Thread title.
Preferably without cheese.
How good does it need to be, are PrC's allowed, and in what level range does it need to be played?
One of the Eldritch Knight builds (e.g. Bloodrager 1 / Sorc. 6 / EK 10, or Paladin 2 / Sorc 6 / EK 10) can be functional. Dragon Disciples can be OK.
Get both metamagic reducers on shocking grasp and a pure sorcerer can replicate a magus to some degree; instead of spellstrike you max out the metamagic more. Add VMC Magus and you eventually get real spellstrike.
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Depends on what you mean. Dragon disciple makes a good melee character. I have an 11th level dragon disciple in pfs that is basically an am barbarian character; maxed strength, minimum charisma to cast spells, buff and whack. Or straight sorc focusing on touch attack spells gets you up in melee. Touch spells usually don't require saves so you can have a lower cha and boost your con and dex for more survivability in melee too.
If what you mean is swinging a sword as a straight sorcerer then, well why? Do you really just want to be a magus? There is a spontaneous cha based archetype for magus if that's what you want.
I would like the OP to give his or her definition of cheese before responding.
Yes, but you need to tell us more before we Can make you one.
The cross-blooded orc-dragon/dragon disciple is a classic.
Depends on how competent you want to be, and how optimized the rest of your party is. Assuming the same level of system mastery and optimization you will never be able to match a full martial class. It also depends on what you mean by a melee sorcerer. If you want a sorcerer that is not helpless in a melee fight that is probably achievable. If on the other hand you want a sorcerer who is going to make the raging barbarian look weak, that is going to be difficult.
depends does touching people count as melee?
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3.5 also had a melee type Sorcerer - the Battle Sorcerer - easy to convert I would have thought although... Is it balanced?
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/UA:Sorcerer_Variant:_Battle_Sorcerer
Back in 3.5 my group ruled that all Sorcerers were Battle Sorcerers. And we gave them 4 skill points/level. (still end up with far fewer than a wizard) Of course - Pathfinder gave them a buff with bloodlines - in combination with bloodlines they may too good.
Especially since several bloodlines give bonuses which are useful in melee, but normally that's not very beneficial for a sorcerer. (buffs to STR etc)
Definitions
1. A melee sorcerer is a full Sorcerer that thrives on melee. His role needn't be that of an HP sponge with massive melee damage. As long as he is specialised for standing in the heat of battle performing some utility, that's good enough.
2. The difference between this concept and a magus is that the magus is a prepared caster to start with, but more importantly, the Sorcerer will be using his spells to enable himself in battle while the magus uses his spells to excel in the front line. Plus I like sorcerers and bloodlines.
3. Cheese is any clear exploit of RAW over RAI or any statement encouraging the use of Blood Money, Synthesist Summoners or Wayang Spell Hunter.
Anyway what I envision is using Orc or Nanite bloodline and picking the other through Eldritch Heritage, getting a lot of spells that trigger off melee attacks, be a half orc for falchion proficiency and maybe get Arcane Armour Mastery.
Or otherwise going Dragon Disciple.
Depends on what you mean. Dragon disciple makes a good melee character. I have an 11th level dragon disciple in pfs that is basically an am barbarian character; maxed strength, minimum charisma to cast spells, buff and whack. Or straight sorc focusing on touch attack spells gets you up in melee. Touch spells usually don't require saves so you can have a lower cha and boost your con and dex for more survivability in melee too.
If what you mean is swinging a sword as a straight sorcerer then, well why? Do you really just want to be a magus? There is a spontaneous cha based archetype for magus if that's what you want.
You had me at AM BARBARIAN but lost my at casting spells. [/threadjack]
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okay so you use Wayang spell hunter on blood money to help you empower blood money so that in the middle of battle it takes 1.5 times strength from you so that you can go helpless immediately upon entering battle. the Barbarian then uses your unconscious corpse as a weapon.
but really, you can just go full sorcerer bad touch.
Pehaps a reach sorcerer, much like a reach cleric just not hitting quite that often. As you grow in level you use spells to polymorph in to things like that 6 armes monsterous humanoid what ever its name is. At level 1 you take combat reflexes and go versatile human for bonus to both str and con. 20 point guy Will be int 8, wis 12, dex and cha 14, con and str 16. Level increase go to str. You are a reach sorcerer with a long spear until level 8 pr so when polymorph start to be worth a standart action and you Can use spells like false life to have ok HP.
Yes, in fact some bloodlines are meant to be played in melee situations.
Dragon for example gives you claws at level 1, giving you 2 attacks when you can full attack, something weapon using classes can't do until level 6.
When you don't get a full attack you can deliver a touch attack instead. Then if you miss on that touch attack you have 2 claw attacks next turn to attempt to deliver the attack (in addition to the damage from your claws).
There are some other things to think about. Armor class is likely to be low due to not wearing armor, low dex, and no other bonuses to ac (depending on bloodline). Health is likely lower, with typically lower con and lower health die. Combat maneuvers defense is likely lower.
Of course everything is relative.
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If you're headed for DD you can go the nat weapon route (good as their BAB will be low - so you're not giving up much in the way of iterative attacks anyway) - I once ran a tiefling sorcerer aimed that way. The character thought that he was a half-dragon, and he had a bite attack all of the time. So when he moved he got 1.5x str on his bite, and when full-attacking he activated the claws. (draconic/abyssal bloodlines - abyssal for the eventual STR boost & having my CHA count as +2 for sorcerer abilities)
With Mage Armor & Shield, along with nat armor he actually had the highest AC in the party.
Using nat weapons also lets you do sort of a crappy version of spellstrike with touch spells. Cast Shocking Grasp etc before a combat begins and just swing away with your nat weapons. First hit activates the touch spell. Chill Grasp is pretty sweet too. (Plus - my GM let me grab the 1st part of the Brutal bloodline as a trade for the Abyssal as it's meant to be a sub-set. +2 damage per swing)
Unfortunately - the campaign died shortly after I joined - and he never got up to DD. Pretty decent all the same.
To just answer the original post.
Yes.
Did you want advice on HOW to build it? :D
If you are in a group, look at Teamwork feats (especially if you have a hunter in the group).
Outflank gives you +4 instead of +2 flanking bonus, and provokes AoO for allies if you crit. This adds up FAST, especially when paired with Precise Strike.
Spellwise, go for buffing and then later Form of Dragon or Enlarge or similar.
The low BAB sucks, but can be offset fairly easily if you focus on boosting STR and buffing with spells.
Get an amulet of mighty fists if you do the polymorph route, or if you use natural weapons.
I was playing around with a lorewarden 1 / brown fur transmuter (or sorc) 6+ (maybe some EK) that changed shape to fight in melee.
It doesn't look too bad on paper, but doesn't really start functioning until mid levels. I haven't been able to try it in play yet.