Geralt the Witcher

[Max Caysey]

So...

I'm sure this has been asked before, and I have toiled with it myself too, but I wanted to see if anyone out here had any good builds (Gestalt or not) that fitted the magic, alchemy and fighting style/ability of Geralt...

I have had huge problems myself in doing him justice so therefore I ask here.

Who has a good Geralt build?

Thanks!

[Falontani]

shameless plug to a Homebrew



http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?552070-Witcher-Class-for-3-5-(WIP)&highlight=witcher

[Morty]

A ranger would be a start if it wasn't locked into either dual-wielding or archery. Sadly, the witcher combat styles have virtually no support in D&D. Hand-and-half swords are hard to make work, much less one wielded with finesse.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Probably a variant of the alchemist, maybe with Knowledge Devotion and/or some form of favoured enemy. There are so many alchemist archetypes, I don't have the will to search through the most fitting one :smalltongue:.

[Talverin]

I have a fantastic Witcher-like Alchemist build I did. Beastmorph Vivisectionist Alchemist. Took lots of rogue talents, used lots of poison and elixirs. I also had a pretty friendly DM, so she let me use custom-made poisons.

http://davidvs.net/hobbies/pathfinder-poisons.shtml

This guy has good and reasonable pricing for poisons.

I'm not sure how to link pdfs or anything, and it isn't posted online or else I'd post it up for you to see.

Also: I was an Elf, and used Elven Weapon Proficiency to get the Elven Curveblade. Martial Weapon Prof is not part of being an Alchemist, sadly. I had one Silver, and one Steel. Enchanted them separately. DM also let me split-purchase Bane-enchanted Arrows into batches of 10, so I got a few common ones like that. The rest just involves having good Int and knowledges.

[DeTess]

Of the top of my head, I'd probably play a Warblade for the fancy swordfighting, roll in knowledge devotion to represent the results of studying creatures and craft(alchemy) for the potions. For the witcher signs I'd probably either grab a suitable Dragonmark (least and lesser mark of storms, dragonmark adept and 2 levels of storm sentry would give you aard, quen and Yrden), and/or take hidden talent a couple of times (which would necessitate a 1-level soulknife dip with the relevant web-enhancement).

[Peat]

So...

I'm sure this has been asked before, and I have toiled with it myself too, but I wanted to see if anyone out here had any good builds (Gestalt or not) that fitted the magic, alchemy and fighting style/ability of Geralt...

I have had huge problems myself in doing him justice so therefore I ask here.

Who has a good Geralt build?

Thanks!

PF Alchemist seems the obvious choice. Maybe gestalt with a PF Ranger using the two-handed fighting style to really nail it.

[Eldan]

It's a weird mixture of ranger and warlock, sort of. Where the permanent invocations of the warlock can represent mutations. Alternatively, warblade instead of ranger. But the classes just don't mix too well in D&D.

Edit: for a more liberal interpretation, maybe the slayer? Psychic powers give you a lot of the signs, if you're very liberal about it, some of the potions, and it gets favoured enemy and hunting skills.

[khadgar567]

well its bit of a tristalt but ranger with any caster devotion and alchemist devotion kinda pulls perfect enough witcher build in pathfinder second edition that you will be shocked how easy the pimp of rivia is. ow and this build uses single class and still gains 8th level spells if you ever need to channel your inner ciri.

[Morty]

An elven courtblade is probably the only way to get a longsword and wield it with finesse. A warblade would help get some proper damage out of an otherwise rather underwhelming weapon choice.

[exelsisxax]

Path of War, probably a stalker, with a weird discipline selection. elemental flux does igni, broken blade/primal fury/fool's errand can fake the effects of aard, iron tortise/sleeping goddess/riven hourglass can fake quen in different ways. Can't do agnii natively(custom race charm person SLA?) and yrden could only loosely be emulated by eternal guardian effects. If you're actually IN the witcher universe, take mithral current, pick up a silver or mithral sword, and murder to death all the things with silver vulnerability.

Going much more magical, spheres of power can do similar things (mind, destruction, protection spheres) but are distinctly non-martial. But you could just snipe the ones you like most with a single feat, unlike PoW maneuvers.

EDIT: possibly an even better idea: the above, except instead use the polymath template for investigator/alchemist. So you've got all your nifty decoctions and potions, an alchemy spec'd witcher would go alchemist for bombs and the mutagen 'super decoction', while a fighty, more skillful witcher could go investigator for studied combat and inspiration on everything. And to recover your maneuvers, drink something! I think that's a pretty damn good fit.

[Florian]

Video games or the original books? Great difference there.

Based on books and using PF: Something like Investigator 5/Psychic 1/Westcrown Devil 2+.
Investigator brings the alchemy to the table, Westcrown Devil allows to finesse a Longsword, gives Sneak Attack and advances Psychic levels, Psychic is weird magic with a lot of signs, mutations and so on.

[Blackhawk748]

Ranger is always your friend here and if your cool with Third Party stuff, Legends, and Lairs: Wilderness has a THF Ranger style that gives you a Dodge Bonus and then Whirlwwind Attack. Also of note is the Blooded One Template which is very fluffy and fairly decent.

[Castilonium]

The Reaper! (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/reaper)

It's a spheres of power/might class, so it gets both magic and combat talents. You can easily get alchemy and the five witcher signs. It gets tracking, detection abilities, and a well done version of favored enemy that isn't inflexibly locked. It gets special abilities themed after a kind of monster and becomes progressively more monstrous and mutated as it levels up.

Of course, you have to be fine with 1) pathfinder, 2) spheres of power/might, and 3) the fact that The Reaper was made by another 3pp. Still, it's perfect!

[khadgar567]

The Reaper! (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/reaper)

It's a spheres of power/might class, so it gets both magic and combat talents. You can easily get alchemy and the five witcher signs. It gets tracking, detection abilities, and a well done version of favored enemy that isn't inflexibly locked. It gets special abilities themed after a kind of monster and becomes progressively more monstrous and mutated as it levels up.

Of course, you have to be fine with 1) pathfinder, 2) spheres of power/might, and 3) the fact that The Reaper was made by another 3pp. Still, it's perfect!
well this is a shock but gotta agree with castilonilium reaper might be near perfect fit for witcher.

[exelsisxax]

The Reaper! (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/reaper)

It's a spheres of power/might class, so it gets both magic and combat talents. You can easily get alchemy and the five witcher signs. It gets tracking, detection abilities, and a well done version of favored enemy that isn't inflexibly locked. It gets special abilities themed after a kind of monster and becomes progressively more monstrous and mutated as it levels up.

Of course, you have to be fine with 1) pathfinder, 2) spheres of power/might, and 3) the fact that The Reaper was made by another 3pp. Still, it's perfect!

Wow. What kind of playtesting did this thing get? It's way out of line of all the champions classes, and looks almost like someone gestalted mageknight and ranger and slapped on some more combat talents. Don't bring this to any game with 1pp martials, because you will outclass them all without trying.

[Andreaz]

So...

I'm sure this has been asked before, and I have toiled with it myself too, but I wanted to see if anyone out here had any good builds (Gestalt or not) that fitted the magic, alchemy and fighting style/ability of Geralt...

I have had huge problems myself in doing him justice so therefore I ask here.

Who has a good Geralt build?

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I haven't looked specifically for a build or class like this.

Have you seen the Animus Adept (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/path-of-war/prestige-classes/animus-adept/) prestige class? It is a medium bab Initiator (they cast Fist) that gives you an array of mini-spells to blend with your martial attacks (you usually can cast every turn while also doing your combat thingies).
The sigils (the mini spells animus adepts cast) contains a few things analog to witcher signs (damage reduction, elemental damage, restrict enemy actions...) and more.

The class also gives you access to the elemental flux discipline, a school of elemental attacks that you can use liberally.



It's a short class that gives you the basic "mix combat and magic" feel Signs have, based on a framework that uses extensively one of the better martial systems of the game.

So you're left missing a base class that fills the rest of the vibe. A fighter that is more agile than not, basing itself off extensive knowledge of its enemies and clever use of alchemy to buff up and be nasty to the monsters.
A Polymath (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/path-of-war/classes/martial-class-templates/polymath-template/) alchemist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/alchemist) might fit the bill. It's the alchemist, but with a few less concoctions and martial initiation for primal fury, solar wind and steel serpent. It does give up its poison use utilities, which thematically sucks, but steel serpent compensates for it.

You can fine tune it further by swapping solar wind for scarlet throne (a regal, duelist like school). This costs either a trait of joining a faction (witcher school, anyone???)

[khadgar567]

Wow. What kind of playtesting did this thing get? It's way out of line of all the champions classes, and looks almost like someone gestalted mageknight and ranger and slapped on some more combat talents. Don't bring this to any game with 1pp martials, because you will outclass them all without trying.
as far as i know it did not get any amount of offical playtest as this sucker was njolly's brain child a long with dragoon necros and montebank they are all came from the same mad scientist with no playest announced for them in drop dead studios pantreon.

[Castilonium]

It's way out of line of all the champions classes

I disagree with this. Prodigies, Sages, and Troubadours are way more powerful than Reapers.

Prodigies are better than spiritualism martial hedgewitches at the "I know every talent" schtick because Inspired Sequence buffs their attack, damage, and CL, they get a passive imbue buff, and they can nova with finishers like Arcane Apocalypse.

Sages can give themselves massive untyped bonuses to their stats, use a high damage touch attack instead of a normal weapon, target reflex instead of CMD, give themselves Enhancement sphere effects for free as a swift action (and a Nature (spirit) talent at the same time with the Natural Enhancement feat), get better reach and battlefield control than a Warder with Rubber Ki, the list goes on. That's if you wanna be a melee sage. Ranged sages can become some of the best Destruction and Barrage sphere users in the game. And all of this is before you toss in gear like a Conductive (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/conductive) Amulet of Mighty Fists or a Ring of Ki Mastery (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-ki-mastery/).

Troubadours, once they reach level 7, are gestalt bard/vigilante/fighter/wizards. They can have full BAB and full CL at the same time, have a stand-alone pool of bardic performance rounds for things like Pageant of the Peacock, and become an investigator with versatile performance out of combat for skillmonkeying. They can rebuild most of their character options in 5 (or 2) days. The only skill they can't become automatically amazing at is perception.

[dgnslyr]

TL, DR: PHB martials don't do enough, and PHB casters do too much. Praise Geraldo.

So, Gerald is a good swordsman, tracker, and has some magical talent, too. The obvious answer, as people have mentioned, is Ranger, the only problem being that vanilla rangers are absolutely godawful at everything, which defeats the point. If you want to make a ranger not terrible, though, you could play a Mystic Ranger variant, which gives up an animal companion to gain full-caster spell progression, at least until you hit level 10, and for just a little bit more power, you can even take the Sword of the Arcane Order feat, which lets you prepare Wizard spells in your Ranger slots. As for a Fighting Style, Gerry may not be much of a bowman, but he's definitely not a dual-wielder, so Archery style is a close enough fit that at least helps him with shooting a bow or lobbing bombs. At that point, as a full-BAB full caster with access to two entire spell lists, the question becomes, "what can't you do," since the Ranger list gives Jared exploration skills, and the Wizard list handles Garret's bombs and signs. Spell progression slows down by a lot after level 10, so by then you might want to jump ship to something like Warblade for martial competency; I guess there's also Gishy classes like Spellblade and Abjurant Champion, if you want to keep progressing your caster level, although the caster progression isn't great past 10th level.

The other safe bet for a superhuman fighting person is DMM cleric; your Persisted buffs might as well be a permanent part of your character, and Divine Power makes up for any loss of BAB. There's not a direct analogue to Bombs, but the cleric's spell list is comprehensive enough that I'm sure there are some AoE debuff effects I can't think of right now, and Flame Strike is definitely on the list to cover Incendiary Bombs and/or Igni. The biggest issue here is the lack of exploration skills, but with Guidance of the Avatar we can just brute-force our way into competency, because replacing an entire martial character with one low-level spell is the name of the game in 3.5.

My last thought is some kind of RKV build, using Cleric and Crusader as an entry point; this has less raw casting power than a straight DMM cleric, but does a better job of capturing Geralf's martial puissance. If you really brute force it, you can still probably fit in the DMM Persist package, especially if you're not afraid to dip into the cheese and take on some flaws to maximize your feats.
I may or may not have made it a personal challenge to use as many different names as possible for Gary of Nivea.