Looking for tips for a magical Kitsune within melee range - Arcane rider?

[Pneumokokki]

I'm not through with my current character and all ready thinking about new one. I'm hooked on figuring out different kinds of characters to the game, lol.
Not looking for a min-max -build here, but fun role playing stuff! Playing on core with character retraining ability on and death's door on.

- For a while now I've been wanting to make a Kitsune character. Tips for playing one are welcome!
- I kinda wanna make a caster, but I can't help it - I like being in the thick of the fight.
- Created a sword saint human already, it's fun but not enough spells. I play mostly on turn based, so micromanagement is actually a plus for me! Keeps things interesting!
- Been thinking about a melee sorcerer. Tips about this are welcome too, I might try it some time if not now!
- But Arcane Rider sounds way cool. A white fox with a rapier (or something) on the back of a black horse, teleporting around, casting spells and swinging a sword! Sounds really fun. So all the tips and fun ideas are welcome! Multiclassing, fun spells, weapon ideas, all the good stuff.

I might either make one as a mercenary for my current character, or if I get very excited, just start one as a mc. What mythic path would be fun if this'd be the main character?

[Soul]

well if you want melee... kitsune can get a vulpine pounce.... and if you went arcane... with enduring and greater enduring spells.... you could get access to winds of vengeance.... stacked with expeditious retreat or haste when you can 24 hour it.... and you'd be able to pounce from 120 feet away.... lol

[MjKorz]

Kitsunes are great for literally anything dexterity based and dexterity-based with a secondary mental stat in the form of intelligence or charisma. This means dex-based pure martials as well as fighter/mage classes like Vivisectionist, Magus, Skald (especially court poet).

Kitsunes have Vulpine Pounce which has great synergy with Mythic Charge. Mythic Charge has great synergy with dual-wielding which requires high dexterity, because it provides a flat damage bonus that is procced on any attack in a charge action. Since Kitsunes have an inherent bite, this synergy is strengthened even more.

Kitsunes have inherent Kitsune Magic which provides +1 spell DC on enchantment spells and makes them the absolute best enchanters in the game, better than the Kindred Half-Elf who gets a +2 charisma bonus. The reasons for this are three-fold: +2 bonus to dexterity which means better initiative, the ability to scale mythic enchantment spells from non-merged spellbooks (they don't scale with main casting stat and use MR instead, but benefit from other sources of spell DC scaling) and the fact that the bonus works with intelligence-based casters and not just the ones that use charisma.

Don't bother with pure sorcerers trying to do melee through polymorph, it's counter-productive and entirely pointless. You will suffer from very low AC, which means you will be relegated to the role of a second row damage dealer, but the dragon forms are huge and are a pain to maneuver in tight maps and the critical profile of natural weapons is absolute garbage. If you want to do melee as a full caster, make an Eldritch Knight pouncer: you can use either the intelligence-scaling Death's Consonant Bardiche or dual-wield finesse weapons with Mythic Weapon Finesse while using Lunge for extra reach.

Don't bother with being a rider with a fox. The entire point of being one as a martial is pouncing without the need of a Skald. Otherwise, you might just play a different race that start with 19-20 strength and completely ignore personal defenses.

The most useful Kitsune builds I've ever made are:
1. Wizard5/EK10/Loremaster5 Nenio with Death's Consonant. Dishes out surprisingly good damage with Vulpine Pounce, Mythic Charge, Boots of the Stampede, Divine Power, Sense Vitals and Transformation to get full BAB.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866742224

2. Dexterity+charisma based CourtPoet16/ScaledFist1/Loremaster3 buffer and frontline tank. Doesn't deal a lot of damage, but Insightful Contemplation is extremely useful as it provides an up to +6 Morale bonus to intelligence and charisma (which can be doubled to +12 via the Ring of Triumphant Advance), buffing the spell DC of arcane casters in the party AND buffing the Court Poet's charisma simultaneously, which gives the Court Poet extra AC through the Scaled Fist dip. Gets very tanky very fast and can serve as a frontline tank even on unfair (within reason). You can also use the Crippling Kiss estoc that can be finessed and debuffs enemy attack bonus as well as saves on a crit, introducing an additional debuffing capability to the character through crits with a 15-20 threat range.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2954855371