Now, everybody says that prestige classes are pretty lacking compared to the normal classes, but I think if you mix and match, pick and choose, you can actually get some great synergy from various prestige classes and the feats that go with them.
Malagant the Thrice Cursed is an excellent example that I'm working on currently, and I think he could definitely be a hard hitter and a guy that can definitely take a punch to the face and keep on ticking.
Now, I'm having a harder time about feat selection with this guy, so I'd like a little bit of help with that if possible.
We have the following character:
Race - Human
Classes
2 Levels of Fighter
1 Level of Sorcerer
7 Levels of Dragon Disciple
10 levels of Eldritch Knight
This guy will have great hit points (12D10, 7D12, and 1D6) and a very good BAB (17/12/7/2)
I think that this guy can be a very good hitter/arcane caster.
However, I'm having a difficult time choosing feats, and I need help with this.
Because he's using Charisma as his spellcasting ability score, the obvious choice is Eldritch heritage.
Now, he'll get Red Dragon Bloodline abilities due to his initial sorcerer bloodline AND his Dragon Disciple prestige class.
The other Bloodline I'm going with via Eldritch Heritage is Orc (obviously one of the best choices for a melee character). And I'm going all the way for the Eldritch Heritage feats, so essentially that will cost me four feats (Skill Focus, Eld Hr, Imp Eld Hr, Gr Eld Hr).
However, where do I go from here?
I was going to go through it like this:
Fighter
Level 1- Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus
Level 2- Furious Focus
Sorcerer
Level 3- Arcane Strike
Dragon Disciple
Level 5- Skill Focus (Survival), Bloodline Feat - Improved Initiative
Level 7- Eldritch Heritage (Orc Bloodline)
Level 8- Bloodline Feat - Quicken Spell
Level 9- Sorcerous Bloodstrike
Now, for the most part, after that, I'm not sure where to take it.
He'll get some great Bonus feats from Eldritch Knight, plus those he gets from Eldritch knight stack with both Fighter and Sorcerer for level requirements, etc. Overall, he's pretty badass, but dammit, I'm stumped with feats. It's because I generally don't do casters aside from Inquisitor and Oracle (melee types if you're sensing a pattern, yeah I'm that guy).
HELP!
Ok, so I changed it up, going instead for only one level of Fighter and taking instead two levels of Sorcerer (that way I'll get Breath attack and two uses of it).
This means no Furious Focus so soon. I'm also switching out Weapon Focus for something a little bit more caster-rific.
Fighter (Level 1)
Level 1 - Skill Focus (Survival), Toughness, Combat Casting
Sorcerer (Level 2 and 3)
Level 3 - Arcane Strike
Dragon Disciple (Level 4-10)
Level 5 - Uncanny Concentration, Bloodline Feat - Power Attack
Level 7 - Eldritch Heritage (Orc Bloodline)
Level 8 - Bloodline Feat - Improved Initiative
Level 9 - Sorcerous Bloodstrike
Eldritch knight (Level 11-20)
Level 11- Improved Eldritch Heritage (Orc Bloodline), Bonus Feat - Improved Critical (Falchion)
Level 13- Furious Focus
Level 15- Critical Focus, Weapon Focus (Heavy Blade of some sort)
Level 17- Greater Eldritch Heritage
Level 19- Martial Versatility (Improved Critical, Heavy Blades), Bonus Feat - Greater weapon focus (Heavy Blade of some sort)
Now, with this, his innate bonuses increase as follows:
Strength +10 (6 orc, 4 dragon disciple), Con +2 (dragon disciple), Natural Armor +3 (Dragon Disciple)
His BAB though is now 16/11/6/1, which means that he would benefit from weapon focus.
I would have wanted Dodge and Mobility in there somewhere, but there's just not enough feats for that, especially if I want to get my breath weapon, which is part of the flavor of being a combatty dragon disciple (duh). So, that's that I think.
Oh, and bump.
Can't enter Dragon Disciple before 6th. Requires 5 ranks in Knowledge(Arcana).
Dammit. So much for this idea. Hmmmm. Is there a way to bump up my character's knowledge artificially?
Dammit. This was a good idea too.
There are a multitude of ways to increase a skill, but there's no way to artificially increase the number of ranks for a skill. That's part of the reason many PrC's use skill ranks (and BAB, which also can't be artificially increased) as prerequisites for entry; the designers simply don't want early entry into PrC's to be a possibility.
You can still use the same concept, you'll just have to go about it a different way (particularly, with two base class levels in place of two PrC levels).
Hmmm, ok then.
Dammit, this is tough. I would have really, really liked to take the Dragon Disciple further, for spell casting and for stat bonuses, as well as Dragon Form.
At the same time, he's more close combat focused, so the Spell Critical ability taken for Eldritch Knight is sorely needed. Hmmm, ok, this can be done. It will require a bit more specialization into close combat and a single weapon, but I think it can be done.
Alright, I'll try this then:
Fighter
Fighter (Level 1)
Level 1 - Skill Focus (Survival), Toughness, Combat Casting
Sorcerer (Level 2-5)
Level 3 - Arcane Strike
Level 5 - Uncanny Concentration
Dragon Disciple (Level 6-10)
Level 7 - Eldritch Heritage (Orc Bloodline), Bloodline Feat - Power Attack
Level 9 - Sorcerous Bloodstrike
Level 10- Bloodline Feat - Improved Initiative
Eldritch knight (Level 11-20)
Level 11- Improved Eldritch Heritage (Orc Bloodline), Bonus Feat - Improved Critical (Falchion)
Level 13- Furious Focus
Level 15- Critical Focus, Weapon Focus (Falchion)
Level 17- Greater Eldritch Heritage
Level 19- Dazzling Display, Bonus Feat - Greater weapon focus (Falchion)
Ok, besides some stat bonuses and Dragon Form I, nothing really lost here. I still have the flaming cone of fire breath for two times per day for hordes, and my damage is still majorly high. In addition, I still have Spell Critical, which is one of the more central themes to this character. I also specialized him in a weapon a bit better, so now he's going to go straightup with a falchion.
Or, I could simply go levels of fighter instead (3 fighter, 2 sorc), then go Dragon Disciple then Eldritch Knight, and use the wings, flyby attack, and a large dwarven waraxe with the impact ability to Vital Strike as I perform a flyby attack. That could be an interesting setup.
The alternate racial trait Focused Study replaces the human bonus feat and gives you Skill focus at level 1, 8, and 16. That should cover your skill focus needs and net you two more skill focus feats for the heck of it.
Wow, that's not bad. Skill focus early on in Survival, using the bonus feat, then Skill Focus in Perception (or if I wanted to be a real putz I could simply go for another bloodline and increase my strenght further. Maybe).
I wonder, would the strength bonuses from Abyssal and Orc bloodlines stack with one another? Probably not, but they might since they're not straight up enhancement bonuses, but rather improvements to the character's ability score.
Draconic Disciple and Orc/or Abyssal would stack.
Then again, the two bonuses of Abyssal and Orc are technically from the same source: A bloodline power, and that means that they wouldn't stack.
Still, would be kinda cool to get a character with a +16 bonus to strength.
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