Path of War: Favorite class & discipline?

[legomaster00156]

As the title says. What is your favorite class/initiating archetype from PoW, and your favorite discipline? For myself, I have played dreadfully few initiators, but I find myself increasingly fond of my Mithral Current specialist Hidden Blade Rogue. However, I look forward to an opportunity to use a War Soul Soulknife.

[digiman619]

I am a sucker of the War Soul/Deadly Fist Soulknife, especially with the Broken Blade/Sleeping Goddess disciplines.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Favorite initiator class would definitely have to be the Warlord. My favorite recovery method, I like the charisma focus, pretty much my favorite martial. Favorite discipline is a toss-up between Scarlet Throne, Unquiet Grave, and Cursed Razor. The first for being pretty balanced and catering to a style of two-handing I prefer over Primal Fury, the second for its toolbox and fun nature, the third for the outrageously fun cursing system.

[Vhaidara]

Class is a tie between Warder and Zealot, since I love my tanks.

Discipline is, without question, Eternal Guardian. Lockdown heavy, well tuned, effects are more than just save or suck/die/lose, and the thematics are just ON POINT. I just used Shackles of the Condemned to hold down a shadow demon that had possessed our wizard's mother while the wizard blasted it into tiny little pieces.

[Erit]

Stalker or Warlord depending on the concept I'm rolling.

As far as disciplines, it's harder. I love Scarlet Blade and Thrashing Dragon to bits, because Scarlet Blade is about being smugly in control of the fight and has an "I do not treat with worms" feel to its descriptions, while Thrashing Dragon lets you do ridiculous things like leaping over an attack and stabbing the enemy in the head for their troubles, throwing swords across the room and pinning people to walls with them, or running into a thicket of dudes and reducing all of them to a fine red mist. One appeals to my penchant for playing arrogant snobs, while the other is a good tool for showing why the character is such an arrogant snob by demonstrating what happens when they cut loose.

Plus I love the draconic theme of TD, that certainly colors my opinion.

[Sayt]

I enjoyed playing an Iron Tortoise/Scarlet Throne Vanguard Commander warlord immensely.

[TheIronGolem]

I will second Thrashing Dragon as being awesome. One of my favorite go-to characters is all about combining weapon attacks with unarmed attacks, in a mobile and acrobatic style. Thrashing Dragon is by far the cleanest, most effective way to express that concept that I've ever come across.

[Swaoeaeieu]

Sanguinist medic with fools errand is hilarious to play, especially at higher levels.
i also had a lot of fun with a gunsmoke mystic. only class i can find so far that can reliably dual wield pistols in full attacks (got a combo to make 11 attacks in one round iirc)

[Tuvarkz]

I'm a big fan of the warlord, particularly with how flexible the chassis is for building characters. Favorite discipline ought to be Black Seraph, with its powerful mix of damage and debuffing.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I will second Thrashing Dragon as being awesome. One of my favorite go-to characters is all about combining weapon attacks with unarmed attacks, in a mobile and acrobatic style. Thrashing Dragon is by far the cleanest, most effective way to express that concept that I've ever come across.


Sanguinist medic with fools errand is hilarious to play, especially at higher levels.
i also had a lot of fun with a gunsmoke mystic. only class i can find so far that can reliably dual wield pistols in full attacks (got a combo to make 11 attacks in one round iirc)

Oh geez, forgot about Fool's Errand. It's not officially out yet, so I wasn't really counting it, but it might be my favorite discipline overall, even if I don't care about unarmed. It straddles feeling like a 'real' weapon style, being useable with just about any weapon and being focused on CQC, and a fantastic (literally) style with all the superhuman feats you can pull off.

[Khosan]

Aegis / Dervish Defender Warder. That is both combined in one build, Aegis 16 / DD 4 with the feat that increases your effective Aegis level for customization points.

With Aegis you get Sleeping Goddess and two disciplines of your choice (I like Veiled Moon) and the Warder side gives you Primal Fury and Thrashing Dragon. Warder side provides the bulk of the offense, Aegis side provides utility and defense. Add in the extra arms you can get as an Aegis and you become a whirlwind of death.

Veiled Moon is probably my favorite discipline overall. I like the jumpy, hard-to-pin-down ninja aspect and the pile of goodies that I always struggle to pick from.

[LTwerewolf]

Warder with silver crane refluffed to be evil. Sucks the souls out of people.

[BearonVonMu]

I am absolutely loving my Zweihander Sentinel Warden, and he focuses on Iron Tortoise and Scarlet Throne. Defense and offense, each with their strengths.
A two-handed reach pole arm with a light shield tacked on and no non-threatened area next to me? Yes, please! It's everything I ever wanted in an area denial fighter. All of the maneuvers are just a delightfully savory sauce for the build.

[Mehangel]

Favorite Discipline? Mithril Current and Silver Seraph
Favorite Path of War class? I am torn between the Medic and Bushi Warlord.

[Sho]

It's a hard choice between Warder, Warlord, and Zealot. I enjoyed Warlord foremost in my trials, but now that I am playing a Warder with the PoW:E material released, I think I am enjoying my current Warder more so. Discordant Crusader Zealot is just flavor and things I have to chew my teeth on.

Disciplines satiate certain needs I had from the previous edition and its sources (3.5e/PF). Stances from Thrashing Dragon grant me the Two-Weapon Fighter I always wanted. Scarlet Throne has interesting maneuvers but lack-luster stances, but then, most of the original PoW stances were a little simple.

My clear winners have to be Warder and Eternal Guardian so far.

I'm going to try Elemental Fury and Sleeping Goddess some time.

[Powerdork]

I adore the knight-chandler mystic (so shiny), as well as the discipline of Sleeping Goddess (which actually works pretty well for battlefield control on a character who intends to never land a blow, even when accessed through Martial Training).

[upho]

Oh my, this is one tough question... I frankly don't think I'm able to pick one class and one discipline, but my favorites are pretty much what you'd expect from someone who's a sucker for truly unique martial mechanics in general, and control/debuff and teamwork/support stuff in particular:

Harbinger Because it's the master of skirmish and debuff, loaded with highly unique, versatile and tactically interesting mechanics that I find very fun to play, and because it, like the Warder, makes the intelligent warrior a mechanically viable character concept. The dark flavor also feels different and really encourages the development of unique characters with depth, complexity and an interesting background. The Ravenlord is my favorite archetype, because I love pets, especially if working with the pet actually forms the basis of the class' mechanics (rather than simply being a nice flavorful boon), but also because of the "gloomy doom"-flavor and the odd, flexible mechanics allowing for numerous new cool tactics.

Warder Because it's so far the one and only true PF tank IMO, because it comes with the best chassis in the game for reach and AoOs, along with a good built-in defender/tank mechanic, and because it, like the Harbinger, makes the intelligent warrior a mechanically viable character concept. Having Combat Expertise based on Int or Wis is by itself such a huge boon that at least a 1-level dip could almost be considered mandatory for making Str/size-based mass control/debuff builds shine. I also really like most of the archetypes, my favorites being the Zweihander Sentinel (for "classic" reach builds) and the Ordained Defender (notably for Ruby Knight Vindicator-type builds with cleric and Battle Templar). And, especially as a DM, I simply love the distinct, grim and kinda akasha-like BBEG flavor and uncompromising mechanics of the Fiendbound Marauder; demoralization + grab + reach FTW (mix with 4 or 9 Tetori levels if extra grappling power is needed)! :smallbiggrin:

Warlord Yeah, because I'm a sucker for teamwork/support builds. And because I like the Cha-based daredevil flavor and mechanics. I especially love the warlord with the Hussar class template (because of the distinct cavalry-like flavor and elegant mechanics, and again because pet!) and, especially as a DM, the Bannerman archetype (because of the typically story-/setting-friendly military style flavor and mechanics, greater teamwork focus, and because it's hilarious to combine with Skald levels).

Black Seraph Because of its yummy brutal, merciless and scary flavor, as well as its versatile mix of effective maneuvers. I'm generally not very interested in the discipline's stances or the more damage focused strikes, but more in the demoralization based boosts and counters plus the nice flavorful ranged/AoE options and some of the debuffing strikes. It really is the discipline for a martial "intimidatomancer", especially when combined with the associated style feat chain. (Though I would be careful using Black Seraph in a game using the PF demoralization RAW, since that can unfortunately turn intimidatomancers into broken nightmares, especially when combined with other related DSP options.)

Cursed Razor Because of the tasty vicious flavor, cool control/debuff maneuvers, and because cursing is fun!

Eternal Guardian Because it's an excellent defender discipline. And because cursing is fun!

Fool's Errand Because it's so flexible and lets you do awesome kung fu hustle (https://youtu.be/ovwoMQPljN4) control shenanigans! I had great fun playtesting this discipline and really like the mechanics.

Riven Hourglass and Shattered Mirror Because their flavors and focuses feel so different, and because many of their maneuvers match those odd focuses really well.

And I also like Broken Blade (even without errata) and Thrashing Dragon, actually not primarily because of their damage potential, but because the many attacks per turn these disciplines can enable makes them excellent for mass control/debuff. BB also offers a couple of potent Dirty Trick related stunts, and TD has some good movement related stuff, both of which I find uses for from time to time.