I am building a gestalt character that I will be playing through the Giantslayer AP with a 3 person party. The rest of the party will be:
Cleric/Shaman-tons of spell casting options, healing, and massive flexibility.
Cavalier/Bard-skills, inspire courage, and an animal companion.
It appears we are in need of an arcane caster, however since the Cleric/Shaman will not be a melee character, I feel that we will also need a 2nd front line character.
Thoughts on:
Barbarian/Druid-with the Druid archetype that Wild Shapes to giants. Downside: no arcane casting.
Bloodrager/Druid-same as above but with "some" arcane casting.
Unchained Monk/Sorcerer-Gives me melee option while still carrying full arcane caster. With this option I would go into Dragon Disciple.
If there is an arcane casting option that uses WIS as a casting stat I would be happy to see it. I haven't found it yet, but I have not searched through all archetype options.
Tips on above options, as well as different builds is appreciated.
Empyreal crossblooded bloodline is the Wis-casting Sorc (Ultimate Magic). It's what I was going to suggest, but if going that direction, I likely wouldn't take Dragon Disciple. As much for theme reasons as mechanical ones, though.
Another option worth considering is a Kensai/Bladebound Magus / Tattoed Sage Sorc. It gives you a lot of flexibility, especially if you pick up Additional Traits to pick up some additional class skills.
1. To answer your specific question, a Sorc with the Empyreal Wildblooded Bloodline casts using Wisdom.
Now on to my opinion...
2. You don't NEED an arcane caster. What you need is a caster that can fulfill the gaps in the spell selection that your party may have.
From the looks of it, you are well set on healing/buffing/debuffing/blasting/deception.
What you seem to be lacking is someone who can reliably take down a target from range but can also cover a point when the CavBard is overwhelmed.
With that in mind, I think you'd do well with an UnMonk/Empyreal Sorcerer, but there are other options out there to consider:
- UnBarbarian/Kineticist: A really cool combo - can blast enemies to bits while also smashing face. Since Gather Energy works with free hands, you can go with a natural weapon build using Animal Totem so you don't interfere with that. You don't know cool until you do a massive burn blast that you only survive thanks to the temp HP of your Rage.
- Kensai Magus/UnRogue: A typical combination but works pretty well for what your party seems to be needing.
- Fighter/Vox Mesmerist: Surprisingly good. You can build yourself to be a heavy armored murderball that can blow minds. The usual problems of the Fighter are solved with Mesmerist.
I really like the Barbarian/Kineticist combo...but why Unchained over standard? Pumping STAM will help both the Barb & Kin. Nice combo.
Honestly, I am not at all interested in the Magus class, so options with that do not appeal to me.
Not a big fan of regular Barbarian due to Rage Death. With Burn being part of the equation, I think it's more likely you'll end up killing yourself... I rather err on the safe side, but I can imagine how powerful Rage + Raging Vitality feat could be for a Kineticist.
In any case, I guess it's your preference.
As for how to build the Barb/Kin, I think it would be good to take an interesting idea to go fully unarmored and starting off with the Water element, and using the Water Defense Infusion for AC.
You'd take the Savage Barbarian archetype to increase your AC even further while naked. But the cool thing about Savage Barbarian is that it removes your Damage Reduction, so when you get your second element, pick up Earth and get its Defensive Infusion. That way, you can get DR X/adamantine, which is pretty good, higher than the usual Barb DR at least.
So Water/Earth KineBarb. Basically, a Tsunami Caller.
All stats you need are STR/CON/DEX. A pretty good race for this would be a Hobgoblin/Lizardfolk/Oversized Goblin, or simply Human/Half-Orc/Dwarf/Half-Elf.