Hi gang, I have a small conundrum.
One of the games I'm in has a player who basically wants to play Erza Scarlet, or more generally, a gish or straight frontliner fighter with thematic suites of mutually exclusive but thematic self improving powers (refluffing them into being her various suits of armor is easy) that they choose on the fly.
If you've never seen Erza Scarlet, think of her powers like the Dressspheres from FFX-2. If you've never played FFX-2, think of the Job system from FFV, though that's really reaching, jobs were basically whole classes themselves...
I'm off on a tangent. Anyways the guy's somewhat new, and he's stymied. He tried making morphic armor and weapons and found them lacking (predictably, armor abilities are not very flashy) so I'm here asking YOU guys for your advice.
The game in question is Pathfinder, all core allowed, level 5, DM's permission required for 3rd party PF or 3.X materials. Races are pretty open, but being as this is Erza it's probably going to be human so that's moot.
Things to consider -
This player is new. Handing off some weird wizard combo of contingencies will probably just make him take forever or he'll miss the point.
What I've recommended thus far
Human PF Fighter 1/PF Sorcerer 6 (bloodline undecided)/PF Eldritch Knight focusing on nabbing all the alter self, Elemental Body, Form of the Dragon, Beast shape, Undead Body, Plant Body, Giant Body etc. transmutations and refluffing them into being Erza's "suits".
Pros: Very simple setup, each spell lists what it gives you straight up, enhances your strengths (same flavor as erza's) and you aren't overwhelmed by choice or paralyzed trying to rebuild your character's stats every time you cast a spell. Human's alternate favoured class feature will let her easily pick up all the spells she missed from previous levels.
Cons: Locked to considerably higher level than the campaign is before she's anything but a self-buffing sorcerer-fighter.
3.5 ToB character (undecied between Jade Phoenix mage or warblade)
Pros. Stances emulate the suits, easy to use mostly, DM is a fan of ToB.
Cons. Stances are generally not as badass as the Erza in the anime or Manga, requires learning the entire ToB subsystem.
3.0 Shifter (Druid entry)
Pros. Casually the most powerful incarnation of this build/character.
Cons. Doesn't feel Erza-y, can't use any metal (all her outfits are metal!), requires deep understanding of the mechanics of 3.X wild shaping and expansive monster knowledge as well as DM permission.
Other ideas
PF Mind Armaments Soulknife off the top of my head, but that might not line up since they can't change their buffs on the fly.
sooo... thoughts? Doesn't need to be super optimized, a straight Eldritch knight would do fine in this party.
