Pathfinder: WotR - Ranking 199 Classes Part 1: Alchemist & Archetypes

greetings everyone hope all of you are having an absolutely fantastic day we are back again with more Pathfinder right after the righteous I'm back from vacation and you know what that means many of you have reached out saying you don't know what class to play and there are so many options you find it difficult to decide which one is perfect for your playthrough this ranking will hopefully assist both new and old players with making the decision about which classes appeal to them before we dig in let me give credit where credit is due I am not the first content creator to take a crack at ranking all 199 classes as far as I know that distinction belongs to the Neo Seeker website or more specifically their content contributor in effect I have referenced their ranking several times over the past year and will leave a link for that list in the description please note it hasn't been updated since August some of our rankings will obviously be so similar but they provide one or two sentence explanations while I will walk through subclass mechanics and offer more detailed arguments if you stop by their site please be sure to leave a comment and let them know you appreciate the content alright with that out the way let's go through some notes before getting into the rankings first I am ranking these classes based on you taking them all the way to level 20 or in the case of prestige classes all the way to 10. some classes are great just as a dip to pick out specific features but not something you want to take all the way and that will count against them when applicable I will mention functionality a class has that makes it appealing even if it has a lower ranking second we will not review basic class mechanics only what makes each subclass special so if we are talking about the tower Shield specialist subclass I will not review Mechanics for the fighter class even though you need to understand them in order to understand that sub class there's a link in the description for a video that walks through all 25 base classes and their mechanics which you are welcome to reference I will note if a subclass combines mechanics from two different base classes so you know where to look for more information third we will rank these classes F through s f means a class is completely irredeemable and there's not much to talk about d means this class has a cool mechanic or two but overall is inferior to other options c means this class is solid but what it can do is probably not going to blow you away I'll also sometimes Place classes here that are not bad but there's just no reason you would use them b means this is a great class but the game is still going to be challenging while playing it which honestly might be preferable for some of you a means that not only is this is a fantastic class but it also makes the game significantly easier s means that not only is this a phenomenal class but if your build is right it will let you steamroll through the competition even on core of course some rankings might fall outside of this due to my own personal biases but for the most part I intend to stick with this guideline fourth I want to be completely transparent and say that I am not a Min maxer nor do I play this game on unfair difficulty I also rarely if ever combine multiple classes as this usually conflicts with the character storyline I have in my head feedback from the community and frankly even other content creators who focus on these areas of the game is absolutely welcome feel free to post links in your channels below as long as it's paired with a comment that provides value to the overall discussion finally let me just note that at the end of the day pick what is fun for you most of the classes have at least one redeemable feature and Mythic levels can help you do amazing things even with a subpar class this series is just to provide information and hopefully spur on a fun dialogue with all that being said let's get started first up is Alchemist this class is great for clearing skill checks and buffing the party a special note is that Alchemists can cast busts like shield and echolocation on other party members after taking the infusion discovery which is something the majority of classes are unable to do bombs are really fun to use and there are a lot of different ones to fit your play style once you are able to combine fast bombs and rapid shot you can lob multiple bombs in a turn which does a ton of damage bombs Target enemies touch Armor class which makes it significantly easier to successfully attack even if you don't have the huge investment in dexterity personally I rank this class A B for some reason alcat has not put any items into the game that help with bombs even though there are multiple options of that typing King maker so while kineticists get items that help blast and spellcasters can use metamagic Feats Alchemists don't have anything that specifically interacts with bombs on top of this bombs are a very finite resource so unlike some other classes with Resource Management you can't really just let your character spam them that means you have to switch up between using bombs and a regular range weapon which you'll be decent with but it's not the core focus of the class throwing five bombs in a turn is still going to obliterate 90 of the enemies you face but you'll be able to do that a very limited number of times between rest now we'll move on to the Alchemist subclasses starting with kyrogen this subclass loses saving throws against poison and Immunity to poison both of which are completely irrelevant due to delay poison communal which is available from multiple party members early in the game in exchange they gain infused Curative which allows infusion to be applied to several Curative spells this is also irrelevant since the vast majority of people playing Alchemist will take infusion early giving all of their spells this functionality they also gain skill focus religion and Breath of Life as an extract neither of these are particularly compelling but the subclass still maintains all the important mechanics from Alchemist so I rank it a b honestly there's no reason to pick this over Alchemist the next subclass is Grenadier it loses one rank of saving those against poison and Immunity to poison both of which again are completely irrelevant in return you gain martial weapons proficiency see which gives you a few additional options regarding what range weapons to use our chemical weapon lets you infuse a weapon or ammunition with the effect of a harmful alchemical liquid translation those useless corrosive and fireflies you've been carrying around can be consumed and used to power your standard attacks certainly not the kind of damage that will make or break your build but it's a pretty cool option nonetheless precise bomb ensures your bombs don't damage allies which obviously is very important this is available as a discovery for base Alchemists but I still think it's a significant pickup because there are a ton of great discoveries and you might not be able to get all the ones that you want so getting a crucial One automatically is nice even if it's not groundbreaking directed blast allows you to use bombs in a 30-foot cone rather than throwing the bombs this works with precise bomb so you don't have to worry about the cone affecting Ally the real advantage of the cone is that all enemies will be hit with Max damage if they fail The Reflex save as opposed to regular bombs where only the enemy who's directly hit receives Max damage and the rest experience Splash damage which is significantly lower when you first get this at level six it's great and it will hit like a Mack truck once you can combine fast bombs with rapid shot throwing multiple bombs in a turn becomes significantly more powerful than using directive blast making this ability pretty much useless long term finally this subclass gets staggering blast which allows you to stagger enemies if they fail a fortitude save after you critically hit them I don't see this information directly listed in the game but I believe you need to roll a 20 to critically hit 19 after taking improved critical therefore while this can be a nice debuff unless you are taking trick extra and significantly increasing how often your bombs critically hit I don't think it's really a game changer bottom line this class is clearly an upgrade over Alchemist so I give it a B plus but I cannot rank it any higher since it doesn't address any of the issues Alchemist has as a side note this was my favorite class in kingmaker so I was really excited to use it in rap to the righteous and I had a great time playing with it next up is instant synthesizer you lose five rankings of bomb damage which is obviously a massive sacrifice you also lose access to mutagen which is irrelevant because more than likely you are going to be using cognitogen anyway you also lose persistent mutagen which is only annoying because Munich's last for 10 minutes per level anyway in exchange you get to use incense fogs that will buff your allies or debuff enemies the advantage of this is the fog would use an alchemical bonus or penalty which are extremely rare and almost certainly stacked with what your party members already have overall I give this class A C because I don't see why anyone would use it none of your party members smoothly slide into this row so more than likely you would have to roll this yourself or create a buffing Mark that uses it there are multiple better options for classes that both your party so while this isn't terrible I just don't think it serves any real purpose coming up next is metamorph to take this class you completely lose access to bombs and to throw anything feet in exchange you gain stealth as a class skill and adaptive physiology which by level 18 provides a 75 chance to ignore Critical Hits and precision damage this closely mirrors the effects you can get from three ranks of The Preserve organs discovery which negates snake attacks as opposed to Precision damage obviously this class is meant to be upfront and personal so this is a pretty nice addition to the kit you also get super changer which as you level up will allow you to use b shape level one through four and then you will get dragon kind 1 and 2. overall I rate this class A C at first glance you might think it's a combination of Alchemists and Druid but it's not because super changer is not treated the same as wild shape you are not able to use spells when in animal form but unlike Druids you do not have the option to take the natural spell feet to return that functionality to me that's a pretty big knock on a lesser note this also means the master shapeshifter Mythic ability doesn't allow you to shape-shift for an unlimited number of rounds bottom line I just don't see any reason to take this over a straight up Druid or other polymorph options available to you next on the list is preservationist you lose all poison saving throws and poison immunity which again doesn't matter you also lose persistent mutagen which again is just annoying and not deeply impactful you also lose one rank of discovery which is probably the biggest sacrifice here but still not a crazy big deal especially since you lose it late in the game in exchange for all of this you gain multiple ranks of bottle Ally which adds summoning spells into your spell book I get this class of b-plus it maintains most of what makes Alchemists awesome while adding some additional functionality keep in mind that unlike most RPGs I don't think summoning in Wrath of the righteous is really all that great most of the time summons are fodder even when you have high level versions if your Mythic path is aeon this class becomes more viable due to the wide selection of effective team-wide Buffs you can place on your summons otherwise don't expect the summons to turn the tired of a difficult battle it's worth noting that thematically this class provides the best way I have ever seen to mimic ash from the Pokemon series a preservationist trickster run where you are really playing a game of Pokemon go and it just so happens demons are in your way so you deal with them sounds absolutely fantastic quick note before we rank vivisectionist if you enjoy this video I would really appreciate you hitting the like button this information tells me which content the channel is enjoying and helps my videos spread to more people I really appreciate all of the support last on the list is vivisectionist this class completely loses the ability to throw bombs or select discoveries in exchange you'll gain a full 10 ranks of sneak attack damage you'll also gain 10 opportunities to choose a medical discovery which is a reduced list of discoveries and Rogue talents combined together so while you will still be able to pick up options like greater mutagen you will also have options like weakening wound or dispelling attack at 10th level you will gain access to an expanded list of Rogue talents in your medical discoveries list I give this class in a it's fantastic as a one level dip to pick up mutagen it's also great to multi-class with other classes that make use of sneak attack like Slayers or Rogues it's a solid option to take all the way to level 20 as well one knock I do have against this class is that thematically it only makes sense for an evil run through read in the description it's readily apparent that you don't like dissecting bodies to figure out how to heal people other than that it's a fantastic option that will almost certainly help your team that wraps up my rankings for Alchemist and all of its archetypes hope all of you enjoyed this video if you did please leave me a like share this content and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already I will see you all in the next video take care

Channel: Slandered Gaming

Views: 27,887

Keywords:

Id: 33F8q6CxOgo

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 05 2022