Ok, so i heard good things about combining the "scarred witch doctor" archetype & eldritch knight, so I thought I'd give a shot. It's not QUITE as good as I would like, so i'm looking for advice. While I'm sure it isnt "optimal", it's pretty interesting concept.
Race: half-orc (with sacred tatoo & shaman's apprentice alternate traits)
Ability scores (25 pts)
Str: 16 Dex 14 Con 15 (+2 half-orc bonus) Int: 12 Wis: 14 Cha: 7
Class: barbarian (urban barbarian) 1/ witch (scarred witch doctor) 6/ eldritch knight 10/ ???
traits: fate's favored, magical knack
Barbarian
1 Power Attack
Witch:
2
3 Raging vitality hex: flight hex
4
5 Furious Focus hex: ?
6
7 Lightning Reflexes hex: ?
Eldritch knight
8 Weapon Focus (falchion),
9 Extra rage
10
11 Arcane armor training, quicken spell,
12
13 improved critical
14
15 Extra rage
16
17 ?
???
18
19 ?
20
So, I'm looking for advice on several things.
1) Hitting: this guy has a hard time getting decent "to hit", which is why I'm so dependent on raging. Which is why I take multiple "extra rages". I will also use the "rage" spell to enhance myself. Though I am wondering how it would interact with "raging vitality".
Note: raging+ a furious courageous sword can give it decent to hit and excellent damage.
2) Hexes: no idea which ones are best in this context, since the DCs will be extremely low, and I'll only have 6 levels of witch.
3) Post eldritch knight: I'm wondering what would be best after eldritch knight; there are 3 otherwise unused levels. So I'm trying to see what's good in prestige classes:
a) hellknight enforcer: full spellcasting & 3/4 bab leaves you at +16 bab at level 20, and CL 18 (so level 9 spells). But it would require choosing another archetype of barbarian (to get the medium armor proficiency). The iffiness of controlled rage is questionable (since some GMs may not let you cast during), so it could be worthwhile. Otherwise, all the other prerequisites are simple.
b) spherewalker: also 3/4 bab and full spellcasting. Some weird powers (though of limited use). Not sure of the usefulness though.
Anything else?
I'm curious to see what people think of.
Prehensile Hair hex is a good choice as it's not level-dependant and it will build on your good con (which I would probably make higher, incidentally).
I will work the CON upwards, but I'd rather give it more strength, dex & wis (for offensive & defensive reasons respectively). I hate to have had to dump cha, but I didnt really have a choice to get everything else where it is.
I still prefer having slithgly less dumped stats. Anyway, that's not what I'm asking advice on at the moment.
I'm wondering about craft wondrous items (as applied to the scar mask). I might ust stack a bunch of items into that slot since the cost off addition is a mere 1.5* the cost (for the cheaper addition). Hmmm.
Ok, so I've finished my build and it's more impressive than I originally thought. It's a good build, and with smart item selection, this can be pretty impressive. +16 bab, excellent fortitude, level 9 spells, and an interesting selection of powers. It's unfortunate that the witch doesnt get more "form/shape" spells, but there are a few useful spells (namely frightening aspect) that allow you to go up to about 40 strength, nearly 400 hp, crappy ac though.
In any case, I present the "Spellrager". It's a specific build, that requires a few things.
1) Class: barbarian (urban barbarian ): controlled rage allows you to be flexible in your rage, though you will get the most power out of regular rage.
2) Class: scarred witch doctor; it casts off of constitution, which allows you to end up with a lot of HP if multiclassing. However, this requires you to be either a) a half-orc b) an orc c) a human with racial heritage (orc). The best choice (I believe) is the half orc.
Hexes are also cool, though you will be limited to stuff that does NOT rely on DCs, since your witch levels wont cale. I recommend going to level 6, to get the third patron spell.
3) Class: Eldritch knight: combination of good BaB & spellcasting. Not much interesting power-wise, but quite useful. To compensate for the (combined ) loss of caster levels, the trait "magical knack" can be VERY useful.
4) Stats: Strength & con first. Because you want to bash, and you want to be able to cast. In second place there's dex & wis, so as to keep your saves up. It MIGHT be worth keeping decent int, since it's uncertain whether or not you get bonus spell slots from high constitution (since the wording suggests otherwise). Cha is the only real dump stat here.
5) feats: Several of them are interchangeable, which can allow some felxibility. Most important feats: power attack, furious focus, raging vitality (MORE con) and extra rage (since you wont be gaining any extra levels of barbarian). Everything else is non-essential in my opinion. However, combat reflexes allows you to make the best of frequent enlargement, and improved critical will allow you to make the best of "spell critical".
Here's a basic build. This would be HARD to do on low point buys, so I'm building it at 25 pts.
Race: half-orc (with sacred tatoo & shaman's apprentice alternate traits)
Ability scores (25 pts)
Str: 16 Dex 14 Con 15 (+2 half-orc bonus) Int: 12 Wis: 14 Cha: 7
Class: barbarian (urban barbarian) 1/ witch (scarred witch doctor) 6/ eldritch knight 10/ spherewalker 3
traits: fate's favored, magical knack
Barbarian
1 Power Attack, orc bonus feat (endurance)
Witch:
2
3 Raging vitality, hex: flight hex
4
5 Furious Focus, hex: prehensile hair
6
7 Lightning Reflexes hex: healing hex
Eldritch knight
8 Weapon Focus (falchion),
9 Extra rage
10
11 combat reflexes, improved critical
12
13 quicken spell
14
15 Extra rage
16 Toughness
17 Iron will
Spherewalker 3
18
19 additional traits (berserker of the society, optimistic gambler)
20
Here are examples of the build at levels 1,6,13 & 20. Unfortunately, this build is of middling usefullness at low level (like all eldritch knights). At level 10 it starts getting really nice.
Ok, so there are a numner of items that are damn near essential:
1) Furious+ Courageous weapon. Worth it's weight in gold. furious gives you a +2 attack/damage, courageous boosts ALL morale bonuses by half your weapon's enhancement. Awesome.
2) Wayfinder+pale green prism; when combined , these two items allow you to remove fatigue from you twice per day. Pretty useful.
Ok, so there might still be a few mistakes on my build (and a few forgotten items). I will be revising them later, when time allows.
If you guys have any ideas, it wouldnt be bad.
I chose prehensile hair since (as far as I can tell), you can get AoOs with it. It's also important to note that since the scarred witch doctor is constitution dependent, the hair now runs of CON. It's a great way to add some utility.
Fortune could be useful, but the wole one/round limit isnt terribly interesting.
Personally, I prefer the realiability of "lightning reflexes & iron will" versus the unreliability of reroll chances. Still, I could easily replace the additional traits with more extra rage. Couldnt find "mindlessly cruel" though.
Atill, thanks for the help.
I'll keep those in mind. I'm prety much set with this build, but it might be useful for others. The low CHA limits the usefulness of intimidate builds.
I'd be curious to see a moonlight rager build, but I'm afraid I dont have the time to try.
Hexes are also cool, though you will be limited to stuff that does NOT rely on DCs, since your witch levels wont cale. I recommend going to level 6, to get the third patron spell.
The Evil Eye Hex is great for debuffing.
A number of patron spells are already on the Witch list.
What patron did you choose?
/cevah
I finished by going for agility; haste was just too good to pass up. If it werent for the fact you loose patron spells by multiclassing, I might have gone endurance (for "miracle"), but in this case I went for utility.