What is a Pathfinder class?

[Thunder Wolf VX]

And please don't say "someone who finds paths", my dingbat brother beat you to it.

I love trying to recreate different classes within Skyrim, just in mages alone I think I'm up to 12 different types of playthroughs that I've fiddled with in the past (Wizard, Warlock, Necromancer, Chronomancer, Witch, etc.). Archer builds are always fun, but I keep seeing references to a "Pathfinder" class that I'm not 100% sure I know what that means.
When I try to figure it out through Google-Fu I don't get many results past the Pathfinder game's classes, which doesn't really help. Can you narrow it down for me, just what is a Pathfinder?

I've seen FudgeMuppet's videos on it too, but that wasn't too helpful. FM can help with ideas around a class, but I find he spends too much time on the backstory for me personally.

[alexander_dougherty]

Pathfinder is another name for a scout, the rest is personal opinion.

[258789553873]

His videos weren't so long in the past. I would recommend sticking to his LE builds (most have SE re-makes, just so we know, including the 'pathfinder'), and some of the earlier SE builds before he started padding his videos out for revenue.

As for a 'pathfinder', honestly, I've never heard of that. I would guess its just a hunter build, you know, someone who lives outdoors?

That said, there aren't really that many playable builds in this game, despite what it looks like. You have one-handed warriors, two-handed warriors, stealth archers, mages, battle mage (warrior that uses some magic skills, typically either restoration, conjuration, or enchanting), and stealth illusionist. As for the latter, the most fun build I ever played was a stealth illusionist with conjuration magic and the vampire lord ability. It was based on fudgemuppet's 'puppet master' build, though I played it more like his 'vampire seductress' build. I essentially had four different playstyles I could switch between: a stealth archer, an illusionist, a vampire lord, or if I didn't feel like fighting I would just conjure stuff and casually walk around looting while my dremora lords took care of everyone for me.

That said, really nothing else is viable, unless you want to challenge yourself with a sub-par build. Perk overhauls help with this, often by adding new playstyles or making some more viable, such as dagger assassins and spell swords (characters that use a one-handed weapon with a spell in the other hand).

If I was to do a 'pathfinder' build personally, I would probably make some sort of hunter. Archery, light armor, maybe I would dual wield one-handed weapons (I would imagine someone called a 'PATH-finder' would need some sort of blade to cut through foliage, like a machete, or in this game a sword), stealth, and perhaps alchemy. Honestly, I've never really done much with alchemy. The only time I ever really leveled it was for fortify smithing and enchanting. My first playthrough, when I was still bad at this game, I mainly used it for free health potions because I couldn't afford enough of them. I can never even remember which ingredients do which I've so rarely used alchemy. Perhaps I need to actually do a play-through with it sometime.

[Thunder Wolf VX]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Pathfinder is another name for a scout, the rest is personal opinion.

Really? that's all there is to it? that's kinda lackluster, I was expecting something a bit more unique. a bit of a bummer to be honest.

Originally posted by IXBlackWolfXI:

His videos weren't so long in the past. I would recommend sticking to his LE builds (most have SE re-makes, just so we know, including the 'pathfinder'), and some of the earlier SE builds before he started padding his videos out for revenue.

As for a 'pathfinder', honestly, I've never heard of that. I would guess its just a hunter build, you know, someone who lives outdoors?

That said, there aren't really that many playable builds in this game, despite what it looks like. You have one-handed warriors, two-handed warriors, stealth archers, mages, battle mage (warrior that uses some magic skills, typically either restoration, conjuration, or enchanting), and stealth illusionist. As for the latter, the most fun build I ever played was a stealth illusionist with conjuration magic and the vampire lord ability. It was based on fudgemuppet's 'puppet master' build, though I played it more like his 'vampire seductress' build. I essentially had four different playstyles I could switch between: a stealth archer, an illusionist, a vampire lord, or if I didn't feel like fighting I would just conjure stuff and casually walk around looting while my dremora lords took care of everyone for me.

That said, really nothing else is viable, unless you want to challenge yourself with a sub-par build. Perk overhauls help with this, often by adding new playstyles or making some more viable, such as dagger assassins and spell swords (characters that use a one-handed weapon with a spell in the other hand).

If I was to do a 'pathfinder' build personally, I would probably make some sort of hunter. Archery, light armor, maybe I would dual wield one-handed weapons (I would imagine someone called a 'PATH-finder' would need some sort of blade to cut through foliage, like a machete, or in this game a sword), stealth, and perhaps alchemy. Honestly, I've never really done much with alchemy. The only time I ever really leveled it was for fortify smithing and enchanting. My first playthrough, when I was still bad at this game, I mainly used it for free health potions because I couldn't afford enough of them. I can never even remember which ingredients do which I've so rarely used alchemy. Perhaps I need to actually do a play-through with it sometime.

Yeah I've seen his LE videos too, they're better but still kinda bloated.
hmm, Hunter/Scout type character. there might still be a way to make this one interesting too, but I needs more information. back to my search I guess eh?
Oh, I beg to differ there, I mean in my first post I mentioned I think I've got like 12 different kinds overall. Perks to me aren't really important and don't contribute to the overall build all that much, its all about the spells, weapons, and gear. Just as a couple examples here;
Wizard; Lightning, healing and flesh only. Staff of Magnus
Warlock; Fire, Fear, Frenzy, Healing, Flesh all vanilla and some modded Summons
Necromancer; Zombie only summons, Ice, Flesh,
Succubus; Fire, Calm, Frenzy, Healing, Summon Coldharbour,
Priest; Healing, Courage, and a Shield
and that's not counting the spells from mods that are just new destruction ones allowing for Blood, Shadow, Air, Water, Earth, Nature, Ash, etc.
That's just mages mind you, Warriors and Thieves are a little more tricky to find more, but not impossible. Played an Orc Troll Hunter not too long ago.
blah blah blah, shaddap me.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by I Can Hadouken!!!:

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Pathfinder is another name for a scout, the rest is personal opinion.

Really? that's all there is to it? that's kinda lackluster, I was expecting something a bit more unique. a bit of a bummer to be honest.

Bare in mind the same is true for the term Ranger, which is both a D&D class and a section of the US army.

Scouts in the old days did a lot more than people think!

A pathfinder would scout around, noting who was peaceful and who was hostile, make maps, and if at all possible without anyone noticing. They were also the best people to escort traders and VIPs, and would if necessary act as guards or even bodyguards.

But for a game sense I could make a dozen arguements for it being focused on one aspect, hence me saying anything else is personal opinion, unless you can get feedback from the person using the term, it could be anything (scout based)