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I posted on an existing thread that my group is planning on playing carrion crown and that a couple members of the group, myself included, want to play castlevania styled characters- castlevania 3 in particular. (it's the one that the most players have tried) One person is playing a daggermaster rogue (His favorite character was Grant Danasty) another player voiced the desire to play a necromancy/undead controller and decided on an oracle of bones and when told about the dhampir race, immediately called dibs. (covering the alucard slot). Another player isn't too familiar with castlevania and is playing a 2h style ranger that hunts undead. The last player (other than myself) hasn't decided yet.

That means I get to play the Belmont! (I'm the biggest castlevania fan in the group by far).

While I am excited by this, there are a few problems- first what class should I use? Ranger is taken, and I like using skills and magic to much to go fighter (I'm playing a fighter in another campaign anyways) so while fighter is an option, I'd really like to consider alternatives. I'm thinking that bard (archaeologist archetype), inquisitor, and magus (bladebound/ kensai-whip focused) are options.

Second, the whip is problematic. It's not really avoidable because a Belmont without a whip isn't much of a Belmont at all. But the whip is still really frustrating. First off, the whole exotic weapon thing- this can be bypassed by being a bard or a kensai magus, and alleviated by fighters, but it really hurts inquisitors. This is made worse by the fact that the whip (scorpion whip is allowable, that solves that problem) isn't really great for offense, at all, and I would like to be able to hold up my end at least. I don't need to be dpr king I just don't want to embarrass myself. Third off, the whip's strength- ranged combat maneuvers, are limiting as CMB is based off BaB- which again hurts most of my options.

So it seems that you can make a character who kick arse with a whip with a fighter, but not be much of a monster hunter. Or I could go with an archaeologist or an inquisitor- both make great hunters (knowledge checks, skills, general tricky flavor) but using a whip would be a serious handicap. A kensai magus gets decent skills and can become a pretty good whip user, but it has a lot of abilities that don't fit a belmont.

So...help? Any advice for taking the whip user and making a vampire killer? Do I need to...dare I say it multiclass? Any build advice is welcome- I know I'm not the first to want to try this concept, and I'd love to see what other people have done.

P.S. I was thinking human for race, but half elf can work well too. Also, we use a really generous rolling method for attributes, so don't worry too much about MAD.

Thanks

Most amazing link you'll ever click on.

Be ready for intense laughter! (if you have a condition that forbids laughter, don't click)

I want to play this game. I really do.

Just so you know, touch spells always could critical, it's not unique to the magus.

Touch: You must touch a creature or object to affect it. A touch spell that deals damage can score a critical hit just as a weapon can. A touch spell threatens a critical hit on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a successful critical hit. Some touch spells allow you to touch multiple targets. You can touch up to 6 willing targets as part of the casting, but all targets of the spell must be touched in the same round that you finish casting the spell. If the spell allows you to touch targets over multiple rounds, touching 6 creatures is a full-round action.

The difference is that a magus' weapon determines the threat range of the critical, making scimitars and rapiers very attractive.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, rapid reload merely lets you take all the attacks, it includes no penalty in and of itself.

My cleric, Osric. His Deity was the god of vengeance, crossroads, dueling and travel- he had the destruction and travel domains. He dressed in the classic puritan Solomon Kane style, and had a horseshoe mustache that hung down to his chest. He spoke with a comic southern accent- and constantly declared vengeance on, well, everything. His weapons included a matchlock gun and a hickory stick. He enjoyed mint juleps and sweet tea. He did not abide dancing, as it was to similar to fornicating. Or perhaps it he hated fornicating because it was to close to dancing..never was sure. He felt than healing needed to be beaten into people, so he cure wounds by slapping people in the forehead.

Also I have an alchemist/monk drunken master that has an elmer fudd lisp. He Woves his beew.

Fair enough, there is a difference between what spells are good for a sorcerer and which are good for a wizard- there are spells that a wizard will want to know that a sorcerer needn't bother with, but most of Treant's blue rate (that's the best) spells work just as well for wizards.

Now a better sorcerer guide than mine is Solo's Stupendously Superior Sorcerer Stratagems but it's for 3.5- so you might want to check treantmonk's wizard guide anyway (example: they nerfed force cage to oblivion). The real reason i wrote the guide was to cover the things that weren't properly gone over anywhere else- the bloodlines and other changes that paizo made to 3.5 You don't need me to tell you that enervation is good- it's plastered everywhere on the net (it's wonderful by the way) I felt that between the 3.5 guides and Treantmonks re-analysis of Sorcerer/wizard spells we'd all be covered, and I called it a day. (i feel all laziness should be justified)

For the record, best multi-use first level spells include: silent image, magic missile, color spray, and grease. The best buff is Enlarge Person and I always take mage armor.

For second level try glitterdust, invisibility and resistance to energy. Gust of wind, web and mirror image are cool too.

Third level: Fly, haste and slow are fantastic. The once mighty dispel magic is still useful, I like major image, and how could i forget summon monster 3 (the first really good one, update when you can, Summon monster VIII is lame but the rest are solid I usually take summon monster 3/5/7/9 if I don't have something else in mind.)

Fourth: Enervation, Black tentacles and Dimension Door. Then Confusion polymorph and if you have a rogue friend, greater invisibility.

Fifth: Telekinesis, feeble mind and one of the walls- stone or force. Persistent image is nice and you might want to try an enchantment- like dominate person or hold monster- either can be nice, but, well, enchantment is it's own ballgame.

There's enough spells to last you until level ten, if you make it that far you'll have a good handle on what spells you want. Maybe someday I'll finish this list and add it to the guide.

Welcome to my first Handbook paizo messageboard members. I wrote this noting that many people reading Treantmonk's guide to wizards were in need of Sorcerer specific advice. Being no stranger to optimization; being a longtime lurker an sometimes poster at the Wizards forums; I set about to write a guide, and announced as such. had I known the difficulty in such a task, I might have thought twice, but as it was I wrote it.

And here it is:The (almost) Complete Guide to Sorcerers.

You may note the (almost) in the title. The reasons for this caveat are twofold- First, there are sections that may one day be added- like a guide of equipment or prestige classes- which I deemed less important than other things. And Second I left out a spell guide. Why? -you may ask, and rightly so, as spells are the most important class feature a full caster has, no matter how nice and shiny the bloodlines are. But my reasoning is thus- Treanmonk already wrote the end-all guide to arcane spells(Treantmonk's Guide to Pathfinder Wizards: Being a God. ), and I couldn't so it justice. Yes, some spells have a different level of usefulness for a sorcerer than a wizard, but there is a guide for that here Ogre's guide to Sorcerer Spell Selection.

So there you have it, between our three guides you should have all the information you need to create an amazing sorcerer. And if you disagree with my recommendations- please tell me! Nothing proves a class's usefulness more than playing it, so please send me you opinions, agree or disagree. As long as your comments and criticism are constructive, I welcome them.

Sincerely yours,
The Minstrel in the Gallery