Trying to build a special Runesmith

[Nebuul]

I have an idea for a very specific character. I want a lawful good dwarven transmuter runesmith with BaB 16 who can cast level 9 spells so that I can make Iron Body a SLA from the permanent rune class ability. The character must be a non-templated PHB dwarf.

The closest I can get is:

Fighter 1
Wizard (Transmuter) 5
Runesmith 5
Abjurant Champion 5
Eldritch Knight 4

That puts me at caster spell progression level 18 but only BaB 15.

The only things absolutely required:

1. Lawful Good
2. Transmuter as root caster class
3. Runesmith level 5
4. BaB 16
5. Spellcaster level progression 17

Anything else can be modified as long as I hit transmuter level 17 spell progression for level 9 spells and BaB 16 for the full 16/11/6/1 attacks.

Anyone got any ideas? Is it possible to have a level 5 runesmith casting level 9 spells with +16 BaB? What kills me is the craft: stoneworking 8 ranks. My class progression right now is:


CLvl Class BaB Caster
1 Fighter 1 1 -
2 Wizard 1 1 1
3 Wizard 2 2 2
4 Wizard 3 2 3
5 Wizard 4 3 4
6 Runesmith 1 3 5
7 Eldritch Knight 1 4 5
8 Runesmith 2 5 6
9 Abjurant Champion 1 6 7
10 Abjurant Champion 2 7 8
11 Abjurant Champion 3 8 9
12 Abjurant Champion 4 9 10
13 Runesmith 3 9 11
14 Runesmith 4 10 12
15 Wizard 5 10 13
16 Abjurant Champion 5 11 14
17 Eldritch Knight 2 12 15
18 Eldritch Knight 3 13 16
19 Runesmith 5 14 17
20 Eldritch Knight 4 15 18

[gorfnab]

To get the last point of BAB you could drop the 5th level of Wizard at 15th level for a level of Eldritch Knight. You would unfortunately lose out on the Spell Versatility option of the UA Transmuter ACF, if that was your intention for taking the 5th level of Transmuter.

[Nebuul]

To get the last point of BAB you could drop the 5th level of Wizard at 15th level for a level of Eldritch Knight. You would unfortunately lose out on the Spell Versatility option of the UA Transmuter ACF, if that was your intention for taking the 5th level of Transmuter.

Does that actually get me anything, though? The wizard and runesmith are both contributing BaB at 50%, so either way I need to lose 2 levels of wizard somehow and replace them with 2 levels of good BaB progression. (i.e. if I lose wizard at 15, then my level 19 runesmith will not grant +1 BaB, so I'm still at 15/10/5)

[Nebuul]

SUCCESS! I figured it out :-D I add a level of spellsword and a 2nd level of fighter.

So I have a Fighter Wizard (Transmuter) Runesmith Spellsword Eldritch Knight Abjurant Champion. EZPZ!


CLvl Class BaB Caster
1 Fighter 1 1 -
2 Fighter 2 2 -
3 Wizard 1 2 1
4 Wizard 2 3 2
5 Wizard 3 3 3
6 Runesmith 1 4 4
7 Spellsword 1 5 5
8 Eldritch Knight 1 6 5
9 Abjurant Champion 1 7 6
10 Abjurant Champion 2 8 7
11 Abjurant Champion 3 9 8
12 Abjurant Champion 4 10 9
13 Abjurant Champion 5 11 10
14 Runesmith 2 11 11
15 Runesmith 3 12 12
16 Runesmith 4 12 13
17 Eldritch Knight 2 13 14
18 Eldritch Knight 3 14 15
19 Eldritch Knight 4 15 16
20 Runesmith 5 16 17

[Vincent Dragon]

You still don't get BAB 16 unless you're using fractional BAB rule from Unearthed Arcana. A way to get would be:

1 - Fighter 1 (BAB 1/Caster 0)
2 - Wizard 1 (BAB 1/Caster 1)
3 - Wizard 2 (BAB 2/Caster 2)
4 - Wizard 3 (BAB 2/Caster 3)
5 - Wizard 4 (BAB 3/Caster 4)
6 - Runesmith 1 (BAB 3/Caster 5)
7 - Runesmith 2 (BAB 4/Caster 6)
8 - Spellsword 1 (BAB 5/Caster 7)
9 - Eldritch Knight 1 (BAB 6/Caster 7)
10 - Abjurant Champion 1 (BAB 7/Caster 8)
11 - Abjurant Champion 2 (BAB 8/Caster 9)
12 - Abjurant Champion 3 (BAB 9/Caster 10)
13 - Abjurant Champion 4 (BAB 10/Caster 11)
14 - Abjurant Champion 5 (BAB 11/Caster 12)
15 - Eldritch Knight 2 (BAB 12/Caster 13)
16 - Eldritch Knight 3 (BAB 13/Caster 14)
17 - Legacy Champion 1 (BAB 13/Caster 14)
18 - Legacy Champion 2 (BAB 14/Caster 15)
19 - Legacy Champion 3 (BAB 15/Caster 16)
20 - Legacy Champion 4 (BAB 16/Caster 17)

Use Legacy Champion to advance Runesmith's Class Features.

[Nebuul]

Thanks, but we are using the fractional BAB rule to avoid stuff like +0 BAB at level 5. No need for legacy stuff :-)

[Eldariel]

You could always just also persist Divine Power from Arcane Disciple or something (easily doable even without using Incantatrix or any of the broken classes by just reducing the metamagic cost by 1, using Metamagic School Focus, Practical Metamagic, Easy Metamagic, Arcane Thesis or whatever). That's generally the go-to where you suddenly can get 20/20 casting and 20/20 BAB at the same time.