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You know what? It will be much more epic that way! The paladin will have to wield a weapon which he probably hates, or at least he would never want to use that, but he has to because that's the only way to stop Nyrissa! The players will probably remember that fight forever, and the fact that one of them was fighting under level drain because that was the only way makes it damn epic. Don't be afraid: at that level, having 1 party member slightly weaker is not an issue at all... and I'm sure the party will prepare even better for the fight knowing that the paladin starts with a disadvantage

Is there some way to add a [discontinued] tag to the thread title?

Yes, I also realize that an eldritch scion magus is also perfect, a gm may just give the cure spells to it and it would be done.

However, this is how it ended:
The player decided not to play this right now. He chose to play a multiclass character (going for the white mage eldritch knight route) and decided as a personal goal of his character to create the Crimson Order, which will be an entire gish base class and will be quite different from the original red mage. It will feature different styles so that one can build different types of gisj within the class, and will be most probably a medium bab cha-based spontaneous class. The olayer is probably going to olay this in the next campaign, so we're taking our time with it. It's becoming very fun since this is becoming good materil for the story.

This archetype is probably unuseful, I'll leave it but discourage its use, recommending an eldritch scion magus or a multiclass character.

Thank you all for your help, I am reading everything you wrote and also asking to other people I know. Due to all the ideas flowing in, the archetype is going to be completely rewritten as a base class. It will have a lot of differences with this, I am really curious to discover what will turn out of it. In the next days I'll post a link to the doc for it, and begin a new thread about it. I thank you again and leave you with one last question:

What do you think of prepared or semi-prepared (arcanist-like) Charisma-based spellcasting? This has never been done in Pathfinder, but we already have spontaneous Intelligence and even Wisdom spellcasting, so it seems it's not all wrong, if of course there is a roleplay justification for that

Ok, I did it. Now he still has spell combat and the armor proficiencies, but the arcane pool is 1/3 magus level + cha instead of 1/2 + cha, and he loses the arcanas at leves 6 and 12 and greater spell access. I feel like it's almost perfect right now: nodoby would take this archetype if he wanted to go with a straight dps magus, but if someone would want more spellcasting versatility they might take it

Maybe I could remove the magus arcana at level 6 and 12, remove greater spell access, then put back armor proficiency and spell combat? Of course the bonus feat and quicken spell would be gone.

I could also reduce the arcane pool a bit

He added also a lot of other stuff: charm person, dominate, knock, scrying, lesser restoration... even contingency and heal are on the list. If I put back spell combat it would become just a magus with more spells, there would be no reason to use the standard magus. So if I put spell combat back into the class, I probably had to remove something else... I don't know what though

You think it would be ok if it had back spell combat? Wouldn't it be too much?

Hello gamers! A player of mine has made a custom archetype for the magus, inspired by the Red Mage class of Final Fantasy. I'd like to let him play this, but I'd also like to have an opinion about it from someone else. What do you think about it?

Crimson Magus archetype

I really like it, will use this as inspiration

Added info about the Kobolds. Also I added an index because it's becoming a ton of stuff. Right now I'm working on the Return of Kressle and the Stag Lord's fort, and I expect to do a good deal of work with it... my players are almost there, in a few weeks we'll probably be right into book 2! I plan to do even more customization with that.

Just go full bard, and use mystic past life to get spells you like from the magus list so you can have the stuff you like but not get as bard (like scorching ray, fireball or fly). Also take variant multiclassing into magus, so you can get arcane pool, magus arcanas and spellstrike.

For your bard archetype, use the standard bard or sound striker if you want to be a better jack-of-all-trades, or use a dervish dancer or arcane duelist if you want to punch people stronger. Here you have it, put on your best cloak of charisma and go being awesome

Thanks, I really felt the adventure needed a serious fairy since the beginning. Now my players are approaching the mites, you're going to see more of Gyronna in the next posts

Cool! I'm already past hollow's last hope, but it could be a great introduction. Gonna read carnival of tears

Added changes to the mites fight in book 1. The kobolds will figure a minor revision, then I will add the "return of Kressle" and do the Stag Lord's fort

Added Kressle's revised sheet, the sheet for a major NPC I added and a couple minor revisions. Next time I'll publish the updated Mites dungeon

Link to the Google Doc with all the posts

Hello everyone, I have just started Kingmaker with a party of six, and given the fact that they made strong characters and just destroyed the first encounter with the bandits not taking even a single turn (they put up a clever ambush and rolled high initiative in the standard round too), I decided that I could raise the difficulty. They're all seasoned players, have very good teamwork and know how to get out of difficult situations... they have one player which is extraordinarily good at strategizing (the Cavalier), and 2 of them have incredible bursts of imagination, one girl (the Bloodrager) is so intuitive that most of the times she can "get" the plot line before everyone else, even with very little help (we named her Sherlock for a reason). So, this is not for everyone, but only for those groups who want a higher challenge... I will make a new post everytime I add a new encounter or modify the plot in some way, so that it appears on the forum. Also, I will put a link below that goes to the Google Document with all the posts, so you can find them all.

But on with the presentations:

The party is a Elf Wizard (necromancer), Human Cleric of Shizuru, Half-Orc Cavalier who worships Gorum (order of the sword, took Precise Strike as his Teamwork Feat), Sylph Druid (Marax companion, she took Stealth and Disable Devide with traits so she will also do roguish stuff), Tiefling Bloodrager (she took a variant to get +2 to str and cha, bloodline is Infernal).

I put this info so that you can understand the party lineup and why I am putting some strategies. There are 8 creatures in total, with 6 players and 2 animals, there's a lot of them, they're powerful and smart and can overpower many challenges. So here's what I'm doing:

First, I'm following the excellent 6 players conversion made by other awesome GMs, [url=http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2m26n?Community-Created-6-Player-Kingmaker]here's the link[url]
I'm not changing every encounter because that would be a crapload of work, but here's what I'm starting with:

First, I added the NPC of Taizée, a gnome sorceress 2 with the Fairy Creature template, to help enemies every now and then (see the doc for extra info on her)

Then, i completely rewritten the Thorn River Camp fight, to make it more "interesting". The biggest changes I made are:
1) I chose to give Kressle a Cavalier level instead of the third Ranger level that she has in the conversion, so now she has a Mount. She doesn't fight on the mount, however, she just calls it (by whistling) to flank characters and attack. Most characters won't want to kill a combat-trained mount and so it will be fun to see how they try to stop that beast without killing it.
Her teamwork feat is Lookout, which does wonders when your life revolves around ambushing people.
Kressle has the Order of the Star, and is a follower of Gyronna. She is now more of a religious fanatic (remember that she survived a rape attempt by slicing her offenders with axes while she was still very young, so it suits her well). She has a close connection with the cleric of Gyronna I added (keep reading)
2) I swapped three regular bandits for a Cleric of Gyronna (use the CR 1/2 Mercenary Healer NPC if you need it quick, change domains to Evil and Madness if you want it done better) and a Wizard (use the CR 1/2 Cautious Mage). This wizard has a spell of Sleep or Grease in place of the Burning Hands (your call, it depends on how much of a jerk you want to be, keep in mind that a single Sleep can completely destroy your party if it's done well), and he has a scroll of Expeditious Retreat instead of the Enlarge Person one.
The total experience is almost the same of the original encounter: ironically, the players get 5 points less experience now, and the encounter is much more difficult
3) I put the map upside down. I think it works better this way: it's easier to defend the camp. Also in my campaign, the bandits are aware the PC are coming, and already lost Happs and the others, so they put up a solid battle plan. You can see all of it in the google doc above.

So, that's all for the first installment of Kingmaker: Hard Mode. Let me know if you like it!

Why would it be impossible to build? All you need is a dawnflower dervish/dervish of the dawn.

They get double bonuses on inspire courage in return for only applying its effects to themselves. That puts it on par with favored enemy at level 1- a +2 to every attack and damage roll. And later on, it can deal up to +8- enough to stay on par with many martial characters.

The only caveat is that you have to forget about their titular ability- dervish dance is not that good for them anyway (they are hardly built for 1 weapon/1 hand).

Maybe throw in some arcane strike later on for more damage.

Indeed. But it defies the whole point of being a bard (party support in my opinion) and is more like a "hybrid" like the magus itself. Just with more skills. Like a rouge/sorc or something.

I am a very collaborative player, so I tend to prefer characters who can help the party a lot. I was just thinking of a Bard who can hold his ground among a very martial-oriented party (ranger and paladin, we are three). I also wanted to try something new and even a bit risky (magus would be better for the purpouse, but I fell in love with the idea of this character)

Effortless lace is just awesome, but we don't optimize that much, so I'll pay the feat tax. thank you anyway for your interest :)

Really? It's like a +2 on every attack, I thought it was good.

The Bard has long been known as the "support" class, one who cannot effectively fight (excluding archer bards) and has better to hold his own ground. Melee bards do exist, but they are rather squishy (even if they are a lot of fun). A friend of mine plays a bard/barbarian/dragon disciple that of course isn't the most optimized character out there, but is a lot of fun.

Me, I always liked the idea of a TWF Bard, but found it impossible to build until the last books.

Here's the idea:

Swashbuckler 1 (Inspired Blade archetype)/ Bard 19 (Arcane Duelist)

By being human and taking weapon finesse and weapon focus (rapier) via the class and then and fencing grace (as a feat) at first level, it is possible to have dexterity for to-hut and damage. That also covers the requirements for TWF, and Swashbuckler synergizes well with Bard. Arcane Duelist gives all kind of stuff a melee "fighter with some magic" concept may require. Inspire Courage and Arcane Strike affect both swords, same do Discordant Voice and (I'm not sure about this one) Bladethirst.

Again, this isn't CoD, but I really like to see a kind of Bard which actually gets good AC and decent to-hit and damage (all of those depending on Dex).

I made it the son of a noble who is willing to prove is valor (we're playing Kingmaker) and build his own army (I plan to use him as a general for the troops. In fact, due to bardic music, social abilities and the fact that he's actually a decent fighter, he is the best army commander I can imagine. Bard magic is also good, especially when you think of Hastened troops.

What do you think? My plans incluse the full TWG chain, plus Oversized TWF from 3.5 (I'm choosing rapiers, so I took Fencing Grace), Toughness, Improved Critical and maybe a critical feat.

I'm also really unsure if it may he a good idea to grab Spellsong. I use Oratory as mmy main Perform skill, I don't know if it works with other skills which are not Perform (Singing). The feat doesn't say it requires that particular skill, but still I'm not sure.

If 3.5 is allowed, there's the feat Oversized Two-weapon fighting which lowes the -4/-4 for using two longswords to -2/-2. It might be just what you need. Then you can throw all your feats on the longsword.