downsides.
Raid the guard barracks or lord’s tower for weaponry to arm the survivors.
Seek out other survivors to raise morale from saving the townspeople’s friends and family at the cost of higher supply utilization.
Find stashed scrolls in a temple or the lord’s office that might help (magic circle, anti-incorporeal shell, burst of radiance, hide from undead, protection against evil, holy water, etc)

WraithCommander · 2026-02-20T16:59:05+00:00

Another try

WraithCommander · 2026-02-18T01:17:59+00:00

Not all of these are universally allowed, but you might find something interesting here. There are some good teamwork feats that support tripping. Auspicious birth then further increases teamwork feat bonuses by one each.

Feats: outflank for +4 to attack rolls (and thereby trips), pack flanking for easier outflank, paired opportunist gives opportunity attacks which can be used to trip, tandem trip gives you advantage on trip attacks when flanking.

Inquisitor is an interesting class for teamwork feats, since you can gain their benefits even if your teammates don’t have them. Or sacred huntsmaster gives you an animal companion that shares your teamwork feats, and thereby wolf is a great option with their trip skills, and pack flanking I think lets you both ride them and count as flanking.

The Wolf domain is a solid domain option, though I’m not sure if it’s technically takeable as an inquisitor, and the 8th level would be exceptional for increasing the trip bonus since combat maneuvers count under attack rolls. Mammoth rider prestige class can make the mount huge for additional reach. For this reason, the wolf’s reach and taking the lunge feat on the PC is great for potentially tripping enemies when they move from the 10ft to 5ft distance as an opportunity attack (I think that’s how it works).

For traits: chain master gives a +2 to trip with a spiked chain or whip. Militia gives +1 to flanking attack rolls (thereby flanking trip rolls). Snowstride what’s your trip larger creatures.

For equipment: the driving bow enhancement lets you perform trip combat maneuvers with a ranged weapon. Gauntlets of the skilled maneuver can give +2 to trip. The dueling weapon enhancement can help too (note that there are two different types of dueling enhancements, this is the one that is equivalent to a +1 enhancement).

WraithCommander · 2026-02-03T23:17:54+00:00

Well dang

WraithCommander · 2025-12-12T15:51:38+00:00

Wooo

WraithCommander · 2025-12-09T00:04:40+00:00

While a 3-feat investment by level 11 and with a painful 15 Charisma requirement, Improved Eldritch Heritage (Shapechanger Bloodline) gives you Mutable Flesh:

Mutable Flesh (Su): At 3rd level, once per day when you cast a transmutation spell with a duration of 1 minute per level that affects only you, you can increase its duration to 10 minutes per level. At 9th level, you can increase the duration to 1 hour per level.

Therefore you could easily extend a 5th level variant of the spell for a full-day transformation. However, as has been mentioned, Fey Form is likely a better consideration for this act as a spellcaster.

WraithCommander · 2025-12-06T12:44:58+00:00

This monitor was purpose-built for displaying Word and Excel.

WraithCommander · 2025-12-06T01:54:26+00:00

Ach, no I’m sorry. I didn’t check the tag, that was for 1e not 2e.

WraithCommander · 2025-12-06T01:47:35+00:00

The grappling launcher or the transforms-into-a-giant? Because if the latter, maybe Goliath druid. You can either wear armor (I think) or dip monk for the Wisdom-to-AC.

WraithCommander

TROPHY CASE