"Will it work" is subjective. If you really want to be a one trick pony, you might feel bad when you run out of spell slots. But if you take up the whole amateur wizard angle and enjoy contributing your Arcane knowledge, then sure it seems solid. Even without a lot of class feats, you've got the fighter chassis and should be solid, at least numbers-wise. You'll want your utility to come from your spellcasting, instead of the options all of those missing Fighter feats would have given you.
While the flickmace is undoubtedly an awesome weapon, this character concept involves making one big attack a turn with a one-handed weapon; one that's fairly likely to crit. For that reason, my gut tells me to go with a Deadly or maybe even Fatal weapon. I haven't crunched the numbers, though. For your Fighter 1 feat, I would think Sudden Charge would be a good option, since you'd open up most combats with True Strike + Sudden Charge.
My fighter/MC Wizard is aiming to mainly get battlefield mobility spells -- Jump/Dimension Door/etc to get to the opponent ranged/casters. Possibly throw up a Wall spell of some sort to cut off their own defenders. I'm not thrilled with the True strike approach, since you're already a martial with the best proficiencies. If you were a Wizard/MC Fighter, than I could see the point of the true strike spam.
Agreed with FWB, that if true strike is your concept, you want a deadly or fatal weapon.
If you want to go for the 'one devastating hit' then deadly and fatal are indeed your weapon traits of choice
that means any pick or if you want to keep the rach a glaive or naginata are solid choices
if you prefer deadly over fatal the urumi is liekly a good choice while mambele, rapier and katana offer some good options
but as Nielsen said, more utility is probably more useful
you got either way the best crit chance among all characters, but this is a little bit singular - utility spells like mobility options are most likely more useful in the long run
which of course does not mean that a few true strikes are not useful now and then (especially when facing the bbeg)
If you are really just in for True Strike, being an MC Cleric of a god that grants their followers True Strike would work just as well.
Now if there were a god whose favored weapon was a Staff that also gave True Strike, I think you'd be golden. (Assuming Deadly Simplicity improves the staff's two-hand damage, of course.)
(Assuming Deadly Simplicity improves the staff's two-hand damage, of course.)
Why wouldn't it though?
But yes, this would be a good option...but is there a god like this?
(Assuming Deadly Simplicity improves the staff's two-hand damage, of course.)Why wouldn't it though?
But yes, this would be a good option...but is there a god like this?
No idea. I don't have my PDF of God's and Magic yet. :)
Now, a human Fighter/MC Cleric of Nethys could take Adapted Adept at 9th level to put True Strike on their spell list. But that would come online way too late. Maybe for a higher level one shot it would be a neat trick build...Edit: I mean, a Staff of Divination is a 6th level item, so it's not like you will have one that early on...
I am thinking about creating a fighter with the wizard archetype.
Using the staff of divination to cast true strike when needed.
level 2 wizard dedication
level 4 basic wizard spell casting
level 6 basic arcana (not quite sure which wizard feat, probably familiar)
level 8 advanced arcana: bespell weapon.I'm not sure which weapon would work best, thinking about the gnomish flickmace.
using my 3rd level spell to charge the staff of divination should allow me to cast true strike 7 times a day. 1 from wizard, 6 from the charged staff.would this build work?
or am I sacrificing to many class feats for a limited use trick?
Consider adding the Shifting Rune to your staff so it can become any one handed weapon. That gives you a lot of flexibility for different scenarios. Picking up Bespell Weapon at 8th level is also nice.
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(Assuming Deadly Simplicity improves the staff's two-hand damage, of course.)Why wouldn't it though?
But yes, this would be a good option...but is there a god like this?
Isis, Barbatos, Folgrit, The Lost Prince, Findeladlara, Andoletta, Charon, Apsu, Nyarlathotep, Kofusachi, Sun Wukong, Arundhat have Staff as a Favored Weapon
None have True Strike as a granted spell though, a few Shillelagh.
However you could take Syncretism as a feat and pick one of the Gods that grants a staff as your second deity which if warpriest gives their favored wep.
Then you could True Strike with your Deadly Simplicity buffed Shillelagh'd staff.
Personally, I'd suggest keeping your 3rd level slot, and simply sacrifice a 2nd level slot for an extra charge on the staff. Use the 3rd slot for haste or other spell. Buy a ring of wizardry (360 gp, 7th level item) to get 2 more 1st level slots.
I will also note that True strike also works on attacks which aren't your traditional strikes. Offensive athletics checks like Trip, Grapple, Disarm, and Shove all can benefit. They also work with any weapon, like your backup longbow or your melee staff.
I second the recommendation that you grab a shifting rune and just put it on the staff. Staff shifted to bastard sword is d12 damage when used 2-handed, and is viable with 1-hand on it, allowing you to perform athletics maneuvers. Or shift it to a whip to use manuevers with reach. Or shift it to avoid damage reduction based on slashing/piercing/bludgeoning. Or shift it to a katana or pick to take advantage of critical hit chance.
Don't forget to purchase a wand of longstrider (2nd level heightened). +10 status to speed for 8 hours is a solid investment at 8th or so.
I feel where a true strike fighter/caster dedication shines is in hard fights. Buff for a round or two, using scrolls if you have to, and then burn through your true strikes to take the boss down. 2 martial/2 caster party can throw out 2 buffs per turn. A 1 martial/1 hybrid/2 caster party can push out 3 per turn, 50% more buffs at the beginning of a fight. Plus, the casters don't need to move adjacent to you to cast all the touch buffs.
The base fighter chassis will get you through easy and average fights no problem without spending limited resources. Depending on Int, having ranged cantrips available can also make it more appealing to stop 30 feet away from a melee enemy, forcing them to waste an action to come to you.
The best place to use True Strikes is against enemies with a CR higher than your level, as later MAP affected attacks are worth proportionally less. More reliable hitting against bosses can significantly change combats. Against lower level enemies, true strike is pushing your critical chance odds on 1 attack, but a 2nd attack is also worth a lot more.
For example, with an 8th level fighter, an 11th level 31 AC boss means the 1st attack hits on a 12, and the 2nd hits on a 17. But a 5th level minion gets hit on 3, and the 2nd hits on an 8. Just swing twice against the minion rather than using a spell. Against the boss, your true strike adds more expected damage than a 2nd swing.
For the whole "shifting staff to 1-handed weapons" concept, does that let them cast True Strike while the staff is shifted into a sword? Is that intended or just clever reading of the rules?
I think the optimal weapon for the True Striker is the shifting rune staff changed into a Dwarven War Axe for D12 2 handed damage and Sweep.
With the swipe feat, you can actually make 2 attacks with a +1 to hit using the sweep trait which maximizes your crit chance.
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For the whole "shifting staff to 1-handed weapons" concept, does that let them cast True Strike while the staff is shifted into a sword? Is that intended or just clever reading of the rules?
The developers tend to be pretty explicit when effects or abilities get suppressed (polymorph spells for example).
"The weapon takes the shape of another melee weapon that requires the same number of hands to wield. The weapon’s runes and any precious material it’s made of apply to the weapon’s new shape. Any property runes that can’t apply to the new form are suppressed until the item takes a shape to which they can apply."
The rune notes that property runes that can't apply are suppressed. It doesn't indicate any other effects, powers or benefits should be suppressed.
As far as I know, staves (the weapon, not the magic item), don't have a unique trait or property that lets them become magic staves. Magic staves simply happen to be staff weapons with extra magic properties. So if the base were to become something else (like a sword), then there's no reason the magical properties would cease working because of weapon type.
It seems like a pretty straight forward reading to me. Do you know of a rule that makes you think it wouldn't work or know developer intent from some other source?
Generally agree with Hiruma Kai. There's nothing that seems to strongly imply shifting should suppress those traits.
On the other hand, the Staff is a noticeably underpowered weapon and it might be an intentional handicap you aren't supposed to be able to circumvent.
Absolutely nothing to back that up mind you, just sort of idle musing.
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The magical staves in the book all do have the staff trait.
So I looked it up and there lies the item/weapon trait that gives them the ability to cast spells, which they lose when you shift them.
Why would the weapon lose the "staff (trait)"? The "staff (trait)" is clearly different from the staff (weapon) form, since staves (weapon) do not generally have the staff trait. They are simply two unfortunately named concepts, completely distinct.
I'll note on page 592, under attacking with a staff, it says:
"Staves are also staff weapons, included in their Price. They can be etched with runes as normal for a staff. This doesn’t alter any of their spellcasting abilities."
I would argue etching and using a shifting rune on the staff should not cause it to lose the "staff (trait)", since otherwise that would go against "This doesn't alter any of their spellcasting abilities".
If changing the base weapon caused it to lose non-weapon traits and abilities, with weapon traits being distinct from just traits, then the Twining Staff would change once and then be stuck forever. Its on page 602.
The twining staff doesn't say anything about keeping traits or abilities, and if the default assumption is when a weapon changes base type (i.e. from staff to bo-staff) it loses everything except the new weapon traits, it'd be stuck as the first weapon you change it to, since it has no clause about preserving activated abilities, such as the one that lets it change.
Keep in mind, weapon traits are different from standard traits, since they're associated with a weapon type. Things like agile are listed in the index as agile (weapon trait), and not agile (trait). You will never find agile or two-handed in a brown box under an item description. They are, unfortunately, another confusingly named thing.
The rules for weapon traits are on page 280. "The traits a weapon or unarmed attack has are listed in this entry". The entry in this case refers to the entries on table 6-6, 6-7, and 6-8.
A longsword has the weapon trait "Versatile P" because it is a longsword and that weapon trait is listed on page 281, table 6-7: Melee weapons under the longsword entry. A holy avenger doesn't have a brown box with "Versatile P" indicating it is a trait. It has that trait by virtue of being a longsword, not because the magic item itself explicitly lists the "Versatile P" weapon trait.
If a champion of Torag, with the Divine Ally: Blade feature added Shifting to the Holy Avenger, and converted it to a warhammer, it'd have the Shove weapon trait because that is what you read off the table under warhammer. It wouldn't have the Versatile P weapon trait because you're no longer looking at the longsword entry. It would still have all the special abilities associated with being a Holy Avenger, like activated dispel magic on the last target you hit.
Edit: I'm realizing I'm helping to derail this thread. If you want to continue this discussion, LeafGreen, we should probably make a new thread in the rules section, or revive a recent one.
I feel like if casting spells wasn't unique to staves there would be a non-zero amount of other weapons that could cast spells.
Lots of responses, good idea's and some minor derailment.
I wasn't expeciting this much :)
the shapeshifting staff seems like an interesting item. But I'm pretty sure my GM would rule against that one. I think I would rule against it if I was the GM unless the player made a really good case and the other players agree. No spellcasting with a staff when it's shaped like a sword.a small question, can you put true strike in a level 2 or higher slot?
A prepared caster can always heighten any spell to a higher level. A true strike spell heightened to level 2 can be prepared in a level 2 spell slot, and is harder to counter act because of that (in the case that another caster tried to counter spell it as a reaction for example).
I'll point out that in PF1, there were staves (the magic item) which could transform into weapons other than a quarterstaff and retain their casting abilities. Staff of the Avenger could turn into a +2 lance, and retained its other abilities. Which included casting Holy Sword on itself. It was in Ultimate Equipment. Just because there are no non-staff (the weapon) staves (the magic item) now doesn't mean they won't port some from PF1 or invent new ones in the future.