Spellslinger and Evoker

[torrasque666]

I know that Evoker is regarded as the worst Wizarding specialty, but suppose I want to play a blaster wizard. And not just any blaster, a spellslinger. Considering that a spellslinger specializes in touch, ray, line and cone spells, what are some good spells for it? More importantly, since it has to have 4 opposed schools, what would be good choices to be opposed for an Evoker?

[Muggins]

Truthfully, the best Spellslingers are those who only take one level before multiclassing into Sorcerer. Sage bloodline, if you must.

If you absolutely MUST stay in Wizard, you'll likely be best off ditching Abjuration, Enchantment and Illusion. For your fourth banned school, choose Divination, Necromancy or Transmutation to taste.

[The Grue]

Don't Conjuration and Transmutation have the best touch/ray/cone/line spells?

[torrasque666]

That they may. I don't know much about casters though so I don't know much about which school is better.

[The Grue]

Well, let's figure it out! :D

What level are you building this character at, and what level do you anticipate the campaign will "end" at?

EDIT: Also, do you want to blast as in HP damage, or blast as in save-or-suck? The former is generally considered to be inferior, but I can't deny that it's fun.

[Prime32]

Truthfully, the best Spellslingers are those who only take one level before multiclassing into Sorcerer. Sage bloodline, if you must.If you instead go Magus with the Bladebound archetype then you can shoot spells from your Black Blade, which can't misfire.

[torrasque666]

Well, let's figure it out! :D

What level are you building this character at, and what level do you anticipate the campaign will "end" at?

EDIT: Also, do you want to blast as in HP damage, or blast as in save-or-suck? The former is generally considered to be inferior, but I can't deny that it's fun.

Build is starting at level 8. Issue with building is its only 18 point buy. As for an end, I don't know.

For blasting, probably save-or-suck as with a nice firearm it can take care of HP on its own there.

[chaos_redefined]

Crazy question... but what does spellslinger actually give you? Best I can see is a x3 crit range and a bonus to hit on touch attacks... The latter is pretty irrelevant, and the former will come up approximately 5% of the time.

I'm pretty certain I can do more with the third and fourth worst schools than the ability to do 1.5x damage ~5% of the time. Especially if I also gain about the same chance to hurt my party members.

Unless attuning 2 guns means you get to cast two spells in a round, in which case, ignore everything I said in this post.

[avr]

Crazy question... but what does spellslinger actually give you?
You missed the bit where the weapons enhancement bonus applies to save DCs, didn't you?

Anyway, lets list a few spells this would help with and see which schools come up most often.

Level 1: Color Spray (Illusion), Ray of Enfeeblement (Necromancy)

Level 2: Scorching/Admonishing Ray (Evocation)

Level 3: Force Anchor (Conjuration), several evocations

Level 4: Dragon's Breath, River of Wind (Evocation), Fear (Necromancy)

Level 5: Acidic Spray, if you get dazing spell maybe Acid Arrow (both Conjuration) or Gust of Wind or Fire Breath (both Evocation)

So you want to keep Evocation, Necromancy, Conjuration and maybe Illusion. Which is a set of schools which should cover most bases.

[Chaosvii7]

I'm currently playing a Spellslinger in a campaign myself. My experience is probably 100% different from yours, because I'm a wizard in a world where book magic had been lost due to some strange phenomenon that happened a generation ago(We've since recovered as far as 3rd level spells, but those are more rare than tarrasques) so my character is erring more towards gun combat than magic, but thankfully a lot of the powerful spells spellslingers use are in the first few spell levels, which we've recovered.

As for spells, ANY ranged touch, ray, cone, or touch spells enhanced by the Reach Spell Metamagic feat are usable with the gun. The benefit of being a spellslinger is that you're able to channel spells through your gun, allowing you to add the enhancement bonus of the gun to the save DCs of the area-of-effect spells, or to the attack rolls of attack-based spells.

You can also use spell slots to give your weapon an enhancement bonus or some weapon special abilities, a la magus' arcane pool ability. That's primarily what I rely on with the character due to the low-magic nature of the setting.

The best build I can suggest would be to take your second level in Musket Master gunslinger, return to Wizard, and then get into Eldritch Knight ASAP. You can get 18th level Wizard spellcasting(albeit a bit gimped, but if you don't ban conjuration you should still be pretty decent at solving problems) and a BAB of +15 with it, and Musket Master specifically makes it so that with 1 grit in your grit pool and paper alchemical cartridges you can actually do full attacks with your musket.

I personally banned Divination, Enchantment, Abjuration, and Transmutation. Color spray is invaluable at early levels, even if it's the only illusion spell you can benefit from. With feat crunch and sacrificing a spell to give the gun a +1, you can probably get the DC at level 1 to a 16-18, easy, if you want to be the decider of fights between ECLs 1 and 4.

Again, my experience is guaranteed to be almost 100% different from yours because this is a character that lives on a world where wizards are all but worthless until we can re-learn all of the magic we lost(which I'm trying to get done); It's definitely more oriented at gishing out, but I can still guarantee that you can get the job done with it.

[grarrrg]

If you instead go Magus with the Bladebound archetype then you can shoot spells from your Black Blade, which can't misfire.

:smallconfused:
How do you plan to shoot spells out of a sword?
A Blackblade must be a 1-handed slashing weapon (with minor exceptions), as per the rules and flavor.

And you'd need a fairly lenient DM to allow you to get a Sword Cane Pistol (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/weapon-descriptions/pistol-sword-cane) approved as a Blackblade weapon.


The best build I can suggest would be to take your second level in Musket Master gunslinger, return to Wizard,... Musket Master specifically makes it so that with 1 grit in your grit pool and paper alchemical cartridges you can actually do full attacks with your musket.

Fast Musket is gained at 3rd level of Musket Master.

[chaos_redefined]

You missed the bit where the weapons enhancement bonus applies to save DCs, didn't you?

Yes. Yes, I did. Still not sure whether it's worth 4 schools or not, but at least it's not a complete waste now.

[torrasque666]

:smallconfused:
How do you plan to shoot spells out of a sword?
A Blackblade must be a 1-handed slashing weapon (with minor exceptions), as per the rules and flavor.

And you'd need a fairly lenient DM to allow you to get a Sword Cane Pistol (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/weapon-descriptions/pistol-sword-cane) approved as a Blackblade weapon.



Fast Musket is gained at 3rd level of Musket Master.

I believe though that a dagger pistol would work as it IS a one handed slashing weapon.

[grarrrg]

I believe though that a dagger pistol would work as it IS a one handed slashing weapon.

Similar thing as the Sword-Cane-Pistol. It's a double weapon that goes against the flavor of a Blackblade.

Also, a Dagger is not allowed as a Blackblade, as Blackblades must be a "one-handed" weapon, while a Dagger is a Light weapon.

And going by the stat block, a Dagger-Pistol is Bludgeoning/Piercing, not Slashing.

[torrasque666]

I'll give you that it doesn't qualify due to the dagger part being a light weapon, but I would ignore the stat-block argument, as by that same argument an Axe-Musket deals blunt damage when used as a battle axe.

[grarrrg]

I'll give you that it doesn't qualify due to the dagger part being a light weapon, but I would ignore the stat-block argument, as by that same argument an Axe-Musket deals blunt damage when used as a battle axe.

Either way the Firearm/Melee double weapons are...messed up and could be better written/explained.