THE HONORABLE MENTIONS

These six builds each have something or other that keeps them back: either they involve a mechanic that I disapprove of for personal tastes, use liberal interpretations of certain rules, work only from a starting level, are extremely shenanigany in nature, meaning Game Masters would have legitimate reasons to frown upon it, or something else one way or another that keeps them from being enjoyable all 20 levels through. Meaning they, thus, fall short of my qualifications to be on my top ten, if even barely so.

The Unholy Terror

The Guards rushed toward where they heard the screams for help from their comrades, but orienting themselves in the maze of the streets that composed this dilapidated part of the city at night was anything but easy. Their hearts were pumping ever faster as the screams got extinguished one after the other.

Finally, a breakthrough! They turned the corner as the screams ceased, and an eerie silence fell in the darkness.

There, barely illuminated by the guards lamp, a tall man stood, surrounded by the mutilated corpses of their brethrens. The guards pulled their swords, as the hooded figure, armed with a pair of vicious, sawtoothed sabres turned their way, and suddenly, fear overtook them. What stared at them from beneath the dark hood was a mantis mask, and they all knew that their fate were sealed.

Their bodies, added to those of their fallen brothers in arms, were found in the morning, a horrified rictus on their faces, as if fear itself tore them apart.

This build is a classic hyperfocused Intimidancer Build, meaning it focuses on sending our enemies running in panic and then taking advantage of it. It is a very fun build, in that it is pretty much impossible for this build to fail at sending its targets in Cowarding mode, but it is also one of my personal problems with it. I do not like abilities that strictly bypass immunities to emotional effects that forces a character to behave one way or another.

Sure the build works absolutely flawlessly, but bypassing any immunity to fear? That’s kinda…You know. And if you, the player, can use it, then so does the Game Master, and it is no fun when you’re stuck with your character in a corner crying and pissing their pants in abject terror as a Paladin. See what I mean? So, RAW, and even RAI does it work? Absolutely. I just find it somewhat distasteful as a personal manner because of those reasons.

Race

Ifrit with the Hypnotic Alternate Racial Feature.

Class

Antipaladin(Tyrant) 3/Slayer 7/Red Mantis Assassin 10

Trait

Reactionary because more Initiative is always nice, and Fiery Glare to be able to always take 10 on Intimidate checks.

Ability Scores

We want at least 13 in Str and the highest Charisma we can afford. We will also need at least Dex 15. Beyond that, everything else is gravy. Here’s how I would place those:

Cha>Str>Con>Dex>Wis>Int. Ifrits get a +2 to Dex so putting a 13 in it at the Point-Buy stage is plenty enough.

15Point-Buy

Str 14/Dex 15/Con 12/Int 10/Wis 8/Cha 16

20Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 15/Con 12/Int 10/Wis 8/Cha 16

25Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 15/Con 13/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 17

Favored Class Bonus

Hit Points to be quite honest, as we will be in melee all the time, and the only skill we need is Intimidate anyway.

Skills

Intimidate. Everything else is up to you, although you do need 5 ranks in both Stealth and Perception so do keep that in mind.

Feats by Level

1-Power Attack

3-Soulless Gaze

5-Fiendskin

Bonus 5-Two-Weapons Fighting

7-Alertness

Bonus 7-Cornugon Smash

9-Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Sawtooth Sabre)

Bonus 9-Weapon Focus(Sawtooth Sabre)

11-Intimidating Prowess

Bonus 11-Weapon Specialization(Sawtooth Sabre)

13-Killing Flourish

15-Furious Focus

Bonus 15-Greater Weapon Focus(Sawtooth Sabre)

17-Dastardly Finish

Bonus 17-Greater Weapon Specialization(Sawtooth Sabre)

19-Dreadful Carnage

The very classic Power Attack+Cornugon Smash combo combines ridiculously well with Soulless Gaze to send our enemies cowering within a single Full Attack Action. Add to this late game Dastardly Finish and Dreadful Carnage and you enter a vicious, self-sustaining combo of attacking, sending everyone cowering, Coup-de-Graceing a target, which sends even more people cowering, letting you Coup-de-Grace them etc…

Slayer Talents by Level

5-Ranger Combat Style(Two-Weapons)

7-Combat Trick(Cornugon Smash)

9-Weapon Training(Sawtooth Sabre)

We use our talents to fulfill our various prerequisites and to grab Cornugon Smash as soon as possible, nothing fancy here.

Equipment

Any two-handed weapon at first, even better if you can go for a polearm for extra reach, and as soon as you become proficient, pick a pair of Sawtooth Sabre and go to town. Pick the best armor you can afford. Try to have it enchanted with Shadow or Greater Shadow so that you can Stealth with it for added fun, but not a prerequisite.

Final Thoughts on the Build

Yeah, it pretty much does what it says on the tin. Murder stuff while sending everyone around cowering each time you strike a target, and as an Antipaladin, you bypass all fear immunities, which is my grip about this build as previously mentioned. Nonetheless, I still love this build and absolutely would play it, I just had to subtract points because of that one thing.

This build also can be fairly stealthy, has an interesting Prestige Class later one, and is still quite a good damage dealer on top of everything else. And your Intimidate bonus is so high that taking 10(which you always can do due to Fiery Glare) pretty much ensures success on the roll.

Build Table

Level	Class	HD	Feats	Special Abilities
1	Antipaladin	10+Con	Power Attack	Detect Good, Aura of Evil, Smite Good 1/Day
2	Antipaladin	1d10+Con	–	Touch of Corruption, Unholy Resilience
3	Antipaladin	1d10+Con	Soulless Gaze	Aura of Cowardice, Plague Bringer, Cruelty(Shaken)
4	Slayer	1d10+Con	–	Studied Target, Track
5	Slayer	1d10+Con	Fiendskin, Two-Weapons Fighting	Slayer Talent(Ranger Combat Style)
6	Slayer	1d10+Con	–	Sneak Attack +1d6
7	Slayer	1d10+Con	Cornugon Smash, Alertness	Slayer Talent(Rogue Talent-Combat Trick)
8	Slayer	1d10+Con	–	2nd Studied Target
9	Slayer	1d10+Con	Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Sawtooth Sabre), Weapon Focus(Sawtooth Sabre)	Slayer Talent(Rogue Talent-Weapon Training), Sneak Attack +2d6
10	Slayer	1d10+Con	–	Stalker
11	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	Intimidating Prowess, Weapon Specialization(Sawtooth Sabre)	Sneak Attack +3d6, Spells
12	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	–	Prayer Attack
13	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	Killing Flourish	Red Shroud
14	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	–	Summon Mantis, Sneak Attack +4d6
15	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	Furious Focus, Greater Weapon Focus(Sawtooth Sabre)	Resurrection Sense
16	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	–	Mantis Form
17	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	Dastardly Finish, Greater Weapon Specialization(Sawtooth Sabre)	Sneak Attack +5d6
18	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	–	Blood Mantis Form, Fading
19	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	Dreadful Carnage	Mantis Doom
20	Red Mantis Assassin	1d8+Con	–	Death Mantis Form, Sneak Attack +6d6

The Beast in the Woods

As the bandits surrounded the man, ready to pounce on him, something felt not right. The man was way too calm walking alone in the marshes like that in the evening. Still, there were twenty of them, and he was alone. There was no way he would be able to fight back.

The signal was sent and they all screamed and charged at their victim, ready to eviscerate him and steal his purse.

Suddenly, growling. A boar? One bandit flew several feet back, before his body broke on a tree and fell on in the dirty soil. The man had suddenly turned into a mass of writhing, reaching tentacles, maws and claws, and it was charging them!

One of the bandits barely had the time to scream “I KNEW SOMETHING WAS OFF” before what happened to his body is better left unwritten…

So, if you have read anything through my various guides so far, it’s that I am a sucker for builds that emulate the idea of cryptids or weird monsters. Well this is one of those, and it does a fairly great job at it too! So what is the problem with it then?

Well, for one, it goes a bit far down the “monster” road to the point that GMs may have some concerns about the flavor of it. Preposterous I know, but unfortunately it is one thing to keep into account, and while some of the later builds do follow down the same idea of the cryptid/monster, they are far more subtler than this one.

Another thing that does subtract a few points from it is the reliance on a small shenanigan(and not one too egregious by my own reckoning, but a shenanigan is a shenanigan and combined with the above mentioned problem, and the fact that this build is necessarily evil makes it so that unfortunately, it barely misses the mark for the top ten(and not by much at that).

However, it remains a very fun build for those willing to be what amounts to a mass of tentacles and other appendages flailing in all directions.

Race

Ragebred Skinwalker (or Wereboar-kin Skinwalker, same thing, different names)

Class

Kraken Caller Druid 12/Beastmorph Vivisectionist Alchemist 8

Traits

Adopted for Tusked, and say Reactionary for the standard +2 to Initiative

Ability Scores

So, I would be remiss if I were not to say that since we are multiclassing between Alchemist and Druid we should have at least both their casting stats at the minimum for their max level spells we will be reaching, which would be, at a minimum 13 Int and 16 Wis. We also want a minimum of 13 in Con, but otherwise we should focus on Str.

15Point-Buy

Str 14/Dex 11/Con 13/Int 13/Wis 16/Cha 6

20Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 11/Con 14/Int 13/Wis 16/Cha 5

25Point-Buy

Str 17/Dex 11/Con 14/Int 13/Wis 17/Cha 5

Favored Class Bonus

Yeah, it is HP as usual, unless you really, really want more skills.

Skills

We don’t really need anything in particular for this build to work so, pick what you wish really. I would recommend Perception, Craft(Alchemy) as they synergize well with your whole shtick, along with Swim and Stealth even if this one is cross-skill (I guess you could always switch Reactionary for Silent Hunter if you do decide to pick it and that being cross-skill bothering you). You do need at least a single rank in Fly by level 19.

Feats

1-Extra Feature

3-Power Attack

5-Multiattack

7-Nature Spell

9-Improved Unarmed Strike

11-Improved Grapple

13-Boon Companion

15-Skill Focus(Fly)

17-Boon Companion

19-Powerful Wings

Extra Feature lets us get both our Hooves and our Gore attack when in Bestial Form as a Skinwalker, which means 3 Natural Attacks, multiattack makes our secondary natural attacks hit that much more often.

Boon Companion will let us keep leveling our Animal Companion without delay in levels, and Powerful Wings will give us two wing attacks.

Alchemist Discovery by Level

14-Feral Mutagen

16-Vestigial Arm

18-Wings

20-Vestigial Arm

A second pair of arms, two claw attacks, and a pair of wings. Simple and effective.

Animal Companion

My personal argument for this one would be to get a Constrictor Snake to Grapple+Constrict your target to make them easier to demolish in melee if the game is less aquatic, if only because as a Kraken Caller you gotta stay at least somewhat on theme, and if the game does go full aquatic, then pick a Shark or a Giant Octopi.

Equipment

Use a shortspear and a shield until you get your second pair of arms, then pick a two-handed weapon of some sort that you are proficient with for iterative attacks on top of your natural attacks. For armor, you are pretty limited, so pick a Hide Armor and aim for a Dragonscale armor. Your main equipment however is a bunch of Fleshwarped Scorpion’s Tail. As many as you can afford (about 45 by level 20). As they can be implanted via surgery and each become a natural tail attack and they do cumulate, for some reason.

Final Thoughts on the Build

Cast Strong Jaw to empower all your natural attacks, then enlarge person yourself, imbibe your Mutagen and use your Kraken Caller Wild Shape to get six tentacles.

All in all, excluding your Scorpion Tail, we get:

3 Iterative Weapons Attacks

1 Bite Attack

1 Gore Attack

2 Claws Attacks

2 Hooves Attack

2 Wings Attacks

6 Tentacles Attacks

For 17 Attacks per round. With those 45 Scorpion Tails? 62 Attacks per round.

That is a lot of attacks, although we do need to get through a lot of hoops to get there. We also have an almost fully leveled Animal Companion, a few late levels Sneak Attack, up to 6th lvl Druid Spell. All in all a fairly good build. Just…excessive, shenanigans riddled and overall a bit clunky which makes it fall just short of the top ten. Still a fantastic build that is going to be lots of fun to play!

Level	Class	HD	Feats	Special Abilities
1	Druid	8+Con	Extra Feature	Call of the Waves, Nature’s Bond(Animal Companion), Nature Sense, Wild Empathy
2	Druid	1d8+Con	–	Dauntless Swimmer
3	Druid	1d8+Con	Power Attack	Hold Breath
4	Druid	1d8+Con	–	Resist the Waves’ Lure, Wild Shape 1/Day
5	Druid	1d8+Con	Multiattack	–
6	Druid	1d8+Con	–	Wild Shape 2/Day
7	Druid	1d8+Con	Natural Spell	–
8	Druid	1d8+Con	–	Wild Shape 3/Day
9	Druid	1d8+Con	Improved Unarmed Strike	Venom Immunity
10	Druid	1d8+Con	–	Wild Shape 4/Day
11	Druid	1d8+Con	Improved Grapple	–
12	Druid	1d8+Con	–	Wild Shape 5/Day
13	Alchemist	1d8+Con	Boon Companion, Throw Anything, Brew Potions	Alchemy, Sneak Attack +1d6, Mutagen
14	Alchemist	1d8+Con	–	Torturer’s Eye, Feral Mutagen, Poison Use
15	Alchemist	1d8+Con	Skill Focus(Fly)	Sneak Attack +2d6, Cruel Anatomist, Beastform Mutagen
16	Alchemist	1d8+Con	–	Vestigial Arm
17	Alchemist	1d8+Con	Greater Grapple	Sneak Attack +3d6
18	Alchemist	1d8+Con	–	Improved Beastform Mutagen, Wings
19	Alchemist	1d8+Con	Strong Wings	Sneak Attack +4d6, Torturous Transformation
20	Alchemist	1d8+Con	–	Vestigial Arm

The Seductress

As even the golems guarding the throne room bowed their massive metallic forms to mimic a kiss on the woman’s hand, the undead king felt his dead heart stir at the sight of her. Unearthly beauty and grace, a being that could make even the dead and the machines fall in love just walked in the room, his zombies and skeletons that were supposed to be under his control, following her like so many supplicants begging to obtain her attention and favors. He knew she was here to steal his treasures, but it did not stop her from first stealing his heart.

Another build that also didn’t quite make the cut for my top 10, but this time less for rules reasons and from a GM being reticent to the idea of GMing for a mass of tentacles, but because the entire group may feel uncomfortable by the notion of this build.

The Seductress does exactly what the name implies, she seduces her way through the adventure. Not that she is incapable of pulling her weight in combat, far from it! Rather, the idea of seduction as a method of getting your ways can hit a little too close to the heart of people at your table, and some of its aspects may feel a little taboo.

The build works perfectly fine as intended and with a mature group capable of delineating reality from the game, this build is amazingly fun to play. Just make sure everyone is on board before pulling this one out.

Race

Human(Racial Heritage-Natural Charmer)

Class

Sorcerer(Crossblooded-Undead/Impossible) 7/Enchanting Courtesan 10/Sorcerer +3

Traits

Charmer and Overwhelming Beauty combine well for some exceedingly difficult to resist Enchantments.

Ability Scores

As you probably would already suspect, this build focuses almost exclusively on Charisma.

15Point-Buy

Str 8/Dex 10/Con 10/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 20

20Point-Buy

Str 8/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 20

25Point-Buy

Str 8/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 14/Wis 10/Cha 20

Favored Class Bonus

You have very poor Hit Dice, invest in HP.

Skills

We need Bluff and Sense Motive at 5 each, and both Knowledge(Arcana) and Perform (Either Dance or Act) at 2 each. Otherwise, investing both in Diplomacy and in Sleight of Hands is also a very good idea.

Feats by Level

1-Racial Heritage(Dhampir)

Human Bonus-Additional Traits(Power of Suggestion, Reactionary)

Sorcerer Bonus 1-Eschew Material

3-Spell Focus(Enchantment)

5-Natural Charmer

7-Voice of the Sybil

Bonus 7-Toughness

9-Greater Spell Focus(Enchantment)

11-Deceitful

13-Skill Focus(Bluff)

15-Skill Focus(Diplomacy)

17-Persuasive

19-Skill Focus(Sleight of Hands)

We get Racial Heritage to get Natural Charmer at lvl 5, which lets us take 20 on checks to persuade, charm, seduce and otherwise influence someone who is already friendly to us. Spell Focus on Enchantment means resisting our Enchantments is going to be even more difficult.

And with feats like Skill Focus, Voice of the Sybil, Persuasive and Deceitful, both our Bluff and Diplomacy will be so high we won’t be able to see you anymore. We take Additional Traits to grab specifically Power of Suggestion which lets us roll Bluff to pass an object for another, and with a high enough roll, we can pass stuff like a sword for a book or a full plate armor for farmer clothes.

On Spells

I do not believe this will surprise you, but we are focusing on Enchantments, but we also are taking Divination spells as secondary options. We can round up our selection with a few choice Illusion and Necromancy spells. Spells we should consider highly are Suggestion, Charm Person, Dominate Person and the like, but absolutely nothing prohibits you from taking say Fireball, those are just not the focus of this build.

Bloodline Choices

Since we are Crossblooded, we will have to choose between powers from both our Bloodlines at certain levels. Here are our choices:

1-Disorienting Touch

3-Death’s Gift

3-Chill Touch

5-Make Whole

7-Vampiric Touch

19-Animate Dead

19-Distracting Patterns

Equipment

Besides clothes, we don’t really need anything (and considering this build’s whole shtick, even the necessity of clothes is sorta debatable). You will want Competence Bonus Items for sure, and investing in a Hat of Disguise will let you pull absolutely ridiculous shenanigans.

Final Thoughts on the Build

You can roll Bluff and Sleight of Hands to make your spellcasting look innocuous. You can take 20 to seduce people. Without any magic items, and assuming all your increases of ability scores went in Charisma, this means that your Diplomacy and Bluff checks will always be 72. To put this in perspective, a Solar has a Sense Motive of +33. Cthulhu has +49.

This means that even if Cthulhu rolls a Natural 20, as long as the bluff is believable, you can bullshit the Great Old One. You can also make him become friendly with you which is…mind boggling, yes. And again, all that is pre-buff/magic items. On top of all that, you can use Enchantment spells even on Undeads and Constructs(albeit limited for the last one), and creatures who can be attracted to you have a penalty on their Will Saves against you. In short, this build is crazy strong for social encounters, without crippling its combat effectiveness as it does remain a full spellcaster…

Level	Class	HD	Feats	Special Abilities
1	Sorcerer	6+Con	Racial Heritage, Additional Traits, Eschew Materials	Cantrips, Drawbacks, Disorienting Touch
2	Sorcerer	1d6+Con	–	–
3	Sorcerer	1d6+Con	Spell Focus(Enchantment)	Death’s Gift
4	Sorcerer	1d6+Con	–	–
5	Sorcerer	1d6+Con	Natural Charmer	–
6	Sorcerer	1d6+Con	–	–
7	Sorcerer	1d6+Con+7	Voice of the Sibyl, Toughness	–
8	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	–	Covert Spells, Enchanting Touch, Seducer’s Leverage
9	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	Greater Spell Focus(Enchantment)	Poison Use, Seductive Intuition
10	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	–	Hidden Spell +1, Master Poisoner
11	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	Deceitful	Contact Poison Wielder
12	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	–	Deluding Touch
13	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	Skill Focus(Bluff)	Hidden Spell +2/+1
14	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	–	Informative Liaisons
15	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	Skill Focus(Diplomacy)	Overwhelming Touch
16	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	–	Hidden Spell +3/+2
17	Enchanting Courtesan	1d6+Con+1	Persuasive	Touch of Ecstasy
18	Sorcerer	1d6+Con+1	–	–
19	Sorcerer	1d6+Con+1	Skill Focus(Sleight of Hands)	Distracting Patterns
20	Sorcerer	1d6+Con+1	–	–

The Gunslinger

They all laughed at him. “The fastest shot in the world”. A juggler and a bard, claiming to be the fastest shot in the world? A ridiculous claim. The mysterious man had walked into the saloon and made that claim boldly after giving his evening performance, which was admittedly impressive, but there was a limit at the theatrics. He sported four pistols, two at his hips, two strapped to his chest. It was ridiculous.

The mysterious man smiled at their laughter. He had kept vengeance toward this town, which he was banned from twenty years ago now, burning his heart and tonight, he had a last performance to give, he thought, caressing the hammer of one of his pistols…

This build is painfully close to making the Top 10, but doesn’t quite make it for 2 reasons:

1-There is a ridiculous FAQ Errata that power nerfs a certain ability to the ground. Now, FAQ and Errata are always subject to GM review, and this one in particular is usually wildly disregarded by most Game Masters, but it is unfortunately a concern that, combined with the second element makes it just miss the Top 10.

2-The other reason being that it is a gunslinger build. Guns are a hit or miss for many GMs and even if they are canonical within Pathfinder’s official setting, Golarion, many GM will use the regional excuse to heavily limit them. And because of these two factors this build misses on being on my top 10. Unfortunate as it is this build truly is a very fun one that I can only highly recommend for a Gunslinging enthousiast!

Race

Human with the Military Tradition Alternative Racial Feature

Class

Battle Host Occultist 1/Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger 1/Trench Fighter 3/Bard Juggler 7/Luring Musketeer Cavalier 8

Traits

Both are open to grab, have fun kids!

Ability Scores

As a Gunslinger, this will probably shock you, but we need Dexterity. We also need Charisma and some amount of Intelligence for our first Level.

15Point-Buy

Str 10/Dex 17/Con 10/Int 13/Wis 10/Cha 14

20Point-Buy

Str 10/Dex 18/Con 10/Int 13/Wis 10/Cha 15

25Point-Buy

Str 10/Dex 18/Con 12/Int 13/Wis 10/Cha 16

Favored Class Bonus

Yep, it is, in fact, HP. Don’t look at me like that, our Con sucks.

Skills

Perception and Sleight of Hands are mandatory for this build. Everything else is gravy so have fun! Take Acrobatics if you want better mobility, various Social Skills to be a decent face, Survival for the gritty, mysterious stranger feel, etc.

Feats by Level

1-Point-Blank Shot

Human Bonus-Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Pistols, Rifles)

Bonus 2-Gunsmithing

3-Precise Shot

Bonus 3-Two Weapons Fighting

Bonus 4-Rapid Reload(Pistols)

5-Deadly Aim

Bonus 6-Deflect Arrow

7-Rapid Shot

9-Improved Two Weapons Fighting

Bonus 10-Snatch Arrow

11-Dodge

Bonus 13-Teamwork Feat of your Choice

13-Mobility

15-Leaping Shot Deed

Bonus 16-Rapid Reload(Rifles)

17-Deft Shootist Deed

Bonus 18-Weapon Focus(Pistols)

19-Greater Two-Weapons Fighting

Precise Shot is pretty much mandatory for any ranged build and so is Deadly Aim. We get Rapid Reload for two types of firearms so that’s fun, we have all three Two-Weapons Fighting main feats, and with Leaping Shot Deed and Deft Shootist Deed, we no longer provoke when shooting in melee and we can move and shoot all our firearms we are wielding(4 due to juggling) as we move which significantly improves our mobility in battle.

Equipment

We start, for free, with a Masterwork Pistol that is immune to the Broken Condition. Which means we don’t fear misfiring at all with that weapon. Which is the FAQ problem I mentioned. So we are free to do whatever we wish with our starting money. Eventually we will want a second Pistol of some sort, and even a third and fourth ones for when we multiclass into Bard. Do consider a Rifle for variances or when you do need some extreme range. You can get away with wearing a Chainshirt as your main armor with no problem.

Final Thoughts on the Build

As per usual you get your Dex to damage, on top of your 8 Attacks per round if you stay immobile, 4 if you move, you can snatch projectiles shot at you, you get extra AC behind cover, you count as having Improved Critical with your firearms, you attack against Touch AC within two Range Increments, ignore range penalty up to three range increments, can cast Spells, have Evasion, a bunch of skills, can spend Grit to add your Charisma modifier to all your damage rolls within a round, and on top of all of that you get to choose a Cavalier’s Order and get to add even more bonuses when Challenging someone. This build can deal some tremendous damage at range while still being extremely mobile and having quite a few backup options. This is a ridiculously good build.

Level	Class	HD	Feats	Special Abilities
1	Occultist	8+Con	Point-Blank Shot, Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Pistols, Rifles)	Knacks, Panoply Bond(Transmutation), Focus Powers, Mental Focus
2	Gunslinger	1d10+Con	Gunsmithing	Grit, Deeds (Focused Aim, Deadeye, Gunslinger’s Dodge)
3	Fighter	1d10+Con	Precise Shot, Two-Weapons Fighting	–
4	Fighter	1d10+Con	Rapid Reload(Pistols)	Bravery +1
5	Fighter	1d10+Con	Deadly Aim	Trench Warfare
6	Bard	1d8+Con	Deflect Arrow	Fast Reactions, Cantrips, Bardic Music (Fascinate, Inspire Courage +1, Distraction, Countersong)
7	Bard	1d8+Con	Rapid Shot	Combat Juggling, Evasion
8	Bard	1d8+Con	–	Inspire Competence +2
9	Bard	1d8+Con	Improved Two-Weapons Fighting	–
10	Bard	1d8+Con	Snatch Arrow	Inspire Courage +2
11	Bard	1d8+Con	Dodge	Suggestion
12	Bard	1d8+Con	–	Inspire Competence +3
13	Cavalier	1d10+Con	Mobility, 1 Teamwork Feat of your Choice	Far Challenge 1/Day, Gifted Firearm, Order, Tactician
14	Cavalier	1d10+Con	–	Order Ability
15	Cavalier	1d10+Con	Leaping Shot Deed	Careful Aim
16	Cavalier	1d10+Con	Rapid Reload(Rifles)	Far Challenge 2/Day
17	Cavalier	1d10+Con	Deft Shootist Deed	Banner
18	Cavalier	1d10+Con	Weapon Focus(Pistols)	–
19	Cavalier	1d10+Con	Greater Two-Weapons Fighting	Far Challenge 3/Day
20	Cavalier	1d10+Con	–	Order Ability

The Red Raiding Hood

The thing roared and charged the caravan with its lance. The guards deployed to intercept its charge. It suddenly lunged forward, projecting its lance forward, and suddenly, one of the guards exploded in a pile of gore and blood all over his fellow guardsmen. But the lance never left the thing’s hand who was still farther away, charging in their direction.

It prepared a second lunge, and a second guard exploded gruesomely. Panic engulfed the caravan as everyone exploded, one by one as the thing, part fish, part man, part tiger was charging them with its lance.

Red Raiding Hood is an old 3.5 build that could deal downright not okay amounts of damage. I have my own take for that build which I did play in a game of Age of Worms which is a fantastic AP by the by. I wanted to see if I could replicate, at least partly, this build within Pathfinder and sure enough, I found a way to get at least close-ish. Now, I really, really love my 3.5 take of Red Raiding Hood. So why does the Pathfinder version fall just short of this system’s Top 10? Well, because it’s a bit clunky.

It doesn’t work anywhere near as well as the 3.5 one and while I do manage to get to pretty astronomic levels of damage, the hoops and loops I needed to reach it are tortuous and I can absolutely see a GM raise a serious eyebrow at some of it.

Now don’t get me wrong, the build is legal, both RAW and RAI, even if by a stretch for one specific part of it(which we can frankly just replace if it really bothers our GM as it is not necessary at all for the build to work).

Still, some parts are definitively eyebrow raisers and I wouldn’t blame a GM from refusing it, hence why this mention.

Race

Deep-One Hybrid, post Transformation. See, this race has the (Human) Subtype and as such counts as a Human for the purpose of prerequisites. Now, that is the most clunky part of the build and if a GM has an allergic reaction to this, just make it a human, your stats will be lower but nothing we can’t work with. I just wanted to use this race for its bs bonuses as this build wants really high Strength for as much damage as possible.

Class

Weretouched Shifter 4/Primalist Bloodrager 12/Magus 4

Traits

Beyond Reactionary to compensate for our atrocious dex, both are pretty much open for grabs if you have a specific idea.

Ability Scores

We want our Strength to be as high as possible. We also want at least a 15 in Charisma and a 13 in Intelligence . Everything else is pretty much gravy. So start with a 13 in Cha and invest a single point of improvement into Intelligence by lvl 9. Add a total of +2 to Cha at lvl 4 and 12, and then everything else goes into Str.

15Point-Buy

Str 24/Dex 7/Con 13/Int 12/Wis 9/Cha 13

20Point-Buy

Str 24/Dex 8/Con 14/Int 12/Wis 10/Cha 13

25Point-Buy

Str 24/Dex 10/Con 16/Int 12/Wis 10/Cha 13

Favored Class Bonus

Yeah, we need more HP on this one.

Skills

So, hear me out, we need Ride. And Acrobatics. We also probably should get Perception, and we need at least 2 ranks in Knowledge(Engineering) and at least one rank in Knowledge(Planes).

Feats

1-Racial Heritage(Centaur)

3-Natural Jouster

5-Skill Focus(Knowledge-The Planes)

7-Mounted Combat

9-Spirited Charge

Bonus 10-Power Attack

11-Eldritch Heritage(Abyssal)

13-Improved Eldritch Heritage(Abyssal)

Bonus 13-Improved Bull Rush

15-Point-Blank Shot

Bonus 16-Improved Sunder

17-Charging Hurler

19-Sacred Geometry(Ascendant Spell and Quicken Spell)

I warned you it was clanky. We combine Natural Jouster with Spirited Charge to be able to use a Lance as if we were mounted and deal triple damage on a charge. With Improved Eldritch Heritage we get a +6 inherent bonus to our Strength by level 19, and with Sacred Geometry we can cast Ascendant Spell for a very specific spell.

Bloodrager Bloodline and Rage Powers

As a Primalist we can exchange some of our Bloodline Powers for Rage Powers. Here are our powers by level:

Bloodline-Abyssal

1-Claws

4-Demonic Bulk

8-Superstition, Ghost Rager

12-Abyssal Bloodrage

Grow one size larger and have your rage give you an even larger bonus to Strength. Oh, and hit incorporeal creatures while raging I guess?

Magus Arcana by Level

19-Familiar

Weretouched Shifter

We want to go Tiger so we get Pounce asap.

Spells

We want one spell, and it’s called Named Bullet. We want to use Sacred Geometry to use Ascendant Spell on it to get the Mythic Variant.

Equipment

Use a Lance. Also, get the best armor you can afford. You want to aim at a +1 Throwing Lance of Sharding, which lets you throw the weapon without throwing it, allowing you iterative attacks on your Lance during a Charge with Pounce. We also want a Cyclops Helm and a +1 Throwing Vorpal Greatsword I suppose. Get both as Spell Storing and get yourself a Wand of Vampiric Touch to fill both constantly?

Final Thoughts on the Build

Since you are considered Mounted due to Natural Jouster, when you charge with your Lance, you automatically triple damage via Spirited Charge. With Mythic Named Bullet, and with the “Declare this roll a 20” from the Cyclops Helm for auto-crit, all your attacks during your Pounce deal x12 damage.

Now, with a regular Power Attack, assuming no other Magic Item and no further buffs except Raging, this means your damage in one round if all attacks hit to be 4[12(1d10+34)] for an average of 1920 damage per round, not counting Spell Storing or the like.

Or you could use your Vorpal Sword to auto decapitate someone each turn I guess if someone complains that this build is too op.

Level	Class	HD	Feats	Ability Scores
1	Shifter	10+Con	Racial Heritage	Lycanthrope Aspect, Lycanthropic Empathy, Claws
2	Shifter	1d10+Con	–	Defensive Instincts, Track
3	Shifter	1d10+Con	Natural Jouster	Shifter Claws Increase, Woodland Stride
4	Shifter	1d10+Con	–	Lycanthropic Wild Shape, Defensive Instinct +1
5	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Skill Focus(Knowledge-The Planes)	Bloodline(Abyssal), Claws, Bloodrage, Fast Movement
6	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	–	Uncanny Dodge
7	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Mounted Combat	Blood Sanctuary
8	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Eschew Materials	Bloodcasting, Demonic Bulk
9	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Spirited Charge	Improved Uncanny Dodge
10	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Power Attack	–
11	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Eldritch Heritage	Bloodline Spell, DR 1/-
12	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	–	Superstitious, Ghost Rager
13	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Improved Eldritch Heritage, Improved Bull Rush	–
14	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	–	Bloodline Spell, DR 2/-
15	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Point-Blank Shot	Greater Bloodrage
16	Bloodrager	1d10+Con	Improved Sunder	Abyssal Bloodrage
17	Magus	1d8+Con	Charging Hurler	Arcane Pool, Spell Combat, Cantrips
18	Magus	1d8+Con	–	Spellstrike
19	Magus	1d8+Con	Sacred Geometry	Familiar
20	Magus	1d8+Con	–	Spell Recall

The King in Yellow

A young drow was sitting near the fountain, reading a book, left to her own thoughts. Everyone avoided her as drows were known for being demon worshippers. And drows were extremely uncommon on the surface. The young drow was smiling innocently as she kept reading her book, to the point where a man, eaten by curiosity which finally overcame his fear, came to her and asked her what she was smiling so hard at in her book.

Her answer only raised more questions:

-Well sir, have you ever seen the Yellow Sign?

Our final build before entering the proper top 10, and one that frankly, with only minor tweaks would have zero reasons not to be there.

Said teaks are removing the Young and Advanced Templates and making our Drow Noble into a regular Drow (unless GM allows Drow Noble as technically they are a completely legit race) and bam, you’ve got yourself a perfectly legit build that probably would be a direct contender to the Number 10 on my list.

However, I wrote that build in ink in my notes, so here we are. If you are of Lawful alignment you know the feeling.

Race

Young Advanced Drow Noble

Class

Elder Mythos Cultist Cleric 5/Evangelist 10/Antipaladin 2/Cleric +3

Traits

Magical Knack and Warrior of Old are our go to for this build, as we want the highest Caster Level and Initiative possible.

Ability Scores

As an Elder Mythos Cultist, we cast spells using our Charisma, so our focus is on that, followed by Constitution and Dexterity.

Aaand, that’s about it. Everything else is gravy on top!

15Point-Buy

Str 8/Dex 22/Con 10/Int 16/Wis 14/Cha 24

20Point-Buy

Str 8/Dex 22/Con 12/Int 16/Wis 14/Cha 24

25Point-Buy

Str 8/Dex 26/Con 12/Int 16/Wis 14/Cha 24

Favored Class Bonus

HP, always more HP

Skills

Try to put as many in various Knowledges, but also in Bluff, Disguise and Spellcraft.

Feats by Level

1-Weapon Finesse

3-Weapon Focus(Rapier)

5-Deific Obedience(Hastur)

7-Fencing Grace

9-Dreamed Secrets

11-Iron Will

13-Selective Channel

15-Dodge

17-Mobility

19-Spring Attack

So, we get dex to attack and damage via Weapon Finesse and Fencing Grace, which is very nice to add some combat efficiency to our mainly spellcasting build, and we complement this further later on with the Spring Attack feat chain.

Our main focus however is Dreamed Secret which is our main highlight. It allows us to prepare up to two Wizard Spells each day which is ridiculously powerful. This means that we have technical access to all the Cleric spell list, but also the whole Wizard spell list. Now, we do need to make a Will Saving Throw but our bonus is going to be fairly decent in that department anyway, and we further secure it via Iron Will. Even on a failed save, the 1d2 Wisdom loss is nothing a Lesser Restoration can’t take care of. If that is not enough, we take two levels of Antipaladin starting level 16 and add your Charisma to all Saving Throws, meaning there’s no way we can fail that saving throw anymore (at lvl 18 our Will Save is +21 at a minimum, and the DC is 20)

Finally, as our Channel Energy is affecting everything around us, Selective Channel let us not hit our allies which, you know, is kinda nice.

Equipment

A Rapier and a Chain Shirt. Aim to get yourself a Hat of Disguise to pass as a very normal Surface Elf mmmyes, I belong here fellow Surface Elves do not worry.

Final Thoughts on the Build

This build is actually crazy powerful. We can cast up to 9th lvl Cleric Spells, 8th lvl Wizard Spells, we have a Stare attack that destroys the sanity of our targets, we can do melee surprisingly well, our Saving Throws are through the absolute roof, we can Channel Energy to kill everything within its radius, including the air itself, and we are naturally a fantastic face without even trying.

We also get a Domain that we can choose amongst Madness, Chaos or Void, and one of various of Subdomains. And even our AC is fairly high, and we get several Spell-Like Abilities from our Race. This build is easily one of the strongest in this article, if not the strongest. However, power is not what I am measuring here, but rather my personal favorite builds. I had a very hard time not putting this one on my Top 10, but ultimately, choices had to be made, and it’s one caveat made it just miss the mark. However, I can only highly recommend this build for anyone wanting to play an unhinged Hastur follower.

Level	Class	HD	Feats	Special Abilities
1	Cleric	8+Con	Weapon Finesse	Orisons, Forbidden Knowledge, Unhinged Mind, Channel the Void 1d6, Domain
2	Cleric	1d8+Con	–	–
3	Cleric	1d8+Con	Weapon Focus(Rapier)	Channel the Void 2d6
4	Cleric	1d8+Con	–	–
5	Cleric	1d8+Con	Deific Obedience	Maddening Gaze
6	Evangelist	1d8+Con	–	Obedience, Skilled
7	Evangelist	1d8+Con	Fencing Grace	Aligned Class, Protective Grace
8	Evangelist	1d8+Con	–	Channel the Void 3d6, Divine Boon 1
9	Evangelist	1d8+Con	Dreamed Secrets	Gift of Tongues
10	Evangelist	1d8+Con	–	Channel the Void 4d6, Multitude of Talents
11	Evangelist	1d8+Con	Iron Will	Divine Boon 2
12	Evangelist	1d8+Con	–	Protective Grace
13	Evangelist	1d8+Con	Selective Channel	Gift of Tongues
14	Evangelist	1d8+Con	–	Channel the Void 5d6, Divine Boon 3
15	Evangelist	1d8+Con	Dodge	Spiritual Form
16	Antipaladin	1d10+Con	–	Aura of Evil, Detect Good, Smite Good 1/Day
17	Antipaladin	1d10+Con	Mobility	Touch of Corruption, Unholy Resilience
18	Cleric	1d8+Con	–	Channel the Void 6d6
19	Cleric	1d8+Con	Spring Attack	–
20	Cleric	1d8+Con	–	Channel the Void 7d6

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