"Spellslugger"


Advice


Hey, long time reader first time poster here.

A friend of mine has recently raised a character concept with our group for an upcoming pathfinder campaign, his idea is a spell-caster who delivers their spells by punching their targets.

Now, the way we see it the biggest problems will be low base attack bonus and low hit dice for staying at that kind of range in combat. This isn't really a concern for the player though and he's welcoming all the challenge it'll bring to the table.

Just to outline the core idea; the spells that he'll select are only ones that make sense through a pugilist medium. Stuff like daze would work but fireball wouldn't, generally all touch spells would be fine but no beams or anything, his ultimate goal is to utilise the 'crushing hand' type spells as a projection from his physical fist. After looking through the spell lists he can't see much past level 6 spells he's choose should he survive that long though.

The advice I'm looking for it any obviously insurmountable problems we've missed aside from the general issue of being considerably worse than any pure caster or fighter. I'd also be grateful for your perspective on the build, a magus seems most logical to me based on the balance between casting and combat but we're very open at this stage.

Thanks in advance for any replies and contributions.


I tried to do this once, 1st level monk the rest wizard. Having to hit regular AC versus touch is a real pain, I mean just awful.

If you go Wizard, the Transmutation is your friend. Although the Magus would probably be a better choice over all.

My best advice for this would be to focus on dex rather that str, and take weapon finesse, defensive combat casting, and improved unarmed strike(or use 1 gauntlet).

The Punch Wizard: Uses the techniques passed down the Armstrong line for Generations!

Scarab Sages

Consider looking at the Enlightened Fist prestige class from 3.5. It was pretty cool, and helped a lot.

Otherwise, go Magus. Maybe a level of monk for the goodies, but mostly magus. It's just the plain easiest way to do it.


I would also suggest the magus. Possibly change the Kensie archtype to be a monk type that gets monk abilities instead of weapon bonuses and fighter bonuses.

The ability to use a flurry and spellstrike would be a nice combo.


Magus is the best way, but if you want more spellcasting, a Sohei Monk/Wizard/Eldritch Knight could do.


Here I typed up a quick Kensia Monk Archtype for magus that would work if you allow home-brew.

Replaces most the weapon abilities with a few monk ones.

Kensia Monk (Magus Monk Archtype).

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