Building a Character Concept: Big Oafish Accidental Spell Caster

[Perturbulent]

So in a pathfinder campaign I'm running I've got a player who's looking to play a silly large sized pile of hit points who's just a little too thick to magic quite right.
When he offered the idea, he mentioned wild mage, but the idea of it's magic being unstable was the only thing he meant by it. Whether more powerful, less powerful, changing targets, or various other shenanigans weren't necessarily specified. He's looking to play the character low-int, and possibly lower than normal other mental stats too, if possible. He wants the character to not understand how his magic works, and have that be the operating force.

I'd be perfectly happy just porting in wild mage, but it seems like it might screw over the party a little, and I don't wanna see too much conflict from that. A little shenanigans is fine, but I don't want players to be grumping about him. Any ideas that might fit the concept that would be a little more party friendly?
Any slightly more optimized that might work strongly, not just manage to get by?
I've suggested wilder as a possibility, but have yet to get a response.

Using the Create a Race rules on the PFSRD I put together these two options for an oafish large, Runt Giant? Half-Troll? sort of thing. I wanted it to be playable and balanced against the other races in the party. He'll be level 4 when he enters, or possibly level 5 depending on whether he comes this week or next.

Large
-1 on attacks and ac. -4 on stealth, +1 CMB and CMD
10x10'space
5' reach
(+4 str, -2 dex, +6 con, -2 int, -2 wis, -2 cha) or (+4 str, -2 dex, +4 con, -2 int)
+1 natural Armor
Languages (Giant) Can learn (Common, Orc, and Dwarven) Illiterate
+2 perception and survival checks.

The only difference between them is the ability score adjustments.

What do you think?

[Akolbi]

let him use a physical stat as his casting stat, maybe look into rage prophet.

[OverdrivePrime]

I forget who the poster is who originally gave us this, but they win all the Internets in my heart.

By way of someone more awesome than me, I give you, The Muscle Wizard. (http://ihititwithmyaxe.tumblr.com/post/46007651740/breaking-d-d-3-5-the-muscle-wizard-or-how-to)

[Perturbulent]

The issue is he's not simply looking at the ability to cast. He's also looking to see those castings go the way of various unexpected effects, whether random, strength or otherwise. Simply casting like mad with strength isn't sufficient. Further, part of the idea was to ensure not everyone would grump. I suspect most would grump from his casting like a god. Also, perhaps I failed to mention, he'll be entering at level 4

[Vortenger]

May I present...

The Thogateurge! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?195049-Help-Me-Be-Annoying-with-a-Barbarian-Wizard)

Muscle Wizard given a stat block.

As for what the player is looking for, large with a big pool of HP and casting don't generally go hand in hand, as all the good caster PRC's (Wild Mage being one of them) get a d4 for HP. The only way I've seen a player be a tanky caster and be effective was playing the Scarred Witch Doctor Archetype Witch from PF (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/witch). Requires being orc or half orc (fits big brute theme), and uses Constitution for casting and hexes. Perhaps use that as a base class leading into Wild Mage? That'd give the survivability boost of an all Con, all the time build, and Wild Mage provides more random than most players can handle. (Note: Make sure to roll the witch's HD to d4 if bringing to 3.5)

That's my 2 cp.

[Amphetryon]

Direlock (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/forest-guardian-press/direlock) might fit the bill if you tweak the spell list.

[arkangel111]

have him roll dice to determine which spell is cast... say 6 spells in book... 1d6 determines what is cast... that way when things are bad he can get the spell he wants since its nothing actually mechanical that's required by his class...

[Perturbulent]

That Direlock is interesting. That might work better than some things I've considered.

[Metahuman1]

have him roll dice to determine which spell is cast... say 6 spells in book... 1d6 determines what is cast... that way when things are bad he can get the spell he wants since its nothing actually mechanical that's required by his class...

I'll second this idea for randomizing his casting a bit.

As for HP, the witch suggestion might not be a bad idea, or at least not a bad starting point.

As an alternative, give him Synthesis Summoner, Pump Cha then Con, do the randomized roll suggestion, and shape your partner turned symbiont suit in just a bigger version of himself all the time. It has a lot of HP cause of prioritized Cha, you have a lot if you loose it cause of Prioritized Con. And you have spell casting and it's at least somewhat random in terms of power and effects.

[Perturbulent]

The party already consists of a synthesist summoner, a bard, and a barbarian. Reproducing another synthesist summoner may be a little silly.

I'll broach the topic of his simply randomizing his spells himself.

[Thealtruistorc]

Scarred Witch Doctor from advanced races. The best way to full cast while completely dumping intelligence.

[VoxRationis]

This idea is interesting, but it was even more interesting when I read it and I thought it said "big oarfish accidental spell caster."

[Endarire]

What about taking the Wild Mage class from Complete Arcane?

Alternatively, apply house rules. Treat his casting like he's using a Rod of Wonder some of the time.

[Perturbulent]

I have no problems porting things in. The reason I'm cautious of the wild mage, is that realistically, that class can cause some serious party cohesion problems. I am considering some houseruling to get the character off the ground.

The other issue with wild mage is that although it's likely we'll advance through to levels where it would be viable, he's starting at level 4, and I imagine he wants the character concept to take off in a time he's actually playing.

[Metahuman1]

I have no problems porting things in. The reason I'm cautious of the wild mage, is that realistically, that class can cause some serious party cohesion problems. I am considering some houseruling to get the character off the ground.

The other issue with wild mage is that although it's likely we'll advance through to levels where it would be viable, he's starting at level 4, and I imagine he wants the character concept to take off in a time he's actually playing.

Scarred Witch Doctor with prioritized stat being Con, and then, just give the randomness factor from rolls some of the time, and when he really needs it, let him forgo the random roll for his magic and just cut to the chase.

[Geshar]

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/127884/Legendary-Classes-Illuminatus-PFRPG

This.

It's a spontaneous caster, but instead of learning spells it learns wonder lists. Each wonder is 6 spells (except cantrip lists), all from the same school, but picked from different classes. For example the Conjuration I wonder is Cure Light Wounds, Grease, Mage Armor, Mount, Obscuring Mist, and Summon Monster I.
When you cast you select a wonder list and roll a d8. If you get a 1-6 you get that spell. If you get a 7-8 you get to pick your spell. This principle applies to spell completion and spell trigger items as well. Pick up a wand? Roll that die.

You also get some re-rolls for set things (magic, combat, etc) and a smaller number of rerolls for any d20.

And finally you get to pick both powers and an implement. Powers are like flavored hexes, and implements are the tool that you use your powers through which grants bonus powers and selects your first wonder list of any given level. One of my favorite powers is Bottle's first power, which lets you blow a spell slot and create a random potion that lasts the rest of the day with a few turns of work. Completely random, rolled off of the table from the back of UE.

He wouldn't have armor (sorcerer, after all) and he'd be a d6, but this or something like it could be re-flavored to fit your randomness needs quite nicely.

[avr]

If he's a lovable oaf, a Wilder (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/wilder.htm) gets charisma-based powers and wild surge. While the educated wilder (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) variant sounds wrong, it actually just trades a resistance to telepathy for more powers from 5th level onwards.

Edit: that's 3.5, didn't notice you were looking at PF. Try this (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/wilder) link instead.