I'm curious at how people would max out a Spellslinger build. Since you get everything you need to make your Spellslinger at level 1, it seems that it should be ripe for some sort of multiclass build.
This would net you a BAB of 14, 15, or 16 depending on the XXXXX levels, as well as 9th level spells (regardless of the two mystery levels).
Obviously, Spellslinger is flawed, and I know it has a bad reputation to a degree. However, if you're cool with playing a build that is NOT meant to be a primary caster but instead to just be a laz0r shooting cool sniper or something, this would seem to work.
Also, raising the DC of your spells by the enhancement bonus of your gun is pretty awesome. If you specialized in a certain style of spell and nabbed Spell Focus and GSF, you could really jack the DCs up.
What say you? Thoughts? General advice for what really works with a Spellslinger?
Basic Idea came from another thread, but I'm curious how you guys think it would play out.
What would be the best way to ENSURE that enemies fall into one of the Create Pit spells from the APG? I'd like to make a character that can pretty much do it by himself, rather than a set of team-members.
Thoughts to consider:
-Hydraulic Push
-Shield Slam
-Do the Bull Rush line of feats give their bonuses to Hydraulic Push?
-Reach weapons for when people try to get out of the pit or away from its edge
-Other factors?
Any ideas on how to make a self sufficient character who can excel at this tactic while still being a fairly well-rounded character?
So I will be running a game starting in about a month, and I'm specifically aiming for having a lot of really interesting/cool/cinematic/stylish encounters. I have a bunch of ideas, but I'm really looking for help from all you experienced players and GMs out there. What encounters were the most memorable for you? They don't all have to be combat, either.
(I'm looking for encounters I can steal and fit into the storyline, so encounters that really were only cool because of everything that came before them are going to be hard to replicate...but encounters with cool settings/mechanics/reliance on skills in addition to swinging weapons is what I'm looking for.)
Additional details:
-The campaign is Low Magic.
-I'm trying to focus more on Skill use. The aim is for Indiana Jones/swashbuckler potential in combat scenarios.
-Characters start at 3rd level, probably won't get beyond 12th.
So I am DMing the Sins of the Saviors leg of the campaign for our group. I'm prepping the Runeforge (the group just defeated the Old White, though with some difficulty...2 deaths averted only by hero points) and I couldn't help but look at Athroxis and realize how much she had lost out in the 3.5 ---> Pathfinder conversion over the years.
I've redone her, keeping her as a level 15 character, but bringing her into the Pathfinder fold and really focusing on strengthening her damage and survival capacity. After I did my best with it, I realized that it would probably be overkill to keep the demon around. As some sort of compensation I traded around some equipment and gave Athroxis a little more money to play with (without overwealthing the party...just tacked a few things on her bonded ring).
I'm really looking for all y'all's thoughts about the rebuild. I'm worried she's going to annihilate a few characters, but I also don't believe in softballing the bad guys once you get towards the mid-high levels. The group is also 5 to 6 people, all level 13, with a a HUGE point buy at character creation and everyone is well above recommended wealth per level.
Highlady Athroxis:
Highlady Athroxis CR 15
Female human fighter 1/evoker [admixture focus] 5/eldritch knight 9
LE Medium humanoid (in form of Large Fire Giant)
Init +12; Senses Perception +22, Lowlight Vision
Defense
AC 34, touch 16, flat-footed 30 (6 mirror images) (melee hitters take 1d6+15 cold, half damage from fire, none with Reflex save); 38 AC with Combat Expertise
(+12 armor, +2 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 insight, +6 natural, +1 dodge, -1 size)
Resistance 20 Fire, Vulnerable to Cold
hp 190+24 temporary (15 HD; 10d10+5d6+110)
Fort +21 Ref +15 Will +16
CMD: 38 (42 w/combat expertise)
Ranged Touch: +21 Touch: +26
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with ranseur)
Spells Prepared (CL 13)
7th (3)– Giant Form I*, Quickened Still Mirror Image (1d4+4), Empowered Still Detonate (DC 21 Reflex, 15d8+2 fire damage)
6th (4)—Greater Heroism*, Quickened Still Vanish, Still Wall of Force (2)
5th (5)— Overland Flight*, Quickened Still Empowered Scorching Ray (4)
4th (6)—Empowered Still Scorching Ray (3), Greater False Life*, Greater Invisibility, Still Wind Wall
3rd (7)—Quickened Still Scorching Ray, Greater Magic Weapon (2)*, Haste*, Keen Edge (2)*, Vampiric Touch (6d6)
2nd (7)—Bull’s Strength*, Bear’s Endurance*, Cat’s Grace*, Mirror Image*, See Invisibility*, Owl’s Wisdom*, XXXX
1st (7)— Comprehend Languages*, Anticipate Peril*, Magic Missile (3), Shocking Grasp (2)
0—Detect magic, Flare (DC 17), Ray of Frost, Read Magic
Prohibited Schools abjuration and conjuration
Tactics
Before Combat: Athroxis starts each day by casting Greater Magic Weapon on her Ranseur and Armor Spikes, Overland Flight, and Greater False Life. Once she realizes the PCs are in the Halls of Wrath, she casts See Invisibility and Keen Edge (both armor spikes and ranseur), and Comprehend Languages. As soon as the fight in the previous room ends and Athroxis has watched the PCs, she begins buffing for their arrival. How many rounds they take determines how many buffs she casts. (She uses Arcane Armor Mastery to reduce her ASF to 5%. If she is unlucky and fails to cast one of the spells below, she uses her Arcane Bond ability to spontaneously cast it again.):
1: Giant Form 2: Greater Heroism 3: Mirror Image 4: Bear’s Endurance 5: Bull’s Strength 6: Cat’s Grace 7: Owl’s Wisdom 8: Anticipate Peril 9: If the PCs have not arrived yet, she once again watches them, waiting until they enter the teleporter to cast Haste.
These buffs are already included in her statistics. If the group delays long enough that she Athroxis thinks her buffs might end, she moves into the transporter and attacks them where they are, casting Greater Invisibility and Haste just before doing so. She is not a patient woman.
During Combat: In the form of a female fire giant, Athroxis tries to maintain ranged superiority and incinerate the PCs with Scorching Ray spells, all while screaming at them and taunting them in Thassilonian. In the first round of combat she activates her Flame Shield. In the event that PCs end up clustered near her, she uses an Empowered Still Detonate, trusting her resistances to take most of the sting out of it. If her mirror images run low, she uses her still quickened mirror image spell to reset them. If things get really desperate, she may try to use Quickened Still Vanish to escape PCs that can’t see invisible creatures and regain a favorable position. Wall of Force is used to try and separate the PCs into more easily handled groups, and Wind Wall is cast if there is a ranged threat in the group. If she gets the chance (and it strategically makes sense), Athroxis will use Vampiric Touch on a very wounded or even unconscious PC to finish them off in front of the rest of the group, as well as reset her Temp HP buffer.
Athroxis prefers to use Fire spells (cold is her second favorite), and always starts with these unless she already knows the PCs resist fire. If she notices that her Fire spells are not having as great of an effect as they should, she uses her Versatile Evocation power to switch the damage over to cold. She adjusts to further resistances if necessary.
If a Greater Dispel Magic is used on her she gets EXTREMELY angry and begins to scream about how much it cost her just to get one of the other wizards from a different faction to cast that into her Bonded Ring, continuing on into a tirade against people who use Abjuration magic, making references to how many people she killed and the damage she personally caused when the factions temporarily banded together to take down the fools in the Abjurant Halls of Envy. Anyone who targets her with Abjuration magic instantly becomes the object of her wrath.
Morale Athroxis fights to the death. Upon taking a hit that would drop her below 0 hp, a Contingency spell activates and sets off a Detonation (DC 21 Reflex, 10d8+2 acid damage). If the resulting damage to herself takes Athroxis’ current HP total to below her negative Constitution score, her body is disintegrated (though her gear remains). She does not wish to allow anyone who defeats her to have access to her corpse.
Statistics
Str 26, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 24, Wis 14, Cha 7
Base Atk +12
Combat Gear: Wand of clairvoyance/clairaudience (14 charges); Other Gear +4 mithral full plate(tinted red), Masterwork Armor Spikes in the shape of tongues of flame coming off her armor(tinted orange and yellow), +1 flaming ranseur, amulet of natural armor +2, headband of intellect +4 (Knw: Nobility and Appraise), Bonded Item: ring of counterspells (greater dispel magic) and protection +2, scarf of resistance +2 (takes cloak slot), spellbook, ivory statuette of herself worth 1500 gp, 150 gp worth of Detonate components
Special Abilities
Mark of Wrath (Su) Highlady Athroxis wears the mark of her rulership on her flesh—a faintly glowing tattoo-like rune on her forehead that moves through the generations from one ruler to the next. The mark of wrath provides her with a +1 insight bonus to AC and on attack and damage rolls. Once per day as a swift action, she can call upon the mark to protect her with a fire shield (CL 15th). If she is slain in combat, the mark of wrath transfers to the brow of her defeater. It can only be transferred again on that character’s death at the hands of another, but can be removed with a successful break enchantment against CL 20th. Once removed in this manner, it vanishes forever.
Intense Spells (Su) Athroxis adds +2 damage to any evocation spell that deals damage, but only once per spell.
Versatile Evocation (Su) When Athroxis casts an Evocation spell that does acid, fire, cold, or electricity damage she may change the damage dealt to any other one of the four energy types. Athroxis may use this ability 10 times per day.
Feat planning, just to make sure it all works and makes sense:
1: Weapon Focus, Improved Initiative, Combat Reflexes
2: Scribe Scroll
3: Eschew Materials
5: Toughness
6: Still Spell
7: Empower Spell, Arcane Armor Training
9: Weapon Specialization
11: Arcane Armor Mastery, Combat Expertise
13: Quicken Spell
15: Greater Weapon Focus, Spell Perfection
I'd like to put Frostbite or Chill Touch at a moderate caster level in side spellstoring weapons, but I am unsure how to adjudicate the results after the initial hit. Does the weapon keep dealing the extra damage, does the spell stay, but you can only use it making melee touch attacks? How would this work if I was dual wielding two spellstoring daggers and had Frostbite in one and Chill Touch in the other? Would each weapon do its own thing, or would the spells cancel out because I can't "hold the charge" for two spells at once. Do you even need to "hold the charge" for these spells?
Pretty much I'm thinking about trying out a clerical style gish build using a Witch (hedge witch archetype) with the Strength Patron and going into Eldritch Knight. I'm unclear if the witch automatically gets those patron spells added to her list, or if it's ONLY while advancing in the Witch class specifically.
It's me again. Back with another archery+magic question...
The Arcane Archer's "Enhance Arrows" ability specifies that it must be used on non-magical arrows. I am curious how this interacts with arrows that have A) had Flame Arrow cast on them....and/or B) The archer has used Arcane Strike at the start of his turn.
I'm pretty sure Arcane Strike doesn't interfere, as the wording states the arrows are "treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction," which doesn't actually make them magical arrows. (Oddly enough, I think that the wording of this feat allows it to function in an Anti-Magic Field...though it seems opposed to common sense.)
Flame Arrow, on the other hand, casts a spell on the arrow that makes it deal +1d6 fire damage. It is a no save, no spell resistance situation though, and makes no mention of making the arrows magical (which would mean they overcome DR/magic). The spell, I would assume, would be suppressed in an AMF, though I do not know if this makes the arrow itself magical. The arrow has a spell on it, but does any item with a spell on it become, itself, magical?
If you have a +5 Seeking Brilliant Energy bow firing a +1 Corrosive Flaming Icy Holy arrow, is the effect an arrow that: Ignores any miss chances and armor or shield bonuses, has a +5 enhancement bonus, and also does 5d6 extra damage (to evil creatures lacking the correct resistances)?
Here is my situation to be extremely specific:
Spoiler:
I have an arcane archer build. At 20th level, he will have Greater Magic Weapon on his bow for a +5 enhancement bonus. The bow will also have the following enhancements: Holy (+2), Corrosive (+1), Frost (+1), Seeking (+1). This puts the bow at its +10 cap.
Due to Arcane Archer levels, my arrows fired also have the Shock property (+1). I also make extensive use of the Flame Arrow 3rd level wizard spell (but that doesn't apply to this at all since it just adds +1d6 fire damage to 50 arrows, not the actual Flaming enhancement...correct?).
Using Non-magical arrows (with flame arrow cast on them), once fired the arrows will be +5 Shock-Corrosive-Icy-Holy+1d6 fire. That puts the arrows at the +10 cap.
My main question is, do the arrows still benefit from my bows Seeking ability?
I know it makes me detect as evil for its duration. What I'm curious about is if using a spell with an [evil] descriptor goes toward changing my character's actual alignment over a course of time. I feel like 3.5 had a ruling that using [evil] spells was an evil act, but I don't see it in Pathfinder. Am I missing it? What do y'all think?
So Emergency Force Cage is an area effect spell centered on you, but through Imbue Arrow, can technically be put elsewhere. The spell lists no SR and no saving through, and has a duration of a round per level. I just want to make sure that I am correct in thinking this can be used with Imbue arrow to basically sequester other targets and take them out of the fight for a while.
Am going to deploy him later this week. Thoughts? Questions? Musings?
Tactics: Will go invisible, move and buff till ready or interrupted by PCs, then attack and cast Vanish with spell combat, move reload spellstoring weapon with Shocking Grasp, and repeat. Swift Enhance weapon with Keen and Frost. Use Pool Spell for Vanish or Shocking Grasp as needed when mem'd spells run out. Obscuring Mist and Mount scrolls as getaway if things go horribly wrong or he is out of resources.
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Human Skeletal Champion Magus 5 (CR 6)
EXP: 2,800
LE Medium Undead
Initiative: +7; Senses: Darkvision 60’ Perception +1
Gear: 153gp, Vest of Resistance +1, Spellstoring Rapier +1, Chain Shirt, Scroll of Obscuring Mist (CL 1), Scroll of Blur (CL 3), Spellbook , Scroll of Invisibility (CL 3), Scroll of Mount (CL 1)
Spells
Arcane Pool Points: 5
Magus Arcana: Spell Blending (Vanish)
Spell-like Abilities: Magus Weapon Enhancement (+2), Pool Spell
Should a Magus go into Eldritch Knight as soon as possible? At 7th level you snag 3rd level spells as well as the ability to cast in Medium armor (Mithril Full Plate?). From there, does it really hurt to skip out on the class for better BAB, and, ultimately, the ability to cast spells on a crit? I mean....we're talkin about Spell Combat for a full attack (with all 4 attacks if you go EK!), plus a spell, plus an auto quicken on a crit (and you'll be using a Keen Rapier or Scimitar anyways).
Magus 7/Eldritch Knight 10/Magus +3
Seems to be a better overall build than just staying Magus. Am I wrong on this?
Note: Through Pool Spell the Magus can spontaneously cast 1st level spells. I think this meets the pre-req of DD.
You lose out on Medium armor, but get the cool benefits of DD and eventually EK. I still think an overall Magus 10/EK 10 build is better, but this one is interesting as well.
Lastly:
Magus 10/Duelist 10
Just because it would be a crazy cool fun thing to play. One on one in melee you'd be hilarious. Jack Dex and Int (mostly Int), use Arcane Accuracy and Combat Expertise/Fighting Defensively. Not the most game breaking character powerwise, but pretty cool.
Ps: I stopped trying to Max the AC of Magus 10/Duelist 10 when I got to 75. Just sayin. Could be fun.
If you were to take levels in Monk and Magus, would be able to use the Magus's arcane pool ability to enhance the Monk's unarmed strikes? The description says "a weapon you are holding," but I was wondering if that is done to intentionally rule out unarmed strikes or if it is an oversight.
It would be nice to see a line added to Wand Mastery that clarifies whether or not feats like Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus can also be applied to the spell cast from the wand. I'm guessing it's meant to be only Int mod, like it says, but a line making the exclusion specific would be nice.
I see a lot of people come to these boards looking for help with making the Warrior Mage archetype work in Pathfinder. I want to get a collection of pretty optimal and fun builds going for this style of play, and maybe even turn it into a guide eventually...something that can be linked to in order to help out the many people who want to make the (sometimes frustrating to build) concept work.
I know the Magus will be coming soon as official, but I also know that it doesn't quite cut it for some people as well. So, I will start with a few builds I've seen around. Any comments/suggestions/tactics for playing this style of character is welcome.
Alright....jump on in and tell me what I'm missing/getting wrong!
(Eventually I will want to even explore feats for the builds and spell selections etc. but for now just collecting the best builds is the first step...feel free to comment about anything regarding this archetype tho)
