⚔️ The written version: fextralife.com/pathfinder-kingmaker-builds-valerie/ ⚔️ Pathfinder Kingmaker Wiki: pathfinderkingmaker.wiki.fextralife.com/Pathfinder:+Kingmaker+Wiki 💸 Sponsor us for more great content! goo.gl/yyPtda 💖 Become a Fextralife VIP fextralife.com/Be-a-vip/
My preferred Valerie build uses Cornugon Smash, Dazzling Display, Intimidating Prowess and Dreadful Carnage to keep all your enemies Shaken (-2 to attacks, saves and ability checks). This takes advantage of her high Charisma (keep her persuasion maxed out). This also has the benefit of making her a better Advisor since her Advisor stat is based on her Charisma. Also, late game you can find some really nice items that add to Persuasion rolls to Intimidate which makes the build even better.
Shrewd personality aside, Valerie will almost always have a place in my party. Right now I'm at level 5 with each party member, and full plate + towershield + 22 CON, she is always the first one in the fight and also the last one to go down in a TPK.
Just a suggestion, instead of going for higher INT on Valerie, you are better off putting those points in to DEX (get at least an 16) if you are going for higher AC. Doing this you lose out on being able to take the Combat Expertise Feat, but because of the Fighter Armour Training you gain the DEX bonus to your AC passively and do not need to sacrifice your chance to hit in order to gain it. Overall you would have slightly less AC and Will save (1-2 Points) but you would have 4+ higher attack which is pretty significant. Depending on the magic items available in the game, this could even result in a higher AC, along with the higher Attack Bonus, only resulting in a small loss on Will save.
Don't forget that Dex is of limited value in a plate armour build. Unless you plan using medium armour on her as far as I'm concerned it's basically a dump stat for her as she is sword and board. You would get more value for strength (damage/hit), constitution (hit points), Charisma (intimidate) or wisdom (saves). I must admit on my previous run through I put enough to get Combat Expertise Feats to pick up some nice tactical abilties.
@@Beetlejuice2959 Fighter armor training increases the dex value allowed for heavy armor, so no, you get the full benefit of the 16 dex with plate armor. Her dump stat is INT since perception and persuasion are the only skills she needs unless you want her to fulfill a particular role in camping. She will need a wee bit of mobility, but once thats gotten the necessary amount (3, I believe) you can ignore it.
My Valérie is still lvl6 she had 32 AC +11 fortitude +9will and +4or6 Reflex, She had the tower shield 10resist fire+3 reflex(counted) I didn't have take armor focus yet and I want buy her mirthril armor, by being less encombered she will gain more skill bonus than +1 dex. I ccould raise her AC by 2 but I have to split with Harrim too. I want put the teamwork skill Shield wall ( I think) to Valérie and Harrim that will raise AC by 4 for each of them when side together. Then I could put them Precise skill teamwork to had 1D6 to their damage. feat toughness+ the one who reduce damage with armor. For Harrim I want buy him ademantite armor -3reduc and if he can have the feat who do that to that will do -6damage reduc. at lvl6 he had 27AC and I didn't build him full tank.give him raise undead magic and that will be a new DPS/tanker/healer
I multi-classed her to Feyspeaker Druid @ Lvl 2 which uses her Charisma instead of Wisdom for casting and she gets an animal companion. I chose a Boar so essentially replaced her tanking with the Boar as tank and get a full Druid caster as well. Has worked out pretty well so far.
THIS! is very important. Int only gives skillpoints if you are a Fighter in Pathfinder, so (mostly) just RP stuff. One exception would be "Dazzling Display" which uses persuasuion check. However her being a human she should get enough skillpoints as is, if you are looking to specialize her as a pure combat type.
You do need the 13 int for Combat Expertise. The big question is whether you think it's worth using 4 of 5 stat increases to get her Int that high. I don't personally think so.
Pro tip for making great characters in this game; take a look at the pathfinder rpg system, and the build/class guides on forums dedicated to the game. There are a whole lot of existing builds that both translates to the PC version really well, and fits nicely with the companions you pick up.
Thank you, I'm so happy to find a short build video that actually optimizes the class a character is rather than dipping into 4 classes that make no sense with the character's backstory and personality.
If you give Valerie just two levels of the "Thug" class (type of Rogue), it increases her intimidation skill. Combine that with the feat "Dazzling Display" and she can basically spam an infinite ability that makes enemies run away in fear. The other 18 levels can still be Tower Shield Specialist.
Excellent guide. Not super long, straight forward, and provides good flexibility in options while building on a overarching theme. Bravo. Keep 'em coming!
I tried to find a muli-class option for Valerie but her base stats are so weirdly distributed the only thing I could effectively make her is a walking wall like in this video. She just soaks up hits from the enemy and that's it. I then tried turning Jaethal into a tank and actually found it much more fun, as thanks to the free teamwork feats she gets as part of her class as well as her far better base stats, she can actually get AC similar to Valerie while also being bale to do damage and cast spells and abilities, and just be more fun to use. Only downside is she has far less healing options, but her fast healing judgement helps mitigate that a lot.
Check out the build Nerd Commando made for Valerie, if you are looking for a multiclass option. He built her into a tank that uses her high Charisma to frighten the enemies with Dazzling Display (feat). (in short: thug for the extended debuff effect, vivisectionist for mutagen and traditional monk for crane style)
I would say that strength should be her most important stat. Valerie only has 14 strength, so she suffers from medium encumbrance just by wearing tower shield and full plate, add a couple more items and she'll be heavily encumbered. And encumbrance penalties are steep. You can mitigate the problem slightly with items and buffs but even then you still have to deal with dispelling and ability drain.
Have to say it´s a great idea to start with companion build guides before general build guides. If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion I´d say at least briefly mention the prestige classes for those companions that are obviously predisposed to them and also maybe mention where they are found. Keep up the good job.
Yes, actually putting the int points in to dex instead (since she gets armour training for dex bonus to work) would result in the same AC bonus as the Feat Combat Expertise, and you don't have to sacrifice attack to do it.
:) Thinking of making another tank inquisitor and using shield wall.. and letting Ekun with a dispeller deal damage from behind while the frontline is impossible to crack; an alternative is to have Amiri with a fauchard, Jubilost with his bombs.. overall getting unstoppable frontline is not all that easy early on as trolls and cyclops seem to burst through almost anything but I could try to be more dedicated in this way
I build valerie to be a tank assassin roll into thug for a few levels cap persuasion and evasion stack inti dazzling strikes and its associated perks and the perk that alloes her to attack with her sheild after getting her perks on tankyness.
Poor build. Max out INT so that you can pick up trip at like lvl 16? No way trip is a viable late game strategy, any enemy susceptible to trip by then you’d be better off fighting straight up.
My character is as same like Valerie a Fighter with the Towershield (doing the shieldwall skills and combined attacks skills) and with Valerie on my side it works very good so far..they take the full attack of the enemies while Amiri the Babarian comes from the back in rage and slauthers all of them..(+ Linzi and a Ranger are doing ranged attacks + Aethal the Undead is doing attacking spells or assists Amiri by her coming from the back)... and until know it worked very well so far...and there was no need - so far - to exchange one of them with Tristian or Harrim, Octavia or Regongar..those guys are doing maintaining my kingdom now..but I will see what the future will have to offer...I´m just at the beginnig of building up my kingdom...
I like many of these guides, but spending 4 (!) stat increases on Valerie just so she can get a chain of feats at level 16 seems a really, really dubious piece of advice?
Yeah, true. Trip is better than Bull Rush, but Bull Rush +4 stat increases in Strength is better than Trip, no question. My Valierie trips, but that's cause I gave her some levels in a class that lets her bite and she has a magic cape that lets her trip when she bites. So not only is she tripping, she's attacking 4+ times in that same round. Simply put, there are easier ways of going about this.
Good beginners guide, however; 1:48 Intelligence (INT) does NOT add to will saves that is Wisdom (WIS). A 13 INT is important for combat expertise. So the only thing Valerie will get from a higher INT is more skill points, which you really don't need or can make good use of this at all. Don't go over 13 INT with her. With a starting INT of 9, I would not spend way too many ability score improvements to get her to 13, (it would take till level 16). A much better way would be to equip her with a headband of intellect +4, or a +2 and use your level 4 and 8 increases to increase her INT. [!!!Please note Items that that bost stats after being worn for 24 hours by pen and paper rules allow you to qualify for prerequisites, I don't know this is how it works for Kingmaker but it should] P.S. As a Tower shield fighter she can utilize the bonus to AC that a DEX of 14 (+2) starting at 3rd level even in full plate and using a towers shield. Level 7 DEX 16 (+3) is possible, Level 11 DEX 18 (+4) is possible, Level 15 DEX 20 (+8) is possible. So if you gave her 1 point at lv 4 in DEX then give here a belt slot Dex bonus item she could have a very high AC just from DEX which would also help here Touch AC. This would mean you lose out on a strength (STR) boosting item (STR and DEX both use belt slots) so a +6 belt of DEX with 3 of your five ability score increases would be the most you could invest in DEX on Valerie if you want to boost AC into the 40s. Slap on some miss chance from spells and you have a tank that could service high-level combat (just make sure your saves are good especially will). You could still use the last two ability score increases to get INT to 11 and a headband of +2 would give you 13 for combat expertise allowing trip and disarm feats.
"[!!!Please note Items that that boost stats after being worn for 24 hours by pen and paper rules allow you to qualify for prerequisites, I don't know this is how it works for Kingmaker but it should]" It doesnt work in PFKM, nor does it work in PnP except by house rules. You need to have the base stats to qualify. I agree though that waiting until lvl 16 to get combat expertise is a waste and the campaign will usually be over by then.
For the early game I can highly recommend giving valerie one alchemist lvl, subclass "vivisectionist"! Her intelligence sucks, but she gets the alchemical (!) +4 strength mutagen bonus that fully stacks with enhancement bonus by belt or spell. Now she can finally hit something! Also, being onehanded, she will get an instant considerable high damage buff - sneak attack dmg (which happens in this game without much effort and way too often). When you fill her empty helmet slot with an diadem of vast intelligence, you can even cast spells and counter her slowness with her very own expeditious retreat spell.
I tried to play this game but man I didn't undestand a thing, well kinda, but not enough to enjoy it, I'm hoping your guides help me on a general sense :c, the begginers guide was ok I guess but was too basic for me personally. This tank seems broken btw, is there any cap for enemies aggro'ed per character or skills to aggro enemies?
Its not a bad idea to use a pen and paper to see how rolls will affect skills and what skills compliment your and your partys style ex; im a alchimist. Grander, grenades are affected by crits and some bow perks so i specialize in bombs critting and some bow skills making me not only a great sniper but a devastating bombadier.
Yea Valerie has strange stats but at least a Tank is useful in the Game as compared to PnP. I would recomend spashing some level ups sometime after Level 5 / 7 Splashing a level into Traditional Monk could be good for getting Crane Syle as it makes fighting defensivly just better. (maybe even 2 for Evasion as she has decent reflex saves) Viviectomist might be good too for Constitution and Strenght Mutagens and the Flanking Sneak Attack (it just works) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Love seeing Build for these New Games from you keep it up
I do like a trip build and fighter old school styles, but Valerie stats are a build that do not fit there. She already have alot of Cha, and there is a Fighter build for that and is the intimidation one. Forget about int and put 1on dex, 3 on cha and 1 in con. Dazzling Display , some "shatters" call the day. She will be doing dmg without the need for alot of AP and tank at the same time in her Towershield exp.
This guide is super iffy. Like, its not that the build doesn't WORK, its just that you are doing a lot of work for no real reason. Not to mention the (as has already pointed out numerous times) outright false information about INT being the will save ability score, when its not. You also just say "hey, get these feats" and not say what level to grab them at, same with the ability score increases. A newer player who doesn't know what they are doing (IE, your target audience) might muck things up and either grab stuff in the wrong order. That might make the build completely useless, or at leased heavily gimped, until mid to late game. Lack of info Incorrect info Poorly explained reasoning for the info Sub par info. 3.5/10 guide, only because the build technically works, otherwise it'd be lower.
I suggest a conjuration focus of you want an OP wizard. I highly recommend going Sloth. Conjuration has decent blaster spells itself so you won't miss out on Evocation too badly. Not to mention there aren't any 9th level evocation spells. I honestly have no idea what they were thinking to not give Wizards their tried and true Meteor Swarm, but oh well. Instead, you have Tsunami and Clashing Rocks for raw damage under Conjuration. Your other banned school is Illusion and, well, Illusion sucks. Few spells, your early options are all defensive, and when you finally do get a decent 'offensive' option it's single target. In this game, you'll need to take down lots of little enemies more often than one or two really big threats. Shadow evocation is great though if you want to use a 5th level spell slot to cast a normal fireball that has to get through both a will save and a reflex save. Like seeing a lot of single digit damage numbers from your 5th level spells? Perfect! But why even bother with any of that when you have what Conjuration is there for, the summons. Whether you want one big buddie or a swarm of slightly not so big friends, you'll never find yourself without an extraplanar wolf in your pocket. You'll obviously want Spell Focus (Conjuration) to go into Augmented Summoning and the on that gives you use your spells to summon multiple. This is essential so you never spend your second level spell slot to call 1d3 dogs, and end up with just 1 dog when you could have just called 1 wolf instead. Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration) is good for you to get, but not until later guys. Your early go-to spells for damage will be Snowball and Acid Arrow, both touch attacks that do not benefit from the increased DCs. At level 7, you'll also want to prepare Animate Dead. While it isn't a conjuration spell, it still benefits from your core feats. Even without those feats, this spell is broken beyond belief. There are very few obstacles that you'll come across at that level that can't be solved with 'I summon 5 Skeletal Champions'. If you want to feel like a god and lay waste to the lands with your magic, conjuration is the way to go.
I looked at that option too, but I am not sure it's worth it. You're already getting 'uncanny dodge'' through tower shield specialist so that's a flub. You'll also lose out on Evasion. Keeping down the Fighter path will better your max dex bonus in heavy armor, allowing you to get out of any increases to her score. With that, the belt of physical perfection works wonders on her and you're pretty close to the same benefit as the +4 top AC SD can offer. Defensive stance is nice, but limited. I am not sure what all the options for defensive powers in the game are, but I can't help but think you'd be better of with the 5 feats you would be sacrificing from fighter. All that said, my sword saint still pushes ahead of her AC by +1 after casting shield, so take that for what you will.
Just don't take Valerie, she sucks. If you want to have a "tank" in your group, pick someone who can either summon a ridiculous amount of minions or someone who can spam mirror image and has a decent enough amount of HP to not get one-shot. The guide is a complete mess and not worth watching at all if you actually look for useful information.
If want to make her an optimal tank, get that expertise and just go full tower shield specialist. But you are not gonna ruin her as a tank by taking defender.
Interesting fact to note is that her two starting level 1 feats are dodge and toughness - the requirements of Stalwart Defender. It’s safe to assume that Owlcat expects you to put a level in it for her.
intelligence doesn't give a will bonus in Kingmaker; Valerie has SO many wasted points for a fighter: her charisma isn't dumped, her intelligence isn't dumped, her constitution is ineffectively high; this mounts up to two things: first, you could argue that she has good multiclass potential but it's just not worth it; even though she is a 27 point character, you could build a much better fighter on 20 points (a mercenary); this being said, I find that she can do what she's supposed to do and do it well enough for normal difficulty: be the team tank; this could be achieved better, but what does it really matter? Amiri has a better stat distribution and in the end fails beyond the first chapter (at first she is indispensable for dealing damage) because for a non tank, optimization really does matter
Hm... I am a little sad Dirty Combat Tactics isn't available in this game. I would have loved it. The feat goes as followed: *Benefits* - Whenever you are flanking an enemy, you can forgo your +2 Flanking Bonus to instead make a Combat Maneuver Check without taking an attack of opportunity. If you have an ability or feat that already allows you to make this check without an Attack of Opportunity, you gain a +4 Flanking Bonus to the Maneuver instead. *Special* - You count as having 13 Dex, 13 Int, Combat Expertise, and Improved Unarmed Strike for all Improved Combat Maneuver feats and all feats that have them as a prerequisite. ------ When you're playing a Fighter, I'd HAPPILY trade this feat for Combat Expertise.
Sorry, but some of this isn't going to work as well as it sounds. Wis works with Will saves, not Int. Since she gets such advantages with Dex and armor, you'd be better off with a Belt of Dex and putting your points into Dex instead of Int. This means no Combat Expertise (or trip) but you won't take such negatives to hit and may end up with a higher AC at the same time depending on feat choices. You need to lean into the advantages the class gives you instead of spending valuable resources trying to get 1 simple combat maneuver that may not hit unless you dump several feats into it. Teamwork feats are good, as are most of the others listed in the video.
Send tank in first always while others stay at the back. Best way to do it is to scout ahead with stealthy character and then sending in tank when enemy is spotted to engage them.
Yea I must admit I know almost nothing about Pathfinder, impulse buy for the game... prefer DnD games at this point, but still enjoying Kingmaker. As for Sorcerer that is true, playing a Gold Dragon at the moment. But bard would still have a higher bab for multi-class martial builds.
Well I used bard for Valerie (gave her some Dragon Disciple levels for the strength boost and some natural armour) because I assumed the rules would be similar to DnD ( :D now I know there not)... but Valerie can't go Paladin, as I tried and it was not available (so I guess Lawful Good Needed) Edit if I was going multi with Dragon Disciple for say a Weapon Master II would go Bard as his/her BAB is higher then a Sorcerer in DND
Many feats require prerequisite feats and/or a certain attribute level before they become available. You basically have to scour a rulebook or wiki in order to level characters perfectly. Hopefully, Wrath of the Righteous (next Pathfinder game in the works) has an in-game rulebook or something for Pathfinder.
@@whitemale2230 No, I mean there is no such feat. Combat Expertise gets better as you level, there is no Improved version of it. Check any Pathfinder: Kingmaker wiki, it does not exist, nor is it listed in-game.
This is about the dumbest way you can build Valerie. Why would you go 4 extra mile to get a feat that has barely an impact on a character with an already inherently high AC and saves instead of playing to her strength by taking the obvious like, idk, DAZZLING DISPLAY FOR INSTANCE?!
valerie should have brute and 1 lvl monk for crane strike. also 1 lvl vivisectionist for mutagen. Brute lets her debuff the enemy. Playing her pure tank is a waste.
@MrSlaide Monk gives her a bonus feat everything else she gets at first level is flurry of blows(needs monk weapon) and Monk AC bonus which she can't wear armor for. So...why use monk for one free feat?
i mean.. i want to take the guide seriously, but the video starts off with people in ur group burdened, some have level ups but unused... its like watching a cleaning guide from a trash hoarder.
Wait what? Are we supposed to take this serious? You haven't even played the darn game. Level 20 cheated characters with AC26? You definetely know something is wrong when you see that. And no, Valerie/TSS is completely useless in this game with the inflated enemy stats. Even with AC32+ you will be hit and killed constantly. AC is NOT the way to build a tank in this game, sadly.
IMHO - Valerie is nothing more than a meat shield and is not strong in any aspect of the game due to her stat distribution. Don't expect her to do damage nor does she do a very good job at absorbing damage and you can get her 13 INT for the trip and expertise but she's only at her full potential at level 20(maybe 15) which does not help you that well for the rest of the game. I have to use her right now because there aren't any other options yet and I am only in Season of Bloom. I had been having my companions level up automatically. That was a mistake. The choices the game makes are terrible. I'm almost to the point I just want to use the Nexxus mod to redo my party. Not to mention, removing that 1 fighter rank I gave to Tristian thinking he could use armor. Yikes. Big mistake. My next playthrough, I will probably just make my own party but leave 1 slot for an NPC for when I have to take companions with me for their specific quests. For that party, I plan to have a real tank, melee dmg dealer, cleric, wizard/sorcerer and dedicated ranged dmg dealer.
⚔️ The written version: fextralife.com/pathfinder-kingmaker-builds-valerie/
⚔️ Pathfinder Kingmaker Wiki: pathfinderkingmaker.wiki.fextralife.com/Pathfinder:+Kingmaker+Wiki
💸 Sponsor us for more great content! goo.gl/yyPtda
💖 Become a Fextralife VIP fextralife.com/Be-a-vip/
My preferred Valerie build uses Cornugon Smash, Dazzling Display, Intimidating Prowess and Dreadful Carnage to keep all your enemies Shaken (-2 to attacks, saves and ability checks). This takes advantage of her high Charisma (keep her persuasion maxed out). This also has the benefit of making her a better Advisor since her Advisor stat is based on her Charisma. Also, late game you can find some really nice items that add to Persuasion rolls to Intimidate which makes the build even better.
Give her levels in Rogue(Thug) and she can frighten foes)
Shrewd personality aside, Valerie will almost always have a place in my party. Right now I'm at level 5 with each party member, and full plate + towershield + 22 CON, she is always the first one in the fight and also the last one to go down in a TPK.
0:05
So are we forming a guild? Or explaining a guide?
Just a suggestion, instead of going for higher INT on Valerie, you are better off putting those points in to DEX (get at least an 16) if you are going for higher AC. Doing this you lose out on being able to take the Combat Expertise Feat, but because of the Fighter Armour Training you gain the DEX bonus to your AC passively and do not need to sacrifice your chance to hit in order to gain it. Overall you would have slightly less AC and Will save (1-2 Points) but you would have 4+ higher attack which is pretty significant.
Depending on the magic items available in the game, this could even result in a higher AC, along with the higher Attack Bonus, only resulting in a small loss on Will save.
Thanks for the suggestion, mate. Great info!
Plus more relfex save
Don't forget that Dex is of limited value in a plate armour build. Unless you plan using medium armour on her as far as I'm concerned it's basically a dump stat for her as she is sword and board. You would get more value for strength (damage/hit), constitution (hit points), Charisma (intimidate) or wisdom (saves). I must admit on my previous run through I put enough to get Combat Expertise Feats to pick up some nice tactical abilties.
@@Beetlejuice2959 Fighter armor training increases the dex value allowed for heavy armor, so no, you get the full benefit of the 16 dex with plate armor. Her dump stat is INT since perception and persuasion are the only skills she needs unless you want her to fulfill a particular role in camping. She will need a wee bit of mobility, but once thats gotten the necessary amount (3, I believe) you can ignore it.
My Valérie is still lvl6 she had 32 AC +11 fortitude +9will and +4or6 Reflex, She had the tower shield 10resist fire+3 reflex(counted) I didn't have take armor focus yet and I want buy her mirthril armor, by being less encombered she will gain more skill bonus than +1 dex. I ccould raise her AC by 2 but I have to split with Harrim too. I want put the teamwork skill Shield wall ( I think) to Valérie and Harrim that will raise AC by 4 for each of them when side together. Then I could put them Precise skill teamwork to had 1D6 to their damage. feat toughness+ the one who reduce damage with armor. For Harrim I want buy him ademantite armor -3reduc and if he can have the feat who do that to that will do -6damage reduc. at lvl6 he had 27AC and I didn't build him full tank.give him raise undead magic and that will be a new DPS/tanker/healer
I multi-classed her to Feyspeaker Druid @ Lvl 2 which uses her Charisma instead of Wisdom for casting and she gets an animal companion. I chose a Boar so essentially replaced her tanking with the Boar as tank and get a full Druid caster as well. Has worked out pretty well so far.
Dazzling display build makes good use of Valerie's high Charisma. Multiclassed 4 levels into Thug to get even stronger debufs.
1:48 Wisdom is used for Will saving throws
THIS! is very important. Int only gives skillpoints if you are a Fighter in Pathfinder, so (mostly) just RP stuff. One exception would be "Dazzling Display" which uses persuasuion check. However her being a human she should get enough skillpoints as is, if you are looking to specialize her as a pure combat type.
Yep, that. Suggest you add an erratum note on top of the video.
You do need the 13 int for Combat Expertise. The big question is whether you think it's worth using 4 of 5 stat increases to get her Int that high. I don't personally think so.
Agreed. Better to have more Dex than spend "creation points" and a Feat for Combat Expertise (which also gives you a To Hit penalty).
@@jackhammerjohnny3855 Using an item is better for that :)
Thanks for keeping this short and sweet. Too many build guides go past the half-hour mark for no real purpose.
Exactly
Great guide. Concise yet comprehensive. Best one I've come across so far. I want more!!!!!!! (please)
Pro tip for making great characters in this game; take a look at the pathfinder rpg system, and the build/class guides on forums dedicated to the game. There are a whole lot of existing builds that both translates to the PC version really well, and fits nicely with the companions you pick up.
Thank you, I'm so happy to find a short build video that actually optimizes the class a character is rather than dipping into 4 classes that make no sense with the character's backstory and personality.
If you give Valerie just two levels of the "Thug" class (type of Rogue), it increases her intimidation skill. Combine that with the feat "Dazzling Display" and she can basically spam an infinite ability that makes enemies run away in fear. The other 18 levels can still be Tower Shield Specialist.
Excellent guide. Not super long, straight forward, and provides good flexibility in options while building on a overarching theme. Bravo. Keep 'em coming!
1:48
Wisdom goes to Will saves, not Intelligence.
The 13 Int is only for the ability to get Combat Expertise feat.
I tried to find a muli-class option for Valerie but her base stats are so weirdly distributed the only thing I could effectively make her is a walking wall like in this video. She just soaks up hits from the enemy and that's it. I then tried turning Jaethal into a tank and actually found it much more fun, as thanks to the free teamwork feats she gets as part of her class as well as her far better base stats, she can actually get AC similar to Valerie while also being bale to do damage and cast spells and abilities, and just be more fun to use. Only downside is she has far less healing options, but her fast healing judgement helps mitigate that a lot.
Check out the build Nerd Commando made for Valerie, if you are looking for a multiclass option. He built her into a tank that uses her high Charisma to frighten the enemies with Dazzling Display (feat). (in short: thug for the extended debuff effect, vivisectionist for mutagen and traditional monk for crane style)
I would say that strength should be her most important stat. Valerie only has 14 strength, so she suffers from medium encumbrance just by wearing tower shield and full plate, add a couple more items and she'll be heavily encumbered. And encumbrance penalties are steep. You can mitigate the problem slightly with items and buffs but even then you still have to deal with dispelling and ability drain.
Have to say it´s a great idea to start with companion build guides before general build guides.
If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion I´d say at least briefly mention the prestige classes for those companions that are obviously predisposed to them and also maybe mention where they are found.
Keep up the good job.
So pumping DEX would actually be really a good idea for Valerie as her sub-classes feats makes DEX actually useful to her.
Yes, actually putting the int points in to dex instead (since she gets armour training for dex bonus to work) would result in the same AC bonus as the Feat Combat Expertise, and you don't have to sacrifice attack to do it.
13 int is necessary for Combat Expertise so you can take Trip, I'm pretty sure.
:) Thinking of making another tank inquisitor and using shield wall.. and letting Ekun with a dispeller deal damage from behind while the frontline is impossible to crack; an alternative is to have Amiri with a fauchard, Jubilost with his bombs.. overall getting unstoppable frontline is not all that easy early on as trolls and cyclops seem to burst through almost anything but I could try to be more dedicated in this way
Awesome guide thanks !
Please Keep it coming. Please do a ranger build.
It'd be cool to see a video that shows off the different sorcerer transformations or polymorph abilities.
I build valerie to be a tank assassin roll into thug for a few levels cap persuasion and evasion stack inti dazzling strikes and its associated perks and the perk that alloes her to attack with her sheild after getting her perks on tankyness.
Poor build. Max out INT so that you can pick up trip at like lvl 16? No way trip is a viable late game strategy, any enemy susceptible to trip by then you’d be better off fighting straight up.
My character is as same like Valerie a Fighter with the Towershield (doing the shieldwall skills and combined attacks skills) and with Valerie on my side it works very good so far..they take the full attack of the enemies while Amiri the Babarian comes from the back in rage and slauthers all of them..(+ Linzi and a Ranger are doing ranged attacks + Aethal the Undead is doing attacking spells or assists Amiri by her coming from the back)... and until know it worked very well so far...and there was no need - so far - to exchange one of them with Tristian or Harrim, Octavia or Regongar..those guys are doing maintaining my kingdom now..but I will see what the future will have to offer...I´m just at the beginnig of building up my kingdom...
I like many of these guides, but spending 4 (!) stat increases on Valerie just so she can get a chain of feats at level 16 seems a really, really dubious piece of advice?
You need those feats.
Yeah, true. Trip is better than Bull Rush, but Bull Rush +4 stat increases in Strength is better than Trip, no question.
My Valierie trips, but that's cause I gave her some levels in a class that lets her bite and she has a magic cape that lets her trip when she bites. So not only is she tripping, she's attacking 4+ times in that same round. Simply put, there are easier ways of going about this.
Good beginners guide, however;
1:48 Intelligence (INT) does NOT add to will saves that is Wisdom (WIS). A 13 INT is important for combat expertise. So the only thing Valerie will get from a higher INT is more skill points, which you really don't need or can make good use of this at all. Don't go over 13 INT with her.
With a starting INT of 9, I would not spend way too many ability score improvements to get her to 13, (it would take till level 16). A much better way would be to equip her with a headband of intellect +4, or a +2 and use your level 4 and 8 increases to increase her INT.
[!!!Please note Items that that bost stats after being worn for 24 hours by pen and paper rules allow you to qualify for prerequisites, I don't know this is how it works for Kingmaker but it should]
P.S. As a Tower shield fighter she can utilize the bonus to AC that a DEX of 14 (+2) starting at 3rd level even in full plate and using a towers shield. Level 7 DEX 16 (+3) is possible, Level 11 DEX 18 (+4) is possible, Level 15 DEX 20 (+8) is possible. So if you gave her 1 point at lv 4 in DEX then give here a belt slot Dex bonus item she could have a very high AC just from DEX which would also help here Touch AC. This would mean you lose out on a strength (STR) boosting item (STR and DEX both use belt slots) so a +6 belt of DEX with 3 of your five ability score increases would be the most you could invest in DEX on Valerie if you want to boost AC into the 40s. Slap on some miss chance from spells and you have a tank that could service high-level combat (just make sure your saves are good especially will). You could still use the last two ability score increases to get INT to 11 and a headband of +2 would give you 13 for combat expertise allowing trip and disarm feats.
"[!!!Please note Items that that boost stats after being worn for 24 hours by pen and paper rules allow you to qualify for prerequisites, I don't know this is how it works for Kingmaker but it should]" It doesnt work in PFKM, nor does it work in PnP except by house rules. You need to have the base stats to qualify. I agree though that waiting until lvl 16 to get combat expertise is a waste and the campaign will usually be over by then.
More plz!
For the early game I can highly recommend giving valerie one alchemist lvl, subclass "vivisectionist"!
Her intelligence sucks, but she gets the alchemical (!) +4 strength mutagen bonus that fully stacks with enhancement bonus by belt or spell. Now she can finally hit something!
Also, being onehanded, she will get an instant considerable high damage buff - sneak attack dmg (which happens in this game without much effort and way too often).
When you fill her empty helmet slot with an diadem of vast intelligence, you can even cast spells and counter her slowness with her very own expeditious retreat spell.
how come I cant find the "combat shield" feat? its not even on d20pfsrd, is that a typo?
I tried to play this game but man I didn't undestand a thing, well kinda, but not enough to enjoy it, I'm hoping your guides help me on a general sense :c, the begginers guide was ok I guess but was too basic for me personally. This tank seems broken btw, is there any cap for enemies aggro'ed per character or skills to aggro enemies?
Its not a bad idea to use a pen and paper to see how rolls will affect skills and what skills compliment your and your partys style ex; im a alchimist. Grander, grenades are affected by crits and some bow perks so i specialize in bombs critting and some bow skills making me not only a great sniper but a devastating bombadier.
So the AI will actually go after the melee units instead of targeting the squishy glass cannons in the back?
Yea Valerie has strange stats but at least a Tank is useful in the Game as compared to PnP.
I would recomend spashing some level ups sometime after Level 5 / 7
Splashing a level into Traditional Monk could be good for getting Crane Syle as it makes fighting defensivly just better. (maybe even 2 for Evasion as she has decent reflex saves)
Viviectomist might be good too for Constitution and Strenght Mutagens and the Flanking Sneak Attack (it just works) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Love seeing Build for these New Games from you keep it up
I do like a trip build and fighter old school styles, but Valerie stats are a build that do not fit there. She already have alot of Cha, and there is a Fighter build for that and is the intimidation one. Forget about int and put 1on dex, 3 on cha and 1 in con. Dazzling Display , some "shatters" call the day. She will be doing dmg without the need for alot of AP and tank at the same time in her Towershield exp.
This guide is super iffy. Like, its not that the build doesn't WORK, its just that you are doing a lot of work for no real reason. Not to mention the (as has already pointed out numerous times) outright false information about INT being the will save ability score, when its not. You also just say "hey, get these feats" and not say what level to grab them at, same with the ability score increases. A newer player who doesn't know what they are doing (IE, your target audience) might muck things up and either grab stuff in the wrong order. That might make the build completely useless, or at leased heavily gimped, until mid to late game.
Lack of info
Incorrect info
Poorly explained reasoning for the info
Sub par info.
3.5/10 guide, only because the build technically works, otherwise it'd be lower.
Can you direct us to better guide? I'm not being argumentative but honestly asking as i bought the game but have yet to start playing.
@@bocconom . Obviously he couldn't 😂
@@SeventhheavenDK Hmmm, maybe it was an INT thing. :)
Why she has only 26 on level 20 if focused on AC? I have 33 on level 10 without putting anything in INT.
Wizards man, help me build my evil wizard
I suggest a conjuration focus of you want an OP wizard. I highly recommend going Sloth. Conjuration has decent blaster spells itself so you won't miss out on Evocation too badly. Not to mention there aren't any 9th level evocation spells. I honestly have no idea what they were thinking to not give Wizards their tried and true Meteor Swarm, but oh well. Instead, you have Tsunami and Clashing Rocks for raw damage under Conjuration. Your other banned school is Illusion and, well, Illusion sucks. Few spells, your early options are all defensive, and when you finally do get a decent 'offensive' option it's single target. In this game, you'll need to take down lots of little enemies more often than one or two really big threats. Shadow evocation is great though if you want to use a 5th level spell slot to cast a normal fireball that has to get through both a will save and a reflex save. Like seeing a lot of single digit damage numbers from your 5th level spells? Perfect!
But why even bother with any of that when you have what Conjuration is there for, the summons. Whether you want one big buddie or a swarm of slightly not so big friends, you'll never find yourself without an extraplanar wolf in your pocket. You'll obviously want Spell Focus (Conjuration) to go into Augmented Summoning and the on that gives you use your spells to summon multiple. This is essential so you never spend your second level spell slot to call 1d3 dogs, and end up with just 1 dog when you could have just called 1 wolf instead. Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration) is good for you to get, but not until later guys. Your early go-to spells for damage will be Snowball and Acid Arrow, both touch attacks that do not benefit from the increased DCs.
At level 7, you'll also want to prepare Animate Dead. While it isn't a conjuration spell, it still benefits from your core feats. Even without those feats, this spell is broken beyond belief. There are very few obstacles that you'll come across at that level that can't be solved with 'I summon 5 Skeletal Champions'.
If you want to feel like a god and lay waste to the lands with your magic, conjuration is the way to go.
Will you do other companions or even player class guides too?
That's the plan!
I am thinking about taking Stalwart Defender as a prestige class for Valerie, thoughts?
I looked at that option too, but I am not sure it's worth it. You're already getting 'uncanny dodge'' through tower shield specialist so that's a flub. You'll also lose out on Evasion. Keeping down the Fighter path will better your max dex bonus in heavy armor, allowing you to get out of any increases to her score. With that, the belt of physical perfection works wonders on her and you're pretty close to the same benefit as the +4 top AC SD can offer. Defensive stance is nice, but limited. I am not sure what all the options for defensive powers in the game are, but I can't help but think you'd be better of with the 5 feats you would be sacrificing from fighter.
All that said, my sword saint still pushes ahead of her AC by +1 after casting shield, so take that for what you will.
Just don't take Valerie, she sucks. If you want to have a "tank" in your group, pick someone who can either summon a ridiculous amount of minions or someone who can spam mirror image and has a decent enough amount of HP to not get one-shot. The guide is a complete mess and not worth watching at all if you actually look for useful information.
Monk for val with crane style + def stance
If want to make her an optimal tank, get that expertise and just go full tower shield specialist. But you are not gonna ruin her as a tank by taking defender.
Interesting fact to note is that her two starting level 1 feats are dodge and toughness - the requirements of Stalwart Defender. It’s safe to assume that Owlcat expects you to put a level in it for her.
intelligence doesn't give a will bonus in Kingmaker; Valerie has SO many wasted points for a fighter: her charisma isn't dumped, her intelligence isn't dumped, her constitution is ineffectively high; this mounts up to two things: first, you could argue that she has good multiclass potential but it's just not worth it; even though she is a 27 point character, you could build a much better fighter on 20 points (a mercenary); this being said, I find that she can do what she's supposed to do and do it well enough for normal difficulty: be the team tank; this could be achieved better, but what does it really matter? Amiri has a better stat distribution and in the end fails beyond the first chapter (at first she is indispensable for dealing damage) because for a non tank, optimization really does matter
@ScepticalCynic what a nonsense reply
At 11th level my Valerie has AC39..and touch 17
Hm... I am a little sad Dirty Combat Tactics isn't available in this game. I would have loved it. The feat goes as followed:
*Benefits* - Whenever you are flanking an enemy, you can forgo your +2 Flanking Bonus to instead make a Combat Maneuver Check without taking an attack of opportunity. If you have an ability or feat that already allows you to make this check without an Attack of Opportunity, you gain a +4 Flanking Bonus to the Maneuver instead.
*Special* - You count as having 13 Dex, 13 Int, Combat Expertise, and Improved Unarmed Strike for all Improved Combat Maneuver feats and all feats that have them as a prerequisite.
------
When you're playing a Fighter, I'd HAPPILY trade this feat for Combat Expertise.
Sorry, but some of this isn't going to work as well as it sounds. Wis works with Will saves, not Int. Since she gets such advantages with Dex and armor, you'd be better off with a Belt of Dex and putting your points into Dex instead of Int. This means no Combat Expertise (or trip) but you won't take such negatives to hit and may end up with a higher AC at the same time depending on feat choices. You need to lean into the advantages the class gives you instead of spending valuable resources trying to get 1 simple combat maneuver that may not hit unless you dump several feats into it. Teamwork feats are good, as are most of the others listed in the video.
im curious to how to take agroo?!?!
Send tank in first always while others stay at the back. Best way to do it is to scout ahead with stealthy character and then sending in tank when enemy is spotted to engage them.
Why not Paladin 2-3lvls what use is bard?
Bard good for a splash of Dragon disciple and not alignment locked.
@@wompoo7967 well you don't need that for the sorcerer, they have all already. But for DD you need fighter skills, something bard doesn't have.
Yea I must admit I know almost nothing about Pathfinder, impulse buy for the game... prefer DnD games at this point, but still enjoying Kingmaker. As for Sorcerer that is true, playing a Gold Dragon at the moment. But bard would still have a higher bab for multi-class martial builds.
@@wompoo7967 well I did irl rpg pathfinder for 5+ y so do have more rpg thoughts. Don't see why the bard is martial though.
Well I used bard for Valerie (gave her some Dragon Disciple levels for the strength boost and some natural armour) because I assumed the rules would be similar to DnD ( :D now I know there not)... but Valerie can't go Paladin, as I tried and it was not available (so I guess Lawful Good Needed) Edit if I was going multi with Dragon Disciple for say a Weapon Master II would go Bard as his/her BAB is higher then a Sorcerer in DND
it really sounds like you have never played tabletop
Putting points into intelligence for a tank. Jesus
Valerie doesn't come with 13 INT, it's only 9. Your written guide points that out. This one is misleading. Anyway, I enjoyed your guide. Thanks.
I see no feat called Improved Combat Expertise.
Many feats require prerequisite feats and/or a certain attribute level before they become available. You basically have to scour a rulebook or wiki in order to level characters perfectly. Hopefully, Wrath of the Righteous (next Pathfinder game in the works) has an in-game rulebook or something for Pathfinder.
@@whitemale2230 No, I mean there is no such feat. Combat Expertise gets better as you level, there is no Improved version of it.
Check any Pathfinder: Kingmaker wiki, it does not exist, nor is it listed in-game.
@@whitemale2230 necro but you can just check "show unavailable" on the bottom, been there day 1 afaik
This is about the dumbest way you can build Valerie. Why would you go 4 extra mile to get a feat that has barely an impact on a character with an already inherently high AC and saves instead of playing to her strength by taking the obvious like, idk, DAZZLING DISPLAY FOR INSTANCE?!
valerie should have brute and 1 lvl monk for crane strike. also 1 lvl vivisectionist for mutagen.
Brute lets her debuff the enemy.
Playing her pure tank is a waste.
I don't know about monk.
@MrSlaide Not many maybe if she could flurry with her weapon.
@MrSlaide Monk gives her a bonus feat everything else she gets at first level is flurry of blows(needs monk weapon) and Monk AC bonus which she can't wear armor for. So...why use monk for one free feat?
@@edwinfrerichs8674 crane strike. AC and saving throws.
See nerdcommando. He has a Video
@@mrfreeman2911 AC Bonus is for none armor according to the rules and the saving throws 1 con 1 dex unless you go traditional monk then it's 1 all.
i mean.. i want to take the guide seriously, but the video starts off with people in ur group burdened, some have level ups but unused... its like watching a cleaning guide from a trash hoarder.
Wait what? Are we supposed to take this serious? You haven't even played the darn game. Level 20 cheated characters with AC26? You definetely know something is wrong when you see that. And no, Valerie/TSS is completely useless in this game with the inflated enemy stats. Even with AC32+ you will be hit and killed constantly. AC is NOT the way to build a tank in this game, sadly.
so much missing. lmao
IMHO - Valerie is nothing more than a meat shield and is not strong in any aspect of the game due to her stat distribution. Don't expect her to do damage nor does she do a very good job at absorbing damage and you can get her 13 INT for the trip and expertise but she's only at her full potential at level 20(maybe 15) which does not help you that well for the rest of the game. I have to use her right now because there aren't any other options yet and I am only in Season of Bloom. I had been having my companions level up automatically. That was a mistake. The choices the game makes are terrible. I'm almost to the point I just want to use the Nexxus mod to redo my party. Not to mention, removing that 1 fighter rank I gave to Tristian thinking he could use armor. Yikes. Big mistake.
My next playthrough, I will probably just make my own party but leave 1 slot for an NPC for when I have to take companions with me for their specific quests. For that party, I plan to have a real tank, melee dmg dealer, cleric, wizard/sorcerer and dedicated ranged dmg dealer.
she is a terrible build, cant hit anything waste of space.