I apologize in advance for the length of this question.
My group is about to start the Mummy's Mask campaign, and I would like to play an arcanist. I have looked over the rules for an arcanist, the guides, and other threads discussing the arcanist, but I wanted some feedback on my proposed character. I also had some questions about the arcane reservoir that I am hoping that someone can answer.
In terms of overall group composition, I would be the only arcane caster. We also have a cleric, an archaeologist bard, a samurai/monk (I don't remember the class archetypes), a hunter with an animal companion, and a barbarian (It's a large group). The samurai/monk is built as a switch hitter, but the rest of the group is melee focused.
We actually have a very generous GM for character creation, so we start out with a 32 point build, and elves get an extra 6 hit points.
For character build, this is what I was thinking about:
Race - Elf
Array - with racial modifiers factored in
Strength - 11
Dexterity - 17
Constitution - 12
Intelligence - 20
Wisdom - 10
Charisma - 12
Traits - Warrior of old, Blood of the pharaohs, and magical lineage (although I have not decided which spell to apply this to yet)
Drawback - undecided at this time
Arcane Exploit - Potent Magic
Feat - Extra Arcane Exploit - Quick Study
In general, is there anything that you would tweak?
I wanted a high dexterity so that I am better with any ranged touch attacks and so I can contribute in combat with a longbow and provide a ranged element if I run out of spells. When I first created my attribute scores, I went with a higher strength, an 18 dexterity, and used charisma as a dump stat. In regard to the strength score, I never intend to be a melee fighter, but I also don't want to have to continually battle with encumbrance. The blood of the pharaohs trait was selected as it is a very good fit for my backstory.
I changed to the current array when I re-read the rules regarding the replenishment of the arcane pool points and realized that any leftover points from the previous day do not carry forward and that the pool would not fully replenish itself after a night's rest. Based upon that and even though I dislike the idea of using spells for this purpose, I changed the array to increase the charisma score so that I can use the consume spells ability to add points to my arcane pool. I can see this being more useful at higher levels when you are not using as many low level spells. I know that I also get a secondary benefit from the increased charisma since some of the exploits use charisma to determine saving throws (although I don't know if I will take any of those exploits).
Additionally, the question that I have regards recharging the arcane pool. I have never played a class before where the pool does not fully replenish overnight. I know that a twilight sage can use their abilities to replenish the arcane pool, but my GM will not allow this. Additionally, I know that you can replenish the pool by taking the consume magic item exploit, but it seems like I would be better off using an exploit for one of the other powers and the overall usefulness of the consume magic item ability seems limited based upon the limit on points that you can recharge that way. Additionally, the Extra Arcane Pool feat or the eleven favored class trait that increases your arcane pool do not seem to be worth taking since they do not provide any increase in your arcane pool regeneration, and, as a result, you would have to consume higher level spells or more low level spells to be able to fully replenish your arcane pool.
Are there other ways to increase your arcane pool regeneration that I have missed? Also, even with the limited arcane pool regeneration, do you think that I would be better off using charisma as a dump stat and just accepting that I will not have a full arcane pool?
Thanks for the help.
I'd try one of these ability arrays instead:
Str 10 Dex 18 Con 12 Int 19 Wis 12 Cha 12
or
Str 10 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 20 Wis 10 Cha 14
You really don't need more than 10 Strength. Remove the pot from the Wizard's kit, add a Mwk Backpack and a spellbook, your kit is 22lb. Use an Acid Flask (1lb) as a reagent to power Acid Splash instead of buying a Longbow*, and a Haramaki (1lb) for armor. I don't know how harsh your DM is on carrying capacity, but that's a decent level 1 gear set up and you still have 14lbs left. You can cast Ant Haul or buy a mule for 8 gp if you really need to lug more stuff. Your starting town has a huge base limit on magic item cost, so you should be good to pick up a Haversack or Pathfinder Pouch or Muleback Cord before you collect too much stuff anyways. You can also do things like keep your combat relevant stuff on your person via Wrist Sheaths or Bandoliers or Belt Pouches, then the rest in a sack. You can drop the sack as a free action when combat starts, meaning you won't take encumbrance penalties during the only time it matters. You're more vulnerable to theft this way (plus I bet there's at least one scenario in the AP where you gotta run faster than a crumbling floor or something - seems like a trope it would cover) but it's really only an issue for the first couple levels before you get extra-dimensional storage.
I'd personally go lower on Str, since I generally wouldn't have 14 more pounds of stuff to carry around as an arcane caster until after I got my Handy Haversack (the heavy mage items are metamagic rods and they're expensive). I recognize your concern over carrying capacity so it's not up there with the real suggestions but here's the array I would actually use:
Str 8 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 20 Wis 10 Cha 12
Your Dexterity doesn't need to be higher than 16 for touch attacks, since Touch AC tends to be 10-13. By level 2, you're already hitting that 50% of the time. I gave a sample array with a higher Dex because it does have other benefits, like AC to survive the early levels and Initiative to survive the later ones. With that party, you will have to consider the penalty for firing into melee but honestly it's not that bad.
Quick Study is very good but you don't need it right at 1st level. It's fine to put Quick Study off until 3rd - you'll be better off making your spells potent** until then. I don't know what you're building towards but I'd generically pick Extra Exploit: Familiar. You've got a pretty melee focused party, so having your familiar be able to send off any touch based buffs like Enlarge Person is a lot more ideal than going into the fray yourself. It'd be easier to give a specific suggestion with more info on your build plan.
I prefer picking up Magical Lineage and Wayang Spellhunter through Additional Traits. I don't know how your DM treats the fluff on that ("by the way I'm from a Wayang part of Minata" "Oh? You just remembered that now, on level up?") but if it's fine, it's a lot nicer to pick that stuff up after you start being able to use it. Arcanists can further benefit by grabbing Metamagic Knowledge and Additional traits at the same time - no awkward levels where you have metamagic without reduction or reduction without metamagic. I don't like drawbacks myself and would avoid them. They're either meaningless and therefore kind of cheesy or come up at awful inopportune times and ruin your day. Up to you - I'd still spend it on a different trait. Maybe Resilient for your poor Fortitude.
As for the Arcane Reservoir, I'd not worry too much. 3+1/2 level is still pretty good. That makes 75% of your spells potent at level 1 and 80% at level 2. I think you're right to have enough Charisma to actually be able to consume spells but generally you're better off casting your spells and treating your pool like it's 3+1/2 level with the potential for an emergency refill.
*Using an Acid Flask as a focus makes Acid Splash 3.5 average damage versus a Longbow's 4.5 average damage. Targeting touch AC and being way cheaper really wins Acid Splash over for me but it depends on how you prefer playing. It's kind of a contest between consistency (Acid Splash) or the potential for more damage (Longbow).
**This is based on what I'd prep for levels 1 & 2, which is Burning Hands and Mage Armor. I looked over the Player's guide and it makes me figure that you'll be dungeon crawling, which means a single hour long Mage Armor will do just fine and then you can rock 3 or 4 instances of a 3d4 or 4d4 Burning Hands. That's just me, though, I don't know how you play arcane casters.
This is kind of a silly thing to do, but you might think about taking Spell Perfection at 15. Why would you think about it now? Because it has some hefty prerequisites and it aims you at improving a single spell.
You can't take this until you are 15th level. To get the most out of this you need to choose a spell that you'll want to use expensive meta magics on and cast OFTEN. The 3 big metamagic that would make sense to use Spell Perfection's free metamagic on are Quicken (+4), Dazing (+3), and Maxamize (+3). Since the total spell level has to be 9 or less, it means a max level of 5th for quicken, or 6th for the +3 metamagics. But to get the absolute most out of this you'll want to add in magical lineage and maybe Wayang Spellhunter mods as well, which would lower you down to considering 3rd level spells.
Actually Third level spells are good for lots of reasons. First, the jump in power from 2nd to 3rd is huge, so big that it really doesn't jump in power like that again. There are also quite a few 3rd level spells that scale well with level.
Dispel Magic: Not really a good candidate but it scales well. Problem is you wouldn't use most metamagic with this spell. Also you wouldn't cast it very often since its anti-caster.
Battering Blast: kind of like big boy magic missile. Gets better the higher you can push your CL. This is really a perfect candidate for spell perfection. This also demands Intensify Spell if you really build for it.
Fireball: this basic spell is a great candidate. Really easy to control AoE.
Haste: It really is tempting to choose this so you can cast Quickened Haste every fight. With the 2 traits that reduce the level of metamagics you can start quickening this as a 5th level slot so at 9th level. Considering how melee heavy the party is...this should be very tempting.
Imagine a Fireball specialized build. Spell Perfection doubles the bonus from Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus to improve the DC by 4, Spell Penetration doubles to +4. Now you throw a Quickened Intensified Elemental 15d6 Fireball (3rd level slot) to open a round, and follow it up with a Dazing Maxamized 10d6 Fireball (4th level slot) That does 30 damage on a save, or 60 and Dazed for 3 rounds on a fail.
Interesting stuff. I am an Arcanist player and love the class, think it is better than both of the parent classes. Here are my thoughts for you:
Arcane spell casters at low level just suck, period. You will have brief moments of glory, but the melee guys are going to have most of the fun. Fortunately, you improve with levels and they come pretty quickly up to those precious third level spells when you get to become worth your wait in gold. Arcane casters are in it for the long view...
Do not sacrifice the Charisma if you can help it. While Intelligence is the one you will sink everything into in order to raise as high as possible (gets those DCs up there which makes your spells more effective, plus, bonus spells). Charisma powers your other abilities in times per day as well as the Spell consumption (which I use routinely at mid to higher levels). DEX is nice to have for AC and initiative, but you do not want to be in combat at all anyway and I often found going after my guys helped me select the right spell for the burgeoning situation. Using consume magic items is extremely expensive and not very efficient at all. Consider the Extra Arcane Reservoir feat as it gives you an additional 3 points per day after doing the math for half replenishment. Effectively, it guarantees you three extra points per day above and beyond what you would normally get and it increases your maximum number of points by three, so no losses. Probably another example of writer error, but it works in your favor and has not been nurfed by the gods.
Side effect of high INT is your knowledge skills will almost always grant you the insight you need to defeat your enemies (with that perfect spell to ruin their day). Plus, more skill points (who is the skill monkey now?)!
The strength of an Arcanist is the effectiveness of the spells. Have the right spell for every situation. That means quick study is necessary earlier than later (maybe not right at first level, but soon). You can always retrain out of it later when you have sufficient spells to cover your basic needs without the exploit. Potent Magic is your number one go to (can you say two magic missiles at first level?) plus it boosts DCs when you need it. If you have a melee intensive group, there will be a lot of penalties for ranged combat (you are not going to go first all the time nor win every combat in a single round) so accepting your limitations is getting different spells. Go for the ones that do not need attack rolls (your BaB is abysmal anyway, even for touch attacks). After a couple of levels, definitely start taking a look at the metamagic exploits as they are very useful (once you have some higher level spell slots to make use of them) for those situations. Selective spell may be very useful given your party make up. I forget the name of the trait that reduces your level tax for metamagic, but that combined with metamixing works out very well when casting spells on the fly.
Another trick I like to use is school understanding with the admixture (evocation subschool) selection. This allows you to substitute energy designations on the fly with no penalty. Fighting something immune to fire, but do not have the ice version? Use the admixture ability to change the spell from fire to cold, and now it may even be taking extra damage from a vulnerability to boot. That Charisma dump stat will be needed for this as that powers your number of times per day you can use this trick.
Sometime around level five or so, Dimensional Step becomes a necessity as your get out of trouble trick. The only thing that really defeats it is getting grappled (unless you step from the frying pan into the fire, that is on you). It can also be used for hail-mary touch attacks if you need to, but that is not its primary purpose. The only other drawback is you can only use it once per round (even if you somehow get an extra action with which you can use another exploit, etc.). Next to potent magic, this was my number two go to (but that may be because of my party make up, they were just kind of all over the place, so i needed it, alot). In addition, this trick will eliminate your need for skill points in some of the physical skills as you can step up your climbs or across your jumps, you get the idea. As long as you can see your destination, you can reach it (watch out for invisible walls though, they hurt).
There is also a feat for getting extra spell selection by the level. If it is the highest level you can cast, then you only get one per feat, but if it is a lower level, then you get two. Once I got third level spells, I always needed access to more per level and burned through my reservoir points super fast. This feat helped with that a lot once I was able to cast fourth level spells.
If you are allowed third party material, there is a collection of Arcanist exploits offered by SGG that include the basic and greater version of using a second save and take the lowest (basic is for single targets and greater is for AOE effects). Need to hold person something flying? hit em with this and potent magic to ensure they fail a save and down they go...(I never did that, nope, not me...;)
I routinely start with maxed points for the day by sacrificing spells up front and between potent magic, metamixing, admixture, and that last exploit with second saves, I blow through those points right alongside my spells. I wish I had sacrificed my DEX for my CHA, but it was too late by the time I figured it out.
No character class is effective at everything all the time. The Arcanist can cover a lot of the short comings of the two primary arcane classes with judicious use of exploits and a massive spell selection. I do not hold the record for most damage in a single round for my group, but I had a very impressive and consistent showing for an arcane caster.
God help the bad guys if you every get to be mythic...
Thank you everyone for your feedback.
I have a question about the interplay with the extra arcane reservoir feat and the replenishment of your arcane reservoir. I am not sure if the answer is out there based upon the writer's error comment. Is there anything that states if you take the extra arcane reservoir feat, you gain the 3 additional points granted by the feat every nights rest plus the normal 3 + 1/2 level replenishment. The reason I ask is that the way that I initially read it, the feat increases the number of pools that can be in your arcane reservoir by 3, but those additional points would not automatically replenish every day and would be subject to the same replenishment rules as the rest of the arcane reservoir. If they automatically replenish, the feat seems to be a no brainer. However, I just want to make sure that I know the reason and can argue why this feat replenishes the pool this way if the DM interprets the feat the same way that I did initially.
I have not really decided on the exact character progression I intend to pursue. In terms of exploits, the next exploit I was planning on taking was going to be dimensional slide, but I had not looked at it from the perspective of what will be needed to meet feat prerequisites at higher levels. I also had not really considered using the exploit to gain a familiar.
I was not aware of the rules regarding reagents, but I can see where that would be a big help. I should have a greater chance of hitting with acid splash, even with the penalty for ranged attacks into melee, and it helps alot with encumbrance since I can get rid of the arrows. It also frees up most of my gold, so I can now afford the masterwork backpack.
I don't see any reason why Extra Arcane Pool would increase the points you start with each day.
The feat specifically says you get 3 points and your max goes up by 3.
I would consider not spending your first level feat on Quick Study. Quick Study is great, but it can be cumbersome to use in combat, and you'll only have a handful of spell slots at 1st and 2nd level anyway.
Ask your GM about Extra Arcane Reservoir. I've seen the argument that it's a one time increase to the pool when you select the feat, and the increase to the max. This makes no sense, because who uses a feat that doesn't replenish? I'm pretty sure it is meant to be 3 more points per day, and raises your max by 3 to account for that. If your GM prefers the interpretation that makes the main benefit of the feat useless, then just take something else.
Improved Initiative would also be useful. Or Spell Focus, depending on if you're going to be a specialist. Quick Study, while great in the long run, is something that can probably wait until 3rd level.
Ah, the perils of the English language and the intent of Paizo authors to right for ease of read instead of clarity. Combine this with absolutely no definitive answer from a member of Paizo anywhere on the internet and you are on your own. Honestly, how could anyone really read this as you get three points in your reservoir one time, ever, but you get a bump to your maximum forever? You are going to have to use the common sense argument on this one. It would have made more sense to me that they wanted to cut this extra three in half for replenishment (which would have led to why not pick an even number for simplicity, but I did not write this so...). Damn lazy writers...
The Extra Arcane Reservoir feat is meant to increase your replenished pool by 3 in addition to your max limit. So a level 1 arcanist with this feat should have a max of 7 and a daily start of 6 at the start of each day.
How you want to play your arcanist greatly affects whether you want to invest in charisma or not. Your exploit DCs and the number of times you can use consume spells, and some exploits are the only things that Cha is based off of. If your exploits are going to be things like Familiar, Quick Study, and other things similar to that, you have no need for Cha and can safely dump it for a boost to Int, Con, or Dex.
If you DO use abilities such as School Understanding or Arcane Barrier, you want a minimum of 14 Cha (as 12 gets you very little benefit; Consume Spells has a minimum use of 1/day)
I do agree with the others on Quick Study; you don't need it until later levels like 3 or 4. Potent Magic is really nice at Lv1 with being able to shoot off 2d4+2 magic missiles or 3d6 snowballs. Or getting to DC 18 will saves vs a charm person at level 1.
Grailknight wrote: The feat specifically says you get 3 points and your max goes up by 3. All right, I get it now. I was looking at Extra Arcane Pool which increases the side of an Arcane Pool. But that applies to a Magus...without actually mentioning Magus anywhere.
Extra Reservoir on the other hand is the appropriate feat for an Arcanist to expand his Arcane Reservoir. Piazo has rotten naming sense. Anyways by the way its described there is no reason to mention that the Arcane Reservoir is increased by 3 and the maximum capacity is increased by 3 if it only refers to the maximum capacity. While it is badly worded, this should mean that the amount you start with each day goes up by 3.
You can drop Elven Magic and Elven Weapon Proficiency for Overwhelming Magic, and take a light crossbow instead of a longbow. Overwhelming Magic is an alt racial for Elves that gives you free Spell Focus starting at lvl 1. If you're going to blast, you're going to be a little feat starved because of the 3 MM feat Spell Perfection pre-req (as well as using feat slots for extra exploits and the other blasting feats like Spell Spec and Varisian Tattoo), and if you start the game with Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus as your two starting feats, your spells are going to do some serious work from the very beginning of the game and throughout the entire campaign while saving you one of your precious feat slots.
With 20 Int, SF/GSF, Your level 1 Evoc spells would basically be a DC of 18. If your first exploit is Potent Magic, you can up your CL or DC by an additional 2, which is just absolutely insane. Your spells will be only be resisted on rolls of 15ish or more, depending on their saves.
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