Tattoed Sorcerer / Witch builds?

[Otherwhere]

I saw the Tattooed Sorcerer stacks with Witch levels, and wondered if there are any viable builds out there?

I love the idea that my familiar can reside as one of my tattoos!

[LazarX]

Otherwhere wrote:

I saw the Tattooed Sorcerer stacks with Witch levels, and wondered if there are any viable builds out there?

I love the idea that my familiar can reside as one of my tattoos!

Tattooed Sorcerer is a sorcerer archetype. Where did you get the idea that they have anything to do with witches?

[Otherwhere]

LazarX wrote:

Tattooed Sorcerer is a sorcerer archetype. Where did you get the idea that they have anything to do with witches?

Here:

Familiar Tattoo (Su)

A tattooed sorcerer gains a familiar as an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to her sorcerer level. Her sorcerer levels stack with any wizard or witch levels she possesses when determining the powers of her familiar—this ability does not allow her to have both a familiar and a bonded item.

[StabbittyDoom]

IIRC there's a Witch archetype in the Familiar Folio that lets their familiar merge with them. I don't think it leaves a tattoo, but it should be easy enough to toss that in as flavor.

I say this because generally multiclassing caster classes is a bad idea.

[Otherwhere]

That's why I wondered. If multi-classing is so bad, why did they bother? Unless there are viable builds, which made me curious.

[JohnHawkins]

The two different spellcasting classes are not compatible, so you are giving up some potential power. But Tattooed sorceror 1/Witch 19 is workable , you only gain the familiar abilities, bloodline arcana and a few 1st level spells, a useful feat and can protect your familiar.

You could also try to persuade your GM to let you trade a Hex for the ability to store your familiar as a tattoo

[StabbittyDoom]

Basically as JohnHawkins said. A 1-level dip isn't bad in this case since the main one is a prepared caster (meaning you're no further behind than a spontaneous caster), but unlike martial characters who can stack their BAB, casters cannot stack their caster levels, so they end up fairly far behind for anything more than a 1 level dip.

Multi-classing two caster classes has two good builds that I can think of: a 1-level dip into sorc for a bloodline arcana or other 1st-level ability, or to go mystic theurge. Other caster multiclasses that aren't terrible are all prestige-class focused but (mostly) outmoded by Magus/Warpriest.

Multi-classing in general has had a history of being either overpowered or underpowered, depending on system. No-one has quite hit the balance on it yet. In Pathfinder it's usually underpowered, with a small handful of exceptions that are mostly in cases where (A) the build would otherwise itself be underpowered or (B) the build comes online earlier with dipping due to the big bonuses some classes get at 1st level.