Martial Mages and spell-slinging Fighters - non-standard (yet effective) builds


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

Grand Lodge

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I've been on a bit of a kick lately looking into various out-of-stereotype builds that are still effective. I'd like to hear what builds you've come across or have designed yourself that fall into this category, and why you enjoy playing them. Instead of a long description to define this, I'll provide a few examples and see what is offered up. I will add this: I'm not looking for the pinnacle of min/maxxing, just effective characters who have rocked and that you've had a blast playing, be it for role playing or for the mechanics.

Arcane Barbarian - Barbarian 1/Arcanist 7/Eldritch Knight 4+

This build was spun up by my local VL who has had a lot of fun playing a shocking effective character. With a greatsword he was able to port around the battlefield with Dimensional Slide and land very strong blows across his early levels with rage for particularly nasty fights once he was in place. Use of mage armor, shield and a few other spells let him have pretty good AC too. During the later levels of his build he would polymorph into a gargoyle and use the dimensional dervish feat tree to flank with the entire party and drop a mess of damage all at the same time, effectively buffing all melee characters for a single round while also dropping significant damage. His AC topped 40 and may have scraped low 50s through EOTT. He was more maneuverable than most builds I've encountered and could keep up with nearly any classes damage output, while still being fairly effective for skills.

Melee Summoner - (Unchained) Summoner X

Focusing on combat and not buffing as a summoner, this is something I've been toying with to see what I can get out of it, though still in lower levels. AC is around 20 at level 1 with spells, and will rapidly grow as time and money allows. I'm hoping to treat it similarly to a hunter, and branch into teamwork feats as time goes on. So far it's been really effective and I'm enjoying it. I've noticed my choice of Suli for race has caused me to rely a bit more on my Eidolon for skills, so I'm interested to see how that plays out as the build levels.

Liberty's Edge

I made a melee wizard for Emerald Spire. Transmutation school, every feat and item I could get to extend durations. Trait to be proficient with earthbreaker. At early levels used Enlarge Person, then later Alter Self and then Monstrous Physique to enter "battle form" with tons of buffs. I ended being the front line "fighter" alongside the wild shaped druid. (The rest of the party: arcanist, two kineticists, and I have no idea what the last character was, but he was some sort of spellcaster.)

At one point around level 7, I took a 5' step and attacked. One of the other players said, "Don't forget your iterative attack!" I just looked at him and said, "I have a BAB of 3 ..."

On one level I cast extended Haste before we knocked in the front door, and the arcanist tinkered it so it was going to last over four minutes. We ran the entire level as one combat. :-)


Rogue Druid: Have a druid with a high int score, take the traits and skills to do the traditionally roguesh things like stealth and disable device. Size bonuses in wildshape make your stealth absurd, earth elementals and animals allow for a great deal of scouting.

Tiny foxform fighter: Mine's a Vexing dodger rogue 4 Mouser swashbuckler 1 Urban barbarian 2 sacred fist Warpriest of Gorum 1: Absurd stealth and acrobatics for mobility, walks into peoples squares and starts sneak attacking with a claw claw bite routine. There are a lot of combat advantages to being tiny. (many drawbacks too) but its very funny when the "useless familiar" with a giant pink bow that reads "this end towards enemy" hops off and is an actual tank thanks to the mouser abilities

Paladin shadowdancer: The shadowdancer fills in some nice skills that the paladin is missing, and a shadow thing with a butload of hitpoints is pretty dangerous on its own, and shadowdancer adds some much needed mobility to whats usually a melee class.


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My only character whose build is a bit on the weird side is my investigator/witch. They're a pacifist with a buff/debuff function in battle and they make it very clear they're a spellcaster (what with the creepy red-eyed deep black rat), but when necessary they also whip out the thieves' tools and disable traps with relative ease.

I haven't had a chance to play my vigilante yet (magical child with a dip of bloodrager) but people are probably going to think he's a wizard or bard of some sort, except it doesn't appear he's very good at knowledge skills... and then he transforms into a girl in a short skirt and starts stabbing things with a sword. Similarly, my spiritualist is probably going to come off as a weirdly weak bloodrager thanks to the exciter archetype unless they realize all his spells are psychic.

The rest of my characters just have a lot of classes (I have a multiclassing problem) but they don't do anything all that special.


I built a dwarf farmer who hits people with a stick (quarterstaff). The whole point was to build a wanderer who only needs a stick.
He wore his farmer garb until he had to buy a nice Tian outfit for a scenario, which he has worn into tatters though party members often cast Prestidigitation to spruce him back up (which matters not to him).
He had work tools (axe & hammer) for DR at early levels, but they hardly leave his backpack now. Still has the adamantine hammer ready though.
And he carries dozens of scrolls and a belt full of wands, so he looks like a muscled grimy mage with a bunny rabbit & a hammer.
He doesn't use the stick as much anymore because his hands do quite well.
Maybe that's because he's a Monk 9/Druid 1 (for shilleleigh).
He blames being a monk on a certain Lantern Lodge captain who won his heart in First Steps way back when...

Sczarni

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Dwarf Magus, but I didn't tell people when I sat at the table.

I put on a plastic Viking helmet and a fake beard, and spoke with a gruff accent.

During introductions I was quick and to the point: "Put me up front!"

My first round of actions was usually to Sunder the enemy's weapon.

Then second round I'd soak in the confused looks as I Spell Combat/Bladed Dashed around the battlefield.

It was priceless.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I need to see you in your plastic helmet and fake beard. Pictures, please!

Hmm


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Someone this past weekend at a local convention playing in the 1-5 range had a rather interesting combination on their character, with a level of cavalier, a level of something else(oracle?), and two levels of wizard, and they were rolling for spell failure every time they cast a spell and were... exceptionally effective.

As I mentioned to the player, I'm curious to see how the character fares at higher levels, because it was a very interesting build that had some weak points but not the same ones as being single-classed.


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I haven't gone exceptionally wierd yet, but I'll bring up a couple noteable characters.

"I start studied combat and fire a shortbow at X. I hit for 4d6+11 damage." "Wait, what?" Empiricist investigator with studied combat, ranged study, point blank shot, precise shot, focused shot, and intelligence 21.

Multiclassed celestial bloodline Eldritch scion magus/paladin. A lot of swings that count as aligned weapons, and a smiting spellstrike. Once I take the close range arcana, spellstriking disrupt undead will be amusing.

Dwarf deep walker archetype ranger, two weapon fighting with waraxe and boulder helmet, while still using a heavy shield in his off hand, "... because me father taught me that using your head in combat is very important!"

Lantern Lodge

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Besides the "Ride in Plain Sight" Rogue/Cavalier, nothing comes to mind. I always secretly hope that enemies think the "horse with no rider" is just a druid.

Scarab Sages

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Wild empathy focucsed druid. Crushing the dungeon with the power of friendship.

"I belly rub the ooze"

Sczarni

I make it a sport to have all my characters have at least one quirky ability or feature. To name a few:

  • My Shaman is an old lady with 7 strength and 9 dex... that walks around in full plate wearing a tower shield. Sure, her acrobatics and swim are below -15, but at least she won't get hurt when she falls of the stairs again (nor get hit, for that matter)!

  • My Oracle rides his Alligator animal companion... at 5ft/round as a full-round action, because you aren't allowed to ride animals your own size. Noone said anything about carrying people around above capacity though.

  • My Dhampir Warpriest would normally have trouble receiving healing. Luckily, fervor also allows self-healing on the negative side of things. Combined with a conductive weapon, she hits even harder when she needs to!


  • BigNorseWolf wrote:
    Rogue Druid: Have a druid with a high int score, take the traits and skills to do the traditionally roguesh things like stealth and disable device.

    I did something similar with the Nature Fang archetype. Slayer talents to pick up Trap Spotter with Natural Weapon combat style and Tusked for Claw/Claw/Bite Sneak attack (from both the archetype and the Crocodile domain) and Frostbite. At higher levels I was considering picking up Surprise Attack, Firearm Training, and Improved Vital Strike for "Scoped and Dropped!" first strike capability. All on a single-class Druid.


    I'm currently playing a Witch/Brawler who is a white-haired witch that just kinda....runs into melee and starts grappling everything. Also she's a 14 year old girl, whoops.


    My -2 is an Ulfen Fighter 1/Bard 7, and is a front line, almost Jedi-like warrior. He has mithril chainmail allowing him to cast with no ASF, and an adamantine battleaxe that cuts through most anything. His spells include Mage Hand (grab the lightsaber from the snowbank, Luke!), Expeditious Retreat/Feather Step (so he runs faster than everyone no matter the terrain), Heroism (+2 to almost everything), and of course, Blistering Invective, because he's the Macho Man Randy Savage of Jedi with a huge Intimidate skill modifier. In fact, he has Cornugon Smash (free Intimidate with a Power Attack, and really, why would you ever NOT use Power Attack?) and Cruel on his axe, so he can stack Shaken and Sickened, giving foes a -4 to most rolls. He's my Fafhrd to my buddy's Grey Mouser, and he's my favorite PFS character to play.

    Scarab Sages

    Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber

    The Transmuter wizard is pretty good.

    I've to a Wizard 5 / Magambyan Arcanist 4. The prestige class lets me put a few druid spells on my list (Barkskin, Greater Magic Fang).

    I had a boon for Thassilonian specialist - so I have extra spell slots at the expense of not casting illusion/enchantments (no mirror image or heroism, which hurts).

    I went Dex based with an amulet of mighty fists (AGILE) and lots of natural attacks from polymorphing. Monstrous Phsyique 1 to turn into a Charda from bestiary 2 (5 primary natural attacks).

    I've got a high AC, good DPR - my main weakness (as DEX based) is getting through DR. But I'm still a full casting wizard that can buff the party (Haste, Fly) or debuff the badguys (slow, glitterdust).

    Good damage at all levels so far.


    I have a gnome summoner (chained) who uses her eidolon as a flying mount for spirited charge lance attacks. I have fun with her, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to others, particularly with the requirement to use unchained summoner now. Her damage output is not up to the level I can do with some of my more min/maxed melee types, but the flying ride by attack means she can usually get to opponents who use terrain or minion screens to keep melee combatants out of range and she seldom takes melee damage. She also has some versatility with her spell casting and summoning abilities to meet unusual challenges.

    Liberty's Edge

    I've been seriously thirsting to play a Transmuter Wizard.

    Most interesting expectations-breaking character I've seen in my group was the pacifist Warpriest a friend brought to our casual PvP table.

    There's something to be said about swift action, sufficiently annoying DC sanctuaries and excessive degrees of buffing, shielding, disabling and healing.

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