Hello everybody! Sorry in advanced for the crazy long post! >.<
So, my buddy’s back in town and we’ve decided to strike up another adventure in pathfinder! The only problem is it’s been over 2 years since I’ve played last and I could really use some help building my next character. The last couple times I’ve played I’ve just gone with a straight up Wizard (Conj) build and straight Ranger archer/dual wielding build. They were pretty fun, but got kind of boring pretty quick since we don’t level up very fast. We usually only get to around level 10ish and my wizard only made it to around level 8 or 9. I was pretty much useless for the first 90% of our adventure! Haha!
This time I wanted to try something unusual/weird/different. I looked around different forums for a while and found a couple builds I thought would be fun to try, but could use some help optimizing them. One was actually a *4e* build that I don’t think can translate into pathfinder:
It’s this guy’s
Blind Assassin build:
http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/2428626It utilizes the gnome’s ability to stay hidden when he misses his attack. Combine that with the ability to add shrouds that deal damage upon a miss and you get what seems like a lot of fun!
Only problem is I can’t find anything in pathfinder that could equate to a build like that.
So, instead I figured I’d go with another idea for an interesting build. It’d be more along the fun RP side instead of crazy damage dealer, healer, or crowd controller, but I’m up for it! I’ll just jump in and explain the idea and would greatly appreciate some critiques and helpful advice to make him better or possibly just more fun in general.
I’d like to try to play a barbarian that is so stupid he thinks he’s actually a wizard! Haha! XD Possibly come up with some back story where when he was a child, his nomadic barbarian tribe got caught inbetween some elven wizard war and was almost completely wiped out. The few families that were able to survive, instead of seeking revenge, saw the incredible power of the wizards and wanted to emulate them! The only problem is, being barbarians, they had neither the intellect nor the control to be able to wield magic. They definitely thought they did though! During the war the elders had seen wizards “throwing aarows of pure power, balls of fire, and bolts of lightning from their fingertips!” They had found piles of wizard spell books and scrolls around the battlegrounds that they were able to have partially explained to them. They took all this information and started raising/training their own wizards. My character is one of the first children to be raised as their first barbarian wizard!
My idea is basically to create a full-fledged barbarian (no actual levels in wizard), but play him so stupid that he thinks he’s a wizard performing powerful magic to defeat his foes!
BARBARIAN WIZARDI figure he’d be Chaotic Good and worship the deity Azuth or maybe Mystra.
With a 20 point buy-in, I figured I didn’t want him incredibly weak in AC so that he’d die really easily, so I’d want to focus on constitution and dexterity and do something like:
Stats: Or maybe something like:Con: 16 Con: 14
Dex: 16 Dex: 16
Str: 12 Str: 14
Cha: 12 Cha: 12
Wis: 10 Wis: 12
Int: 7 Int: 7
He’s going to be a Half-Orc, so I could put the extra 2 points into either Dex or Con. I was going off the idea that growing up he wouldn’t actually be practicing magic, but instead their tribe would focus on throwing their “spells,” hence the high Dexterity. Being Half-Orc would give him high Constitution and partially high Strength. I kind of liked the first stat spread keeping with the stupid theme and having a low 10 Wisdom instead of 12 and of course Int being as low as it can go. Cha is just whatever’s left.
I’m still not sure exactly what I want to do with the extra 2 points though. Plus, being that we usually only make it to around level 10ish, I’ll have another 2 more ability points to put somewhere else. So what’s more important? Should I bump Dexterity up to 18 for the AC boost, then bump it to 20 through my levels? Or would I get more out of the HP boost from bumping my Con up to 18 and then 20 through my levels? I guess I do get another big boost of HP with my barbarian Rage ability, so maybe I don’t need to worry so much about HP? Grab the extra AC while I can? Another thing I was thinking about is possibly getting the Intimidating Prowess feat so I can add my Strength modifier to my intimidation checks, so the second stat build might be better for that, having Str at 14 instead of 12.
So, with those stats, I’d try to make him think he was a wizard as best I could. Here’s my idea on how I’d build him weapons, armor, and magic-wise:
Weapon:- His main weapon is a Club that he thinks is a magic wand. Either that or possibly go with a quarter staff that he thinks is a magic wand? What do you think would be better combat-wise? I was also trying to come up with some good curses that some of his items might have to make him think they had magical properties. Like maybe having the Club cursed with Backbiter, so whenever he rolls a 1 it curves around and hits him in the face. Magic is so unpredictable!!!
Armor:- I’d probably have him wearing some kind of stupid cloth robe or just to get a little AC maybe throw him in Leather armor or maybe later upgrade to a chain shirt or something.
Magic::
- Magic missle: His strongest of spells! He carries around a handful of Javelins that he throws at people and yells “MAGIC MISSLE” at them.
- Mage armor: Maybe get the rage power Increased Damage Reduction because obviously his Mage Armor is always on, making him stronger!
- Fireball: He would carry a couple liters of oil and a bunch of flasks with him. He’d ignite the flasks of oil and throw it at enemies yelling “FIREBALL!” If he ran out of flasks of oil, he’d grab some of his “spell books” he carries, light them on fire and throw those at enemies instead.
- Lightning Bolt/Acid Splash: Possibly go for the Elemental Rage power and have him beat people over the head with his lighting bolt magic wand club!
- Fear/Scare: Intimidating Glare
- Resist Energy: Possibly get Energy Resistance rage power
- Identify: Clearly he’s such a powerful wizard he could easily identify anything magical! The whole game just mistakenly identify things all the time and try to use them wrong.
- Fog Cloud/ Stinking Cloud: ??? Not sure. Anyone think of something?
Then, maybe the only way to get him to Rage in battle is have people make fun of his magic, or have his magic be so useless he gets pissed!?
Any more ideas would be great! Definitely emphasis on the goofy/fun side instead of the practical side on this one!
So, to hopefully make my guy not suck completely, at level 10 I’d get about 5 feats and 5 rage powers. My ideas for those would be:
Feats: - I’d definitely need 1.Throw Anything
- I might want the Orc feat 2.Ironhide for a small AC boost
- Possibly 3.Toughness for more of a boost to health?
- If I went with a quarterstaff instead of a club, I’d probably want 4.Two Weapon Fighting and possibly even 5.Two Weapon Defense
- I’d like to get the 6.Intimidating Prowess to at least be a little useful in battle?
- Maybe 7.Catch off Guard? Think I’d need that if I grabbed Throw Anything?
- Finally I was thinking if I went with a club I could use the extra feat slots and get a couple extra rage powers!
Rage Powers: - 1.Intimidating Glare for my Fear/Scare spell
- Maybe 2.Guarded Stance? For survivability?
- Possibly 3.Renewed Vigor at level 4 for a healing buff? Me so good me even know healing spells!!!
- 4.Lesser Elemental Rage so I can get ER
- 5.Elemental Rage for some extra “spells” and bonus combat damage
- 6.Increased damage reduction at level 8 because my mage armor is getting stronger with me!
- Then maybe if I take extra rage powers go with 7.Energy resistance and 8.Greater energy resistance?
Can you think of any other feats or rage powers that could work as possible “spells?” Any crazy ideas would be greatly welcome! I’d love to make the build as uncommon and funny as possible!
Any fun curses that aren’t character breaking that my idiot could have on him? A talisman he could’ve inherited that sucks? I thought of possibly the Gauntlets of Fumbling or Ring of Clumsiness, but I figured that those would hurt my already terrible combat skills too much. Haha!
Anyways, sorry for the incredibly long post! Hopefully it at least entertained you! If you have any ideas to make the build a little better or at least more entertaining I’d love to hear them! Thanks for your time!
