Tiering the Pathfinder Classes - Gunslinger, Slayer, Swashbuckler and Shifter

[AnonymousPepper]

Have played neither Swash nor Shifter, and I don't have enough to say about Slayer to rate it.

Gunslinger is an almost archetypical high-end Tier 4. It excels at killing the ever-loving crap out of things, which makes it a definitive tier 4; in particular, you're better than any other classes of its ilk in a specific niche, in that hitting touch against everything is a nontrivial boon against some big beasties and particularly against undead for which brilliant energy doesn't work. It has 4+int skill points so it's not completely useless on the out-of-combat front, and comes in both wisdom and charisma flavors so it can pull a decent face role or investigation role, if not great. Some of the utility deeds also actually are worthy of the name. That said, if you're willing to lose the 4+, you can just play a Trench Fighter and get all the amazing stuff Fighters get access to (with the exception of Armor Training, which sadly makes it incompatible with Lore Warden which would fix the skill points), and be two levels early on the dex-to-damage too. Still, Gunslinger is almost the epitome of solid, consistent damage, with passable (for a pure combat class) utility, and I think that counts for something. 4.0.

The commentary I have for Slayer is just that, frankly, why not play a Sanctified Slayer instead and be just... better? Go down to medium BAB - which you just replace with Divine Favor and later Divine Power plus Bane - and, in exchange for losing a few talents and your advanced talents, gain everything else that a tier 3 class has to offer except for Judgements? I'm currently playing a Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor in the same game as a Slayer and we play almost identically except for me having spells and Bane and ludicrous initiative and so much more.