Dex based shield basher?

[Godwings101]

Unimportant detail: Replacing Camellia because I found out her psychopathy in act 3 when she was revealed to be a serial killer.
The main thing: Playing it on a lower difficulty(first time playthrough) looking to toy around a little with builds and wanting to test out a shield basher setup but wanting to make a finesse weapon shield bash setup that has some buffing and healing utility. Is this possible? What are some good multi class setups that would work well for this?

[ayrtep]

I think shields are close weapon group, so you can probably take the weapon finesse fighter training with the close group to turn shields into dex based to hit. Then maybe use mythic weapen finess for damage. Might need a bit or work but probably doable.

Maybe go puncing dagger + shield as they use the same weapons group.

So you are looking at a Mutation Warrior that needs a little time to get going.

[Mork]

Light shield are a finesse weapon so rogue are really good at light shield bashing.
Shield bashing require a LOT of feats, so rogue is again great for that.
The problem with rogue would be self buffing but your mythic path can kinda fix that problem.

As for what archetype to choose?

Base rogue = safe pick
Eldritch Scoundrel = get less feats which could be a problem for a shield basher but get access to arcane spells
Knife Master = not a bad or good choice imo
Master of All = My personally favorite but probably worst than base rogue
Sylvan Trickster = AC boost with iceplant hex + ring
Rowdy = STR rogue so avoid...
Thug = Better on paper than practice... avoid

[GunStarX]

Ranger demon slayer is also a really good option, you can take the shield combat style. You really just need to use light weapons to go dex based. heavy shields can even work as long as theyre mithril

[Drake]

A fighter should do the trick just fine too

[THAC0]

Fighters / Slayers / Rogues can all do pretty f-in well in this reguard Rangers as well

I would put Slayers / Rogues over-all ahead of the curve due to sneak attack
yes slayer gets less sneak attack but a full BaB + Slayer talents grants you the option of a Str Base Duel wield (Obvioiusly not what your doing) but still a full BaB + Slayer Talents = plunty of feats, can get duel wielding feats faster coz of the BaB
add in sneak attack which is better on an Archer / Duel wielder anyways and yeah

rogue gets feats later then the slayer, but gets more sneak attack damage so its up to you when you wanna feel your build and how you wanna feel it

[GunStarX]

Ranger has its own perks vs fighter/slayer. Animal companion being one of the biggest perks, riding it gives you a meatshield tank with full attack for you every round. Then there's the +10 ab/dmg vs all demons that can be extended to all enemies with a 3rd lvl spell. Another perk, getting spells that apply polymorph effect that you can use with master shifter mythic for +4 to all physical stats.

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by Godwings101:

Unimportant detail: Replacing Camellia because I found out her psychopathy in act 3 when she was revealed to be a serial killer.
The main thing: Playing it on a lower difficulty(first time playthrough) looking to toy around a little with builds and wanting to test out a shield basher setup but wanting to make a finesse weapon shield bash setup that has some buffing and healing utility. Is this possible? What are some good multi class setups that would work well for this?

Possible, yes. You'll need your basic profiency feats, Shield bash, and two weapon fighting. The "light shield" is a light weapon for the purpose of Two weapon fighting (but only when shield bash is taken and eneabled). And then Weapon Finesse if you want the dex to attack. And several others, in the chain.

It is notable that bucklers and tower shields can't be used with shield bash.

As for "good builds"...you'll always run into an issue where your character focusing in multiple roles is inferior to a single role character in that single role. Your healer will develop an inferiority complex when you take your 2+feats in a non-healing role and then compare to a full healer.

But your call, and you can certainly have fun with anything.

Regarding builds, the most obvious would be a paladin, since it has the high BAB. After that would be a cleric or inquisitor.

There is a shield-focused Warpriest too.

A druid could work in theory, but you may run into the issue that the druid's limit on metal armor/weapons is too restrictive for a shield/defensive build.

Oracle or shaman might work.

Last option would be a witch, though that one is tricky as you'd also have to account for the arcane spell failure with your shield, which would likely mean having more feats invested in arcane armor training. If you go the hellknight signifier route, you do get the 2nd feat in that line for "free" at second level and Order of the Gate and the signifier armor training both further reduce your penalties.

[MOK]

Running a demon slayer strength-based shield basher, and it works very, very well. You can buy a vicious shield early on. With a little damage mitigation, it's a pretty good bump to offense in the early game.

However, I think a shield basher build isn't particularly synergistic on a dex build. Basically, why use a shield when it could've been a crit weapon? If you want to look for synergies, you want to have more of a reason to be using a shield. One thing that could make it a bit better value is having a shield partner for the shieldwall team feat. The assumption is that if you're using a shield instead of a second weapon, the intention is to have high AC. But since AC is an arms race, you need to keep pumping that AC higher every level, so a shield bash build becomes a very burdensome gimmick. Going dex based increases the strain on the build further, and slashes your armor options.

So shield bash is worth considering, but most classes will have a hard time budgeting the feats, but even moreso with dex.

[MOK]

Also, something I've found is that it's hard to fruitfully balance out a utility character with a melee setup. You generally don't have the action economy to leverage all those melee feats you're buying if you're busy laying down necessary spells and buffs or abilities. So if your utility is reliably leveraged in combat, you're not going to get much out of that massive feat investment for a good shield basher.

[dustman]

To open up full line of shield bashing you'd need 8 feats and one mythic feat if going full on dexterity. Close combat chars benefit immensely from Outflank, making it 9 feats. Piranha's Strike is nice for damage. Non-human with a general feat progression (w/o bonus feats) would reach it at lvl 17, rather close to end game.

Rogue, fighter, ranger and slayer can all achieve this much earlier, but they aren't that good in buffing. Plus, you can add Improved Critical to your main hand weapon this way, really improving damage and frequency of shield bashes.

As a shield using defensive char with dexterity route, you'd probably achieve highest AC with Tower Shield Specialist. No Shield Bash, but Crane Style line and massive shield bonuses. Less efficient than Mutation Warrior in damage dealing, but with much higher defense.

Frankly, for a shield bash I'd go with Human Slayer or Ranger, strength based. Demonslayer is the most stacked up class in this game, and it's hard to make him weak. +10 to hit and damage by the end game vs. most common enemies just by progressing in this class is insane. Plus pet.

[D-Black Catto]

you needed to wait until act 3 to realize she's a serial killer?