Introduction
The Champion is a big, tanky brute with some divine flavor. Capable of both withstanding and dealing great amounts of damage, the champion is a well-rounded Defender with a great theme and interesting mechanics. However, the champion adheres to either end of the good/evil alignment axis, so the Champion can often feel unwelcome in a party of adventurers who are less ideologically extreme.
In Dungeons and Dragons and in Pathfinder 1e, the Champion was called the “Paladin”, and was historically locked into Lawful-Good alignment, along with a strict code of conduct which made it difficult to include paladins in a party of characters who might not be good-aligned, and even in good-aligned parties, paladins were frequently seen as an inflexible and frustrating moral compass. The Paladin’s strict moral code has been a subject of derision for decades, and only in recent years did DnD and Pathfinder entertain the idea of paladins of less rigid alignments.
DnD now allows paladins of any alignment in the core rules, Pathfinder 1e published archetypes for other alignments, and Pathfinder 2e’s Core Rulebook allows three types of Good-aligned Champions, which was then expanded in the Advanced Player’s Guide to cover the three evil alignments. Still, your allies may find your character’s rigid morality (or immorality) frustrating, so discuss the matter with your party before brining a champion into the game.
In a party, the Champion’s primary role is a Defender, and few classes can fill that role so well with so little effort. Depending on your selection of skills and class feats, the Champion can also serve as a Face, a Healer, and a Striker, though they may not be so effective at healing as the Cleric since they lack a broad list of spells. The Champion is notably the only class that gets proficiency in spell attacks and spell DCs without getting an actual spell list, which makes it easy for the Champion to multiclass into classes with the Divine spell list like the Cleric and the Sorcerer (with the right bloodline, of course).
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Champion Class Features
- Subclasses – Deity and Cause
- Ability Scores
- Ancestries
- Backgrounds
- Skills and Skill Feats
- Feats
- Weapons
- Armor
- Magic Items
- Archetypes
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Champion Class Features
Key Ability: The choice between Strength or Dexterity means that you can build for a variety of weapons. Even if you plan to use heavy armor (and you should, both for the higher AC and the Armor Specialization Effects), you have plenty of ability score increases to raise your Strength enough that your armor won’t be a problem.
: 10+ is standard for front-line martial classes.
: The Champion has some of the best defensive proficiencies in the game, and their weapon proficiencies are as good as any other martial class except the Fighter. The Champion also gets as many Trained skills as most classes, but you’re locked into two of them so you have much less flexibility than other classes.
- : The worst Perception progression in the game.
- : Good Fortitude and Will save progressions, but poor Reflex save progression.
- : A total of 4+, but you’re locked into Religion, and one comes from your Deity so you have very few actual choices compared to other classes.
- : Simple and Martial weapons, and your proficiencies improve at the same rate as other martial classes, giving the Champion weapon proficiencies better than anyone except the Fighter.
- : Proficiency with heavy armor, and the best armor proficiency in the game. The Champion is the only class to reach Legendary proficiency with armor.
- : Among the best Class DC progressions in the game.
Deity and Cause: See “Subclasses – Deity and Cause”, below.
: Nice to have, but rarely significant.
: Devotion Spells are the Champion’s Focus Spells. In addition, you get proficiency with Divine spell attacks and spell DC’s so getting access to some divine spells can be very effective. Your spellcasting proficiencies aren’t as good as those of dedicated spellcasting classes, but they’re better than the Warpriest and they advance faster than characters who are taking multiclass feats to get proficiency.
Champion Feats: See Champion feats, below.
: It’s difficult to choose to use a shield without this feat, so getting it for free is helpful. If you really like shields, you might consider taking the Shield Ally feature to improve their effectiveness. However, keep in mind that you only have one Reaction and Shield Block will need to compete with your Champion’s Reaction.
Skill Feats: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.
: Your choice of Divine Ally is a significant decision point that can’t be changed. Blade Ally is the go-to for two-handed weapon users, but it’s still good for one-handed weapon users. Shield Ally is great for sword-and-board builds, and class feats will improve your ability to use your shield. Steed Ally is essential for mounted builds, but beware the number of feats you’ll need to spend to keep your Animal Companion useful. If you’re having trouble deciding, remember than you can take the Second Ally feat to get another, though you may have trouble finding enough feat slots to make both allies meaningful.
- : Evil champions can select Fearsome, but can’t select Disrupting or Ghost Touch like good champions can. They can still select Returning and Shifting, so the same advice applies. Fearsome is an easy way to make targets Frightened, which is a really effective debuff.
- : None of the runes are particularly expensive, but they’re still good options. If you like to use special attacks like tripping and disarming, use Shifting. If you’re using something throwable like a spear, use Returning. Disrupting and Ghost Touch are only situationally useful, so save those for days where you expect to face relevant opponents. This is notably the Champion’s only way to get access to Critical Specialization effects, and since the Champion’s Class DC is so good the DC to resist their effects is very high.
- : The Hardness of your shield determines how much damage you can negate with Shield Block. Adding more hardness and more hit points means that your shield will last longer and protect you better. However, the additional points won’t scale as you gain levels, and damage from single attacks will continue to scale so you can’t rely on this alone. As you gain levels, be sure to invest in magical shields or shields made of special materials. In the event that your shield is broken or destroyed, you can grab a spare. The effect appears to apply to any shield that you use, rather than a specific shield or one you picked during your daily preparations.
- Practical Guide to Animal Companions. : Riding a horse that isn’t an animal companion in Pathfinder is an expensive way to quickly own a dead horse. The way damage and hit points scale make mundane mounts totally unusable beyond very low levels. If you plan to ride a horse (and there are good reasons to do so), you need an Animal Companion. If you choose Steed Ally, be sure to read my
General Feats: Standard.
Ability Boosts: Standard.
Ancestry Feats: Standard.
: More damage on weapon attacks.
: The best Class DC progression in the game, and your spellcasting proficiencies are good too.
: This adds a way to add persistent Good damage to your Champion’s Reaction. Persistent Damage is nice, and by this level you should have 18 or more Charisma.
: Better Fortitude saves.
: Better Reflex saves is great, but you’re still only Expert.
: Better Perception is great, but you’re still only Expert.
: Better Will saves.
: A significant improvement to your Champion’s Reaction.
: The best Armor proficiency in the game.
: Standard for most martial classes, so your attacks keep pace with everyone except the Fighter.
: More damage on weapon attacks. Tragically, you’ll never reach Legendary with weapon proficiencies.
: Better class DCs and Divine spellcasting proficiencies.
: The only class to reach Legendary in any armor, so you likely have the highest AC around.
: See “Focus Spells”, below.
Subclasses – Deity and Cause
The first, and possibly most important benefit of your subclass is the Champion’s Reaction. This is a powerful option for using your Reaction which can have a huge impact on the way your character works in combat.
These Reactions all occur when enemies target your allies, and the conditions of the Reactions require that your ally and your enemy be within 15 feet of you. This forces the Champion into melee, and it means that your Champion’s Reaction may not see consistent use if your allies prefer to stay far out of melee combat.
Antipaladin
The Antipaladin is an offense-focused evil subclass, encouraging a highly risky play style where you capitalize on enemies hitting you, then willingly take additional damage to harm your attacker in kind. Since the Antipaladin’s version of Champion’s Reaction only occurs when you’re hit with an attack by an enemy within 15 feet, you’re encouraged to forgo a shield and get into melee as quickly as possible and encourage enemies to focus their attacks on you instead of your allies.
Perhaps the Antipaladin’s biggest problem is the “Tank Fallacy”. You’re big and durable and hard to kill, but little about the subclass makes it easier to kill your enemies unless they choose to attack you and trigger Destructive Vengeance. As soon as they figure out how Destructive Vengeance works, there’s a huge disincentive to continue attacking you instead of your allies. Look for ways to force enemies to remain in melee with you.
This is not a subclass for the cautious or the faint-hearted, and not just because you’re likely playing a murderous psycopath. Be sure that your party can provide plenty of healing.
- : Choosing to take damage so that your enemy takes an equal amount of damage is usually a bad trade for player characters. If you go this route, make sure that you have the ability to heal yourself.
- : A great offensive option, and it can heal undead creatures.
- : Persistent damage is really good, and it makes Destructive Vengeance a much better option since your enemy will take considerably more damage than you. You can combine this with Litany of Depravity, and the PersistentDamage will also benefit from the Weakness applied by the spell.
- : Divine Smite already made Destructive Vengeance a good trade, and this makes it even better. The short range means that it won’t be especially impactful unless you’re being swarmed, but champions often have trouble handling crowds of enemies.
Desecrator
Perhaps the most survivable champion subclass, and you don’t even need a shield. Selfish Shield provides an easily-accessible mechanism to mitigate damage as a reaction. However, beyond Touch of Corruption the subclass offers no defensive or support abilities. It’s pretty much just the damage reduction. So, like the Antipaladin, the Desecrator falls into the Tank Fallacy. If you’re not doing much to cause problems and you’re very difficult to kill, why would your enemies bother attacking you instead of one of your allies who are likely both more lethal and less durable.
- : Similar in many ways to the Shield Block reaction. There is a short range at which you can use this, but you don’t need to carry a shield, use the Raise a Shield Action, or spend time constantly repairing damaged shields. Grab a two-handed weapon and go forth with the confidence that you’re not trading durability for that additional offense.
- : A great offensive option, and it can heal undead creatures.
- : More damage reduction is nice, but it’s at most 3 more points per attack.
- : A -1 penalty isn’t huge, but it may apply to numerous targets which can make a difference.
Liberator
The Liberator is great at facing enemies that like to restrict their targets’ movement with conditions like Grappled and Paralyzed. While those conditions can absolutely be a problem for your party, the creatures which rely on them are only a fraction of the total number of foes you might face. Against those specific foes you’ll be very important, but the rest of the time the most you’ll get out of your Champion’s Reaction is the ability to reduce some damage and let your allies Step. Those are fantastic things to do, but compared to other subclasses the Liberator just can’t compete across the broad spectrum of possible scenarios.
Effects that grab, paralyze, etc. your allies can be a huge problem, and allowing your allies to repeat a save or Escape for free means that they may not be paralyzed, etc. on their turn, and they hopefully won’t need to spend an Action to Escape before they can do something useful.
If you ally isn’t affected by one of the listed effects, they can instead Step, potentially saving them an Action on their turn to do so and giving your party an advantage in the action economy. More actions spent eliminating foes means that you win fights faster and at lower resource cost, and effects which allow characters to improve their Action economy are usually expensive, have limited number of uses, or aren’t available until very high level.
If you want to abuse this, consider putting an angry rat in your ally’s pocket. The rat will attack them and should be considered an enemy, but it won’t do enough damage to get past the damage resistance, so you can repeatedly trigger the Reaction to get the other benefits. If your ally is under one of the listed effects, they get extra saves/Escape attempts, and if they’re not they can get an extra Step during your turn.
:
Consistently useful, and an absolutely stellar use of your Reaction. The
damage reduction is already nice, allowing you to use your Reaction to
dramatically improve your party’s ability to absorb damage. But somehow
that’s the least exciting part of this feature despite already being very
useful.- : Never not useful. A big pile of reliable healing.
- : Situational. This will only be useful against foes who rely on options which restrain your movement.
- : Finally something that doesn’t rely on enemies trying to grab you or something! A Step could save one or more of your allies an Action on their turn, making this a significant improvement to your whole party’s action economy. You still need to be within 15 ft. of the allies you want to affect, unfortunately, but the allies close to you in melee are the ones who really need this.
Paladin
Do you hate evil? Do you want to respond to evil with some simple, straight-forward violence? That’s the Paladin. Their Champion’s Reaction and their feat options emphasize offense, granting you additional attacks and damage. Paladins will often favor two-handed weapons for the extra damage output, and reach weapons are a great idea so that you can more easily rely upon Retributive Strike.
- : Reduce damage to your ally, and potentially make a melee Strike as part of the Reaction. A great reason to use a weapon with reach, but you can also go beyond your reach if you take the Ranged Reprisal class feat.
- : Never not useful. A big pile of reliable healing.
- : Even more damage on top of the extra Strike that you get to make.
- : The more melee allies you have, the better this is. Even with the -5 penalty (or -2 if you take Aura of Vengeance) this is still potentially a huge amount of damage.
Redeemer
Where the Paladin is all about offense, the Redeemer is more focused on defense. Glimpse of Redemption both protects your allies and debuffs the attacker, providing additional protection beyond the moment in which you use the Reaction. Higher-level options allow you to better protect your allies, even allowing you to reduce damage to multiple allies suffering damage from the same attack.
- : The way that the text is formatted makes this hard to read. The attacker chooses to either not deal damage (unlikely), or they choose to deal damage reduced by 2 plus your level but they become Enfeebled 2. Enfeebled is a great debuff for Strength-based enemies that rely on melee attacks, so this is a great way to continue protecting your allies even after you’ve used your Reaction. You also don’t need to be in melee reach like Retributive Strike, so you don’t need to stand right next to your allies at all times or carry a reach weapon. If Enfeebled isn’t good enough, you can take Weight of Guilt to make Stupefied an option so that you can handicap spellcasters or make enemies vulnerable to Will saves.
- : Never not useful. A big pile of reliable healing.
- : Enemies will rarely choose to deal no damage, so this is almost guaranteed. Of course, if they know this is coming maybe they’ll choose to do no damage with their attack. Either way, it works out great for you.
- : Perfect for area effects. Even with the damage resistance very slightly reduced, reducing the damage to even one additional creature will massively increase the amount of total damage reduced.
Tyrant
The Tyrant falls into the Tank Fallacy just as much as the other evil subclasses. Iron Repercussions has the ability to make the damage from Iron Command persistent, so enemies only need to make the mistake of hitting you once for Iron Command to be reasonably impactful. Even so, since Champion’s Reaction is such a central feature of the Champion it’s disappointing to know that it’s going to be largely useless as soon as enemies figure it out.
The bonus damage on Strikes against them during your next turn is nice, too, and since you can change the damage type you can get around damage resistences more easily. If foes choose to make themselves Prone, hopefully you have an ally who is built to capitalize on Flat-Footed enemies like a rogue.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this is that you need to be damaged by an attack, which excludes many spells and also means that enemies can simply ignore you to avoid the effect entirely.
: Maybe
not super impactful, but either the target makes themselves Prone (which
also makes them Flat-Footed), or they take automatic damage with no save or
attack roll required. Even better, you can make the damage Persistent Damage
with the Iron Repercussions Class Feat.- : A great offensive option, and it can heal undead creatures.
- : Persistent damage is really good, and it makes Destructive Vengeance a much better option since your enemy will take considerably more damage than you. You can combine this with Litany of Depravity, and the Persistent Damage will also benefit from the Weakness applied by the spell.
- : Spread Iron Command to every enemy within 15 feet. They’ll likely choose to take the tiny amount of mental damage, and the ongoing damage from your Divine Smite and Iron Consequences don’t apply if I understand the text correctly. The damage won’t be significant unless you’re being swarmed, but it’s helpful since champions aren’t great at handling crowds.
Ability Scores
The Champion is one of the most MAD classes in the game. It’s hard to find an actual dump stat because you benefit from every ability score. Strength-based builds can dump Dexterity, but you don’t want to go below 10. Dexterity-based builds can dump Strength, but it means using crossbows and giving up on Armor Specializations. You can dump Intelligence, but you get very few skill options already so that can be very limiting outside of combat. You can dump Wisdom, but Will saves are important.
But because the Champion is only fully dependent on a few ability scores, you can also weigh the costs and benefits of your ability scores and adjust your build to your liking. You could dump Intelligence if you have a lot of skills in your party (maybe you have a rogue or unusually intelligent party members), or you could dump Wisdom if you have allies who can provide extra protection or who can set you right when you fail a saving throw. You could technically dump Charisma if you don’t want to be a Face or use Focus Spells, but Divine Smite is built into the class so you’ll lose some damage output. Do what makes sense to you.
Strength-Based
Most champions will likely prefer Strength-based weapons, especially if you plan to use two-handed melee weapons.
: Attacks and damage.
: You don’t need any more than 10. You’ll eventually be in Full Plate, and the Bulwark trait provides a +3 bonus to Reflex saves which will override your Dexterity modifier anyway.
: Hit points are crucial.
: You only get to choose 2+int of the skills from your class, which gives you very little flexibility. More Intelligence means more options, and you’re a great candidate for Face skills.
: You need some for Will saves, but that’s all.
: Your spellcasting ability. Important for Focus Spells and class features like your Class DC and Divine Smite, and absolutely crucial if you plan to multiclass to get more spellcasting.
Dexterity-Based
While Strength is the expectation, Dexterity is an option for your Key Ability, which means that a Dexterity-based build is absolutely possible. You’ll still want some Strength to boost your damage output, but it’s an afterthought rather than a defining decision point.
: You need some for extra damage. Remember that if you’re using a Propulsive weapon you only get half of the bonus, so stop at either 14 or 18 depending on how many boosts you want to invest and whether or not you want to wear heavy armor. You may be able to dump strength by relying on crossbows instead of bows, especially if you’re comfortable in light armor. The Champion’s armor proficiency is the best in the game, so even in light armor your AC will beat everyone else’s by 1.
: If you want to use a bow or a finesse weapon, you need as much Dexterity as you can get. You could easily fight in light armor, too, but when you can afford it you should absolutely wear heavy armor both for the extra AC and the Armor Specialization effects. Be sure to avoid Full Plate, though, because Bulwark will override your Dexterity modifier to Reflex saves.
: Hit points are crucial.
: You only get to choose 2+int of the skills from your class, which gives you very little flexibility. More Intelligence means more options, and you’re a great candidate for Face skills.
: You need some for Will saves, but that’s all.
: Your spellcasting ability. Important for Focus Spells and class features like your Class DC and Divine Smite, and absolutely crucial if you plan to multiclass to get more spellcasting.
Ancestries
Increases to your three most important ability scores (Str/Dex, Con, Cha) are great, but the Champion is flexible enough that as long as you can increase either your Strength or Dexterity you should be fine. Beyond that, you can find interesting options from nearly any ancestry depending on your build.
: Dexterity and Charisma work great for a Dexterity-based build, and the Wisdom flaw is minimally impactful. The Cat’s Luck feat tree will go a long way to enhance your saving throws, especially the Champion’s low Reflex saves, adding to your already excellent durability.
: Even with the Charisma Flaw, the Dwarf is a fine option for the Champion. High starting hit points and a Constitution increase are great for a durable champion, and if you stay away from spellcasting and Face skills you’ll do fine. Dwarven Weapon Familiarity adds some new weapon options like the Dwarven Waraxe, which is a spectacular option if you like to use a shield sometimes but not constantly. You can also get access to Critical Specialization effects, which is great if you didn’t want to select Blade Ally. All of that can leave you feeling like a fighter with some minor divine flavor, which may be exactly what you want, or it might be underwhelming if you’re looking to play a warrior driven by divine power.
: A Constitution Flaw is hard, but with the Optional Ability Flaws you can end up with +2 Dex and a Flexible Ability Boost which you can put into your choice of Constitution or Charisma. For a Dexterity-based build, that’s probably enough. You can get some extra skill options from the Ancestral Longevity feat tree, and Otherworldly Magic can get you a cantrip like Shield which you can benefit from despite it being Arcane spellcasting.
: If you’re happy with a crossbow or with putting enough boosts into Strength to overcome the Strength Flaw, the Gnome’s ability boosts are spectacular. Wellspring Gnome can get you a cantrip, including one from the Divine spell list (which takes advantage of the Champion’s spellcasting proficiency progression). Gnome Weapon Familiarity can get you access to the Gnome Flickmace, which is a great reach weapon option if you still want a shield (though the Strength Flaw will be an even bigger problem), and with other Ancestry Feats you can add options like an Animal Companion and a cantrip from the Primal spell list.
: Perfect ability scores for a Dexterity-based build, and you don’t even have the Strength Flaw that the Gnome suffers. Unfortunately, the Goblin has fewer appealing Ancestry Feat options. Rough Rider makes it easier to get an Animal Companion that’s more interesting than the Horse, but remember that most Animal Companions lose most of their interesting capabilities while you ride them.
: Similar to the gnome, but the Ability Boosts don’t line up quite as well, and the Ancestry Feats don’t directly contribute to the Champion quite as well as the Gnome’s. Still, there are some interesting options here. Unfettered Halfling matches thematically with the Liberator, and Halfling Luck is literally always good. Plus, you can take Cultural Adaptability to get good options from other Ancestries.
: Two free Ability Boosts works literally anywhere, and between Ancestry Feats and Heritages you have plenty of options. Versatile Heritage or General Training can get you a General Feat like Toughness, which will reduce the need for a Constitution Boost. Unconventional Weaponry can get you access to options like the Gnome Flickmace if you want to use a shield but also want reach for things like Retributive Strike. Multitalented can help you get multiclass feats in order to get access to Divine spellcasting. There are lots of good options. If you’re absolutely desperate for a third Ability Boost, you can use the Optional Flaw rules to do so, and depending on what you’re willing to give up it may be worth the cost.
: This is definitely playable, but it will be challenging. A Constitution flaw and minimum ancestry hit points are a hard start, but Cringe can easily offset both and totally replaces any need for a shield, though it competes with Champion’s Reaction for your Reaction each round. The Kobold Breath feat chain also offers a helpful option handle crowds, which is normally difficult for the Champion.
: Two increases is enough, and the Orc is all about being in melee and being hard to kill, which serves the Champion perfectly. If you take Steed Ally, Ferocious Beasts is great. The Orc Ferocity feat chain is great on any champion.
: The boosts and flaws don’t line up well, and the Ratfolk’s only interesting ancestry feats relate to item management which champions don’t typically need to worry about.
: Workable, but you can get similar and better options from other ancestries like the Catfolk or the Goblin. Squawk is neat for a Face build, but there are few gems among the Tengu’s other Ancestry Feats.
Backgrounds
Boosts to important ability scores are crucial, but also look for skills andskill feats which complement your character concept. Remember that you onlyget 2+ skills of your choice from the Champion, so the skill proficiencygranted by your Background can be an important decision point, and the SkillFeat granted by your Background can be extremely useful.
If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:
- Barrister
- Emissary (Society)
- Guard
- Noble
- Warrior
Skills and Skill Feats
You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.
You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.
- (Dex): Too situational, and less useful since you don’t have a built-in way to fly until level 18. You might consider picking up proficiency at that point, but most characters will never get that far.
- (Int): Useful, but leave it for someone with higher Intelligence if you can.
- (Str): Great if you want to use special attacks like Shove and Trip, but the Champion is less dependent on those options than the Fighter so it’s not absolutely crucial.
- (Int): Useful for repairing damaged shields, but don’t expect to go making anything exciting. You probably don’t need to go beyond Trained for a long time. If you continue to use shields at high levels, improving your Proficiency and taking Quick Repair can allow you to repair a damaged shield in the heat of combat, quickly returning your cripplingly expensive shield to full effectiveness.
- : Your Deception DC will almost certainly be higher than your Perception DC, so this will help protect you from lies despite the Champion’s poor Perception progression.
(Cha): Lying might not seem
like it’s a fitting option for the Champion, but it’s still a useful
Face Skill, and Lie to Me can help mitigate the Champion’s terrible
Perception progression.- : While it’s obviously less violent than killing things, Scare to Death becomes available at the same time and only take a single Action.
(Cha): If you have even
moderate Charisma, you’re probably- : Demoralize for free when combat starts. It might not be a good option if you’re hiding, but otherwise it’s a free debuff at the beginning of every fight.
- : Counting on a critical success is hard, but if your Charisma is very high it might work.
- : Spend one Action to pick out the creature in the room the lowest Will save and kill them or send them fleeing. Repeat until the room is cleared. At this point you only need weapons for things that are strong enough to threaten your whole party on their own, and even then this can still replace the Demoralize action almost entirely.
(Cha): One of few skills
that you can consistently legerage in combat, and an important Face
skill.- (Int): Versatile, but vaguely defined and hard to rely upon. You likely won’t have enough extra skill options to take Lore beyond what you get from your Background.
- (Wis): The most important usage of Medicine is to restore hit points, and you can get that from Lay on Hands which you get for free.
- (Wis):Useful, but leave it for someone with higher Wisdom if you can. Even if you choose Steed Ally, you don’t need this to command your Animal Companion because Animal Companions use different rules for the Command an Animal action.
- (Int): Useful, but leave it for someone with higher Intelligence if you can.
- (Cha): Too situational.
- : This can be a great feat if your GM is clever, but you likely can’t afford the Skill Increases to get Religion up to Master.
(Wis): You’re Trained by
default, but a character with higher Wisdom will likely be more
effective.- (Int):Useful, but leave it for someone with higher Intelligence if you can.
- (Dex): You need to have someone sneaky in your party, but the Champion usually isn’t a great option. Even if Dexterity is your Key Ability Score, heavy armor is extremely appealing and the Check Penalty from your armor can be a serious problem.
- (Wis): Too situational.
- (Dex): An absolutely essential skill, and a Dexterity-based Champion could absolutely use it.
Feats
Champion Feats
1st Level
- Domains Breakdown for help with Domains. : Keep in mind that while this adds a new Focus Spell it doesn’t expand your Focus Pool so the spell needs to compete with Lay on Hands. Many domain Focus Spells are very powerful, offering a lot of excellent magic options which are absolutely worth the Focus Point to cast them. See my
- : If you really enjoy Focus Spells, this can be a great option. Characters taking Champion Multiclass Devotion might consider this for a build where Focus Spells are a central feature.
- : (Tyrant only). This seems too good to be a 1st-level feat. 1d6 Persistent Damage at 1st level is enough to kill many enemies over the course of a few rounds. Trigger this then hide behind a shield. If you get hit again, you can always choose to deal regular damage instead of Persistent Damage.
- : (Desecrator only) A few points of additional damage resistance to additional attacks won’t do much until you’ve gained a few levels, but against enemies which make multiple Strikes in a typically turn this will prevent a lot of damage over the course of your career.
- : (Paladin only). Despite the name, this is useable with both ranged weapons and with melee weapons. Having a reach weapon and still being 5 feet too far away to make a Retributive Strike is immensely frustrating, especially at low levels when a single attack can make such a huge difference. This is essential for paladins.
- : (Liberator only). Situational.
- : (Antipaladin only). At most 1 extra damage per round at level 1, and it scales to at most 6 damage per round.
- : (Redeemer only) Stupefied debuffs foes which rely on mental ability scores, including enemy spellcasters. In addition, it reduces their Will Saves, making them more vulnerable to spells and other options line Demoralize.
2nd Level
- : (Evil only). Mental effects make up most effects which target Will Saves. The +2 bonus alone is enough that you can worry a bit less about having Wisdom to back your saves.
- : Situational, but a +2 bonus is pretty good if your DM likes to use a lot of enemies who cast spells.
- : (Good only). Bonuses to fight evil dragons. The benefits vary by subclass, but they only apply against dragons which makes them situational by nature. Unless you’re in a campaign centered around slaying dragons, dragons will be incredibly rare.
- : (Good only). Aberrations are an uncommong creature type in most campaigns, but the Cthulhu mythos has a weird way of sneaking into Pathinder’s published Adventure Paths.
- : (Good only). The same effects as Dragonslayer Oath, but fiends tend to be more common than dragons. Still situational, but more useful than Dragonslayer Oath.
- : (Evil only). In a campaign centered on evil characters, you could reasonably expect to encounter celestials at the same rate that good-aligned characters encounter fiends.
- : (Good only). The same effects as Dragonslayer Oath, but undead tend to be more common than dragons. Still situational, but more useful than Dragonslayer Oath.
- : (Paladin only). Turn Lay on Hands into an attack option against evil creatures that harm your allies. You may not want to gamble with such a good healing option, but it’s a single Action that deals a big pile of damage without making a Strike so it’s a great follow-up to your normal attacks.
4th Level
- : Too situational.
- : (Good only). Frightened is an easy debuff which can come from a variety of sources. Immunity to Frightened 1 means that you’re largely immune to Demoralize, too.
- : (Evil only). Fear is a geat debuff, and forcing enemies to remain at Frightened 1 while within 15 feet of you can leave you at an easy numerical advantage. If you don’t have spells or magic items that can make targets Frightened, Demoralize works great.
- : (Evil only). A great motivation to use Touch of Corruption early in a fight, Enfeebled is a good debuff for martial creatures. However, it requires an Action to add this additonal effect which means you’re spending an additional Action early in a fight when each Action is the most impactful. This is good, but not so good that you should consider this over any other option.
- : (Good only). Situational. The bonus is small, and you can rely on the Medicine skill’s Treat Disease action for a bonus of the same type with twice the effect.
- : Situational, though paralysis and feat effects can often take an ally out of a fight for several rounds.
6th Level
- : A fantastic feat, but it conflicts with your Champion’s Reaction so you may not be able to use it consistently.
- : (Evil only). It’s hard to find a build where this fits. Antipaladin and Tyrant want to encourage attacks against them, and Shield Block is redundant for the Defiler. If you’re getting hit, you should be using Champion’s Reaction instead of Shield Block. This would be really nice for good-aligned champions since their versions of Champion’s Reaction are less about defending themselves.
- : Too situational.
- : See Focus Spells, below.
- : If you chose Steed Ally, you need to make your companion Mature to keep its stats good enough to keep it alive.
- : Shield Block reduces the damage by the Hardness of your shield. The published shields made of special materials in the Core Rulebook have Hardness less than their level. By comparison, your Champion’s Reaction reduces the damage by 2+your level and works up to 15 ft. away. However, if you take Quick Block you get an extra Reaction which you can only use for Shield Block, allowing you to use both Shield Warden and your Champion’s Reaction in the same turn.
- : A bit of extra damage per Strike, and the duration extends every time your target attacks one of your allies. This creates a sort of Taunt effect, encouraging the foe to attack you instead of your allies for at least one turn to end the effect. It’s unclear if enemies know about this mechanic, so check with your GM. Regardless, there’s no limit on how often you can use this, so any time that you have a spare Action and don’t want to spend it on a Strike you can start this. As far as I can tell, you can have this running on multiple foes simultaneously, though I don’t think that’s a great option.
- : (Evil only). Smite Evil, but reversed.
8th Level
- Domains Breakdown for help with Domains. : This is notably the first option for the Champion to increase the size of their Focus Pool. Advanced Domain spells are frequently very powerful, providing numerous magical options otherwise not available to the Champion. See my
- : There are effects like the spell Blindness which can strike a target permanently blind or deaf. This changes those effects from a massive handicap into a momentary inconvenience. You can also remove the Slowed effect, which is great considering the 1-Action casting time of Lay on Hands.
- : Enfeebled is great for Strength-based enemies, Clumsy is great for Dexterity-based enemies and if you want to lower the target’s AC, and Stupefied is great for spellcasters and if you want to reduce their Will saves.
- : Add 4 hit points per spell level of Lay on Hands. This is a 2/3 increase in the amount healed, which is significant but hopefully not necessary. Consider this if you took Steed Mount, but if you need to heal your mount often enough to need this you should really consider other ways to protect your mount like barding.
- : If you’re using a shield, this is absolutely essential. Your Champion’s Reaction is a much better use of your Reaction is most cases, but you can’t use it to protect yourself. This allows you to protect yourself (or an ally if you took Shield Warden) without losing the option to use Champion’s Reaction.
- : This is hard to justify. The amount of damage reduced will be significant, but you’re almost certainly in heavy armor and a -3 penalty until your armor is repaired is a huge price to pay to avoid some damage. That means that you’re likely going to save this for late in fights when you’re going to be attacked fewer times between breaking your armor and when you can repair it, and if you’re saving this for late in fight just to save a few hit points you should look at better healing options instead.
- : Divine Ally is a great ability, and having two can be really useful. However, by this level the basic benefits of Divine Ally may not be appealing compared to other feats, and you may have trouble finding enough feat slots to enhance your second Divine Ally.
- : In most cases you can figure out who or what is evil with a little bit of real-world insight, and in cases where it’s not obvious this sense is vague to the point of being barely helpful. You might be able to use this to detect that evil creatures are hidden or invisible nearby, but even then they might get a Deception check to avoid notice (consult your GM) and the Champion’s Perception progression is terrible. If you desperately want this capability, take the multiclass archetype feats for something with the Divine spell list and cast Detect Alignment.
- : (Evil only). Sense Evil but the exact opposite.
10th Level
- : If you’re finding your Focus Spells to be very helpful and you took Advanced Deity’s Domain to expand your Focus Pool, this is very important. The wording on recovering Focus Points is very precise, so if you want your 2-point Focus Pool refilled this is one of the only ways to do it.
- : Too situational.
- : The most important benefit here is an improvement to your steed’s AC. If you’re doing fine without that benefit, you may be able to skip this even if you’re heavily reliant on Steed Ally.
- : (Good only). See Focus Spells, below. You also add a Focus Point to your pool.
- : (Evil only). See Focus Spells, below. You also add a Focus Point to your pool.
- : The basic set of property runes are fine but not very impressive. Flaming is a good go-to, but Anarchic/Axiomatic/Holy runes are level 11 items that cost 1,400gp.
- : Nice, but not very impactful. +1 isn’t a big mathematical increase and it only lasts one round.
- : Double down on protecting your allies. The wording of the text is slightly confusing, but this uses a single Reaction to perform both the Shield Block and Champion’s Reaction Reactions, so you’re getting twice as much out of one Reaction as normal. If you have Quick Block, you can still use that extra Reaction for Shield Block.
12th Level
- : DIsease and Poison can be treated with the Medicine skill, but curses can be a serious issue. Of course, Remove Curse is a 4th-level spell on both the Divine and Occult spell lists, so by this level a cleric can easily handle all of these problems.
- : The +1 bonus to attacks won’t make a huge difference, but if the target is weak to Good damage you can easily turn this into a huge boost to your party’s damage output.
- : 1 damage only matters at this level if you’re attacking tagets which have Vulnerability to Good damage.
- : In most cases, you won’t be able to use this until the target attacks one of your allies in combat, conveniently making this a great combination with Smite Evil. When used, Blade of Justice is mechanically similar in many ways to the Fighter’s Power Attack feat, but it adds some other nice things. Adding the effects of Retributive Strike is a confusing way to think about things since Retributive Strike is just a normal Strike on its own. But by this level you have both Divine Smite and Exalt, so your Retributive Strikes applies persistent Good damage and allies within 15 feet of you and in melee of the target can make a Strike at a -5 penalty as a Reaction. If you have one of the Oath feats, the extra damage applies to your Strike. If you find that you use this consistently, be sure to pick up Aura of Vengeance to reduce your allies’ penalty on the extra Strike and consider Instrument of Zeal for a bunch of extra damage if you score a critical hit.
- : The second opportunity for the Champion to increase the size of their Focus Pool, and this option doesn’t require two feats. Even if you never use Champion’s Sacrifice even once, that’s a huge benefit. For more on Champion’s Sacrifice, see Focus Spells, below.
- : This means that most enemies can’t step toward or away from you, meaning that they’re largely stuck in melee with you.
- : +1 status bonus to all things against the target basically until you stop fighting it. Over that duration a +1 bonus is pretty good. Unfortunately, this requires you to take one ore more oath feats, and those generally aren’t very good. If you go that route, since this only works once per hour try to save it for the biggest thing in the room.
- : (Evil only). If you used your Champion’s Reaction last round, this is likely your best option for your turn. The bonus damage is nice but not important, but Drained hits really hard.
- : A fantastic way to extend the effects of your Champion’s Reaction. If you have Weight of Guilt, you can make the target both Enfeebled and Stupefied, debuffing them considerably for several rounds.
- : Situational. Stepping is typically sufficiency, and Striding can expose your allies to dangerous Reactions.
- : (Evil only). If you have a mount, it’s likely a big part of your tactics. That makes it an easy target for your enemies. This will help discourage them from attacking it. I like that the damage scales a bit, too.
14th Level
- : Situational. Potentially excellent against enemy spellcasters, but it seems unlikely that enemies will intentionally teleport within 15 feet of you. On top of that, you need Fiendsbane Oath to get it.
- : Situational, but more broadly useful than Aura of Righteousness. Unfortunately, you Shining Oath to get it.
- : Too situational unless your party is facing a weirdly large number of abberations.
- : Situational. Resistance to damage of any kind is great, but evil damage is rare.
- : If you’re getting a lot of use out of your allies’ attacks on Retribute Strike, this is a great idea. Much like Retributive Strike’s Exalt effect, this gets more useful depending on how many melee allies you have.
- : Too good to forgo. This lets you use your Champion’s Reaction twice in a round.
- : This makes it too easy to justify ruining your armor, which is likely among your most valuable poesessions.
- : (Evil only). See “Focus Spells”, below. Your Focus Pool expands by 1 point
- : See “Focus Spells”, below. Your Focus Pool expands by 1 point.
- : Resistant equal to your Charisma modifier to the 5 most common non-weapon damage types. The only problem is that you also need the Dragonslayer Oath, which is not especially useful on its own. In a way the two balance each other out because this is so much better than the equivalent aura feats for the other oaths.
16th Level
- : Specializations offer some new options for your mount, and the ability to speak is certainly interesting, but you don’t strictly need this for your mount to be useful.
- : Very situational. Generally if you can’t reach an ally who needs to be within your aura, you can spend the same Action to either Strep or Stride to close the distance. You could imagine scenarioes where you need to keep multiple allies within the aura but who are in opposite directions, but if your allies insist on doing that you should have a discussion with them about tactical positioning rather than investing an extremely high-level Class Feat to occasionally solve that problem. The fact that this only applies to one aura at a time is honestly infuriating. Even if this applied to every aura feat you have I would hesitate to rate this above .
- : (Evil only). That is a huge amount of bleed damage, especially considering that evil champions mechanically favor two-handed weapons with large damage dice.
- : Slowed 1 robs the target of an Action on their turn, so between that and the extra damage die this is an immensely satisfying addition your critical hits. Still, it depends on a critical hit so it’s inherently unreliable.
- : By this level you have lots of options to prevent damage to your ally, including using both your Champion’s Reaction and Shield Block against the same attack. Splitting the damage between yourself and your ally is a very generous thing for you to do, but try to prevent that damage instead.
18th Level
- : Darkvision and permanent non-magical flight. You also look super cool. if you chose Steed Ally you may want to skip this and take Celestial Mount at level 20 instead because your mount’s speed will be so much better than yours.
- : (Evil only). Celestial Form, but you turn into a fiend instead.
- : That’s a huge amount of temporary hit points. Sure, they don’t stack, but if the target is taking damage with any sort of regularity this prevent a ton of it.
- : The time limit is problematic, but if you’re close to your allies you can usually Stride to get into range for Lay on Hands. There doesn’t appear to be a usage limitation beyond your Focus Points, so be sure to keep a Focus Point ready in case things go wrong.
20th Level
- : A bunch of great improvements to your mount, and also Weakness 10 to Evil damage. Thematically it makes sense, but that doesn’t make me like it.
- : (Evil only). Celestial Mount but evil.
- : The new runes only level 13 or 14, just two levels higher than runes like Holy which are granted by Radiant Blade Spirit 10 levels earlier. At this level the cost to add these runes to a weapon is very reasonable, so you gain next to nothing from this feat. Spend the gold to get the rune normally, and use your level 20 feat for something more interesting.
- : A significant amount of resistance to the most common types of attack damage, and ignore natural 20’s against you means that your unassailably high AC is flawless protection against swarms of low-level creatures who might otherwise try to hit you based solely on the number of creatures rolling for a natural 20.
- : By this level you’re almost certainly using an incredibly expensive shield like a high-grade adamantine shield, so a way to recover it if it’s broken is a great way to protect your investment. You also get the benefit of having your shield raised constantly, so you no longer need to spend an Action every turn to raise it, leaving that Action free for more interesting things like attacking.
General Feats
- : Your Perception never Increases beyond Expert, so this becomes a great option when you reach level 17.
- : The Champion’s Perception progression is terrible, and a +2 bonus to Initiative checks can help to mitigate that.
- : You don’t need this to ride your Steed Ally because Animal Companions respond differently when you use the Command an Animal action.
- : More hit points are always great, but Lay on Hands provides a significant amount of healing for a single Action, so it’s not as helpful as it is for other martial classes.
Weapons
Much like the Fighter, the Champion gets access to the full range of martial
weapons and make excellent use of any of them. Generally your choice of weapon
will reflect the tactics you plan to employ in combat and your choice of
Divine Ally.
Armor
- : A great option for starting armor, Chain Mail will provide adequate protection without eating all of your 15 starting gold.
- : For Dexterity-based builds this is your ideal armor. A good Armor Specialization effect, and since it doesn’t have the Bulwark trait you still get to enjoy your high Dexterity modifier for Reflex saves. And don’t worry: you still get as much AC as Full Plate.
- : If you have less than 16 Dexterity, this is the best armor that you can get. Bulwak will override your low Dexterity modifier to Reflex saves, helping to protect you from area effect damage which can easily circumvent your unusually high AC.
Champion Focus Spells – Devotion Spells
1st-Level Spells
- : For a single Action, this is a big pile of healing. You can use it on yourself or an an ally, and since it’s a Focus Spell you can repeatedly Refocus and heal yourself out of combat to ensure that you and your allies are always at full hit points.
- : A good pile of damage to living targets or a big pile of healing to undead targets. It works on a single Action and isn’t an attack, so it’s a great offensive option if you have already made multiple attacks this turn and your Multiple Attack Penalty is a problem. Remember that the healing option doesn’t necessarily require you to be undead: some creatures like the Dhampir Versatile Heritage allow you to be healed by effects which normally heal undead creatures.
3rd-Level Spells
- : A nice way to deter enemies from harming you and your allies, and with 30-foot range and a 1-Action casting time, this is a great option to fit into a turn that you spend moving and/or attacking. However, it has some limitations. The spell only takes effect of the target damages a Good creature, so the usefulness of the spell is significantly diminished if you have non-Good party members. The effect is also clearly designed to be more effective against enemies which rely on dealing damage, so foes with
5th-Level Spells
- : The duration is short, but a +2 or +3 bonus is mathematically significant. While it definitely feels like you should use this on yourself, it may be more effective to put it on another martial ally because they’ll get their full turn to use the bonuses rather than their turn minus the 1 Action to cast this.
- : The flavor text on this spell is extremely misleading; removing the target’s ability to take Reactions is just part of the effect. The major effect is making the target Slowed, which robs them of one or more Actions. If you can spend one Action to rob the target one Action, you’re doing fine. Every Action after that just further improves the value of the Focus Point that you spent.
6th-Level Spells
- : Choosing to suffer the full effects of an attack or a failed save is noble, but very dangeorus. The 30 foot range on this makes it a good fallback when an ally is outside of your 15-foot range for Champion’s Reaction, so this extends your ability to protect your allies by another 15 feet. Interestingly, this effect bypasses any of your own resistances and immunities, so if you’re hypothetically a robot which is immune to sleep, you can use this to be put to sleep instead of one of your allies.
7th-Level Spells
- : The Weakness value is really good, but the 1-round duration is a problem. You can likely make two more Strikes in the same turn, and the 14-20 damage (depending on the level at which you’re casting the spell) barely matchs the average damage from one more Strike an enhanced weapon at the level that this becomes available (assume 3d8+5 for a longsword, avg. 18.5). However, if you have other allies who can deal Evil damage, this is a spectacular way to focus a bunch of damage on one target in a hurry. Unfortunately this isn’t quite as useful as Litany of Righteousness because evil champions don’t get ways to let their allies deal evil damage.
- : For one action, a target within 30 ft. gets Weakness to Good damage with no saving throw. The weakness matches the spell level, so it starts at 7 and maxes out at 10. On its own this might not seem like much, but considering Divine Smite added the ability to apply persistent Good damage, not to mention all of the feats that let you deal good damage with your attacks, and options like a Holy weapon property rune.
10th-Level Spells
- : A great way to keep yourself alive, especially since you can’t target yourself with Ultimate Mercy. However, 10d4+20 only averages to 45 hit points, so don’t expect this to suddenly put your back into good shape to fight. You’ll likely want to end the fight as quickly as possible (or heal yourself) since you only get to use this once until your Refocus or perform daily preparations.
Magic Items
Weapons
- : Thematically very interesting, but not good enough to justify the exhorbitant cost.
Other Magic Items
- : If you take feats to get domain Focus Spells, the extra Focus point can be very helpful. You also get some decent skill bonuses.
Archetypes
- : The benefits aren’t good enough, and you need to be heavily invested in Intelligence which is hard considering that the Champion already needs high scores in so many abilities.
- : Rage and Instinct look tempting, but there’s not much to be gained from the Barbarian’s class feats that you couldn’t get from the Fighter and the Fighter offers more appealing options.
- : Charisma-based spellcasting. The Cleric is typically a better option.
- : The Champion automatically advances their proficiency with divine spellcasting at a rate faster than you normally could by multiclassing, so adding some cleric spells can be a grea tway to expand your capabilities.
- : Little to be gained except spellcasting, and you have numerous better options for doing that.
- : For martial-minded champions, the Fighter’s class feats offer a number of useful useful options depending on your choice of weaponry.
- : The obvious option if you want to fight unarmed, but unless you specifically want to play a champion which doesn’t use weapons there’s little reason to go this route.
- : The best reasons to multiclass into ranger are to get an Animal Companion (which you already have) and to get martial feats which you can get from the Fighter.
- : A handful of options like You’re Next and Dread Striker are appealing for Intimidation builds, but otherwise skip the Rogue entirely.
- : Much like the Cleric, you can use the Sorcerer to get access to the Divine spell list.
- : Little to be gained except spellcasting, and you have numerous better options for doing that.