PF:KM; Teammate "Valerie" Unmodded Generic Tower Shield Specialist/Tank Build

HI all! Brothermutant here. This is another in a series of vids showcasing how I might level your various allies. I plan to do vids for most (if not all) of your found teammates, both as a MODDED version as well as the UNMODDED variety so that all can get a feel for what I might do with these deadweights... err, I mean, viable and useful allies against evil. FEAT and Ability picks as well as suggested GEAR are listed in a PINNED comment below.

[@brothermutant7370]

UNMODDED Valerie Build (NO MODs used) STATS: Str 14 to 16 Dex 13 Con 19 to 20 Int 9 to 10 Wis 10 Cha 15 to 16 LAWFUL NEUTRAL (matters for some gear) Class Levels: Tower Shield Specialist 20 (a subclass of Fighter) In Order of the video: LVL 1- Dodge; Toughness; FIGHTER FEAT - Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword 2- FIGHTER FEAT - Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword 3- Armor Focus - Heavy Armor 4- +1 INT; FIGHTER FEAT - Precise Strike (Teamwork Feat) 5- Power Attack 6- FIGHTER FEAT - Outflank (Teamwork Feat) 7- Endurance 8- +1 CHA; FIGHTER FEAT - Back To Back (Teamwork Feat) 9- Iron Will 10- FIGHTER FEAT - Shield Wall (Teamwork Feat) 11- Improved Iron Will 12- +1 CON; FIGHTER FEAT - Penetrating Strike 13- Shield Focus 14 - FIGHTER FEAT - Missile Shield 15- Greater Shield Focus 16- +1 STR; FIGHTER FEAT - Greater Penetrating Strike 17- Shake It Off (Teamwork Feat) 18- FIGHTER FEAT - Blind Fight 19- Improved Blind Fight 20- +1 STR; FIGHTER FEAT - Improved Critical (Bastard Sword) PIE in the SKY gear to look for: Stuff that increases her ABILITIES (especially Strength, Constitution & Charisma), Best Bastard Swords, Tower Shields and Heavy Armor you can find her, any extra gear that gives her immunity to anything OR an extra spell a day (especially useful as she has no spell casting normally). *SKILL points invested by the end of the build: Athletics 20; Knowledge World 19; Lore Religion 1; Perception 20

[@quickpawmaud]

I would not take the teamwork feats because for my party my Paladin and her will be the frontline and my Paladin doesn't get enough feats. I would just take Outflank and I think I built Cornugon Smash and buffed that up as much as I could. Taking advantage of her Charisma as much as possible. I take Outflank and Blind Fight on all my melee and the other feats will be from these not totally sure yet. I am also thinking about possibly going into Stalwart Defender not sure yet. I want to keep things pretty pure but that class seems like a promotion of Tower Shield Specialist. Power Attack, Cornugon Smash, Dazzling Display, Shatter Defenses, Dreadful Carnage Weapon Focus, G Weapon Focus, Weapon Spec, G Weapon Spec, Imp Crit Intimidating Prowess, Skill Focus Persuasion, Persuasive Armor Focus, Shield Focus, G Shield Focus, Missile Shield Iron Will, Improved Iron Will Improved Unarmed Strike, Crane Style, Crane Wing, Crane Reposte Cleave, Cleaving Finish Alertness, Improved Initiative

[@brothermutant7370]

@@quickpawmaud That's a LOT of FEATS you got there. Can you get them all or are you putting down things you MIGHT use? Blind Fight is amazing, totally take it. Outflank is passable, especially if you are doing harder difficulties (every bit of bonus to swing helps), as for your other Feats, I can see the Dreadful Carnage lean for her, go heavy on that Intimidation/Persuasion/Charisma + Strength build. Not sure your Shield feats, Crane Feats, or Cleave Feats are all going to be available to you. If you do TURN-BASED combat, your Alertness/Improved initiative are probably not needed either. Yeah, some bonus to Perception is nice, but your whole team checks for loot/traps/secrets, so unless you and her are going away together just the two of you, those two feats are probably not needed. For Val, I would either go that Dreadful Carnage route OR all in on being extra Tanky, but it would be too hard (to me anyway) to do both justice. Going for both means either both come online LATE in the build, or one is up ASAP and the other is way late. Don't know which you should go for first; gut says to go Cornugon Smash, but being EXTRA tanky early is always good. Sadly, the AI likes to ignore your front line and run around to get the squishys.

[@quickpawmaud]

@@brothermutant7370 I can take most of them but not all no I just wrote down all the ones I was deciding between. I can probably skip Dreadful Carnage if I use other things like Dirge of Doom and Frightful Aspect to debuff people. I probably won’t take Alertness or Improved Initiative. I get 22 of them minus 5 because she starts with 3 and I require 2. I am mainly trying to plan out the first 10 levels right now because I still haven’t decided if I want to go Stalwart Defender or not at 11. If I go Stalwart Defender I definitely want to get all the Crane Style stuff (Crane Wing is bugged and still works with weapon and shield) since that class gets a bunch of defense powers and stuff. If not I think the shield stuff makes more sense. Not sure why you think the shield stuff won’t be available unless I am missing something? I think I will definitely go for Cornugon Smash stuff first I will be pretty tanky from gear and class stuff already. I am planning to play on Challenging so hopefully I will have enough AC to be good. I think I will put 1 point in Cha and the rest in Str.

[@ADT1995]

For her I went/am going 1. No decisions, pregen. 2. Fighter: weapon focus rapier 3. Rogue (thug): dazzling display 4. Fighter: +1 dex 5. Fighter: power attack, outflank 6. Fighter: no decisions 7. Fighter: cornugon smash, shatter defenses 8. Rogue. +1 dex Future levels will go into rogue, and I don't know the exact build or order but I want to get combat reflexes, accomplished sneak attacker, dreadful carnage, skill focus intimidation, and improved critical for sure, bumping dex all the way. Still I'm glad to see a build that emphasizes her tanking, I might have to try that in my next playthrough

[@githreepi5811]

Good guide

[@blablabla72]

3 mobility for valerie is a must have in early game

[@zuloph]

A few critiques. Drop power attack, pick up Outflank at 5. Level 5 is when all your full BaB classes can get it and it's pretty much the best teamwork feat in the game. Then pick power attack back up at 6. I'd say also grab the +1 Cha at level 4 just to make her a better advisor. The int isn't a priority it's just a nice bonus. Lastly, Endurance isn't the greatest feat for Valerie. If you drop it you can get Blind Fight early then get Improved blind fight when you got regular and get Greater Blind Fight last. It's a nice feat to have, far more useful than Endurance Last thing too, probably just have her drop 1 skill rank from everything t she get 3 ranks in Mobility so when she's fighting defensive she gets another +1 dodge ac Other than that pretty staple fighter build for Valerie unless you're doing a fun build

[@brothermutant7370]

Yeah, I was thinking of Greater Blind Fight. Mobility 3 is what I did in her MODDED vid so I went a bit different. I disagree on the Endurance Feat though. I routinely use her in Breastplate or Chainmail until I get some really good Heavy Armor and that way, when we get jumped while camping, she is armored up and ready to go. I WAS tempted to get the FEAT where she doesn't drop if her health is 0. What's that one called again?

[@zuloph]

Diehard, but it gets you killed since enemies will still target her. Either way, endurance is a bad feat unless you're using medium armour normally. You can just throw on a chain shirt if you want to switch armor before resting, as backup armour chain shirt is only 2 less AC which is only 10%. In PnP Endurance is a prerequisite for Diehard though so it becomes more useful there

[@brothermutant7370]

@@zuloph Can you wear Light Armor at night by default? I didn't know that.

[@zuloph]

Yeah you can, I usually do it. Endurance says "Light and Medium" because it adds medium armour to the list from Light. I usually just swap everyone over to light armour at night, though to be fair you can sleep in anything the rest just takes longer I've noticed since if you sleep in medium or heavy armour you're supposed to get fatigued, though if you do you don't wake up fatigued. I carry around chain shirts for my actual people who wear armour and just swap them out.

[@brothermutant7370]

@@zuloph Solid point! Thanks for the info. I assumed no one had armor on cuz it says Light and Medium, shoulda realized it was being additive.

[@heavybeats2732]

So right now I'm using her a more a tank ranger. Though that is probably a terrible idea. But i want to justify it because she stays back with the bard since she is my main team buffer and tends to get targeted by archers a lot. Yet your video is giving me the impression I'm using her wrong. (I keep her back due to running a mad dog barbarian with a centipede companion. Should i have the two switch roles or change it up altogether? (My first time with pathfinder kingmaker) i greatly appreciate any advice.

[@Choteron3]

33:19

[@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva]

"... She basically farts a big-ass cloud of Scare" Oh no I hope DeviantArt never finds this video

[@Chaotik_Pranxter]

No no no we need DeviantArt on this ASAP!

[@ramaquino9835]

Your videos are very long coz you are not making a list on how really your build will go through... very time consuming just to find what you really want.. maybe this is why only few wants to watch it. Imagine you have to consume an hour just to see your one possible build.

[@AMoralMan]

To each their own. I like his build video formats.

[@ramaquino9835]

@@AMoralMan The issue is not whether the build is good or bad. THE ISSUE is that the video can be made much shorter to avoid wasting too much time.