A Character Idea I had, not sure if it is viable or not-Build Help

[ngilop]

Hey guys, I got to thinking about a melee/caster hybrid who fights alongside his Familiar.

I am thinking more heavily into the melee part than casting


What I would like is a way to do this. I am thinking of a cavalier/wizard hybrid

Nut I am not sure if that is a better choice than say Fighter/Wizard Or just a plain Magus.

What I am looking for is not cast and fight in the same round or channel a spell through an attack, But somebody who uses long term buffs to buff themselves and wades into melee with a couple utility spells avaiblable. as well as mobility spells.


the parameters are
Level 8
25 point buy
33,000 gold
background skills

I am thinking of Cavalier 5/Wizard 3 OR if the DM allows it Cavalier 3/Wizard 3/Abjurant Champion 2

Right now I am thinking

[Kurald Galain]

Have you considered Hunter?

[Serafina]

Well, under the assumption you want to do this with an animal companion, rather than a familiar:
Hunters are meant to do this, it's their entire thing.
Druids can obviously do it too.
Winged Marauder Alchemists can do it - Extracts are mostly buffs anyway. Limited selection of companions, alas, but that can be solved via a dip.
Sacred Huntsman Inquisitors are good at this too.
Totem Spiritualists gain a mix of animal companion and phantom - with the added bonus that this phanom animal can be summoned and desummoned at-will, which might fit well with the familiar-theme you have in mind?


If you actually want to do this with a familiar, you'll basically need the Mauler familiar archetype (http://aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Familiar%20Mauler) to make this work, as well as a class that uses lots of self-buffs.
There's a three-feat chain (Iron Will, Familiar Bond Improved Familiar Bond) that can give you a familiar regardless of class.


As for the actual "Cavalier/Wizard" build....yeah no that basically has no synergy at all. Like, at all. Three levels of Wizards get you no important buffs spells at all, nor a strong familiar if that was your idea, nor anything else important.

[ngilop]

Well, under the assumption you want to do this with an animal companion, rather than a familiar:
Hunters are meant to do this, it's their entire thing.
Druids can obviously do it too.
Winged Marauder Alchemists can do it - Extracts are mostly buffs anyway. Limited selection of companions, alas, but that can be solved via a dip.
Sacred Huntsman Inquisitors are good at this too.
Totem Spiritualists gain a mix of animal companion and phantom - with the added bonus that this phanom animal can be summoned and desummoned at-will, which might fit well with the familiar-theme you have in mind?


If you actually want to do this with a familiar, you'll basically need the Mauler familiar archetype (http://aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Familiar%20Mauler) to make this work, as well as a class that uses lots of self-buffs.
There's a three-feat chain (Iron Will, Familiar Bond Improved Familiar Bond) that can give you a familiar regardless of class.


As for the actual "Cavalier/Wizard" build....yeah no that basically has no synergy at all. Like, at all. Three levels of Wizards get you no important buffs spells at all, nor a strong familiar if that was your idea, nor anything else important.

3 levels in wizard gives me Blur, resist energy, mirror image, invisibility, and the stat boosting spells SO I am unsure how I get no important buff spells.

I was thinking cavalier because they get teamwork feats, I don't really care about mounts because for the most part, they are not going to be much use. I think there is an archetype that gets rid of the mount for some half decent things but I am not sure.. If there is a fighter archetype that gives some teamwork coolness that would be nice.


My goal is to talk the DM into letting me grab Abjurant champion and taking eldritch knight for the full BAB and d10 HP, not really concerned about not having the best ever casting, but that should net me a decent casting set up.

My goal is to nab improved faimilar and have a Nycar or maybe a Voidworm as my combat buddy.



edit: Just looked at the Fighter archetypes, I can go Tactician and Eldritch Guardian That nets me a familiar, the ability to do the teamwork feat awesomeness better stuff than base fighter.


SO I am thinking fighter 5/wizard3 OR Fighter5/wizard1/abjurant Champion 2.

[ezekielraiden]

There's a Familiar archetype that's focused on fighting. Perhaps you could try to do something with that?

Alternatively, the Figment archetype, while much more fragile than a typical familiar (having half the normal HP), cannot be killed--it disappears and then reforms the next day. So you could have a familiar as an expendable scout if you took that route.

[ElFi]

There's an archetype for Vigilantes, the Magical Child (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/vigilante/archetypes/vigilante-archetypes-paizo-inc/magical-child/), that does pretty much everything you want in a single class, at least mechanically.

It's a reasonably tough combatant (d8HD/Medium BAB, good gear proficiencies, and a couple of class abilities that make you pretty good at skirmish-fighting and controlling the battlefield). It's got casting in the vein you're looking for- mid-casting from the Unchained Summoner spell list, which is weaker than original Summoner but still has a lot of nice buffs, crowd-control effects, and teleportation (for mobility). Lastly, and maybe more importantly, it gets a familiar that automatically scales into an Improved Familiar as you level, and also gets DR/magic equal to your level, making it surprisingly durable for a little fairy/bird/whatever (though if you want your familiar to be a dedicated combatant, you'll still almost definitely want the Mauler archetype). Not sure how you feel about being a magical girl fighting for Great JusticeTM to accomplish your character concept, but here you go.

As for your take on the idea... I'm not even sure if your GM will okay Abjurant Champion, being as that's 3.5e material and any PF player will tell you that the two games are usually compatible only on theoretical grounds, as balance tends to fly out the window fast. But assuming that they do... it's still not great. Wizard and Cavalier have practically no synergy in terms of ability or role, action economy will be your worst enemy, your MAD will be through the roof, your casting won't work in armor, and your caster level (i.e. the most important stat for dedicated buffers, no ifs or buts about it) will be awful even assuming you take advantage of the Magical Knack trait. There's a reason any PF optimization guide will tell you that the principle for multiclassing with full casters is don't. Even a Magus build that doesn't take advantage of Spellstrike even once will probably fare better than your idea.

EDIT: Re-reading your second post about going for Fighter instead... yeah, pretty much everything I said about Cavalier still applies to Fighter as well. You're not going to mesh any better with the Wizard chassis by switching out horse things for tactical things. The only martial/caster/prestige combos I've ever seen that have some genuine effectiveness are Fighter/Wizard/Eldritch Knight (and that one's a stretch) and Barbarian/Oracle/Rage Prophet.

[Kurald Galain]

What I would like is a way to do this. I am thinking of a cavalier/wizard hybrid

Nut I am not sure if that is a better choice than say Fighter/Wizard Or just a plain Magus.
Well the point of going fighter/wizard/EK (or cavalier/wiz/EK) instead of Magus is that the EK gets 7th- through 9th-level spells. If your goal instead is to be a melee fighter (or if the campaign isn't ever going to get to level 15), don't go for that multiclass combo.


3 levels in wizard gives me Blur, resist energy, mirror image, invisibility, and the stat boosting spells SO I am unsure how I get no important buff spells.
Four levels in Magus also gives you these buff spells, plus the ability to cast them while you're full-attacking, plus automatic full caster level on a familiar.


I was thinking cavalier because they get teamwork feats,
The Hunter does that better, though.


Just looked at the Fighter archetypes, I can go Tactician and Eldritch Guardian That nets me a familiar, the ability to do the teamwork feat awesomeness better stuff than base fighter.
That's also a good option, and it does it better without the wizard dip.

It strikes me that you're basing this on the 3E vision that the all gish builds have EK/AC; this is not true in Paizo, where hybrid classes generally do a better job. So my advice is to try out Magus, or Hunter, or Magical Child as a single class; instead of trying to hammer a 3E-shaped prc combo in a PF-shaped hole. HTH!