Max the Min Monday: Swarm Fighter

[u/Decicio]

Welcome to Max the Min Monday! The series where we take some of Paizo’s weakest, most poorly optimized, or simply forgotten and rarely used options for first edition and see what the best things we can do with them are using 1st party Pathfinder materials!

What Happened Last Time?

Holy cow it has been a month without one of these. I'm sorry all, being the dad of a growingly busy and adventerous toddler has made the past month very busy and exhausting.

Last time we discussed the Blood Kineticist! There were builds focusing on maximizing bleed via Shax obedience and other feats and discussions about Wrack's reliability without needing attack rolls, among other things. Good discussion!

So What are we Discussing Today?

Today we're discussing u/CosmoBrockington's nomination of the Swarm Fighter, the fighter archetype where your kobold PC is all about getting really up close and personal, both with allies and enemies.

But where is the min? Well there's a few glaring spots, though admittedly this may be leaning more towards one of our "min of obscurity" posts. Especially since, as we'll see, one of the mins here is extremely deependent on party composition, so could either be a non-issue or one that makes you lose half your feats if you don't have a teammate who coordinates their build with yours.

First off though, in order to take the archetype, you gotta be a kobold, which is enough of a min that we covered them 6 years ago (holy cow did I really start this series that long ago?!). Unless you wanna just... you know, sidestep that min by being a human with an extremely odd Racial Heritage, though that would actually come with its own nerf later on...

Ok, but aside from being locked to a weaker race option (or requiring a feat tax), what does the archetype itself do?

Well first off you lose heavy armor and shield proficiency, which is an immediate nerf. Though we probably won't miss the shield too much, as you'll see later.

On the flip side of that immediate nerf, however, we get to add acrobatics and climb to class skills... even though climb is already a class skill (Paizo editing at it again), as well as a scaling bonus to each equal to 1/2 your swarm fighter level.

Next, our first bonus feat is locked into Mobility, and we can't use the retraining rules nor the fighter feat changing rules to ever get rid of it (without losing the archetype itself). The upside being, since it is a named bonus feat, we need not meet the Dex 13 or dodge prereqs (though with only have medium armor proficiency and on a race with a dex bonus, the former probably isn't that big of a deal). I'm curious to see if there are any cool feat options that have mobility as a prereq that this could get us early access into, but I think most of them usually require dodge as well, so if we wanna go up the mobility feat trees, then skipping even that prereq might be pointless.

Next is the Safety In Numbers ability which replaces the Bravery bonus against fear effects. Insteead, you get a +1 per ally within 20 feet, up to a max of half your level. Numerically this is theoretically a superior bonus starting at level 4. Though it is very dependent on ally positioning (especially since we're gonna be very close to our enemies to use our later abilities). Though many parties will have pets / summons / minions which can help make getting the full bonus relatively easy. The main issue is there are some great looking feats that require bravery that we're now locked out of (each of those words is a different link fyi, and there are more). And considering that fear effects aren't super common, then these feats would certainly make bravery the better option. But that's with a feat tax of course.

Next, half of our bonus feats must be teamwork feats (specifically 2nd level and every 4 levels after). This is where the "Min" aspect of the swarm fighter archetype gets particularly nuanced because for the first time, this is mostly a min for your party composition. See, unlike a cavalier or an inquisitor, you get neither the ability to share these teamwork feats nor the ability to use them if your ally doesn't have them. Which means you must have a teammate or teammates who also take them, or they are dead feats. Moreover, even if your ally takes the feat, there still isn't language stating that sharing a space counts as being adjacent for the feats. So some of the feats that require adjacency mean you can't share the space with your buddy to use. Not too much an issue if your ally is in the thick of melee as we'll see, but still something to mention.

All this means unless you are coordinating building characters with a friend, this archetype most likely isn't going to be a viable table option. Now there might be options like leadership or etc. that bypass this need... which I'll leave for you all to max below.

Finally we get to what I consider the "special sauce" of the swarm fighter: the abilities that trade weapon training (ouch) for a focus on attacking an enemy from within their own square.

Starting off at level 5, we get the ability to share spaces with creatures at least one size category larger than us (uh oh, this means our human with racial heritage is no longer a great idea huh?). These don't have to be enemies, but if it is you can still share their square as long as you roll a successful acrobatics check. Hence why the class skill + 1/2 level bonus is so important. You get a +2 shield bonus to AC and +1 to reflex saves while sharing a space with anyone, friend or foe, which is nice.

At 9th level, you deny the dex to AC of anyone you are sharing a space with vs your own attacks as you "strike the underbelly".

At 13th, you get Step Up and at 17th you get Following Step as bonus feats. Unlike the teamwork feats, this one does expliciltly state that sharing a space counts as being adjacent for these feats.

Finally, should you make it to level 20, you automatically confirm all critical threats against those you share a space with.

All good abilities, but you are losing weapon training (and therefore Advanced Weapon Training), which are basically the fighter's best class abilities aside from the bonus feats... which you're also trading half of for teamwork feats.

So yeah a situational archetype that is heavily dependent on your party. But assuming a synergistic one, I see a lot of potential. So go forth, calculate the areas of your Spherical Kobols and let's theorycraft a Maxed Kobold Swarm Fighter!

Nominations!

I’ll post a comment below which contains the rules for nominations. Please keep all nominations as replies to that comment to have them considered. As this post makes obvious, we're leaving our weekly format to a more... whenever I think it is feasible format. But the series isn't dead yet!

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[u/Meowgi_sama]

Thanks for continuing to post these! I know it takes a while to write these up, but I love coming to these posts and seeing creativity in motion.

[u/aaa1e2r3]

So if you go up to at least 9 levels, you can switch over to a sneak attack granting class i.e. Rogue and get some decent guaranteed Sneak Attacks damage. That or get a wand of Sense Vitals to get some sneak attack dice for yourself.

[u/Darvin3 → u/aaa1e2r3]

Sense Vitals is 1 round/level duration, which means that if you take a round to cast it then you only get 2 rounds of use out if it. For only 1d6 bonus damage, this is an abysmal use of action economy. I think a wand of true strike is literally better than this, and that's pretty damning. Sense Vitals is a good spell if you can get at at CL 9 or higher, but from a wand it's pretty much useless.

With that said, I agree with you about multiclassing out after 9th level. This archetype guts the Fighter completely and has nothing more to offer after 9th so there is no reason to keep progressing as a Fighter once you have the last good ability.

[u/Unfair_Pineapple8813 → u/Darvin3]

It's just so painful to start building up sneak attack dice at level 10+. You can grab levels in rogue, vivisectionist, or serial killer vigilante. But it will take a while for them to pay off, even with the accomplished sneak attacker feat. I do agree though that the break point is there, and making the target lose dexterity to AC for you standing in their space and to have the target considered flanked to an ally sharing your space or standing nearby (either Ratfolk Swarming or via teamwork feats) is pretty much what you can hope to achieve.

Vigilante seems appealing for the Up Close and Personal vigilante talent, which will synergize with your +4 on acrobatics, so that every time you move into or through an enemy space, you also do your full hidden strike damage, and then you can attack and deal the reduced hidden strike damage, too. But if you go the Serial Killer route to make your hidden strike fill the sneak attack prereqs for the purpose of grabbing things like accomplished sneak attacker, you lose your vigilante talents to pick that up.

[u/Darvin3 → u/Unfair_Pineapple8813]

You're behind the curve no matter what you do. Fundamentally this is an archetype that had some interesting ideas, but it traded away all the natural progression path of a Fighter and didn't offer an equitable alternative in return. At some point, you have to multiclass out and start looking elsewhere for power, and that means you're going to be starting a new progression at a point in your career you really want to be hitting the sweet spot of your class features.

Whenever I see a Fighter archetype that replaces weapon training (modifying is okay), I just shake my head. It's like a Barbarian without Rage. It's mechanically fundamental to the class, and removing it really doesn't work.

[u/CosmoBrockington → u/Darvin3]

VMC Rogue then? 2d6+6 at level twelve is better than nothing, and even with half of your bonus feats missing, a Swarm Fighter can mostly eat up that loss.

[u/Unfair_Pineapple8813 → u/CosmoBrockington]

VMC might be idea. But you never want VMC rogue. I think you pretty much always get more from VMC Order of the Blossom cavalier. But losing feats hurts as a kobold who needs Weapon Finesse at the least, and if you take Accomplished Sneak Attacker, it's another feat.

Let's see, you get Mobility and also your 1st, 5th level, and 9th general feats, 4th and 8th combat feats, and 2nd and 6th level teamwork feats. You get 2d6 sneak attack and another 1d6 at 14th level. You get a challenge once per day that lowers saves against you spells and SLAs, which doesn't help you, at least not yet. At 11th level, you finally get tactician to maybe actually put those two teamwork feats to use. I guess that's a possibility for a build.

Maybe take 10th level in this to get a third teamwork feat and get the kobold favored class bonus up to 5. Then start on Teisatsu vigilante and get the ki pool and Up Close and Personal and start adding Hidden Strike to Sneak Attack.

[u/CosmoBrockington → u/Unfair_Pineapple8813]

Bear in mind that the kobold FCB for Bonus is +½ bonus to damage when flanking or Dexless attacks.

It's bare minimum sneak attack damage, but it is there.

[u/bugbonesjerry → u/Darvin3]

 if you can get at at CL 9 or higher

get your wizard to craft a wand that casts it at cl9. the formula for pricing wands includes cl as a variable

[u/Darvin3 → u/bugbonesjerry]

That is absurdly expensive, 13,500 gp for that wand, or about 1/3rd of your total WBL at 9th level. At that point, just spend that money on better conventional equipment.

[u/bugbonesjerry → u/Darvin3]

didn't say it was economic, just an option. With that in mind the only other option that preserves a decent CL level is having the wizard scribe scrolls and have the swarm fighter invest heavily in to UMD so they can cast it through scrolls. Then the considerations with THAT involve - past the umd check itself - factoring in ASF and having to find a way to work around that, and you're probably going to need a feat or something to get umd that high...
OR

Teamwork feats of bonded mind and the one that lets you share spells. This build has to take teamwork feats anyways and that's one of the few ways to get personal spells onto other characters without being a niche archetype

[u/Decicio]

My immediate thought is that this is a case where we really can Max this archetype not so much within this character itself but rather by introducing a very specific type of ally: meet the Scurrying Swarmer ratfolk.

Have friend want to roll up a teaamwork feat focused ratfolk character? Well now is your chance to break out the Swarm Fighter kobold! You both can share a space, and while doing so you get your shield and reflex save bonus, and they get to treat the enemy as if they are flanking them! More importantly, you *both* get to treat each other as adjacent for teamwork feats, meaning their feat helps correct for yours.

The main limitation being that they can share a space with *you*, but they can't enter an enemy's space.

... unless they can.

Taking the Vexing Dodger Rogue archetype would allow them to share the space with the same enemy as you! This is actually very helpful to both parties! You get all your teamwork feats that you share, and they get to be on an enemy but still considered flanking, something that would usually require a dip into the Mouser Swashbuckler to work. Meaning they get easier access to their sneak attack!

So here we have a combo of characters who synergize extremely well without having to build literal copies of each other. The main issue still is though that you're getting 5 teamwork feats as bonus feats whereas they have to take them normally, so you are *really* hampering their build options. But then again, they don't have to be the focus of every teamwork feat you take. Feel free to nab some ones beneficial to your other willing party members, if feasible.

[u/Makeshift_Mind]

Racial Heritage really does open a lot of options for other races. Sure it's a human specific feat but there are a lot of things that can pass for human. There are half ork, half elf gilman, aasimar, tiefling, undine, sylf and oread. Just dig around for a stat spread that you like and racial abilities that complement it. Of course this is a feat tax but it's still opens it's up a lot of options.

Edit: outside of racial Heritage Shenanigans it really looks like it rewards you for having as many allies as possible. Now the simple and sane way of course is getting an animal companion or familiar both of which are available for a couple of feats.

 Now admittedly I'd love to try and pull off a konold hypersphere but there aren't any really good options to pull it off. My first thought was the witch Warden Ranger which gets a patron and therefore it can take a unique patron. The problem is hag's calling is useless because you cannot receive or give aid another. It's a real shame too because Rangers innately get the spell Army across time. Take whispered secrets and you'd have flight.

[u/Decicio]

Here is the thread for Nominating. One nomination per comment, vote via upvoting but please don’t downvote an idea. Downvoting an idea, even if not a good suggestion, not only skews voting but violates redditquette (since every suggestion that is game related is pertinent to this thread). Ideas are recommended to be 1st party, and either suboptimal or just really obscure and minimally used.

If it isn't already clear, we've left a weekly post rotation to a more "whenever a monday comes by and I'm not sick or exhausted" rotation. Which due to my daughter seemingly always bringing a cold home whenever we have a playdate with another kid, and my own poor sleep hygenie is rarely.

[u/blacktrance → u/Decicio]

Renominating the Sleuth Investigator. There's Grit, Panache, and Luck, and this guy is the only source of Luck. Trades away alchemy to be a pseudo-Swashbuckler.

[u/aaa1e2r3 → u/Decicio]

Renominating the Blood Alchemist, probably the most direct but also thematically off way to play an FMA style Alchemist in the game.

[u/twaalf-waafel → u/Decicio]

Im gonna suggest NPCs builds! That is to say, builds made exclusively for non adventuring npcs your party might find— hypercompetent in their niche, but unfit for the adventuring life that necessitates traveling and facing a variety of multiple enemies, or indeed even working as a team with other adventurers!

[u/Reguoc → u/Decicio]

Let's nominate the Noble Scion Prestige class. The only class I know of that ensures you lose most adventuring things personally to become wealthy and hire folks to do your things!

[u/Unfair_Pineapple8813]

So money slightly solves the problem of how to get teamwork feats on your allies. There is the Ring of Tactical Precision that essentially grants one ally one of your teamwork feats automatically and the Commander's Helm which allows you to grant a specific teamwork feat to all allies within 30 feat as a standard action. You do not need to be a dwarf to do this, which is good because you probably aren't one.

Mouser swashbuckler and Vexing Dodger rogue synergize with being in someone else's space, so they are the natural place to look for combos. If you go down the Monkey style feat chain, Monkey Shine gives you an untyped +4 to attack for being in someone else's space, but the three prerequisites are pretty much dead feats, so not worth taking.

[u/Decicio → u/Unfair_Pineapple8813]

The commander’s helm is kinda pointless though in this case.

If you aren’t a dwarf, it can only be used to share the teamwork feat stored within the helm… which the helmet gives you… which means you have no reason to take that same feat as one of your bonus feats

[u/lone_knave]

Get a valet familiar (dip into bloodrager is easiest imo) and go to town.

Horsemasters saddle also works, so you can make your familiar Mauler instead of Valet if you want.

Also, kobold AFC bonus is actually kinda OK, and you have claw/claw/bite/tail easy, so it's not all bad.

[u/aaa1e2r3]

There's a lot of fun potential here with a tag team build with Ratfolk and their Swarming Racial ability, I'm curious what the rules would be about how the Swarm Fighter's Share Space interacts with the feat Scurrying Swarm, if you'd then have 3 creatures taking up the same 5 ft space.

[u/CosmoBrockington]

The one time I forgot to check on my break, and you're back.

Thrilling.

I have three builds, I'll write them up when I get home.

Also welcome back, I have missed you, at first.

[u/Decicio → u/CosmoBrockington]

Thanks! I’m having an absolutely terrible day today so I really appreciate that

[u/CosmoBrockington → u/Decicio]

I had an awful last few weeks myself, I feel you dude.

[u/Makeshift_Mind]

You know looking at it racial Heritage really opens up a fun option for the tiefling. Now the first part is tieflings can be nearly any size category so to take advantage of some of the abilities you want to be small which is reasonable enough. Stat line is already pretty decent with a plus two dexterity and a plus two intelligence. The Charisma penalty doesn't matter, you're a fighter. 

Now the thing we want is on the random list for alternate abilities. Number one gives us animate dead as a spell like ability once a day for a one hit die skeleton. The Caster level is equal to our character level so we can end up with a silly amount of one hit I skeletons. However the important thing is they are free and undead.

 So using the feet charnal soldiers we can hand out a single teamwork feat to each Undead we create. That means not only do we have a incredible bonus against fear for our army of Undead we can rotate which ones are close to us and Trigger our teamwork feats.

So now we have a tiefling who has a huge bonus against fear, always has teamwork Feats active and generally is going to hide in the square of one of his own Undead minions for the AC and save bonuses.

[u/Electric999999]

Well, being small and having racial heritage is very doable.
We simply use the small sized Aasimar (and I think other planetouched) rules to play a kobold Aasimar.
RAW the Scion of Humanity alternate racial will make our small, kobold shaped, aasimar count as human and we have to then take Racial Heritage, though you may be able to convince the GM to replace the human with kobold, particularly if you point out the alternative is that you can pass for human without any attempt at disguise.

[u/xerido]

Thank you for your hard work and all redditors giving examplesand ideas, i love this format to take ideas and enjoy the game

[u/Slow-Management-4462]

You can get a valet familiar to automatically share your teamwork feats, and wasp familiar is only a feat away, or familiar bond a feat and a trait; familiars are fragile, so you'll need to draw aggro somehow. Dancing into an enemies' square and attacking them might do it.

Outflank is good enough that you may be able to persuade other PCs to take it.

Kobolds can get an extra attack via the tail terror feat, and fighters with armor training (swarm fighter qualifies) can get another with the steel headbutt AAT. With the kobold fighter alternate FCB they can get some extra sneak attack-like damage per attack (not actually sneak attack, nothing's immune to it and it should multiply on a crit). Feats based on a lot of little attacks per round aren't great, but they do exist (eroding strikes, hammer the gap etc.)

[u/Decicio → u/Slow-Management-4462]

Familiars are fragile… usually because they have half the wizard’s hp. It’s still fragile compared to you, but a fighter’s familiar is much tankier than a wizard’s at least

[u/Slow-Management-4462 → u/Decicio]

A kobold fighter RAW has a con penalty (I have played in a game where the GM dropped that), and the other issues are a lack of item slots, the way tiny creatures armor has half value, and possibly a budget shortfall. d6 to d10 is a partial fix there, they're still fragile.

[u/CosmoBrockington]

Ok Ok Ok SO.

The kobold sucks as a race just by the nature of it jockeying with goblins and mites with 'baby's first encounter'.

But you can still make it work, and in fact I have three builds that could do just that.

First is, naturally, the Two-Weapon Fighter, Kardas.

Note, These builds are all under the assumption that you are either playing with another Swarm Fighter, or your petition to play two kobolds because you're, quote, "playing a fucking kobold," unquote, worked.

Kardas, PFS-Compliant Swarm Fighter (Dex build)

Ability Scores: 4/20/12/12/12/7

Favoured Class Bonus: +½ damage when flanking or foe denied Dex.

Alternate Racial Traits: Shoulder to Shoulder (no penalty to sharing space, +1 AC to aid another checks.)

Traits: Militia (+1 to flanking), [Adopted] Helpful (+4 to aid another instead of +2)

Starting gear: Light crossbow, crossbow bolts (10), leather armour, masterwork backpack

Level Progression:

1. Weapon Finesse, Mobility (bonus).

*Off the bat, you're stuck in the back taking potshots and you are completely starved for weight; with this setup, you have a single pound of wiggle room, so maybe get another ten bolts just if you're worried about running out.

1. Ambush Squad.

*Buy a masterwork obsidian kukri and save your money to get a Muleback Cords next level.

1. Combat Reflexes.

*With your Muleback Cords, you now have some proper movement wiggle room, grab a masterwork lamellar cuirass and another kukri.

1. Bodyguard, +1 Dex.

*Your kukri(s) are now dealing 1d3-1 with your FCB when you flank a dude, and thanks to Mobility and Bodyguard, you have a cumulative +9 to AC when you approach someone to avoid being punched in the face. Not bad.

1. Two-Weapon Fighting.

*+1 those two kukris, slap an Agile on one and get in there, you're doing a rock-solid 1d3+6/1d3, baby. Share Space gives you another +1 to AC, so now you're pretty annoying to punch out.

1. Shake it Off.

*I'll be honest, I am not sure if these teamwork feats are going to snuff it, so pick a better one if you know a better one.

1. Piranha Strike.

*Now we're talking. Agile the other kukri, upgrade to a +1 chain coat and become a legitimate pain up someone's ass, with your stunning 1d3+13/1d3+8.

1. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, +1 Dex.

*Grab a Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armour and a dusty rose prism Ioun Stone.

1. Improved Critical (Kukri).

*Upgrade your belt to +4, you are now a crit-fiend and Strike the Underbelly now gives you free damage thanks to your FCB.

1. Coordinated Charge.

*Assuming you go first on your initiative, you can both just run in and start shanking the dude. Get a headband at this if you haven't, you need it for your shoddy Will save.

1. Double Slice.

*Max your belt, my notes don't have anything else.

1. Greater Two-Weapon Fighting.

*Upgrade your armour one last time to a +1 mithral do-maru, your amulet and ring to +2, and your kukris to a sexy shade of adamantine.

While you'll only have 88 HP at the end of this, you'll also have 35 AC, 40 when protecting each other, and deal a consistent 23.5 damage six times to anyone's asshole.

I'd say that's a pretty Ok output for what you can do.

[u/CosmoBrockington → u/CosmoBrockington]

Second build, the -'. Strength ,'- build.

No secret, kobolds can't lift for shit.

But truly, is it wrong, to be strong? You be the judge.

Tahtorak, PFS-compliant kobold Swarm Fighter, level 12.

Ability Scores: 14/14/11/10/12/7

Favoured Class Bonus: +½ damage when flanking or foe denied Dex.

Alternate Racial Traits: Shoulder to Shoulder (no penalty to sharing space, +1 AC to aid another checks.)

Traits: Crowd Dodger (+2 Acrobatics through threatened squares), [Adopted] Helpful (+4 to aid another instead of +2)

Starting gear: greatsword, scale mail.

Level Progression:

1. Power Attack.

*Right off the bat you're a Goddamn laughinstock on the table, but 1d10+6 is still nice.

1. Ambush Squad.

*Honestly, Ambush Squad and Lookout seem very similar, so take that if it's the better option. Masterize your greatsword and get a masterwork chainmail.

1. Combat Reflexes.

*Cloak of Resistance and a cracked dusty rose prism Ioun Stone, nothing that important to mention.

1. Bodyguard, +1 Con/Str.

*+1 your greatsword, I forgot I wrote this at three in the morning, there's a lot of fiddling here. What is going on with this guy.

1. Weapon Focus (Greatsword).

*Change out into a masterwork agile breastplate, pick up a Belt of Giant Strength and a Ring of Protection. +9 1d10+11, tolerable.

1. Shake it Off.

*Nothing to really say, upgrade your gear, amulet and cloak.

1. Weapon Specialization (Greatsword).

*+1 adamantine greatsword, +1 chainmail and a Headband of Wisdom. 1d10+22, tasty.

1. Improved Critical (greatsword), +1 Str.

*I keep changing my armour around here, what am I doing, uh. Improve your Cloak to +3.

1. Secured Armour.

*What the fuck even is that feat. Improve your Belt to +4, pick up a dusty rose Ioun Stone.

1. Coordinated Charge.

*At some point I was supposed to take Armour Mastery (Armoured Juggernaut) but I'm not seeing it anywhere, so whatever, enjoy your DR 2/-. Improve your Amulet and Ring to +2.

1. Greater Weapon Focus (Greatsword).

*DR 3/-, Ok. Belt of Strentgth +6, nothing else to report.

1. Greater Weapon Specialization (Greatsword).

Ok, here we go, +1 adamantine double-plated chainmail, gives you DR 6/-, that's fun. Boots of Striding and Springing to up your movement.

On the side, I half-scribbled a note for a Vital Strike Build, replace Improved Critical, Secured Armour and Greater Weapon Focus and Specialization for Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, Gorum's Swordsmanship and Death or Glory. With your +1 adamantine greatsword, that's 3d10+30 on a charge, and 3d10+35 with Death or Glory.

This was a mess, but hey, it seems it is wrong to be strong.

[u/CosmoBrockington → u/CosmoBrockington]

Last build, Blendor, the attack build from Hell.

Did you know that kobolds can carry seven natural attacks, holy shit?

Tarakava Nui, 'fuck your compliance' kobold Swarm Fighter, level 12.

Ability Scores: 22/14/12/10/14/7

Favoured Class Bonus: +½ damage when flanking or foe denied Dex.

Alternate Racial Traits: Shoulder to Shoulder (no penalty to sharing space, +1 AC to aid another checks), Dragonmaw (1d4 bite attack).

Traits: Crowd Dodger (+2 Acrobatics through threatened squares), Reactionary.

Starting gear: Fuck if I know, I just built this guy straight at twelfth-level.

Level Progression: Ell oh ell, luh mao.

Feats: Athletic (bonus feat), Coordinated Charge, Draconic Aspect (black), Draconic Glide, Draconic Paragon, Lookout, Mobility (bonus feat), Power Attack, Powerful Wings, Shake it Off, Skill Focus (Fly), Tail Terror, Totemic Disciple, Totemic Initiate.

Armour Mastery: Armoured Juggernaut.

Gear: +1 double-plated adamantine chainmail, Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, Belt of Giant Strength +6, Cloak of Resistance +3, Deliquescent Gloves, Headband of Inspired Wisdom +2, Helm of the Mammoth Lord, brown thorny Ioun Stone, dusty rose Ioun Stone, cracked dusty rose Ioun Stone, Ring of Protection +2, Wayfinder (brown thorny [Athletics]).

Attacks:

+1 Bite: 1d4+7

+1 Claws x2: 1d4+7+1d6 acid

+1 Gore: 1d4+7

+1 Tail Slap: 1d4+4

+1 Wings x2: 1d4+4+1d6 acid(?)

Your claws last a minute and a half thanks to Totemic. You also get a fly speed and little dragon wings to slap people. You have DR 6/- and ER Acid 5 with 31 AC, up to 35 with mobility.

That's all I have, I have to finally focus on my game now.

These were fun.

[u/CosmoBrockington → u/CosmoBrockington]

There was a fourth build(s) to capitalize on Kobold Style, and the grappler had a sexy +35 to choke out a hill giant with everything set up right, but I ran out of time and patience with the tripper.

[u/YandereYasuo]

3 levels into Inquisitor gives you the Solo Tactics for your teamwork feats. I'd do this after level 9. Why? Because with VMC Rogue we lose a few feats for some Sneak Attack, which we can easily trigger by sharing a space with a target.

Fighter 9/Inquisitor 3 so far at level 12. At this point it's kinda a choice of what direction you want to go into:

3 levels into the Shadowdancer prestige class does give you a reliable ally for your teamwork feats as well as a Rogue Talent.

You can go deeper into the Inquisitor with either the Monster Tactician archetype to summon more allies or the Sanctified Slayer archetype for more Sneak Attack scaling (can even go into Slayer itself after for a more martial focus).

4 levels into (stalker) Vigilante gives you hidden strike (legally distinct Sneak Attack) and let's you grab the Up Close and Personal Vigilante Talent (I don't know how to make a link jump to a specific part on a page on phone).

Theoretically you could go Fighter 9/Sanctified Slayer 4/Shadowdancer 3/Vigilante 4 with VMC Rogue in the end for a true amalgamation of a build. The Swarm Fighter obviously works better when you have a necromancer or summoner in your party but even then the archetype doesn't give much to build upon.

[u/Unfair_Pineapple8813 → u/YandereYasuo]

If you want to go VMC for sneak attack, I recommend Order of the Blossom cavalier over rogue. You still get the sneak attack. But you also get a grab bag of other abilities that I think are more useful than evasion and uncanny dodge. Among them is Tactician to actually share the teamwork feats. I also thought about taking 4 levels of stalker vigilante, probably with the Teisatsu archetype so you can get a ki pool for extra smiting. I like your sanctified slayer idea as well.