Hey all! So I've been playing Pathfinder/DnD for a while now, and I'm about to start a new campaign. Trying to think of a new character to play, but I can't. I have access to all source books as long as they come directly from Paizo themselves, with the addition of the Psionic classes. I've almost ALWAYS played martially focused characters, the only exception being a Magus that I played around 2 years ago.
With that in mind, I'm thinking of throwing a caster together, but I'm not too sure. Any suggestions?
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I'd say, there are plently of options, when you are thinking about a spellcaster.
Because you did not give any specification, I will go with something I just had in my mind combined with your statement, that you like martials in generel.
The class here is Inquisitor, who picks Irori as his deity. This will get him Improved Unarmed Strike.
Then you take magical lineage for Spiritual Weapon and you learn the Toppling Spell Metamagic feat.
You now have a force fist fisting your enemies with the chance of tripping them.
You have high WIS, so you will take the Wolf Style feat chain with your goal to get at least Wolf Trip. Now, when your spirit fist succesfully fisttrips, you can make the victim land next to you.
And here is the point, where you need to find ways to make a use of that:
For example you can position yourself next to your meeles and let them fullattack instead of charging/moving to the target.
Or you just buy yourself a Guided Amulet of mighty Fists and full attack them, maybe also taking Vicious Stomp for extra attacks.
You will be mainly a support/battlefield control caster with a martial fluff. Still Guided and Judgement will make you a good martial in addition.
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I am going to say kineticist, mostly to be different, but also because I like the class.
So, what does it provide when judged by your statement?
No actual spells, but you use infusions that get certain spell like effects. Can be a hyper condensed version of the old truism of "pick a prepared caster if you aren't familiar with casters". While it depends on your choices, you can get a selection of solid abilities you can just pump out again and again. So it is good for the "I have a hammer, so how is the best way to hit these nails" approach of martials, as compared to the "I must prepare a perfect tool box filled with tools for every situation" approach that can happen with proper casters.
The infusions can be more like playing a martial with strange, strange maneuvers rather than spells. So it could be good as an introductory course.
So, how do they play beyond that?
Well, if you grab kinetic blade, you can go about smacking things with a sword of fire/earth/water/wind/heart/captain planet, and then have a ranged attack that can hit 30' feet.
Again- its basic use early on will be fairly familiar if you tend to play martial. Just with a bit more switch hitting, and maybe you spend a full round to do the "kinda like a maneuver" thing.
Overall, this lets you 'grow' into a caster mindset. You start off fairly martial, but then you eventually get more and more options that can shape the battlefield and impose debuffs on enemies.
If you ask me, I say give the bard a shot. Without archetypes it's decent enough in melee or with a shortbow while providing valuable buffs to attack rolls, damage rolls, and later on haste and good hope are amazing help in combat. Meanwhile with an archetype or even a dip into fighter the bard can be an amazing frontliner and potentially the best melee in your party. Trust me, I've seen a bard with a level of fighter be an absolute monster in melee.
That's a huge range of classes to pick from. Even if we restrict ourselves just to the 9-level casters from the sources you've mentioned as legal, that's Wizard, Sorcerer, Witch, Arcanist, Cleric, Druid, Oracle, Shaman, Psychic, Psion, Wilder, Tactician, and Vitalist. Each of those has many different ways they can be built and played.
I am personally partial to Sorcerers. With the human favored class bonus they can have lots of spells available. You do have to be careful with spell selection, but once he's built the Sorcerer is a lot of fun.
When picking a caster always consider what role you want to fill with them. I'd suggest reading TarkXT's "Forge of combat" - it's the first google link.
Once you know if you want to be a Hammer, Arm or Anvil; then you are ready to pick a class and build.
Wow, a bunch of replies! Lemme start from the beginning and work my way down:
@Nazrelle: That's an interesting build. I've never thought of an interaction like that...might be something to look into for the future.
@Mr_Outsidevoice: I'm sorry, I should have specified! Arcane, Divine, or Occult. All of these work for me, but I would prefer to remain within the Spontaneous casting classes. I'd like to do things other than just casting spells if possible.
@lemeres: Kineticists have piqued my interest since I first saw them printed. What's the deal with their limit to burn, though? Isn't it a bit low for them to be viable?
@HyperMissingno: I've actually played a Bard in the past. It was the Undine racial archetype, and I focused on the waterbending. It was awesome for utility, but I kept defaulting to the attacks with the water.
@Dasrak: You're right, I didn't give you much of a guideline of what to work with haha I guess I will restrict myself to 3/4 and full casters from just Paizo materials, preferring something that would allow me to build a support role.
@Corvino: I'll definitely read that right now to get a better idea, thank you!
At the moment, I'm thinking of playing either a Hexcrafter Magus, or a Witch. Regardless, my DM has allowed me to play either class as a Spontaneous caster (using the Bard casting charts if I go with Magus, or the Sorcerer casting charts if I go with Witch. Either one will retain the casting stat, so I'd still be using Int)
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Bard 7/Dragon Disciple 4
Take Flagbearer, combat Reflexes, and power attack. Use a longspear and grab up a banner of the ancient kings.
Basically your spells are buffs. You can buff your team and poke stuff very well with a spear and AoOs.
Your also going to have some nice amount of skills. So you will be useful in and out of combat.
As long as you start with an 14 str you will hit just fine all the way through your build.
All the extras you gain from DD is fun too. Claws, bite, breath weapon, Nat armor, D12 HD, +4 str.
After you reach the 11th level you decide which you continue. If you want more bard or more dragon abilities... Form of the dragon is fun.
I am going to say kineticist, mostly to be different, but also because I like the class.
So, what does it provide when judged by your statement?
No actual spells, but you use infusions that get certain spell like effects. Can be a hyper condensed version of the old truism of "pick a prepared caster if you aren't familiar with casters". While it depends on your choices, you can get a selection of solid abilities you can just pump out again and again. So it is good for the "I have a hammer, so how is the best way to hit these nails" approach of martials, as compared to the "I must prepare a perfect tool box filled with tools for every situation" approach that can happen with proper casters.
The infusions can be more like playing a martial with strange, strange maneuvers rather than spells. So it could be good as an introductory course.
So, how do they play beyond that?
Well, if you grab kinetic blade, you can go about smacking things with a sword of fire/earth/water/wind/heart/captain planet, and then have a ranged attack that can hit 30' feet.
Again- its basic use early on will be fairly familiar if you tend to play martial. Just with a bit more switch hitting, and maybe you spend a full round to do the "kinda like a maneuver" thing.
Overall, this lets you 'grow' into a caster mindset. You start off fairly martial, but then you eventually get more and more options that can shape the battlefield and impose debuffs on enemies.
Kineticists actually do a pretty good job of filling the wizard role, too. Fire/Air gets you a lot of the stuff that a team absolutely needs a 9th level caster for; you're not going to be as WTF powerful as a real wizard but it definitely gets the job done.
@lemeres: Kineticists have piqued my interest since I first saw them printed. What's the deal with their limit to burn, though? Isn't it a bit low for them to be viable?
Half of the class' features are devoted to reducing burn. Spellcasters boost their spells by raising the spell level via metamagics, and then just suck up the costs since they have dozens of slots. Kineticsits are designed to avoid having to suck it up as much as possible, since they reduce the costs instead.
Gather power reduces a blast's burn by 1 (2 at level 11)- this is your 'full attack', basically. Standard action blast +move action gather power
They reduce the total costs of infusions on a blast by 1 to 6. By level 5, you can spam any 1 burn infusion.
They can build up buffers- that is practically like saving spell slots to use tomorrow.
Overall, the higher the level, the more you can reduce costs to 0 and spam your options out all day.
It is entirely viable to go with relatively low burn on a kineticist. I say low...since the class is balanced around ahving SOME burn- your boost mechanic works off of burn. And you can accept that, since you are THE Con focused class. But I can run with 3 burn (which only feels like 2 due to the stat boost; it makes me feel like I have normal 14 con), and thus have an earth kineticist that gets +3 attack, +5 damage, and has DR 6: and all this at level 6. You need SOME burn, but most of the elements ahve defensive options that you can spend the burn on instead, which either makes up or softens the loss of effective HP.
You only have problems when you are trying to do all the big flashy stuff at once. That is when you go nova, and you feel the pain of it.