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I'm looking to make a Goliath Fighter/Sorcerer/Abjurant Champion 8/1/5 and was wondering if you fellow Paizonians might suggest cool feats to accompany him.
He's a veteran sargeant type and a sword and spear wielder (though not at the same time... that's just crazy talk). I'm thinking about taking the Armored Mage class substitution level for fighters (it's in Complete Mage) which means that I can cast my spells while wearing light armor. I'll also take Combat Casting, Weapon Focus and Specialization (sword of choice) and Power Attack. Spring Attack and Whirlwind Attack, but I'm open to ideas.
But, I'm a little short on ideas for feats at the moment and besides I don't have my books with me. So any suggestions?
Also, my DM is pretty liberal when it comes to what books we use (with the sole exception beingi Tome of Battle) so most if not all books are fair game.
The first thing I would do when playing an Abjurant Champion is get a ruling on the efficacy of the Abjurant Champion's abilities on Mage Armor.
The issue essentially boils down to the fact that Abjurant Champion's abilities indicate they effect abjurations. Mage Armor, though, is a conjuration and there for would not qualify. That is pretty much the Rules as Written (RAW) interpretation.
However, the sample character given for the class is using Mage Armor and it is affected by the ability. Additionally, if you look at the reasons that a spell is considered an Abjuration, Mage Armor fits them very nicely. Many DMs (though not all) therefor rule that Mage Armor (and the like) are abjurations rather than conjurations.
If Mage Armor is affected by your class in your campaign, then the need for the Armored Mage class variant becomes much less impressive. With Mage Armor up you would have a +9 Armor bonus to AC, a swift action at the beginning of combat lets you cast Shield for an additional +9 shield bonus to AC, for a total AC (assuming NO other bonuses which is not likely) of 28. It doesn't take much else to help that skyrocket... Dex bonus, Deflection, Natural armor, and the all important Dodge. I say all important because unlike any of the other bonuses, dodge stacks. Which brings us back to our Armored Mage ability... light armor will not give you as high an AC as your spells very easily will.
That said, there still could be a VERY good reason to get the ability (though it is a tougher call), that being that you can't enchant your spell with additional abilities that armors can be enchanted with. This means that if you do wear armor it should just be +1 and the type doesn't really matter as the AC will be overlapped by your spells... but throw on as many special armor enchants as possible. The same goes for your shield.
More to the point of your question though, there are some great feat options out there for the gish-type fighter.
Power Attack - This feat is fantastic if, and only if, you have a way of making sure you can still hit. Feats like Shock Trooper allow you to take a hit to AC instead of BAB (up to your same max) allowing you to still hit... the bad news is that it has a fairly steep feat chain to get. You as a caster have a better option though, Wraithstrike. This 2nd lvl spell from the spell compendium allows you to make all your attacks for 1 round as touch attacks... those are tough to miss and tend to get EASIER at higher levels... so more to dump into Power Attack. Lots of damage is a great way to get things attention as well, so this works for some of the tactics below as well.
Keep in mind that this feat by FAR works the best with a two-handed weapon. The good news is that with the shield spell running this doesn't really hurt your AC at all, but if you aren't using a shield it means you are missing out on enchantments of the non-AC variety.
Goad - As a Cha based caster you might some use out of this feat that allows you to taunt a foe into attacking you. The idea being that you pump your AC up crazy high (see other feats in addition to class abilities and magic items) so that they can't really hit you. Honestly though I am not sure how well this one will end up working as it allows for resistance to it.
Standstill - This feat is from the Expanded Psionics Handbook though it is a general feat, not a psionic one. It allows you to use an attack of opportunity to stop a creatures movement. They then typically will attack you as they hopefully don't have other targets (and you are annoying them with large amounts of damage).
Combat Expertise and Improved Combat Expertise - This is where that dodge bonus comes in handy. If you have a creatures attention and your fellows are quite capable of dealing enough damage you can use these to lower your attack rolls but jack up your AC to crazy amounts. At the level of your character you are proposing, you could have an AC in excess of 38 (10 base, 9 Armor from Mage Armor, 9 Shield from Shield, 10 Dodge from Improved Combat Expertise).
Reserve Feats - Some people really LOVE taking these as a gish, but they are not really my bread and butter idea of the class... your mileage may vary though so it is worth a look.
Arcane Preparation - Kind of situational, but it might be worth it if you take extend spell and apply it to Wraithstrike with this feat used so you can keep it a swift action... probably better to just use a lesser metamagic rod though.
Arcane Strike - This is a very viable alternative to going the Power Attack route for dealing large sums of damage. The trick is that the feat does not cap the number of spells that can be channeled into damage this way... and you could combine this WITH Power Attack to get that bonus to hit from this while dumping BAB into even more damage for additional hurt. The down side is that it is pretty easy to burn through all your spells fairly quickly... but when you need to nova, you can do so with style.
Combat Casting - Normally I would avoid this sub-par feat like the plague and recommend Skill Focus instead, but as it is a pre-req for Abjurant Champion you really don't have a choice.
Combat Reflexes - Having a high Dex just jacks up the already high AC of your build, and spells can keep that even higher. This feat helps make sure you can take advantage of synergies with that ability. Best when used in conjunction with tactics like Stand Still or Improved Trip.
Improved Familiar - Having a familiar that can help out in combat means that you can actually use the thing with this build. A flanking bonus is that much more you can dump into a power attack or combat expertise and still hit, but these guys still aren't tank material at this level, so I am not convinced on this one.
Improved Trip - High Dex and combat reflexes combined with a tripping weapon (especially one with reach like a guisarme) gives you quite a bit of control over an area. A high strength here really helps as well though... so if you aren't going high on Str I would suggest Stand Still instead.
Innate Spell - It has a fairly long feat chain to get but if you would make Wraithstrike a spell-like ability that you could use as a swift action once a round... well, you could expect the ban hammer on this one pretty quickly.
Sounds like my kid is waking up... I will post more when I can
Practiced Spellcaster - Because you are multiclassing you are loosing caster levels. While this feat won't give you more spells or spell levels, it will get back some of the power you have given up. It is really dependant on which spells you will be casting though. Take the time to get an idea of what spells you are likely to be casting and what the effect of +4 caster levels will be on those spells to see if it is worth it.
Rapid Metamagic - If you like metamagic this is a must for the sorcerer. Of course, if you are not planning on taking metamagic feats, then this one isn't that great.
Shock Trooper - As I mentioned in power attack, this is one of the ways in which you can make sure you can still hit (and therefor do the extra damage) while using power attack. A valid option, but I feel like I would prefer the spell route (i.e. wraithstrike and the like) with this type of character... for thematic reasons if nothing else.
Somatic Weaponry - depending on DM rulings, this might be very useful. In most campaigns though it really isn't necessary. If your DM has allowed clerics to run around healing with a shield and mace in their hands then don't worry about this one. Otherwise it will make you life easier.
Spell Focus - If you are casting spells that require saves for their effects, then buffing up their DC is important. If, as I would suggest, you are mostly dishing out additional damage that has no save and buffing yourself (no save) then you have nothing to worry about and don't need this one.
Steady Concentration - If you find yourself making a lot of concentration checks for defensive casting then this might both speed up play and make sure that bad die roll won't put you in a bad spot.
Versatile Spellcaster - This one is generally considered a "must have" for sorcerers, but you will get a little less use out of it then other sorcerers due to lost casting levels. That said, it is still a very solid choice.
Deep Impact - This one would be trickier to get as it is a psionic feat, but it is another solid way to make a hit a touch attack and therefore still hit with those Power Attacks.
I'm looking to make a Goliath Fighter/Sorcerer/Abjurant Champion 8/1/5 and was wondering if you fellow Paizonians might suggest cool feats to accompany him.
I am curious why you are waiting to go into Abjurant Champion. The two things you are really trying to balance here (in general) are getting as many caster levels as possible while not loosing BAB. Something like Fighter 4 / Sorcerer 2 / Abjurant Champion 5 would allow for a quicker entry and then allow you to move into another class that gives full BAB with good or full spellcasting progression. Swiftblade is a great choice and if all else fails you could go with Eldritch Knight as you should already meet the requirements.
Another thing I would suggest considering (though only doing if it makes sense for you) is looking at other classes besides fighter for entry into the class. Fighter really is just providing full BAB and extra feats. There are other options for the full BAB part and then you are mostly weighing the abilities against the extra feats.
Swashbuckler might be an interesting choice, though it would probably synergize better with Wizard than Sorcerer. Might not be a good way to go if you are going the Power Attack route though.
Battle Sorcerer variant from Unearthed Arcana might be a great way to go as well. Worth looking at at least. You could then have a Fighter 2 / Battle Sorcerer 4 for extra spell casting... but do the overall math on final spellcasting levels here and spells available to you as I have not. Likewise the Stalwart Sorcerer from Complete Mage would be worth looking at.
Psychic Warrior might be interesting to give you some more spell like powers (and access to Deep Impact) but you do end up loosing a BAB, so it may not be a good choice.
Divine Champion class variant for Sorcerer... if you aren't using your familiar anyway, this is a solid choice for meleeing types.
Duskblade might be an interesting way to go but I would look into how their spell channeling would work with the prestige class and if they have enough abjurations to make it worth it.
Anyway... those are just my random thoughts and suggestions... hope it sparks some ideas and you find it useful!!!
Sean Mahoney
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Abjurant Champion and Mage Armour was errata. It ONLY works with Abjuration spells, it was yet another WotC stat block error.
I played a Fighter/4, Sorc/2, Abjurant Champion/5, Eldritch Knight/9. He was fun, but he was a glass cannon.
Power attack, cleave, weapon focus, weapon specialization, combat reflexes, vexing flanker, deft opportunist, combat casting, improved toughness, and leadership. I had to abuse the cleric of kord cohort.
Greetings and salutations! This is my first post here.
My DM and I have been having problems with the Abjurant Champion PrC -- and not because of the mage armor snafu.
Doesn't the class basically NOT work if you're a sorcerer? Sorcerers can apply metamagics to a spell, which extends the spell to a full-round action, versus a standard action. Doesn't adding Quicken Spell do this as well, thus negating one of the major abilities of the Abjurant Champion?
In simpler words: can sorcerers cast quickened abjuration spells as Abjurant Champions?
--DP
My problem(?) if you could call it that with the Abjurant Champion is that it's too good. As an arcane spellcaster, there's no reason not to take levels in it. The requirements are easy to attain, even easier if you're willing to give up a spellcaster level or two to snatch up a level or two of Fighter to get you there faster.
Really, I mean, full BAB progression, full caster level progression, AND the ridiculous class features that multiply your versatility that much more, why not take it? Heck, a full caster could wait and take it around 10th level with no loss of caster levels at all, and wind up with even more tricks up their sleeve and a higher BAB.
EDIT: Yes, I am guilty of having taken this PrC multiple times in my gaming career. Since most of my arcane casters tend to dabble in melee combat anyway, this class is just too tempting.
Arcane Disciple: Pollymorph Domain RoE
Higher levels turn into a Hydra with x many heads. Really good for dealing out arcane strike and shock trooper damage.