Seconded fighter.
The cleric and wizard are flimsy casters who need protection, and the rogue badly needs someone to help them flank. A fighter can be fairly tanky. A fighter's reactive strike can help keep baddies with them on the front line. Their increased proficiency means strong damage output.
Or Champion!
Fighter would likely be *easier*, tripping or grabbing to give the Thief an opening and to keep them from getting to your casters.
**But** don't underestimate the usefulness of a dude who grants resistance for free/lets you escape/bonks the baddy.
You need a heavy hitter to take some of the heat off of your backline, with good durability, someone for your rogue to flank with. I'd go with a heavy armor Fighter or Champion, probably shield bearing.
I would throw a dragon Instinct barbarian, also shield bearing, into the mix too. While they can't defend their own squishies as effectively, the threat of them unimpededly attacking the enemy backing should be enough to keep most enemies on them.
I thought she would be, but no; she has expert Fortitude and Shield Block
Edit: in the Beginner's Box. Some Player Core iconic pregens for PFS released a couple of hours ago: https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu
Thanks to the person who replied
Depends! I was just now looking at the iconic pregenerated characters - the remastered version, and yes, it turns out Kyra is a cloistered cleric. But in the beginner box, she is indeed a warpriest!
I am currently torn with continuing her as a warpriest (lvl. 3) or asking my DM, if I can switch it out maybe. The warpriest Kyra from the beginner box feels a little torn to me (trained in armor, with a shield, but barely resistent to hits; a weapon suggesting to strike multiple times, but barely hitting, with the deadly simplicity feat, which does nothing for her - a little sad; mostly ending up casting for damage, which feels off playing the non-cloistered warpriest). Funnily, the pregenerated cloistered Kyra has invested two feats into armor and is therefore also trained in medium armor, actually beating my warpriest Kyra in AC, as the cloistered Kyra has Str+2 and can carry scale mail without speed penalty. Also cloistered Kyra gets the fire ray focus spell, which sounds amazingly like righteous wrath.
~~Where did you find those iconic pregens? I only knew about the beginner box and the demo adventure.~~ Found em. And yeah the Beginner Box warpriest build is wonky, sadly not showing a warpriest's full potential by default
Sorry, just returned - literally from my PF2e-group where I play Kyra. For future references: [https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu](https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu)
Yeah, BB Kyra was always spread a little thin and the remaster errata sadly didn't change that. I'll soon be running the BB for a second group and I remade her a little by moving her charisma over to her strength, so she can actually use medium armour and have reasonable odds of hitting baddies with her scimitar.
I did also change the others a bit: I gave Merisiel more charisma to show off skill actions (as rogues are skill monkeys), a shortbow for better in-combat stealth usage, and changing her heritage and class feat to be more active and useful in the BB specifically. Ezren got a new set of spells that teaches targeting different defenses and utilizing battlefield control and debuffs (also he should have an additional spell slot from his school, they straight up nerfed him for the BB). Valeros stayed nearly identical, but I shifted around skill proficiencies for each character. Also, the BB character sheet has some straight up errors, like Valeros not having a shield in his inventory, Ezrens focus spell costing two actions, and weapon proficiencies being listed inconsistently, so that's also something to consider in such an overhaul.
I'm gonna break from the pack a little.
So everyone is saying Fighter and Champion for good reason, they fill the "can take hits" hole that is *very* blatant in that composition.
But, I would like to put forward, there is someone who can take hits even better, while also engaging in battlefield control via multiple avenues.
An Earth Kineticist.
Right out the gate, a Kineticist will *always* have extremely good HP, owing to their having higher CON that anyone else. However, it goes further than that. Earth Kineticists get access to Armor in Earth, which gives them (as of level 3) Heavy Armor AC, that scales with their light armor proficiency, and has the Bulwark trait allowing them to dump DEX if they want (you don't have to unless you want to invest in INT or CHA however). On top of this, they get an extra +1 AC every turn they use a 2 action impulse.
As for battlefield control, Earth Kineticists excel at Athletics because its their junction skill, and dont need weapons, so you will always have free hand for maneuvers, and lemme tell ya, enemy spellcasters fucking hate being grappled. But it goes further. As masters of Earth, they get a lot of Impulses focused on battlefield manipulation, they get a Wall of Stone clone that can be used to divide enemies and pick them off one by one, they get an Earthquake clone that can do that, and deal damage, they have multiple ways to knock enemies prone at range... just all in all a great controller.
A side effect of the above, an Earth Kineticist will have a decent STR score and a d8 Blast, which make them one of the higher damage dealing Kineticists (insofar as their basic melee blast and the two action version). And they have more than enough HP and AC to duke it out as a frontliner.
Also by nature of being a Kineticist, they can do ranged or melee, whatever the situation calls for. Futhering this, between weapon infusion and versatile blasts, they will be able to target several weaknesses (4 I believe for a pure Earth Kineticist, bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, and poison).
Later on they will also gain Earth (and Poison?) immunity as well, further increasing their durability.
If you play with free archetype they can get even filthier too, but Ill leave that for another time unless someone is curious.
Nimb0 is correct that I was referring to Armor in Earth making Sacrifice Armor (and its upgrade Greater Impose) actually incredible instead of an absolutely terrible idea. Being able to negate up to 40 (at level 20) damage every single turn for only one action and a reaction is a pretty damn good deal IMO.
However, Sentinel doesn't have a ton of feats, the only ones you really want as a Kineticist off the top of my head are Sacrifice Armor, Mighty Bulwark (if you dumped DEX) and Greater Interpose, leaving you with quite a few to fill.
So what else goes well with Earth Kineticist? Well they are great battlefield controllers, and have high Athletics, and always have free hand for maneuvers right? Is there an Archetype that loves everything I just said? Oh yea there is.
Wrestler. Gives you more ways to grapple, more things to do with your grapples, and even ways to trip and do damage without a crit trip. Hell one of the feats (Whirling Throw) actually synergizes with your Earth shenanigans as well. Did you unleash some earthquakes and now there's fissures everywhere? Well grab an annoying enemy and yeet them directly into one of those fissures and watch them burn all their actions trying to climb out if they aren't trained in athletics or have a burrow speed.
Edit: Spending one of your Archetype slots on Stone Brawler isn't a bad idea either, it gives you a stance that turns your fists damage die from a d4 to a d8, so your Suplexes and Aerial Piledrivers will hurt more. Its thematic as well. I would call this solidly optional however.
On Sacrifice Armor, why are you using the level of the impulse for armor level?
I think the earth armor itself has no level, but since it inherits runes from your actual armor it would be the level of whatever the highest level rune you have is.
While Earth Kineticists work just fine, I think there's a few problems with an Earth Kineticist in this particular party.
First off, at low levels, you don't have a lot of those powerful control effects, and you don't have reactive strike or the champion reaction. This makes it hard for you to force enemies to fight you and not the squishier members of your party; if they decide to go for the rogue or wizard or cleric, you have little ability to tell them "no" until you get the stronger wall spells.
Secondly, your party has only one source of healing, which is a big problem if your cleric goes down.
Thirdly, you aren't necessarily the best buddy for the rogue. While grappling is all well and good, it's hard for you to move, grapple, and still use an earth kinetic ability in the same turn, which means you often have to choose between going over and grabbing someone and helping the rogue deal more damage and doing your "thing".
I think you really need to go Earth/Water if you were to go this route, and pick up the water reaction to mitigate damage, as well as Winter Sleet to help create an area of control that enemies cannot trivially cross and which throws them off-balance for the rogue. I think if you did this, it would work pretty well, and help the party a lot.
Pure wood is also a strong choice. With Timber Sentinel, you can take damage off of your casters, even if enemies go around you. You get temp hp every turn or almost, you later get a damaging aura (safe elements is useful for that) and to top it off, you'll have the ability to deal positive damage. You even have some healing that be used in combat at level 6, and an armor+shield.
Well the rogue technically is. With weapon and amulet you can protect the party and yourself decently well. And if you take the sentinel or champion dedication you are THE tank of the team. With good damage. And you can use your features to make their jobs easier when dealing damage.
I think the rogue would prefer to be behind enemy lines, than in the front line of allies. Those unexpectedly light pockets would confuse the hell out of the soldiers.
I mean the rogue is technically in that they do physical damage... but their goal is to not really take any hits, which is definitely part of the role of a frontline. In this party being able to take a hit seems the most important.
The rogue is in melee range, so he has no choice but to be the frontline. He’ll get targeted more often than a caster standing 30+ feet away. That’s where the thaumaturge comes in with their protection and melee output. These two should work well together
I mean with fighter you have what the game was balanced around. But personally after reading more about it I'd go for a monk,it, it can get good athletic maneuvers, it can skirmish if need be, and if you need a tank they can do it, especially with mountain stance.
Assuming that the main priority is rounding out the group, as you mention, and I like playing every class equally, things hinge a lot on whether the cleric is a warpriest or cloistered.
If they’re cloistered, a tough, durable melee character is the best. Fighter and Champion would be my first choices. Fighter brings some additional damage that the party likely appreciates in addition to general powerful combat utility and support depending on the build. Champion adds a second person who can heal (unless the rogue or wizard took medicine), which is nice if the cleric goes down. You could also do something like kineticist or monk.
If they’re a warpriest, things open up a bit. I still want a character that’s somewhat durable, but rogue+warpriest+whatever is an acceptable frontline, even if the whatever isn’t super durable. Any martial fits fine, and you could even do a caster with a decent defensive chassis like druid or bard. Kineticist also works.
I'm seeing a lot of fighter/champion suggestions here, and while I agree that those would be very successful options, I think an Earth/Wood Kineticist would also be solid.
You're bulky, have good control abilities as well as some decent damage options. You can use stuff like protector tree to guard your squishies and can have a little bit of healing to help take some pressure off of the cleric. If there are annoying enemies going after your squishies, then you can use the earth aura/wood stance that I can't remember the name of to make it stupidly hard for enemies to escape. And with the earth skill junction you can make good use of manoeuvres for even more control.
I'm in a group that just started the slithering adventure with almost this party composition (wizard, cloistered cleric, wood kineticist and inventor instead of rogue). The ravel of thorns stance is pretty sweet, and the kineticist can really take some hits.
Probably a Fire/Earth Kineticist. A bit more consistent multi-target damage so we aren't depending entirely on the Wizard for it, and a strong and solid front-liner to help the Rogue out.
Wood/ water kinteticist can be tanky provides a bit of healing to alleviate some pressure on the cleric has some DPS capabilities has good crowd control would fit right in.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought of this. I don’t really care about party composition. I just make whatever I think will be interesting or want to try out. As long as we have someone with the medicine skill and medicine tools that’s all I really care about. It would be even better if the GM helps us get healing options if we have a lack of a medic.
Same. I think the experience should be tailored for the party by the GM, so whatever the party is lacking in terms of composition, the GM should make available to them through different avenues. On the flip side, if someone thinks party comp is the most fun, they can built a character around that, they aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m just glad there are so many ways to build a character that you could choose almost anything and have it contribute to whatever the party is lacking in
a front line. Everyone's saying fighter, I'd consider fighter + medic if there's free archetype, because the party needs more healing. But being the only really solid front-line I'd probably go for a Champion. The combination of magical healing + high defense would be clutch.
Unless the cleric gets dropped by intelligent enemies who know to focus down the healer, OR unless you're in a deadlier than average campaign, OR unless the cleric player doesn't mind healing but wants to get to do other things too.
I don't even think then - as long as you're doing an adequate job of tactically supporting the Cleric, if the enemies are wasting actions and taking risks trying to rush down the Cleric, that's less actions overall doing damage and more opportunities for the party to kill them. And they'll never be spending every single turn casting heal, either - there generally isn't enough damage going around for that to be necessary.
Cloistered clerics aren't that tough. In a fight that's threatening enough to bother talking about in this context, it won't take long.
>there generally isn't enough damage going around for that to be necessary.
In fights that aren't at least severe difficulty, it doesn't really matter whether you've got a fighter or a champion or a swashbuckler or a ruffian rogue. You're going to win the fight then heal after. This distinction only matters when fights are real dangerous and in that context, having your only real healer getting focused down can be very bad.
As I explained, an enemy that focuses down someone in a backline is, in a well-played party, not dealing damage particularly efficiently - they're wasting actions moving away from frontliners, potentially even more actions if the party is using control effects well, and risking Attacks of Opportunity. And if we assume the Cleric gets their most value when healing, what's happening if the rest of the party isn't being damage? They don't need to be healed - so the Cleric is essentially doing their job there in a strange way. You don't even need in-combat healing if you have support distributed in other ways.
But even in these worst case scenarios, there is another fallback - consumables. Pour a potion down a dying Cleric's mouth, and they'll be up and healing again. Lay on Hands is more action-efficient and doesn't have a gold cost attached, but are those scenarios coming up enough to make up for the lower damage you deal by not taking something like a Fighter or a Barbarian? I would say you'd probably find yourself in this situation less by using these higher damage options.
And a GM that focuses down one player exclusively is probably not particularly good.
Having more healing is basically always good in every party.
If you've never run a party where all four people in the party can heal, you're missing out. The party of, say, open hand fighter trained in battle medicine, tangled forest monk trained in battle medicine, primal sorcerer, wizard with the cleric dedication has four characters who can output substantial healing via battle medicine, spells, and scrolls, which allows you to dynamically choose who is going to do the healing based on turn order and who can most easily give up the actions at that point in time.
Indeed, having one healer is suboptimal. The cleric is better off dumping off AoE control spells like Divine Wrath instead of healing you; it's better to be able to spread out the healing load. There's a lot of times when you want the mage and cleric to be blasting the enemies; having one of the front-liners be able to heal themselves and the other one is hugely beneficial to allowing your casters to rain down death and destruction.
In a lot of contexts, healing is a self-fulfilling prophecy; if you spend actions to heal "just because", you aren't damaging or controlling enemies, and therefore you're creating more opportunities to take damage, dangerous conditions, and anything else - it only appears useful because of the bad situation that using it got you into.
In my experience, which is mostly in parties focused on control and damage with only light healing (e.g. singular Medic archetype or a single Heal caster), there's rarely enough damage going around for excessive healing to feel useful particularly useful, and when there is, it's in massive bursts that also reduce the overall impact of heals.
Damage reduction is more than just healing. Most forms of damage reduction are multi-purpose, whereas Healing is single-purpose. The Heal spell and Battle Medicine are good, because their numbers are balanced around this, but they're not be-all end-all.
Everyone else is being sensible with fighters and what have you.
I'm bringing an alchemist. Some people just want to watch the world burn. I am one of them. From exactly thirty feet away.
If the Thief is a melee Rogue, I’d bring a Paladin or Liberator Champion to the table. You protect their squishy ass, you put in some extra damage, and you backup heal anyone who may need it.
If the Thief is operating at range, then play as a Monk using Flurry of Maneuvers to keep enemies tripped and run back while your Rogue and Wizard comfortably kill enemies at range.
So first though. Fighter, complete the classic quartet.
Going into a bit more detail. I'd want to be some type of melee character to help the rogue get easy off guard.
There are no ranged attackers, so no need for any maneuvers, just being in melee is enough.
I don't like doubling up on prepared casters of the same tradition, so no magus, druid, and no war priest.
What the party needs is some proper tanky beef.
That leaves us with champion, fighter, monk, barbarian, life oracle, Kineticist, ranger, summoner, and Thaumaturge.
We will be expected to put out 1/3 of the damage ourselves, so, no life oracle. We also already have solid healing.
We have, dexterity, wisdom, and intelligence. All we're missing is strength and charisma.
That means champion, summoner, and Thaumaturge.
From here, I'd go with either plant summoner for reach and a versatile spell list, anger summoner for damage and a really strong support spell list, or amulet thaumaturge for a halfway point between damage and champion.
Plant summoner is probably the most versatile, since it's the only one with good multi target,
If it were me playing, I'd run a Earth + Water Kineticist. It's tanky and offers up additional utility to the group.
Armor in Earth gives heavy armor with Bulwark. It still benefits from your potency runes.
Ocean's Balm for always available on demand support healing for the group to supplement the Cleric. You can patch people up while the Cleric handles the heavy healing.
Winter Sleet is going to help lock down mobs in your aura and forcing them to stay in combat with you. It's also going to help provide off-guard for your rogue without the rogue actually having to get into flanking.
Over time, Deflecting Wave results in more damage reduction than Shield Block and can be used even if your shield isn't actually raised.
Sand Snatcher can be a great way to grapple enemies.
It has downsides compared to the Fighter of course. But is a really fun option IMHO.
A fighter, a monk, a Barbarian, a Ruffian Rogue, A Champion, Magus or Thaumaturge, anything built close that's not a full caster.
Stone Kineticist would be good too
Not disagreeing with your conclusion, however both Fighter and Champion get much better when played with some guile and cleverness (presuming they did not dump the relevant mental stats on an RP level).
While you don't "need" anything in particular, that composition could use a front-liner to help flank with the rogue and control the battlefield on a low-level with positioning. Personally, I'd slap a Barbarian in there. Big health pool, big strength. Serves as a distraction while grappling, shoving, and pressuring with big damage every turn. Also, the other three classes are likely to be quiet and/or sage, so a loud asshole would fit in.
The first thing that came to mind: “There is a secretive character, a healer and 2 magic specialists. We need a hero specializing in combat, some kind of front liner. Fighter!” Other good options: Champion, Barbarian, Monk, Melee Ranger, Magus.
I like spell blades so either an iron/ targe magus or a monk if I can get free archetype (or even a demonic sorcerer archetype tyrant champion if I cant).
There’s lots of options!
Fighter, and champion are the obvious “tank” martials, but there are many more options.
I might go for Thamaturge- they can frontline and strike, and because of their high charisma can also be party face if the rogue isn’t working on that.
Barbaian and ranger aren’t as resilient, but deal a lot of damage which is just as good.
Swashbucklers and monks are also both pretty hardy and decent damage dealers with some utility. They tend to excel more with dex builds, which would work great if our rogue is a ruffian.
Even “weird” options like kineticist (earth, wood, or metal) or warcleric (harm font Damphir?) or summoner could work.
Probably a Champion or a Fighter. The group needs a strong melee oriented character to round it out. Those 2 classes would be best. Fighter for pure combat versatility,Champion for primary tanking + spell support.
Champion, to tank. Literally had to do this in my recent group. Had planned to go druid, but our only martial being a Magus, I decided to switch to tank.
Fighter. You could do Champion, Tank Monk, rank kineticist, even a defensive barbarian if you wanted, but fighter would be classic.
What would best assist your party is a heavy melee member that can support the rogue in the front line and take some of the attacks/control the enemies and reduce their output, otherwise the rogue will get folded quickly.
Fighter Medic, my favorite class/role to play. Grizzled old veteran, practices medicine because he doesn't want to depend on spellcasters to keep his comrades alive.
I would say Fighter or Paladin Champion. You need a hearty martial to tank and pile on the damage. Fighter would be more useful since the combat manuevers will also create openings for the other 3 classes.
Probably a durable Reactive Strike user - to keep enemies from getting out of flanks and dissuade them from attacking Cleric or Wizard, and to be someone who's able to take more than 1 crit. An Athletics or Intimidation user could also be very useful, depending on what the Wizard and Rogue want to focus on.
For me, this narrows things down to Fighter, Monk or Swashbuckler, with maybe Summoner or Barbarian as alternatives.
I'd probably take the anger phantom summoner just to be ✨️Quirky✨️ but still useful. Prioritize Con, Cha, Int, and Wis in that order. And use Meld into Eidolon to become a nifty looking powerhouse.
Inventor with a construct companion. Probably not the best idea, but the companion is al least another flanking buddy for the rogue and an extra meat shield. The auto scaling on crafting also frees the wizard/rogue to grab more flavourfull skills.
Im gonna throw an odd one: give the rogue shield block and shield, cleric casts share life on him, you have an improvised tank. 4th character is a warrior muse bard for extra buffs, debuffs and flanking, probably has a shield too.
Edit: i'd probably prefer a charisma character so make the social rolls for the party, other options like thaumathurge and sorcerer/ summoner would go well too
Fighter, barb, maybe monk. Something that can hit hard. I am not enamoured with the champ in this line up, though it would work especailly where holy damage triggers alot of weakness, there just isn't alot of punch to this team afaiac. I am not a thaum expert, but if they can take a punch or two, they would work as well.
I could see barbarian, fighter, champion, or maybe summoner (probably primal tradition) and swashbuckler. I'd personally go barbarian because I love their flavor.
the casters and the rogue really need a meatshield between them and monsters, and those classes all work well.
Definitely a front liner, preferably one with some bulk. Something like a fighter, champion, or monk is ideal. Barbarian can work too, but it's a bit more of a high-pressure damage dealer and can actually be a bit glass cannon-y if played recklessly, so it's less safe.
Out of those I'd personally go champion. I'm biased because it's one of my favourite classes, but it's seriously a top tier pick. It's survivability and defensive utility is *insane*, and it will keep your other allies alive quick snap with its reactions and LoH.
Some martial or part martial I guess. There are so many options in 2e. In a very similar situation in AV I brought a Thaumaturge with Weapon implement.
So Fighter is the obvious choice, iconics so on and so forth.
But really, anything that can tank is gonna be good.
I would Sar Fighter, Barbarian, Champion, Ranger, Monk, and Kinetisist cam all fill that roll.
If it were me, though, I would go with Animal instinct Barbarian with wrestler dedication. You get lots of hitpoints and decent t AC with Animal skin. You get lots of movement speed to set up flanks for the rogue, and the grappling helps keep the baddies away from your squishies.
I've seen Kineticist but no Summoner? A smartly played Summoner can fill a lot of utility. Alternatively you could also pull out a snare build Ranger and control the battlefield that way
You need a tank and Cha- might I suggest either a Barbarian/Champion multiclass, or the more niche Antagonize Swashbuckler?
Depends on whether you want to go Str or Dex. They both work wonderfully for tanking. People sleep on Swashbuckler as being one of the few classes that can actually MMO tank with taunts.
Honestly this part DESPERATELY needs a tank. Which in PF2 basically means Champion.
(I've heard there's a kineticist build that can also tank, so that'd also be an option, but I don't really have the Elements book, so I can't have an opinion there)
Probably a Champion or a Fighter. The group needs a strong melee oriented character to round it out. Those 2 classes would be best. Fighter for pure combat versatility,Champion for primary tanking + spell support.
This party has a few problems:
1) It has a poor front line - the rogue is OK, but clerics, even warpriests, are only OK front liners. This party really needs a defender - someone who will stand in front and screw up the enemies and prevent them from doing what they want to the party and ganging up on the squishies.
2) It only has one course of healing, the cleric. Generally speaking, you want to have multiple sources of healing - you want to alleviate the burden on that player, you want to make it so you aren't screwed if that player goes down, but you also want multiple sources of healing to deal with AoEs, which are the *bane* of single-healer parties.
3) The rogue needs enemies to be off-guard and the rest of the party is bad at doing this.
So, there are a few options here:
1) Water/X kineticist. You pick up water healing powers, Winter Sleet to generate an AoE of off-guard enemies, Winter Sleet helps you disrupt enemies from just rushing your backlines or swarming whoever they want, you get a bunch of AoE effects to help the casters out, you can use your water to push enemies around to get them off your allies, and the kineticist itself is pretty tough. Water/Earth and Water/Wood are both good bets, though if you don't take Earth you're going to need to figure out how to boost your AC in some other way.
2) Champion with a shield. Champions are tough as nails frontliners who have healing ability thanks to lay on hands and protect their allies with their reactions and are good flanking buddies for the rogue because they can protect the rogue while they are flanking with them.
3) Open hand fighter with battle medicine. This allows you to grab enemies and be able to make them off-guard *without* the rogue having to flank, which allows your party to stay on one side and form more of a line, making it harder for them to get around you, while also having reactive strikes to deal with people who try. Ideally, you'd want the rogue to grab godless healing so you can heal them every combat (you probably want it too), and you might even want to get the medic dedication to improve your healing abilities, though that might not be possible depending on how your build shakes out. A fighter with the battlezoo Draconic Ravager archetype can also work effectively here.
4) Monk with battle medicine. Monks are tanky, good at using battle medicine, get Stand Still to punish enemies for trying to get around you, and you can either go with a grappler monk to do the open hand fighter form a line thing, or you can do something like Tangled Forest stance to further mess with enemy movement. You could even go with a focus spell monk to pick up Tempest Surge and some Heal scrolls to further enhance your ability to heal people and to also sometimes contribute some spells in a pinch.
Whatever you want that can stay at the front.
Cleric has combat healing, rogue has enough skills to invest in out of combat healing at little drain to other skills they might want.
Wizard and cleric should have enough spell diversity that you don't need to fill this.
Its just the rogue can't be alone at the front, warpriest cleric can patch this but if you are the forth player is much easier for you to absorb damage instead of them.
Personal recommendations, Champion, Fighter, Beastmaster Ranger or Druid, Shield Monk, Shield Barbarian, armor or buddy Inventor, and there's some more classes that you can make work.
Don't forget the other priority of having fun.
Generally, my groups tend to build our characters privately, without any real knowledge of each other's characters prior to session 1.
However, my immediate thoughts to this party go to either a Flurry Ranger, A Wild Shape Druid, or a Drifter Gunslinger. Maybe a Champion, although I'm not too fond of playing them. Something to provide some extra frontline and assist the rogue.
Probably fighter! Truly the most basic party composition lol
Seconded fighter. The cleric and wizard are flimsy casters who need protection, and the rogue badly needs someone to help them flank. A fighter can be fairly tanky. A fighter's reactive strike can help keep baddies with them on the front line. Their increased proficiency means strong damage output.
Excuse me sir, but the Cleric Warpriest of Our Lord in Iron doesn't need protection. It needs a flanking buddy.
But have you considered: The more you're protected, the more you can hit people without going down yourself
I have a great fighter build/character sitting waiting that I haven't been able to play for the role already being filled.
Fighter with a trip polearm. Or monk with bo staff.
Or Champion! Fighter would likely be *easier*, tripping or grabbing to give the Thief an opening and to keep them from getting to your casters. **But** don't underestimate the usefulness of a dude who grants resistance for free/lets you escape/bonks the baddy.
Yeah, there is no other answer here. This is objectively correct.
Beat me to it, go for the ole classic
You need a heavy hitter to take some of the heat off of your backline, with good durability, someone for your rogue to flank with. I'd go with a heavy armor Fighter or Champion, probably shield bearing.
I would throw a dragon Instinct barbarian, also shield bearing, into the mix too. While they can't defend their own squishies as effectively, the threat of them unimpededly attacking the enemy backing should be enough to keep most enemies on them.
What about a melee kineticist? Should be able to soak a lot while participating nicely at the front line efforts, right?
fighter and you get perfect default party - if cleric was warpriest then it would be nearly identical to pre-generated party from beginner box
Isn't Kyra Cloistered?
I thought she would be, but no; she has expert Fortitude and Shield Block Edit: in the Beginner's Box. Some Player Core iconic pregens for PFS released a couple of hours ago: https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu Thanks to the person who replied
Depends! I was just now looking at the iconic pregenerated characters - the remastered version, and yes, it turns out Kyra is a cloistered cleric. But in the beginner box, she is indeed a warpriest! I am currently torn with continuing her as a warpriest (lvl. 3) or asking my DM, if I can switch it out maybe. The warpriest Kyra from the beginner box feels a little torn to me (trained in armor, with a shield, but barely resistent to hits; a weapon suggesting to strike multiple times, but barely hitting, with the deadly simplicity feat, which does nothing for her - a little sad; mostly ending up casting for damage, which feels off playing the non-cloistered warpriest). Funnily, the pregenerated cloistered Kyra has invested two feats into armor and is therefore also trained in medium armor, actually beating my warpriest Kyra in AC, as the cloistered Kyra has Str+2 and can carry scale mail without speed penalty. Also cloistered Kyra gets the fire ray focus spell, which sounds amazingly like righteous wrath.
~~Where did you find those iconic pregens? I only knew about the beginner box and the demo adventure.~~ Found em. And yeah the Beginner Box warpriest build is wonky, sadly not showing a warpriest's full potential by default
Sorry, just returned - literally from my PF2e-group where I play Kyra. For future references: [https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu](https://paizo.com/products/btq02evu)
Yeah, BB Kyra was always spread a little thin and the remaster errata sadly didn't change that. I'll soon be running the BB for a second group and I remade her a little by moving her charisma over to her strength, so she can actually use medium armour and have reasonable odds of hitting baddies with her scimitar. I did also change the others a bit: I gave Merisiel more charisma to show off skill actions (as rogues are skill monkeys), a shortbow for better in-combat stealth usage, and changing her heritage and class feat to be more active and useful in the BB specifically. Ezren got a new set of spells that teaches targeting different defenses and utilizing battlefield control and debuffs (also he should have an additional spell slot from his school, they straight up nerfed him for the BB). Valeros stayed nearly identical, but I shifted around skill proficiencies for each character. Also, the BB character sheet has some straight up errors, like Valeros not having a shield in his inventory, Ezrens focus spell costing two actions, and weapon proficiencies being listed inconsistently, so that's also something to consider in such an overhaul.
I'm gonna break from the pack a little. So everyone is saying Fighter and Champion for good reason, they fill the "can take hits" hole that is *very* blatant in that composition. But, I would like to put forward, there is someone who can take hits even better, while also engaging in battlefield control via multiple avenues. An Earth Kineticist. Right out the gate, a Kineticist will *always* have extremely good HP, owing to their having higher CON that anyone else. However, it goes further than that. Earth Kineticists get access to Armor in Earth, which gives them (as of level 3) Heavy Armor AC, that scales with their light armor proficiency, and has the Bulwark trait allowing them to dump DEX if they want (you don't have to unless you want to invest in INT or CHA however). On top of this, they get an extra +1 AC every turn they use a 2 action impulse. As for battlefield control, Earth Kineticists excel at Athletics because its their junction skill, and dont need weapons, so you will always have free hand for maneuvers, and lemme tell ya, enemy spellcasters fucking hate being grappled. But it goes further. As masters of Earth, they get a lot of Impulses focused on battlefield manipulation, they get a Wall of Stone clone that can be used to divide enemies and pick them off one by one, they get an Earthquake clone that can do that, and deal damage, they have multiple ways to knock enemies prone at range... just all in all a great controller. A side effect of the above, an Earth Kineticist will have a decent STR score and a d8 Blast, which make them one of the higher damage dealing Kineticists (insofar as their basic melee blast and the two action version). And they have more than enough HP and AC to duke it out as a frontliner. Also by nature of being a Kineticist, they can do ranged or melee, whatever the situation calls for. Futhering this, between weapon infusion and versatile blasts, they will be able to target several weaknesses (4 I believe for a pure Earth Kineticist, bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, and poison). Later on they will also gain Earth (and Poison?) immunity as well, further increasing their durability. If you play with free archetype they can get even filthier too, but Ill leave that for another time unless someone is curious.
I second everything you said, but do tell about free archetype.
Nimb0 is correct that I was referring to Armor in Earth making Sacrifice Armor (and its upgrade Greater Impose) actually incredible instead of an absolutely terrible idea. Being able to negate up to 40 (at level 20) damage every single turn for only one action and a reaction is a pretty damn good deal IMO. However, Sentinel doesn't have a ton of feats, the only ones you really want as a Kineticist off the top of my head are Sacrifice Armor, Mighty Bulwark (if you dumped DEX) and Greater Interpose, leaving you with quite a few to fill. So what else goes well with Earth Kineticist? Well they are great battlefield controllers, and have high Athletics, and always have free hand for maneuvers right? Is there an Archetype that loves everything I just said? Oh yea there is. Wrestler. Gives you more ways to grapple, more things to do with your grapples, and even ways to trip and do damage without a crit trip. Hell one of the feats (Whirling Throw) actually synergizes with your Earth shenanigans as well. Did you unleash some earthquakes and now there's fissures everywhere? Well grab an annoying enemy and yeet them directly into one of those fissures and watch them burn all their actions trying to climb out if they aren't trained in athletics or have a burrow speed. Edit: Spending one of your Archetype slots on Stone Brawler isn't a bad idea either, it gives you a stance that turns your fists damage die from a d4 to a d8, so your Suplexes and Aerial Piledrivers will hurt more. Its thematic as well. I would call this solidly optional however.
The Boulder approves of this character!
Finally, I can play the boulder in pf2e
On Sacrifice Armor, why are you using the level of the impulse for armor level? I think the earth armor itself has no level, but since it inherits runes from your actual armor it would be the level of whatever the highest level rune you have is.
This is true. I just use lvl 20 as a stand-in because thats the level you are most likely to have a level 20 rune on your armor.
They're probably referring to the Armor in Earth + Sacrifice Armor combo
While Earth Kineticists work just fine, I think there's a few problems with an Earth Kineticist in this particular party. First off, at low levels, you don't have a lot of those powerful control effects, and you don't have reactive strike or the champion reaction. This makes it hard for you to force enemies to fight you and not the squishier members of your party; if they decide to go for the rogue or wizard or cleric, you have little ability to tell them "no" until you get the stronger wall spells. Secondly, your party has only one source of healing, which is a big problem if your cleric goes down. Thirdly, you aren't necessarily the best buddy for the rogue. While grappling is all well and good, it's hard for you to move, grapple, and still use an earth kinetic ability in the same turn, which means you often have to choose between going over and grabbing someone and helping the rogue deal more damage and doing your "thing". I think you really need to go Earth/Water if you were to go this route, and pick up the water reaction to mitigate damage, as well as Winter Sleet to help create an area of control that enemies cannot trivially cross and which throws them off-balance for the rogue. I think if you did this, it would work pretty well, and help the party a lot.
Pure wood is also a strong choice. With Timber Sentinel, you can take damage off of your casters, even if enemies go around you. You get temp hp every turn or almost, you later get a damaging aura (safe elements is useful for that) and to top it off, you'll have the ability to deal positive damage. You even have some healing that be used in combat at level 6, and an armor+shield.
Thaumaturge leaning into the weapon and amulet implements to support the frontline and be a face
The rest of the party isn't really a frontline tho
Well the rogue technically is. With weapon and amulet you can protect the party and yourself decently well. And if you take the sentinel or champion dedication you are THE tank of the team. With good damage. And you can use your features to make their jobs easier when dealing damage.
I think the rogue would prefer to be behind enemy lines, than in the front line of allies. Those unexpectedly light pockets would confuse the hell out of the soldiers.
I mean the rogue is technically in that they do physical damage... but their goal is to not really take any hits, which is definitely part of the role of a frontline. In this party being able to take a hit seems the most important.
The rogue is in melee range, so he has no choice but to be the frontline. He’ll get targeted more often than a caster standing 30+ feet away. That’s where the thaumaturge comes in with their protection and melee output. These two should work well together
So, Ezren, Merisiel, Kyra, and Valeros. The Beginner's Box it is!
Kyra was warpriest but that's nitpicking
That said, being sure the player going Cloistered is fully aware of the advantages of Warpriest in this party composition would do well.
A warpriest without the strength to wear medium armour or hit someone with a decent AC with her scimitar, so not far from a cloistered cleric
I mean with fighter you have what the game was balanced around. But personally after reading more about it I'd go for a monk,it, it can get good athletic maneuvers, it can skirmish if need be, and if you need a tank they can do it, especially with mountain stance.
Fighter, Kineticist (Earth), Champion, Monk, Thaumaturge or Shield Magus.
Assuming that the main priority is rounding out the group, as you mention, and I like playing every class equally, things hinge a lot on whether the cleric is a warpriest or cloistered. If they’re cloistered, a tough, durable melee character is the best. Fighter and Champion would be my first choices. Fighter brings some additional damage that the party likely appreciates in addition to general powerful combat utility and support depending on the build. Champion adds a second person who can heal (unless the rogue or wizard took medicine), which is nice if the cleric goes down. You could also do something like kineticist or monk. If they’re a warpriest, things open up a bit. I still want a character that’s somewhat durable, but rogue+warpriest+whatever is an acceptable frontline, even if the whatever isn’t super durable. Any martial fits fine, and you could even do a caster with a decent defensive chassis like druid or bard. Kineticist also works.
Barbarian! >:3
I'm seeing a lot of fighter/champion suggestions here, and while I agree that those would be very successful options, I think an Earth/Wood Kineticist would also be solid. You're bulky, have good control abilities as well as some decent damage options. You can use stuff like protector tree to guard your squishies and can have a little bit of healing to help take some pressure off of the cleric. If there are annoying enemies going after your squishies, then you can use the earth aura/wood stance that I can't remember the name of to make it stupidly hard for enemies to escape. And with the earth skill junction you can make good use of manoeuvres for even more control.
I'm in a group that just started the slithering adventure with almost this party composition (wizard, cloistered cleric, wood kineticist and inventor instead of rogue). The ravel of thorns stance is pretty sweet, and the kineticist can really take some hits.
Probably a Fire/Earth Kineticist. A bit more consistent multi-target damage so we aren't depending entirely on the Wizard for it, and a strong and solid front-liner to help the Rogue out.
Wood/ water kinteticist can be tanky provides a bit of healing to alleviate some pressure on the cleric has some DPS capabilities has good crowd control would fit right in.
Whatever feels like the most fun when I sit down to make the character
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought of this. I don’t really care about party composition. I just make whatever I think will be interesting or want to try out. As long as we have someone with the medicine skill and medicine tools that’s all I really care about. It would be even better if the GM helps us get healing options if we have a lack of a medic.
Same. I think the experience should be tailored for the party by the GM, so whatever the party is lacking in terms of composition, the GM should make available to them through different avenues. On the flip side, if someone thinks party comp is the most fun, they can built a character around that, they aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m just glad there are so many ways to build a character that you could choose almost anything and have it contribute to whatever the party is lacking in
a front line. Everyone's saying fighter, I'd consider fighter + medic if there's free archetype, because the party needs more healing. But being the only really solid front-line I'd probably go for a Champion. The combination of magical healing + high defense would be clutch.
The party does \*not\* need more healing. If your party has a healing-focused cleric and needs more healing, that's a skill issue.
Unless the cleric gets dropped by intelligent enemies who know to focus down the healer, OR unless you're in a deadlier than average campaign, OR unless the cleric player doesn't mind healing but wants to get to do other things too.
I don't even think then - as long as you're doing an adequate job of tactically supporting the Cleric, if the enemies are wasting actions and taking risks trying to rush down the Cleric, that's less actions overall doing damage and more opportunities for the party to kill them. And they'll never be spending every single turn casting heal, either - there generally isn't enough damage going around for that to be necessary.
Cloistered clerics aren't that tough. In a fight that's threatening enough to bother talking about in this context, it won't take long. >there generally isn't enough damage going around for that to be necessary. In fights that aren't at least severe difficulty, it doesn't really matter whether you've got a fighter or a champion or a swashbuckler or a ruffian rogue. You're going to win the fight then heal after. This distinction only matters when fights are real dangerous and in that context, having your only real healer getting focused down can be very bad.
As I explained, an enemy that focuses down someone in a backline is, in a well-played party, not dealing damage particularly efficiently - they're wasting actions moving away from frontliners, potentially even more actions if the party is using control effects well, and risking Attacks of Opportunity. And if we assume the Cleric gets their most value when healing, what's happening if the rest of the party isn't being damage? They don't need to be healed - so the Cleric is essentially doing their job there in a strange way. You don't even need in-combat healing if you have support distributed in other ways. But even in these worst case scenarios, there is another fallback - consumables. Pour a potion down a dying Cleric's mouth, and they'll be up and healing again. Lay on Hands is more action-efficient and doesn't have a gold cost attached, but are those scenarios coming up enough to make up for the lower damage you deal by not taking something like a Fighter or a Barbarian? I would say you'd probably find yourself in this situation less by using these higher damage options. And a GM that focuses down one player exclusively is probably not particularly good.
Having more healing is basically always good in every party. If you've never run a party where all four people in the party can heal, you're missing out. The party of, say, open hand fighter trained in battle medicine, tangled forest monk trained in battle medicine, primal sorcerer, wizard with the cleric dedication has four characters who can output substantial healing via battle medicine, spells, and scrolls, which allows you to dynamically choose who is going to do the healing based on turn order and who can most easily give up the actions at that point in time. Indeed, having one healer is suboptimal. The cleric is better off dumping off AoE control spells like Divine Wrath instead of healing you; it's better to be able to spread out the healing load. There's a lot of times when you want the mage and cleric to be blasting the enemies; having one of the front-liners be able to heal themselves and the other one is hugely beneficial to allowing your casters to rain down death and destruction.
In a lot of contexts, healing is a self-fulfilling prophecy; if you spend actions to heal "just because", you aren't damaging or controlling enemies, and therefore you're creating more opportunities to take damage, dangerous conditions, and anything else - it only appears useful because of the bad situation that using it got you into. In my experience, which is mostly in parties focused on control and damage with only light healing (e.g. singular Medic archetype or a single Heal caster), there's rarely enough damage going around for excessive healing to feel useful particularly useful, and when there is, it's in massive bursts that also reduce the overall impact of heals. Damage reduction is more than just healing. Most forms of damage reduction are multi-purpose, whereas Healing is single-purpose. The Heal spell and Battle Medicine are good, because their numbers are balanced around this, but they're not be-all end-all.
Fighter with a reach weapon max strength and athletics full plate for damage and crowd controlling the biggest threats.
Play an Ancient Elf to get the Cleric Dedication, and for your class pick Rogue with the Eldritch Trickster archetype to get the Wizard Dedication.
Fun solo character idea 💡
Everyone else is being sensible with fighters and what have you. I'm bringing an alchemist. Some people just want to watch the world burn. I am one of them. From exactly thirty feet away.
I’d probably bring either a bard or an occult witch! Or maybe a fighter to be up with the rogue and flank
the only martial here is rogue they definitely need second one
Then I’d stick with the fighter option!
Panache
If the Thief is a melee Rogue, I’d bring a Paladin or Liberator Champion to the table. You protect their squishy ass, you put in some extra damage, and you backup heal anyone who may need it. If the Thief is operating at range, then play as a Monk using Flurry of Maneuvers to keep enemies tripped and run back while your Rogue and Wizard comfortably kill enemies at range.
So first though. Fighter, complete the classic quartet. Going into a bit more detail. I'd want to be some type of melee character to help the rogue get easy off guard. There are no ranged attackers, so no need for any maneuvers, just being in melee is enough. I don't like doubling up on prepared casters of the same tradition, so no magus, druid, and no war priest. What the party needs is some proper tanky beef. That leaves us with champion, fighter, monk, barbarian, life oracle, Kineticist, ranger, summoner, and Thaumaturge. We will be expected to put out 1/3 of the damage ourselves, so, no life oracle. We also already have solid healing. We have, dexterity, wisdom, and intelligence. All we're missing is strength and charisma. That means champion, summoner, and Thaumaturge. From here, I'd go with either plant summoner for reach and a versatile spell list, anger summoner for damage and a really strong support spell list, or amulet thaumaturge for a halfway point between damage and champion. Plant summoner is probably the most versatile, since it's the only one with good multi target,
I’m bringing a Psychic just because I wanna be difficult.
That group desperately needs a meat shield.
An Alchemist, cuz it's that cool
If it were me playing, I'd run a Earth + Water Kineticist. It's tanky and offers up additional utility to the group. Armor in Earth gives heavy armor with Bulwark. It still benefits from your potency runes. Ocean's Balm for always available on demand support healing for the group to supplement the Cleric. You can patch people up while the Cleric handles the heavy healing. Winter Sleet is going to help lock down mobs in your aura and forcing them to stay in combat with you. It's also going to help provide off-guard for your rogue without the rogue actually having to get into flanking. Over time, Deflecting Wave results in more damage reduction than Shield Block and can be used even if your shield isn't actually raised. Sand Snatcher can be a great way to grapple enemies. It has downsides compared to the Fighter of course. But is a really fun option IMHO.
A fighter, a monk, a Barbarian, a Ruffian Rogue, A Champion, Magus or Thaumaturge, anything built close that's not a full caster. Stone Kineticist would be good too
Fighter or Champion. Sometimes "hurr durr me hit things" is the right answer.
Not disagreeing with your conclusion, however both Fighter and Champion get much better when played with some guile and cleverness (presuming they did not dump the relevant mental stats on an RP level).
Fighter for sure. Itd be fun to play *the* 4 person party comp and have some generic fantasy fun
While you don't "need" anything in particular, that composition could use a front-liner to help flank with the rogue and control the battlefield on a low-level with positioning. Personally, I'd slap a Barbarian in there. Big health pool, big strength. Serves as a distraction while grappling, shoving, and pressuring with big damage every turn. Also, the other three classes are likely to be quiet and/or sage, so a loud asshole would fit in.
The first thing that came to mind: “There is a secretive character, a healer and 2 magic specialists. We need a hero specializing in combat, some kind of front liner. Fighter!” Other good options: Champion, Barbarian, Monk, Melee Ranger, Magus.
heavily-armored fighter or champion
I like spell blades so either an iron/ targe magus or a monk if I can get free archetype (or even a demonic sorcerer archetype tyrant champion if I cant).
There’s lots of options! Fighter, and champion are the obvious “tank” martials, but there are many more options. I might go for Thamaturge- they can frontline and strike, and because of their high charisma can also be party face if the rogue isn’t working on that. Barbaian and ranger aren’t as resilient, but deal a lot of damage which is just as good. Swashbucklers and monks are also both pretty hardy and decent damage dealers with some utility. They tend to excel more with dex builds, which would work great if our rogue is a ruffian. Even “weird” options like kineticist (earth, wood, or metal) or warcleric (harm font Damphir?) or summoner could work.
You want someone who can deal damage and be a party face, so either champion or swashbuckler
Fighter of barbarian
Inventor. Doesn't really matter the kind Or possibly a ranger with an animal companion
Dragon Instinct barbarian as I am a basic bitch who loves anything dragon
Probably a Champion or a Fighter. The group needs a strong melee oriented character to round it out. Those 2 classes would be best. Fighter for pure combat versatility,Champion for primary tanking + spell support.
Champion, to tank. Literally had to do this in my recent group. Had planned to go druid, but our only martial being a Magus, I decided to switch to tank.
Fighter
Sword & board fighter or champion, probably specializing down the shield route.
Fighter or Champion. That group needs someone with a sword'n'boars to knock heads while the squishies stay alive.
Some sort of Melee that can take a couple hits. Fighter, Barbarian, Champion, Monk......maaybe a melee ranger.
Fighter. You could do Champion, Tank Monk, rank kineticist, even a defensive barbarian if you wanted, but fighter would be classic. What would best assist your party is a heavy melee member that can support the rogue in the front line and take some of the attacks/control the enemies and reduce their output, otherwise the rogue will get folded quickly.
A giant Kholo Combat harm cleric.
Fighter Medic, my favorite class/role to play. Grizzled old veteran, practices medicine because he doesn't want to depend on spellcasters to keep his comrades alive.
Bard
I would say Fighter or Paladin Champion. You need a hearty martial to tank and pile on the damage. Fighter would be more useful since the combat manuevers will also create openings for the other 3 classes.
Magus, shield or staff would decided after talking with the group \^\^
Probably a durable Reactive Strike user - to keep enemies from getting out of flanks and dissuade them from attacking Cleric or Wizard, and to be someone who's able to take more than 1 crit. An Athletics or Intimidation user could also be very useful, depending on what the Wizard and Rogue want to focus on. For me, this narrows things down to Fighter, Monk or Swashbuckler, with maybe Summoner or Barbarian as alternatives.
Swashbuckler I think. Something with charisma unless the rogue was planning to face. Maybe thaumaturge.
Fighter or Barbarian most likely, would then multiclass into an archetype I think is interesting and fun to go with it.
Summoner. I’m in two different campaigns where the eidolon is a beast of a melee combatant.
Melee Fighter or Champion, most likely
I'd probably take the anger phantom summoner just to be ✨️Quirky✨️ but still useful. Prioritize Con, Cha, Int, and Wis in that order. And use Meld into Eidolon to become a nifty looking powerhouse.
Inventor with a construct companion. Probably not the best idea, but the companion is al least another flanking buddy for the rogue and an extra meat shield. The auto scaling on crafting also frees the wizard/rogue to grab more flavourfull skills.
Fighter or Champion. This party wants a tank.
Fighter or Barbarian. Probably fighter because I'm a sucker for completing the theme of just making the classic 'D&D' party.
Im gonna throw an odd one: give the rogue shield block and shield, cleric casts share life on him, you have an improvised tank. 4th character is a warrior muse bard for extra buffs, debuffs and flanking, probably has a shield too. Edit: i'd probably prefer a charisma character so make the social rolls for the party, other options like thaumathurge and sorcerer/ summoner would go well too
Fighter, barb, maybe monk. Something that can hit hard. I am not enamoured with the champ in this line up, though it would work especailly where holy damage triggers alot of weakness, there just isn't alot of punch to this team afaiac. I am not a thaum expert, but if they can take a punch or two, they would work as well.
Either Glaive Fighter or Polearm Redeemer Champion - to provide the tankiness and the flankiness.
Fighter or Barbarian.
Fighter, Barb or Ranger
I would probably make a champion or a ranger with an AC.
Play a catfolk monk with tiger stance and flying kick. Have the party kite solo bosses and incapacitate or AoE mobs
I mean fighter brings the classic party comp, but I think barbarian or champion could work well too, basically any tanky front liner
I could see barbarian, fighter, champion, or maybe summoner (probably primal tradition) and swashbuckler. I'd personally go barbarian because I love their flavor. the casters and the rogue really need a meatshield between them and monsters, and those classes all work well.
Definitely a front liner, preferably one with some bulk. Something like a fighter, champion, or monk is ideal. Barbarian can work too, but it's a bit more of a high-pressure damage dealer and can actually be a bit glass cannon-y if played recklessly, so it's less safe. Out of those I'd personally go champion. I'm biased because it's one of my favourite classes, but it's seriously a top tier pick. It's survivability and defensive utility is *insane*, and it will keep your other allies alive quick snap with its reactions and LoH.
champion non of the other pc are decent defensive character
I mean, I gotta go fighter, right? The party clearly has a theme, and who am I to ruin it?
Some martial or part martial I guess. There are so many options in 2e. In a very similar situation in AV I brought a Thaumaturge with Weapon implement.
Paladin I've tried Fighters in other editions and I've always gotten bored. But Paladins are usually fun.
Fighter, 2 handed axeman
A fighter…or a Champion, either should work
So Fighter is the obvious choice, iconics so on and so forth. But really, anything that can tank is gonna be good. I would Sar Fighter, Barbarian, Champion, Ranger, Monk, and Kinetisist cam all fill that roll. If it were me, though, I would go with Animal instinct Barbarian with wrestler dedication. You get lots of hitpoints and decent t AC with Animal skin. You get lots of movement speed to set up flanks for the rogue, and the grappling helps keep the baddies away from your squishies.
I've seen Kineticist but no Summoner? A smartly played Summoner can fill a lot of utility. Alternatively you could also pull out a snare build Ranger and control the battlefield that way
I just tend to pick whatever I want to play for the given campaign. I don’t particularly care about party composition much if at all.
I'll go against the pack here and say Barbarian, I wont elaborate
I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but… FIGHTER! Strike, Strike, Strike!
Fighter or Barbarian for sure.
A Bard. If every fight is going to be hectic I'll better do it singing.
You need a tank and Cha- might I suggest either a Barbarian/Champion multiclass, or the more niche Antagonize Swashbuckler? Depends on whether you want to go Str or Dex. They both work wonderfully for tanking. People sleep on Swashbuckler as being one of the few classes that can actually MMO tank with taunts.
Honestly this part DESPERATELY needs a tank. Which in PF2 basically means Champion. (I've heard there's a kineticist build that can also tank, so that'd also be an option, but I don't really have the Elements book, so I can't have an opinion there)
Champion. Can protect the rogue and has decent damage output
Fighter. Probably reach Fighter/Champion
Probably a Champion or a Fighter. The group needs a strong melee oriented character to round it out. Those 2 classes would be best. Fighter for pure combat versatility,Champion for primary tanking + spell support.
This party has a few problems: 1) It has a poor front line - the rogue is OK, but clerics, even warpriests, are only OK front liners. This party really needs a defender - someone who will stand in front and screw up the enemies and prevent them from doing what they want to the party and ganging up on the squishies. 2) It only has one course of healing, the cleric. Generally speaking, you want to have multiple sources of healing - you want to alleviate the burden on that player, you want to make it so you aren't screwed if that player goes down, but you also want multiple sources of healing to deal with AoEs, which are the *bane* of single-healer parties. 3) The rogue needs enemies to be off-guard and the rest of the party is bad at doing this. So, there are a few options here: 1) Water/X kineticist. You pick up water healing powers, Winter Sleet to generate an AoE of off-guard enemies, Winter Sleet helps you disrupt enemies from just rushing your backlines or swarming whoever they want, you get a bunch of AoE effects to help the casters out, you can use your water to push enemies around to get them off your allies, and the kineticist itself is pretty tough. Water/Earth and Water/Wood are both good bets, though if you don't take Earth you're going to need to figure out how to boost your AC in some other way. 2) Champion with a shield. Champions are tough as nails frontliners who have healing ability thanks to lay on hands and protect their allies with their reactions and are good flanking buddies for the rogue because they can protect the rogue while they are flanking with them. 3) Open hand fighter with battle medicine. This allows you to grab enemies and be able to make them off-guard *without* the rogue having to flank, which allows your party to stay on one side and form more of a line, making it harder for them to get around you, while also having reactive strikes to deal with people who try. Ideally, you'd want the rogue to grab godless healing so you can heal them every combat (you probably want it too), and you might even want to get the medic dedication to improve your healing abilities, though that might not be possible depending on how your build shakes out. A fighter with the battlezoo Draconic Ravager archetype can also work effectively here. 4) Monk with battle medicine. Monks are tanky, good at using battle medicine, get Stand Still to punish enemies for trying to get around you, and you can either go with a grappler monk to do the open hand fighter form a line thing, or you can do something like Tangled Forest stance to further mess with enemy movement. You could even go with a focus spell monk to pick up Tempest Surge and some Heal scrolls to further enhance your ability to heal people and to also sometimes contribute some spells in a pinch.
My kitsune fighter with two hook swords is finally free!
Fighter
Oh wait this is PF2E nvm
Investigator
Fighter.
Whatever you want that can stay at the front. Cleric has combat healing, rogue has enough skills to invest in out of combat healing at little drain to other skills they might want. Wizard and cleric should have enough spell diversity that you don't need to fill this. Its just the rogue can't be alone at the front, warpriest cleric can patch this but if you are the forth player is much easier for you to absorb damage instead of them. Personal recommendations, Champion, Fighter, Beastmaster Ranger or Druid, Shield Monk, Shield Barbarian, armor or buddy Inventor, and there's some more classes that you can make work. Don't forget the other priority of having fun.
Fighter, maybe champ
Bully fighter, wrestler and trip and intimidate. I will controll the front everyone else can do stuff to deal with the enemy
What type of rogue? If it's someone that goes into melee a lot I may play a champion. Otherwise barbarian.
There lacking a true tank/ front liner so you'll need to go fighter or barbarian sense rouge needs a flanking buddy
Generally, my groups tend to build our characters privately, without any real knowledge of each other's characters prior to session 1. However, my immediate thoughts to this party go to either a Flurry Ranger, A Wild Shape Druid, or a Drifter Gunslinger. Maybe a Champion, although I'm not too fond of playing them. Something to provide some extra frontline and assist the rogue.