Occasional Sage
2012-09-07, 12:30 AM
I'm coming up on my first Pathfinder game, and have a character concept all staked out. I'm wondering how to optimize the build, though, since there's so much new in PF to work with. The game is planned to run form levels 1-18, and the group (I've never played with any of them before) seem to be low on the optimizing scale.
ALLOWED: Core book, Advanced Players' Guide, Advanced Races, Complete Magic, Complete Divine, Advanced Combat, maybe one or two more on demand if I can make a good case. The DM's preference is to stay PF-only, but a REALLY good case could bring in 3.5 material.
CONCEPT: I want to play a highly-mobile melee character who doesn't own a weapon, but instead uses Stolen or else Improvised alternatives.
BUILD IDEAS: I'm leaning heavily toward a Magus (Spire Defender) with a two- or three-level dip in Fighter (Cad). Cad gives me a quick hit of feats and a small boost to the maneuvers I'd be likely to use. Alternately, a straight Magus build would work, but loses some flavor. I've just started looking at a Bard (Daredevil) build synergized with Sorcerer, since Arcane Strike would add the two together for effect.
I like the mess Magus makes of action economy, but I'm having trouble accepting the slooooooow spell progression and dips are KILLING me. I'm not finding any solid PrC either, and that's going to be HUGE in keeping my interest.
Advise me, Playground. You're my only hope!
EDIT: Can the Magus' Knowledge Pool really be used to scribe every spell on the list into my spellbook?
If I belong to a class that has a particular class feature, but have not reached the level at which it comes on-line, do I qualify for PrC and/or feats with the pre-req "class feature x"? I don't think I've ever tried to exploit that loophole and don't see anything RAW that closes it, though I'd sacktap a player with a DMG if they tried....
RE-EDIT: The Cad (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo---fighter-archetypes/cad)'s skill list is in addition to the Fighter's base list right? Cuz otherwise it's super-thin. Nope, the table marks these as replacement skills.
ALLOWED: Core book, Advanced Players' Guide, Advanced Races, Complete Magic, Complete Divine, Advanced Combat, maybe one or two more on demand if I can make a good case. The DM's preference is to stay PF-only, but a REALLY good case could bring in 3.5 material.
CONCEPT: I want to play a highly-mobile melee character who doesn't own a weapon, but instead uses Stolen or else Improvised alternatives.
BUILD IDEAS: I'm leaning heavily toward a Magus (Spire Defender) with a two- or three-level dip in Fighter (Cad). Cad gives me a quick hit of feats and a small boost to the maneuvers I'd be likely to use. Alternately, a straight Magus build would work, but loses some flavor. I've just started looking at a Bard (Daredevil) build synergized with Sorcerer, since Arcane Strike would add the two together for effect.
I like the mess Magus makes of action economy, but I'm having trouble accepting the slooooooow spell progression and dips are KILLING me. I'm not finding any solid PrC either, and that's going to be HUGE in keeping my interest.
Advise me, Playground. You're my only hope!
EDIT: Can the Magus' Knowledge Pool really be used to scribe every spell on the list into my spellbook?
If I belong to a class that has a particular class feature, but have not reached the level at which it comes on-line, do I qualify for PrC and/or feats with the pre-req "class feature x"? I don't think I've ever tried to exploit that loophole and don't see anything RAW that closes it, though I'd sacktap a player with a DMG if they tried....
RE-EDIT: The Cad (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo---fighter-archetypes/cad)'s skill list is in addition to the Fighter's base list right? Cuz otherwise it's super-thin. Nope, the table marks these as replacement skills.