I have a character concept kicking around in my head but I need some help making some decisions about what class it should be, and what I should do to make her effective.
She is a dwarf from a very, very old, secretive, deep dwarven family. They consider themselves caretakers of dwarven lore, history and secrets. Kind of like a clan dedicated to being the Keepers of the Secrets Under the Mountain. To other dwarves they are a little creepy, a little out of touch and not much fun to be around.
The clan is so old they're still using Words of Power and keep them scribed on their collection of runed axes. Axes feature prominently in the clan, and for whatever reason they believe axes are a natural, holy extension of dwarfishness. The walls of their halls deep, deep underground are completely filled with ornate, runed mithral axes on which the history of the dwarven race is recorded.
My character is very proud of her clan and is traveling now to record current events on the axes she brings with her to eventually hang on the halls of her clan's home.
So:
She loves axes, and is effective wielding them.
She is a highly proficient word-caster.
She wears armor as heavy as she reasonably can.
What would be the best class thematically? Mechanically? What would you do?
Also consider the Forgemaster Cleric archetype, due to its ability to enchant weapons, armor, and items with temporary runes.
Archaeologist Bard with Wordcasting. If that even works in the rules. Explorer, historian, wordcasting, lorekeeping battle chanter type.
The kind who recites the 13th warrior type lays in battle, (Lo, there do I see my father, and my father's father, etc.)
Traps, some self-buff type magic, very lore oriented (take the Breadth of Experience feat).
The bard seems like a great idea to get all the knowledge and skills that I'd like to have for this concept, and they get to cast unhindered in light armor which is pretty good for getting right off the bat plus a good variety of Words.
I'm worried about the dwarf penalty to charisma, though. Do you think it'd be a problem? Also, don't you think the Archaeologist is a bit too rogue-y?
A battle oracle would be the easiest one. You'll still be a full caster but the revelations give you weapon focus, weapon and heavy armor proficiency and the like. If you can find an axe with reach than brewers Jargonaut guide would be a great place to start.
That seems like a really good fit, and it gives a few extra skill points. Also, as a dwarf I automatically get proficiency with the Dwarven Longaxe which is pretty badass. Will my charisma penalty be a big factor?
What do you think about a straight Cleric or Warpriest, which uses wisdom?
Also consider the Forgemaster Cleric archetype, due to its ability to enchant weapons, armor, and items with temporary runes.
Forgemaster is cool, but are those runes worth losing two potentially great domains as well as channeling? Reading through them, they seemed quite limited.
I'm really a big fan of of the battle oracle. At early levels. The minus one to your spell dc's is where you will feel it most. Once you get magic items and higher levels it becomes moot.
I'm really a big fan of of the battle oracle. At early levels. The minus one to your spell dc's is where you will feel it most. Once you get magic items and higher levels it becomes moot.
I also think the blind or deaf curse works well with this. You do get penalties to perception, but the benefits fully out weigh the flaws in the long run.
If you like blind, see if your dm would let you stack the tremor sense range you get from the curse with the tremor sense you get from the feat
For the Charisma penalty- the Jargonaut doesn't care about having a high Charisma. S/he uses Summon wordspells which don't care about DC, so having a low charisma isn't an issue at all. They're full casters so you'll need a few points in there to be able to cast spells at all, but Charisma 12 and a band of charisma later should be sufficient.
If you want a Bard instead of an Oracle I think an Arcane Duelist would be better than an Archaeologist. You get some nice bonus feats, you get a bonded object (an axe, obviously), you keep Inspire courage so you are making others better, and while subjective, it feels much more dwarven to me than an archaeologist. I think of dwarves as master record keepers, the idea that they don't already know about ancient things doesn't jibe well me, so culturally the archaeologist would be odd even though dwarves are obsessed with reclaiming things.
A warpriest with an axe sacred weapon would work. Sacred weapon bonuses and scaling would work well with cleric wordcasting. Fervor would allow you to swift action self buff with wordcasting, which is great.
I like a lot of the things about warpriest for this character concept, and it makes good use of my dwarf attributes. I've only recently been reading about wordcasting, but I've heard that prepared casters are less suited for it. Do you think it'd be a problem? Maybe the warpriest's reduced reliance on spells helps offset that downside?
If you want a Bard instead of an Oracle I think an Arcane Duelist would be better than an Archaeologist. You get some nice bonus feats, you get a bonded object (an axe, obviously), you keep Inspire courage so you are making others better, and while subjective, it feels much more dwarven to me than an archaeologist. I think of dwarves as master record keepers, the idea that they don't already know about ancient things doesn't jibe well me, so culturally the archaeologist would be odd even though dwarves are obsessed with reclaiming things.
Oh, I didn't realize that arcane duelists also later get heavier armor. I wonder what performance she would use...