Help picking first playthrough Class and Race (For fun roleplay, not for stats)

[A_Pepperoni_Lass]

SO, I'm between 2 races with 4 classes each.

Aasimar (who resents their Divine blood, because she just wants to be a normal human)
:CLASS:
- Archaeologist: So I'm drawn to this one because I like the idea of her wanting to explore the history of the mortal world, to push her farther away from her Divine ancestry. (I also myself am a self taught historian, my sister is an archaeologist, and I'm also a big fan of the lore in fictional worlds)
_ Aldori Defender: The idea of her focusing into becoming a swordmaster, and going out looking for fights is again a great way for her to avoid her Divine responsibilities everyone has put on her.
- Empyreal Sorcerer: This one is fun because she does get her power from her divine blood. And while she resents it, she has to use it to defend herself sometimes. But because of this she avoids conflict whenever possible
- Ecclesitheurge: Rather than facing down evil as a Divine Heir, she opts to help more in the background, being a healer on the battlefield who takes care of the soldiers who come back


Chaotic Fey Gnome (A style of charachter I NEVER play)
:CLASS:
- Bard: Come on, the Chaotic bard them self.
- Eldritch Rogue: Could definitely get into some mischief with this one.
- Feyspeaker: The Gnome's connection to the fey is stronger than most, and she shall be their hand of chaos in the world of mortals
- Sylvan Sorcerer: Same reasons as both Rogue and Feyspeaker!

[Frostfeather]

I'm biased because my first character was an Aasimar Empyreal Sorcerer, but it is a good pick with great "flavor" and the game doesn't really give you a Sorcerer companion. I really enjoyed it a lot.

But... you can't really go wrong with any of those picks.

[razvedchiki]

you can roleplay as minor nobility with aldori defender, earning your kingdom with the edge of your sword.

[Gresh]

My first playthrough was a Sylvan Sorcerer. Animal companions alone are quite useful in this game, and sorcerers are a pretty great class in general. As night4 mentioned, you don't get a pure caster/sorcerer companion, so it's a decent choice with that in mind. The animal companion also makes the first few levels easier, which casters generally struggle in. Empyreal sorcerers are fine alternative as well, but I prefer to have a charismatic leader character instead of wise, personally.

The other choices are all pretty good though. Some thoughts:

I don't think Eldritch Rogue adds much that you can't get from a companion. It's kind of a 'meh' class, IMO.

Bards are great, but you have a few potential options companion-wise for those.

Feyspeaker is a decent choice for druid. You could also go the other direction, and make a gnome that resents their connection to the fey, and fights to separate the 'real' world from the First World, as a Defender of the True World. There are gameplay reasons why this is useful, but it's just a style choice ultimately. You also don't have access to a druid companion unless you make a mercenary.

Aldori Defenders are great. It's a really cool class. They're good for multi-classing as well. If you're going for the full RP experience, you could switch into the Aldori Swordlord prestige class, but I'm not a huge fan of it really.

I find clerics to be a fairly underwhelming class (in Kingmaker). This opinion is after playing cleric mains in a lot of other CRPGs. You definitely need access to one occasionally, but I wouldn't pick it for my main's class. There are also a few cleric companions for choices.

[fauxpas]

Warlocks have always been one of my favorites, so in Pathfinder that translates to Kineticists.

[Fozzforus]

You absolutely cannot make a non-optimal build in this game.

[Gresh]

Originally posted by Fozzforus:

You absolutely cannot make a non-optimal build in this game.

Yes you can. It's pretty easy to make a bad character.

If you mean that you cannot play, have fun, or beat the game with a sub-optimal character, that's also not true. Especially on normal difficulty.

[fauxpas]

Yeah, if you play on unfair you need to worry about your build, bit as long as you aren't trying to pick mutually exclusive classes just about any build will work, even if making sure I get Detect Magic on a Swordlord build at L2 makes me ... cringe ever so slightly.

[Deo]

Since you want to roleplay, I would recommend your Aasimar choice, because in my opinion Chaotic doesn't go hand in hand with Kingdom. Because Kingdom is a responsibility.
Since your Aasimar resents their celestial/good outsider blood, Empyreal Sorc and Ecclesitheurge are bad choices.
Aldori Defender is a better choice. Despite that Aldori Swordlords are not a real nobility (more like mercenaries) - they are impulsive and prickly, most of them - just as Sirian Aldori himself - they are with ambitions, which goes well with The Kingdom you will be the Queen of. And who is more close to the mortal world, if not a mercenary.

[Fozzforus]

I still can't figure out how to make a character that isn't terrible and I am up to about a dozen attempts at Act 1. I will make my own thread through.

[A_Pepperoni_Lass]

Thank you everyone for your input, it really has helped me with my decisions! And I always find conversations like this very interesting! :)

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by Deo:

Since you want to roleplay, I would recommend your Aasimar choice, because in my opinion Chaotic doesn't go hand in hand with Kingdom. Because Kingdom is a responsibility.
Since your Aasimar resents their celestial/good outsider blood, Empyreal Sorc and Ecclesitheurge are bad choices.

Chaotic can be extremely responsible, but they'll likely approach the responsibility in a less conventional way.

The important mantra to remember is: "Chaotic is not random". There are good resources out there, but this is a great little resource for creating and playing better Chaotic characters. It's more from a tabletop perspective, but it still has great advice relevant to CRPGs: https://nerdist.com/article/the-method-in-madness-creating-better-chaotic-characters/

[A_Pepperoni_Lass]

So I had gone with Archeologist, but I’m honestly finding it to not fit the vibe I’m going for.

So I’m respecing at level 2, now I’m thinking of still putting 1 level into bard for all the skill proficiencies. (I’m wanting this character to be a skill monkey supported by actual adventures)
And than going with something else the rest of the game!
Is this viable?

And as for the other class, I’m looking at Wizard, Cleric, or Sorcerer possibly?
I want to only focus on buff, heal, and support. And let my companions do the fighting for me, as this character doesn’t really know the first thing about fighting and really would rather not fight unless absolutely necessary.
I also liked the idea of an alchemist healer like a doctor who brews healing draughts for her village, but as I was reading, it seems like the alchemist is more similar to a Witcher, buffing themselves with dangerous concoctions.

[Orion Pax]

May take some trial & error a bit further into the game to see which role playing choices actually match gameplay you enjoy.

Some assorted thoughts:
Bard is a good class for both skills and buffs. They get the main cure spells too, but not other helpful ones like the Restoration line. For that you’d want Inquisitor, which also gets all skills as a class skill, and some decent different decent buffs. But role play wise they seem pretty aggressive. Cleric would be the obvious buff & heal leader, but way fewer skills, so yeah a dip somewhere would be needed. A Rogue dip would give you all skills plus some sneak damage, but again Bard seems gentler for your theme goals?

I will note those feature you outline do seem to describe Linzi pretty well. No reason you can’t have two of similar temperament, but redundancy in combat can make things tough. And I’d say early on the fighting quality of your melee friends is not great actually. You’re going to want to make sure your main contributes something you need and don’t already have. Bards do have different songs, so two bards could work for that. But not sure.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by A_Pepperoni_Lass:

So I had gone with Archeologist, but I’m honestly finding it to not fit the vibe I’m going for.

So I’m respecing at level 2, now I’m thinking of still putting 1 level into bard for all the skill proficiencies. (I’m wanting this character to be a skill monkey supported by actual adventures)
And than going with something else the rest of the game!
Is this viable?

And as for the other class, I’m looking at Wizard, Cleric, or Sorcerer possibly?
I want to only focus on buff, heal, and support. And let my companions do the fighting for me, as this character doesn’t really know the first thing about fighting and really would rather not fight unless absolutely necessary.
I also liked the idea of an alchemist healer like a doctor who brews healing draughts for her village, but as I was reading, it seems like the alchemist is more similar to a Witcher, buffing themselves with dangerous concoctions.

There's an Alchemist archetype for being more of a healer, Chirurgeon, but it does still have bombs and bombs are a significant part of the class. Maybe you could use controlling bombs like Choking Bombs and/or Dispelling Bombs for utility, rather than damage? Maybe Holy Bombs if it fits your character idea?

Otherwise, I think Scroll Savant Wizard would be a good fit for you, with or without the Bard level. You use your Wizard spells to buff/support and scrolls/potions to heal. You'd eventually use divine scrolls at your Wizard level rather than the paltry scroll level, meaning they're actually strong enough to be worth using.

On top of that, you get your Specialist School stuff - Foretell from Divination is especially good and may fit your character. And you get a good number of skills to work with too with Int as your main stat.

[A_Pepperoni_Lass]

Originally posted by Orion Pax:

May take some trial & error a bit further into the game to see which role playing choices actually match gameplay you enjoy.

Some assorted thoughts:
Bard is a good class for both skills and buffs. They get the main cure spells too, but not other helpful ones like the Restoration line. For that you’d want Inquisitor, which also gets all skills as a class skill, and some decent different decent buffs. But role play wise they seem pretty aggressive. Cleric would be the obvious buff & heal leader, but way fewer skills, so yeah a dip somewhere would be needed. A Rogue dip would give you all skills plus some sneak damage, but again Bard seems gentler for your theme goals?

I will note those feature you outline do seem to describe Linzi pretty well. No reason you can’t have two of similar temperament, but redundancy in combat can make things tough. And I’d say early on the fighting quality of your melee friends is not great actually. You’re going to want to make sure your main contributes something you need and don’t already have. Bards do have different songs, so two bards could work for that. But not sure.

This is very helpful, thank you!