[PF/SoM] Option Overload: A mini-guide to the Spheres of Might Armiger

[Novawurmson]

LINK TO GUIDE

Hello, everyone!

Basically, I've been making armiger NPCs and playing an armiger in a campaign, and I just wanted to share my thoughts in a guide-ish format. I don't really plan on updating this mini-guide much except for tweaks here and there. Maybe I'll add some sample builds/NPCs.

More musings on why I love the armiger:

When I read through the Spheres of Might beta documents, the class that immediately grabbed my attention was the armiger.

One thing that always disappointed me about 3.5 mundane combatants was that they had to be heavily focused on one particular style of combat (or even one particular weapon) to function effectively. Sure, there's a few notable exceptions - almost all Tome of Battle/Path of War builds should be able to mix some variety into their builds, there's the switch hitter ranger, a soulknife can throw their mindblade, etc. Mostly you see things like the cavalier (mounted charger), barbarian (charger), gunslinger/marksman (ranged), swashbuckler (einhander swishy-poke), monk (punchman), totemist (frenzy of natural attacks). From classes I love to classes I loathe, almost all are most effectively built around picking a fighting style and throwing all your optimization resources at it.

Check out an action scene from a movie like John Wick (Warning: R-rated content, obviously spoilers for the movie John Wick). In a six-minute fight scene, the protagonist is, at minimum, using unarmed strikes, grappling, improvised weapons, a knife, and a pistol. If you wanted to stat John Wick up, he'd probably at minimum need Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Greater Grapple, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Rapid Reload, Catch Off Guard, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearm), and Power Attack to be OK at any of it. A human Fighter could have all that by level 9. His unarmed strikes/knife damage would be 1d3+Str+Power Attack - not really knocking any socks off. His ranged would be a bit better, but still - he would only be about as effective as an 9th level warrior with the same feats at each combat style. A 9th level Fighter with this build would be boring and mediocre.

Meanwhile, a 9th level armiger would be tearing $&*@ up.

Sure, any given armiger is not going to be as effective as a specialist in a fighting style, but he'll easily be proficient and have a couple nifty, cinematic tricks for each beyond the absolute minimum.

One of the core draws of Pathfinder is being able to do awesome stuff with your friends. An armiger can be awesome.

Though occasionally you make a character that rolls like absolute garbage 99% of the time. BUT STILL. Awesome.

Edit: Link fixed!

[Mehangel]

Link to guide seems to be broken, it is pulling up a blank tab.

[dude123nice]

Link to guide seems to be broken, it is pulling up a blank tab.

You should pay close attention to the page thumbnail, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .

[phlidwsn]

You should pay close attention to the page thumbnail, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .

Nope, the link is broken. It links to "http://Option Overload: A mini-guide to the Spheres of Might Armiger" instead of an actual URL

[digiman619]

Yeah, the link goes nowhere. I don't think you copied the whole link.

[Novawurmson]

Link to guide seems to be broken, it is pulling up a blank tab.

This is what I get for wandering off after posting something. Link is fixed.

[Mehangel]

The armiger is definitely fun to play, one of my characters which i built was pretty much MCU's Hawkeye, making each set of ammunition its own customized weapon.