mistformsquirrl
2013-06-28, 09:52 PM
So, I've been fiddling around in Skyrim again of late; and I'm kinda interested in seeing what I can come up with to make a Dovahkiin style character in Pathfinder. Obviously it won't be identical - to my knowledge there's just no way to get all the shouts while preserving combat capability; but I'd like to give it a shot at insofar as I can.
I want to note that my chief goals here are to give our hypothetical Dovahkiin abilities similar to the thu'ums while not impacting their combat capabilities as much as possible. If one wanted to be a Mage Dovahkiin that'd be crazy easy, and a Thief-ish Dovahkiin isn't particularly difficult either imo, so I'm focusing more on the Warrior style Dovahkiin, light or heavy armor, a weapon or two or a shield, and then magic to replicate Thu'ums.
I've come up with a few different possible paths for a Dovahkiin to take -
1) Thundercaller Bard - This gives you something vaguely like Fus Ro Dah (albeit a stun rather than a push), and two abilities that mimic Storm Call; not to mention all the various bard spells that can themselves mimic thu'ums. Additionally you have less of a 'performance' side compared to a standard bard, which is good since the Dovahkiin doesn't really sing.
The downside is that this only really works for light armor wearing Dovahkiin.
2) Magus - Magus some spells that effectively mimic Thu'ums, and can wear heavy armor eventually if that's what you're after. All told probably the simplest option, and one that via the use of archetypes can be tailored more toward your desired Dovahkiin's style. The downside being that unless you want to ignore Spell Combat, you're limited to a one handed weapon; and there's no ability to use a shield as a magus should you want to do that.
3) Fighter (or Paladin)/Sorcerer/Eldritch Knight (Or Dragon Disciple up to level 8)
This is the more complex idea I had while thinking about this.
Upsides: You can fairly easily get full or near full casting (meaning you can have most every thu'um eventually and cast them often), similar BAB to the Magus. I chose Sorcerer rather than Wizard as I felt toting around a spellbook/having to be exceptionally intelligent didn't really fit the concept as well; though certainly you could pursue that method if you wanted to.
Downsides: No armor. Unless there's a Spellsword equivalent I don't know about for PF, you're not going to be wearing any armor except maybe a Mithral Chain Shirt; and even that's going to impose a spell failure on you. The only exception is if you take Still Spell and cast absolutely everything that way... I'm not sure that that's at all feasible really (though I am tempted to try it since it makes nearly everything into a shout...)
This build allows the most flexibility in terms of weapons and shouts, and is probably the best for the advanced player; but it runs the risk of becoming "just a sorcerer" as the player has enough magical capability they can sit back and cast without actually getting into melee. In practice this is useful; but it does hinder the concept as one can begin to wonder why one didn't just play a straight Sorcerer or Wizard.
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All this said, this is just my brainstorming on the subject, if anyone else has any other ideas for how to make a Dovahkiin in Pathfinder, please speak up! One thing I haven't looked at yet is Psionics - it's possible that may be a good route to go, but it's not a system I have a lot of experience with so I'll leave it up to someone else to plumb those depths.
I want to note that my chief goals here are to give our hypothetical Dovahkiin abilities similar to the thu'ums while not impacting their combat capabilities as much as possible. If one wanted to be a Mage Dovahkiin that'd be crazy easy, and a Thief-ish Dovahkiin isn't particularly difficult either imo, so I'm focusing more on the Warrior style Dovahkiin, light or heavy armor, a weapon or two or a shield, and then magic to replicate Thu'ums.
I've come up with a few different possible paths for a Dovahkiin to take -
1) Thundercaller Bard - This gives you something vaguely like Fus Ro Dah (albeit a stun rather than a push), and two abilities that mimic Storm Call; not to mention all the various bard spells that can themselves mimic thu'ums. Additionally you have less of a 'performance' side compared to a standard bard, which is good since the Dovahkiin doesn't really sing.
The downside is that this only really works for light armor wearing Dovahkiin.
2) Magus - Magus some spells that effectively mimic Thu'ums, and can wear heavy armor eventually if that's what you're after. All told probably the simplest option, and one that via the use of archetypes can be tailored more toward your desired Dovahkiin's style. The downside being that unless you want to ignore Spell Combat, you're limited to a one handed weapon; and there's no ability to use a shield as a magus should you want to do that.
3) Fighter (or Paladin)/Sorcerer/Eldritch Knight (Or Dragon Disciple up to level 8)
This is the more complex idea I had while thinking about this.
Upsides: You can fairly easily get full or near full casting (meaning you can have most every thu'um eventually and cast them often), similar BAB to the Magus. I chose Sorcerer rather than Wizard as I felt toting around a spellbook/having to be exceptionally intelligent didn't really fit the concept as well; though certainly you could pursue that method if you wanted to.
Downsides: No armor. Unless there's a Spellsword equivalent I don't know about for PF, you're not going to be wearing any armor except maybe a Mithral Chain Shirt; and even that's going to impose a spell failure on you. The only exception is if you take Still Spell and cast absolutely everything that way... I'm not sure that that's at all feasible really (though I am tempted to try it since it makes nearly everything into a shout...)
This build allows the most flexibility in terms of weapons and shouts, and is probably the best for the advanced player; but it runs the risk of becoming "just a sorcerer" as the player has enough magical capability they can sit back and cast without actually getting into melee. In practice this is useful; but it does hinder the concept as one can begin to wonder why one didn't just play a straight Sorcerer or Wizard.
---
All this said, this is just my brainstorming on the subject, if anyone else has any other ideas for how to make a Dovahkiin in Pathfinder, please speak up! One thing I haven't looked at yet is Psionics - it's possible that may be a good route to go, but it's not a system I have a lot of experience with so I'll leave it up to someone else to plumb those depths.