Another player in my group has just lost a character and he wants to make a multiclass fighter/wizard. He was previously playing a paladin.
Is this sensible? We're playing kingmaker and we're now at lvl 7. 15 point buy.
We have:
Inquisitor
Alchemist (bomber)
Wizard (teleportation)
Paladin (the character who died)
It feels like we'll be quite squishy with a fighter/wizard build as the paladin has saved our asses several times. the fighter/wizard multiclass build looks quite weak too. We're playing core rulebook + advanced player's guide.
Edit: And oh holy crap we got nearly completely wiped out in that encounter. It was a random encounter... Against some kind of bizarre spiked creature with poison. Only the wizard got away thanks to a critically timed Mount spell.
Honest? There's already a class that mixes wizard and fighter. It's called Magus. Otherwise, I can't give much input without knowing his build.
Fighter 1/Wizard (Scryer)1/Ek X.
Scryer gets a a spell like ability, that can be used as an early entry into EK, a la the recent FAQ everyone has been talking about.
Magus is great for bursts of damage. EK is great for versatility and utility.
even if you're using everything paizo has published, there are very few things with the survivability of a paladin... add to that the fact that you have very little healing in the party and you may have a tough time of things with a fighter/wizard. if that's really what he wants to play, don't try to force him to play something else (that's not fun) but be aware that you'll all need to be more careful, work together better, and think more strategically. as was mentioned, a magus is actually better than a fighter/wizard, but you'd have to convince your GM to allow Ultimate Magic. he could also look at the Arcane Duelist archetype- it doesn't have the offensive spells he may be looking for, but it works together better than the multiclass combo (and has a little healing ability); a battle cleric has the BAB of an evenly split fighter/wizard, can wear armor (and bring some healing) and would actually be a full caster instead of half... just some thoughts.
Is there a reason he wants to do fighter / wizard? Did your player tire of melee or healing? Just trying to see his motivation into a caster. All good options posted, but just trying to see what is motivating your player so he can enjoy the campaign.
I played that AP up to 2nd level with a Wizard. We ran into trolls when we were still first level. We did not die, because we ran away. One of the players did want to stay and fight, but was outvoted.
A rapid retreat plan seems like a must for any party playing that campaign.
For multi-classing with a Wizard, I like the Ranger for a one level dip, over the Fighter. Wizards tend to have skill points to spend, and the Ranger has quite a nice list of class skills. You would play it as a straight Wizard.
The upside is, you gain a good list of class skills and a small boost to Fort and Reflex saves.
The downside is, you loose a full caster level. Two, if you opt for the Eldritch Knight PrC.
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Call me old-fashioned, but it looks like your group needs someone with some battlefield presence and damage potential more than it needs another wizard. A barbarian or fighter.
Steve Shippy aka Beerwolf: He wants to play a more casterish melee character I think. Or rather, he dislikes that, as a paladin, his spells are weak and kinda useless.
Waterhammer: Same thing happened to us actually. Trolls at level 1. Yes we ran away. We do retreat when necessary, but we try to avoid metagaming. That is, most characters can assume that trolls are quite hard to deal with at that level, but this creature was something that NONE of us could identify with skill checks so running away would be using knowledge we wouldn't have.
Once we engaged it in combat retreat became impossible as it poisoned three characters with a poison with a DC over 20 that dealt something like 1-3 constitution damage per round.
(i always roll 1-5 whenever I roll knowledge checks to identify creatures. My +15 modifier doesn't help.)
Cazin: Theologian looks awesome, but it's in Ultimate Magic.
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That party makeup really does call out for a martial character. The player hankers for a caster. I also note that they lack a Bard. Perhaps he'd like to consider either a Reach Bard or Cleric? Those builds are both full casters, and are martially quite strong. An arcane casting Reach Bard is closer to the Fighter/Wizard motif, but a cleric with the right domain(s) can be a pretty decent blaster. Either would probably contribute more to such a party than a split class Melee/Caster type.
Sorry, I wasn't suggesting you metagame. At higher levels, you don't really need a bail-out plan. The Wizard should have teleport for that. At lower levels though, you need a plan. Or at least a lot of smokesticks. It's not metagaming for your GM to let you know if your attacks are not doing much. Of course, if no one is hitting, you all may be getting a bad feeling.
So what I'm suggesting is, a contingency to scoop up the fallen party member and bail. This, in the middle of combat, when your gut tells you things are going bad. It's not easy to retreat, the rules do not support it. That is why the need for an effective retreat plan is so important.
Actually, I only wanted to suggest that the Ranger is probably a better multi-class choice for a Wizard. The Wizard has little use for tower shields or heavy armor. The bonus feat is nice of course, but I feel the skill list outweighs it.
I tend to agree with others who posted that a melee character would augment the party better, but a big part of the fun of the game is playing the character of your choosing.
I'm playing in Kingmaker. We're level 5, I play a dwarf barbarian 1/magus 4. The rest are a mounted cavalier/fighter, an archer ranger, a rogue/witch, and an occasional cleric. And we seem to do OK. We rely on wands of CLW for the most part.
How did you get CHA to go towards AC instead of DEX??
Is that something a Oracle with Lore gets as a revelation?
Is that a 44p point buy? I assume those stats were rolled.
Ah that makes sense. Great :D