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So the Elemental races are now out and I really have wanted to build this psuedo-Bloodrager for a while now. So let's start with concept.
I want to sprint up smack the big bad with my beating stick, the quicken a damage spell. So let's look at how I want to do this.
Racial effects:Fire Affinity: Ifrit sorcerers with the elemental (fire) bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities.
Darkvision: Ifrits can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Efreeti Magic: can cast either enlarge person or reduce person once per day as a spell-like ability (caster level equals the ifrit's level)
Wildfire Heart Ifrits with this trait are as swift and dangerous as a blazing wildfire. They gain a +4 racial bonus on initiative checks
Stats
Str 16
Dex 13(+2 Racial)
Con 14
Int 7
Wis 7 (-2 Racial)
Chr 16 (+2 Racial)
Traits: Reactionary, ????
Feats:
1st: Power Attack
3rd: Extra Traits= The regional and magical for -2 to metamagic cost on one 3rd lv or lower spell
5th: Combat Casting
7th: Quicken Meta magic
9th: Vital Strike
11th: Ipr. Vital Strike
Bonus:7th: Imp. Init. (with Imp. Init we are looking at: +3 Dec +2 Reactionary +4 Wildfire +4 Imp Init and likely a +1 ioun=+14 Init
Crossblooded: Elemental bloodline and Orc bloodline
Im thinking about discussing with my GM if the Effreti bloodline would be acceptable in place of the Elemental bloodline.
But that is my idea so far, would love to hear some advice/thoughts.
First question is, how do you charge into melee and not die? Con 14, a d6 HD and an AC of 11 (15 w/mage armor) is not a recipe for lasting success there. Maybe you're thinking a longspear and maybe enlarge person will keep you far enough away to be out of the action? IME it doesn't, though I haven't played in PFS.
With BAB zero at first level you can't take Power Attack then. The order Combat Casting, Power Attack, Additional Traits works better. Similarly you won't ever qualify for Improved Vital Strike (BAB +11 required).
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Thank you I will note those errors, unfortunately, I was doing much of this without any reference. So the idea is that my AC will be adequate with the full magical AC bonuses putting myself around 20-30 as I level with buffs ie (Shield, Mage armor, Rings of Prot. Barkskin). Also I mean sure my health isn't great but a Fighter is only going to have 13 at level 1 and we are only looking at a difference of 2 HP per lv. So I dont see how a fighter or a barbarian with 13-15 Hp and a 15 Ac is much worse than a full caster with 9 HP with a 20 AC.
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So lets look at a higher lv. comparison, say lv 9.
Barbarian around 105-120 HP an AC of maybe like 16-18 with an extra 18 HP while raging
Sorceror around 80 HP with an AC of 22-25 With the ability to cast 4th lv spells.
Now in terms of damage, I'll likely only be doing a 1d10+15 where a barbarian would be doing 2d10 plus 35, but then I'll be doing a quickened Scorching ray for potentially 8d6+8. This build is by no means going to be "great" and sure a bloodrager at lv 13 could do like 16d6+30 and then do a quickened ray. But I think this build is a different change of pace and doesn't pidgeon-hole me as much
Why exactly don't you want a bloodrager? I don't really see how it pigeon holes you. Just curious I don't mean to sound dickish or anything
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Well, you kind of need power attack to do damage, but you don't have the accuracy with 1/2 BAB to really make it useful. You also won't have the AC and hit points to survive melee combat very well without significant buffs beforehand. This build won't come on line until late in the game with the use of quickened spells. It can be done much better much earlier with blade adept acanist. magus, or eldritch knight.
Putting up shield (later, mirror image) requires a spare round which you won't always have. Unlike a magus a sorc gets no action economy advantage there. You won't even know a second spell of your choice until 3rd level (crossblooded) so the mage armor/shield combo will have to wait until then; 20 AC won't happen at first level. You're going to be a step behind a fighter even when buffed as you go up levels. There's a reason that the magus and bloodrager were made, sorcerers don't handle melee well until they can layer buffs (~8th level, or higher if you go into eldritch knight).
For reference there's d20pfsrd or Archives of Nethys or even the Pathfinder reference document, all of which can be used free online.
So lets look at a higher lv. comparison, say lv 9.
Barbarian around 105-120 HP an AC of maybe like 16-18 with an extra 18 HP while ragingSorceror around 80 HP with an AC of 22-25 With the ability to cast 4th lv spells.
Now in terms of damage, I'll likely only be doing a 1d10+15 where a barbarian would be doing 2d10 plus 35, but then I'll be doing a quickened Scorching ray for potentially 8d6+8. This build is by no means going to be "great" and sure a bloodrager at lv 13 could do like 16d6+30 and then do a quickened ray. But I think this build is a different change of pace and doesn't pidgeon-hole me as much
It pidgeons you much more severely. You're essentially a crappy sorcerer who can throw two signficant hitting blows a day and you don't have any particualar route to excell.
Whereas the Bloodrager has both melee and magic. Having seen them in actual action instead of theorycrafting, I have to assume that you've examined both bloodragers and your sorcerer build almost entirely through theorycraft instead of play. It's fairly certain that you haven't done any through playtesting of what you are proposing.
The difference between the fighter with medium ac, and the sorceror with high ac? The sorceror dies on a crit. the fighter probably won't.
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I understand how these other classes work, I have 9 characters in PFS alone. I get that that it is more optimal to just either be a blaster caster or be a melee build. But I have played both of those, I currenly have a lv 14 arcane caster. What I haven't played is an ifrit, and making him a bloodrager makes him miss out on one of their coolest abilities. So at lv 12 I'll have a +13 to hit instead of a +17 yes I'll hit less often. The goal is to play this concept in an optimal way. Not to play a different class entirely.
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I am loving the Int:7 and Wis:7... at least Cha is good.
Well technically it is 7 int and 5 wisdom, but mainly with will saves I'm worried about being controlled and being an outsider makes many of those not work on me. And I mean could go and have a 10 and get one more skill per lv. But I'm already going to be terrible at skills so why bother.
If you're set on this, OK. Some advice which may help:
Don't always charge in. Sometimes it may be better to throw those scorching rays from a distance.
Make sure you get stuff to save you from your will save (in PFS, a clear spindle ioun stone & a wayfinder); -2 crossblooded & -2 wis are a bad start even with a good progression. Similarly, melee types need to survive poison & you have a poor fort save, a potion of delay poison may save your life.
Don't just focus on AC. Mirror image may be a better deal than shield.
The Blood Havoc bloodline mutation may be worth getting
blood havoc isn't pfs legal
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If you're set on this, OK. Some advice which may help:
Don't always charge in. Sometimes it may be better to throw those scorching rays from a distance.
Make sure you get stuff to save you from your will save (in PFS, a clear spindle ioun stone & a wayfinder); -2 crossblooded & -2 wis are a bad start even with a good progression. Similarly, melee types need to survive poison & you have a poor fort save, a potion of delay poison may save your life.
Don't just focus on AC. Mirror image may be a better deal than shield.
The Blood Havoc bloodline mutation may be worth getting
Saves are going to be rough, and I'm planning on accepting that many time I may just have to deal with the effects of a save. Also the spindle does not help me as I'm an outsider and typically you dont see the big bads running around with dominate monster. For Reflex I'm going to have a decent resistance to fire, and hopefully will be mobile enough to not get targetted to terribly much. Fortitude is going to be similar, but typically you can avoid many poisons, and while I will likely have my saves be 2-3 lower than if I was a melee, my Will, will still be higher than a cross blooded bloodrager.
So my plan is for spells to cycle my spells known as I level and get my bloodline spells. For example, if I take Burning hands at lv.1, and then get mage armor as my next known spell at 3 and get burning hands at as a bonus spell at 3. Then at 4 I can choose to switch my taken spell version of burning hands and take shield instead. Due to the fact that my bonus spells are going to be my damaging attacks I can use my actual known spells for buffs/ alt. types of damage.
Lastly, I think that I will re-train the Blood Havoc After lv 4-6, somewhere in that range. At low level having 8 CL-1 scorching rays seems to useful to give up right away. But for a straight blaster caster, Blood havoc on a crossblooded Draconic/Orc bloodline that is +3 per, I will for sure keep note of that.
You might want to dip into a martial class and then prestige into eldritch knight. You'll lose only one caster level, but you'll gain in BAB (the Achilles heel of any full caster trying to be martial) and some fighter feats to boost your damage output.
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I very much like this prestige class on this. 7 levels sorcerer 8th level matrial 9-12 eldritch knight. If playing higher I'd probably would take 2 more levels of sorc for the bloodline power then continue knight. This way I could take lv. 1 fighter, and start with 2 feats and be able to take power att right off the bat.