#pathbuilder

Thaumaturge gets something called "implements". Esoteric items that give bonuses if you hold them. Your weapon can be one of your implements. You can have up to three implements and the game strongly incentivizes you to use a single handed weapon.

Not only will you not benefit from some of the things your implements do if you don't hold them, but also your bonus damage feat inactivates if you don't have "full use of your hands", which is written in such a way that it punishes the use of two handed weapons or dual weapons.

I immediately tried to figure out how to effectively get a third hand. I let out a small cry every time I found an ancestry feat that gives you a tail but specifically mentions the tail cannot hold any items. Paizo is so tremendously scared of allowing fun, I was starting to get frustrated.

I was so desperate I even started looking up literal clown dedications like Juggler so I could be considered as having a free hand while juggling. But it was just too bad.

Then a friend mentioned that Witch lets you get prehensile hair that CAN hold items. I was overjoyed.

I ended up with a Thaumaturge/Fighter/Witch character build.

Let's see how it looks at level 8.

In my main hand, I hold a Bastard Sword, a d8 weapon which has the Two Handed d12 feat. This means that it can be two handed and then it becomes a d12 weapon. This weapon is also my implement.

Let's say this weapon is +1, which is normal for that level. Making it a 2d8 weapon.

With my hair I hold my Tome implement.

When combat starts, I use Exploit Weakness and choose to exploit the Personal Antithesis of an enemy. This gives my strikes +8 damage (2 + half my level) against that enemy.

Because I am holding my Tome, I receive benefits to my Recall Knowledge skill. But more importantly, starting at level 9, I can use another action to Intensify Weakness using the Tome implement. This will allow me to roll d20 and use it for the next strike if I choose so. I can also choose to Intensify Weakness using the Weapon implement, which would give me a +2 to attack.

I use the Dual-Handed Assault action from Fighter in order to temporarily two-hand my weapon and execute a single strike with bonus damage equal to my weapon's number of die (2). The action description specifically mentions that it does not inactivate feats that rely on one-handing a weapon and having an empty hand. Presumably this extends to Implement's Empowerment, allowing me to keep my 4 damage bonus (2x weapon die) and not have it inactivate due to two handing. After executing this strike, my character switches back to single-handed grip.

The Thaumaturge is balanced around the assumption that you are using a one handed weapon. This breaks this assumption, but have to give up enough other things that it's not really a broken build.

The damage for a single attack under these conditions looks like this:

This is competitive with single strike damage of a Barbarian during Rage, which is among the highest, if not the highest.

2d12

+ 4 Strength

+ 2 Weapon Specialization

+ 6 Personal Antithesis

+ 4 Implement's Empowerment

+ 2 Dual-Handed Assault

= 2d12+18

AVG: 31

The Thaumaturge here also benefits from either +2 attack or rolling a d20 in advance, which is great. Notably, you can roll a d20 in advance using the Tome and if it's a low roll, you can spend an action to cast True Strike to roll twice before striking. You're not allowed to stack Fortune effects, and True Strike is a fortune effect, but I think the Tome effect is considered a Fortune effect only if you actually do the substitution. Basically you can do a lot of shenanigans to ensure this hits.

Another advantage is that if you hold your Tome in your hair and have a free hand, you start qualifying for a lot of feats that work only if you have a single weapon in your hand. Unfortunately, I haven't found an optimal way of integrating more of those into the build.

For comparison, a regular thaumaturge's damage looks more like this:

As you can see, the average is not improved by _much_. But it was very satisfying to take an assumption about a class or some built in restrictions and try to work around them. I get the itch to do that a lot and it represents a lot of the fun I derive from wasting hours reading feats and spreadsheets.

2d8

+ 4 Strength

+ 2 Weapon Specialization

+ 6 Personal Antithesis

+ 4 Implement's Empowerment

= 2d8+16

Grimmluck is an Amurrun Dhampir. Flirtatous and brave are his two biggest character traits. I imagine he has a mischievous face.

His main motive is the affection and attention of others. I kind of wanted to make a guardian that only really steps into the fray because he gets the most attention that way; negative, positive - he just wants to be the center of it all. Charming but in a toxic way, which is why I took dhampir.

He specializes in 2 handed weapons like polearms and greatswords/axes. Anything large that can stand out will do.

Heavy armor is too restrictive to him, he wants to be able to get to the action ASAP, so medium armor it is. He's fairly lithe for a guardian and he uses this to annoy his opponents. One of his aims in combat is to penalize their Will saves, I hope he makes a great companion for a caster of some kind. I see him being drawn to magic and wanting to learn more as he levels up, so I took Oddity Identification.