Desperado is easily one of my favorite action movies, (and the other movies in the Mexico trilogy ain't bad either,) and so I figured why not make a character based on El Mariachi?
I think it can be done if you go with a Mysterious Stranger and Pistolero on the gunslinger side of things, but I'm not sure how to roll with the bard side.
I'm thinking halfling; the stat bonuses are nice for the build, and frankly I would love to roleplay a child-sized Antonio Banderas (Uh, Casanunda anyone?)
Is it possible to make this combination of classes work? How should I spread the levels? Any "Can't miss it" feats for this kind of build?
Mysterious Stranger and Pistolero don't stack -- they finally errataed them to make that clear.
Hm, well in that case just Mysterious Stranger; that Charisma synergy should be effective.
Make sure he wears a sombrero and has Perform: Dance!
So what would this character do that requires Bard levels? A mysterious stranger can easily be very good at Perform (Dance), as he would want a high charisma for his Grit and there are numerous traits, feats, and other methods to turn Perform into a class skill and/or provide other bonuses to it.
So what would this character do that requires Bard levels? A mysterious stranger can easily be very good at Perform (Dance), as he would want a high charisma for his Grit and there are numerous traits, feats, and other methods to turn Perform into a class skill and/or provide other bonuses to it.
I guess so that the perform isn't a waste of skill points, mainly. I suppose that's better than a waste of levels, though...
But it would be more than dance. He'd also need guitar. That's just a necessity.
So, yeah...versatile performance, mainly, so that dropping points in perform: dance and perform: guitar and possibly even perform: sing are not a waste of my time.
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If you have a lenient or cooperative DM, this sounds great.
I for instance would have no problem with stacking those two archetypes. Also, I would love to have an excuse to stat up a guitar gun for a player. :3
Does El Mariachi's performance inspire anybody else or was it just for his own personal gratification?
According to the first movie, it's pretty much love of the music. But if you watch him in the third, he clearly likes being the star of the show.
He IS a lucky SOB, that's for sure... maybe archaeologist might work...even though he doesn't dig up treasure or sift through ruins or anything else associated with archaeologists.
What about a Bard with Amateur Gunslinger, possibly adding the Bucaneer archetype? Sure you'll have to put a couple of points into Wis, but it'll save dropping any levels at all.
That fits the character from the first movie, El Mariachi, pretty well, but by the second one, Desperado, being a bard is quite obviously a thing of the past, and he has embraced the way of the gun wholeheartedly.
Plus, I'm dealing with a lousy 15-point buy here. I wanna keep from being as MAD as possible.
Maybe I should've mentioned that. It's for Skull and Shackles, it's a backup for a game later today. The GM has warned us it's about to get pretty hairy and that we should all come with backups. 15-point buy, as I said. (I know, I was surprised he didn't go with 20, considering that's the AP recommendation, too.)
This sounds like it'd be best to rig it up in gestaltNot really an option, sadly.
What kind of guns should I work with? I'm thinking Dragon Pistol to represent his sawed-off pistol grip he runs around with through most of Desperado. Maybe a pistol for backup. Maybe Pistolero is a better idea than MS. Any idiot can see it's a better archetype; but MS fits better. Man I wish you could stack those two.
15-point buy, as I said. (I know, I was surprised he didn't go with 20, considering that's the AP recommendation, too.)
Minor digression; Actually, all AP's are written with the assumption of 15 point buys. If they did something different for Skull & Shackles I never heard about it.
Ask your DM if he'll let them stack. If so, problem solved and if not you are no worse off then you currently are.
15-point buy, as I said. (I know, I was surprised he didn't go with 20, considering that's the AP recommendation, too.)Minor digression; Actually, all AP's are written with the assumption of 15 point buys. If they did something different for Skull & Shackles I never heard about it.
I couldv'e sworn they were all written with four 20-point buy players in mind. At least that's what Kingmaker said when I ran it for my group back in the day...
Okay, enough of a derail.
You may also want to take a look at the Picaroon archetype of the Swashbuckler class in the Advanced Class Guide. This archetype uses a one handed firearm, and his apparent dance moves could actually be uses of the Derring-Do deed.
If you decide to multiclass, you need to decide which abilities you need to have scale with level and which can be left at the basic level where you first acquire them. If you focus on the Gunslinger side, you can perhaps afford to dip two levels of Bard for a single type of Versatile Performance. If you focus on the Bard side, you could dip 1-3 levels of Gonslinger to get a limited subset of Deeds.
Another option might be to go pure Bard and take feats such as Amateur Gunslinger to gain some Gunslinger abilities. The question here is whether all those feats are enough to get you what you want.
A final thing to keep in mind is that this El Mariachi character is probably very high level and certainly modern -- meaning he comes from a world where guns are mere martial weapons that a lot of people are proficient with. In a fantasy world, building up to his level of ability will be a challenge.