Is this a thing that can be done without diminishing the effectiveness in combat compared to the other party members?
I have a character who's a sorcerer 1/monk 4/dragon disciple 4; he's doing just fine, as far as I'm concerned.
His main stat is Strength (naturally), and he uses Mirror Image (from a wand) as his primary line of defense.
I've done an Empyreal Sorcerer/Zen Archer Monk. I went 2 monk levels for each sorcerer level. So something like 6 monk and 4 sorcerer would work well. You can self buff your mage armor, shield, gravity bow, etc. I took traits to boost my CL on Sorcerer.
Why Sorcerer? You concerned about spells or bloodline? I ask because my first instinct would be bloodline, and I would take a feat for that.
Why Sorcerer? You concerned about spells or bloodline? I ask because my first instinct would be bloodline, and I would take a feat for that.
As noted above, there are some really cool personal-only spells on the sorcerer spell list (e.g. shield, mirror image, true strike).
Besides, does there have to be a reason? :-)
As the spells you're listing are all lower level, you could probably focus on a monk with just enough sorcerer levels to get the buffs you want. Although you could also of course do this with wizard for the same spells.
The biggest problem with monk/sorcerer is that monk is generally perceived to be a multi-ability dependent class, needing at a minimum Wis for ki and AC, Dex for AC, Strength for to-hit and damage. And you don't want to dump Con for a likely melee oriented class (unless you're going Zen Archer, like MDT notes) and you don't want Int too low as you'll want some skill points (not to mention pre-req for some combat maneuvers if you want the "greater" versions). So the one ability score that becomes a near sure thing to dump is... Charisma, which is your "prime requisite" ability score for Sorcerer, as it were. Now, of course, that's not necessarily the case and there's ways you can do it, but it is simply a challenge to bear in mind.
Now, there is the Sage (Arcane bloodline variant) in Ultimate Magic that lets you play a sorcerer with Int as your casting ability, so there's that.
Were it me, I'd probably go with one of the two already suggested -- Zen Archer/sorcerer or a Dragon Disciple build.
As noted above, there are some really cool personal-only spells on the sorcerer spell list (e.g. shield, mirror image, true strike).
Besides, does there have to be a reason? :-)
If he gives a compelling reason then I won't suggest he drop sorcerer all together and just pick up UMD and some UMD boosting items to get the sorcerer spells through wands as well as picking up the eldritch heritage line of feats.
Of course his reasons might lead to make a different suggestion. It all depends on the why sorcerer.
As the spells you're listing are all lower level, you could probably focus on a monk with just enough sorcerer levels to get the buffs you want.
That's what I did; my sorcemonk's Charisma is a whopping 12.
Although you could also of course do this with wizard for the same spells.
True. In my case I wanted to take the Dragon Disciple class, though.
Put together an Empyreal Sorceror 4 / Monk 1 / Cleric 1 for a buddy, the defenses are disgusting. Offense is a little lacking.
We solved that with Channel Smite + Guided Hand, but that required the Cleric side of the equation.
It is a nice trick to leverage the no armor side of the Sorceror with the No Armor side of the monk. and a Wisdom based Sorceror does it even more so. the offense side of the equation becomes the challenge. Options:
you can stack heavy on Wisdom and shine with DC based spells.
You can ignore Strength and Weapon Finesse Fists with decent Dexterity.
You can keep respectable Strength and Drop Enlarge Person big fists on people.
I had not thought about the Zen Archer Angle though. The real key is to hit Zen Archer 3 to use Wisdom to hit with the bow. Could even carry that into an Arcane Archer, but it would take a bit to hit the +6 BAB requirement.
CG Vanara Martial Artist/Stone Bloodline Sorcerer (SGG) and you make this guy here
I've considered Zen Archer w/Emp Sorc dip, going into Arcane Archer.
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It's actually a really powerful build, especially at low levels. I played an Emp Sorc 2/Monk 3 at level 5. I was using Wisdom (20, so +5), half-elf, skill focus (perception), trait bonus to CL, trait bonus to Perception. I had something like a +18 to perception, and 25AC when I mage armored. Since I could Mage Armor for 3 hours at a time, I had mage armor most of the day, and cast gravity bow when we went into a dangerous place. A flurried Gravity Bow Longbow does nasty damage. I was keeping up with a falcata wielding fighter and an axe wielding dwarf shield fighter on damage.
It was also fun to walk along behind the rogue and point to things. "Hey, shouldn't you disable that acid trap before you pick the lock? Just asking..."
They started calling me Radar. :)