I get it, I get it. 4 banned schools is a big hurdle to overcome. Using guns and not being a gunslinger is a suboptimal way to use firearms.
Even so. If the consensus is that Pathfinder Power tiers basically go
1. Full Progression Spellcasters
2. All the other things
as I so often hear, is this really such a terrible archetype? Can you still be an effective spellcaster with 4 banned schools, if you pick your spells carefully? And get some cool blasting options for your trouble? I'm not saying "make a 'slinger that's as good as a stock Wizard.
It's not a wizard. Not a gunslinger. Not a Magus.
But if Wizards > all the other things, I can't help but think there's room to still be a viable character, and a contributing member of a party. Anyway, I'm sure there's either something I'm missing - which is likely, as I've never done a high-level caster - or there's a role this class can fill.
Okay! Shoot holes in my hopes and dreams, guys!
I'm pretty sure that Spellslingers are plenty viable. I don't think anyone is going to say that it is more powerful than a normal wizard, but it certainly has a niche.
If you pick your spells properly, the bonus to Save DCs can be pretty amazing. Four opposition schools hurt, but you can always take Opposition Research to reduce the sting.
In my experience, spellslinger only works well if you plan on being a Wizard/Gunslinger/Eldritch Knight. I've found its strength lies in the fact that it and gunslinger both synchronize well with each other for EK, unlike the traditional Wizard/Fighter/EK combination. Also it's one of the few ways to actually make a dual-pistol wielder work without too much cheese.
Unfortunately the weakness sort of lies with everything else about the spellslinger. The wizard doesn't get very much good stuff, presumably to make up for the whole "Awesome arcane power" thing at high levels, and the spellslinger sacrifices a lot of that power for a novelty, the gun, without gaining anything worth nearly as much in return.
It is a terribly designed class.
It's not just 4 opposition schools.
You also lose cantrips. And you lose an addition spell at each level. And you lose out on some awesome school powers.
I'm mean, here's the problem: Yes, you can crank out some really awesome DCs on certain spells, but you are a one trick pony with very little ammo. You are extremely limited on the number of spells you can cast. 1/2 the Wizard spells in the game will take two slots for you. Detect Magic takes a first level slots from you (likely two because you'll ban Divination). You lost out on your bonus spells from any School. Yet, in order to beef up your gun you need to put spells into it each combat. How many spells will you be left with, especially at lower levels? And you will never be able to do a lot of the even most basic things that people expect Wizards to do (ie consistently ID magic items). And if you ever roll a 1 on an attack roll, your gun (and thus your one trick) is broken, and will take 1 hour to get back in order.
Hilariously enough, there is a way to make this class work: Take 1 level of Spellslinger, then 19 levels in any other full caster (you'd want to start with levels in the other caster class first). It's better in every single way. You'll get cantrips back. You'll get more open spell access. And you'll get cool features. And you loose absolutely nothing from multiclassing (except for bonus feats at 5/10/15/20). The Spellslinger removed everything the Wizard had that scaled with levels, and gave you all its new features at first level.
Actually, A Spellslinger 1 / Witch X wouldn't be a bad build at all.
I'm of the opinion that Spellslinger is designed for nothing else than to take Blasting to its literal and logical extreme.
You're given the Arcane Gun for nothing else than to wreck your enemies with save DCs they can't make. You kill things with magic and you do it well. You're the guy with the laser cannon.
^this
you might as well forgo any attempt and trying to be anything more than a straight up blaster and embrace it
So do Crossblooded Draconic/Primal 1 (any element, i suggest acid) and 19 wizard levels.
Blast your opponents for ridiculous damage
@Merkatz - you make some convincing points. I'll poke more at this when there's a bit more time, but I wanted to single one thing out:
And you will never be able to do a lot of the even most basic things that people expect Wizards to do (ie consistently ID magic items).
Suppose that you're not filling the Wizard role, more like an archer/utility role.
Well, there is a couple of problems with that Killstring.
1. To buff your gun takes spells, and to be most effective you need to be firing spells. The Spellslinger has less spell slots and a lot less available spell options than normal. You also have 0 class features to fall back on (no cantrips and no school powers that grants anything from simple blasts to teleportation and invisibility SLAs). Utility spells are going to be hard to come by, especially in early levels.
2. You want to be the "archer" character but you have terrible BAB and terrible HP and will be focusing on a weapon that has a terrible range increment. You need to target touch AC. That means 20 feet for pistols, or 40 feet with rifles. And if you go the rifle route you can only fire a shot once every other round, even with rapid reload. If you are already spending your limited spells on buffing your gun and blasting and trying to have some utility, how much do you have left for making yourself not get squished by things bigger than you?
3. When you run out of spells to fire, your damage will be crap. 1/2 BAB means you still might be missing on even touch attacks. And you will be at 1/2 the progression for all the good shooting feats.
First, Magic Missile has no attack roll or save, so the magic gun wouldn't do anything to it even if it did apply.
Second, you can use Reach Spell to add every melee touch spell to your list of Spellslinger spells, and Rime/Dazing can be added to spells to make failing the save mean something worse than just damage.
Third, even without Reach Spell, you have pretty good options every level:
Color Spray (1)
Ray of Enfeeblement (1)
Ray of Sickening (1)
Detect Thoughts (2)
Scorching Ray (2)
Limp Lash (2)
Ray of Exhaustion (3)
Crushing Despair (4)
Dragon's Breath (4)
Enervation (4)
Fear (4)
Acid Spray (5)
Cone of Cold (5)
Cold Ice Strike (6)
Contagious Flame (6)
Disintegrate (6)
Waves of Ecstasy (7)
Prismatic Spray (7)
Energy Drain (9)
Ok, so there's not such great choices at 8th. Maybe it really isn't that good. However, this list makes one thing clear: make sure you have Necromancy!
Random abusive thought--can you use the Magus' close study arcana to somehow cast a ranged touch attack through your gun but then spellstrike it through your scimitar so you have an 18-20/x3 crit?
Well, there is a couple of problems with that Killstring.
1. To buff your gun takes spells, and to be most effective you need to be firing spells. The Spellslinger has less spell slots and a lot less available spell options than normal. You also have 0 class features to fall back on (no cantrips and no school powers that grants anything from simple blasts to teleportation and invisibility SLAs). Utility spells are going to be hard to come by, especially in early levels.
2. You want to be the "archer" character but you have terrible BAB and terrible HP and will be focusing on a weapon that has a terrible range increment. You need to target touch AC. That means 20 feet for pistols, or 40 feet with rifles. And if you go the rifle route you can only fire a shot once every other round, even with rapid reload. If you are already spending your limited spells on buffing your gun and blasting and trying to have some utility, how much do you have left for making yourself not get squished by things bigger than you?
3. When you run out of spells to fire, your damage will be crap. 1/2 BAB means you still might be missing on even touch attacks. And you will be at 1/2 the progression for all the good shooting feats.
Well, from my point of view, it seems that many of these problems can be solved by taking levels into gunslinger. If you alternated levels, your bab would average out to 3/4, you'd gain more armor and martial weapons, and you'd get many of the features that make or break gun use. So overall, if there is no penalty for multiclassing, while it might be another point against spellslinger, it might be worth considering this almost like a prestige class for gunslingers rather than a class on its own. At least getting enough levels with the musket master archetype to treat them as pistols for reloading would be enough to make them half decent at mid range fighting. Not phenomenal, but enough I guess.
Oh, also note that since you get your gun's enhancement bonus added to the DCs, you want to make sure you get enhancements that can increase the enhancement bonuses--you know, stuff like Bane.
So overall, if there is no penalty for multiclassing, while it might be another point against spellslinger, it might be worth considering this almost like a prestige class for gunslingers rather than a class on its own. At least getting enough levels with the musket master archetype to treat them as pistols for reloading would be enough to make them half decent at mid range fighting. Not phenomenal, but enough I guess.
the main penalty for multiclassing is losing out on your upper-level class skills/deeds (in the gunslinger parts) and spells (in the wizard parts), which already hurts form taking the spellslinger archetype in the first place.
these losses can be mitigated somewhat through feats (youre quite starved between the two alread), traits (choose wisely), and some equipment (various gun enchants like reliable, lucky, spell storing can be useful as well, etc.)
im certain theres beter ideas to mitigate them than what i listed off the top of my head but whatever.
also: if youre going for 'gun mage', why not just play a myrmidarch magus and take amateur gunslinger/EWP (firearm of choice) feats? iirc the class features dont specify bows.
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you're not going to miss much as long as you're in touch attack range. If you read the wizard guides they discuss about how it's around 80% chance to hit touch attack with a decent dex... factor in gun enhancements, and you'll rarely miss, even with the slow BAB progression.
Ignore anyone who says your damage is going to be hampered by the to hit ratio.
Now if they want to address the number of shots you'll take, yeah that'll be slower than others, but you'll still be doing way more damage when you run out of spells than any other wizard.
I'm playing a spellslinger in a low magic, low wealth Ravenloft campaign where learning and casting most necromantic spells attracts the dark powers and are essentially considered acts of evil (so I don't cast them). The loss of cantrips is painful and having to use my spells to enhance my gun hurts as well.
But it's still super fun. I chose the class for the flavor. And I made my build plan (musket master 1, wizard X, eldritch knight 10) thinking I would use a lot of big blast spells through the gun. I was wrong. Best thing about my character is sacrificing spells to enhance the gun. At level 5, we have one or two magic weapons in the group, but I walk into most fights with a shocking flaming gun (or ghost touch if we're fighting spooky ghosts, etc.). Add in the bard's inspire courage and I am a destroyer of evil. In a low magic game, spellslinger is both powerful and versatile. We use hero points and I think I've used two to reroll dangerous misfires.
I won't deny that having so few spells and no cantrips hurts a lot, but you're in a party for a reason. Make sure somebody else can pick up the slack on cantrips and don't have too many non-caster classes in the group. Also, get scribe scroll so you can have extra utility spells as needed.
