Capt. cheesey's page

Recently my father, brother, and I started a game of 1st edition Pathfinder. My brother and I wanted to try and do something challenging and try a 2 person party. The set up so far is:
Both level 5
Both Dwarves
Co.pleting a quest for Baba Yaga before moving on to kingdom making at higher levels.

My brother (not much experience, maybe a few months gaming seriously) playing a dwarven hunter with a Badger animal companion. Took improved critical scimitar to fish for crits with the animal companion. He is focusing on the scimitar and the Dwarven War shield, took spells to enhance himself and his animal in combat (see Acid Maw, etc.) As well as a couple for character reasons. His character will largely remain unchanged, but this is my partner.

Yours truly (been playing for about 15 years, various editions) is playing a Mystic Theurge. Originally Diviner Wizard 3/Cleric 2 w/ protection (defense) and knowledge (memory)domains. My character is variable but I need to cover lots of bases. I'm the sole arcane caster, the only healer, and probably the face as well.

We also may have a DmPc of a Dwarven Drunken Master Monk, but he likely wont stick around.

1st session come to find out we are facing undead, ghasts and a Wraith to be specific, and I totally poop the bed. I'm not useful in melee when the ghasts paralyze the hunter, I cant seem to damage the wraith, etc. I have since attributed this to spell selection. I have decided at this juncture to focus on buffing my friends to the moon, but would love a solid strategy.

My question for you all is, how can I make my character work? I'm aware of the controversy surrounding the Mystic Theurge, but I cant think of another way to cover all the bases I need covered with a single class build. I have access to any material through pathfinder (specifically D20pfsrd.com) and traits as well.

Currently my build:
-Dwarf (non-negotiable)
-Stats are:
Str:12
Dex:14
Con:12
Int:18
Wis:18
Cha:12
-Diviner Wizard 3 w/Arcane Bonded ring.
-Cleric 2 w/ Protection (Defense) and Knowledge (Memory) domains. These are mostly for thematic reasons, really leaning into the dwarven lore master of Torag here.
-Trait to pick up perception, Glory of the old dwarven trait. Got Magical knack in both classes for free
-feats are Improved Initiative, Steel Soul, and Breadth of Experience.
-got a set of Magic Mithril Chain Shirt with no arcane spell failure chance for free too
-currently sitting at +17 will saves vs spells

I've been given the opportunity to tweak my character withing reason so I have been looking at maybe going Empureal blooded Sorcerer, and probably Cleric3/arcane spellcaster 2. Maybe even just full Cleric?

Thoughts on spell selection/level set up/feat selection? Any and all feedback is appreciated! Thanks!

My personal favorite is the Heartripper Blade. It's a specific magic item, and yes it does cost 11k BUT RAW "whenever used to deliver a coup de grace, the Heartripper Blade pulls the victim's still-beating heart free from his body." It rips the heart out. You can't survive without your heart. Whoever stabs the heart commands the flying Dutchman. Instant kill. IN ADDITION you can command word it to become a +2 flaming burst dagger (Which destroys the heart). OR you can EAT the heart and gain simultaneous remove disease, restoration, and cure serious sounds. Are you kidding me!!?? Granted it is from a module (crown of the Kobold King) but if your Gm will allow it in, it's the perfect witch weapon.

Have you thought about going with the summoner instead of the sorcerer? if you are playing a Halfling then your Eidelon has enough evolution points to have the mount and fly evolutions, while still only being medium sized. the spell list is a little limited but contains some good ones, plus allows for summon monster 1 as a standard action, which is great if your Eidelon isn't around. but thats missing the main point. FLYING MOUNTED HALFlING ARCANE ARCHER.

The Layout:
str 11 (13)
DEX 19 (17)
CON 12
INT 10
Wis 10
CHA 17 (15)

put your fourth level advancement into DEX for a clean 20 (+5) and the 8th level advancement into either strength (to use composite bows) or charisma ( increase spellcasting power and other summoner goodies)

summoner level 1( maybe 2): (gain Eidelon with the serpentine or quadruped base forms.) take mounted archer, make sure you have a military saddle and now you are at a cumulative -0 every time your mount/Eidelon makes a double move.

ranger (levels 2 or 3-6): take the archery combat feat progession, and your feat prereqs for arcane archer are taken care of with a few left over for you to play around with. If you take the hunters bond with your companions i would think the bonuses apply to your Eidelon as well, if not there are several other flying animal companions available (the Roc is my favorite). Now suddenly you have 2 flying animals swooping over the battlefield= total arial control. AND they are both medium sized which means they can both fit into dungeons and such. think about taking an archetypes that gets rd of your ranger spells ( the Divine Marksmen and Skirmisher archetypes both provide other cool stuff instead of ranger spells. the Divine Marksmen gets bonus feats and bonuses to ranged attack rolls while the Skirmisher gets hunter tricks.)

Feats:
1 Summoner (mounted archery or mounted combat)
2 Summoner ( gain evasion for the Eidelon)
or
2 Ranger (not much but it gets better)
3 Ranger ( take the archery combat feat chain, start with probably Point-blank shot which sucks to have to take for you, but leads into all the feats you want, you probably wont use this feat, and take either Mounted archery or Mounted Combat, whichever you havent already taken)
4-6 Ranger (get the feat prereqs for Arcane Archer and 1 or 2 flavor feats, or more archery feats if you like)

at this point you are Summoner lvl 1 or 2 Ranger lvl 5 or 6. you should have all the prereqs for Arcane Archer done and depending on how you set it up, a flying Eidelon/mount AND an animal companion, or a hunters bond with your buddies that should apply to your Eidelon.

Drawbacks:
your animals will be weaker than a cavalier mount, but you can FLY wich should hopefully keep them out of harms way most of the time, and with the Mounted combat feat, you can make a ride check to have any* attacks against them damage you instead and if you put 2 levels into summoner then your Eidelon has evasion. you also lose out on some of the spellcasting compared to a wizard, and you don't have the spell selection of a sorcerer, but the Summoner spell list has some real gems. Having to take Point- Blank shot sucks, as you hopefully wont need it, but can be helpful in those few situations when you are close enough to use it. being a halfling with a 10 strength, dealing consistent damage with arrows is going to be your main priority, taking feats to buff this will help but wont totally eliminate the issue until you get into arcane archer.

Good things:
you will have a FLYING ARCANE ARCHER
summoners have a 3/4 BAB so your to hit overall will only be 1 or 2 points behined
you can spend feats to increase the overall power of your Eidolons if thats really important to you, but again, they should be flying and shouldn't be getting hit terribly much, if at all. plus with evasion (Eidolons gain this at summoner level 2) they will have a pretty solid chance of evading, the serpentine base form has a dex of 16. if you drop that second level into summoner you also gain 1 more evo point (put it towards the Eidelon's natural armor giving it a +2).
Tactics:
hop on the Eidelon at the start of each day and dont get off. Have your Eidelon/mount fly above the ground within the first range increment of your bow, but well out of range of mellee weapons and close range spells (somewhere between 50-80 feet up). scout ahead if you feel like it and if you run into trouble simply fly a little higher. once combat starts RAIN HALFLING POINTY DEATH on your enemies from above, using your mounts movement to get around any cover baddies may have. you can supplement arrows with summoner spells, some of which are pretty cool, and every level of the summon monster list has something that can fly, so summoning it 60 feet up isnt an issue, its actually a boon for things like the eagle (gets a swoop attack im pretty sure).