Optimal Build (Blood of Angels)

[decoy73]

I'm making an aasimar character in Pathfinder. When rolling from the variant spell-like abilities, I rolled 100 (roll twice more), then 35 (aid once per day) and 90 (+2 CHA). My character is a gunslinger/investigator gestalt, so she has no spell casting abilities, but she does have diplomacy and intimidate. Which do you think is better - the base ability (daylight once per day) or what I rolled?

[PrismCat21]

What system is this for?
We can't really help you if we don't know what you're playing or what your potential options are.

[decoy73]

Apologies. I have edited the post and thread to reflect that I am making the character in Pathfinder and considering using the variant abilities in put forth in Blood of Angels.

[upho]

I'm making an aasimar character in Pathfinder. When rolling from the variant spell-like abilities, I rolled 100 (roll twice more), then 35 (aid once per day) and 90 (+2 CHA). My character is a gunslinger/investigator gestalt, so she has no spell casting abilities, but she does have diplomacy and intimidate. Which do you think is better - the base ability (daylight once per day) or what I rolled?Well, this of course largely depends on the power level of the game, what you wish the primary focus areas and combat role of your character should be, etc. But generally speaking, since you'll have full BAB from the gunslinger, use guns which target touch AC (and thus are extremely accurate) within short range, and have the investigator's Inspiration and Studied Combat in melee, aid seems like a less useful spell than daylight. In addition, aid is already on the investigator's list of extracts anyways, while daylight isn't.

However, as a gunslinger I'd recommend keeping the aid and the +2 Cha, add those to the azata-blooded variant (+2 Dex & Cha) and grab the Dex and Cha based Mysterious Stranger archetype instead of the vanilla gunslinger.

Which brings us to a few potential problems I see with your combination of classes and race from a pure optimization perspective. First and foremost, beyond the complementing save progressions there's almost no synergy at all between the gunslinger's and the investigator's features. One is a Dex (Wis) based class almost exclusively focused on ranged combat with guns, and the other is an Int and Str/Dex based class with combat features largely limited to melee. So if you focus your investments (feats, items etc) on improving your gun prowess to get the most out of the gunslinger features, quite a lot of benefits and potential granted by your investigator side will be wasted. And vice versa, you'll get very little from your gunslinger levels if you instead focus your investments on improving your melee prowess to fully benefit from the investigator's Studied Combat and Studied Strike. In addition, with gunslinger levels you'll typically be much better off using your gun than a melee weapon in combat, which means you really want to use full attacks as often as possible, while Studied Combat demands a move action and will thus likely be wasted along with the Studied Strike melee-only damage bonus in a large majority of combat rounds.

Second, while the default aasimar gives you a +2 bonus to Wis, which is OK for improving vanilla gunslinger abilities and your Will, the very substantial +4 bonus to Cha will be largely wasted with this class combo, at least without the Mysterious Stranger archetype. And if you do go with the Mysterious Stranger, you'll instead get less out of your Wis bonus (which is a smaller issue than not taking full advantage of that fantastic +4 Cha bonus, but still).

In short, if I started with an aasimar with an extra +2 Cha and was trying to optimize a gun using gestalt, I'd definitely first look into playing an azata-blooded variant combining the Mysterious Stranger with a suitable Cha-based spellcaster like the sorcerer or oracle, while I'd honestly not even consider the investigator.

HTH!

[NightbringerGGZ]

Daylight and Aid are both potentially useful spells, but as a once/day ability I wouldn't let them be your primary consideration. Your main benefit of your roll is the +2 Cha which you can slap onto any Aasimar variant for the bonus stats. You could opt to focus on some charisma-based skills, or dump your charisma to boost another stat.

Investigator is a fun class and one of my personal favorites, but it doesn't have great synergy with Cha. You will always need some intelligence for the Studied Combat, but you can usually keep this at a 16. With an Azata-Blooded you could have an 18 Dex, 16 Int and 16 Cha if you're willing to dump another stat to 8.

If you opt for Mysterious Stranger you might consider the Sleuth archetype on the Investigator side. You lose all access to alchemy but gain a Luck pool that is charisma based. This will stack with your Grit, effectively doubling your resources on that front. You also gain additional ways to refill your Grit/Luck and a bunch of defensive deeds. By level 4 (assuming you use your bonus feat for Ranged Study) you could go for a build based around quickly killing enemies through a Focused Aim + Studied Strike combo.

This makes for mid-range damage dealer / skill monkey character. You're not the most optimized gestalt since you pass up spell casting, but you'll be effective so long as the game doesn't push for extreme optimization.

If you're just looking to add skill usage to your build, you might also consider dropping Investigator and going for a Bard instead. You'll still be good at skills, your bardic buffs will be a larger boost to the group's damage and you'll add spell casting.

[Krazzman]

Gunslinger(Mysterious Stranger) is quite good with your possible +4 Cha. Although the Investigator is not that good of a fit since it is more int-based it can be workable.

My personal recommendation is going to be the Mesmerist, both since the Stares can be used as bonus damage as well as being a Cha-based caster. Granted, this only works in 30 ft but is still a good source, especially since melee is most likely unavoidable.

[decoy73]

Current initial build (using base aasimar stat buffs):
STR: 12
DEX: 16
CON: 12
INT: 16
WIS: 16 (rolled 14)
CHA: 17 (rolled 15)

She's a pistolero-sleuth. Her backstory is that she's in the FBI - as in she's in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and she got sucked into this campaign from our world. The results of her archetypes are that she trades alchemy for luck (based on CHA), and her training and experience is exclusively with pistols. She also uses Diplomacy and Intimidate, so Charisma is still useful.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Current initial build (using base aasimar stat buffs):
STR: 12
DEX: 16
CON: 12
INT: 16
WIS: 16 (rolled 14)
CHA: 17 (rolled 15)

She's a pistolero-sleuth. Her backstory is that she's in the FBI - as in she's in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and she got sucked into this campaign from our world. The results of her archetypes are that she trades alchemy for luck (based on CHA), and her training and experience is exclusively with pistols. She also uses Diplomacy and Intimidate, so Charisma is still useful.

Those are really good rolls. I would suggest using your variant rolls for the extra +2 Cha and opting for either an Azata-Blooded heritage (+2 Dex, +2 Cha) or Peri-Blooded (+2 Int, +2 Cha). Boosting your Cha to 19 will give you 8 grit/luck to spend and a little extra damage. A 16 Dex is fine for accuracy, but if you boost it a little higher you'll have an easier time with Deadly Aim and will have a little more damage when you hit level 9. Higher Int does give you more uses of Inspiration though, along with more skills per level so it isn't useless either.

Overall you should have a pretty fun build here.