Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Best Main Character Builds

Melee Sorcerer

Regardless of what focus you pick, go with the staff until Level 11.

Start Lawful Good, make every evil decision under the sun to roleplay the Lich thing, and use an Atonement Scroll if you ever want to use Divine Grace. Background doesn’t really matter; just pick whatever you feel is appropriate.

Does somewhere around 400-500 damage per round (DPR) by teens, not counting Attacks of Opportunity (AoO). Pretty good.

† Any lawful will do, but you will miss out on bestow grace if you are not Lawful Good. Lawful Evil is more roleplaying-appropriate, though.

†† Make sure you have this at 5 by the time you are Level 5.

††† Can be of any Draconic bloodline, but the small amount of resistance you get from it is most beneficial as acid. We don’t care about the spell damage part.

† Pick whatever weapon you fancy. Staves will get an extra attack from Flurry, but it’s up to preference. I chose falchion for a blind run just because the threat range is way too good to pass up.

†† Or Arcane Strike.

Lich spells are highlighted in yellow.

† Reasoning is simple: first, undead can’t be enlarged (at least not easily). Second, the melee line will already be quite packed in most parties already. Since his STR is +0, toss him a heavy crossbow and an amulet from the Heart of Stone in Wintersun.
†† 30 rounds of free Dirge and some spells is great. Skeleton Wisdom and INT are weak so it wouldn’t even be able to cast Cleric, Inquisitor, or Magus spells. Boo.

Baked Trickster

The logic here is pretty simple: stack as many dice and attacks as possible. Nothing accomplishes this quite like good old Motherless Vivisectionist (especially given the relatively high INT requirement for the skill gain). Good offense, good defense, synergistic spell-lists, 15d6 sneak, and enough feats to fit in the essentials. Beast Shape is taken to infuse party animal companions, because alchemists can.

Go with the staff for quite a while, since Flurry will be better than +1 from the focus and switch to a falchion once you have Improved Critical. You also probably want someone with Magic Fang so your natural attacks actually hit things.

† Doesn’t matter past Level 1.
†† +2 Initiative is the best thing we can grab here.

†† Or Falchion.
†Or Demonslayer and just use mage armor potions you can buy and craft.

† Or Arcana 3

Anointed Knight

A more or less classic Anointed Knight, except it takes Monk and Archmage Armour to scale Armour Class (AC). Can’t really be helped, since the game wants us to. (If only there was a Mythic Armour focus that would scale it instead.)

Gets all the important Paladin stuff, plus some Angel goodies, and is tailor-made to make everything evil suffer. Stacks so much Attack Bonus (AB) it’s actually feasible to use Power Attack without being crippled by it. That AB also makes it easy to skip the Shatter Defenses line; someone will be able to toss Greater Invisibility on us and that’s good enough.

† Purely because +2 Initiative is the best thing we can grab here.

†Or Demonslayer and just use mage armor potions you can buy and craft.

†† Free feats. Can pick whatever else you fancy here.

† Mainly used to quickly see if the target is evil before using Smite.

† Free slot. Pick whatever you fancy.

† Or Solar Winds.

Kinetic Demon

The synergy here is through the roof.

• Can somewhat neglect DEX and rely on Rage to carry us
• Demonic Spell Difficulty Classes (DC) are awful, making it a perfect fit for Enforce Vigor
• Aspect of Kalavakus is absolutely broken with Kineticist trips. I won’t spoil the interaction, but it’s insane and hilarious at the same time, while Balor both charges our DC further and buffs the team for free.
• The build really doesn’t need much in the way of Mythic feats, so it actually can take trips, Spell Penetration, and whatnot without hurting the bottom line.

Zen was taken in case you want to melee a bit and Perfect Strike is nice for that as well. Also, Lifebane can absolutely be cast on your Kinetic Blade for added hilarity.

Have fun with it while it lasts.

† For one level we take Monk. I’d recommend starting Neutral Evil, then edging to Lawful for a level, so you can Scroll of Atonement back to where you were.

†† Purely because +2 Initiative is the best thing we can grab here.

† Free slot. Pick whatever you fancy.
†† All are fine, pick whatever you like better for the last slots.

Instinctual Trickster

This savage is a crafty one! It’s your barbarian, except the sort that wants to live and considers her brutish relatives a bunch of chest-pounding imbeciles. Stacks monstrous damage (including 11-20/x5 crit) and has some divine support for the team. Mythic Charge applies on every strike with Pounce. Archmage Armour comes from Mage Armour potions (which you should buy and craft). Other than that, there’s nothing tricky about the build (no pun intended).

† Or whatever else weapon you fancy. Scythe is a solid option too.

† Or Close to the Abyss.

† Religion Rank 2 is currently bugged and only provides one domain. Pick your poison for now.

Arcane Azata

Be warned: wizards are not friendly to new players. You have to know what you are doing with your spell list as it’s not feasible to list spell books for every stage of the game.

Starts as a control wizard and goes into the damage dealing business late (while adding even more control, because we can). Selective Grease, Web, and Shout are not subject to spell resistance and should carry you to Level 15, at which time you can utilize Arcane Trickster fully.

Skipped Mythic Spell Penetration because elf has enough as is. Grabbed Enchantment instead. Cold was picked because Waterfall is a thing that exists. More damage for us.

The modus operandi in late-game is to cast Selective Sirocco and blast things with Chain Lightning. Selective Caustic Eruption does converted element damage but the damage over time is still acid, so we have three elements going at the same time, all triggering barrage. It’s not that much, but it adds up.

Elemental Focus is taken to boost Chain Lightning Difficulty Class as that’s the one in most need of it.

† Or Cold Elemental Foci, but it’s not really worth it just for Mass Icy Prison.

† Free feat, can take whatever else if you really want to. Could take second Bloodline: Arcane here for 1 more Difficulty Class on our crowd control spells. Or Fey to boost some enchantment spells.

Saucerer

A sorcerer with some secret sauce to get her going. It’s your caster Lich, complete with a metric ton of spells, increased Difficulty Classes for both used schools of magic, ray criticals (crits), and whatever else you could dream of. Has a wide array of selective spells to use at all stages of the game, because having crowd control is a good mojo.

Bolstered Siphon Life is devastating on crit and it can’t be saved on, so that’s one of your main tools for single target damage. Bolstered Battering Blast is also not too shabby.

New Arcana in order of taking: Level 4, 6, 8, 8, 9, 9.

† Depending on which skill set you like better.

† Any will do, really. If you picked Pickpocket background, Trickery is best in slot.

† Bloodline spell (no need to pick)

† Or Last Stand, depending on how much you hate loading occasionally. Would’ve taken Improved Critical here if it worked for rays, which it currently doesn’t.

Chad Wolf & Wolf Chad

Assert dominance over lesser demons by knocking them on their arse; assert dominance over your teammates by fireballing them before combat. Ride a wolfer the size of a horse; stack Armour Class (AC) and Damage Reduction on your pet so his iron skin breaks demon claws. Don’t give a damn about your own AC because only style matters. Celebrate every new location with a bottle.

Core things you need to know about this build:

• Cast Aspect of the Wolf on yourself once you have it and right-click the ability to auto-use it.
• Shields are important for your pet to get anywhere reasonable with his AC
• Buff your pet like you would yourself otherwise
• Get a Skald with beast totems
• Get a Cleric with Nobility domain
• Use heavy shield until Fighter levels, then swap to tower shield. You have enough Attack Bonus for it.

Doing all that should get your pet to around 70 effective AC.

Dragons Build

Plays like a nuker sorcerer until she gets Dragonforms. Bolster magic does well to… bolster our spells. Selective Sirocco is a nice crowd control spell when we get it. Bolstered Magic Missile is busted. Waterfall + Bolstered Chain Lightning = big damage.Important note about buff routine for melee: Cast Geniekinds (all 4) before (!) Dragonform and Frightful Aspect after the Dragonform, along with the rest of the buffs. Cast Transformation when you know you will go full melee since it will disable your spellcasting. Otherwise consider your Dragonform a fancy-looking buff.

† Bloodline, no need to pick
†† Gained via item, no need to pick

DJ Aeon

Good at summoning and good at buffing summons. Can convert spells to summoning as a full round action (although it’s a good idea to slot one summoning spell per level, excepting 5 for emergencies). Aeon Gaze and Bane work wonders for juicing up summoned animals (and don’t forget Guarded Hearth and Inspiring Command from a local cleric). Spells from the Aeon list compliment Druid self-buffs perfectly.

Cast Geniekinds (all 4, Extended) before shapeshifting, then buff the rest. Cast Transformation last if you want to go all out on melee, but don’t extend it since it’d last way too long for comfort.

Rampager was picked as Druid needs any help he can get to land hits, especially early on. Monk is there to help with Armour Class and to give us another claw attack before we get to at least a Leopard. Archmage Armour is gained through Mage Armour potions, which you should buy and craft.

† Or any other skill you need

Divine Rider

Have you ever wondered what woud happen if Sosiel was built for combat and not for love? This would. Caster Level 33 Arbitraments to clear the mooks and then your buffed team and yourself will do the rest. Also, other cool offensive angel stuffs.

We generally are perfectly happy sitting on the boar and casting, occasionally poking enemies with Outflank once in a while, but with all the buffs, we can hit if need be.

Didn’t have the space to take mounted feats, so the pet is a tiny bit vulnerable. It’s okay: boars are sturdy enough.

Important note about party composition: everyone has to be neutral on one axis or they will die! Arbitrament was chosen for the fact there are loads of neutral companions, so you shouldn’t have many problems filling the ranks.

Angel can break spellbooks; it’s fixed by save-load.

† Or any other skill you need

Mr. Smite

Melee/caster Oracle. Uses buffs to melee and Angel stuff for Area of Effect and unmitigatable damage. Has full animal companion progression. Smites on tough opponents for even more Attack Bonus (AB). Jinx for ultimate single-target damage. Uses Geniekinds (x4) for Barrage (don’t forget to disable Divine Conversion once you get it!) and even before that it’s extra damage converted. Cast Enlarge/Frightful after (!). Double dips CHA to Armour Class (AC) and dumps DEX, so any gear with extra opportunity attacks is pure gold for this one.

Has Extend to fill underused levels. Doesn’t require Spell Penetration since all the offensive magic we use is not a subject to it (or saves, for that matter). Has some fodder to spawn if need be, but prefers not to. Stacks around 57AB self-buffed (with the Smite against demons). With Bard/Skald, Guarded Hearth, and Inspiring Comand factored in, it’s about 80AB at the top end. 16 Base Attack Bonus (BAB) for four iterative attacks.

We could go for Enduring spells instead of Abundant for even more comfortable play, but it’d come at Mythic level 10, leaving us with low tempo prior, so it’s only really there as a respec option.

Uses Mage Armour potions/scrolls for Archmage Armour, so buy and craft those. Has Use Magic Device for Mirror Image scrolls you should craft and the wands you can find.

Burns bright and quick. Has maybe 10 minutes of full force fighting at the top end.

Note: Abundant Smite doesn’t give Hellknight extra Smites and Order of the Nail Favored Enemy is broken (or it would absolutely find its way in). Weak class still weak even on a Smiting build. Sad.

Special thanks to Cyrix for bouncing some ideas around during the brainstorming process for this one.

† Or Trickery

† Oracle spells
†† Angel spells