Pathfinder - Help me with class selection.

[Theorac]

Hi guys,

I've finally bit the dust in a PF campaign, thanks to a surprise adult dragon breath attack right after we finished a skirmish which had me injured.

Requirements/Sitrep as follows:

Character:

15pt buy (Aieee!)
Level 8 atm
Preference - ranged. I usually don't play melee, but its not a hard no-no.
No backgrounds allowed
HP is max at first level, then 3/4 of max every level after.
Previous class: Control Divining Wizard
"Cant reroll as the same class you just died as. Revive the dead guy instead." rule.


Party:
Core members are 1 paladin, 1 support cleric and 1 poisoner rogue. There is a barbarian and a monk somewhere too I think, but they don't come often *shrug*.

Looking for help with suggesting my next character~

Thanks in advance!

[Snowbluff]

Summoner. Doit doit doit doit doit doit.

If the point buy is an issue, Synthesist.

Not enough people in your party? Master Summoner.

You look short an arcane caster, anyway.

[gr8artist]

I would suggest ninja, but then I realized your group already had a poisoner rogue.
have you considered a hurling barbarian? with charging hurl and some of the rage powers, you can throw pretty big rocks at people as a free action as part of a charge. That's just too cool.
build a custom magic "weapon" that's basically just a spiked +1 returning mythral boulder. Crush all the things.
Oh, and take the brutal throw feat so you can dump dex.

[Theorac]

Thanks guys. I was thinking about Synthesist but wasn't sure how useful it would be as enemies are usually 2CR higher. I've seen higher level regular summoners at work, but damn, they impress. Can the Synthesist hit reliably enough to be a threat?

About the hurler, it would seem to me at first glance that there is a weight and size problem with that build? Large rocks, would be quite large and a mythral boulder sounds darn heavy. Alternative ways to supply ammo would seem to require a very large expense in bags or a dedicated wizard. Please do enlighten me on how the character and that spike works as that character concept is a first for me :smallsmile:. With my imagination, it does look awesome though.

The other alternative I had was a 1 dimension Gunslinger to help with some consistent damage, so everything here already sounds much better.

[Squirrel_Dude]

Does it have to be a 15 point buy, or can you roll your stats? If you want to go ranged, I'll recommend being an alchemist bomber, or going archery ranger.

[IronFist]

I recently posted a fun 8th level Gunslinger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294881) build, you might like it. Dex x3 to damage, 4 attacks per round, enough damage to one-shot any CR 10 creature you'll cross paths with in a single full-attack.

[Theorac]

Yes, its only 15 point buy.


*Squirrel_Dude - Does the alchemist spend a lot of money on bombs or is it more like a wizard? If yes, our poisoner does need sums of gold and this will start to eat into our party finances.

Arcane archer? I was thinking about it, but 15 points seems a bit small a pool. Bear in mind, we usually fight CR+2 and above monsters. I've never had an archer, much less an arcane one in pathfinder yet though~



*IronFist, were you the one who wrote the Handbook for gunslingers too? I really liked it! What you are suggesting is a Pistolero 5\Fighter 3, correct?

[IronFist]

No, I didn't write that handbook, but it was really good ^^

Yes, I'm suggesting Pistolero 5/Trench Fighter 3.

[gr8artist]

Alchemist gets bombs as a free ability. They deal same damage as a Sneak Attack from a rogue of the same level (1d6 at every odd level) plus your int mod. You get a set number per day, and it's a standard action to activate the catalyst and throw it.
Yes. DnD grenades.

The hurler we had in our group used a half-ogre race which gave him some serious strength. We used a bad stat system that let him keep cranking strength into ridiculous levels. Custom item of permament enlarge person is cheaper than you might think (roughly 4000 gold, if memory serves) unless your DM is smarter than me and houserules that that's not enough gold for a benefit that good.
The barb spent everything on that weapon... We found a spell that lets you shrink an object. He figured out the size/weight of the largest item he could throw, and had the local mage-smith make him a cold iron spiked ball that size. He had it enchanted as a +1 called weapon, so it would return to him with a swift action. He also had it enchanted as a wondrous item with a command word spell effect to shrink it from huge to tiny (maybe small size). Since you're adding wondrous item abilities to something that already has its own magic (as a weapon) then you pay 50% more for the shrinking effect. The hulking hurler feat tree lets you throw REALLY REALLY BIG things.
I think his ranged attack (vs Touch AC) was 6d6+20 or so at level 10. It was a full-action to throw unless he shrunk it down (in which case it dealt less damage).

[Kudaku]

I'm inclined to agree that Alchemist would be a good fit for your party.

With the infusion discovery your paladin is going to love you, while raining down bombs of death from range is always a good time :smallsmile:

[Occasional Sage]

I'll jump on the Summoner side. At 8th level, an eidolon could look something like this:

11 pts
Appearance: a feral centaur, replacing the centaur's lower horse form with that of a dragon.
Base Form: quadruped
Evolutions: limbs (legs); limbs (legs), claws; limbs (arms), slam, reach; bite; tail; pounce; large
Stats: str 25 dex 15 con 18 int 7 wis 10 cha 11
Feats: Power Attack, Improved Overrun, Charge Through
AC: 21 (+10 natural armor, +2 dex, -1 size)
HP: 6d10+24
Full Attack: bite+10 (d8+14); 2 claws+10 (d6+14); slam+10 (2d6+14) (Power Attack factored in, but not the +2 for a charge-pounce; if it's having trouble hitting, attacks can be +12 to hit/+7 damage)
CMD: 26; +4 vs trip, +6 vs overrun
CMB: 14; +2 on overrun

This is without touching the Summoner's feats for extra points and such. Flight is an easy spell awa if needed, and overruning mid-charge with a large footprint on the map should put one of the melee on the floor while it eats a caster or archer.

[Dayaz]

Also, as an alchemist you can make poisons for the rogue for much less than market price. Although, realistically he/she should have craft alchemy already fir that, but there's always throwing poison and bombs at enemies :D

[NightbringerGGZ]

I'm going to go a completely different route and suggest you play a witch! You'll get to add some really nice debuffing and crowd control to the party, letting your Paladin and Rogue team up on one target at a time.

[Blyte]

human tattooed sorcerer - orc blood line (perhaps cross blooded primal[fire])

put (magical lineage + metamagic master) traits on a good all around spell (like magic missile), and blast things heartily.

1 noble scion of war
1 spell focus (evocation)
1 spell tattoo (evocation +1 CL evo spells)
3 spell specialization (magic missile +2 CL)
5 empower spell
7 toughness (bloodline feat)
7 intensify spell

you will have a respectable bonus to initiative CHA mod + 4 (scorpion familiar tattoo)

you will have a huge arsenal of a variety of magnum force magic missiles that do outstanding single target damage, and only eat up low level spell slots.

if you went cross blooded, you will have insane fireball damage as well.

you want to focus your cash supply on meta magic rods and pearls of power. piercing spell and quicken spell rods are awesome. craft rod should be your 9th level feat, unless gold abounds, in which case spell pen and improved initiative are good choices.

try and stay alive. take spells like vanish, mirror image, false life (remember it lasts for 1 hour/level), expeditious retreat, spider climb, fly, resist energy... don't get too caught up on blasting spells... magic missile, ear piercing scream & fire ball will get you far.

[Snowbluff]

A sythesist based on Biped wit hthe Large ability is easily strong enough.

Also, if you do a Magic Missile build, get some Toppling Spell. It wrecks. I found getting an animal companion is worth more than blasting based sorcery.

[grarrrg]

I like Witch. Witches are fun.


I recently posted a fun 8th level Gunslinger (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294881) build, you might like it. Dex x3 to damage, 4 attacks per round, enough damage to one-shot any CR 10 creature you'll cross paths with in a single full-attack.

Make sure you run the above past your DM first.
Pistolero by RAW doesn't lose Gun Training, but it's horribly obvious that RAI he shouldn't have it. This is just one of the things from Ultimate Combat that is VERY in need of Errata.

And Trench Fighter is questionable, but more for 'campaign setting' reasons.

[navar100]

Summoner

Summon Monsters and Eidolon help the PC warriors by taking some of the heat off them. Any enemy attack against them is not an attack against the party. You can also cast a few spells for arcane support. Focus more on control with the occasional buff spell. The Create Pit series is fun.

[Theorac]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions pouring in! Alas, I have but one PC in the campaign >.<

At the moment, after reading through all the posts, a Synthesist Summoner and Witch are at the top of my list, while I check out the capabilities of the Alchemist~ Master summoner is an option, but then I risk dragging out combat rounds when summoning many monsters :(

[Winds of Nagual]

Definitely seems like the group could use some distance attacking. Ranger archer? Sorcerer? But I will always throw in for a battle field controller summoner.

[gr8artist]

Eh, take a look at multiclassing. Alchemist/Gunslinger, Alchemist/Witch, Gunslinger/Summoner all have some fun synergy or cover plenty of bases. (use mysterious stranger for the GS in the GS/Sum so you have Cha to damage, and a multiarmed eidolon synthesist for the Sum.)
If you're going Witch, I might recommend running a scarred witch doctor, if only for being a constitution based caster. Yeah, that's right. A caster with health.