Pathfinder n00b seeking advice

[Vivificant]

Hey all, I've never played pathfinder before but I've got a lot of experience with MMORPGs. So what I'm trying to figure out is which type of character will suit me best. I saw a group of people playing at my local store and asked if I could join them, they said yes and gave me a character sheet. How ever so far I've only rolled my first 6 numbers. This is it

18,17,17,10,9,9

In all other MMORPGs I've played a Healer/tankwarrior of sorts. I would draw aggro and pull the creature to my party members and then stand back and buff my party members and heal them while they fight it.

I've been reading a lot but I have a short amount of time to figure it out. I 100% want to ability to heal and revive a party member if they die and to buff others. I want to be able to run/sneak fast and fight solo if I have to.

I was thinking a cleric(not devout to any deity)/rogue
or a wizard/rogue or wizard/cleric

[Socksy]

I'd say cleric/rogue. The last thing you want to worry about is spell lists, copying spells into a spellbook, worrying about your armour messing up your arcane spells (Armour only ruins arcane spells, Divine spells are fine), etc. The 18 should ideally go in Wisdom and the 17s in Dexterity and Constitution if you want to be a bit tanky. 10 in Intelligence means you get no penalty. If you know you're fighting a lot of undead in the campaign, you might want the 17 in Charisma instead of Constitution in order to use Turn Undead more often (I think, can someone confirm if it's the same as in 3.5?).

EDIT: How about Oracle/Rogue? Oracles are spontaneous casters so even less fiddling with spell lists, and they cast off Charisma, which rogues benefit from too. So 18 Charisma, 17 Constitution and Dexterity. An ideal race for that would be Catfolk since it gets a +2 racial bonus to Charisma and Dexterity.

DOUBLE EDIT: Giantitp has a subforum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?59-D-amp-D-3e-3-5e-d20) for Pathfinder and D&D 3.0/3.5, you might have better luck if you ask a mod to move your thread there. c:

[Arbane]

Even better than Oracle/Rogue, Oracle/Ninja. Get double use out of high Charisma!

It's a bit tricky to both tank and sneak in Pathfinder - stealth and decent armor generally don't mix.

Oracles are pretty fun - get a high strength, constitution, and charisma, and you can whup ass in melee, AND buff and heal allies.

Or go Cleric. Just swap 'Wisdom' for 'Charisma', above.

Ask the other players/GM in your game for help. Pathfinder is not simple.

[JusticeZero]

Healing isn't as combat effective as in most MMOs. It's still useful, but as a Cleric, you get more mileage out of buffing, debuffing, and doing some DPS in between. There are some specialist builds that do healing well. Personally, I suggest that people who are more enamored with the healer role try for a Vitalist, but that's a third party class from a set of books with an undeserved poor reception.
In PF, undead turning needs a feat; the default is a channeling thing where the Cleric sets off a PBAOE blast of positive or negative energy that affects everything in the area.

Also, unless they give out gestalt double classes to everyone, not the norm, you're best off as a single class. Can you tell us anything about the rest of the group?

[Socksy]

Not entiiirely true, JusticeZero. They could push for the AD&D multiclassing rules to be houseruled in.

But in all seriousness, single classed characters can often be the best, especially for newer players. If you want to be sneaky, you might want to take a couple of levels of rogue, but stick to being more of a Cleric/Oracle/Vitalist/whatever healing class you're going for, and put lots of ranks into Stealth. Ask if you can get some Armour of Silent Moves (from D&D) later on in the game- a lot of DMs will allow some things from 3.0 and 3.5 into Pathfinder.

EDIT: If you do go for cleric/rogue and your DM accepts 3.5 material, try the Sacred Outlaw feat. It lets you stack your rogue and cleric levels for the purposes of Turn Undead and Sneak Attack.

[ElenionAncalima]

I would probably suggest Oracle, for a few reasons.

-Cleric by default worship dieties, Oracles do not.
-Oracles are what is know as Spontaneous casters, meaning they have a handful of spells they pick ahead of time and a number of spells they can cast a day. They can cast those spells up to that number. For a new player this is by far the easiers method of spells casting.
-Those two 9s you make it tricky to be a cleric, especially if you want to be a melee/tanky one. For a cleric you need at least a positive in charisma and wisom. Oracles need only charisma.

Also, if you heart is set on multiclassing, I would say go for it. However, be wary that in Pathfinder, you tend to lose more that you gain when you multiclass. For instance, if you want to be a melee fighter your ability to hit things will be pretty bad, because Rogue and Cleric both get +0 at level one. You will also be hampering your spellcasting and channelling as the Cleric and your sneak attack as the Rogue.

[the clumsy bard]

here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?257365-PF-Oradin-Mini-Guide-Or-How-to-be-a-Healbot-minus-the-bot)

Honestly its the best way to still kick butt and not have to waste actions using healing.

I highly recommend it.

Paladin and Oracle both use Charisma and it give you enough with your stats to boost the other important stats as well.

[Vivificant]

Thanks for all the help, I think I'm diggin' oracle or cleric. I asked the DM about choosing to not worship a deity if I chose cleric and instead be devout to knowledge and he told me it was fine as long as I knew how to level him. I think I'm leaning towards Oracle though.

I asked if there were a lot of undead creatures and he said yes, but there's a little bit of everything too. He also told me the majority of people I'm playing with are new and that I'll barely be half a level behind because I'm joining at their second meet and the first one they were messing around a lot and getting the feel for it

Would an Elf or Half-elf be good for an oracle? I don't like that Elves get -2 constitution but they have a lot of pluses.. and If I multiclass I was planning on leveling my guy a bit first and then splitting off, or does that not work too well in Pathfinder?

Edit - To clarify, I'm obsessed with lifegain and healing in all RPGs I do. It's the most fun for me. I like being able to revive other players and buff them. So I don't need to be physically tough per say as long as I can heal myself and cast spells to keep me alive and kickin butt

[Vivificant]

The spells I like are Bleed, Stabilize, Create water, light, read magic, enhanced diplomacy

[JusticeZero]

If I multiclass I was planning on leveling my guy a bit first and then splitting off, or does that not work too well in Pathfinder?
Multiclassing is almost always a mistake in Pathfinder. I don't know what MMOs you have played, so I can't pull out any examples, but if you cast spells, the absolute most important thing in the world is that you advance that class's spellcasting at every single level you get. There are only a vanishingly small number of exceptions to that rule that you can't stumble into accidentally. If you want to be sneaky, put points in Stealth skill and take the trait that makes it a class skill.
If you're a Cleric, you get to pick spells from all the spells available every day.

[Socksy]

Would an Elf or Half-elf be good for an oracle?

Well, if you want to be stealthy, you won't want to have heavy armour. So you want to find a race with a Dexterity bonus (to boost AC and stealth) and a Charisma bonus (for your spells). Catfolk (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-catfolk) does that, and gives a +2 racial bonus to Stealth, too. Also, you can choose to learn an extra spell each level instead of gaining a hit point or skill point, very useful for a spontaneous caster.

Also, you'd get to play a catgirl. I had one once, and she got too interested in Necromancy. She became known as my Nekomancer. It was brilliant.

EDIT: While full casting is important, Oracles can dip into other things for two levels and still get 9th level spells. If you're allowed the Sacred Outlaw feat, you'll need three levels of rogue, but all that means is no 9th level spells- you'll still get up to 8th. (If the 3.5 material is allowed though, Psychic Rogue 1/Rogue 1 would make you eligible for the feat anyway, so you wouldn't really have to lose your 9ths.) A character with maxed-out Stealth and Sneak Attack equal to that of a rogue of their level is basically just a rogue who is bad at traps and locks.

[Eldaran]

Edit - To clarify, I'm obsessed with lifegain and healing in all RPGs I do. It's the most fun for me. I like being able to revive other players and buff them. So I don't need to be physically tough per say as long as I can heal myself and cast spells to keep me alive and kickin butt

In this case I would highly recommend just Oracle, multiclassing will dilute your ability to heal and cast other spells. The Life Mystery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/life) is what you want for maximum healing power. Channel is probably the first revelation you want, and eventually you'll want the feats Selective Channel (so you don't heal non-undead enemies nearby) and Quick Channel (which will allow you to channel as a move action, so you can still cast that turn). For race anything with a charisma bonus is good, and you'll want your highest stat in charisma as well.

[facelessminion]

Oradin could be very very nice for you... but if you absolutely want to rock something closest to WoW style healing, I would ask your GM about the Vitalist.

[Dalebert]

In all other MMORPGs I've played a Healer/tankwarrior of sorts. I would draw aggro and pull the creature to my party members and then stand back and buff my party members and heal them while they fight it.

Pulling is less of a thing in tabletop RPGs, or should I say a more rare thing? Rarely are monsters so close to other monsters that a fight will aggro more, and if they are, you may just pull them all anyway. I can still envision some scenarios when it would be helpful. I would say it's hard to be "sort of" a tank.

As has been said, multiclassing is purposefully discouraged in PF and heavy armor impedes a LOT of things. Check out archetypes, which are ways to trade out certain class abilities, sometimes in dramatic ways, but which rarely gimps you like multiclassing almost inevitably does. It's practically the PF version of multiclassing. Also you can have 2 or 3 traits that can let you treat certain skills as class skills. Combine that with a reasonably high INT, and you can probably mimic the parts of a rogue that matter to you. I have a hard time imagining that sneak attack is worth not advancing as a caster for any number of levels.