So I am rolling a new PFS toon. I do like utility and options in my characters and building them with synergies, even if those synergies aren't that powerful per se.
The concept is for a Dragon-heritage Nagaji, he's got the Cha and slightly haughtiness of the Dragon-heritage and innately above average Int of Dragons too.
S17, D7, Con14, Int12, Wis10, Cha 17
1. Draconic Bloodrager (6 rounds of claws per day), Gold Dragon
2. Lore Oracle 1 (Sidestep Secret)
3. Draconic Sorcerer (6 rounds of claws pd) taking Mage Armour and Enlarge Person, Silver Dragon
4. Draconic Eldritch Scion Magus (8 round of claws per day) probably taking the usual suspects of Shocking Grasp and Burning Hands, Bronze Dragon
5. DESM again
6. Dragon Disciple
7-12. DD levelling Magus for spells
The idea is to take a Reach weapon (probably a HorseChopper for Trip as well) early on until the build has enough rounds of Natural Weapons online. Later on it will be combining spells and the Natural Weapons. With Lamellar Leather and SSSecret on a Nagaji the AC will be 18, or 22 with Mage Armour which is not amazing, but is decent.
Socially it should be fun to play with decent knowledge bonuses and a relatively decent number of skills.
The question is Feats wise, what do I need?
On the plus side;
1) You will have amazing saving throws.
2) You'll have a lot of class skills.
2) You will have a ton of low level spells and just about every cantrip you could want
On the minus side;
1) Your BAB will be hampered by multiclassing all these 3/4 and 1/2 BAB classes.
2) You can't have two different draconic bloodlines in PFS. All your dragons have to match.
3) The core part of your build, Draconic Eldritch Scion Magus, is an archetype that is hamstrung and doesn't get spell combat until 8th level. You won't get to the good stuff until way too late.
4) Your Magus and Sorc levels have only 2+int skill points. You won't have enough skill points to fill all those class skills and make them matter.
I think that this build, while flavorful, will hurt you a lot more than it will help.
Hmm
Eldritch scion gets spell combat at the same time as the regular magus. They just have to spend a point of pool to use it for 2 rounds. At 8 they no longer need to spend the point.
As far as all sources of bloodline being the same subtype, only dragon disciple says that specifically. But be prepared for GMs to rule any number of different ways and think they are RAW.
If you are just looking for permanent claws, you can use an amulet of the blooded abyssal for 12,000gp or 2 levels of ranger for aspect of the beast. If it is for PFS go with the build you have until you can afford the amulet then retrain to get more magus levels.
Eldritch Scion is terrible, you're better off just continuing with Bloodrager.
Conjoy wrote: With Lamellar Leather and SSSecret on a Nagaji the AC will be 18, or 22 with Mage Armour which is not amazing, but is decent.
A side note to the other comments about the build itself, but this could be incorrect. Mage Armor doesn't stack with regular armor. So if that's where you're adding the extra +4 from, it'll be one or the other, but not both.
Heretek wrote: Eldritch Scion is terrible, you're better off just continuing with Bloodrager. Terrible, ha. Good one. It's just not the "optimize the cr** out of shocking grasp" one-trick pony. And spontaneous metafocus closes that gap anyway.
Firebug wrote: Heretek wrote: Eldritch Scion is terrible, you're better off just continuing with Bloodrager. Terrible, ha. Good one. It's just not the "optimize the cr** out of shocking grasp" one-trick pony. And spontaneous metafocus closes that gap anyway. You're welcome to think that. You'd be wrong of course, but feel free to think that. Eldritch Scion is a trap of the highest level. The archetype needs heavy duty reworking to be playable. It's like saying the CRB rogue is "fine". No, no it really wasn't.
Sure, I'll take the experience I have with both the regular magus and eldritch scion in PFS, and ignore it then. I had 2 major complaints with the archetype: the skill points for having a lower int and mystic focus being a swift action. Damage was good, versatility was excellent, and staying power was more then enough for any adventure.
What are your complaints with it? So far you have only said it's a bad idea with no specifics. And telling me I was wrong of course.
It's less powerful than the standard Magus. In some eyes, that makes it utterly useless, no matter that some may find the differences fun to play.
Thanks for the feedback. I think I have decided to ditch the Sorc portion of the build and take an extra level of ES. From what I can see the ES archetype does have some limitations, but these are largely where you want to build around a single trick. Having said that, by being Cha based as a caster it opens up other synergies like LOracle and BRager that the normal Magus wouldn't.
My current plan is that the build will open most fights with a Reach weapon, drop into mystic focus to charge his claws (and bite from level 7) and then go all Wolverine on his foes.
Having thought about this further, my next question is whether Dragon Disciple levels the ES Draconic Bloodline as well as the Bloodrager Draconic Bloodline, and how does having both of these interact? The ES grants a Bloodrager Bloodline, and if that Bloodline is Draconic, then it benefits from the faq that says the Draconic Bloodine levels from levels of DD.
My initial thoughts based on the way its written in the ES archetype, is that it would work the same as having a Sorc and Bloodline and Bloodrager bloodline in that they would both level independently, because they don't stack.
So BRager would give me Draconic claws while raging for 4+(2xBRager level)+Con_feats/trait bonuses rounds a day. And ES would give me Draconic claws while in Arcane focus (1/2xlevel) + Cha bonus per day uses for 2 rounds per day.
Theoretically, if I had a level of each before going DDisciple, with 3 levels of DDisciple I would gain the resistance to energy that each Bloodlines dragon grants while in the respective 'transformation'.
Thematically speaking this gives my character
I did something similar, sticking with the full BAB martials, Jack-of-the-Many. He started Barb 1, then ranger 1, then (due to plot shenanigans) Samurai Ronin 1, Fighter 1 (Corsair, maybe? Memory fails me), Gunslinger (musketeer) 1, Brawler 1.
Heck of a Fort save, good/weird mix of skills, deadly in combat. I played him as a switch hitter and he rocked...right up until he got caught in a three archer/Spectral Hand sorcerer crossfire. I'm a little bitter about that.
But on the whole, I think he'd have been better served to have stuck with 3 or so classes. Ranger 2, Barb 2, Brawler 2 would have worked much better. Still, fun times. Doubt I'll get the greenlight to make that toon again from my GM.
Having thought about this further, my next question is whether Dragon Disciple levels the ES Draconic Bloodline as well as the Bloodrager Draconic Bloodline, and how does having both of these interact?
If you're making this for PFS, assume the worst case: it levels only one of them. I don't believe there is a specific ruling on the matter.
Conjoy wrote: Having thought about this further, my next question is whether Dragon Disciple levels the ES Draconic Bloodline as well as the Bloodrager Draconic Bloodline, and how does having both of these interact? It does. The Eldritch Scion bloodline is a bloodrager bloodline.
My thinking was that it would level both independently too. So I end up with the same ability but from different sources and at different levels (depending on how many levels of BRager and ESM I take).
|
