Cant Choose! help me pick a character for starting campaign...

[baalbamoth]

Hi, starting second darkness campaign soon. All I know is first half of AP is mostly city 2nd half is all anti-drow.

Right now party has ½ orc barb, asamar paladin, tiefling gunslinger, tiefling bard, a cleric and a couple o melees (don’t remember) there is no dwarf, there is no rogue. DM has said he’d like somebody to play a dwarf to get in with the gasworks foundry and somebody to play a ciphermage.

K had some ideas…

Dwarf, go Cyphermage/universalist for a lev or two then go Forgemaster or vise versa, eventually mystic theurge, would give the DM all the contacts he asks for but, though I’d have awesome crafting, forgemaster seems weak as hell, and I don’t see a point to the cyphermage other than crafting two scrolls a day… is there some other big benefit I’m not seeing here?

Halfling hexcrafter or witch w jinx, & sleep hex, thought he would be cool for a hushman (assassian) could be pretty stealthish but started thinking sleep hex would get useless fast if enemy becomes mainly drow, and I think magic resist becomes a pain in the ass.

Halfling deep walker ranger/rogue filtcher- we need a rogue seems like a fun class, the little bit o ranger would help w the second part of the AP, at 12th I could disarm anything but till then seems a bit weak, and after that wonder how important disarm would be. Just don’t know if this is a good combo for the AP.

Dwarf, druid cave domain, bat shaman or ? was thinking of maybe getting the racial heratige feat for drow then take that spider summoner feat (?) know 2nd half darklands is going to be hard if I or the other player does not pick something like this….

Any other ideas for an anti-drow?

[magnuskn]

Don't focus yourself too much on Riddleport or you will be disappointed by the second half of the AP. Avoid the Mystic Theurge, it sucks.

From your list, the group has no arcane caster and that is the void you can best fill. I personally like human Sorcerers ( for the greater spell selection ) or Wizards of whatever race which gives an intelligence bonus.
Of course Witches have their own advantages, but they are not my cup of tea. Playing an elf could be helpful in this campaign ( from what I've seen so far, we are at the beginning of the third module ).
Alchemists are great fun, because they blow up things WITH SCIENCE! Or, ahem, alchemy. ^^

You already have a skill monkey with the bard. Not having a trapfinder is something most groups can easily live with, given how anemic most traps are in Pathfinder and how healing is easy to get ( although ability damage is still bad ).

[baalbamoth]

good advice, I'll avoid the thurge, since your on the 3rd, is there really any value to being a cyphermage? My DM curently has a ban on Summoners and alchemists.. too many system abuses in previous characters...

[magnuskn]

As in the prestige class? If you really like using scrolls, it is good for that, but you'll be dealing with the loss of the late wizard school powers and the loss of advancement of the earlier ones, aside from the problem that, per RAW, you don't get your two free spells per level. All in all, I personally think Wizard prestige classes in Pathfinder get a raw deal.

Roleplaying-wise, being a Cyphermage is interesting for the first two modules and I can't say much ( as I simply don't know more ) for the ones after that, but the AP moves away from Riddleport, that's for sure.

Cypher Script, the feat from the Inner Sea World Guide, is generally freely available ( with GM approval ) and I personally find it very helpful in saving money and time. In the same vein, check the Arcane Discoveries from Ultimate Magic for some really good Wizard-only feats.