Gunmage - Can It Be Optimized?

[bkdubs123]

Also

1. Cast Shapechange and turn into a Hydra, share with gun.
2. Cleave Hydra-Gun's heads off.
3.
4. Profit!

Fantastic.

[SorO_Lost]

Yeah, the share with trait is awesome and there is both plenty of abuse and joke material there.

Q: What happens if you share Fire Shield's ice version?
A: You get cold cocked.
 

How about this one? Girallon's Blessing, your gun has arms now. My gun shoots guns!

Srsly though. Hunter's Eye. Both you and the gun gain +6d6 SA. Did I mention Sneak Attack stacks...?

P.S. Voice Of The Dragon, who knew your gun would give a +10 bonus to intimidate?

[Amechra]

Oh, no, the best part is that, unlike a familiar, you can have as many of these bonds as you have points of Charisma modifier.

A nice Gunmage build would also have both Gunslinger and Improved Gunslinger.

Gunmage with Arcane Disciple (War) would grab Divine Power. +20 to Initiative, anyone?

We could have a build in that, you know.

[Cyrocloud]

Since channeling into a rune bullet is a free action couldn't you drop a lot of spells to do a crappy nova, that can miss?

[Smokey_the_bear]

Yeah, the share with trait is awesome and there is both plenty of abuse and joke material there.

Q: What happens if you share Fire Shield's ice version?
A: You get cold cocked.
 

How about this one? Girallon's Blessing, your gun has arms now. My gun shoots guns!

Srsly though. Hunter's Eye. Both you and the gun gain +6d6 SA. Did I mention Sneak Attack stacks...?

P.S. Voice Of The Dragon, who knew your gun would give a +10 bonus to intimidate?

Now, does Bite of the X explicitly change your actual form or does it just grant you the attacks, ability adj, and NA?. If the latter, then you could still fire the guns remotely using the Arcane Tempests 6th level ability. Let's say you have 7 magelock pistols. Cast Bite of the X on them which would grant each of them 3 attacks. Heck, they're hasted, they get 4. Which means your guns get 28 attacks before you even decide to fire them. Then for the heck of it they each have 5 barrels. The ability to fire them remotely never says what kind of action that it uses, but only that you can use it Cha mod times per day. However, I think we run into an issue of an Int score and whether or not the guns can actually act on their own.   

Is there a way we could awaken it?

[SorO_Lost]

Animate Object & Awaken GolemConstruct^spc.

Bite of gives natural attacks, most give both a bite and claws I think.
Girallon's Blessing grants additional arms, so your first gun can hold the rest.

[Smokey_the_bear]

Animate Object & Awaken GolemConstruct^spc.

Bite of gives natural attacks, most give both a bite and claws I think.
Girallon's Blessing grants additional arms, so your first gun can hold the rest.

It would still have to be within 5 Ft of you though. You could have 8 magelock pistols with Bite of, Girallon's Blessing, and haste. You could either physically hold the rest of the guns or have your other guns use them and still be within 5ft. I think we need to find out how many magelock pistols we can get and how many barrels we can afford to put on each of them.

[SorO_Lost]

As long as you don't build a cannon the guns are tiny or smaller and share space with each other and you (else every TWFer is screwed right)

[Smokey_the_bear]

Can you think of any +3 ECL or lower races that have hefty bonus to Cha?

[SorO_Lost]

Magic-Blooded (Dragon #???) is listed in Crystalkeep as a +0 template that gives +2 cha & -2 wis, plus some other traits that make it typical dragon material. See if your DM allows the template even if it would grant nothing but the ability changes, then apply it to a spellscale or something. Then age your self twice from there. +6 to cha.

[Amechra]

Where is the Arcane Tempest?

[Nanshork]

Where is the Arcane Tempest?

See the link I posted.

[Bauglir]

Magic-Blooded (Dragon #???) is listed in Crystalkeep as a +0 template that gives +2 cha & -2 wis, plus some other traits that make it typical dragon material. See if your DM allows the template even if it would grant nothing but the ability changes, then apply it to a spellscale or something. Then age your self twice from there. +6 to cha.

Also be a phrenic draconic one, if you're buying it off anyway. That's another +6, and some physical bonuses to help offset the aging, if that matters to you.

[Amechra]

Thanks, Nanshork.

Also, you could play a Half Fey Living Construct Warforged. For 0 LA, that's a +4 to Charisma, and a boost to other stats.

Plus, you can always be an ass and go for Charm the Arrow as a feat; Charisma to hit on ranged attacks is win.

Edit: Holy freaking shit, the Arcane Tempest is like a dream come true!

[Nemain]

Gun Mage 4/Sneak Attack Fighter 1/Arcane Tempest 2/Heartfire Fanner 3/Sublime Chord 1/Spellwarp Sniper 1/Arcane Tempest +8? (My eyes hurt from all that class juggling, but I desperately want to use this for a Lyrandar half-elf in an Eberron game now...)

[Amechra]

All Gun Mages are required to have Weapon Focus: (Pistols), so they can qualify for Improved Gunslinger.

-7 to attack rolls in the first round for a +15 to initiative? I say yes. So does the ocean.

Versatile Spellcaster is an interesting choice. Another is a one level dip into Cleric. Turn Undead uses equals win, especially with some of the nicer divine feats (Divine Might, I'm looking at you!)

And don't forget your domains: War, Charm, Retribution, and Time are all good. Don't forget Domain Spontaneity and Arcane Preparation to cast your Domain spells out of Gunmage slots; it really helps.

Bard also has some decent synergy.

Arcane Tempest is a gimme for a prestige class; it gives you more spells, and it just looks great on your resume.

And if your willing to be a little more extreme about this...

Ask if you can take a bloodline. Take the demon bloodline to get Power Attack for free. Buy Iron Will from the Oytugh hole, and see if you can get your friendly local cleric to give you a belt of Divine Power. Dip Cleric for the War domain. Take Gunslinger, Improved Gunslinging, and Lady's Gambit.

For those of you not in the know, Lady's Gambit let's you sacrifice your level (in increments of 2) in hp, and you get half of that as a bonus to attack and damage. For example, at level 10, you could sacrifice 10 hitpoints to get a +5 to attack/damage.

So combine those three feats for a +20 to initiative and +10 to damage at 20th level. And all it costs you is a measly 20 hitpoints.

[Smokey_the_bear]

channeling a touch or ranged touch spell into a rune bullet.

However.

"Cast Rune Bullet: At 3rd level, the gun mage learns how to craft special bullets that channel spell energy.
When firing a rune-cast bullet, the gun mage can, as a free action, channel a spell into the bullet."

This is a poorly worded feat. Obviously it's talking about the Gun mage ability to use your bullet to deliver touch and ranged touch spells. But RAW it's referencing the ability to channel spells into your bullet for extra force damage. Should I eat the feat or ignore it for the potential build?

[Flay Crimsonwind]

I'm afb, but if you were looking at the link to the classes posted a ways back, I believe those were heavily houseruled versions of the class. Could someone double-check to be sure?

[Nanshork]

I'm afb, but if you were looking at the link to the classes posted a ways back, I believe those were heavily houseruled versions of the class. Could someone double-check to be sure?

All of the houserules in the class I linked are explicitly pointed out, and there are no houserules listed in the PrCs.

[Flay Crimsonwind]

I'm afb, but if you were looking at the link to the classes posted a ways back, I believe those were heavily houseruled versions of the class. Could someone double-check to be sure?

All of the houserules in the class I linked are explicitly pointed out, and there are no houserules listed in the PrCs.

Yep, just checked my books, says the same damn thing. Huh. Well then.

Editing process hath taken another victim.