I'm most likely going this path with my Tultipetan Dwarf. Thing is I can't decide what build is the most effective, Expert or Divine. I'm leaning toward Expert but there are some things the Divine build does better. To clarify things I want to be good with the Bearded Axe as that is my main means of attack. With spells I seem them as mainly buffs and some utility use in combat but they are not my primary means of attack. The spells I am looking at are Vampiric Touch, Awe, Smite Heretic, Diminish Fatigue and Benediction of the Gods. Is Expert the best way to go? I think so since it give me the most skills out of the gate and a lot of flexibility down the line. But is it the most effective for what I want to do. That thread on Expert versus the other archetypes has got me wondering about this.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback/advice.

My view on it is that it depends on what talents you want. If you want to be good with your melee weapon, in terms of having combat talents with it, then I would recommend going divine - especially if you want to make use of being a val'mordane and take your racial talents as well. You're skills might be higher (nd you can add 3 to your melee skill every tier, compared to just 2) with expert, but your non-skill talents will be extremely tight. Essentially, kiss every talent but spell casting and weapon specialization goodbuy - but you'll have good skills.

Well since he's a dwarf he won't get much in the way of val bloodline talents, and those I can take don't fit the character concept. I already have a divine character and was hoping to make this my expert, but if divine is a better build I can switch. Given the writeup on the Deathbringers I see him in a mold similar to the Shadow ("who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men"). A val with psionic abilities would work better for this but I'm going to try with the dwarf since I already have two vals.

He's playing a dwarf so bloodline talents aren't going to be an issue. For me it's almost a no-brainer. Unless you really want lots (or all) of the "paladin-y" type Divine talents (like Neroth's Grasp, Smite Infidel & The Mercy of Neroth among others), then you go Expert. To go divine and rely primary on weapons requires Warrior Priest (which is expensive to the number of spells you know) and the right Path support...doable certainly, but I like expert better.

To me Expert also makes more sense story-wise for a Dwarf who didn't start out in life expecting to become part of the priesthood...but found his or her calling after winged death interrupted their life by exterminating the enclave.

That's kind of the storyline I was think of. Another one was that he was training to be a priest of Larissa in keeping with family tradition, but changed to Neroth in the wake of the dragon's attack. Henry seemed to like the idea of a Tultipetan Deathbringer of Neroth.

I checked and I get Smite Infidel when I take the Holy Champion of Neroth at Tier 1 and Neroth's Grasp when I take my first level of Deathbringer of Neroth at Tier 2. Don't want the Mercy of Neroth so I'm good.

As to the last comment that works. Just as the Sack of Erebor by Smaug darkened Thorin Oakenshield's outlook on life, I could see the destruction of Tultipet by the Dragon having a similar effect on Arun.

If you choose to go Expert, your general "gain 2 Talents" advancement is pretty much locked into Divine Spell Casting and Weapon Mastery. taking Devout or Combat talents will be very difficult.

It all comes down to what Talents and Skills you want. If there are a lot of skills that Divine will not advance enough for you, take Expert. alternatively, if there are Devout or Combat talents you wanted, Divine may not be the way to go.

personally, I would recomend taking a Talent that makes most recoil in Horror....Warrior-Priest. If having a large spell selection is not something you care about, by all means sacrifice them to go up in your primary combat skill.

I would build 3 characters: an Expert, a Divine, and. divine with warrior priest. Then look at them and see which one has the best feel for what you want.

Let's throw some concepts out there. If you wanted to say build a character around a "Batman" or "Shadow" or "Punisher" concept, which archetype would be best? Assumptions are background will be Templar, path at Tier 1 will be HC of Neroth, and path at Tiers 2 and 3 will be Deathbringer of Neroth. The character will have Divine Spellcasting, be reasonably competent with weapons and have skills geared toward rooting out evil (given the Deathbringer concept). I also want him to be somewhat sociable although not as much as Beth's Cadican (since I don't want to steal her spotlight). So what works for you guys? I have both Expert and Divine builds on paper. The divine build is better at combat but that due to the fact that I took hits to Charisma and Logic to pump up Might and Prowess. The expert build is more rounded but I worry about his effectiveness in combat with d8s for might and prowess and three ranks for his main weapon. Still that's the price you pay to be "well-rounded." While not stealthy he does have three ranks in empathy, perception, athletics, streetwise, and two ranks in acrobatics, larceny, heal, and mettle. He has no social skills to speak of (again I leave that to Beth's Cadican) since I see him as more the investigator type.

To me, you are describing an Expert. Arcanum, combat, tracking, stealth, larceny, athletics, acrobatics, intimidation, and perception 6-7 of these skills can be "maxed". Depending on how much you want to wait, you could either go Templar background, or choose another background with complimentary skills/talents and take Templar Itinerant Path at T1. You can get a fair amount of free Weapon Mastery that way.

That's what I think, that my concept works best with the Expert. Just to be clear I'm getting this guy to Deathbringer by the fastest route possible, which to me is the Templar background, HC of Neroth at Tier 1 and Deathbringer at Tier 2.