Early game rowdy rogue is addicting
I wanted to make a martial character with high intelligence without it affecting their combat prowess too much. a 2-3 level dip into student of war made sense. I started out trying a high int, high con dwarf chirurgeon alchemist with as minimal str and dex as possible 10/13. Given there's a heavy pick that does att and dmg with int. the maze was beyond a slog so i started fresh.
did some build crafting and found rowdy rogue. My god is it so much fun. martial proficiency, vital force, and vital strike is broken on a rogue. at 19 str with a greatsword, im hitting damage into the stratosphere. 8d6 + 6 + 2d6 sneak attack + 1d6 precise strike at lvl 4 is insane. add in the weakening wound rogue talent and im basically bypassing all of the DR of the early game demons without cold iron.
I nearly one-shot hulrun in the square at lvl 4.
best part is that the prereq of dodge and combat expertise help shore up the middling 13 dex. on top of debilitating strike giving a -4 attack to anyone that survives the first hit. With (iirc im away from my pc) 17 int, he's a skill-monkey on top of it all and once he has 2 level in SoW he'll be able to do almost everything. using the healer background so you use int for lore checks and he's a competent fighter and know-it-all in one.
im sure i'll hit a bit of a snag when i face more enemies immune to precision damage but so far it's great.