Right mates, I need a critique of a character I’m bringing into a 7th-level homebrew campaign.
House rule is the character must be 2 gestalted classes and have healing capability.
I want to be able to melee vs undead and evil outsiders and otherwise let the party tank do the melee while I sit back and blast with spells or plink with ranged attacks – undead, ranged, and blasting are areas where the party is weak.
The party is strong on healing of course, as well as melee, sneak attacks, knowledge, perception and skills in general.
Stats –
Str 13, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Dex 20, Cha 20
Race: Ifrit
Classes – Elemental Sorcerer & Virtuous Bravo Paladin
Feats accrue according to House rules and the following are my current choices -
Eschew Materials (Sorc)
Spell Focus - evocation school
Quickdraw – to aid Swashbuckler deeds per Virtuous Bravo
Craft Wands, Rods, & Staves – I’ll make some blasty wands to free daily spells for other uses
Precise Shot
Point Blank Shot
Extend Spell – to keep Mage Armor, Heroism, Protection vs Evil etc up all day
Dodge (Bloodline feat)
Dervish Dance
Next up will be Rapid Shot & Cleave
She will not use armor, but should be walking around with AC 21 as long as Mage Armor is up.
She’ll have the Ifrit alternate racial trait, “Wildfire Heart” for +4 Init, so Init won’t need additional help.
Per Swashbuckler Deeds, she should be using a light piercing weapon and I’m thinking a scimitar will suffice since the Dervish Dance feat makes it a piercing weapon.
Magic items have not been addressed yet, but I’m hoping Str help, bracers of AC or rings of protection are involved.
Suggestions, validating comments, disapproval, wry witticisms – all are welcome ;)
Healing is a bit difficult but I think a unchained scaled fist monk/sorc works better than the Paladin sorc in a lot of respects
For blasting you're going to want either draconic or orcish bloodline.
Every time I see Sorc/Paladin I think "Dragon Disciple." What you have so far looks pretty good though. Only thing I see that makes me scratch my head is the need for Str-boosting magical items when you have Dervish Dance listed as a feat.
Healing is a bit difficult but I think a unchained scaled fist monk/sorc works better than the Paladin sorc in a lot of respects
For blasting you're going to want either draconic or orcish bloodline.
You could do a level of Monk and the rest Paladin for Charisma to AC and Saves.
You never want to dip out of your gestalt. Your gestalt is good as is.
Assuming that you are playing as a human, you should have point blank shot and precise shot at lvl1. Add deadeye bowman trait and you have all of the shooting feats that you really need. Grab dervish dance at lvl3, and you have your melee requirements done as well.
And with that, you're good to go. Throw on a mithral buckler (-0 ACP, 0% arcane failure) to help with AC.
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All that said, I'd personally drop Int down to 8 and push Con up to 12. Or drop Dex down to 18 and use the extra points for Con. Even as a ranged fighter, you will be unarmored and will 'look weak' to alot of enemies. This makes you a natural target, especially in an ambush. Having a decent amount of HP might well be needed.
You could do a level of Monk and the rest Paladin for Charisma to AC and Saves.Healing is a bit difficult but I think a unchained scaled fist monk/sorc works better than the Paladin sorc in a lot of respects
For blasting you're going to want either draconic or orcish bloodline.
I recommend Combining the two suggestions.
Also, the feats don't really match what you're trying to do.
Rapid shot and cleave? Pick a range and don't generalize so much. Cleave will be a wasteful feat.
If you're Blasting what is the Rapid shot for? You can not rapid shot a spell.
I would recommend going the STR route with the Monk/Paladin levels. Just use a 1 handed weapon so you can cast in the offhand or use a Mithral Buckler for no spell failure. Skip the feat taxes of Dex to damage. If you go with Draconic and dragon disciple you can boost your STR by +4 and then use spells like Bull's strength to boost it even further...So if you do need to melee your way out of a situation you can drop a smite and pound brains in with a good strength, Power attack, and smite. If not your usually hanging out in the back blasting things to smithereens as a full caster. For healing, you have Mercies and LoHs which tends to be plenty when everyone else has access to healing too.
Just use a 1 handed weapon so you can cast in the offhand or use a Mithral Buckler for no spell failure. Skip the feat taxes of Dex to damage. If you go with Draconic and dragon disciple you can boost your STR by +4 and then use spells like Bull's strength to boost it even further...So if you do need to melee your way out of a situation you can drop a smite and pound brains in with a good strength, Power attack, and smite. If not your usually hanging out in the back blasting things to smithereens as a full caster. For healing, you have Mercies and LoHs which tends to be plenty when everyone else has access to healing too.
If you're going Strength based, use a two handed weapon. You can just take one hand off to cast, and put it back on after.
Just use a 1 handed weapon so you can cast in the offhand or use a Mithral Buckler for no spell failure. Skip the feat taxes of Dex to damage. If you go with Draconic and dragon disciple you can boost your STR by +4 and then use spells like Bull's strength to boost it even further...So if you do need to melee your way out of a situation you can drop a smite and pound brains in with a good strength, Power attack, and smite. If not your usually hanging out in the back blasting things to smithereens as a full caster. For healing, you have Mercies and LoHs which tends to be plenty when everyone else has access to healing too.If you're going Strength based, use a two handed weapon. You can just take one hand off to cast, and put it back on after.
As a player, I prefer to use a scimitar 2 handed and if I am Grabbed/Grappled I like to change to 1 hand and keep attack instead of losing the attack option or trying to dig out a 1 handed weapon. Plus the damage difference between a Falchion and a scimitar is 1.5 damage and I'm willing to take that small hit to be covered in a common scenario of a grab. Most of his damage will be multiplied on a critical either way and the main portion of his damage comes from Tagged on abilities such as smite, Arcane strike, Power attack.
If you're going for blasting the dragon disciple is probably a bad idea
You currently seem to be doing ranged and blasting and melee
I think you need to focus a little.
If you're going for blasting the dragon disciple is probably a bad idea
You currently seem to be doing ranged and blasting and melee
I think you need to focus a little.
why is it a bad Idea? You can grab bloodline Mutation and get +2 damage per dice rolled on damage.
Add in the PrC Spellcaster feats you wouldn't even lose a caster level.
They can even go with Crossblooded since they have paladin saves on the other side and grab Orc for +3 damage per Dice rolled. A fireball for 10d6+30 without a single meta magic seems pretty good. Intensify and Empower would then push it even further.
Seems like good damage to me.
As a player, I prefer to use a scimitar 2 handed and if I am Grabbed/Grappled I like to change to 1 hand and keep attack instead of losing the attack option or trying to dig out a 1 handed weapon. Plus the damage difference between a Falchion and a scimitar is 1.5 damage and I'm willing to take that small hit to be covered in a common scenario of a grab. Most of his damage will be multiplied on a critical either way and the main portion of his damage comes from Tagged on abilities such as smite, Arcane strike, Power attack.Just use a 1 handed weapon so you can cast in the offhand or use a Mithral Buckler for no spell failure. Skip the feat taxes of Dex to damage. If you go with Draconic and dragon disciple you can boost your STR by +4 and then use spells like Bull's strength to boost it even further...So if you do need to melee your way out of a situation you can drop a smite and pound brains in with a good strength, Power attack, and smite. If not your usually hanging out in the back blasting things to smithereens as a full caster. For healing, you have Mercies and LoHs which tends to be plenty when everyone else has access to healing too.If you're going Strength based, use a two handed weapon. You can just take one hand off to cast, and put it back on after.
Sure, but you did suggest to use a 1H weapon "so you can cast in the offhand".
Back on topic, Dragon Disciple and Scaled Fist go together nicely. You can use the Prestigious Spellcaster feat to retain your casting progression, if you don't mind the feat expenditure on a character with few bonus feats.
Because blasting requires feats and traits
3 metamagic
2 Spell focus
2 Spell pen
Spell perfection
Mages tattoo or Spell specialisation or both.
Magical lineage
I don't think adding more feats to compensate for a prestige class that does 0 to benefit the build your attempting is a good idea
You're already 9/10 feats in the whole and if you're going cross blooded (which I wouldn't) that means your first bloodline feat is going to be bloodhavoc and your second is probably going to be blood intensity. And one of your two traits.
On top of that your going to want to pump CHA incredibly high do your str won't be high enough to be a good melee fighter till you get the dragon form powers anyway.
So of your 10 feats 9 are spoken for, of your 3 bloodline feats 2 are spoken for and the lion share of your point buy is spoken for
You're telling me you want to divest into melee and a prestige class now? Why exactly? Being a blaster and being in melee don't mix in a practical manner anyway, you don't Blast in melee and you don't melee in Blast range to be good at blasting you're going to have to focus so why bother with the melee bit?
And no 65 with a save for half using the most resisted damage isn't particularly exciting at level 10.
If you want to then by all means, go ahead but I wouldn't.
If I were you I would rethink the concept a little bit.
Rather that sorcerer I would go with Oracle. Similar theme but it has better synergy with the Paladin class.
I'd focus on archery, and have your spells be a mix of control and support that you use in an emergency or when things are particularly suited for them. I would skip blasting entirely, it will be pretty rare that a spell is going to do anywhere near as much damage as a good archer. You also don't really need the melee feats, especially if your group already has plenty of melee characters.
I think nature oracle would be your best bet and use that for an animal companion to get a mount (you won't need the mounted archer feat, but being able to move and shoot can be very powerful).
Similarly, I'd skip the Virtuous Bravo archetype on the Paladin, but I'd think pretty strongly about divine hunter. That will give you medium armor, which should work well with high dex.
You should be able to do quite good damage all of the time, and pretty incredible damage when smiting. You will have spells for an emergency, and since they won't be your focus in combat you should be able to cover a lot of bases for when weird stuff happens.
I'd be very tempted to drop the CHR a couple points in exchange for better STR and CON. Unless you are going to focus on Save-Or-Lose you really don't need a CHR that high.
I think given what you have described in the campaign and what you are currently thinking about playing this would be a stronger character while still keeping a lot of the basic nature of the character you are thinking about, just a lot more focused.
Divine Hunter trades good class features for mostly bad ones. It's a dedicated archer that isn't as good an archer as the default, after level 3 or so.
Oracle doing the dragon mystery with a Paladin could be really fun.
Because blasting requires feats and traits
3 metamagic
2 Spell focus
2 Spell pen
Spell perfection
Mages tattoo or Spell specialisation or both.
Magical lineageI don't think adding more feats to compensate for a prestige class that does 0 to benefit the build your attempting is a good idea
You're already 9/10 feats in the whole and if you're going cross blooded (which I wouldn't) that means your first bloodline feat is going to be bloodhavoc and your second is probably going to be blood intensity. And one of your two traits.
On top of that your going to want to pump CHA incredibly high do your str won't be high enough to be a good melee fighter till you get the dragon form powers anyway.
So of your 10 feats 9 are spoken for, of your 3 bloodline feats 2 are spoken for and the lion share of your point buy is spoken for
You're telling me you want to divest into melee and a prestige class now? Why exactly? Being a blaster and being in melee don't mix in a practical manner anyway, you don't Blast in melee and you don't melee in Blast range to be good at blasting you're going to have to focus so why bother with the melee bit?
And no 65 with a save for half using the most resisted damage isn't particularly exciting at level 10.
If you want to then by all means, go ahead but I wouldn't.
Optimized blasting requires:
Spell perfection
Mages tattoo or Spell specialisation or both.
Magical lineage
None are really mandatory for a functional build, for an optimized as shit build then yes.
One can argue you can more than get by with just spell pen and D. Essences for enemies with Spell Resistance. But I'm not here to argue that point.
Spell Focus and greater are needed as well as a good CHA but he is starting with a 20 cha...not much better than that really.
Blood Intensity is a waste...just take intensify instead, it doesn't stack so take the meta magic that isn't limited to uses per day. Only Mutation worth a damn is Havoc.
A sample build would look like:
Feats:
Human: Favored PrC- Dragon Disciple
1: Spell Focus- Evocation
3: Greater Spell Focus
5: Intensify Spell
7: Prestigious Spell Caster- D.D.
7: (Bloodline Feat)- Bloodline Mutation- Havoc (Can push to 9th level for Power attack earlier if you want)
9: Spell Pen
9: (Bloodline) - Power attack
11: Prestigious Spell Caster- D.D.
12: (Bloodline)- Improved Initiative
13: Dazing Spell or Empower Spell ((You Pick control vs Damage))
15: (Bloodline)- Quicken Spell
15: Spell Perfection
With that kind of Build, you would have capable blasting...not optimized but still viable damage for a blaster whom can Jump into melee if they so desired without any fears.
Towards end game, you will be a smiting dragon who can let loose AoE blasts. Seems like a fun character to me.
Fire can be resisted but smart play, spell choice, and buys can get around things so trivial.
Blood intensity let's you get more caster levels than intensify spell. There is also some people who say it doesn't raise spell level but I'm not sure if I agree. It's definitely worth it though. An extra 10D6 instead of 5D6 and 10/15 from havoc and draconic bloodline (and maybe orc) means an extra 27 (on average) damage from empower rather than 11.
Making intensify -5D6+10=27
Empower means that the intensify brings that to 40 damage.
Blood intensity -10D6+20=55
Empower means an extra 82
+42 damage from blood intensity.
This is all assuming an eventual ability score mod of 30 and actually bothering to boost CL but it's always seemed worth while to me. Although I suggest taking it for your third bloodline feat now I think about it.
I would rather go an unchained scale fist monk, with a moderate Dex investment and weapon finesse as a single feat you can have powerful AC good to hit and and a high DC stunning fist when things try to melee you. Once you hit agile amulet of mighty fist you can just kill shit in melee.
Use the monk bonus feats for the medusa line and your normal feats to make a blaster god.
I think that's the best gestalt for a blaster sorcerer.
If you want to be a smiting dragon go oracle with the dragon mystery. By level 15 you can be a dragon for hours per level. It's a much better route for being a dragon fighter than sorc into dragon disciple in my opinion. Much less clunky. Although gestalt does smooth that out.
Just throwing it out there, for what it is worth...
Human
Dual Cursed Lunar Oracle / Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer
Feats
Lvl 1: Scion of War (Cha for initiative)
Lvl 1 Bonus Feat: Extra Mystery
Lvl 3: Tribal Scars Raptor Scale (+6 HP, +5ft movement, +2 acrobatics)
Lvl 5: Toughness (+1 HP per level)
Lvl 7: Some caster feat
Revelations
Lvl 1: Misfortune
Lvl 1: Prophetic Armor (Cha for AC, CMD, Ref)
Lvl 3: Gift of Claw and Horn (Gore Attack)
Lvl 5: Fortune
Lvl 7: Primal Companion (full level animal companion)
Your stats...
Str (20) Dex (10) Con (13) Int (10) Wis (11) Cha (20)
Traits
* Plague Born (+2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease)
* Fate's Favored for divine favor buffing, perhaps?
Curse 1
* Hunger (Bite attack and sickened)
* Plagued, doesn't advance (-1 saves against disease, immune to sickened)
Natural Weapons
* Hunger Curse (Bite)
* Sorcerer (2x Claws)
* Lunar Oracle (Gore)
You are now a Cha full caster for divine and arcane magic, both spontaneous. Even with a low Cha score of 13, you will have a decent amount of hit points from toughness and tribal scars. At lvl8 bump it up to a respectable 14.
If anyone closes into close combat with you, you can hit them with 5x natural attacks. You also have an animal companion as if though you were a druid who can fight with you. So anyone who does close in on you has 2 people to fight.
For your defenses, throw on some mage armor. Get +5 AC from your charisma. Sit in the back and cast spells.
With full access to oracle and sorcerer spells, with your re-roll abilities, you should be plenty useful to the party.
There are some great tidbits above – thanks All.
Since there are more house rules than I enumerated in my first post – can’t be two full casting classes, casting classes can’t use the same casting stat, no prestige classes – and since I played a dedicated Ranger-archer/Sorcerer a couple campaigns ago and am trying to fill a party need without duplicating that character, there are some suggestions I just can’t latch onto now but may use in the future.
I have 9-10 days to get this figured out and will take full advantage of those suggestions above which I can use, so thanks again.
I appreciate all the advice above. I was indeed trying to do too much with her. I re-focused on blast-casting first, melee vs evils 2nd and left archery by the wayside. Here's how this Ifrit gal - think of a habanero Poppy Montegomery - has turned out -
Sorcerer-Elemental Bloodline (8) // Virtuous Bravo Paladin (8)
Str 08 -1
Con 12 +1
Int 13 +1
Wis 10 +0
Dex 20 +5 (22 +6, Belt)
Chr 21 +5 (23 circlet, 25 +7 for Sorcerer abilities)
Init +10 (+12)
Fort +15 (Immune to disease)
Ref +21
Will +15 (Immune to Fear & Charm)
AC 24 (28 w/Mage armor)
Special -
Favored/Primary Class – Paladin (hit pts), Secondary Class - Sorcerer
Elemental Bloodline (Fire)
Elemental Resistance – Energy resistance 10 vs Fire
From Lvl 1, use Elemental Ray – 1d6 (+1 per 2 lvls) damage
Multiply Sorcerer class level by 1.5 for Elemental Ray effects
Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Smite Evil 3/Day
Divine Grace – add Chr bonus to all Saves
Lay on Hands – 3D6 healing, 8/Day
Bravo’s Finesse – use Dex mod instead of Str on attack rolls
Immunity to fear & Allies within 10’ gain +4 on saves vs Fear
Divine Health – immunity to diseases
Nimble (Virtuous Bravo) - +2 Dodge bonus to AC
Channel Positive Energy – 4D6 in a 30’ burst
Archon Bond – 1 min/lvl, hostiles within 15’ make a Will save or suffer -2 Att, Save, & AC
Aura of Resolve – allies within 10’ add +4 to saves vs Charm
Panache (Virtuous Bravo) – 5 pts / Day
Deeds - dodging panache, menacing swordplay, opportune parry & riposte, precise strike, & swashbuckler initiative
Traits
- Eyes and Ears of the City (Religion) – +1 to Perception, Perception becomes a class skill
- Magical Lineage (Magic) – Pick one spell & drop the metamagic cost by 1 (Fireball)
- Conspiracy Hunter (Campaign) - +1 to Stealth & Stealth becomes a class skill
Drawback
- Unlearned – Cannot attempt untrained Knowledge checks – exception is Know-Geography
Racial Traits: Native Outsider
Fire Affinity - +2 to Charisma for Sorcerer abilities
60’ Darkvision
Wildfire Heart - +4 to Initiative
Efreeti Magic – Use Enlarge or Reduce Person, 1/day
Mostly Human - counts as humanoid (human) as well as outsider (native) for all purposes
Feats (9+1) Feats are subject to House rules – additional feats allowed at 1st, 4th, & 8th lvl
-(Class) Eschew Materials (Sorc)
-(Gen) Spell Focus-Evocation - Add 1 to the DC for all saving throws vs these spells
-(R1) Mage’s Tattoo-Evocation – cast Evoc spells at +1 caster level & cast Dancing Lights 3/day
-(1) Dervish Dance – add Dex bonus to melee attack & damage rolls in place of Str
-(3) Greater Spell Focus-Evocation - Add 1 to the DC for all saving throws vs these spells
-(R4) Expanded Arcana - Forge Ring
-(5) Expanded Arcana – add 2 spells known, one level below the highest current spell level
-(B7) Empower Spell – variable numeric effects of a spell are increased by half (+2 spell lvl)
-(7) Spell Penetration - +2 to caster level checks (1d20 + caster level) to overcome SR
-(R8) Persistent Spell – when target fails save it must save again or be affected (+2 spell lvl)
Skills (56 pts) Total Ability/Rank/Class/Misc/Misc
Bluff (Chr) 16 6/7/3 Appraise (Int) 00 1/0/3
Diplomacy (Chr) 16 6/7/3 Craft – Artist (Int) 08 1/5/3
Fly (Dex) 09 6/0/3 Know – Arcana (Int) 05 1/1/3
Handle Animal (Chr) 11 6/2/3 Know – Nobility (Int) 05 1/1/3
Intimidate (Chr) 16 6/7/3 Know – Planes (Int) 05 1/1/3
Ride (Dex) 09 6/0/3 Know – Religion (Int) 05 1/1/3
Stealth (Dex) 23 6/8/3/1/5 Linguistics (Int) 06 1/5/0
Perform-Dance (Chr) 08 6/2/0 Perception (Wis) 05 0/1/3/1
Profession - Artist (Wis) 04 0/1/3 Sense Motive (Wis) 04 0/1/3
UMD (Chr) 11 6/2/3 Spellcraft (Int) 08 1/4/3
Magic
Head: Brow Circlet – Charisma +2
Ring 1 – Protection +2
Ring 2 – Sustenance
Neck: Choker Nat AC +1
Waist: Belt – Dex +2
Arms: Bracers of Resistance +2
Other Magic: Heward’s Handy Haversack, Wand of Mage Armor (50 charges), Lucky Horseshoe (+1 to saves, +4 1/day), Ioun Stone – Ruby Trillian +5 Stealth
Weapons: Scimitar +1 ‘Holy’ (6315)
Armor: Mithril Buckler +2
I've played her through 2 sessions so far and she is doing fine, filling the party's need for arcane casting well and helping with undead and evil outsiders where we were weak. Other party members have OD'd on Perception, Dipolomacy, and Knowledge, but she'll nonetheless be pumping skill points into Perception next level. Thanks to all.