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The basic build revolves around, lore warden and the pragmatic activator trait. Focus on High Int.
I am thinking a race with a SLA for caster level then grab craft wand as a feat. Weapon focus: ray, weapon specialization: ray.
Is this fesable?
Consider being a Half-Elf with the Arcane Training alternate Racial.
"They can use spell trigger and spell completion items for their favored class as if one level higher (or as a 1st-level character if they have no levels in that class)."So basically you declare that your favorite class is "wizard" even though you are a fighter, and you qualify for all wizard wands.
Mordant Envoy will give you the caster levels you need for crafting.
Now as far as actually using it in combat, no one fights with a wand quite as well as a Magus. I have played multiple Wand Weider Magus' and I find it to be excellent as a 3 level dip. With one arcana you can gain the ability to full round attack and activate wands.
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Feasible? As in can it be done? Sure.
Feasible? As in will it ever be effective? No, not really.
You be better off with something like the magus as your base.
There is even the arcana "Wand Wielder" which will let you activate a wand as part of Spell Combat.
Also, this way you don't have to rely solely on UMD to use the wands.
And let's face it, at level one, with UMD as a class skill (which I'm not sure how you will get as Pragmatic Activator doesn't grant it) you will have maybe a +6 to UMD. You need a 14 or better roll to successfully activate a wand. No that big a deal at level 1, since you wont even have one.
But lets fast forward, level 5. You finally have a +10 to UMD. You still can't take 10, and you will still only succeed 50% of the time.
Also remember, you can only activate one wand per round.
With taking skill focus UMD you should be able to reliably activate the wand ay level 10, but thats such a long time for a build to come into its own. Not to mention, you'll still be shafted by relying on expensive wands to do anything remotely useful.
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Interesting catch on Arcane Training. Don't you have to have class levels in a class to declare it a favored class...and take the favored class bonus? UMD is easy enough to get high level, same as all skills so I wouldnt worry too much about that. I think that dipping is the easy way of making this build work but its not nearly as cool as just being a single class fighter and saying, "what? Martials cant have cool things...take a...SCORCHING RAY TO THE FACE!"
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And let's face it, at level one, with UMD as a class skill (which I'm not sure how you will get as Pragmatic Activator doesn't grant it) you will have maybe a +6 to UMD. You need a 14 or better roll to successfully activate a wand. No that big a deal at level 1, since you wont even have one.
Lorewardens have all Intelligence based skills as class skills. Pragmatic Activator makes UMD an intelligence based skill... so you have UMD as a class skill. I would focus on UMD and Spellcraft.
Interesting catch on Arcane Training. Don't you have to have class levels in a class to declare it a favored class...and take the favored class bonus? UMD is easy enough to get high level, same as all skills so I wouldnt worry too much about that. I think that dipping is the easy way of making this build work but its not nearly as cool as just being a single class fighter and saying, "what? Martials cant have cool things...take a...SCORCHING RAY TO THE FACE!"
The entry specifically says that you act as a level 1 character if you do not have that class, so I think in this case the alternate racial is intentionally breaking the rule to give you, literally, arcane training for your fighter.
I would probably build it using weapon finesse with a rapier and a wand in the other hand. Grab quick draw to grab wands quick and maybe attach weapon cords to them so you can just drop them. Kind of a different type of switch-hitter.
Spring Loaded Wrist Sheathes are your friend, swift action wand draw.
Lorewardens have all Intelligence based skills as class skills. Pragmatic Activator makes UMD an intelligence based skill... so you have UMD as a class skill. I would focus on UMD and Spellcraft.
And let's face it, at level one, with UMD as a class skill (which I'm not sure how you will get as Pragmatic Activator doesn't grant it) you will have maybe a +6 to UMD. You need a 14 or better roll to successfully activate a wand. No that big a deal at level 1, since you wont even have one.
So you're chances are a bit better, but you still wont be pulling this off with near 100% success rate until level 7 or so. And failing means you've essentially wasted a round mid-combat.
This also assumes you start yourself with a 20 int, which is not easy to do while keeping a decent con and dex that a fighter a fighter normally needs. Buying an 18 will cost 17 points out of your point buy, assuming you are using point buy.
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Lorewardens have all Intelligence based skills as class skills. Pragmatic Activator makes UMD an intelligence based skill... so you have UMD as a class skill. I would focus on UMD and Spellcraft.
And let's face it, at level one, with UMD as a class skill (which I'm not sure how you will get as Pragmatic Activator doesn't grant it) you will have maybe a +6 to UMD. You need a 14 or better roll to successfully activate a wand. No that big a deal at level 1, since you wont even have one.
Personally, I'd say be careful with this assumption. Pragmatic Activator does not say that it makes UMD an intelligence based skill. It says:
"You may use your Intelligence modifier when making Use Magic Device checks instead of your Charisma modifier."
I don't have a copy of the Lorewarden with me because I'm at work and the 3rd party rules archives are blocked here, but if the wording of its feature says something along the lines of "all Intelligence based skills are class skills for the Lorewarden," using Pragmatic Activator to make it a class skill would definitely be debatable, especially if this character might be for PFS. If it's for a home game, you should talk to your GM about it if you haven't already. If he is the type to question rules and builds, it could cause trouble later. I'd personally probably let you get away with it, though.
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If 3pp is on the table, the wandslinger archetype for the gunslinger published in Rite Publishing's Secrets of the Gunslinger is totally awesome. They don't need UMD, though they do need Spellcraft for their Wandsmithing class feature. Combine this with an Int-based grit pool via Ultimate Options: Grit and Gunslingers by Rogue Genius Games and you're good to go. If this is Paizo only, or opting out of the Lore Warden isn't on the table, then I have just wasted your time and I apologize.
I was just about to mention the wandslinger. I have a friend who is about to play one and we're excited about the possibilities.
The fun thing about the wandslinger is you don't just have to focus on blasting people with rays. They can smith all sorts of wands and have martial weapon proficiencies and all the rest of it. Can even make quite competent healers since they use their own class level to determine the caster level of wands.
What do you think would be the best wands for this guy, assuming we can get it to work decent?
The problem is cost and caster level. The prices listedin the books assume minimum caster level for crafting. But in order for many offensive options to be viable you will need to raise the caster level so the damage scales or last long enough.
For instance, if you had a wand of fireball it would deal 5d6 (17.5 avg), DC 14(I think, 10+spell level+minimum stat modifier for casting spells of that level) for half damage. It would cost 11250 gp, and would be equivalent to 225 gp per cast, if you purcahse rather than craft.
Honestly, any damage dealing spells are probably out simply because without paying lots of money (even when crafting) to raise the caster level you're hemoraging money.*Er, wait...my whole opinion is that it wont work well no matter what because caster level and save DC will always be minimum*.
Blasting people with wands is usually pretty weak - if all you're doing is damage, then you're probably not going to compare to what the same character could do with a couple of archery feats. And if you're trying to inflict things other than damage on enemies, the saving throws will be easy to pass.
But it's always nice for a fighter to have some of the defensive and utility skills of a wizard - wands of shield, mirror image, invisibility and fly will give you a lot of flexibility.
Touch of Idiocy or similar spells which require attack rolls but not saves.
Buffs, anything from Enlarge Person to Vanish to Haste. Or, especially Mirror Image as Matthew suggests above.
Create Pit to bull rush people into.
Maybe some summons which take a standard action - Vomit Swarm?
But it's always nice for a fighter to have some of the defensive and utility skills of a wizard - wands of shield, mirror image, invisibility and fly will give you a lot of flexibility.
I agree a lot with this. The fighter having the ability to use wands to cast defensive buffs on himself or others in the party can be a huge boon. But trying to do anything offensive with wands is very...lackluster. Frankly, if it depends on caster level or has a save it's going to suck coming out of a wand.
usin wands and scrolls in posible with lorewarde, but trying to kill thing with the wands is hihgly suboptimal. Not even a wizard/sorcerer would succed with that strategy.
Just use the scrolls and the wand for selfbuff and utility.
+1 to those saying you should primarily use this for ooc buffs and utility.
i played a wand using fighter before (one who relied on Cha and even had eldritch heritage), and he was fun and effective. the trick (for me) was a simple 2hander build- that gives you good damage output with a lot of extra feats. every once in a while i'd use an attack spell when i had trouble getting into melee range with an enemy, but mostly i used wands/scrolls for problem solving or longterm buffs and it was great.
The only wand I can recommend for offense is a Wand of Magic Missile CL 9. It isn't cheap at 6,750 gp but it does hit for 5d4+5 at range with no miss chance and is much cheaper than trying to get your bow DPR up to 17.5 if you don't have archery feats.
The Wandslinger is in a PDF by Rite Publishing called Secrets of the Gunslinger. It's not available for free on d20pfsrd, sadly, so you'd have to purchase it online. It's really a great resource, though, and not just for that one archetype. Highly recommended.