For a different approach today I'm going to start with a standard character and add a second class to make him gestalt. The character I have in mind today is a staff magus. We are going to be taking a look at what the staff magus is and what classes would best help him do what he wants to do.
A staff magus is first a magus who utilizes spell strike and spell combat. He trades typical weapon selection for a staff, with the tradeoff of the quarterstaff master feat. He also trades medium/heavy armor training for the ability to add his weapon modifier to his ac. At 10 he trades fighter training for the ability to use magical staves as if they were a quarterstaff.
So, light/no armor leads itself to a heavy dex build. Using a double weapon means we can use 2 weapon fighting whenever we don't use spell combat that round. Let's work on building the magus to utilize this.
With a 25 point build stats will be 10 str, 16 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 10 wis, 10 cha.
Race:
Elf is a very interesting choice giving us +2int/dex but we lose 2 con.
Any +2 to chosen stat would be nice for a bonus to dex with humans getting preferred treatment due to the extra feat.
Any race works for this class somewhat well. Small races in particular are better off with this build than a normal melee build. The +1 to attack is better than the +1 average damage of a medium creature. The -2 str hurts a little bit, but we can always change stats around if we need to in accommodation.
I'm going to run with elf for this character.
10 str, 18 dex, 12 con, 18 int, 10 wis, 10 cha- Leveling up points go into dex.
Feats:
Bonus1:Quaterstaff master
Level 1: Weapon finess
Level 3: 2 weapon fighting
Level 5: Weapon focus
Bonus5: Weapon Specilization
Level 7: Rime Spell
At this point we notice that 2 weapon fighting is very feat intensive for this character, esp a dex based build.
Basic attack:
Spellstrike +8 (1d6+2+ spell) and staff +8(1d6+2)
2WF staff +8/+8 (1d6+2)
Key spells:
Frostbite- This gives you 7 charges each charge adds 1d6 damage and can fatigue the target. This lets you cast 1 spell and use it for 3+ rounds. Add Rime spell and it also gives the target -2 attack, -4 dex, and they move at half speed for a turn. This would take up most of my level 2 slots.
Magic missile- for level 1 slots for when range is mandatory.
Haste- at 7th level we gain access to haste
Arcana-
3- Wand Wielder- For level 10+ when we are using caster staves as our quarterstaff. Nothing else is interesting at this level
6- Enduring Blade- So we can use our arcane pool to prebuff our weapon and have it last through combat.
Analysis- This character feels really solid. The +8 attack seems low. This character also stats to come into its own at level 9 when it gets its iterative attack and improved 2WF. If we can find a way to get this faster our character would mature more quickly. In addition, we don't deal a lot of damage per hit. Each hit should do approx. 9 damage. A str based 8handed melee will do around 17ish. Lastly, we notice we are feat starved, not incredibly so, but enough that we don't have room for things like extra arcana or meta feats. So, lets look at classes that can increase attack, damage, and feats.
Fighter: An obvious choice. It would grant us 4 extra feats by level 7 and allow us to pick up imp 2 weapon fighting at 7 instead of 9. Weapon training gives us +1 to damage as well.
Ranger: While it doesn't feel thematic to me, it does fit the criteria. This gives us 2wf and imp.2wf for free saving us 2 feats. Favored enemy gives us +4 attack and damage against specific enemies. This choice also gives us 4 more skills per level. It's not something we are focused on as we get 6 already, but more skills is always nice.
Rogue: Most notably it gives us 4d6 sneak attack. We can take the magus arcana Prescient Attack which would let us get every hit after the first as a sneak attack for the cost of 1 arcane point. The rogue also helps with the feats via rogue talents that replace them. Biggest problem is the 3/4 BAB progression. We still wont be able to get our iterative attack and Imp 2wf.
Monk: Flurry of blows is a fake way to get the base attack bonus we need. It also replaces 2wf feats, saving us 2 feats. It also grants 2 bonus feats, but not the ones we want.
Mobile fighter: Trading out the armor training, lets us move around the battlefield and still use full round attacks. This really comes into its own at 11, but doesn't give up much prior to that. If you want to go fighter pick this archetype!
2 Weapon warrior: Another solid fighter archetype. But, I'm pretty sure mobile fighter is better.
Urban Barbarian: Full base attack, and rage can add to dex instead of str. Very confident in the thick of battle, where this character wants to be. Improved uncanny dodge is great for this character as well. The only problem is that this class doesn't help with the feats.
While I'm hesitant to use classes from the advanced class guide playtest (since they aren't finalized), I have to look.
Slayer- He gets half the sneak attack bonus as a rogue. Favored target gives us the ability to focus on a specific enemy or multiples as we increase in level. This grants us +2 attack and damage (at level 7). He also gets 3 slayer talents, 2 of which can be ranger weapon style for 2wf and improved 2wf. The third could be weapon training. Being a full BAB class helps as well.
Conclusion: There are quite a few classes that would work very well with this concept. The best in my opinion is the Mobile Fighter. A close second is the slayer. I feel this staff magus wants to spread around damage as much as possible and mobile fighter does this very, very well.
Hope you enjoyed, please feel free to give any feedback.
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