Game Breaker / Pathfinder

• Depending on who you ask, the 3.5 CoDzilla (Cleric-or-Druid-zilla) problem has either been preserved or addressed, with both sides arguing that their claims are correct. Given that everything boils down to individual player preference and the skill of the GM to arbitrate these things, its probably best to Agree to Disagree. However, most people agree that the problem at least has been toned down.
• End-level spellcasters in general, unless you buff the CRAP out of your enemies' saves. Or give them spell resistance.
  • Or give them the stealth/dexterity to act first. Concentration checks to cast while taking damage is no longer a skill in Pathfinder... while this means that you don't have to spend precious skill to do it, it also means that there's no way to nullify it, or set up enough skill buffs that you'll automatically succeed. A rogue flanking a caster will make casting especially difficult, and Fighters actually have a lot of options that make in a nightmare to try to cast against them within 30 feet.
• The Synthesist Summoner archetype breaks the game so thoroughly that it's officially banned from organized play. Basically, it allowed the player to max out their character's mental stats, then make an Eidolon with maxed-out physical stats. Synthesist Eidolons appear merged with their Summoner, combining their stats. However, the Synthesist archetype is frequently placed lower than the base Summoner class in tier lists. Non-Synthesist Summoners get to summon a similarly powerful monster (which, if carefully optimised, can in itself be better at combat than the mundane party members), and on each turn the character can both cast a spell and have the monster attack. Synthesists can only do one of these two powerful options on each turn.^*The Synthesist tends to attract more complaints because it's easy to see that it's numerically better than other classes; the normal Summoner's power is slightly more difficult to compare with other classes. For bonus points, the mere existence of the Summoner's spell list also messes up magic item prices. Summoners only get spells of up to level six (theoretically compensating for having control of a big scary monster). However, the developers apparently wanted to give them high level spells still, since many spells which would normally be levels 7-9 get squashed into the upper levels of the spell list, and some lower level spells get bumped down the make the list less topheavy. Unfortunately, the value of consumable magic items that duplicate spells is based on the level of the spell, so many wands, scrolls, etc that cast spells Summoners can cast had their prices suddenly drop when the class was released - unless the GM carefully read item creation and realized that the price of wands, potions, scrolls, and so on always default to Wizard/Sorcerer and Cleric lists first. ^note This was noted early in the game, where paladins/bards/rangers/etc. get spells at lower level, but you can't get a scroll or wand of 4th level version of Greater Angelic Aspect or a first level potion of Lesser Restoration by mining their spell lists.
  • Pathfinder Unchained presented optional mechanics for everything, including four fixed classes. The Rogue and Monk were fixed for being low-tier. The Barbarian was streamlined. The Summoner alone was nerfed - and still remains a powerful, possibly overpowered class.
  • Speaking of Summoners and the power of extra actions, the Master Summoner Archetype doesn't seem very bad, until you hit the higher levels and he drowns the encounter in entire herds of Augmented Celestial/Fiendish/Flaming/etc. This can even include Tyrannosaurus rexes.
• Primalist Bloodragers can trade in any of their bloodline powers they don't like for two Barbarian rage powers at no other cost. For those not in the know, this basically makes them better versions of Barbarians in practically every way. Like the Synthesist, this archetype is also banned from organized play.
• Both Advanced and Modern Firearms. Gunslingers as a whole were originally tarred with this brush, but the actual problem was eventually^*...after years of real-world play... discovered to be Advanced Firearms, and especially Modern Firearms. While the gunslinger is a full BAB ranged class that can target Touch AC and add their DEX bonus to their damage^*something which is significantly more difficult for most other classes, typically requiring significant investment such as feat chains or expensive magical items, and typically being limited to only a specific subset of melee weapons, they also have a long list of weaknesses and mitigating factors which can be used against them.^*Black powder is finicky and prone to exploding, firearms are prone to misfiring (and also exploding); gunslingers are noticeably lacking in out-of-combat utility; spells and terrain can make hitting even Touch AC difficult; guns have less range than other "ranged" weapons, and can only hit Touch AC within the first ranged increment; bullets tend to be significantly more expensive than other ranged weapons' ammo; firearms are slower than bows (and sometimes even crossbows) to reload... oh, and they don't like water. Players and DMs generally agree that this isn't the problem, that gunslingers and Early Firearms are just fine (and kinda weak, even); what is broken, though, are all of the good guns. Advanced Firearms, as a whole: Don't explode, no matter how many times they misfire; can be reloaded faster than Early Firearms; and most importantly, hit Touch AC within the first five range increments. And then there's Modern Firearms, which are Advanced Firearms but better: They can typically be fired more times than Early and Advanced Firearms without reloading, and can be reloaded just as quickly as Advanced Firearms... and that's even before we get into things like automatic fire. Clearly, the musketeer isn't the issue; it's the belt-fed machine gun he's toting around that's the problem.
• Technological weapons in general, especially at low levels, tend to have the same balancing issue as Advanced and Modern Firearms: Most of them have the touch quality^*meaning that their attacks always target Touch AC, regardless of range, and thus get to ignore the target's armour bonus; this is particularly bad for big creatures, which both tend to have low DEX and get a size penalty to DEX, usually leaving their Touch AC in the single digits. Apart from that, they also have more damage type coverage than most other weapons^*In addition to the standard bludgeoning/piercing/slashing weapon damage types, most of the "magic" damage types (fire, cold, electricity, sonic, force) have at least one tech weapon dedicated to them., and tend to either do more damage than normal weapons or have a special effect; this is especially noticeable for high-tech guns such as the railgun, which both does high damage and does 4x damage on crit^*For comparison, crits normally deal 2x damage., or the rocket launcher, which... These weapons are typically balanced by being very expensive, and thus out of most low-level characters' budget, but this isn't true balance.^*The railgun is 30,000 gp, and a 5th-level character will have 10,000 gp on average (going by the Wealth By Level table), leaving them unable to afford the weapon. Now, if a normal four- or five-person party were to pool their wealth, however...
• Some of the races have particularly strong abilities which can completely level a game if not kept in check by a perceptive GM. Namely; the Samsaran's Mystic Past Lives alternate racial ability allows them to take spells from any other class of the same arcane or divine typing. The Kasantha have four arms, which allows them to a multitude of things that other players can't, as well as a bonus to AC. The Svirfneblin have a bonus to AC and all saves, spell resistance, and are, on top of all that, small. Then there are any of the races with natural flight...
• The Witch hex Misfortune. If the enemy fails their save, then for the next round, they roll twice for any roll using a d20 (which includes attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws), and take the lower result. Fortunately, it only lasts a round, and you can only use the hex on a given target once per day. However, another witch hex, cackle, uses a move action^note players get one move action per round (normally used to move), and one standard action (normally used to attack or cast a spell) to extend the duration of most witch hexes by another round. If you can get them with misfortune, and keep cackling, you will have rendered that opponent effectively useless. And since cackle is a move action, you can then tag another one of his buddies each round. Oh, and this build is easy to pull off at first level - just take the feat "Extra Hex".
• The Cyclops Helm. For 5,600 gp (a sum that is affordable to a middle-level hero, even moreso if you have someone in the party craft it halving its price) its wearer can, once per day, just decide that a dice roll turned up 20. Devastating when combined with high-risk, high-reward rolls such as attacking with a scythe (which has a 4x critical threat but only threatens a crit on a 20)
• The Scarred Witch Doctor, a Witch Archetype applying to characters with orc blood, including half-orcs. The Scarred Witch Doctor is unique in that its main casting stat isn't the traditional intelligence, wisdom, or charisma. It's constitution. So now you have one disgustingly bloated stat that not only boosts all of your primary class features, but you are receiving a significant amount of free hit points each level. Squishy Wizard? I think not. But wait, it gets better. Simply by taking a half-orc (which qualifies as an orc and a human when meeting prerequisites), you can apply your floating +2 ability bonus to constitution. This makes it appallingly easy to make a character with as much as twenty constitution in character creation in even the lowest point buy, considering the only other ability you need any points in is dexterity. ^*The actual power of this is debatable; many have pointed out at the end of the day you're still a witch, with a d6 hit die and limited armor class, even with the in-archetype natural armor bonus, and all those hitpoints aren't necessarily more useful to you than the skill points you're giving up by dumping Intelligence.
  • This was eventually changed to offering an effective +2 to the character's Intelligence score for calculating most of their casting-related class features and offsetting the orc race's natural Intelligence penalty. But half-orcs not only have no intelligence penalty, they have the floating +2 ability bonus mentioned above. Thus a half orc scarred witch doctor will have an effective intelligence bonus of +4 - more than any other playable race/class combination, and the flat bonus gets around the way point buy scales up at higher levels. Which means the "nerf" in question arguably made the class stronger, for half-orcs anyway.
• The Sacred Geometry feat. Minimal requirements, especially for a wizard (Int 13, and ranks in an otherwise mostly useless skill). Whenever you cast a spell, you can choose to try to apply metamagic feats you know to it for free; the only limitation is that the spell's effective level can't be above what you can normally cast. To do this, you roll a number of d6 equal to your ranks in the aforementioned skill (in practice, your level) and the game stops while you attempt to make one of three target numbers from your dice rolls using only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Succeed, and the spell goes off with the metamagic; fail and you lose the spell. Apart from being a literal game-breaker for players who are slow at arithmetic, it quickly turned out that beyond about level 5 (if you keep your skill ranks maximized) it's virtually impossible to have dice rolls that don't give any solutions - so the feat effectively lets you bring all your spell slots up to the maximum level you can cast. And the metamagics can be chosen when you actually cast the spell, rather than having to plan in advance when preparing spells as prepared casters normally have to do. And as if that wasn't enough, the feat also gives you not one, but two metamagic feats of your choice.^*Well, it lets you use them with this feat, but as explained above you're going to want to use this feat whenever you can use metamagics anyway.
• The number of gamebreakers in the Mythic Rules, where the characters are Purposefully Overpowered, could be its own page. Let's give a couple of examples:
  • Uncanny Grapple allows you to use a creature you grapple as a weapon. It does not specify as a melee weapon, though no damage is indicated for a non-melee attack. That's fine; the Limitless Range ability allows you to throw any thrown or melee weapon with no maximum range (though stacking penalties to hit). Nothing stops you from grappling an enemy, declaring that you will use them as a thrown weapon, targeting the moon, and taking such a massive penalty to hit you will miss on anything except a natural 20 (5% chance). If you hit, the enemy is now on the moon. If you shoot for the moon and miss, your enemy may land among the stars. Maybe. At this point, as thrown weapons have no travel time rules-as-written, they may be breaking the light barrier and game physics at the same time.
    • A more liberal reading of Uncanny Grapple would let you use Throw as the grapple with no range limit, dealing 1d6 damage per 10' traveled. If Golarion's moon is a similar distance to earth's moon, hitting the moon would do an estimated 1.3 x 10^8 d6 of damage. Hope for a good roll?
  • Mirror Dodge allows you to spend power to react to someone attacking you by creating an illusory decoy and teleporting away. Most melee enemies will never be able to lay a finger on such a character.
  • Tangible Illusion allows you to make illusory objects temporarily real, though they must be non-magical. This does not exclude creating powerful technological weapons from the Technology Guide, creating highly expensive components needed for spells to get out of paying for powerful magic, or creating absurd items that then become real like a set of adamantine manacles around an opponent's wrists or a bit of antimatter for an earth-shattering kaboom. Certainly, any GM can come up with some limits on some of the abuses this allows, but none are in the rules as written.
  • Infectious Spell allows you to target new creatures every round using spells that affect a limited number of creatures. Wild Arcana and Heighten Spell allow you to cast any spell on your list as a swift action, raise the caster level by 2, and raise its saving throw DC to the highest possible. You can literally get out any disabling spell on your list, maximize the difficulty to resist it, then spread it around to a bunch of new enemies, forcing them all to be affected, in one round. New targets are affected every round. Some of those spells are permanent. A mythic archmage with this could find a harmless enemy like a dire rat, cast Blindness until it fails its save at maximum level, then capture it and keep it as a roving source of blinding multiple enemies every round for fun.
  • Display of Charisma grants you a +20 bonus to any Charisma-based check, including all the abuses of Bluff skill. Perfect Lie makes the Sense Motive skill and magic useless; only absolute proof that you are lying causes someone to disbelieve you. You can literally walk up to an enemy, declare that everything they own is laced with an untraceable poison that no magic can detect and that no magic or ability can save them from, and that they are guaranteed to die a horrible death in one minute unless they do exactly what you say, and since this cannot be disproven, they believe it.
• Pathfinder 2nd Edition introduced a new rule for critical hits: instead of needing to roll a natural 20 to crit, you crit if you beat an enemy's AC or task's DC by more than 10 points. This meant that combat could be dominated by "crit fishing" builds which focus on rolling the largest number of attacks possible in a round in order to maximize the chance of landing a critical. Add weapons, in particular combat picks, which dramatically increase their damage dealt when a crit occurs and you have a distinct Game-Breaker.
  • Operative word "could"; Pathfinder 2e has kept its power curve very controlled compared to the wildly swingy Pathfinder 1e. Even getting 1-2 points above the expected power curve is usually difficult, unlike 1e where any mini-maxing player can find multiple gamebreakers.
  • Related to the critical hit revision, an unlikely weapon has become quite powerful: the gnome flickmace. The critical specialization effect of flails lets you knock a target prone without any sort of saving throw. What makes the flickmace so powerful is that it is a one-handed flail with reach (which unlike the whip isn't held back by the non-lethal trait and an abysmal damage die), meaning that anything in 10 feet of you is at risk of getting tripped up. Not that worrying because the flickmace is an advanced weapon, and limited to gnomes. However, humans can take the Unconventional Weaponry feat, gaining access to the flickmace and treating it like a normal martial weapon. The result is a human of a class specialized in dealing critical hits, capable of knocking anyone they crit down within 10 feet of them, make attacks of opportunity against anyone who comes close or dares to get up, eventually gets access to a second reaction for attack of opportunity, and can still wield a shield at the same time. Paizo, however, had since nerfed the flail crit specialization effect in the Remaster.
• The Resentment patron theme for witches provides familiars with the Familiar of Ongoing Misery ability. What it does is that if the witch casts a hex while their familiar is within a short distance from an enemy, the duration of any negative conditions affecting that enemy are extended by 1 round. This seems pretty harmless on the surface until you learn that the average length of an encounter is 2 or 3 rounds and debuffs in 2E are often balanced by 1 round durations. Say goodbye to whoever is unfortunate enough to be within 15 feet of your familiar when you cast a hex.

---