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 an Iconic Design for James Bond.

Today we’re going to look at an Iconic Design for someone who is arguably the most iconic spy in all of Hollywood. A Mr. Bond. James Bond.

Background

James Bond’s backstory differs a bit depending upon which incarnation you’re going with. In the original books, James was a World War II veteran who was promoted to special operations after his heroics in the British Navy. (Fun Factoid: he was a naval pilot originally, according to the books.) Many of James Bond’s iconic traits, such as his love of cars, liquor, and women come from the books. Bond is mostly a conglomerate of several different World War II survivors that the author personally knew, but his suave charm and badass moves have made him a shoe-in for Hollywood screens for years to come. Doesn’t that sound like a guy who deserves an Iconic Design?

Build Concept

Here’s the core components that I believe a successful James Bond build needs.

• Human (Focused Study): Bond is obviously human, but I opted to take Focused Study instead of the standard human bonus feat because being good at a small number of skills is pivitol to Bond’s character. My Skill Focuses for bond are: Profession: driver, Stealth, and Escape Artist.
• Slayer: When I think “What is Bond?” the Slayer is the first class that comes to mind. Honestly, I might have made Bond entirely a slayer instead of multiclassing him with the next class if slayers could take the Improved Unarmed Strike and Unarmed Strike Master ninja tricks. (Why they can’t seems like a massive oversight to me.) There’s always the option of taking the ranger’s unarmed strike deific combat style, but Bond shouldn’t have the baggage of needing to worship someone Lawful like Abaddar.
• Brawler (Snakebite Striker): I really like this brawler archetype because of its sneak attack damage dice. Getting better unarmed strikes is important for Bond, in my opinion, but the quintessential Bond attack is one where Bond drops down from a ceiling vent or something and takes a guy out in one hit. Plus Bond has a set of “extremely specific skills,” so dropping martial versatility is good for him.

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: brawler (snakebite striker 2), slayer 5
• Feats: Skill Focus: Profession [driver] (Human), Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus) Weapon Focus: unarmed strike (1st), Firearm Training (Bonus), Skilled Driver: water (3rd), Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (5th), Amateur Gunslinger (Bonus), Extra Grit (Bonus), Rapid Reload: pepperbox (7th)
• Abilities: brawler’s cunning, brawler’s flurry (Two-Weapon Fighting), martial training, slayer talents (amateur gunslinger, firearm training), sneak attack +2d6, studied target +2 (2 targets), track, unarmed strike (1d6)

At its core, the James Bond build is a switch hitter build that utilizes pistol and fist. To this end, I’ve opted to use Brawler and Slayer over, say, full slayer with the Abadar combat style because the archery combat style has a LOT of nifty feats that will make 007 better at fighting at range whereas the benefit of Monastic Legacy can be earned just by going half of your levels into brawler (though I suppose the two technically stack; if you wanted to fully focus on unarmed strikes, Monastic Legacy would be the way to do it).

Basically, I use my first level to take a level in Brawler, picking up unarmed strike damage and a sneak attack die. Then I invest in slayer, picking up firearm proficiency and some gunslinger tricks with my talents while also investing in the standard firearm feats. Although he’s quite good, Bond isn’t the best unarmed strike master in the world (his instructor is flat-out stated to be better than him, for example) and if Bond is about anything, its efficiency. I’m sure he sees a silent bullet to the back of the head as being much more efficient than engaging a hostile in hand to hand combat.

Now, I personally think that a pepperbox is the best bond gun available to the early firearm era, but if you have advanced firearms go revolver instead. I also picked Extra Grit as my free grit feat from the Amateur Gunslinger slayer talent, because who doesn’t want to start the day off right with three grit points? Your best bet here is to take the deadeye talent for maximum sniping.

Aside from your two levels of brawler, you have plenty of goodies. You get a decent bonus from studied strike, 2d6 sneak attack, and a full base attack bonus. Now, I picked up Skilled Driver because it is a VERY bond-appropriate feat, but you might want to sub that out for Power Attack if you’re playing this character as a PC. Extra damage is never a bad thing.

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: brawler (snakebite striker 4), slayer 10
• Feats: Skill Focus: Profession [driver] (Human), Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus) Weapon Focus: unarmed strike (1st), Firearm Training (Bonus), Skilled Driver: water (3rd), Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (5th), Amateur Gunslinger (Bonus), Extra Grit (Bonus), Rapid Reload: pepperbox (7th), Skill Focus: Stealth (Human), Rapid Shot (Bonus), Combat Expertise (9th) Improved Precise Shot (Bonus), Improved Feint (11th), Silent Kill (13th)
• Abilities: ac bonus +1, brawler’s cunning, brawler’s flurry (Two-Weapon Fighting), martial training, slayer talents (amateur gunslinger, assassinate, combat style 2, firearm training), knockout 1/day, studied target +2 (2 targets), snake feint, sneak attack +4d6, stalker, track, unarmed strike (1d8)

In the mid levels, we start to see a shift from slayer focus to brawler focus. After we get our second studied target, the ability to study a target as a swift action, and the assassinate slayer talent, there really isn’t anything else we need from the slayer class for bond, so I chose to focus my efforts on brawler instead. Snakebite striker gives us this nifty ability that allows us to move and feint as a move action at the same time, so I invested in Combat Expertise and Improved Feint. Remember that as a brawler, you ignore the Intelligence prerequisites for Combat Expertise and all other combat feats, so you don’t need a very high Intelligence to pull this build off.

I really like the Silent Kill feat, from the Advanced Class Guide, for Bond. Essentially, if you manage to kill an opponent in the surprise round, you can make a Stealth check to disappear back into the shadows without anyone noticing. This is a very “secret agent” tactic and if I’m honest, I went 10 levels of slayer just to qualify for this feat (even though I can’t take it until 13th level thanks to its Stealth rank prerequisite). From our three additional levels in brawler, we get another bonus feat, an AC bonus, and the brawler’s flurry ability, plus knock out. Knock out will only ever be useful against low CR opponents, like mook guards and the like, which actually makes it pretty awesome for Bond; he SHOULD be able to take out mooks no problem.

All of this said, let’s move on to the end game.

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: brawler (snakebite striker 10), slayer 10
• Feats: Skill Focus: Profession [driver] (Human), Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus) Weapon Focus: unarmed strike (1st), Firearm Training (Bonus), Skilled Driver: water (3rd), Point-Blank Shot (Bonus), Precise Shot (5th), Amateur Gunslinger (Bonus), Extra Grit (Bonus), Rapid Reload: pepperbox (7th), Skill Focus: Stealth (Human), Rapid Shot (Bonus), Combat Expertise (9th) Improved Precise Shot (Bonus), Improved Feint (11th), Silent Kill (13th), Two-Weapon Feint (Bonus), Weapon Specialization: unarmed strike (15th), Skill Focus: Escape Artist (Human), Skilled Driver: land, Improved Two-Weapon Feint (Bonus), Greater Weapon Focus: unarmed strike (19th)
• Abilities: ac bonus +2, brawler’s cunning, brawler’s flurry (Improved Two-Weapon Fighting), brawler’s strike (cold iron, magic, silver), close weapon mastery, martial training, slayer talents (amateur gunslinger, assassinate, combat style 2, firearm training), knockout 2/day, studied target +2 (2 targets), snake feint, sneak attack +6d6, stalker, track, unarmed strike (1d8)

So, there’s this little esoteric notation from Jason Bulhman that states that the brawler can use his flurry to qualify for feats that require Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, and so on, but she only gains the benefits of those feats when using brawler’s flurry. That makes absolute perfect sense and I’m using that ruling in this build to allow my brawler to take Two-Weapon Feint and Improved Two-Weapon Feint towards the later part of the end game.

Now, it should be noted that neither of those feats have any synergy with snakebite feint, but it does open up the number of times that Bond can make a sneak attack during his flurry. Also, towards this leg of the game Bond starts picking up abilities that allow his fists to overcome damage reduction, which is helpful to an adventure, but not really to a secret agent. I’ve also managed to grab a few more fighter feats with bond’s fists, such as Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Focus. You don’t really NEED weapons like this to function well as a gunner, but extra bonuses to hit are important for a melee fighter.

So, what is this build good for? Well, it has plenty of skills because of the combination of human and slayer, although the focus starts to think in the mid game when you begin to focus on brawler (who has 2 less skill ranks per level). Ultimately, your most important Bond skills should include Stealth, Escape Artist, Profession (driver), and Bluff. From there, you’ll want some ranks in Diplomacy (to gather some intel) and possibly Profession (soldier) to represent Bond’s days as a Naval officer. This build excels in any urban espionage game that includes a lot of humanoid creatures, but it becomes more difficult to play once you start needing to worry about crazy DR from various opponents. Its also not an optimized DPR build, although you could get there by swapping Skilled Driver for Power Attack. The build also isn’t great for PFS, as you can’t be promised that you’ll ever have enough gold to purchase a decent firearm. In PFS, you might want to drop a level of brawler for a level of gunslinger.

Now, this build does have some strengths. It is very versatile in out of combat scenarios because of its relatively high skill ranks. It also makes for an effective switch hitter against foes without damage reduction. Close weapon mastery also allows this build to overcome damage reductions that the character wouldn’t normally be able to piece by slapping on a cheap set of brass knuckles made in the desired material. If you don’t mind playing a stealthy, skillful slayer, this build could be exactly what you’re looking for.

And that’s all I care to say about my 007 build. What do you think? Did I capture the nuisances of James Bond, or did I forget something mportant? Is this a build that you would play, or does it lack too much DPR focus for your taste? Leave your answers and questions below, and I’ll see you next week for another Iconic Design!

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 secret agent.