Melee Blasting

[OgresAreCute]

An extremely common archetype in media is a guy who combines up-close fighting with magical or supernatural powers. Sadly, it doesn't mesh incredibly well with D&D's design. You spend a lot of build resources on redundant damage dealing, or just end up with a regular gish build (which will want to spend slots on buffs, not blasts). Figured I'd ask some people who know better than me whether this is actually feasible or not.

Preferably 3.5 material, but PF and 3rd party is alright too if it works well. I had a thought about maybe spheres of power/might working well for this, but I've only briefly looked at that system so I wouldn't really know.

Checklist:

Relatively competent in melee
Bonus points for unarmed fighting
Blasting
Possibly mobility like teleporting and such
Not just buffing yourself to Nessus and back
Preferably playable from relatively early levels, that is to say doesn't first come online at 11+


Obviously, I don't expect most builds to be able to fulfill all of those, and I don't expect it to be optimal (considering the basic premise is combining two sub-optimal strategies).

[Kelb_Panthera]

Monk/ duskblade/ enlightened fist kind of leaps to mind.

[Nifft]

There's a class adaptation which seems perfect...

Arcane Unarmed Swordsage

Heck, even the default non-arcane non-unarmed Swordsage does most of this -- Desert Sun has some point-blank [Fire] cone effects, for example, and they come online fairly early.

With the default baseline Swordsage, you've got blasting or teleportation at ECL 3 -- and access to both at ECL 4.

With the arcane variant, you've got blasting and teleportation right from ECL 1.

[Andor13]

Well if 3.5 the Swordsage is okay at that role, particularly if you focus on Desert Wind and Shadowhand disciplines.

If you want to turn that up a few notches the Pathfinder 3rd party Mystic (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/mystic/)has you covered.

Psiwarrior in either system can also do it pretty well.

[Telonius]

I could see something like an Eldritch Glaive Warlock fitting in decently well with the concept. Teleportation (Flee the Scene) won't turn on until a bit later, but it's playable from early levels.

[PhantasyPen]

Duskblade gets this from level 5 onwards as their primary class feature (though they lack the spell list to truly take advantage). Spellblade is the inferior Prestige Class version of this (which is limited in uses per day)

This is one of my favorite archetypes, so I've done my best to try and find viable ways of achieving it.

[PunBlake]

Now that you mention it, I'm kinda sad this isn't a particularly viable archetype in D&D 3.5.

Instead of unarmed fighting, though, this description makes me think more of close-up gun and spell-slingers (a la Jake Armitage in Shadowrun), which makes me think of (the semi-classical):
Spellthief 1 / Specialist Wizard 4 / Unseen Seer X / Spellwarp Sniper 5 using Master Spellthief.

Or a warlock-based build that uses a mix of Eldritch Glaive and ranged shots.
Why isn't there a blast shape that has Close range (instead of just reach) and rewards being Close with more damage? This seems balanced, so I'm surprised no one wrote / I don't know about an official one.

[sleepyphoenixx]

The reason that gishes don't usually blast isn't that the combination sucks. Well, not any more than blasting by itself. Some gish PrCs like the Jade Phoenix Mage explicitly support blasting.
It's just that blasting by itself is a suboptimal strategy, so people still prefer to use other spells despite the class improving it.

[OgresAreCute]

The reason that gishes don't usually blast isn't that the combination sucks. Well, not any more than blasting by itself. Some gish PrCs like the Jade Phoenix Mage explicitly support blasting.
It's just that blasting by itself is a suboptimal strategy, so people still prefer to use other spells despite the class improving it.

Sure, but you've already spent build resources on getting melee damage, so blasting is redundant on top of that. If you instead use your spells to self-buff, you are more durable, faster and deal even more damage than you would alternating between whacking and zapping. At least, that's how I imagine it in my mind.

[ericgrau]

Cone spells are short range and hit multiple targets, giving a situational advantage over melee. And a reason to switch back and forth.

Damaging cone options are limited, but there are a lot of other cone spells that have a really good effect. But they're hard to use because most casters are fragile. Gishes OTOH aren't fragile. You could build around that, but it wouldn't be pure blasting. It would be blasting + other nice cone effects. Plus self buffs + some other good spells that aren't cones too probably. If you stick to blasting cones options are very limited and it's a self-imposed gimp with no added advantage.

I found an old post I made with good cone spells in an unrelated topic: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23262383&postcount=10
Very little is blasting, but there are some fun and thematic melee effects like knocking everyone over, stunning, stinky breath attack, etc.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Sure, but you've already spent build resources on getting melee damage, so blasting is redundant on top of that. If you instead use your spells to self-buff, you are more durable, faster and deal even more damage than you would alternating between whacking and zapping. At least, that's how I imagine it in my mind.

A caster doing damage is almost always redundant. It's unavoidable. Why spend a limited resource (spell slots) on something your meatshields can do all day for free?
A JPM does better than most gishes in that he's reasonably competent in melee even without buffs, being an initiator. He also gets class features that encourage combining the two.
It's still not optimal, but it's pretty much as good as you're going to get.

[Psyren]

Pathfinder nails this with the Magus, thanks to Spell Combat (combine casting and full-attacking) and Spellstrike (channel touch spells through your weapon, letting you use weapon features like its crit range and additional damage. This can give you a very bursty melee blaster character.

[stack]

Spheres of power/spheres of might work really well for this. The destruction sphere gives you all day damage and rebuff options with the possibility of spending resources for bigger effects. The spell attack feat from Champions of the Spheres lets the two systems work together.

Unarmed, hedgewitch with the entropic sage archetype is all about punching with destructive blasts. You can combine it with the martial hedgewitch to get SoM tricks natively. I am playing one with mostly athletics sphere stuff for the SoM bits; unarmed, unarmored, highly mobile. SoP means picking up tactical teleportation is as simple as spending a few talents.

Prodigy works also, with any weapon/armor setup you feel like. I don't know the sage very well, but it could likely fit the bill. Anything that combines the two systems can get you there to some degree.

[Ramza00]

Cone spells are short range and hit multiple targets, giving a situational advantage over melee. And a reason to switch back and forth.

Damaging cone options are limited, but there are a lot of other cone spells that have a really good effect. But they're hard to use because most casters are fragile. Gishes OTOH aren't fragile. You could build around that, but it wouldn't be pure blasting. It would be blasting + other nice cone effects. Plus self buffs + some other good spells that aren't cones too probably. If you stick to blasting cones options are very limited and it's a self-imposed gimp with no added advantage.

I found an old post I made with good cone spells in an unrelated topic: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23262383&postcount=10
Very little is blasting, but there are some fun and thematic melee effects like knocking everyone over, stunning, stinky breath attack, etc.

Frost Breath is not mentioned. It is an incredible 2nd level cold spell, reflex save vs dazed for 1 round. You do 1d4 / 2 caster level cold damage and if you do no take a single cold damage you are not dazed even if you fail the reflex ave. Well piercing cold (+1 metamagic) means even cold immune / cold resit creatures are going to take at least 1 damage.

You can also sculpt the spell and thus affect other creatures in the 30-ft range if the 30-ft cone is not the best desired shape. Use a rod of sculpt spell for this effect to sculpt as a free action 3 times a day.

This combo gets even better with one of these magic items. With Bracers of Entangling Blast (2,000 GP) you as a swift action add the effect of the creature that take damage are entangled for 1d3 rounds (there is a small damage decrease but it doesn't matter for Frost Breath does so little damage) and Bracers of Entangling Blast work 3 times a day for those 2,000 gp so effectively you are like a dragonfire adept without being a dragonfire adept. A Circlet of Rapid Casting (15,000 GP so we are talking roughly 5th level spells or higher) will allow you to quicken this frost breath as a swift action 3 times a day. Remember you can stack the Circle of Rapid Casting and the Sculpt Spell Metamagic Rod.

So what I am saying is Frost Breath can be a nice utility spell for both low levels and then later on at higher levels due to the nature of quicken spells / swift action spells.

[Prime32]

Ardent from Complete Psionic. Take the Energy and Freedom mantles at 1st level. Maybe take levels in the Elocator PrC later.

If you want unarmoured fighting, take 1-2 levels of Monk and the Tashalatora feat (remember: an ardent's selection of powers is limited by manifester level, not class level, so Practiced Manifester covers the lost levels especially well). If you just want unarmed, wear gauntlets.

[daremetoidareyo]

Psiwarrior with the soul bound weapon ACF tied to the caber prestiging in to Warhulk should provide melee and ranged blasting. Just add the exploding enchantment to your cabre

[blackwindbears]

Pathfinder nails this with the Magus, thanks to Spell Combat (combine casting and full-attacking) and Spellstrike (channel touch spells through your weapon, letting you use weapon features like its crit range and additional damage. This can give you a very bursty melee blaster character.

+1 for this.

The Magus does more or less exactly what op is asking for from level 1. Probably needs to use a weapon though, so no bonus points, but hey...

I can't think of any other class that lets you smack a kobold with a sword, then burning hands another 2 of them, from level 1.

(Whether or not you want to blast otoh)

[Goaty14]

Psiwarrior with the soul bound weapon ACF tied to the caber prestiging in to Warhulk should provide melee and ranged blasting. Just add the exploding enchantment to your cabre

The caber in MotW? You know, the one that the enemy can just choose to take a 5' step and avoid instead of getting hit? :smallconfused: