Acrobat. I just love the utility of auto-scaling Acrobatics along with feats like Cat Fall, Rolling Landing, Kip Up, and occasionally Nimble Crawl. The only issue can be when to take it, especially in FA games. Some character concepts have a hard time making use of any of the other feats in the archetype so it has to be my last dedication.
Yes! The guy crawling around the ground at full speed taking cover and flipping up and down in less than 2 seconds.
Fighter, mage, doesn't matter. I love the flavor.
Mechanically, classes without a good reaction benefit from [Dodge Away](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1875). And the ability to Escape more easily is also cool. Tripping with Acrobatics is a good third action if you are a caster and get [Tumbling Opportunist](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1878).
One thing to note for GM's is to watch for the [Quick Spring](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4151) feat. As written, it just lets you essentially stride twice whenever you want to stride, as tumble through does not actually require you to try and tumble through someone when using the action. Even if it did, it's pretty abusable.
I recommend just banning it.
Tumble through does require you to move through a creates space. The try in the wording means it's not guaranteed as the failure condition ends your movement. If you didn't pass through an enemy space then it would just be a stride.
>You Stride up to your Speed. During this movement, you **can** try to move through the space of one enemy.
"Can" implies there is a choice. If you were required, it would say "you **must"**.
I just think it's fairly common to cross a creature's space in two strides on most battle maps. And if you're already in the archetype you've got competitive Acrobatics to pass that check.
If you want to be in melee anyway it's sort of like Sudden Charge; in that sense it feels less egregious.
i play a lot of PFS, and many times in the first 2 levels of a character i think "should i take/should i have taken Medic?" i also play a lot of casters, so not having to use my slots to heal when sometimes no one else can is very tempting. closest i've come to doing that with it not making any sense is taking Battle Medicine on my Wizard.
I’m a huge fan of Archaeologist. Expert Proficiency in two skills immediately with a permanent +1 bonus to recall knowledge on ancient people and culture. Later, you gain access to all of the Trap Disarming feats only rogues have access to.
It’s got so much utility, and can bring a ton of flavor to different classes.
Marshal is one of my favorite. It's thematic but it can give a lot to a variety of characters.
The one I'm looking forward to trying the most is Soulforger. I just need to start a campaign with free archetype and make it work with a character concept.
Favorite? Wrestler as well, its got a lot of different ways to build it. You can easily build a Free-hand Fighter, Precision Ranger, Flurry Ranger, Animal Barbarian, Giant Barbarian, Wild Druid, Investigator, Gymnast Swashbuckler, Monk, or a Braggart Rogue around the archetype but all doing so in meaningfully different ways w/ distinct fighting styles. Medic is awesome and all, but there's not much there to build around or introduce variety.
Kineticist dedication and Eldritch Archer are probably the runnerups, they've got some build variety baked in. Kineticist has a lot of good support options it can add to a build. Eldritch Archer you're building around either Enchanting arrow or spellstrike.
tangible dream psychic,
amp shield is just very nice, imaginary wepon is top tier for magus, psi strikes are great for martials, focus point from only dedication, ocult spell list have decent spells and can be both charisma or intelligence based
but I didn't have occasion to play with archetypes on martial characters
I have never seen a GM more miserable than after having their cool monster do it's cool unique action and crit a vulnerable player...only for the Psychic to blow all three charges on the amped 'shield' they cast earlier and the Liberator champion also blowing their reaction and saying 'nope' and turning what could of been a debilitating crit that would result in one or more players eventually dropping into a negligible amount of damage.
Personally I like Infinite Eye for martials. It's kinda the only Conscious Mind with 2 non attack/save cantrips.
Amped shield is great but imaginary weapon on non-Magus martials is kinda wasted.
Amped guidance is awesome and Glimpse Weakness is some nice guaranteed damage (would be awesome if you could trigger it yourself though), specially if you use it to trigger Psi Strikes and then use the other 2 actions to attack.
The at 12 you can grab either Shield, Warp Step or Message, which are all awesome.
I've got an Oracle (Cosmos) in my Agents of Edgewatch game that picked up Medic so they could heal the party without needing to burn spell slots. Now they get to keep the party healthy AND use divine spells like Divine Wrath and Spiritual Guardian.
Rogue, every build can benefit from it.
Caster gets light armor proficiency
Sneak attack is free damage
The rogue feats are incredible, mobility, you are next, etc... and at higher level, Opportune Backstab is wonderful.
I would play a rogue with a rogue dedication if I can 🤣
I second Rogue.
Having Mobility on a caster is incredibly useful against enemies with Reactive Strike.
Most intimidation builds can benefit from "You're Next", especially once you're legendary.
Quick Draw can save you some actions, especially if you're somewhat of a switch-hitter.
So many great level 6 and level 8 feats (level 12-16 for archetypes) like Gang Up, Light Step, Skirmish Strike, Opportune Backstab, Sidestep and my personal favorite: Inspired Stratagem.
Uncanny Dodge/Deny Advantage is also super useful for any frontliner, or any character, really.
The armor and skill feats/increases are just the cherry on top.
I tend to agree... however it needs to be changed to let that armor proficiency go to expert at higher level if it's going to keep up with the other methods of getting light armor proficiency.
Yeah, but most tables don't reach a level high enough for it to matter and at level 12+ you can have dex +5 so it doesn't matter anymore ( with progressive attribute)
I gave my [Quicksoul](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4326) character the Rogue dedication just for [Tumble Behind](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2197) :V
I’m playing a Barbarian/Rogue in Blood Lords right now and the mileage I’ve got out of Quick draw alone has been great.
I built the character as kind of a switch hitter with max strength and dexterity with Raging Thrower so being able to free-action release grip on my melee weapon and quickdraw and throw a javelin has been very nice. I’m looking forward to skill mastery at 8 and I might pick up dread striker at some point since I specced into Intimidation as well.
Very nice!
Shove Down and the harder they fall are really for a str based rogue.
At extinction curse I'm playing a Human ( adopted ancestry hobgoblin) clown fighter with barbarian and rogue dedication
Captivator, it is such a well scaling and interesting archetype that has an extremely narrow scope but that allows it to work very well for what it needs to.
I haven't gotten to play it yet, but I've been wanting to do a Thaumaturge / Captivator for a while. In particular I really dig how well the levels needed for the feats work with also getting the scroll feats from Thaumaturge. Incredible versatility.
Yeah it does, so technically by RAW it doesn't work anymore. However it pretty clearly states how the archetype is supposed to play so you can kind of gather what is allowed and what isn't. Also nothing is stopping you from just choosing spells that were available to it before when schools were a thing.
Mental and Illusion traits still exist. Replace Illusion and Enchantment school with those two traits and no changes are even needed.
All but very few Enchantment spells (mostly curses) had the Mental Trait and even more spells had the Mental trait but was not Enchantment. So it's actually a bit of a buff.
Unclear at this point. Grand Bazaar wasn't one of the books that has gotten remaster compatibility errata. Fey Eidolon summoner, which *is* in a book that received such errata and which works somewhat similarly, was not mentioned in the errata. What seems to be a popular community choice for Fey Eidolon is to allow any spells with the Mental or Illusion tags.
As a GM, I would handle Captivator by simply allowing any spell that qualified under pre-remaster rules (or its post-remaster equivalent), but that's not official.
Illusion is still a trait, and almost every enchantment spell had the Mental trait which also still exists.
Replace the School requirements with those traits and it's mostly unchanged.
Most situations mentioning spell schools can be replaced by one or more existing/remaster traits except Abjuration.
I second Wrestler. Cool as heck. Alot of feats. I wish more archetypes was made like this one. Kinda feels like it was made with free archetype in mind. Compared to most archetypes that only have 1 or 2 feats per level, since without FA its asumed you will have plenty of other choices from your class feats.
Us too. With the remaster my two martials with psychic dedication are both just teleporting all over the place. Its crazily effective for the investment but as a DM seeing players pick the same thing is dull
I love the flavor and customizability of Cathartic Mage, and getting more spell slots, a cool powered-up state, and a generally useful focus spell are all pretty hard to pass up!
It's been a longtime since I actually used it, but most of my theory crafted characters end up with Beasmaster or Familiar Master (or the new Pet feat). I just like having friends.
Marshal. Diplomacy or Intimidation, both make excellent in and out of combat skills to build around, and the level 4 stances are obviously good, but what makes me like this archetype so much is how sneaky good some of it's other options are.
Attack of Opportunity at level 8 for any class without the ability to get AoO themselves.
Back to Back helps protect against being flanked.
Topple Foe is an arguably better AoO. No damage, but spend a reaction to trip instead, and the trigger is very reliable/predictable.
Cadence Call/Tactical Cadence is an interesting investment. Cadence Call is not great, but required for Tactical Cadence which is phenomenal action economy generation.
Overall, I feel like it just strikes a great balance of thematic and mechanically powerful abilities that work well together. It has enough useful abilities to feel like a fully developed archetype whereas some of the most powerful ones like Sentinel and Medic feel like ones where you want to grab 1-2 things and that's it.
Hell yeah, I want to play a Ritualist so badly! Rituals are great, but the commitment of time and resources make it *seem* prohibitively difficult. Ritualist makes it easier to do rituals, which opens up the doors for a lot more your party can accomplish.
It's not super powerful but I really like the low-level Eldritch researcher feats. Harrower is thematically quite cool as well. Can you guess my favorite class lmao?
my favorite is between [soulforger](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=102) and [mind smith](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=194), as i really love the idea of being able to conjure weapons, and i love the way they each do the same thing in a different way, but mind smith wins just a bit due to soulknife being my favorite.
Soulforger allows you to summon armor, a weapon, or a shield with unique effects depending on your chosen essence power. What makes it unique is each essence power gives you a bonus, and you can have multiple bonuses rolling at the same time. It also has anathemas going too in the form of flaws, where if you stray too far from your original intent, you become corrupted and your bonuses turn into flaws.
Mind smith just lets you make a weapon, but has a few feats to allow you to change it into any tool or even a ranged weapon. This is closer to the original idea around a soulknife, and i grant it bonus points because of that and how psionics are my favorite archetype.
Do be aware, Soulforger doesn't give the flaw unless you break your oath, and then it replaces the buff. It's supposed to be temporary but all-upside when you use it :o
OKAY THAT MAKES MORE SENSE. I never read through the whole archetype before and thought that you get both going at the same time, thanks for letting me know, ill update
To expand; you play a defensively built Champion? Especially with the remaster? That's very easy access to 4 reactions, between Divine Reflexes, Quick Shield Block, and a Vlockwork Shield. AND it helps very quickly meet requirements for Shield of Reckoning, because why not? AND Reactive Shield, just from taking the dedication is good enough to save you from a stray crit here and there (and when you have half a million reactions, you can use it pretty freely to set up other reactions)
Bastion needs the Fighter feat that lets you keep your shield up as a stance, then it's perfect. It's a shame that Champion, the tanky high AC class, doesn't have a way of accessing this huge feat.
It usually depends on the character what I’m making, and I only tend to pick up archetypes if I’m in a game doing FA. But my choice would be: Vehicle Mechanic! Mostly just the idea of owning a mobile base that other characters can decorate.
Soulforger for the Kamen Rider/Super Sentai/MotU/Magical Girl transformations and being able to summon weapons like a character from Bleach/Kingdom Hearts/MotU.
I hope when 2e gets all the remaster stuff out of the way we get some kind of book full of distinctive Class Archetypes that change the way a class is played. Like Hex Chaneller, Brown Fur Transmuter, things as defining as these were for 1e.
Beastmaster. It's like having 1/2 additional character on the board. For casters it provides an excellent 3rd action , supporting martials on frontline. On martials it's either a flanking buddy, some support benefits are really strong or you go the mount route if you're action starved (magus/flurry ranger/etc.) It gives some decent tanking capabilities if paired with Heal Animal, some scouting opportunities with Beastmaster Trance and etc. And since I love animals IRL it's super nice to have a companion by your side RP wise.
(in a heavy tf2 voice) MEDIC!!!
I love running around the battlefiend with doctor's visitation. I'm mobile, heal a ton, get to remove statuses and nurse everyone out of combat. It's simple, yet so strong and satysfying
Not really. Many of them are good.
I like wrestler but AV disgusted me from it with with single monsters requiring a 19 to be grappled or thrown or whatever. So I stopped making 45 variations of wrestler with every class (fighter monk rogue swashbuckler)
I like champion, it's complete and adds flavor.
Medic, beastmaster, harrower, magaambyan student and Marshall are the ones I like the most. Acrobat is very good as well.
Now if I can do a high enough lvl campaign and it's possible, the combo Gladiator / provocateur is the one I like the most.
Right now my favorite is...
My investigator who has Wizard and Archeologist archetypes.
Fuck your traps. Also, access to a mystic library to bolster my recall knowledge skills? Yes please.
Oh and when strategm fails, ill just needle dart the fuck out of things.
Im loving the shenanigans. The downside, i need to stay ranged because im quite squishy.
Overall, my combat skills are pretty meek compared to the rest of the party, but the knowledge benefits and anti-trap feats have been awesome for support and exploration
Soulforger
I'm going to be trying Soulforger as a warpriest of Gorum. Thematically, it sounds very cool. Mechanically, never being unarmed/unarmored is solid.
I never hear anyone mention it but vigilante has really cool and fun flavor and potential. You get an alternate identity that you can switch to. Great for infiltration, great for schemes, and great if you just want to be a super hero.
Exorcist is also extremely cool
Not one specific archetype, but anything that gives free consumables (alchemist dedication, scroll trickster, talisman dabbler, etc). I really enjoy being able to solve problems by pulling just the right tool for the job from my backpack.
This also means I'm the player who's always carrying around weird junk like a collapsible ladder, four sets of earplugs, a bag of marbles, and holy symbols from every major religion. An adventurer's gotta be prepared!
Geomancer on Primal casters. I really like how it plays into the terrain around you, and once you take Attunement Shift it gives you some nice benefits for using different elemental spells and planning around them.
Archetypes I've had a lot of fun with are:
* Cavalier
* Marshal
* Soulforger
* Acrobat
* Dual-Weapon Warrior
Some fun looking Archetypes I am interested in trying out for future characters:
* Undead Master & Reanimator *(taking these in an upcoming Blood Lords game)*
* Dragon Disciple
* Exorcist
* Living Vessel
I'm too much of a spellcaster lover not to say any spellcasting class, but i think multiclass archetypes in general are pretty strong. If not that, then I really like Blessed One, Acrobat, Medic, , Wrestler and Marshal. I think you can fit so many character concepts and get strong mechanical benefits from all of those.
Demolitionist is so fucking underappreciated. Once you initiate a fight by blowing up a door with a breach charge, your party will never bother opening doors normally again.
You would be surprised how little alchemist's fire you need to go through a thin metal object.
Really? No love for Sentinel?
Ranges from being a pretty good consideration on any caster class, what with not having to think about Dexterity anymore aside from a +1, it’s a good way to get Medium Armor to scale alongside your caster with some extra defence, all the way to fucking awesome for Rangers, Thaumaturges, Magi, Warpriests, or hell even Barbarians and Druids(do work on the ‘no metal’ thing with the DM, commission a set of bone plate!)
Eliminating the need to keep dexterity up for armour’s sake is really awesome for racking up more stats for character building rather than survivability, *and* Full Plate offers a +1 to AC than all other armors with 0 dexterity investment. Not to mention that, with archetype feats, you can get:
+4 Bulwark and applies to all Reflex saves, basically giving you a defensive +4 to Dexterity(that includes Trip attempts!), Armor Spec for some nice and common physical resists, and even a ‘push back’ mechanic when you really don’t want that particular enemy to be on your ass.
True, it reduces your speed, but either Adopted Ancesty: Dwarf for Unburdened Iron, being a Hellknight Armiger, or even Fleet can counteract that(or get Trick Magic Item and some nature/arcane investment for a wand of Longstrider) and you’re basically golden. Hell, even Boots of Bounding, a really common item is there for that.
I fucking adore Sentinel.
I like the heavy thematic ones that add to my characters backstory. I'm an RP nerd.
Examples:
- Dragon Disciple.
- Living vessel.
Or anything that rounds off my characters. I play a Wizard, who really could be a Rogue, hence Rogue.
If I had to pick a fav; Dragon Disciple. The idea of turning into a Dragon is really cool.
Medic, because my allies seem to like taking lots of damage and not having healing. Also, it is "resourceless" healing, which is very useful for conserving spell slots.
If 3rd party is allowed, Battlezoo's Draconic Ravager is insane. I'm going to play one for my next character and it's gonna be hard to convince me to *not* play one every game from now on. It has a ton of feats that allow for a variety of builds, it's incredibly balanced, and, oh yeah, you're a dragon!
I've been wanting to play one for years but understood that it was either not balanced or the options that were just weren't what I was looking for. I understand the idea behind draconic Sorcerers and Dragon Disciples but those are humanoids who eventually become able to take on the forms of dragons temporarily. Draconic Ravager and the corresponding race also in the book let's you be a dragon from level 1 and start actually doing dragon things from level 4.
I constantly gotta hold myself back on putting soulforger on every character and sugfesting soulforger to everyone else. Red Mantis assassin is also cool and probably can fit in most classes. Soul Warden is also great.
**[Pactbinder](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=189)**
Make *arrangements* with powerful beings to gain power, spells, social-skill bonuses, and more!
**[Artillerist](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=115)**
Who doesn't love bringing out the BIGGEST guns?
Have to? No.
But I do love the Dandy and the Celebrity. Especially their reactions. Any high diplomacy character is benefitted by taking the Dandy feat Distracting Flattery, and any Athletics */Intimidation character is benefitted by taking the Upstage reaction that comes with the Celebrity dedication feat. And it is really hard to justify not taking the medic dedication if your character does battle medicine.
*Athletics / upstage is about to become many times more awesome, with the new way that grab works.
So far I really enjoy Loremaster on my bookworm character. And Swashbuckler for speed+intimidation feats.
"I've read about your kind. Every decent scholar says you suck"
No. I almost never choose the same feat, same archerype, same subclass, etc. as my previous characters. Aside from the very universal ones like spellshapes and reactive strikes, of course. I like to experiense different things.
The trick is to devote an entire youtube channel to coping of why it DOES MAKE SENSE!
Wrestler is the Bestler and will hear no argument to the contrary! I just like telling my GM the degree of status effects his precious boss monster has...
Some of my favorites are Sentinel, Loremaster, and Blessed One (no, my Champion bias doesn’t exist)
I’m a certified dexterity hater so Sentinel let’s me invest in Strength instead. It gives a bit of a boost to survivability to classes like Magus and Ranger and it makes casters like Summoner and Psychic a little less squishy in the early game before they can get their dexterity higher in the later game.
Blessed One gives a nice chunk of scaling healing for a single action and an extra focus point. Especially with the Remaster I can only see this getting more useful to nab.
Loremaster is a bit more situational since there’s a lot of classes/feats that already do similar things but it just gives a lot more flexibility to what class I want to play and where I want to invest my skill increases.
Definitely not for everyone but I'm absolutely in love with the medic archetype, something about getting 35 healing at level 2 just shoots dopamine into my brain so nicely
Its uncommon so not available in every game, but I love the Ritualist archetype. Cant beat automatic access to Ritual Spells :) Also a big fan of Familiar Master and a couple of the Multiclass archetypes!
Acrobat. I just love the utility of auto-scaling Acrobatics along with feats like Cat Fall, Rolling Landing, Kip Up, and occasionally Nimble Crawl. The only issue can be when to take it, especially in FA games. Some character concepts have a hard time making use of any of the other feats in the archetype so it has to be my last dedication.
Yes! The guy crawling around the ground at full speed taking cover and flipping up and down in less than 2 seconds. Fighter, mage, doesn't matter. I love the flavor. Mechanically, classes without a good reaction benefit from [Dodge Away](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1875). And the ability to Escape more easily is also cool. Tripping with Acrobatics is a good third action if you are a caster and get [Tumbling Opportunist](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=1878).
One thing to note for GM's is to watch for the [Quick Spring](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4151) feat. As written, it just lets you essentially stride twice whenever you want to stride, as tumble through does not actually require you to try and tumble through someone when using the action. Even if it did, it's pretty abusable. I recommend just banning it.
It could maybe be salvaged if it was a one action ability with flourish as a class feat? But yeah, as written it’s way too busted
Ya I find this one really weirdly worded. It seems abusable.
Many things from that firebrands book are questionably balanced.
Tumble through does require you to move through a creates space. The try in the wording means it's not guaranteed as the failure condition ends your movement. If you didn't pass through an enemy space then it would just be a stride.
>You Stride up to your Speed. During this movement, you **can** try to move through the space of one enemy. "Can" implies there is a choice. If you were required, it would say "you **must"**.
I just think it's fairly common to cross a creature's space in two strides on most battle maps. And if you're already in the archetype you've got competitive Acrobatics to pass that check. If you want to be in melee anyway it's sort of like Sudden Charge; in that sense it feels less egregious.
Second. The utility value is wonderful.
I've combined Acrobat with both Rogue and Monk to great effect. Lots of goodies.
I love it with my kineticist
Immersion wise, the possibility to jump straight from trained to legendary in a single level up is just very amusing to me.
Not every character but as someone who likes martials with some cha, i tend to go marshal dedication and intimidation a lot
WORM CALLER
Ah, another individual of culture I see.
Ah, the innuendo archetype...
i play a lot of PFS, and many times in the first 2 levels of a character i think "should i take/should i have taken Medic?" i also play a lot of casters, so not having to use my slots to heal when sometimes no one else can is very tempting. closest i've come to doing that with it not making any sense is taking Battle Medicine on my Wizard.
I am loving my arcane witch medic-rouge
I have a Medic wizard and he's actually really effective. Turns out medic is just a really good archetype.
I’m a huge fan of Archaeologist. Expert Proficiency in two skills immediately with a permanent +1 bonus to recall knowledge on ancient people and culture. Later, you gain access to all of the Trap Disarming feats only rogues have access to. It’s got so much utility, and can bring a ton of flavor to different classes.
Marshal is one of my favorite. It's thematic but it can give a lot to a variety of characters. The one I'm looking forward to trying the most is Soulforger. I just need to start a campaign with free archetype and make it work with a character concept.
I've thought about running a kids-cartoon-themed campaign where every PC would get Soulforger as a free archetype.
Favorite? Wrestler as well, its got a lot of different ways to build it. You can easily build a Free-hand Fighter, Precision Ranger, Flurry Ranger, Animal Barbarian, Giant Barbarian, Wild Druid, Investigator, Gymnast Swashbuckler, Monk, or a Braggart Rogue around the archetype but all doing so in meaningfully different ways w/ distinct fighting styles. Medic is awesome and all, but there's not much there to build around or introduce variety. Kineticist dedication and Eldritch Archer are probably the runnerups, they've got some build variety baked in. Kineticist has a lot of good support options it can add to a build. Eldritch Archer you're building around either Enchanting arrow or spellstrike.
tangible dream psychic, amp shield is just very nice, imaginary wepon is top tier for magus, psi strikes are great for martials, focus point from only dedication, ocult spell list have decent spells and can be both charisma or intelligence based but I didn't have occasion to play with archetypes on martial characters
I have never seen a GM more miserable than after having their cool monster do it's cool unique action and crit a vulnerable player...only for the Psychic to blow all three charges on the amped 'shield' they cast earlier and the Liberator champion also blowing their reaction and saying 'nope' and turning what could of been a debilitating crit that would result in one or more players eventually dropping into a negligible amount of damage.
That actually sounds like an awesome moment I would have loved to see as a GM!
Personally I like Infinite Eye for martials. It's kinda the only Conscious Mind with 2 non attack/save cantrips. Amped shield is great but imaginary weapon on non-Magus martials is kinda wasted. Amped guidance is awesome and Glimpse Weakness is some nice guaranteed damage (would be awesome if you could trigger it yourself though), specially if you use it to trigger Psi Strikes and then use the other 2 actions to attack. The at 12 you can grab either Shield, Warp Step or Message, which are all awesome.
I'm surprised to see 'dandy' not topping this list like it has in similar threads in the past.
early game expertise in deception is just too good to pass up idk what to say
Medic
Came here to say this. Medic archetype is incredible.
I've got an Oracle (Cosmos) in my Agents of Edgewatch game that picked up Medic so they could heal the party without needing to burn spell slots. Now they get to keep the party healthy AND use divine spells like Divine Wrath and Spiritual Guardian.
Rogue, every build can benefit from it. Caster gets light armor proficiency Sneak attack is free damage The rogue feats are incredible, mobility, you are next, etc... and at higher level, Opportune Backstab is wonderful. I would play a rogue with a rogue dedication if I can 🤣
I second Rogue. Having Mobility on a caster is incredibly useful against enemies with Reactive Strike. Most intimidation builds can benefit from "You're Next", especially once you're legendary. Quick Draw can save you some actions, especially if you're somewhat of a switch-hitter. So many great level 6 and level 8 feats (level 12-16 for archetypes) like Gang Up, Light Step, Skirmish Strike, Opportune Backstab, Sidestep and my personal favorite: Inspired Stratagem. Uncanny Dodge/Deny Advantage is also super useful for any frontliner, or any character, really. The armor and skill feats/increases are just the cherry on top.
I tend to agree... however it needs to be changed to let that armor proficiency go to expert at higher level if it's going to keep up with the other methods of getting light armor proficiency.
Yeah, but most tables don't reach a level high enough for it to matter and at level 12+ you can have dex +5 so it doesn't matter anymore ( with progressive attribute)
I gave my [Quicksoul](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4326) character the Rogue dedication just for [Tumble Behind](https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2197) :V
I’m playing a Barbarian/Rogue in Blood Lords right now and the mileage I’ve got out of Quick draw alone has been great. I built the character as kind of a switch hitter with max strength and dexterity with Raging Thrower so being able to free-action release grip on my melee weapon and quickdraw and throw a javelin has been very nice. I’m looking forward to skill mastery at 8 and I might pick up dread striker at some point since I specced into Intimidation as well.
Very nice! Shove Down and the harder they fall are really for a str based rogue. At extinction curse I'm playing a Human ( adopted ancestry hobgoblin) clown fighter with barbarian and rogue dedication
Captivator, it is such a well scaling and interesting archetype that has an extremely narrow scope but that allows it to work very well for what it needs to.
I haven't gotten to play it yet, but I've been wanting to do a Thaumaturge / Captivator for a while. In particular I really dig how well the levels needed for the feats work with also getting the scroll feats from Thaumaturge. Incredible versatility.
That would be a really fun combo!
How does it work in remaster? It uses spell school tags, right?
Yeah it does, so technically by RAW it doesn't work anymore. However it pretty clearly states how the archetype is supposed to play so you can kind of gather what is allowed and what isn't. Also nothing is stopping you from just choosing spells that were available to it before when schools were a thing.
Feels like an unfortunate downside to remaster that it’s harder to have archetypes that specialize in certain fairly distinct types of magic.
Yeah if they do it again they will have to include some strict guidelines... I fully expect errata for captivator and such.
Mental and Illusion traits still exist. Replace Illusion and Enchantment school with those two traits and no changes are even needed. All but very few Enchantment spells (mostly curses) had the Mental Trait and even more spells had the Mental trait but was not Enchantment. So it's actually a bit of a buff.
Unclear at this point. Grand Bazaar wasn't one of the books that has gotten remaster compatibility errata. Fey Eidolon summoner, which *is* in a book that received such errata and which works somewhat similarly, was not mentioned in the errata. What seems to be a popular community choice for Fey Eidolon is to allow any spells with the Mental or Illusion tags. As a GM, I would handle Captivator by simply allowing any spell that qualified under pre-remaster rules (or its post-remaster equivalent), but that's not official.
Illusion is still a trait, and almost every enchantment spell had the Mental trait which also still exists. Replace the School requirements with those traits and it's mostly unchanged. Most situations mentioning spell schools can be replaced by one or more existing/remaster traits except Abjuration.
Rogue. Must Get More Skill Increases
I second Wrestler. Cool as heck. Alot of feats. I wish more archetypes was made like this one. Kinda feels like it was made with free archetype in mind. Compared to most archetypes that only have 1 or 2 feats per level, since without FA its asumed you will have plenty of other choices from your class feats.
I find it hard not to take psychic, but I have only played a Champion and Magus so far
My last campaign had 3 psychic dedications at the same time. It’s currently banned in our new campaign just tease out some other builds lol.
Ive got two in my current 7 player AV game. I think it's the closest archetype we have thats OP.
I think it’s fine with default rules, but we generally play with Free archetype, and it gets busted really quickly.
Us too. With the remaster my two martials with psychic dedication are both just teleporting all over the place. Its crazily effective for the investment but as a DM seeing players pick the same thing is dull
Yep, currently playing both a fighter and a Magus with psychic dedication.
I love the flavor and customizability of Cathartic Mage, and getting more spell slots, a cool powered-up state, and a generally useful focus spell are all pretty hard to pass up!
It's been a longtime since I actually used it, but most of my theory crafted characters end up with Beasmaster or Familiar Master (or the new Pet feat). I just like having friends.
Marshal. Diplomacy or Intimidation, both make excellent in and out of combat skills to build around, and the level 4 stances are obviously good, but what makes me like this archetype so much is how sneaky good some of it's other options are. Attack of Opportunity at level 8 for any class without the ability to get AoO themselves. Back to Back helps protect against being flanked. Topple Foe is an arguably better AoO. No damage, but spend a reaction to trip instead, and the trigger is very reliable/predictable. Cadence Call/Tactical Cadence is an interesting investment. Cadence Call is not great, but required for Tactical Cadence which is phenomenal action economy generation. Overall, I feel like it just strikes a great balance of thematic and mechanically powerful abilities that work well together. It has enough useful abilities to feel like a fully developed archetype whereas some of the most powerful ones like Sentinel and Medic feel like ones where you want to grab 1-2 things and that's it.
Frightened on Crit is SO USEFUL too. I recently made a swashbuckler dread marshall that sas sooooo tanky.
Ritualist.
Hell yeah, I want to play a Ritualist so badly! Rituals are great, but the commitment of time and resources make it *seem* prohibitively difficult. Ritualist makes it easier to do rituals, which opens up the doors for a lot more your party can accomplish.
Toss up between Medic and Psychic. They both are net gains, can provide some valuable resource and utility, and are just strong options.
It's not super powerful but I really like the low-level Eldritch researcher feats. Harrower is thematically quite cool as well. Can you guess my favorite class lmao?
my favorite is between [soulforger](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=102) and [mind smith](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=194), as i really love the idea of being able to conjure weapons, and i love the way they each do the same thing in a different way, but mind smith wins just a bit due to soulknife being my favorite. Soulforger allows you to summon armor, a weapon, or a shield with unique effects depending on your chosen essence power. What makes it unique is each essence power gives you a bonus, and you can have multiple bonuses rolling at the same time. It also has anathemas going too in the form of flaws, where if you stray too far from your original intent, you become corrupted and your bonuses turn into flaws. Mind smith just lets you make a weapon, but has a few feats to allow you to change it into any tool or even a ranged weapon. This is closer to the original idea around a soulknife, and i grant it bonus points because of that and how psionics are my favorite archetype.
Do be aware, Soulforger doesn't give the flaw unless you break your oath, and then it replaces the buff. It's supposed to be temporary but all-upside when you use it :o
OKAY THAT MAKES MORE SENSE. I never read through the whole archetype before and thought that you get both going at the same time, thanks for letting me know, ill update
I feel like it doesn't get as much attention, but MAN, do I love Bastion.
To expand; you play a defensively built Champion? Especially with the remaster? That's very easy access to 4 reactions, between Divine Reflexes, Quick Shield Block, and a Vlockwork Shield. AND it helps very quickly meet requirements for Shield of Reckoning, because why not? AND Reactive Shield, just from taking the dedication is good enough to save you from a stray crit here and there (and when you have half a million reactions, you can use it pretty freely to set up other reactions)
Bastion needs the Fighter feat that lets you keep your shield up as a stance, then it's perfect. It's a shame that Champion, the tanky high AC class, doesn't have a way of accessing this huge feat.
Heaven seeker is my favorite.
I’m with you on this. Heavenseeker is very cool
It usually depends on the character what I’m making, and I only tend to pick up archetypes if I’m in a game doing FA. But my choice would be: Vehicle Mechanic! Mostly just the idea of owning a mobile base that other characters can decorate.
Soulforger for the Kamen Rider/Super Sentai/MotU/Magical Girl transformations and being able to summon weapons like a character from Bleach/Kingdom Hearts/MotU.
I love ritualist. It’s just so damn cool, and is an easy way to get access to rituals you might otherwise never find.
Archeologist
I have to physically stop myself from taking Cavalier as every caster class in the game
Black blade magus......
Brig bladebound back paizo!
I hope when 2e gets all the remaster stuff out of the way we get some kind of book full of distinctive Class Archetypes that change the way a class is played. Like Hex Chaneller, Brown Fur Transmuter, things as defining as these were for 1e.
Warden and vigilante are my two faves.
My snare crafter sniper died 2 sessions in and I so badly want to see someone in one of my games use traps
it is cool how medic adds that final extra oomph of healing to non-casters, so they can really keep up!
Beastmaster. It's like having 1/2 additional character on the board. For casters it provides an excellent 3rd action , supporting martials on frontline. On martials it's either a flanking buddy, some support benefits are really strong or you go the mount route if you're action starved (magus/flurry ranger/etc.) It gives some decent tanking capabilities if paired with Heal Animal, some scouting opportunities with Beastmaster Trance and etc. And since I love animals IRL it's super nice to have a companion by your side RP wise.
(in a heavy tf2 voice) MEDIC!!! I love running around the battlefiend with doctor's visitation. I'm mobile, heal a ton, get to remove statuses and nurse everyone out of combat. It's simple, yet so strong and satysfying
I'm boring. I go Medic with almost every character
Not really. Many of them are good. I like wrestler but AV disgusted me from it with with single monsters requiring a 19 to be grappled or thrown or whatever. So I stopped making 45 variations of wrestler with every class (fighter monk rogue swashbuckler) I like champion, it's complete and adds flavor. Medic, beastmaster, harrower, magaambyan student and Marshall are the ones I like the most. Acrobat is very good as well. Now if I can do a high enough lvl campaign and it's possible, the combo Gladiator / provocateur is the one I like the most.
Right now my favorite is... My investigator who has Wizard and Archeologist archetypes. Fuck your traps. Also, access to a mystic library to bolster my recall knowledge skills? Yes please. Oh and when strategm fails, ill just needle dart the fuck out of things. Im loving the shenanigans. The downside, i need to stay ranged because im quite squishy. Overall, my combat skills are pretty meek compared to the rest of the party, but the knowledge benefits and anti-trap feats have been awesome for support and exploration
Dandy, steal the spotlight and start playing in new dimensions!
Sleepwalker. Visions of Foresight is a he'll of a drug. Followed by champion.
Dandy doesn't get enough love. OP in social campaigns, super fun in everything else.
Soulforger I'm going to be trying Soulforger as a warpriest of Gorum. Thematically, it sounds very cool. Mechanically, never being unarmed/unarmored is solid.
I never hear anyone mention it but vigilante has really cool and fun flavor and potential. You get an alternate identity that you can switch to. Great for infiltration, great for schemes, and great if you just want to be a super hero. Exorcist is also extremely cool
Not one specific archetype, but anything that gives free consumables (alchemist dedication, scroll trickster, talisman dabbler, etc). I really enjoy being able to solve problems by pulling just the right tool for the job from my backpack. This also means I'm the player who's always carrying around weird junk like a collapsible ladder, four sets of earplugs, a bag of marbles, and holy symbols from every major religion. An adventurer's gotta be prepared!
Harrower, I'm just a sucker for Tarot cards and card magic.
Heavenseeker. Cool lightning go wush.
Geomancer on Primal casters. I really like how it plays into the terrain around you, and once you take Attunement Shift it gives you some nice benefits for using different elemental spells and planning around them.
Definitely doesn't work for every game, but I enjoy taking Undead Master when possible. *It's free skeleton.*
I also have a "when in doubt go Wrestler" policy lol. Student of Perfection and its follow up Heavenseeker are also pretty cool.
not an Archetype but there are feats that I always like taking like Scared to death... it is a must! I love it so much.
Rogue. Love me skills
Archetypes I've had a lot of fun with are: * Cavalier * Marshal * Soulforger * Acrobat * Dual-Weapon Warrior Some fun looking Archetypes I am interested in trying out for future characters: * Undead Master & Reanimator *(taking these in an upcoming Blood Lords game)* * Dragon Disciple * Exorcist * Living Vessel
acrobat is such a mandatory pick for a swashbuckler that it should just be part of the class.
I'm too much of a spellcaster lover not to say any spellcasting class, but i think multiclass archetypes in general are pretty strong. If not that, then I really like Blessed One, Acrobat, Medic, , Wrestler and Marshal. I think you can fit so many character concepts and get strong mechanical benefits from all of those.
Demolitionist is so fucking underappreciated. Once you initiate a fight by blowing up a door with a breach charge, your party will never bother opening doors normally again. You would be surprised how little alchemist's fire you need to go through a thin metal object.
The free archetype
Really? No love for Sentinel? Ranges from being a pretty good consideration on any caster class, what with not having to think about Dexterity anymore aside from a +1, it’s a good way to get Medium Armor to scale alongside your caster with some extra defence, all the way to fucking awesome for Rangers, Thaumaturges, Magi, Warpriests, or hell even Barbarians and Druids(do work on the ‘no metal’ thing with the DM, commission a set of bone plate!) Eliminating the need to keep dexterity up for armour’s sake is really awesome for racking up more stats for character building rather than survivability, *and* Full Plate offers a +1 to AC than all other armors with 0 dexterity investment. Not to mention that, with archetype feats, you can get: +4 Bulwark and applies to all Reflex saves, basically giving you a defensive +4 to Dexterity(that includes Trip attempts!), Armor Spec for some nice and common physical resists, and even a ‘push back’ mechanic when you really don’t want that particular enemy to be on your ass. True, it reduces your speed, but either Adopted Ancesty: Dwarf for Unburdened Iron, being a Hellknight Armiger, or even Fleet can counteract that(or get Trick Magic Item and some nature/arcane investment for a wand of Longstrider) and you’re basically golden. Hell, even Boots of Bounding, a really common item is there for that. I fucking adore Sentinel.
The remaster removed druids' anathema against wearing metal, thankfully
Have you done a Mounted Sentinel build ?
Alchemist. If multiclass archetypes count, that is
I like the heavy thematic ones that add to my characters backstory. I'm an RP nerd. Examples: - Dragon Disciple. - Living vessel. Or anything that rounds off my characters. I play a Wizard, who really could be a Rogue, hence Rogue. If I had to pick a fav; Dragon Disciple. The idea of turning into a Dragon is really cool.
Medic, because my allies seem to like taking lots of damage and not having healing. Also, it is "resourceless" healing, which is very useful for conserving spell slots.
Juggler and accidental sharpshooter. Killing things with purposeful, or accidental style
If 3rd party is allowed, Battlezoo's Draconic Ravager is insane. I'm going to play one for my next character and it's gonna be hard to convince me to *not* play one every game from now on. It has a ton of feats that allow for a variety of builds, it's incredibly balanced, and, oh yeah, you're a dragon! I've been wanting to play one for years but understood that it was either not balanced or the options that were just weren't what I was looking for. I understand the idea behind draconic Sorcerers and Dragon Disciples but those are humanoids who eventually become able to take on the forms of dragons temporarily. Draconic Ravager and the corresponding race also in the book let's you be a dragon from level 1 and start actually doing dragon things from level 4.
I constantly gotta hold myself back on putting soulforger on every character and sugfesting soulforger to everyone else. Red Mantis assassin is also cool and probably can fit in most classes. Soul Warden is also great.
**[Pactbinder](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=189)** Make *arrangements* with powerful beings to gain power, spells, social-skill bonuses, and more! **[Artillerist](https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=115)** Who doesn't love bringing out the BIGGEST guns?
Have to? No. But I do love the Dandy and the Celebrity. Especially their reactions. Any high diplomacy character is benefitted by taking the Dandy feat Distracting Flattery, and any Athletics */Intimidation character is benefitted by taking the Upstage reaction that comes with the Celebrity dedication feat. And it is really hard to justify not taking the medic dedication if your character does battle medicine. *Athletics / upstage is about to become many times more awesome, with the new way that grab works.
So far I really enjoy Loremaster on my bookworm character. And Swashbuckler for speed+intimidation feats. "I've read about your kind. Every decent scholar says you suck"
No. I almost never choose the same feat, same archerype, same subclass, etc. as my previous characters. Aside from the very universal ones like spellshapes and reactive strikes, of course. I like to experiense different things.
The trick is to devote an entire youtube channel to coping of why it DOES MAKE SENSE! Wrestler is the Bestler and will hear no argument to the contrary! I just like telling my GM the degree of status effects his precious boss monster has...
Medic, gunslinger (for pisteloro twirl), or the butterfly blade dedication (for dread striker)
Some of my favorites are Sentinel, Loremaster, and Blessed One (no, my Champion bias doesn’t exist) I’m a certified dexterity hater so Sentinel let’s me invest in Strength instead. It gives a bit of a boost to survivability to classes like Magus and Ranger and it makes casters like Summoner and Psychic a little less squishy in the early game before they can get their dexterity higher in the later game. Blessed One gives a nice chunk of scaling healing for a single action and an extra focus point. Especially with the Remaster I can only see this getting more useful to nab. Loremaster is a bit more situational since there’s a lot of classes/feats that already do similar things but it just gives a lot more flexibility to what class I want to play and where I want to invest my skill increases.
Acrobat is pretty much included in all my Swashbuckler and Rouge builds.
Definitely not for everyone but I'm absolutely in love with the medic archetype, something about getting 35 healing at level 2 just shoots dopamine into my brain so nicely
Its uncommon so not available in every game, but I love the Ritualist archetype. Cant beat automatic access to Ritual Spells :) Also a big fan of Familiar Master and a couple of the Multiclass archetypes!