Hey all I've tinkered with a reach cleric for a little bit but it didnt work for me. I just couldn't get over the low skills. But I'm at the point that I'm working on a alt for pfs and trying to figure out which way to go.
Option one: A reach cleric, Herald caller..4+ int to make up for the int. A dip in fighter would be appealing.
Option two: Shaman perhaps battle/lore...more debuffer
Option three: Occultist battle host...more combat related less caster
Option four: Oracle...not sure which way yet
Option Five: Warpriest Arsenal chaplain...similar to occultist
Options six: Skald...dip bloodrager
I know all over the place trying to get a direction atm
How about reach arcane casters? Skald is a start, but since they already get martial weapon proficiency and Raging Song (which also works on themselves), you shouldnt' need a Bloodrager dip for that. Reach Summoner would be another possibility. Whip Magus (especially Hexcrafter) is hard to build (needs a lot of feats to make it good) but reportedly rewarding if you manage to pull it off. Even crazier would be some builds using 1/ BAB fullcaster classes, often transitioning into Eldritch Knight, but these have even more of a problem getting them online in a timely fashion, while having a part in the early-mid part of their career in which they have lousy total attack bonus.
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Battle oracles are great. Strong martial 9th level caster. Cleric list has some of the best buffs. Eventually quicken divine favor kicks in. Skills for this guy are ok a bit better than a Cleric
Skald great support caster. Spell Kenning is outrageously good. Access to superstition, medium armor, con boosts, fast healing and mirror image image makes you a great tank on top of dealing good damage and supporting the team. Skills are awesome for skalds. Not bard level awesome but still good.
Shamans give up a lot to do melee really well. I don't love them for melee. I would just go battle oracle maybe spirit bound if you want to flavor.
I love warpriests but they feel less like casters to me than the others because they self buff so often. They have the super low skills of their parent class so I would not recommend them for you.
Okay, now I have a bit of time to dig up a couple of my reach arcane ideas:
Reach Eldritch Knight (however, Rules As Written, Maneuver Mastery doesn't work due to lack of effective Magus levels for Magus Arcana Effect, because VMC Magus only gives effective Magus levels for qualifying -- therefore, pick another Magus Arcana instead).
[Reach Blade Adept Arcanist with Bloodrager Dip and the following few posts (however, some on these boards argue that the Arcanist Exploit Bloodline Development doesn't work on Bloodrager Bloodlines, so expect table variation; on the other hand, if you get past that, this one DOES fix the above problem with the Magus Arcana Maneuver Mastery, because Blade Adept Arcanist gives you effective Magus levels for effect, and while it doesn't offer Maneuver Magus itself, VMC Magus does).
At one point, I would have recommended Orc Scarred Witch Doctor (+4 Strength makes up for several levels of 1/2 BAB), but the Scarred Witch Doctor errata of a few months ago killed this, even though it made otherwise conventional Half-Orc Scarred Witch Doctors overpowered (did the errata writers forget that Half-Orcs can put that +2 ANYWHERE?).
PFS doesn't allow VMC does it? I'll look a little deeper into the oracle. Yeah agree about the warpriest. Shaman would lose a bit but he would be a more debuffer type able to spam hexes. Skald is up there on the list...the dip for bloodrager would give me +4 when i rage/song...not sure if it is valid but was leaning towards half-orc...take the valet familiar and take amplified rage... so personal rage +8 str/con and then add skald's vigor. What is the view for occultist?
PFS does not allow VMC.
I forgot that PFS bans all sorts of interesting stuff such as VMC (and fractional base bonus calculation, and . . ).
Going to have to think up some Reach Eldritch Knight build that uses Transmuter Wizard and Improved Eldritch Heritage (Abyssal or Orc) (I checked on Archives of Nethys and this DOES have the PFS-legal pentagram) to make up for the eary-mid stage of poor BAB . . . .
Improved eldritch heritage comes in so late for PFS. It required character level 11 and that's the last level for most PFS characters. So you'd have 1 level with a +2 str.
Improved eldritch heritage comes in so late for PFS. It required character level 11 and that's the last level for most PFS characters. So you'd have 1 level with a +2 str.
I know, but think of it as sort of a capstone for PFS (if you're willing to spend the feat and Charisma for the initial Eldritch Heritage).
Arcane duelist bard.
3/4 bab, armor, abilities to boost damage with performances and your bonded weapon and spells.
not a lot of offensive spells but with a high charisma, UMD and weaponwand youve got a built in blaster option too.
@cavernshark My origional idea was to go empiricist investigator but i was hoping to pass some buffs and such. Not worth infusion and such to pass around imo.
@Wally the Wizard, I really want to like the duelist, liked it first time i saw it but I think they give up too many skills (bardic knowledge, versatile and such)
Sadly work has been in the way from me doing some seriously crunching.
Reach Kensai Magus wielding Elven Branched Spear.
Forget Spellcombat and Shocking Grasp.
Buff on your turn and debuff with loads of Aao using rimed frostbite or elemental touch for adaptability.
Feats:
Rime spell
Combat reflexes
Power attack
Pushing Assault
Phalanx Formation
What about Skirnir Magus with the new Shield Brace feat (which you make up for by going for a Strength build and thus not needing Weapon Finesse)? I'm going out on a limb here, since I haven't been able to find that feat online, but from what I understand on these boards it sounds like it should work wiith an Elven Branched Spear (question, though: is a buckler a big enough shield for it to work with?). You won't get Int-to-AC, but eventually you will surpass that with better armor and shield, and you'll also eventually be able to do Spell Combat while wearing a shield and one-handing the Elven Branched Spear.
Alternatively, Bards and Skalds should also be able to make good use of an Elven Branched Spear (with or without the shield, and not having to worry about wasting a major class feature since they don't Spell Combat anyway, and also not having Diminished Spellcasting), and some archetypes also get decent armor (Skalds even start out with Medium Armor, and a few Bard archetypes eventually get Heavy Armor).
It comes down to a question of trade offs.
The arcane duelist with a 14 int has 8 skills a level. More than just about any other class except the standard bard. And it gives you 8 feats over the course of 20 levels. So the question is do the extra feats outweigh the skills.
Bardic knowledge is great for skill checks but you really only need so much. be human and take focused study or use a feat on skill focus and you can meet most checks. And it's a team game, so it's not unreasonable to leave the arcana or religion checks up to the wizards and clerics.
versatile performance is pretty over rated to me. first you have to put skills in a perform skill you would never use otherwise and in return you get to use it for 2 skills. okay but not great, it gets less exciting when you see most of the skills are cha based so the bonuses are about the same and most of the later choices are going to overlap with a previously chosen skill.
On the flip side with the duelist you get combat casting, heavy armor, arcane strike, a bonded weapon, bladethirst and some nice feats to get past DR in late games greatly increasing your survivability and damage output. Unless you play in very intrigue social heavy games I think duelist is the better choice.
Just had another thought -- getting back to divine reach casters:
Druid would potentially be not too shabby. They get some decent battlefield control spells; Summon Nature's Ally is overall weaker than Summon Monster, but it can't be thwarted by Protection From or Magic Circle Against {Alignment}; and Goliath Druids in particular have the potential to get some insane reach by Wildshaping into Giant Humanoids (and before this comes online they can use Enlarge Person on themselves), while retaining the ability to wield a Reach weapon. The problem is that they don't get proficiency with a Reach weapon by default, so you are going to have to finagle this with a feat, dip, or racial proficiency (or Half-Elf with Ancestral Weapon, but since you are going to be MAD and only get a single +2, this isn't so great even if it is a floating +2). For more Reach, get Eldritch Heritage (Aberrant) or dip Bloodrager (Aaberrant) (the latter also solves the Reach weapon proficiency problem, although you will probably have to get Extra Rage unless you are friends with somebody who can cast Rage, and you will need to get Mad Mgic).
Another possibility is inverted Reach Summoner: Have an Eidolon that is proficient with a manufactured Reach Weapon, and later get it to be Large and eventually Huge, while you run around inside the Reach umbrella and clean up trash that gets inside, possibly even using your own smaller Reach weapon.
Of course, both of the above concepts depend upon commonly being in spaces large enough for this to work, so these probably isn't good for a fair number of APs.
The reach caster action economy effect only really applies if you have spells or spell grade abilities that you cast as a standard action (or full round as a spontaneous caster with metamagic, though the lack of mobility hurts there) that are good at a poor save DC.
The cleric can do that with sacred summons. A summoner gets standard action summoning. Anyone else needs to have stuff on their spell list that is effective with a low casting stat. The only summoning spell that is naturally a standard is vomit swarm, which helps the witch/EK be a viable reach build in spite of hexes having hopeless DCs.
Wizard EK with a battlefield control conjuration focus has potential to work well.
A bard or skald could find enough buffs to stack to be worth using a reach build, but it might mean using too many resources. It's not a definite no like Oracle
I'm going to stick with the statement that arcane duelists bards are better reach characters than clerics. Espically over the course of a whole adventure.
The reach cleric is nice in that it gives the cleric some extra action economy but it has some issues. It's MAD and Sacred summons doesn't come online until mid levels and it suffers at higher levels from lack of specialization.
Levels 1-5 the cleric is a mediocre fighter with a few buff spells. Since you have to have decent DEx for AOO, Con to survive, Wis for spells and Str for damage you don't excel at anything. unless you are evil there's no sacred summon monsters until SM3 so you're casting a couple low level buffs like the bard
The bard is less MAD, he needs less in his casting stat to get all his spells, and arcane strike and inspire courage allow him to get by with a lower STR while still pumping out decent damage. the extra points go in to dex and you get better AC, better init and another AOO over the cleric with combat reflexes Also the performances help stretch his limited spells.
6-10
The cleric comes online with sacred summons and will probably be going towards superior summoning using up all his feats.
The bard bets to double buff in the first round now that the performance is a move action, his since he has weapon bond and doesn't need to save to get expensive stat boosts for his casting stat he has more money to get better gear and deals more damage and has better defense. he has open feats to take things liek standstill and control the battle field. 7th level AD bard can use arcane strike with a swift, performance with a move, drink a enlarge person potion with his standard and be in control of the battlefield with reach and stand still, all in 1 round. round 2 he's got options, move towards the spell casters with disruptive and a huge threat area or set up flanks,cast a spell to buff or heal or damage sinec he's spontaneous, use dazzling display to debuff, etc
10-15
Cleric comes in to his power here and has several summoning options. The bard keeps a steady increase between feats and increase todamage sources but nothing special.
15+
The cleric starts to wane, summons only scale to a point, the pit fiend doesn't care if you summon 5 CR8 creatures as a standard action if they can't hit his AC, the cleric's damage is nothing special and has trouble getting past DR and his spells DC can be beat.
The bard still is pumping out decent damage with his DR piercing and making it so other party members can shine with his buffs and debuffs.
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If you go Shaman, the Battle Spirit has a number of abilities that go well with a reach build. The extra AoO from Battle Master is particularly nice.
What about Skirnir Magus with the new Shield Brace feat (which you make up for by going for a Strength build and thus not needing Weapon Finesse)? I'm going out on a limb here, since I haven't been able to find that feat online, but from what I understand on these boards it sounds like it should work wiith an Elven Branched Spear (question, though: is a buckler a big enough shield for it to work with?). You won't get Int-to-AC, but eventually you will surpass that with better armor and shield, and you'll also eventually be able to do Spell Combat while wearing a shield and one-handing the Elven Branched Spear.
Shield Brace doesn't let you use a two-handed weapon in one hand. It lets you use your shield while still wielding the weapon in two hands. And it doesn't work with a buckler.
But there are some nice options for Skirnirs in the Armor Master's Handbook. Eventually they get class abilities that make most of those option obsolete, but I'm thinking that they would help at the lower levels and could be retrained later. I'm seriously considering a sword and board Skirnir build now.
@Wally the Wizard...I think your assessment is missing some major things. Going on just straight cleric and bard... 1-5 Agreed the cleric is so-so...but counting fate's favored the cleric is most likely casting divine favor for +2/+2...not to mention whatever he has for domains and just in spells he is gaining them faster than the bard after all and that is the huge clincher.
Agreed as a buffer the bard is probably better. But when you start getting to level 6-10 The cleric becomes a summoner on top of everything.
Sorry but by level 15 it's not even a competition bringing people back to life...negating attacks...traveling to other worlds or planes...granted he wouldn't be as good of a reach combatant but he is on another plane by then...Downside though is skills...I'm a stickler for skills I like to do more than just cast and hit things.
@Atarlost Not sure why a oracle is a definite no. They have a aura so can use sacred summons, same as the cleric...same spells but more skill points and extra tweeks.
Shaman gets Chant which is basically cackle. If I go lore I could also get some arcane spells along with cleric spells (granted one level behind)
@nicholas storm...that is pretty nice, even without the boost to bard it would be a very nice route (with flagbearer) Definitely something to look into.
@UnArcaneElection..druid is a nice idea but it would be kinda be overlapping my current character. But I should go back to looking at them...if nothing else wasnt there a idea for monk/druid? Wouldn't be reach but might be pretty cool. Also I would love shield brace but not sure if I will be able to manage it. Funny enough if I go with the herald caller with a dip in fighter it might be doable. Think it is written that you dont need shield focus if you are a fighter to qualify for it. Add in martial weapons, armor galore and a bonus feat it might be a nice route.
Btw everyone thank you for the advice. I do listen and I weigh in everything...sadly I think I have more options than less now :)
You can try a Mesmerist with a longspear as a reach caster. They're basically inverted bards; they focus on debuffing enemies rather than buffing allies. Pretty interesting class.
There is another reach finesse weapon. Elven Branched Spear
Just tinkering with a Herald caller/fighter...brought it out to 10 Looks pretty solid. Stats are 16/14/14/12/15/10 about 84hp. I actually have feats to spare. Also at level 11 I could still take divine interference. Not sure if shield brace would work for the cleric since i probably need a hand free to cast... Took the fate domain for bit of luck buff, traits are fate's favored and adopted: halfling helpful. Feats taken so far was combat reflexes, power attack, bodyguard and sacred summons. Still need to take 3 more feats and got augment summons and superior summons. Level of fighter give me heavy armor and martial weapons. I like bodyguard, I have 3 attacks of opp, i could use if they move in my zone or grant a ally +4 ac to the attack (probably invest in benevolent armor) Level 5 spells
I started to tinker with the shaman but hit a wall on stats. Only thing i could figure is if i dumped the idea of lore (boo hiss) then i could drop cha like a rock...actually scratch that..wont work (sorry working on it and typing. Stats are a lot trickier...probably too mad for reach..which sucks too many abilities are based around cha, then wis cast and arcane enlightenment really want int to around 13...con has to be decent (min 12) dex needs to be decent for aoe...really only thing i could think of is dump str and go dex based..I like adding evil eye/misfortune and chant to the picture not to mention bane with monsterous insight just dont see a good work around for it
For the martial dip (if you are using one) of a Reach build, I like the idea of Blood Conduit Bloodrager with the Aberrant or Abyssal Bloodline. This doesn't get you as many feats as a 2 level dip in Lore Warden Fighter, but on the other hand, it trades out Fast Movement to get you a bonus Improved Combat Maneuver feat (you probably want Trip) without needing to meet the prerequisites (goodbye, Combat Expertise, and Dirty Fighting can wait for when you are ready to take Greater Combat Maneuver with a non-Bloodrager feat). If you do manage to squeeze in another feat, you can take Mad Magic so that you can cast non-Bloodrager spells while in Bloodrage, and then make use of your Aberrant Reach or Demonic Bulk if you find a way to progress your Bloodrager Bloodline to 4th level (Arcanist or Exploiter Wizard with Bloodline Development). If you can't do that, then Abyssal or Draconic Claws could be a good emergency close combat in case something manages to get within your minimum Reach Weapon range, or Arcane Disruptive Bloodrage is good if you are often up against close range spellcasters, and Celestial gioves you a quasi-Smite that will be useful in a reasonably wide range of situations; the 1st level debuffing power of Fey (best) or Kyton or Undead could be good if you get a weapon with a good Critical range (Fauchard is best for this but costs a feat unless you manage to finagle it using an alternate racial trait)
^Once you get beyond 1st level spells, you can use the Rage spell to fuel your Bloodrage -- this lets you use Rage/Bloodrage Powers.and doesn't Fatigue you (forget about the Concentration part of the duration and consider it to be a 1 round/level spell; when you can, get a Wand of it (and if you have thte right kind of Familiar, potentially your Familiar could extend it with Concentration). Being friends with a Skald is also good, although oddly a Skald can't fuel your Rage/Bloodrage Powers until they hit 20th level (although their Inspired Rage still doesn't Fatigue you, and it's still good for when you can't good use out of the above-mentioned Bloodrage Powers). You could get Extra Rage, but that's another feat, and you're probably better off using a Wand of Rage.
And remember that if you are going with a 9/9 arcane casting class, you really need to go into the Eldritch Knight prestige class, and that requires full martial weapon proficiency, which requires a martial dip.
I miss the pre-Errata Scarred Witch Doctor . . . .
I would to prefer to avoid a dip, but in the case of the Herald caller I only get light armor. So a dip in fighter would fibre me med, heavy armor and shields.. not mention martial weapons and a Bonus feat. I need to check the rules but I think the level of fighter also means I can skip a prerequisite of shield brace. So one level of cleric is a decent trade off.
When I get a moment I'm gonna Tinker with the skald.
{. . .}
Since when does the rage spell give bloodrage? It's half power and acts like barbrian rage. Bloodrage counts as barbarian rage, but barnarian rage doesn't count as bloodrage. {. . .}
Here you go (bolding mine):
{. . .}
Bloodrage counts as the barbarian's rage class feature for the purpose of feat prerequisites, feat abilities, magic item abilities, and spell effects.
The half-strength part isn't too bad as long as you can use your Bloodrage Powers, so save your regular Bloodrage for when you really need the extra oomph.
* * * * * * * *
I don't have time to do a build right now, but thinking about what ability score adjustments you would want for a Wizard-based build (use Transmutation school to boost ability score), the starting ability score adjustments you would want would be +Str, +Int or +Dex, +Int without -Con (unless getting something to compensate for it). So here is the short list of what race you could use for this without needing an insanely high point buy:
Human with Dual Talent to get 2nd +2 to an ability score (this is the only PFS-legal way to get +2 Str and +2 Int without -2 Dex, and has the PFS-legal symbols on Archives of Nethys, and likely to be allowed at most non-PFS tables)
Elf (gets +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con, but just barely gets a pass for the -2 Con because you can just barely make up for it on a 20 point buy AND get the Elven Branched Spear as a Martial Weapon; has the PFS legal symbol on Archives of Nethys, and likely to be allowed at most non-PFS tables)
Standard Tiefling (gets +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha; has the conditionally PFS-legal symbols on Archives of Nethys -- you need the right kind of Chronicle Sheet to unlock this -- good thing you don't need a sub-race, because NONE of them have the PFS-legal symbol)
Android (gets +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha; has no PFS-legal symbol on Archives of Nethys)
Male Lashunta (gets +2 Str, +2 Int, -2 Wis; has no PFS-legal symbol on Archives of Nethys)
Vetala-Born (Ajibachana) Dhampir (gets +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis; has the conditionally PFS-legal symbols on Archives of Nethys -- you need the right kind of Chronicle Sheet to unlock this; Caution: As of this post, Archives of Nethys didn't update their entry on Dhampirs with this Errata of Dhampir ability score adjustments)
The spell says "identical with a barbarian rage" but would it stack? Think that is a grey area.
Either way I plotted out a skald and while it is decent I found it sort of wanting...at least for a reach build maybe with a solid two handed I could just go in and hack at things (skald vigor would be giving me fast healing of 6 per round along with dr 1/-.. I was kinda disappointed with versatile performance...it is great at level 2 but when you get the next one I felt it overlapped and wasnt worth investing in another skill it seems pretty solid though to be honest I was starting to wonder why i didnt just go with a barbarian :) Superstition and witch hunter made me smile.
My worry is with a wizard based reach would the hit be really worth it? Seems like a lot of hoops to get it to a decent proficiency .
So far my thoughts are warpriest and shaman are out... I did tinker with a oracle...it was decent but It had a tough time catching my attention (hard to explain) Herald caller is a very strong one, though sacred summons only works on a couple monsters so that makes me wary.. but give up spells for summons and cures and just a lot of flexibility. Skald is decent...21 rounds of raging song...give everyone +4 str/con +4 to all saves (or just +3 will without superstition) +4 damage against spellcasters/spell like ability..then celestial blood everyone now has a good aligned weapon and do +1D6 to evil outsiders with a melee attack. Cast haste on top of that =D
Next thought is towards a occultist
The spell says "identical with a barbarian rage" but would it stack? Think that is a grey area.
{. . .}
They wouldn't stack, but they don't need to. You just need for the Rage spell to be a half-strength substitute that is good enough for activating your Bloodline Powers.
That's where I find it grey, I wonder if they meant you could use rage powers.
I tinkered a bit with the bloodrager and barbarian (yeah I liked the rage powers wanted to see what else there was.) Bit what I was looking for.
Really need to get on the occultist and the bard today. Back to work tomorrow so no time.
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Okay, I'm going to take a shot at a Reach Arcane caster build:
Human with Dual Talent Alternate Racial Trait (+2 Str, +2 Int)
NG worshipper of Torag
20 point buy: Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 10 (you could dump one of those last scores to squeeze some more points into something else, but I hate dumping unless I have a good conceptual reason for it or have no choice)
Traits: Campaign or PFS (Faction?) Trait, Defensive Strategist (gets you almost Uncanny Dodge)
1: Blood Conduit Bloodrager with Fey Bloodline (Bonus Feat = Improved Trip); level 1 character feat = Combat Reflexes; use a Bardiche as your weapon to get the widest critical range you can get with a non-Exotic Reach weapon, to improve your chances of scoring Confusing Critical when you are in Bloodrage
2: Transmuter (Enhancement Subschool) Wizard 1 (Opposition Schools Evocation, Necromancy, or if you can get Rage on a Wand, Opposition Schools Enchantment, Evocation so that you aren't denied easy access to False Life later on) (non-PFS bonus feat Scribe Scroll; PFS bonus feat Spell Focus (Necromancy)); put your Arcane School Enhancement Bonus into Strength; FCB all goes into Hit Points.
3: Wizard 2; level 3 character feat = Mad Magic (now you can cast spells while in Bloodrage)
4: Wizard 3; level 4 character ability score increase goes to Intelligence (and you also now can cast Rage, although it is better to get this on a Wand, so that you can save your spells for things like Staggering Fall to use as an Immediate Action when you Trip an enemy, and for Bull's Strength to buff your Strength to make you more likely to hit and confirm a Critical, and for Bear's Endurance to buff your Constitution to improve your Confusing Critical DC, since otherwise it won't scale since you only dipped in Bloodrager)
5: Wizard 4; level 5 character feat = Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Fauchard); now you switch to using a Fauchard to get an even wider Critical range, making your Confusing Critical more likely to activate
6: Wizard 5: Wizard Bonus Feat = Craft Magic Arms and Armor in non-PFS or Persistent Spell in PFS, or maybe even in non-PFS if you can get weapons enchanted to order (see level 8 for the reason why); enchant your Fauchard to be Keen as soon as you can to get an even wider Critical range, making your Confusing Critical even more likely to activate; note that your Arcane School Enhancement Bonus now improves to +2
7: Eldritch Knight 1: bonus Combat Feat Bodyguard; level 7 character feat = Additional Traits (Magical Knack, Helpful) -- Magical Knack catches your caster level up to your character level even though this level of Eldritch Knight doesn't progress your spellcasting; Helpful makes Bodyguard better
8. Eldritch Knight 2: level 8 ability score increase goes to Intelligence; also note that if you got Persistent Spell at level 6, you can now cast Persistent Staggering Fall as an Immediate Action when you successfully Trip an opponent
9. Eldritch Knight 3: level 9 character feat = Dirty Fighting (needed to qualify for Greater Trip as an alternative to Combat Expertise, and more generally useful to you in its own right than Combat Expertise -- although alternatively you could use the spell Blade Tutor's Spirit to almost eliminate the attack penalty of Combat Expertise, thus making it actually useful in its own right, especially since you have lousy AC except for whatever you can put on by buffs and magic items)
10. Eldritch Knight 4: --
11. Eldritch Knight 5: Bonus Combat Feat = Greater Trip; level 11 Character Feat = Quicken Spell (so now you can do a Quickened True Strike right before you make a Trip attempt)
12. Eldritch Knight 6: Normal end of PFS, but if you have a boon to go further or aren't in PFS, go for archery feats if you want to go combat-focused, or Opposition Research (Evocation or Necromancy) and then Metamagic Feats if you want to go caster-focused. Note that at character level 16 = Eldritch Knight 10, you get the potentially awesome Spell Critical, and your Keen-Fauchard-using build makes it live up to its potential.
A potential alternative in the above build is to go Exploiter Wizard and get the Arcanist Exploits School Understanding and Bloodline Development -- the former gives you a shadow of the Transmutation (Enhancement) Arcane School, while the latter progresses your Bloodrager Bloodline. The downside is that your Arcane School never progresses except for brief periods at a time (fueled by a limited Arcane Reservoir), while your Bloodrager Bloodline temporarily progresses but then quits progressing when you go into Eldritch Knight. This alternative would be more useful with the Aberrant or Abyssal Bloodlines, which you need to progress to 4th level to get them to be good. It also reduces your spells per day, although on the upside, you don't get saddled with Opposition Schools.
I'll look into it more.. tried the bats and it fell flat for me. Occultist is cool but kinda felt like abilities overlapped over spells. I'll look into the wizard idea and my original idea of the investigator. I need to check some rules for the skald but he is in the lead atm. Cleric is still good but the buffs the skald is throwing out is very nice.
Skald idea is to go half orc get the familiar and the teamwork feat (blank on name atm) by level 3 I could be raging with the familiar and get +8 str/con...with skald vigor I would have fast healing of 8. Granted everyone else would only get +2. Later on giving the rage powers with 1 Dr and getting my skald vigor on the party... sounds nice
Just fyi, druid worshipers of Gorum can actually cast rage themselves, per the sidebar in inner sea gods, pg 67, which is pfs legal. So that would cut out any need for wands or allied casters.
Okay, here's a shot at a somewhat different version of the Reach Arcane Caster -- this time, using Elf and Elven Branched Spear to improve accuracy at the expense of damage, but using the Celestial Bloodrager Bloodline as a quasi-Smite:
Elf (all standard racial traits) (+2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int)
Str 14, Dex 17, Con 13, Int 17, Wis 8, Cha 7 (have to dump both of the last 2 stats and hard-dump one of them to be viable, and no way can you do this on 15 point buy)
Traits: Campaign or PFS (Faction?) Trait, Warrior of Old (improves Initiative)
1: Blood Conduit Bloodrager with Fey Bloodline (Bonus Feat = Improved Trip); level 1 character feat = Combat Reflexes; use Elven Branched Spear to get +2 on Attacks of Opportunity, and stick with this as your melee weapon for your whole career (and for your 1st 2 levels, this will cover for your delay in getting Weapon Finesse)
2: Transmuter (Enhancement Subschool) Wizard 1 (Opposition Schools Evocation, Necromancy, or if you can get Rage on a Wand, Opposition Schools Enchantment, Evocation so that you aren't denied easy access to False Life later on) (non-PFS bonus feat Scribe Scroll; PFS bonus feat Spell Focus (Transmutation -- note that I typed this wrong in the previous build)); put your Arcane School Enhancement Bonus into Constitution; FCB all goes into Hit Points.
3: Wizard 2; level 3 character feat = Weapon Finesse (now you REALLY hit accurately, although only moderately hard)
4: Wizard 3; level 4 character ability score increase goes to Constitution, freeing your Arcane School Enhancement Bonus to go to Dexterity (and you also now can cast Rage, although it is better to get this on a Wand, so that you can save your spells for things like Staggering Fall to use as an Immediate Action when you Trip an enemy, and for Bull's Strength to buff your Strength to do more Damage, and for Cat's Grace to buff your Dexterity to improve your ability to hit things and get even more Attacks of Opportunity; at this point you still have to pre-buff, because you don't have Mad Magic yet)
5: Wizard 4; level 5 character feat = Mad Magic (now you can cast spells while in Bloodrage)
6: Wizard 5: Wizard Bonus Feat = Persistent Spell in both PFS and non-PFS note that unlike the previous build, you aren't Crit-Fishing, so you don't need to seek out the Keen Enchantment, which doesn't make that huge a difference on an Elven Branched Spear anyway; also note that your Arcane School Enhancement Bonus now improves to +2
7: Eldritch Knight 1: bonus Combat Feat Bodyguard; level 7 character feat = Additional Traits (Magical Knack, Helpful) -- Magical Knack catches your caster level up to your character level even though this level of Eldritch Knight doesn't progress your spellcasting; Helpful makes Bodyguard better
8. Eldritch Knight 2: level 8 ability score increase goes to Dexterity; also note that you can now cast Persistent Staggering Fall as an Immediate Action when you successfully Trip an opponent
9. Eldritch Knight 3: level 9 character feat = Dirty Fighting (needed to qualify for Greater Trip as an alternative to Combat Expertise, and more generally useful to you in its own right than Combat Expertise -- although alternatively you could use the spell Blade Tutor's Spirit to almost eliminate the attack penalty of Combat Expertise, thus making it actually useful in its own right, especially since you have lousy AC except for whatever you can put on by buffs and magic items, and compared to the previous build, since you have better accuracy especially but not only on Attacks of Opportunity, this option actually becomes more attractive)
10. Eldritch Knight 4: --
11. Eldritch Knight 5: Bonus Combat Feat = Greater Trip; level 11 Character Feat = Quicken Spell (so now you can do a Quickened True Strike right before you make a Trip attempt)
12. Eldritch Knight 6: Normal end of PFS, but if you have a boon to go further or aren't in PFS, go for archery feats if you want to go combat-focused, or Opposition Research (Evocation or Necromancy) and then Metamagic Feats if you want to go caster-focused. Note that at character level 16 = Eldritch Knight 10, you get the potentially awesome Spell Critical, but since you are using an Elven Branched Spear instead of a Fauchard, it isn't as awesome as in the previous build, so you could squeeze in 1 more level of Wizard here or even before if you want to improve your Arcane School abilities slightly, and it won't hurt your BAB, and just cost an average of 1 hit point plus a 1 level delay in getting your later Bonus Combat Feats and Spell Critical.
Just some general musings in here to keep this going(*) -- Reach casters are MAD (although I think non-Reach 9/9 casters should probably be more MAD to match classes that can't depend so much on their own spellcasting), so higher point-buys help (as do insanely good rolls if you're doing that instead) -- especially if you are going to do something really crazy like a Reach Spirit Oracle/Shaman of Lore (adds spellcasting versatility, but at the cost of adding another quasi-casting stat) or a Reach Cleric that is actually good at Channeling (I have come to the conclusion that 20-point buy just won't cut it for such concepts, and even 25 point buy is iffy, with racial ability score modifiers being absolutely critical as noted above with the 2 Reach Eldritch Knight examples). If you go 6/9 or especially 4/9 caster, these have the advantage that they are less dependent upon their primary spellcasting stat, although you need to make sure the other class features still synergize with a Reach build (and are not themselves too dependent upon the same primary spet to permit lowering it, or worse on a different ability score that you now also have to pump.
(*)I was going to do another Reach Eldritch Knight variation with a Tiefling, but then it kept mutating in my head to a Reach Bloodrager, and then hanging up on Tieflings being immune to their own Enlarge Person . . . .