{reposted in the correct section}
Ok, I am in a heavily modified and homebrewed Emerald Spire campaign. My current PC is a risk taking magus. He’s come quite close to death a few times recently. So I wish to have a back-up character at least mostly ready (approx. level 9). I have a fair bit of the personality and background started, but I could use some help with the rest. Unusually for me, I don’t have a lot of the crunchy bits set so far. I’m looking for help, advice and suggestions.
Rest of the group (assuming no one else dies at the same time as me) is:
Standard human sword and board fighter. Very tanky and pretty decent damage.
Half-Ogre Monk fairly tanky and very high damage output.
Half-Drow Ninja quite sneaky and good damage when he can get the sneak attacks stacking up.
Aasimar Cleric of Abadar that focuses on healing (both in and out of combat) with some buffing.
Gnome bard/alchemist (I know weird combination) with song, weak bombs, a few sonic spells, and some buffs.
Got a scout. Healing and buffs are covered. They have 2 or 3 high damage characters, so evocation isn’t needed. So what I’m thinking is a wizard or arcanist diviner for the initiative bonus to get first spell off early. For combat, I’m looking at debuff and battlefield control spells. Things like walls, pits, webs, stinking cloud, enervation, waves of fatigue, etc… If I need to actually damage, I was considering toppling force spells and/or concussive sonic spells. Out of combat, trying to use divinations to see what is coming up, where to go, who to question, and which spells to prep. Also want to have all the knowledge skills (that others aren’t specializing in) as high as reasonable.
Background/personality. Samsaran who is getting some visions that he was an Azlant in a distant past life. High strung and obsessed with anything and everything Azlanti. Up until recently a mostly academic scholar who has been cataloging things for the Dark Archive of the Pathfinder Finder Society. That is how he learned about the newly discovered Emerald Spire. He pushed to be part of team sent to investigate. He was informed that, at this time, the Society is not willing to chance offending Cheliax by challenging the Hellknights currently in control of the region. Immediately walked away from his job and headed to the region to investigate on his own. Plans to learn all that he can from the Spire and make it a focal point to re-establish the enlightenment of the Azlanti culture.
Seem reasonable so far?
Learning about a lost civilization, the past lives, etc… seems very ‘Occult Book’ to me. But I didn’t think that fit very well with the Azlanti. As I understand it, they were more the traditional arcane casters. So I’m on the fence between wizard and arcanist, which do you recommend and why? What about the Lore Master PrC? Which metamagics are most suited to debuff and battle field control? Which deity is most appropriate for someone learning about and wanting to recreate the Azlant culture? Any other suggestions or advice?
Toppling spell has a CMB which gets disappointing fast. Unless your GM lets you do things like hit by 5 magic missiles = 5 trip attempts it's not going to be routinely effective at level 9+. Concussive sonic spells just aren't effective.
Anyway, by level 9 either wizard or arcanist has plenty of spells, and the spell level edge of wizard is less important than it was (the difference between level 1 & 2 spells or 2 & 3 matters more than that between level 4 & 5). OTOH if you want a PrC then arcanist has more features to advance than a wizard does and so loses more by becoming a loremaster. They're both certainly workable. A blood arcanist might find the vestige bloodline appropriate to this concept though not necessarily very useful.
The loremaster is probably unnecessary, but if you really want sky-high knowledge skills it works.
Metamagics. Persistent spell is good for keeping lower level battlefield control & debuffs relevant. Apocalyptic spell is also useful for battlefield control but may not fit the character's flavour. I've used lingering spell to turn color spray & similar into improvised battlefield control, and fleeting spell is extraordinarily useful if the other players are poor at dealing with BFC and probably still useful even if they are good at that.
Aroden seems like your deity for recreating the Azlanti culture. As an arcane spellcaster it hardly matters that he's dead and unable to provide spells.
I prefer the arcanist to the wizard in general. The slower spell progression is a pain, but the other class abilities are great and the semi-prepared casting is the best of both worlds. With the quick study exploit, you can be unbeatably versatile.
The wizard, with school bonus spells and bonded item bonus spells and the faster progression, would seem to have more spells per day. But in general and in a typical session, the arcanist with his semi-prepared casting will generally be able to use more of his given spells per day. None of the spells should go to waste or be "just in case", because you can always use the castings of that level for something.
But, as avr said, if you plan to prestige, then you should probably go wizard. The wizard doesn't have as many cool class features to lose as the arcanist.
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Aroden seems like your deity for recreating the Azlanti culture. As an arcane spellcaster it hardly matters that he's dead and unable to provide spells.
I really like that idea.
Toppling spell has a CMB which gets disappointing fast. Unless your GM lets you do things like hit by 5 magic missiles = 5 trip attempts it's not going to be routinely effective at level 9+. Concussive sonic spells just aren't effective. ...
I was actually considering getting the improved trip feat to make it more effective.
I looked closer at concussive. You may be right. Since it is only for the duration of the original spell and just a -2 on hit and saves, it will only be a minor debuff for a short duration. For some reason I had remembered it as 'staggered' which would have been much better.
I will think about that some more.
I prefer the arcanist to the wizard in general. The slower spell progression is a pain, but the other class abilities are great and the semi-prepared casting is the best of both worlds. With the quick study exploit, you can be unbeatably versatile. ...
I'm thinking I agree with you on that. I'm leaning toward an arcanist. I was sorta planning on the School Savant to get all the diviner stuff. That uses up 3 exploits and has 2 opposition schools.
If I take a single level of diviner wizard and the School Understanding exploit, I lose a level of arcanist and 1 exploit. Not sure which is better.I think I will make both and see what they look like.