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Hi,
i am going for arcane trickster: ROG (1), Wizard (3), Arcane Trickster (10)
His role is more or less being the face of the party and sneak attacking with rays and darts from stealth.
I have 2 questions:
1. If i read the rules correctly the Arcane Trickster does not get any new spells on level up, so he has to purchase & scribe all spells?
2. Which arcane school works best with the trickster? At present i am trying to decide between Divination, Evocation and Conjuration.
Divination will give me +1 INI and the ability to always act in a surprise round
Conjuration will give me 8 acid darts per day, and tons of usefull spells for my extra-spell slot.
Evocation will give me +1 DMG in most spells, but not so many useful spells.
This will be my first game of Pathfinder as P&P (i have played lots, and lots of Kingmaker) and i have no idea how big of a deal the whole surprise round thing from Divination is.
Any thought on this?
1. Correct
2. If you're looking at a blaster type wizard generally you'll want the Evocation-Admixture subschool. Unless you have a specific reason for taking something different.
The admixture subschool gives you a reliable method of getting around energy resistance which is one of the major obstacles blasters face as you get into higher levels.
"oh, it's immune to fire, but weak against acid? then I guess my fireball is now an acid ball."
1. This is correct, although personally I feel it's a mean-spirited ruling. Talk to your GM and see if you can get a pass on that.
2. All three of those are excellent choices. Evocation should take the Admixture subschool and Conjuration should take the Teleportation subschool for access to better powers. The lack of spells for evocation isn't a big problem since you can just use metamagic to alter spells you do like using to utilize different level slots.
For opposition schools, I would suggest Necromancy and Enchantment. You never want to oppose Conjuration or Transmutation, you've expressed interest in Evocation, Illusion is too important to an arcane trickster, and Divination and Abjuration have too many important spells that would be dangerous to live without. This leaves your opposition choices fairly obvious. If you have a Cleric in the party you can live without Divination or Abjuration, but be careful when opposing those as they get very important at higher levels.
Surprise rounds occur when one side of a battle is surprised. Only characters who are not surprised can act on a surprise round. This ability means you can never be surprised, and always get to act. This won't always be a big deal, but when it comes up it can save your life.
1) This is correct. It is not as big a hinderance as it seems. Assuming that you need a teacher, rather than copying from captured spellbooks, it costs 6,750 gp total for the 10 levels of Arcane Trickster.
2) Are you planning on melee or ranged attacks? For melee there are a couple of Necromancy spells that are very useful, false life, vampiric touch, and chill touch. Though you might be able to depend on wands for false life. Illusion becomes much more important because you need a reliable way to run away.
If you are planning on ranged you need Conjuration and Evocation for ranged attacks that you can apply sneak attack to.
Either way I would go with Enchantment and Divination as opposition schools.
Evocation only gets you a +1 to damage on evocation spells. Admixture subschool does help you get around energy resistances.
Divination does give you the ability to always act in the surprise round, but those are actually pretty rare. I would be very surprised if it comes up every session. The +1 to initiative is of marginal usage.
Conjuration gives you a bunch of ranged touch attacks that you can sneak attack with.
conjuration/teleportation subschool gives you a dimension door. You can take a 0 level ray of frost for touch attacks to sneak with They do roughly th same damage XD
Divination/foresight subschool is great, even better than the base school. Admixture has its points but foresight is the way to go IMO.
Whatever your arcane school, your levels in Arcane Trickster will not advance your school powers. Just saying.
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If you want to focus on ranged sneak attacks, surprise/stealth is not the most reliable route.
IMO, sylph with the Cloud Gazer feat and the obscuring mist spell is a better choice. Cloud Gazer triples the distance a sylph can see through magic fog, mist, and clouds. Obscuring mist "obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature 5 feet away has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cannot use sight to locate the target)." Stand 10 feet inside the cloud; you can see out without penalty and gain total concealment. Total concealment means the target of the sylph's (ranged) attacks is denied their Dex bonus (unless the target has blindsight), which means they are subject to sneak attacks. The sylph can sneak attack every round, which is not the case with the surprise/stealth route (and without waiting for improved invisibility).
As to your two questions:
1) Correct. You only gain "free" spells in your spellbook for wizard levels. However, that's usually not tremendously limiting unless the GM deliberately makes it so in the campaign (no down-time, no scrolls or spellbooks in treasure, no access to other wizards to copy spells from, etc.).
2) As mentioned, Evocation/Admixture is probably the best choice over the course of a campaign to be able to switch energy types on the fly. You should also probably look at the metamagic feats Reach Spell and Intensified Spell. A Reach shocking grasp (2nd-level slot) compares fairly well with scorching ray at CL 4-6 and an Intensified Reach shocking grasp (3rd-level slot) has the same damage dice as a fireball or lightning bolt (but, as a ranged touch attack, with no "save for half damage" and being usable with sneak attacks before the Surprise Spells capstone).
Hi guys, thanks for the input.
To be clear, i am well aware that this not an awesome damage build, even if i manage to sneak attack with my spell every turn, the simple fact that i get only one spell per turn, is a serious limitation.
I just love the concept of "ranged legerdemain". This is our first campaign in pathfinder and we usually play very role-playing focused games. So...
I just thought that a arcane trickster kitsune was really interesting to play.
@Douglas_Muir - our DM doesnt give us traits - we get a free racial trait and a campaign trait only.
@Wheldrake - i am well aware of that. Same goes for my familiar :-(
@Dragonchess Player - if i read the stealth rules correctly, permanent stealth should be fairly easy for a kitsune using "false attacker", or am i misinterpreting things?
The aether kineticist version of ranged legerdemain seems like a better deal than going for arcane trickster. It's dipping 2 levels, but you're much better at your target trick. Heck, going full kineticist on a fox shifting kitsune would be pretty fun. You could also pick up the sleight of hand portion of ranged legerdemain by picking aether as your chosen wizard school as well and avoid the prestige class.
As a variation on the sylph vision trick mentioned above, you could go air/smoke school and let the whole party see through your smoke screens. They'll appreciate the trick more.
All the same, you're going to be pretty fragile, and divination will make sure that you don't face things that are acting twice while you only have your passive defenses up. How often surprise rounds occurs is going to vary from table to table, so it may not be a big deal. Still I think it's a safe option.
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Found another method for ranged legerdemain. Equipment trick thieves tools feat gives you the ability.
@Dragonchess Player - if i read the stealth rules correctly, permanent stealth should be fairly easy for a kitsune using "false attacker", or am i misinterpreting things?
Three things about False Attacker:
1) It's a rogue talent, which means you have to have at least 2 rogue levels. And no, you can't take the Extra Rogue Talent feat as a 1st level rogue, as you have not gained the "Rogue talent class feature" yet.
2) It requires a Bluff check vs. "the target’s Sense Motive or Perception check, whichever is higher" as well as "maintain[ing] concealment or cover." It's not a guaranteed thing.
3) It's an immediate action, which prevents also taking swift actions (such as casting Quickened spells at higher levels).