Beefzard the beast mage - help building!

[Heavenblade]

So, I recently looked into the geomancer class, and noticed a potential build, I'd be glad if you guys could help me find some neat tricks to do with it

The build is mystic ranger/geomancer, and the concept ia to take the sword of the arcane order feat to qualify for the geomancer single classed. So, in exchange for full BaB, I get - full spellcasting progression, the ability to cast my arcane spells in armor, the ability to be SAD casting wise, and all the neat abilities of the drift.


So now, what Im looking for is cool ways to use drift.

Currently my best ideas were to either build a grappler with the constrict+imp grab stuff the guy got, or take the wolverine rage ability and multi into as many barb prc that give benefits to raging as possible (more appropriate for a gestalt, I guess. But still)


So you get the bunch of cool EX abilities, SAD arcane/divine 5th lvl casting (assuming you can get a spellbook - worshipping boccob and getting his relic book isn't a bad idea), pretty high BaB....these are the ingridients


Any cool ideas on how to use them?

[Zombulian]

I would probably caution against grabbing rage since it would preclude you from casting for the duration.
If you’re okay with a hit to your CL Mageslayer might combo well with the grappling plan.

[liquidformat]

So if you are a human mystic ranger you could potential take magical training and precocious apprentice at level 1, that gives you a spellbook with 3 level 0 spells and one level 2 spell and SotAO at level 6.

I think the spiderweb adaptation is a pretty cool one to take for stage 3 and pounce from stage 4 seem useful.

[Bartmanhomer]

Beefzard or Charizard?

[Hiro Quester]

In his druid guide, Eggynack explains two schools of thought about wildshapej. The way of the bat and the way of the Bear. It seems that Geomancer affords either or both of these.

If I was playing it, I'd be going for a catbird approach, heading towards both pounce at stage 4 and wings at stage 5. Flying above the fray lobbing spells, then dive-charging for a pouncing full melee attack would be kind of cool to be able to do.

Take feathers and a cat's tail at stage 1.
Cat's grace at stage 2.
Lionlike claws for bonus rake attacks, and crocodile bite attack at stage 3 (natural attacks come in addition to your normal iterative attacks, you use them all at -5).
Pounce at 4 (and the acid stinger, because it's cool and another natural attack; or the bear's improved grab for helping with the rake attacks)
Wings at stage 5, along with cheetahs speed (or trample or gore attack).

Being able to fly about, but then also pounce into melee, make a full iterative attacks with your normal weapon, then also bite, gore, trample/gore, sting and rake attacks in addition. That's pretty awesome.

Get an amulet of mighty fists to add bonuses to all your natural attacks. Or a necklace of natural attacks to enchant each of your natural attacks (this is more expensive as you have more attacks to enchant)

It's a cool class. There are plenty off options. But if you want to go melee, then drift giving you a lot of different natural attacks and movement modes seems like a fun way to play it.

[daremetoidareyo]

In his druid guide, Eggynack explains two schools of thought about wildshapej. The way of the bat and the way of the Bear. It seems that Geomancer affords either or both of these.

If I was playing it, I'd be going for a catbird approach, heading towards both pounce at stage 4 and wings at stage 5. Flying above the fray lobbing spells, then dive-charging for a pouncing full melee attack would be kind of cool to be able to do.

Take feathers and a cat's tail at stage 1.
Cat's grace at stage 2.
Lionlike claws for bonus rake attacks, and crocodile bite attack at stage 3 (natural attacks come in addition to your normal iterative attacks, you use them all at -5).
Pounce at 4 (and the acid stinger, because it's cool and another natural attack; or the bear's improved grab for helping with the rake attacks)
Wings at stage 5, along with cheetahs speed (or trample or gore attack).

Being able to fly about, but then also pounce into melee, make a full iterative attacks with your normal weapon, then also bite, gore, trample/gore, sting and rake attacks in addition. That's pretty awesome.

Get an amulet of mighty fists to add bonuses to all your natural attacks. Or a necklace of natural attacks to enchant each of your natural attacks (this is more expensive as you have more attacks to enchant)

It's a cool class. There are plenty off options. But if you want to go melee, then drift giving you a lot of different natural attacks and movement modes seems like a fun way to play it.

Maybe go illumian and get bonus spells from strength?

Or Raptoran or dragon born open up flight earlier

[The Viscount]

If you use the drift to nab poison from your teeth you have a reliable vehicle for venomfire, which is a hilarious spell.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Frostblood Half-Orc in Races of the Dragon gets Endurance as a bonus feat at 1st level, and specifies that if you would gain Endurance later you can instead pick any feat you qualify for. Mystic Ranger gets Endurance as a bonus feat at the 4th level, and that's exactly the Ranger level you need to get Sword of the Arcane Order. So that race basically gets you SotAO as a bonus feat at Ranger 4. You can still use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in Races of Destiny p150 to count as a human instead of counting as an orc, and get Magical Training at 1st level for a spellbook and the ability to add more spells to it.

[Heavenblade]

All pf these suggestions are awesome! Thanks a lot, amd keep them going!

[liquidformat]

You could also do a pretty fun pouncing tripper, taking croc bite and lion claws at stage 3, wolf trip and leopard pounce at stage 4, stage five wings and either poison teeth for venomfire or bat's blindsense.

As a side note on my rangers I am partial to getting Favored Enemy (arcanist) CM and Nemesis BoED; Favored Enemy (Evil) is also great for this but that takes a PRC dib to pull off.

[Anthrowhale]

A rather different approach is Sha'ir 3/Geomancer <n>. You have less BAB and but can enter Geomancer earlier and stay tier 1 all the way.

[Heavenblade]

A rather different approach is Sha'ir 3/Geomancer <n>. You have less BAB and but can enter Geomancer earlier and stay tier 1 all the way.

Yeah, the sha'ir entry is also cool, but I was looking specificaly at ways to upgrade the mystic ranger

Thanks anyways!

[Edenbeast]

A rather different approach is Sha'ir 3/Geomancer <n>. You have less BAB and but can enter Geomancer earlier and stay tier 1 all the way.

I don't think Sha'ir is that great for Geomancer. In fact it's rather bad to use as an early entry, mainly because of this rather easily overlooked text (emphasis mine):

A sha'ir's spells must be retrieved from the elemental planes by his familiar, an outsider called a gen. Once retrieved, a spell remains set in the sha'ir's memory, like a wizard's prepared spell, until cast or until a number of hours pass equal to the sha'ir's class level.

Entering as level 3 Sha'ir will actually be a handicap. I think it's therefore better to take at least 6 or 7 levels of Sha'ir before going into a prestige class. You'd still be better off than a cleric/wizard multi class though.

[Anthrowhale]

Entering as level 3 Sha'ir will actually be a handicap. I think it's therefore better to take at least 6 or 7 levels of Sha'ir before going into a prestige class. You'd still be better off than a cleric/wizard multi class though.

3 hours is actually quite good as it allows you to swap your spells several times as you discover what sorts of challenges exist during an adventuring day. That's a unique advantage of the Sha'ir.

[Asmotherion]

Maybe go illumian and get bonus spells from strength?

Or Raptoran or dragon born open up flight earlier

Not sure about Raptorans but Dragonborn don't really fly... they mostly jump with maneuverability.

Also not sure if a 3 feat investment is worth it unless you intend to use it for smthing more than glorified jumping.

[daremetoidareyo]

Not sure about Raptorans but Dragonborn don't really fly... they mostly jump with maneuverability.

Also not sure if a 3 feat investment is worth it unless you intend to use it for smthing more than glorified jumping.

you have real flight for a number of rounds equal to your con mod at 6HD if you take the wings aspect. And you can switch between gliding and flying. Full flight opens up at 12HD. The feats that you're thinking of would be redundant, as most of the text is exactly the same on the dragonborn racial traits, so no need to blow feats at all. As a caster, the fatigue shouldn't be an issue, just get a wand of anti-fatigue spell from either the ranger or wizard list.

raptorans have nearly the exact same flight abilities as a dragonborn, except the con mod flight kicks in at level 5, unlimited flight is online at 10, and their speed is 40 instead of 30.

[Asmotherion]

you have real flight for a number of rounds equal to your con mod at 6HD if you take the wings aspect. And you can switch between gliding and flying. Full flight opens up at 12HD. The feats that you're thinking of would be redundant, as most of the text is exactly the same on the dragonborn racial traits, so no need to blow feats at all. As a caster, the fatigue shouldn't be an issue, just get a wand of anti-fatigue spell from either the ranger or wizard list.

raptorans have nearly the exact same flight abilities as a dragonborn, except the con mod flight kicks in at level 5, unlimited flight is online at 10, and their speed is 40 instead of 30.

I guess... But with so many flying spells available it's utility is limited. Fly spell is minutes/level at a lower HD. Overland even better at 9HD.

That said you can take advantage of the dragonblood subtype; some Dragon spells for flying are really good.

[The Viscount]

I guess... But with so many flying spells available it's utility is limited. Fly spell is minutes/level at a lower HD. Overland even better at 9HD.

That said you can take advantage of the dragonblood subtype; some Dragon spells for flying are really good.

Sure, those are nice spells. There's a lot of racial traits that can be duplicated or outdone by spells. The point of them here is that they save you having to use a spell slot/spell per day (and, depending on class, a spell known) on this, along with the fact that they can't be dispelled or removed in an AMF. Sure it's not always better, but it's worth considering.

Which 3 feat investment were you speaking of?

[Asmotherion]

Sure, those are nice spells. There's a lot of racial traits that can be duplicated or outdone by spells. The point of them here is that they save you having to use a spell slot/spell per day (and, depending on class, a spell known) on this, along with the fact that they can't be dispelled or removed in an AMF. Sure it's not always better, but it's worth considering.

Which 3 feat investment were you speaking of?

Dragon Wings, Improved Dragon Wings. At this point of investment into flying you'll probably invest in some flyby Attack and perhaps a tactical feat to take full advantage. But to be completelly honest I just thought the Dragon wings feat chain was 3 feat long at the time I wrote the post

[The Viscount]

You do make a point in that, depending on the build, comparing Raptoran/Dragonborn to another race with dragon wings and improved dragon wings is a 1 race choice vs a 2 feat investment. If it's not a dragonblooded race, then dragontouched brings it up to 3. If you compare it to silverbrow human it's as if it only costs 1 feat, since you get a bonus feat.
Raptoran does of course start a level earlier, so it's not exactly that simple.