I would appreciate advice for my character.
He will focus on natural weapons and take levels in primalist draconic bloodrager / dragon disciple. His only (combat) role is melee Big Stupid Fighter. We will play Rise of the Runelords (cap at 15th level) and can use only Paizo publications.
The other important abilities I am interested in are: . But I am not able to optimally combine it. So far I have come with two solutions, and would like to hear your opinions. .
This build is more focused on raging, than the other one.
As primalist, He can choose to take 2 rage powers instead of bloodline power.
So instead of:
- 4th (natural armor and fire resistance)
- 8th (breath weapon)
- and 12th (wings) level bloodline powers;
He will take 6 rage powers:
- lesser beast totem (redundant claws)
- lesser elemental blood/air (3/day electricity damage)
- beast totem (natural armor)
- elemental blood/air (electricity resistance)
- greater beast totem (pounce)
- greater elemental blood/air (fly).
At 7th level he will take lunge feat to be able to activate reach (at cost of penalty -2 to armor class).
Since he has to take 10 level of bloodrager to get greater beast totem, he will continue till 11th level so he will get also greater bloodrage to be able to buff himself at the start of his rage as a free action.
PROS:
- only 1 feat needed (lunge)
- free action to buff himself at the start of rage (greater bloodrage from 11th level)
- many rounds of rage: 37 = 4 (base) + 2 (charisma modifier) + 10×2 (level increase) + 10×1 (favored class bonus)
CONS:
- pounce, fly, natural armor, resistance usable only in rage
This build is less dependant on rage and focuses on dragon aspect.
At 3rd level he will take nimble striker (catfolk – prerequisite for pounce).
At 7th level he will take lunge feat to be able to activate reach (at cost of penalty -2 to armor class).
At 11th level he will take claw pounce.
At 12th level he will get dragon wings (fly), with improvement at 14th level.
PROS:
- reach and pounce independent on raging
- additional 2 rage powers (instead of 8th level breath weapon)
- additional dragon disciple boosts to constitution + intelligence + blindsense + dragon form + wings
- 2 more extra feats from dragon disciple
CONS:
- rounds of rage: 16 = 4 (base) + 2 (charisma modifier) + 5×2 (level increase)
- feats demanding (2 to get pounce and 1 to get lunge)
- strength without race bonus and penalty to wisdom
- fly only when raging
With option 1, don't forget spells if you want to do some of that outside a bloodrage. You get the resist energy spell for free and you can pick up the fly spell if desired. I can't imagine that not having pounce or much natural armor outside combat is going to be an issue.
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I'd go route one. You probably dont need 37 rounds of flying pounce in any given day and its a free action to start up so effectively always one unless you are trying to fly across country or something. And you still have spells to help with that part anyways.
Consider combining lunge with enlarge or longarm spells perhaps? Since longarm doesnt have the polymorph descirptor it would stack with enlarge person woudlnt it? gives you a reach out to 20 ft.
A large humanoid with a reach weapon already threatens to 15-20 feet. Longarm would increase that to 15-25.
I would split the difference, basically do #1 but don't bother with Elemental Blood to get Fly. You will get that from Draconic Bloodrager Bloodline anyways.
(based on FAQ stating DD advances Bloodrager Draconic BL, Robe of Arcane Heritage should also boost the Bloodrager BL, although not sure if that's been officially confirmed anywhere)
This leaves you with more Rage Powers (/save Feats) which let you get more out of your Rage. Or keep more BL Powers.
Unexpected Strike (8th level) is a good Rage Power that leverages Reach.
To be clear, Lunge isn't "real" Reach since it doesn't apply off-turn thus doesn't work for AoOs which is the normal strategy with Reach.
Quandary:
I did not find FAQ about allowing Robe of Arcane Heritage to count as level increase for bloodragers bloodlines.
Thank you for pointing out, that lunge works only till the end of my turn :( I guess that using greater bloodrage to buff myself with enlarge / long arm will work better, because I want to get attack of opportunity.
Another way may lay in swaping primalist with crossblooded rager and getting also aberrant bloodline to get abnormal reach. But getting pounce means investing 3 feats :(