Building BFC Arcanist; Advice Requested

[Miko_Kira]

I'm building a character that's plopping down mid-campaign, and I need some advice. The group is lvl 13 atm, just fyi.

So far I've got the basics figured out, but I'm getting into the nitty-gritty details because I'm converting an older Sorcerer to the Arcanist class and the big difference, from what I've observed, is that I'm going from a typical spontaneous caster to a pseudo-spontaneous prepared caster.

Before anyone gets upset; I'm calling the Arcanist a prepared caster, because the Arcanist needs to prepare spells before they can actually cast anything. Without spell prep, the Arcanist is effectively a Sorcerer without spells known.

That said, here's what I've got so far;

Arcanist 13 (School Savant; Conj Sub - Teleport)

Feats;
1 - Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conj
3 -
5 - Persistent Spell
7 - Spell Penetration
9 - Combat Casting
11 -
13 -

I'm stuck on 3 feats; How would I best focus BFC with what I've already got?

My exploits so far are Potent Magic, and Quick Study. I can gather more Metamagic feats with Metamagic Knowledge and it's Greater, but I'm also curious about counterspells to shut down enemy casters.

Any advice is appreciated!

[Miko_Kira]

Side Inquiry - Is anyone else suffering from advert redirects, or is it just me? I can't refresh my page, or go back without getting caught up in a redirect to some useless advertisement.

[stanprollyright]

Side Inquiry - Is anyone else suffering from advert redirects, or is it just me? I can't refresh my page, or go back without getting caught up in a redirect to some useless advertisement.

nope, never had that problem.


good feats:
Extra Exploit is always good.
Augment Summoning, since you already have the prereq. Summons count as BFC.
Rime Spell/Dazing Spell/Selective Spell
Improved Familiar (worth the exploit!)

There's also a trick where, instead of taking a metamagic feat, you can take Extra Exploit as a feat and Metamagic Knowledge as your Exploit to qualify for Greater Metamagic Knowledge later.

[Geddy2112]

Second /strongly suggest taking the familiar exploit, and then improved familiar. Get something that can use wands(has hands, speech) and either has a good UMD score or can use yours. Also second augment summons and rime spell. Augment summons is borderline required since you went school savant: conjuration and you get the extended duration of summons. You probably want superior summons so you can throw down even more bodies to control the battlefield.

For counterspelling, preparing dispel magic and greater dispel magic should be sufficient;arcanists are very good at this as they only need to fill a single prep slot, but can cast multiple times a day, vs a wizard requiring multiple preps or a sorcerer stuck with the spell. If you are really worried, the counterspell and greater counterspell exploits are not terrible, but there are far better exploits, and your archetype is starved for them as it is.

[stanprollyright]

Augment summons is borderline required since you went school savant: conjuration and you get the extended duration of summons. You probably want superior summons so you can throw down even more bodies to control the battlefield.

Oooh I didn't see that. Yeah, Augment Summoning and Superior Summons are musts then. Last feat can be Extra Exploit (familiar) and take Improved Familiar later (I like Pseudodragons myself). I think Rime or Selective Spell would be better than Persistent at that level, and if you use the Extra Exploit->Metamagic Knowledge trick to get Greater asap you won't need to take any more metamagic feats.

[Topaz]

Oh, hey, I have one of those in a game I'm in (currently in hiatus) though he's only 10th level. Some other things to mention:

If your DM rules that it applies to the Shift school power (mine did), then Dimensional Agility is golden; you can replace Combat Casting with it.
Either way, if you want to have more tactical mobility the Dimensional Slide Exploit is great, and lets you save your Dimensional Steps for bringing an ally along.
Extra Reservoir means being able to Potent Magic pretty much any time you want to, which is handy for BFC.

[Miko_Kira]

Alright, so how does this look?

School Savant (Teleport) 13

Str 7 Int 26
Dex 18 Wis 14
Con 16 Cha 7

Feats;
1 - Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conj
3 - Augment Summoning
5 - Extra Exploit; Metamagic Knowledge - Dazing Spell
7 - Spell Penetration
9 - Rime Spell
11 - Selective Spell
13 - Extra Exploit; Familiar (Raccoon; because fingers)

Exploits;
5 - Quick Study
9 - Potent Magic
11 - Greater Metamagic Knowledge - Persistent Spell
13 - Metamixing

My stats are buffed because of a belt and a headband. But is it alright to have my charisma as a dump stat?

[Geddy2112]

Even with a belt/headband, those are really good ability scores.

An arcanist either dumps charisma, or has at least 14. Some builds work well with 14+, but most don't need it, and for almost all builds there is no difference between 7 and 12 charisma. 14 or more starts to let consume spells be a reliable ability, and actually have DC's for arcane exploits that are worth noting(although all the exploits that have a DC are garbage). 14+ charisma builds are normally very reliant on their arcane pool so they need to be able to consume spells.

All of that being said, having a 14 charisma and 7 wisdom is potentially better than 7 charisma 14 wis. Your will save is a strong one, so unless you are just really paranoid about failing will saves, I would swap these around.

[Miko_Kira]

So I should let my Raccoon be the wise one in our dynamic duo of "Wizard" and Familiar?

[stanprollyright]

School Savant (Teleport) 13

Str 7 Int 26
Dex 18 Wis 14
Con 16 Cha 7

Feats;
1 - Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conj
3 - Augment Summoning
5 - Extra Exploit; Metamagic Knowledge - Dazing Spell
7 - Spell Penetration
9 - Rime Spell
11 - Selective Spell
13 - Extra Exploit; Familiar (Raccoon; because fingers)

Exploits;
5 - Quick Study
9 - Potent Magic
11 - Greater Metamagic Knowledge - Persistent Spell
13 - Metamixing

Umm, Dazing Spell is +3 spell levels; you literally can't use it at 5th level, even on cantrips, so maybe switch those around. Also you really don't need all of those metamagic feats if you're taking Greater Metamagic Knowledge; that's kinda the whole point. Plus, rods. 4 just seems excessive.


So I should let my Raccoon be the wise one in our dynamic duo of "Wizard" and Familiar?
That's an interesting way of putting it...but YES!

[Miko_Kira]

Semi-final Edit! How's it look now?

School Savant (Teleport) 13

Str 7 Int 26
Dex 18 Wis 7
Con 16 Cha 14

Feats;
1 - Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conj
3 - Greater Spell Focus: Conj
5 - Extra Exploit; Metamagic Knowledge - Rime Spell
7 - Spell Penetration
9 - Dazing Spell
11 - Quicken Spell
13 - Extra Exploit; Familiar (Raccoon; because fingers)

Exploits;
5 - Quick Study
9 - Potent Magic
11 - Greater Metamagic Knowledge - Persistent Spell
13 - Metamixing

I swapped Wis & Cha so I don't have to abstain from using my cha based abilities. I took out Selective Spell, because of Greater Meta, and I replaced it with Quicken Spell.

[stanprollyright]

Looks fine to me. I still think you could do with fewer metamagic feats, in general, and without Persistent Spell, in particular. Controllers don't have to worry as much about saves; Arcanists can pump them with Potent Magic. Quicken and Dazing Spell are both very powerful, but their costs are prohibitive; you'll only use them a few times a day, at most. You have to weigh the utility of being able to cast a 5th level spell or a 1st level spell as a swift action. Most of the time the 5th level spell will be more useful. Or like, a Dazing Burning Hands vs. regular Wall of Fire. You're high enough level to afford some rods, right?

EDIT: your build has been eminently playable since its inception; everything I'm saying is minor nitpicky stuff

[Miko_Kira]

Well according to the Greater Metamagic Knowledge Exploit that Persistent Spell feat can become a different meta feat once a day, but it's exclusively that feat. I am high enough level to afford some rods, so I gathered up still and silent rods for that boon of handiness.

Aside from that, I'm thinking about this actually;

Feats;
1 - Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conj
3 - Augment Summoning
5 - Extra Exploit; Metamagic Knowledge - Rime Spell
7 - Spell Penetration
9 - Superior Summoning
11 - Quicken Spell
13 - Extra Exploit; Familiar (Raccoon; because fingers)

And I can make Dazing my feat for Greater Metamagic Knowledge. But again, I'm aiming for Utility/BFC, so as long as I can meet those requirements I'm good. Another thing; Because my party had previously slain a wizard, they came into a collection of wizard books containing all core spells up to lvl 6.

Edit; I've decided to go this way because I can later gain Spell Perfection and most-likely choose Summon Monster IX.

[stanprollyright]

Ooh yeah, that looks great. If you're going to be doing a lot of summoning, you might not even need Spell Penetration, especially with Potent Magic. You'd probably want it eventually anyway, but...eh?

[Miko_Kira]

Well this is all very dandy! I've gotta write down my furry little familiar now so I hope that's going to be a straightforward process.

[stanprollyright]

I suggest grabbing one of these:

Familiar Archetypes (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/familiar/familiar-archetypes)

[Miko_Kira]

Familiar Archetypes? I've got the book Familiar Folio, but I'm not really sure which archetype, if any, would help. The ones I looked at seem to replace that helpful Improved Evasion benefit.

Edit; So far I'm looking at the Infiltrator, Pilferer, and Figment.

[stanprollyright]

I'd actually go with Mauler; you can cast personal spells on your familiar, which means polymorph effects

[Miko_Kira]

Edit 2: I'm gonna have to go without an archetype. Though I'd probably get more mileage out of the Mauler archetype if I was a Transmutation specialist. When they're built right, Transmuters are scary af.