What's the best Elemental bloodline element to pick?

[toxicpie]

I've looked at that brilliant bloodline guide on here, and want to go with the Elemental because the party is lacking a blaster and I have never played one before. So which is the best to pick that the least amount of enemies will have resistance to?
Thanks!!!

[Laif]

Go earth elemental, so you can change your elemental attacks to acid with your bloodline arcana. You can go Primal archetype to instead of changing elements, do +1 dmg/die if it's the same element then I recommend fire.
So, classic elemental, earth or wind (acid/shock) If Primal fire or wind since the more common die/level are fire/shock.

[XMorsX]

Acid is the least resisted element, but the best blaster spells are fire-based.

For a Sorcerer blaster, the Dragonic bloodline is the best choice thanks ot its arcana (+1 dmg per dice rolled). Couple it with the tattooed sorcerer archetype.

For the best blaster in general, be an Admixture wizard with one lvl dip in crossblooded dragonic sorcerer for a free energy substitution and +2 damage per dice rolled. Never worry about elemnt again.

The problem with a sorcerer blaster is this:

If you go crossblooded, you lose MANY spells known.

If you take an arcana with +1 dmg/dice, you have no way to substitute the element.

If you go with the Elemental (not Primal) bloodline, you have no serious dmg in your spells.

[toxicpie]

XMorsX wrote:

For the best blaster in general, be an Admixture wizard with one lvl dip in crossblooded dragonic sorcerer for a free energy substitution and +2 damage per dice rolled. Never worry about elemnt again.

Thanks a lot! I think I'll go with this.

How do I get +2, as I thought the Draconic bloodline only gave +1?

[Grey Lensman]

Also good is Rime-Blooded. While it doesn't give +1 damage per die or free elemental substitution, it does force a single target in the spell area to pass a save or be slowed for a round, for free.

The biggest problem with Rime-blooded is that undead are immune to cold damage, so this isn't a good choice in a campaign like Carrion Crown.

[Laif]

Elemental (Earth) grants you the chance to change elements
Draconic/orc grants you +1dmg/die
You can crossblod (draconic+orc) +2dmg/die but it slows your spell progresion. Fireball at 7, scorching ray at 5 and so on

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

toxicpie wrote:

XMorsX wrote:

For the best blaster in general, be an Admixture wizard with one lvl dip in crossblooded dragonic sorcerer for a free energy substitution and +2 damage per dice rolled. Never worry about elemnt again.

Thanks a lot! I think I'll go with this.

How do I get +2, as I thought the Draconic bloodline only gave +1?

Crossblooded Draconic and Orc

[sunbeam]

The genie bloodlines seem to be better to me. You get the same benefits, and in particular you get a better bonus spell list.

[insaneogeddon]

toxicpie wrote:

I've looked at that brilliant bloodline guide on here, and want to go with the Elemental because the party is lacking a blaster and I have never played one before. So which is the best to pick that the least amount of enemies will have resistance to?

Thanks!!!

Earth. Try a dwarf or racial heritage feat with dwarf

Sorcerer: Add +1/2 to acid and earth spell or spell-like ability damage.

[Rynjin]

Grey Lensman wrote:

Also good is Rime-Blooded. While it doesn't give +1 damage per die or free elemental substitution, it does force a single target in the spell area to pass a save or be slowed for a round, for free.

The biggest problem with Rime-blooded is that undead are immune to cold damage, so this isn't a good choice in a campaign like Carrion Crown.

Very few undead are actually immune to cold. Only Skeletons off the top of my head.

[gnoams]

So it depends on how focused you want to be. If you are looking to make a 3.5 warlock, where all you do is blast for damage and don't really have any other spellcasting to speak of, then you are looking at straight sorc with crossbloded draconic/elemental. You take snowball as your spell and that is pretty much all you ever do in combat.
If you don't want to be that focused, then you just take draconic or elemental. You get more spells but do a little less damage, or don't have the versatility of changing damage types. Or you just go straight wizard, do less damage, but have a lot more versatility.

As to the original question. the order of common immunities/resistances:
Fire, cold, electric, acid.

Caveat: I've GMd for a lot longer in 3rd ed than in pf, and still have a lot of 3ed stuff stuck in my head. I haven't don't a thorough sweep of the bestiaries to verify this is still true.
Further Caveat: this is for all monsters you could possibly meet in a pf game. If, in your particular session, you find yourself fighting against primarily aberrations for instance, then the order would be the opposite.

[Cyrad]

Electricity

1) Immunity to the element is uncommon. The most common enemy that's immune to them are good outsiders, I think.

2) They get the best movement type (flight).

3) You're throwing lightning at people. What's there not to like?

[insaneogeddon]

"Besides fire the most common resistance is cold closely followed by Electricity."
"of the 101 listed undead creatures, 26 are immune to cold and 5 resist it. It's not actually the case that undead, in general, resist cold; the list of undead that resist cold just includes very common monsters (like skeletons) and very prominant monsters (like vampires and liches). Standard zombies, for example, do not resist cold."
from this post: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2nqnp?Most-common-energy-resistancesimmunities

Note alot of the acid immune/resistant things are weaker or things you never blast (neutral and weird good outsiders) so acid really stands apart.

Also as most damage spells are fire can always default to fire I suppose.
There are alot of default lightning spells as well.
And a couple cold.

The gapthet needs filling is pretty obvious ...

and dwarf level bonus is +1/2 level (and works on your su acid abilities) - racial heritage is a wonderful feat !!!

[Master of the Dark Triad]

Cross blooded draconic/Orc maybe with an admixture wizard dip if you have an ok INT.

[toxicpie]

Definitely going to take an Admixture dip to get around weaknesses.
If I was to go Crossblooded, would the loss of spells not hinder a blaster too much?

[XMorsX]

toxicpie wrote:

Definitely going to take an Admixture dip to get around weaknesses.

If I was to go Crossblooded, would the loss of spells not hinder a blaster too much?

This is why you dip in sorcerer and you take the rest of your lvls in Wizard.

[Wiggz]

XMorsX wrote:

toxicpie wrote:

Definitely going to take an Admixture dip to get around weaknesses.

If I was to go Crossblooded, would the loss of spells not hinder a blaster too much?

This is why you dip in sorcerer and you take the rest of your lvls in Wizard.

Just for the record, some groups/GM's would consider this (one level cross-blooded dip then Wizard the rest of the way) pretty cheesy, while others wouldn't care or might even applaud. Think about checking in with your GM to make sure he's fine with that kind of munchkining.

Just my two cents, I always prefer Sorcerers to Wizards when building a Blaster as you never know just how many of this or that type of damage spell you're going to ideally need in an adventuring day and you get a great deal more flexibility as a Sorcerer. As an alternative to Admixture, pick up the Metamagic feat Elemental Spell for added versatility, perhaps as a pre-cursor to Spell Perfection.

[toxicpie]

That's what I was thinking, Wiggz, plus I think I like the flavour a lot more. :D Thanks for the feat suggestions! I've never used Metamagic before, is it worth the higher spell slot?

[XMorsX]

toxicpie wrote:

I've never used Metamagic before, is it worth the higher spell slot?

Too generic of a question. If you are asking about elemental spell, then no, it is generally does not worth it, use a higher lvl spell of the appropriate element or use a rod of elemental spell. But metamagic like dazing, persistent and quicken definately worth a higher lvl spell slot, assuming you use them with the right spells.

For blasting, an empowered fireball is generally more damaging than the equivalent lvl blast spell.

[Wiggz]

toxicpie wrote:

That's what I was thinking, Wiggz, plus I think I like the flavour a lot more. :D Thanks for the feat suggestions! I've never used Metamagic before, is it worth the higher spell slot?

It depends on what you are trying to do with the build - some metamagic feats are good for some things, others for others. In your particular case, it would let you load up on spells of one element and then spontaneously switch them to a different element when needed. This is particularly useful when encountering creatures immune or highly resistant to your element of choice but vulnerable to another (like Fire & Cold).

Let's also remember that while you want to be as effective as you can be, you want to be as effective as you can be within the framework of the concept you want to play. If all we were going for was the most powerful character, concept be damned, every one would look the same. The challenge isn't to break the game, the challenge is to be the best you can be without sacrificing the type of character you want to play.

To that end, there are a lot of options available to you and some metamagic feats you should definitely consider. If you want to discuss a specific build, feel free to drop me a line and I can help walk you through the various options - Sorcerers are my favorite sort of full casters and I've made many of them.