Shifter – The Bigfoot – Pathfinder 1E
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The Bigfoot
Yes, we are going there.
We can absolutely play the Cryptid[1] Ape-Humanoid thing walking in the woods and peeking at humans, and being almost unstoppable in close combat.
We will be using the Wild Effigy Archetype which will turn our claws into Adamantine and will allow us to bypass Damage Reduction and Hardness, letting us destroy anything in our path.
Class
Shifter (Wild Effigy) 20
Race
So…we will be using a race called Orang-Pendak. It’s a race that came up from Bestiary 5, but it has stats for players. Orang-Pendaks are small sized asiatic Sasquatches, and they were adapted as a playable race in Pathfinder for some reasons. They are great because they fit our theme like a glove even though they are small sized(it’s fine, we can wild shape into a Large Sized Ape for true Bigfoot form). They get a bunch of very fun and thematically appropriate bonuses like for breaking things or Climb/Stealth when in the forest. Their Ability Score Bonuses are also on point so this is just great.
Ability Scores
Round up Wisdom if Odd, then everything in Strength.
15Point-Buy
Str 18/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 7
20Point-Buy
Str 19/Dex 12/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 7
25Point-Buy
Str 20/Dex 12/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 15/Cha 7
Traits
Reactionary for extra Initiative, Adopted which allows us to take a Race Trait from another Race, we will be taking Tusked to get a Bite Attack.
Favored Class Bonus
Yep. It is, in fact, HP again.
Skills
Perception, Stealth, Survival and Acrobatics will be your four skills. Enjoy.
Feats by Level
1-Power Attack
3-Throw Anything
5-Improved Sunder
7-Wild Speech
9-Raking Claws
11-Catch Off-Guard
13-Iron Will
15-Improved Natural Attack
17-Greater Sunder
19-Improved Initiative
Power Attack and Raking Claw being obvious choices for a strength based Wild Effigy, and the ability to ignore Hardness made Improved Sunder and Greater Sunder no brainers. Throw Anything and Catch Off-Guard offer versatility both in melee and at ranged with improvised weapons. Improved Natural Attack will make your claws even deadlier. Finally, Iron Will offers a small amount of protection for our Will Saves and Improved Initiative rounds up our speed neatly at the end. Wild Speech allows us to speak while in animal form so that’s something fun for roleplay and coordination.
Aspects by Level
1-Monkey
5-Bull
10-Bear
15-Wolf
20-Tiger
The Monkey aspect allows us to continue using weapons in our hands while wildshaped, so we can use Improvised Weapons to offer options while in combat. We also take the form of a Giant Ape while using its Major Aspect, let’s go Sasquatch! Bull increases our Strength for even more powerful claws, Bear boosts our Constitution, Tiger our Dexterity and Wolf grants us the Scent ability while further helps our Tracking and Scouting abilities.
Equipment
You could go for a Hide armor, but frankly, you don’t really need anything.
Final Thoughts on the Build.
This is a surprisingly effective and versatile build. Extremely adaptable, great mobility, excellent scouting capabilities and insane damage output with its adamantine claws. We also get a fairly large DR due to being a Wild Effigy, plus our Heart of Earth ability makes us extra resilient too. Overall, quite a powerful build.
Terms definitions
1. ↑ Slayer – The Cryptid – Pathfinder 1E ( the Cryptid )
The Cryptid
Yeah, I had to, what do you want from me?
There’s an entire Slayer Archetype running that idea called Bloody Jake and I was damn well gonna make a build about it. Multiclass in Druid with the Skinshaper Archetype to become a Skinwalker…ish.
Our Leveling should look like the Following:
Class
Slayer (Bloody Jake) 4/Druid (Skinshaper) 7/Slayer (Bloody Jake) +9
Race
We are going for Deep One Hybrid post Transformation because we want to be a monster that will be able to take human shape by lvl 8. Before that we are avoiding humanoid settlements. Post transformation Deep One Hybrids have stupid stats bonus as you will soon see.
Ability Scores
Put all your increases in Dexterity
15Point-Buy
Str 16/Dex 10/Con 16/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 14
20Point-Buy
Str 20/Dex 10/Con 16/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 14
25Point-Buy
Str 22/Dex 10/Con 16/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 14
Traits
Adopted to get Tusked for a Bite Attack, Heavy Hitter for better natural attacks damage.
Favored Class Bonus
Straight into HP.
Skills
Acrobatics, Stealth, Intimidate, Perception, Survival and Knowledge(Local).
Feats by Level
1-Power Attack
Ranger Combat Style-Intimidating Prowess
3-Mask of Virtue
5-Soulless Gaze
7-Cornugon Smash
9-Weapon Focus(Claws)
11-Dazzling Display
Sadistic Snare
13-Learn Ranger Trap
13-Shatter Defenses
15-Furious Focus
17-Dreadful Carnage
19-Multiattack
Power Attack feeds our Cornugon Smash which itself feeds Soulless Gaze, making it so that whenever we do a full attack action on someone, we can make them Panicked and flatfooted via Shatter Defenses. Dreadful Carnage doubles down on this.
Slayer Talents by Level
2-Ranger Combat Style
4-Lose your Way
13-Sadistic Snare
15-Something’s Not Right
17-Aligned Sneak Attack
19-The Woods have Eyes
We replaced most of our Talents by Bloody Jake features, Lose your Way give extreme penalties to targets in our Favored Terrain to orient themselves, Something’s Not Right lets us make enemies in a 30ft radius shaken with no saving throw, and The Woods have Eyes give us Blindsense while in our Favored Terrains.
Bloody Jake
Beyond the abilities replacing our Slayer Talents earlier, we gain a delayed Studied Strike in exchange to be able to use Ventriloquism as per our Cruel Tricks plus the ability to Tree Stride while in our Favored Terrain. Just pick Forests and make sure your local haunt is within 10 miles of the sea for your Deep Sea Hybrid flaw, or have a friend with Restoration. Or cast it yourself, you have Druid Levels.
Skinshaper Druid
So we forfeit our Wild Shape to be able to take humanoid forms instead, letting us pass as human for a few hours each day, more than enough to deal with our businesses. Eventually with two uses, we can stay in our human form 14 hours each day which is plenty enough at this point. We also gain an animal companion of some sort to flank with. Just take a Wolf and give it Power Attack and Dirty Trick. It will become Large Sized too which is very nice!
Equipment
You more or less need nothing, so go ham I guess
Final Thoughts on the Build
If only we could have taken some levels in Antipaladin this build would have been a strong contender for the best Intimidancer build in Pathfinder. Even without it we can send enemies cowering very, very rapidly via a mix of Something’s Not Right, a Full Attack Action, Soulless Gaze and Cornugon Smash. Plus enemies shaken are flat footed via Shatter Defenses, allowing us Sneak Attack damage. Add some ridiculously good stats and Druid spells to booth for Camouflage and help our Stealth and we are a terror to behold.
Synonyms:
The Bigfoot