[Pathfinder] Eldritch Knight

[Sarakos]

So I just got my hands on the Bestiary 2 and as I was flipping through it I came across the Dhampire. I immediately wanted to build a Dhampire character, my thoughts were along the lines of a gish build going into Eldritch Knight. He would wield an Elven Curve blade (I know it costs a feat but unless it seriously gimps the character I can stomach not being uber-optimized)

So a 1 level dip in fighter to get proficiency in martial weapons to meet the Eldritch Knight pre-requisites. Easy enough so far, I'm running into problems though with which caster class to use. Wizard, I understand, is usually the optimal choice but I was considering sorcerer with the undead bloodline for charisma synergy (I also prefer being able to cast a spell when I need it rather than preparing ahead of time). Sorcerer also fits the concept of an elegant and attractive character.

The next snag is armor. I can blow a feat or two for armor training and mastery and it costs me my swift action to reduce spell failure chance (so no quicken spells and Spell critical, the main reason I was looking at Eldritch knight.

So, without using 3.5 material is there a way to reduce ACF or otherwise allow me to wear light or medium armor without ACF? Feat suggestions would be helpful as well as I'm not very familiar with Dex based melee fighters and crit builds

Books available: everything Pathfinder

[9mm]

So I just got my hands on the Bestiary 2 and as I was flipping through it I came across the Dhampire. I immediately wanted to build a Dhampire character, my thoughts were along the lines of a gish build going into Eldritch Knight. He would wield an Elven Curve blade (I know it costs a feat but unless it seriously gimps the character I can stomach not being uber-optimized)

So a 1 level dip in fighter to get proficiency in martial weapons to meet the Eldritch Knight pre-requisites. Easy enough so far, I'm running into problems though with which caster class to use. Wizard, I understand, is usually the optimal choice but I was considering sorcerer with the undead bloodline for charisma synergy (I also prefer being able to cast a spell when I need it rather than preparing ahead of time). Sorcerer also fits the concept of an elegant and attractive character.

The next snag is armor. I can blow a feat or two for armor training and mastery and it costs me my swift action to reduce spell failure chance (so no quicken spells and Spell critical, the main reason I was looking at Eldritch knight.

So, without using 3.5 material is there a way to reduce ACF or otherwise allow me to wear light or medium armor without ACF? Feat suggestions would be helpful as well as I'm not very familiar with Dex based melee fighters and crit builds

Books available: everything Pathfinder

Fairly sure there's a feat in the APG.

Edit: in the Core rulebook actually: Arcane armor training/mastery spend swift to lower arcane failure by 10/20%

[Sarakos]

I was hoping to find a way other than Arcane Armor training so I could keep my swift actions for quicken spell and Spell Critical. I MIGHT be able to use 3.5 material if i ask my DM really nicely but its unlikely

[NamelessNPC]

Well, you can pick Bard or Summoner and you can cast with light armor. The thing is the summoner sucks a lot when multiclassing because your eidolon will be really weak

[Sarakos]

Well, you can pick Bard or Summoner and you can cast with light armor. The thing is the summoner sucks a lot when multiclassing because your eidolon will be really weak

I did consider both of those, Bard fits from the out of combat roleplay perspective but I was a bit put off by the lack of blasty or necromantic themed spells. Also considered summoner, having a large biped bodyguard with a Greatsword appealed to me as well but, as you said, multi-classing hurts the summoner class.

I might look at summoner a bit more and see if I can build it to my satisfaction. I remember Saph was working on/completed a Summoner guide somewhere on these forums. Ill have to give it a look.

Edit: I didn't know the Summoner let you cast in light armor

[Starbuck_II]

Witch (APG) is arcane and casts spells: even has blasty stuff.

You could look at it.

[Zolthux]

Since you're using all the Pathfinder Books, you should look into using traits (APG) to your advantage.

If you want to do a gish, the mandatory trait is Magical Knack: It gives you +2 caster levels (though it cannot exceed your HD), so you won't be falling behind on spell duration/power/other variables that depend on CL.

Now, if you want to use an Elven Curve Blade, I suggest the trait Heirloom Weapon (from the armory). It gives you a masterwork weapon, which you are always proficient with, and you have a +1 trait bonus to attack rolls with it.

I'm running a Paladin/Sorcerer/Eldritch Knight and use those 2 traits, along with Arcane Strike and spells that scale up as my CL increases to maximize efficiency.

[Larpus]

What about Magus?

He gets the Martial Weapon mastery, begins the game casting in Light Armor, Medium at lvl7 and Heavy at 13.

That said, maybe straight Magus is more effective, Eldritch Knight doesn't seem to offer much more than BAB to a Magus.

[Rixx]

You could always go the Bracers of Armor route instead, or rely on Mage Armor and Shield at lower levels.

If you go Sorcerer, take the Wildblooded archetype and the Sanguine bloodline. It gives you the ability to drink the blood of your slain foes to regain hit points. Too cool not to do.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer (Near the bottom of the page)

Another thing you'll want to pick up is the Robes of Arcane Heritage - it'll make your effective level for your bloodline powers 4 levels higher, making up for a good chunk of what you lose with Eldritch Knight.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items-from-apg

[Ravens_cry]

What about Magus?

He gets the Martial Weapon mastery, begins the game casting in Light Armor, Medium at lvl7 and Heavy at 13.

That said, maybe straight Magus is more effective, Eldritch Knight doesn't seem to offer much more than BAB to a Magus.
If you are more interested in more straight hitting, it might be worth it.
Still, the Magus seems to be basically designed as, as I like to put it, a Gish-in-a-Can, a base class that acts like that common multi-class concept, along with additional class features to support that.
My problem is it only follows the wizard/fighter version.
Sorcerer/fighter style magus or even, one of my favourite concepts, sorcerer/barbarian, is something I am going to try homebrewing.

[Daremonai]

The Vanguard (3rd party base class) is available at d20pfsrd.com, and is essentially a charisma-based Duskblade for Pathfinder.

[Zolthux]

What about Magus?

He gets the Martial Weapon mastery, begins the game casting in Light Armor, Medium at lvl7 and Heavy at 13.

That said, maybe straight Magus is more effective, Eldritch Knight doesn't seem to offer much more than BAB to a Magus.

Personally, I prefer spontaneous spellcasters, and considering that you're probably gonna be casting a lot of buffs at the start of the day, you might want the extra spell slots.

Sorcerer bloodlines get some nice benefits that help.

Abyssal bloodline gives you bull's strength and Rage as bonus spells (lv5 and 7), if you hit level 9 (or 5 + robes) you have strength of the abyss (+2 to str). The arcane sucks but whatever.

For my gish, I went with Verdant, I get Barkskin (a spell that scales up as i level) at level 3, and the arcana is useful too (personal-range spells grant temporary nat armor), plus I only need to sleep 2 hours a day to get my spells back, so i can craft stuff in the meantime.

With all that being said, Magus does have the advantage that everything you do is tailored for magic + combat, so you wont have abilities that make you go "eh i dont need this", and you have the arcane pool, plus the 2 weapon fighting with spells, which is just plain awesome.

Unfortunately, you only go up to level 6 spells and have a 3/4 BAB progression, whereas a sorcerer/martial class probably goes up to +16-17 BAB and can get up to 8 or even 9 level spells.

[CTrees]

Fighter 1/Wizard 5/EK 10/Fighter 1/Wizard 3 gets +16BAB and 9th lvl spells. There actually aren't a ton of ways to get both of those in PF w/o importing things from 3/3.5. Basically that's a "just sayin'."

HOWEVER, if you're not likely to ever reach level twenty? Magus can be nicely defensive and gets darned fine burst damage, Synthesist Summoners are a perennial recommendation of mine for gish characters (though there are a lot of rules ambiguities you'll want to clarify with your GM, which can take the archetype anywhere from very powerful to just average), and you may even want to think about certain Oracle builds (you can work in angsty-cursed stuff extra well, the Cha synergy is there, and, well, I'll let you figure out if you can swing paladin/anti-paladin or similar).

[McSmack]

You could look at the linnorm dragon bloodline from Ultimate Magic. It's bloodline power gives you a natural armor bonus equal to the spell level whenever you cast a spell with the energy discriptor matching your dragon type. Lasts 1d4 rounds.

It might not fit your theme though.

I'm not seeing a whole lot of options for you if you don't want to go bard, summoner or magus.

[Zolthux]

You could look at the linnorm dragon bloodline from Ultimate Magic. It's bloodline power gives you a natural armor bonus equal to the spell level whenever you cast a spell with the energy discriptor matching your dragon type. Lasts 1d4 rounds.


That's a good alternative too, you still get mage armor, resist energy, and fly as bonus spells depending on the type of dragon you chose, plus it helps you become a draconic disciple for optimal gishing out (sweet sweet d12 hp).

Honestly, Eldritch knight is better than people give it credit for. Full BAB and caster progression, bonus fighting feats, d10 hp, and spell critical at lv 10 is a very solid combination

[CTrees]

You could look at the linnorm dragon bloodline from Ultimate Magic. It's bloodline power gives you a natural armor bonus equal to the spell level whenever you cast a spell with the energy discriptor matching your dragon type. Lasts 1d4 rounds.

It might not fit your theme though.

I'm not seeing a whole lot of options for you if you don't want to go bard, summoner or magus.

Crossblood w/ elemental to make sure your spells always match your dragon type >_>