The paladin has a long and weird history, going back to its original inception in early D&D as a human only class that forbade multiclassing in or out and required a very specific flavor. Time and progress marches on, though, and over the years and editions the restrictions were relaxed until only one remained in 3.X: Lawful Good. Then 5e nixed even that, and the question came during the Pathfinder Playtest: do we do the same? Civil war broke out; brother against brother, friend against friend. The conflict was resolved with a compromise, and that compromise was champion. Not just paladins serving as the pinnacle of Lawful Good, but a champion of each alignment (although we only have the Good ones right now, and I’m skeptical of a TN option). Join me, friends, as we enter the world of religious warfare with the champion.

Ratings Guide

We’ll be using a star rating system instead of colors, partly for the colorblind folks at home and partly because you don’t realize what a pain color coding every single rated option is until you’ve written a guide yourself.

Five Star (*****) Always a good choice, no matter what your build is. The rarest of ratings, these should be your go-to options when you don’t have anything else you need.

Four Star (****) Awesome, but not necessarily for everybody. A four star option is ironically usually going to be higher priority than a five star, because they tend to be core towards specific builds. Pick these up when they match the build you’re going for.

Three Star (***) Pretty decent. If something’s three stars, it generally means it’s not a bad choice, but not quite as impressive as four stars. They’ll be the lower priority choices, things you pick to fill out your feats once you have your core and any five stars you want.

Two Star (**)This does not inherently mean that the option is bad, only that it isn’t great. As a general rule, if an option is two stars it’s either situational, in which case I’ll call it out as such and usually mention the situations it applies (such as an undead-focused ability in an undead heavy campaign), or it’s statistically inferior but there are reasons you might want to take it.

One Star (*) Flaming garbage. These are trash choices, legitimately do not waste your time with them ever.

Ability Scores

Champions exist in a kind of awkward place in that they’re ostensibly Charisma based, but they don’t really… do much with Charisma. As such, you basically live in the same world as martials. To elaborate…

Strength (****): You get heavy armor proficiency and encouragement to use armor, so Strength is probably going to be your go-to stat.

Dexterity (**): Full plate covers most Dexterity needs, so unless you want to devote your skillset to Dex or are going ranged champion (spoilers: don’t go ranged champion, for reasons we’ll get into later), this won’t be a priority ability score.

Constitution (***): Champion’s entire kit screams “I’m the tank” so you probably want a little extra bulk, and even if not Constitution is the Not Die stat.

Intelligence (*): Your class doesn’t have anything that wants Int, so you’re only grabbing it if you feel the need for more skills at level 1.

Wisdom (***): Always recommended as a secondary stat, because Will saves and Perception.

Charisma (***) You don’t need a great Charisma, but it’s better than Int or Dex for your boosts.

Chassis

Before we get into optional stuff, let’s discuss the stuff that isn’t optional: your champion chassis. The basic stuff you get just from being a champion. In theory, class archetypes will eventually come out that change this, hence why it gets ratings, but until then this is what all champions get.

Key Ability Boost (****): Strength or Dexterity, giving you some flexibility, but you’re probably gonna choose Strength here.

HP (****) The best you’re going to get without being a barbarian.

Perception (**) I don’t believe any class gets worse progression here. Apparently you don’t need to be vigilant for evil?

Fortitude (***) You start strong and go up to master, but you never hit Legendary.

Reflex (**) Easily your weakness, but thankfully you’re only dealing

Will (***) As Fortitude.

Weapons (***) Martial proficiency that scales as most martial classes do.

Armor (****) You share the best proficiency in the game with monk, and unlike monk you actually get armor. A shield using champion can get the highest AC in the game.

Skills (***) Totals in at 5+Int which is pretty standard, but one is locked based on your deity. Fortunately it’ll be one that’s flavorfully appropriate.

Champion’s Code (**) In terms of flavor I’m a fan of the champion’s code, but mechanically it doesn’t actually give you anything.

Cause Your champion’s cause determines basically everything about you. Your alignment, your flavor, your deity options, and several of your abilities. Your choices in the Core Rulebook are paladin, redeemer and liberator.

Deific Weapon (***) A nice boon to let you use your deity’s favored weapon without feeling like you’re lagging behind, although with martial proficiency you’re still probably going to want to use a d12 two-hander or a d8 one-hander with a shield.

Champion’s Reaction Much like the fighter, you get to start with your very own special reaction, free of charge. Which reaction you get depends on your cause.

Retributive Strike (**) Paladins get the weakest option of the three, while it does give you a free attack it still requires you to be in position to hit the target to do more than just give resistance.

Paladins get the weakest option of the three, while it does give you a free attack it still requires you to be in position to hit the target to do more than just give resistance. Glimpse of Redemption (****) Redeemers, on the other hand, get what I think is the strongest option, potentially negating the entire attack and, if not, applying a hefty debuff to the target. Reserve for when your GM says the words “that’s a crit.”

Redeemers, on the other hand, get what I think is the strongest option, potentially negating the entire attack and, if not, applying a hefty debuff to the target. Reserve for when your GM says the words “that’s a crit.” Liberating Step (****) And then liberators get the middle one, although the rating is the same as Glimpse. You have more possible triggers, you give them the option to free themselves from crowd control effects, and the free step will waste enemy actions catching up and negate followup riders on attacks like Grab and Trip. Glimpse is better only because it’s always going to be useful, but when Liberating Step matters, it matters a hell of a lot more.

Lay on Hands (*****) I will change this to Devotion Spells when they give us some damn Evil, Lawful and Chaotic causes. Lay on hands is, bar none, the best healing spell in the game. Sure, a two-action heal is much more hp overall, but LoH is only a single action, reliable, and most importantly, spammable. If you have a champion in the party, you’re basically guaranteed the ability to enter fights at or near full health if you want. The only thing better for out of combat healing is an Assurance/Ward Medic/Continual Recovery Medicine Specialist.

Shield Block (***) Means you can be a proper shield user, which is great when you’re a tank.

Divine Ally Yet another class feature with some built in options.

Blade Ally (***) The best free rune you can take here is shifting, giving you a versatile array of weapons at your disposal, but the real reason you’re here is for critical specialization, as you’re the only martial that doesn’t just, like, get that.

The best free rune you can take here is shifting, giving you a versatile array of weapons at your disposal, but the real reason you’re here is for critical specialization, as you’re the only martial that doesn’t just, like, get that. Shield Ally (****) This right here makes you the best shield user in the game. Early on the extra Hardness will be the most noticeable impact, but as time goes on that increased HP and BT is going to mean your shield can take more and more hits for you before you go down.

This right here makes you the best shield user in the game. Early on the extra Hardness will be the most noticeable impact, but as time goes on that increased HP and BT is going to mean your shield can take more and more hits for you before you go down. Steed Ally (***) Animal companions are cool, although you do now have to deal with the great flaw of horses: how do they fit in places?

Divine Smite (***) Once again redeemer gets the best end of this, but all three causes benefit from this about the same. Divine Smite is a great way to apply good damage, which most fiends are very allergic to.

Exalt Another thing that varies by cause.

Paladin (***) Makes Retributive Strike a tad better, although anyone with another reaction at hand is probably going to want to hold onto it instead of making an attack at -5.

Makes Retributive Strike a tad better, although anyone with another reaction at hand is probably going to want to hold onto it instead of making an attack at -5. Redeemer (****) Applying Glimpse in an AoE just makes it better and better.

Applying Glimpse in an AoE just makes it better and better. Liberator (****) I spend a reaction giving my friend resistance and now the entire party gets to reposition, I cannot stress how good that is.

Hero’s Defiance (****) A burst heal as a free action to keep yourself from dying. This is a compelling reason to always have at least one Focus Point in the tank. Fun side note, you’re the only class that gets more than one Focus Point without having to spend feats on it.

Overall: As a champion you’re looking at a lot of strong bonuses, gated only by your champion’s code. If I were rating chasses, champion would be one of the number one contenders, with paladin’s stuff edged out just a bit by redeemer and liberator.

Ancestries

Remember how I said the original paladins had to be human? Yeah, screw that noise. Let’s get crazy.

Dwarf

Hit Points (****)

Speed (**)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (***) You have two secondary scores boosted here. The drawback is that you want at least a 12 in Cha so your Divine Smite actually does anything, which means an extra boost going in there even if you don’t want offensive focus spells.

Darkvision (****) I for one would rather see in the dark than not.

Heritages

Ancient-Blooded Dwarf (**) You can get something similar from a champion feat, and your reactions in the early game are spoken for anyway.

Death Warden Dwarf (****) No-selling some of the nastiest effects in the game, in particular the burst nuke that is harm.

Forge Dwarf (***) Resistances are generally a solid choice.

Rock Dwarf (**) Very, very situational. That said, I recently had this be very useful for an enemy in my game, so, like, you never know?

Strong-Blooded Dwarf (***) Poisons suck. I was nearly killed by a poison a few weeks ago. Not fun.

Anvil Dwarf (LOCG) (***) If you’re a shield paladin, you’re gonna want crafting, and this can help.

Elemental Heart Dwarf (LOCG) (**) A fun AoE option, but you want to stick close to your party for your reaction and an indiscriminate AoE doesn’t favor that.

Oathkeeper Dwarf (LOCG) (**) Very fitting, thematically, especially for a paladin. That said I don’t favor spending your valuable heritage on situational circumstance bonuses.

1st Level Feats

Dwarven Lore (**) A free flexible skill rank since you get Religion for free, plus Crafting and a Lore skill that is the least exciting thing about this.

Dwarven Weapon Familiarity (**) You already have martial, so this is only as valuable as the uncommon weapon you want.

Rock Runner (***) You’re a dwarf, you’re already slow, let’s not deal with being any more slow than that.

Stonecunning (***) You’re a likely candidate to be Scouting or Guarding, so free Perception checks are good.

Unburdened Iron (****) You’re the Heavy Armor Guy, you do not want to be slowed even more than 20 feet.

Vengeful Hatred (**) Good old dwarven racism. Value is campaign dependent.

Avenge In Glory (LOCG) (**) You want to spend your reaction keeping others from going down, not avenging their deaths.

Clan’s Edge (LOCG) (***) On its own it’s mediocre on the grounds that Parry is not great, but it’s part of a cool combo chain that comes on with some 5th level feats.

Forge-Day’s Rest (LOCG) (**) Cool in theory but in practice, the benefits are rarely going to come up except during downtime. Being on a different sleep schedule from your friends is hard enough when you aren’t traveling on the road together.

Surface Culture (LOCG) (*) Dwarven Lore is a bit better on the grounds it gives you skills you want or that synergize with your goals. This gives you two skills, both of which are based on your weakest ability score. Hard pass.

5th Level Feats

Boulder Roll (***) A nice alternative to Shove since you’re unlikely to have a hand regularly free.

Dwarven Weapon Cunning (***) If you didn’t take Blade Ally this actually gives you something you didn’t have already (what a refreshing change of pace from what this line usually is).

Clan Protector (LOCG) (***) Protecting your allies is on brand, and when combined with Clan’s Edge and Protective Sheath you get a sweet combo.

Protective Sheath (LOCG) (***) So here’s what you do. Take your clan dagger, stab two enemies, point your dagger at your friends or your horse, they get +2 AC for a round. Not great, but still solid and a fun build that only requires ancestry feats.

Tomb-Watcher’s Glare (LOCG) (**) Value scales with how often you’re fighting undead.

9th Level Feats

Mountain’s Stoutness (***) I’ve seen people still barely standing on Toughness alone often enough to recommend this.

Stonewalker (**) Meld into stone is a situational innate spell at best, and the Stonecunning upgrade isn’t great for you when you aren’t good at Perception to begin with.

Battleforger (LOCG) (*) If you don’t have potency runes on your weapons and armor by now you’re clearly doing something wrong. Or your GM is, one of the two.

Energy Blessed (LOCG) (**) As the heritage it alters.

Heroes’ Call (LOCG) (***) Heroism is a great spell to have innate, and the flavor is pretty on brand for a dwarven champion.

Kneel For No God (LOCG) (**) No-selling an entire magical tradition is great, but you have to take Ancient-Blooded and live with that decision for half the game to get here.

13th Level Feats

Dwarven Weapon Expertise (*) I swear to god I’m doing a caster next. If you’re only just joining us, welcome! These feats are useless for most martials!

Overall: Dwarf has some cool thematic options, and honestly since you’re most likely going to be in heavy armor anyway, the speed penalty is just an Unburdened Iron tax. The only real downside is that Cha penalty, but I’m willing to overlook it for a four star (****) review.

Elf

Hit Points (**)

Speed (****)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (*) Exceedingly gross. Two ability scores we do not care about coupled with a flaw that we very much do.

Low-light Vision (***) Not as good as darkvision, not as bad as no vision at all.

Heritages

Arctic Elf (***) The standard resistance review here.

Cavern Elf (***) Darkvision is always a choice option.

Seer Elf (*) Detect magic is meh, and while you can identify magic through Religion, you’re probably not going to be the primary one doing so.

Whisper Elf (***) Your Perception isn’t great, so anything you can get to boost that when you need it is good.

Woodland Elf (**) Obviously scales with the amount of time you spend in woodlands.

Ancient Elf (LOCG) (**) The purpose of this heritage is to save yourself a level 2 class feat. I’m gonna level with you here: your second level class feats aren’t that great. Not bad, but not great.

Desert Elf (LOCG) (***) More resistance, fewer problems.

1st Level Feats

Ancestral Longevity (***) Flexible skill selection is cool.

Elven Lore (**) You get some skills that aren’t particularly amazing for you. Whoopee.

Elven Weapon Familiarity (**) As all weapon familiarity feats.

Forlorn (***) Emotion effects suck. Don’t get hit with emotion effects.

Nimble Elf (****) One of the compelling reasons to be an elf is the need for speed.

Otherworldly Magic (***) You can give yourself a decent ranged attack spell here, or pick up shield if you’re wielding a two-hander.

Unwavering Mien (***) Reduced duration on mental effects is good, although the sleep thing is more limited.

Elemental Wrath (LOCG) (*) Remember when what I said about grabbing a decent ranged attack spell? Acid splash ain’t it.

Elven Verve (LOCG) (***) Three terrible conditions you get a bonus to saves against, and for added bonus, those are usually gonna be Fort saves, and you have a Con penalty. So… yay?

Share Thoughts (LOCG) (*) God this is so situational and dumb. Like, if you’re doing an all-elf party, sure I guess?

Wildborn Magic (LOCG) (***) As Otherworldly Magic, but substitute guidance in for shield.

Woodcraft (LOCG) (**) Only useful if you’re both spending a lot of time in the forest or jungle and are your party’s primary Survival person.

5th Level Feats

Ageless Patience (***) So long as you and the party are in no rush, this is a really strong benefit, particularly for your weak Perception.

Elven Weapon Elegance (***) You have a wide variety of options here, which is pretty legit. Only downside is the prereq.

Defiance Unto Death (LOCG) (***) Paralyzed is automatically better than any of confused, controlled or fleeing.

Elven Instincts (LOCG) (****) Another boost to Perception, this time for the most important Perception check.

Forest Stealth (LOCG) (**) You must be a) Stealth focused, b) frequently in the forest or jungle and c) inclined to hide in combat. C is the sticking point, because that’s the opposite of what you want to be doing as a champion.

Wildborn Adept (LOCG) (**) Disrupt undead and tanglefoot are alright choices, dancing lights is… mediocre to say the least. I wouldn’t say these three are usually worth a feat.

9th Level Feats

Elf Step (***) Rapid, reaction-free repositioning, solid.

Expert Longevity (***) A good upgrade to Ancestral Longevity.

Brightness Seeker (LOCG) (***) Having augury as an innate spell is cool, I love divinations like that, plus the reaction rewards you for flipping destiny the middle finger.

Sense Thoughts (LOCG) (**) Better than Share Thoughts, but you needed to waste a feat to get here in the first place and you’re only trained in primal spell DCs.

13th Level Feats

Elven Weapon Expertise (*) Alas, worthless.

Universal Longevity (***) Spend action, get Expert in a skill. Seems legit.

Wandering Heart (LOCG) (*) Uncontrolled, unreliable, and as likely to stick you with something useless or cost you something really good like resistance or darkvision as it is to be helpful.

Overall: The elf chassis is terrible, and while it has good feats they aren’t enough to save it from that. Go half-elf instead. Two stars (**).

Gnome

Hit Points (***)

Speed (***)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (**) Secondary ability scores yay, but we’re also taking a flaw to Strength which is boo.

Low-light Vision (***) Better than no special eyes at all.

Heritages

Chameleon Gnome (**) A bonus that requires a lot of time to set up for a skill that you’re not particularly inclined towards.

Fey-Touched Gnome (***) Pick up an attack cantrip or guidance.

Sensate Gnome (****) Scent is a fantastic sense, and very difficult to get as a PC.

Umbral Gnome (***) Darkvision good.

Wellspring Gnome (***) You have your pick of cantrips here. The usual suspects apply here, attack cantrips, guidance and shield. If you want guidance or are interested in divine lance as your attack cantrip though, or you plan on taking a bunch of gnome innate spells divine is probably the best, because your spell attack rolls and DCs will actually scale.

Vivacious Gnome (LOCG) (****) The difficult-to-come-by negative resistance. Reducing the effect of doomed is also very welcome, because doomed is scary.

1st Level Feats

Animal Accomplice (***) Familiars are cute and can be very useful, although it scales off your least favorite ability score. However, this rates higher for champion that for other martials because one of their options is a quick recharge of your Focus points.

Burrow Elocutionist (**) Talking to animals is cool, but burrowing animals aren’t usually going to have much useful to say.

Fey Fellowship (**) How often are you interacting with fey? If it’s more than once, the answer is “too often,” but if it’s very frequent then sure.

First World Magic (***) As Fey-Touched. If you went for Divine Wellspring this is one of the few ways to get something like produce flame as a divine spell, with the better proficiencies that brings.

Gnome Obsession (***) Int is probably not your strong suit, but four free proficiency ranks in a Lore skill (which are usually lower DC) is still solid regardless.

Gnome Weapon Familiarity (***) Another day, another weapon familiarity, but this one is better because the gnome flickmace is really, really good.

Illusion Sense (**) My experience thusfar is that illusionists aren’t that common as enemies, but it’s not a terrible pickup.

Gnome Polyglot (LOCG) (**) The lack of incentive to take Intelligence makes this feat a bit better for you than most, if only to avoid being left out of conversations. Still campaign dependent though.

Grim Insight (LOCG) (**) You get this option in your more plentiful class feats, via Aura of Courage.

Inventive Offensive (LOCG) (*) I want to like this, but it’s only going to affect your first attack every combat and the boons here aren’t worth it at all. I also find it weird that the nails all fall out of my baseball bat when I hit someone with it.

Life-Giving Magic (LOCG) (**) A waste of a reaction.

Natural Performer (LOCG) (**) Is there a Performance skill feat you need so desperately you’re willing to waste an ancestry feat on it?

Theoretical Acumen (LOCG) (**) Recall Knowledge isn’t going to be your strong suit, and you probably don’t want to spend actions in combat on it anyway.

Unexpected Shift (LOCG) (**) A fun reaction marred by the massive penalty that is giving yourself dazzled.

Vibrant Display (LOCG) (**) The problem with this is that Feinting only makes them flatfooted to you, so it’s only useful if you’re going to attack two different targets that round. Still, if you have a sweep weapon that’s not a terrible idea.

5th Level Feats

Animal Elocutionist (***) Anywhere there’s animals, you now have spies (assuming you can nail your Diplomacy checks). Also, you can talk to dogs! Who wouldn’t want to talk to dogs?

Energized Font (***) Much like familiar, this is a nice button to get your Lay on Hands back in an emergency.

Gnome Weapon Innovator (***) Look at those critical specializations we get now.

Eclectic Obsession (LOCG) (***) If there’s one thing I’ve learned about this game it’s that the ability to make Lore checks without being trained is busted.

Intuitive Illusions (LOCG) (**) You don’t have illusion options, so this only have value if you archetype into it and you’re probably… not gonna do that.

Natural Illusionist (LOCG) (***) I mean, unless you take this, but you’re also not going to do that. It’s weird that these aren’t defined as innate primal spells now that I really look at it, which means they don’t get turned into divine spells with Wellspring. Anyway, these are useful tools, and particularly thematic if you go for a liberator.

9th Level Feats

First World Adept (***) Two very handy innate spells.

Vivacious Conduit (***) More efficient self-healing, particularly since it’ll apply any time you’re regenerating focus.

Fortuitous Shift (**) Makes Unexpected Shift much better, but you need to spend two feats to get one genuinely useful reaction and that’s still not great.

13th Level Feats

Gnome Weapon Expertise (*) I’m really looking forward to rogue and casters guys, you have no idea.

Overall: As usual, gnome clocks in as a good “I want to be a martial, but also kind of a caster” option and in particular having two feats that give you a Focus battery is sweet. With a Strength penalty, though, I can’t in good conscience give it more than three stars (***).

Goblins

Hit Points (**)

Speed (***)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (**) A boost to a secondary and a tertiary, and a penalty to the all-important Wisdom, means it’s not terrible but it’s not really good either.

Darkvision (****) Protection from stubbing your toe when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Heritages

Charhide Goblin (***) Being on fire was never less scary.

Irongut Goblin (**) An alright collection of bonuses but nothing to write home about.

Razortooth Goblin (***) Unfortunately you can’t make an unarmed strike your Divine Ally, but whatever your ally is the bite is still probably gonna be a good backup weapon.

Snow Goblin (***) Resistance, natch.

Unbreakable Goblin (***) 4 more HP can make or break a fight, legitimately.

Tailed Goblin (LOCG) (**) A lot of bonuses to climbing, which is certainly a niche.

Treedweller Goblin (LOCG) (**) Not really your typical thing even when you get past the environmental requirements.

1st Level Feats

Burn It! (**) You aren’t particularly designed for fire stuff, although you can grab the fire ray domain power.

City Scavenger (**) Very dependent on an urban campaign that requires you to subsist.

Goblin Lore (**) Not skills you’re particularly inclined towards.

Goblin Scuttle (***) I tend to be more critical of reaction feats since they’re competing with the really good champion reactions, but sometimes repositioning is just going to be more valuable.

Goblin Song (**) Not very useful for you unless you want to go hard on the Litanies.

Goblin Weapon Familiarity (**) The problem here is that the dogslicer and horsechopper are not good weapons.

Junk Tinker (*) Look I’m gonna level with you, Crafting is not good, especially Crafting weapons and armor. Saving yourself one day is not going to help. That’s not even getting started on how useless the ability to make a quarter cost shoddy weapon is.

Rough Rider (***) Actually useful for you, if you want a wolf instead of a horse, which you should, because size.

Very Sneaky (***) So let’s assume you have gone for Dexpion (can’t use Dexadin anymore), and invested in Stealth. If those two things are true, the Very Sneaky line is good content.

Bouncy Goblin (LOCG) (**) Hilarious, but not great.

Fang Sharpener (LOCG) (***) Not worth it as an irongut, but razortooth might find good use for this.

Hard Tail (LOCG) (***) Another option for a strong unarmed strike.

5th Level Feats

Goblin Weapon Frenzy (**) Critical specialization on bad weapons. Yay.

Ankle Bite (LOCG) (***) It’s like a midway point between Retributive Strike and Liberating Step, but for yourself instead of your friends. I dig it.

Chosen of Lamashtu (LOCG) (***) As is, you have to get past the flavor lock since you can’t worship this certain deity as a good champion, but if your GM is willing to waive it or you’ve snagged a secret early copy of the APG for your group, it’s as good as another heritage would be for you.

Tail Spin (LOCG) (***) Double trip with one attack (which also means you’re only incurring MAP once) is solid, and also, Baloo is a pilot!

Torch Goblin (LOCG) (**) I will never not love this feat. The actual benefit is not great unless you’re fighting something with a weakness to fire, but damned if it isn’t funny.

Tree Climber (LOCG) (***) More speeds are good.

9th Level Feats

Cave Climber (***) More speeds still good.

Skittering Scuttle (***) Makes your Scuttle even better.

Freeze It! (LOCG) (****) A very solid debuff, clumsy is actually not a common condition for PCs to be able to inflict.

Hungry Goblin (LOCG) (**) A decent upgrade if you really want to go in on the jaws.

Roll With It (LOCG) (*) Hilarious. Also bad. You’re not even avoiding damage, you’re letting your enemy send you where they want you, provoking reactions, and costing yourself two actions (one for stunned, one to stand).

Scalding Spit (LOCG) (**) I mean, as long as you’re on fire, it’s a backup ranged weapon. A bad one, but still.

13th Level Feats

Goblin Weapon Expertise (*) If there were a rating lower than 1 star, I would give it that.

Very, Very Sneaky (***) As Very Sneaky.

Unbreakable-er Goblin (LOCG) (***) A nice influx of 10 HP, immunity to falling damage, and you can now properly bounce, which is probably going to be practically useless, but still awesome.

Overall: I love goblin champion… conceptually. Mechanically, I think they suffer from not great ability modifiers and mostly mediocre feats with a few hidden gems. Two teary stars (**).

Halflings

Hit Points (**)

Speed (***)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (**) A secondary and tertiary again but this time our penalty is to Strength, and that’s just not good.

Keen Eyes (***) I will always maintain these are better special eyes than low-light vision.

Heritages

Gutsy Halfling (***) Nosell those emotion effects.

Hillock Halfling (**) You’re only getting about half the benefit because with Lay on Hands you should never be regaining Hit Points overnight, but more healing from Treat Wounds because you eat a snack is both useful and delightful. Don’t forget elevenses either.

Nomadic Halfling (**) Campaign dependent, but a good way to pick up more languages since you likely won’t have the intelligence for more.

Twilight Halfling (****) You mean I can have both keen eyes and low-light vision? Sold!

Wildwood Halfling (**) Very specific difficult terrain to want to overcome.

Observant Halfling (LOCG) (**) It’s a very small bonus, relatively speaking.

1st Level Feats

Distracting Shadows (***) I refer you to my opinions on Very Sneaky here.

Halfling Lore (**) More skills that don’t really mesh well with the champion lifestyle.

Halfling Luck (****) Legitimately one of the best ancestry feats in the entire game, bar none.

Halfling Weapon Familiarity (**) Much like with goblin, your ancestry weapons aren’t really great options here.

Sure Feet (**) Situational bonus.

Titan Slinger (*) I can’t actually see anyone wanting to primarily use a sling on a Large creature. You have proficiency with bows after all.

Unfettered Halfling (****) Another amazing ancestry feat, given that Grab is very prevalent and very annoying, to say nothing of the ease with which you can Escape.

Watchful Halfling (**) Another situational bonus.

Adroit Manipulation (LOCG) (**) A Dex champion who is also big on Thievery will want this.

Innocuous (LOCG) (**) Deception is solid, but I don’t think one skill rank and the bonus for Create a Diversion are worth it.

Intuitive Cooperation (LOCG) (***) Aid Another isn’t good, but this makes it a little less not good.

Unassuming Dedication (LOCG) (**) Value scales with the amount of downtime you’re raking in.

5th Level Feats

Cultural Adaptability (****) As valuable as the ancestry feats you can pick up.

Halfling Weapon Trickster (**) Limited by slings and slingstaves not really being good weapons.

Easily Dismissed (LOCG) (**) Requires wanting to be a stealthy person, but even then it’s also heavily campaign dependent.

Halfling Ingenuity (LOCG) (***) Not the best version of getting level to untrained, but the +4 makes up for it a bit.

Shared Luck (LOCG) (***) Share this glorious feat and its benefits with your friends.

9th Level Feats

Guiding Luck (****) Apply that awesome luck to your attack rolls and saving throws.

Irrepressible (***) Good on its own, combined with Gutsy you might as well be immune to emotion effects.

Cunning Climber (LOCG) (***) Climb speeds are good.

Fade Away (LOCG) (***) Invisibility will always have its uses, and misdirection is a nice cherry on top.

Helpful Halfling (LOCG) (***) A small but substantial boost to Aid, I think it makes enough of a difference to make aiding worth it, especially as by 9th level you’re going to be consistently critically succeeding at your best skills.

13th Level Feats

Ceaseless Shadows (***) A refer you back to the other general Stealth ancestry feats.

Halfling Weapon Expertise (*) Bleh.

Cobble Dancer (LOCG) (***) Obviously campaign dependent, but very good in an urban campaign.

Incredible Luck (LOCG) (*****) Remember what I said about Halfling Luck being the best ancestry feat in the game? Multiple your uses per day by 24.

Overall: A terrible chassis, but unlike others your feats are genuinely good enough to bring it back, and Keen Eyes helps a lot in that regard. Four stars (****).

Humans

Hit Points (***)

Speed (***)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (****) Put them wherever you like.

No Special Senses (*) Suffering.

Heritages

Half-Elf (*****) This is the best ancestry/heritage combination and you cannot convince me otherwise. You get access to amazing feats on both sides and bump up to low-light vision, it’s beautiful.

Half-Orc (***) Not as good as half-elf just by merit of fewer options opened up.

Skilled Heritage (***) Two free skill ranks into a skill of your choice is actually pretty good, since you’re not going to care about Int as much as others and so have fewer total trained skills.

Versatile Heritage (***) Y’know what you can get with Versatile Heritage? Adopted Ancestry. It’s like half-elf for anyone, but without the unique feats or low-light. You’re welcome.

Wintertouched Human (***) Cold resist, natch.

1st Level Human Feats

Adapted Cantrip (*) You’re kind of a caster but you still don’t have cantrips.

Cooperative Nature (***) A +4 actually makes Aiding kinda worth it even on your less good skills.

General Training (***) As Versatile Heritage.

Haughty Obstinancy (***) A neat way to nope that free stunned 1 those spells tend to get when you succeed.

Natural Ambition (***) Conveniently, at time of writing you only have effectively three choices for a 1st level class feat, so you can just snag up two out of three here.

Natural Skill (***) As with Skilled Heritage.

Unconventional Weaponry (***) This is how you pick up a katana or a khopesh if that’s more your speed than Western weaponry.

Arcane Tattoos (LOCG) (***) The usual suspects for cantrips apply here.

Courteous Comeback (LOCG) (***) A fun way to save yourself from a potential Diplomatic snafu.

Devil’s Advocate (LOCG) (**) Campaign dependent.

Dragon Spit (LOCG) (***) And there are our usual suspects.

Gloomseer (LOCG) (***) Oh good, special eyes. I missed those.

Keep Up Appearances (LOCG) (***) An alternative to noselling emotion effects is to just pretend you did. Potentially waste their actions making them try again or at least negate some of their schtick.

Know Oneself (LOCG) (***) Or just nosell the critical failure. Probably better.

Quah Bond (LOCG) (***) A free skill rank is good, and free Assurance in it is even better.

Saoc Astrology (LOCG) (***) A very good chance to cash in some circumstance bonuses to your skills when you really need them.

Tupilaq Carver (LOCG) (*) You technically have divine spellcasting, but it’s not real spellcasting, so this doesn’t apply to you.

Viking Shieldbearer (LOCG) (*) You gain nothing from this.

Witch Warden (LOCG) (**) Very situational bonuses, but hey, if you expect to fight a lot of witches and hags and deal with a lot of curses then this is a good pickup.

1st Level Half-Elf Feats

Elf Atavism (***) As good as the heritage you snag.

Round Ears (LOCG) (**) You need an actual reason to pretend not to be half-elf, first of all.

Sociable (LOCG) (**) The free trained in Diplomacy is good, but I don’t think Hobnobber is worth spending the ancestry feat.

1st Level Half-Orc Feats

Monstrous Peacemaker (***) The bonus here is situational but a very widely applicable situation.

Orc Ferocity (***) See the thing about your champion reaction is you can’t use it if you’re KO’d, so this doesn’t really compete for that space.

Orc Sight (***) Have we not established this yet? Darkvision good.

Orc Superstition (**) This, on the other hand, does, and you’ve got one of your more plentiful class feats for that instead.

Orc Weapon Familiarity (***) The necksplitter and knuckle dagger are actually pretty cool weapons.

Overlooked Mastermind (LOCG) (**) Free Deception rank is good, but the bonus feels very situational.

Tusks (LOCG) (***) Stab em with your face.

5th Level Human Feats

Adaptive Adept (*) Still not a spellcaster.

Clever Improviser (****) Being able to try anything and have level to the skill you’re trying is huge, especially as applies to Lore skills (which are usually lower DC than the regular check).

Darkseer (LOCG) (***) Even more special eyes.

Ornate Tattoo (LOCG) (***) As good as the spell you want.

Wavetouched Paragon (LOCG) (**) Not as good as a Climb or Fly speed unless you’re in the water a lot.

5th Level Half-Elf Feats

Inspire Imitation (**) You can really lean into Aid Another here, but I generally look down on feats that require you to critically succeed to have any effect.

Supernatural Charm (*) Charm has Incapacitation, making a 1st level one basically worthless.

5th Level Half-Orc Feats

Orc Weapon Carnage (***) As usual with these feats.

Victorious Vigor (*) God you just have so many better uses of your reaction than this that it’s legitimately not funny.

9th Level Human Feats

Cooperative Soul (***) Really good for bolstering your allies in the things that they’re good at but you aren’t.

Incredible Improvisation (***) Basically make yourself an expert in a skill for one check, bonus-wise.

Multitalented (***) As good as the multiclass you want.

Dragon Prince (LOCG) (***) Really picks up in the second season and I was just blown away by season 3… what? This joke is getting old? Fine, fine, dragon breath is a pretty solid 1/day innate spell.

Heir of the Saoc (LOCG) (****) A really nice buff to your Saoc Astrology.

Shory Aeromancer (LOCG) (****) Your very own built-in magic wings.

Virtue-Forged Tattoos (LOCG) (***) Still as good as the spells you can pick up.

9th Level Half-Orc Feats

Pervasive Superstition (**) If you want to spend two feats on this permanent bonus be my guest I guess?

13th Level Human Feats

Unconventional Expertise (*) Still not useful.

Irriseni Ice-Witch (LOCG) (***) That escalated quickly. A big boost to your cold resistance and a decent innate spell.

Shadow Pact (LOCG) (**) If you can think of a good use of at-will creation then be my guest, but I can’t think of one that’s worth an ancestry feat.

Shory Aerialist (LOCG) (**) Not bad, but you have so many better options at lower levels even.

13th Level Half-Orc Feats

Incredible Ferocity (***) A good champion refuses to die.

Orc Weapon Expertise (*) Bored now.

Overall: With the sheer breadth of options relative to other ancestries, most of them rated highly, it should come as no surprise that humans get a solid five stars (*****).

Hobgoblins (LOCG)

Hit Points (***)

Speed (***)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (**) It could be worse, but it could be much better.

Darkvision (****) Yay seeing in darkness.

Heritages

Elfbane Hobgoblin (**) As usual, you’ve got a class feat for this instead.

Runtboss Hobgoblin (*) You are not going to be Coercing goblins that often. I refuse to believe that.

Smokeworker Hobgoblin (***) One of the better resistance heritages.

Warmarch Hobgoblin (**) Situational.

Warrenbred Hobgoblin (**) Not as good as similar heritages/abilities.

1st Level Feats

Alchemical Scholar (**) I generally suggest leaving the alchemical crafting to alchemists, but if you’re into it, then go for it.

Hobgoblin Lore (***) For once, two skills that probably interest you.

Hobgoblin Weapon Familiarity (**) Hobgoblin weapons don’t, uh, exist yet? Need this to get Discipline though.

Leech-Clipper (**) Tanking tip: have two flails, crit enemy with one, drop it, you still have a weapon and now they have a harder time getting to the squishies behind you.

Remorseless Lash (***) Intimidation champion is a thing, and this will double the effectiveness of your Intimidations.

Vigorous Health (***) On the one hand, this is a small chance to negate one relatively uncommon condition. On the other, drained sucks.

5th Level Feats

Agonizing Rebuke (***) A followup on the Intimidation stuff, which is really kind of the hobgoblin’s schtick in any class.

Expert Drill Sergeant (**) If the party needs to Follow the Expert on you a lot then this gets a lot of value, but otherwise it’s only alright.

Formation Training (*) Only useful in the All Hobgoblin party.

Hobgoblin Weapon Discipline (***) Holy crap is that a lot of weapons you just got critical specialization in.

9th Level Feats

Pride In Arms (*) Okay or, hear me out here, you use your champion’s reaction and just prevent a much bigger chunk of the damage they’re taking to begin with.

13th Level Feats

Formation Master (***) Formation Training is garbage, but Formation Master is great, so your mileage may vary on if you want a dead feat to get here.

Hobgoblin Weapon Expertise (*) Snore.

Overall: Ability scores could be better but you’ve actually got some solid choices for an Intimidation focus, and Weapon Discpline is one of the best arrays of critical specializations you can pick up. Overall, three star (***).

Leshies (LOCG)

Hit Points (***)

Speed (***)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (***) Similar to dwarves, but we actually don’t care about the flaw, so it’s better.

Low-Light Vision (***) Once again, better than nothing.

Plant Nourishment (***) Basically, you don’t have to spend money on food unless you expect to be underground a lot, at which point you’ll probably be making up the cost. Still, it’s fun, and it’s free.

Heritages

Fungus Leshy (***) Your requisite special eyes upgrade.

Gourd Leshy (***) This is a silly heritage. You can store a weapon in your head for effective Quick Draw, or some other really effective tool that you would otherwise stow in a bandolier.

Leaf Leshy (**) Fall damage isn’t going to be super common, but it can hit like a truck when it come.s

Vine Leshy (***) Get good at climbing. Not quite as good as Fungus or Gourd, but still solid for just about anyone.

1st Level Feats

Grasping Reach (***) A quick way to get reach for you two-hander champions.

Harmlessly Cute (**) An ancestry feat for a skill feat and a bonus to a situational and likely rare non-Perception to initiative. Pass.

Leshy Lore (**) Not ideal skills for you.

Leshy Superstition (**) Class feat. Right there.

Seedpod (***) Need a ranged backup? Here you go, ranged backup.

Shadow of the Wilds (**) A constant passive benefit while in exploration mode, but one that won’t come up that often to be honest. Campaign and GM dependent.

Undaunted (***) No more emotion effects please.

5th Level Feats

Leshy Glide (**) It’s not flying, it’s falling with style.

Ritual Reversion (**) Honestly if you want to be a paladin spy, this is the best way to be a paladin spy.

Speak with Kindred (****) Hey, y’know what’s just about everywhere aboveground? Plants. Plants are now your spies.

9th Level Feats

Bark and Tendril (**) If only these were good spells.

Lucky Keepsake (***) A worthy upgrade.

Solar Rejuvenation (***) More efficient out of combat healing.

Overall: Leshies are good sprouts. You’ve got good options here, nothing particularly spectacular, so I dub them three stars (***).

Lizardfolk

Hit Points (***)

Speed (***)

Ability Boosts/Flaws (****) A boost to a primary, a secondary, and a flaw to our least favorite make this a winning choice.

No Special Senses (*)

Claws (***) A lethal alternative to punching.

Aquatic Adaptation (**) A situational bonus, to be sure, but not unwelcome.

Heritages

Cliffscale Lizardfolk (***) As with vine leshy.

Frilled Lizardfolk (***) You effectively get Intimidating Glare, plus Threatening Approach is a nice opening move for a fight.

Sandstrider Lizardfolk (***) Good old heat resistance.

Unseen Lizardfolk (**) Didn’t like it for gnome, don’t like it now.

Wetlander Lizardfolk (**) Value depends on how often you need to swim.

1st Level Feats

Lizardfolk Lore (**) Not really your kind of skills here.

Marsh Runner (**) Very narrow band of usage here.

Parthenogenic Hatchling (***) Cool flavor. It has some overlap with a fourth level class feat but they actually synergize well together and fourth level actually has some good general options, unlike what I’ve been saying with all these reactions for bonuses against magic.

Razor Claws (***) Turn those claws into proper primary weapons.

Reptile Speaker (***) Talking to lizards is one of those things that doesn’t seem like it’ll be that useful until you remember that there are lizards basically everywhere that it’s warm.

Sharp Fangs (***) Between this and Razor Claws you’re looking at a solid natural attacks build.

Tail Whip (***) Basically your alternative to Sharp Fangs if you’d rather hit them with your tail than bite them

5th Level Feats

Envenom Fangs (**) A boost to your fangs attack at the cost of some action economy, but an extra 1d6 to one attack is going to fall off compared to attacking again, Intimidating, a combat maneuver, repositioning, Smite Evil…

Gecko’s Grip (**) Not as great as other climb speeds since the prerequisite already makes you a natural at climbing.

Iruxi Unarmed Cunning (***) As usual, an excellent choice.

Shed Tail (***) Limited use but a damn cool trick.

Swift Swimmer (**) Pretty much as Wetlander.

9th Level Feats

Terrain Advantage (***) A cool pickup In general, no question.

13th Level Feats

Iruxi Unarmed Expertise (*) So boooored.

Overall: Probably the best ability spread of any ancestry for a Strength-based martial, and a good niche in natural attacks. Three stars (***).

Skills and General/Skill Feats

PF2’s skill system is, of course, designed so that any character can cover any skill, but ability score priority will naturally lead to different priority choices. Here’s a general evaluation of how each skill might best apply to you as a champion, and the skill feats you should look at to complement them.

Acrobatics (**)

Arcana (**)

Athletics (****)

Crafting (***) If you use a shield, Crafting is essential for keeping it in top shape. Consider a deity who would consider shield maintenance a worthy form of prayer or devotion so you can Refocus at the same time.

Deception (***)

Diplomacy (***)

Intimidation (***)

Lore (**)

Medicine (****) Assuming you have a good deity who doesn’t scoff at the notion of healing, you can seriously double down between lay on hands and Medicine.

Nature (***)

Occultism (**)

Performance (**)

Religion (***)

Society(**)

Stealth (**)

Survival (***)

Thievery (**)

So with our favorite skills in mind, let’s take a look at the feats we have available.

1st Level

Additional Lore (**) You’re better off investing in level to untrained and just rolling them without skill ranks.

Adopted Ancestry (***) As good as the ancestry feats you can snipe with it.

Alchemical Crafting (**) I generally suggest leaving the alchemy to the alchemists.

Arcane Sense (**) Detect magic is a mediocre spell in general in my view, and not worth a feat, especially not for such a crappy level scaling.

Armor Proficiency (X) You’re already proficient in armor, silly.

Assurance (***) Assurance in Crafting or Medicine will give guaranteed success on your healing/repairs, while Athletics will let you guarantee success on combat maneuvers against lower level enemies.

Bargain Hunter (***) Depends on how much downtime you get and if you have anything better to do with it, but if you’re stuck between relying on Lore for Earn Income and taking this for Diplomacy, Bargain Hunter is better.

Battle Medicine (**) Two problems here. First, you need a hand free to use your healer’s tools. Second, you already have an in-combat healing tool in the form of lay on hands. Third, as a martial you only have so many actions to spare.

Breath Control (*) Suffocation comes up rarely, and when it does I haven’t personally seen it take long enough to resolve to require this. The bonus to saves is too situational to justify a rare general feat.

Canny Acumen (**) A decent endgame feat to grab master in Perception or Reflex.

Cat Fall (***) Generally a good feat, although it requires training in a mediocre skill for you.

Charlatan (**) What a weird and specific feat. If you like to pretend you’re a caster then this does technically work, but that makes it very much a flavor choice with little general value.

Charming Liar (***) I love that champions can lie now. Good for consolidating skill uses so you can keep your investments in the combat-applicable ones.

Combat Climber (**) Useful if you see yourself climbing a lot, useless most of the time.

Courtly Graces (*) You’re going the opposite direction of what you want here.

Diehard (***) Consider: you’re not going to care about it right up until the moment you do.

Dubious Knowledge (**) I love this feat. Now that I have my feet under me enough to do house rules, the next time I run a game everyone has this automatically.

Experienced Professional (**) Very dependent on the downtime you get.

Experienced Smuggler (**) Useful if you’re a stealth champion, but that’s a lower priority for our purposes.

Experienced Tracker (**) If you’re the party’s tracker and your campaign is suited towards following tracks, this is a good pickup, but that’s a little too specific for my tastes.

Fascinating Performance (***) This is actually a half-decent tanking feat against casters, as it prevents them from casting targeted spells on anyone but you.

Fast Recovery (****) The hit point thing is irrelevant to you since you should be ending every day at full hp, but the bonus against poisons, diseases and drained is very much worth it.

Feather Step (**) An annoying prereq but if you meet it, this is a very handy tool.

Fleet (****) Mobility is a very important tool, and you’re likely slower than your friends are.

Forager (**) Campaign dependent.

Group Coercion (***) Situational but this is a situation that you can engineer if you want.

Group Impression (***) Far less situational, it cuts down on the number of individual rolls you have to make, which is very nice.

Hefty Hauler (*) With a high Strength and a backpack you should have to worry too much about carrying capacity, and if you are, then your party members should share a bit of the load with you maybe. Or, like, buy a packhorse.

Hobnobber (***) Useful for when you have limited time in which to do things, and Gather Information usually comes up fairly frequently.

Impressive Performance (**) If you would rather have Performance than Diplomacy, though I can’t imagine why.

Incredible Initiative (****) Going first can save lives you know.

Intimidating Glare (***) Expands who you can target by a decent margin.

Lengthy Diversion (**) Only applies on a crit = I’m not interested.

Lie To Me (***) If you invest in Deception it’ll easily outpace your Perception, making it much harder for people to, uh, lie to you.

Multilingual (**) Requires training in Society, but you get extra languages out of it, including uncommon languages with no limitation.

Natural Medicine (**) You’re generally better off just investing in Medicine, since the feats that make Medicine better require proficiency there anyway.

Oddity Identification (*) Waaaay too specific.

Pickpocket (**) Only useful if you’ve gone Dex based and are trained in Thievery.

Quick Coercion (***) As I’ve pointed out in past guides, this makes Coercion a potential combat tactic. If you frequently find yourself in fights where someone is uncertain about being your enemy, bully them into being your friend.

Quick Identification (**) You’ll have Religion so you should probably at least try identifying things, but it’s not going to be your main thing generally.

Quick Jump (****) Efficient action economy is always a plus.

Quick Repair (****) For the shield user especially, Quick Repair is essential. Between it and your Shield Ally, you’re never going to have to worry about your shield breaking.

Quick Squeeze (*) Squeezing isn’t common enough to justify a feat, and this requires Acrobatics besides.

Recognize Spell (*) You can’t actually do anything about the spell they’re casting, and that’s a reaction you could instead use on your champion reaction.

Ride (*) If you want to go mounted that’s what Steed Ally is for.

Shield Block (X) You get for free.

Sign Language (***) Requires Society, but even so nonverbal communication is important. If you can get your whole party on board I highly recommend it, I’ve been in a party that all knew sign language and it was useful as heck (except our poor bard cohort, he got left out of conversations for months).

Skill Training (**) I’m all for more trained skills but there’s better approaches you could take here.

Snare Crafting (**) The only snare that’s worthwhile without combat application as an adventurer are alarm snares, and that’s not worth a feat.

Specialty Crafting (**) While I support taking Crafting as a skill, actually crafting non-alchemical items is kind of terrible.

Steady Balance (**) Acrobatics stuff, and pretty specific situations too.

Streetwise (**) Once again, opposite direction from where you want to go.

Student of the Canon (**) It’s embarrassing to not know about your own deity, but not embarrassing enough to burn a feat on I don’t think.

Subtle Theft (**) Another Thievery feat that’s actually pretty decent, but only if you’re regularly stealing stuff.

Survey Wildlife (**) Actually decently useful if you’ve invested in both Survival and Nature, but between both those requirements and only applying in the wilderness, sometimes, only two stars.

Terrain Expertise (**) Handy if you hang out in one specific environment for most of the campaign, but that makes it campaign dependent.

Terrain Stalker (**) Stealth feat. Heavy armor. Not friends.

Titan Wrestler (***) You can be very good at combat maneuvers if you want to invest in them.

Toughness (****) I cannot overstate how many times I’ve seen someone still standing by the skin of their Toughness.

Train Animal (**) A neat parlor trick, but not generally useful.

Trick Magic Item (**) Can be cool, though ideally you want a real caster using these kinds of items.

Underwater Marauder (**) I shouldn’t even have to say this is campaign dependent.

Virtuosic Performer (**) Eh.

Weapon Proficiency (**) You can take an advanced weapon, but it won’t scale with your regular proficiencies, so you should really only use this for access to an archetype.

2nd Level

Automatic Knowledge (***) What’s that? Aren’t I always saying you’re not the knowledge monkey? This is still true, but because of scaling you’re never going to critically fail with AK, and sometimes you might just succeed. Of course it requires investing in Assurance, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. Bonus points with Dubious Knowledge.

Bonded Animal (*) Why bond with an animal the normal way when your god can send an angel to turn a horse into the most majestic steed alive?

Confabulator (**) Not terrible if you lie a lot, which champions can do now!

Connections (**) Campaign dependent and reliant on Society, but good for urban campaigns.

Continual Recovery (****) This is a must-have for medic champions.

Glad-Hand (**) This is basically a reroll on a failed Diplomacy check, but that -5 is so hefty it’s almost not worth it, especially since a conniving GM will interrupt conversations before you’ve reached the 1 minute mark.

Intimidating Prowess (***) Perfect for anyone invested in Intimidation, this is a generally good bonus you can work it.

Lasting Coercion (***) Although technically situational and dependent on the type of campaign you’re playing, it’s a situation that can come up a fair amount.

Magical Crafting (**) If someone can show me better math than mine that makes Magical Crafting worthwhile I’d love to see it, but mine shows it being a waste compared to just Earning Income to supplement purchases.

Magical Shorthand (*) Not a caster.

Nimble Crawl (**) Not the worst thing for if you get knocked down, to save yourself some action economy, but becomes obsolete the second you hit 7 if this is enough of a concern to spend a feat.

Powerful Leap (***) Better jumping is good content.

Quick Disguise (**) Very campaign dependent, only useful if you find yourself needing to do a lot of quick changing.

Quiet Allies (**) This is actually a great feat and I highly recommend it if you’re doing Stealth, but I still don’t think you should be doing Stealth.

Rapid Mantel (**) I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen Grab an Edge come up in combat, but if you frequently fight near cliffsides it’s worth it.

Robust Recovery (***) Fantastic for any dedicated medic, because poison and disease suck and this will help anyone get over them much faster.

Unmistakable Lore (**) Not bad, just not particularly good.

Ward Medic (***) After Continual Recovery this is your next most important out-of-combat healing feat, making it much more time efficient.

Wary Disarmament (**) Even if you’re doing the trap disarming, you should already have a good AC, at least, making this only useful for the saves.

Eye of the Arclords (LOWG) (*) Constant detect magic really doesn’t give you much of anything, particularly not for so short a duration and with the dazzled debuff afterwards.

Godless Healing (LOWG) (***) If someone in your party has Battle Medicine this is a must-take.

Backup Disguise (LOCG) (**) As Quick Disguise, although between the two I like this more just because I think it’s far more fun.

Sow Rumor (LOCG) (**) Campaign dependent, very much geared towards a social/intrigue heavy game, but if you think you have use for it I personally find it very fun.

3rd Level

Ancestral Paragon (***) As good as any 1st level ancestry feat you want to grab.

Untrained Improvisation (*****) I cannot stress enough how good this is. Starting at 7th level it’s the single largest bonus to any skill in the game and it applies to every untrained skill you have, including Lore. This is easily the best general feat in the game, bar none.

7th Level

Battle Cry (***) A fun way to open a fight, although the legendary upgrade eats a reaction and so is less valuable to you.

Battle Prayer (*) Statistically speaking you’re better off just attacking, even with your third action, and unlike other martial classes you already have reliable sources of aligned damage.

Bizarre Magic (*) You don’t need to hide your focus spells from your enemies.

Environmental Grace (**) It’s very campaign dependent how useful this will be, even once you get past the deity requirements.

Evangelize (***) You’re incentivized to go Charisma anyway, and this makes for a decent third action to shut down casters.

Expeditious Search (***) You don’t natively meet the prerequisite, but if you find a way to get master Perception this is a decent feat.

Foil Senses (**) For the stealthy champion, it’s still only okay, since you could take precautions against special senses without the feat as well.

Impeccable Crafting (**) Making things is still not great.

Inventor (*) Adding even more time to the already incredibly lengthy process of Crafting items, no thank you.

Kip Up (****) Getting tripped now means almost nothing to you. Bonus points, trip and grapple (half the time anyway) effectively no longer have critical failure conditions.

Numb to Death (***) The rating is assuming you’ve met the prerequisites. Getting knocked down is awful, getting popcorned is even worse. This will help keep you from getting taken immediately back out after being healed, and potentially prevent what I’m finding is the all too common “death by Wounded.”

Planar Survival (**) This is the most campaign dependent thing on this entire list.

Quick Climb (**) Handy but by this point your party should have solutions to things in high places.

Quick Recognition (*) Same problem I had with Recognize Spell.

Quick Swim (**) Value depends on how often you go swimming, but if it’s very often and you don’t have a swim speed then this is a good pickup.

Quick Unlock (**) Just how often are you picking locks in encounter mode?

Sacred Defense (*) At level 7 with a maxed out Wisdom score you’re probably looking at a +17 Religion score, which means you need a 13 on the dice or higher. This naturally goes down as you level up, but it’s still an investment of both a feat and an action for a chance at a small amount of temporary Hit Points. The legendary version is a little more worth it but not by much.

Sanctify Water (*) Just absolutely god awful, if you’re going down this road you might as well take Battle Prayer instead for better action economy because they do almost the same thing.

Shameless Request (***) When it’s useful it’s going to be very useful, particularly not having to deal with critical failures on Requests.

Slippery Secrets (**) I would call this more GM dependent than campaign dependent, if these kinds of effects are a common schtick with them.

Swift Sneak (**) Once again, great for the Stealth guy and I disapprove of your life choices.

Terrified Retreat (**) Only works on a critical success and more importantly you’re making them run away from your weapon. As crowd control goes, fleeing is probably my least favorite.

Wall Jump (***) Situational but damned if it isn’t satisfying to use, hence the one star bump.

Entourage (LOCG) (**) As written, your posse is only providing a relatively small benefit (the main thing being the reduced Gather Info time), but keep in mind that in addition to the listed mechanical bonuses, you also have a posse. They won’t help in encounter mode but it can save a lot of in-game time and help you out if you have them handle small, basic stuff for you.

11th Level

Incredibly Investiture (**) Worth it if you’re running up against your investiture limit but I have yet to actually see that happen.

15th Level

Cloud Jump (***) Generally speaking a cool feat, if you’ve been taking the jumping stuff so far this is a natural conclusion for that line.

Craft Anything (*) Even if you do like crafting stuff this has incredibly specific requirements that mean you’re only getting use out of it for one, maybe two items.

Divine Guidance (***) I’m always a big fan of hints for stuff that’s upcoming, but especially when it makes your GM come up with cryptic messages on the fly.

Legendary Codebreaker (**) Hella campaign dependent, and you’re also probably not the person to be Deciphering Writing.

Legendary Linguist (**) Very cool and you’ll probably get at least one use out of it, but really not worthwhile unless you know you’re going to be meeting a lot of creatures you share no language with (and no one in your party has access to tongues.)

Legendary Medic (***) If you’re party medic, here’s your requisite upgrade. Very nice because its only overlap with Mercy feats is blinded, and doomed and drained are both really bad.

Legendary Negotiation (***) Feats like this can completely derail encounters and give you an easy win. GM discretion means you can’t use it to sit down and parley with Cthulu, but if you want it will still come in useful a lot.

Legendary Performer/Professional (**) Dependent on downtime and the area you find yourself in. The increased attitude for Performer is pretty good though.

Legendary Sneak (**) Docked points only for Stealth not being one of your main things, but for the weirdo who went Stealth champion, this is four stars.

Legendary Survivalist (**) As I’ve said, the problem here is that your friends still need to eat, drink, breathe and not burn or freeze to death.

Legendary Thief (**) As Legendary Sneak.

Scare To Death (***) Even if you discount the critical failure condition this is still a straight up upgrade to Demoralize.

Unified Theory (**) If Arcana were a primary skill for you.

Is this the end? No, it’s only the… well, not the beginning, probably around the 2/3 point actually because of how the split ended up. Anyway here’s part 2.