Fighter/sorcerer?

Remove all ads!

I've been thinking for a few days now, what kind of a multiclass should i take to be able to fight as well as throw fireballs around. The most obvious spellcasting choice is Sorcerer, of course. In addition, this guy will be party leader so high charisma score will help out a lot. Then, the fighting part is again obviously paladin, though i dont like this very much.
First off, what you get from paladin class is the ability to fight with Cera sumat and Holy avenger, the big bonus to saves and some minor amount of lay on hands.
On the other hand you lose many conversation options, quest rewards and you're quite limited in your actions to be the typical goody two-shoes.

So, i though fighter/sorcerer. More levels of fighter, for all the extra feats you get. This way, he can have spell focuses, combat casting, armored arcana for light armor capability, optional spell penetration and elemental damage augmenting feats (Spirit of Flame, Aegis of Rime, Scion of Storms and the acid one, dont recall the name right now), even weapon specialisation.
That's a whole lot of feats and fighter class would greatly help to acquire them early on. It would of course take several levels of fighter, much more than paladin. It would not restrict any type of conversation options as well as getting all the rewards. The spell focus feats would help out the sorcerer spells, which would lack in power and number next to the paladin/sorcerer. Pro for him is the much higher BAB.

He could go for weapon finesse, short swords and daggers, light armor and being an excelent archer. On the other hand, Mordy's sword would get no real bonuses and highly unlikely specialisation. Also, this practicaly means using only one weapon, or removing your shield everytime you want to cast a spell without spell failure.


I'm not sure now, which to take. Being more sorcerous and goody guy, or having less sorcery and more BAB and feats.
I'll be playing through the game with 2 characters, this one and a druid (played by a friend of mine) that's pretty melee oriented - 18 strenght.

What do you think, does the greater spell power of a paladin/sorcerer make up for the much lower BAB?

 

The acid one = aqua mortis (water of death)
I'd say F/S all the way - Pally's be no fun, the dastardly do-gooders
Or - do a R/S and get free dualwielding when carrying only light armour - increases the punch without taking two more feats...

 

From what you said in the first line of your post, I think that it would be best for you to become a Fighter/Sorcerer. A Paladin/Sorcerer might be nice, but he'll never be as good a fighter and that is what you want I think.

It really is the choice between more spellpower and more meleepower and you will have to make it on your own. Personally I think that the P/S would be more powerful, because of Mordenkrainen's Sword and Tenser's Transformation. I'm not very experienced with the game, but I once cheated a sorc to level 30 (just for fun) and casted Mordenkrainen's Sword and I don't think any fighter would have been stronger than my sorcerer at that moment.

 

Aye, paladin/sorcerer would indeed be more powerful. I dont like to be restricted by paladin ethoes, though, that's why i went for fighter.

I've made the guy. Drow fighter2/sorcere2 for now, nearly lvl3 in sorcerer. Weapon finesse with dexterity score of 20 gives me all together +9 to hit. Shield armor check penality doesnt seem to affect attack bonus as it should according to the description of the feat. All the better for me.
Now, the big, big problem is damage output. Right now i'm wielding a dagger +1 and doing puny 2-6 damage per hit. My strenght is 10, so i'm not getting anything from there either.

I'm wondering what could i do about this. I really liked the idea of dexterious drow spellsword, but it aint much of a sword if he's scraching enemies with a knife. AC could become rightdown incredible, with the many excellent light armors in the game. +5 bonus from dexterity, armored arcana takes care of arcane spell failure (10% for leather and 15 for studded leather&hide) and the very good AC from the armor itself. 10+ AC alltogether at least with a good armor. It still doesnt change my damage though.
It takes about 3 hits to take down one smelly orc!
When they swarm me, even my AC doesnt do me that much good, since they get a lot of time to roll plenty of attacks against me, eventualy rolling a natural 20 or 19 (if without Shield spell) to hit me.

I dont have enough ability points to get a god score out of strenght and dexterity both. I'd have to sacrifice the AC, ranged AB, reflex save and even melee AB since i cant have 20 strenght with a drow.

So, any way around this?

 

I don't really think you can make a strong, damaging character with weapon finesse... The problem with this character is of course that you need all the attributes. STR for damage (carrying capacity), DEX for AC and Reflex saves, CON for HP and Fortitude saves, INT for skill points (you probably want Spellcraft), WIS for will saves and CHA for spells...

Since the other attributes are important, you're probably stuck with the low strength and the low damage weapons. I don't think there's really anything you can do. Except of course cast spells like Bull's Strength and Tenser's Transformation (although it will take a while before you're high enough level).
Fortunately you have high AC though. That will buy you time to kill of the enemies...

 

She's a drow with the following stats: 10/20/12/12/6/21.
+5 ability bonus to attack, as much as she can get out of her spells with low will save, that'll improve anyway, because of the sorcerer. Fortitude save will also improve because of the fighter levels reflex wont get better much, but the awsome dexterity'll help it out. There's also spell resistance, being a drow.
Fighter3/sorcerer3 for now, next level acquiring weapon specialisation in favour of mirror image (i rarely get hit).
As i said, the only, truly only problem is damage. My battles last for AGES. Enemies can hit me on their critical rolls and i hit them surely, however making some truly meager damage.

I thought of making a strenght based spelsword, but when i saw easy of use component: magical weapon finesse i decided against it. It means that whatever spell that brings forth a weapon to be wielded will use my dex modifier to hit, and it's damage is already great enough. IIRC you dont get strenght modifier to the damage anyway, the weapon being immaterial?
It doesnt help me much now, though, but i'll make it through. Barely defeated the Emma's (moonblade priestess) companions after i attacked her. Wouldnt have made it without the books with 3uses/per day spells.

I'll keep this updated and see how it goes.

 

Err, why did you attack Emma? She'll give you the moonblade anyway, you know...

And the summoned weapons indeed don't get the strength modiefier, so with ease-of-use weapon finesse, it should work pretty good.