Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, I’ll be sharing an Iconic Design featuring Gamora, of Guardians of the Galaxy fame!

No introduction today. Just Gamora!

Background

In the comics, Gamora is the last of her species, the Zen-Whoberis, who were exterminated by the Badoon (in her original timeline, her species was exterminated by the Universal Church of Truth). Thanos found the child and decided to use her as a weapon. Gamora was raised and trained by Thanos to assassinate the Magus, an evil alternate version of Adam Warlock. Thanos showed her little kindness during her childhood, but Gamora was very loyal to the man who promised her the opportunity to avenge the death of her family. Gamora became very proficient in the martial arts, earning the nickname “The deadliest woman in the whole galaxy”. When she was a teenager, Thanos took her on a trip to Tartoonla # 7. Gamora disobeyed Thanos’s orders, and due to this came into conflict with a group of thugs. She was greatly outnumbered, and despite her skills she was defeated. Thanos found her half dead, and in turn murdered all of her assailants and restored her to health, cybernetically enhancing her to superhuman levels.

In the film adaptation of Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora’s backstory is slightly different. After her family was killed by Thanos when she was a child, she was tortured, adopted by Thanos and raised as an assassin, only to rebel against him when she learned of his deal with Ronan the Accuser to destroy planet Xandar in return for the Kree giving him an orb. Attempting to claim the orb to sell it to the Collector so she can get as far as she can from her adopted father, Gamora allies with the other Guardians to escape prison. But after Ronan claims the orb, revealed to contain an Infinity Stone, Gamora decides to fight alongside the Guardians to reclaim it and stop Ronan despite the odds against them, stating that, after living among enemies for years, she would be glad to die beside friends. After saving Xandar, Gamora was cleared of her previous crimes.

Build Concept

Alright, so how do we build Gamora? Well, its not going to be easy, but here’s how I’m going to do it!

• Slayer: This is sort of a no-brainer. Gamora is described as a master assassin quite frequently, so slayer is an obvious choice. With the slayer, we can nail down her specialization in all types of weaponry except for one: martial, hand-to-hand combat. And that’s where our next option comes in.
• VMC Monk: This one is a bit risky. On one hand, the benefits to this variant multiclass are great. On the other hand, you can’t wear armor. Ever. If you do, you lose ALL of the bonuses. So our Gamora is going to have a pretty terrible AC, all things considered. Our player’s best bet is to make sure that her Con is really, really high. Like, freakishly high. Because if someone wants to hit Gamora, they’re probably going to hit Gamora. That said, she can make up for it with bracers of armor, an amulet of natural armor, and by having a decent Dexterity score, so there are ways around your super squishiness.
• Human: I know she’s actually a last-of-her-kind alien, but we REALLY need that bonus feat!

Alright, we’ve got a blueprint! Let’s get to work.

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: slayer 7
• Secondary Class: monk
• Favored Class Bonus: 1/6 (ranger combat style 2 [6th])
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Two-Weapon Fighting (1st), Rapid Shot (Bonus), Improved Unarmed Strike (Secondary), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) (Bonus), Weapon Focus: any one-handed firearm (5th), Improved Precise Shot (Bonus), Snap Shot (Bonus)
• Secondary Class Features: armor (1st), unarmed Strike (3rd), evasion (7th)
• Abilities: slayer talents (ranger combat style [archery] 1, firearm training, combat trick, ranger combat style 2), sneak attack +2d6, stalker, studied target +2 (two targets), track

Gotta love how many feats slayers get at low levels; must make a fighter jealous. Early on, we’re focusing Gamora on getting as many options to hurt people as possible. We’ve taken ranged options for shooting, unarmed strike options for punching, and Two-Weapon Fighting options for doing both. Generally speaking, Gamora is more about having tricks then dealing devastating amounts of damage with them; on her own, she’s best in the surprise round. In a group, she’s got Groot and Drax to really help her bring her damage up by flanking and attacking. Plus she studies stuff real good, so there’s a pretty decent chance that only Groot itself is going to be hitting as often as she does. She’s likely going to want to specialize in a firearm that has a capacity that’s higher than 1, or a technological firearm if those are available. Depending on how available firearms are, you might want to drop that firearm-based rogue talent, but I can’t predict that in your games, now can I?

One of my favorite things about this build is that it gets Improved Precise Shot super early as a ranger combat style feat. This means that her firearm attacks ignore cover, which means she’s really only going to be taking the “I’m fighting someone in melee” penalty, which is a pretty small deal considering that most of her fellow guardians are ranged characters primarily. Eventually we’re going to build up her ability to shoot people while in melee even more, but for now, its passable.

I confess that this is sort of a boring build, especially because its not a damage-dealing monstrosity like you might expect of Gamora. Maybe I can liven it up for you later on, who knows?

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: slayer 14
• Secondary Class: monk
• Favored Class Bonus: 1/6 (ranger combat style 2 [6th], slayer camouflage [12th])
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Two-Weapon Fighting (1st), Rapid Shot (Bonus), Improved Unarmed Strike (Secondary), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) (Bonus), Weapon Focus: any one-handed firearm (5th), Improved Precise Shot (Bonus), Snap Shot (Bonus), Sword and Pistol (9th), Precise Shot (13th)
• Secondary Class Features: armor (1st), unarmed Strike (3rd), evasion (7th), ki pool (11th)
• Abilities: advanced talents (assassinate, opportunist, slayer camoflauge), quarry, slayer talents (ranger combat style [archery] 1, firearm training, combat trick, ranger combat style 2, terrain mastery [urban]), slayer’s advance 1/day, sneak attack +4d6, stalker, studied target +3 (three targets), swift tracker, track

More of the same, but there are some cool feat and slayer talents here that want to point out. First, Gamora manages to build into Sword and Pistol by 9th level, which means she never provokes attacks of opportunity from her gun while she’s two-weapon fighting with a melee weapon. At the very next level, we also pick up Precise Shot. Between these four feats: Precise Shot, Improved Precise Shot, and Sword and Pistol, Gamora can basically use any of her three major weapons (dagger, fist, gun) anywhere she wants without worrying about attacks of opportunity. Overall, her melee weapons are still stronger when she’s working with a partner (since then she’ll have sneak attacks), but her gun is a strong contender when she’s on her own or fighting something with a tough AC to crack. More than damage, Gamora’s build is about versatility first and foremost, as its her versatility that makes her such a deadly assassin. You can disarm Starlord or Rocket Raccoon, you can beat Grax senseless, but there isn’t really an effective way to stop Gamora; she just keeps coming at you.

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: slayer 20
• Secondary Class: monk
• Favored Class Bonus: 1/6 (ranger combat style 2 [6th], slayer camouflage [12th])
• Feats: Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Two-Weapon Fighting (1st), Rapid Shot (Bonus), Improved Unarmed Strike (Secondary), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) (Bonus), Weapon Focus: any one-handed firearm (5th), Improved Precise Shot (Bonus), Snap Shot (Bonus), Sword and Pistol (9th), Precise Shot (13th), Combat Reflexes (17th)
• Secondary Class Features: armor (1st), unarmed Strike (3rd), evasion (7th), ki pool (11th), AC Bonus (15th), Improved Evasion (19tH)
• Abilities: advanced talents (assassinate, opportunist, improved quarry, slayer camoflauge), master slayer, quarry, slayer talents (ranger combat style [archery] 1, firearm training, combat trick, ranger combat style 2, terrain mastery [urban], ANY THREE), slayer’s advance 2/day, sneak attack +6d6, stalker, studied target +5 (five targets), swift tracker, track

I SCOURED the remaining list of slayer talents, but honestly, I couldn’t find any must-haves. There are still a couple things that I would have liked to do, such as grab the Improved Snap Shot and Greater Snap Shot feats, but ultimately I couldn’t because of the VMC. Granted, getting +3 AC was nice, but Level 15 is far too late for that ability; it makes me wish that the AC bonus was baked into improved unarmed strike as +1, scaling it up through the levels or something. Improved Evasion is also fantastic, but 19th level is REALLY late for it to turn online.

Overall, I’m not super satisfied with this character even though I’m convinced that its likely the most faithful adaptation that I can currently do. The big reason is that there would be a VERY easy way to do this build more effectively, and that’s if the unarmed mastery master trick. Ninjas get a ninja trick that gives them unarmed strike damage, as a monk of their level –2. This master trick isn’t available to slayers, but if it was, it would be VERY easy to just not use the Variant Multiclass, pick up Improved Unarmed Strike and that talent, and ultimately have three more feats to play with. But I suppose that’s life, isn’t it? In all, I think that this is an awesome build for Gamora; she just might not be as lethal as I’d like her to be. Hopefully this will get changed in the future and I can go back and redo this build, but for now, enjoy!

Do you have any questions or comments about this build? Leave’em below and converse with your fellow readers! Do it! I COMMAND IT!

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex also cohosts the Private Sanctuary Podcast, along with fellow blogger Anthony Li, and you can follow their exploits on Facebook in the 3.5 Private Sanctuary Group, or on Alex’s Twitter, @AlJAug.