In my habit of not playing the standard character, I would like to attempt to run a paladin/sorcerer that will prestige into the eldrich knight. I'm thinking of doing paladin for the first two levels so that I get that huge boost to my saves and the ability to heal myself, after that going sorcerer until I get level 3 spells, then going with the knight the rest of the way.
I plan to play as a human and I was wondering for suggestions on what feats I should take and when. I hope to use a glaive and combat reflexes to keep dudes away while I go down to spell town and beyond that I'm not really sure what I should focus on other than spells that will keep me alive and keep enemies dead.
Any suggestions would be awesome.
1. Wrong forum. It belongs in the Advice forum.
2. It may not be standard, but I have heard of several of these.
3. If leaning martial, advice is to go with Aasimar (and look humanish?) so you can use the SLA to skip right to getting full BAB as an Eldritch Knight. This means you'll only get the bloodline & 1st level ability (no bonus spells, etc.) so focus on ones that suit your build. The perk is you'll only be one BAB behind a regular martial PC.
If leaning arcane, maybe skip EK so you don't lose the bonus spells (and feat at 7th) or another caster level.
Take the Magical Knack trait.
It sounds like you want to fend foes off while blasting. EK makes for a poor blaster, or other offensive caster for that matter because your stats will be spread as well as your feats & class levels. Also, you won't really be able to fend them off once Ogres hit the table and your ability to heal yourself will be minimal compared to damage.
One of my buddies loves the EK concept and he has two at higher levels (one 19th), but both have been disappointments for him because the pure martial PCs and the pure caster PCs make his contributions pale.
Sure, he can do both, but not at once, so he's seldom contributing as much per round as the other PCs.
Personally, I think EKs work best as self-buffing martials. There are enough long-term buffs to keep you even with martials and have some cool tricks too.
If human, it's questionable if the buffs can make up for 3 BAB, so you'd have to see if the tricks, mobility, & battlefield control make up for it.
Also, if going 6 Sorcerer, consider Dragon Disciple.
Pal 2/Sorcerer 3/DD 4/EK XX
The 4 levels give you +4 Str, +2 AC, & the +3 CL you need to get to EK, and you still only lose 3 BAB. And it's nice to have claw/claw/bite when smiting, or while waiting for your iterative to kick in.
I suppose a ray caster could benefit from the BAB too, but if you don't intend to make attack rolls unless forced, just skip EK.
My 2 g.p.
Cheers, and good luck with it.
I have a very similar character, here:
Your choices boil down to "self buffing martial" and "ray-caster."
You're not going to be a control-mage, or an area effect caster for the most part.
You're going to find Sorcerer levels 2 and 3 to be the Valley of Suck. You won't have new spells to cast, you'll be effectively a 0.5 BAB melee fighter, and, well, it sucks.
I build Azar around the Arcane bloodline because he'd be using Still Spell for nearly everything, and I can get a Lesser Ring of Spell Storing as a Bonded Item, at half price, which lets me filter my Level 1 spell slots. You can also collect 2 or 3 Cracked Purple Cheesy Ioun Stones to do the same thing for less money...but that, along with Magical Knack, and the SLA ruling, didn't exist when I started him.
You can also take Arcane Armor Training and Arcane Armor Mastery instead of Still Spell; don't forget to take Arcane Strike no matter what; it adds to the damage your ray spells do. You won't use Arcane Strike on the same turn you use Arcane Armor Mastery, but they do let you use all your spell slots without using Still Spell, but it lets you burn a Swift and a Standard to cast your spells at their normal spell level, rather than a 5' step and a full round action.
I think Still Spell is a better deal, but others may disagree.
The Gully of Suck will happen with this build at level 7 and level 8. When you have exactly one 3rd level spell known and a spell failure risk. My choices were Heroism, and later Resist Energy, Communal. I bought a Rod of Extend Spell just to hand out Extended Heroism like candy.
One spell you absolutely should take is See Invisible. Nothing is quite so fun as being able to see invisible opponents when you're a high damage martial...
By and large, if you aren't taking any spells that aren't on the Magus list, you should just play a Magus. The Magus is, in many ways, a less flexible "gish" that actually works right out from the gate.
There's no Valley of Suck that needs to be circumvented with the SLA ruling. There's no capstone ability that requires your free action to be available after you confirm a crit.
Your first big decision: How are you dealing with Arcane Spell Failures?
Your choices are Arcane Armor Training and Arcane Armor Mastery versus Still Spell.
The "standard" EK build is this:
Fighter 1
Wizard 5 (usually Transmuter school)
EK 6
This has faster spell progressions, and your Valley of Suck is only one level wide.
The slightly non-standard EK build replaces Fighter with Ranger or Paladin, and might take a second level in either of them before going into the spellcasting class.
Witch substitutes nicely for Wizard here.
The "woefully suboptimal" EK build is what I did with Azar
Fighter 1
Sorcerer 6
EK 5
When picking that Sorcerer bloodline, pick one with an arcana and a Level 1 power that you really like. Arcane helps if you're going with Still Spell, and the Robes of Eldritch Heritage give you an "omni-slot" spell known every time you put them on for the day.
Ones worth considering are Draconic (with the chance to go to Dragon Disciple) or Elemental. The Fey bloodline makes surprisingly good EK fodder because their limited use power is a touch attack, and you're going to be close anyways.
If you aren't going to run into the Level 11 Problem, once you hit level 10 in EK, going back for that 7th level of Sorcerer gives you a bonus feat, and going for the second level of Fighter gives you access to all the fightery abilities that demand "12th level fighter" if you meet the other prereqs.
The sad reality is that you're going to be somewhat feat starved no matter which way you build the EK.
I think it really depends on what you wanna do with the character. What race were you thinking about?