In our Gatewalkers game, my barbarian bit the dust in book 1. Very sad but more importantly, an opportunity arose; I could play this little awakened hedgehog dude! Only, there were some troubles. First off, Awakened Animal PCs aren't officially supported until the next splatbook comes out, so I needed to jury-rig a hedge hogman ancestry.
This was very easy.
The next hurdle was to find out what kind of class fits this little dude and worked with our party's already quite janky setup.
This was very hard.
ANCESTRY DETAILS
Hedge Hogman
Traits: Rare, Animal, Humanoid, Hedge Hogman;
Ancestry HP: 6;
Stats: +STR +CON +FREE(CHA) -INT;
Heritage: Quillcoat Hogman (Stolen from Shisk's "Quillcoat shisk");
Senses: Lowlight Vision;
Feats: 1-Animal Elocutionist (Gnome), 5-Renewing Quills (Shisk), 9-Critter Shape (Beastkin)
BACKGROUND
Dance Prodigy: +CHA +STR. Dance Lore, Virtuosic Performer (Dance, naturally)
CLASS
Swashbuckler
Key: Dex.
Final Boosts: +STR, +CON, +WIS, +CHA;
Subclass: Battledancer (Naturally);
Class Feats: 1-Focused Fascination, 2-Antagonize, 4-Leading Dance, 6, Combination Finisher, 8, Reactive Strike, 10-Derring Do;
Skill Feats: 2-Intimidating Glare, 3-Distracting Performance, 4-Lengthy Diversion, 5-Assurance: Acrobatics, 6-Assurance: Stealth, 7-Steady Balance, 8-Battlecry, 9-Catfall, 10-Terrified Retreat;
Free Archetype Feats: 2-Bard Dedication, 4-Multifarious Muse: Versatile Performance, 6-Uplifting Overture, 8-Rallying Anthem, 10, Lingering Performance;
General Feats: 3-Armor Proficiency, 7-Toughness;
Juiced Skills: Performance (Master @ 7), Deception (Master @ 9);
Equipment: Greatsword, Handwraps of Mighty Blows, Breastplate, a million scrolls of Bless, Jolt Coil, Dancing Scarf;
Spells: Shield, Musical Accompanyment
IN REVIEW
Our hogman friend here specializes in the Performance Skill to the extreme. On its own, Performance is good for... building panache. That's it. After snagging every feat, putting on some sick tunes w/ Musical Accompaniment, and doing a prepatory headspin or two, Hedge Hogman Capoeria takes off.
Once Panache is obtained (stupid easy for Battledancer), Performance is now rolled with 5e-style Advantage, can be used to Demoralize, Aid every skill check, Distract to make teammates Hidden in plain sight, perform an MAP-less Reposition, make good impressions on people and animals, MMO-style taunt on spellcasters, and extend a defensive buff/prepared aid over the course of a fight.
There's also a sneaky trick in there, did you catch it? Hedge Hogman Capoeira also subtly encourages enemies to attack the Swashbuckler while debuffed via the Antagonize feat (cutely enough, this also uses performance!), potentially triggering a nasty Opportune Riposte with a big greatsword, or at the very least a faceful of Quillcoat Spikes.
This is really flavorful and fun--I really like stacking features onto skills, and this does this with reckless abandon!
How are you making the Greatsword eligible for Precise Strike, given its lack of Agile or Finesse traits? Am I missing an interaction, or are you opting to forgo both the Precise Strike damage and the Confident Finisher?
Greatsword does not qualify for precise strike. Its mainly used in situations where building panache would be a hassle or for reactive strikes. Unarmed Strikes are otherwise used for precise strikes and finishers.
Something that's been pretty effective is striding in and hitting enemies with a sword-boot combo, as the two attacks make up for eachothers weaknesses pretty well when compared to say, just a standard rapier. High base damage on the sword offsets lack of punch on non-finisher strikes, and the crit spec can setup a really smooth agile combination finisher that might otherwise miss on a non-agile weapon.
A good alternative weapon would be a hatchet for sweep+agile or dandbatta for the elusive twin trait, but I'm a big fan of big strength weapons.