Hello, everyone!
As the title of the thread indicates, I'm hoping someone might be generous enough to offer some advice on how one might be able to create a character who uses both primal magic and hexes, because I had a crazy idea pop into my head yesterday evening.
In particular, I was wondering if hexes are strong enough to carry a character over the awkward middle levels of a build that starts with the hexcrafter magus and then switches over to primalist wizard levels. The idea is to be more aggressive for the first few levels, say, Hexcrafter 4, and then do some debuffing with hexes while catching up with wizard levels, up until Primalist 16 at the end-game, at which point the character would be more of a support wizard, with spellscar as a nice capstone spell. I know it's very much non-optimal, but could it work? Also, the character for which I have this in mind is an elf, and might dabble in firearms for a nasty surprise for opponents that get too close.
Incidentally, I'm assuming that prerequisites for magus arcana and witch hexes are by class level, not character level, so Extra Arcana shenanigans wouldn't work, or am I wrong?
Or should I just bite the bullet and try to work something out with the mystic theurge, say oracle / hexcrafter magus or witch, or shaman / wizard?
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So you'll need 5 levels of primalist to even cast one primal magic event.
Oracle with Spellscar is frankly easier, medium bab and you get your primal magic events. You can even take the Spirit Guide archetype to get an Hex from your chosen spirit and bonus spells from your spirit as well. Grab Extra hex to get whatever other hex you need.
Just one question...what hex do you actually want to use?
I was hoping for a bunch, actually, even if it meant spending feats. Evil eye, misfortune, even slumber, since I think with multiclassing it might be less overwhelming, but useful for dealing with minions. And cackle, of course!
Does Extra Hex work with the Spirit Guide? Reading conservatively, they don't get the Hex class feature, do they? I don't mind waiting for the primal magic - I might be wrong, but the earliest Spellscar Oracles can get the Trigger Primal Magic Event revelation is level 9, and Eldritch Scar at level 7, and both also only start with a use per day.
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I was hoping for a bunch, actually, even if it meant spending feats. Evil eye, misfortune, even slumber, since I think with multiclassing it might be less overwhelming, but useful for dealing with minions. And cackle, of course!
Does Extra Hex work with the Spirit Guide? Reading conservatively, they don't get the Hex class feature, do they? I don't mind waiting for the primal magic - I might be wrong, but the earliest Spellscar Oracles can get the Trigger Primal Magic Event revelation is level 9, and Eldritch Scar at level 7, and both also only start with a use per day.
I forget where the FAQ is, but the general rule is that if you get a class feature it counts as the normal class feature for feat purposes even if it's named differently. There are exceptions, but these are called out explicitly like the Witch VMC or the Primalist archetype for Bloodrager. In other words, it's the functionality that counts, not the name.
A good example of this in action is the arcane-bloodline sorcerer with Evolved Familiar. Obviously an intended combo, yet the sorcerer has no class feature called "Familiar", it has Arcane Bond. That doesn't matter, they have a familiar and that's what counts. Actually, no one has a class feature called "Familiar" that I'm aware. The closest is Witch, which gets "Witch's Familiar".
TL;DR - If you get hexes you can take Extra Hex, unless the thing that gives you hexes says that you cannot. You would still be limited to the list given by the source of your hexes, though.
Hmm. I guess, but does the Spirit Guide archetype then restrict you to the hexes provided by your chosen spirit? That seems to be the intent to me, since the bonded spirit ability is explicitly based on the wandering spirit class feature for shamans, and impliclitly, on wandering hex. Again, I'm reading things conservatively, because I'm paranoid about accidentally breaking the rules. :) And I don't really like any of the spirit-specific hexes anyway. Thanks for clearing things up, though.
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the lack of support of primal magic doesn't help here. As for level 9...it shouldn't be a problem with your plan:
Level 4 hexcrafter magus + Level 5 Primalist = level 9, so same level you would get it on the oracle. You'll be able to cast spellscar and also end up with the best ability at level 20 for the oracle, control the primal magic event and make it do what you want + 9th level spell Miracle.
As for the hex, yeah you technically don't have the hex class feature, so guess would depend if your dm want to be RAW about it.
Thanks for the input, guys. I've got a Spellscar oracle in the works for another campaign, so I think I'll stick with a hexcrafter with just enough primalist sprinkled on top to make it feel right, to keep with the broad concept that has colonized my mind. It will also depend on party composition - if the character ends up in a group without a wizard, she might switch over, but if they need more close combatants, she'll stick with a focus on magus levels, and scrounge a rod of wonder from somewhere. :)