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

[pabelfly]

I'm interested in starting work on a tier list for Pathfinder, in the same way that we have a tier list for 3.5 (link). This link is a collection of discussions about the power and versatility of all the base classes of 3.5 DnD, and it’s quite a useful resource. I think Pathfinder could do with a similar resource as a point of information and discussion.

There has been an informal attempt to do a tier list for Pathfinder, which I've also used as part of the reference to this thread: (link). But this lacks discussion on the classes and a shared consensus on how scoring works, both of which are as important as the tier number itself.

The current, work-in-progress thread for Pathfinder Tiers version of this thread is here (link). This thread has links to previous tiering threads and short summaries of thread discussions for those who missed them when they were posted. Contributions and votes for older threads are still welcome and your votes still count.

This time, we’ll tier Gunslinger, Slayer, Swashbuckler and Shifter.

For reference, in the informal thread:
Gunslinger is tiered between 4.69 and 4.88
Shifter is tiered at 4.5
Slayer is tiered between 3.88 and 4
Swashbuckler is tiered at 5


So, the questions are: what should each of these be tiered at? And are there any notable archetypes for these classes that deserve separate tiering? I guess a discussion thread is the way to find out.

What are the tiers?

The simple answer here is that tier one is the best, the home of things on the approximate problem solving scale of wizards, and tier six is the worst, land of commoners. And problem solving capacity is what's being measured here. Considering the massive range of challenges a character is liable to be presented with across the levels, how much and how often does that character's class contribute to the defeat of those challenges? This value should be considered as a rough averaging across all levels, the center of the level range somewhat more than really low and really high level characters, and across all optimization levels (considering DM restrictiveness as a plausible downward acting factor on how optimized a character is), prioritizing moderate optimization somewhat more than low or high.

A big issue with the original tier system is that, if anything, it was too specific, generating inflexible definitions for allowance into a tier which did not cover the broad spectrum of ways a class can operate. When an increase in versatility would seem to represent a decrease in tier, because tier two is supposed to be low versatility, it's obvious that we've become mired in something that'd be pointless to anyone trying to glean information from the tier system. Thus, I will be uncharacteristically word light here. The original tier system's tier descriptions are still good guidelines here, but they shouldn't be assumed to be the end all and be all for how classes get ranked.

Consistent throughout these tiers is the notion of problems and the solving thereof. For the purposes of this tier system, the problem space can be said to be inclusive of combat, social interaction, and exploration, with the heaviest emphasis placed on combat. A problem could theoretically fall outside of that space, but things inside that space are definitely problems. Another way to view the idea of problem solving is through the lens of the niche ranking system. A niche filled tends to imply the capacity to solve a type of problem, whether it's a status condition in the case of healing, or an enemy that just has too many hit points in the case of melee combat. It's not a perfect measure, both because some niches have a lot of overlap in the kinds of problems they can solve and because, again, the niches aren't necessarily all inclusive, but they can act as a good tool for class evaluation.

Tier one: Incredibly good at solving nearly all problems. This is the realm of clerics, druids, and wizards, classes that open up with strong combat spells backed up by utility, and then get massively stronger from there. If you're not keeping up with that core trio of tier one casters, then you probably don't belong here.

Tier two: We're just a step below tier one here, in the land of classes around the sorcerer level of power. Generally speaking, this means relaxing one of the two tier one assumptions, either getting us to very good at solving nearly all problems, or incredibly good at solving most problems. But, as will continue to be the case as these tiers go on, there aren't necessarily these two simple categories for this tier. You gotta lose something compared to the tier one casters, but what you lose doesn't have to be in some really specific proportions.

Tier three: Again, we gotta sacrifice something compared to tier two, here taking us to around the level of a Bard or Skald. The usual outcome is that you are very good at solving a couple of problems and competent at solving a few more. Of course, there are other possibilities, for example that you might instead be competent at solving nearly all problems.

Tier four: Here we're in Fighter and Barbarian territory. Starting from that standard tier three position, the usual sweet spots here are very good at solving a few problems, or alright at solving many problems.

Tier five: We're heading close to the dregs here. Tier five is the tier of chained Monk, classes that are as bad as you can be without being an aristocrat or a commoner. Classes here are sometimes very good at solving nearly no problems, or alright at solving a few, or some other function thereof. It's weak, is the point.

Tier six: And here we have commoner tier. Or, the bottom is commoner. The top is approximately aristocrat. You don't necessarily have nothing in this tier, but you have close enough to it.

[vasilidor]

Gun Slinger 4, though the nerf to Deadly Aim hurt this class. That nerf that only existed after they introduced guns to the setting when they already had wizards and sorcerers taking advantage of the feat since the games inception. Yes, I am bitter.
Slayer 3.5. It is a good class.
Swashbuckler 5. It reads like it should be a 4, But Panache makes it overly MAD, in my opinion, with lackluster returns in comparison to what other classes often get for being a bit MAD.
Shifter 5. I wanted to like this class. Really it should have just been wild shape on a warrior chassis and not what ever this is.

[pabelfly]

So I actually backported Gunslinger to 3.5. As the DM, I wanted a gun-wielding class for world-building reasons, and one of my players ended up playing it.

Since the class could easily target flatfooted, it was near-certain to hit, but I found it doing subpar damage since Deadly Aim wasn't a relevant feat for it.

What feats or archetypes should I consider backporting with Gunslinger to make it more relevant in combat?

[Gnaeus]

Shifter and swashbuckler 5
Gunslinger 5. With good optimization they are a one solid trick 4. But it's not like an optimized monk couldn't do damage either. Worse than fighter can't do anything but fight makes a t5.
Slayer low 3. Versatile fighter, with added utility.

[Rynjin]

Gun Slinger 4, though the nerf to Deadly Aim hurt this class. That nerf that only existed after they introduced guns to the setting when they already had wizards and sorcerers taking advantage of the feat since the games inception. Yes, I am bitter.

Deadly Aim works just fine out of the box for guns, not sure what you're talking about. They're specifically excepted from the "doesn't work on Touch attacks" clause.

Anyway:

Gunslinger T4: It's a Fighter with guns. This is a sidegrade more than an upgrade.

Slayer T4: I love Slayer. It does not even creep anywhere close to T3. It's a Fighter with more flexible Weapon Training.

Swashbuckler T5: I hate this class. It's a Fighter with lower attack rolls and higher damage. And no access to ANY particularly powerful tricks. No real utility at all, besides bare minimum skill competence.

Shifter T5: I also hate this class. It is worse at shapeshifting than every other shapeshifting focused class. And some that AREN'T focused on it. I would rather be a Feral Hunter, which gets 6 levels of casting. or Feral Champion Warpriest, which gets 6 levels of casting. Or an Avenging Beast Vigilante, which gets 6 levels of casting. And another thing they all share? They can shift into any animal form, not just a single one, plus a couple more as you level. A Skinwalker (race) with Warrior NPC levels is better at shapeshifting than the Shifter.

Normally, Wild Shape access would give you instant high T4 status AT LEAST because of the utility it grants, but Shifter doesn't get that utility due to not having flexibility of forms. It's a terrible combatant, terrible at bringing utility, and most insultingly is utterly focused on a single class feature and theme to the exclusion of everything else and still fails at that single class feature compared to classes that have it as merely a side benefit.

You will be unsurprised to note that Shifter is the result of the single splatbook that Paizo did not run any sort of playtest for, a practice which they immediately reversed going forward because as it turns out, that's a really bad idea.

[Thunder999]

Slayer is a solid tier 4, basically a rogue who trades a few skill points for better class features, BAB etc.

Gunslinger is low tier 4, it's the way to make guns work, but it's also got very little going for it, 90% of gunslinger builds are gunslinger 5/something better 15, which really says a lot. It's not got the Advanced weapon and armour training of a fighter, rage powers of a barbarian etc.
Still, shooting things with guns is a very effective way to fight and being great at 1 thing is good enough for tier 4
Tier 4.3

Swashbuckler is like gunslinger only instead of making an awkward but potentially strong (hitting touch AC is very nice) weapon useable, they just do a mediocre job of incentivising you to use a single 1 handed weapon, Parry and Riposte is nice, but given at level 1. Swashbuckler is a class you dip a level of then go take something with better class features (Inspired Blade into Investigator is a classic combo for int synergy and dex to damage).
Unlike the gunslinger their mandatory combat style isn't particularly good, in fact using a single 1 handed weapon is the worst combat style you could possibly choose (unless you're a magus), lower damage than a 2-hander, lack of good reach weapons, no extra attacks like TWF etc.
4.5

Base Shifter is certainly bad, possibly even a tier 5.

I think we should rate Adaptive Shifter seperately, it's basically an archetype made to fix some of the many complaints people had with the base Shifter and does a decent job.

It's got immediate action bonuses to saves, DR and energy resistance, along with fly, climb and burrow speeds, perception or stealth bonuses (including a slightly worse hide-in-plain sight like ability), size increase, self healing, reach increase for all natural attacks, and the ability to make attacks aligned, everything except the healing works as swift or immediate action (healing is sadly not immediate action).
And it gets full progression Wild Shape with only Elemental Forms lost.
That's a high tier 4 or low tier 3 to me, wild shape is a damn good ability and the aspects are pretty helpful.

[Kurald Galain]

Gunslinger - Of all the classes in the game, this is definitely one of them. There's just not a whole lot to say; it's just like an archer, but with guns - and since "archer" isn't a class, why would "gunslinger" be one? In practice, they deal decent but unspectacular amounts of damage (whereas actual archers get some of the highest DPR in the game), and they bring nothing else to the table. A clear example of Tier Five, and note that most weapon-using classes have a gun-wielding archetype, and almost all of those are better than the gunslinger class. Well, except the slayer and swashbuckler one, that is.

Shifter - One of the most maligned classes of the game, but bear in mind that it's derided because it is highly unoriginal, not because it's ineffective. On the one hand, there is little or no reason to play a shifter if the hunter or druid are available, or other shapeshifting archetypes. On the other hand, the shifter does get good damage numbers, and it has some decent abilities like early-access flight. All in all, it's much better than its reputation suggests, but "much better" still doesn't bring it above "adequate". Tier Four.

Exception: Oozemorph archetype is Tier 6 for being completely unplayable.

Slayer - It's utterly bland and forgettable, but it gets the job done. Its numbers are good, but it lacks stand-out abilities of other melee classes, such as fighter advanced weapon training or bloodrager bloodlines. Overall I'll give it Tier 4.5 for that.

Swashbuckler - Conceptually, it's unclear why this exists as a separate class, instead of a fighter with specific style, or perhaps a melee rogue. Mechanically, it gets a great ability at level one (parry & riposte), a good ability at level two (charmed life), and is entirely boring after that. So in practice, people don't play this as a full class, but take a one- or two-level dip on e.g. rogue or mesmerist or even barbarian (as parry & riposte works with any weapon and doesn't require dex). A hypothetical pure swashy brings decent-but-not-amazing damage to the table and doesn't really do anything else; and the fact that even casual players see this as only a dip makes it Tier Five.

They're specifically excepted from the "doesn't work on Touch attacks" clause.

I'm unable to find this specific exception on aonprd; it appears to have been errata'ed out.

What feats or archetypes should I consider backporting with Gunslinger to make it more relevant in combat?

Eldritch Archer.

[Rynjin]

I'm unable to find this specific exception on aonprd; it appears to have been errata'ed out.

You're just looking in the wrong spot; it's under the general Firearms rules.

Early Firearms: When firing an early firearm, the attack resolves against the target's touch AC when the target is within the first range increment of the weapon, but this type of attack is not considered a touch attack for the purposes of feats and abilities such as Deadly Aim. At higher range increments, the attack resolves normally, including taking the normal cumulative –2 penalty for each full range increment. Unlike other projectile weapons, early firearms have a maximum range of five range increments.

Advanced Firearms: Advanced firearms resolve their attacks against touch AC when the target is within the first five range increments, but this type of attack is not considered a touch attack for the purposes of feats such as Deadly Aim. At higher range increments, the attack resolves normally, including taking the normal cumulative –2 penalty for each full-range increment. Advanced firearms have a maximum range of 10 range increments.

[pabelfly]

VOTE UPDATE

Gunslinger
Vasilidor, Rynjin – 4
Thunder999 – 4.3
Gnaeus, Kurald Galain – 5

Average – 4.46



Shifter
Kurald Galain – 4
Vasilidor, Gnaeus, Rynjin, Thunder999 – 5

Average – 4.8



Shifter (Adaptive)
Thunder999 – 3.5
Kurald Galain – 4
Vasilidor, Gnaeus, Rynjin – 5

Average – 4.5



Slayer
Vasilidor, Gnaeus – 3.5
Rynjin, Thunder999 – 4
Kurald Galain – 4.5

Average – 3.9


Swashbuckler
Thunder999 – 4.5
Vasilidor, Gnaeus, Rynjin, Kurald Galain – 5

Average – 4.9

[Thunder999]

Gunslinger is not tier 5, tier 5 is

Classes here are sometimes very good at solving nearly no problems, or alright at solving a few, or some other function thereof. It's weak, is the point.

Gunslingers might be decidedly narrow in scope, but they're very effective at killing things, they're an archer that targets touch AC with dex to damage, literally all they miss out on compared ot a bow is Manyshot, in return you can build to TWF and you hit touch AC. Reloading is annoying, but generally fixed by the time you actually have iteratives to care about.

[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.

[vasilidor]

I suddenly want to see the errata history on this.
But I digress, not the topic of the thread.
It does help cement the gunslinger as tier 4.

[Drelua]

Gunslingers are a solid Tier 4 to me, targeting touch AC means they barely ever miss and they get Dex to damage automatically, something that I don't think archers can easily get. I don't think it really weakens the class that a lot of builds only take 5 levels, just because their class features are front loaded doesn't mean they aren't effective at any level. There's just a lot of good feats they can take, so switching to Fighter can be a good idea.

I don't have a tonne of experience with Swashbucklers, basically no one in PFS here plays them. I made sort of a swashbuckler just before the class was announced because I watched Princess Bride, just played an Ustalavic Duelist Fighter. After the class came out I compared my character's numbers and found that I was at least as strong as a Swashbuckler, so i just took one level of Inspired Blade for the parry and riposte. They're okay by themself, nowhere near as effective as a Fighter or Gunslinger in combat in only slightly more useful out of combat. I'll say Tier 4.5 for them.

Never played a Shifter and don't know anyone that has, because why would anyone do that, and my Slayer got killed by a run of incredibly bad luck in his first session, so I won't vote on those. Not the class's fault I got blinding sickness, poisoned, couldn't make a single save, then got critted by a goblin. Guess I just wasn't meant to play a Slayer.

[exelsisxax]

Gunslinger: T4.5
You can do one thing, and that is shoot things to death with guns. it works, but that is the only thing you have. No flexibility, no versatility, no fallback options or even ribbon abilities of any note.

Shifter: T5 (adaptive T4.5?)
Shifter is trash. As others have mentioned, it may be the worst possible option for a shapeshifter. Druids, hunters, even warpriests have wildshape or better, shifters don't even have druid level of wildshape. They get natural attack features - except again almost any other relevant class would be better for natural attacks through more impactful combat boosts.
Adaptive shifter is significantly better merely through having full wildshape, immediate/swift action defensive and offensive boosts bring it up to a respectable, much too narrow martial.

Slayer: T4
Messy fighter/rogue/ranger combination, but talents are good and studied target is a great combat boost. Reliably great at killing in many situations with whatever style you want, but not much else. Bit of magic and versatility in several archetypes, but nothing that threatens any breach into T3 - just another functional martial on the pile.

Swashbuckler: T5
Swashbuckler is anti-synergistic garbage with a lot of MAD tax that barely functions even when opponents are not immune to crits and precision damage (which is a LOT of them) and while you have fencing grace. The class sucks at everything and cannot be relied on to solve problems at any level. It has little useful at all, just some deeds primarily the pretty nice to have opportune parry/riposte.
Archetypes make it dippable as hell though. frontload me those features baby! flying blade and inspired blade especially.

[pabelfly]

VOTE UPDATE

Gunslinger
Vasilidor, Rynjin, AnonymousPepper, Drelua – 4
Thunder999 – 4.3
Exelsisxax – 4.5
Gnaeus, Kurald Galain – 5

Average – 4.35



Shifter
Kurald Galain – 4
Vasilidor, Gnaeus, Rynjin, Thunder999, Exelsisxax – 5

Average – 4.83



Shifter (Adaptive)
Thunder999 – 3.5
Kurald Galain – 4
Exelsisxax – 4.5
Vasilidor, Gnaeus, Rynjin – 5

Average – 4.5



Shifter (Oozemorph)
Thunder999 – 3.5
Exelsisxax – 4.5
Vasilidor, Gnaeus, Rynjin – 5
Kurald Galain, Pabelfly – 6

Average – 5



Slayer
Vasilidor, Gnaeus – 3.5
Rynjin, Thunder999, Exelsisxax – 4
Kurald Galain – 4.5

Average – 3.92


Swashbuckler
Thunder999, Drelua – 4.5
Vasilidor, Gnaeus, Rynjin, Kurald Galain, Exelsisxax – 5

Average – 4.86

[Kurald Galain]

Shifter

I've posted a separate rating for:

Exception: Oozemorph archetype is Tier 6 for being completely unplayable.

[pabelfly]

I've posted a separate rating for:

Added and actually voted for T6 as well.

[Kitsuneymg]

Gunslingers are weird. It’s like the old mystic ranger. They are tier 4 until 5th level, and then there is no reason to ever take gunslinger 6. Still, they do enough damage and, being full bab classes, can still hit many fliers even without touch ac. High op gunslingers will full attack with twf and do ludicrous amounts of damage that always lands. So I feel like they fit into tier 4.

Slayers. Better fighters than rogues with almost as many skill points puts these on par with unchained rogue. But yes, playing a sanctified slayer is generally a better version of this exact class. Still they are decent at damage and have some skills and means of bypassing stat prerequisites on feats. But not as good as a ranger. Tier 4.25

Shifter is such a disappointment. I’d rather play a 9 wisdom druid. I don’t think I can fairly rate it, but I would call it a step up from unplayable, but you will constantly be disappointed with the class. So I guess tier 5. Reactive shifter is probably 4.5 then. Ooze shifter is unplayable. tier 6 is the worst we can give, or it would be worse.

Swashbuckler is a dip for inspired blade based investigators. Play a virtuous bravo or daring champion instead. They do this class’s theme better (if not necessarily a tier better). Tier 5.

[AnonymousPepper]

Genuinely don't understand the tier 5 Gunslinger votes, reading back. They're just... factually wrong. Gunslinger has out-of-combat capabilities (4+int with good class skills on top of being either wisdom of charisma based, and utility deeds), and, a far cry from being "just worse than a fighter" (more of a sidegrade really, Trench Fighter aside) or in the same spot as, derogatorily, monk (which is an odd thing to say considering PF did a lot to make Monk good with Qinggong and Unchained), they have the most consistent damage in the game by a long shot and can TWF (hardly a high-op play) for absurd amounts of it. Putting Slinger at a hard 5.0 is just straight-up evidence of unfamiliarity with the class and not knowing what you're talking about, or just not knowing how tiers work.

I'm not going to go so far as to advocate for disregarding the votes or anything, but it's as absurd as if someone were to try and claim Wizard was tier 3, and I'm a little miffed that they're going to skew the average as far as they are ngl.

[exelsisxax]

Genuinely don't understand the tier 5 Gunslinger votes, reading back. They're just... factually wrong. Gunslinger has out-of-combat capabilities (4+int with good class skills on top of being either wisdom of charisma based, and utility deeds), and, a far cry from being "just worse than a fighter" (more of a sidegrade really, Trench Fighter aside) or in the same spot as, derogatorily, monk (which is an odd thing to say considering PF did a lot to make Monk good with Qinggong and Unchained), they have the most consistent damage in the game by a long shot and can TWF (hardly a high-op play) for absurd amounts of it. Putting Slinger at a hard 5.0 is just straight-up evidence of unfamiliarity with the class and not knowing what you're talking about, or just not knowing how tiers work.

I'm not going to go so far as to advocate for disregarding the votes or anything, but it's as absurd as if someone were to try and claim Wizard was tier 3, and I'm a little miffed that they're going to skew the average as far as they are ngl.

This has happened every thread. There's been utterly insane ones like T5 occultist (balanced out by oppositely insane T~2 occultist), people rating rogue higher than warpriest, magus higher than shaman, and samurai higher than inquisitor. It usually doesn't skew things too much in the end given sufficient votes but it's happening.

[pabelfly]

I'm a little miffed that they're going to skew the average as far as they are ngl.

If the two people that voted 5 for Gunslinger instead voted for 4.5, Gunslinger would be rated at 4.23 instead of 4.35. I would say that 0.12 of a tier is not significant, and I would opine at that sort of level, player preference, and familiarity with specific rules is more relevant to player power than the class tier itself.

[Thunder999]

I'm glad someone else has mentioned this, are people using some strange and different tier defintions.

[Bucky]

To what extent does the availability of advanced firearms in a setting affect a Gunslinger's tier? Are some of us assuming they're generally available?

I'm also not sure why various raters are discounting higher level deeds. Rerolling failed saves is a pretty valuable defense, for example, as is Cheat Death. The capstone, by RAW, can even augment Cheat Death into one of the archetypal tier 1/2 abilities, immunity to death by HP damage.

[Rynjin]

To what extent does the availability of advanced firearms in a setting affect a Gunslinger's tier? Are some of us assuming they're generally available?

Advanced Firearms are mostly a convenience rather than a straight power boost. My rating is regardless of what level of gun proliferation exists.

[Thunder999]

Advanced firearms don't really matter, they're certainly nice, the basic firearms can reach free action reload and adequate range, which is all that matters.

[AnonymousPepper]

Actually, advanced firearms make a huge difference. They hit touch in the first five range increments instead of just the first, without needing to expend grit. With early firearms hitting touch only within 20 feet or so for one-handers (and only 40 or so for two-handed guns), it means you gotta get awfully close to things you really would prefer not to get close to in order to use your main advantage - and fliers are just not an option to tag touch on. Then you look at the advanced firearms, and now you're in touch attack range at 100ft for shotguns (slugs, not scatter) and revolvers, and 400ft for rifles.

Being within 20ft at all times is a tough ask, and advanced firearms completely fix it.

[Kurald Galain]

Rerolling failed saves is a pretty valuable defense,

Yes it is, but rerolling one or two saves per day at level fifteen is not a particularly big deal. Gunslinger grit just isn't very plentiful.

The capstone, by RAW, can even augment Cheat Death

Let's see. The first hit that would kill you instead leaves you at 1 hp and 1 grit; the second one leaves you at 1 hp and 0 grit; and then the third hit kills you because you were at 1 hp. So a single full attack of a high-CR monster can still kill you. That's a decent combo but not particularly game-breaking or tier-raising.

[Thunder999]

Advanced Firearms are nice for the range, but most fights don't actually take place far enough away for it to really matter, particularly if you've got the Distance enchantment, combat is generally within short enough range that being a melee character is not only viable, but the default assumption for most classes.

You can get a lot more than 2 grit, it's just widom modifier, there's feats to boost it, you get it back whenever you kill or crit something.

A reroll is nice, but only a moderately effective defensive boost (it'll save you from a poorly timed bad roll, but not from something that just has a high DC), and classes like Witch and Oracle have been handing out rerolls since 1st level (fortune hex, dual cursed oracle).

[Drelua]

Let's see. The first hit that would kill you instead leaves you at 1 hp and 1 grit; the second one leaves you at 1 hp and 0 grit; and then the third hit kills you because you were at 1 hp. So a single full attack of a high-CR monster can still kill you. That's a decent combo but not particularly game-breaking or tier-raising.

That's not how I read that, it says "spend all of her remaining grit points (minimum 1)" which to me looks like a minimum on how much you spend, not how much you end up with. If the minimum 1 was how much grit you ended up with, it would be free if you only had 1 grit. Am I reading that wrong?

Either way, not a gamebreaking ability, you might get killed less because of it, but you'll probably still get killed sometimes and at the level you get it a raise dead is pretty trivially cheap. Not that it should have much impact on tiering anyway, they get it at level 19 so it doesn't see much actual play. Even level 15 abilities won't come up much.

Edit: I'm dumb, missed the capstone. The only question then is, can you reduce the cost of an ability that doesn't have a fixed cost, only 'however much grit you currently have?' Probably yes, just wondering if that got FAQ'd at some point.

[Bucky]

The way I interpret the RAW of True Grit(Cheat Death) is...
The first lethal blow costs all but one of your grit, reduced by one from all your grit.
The non-reduced cost is now one grit, so with the reduction you can continue to Cheat Death as long as you have at least 1 grit point.
If you lose that last grit point, Cheat Death stops functioning.


A somewhat weaker version with stronger RAW assumptions uses the Run Like Hell Dare. Run Like Hell automatically gives Grit whenever you run out of Grit while 100+ feet from the nearest enemy, so you always have at least one grit for Cheat Death while out of combat or whenever you manage to position yourself far enough away from it.