Here follows a build. Its not tweaked with an exact-o-knife, but it remains purely a build exercise. Fair warning.
Human Conjurer9/Fighter1/Eldritch Knight10
str: 14
dex: 13
con: 20
int: 13
wis: 7
cha: 7
Skills:
Max: Spellcraft
Max: Knowledge: Arcana
Max: Ride
Max: Fly
Traits:
Magical Knack
Jaded
Feat Plan:
1: (Wiz BONUS) Scribe Scroll
1: Acadamae Graduate
1: (Human BONUS): Toughness
2: (Ftr BONUS): Arcane Armor Training
3: Arcane Armor Mastery
5: Improved Familiar
6: (Wiz BONUS): Spell Focus: Conjuration
7: Improved Share Spells
9: Augment Summoning
11 (ElK BONUS): Shield Focus: Heavy Shield
11: Arcane Strike
13: Boon Companion
15: Greater Shield Focus: Heavy Shield
15: (ElK BONUS): Mounted Combat
17: Mounted Shield
19: (ElK BONUS) Trick Riding
19: Mounted Skirmisher
Spellbook Neccesities:
Summon Monster spells
Polymorph spells
Buff Spells
-Shield
-Mage Armor
-Haste
-Bull's Strength
-Cat's Grace
-Transformation
-Greater Magic Weapon
-Heroism
-Greater Heroism
-False Life
-Stoneskin
-etc.
Eventual Planned Purchases:
+5 Mithril Breastplate
+5 Heavy Steel Shield
+5 Amulet of Natural Armor
+5 Ring of Protection
+5 Cloak of Resistance
+6 Headband of Intellect
-Knowledge: The Planes
-Knowledge: Dungeoneering
-Knolwedge: History
+6 Belt of Constitution
+1 Holy Gauntlet Spikes
Manual of Constitution +5
Familiar:
+5 Ring of Protection
+5 Amulet of Mighty Fists
Notes:
Put all stat bumps into con.
Familiar should probably be a mephit (small earth ele would be better, if not for -4 atk/dmg while airborne)
Build was inspired by the familiar's "Share Spells" ability.
I'm hesitant to simply gush about what I like about this build, and to some extent I like the feel of leaving the capabilities of a character with this build as a thought exercise to the reader; but of course, if anybody can think of something this guy could use that I haven't (such as a feat, obviously, or a particularly synergistic spell from the APG, which I haven't read), it'd be much appreciated.
The first thing that jumps out at me is the fact that this fellow is completely dependent on his magic items. If for some reason he loses his Headband of Intellect +6, he's down to an Int score of 13 which means he's restricted to only 3rd level spells or lower. That's some potentially dangerous min-maxing... plus, it implies that he had some sort of Int boosting item back when he first gained access to level 4 spells and has been leaning on the use of such items since level 9 or 10, depending how you multi-classed him. Focusing on buff spells, the DC of those spells are not terribly important, but if someone removes his access to that one magic item, he becomes a gimped Fighter. Harsh...
Maveric28 wrote: it implies that he had some sort of Int boosting item back when he first gained access to level 4 spells
He won't have 4th level spells until level 7 or 8. Standard PC wealth at level 7 is 23.5k, which is plenty for a +2 int booster and toys for the pet.
It reminds me of an arena fight I saw years ago. The mystic theurge's familiar destroyed the opponent.
Actually, losing the headband probably hurts this wizard less than it would most. Most of the buff spells listed are 3rd level or lower. You would still have the higher level slots, so he could caste haste all day.
One problem with the build is the wizard bonus feat at Wiz 5 isn't a valid choice. You have to take an item creation, metamagic or Spell Mastery. Spell Focus is none of those.
kroarty wrote: Its not tweaked with an exact-o-knife
[...]
str: 14
dex: 13
con: 20
int: 13
wis: 7
cha: 7
TWO ultra-dump-stats and you call that not tweaked with an exact-o-knife? What do you call tweaking things to the hilt?
Because something like this would probably be an instant veto if presented to me, unless there is a really, really good reason he's dumb as wood and less popular than your pick of genocidal maniacs.
KaeYoss wrote: kroarty wrote: Its not tweaked with an exact-o-knife
[...]
str: 14
dex: 13
con: 20
int: 13
wis: 7
cha: 7
TWO ultra-dump-stats and you call that not tweaked with an exact-o-knife? What do you call tweaking things to the hilt?
Because something like this would probably be an instant veto if presented to me, unless there is a really, really good reason he's dumb as wood and less popular than your pick of genocidal maniacs. I would allow that character in my campaign, but the problem is that he would never get any good magic items unless he found them. This guy is Gomer Pyle with two more helpings of dimwitted and obnoxious.
"What do you mean that circlet of intelligence is cursed? It was perfectly fine when it left here, you &^(*%(^% half-wit! What? Oh, no, you misheard, I said it brings out your eyes. I can fix for another 200k, if you want." (Roll sense motive. Yep, he sounds totally legit.)
.
You're not really making a Wizard as a pet class. You're making a gish who buffs both himself and his familiar. That aside, a fighting spellcaster with a fighting familiar could be fun.
- A Summoner is made for this job, and is quite good at it.
- A Druid would be excellent for this role as well, animal companions being quite a bit stronger than familiars.
- A Witch could do the same job, and has a few advantages over the Wizard. First, they're better at wearing armor, since hexes are supernatural abilities, you can use Arcane Armor Training without using up your Swift action every round to cast. The Transformation patron would give some of the best buff spells. Ward is useful on your familiar, and fortune+cackle can work on both you and the familiar at once.
Without even looking over all of the specifics, I can say right off the bat I'd have no problem allowing this character, because he's useless. Or, rather, he'd be useless for 17 or 18 of those levels of his. He may look good as a 20th level character, with all of those magic items geared exactly for him, but good luck ever making that character work in an ongoing campaign.
Alright. Jabs at the min-maxing aside, because as I pointed out, this is a build, not a character, and I know the difference.
1: I'll be honest; I do consider him pretty tweaked, but if I claimed that out the gate, the first line in half the posts would have been "What are you talking about? You TOTALLY forgot to...". Though, since I was looking for critique on a build, perhaps that's what I should have gone for anyway.
2: Magic Item dependency. Absolutely true, but not just the int band; his attack bonus really needs every +1 it can get to stay up to par. This is the biggest weakness of the build.
3: @Blueluck, I was hoping someone would say just that.
The real reason for this build is my hatred of the class system. It requires you to start with a package, and then gives you a very limited amount of room for customization. Multiclassing doesn't fix the problem, because not all combinations work at all. Some prc's make certain otherwise bad combos workable, but it just sucks you into a new pre-packaged build.
In Unearthed Arcana (I think that's the one, not Arcana Unearthed...), there was a trio of base classes. One was a fighter. One was...kind of a rogue/expert thing. And one was "The spellcaster". One got max bab and feats. One got 3/4 bab and skills. One got 1/2 bab and spells. That was it. You took the feats, skills or spells that did what you wanted the class to do.
What I'm trying to say is, adding base classes is an inefficient way to add customization. What I'd really like to see are more feats, more spells, more options that anyone can take.
So, my goal here was not to say that the Wizard is a *better* pet class than a druid, a witch or a summoner; rather, to say that they didn't need to add a new class to do that. With a couple better feats and/or spells available (do you think I wanted to focus this guy on mounted combat? I ran out of feats to give him!), this guy *could* be a better summoner than a summoner.
Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
kroarty wrote: The real reason for this build is my hatred of the class system. It requires you to start with a package, and then gives you a very limited amount of room for customization. Multiclassing doesn't fix the problem, because not all combinations work at all. Some prc's make certain otherwise bad combos workable, but it just sucks you into a new pre-packaged build.
Here's the real question then, why are you trying to bash a D20 based system into a round hole which it was never intended to fit and are not playing something like the Hero system which seems to be the game you want to play?
again, vitriol aside
Tabletop systems are a context, an abstraction into which you pour data. The rules for interaction are the context; the stats for creatures and objects, the data.
As I pointed out, some meandering progress was already made in the direction of this form of character development; I simply think its been underdeveloped in the official products. And let's be honest; a reasonable dm may allow *a* homebrewed feat or two, but if any significant chunk of your character's abilities can't be found in a book he dropped thirty bucks on, he's gonna smell cheese, whether it's there or not.
As for why I don't just play Hero. Or any of a dozen other game systems that offer more of the flexibility I want.
1: Other games are less fleshed out.
2: Fewer people play them.
...I really expected to have to say a lot more on that subject, but, no, actually, that was pretty obvious.
Meh, just houserule a pet class if you want one and don't like the existing ones. Shouldn't be too hard.
The whole point with a class based game is to come up with new classes. You know that right?
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