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I was looking at the monstrous physique line of spells (inspire by this very nice guide to the various polymorph spells) and decided to try to build a primary melee combatant around these spells. This character would be a perfect back-up character for my current summoner (strong melee presence + utility casting), or otherwise something I'd really want to play in a future campaign.

Basically, I decided that my priorities are as such:
- Access to monstrous physique 2 ASAP, for the amazing four-armed gargoyle form (6 primary natural attacks and flight)
- As high as feasible base attack bonus and caster level.
- The dragon style and dragon ferocity feats with feral combat training.

This leads me to a class layout as such:
1 unarmed fighter / 5 transmuter wizard / 3 eldritch knight / 1 master of many styles monk / 7 eldritch knight
(I'm unlikely to ever play at higher levels)

The double martial class dip (fighter and monk) might look a bit strange, but there is no single dip that gives me all martial weapons (for EK) and access to dragon ferocity, as I need to get either dragon ferocity or its prerequisite stunning fist as a bonus feat, since I don't want to bother with the 13 wis required for stunning fist.

ability scores (20 pts):
str 17, dex 14, con 14, int 14, wis 10, cha 8

traits: magical knack, ?

feats:
1. power attack, toughness (human bonus), improved unarmed strike (fighter bonus), dragon style (fighter)
2. scribe scroll (wizard)
3. arcane armor training
5. weapon focus claws
6. craft wondrous item (wizard)
7. feral combat training, arcane strike (eldritch knight)
9. dimensional agility
10. stunning fist (monk), dragon ferocity (monk)
11. dimensional assault
12. martial versatility: feral combat training (eldritch knight)
13. dimensional dervish
15. quicken spell

Offensively I think I should be fine whenever I can cast one of the monstrous physique spells (or alter self at levels 4&5). I can also carry some two-handed backup weapons to deal with DR, as in monstrous physique form you can use those just fine. I'd probably wield a reach weapon, cast monstrous physique in round one, try to position myself to get an AoO, and then drop the weapon and go for full attacks from round 2 onwards. I'd look to get boosts of speed and regularly cast heroism on myself.

Defense is a bit less impressive, which is why I decided on arcane armor training. A mithral chain shirt may not be better than mage armor by itself, but armor is the cheapest thing to enchant with extra AC bonuses, and I need as many of those as I can get. If I ever make it to casting quickened spells, I'll either switch to bracers of armor or deal with the miss chance. Whenever I can get shield or mirror image cast before combat I'll probably be fine, but when I can't my AC will be iffy. Magic circle against evil should help as well, as should false life.

So, what do people think? What can I do to improve my build? Any cool tricks I've missed, or glaring weaknesses I've overlooked?

I've looked at a sorcerer/dragon disciple build as well, but the delayed access to MP1 and MP2 by 2 levels is a big deal at mid levels, and something the strength bonus cannot make up for. It also has has fewer feats which gives it a hard time getting dragon ferocity, feral combat training and arcane strike, and it cannot get martial versatility at all, which together with the slightly lower base attack bonus pretty much wipes out the advantage of the strength bonus. I did some sample damage calculations, which showed the eldritch knight coming out on top up to about level 14 (especially when considering the eldritch knight has dimensional dervish at that level), where most adventure paths are about wrapping up.

The idea of a character where the companion gets most of the action and the PC is mostly there for support has been done before, off course, but I was interested to see what I could do with it. There's been a couple of threads about aasimar oracles of nature lately, but personally I don't much like the severely limited companion selection that gives. Thus, here is my take. I'm still trying to decide if I actually want to play this character.

Halfling Menhir Savant Druid 6 / Pathfinder Savant 4 / Menhir Savant Druid 10 with Velociraptor companion.

I chose a velociraptor because:
a) With enough buff spells it gets the highest damage of any companion, as all that starts to matter is the number of attacks.
b) Medium size is a big boon, both because it's more practical than large, and because it gives more opportunities to cast the awesome animal growth spell.

However, if you're up for switching at some point, a velociraptor is pretty bad until level 7. Before then, a spinosaurus would be a lot better, and can be ridden from level 1 (although it's hard to see where you'd sit).

I chose a halfling druid/pathfinder savant because:
a) Being able to ride your companion allows you to stay in touch range of your companion much more easily, and position the companion where you want it, rather than having to rely on tricks. I would still dismount after a round or two to be able to cast more freely.
b) The halfling druid favored class bonus is brilliant, bascically giving three save traits every four levels.
c) Despite all the other options, druid still seems the best animal companion framework to me.
d) Pathfinder savant gives a few key extra buff spells to make the build awesome, as well as a great UMD boost.

With that out of the way, here is my build:

So, any advice? I'm still somewhat on the fence as to how to deal with DR. I've got /magic and /good covered, and apart from that I'm thinking I'll just have to punch through. The extra 2d6 from the amulet should help with that, and combined with a cast of strong jaw I should be able to get decent damage through, I think. Another option would be to get a holy amulet and a +3 amulet (for cold iron/silver DR), and get the rider to switch them out as needed.

I also had a lot of difficulty deciding on spells for esoteric magic, so I'm very much open to some advice on that. In the end, the long duration and bonus to saves of heroism, the defensive power of greater invisibility, and the big numerical bonus and extra attack of divine power seemed like a good combination to me. I know divine power is commonly considered not that great for a battle cleric, but considering this character won't also have access to divine favor, cannot easily wear boots of speed and has 5 primary attacks, it seems like it may well be the single best buff spell in the game in this case.

Finally, any ideas on how to get the most out of the scroll master ability of the pathfinder savant? There must be some spells out there that suddenly become awesome when you can cast them from a scroll at your own caster level.