Table of Contents
Class Tier List
This guide is strictly focused on min maxing (i.e. getting the absolute most combat and mechanics value out of characters).
Alchemist (A)
As a base class it’s about bomb-throwing and tossing around personal buffs. We can get a lot more out of subclasses.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Churigeron | B | Just a base class with unneeded healing addition tacked on. Considering we take Infusion on most any Alchemist anyways, it’s as unneeded as it sounds. |
| Grenadier | S- | Nothing much changed from Kingmaker. It’s still a base class+, and and the demand for the unresistable touch elemental damage it offers is at an all-time high. |
| Incense Synthesizer | A+ | Alchemical Bonuses are pretty hard to come by, making it one the better supports out there provided you can find the party slot. |
| Metamorph | C | It wouldn’t be bad if it still had bombs, but as is it’s a more gimmicky Vivisectionist. Granted, it’s not terrible at the whole shape-shifting thing, but we can do better than that. |
| Preservationist | S | Quite good. You don’t sacrifice anything of value and get summons for free out of it. Getting some fodder on top of the usual Alchemist kit is great (even better with a bit of investment). |
| Vivisectionist | S- | Just about as great at the whole tanking and bashing things over the head thing as ever. Still doesn’t care too much about staying pure, but if you are going to dip, Mutation Warrior has him beaten. |
Arcanist (A-)
A cross between Wizard and Sorcerer. Has to prepare the spell list, but casts it spontaneously. Also has arcane pool to do spell-like things or augment his spells. The downside is they don’t get as many casts per day, but they are great for experimenting and learning the game without the drawbacks of either parent class. Damage exploits wouldn’t be that impressive even if we got them as they are at 20 at Level 1. Just pretend they are not there.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Brown-fur Transmuter | A | Despite what the class description says, the best part of the class is transmuting others. Lets pets be dragons. And it’s still an arcanist. I’m not a believer in casters that shapeshift and somehow suddenly become passable melees. What actually happens is you either have bad casting stats because you want to melee or half-bake both parts and do neither of them well. The saving grace here is transmuting others and I quite like it because of that. |
| Eldritch Font | A+ | Pretty much a base arcanist with real good Level 20 ability. Doesn’t do much for us for most of the game. |
| Unlettered Arcanist | B- | Witch spell list is not self-sufficient and the trade is not at all worthwhile. |
| White Mage | A- | Base arcanist with a bit of healing. No good reason to do it; you need utility support anyways and those guys will heal the party (but at least you don’t pay anything for it compared to the base class). |
| Phantasmal Mage | A- | Gnome specific class. It’s okay, at least once you find a way to deal with all those mind-immune enemies out there. The intention seems to be to stack some Charisma and lean heavily on exploit usage but you’re much better off just using the pool to charge your spells. |
Barbarian (B)
With limitless rage, Barbs are at least usable now.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Armoured Hulk | D | About as weak as before. Doesn’t provide anything of value and somehow manages to be even worse than the base class. |
| Beastkin Berserker | C- | Another meme class. We don’t really want to transform into anything much (or rather, it’s not as beneficial as one might think). And there are Alchemists and Arcanists to do it for your party anyways should you want it. |
| Invulnerable Rager | B+ | Same as in Kingmaker. It’s okay. Stack enough Damage Reduction and it won’t die the moment something looks at it funny. Problem is, sooner or later you will find things that hit hard, and then your Rager turns into a pumpkin. |
| Mad Dog | B+ | Same as in Kingmaker (“at least it has a pet”). Inso far as barbs go, it’s decent. |
| Pack Rager | D | Same issues as all ”tactician” classes. We want good teamwork feats on everyone at all times and we don’t really care for the bad ones. At least it works as long as you rage, so it’ll proc automatically in key fights. Something like Tandem Trip and Seize the Moment would be okay picks if you absolutely have to use the class. |
| Instinctual Warrior | SS | Pretty much a Monk with another flavour and fit for other alignments with his own set of benefits (especially when you’re going for more than just a dip). |
Bard (A)
Doesn’t get much love in Wrath of the Righteous so far, but the class is insanely strong as is. Just don’t make squishy backline bards (it’s a waste). One of the best things about the class is their ability to cast with shields without Arcane Spell Failure. Bards want to be on the frontline and kicking enemy teeth in.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Archaeologist | B | It’s still fine as a skill monkey. Could be useful as a 2 level dip to get to Dragon Disciple (while maybe picking up Uncanny Dodge and a feat). However, we don’t really need to dip into it anymore since mirrors are both in higher supply and in lower demand this time around. |
| Beast Tamer | B- | It’s okay if you love pets and summons enough you want to buff them, but I prefer to invest elsewhere. |
| Dirge Bard | A+ | Base bard with questionable gains over the base class. Doesn’t pay anything for it, though, so it’s just a base class+ option. |
| Flame Dancer | B- | Doesn’t offer anything of value and pays with Dirge for it. Even if you don’t want Dirge, you don’t want Flame Dancer either. |
| Thundercaller | A | It’s okay. Problem is, we don’t really need or want a caster bard. |
| Tranquil Whisperer | A | They really want us to have several bards in the party, don’t they? It’s neat. Doubly so if you have Inspire Courage from elsewhere. Sure, any Bard can have Inspire Heroics, but that’s level 15 and going Bard 15 limits what the Bard will be able to do in melee. We want Dragon Disciple 4 for Strength/Caster Level and that’s pretty much the build done. This one can stop at 11 and still provide 3 Armour Class to the whole party while being decent in melee. Overall, Attack Bonus is better than Armour Class, so this one usually doesn’t make the cutting board, despite being pretty strong. |
Bloodrager (A)
This is the barbarian friend your barbarian girlfriend tells you not to worry about. It’s basically an Arcane Paladin with Rage. Granted, Rage is still not the best thing ever, but at least they do get self-cast Mirror Image.
Due to Bloodrage being flat, you mainly want to use double weapons since they both have lots of attacks and will have 1.5 Strength to damage. Unlike Barbs, they are not alignment restricted either, so make your monk ragers all you want!
Most used bloodlines are something like Celestial, Serpentine, Arcane, and Draconic.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bloodrider | A | A casting barbarian with a pet. Not the worst proposition ever. And once the pet stops contributing much in the fight, you can switch to riding it. |
| Greenrager | B | Bad summoner with few upsides to speak of. Meme material. |
| Primalist | S- | The actual bloodrager. Gets everything and then gets Barb Rage powers too. The class exists to drive home the point that Barbs are obsolete. |
| Spell Eater | B | The problem is it’s your spells he’s eating. That and healing is not exactly what you want as a core class feature. |
| Steelblood | A | Armoured Rager. In case you don’t want to spend a level on Monk. About what’s on the tin. Gets some Armour Class on top of just wearing armuor. It’s not the worst thing ever. |
| Reformed Fiend | A | Gets more Attack Bonus/damage against the most common enemy group and effectively pays for it with Damage Reduction. Not the worst trade overall. |
| Mixed-Blood Rager | A- | It’s a decent option to experiment, but that aside, there simply aren’t many bloodlines that are good. Plus, we can take a second bloodline on anyone with a mythic feat. |
Cavalier (B-)
It has a mount and charges enemies is about it. Usable on casual difficulties, but not so much above that.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Beast Rider | B | The same as the base class, except it gets more pet variety. |
| Disciple of the Pike | B+ | Loses a pet for Armour Class and Attack Bonus with spears. Surprisingly, the most usable out of the bunch. |
| Fearsome Leader | B | Removes teamwork feats and gives Dazzling Display. You can grab Dreadful Carnage on him and maybe do something in that direction (or so we’d say if about 1/3 of the enemies weren’t mind immune). |
| Gendarme | B+ | Gets a lot of combat feats but sadly, no access to weapon specialization within the specialization. |
| Knight of the Wall | B- | If you are looking for a tanky cavalier subclass, this is not the one: it simply doesn’t get enough from the kit to tank. |
| Standard Bearer | C | Truly weak. Actually worse than the base class by a huge margin. |
| Cavalier of the Paw | B | Beast Rider for halflings and better in every way at that. Dogs and wolves are awesome pets, so if you wanted a DEX-based Cavalier, this one is for you.The only cavalier without an order, but then there’s nothing to write home about anyway. |
Cleric (A)
Clerics are pretty much the same as we left them in Kingmaker. There is Abadar Nobility + Travel, and Erastil Community + Animal. Everything else is leagues behind. Even if you follow some other god, Mythic Feats mean you can still be a useful Cleric for 1-3 Mythic Feats, which is an acceptable trade.
Another thing going for Clerics is the plethora of evil things in the game our offensive spells are actually good against, so caster Cleric is not as much of a meme past midgame as it was before.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Angelfire Apostle | A- | Gets a modest damage ability to use after casts, so in PNP it feels better to play a cleric. We don’t really care if one of the characters has fun or not in a CRPG, where more spells is generally better. Not the worst thing ever, though. |
| Crusader | S | The sole reason for the high mark is they get weapon specialization which is way harder to get than just spending a Mythic Feat to regain a domain. |
| Devilbane Priest | B | Crusader, except it doesn’t get the weapon specialization so it’s weak. |
| Ecclesitheurge | S- | Same as in Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Blessing of the Faithful is nice to have; Bonded Item is awesome; Domain Mastery is nice. There’s nothing to complain about and armour is hardly a sacrifice. The best caster Cleric out there. |
| Herald Caller | A | Another flavour for the caster Cleric, this time with summons on top of all the usual things. Marginally more useful at lower levels and marginally less so at higher ones. Does cost you a Mythic Feat to recover lost domain, so it can’t be that high on the totem pole. |
| Priest of Balance | A+ | And now for something completely different. This class goes balls to the wall on channeling, stacking CHA instead of WIS and going pure to keep the channel progression. Doesn’t make for the best offensive caster, but summoning would work alright if you need something to do with your feats and slots. |
Druid (B)
Got a bit of love and has some party synergy now.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Blight Druid | B+ | Same as before. A decent three level investment for the Theurge to get Creeping Doom. Other than that doesn’t really have much appeal. |
| Defender of the True World | B- | Same as above, except actually doesn’t have much of a use. Especially in a less Fey-infested campaign. |
| Drovier | B+ | The actual party Druid. Replaces forms unnecessary to a caster druid with party buffs. Not amazing, but it’s better than nothing. |
| Feyspeaker | A+ | Has some Druid chicanery to back up his illusion crowd control. The best caster Druid out there. |
| Elemental Rampager | B+ | Supposed to be a Barbarian-ish Druid. If you must have a shapeshifting Druid, this probably is your choice because you will need that tempo Attack Bonus injection. |
| Primal Druid | B- | It has dinosaurs but they’re pretty weak and aren’t exclusive anyway, so apart from losing a few unimportant class features, the distinction here is unclear. |
Fighter (B)
With Mythic Feats, Fighters are not actually that bad, at least as a dip.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Aldori Defender | B | Too “fair” of a class to unironically pick. Does give Dueling Sword Proficiency, so if you actually want it, it’s two feats for one level, which is a premium. |
| Armiger | B- | Even with a slightly better Bravery, it’s not worth paying feats for it. |
| Dragonheir Scion | The same deal as above (i.e. pays too much for the bloodline). Mediocre. | |
| Mutation Warrior | S+ | All you could want from your Fighter specialization. Amazing 4 or 5 Level dip for Mutagen, Weapon Specialization, and Weapon Training (at Level 5). Not too shabby as a pure class either (Grand Mutagen’s +6AC is nothing to scoff at and you get an extra critical multiplier at Level 20). |
| Tower Shield Specialist | B | At best a 5 level dip for someone who really wants a weapon specialization plus tower shield, and has little plans beyond that. |
| Two-Handed Fighter | B+ | Went from a decent 3 level dip for someone who uses single actions a lot to a decent 4 dip due to weapon specialization being in demand. |
Hunter (B)
Castery Rangers or Fightery Druids. They are not bad. If you love your animal companion to death and don’t want to cast, this could be your pick.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Colluding Scoundrel | B | Core feature is pretty much giving the enemy -2 Attack Bonus (AB), since you can either pick a tank it has no chance to hit or pick an animal for free, after which the enemy either has to chew through that HP or take the malus. And you do some sneak damage while you’re at it. |
| Divine Hound | S- | The best Hunter subclass. Judgements are awesome, Hunter has good spells to work for and your animal pool is “restricted” to the best option available. Just go exactly 16 levels here and get yourself some damage from Mutation Warrior. |
| Divine Hunter | B | It’s basically Sacred Huntsmaster but with Druid flavour and without Favoured Enemy goodies. Pick Community or Nobility. |
| Forester | B | A pet class without a pet. Don’t believe the lie that you get two in one: you lose on action economy and it doesn’t provide nearly enough to compensate. The character sheet looks packed only because it doesn’t provide either of the two most important things: damage and tankiness. |
| Urban Hunter | A- | Combat Maneuver Hunter. Way too much work to join your pet in melee as a Hunter, but if you have the micro to do it, then Lunge and Greater Trip fit exactly into the standard Hunter road to Level 16. Add some teamwork feats for both you and a pet and it can be somewhat worth it, or at least rewarding to play. |
| Wandering Marksman | B+ | This one knows his place. It’s as far from trouble as possible, and he even gets a bit out of it. |
Inquisitor (B)
With Everlasting Judgements, the class is a lot more solid this time around.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Faith Hunter | A- | Base Class+. Has Smite, Bane, and Judgements, so it can ramp up the damage pretty well. |
| Monster Tactician | B | Now that we have a bunch of classes that are competent summoners and the base class mechanic got so much better, Monster Tactician doesn’t seem like a good proposition anymore. |
| Sacred Huntmaster | B+ | There isn’t a single enemy group for the demons so it’s just a worse Inquisitor this time around. If you want to play Sacred, just pick Divine Hound instead. All you’d lose are domains and you can get those elsewhere. The one use case would be to get Solo Tactics and Hunter Tactics on a pet class for a 3 level dip. |
| Sanctified Slayer | S- | One of the best 4 level dips in the game. Get Study (stacks with Slayer), Solo Tactics and a d6 sneak for good measure. If only it also got advanced talents. |
| Tactical Leader | C- | Nothing changed here. Still doesn’t provide anything of value since teamwork feats are not situational (you want the good ones online 24/7 and the mediocre/weak ones are not worth investing in). |
Kineticist (S)
Didn’t get more elements or infusions and Kinetic Whip is still missing. So it still has little party synergy (unless you run real heavy on the ranged side), but the Bowling and Deadly Earth combo is still a thing, so go ahead.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Kineticist | C+ | Way too awkward to use. We want to ramp up to Deadly Earth comfortably, not wrestle with a class gimmick. |
| Dark Elementalist | A- | Still gimmicky, but there are a lot of high level enemies out there to fuel the class feature. It’s just too unreliable compared to just clicking armour in the ability tab. |
| Elemental Engine | A- | About as gimmicky as above. Gather Power is a major source of your longevity as a Kineticist and no bonus is worth losing some of its power. |
| Kinetic Knight | B- | Still trades everything for the privilege of wearing armour and still doesn’t get the whip. We can do better. |
| Overwhelming Soul | B | Can’t burn himself and gets passive damage increases instead. The downside is it’s harder to ramp Combat Maneuver Bonus since he doesn’t get stats from overloading. |
| Psychokineticist | A+ | Same old. Burning Constitution instead of Will saves is preferable since it’s more stat efficient to go CON and DEX. And Psycho needs to decide between Kinetic Diadem and a WIS-boosing circlet. . |
Magus (B)
Core class didn’t change much. Has buffs and can swing heavy objects in the general direction of your opposition (albeit without much in the way of protection).
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Arcane Rider | B- | It’s a Magus with a pet and the conundrum of being too squishy out of the box still unsolved. |
| Armoured Battlemage | B+ | If you want armoured Magus, this is a decent choice. It has a bit of Armour Class (AC) ramp, spell recall, and all he really sacrifices is spell combat (which we already wouldn’t use, opting to two-hand a weapon instead for the 1.5 STR mod). |
| Eldritch Archer | B+ | Still a 2 level dip for most archers and makes a decent blaster caster if you go pure. |
| Eldritch Scion | A | Abyssal 19/Scaled Fist 1 is still a thing one can do. That way we get spell access, okay-ish Armour Class ramp, and Strength boosts at the same time. |
| Hexcrafter | B- | Curses in melee are not worth it and trading Arcana for hexes is not great either. If it could hex using spell combat, that would be at least interesting. |
| Sword Saint | A+ | Offers the highest theoretical damage in the game. In practice, a limited arcane pool means you will be a lot more conservative with your resource burn. The class is still strong, but spells no longer being so sought after and limitless Rage being a thing makes it less attractive. |
| Spell Dancer | B- | Trades the entirety of the Magus kit for 4 Armour Class, and even that comes late. |
Monk (A-)
Don’t fix what wasn’t broken. Monks were good and still are good. Cheap Armour Class ramp and feats galore in just one level. Well okay, it kinda is and was broken, but in a mostly good way. The bad thing is the class generally has little to offer past grabbing it for the dips, as it’s so incredibly front-loaded.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scaled Fist | A+ | CHA to Armour Class. Nice. Persuasion isn’t nearly as much of a draw for main characters anymore so we’ll see a lot fewer of these this time around. Still solid for Lawful Good CHA-based toons. |
| Sensei | B | A half-baked bard. Do yourself a service and pick an actual bard or some other +competence Attack Bonus class. |
| Sohei | S | Solid both as a 1, 6, and 11. Does work with Fighter Weapon Training (arguably the best application of the class, and why the 1 level dip is a thing). |
| Traditional Monk | A | Base monk with marginally better saves. That’s about it. |
| Zen Archer | A | A good 3 level dip for divine archers. That’s pretty much it. Doesn’t stack with Rapid Shot and as such is just a way to save on Mythic Feats, essentially. |
| Quarterstaff Master | A | 12 level investment; stacks a lot of weapon dice in the process. Toss him Legendary Proportions or Frightful Aspect – that alone will end up being pretty respectable, and you still have 8 levels to go. |
| Student of Stone | B- | Oread-specific class. The “amazing” value is supposed to be 1d6 elemental damage to attacks (that will be promptly resisted). |
Oracle (B)
Spontaneous Cleric. If you ever consider playing one, keep in mind it would likely replace an arcane caster in the group, not the cleric (since you’d still want domains no matter what).
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Divine Herbalist | B | Same Oracle, but with some extra healing and free brew potion. Not terrible. |
| Enlightened Philosopher | B | You get some free INT the class doesn’t need. |
| Lone Strider | B+ | Base class with some mobility features. It’s better than it sounds, really, since you can be farther from the action and still be on time with your spells should the need arise. And some teleports for a class that doesn’t have those easily is great for much the same reason. Limits mystery pool, so you likely want to do a caster oracle here. |
| Possessed Oracle | B | Gets some saves and loses a mystery. Not a good trade, but it’s not too crippling. |
| Seeker | B+ | Some extra feats, Also, trapfinding to add out of combat utility. It’s nice as far as Oracles go. |
| Wind Whisperer | B+ | Wind is a solid mystery and you get some “oh crap!” buttons for ambushes. |
| Purifier | A- | Aasimar special kit. It’s decently well-geared towards both melee and caster Oracle (not that it does either job particularly well). The main draw is likely Channel to hurt outsiders while being a CHA-based caster yourself. Grab yourself a shield and some heavy armour and sit tight. |
Paladin (A)
While the base class didn’t get much, it’s far better when the whole campaign is about fighting evil things. It’s what they do, after all.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Divine Guardian | A+ | One of the best 3 level dips for armoured characters in the game. Divine Troth and Smite are great, and extra saves never hurt anyone. |
| Divine Hunter | B+ | In case your archer really wants those saves, you can take a dip. Provides Precise Shot in one level, so if that’s all you’re after, it’s effectively two feats in one level. Otherwise, losing Mark of Justice is not worth it. |
| Hospitalier | A- | They pay for channeling dearly in smites, and you lose Mark of Justice, making it a poor trade. But if you love channeling, go ahead. |
| Martyr | A+ | If you ever wanted a paladin that’s also a bard… Sadly, loses smites along the way, but you are a full Base Attack Bonus class with a lot of saves and a song, so that should count for something. |
| Warrior of the Holy Light | A | Flavour option. Protects the party from criticals somewhat as the selling point. It’s pretty much a base class with a few extra bells and whistles. |
| Divine Scion | A+ | Great 2 level dip for a Deliverer. Decent 5 level dip also. |
| Stonelord | A | Dwarf-specific. Loses CHA saves and smites, but does get very tanky. |
Ranger (B+)
At least this time around you won’t have to guess very hard which enemies to take. The class is about where we left it.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Demonslayer | A+ | In a setting about beating outsiders into submission, it’s pretty much a default ranger with extra bells and whistles. Makes for an amazing 1 level dip too. |
| Espionage Expert | B | CHA-based ranger that unfortunately doesn’t get a pet. |
| Flamewarden | B | A ranger that traded his pet for shiny baubles. What a specimen. |
| Freebooter | A+ | Flanking is exceedingly easy and just 4 levels gives the entire party +2 on the attack. If you ever find yourself with spare levels, it’s worth consideration. |
| Stormwalker | B+ | Flamewarden’s cousin with the mental acuity that runs in the family. |
| Nomad | C+ | Locked into both archery and using a horse. Not the best combination, considering the maps tend to be rather small, so no infinite kiting for you. |
Rogue (B-)
With so many cross-class options, rogue is even less desirable now, but if you really have to…
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Eldritch Scoundrel | A | Hey, this rogue can cast, which automatically makes it pretty neat. Just don’t toss them into melee. Ramping Armour Class on them is thankless work since they don’t really have many tools to facilitate that. The old Scoundrel 8 / Eldritch Archer 2 / Eldritch Knight 10 will still work admirably, though. |
| Knife Master | B+ | Four levels at most for knife-based Monks and Vivisectionists, should you really, really want it. |
| Sylvan Trickster | C | A rogue that for whatever reason spams hexes instead of doing the stabby things. Hexes are nice and all, but it doesn’t have much synergy. |
| Thug | B- | Fear is okay if you are certain you will kill the frightened things with Attacks of Opportunity, but they rarely have low enough HP for that. Also, frightened enemies tend to run into unexplored sections just because of how the encounters work naturally, easily making fights harder for you. On top of that, there are a fair bit of immune enemies to deal with. |
| Underground Chemist | C- | Flavour option. Not substantially different from default Rogue apart from the lack of evasion. Vivisectionist is strongly recommended instead. |
| Rowdy | B+ | Trades Weapon Finesse package for the Vital Strike package. The idea seems to be you slap things around a little, apply Debilitating Injury, and then Greater Vital Strike (GVS) it. That’s all killer, but the character also needs to live to see the day. That’s not exactly on the rogue’s agenda, so you will find yourself frantically dipping along the way to try and stay alive, which will delay your GVS to the point you could’ve gotten it faster elsewhere. |
| Master of All | D | It has the audacity to trade Sneak Attack for Skill Foci. Imagine that. Three of them, no less! |
Shaman (B)
They have hexes and utility. Hexes are great because when your caster has nothing to do you can toss a hex instead. Better action economy is always welcome.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Possessed Shaman | B | A skill monkey that can adapt to your needs. Granted, if you would ever use one, chances are he’ll have Trickery locked in forever. |
| Spirit Hunter | A+ | More Fightery Shaman. Notably, gets Weapon Specialization from Battle Spirit at Level 8 and can get a second one from the mythic feat. Additionally, Enchant Weapon is built into the class. Has hexes, but would mostly use those to ramp his combat prowess. No two ways about it: it’s a solid martial character. |
| Spirit Warden | B | The anti-undead shaman. Way too narrow as we don’t expect to fight undead all the time. |
| Witch Doctor | B | A shaman with Channel Healing. About what’s on the tin. |
| Unsworn Shaman | B | More versatility. If you are not sure what you want, you at least won’t have to live with most of your decisions. |
| Shadow Shaman | A+ | The exact same thing Spirit Hunter does, but with sneak instead of the weapon enchant. |
| Wildland Shaman | A- | Half-orc class that gets a pet. Not a bad deal all in all, although something more focused would be preferable. |
Skald (A)
Barbarian Bard, except the Rage is party-wide. If you love Rage and physical-focused parties, you might find a place for a Skald. Too bad spell kenning didn’t make the cut.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Battle Scion | B | Teamwork feats for the party come at a tremendous cost again. It’s strongly recommend you skip this. |
| Court Poet | S- | Bonuses on the casting stats are not easy to come by. Plus it adds some Armour Class and doesn’t brick casting. All in all, it’s the best Skald subclass. |
| Demon Dancer | B | Bites for everyone. Won’t be too impactful overall, so it’s mostly flavor unless you run a really melee-heavy party.. |
| Herald of the Horn | A | A more castery Skald. A bit similar to Thundercaller with about the same shortcomings. |
| Hunt Caller | D | Lost his bonus spells along the way from beta. Pointless now with fewer Rage powers than normal and nothing to show for it. |
| Battle Singer | D | A bit like Herald of the Horn, except it trades Rage powers for some janky songs. |
Slayer (A)
Still has good damage and all that. Nothing major has changed.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Arcane Enforcer | A+ | A slayer with Arcanist exploits. A decent 1-3 level investment. |
| Deliverer | A+ | A better rogue than rogue. Just be Lawful Good and you will have lots of sneak versus the vast majority of enemies. |
| Executioner | A- | Hunts humaniods better and everything else worse. Specialization is key and all, but not like this. |
| Spawn Slayer | A+ | Demons tend to be pretty big, so at least they have that going for them. Or just pick Deliverer and be good against everything. It’s damage versus consistency. |
| Stygian Slayer | D | They get some pretty mediocre spells and pay with feats to get them. Very weak. |
| Vanguard | D | Another tactician; doesn’t offer much. |
| Imitator | D | Sacrifices way too much just for psuedo versatility points. |
Sorcerer (S)
As strong as ever.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Crossblooded | A+ | Receives spells and some of the 1st level benefits from the second bloodline. The downside is you will have a lot less slots. Used to get two bloodlines on anything you want, which is why Arcane Trickster sorcerers are no longer in style. |
| Empyreal Sorcerer | A- | Wisdom sorcerer. Doesn’t get enough extra to be actually worth it, but it’s a full arcane caster at the end of the day, so it’s not all bad. |
| Sage Sorcerer | S | INT sorcerer. Does the same thing the Arcane bloodline does (the sole reason to keep Sorcerer reasonably pure). |
| Seeker | A | Base sorcerer with more feats and trickery at the cost of a slightly more watered down version of the bloodline. |
| Sylvan Sorcerer | A+ | Can now ride his pet once he outlives his frontline usefulness, in case we needed more convincing. |
| Nine-Tailed Heir | B- | Kitsune sorcerer. Offers some janky spell-like abilities that will be outdated long before you get them. The only thing putting the mark above water is it’s still a sorcerer. |
| Overwhelming Mage | A+ | Spell penetration and an occasional Difficulty Class boost. It’s pretty good, but not Sage Sorcerer good. |
Warpriest (B)
More Fightery Clerics that get lesser versions of Domains called Blessings. They do have some Armour Class and damage ramp to somewhat justify their existence.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Champion of the Faith | B- | Trades weapons enchants for smites. Mediocre. |
| Cult Leader | A | Trades a whole bunch of feats for sneak and hips. Still worth it, although Shield Bash will be hard to fit in. |
| Disenchanter | B- | Trades a few feats for Dispel. Way too situational and we can always get Dispel elsewhere anyway. |
| Feral Champion | C- | Since claws are always two attacks, it’s just a downgrade. |
| Proclaimer | B+ | Extra damage every round at the cost of losing the channel. Good stuff. The rest of the kit is unimpressive, though. |
| Shield Bearer | B- | Can buff his shield as well as his weapon, but doesn’t get Sacred Armour. Cult Leader is much better. |
Witch (A-)
Hexes and arcane magic, mainly centered around Necromancy, Conjuration, Transmutation, and Light support. Hexes are great for giving casters something to do instead of pointlessly burning slots. The bad news is witch’s spell list lacks some direction, so you have to rely on your patron to fill the gaps, which they don’t do amazingly well.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Hagbound | C | If you absolutely have to use Transmutations on a caster, you can try this one. It’s a confused class that doesn’t really know what it’s aiming at, though. At least Vile Curse is pretty good. |
| Hex Channeler | B+ | Witch with Channel. Same as Shaman: if you feel you need that extra bit of healing, do it (but you generally won’t). |
| Leyline Guardian | A+ | The ability to supercharge spells is better than it might seem. It’s a game of action economy, so the more you do in one action, the better. And she’s a spontaneous caster, which can be nice or not, depending on whether you’re comfortable with spell selection. |
| Stigmatized Witch | B+ | CHA-based witch. Spontaneous caster. Has a curse, so she can get Mirror Image in her spell-list from Pranked to somewhat extend her lifespan. The downside is curses don’t help much with witch’s spell list. |
| Elemental Witch | D | Loses a lot of hexes for a weak ray attack. |
| Witch of the Veil | D | Loses a bunch of hexes to save on Vanish potions. |
Wizard (A)
Still an arcane caster with fast spell progression. Has a witch to compete with now, but his superior spell list gives him the edge.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Arcane Bomber | B+ | A wizard, in a way, is far more specialized than other classes. We rest and hope our spell list fits whatever we fight, so it ends up being more cookie-cutter than sorcerers even. Arcane Bomber just facilitates that. It’s not that hard to drop four schools (Abjuration, Enchantment, Divination, and Conjuration, for example). Focus on Illusion and Necromancy and you’re done. In exchange, you get something to do in empty rounds, although with Witches and hexes around, it’s harder to justify. |
| Exploiter Wizard | S- | Pretty much Arcanist with more spells per day, but without the spontaneous casting of selected spells. All that means in practice is we can toss away useless spells and fuel the good ones. It makes so much more sense on a wizard. |
| Scroll Savant | A+ | Generic wizard without too many downsides. With scroll scribing and whatnot, it can serve you well. |
| Thassilonian Specialist | A | Glutton is still pretty decent for a Theurge, but the competition is fierce and it doesn’t win out in any other application. |
| Elemental Specialist | S | Convert your spells from level 1 at no cost to the tempo. Wow. This a subclass and a half. |
| Spell Master | A+ | The best wizard for newer players as it can simulate the sorcerer playstyle with copious amounts of bonded items. |
| Cruoromancer | A | Lich is a strong path and Necromancy is not a bad school. This class would be higher ranked if Necromancy wasn’t so weak in the first half of the game. |
Prestige Classes
Most prestige classes in Pathfinder are roleplaying choices and are on average worse than just keeping it pure, but there are always exceptions.
| Class | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Duelist | D | Some Armour Class and a bit of damage. No casting, nothing special. Just pretend it doesn’t exist, unless you want to roleplay. |
| Mystic Theurge | A- | All-in-one package for when you need to condense roles. Mostly useful as Ecclesitheurge 8 / Gluttony 3 / Mystic Theurge 9. You will lose a bit of raw damage potential, but it’ll cover you on crowd control and buffs completely, which is nice. |
| Hellknight Signifier | B | Armoured caster weapon of choice. That is to say, it’s for casters that want Armour Class (AC) and somehow missed the memo about Archmage Armour. So long as armour is weak and requires investment for the privilege of having substantially less AC, this class will be forgotten. |
| Hellknight | C | Half a paladin with few redeeming qualities. |
| Assassin | F | Everything is immune to poison and it’s not possible to stack enough INT while being even semi-viable to Death Attack anything successfully. The whole kit is weak and makes you miss Holy Vindicator. |
| Eldritch Knight | A | Full Base Attack Bonus (BAB) with arcane spell progression. If you don’t want to rely on transformation and to actually cast while fighting, this is pretty unavoidable for full caster arcane gishes (i.e. characters proficient in both magic and melee). |
| Stalwart Defender | B | 1 Armour Class (AC) and a stance for 1 level; Uncanny Dodge for 3 and another point of AC for 4. Generally, more investment than it’s worth, but it’s an option. |
| Student of War | B- | If you’d ever find yourself picking this, it’d be for Mind Over Metal. That said, the opportunity cost is pretty high with at least two feats you likely wouldn’t take otherwise. It’s generally easier to cough up some stats, especially since the class itself is weak and wants us to spend move actions to study a foe. |
| Arcane Trickster | A+ | This is what allows elemental spells to do insane amounts of damage. Just slap Cross-blooded Sorcerer with two draconic bloodlines on it, and you are in the money. |
| Dragon Disciple | A+ | Four levels. No more, no less. You get 3 Armour Class, STR, and 3 Caster Levels for it. It’s great, but also makes it hard for non-spontaneous gishes (i.e. characters proficient in both magic and melee) to ever compete. |
| Aldori Swordlord | C- | DEX is kind of poor for melee, but if you have to do it, one level of this is not the worst thing. Problem is, you will be stuck without the damage mod for awhile and it won’t be a pleasant experience, so it’s not recommended. |
| Winter Witch | B+ | It’s pretty decent for a main character Shaman. Would be awesome on the witch if Loremaster gave us the wizard spell secret as advertised. |
| Loremaster | A | Currently allows you to take feats out of order, including taking Improved Improved Critical as a combat secret. Would be an S rank if it actually had spell secrets as advertised. Still a solid 3-5 dip currently. |
Race Tier List
This guide is strictly focused on min maxing (i.e. getting the absolute most combat and mechanics value out of characters).
Race usually won’t make or break a character, but not all are created equal.
| Race | Rank | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Human | SS | Top of the stack, as usual. A tempo feat and an extra skill-point that allows humans to be imbeciles and still have some skills. A perfect representation of humanity. |
| Elf | S | Elven magic and elven feats are now gold. Hands down the best caster race, at least in cases where we can scale things from INT. |
| Dwarf | B | About average but pretty sturdy. The Barrow variant is probably the best. |
| Gnome | B | The Illusion school is nice since it can be most everything; the issue is it takes quite some wind out of our sails. Pyromaniac subrace is pretty interesting on paper but is difficult to implement effectively. |
| Halfling | B+ | Lots of Armour Class here with racial feats taken. If you want a midget tank, this is your pick. Hasty is the one to go for. Initiative is awesome; initiative for essentially free (at least if you are adamant on playing halfling), is even better. |
| Half-Elf | A | Almost elves if you squint hard enough. Can take Elven Magic as a feat or a dual heritage. Taking Kindred Raised and then Elven Magic is one of the better ways to get a Charisma-based caster. |
| Half-Orc | B+ | If you pick one of the alternative features, the race is at least usable. And they have +Armour Class feat, so they make some decent fighters if you take Human-Raized and Ironhide |
| Aasimar | A- | Enough stats to almost compete with imbecile human and they can get wings for that juicy Armour Class ramp, should you need it. One of the better options out there for most any build; we just can often do ever so slightly better. |
| Tiefling | A | These go from awful to insanely overpowered in a heartbeat. Motherless is the only worthwhile Tiefling subrace. Free bites are great. |
| Oread | B | Elemental dudes and dudettes. Ironsoul is the only one worth considering since Lead Blades scale damage well. Downside is Ironsoul means +2 CON +2 WIS -2 DEX, so you’d need to jump through some extra hoops to make it happen. |
| Dhampir | B | Undead bois. The take 20 on Persuasion checks feat is nice if you are not the save-scumming sort, and the immunities are okay to have (albeit easily replaceable by a spell). |
| Kitsune | B | Make your fursona today. Vulpine Pounce is pretty decent; Magic Tail isn’t. |
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