GM Rednal's Planehopping from Bard's Gate (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

This campaign is fairly flexible - and there's a reason I cited the SoP Wiki in the first post. XD

Ahhh, I missed it, sorry. I'm not always the most observant; I've got nothing in Perception.

Maybe a Cryptic? A psionic class, Int-based from Dreamcarred Press.

Actually... that's perfect, thanks! I really need to observe ALL of my options before coming up with a character... Seeing people as patterns is exactly what he already does. Esoteric/Cryptic it is! Removes the Wisdom dependency and fits my tattoo theme much better, but I'm now more versatile with traps and range, and I won't be interfering with Will! We can be glyph buddies now, without being the same character.

You might wanna pick up the Inkantations book if tattoos of awesome power are your thing. I keep wanting to use them, but either the character doesn't get accepted or they don't fit. Still, Rednal might accept it - I've asked him if I can use it in another game, and that was OK, so he's seen it at least - and it is pretty fun. Even has a Wizard archetype where you're your own spellbook.

Hmm, interesting. I'll see if I can get that book at some point. I'm not at home right now, won't be for another week, so I mightn't get the chance before the campaign starts.

I'm thinking of submitting an Arcanist(Blade Adept)/Mighty Godling gestalt. It has martial/arcane spellcasting/a touch of divine. Sounds well rounded and lethal to me. If this is acceptable I will try to put something interesting together.

If not acceptable I was also thinking of a Arcanist(Blade Adept)/Dragonrider gestalt. Always wanted to ride a dragon.

@Will: Your gut was right, actually. As I mentioned in the first post, the 'target' for a character is being up to blue in their specialty(s), and no more than green elsewhere. A character who hits the blue numbers everywhere is unreasonably powerful for their level and will not be selected. I know people have a bit of a reflex on colors because of other guides, but those colors mean specific things in the context of that chart - you can check out the link it has to the main blog post if you're interested in the reasoning and math behind it.

@Miteke: Thematically speaking, riding dragons and/or being an actual demigod may be a little much for this game, since characters are meant to be relatively normal members of society. Sorry. ^^; (Also, uh, some of your destinations will not be big-mount-friendly...)

Well, the dragon thing makes sense, but the mighty godling says that the class is NOT a demigod! It basically says that there is some blood in there that makes the character heroic. I checked out the class (I've never played no Paizo classes before, so it was a learning thing), and it is basically a full BAB class with some flexible bonuses at various levels. Things like +1 vs. opposing alignments, ability to pick up bloodline or domain powers, stuff like that which is not game breaking.

Though the Mighty Godling class is not game breaking or demigodish, my main reservation was that the blade adept gives some bonuses to fighting at the expense of arcane exploits and I worried that it might be too combat focused which you wanted to be avoided. I'm not even sure you would want ANY full BAB class married to the blade adept. But the black blade thing with a Mighty Godling was just so thematic, how can I resist trying!

Anyway, I suppose I could dive into the spheres thing, though the rules look so intimidating. And I'm not sure what to try unless I know whether you are OK with full BAB + Blade Adept.

Well, Godlings depend on how you run them, I suppose. XD

Anyway, Spheres is actually pretty easy - certainly much easier than normal Vancian casting, anyway. Check the 'Using Spheres of Power' page for the basics.

A Full BAB class and Blade Adept... might work? It's still mainly a full caster class, and you were probably going to have a weapon anyway. Run the numbers against the chart, and if it checks out, it should be fine.

Hehe new system, so many choices... I hope I'll be able to settle on a build by this evening :)

I am pretty sure i am not color blind but i definitely mis-spoke on the color. I meant he was green across the board. Not blue.

Well, in that case, it should be fine. XD

I'm reading over the numbers stuff and, while I'm starting to make sense of it, my character's numbers would be all over the place depending on the situation. What the Arcane Pool is used for, whether he's regularly buffed or decided to spend a Psionic Tattoo to Immediate-Action buff (Cryptic Insights are cool), what he's doing with Altered Defense, whether he's Spell Combat-ing or regularly Spellstriking or using his Disrupt Pattern... I'm just not sure how to calculate it. The style I'm going for will buff myself up depending on whatever enemy I'm facing (I intend to have good Knowledge ranks). He's going to be a veritable Swiss-Army-Knife of sigils and glyphs. Not amazing at any one thing, but can make himself specifically better depending on the situation.

In terms of the chart, he'll never be consistently all-blue, but which stats are blue and which are green might change slightly. Would that be a problem?

The blog explains it in this way:

Purely baseline stats aren’t necessarily representative of combat reality with your character. For example, if your Warpriest pretty much always uses his first swift action to give himself +3 to attack and damage rolls through divine favor, then those bonuses should be included in your benchmarks.

If you possess strong abilities with limited usages per day (such as challenge, smite, mutagen, bane, etc.) you would want to benchmark both your ‘baseline’ combat metrics as well as when you’re ‘firing on all cylinders’. This will give you a more complete perspective from which to decide if you’re comfortable with your character’s resource allocation.

If Buff/Support is your combat strategy, your benefits are harder to quantify, and somewhat beyond the scope of this guide. Anything you do to numerically benefit your allies’ stats (such as inspire courage, giving out teamwork feats, haste, etc.) will contribute to combat efficacy…just not really in a way I can easily analyze without knowing your party in particular.

This could really be said of defensive spells as well: by negating enemy abilities or attacks (giving out AC, resist energy, life bubble, what have you) you can dramatically increase your own/ your party’s combat efficacy. I just can’t write that out in raw numbers, because I’d need very specific information about the situation at hand.

These notes tend to be particularly relevant to ‘gish’ characters (3/4 BAB with 6th level spellcasting), who might be comfortable in Orange baseline combat metrics given their abilities to buff themselves/their allies, and cast troubleshooting spells such as see invisibility, ghostbane dirge, align weapon, etc.

Arcane Pools are often used for direct buffs, so you'd probably want to count that as a 'constant'.

Most characters will vary somewhat according to the situation, of course, and it's not necessarily a bad thing to have your 'all out' mode where you can be strong for a limited time. Really, almost every character can do that to some degree. The real concern is whether or not you can be so powerful most or all of the time.

Ok I managed a first draft for the build that hopefully I'll finalize tomorrow after work, I went for the Ranger/Shifter build, he is a dps/support character, originally I thought about taking the lycanthropic drawback, but I like the idea that he can provide shapeshifting gifts to his allies too in case of need, gaining far more utility that way, especially if the group is going to visit some weird environments, (a shame most alterations last for so little though as he won't be able to grant protection for an hour long field trip to the plane of fire for example...).

As for the numbers in the 'combat' shape I managed to get to a +11 to hit, damages can get to the late 20-ish, but only if all 3 attacks hit that is kinda unlikely. Ac is in the orange and saves are between green and orange.

I'm still trying however to figure out a way to give him a decent armor class while shapeshifted without having to wait for a +3 armor enchantment (wild), anyone got a suggestion? So far the best I can manage is 17 using the Armored Aegis effect from the protection list, a bit low though for someone whose damage role is mostly a melee one.

If you don't want to go physical armor, Spherecasting has the 'Protection' sphere, which offers several stackable armor effects. Aegis talents are hour per level skills, so you shouldn't often need to cast them more than once a day. Armored Magic, in particular, also gives you a Shield Bonus. Shifters can also get natural armor bonuses, I think.

Thanks for the advice. I went that way so far taking protection, armored magic. So far I got +2 dex, +3 natural armor(most shapeshifting), +3 armor (aegis), +1 classic ring of protection or something like that, -2 size (in the typical large tiger combat shape) to get to 17. Protection also has some nice talents that might help the party get into some weird environments that could be cool to get.

I guess that I can go Shifter\Armorist and conjure an armor that fits whatever alternate shape I'm using, but I'm not sure I like that thematically hehe, perhaps the Warden archetype would be a bit more bearable :p

You can also get +1 Shield from Armored Magic and +1 Deflection from the base Aegis talent you learn. You can buff all of those up a bit more if you grab a Protection Staff to use in the mornings, when casting your spells. That's pretty easy to afford at this level.

mmm I hadn't checked sphere of powers magic items yet, thanks cool idea, let's see if I got things right, a Protection staff for 4k would bring my caster level to 5 and raise most bonuses by one for a total of:

+2 Deflection, +2 Shield, +4 Armor, +2 Dex +3 Natural Armor -2 size: 21, in exchange for 3 spell points a day, not terrible I'd say :) Have I got everything right though?

Anyway it's getting late for me see you tomorrow and thanks again for the suggestions :)

No problem. ^^/ I know a lot of people aren't as familiar with Spheres, so I'm happy to make suggestions.

How much money do you want us to have left over after character creation? I now it says don't spend it, but I've at least picked up a shield and some armour. Is there a bare minimum we should definitely keep back?

At minimum, you'll probably want to reserve 1/4th of your gold, more if you're of a higher social class. The two primary expenses to consider are housing (the big one), and organization fees for whoever you're affiliated with (usually not very much).

A Dwarf Maid, pale of skin with hair of red
Came to Bard's Gate when winter's bite was in the air.
In her heart she held all songs, and fought against all sense of dread.
This city I shall make my home, she said, and by my name, I this declare.

I am Reckt, no other name, no clan or family do I claim.
My work is mine, my songs my own, a blade of sound all I care to own.
You will know my works, and know my deeds, and through these things shall I find fame.
No Bard like me will you have heard, singer from the rocks, child of stone.

She fought by day, and sang by night,
And wooed many with her words and voice.
But with the dawn and the sun's first light.
She searched for deeds and feats and triumphs to sing by choice.

Well, if you're gonna let me loose with bards...

This is Reckt, Dwarf Bard and Mageknight.

Her focus is buffing, with a side order or brutal stabbing via the power of sound and occasional healing. Because of the number and variety of buffs she can have going in fairly rapid order I've got a series of Spoiler Boxes set up in her profile - which sadly doesn't appear in Recruitment threads - that should help keep confusion about what buff is on and what's happening to a minimum.

She's pretty much solid green, as far as I understand the Benchmark, with the exception of Reflex Saves. Between the fact she's dex based, gets good Reflex Saves, her Victorious Aria ability and Dwarf Hardiness, if all apply at once she actually goes over by one point. I've resolved this by not fully activating Victorious Aria, which would require two minutes at the start of the day and two rounds of Bardic Performance anyway. Hopefully that's OK, otherwise I'll go re-jig something and loose a point of Reflex somehow.

Being blue in one area is generally fine. Characters do tend to have things they're good at, after all, and that's okay. XD It's only a problem if you're really good at a bunch of things all the time.

Thanks for the advice, Rednal! Here's a little profile for the character so far, if not all the mechanics of the character.
_____

Name: Djehuty Thoutson

Race: Human (Wanderer)

Class: Esoteric Magus 5//Cryptic 5

Occupation: Scribe, tattoo artist, librarian, translator. Among the Wanderers, I don't imagine that there are many people with just one job.

Feats: Spell Focus (Evocation) [1], Mage's Tattoo (Evocation) [H], Scribe Tattoo [Bonus], Improved Unarmed Strike [Bonus], Tribal Scars (Night Hunt) [3], Weapon Finesse [5]

(Given Magic/Psionics transparency, does Scribe Tattoo count as Inscribe Magical Tattoo as well? If not, that's fine. I definitely can't afford any of the Magical Tattoos yet anyway)

Insights: Steal Pattern, Binding Pattern

Arcana: Spell-Scars

(I was wrong about the immediate-action tattoo-tapping. That was a Supreme Insight... I thought it was surprisingly powerful, dangit.)

Description: The first thing anyone notices about Djehuty, before the piercing stare and the hooked nose and the lithe but strong figure, are the tattoos. He is bedecked in them, covered in more than seem to fit on his body. His dusky skin, seemingly a mix of the Erskaelosi and Khemitite bloodlines, is almost entirely obscured beneath an endless whorl of interconnecting glyphs, esoteric writings and mysterious symbology. These are inscribed in a spectrum of colours from deep red to vibrant purple, with some strokes that only look black because humanoid brains can't quite process that colour. His shaven head is mostly obscured by an enormous set of interlinking tattoos which give him a distinctly bird-like appearance. There are most certainly individual sigils within that image, which light up gold to form the head of a Goose, Falcon, Vulture, Ibis, Ostrich or Kite; dominating this array is a glinting Heron tattoo, whose feathers range from a powerful red-gold to a deep bronze. When you get past the tattoos, you notice a heavy, ponderous brow, a piercing blue stare (well, mostly blue; there is a yellow tinge from the inscriptions within his irises) and sharp, defined features. His heavily inked arms are slim but defined, and so is what can be seen of his legs. Djehuty is wearing a loose, flowing, sleeveless blue robe which lies open, revealing the glint of steel. He is also wearing light grey woolen leggings, held up by a deep blue leather belt with a runed buckle. The leggings end mid-calf below which his legs and feet are bare, for a generous definition of "bare". Attached to the belt are numerous pouches, pockets and purses each inscribed with its own rune.

Planned Tattoos:

Pros: Versatile, able to go anywhere without too much danger and can tailor his abilities to a specific foe. Is a veritable Swiss-Army-Knife of combative and non-combative utility. Doesn't need to rely on magical items and can craft tattoo-based buffs for his allies. Very perceptive, and a linguist.
Cons: Not very specialised, needs time to "charge up" before a fight and isn't great at action economy. Not very good at social situations. Ally-buffing is strictly pre-combat.
_____

Most of Djehuty's personality is either in my first post about him, or inherent as part of his symbology. As you can see, he's quite attached to his Khemetite heritage, and to the idea of using animals as inspiration for his own art (and thus, power). Yes he's a low-Charisma artist; for him the beauty is in the detail and intellectual wonder, not in the power of its beauty.

Is it okay/wise to be on the bad side of Wizard's Guild? Part of Will's story was that he was apprenticed to a wizard when his elemental power began to manifest but he quit studying once he learned the arcane language to go learn from the Society of Arms. He's kind of ADD. And now he is apprenticed to a dwarf with no magical talent that is capable of crafting magical weapons and armor (Master Craftsman Feat), thereby stealing some of their profits. Not a lot, but enough to be an annoyance. Might get some protection from the blacksmithing guild.

And what area would of the city would be cheap to live but relatively safe? He cares not for amenities but he doesn't want to loose his research writing.

Also, I am going to change to Investigator. I really like Inspiration on Knowledge, studied strike fits thematically and should make up the 2 BAB I'll loose, and alchemy will add even more versatility. Infusion discovery should be helpful to the group too.

It would probably be best to be at least neutral with the Wizard's Guild, since they're probably going to provide the bulk of the magic sending you across the planes until you're strong enough to do it yourselves... and they would totally refuse to help you if they considered you a problem.

That, and unlike most of the Guilds, membership in the Wizard's Guild isn't mandatory - it just offers so many benefits to magically-inclined members that most find it a much better proposition to join. People are also members for life (unless they continually refuse to pay the dues to the Guild, anyway, and you'll get bothered quite a bit about it), but perhaps more importantly, there's nothing stopping someone from being a part of both the Wizard's Guild and the Society of Arms. XD It's not like they're mutually exclusive or anything - they know Magus and similar magic/martial blends of people exist, and they don't really care if you want to pursue both sides of that.

To put it another way, why would Will want to be on their bad side - given their general power, lack of demands aside from membership dues, and easy access to things he might need for crafting - when staying on their good side is fairly easy and offers some tangible benefits? (That, and interestingly, there is no Blacksmith's Guild to offer protection. This is largely because smithing is something associated with dwarves in general, whom the city has a long and mutually beneficial relationship with, and they wanted to make it easy for dwarves to come down to the city and sell their wares. The Council of Burghers hasn't been inclined to try and damage that relationship by requiring membership in an organization.)

As for both cheap and safe residences, the North Wall District is a fairly good option. It's mostly home to people looking to move up in society - so they move in and out fairly regularly - but it's also better-patrolled than most of the other cheap places.

Odd question, but what languages are there, other than the regular PF ones? Which of those are non-applicable, too?

Djehuty's gotta be able to read all those books...

The languages most useful for this game will be Westerling (Common), and planar tongues. The Lost Lands - and even Bard's Gate - has other languages that are used, but those aren't likely to be a big deal. Dwarven and Elven are good if you want to interact with those parts of the population, though.

I've added what I think would be the standard "magical" ones that he'd be interested in; the elemental four, Sylvan, Celestial, Draconic etc... are there any symbolic/runic languages of note in the setting, and are there any he'd inherently know from being brought up in an Erskaelosi/Khemitite?

Sorry for all the questions, just tell me if I'm going too far. :P Thanks for the help!

I wasn't sure to what level of annoyance he'd achieve. I erred on the high end. Will has bounced around a few organizations because of fluctuating interest. A few years wizard's, then Arms, then alchemists, then Longhunters, then blacksmithing. (That's a lot of guild dues possibly. Might have to go even cheaper.) So Will essentially snuffed his wizard mentor after a few years of basic study and, a few years later, now works with a dwarven crafter to make magic items, a trade almost exclusively controlled by wizard's and some cleric's. Spellcraft is necessary to craft magic items and is more easily acquired and optimized with wizard class. His mentor, Rodzin, has the Master Crafter feat and can craft without a caster level. A high enough craft check would also mean he can forgo the spell. I have this fluffed as him using ingredients from magical beasts to mirror the spell. Will is proof that he is passing on his craft and that could hamper the wizard's guild's income. Is that not a concern for them?

It also sounded like the merchant guilds had an enormous amount of power. Should their be some tension, I assumed they'd offer protection or mediation. I am sure they'd really want the secret of crafting magic items without the wizard.

I hope that explains it. I had him bounce around to explain all the skills he possesses. Mystic is kind of like a magus so wizard's and Arms Society. Alchemist needs alchemist guild and I threw in long hunters for survival and knowledge of lots of beasts. And Rodzin at the end to justify Craft Wounderous Item and to give him an outlet for Mystic Artifice ability.

@Nitro: Erskaelosi speak Erskin (though many of them have Common as their 'first' language these days), and while Khemitian exists, almost everyone of that ethnicity has moved on to the more common languages of the area, and essentially the only ones who speak it at all are dedicated scholars. Nobody at all is proficient with their old hieroglyphs (although this generally isn't considered a problem, what with the magical translations they can get basically at-need).

@Will: I'm not sure you realize just how much money the Wizard's Guild has. XD The Guilds have a great deal of power, yes, and the Wizard's Guild is near the top of that. There are other independent crafters and sellers of magical gear in the city, much of it made by hand, and this explicitly isn't considered a problem - even at their most profitable, they're basically just a small dent in the finances of the Wizard's Guild, and recovering that money isn't worth the added conflict it would bring with the dwarves who craft most of it. Especially because they have other sources of income. Now, if it was almost anything else, membership would be compulsory due to the city's laws - but magic is actually easier than most, and rather than being the gruff bullies who demand everybody practice it only the way they want them to, the Wizard's Guild tends to emphasize being so helpful and valuable that it's better to be their friends. Also, they know exactly what could happen if a sufficiently high-level wizard got angry at the constraints imposed on him, and as a general rule they try to avoid that. XD They're an organization that provides 9th-level casting, after all.

As I said above, you don't have to be best friends with them - but you probably wouldn't want to go directly against them, either. Crafting stuff independently isn't enough to raise their ire, but if you get in as an apprentice, it is a lifetime membership, and they're honest about that up-front.

Well, never mind then. (I get the image of a giant mech, getting a bullet sized dent, looking at the perpetrator, then flicking them three miles.) He's possibly only annoyed one of many then. And he'd probably be one of those that didn't pay when he was supposed to, because he forgot, not refusal, then get zapped in the ass as a reminder. No hard feelings.

Ah, thank you! I've taken Erskin as a starting language and Khemitian as a learned language (he definitely counts as a dedicated scholar in the field). Shame that he can't read it, but would a successful Linguistics check allow him to decipher it at least somewhat?

I've taken the trait Marked by Unknown Forces with the drawback Foul Brand. I was thinking that the Mark would be on the left hand and be a stylised Tiwaz of Thyr while the Brand on the right would be an equally stylised (but eeeeviiil) icon of Hecate, showing his dual allegiance to protection and magic, as well as his propensity for curiosity sometimes going too far... Is all that ok?

All this about the Wizard's Guild is interesting... I don't think that Djehuty is part of them to begin with, given that he's mostly self-taught his symbol magic from dusty old tomes and folk traditions, but I can definitely see him joining up.

A high enough Linguistics will let you decipher almost any writing. XD

That said, Hecate is a Lawful Evil goddess, and worship of them is outright barred in the city. If your character refused to recant and remove the mark, he would be none-too-politely taken to the exits and told not to return. To say nothing of the reaction in some places you're likely to visit. So... Foul Brand is probably not a good choice for this game.

For alternatives, there's a number of other deities of magic. Jamboor (who's True Neutral) is the most likely deity of magic one would follow in Bard's Gate.

Hmm... a shame. He doesn't remotely worship Hecate, or Thyr for that matter, but he's been saddled with these symbols all the same, likely due to trying to inscribe something he read in some cursed tome at some point*. He worships Yenomesh, god of glyphs and writing, when he can be bothered to worship at all. But yeah, I can understand that just having the symbol could be a problem. I don't suppose gloves would help? (I somewhat envision him wearing those fingerless, backless gloves you see monk-types often wearing. In-game, they'd be Pattern-Breaker's Gloves.)

If not, I can easily find another drawback. :) Meticulous looks thematic, as does Attached.

*I am going to have a better explanation, don't worry. It fit the character and the theme before I could think about exactly how it happened. I'm not going to leave it as a "whatever".

Meh 14 hours shift today at work, no will to post now that I'm back home, I hope I'll manage to finish my character in the next couple of days ... :(

@Nerdzul: You have at least through Sunday to get things written up. ^^

@Nitro: Meticulous or Attached might honestly be better for this campaign. ^^

Can I be Attached to my Spellbook then? Yeah, I know this is me playing a very dangerous game with my Will saves and giving the universe even more incentive to steal my Spellbook, but it's PERFECT. It's all his notes, all his symbols. It's everything to him. It's basically an extension of his soul.

Also since I can't do the duality thing, I'm guessing I'll just go for the Mark being of Yenomesh, and willingly taken.

Well, if it fits thematically... sure. ^^

Thanks!

I now have a sheet and a statblock, to an extent. I do not possess everything I need, and I am not equipped, but my basic statistics are there.

The statblock was auto-generated by Myth-Weavers, so it may not be perfect.

(Nina is new-ish to this, my apologies. I also know that it doesn't yet fit your template. Several of the stats are also not game-representative, given how many situational buffs I can have. My AC, for instance, will be much higher than this, as will my saves be hopefully.)

I don't see my character much as a religious type, but I think Narrah might fit if he has any faith, at least for the quick description on the page you linked.

Not every character is religious, and that's okay. XD The town doesn't enforce belief or anything, although most people are at least moderately respectful towards Oghma (God of Bards and Protector of Bard's Gate) even if they're not part of the congregation.

This is one of my few characters to actually be religious. In fact, at least two of them have an active vendetta against the divine (and the arcane, and the psionic and psychic too for good measure).

I guess he would at least pay his respects when needed, besides, in a world where gods grant magic to their followers and are real I guess that being a believer of sort would be kinda natural.

I'm not sure if it's already been posted, but this List gives a little bit more detail on the various Deities kicking around.

I'm not sure if it's already been posted, but this List gives a little bit more detail on the various Deities kicking around.

Ah, fantastic, thanks!

Is the rule about not equipping ourselves still in effect?

Without any items:
EDV: Not quite sure how to calculate this for all the spells and such, but I have many ways to add a lot of d6s to my damage, and that's before I get the Pattern-Breaker's Gloves. My guess is that I'm well in the green for most of my attacks, with my nova rounds going higher. I'll also be inflicting a good few status effects.
To-Hit: Worst-case scenario Orange, most always Green and at best far into Blue.
AC: Let's just say that I'm going to need some armour, though the Shield spell and the fact that I'll usually be fighting at Small size does push it up.
Saves: Worst-case scenario Orange, most always Green, at best juuust touching Blue. Will is going to be my worst, most likely, but I can buff that fairly easily.
DC vs Good/Bad: I am almost never going to be using spells that use a DC, but for the record they do rather suck.

My battle form will usually be a small monkey with Dex bonuses, btw, so my AC, Reflex and To-Hit will be better than it looks with my basic unarmed strike, and I'll usually be spell-striking with Shocking Grasp or Frigid Touch so my damage will be decent. I'm starting to think I need Power Attack though, but not so much that I'll sacrifice some of my more thematic choices for it just yet. It'd only be a +2 right now anyway.

I also intend to get items that'll help all of this; I've made sure that my tattoos don't take up TOOO much WBL.

Basically, I'm looking at "Wizard turned muscle-for-hire" and trying to find an appropriate thematic gestalt for the "muscle for hire" part.

Pity I didn't get here sooner, I would have suggested you look at the Shifter and Armorist as your second class. And it looks like you chose Shifter :)

The Armorist is also perfect for this idea since it is basically a "Fighter who uses Magic to supplement his fighting." You also get cool tricks like summoning your gear from thin air and pretty good enhancements on a few pieces of equipment.
Armorist also has full BAB, Martial Weapon Proficiency and medium-heavy armor, and essentially fighter feat equivalencies every even level.
The Whitesmith is one of my favorites :) You get permanent Enhancements on your equipment (in exchange for about 3/4 of your abilities) and very much fits the idea of "Wizard who Enchants his equipment then fights with it."
The Blaster gets an Arm Cannon, and can blast with it XD Its basically the ranged version.

Iron Chef Sparky wrote:

A rich person can live 'below' their status... is it possible to live ABOVE your status? Or do I need to pick a spot in town for Sparky that houses people no greater than Impoverished? I wasn't planning on having him 'live large' but I figured as he is a trained cook, butcher, and baker that he'd be regularly employed and fit the standard for someone with his skillset - so Lower Class?

It's possible to live above your status by spending more money, but this generally isn't advised, since a lot of people will know you can't truly afford it. As you adventure, however, you will almost certainly be able to move up permanently.

Aristocrats surround themselves with henchmen, and are personally responsible for the well-being of possibly hundreds of other lesser folk further down the social ladder, ranging from Upper Class merchants to Lower Class fruit-pickers that work their farms and vineyards. A portion of the Aristocrat’s wealth and living expenses goes directly to the noble family who granted their title. Failure to provide this tithe to their liege lord may result in the stripping of family title and quite possibly death.

You could quite easily live and work in the employ of someone of significantly greater standing then yourself. It shouldn't be uncommon for someone from even a really low standing to work on a "Lords" manor, doing some small, menial job. That said, We all have TEN THOUSAND gold each and we are hardly impoverished, even if people treat us as such.

(Basically, there's no situation in which your caster level should be higher than could normally be available for use with your attacks and class abilities... even if we basically have to patch a limit on top.)

Empowered Abilities wrote:

Your magic grows in strength the more you use it. If your current number of spell points is half your total spell points or less, you gain a temporary +1 bonus to your caster level. If your current number of spell points is 0, the temporary bonus to your caster level becomes +2.

How do Casting Traditions such as these play into it? For my idea I am thinking of an Incanter with a lot of spell points and a very "thrifty" mentality to them, spending them easily and freely. As such the more magic he uses the more he gets infused with that same magic.

Aaah you responded while I was away, sorry. Hmm... that's actually very close... I've honestly been staying away from Spheres because it's not on the PFSRD and I didn't think it was anywhere else on the internet in this kinda form. Now I am conflicted. It does seem, however, that the Runesmith doesn't focus so much on enhancing the physical form with the runes, and instead acts more as an object-based caster. My guy is very much about using the tattoos to modify himself and others as he modifies the writings, though mechanically what he does is much more varied than that sounds (striker, buffer, debuffer etc). What would you suggest would fit the campaign better?

You could look at the Enhancement Sphere with the Natural Enhancement and Mass Enhancement talents and the Marking Enhancements Drawback to give you a sense of "inscribing a mark on someone to give them power."

I'm still trying however to figure out a way to give him a decent armor class while shapeshifted without having to wait for a +3 armor enchantment (wild), anyone got a suggestion? So far the best I can manage is 17 using the Armored Aegis effect from the protection list, a bit low though for someone whose damage role is mostly a melee one.

Try this;

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Welp, those are my thoughts so far :) I wrote them as I read through the thread (so I wouldn't forget them :P) and as such some of them are outdated. Decided to leave them up there anyways, Enjoy!

Did someone say Sparky o.o?

You generally shouldn't want to spend TOO much of your money. If you've spent less than two-thirds, you should be good. Prices for homes can vary rather wildly by district, and as mentioned, I'm expecting you to have those instead of being murderhobos. XD To soften that cost, you'll be able to buy homes at 'half price', as it were, representing some of the other money you probably made during your first few levels of adventuring. Naturally, anyone living the high life will be paying more, while those living a lower-class life will be spending less.

Go ahead and write up a general idea of the gear you want to have, though.

As for EDV, that's your "Estimated Damage Value" - basically, the average damage you'd do when using that ability. You'd want to avoid stacking too many of those at once, though, both for the sake of fairness and because you might need 'em later in the day.

How do Casting Traditions such as these play into it? For my idea I am thinking of an Incanter with a lot of spell points and a very "thrifty" mentality to them, spending them easily and freely. As such the more magic he uses the more he gets infused with that same magic.

Casting Traditions, staves that enhance spheres, et cetera are all "normal" ways of increasing your power, and that characters are sort of expected to have access to, so special restrictions don't apply.

Thanks! I've gone for a more personal-buffing route now; I'll have to actually scribe spells on people in order to buff them, but Cryptic truly does fit my theme better. Thanks anyway!