Supposing you had to build a Tinker (PF)...

[Trekkin]

I found this class (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/interjection-games/tinker) on the PFSRD wiki, and for whatever reason I just can't get my head around how to optimize it, so I thought I'd ask you guys what you might do with it. I'm not even sure what it's for, really, but as weird as it is there's just something so cute about having a quartet of little mecha-gnomes wandering around lobbing alchemical stuff that I can't help but try.

So if you had to build a Tinker, what would you design it to do and what would you pick for a race?

[Bradley Crouch]

Hello there, mate! I stumbled across this while looking for what ripples the Tinker has made in cyberspace so far. Given nobody swung by to give you an answer, I suppose I'll field the question.

First of all, the name's Brad and I wrote the Tinker you found. I'm glad you find it difficult to optimize the little blighter - the entire point is to not create any false choices for the class.

Given the design philosophy of the class making it so there isn't one correct answer, one has to decide what the primary objective of the class is. If you're looking to link into one of the ever-growing list of the prestige classes, this gets even more complicated. To keep it simple, let's assume you're only using the content I have made available for free. As such, the design of your tinker falls into one of several primary archetypes.

The User - The automatons are tools and it doesn't matter whether they live or die.

The user likes the following innovations and greater innovations.

Kamikaze Directive
Contingent Kamikaze
Prismatic Strike

In other words, anything that increases damage is good and nearly every automaton has a few points of kamikaze enhancers slapped onto it to make each individual automaton useful even in death.

The Pokemon Trainer - The automatons are your best friends!

The Pokemon Trainer likes the following innovations and greater innovations.

Support Programming
Heavy Construction
Permanent Fixture
Independence Script

In other words, anything that allows the automatons to become more and more lifelike and less like unthinking machines is absolutely fantastic. This archetype tends to double as an item crafter and usually gets stuck into melee with his automatons. The Innovator prestige class works well here.

Iron Gnome - The entire idea is to ride an automaton.

The iron gnome uses the following innovations and greater innovations.

Megadroid
Gigadroid
Designer
Heavy Construction
Rapid Orders

The iron gnome is all about flexibility in single packages. Why have your options mixed up in a number of designs when you can deploy it all at once? A 16th level, slap a cockpit onto each of your designs and ride around in it. Invest in good weaponry.

Races:

Small-sized helps for everything you want to interact with. For example, a gnome can easily ride in boats and cockpits without even needing to deploy megadroids. This is great if you want to go Pokemon Trainer / Iron Gnome, because it gives you the flexibility of one deployment per level per day with the protective benefits of the cockpit.

High intelligence, such as from any stat-flex race, helps land kamikazes and the limited crowd control effects available to tinkers.

And a half-orc tinker with a keen falchion makes for an excellent tinker if the feat that gives an attack of opportunity against anything that kills an automaton is taken.