About to start and overwhelmed by choices

[Icemaster]

Hello! So, I was thinking of starting this game but since I'm not the type of restarting a game over and over again and I can get demoralized pretty quickly, I thought it was better to ask for advices here about my future character rather than risking screwing up completely and giving up.

So, I like to play profane spellcasters a lot and usually in easier game I settle for a mage, and was thinking of taking an arcanist here to start, with probably the lich mythic path (cause freaking Lich!) buuuuuuut after gathering intel on it, I saw a lot of builds focusing on huge armies of undead swarming ennemies and that's not really what I had in mind. I much prefer casting spells that can turn tides of the battle, things like mind controls, confusions, all sort of mental effects, or sudden deaths. (And disintegrate. I loooove disintegrate since Baldur's gate 2).

On top of that I read that Lich and arcanist don't pair really well together, so I was searching for other classes, either normal or mythic.

I discovered the Azata and the favorable and zippy magic superpowers and thought that was AMAZING for what I had in mind.
I'd really want to play a spellcaster than can cast the highest spell tiers.
So about my questions:

- Is it a good idea to pair arcanist and Azata? Or still better to try to make Lich work with High levels in spellcast to up my DC?(I heard you can reach up to 25 with Lich)

- If I use a wizard specialized in a spell type that forbids enchantments, can I still pick and use the enchantment spells from the Azata list?

- Is a Lich still interesting and viable without all the summons? Or is it better to chose something else?

I also thought about 2 other archetypes that I could play, one would be some sort of duelist that would rely on counter-attacks. I heard there was a class that could transform every dodge into counter-attacks and found a build, but it required to use a lawful monk while going to the path of a chaotic trickster, so if you'd have a less complex build to make work at hand, I would be grateful.

And the second archetype would be just a glass cannon OS sneak attack, that enters combat in stealth to one shot ennemies and disappear, only to do the same to the next enemy.

If you have any helpful tips for any of the idea that would be great! Sorry for the long post and thanks by advance!

[Princess Pilfer]

Azata is good for everybody. Mechanically i mean. Also thematically. And Aesthetically. It's just the best. (but for real it's mechanically good for every class)

IDK, but you wouldn't want to. The Azata spellbook and it's caster level are *seperate* from your Arcanist (sorcerer/wizard/cleric/ect) spell book and caster level and so you'll struggle to make any off the CCs or attacks in it be worth using compared to your normal caster class.

Interesting is personal preference, viable yes. Even if you aren't caring about summons, Lich can merge it's spellbook with your base class spellbook (Arcanist in this case) and so let you get a caster level *way* above what is normally possible. (Topping at 35 without meta magic or layline guardian?) Which can make your spells incredibly difficult to resist.

[Icemaster]

Thank you for your answer! Yeah I also think Azata is really awesome aesthetically.
So if I understand it's worthless to even try picking mind control spells from azata spellbook, since my caster level will be ridiculously low and unable to bypass ennemies resistances and saving throws?

Won't I struggle too much with too many enemies having insane saving throws if I go Azata and Crowd control spellcaster? I heard the game was extremely hard and threats all having insane ACs and resistances. That's why I wanted to do 2 dicerolls with favorable magic, but if the enemy just has a +30 bonus and I can only do 26 DC(for example), it's worthless to even try.

Also I heard that favorable magic is bugged and doesn't work at the moment, is that true?

[2Cute]

The only 'summoning' I did as Lich was using repurpose. I was effectively a really powerful nuker once I hit chapter 3 and merged my spell books. It was insane, and it only got better over time.

[ttv-r0b0c0p87]

Lucky for you, it sounds like we have similar taste, and I finally found a mage build I'm happy with. The issue with control spells in this game is that the enemy has insanely high spell-resistance and saving throws. That's where the Sorcerer subclass, Overwhelming Mage, comes into play. It gives you massive bonuses to penetrate spell resistance, your meta-magic spells have increased DCs, and you can "burn" spell slots to raise a spell's DC.

For Mythic Path, you want Azata with the Favorable Magic superpower, which forces your targets to roll twice and take the lower result against all of your spells. The Sorcerous Reflex mythic feat is also very nice to have, as you can enchant multiple enemies on your first turn. You'll want a lot of spell slots, so all of the Abundant Casting feats are super helpful. For your familiar, go with Hare for the bonus to initiative. You can also go with Pickpocket background for another bonus to initiative. Pick up the Improved Initiative feat and you'll almost always be acting before your enemies.

For race, go Kitsune for the bonuses to Dex, Cha, and enchantment DC. Luckily, since a Kitsune can shape-change into a human, you can roleplay as a human instead of Kitsune if you're not a fan of them. For feats, go with Spell Focus Enchantment and the Persistent Spell metamagic feat, which forces enemies to reroll any successful saves. This metamagic will also allow you to activate your class +1 to DC for an increased spell cost of only 2 levels. Between Persistent Spell and Favorable Magic, the enemy has to roll twice and take the worst result. If they succeed, they have to roll twice *again* and take the worst result. So, they have to successfully save 4 times against all of your spells, but your DC will be so insanely high that it's almost impossible. Eventually, you can take the mythic feat that allows Hideous Laughter to chain to multiple enemies.

I tried several times to make an enchanter, but the enemies just kept resisting everything, making me entirely useless. With this build, I'm able to get off my enchanting spells about 9 times out of 10. My favorite spells to use are Constricting Coils and Overwhelming Grief. If your party has Communal Delay Poison, they become immune to Stinking Cloud, so that can also be a very powerful spell to throw out, even though it's Conjuration instead of Enchantment.

A big benefit to this class is how simple it is; you don't need to multiclass unless you really want to. You can just go pure Overwhelming Mage and just min-max enchanting and spell-pen. Disintegrate is a Transmutation spell, but thanks to your Azata power and metamagic, you should be disintegrating fools like nobody's business.

If you make one of your party members a sneak-attack archer, they have crazy good synergy with this class, since spells like Overwhelming Grief cause the opponent to lose their Dex bonus, allowing your companion to score sneak attacks. This is nice, since your mage won't be doing much direct damage by themselves.

[Ghost]

solid gold advice right there. selective metamagic with abundant casting very strong.

[Icemaster]

Thank you so much for the feedback!
I'm not sure I really can play an evil path, so I guess I'll try playing Azata, and based on robocop feedback, I feel a bit more confident now.

I've started as an elvish brown-fur arcanist, race for spell penetration and class for flexibility, thinking that if mental spells don't work at least I can buff characters. I usually don't look too much into sorcerers because of how narrow their spell list can be, and the idea of taking a wrong spell feels bad.

But if you say it works best I'm willing to give it a try and play a kitsune sorcerer. Wasn't too fan of the of the overwhelming mage at first glance cause wasting a 6 level spell slot to do what an arcanist can do with 1 point of his arcane pool felt bad. But it's true it gives nice bonus to spell penetration.

Thanks for the advices, I'll try to take abundant casting as fast as possible, though I'm not sure what selective magic can do for me.