Trying new things!

[derpdidruid]

Ok so I'm making my 5th character for pathfinder and up until this point I have played all martial classes. Not even a single ranged character. The magic system has always just seemed so intimidating to me.

So I ask you! What non martial class would you recommend for my first primary caster?

[Carla the Profane]

Pick something that doesn't have to prepare spells; the bookkeeping can be a real hassle if you're used to playing martials. Pick a sponatneous caster instead would be my suggestion.

I personally like Bards alot, their spell list is full of tasty buffs and there are alot of archetypes to choose from. Secondly I would say Sorcerer, because being able t spam your favorite spells all day, every day is fun.

[derpdidruid]

I was figuring it was going to be a spontainius caster one way or another. I think I'm going to go sorcerer any suggestions on spell selection and stat aray?

[Eltacolibre]

If you don't know what you want to play:

-Bard , they do everything, hell if you want druid spells (pick voice of the wild archetype), you like fighting like a dex fighter? (Dervish Dancer) or you want to be martial (Arcane duelist), do you like fire (Flame dancer)? Do you want to be a magician (Magician archetype) or indiana jones (Archeologist archetype)?

-Oracle and Sorcerers have so much flavor...its a lot of fun. Your aberrant sorcerer might have hair constantly moving around like tentacles.

-Alternatively, a good in between class for fighter and caster, is a cleric. Cleric have the advantage of having access to all their spells and can become a blaster, a summoner or battle cleric every day, just by switching spells around. It should be noted that Warpriest made it easier to make battle cleric in low levels with the ability to use swift action for buffs.

[derpdidruid]

Holly cow... Bard has some great archetype's.

At this point I think it's a tie between a flame dancer and a sorcerer. I'm going to build both and see wich I like more.... So many more choices for magic users.

[Carla the Profane]

Downside of flame dancer is that the bard doesn't get any spell that creates fog/smoke by themselves except pyrokinetics... which does strength and dex damage to anything in it's range.

My advice: get a decent UMD and buy a wand of obscuring mist. Once you've activated it once you get a +5 bonus to activate it again.

[derpdidruid]

How about a gnome flame dancer 6/sorcerer 14? Ally's gain fire resistance so I don't have to worry so much about carefully placed blasts.

[Carla the Profane]

In that case just stay bard; your buffs will be more useful than blasts!

[derpdidruid]

Ok so these are the satas I came up with.

Str:12
Dex:16
Con:11
Int:10
Wis:10
Cha:17

He is a kitsune flame dancer bard. His spell selection is grease and hideous laughter.

[RegUS PatOff]

One thing to consider for Sorcerers is that the human Favored Class Bonus of +1 spell known, which is really powerful for expanding your spell repertoire.

[derpdidruid]

Is it just me or do humans seem to have some of the best favored class bonuses in the game?

[Eltacolibre]

derpdidruid wrote:

Is it just me or do humans seem to have some of the best favored class bonuses in the game?

On average, humans come out ahead in most situations. But well, Half-Orc and Half-elves can take advantage of human favored classes bonuses and Aasimar as well with the approriate feat.

[derpdidruid]

really? I was unaware of that little tidbit. Could they also take advantage of Orc and elf favored class bonuses then?

[Eltacolibre]

Yes they can.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Carla the Profane wrote:

Pick something that doesn't have to prepare spells; the bookkeeping can be a real hassle if you're used to playing martials. Pick a sponatneous caster instead would be my suggestion.

I personally like Bards alot, their spell list is full of tasty buffs and there are alot of archetypes to choose from. Secondly I would say Sorcerer, because being able t spam your favorite spells all day, every day is fun.

I advise the opposite: pick something that does prepare spells. In my opinion, Cleric is the easiest class to play, and Wizard is the second easiest. Martial characters like Fighters are the most difficult classes to play.

I do not disagree with Carla that playing a Wizard can carry a heavy bookkeeping burden. But for another reason, I maintain the opposite thesis.

The bulwark of a Fighter build is the accumulation of Feats and the synergy of special combinations of those feats to produce powerful effects. Optimal selection of martial feats and other class abilities calls for a deep and nuanced understanding of the rules, and careful planning far in advance. Decisions about what levels you take in which class to acquire this or that ability or Feat are very difficult to unmake once you've made them. You can't decide mid adventure that your Grappling build is weak and you want a Crit-fishing build instead.

The bulwark of a Cleric build is spells. Clerics have a huge list of spells to choose from, and they can change their minds about which spells to take every game day. If Fighters are stone tablets where every decision is irrevocable, Clerics are chalkboards you can wipe clean and rewrite whenever you want.

Wizards have less flexibility than Clerics, but not a whole lot less. Wizards have to learn each new spell from the lists before they can cast it, but there is no limit as to how many spells a Wizard can learn, so they can build huge libraries of spells, and once again, from those libraries, they can change their minds every day about which spells to use. Wizards are not quite the chalkboards Clerics are: more like pencil and paper.

I think Sorcerer Bloodlines are more complicated than Wizard Schools. I think Oracle Mysteries and Curses are more complicated than Cleric Domain and Deity choices. So, I think you should have the experience of playing a Wizard before you play a Sorcerer, experimenting with all manner of Arcane spells until you find your favorites. Then next time be a sorcerer, selecting your favorite spells from when you were a Wizard to cast spontaneously as a Sorcerer.

[Ms. Pleiades]

A sorcerer can work. If you're used with working with lots of buffs on your martial characters, having a Sylvan-blooded sorcerer that buffs their animal companion would be good.

[calagnar]

If your going to make a primary caster. Do two important things. First make sure they have 9th level spells. Bards, Inquisitors, etc. just don't have enough spells per day to make primary casting their thing. Second pick a class that you like. You will be playing it for 4-5 hours at a time, and for up to 33 scenarios. That's a lot of time at a table with a character you think is ok.

I recommend doing something you don't see a lot of in your area. So your character really stands out as different then every one else. That gives you more time to shine in the roll you pick for them.

A few examples of my casters.
Bad touch cleric.
Cleric6 Monk (Sensei)2. New meaning to bad touch when you cast curse. Then attack with stunning fist to discharge the curse.

Controller Wizard.
Wizard (Arcane Bomber)7. Taking spell focus and greater spell focus Conjuration, and Transmutation, Magical Knack: Slow. You can chose to control there actions with a slow, or drop them down in a pit. If you drop them down a pit. Then you can start throwing alchemist bombs down the pit until they get free, or die.

[derpdidruid]

I was thinking instead of just jumping into the deep end I would go with a full caster with at least some martial abilaty. Maybe a druid? Possibly a magus.

Also while I haven't played for long it has been a very condensed expirience. I have probably played at least 1 1/2 - 2 to 2 weeks of pathfinder. I'm new but I have spent a considerable amount of time on this, all of this has been spent with martial character.

I just wished to test the waters.

[calagnar]

There is really not a way to test the waters. Due to how a primary caster plays vs. a martial. Even if you play a martial druid or a magus it will not get you ready to play a primary caster. As primary casters require a different mind set. They need to judge how few of spells they can use to win a fight, and use only them. Casting spells just to have something to do will cause you to be out of spells. Normally as a primary caster I try to only use two spells per encounter. Some times more if it's a tough encounter but not more then 4 if I can help it.

If your looking to make caster with some martial ability. I recommend going with Bard, Inquisitor, Magus as my top 3 choices. If you are confident in your ability to use a animal companion. Druid, and Hunter are two of the most powerful. However I can say from experience a well played Bard. Is almost like a cheat code for PFSP.

[Scott Wilhelm]

derpdidruid wrote:

I was thinking instead of just jumping into the deep end I would go with a full caster with at least some martial abilaty. Maybe a druid? Possibly a magus.

Also while I haven't played for long it has been a very condensed expirience. I have probably played at least 1 1/2 - 2 to 2 weeks of pathfinder. I'm new but I have spent a considerable amount of time on this, all of this has been spent with martial character.

I just wished to test the waters.

In that case, I have 2 more suggestions.

Arcane Archer: You start out as a fighter, like you normally do, then switch to gaining spells. You'll be more like an archer that can do some magic than a wizard who shoots arrows, but Arcane Archers do have some tricks that no one else has.

Alchemist: Most of your not-spell-spells are buffs which you can use on your allies if you take a Discovery called Infusion. Your blasting not-spells are pretty straight-forward: you throw Bombs that do more damage as you go up in level. You can take Discoveries that let you do certain tricks with those Bombs, like make them cover large areas, do acid or sonic damage instead of fire damage. You could take 1 level in Fighter so you can use a longbow, and take the Explosive Missile Discovery. Exploding arrows are cool. There is an extract called Alchemal Allocation, which sort of gives you the ability any spell of any class of up to 3rd level. Your best bet for making magic items is the Master Craftsman Feat, which lets you use your Craft Skill, including Alchemy to make magic items.

[Carla the Profane]

I second Scott Wilhelm on alchemists. They are very versatile (Although you ought to choose the general direction of the character at the start).

[born_of_fire]

Inquisitors are awesome in general and do a great job of straddling the caster/martial fence. Go with a melee focused Inquisitor and choose buffing and healing spells to ease yourself into caster-hood. The character will play very much like a plain jane martial with a few extra goodies. If you want a bit more of a stretch from your normal play-style, make an archery-focused Inquisitor instead. Inquisitors make excellent archers even with very low system mastery.

I am very partial to the Sanctified Slayer archetype--the always on buff of Studied Target beats limited Judgements IMHO. Stygian Slayer is also highly regarded provided your DM ignores the part where it trades away all of its weapon proficiencies (lolz, oops).