Bruiser Mages?

[Deaxsa]

How would one build a bruiser mage? Are there any classes for it? By this, I don't mean an Eldritch Knight or codzilla or swordsage or duskblade because those all use attack rolls and weapons. I mean something like a heavily armored character that casts burning hands (or something) every turn instead of attacking (empty hands). How would you do it, get this character concept on a character sheet? Any 3.pf content is relevant, I'm just curious how effectively it can be done.

[Venger]

How would one build a bruiser mage? Are there any classes for it? By this, I don't mean an Eldritch Knight or codzilla or swordsage or duskblade because those all use attack rolls and weapons. I mean something like a heavily armored character that casts burning hands (or something) every turn instead of attacking (empty hands). How would you do it, get this character concept on a character sheet? Any 3.pf content is relevant, I'm just curious how effectively it can be done.

the type of character you're referring to is called a "gish." the handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8786) is a helpful place to start out.

[Deaxsa]

the type of character you're referring to is called a "gish." the handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8786) is a helpful place to start out.

The type of character I'm referring to is a Gish, yes, but a very specific type of Gish. Note that I gave examples of Gish that this Gish was not. Thanks for the link, I'll scour it for ideas.

An analogy I could give would be this: Marshals and bards are both party buffers. However, they are quite different mechanically and narratively.

[Douglas]

If you just want "armored character who attacks with spells and not weapons," that's easy - wear armor, reduce spell failure to 0 through any of the numerous spell failure reduction options available, and proceed as a normal wizard otherwise. If you want some kind of synergy between the armor use and the spellcasting, I can't think of anything that really does that. Synergy between spellcasting and weapons, yes there's plenty; synergy between spellcasting and armor, no.

[Gruftzwerg]

IMHO you are looking for a Runesmith. A Dwarf prc who casts his spells via runes on his armor (and thus no armor spellfailure check).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Human, Cleric 1, Fire domain, spontaneous domain casting ACF (PH2), two flaws. Heighten Spell, DMM: Heighten Spell, Fiery Burst, Extra Turning.

With Cha 12 you're able to cast a DMM: Heightened Burning Hands as a 9th level spell as long as you have a 1st level spell available. Every round, you can use Fiery Burst to deal 9d6 fire damage in a 5-ft. radius up to 30 ft. away. Spend all your WBL on your armor/shield.

[digiman619]

if you are willing to back-port it from Pathfinder, there's the Armorist and Mageknight from Spheres of Power (www.spheresofpower.wikidot.com). It's a really flexible system to make a character with.

[Andezzar]

If you just want "armored character who attacks with spells and not weapons," that's easy - wear armor, reduce spell failure to 0 through any of the numerous spell failure reduction options available, and proceed as a normal wizard otherwise.If you are of good alignment you don't even need to reduce ASF to 0%, Just cast (greater) luminous armor and walk around in a suit of plate mail.

There also is a dwarf PrC that lets them ignore ASF, but I can't remember its name.

[Uncle Pine]

IMHO you are looking for a Runesmith. A Dwarf prc who casts his spells via runes on his armor (and thus no armor spellfailure check).

Runesmith seems indeed to be what the OP is looking for. Although limited to dwarf characters (or characters who dumped 3 levels in the Stoneblessed PrC), it's indeed a nice PrC.

[Doctor Awkward]

How would one build a bruiser mage? Are there any classes for it? By this, I don't mean an Eldritch Knight or codzilla or swordsage or duskblade because those all use attack rolls and weapons. I mean something like a heavily armored character that casts burning hands (or something) every turn instead of attacking (empty hands). How would you do it, get this character concept on a character sheet? Any 3.pf content is relevant, I'm just curious how effectively it can be done.

Well... running into melee combat in order to cast spells is generally not a great idea due to Attacks of Opportunity. Yeah, Defensive spellcasting, but eventually you will roll poorly and lose the spell. Or meet something with Mage-Slayer.

I mean, if you want something with various degrees of "magically" shooting things every round then Dragonfire Adept maybe in mithril armor maybe?

[Andezzar]

Well... running into melee combat in order to cast spells is generally not a great idea due to Attacks of Opportunity. Yeah, Defensive spellcasting, but eventually you will roll poorly and lose the spell. Or meet something with Mage-Slayer.Mageslayer is a problem, but eventually a wizard will auto-succeed on his concentration checks.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The simplest way is probably to run a Cleric or Favored Soul with some blasting spells-- divine casting doesn't care about spell failure, after all.

If you do want to go arcane, the aforementioned Runesmith is an easy way to cast in heavy armor. Otherwise... a level of Spellsword (CWar) requires (probably) a dip in a fighter-type class, but lets you ignore 10% ASF. The Twilight armor property (PHB 2) lets you cut off another 10%, Mithril cuts off a further 10%, and Feycraft and Githcraft (DMG 2) take off 5%. That's a total of 35%, which is enough to wear full plate without penalty. Knock yourself out.