Complete Cavalier Class Build Guide - Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous

this pathfinder wrath of the righteous cavalier class guide will be covering the cavalier class which is one of the new classes added in wrath of the righteous in this guide you'll learn not only how to play the cavalier class but also what the differences are between the cavalier archetypes beast writer cavalier of the paw disciple of the pike fearsome leader jean dharm a knight of the wall and standard bearer there will of course be tips about which abilities skills and feats to take along with some suggestions about how to play the class effectively including how mounted combat works in pathfinder wrath of the righteous this will not be a copy of the pathfinder handbook and i will attempt to summarize things where applicable to make it easier to understand because i feel that a big part of the reason people need guides for pathfinder wrath of the righteous is that it can be a bit overwhelming to sift through this on your own if you're new to pathfinder wrath of the righteous or you just like an overview of the cavalier class and how to make an effective one this cavalier build guide is for you the cavalier class and pathfinder wrath of the righteous is a martial class that excels in melee combat and often rides its animal companion using charge attack which can often one shot most enemies they typically favor a lance type weapon and can buff party members with their banner or their tactician ability as such kevlar builds our fantastic front liners and add more than just melee damage mounted combat gives the cavalier unique advantages that unmounted classes don't gain such as increased movement speed amount that usually takes damage before the character riding it giving you a health bubble ways to mitigate damage to your animal companion making it extremely tough to kill and of course charge attack and that's before mentioning that there are many animal companions in pathfinder wrath of the righteous allowing you to pick the best one for you if you plan to play a mounted character cavalier is the go-to choice in this section we'll take a look at the class features of the cavalier or essentially what makes a cavalier a cavalier in pathfinder wrath of the righteous mounted combat plays a huge role in cavalier builds but i'll cover that in the next section because it's simply too much to add here and might confuse things first let's begin with challenge this class feature allows the cavalier to challenge an enemy increasing its damage against it by plus one per cavalier level with each attack until it's dead or unconscious and this is done as a swift action meaning you can still attack in the same turn cavaliers can only use this once per day but this number increases by one every three cavalier levels for a maximum of seven times per day at level 19. these will be replenished when the cavalier rests the cavalier will take a -2 armor-class penalty to all attacks made by every other enemy other than the target while it's still alive but once they reach level 12 they'll also impose a -2 armor class penalty on the target note this armor class penalty of the challenged target only applies to attacks made by other friendly units and not the cavalier itself the tactician class feature allows the cavalier to select one of their known teamwork feats and lets them use this in combat to buff their entire party for three rounds plus one round for every two cavalier levels whether their party members meet the requirements or not this is especially good since teamwork feats tend to become more effective the more party members share the same feats as i mentioned cavaliers can use the charge attack feature much more efficiently than other classes normally when you charge you gain plus 2 to your attack roll but suffer a minus 2 armor class penalty afterwards however once cavaliers reach level 3 this attack roll bonus becomes plus 4 and they suffer no penalty to armor class but only if they use charge while mounted at level 11 cavaliers gain mighty charge doubling the threat range critical hit range of their weapon while mounted and using charge attack this doubles the chance for them to critically strike enemies while using charge while mounted which can be particularly devastating when using weapons that have already high threat ranges like the far card additionally you can make a free bull rush or trip attack afterwards without prompting an attack of opportunity at level 20 cavaliers gain supreme charge which doubles the damage they deal with charge attack while mounted and triples the damage if they use a lance type weapon the long spear appears to be one such weapon but the damage explanation screen seems buggy and not well thought out so it's hard to tell for sure at level 5 cavaliers gain the banner class feature which allows them to passively boost the charge attack roles of their party members in range by plus 1 as well as saving throws against fear effects by plus two these increase by plus one every five levels for a total of plus four attack rules and plus five to saving throws against fear at level 14 cavaliers gain greater banner which extends the saving throw bonus to charm and compulsion spell effects as well in pathfinder wrath of the righteous cavaliers will select an order to become part of during character creation that will grant them further bonuses as they gain levels and they are currently the only class and pathfinder wrath of the righteous that belongs to one besides the prestige class hell knight in this section i'll cover what those orders are and what they do cavaliers who select the order of the cockatrice will see an increase in their own personal damage and capabilities select this order if you want to deal more dps with your cavalier but are less concerned with buffing your party cavaliers who select the order of the lion are more balanced and gain bonuses to attack and defense as well as gaining features that will benefit not only themselves but also those around them select this order if you want an increase in dps and defense both for you and your group cavaliers who select order of the shroud have a particular grudge against the undead and have both defensive and offensive bonuses select this order if you want to be much more effective versus undead enemies without gaining any abilities that buff your allies cavaliers who select order of the star are a bit more religious than other cavaliers and gain bonuses that are both offensive and defensive additionally they can bestow some of these bonuses on allies that share the same faith as them select this order if you plan to play a religious cavalier or one that intends to multiclass with a paladin or cleric cavaliers who select order of the sword focus primarily on the offense of the cavalier with a heavy focus on mounted combat select this order if you are new to playing a cavalier or if you intend to use a mount that has very high strength of these five orders i highly recommend selecting either the order of the sword order of the lion or order of the star order of the sword is extremely straightforward and great for new cavaliers that don't quite know all the nuances of playing one order of the line provides some fantastic buffs to your group making the game easier in general and order of the star allows you to retaliate against just about any enemy who attacks you in melee once you reach level 15 which can be deadly however these orders don't change the way you play all that much so don't be overly concerned about which you choose part of playing a cavalier build in pathfinder wrath of the righteous is of course using mounted combat and there are probably not many reasons you would play a cavalier if you don't intend to use this feature in this section i'll discuss how mounted combat works in pathfinder wrath of the righteous and how to take advantage of it during character creation cavaliers gain an animal companion which operates separately to the cavalier and has its own set of stats and abilities it even has its own archetype of all the cavalier archetypes only the beast writer and cavalier of the paw has a choice of which mount to begin the game with and all others begin with horse which are mountable by any race regardless of which mount you ride though you can select default or select an archetype for it and they are as follows default aggressor bully bulwark daredevil death touched racer and wrecker of these selecting default is probably the best for players new to using animal companions because they simply have passive benefits that are good for any animal companion to matter the style a player using however bulwarks are extremely tough to kill if you don't mind the loss in damage and aggressors are the pound-for-pound king of dps mounts in pathfinder wrath of the righteous you can only mount your animal companion if you are one size smaller than it the size of your character is determined by your race and each animal companion has its own size which is listed when selecting them horses are large size which means that you can be used by any race to mount them from the very beginning of the game but if you choose beast rider then you will need to be at least one size smaller than the animal companion you choose or you won't be able to mount them until much later animal companions do increase in size as they level up allowing you to mount them when the smilodon for example reaches level 7 it will grow to large increasing its stats and letting medium-sized races mount it currently the only large size mount you can select during character creation is a horse mounted combat works similarly to regular combat except you and your animal companion move together as one unit however once you reach your target you will both attack and take damage independently as if you were two different characters because you are when playing turn based you will attack together as if you were one turn one particularly great thing about fighting well mounted is that enemies often tend to attack your animal companion first before attacking you and there are a couple really great feats that help prevent your mount from taking damage first is mounted combat which allows you to make a mobility check when your mount is hit in combat negating the damage if successful once per round second is indomitable mount which works the same way except with saving throws there are also feats that greatly benefit mounted combat which i will cover in the feed section note that mobility is affected by your armor so you don't want to wear too heavy of armor or you will penalize this another thing that i'd like to mention is that you will rarely ever play a ranged cavalier because animal companions attack in melee range ranged attacks are penalized when firing while threatened and if you sit back then your animal companion cannot attack you'd be better off playing unmounted if you wish to have an animal companion and shoot from range which is more suited to other classes like the ranger cavaliers have seven archetypes as i already mentioned and these change certain aspects about the class while at the same time maintaining much of the classes structure and identity and this section will cover what those archetypes are what they do and why you might consider selecting one first up is beast rider presently in pathfinder wrath of the righteous there is no difference in class features for the base cavalier and the beast rider other than being able to choose which animal companion you wish to begin the game with and the loss of heavy armor proficiency this means if you do not like any of the other archetypes for cavalier you should default to this one you shouldn't be wearing heavy armor anyway due to the mobility check penalty it provides select this archetype if you want to choose a specific mount or you can't decide which to play the cavalier of the paw archetype focuses on using a dog or wolf companion and sacrifices their order to greatly enhance the dodge armor class of their mount versus challenged enemies additionally they can buff the saving throw of their choice for their whole party can use bull russian overrun more effectively select this archetype if you don't mind playing a halfling and you are unsure what weapon type you'll be using this archetype is a good blend between support offense and defense if you don't mind being locked into a single race and you don't really use your order buffs the disciple of the pike archetype focuses heavily on combat using long-reaching weapons like spears and tridents increasing their damage and chance to hit however these bonuses are relegated only to a handful of weapon types curtailing some of the flexibility of the class additionally they don't gain the banner class feature or an animal companion so they are unable to buff their nearby allies passively and won't be mounted and gain increased damage against large or better enemies select this archetype if you plan to use a spear-like weapon want to be more effective while using one and are not worried about buffing your party members this is a pure dps archetype that focuses on killing enemies quickly sacrificing some of their support capabilities and amount in order to do this the fearsome leader archetype allows you access to the dazzling display feat allowing you to demoralize enemies in a huge aoe which subsequently penalizes nearly all their roles by -2 additionally at level 9 you will not only debuff enemies but also boost nearly all rolls of your party by plus 2. in order to gain this they lose access to their tactician ability meaning they are essentially trading buff flexibility for a strong debuff and buff select this archetype if you want to buff and debuff at the same time and you don't want to be bothered with tactician abilities and are not too familiar with teamwork feats the zhandarm archetype is the pound for pound king of dps when it comes to the cavalier and is arguably the best archetype from mid to late game not only do they deal triple the damage with charged attacks using any weapon at level 20 they also gain bonus combat and mounted feats versus other cavalier archetypes their only drawback is that they lose their tactician class ability which prevents them from buffing their party a bit better select this archetype if you want to do the most possible dps with your cavaliers still be able to passively buff your party with your banner and aren't too picky about which animal companion you can mount it's arguably the best cavalier archetype in the game the knight of the wall archetypes sacrifices some of their support and offensive capabilities for increased effectiveness with shields their shield cannot only protect them from touch and combat maneuvers it's armor classes added to their will saving throws further protecting them from many spells consider selecting this archetype if you are familiar with the cavalier class if you want to be much harder to kill and if you plan to play some of the time not mounted since many of the abilities apply even when not mounted the standard bearer archetype sacrifices early access to their animal companion and in exchange to begin the game with the banner class feature instead they have a more and more effective banner as the game progresses which culminates when they reach level 20. they can also use their banner to give all allies in range a good amount of temporary hit points preventing many of them from dying or taking damage consider selecting this archetype if you're familiar with the cavalier you don't mind sacrificing access to your animal companion early on for better buffs or if you select a mount you cannot mount immediately anyway and you're a fan of passively improving your party there are four abilities that can be beneficial to pathfinder wrath of the righteous cavalier builds strength increases not only the damage cavaliers deal but also their chance to hit which is far more important constitution increases their health as well as their fortitude saves charisma directly affects their order's abilities and dexterity can increase armor value initiative and mobility of these stats strength should be the highest priority to ensure they connect with their attack roles 16 or 18 is preferred here in order to connect with more attacks after that it can get a bit muddled depending on what order you chose but you will most certainly want some constitution since you'll be on the front lines and will be taking damage you can get away with as low as 14 because your mount will often take the brunt of many attacks some charisma is ideal since these make many order abilities more useful but isn't necessary on some orders that hardly use it for instance order of the sword only gains a once per day ability that uses charisma so i don't advise taking any charisma if you choose this order however both order of the lion and order of the star use charisma much more often and you'd be wise to take at least 14 or 16 if you chose either of these dexterity is last and how much you invest here will likely depend on what you did with charisma in pathfinder wrath of the righteous the heavier armor you wear the more armor check penalty you receive which penalizes your skill checks that are strength and dexterity based since mobility is a dexterity based skill and makes it much harder for your mount to be struck if you have the mounted combat feet which you should you don't want to penalize this any more than you have to this means you should wear the lightest armor you feel comfortable with and that means dexterity will help boost your armor class as well as mobility via direct investment aim for at least 14 here if you can those 16 would be even better selecting races that have bonuses to strength and charisma is the way to go these are angel ken angel blooded pitborne demon spa gemsil crystal orid and moriborn svectoker by selecting one of these classes you should be able to reach 16 in both strength and charisma and at least 14 in constitution and dexterity looking something like this note that i tried the kitsune race with a volpine pound's feet but it doesn't seem to impact anything at least that i can tell wrath of the righteous damage calculations are lacking severely and it's really hard to tell how everything is added together there are many good feats that pathfinder wrath of the righteous cavalier builds should focus on because there are a whole set of them that benefit them while mounted besides the typical ones that are great for martial classes let's get into these now and see what they are keep in mind that you don't have to take all of these but these are pretty good recommendations no matter what type of cavalier you make mounted combat allows you to attempt a mobility check when your mount is struck in combat allowing you to negate the damage if you succeed note that you can only do this once per round but it is exceptional at reducing the damage your mount takes early on in the game spirited charge increases the damage you deal with charge attacks by double this is fantastic to take early on because you will not have access to supreme charge until level 20. you use charge attacks a lot as a cavalier so get this one to help you one shot enemies even more easily weapon focus increases your attack rules with a selected weapon by plus one this is great for increasing your chances of landing attacks and is a staple for most martial builds indomitable mount allows you to make a mobility check to negate a failed saving throw from your mount you can only use this once per round but it's another feat that can help keep your mount alive power attack increases your damage in exchange for a reduced chance to hit this feat is very strong and it can drastically speed up kills if you are facing weaker enemies with lower armor class it's also required for other feats so it's not a bad choice shield focus increases the effectiveness of your shield by plus one armor class select this feat if you don't plan to use a spear or pull arm since these are two-handed and cannot be used with shield mounted shield provides your mount with additional armor clasps based on the armor class of your shield this is a great way to help protect it if you're using a shield but not all cavaliers will use shields like disciple of the pipe improved initiative allows you to go sooner in turn-based combat and attack more quickly in real time with paws you'll use this one each and every fight if you take it cleave allows you to attack an adjacent enemy to the first enemy you're attacking in the same round by taking a -2 armor class penalty this is a great way to deal increased damage especially since your mount tends to get attacked instead of you cleaving finish allows you another attack if you kill an enemy with your attack in a round if you take improved cleaving finish then you can use this any number of times per round skill focus mobility increases your mobility score by plus 3 and an additional plus 3 if you have 10 points in mobility because of mounted combat and indomitable mount this can really save your mounts and damage boone companion increases your animal companion's level as though you are four levels higher in a class that has animal companion but not higher than your total level you only want to take this feat if you multi-class or take a prestige class that does not have an animal companion as your animal companion will cease to level up if you do so for example if you decide to take a few levels of paladin or something then it's worth taking this feat cavalier builds will differ in what weapons they use based on the archetypes they are for instance disciples of the pike will use a pole arm or spear of some kind most likely in order to get the most benefit from this class others like the knight of the wall will need to use a one-handed weapon in order to use a shield ruling out nearly all pole arm weapons i've put together a list of what weapon types i think the different archetypes should use when it comes to armor it's tricky because you don't want to penalize your mobility with too heavy of armor but you need to wear some good armor aim for lighter medium armor that can take advantage of your dexterity bonus without causing too much penalty to your mobility checks of the 13 prestige classes in pathfinder wrath of the righteous there is only really one prestige class that makes any sense for the cavalier and that is hell night other prestige classes are far too restrictive and there are just too many downsides to advise selecting them the reasons to consider hell night if you're playing a cavalier is because it's rather easy to meet the requirements they also use charisma for many of their abilities and they can give you armor training which reduces your armor penalty when wearing heavier armors this allows you to gain more mobility further protecting your mount while also protecting yourself the downside is that as you stop gaining levels in cavalier your animal companion will cease to gain levels your challenge ability will not increase in damage your banner will stop getting more effective and you will cease gaining order abilities so you really have to weigh what's most important to you besides hell night the most obvious choice to take classes in besides cavalier is paladin for similar reasons they have many abilities that get stronger with charisma and they can heal their animal companion with leon hands however they suffer from the same issues as hell night you don't gain animal companion levels challenge and banners stop getting better and you lose out on supreme charge at level 20. if you decide to multi-class i suggest not taking more than two or three levels of another class that way your cavalier class features are still potent and you only lose out on supreme charge final tips in pathfinder wrath of the righteous cavaliers have excellent burst damage using their charge attack so make sure you use it as often as possible this means you need a clear line of sight between you and your target and that includes friendlies keep your cavalier at the front of your formation so that it can charge the second combat begins because of the way charge attack works sometimes you'll have to strike the frontliners of the opposing forces these are usually the most armored so you may need a very high attack roll in order to hit them make sure you have enough attack rule modifiers that you will always connect on your charge attacks turn off power attack if needed they are deadly and you don't want to miss and waste them making your mount tanky is your number one priority so that you can attack away without taking damage make sure to take feats when your animal companion levels up that make it harder to kill such as barting feats toughness and die hard lastly pay attention to the weapon type you're planning to use because most full arm type weapons are two-handed and don't allow you to use a shield at the same time if you aren't paying attention you might waste feats on weapon focus for weapons you didn't want or take shield focus when you can't use one stay tuned for more pathfinder wrath of the righteous class guides as we take a look at all 10 new classes and be sure to check out the official wrath of the righteous wiki if you have more questions about the game so what did you think of our cavalier class guide did that help answer most of your questions about the class what other questions do you have what other classes would you like to see next let us know in the comments below [Music] [Music] bye [Music]

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Keywords: pathfinder guide, wrath of the righteous classes guide, wotr guide, wotr build, wotr cavelier guide, wotr cavelier build, cavelier class guide, pathfinder cavelier guide, pathfinder cavelier build, ultimate cavelier guide, pathfinder wotr ultimate class guide, wotr class guide, complete guide to cavelier, best cavelier archtype, best mounts in pathfinder, pathfinder wrath of the righteous, cavelier best order, best order pathfinder, best animal companions pathfinder

Id: HL0meZfPWPA

Length: 19min 56sec (1196 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021