Mage-killing... I know! I know! One of these...

[dascarletm]

I could use some assistance in building an assassin of sorts. My wife's friend has recently finished playing her first campaign (she was a tiefling bloodrager), and she just inspired the concept of our upcoming campaign. I will get to be a player in this one, but as per usual I have too many ideas and need some focusing.

The theme of the campaign is that the players are starting a cult with the ultimate end to eliminate magic from the world. NOTE: We'll start small, and casters will be built mid-OP. Nothing like ya'll veterans on the board usually come up with:smallwink:.

One player is a spellcaster herself and will secretly want all the power for herself.

My wife is going to be an alchemist who originally wanted to understand how spell-casters work. However due to backstory she snapped and has begun dissecting spell-casters in an attempt to understand it. Oh! Did I mention we are evil?:smallamused:

I was originally thinking of being someone who isn't naturally magical themselves. A rogue or ninja with UMD specialized in bypassing magical detection and assassinating.

However I'm at a lost on where to start. If anyone has an idea to bounce at me it would be helpful. Pretty much everything on the pfsrd is okay to use.

Oh, and try not to turn this into a debate of casters vs non-casters. Their superiority is noted, and discussing ways to overcome this is helpful and welcome.:smallbiggrin:

[gorfnab]

Though it is third party (but still on the Pathfinder OGC), you could look into the Witch Hunter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/super-genius-games/witch-hunter). It has a lot of neat abilities that can be used against arcane or divine casters.

[Psyren]

Your role should compliment your wife's - if she is going Vivisectionist, then you need to find out if she plans on being sneaky-stabby, or a rip-and-tear bruiser. Alchemist can easily do both; whichever one she picks, you can then go for Slayer or Barbarian to fill the other.

You can also go Ninja, though it's slightly hypocritical to do so since they use magic. (Of course, alchemists are no better, but your GM can at least fluff that as being from the specific ingredients she uses. With Ninjas, it's all spiritual/internal so there's no lying.)

[dascarletm]

Oh we are all using magic, being hypocritical, and just don't really care. My character sees magic as a means to gain power, and while he may not be skilled enough to use spells he may use something similar (like magic items or SU abilities).

My wife was considering vivisectionist, but she wanted bombs so she could do the whole blow up stuff and blame it on spellcasters.

She is going to take the visionary researcher archetype I believe.

[stack]

Barbarian, taking superstitious and the human favored class bonus to boost it can get impressive saves. Some of the rage powers that require it could fit the theme as well. There are only so many good options for non-casting mage-hunters.

[Elricaltovilla]

Stalker (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/stalker) into Mage Hunter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/prestige-classes/mage-hunter). Steel Serpent and Veiled Moon are great for mage hunting, since you can do lots of ability score damage to hit casters in their most important stat and teleportation makes you hard to hit and hard to avoid. Mage Hunter gives you a couple different ways to keep mages from using their most annoying tricks, as well as a pseudo magus spell combat.

If you had playtest material as well I'd recommend using Harbinger instead for great debuffing and more movement utility.