Greataxe cause the vanquisher is a thing that exists and it doesn't require a feat. Also, greataxes have the most unique items out of any weapon group, so there's that too, so it'll be a good choice for beneath the stolen lands as well.

As for wotr, it depends on the items, I'll probably do a blind run with armored sorc with something like Sorc4/F1/DD4/hellknight signifier4/EK7, provided they won't make us to actually wear the mask in the head slot.

Thanks !

Looks good ! Armored sorc armed with a Scythe and following the Lich mythic path could be a cool concept !

Probably not the scythe, unless there's some real good ones out there. I'll probably take some pole focus. Reach is always good even if the weapons themselves will be not so impressive. Mythic paths I'm not so sure about. Will have to see what they actually do.

Hi, I hope you're doing well.

I'm playing this once again in preparation for wotr's imminent release and have came up with another bad build I hope you can comment on. Basically a dazzling rogue so that I dont have to rely on flanking for sneak bonus. I might take full levels of duelist or swordlord for defense.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, amazing insight into the game and companion builds.

If i were to make Gandalf into PK, what classes would he be?
Based on Tolkien story of course. For example he summoned a giant eagle to jump off Saruman's tower by catching a moth and mumbling to it. He fights with his long sword and staff a lot, he summons Shadowfax a legendary stallion etc.

Magus?\druid?\wizard?

Gandalf is probably a wizard7/druid3/theurge10. Something like choke me daddy from the unfair guide. That seems to fit reasonably well since it's mainly buffs and a bit of CC. Speaking with animals is just a druid thing, although it's not really in the game. and if he really had to melee he could have transformation ready.

Thank you for replying! How would you go at the build? level spread wise? Do you know which gears i could equip him with? And if you don't mind, how would you build Aragorn as a ranger? no pets, no ranged attack, no dual fighting, is this even possible?

The build is in the unfair guide.
As to the ranger... Aragorn is pretty much a freebooter. You can pick up archery tree and use 2h in melee. The animate dead part of him is probably out, but you can add jaethals ability with bag of tricks for that. Something like booter 6+something should fit alright. The something part depends on how much RP vs power level you want. Switching between ranged and melee is kinda bad in the game since we can't drop the bow on the ground as a free action, so switching weapons is always a standard action. Without going too much off the path deliverer 12/Booter 6/Fighter 2 seems reasonable.

Hello, I wanted to express my thanks for this incredible thread and your support for the people that want to play this game in unfair difficulty (I find myself hooked, and want to do my first playthrough in this difficulty, I am a PNP player and love to see such faithful translation to a videogame).
Anyways, for my first playthrough I wanted to see if we can combine the nuker sorcerer build with an arcane trickster build. Something that can summon and flank enemies doing some damage while in range, and transform and tank if necessary. Could it be possible with a wizard, vivisectionist and arcane trickster build? Could It also cast while transformed?
Thanks in advance, and if you won't respond, no worries

That's way too many things to do at once. The game rewards specialization. The way transforms work in PF is different from 3.5, which is what you probably are thinking about. Instead of replacing caster stats they augment them. What it means is that if you want to be decent in transform you'd need pretty much a monk spread instead of a caster spread. This would mean all you can offer are buffs/no save spells.

I did my solo unfair run with sylvan8/SF1/V1/AT10, if memory serves, but that's more of a caster and the pet is there for the earlygame. However it's highly contingent on getting several items that are not easy to procure, especially on the first run. For something that's gonna have the party and is not too gear-dependant, I'd just go pure sylvan with conjurations and necro added in the teens. You can use sylvan from the unfair guide and just toss a bit more stats around.

The best summoning spell in the game is animate dead and it doesn't benefit from any feats or class features. There's a staff out there to buff them, though. So pretty much any full arcane caster or cleric has access to the best summoning spell out of the box.

Transforms themselves are kinda meh for unfair. They just don't do enough damage. The only decent usage for them is to have an alchemist with infusion in the party and use transformation spells on the animal companions from someone else. That and your access to the natural attack buffs is kinda limited. By using forms extensively you open a whole can of worms with needing someone that can cast greater magic fangs and all. Which would likely mean taking a Wizard7/Druid3/Theurge10 for the ride, which in turn will put more strain on everything else and taking a lot of mercs is kinda cheating. You can go for feyspeaker shifter yourself as MC, but that doesn't do the whole nuking thing.

TL;DR You have to decide if you want to do physical attacks or offensive casting from the get-go. The two don't mesh well.

Thanks for the incredible rapidly response! Then leaving the transforming part out of equation would be something as sorc, or wizard with arcane trickster and then animate dead when you get there with Vivi 1, right?

If no summoning, then that feyspeeker, sorc and theurge would be viable instead?

If you want AT, the draconic sorc is the bees knees. It's just a lot of items you will have to push artisans for. It's not something I'd recommend for newer players, but the draconic sorc build is also in unfair guide with the item list.

Feyspeaker is decent as a shifter, because it gets mirror and things like creeping doom don't scale off your stats. As all druids he can summon, it's just not something to rely on beyond providing some meatbags on the field.

Sorc can be of any flavor. Conjuration/necro sylvan is just the smoothest to go with, especially if you are not confident in your kingdom/time management.

Theurge... it's not something I'd recommend for a main character. It's something you hire late, preferably at 20. It can be an insane powerhouse with a lot of things packed in, but it's a pure suffer to level. The only theurge that's kinda almost tolerable would be Ecc8/Glutton3/Theurge9 since you can do cleric 8 for the domains before moving to theurge there and animate dead alone can carry you pretty far into the game, so it's kinda almost fine.

Then I think I'll try feyspeeker as it ticks most of my boxes, I have just finished act 1 with a monster tactician and your builds of companions and it has been a smooth play, but I fear that it will be bad in late game

Depending on the difficulty. Below unfair most anything goes so long as it even vaguely makes sense. And unfair is more of a playstyle change than anything. You just kinda have to have certain tools for the job there. Like proper buff stacking, an alchemist in the party for personal buffs to everyone, reliable CC and all that. And a good amount of energy AoE damage for the late-game, cause fighting mandragoras fairly is no fun.