| shaurun |
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Hello. I have a couple of funny (and effective) build to share. I was creating them during my games and simply for fun; most of them are difficult to build and most effective on high level.
First of all, meet a bloodrager grappler who can become huge (and maybe gargantuan) and strike its opponents using another... creatures. The main idea of this build was actually to be able to grapple an opponent even with Freedom of Movement, to pin it with ease and then to strike other enemies with it. This feature is available to him at 12 level, so it's actually a 12 level build, but 16th level version is much more powerfull.
Since I mostly use Human races for my builds, this actual build allows to use other races if you want. But human is much easier.
Starting with 20 point by we have STR 14+2(human), DEX 14, CON 14, INT 7, WIS 12, CHA 15; Bonus Feat - Improved Initiative or Iron Will, since that man has really bad Will Saving throw. Later we'll replace this feat with Catsh-Off Guard using retraining rules.
1st level feat: Weapon Focus (Claw) - we will use claws starting from 1st level, and this feat is a prerequisite for another one, very important here.
Traits: Reactionary, Desperate Resolve. Desperate Resolve is a key trait here, since we will require to cast spells in grapple, and this provides us +4 trait bonus on concentration checks while doing so. Reactionary can be replaced, but +2 to initiative is nice.
Now we finally can speak about our class level. This build doesn't uses multiclassing, but it's really difficult because it consists of 4 archetypes (stackable, of cource): Cross-Blooded, Blood Conduit, Urban Bloodrager and Primalist.
We must pick 2 bloodlines and the best I found for that build were Arcane and Abyssal. They both contain really strong bloodline powers, which could be combined to something really awful.
On this level we get 1 bloodline power (Abyssal Claws), 6 (4+CON. mod) rounds of bloodrage from Urban Bloodrager class (+4 to STR or DEX or CON, no AC penalty and skill restrictions, no improvement to will save), constant -2 to Will saves due to Cross-Blooded drawback.
We also get a bonus feat from a list specified in Blood Conduit, which might be Improved Unarmed Strike (mostly useless for now, unless your rounds of rage ended, but very useful starting from 5th level). We don't get Fast Movement though, and we should be aware that we will not use mediun armor or at lest stop using it at level 5.
Now we have:
Flexible rage with 2 claws attack, both at full bab +5 1d6 +3 (or if STR bonus applied, +7 1d6+5); or unarmed strike while not in rage at least. This is already ok, we can tank with +4 to CON/DEX, or we can be damage dealers, but we have bad will save unless Iron Will wan't taken.
2nd level: BAB insrease, but nothing else. We don't receive Uncunny dodge.
3rd level: Also nothing interesting. Blood sanctuary is replaced with Restrained Magic from Urban Barbarian, and it's totally useless now and it will be useless later. Forget it.
For 3rd level feat we choose Feral Training (claw). This is important since we want to use our abilities from Unarmed Strike with Claws. We don't have it yet, but it will be important later.
4th level: We receive Enchew Materials as bonus feat, Blood Casting feature, and Bloodline power.
Pick Abyssal Demonic Bulk - now when you enter rage, you may become Large (+2 STR, -2 DEX, -1 to atttack rolls and AC, +1 to CMB and CMD). What's more important - you can become one size category larger even if you're not humanoid, which can be used later. You have reach of 10 ft, and your claws now deal 1d8 (because of size) and considered to be magic.
For 2 spells know at that level, pick Mage Armor and Windy Escape. This will five you +4 to AC without incurring arcane spell failure chance, and you will not need to weild any armor; and windy escape gives you immediate action to shrug off critical hit or sneak attack, which is life-saving. Now you're a little bit more tank with simple but nice damage cause you still have 2 attacks while others have only one.
Add +1 to CHA, so CHA is 16 now.
5th level: Time for cool ability. You don't receive uncunny dodge, but insted Blood Conduit provides you nice ability to use swift action to cast touch spell on your enemy upon successful unarmed strike or combat maneuver check. We're not ready for CMB yet, but if we'll pick Shocking Grasp now, we can deal unarmed strike or claw attack (because we have Feral Combat) and also cast Shocking Grasp for 5d6 additional damage. This is same awesome as being magus, except we have only few spells per day so... we want at least +4 CHA magic item, or (cheaper and better for now) several Runestones of Power.
5 level feat: Combat Casting. You may tell me that you want something cooler, but the idea of this build is grappling caster, so we need high concentration.
6th level: We receive Bloodline feat, and we will get it from Blood Conduit. It might be Improved Grapple. Ok, we can grapple opponents+cast damaging spells as swift action.
We also have extra spell known, and you may learn whatever you want. My choice is Shield to have higher AC when needed, since Grappled condition+large size makes us bad. You can take Mirror Strike, Line in the Sand, Long Arm, and even Enlarge Person - or anything else. But regardless of choice, I doubd you'll be able to use that new spell because spells per day suck.
7th level: We recieve Bloodline Spell: Either Ray of Emfeeblement or Magic Missle, second level spell from grom bard/magus spell list from Adopted Magic Urban Barbarian feature (any choice), and two 2nd level spells from bloodrager spellist, I'd suggest Mirror Image since our AC is bad, and See Invisibility.
7th level feat: Greater Grapple. Pinning opponent and binding him with a rope is funny strategy available now.
8th level: For Bloodline Power, pick Greater Arcane from Arcane Bloodline. Now when entering rage, you not only become large, but may also use haste or displacement while raging. Correct choice is Displacement, not because you use natural attacks, but because your AC is poor. 50% of miss chance is life saver. You claws deal 2d6 damage now when you're large, which is nice bonus also. In addition, you may pick another 2nd level spell known, I prefer Elemental Touch but any would be ok.
Apply ability scrore bonus to STR at 8th level (STR+1)
9th level. We might receive bloodline feat but instead we're replacing it with bloodline mutation.: Blood Intensity. This is the greatest thing ever since it allows us 2/day to intensify our spell up to STR or CHA bonus, whichever is higher. We might have 9d6 on Shocking Grasp now for free, and later we can potentially make it 20d6 up to 5 times/day. Really cool.
For 9th level feat, pick Grappled Caster or Arcane Strike of you don't have anything to improve your spells per day. With Desperate Resolce+Combat Casting+Grappled Caster you will have +12 bonus to concentrate during grapple, so 9 (CL)+3 (CHA)+12 gives you +24 total bonus. That beats almost any CMB. With Arcane Strike you'll simply add +2 to damage rolls, which is nice, but won't be able to use swift for casting so it's not that sweet.
New spell - any.
10th level. We have 3rd level spells now, and it's important to take Dispel Magic from bard/Magus spellist; bloodrager spells would be haste and vampiric touch, bloodline spell - invisibility.
11th level. We have Greater Bloodrage, which gices us +6 on STR/CON/DEX (any choice). What's more important, it gives us ability to cast any 2nd level or lower spell for free when entering rage. Use any suitable buff, you have actually enlarge, displacement + anything without spending even an action. And it is great.
11th level feat is very important. Pick Dispelling Fist. Now you can cast targeted dispell as a swift action upon a successful hit. Why do we need this if we have Spell Conduit? It's simple: spell conduit allows you to deleiver touch spells. Dispel Magic has another range. With this feat we can hit an opponent and displel it's Freedom of Movement, so later, when er get grab ability, we would be able to surprisely grapple a foe who thought he's totally protected. Profit!
12th level: Claws deal extra 1d6 fire damage, since they receive fraiming quality. That's nice. We also receive a Bloodline feat, we can Spen it on Blood Piercing Mutation or to get Iron Will/Improved Initiative. This is time to retrain our 1st level human feat into Catch-Off Guard.
Instead of gaining bloodline power, we will use our Primalist ability to gain 2 rage powers: raging grappler and bodybludgeon. Now we can grapple foe, adding our claw damage, perform another check with Greater Grapple to pin opponent, also making claw damage... or, it Catch-Off Guard already learned, start beating our enemies with another body, dealing damage to both. This is nice flavorm and you can use swift to cast imbued Shocking Grasp or Vampiric Touch and deal really lots of damage to grappled enemy.
Extra +1 to STR.
13th level. Pick bard spell (e.g. Cure Critical Wounds), some bloodline spell and another feat. For the feat I would suggest Arcane Strike if you haven't taken it yet, because you can go to Blooded Atcane Strike, on 15th. If you already have arcane strike, pick Grappled Caster.
14th level. We get Reflective Conduit, so when somebody tries to perform CMB against us, we can respond as immediate action with a touch spell. Cool but rarely used in practice.
15th level. Bloody Arcane Strike is your Feat, so constant +4 to dmg. Another option is Improvised Weapon Mastery, also solid, but whatewer. Cloodline feat: Iron Will/Improved Initiative, any which wasn't taken yet. You may also want to fo into Disruptive+Spellbreaker, but actually Concentration DC increase for enemy is not really big, so in practice you'll have almost nothing against casters.
16th level. Bloodline Spell: Dimension Door from arcane bloodline, ans you can get Stoneskin for yourself and some magus/bard spell. The coolest thing on this level is arcane bloodline power True Arcane Bloodrage, which gives you an option to cast Best Shape IV or Form of the Dragpn I. Both provide great increase to STR (+6), -2 to DEX, +6 Natural armor and some bonus to CON. And you cast it upon entering rage. And of cource I suggest to pick someone with grab and rake, my choice was Tigrilla since it's also has hands and I use my claws instead of his but I have grap and rake and pounce and bite attack also. And Tigrilla's hands are capable to use an enemy as a weapon. The problem of casting spells with vocal component can be eliminated with ring of eloquence (3500 only) so you can still cast spells to deal massive damage. And you have nice tiger head. Pick fly spell also and you can fly when needed, and throw your enemies. You're amasing.
And here I've added 1 point to DEX but if you have belt for +6 DEX you may not need it.
| shaurun |
Another really powerfull and interesting to play character can be represented by arcanist-controller. The build mostly relies on wise choice of spells and feats so the player becomes really effective in making combat crazy. It's not a blaster and I think the main feature of the build is that it has no any solid damaging spells so player would never decide to become DD instead of battlefield controller. This build also has nice survivability for caster. I fought against 2 mythic characters with it and against 3 non-mythic of my level and I was winning mostly (but the luck of damage dealing makes such battles to last for long). There is a broken feat here which stronly influences the build (Sacred Geometry), so if it's not allowed on your games, substitute it.
Human, 20 Point By:
STR 10, DEX 10, CON 16, INT 16+2 (human), WIS 10, CHA 10
Traits: Spell Duel Prodigy (+2 on Spellcraft and Counterspell) and any other, my choice was Pragmatic Activator (UMD from Int)
From human traits, I've replaced bonus feat with Focus Study, which provides Skill Focus on 1, 8 and 16 levels. Since Sacred Geometry needs Knowledge (engeneering), I thought that would be around same thematic to choose Skill Focus in that skill. Actually you can substitute it with anything else.
Favorite class bonus: always pick HP if you're human.
Ability score increase: always INT
1st level:
feat - Spell Focus (conjuration). Conjuration is great school for controller, it allows us to summon mosters, create pits, walls, and many other things. +1 to DC is great.
We get arcane reservoir, arcanist exploit, consume spells class features and a spellbook with 1st level spells. Pick Potent Magic as you arcanist exploit and now you can have +2 to DC or CL with arcane reservoar, which is solid bonus.
1st level spells to pick:
Controlling: Touch of Gracelessness, Obscuring Mist, Thunderstomp, True Strike (in case you need to deleiver touch attack with your poor strenth to a dexcterious enemy), Grease, Burning Disarm, Ray of Enfeeblement
Protective: Liberating Command, Grease, Expeditious Construction, Feather Fall, Windy Escape, Anticipate Peril, Moment of Greatness (for your party members)
Common: Secluded Grimoire, Break (just for fun)
Advice when picking spells: protect yourself from grapple, critical hits and falling with Liberating Command, Grease, Feather Fall, Windy Escape; use Grease, Thunderstomp, Burning Disarm and Ray of Enfeeblement aggressively not allowing to come to you; Obscuring Mist is mostly a protective spell (20% miss chance) in low levels, Touch of Gracelessness will be for later use - you'd better not to touch anyone by yourself now since you're weak.
2nd level: -
3rd level:
feat - Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration) - another +1 DC to Conjuration.
arcanist exploit - Dimensional Slide- this allows you to get out of battle and this becomes very powerfull on higher levels. Since you don't have DEX and any armor, you might run. Use terrain to taunt your enemies while you teleport using dimensional slide. This is also a part of move action, so you don't lose your move action.
4th level:
We receive 2nd level spells and the choice and you can use that list:
Controlling: Spectral Hand, Touch of Idiocy
Protective: Warding Weapon, Mirror Image, See Invisibility, Darkvision, Escaping Ward, Resist Energy, Cushioning bands
Advice when picking spells: you will feel like a buffer mostly for now, but you receive a powerful Spectral Hand which may deleiver Touch of Gracelessness and Touch of Idiocy now; See Incisibility is very important because you can't target anyone you don't see. Resist Energy is mostly appreciated by your companions. Darkvision is important if you don;t want to make attention when crawling throgh dangeon with light spell or simple tourch, so it's a strong controlling buff also.
5th level:
feat - Improved Initiative - you msut keep your initiative high enough, and with poor dex it's the best choice.
arcanist exploit - Counterspell - now you can shut up mages as an immediate action with bonus from your trait. This is really powerful, just don't forget about it.
6th level:
3rd level spells become available. Your choice might be somewhere there:
Controlling: Aqueous Orb (!!! IMPORTANT !!!), Slow, Ice Spears, Swarm of Fangs, Hydrophobia
Protective: Wind Wall, BlackLight (!!! IMPORTANT !!!), Protection from Energy, Haste
Common: Nondetection, Arcane Sight
Advice when picking spells: now you are controller, and your best spell is Aqueous Orb. Really. you call one orb and move it through a battlefield using move action, in fact totally removing your enemies from battle. With Hydrofobia+Aqueous Orb you can have fun. Ice Spears allow you to trip even mammonth, so it's really cool when you will kaugh at your fighter that he couldn't fo that, but you are able to do so. Swarm of fangs is unkilling -so annoying, and ir redirected bu move or can bite someone else without you direct control, which is funny and annoying for your enemies (especially spellcasters). I don't like slow but anyway you can use it. For protective spells, haste is something your party will love your for, but for your safety Blacklight is much more greater since it hides you from almost anyone but you can see everybody. Just don't use it near allies. Also you may jump with Dimensional slide with this blacklight on you and have fun.
7th level:
feat - to me it was Sacred Geometry (Silent Spell, Still Spell). Actually I'ce created a programm which performed all feat calculations and it was never failing on giher levels, so this is sort of 2 metamagic feats with no level insrease. If it's not your choice, I still advice to have these metamagic feats. In some situations they are really needed and may surprise your enemies.
arcanist exploit - Metamagic Knowledge (Heightent Spell). Stronly needed to increase spell DC. In conjuction with Sacred Geometry, becomes really powerfull.
8th level:
4th level spells become available.
Controlling: Black Tentacles, Solid Fog, Ball Lightning, Confusion, Masochistic Shadow
Protective: Greater Invisibility, Dimension Door, Communal Protection from Energy
Advice when picking spells: Ball Lightning is more damaging, but i love it since I may cast it ones and just move my storm clouds then, without need to cast anything else. This is slot economy. Confusion is also really nice. I don't like tentacles, however it is solid choice/ Masochistic Shadow is fun and killing. Everybody will love your grater invisibility and Protection from Enenrgy with slot saving buff.
Also here I had Skill Focus (Knowledge, Arcana) from Focus Study human racial trait
9th level:
feat - to me it was Sacred Geometry (Quicken Spell, Echoing Spell). So applying them allowed me to cust something without increase of time on later levels or with slot economy. If you don't use such feat, find somethig else
arcanist exploit - here are some flavor choices, I can only provide recomendations:
scrool understanding (especially dicinations) removes your problems with Initiative and surprise rounds. Shift Caster can be used if you are fun of Beast Shape and so on. It can be helpfull to get some extra abilities like fly+darcvision + some CON and so on with one spell, so this is nice to pick. Metamixing is useless if you use Sacred Geometry, but otherwise it must be your choice. Familiar can solve some issues with delieverind spells and initiative. Bloodline Development can also be nice but I don't really love 1st level bloodline powers so... it depends on what you prefer.
10th level:
5h level spells become available.
Controlling: Icy Prison, Feeblemind, Mind Fog, Roaming Pit
Common: Teleport, Permanency, Seeming, Foretell Failure, Dominate Person
Advice when picking spells: Roaming Pit is movable, so another slot savior. Feeblemind is very frightfing. And of course you'll be loved for teleport and permanency
11th level:
feat - Spell Focus (necromancy). Necrimancy provides strong debuffs and your spellist might already contain lots of it, so make DC higher
arcanist exploit - with acess to greater exploits, pick Counter Drain. It encourages to use counterspell a lot and restores your reservoir.
12th level:
With this level 6th level spells become available.
Controlling: Chains of Light, Summon Monster VI, Decapitate, Greater Dispel Magic
Protective: Unwilling Shield, Cloak of Dreams, Contignency, Antimagic Field, Covetous Aura, Greater Heroism
Common: Mass Suggestion, Treacherous Teleport
Advice when picking spells: Chains of Light and Summon Monster are really powerfull. Surroundung yourseld with several creatures can also provide your protection. Greater Dispell Magic is so great debuff that it's even hard to imagine. Some protective spells also have controlling function. E.g. unwilling shield makes enemy not to attack you, cloak of dreams puts enemies nearby into sleep so it's very strong. Antimagic Field is situational, but sometimes it's better to have for the party. Greater Heroism is something for what your party will love you.
13th level:
feat - Persistent Spell
arcanist exploit - Greater Metamagic Knowledge
So you have at lest 3 metamagic feats, and on 15th level you'll be able able to have Spell Perfection.
14th level:
7th level spells!
Controlling: Greater Hollow Heroism, Waves of Exhaustion, Summon Monster VII, Force Cage
Protective: Hostile Juxtaposition, Particulate Form
Advice when picking spells: Waves of Exhaustion and Summon Monster VII are perhaps the best options. Particulate Form is also very good. I would like to use Greater Hollow Heroism and Hostile Juxtaposition, but in fact they are rarely needed.
15th level:
feat - Spell Perfection (Aqeous Orb) - this is the best spell ever, really. With reservoir and spell focuses you have exptra +4 to DC, and you can heighten it to +4. This spell is hellish.
arcanist exploit - Greater Counterspell. Use it. With clot economy. It worse it.
16th level:
Another spell level.
Controlling: Death Clutch, Summon Monster VIII
Protective: Seamantle, Form of the Alien Dragon III
Advice when picking spells: Seamantle and Form of the Dragon are really cool. Summon Monster is great. Death Clutch is mostly save or die, so better not to use it because it's no fun, but sometimes you may want to use it. Right after all minor monsters are packed into aquareous orb.
What else to know? Of cource you need +6 to INT and maybe +6 to CON items. Several rods with metamagic feats - cool, especially if you don't use Sacred Geometry. Quicken some lower spells just to prepare your battlefield really fast. Jump anytime an anemy is close, hide yourself, create movable objects to use your move action. Arcanist is very potent and flexible. And also it's a comrade because fighters do their jobs but you save their lives in much more insteresting ways than healers.