Blasting Class recommendation

[Deathkeeper]

I'm going to be running a four-man game soon, most likely the Iron Gods adventure path. One of my players is interested in doing a high-damage, non-melee blaster character (so, basically any blaster that isn't Magus). He's leaning away from Sorc/Wizard (and possibly Witch?) though since one player has already made plans for a Wizard support caster.

My knowledge of the game is mostly that other than Sorc/Wizard, Druids have a decent number of damage spells, certainly more than Cleric, and Bards, Inquisitors, etc don't get much at all, but I haven't read much of Occult Adventures aside from the Kineticist, which neither of us were very impressed by.
Are there any blasting class options I'm overlooking?

[pilvento]

I am having a lot of fun playing a Theologian archetype cleric with the fire domain. From lvl 1 to 7 (so far). I have all the fun a blaster can have and still have the versatility a cleric can give to a party.

For extra puch you can have a single sorcerer lvl, the sorcerer vmc or eldrith heritage feats for aditional elemental damage.

Or what i have, elemental boost is a 3rd party feat that gives you +1dmg per die roled (its on the OGL).

[Psyren]

Are there any blasting class options I'm overlooking?

Alchemist - focus on bombs (particularly with the Grenadier archetype) and you can do great damage and control. You also bypass SR and spell immunity automatically - the latter sounds like it would be especially useful in Iron Gods, which has a lot of constructs.

Also, for Bards - while they don't get a lot of blasting natively, you can make a decent blaster bard with Sound Striker and Magician.

[carrdrivesyou]

Alchemist - focus on bombs (particularly with the Grenadier archetype) and you can do great damage and control. You also bypass SR and spell immunity automatically - the latter sounds like it would be especially useful in Iron Gods, which has a lot of constructs.

Also, for Bards - while they don't get a lot of blasting natively, you can make a decent blaster bard with Sound Striker and Magician.

Gonna have to second this. My reasons are that the bombs scale similarly to a rogue's sneak attack, and they are about as limited as spells per day. They deal decent damage, meanwhile the infusions and extracts you can make can add effects to them. Extra bombs is always nice, and splashing a couple levels of rogue for evasion isn't a terrible idea either.

Just my thoughts here,
-Carr

[(Un)Inspired]

It takes a little while to come completely online but a Psychic Detective Investigator VMC Rogue with the feat the allows Studied Combat on ranged attacks is a damn fine blaster.

It can easily put out hundreds of damage with single spells.

[NightbringerGGZ]

A Grenadier Alchemist with a single level of Gunslinger makes for a fun blasting build. If you want to be kind to your player, go with the Guns are Everywhere ruleset.

Kineticist makes for a decent blaster, but isn't spectacular and doesn't have much utility. It's great if the other players are going for lower tier or lower optimization builds. The major benefit of the class is that you can blast all day, but Paizo's devs overvalue the strength of such builds in anything beyond low-optimization play.

You can build a blasting Witch with various archetypes and patrons. Your spells per day will be low early on, but can be augmented with Pearls of Power at later levels. Your Hexes can also be used as offensive abilities which will be helpful.

There is a new Magus archetype that finally allows for full ranged play. It can be found in the Heroes of the Streets supplement.

[Novawurmson]

Is 3rd party allowed? Psions and wilders are great blasters. I also like the Spheres of Power elementalist for an easy to play blaster with some decent customization.

[Texas Snyper]

Kineticist is a new class that bends the elements to his or her will for damage. While its not the highest damage class, it does good enough on its own and can do it all day, as well as bring a lot of potential utility to the party as well. Depending on the element you choose, you can get free flight or invisibility at level 6, earth glide at 10, and other cool stuff. It lets you become an Avatar-like character (as in Avatar: The Last Airbender) with 5 different starting paths to choose from. Then you can specialize in that single element or branch out for more utility at the cost of less specialization. It does greatly benefit from the fact that it can blast all day long without running out of spells. The only limiter is the amount of burn for boosted damage or utility used through the day.

Here is a great guide on it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1utgJVtJStEtZ8B923VWFYKIx6kbWQS_44zSMOb8rkT0/edit

[Deathkeeper]

I am having a lot of fun playing a Theologian archetype cleric with the fire domain. From lvl 1 to 7 (so far). I have all the fun a blaster can have and still have the versatility a cleric can give to a party.

For extra puch you can have a single sorcerer lvl, the sorcerer vmc or eldrith heritage feats for aditional elemental damage.

Or what i have, elemental boost is a 3rd party feat that gives you +1dmg per die roled (its on the OGL).
Theologian is noted, thanks.

It takes a little while to come completely online but a Psychic Detective Investigator VMC Rogue with the feat the allows Studied Combat on ranged attacks is a damn fine blaster.

It can easily put out hundreds of damage with single spells.
Can you explain that? I have basically no idea what any of that is besides Investigator and Rogue.

A Grenadier Alchemist with a single level of Gunslinger makes for a fun blasting build. If you want to be kind to your player, go with the Guns are Everywhere ruleset.

There is a new Magus archetype that finally allows for full ranged play. It can be found in the Heroes of the Streets supplement.
Iron Gods has no shortage of guns, but my player doesn't want to run Alchemist since his roommate played one last semester. A shame; I've run the build you're talking about.
Can you name that archetype so I can search for it? I have only been aware of Card Caster for ranged options before. (And Myrmidarch, but that one is pretty terrible).

Is 3rd party allowed? Psions and wilders are great blasters. I also like the Spheres of Power elementalist for an easy to play blaster with some decent customization.
3rd party is avoided whenever possible for a variety of reasons. What book are SoP from? I've heard them mentioned.

Kineticist is a new class that bends the elements to his or her will for damage. While its not the highest damage class, it does good enough on its own and can do it all day, as well as bring a lot of potential utility to the party as well. Depending on the element you choose, you can get free flight or invisibility at level 6, earth glide at 10, and other cool stuff. It lets you become an Avatar-like character (as in Avatar: The Last Airbender) with 5 different starting paths to choose from. Then you can specialize in that single element or branch out for more utility at the cost of less specialization. It does greatly benefit from the fact that it can blast all day long without running out of spells. The only limiter is the amount of burn for boosted damage or utility used through the day.

Here is a great guide on it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1utgJVtJStEtZ8B923VWFYKIx6kbWQS_44zSMOb8rkT0/edit

As my first post indicates, Kineticist is the only part of OA I've actually read up on. As Nightbringer indicated, Paizo made it a bit underpowered, at least from my and the respective player's perspective.

[Greenish]

What book are SoP from? I've heard them mentioned.Spheres of Power are from Spheres of Power (http://paizo.com/products/btpy96pr?Spheres-of-Power).

[MesiDoomstalker]

I'm going to tote Sphere's of Power Elementalist real quick. You get a Warlock's Eldtrich Blast (more or less) but can buff up the damage, get free Combat Feats, ability to mix-match damage type and blast shapes (think type of targeting/area) and have more powers to do a lot of other stuff on the side.

[Spore]

Flame Oracle works like a charm, too. The haunted curse gives utility. You should just keep your metamagic rods where your weapons are and not in our item stash. The blackened curse suits him too but I find the roleplaying implications quite disgusting actually.

[ThinkMinty]

Sorcerer does the blasting better than a Wizard. You have an extra hour in your day for blasting, you can keep blasting until the peoples fall down, and you can pour on the charm when someone gets upset that you blasted their house in half.


Alchemist - focus on bombs (particularly with the Grenadier archetype) and you can do great damage and control. You also bypass SR and spell immunity automatically - the latter sounds like it would be especially useful in Iron Gods, which has a lot of constructs.

Grenadier Alchemists look fun. Give yourself a Dire Bat mount somehow and you can be the Green Goblin.


Also, for Bards - while they don't get a lot of blasting natively, you can make a decent blaster bard with Sound Striker and Magician.

Sound Strikers! I love those guys. It's like you have the powers of GLAM METAL (https://youtu.be/xs4v-zexx8M).

...why do I want to play a Glam!Bard now?

[DrMartin]

Seconding psions/wilder or spheres of power! :smallbiggrin: Psions fit the AP theme to a T, and it's basically a port over with improvements from the excellent 3.5 rules, so i would hardly consider it 3rd party

as mentioned above, spheres of powers provides very nice blasting, and as a whole it's a great system. I'm currently in the process of converting the Reign of Winter AP for use in a sphere of power-only game and am having a blast :smallsmile:
For your player's needs, you could have an elementalist for the Avatar [element]bender feel, or a Thamaturgist for the d&d warlock "i made a pact with the devil, i got the powa!" feel. In both cases unlimited blasting, with per day pumped-up blasting.

(If you decide to adopt it and you have no other casters, the only issue to address is that adventure paths are designed with the characters having some iconic abilities available, and in Spheres of Powers not every character will have access to "basic" things, like detect magic for instance)

If you want to make things easier for them, gently nudge them towards electricity effects. The robots with hardness 10 in the first book are very hard to overcame if the party does not have a power attacking two-hander or somebody toting electricity around

Another route is going gunslinger - there's a lot of love for them in this AP. Downside is that ranged damage is pretty much all of what you can do, while even a specialized caster will always end up with more variety and flexibility.

Druid has decent blasting options, but most good blasting spells are higher level. At first level the best things you can get is produce flame i think...if you aren't lactose-intolerant, you could fix it with some Samsaran cheese

Cleric or Oracle with some blasty domain or mistery would be the best first party option in my opinion, given the no wiz/sorc or alchemist limitation.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Can you name that archetype so I can search for it? I have only been aware of Card Caster for ranged options before. (And Myrmidarch, but that one is pretty terrible).

It is the Eldritch Archer archetype. Page 11 of Heroes of the Streets. As the book released relatively recently it hasn't been posted on the SRD sites yet. Details on the archetype in the spoiler tag below:


Class Skills: Gain Perception, lose Use Magic Device as a class skill. (Modifies Class Skills)

Arcane Pool: At level 5 you can add the Distance, Nimble Shot and Returning weapon properties but lose the Dancing, Keen and Vorpal properties. (Modifies Arcane Pool)

Ranged Weapon Bond: At level 1 you gain a bonded object (ranged weapon of your choice) as the Wizard ability. You don't get a bonus spell per day, but holding the weapon doesn't prevent you from providing somatic components for your spells.

Ranged Spell Combat: You must use a ranged weapon for spell combat but you do not need to have a free hand. You can't accept an attack penalty to gain a bonus on concentration checks to cast defensively. (Modifies Spell Combat)

Ranged Spellstrike: You can deliver any ranged spell with an attack roll through a wielded ranged weapon. Instead of the free attack roll you make a free attack roll with your weapon to deliver the attack. This attack does not increase the spell's range.

If the spell normally allows multiple attacks you have to deliver them via attack rolls with your weapon as a full attack with Spell Combat. If the spell gives you more attacks than you can make with your weapon in that round, the rest of the attacks are wasted. (Alters Spellstrike)

Focusing Spellstrike: At level 16 you can deliver a cone or line spell as a ray via Ranged Spellstrike. You affect only the target creature. (TRAP!) (Replaces Counterstrike)

New Arcana:
Distant Spellstrike (Su): The range of any spell delivered through a weapon increases to the max range of that weapon. Requires Magus 12 & Ranged Spellstrike

Reach Spellstrike (Su): You can deliver spells with range of touch as a ranged spellstrike with a max range of close (25 plus 5/level feet). Requires Magus 9 & Ranged Spellstrike.





As Nightbringer indicated, Paizo made it a bit underpowered, at least from my and the respective player's perspective.

Note: There are a few good builds. Aether provides a lot of utility & with the trait for disarming magic traps you're basically a psychic ranged rouge. The Kinetic Whip build is also quite strong (multiple AoOs per round w/ a 20 to 35 foot reach) and is great for proving flanking bonuses in a melee-heavy group.

If your player just wants to throw energy blasts around all day, you may want to consider some homebrew tweaks to the class. A few simple things, like bumping Expanded Element to levels 5/10/15, lowering level requirements on some of the utility talents and removing the level penalty from Extra Wild Talent really help the class out.
[/SPOILER]

[DrMartin]

Class Skills: Gain Perception, lose Use Magic Device as a class skill. (Modifies Class Skills)

Arcane Pool: At level 5 you can add the Distance, Nimble Shot and Returning weapon properties but lose the Dancing, Keen and Vorpal properties. (Modifies Arcane Pool)

Ranged Weapon Bond: At level 1 you gain a bonded object (ranged weapon of your choice) as the Wizard ability. You don't get a bonus spell per day, but holding the weapon doesn't prevent you from providing somatic components for your spells.

Ranged Spell Combat: You must use a ranged weapon for spell combat but you do not need to have a free hand. You can't accept an attack penalty to gain a bonus on concentration checks to cast defensively. (Modifies Spell Combat)

Ranged Spellstrike: You can deliver any ranged spell with an attack roll through a wielded ranged weapon. Instead of the free attack roll you make a free attack roll with your weapon to deliver the attack. This attack does not increase the spell's range.

If the spell normally allows multiple attacks you have to deliver them via attack rolls with your weapon as a full attack with Spell Combat. If the spell gives you more attacks than you can make with your weapon in that round, the rest of the attacks are wasted. (Alters Spellstrike)

Focusing Spellstrike: At level 16 you can deliver a cone or line spell as a ray via Ranged Spellstrike. You affect only the target creature. (TRAP!) (Replaces Counterstrike)

New Arcana:
Distant Spellstrike (Su): The range of any spell delivered through a weapon increases to the max range of that weapon. Requires Magus 12 & Ranged Spellstrike

Reach Spellstrike (Su): You can deliver spells with range of touch as a ranged spellstrike with a max range of close (25 plus 5/level feet). Requires Magus 9 & Ranged Spellstrike.



This archetype looks fun! pair it with firearms proficiency and you can deliver a lot of pain

[Vhaidara]

As my first post indicates, Kineticist is the only part of OA I've actually read up on. As Nightbringer indicated, Paizo made it a bit underpowered, at least from my and the respective player's perspective.

Honestly, Kineticist is pretty quick and easy to fix. Aether, Water, and Air already have good utility in them, and beyond that, just take 2-3 of the following
1. Chassis upgrade (Full BAB, d12 HD)
2. Can apply Vital Strike to Kinetic Blasts
3. Remove the burn limits. Let them knock themselves out if they want to go supernova. That's punishment enough. Also remove the per turn limit. The levels they get burn generators at are already enough to prevent abuse here
4. New infusion: Intense Energy. Allows an energy blast to ignore energy resistance up to your level. Immunity is treated as twice the target's HD
5. Additional effect on Elemental Overflow: For every 3 points of burn you have, reduce the final burn cost of all blasts by 1. So the more you are on fire, the harder it is to set you more on fire,

[Deathkeeper]

It is the Eldritch Archer archetype. Page 11 of Heroes of the Streets. As the book released relatively recently it hasn't been posted on the SRD sites yet. Details on the archetype in the spoiler tag below:

[arcane archer stuff]

Aww, that has the same main problem as Myrmidarch- you can only used Ranged spells, so you lose most of bread & butter spells that Magi use at low levels like Shocking Grasp.

[Kurald Galain]

Attaching a ranged spell to an arrow has the issue that it targets regular AC instead of touch AC. That's a huge drawback for little benefit. Melee spellstrike has the advantage of holding the charge, so your spell will eventually hit anyway; ranged doesn't do that.

[Zrak]

An evocation-focused occultist can be a competitive blaster and still have a lot going on on the sides. The elven favored class bonus gets you more blasting per day, but the half-orc favored class bonus gets you more damaging blasts.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Aww, that has the same main problem as Myrmidarch- you can only used Ranged spells, so you lose most of bread & butter spells that Magi use at low levels like Shocking Grasp.

You can use Snowball (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/snowball) with a ranged build. It's a rather good spell. You also are given Arcana options for turning those melee spells into ranged ones, though those don't come online until the mid-levels.


Attaching a ranged spell to an arrow has the issue that it targets regular AC instead of touch AC. That's a huge drawback for little benefit. Melee spellstrike has the advantage of holding the charge, so your spell will eventually hit anyway; ranged doesn't do that.

Not getting to hold the charge is the basic trade off of staying at range (and avoiding those concentration checks). You still get to go with Longbow build, which is high DPS on its own. That being said, you can always use Spell Combat and choose not to use Spell Strike if targeting touch AC is important.