Quote Originally Posted by Krazzman View Post
Why should we? Was Gestalt taken into consideration? Wounds and Vigor? Elemental Race Variants?

I think the only optional variant that should be taken into consideration for these threads is Unchained Classes.

Everything else in Pathfinder Unchained either changes everything for everyone (Stamina) with some that can benefit from it more than others or don't really have an effect on the Tiering.
I think VMC can have a effect on tiering in some cases, and that fighters lose less (benefit more) from VMC than any other class. What is 5 feats to a fighter? A Lore Warden, Martial Master VMC Bard, for instance, won't really miss those feats, but will love having Bardic Knowledge (more skills!), Inspire Courage (team buff!), and a free retrain of a skill into versatile performance (even more skills). Lore Master is okay (much better in 3.p game with Knowledge Devotion on the table), and no one cares about 19th level stuff since no one plays there.

Anyway, the LW/MM vmc Bard is a contender for t3, IMO. Especially since they are still fighters and can thus take the access feats for advanced weapon and/or armor training if desired or use martial flexibility to grab important ones on the fly (which can grant a number of different skills too). I'm not sure if any other build quite manages T3, but that one squeaks in due to extreme flexibility in and out of combat.

I agree that most other VMCs aren't worth mentioning. Certainly nothing for barbarian, bloodrager, cavalier, or samurai springs to mind.