Kingmaker Build SOS: Aldori Defender

Requested by a patron: how to build an Aldori Defender, or a tanky Fighter in general, and what is best for tanking/AC.
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[@Philistine47]

In this game, there is one very good reason to take Dueling Sword proficiency even for a STR build: the devs threw in *lots* of good magical Dueling Swords, and *very few* magical Longswords. Especially in the early- and mid-game.

[@Dinawartotem]

Dueling sword counts as a two-handed weapon when wielded without a shield. You can go super high offense with combat reflexes, abuse AOO's with power attack/cleave

[@Mrwarspite1]

Thanks for all the info Dark.

[@WillWonkeyTertel]

Nice to see another vid o7 cool build keep up the good work!

[@TygrinDrox]

God it’s been a while I looked at my subscriptions tab and saw this I got so happy

[@Jadersonfisico]

Something that you did not mention is that the Aldori Defender will have higher AC against touch attacks than a regular sword and shield fighter because they keep the extra dodge bonus against touch attacks. Actually, the regular sword and shield fighter has poor AC against touch attacks.

[@blackedd5]

one of the artisans makes a +5 leather armor with a 20 max dex bonus. Also crane style and crane wing eliminates the penalty to fighting defensively and grants a further +4 dodge bonus to melee when combined with steel net (though that does require a lvl in monk and 2 feats or spending 4 feats)

[@shun2240]

Is the armor worth losing the wis/cha bonus to Dodge ac and braces of armor?

[@alexwerner487]

Reread the parry ability it does not say while only wielding the sword with nothing in the other hand. You can go full heavy armor and shield. None of the restriction from pnp are in this game. This is true for all the aldori abilities. The only time while fighting that you will lose your ac is when and if you start trying to use maneuvers such as disarm as you have to use full attacks to get the parry bonus. Now as to builds you would need to eat a feat for imp unarmed (or dip monk) if you go crane style which synergies with steel net for 0 loss to attack with a gain of 4 or 5 ac. You would also want to stay with the class for counter attack so if they hit you get an AOO and if they miss but are close to hitting you a AOO triggers.

[@zmpbeek8321]

Love the vids dude! I like that its more theorycrafting then just summing up builds. That way we can learn something and not just repeat a youtube video. One problem with this build though…. I started a Aldori Defender on hard difficulty (yes I like to torture myself) and I’m loving it so far. I just reached lvl 4 and then I ran into a big problem: In Pathfinder Kingmaker you cant use DEX for combat maneuvers with weapon finesse; you also need Agile Maneuvers that’s a whole extra feat for the sole purpose of using DEX for disarm and other combat maneuvers. To make it worse you cant pick agile maneuvers until after you pick disarm. So with this build you have to pick a feat you cant use for a whole level because it starts out strength based. Doesn’t this make a DEX build for the Aldori to weak in the midlevels since we are already starving for feats (because of the also mandatory combat expertise) I was wondering when you played the build, what was the upside to making a DEX based Aldori. I would like to know before continuing a broken character on this brutal difficulty. Thanks

[@michaelb2707]

Halfling with Cautious fighter and a 1 level dip into scaled fist monk. Crane style as feat. Lots of AC fighting defensive with no negative. At upper levels dip 2 levels paladin to get high Charisma to saves.

[@florianschweighart6195]

Hey do u think a similiar dex build just going into bard archeo is good? i dont know currently lvl 3 and feeling pretty weak so far.

[@olhristov]

There are feats that can increase the amount of opportunity attacks you can make per round. If combine this with some solid fear crowd control spells you can poke enemy melee combatants while wasting their time.

[@geraldbawisk4465]

hey guys i had a question about grow claws magus scion (green dragon) 1. is this unarmed attacks if so you get 2 claws so you cant cast spells cause your duel wielding? right cause u need a free hand? 2. i think it turns you unarmed into a natural so how do you make this worth it? seems kinda meh to be but i really want to make this work.

[@The_Custos]

Can you burn a feat to enable better armour?

[@MuppetLord1]

Great! :D Next episode of your pally playthrough coming up soon too? ^^

[@darkfireslide]

Yup! Should be live in a few hours.

[@shun2240]

There is a leather armor that allows 20 dex bonus to ac

[@adammusia9527]

You could also multiclass to a rouge for 3 lvls to get free weapon finesse at 1st, evasion feat at 2nd + combat trick: accomplished sneak attacker, and at 3rd lvl finesse training: dueling sword, and you'd save up some feats, deal additional 3d6 sneak attack, you'd have an open road to be more sneaky kind of melee char. IMHO for role playing purposes that kind of playstyle fits aldori perfectly.

[@mateipaveluc488]

Alternatively you could go one level in aldori swordlord and you would get deft strikes which gives that dex to damage, you can also continue with the prestige class which goes with aldori defender perfectly, sneak attack is nice though

[@adammusia9527]

@@mateipaveluc488 yeah, but Qldori swordlord has prereqs, and you have to have some lvls for it, with 3-4 lvls of Rogue you get so many free things and additional sneak dmg, it's better than Swordlord imho

[@sergiofernandezlorenzo3446]

I'd like to ask for your opinion, guys. A thing I'e been trying lately is a melee offensive caster character who is not a magus. Just for fun. Also because I dont like having an empty hand. A wizard/sorcerer + Eldrich Knight seems to be the best option, but only when you reach EK level 10 feat for swift casting spells. The Eldrich Scoundrel is fun, but it doesn't have any mechanc for swift casting spells while in melee, like the magus or EK, so it's not that good at higher difficulties. I think the only reason anyone would go Eldrich Scoundrel over Arcane Trickster is for staying in melee, but it doesn't seem to be a good tradeoff. Then, the divine casters, like ranger, which is fun but only has lvl 4 spells, or a shapeshifter druid, or an inquisitor. Maybe a super offensive cleric could work, too. Paladins are more focused on support and tanking than doing damage, so they don't fit what I was thinking. I've tested all of those, but the only one I found to be competitive with the magus is the Eldrich Knight at level 15, so... I wanted to ask, what do you think? Is magus the only viable option ever? Is eldrich scoundrel really such a useless class? How good coud an offensive melee divine caster be? Does anyone else find this whole thing interesting at all, or it's just me?

[@stefanhansen8623]

u can do good damege whit a paladin

[@darkfireslide]

Necromancy is a great school for an enterprising eldritch knight to be different but still be effective in melee. If you want a good divine melee similar to the Magus, I think you are overlooking the Inquisitor as an option. Tired as I am writing this. Eldritch Knight is a leftover from the system from which Pathfinder was created and as such it is janky to play compared to the Magus. The best way to think of the EK is as a genuine Wizard who can fight in melee, very useful for Transmutation shapeshifting spells and for a lot of Necromancy self buff spells too. But an EK also makes for a great archer, especially elf imo. EK can't and shouldn't blast the same way a Magus does. Alternatively if you play a Dragon Disciple by going Sorcerer 1/Barbarian 5 you end up with an intensely powerful melee character who can do a little bit of magic but also breathe fire and get wings, too! You can't cast while raging obviously but it's still quite effective thanks to the Strength boosts you get from the class.

[@sergiofernandezlorenzo3446]

@@darkfireslide You´re right. I was overlooking Inquisitor. Paladin too tbh. Also, I like that necromancy idea, but is something I have yet to try seriously, since most of the time I go with wizard and ban necro and divine schools. I think I´ll go experiment with the Inquisitor. I´ve done some theorycrafting with the class before, but never really tried it. Many thanks for your sugestions, now I have some more things to experiment with. Good luck and keep up the good work, your videos are some of the best pathfinder material I´ve found.

[@Groffili]

Hm... what if you don't wear any armor and use a bracer instead? I don't know how high of a bonus you can get on padded armour, but I have found a +4 bracer in chapter 2 already.

[@darkfireslide]

+5 is the highest it goes, but armors can also give other bonuses on top of their AC. It's about even either way you do it to be honest.

[@marcoagostini7866]

You can find +8 later in the game

[@faselfasel2864]

Wrong, you can find up to +8

[@hah-vj7hc]

So, it's actually the Aldori Attacker :o

[@Soonzuh]

5:26 starts Disarming Strike (DS). 9:12 finishes DS. This is basically the info you get during those almost four minutes: - Disarm is really, really good... except against those with very high strength. - You have to learn Agile Maneuvers, Disarm, Greater Disarm. - Doesn't know if damage can crit when using DS. - Changes his mind: DS can crit.

[@Soonzuh]

This section took 20 seconds to say: "... we're fifth level I don't know why that's in the sixth level slot so this could be a fifth or sixth level I apologize for not like testing this this is more about theorycrafting after all but so at fifth or sixth level we get disarming strike which..." And it goes on and on like this.

[@Customerbuilder]

I know you posted this over a year ago, but wanted to chime in and agree. I just picked up the game over the holidays on sale, and started looking for help. I'm guessing from other videos of his, he's a pnp player, and when he stated making these builds, he wasn't applying them at all to the game itself- even asking if disarm is viable against bosses etc. And, he seems to actively shun multiclassing. So... not really helpful or informative.

[@stefanhansen8623]

and don't forget 3 ranks in mobility fore bonus doge in fighting defenselessly

[@trueduke2515]

I have an aldori defender with a dueling sword without shield, but during the fights he takes the sword with two hands and I would like him to hold it with one hand. How should I do it? please

[@darkfireslide]

For stat reasons it still counts as using it one handed. It's just an animation error

[@trueduke2515]

@@darkfireslide ok thanks

[@Gerroditus]

Touch Attacks and ranged touch attacks are not aided by armor or shields. Full Plate and Hvy shields are crap against touch or ranged touch ac, two of the most common attack types. THAT is probably the greatest advantage of the Aldori Defender. Ohh, and lets not forget that light armor is light. Heavy armor takes up stupid amounts of your carrying capacity.

[@TJ-rr1ly]

Can you do your best monk build

[@asashahni9090]

Counter attack and combat reflex ...hello

[@olesyagodlike1096]

Geez, just pick halfling then dip 1-2 lvls into monk. From fighting defensively u get +12ac +1ab alone, and on top of that +1ac +1ab from size. Plus bonus saves and monk ac goodies.

[@stefanhansen8623]

well braces of armor will be grate then

[@TheExard3k]

or just let your mage cast mage armor until you get some good armor bracers....good armor itself is always better, saves your bracer slot and I often forget about buffing my characters because there are so much spells to cast when waking up after rest. Wand of Shield is a great substitute early on for not having a shield or the feats and you can find one ~lvl 5 or so.

[@stefanhansen8623]

@@TheExard3k well at chapter 3 u can star geting +5 armor braces at the time u have a +3 padded armor but the bracers are better and u don't have to worry about the max dex

[@Shadow86TheGamer]

Nahh man, the normal warrior is not even close to these guys because these guys are amazing to dip on scalefist monks for crane and paladin for saves.... I have my aldori defender now at lvl 16 with 62 ac 32 touch ac and like 46 reflex, 25 will. They are gods! (Ohh and she's using a robe ahahaha) No armor aloud of course

[@shawngillogly6873]

Yeah. AC70 buffed w/ Aldori Defender who has dipped 1 lvl Scalefist + 2 Pally is entirely possible. Protector Robes for +5 AC + full Dex. What's more, since an AD doesn't rely on shields or armor for AC, you're running higher touch AC than anything not a pure monk or sword saint (which would run virtually the same build for the stats). And in the endgame, touch AC is practically the only AC that matters. And you're going to have higher damage output than the pure monk. Plus counterattack on the rare soul that actually rolls a 20 on you.

[@RiotforPeacePlz]

Uhg they patched this game and you don't start with so many points now. Can't match your stats