Pathfinder Society Gish

[Rhaegar14]

Hello Playground. I recently learned that my local game store hosts Pathfinder society. Due to my love of all things 3.X, I thought it'd be really cool to join, but I have a small problem; namely, I don't know where or what anything is in Pathfinder, because I play 3.5 most of the time.

So, my question to the Playground is, what legal classes and prestige classes could I use if I wanted to play a gish? I saw Eldritch Knight and Magus, but the former is not enough levels by itself, and the latter has weaker-than-ideal spellcasting.

[Curious]

Magus is what you want. It's is a fantastic gish-in-a-can with solid spellcasting, although some general optimization is needed to get the most out of it. Here's some advice:

Grab Weapon Finesse + Dervish Dance. You now use Dex to hit and damage. Which is very good, since you will be in light armor much of the time.

At 5th level, grab the Experimental Spellcaster feat (found in the Words of Power section of the SRD) and pick Accelerate as your Effect word chosen. You now have an extra move action whenever you need it, allowing you to move, full attack, and cast another spell all at the same time.

[gourdcaptain]

At 5th level, grab the Experimental Spellcaster feat (found in the Words of Power section of the SRD) and pick Accelerate as your Effect word chosen. Grab Persistant metamagic, and apply it to Accelerate. You now have a permanent extra move action, allowing you to move, full attack, and cast another spell all at the same time.

He's playing Pathfinder Society, so he can't grab Persist Spell (it's PF content only). Also, how does one get a +6 metamagic onto a half-caster with a maximum of sixth level spells? (Barring extreme metamagic reduction.)

[Curious]

He's playing Pathfinder Society, so he can't grab Persist Spell (it's PF content only). Also, how does one get a +6 metamagic onto a half-caster with a maximum of sixth level spells? (Barring extreme metamagic reduction.)

Oi, forgot to edit that part out.

You can get free +6 metamagic with this (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/spell-perfection) feat.

[Rhaegar14]

Words of Power aren't legal. I looked that up specifically because I love the idea of that system, but it's a no-go.

[Curious]

Words of Power aren't legal. I looked that up specifically because I love the idea of that system, but it's a no-go.

Crappy. Well, once you reach 7th level, this (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/f/force-hook-charge) spell can substitute. Start your spell combat, cast the spell, then full attack the guy once you reach him.

[hex0]

Psychic Warrior/Warmind? Paladin/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple?

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

I was looking at the same idea... heres the ones I came up with:

Fighter 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 6

Ranger 5/wizard 2/Arcane Archer 5

Rogue 3/Wizard 3/Arcane Trickster 6

Bard (arcane Duelist Archetype) 12

Magus 12

All of these give you combat skills and magic ability. the Arcane Duelist Bard is quite effective as as a mage killer and, as usual, party buffer.

I personally would go with the Eldritch Knight, the Arcane Archer (meh) or the Arcane Duelist bard. Magus is too... damage focused for my taste. no real spell versatility, jsut damage spells mostly.

[Stormageddon]

Palidin 2/Sorc 3/Dragon disciples 10/either EK 5 or Sorc 5

[Psyren]

Psychic Warrior/Warmind? Paladin/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple?

Psionics are (sadly) not PFS legal.
DD is a decent gish, though a Synthesist Summoner or Mutant Alchemist might be better early on.

[jmelesky]

I'm surprised nobody's pointed out that the Magus has an advantage in the action economy: they can full attack and cast (standard action or smaller spells) at the same time. That makes them excellent classic, hard-striking gishes. I see no benefit to Eldritch Knight over Magus for gishing (there are benefits for general casting -- ED probably has a wider spell selection -- but that's not what gishes are trying to do). The Magus starts out reasonably effective, and becomes better each level.

Synthesist Summoner is another good path, though less traditional. It seems to become less effective at higher levels (though in PFS, likelihood of seeing higher levels is fairly low). At low levels, they're really quite effective, and capable of being so even when their spells run out. I've seen a Synthesist/Monk multiclass that worked well.

Dragon Disciple is better at higher levels, once you have a couple levels of the PrC, but until then you're a low-optimization Sorcerer.

[CTrees]

Oi, forgot to edit that part out.

You can get free +6 metamagic with this (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/spell-perfection) feat.

Doesn't PFSociety play end at level twelve? Spell Perfection requires 15 ranks in Spellcraft.

[jmelesky]

Doesn't PFSociety play end at level twelve? Spell Perfection requires 15 ranks in Spellcraft.

Yes, currently. There's a proposal on the table that might expand it to 14 or 16, but 1- it's just a proposal, 2- it's probably going to be applicable for PFS-sanctioned PF modules only (that is, they're not going to publish any PFS adventures for that tier), and 3- any build that hinges on the last two levels of play is better for theorizing than playing.