- Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder 2e
- Double Slice Pathfinder
- Weapons Pathfinder
- Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder 3
- Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder Wiki
- Pathfinder Two Weapon Fighting Build
- Pathfinder Two Weapon Fighting Feats
So adding 3-4 points of damage, max, to off-hand attacks only, would make two-weapon fighting in general broken? I thought the general consensus was that TWF was only useful for classes like rogues and scouts that get a signifigant amount of bonus damage per hit, to make up for the signifigantly lower chance to hit and signifigantly lower base. Whenever you use the attack action to attack while wielding two weapons, you can expend your martial focus as a swift action to deal additional damage with all attacks you make equal to the weapon damage die of your offhand weapon (if you possess multiple offhand weapons, you must select 1 to use with this talent) until the end of your turn. Whenever you use the attack action to attack while wielding two weapons, you can expend your martial focus as a swift action to deal additional damage with all attacks you make equal to the weapon damage die of your offhand weapon (if you possess multiple offhand weapons, you must select 1 to use with this talent) until the end of your turn. Two-Weapon Fighting: Add your Str bonus to off-hand damage rolls: G, C: CRB: Two-Weapon Rend. Double Slice, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, base attack bonus +11: Rend a foe hit by both your weapons: G, C: CRB Improved Two-Weapon Fighting. Dex 17, Two-Weapon Fighting, base attack bonus +6: Gain additional off-hand attack: G, C: CRB: Improved Two. If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. When fighting in this way you suffer a –6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a –10 penalty to the attack with your off hand. If your off-hand weapon is light, the penalties are reduced by 2 each.
Table of Contents |
Dual Attack
Whenever you make an attack action with a light or one-handed weapon, you can make an additional attack with a light or one-handed weapon held in your off-hand, though both attacks take a -2 penalty on their attack rolls when doing so; only your initial main hand attack qualifies as an attack action, and the additional attack cannot be made with the same weapon as your initial main hand attack. Your off-hand attack only applies 1/2 your Strength modifier, and if your off-hand attack is made with anything other than a light weapon, both attacks take an additional -2 penalty. Associated Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting
Asynchronous Swing
As long as you have martial focus, whenever you wield two different types of weapons, both deal the same weapon damage die (chosen by you). You may also combine the damage types (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing only) of each weapon, causing each weapon to deal both weapons’ damage types.
Balanced Blows
Reduce the penalties for attacking with your dual attack ability by 1/2 (minimum -1).
Combo Maneuvers
You may activate your dual attack ability off of a bull rush, dirty trick, drag, reposition, or steal combat maneuver made as a standard action. You suffer your dual attack penalty to your CMB for this maneuver as well as to the off-hand attack, and may make the off-hand attack before or after you perform the maneuver.
Concentrated Breakdown [3PP]
Whenever you deal damage to a creature with two or more weapons in a single round, you can select either that creature’s natural armor bonus or damage reduction; reduce it by 2 (to a minimum of 0) for 1 minute or until that creature recovers hit points from any source. If you would be able to apply the effects of this talent to the same creature 2 or more times before its duration is over, you can either choose to reduce whichever target (natural armor or damage reduction) that you did not select before or increase the reduction by 1 as well as reset the duration. At +10 base attack bonus, whenever you apply the effects of this talent to a creature, if you select the same target (natural armor or damage reduction), the penalty is increased by 2 instead of 1.
Critical Follow Up
Whenever you successfully use the attack action to strike a creature with your main-hand weapon, the critical threat range of your off-hand weapon increases by 1 (this stacks with other effects which would increase your critical threat range, but is applied last) until the beginning of your next turn. When your base attack bonus is +10 or higher, your off-hand weapon’s critical threat range instead increases by 2.
Crushing Combo
Whenever you use the attack action to attack while wielding two weapons, you can expend your martial focus as a swift action to deal additional damage with all attacks you make equal to the weapon damage die of your offhand weapon (if you possess multiple offhand weapons, you must select 1 to use with this talent) until the end of your turn. This bonus damage is not increased by the Vital Strike feat or critical hits.
Cunning Combo
Whenever you use your dual attack ability, you may forgo making an off-hand attack to instead use that weapon to make a feint check. You may make this feint check before or after your main hand attack. Your main hand attack and feint check both suffer the penalty from using dual attack.
Dancing Display
Whenever you successfully make an attack with a weapon wielded in one hand in the same round you make an attack action (including the attack action itself), you can move 5 ft. as a free action; this movement doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity from the creature attacked. You cannot move in this way if you haven’t made an attack action yet that round. You can also use an attack roll in place of a Perform (dance) check in order to make money. At +10 base attack bonus, you can instead move 10 ft., and you may roll twice for the attack roll used in place of a Perform (dance) check, taking the better result.
Defensive Whirl
Whenever you use an attack action and successfully strike a single creature with both your main-hand and off-hand weapons, that creature takes a -1 penalty to all attack rolls against you for 1 round. For every 5 points of base attack bonus you possess, this penalty increases by an additional -1.
Drumroll
Whenever you use an attack action and successfully strike a single creature with both your main-hand and off-hand weapons before the start of your next turn, that creature gains the battered condition and takes a -2 penalty on all attacks of opportunity they make until the end of your next turn. At +10 base attack bonus, this talent’s effects last for an additional round and the penalty on attacks of opportunity increases to -3.
Dizzying Combination
Whenever you use an attack action and successfully strike a single creature with both your main-hand and off-hand weapons before the start of your next turn, that creature must make a successful Reflex save or take a -2 penalty on Reflex saves and have all movement speeds they possessed reduced by 10 ft. (minimum 0 ft.) for 1 minute. At +10 base attack bonus, this penalty is doubled. Any action that would remove the battered condition also ends this penalty.
Dual Opportunity
Once per round when you make an attack of opportunity, you can make an additional attack with your off-hand weapon.
Focusing Defense
You may spend a move action to regain your martial focus and gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your AC and CMD for 1 round. At +10 base attack bonus, this bonus increases to +2.
Following Strike
Whenever you use an attack action and successfully strike a single creature with both your main-hand and off-hand weapons before the start of your next turn, you can make an additional attack with your off-hand weapon against a different creature as a free action.
Gemini Dancer (stance) [3PP]
At the start of your turn, you can spend a swift action to use this talent. When you do, until the beginning of your next turn whenever you use the dual strike ability, if your attacks with your main hand or off hand weapon miss due to not hitting the creature’s armor class, as long as your attack was within 5 points of the creature’s armor class (if the creature’s AC was 25, this talent would trigger if your attack roll was 24 to 20), you still deal damage as though you had rolled the minimum result for the attack (if you miss with your off-hand attack which would normally deal 1d6+2 damage, you would still deal 3 damage); this talent is treated as dealing damage for abilities which rely on doing so, such as sneak attack. At +10 base attack bonus, you instead roll damage normally for this talent, dealing half of the damage it would have dealt. If you expend your martial focus while activating this talent, it instead lasts a number of rounds equal to your practitioner modifier.
High-Low Combination
Whenever you use dual attack and successfully strike a creature with your main-hand weapon, you may forgo your off-hand weapon attack to make a trip attempt against the target of your main-hand attack without provoking an attack of opportunity (if you use a ranged weapon to make this trip attempt, the creature must be within 30 ft.).
Impossible Reload
You can reload without needing a free hand. In addition, you treat ranged weapons you are wielding which can be wielded in one hand as light weapons for the purpose of determining what penalties you take while fighting with two weapons.
Mercurial Flow
You deal your full Strength modifier to damage on attacks made with your off-hand attack instead of half. You may treat off-hand attacks as though they were made with your main hand for the purpose of Power Attack or similar abilities. Associated Feat: Double Slice.
Mixed Assault
Whenever you wield a melee weapon in one hand and a ranged weapon in the other, you don’t provoke attacks of opportunity from firing or reloading while threatened. If you successfully attack two different creatures more than 5 ft. apart from each other in the same round you make an attack using the attack action, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on damage rolls against each creature until the end of your next turn; for every 5 base attack bonus you have, this bonus increases by +2.
Mixed Defense [Apoc]
Whenever you wield a melee weapon in one hand and a ranged weapon in the other, you may forgo your ranged attack when using the dual attack ability. If you do so, until your next turn, you may spend an attack of opportunity to make a ranged attack against an opponent attempting to attack you in melee. If your ranged attack hits, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC against that opponent and a +2 circumstance bonus to attack rolls against that opponent until the end of your next turn. Both the melee weapon attack and the ranged attack suffer the attack penalty from dual attack as normal, and the ranged attack must be made with the same ranged weapon wielded during the dual attack.
Offhand Parry [3PP]
Whenever you are wielding two or more weapons, you can choose to use the dual attack ability (taking the attack penalty for doing so), but only make a single attack. If you do, once per round whenever a creature makes a melee attack against you, you can spend an attack of opportunity to make an attack roll as if you were making an attack of opportunity, but for each size category the attacking creature is larger than you, you take a –2 penalty on this roll. If your result is greater than the attacking creature’s result, the creature’s attack automatically misses. At base attack bonus +10, if you successfully force an attack to miss with this talent, you can make an attack against the creature who’s attack you forced to miss.
Paired Proficiency
Each combat feat, class feature, or combat talent which would apply to your main hand weapon also applies to your off-hand weapon, unless it would be an illegal choice (such as applying a talent to a melee attack that only may be used with ranged attacks or applying a feat that requires a specific type of weapon on a weapon that does not meet these prerequisites).
At +10 base attack bonus, combat feats, class features, or combat talents which would apply to your off-hand weapon also applies to your main hand weapon, unless they would also be an illegal choice. The only exception to this is special attack actions, such as brutal strikes, barrages, and deadly shots, which are not applied to the off-hand weapon.
Author's Note: This talent is designed to make it viable to use different types of weapons when dual wielding, rather than two copies of the same weapon. It does not allow additional actions, allow you to vital strike with both weapons, etc.
Perfect Set-Up
As long as you have martial focus, as part of an attack action you may make a touch attack with your main-hand weapon which deals only the weapon’s damage die. If this attack is successful, the next attack you make with your off-hand weapon gains a +2 bonus to its damage roll and targets the creature’s flat-footed AC (the target is not actually flat-footed for this attack), ignoring cover or concealment as long as that attack is made before the end of your next round. For every 4 points of base attack bonus you possess, this bonus damage increases by +2.
Author's Note: Perfect Set-Up replaces the main-hand attack action with an attack which deals only your weapon's base damage dice. This attack is no longer treated as an attack action and cannot be modified by other effects such as Vital Strike or various attack action modifiers from other spheres (Duelist's blooded strike, Fencing's fatal thrust, etc.).
Repositioning Routine
Whenever you use an attack action and successfully strike a single creature with both your main-hand and off-hand weapons before the start of your next turn, you can attempt a reposition combat maneuver against the target of the attacks as a free action which does not provoke attacks of opportunity (if the creature is not within your natural reach, you may attempt this reposition combat maneuver with a -2 penalty as long as that creature is within the first range increment of a ranged weapon you wield, although doing so requires you to expend a piece of ammunition or throw a weapon to do so).
Snapping Crab (stance) [Youxia HB]
While in this stance, whenever you miss a creature with a melee attack made as part of a dual attack, the first melee attack that creature makes against you until the beginning of your next turn provokes an attack of opportunity from you. You must make the attack of opportunity with a melee weapon you missed the creature with during your dual attack, and the attack suffers the same penalties as it did during the dual attack. You may not use this talent in conjunction with (deflect) talents or any other ability that would grant you an attack or combat maneuver due to a missed attack against you.
Strategic Set-Up
Whenever you use dual attack and successfully damage a creature with your main-hand weapon, if you attempt a combat maneuver check against that same creature in place of your offhand attack, treat yourself as if you were 1 size category larger than you are when calculating your combat maneuver bonus and your ability to affected that target. For every 5 points of base attack bonus you possess, you are treated as an additional size larger.
Synchronous Accuracy
Whenever you miss an attack with your main hand weapon, you may expend your martial focus as an immediate action to make an additional attack with your off-hand weapon. This effect lasts until the start of your next turn, allowing you to make an off-hand attack whenever you miss with an attack made with your main hand weapon.
Tandem Offensive
As long as you have martial focus, if you successfully use the attack action to strike a creature with your main-hand weapon, your off-hand weapon gains any enhancement bonus your mainhand weapon possesses until the beginning of your next turn, replacing any enhancement bonuses your off-hand may possess.
At +10 base attack bonus, your off-hand weapon is also treated as though it were made of the same material as your main-hand weapon for the purposes of penetrating damage reduction.
Two In The Hand [Jester's HB]
Whenever you use dual attack and successfully strike a creature with your main-hand attack, you may increase your reach by +5 feet when making your off-hand attack. At +10 base attack bonus, your reach increases by +10 feet instead.
Cyclone Cut
Prerequisites: Dual Wielding sphere, base attack bonus +5.
While wielding two weapons, as a standard action you expend your martial focus to twirl the two weapons with enough force to create a damaging cyclone of air. Each creature within 10 ft. of you takes damage equal to your weapon damage for both your primary and one of your off-hand attacks. A successful Reflex save reduces this damage by half. For every 5 additional base attack bonus you possess, you may increase the radius by an additional 5 ft.
Three-Sword Style
Prerequisites: Dual Wielding sphere, base attack bonus +6.
You gain the ability to wield a sword in your teeth, treating your mouth as an additional hand that can only be used to wield a one-handed or light weapon. While wielding a weapon in this manner, you suffer a 50% spell failure chance to cast any spell with a verbal component, or increase any existing spell failure chance for spells with verbal components by 50%. In addition, whenever you make a dual attack, you may make an additional off-hand attack with the weapon wielded in your mouth as an immediate action.
Triangle Slash
Prerequisites: Dual Wielding sphere, Three-Sword Style, base attack bonus +16.
When making a dual attack, you may expend your martial focus and forego any extra attacks that you might otherwise be able to make during your turn to treat each attack as an attack action. This means that each of the three attacks may be modified by feats such as Vital Strike, but cannot trigger any additional attacks, such as combat maneuvers added by talents when making an attack action normally.
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Hello all!
I have a decent number of character builds out now, and I found myself frequently referencing different fighting styles, and their relative quality. That being the case, I thought it would be a good idea to explain the advantages and disadvantages of different fighting styles, and which choices are generally stronger than others. I will give each one a rating out of four, four stars being excellent, one star being very poor. So without further ado, let’s get started!
Dual-wield: **
Dual-wielding is fun flavour and it can be exciting to roll fistfulls of dice when you make a full attack, but sadly, it is one of the worse fighting styles in the game. The primary issue with dual-wielding is a fundamental problem with its interaction with its main weakness, damage reduction. Attacks with this fighting style do less damage than those of any other fighting style (usually including archery), due to an additional penalty to the damage of off-hand weapons and reduced power attack damage. That means that you make a larger number of attacks, but at lower damage. This is the exact opposite of what you want because of the prevalence of damage reduction in Pathfinder. When weapons are enchanted to a high enough degree (+3 or better), they start breaking through damage reduction, which is a great thing for dual-wielders. Here’s the issue though: you’re spending twice as much on your weapons since you have two of them. Affording two weapons that can break through even the lowest amounts of enemy damage reduction is shockingly expensive, and since you’re not wielding a shield, you need to spend more of your coin on AC boosting items as well. You could buy weapons composed of special materials, but that still only solves your problem for a single type of DR per weapon.
There are a few cases where two weapon fighting can be somewhat effective, most of which involve temporary buffs that add damage to each strike you land. Paladins and Samurai are the best examples, your damage jumping to a daunting amount when smiting or challenging an opponent. Alchemists who dual wield alchemist bombs with Rapid Shot are some of the most explosive (pun intended) damage-dealers in the game, though they do run out of resources extremely quickly. An Alchemist who takes Master Chymist can do decent amounts of damage as a dual wielder of daggers or other light simple weapons, thanks to their Brutality ability. Inquisitors gain access to the Smiting Judgment, which helps them deal with some of the more annoying types of damage reduction. While ninjas are probably better served using a two-handed weapon, a ninja or rogue who focuses on dexterity may want to take weapon finesse and a pair of agile weapons, grabbing the two weapon feint line of feats to ensure easy sneak attacks. Dual-weapon rangers can do well enough against their favored enemies, but will be outclassed by an archer ranger in most cases.
Dual wielding may be a fun concept, but in practice, it fails to shine against anything but lightly armored enemies without any kind of damage reduction. If you felt like trying to “fix” two weapon fighting, consider allowing Clustered Shots to work with this fighting style as a houserule. “Clustered Strikes” would go a long way towards fixing this issue.
Advantages:
- Lots of attacks per round
- Quite effective against lightly armored enemies who lack DR
- Benefits greatly from extra damage per hit
Disadvantages:
- Low damage per hit
- Very high number of feats required
- Crippling weakness to DR
- Less effective Power Attack
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist*
- Inquisitor
- Ninja / Rogue
- Paladin
- Samurai
One-hander (Einhander):* (Magus / Duelist ***)
One might say that there’s no reason to leave an off-hand open when you could be using it to good effect with a shield, second melee weapon, or for extra damage with a two-hander. Generally that’s true, but there are a few exceptions to that. A magus must have an open off-hand for example, and a few rogues or ninjas may decide that their attack bonus suffers too much when they dual-wield. In both of these cases, scimitars and the Dervish Dance feat can give your character the unique ability to use your Dexterity for both attack and damage, something which the sneaks and the magi can both benefit greatly from having in spades.
One other possible viable einhander is the Aldori dueling sword, which combined with the Aldori Dueling Mastery feat can give you some modest bonuses to Armor Class and Initiative.
The last, and I mean very last reason to use a single one-handed weapon is if you’re playing a duelist. Duelists in particular benefit greatly from the Aldori Dueling Mastery feat.
Keep in mind that I am in no way recommending that people choose this fighting style when they have other, better options. It is far and away the weakest fighting style available for all but niche characters.
Advantages:
- With scimitars, can use Dexterity for attack and damage
- Aldori Dueling Sword feats
Disadvantages:
- Your off-hand is relatively useless
- Strictly worse than other fighting styles except in niche cases
Recommended Classes:
Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder 2e
- Magus
- Duelist
Ranged, Composite Longbow / Shortbow: ****
Ranged combat with a composite bow is one of the strongest fighting styles in the game. It is by far the best supported fighting style with respect to feats, and gives you the added advantage of being able to pick enemies off from a huge distance away. To give you an idea of the number of feats that are strong for archers, you have Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Manyshot, Improved Snap Shot and Clustered Shots, not to mention all of the other standard weapon-specific feats and fighter only feats. While this can make it hard to keep up with the required feats on some classes, feats like Rapid Shot and Manyshot are so strong that it’s really hard to do much complaining.
The trickiest thing about playing an archer is balancing all of your important ability scores. You need strength for your damage and dexterity for your attack bonus, not to mention all of the other ability scores that your class might require (paladin archers are particularly bad for this).
Double Slice Pathfinder
Advantages:
- Attack from a range
- Stellar feat support
- Best style for dealing with DR (Clustered Shots)
Disadvantages:
- Demands a large number of feats
- Requires both Strength and Dexterity
- Enemies with reach can ruin your day if they get close to you
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist
- Barbarian*
- Cavalier*
- Cleric / Oracle
- Fighter
- Inquisitor
- Monk*
- Paladin
- Ranger
Ranged, Other: *** (Gunslinger ****)
Generally, you’re better off with some sort of bow than with other ranged weapons, but there are exceptions, the most notable being the Gunslinger. Allowing you to use Dexterity for both your attack and damage, while often targeting touch attack AC is shockingly strong. Combined with some of their more powerful Deeds and the Snap Shot feat line, Gunslingers are a force to be reckoned with. You should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS carry cartridges and use the Rapid Reload feat, so you can make your full number of attacks each round with Rapid Shot and Haste. I particularly recommend the Pistolero and Musketeer archetypes, but all Gunslingers are fairly strong. Keep in mind that as a Gunslinger, one unique disadvantage is that your cartridges cost a lot of money; the cheapest ones you can make will cost you a gold piece per shot, so be prepared to be poor early on in your career.
As for other classes, shuriken-wielding Ninjas who take the Flurry of Stars Ninja Trick can fire off a mountain of sneak attacks in a single round, when they catch an enemy flat-footed. Alchemist bombs are an obvious weapon choice for Alchemists, and can come with excellent (and hard to resist) debuffs as well. Halfling sling fighters can be somewhat interesting as characters go, combined with the Warslinger alternate racial trait; it’s still painful to miss out on Manyshot though.
With the exception of the shuriken Ninja and bomb Alchemist, avoid thrown weapons; enchanting ammunition costs more than it’s generally worth since it’s one attack per use, and attaching the Returning weapon property to one weapon per attack you have is beyond ludicrously costly, not to mention that you would have to remain relatively stationary all the time.
Though generally worse than wielding a bow, the combination of feats like Clustered Shots, Deadly Aim and Rapid Shot still make just about any ranged weapon (with the exception of crossbows) quite effective.
Advantages:
- Attack from a range
- Stellar feat support
- Best style for dealing with DR (Clustered Shots)
Disadvantages:
- Demands a large number of feats
- Enemies with reach can ruin your day if they get close to you
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist*
- Fighter*
- Gunslinger
- Ninja*
Sword and Board: ***
The weapon and shield combination is a classic that has appeared in many fantasy films and books. It can be fairly effective in Pathfinder, if you want to go for a more defensive focus. There isn’t as much feat support for shields as there is for bows or two weapon combat, but there are more than for a two-hander. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can even combine the two weapon fighting feats with shield combat via Shield Master, using a shield bash as an off-hand weapon. This requires so many feats that I wouldn’t even entertain the idea on anything but a fighter.
On a sword and board character, your AC can get truly daunting. The only real problem with this strategy is that it does nothing to help you with saving throws; in my experience, failed Fortitude and Will saves indirectly result in more PC deaths than actual physical damage does. Your damage will also be truly underwhelming; less even than a dual-wielder. That being said, this character can stand toe-to-toe with enemies several levels (or CR) higher than themselves without getting their faces punched into the dirt.
All in all, this is a serviceable fighting style. However, in Pathfinder, as in many other games, he who strikes first and strikes hardest is usually going to be the one who wins, so I generally lean more towards the other fighting styles.
Advantages:
Weapons Pathfinder
- Massive AC
- Can use shield bash as an off-hand weapon
Disadvantages:
- Least damaging fighting style
Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder 3
Recommended Classes:
- Cleric / Oracle
- Fighter
- Paladin
Two-handed Melee: ****
Two-handed characters are some of the strongest melee characters in the game. With power attack and a high strength score, their damage can get shockingly high, and they’ll have a solid amount of flexibility as well, since it’s the least demanding fighting style when it comes to required feats.
The feats you really need to have on a two-handed character are Power Attack, Furious Focus and Weapon Focus. Outside of those, there are a number of interesting options, including class-specific feats, the Cleave tree, or miscellaneous feats like Dodge, Lunge, or Improved Initiative. Cleave, Cleaving Finish and Great Cleave can all be quite useful on a two-handed character, but their uses are somewhat situational; all of them are dependent on you having multiple enemies within reach, which gets difficult at higher levels when you’re consistently fighting large or larger enemies.
When building a two-handed character, try to get your strength as high as you can at first level, preferably 18 or better, though no less than 16. You’ll probably need to wear heavy armor, though some more generous point-buys may allow you to bump up your dexterity enough to effectively use medium or even light armor. Constitution shouldn’t be lower than 12, or your lackluster AC may lead you to an early grave. The best weapon choices are usually weapons with a high threat range and a x2 critical multiplier; a nodachi, falchion, fauchard, elven curve blade, or even a katana wielded in two hands (for Ninjas and Samurai). The reason you want a higher threat range is that your damage will be so high, a x3 or x4 multiplier will probably result in a massive amount of overkill. You’re far better off with more frequent, less damaging critical hits. The math also supports this being the superior choice, when calculating damage per round.
Other than that, do your best to maximize the number of attacks you make in a round. Consider dipping a couple of levels into Ninja for the ki pool, and try to persuade the party Wizard to cast Haste at the beginning of every combat. This combat style particularly shines for characters who can get their strength up to monstrous levels (Alchemists / Barbarians), on characters who have a lot of strong feats available to them and need to be choosy (Inquisitors / Samurai / Monks), on characters who have ways to generate more attacks for themselves (Ninja / Monk), and on characters with few feats available to them in general (pretty much all the other classes listed below except for Fighters).
Lastly, a note about monks… It is true that monks cannot add 1.5 x their strength modifier on damage rolls when using Flurry of Blows, and yes, I do take this into account when making my recommendations. Power Attack does not carry the same restriction as Flurry does, and as such the extra 1.5 x Power Attack damage sets you above most other monks in terms of damage per hit. A quarterstaff or seven branched sword are probably your best options here, though a temple sword wielded two-handed is also viable.
Advantages:
- Extremely high damage per hit
- Very little feat investment required
- Greatly benefits from attack generation
Disadvantages:
- Low-ish AC
Recommended Classes:
- Alchemist
- Barbarian
- Cleric / Oracle
- Fighter
- Inquisitor
- Monk
- Ninja
- Paladin
- Samurai
Unarmed: ****
Something that has consistently surprised me is the amount of hate out there for unarmed monks. I have frequently read many posts claiming that monks are a terrible and underpowered class. I can assure you, if you think monks are underpowered (particularly unarmed monks), you haven’t been paying close enough attention to the new feats that have surfaced.
The first step when making a strong unarmed character is taking style feats. Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity are by far the most powerful and least feat-intensive, allowing a strength-based monk to deal truly shocking amounts of damage. The Crane Style feat line is monstrous defensively, and in my home game, there have been several fights in which our DM has simply proclaimed victory for us without rolling dice thanks to Crane Wing and some clever positioning. Snake Style is quite good as well, having some solid defensive options and the rather strong Snake Fang feat, though Snake Sidewind is somewhat unimpressive.
If you go with Dragon Style (which is my primary recommendation), keep your starting strength somewhere between 16 and 18, and increase it at every available opportunity. Power Attack helps bump your damage up further, leaving most characters in the dust when comparing DPR.
All unarmed characters without exception should dip at least one or two levels in Monk. Between the free feats that you will definitely care about, Flurry of Blows, better unarmed damage, and +2 to all saving throws, you really have nothing to complain about here. Four levels gets you a ki pool, a larger damage die, better saves, slow fall, and better AC when unarmored. One thing to keep in mind is that Flurry of Blows, the best thing about dipping Monk, is not lost when wearing armor. That means your Paladin can dip a level or two of monk and still rock out in her full plate, punching the daylights out of people.
Now that the Martial Artist Monk archetype exists, multiclass monks are no longer restricted to being lawful, opening up a wide range of interesting possibilities. Do not underestimate unarmed characters; they can be exceptionally powerful.
Advantages:
- Lots of room to customize with Style Feats
- Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity results in staggering amounts of damage
- Crane Style can turn characters into monstrous tanks
- Many attack per round thanks to Ki Pool and / or Flurry of Blows
Disadvantages:
- Levels in Monk are practically required
- Can be feat-intensive
- Amulets of Mighty Fists are twice as expensive as an equivalent weapon
Offhand Dmg Two Weapon Fighting Pathfinder Wiki
Recommended Classes:
Pathfinder Two Weapon Fighting Build
- Monk
- Monk multiclass dip