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1. Drunken Monk! Esp. with Qingongg to make endless alcohol-fueled Dragon Breaths.
I'm playing a badass revolutionary grandma covered in magical tattoos that spreads graffiti and uses her "feminine wiles" to get what she wants. She's a Charm (Love subdomain) and Luck (Imagination subdomain) cleric of Shelyn with Spell Focus: Enchantment and Inscribe Magical Tattoo, which has gotten me a Mesmeric Tattoo to boost enchantment DC, an Animal Spirit Tattoo to gain flying, and a Caster's Tatoo that lets me cast one spell per day as both silent and still. Her glaive (Shelyn's weapon of choice) doubles as a giant paintbrush, and the Imagination subdomain grants Silent, Minor, and Major image as domain spells, which she uses to make midair art on the spot. Because she's a popular painter and graffiti artist, she has paintings spread around Korvosa, which allows me to use Enter Image or Majestic Image to enter them and spy or communicate. Her mastery over local gossip is second to none, and she loves to play matchmaker. She teaches folks that not all rules are meant to be followed, especially the ones that constrain the heart. She's a blast to play when we're in the city and dealing with a lot of people. When we have to journey through the hinterlands or into other planes, she still has a fair amount of buffs, summons, and the incredible Bit of Luck ability to pull her through. My point being, a Cleric is what you make of it. The spell list is very limited when it comes to evocation, but there are quite a lot of good Enchantment spells on there - Command, Hold Person, Charitable Impulse, Debilitating Portent, Greater Command, etc. There also fun build around spells like Enter Image, Animate Dead, or Bestow Curse.
When it comes to sudden curveballs of the 'but I want to explore over here' variety, it's good to have modular pieces you can throw in, but don't be afraid to be honest with your PCs. It's OK to say 'if you guys want to explore the abandoned village over there, I'll need some time to prepare it'; good players would rather have a fleshed out adventure next session than a barebones improvised one now. That said, if you keep things modular, it gets easy to splice things in. Have a bandit lord you wanted them to face? Looks like he took over that abandoned village when they weren't looking! If you have rough descriptions of the nearby places and keep a few sidequest hooks ready that you can add, improvising becomes much easier.
You already have a suite of combat-focused spells, so I would suggest Dominate Person, for use as an out-of-combat spell. You don't need to need to have sky-high DCs to enchant, say, a servant or guard, and that gives you access to all kinds of places you wouldn't normally get. Plus, giants are humanoids and typically don't have fantastic will saves. Alternately, Communal Phantom Steed is a great utility spell for transporting your entire party over water or air, and Shadow Conjuration is an incredibly versatile spell.
I find non balanced parties more entertaining. It's fun to try to overcome your weaknesses in creative ways. Give it a try. You might enjoy it. And if you don't, every group needs one or two sessions they've sworn to never speak of. This! Why not try a game where you're all martial? The beauty of tabletop RPGs is that the GM can customize the game to your party. Your DM is presumably not a robot that will simply leave you stuck because you don't have the spell necessary to unlock the door to the next room. You'll simply have to get inventive to deal with all the arcane s~~* he throws at you. Issues like lack of healing can be worked around, either through frequent rests, liberal potion supplies, or even hiring an NPC cleric. Or, failing that, you'll keep dying until the party balances out, and may the best martial win.
Considering that flying familiars are A-OK at 1st level, the real question here is less having a flying companion and more whether this means the PC will be able to fly mounted on the roc. Flight typically becomes available at these levels:
The big concern here for me would be a small character essentially getting overland flight via riding their roc. Many early encounters could easily be broken by a flying archer. Some foes will have ranged attacks, but few will have anywhere near the range of a halfling soaring above them raining down arrows via longbow. If most of your adventures take place inside, this might be manageable, but if your adventure features lots of open spaces, you'd have to include something to foul up the airspace - perhaps ornery giant eagles that have a D%% chance of showing up every time the roc takes to the air. Now, note that classes that gain an animal companion AND which are suited for archery, e.g. Rangers, wouldn't get the companion until 4th level, but nonetheless it's a reasonable concern. If I were you, I would allow the roc, but ban or severely restrict the PC from riding it until its 7th-level advancement, even if the PC is small. Perhaps the PC has to use an action to hold on, or risk a DC 15 ride check every round to stay on the flapping bird.
For a Sorcerer, and especially one specialized in Enchantment, I'd highly recommend getting Silent Spell to improve your out-of-combat usefulness. There are plenty of enchantment spells that would be useful in social situations if you didn't have to loudly announce you were casting them, and given that you're about to get Fleeting Glance, being able to cast silently while invisible would be a major asset to sneakiness. Other than that, I'd go with Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment or, even better, Improved Initiative. Both are pretty vital if your schtick is save-or-suck battlefield control.
Sirocco is an AMAZING battlefield control spell. Make a giant cylinder of hot wind that deals fire damage and forces a fort save or Fatigue. Fail two of those and they become Exhausted, which is a really debilitating condition. Works on flying creatures just as well as landbound ones. Really top notch. Enemy Hammer is, if nothing else, a really fun spell. Pick an enemy, and each turn you can use your standard action to force them to make a fort save or get flung into another enemy, lose their actions, and deal damage to both enemies. Good for long adventuring days, since you can use your standard action for rounds/level to contribute to combat. Also has a long range, which means you may well be able to sneak up to a group and cause total havoc from the shadows 800 ft away. Form of the Dragon I is worth considering not necessarily because you intend to engage in combat yourself, but because of the action economy of casting it compared to all of the other spells it would take to gain its effects. Consider that with one standard action, you gain:
Not all of those are going to be especially useful all of the time, especially with Overland Flight already on your spell list. But you also get to be a g#~@#!n dragon. So, worth considering. Anyway, good luck with your megadungeon!
The first round buff... I have not found much way around that. Contingency spell (6th level) and Quicken Spell help you get off buffs without wrecking your action economy at higher levels. At lower levels, your only real option is to get better at scouting so you can prebuff before combat. Also @Matt, the starting feats for my Bloodrager 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight X ended up like this: 1 Extra Rage
There are consumable items like the Bead of Newt Prevention that prevent the results of a single bad save. You could give the boss something like a 'Necklace of Luck' that he can use 2-3x to guarantee a save, but each time he visibly loses one use of it. That incentivizes save-or-suck optimized PCs to keep throwing stuff at him instead of just going 'oops guess his saves are all +30, I'll get out my crossbow.'
Spike Growth and Wind Wall can both be useful battlefield control spells, depending on your typical terrain and enemies. Eagle Eye is great for scouting if no one has flight. Gust of Wind can do all kinds of things. Lesser Restoration is classically good, especially in party with minimal divine magic. Protection From Energy is one of those spells that Hunter get cheatyface access to - I believe they get it earlier than any other class in the game thanks to the Ranger spell list being balanced for 1/2 casters.
Ah, touch attacks are a good thing to consider. Though in keeping with a Transmutation wizard, I would take Spell Focus: Transmutation (which applies to all Poison and breath weapon DCs as well) and go for Disfiguring Touch or the excellent Calcific Touch. Lots of big things have low touch AC and Dex; with this, you can even turn mighty dragons to stone.
Arcane Strike is good, but remember that both it and the Transmutation (Shapechanger) ability to grow a natural weapon use up your swift action. If you want a really spicy build, Wizard/Abyssal or Draconic Bloodrager/Eldritch Knight lets you take the Blooded Arcane Strike feat to both grow claws and auto-arcane strike whenever you bloodrage. So for ~8 rounds per day, you could cast Beast Shape II to transform into a Giant Octopus, enter a Bloodrage for +4 strength, use your swift action to grow a gore attack, then attack with an Arcane Strike'd Bite/Claw/Claw/Gore/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/T entacle/Tentacle whammy. Bam!
Do most of your battles come in the form of 'all of our guys vs. all of their guys in a big room'? If so, you need to vary it up a bit. The GM should have enemies attack in waves, and make use of environmental hazards so that combats have variety. Plus, maybe the enemies aren't all out just to kill you. Perhaps some want to steal your gear, or infect you with a disease, or kidnap one of you. Make it possible to win the battle but still lose the war. If you want battles to last longer than 5 rounds, than it needs to be more than just standing still trading full attacks until someone falls over. Since most melee type characters are built to do that, something in either the enemies or the environment should sometimes discourage it.
Polymorph spells don't care how high your casting stat is (unless you're using them offensively, but that's another issue). Do keep in mind that if a spell like Beast Shape gives you an ability with a save DC like Poison, it uses Beast Shape's DC instead of the creatures. So your Int mod and feats like Spell Focus: Transmutation will apply. @Matt, that sounds like an awesome campaign. The front line will probably be you and whatever summoned monster the Conjuration wizard whips up, so there are two critical things you'll need to overcome. 1. Wizards have low hp. With a d6 hit die, you're going to be hurting. You'll want a high Con and the Toughness feat to have any chance of surviving toe-to-toe full attack trading, plus whatever AC buffs and Mirror Image/Displacement style spells you can fit in. 2. Wizards have a low BAB. You'll need to compensate with a sky-high Strength mod and other bonuses to hit, such as an Amulet of Mighty Fists. Try to get Flanking, Prone, and other situational advantages as well. Both of these disadvantages can be circumvented by taking the Eldritch Knight prestige class, if you're so inclined. It costs two spell level's worth of casting, but in a party full of wizards it may be a good call. Also, in a party full of wizards, see if you can get some of the other guys to buff you up. Say on the first round you cast Beast Shape and then the other guys cast Haste, Bull's Strength, Displacement, and Heroism, well now you're gearing up to be a proper juggernaut! I would recommend this guide to figure out the rest. Good luck!
Depending on how your GM is modifying the adventure path, you might be taxed even at higher levels. I'm playing a 7th level Cleric in a modified Curse of the Crimson Throne with a 5-6 man party, and I still end up running totally dry on spells AND domain abilities about two thirds of the way through every dungeon we go into, and that's with other healers in the party. Without the consistent muscle of our Ranger and Paladin we'd be boned. Ask your GM how he feels about long rests in dangerous areas. Wizards are good knowledge monkeys, yes, but their class skill list leaves something to be desired. Just look at the class skills of, say, the Investigator and you may realize that a Cleric/Wizard party is going to be skill starved. The investigator's class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Dex), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
I'd be very worried about running out of resources with a party like that. A lone cleric would need to rely on his magic to be able to handle melee combat singlehandedly; if you run out of spells for both characters, you're pretty boned. You're also going to be very low on skills. One arcane and one divine is a nice combination, but I would swap out one or the other for something with a little more martial prowess and versatility. Perhaps the Cleric for a Paladin, Warpriest or Inquisitor, or the wizard for a Magus, Alchemist, or Investigator. If you want two full casters, consider an Oracle. The Battle and Metal mysteries give you access to martial weapons and heavy armor, as well as several other survivability boosting revelations. Nature gives you an animal companion and some handy wilderness survival skills. Either way, Charisma as a casting stat and two extra skill ranks per level makes you a much better party face. Oh, and beware your saving throws! If you both get knocked out by one nasty spell, it's an easy TPK.
Improved Initiative, Toughness, and Combat Casting are always good for all-rounders, especially since the witch, lacking spells like Mirror Image, is one of the squishiest casters out there. Complement with useful metamagics - Persistent Spell, Silent Spell, and Quicken Spell are some of my faves. For the debuff witch, Spell Focus: Necromancy or your preferred school is good. For the rare summon-focused witch, you'll want Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augmented Summoning, Superior Summoning, and Evolved Summons, though for a Leyline witch this is probably a poor choice. Improved Familiar would also be fantastic if you weren't trading it out.
Ideally you want to build his investment both in his own character AND the world at large. I would say give him something that both
Try to connect one of the two aspects of his backstory (Sarenrae cleric, Taldor mercenary) and the three factions at hand (Fey, Lumber Consortium, People's Council). Perhaps he can build a relationship with one of these, and surprise the party by showing up as a representative of one of the three at the meeting, providing extra information and a diplomatic advantage. Your pre-quest would explain how he got there, and get him into the faction's good graces via some combination of cleric-y magic & smooth talking. Good job on going the extra distance for your player!
It's worth noting that the Ranger does have a two-handed weapon style that can give you Power Attack and Furious Focus as bonus feats, so that's nice. Their Lead Blades spell can also turn a 1d8 weapon into 2d6, which is a pretty good boost (+2.5 dmg on average). If you want utility, Rangers are hard to beat. Slayers are also worth consideration, especially if you're not going to be getting frequent Favored Enemy or Terrain bonuses. They can pick the above Ranger bonus feats as Slayer Talents, plus Combat Trick and Weapon Focus for more bonus feats, and get a scaling Studied Target bonus, and Sneak Attack to boot. Also, don't forget the mighty Samurai! Challenge gives you a huge bonus to damage, Resolve makes you hard to take down, and the Order of the Sword lets you pick up Spirited Charge for double damage if you and your mount charge an opponent down. That, combined with the Order of the Sword's "Add your mount's strength" and a katana's critical threat range makes you a force to be reckoned with indeed.
Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of Dervish Dance, especially for a Cleric that won't have a lot of dex-based skills to go with and considering that your Skald will be boosting strength. If I were you, I'd go for a reach cleric, someone who can back up your Skald on the front lines while keeping enemies away from your squishy & caster (by virtue of killing them first). Looks like Emerald Spire is a superdungeon, so I'm drawn toward a deity like Cayden Cailean, who would totally send his clerics into danger for sweet loot and epic tales of glory. 21 Str, 18 Wis, 16 Dex will make you a monster in combat. Go with Toughness and Combat Reflexes at 1st, Power Attack at 3rd, and whatever feats you want thereafter since you'll be pretty badass from that. Throw in a few divine buffs and you'll be kicking ass in no time. Having low Con and Cha is unfortunate, but Toughness will help, and you'll have extra spells to turn into healing since you'll mostly be whacking things with your actions.
In my Kingmaker game, the PCs used Control Water on an army encamped near a river and it worked out quite well for them. Not a ton of casualties, but a lot of their camp and gear was wrecked, and since the attack happened in the middle of the night, morale was pretty ruined for all the soldiers in damp clothes. For a 20th level guy, though? Geeze... Overwhelming Presence cast on anybody important seems good - it simply won't do to have your enemy's generals bowing profusely to the mighty wizard. Alternately, Summon Monster IX may be for only 20 rounds (3 min 40 sec), but that's quite long enough for some creatures to win your army a battle decisively. Ice Devils have at-will Cone of Cold, Ice Storm, and Wall of Ice; Trumpet Archons can fly 90 ft per round and throw out DC19 paralysis saves for everyone within 100 ft; and Glabrezus have Reverse Gravity (14 10ft cubes) at will. Oh look, 3 of your most important units got lifted up 30 ft in the air; those make great archery targets, don't they? Or just make 1d4+1 Rocs and let them go to town for a few minutes. Or, just, y'know, start sending out Demands...
Perhaps you could use... a caster? Be a Qinggong Drunken Master, get your Con up to 18, take the Fast Drinker feat, and start turning alcohol into an unlimited supply of Scorching Ray, Dragon's Breath, Spit Venom, or flurry of blows. Okay, so your DPS isn't all that great, but nobody expects the Blaster Monk! (Adding someone whose primary gig is to get drunk and spit fire/acid/etc. may or may not make your adventures very, very interesting.)
The spell Carry Companion or Hosteling Armor are your friends here. A Belt of the Weasel is great for squeezing large and huge creatures around dungeons too. If it's early levels, though, you're probably leaving your horse outside. Medium animals can be carried when necessary assuming there's at least one strong character around.
Flight is great for battle shamans - being able to fly around without taking a round to buff is excellent. What you really need is Power Attack - it accounts for a large minority of your melee damage. I would definitely take the weapon proficiency at 1 and Power Attack at 3 if I were you. I would keep Strength at 17 or 18 if at all possible. Combat Reflexes is nice to have, but with Battle Master you don't need it; in most campaigns it's pretty rare to have enemies trigger more than 2 attacks of opportunity per turn. You may want to consider Heavy Armor Proficiency, too.
Haha, as long as you're enjoying it, it's fine. Hmm... Beast Eye definitely seems like it should work, as should the hex Hag's Eye. (Although, Arcane Eye says "it sees exactly as you would see if you were there," so maybe not.) Since Remove Blindness doesn't require a CL check or anything, a scroll of it should be perfectly effective. Both of those take a standard action (at least), so hopefully your GM considers that a sufficient nerf that he won't start crippling you another way. You also might consider prepping more area-of-effect spells like Cloudkill, Confusion, Waves of Fatigue, or Black Tentacles; summon spells like Summon Monster V; or buffs like Heroism or Death Ward. With a bit of support from your party and familiar, all of them should be reasonably effective even while blind.
If you're already going Half-Orc, methinks you'd be best off just utilizing one of their natural proficiencies: Falchion, Greataxe, Flail, Heavy Flail, Whip, or Longsword, depending on your racial trait. The Falchion's 18-20 crit range MORE than makes up for its 2d4 damage dice, since all your bonuses get multiplied on a crit. Also, when it comes to hexes, Healing is pretty lackluster. Something I've been finding would be very useful for my shaman is Fortune + Chant - when you need to support your party out of combat, giving them two rolls for anything they need to do is a great way to do it. One trait you might consider is Seeker - it makes Perception a class skill, which is great for using your high Wis. EDIT: If this is a combat Shaman, you definitely want your biggest bonus to be to Strength. Starting with 18 Strength will do you much, much, much more good than starting with 18 Wis. I would also consider taking Power Attack at 3 - it's a pretty significant boost to damage.
Brawler/Bloodrager is your best bet, IMO. I had a Barbarian/Alchemist a while back, and I can confirm that Enlarge Person + Mutagen + Rage + Power Attack = very, very dead enemies. It also fits the best with "temporary clouding of the mind," unarmed combat, and monstrous transformations. The main things you have to beware of with a character like this are low will saves, action economy (never assume more than a round or two of buffing, and sometimes you won't get that), and out-of-combat utility. Luckily, your class features are mostly long-lasting or automatic, and you don't need much past Power Attack to be effective. You can use your other feats to help compensate for your weaknesses; consider Iron Will or Skill Focus to help round out the character. Other fun feat options include the Dragon Style chain, the Pummeling Style chain, Arcane/Riving Strike, Cornugon Smash, and Aberrant Tumor. Good luck!
Hi Xuru, congrats on making your first character. I would also put in a recommendation for a strength-based ninja or rogue. To build an effective two-weapon-fighting build, your character needs:
Unfortunately, ninjas and rogues typically only have the second item there, in the form of sneak attack; even then, you won't always have sneak attack, and some enemies are immune to it. Compare to what you need to be effective as a two-handed weapon user:
It frees up a lot of feats and ninja talents, too. Your Dex won't be quite as high, but honestly you won't really miss a +1 or +2 on your skills that much compared to being MUCH more effective in combat. (You get a lot more bang for your buck when you use Ki to get an extra attack, and for your first 7 levels you're just as effective whether you get a standard action or a full attack, compared to TWF where you NEED full attacks or your feats are useless.) Oh yeah, and if you go Ninja, Vanishing Trick is really, really, really good. Smoking/Choke bomb is a lot of fun, too. Remember that you can still find and disable most traps with nothing but Perception and Disable Device.
The Image line of spells is often used to quite comedic effect. We once had to cover up our murder of an innkeeper quite rapidly, so we shoved the body under the bed, crouched in the corner, and used Silent Image to make a clean new rug, bedsheets, and an illusory wastepaper basket & lamp to cover myself (a gnome) and our rogue (an elf). The sheriff poked his head in... then kept moving. ;D Oh, and Telekinetic Charge is a fun one, too. Just make sure there isn't a cliff beneath the flying target you're flinging your barbarian at...
In my experience, TWF doesn't work well with a class without significant bonuses to attack and the armor/hp to stand their ground and trade full attacks. Magical Tail gives you a lot of utility out of combat, so if I were you I would stick with a class that is very effective in combat (without feats) to have a balanced character. A Swashbuckler is an excellent choice - it leverages your high charisma and dexterity, provides flexible bonus feats, and aids your damage significantly with Precise Strike. (Note that Sneak Attack is a circumstantial ~1.75 dmg per level, whereas Precise Strike is a constant 1 dmg per level that can increase to 2 dmg per level with a swift action & use of panache.) It also lets you hand out debuffs with Menacing Swordplay and Targeted Strike. Swashbucklers also have much, much better defensive options than ninjas. Opportune Parry and Dodging Panache make you unlikely to suffer the full brunt of a full attack (Dodging is really nice when a tiger pounces on you), and Charmed Life gives you Paladin-level saves on those save-or-die effects. That said, a splash of 2 levels of Ninja for Vanishing Trick or a combat feat, some bonus skills, and 1d6 sneak attack is fairly reasonable. You really do want an Agile weapon or Fencing Grace asap.
Hmm... Simply shifting mental ability scores by 1 or 2 and applying a temporary penalty/bonus seems a bit mundane. I'm also confused by the purpose of drinking the water killing & auto-reviving the PC. It seems to me that you need some different prizes and penalties for this thing. Here are a few ideas. Potential Pros
Potential Cons
So there's a few ideas to get you started. I would also recommend an inscription in Aklo or Abyssal or some other gnarly language. Good luck!
Note that the Primal Companion Hunter archetype lets you trade out animal focus for an evolution pool (for minutes/day). So from level 5, you can just slap wings on whatever you want. Take a Camel, give its bite Reach (and maybe trip or poison or whatever), and it can strike the foe the same time you do as long as you're not doing a ride-by attack. Plus, flying camel! PEGASUS, TO ME
Looks better, but you know Flagbearer requires a free hand, right?
Could always splash two levels of Alchemist and take the Extra Arm discovery. :p
Have you considered using a double weapon, like an Orc Double Axe? It's nice because you can switch very easily between two-handing one side of it and full attacking with both sides. You'd probably have to switch to Half-Orc, though that's not a bad thing for a character like this. Also, I would recommend against dumping Int for PFS - there are a lot of skill-based challenges. I'd bring Str and Cha down to even values and bring up Int if I were you. Plus, as a Paladin, you really should have at least one social skill - preferably Diplomacy or Intimidate. (Remember that Half-Orcs can take the "Burning Assurance" racial trait to get a Diplomacy bonus instead of Intimidate, if you so choose.)
If it's for a new player, you probably don't want a highly complex character like a Summoner. I would highly recommend picking a class with decent martial abilities, 4-6 skills per level, magic, and preferably an animal companion, as the character will need to be even-rounded and an AC helps against save-or-incapacitation stuff. I think your best bets are Ranger, Hunter, or Druid; all of them are quite self-sufficient, particularly in a nature-based campaign. If you feel the player is ready to handle controlling multiple creatures at once, a Shaman Druid would actually be fantastic. If he's one or two levels above the regular foes, he'll be able to summon multiple animals on par with them. No more action economy problems! You might also consider simply including an NPC with healing magic in the party. Perhaps a cowardly acolyte of some sort? Think of the comedic value! Oh, and depending on the type of campaign you're running, a Slayer or Ninja with UMD could make for some awesome assassination/espionage missions!
If you're going mounted, I'd go Hunter. One of the main sources of Druid's strength is wildshaping into large and huge creatures for big strength bonuses and alternate movement speeds; if you're going mounted, there's no great way to use wildshape in combat. (Though, depending on the GM, you might be able to take Undersized Mount, transform into an Ape, and use a club of some sort...) Hunters have a more powerful animal companion, get proficiency with the lance for free, and get a bevy of teamwork feats like Distracting Charge that will help you land hits in combat. Their Animal Focus also works perfectly well from the back of a mount, or you can go Primal Companion hunter and get an Evolution Pool for your cat. Want extra natural attacks? Reach? Fiery claws? Go for it!
Ooh, neat! Full casting + full BAB is always nice. The tricky part here is going to be taking advantage of the Paladin's Smite Evil and melee prowess with the witch's casting and hexes - the standard Evil Eye/Cackle/Misfortune debuffer is doable but kind of uninspired. From a fluff perspective, I think this is a great opportunity for the Paladin to realize that fighting to protect the innocent isn't limited to just human peasants. Taking hexes like Disguise and Feral Speech could open up a lot of fun roleplaying options - if the Paladin is used to riding around as a knight in shining armor and automatically getting respect, trying to be humble and having to stop himself from strangling people that treat him as inferior would be a great learning experience and opportunity for character development. For the build, Hex Strike with Evil Eye would be a great way to dispense debuffs while laying down the law. It does give you a bit of a swift action glut between Smite Evil, Lay on Hands, Hex Strike, swift action Paladin spells, and quickened Witch spells, but it works well if you were already planning on a natural attack build using the changeling's claws and Witch spells like Chill Touch.
If this is supposed to be viable into the high levels, make sure he has protection against scrying and simple Detect spells. Greater Invis is your best bet for repeated sneak attacks, as sniping (shooting from stealth without revealing your position) gives a -20 on your stealth check. I think a Cape of the Mountebank or other source of dimension door will also GREATLY increase his survivability should the PCs find him. A vivisectionist with bow proficiency seems like a good bet. Conveniently, that gives him Poison Use and easy access to alchemical supplies (Alchemist's Fire, Thunderstones, Flash Powder, etc.) to distract PCs and make good on his escapes. The discoveries Chameleon and Rag Doll Mutagen would be fitting for this guy. Consider even using the Vivisectionist "Torturous Transformation" ability to give him some friends; must get lonely out there in the ruins... Oh, and if you're thinking about multiclassing, a 4-level dip in Shadowdancer gets you a number of useful defensive/tricky abilities: Hide in Plain Sight, Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, Shadow Illusion, Shadow Conjuration, shadowy Dimension Door (only 40 ft though), a Rogue Talent, and a shadow companion. You'd lose out on some sneak attack damage, discoveries, and higher level extracts, though.
Hyrule Warriors Zelda certainly feels like a Magus, most likely with the Arcane Accuracy and Devoted Blade arcana. Sheik feels like Ninja or perhaps Slayer, and Tetra is definitely Swashbuckler.
She definitely hurls a few fireballs in Smash. I would probably go Elvish Wizard, and use the elvish proficiency with longbow to do some damage in the early levels. Alternately, Zen Archer -> Sorcerer (wis-based archetype) -> Arcane Archer works well too for a bigger archery focus.
I usually try to keep my highest-level slots filled with my most powerful spells, since you're giving up a huge effect for a bit of action economy. That being said, Mirror Image and Resist Energy are good contenders, since they let you continue casting offensively without being worried about getting one-shotted before your next turn. Obscuring Mist and Vanish are good 1st-level defensive options. The other option is to help you get off spell combos. Quickened True Strike + Hydraulic Torrent can push a large number of foes quite a distance, since you get more distance for every 5 by which you win at a Bull Rush. Depending on your GM, Aqueous Orb + Quickened Hideous Laughter can make a two-hit KO, though it requires them to fail 3 saves. Flaming Sphere + Pyrotechnics, Create Pit + Battering Blast, and See Invisibility + Glitterdust are all good too.
Sure, DR is a great investment - when fighting foes with multiple attacks, it can often save you 10-15 HP per round. Climb, Scent, and Skilled are also great 1-point evolutions to make your Eidolon more versatile. Scent + Skilled (Survival) makes your Eidolon a great tracker, and Skilled (Perception) or Skilled (Stealth) can also be great additions depending on your campaign and party.
A giant pikmin, huh? Interesting... Here are some evolutions that might fit that:
I'll echo the concerns of Ginger and Bret - Summoner is a complex class, and if you don't have any experience with magic characters yourself, I would recommend he switch to a Sorcerer or Bloodrager. That being said, here's my advice for a 1st-time summoner:
Good luck! If he's a fast learner, he'll probably be fine. |
