Sphere of power. Mageknight in need of advice

[Nosta]

ok first off I am new to the spheres system
secondly I am making this character as a back up in case my character bites the dust

talked to the Gm and he ok'd Spheres of power

Third. yes I know I am using one of the weakest class for the
system, But I love a Good Gish

My Question is what sphere would best work for A high damage Mageknight
and what talents would be best for it

I character concept is a person who wields a polearm and uses the spheres to augment her abilities
The person is to be a Tactician type and war expert.

I just need general build ideas to go off of.

[stack]

Mageknight isn't a gish in the usual sense; it's more a martial with some magic tricks. That isn't a slight against it, just a note that I think helps set expectations properly.

That said, you can get some nice tricks. Are archetypes on the table? Handbook material?

[Lirya]

I like using combat maneuvers on the Mageknight. Grabbing Mystic Maneuver with your mystic combat + Improved/Greater Dirty Trick or Trip should work fairly well. If you get Time Shift as well, you can nova with Free Action combat maneuvers as long as you have spell points.

Below are some small packages of talents that I think works well with the Mageknight. I would suggest to quickly branch out into several different spheres so you get a variety of effects.

Alteration Sphere + Size Change
Using Mystic Might as one of your mystic combat choices is also an option for your size increase, but having an easy way of growing large/huge is amazing on a melee polearm user.

Fate Sphere + Bless/Curse/Freedom + Echoing Word (maybe)
Granting yourself/allies roll twice take the better is invaluable when you need to make key saves, and forcing enemies to roll twice take the lower when an allied spellcaster uses save or suck is really nice. Freedom of Movement is also a good spell to have.

Illusion Sphere + Invisibility + Lingering Illusion
Sphere Invisibility is really nice, as it works like greater invisibility (I don't know why they didn't move that feature into an advanced talent, it is borderline broken as is).

Light Sphere + Encompassing Light + Glory (Light Handbook)
This is another way to get a size increase, except it stacks with normal size increases.

Telekinesis Sphere
I want to suggest going into here for flight, but the CL requirement means you have to be at least 10th level before doing so. Another interesting option from the Telekinesis handbook is to take Weaponize + the Dancing Weapon, Divided Mind, and Flair talents from the core book. This allows you to use your casting stat as your main attack stat while making all your iterative attacks and applying all your combat feats to a weapon of telekinetic force. This doesn't even cost SP.

War Sphere (war handbook)
You really need to use the War handbook for the war sphere to be worth it in my opinion.
Aggressive Momentum (war handbook): This allows you to create a momentum pool (outside of combat), and then within 1 hour/CL any allies within 30 ft. of you can spend points from that pool to make an attack as a swift action.
Tenacity (war handbook) or Vindictiveness (war handbook) + blood bond + hammer and anvil. Blood Bond means when you create a mandate between yourself and an ally, it lasts for 1 hour/CL. Hammer and Anvil means you can share a combat or teamwork feat with that ally. Tenacity looks like a nice mandate to boost your saves, while vindictiveness gives a boost to attack rolls/CMB.
Battle Manipulation (War drawback) + Absorb/Revitalize/Safety (core book). This drawback lets you use Rally without a totem, and a rally lets you do something useful such as transfer half the damage an enemy dealt to another ally, reroll a saving throw, or negate a critical hit as an immediate action.
I would probably ignore Totems, there are some good options for them now with the war handbook, but they tend to cost more actions in combat and be more caster level dependent than Momentum, Mandate, and Rally talents.

Warp Sphere + Emergency Teleport
As an immediate action, teleport 5 ft. (it scales, but very slowly for a Mageknight). This can help you place enemies in your threatened area during their movement, or block enemy charge lanes towards your allies. Add Quick Teleport if you want to be able to teleport as a move action, this can be useful if you want to use teleport to engage the enemy.

[NomGarret]

You can go a lot of different ways, even as a low caster. It depends on what roles you want your magic to boost. Self-buffing? Utility? A talent or two in Warp is always handy. Destruction takes some work (or archetypes) to be worthwhile on a mageknight. Conjuration is skippable unless you only want to spend a talent for a mount.

[Mehangel]

I found this Class Guide to the Mageknight a while back. I think it may help.

[Kitsuneymg]

As your 5th and 6th level, take sphere magus. Ensure you have the basic warp and some form of destruction. One level of magus means you can full attack with a -2 and teleport close range before making that full attack. Pseudo-pounce ability unlocked. Destruction + spell combat + spell strike means you can freely make a "flurry" attack when you are already in melee range and add some damage to that. Also grab improved energy blade (feat, requires worthless energy blade talent) to give yourself a swift action destructive blast for a few more damage/round. Swift actions never provoke, so IEB is basically free damage for you. Consider crystal blast too. The reduction in damage blows, but the difficult terrain is quite good. Your foes will save against entangle 19 times out of 20 though.

You do not need to spend SP on these blasts. The base damage will be very low. Consider the trait from Life Handbook for +2 CL on one sphere and the feat from destruction HB for +5 cl capped at level for one blast type. Also consider the greater blast. it's quite excellent when you're planning on using free blasts. Warp, Destruction, Energy Blade, Improved Energy Blade, and Two level dip into magus gives you the tools to be a very mobile melee character. Greater Blast and a staff of destruction (crafted into the form of a gauntlet or held in the same hand as a light shield) can give you a few more D6s to use. Focused Blast adds a lot of static damage as well.

For the rest of your talents, it depends on what you want to do. A team-buffer type will grab the trait community minded and the war rally Empower. With Greater rally or Ranged Command feat, you're dropping 2 SP for +4 morale to basically everything combat related. Revitalize is great too if you already have greater rally. Going into time for improved, group haste isn't a total waste, nor is taking the group teleport talents for positioning your whole squad. If you just wanna roll a lot of dice, the greater blast is a must. Lastly, enhancement and item crafting can give you a huge lag up on making a weapon/staff combo that boost destruction damage considerably.

[A.J.Gibson]

I found this Class Guide to the Mageknight a while back. I think it may help.

I'm still trying to find out who wrote this. There are a couple things he doesn't understand.

[A.J.Gibson]

I think I should reiterate something stated earlier: low-casters are basically martials with utility casting, and generally shouldn't be casting spells in combat. If you want to play a caster that casts spells in combat, then you should be looking for a mid-caster, preferably one that gives you high casting in something. For the Mageknight, the best spheres are those that don't penalize you for being a low-caster too much. Warp is useful even with very short range, and War rallies (as mentioned) are great for you (totems, not so much, unless using totemic presence). 'Attack' spheres are generally bad for you, the save DCs or damage will always be too low, but buffing is still viable for you with some spheres.

[Hal0Badger]

I am using a Resizer mageknight in game right now and it is very nice even at level 3.
I use totems with totemic presence, right now the one I use is Gyro totem which hampers the movement of enemis. That+reach+combat reflexes are very nice now
Another thing is if you are planning to use the totemas, totemic presence let's you drop them as move or swift actions, and there is a mystic combat ability that let's you count your MK levels as caster level for the totems for the effects (but not for duration or size). Combined with squadron feats (which you can get free with a drawback), you can grant allies som nice bonuses for early levels, because squadron feat increases any totem efect by +1 if the effect is on d20 roll or something that subject to d20 roll (like ac).

I am having a fun time with large size (no dex penalty) + combat reflexes + gyro totem + whirlwind attack (got it with extra mystic talent, 1 sp to gain whirlwind att. for rounds equal to casting stat mod.)