3.75 (Pathfinder) Help me make a dynamic duo!

[Nad]

Hello all,

Thanks for taking time to read my plea. Four of us are getting together with our DM in two weeks to play a game. Two of us haven't played D&D and know almost nothing about Pathfinder, so I'm hoping you can help.

We'd like to build our characters to be sort of a dynamic duo, working together to be pretty amazing in and out of combat. Could you all possibly suggest some ideas? So far the party already has a bard, so neither of us will be playing that.

Here are the Character Generation details:

System: Pathfinder, Advanced Player's Guide is acceptable.

Ability Score Points: Epic Fantasy (25 points) or roll randomly (4d6
pick highest 3 dice).

Character Level: 5th, medium experience progression, start with
15,000k experience.

Character Wealth & Magic: 10,500 gp; no more than 4,000 gp in a
single item; crafting feats allowed if prerequisites are met

Campaign details:

- Knowledge Skills are huge
- Influence makes a difference
- Characters star with bonus feats based on Race (and are CL+1; character still start at 5th Level)
- Majority of adventure will not be traditional dungeon crawl

[Gnaeus]

Witch 5, Antipaladin 5.

The witch is the master (mistress) of combat debuffs. Evil Eye or Misfortune to cripple an enemy's abilities to make saving throws, followed by a Save or Lose like the Sleep hex (followed by a coup de grace from the paladin). She can also wield fear magics (aided by the paladin's auras) or no save debuffs like enervate.

Antipaladin is a charisma based class with Intimidate as a class skill. That means that he can take a standard action to drop another -2 on all saves on the witches target, or Dazzling Display to make every foe within 30 feet shaken. His auras give all enemies a -4 on fear saves, or at higher levels, a -2 to ALL saves. But that's not all. The antipaladin can inflict cruelties on enemies, wracking them with another set of penalties. Then he can laugh while he finishes off his crippled opponent with his sword.

The goal is that every round they make two difficult saves (or one save and an auto suck effect like intimidate or enervate). Whenever they fail, they not only become less effective at fighting, they also become less likely to make their NEXT save.

With disguise and Intimidate and high cha, the antipaladin is also an effective social character, and the witch, as a tier 1 caster, can be useful in any situation. As a final bonus, the bard's performance will help the antipaladin in combat, and the negative-effect stacking from those two characters will allow the bard to wield his will based save-or-lose spells effectively.

[Curious]

The combo above sounds pretty good, but if you are playing a witch, ALWAYS TAKE CACKLE. No really, take it, it's insanely good.

[Nad]

Awesome, thanks for this option! Do they have to be evil, because they sound evil. If that's the case, I should have clarified that this will be a good campaign. :smalleek:

[jmelesky]

The witch is the master (mistress) of combat debuffs. Evil Eye or Misfortune to cripple an enemy's abilities to make saving throws, followed by a Save or Lose like the Sleep hex (followed by a coup de grace from the paladin). She can also wield fear magics (aided by the paladin's auras) or no save debuffs like enervate.

I'll second this: Evil Eye, Misfortune, and Cackle work together really well (even if the Evil Eye doesn't stick, it still debuffs saves for a single round, so the Misfortune can come in, then Cackle keeps it all going). Add Fortune as a solid buff for your companion (sadly, only once per day per target, but it'll keep for as long as the Cackle goes). The other hexes are worthwhile, too, but these will be your bread and butter.

Accursed Hex is a new feat from Ultimate Magic that lets you re-try once per day per target debuffs.

Plus, a witch is a full caster. And SAD (single attribute dependent), so you can get your Intelligence up and not worry about your other stats too much.

I'm less keen on the antipaladin, if only for the fluff reason that they're not generally team players (and thus not great for a duo). Instead, consider a Magus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus) (new in Ultimate Magic). They're not great front-line fighters (low hitpoints, less than full BAB), but once you debuff their opponents, they become far nastier. They deliver touch spells through their weapon strikes, and with those save penalties, they'll all get through (moreover, those spells crit alongside the weapon -- rapier, anyone? keen when you can afford it?).

edit: Antipaladin requires CE alignment, but Witch and Magus are not alignment-dependent.

[Gnaeus]

Awesome, thanks for this option! Do they have to be evil, because they sound evil. If that's the case, I should have clarified that this will be a good campaign. :smalleek:

Sorrow.

The witch can be any alignment, but the Antipaladin must be CE.

OK, drop the antipaladin, replace with an Alchemist. Take a reach weapon, like a longspear. You can poison the longspear to do con damage, which becomes increasingly deadly as the witch decimates the target's ability to make saves. Alternately, you can throw bombs with debilitating save effects. The alchemist isn't as good as a front-line-melee as the Antipaladin, but with a bard standing nearby he should do well as a melee or ranged attacker depending on exactly what role you want him to fill.

Edit: Magus is nice too. I don't think of it because I don't have the book yet, but it is on SRD.

[Wagadodo]

Witch does not need to be evil, but a of course an Anti Palidan defiantly has to be Chaotic Evil to the Nth degree.

Hum... A dou characters... If you are comfortable playing prepared spellcasters a Witch is a good choice then a Nature Oracle if one of you wants to play a spontanous divine caster. Both have that outdoorsy feel to them if you want. Both of them are in the Adavanced players guide.

[Rixx]

You will probably want to make them both spellcasters, preferably one arcane and one divine, just to have your bases covered. That being said, two full casters at early levels is pretty much going to be a hearty sandwich for a group of enemy fighters more than anything.

I think a melee Magus and archer Inquisitor would probably be one of the best combos - you cover all your bases (warrior, arcane, divine, and skill), and both classes have a wealth of different abilities and are focused on remaining adaptable for many different situations.

[Wagadodo]

My first thought was to suggest the Magus and the Battle Oracle myself, but the Ultimate Magic wasn't listed as one of the books allowed. The Magus seems to be a fairly fun and veristale class to play when and if I get to play it.

[Gnaeus]

You will probably want to make them both spellcasters, preferably one arcane and one divine, just to have your bases covered. That being said, two full casters at early levels is pretty much going to be a hearty sandwich for a group of enemy fighters more than anything..

It doesn't really matter what the source of spells are, as long as you have the bases covered. In a Bard/Witch/Alchemist party, for example, you have no divine caster. But every member of that group can heal or buff (the traditional divine caster role).

[CTrees]

Comedy duo! Ever watch Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome? Play Master Blaster. Some massive, strength based/tanky class (my pick: synthesist summoner, biped form) that can handle melee with a gnome wizard on his back.

Less comedy version: druid, wild shaping into a lion, and a twf/lance melee class to ride the druid. Your charges, with buffs, should be beyond ridiculous, plus you have a full caster plus whatever else on the rider (magus, perhaps?)