I have this concept in my head of a self sufficient gunslinger, who is determined to unlock the ancient secrets of magical guns.
I first thought Pistlero + Spellslinger -> Eldritch Knight but realized quickly that this would be rather weak.
You would need at least 5 wizard levels and I would think 5 gunslinger levels before you could realistically start taking EK levels.
It just seems that there is not a lot of existing content for this.
I may just have to homebrew something.
Any ideas?
A Gun Scavenger Gunslinger 1 / Forgepriest Warpriest X might be what you're looking for. Gun Scavenger has a fairly severe drawback (can't reduce your misfire chance to less than 1, ever) but has great flavor-- basically a Gun Scavenger builds and rebuilds all their guns from scratch and comes up with inventive new combinations out of the raw materials.
The Forgepriest would offer spellcasting (albeit divine instead of arcane), 3/4 BAB which is more than enough to hit with guns, the Destruction blessing for damage and Divine Favor et. al. along with Deadly Aim to keep damage competitive despite lacking DEX-to-damage (trust me, the damage holds up as long as you're making a lot of attacks as pistol-users are wont to do).
Furthermore, the Forgepriest gains item creation feats including Craft Magic Arms and Armor to enhance the guns he builds, and even gains some bonuses with weapons he builds himself.
If you want a slightly stronger version of this character you could take Pistolero instead and depending on how the feats and point buy work out it might be worth looking into Champion of the Faith to gain the ability to Smite like a Paladin.
At least two levels of juggler bard allows for efficient TWF with pistols. A level of spellslinger wizard lets you enhance your guns, or occasionally to use your gun to enhance your spells, then you can go back to bard. BAB isn't great but then again you're hopefully using touch attacks. Inspire Courage can take the place of dex to damage.
If TWF isn't your thing there's something to be said for grenadier alchemist. Explosive missile and alchemical weapon keep your damage up. Obviously you're interested in explosives and not just guns with this one.
The Spellslinger archetype doesn't work very well with Eldritch Knight. The Spellslinger focuses heavily on blast and touch spells, which it empowers using its class features. It's actually a pretty bad archetype for just attacking with guns, and it's generally not worth the chance of a misfire. EK holds it back more than anything, further weakening its already limited spellcasting. The EK's niche, on the other hand, is as the ultimate self-buffing machine. The entire point is getting (slightly delayed) access to the most powerful spell list in the game and rocking out with it; four opposition schools really doesn't do you any favors.
The best way to approach Spellslinger, IMO, is by multi-classing Sorcerer. You take one level as a Spellslinger Wizard then proceed with the Sorcerer class for the rest of your career. Your BAB will suck, your spellcasting will lag behind a regular spellcaster, but you'll have wickedly high DC's on all your spells and you'll have more flexibility as a Sorcerer than you would as a Spellslinger.
If you want to do Eldritch Knight, you'll want to approach as Gunslinger 1 / Wizard 5. The entire point of the Eldritch Knight is to leverage the awesome Sorcerer/Wizard spell list, so you want to take the absolute minimum number of levels in other classes. Five levels of Gunslinger is not viable for Eldritch Knight, even if it's tempting for the damage boost, and there's really no way to make that realistically work.
Spellslinger overall is a weak yet flavourful option. Normal wizard is almost always 'better'.
However, Covent, if you want to be primarily a gunslinger who also has wizardly magic, then there is no reason not to take this route:
Gunslinger5 (pistolero is best), Wizard5 (Spellslinger if you like the flavour better than having access to more spells/having a school) and then Eldritch Knight.
This makes a very effective ranged 'archer' type who also has lots of utility spells, to act as a backup arcane caster. It's not much use as a primary arcane caster, or as a blaster/Save-or-suck specialist.
If you want to be primarily a caster, then play a caster - dip one level if you feel the need, or just take the exotic weapon proficiency & amateur gunslinger feats.
Thank you all for the responses. I am looking as Gilarius said for more of a gunslinger with access to necessary utility rather than a wizard with guns.
Things I want:
*Freedom of movement
*Fly
*Protection from energy
*Protection from evil
*Mind Blank (I know this will likely not happen)
*Dimension door
Basically utility to cover the major holes in a martial chassis and make me not regret playing a 3/4 caster instead.
I appreciate all the feedback and am going to run some builds/numbers. I will try to get back today but I believe I am going to have a busy day at work so it may be tomorrow.
Wizards don't get Freedom of Movement, so a ring might be necessary. Alternatives include playing a Samsaran (Tiefling is better generally for the prehensile tail - not for 2 pistols but for holding rods or wands) or taking Shaman or Witch (if witches get it) and being even worse as a caster if you still want Eldritch Knight. Mind Blank is too high level for the build I suggested.
Spellslinger EK can be a stupidly strong burst damage machine... if you don't mind being mostly a myrmidarch.
You go something like Spellslinger 1 / Myrmidarch 7-8 into EK.
You prepare named bullets before fights, and then get a x3 spell critical automatically on any ray spell; with disintegrate, you are looking at 120d6 damage at lvl 20 (and then you can cast a swift action disintegrate again because of EK capstone and shoot another one of those).
I'd still like to see a full build for this, if you don't mind?
I've (still) not played any sort of magus, let alone a myrmidarch and I'd like to add it to my spellslinger guide. In particular, I'd like to see how you interpret the ranged spellstrike/spell combat abilities that others have described as 'not working at all'.
I Think musket Master ( or pistolero if you want a pistol) 5 spellslinger 5 EK 10 is a ok creature with a elf and spell penetration you Can get ok chance of hurtigt g guys with SR and at late levels you Can have otherworldly kimono like everybody.
You get level 7 spells and all the Bab you need to hit touch AC. You Can spend spells to boost your gun and spells to do utility stuff.
If you Think of your self as a gunslinger++ you Can be great.
I don't have a full build, it's just a combination of effects.
The "combo" in the build is just attuning your single gun (with the spellslinger's ability), hence your spells cast through it having a x3 critical instead of a x2 one. Then, spellstrike means if you strike critically with your weapon, your spell also crits. Shots with a named bullet automatically crit. Ranged spellstrike lets you deliver ray spells through your gun. Finally, with EK capstone, you get to fire a second spell off anytime you crit with a weapon. So for 2 5th level and 2 6th level spells, you are doing 240d6 damage, assuming the target fails its saves (which, with the DC boost from the gun, it's likely to).
Ok, let's see if I've understood:
1) Spellslinger gets you x3 critical multiplier on spells fired through the gun.2) Spellslinger also gets you possible higher DCs, due to gun enhancement bonus.
3) Magus-Myrmidach gets you Ranged Spellstrike - you cast a spell, which accompanies a shot (spellslinger spells don't get the bullet too, which is the reason for combining them).
4) Getting the crit using Named Bullet - tricky because it's not on the Magus spell list, but you could use a wand since it is on the Spellslinger list.
5) Whether a spell cast as a magus using ranged spellstrike also counts as a spellslinger spell cast through a gun looks like it would need GM approval, otherwise it's not worth taking the spellslinger at all.
6) In total, you'd have: 1 shot, probably doing 1d8+some damage (assume +5 gun, so 1d8+5+1 point blank shot = 10x4= 40 damage (might be more, but that's build dependant); plus Disintegrate 40d6 (assuming L20) = 140 x3 for the crit = 420 damage; plus the EK Spell Critical ability to add another Disintegrate at another 120 damage.
Total damage potentially = 600.
Not bad, but the 2nd Disintegrate doesn't get to be a critical unless you manage to roll it - no bullet is fired, so Named Bullet doesn't help here.
What the ability gives you RAW is:
-(lvl4)1 free attack with a ranged weapon to deliver the ray spell.
-(lvl11)if you cast a ray spell and somehow still have a full attack remaining with your ranged weapon (you cast the spell as a swift, or somehow the spell finishes at the beginning of your turn; don't ask me how, I didn't dig into it), you can attach a ray to each shot.
Eg Scorching Ray. You only get one ray per bullet, but you can have multiple rays. The Spellstrike FAQs state that you get the effect of a full round attack when you use it, so that's how the L11 Ranged Spellstrike should work.
You might be able to get a similar effect with a Sacred Fist Warpriest of Cixyron. Flurry of Boolet.
You might be able to get a similar effect with a Sacred Fist Warpriest of Cixyron. Flurry of Boolet.
Sacred Fists can't Flurry with ranged weapons. Sorry.
Sacred Fists refer to Monk's Flurry:
A monk cannot use any weapon other than an unarmed strike or a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows.
Only Zen Archer Monks get 'Starting at 1st level, a zen archer can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action, but only when using a bow (even though it is a ranged weapon). He may not make a flurry of blows with his unarmed attacks or any other weapons.'
@Gilarius: You can also grab named bullet with spell blending. A wand is worth it tho, for all the benefits it gets you, but it's very pricey.
I believe I mentioned my total inexperience with the Magus? Ok, having looked it up, spell blending will work. :)
Why wouldn't a second bullet get fired BTW? You cast a spell that is a ray spell, you can spellstrike it just the same. You can prepare named bullets ahead of time too.
On reading the EK Spell Critical ability, it never crossed my mind that you'd also be able to use Spellstrike on it. I think this would have to be cleared with the GM too, otherwise, you're right - even more damage!
I didn't know about that FAQ, do you have a link for it? Also, with this build you'd never reach Myrmidarch 11,so it's kinda moot anyway (but worth knowing for reference for spellslinger 1/Myrmidarch 19 or something).
From the Ultimate Magic FAQ:
"Magus, Spellstrike: If I cast a spell that allows multiple touch attacks, can I deliver all of those spell touches through my weapon?Yes. For example, if you cast chill touch (which allows multiple touch attacks), you could use spellstrike to cast and deliver the spell through your weapon, and in later weapon attacks you could use your weapon to deliver the remaining spell touch attacks (one spell touch attack per weapon attack).
If you have multiple attacks per round with that weapon (such as from having a BAB of +6 or higher), you can use the weapon to deliver multiple spell touch attacks per round, so long as you have uses of that spell touch attack remaining.
For example, if you are an 8th-level magus (BAB +6/+1) and you cast chill touch, you have up to 8 uses of that spell touch attack. If you make two weapon attacks in a round, you can deliver two spell touch attacks per round (one for each successful weapon attack)."
However, on re-reading this it isn't clear if you really get the multiple attacks on the same round you cast the spell. But if you don't, then the L11 Ranged Spellstrike makes very little sense. This is not as dodgy/cheesy as the previous bits requiring GM approval, in my opinion.
Sohei can grab flurry with guns if he gets a weapon training (from fighter, or, and I didn't even think about this until now, Myrmidarch) for the firearm group.
I don't think so.
Sohei says:At 6th level, a sohei gains weapon training in one of the following weapon groups, as the fighter class feature: bows, crossbows, monk weapons, polearms, spears, or thrown weapons. He may select an additional group of weapons for every six levels after 6th, to a maximum of three at 18th level. A sohei may use flurry of blows and ki strike with any weapon in which he has weapon training.
Firearms isn't in the list of groups a sohei can get at all, so I'd be leery of trying to get it. However, it is another way of flurrying (some) ranged weapons.