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What is the best PFS blaster caster?

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I am pretty good at optimizing but I do not actually play PFS. I am building a blaster caster for friend to use in a dungeon delve.

Personally I would build pure wizard since I like the flexibility to change to any element on the fly and the versatility that comes with being a wizard. I am not sure this will be the best way to for a PFS dungeon delve.

I generally would avoid a dip into sorc just for more damage since you lose early spell access and CL but it may be worth it in PFS.

Fireball is the best blast in the game but it usually not worth to focus on it until you can cast several times. I usually find the flaming hands is good for levels 1-4, scorching ray for 5-8, and fireball can be used at 9+. That way I do not run out of my best spell to early. Does this same logic apply to PFS?

Normally I would go human or elf. If a more focus build would work then a pyro gnome sorc might be the way to go.

Lastly I do not know how available metamagic rods are.

1 level crossblooded orc/dragon dip
2nd level-up evoker(admixture) wizard
magic knack evens caster level
spell focus + mage tattoo a must for caster level and dc
raise caster level with traits like outlander (lore seeker) and magic lineage
wayang spellhunter good trait for metamagic
blood/bloatmage options for more spell slots
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take wizard first and sorcerer second, that way you get the free spell focus and can have spell specialization too. going exploiter wizard or school arcanist can get you the ability to ad 2 caster levels on casting, making it even stronger.

I am thinking of a human wizard (admixture) with the following progession

S 7 D 14 C 12 I 17 W 12 Ch 12 All level bumps and racial bonuses to int

Trait: Spell Hunter, Magical Knack

L1 Spell focus, Spell Spec(burning hands), Mages Tattoo
L2 [Cross blood sorc Draconic/orc]
L3 Intense Spell
L6 Heighten spell, Preferred spell [Change SS to Scoring ray]
L7 Empower spell
L9 Greater spell focus[switch SS to fireball]
L11 Maximize Spell, Dazing

If rods are fairly easy to get I swap out empower/maximize spell for spell penetration and either improved init or familiar.

Losing admixture for 1 CL or save does not seam worth it.
I am not sure what school arcanist is.

Retraining will be needed at levels 6 and 9
Silver Crusade

This guy blows stuff up real good
Chess Pwn wrote:
take wizard first and sorcerer second, that way you get the free spell focus and can have spell specialization too. going exploiter wizard or school arcanist can get you the ability to ad 2 caster levels on casting, making it even stronger.

could you clarify school arcanist and adding 2 caster levels?

Theologian cleric with a dip of cross blooded sorcerer (elemental/orc). I know that admix wizard is great but he doesn't work as well as cleric.

Blasting (feats): theologian has access to a free intensify that doesn't add to metamagic is good. Wizard gets a little more feats over career. I'd say this is even.

Blasting (damage): honestly the difference in damage is solely elemental bloodline versus a second bloodline adding damage, which is about +1 per die. Wizard wins, barely.

But that's where it ends.

Spells: assuming fire domain, and we should, the cleric has slight advantage because of domain spells. At level 1 burning hands being used one extra time is big. At level 5 an extra fireball is great too. Cleric wins.

Armor: medium armored cleric versus potentially a no armor wizard.
Saves: cleric has two good saves and his will is higher than wizards because of wisdom versus intelligence caster stat.
Health: cleric has 33% more potential.
PFS: from levels 1-12 the wizards best spells are just coming online. If you went to level 9 spells I would be forced to say that the wizard is looking more appealing. But at level 6 spells the cleric is more than enough.

Channeling: unlike the wizard we have a realizable means of group heal that doesn't require spells. This is arguably the real difference between the two.

Domain power: its of note that the fire domain offers a free limited use ranged attack. This allows you to act as a archer like character at low levels against grunts where as a wizard has to find some means to contribute without use of spells. Of course the wizard has tools and can do so but the cleric did it for about 8 times without any effort. Again cleric wins.

so 1st level spells from the sorcerer are the only thing that would be affected by arcane spell failure?

The exploiter wizards and arcanist (I suggest school savant archetype for this) gets an arcane pool, and normally you can expend a point to ad +1 to the DC or Caster level of the spell cast. Then they pick up an exploit that makes it +2 instead of 1. If you go exploiter wizard you pick up the school exploit, meaning you can use the change element power 3+charisma times a day instead of 3+int and you don't get the extra level to damage unless you activate the full power.
meaning a gnome with arcane point, spell specialization and mage tattoo gives a +6 caster level, full damage fireballs at lv9!

okay I see how you are swapping the elemental type now.

The cleric is a neat idea. I see how swapped out the elements.
That build gets a bit mad though since it needs Int 13 for spell focus and cha can not be dumped due to sorc levels and channeling. Dex is not as need though.

How does a cleric gain an extra spell over a specialist wizard.

Domain spontaneity is nice but adding metamagic takes full round action.

Access to the cleric spell list over the first 12 levels is nice.

Gonna have to think that one through.
Mathius wrote:

okay I see how you are swapping the elemental type now.

The cleric is a neat idea. I see how swapped out the elements.
That build gets a bit mad though since it needs Int 13 for spell focus and cha can not be dumped due to sorc levels and channeling. Dex is not as need though.

How does a cleric gain an extra spell over a specialist wizard.

Domain spontaneity is nice but adding metamagic takes full round action.

Access to the cleric spell list over the first 12 levels is nice.

Gonna have to think that one through.

lol interesting cleric build

so, he can switch another elemental spell to his domain element(fire)?
what blasty non-fire spells are on a cleric's list?
Mathius wrote:


How does a cleric gain an extra spell over a specialist wizard.

Domain spontaneity is nice but adding metamagic takes full round.

Unless I'm very wrong a theologian prepares his domain spells so he wouldn't have to cast as a full round because it's not a spontaneous cast. If that is so he is functionally no different than the wizard. But you were right about domain spell versus the wizards extra I forgot about that. I looked at the chart and that isn't listed for the wizard.

My cleric stats in the past are usually 7,14,14,13,16(18),11 if I don't want armor or go ecclisitheurge. 10,12,14,13,16(18),10 or 8,12,14,13,16(18),12 for less extreme stats. 3 or 4 channels is usually enough to get you through PFS as you just need to heal out of battle.

Don't let folks tell you that you need a 20 wisdom because its a trap. The one extra spell and DC is too little reward compared to increasing your health, saves, dex, or ability to keep a 10 charisma for healing. For the cost of jumping from a 18 to 20 you can have a 14 con and 12 dex.

I agree. Generally a pre racial 18 is not worth it. A 17 can be though.

I found the characters do not level in this event. He just does not know what level it is for. I need to build him the best blaster for each level.

The cleric can memorized his domain spells but the versatility of not needing to memorize your blasts is not to be underrated.

For prebuilt PFS characters what kind of access to items do you get?

Prebuilts usually has their equipment included on their sheet.

Best blaster varies from level to level. There is no true best blaster. You just pick the levels where you want to be best at or stretch out one trick across the levels. Fireball is usually the best exames it remains effective all the way to level 20. Even though much of its effectiveness as raw damage ends at level 15 it gets spell perfection to keep it relevant all the way to 20. So from 5 to 20 is pretty good, most spells like friend snake can't even be used for duration let alone get the most out of it. It's a better spell but you got less mileage.

I once had a metamagic focussed cleric who loved using rods (ooooo err!) and was tooled up with prayer beads and incense of meditation.... the party came up against the caster BBEG and he let rip....

A swift action Cold Ice Strike followed immediately up by an Elemental Assessor....

Cold Ice Strike (maximised and empowered) = 135 HP
Elemental Assessor (maximised and empowered) = 72 HP and another 144 HP over 4 rounds

I overcame his SR due to heightened caster level. The DC save was 29 due to my Greater Spell Focus (evocation).... he failed

Total damage = 351 HP

Needless to say..... he croaked

I tend to favor using the Arcanist class. The damage won't be as high as say a sorcerer, but oh the versatility.

I am thinking cleric with a sorc dip for the first four levels. Much more survivable and fire resistance not common there. After that I will go with wizard/sorc.

Still need to determine if exploiter wizard is worth it. Hard to tell since you only add the CL or DC when spend a point. Might run out to fast to be worthwhile.
Mathius wrote:

I am thinking cleric with a sorc dip for the first four levels. Much more survivable and fire resistance not common there. After that I will go with wizard/sorc.

Still need to determine if exploiter wizard is worth it. Hard to tell since you only add the CL or DC when spend a point. Might run out to fast to be worthwhile.

Consider that you start the day with 3+1/2 Wizard level Arcane Pool points. For the first few levels, that will be enough to augment almost every spell you cast:

1st level: 1 1st +1 int (3 arcane pool points)
2nd level: 2 1st +1 int (4 arcane pool points)
3rd level: 2 1st +1 int, 1 2nd +1 int (4 arcane pool points)
4th level: 3 1st +1 int, 2 2nd +1 int (5 arcane pool points)

You don't have enough spells worth raising to run out really. And you can always take the school and familiar exploits if you wanted those features.

Also, you may want to look at Burning Arc from Humans of Golarion. Far more party friendly than Fireball, and not subject to cover/melee attack penalties like Scorching Ray.

Burning arc is much better then scoring ray as a 2nd level blast. Thanks.

The expoiter wizard will suffer more at higher levels. You are right that at low levels he can bump all his blasts. My goal as blaster is to be able to blast 12 times a day. That is why I wait to 8th level to switch over to fireball. I do not like only having 2 or 3 blasts.

I Think the School savant arcanist with evocation (admixture) is King. Pehaps take crossblooded dip at some point.

You know what's a REALLY good 2nd level blast? Burning Hands. Intensified, Heightened, Empowered (with Magical Lineage) are all great options. To avoid all that silly roasting your allies, I'd suggest a Rod of Selective Spell (minor). 3K gold well spent. It even works for Fireball when you get it!

Alternatively, Eldritch conduit works great.

12 times a day? Are you kidding? You can blast with every single spell slot. Intensified burnin hands as a level 1 potentially 7 times a day with theologian. Fireball intensified empowered fireball the same amount at about level 10. Between those alone you have your dozen and we have so many more spells to bring to the dance :)

6 casts off burning hands and 3 fireballs at level 5 is enough damage to wreck many GMs plans.
Mathius wrote:

Burning arc is much better then scoring ray as a 2nd level blast. Thanks.

The expoiter wizard will suffer more at higher levels. You are right that at low levels he can bump all his blasts. My goal as blaster is to be able to blast 12 times a day. That is why I wait to 8th level to switch over to fireball. I do not like only having 2 or 3 blasts.

At lv8 you'll have 7 arcane points. That's about 60% of your 12 blasts a day. This means that you can boost your first blast of a fight, and use a weaker blast non-boosted to finish up. Plus as the exploiter wizard you are getting the spells sooner than anyone else.

It's fine if you don't want to choose it, but I'm just saying that it's not suffering more at higher levels. I mean I don't know about your games, but like all the ones I play I don't have enough fights to cast 7 blasts, let alone 12.

My favorite blaster is using the Spellbinder for Elf/Half-Elf. You can still take Admix/Sorc dip, but this allows you to switch out spells. So you memorize all your utility "God Wizard" spells, then switch them out on the fly for your blasting spells.

At level 8 you have 6 level 3 fireballs and 3 level 4 fireballs on top of other spells. Maybe 1 less per level if u dip sorcerer.
Grand Lodge

Some of us just want to make the world burn..
Vladius Soluzar wrote:
Some of us just want to make the world burn..

I got matches!!

I think a hangover cleric is stronger than a blockbuster wizard. Gnome works best here as only charisma really matters. Worship Dispater and be LN and take variant rulership channeling and selective channel. If you wanted damage instead of action denial one of those Orc/Draconic crossblood dip builds is probably tops.

Oh I know that blasting is not the most effective way to play a caster.

It can be great fun though.

Thanks for all the advice. I found out that the event is for level 1. I would go with a cleric but my friend will enjoy a pyro sorc more. I will give him orc bloodline and some sort elemental just in case of fire resistance. 4d4+4 is plenty at first level.

For future reference, a human arcanist is beast at blasting.

Spell Focus/Spell Mastery at level 1. School understanding (Admixture wizard) for flex in elemental types.

At 3, Varisian Tattoo (Evocation) and Potent Magic.

At 4, switch Spell mastery to Scorching Ray and get 2 rays instead of 1.

1 arcane point for another magic missle giving you 4.

at 5 intensified metamagic.

at 6, switch to Burst of Radiance (with wayang trait) for 9d4 + blinded on evil creatures (most PFS games).

The advantage of arcanist over the true prepared casters( I am not gonna dignifi the CC cleric in the blast thread) is that they only ose one Spell prepared pr level to have the option of blasting with every slot.
Cap. Darling wrote:
The advantage of arcanist over the true prepared casters( I am not gonna dignifi the CC cleric in the blast thread) is that they only ose one Spell prepared pr level to have the option of blasting with every slot.

Prepared casters can do the same thing with Preferred Spell although it forces you to use up 2 feats.

andreww wrote:
Cap. Darling wrote:
The advantage of arcanist over the true prepared casters( I am not gonna dignifi the CC cleric in the blast thread) is that they only ose one Spell prepared pr level to have the option of blasting with every slot.
Prepared casters can do the same thing with Preferred Spell although it forces you to use up 2 feats.

And keep the blasting to one Spell somthing that is often the best plan any way. And higthen Spell is a good plan especially if the go to spell is level 3 like fireball. But i generally prefer the flexibility of the arcanist because it is online from level 1 and allow other spells to mix in at higher levels.

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