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Wizards, Sorcerers & Hellknights oh my!!!

   
I'd go for a sorcerer with Infernal background then, limited number of spells, but you have already chosen his core tactics so he does not need the large choice of a wizard, and the infernal bit would explain his unusual determination to be a hellknight.

With the help of Svartalf and TheFred I am left to decide between Sorcerer, Wizard, Witch or Cleric. Pretty much it comes down to class features such as Bloodline, School, Hex and Domains; which one is more beneficial to the overall build of the Hellknight Signifer. Other factors such as feats needed to burn to get into Hellknight will also play a factor. Looking for thoughts on what direction I should go?

To be honest, the class isn't granting you a lot.

As an arcane caster, you can use heavy armour at the loss of your swift action, but if you don't take a dip you're burning three feats to enter. Reduced ACP for your armour, too, but who cares? Armour's not even that good anyway. I like Assiduous Gaze and Detect Lies has RP/social potential, but it's not worth losing your Hexes (as a Witch) for, let alone spending the feats on. For a Wizard, maybe. Infernal Resilience is... not useless... and Diabolical Harbinger is cool too but you've sunk 10 levels in by then. The other thing you're gaining is BAB, but it's not a big difference until the higher levels. If there is some archetype which grants armour to one of those classes, perhaps - but entries like Bard stand to lose even more and gain even less.

As a divine caster, you're not really standing to gain very much at all. You can already cast in heavy armour, probably have medium BAB, etc. However, a Cleric only needs to spend one feat, and it's a bit of a dud but not useless, and Hell Knight progresses domain powers and Channel, so you lose nothing really. You also get nothing out of the ACP reduction or any of that, but those other bonuses are a little something on top of what you keep from your class.

I think I'd have to agree therefore that Cleric works better; going into Hell Knight means you're pretty much forgoing Bloodlines, Schools and Hexes. Wizard or Witch would probably be for flavour only (or because Wizards are just better ) or if you wanted to make some kind of arcane gish that was a bit less boring than Eldritch Knight.

Depends if you want to cheese the class...there are some cheesy combo out there.

What I have seen people abuse Hellknight signifier for is the catechesis ability...taking a low levels of oracles (3 at most to get some low level mysteries abilities that you enjoy) the rest levels of clerics then go into Hellknight signifier. As the catechesis ability affects both divine spellcasting classes. You can technically switch the low level divine class with other classes like inquisitors or shamans etc... depending what you want out of it.

Of course, this might go beyond what your objective is out of this class.

To be honest, I'm not sure that's actually that good. OK, so you get to dual-progress something from a dip as well as your main class, but you lost a level to get in. Something like Oracle 1/Cleric 5/Hellknight 10 is gaining 11 levels of mysteries but losing one of spellcasting... and mysteries hardly offer anything anyway. You don't gain any "new powers or abilities" so at best you're counting as a L11 Oracle for the purposes of that one revelation you took at L1, and that's assuming it affects revelations at all (they're not mentioned in Catechesis, but arguably they're part of the mystery). A few extra abilities for a casting level, eh, I wouldn't really call that cheese.

For myself I'm not looking for anything abusive or cheesy, rather an flavourful NPC that is efficent so that it can currently rival my PCs and eventual challenge my them latter on down the road. From the responses I've receive so far, I'm liking the idea of the Cleric as it doesn't need to burn 3 feats to get into the Prestige Class rather just one on Warrior Priest. I'm debating between the following:

A/ Human Cleric 09/Hellknight 07
B/ Human Cleric 11/Hellknight 05

Option A gives my NPC two levels of Assiduous Gaze, Discern Lies and a reduction to armour penalty check of 1.
Option B gives my NPC one level of Assiduous Gaze, a reduction to armour penalty check of 1 and a lot more spells. 1 more spell from 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Plus 1+1 from 6th. The extra spells seem more worth it to me.

Their is a 3rd option that is tempting me with its flavour; a Tiefling Cleric (Fiendish Vessel)/Hellknight. The Fiendish Vessel racial archetype turns the NPC into a Fiend himself. I would lose a feat from not being human but I would gain some very awesome/flavourful racial traits (Spell Like Ability, Fiendish Resistance & Fiendish Sorcery), an improved familiar, Channel Evil at the cost of -2 to Cha.

Thoughts?

Oh you are making him to challenge your PC? Don't bother with that, it's too much details for almost nothing good out of it.

Frankly nowadays unless it is the last boss of the campaign, I just use simple monster creation rules.

@Rogers: Thanks for the link but the process looks far from simple. He is a reoccurring NPC so I will go the tradition way of making a Character.

I think its one of those "learning it is time consuming, but employing it later is time saving" kinda dealies. But by all means, if he's a recurring villain (or if you just like building characters) then game on!




 

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