I know you don't want to take another dip, but I'm going to suggest it anyway. Take a Dip in Bloodrager and pick up Bloodied Arcane Strike, and plan on picking up the Vital Strike feats. You get a bonus 10ft to your movement, and you can Bloodrage 4 + Con Mod rounds per day, and you can choose a bloodline and gain its 1st level bloodline power. I'd recommend Arcane, Phoenix, or Celestial Bloodline.
It's worth the dip to get this:
Blooded Arcane Strike (Combat)
Arcane energy guides your devastating attack.
Prerequisite(s): Arcane Strike, ability to cast arcane spells, bloodrage class feature.
Benefit: While you are bloodraging, you don’t need to spend a swift action to use your Arcane Strike—it is always in effect. When you use this ability with Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, the bonus on damage rolls for Arcane Strike is multiplied by the number of times (two, three, or four) you roll damage dice for one of those feats.
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I know you don't want to take another dip, but I'm going to suggest it anyway. Take a Dip in Bloodrager and pick up Bloodied Arcane Strike, and plan on picking up the Vital Strike feats. You get a bonus 10ft to your movement, and you can Bloodrage 4 + Con Mod rounds per day, and you can choose a bloodline and gain its 1st level bloodline power. I'd recommend Arcane, Phoenix, or Celestial Bloodline.
That is a good dip, but my plan is to aid my allies in their attacks with gloves of arcane striking:
-When the wearer makes an attack using Arcane Strike and hits, enemies adjacent to the target take damage equal to the wearer’s Arcane Strike damage bonus. This damage is of the same type as the weapon’s damage (bludgeoning, piercing, and so on).
-When the wearer uses the aid another action to improve an ally’s Armor Class, the ally also adds the wearer’s Arcane Strike damage bonus to his AC against the opponent.
More dips into investigator will allow me to aid twice in a round and then granting Harrying Partners to the party at higher levels will make the shenanigans complete, but the dips make it difficult to increase Arcane Strike.
The only way to increase arcane strike without increasing your caster level is to level as a Construct Saboteur Rogue… but that option is tied directly to your rogue class levels…
Alternatively you could take the Caster’s Champion feat instead of arcane strike. So long as you have an allied spell caster within 30ft you have an Arcane Strike based on your BAB.
I know you don't want to take another dip, but I'm going to suggest it anyway. Take a Dip in Bloodrager and pick up Bloodied Arcane Strike, and plan on picking up the Vital Strike feats. You get a bonus 10ft to your movement, and you can Bloodrage 4 + Con Mod rounds per day, and you can choose a bloodline and gain its 1st level bloodline power. I'd recommend Arcane, Phoenix, or Celestial Bloodline.That is a good dip, but my plan is to aid my allies in their attacks with gloves of arcane striking: ** spoiler omitted **
More dips into investigator will allow me to aid twice in a round and then granting Harrying Partners to the party at higher levels will make the shenanigans complete, but the dips make it difficult to increase Arcane Strike.
What is your party composition, and what is your current build plan? And what level are you planning on going up to in this campaign?
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This is it so far. The party's goal is not to min/max, so please keep that in mind.
1 Medium - Flagbearer
2 Medium - Seance
3 Investigator (Bonded) - Craft Wondrous
4 Investigator -
5 Investigator - Effortless Aid, Focus Spirit (Marshal)
6 Medium - spirit focus armor
7 Bard (Arcane Duelist) - Arcane Strike, Riving Strike
8 Medium - Spirit Bonus +2
9 Medium - Mirror Kin +Ring of Tactical Precision
10 Medium - Taldaris Spirit = Harrying Partners on party
11 Medium -
12 Medium - Spirit Bonus +3
13 Medium
Str 8 Dex 14 Con 16 Wis 10 Int 13 Cha 17
Magical Knack +2 (Medium) Helpful
The party is mostly designing on our own before we start to purposefully avoid optimizing and synergizing like our last batch of characters -- they made our GM's feel shocked, amazed, and, ultimately, defeated. I can post those in another thread if you would like to compare.
if you're building with Medium as your base... your arcane strike should scale just fine... per RAW it scales based on your Caster Level... it requires the ability to cast arcane spells to take, but has no reliance on arcane caster level to scale, just your caster level... and should your DM argue that it does require Arcane CL to scale... simply channel the Archmage... a Medium channeling the Archmage is considered an arcane spell caster for all purposes.
Tbh, I think your build looks good as is. But it looks like you're going maximum group support, so the only suggestion I would have is getting Dazzling Display and you and your group members get +1 Cruel enchants for weapons. With Riving Strike, Shaken/Sicken from Dazzling/Cruel, you could debuff enemy saves by -6. Double down on that and take a dip in Rogue (Thug) for Frightening. Alternatively, there's a Cavalier Archetype that allows using Dazzling Display as a standard action, although I cannot for the life of me remember which archetype it is.
What race are you going to go? Because if you go Human, you could get x3 Skill Focus @ lvls 1, 8, and 16. Take Skill Focus in Intimidate and w/e else you want (perception, diplomacy maybe?). You could be rocking 30-40ish Intimidate checks around level 10-11ish vs. a DC: 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier, which at that level will usually be a DC of 20-26. Maxing out your Intimidate would synergize nicely with the Rallying Cry bardic performance from Arcane Duelist, so this is all $$.
Half elf would give you a free Skill Focus too.
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Alternatively, there's a Cavalier Archetype that allows using Dazzling Display as a standard action, although I cannot for the life of me remember which archetype it is.
I think it is the Order of the Cockatrice at level 2. Yep, Braggart ability.
I am going Gnome to fit the First World theme of Kingmaker, so intimidate would require some buffs. +5 alchemical from gravely tonic and +10 competence from elixir of thundering voice would do it, but flavor wise I'm not sure I like it for this character.
What other ways are there to debuff saves?
Alternatively, there's a Cavalier Archetype that allows using Dazzling Display as a standard action, although I cannot for the life of me remember which archetype it is.I think it is the Order of the Cockatrice at level 2. Yep, Braggart ability.
Yeah that one, thank you that was starting to bother me :P
What other ways are there to debuff saves?
Shaken is -2 Saves, Sicken is -2, Riving Strike is -2, Evil Eye is -2 (until level 8, then it becomes -4), Limited Wish is -7 to their next Save, Touch of Idiocy will reduce Int/Wis/Cha all by -1d6, Energy Drain, Orb of the Void, or Enervation reduces Saves by a cumulative -1 for every negative level bestowed, there is a litany of Poisons that cause Dex/Con/Wis damage, Symbol of Vulnerability is -4 penalty to all saving throws, Bestow Curse and Bestow Curse, Greater -4/-8 penalty to saves, anything that can Blind/Fatigue/Exhaust will reduce reflex saves...
As a completely different concept, a vigilante (warlock archetype) with the Arcane Striker vigilante talent gets Arcane Strike as a bonus feat and additional benefits at higher levels: "At 12th level, when she activates Arcane Strike, she can choose to also give her weapons the flaming, frost, shock, or thundering weapon special ability. She makes this choice each time she activates Arcane Strike, and it lasts for the same duration. At 16th level, she adds anarchic, axiomatic, flaming burst, holy, icy burst, shocking burst, and unholy to the list of special abilities she can select. She can choose to apply an alignment-based weapon special ability only while in her vigilante identity, and only if it matches the alignment of her vigilante identity." They are also a 6/9 prepared arcane caster with the magus spell list; plus the Mystic Bolts class feature gives them an always available backup melee or (short) range damage option.
Mystic bolt damage is low per bolt, but gloves of arcane striking, the Piercing Bolts feature (at vigilante 5th, mystic bolts are touch attacks [melee and ranged]), and Two-Weapon Fighting/Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (which explicitly work with mystic bolts) can do OK with the better hit chance and added splash damage.
Maybe something like:
Half-elf (Ancestral Arms [Gnome Hooked Hammer], Drow-Blooded, Flexible Half-Breed) bloodrager (Black Blood or Vestige bloodline) 1/vigilante (warlock) X
16 Str (+2 race), 15 Dex, 14 Con, 14 Int, 10 Wis, 8 Cha
Bld 1- Power Attack
Vgl 1- Social Talent (?)
Vgl 2- Vigilante Talent (Arcane Striker); Blooded Arcane Strike
Vgl 3- 16 Dex; Social Talent (?)
Vgl 4- Two-Weapon Fighting
Vgl 5- Social Talent (?)
Vgl 6- Vigilante Talent (Shield of Blades; gain a feat that you would have qualified for at 1st level, such as Step Up, Toughness, or Weapon Focus); Furious Focus
Vgl 7- 17 Dex; Social Talent (?)
Vgl 8- Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
Vgl 9- Social Talent (?)
Vgl 10- feat (?)
Vgl 11- 15 Int; Social Talent (?)
Vgl 12- Vigilante Talent (?)
Dex does not need to go above 17. Use Power Attack when attacking with the 1d6/x4 head of the hooked hammer as a two-handed weapon, Two-Weapon Fighting on a full attack, "throw" mystic bolts as ranged attacks, use Aid Another, or cast spells.