Use These Abilities! - ruclips.net/video/wdQv7b8ML14/видео.html Thanks for watching. Be sure to add any knowledge / tips below in the comments. Sorry for the lack of music & visuals in this one, this week is a bit busy for myself so I had to drop a little in quality ;) Become a Channel Member - ruclips.net/channel/UCi3RdvCWYMzdF-iUgG_0xLQjoin Join my discord! - discord.gg/4GyD7ZR Wolf Apparel Store - www.teespring.com/stores/wolf-apparel-7 Stay Updated On Future Vids - Follow my Twitter - twitter.com/wolfheartfps Instagram - instagram.com/wolfheartfps Support the Channel Patreon Become a Channel Member - ruclips.net/channel/UCi3RdvCWYMzdF-iUgG_0xLQjoin Patreon - www.patreon.com/WolfheartFPS Wolf Apparel Store - www.teespring.com/stores/wolf-apparel-7
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Spell penetration is a MUST for this game. Almost every demon, who are the main enemies of the game, has Spell Resistance, so any magic user that casts offensive spells will do incredibly well to pick up this feat (as well as the greater and mythic versions). Sure, there are sexier feats out there, like the various metamagic feats, but they won't do shit if you can't even get through an enemy's SR.
Learnt this the hard way, had to rely on pit spells (conjuration) that ignores spell resistance to tide me over. I wish there was a way to view/categorise spell lists so we can see which has what (Spell resist, full round/standard/swift action etc)
Srsly i need to get this on my casterds, I just finished act 1 and atm only my mc (knifemaster rogue) and lann are the ones doing the big damage, nenio misses half the time and the other times she does hit, it tickles the enemy
On average, spell slots are a pretty inefficient means of doing damage even before you factor in all the spell resistance, energy resistance and immunities, and ridiculously high saving throws in this game. A haste can accomplish a lot more than a fireball most of the time, until you get to much higher levels and start adding in metamagic. Spells are still great, but blasting is going to use up your slots real quick. BUT, a particularly great choice is Snowball, right at first level. It's a ranged touch attack, no save, and best of all, no SR. The damage is what you can expect for a 1st level spell, but it's perfect and eldritch scoundrels or arcane tricksters in your party.
It is still good to have hungry pit and grease around regardless of your level, as well as other spells that ignore SR, since creatures with total spell immunity (such as golems) are still affected by spells that ignore SR. Casting grease on the adamantine golems in Kingmaker made that fight a total cakewalk, since they kept falling prone and losing their actions (and frequently prompting attacks of opportunity when they managed to get up)
@@malusvir Snowball also scales very well AND if they fail their save they lose a turn - can't go wrong! Boneshaker/Shatter are good for higher level spells, since it doesn't deal elemental damage
I feel like Clustered shots needs a mention here, it's almost a must for ranged weapon users, at least bow/crossbow users. Clustered shot makes it so any damage reduction an enemy has only applies one time to your entire attack when making a full attack action, so that can be a huge damage increase. If an enemy has DR 10 and you hit 4 arrows, normally you lose 40 damage there, clustered shots reduces this to a loss of 10 damage, so an almost insane increase in damage. Seeing as most demons have DR and you need cold iron at least to get through it, I really recommend Clustered shots on characters like Lan , Wenduag and Arushalee
Absolute A Plus content my dude. No fluff, no click bait, no malarkey hootin and hollering about your brand. And absolutely stellar beginnier guides. I have 500 hours in console Kingmaker and just started Wrath. I agree with almost all your content I’ve already know and you still teach me a ton. All your guides A must watch for anyone starting Pathfinder games.
For new players, do note that the importance, priority and order of some of these feats depends on the difficulty level. As a general rule (there are exceptions of course), the importance of feats that increase Armor Class and Attack bonus is greater at lower difficulties, while feats that increase damage and survivability (prevent you from dying) matter more at higher difficulties. Why? There are quite a few enemies that starting on core (and some even on medium) will hit you no matter what you AC is and have an AC themselves that can't be beaten through conventional attacks. how do you fight those spikes in difficulty? By playing the contingency card. If you know you gonna miss most of the time, make sure you gonna do damage even when you miss. If you know you only gonna hit on natural 20's, make sure you maximize damage when you do crit them. Same goes for defense. If you know you gonna be hit anyways, make sure you survive those hits. As the difficulty goes even higher, there's another trend creeping in, offense becomes more important then defense. That is, because your enemies gonna hit you every time and they gonna hit hard, you want to end the fights as fast as possible. So you may want to prioritize feats and spells that will enable you to dispatch them before they dispatch you. So be mindful of feats that give you bonuses when swarming the enemy or feats that give you OOO (out of order) actions, like opportunity attacks.
Also, before Spell Focus. Early on, it's much easier to win saves than to bypass Spell Resistance. Later, with high Caster Levels, DCs can become too low and you may start to need those feats.
Also consider taking Ascendant Element. Spell Pen is great but it doesn't do any good if the target's immune. I took it on my druid for all the electric spell they get. Call Lightning and stormbolt are now much more valuable.
Lol to be honest I think wolfheart hasn't even gotten to chapter 4, maybe not even 3. All his videos talk about stuff that is chapter 1-2 level info. In chapter 1 you don't need spell pen, I feel sorry for the offensive caster who got to chapter 4 thinking spell pen feats were optional.
Concerning Spell Focus, if you grab focus in COnjeration, it opens up Augmented Summoning. This feat lets every summoned creature be significantly more powerful.
and superiour summoning after the augmented, that way all your summons that summon more than 1 will actually summon 1 more on top of those, theres also a whip that you could find that gives your summons extra attack that you can place on your belt
I plan on focusing on a Summoner build on my 3rd play through. Right now, on my first, I have one summoned Triceratops (Bismuth) that I picked up from a jade figurine. AC is 44 now, with 30 something Strength. Saves are the weak spot of course, but I also got a Cloak off a Lich that causes Fear on sight. Super pimp. It's become our team's mascot and I'm loving it. 2nd playthrough is probably gonna be a Cavalier
Also, remember to note with Weapon Focus that feats like Greater Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialisation are Fighter Restricted feats, not just anyone can take them. (Through anyone can take Weapon Focus)
yeah really shocked outflank wasnt mentioned. also a good one ot pair with it is "sieze the moment" if you have some Attack of Opporutnities on your melee people have one be a crit fisher (raiper with keen or improved crit feat for example) so all melee with this setup are just getting even more attack chances a round. does require some dex on them but that is what belts are for.
Kept getting my spells resisted early on once the demons started being more common around Act 2. Ended up respecing to be a Elf for the spell pen and the racial arcane focus on top of the spell pen and greater spell pen for something like +7 more on top of caster level. Really helps in the long run
Also, for those spellcasters who make it far enough through the game: their is a mythic feat that lets you copy all the Spell Focus feats you have to another(saves you a few feats if you use two types of spells).
Initiative seems to be important also bc you also get flat-footed on the enemy moves before your character acts. I think a mythic feat copies all spell focus/specialization feats for a school to another school. Maybe more efficient to take that rather than a second school? Not sure.
These are great introductory vids for beginners, I think people will get a lot of value out of them, well done! Just a wee point: If you're a spellcaster using a crossbow, the way to avoid the -4 penalty for firing into melee is of course to plink away at ancillary targets who aren't in melee (for example archers in the enemy's backline). Usually spellcasters will have decent dexterity (for the extra AC if nothing else), so they can be okay with crossbows in that context, even if they don't have precise shot (e.g. if they're a pure caster or healer who isn't going to be firing any rays or ranged touch attacks into melee). But it's usually worth squeezing the P-B/Precise Shot combo into offensive spellcaster builds, since rays and ranged touch attacks are probably going to be a regular part of their arsenal, and especially if they take anything that adds sneak attack damage, as in this game (though not in Pathfinder Tabletop, which is a bit stricter) enemy combatants engaged with at least two of your melee guys are susceptible to ranged sneak attacks.
One other thing with power attack is it leads into Cornugon Smash which lets you roll a passive intimidation check to shaken an enemy every time you hit them. So it's brutal if you have a character that's a fighter speced with persuasion and has high charisma or a character with the intimidating poweress feat.
@@NonlinearNumbers The problem with regill is he also is dex based, so doesn't benefit from intimidating prowess. The fact that regill is a gnome is literally the one thing that keeps him from actually being an optimal character. He is good for this build, but a hand made hellknight character with a different race and strength based stats is better. Lastly to the og comment, don't forget dazzling display and dreadful carnage. Nothing like a free 30 foot aoe intimidate every time you kill an enemy in melee.
Ok, let me consolidate everything that was not mentioned on the video. First, with exception of Power Attack, you probably don't want to take any feat that exchange Attack Bonus (AB) by 3 Damage (unless you are playing on easy difficulty). In this particular game, AC (Armor Class) and AB are the most important things to consider. Keep in mind that to hit, your character AB + D20 needs to overcome enemies AC (your character AB should be higher than the target AC). So, I would frankly avoid Piranha Attack, Deadly Aim, etc. Rapid Shot and Two Weapon Fighting are different story because they would provide extra-attack(s). Power Attack is an exception tho because : 1. it is a requirement for many other feats. 2. It is requirement for Mythic Power Attack - the big difference is the strength component on Mythic Power Attack. 3. as mentioned on video, it might make some value for 2H (two handed weapons). Now, that we agree that to reduce the difference between your Character AB and target enemy AC is so important, let us consider some feats: - Overflank for meele. Even your support characters (like clerics) may have overflank to benefits the Damage Dealers. - Crane Style, for Tanks : it reduces the AB penalty and increase the AC - Finally, to overcome AC defense, you might want to make your enemies flat-footed. If the target is flat-footed, dexterity bonus is denied for them. The most important combo in the game to achieve this is Cornugon Smash (here Power Attack is a requirement here) and Shatter Defenses. if you can demoralize the enemies by other means, you don't need Cornugon Smash although it is good to have. For Range Weapons you might consider: "Once in a while" you'll come across creatures that have damage reduction. For that reason, Clustered shots is mandatory for range attacks. Rapid Shot and Manyshot can't be used with a Zen Archer's flurry of blows. Last, Cleave is bad. There are many many ways to get multi-attacks in these game. And normally you can add multi-attack on top of multiple attack. For example, Haste + Two Weapon fighting + Additional attacks from BAB. You cannot use cleave in any of them. However, cleaving Finish is good feat.
Really good info. Your videos (especially the 4hr live ones) really got me to buy the game. Thanks for doing the work to get these videos out. I can see now that I'd like to respec, I'll just have to figure out how to do that.
I think cornugon smash, shatter defenses and outflank deserved a mention, making the enemies shacken through cornugon, dreadful carnage or something like dirge of doom and spells is the most efficient way to drastically increase how likely you are to hit and having outflank or even seize the moment on your melee characters (or even archers with greater snap shot) increases the party dps tremendously
A feat that I would recommend is Crane style. Tanks like Seelah really benefit from it. Now, it's up to you whether you want to take a monk dip early on or try to unlock it via the Dodge feat later. I don't think being a lvl 20 Paladin is really worth it, so might aswell take her first level as a monk just to unlock Crane style and further up, Crane Wing and Crane Riposte. That way you can just leave the fighting defensively toggled on for your entire run and never think about it. So yeah when making a tank with high AC might want to spend one level in monk (you have to be lawfull though so take that into consideration) so you get even more AC without taking the penalty.
@@WolfheartFPS Hell I'm currently playing a lich wizard/eldritch knight. My 6th level was one level in monk just to get crane style. Add that to mage armor and bone shield later on, power attack, and you're going to pump that scythe like a champ, whilst being almost untouchable.
I tend to stay away from feats like weapon focus unless it's a ranged character where I know I'm going to be using a longbow. But you find so many interesting and powerful weapons throughout the game of all different types, that typically you can use the most recent or most powerful weapon you have found I'm likely get a better advantage than just a bonus from weapon focus. Plus, it's a lot more fun when every weapon you find can be a potential upgrade for your characters, instead of hoping for a specific weapon.
Every melee character with a decent CHA should at least consider it because it leads to the Dazzling Display feat which gives a spammable AOE fear effect.
I hate weapon focus on a base level for videogames. In the table, the GM will adapt the loot table for you. In videogames, that just means you feel bad for not using the most powerful drops.
It's especially bad in Pathfinder since there are so many types of weapons: light crossbow, heavy crossbow, longsword, bastard sword, light mace, heavy mace, bite, etc. etc. It should be broader weapon classes: melee simple, ranged simple, melee martial, ranged martial, melee exotic, ranged exotic.
Weapon Focus should be handled in the way that some Fighter weapon types are. Make larger, broader groups. At least that way you can increase your chances of finding something you want to use that will be covered by the feat.
Spell Penetration feats should have higher priority than Spell Focus. First because they work with every magic school and at least 80% of all available spells in the game. Second because many spells have partial saves or at least force a save per turn while inside the AoE. So, for me, priorities would be something like Spell Penetration > Spell Focus > Elemental Focus.
I think the most important feat to highlight is Shatter Defenses. I see a lot of people complaining about high AC of enemies and all they do is attack the normal AC and not flat footed or touch.
Agree with Shatter Defense.. Outflank also helps out my low attack roll heroes connect from time to time. Though not feat specific understanding Touch attacks made my main damage dealer more effective (Legendary 2HF+Sword Saint). 2-turn-killed a skeletal dragon with Touch Weapon buff, forgot the name.
Good video. Some toughs from a veteran pnp pathfinder player. The cleave line of feats is bad in most situations, since using cleave is an standard action which means that you can't multiattack and use cleave at the same time (cleaving finish still works but it's usually not worth it to go there, though you can do some things with spirited charge and cleaving finish) Regarding selective channel. Only pick it up if you want to channel for damage, since healing in combat is usually a bad idea in pathfinder, it's simple not efficient to use heal in combat, everyone is gonna deal way more damage than you can heal. About power attack and deadly aim. They are similar, but very different at the same time. If you are a two handed character, you grab power attack at lvl 1, and you are set. Two handed str charactares with power attack are great since they come online literally at level one, and they don't need anything more to function. Deadly aim is different, you don't want to take deadly aim until you have precise shot, many shot and rapid shot. Since the extra damage is lower, and usually ranged characters suffer way more to hit enemies And lastly i would say that unless you are a fighter, or you need it as a prequisite, weapon focus is a trap option most of the time. In the same line, armor focus or dodge are also trap option. They aren't useless, but most of the time you have better things to invest your feats in than those options
Weapon focus is a trap? You must not like shatter defenses (which needs dazzling display which needs weapon focus) then. I'm a fan of it. Even the dogs have it. ^^
@@OneViolentGentleman I think shatter defenses is fine. You just have to jump trough too many hops to get there. You can make good builds with shatter defenses, but i wouldn't say that it's a must pick, that's why most of the time weapon focus is a trap option. Sure if you are making a build that specifically focus on that, it's a good idea.
Reach fighters need all the cleave feats. Reach rogues lack the feats and will have to cut somewhere and combat reflexes is usually more useful to them.
I would like to point out that weapon focus is also the prerequisite for Dazzling Display which can be quite powerful on a Thug which can either give enemies the shaken or frightened condition which greatly reduces their combat effectiveness.What follows from that and power attack is cornugon smash which will trigger your dazzling display as a free action whenever you kill an enemy. Dazzling display also unlock a feat called shatter defenses which makes all frightened enemies flat footed, which negates the enemies bonuses from dexterity to their AC. With the proper flanking mod (for Kingmaker) this was quite important for sneak attackers. By the way, frightened and shaken enemies take -2 to attack, saving throw and skill rolls. While frightened also makes them run around in a panic.
This video really needs an update. Armour Focus and Shield Focus got overhauled with new mythic variant feats. Precise shot being suggested for characters like Daeran and Nenio is just terrible. Daeran is a much better controller healer with enchantment spells which just hit and Nenio is an illusionist by default. Can you do other stuff with them which might require it? Sure, but by default it's a pretty terrible pick. Didn't mention Pirana Strike with Power Attack and Deadly Aim. Cleave is really only good for getting to Cleaving Finish, you'll never use it once you hit 6BaB and can full attack. Selective Channel is a terrible feat, channeling is best done out of combat. Daeran and Sosiel are stuck with it because it's in their base kit but Seelah is already starved for feats since Paladins don't get any bonus feats. Should have discussed Metamagic as a whole for casters. Different metamagic are better for different kinds of casters, like heighten spell for DC casters or Bolster Spell for blasters and so on. Didn't mention Weapon Finesse, pretty much required for a melee dex fighter. Improved Critical is another great feat for any weapon fighters or ray specialist mages. Lunge didn't exist when this was made, another great feat for melee fighters to increase how many enemies they can hit so less of their full attack goes to waste if they kill something, increasing what they can hit with Cleaving Finish or keeping a lower AC melee fighter behind the tanks. Outflank, staple melee feat. Better than weapon focus, which Weapon Focus is just a pretty mid pick if you can't get access to Greater Weapon Focus and really stack those bonuses with Mythic Weapon Focus as well. Slashing Grace and Fencing Grace, great way to get dex to damage when the weapon qualifies for dex fighters without being a rogue and without having to spend a far more precious mythic feat on Mythic Weapon Finesse (though some builds can afford to take Mythic Weapon Finesse, but not many). Shake it Off is a great pick if you know you'll have enough people to take advantage of it since it just adds to all your saves. Iron Will or Great Fortitude are great filler picks later if you finish your build early just because there's so many terrible will and fortitude saves in the game. Having +2 to a relevant save is much better than say an eventual 20hp from Toughness. Great picks if you can't afford to take Shake It Off either
Coming from DnD 3.5 being a game master and player. I would agree with your selection. Spell penetration is significant, as most of the enemies you will fight will have it.
Less obvious and more specialist (so every PARTY should look at these for one or more members dependant on role): Ability Focus (e.g. witches hex save dcs). Improved Critical (a MUST HAVE for combatants) & Vital Strike (chain) for those who like to charge!!! For skill monkeys: Skill Focus (Key skills - Athletics, Mobility, Persuasion, Perception & Disable Device), Alertness (Your perception score can NEVER be too good), Deft Hands & Close Call (how many times have you missed out on treasure because you failed to pick the lock) & Persuasive/Deceitful (opens up many dialogue options as well as intimidate based combat assistance). Iron Will/Great Fortitude and improved versions - to cover that weak but important saving throw.
Dodge and Crane style (put 3 ranks in mobilty and use defensive fight) for tanks for better AC and the Improved critical for the dps classes. Also the +2 saves feats like Iron Will, Greater Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes.and the improved version of those for a total of +4 in the save.they are very important feats.
PBS and Precise are absolutely a must. Great callout. Weapon Focus is absolutely great for fighters (and melee/ranged who are heading for shatter defenses) but isn't too big for others. Still, it can be a solid choice. Armor and Shield Focus is a trap. Tanks usually don't use armor (they use mage armor) and typically don't use shields either (they use crane style and shield spell). Its fine for lower difficulties but around normal you're going to want to start working with Dex based tanks. Improved Initiative is... not good. Your stated reason for taking it is to act earlier in the round. If you really want to do this then I suggest mass cats grace (+2 to initiative) and it doesn't cost a feat. Alternatively just get the drop on the enemies (doesn't always work for scripted fights, I'll grant, but for most encounters use a scout and charge in or lob a fireball) if you are the initiator in combat you'll get a free round where the enemy is flat footed and cannot act. Spell Pen and Greater Spell Pen are mandatory for any blaster or debuffer archetypes. Grab mythic spell pen too on casters. Spell Focus is... it depends on the school. For Wotr I wouldn't recommend it for Transmutation, Conjuration, Abjuration, Divination, or Enchantment. It has some use in Evocation, Necromancy, Illusion. Power Attack (don't forget Piranha Strike for Dex and Combat Expertise for Int) and Deadly Aim are good, but watch your AB maluses as AC can get very high later on. Power Attack into Cornugon Smash is good for high-persuasion characters applying shaken to enemies on hit. Synergizes very well with shatter defenses. Cleave is... it falls off VERY quickly. It has some very strong niche use cases (scythe in act 2 which does weapon damage to nearby enemies and procs off cleave on all targets) but when you get into iterative attacks cleave is kinda worthless. Rapid Shot is excellent for ranged. Careful not to pick it up on Lann, but its great for everyone else. (ranged non-casters) Selective Channel is... eh... good for lower levels maybe but once you get to the heal line of spells (or harm) it falls off in-combat. Channeling is great for out of combat AoE heals but... just use all your potions. Two Weapon Fighting is FANTASTIC, on high BAB classes. beware it has a very high feat cost and 19 Dex cost for GTWF. But extra attacks are always lovely. Power Attack and TwoHanded tends to do better damage/hit (bypasses resistances better) but TWF will get you more attacks/round so scales up better with on-hit weapons. Interesting note: you can meld TWF with Throwing Axes, then pick up the ranged line for some spectacular damage. Downside is the reduced range. There are some great throwing axes in-game though.
For weapon focus. If you're a spell caster that uses touch attacks often you can actually pick weapon focus ray or touch. In this instance I'd pick touch because you're picking an attack that all ray spells use plus touch spells, so basically a 2 for 1 feat.
Love the Warlord Fighter Archetype (part of Prestige Plus mod) cause Fighters already get a tonne of feats, instead of taking your bonus feats every other level, you can instead get a permanent dodge bonus to AC. Dodge bonuses are great in that you can endlessly stack them in Pathfinder and they also apply when polymorphed. Also normally a weakness of this archetype is the dodge bonuses only apply when not wearing armor, but polymorphing gives you natural armor. So even if you polymorph into a form with normally poor defenses you can shore those up. Can make tanky polymorph forms pretty well untouchable with the dodge bonuses.
I'd say go for CC (grease, web etc. I shut down the entire "Inn under attack" scene with one Web and one Grease spell, and four archers.) as they are just horrifyingly OP in this game. After that, go for summons if you don't have enough tanks, or buffs if you do. I'd stay away from damage spells until you're in the mid to high teens. First off, they just don't do enough damage to make casting them worth it, and second, pretty much everything in this game has freaking spell resistance, which makes casting direct-target spells on enemies just an extremely risky proposition. Better to put a grease under their feet and watch them just lie face down for six straight rounds while your Zen Archer fires 90 points of damage into them every round.
@@bahamut458 Mid to late game are way more flexible with builds. Feats, mythic options and magic items let you pick pretty much anything and it'll do you good. Just about the only trap in the game is picking spells that only target the same save and weakness. If your caster has 6 ways of fighting but they all allow for a Reflex save or they're all Mind affecting spells, you're gonna be pissed when you run up against enemies with Evasion or Immunity to Mind Affecting spells. Generally, when you get a new level of spell available, pick one to be your main build, and then everything else is either a backup plan, support, or utility.(All of the spells that cure permanent ailments will pay off when you're halfway through a dungeon and you get hit with blindness/petrification/curses/etc.)
Quick Hint about Rapid/Manyshot: If you‘re building a Zen Archer (or Lann), their class feature flurry of blows doesn‘t work with those feats. So you can leave them out (for a full zen archer) For every other kind of full blown archer build, take them
For those who build Dexterity and Weapon Finesse then its a good idea to pick up Piranha Strike as it is the Dexterity version of Power Attack for melee
Regarding spell penetration, in my opinion its much better to pick spells and abilities that are not affected by spell resistance at all, rather than trying to overcome it. Why? Because later its common to face enemies with 30 or even more spell resist and even with spell pen feats you'll have to make a lot of lucky rolls for your spells to go through. You can waste a ton of spells because of bad rolls but with spells that don't require roll, you'll kill the enemy anyway. A few examples - close to heaven from first mythic perk you can choose, 4d6+2d6 per mythic rank, snowball, acid arrow, some inflict wound spells (not every tier) and also harm, blade of the sun from angel list, edit of retaliation from aeon spellbook and probably a lot of more spells that I didn't discovered yet. Some of them require picking a right perks or class but snowball, acid arrow and many inflit damage spells are common and can help you take down spell resistant opponent. Its worth to remember that witch hexes and evil eye are also not affected by spell resistance so you can easily help your melee guys with Ember Evil Eye for -4ac for example. This way you can invest your precious feats in something else, like spell focus. I hope someone find it as useful as me :>
One big problem with Cleave is that it requires a Standard Action. So it's great early on, but once you start getting iterative attacks (at BAB +6) which require making Full-Round Attacks, you don't use Cleave nearly as often.
Cleave is only good as a prereq for feats like cleaving finish and great cleave, especially combined with dreadful carnage. Cleave by itself isn't great but its part of an important feat tree for melee builds
@@havokmusicinc Disagree. All cleave feats ultimately rely on being in melee with multiple enemies at one time, something that is rare outside of trash fights where it really doesn't matter anyway. Dreadful carnage is extremely powerful regardless of having cleave or not.
@@DKarkarov man, I have entire build around that. I got two handed fighter level 3 and rest goes to vivisectionist, and I get fauchard for reach weapon. So under legendary proportions, you have reach of approximately one football field. And with mutagen and power attack you hit power nearing airstrike. You will ofc need combat reflexes and Seize the Moment and outflank and opportunist. So if anything moves, or shoots, or casts, or get hit in melee, or even blick it will get attack of opportunity with full attack and damage bonuses and most likely explode. Then everyone else will have improved cleaving finish with full attack and damage bonuses and also explode. Then some lucky fellows who had not explode get attack 2...
For melee characters who won't get levels in monk, get the Martial Disciple background to get a free Improved Unnarmed Strike then get all the Crane line of feats (Crane Style, Crane Wing, Crane Riposte). You'll need Dodge to get Crane Style, so at least 13 DEX is a must. Now use the Fighting Defensively ability and watch your AC get a nice bonus with virtually no penalty to AB.
You should talk more about getting an animal companion and skills for that beast: Smilodon (Sabre Tooth) Animal Companion, Aggressor (Free Power Attack), Outflank (+1d6 if ally has it too), on a full round one Bite and 4 Claw attacks = 5 Attacks per Round, all of them get 1d6+2 Bonus damage.
It's important to keep in mind that Rapid Shot and Manyshot don't work with Zen Archery, so you'll want to pass on these for Lann even if they're recommended. Clustered Shots is an enormous damage increase as soon as you can get it. The various Snap Shot feats look better on paper than in practice since enemies tend to avoid provoking opportunity attacks, and your archer probably won't be in an ideal position to make the most of it. Don't sleep on Mounted Combat - it opens a lot of really useful feats that reward you for getting on a horse, which you should try to do ASAP anyway. Toughness is rarely a high priority, but it's wonderful filler if you aren't sure what else to pick.
@@daemonsoul Snap Shot allows you to threaten an area around you while wielding a ranged weapon - usually that's not the case - so you can make attacks of opportunity while wielding a bow. The dream is that you sit down your archer in the middle of the field and opponents running around will trigger all these opportunity attacks, but in practice that just doesn't happen. Enemies tend to be pretty sticky. Instead of running around, they focus on the original target they picked and keep attacking until one of you drops. Also, the original Pathfinder rules grant opportunity attacks differently than the CRPG. In WotR, opportunity attacks happen when an enemy leaves your threatened area, but if you threaten a larger area, which is what the Snapshot improvements give you, you're ironically less likely to get opportunity attacks. Besides all of that, your archers probably just won't be that close to the action anyway. Add all of that up and those feats just don't quite deliver as advertised. There some neat things you can do with improved bull rush and getting free attacks on opponents standing up from prone, but there are probably more important feats to grab first.
You might want to "sleep" on mounted combat, actually. Or at least take a nap. A number of mounted feats, including mounted combat itself, just don't work.
Lan's auto build won't pick them, in all honesty, the auto build for most companions in this game is actually very good. There is no need to manually level Arueshalae for instance, unless you don't want her to be an archer, the auto system will turn her into a ranged dps god without your help. Late game if you want attack of opportunity you are forcing it through teamwork feats, or feats/spells that force a behavior. Hellknight with the skill that auto upgrades shaken to frightened, power attack, cornugeon smash, and intimidating prowess for example will get you ALOT of attacks of opportunity.
Great video! Some other feats that are great are teamwork feats like outflank. If your engaging the same enemy in melee as another companion with that feat you can make AOO when they crit. Couple that with precise strike which adds a precision die if your flanking the same enemy. And then combat reflexes which add a number of AOO equal to your dex modifier. All you need then is a character then who can crit regularly and everyone with those feat will take a swing. Makes melee dex focused companions like cam, woljif and regill obliterate enemies together.
Worth noting that Outflank doesn't trigger off of a sneak attack, but only off of a confirmed crit. So what you really want to aim for is high crit-range weapons like scimitars and rapiers. Add keen to that (like with a magus pool point) or get the Improved Critical feat, and you'll be rolling crit threats 30% of the time.
5:25 Greater weapon focus, Weapon specialization and Greater weapon specialization are restricted to the fighter class. so don't expect to have anything else other than Weapon focus if you are a paladin for example. 12:50 The order of Feats to get Improved Cleaving finish is: Cleave > Cleaving Finish and Great Cleave > Improved Cleaving Finish. (Great Cleave wasn't mentioned). It's a huge investment (4 feats) for classes that don't have extra feats (like Paladin).
Also, as soon as you have multiattack the cleave line of feats become pretty bad since you can't cleave and multiattack at the same time. Usually the cleave line is considered quite bad because of this.
@@scire105 I agree, Cleave is a gateway for better perks, rarely used on its own. And it's mostly good when using reach weapons as you'll rarely be surrounded (or at least you don't want to) on your Melee DPS. Additionally, The more I play pathfinder the more I tend to entirely skip the Cleave line of feats or just get Cleave and Cleave Finish as the game doesn't seem to offer too much opportunities to use Improved Cleave finish. I find Archer are better to dispatch numerous weaker enemies.
@@Deadknight67 The main use of cleave is to get cleaving finish and use it mounted with spirited charge so you can make a 2x1 with the double damage charge. I haven't tried it yet, but that's it main use on pnp. It usually done with ranger to skip prequisites, though since we don't have mounted combat specialization on the ranger, i'm not sure if there is a reasonable alternative
@@scire105 Dude, I know. You're just repeating what we've been saying: "Cleave is a gateway to better perks". As for the Cavalier, in Wrath, I don't even need cleaving finish because you'll almost never be in range for more than 2 enemies with how finicky the charge is. So you can just kill everything with your regular attacks (I have a skald giving pounce to my cavalier so I have 5 attacks when I charge still).
One other thing about improved initiative is that if you have your turn before your opponent they will be flat footed and thus easier to hit. On top of that flat footed opponents take sneak attack damage from rogues and slayers.
looking at the names of the sections it doesn't look like they're mentioned but there are two feats one for piercing weapons and one for slashing weapons that you unlock after picking up finesse weapons that let you add your dex mod instead of strength to your damage rolls
@@terryobrien1998 at work so can't check for sure but I believe the names are finesse slashing and finesse piercing so the feats as mentioned below are fencing and slashing grace and they also require at least one weapon focus as well to pick them up
@@bevanlangford5012 its a mythic ability that gives an extra 10 armor bonus to mage armor cast on yourself. To demonstrate ill do some math for a tower shield specialist fighter with investment into defensive feats vs a 1witch2instictive fighter sword saint dual wield kukri build For the math mythral full plate and tower sheild with 6 feats invested gives 10+11 shield+15 armor+2 sheld wall+1 dodge+5 deflection+5 natural+7 dex for 546 ac. Combat expertise gives 6 and defensive fighting another 3 and haste for 1 for 66 ac. For combat expertise 3 levels, some buff spells that last nearly all day or you were going to cast anyway, 1 feat and 2 mythic abilities: 10+10 dex+5 wisdom+5int+14 mage armor+3 witch+1haste+6combat expertise+4 shield+5natural+5protection+3 defensive for 67. The difference is the sword saint also is nearly 100% damage focused (by turning off combat expertise and defensive fighting) and provides buffs to himself and the party. So a heavy armor build has to give up a ton of dps and utility to match a dps focused archmage armor build. Last edit: touch is also a thing and most of the SS builds ac works for touch ac 2 levels of instictive needed for wisdom to ac also gives uncanny dodge so flat footed isnt a problem.
@@MrThedumbbunny Thanks for the detailed breakdown. This does look however very much like end game, and a lot of min/max . I personally would be interested in a few build guides (Like the sword saint build you mentioned), but this video is for beginners, and I very much doubt that someone of that level would know why, for example, you took a level of witch (I assume for the Iceplant hex?). I do get your point about Shield wall though.
@@bevanlangford5012 i took that sword saint build solo on hard from 1-10 with the only problem being ghouls with sneak attack. Lvl 1 SS lvl 2-3 instinctive lvl 4 witch rest SS. Ac 38 for the water elemental at 3 for example.
Improved Initiative does a lot esp for fast-pace class like: Zen Archer and Sohei - and its kind of deadlier with Zen Archer, taking the first initiative while almost hitting the rest of the mobs before the other characters could even do a thing or two. (I'm looking at you Lann, you green, greedy bastard)
Lann, Arush, and my Inquisitor archer are OP....then again, I'm playing on "STORY" difficulty for my first playthrough. Def ramping up difficulty after I've taken this tour through the narrative
@@rudeboyjohn3483 so story mode in this game basically only asks you to equip gear that makes sense. IE: don't give lan a short sword and no bow or regil a amulet designed for monks. As long as you do that you can literally just go real time with pause and just let your party auto ai do whatever it wants and you will win, with absolutely no difficulty. One of the biggest problems with this game is story and casual are both so easy you could beat the whole game with nothing but auto attacks. Normal and higher? They are any other CRPG's version of hard to "why does the game hate me so much?". If you want an actual medium setting you have to tweak it yourself.
About Cleave, It seems great when you have only a simple action available (as move in range and attack), but isn't it better to have full attack when you are close to an ennemy?
Yeah its like vital strike. Its staggeringly bad once you start being able to attack 3-10 times around as long as you dont move, once you kill a target you can keep making your full attack anyway on whatever is nearby. My bloodrager makes something like 11 attacks a round, no way a single hit on 2 targets is ever going to be better than that, it becomes a waste of a feat.
One way to look at Cleave and Vital Strike is that they help with turn economy if you can't commit to a full action such as approaching an enemy. This likely matters a little more in turn based mode though, I don't have much experience in real time mode.
I was wondering if you overlooked Dodge. It is better than armor focus because it jzdt gives a flat out +1AC without any requirements like having a specific armor. Moreover, Dodge is a prerequisite for other powerful feats like Crane Style. Or am I missing some reason why Dodge is trash?
Quick question, do you think starting as an alchemist grenadier and going legend mythic path, which increases your level cap to 40, and choosing arcane bomber as your multiclass with grenadier? Such as level 1-20 as alchemist grenadier and then once you do Legend mythic path, you go level 20-40 as arcane bomber. Would this increase the number of bombs per class by stacking as well as damage? Just wonder if it's viable. Such as both having the similar "precise bomb" feat as well so that no allies are hurt by your bombs also.
Great video! I'm having a question about spell penetration feats. Are those helpful for prestige class Winter Witch? I'm new to pathfinder and don't quite understand if those feats overlap with Winter Witch passives.
Can we talk about Claws? ^^ I am a little helpless with my Hagbound Witch and do not really know what to make of it. She has Claws, but if I am not wrong, she also gets Sharp Nails, should I use her with bare Hands or with one Weapon, or a Shiels and no Weapon? Do Hand (Claw/Nails) Attacks trigger when she has a Weapon in that Hand? Why would I use Claws over Weapons? Is there a benefit to Spells if a Character (any Class) has no Weapon equipped? Is she a DD, a Tank, a Caster...? What Feats and Armor would fit...?
Claws are, without magic items and spells, literally worse weapons than anything you can use. If you leave a hand empty, you'll get a bonus attack with the claw as long as you don't move in the same turn. It's okay damage as long as you've got good Str, but as you're likely a caster that has a low Str, you'll likely never hit with Claws and if you do, the damage will always be very low. This can be mitigated later on with potions, spells and magic items, but if you're wanting to get through the early game, just use weapons.
Weapon focus is kinda hit or miss as long as you don't know what kinds of weapons you get in a blind playthrough, so basically only good if you plan on going for other stuff down the line that requires it. Armor focus is pretty much obsolete as long as archmage armor and unarmored combat options are as good as they're right now. Power attack/piranha strike/deadly aim are basically in the same situation as weapon focus, as in there's no point in picking them if you're not just using them to get to the better feats later down that specific feat line. In a game where you have 50+ AC from Act 4 onwards the to hit and just doing damage on the regular is way more important than a measly bit more of static damage. Cleave only shines when your BAB is below 15 (less than 3 attack per full round action), only a good pick up if you intend to go cleaving finish, etc. . There's tons of stuff that sound impressive on a quick read but fall short in reality.
weapon focus is 100% safe in this game. Early on you can get a talking weapon capable of transforming into any weapon in the game that grows in power as you progress, and even without it I have been able to find good weapons of basically every type consistently through the whole game. Even if some of them did require buying off a vendor. Yes even darts and nunchucks.
@@DKarkarov Sure, but you still only get Finnean on one of 6 characters and yes, there are multiple magic weapons of basically any kind in this game but that doesn't mean that they're all "good". So you can still trap yourself with weapon focus if you've got no clue about the game.
@@meinzrockxx7119 You really can't. If anything the weapons in this game are hilariously too good. I have played the game to the end, I have found bad ass great weapons in every single weapon type. Not "man that enchantment sucks but I guess it is +5" weapons.
Appreciate the rundown! As somebody who is new to Pathfinder, feat selection was the thing that overwhelmed me the most during character creation. I also didn’t understand, why the ranged attack feats were recommended for spellcasters, but I know why. It seems really easy to screw up your build, if you don’t pick the right feats from the start, so thank you for providing an easily understandable base to build off of!
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Thanks for watching. Be sure to add any knowledge / tips below in the comments. Sorry for the lack of music & visuals in this one, this week is a bit busy for myself so I had to drop a little in quality ;)
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Dear Wolfheart, you have one of the best quality rpg channel in youtube, very rich in guides & tips. thank you so much. as new player i appreciate your work very much. 🍷🍹
where can i buy some socks for all these feats? haha
Spell penetration is a MUST for this game. Almost every demon, who are the main enemies of the game, has Spell Resistance, so any magic user that casts offensive spells will do incredibly well to pick up this feat (as well as the greater and mythic versions). Sure, there are sexier feats out there, like the various metamagic feats, but they won't do shit if you can't even get through an enemy's SR.
Learnt this the hard way, had to rely on pit spells (conjuration) that ignores spell resistance to tide me over. I wish there was a way to view/categorise spell lists so we can see which has what (Spell resist, full round/standard/swift action etc)
Srsly i need to get this on my casterds, I just finished act 1 and atm only my mc (knifemaster rogue) and lann are the ones doing the big damage, nenio misses half the time and the other times she does hit, it tickles the enemy
On average, spell slots are a pretty inefficient means of doing damage even before you factor in all the spell resistance, energy resistance and immunities, and ridiculously high saving throws in this game. A haste can accomplish a lot more than a fireball most of the time, until you get to much higher levels and start adding in metamagic.
Spells are still great, but blasting is going to use up your slots real quick. BUT, a particularly great choice is Snowball, right at first level. It's a ranged touch attack, no save, and best of all, no SR. The damage is what you can expect for a 1st level spell, but it's perfect and eldritch scoundrels or arcane tricksters in your party.
It is still good to have hungry pit and grease around regardless of your level, as well as other spells that ignore SR, since creatures with total spell immunity (such as golems) are still affected by spells that ignore SR. Casting grease on the adamantine golems in Kingmaker made that fight a total cakewalk, since they kept falling prone and losing their actions (and frequently prompting attacks of opportunity when they managed to get up)
@@malusvir Snowball also scales very well AND if they fail their save they lose a turn - can't go wrong! Boneshaker/Shatter are good for higher level spells, since it doesn't deal elemental damage
I feel like Clustered shots needs a mention here, it's almost a must for ranged weapon users, at least bow/crossbow users.
Clustered shot makes it so any damage reduction an enemy has only applies one time to your entire attack when making a full attack action, so that can be a huge damage increase.
If an enemy has DR 10 and you hit 4 arrows, normally you lose 40 damage there, clustered shots reduces this to a loss of 10 damage, so an almost insane increase in damage.
Seeing as most demons have DR and you need cold iron at least to get through it, I really recommend Clustered shots on characters like Lan , Wenduag and Arushalee
Yeah, but wouldn’t the covenant of the inheritor make it moot so you save a feat?
Absolute A Plus content my dude. No fluff, no click bait, no malarkey hootin and hollering about your brand. And absolutely stellar beginnier guides.
I have 500 hours in console Kingmaker and just started Wrath. I agree with almost all your content I’ve already know and you still teach me a ton. All your guides A must watch for anyone starting Pathfinder games.
improved initiative> your enemies cant hurt you if theyre dead
had no idea precise shot affected spellcasters, thanks.
so many choices.. I feel de_feated when choosing.
10/10
you may leave the room...
Haha, funny guy say funny joke
For new players, do note that the importance, priority and order of some of these feats depends on the difficulty level. As a general rule (there are exceptions of course), the importance of feats that increase Armor Class and Attack bonus is greater at lower difficulties, while feats that increase damage and survivability (prevent you from dying) matter more at higher difficulties. Why? There are quite a few enemies that starting on core (and some even on medium) will hit you no matter what you AC is and have an AC themselves that can't be beaten through conventional attacks. how do you fight those spikes in difficulty? By playing the contingency card. If you know you gonna miss most of the time, make sure you gonna do damage even when you miss. If you know you only gonna hit on natural 20's, make sure you maximize damage when you do crit them. Same goes for defense. If you know you gonna be hit anyways, make sure you survive those hits. As the difficulty goes even higher, there's another trend creeping in, offense becomes more important then defense. That is, because your enemies gonna hit you every time and they gonna hit hard, you want to end the fights as fast as possible. So you may want to prioritize feats and spells that will enable you to dispatch them before they dispatch you. So be mindful of feats that give you bonuses when swarming the enemy or feats that give you OOO (out of order) actions, like opportunity attacks.
You have my permission to lie about stopping after this one, loving the WotR content!
😂
Honestly, I need all the help I can get with these games, thanks for the video.
Keep with it! Good luck!
Once in awhile? Spell resistance is relentless in this game. Take the spell pen feats all the way to mythic.
Also, before Spell Focus. Early on, it's much easier to win saves than to bypass Spell Resistance. Later, with high Caster Levels, DCs can become too low and you may start to need those feats.
Also consider taking Ascendant Element. Spell Pen is great but it doesn't do any good if the target's immune. I took it on my druid for all the electric spell they get. Call Lightning and stormbolt are now much more valuable.
Lol to be honest I think wolfheart hasn't even gotten to chapter 4, maybe not even 3. All his videos talk about stuff that is chapter 1-2 level info. In chapter 1 you don't need spell pen, I feel sorry for the offensive caster who got to chapter 4 thinking spell pen feats were optional.
Heck, and be an elf if you dont mind being a giraffe human hybrid.
Concerning Spell Focus, if you grab focus in COnjeration, it opens up Augmented Summoning. This feat lets every summoned creature be significantly more powerful.
nice thanks for sharing
and superiour summoning after the augmented, that way all your summons that summon more than 1 will actually summon 1 more on top of those, theres also a whip that you could find that gives your summons extra attack that you can place on your belt
I plan on focusing on a Summoner build on my 3rd play through. Right now, on my first, I have one summoned Triceratops (Bismuth) that I picked up from a jade figurine. AC is 44 now, with 30 something Strength. Saves are the weak spot of course, but I also got a Cloak off a Lich that causes Fear on sight. Super pimp. It's become our team's mascot and I'm loving it.
2nd playthrough is probably gonna be a Cavalier
Has anyone got far enough to know if it works on Mythic summons?
@@jamesbrice3267 it certainly does.
Also, remember to note with Weapon Focus that feats like Greater Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialisation are Fighter Restricted feats, not just anyone can take them. (Through anyone can take Weapon Focus)
The legit fighter build so fun :)
IMO Outflank is a must have for all melee, including pets. Also Combat Reflexes for any high Dex melee.
yeah really shocked outflank wasnt mentioned. also a good one ot pair with it is "sieze the moment" if you have some Attack of Opporutnities on your melee people have one be a crit fisher (raiper with keen or improved crit feat for example) so all melee with this setup are just getting even more attack chances a round. does require some dex on them but that is what belts are for.
nice, thats actually why I came here.
Kept getting my spells resisted early on once the demons started being more common around Act 2. Ended up respecing to be a Elf for the spell pen and the racial arcane focus on top of the spell pen and greater spell pen for something like +7 more on top of caster level. Really helps in the long run
Can you make a video that explain the teamwork feats and how it works for caster, Melee and ranger ^^
The first one already helped me so much... No wonder Nenio misses a lot I thought it was just bows.
Also, for those spellcasters who make it far enough through the game: their is a mythic feat that lets you copy all the Spell Focus feats you have to another(saves you a few feats if you use two types of spells).
Initiative seems to be important also bc you also get flat-footed on the enemy moves before your character acts. I think a mythic feat copies all spell focus/specialization feats for a school to another school. Maybe more efficient to take that rather than a second school? Not sure.
These are great introductory vids for beginners, I think people will get a lot of value out of them, well done!
Just a wee point: If you're a spellcaster using a crossbow, the way to avoid the -4 penalty for firing into melee is of course to plink away at ancillary targets who aren't in melee (for example archers in the enemy's backline). Usually spellcasters will have decent dexterity (for the extra AC if nothing else), so they can be okay with crossbows in that context, even if they don't have precise shot (e.g. if they're a pure caster or healer who isn't going to be firing any rays or ranged touch attacks into melee).
But it's usually worth squeezing the P-B/Precise Shot combo into offensive spellcaster builds, since rays and ranged touch attacks are probably going to be a regular part of their arsenal, and especially if they take anything that adds sneak attack damage, as in this game (though not in Pathfinder Tabletop, which is a bit stricter) enemy combatants engaged with at least two of your melee guys are susceptible to ranged sneak attacks.
Thanks! And Thanks for the extra info.
One other thing with power attack is it leads into Cornugon Smash which lets you roll a passive intimidation check to shaken an enemy every time you hit them. So it's brutal if you have a character that's a fighter speced with persuasion and has high charisma or a character with the intimidating poweress feat.
I use this with my rogue, combined with shatter defense(they get flat footed). makes it so I can sneak attack targets alone.
Perfect feat for Regill since he start with skills in persuasion.
@@NonlinearNumbers The problem with regill is he also is dex based, so doesn't benefit from intimidating prowess. The fact that regill is a gnome is literally the one thing that keeps him from actually being an optimal character. He is good for this build, but a hand made hellknight character with a different race and strength based stats is better. Lastly to the og comment, don't forget dazzling display and dreadful carnage. Nothing like a free 30 foot aoe intimidate every time you kill an enemy in melee.
Awesome video, Wolf. Love the T-Shirt :) I learn a lot when I watch these. Thanks!!
Thanks Don!
Spell Penetration is also important for a Kineticist that uses Energy type Blasts since those allow for Spell Resistance.
Ok, let me consolidate everything that was not mentioned on the video.
First, with exception of Power Attack, you probably don't want to take any feat that exchange Attack Bonus (AB) by 3 Damage (unless you are playing on easy difficulty). In this particular game, AC (Armor Class) and AB are the most important things to consider. Keep in mind that to hit, your character AB + D20 needs to overcome enemies AC (your character AB should be higher than the target AC).
So, I would frankly avoid Piranha Attack, Deadly Aim, etc. Rapid Shot and Two Weapon Fighting are different story because they would provide extra-attack(s).
Power Attack is an exception tho because : 1. it is a requirement for many other feats. 2. It is requirement for Mythic Power Attack - the big difference is the strength component on Mythic Power Attack. 3. as mentioned on video, it might make some value for 2H (two handed weapons).
Now, that we agree that to reduce the difference between your Character AB and target enemy AC is so important, let us consider some feats:
- Overflank for meele. Even your support characters (like clerics) may have overflank to benefits the Damage Dealers.
- Crane Style, for Tanks : it reduces the AB penalty and increase the AC
- Finally, to overcome AC defense, you might want to make your enemies flat-footed. If the target is flat-footed, dexterity bonus is denied for them. The most important combo in the game to achieve this is Cornugon Smash (here Power Attack is a requirement here) and Shatter Defenses. if you can demoralize the enemies by other means, you don't need Cornugon Smash although it is good to have.
For Range Weapons you might consider:
"Once in a while" you'll come across creatures that have damage reduction. For that reason, Clustered shots is mandatory for range attacks.
Rapid Shot and Manyshot can't be used with a Zen Archer's flurry of blows.
Last, Cleave is bad. There are many many ways to get multi-attacks in these game. And normally you can add multi-attack on top of multiple attack. For example, Haste + Two Weapon fighting + Additional attacks from BAB. You cannot use cleave in any of them. However, cleaving Finish is good feat.
Really good info. Your videos (especially the 4hr live ones) really got me to buy the game. Thanks for doing the work to get these videos out. I can see now that I'd like to respec, I'll just have to figure out how to do that.
The representative of the Pathfinder Society who hangs out at base. The guy who you can use to hire mercenaries. He calls it "retraining."
@@JackOfOneTrade Thanks!
I think cornugon smash, shatter defenses and outflank deserved a mention, making the enemies shacken through cornugon, dreadful carnage or something like dirge of doom and spells is the most efficient way to drastically increase how likely you are to hit and having outflank or even seize the moment on your melee characters (or even archers with greater snap shot) increases the party dps tremendously
I honestly never understood what I was doing, its good to see an explanation
Thanks for watching
best part about feats is now you can search them instead of having to scroll every time.
A feat that I would recommend is Crane style. Tanks like Seelah really benefit from it. Now, it's up to you whether you want to take a monk dip early on or try to unlock it via the Dodge feat later. I don't think being a lvl 20 Paladin is really worth it, so might aswell take her first level as a monk just to unlock Crane style and further up, Crane Wing and Crane Riposte. That way you can just leave the fighting defensively toggled on for your entire run and never think about it. So yeah when making a tank with high AC might want to spend one level in monk (you have to be lawfull though so take that into consideration) so you get even more AC without taking the penalty.
I’ll definitely have to try that one
@@WolfheartFPS Hell I'm currently playing a lich wizard/eldritch knight. My 6th level was one level in monk just to get crane style. Add that to mage armor and bone shield later on, power attack, and you're going to pump that scythe like a champ, whilst being almost untouchable.
I tend to stay away from feats like weapon focus unless it's a ranged character where I know I'm going to be using a longbow. But you find so many interesting and powerful weapons throughout the game of all different types, that typically you can use the most recent or most powerful weapon you have found I'm likely get a better advantage than just a bonus from weapon focus. Plus, it's a lot more fun when every weapon you find can be a potential upgrade for your characters, instead of hoping for a specific weapon.
Every melee character with a decent CHA should at least consider it because it leads to the Dazzling Display feat which gives a spammable AOE fear effect.
@@Malroth00Returns yeap, and consider that Dazzling Display is just a feat tax for Shattering Defense.
I hate weapon focus on a base level for videogames. In the table, the GM will adapt the loot table for you. In videogames, that just means you feel bad for not using the most powerful drops.
THIS. I feel the same way. Having to throw away all the shiny "auto-leveled" weapons JUST to satisfy the cost of ONE feat is painful
It's especially bad in Pathfinder since there are so many types of weapons: light crossbow, heavy crossbow, longsword, bastard sword, light mace, heavy mace, bite, etc. etc. It should be broader weapon classes: melee simple, ranged simple, melee martial, ranged martial, melee exotic, ranged exotic.
Mythic weapon focus is a huge damage increase though...
@@jeremyc4811 this right here
Weapon Focus should be handled in the way that some Fighter weapon types are. Make larger, broader groups. At least that way you can increase your chances of finding something you want to use that will be covered by the feat.
Spell Penetration feats should have higher priority than Spell Focus. First because they work with every magic school and at least 80% of all available spells in the game. Second because many spells have partial saves or at least force a save per turn while inside the AoE. So, for me, priorities would be something like Spell Penetration > Spell Focus > Elemental Focus.
Dude, thank you! Getting into this game has felt a tad overwhelming, this is a helpful starting point
No problem thanks!
Thanks for the great info Wolf!
Thank you Carli
Thank you for this. I never knew I needed this until watched this video.
No problem. Thanks for watching!
Useful info thanks. I played through on auto select for companions and the AI chose most of these feats appropriately.
you're the best content creator for this game - PLEASE keep making WotR videos, the community is starved for great creators like yourself. Cheers
I think the most important feat to highlight is Shatter Defenses. I see a lot of people complaining about high AC of enemies and all they do is attack the normal AC and not flat footed or touch.
Agree with Shatter Defense.. Outflank also helps out my low attack roll heroes connect from time to time. Though not feat specific understanding Touch attacks made my main damage dealer more effective (Legendary 2HF+Sword Saint). 2-turn-killed a skeletal dragon with Touch Weapon buff, forgot the name.
On the power attack and deadly aim there piranha attack which is dex version of power attack. Mainly good for rogue or dex base melee.
Good video. Some toughs from a veteran pnp pathfinder player.
The cleave line of feats is bad in most situations, since using cleave is an standard action which means that you can't multiattack and use cleave at the same time (cleaving finish still works but it's usually not worth it to go there, though you can do some things with spirited charge and cleaving finish)
Regarding selective channel. Only pick it up if you want to channel for damage, since healing in combat is usually a bad idea in pathfinder, it's simple not efficient to use heal in combat, everyone is gonna deal way more damage than you can heal.
About power attack and deadly aim. They are similar, but very different at the same time. If you are a two handed character, you grab power attack at lvl 1, and you are set. Two handed str charactares with power attack are great since they come online literally at level one, and they don't need anything more to function. Deadly aim is different, you don't want to take deadly aim until you have precise shot, many shot and rapid shot. Since the extra damage is lower, and usually ranged characters suffer way more to hit enemies
And lastly i would say that unless you are a fighter, or you need it as a prequisite, weapon focus is a trap option most of the time. In the same line, armor focus or dodge are also trap option. They aren't useless, but most of the time you have better things to invest your feats in than those options
Weapon focus is a trap? You must not like shatter defenses (which needs dazzling display which needs weapon focus) then. I'm a fan of it. Even the dogs have it. ^^
@@OneViolentGentleman I think shatter defenses is fine. You just have to jump trough too many hops to get there. You can make good builds with shatter defenses, but i wouldn't say that it's a must pick, that's why most of the time weapon focus is a trap option. Sure if you are making a build that specifically focus on that, it's a good idea.
Reach fighters need all the cleave feats. Reach rogues lack the feats and will have to cut somewhere and combat reflexes is usually more useful to them.
Just discovered your videos last night, super informative and very appreciated. Subscribed!!!
You could also make a video about the teamwork feats. They can be pretty powerful, if utilized right. Enjoying these vids, keep it up!
I would like to point out that weapon focus is also the prerequisite for Dazzling Display which can be quite powerful on a Thug which can either give enemies the shaken or frightened condition which greatly reduces their combat effectiveness.What follows from that and power attack is cornugon smash which will trigger your dazzling display as a free action whenever you kill an enemy. Dazzling display also unlock a feat called shatter defenses which makes all frightened enemies flat footed, which negates the enemies bonuses from dexterity to their AC. With the proper flanking mod (for Kingmaker) this was quite important for sneak attackers.
By the way, frightened and shaken enemies take -2 to attack, saving throw and skill rolls. While frightened also makes them run around in a panic.
These are definitely the basics, I enjoyed the content. Thanks.
People may have noticed the "feat-tax-chains" you can pick to compliment your character builds.
This video really needs an update. Armour Focus and Shield Focus got overhauled with new mythic variant feats.
Precise shot being suggested for characters like Daeran and Nenio is just terrible. Daeran is a much better controller healer with enchantment spells which just hit and Nenio is an illusionist by default. Can you do other stuff with them which might require it? Sure, but by default it's a pretty terrible pick.
Didn't mention Pirana Strike with Power Attack and Deadly Aim.
Cleave is really only good for getting to Cleaving Finish, you'll never use it once you hit 6BaB and can full attack.
Selective Channel is a terrible feat, channeling is best done out of combat. Daeran and Sosiel are stuck with it because it's in their base kit but Seelah is already starved for feats since Paladins don't get any bonus feats.
Should have discussed Metamagic as a whole for casters. Different metamagic are better for different kinds of casters, like heighten spell for DC casters or Bolster Spell for blasters and so on.
Didn't mention Weapon Finesse, pretty much required for a melee dex fighter.
Improved Critical is another great feat for any weapon fighters or ray specialist mages.
Lunge didn't exist when this was made, another great feat for melee fighters to increase how many enemies they can hit so less of their full attack goes to waste if they kill something, increasing what they can hit with Cleaving Finish or keeping a lower AC melee fighter behind the tanks.
Outflank, staple melee feat. Better than weapon focus, which Weapon Focus is just a pretty mid pick if you can't get access to Greater Weapon Focus and really stack those bonuses with Mythic Weapon Focus as well.
Slashing Grace and Fencing Grace, great way to get dex to damage when the weapon qualifies for dex fighters without being a rogue and without having to spend a far more precious mythic feat on Mythic Weapon Finesse (though some builds can afford to take Mythic Weapon Finesse, but not many).
Shake it Off is a great pick if you know you'll have enough people to take advantage of it since it just adds to all your saves.
Iron Will or Great Fortitude are great filler picks later if you finish your build early just because there's so many terrible will and fortitude saves in the game. Having +2 to a relevant save is much better than say an eventual 20hp from Toughness. Great picks if you can't afford to take Shake It Off either
Coming from DnD 3.5 being a game master and player. I would agree with your selection. Spell penetration is significant, as most of the enemies you will fight will have it.
Less obvious and more specialist (so every PARTY should look at these for one or more members dependant on role):
Ability Focus (e.g. witches hex save dcs).
Improved Critical (a MUST HAVE for combatants) & Vital Strike (chain) for those who like to charge!!!
For skill monkeys: Skill Focus (Key skills - Athletics, Mobility, Persuasion, Perception & Disable Device), Alertness (Your perception score can NEVER be too good), Deft Hands & Close Call (how many times have you missed out on treasure because you failed to pick the lock) & Persuasive/Deceitful (opens up many dialogue options as well as intimidate based combat assistance).
Iron Will/Great Fortitude and improved versions - to cover that weak but important saving throw.
These types of videos are very useful for us new crpg players. Thank-you!
Dodge and Crane style (put 3 ranks in mobilty and use defensive fight) for tanks for better AC and the Improved critical for the dps classes. Also the +2 saves feats like Iron Will, Greater Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes.and the improved version of those for a total of +4 in the save.they are very important feats.
This has been so helpful. Thank you
PBS and Precise are absolutely a must. Great callout.
Weapon Focus is absolutely great for fighters (and melee/ranged who are heading for shatter defenses) but isn't too big for others. Still, it can be a solid choice.
Armor and Shield Focus is a trap. Tanks usually don't use armor (they use mage armor) and typically don't use shields either (they use crane style and shield spell). Its fine for lower difficulties but around normal you're going to want to start working with Dex based tanks.
Improved Initiative is... not good. Your stated reason for taking it is to act earlier in the round. If you really want to do this then I suggest mass cats grace (+2 to initiative) and it doesn't cost a feat. Alternatively just get the drop on the enemies (doesn't always work for scripted fights, I'll grant, but for most encounters use a scout and charge in or lob a fireball) if you are the initiator in combat you'll get a free round where the enemy is flat footed and cannot act.
Spell Pen and Greater Spell Pen are mandatory for any blaster or debuffer archetypes. Grab mythic spell pen too on casters.
Spell Focus is... it depends on the school. For Wotr I wouldn't recommend it for Transmutation, Conjuration, Abjuration, Divination, or Enchantment. It has some use in Evocation, Necromancy, Illusion.
Power Attack (don't forget Piranha Strike for Dex and Combat Expertise for Int) and Deadly Aim are good, but watch your AB maluses as AC can get very high later on. Power Attack into Cornugon Smash is good for high-persuasion characters applying shaken to enemies on hit. Synergizes very well with shatter defenses.
Cleave is... it falls off VERY quickly. It has some very strong niche use cases (scythe in act 2 which does weapon damage to nearby enemies and procs off cleave on all targets) but when you get into iterative attacks cleave is kinda worthless.
Rapid Shot is excellent for ranged. Careful not to pick it up on Lann, but its great for everyone else. (ranged non-casters)
Selective Channel is... eh... good for lower levels maybe but once you get to the heal line of spells (or harm) it falls off in-combat. Channeling is great for out of combat AoE heals but... just use all your potions.
Two Weapon Fighting is FANTASTIC, on high BAB classes. beware it has a very high feat cost and 19 Dex cost for GTWF. But extra attacks are always lovely. Power Attack and TwoHanded tends to do better damage/hit (bypasses resistances better) but TWF will get you more attacks/round so scales up better with on-hit weapons. Interesting note: you can meld TWF with Throwing Axes, then pick up the ranged line for some spectacular damage. Downside is the reduced range. There are some great throwing axes in-game though.
For weapon focus. If you're a spell caster that uses touch attacks often you can actually pick weapon focus ray or touch.
In this instance I'd pick touch because you're picking an attack that all ray spells use plus touch spells, so basically a 2 for 1 feat.
Love the Warlord Fighter Archetype (part of Prestige Plus mod) cause Fighters already get a tonne of feats, instead of taking your bonus feats every other level, you can instead get a permanent dodge bonus to AC. Dodge bonuses are great in that you can endlessly stack them in Pathfinder and they also apply when polymorphed. Also normally a weakness of this archetype is the dodge bonuses only apply when not wearing armor, but polymorphing gives you natural armor. So even if you polymorph into a form with normally poor defenses you can shore those up. Can make tanky polymorph forms pretty well untouchable with the dodge bonuses.
Would love a similar video on spells, seems like there's some consensus on good early spells (grease, magic missle etc.) but nothing on mid/late game.
I'd say go for CC (grease, web etc. I shut down the entire "Inn under attack" scene with one Web and one Grease spell, and four archers.) as they are just horrifyingly OP in this game. After that, go for summons if you don't have enough tanks, or buffs if you do. I'd stay away from damage spells until you're in the mid to high teens. First off, they just don't do enough damage to make casting them worth it, and second, pretty much everything in this game has freaking spell resistance, which makes casting direct-target spells on enemies just an extremely risky proposition. Better to put a grease under their feet and watch them just lie face down for six straight rounds while your Zen Archer fires 90 points of damage into them every round.
@@nickllama5296 that's great but what ARE the spells you'd go after in the mid & late levels?
@@bahamut458 Mid to late game are way more flexible with builds. Feats, mythic options and magic items let you pick pretty much anything and it'll do you good. Just about the only trap in the game is picking spells that only target the same save and weakness. If your caster has 6 ways of fighting but they all allow for a Reflex save or they're all Mind affecting spells, you're gonna be pissed when you run up against enemies with Evasion or Immunity to Mind Affecting spells.
Generally, when you get a new level of spell available, pick one to be your main build, and then everything else is either a backup plan, support, or utility.(All of the spells that cure permanent ailments will pay off when you're halfway through a dungeon and you get hit with blindness/petrification/curses/etc.)
Another helpful video... thanks for the insights wolf
Quick Hint about Rapid/Manyshot:
If you‘re building a Zen Archer (or Lann), their class feature flurry of blows doesn‘t work with those feats. So you can leave them out (for a full zen archer)
For every other kind of full blown archer build, take them
Super informative! Thanks, Wolf!
Thanks for watching rep!
Teamwork feats help but with custom 1.7 enemy damage, my team still plays like fart.
Those one hit enemy kill weak team members sucks.
For those who build Dexterity and Weapon Finesse then its a good idea to pick up Piranha Strike as it is the Dexterity version of Power Attack for melee
Regarding spell penetration, in my opinion its much better to pick spells and abilities that are not affected by spell resistance at all, rather than trying to overcome it. Why? Because later its common to face enemies with 30 or even more spell resist and even with spell pen feats you'll have to make a lot of lucky rolls for your spells to go through. You can waste a ton of spells because of bad rolls but with spells that don't require roll, you'll kill the enemy anyway. A few examples - close to heaven from first mythic perk you can choose, 4d6+2d6 per mythic rank, snowball, acid arrow, some inflict wound spells (not every tier) and also harm, blade of the sun from angel list, edit of retaliation from aeon spellbook and probably a lot of more spells that I didn't discovered yet. Some of them require picking a right perks or class but snowball, acid arrow and many inflit damage spells are common and can help you take down spell resistant opponent. Its worth to remember that witch hexes and evil eye are also not affected by spell resistance so you can easily help your melee guys with Ember Evil Eye for -4ac for example. This way you can invest your precious feats in something else, like spell focus. I hope someone find it as useful as me :>
One big problem with Cleave is that it requires a Standard Action. So it's great early on, but once you start getting iterative attacks (at BAB +6) which require making Full-Round Attacks, you don't use Cleave nearly as often.
Cleave is only good as a prereq for feats like cleaving finish and great cleave, especially combined with dreadful carnage. Cleave by itself isn't great but its part of an important feat tree for melee builds
@@havokmusicinc Disagree. All cleave feats ultimately rely on being in melee with multiple enemies at one time, something that is rare outside of trash fights where it really doesn't matter anyway. Dreadful carnage is extremely powerful regardless of having cleave or not.
@@DKarkarov man, I have entire build around that. I got two handed fighter level 3 and rest goes to vivisectionist, and I get fauchard for reach weapon. So under legendary proportions, you have reach of approximately one football field. And with mutagen and power attack you hit power nearing airstrike. You will ofc need combat reflexes and Seize the Moment and outflank and opportunist. So if anything moves, or shoots, or casts, or get hit in melee, or even blick it will get attack of opportunity with full attack and damage bonuses and most likely explode. Then everyone else will have improved cleaving finish with full attack and damage bonuses and also explode. Then some lucky fellows who had not explode get attack 2...
More videos like this for us new players. This is such a complicated game.
For melee characters who won't get levels in monk, get the Martial Disciple background to get a free Improved Unnarmed Strike then get all the Crane line of feats (Crane Style, Crane Wing, Crane Riposte). You'll need Dodge to get Crane Style, so at least 13 DEX is a must.
Now use the Fighting Defensively ability and watch your AC get a nice bonus with virtually no penalty to AB.
I love by the time you get mythic and better spells, you start to whip them, at level 5/6
You should talk more about getting an animal companion and skills for that beast:
Smilodon (Sabre Tooth) Animal Companion, Aggressor (Free Power Attack), Outflank (+1d6 if ally has it too), on a full round one Bite and 4 Claw attacks = 5 Attacks per Round, all of them get 1d6+2 Bonus damage.
I think you mean precise strike (+1d6) instead of outflank (+2ab)
It's important to keep in mind that Rapid Shot and Manyshot don't work with Zen Archery, so you'll want to pass on these for Lann even if they're recommended. Clustered Shots is an enormous damage increase as soon as you can get it. The various Snap Shot feats look better on paper than in practice since enemies tend to avoid provoking opportunity attacks, and your archer probably won't be in an ideal position to make the most of it.
Don't sleep on Mounted Combat - it opens a lot of really useful feats that reward you for getting on a horse, which you should try to do ASAP anyway.
Toughness is rarely a high priority, but it's wonderful filler if you aren't sure what else to pick.
@Galby I don't understand the link between the various snap shot and ennemy not provoking opportunity attacks ... Did i miss something ?
@@daemonsoul Snap Shot allows you to threaten an area around you while wielding a ranged weapon - usually that's not the case - so you can make attacks of opportunity while wielding a bow. The dream is that you sit down your archer in the middle of the field and opponents running around will trigger all these opportunity attacks, but in practice that just doesn't happen. Enemies tend to be pretty sticky. Instead of running around, they focus on the original target they picked and keep attacking until one of you drops. Also, the original Pathfinder rules grant opportunity attacks differently than the CRPG. In WotR, opportunity attacks happen when an enemy leaves your threatened area, but if you threaten a larger area, which is what the Snapshot improvements give you, you're ironically less likely to get opportunity attacks. Besides all of that, your archers probably just won't be that close to the action anyway. Add all of that up and those feats just don't quite deliver as advertised.
There some neat things you can do with improved bull rush and getting free attacks on opponents standing up from prone, but there are probably more important feats to grab first.
You might want to "sleep" on mounted combat, actually. Or at least take a nap. A number of mounted feats, including mounted combat itself, just don't work.
@@zelosjr Are you talking about the ride check to negate the damage when you're on the mount ?
Lan's auto build won't pick them, in all honesty, the auto build for most companions in this game is actually very good. There is no need to manually level Arueshalae for instance, unless you don't want her to be an archer, the auto system will turn her into a ranged dps god without your help. Late game if you want attack of opportunity you are forcing it through teamwork feats, or feats/spells that force a behavior. Hellknight with the skill that auto upgrades shaken to frightened, power attack, cornugeon smash, and intimidating prowess for example will get you ALOT of attacks of opportunity.
Great video!
Some other feats that are great are teamwork feats like outflank. If your engaging the same enemy in melee as another companion with that feat you can make AOO when they crit. Couple that with precise strike which adds a precision die if your flanking the same enemy. And then combat reflexes which add a number of AOO equal to your dex modifier. All you need then is a character then who can crit regularly and everyone with those feat will take a swing. Makes melee dex focused companions like cam, woljif and regill obliterate enemies together.
There's also a chainmail that's perfect for Camellia that adds +4 to Outflank when Outflanking.
Worth noting that Outflank doesn't trigger off of a sneak attack, but only off of a confirmed crit. So what you really want to aim for is high crit-range weapons like scimitars and rapiers. Add keen to that (like with a magus pool point) or get the Improved Critical feat, and you'll be rolling crit threats 30% of the time.
@@JackOfOneTrade Oh, wait you're right. I must've misrembered from Kingmaker. Edited it my original comment.
so many feats to choose so this helps
Pretty limited compared to the tabletop :P
Great point re spell resistance, the problem with weapon focus is constantly finding great new different weapons!
Very true!
5:25 Greater weapon focus, Weapon specialization and Greater weapon specialization are restricted to the fighter class. so don't expect to have anything else other than Weapon focus if you are a paladin for example.
12:50 The order of Feats to get Improved Cleaving finish is: Cleave > Cleaving Finish and Great Cleave > Improved Cleaving Finish. (Great Cleave wasn't mentioned). It's a huge investment (4 feats) for classes that don't have extra feats (like Paladin).
Also, as soon as you have multiattack the cleave line of feats become pretty bad since you can't cleave and multiattack at the same time. Usually the cleave line is considered quite bad because of this.
@@scire105 I agree, Cleave is a gateway for better perks, rarely used on its own. And it's mostly good when using reach weapons as you'll rarely be surrounded (or at least you don't want to) on your Melee DPS. Additionally, The more I play pathfinder the more I tend to entirely skip the Cleave line of feats or just get Cleave and Cleave Finish as the game doesn't seem to offer too much opportunities to use Improved Cleave finish. I find Archer are better to dispatch numerous weaker enemies.
@@Deadknight67 The main use of cleave is to get cleaving finish and use it mounted with spirited charge so you can make a 2x1 with the double damage charge. I haven't tried it yet, but that's it main use on pnp. It usually done with ranger to skip prequisites, though since we don't have mounted combat specialization on the ranger, i'm not sure if there is a reasonable alternative
@@scire105 Dude, I know. You're just repeating what we've been saying: "Cleave is a gateway to better perks".
As for the Cavalier, in Wrath, I don't even need cleaving finish because you'll almost never be in range for more than 2 enemies with how finicky the charge is. So you can just kill everything with your regular attacks (I have a skald giving pounce to my cavalier so I have 5 attacks when I charge still).
Would like to see some sort of discussion over which feats a mount should be taking.
Feats that everyone should have bar, possibly a fighter depending on the build
Improved initiative and mythic leadership feat
The cleave AC penalty may be mitigated with a reach weapon and a meat shield sent in before you.
On selective channel, what if you're doing the channel negative to heal an undead companion? Or does it merely skip rolling an attack against allies?
Great info Wolf!
thanks Shadow
One other thing about improved initiative is that if you have your turn before your opponent they will be flat footed and thus easier to hit. On top of that flat footed opponents take sneak attack damage from rogues and slayers.
Thanks for all the info dude great video!!!
No problem thanks for watching the channel.
Really excellent guide for new players Wolf !
Thanks Baraz.
Thanks for the video!
looking at the names of the sections it doesn't look like they're mentioned but there are two feats one for piercing weapons and one for slashing weapons that you unlock after picking up finesse weapons that let you add your dex mod instead of strength to your damage rolls
I was looking for just such a thing, but I cannot find one, which feats are you speaking of?
@@terryobrien1998 at work so can't check for sure but I believe the names are finesse slashing and finesse piercing so the feats as mentioned below are fencing and slashing grace and they also require at least one weapon focus as well to pick them up
@@terryobrien1998 Fencing Grace and Slashing Grace.
You really should have mentioned Teamwork feats. Outflank, Shieldwall and precise strike are great! The game even has a tip about them.
Shield wall isnt good because archmage armor is broken powerful and means shields arent good. Outflank is great though.
@@MrThedumbbunny Oh? I wasn't aware of what archmage armor does? Why would it affect a shield wearing tank class?
@@bevanlangford5012 its a mythic ability that gives an extra 10 armor bonus to mage armor cast on yourself. To demonstrate ill do some math for a tower shield specialist fighter with investment into defensive feats vs a 1witch2instictive fighter sword saint dual wield kukri build
For the math mythral full plate and tower sheild with 6 feats invested gives
10+11 shield+15 armor+2 sheld wall+1 dodge+5 deflection+5 natural+7 dex for 546 ac. Combat expertise gives 6 and defensive fighting another 3 and haste for 1 for 66 ac.
For combat expertise 3 levels, some buff spells that last nearly all day or you were going to cast anyway, 1 feat and 2 mythic abilities:
10+10 dex+5 wisdom+5int+14 mage armor+3 witch+1haste+6combat expertise+4 shield+5natural+5protection+3 defensive for 67. The difference is the sword saint also is nearly 100% damage focused (by turning off combat expertise and defensive fighting) and provides buffs to himself and the party. So a heavy armor build has to give up a ton of dps and utility to match a dps focused archmage armor build.
Last edit: touch is also a thing and most of the SS builds ac works for touch ac 2 levels of instictive needed for wisdom to ac also gives uncanny dodge so flat footed isnt a problem.
@@MrThedumbbunny Thanks for the detailed breakdown. This does look however very much like end game, and a lot of min/max . I personally would be interested in a few build guides (Like the sword saint build you mentioned), but this video is for beginners, and I very much doubt that someone of that level would know why, for example, you took a level of witch (I assume for the Iceplant hex?). I do get your point about Shield wall though.
@@bevanlangford5012 i took that sword saint build solo on hard from 1-10 with the only problem being ghouls with sneak attack. Lvl 1 SS lvl 2-3 instinctive lvl 4 witch rest SS. Ac 38 for the water elemental at 3 for example.
Improved Initiative does a lot esp for fast-pace class like: Zen Archer and Sohei - and its kind of deadlier with Zen Archer, taking the first initiative while almost hitting the rest of the mobs before the other characters could even do a thing or two. (I'm looking at you Lann, you green, greedy bastard)
Yea I gotta grab is ASAP!
Lann, Arush, and my Inquisitor archer are OP....then again, I'm playing on "STORY" difficulty for my first playthrough.
Def ramping up difficulty after I've taken this tour through the narrative
@@rudeboyjohn3483 so story mode in this game basically only asks you to equip gear that makes sense. IE: don't give lan a short sword and no bow or regil a amulet designed for monks. As long as you do that you can literally just go real time with pause and just let your party auto ai do whatever it wants and you will win, with absolutely no difficulty. One of the biggest problems with this game is story and casual are both so easy you could beat the whole game with nothing but auto attacks. Normal and higher? They are any other CRPG's version of hard to "why does the game hate me so much?". If you want an actual medium setting you have to tweak it yourself.
About Cleave, It seems great when you have only a simple action available (as move in range and attack), but isn't it better to have full attack when you are close to an ennemy?
Yeah its like vital strike. Its staggeringly bad once you start being able to attack 3-10 times around as long as you dont move, once you kill a target you can keep making your full attack anyway on whatever is nearby. My bloodrager makes something like 11 attacks a round, no way a single hit on 2 targets is ever going to be better than that, it becomes a waste of a feat.
One way to look at Cleave and Vital Strike is that they help with turn economy if you can't commit to a full action such as approaching an enemy. This likely matters a little more in turn based mode though, I don't have much experience in real time mode.
thx for your good Videos for me as a Pathfinder Noob this really helps^^
Thanks for watching
I was wondering if you overlooked Dodge. It is better than armor focus because it jzdt gives a flat out +1AC without any requirements like having a specific armor. Moreover, Dodge is a prerequisite for other powerful feats like Crane Style.
Or am I missing some reason why Dodge is trash?
I used the auto level up for companions as the game suggested but I felt like it was doing crap. I'm gonna respec them with you advices, thanks
This is a great guide. Ty
Thanks for watching
Thanks for the video.
WolfPack best Pack!
skal!
Quick question, do you think starting as an alchemist grenadier and going legend mythic path, which increases your level cap to 40, and choosing arcane bomber as your multiclass with grenadier?
Such as level 1-20 as alchemist grenadier and then once you do Legend mythic path, you go level 20-40 as arcane bomber.
Would this increase the number of bombs per class by stacking as well as damage? Just wonder if it's viable. Such as both having the similar "precise bomb" feat as well so that no allies are hurt by your bombs also.
These hit penalty feats can always be toggled on/off based on the situation.
Armor focus is actually beneficial now
Great video! I'm having a question about spell penetration feats. Are those helpful for prestige class Winter Witch? I'm new to pathfinder and don't quite understand if those feats overlap with Winter Witch passives.
When you went over spell focus you should have mentioned conjuration leads to the summoning feats.
Is it me or if you have weapon finess and use double slice the dexterity bonus applied instead of strenght bonus to dmg roll?
ah vid for all the feat fetishists
Can we talk about Claws? ^^
I am a little helpless with my Hagbound Witch and do not really know what to make of it.
She has Claws, but if I am not wrong, she also gets Sharp Nails, should I use her with bare Hands or with one Weapon, or a Shiels and no Weapon?
Do Hand (Claw/Nails) Attacks trigger when she has a Weapon in that Hand? Why would I use Claws over Weapons? Is there a benefit to Spells if a Character (any Class) has no Weapon equipped?
Is she a DD, a Tank, a Caster...? What Feats and Armor would fit...?
Claws are, without magic items and spells, literally worse weapons than anything you can use. If you leave a hand empty, you'll get a bonus attack with the claw as long as you don't move in the same turn. It's okay damage as long as you've got good Str, but as you're likely a caster that has a low Str, you'll likely never hit with Claws and if you do, the damage will always be very low.
This can be mitigated later on with potions, spells and magic items, but if you're wanting to get through the early game, just use weapons.
Weapon focus is kinda hit or miss as long as you don't know what kinds of weapons you get in a blind playthrough, so basically only good if you plan on going for other stuff down the line that requires it.
Armor focus is pretty much obsolete as long as archmage armor and unarmored combat options are as good as they're right now.
Power attack/piranha strike/deadly aim are basically in the same situation as weapon focus, as in there's no point in picking them if you're not just using them to get to the better feats later down that specific feat line. In a game where you have 50+ AC from Act 4 onwards the to hit and just doing damage on the regular is way more important than a measly bit more of static damage.
Cleave only shines when your BAB is below 15 (less than 3 attack per full round action), only a good pick up if you intend to go cleaving finish, etc. .
There's tons of stuff that sound impressive on a quick read but fall short in reality.
weapon focus is 100% safe in this game. Early on you can get a talking weapon capable of transforming into any weapon in the game that grows in power as you progress, and even without it I have been able to find good weapons of basically every type consistently through the whole game. Even if some of them did require buying off a vendor. Yes even darts and nunchucks.
@@DKarkarov Sure, but you still only get Finnean on one of 6 characters and yes, there are multiple magic weapons of basically any kind in this game but that doesn't mean that they're all "good".
So you can still trap yourself with weapon focus if you've got no clue about the game.
@@meinzrockxx7119 You really can't. If anything the weapons in this game are hilariously too good. I have played the game to the end, I have found bad ass great weapons in every single weapon type. Not "man that enchantment sucks but I guess it is +5" weapons.
Appreciate the rundown! As somebody who is new to Pathfinder, feat selection was the thing that overwhelmed me the most during character creation.
I also didn’t understand, why the ranged attack feats were recommended for spellcasters, but I know why.
It seems really easy to screw up your build, if you don’t pick the right feats from the start, so thank you for providing an easily understandable base to build off of!