First Time PoW (Warlord!)

[Ninjaxenomorph]

So I was reading through Path of War content on d20PFSRD, looking at the warlord class. I have a game coming up set in a homebrewed setting I have worked on, and one of the races I contributed seems like its made for the Warlord. So, having never played a warlord, let alone Path of War, I decided to come here for help. As for optional rules we are playing with, I am 90% certain we are playing with the Background Skills and alternate crafting in Unchained, and I know we're starting at 1st level.

The custom race:
Solarborn Characters
Ability Score Racial Traits: Solarborn are physically gifted and quite charismatic, but rely heavily on the advancements of others. Solarborn characters have +2 Strength, +2 Charisma, and -2 Intelligence.
Type: Solarborn are Monstrous Humanoids, and thus have darvision out to 60 feet.
Size: Solarborn are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Solarborn have a base speed of 30ft.
Fire Resistance: Solarborn possess fire resistance 5 as a result of their ties to the sun.
Breath Weapon: Solarborn are capable of a powerful breath weapon. Once per day as a standard action Solarborn can make a supernatural breath attack that deals 2d6 fire damage in a 20-foot line. The DC for this ability is 10 + ½ the Solarborn’s level + the Solarborn’s Constitution modifier. A successful reflex save negates the damage.
Vestigial Wings: Solarborn possess fins similar to wings on their arms, granting them a +4 racial bonus to flight as these aid the character.
Prehensile Tail: Solarborn’s tails are flexible enough to carry objects, and can retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their person as a swift action.
Solar Healing: As a swift action, a solarborn can call upon its solar dragon heritage, gaining fast healing 1 for 1 minute. This fast healing only works in bright light, such as sunlight. This ability can be used a number of times per day equal to ½ the solarborn’s character level (minumum 1).
Light Dependant: Solarborn take 1d4 points of Constitution damage each day they go without exposure to sunlight.
Languages: Solarborn start with Common and Draconic, and Solarborn with high Intelligence may learn any languages they want (with the exception of secret languages).


I need advice across the board. As for the actual build, Discipline-wise I was thinking Scarlet Throne, with a smattering of Golden Lion and Primal Fury (I was disappointed that Solar Wind and Thrashing Dragon styles, the most thematically appropriate for the race at least based on name, are sub-optimal for the stats). Skill-wise, if I cancel out the Int penalty and put FCB into skill points, I can rely on having five skill ranks per level; maxing Sense Motive seems a must, along with Diplomacy perhaps. First level would be Climb, Swim, Perception, Sense Motive, and Diplomacy (always put a rank into Climb and Swim first level if I can help it). For feats, I'm thinking Power Attack (obviously), though I'm not sure on the other. Normally when I have a feat to play around with at 1st level I take Toughness, unless I have a specific build in mind (such as taking Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot at 1st level), but because of the Solarborn's solar healing ability, I think that's somewhat unneccesary. Maybe Improved Initiative or Discipline Focus (Scarlet Throne), a feat that I will definitely be taking at some point, provided I go all-in with the discipline.

As for the general systems, I think I get it well enough. Lotta swift/immediate actions, though. I'm surprised I didn't see something that made Counters able to be used as AoOs, though, the Warder's ability to use them as free actions being the only one I saw. Can anyone recommend a printable character sheet, though? I prefer to have a physical copy, though for maneuvers and effects I will likely use either another printout or a tablet document, but is taking a normal character sheet and writing over 'spells' with 'manuevers' the only option I have?

[meemaas]

I'd honestly just suggest writing out your maneuvers on notecards rather than worrying about it on your sheet. Set together your readied maneuvers faceup, then flip one over when you use it to keep track of what's been expended.

As for suggestions, there's a feat in the Path of War Expanded Playtest on this forum that let's you make TWF strength based if you were actually interested in using Thrashing Dragon and only bypassed it because it's typically strength based.

[Dusk Eclipse]

You can make a Strength based TWF FYI, the prodigious two-weapon fighting feat (check the playtestd documents linked in the PoW thread) allows you to use str for everything related to TWF.

What do you want your character to do? Path of War is extremely flexible so almost any concept is doable. Having said that I'm wondering, why would you want to use a counter as an AoO? Counters are by designe reactive actions and they take an immediate action already so making them usable as AoO would be a downgrade actually.

Here are some guides (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?380631-All-the-Path-of-War-Guides-in-One-Place!) from Elricatovilla (who is now a writer for DSP), but the Warlord one is somewhat outdated, but it still serves as an excellent starting point.

[Snowbluff]

Gambits, my friend, gambits.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I'd honestly just suggest writing out your maneuvers on notecards rather than worrying about it on your sheet. Set together your readied maneuvers faceup, then flip one over when you use it to keep track of what's been expended.

As for suggestions, there's a feat in the Path of War Expanded Playtest on this forum that let's you make TWF strength based if you were actually interested in using Thrashing Dragon and only bypassed it because it's typically strength based.

Eh, that could work too. I tend to play with smaller table space, though, so extraneous space can be a drawback.


You can make a Strength based TWF FYI, the prodigious two-weapon fighting feat (check the playtestd documents linked in the PoW thread) allows you to use str for everything related to TWF.

What do you want your character to do? Path of War is extremely flexible so almost any concept is doable. Having said that I'm wondering, why would you want to use a counter as an AoO? Counters are by designe reactive actions and they take an immediate action already so making them usable as AoO would be a downgrade actually.

Here are some guides (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?380631-All-the-Path-of-War-Guides-in-One-Place!) from Elricatovilla (who is now a writer for DSP), but the Warlord one is somewhat outdated, but it still serves as an excellent starting point.

My point was you can make more than one AoO with investment, and they do not take away your next swift action either way. I will grant the Warder ability to make them free actions is better all around, but seeing as Paizo has already made a class that can counter attacks as an AoO (the Swashbuckler), I would have thought they would not be the only ones.

As for what I want this guy to do, I haven't really played the big fighter with a two-handed sword yet. As a race, the Solarborn are supposed to be boisterous, strong, have a knack for being reckless (because of their solar healing) and somewhat smug, yet have a habit of making others like them despite that. In the fluff they were created by Solar Dragons, hence my disappointment when those disciplines don't favor the most typical fighting style the race would use.


Gambits, my friend, gambits.

I was thinking the Deadeye and Victory gambits. Deadeye because I like called shots and this gives me an excuse to use them (plus I like the temporary hit points), and Victory is something I'm going to use anyway.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Oh you want counter attacks? Then my friend you are talking to the right person; I've been on a counter-attacking mood lately and I've messed a lot with it and PoW; sadly while Warlord can do some work it isn't the best class for that (Dervish Defender Warder and Bleak Emissary Harbingers are a lot better for that).

Anyway, for counter attacking you can go for the Scarlet Throne Style chain, though that locks you into 1 handed fighting (which isn't bad given the feats), but that way you would need to wait till level 11 to get your counter attacks as Scarlet Throne Riposte has a pre-req of 11 Sense motive ranks. While you get that you can definitely go for Mithral Current (get it via tradition or trait), the discipline is heavily based on them and it has some of the best counters in the game.

On the other hand if you want to go for a dragon-man wielding the biggest pointy metal stick it can carry, it is hard to go wrong with Primal Fury, though be aware that it is scheduled to be nerfed in PoW Errata (which will come relatively soon according to DSP).

[Ninjaxenomorph]

That's why I said I want to specialize in Golden Lion, Primal Fury, and especially Scarlet Throne. And most Scarlet Throne abilities don't lock you into a einhander style, you can be wielding a greatsword and still reap the benefits, unless I would go for Scarlet Einhander as a stance (though I do love it, and I definitely want to play a Magus who picks that up through Martial Training). Golden Lion for the 'leader making allies better' aspect that is held by both the class as a whole and Solarborn as a race, Primal Fury for the occasional really cool maneuver (Running Hunter's Stance and Raging Hunter's Pounce being big ones), and Scarlet Throne for the 'I am inherently better than you' arrogance. And the maneuvers. Lots of fun maneuvers.