Ok, I am wanting to build a character that can be an outright destroyer. I do have some requirements because it is a pre-existing character that I am allowed to fully edit. Here are the guidelines.
Race: Dwarf.
Level 14: 7 Bladebound Magus(minimum) & a 7 level mix between Fighter, Barb, Magus
Point Buy: 30
2 Traits.
I know the abuse Magus can have with shocking grasp, so I will be going down that route. Magical Lineage/Intensify Spell and all the needed fun.
Because of the Intensify Spell I was thinking about going Magus 10, but if anyone has other recommendations it would be greatly welcomed.
Also, this is going to be a 3v1 situation where I am the 1.
The other classes are a Sorcerer, Gunslinger, & Hunter
Initiative is important for any PvP build, no matter what kind. Dex builds help, as does Improved Initiative.
Stay full Magus, you will want 5th level spells. Aside from anything else, it allows you to Teleport out if things aren't going your way, and try again another day.
A Dex build (and the Kensai archetype, if possible) will give you a respectable Initiative, as well as good AC and Touch AC against the Gunslinger and the Sorcerer's touch spells. Steel Soul (feat) and Glory of Old (trait) along with your high ability scores will have you well-covered for saves against spells.
Variant Multiclass Wizard (Conjuration-Teleportation school) and Dimensional Agility will give you the ability to teleport as a Swift Action, though unfortunately you can't gain the Familiar as Bladebound locks it out. Playing hit-and-run is essential since even as a Magus, you are on the losing side of the action economy against three players, a Hunter's pet, and possibly a familiar, summons, etc. from the Sorcerer.
Intensified Shocking Grasp does provide adequate damage, but it may be a good idea to pick up Elemental Spell to give you an alternative in case the Hunter and/or Sorcerer are packing Resist Energy.
If you don't go with Kensai, you could consider focusing on Fireball instead and blasting them over and over again (using Spell Recall) with Intensified Empowered Fireballs. If you want to go all-in on this strategy, you could make your Wizard VMC the Evocation-Admixture School to change elements on the fly and add a little extra damage, and maybe even take a level of Crossblooded Orc/Draconic Sorcerer to push the damage to 20d6+47 with Fire (+27 with some other element), then follow it right up with a Quickened Fireball for another 10d6+27. That's an average of 179 damage, which leaves them in a world of hurt even if they pass both saves. You could get yourself a Rod of Empower Spell, or use Empowered Arcana, and make the first one a Dazing Empowered Intensified Spell to really put the hurt on them. Because the Sorcerer will also teleport them out if things are going badly for them, or stick you with a save-or-die spell (which there is always a chance to fail), it's essential to take them by surprise and kill or cripple them in the first round.
If you have some means of spotting them from afar, you can be pelting them from 1000 feet away—even a Distance Composite Longbow will be at its 5th range increment.
How much gear will you have, and can you increase it with Item Creation feats?
Full Magus seconded although I do recognize you would only have 4th level spells. Your best hope of survival is to 1 shot a target each turn. Most of your 3rd level spellslots should be Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasp.
Depending on your restrictions on equipment you can do some dumb stuff. UMD->9th level scrolls? Quickdrawing multiple precharged spellstoring weapons? Construct Armor? Candle of Invocation? If you have enough gold a rod of maximize would be amazing. Also a rod of elemental spell is a good idea
Full Magus seconded although I do recognize you would only have 4th level spells.
A full 14th level Magus should have 5th level spells: 2 per day base, plus (most likely) 1 from INT score, with the option to Spell Recall for more.
Your right. Misread level. Sorry
Item creation is allowed, he was a crafter in the first place. 14th level starting gold. I have not been given any restrictions on equipment. But our group does not use 3rd party publications. Paizo only equipment.
By higher levels, Intensified Shocking Grasp isn't really what it was when a Magus was young. Not that it's bad, but 10d6 just doesn't look as impressive by level 14; heavy hitters should be doing that kind of damage with a single two-handed attack by that level, while the Magus is stuck using one-handed combat. You may want to think about things like Rime Spell Frostbite or Dazing Spell options or whatever if you really want to dominate opposition.
I made a big detailed post, but the forum ate it.
Take a level in Crossblooded Sorcerer (Orc/Draconic) for a major damage boost to your blasting. With 13 Magus levels you will need Spell Specialization (Fireball) to get the full potential out of Intensify Spell.
With full PC wealth boosted further by Craft Wondrous Item, you can afford all your stat boosters, defensive items, etc. and have more than enough left over for an array of Elemental Spell rods and a couple of Intensify Spell rods.
Use the Dwarf's Favored Class Bonus to make Empowered and Maximized Magic usable twice a day. Take the usual Magical Lineage + Wayang Spellhunter combo to lower metamagic costs by 2 slots.
Even with only 13 levels of Magus you still have 1 base 5th-level slot for blasting, plus 1 bonus from your INT score for Teleport.
Round 1:
Standard Action: Dazing Rod-Intensified Arcana-Empowered Arcana-Maximized Fireball (4th level slot)
Swift Action: Quickened Rod-Intensified Arcana-Empowered Arcana-Maximized Fireball (5th level slot)
230-315 damage (avg 272) on two failed saves, with a chance to Daze the targets for 3 rounds if they fail the first save.
115-157 damage (avg 136) on two passed saves. Note that the Gunslinger, who would likely have the most health of the lot, would have around 123 HP (assuming 14d10 HD, max HD at level 1, average roll afterwards, 14 Con, and Favored Class Bonus into HP)
Later Rounds:
Swift Action: Improved Spell Recall the Dazing Fireball (costs 2 Arcane Pool)
Standard Action: Cast the Dazing Fireball, applying the Intensify rod again.
45-120 damage (avg 82) on a failed save, half on a passed save.
Damage will be lowered if you have to switch elements (especially if you are relying on a Rod for Intensify since feats will be tight, and you want to keep that Teleport handy). But still very respectable.
If you find yourself out of high level slots you can always boost your weapon, Spell Combat with Intensified Shocking Grasp (now a 2nd level spell but Recallable for 1 arcane pool point), get stuck in, and hope for the best. Note that with Intensify and the Bloodline bonuses, even the lowly Burning Hands will be hitting for 30-60 damage in a 15' cone. Spell Combat True Strike for a Disarm attempt can really ruin the Gunslinger's day.
Sensten, this is amazing and I will be tackling it one at a time. Once thing I know is they will be finding me in a tomb/crypt/cave setting. One thing I know is that the Hunters pet does have tremor sense. With the fog tactic this beast will still find me. If there was a way to make it rain inside, would that throw off the tremor sense because of the constant falling rain?
Side note: I am reading everything and will be posting a collection of information.
Before we look at your build, here are some things to think about. If you're just wanting to make something to see how much damage you can do, disregard most of this. I'm assuming you want to win.
1. Previous posters were correct, you absolutely have to win initiative.
2. They were also correct about action economy. You absolutely have to overcome it.
3. You know about their builds. Do they know yours? If I knew I was facing a magus, I'd have a ring of evasion, resist energy, and probably spell resistance too.
4. Do you know where and under what circumstances you'll be facing them? Day, night, city, forest, etc? Will you have time to buff? Is there a time limit or space limit on the battle itself?
5. Do they frequent these forums? If they do, and they didn't know about your build before...well they do now. Also they'll know any advice you receive.
6. One good thing is you can build 100% for this one fight. Nothing else matters. And you don't have to worry about conserving resources either.
Now let's look at your opponents.
1. What are their strengths? All three are likely 90-100% ranged attackers (not counting the animal companion) and all probably do massive damage. And of course that means they can full attack from wherever. How can you avoid that?
2. What are their weaknesses? Will, Fort, or Reflex saves? AC or CMD? What's the best way to target them?
3. Do they get to rebuild like you do? If so, what is their level of system mastery and strategic ability?
Let's talk about strategy.
1. Don't do what they expect. This is especially true if they know what you're playing.
2. Identify your greatest threat. This isn't necessarily the one who can do the most damage. If one of them can cripple you, or rescue his teammates, that might be the greater threat.
3. Make every action count. Be effective without being wasteful. You...
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Tiefling Bladebound Kensai Magus, 30 pt buy
STR: 7
DEX: 17 + 2 (Race) + 1 (LVL) + 6 (ENH) = 26
CON: 15 + 1 (LVL) = 16
INT: 17 + 2 (Race) + 1 (LVL) + 6 (ENH) = 26
WIS: 14
CHA: 7 - 2 (Race) = 5
If Variant Multiclassing is allowed, go for Sorcerer. You can access the Imperious bloodline if you choose the tiefling's "Pass for Human" alternate racial trait.
With Heroic Echo from the bloodline, you'll want to purchase 2 Pale Green Prism Ioun Stones, one of which should be flawed. Then purchase a luckstone and take the trait, "Fate's Favored."
To increase your saves, I highly suggest an Otherworldly Kimono. Not only does it give you a bonus on both saves and caster level checks (which is huge if you want to dispel enemy magic) but it will allow you to cast Maze on an opponent, which will immediately allow you to eliminate any problematic opponent for a significant portion of the battle (I highly doubt any of the three you mentioned can easily make a DC 20 INT check).
Otherworldly Kimono - 67,000
Headband of Vast Intelligence - 36,000
Belt of Incredible Dexterity - 36,000
Pale Green Prism - 30,000
Pale Green Prism (flawed) - 28,000
Luckstone - 20,000
TOTAL 217,000
Wealth by level = 185,000
WBL w/ 1 crafting feat = 231,250 gp
SAVES:
FORT: 9 (base) + 3 (CON) + 4 (Res) + 2 (Mor) + 2 (Comp) + 2 (Luck) = 22
REF: 4 (base) + 8 (DEX) + 4 (Res) + 2 (Mor) + 2 (Comp) + 2 (Luck) = 22
WILL: 9 (base) + 2 (WIS) + 4 (Res) + 2 (Mor) + 2 (Comp) + 2 (Luck) = 21
These all go up by 2 if you Maze somebody, so you should be fairly inoculated against spells. With the Imperious Bloodline, you spend 3 feats, but gain basically a +2 to attack, all saves, all skill checks, and all ability checks (including Initiative). And one of those 3 feats, is in fact another feat (which includes a possible "Improved Initiative" if you are so inclined).So, it's more than worth it, IMHO.
My suggestion: Maze the gunslinger, jump on the sorcerer. Ignore the Hunter until he's alone, since his lower BAB and spell power make him a weaker threat.
An alternative to a Kensai would be a Myrmidarch with VMC Fighter (picking up Fighter's Reflexes and Armed Bravery along with Warrior Spirit for abusing weapon training bonuses), but I like Bladebound Kensai better in this scenario since you don't need to spend much on armor/weapons, allowing you to buy other, better items.
If you're allowed standard retraining when constructing your build, consider Dimensional Dervish (you can't take the whole chain by 14 unless you can use retraining once). The ability to teleport around while also using Spell Combat is huge; Bladed Dash can't compare, since it uses your spell for the round. It's expensive to use, but if you can use your full blade attacks to injure and your spell to incapacitate while starting from anywhere and ending where you choose...
One spell choice to think about would be Heightened Dazing Frostbite. Besides adding 1d6+15 to every strike - which is arguably a lot better than Intensified Shocking Grasp at that point - Dazing means that every single time you strike a target, they must save vs. daze. If you're using Heighten to make the effective level of Frostbite 3, then even one save fail is three rounds of daze.
Combining Dimensional Dervish and Dazing Frostbite would potentially let you hop around dazing multiple targets in one round, though I'm not sure how the feats play out for all that.
Dimensional Dervish is a whole bunch of feats the Magus doesn't need to have virtual Pounce. Mind you, Dimensional Dervish does still cost you a casting of Dimension Door, as well as your swift action for the round. At most, the Magus needs only Dimensional Agility, so he may full attack after casting Dimension Door via Spell Combat (though some would argue he doesn't even need that much).
A Dazing Frostbite would be a 4th level spell, so using Heigthen Spell on it would at most give you a +1 to the spell DC. Not worth it, IMHO. That said, if you really wanted to use Dazing Spell shenanigans, I'd highly suggest just purchasing a Dazing Spell Metamagic Rod. The best spell to use said metamagic with, is generally Ball Lightning, a 4th level spell on the Magus list. Unlike a Fireball that's gone after one round, Ball Lightning persists for 1 round/level, giving you that many attempts to daze your opponents.
At this level, you have 3 balls, so you can send 1 to each of your opponents, forcing them to make a Reflex save vs the Dazing effect. Alternatively, you can send all 3 to one person, forcing them to make 3 saves vs the Dazing effect. I'd highly suggest doing this to the Sorcerer, since one "Resist Energy, Communal" can negate this entire strategy.
Of course, if you got an Otherworldly Kimono like I suggested, you could simply Maze away the most problematic member and then use this spell to CC the ones you think will have the lowest shot of making a Reflex save. If they fail their save against the Dazing effect, they are, in effect, basically dead, since the spell will daze them for 4 rounds (and refresh it's duration if they continue to fail more saves), so they are effectively sitting ducks.
Lingering Pain will shut down the sorcerer, so this should be one of our arcanas.
Lingering Pain will shut down the sorcerer, so this should be one of our arcanas.
This is true. Lingering Pain is an amazing Arcana against enemy spellcasters, especially when combined with Spellstrike. If you can get a good strong blow off on the sorcerer, you can basically neuter his ability to cast spells in response thanks to this.
Certainly worth a pickup, IMHO.
Another thing would be reach spell and force hook charge. Should as well replace the dimensional dervish chain.
Dimensional Dervish is a whole bunch of feats the Magus doesn't need to have virtual Pounce. Mind you, Dimensional Dervish does still cost you a casting of Dimension Door, as well as your swift action for the round. At most, the Magus needs only Dimensional Agility, so he may full attack after casting Dimension Door via Spell Combat (though some would argue he doesn't even need that much).
A Dazing Frostbite would be a 4th level spell, so using Heigthen Spell on it would at most give you a +1 to the spell DC. Not worth it, IMHO. That said, if you really wanted to use Dazing Spell shenanigans, I'd highly suggest just purchasing a Dazing Spell Metamagic Rod. The best spell to use said metamagic with, is generally Ball Lightning, a 4th level spell on the Magus list. Unlike a Fireball that's gone after one round, Ball Lightning persists for 1 round/level, giving you that many attempts to daze your opponents.
Using Dimension Door with Spell Combat means you've used up your Spell Combat spell for that round. Being able to go Dimensional Dervish -> Cast Disabling Spell -> Attacks in one round is far, far superior action economy to Cast Dimension Door -> Attacks. Maybe it's worth taking that road, maybe not; but it's a very potent possibility.
Dazing Frostbite with Magical Lineage or Wayang Spellhunter can be cast with Heightened Spell as a third-level base spell. This means that the Daze lasts for 3 rounds instead of 1, and it has a +2DC. This is obviously game-changing as far as effectiveness goes. Even just a 2 round Daze instead of 1 round is a huge advantage.
Handling a metamagic rod with Spell Combat isn't very functional.
Ball Lightning is certainly a very effective spell to throw Dazing with on a spellcaster, but it requires a move action to redirect the balls. So while it's a very strong spell that way, continually redirecting completely gimps a Magus' action economy. It's potentially a good 'opener' since it can lock targets down, of course.
Action economy is fundamental, which is why something like a focused Heightened Dazing Frostbite Dimensional Dervish is worth at least considering. It means that, on a single round, you can 1. pounce with Spell Combat, 2. use Spell Combat to gain an extra attack, 3. threaten multiple rounds of Daze with every attack, 4. add substantial damage to every attack, and 5. immediately switch target if your target succumbs to daze or dies. With Spell Combat granting 4 attacks with simple Haste gear, Heightened Dazing Frostbite potentially means 4d6+56 additional damage and four shots at 3-round Daze every round, starting with round 1. Unlike tricks more suited to full casters, this is exploiting the Magus to the hilt.
One problem with Dazing Frostbite is that you need to deal at least some damage with it, and Frostbite's 1d6+14 is fully negated by Resist Energy (as well as immunity to nonlethal, but that's much rarer).
The other is that, while you get more chances to Daze a single target, you also have to succeed on your attack rolls in addition to them failing their saving throws, and four attacks to disable three targets is dicey.
One problem with Dazing Frostbite is that you need to deal at least some damage with it, and Frostbite's 1d6+14 is fully negated by Resist Energy (as well as immunity to nonlethal, but that's much rarer).
The other is that, while you get more chances to Daze a single target, you also have to succeed on your attack rolls in addition to them failing their saving throws, and four attacks to disable three targets is dicey.
Those are valid points, but ones that could be applied to many other spell tactics as well. In this scenario, it seems unlikely that widespread resist or immunity is going to be a factor, but we don't know exactly what's going down; if the Sorcerer is able to pre-buff everyone with Resist Energy, then plenty of Magus stuff goes out the window.
The biggest point for attaching Dazing to weapon strikes and making sure you can full attack is that you're still killing the target while trying to shut it down. If you jump a target and they resist every daze, they still potentially take a lethal amount of damage.
You can instead use other techniques to combine attacking and disabling of course. You could combo a Dazing Battering Blast with Dimensional Dervish, striking with three Daze/Knockdown 5d6 force orbs and then pouncing on the target of choice.
So some of the guidelines I have been giving ontop of what Ive said.
I can only go 7 levels of Magus. That is where this character stopped. Now I am sure if it was 1 level more or less it would be ok. Depends on what would suit the build best. But not full 14 levels of Magus.
The next 7 can be a blend of fighter and barb, or full one or the other.
He will have Ovinrbaane, and the 7 levels of fighter/barb will reflect him slowly turning into Armag.
If you can't go full Magus, don't do it. It's not worth it at all. Go full Barbarian. Get the Reckless Abandon and Savage Dirty Trick Rage Powers. Get Quick Dirty Trick and Dirty Trick Master Feats. In one round, you can trade 2 of your attacks for 2 Dirty Tricks. If both succeed, you can automatically inflict a devastating condition like Daze or Nauseated.
For better results, use a Furious Dueling Weapon and grab a Bane Baldric. Furious increases your weapon enhancement by +2 when you rage. Bane Baldric allows you to call Bane against your opponent, further increasing weapon enhancement by +2. Dueling gives you a luck bonus on weapon-performed combat maneuvers equal to twice your enhancement bonus (and stacks with said enhancement bonus). Dirty Trick is specifically called out to work with the enhancement.
With this, you should be able to always Daze any equivalent level opponent for the entirety of combat, allowing you to kill them at your leisure. And there isn't much many characters can do to stop it, either. Make sure to grab Spell Sunder, in case the sorcerer attempts to turtle in an Emergency Force Sphere or something.