Alright, so I'm trying to work on making 3 characters at once for various campaigns and I'm about to go crazy! I've figured out 2 of them, and I'm needing some advice for the final character. Here are a few baseline facts...
Stats: 17, 16, 15, 14, 12, 12
Books Allowed: All, including 3.5 with DM discretion. I'm not really looking to get too involved with 3.5, especially if it smells of cheese.
I've been bouncing around a few ideas and I noticed the final versions of Arcanist and Shaman are out. Both of these classes have definitely caught my eye (unlike the warpriest that I was so hopeful for).
I love the spellcasting mechanic of the Arcanist. I've been wanting something like this forever! However, I find the rest of the class very... meh. Maybe I'm missing something about the exploits, but they don't seem that good. So my thoughts were about prestige classing, but to be honest it's something I've never looked much into in Pathfinder. Are there any good prestige classes that work well with Arcanist?
As for the Shaman I was wondering if there might be a good way to make a necromancer out of them. I realize they don't have access to all the necromantic spells, but I'd like to create a couple of large bruisers and go around with them. Or is this a class I should overlook in favor of the Juju Orcale?
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If you want the best necromancer then Juju is great, if you have the old version it is amazing.
Arcanist will hurt because you won't even get animate dead until level 8, otherwise the class is very powerful. (and it has the benefit of blood money to have "free" undead)
I do not know enough about the shaman to offer advice on it but I have an old juju oracle that is great.
Free undead you say?
Under Words of Power you can find a feat that allows you to add Effect Words to you class list if you aren't using the entire system for your casting class. It's called "Experimental Spellcaster"(found at the bottom of this page) and use it to get Undeath added to your class list. Choose Oracle, and as early as fourth level you have a standard action, ranged, free undead creating spell!
Very nice! Thank you for the necromancer advice. I didn't know about Experimental Spellcaster. I'll take a look into it.
If I use the Arcanist it won't be for a necromancer. It would be for more of a standard wizard build. Any advice for prestige classes that don't totally destroy your ability to be a caster?
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Looking at Spirit Warden(shaman archetype) , it gets a decent spell list.
Speaker of the Past(shaman archetype) feels like it plus bones would give you a potent arsenal of spells as a necromancer, but you give up the Spirit Animal stuff, and you get revelations instead of the wandering spirit stuff.
They are even stackable. This leaves you open to take a different Spirit if you desire. I personally like Heavens because of enveloping void, heaven's leap, Starburn, free darkvision, does not need to breath, and a once per day casting of prismatic spray. Its not night and day above the rest, but it is incredibly dangerous.
Very nice! Thank you for the necromancer advice. I didn't know about Experimental Spellcaster. I'll take a look into it.
If I use the Arcanist it won't be for a necromancer. It would be for more of a standard wizard build. Any advice for prestige classes that don't totally destroy your ability to be a caster?
Thing I've found about most spell casting prestige classes is you either lose out on caster levels or it doesn't really off much. Bloodcaster is the best prestige class for spell-casters I've found.
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Remember that the Arcanist has archetypes that open up a full bloodline or a full arcane school at the cost of a couple exploits, which each open up a huge host of potential builds. Plus, you can also take the exploit that grants you a minimal school/bloodline ability to mix and match! No more Wizard 19/Crossblooded Sorcerer 1, no sir.
I think the tricky thing about the Arcanist is that from a flavor perspective it's so close to wizard and sorcerer, so unlike many of the other new classes there aren't a lot of new ideas that immediately spring to mind. Still, I'm really looking forward to playing one! I love versatility, and with the Arcanist's spellcasting mechanism and the Quick Study exploit, you can have access to all of your spells in all of your slots at all times. Heck yeah!
You should be a Sharkanist! It's part Shaman, Part Arcanist part SHARK!
Just take the polymorph-boosting archetype, cast Fly, and cast Beast Shape: Shark! Turn your teammates into sharks too for a SHARKNADO ATTACK! Why isn't everyone playing an Arcanist yet?!