I'm looking to create a mage hunter that relies on mundane means or magical artifacts such as potions, oils, traps, wondrous items, etc. I'm envisioning something like a Witcher (NSFW - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-l29HlKkXU) that hunts wizards instead of monsters. With that, I have two questions:
- How would you go about building a Witcher (see details section below) in Pathfinder?
- What mundane items can be used to hunt (track, disable, trap, suppress, etc.) magic users?
- Playing Rise of the Runelords with a party of 4 players (not a lot of room to not really carry your weight with so few players)
- Our characters are level 8 and my character bit the dust **hard**
- I tend to enjoy characters with non-combat options more than an optimized wrecking ball. However, I also don't enjoy being utterly useless in combat either. So, I enjoy a balanced character.
The Witcher is a concept from books written by Andrzej Sapkowski and the computer games (http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher). The general concept is that they're taken as children, trained to fight, and submitted to a mutation process to give them strength, speed, etc. Their purpose in life is basically to hunt monsters for pay and they do so with the following arsenal:
- Swordsmanship. They are master swordsmen. "Silver for monsters..Steel for men" and all that.
- Alchemy. Decoctions. Potions. Alchemic Bombs. Oils. Oh, my! They brew concoctions to fortify themselves (see in the dark, healing, resistance, etc.) or coat their weapons in the appropriate oil to be more effective against their enemeies
- Signs. They have limited use of magic through 5 signs that amount to flame, wave of force, trap (slowing zone?), mental confusion/control, armor
I always thought a good witcher should study their prey and go into the fight prepared.
I fully expect that a pathfinder character can't do all of the above. I would prefer a focus on swords & alchemy. This video shows one off pretty well (mostly swords, some potions, and a touch of magic):
Warning: Not Safe For Work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-l29HlKkXU
I looked around a bit, but got quickly overwhelmed by potential archetypes and such...= (.
Classes
For the core witcher concept, the following classes seem to make the most sense for a witcher who hunts magic users:
Ranger: Good skills, melee, potions through brew potions, favored enemy bonus, tends towards mundane
Alchemist: I've read that this class was inspired by The Witcher and it's certainly visible through potions, mutagens, etc. However, they seem like they get their job done through bombs more than picking up a sword.
Inquisitor: Good skills, melee, magic, literally build to track and hunt things, weapon enchants, etc, potions through brew potions, tends towards more magical
Fighter: Mundane as you can get, but seem like they'd be too narrow on skills, non-combat roleplay, etc.
Hunting Magic Casters
Honeslty, I have no clue with this. As far as I can tell, the best ways are to fight magic with magic, choke them, or kill them before they can utter a word.
There are materials, artifacts, potions, etc. that disrupt magical being and spells, provide protection to the user against magic, etc. Is there anything like this in Pathfinder?!
Thank you in advance for any help = )