Acrobat is my favorite archetype. Left out the best part of the dedication imo, it auto scales Acrobatics to legendary. Great to throw on for that alone if the feats don't interest you.
All these archetypes are great picks for beginners and vets alike, well done! My personal favorite archetype is Eldritch Archer. If you're like me and love to gish it up, this is a great way to fire your bow/crossbow with a spell attached, and the feats later on offer some nice versatility on top of just more spells.
@@mattsullivan2458 That one was certainly on my list, but I think I went with Archer for the more all round ranged archetype. Eldritch Archer is fantastic though. I might do a top 5 or 10 magic archetypes at some point because some of them are very interesting indeed!
@TheDominomicon I found out as an bow wielding character that diversying your damage types is very important in PF2e, and Eldritch Archer is a great way to do so.
Rogue should be on this list imho. I know it's technically a multiclass archetype, but that beign said it offers something for everyone (unless you don't fulfil the prerequisites). I wouldn't call it overly powerful, but it's just pretty much always good.
@@russischerzar I feel like the majority of the list would be multiclass archetypes if I included them, though, hence why I didn't. Exemplar, as I mentioned, is rather powerful, as is Bard (getting Courageous Anthem is amazing all by itself), and Champion is good too. For this video, I wanted to showcase the somewhat lesser known archetypes as it's a bit more fun. I might do a top 5 multiclass archetypes at some point though! And Rogue is probably a shoe-in for that list.
Scout. The dedication is ok/good: "You can perform the Scout exploration activity at the same time as the Avoid Notice exploration activity. The bonus to initiative you grant when you Scout is +2 instead of +1." Good to have one in party who has this, but it's best on high perception/wisdom characters. Feat 4, Scout's Charge: "Stride, Feint against that opponent, and then make a Strike against it. For your Feint, you can attempt a Stealth check instead of the Deception check that's usually required, using the terrain around you to surprise your foe." This is a 3-for-2 action that's great for any(?) melee. Exceptional if you're low deception/charisma but high stealth/dexterity. .. Feat 6: Scout's Speed: +10 status bonus to speed. Awesome! .. These justifies going for Scout. There's a few other feats that *can* be great, like Feat 10 Scout's Pounce can be great for ranged characters, perhaps make ranged rogue an option?
Very helpful list, you're right about a lot of these being overlooked for having weird/lame names lol. I wouldn't mind a sequel video if anything just because this is a good way of finding out what we might be missing out on by not looking further into some of the more obscure archetypes
The cleric in the group I'm GMing for took Dandy since the party was lacking a "face". It would work a bit better if the party also didn't have a loudmouth barbarian trying to fight everything that does or does not move.
Gotta love Barbarians... I remember one session where our Barbarian got a stern talking to by a guard and was about to start a fight with the ENTIRE city guard until our Bard did Modify Memory on her and changed her whole mind on the situation. Was so good when she rolled that fail on the Will save!
I think getting abilities as a spellcaster works way better than spells, i.e. Geomancer dedication. It enhances your spells as it synergizes with elemental effects, giving you some really cool effects depending on what feats you might take such as creating difficult terrain or even area denial depending on what elemental spell you might of cast.
@@AhhFa That's a good point. Looking at spellcasting archetypes from that lense certainly makes them more interesting looking, which makes sense as the martial archetypes enhance your martial abilities, so why should spellcaster ones be any different there? I may need to go back and take a proper look at those types of archetypes...
Beastmaster, Medic, & Wrestler are on my list... but i also have the undead version of Beastmaster as well. Good list and reasonings. 😊 The only Multiclass I tend to gravitate towards, though, is Alchemist. Herbalist doesnt allow for enough versatility for me.
@@lightblckknight Alchemist is really good. I'd probably say around 75% of multiclass dedications are really good. I might do a top 5 list at some point of the best multiclass archetypes... Hmm.. And thanks for the kind words!
Psychic: infinite eye, gathered lore. Background: seer of the dead. Archetype: ghost Hunter. Ancestry: human, versatile. Human ancestry feat- Cooperative nature. Tactics: hug the warrior's back and give unlimited guidance. Runic weapon and ill omen on the enemy. Unleash psyche, recall the teachings, use occultism to recall lore on ANYTHING! Aid another to grant circumstance bonus on roll to hit. Aside: you can see haunts, spirits, ghosts, etc. And you CAN do something about it! Give your martials ghost touch weapon runes! At 6th lvl, parallel breakthrough, add on the silent whisper amp cantrip message... Give your fighter buddy a bonus limited action, which can be STRIKE!
@ you become a "coach" of sorts, Meta-game: you grant Item bonus (runic weapon), You grant status bonus (Guidance), You grant Circumstance bonus (aid) ... you have the potential to give a (+2 to hit) fighter another +3/+4 inside the first few rounds of a fight. turn your fighter into a CRIT HERO! The only thing you can't do is Cast sure strike (Fortune bonus) on the fighter... Still, In a low-level game, even when there are no undead/spirits/haunts around... You are the "Aid" master. unleash psyche and you can aid without needing to prep! If you dump everything in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, plus the general feat of Canny acumen (perception) you Spot bad guys! improve your initiative so you can apply buffs, *MAJOR* be an unbeatable expert on everything (unleashed you roll Occultism skill for EVERYTHING) *minor* back up face.
Just a little pet peeve of mine: Please don't treat Free Archetype as default. While it is the most popular variant rule, the majority of groups do *not* use it, and some of those who do use the more restricted version where everyone gets the same archetype or can choose from a small list of archetypes which are on theme for the campaign (such as the Pirate archetype for a pirate adventure). Good list, though!
I'll try to be careful with my language next time and probably will just say "many" tables rather than "most", but that HAS been my experience so far. I've only played in one campaign that didn't have free archetype, and that's in about 10 different campaigns.
Acrobat is my favorite archetype. Left out the best part of the dedication imo, it auto scales Acrobatics to legendary. Great to throw on for that alone if the feats don't interest you.
All these archetypes are great picks for beginners and vets alike, well done! My personal favorite archetype is Eldritch Archer. If you're like me and love to gish it up, this is a great way to fire your bow/crossbow with a spell attached, and the feats later on offer some nice versatility on top of just more spells.
@@mattsullivan2458 That one was certainly on my list, but I think I went with Archer for the more all round ranged archetype. Eldritch Archer is fantastic though. I might do a top 5 or 10 magic archetypes at some point because some of them are very interesting indeed!
@TheDominomicon I found out as an bow wielding character that diversying your damage types is very important in PF2e, and Eldritch Archer is a great way to do so.
Rogue should be on this list imho. I know it's technically a multiclass archetype, but that beign said it offers something for everyone (unless you don't fulfil the prerequisites). I wouldn't call it overly powerful, but it's just pretty much always good.
@@russischerzar I feel like the majority of the list would be multiclass archetypes if I included them, though, hence why I didn't. Exemplar, as I mentioned, is rather powerful, as is Bard (getting Courageous Anthem is amazing all by itself), and Champion is good too.
For this video, I wanted to showcase the somewhat lesser known archetypes as it's a bit more fun. I might do a top 5 multiclass archetypes at some point though! And Rogue is probably a shoe-in for that list.
Scout.
The dedication is ok/good: "You can perform the Scout exploration activity at the same time as the Avoid Notice exploration activity. The bonus to initiative you grant when you Scout is +2 instead of +1."
Good to have one in party who has this, but it's best on high perception/wisdom characters.
Feat 4, Scout's Charge: "Stride, Feint against that opponent, and then make a Strike against it. For your Feint, you can attempt a Stealth check instead of the Deception check that's usually required, using the terrain around you to surprise your foe."
This is a 3-for-2 action that's great for any(?) melee. Exceptional if you're low deception/charisma but high stealth/dexterity.
..
Feat 6: Scout's Speed: +10 status bonus to speed. Awesome!
..
These justifies going for Scout. There's a few other feats that *can* be great, like Feat 10 Scout's Pounce can be great for ranged characters, perhaps make ranged rogue an option?
@@SigurdBraathen Sounds really good! I'll have to start recommending it to my players.
My favorite Archetype is the Vigilante. When you can be Batman or Zorro, WHY WOULDN'T YOU BE!?
Very helpful list, you're right about a lot of these being overlooked for having weird/lame names lol. I wouldn't mind a sequel video if anything just because this is a good way of finding out what we might be missing out on by not looking further into some of the more obscure archetypes
@@Superdarkpit Thanks for the kind words, and I'm happy to showcase these archetypes for you guys. I'll add another archetype video to the list!
The cleric in the group I'm GMing for took Dandy since the party was lacking a "face". It would work a bit better if the party also didn't have a loudmouth barbarian trying to fight everything that does or does not move.
Gotta love Barbarians... I remember one session where our Barbarian got a stern talking to by a guard and was about to start a fight with the ENTIRE city guard until our Bard did Modify Memory on her and changed her whole mind on the situation. Was so good when she rolled that fail on the Will save!
I think getting abilities as a spellcaster works way better than spells, i.e. Geomancer dedication. It enhances your spells as it synergizes with elemental effects, giving you some really cool effects depending on what feats you might take such as creating difficult terrain or even area denial depending on what elemental spell you might of cast.
@@AhhFa That's a good point. Looking at spellcasting archetypes from that lense certainly makes them more interesting looking, which makes sense as the martial archetypes enhance your martial abilities, so why should spellcaster ones be any different there? I may need to go back and take a proper look at those types of archetypes...
Great video I didnt know a lot of those archetypes definitely opens up my eyes alot cant wait till the next top 10 list
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed it.
Beastmaster, Medic, & Wrestler are on my list... but i also have the undead version of Beastmaster as well.
Good list and reasonings. 😊
The only Multiclass I tend to gravitate towards, though, is Alchemist. Herbalist doesnt allow for enough versatility for me.
@@lightblckknight Alchemist is really good. I'd probably say around 75% of multiclass dedications are really good. I might do a top 5 list at some point of the best multiclass archetypes... Hmm..
And thanks for the kind words!
Psychic: infinite eye, gathered lore. Background: seer of the dead.
Archetype: ghost Hunter.
Ancestry: human, versatile.
Human ancestry feat- Cooperative nature.
Tactics: hug the warrior's back and give unlimited guidance. Runic weapon and ill omen on the enemy. Unleash psyche, recall the teachings, use occultism to recall lore on ANYTHING!
Aid another to grant circumstance bonus on roll to hit.
Aside: you can see haunts, spirits, ghosts, etc. And you CAN do something about it! Give your martials ghost touch weapon runes!
At 6th lvl, parallel breakthrough, add on the silent whisper amp cantrip message...
Give your fighter buddy a bonus limited action, which can be STRIKE!
@@chadhale-d5t Nice! That's a great build. I just hope my players don't see your comment 😉
@ you become a "coach" of sorts, Meta-game: you grant Item bonus (runic weapon), You grant status bonus (Guidance), You grant Circumstance bonus (aid) ... you have the potential to give a (+2 to hit) fighter another +3/+4 inside the first few rounds of a fight.
turn your fighter into a CRIT HERO!
The only thing you can't do is Cast sure strike (Fortune bonus) on the fighter...
Still, In a low-level game, even when there are no undead/spirits/haunts around... You are the "Aid" master. unleash psyche and you can aid without needing to prep! If you dump everything in Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, plus the general feat of Canny acumen (perception) you Spot bad guys! improve your initiative so you can apply buffs, *MAJOR* be an unbeatable expert on everything (unleashed you roll Occultism skill for EVERYTHING) *minor* back up face.
Just a little pet peeve of mine: Please don't treat Free Archetype as default. While it is the most popular variant rule, the majority of groups do *not* use it, and some of those who do use the more restricted version where everyone gets the same archetype or can choose from a small list of archetypes which are on theme for the campaign (such as the Pirate archetype for a pirate adventure).
Good list, though!
I'll try to be careful with my language next time and probably will just say "many" tables rather than "most", but that HAS been my experience so far. I've only played in one campaign that didn't have free archetype, and that's in about 10 different campaigns.
love pf2e
@@johnjafon2410 Me too! Literally can't get enough of it.