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Unsolicited Advice:
New Sorcerer Eldritch Knight Option
If you are a Ganzi with the Planar Adventures options available, and you can choose the Weaponplay option, you get familiarity with all Simple and Martial weapons. This means that you can qualify for Eldritch Knight with no martial dip and no VMC Oracle (Battle). Ganzis have an Intelligence penalty and a Charisma bonus, so while they will be poor Arcanists, Wizards, and Witches (except Seducer), they will be excellent Sorcerers (and Seducer Witches). The Constitution bonus is also very nice for partially offsetting the low hit points and bad Fortitude Save in the pre-Eldritch-Knight part of your career.
Also, if you are able to afford 2 feats (and can make good use of 2/3 of a Skill Focus to make the first feat worthwhile in its own right), you can take Favored Prestige Class and Prestigious Spellcaster to have NO delay in spellcasting progression.
It seems like a really cool option but not being proficient with any type of armor locks you out of melee I guess. Still I can see how this can be useful for a build that wants to focus on ranged touch spells, the increased bab makes much easier to hit.
Not necessarily locked out of melee, but you would have to invest in some kind of other defense (possibly including high Dexterity, and then you also have access to some defensive spells, some of which have a decently long duration). Using a Reach weapon would also be good (preferably combined with Combat Reflexes, and then amped up even more with Long Arm and or Enlarge Person, and later on Polymorph spells such as Monstrous Physique or Giant Form -- some of the options also give you additional protection).
I... never thought that one of the Ganzi's oddities would replace an entire requirement :P
Still, the main appeals of the EK are that you can wear heavy armor while still casting spells and the higher BAB. However, like any other PrC, it halts your progress for whatever classes you choose. I've stated this in another thread that the EK's Diverse Training only applies to feats and it doesn't count for class levels.
The EK doesn't give any particular ability to wear heavy armor? It'd be nice sure but full plate + most sorcerers = screwed. You may be thinking of the hellknight signifer.
If you really want to wear armor rather than use spell-based protection (starting with mage armor) then either you wear one of the base +1 AC armors with no ASF, or you invest a couple of feats into arcane armor training & light armor proficiency, or you take a dip anyway and maybe mitigate the ASF a bit with arcane armor training/mastery or still spell and careful spell choice.
Interesting...
So you could have a ganzi (Weaponplay) sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 3/arcane archer 4/eldritch knight +7 and still gain 9th-level spells (even without Favored Prestige Class/Prestigious Spellcaster), as well as a +17 BAB.
Or a ganzi (Weaponplay) sorcerer 5/dragon disciple 4/eldritch knight 10/sorcerer +1 with 9th-level spells and +16 BAB; possibly with VMC barbarian.
The EK doesn't give any particular ability to wear heavy armor? It'd be nice sure but full plate + most sorcerers = screwed. You may be thinking of the hellknight signifer.
Yeah... Reducing arcane spell failure by 5% per EK level would have been great...
That and that your EK level stacks with classes you're pick before entering.
Or say the psychic bloodline...The EK doesn't give any particular ability to wear heavy armor? It'd be nice sure but full plate + most sorcerers = screwed. You may be thinking of the hellknight signifer.
If you really want to wear armor rather than use spell-based protection (starting with mage armor) then either you wear one of the base +1 AC armors with no ASF, or you invest a couple of feats into arcane armor training & light armor proficiency, or you take a dip anyway and maybe mitigate the ASF a bit with arcane armor training/mastery or still spell and careful spell choice.
Psychic =/= Arcane... A psychic spellcaster isn't considered an arcane nor a divine one when it comes to these requirements.
I think his point was that the psychic sorcerer bloodline treats your spells as psychic, thus allowing for heavy armor without affecting casting. ACP would still be an issue.
Unfortunately EK won't advance psychic spellcasting, just arcane, which I think is JiCi's point.
{. . .}
Still, the main appeals of the EK are that you can wear heavy armor while still casting spells and the higher BAB. {. . .}
The problem with using armor is that unless you pick spells that have no Somatic component (plus non-Combat spells with Somatic Components if you are willing to use a feat on Still Spell) is that Arcane Armor Training (and its upgraded version) is rather bad, since it eats a Swift Action, and eventually you may be wanting to polymorph into things that don't wear armor anyway, so you're better off finding some other kind of defense if you can.