Suppose I wanted to make a mounted arcane caster wearing significant armour. The Hellknight Signifer PRC has full spellcasting progression (though I would likely dip for the armour proficiency requirement) and reduces the ASF for armour by a total of 10%. this is 20% combined with mithril. It also grants Arcane Armour Mastery, but I worry about constantly using my swift action on a (nearly) fullcaster build. Should I restrict myself to ASF 20 armours, eat the swift action, or are their other ASF reductions I'm unfamiliar with?
That doesn't actually help. The base reductions are 20, Arcane Armour Mastery increses to 40, whihc is enough for fullplate. Signifer armour training still uses the swift.
You'd think the hellknights would be more organized.
There's also using still spell by feat or by rod, hunting down those V component only spells, and trying to arrange for buffs to last long enough that you cast them before putting on armor. Swift Girding can help with that last.
Celestial armor allowed as an enchantment?
Psychic bloodline sorcerer
Don't take the swift action. Seriously not worth it
I never considered psychic bloodline, that could be really good. Still might want a 1 level dip for proficiency, and arcane armor training is going to be a useless feat tax, but still could be awesome.
Next question, assuming Psychic sorcerer.
I was originally going to use Wood elementalist wizard or Magaambyan/collegiate initiate Arcanist for a few specific plant based spells. Is crossblooded Verdant reasonable?
I know, this really shouldn't be done arcane, but if it were easy, I wouldn't need to ask for advice.
Once you go into a PrC you stop getting bloodline spells. Assuming you take 6 levels of sorcerer that means you get entangle and barkskin, not any of the higher level spells. Is this worth the -2 Will save & loss of other spells known that crossblooded takes to you?
One other thought - the mongrel mage archetype lets you choose your bloodline each day, effectively. It still costs a swift action but probably only one per combat rather than one per round. Because it's weirdly written you'd probably want to take 7 sorcerer levels rather than the minimum 6.
Considering I was primarily going Hellknight for the ASF reduction, going fighter 1/ sorc X is a possibility with psychic bloodline.
If you become a member of the Order of the Gate and take the Hellknight Obedience feat, you eventually receive a benefit that allows you to ignore arcane spell failure for any armor you wear that has "Hellknight" in the name.
This sounds workable, but I was unable to find the specifics on AoN or d20SRD. Do you have a link I can use?
Why are you mixing the fighter in there? Playing an arcane caster without attack rolls is fairly easy. Also you don't need medium armor proficiency to get into the PRC anymore. For weapon proficiency I would just buy an ion stone or a +1 training spiked gauntlet
Can I ask where it is that medium armour is no longer required?
Did I misunderstand your earlier post? I was referring to the fighter 1/sorcerer X. With psychic bloodline there would be no reason to go into Hellknight Signifier and therefore fighter
I don't think I'm ready for full nonprofiecency. Initiative matters for a fullcaster, after all. If signifer no longer required medium armour, I could go straight to heavy.
There's always Variant Multiclassed Battle Oracle with the Legalistic curse and Skill at Arms at level 3 if you want to skip all that messy multiclassing.
I'm not sure if that would work. Skill at arms gives you proficiency in Heavy armor, but since Oracles already have medium armor proficiency it normally wouldn't matter. The prerequisite for the class is medium armor proficiency.