Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at a character build for the Umbral Witch, Bayonetta.

So, I absolutely love getting suggestions from people on what sort of characters I should try to build. Gives me a real thought exercise. So when one of my readers suggested that I make an iconic design for Bayonetta, I had only one question.

Who the heck is Bayonetta?

Background

Okay, so I’ve never played any of the Bayonetta games, but from what I can find she’s a member of this super-powerful witch coven called the Umbral Witches that use the forces of Hell to combat angels. Apparently she’s in an indentured pact with some super powerful demon called Madame Butterfly and she kicks ass with the power of girly things. No, I’m serious. All of her special attacks are thinly-veiled sex innuendos and she can manipulate her hair and stuff. She also has super strength, can instantly wield any firearm she touches, and has even managed to knock down a building with a single, well-placed kick.

I had no idea how I am going to design this character.

Build Concept

The thing about Bayonetta is that most of what she does is replicable via various means. She could definitely pass as a shaman, with Madame Butterfly acting as her spirit. That said, none of the current spirits really fit any of Bayonetta’s powers or abilities. So we could reclassify Madame Butterfly as a witch’s patron and pick up the prehensile hair hex. The problem with this plan is the amount of resources that it would take to actually pull off her firearm abilities, and even if we did the witch doesn’t have anything like the wizard’s spellslinger archetype to supplement its firearm abilities. So I guess I could always multiclass witch with a dip in wizard for the gun abilities, then grab Martial Weapon Proficiency and go eldritch knight for a few levels. But doing that would stop the witch’s patron and hexes from progressing.

So ultimately, I tossed out the whole “acknowledging Madame Butterfly” idea and just went with what Bayonetta is all about: kicking ass with guns, elemental magic, and shapeshifting. And believe it or not, but there’s a multiclass combination that can actually pull these off quite well.

• Hunter (Feral Hunter): From the Advanced Class Guide, we’re mostly going to be relying on this archetype. Since the hunter has access to all 6th level or lower ranger and druid spells, the hunter actually has a surprising number of elemental damage options. Plus the feral hunter archetype trades an animal companion for wild shape. Although the melee options for this archetype leans towards summoning monsters somewhat, the ranged option is simply Precise Shot as a bonus feat, which works just fine for me.
• Ranger (Trophy Ranger): This seldom appreciated ranger archetype is one of the game’s few gun options that actually doesn’t grant a free battered firearm to the character. This is a problem for actual PCs, but in theoretical Iconic Designing this isn’t a problem at all! We’ll be dipping slightly into this archetype for some bonus feats and Favored Enemy.
• Shapeshifting Hunter: Paizo is notoriously tight-fisted when it comes to designing multiclass options for Pathfinder, and this is one of the few such options to make it into the game. And boy, is it ridiculous. Shapeshifting Hunter requires you to have Favored Enemy and Wild Shape. If you do, then it stacks your druid and ranger levels together to determine your effective level for the bonuses of both. The only exception is that you can’t get the druid’s capstone of wild shape at will, but otherwise you get full wild shape and full favored enemy as long as you stay ranger / druid. And lucky for us, even if the wild shape ability didn’t say that the hunter had an effective druid level, the hunter has a class feature called nature training that specifically gives it a druid level for feats like this, so huzzah!

With all this in mind, let’s move on to the build.

Early Levels (1–7)

• Hunter (Feral Hunter) 5 / Ranger (Trophy Hunter) 2
• Feats: Still Spell (Human), Point-Blank Shot (1st), Amateur Gunslinger (Bonus), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bonus), Rapid Reload: pistol (3rd), Precise Shot (Bonus), Pointless Teamwork Feat (Bonus), Rapid Shot (5th), Shapeshifting Hunter (7th)
• Abilities: Favored Enemy (good outsiders +4, humans +2), Feral Focus, Firearms Style, Improved Tracking, Nature Training, Track, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape (2/day)
• Hunter Spells Known (2nd Level): reloading hands, spider climb, summon monster II
• Hunter Spells Known (1st Level): entangle, glide, jump, thunderstomp
• Hunter Spells Known (Orisons): detect magic, guidance, know direction, resistance, spark, virtue

So with any luck, you’re grabbing the build’s linchpin, Shapeshifting Hunter, at 7th level. Meanwhile you’re picking up plenty of ranged combat options from your hunter and ranger levels. Specifically, you get Amateur Gunslinger (Wisdom is your key stat, so this is pretty nice) and Exotic Weapon Proficiency for free at 2nd level and Precise Shot for free at 4th level. You get one pointless teamwork feat at 5th level that the feral hunter archetype doesn’t trade away at 5th level, too. I took Extend Spell as Bayonetta’s bonus human feat because I also suggest picking up Magical Lineage: reloading hands as a trait. This way, you can cast reloading hands as a 2nd level hunter spell (at 6th level for this build) without needing a hand free to cast the spell. This making two-weapon fighting with a pistol in each hand MUCH easier if that is what you choose to do. (That’s certainly what Bayonetta does in the games.) This is one of the nice sides about the hunter class compared to the druid; being able to pick up ranger spells much earlier than usual is a huge benefit to this build, as you get spells like reloading hands much sooner. (Though you won’t see the REAL benefit of this until the mid levels.)

Bayonetta’s spell selection is designed to mimic what she can do in the games. Run up vertical slopes with spider climb, glide short distances, and summon “demons” (actually just animals) to her side to fight with her. Let’s see how she advances at the mid levels.

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Hunter (Feral Hunter) 12 / Ranger (Trophy Hunter) 2
• Feats: Still Spell (Human), Point-Blank Shot (1st), Amateur Gunslinger (Bonus), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bonus), Rapid Reload: pistol (3rd), Precise Shot (Bonus), Pointless Teamwork Feat (Bonus), Rapid Shot (5th), Shapeshifting Hunter (7th), Extend Spell (9th), Deadly Aim (11th), Weapon Focus: pistol (13th)
• Abilities: Favored Enemy (good outsiders +6, humans +4, elves +2), Feral Focus, Firearms Style, Improved Tracking, Nature Training, Second Animal Focus, Swift Tracker, Track, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape (6/day)
• Hunter Spells Known (4th Level): flame strike, ice storm, strong jaw, summon monster IV
• Hunter Spells Known (3rd Level): ice spears, instant enemy, spike growth, summon monster III
• Hunter Spells Known (2nd Level): reloading hands, ricochet shot, spider climb, stone call, summon monster II
• Hunter Spells Known (1st Level): entangle, glide, jump, longshot, pass without trace, thunderstomp
• Hunter Spells Known (Orisons): detect magic, guidance, know direction, resistance, spark, virtue

Believe it or not, but second animal focus is actually the last special class feature that this build gets. Everything else goes to wild shape and favored enemy. Feat wise, the mid levels are building up for end game capstone feats, but still adding on delicious firepower with other effects. The real beauty is in Bayonetta’s spells, which includes many elemental attacks for her arsenal. The best spell by far is the addition of instant enemy, which is just as potent for this build as it is for a ranger, except Bayonetta casts this spell spontaneously. Nice, right?

Aside from those small bits, this part of the build is pretty self-explanatory. Next!

Endgame (15+)

• Hunter (Feral Hunter) 18 / Ranger (Trophy Hunter) 2
• Feats: Still Spell (Human), Point-Blank Shot (1st), Amateur Gunslinger (Bonus), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bonus), Rapid Reload: pistol (3rd), Precise Shot (Bonus), Pointless Teamwork Feat (Bonus), Rapid Shot (5th), Shapeshifting Hunter (7th), Extend Spell (9th), Deadly Aim (11th), Weapon Focus: pistol (13th), Snap Shot (15th), Quicken Spell (17th), Spell Perfection: reloading hands (19th)
• Abilities: Favored Enemy (good outsiders +10, humans +8, elves +6, changelings +4, orcs +2), Feral Focus, Firearms Style, Improved Tracking, Nature Training, Second Animal Focus, Swift Tracker, Track, Wild Empathy, Wild Shape (8/day)
• Hunter Spells Known (6th Level): move earth, plague storm, wall of stone, summon nature’s ally VI
• Hunter Spells Known (5th Level): baleful polymorph, call lightning storm, fickle winds, wall of fire
• Hunter Spells Known (4th Level): find quarry, flame strike, ice storm, strong jaw, summon nature’s ally IV
• Hunter Spells Known (3rd Level): call lightning, ice spears, instant enemy, named bullet, spike growth, summon nature’s ally III
• Hunter Spells Known (2nd Level): reloading hands, ricochet shot, spider climb, stone call, summon nature’s ally II, versatile weapon
• Hunter Spells Known (1st Level): entangle, glide, jump, longshot, pass without trace, thunderstomp
• Hunter Spells Known (Orisons): detect magic, guidance, know direction, resistance, spark, virtue

Looking at end game, Bayonetta ends with a full Favored Enemy +10 progression, plus eight daily uses of wild shape, and an impressive lineup of spells. Being able to cast instant enemy in this build makes the hunter / ranger combo hold its own quite nicely compared to druid / ranger (I would trade 7th+ level spells for instant enemy if I had a full favored enemy progression). Also, I love seeing baleful polymorph on a spontaneous spellcaster’s list that isn’t the sorcerer. Makes me happy.

Featwise, grabbing Quicken Spell finally qualifies Bayonetta for Spell Perfection with reloading hands, which allows her to cast reloading hands as a swift action with no somatic components without increasing its level. (Using Spell Perfection to nullify Quicken Spell, plus Magical Lineage to nullify Still Spell.) This is a very, very sweet combo for Bayonetta, as she can basically run around with two guns and never have to worry about running out of ammo or needing to reload ever again.

Normally I would have mythic notes for this build, but honestly I’m not familiar enough with Bayonetta to offer advice for something like that. My initial gut response would be either trickster or hierophant. What do you, the readers think? What would be a good mythic path for Bayonetta. Do you think going hunter for instant enemy was a better choice than going druid for 9th level spells? Why or why not? Leave your answers and comments below, subscribe to KnowDirectionPodcast.com, and submit any ideas you have for new iconic designs below. Until next time, I’m signing out!

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’s favorite color is blue, his favorite Pathfinder Race/Class combination is kitsune feral hunter, and he was relieved that Bayonetta was at least wearing practical clothing in most of her depictions (though no heroine in her right mind would wear high heels into battle with as much running as Bayonetta does).