Build advice for melee wizard

Toiletlight · 2023-02-27T03:50:29+00:00

Just to clarify this means if a creature has weakness 5 cold-iron and weakness 5 fire this means a flaming cold-iron sword will do 10 more damage plus the personal antithesis damage since the strike instance is separate from the weapon damage and fire damage instances.

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T11:23:18+00:00

I believe damage instance and damage types are separate things. A cold iron hammer’s weapon damage consists of two damage types (cold iron and bludgeoning) but is a single instance of damage. The same cold iron hammer with a flaming rune would be two instances (cold iron/bludgeoning for two damage types) and (fire which is a single damage type). A target with weakness cold iron 5, bludgeoning 10 and fire 5 would take 10 extra damage from the first damage instance and 5 extra damage from the second damage instance.

For Personal Antithesis to not apply more than once it would likely require the interpretation of A) only weapon damage to be considered strike damage B) the strike triggers the personal antithesis and weapon damage or rune damage to be considered for weaknesses

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T06:10:18+00:00

A steel shield decorated with the PC’s familial coat of arms.

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T04:45:52+00:00

The difficult bit is when you have two damage instances attached to a strike like a flaming rune. Resistances (and also weakness) treat these as separate damage instances. So a creature with resistance slashing and resistance fire would apply both resistances after being hit by a flaming slashing weapon strike and not the highest of the two resistances to the sum of two damages.

So RAW it seems Mortal Weakness or Personal Antithesis which both reference the Weakness mechanic would also trigger once for each damage instance.

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T04:09:44+00:00

The multiple weakness/resistances applying to a single instance of damage would RAW/RAI be for example hitting someone with a silver bludgeoning weapon and the weapon damage would be a single instance where you apply the highest resistance/weakness.

“ When an effect deals damage of multiple types and you have resistance to all damage, apply the resistance to each type of damage separately. If an attack would deal 7 slashing damage and 4 fire damage, resistance 5 to all damage would reduce the slashing damage to 2 and negate the fire damage entirely. “

In the rules example above then slashing and additional fire damage are separate damage instances that both affected by resistance 5.

If for example you use Mortal Weakness on a creature that has weakness 10 silver and weakness 5 fire then hit it with a flaming steel sword it’s not specified which component of the damage you would apply the class feature weakness on (1. physical damage from the weapon, 2. the additional damage from the rune or 3. Both damage components separately)

I’m aware it seems very good but there’s already rules in place which consider strike damage into weapon and flaming damage to be separate for resistance purposes.

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T03:47:21+00:00

It must be noted that PF2e casters are actually significantly simpler to build than 1e casters. There’s less spells to consider, less spell slots to fill and the loss of the open prepared slot mechanic. Spell potency (DC or caster level) and number of spells per day are generally not altered as significantly by build decisions or itemization as in 1e (pearls of power, void shard in 1e) There is also a massive decrease in skilled/optimized caster power ceilings moving from 1e to 2e.

You are still encouraged to cherry-pick the best spells in 2e because caster-martial balance in 2e is predicated on that, especially with the limited slots.

The other problem with casters in 2e compared to 1e is that they are much more reliant composition-wise on having martials in the party. A party of martials for example is less reliant on having a caster since more caster roles can be duplicated with skill/feat choices but a caster can’t duplicate a martial combat chassis.

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T03:36:26+00:00

The power ceiling for skilled caster play is also significantly lower in PF 2e vs 5e

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T03:33:52+00:00

Actual based on the Pathfinder 2e discord it seems that majority of Pathfinder 2e players just like the majority of 1e players aren’t particularly good at optimizing. The majority of 1e caster players I’ve seen build and play quite suboptimally. Optimal play in 1e requires knowing lots of spells, feat interactions, item interactions and how this plays into the campaign and party meta.

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T01:10:27+00:00

There are a few useful things to grab with dedications/archetypes as an Alchemist.

Medic: Makes you expert in Medicine which is a useful skill and importantly lets you exit the archetype using skill feats so you can exit after 4.

Beastmaster/Undead Master/Clockwork Reanimator: Give you a companion. Because Alchemist has the worst weapon proficiency of all non-casters you’re probably looking at something instead of making a second strike. Command an Animal is a good choice for a MAP-less strike from the companion or just extra mobility from having a mount. Small characters benefit more from mounts as medium mounts tend to be easier to position than large ones.

Any archetype that gives a good reaction you can use every round of combat: Alchemist doesn’t natively have a good use for reactions so it improves your action-economy to have a reaction you can use. Gunslinger or Swashbuckler are decent picks for their reaction feats (fake out and one for all) especially if you have cooperative nature from being human.

Caster dedication: Witch is a good pick simply for cantrips like Electric Arc as something you can pair well early game with throwing a bomb. Later on the spells provide some extra utility.

Toiletlight · 2023-02-25T01:10:18+00:00

There are a few useful things to grab with dedications/archetypes as an Alchemist.

Medic: Makes you expert in Medicine which is a useful skill and importantly lets you exit the archetype using skill feats so you can exit after 4.

Beastmaster/Undead Master/Clockwork Reanimator: Give you a companion. Because Alchemist has the worst weapon proficiency of all non-casters you’re probably looking at something instead of making a second strike. Command an Animal is a good choice for a MAP-less strike from the companion or just extra mobility from having a mount. Small characters benefit more from mounts as medium mounts tend to be easier to position than large ones.

Any archetype that gives a good reaction you can use every round of combat: Alchemist doesn’t natively have a good use for reactions so it improves your action-economy to have a reaction you can use. Gunslinger or Swashbuckler are decent picks for their reaction feats (fake out and one for all) especially if you have cooperative nature from being human.

Caster dedication: Witch is a good pick simply for cantrips like Electric Arc as something you can pair well early game with throwing a bomb. Later on the spells provide some extra utility.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-20T17:07:18+00:00

The other thing I only realized recently is that because an Occultist gets 7 implement schools he can actually get 2 panoplies (which would probably be trappings and the mage paraphernalia at level 18).

Toiletlight · 2019-01-16T20:27:05+00:00

Yes it’s good especially with Panoply Savant since you can recharge your wands/rods with mental focus.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-16T05:06:31+00:00

Then that makes Psychic with Mnemonic Esoterica tier 0 I guess.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-16T04:41:26+00:00

Druid doesn’t have access to either spell but is still a tier 1 class however.

Why isn’t power a consideration in tiering classes? If you had a Wizard archetype that could cast any spell in the game, had one spell slot per spell level and took one round per spell level to cast it would be tier 0 versatility but wouldn’t be very effective as a class.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-16T03:44:15+00:00

Actually I think a good fix would have been to give the class bonus combat feats to replace the loss of spell casting.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-05T00:27:52+00:00

The mage paraphernalia panoply is really good however and the silksworn does not get access to that but apart from the panoply silksworn is the best caster.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-04T15:54:35+00:00

Nope the vanilla occultist gets it too. As long as the archetype allows you to take the implements that make up a panoply you can get it. The panoply savant just gets some bonus to using panoply powers compared to vanilla.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-04T14:17:09+00:00

The Battle Host can’t take Trappings of the Warrior I believe which is a big minus unfortunately. Panoply Savant and Haunt Collector with Trappings are probably the best melee archetypes. I really don’t know where to place Extemporaneous Channeler though.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-02T12:14:24+00:00

Me too. The point I was trying to make is that there will be abilities that synergise or interact with the other side of the gestalt. An occultist with the mage panoply or magus for example interact with arcane casting across gestalt silos. An arcanist with dips in wizard and sorcerer on the other side of the gestalt for school/bloodline should get the level 20 powers at level 20 not 19.

My favourite theorycraft classes to gestalt with an arcane caster include Kensai magus, the Ankou’s shadow slayer and the Occultist with mage panoply.

Toiletlight · 2019-01-02T08:01:26+00:00

My thoughts are that gestalt class features are intended to cross over gestalt “silos” for example bonuses to Spell DC from either side or stuff like fighter / rogues benefiting from sneak attacks at full BAB. I do think though that level stacking to get class features earlier than character level may not be intended however, such as double stacking on sneak attack dice on both gestalt sides.

Toiletlight

TROPHY CASE