Welcome back to the continuation of the Advanced Player’s Guide special review blog! If you missed the beginning, you can find it here! We looked at more archetypes yesterday, from dual-weapon wielder to the medic. Let’s see if we can finish the chapter today!
Chapter 3 – Archetypes (cont’d)
Pirate Properly associated with Swashbucklers in the intro, the dedication provides the Boarding Assault two action activity that lets you stride twice or Acrobatics to swing on a rope up to twice your Speed, making an attack afterwards if you were boarding/disembarking a boat! Rope Runner (4th; climb speed on boat rigging/ropes) and Walk the Plank (8th; Demoralize to make em walk) fit the theme perfectly.
Poisoner I was not expecting this class. It is another example of using a version/variant of the alchemical reagents feature to specialize in one set of items, in this case poisons. At first glance, it seems a bit narrowly focused, but when you look at all the additional feats you end up with quite a few options to customize with. The Poison Coat (6th) and Acquired Tolerance (8th) are fun and creative reactions.
Ritualist With no additional feats and no reliance on other class features, this archetype is self contained in these 6 feats, with the dedication starting at 6th. You gain rituals as you level, can perform multiple pieces of a ritual yourself, and even speed up rituals quite a bit. I feel this is a fairly niche archetype, but I feel it delivers on the theme.
Scout The scout is a great use of repackaging things for generic use, in this case Scouts Warning (Dedication; 2nd) and Terrain Stalker (Terrain Scout; 4th). You can move faster in encounter and exploration mode (Scout’s Speed; 6th) and there are 3 new feats that package 3 action activities into a 2 action activity.
Scroll Trickster Even though I have been digging the specialized reagents options for things like healing herbs and poisons, I wasn’t expecting a similar concept for scrolls, and I am here for it! The dedication feat (2nd) provides Trick Magic Item with a bonus for scrolls while Skim Scroll (8th) lets you draw and use a scroll in a single action. The magic is in the X Scroll Cache feats (6th, 12th, 18th) that slowly let you build up to a scroll a day for 1st through 7th level spells!
Scrounger I think that even if the art didn’t show a goblin I would have still visualized this archetype as intended for goblins, what with the way they have been branded in Golarion’s lore. You can craft (almost) anything out of (almost) anything, as temporary items for you only, no formulas needed! With Reverse Engineering (4th; skill) you can take apart an item to get the formula but then put it back together again instead of just having parts and with Expert Disassembly (7th; skill) you can use Crafting to Disable or Pick a Lock.
Sentinel Previously, we saw how to master the shield with Bastion. Now we can master armor. These feats are built such that you gain armor training if you have none or expand what you have, making them great for fighters and casters alike. We see a return of being able to rest in your armor with Steel Skin (4th; skill). I now kinda wanna see what happens if we combine Bastion and Sentinel.
Shadowdancer Here we are, an absolute fan favorite. When I saw the Dedication feat was 8th level (which made me realize I had been glossing over this because so many are 2nd level … this is the 3rd Dedication to not be 2nd level) I wasn’t surprised as this has been a prestige class for so long. This two page spread includes 3 focus spells Dance of Darkness (5th), Shadow Illusion (6th), and Shadow Jump (5th) as well as the feats to access them. One thing of note is that you Shadow Sneak Attack (10th) is specifically called out as not being stackable with a rogue’s sneak attack.
Snarecrafter Just as Scrounger seems to be built for goblins, this is definitely a kobold concept (and has art to prove it). With 5 new feats and 3 from CRB you have a lot of options to choose from. Again, we have a specialized set of materials for daily preparations. Maybe I just like kobolds too much, but I really like these feats: Surprise Snare (4th; 3 actions to setup trap in enemy square), Remote Trigger (6th), Giant Snare (10th; multiple snares cover 10 ft space).
Talisman Dabbler Continuing the theme of daily temporary items, we now have the ability for anybody to be able to make their own talismans regardless of magical talent. You can make attach em faster with Quick Fix (4th) and attach more than one with Talismanic Sage (14th).
Vigilante I think this might be today’s main feature. The class that is held up as the perfect archetype. I am surprised they didn’t bump this to a 4 page archetype, to be honest … but boy did they pack a lot in here. The Dedication (2nd) is easily the longest dedication by word count. At 4th level, you have many options for keeping your identity safer with Hidden Magic (hide magic auras from alternate identity), Minion Guise (alter ego for animal companion or familiar … Battle Cat!), Safe House (lets you store things away from magical detection), and Social Purview (let’s you pick up another archetype as a cover). There are still 7 other feat options beyond these from 6th to 16th level!
Viking Along with 3 CRB related shield feats, the viking archetype offers you Second Shield (6th; free action to draw shield after breaking one to shield block). You can also get Hurling Charge (4th), Viking Weapon Familiarity (4th), and Viking Weapon Specialist (6th).
Weapon Improviser If you have ever wanted your character to excel at barfighting, then this is your jam. You can avoid the penalties for improvised weapons as well as get training in them! After the dedication you get 5 more feats to choose from that can provide special strikes.
Well, here we are, we made it through all of the archetypes! I am looking forward to seeing what sort of crazy concoctions and combinations I can come up with. Sentinel and Bastion are probably not compatible, or perhaps overkill, but I really wanna see. Scrounger and snarecrafter seem like they could be very interesting together, I think with a rogue base, and definitely either goblin or kobold. I am pretty sure that the Celebrity and Dandy were designed to work well with the Vigilante, and to get there, I think this particular one should start with a bard for extra fun.
Tune in tomorrow as I finish up with a lightning round that looks at some of the feats, spells, and items! And, as always, please join us at our Discord server https://discord.gg/Rt79BAj to let me know what you think or simply have a chat!
