Introduction
The Arcanist can fill any role that can be filled by a Sorcerer or Wizard. Arcanist Archetypes provide some interesting options to borrow flavor or mechanics from other classes, or to supplement and expand the Arcanist’s existing abilities by emphasizing one mechanic.
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Disclaimer
We support a limited subset of Pathfinder’s rules content. If you would like help with Pathfinder options not covered here, please email me and I may be able to provide additional assistance.
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Archetypes
Blade Adept
The Blade Adept attempts to fuse the Magus with the Arcanist. Adept Exploits give the Arcanist the ability to replicate some iconic Magus abilities like Spell Strike. The Arcanist has a few issues due to their 1/2 BAB and complete lack of armor, but access to a better spell list can make the Blade Adept an interesting option. Unfortunately, the archetype is riddled with problems. It’s heavily dependent on exploits to catch up to the Magus’s melee capacity, but gives up three of them, so you won’t be able to duplicate the Magus’ capabilities until you’re in mid levels. If you want to play this style of character, the Magus is a much better option.
(Su): Normally you can enhance an Arcane Bond weapon, but at level 3 your bonded weapon turns into a Black Blade which you can’t enhance. Effectively this is just a free spell slot of your highest spell level and proficiency with a martial weapon.
(Su): The free enhancement bonus will save you a bit of gold, but you also can’t enhance a black blade. Without the Magus’ ability to enhance weapons on the fly, this can be a serious handicap. Make sure to pick up the Arcane Weapon exploit.
: The Blade Adept gets a lot of great options, but because the archetype sacrifices 3 exploit slots, you’ll have a lot of trouble getting everything you want quickly. You also want to pick up
- : Only useful if you take the Magical Knack trait and multiclass. A dip into Swashbuckler or Fighter might be a good choice to compensate for the Arcanist’s complete lack of martial abilities.
-
: The Arcanist’s Arcane
Reservoir grows 4 times as fast as the Magus’ Arcane Pool, which means
that you can afford to dump points into the few Magus Arcana available to
the Arcanist.
- : Fantastic for overcoming the Arcanist’s relative lack of attack bonus.
- : Opens up a lot of great options for Spell Strike, especially consider that the Arcanist gets access to the full Sorcerer/Wizard spell list.
- : With a keen scimitar/rapier, you have a reasonably chance of scoring critical hits, and being able to cast an extra spell as a swift action means a lot of extra damage.
- : More viable for the Arcanist than it is for the Magus.
- : Haste is one of the best buffs in the game, and with the Arcanist’s Arcane Reservoir you can afford to keep this running almost constantly.
- : The Arcanist gets enough spells per day that you shouldn’t need to rely on wands to fuel your Spell Combat.
- (Su): The Arcanist gets much better spells than the Magus, and gets high level spells sooner. The Arcanist can’t quite match the Magus’ martial abilities because the Arcanist gets 1/2 BAB, but if you can overcome the BAB difference, the Arcanist can be very effective.
-
(Ex): Some helpful
options for overcoming the fact that Arcanists are not good with weapons.
Also helpful if you plan to pick up Slashing Grace.
- : A little bit of extra damage is always nice, but with such poor BAB you won’t get iterative attacks with which to apply the damage boost multiple times.
- : With no armor or shield proficiency, you need a lot of Dexterity to give you some sort of AC. At that point, it makes sense to use Weapon Finesse.
- : A +1 bonus isn’t huge, but it’s required if you want to pick up Slashing Grace, and it will help compensate for your poor BAB.
- (Ex): +2 damage is nice, but you should be relying on Spell Strike for damage. Plus, with 1/2 BAB you won’t get the iterative attacks you need to make Weapon Specialization meaningful.
Replaced Features: Arcanist Exploits (1st, 3rd, 9th)
Compatible Archetypes: Unlettered Arcanist
Blood Arcanist
If you want the mechanics of an Arcanist with the flavor of a Sorcerer, the Blood Arcanist is the way to go.
: Sorcerer bloodlines offer a lot of very interesting powers. For help selecting a bloodline, see my Sorcerer Bloodline Breakdown. Remember that Arcanists don’t get the bonus feats, class skills, or spells known.
Replaced Features: Arcanist Exploits (1st, 3rd, 9th, 15th), Magical Supremacy
Compatible Archetypes: Unlettered Arcanist
Brown-Fur Transmuter
Polymorphing can be very powerful, especially if you build your character to be good at it. Read my Practical Guide to Polymorph for help with polymorphing.
(Su): Fantastic for a lot of spells. Bump Bull’s Strength up to +6, improve the bonus provided by Alter Self, or give yourself some more Strength when you Polymorph.
(Su): A lot of fantastic polymorph spells are limited to Personal range, and this allows you to share your best polymorph spells long before you can cast Shapechange.
(Su): Shapechange the whole party for 6 hours at a time, and you get an extra +4 to one of your abilities. This should turn your party into a horrific ball of polymorphing death trolls. And I do actually mean trolls. They have the best health regeneration available on the polymorph spell, so your party can just wade into scary fights without issue.
Replaced Features: Arcanist Exploits (3rd, 9th), Magical Supremacy
Compatible Archetypes: Unlettered Arcanist
Eldritch Font
Eldritch Surge is the key portion of the Eldritch Font. You can use it at most twice in a given encounter, and should generally only use it once unless you can spare an hour to rest after the fight. If you are good at ending encounters with one spell, Eldritch Surge can make you even better. Font of Power also gives you additional spell slots per day, though it limits the number of spells which you can prepare.
: More spells per day, but less options.
(Su): This is great for your first save or suck spell in the encounter. Being fatigued means nearly nothing to the Arcanist.
(Su): Very few spells rely on attack rolls, and those that do are almost exclusively ranged touch attacks. Ranged touch attacks are ridiculously easy. Rerolling damage on spells is similarly useless because spells tend to skew very sharply toward their average damage as you roll more and more dice.
(Su): This is far better than adding 2 to the DC of a spell, and largely removes the possibility of natural 20’s.
: Massively improves the Arcanist’s versatility and sustainability throughout the day.
Replaced Features: Arcanist Exploits (3rd, 7th, 13th), Magical Supremacy
Compatible Archetypes: Unlettered Arcanist
Elemental Master
The Elemental Master pre-selects many of the Arcanist’s Exploits, and grants a free prepared spell per day. This isn’t particularly powerful, but it isn’t any worse than a vanilla Arcanist.
(Su): An extra prepared spell of every level is fantastic for the Arcanist. Prohibiting another element is slightly annoying, but probably won’t cause you problems.
(Su): Each of these exploits is decent, and the damage scales well enough that it remains a decent option as you level. These attacks won’t keep pace with your spells, but they’re great when you’re low on spell slots or to kill weak enemies.
(Su): This is an average of .5 extra damage per Arcanist level; hardly enough to mattter. Increasing your Elemental Attack range to 60 feet is the real draw.
(Su): The upgrades to your Elemental Attack provide excellent improvements to the existing ability.
(Su): All of these movement types are useful, but the more useful the movement type, the worse the element on which it is based.
Replaced Features: Arcanist Exploits (1st, 3rd, 9th, 11th, 15th)
Compatible Archetypes: Unlettered Arcanist
Occultist
The Occultist adds some absolutely fantastic summoning abilities to the Arcanist.
: Planar Ally is a fantastic set of spells, and Plane Shift is great for traveling to interesting places.
(Sp): Summon Monster is a fantastic set of spells, and the biggest limitation is the short duration. Increasing the duration to minutes per level hugely improves the spells usefulness. Allowing you to cast it by spending Arcane Reservoir points means that you can eat a spell of the same level and cast Summon Monster without bothering to prepare it.
(Sp): Both are useful Divinations, but Contact Other Plane is already on the Arcanist’s spell list, and Augury is only a 2nd-level spell.
: Summon Monster IX has some truly amazing options, and you can keep them around permanently.
Replaced Features: Arcanist Exploits (1st, 7th), Magical Supremacy
Compatible Archetypes: Brown-Fur Transmuter, Unlettered Arcanist
School Savant
Want to use the Arcanist’s mechanics with the flavor of a Wizard? This is the way to do it.
(Su): Wizard schools have a lot of fantastic abilities which work for the Arcanist just as well as they do for the Wizard. For help selecting a school, see my Wizard Schools Breakdown.
Replaced Features: Arcanist Exploits (1st, 3rd, 7th)
Compatible Archetypes: Unlettered Arcanist
Spell Specialist
If you like to cast the same spells over and over again, the Spell Specialist is the archetype for you. It doesn’t add a ton of power, but it adds some nice effects to your favorite spells.
: If you have a favorite spell, you are going to prepare it every day anyway, so this costs essentially nothing, and provides some nice numeric bonuses. You can also add some situationally useful effects to modify your signature spells.
- (Su): Situational.
- (Su): Bend your lightning bolts!
- (Su): Very situational.
