How to build LE mage-warrior?

[Marcus]

As a new player, I want to make a char which is a melee dark mage (lawful evil), yet idk how. I am not familiar with multiclassing system. So seeking help if anyone can.

Musts of the char:
-Heavy armor and longsword
-Able to use either fire or necromancy spells
-Mythic path is gonna be demon/devil or lich based on spell type
-Mostly soloing yet I can decrease the difficulty if char is not suitable enough for encounters

RP behind: a warrior (so as starting being a melee type is more relevant) becomes slowly evil and acquires dark magic.

The gameplay will be mostly rp rather than a challenge, waiting for advices (class choices, feat choices and builds etc.)

Thanks

[Azure-Ghost]

LE already excludes demon. If you want LE you gonna go Lich or Aeon->Devil.

If you want to wear heavy armor arcane magic your best bet would most likely be the either Steelblood Bloodrager (Barbarian type with mostly selfbuffing spells but special bloodlines that can give some offensive spells though your spellslots are extremly limited and max lvl 4 spells))
Or Armored Battlemage Magus who is limited to level 6 spells but can use spellcombat/strike which allows the class to blend in spells into melee combat (you either attack with a onehanded weapon and cast a spell in the offhand or channel a touchspell through your weapon which also works with two handed weapons)

[Azure-Ghost]

You could also just go full martial class and limit yourself to your mythic spells (Devil gets to cast some spelllike abilites at will => without limit, but they don't interact with most spell feats, all Mythic paths provide you a spellbook so even a warrior can cast some spells (Lich gives necro/dark magic) you won't have as many spells per rest as a magic user but still.

You also could go the divine magic route and play an evil cleric/oracle as divine magic is not hindered by wearing armor if that is fine for you (divine concentrates more on buffs/support but also has access to some fire and necro magic)

[Schlumpsha]

Demon is the CE mythic path, thus incompatible with your idea. And the late mythic path of Devil is only available if you previously were either an Aeon or Azata. That leaves you with Lich. Double so if you want to specialize into necromancy.

Multiclassing for a mage-warrior build can be done via the Eldritch Knight prestige class. Or the Hellknight Signifer prestige class for that matter. Latter may be interesting if you wish to become a Devil later on.

Or simply go with either Steelblood or Armored Battlemage. Straightforward and won't be requiring any multiclassing whatsoever to achieve your RP goals.

[Marcus]

Publicado originalmente por Schlumpsha:

Demon is the CE mythic path, thus incompatible with your idea. And the late mythic path of Devil is only available if you previously were either an Aeon or Azata. That leaves you with Lich. Double so if you want to specialize into necromancy.

Multiclassing for a mage-warrior build can be done via the Eldritch Knight prestige class. Or the Hellknight Signifer prestige class for that matter. Latter may be interesting if you wish to become a Devil later on.

Or simply go with either Steelblood or Armored Battlemage. Straightforward and won't be requiring any multiclassing whatsoever to achieve your RP goals.

1-What should I choose as a class before eldritch knight and when to level up that one

2-What about warpriest or inquisitor classes? Are they not suitable for this content?

Thanks for your answer btw

[elbentzo]

If I understand you correctly, then I'd consider going something like wizard 5, Hellknight signifer 5 and 10 levels of Eldritch Knight. You won't be as martially powerful as a bloodrager or a magus, but you will end up with 15 BAB, 3 bonus combat feats, 1 bonus wizard feat, and a caster level of 19. So while the bloodrager and magus are fantastic melee fighters who augment themselves with magic, this route will actually make you a very powerful spellcaster (ESPECIALLY if combined with the Lich mythic path), capable of much more than supporting yourself with buffs or simple evocations. And you'd still be no slouch with a sword, and you'll have 0% spell failure rate even when in plate armor (if you take order of the gate).

If I misunderstood and what you're looking for is a melee fighter with magical support (like buffs or the occasional touch spell), then magus or bloodrager would be better for you. I prefer magi, but that's me.

[elbentzo]

Publicado originalmente por Flerion:

1-What should I choose as a class before eldritch knight and when to level up that one

2-What about warpriest or inquisitor classes? Are they not suitable for this content?

Thanks for your answer btw

Warpriest and Inquisitor both fall into the category of "melee classes who have great magic buffs", and are not really good spellcasters. If that's what you want, they're good classes, but remember they have divine magic. So you'll very little offensive magic, mostly buffs, some debuffs, and some control. Very few damaging spells.
Can you describe what you would like to be like in combat? Like, "I want to charge in with my sword, super-juiced on magical energies, in lightning speed and with incredible power", "I want to sword fight with one hand while throwing fireballs or freezing my enemies with the other", etc. That might help us give you better advice.

[Marcus]

Publicado originalmente por elbentzo:

Publicado originalmente por Flerion:

1-What should I choose as a class before eldritch knight and when to level up that one

2-What about warpriest or inquisitor classes? Are they not suitable for this content?

Thanks for your answer btw

Warpriest and Inquisitor both fall into the category of "melee classes who have great magic buffs", and are not really good spellcasters. If that's what you want, they're good classes, but remember they have divine magic. So you'll very little offensive magic, mostly buffs, some debuffs, and some control. Very few damaging spells.
Can you describe what you would like to be like in combat? Like, "I want to charge in with my sword, super-juiced on magical energies, in lightning speed and with incredible power", "I want to sword fight with one hand while throwing fireballs or freezing my enemies with the other", etc. That might help us give you better advice.

My intention is to cast necromancy magic (for rp I would like to use limited spell schools) as long as I can and then if I need to, fight with my sword. Yet I would prefer the char to be a melee char at the beginning and than slowly turn into this, not necessarly tho

[Schlumpsha]

Publicado originalmente por Flerion:

1-What should I choose as a class before eldritch knight and when to level up that one

2-What about warpriest or inquisitor classes? Are they not suitable for this content?

Thanks for your answer btw

Eldritch Knight works best for arcane fullcasters. Wizard, Witch, Sorcerer and Arcanist all work. A Hagbound Witch fits your described transition to become more and more evil as time progresses the most. Plus its boni to Strength can help for melee builds quite a lot. Wizard is the best pick if you want to have as many feats as possible, closely followed by Seeker Sorcerers. There is much freedom depending what you want for your character to be.
Easiest multiclass build would be 10 levels in your arcane base class and 10 levels in Eldritch Knight. But you can mix & mash as you like here. Really boils down which class features you are interested in to have for your character.

Warpriest and Inquisitor are divine spellcasters. Thematically and mechanically different from arcane mage-warriors builds. But if you're OK with ditching arcane for divine spellcasting, then Warpriest and Cleric can be good fits for heavy armor spellcasters. Note that divine spellcasters have no need for the Eldritch Knight prestige class, nor do they meet the requirements for entering it, Only arcane spellcasters do.

[Marcus]

Publicado originalmente por Schlumpsha:

Publicado originalmente por Flerion:

1-What should I choose as a class before eldritch knight and when to level up that one

2-What about warpriest or inquisitor classes? Are they not suitable for this content?

Thanks for your answer btw

Eldritch Knight works best for arcane fullcasters. Wizard, Witch, Sorcerer and Arcanist all work. A Hagbound Witch fits your described transition to become more and more evil as time progresses the most. Plus its boni to Strength can help for melee builds quite a lot. Wizard is the best pick if you want to have as many feats as possible, closely followed by Seeker Sorcerers. There is much freedom depending what you want for your character to be.
Easiest multiclass build would be 10 levels in your arcane base class and 10 levels in Eldritch Knight. But you can mix & mash as you like here. Really boils down which class features you are interested in to have for your character.

Warpriest and Inquisitor are divine spellcasters. Thematically and mechanically different from arcane mage-warriors builds. But if you're OK with ditching arcane for divine spellcasting, then Warpriest and Cleric can be good fits for heavy armor spellcasters. Note that divine spellcasters have no need for the Eldritch Knight prestige class, nor do they meet the requirements for entering it, Only arcane spellcasters do.

Do I need to give first 10 levels to base class and then to EK or give them occasionaly?

[elbentzo]

Publicado originalmente por Flerion:

Publicado originalmente por elbentzo:

Warpriest and Inquisitor both fall into the category of "melee classes who have great magic buffs", and are not really good spellcasters. If that's what you want, they're good classes, but remember they have divine magic. So you'll very little offensive magic, mostly buffs, some debuffs, and some control. Very few damaging spells.
Can you describe what you would like to be like in combat? Like, "I want to charge in with my sword, super-juiced on magical energies, in lightning speed and with incredible power", "I want to sword fight with one hand while throwing fireballs or freezing my enemies with the other", etc. That might help us give you better advice.

My intention is to cast necromancy magic (for rp I would like to use limited spell schools) as long as I can and then if I need to, fight with my sword. Yet I would prefer the char to be a melee char at the beginning and than slowly turn into this, not necessarly tho

In terms of what you're trying to accomplish, I'd say a wizard-Eldritch Knight, or a wizard-Hellknight Signifer-Eldritch Knight build sounds best, but it won't work with your RP. In order to be able to take levels in both of these classes (HKS and EK) you need to be able to cast 3rd level arcane spells, so basically something like level 5 wizard. That means you have to start as a wizard (weak fighter) and become more dominant in melee as you grow, not the other way around.

In order to fit your RP needs, I'd consider going for more of a melee class and rely on your Lich mythic path for the spellcasting. However, you won't be great at it. If you're playing on lower difficulties, then it should be fine.

[elbentzo]

Publicado originalmente por Flerion:

Publicado originalmente por Schlumpsha:

Eldritch Knight works best for arcane fullcasters. Wizard, Witch, Sorcerer and Arcanist all work. A Hagbound Witch fits your described transition to become more and more evil as time progresses the most. Plus its boni to Strength can help for melee builds quite a lot. Wizard is the best pick if you want to have as many feats as possible, closely followed by Seeker Sorcerers. There is much freedom depending what you want for your character to be.
Easiest multiclass build would be 10 levels in your arcane base class and 10 levels in Eldritch Knight. But you can mix & mash as you like here. Really boils down which class features you are interested in to have for your character.

Warpriest and Inquisitor are divine spellcasters. Thematically and mechanically different from arcane mage-warriors builds. But if you're OK with ditching arcane for divine spellcasting, then Warpriest and Cleric can be good fits for heavy armor spellcasters. Note that divine spellcasters have no need for the Eldritch Knight prestige class, nor do they meet the requirements for entering it, Only arcane spellcasters do.

Do I need to give first 10 levels to base class and then to EK or give them occasionaly?

Once you have the ability to cast 3rd level arcane spells and have martial weapons proficiency, you can take EK levels whenever you like. If you go for wizard, you can fill these requirements at level 5 and from there you can mix and match. If you go for a bloodrager, for example, you'll only fulfill them at level 10. Magus at level 7 and so forth.

[Marcus]

Publicado originalmente por elbentzo:

Publicado originalmente por Flerion:

Do I need to give first 10 levels to base class and then to EK or give them occasionaly?

Once you have the ability to cast 3rd level arcane spells and have martial weapons proficiency, you can take EK levels whenever you like. If you go for wizard, you can fill these requirements at level 5 and from there you can mix and match. If you go for a bloodrager, for example, you'll only fulfill them at level 10. Magus at level 7 and so forth.

Lastly, what is the adventage of EK, I couldn't see info in character creation page. Like does it give heavy armor proficiency?

[Azure-Ghost]

EK gives you full BAB (base attack bonus => your chance to hit with weapons) like a fighter, most casters only get 3/4 or half BAB which also limits your access to some combat feats and the amount of attacks you can do each round.
Additional combat feats and a capstone ability at 10 levels invested into EK to quick cast a spell on crit (if you crit with your swordstrike you can cast a spell in the same round)

No heavy armor prof. is usually not gained by arcane casters (besides the specific magus and bloodrager subclass) as has to be taken manually as well as armored caster feats to not fail your spells on chance when wearing heavy armor. The hellknight signifier prestiege class gives you some armored caster feats as well as armor prof.

[malkavius77]

One thing to consider if you want to play a gish class. Decide if you are going to be using spells for buffing or damage. The game heavily favors going all in on your role, be it stacking AC/melee damage/magic damage. You won't be able to invest in the required feats for both good melee and magic damage and splitting them will make you not terrible but not that good either.

[t]

As a new player I would recommend Magus. It is pretty much a fighter mage built into one class without needing to worry about multiclassing. You will also be able to easily wear heavy armor while casting spells, something an Eldritch Knight will struggle with. Go Lich and you will have plenty of dark necromancy spells.

I know you want to solo but this game was really designed around using a party. The game can be brutal even for crpg veterans, for a newbie it can be very frustrating and very unforgiving.