I joined up with an online persistent world campaign and it uses a peculiar system to generate attributes. To keep on track, I won't go into detail but here's what I ended up rolling:
Str 17
Dex 15
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 11
Cha 8
Ironically, I was pondering building a caster-type but the dice decided to give me a full martial-oriented array instead. When I first saw them, I thought 'Aw man, I'll have to play a barboreian...' But I figured I may slug it out. I wanted to ask for some advice on where to take these attributes.
Right away, they seem pretty geared towards barbarian/fighter. I've had my share of martial characters, so I was itching to go a different route, but that's life. Now, what sorts of suggestions (third-party or otherwise) come to mind for a character who can take advantage of these rolls without being shoehorned into a boring martial who only shines when he's hitting something?
Have you landed on a race yet?
It looks to me like a very nice start for a Ranger build with the right race selection that can do all sorts of things.
Slayer also works to not be boring since it can do basically everything.
Haven't had race in mind just yet; the campaign is open to a wide selection of 3rd party things on a case basis, but I thought I might stick to an official one for simplicity's sake.
My PF experience is somewhat limited, having played just a handful of campaigns, and it might show in my post. Most of what I've known are fighters or barbs whacking things in melee, but I do have an Inquisitor in a current game that provides a nice balance between martial and casting.
I just don't want to be a one-hit-wonder that rips in combat but sits around like a rock otherwise. (And sadly watches his full caster companions blow everything out of the water)
I'll give slayer a look!
Did someone say dwarf battle druid?
Becauase if not then I wholly recommend that approach. 13 wis is all you need, items can push it to 19. Low wis does not effect summons or buffs. Pump str with levels and enjoy being a god of war.
Those might be good stats for a wildshaped focused druid.
Straight druid till wildshape, then a combat class (ranger/natural weapons or fighter for feats).
Leave wisdom low (might want to grab a wisdom bonus race), put stat increases into your odd numbered stats.
Grab the feat that gives you bonus levels of wildshape when you multiclass.
Go back to druid once you get a wisdom enhancing item.
Could be fun.
This would actually make a good dwarf ranger. Rangers get enough skills that you are not limited to just hitting things. Put your stat boost in STR, DEX, WIS in that order. This gives you some decent combat ability and the ability to cast your 4th level spells. With the right choice of favored enemy and terrain you will have some very high skills. Your stats are perfect for a switch hitter
half elf or half orc would be great for patching up will saves (nice alt racial traits, a regular trait, and iron will covers everthing), so it isn't like you are too restricted in what you can do.
How about a slayer? They have plenty of skills, and they can go about hitting things in the face. Maybe grab a double weapon so you can TWF (they can do 2 handing or TWF as needed; plenty of nice of)
You mentioned inquisitor. They can be very effective combatants (a little better with melee, but no real problems with ranged combat other than a lack of bonus feats) and they have a number of useful buff & utility spells, including some normally reserved for arcane casters (like See Invisibily, Invisibility, Stoneskin, and more). Prayer is a good spell they get that boosts the whole party, and debuffs the enemies with no save, though the changes are minor, they're still quite useful (I bring it up since you admit to having little PF experience).
Inquisitors are also pretty good at using skills, and get a base of 6 skill points per level (just like Rangers). You can work with your party of cover gaps in skills.
I really like inquisitors, very well-balanced and versatile class.
You mentioned inquisitor. They can be very effective combatants (a little better with melee, but no real problems with ranged combat other than a lack of bonus feats) and they have a number of useful buff & utility spells, including some normally reserved for arcane casters (like See Invisibily, Invisibility, Stoneskin, and more). Prayer is a good spell they get that boosts the whole party, and debuffs the enemies with no save, though the changes are minor, they're still quite useful (I bring it up since you admit to having little PF experience).
Inquisitors are also pretty good at using skills, and get a base of 6 skill points per level (just like Rangers). You can work with your party of cover gaps in skills.
I really like inquisitors, very well-balanced and versatile class.
The problem with playing an inquisitor is his WIS. Even playing a dwarf or other race that gives a WIS bonus he is still only at 13 WIS. Any spell with a save is going to be too easy to resist. A ranger gets some spells but mostly buff and utility spells. The original post specifies stats already assigned so I am assuming they cannot be swapped or modified other than by racial adjustments
I see that list and I think about a thug-type slayer or rogue. The kind who focuses on giving people the beatdown.
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Keep in mind that with dex 15, you could qualify for twf without ranger.
A race with int +2 can get you 2nd Lv bonus spells, you could multi class with such a caster and a more martial class.
While an 11 or 13 wisdom doesn't get you enough bonus spells for my taste, I usually just don't bother with saving throw spells. You could also stat bump at level 4 or 8 to get those bonus spells I think are critical. Though waiting that long, even with a multiclass could feel pretty lacking. Especially since you likely want to put that Lv4 stat into Str, maybe even Dex. But you could do something like a 4Ftr(specialization and 2 other bonus feats) or another full bab class and take something like Magus or War priest 4 and then you would not even have had access to those 2nd level spells until 8th level. I don't think i would be satisfied, I would rather take a 1 level of full BAB, at least levels 2-5 as a caster then consider going back to martial classes so I had those spells earlier.
I actually decided to roll with a cavalier for this. I picked an Angel-blood Aasimar for my race for a little buff to Str and to cancel that negative Cha modifier. Eventually I'll look to get Celestial Servant for the mount.
I haven't tried the class before and thought it'd be fun and flavorful. But I appreciate the suggestions!
The problem with playing an inquisitor is his WIS. Even playing a dwarf or other race that gives a WIS bonus he is still only at 13 WIS. Any spell with a save is going to be too easy to resist. A ranger gets some spells but mostly buff and utility spells. The original post specifies stats already assigned so I am assuming they cannot be swapped or modified other than by racial adjustments
Like Sunbeam said, I usually just grab buff spells, and some no-save ones (like the Litany spells). The 6/9 casting means the spell DCs will already be a little lower, so the only thing you really miss out on is bonus spell slots.
Inquisitors can do fine with Invisibility, See Invisibility, Heroism, Shield of Faith, Cure spells, Stoneskin, Freedom of Movement, Keen Edge, Litany of Sloth, etc.
And they have "Burning Invective" for intimidate builds. Very useful.