How to play a Spellsword in Pathfinder 2e!

When it comes to spellswords in PF2e, it is important to know that you can't have everything. You're not going to be able to have both high spell proficiency and high weapon proficiency. You're not going to be able to have a lot of spells to cast and a high martial attack bonus.

My suggestion is to figure out what you are wanting more of and are okay to not have as much of.

Great to see how welcoming the Pathfinder community has been! Of all the fanbases I've been a part of, this one is probably the most supportive and helpful for new people joining.

Kineticist mentioned. Very happy.

But for real, Kineticists’ versatility in elemental magic-like combat is phenomenal. You could make a a Kineticist flavored as a storm mage, a tanky knight, a martial artist healer, etc. Just choose the right elements and impulse feats and you’re good to go. Sure, you won’t have Barbarian damage numbers or Fighter accuracy, but you can be certain of one thing: when in doubt, BLAST!

This video was very informative. Can’t wait for Paizo to release more ways to make spellswords possible!

It's "S. W. O. R. D". You're welcome

I wanted to say a special mention for Warpriest cleric; Pick a God with favored weapon staves. That D4 staff becomes a decent D6 due to deadly simplicity, and you can use a magical staff for it. Like a shortsword that trades agile for spellcasting. Extra spell slots, including heal spells to channel into more smites.

Dwarven cleric of Folgrit, Goddess of the hearth. You could be a priestess with a shield in one hand, your skull cracking Staff of Healing in the other, and full plate armor.

Oracles Sorcerers and wizards also have access to "Bespell weapon" which is an incredible feat for playing a spellsword.

not to mention Oracles can be somewhat good spellswords too with the Battle mystery, but don't know how well it handles with the remaster.

I also want to mention the druid, especially untamed order. They get medium armor, shield block, enhanced melee attacks and full spellcasting.

It might not count as a true spell sword, but I really want to play a Thaumaturge that goes all in on scrolls. The Thaumaturge flavour is just something that I really love.

I love Warpriest both pre and post remaster. There's nothing quite like having all the options of a well built Warpriest, and even in the pre-remaster I had a great time trying to maximize my turns and my options. The remaster has been amazing for Warpriest and a neat look into how they might balance future gish feats outside of Spellstrike-likes. I'm excited to see how the upcoming War of the Immortals archetypes will pan out. The Bloodrager is something a peep at my table tried to make in the past and might be excited to revisit. I'm excited to see that new "War-er"-priest option for clerics and how they'll take a full caster into more of a martial territory with just an archetype.

Metal Kineticist armour impulse (vs Wood/Earth) is definitely about having a 'disposable' shield and armour at will. Having a free scaling Shield Block reaction is pretty neato, flavourwise, to stay up in the frontline. There's also a synergy between the metal armour impulse and feats like Sacrifice Armour and Interpose Armour (Sentinel archetype) because on critical hit your armour is going to break anyways and you will need to re-kineticize armour/shield anyways to maintain AC. Not exactly a straight forward build but a potential fun off-kilter setup for something like a Champion/Fighter with Kineticist archetype or a Kineticist with Bastion archetype.

Great video/good work!

PS: bg3 player/dnd fan here. Anyone know where I should start with pathfinder content?

I love seeing new faces in the community! This video was fun and informative! I'm hype to see what you get up to next.

I remember someone back in the day getting on my case for wanting to play a spellsword kinda character in a game. "just play a paladin" they said; I was, that's like telling someone who wants to go skydiving to do parkour instead. lol

Great video!

Great channel recommendations! I also recommend Knights of the Last Call. They cover Pathfinder as well as general RPG topics.

I think what the game could really use is more spells that have an attack embedded or enhance an upcoming attack. This game really made True Strike feel like True Strike in a really good way, and I adore the fun simplicity of Gravity Weapon. Some real faves

I never get tired of Narrative Declaration's Kingmaker wizard, Vinki Littlespark, using Hand of the Apprentice to brain bandits to death with a frying pan! They're terrifying! XD

Currently playing a Warrior Muse Bard with Duelist Free Archetype in an all-spellcaster Season of Ghosts party. Funnily enough, we also have a Warpriest Cleric (alongside a Witch and Psychic). The party is pretty strong tbh, and the amount of healing we have is kind of busted. It allows us to endure in fights where it might be quicker to have a dedicated martial dealing lots of burst damage.

Thank you for not bringing up the battle Oracle. I dont think I could handle seeing the battered and bruised corpse of the class i once loved splayed and humiliated in public.

I want to also suggest the summoner (as I often do, my fav class) as a spellsword. Rather than play a character who is an okay spellcaster and an okay fighter, a summoner plays two characters: an okay fighter, and an okay spellcaster. You'll still alternate between spells and strikes, but you just will be stiking with your eidolon and casting support with your summoner.

There is a little support for a spellcasting Eidolon (Fae), and a little support for a striking summoner (tandam strike) but mostly you will want your summoner out of melee range.

I really like this casual-but-classy conversation format you've got going on. Keep it up.

Martials with focus spells are a thing, but the one that most feels like it's really blending magic and physical combat has to be the qi spell monk. Enhanced actions, qi blasts, supernatural stances, even brief spiritual transcendence, it's pretty wild! And if you really gotta have a sword and not just a fist, it's totally reasonable to take monastic weaponry at some point!

I love the video, and appreciate your work and style. I could see a podcast style collab with back and forth working really well for you sometime. Keep up the great work.

No love for the eldritch trickster? That's got to be my favourite way to play a spellsword in PF2e, being a sneaky polymath with a bag of magical tricks to accompany their abundant skills.

Really love "Mixer" as an alternative to Gish with less baggage. Big fan of your channel, keep doing what you're doing, your enthusiasm is infectious!

I also love gish types.
Our party has two, my leshy wood kineticist and a catfolk laughing shadow magus. Both that player and myself also loved the same style when we used to play 5E for several years.

Anyways, thanks for the vid. It was fun and I found myself nodding my head a lot lol. Subscribeddd.

The thing that completely turned me off of melee magus is the fact that your spellstrike can trigger attacks of opportunity, and while I know that not all monsters in PF have it, for the ones that do it feels really awful to play a spellsword who just can't do his thing against anything with reactive strike.

Wizard can be built for weapon striking with UMT's Hand of the Apprentice, Sure Strikes, Runic Weapons and later Blink Charges. Well, giving the benefits of Runic Weapon to your ally might be better strategy, but you are always near yourself, and they might not be. Spell Blending or Staff Nexus Thesis are great for this kind of play, the latter being really efficient for spamming Sure Strikes. At early levels you aren't behind regular martials in terms of weapon proficiency if you stick with simple or unarmed, and you can get access to (and proficiency with) some great weapons with ancestral Weapon Familiarity feats. Beside UMT and probably the Battle Magic, Ars Grammatica is a school worth considering - for early +1 to AC as a status bonus, so stacking with shields. Of course Runic Weapons are accessible by every tradition and every Arcane or Occult caster can use Sure Strikes, but Wizard is one of the classes best suited for spamming those spells

As for other classes, CHA casters are fun since they will be just a little bit more effective at landing feints than even those martials that invest in CHA. Of course there is also demoralization and bon mots, but those are general debuffs so useful anyway, not only when you are in melee yourself. It is a little thing, but it is still somewhat equalizing you with proper martials at least on early levels. Sorcerer was always the starting point to become Dragon Disciple, though it isn't as great in 2e and isn't working well with remaster

I can kind of understand Kineticist as a Spellsword, but elemental blasts not really interacting with any sort of weapon stuff. If you could make the weapon infusion persistent, it'd feel better

My very first character I created in PF2 when it came out was a bloodrager.

Using sorcerer as the prime class and archetyping into Barbarian. Picking up bespell weapon and moment of clarity.

Basically, one turn is moment of clarity into casting a spell. And the next turn is free action bespell weapon and just start swinging with even more bonus damage.

Love this little silly build.

"Stabra-Kadabra" kILLED ME 😂

Amazing video as always!
Im super new to pahtfinder 2e and starfinder 2e but i also have been looking for some homebrew content just to see how people make other stuff!
However i have not had too much luck or honestly im probably not looking in the right places. A video on your favorite homebrew sites or 3rd party creators would be amazing! Cheers

Watch, when the PC2 errata comes out they'll buff Battle Oracle a bunch and it'll be like, the best spellsword in the game. I'm not coping you're coping
Also, Runelord archetype got training in martial polearms, so maybe Runelords will be spellswordy too when they get a reprint.
(Reposted comment for reposted content :P)

Eldritch Archer has been one of my most fun characters.

Magus can also very easily be multiclassed out of, and if you only take wizard spells matching the other spellcasting class, you can build pretty convincing non-arcane Magi, though it's still imperfect compared to being an actual magus with that spell list.
Multiclassing into it is a bit bleh and you kinda only want to do it if you're already spellswordy enough with your base class, but want to at least get in one spellstrike per fight too.

My next character is probably going to be a weapon infusion kineticist, which sounds rad as heck, but my favorite character type is the arcane trickster/magic thief - basically martial characters with utility and control magic, rather than using magic directly for damage.

Never played pathfinder before…but this made me wanna play…just need to learn the game now…

I find "organsight" to be a nice build-around for some spellsword vibes.

Going from the martial side a Wand Implement Thaumaturge could be a decent Mixer-type if you're willing to do some action juggling. The Fling Magic action from the Wand is effectively a two action save-based Cantrip that deals a damage type you select when you get it (you also get a second available type and debuffs for failure for each type at Adept). You can also get more magic support with the scroll feat tree that initially lets you use any scroll and with your Class DC instead of the scroll's default, with later feats giving you daily free scrolls.

Embrace your inner Rummage Sale Witcher.

I'm new to the Pathfinder community and am joining my first game as a Great Kholo Laughing Shadow Magus. I know you said there are other ways to spellsword, but I wanted to share how excited I am to play a Magus as someone whos ttrpg fantasy revolves around versatility (mainly, spellswords). Looking forward to more of your videos!

An Inexorable Iron Magus was my first PF2 character. Luckily my gm was very experienced magus player and helped me. It’s truly an amazing class but a close second is warpriest. The extra font for healing is so dang useful.

Omg I want your desk

Great vid!

Stabrakadabra? I am stealing this!

HOTTOGO!!! 💖 excited for more of your videos!

So happy to have stumbled across your channel!!~ All the archetypes were so overwhelming-

Were :)

Nice! Though I think you could mention an Imaginary Weapon Psychic as well.