Hey I'm Jake, I make rpg supplements, unique character builds and videos about Pathfinder2.
I LOVE PF2 and as a long-time player of DnD, I want to share the things that I find along the way and share them with you in a way that makes them easy to digest and hopefully... FUN!
All information for PF2 can be found on the Archives of Nethys for free.
Otherwise, if you want to get a physical copy of the books you can find most relevant information in the Core Rulebook.
The Demolitionist Archetype along with guns and bombs can be found in Guns and Gears.
Alchemical Fuses can be found in the Outlaws of Alkenstar: Cradle of Quartz book.
The Ifrit Versatile Heritage can be found in the Lost Omens Ancestry Guide.
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Today we have The Goblin Thug! It's a Ruffian Rogue, basically. This character was a request to make a Ruffian Rogue so I did. But I couldn't just stand by and let perfectly good opportunities go. ;)
So use it, I hope you have fun with your hired thug demolitionist:
Coal the Firebug
So let's get to the build starting with the Backstory. Cuz you know I gotta. ;)
Now Coal doesn't really know what Goblin Tribe he comes from because he was just found in the street eating scraps from a butcher shop. Or maybe scraps of a butcher at a shop. One can never be too sure of these things.
Even then he was a clever little guy; very curious and attentive. He was just a few months old but those Goblin teeth at that age are sharp as needles! Which his rescuers found out upon first grab. They hauled him up out of the filth and muck and after that first CHOMP, when the rescuers didn't let go, the little Goblin baby just hung by his ankle and stared in some semblance of contemplation. Even if he was only wondering what the other hand would taste like, it still seemed to show a Goblin that was willing to pause and consider his next actions. This alone surprised and impressed his rescuers and they took him home with little fuss, one of the bandits letting the little piranha gnaw on one of his horse straps.
Later at home, the Goblin was given the name Carl, after the son of one of his rescuers. "Big Carl", it was joked.
He grew up in smoke-filled casinos and in a rotating flurry of beds under varying caregivers. The smell of alcohol-laden breath and the thrum of music lulled him to sleep.
The small thoughtful Goblin learned to follow instructions to the letter and he grew quickly, finding his longest-lasting home in the arms of Shayla, the most loving and giving assassin in town. His lessons were taught by a variety of whatever low-life scumbags were around as he grew up in the Thieves Guild.
Shayla took him aside and where others assumed that because he spoke slowly, he must be a fool, she saw a quiet carefulness inside him instead. A carefulness that would be very valuable to someone learning her trade; alchemy.
He did as ordered of course, which led to him learning the rough trades of extortion and violence, but he never seemed as pleased as when he was lighting a fuse for Shayla or gathering black powder together with glee.
Once he was a man in the eyes of his elders, he was sent on missions or jobs on his own but he excelled at none more than setting businesses ablaze. When it was time to "foreclose" on the protection of a given shopkeep, he would be sent to handle the job. After the shopowner and family was either asleep or gone, his work would begin. After one particularly large job involving a warehouse, he didn't report in. He was found half a day later, covered in soot and wearing nothing but a smile.
He'd been caught in his own fire, you see. Well, caught isn't exactly the right word. He had stayed too long watching in sheer joy as the blaze surrounded him. And only then did he learn his greatest gift. He was friends with fire. It bent away from him and allowed him to see through it's breath, leading him safely out. The day he returned home he was given a new name. Coal.
He constantly started fires after that day and he wore soot like a badge of honor.
Carl usually goes by Coal, but he also answers to Big Carl, Firebug and "hey, big man!".
He is deferential and polite as a rule, and when he speaks it's very literal unless he is being given instructions for a job, which is always in code.
Literal:
"I do not believe it to be in your best interest or in the best interests of your family to refuse my employer's invitation to dinner. I would accept if I was you."
In code:
"I don't like Thursday for the dress rehearsal, maybe Monday at 6 o'clock."
Meaning
Your target has changed his plans. You'll need to be there 4 hours later and bring a few other guys with you. He'll have protection.
Level 1
So now let's choose a Background and we are gonna go with Criminal. Obviously. Which gives you Experienced Smuggler. Which saaaaays: "You often smuggle things past the authorities. When the GM rolls your Stealth check to see if a passive observer notices a small item you have concealed, you automatically get a flat 10 or higher, depending on your skill level. Due to your smuggling skill, you’re more likely to find more lucrative smuggling jobs when using Underworld Lore to Earn Income."
It's cool. When you Earn Income as a downtime activity with Underworld Lore, you gain a little more money. That's useful.
Goblins get Darkvision and we'll take the Ifrit Heritage. Because FIIIIIRE... it says: "You gain resistance to fire equal to half your level (minimum 1), and you treat environmental heat effects as if they were one step less severe." Which is very useful if you're caught in a burning building.
1st Level Ancestry Feat we'll take Inner Fire, an Ifrit feat, which gives us Produce Flame. So you can conjure flame in your hand and throw it. Nice for flavor, but it's also handy if you're somewhere with explosives and no lighter. :D
1st Level we take Rogue, which gives us Sneak Attack of 1d6 which works if you're using an agile or finesse simple weapon and your opponent is flat-footed.
And if you've been rolling deception or stealth and combat starts, creatures that haven’t acted are flat-footed to you. So basically you catch them by surprise.
Also at 1st Level we gain the Rogue's Racket. (their subclass) We'll choose Ruffian.
It says: "You prefer to strong-arm or intimidate others rather than rely on finesse or fancy tricks. You might be an enforcer for organized crime (check), a highway bandit, or a noble who bullies others with threats of your family's power. Or, you might use your skills on the up and up, in a private security detail or as a guard in a city with the right temperament." (Yeah, we're not going to do that. We're making a Thug here.)
"You use whatever tools you have at hand to get the job done. You can deal sneak attack damage with any simple weapon, and if you crit with one while the enemy has the flat-footed condition (unable to focus on defending itself), you also apply the critical specialization effect for that weapon. "
"You're trained in Intimidation and medium armor. You can choose Strength as your key ability score. "
And our favorite weapon is going to be: a Hand Cannon. That's right, we're just shooting people. We probably even have a few of them on us. And because we get the Critical Specialization effect, we can stun people if we crit them.
If your GM doesn't want you to use guns, totally fine. Just use a Mace, Hand Crossbow, or simple Club. The Club totally fits this character's vibe.
1st Level Skill Feat will be Pickpocket. It says: "You can Steal or Palm an Object that’s closely guarded, such as in a pocket, without taking the –5 penalty." Pretty nice, it WILL be handy, but we're actually taking it for the next feat....
1st Level Feat: Plant Evidence. "You can put a single item you're holding of light or negligible Bulk onto a person without them noticing by succeeding at a Thievery check against their Perception DC. If you have the ruffian racket, you can do this as a free action when you successfully Shove a target."
So you can incriminate anyone you want with a crime if you need to! Like to get away with something. "I saw the jewels in his pocket. Show 'em! I won't go down for you!" Shove them and put the jewels in their pocket. :D
Level 2
2nd Level Class Feat: Brutal Beating which says: "The brutality of your critical hits shakes your foes’ confidence. Whenever your Strike is a critical hit and deals damage, the target is frightened 1."
I have no idea how this works with a gun, but it totally does. If you crit with a gun, they're stunned AND frightened. Yay! I kinda just took it because it's special to Ruffian Rogues.
2nd Level Archetype Feat: Alchemist Dedication. You become trained in alchemical bombs and Crafting.
You can make items in downtime or you can create free items during your daily preparations. I'll have a list of suggested formulas in the notes section of the character sheet.
So at this point here's what you can do at second level. I love that you can do this at second level!
You've made some alchemical bombs ahead of time. Let's use Alchemist's Fire as an example. Cuz fire. You have a few with Alchemical Fuses attached. Which you can make. You are in melee combat, hopefully against a surprised enemy. You use a tindertwig to light the bomb as you pull it out, then you shove a target using Athletics, up to 10 ft away. You roll Thievery to "Plant Evidence" on the target. What evidence? Why a bomb, of course! And y'know you have an action left and I guess you could Demoralize to give them frightened.
Ok technically when you attach an alchemical fuse the bomb only does the splash damage. But c'mon! It's a BOMB in their POCKET! How are they gonna avoid that damage? "Now DAT'S a HOT POCKET!"
2nd Level Skill Feat
Streetwise. You can use Society instead of Diplomacy for Gather Information or sometimes as Recall Knowledge instead of rolling Diplomacy to Gather Information. Cuz it's Recall knowledge instead of Gather Information, you don't have to spend time trying to get the info. You just KNOW the streets. Makes sense of a gang member.
3rd Level
Deny Advantage: "you can't be sneak attacked or flat footed by anyone your level or lower." Cool. It rarely comes up but it can. And it can save your ass.
Skill Feat: Criminal Connections. We can call on favors or help from fellow gang members or other "friends of the family".
GENERAL Feat: Breath Control. We go from being able to hold our breath for 6 rounds to 15 minutes. Most useful for when we get caught in our own smoke from fires that we set. Because we will be. :D But also for hiding in a river when we are hiding from the cops. Uh I mean GUARDS!
4th Level
From the Alchemist Archetype, Basic Concoction: Alchemist Feat: Demolition Charge which says: "You can rig your bombs to inanimate objects and cause destruction to the surrounding area. It takes 1 minute, you attach between one and four bombs to an inanimate object within your reach, such as a chest, door, wall, or column and you can trigger the bombs as a single action so long as you are within 30 feet of them."
Reaction: Fire in the Hole; this damage ignores an amount of the object's Hardness equal to your level (which makes it really easy to destroy locks, walls, doors, reducing Hardness is a big deal). Any creatures adjacent to the area take the bombs' splash damage.
THIS is the main ability we use to gain our reputation for loving explosions and fire. We bomb for the mob. And you can use bombs to lay traps for enemies. Really useful.
Now this is one of the many times I'll ask you to talk with your GM because technically you can only take Basic Concoction once which we just did, then you can't get another Alchemist Feat until 6th level. But their FEATS ARE FUN! Ok so technically to follow the rules perfectly :P we'll need to take Quick Alchemy as our Archetype Feat, which allows you to save batches of infused reagents until later and then make an alchemical item on the fly when you need it, which is cool. BUUUUUT if your GM allows it you can take another Basic Concoction for an Alchemical Familiar! Which has a lot of useful options for a Rogue; help you with deception, thievery, make an impression, lore checks, take your shape to help you get away, help you Gather Information, and for us it can even swallow a bomb and change it into one that does persistent damage instead of splash damage. It makes it sticky. I just love that it can swallow a bomb.
Level 4 Skill Feat
Quick Coercion is what we'll take here so that coercing a creature with Intimidation only takes 1 round instead of a minute. Usually, this will be with heavily veiled threats like "what are ya doin' there? Why you wanna do that, nah come on; come on over here. Yeah, dat's right. Isn't that better, who told ya -naw, come 'ere, c'mere. Who told ya you should come over here and do dis? Was it Molivero? Yeah, It was, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah it was. I'll take care of him thank you."
Level 5
Sneak Attack 2d6
Skill Feat: Group Coercion. Now you can try to Coerce up to 4 people at once. With only 1 action cuz Quick Coercion. You are REALLY good at getting people to do what you want. Scary little goblin. Y'know? It occurs to me that you could even have a gimmick of spreading oil on your arm discreetly and then lighting yourself on fire while intimidating people. You'd take very little or no damage and it's a good explanation for how you're so damned intimidating.
And Level 5 Ancestry Feat
Firesight (man, we got a lot out of Ifrit). You can see through the haze of flame. You automatically succeed at the flat check to target a concealed creature if that creature is concealed only by smoke and fire. And we can make smokesticks. Which creates smoke. You see where I'm going with this. Hiding in the smoke and then popping out of it to shoot someone or punch 'em in the face like The Shadow.
Vbbbbbnn.
Level 6
Level 6 Class Feat
Now you'll take Expert Alchemy from the Alchemist Multiclass Archetype to be able to make up to level 3 Alchemical Items which includes a whole ton of stuff. If you want to make poisons, cool. Go for it. Make good use of your down time. You could be the go-to member of your party for any miscellaneous need. OOOOOR you can just blow stuff up. :D
Level 6 Archetype Feat
You'll take Demolitionist Dedication. Now you can set your placed charges on a timer, up to a minute. And it only takes 2 actions to slap the bombs onto a structure. It's just perfect for taking out a rival gang's headquarters or a warehouse that belongs to somebody important. You've also gotten good at implicating rivals in your explosive duties so it looks like another gang set that fire in the mayor's mansion.
You can even set the explosives, get out quick, then run around to the front door saying "Hey, we heard some bad fellas might be harassing you. It ok if I come in take a quick peek?" and then you find the explosives and disarm them. Instant friends!
For the Level 6 Skill Feat, you'll take Say That Again!
It says: "The world is full of obnoxious weasels who think they can pull one over on you—put them in their place! When an adjacent creature attempts to Lie to you or to Demoralize you and gets a critical failure on the roll, you can use your reaction to make a Shove attempt against that opponent." And then you can stick a bomb in their pocket. "If combat results, you can roll Intimidation for your initiative check."
You stand up to punks that might dis your employer or gang. Then you shove them and plant a gun in their pocket, then search them to show that they meant violence the whole time. Yep, framing people is just part of life.
Like most Rogues in combat, you'll also be flanking for sneak attack and giving conditions to enemies like Frightened. Intimidation is a natural choice for a Ruffian.
Continuing this character on, you'd be well served by continuing the Demolitionist Archetype and taking Explosive Entry, a 7th level feat. It lets you blow up openings like doors, windows, gates and the like. I'd also definitely take Alchemical Familiar at some point because it's fun. You can have a little puppy that never grows up. Name him Ruff. Cuz y'know, life is hard. I got it rough!... *crickets chirp*
Level 12 of Demolitionist also allows you to collapse a wall onto your enemies and it does a lot of damage and buries them in rubble.
Fireworks Technician is also fun for some niche explosives like The Goblin Jubilee Display. 20-foot burst within 120 ft. does 3d6 sonic and 3d6 fire damage, and it can blind, dazzle, and deafen. Fireball but better.
And Golden League Xun is a cool Archetype. At 10th level you can kill someone in a crowded room and hide the weapon so nobody knows who did it. Maybe not even the dude you stabbed... or shot.
"So yuz got dis tough guy Goblin who follows order to da leddah. Very loyal to da people that treat 'im right. He's also not afraid of tellin' it like it is. He's got a code doh. A code of honah which none of deese mooks can undahstand. "
Or ya could play up the stupid thug aspect cuz he likes ta keep people guessin'. He's actually brilliant. Anyone who can make their own explosives and survive has got to have some extra brains in their pocket.
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Download this character's fillable character sheet already built for 6th level.
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And feel free to leave a comment if I missed something or if you have ideas that could go with this build.
And remember... 3 bananas in hand is worth 2 clams in da bush.