Scythe build

[Leelareso]

Well what is best class and feats to take for scythe build?

[jonnin]

scythe is an aggravating weapon. It has the damage of a 1h in a 2h, and it only crits on a 20, leaving it with just 1 appealing trait really: that sweet 4x crit multiplier.
You can go all in on crits, but you ALSO need to hit hard when it does not crit, and that is a pretty fine line to dance unless your class is filled with excess feats.

Also, while some things are immune, sneak attacks / precision damage is worth having as the things immune to it are somewhat uncommon.

That leads me to recommend slayer as maybe a good starting point -- you have the ranger 'don't qualify for' feats, high BAB, precision damage, and I like the arcanist flavor for defense buffs and that sweet teleport SLA. At some point, pick up at least 1 level of rowdy to get the specialty vital strike, but you need BAB to get your critical feats, so that comes in late (level 9) or early 1 level dip only (pick up more later to fix BAB and land where you want to with the multiclassing around level 10).

And basically... power attack, cleave, cleave finish, greater cleave and finish... line of feats so you can beat up several enemy per turn, vital strike for turns where you had to move before hitting, and improved critical etc so you can land those 4x crits as best you can.

And all that to say, maybe don't do this. Its a poor weapon to specialize in, not only because your build needs to be pretty spot on, but because its a poor weapon. If you had taken the estoc instead, you would crit more often (for less, but the gap widens rapidly with keen and feats, so you do half as much 10 times more often or something like that) all while doing the same damage and still able to wear a sheild! And that isn't even to mention the fauchard, which an enlarged character can do a cleave critical aoe on par with a fireball in size and damage every round.

Here is a magus version of the big aoe bomb idea, using a reach weapon. Magus would work for the scythe too, but the aoe would be so small and the BAB progress to get crit feats takes so much longer.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216019718

[mk11]

Double your chance of criticals! Titan fighter and wield 2 scythes.

[Chronocide]

Scythe is a 4x crit weapon. 4x crit weapons can make good coup de grace builds.

Coup de grace requires opponent be helpless and it's a full round action. Helpless characters are most commonly asleep or paralyzed.

It auto hits and auto crits. Further, target must pass at fort save of 10+damage dealt, or they die outright. Doesn't work on things immune to crits, as can be expected.

So like if you have a witch with the sleep hex, can sleep the target and then have your scythe character coup de grace. Hold Person could also work, since the spell paralyzes.

Everyone has coup de grace by default, so it's not a class depended ability.

BAB doesn't really matter for this, nor does crit threat range - It's just about damage dealt (so STR matters). So even like a sorcerer with a scythe can be effective with coup de grace. Magical enhancements to weapon damage matter here, since it affects the DC to kill outright.

I guess it's not really a build focus, but more something to keep in mind for your no-so combat oriented characters that can equip scythes. Especially for the ones that can equip scythes by default and don't have access to all the other fun weapons (like the druid).

[Drake]

Originally posted by Chronocide:

Scythe is a 4x crit weapon. 4x crit weapons can make good coup de grace builds.

Coup de grace requires opponent be helpless and it's a full round action. Helpless characters are most commonly asleep or paralyzed.

It auto hits and auto crits. Further, target must pass at fort save of 10+damage dealt, or they die outright. Doesn't work on things immune to crits, as can be expected.

So like if you have a witch with the sleep hex, can sleep the target and then have your scythe character coup de grace. Hold Person could also work, since the spell paralyzes.

Everyone has coup de grace by default, so it's not a class depended ability.

BAB doesn't really matter for this, nor does crit threat range - It's just about damage dealt (so STR matters). So even like a sorcerer with a scythe can be effective with coup de grace. Magical enhancements to weapon damage matter here, since it affects the DC to kill outright.

I guess it's not really a build focus, but more something to keep in mind for your no-so combat oriented characters that can equip scythes. Especially for the ones that can equip scythes by default and don't have access to all the other fun weapons (like the druid).

Yeah this is a good advice. People often overlook coup de grace but it's a very efficient way of dealing damage, especially to problematic enemies (fortunately demons and mythic enemies are not immune to most hopeless triggers, unlike undead).

That said, I would still get heavy hitters, like a fighter with weapon training feats to maximize damage. Or better, a warpriest.

[jonnin]

^^ what he said, maybe use cult leader. Precision damage is always welcome and at levels 10+ your class damage will be an upgrade over the default scythe damage, increasing at 10, 15, and 20.

[The Fraudulent One]

The classic mutation warrior trickster is always pretty reliable, but mutation warrior can pretty much make anything good