Mage beginner build

[ZanyScum]

Can someone tell me if this advice is still something I can follow?

Mage:

• Elves race for: +2 in Dex and Int
  
• Dex of 16: +3 to hit with bows, crossbows and (most importantly) ranged touch attacks
  
• 2nd class Rogue: add +1d6 to any attack you do against enemies that are in battle against someone
  
• Point-Blank Shot
  
• Precise Shot
  
• Accomplished Sneak Attack in the 5th level.

That will make a wizard that can launch an Acid Splash which is a ranged touch attack, that ignores Armor, and if you hit you will cause 1d3 + 2d6 every single time. In the first level, things are hard, in the second, you are already causing 1d3+1d6

Is all that still true and would you advise to do it?
I have to restart because Magus is too complicated for me it seems.
And I'll try turn based this time, so I PERHAPS understand what is happening.

[Mork]

That is the start of a Arcane Trickster build, a prestige class.

A arcane trickster is a wizard or a sorcerer who specialize in doing damage mostly with range touch spells like scorching rays.

Sorcerer for more fire power, wizard for the overall.

Keep in mind that Octavia, one of the companion, is build to become a Arcane Trickster.

...............................................

The most friendly to new players full arcane caster is probably the Sylvan Sorcerer with a leopard. You cast mage armor on you leopard and you are set, anything else you are doing is bonus.

[Frostfeather]

It's partly good advice. I usually go high Dex on Sorcerers or Wizards, equip a heavy crossbow, and use Hurricane Bow. It's an efficient use of spell slots that potentially adds quite a bit of damage and has a good chance of punching through the low DR some early enemies have.

If you're going turn based, you may be able to get by without Precise Shot by targeting enemies not yet in melee, and by ambushing enemies most of the time.

But as said, you probably don't want the Rogue level if you're not going Arcane Trickster.

[jsaving]

Originally posted by ZanyScum:

Originally posted by \\F.A.B.// Lucius:

The point in Pathfinder PnP is to do a first level char that can attack and cause some damage outside the spells you are granted

Is all that still true and would you advise to do it?

I think the link you provided at the top of the thread offered bad advice then and it remains bad advice now. He's saying you should focus your build around cantrip/crossbow damage so you'll be effective when auto-attacking, which you'll spend a fair amount of time doing at low levels. And he's right that you can add 2d6 sneak attack damage to your auto-attacks if you splash rogue and take accomplished sneak attacker. The problem is, you're only auto-attacking in situations where encounters are easy enough that your party doesn't need you to cast something meaningful. But if your party doesn't need you to cast something meaningful then it doesn't much matter whether your auto-attack dishes out a few extra dice of sneak attack damage.

I'd instead recommend doing exactly the opposite of what he suggested, and centering your build on making your big-gun spells as effective as possible. Which would entail raising your DCs as high as possible for the schools you plan to mainly cast spells from.

If you're not sure what spells you'll want to rely on, then in a first run it makes a lot of sense to follow @Mork's advice and opt for a sylvan sorcerer.

[Gresh]

Originally posted by ZanyScum:

Can someone tell me if this advice is still something I can follow?

Mage:

• Elves race for: +2 in Dex and Int
  
• Dex of 16: +3 to hit with bows, crossbows and (most importantly) ranged touch attacks
  
• 2nd class Rogue: add +1d6 to any attack you do against enemies that are in battle against someone
  
• Point-Blank Shot
  
• Precise Shot
  
• Accomplished Sneak Attack in the 5th level.

That will make a wizard that can launch an Acid Splash which is a ranged touch attack, that ignores Armor, and if you hit you will cause 1d3 + 2d6 every single time. In the first level, things are hard, in the second, you are already causing 1d3+1d6

Is all that still true and would you advise to do it?
I have to restart because Magus is too complicated for me it seems.
And I'll try turn based this time, so I PERHAPS understand what is happening.

I'd go straight spellcaster unless you're looking to get a little weird. You can go Rogue/Spellcaster if you want, but like others have said you get access to a companion that fills that roll pretty nicely. Single-class spellcasters also get higher level spells earlier.

Wizard or Sorcerer is more about style than anything else. CHA Sorcs are good for the main character because you get a big bonus to persuasion checks, and some of the bloodlines/subclasses are really good. INT Wizards are a little more versatile and you can pick a school for bonus spells slots. (I like Conjuration for damage and crowd control)

So if you go straight-class you can take a Spell Focus feat or Spell Penetration instead of Accomplished Sneak Attacker.

If you decide to multi-class I'd follow your feat progression and switch into Arcane Trickster ASAP, then ditch Octavia for another companion.

[ZanyScum]

Thank you guys.
I thought about the tanking animal mage (sylvan sorcerer) but I prefer to keep it simple.
I lowered the difficulty to easy and went as normal sorcerer with a Fey Bloodline.

I did not understand why people kept mentioning the grease spell, until I tried it. That is hilarious and incredible powerful :-)
Too bad the grease isn't flammable, like in Magicka.

So far it goes well, might be the lower difficulty, the "better" class or the turn-based combat. Don't know. But at least now I see what is happening and wow, the crossbow of the little girl is better than any spell anyone ever has cast so far :-(

[asame_akio]

Pathfinder isn’t really the system you want if you wanna make a powerful blaster mage—not to say you can’t successfully play a mage that points at things and makes them go boom, but your options for doing direct damage at early levels are pretty strictly worse than an optimized martial build at the same levels. Spellcasters are broken in PF because of how easily they can manipulate the flow of battle, whether that’s making your allies more powerful, your enemies weaker, inflicting save or lose conditions on those enemies, or (most effectively) controlling the action economy by increasing you and your allies’ actions per round and decreasing your enemies’. Spellcasters CAN cause get huge numbers in direct damage as they get access to certain spells and metamagic, but the spell-slots-to-enemies-defeated ratio for that is never going to be as effective as the other strategies I mentioned.

I would also like to recommend staying single classed as much as possible (though a standard arcane trickster build for Octavia isn’t a bad idea) for your first playthrough. Multiclassing can be powerful, but there are so many variables involved that it’s MUCH easier to accidentally gimp yourself if you aren’t pretty familiar with the system. Spellcasters especially tend to be best when they lose as few caster levels as possible.

[ZanyScum]

I am missing two things a bit.

1. Getting better with a skill if you use that skill, like in UO or Skyrim.
2. In real time battles I missed the rules you have in Dragon Age. Being able to tell the tank whom to protect how and the healer whom to heal when is saving so much time.

[Duder]

Originally posted by ZanyScum:

I am missing two things a bit.

1. Getting better with a skill if you use that skill, like in UO or Skyrim.
2. In real time battles I missed the rules you have in Dragon Age. Being able to tell the tank whom to protect how and the healer whom to heal when is saving so much time.

Welp, you get skill points on level up. Increasing attributes increases skills, certain pets do too. Spells, other equipable items etc etc
The only thing I miss in real time is damn autopause notifications. They would make battle much more efficient. I don't know what they were thinking (or weren't at all) not including them. Pillars had them, BG, IWD
The skill increase like Elder Scrolls you miss wouldn't work with the rules, since the characters literally do thousands of checks. It would OP everyone in that respect.