This is the PF2e version of my similar question on D&D 5e's Starter Set.
For a lot of players, the Pathfinder Beginner Box was their first 2e adventure. The first encounter from the included adventure is rather straightforward, though a lucky crit or two can quickly turn the tide.
Terminally bad luck?
Let's assume you were really unlucky, though. Really, really unlucky. What is the lowest level character that could unfailingly beat the encounter, despite all the dice being against them?
Assume that whatever can go wrong for the PC, will go wrong. In general, this means that they will roll a 1 on all dice rolls (attacks, saving throws, skill checks, damage, etc.) If a low roll is beneficial to them, then that roll may be a higher roll.
Assume that whatever can go right for the enemies, will go right. In general, this means that they will roll the maximum value on all dice rolls. If a high roll is harmful to them, then that roll may be a lower roll.
Encounter specifics
- The PC will face:
Four giant rats.
- The enemies start in their normal location. The PC starts 20 feet west of the line of enemies, as shown by the red dot:
- Any PC-controlled creatures start as close to the PC as possible. All participants start on the ground.
- The enemies move in (possibly using Tumble Through) and attempt to flank if practical, but otherwise Strike with all three actions. They may also use sensible basic actions in response to conditions if needed, like Stand or Escape.
- Spells/abilities you use before combat may only target you or creatures you control. Only spells/abilities whose effects last 10 minutes or longer will still be active when combat starts.
- Exploration activities may be used, and weapons/shields/etc. may already be drawn.
- You may use Avoid Notice to roll Stealth for initiative, but your starting position cannot change (despite the usual rules that would permit you to move to a more logical position). You still benefit from features like Surprise Attack, but start Observed, unless some other effect (like invisibility) changes how detected you are.
- For the sake of this question, nothing can make you Unnoticed. If you become Undetected (by defeating vision and scent, for example), the enemies always choose the correct square when attacking you.
- The PC has beat the encounter if they are alive when combat ends and all of the enemies are dead.
Character specifics
- May be any level (1-20), though I'm interested in the lowest level character than can pull this off.
- Only Common character options from official sources (unless a Common option grants access to an Uncommon one, as with focus spells).
- No variant/optional rules (like Free Archetype).
- Starts with the lump sum gold for their level. They can use this to buy any Common, non-Consumable items of their level or lower.
Non-optimized example
A 17th level wizard with 20 Wisdom has a +26 to initiative rolls. Even if the enemies all roll a natural 20 and the wizard rolls a 1, the wizard still goes first. They can then cast fireball at 9th level, rolling all ones for a total of 18 damage. The enemies all roll a natural 20 on their Reflex saves, but a 27 is still a failure (bumped to a success for the natural 20). They all take half damage and die.
Best Answer
A 5th Level Swashbuckler
I originally posited a 9th level Swashbuckler to gain access to the Fly spell to stay out of range without leaving the room. After some iteration, I was able to get it down to 6th level by pursuing a kiting strategy that didn't require flight. Those answers are preserved in the edit history. However, after taking a closer look at the map, I believe we can make this work at level 5. Unlike the level 7 or 9 builds though, this one is a long grind - It's going to take us at least 32 rounds to kill these rats. So, how do we do it?
First off, we need to be an Elf or a Human (Half-Elf Heritage). We're going to need the Nimble Elf ancestry feat, and either the Fleet feat, or the +5 to base speed that elves get.
For Ability Scores, we will need to reach 18 Dexterity and Constitution by level 5, which means starting with a 16 in each. This leaves background selection relatively flexible though.
At level 1, we need to take Nimble Elf as our Ancestry Feat, the Battledancer style for our Swashbuckler's Style, and the Flying Blade feat for our class feat. That last one isn't strictly necessary, but it's a little insurance in case the rats try to outsmart us.We get Acrobatics and Performance Training for free, and you can do whatever you want with the rest of your skill selections, but make sure you grab one of Nature or Society.
At level 2, we'll take the feat After You as our class feat. We can't win initiative, so by voluntarily losing, we'll start the fight with Panache. For our skill feat, we're going to take Assurance with Acrobatics. Once we hit Expert, this will allow us to reliably Tumble Through the rats without making a roll.
At level 3, we grab the Fleet feat if we’re playing a human. Elves will need to take Canny Acumen, selecting Fortitude Saves. For our skill increase, we'll increase Acrobatics to Expert. We also get another skill feat via our Stylish Tricks class feature. Here we want to either grab Assurance for Performance, or Acrobatic Performer. It doesn't matter which, both will allow us to reliably pass Fascinating Performance checks with Assurance against the rats awful Will DC of 13. As a Battledancer, we don't care about landing a crit to actually fascinate our target, or even whether the target is immune. If we beat the DC, we gain panache. With either of these feats, we can always beat the DC.
Next, at level 4, we need to take either the Beastmaster or Cavalier dedication. Either one of these will give us a Young Animal Companion. You can choose whatever companion you like, so long as it is Large. The Beetle, Camel, Horse, Legchair, and Terrorbird are all suitable, though the Beetle will take one more hit than the others before going down. Which is nice.
Finally, at level 5, Humans will need to use the General Training feat to get Canny Acumen in Fortitude. Elves can take whatever feat they like here. We need level 5 for Expert proficiency with our weapon, in order to land our Confident Finishers.
In terms of equipment, we'll need any +1 Agile or Finesse Thrown Weapon, which will cost us 35 GP and a Returning Property Rune which costs 55 GP.
Which leaves 50 GP left over for... whatever.
How it works
Before combat, we'll position our pet in front of us, in a position to body block the four rats, as seen here:
On Round 1, we use After You to throw our initiative roll, and start the fight with Panache. One of two things happen. Either the front two rats use two actions to circle behind our pet to attack us from behind, landing one critical hit each (28 damage total), and the other two rats either kill our pet, or follow their friends but cannot close to melee range. This is the best case scenario. Alternately, the first two rats move up to our pet, and kill it in 3 or 4 attacks (a total of 5 or 6 actions - if it's five, the fifth closes to melee range with us but cannot attack). The remaining two rats can then close to melee range, and each land two critical hits against us, for a total of 56 damage. As an Elf who started with 16 Constitution, we should have over 60 hit points. So we'll live. We're also going to fail, but not critically fail our saving throw against Filth Fever at this point, so we'll avoid being sickened, but we’re going to die in a few days. But that's okay. Glory awaits.
On our first turn, we attack one of the rats with a Confident Finisher. This attack misses but does not critically miss (we rolled a 1! But we have +14 to hit, and the rats have 15 AC, so our regular hit is downgraded to a regular miss), but still deals half of our Precise Strike damage; at level 5, that's 3d6. We can only ever roll a 1 on each of those die, so we'll deal 1 damage with this attack. This expends our panache. We use our second action to Tumble Through, using Assurance + Acrobatics. The Rats have a reflex DC of 17, but at Expert Acrobatics and level 5, our Assurance check is an 19. We then move 30 feet away from the rats. (The first 5 feet of our movement is as through difficult terrain because of Tumble Through, and our movement speed without Panache is 40). Tumbling through allows us to regain panache, which increases our speed to 45, and so we move another 45 feet away from the rats. We're now 75 feet away from the nearest rat, and they can only move 30 feet per action.
In Round 2, the rats will need to move 3 times to close to melee range with us, and will be unable to attack. We can then repeat our routine, dealing another point of damage, tumbling through to regain panache, and moving a total of 75 feet away once again. If at any point the rats refuse to move into melee range, we can use Assurance + Performance (or Acrobatics with the feat to use Fascinating Performance to get panache, and then throw our dagger, making use of the Flying Blade feat to apply our finisher from range. It might be necessary to alternate rounds between damage and reestablishing panache in this instance. But with 80-90 feet of move speed (depending on panache) from only two actions, you should be able to reliably kite them with an action to spare each round.
Each rat will die after eight attacks, so after about three and a half minutes of in-game time, and approximately half a mile of running around, the rats will all be dead, along with our beloved, belated pet beetle.
A few days later, so will our swashbuckler. A life well lived.