So we all have things we think are really neat from various media, and one of mine that I feel I never get to explore enough is the Blue Mage. I have a link to the wiki right here but in summary for those who might not know how a Blue Mage works, the cliff notes version is that they learn spells/active skills from enemy encounters and have the ability use them in future encounters much like how a Wizard can learn and add spells to their spellbook, but the requirements vary from having to see the spell/ability or having said spell/ability be used upon them successfully to using a consumable drop from specific enemies to outright eating the enemy when they are weakened, and sometimes it isn't guaranteed that you will learn anything.
I asked Reddit about this a while back and while I appreciate their input, the last time I applied what they told me I came back here to find out I essentially wasted a feat slot and attempt to play the class I desired ineffectively...so I'm here to get the opinions of the folks here.
Generally speaking, I'm looking for a more tribal character with a connection to nature and mysticism being why they can perform such feats. I originally thought Shifter would do this well since some of the partial forms give unique abilities, but I have since learned that Shifter is a martial class and that even Paizo admitted they kinda screwed up with it as a class, so I'm thinking some form of Druid or a Barbarian that can utilize magic would be a better place to start.
I appreciate all help in advance.
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So we all have things we think are really neat from various media, and one of mine that I feel I never get to explore enough is the Blue Mage. I have a link to the wiki right here but in summary for those who might not know how a Blue Mage works, the cliff notes version is that they learn spells/active skills from enemy encounters and have the ability use them in future encounters much like how a Wizard can learn and add spells to their spellbook, but the requirements vary from having to see the spell/ability or having said spell/ability be used upon them successfully to using a consumable drop from specific enemies to outright eating the enemy when they are weakened, and sometimes it isn't guaranteed that you will learn anything.
I asked Reddit about this a while back and while I appreciate their input, the last time I applied what they told me I came back here to find out I essentially wasted a feat slot and attempt to play the class I desired ineffectively...so I'm here to get the opinions of the folks here.
Generally speaking, I'm looking for a more tribal character with a connection to nature and mysticism being why they can perform such feats. I originally thought Shifter would do this well since some of the partial forms give unique abilities, but I have since learned that Shifter is a martial class and that even Paizo admitted they kinda screwed up with it as a class, so I'm thinking some form of Druid or a Barbarian that can utilize magic would be a better place to start.
I appreciate all help in advance.
I actually asked this question a while back really there is no one to one way you can get a blue mage. The closest you're going to get is a shadow caster I.E hard focus on shadow conjuration,evocation,transmutation,etc
well i did mention back in your thread.
a skald have Spell Kenning. it's a not 'see spell> copy spell', it's more 'look for spell > cast spell' (up to the spell level available for skalds)
Skald seems to fit a lot of what you want. Totemic Skald goes along with the theme you seem to be wanting. But it gives up Spell Kenning, which has a bit of blue magic flavor.
Looking at how blue magic works I don’t think you are going to find anything that works like that. Pathfinder is a class-based system that each class is supposed to be balanced. What you want is the ability to cast any spell in the game. There is no way you are going to get that ability in full.
If it is more of a flavor thing instead of a game mechanic, you can get some of that flavor with a sorcerer or any spontaneous caster. Build a sorcerer and limit yourself to taking spells that you could have acquired with blue magic. You won’t get any extra spells, and to be honest your spell list is probably going to be crap, but it has the flavor of blue magic. Probably want to go with a race that gives bonus spells as a favored class ability and may want to look at the feat Expanded Arcana to pick up more spells. You would still be limited to sorcerer spells and what your bloodline gives you. The Arcane bloodline would probably work well for this, their bloodline spells are really common, and they get a few extra spells as bloodline powers.
Blue magic is less about casting every spell and more about using its own subset of rare spells that are usually only available to monsters. The blue mage learns these through various methods in different games, but generally involving the monster who casts that spell.
The ffd20 site has a blue mage. But the classes from that variant are slightly more powerful than base pathfinder classes.
The exact mechanics of a blue mage, no.
There are some options to gain access to spells from multiple spell lists, however.
A Magaambyan initiate arcanist, possibly with levels in the Magaambyan arcanist prestige class, allows an arcanist to learn a limited number of spells from the druid list and/or spells with the good descriptor from the cleric list in addition to the sorcerer/wizard list. The advanced exploits Siphon Spell, Spell Thief, and Suffering Knowledge may come close to the feel of a blue mage.
A sandman bard can literally "steal spells from his foes and add them to his list of spells known." This might come the closest to a blue mage, but is one of the weaker bard archetypes.
A spirit guide oracle can choose a different spirit each day at 3rd, gaining the spirit spells in addition to the oracle mystery spells at 4th and spirit ability/greater spirit ability at 7th and 15th.
A true silvered throne shaman with the Lore spirit can add some sorcerer/wizard spells to their spell list with the Arcane Enlightenment hex.
A samsaran with the Mystic Past Life alternate racial trait can add a limited number of spells from a different class list to their current class list.
A druid (or character that can cast druid spells like hunter) can take the Fey Spell Lore feat to learn some additional spells.
Check out final fantasy d20. Their classes are more powerful, but you can see the mechanics there. Also Samurai Sheepdog has the Battle Augur. It comes across as Mega Man like.
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A Medium can mimic the abilities of other classes, and have some support for possessing monsters they either encounter, summon, or create themselves. Whenever you see a cool spell, channel one of your 4 spell lists (Wizard, Cleric, Druid, and Medium) the next day and bam, you have it. You don't technically need to see a spell to learn it, so the blue mage mechanic of "learning" doesn't *really* apply. But with the sheer *amount* of options available to you, you the player might have to "Learn" to make use of them!
Actually, there is a limited amount of in-character "learning" that can occur. Legendary Spirits must be contacted and earned before they can be used, which is where your Druid spell list comes from.
Beyond spells, you can "learn" monster abilities too, but this is a costly endeavor. You'll need the Improved Possession feat, requiring an enourmous expenditure of 3 feats (Planar Heritage: Nabasu or Half-Fiend, Demonic Possession, and Improved Possesion), 25 charisma, and 17 wisdom. If you can get past the grueling early game with those lopsided stats, you can possess any monsters you come across or create and use their spells and abilities. One trick is to channel Abrogail Thrune and Call an outsider whose abilities you want, and another is to use Darolnyr to retroactively turn any of your will save spells into Greater Possession.
I don't know why but for me the occultist is the class that is more related to the blue mage since he can gain magic based in the equipment that the enemy posese when he get such items
An 11th level Arcanist with the suffering Knowledge exploit can use a arcane point to cast a spell that they failed the save against. The Aranist still has to have an appropriate spell slot available, and the spell has to be on the sorcerer/wizard spell list.
You can always choose to fail a save, but you need to be able to survive the spell when you do.
The spell stealspell also give you the flavor of the blue mage to get spell from your opponent an used as you have them
What in the heck is Darolnyr?
J
What in the heck is Darolnyr?
A typo, eheh. What I meant to write was "Daronlyr", who is one of the grand princes of Taldor, reigned in the 3500's. You can check out some of his lore here. More relevantly, he's one of the legendary spirits a medium can channel who grants possession powers, useful for using monster abilities in conjunction with Improved Possession.
Usurp (Supreme, Su): Once per day, when a creature fails a Will save against one of your spell effects, you can forfeit the spell’s normal effects to instead affect the target creature as if you had cast greater possession.