Champion Handbook: PF2 Class Guide

Introduction

The Champion is a big, tanky brute with some divine flavor. Capable of bothwithstanding and dealing great amounts of damage, the champion is awell-rounded Defender with a great theme and interesting mechanics. However,the champion adheres to either end of the good/evil alignment axis, so theChampion can often feel unwelcome in a party of adventurers who are lessideologically extreme.

In Dungeons and Dragons and in Pathfinder 1e, the Champion was called the“Paladin”, and was historically locked into Lawful-Good alignment, along witha strict code of conduct which made it difficult to include paladins in aparty of characters who might not be good-aligned, and even in good-alignedparties, paladins were frequently seen as an inflexible and frustrating moralcompass. The Paladin’s strict moral code has been a subject of derision fordecades, and only in recent years did DnD and Pathfinder entertain the idea ofpaladins of less rigid alignments.

DnD now allows paladins of any alignment in the core rules, Pathfinder 1epublished archetypes for other alignments, and Pathfinder 2e’s Core Rulebookallows three types of Good-aligned Champions, which was then expanded in theAdvanced Player’s Guide to cover the three evil alignments. Still, your alliesmay find your character’s rigid morality (or immorality) frustrating, sodiscuss the matter with your party before brining a champion into the game.

In a party, the Champion’s primary role is a Defender, and few classes canfill that role so well with so little effort. Depending on your selection ofskills and class feats, the Champion can also serve as a Face, a Healer, and aStriker, though they may not be so effective at healing as the Cleric sincethey lack a broad list of spells. The Champion is notably the only class thatgets proficiency in spell attacks and spell DCs without getting an actualspell list, which makes it easy for the Champion to multiclass into classeswith the Divine spell list like the Cleric and the Sorcerer (with the rightbloodline, of course).

Introduction
Disclaimer
Champion Class Features
Subclasses – Deity and Cause
Ability Scores
- Strength-Based
- Dexterity-Based
Ancestries
Backgrounds
Skills and Skill Feats
Feats
- Champion Feats
  - 1st Level
  - 2nd Level
  - 4th Level
  - 6th Level
  - 8th Level
  - 10th Level
  - 12th Level
  - 14th Level
  - 16th Level
  - 18th Level
  - 20th Level
- General Feats
Weapons
Armor
- 1st-Level Spells
- 3rd-Level Spells
- 5th-Level Spells
- 6th-Level Spells
- 7th-Level Spells
- 10th-Level Spells
Magic Items
- Weapons
- Other Magic Items
Archetypes

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
Green: Good options. Useful often.
Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Champion Class Features

Key Ability: The choice between Strength or Dexterity meansthat you can build for a variety of weapons. Even if you plan to use heavyarmor (and you should, both for the higher AC and the Armor SpecializationEffects), you have plenty of ability score increases to raise your Strengthenough that your armor won’t be a problem.

Hit Points: 10+ is standard for front-linemartial classes.

Initial Proficiencies: The Champion hassome of the best defensive proficiencies in the game, and their weaponproficiencies are as good as any other martial class except the Fighter. TheChampion also gets as many Trained skills as most classes, but you’re lockedinto two of them so you have much less flexibility than other classes.

Perception: The worst Perceptionprogression in the game.
Saving Throws: Good Fortitude and Willsave progressions, but poor Reflex save progression.
Skills: A total of 4+, but you’re lockedinto Religion, and one comes from your Deity so you have very few actualchoices compared to other classes.
Attacks: Simple and Martial weapons, andyour proficiencies improve at the same rate as other martial classes, givingthe Champion weapon proficiencies better than anyone except the Fighter.
Defenses: Proficiency with heavy armor,and the best armor proficiency in the game. The Champion is the only classto reach Legendary proficiency with armor.
Class DC: Among the best Class DCprogressions in the game.

Deity and Cause: See “Subclasses – Deity and Cause”,below.

Deific Weapon: Nice to have, but rarelysignificant.

Devotion Spells: Devotion Spells are theChampion’s Focus Spells. In addition, you get proficiency with Divine spellattacks and spell DC’s so getting access to some divine spells can be veryeffective. Your spellcasting proficiencies aren’t as good as those ofdedicated spellcasting classes, but they’re better than the Warpriest and theyadvance faster than characters who are taking multiclass feats to getproficiency.

Champion Feats: See Champion feats, below.

Shield Block: It’s difficult to choose touse a shield without this feat, so getting it for free is helpful. If youreally like shields, you might consider taking the Shield Ally feature toimprove their effectiveness. However, keep in mind that you only have oneReaction and Shield Block will need to compete with your Champion’sReaction.

Skill Feats: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

Divine Ally: Your choice of Divine Ally isa significant decision point that can’t be changed. Blade Ally is the go-tofor two-handed weapon users, but it’s still good for one-handed weapon users.Shield Ally is great for sword-and-board builds, and class feats will improveyour ability to use your shield. Steed Ally is essential for mounted builds,but beware the number of feats you’ll need to spend to keep your AnimalCompanion useful. If you’re having trouble deciding, remember than you cantake the Second Ally feat to get another, though you may have trouble findingenough feat slots to make both allies meaningful.

Blade Ally (Evil): Evil champions canselect Fearsome, but can’t select Disrupting or Ghost Touch like goodchampions can. They can still select Returning and Shifting, so the sameadvice applies. Fearsome is an easy way to make targets Frightened, which isa really effective debuff.
Blade Ally (Good): None of the runes areparticularly expensive, but they’re still good options. If you like to usespecial attacks like tripping and disarming, use Shifting. If you’re usingsomething throwable like a spear, use Returning. Disrupting and Ghost Touchare only situationally useful, so save those for days where you expect toface relevant opponents. This is notably the Champion’s only way to getaccess to Critical Specialization effects, and since the Champion’s Class DCis so good the DC to resist their effects is very high.
Shield Ally: The Hardness of your shielddetermines how much damage you can negate with Shield Block. Adding morehardness and more hit points means that your shield will last longer andprotect you better. However, the additional points won’t scale as you gainlevels, and damage from single attacks will continue to scale so you can’trely on this alone. As you gain levels, be sure to invest in magical shieldsor shields made of special materials. In the event that your shield isbroken or destroyed, you can grab a spare. The effect appears to apply toany shield that you use, rather than a specific shield or one you pickedduring your daily preparations.
Steed Ally: Riding a horse that isn’t ananimal companion in Pathfinder is an expensive way to quickly own a deadhorse. The way damage and hit points scale make mundane mounts totallyunusable beyond very low levels. If you plan to ride a horse (and there aregood reasons to do so), you need an Animal Companion. If you choose SteedAlly, be sure to read myPractical Guide to Animal Companions.

General Feats: Standard.

Ability Boosts: Standard.

Ancestry Feats: Standard.

Weapon Specialization: More damage on weaponattacks.

Champion Expertise: The best Class DCprogression in the game, and your spellcasting proficiencies are good too.

Subclasses – Deity and Cause

The first, and possibly most important benefit of your subclass is theChampion’s Reaction. This is a powerful option for using your Reaction whichcan have a huge impact on the way your character works in combat.

These Reactions all occur when enemies target your allies, and the conditionsof the Reactions require that your ally and your enemy be within 15 feet ofyou. This forces the Champion into melee, and it means that your Champion’sReaction may not see consistent use if your allies prefer to stay far out ofmelee combat.

Antipaladin

The Antipaladin is an offense-focused evil subclass, encouraging a highlyrisky play style where you capitalize on enemies hitting you, then willinglytake additional damage to harm your attacker in kind. Since the Antipaladin’sversion of Champion’s Reaction only occurs when you’re hit with an attack byan enemy within 15 feet, you’re encouraged to forgo a shield and get intomelee as quickly as possible and encourage enemies to focus their attacks onyou instead of your allies.

Perhaps the Antipaladin’s biggest problem is the “Tank Fallacy”. You’re bigand durable and hard to kill, but little about the subclass makes it easier tokill your enemies unless they choose to attack you and trigger DestructiveVengeance. As soon as they figure out how Destructive Vengeance works, there’sa huge disincentive to continue attacking you instead of your allies. Look forways to force enemies to remain in melee with you.

This is not a subclass for the cautious or the faint-hearted, and not justbecause you’re likely playing a murderous psycopath. Be sure that your partycan provide plenty of healing.

Champion’s Reaction: Destructive Vengeance: Choosing to take damage so that your enemy takes an equal amount ofdamage is usually a bad trade for player characters. If you go this route,make sure that you have the ability to heal yourself.
Focus Spell: Touch of Corruption: A greatoffensive option, and it can heal undead creatures.
Divine Smite: Persistent damage is reallygood, and it makes Destructive Vengeance a much better option since yourenemy will take considerably more damage than you. You can combine this withLitany of Depravity, and the PersistentDamage will also benefit from theWeakness applied by the spell.
Exalt: Divine Smite already madeDestructive Vengeance a good trade, and this makes it even better. The shortrange means that it won’t be especially impactful unless you’re beingswarmed, but champions often have trouble handling crowds of enemies.

Desecrator

Perhaps the most survivable champion subclass, and you don’t even need ashield. Selfish Shield provides an easily-accessible mechanism to mitigatedamage as a reaction. However, beyond Touch of Corruption the subclass offersno defensive or support abilities. It’s pretty much just the damage reduction.So, like the Antipaladin, the Desecrator falls into the Tank Fallacy. Ifyou’re not doing much to cause problems and you’re very difficult to kill, whywould your enemies bother attacking you instead of one of your allies who arelikely both more lethal and less durable.

Champion’s Reaction: Selfish Shield:Similar in many ways to the Shield Block reaction. There is a short range atwhich you can use this, but you don’t need to carry a shield, use the Raisea Shield Action, or spend time constantly repairing damaged shields. Grab atwo-handed weapon and go forth with the confidence that you’re not tradingdurability for that additional offense.
Focus Spell: Touch of Corruption: A greatoffensive option, and it can heal undead creatures.
Divine Smite: More damage reduction isnice, but it’s at most 3 more points per attack.
Exalt: A -1 penalty isn’t huge, but itmay apply to numerous targets which can make a difference.

Liberator

The Liberator is great at facing enemies that like to restrict their targets’movement with conditions like Grappled and Paralyzed. While those conditionscan absolutely be a problem for your party, the creatures which rely on themare only a fraction of the total number of foes you might face. Against thosespecific foes you’ll be very important, but the rest of the time the mostyou’ll get out of your Champion’s Reaction is the ability to reduce somedamage and let your allies Step. Those are fantastic things to do, butcompared to other subclasses the Liberator just can’t compete across the broadspectrum of possible scenarios.

Champion’s Reaction: Liberating Step:Consistently useful, and an absolutely stellar use of your Reaction. Thedamage reduction is already nice, allowing you to use your Reaction todramatically improve your party’s ability to absorb damage. But somehowthat’s the least exciting part of this feature despite already being veryuseful.
Effects that grab, paralyze, etc. your allies can be a huge problem,and allowing your allies to repeat a save or Escape for free means thatthey may not be paralyzed, etc. on their turn, and they hopefully won’tneed to spend an Action to Escape before they can do somethinguseful.
See Also
Player's Guide - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Database
If you ally isn’t affected by one of the listed effects, they caninstead Step, potentially saving them an Action on their turn to do soand giving your party an advantage in the action economy. More actionsspent eliminating foes means that you win fights faster and at lowerresource cost, and effects which allow characters to improve theirAction economy are usually expensive, have limited number of uses, oraren’t available until very high level.
If you want to abuse this, consider putting an angry rat in your ally’spocket. The rat will attack them and should be considered an enemy, butit won’t do enough damage to get past the damage resistance, so you canrepeatedly trigger the Reaction to get the other benefits. If your allyis under one of the listed effects, they get extra saves/Escapeattempts, and if they’re not they can get an extra Step during yourturn.
Focus Spell: Lay on Hands: Never notuseful. A big pile of reliable healing.
Divine Smite: Situational. This willonly be useful against foes who rely on options which restrain yourmovement.
Exalt: Finally something that doesn’trely on enemies trying to grab you or something! A Step could save one ormore of your allies an Action on their turn, making this a significantimprovement to your whole party’s action economy. You still need to bewithin 15 ft. of the allies you want to affect, unfortunately, but theallies close to you in melee are the ones who really need this.

Paladin

Do you hate evil? Do you want to respond to evil with some simple,straight-forward violence? That’s the Paladin. Their Champion’s Reaction andtheir feat options emphasize offense, granting you additional attacks anddamage. Paladins will often favor two-handed weapons for the extra damageoutput, and reach weapons are a great idea so that you can more easily relyupon Retributive Strike.

Champion’s Reaction: Retributive Strike:Reduce damage to your ally, and potentially make a melee Strike as part ofthe Reaction. A great reason to use a weapon with reach, but you can also gobeyond your reach if you take the Ranged Reprisal class feat.
Focus Spell: Lay on Hands: Never notuseful. A big pile of reliable healing.
Divine Smite: Even more damage on top ofthe extra Strike that you get to make.
Exalt: The more melee allies you have, thebetter this is. Even with the -5 penalty (or -2 if you take Aura ofVengeance) this is still potentially a huge amount of damage.

Redeemer

Where the Paladin is all about offense, the Redeemer is more focused ondefense. Glimpse of Redemption both protects your allies and debuffs theattacker, providing additional protection beyond the moment in which you usethe Reaction. Higher-level options allow you to better protect your allies,even allowing you to reduce damage to multiple allies suffering damage fromthe same attack.

Champion’s Reaction: Glimpse of Redemption: The way that the text is formatted makes this hard to read. The attackerchooses to either not deal damage (unlikely), or they choose to deal damagereduced by 2 plus your level but they become Enfeebled 2. Enfeebled is agreat debuff for Strength-based enemies that rely on melee attacks, so thisis a great way to continue protecting your allies even after you’ve usedyour Reaction. You also don’t need to be in melee reach like RetributiveStrike, so you don’t need to stand right next to your allies at all times orcarry a reach weapon. If Enfeebled isn’t good enough, you can take Weight ofGuilt to make Stupefied an option so that you can handicap spellcasters ormake enemies vulnerable to Will saves.
Focus Spell: Lay on Hands: Never notuseful. A big pile of reliable healing.
Divine Smite: Enemies will rarely chooseto deal no damage, so this is almost guaranteed. Of course, if they knowthis is coming maybe they’ll choose to do no damage with their attack.Either way, it works out great for you.
Exalt: Perfect for area effects. Even withthe damage resistance very slightly reduced, reducing the damage to even oneadditional creature will massively increase the amount of total damagereduced.

Tyrant

The Tyrant falls into the Tank Fallacy just as much as the other evilsubclasses. Iron Repercussions has the ability to make the damage from IronCommand persistent, so enemies only need to make the mistake of hitting youonce for Iron Command to be reasonably impactful. Even so, since Champion’sReaction is such a central feature of the Champion it’s disappointing to knowthat it’s going to be largely useless as soon as enemies figure it out.

Champion’s Reaction: Iron Command: Maybenot super impactful, but either the target makes themselves Prone (whichalso makes them Flat-Footed), or they take automatic damage with no save orattack roll required. Even better, you can make the damage Persistent Damagewith the Iron Repercussions Class Feat.
The bonus damage on Strikes against them during your next turn is nice,too, and since you can change the damage type you can get around damageresistences more easily. If foes choose to make themselves Prone,hopefully you have an ally who is built to capitalize on Flat-Footedenemies like a rogue.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this is that you need to be damaged byan attack, which excludes many spells and also means that enemies cansimply ignore you to avoid the effect entirely.
Focus Spell: Touch of Corruption: A greatoffensive option, and it can heal undead creatures.
Divine Smite: Persistent damage is reallygood, and it makes Destructive Vengeance a much better option since yourenemy will take considerably more damage than you. You can combine this withLitany of Depravity, and the Persistent Damage will also benefit from theWeakness applied by the spell.
Exalt: Spread Iron Command to everyenemy within 15 feet. They’ll likely choose to take the tiny amount ofmental damage, and the ongoing damage from your Divine Smite and IronConsequences don’t apply if I understand the text correctly. The damagewon’t be significant unless you’re being swarmed, but it’s helpful sincechampions aren’t great at handling crowds.

Ability Scores

The Champion is one of the most MAD classes in the game. It’s hard to find anactual dump stat because you benefit from every ability score. Strength-basedbuilds can dump Dexterity, but you don’t want to go below 10. Dexterity-basedbuilds can dump Strength, but it means using crossbows and giving up on ArmorSpecializations. You can dump Intelligence, but you get very few skill optionsalready so that can be very limiting outside of combat. You can dump Wisdom,but Will saves are important.

But because the Champion is only fully dependent on a few ability scores, youcan also weigh the costs and benefits of your ability scores and adjust yourbuild to your liking. You could dump Intelligence if you have a lot of skillsin your party (maybe you have a rogue or unusually intelligent party members),or you could dump Wisdom if you have allies who can provide extra protectionor who can set you right when you fail a saving throw. You could technicallydump Charisma if you don’t want to be a Face or use Focus Spells, but DivineSmite is built into the class so you’ll lose some damage output. Do what makessense to you.

Strength-Based

Most champions will likely prefer Strength-based weapons, especially if youplan to use two-handed melee weapons.

Str: Attacks and damage.

Dex: You don’t need any more than 10.You’ll eventually be in Full Plate, and the Bulwark trait provides a +3 bonusto Reflex saves which will override your Dexterity modifier anyway.

Con: Hit points are crucial.

Int: You only get to choose 2+int of theskills from your class, which gives you very little flexibility. MoreIntelligence means more options, and you’re a great candidate for Faceskills.

Wis: You need some for Will saves, butthat’s all.

Cha: Your spellcasting ability. Importantfor Focus Spells and class features like your Class DC and Divine Smite, andabsolutely crucial if you plan to multiclass to get more spellcasting.

Dexterity-Based

While Strength is the expectation, Dexterity is an option for your KeyAbility, which means that a Dexterity-based build is absolutely possible.You’ll still want some Strength to boost your damage output, but it’s anafterthought rather than a defining decision point.

Str: Youneed some for extra damage. Remember that if you’re using a Propulsive weaponyou only get half of the bonus, so stop at either 14 or 18 depending on howmany boosts you want to invest and whether or not you want to wear heavyarmor. You may be able to dump strength by relying on crossbows instead ofbows, especially if you’re comfortable in light armor. The Champion’s armorproficiency is the best in the game, so even in light armor your AC will beateveryone else’s by 1.

Dex: If you want to use a bow or a finesseweapon, you need as much Dexterity as you can get. You could easily fight inlight armor, too, but when you can afford it you should absolutely wear heavyarmor both for the extra AC and the Armor Specialization effects. Be sure toavoid Full Plate, though, because Bulwark will override your Dexteritymodifier to Reflex saves.

Con: Hit points are crucial.

Int: You only get to choose 2+int of theskills from your class, which gives you very little flexibility. MoreIntelligence means more options, and you’re a great candidate for Faceskills.

Wis: You need some for Will saves, butthat’s all.

Cha: Your spellcasting ability. Importantfor Focus Spells and class features like your Class DC and Divine Smite, andabsolutely crucial if you plan to multiclass to get more spellcasting.

Ancestries

Increases to your three most important ability scores (Str/Dex, Con, Cha) aregreat, but the Champion is flexible enough that as long as you can increaseeither your Strength or Dexterity you should be fine. Beyond that, you canfind interesting options from nearly any ancestry depending on your build.

Catfolk: Dexterity and Charisma work greatfor a Dexterity-based build, and the Wisdom flaw is minimally impactful. TheCat’s Luck feat tree will go a long way to enhance your saving throws,especially the Champion’s low Reflex saves, adding to your already excellentdurability.

Dwarf: Even with the Charisma Flaw, theDwarf is a fine option for the Champion. High starting hit points and aConstitution increase are great for a durable champion, and if you stay awayfrom spellcasting and Face skills you’ll do fine. Dwarven Weapon Familiarityadds some new weapon options like the Dwarven Waraxe, which is a spectacularoption if you like to use a shield sometimes but not constantly. You can alsoget access to Critical Specialization effects, which is great if you didn’twant to select Blade Ally. All of that can leave you feeling like a fighterwith some minor divine flavor, which may be exactly what you want, or it mightbe underwhelming if you’re looking to play a warrior driven by divinepower.

Elf: A Constitution Flaw is hard, but withthe Optional Ability Flaws you can end up with +2 Dex and a Flexible AbilityBoost which you can put into your choice of Constitution or Charisma. For aDexterity-based build, that’s probably enough. You can get some extra skilloptions from the Ancestral Longevity feat tree, and Otherworldly Magic can getyou a cantrip like Shield which you can benefit from despite it being Arcanespellcasting.

Gnome: If you’re happy with a crossbow orwith putting enough boosts into Strength to overcome the Strength Flaw, theGnome’s ability boosts are spectacular. Wellspring Gnome can get you acantrip, including one from the Divine spell list (which takes advantage ofthe Champion’s spellcasting proficiency progression). Gnome Weapon Familiaritycan get you access to the Gnome Flickmace, which is a great reach weaponoption if you still want a shield (though the Strength Flaw will be an evenbigger problem), and with other Ancestry Feats you can add options like anAnimal Companion and a cantrip from the Primal spell list.

Goblin: Perfect ability scores for aDexterity-based build, and you don’t even have the Strength Flaw that theGnome suffers. Unfortunately, the Goblin has fewer appealing Ancestry Featoptions. Rough Rider makes it easier to get an Animal Companion that’s moreinteresting than the Horse, but remember that most Animal Companions lose mostof their interesting capabilities while you ride them.

Halfling: Similar to the gnome, but theAbility Boosts don’t line up quite as well, and the Ancestry Feats don’tdirectly contribute to the Champion quite as well as the Gnome’s. Still, thereare some interesting options here. Unfettered Halfling matches thematicallywith the Liberator, and Halfling Luck is literally always good. Plus, you cantake Cultural Adaptability to get good options from other Ancestries.

Human: Two free Ability Boosts worksliterally anywhere, and between Ancestry Feats and Heritages you have plentyof options. Versatile Heritage or General Training can get you a General Featlike Toughness, which will reduce the need for a Constitution Boost.Unconventional Weaponry can get you access to options like the Gnome Flickmaceif you want to use a shield but also want reach for things like RetributiveStrike. Multitalented can help you get multiclass feats in order to get accessto Divine spellcasting. There are lots of good options. If you’re absolutelydesperate for a third Ability Boost, you can use the Optional Flaw rules to doso, and depending on what you’re willing to give up it may be worth thecost.

Kobold: This is definitely playable, but itwill be challenging. A Constitution flaw and minimum ancestry hit points are ahard start, but Cringe can easily offset both and totally replaces any needfor a shield, though it competes with Champion’s Reaction for your Reactioneach round. The Kobold Breath feat chain also offers a helpful option handlecrowds, which is normally difficult for the Champion.

Orc: Two increases is enough, and the Orc isall about being in melee and being hard to kill, which serves the Championperfectly. If you take Steed Ally, Ferocious Beasts is great. The Orc Ferocityfeat chain is great on any champion.

Ratfolk: The boosts and flaws don’t line upwell, and the Ratfolk’s only interesting ancestry feats relate to itemmanagement which champions don’t typically need to worry about.

Tengu: Workable, but you can get similarand better options from other ancestries like the Catfolk or the Goblin.Squawk is neat for a Face build, but there are few gems among the Tengu’sother Ancestry Feats.

Backgrounds

Boosts to important ability scores are crucial, but also look for skillsandskill feats which complement your character concept. Remember that youonlyget 2+ skills of your choice from the Champion, so the skillproficiencygranted by your Background can be an important decision point, andthe SkillFeat granted by your Background can be extremely useful.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

Barrister
Emissary (Society)
Guard
Noble
Warrior

Skills and Skill Feats

You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.

You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.

- Acrobatics (Dex): Too situational, andless useful since you don’t have a built-in way to fly until level 18.You might consider picking up proficiency at that point, but mostcharacters will never get that far.
- Arcana (Int): Useful, but leave itfor someone with higher Intelligence if you can.
- Athletics (Str): Great if you want touse special attacks like Shove and Trip, but the Champion is lessdependent on those options than the Fighter so it’s not absolutelycrucial.
- Crafting (Int): Useful for repairingdamaged shields, but don’t expect to go making anything exciting. Youprobably don’t need to go beyond Trained for a long time. If youcontinue to use shields at high levels, improving your Proficiency andtaking Quick Repair can allow you to repair a damaged shield in the heatof combat, quickly returning your cripplingly expensive shield to fulleffectiveness.
- Deception (Cha): Lying might not seemlike it’s a fitting option for the Champion, but it’s still a usefulFace Skill, and Lie to Me can help mitigate the Champion’s terriblePerception progression.
  - Lie to Me: Your Deception DC willalmost certainly be higher than your Perception DC, so this willhelp protect you from lies despite the Champion’s poor Perceptionprogression.
- Diplomacy (Cha): If you have evenmoderate Charisma, you’re probably
  - Legendary Negotiation: Whileit’s obviously less violent than killing things, Scare to Deathbecomes available at the same time and only take a singleAction.
- Intimidation (Cha): One of few skillsthat you can consistently legerage in combat, and an important Faceskill.
  - - Battlecry: Demoralize for freewhen combat starts. It might not be a good option if you’rehiding, but otherwise it’s a free debuff at the beginning ofevery fight.
  - - Terrified Retreat: Countingon a critical success is hard, but if your Charisma is very highit might work.
  - Scare to Death: Spend one Actionto pick out the creature in the room the lowest Will save and killthem or send them fleeing. Repeat until the room is cleared. At thispoint you only need weapons for things that are strong enough tothreaten your whole party on their own, and even then this can stillreplace the Demoralize action almost entirely.
- Lore (Int): Versatile, but vaguelydefined and hard to rely upon. You likely won’t have enough extra skilloptions to take Lore beyond what you get from your Background.
- Medicine (Wis): The most importantusage of Medicine is to restore hit points, and you can get that fromLay on Hands which you get for free.
- Nature (Wis):Useful, but leave itfor someone with higher Wisdom if you can. Even if you choose SteedAlly, you don’t need this to command your Animal Companion becauseAnimal Companions use different rules for the Command an Animalaction.
- Occultism (Int): Useful, but leaveit for someone with higher Intelligence if you can.
- Performance (Cha): Too situational.
- Religion (Wis): You’re Trained bydefault, but a character with higher Wisdom will likely be moreeffective.
  - Divine Guidance: This can be agreat feat if your GM is clever, but you likely can’t afford theSkill Increases to get Religion up to Master.
- Society (Int):Useful, but leave itfor someone with higher Intelligence if you can.
- Stealth (Dex): You need to havesomeone sneaky in your party, but the Champion usually isn’t a greatoption. Even if Dexterity is your Key Ability Score, heavy armor isextremely appealing and the Check Penalty from your armor can be aserious problem.
Survival (Wis): Too situational.
Thievery (Dex): An absolutely essentialskill, and a Dexterity-based Champion could absolutely use it.

Feats

Champion Feats

1st Level

Deity’s Domain: Keep in mind that whilethis adds a new Focus Spell it doesn’t expand your Focus Pool so the spellneeds to compete with Lay on Hands. Many domain Focus Spells are verypowerful, offering a lot of excellent magic options which are absolutelyworth the Focus Point to cast them. See myDomains Breakdown for help withDomains.
Desperate Prayer: If you really enjoyFocus Spells, this can be a great option. Characters taking ChampionMulticlass Devotion might consider this for a build where Focus Spells are acentral feature.
Iron Repercussions: (Tyrant only). Thisseems too good to be a 1st-level feat. 1d6 Persistent Damage at 1st level isenough to kill many enemies over the course of a few rounds. Trigger thisthen hide behind a shield. If you get hit again, you can always choose todeal regular damage instead of Persistent Damage.
Ongoing Selfishness: (Desecrator only) Afew points of additional damage resistance to additional attacks won’t domuch until you’ve gained a few levels, but against enemies which makemultiple Strikes in a typically turn this will prevent a lot of damage overthe course of your career.
Ranged Reprisal: (Paladin only). Despitethe name, this is useable with both ranged weapons and with melee weapons.Having a reach weapon and still being 5 feet too far away to make aRetributive Strike is immensely frustrating, especially at low levels when asingle attack can make such a huge difference. This is essential forpaladins.
Unimpeded Step: (Liberator only).Situational.
Vicious Vengeance: (Antipaladin only).At most 1 extra damage per round at level 1, and it scales to at most 6damage per round.
Weight of Guilt: (Redeemer only) Stupefieddebuffs foes which rely on mental ability scores, including enemyspellcasters. In addition, it reduces their Will Saves, making them morevulnerable to spells and other options line Demoralize.

2nd Level

Conceited Mindset: (Evil only). Mentaleffects make up most effects which target Will Saves. The +2 bonus alone isenough that you can worry a bit less about having Wisdom to back yoursaves.
Divine Grace: Situational, but a +2bonus is pretty good if your DM likes to use a lot of enemies who castspells.
Dragonslayer Oath: (Good only). Bonuses tofight evil dragons. The benefits vary by subclass, but they only applyagainst dragons which makes them situational by nature. Unless you’re in acampaign centered around slaying dragons, dragons will be incrediblyrare.
Esoteric Oath: (Good only). Aberrations arean uncommong creature type in most campaigns, but the Cthulhu mythos has aweird way of sneaking into Pathinder’s published Adventure Paths.
Fiendsbane Oath: (Good only). The sameeffects as Dragonslayer Oath, but fiends tend to be more common thandragons. Still situational, but more useful than Dragonslayer Oath.
Lightslayer Oath: (Evil only). In acampaign centered on evil characters, you could reasonably expect toencounter celestials at the same rate that good-aligned characters encounterfiends.
Shining Oath: (Good only). The sameeffects as Dragonslayer Oath, but undead tend to be more common thandragons. Still situational, but more useful than Dragonslayer Oath.
Vengeful Oath: (Paladin only). Turn Layon Hands into an attack option against evil creatures that harm your allies.You may not want to gamble with such a good healing option, but it’s asingle Action that deals a big pile of damage without making a Strike soit’s a great follow-up to your normal attacks.

4th Level

Accelerating Touch: Too situational.
Aura of Courage: (Good only). Frightenedis an easy debuff which can come from a variety of sources. Immunity toFrightened 1 means that you’re largely immune to Demoralize, too.
Aura of Despair: (Evil only). Fear is ageat debuff, and forcing enemies to remain at Frightened 1 while within 15feet of you can leave you at an easy numerical advantage. If you don’t havespells or magic items that can make targets Frightened, Demoralize worksgreat.
Cruelty: (Evil only). A great motivationto use Touch of Corruption early in a fight, Enfeebled is a good debuff formartial creatures. However, it requires an Action to add this additonaleffect which means you’re spending an additional Action early in a fightwhen each Action is the most impactful. This is good, but not so good thatyou should consider this over any other option.
Divine Health: (Good only). Situational.The bonus is small, and you can rely on the Medicine skill’s Treat Diseaseaction for a bonus of the same type with twice the effect.
Mercy: Situational, though paralysis andfeat effects can often take an ally out of a fight for several rounds.

6th Level

Attack of Opportunity: A fantastic feat,but it conflicts with your Champion’s Reaction so you may not be able to useit consistently.
Corrupted Shield: (Evil only). It’s hard tofind a build where this fits. Antipaladin and Tyrant want to encourageattacks against them, and Shield Block is redundant for the Defiler. Ifyou’re getting hit, you should be using Champion’s Reaction instead ofShield Block. This would be really nice for good-aligned champions sincetheir versions of Champion’s Reaction are less about defendingthemselves.
Invigorating Mercy: Too situational.
Litany Against Wrath: See Focus Spells,below.
Loyal Warhorse: If you chose Steed Ally,you need to make your companion Mature to keep its stats good enough to keepit alive.
Shield Warden: Shield Block reduces thedamage by the Hardness of your shield. The published shields made of specialmaterials in the Core Rulebook have Hardness less than their level. Bycomparison, your Champion’s Reaction reduces the damage by 2+your level andworks up to 15 ft. away. However, if you take Quick Block you get an extraReaction which you can only use for Shield Block, allowing you to use bothShield Warden and your Champion’s Reaction in the same turn.
Smite Evil: A bit of extra damage perStrike, and the duration extends every time your target attacks one of yourallies. This creates a sort of Taunt effect, encouraging the foe to attackyou instead of your allies for at least one turn to end the effect. It’sunclear if enemies know about this mechanic, so check with your GM.Regardless, there’s no limit on how often you can use this, so any time thatyou have a spare Action and don’t want to spend it on a Strike you can startthis. As far as I can tell, you can have this running on multiple foessimultaneously, though I don’t think that’s a great option.
Smite Good: (Evil only). Smite Evil, butreversed.

8th Level

Advanced Deity’s Domain: This is notablythe first option for the Champion to increase the size of their Focus Pool.Advanced Domain spells are frequently very powerful, providing numerousmagical options otherwise not available to the Champion. See myDomains Breakdown for help withDomains.
Advanced Mercy: There are effects like thespell Blindness which can strike a target permanently blind or deaf. Thischanges those effects from a massive handicap into a momentaryinconvenience. You can also remove the Slowed effect, which is greatconsidering the 1-Action casting time of Lay on Hands.
Greater Cruelty: Enfeebled is great forStrength-based enemies, Clumsy is great for Dexterity-based enemies and ifyou want to lower the target’s AC, and Stupefied is great for spellcastersand if you want to reduce their Will saves.
Heal Mount: Add 4 hit points per spelllevel of Lay on Hands. This is a 2/3 increase in the amount healed, which issignificant but hopefully not necessary. Consider this if you took SteedMount, but if you need to heal your mount often enough to need this youshould really consider other ways to protect your mount like barding.
Quick Block: If you’re using a shield,this is absolutely essential. Your Champion’s Reaction is a much better useof your Reaction is most cases, but you can’t use it to protect yourself.This allows you to protect yourself (or an ally if you took Shield Warden)without losing the option to use Champion’s Reaction.
Sacrifice Armor: This is hard to justify.The amount of damage reduced will be significant, but you’re almostcertainly in heavy armor and a -3 penalty until your armor is repaired is ahuge price to pay to avoid some damage. That means that you’re likely goingto save this for late in fights when you’re going to be attacked fewer timesbetween breaking your armor and when you can repair it, and if you’re savingthis for late in fight just to save a few hit points you should look atbetter healing options instead.
Second Ally: Divine Ally is a greatability, and having two can be really useful. However, by this level thebasic benefits of Divine Ally may not be appealing compared to other feats,and you may have trouble finding enough feat slots to enhance your secondDivine Ally.
Sense Evil: In most cases you can figureout who or what is evil with a little bit of real-world insight, and incases where it’s not obvious this sense is vague to the point of beingbarely helpful. You might be able to use this to detect that evil creaturesare hidden or invisible nearby, but even then they might get a Deceptioncheck to avoid notice (consult your GM) and the Champion’s Perceptionprogression is terrible. If you desperately want this capability, take themulticlass archetype feats for something with the Divine spell list and castDetect Alignment.
Sense Good: (Evil only). Sense Evil but theexact opposite.

10th Level

Devoted Focus: If you’re finding yourFocus Spells to be very helpful and you took Advanced Deity’s Domain toexpand your Focus Pool, this is very important. The wording on recoveringFocus Points is very precise, so if you want your 2-point Focus Poolrefilled this is one of the only ways to do it.
Elucidating Mercy: Too situational.
Imposing Destrier: The most importantbenefit here is an improvement to your steed’s AC. If you’re doing finewithout that benefit, you may be able to skip this even if you’re heavilyreliant on Steed Ally.
Litany Against Sloth: (Good only). SeeFocus Spells, below. You also add a Focus Point to your pool.
Litany of Self-Interest: (Evil only). SeeFocus Spells, below. You also add a Focus Point to your pool.
Radiant Blade Spirit: The basic set ofproperty runes are fine but not very impressive. Flaming is a good go-to,but Anarchic/Axiomatic/Holy runes are level 11 items that cost 1,400gp.
Resilient Touch: Nice, but not veryimpactful. +1 isn’t a big mathematical increase and it only lasts oneround.
Shield of Reckoning: Double down onprotecting your allies. The wording of the text is slightly confusing, butthis uses a single Reaction to perform both the Shield Block and Champion’sReaction Reactions, so you’re getting twice as much out of one Reaction asnormal. If you have Quick Block, you can still use that extra Reaction forShield Block.

12th Level

Affliction Mercy: DIsease and Poison canbe treated with the Medicine skill, but curses can be a serious issue. Ofcourse, Remove Curse is a 4th-level spell on both the Divine and Occultspell lists, so by this level a cleric can easily handle all of theseproblems.
Amplifying Touch: The +1 bonus to attackswon’t make a huge difference, but if the target is weak to Good damage youcan easily turn this into a huge boost to your party’s damage output.
Aura of Faith: 1 damage only matters atthis level if you’re attacking tagets which have Vulnerability to Gooddamage.
Blade of Justice: In most cases, you won’tbe able to use this until the target attacks one of your allies in combat,conveniently making this a great combination with Smite Evil. When used,Blade of Justice is mechanically similar in many ways to the Fighter’s PowerAttack feat, but it adds some other nice things. Adding the effects ofRetributive Strike is a confusing way to think about things sinceRetributive Strike is just a normal Strike on its own. But by this level youhave both Divine Smite and Exalt, so your Retributive Strikes appliespersistent Good damage and allies within 15 feet of you and in melee of thetarget can make a Strike at a -5 penalty as a Reaction. If you have one ofthe Oath feats, the extra damage applies to your Strike. If you find thatyou use this consistently, be sure to pick up Aura of Vengeance to reduceyour allies’ penalty on the extra Strike and consider Instrument of Zeal fora bunch of extra damage if you score a critical hit.
Champion’s Sacrifice: The secondopportunity for the Champion to increase the size of their Focus Pool, andthis option doesn’t require two feats. Even if you never use Champion’sSacrifice even once, that’s a huge benefit. For more on Champion’sSacrifice, see Focus Spells, below.
Divine Wall: This means that most enemiescan’t step toward or away from you, meaning that they’re largely stuck inmelee with you.
Enforce Oath: +1 status bonus to allthings against the target basically until you stop fighting it. Over thatduration a +1 bonus is pretty good. Unfortunately, this requires you to takeone ore more oath feats, and those generally aren’t very good. If you gothat route, since this only works once per hour try to save it for thebiggest thing in the room.
Gruesome Strike: (Evil only). If you usedyour Champion’s Reaction last round, this is likely your best option foryour turn. The bonus damage is nice but not important, but Drained hitsreally hard.
Lasting Doubt: A fantastic way to extendthe effects of your Champion’s Reaction. If you have Weight of Guilt, youcan make the target both Enfeebled and Stupefied, debuffing themconsiderably for several rounds.
Liberating Stride: Situational. Steppingis typically sufficiency, and Striding can expose your allies to dangerousReactions.
Pale Horse: (Evil only). If you have amount, it’s likely a big part of your tactics. That makes it an easy targetfor your enemies. This will help discourage them from attacking it. I likethat the damage scales a bit, too.

14th Level

Anchoring Aura: Situational. Potentiallyexcellent against enemy spellcasters, but it seems unlikely that enemieswill intentionally teleport within 15 feet of you. On top of that, you needFiendsbane Oath to get it.
Aura of Life: Situational, but morebroadly useful than Aura of Righteousness. Unfortunately, you Shining Oathto get it.
Aura of Preservation: Too situationalunless your party is facing a weirdly large number of abberations.
Aura of Righteousness: Situational.Resistance to damage of any kind is great, but evil damage is rare.
Aura of Vengeance: If you’re getting alot of use out of your allies’ attacks on Retribute Strike, this is a greatidea. Much like Retributive Strike’s Exalt effect, this gets more usefuldepending on how many melee allies you have.
Divine Reflexes: Too good to forgo. Thislets you use your Champion’s Reaction twice in a round.
Greater Interpose: This makes it too easyto justify ruining your armor, which is likely among your most valuablepoesessions.
Litany of Depravity: (Evil only). See“Focus Spells”, below. Your Focus Pool expands by 1 point
Litany of Righteousness: See “FocusSpells”, below. Your Focus Pool expands by 1 point.
Wyrmbane Aura: Resistant equal to yourCharisma modifier to the 5 most common non-weapon damage types. The onlyproblem is that you also need the Dragonslayer Oath, which is not especiallyuseful on its own. In a way the two balance each other out because this isso much better than the equivalent aura feats for the other oaths.

16th Level

Auspicious Mount: Specializations offersome new options for your mount, and the ability to speak is certainlyinteresting, but you don’t strictly need this for your mount to beuseful.
Expanded Aura: Very situational. Generallyif you can’t reach an ally who needs to be within your aura, you can spendthe same Action to either Strep or Stride to close the distance. You couldimagine scenarioes where you need to keep multiple allies within the aurabut who are in opposite directions, but if your allies insist on doing thatyou should have a discussion with them about tactical positioning ratherthan investing an extremely high-level Class Feat to occasionally solve thatproblem. The fact that this only applies to one aura at a time is honestlyinfuriating. Even if this applied to every aura feat you have I wouldhesitate to rate this above orange.
Instrument of Slaughter: (Evil only). Thatis a huge amount of bleed damage, especially considering that evil championsmechanically favor two-handed weapons with large damage dice.
Instrument of Zeal: Slowed 1 robs thetarget of an Action on their turn, so between that and the extra damage diethis is an immensely satisfying addition your critical hits. Still, itdepends on a critical hit so it’s inherently unreliable.
Shield of Grace: By this level you havelots of options to prevent damage to your ally, including using both yourChampion’s Reaction and Shield Block against the same attack. Splitting thedamage between yourself and your ally is a very generous thing for you todo, but try to prevent that damage instead.

18th Level

Celestial Form: Darkvision and permanentnon-magical flight. You also look super cool. if you chose Steed Ally youmay want to skip this and take Celestial Mount at level 20 instead becauseyour mount’s speed will be so much better than yours.
Fiendish Form: (Evil only). CelestialForm, but you turn into a fiend instead.
Rejuvenating Touch: That’s a huge amountof temporary hit points. Sure, they don’t stack, but if the target is takingdamage with any sort of regularity this prevent a ton of it.
Ultimate Mercy: The time limit isproblematic, but if you’re close to your allies you can usually Stride toget into range for Lay on Hands. There doesn’t appear to be a usagelimitation beyond your Focus Points, so be sure to keep a Focus Point readyin case things go wrong.

20th Level

Celestial Mount: A bunch of greatimprovements to your mount, and also Weakness 10 to Evil damage.Thematically it makes sense, but that doesn’t make me like it.
Fiendish Mount: (Evil only). CelestialMount but evil.
Radiant Blade Master: The new runes onlylevel 13 or 14, just two levels higher than runes like Holy which aregranted by Radiant Blade Spirit 10 levels earlier. At this level the cost toadd these runes to a weapon is very reasonable, so you gain next to nothingfrom this feat. Spend the gold to get the rune normally, and use your level20 feat for something more interesting.
Sacred Defender: A significant amount ofresistance to the most common types of attack damage, and ignore natural20’s against you means that your unassailably high AC is flawless protectionagainst swarms of low-level creatures who might otherwise try to hit youbased solely on the number of creatures rolling for a natural 20.
Shield Paragon: By this level you’realmost certainly using an incredibly expensive shield like a high-gradeadamantine shield, so a way to recover it if it’s broken is a great way toprotect your investment. You also get the benefit of having your shieldraised constantly, so you no longer need to spend an Action every turn toraise it, leaving that Action free for more interesting things likeattacking.

General Feats

Canny Acumen: Your Perception neverIncreases beyond Expert, so this becomes a great option when you reach level17.
Incredible Initiative: The Champion’sPerception progression is terrible, and a +2 bonus to Initiative checks canhelp to mitigate that.
Ride: You don’t need this to ride yourSteed Ally because Animal Companions respond differently when you use theCommand an Animal action.
Toughness: More hit points are alwaysgreat, but Lay on Hands provides a significant amount of healing for asingle Action, so it’s not as helpful as it is for other martialclasses.

Weapons

Much like the Fighter, the Champion gets access to the full range of martial
weapons and make excellent use of any of them. Generally your choice of weapon
will reflect the tactics you plan to employ in combat and your choice of
Divine Ally.

Armor

Chain Mail: A great option for startingarmor, Chain Mail will provide adequate protection without eating all ofyour 15 starting gold.
Half Plate: For Dexterity-based buildsthis is your ideal armor. A good Armor Specialization effect, and since itdoesn’t have the Bulwark trait you still get to enjoy your high Dexteritymodifier for Reflex saves. And don’t worry: you still get as much AC as FullPlate.
Full Plate: If you have less than 16Dexterity, this is the best armor that you can get. Bulwak will overrideyour low Dexterity modifier to Reflex saves, helping to protect you fromarea effect damage which can easily circumvent your unusually high AC.

Champion Focus Spells – Devotion Spells

1st-Level Spells

Lay On Hands: For a single Action, this isa big pile of healing. You can use it on yourself or an an ally, and sinceit’s a Focus Spell you can repeatedly Refocus and heal yourself out ofcombat to ensure that you and your allies are always at full hit points.
Touch of Corruption: A good pile of damageto living targets or a big pile of healing to undead targets. It works on asingle Action and isn’t an attack, so it’s a great offensive option if youhave already made multiple attacks this turn and your Multiple AttackPenalty is a problem. Remember that the healing option doesn’t necessarilyrequire you to be undead: some creatures like the Dhampir Versatile Heritageallow you to be healed by effects which normally heal undead creatures.

3rd-Level Spells

Litany Against Wrath: A nice way to deterenemies from harming you and your allies, and with 30-foot range and a1-Action casting time, this is a great option to fit into a turn that youspend moving and/or attacking. However, it has some limitations. The spellonly takes effect of the target damages a Good creature, so the usefulnessof the spell is significantly diminished if you have non-Good party members.The effect is also clearly designed to be more effective against enemieswhich rely on dealing damage, so foes with

5th-Level Spells

Litany of Self-Interest: The duration isshort, but a +2 or +3 bonus is mathematically significant. While itdefinitely feels like you should use this on yourself, it may be moreeffective to put it on another martial ally because they’ll get their fullturn to use the bonuses rather than their turn minus the 1 Action to castthis.
Litany Against Sloth: The flavor text onthis spell is extremely misleading; removing the target’s ability to takeReactions is just part of the effect. The major effect is making the targetSlowed, which robs them of one or more Actions. If you can spend one Actionto rob the target one Action, you’re doing fine. Every Action after thatjust further improves the value of the Focus Point that you spent.

6th-Level Spells

Champion’s Sacrifice: Choosing to sufferthe full effects of an attack or a failed save is noble, but very dangeorus.The 30 foot range on this makes it a good fallback when an ally is outsideof your 15-foot range for Champion’s Reaction, so this extends your abilityto protect your allies by another 15 feet. Interestingly, this effectbypasses any of your own resistances and immunities, so if you’rehypothetically a robot which is immune to sleep, you can use this to be putto sleep instead of one of your allies.

7th-Level Spells

Litany of Depravity: The Weakness valueis really good, but the 1-round duration is a problem. You can likely maketwo more Strikes in the same turn, and the 14-20 damage (depending on thelevel at which you’re casting the spell) barely matchs the average damagefrom one more Strike an enhanced weapon at the level that this becomesavailable (assume 3d8+5 for a longsword, avg. 18.5). However, if you haveother allies who can deal Evil damage, this is a spectacular way to focus abunch of damage on one target in a hurry. Unfortunately this isn’t quite asuseful as Litany of Righteousness because evil champions don’t get ways tolet their allies deal evil damage.
Litany of Righteousness: For one action, atarget within 30 ft. gets Weakness to Good damage with no saving throw. Theweakness matches the spell level, so it starts at 7 and maxes out at 10. Onits own this might not seem like much, but considering Divine Smite addedthe ability to apply persistent Good damage, not to mention all of the featsthat let you deal good damage with your attacks, and options like a Holyweapon property rune.

10th-Level Spells

Hero’s Defiance: A great way to keepyourself alive, especially since you can’t target yourself with UltimateMercy. However, 10d4+20 only averages to 45 hit points, so don’t expect thisto suddenly put your back into good shape to fight. You’ll likely want toend the fight as quickly as possible (or heal yourself) since you only getto use this once until your Refocus or perform daily preparations.

Magic Items

Weapons

Holy Avenger: Thematically veryinteresting, but not good enough to justify the exhorbitant cost.

Other Magic Items

Cassock of Devotion: If you take feats toget domain Focus Spells, the extra Focus point can be very helpful. You alsoget some decent skill bonuses.

Archetypes

Alchemist: The benefits aren’t good enough,and you need to be heavily invested in Intelligence which is hardconsidering that the Champion already needs high scores in so manyabilities.
Barbarian: Rage and Instinct looktempting, but there’s not much to be gained from the Barbarian’s class featsthat you couldn’t get from the Fighter and the Fighter offers more appealingoptions.
Bard: Charisma-based spellcasting. TheCleric is typically a better option.
Cleric: The Champion automaticallyadvances their proficiency with divine spellcasting at a rate faster thanyou normally could by multiclassing, so adding some cleric spells can be agrea tway to expand your capabilities.
Druid: Little to be gained exceptspellcasting, and you have numerous better options for doing that.
Fighter: For martial-minded champions, theFighter’s class feats offer a number of useful useful options depending onyour choice of weaponry.
Monk: The obvious option if you want tofight unarmed, but unless you specifically want to play a champion whichdoesn’t use weapons there’s little reason to go this route.
Ranger: The best reasons to multiclass intoranger are to get an Animal Companion (which you already have) and to getmartial feats which you can get from the Fighter.
Rogue: A handful of options like You’reNext and Dread Striker are appealing for Intimidation builds, but otherwiseskip the Rogue entirely.
Sorcerer: Much like the Cleric, you canuse the Sorcerer to get access to the Divine spell list.
Wizard: Little to be gained exceptspellcasting, and you have numerous better options for doing that.

Champion Handbook: PF2 Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

Champion Class Features

Subclasses – Deity and Cause

Antipaladin

Desecrator

Liberator

Paladin

Redeemer

Tyrant

Ability Scores

Strength-Based

Dexterity-Based

Ancestries

Backgrounds

Skills and Skill Feats

Feats

Champion Feats

1st Level

2nd Level

4th Level

6th Level

8th Level

10th Level

12th Level

14th Level

16th Level

18th Level

20th Level

General Feats

Weapons

Armor

Champion Focus Spells – Devotion Spells

1st-Level Spells

3rd-Level Spells

5th-Level Spells

6th-Level Spells

7th-Level Spells

10th-Level Spells

Magic Items

Weapons

Other Magic Items

Archetypes

References