What is Reddit's opinion of
Pathbuilder?
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Popularity Score: 52
This app was mentioned in 75 comments, with an average of 4.39 upvotes
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On Android I can't recommend Pathbuilder enough.
It's a great character builder with a very user friendly UI. It is fairly new I think, but the developer is constantly updating with more features (spell support added recently) and books. There is a handy Information button next to all options (race, feat, skill etc) that links to Piazo, D20pfSRD or Neyths so you can see a full description.
Also, it's completely free.
I use this one on my phone: Pathbuilder. I haven't explored it too thoroughly so I'm not aware of any kinks that it might have, but for what I've been needing, it's worked great!
Check out Pathbuilder. Its the best character building app by far and you can export your build as a character sheet. Also if you just want the character sheet part Pathfinder Toolkit is pretty ok.
Check out Pathbuilder if you're on Android - really amazing character gen app, the developer (u/Redrazors) is active (and on this sub!).
You're right that kineticist can be complicated. Honestly, I would never build one without using Pathbuilder. AFAIK there's no iPhone version, but if you have an iphone, get yourself Bluestacks or some other android emulator and load up Pathbuilder, seriously, it'll make your life that much easier and helping sort out what options you qualify for and which you don't.
FrankExplains is right. The workload for such a large database is really enormous. Though the sheet is nice for managing your own character.
If you want to try out and build character concepts, I recommend Pathbuilder (Android app, smooth, but only for Android) or PCGen (PC software, initially a bit complex, but very comprehensive and not only for Pathfinder).
I started with Pathbuilder but migrated to PCGen. The ruleset is really nice and can by modified manually. Though it´s a bit complex at the beginning.
I recently found out about Pathbuilder, a very good, actively developed, character builder for Android.
Otherwise I use this amazing Google Sheets character sheet by u/darthmarth28. It's quite good and very playable as a sheet straight from my screen if I can't print it out.
For theorycrafting, or exploring possible characters, or just wasting time: the Pathbuilder Android app
For actual play, /u/darthmarth28's Autosheet for Google Docs.
Apart from Pathbuilder which IMO is the best app for character building, but at the begining can be overwhelming the amount of content. Spell Tracker is also fantastic, you can select the books you want to take spells from
Is definitely something I'd be potentially interested in.
Pathfinder has something similar with Pathbuilder that I personally find incredibly helpful (I build characters when I'm bored, lol).
Would be doubly interesting if you included ship building functionality and the ability to assign a crew to it from your created/downloaded characters.
Touching on Roll20 (as others have mentioned using it) there should be various ways to automatically load things into character sheets (I know the Starfinder HUD one can import NPC stat blocks), so if this matures enough it may be a good idea to look at/team up with them for creating avenues to get your characters from the app and into R20.
I'd suggest making it in Pathbuilder and exporting it to PDF. The option "include spellbook" will be checked by default and it will attach full details of all the spells. It'll be long yes, but you can print it for quick reference and summarize it yourself on the first page of the spellbook. It's also nice to be able to hand that to whoever receives the spellbook if they find it.
(And yes it works the same for sorcerers and clerics and such)
Best character gen I've used for PF. Very friendly UI, everything has a link to one of the major websites if you need more info ("What's a Cavalier - click info button - opens Piazo site for Cavalier), you can make a full character in like 5 mins with it and it's free.
Here it is. Android only, as far as I can tell. It didn't fit my needs, but seems pretty nice for a vanilla Pathfinder game. Not sure how it would work for a caster.
Pathbuilder.
Yes. It's a mobile app, but for being in beta and free (donations are available) it's pretty badass. It has a lot of options. It's missing some race archetype and classes, but the main feats are there. Smaller book feats are being worked on.
I can't wait until they add a section where you can pick from ALL the alternate racial Traits, or a section for character traits introduced in the APG and added upon later.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
Brawler is a Pathfinder 1e class for which you'd want Pathbuilder 1e. Pathbuilder 2e is for 2e classes and builds
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder for the 1e version
Our wiki has some great ones.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/wiki/resources#wiki_character_sheets
For android I would say pathbuilder
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder&hl=en
Have you tried Pathbuilder? It really keeps up with all of the crunchiness of Pathbuilder classes. Its mainly a character sheet. But it does do a fantastic job of keeping up with how many spells you can learn and save. Not exactly specific to spell casters, though and doesn't keep track of you what spells you used, but it's definitely worth a look.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
For theorycrafting, or exploring possible characters, or just wasting time: the Pathbuilder Android app. It's very easy for playing with different classes, archetypes, and feats. I wouldn't play a game straight from it, but it's my go-to for when I have an idea and want to see what it would look like. Having it on my phone makes it very convenient as well.
For actual play, /u/darthmarth28's Autosheet for Google Docs. It's attractive and pretty comprehensive. It is a little slow to run on my Chromebook, but that's my only gripe.
Pathbuilder is an app for android that makes building characters quick and easy. Here's a link. Everything is sorted into level by level gains and can even export all your decisions onto a PDF character sheet so once you're done, press of a button and you have your sheet ready to go. Seriously it's probably one of the easiest ways I've found to piece a character together, and with it being on my phone I can fool around with it during downtime at work.
I always double check it because there have been minor errors in the past and sometimes I have a different rule interpretation, but overall it's a very good app.
If you have Android device available, I -highly- recommend Pathbuilder app available from the Google Play Store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
This app was my main source for my first few campaigns and it's very easy to navigate and research into skills and feats. The set up is just so fluid and easy!
Other than that, bring yourself a notebook, pencil, and beverage of choice! Keep an open mind and have fun!
I usually create the character using an app called pathbuilder ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder) And build as if I'm creating the character from level one and just level up. Then either export the character to a sheet or write it to a sheet
I recommend the Pathbuilder app. For newplayers it can outline much of what you get or is needed for a charcter build. Its helped me imensely over the years and continues to be up to date. However it might not have some class archetypes. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
**edit: I just checked it does have the Spirit Guide Oracle and the Shadow mystery.
To anyone wishing they had D&D Beyond for Pathfinder, I'd like to direct you to Pathbuilder for androids. While it doesn't really hold your hand for building characters, it does work for helping show you things like feat/archetype options that are legal choices for what you have already selected. And if you have iPhone... I dunno, get an android emulator? And there's a 2e version, but I haven't made the switch to 2e so I can't comment on that.
The Pathbuilder App is probably the best/easiest way to throw a character together.
Although you'd probably be best off just asking the GM (or one of the other players if they're experienced) to help you out. Throwing a character together alone when you don't know the system is quite a lot to take on.
Not that I know of, there are simply too many wondrous items. I've found the Pathbuilder App quite nice for scrolling through wondrous items as you can just tap on the item and it gives a brief description.
I'm very sorry to hear this, If you're not comfortable playing with them anymore then, by all means, leave and find a new group, because the purpose of playing is having fun, if you don't have any you don't have to play with them.
If you want to still play with them but with less conflicts I suggest you use a character builder like PCGen or Pathbuilder, using these you can prove to them that your characters are legal because they will prevent any error, at least most of the times.
In the case someone goes with 1E (for whatever reason) the Pathbuilder 1e app by the same author is similarly one of the best apps I've had the pleasure to use. The 2e app is an improvement for sure, though perhaps just because the system's modular design lends itself to digitization more?
I've looked into it multiple times and it sounds amazing... but it's just way too damn expensive.
For an automated character sheet I'm using an app called Pathbuilder that I absolutely love, for running encounters I use combat manager.
Combat manager is free and has all the bestiary and adventure path characters stats. You can create your PCs to keep track of them and create/save all the encounters you'll need during game ahead of time. When DMing I can't imagine ever going back.
Pathbuilder isn't perfect, but it's pretty damn close. By far the most feature complete automatic pathfinder sheet (outside herolab). It is a mobile app but you publish your character so you can pull them up on your PC without any problem. Super happy with it, it's free w/ ads or a cheap microtransaction for ad-free IIRC.
> Use it completely free while we're in beta, and get a free month on us after we launch.
And there's the catch.
Sorry, no, I'm definitely not paying somebody for a glorified auto-calc spreadsheet.
Not when Pathbuilder exists, and is free.
Pathbuilder (Andriod) is a very common character-building tool that filters options by what's legal for you to build.
I can't tell you how many times I've given up on sleeping and reached for Pathbuilder or Pathbuilder 2e to see if the nonsense my brain is throwing out there would work.
Pathbuilder is better for building legal characters, then copy that build to HeroLab if that's your sheet of choice (I prefer this one, because when it's broken I can fix it my own damn self).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
Bar none the best character creator for Pathfinder I've found short of Hero Lab (which isn't free by far). If you find a trait or item that isn't in there and is in one of the source books that the app supports (all but like 3), just send in a bug report and it'll be added in the next update.
I would just like to chime in and suggest You check out Pathbuilder: it's a character generating tool for Android systems and the only thing I've used (and as a DM and player with more ideas than time permits to actually play - I use it a lot!) for creating characters since I've come across it! It's pretty intuitive, has most of the options already built in, but it keeps one in check by not allowing to pick illegal options, and allows to export finished characters to editable .pdf format! Really, I can't recommend it enough!
If you ahve andriod, I'd just use Pathbuilder, while building it just shows you which ones you're eligible for with your current choices.
>has to be for IOS
Poor you... Missing out on Pathbuilder. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
This character building app lets you export a character to an editable pdf doc. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
Pathbuilder. The best character planning tool. There is a 2e version as well.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder&hl=en&gl=US android app is widely regarded (by myself as well) as one of the best
for ios I dont think there are any good (yet) maybe the guy below can port it if there is a lot of demand
​
PATHBUILDER 1E
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder&hl=en_GB
​
2E
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder2e&hl=en_GB
I'm not sure what features of 5etools you're looking for exactly, but here are some helpful things:
1st Edition
Online References:
- https://aonprd.com/ - Official SRD. Helpful for PFS since it shows an icon if something is legal.
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/ - SRD, a bit easier to navigate
https://pf.easytool.es/ - Great for searching for spells and feats. The FeatsWeb tool is really cool!
Character builders:
- Hero Lab - As others mentioned, this is the best character builder out there for Pathfinder, but can get pretty pricey. Downloadable program.
- PCGen - Free and open source. Might be a bit wonky and missing some features.
- Pathbuilder - The best free character builder, sadly is only for Android.
- AutoSheet - This isn't an automatic character builder, but does help with a lot of calculations.
Other:
- Combat Manager - Manage combat, initiative, monsters, etc. Downloadable program.
2nd Edition
Online References:
- http://2e.aonprd.com/ - Official SRD
- https://pf2.d20pfsrd.com/ - Nonofficial SRD
- https://pf2.easytool.es/ - Really good for looking up actions and monsters. Also allows you to add Weak or Elite adjustments to monsters and has tooltips for Conditions and Universal Monster Abilities.
- http://pf2.tools/ - A whole lot of online resources and tools for 2E.
Character Builders:
- Hero Lab - It seems like Paizo is officially supporting HeroLab for 2E. Web-based application only and has monthly fees...
- PCGen - I honestly have not tried PCGen for 2E yet.
- Pathbuilder 2E - It's very good, but again only Android :(
- AutoSheet 2E - Not an automatic character builder, but helps with calculations.
Edit: Added CombatManager and pf2.tools
It's a different app of course but just as good.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder
There is an Android App called Pathbuilder created by a different company that is nice. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder&hl=en
http://yapcg.sourceforge.net/ is great
or
Pathbuilder for mobile. This one is probably even better, imho.
- Here's a primer on major changes from 5e to PF1e.
- All the rules are available online for free at the Archives of Nethys. You can also build characters for free using the Pathbuilder App, which is also 99% free.
- If you want to multiclass, understand what does and doesn't work. See this related reply in another thread on the basics of multiclassing.
> I want to make a muticlass Rogue/Monk like how I usually do in DND 5e where my character would basically move around the field and throw a few hits before disengaging and getting away.
As others have said, there are three big changes that make this concept difficult in PF1e:
- You can't split up your movement like you can in 5e.
- Moving more than 5ft costs an action (Move action).
- Attacking more than once takes a full round action (Standard + move combined).
This leaves you with only a couple approaches:
- Spring Attack lets you literally move before and after the attack, but you can only attack once. This does lead into several feat chains that are slightly better, but not by much:
- Spring-Heeled Reaping improves it to two attacks (at no penalty) by level 11.
- Greater Spring Attack eventually gets up to three attacks by level 11, taking the normal iterative penalties.
- Circling Mongoose works with the full attack action (so you can use flurry of blows!) and lets you move before each attack (so you can stealth as a part of movement for sneak attack!), but limits you to moving 5ft at each step.
Circling Mongoose is by far the best option mechanically, but doesn't fulfill the "bounce away to safety" option.
A couple other options kind of work for the concept.
- Barracuda Dash lets you charge twice on a turn (so two attacks). Can't full attack, and you end your turn next to an enemy, but you can charge an important foe first and then use the second charge to get to a weak foe.
- Increasing your threatened area like Lunge can be flavored as moving forward and then back to attack.
- Combat Patrol works on a similar "increase your threatened area principle", but makes a tradeoff: you don't attack on your turn, but you have a massive threatened area in which you can move to take advantage of foes provoking AoOs. Works best when paired with an ally who's able to generate AoOs.
- Instead of you running away, consider pushing foes away. Feats like Hurricane Punch or the Knockback kick style strike can shove foes away for a similar effect: you're safely out of reach, and they have to spend actions to get back to you.
As for the character itself, you'll want to find options to single-class this if possible, but can get away with multiclassing if you focus on abilities that don't scale with class level (such as relying on DCs). An Unchained Rogue 4 / Unchained Monk 6, for example, is plenty fine.
- [Monk of the Mantis](https://aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Monk%20(Unchained\)%20Monk%20of%20the%20Mantis) using the [Unchained Monk](https://aonprd.com/ClassDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Monk%20(Unchained\)) (a re-released, updated version of the monk) gains sneak attack instead of bonus feats, and uses Stunning Fist and mobility options like the Flying Kick Style Strike in conjunction with Stealth to trigger their sneak attacks.
- The Ninja is already somewhat of a hybrid between the Monk and Rogue, gaining Ki powers and other similar benefits via Ninja Tricks.
Dingle's Games has the best NPC/Monster generator for Pathfinder/3.5 I've used, but may not be great to manage on mobile.
Donjon.bin.sh has tons of free generators regardless of what edition you play and easily works on mobile.
For Pathfinder on Android the app Pathfinder Open Reference - Masterwork Tools is a great utility.
Again for pathfinder, Pathbuilder is a great character and NPC generator app on Android.
Roll20 offers a character sheet and dice rolling app for android tablets and iPads.
Fight Club 5 is a good character sheet app, as someone else mentioned.
Another person said OneNote for campaign management, which I would agree with, the app is free on all platforms as far as I know.
Roll20's website for virtual tabletop technically works on mobile tablet browsers, but I can't particularpy recommend it without a laptop/desktop PC.
Inkarnate, free, is awesome for map making, but needs a mouse to be practical, IMO.
Watabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator is great for procedural map making on the fly, and has recently been integrated into Azgaar's Fantasy World Map Generator for consistent map generation, and can be accessed pretty easily from a mobile device, you just may have trouble making edits to the maps.
Just a few that come to mind, though a lot of these admittedly aren't exactly "apps"
edits; links grammar and spelling, did this from mobile funnily enough
PathBuilder if you have an android phone.
EDIT: I need to not comment on things this late at night.
As others have said, If you want some magic that gives you control over giving life and taking it, the divine spell list is the best choice, which in turn means that a divine spellcaster is the best option for you. Starting at 10th level is going to be complicated no matter what, so try to just take it in stride and figure pieces out as you go along.
If you're worried about it being so overwhelming that you might lose your character, consider working with your GM to make a temporary character for you to control for a few session that joins the party, helps them on a specific quest, and then leaves (or dies along the way, no harm no foul). Kinda like you getting to control an NPC. This will be a safe way to get the hang of the game without worrying about losing your investment in your personal story if things go south.
So, character build:
First, let's make it as easy as possible. Download the Pathbuilder app on your phone: it's the most complete character planner tool out there. It has all the options, and it's neatly organized and handles all the "do you qualify for this" questions for you.
There's four main divine spellcasting classes that have the kind of magic you're looking for:
- Clerics: A dedicated full-caster with plenty of Channel Energy to be used either to harm foes or heal allies and bonus spells/powers chosen by the Domains of their Diety that they choose to focus on.
They are "Prepared Spellcasters". For Clerics, this means that they "know" every single divine spell they're capable of casting, but they only prepare some of them on a given day. The easiest way for this to make sense is:
> Cut up a bunch of slips of paper, one for each spell you can cast per day. Make sure to note the Spell Level on each slip. When you prepare you spells, you write down a single spell on each slip of paper. When you cast it, you hand the slip of paper in to the GM. This means if you want to cast Heal twice, you need to have two slips of paper with Heal written on it.
> Pro Tip: you can leave some slips of paper blank when you prepare spells. Later in the day, you can spend 15 minutes praying to prepare that single spell slot, writing down a spell in it. This is good for leaving options open in case some niche situation comes up.
Normally you can only channel energy to harm foes OR heal allies, but the Versatile Channelling feat lets you do both (but your second choice does 1d6 fewer damage/healing) if you want.
This class is very simple to build, with few moving parts at each level. You make some choices at level 1, and then from there no more choices - you just get better at what you do. It also has the easiest access to mastery over life/death magic with its built-in channel energy, and the fastest spellcasting progression making it the most powerful divine spellcaster on this list. Its difficulty for you will come from being unfamiliar with prepared spellcasting.
Oracles are Spontaneous Spellcasters. They know a limited number of spells, but can cast any spell that they know at any time, so long as they've got a spell slot of the appropriate level to cast it in.
This would be a good class to start with because they're relatively straight-forward for a new player. Pick a theme Mystery, pick from a small pool of powers (Revelations), and spontaneous casting is as easy as it can get -- so long as you pick a good variety of spells so you don't find yourself in a situation where you can't help.
- Warpriests: Are like a half-way point between a cleric and a fighter. They've got a bit of prepared spellcasting, and great weapon proficiencies and lots of bonus feats. Instead of Domains, Warpriests get Blessings, weaker powers that can be used more often. Warpriests specialize in self-buffing: Sacred Weapon and Sacred Armor improves their equipment, and Fervor can be used to cast buff spells on yourself as a swift action, leaving your turn to charge or full attack as normal.
The downside to blessings are that they're normally slow to cast (Standard Action = can't attack or cast spells that turn). But since you're starting at a high level, the Quicken Blessing feat can fix that for you.
This class could be a good way to try out some of the spellcasting options while staying near familiar territory, since it is very similar to a fighter (Great weapon/armor proficiencies, lots of bonus feats).
- Inquisitors: Are like the half-way point between an Oracle and a Rogue; they're the arm of the church that sneak around, founds out what needs to be found out, and gets done what needs to get done, and don't quite care how they do it. They're a spontaneous caster with a unique, utility focused spell list and TONS of bonuses to skills and fighting together with your team. They also get flexible, all-combat buffs called Judgements, as well as the ability to smite certain foes by adding the powerful Bane ability to their weapons.
This class might be a good fit for your backstory, since the Drow are pretty merciless and unscrupulous when it comes to achieving their goals. It'd be a good way to reflex how your character's experiences have shaped her, and how she's been able to twist those experiences to do good - whatever her definition of good is.
For any of these classes, you'll probably want your 11th level feat to be Divine Interference, which lets you spend a spell slot as an immediate action to make an enemy reroll an attack roll. This lets you use divine magic to turn a critical hit into a regular hit (or even a miss!), and it's a good use for those low-level spell slots.
So the first step is to pick a class and pick a theme for each class. Most classes have built in customization options to help with that (Cleric = 2 Domains, Oracle = 1 Mystery, Warpriest = 2 Blessings, Inquisitor = 1 Inquisition OR 1 Domain). You might pick something that seems like it has fun powers. You might pick something related to your backstory (Sun/Light themed powers to push back the darkness of the underworld you were trapped in? Or Moon/Darkness themed powers to embrace it and use it for god?), or something related to your Deity of choice (There's a whole bunch of minor deities; sticking to the "Core Deities" pantheon makes it much less overwhelming). Remember that Domains and Blessings must be chosen from Domains or Subdomains that your chosen deity has in their portfolio.
It's also a good idea to focus on a role in combat:
Offensive Spellcasting: Casts spells intended to affect foes. This can either be blasting (direct damage) or control (status conditions/battlefield manipulation). For these characters, your main interaction with the game is through Spell DCs, and so your spellcasting ability modifier should be as big as possible. This is your #1 priority. Metamagic feats can tweak your spells to make them more effective or overcome their weaknesses.
At high levels, you'll also have to start dealing with Spell Resistance (kinda like AC for spells: you have to roll a caster level check to overcome their spell resistance for the spell to affect them at all), so you'll want feats like Spell Penetration to help with that. At level 10, you're only just starting to see foes with SR, but they'll be very common by level 14ish.
Defensive Spellcasting:Cast spells intended to support allies. These are often buff spells, and can either be self-buffs to empower yourself for combat or party-wide buffs to protect/support them. Since these spells don't care about DCs or attack rolls, you only care about flexibility and quantity of spells. You'll want a high enough Spellcasting Ability Modifier to cast all the spells, but maxing it isn't the utmost priority. You'll likely want access to scrolls, metamagic feats, and those kinds of options to make your spells more flexible.
Combat: You'll need to develop a fighting style, since Pathfinder rewards specialization. Each fighting style is going to need a certain number of feats to support it. Some common ones are (from most to least feat intensive):
- Heavy Weapons: Just need Power Attack.
- Reach Weapons: Power Attack + Combat Reflexes.
- Finesse Weapons: Weapon Finesse, the appropriate DEX-to-Damage feat (Fencing Grace, Slashing Grace, etc.; often includes at least 1 more feat prereq.) + Piranha Strike.
- Ranged Weapons: Point Blank Shot + Precise Shot + Clustered Shots + Improved Precise Shot. Bows want Manyshot, Crossbows/Firearms want Rapid Reload.
Lemme know what your thoughts are and I can give more specific build advice.
In my opinion Herolab is the best available product, but it comes with a substantial dollar cost*. Also, while there is an android viewer that makes it vaguely acceptable to view your character if you aren't at your PC, there is a "works better on some devices than others" thing going on. (I find the PC best for building PCs, but the iPad app superior for in play)
Pathbuilder is decent, but depending on what devices you use, may not be for you.
PCGen is pretty good for a free app. I make some weird multiclass archetype builds that rely on odd traits, and I found myself having to either code stuff myself or make do, which is why I switched to Herolab, but for more straightforward characters it seems to do fine. The interface is a bit clunky at times, and the delay before new material has been put in could be an issue for you.
The are a few google sheets like this one that people have made that do automatic calculations, that can get reasonably complicated, but still require you do the bulk of the work of filling in what numbers go where, compared to the previously listed options.
*I'd be reluctant to go too big on Herolab at the moment, as there is likely to be a substantial change to the charging model with the introduction of 2nd Edition (which will probably go straight into Herolab Online, and may not be ported back to the desktop version). Unless you can afford to just bin your investment in a year or two if everyone you game with wants to switch to 2nd Edition, in which case, whatever...
Glad to see a spiritual successor to the Pathbuilder project (website, andriod app page) is finally picking up speed. They were the preeminent program for Pathfinder in the design space you're setting up, and is probably a good source to do some research on the competition and get an idea for what features are in demand.
For me, the number one thing that I want from a character planner is the ability to plot out the progression of things like feats. Especially in a bloated system like Pathfinder, it was important to be able to plan out what feats you wanted, prioritize, and then figure out the optimal ways to rearrange them to be able to fit everything in your build and have it get online as early as possible.
Being able to see everything all together is an important tool for that. The "Advancement" Tab is too spread out for what I'm looking for
I can show you my homebrew solution to the planning part later tonight so I can show you an idea of what I feel is important.
I just want to point out the perspective that people using a character planner may not know everything that they want with their character. They may want to toss in an ability score array, and then flip through a couple races to see which suits best. The current system requires you to manually change the array, delete all of the old entries, and then type the new ones in by hand.
So, a shortlist of feature requests:
- Separate out the components of the Ability Score array. A "Base Value" column, with the point-buy total listed underneath, a "Racial Bonus" column with presets for published races, a "Personal Upgrade" column, and a temporary column, with a Total Score and a Modifier column that calculate off of the other values. Ability Score Increases should have their own implementation, but I won't be specific about it. It's just nice to be able to retain the original point buy value in case changes are made.
- A condensed version of the Advancement page that just lists feats, class feats (Operative Exploits, etc.), and values related to prereqs (Level, BAB, Base Saves, (Skill ranks are general = level, so no need to list all of those each level) at each level.
- Talk to AoN SRD about their JSON Library. It might be possible to have your app download the JSON database and use that to autopopulate choices in a menu for options to minimize the writing people have to do for various fields (racial features, etc.).
- Ability to View At Level. Ignore/Hide benefits granted past level X to get a snapshot of what a character is like at an earlier level.
- Ability to Export the character at a particular level (As above) to a JSON format compatible with major character sheets, such as the Roll20 character sheet. I might plan my character out to level 10, but still only need the level 3 character for my Roll20 game. It'd suck if I had to maintain two sheets, or had to delete the last 7 levels of work.
I would very strongly recommend limiting class and race choices to the core classes and races unless you're confident in understanding the material. All of the core classes are simple and for the most part not very different from 3.5E D&D versions in basic playstyle. Warriors are invariably simpler to play than spellcasters, mostly because they won't need to pore over spellbooks and decide which spells they want to prepare or learn.
Note that archetypes exist for every class and these can add some flavor and variety to a class you'd otherwise see as boring. That said, even classes like Fighters and Barbarians can be fairly interesting to play between new things added to them in PF (versus D&D), piles of feats for Fighters, Rage Powers for Barbarians, etc.
You don't need to buy any books to play non-society PF - it's all available for free on Paizo's website, or d20pfsrd.com. I would not recommend using any third-party publisher (3pp) content.
Tools like Pathbuilder and PCGen come highly recommended. While neither app has everything from all Paizo sources included (though the Pathbuilder dev updates ridiculously frequently), they can really help streamline the character generation process, especially if you're just using basic classes and their archetypes and aren't going to worry too much about using alternate race traits or stuff from esoteric Paizo sources (or 3pp sources, but again - don't use those.) Pathbuilder can export to PDF, and PCGen can export to a variety of formats (including PDF.)
Myth-Weavers has a Sheets function that comes highly recommended for more advanced players. It'll generate a simple pdf sheet you can then edit on the website. A few things are automatically calculated, but most of the stuff will need to be entered manually. Once you have your feet under you, rolling characters (or updating existing ones) using Myth-Weavers is a really effective way of learning exactly how the game works. Many times while rolling a character on M-W, I needed to consult the SRD because I wasn't completely sure how something needed to be calculated.
I'd recommend at least the GM have a notebook of some sort just to make keeping track of things simpler, though everyone can get by with just pencil and paper. I myself plan on buying a Chromebook when I can afford one and keeping track of things using Sheets (though there's an excellent OneNote thing floating around that was recently converted from 5E D&D to Pathfinder and it looks pretty slick.)
Combat Reflexes might not be amazing since you can't take advantage it until you get Kinetic Whip, which is a few levels away. (Your kinetic blade disappears at the end of your turn, so you can't use it for Opportunity Attacks. Kinetic Whip is needed for that, since it lasts past your turn, and it's not available until level 7 or 9 at the earliest.)
- Kinetic Invocation might be a good feat since it expands your options for Utility Talents. Notably it lets you pick up Silent Image at-will as a utility talent, which you can grab next level at 4th level. (But there are other good utility talents you can grab if you want to spend the feat on something else. Veil of Mists is already available and gives you Disguise Self at-will. And Kinetic Healer is, of course, an amazing option to have.)
- Another feat option is Piranha Strike, which gives up accuracy in exchange for damage on your Kinetic Blade, though even when you have it you can choose not to use it and instead focus on accuracy.
- Point-Blank Shot is pretty good for increasing the accuracy and damage of your ranged blast, and is also a necessary pre-requisite for Precise Shot, which allows you to use your ranged blast on enemies engaged in melee with someone, which otherwise gives you a -4 penalty. (Though your Wrack Infusion can help out here, since it's a saving throw and not an attack roll. Still, Fort saves are kinda hard to land.)
If you want to focus on damage, grab Expanded Metakinesis at 5th level and pick Furious Spell Metakinesis. It increases your damage by 2x the spell's level. Since your blast it basically always half your level (rounded down), that means you get to add your level to your blast's damage pretty cheaply. And you can do it in addition to the Empower Spell Metakinesis that you gain at that same level. (Which increases your blast by 1.5x.)
I really recommend the Pathbuilder 1e app for building your characters. It has almost all the content from the game, it tells you what choices you'll have to make each level, and it lets you look at all your available options. I find it a godsend whenever I'm making characters.
Probably won't be exactly what you want, but there are several such tools for PnP. There's PCGen, or if you like excel, ScoreForge, and if you have a droid, Pathbuilder.
Pathbuilder is widely recommended, but I don’t believe it is available for PC.
It's just called Pathbuilder
If you've got an Android cellphone, I can recommend the (now sadly discontinued) Master Tools app as a reference manual. It's got all of the older books. I managed to find a 'legit' mirror of the APK a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/iwlxdv/comment/hjx8g89/
There is also the Pathbuilder app, which I've found makes for an excellent 'sanity check' tool when making characters, as it quite handily flags everything you get per level and makes sure you don't miss anything: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder&hl=en&gl=US
It sounds like aside from suggestions for classes and feat choices, you're looking for tips on the character building process itself, yes?
Check out the pathbuilder app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.redrazors.pathbuilder). It'll tell you exactly what choices you need to make at any given level.
Since you're new to pf, you might not be aware that there are pregenrated characters for each of the classes at 1st, 4th, and 7th levels. If you're having problems, those builds are perfectly serviceable in most cases. You can use them to pick out decent feats for the class. You can find them at https://paizo.com/products/btpy9a64/discuss. The unchained classes only have 5th level pregens which you can find at https://paizo.com/products/btpy9dvk?Pathfinder-Society-Quest-Fane-of-Fangs.
I'll point out that swashbuckler is more straightforward than unchained rogue. Your stats should be oriented towards dexterity and charisma. You can take the weapon focus and fencing grace feats to apply your dexterity to your damage rolls instead of strength. The other main part of the class is that you gain panache points when you kill or crit an enemy. You can use these points to preform most of the class abilities.
Unchained rogue is less straightforward mainly because it's less beefy than a swashbuckler and you need to understand the rules for sneak attacking to get the most out of it. Not difficult, just less straightforward. Check out the comprehensive guide at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zLDFgiwZt_vPVlOcgR7QDAvskcH34uG1FuKPXTnpuEg/view.
Nothing specifically tuned for PKM, but you can use one of the generic d20 / Pathfinder 1e character generators, like PCGen or Pathbuilder 1e (Google). Or Pathfinder AutoSheet if you use Google Drive.
There's a couple of major PKM wikis:
https://pathfinderkingmaker.gamepedia.com/Pathfinder:_Kingmaker_Wiki
https://pathfinderkingmaker.wiki.fextralife.com/Pathfinder:+Kingmaker+Wiki
But they're not perfect so sometimes I have to consult the PnP Pathfinder or d20 wikis:
If you want a character generator, you can try PCGen or Pathbuilder 1e (Google Play). Neither is customized for PKM, though.
You could use Pathbuilder
- <strong>Neceros' Pathfinder RPG Character Sheet</strong> is a fillable pdf. Just download it and use it offline.
- Another alternative <strong>editable PDF character sheet in landscape</strong> format. Just download and use it offline.
- A <strong>Google Doc Pathfinder Character Sheet</strong>. You can set it to be available offline and can use it then ... well ... offline
- <strong>Pathbuilder</strong> is an amazing Android app. You can track your character there and export it to a pdf (see example) or statblock (see examples). The best thing on this is that even the exported pdf is editable. But again, you'd just need your phone for this.
I know that struggle. This may be the wrong sub to suggest this on, but you may want to consider a different RPG.
Pathfinder is fantastic in almost all categories, but it is very complicated which is a major factor with new players. I suggest you change to either 5e, or something Powered by the Apocalypse. If the new players show absolutely no interest in learning rules, warm them up with one shots of a one page rpg.
If you absolutely want to play Pathfinder, there are programs that can do some of the math for you.
Pathbuiler for your phone.
Roll20 if you want a digital board on the cheap.
Hero Lab if you don't mind paying money.
Two I've been really happy with have been Mottokrosh's and awesomeSheet!
Also, if you have an android phone, the Pathbuilder app is insanely useful for building characters and exports sheets as easy to read PDFs!