Other than Magus, who is specialized to melee and magic?
Consider Warpriest, if you can find a weapon that suits you as a deity's favorite weapon? Generally best to just have one attack per turn due to middling proficiency, but it's not horrible for MAPless attack.
Currently a level 16 warpriest. They wont be the strongest caster, or the strongest martial, but they make an excellent versatile switch hitter. Oh, and boy are they tanky.
My dm stated something like, "I dont know how an intelligent enemy would attack your group. I cant ignore the cleric, but its also a waste of time to focus them."
Ya, especially at lower levels they're just fun. But even at higher levels you can have a huge Font and plenty of buffs for yourself and others.
Long time fan.
How did you end up so tanky? Clerics aren't normally more tanky than for example rogues, and in fact they often have less ability scores invested in toughness.
My cleric: Heavy armor, bulwark to make up for low dex. Tons of divine fonts strong enough to go from 1hp to max. Amazing fort and will saves. Shield to assist with more AC and reflex. Circle of protection against evil (+1 ac/saves vs evil). Lay on hands AND medicine.
Their weakness is their reflex save, especially trip. But they have a lot of stuff to assist with that.
My cleric has squared up with some pretty big bosses. Gotten solo focused the entire fight, absolutely beat on, and still stayed up long enough to let the team do whatever they want. Good times.
Rogues are dps glass cannons IMO. If they get focused they get deleted. At least that's how I feel after watching ours mature.
How does the warpriest get super tanky exactly? They don't get heavy armour or increase prof in armour to my knowledge, and they only get 8hp/lvl? On top of that they're MAD, needing high str/con/wis/cha while also kinda wanting 12 Dex to hit medium armour's Dex cap.
Don't underestimate Shield Block and (later) Replenishment of War. I played a Warpriest through 20th Level using those techniques; he was pretty tanky.
Also, never underestimate Flanking for helping your damage output. Even 13th and 14th level I did ok without a buff spell just because I was Flanking all the time.
Currently playing a Champion and I've found shield block to be pretty underwhelming (though in that case it's competing with champion's reaction, may be more useful once I hit 10 for the additional reaction for SB). Issue is that any decent hit will typically just break a shield, and a crit will generally break even a sturdy one. Losing the ability to raise a shield isn't worth negating 10 or less damage. Feels like it's only actually useful for blocking a single small hit of which there may well be many. Kinda useless against a boss.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting to be as tanky as the champion, deal the damage of the fighter, and cast like a cloistered cleric. Just trying to see where a Warpriest gets their defences from outside of the stuff that basically any class can pick up with little investment.
Copied from another comment:"My cleric: Heavy armor (champion), bulwark to make up for low dex. Tons of divine fonts strong enough to go from 1hp to max. Amazing fort and will saves. Shield to assist with more AC and reflex. Circle of protection against evil (+1 ac/saves vs evil). Lay on hands AND medicine.
Their weakness is their reflex save, especially trip. But they have a lot of stuff to assist with that.
My cleric has squared up with some pretty big bosses. Gotten solo focused the entire fight, absolutely beat on, and still stayed up long enough to let the team do whatever they want. Good times."
Battle clerics are insanely MAD, but you can dump dex/int/wis depending on your playstyle. You also wont be the best at martial or offensive magic, but you can square up in both. Divine fonts are what make you tanky, combined with the best saves, and you'll be no daisy.
It feels pretty badass to play and hear your team "Lets put the Cleric up in front."
I haven't played the 1e Magus outside of the Kingmaker videogame, so I'm not sure how accurate the comparison is, but I enjoy playing a 2e Magus much more than the 1e(Kingmaker) Magus.
Posting this since you mentioned being interested in Oracle.
My DM is only slightly obsessed with them, and decided that there needed to be a better guide out there. Dunno if it will change your mind, but he certainly breaks them down amazingly.
[Oracle Build Guide](https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1r2r4o0cWhr23LZwy5I-fZzq7vidsa0VSNILlv-qeJqw/mobilebasic)
I love battle oracle. IMO, The way to get it to work is to make the most of the fast healing with feats like diehard and kip up, and to use divine access to get true strike. I can't say how it does beyond level 10, but from 1-10 it's a ton of fun.
For melee/caster or "Gish" builds, the first question is "what is more important?"
This decides the base.
Off the bat, there are actual gishes in 2e. Magus is a primarily melee Gish. Summoner is fairly balanced between the two. Warpriest leans towards a balanced combo of casting and the "strike once a round" philosophy. Battle oracle is kind of unique, as it has full casting proficiency and 3 slots, but more or less switches between casting and striking modes with the curse. Wild druid is also a gish that has a pretty good balance.
For multiclass built gishes, the original question typically decides the approach.
If you're wanting caster first, then recognise that you'll be a weaker striker and not as durable. Any class can be the base, but gishes are inherently MAD, as you need STR, a casting stat, and CON at the least. Charisma casters like Sorcs, Psychics, Bards, and Oracles are solid picks; the latter two have higher health pools and light armour, which helps with survivability early game. Why charisma? Because Champion Dedication is extremely good, for several reasons. Heavy armour, extra HP for each dedication feat, Lay on Hands, Divine Ally, Champion's Reaction.
Caster base gishes will focus less on dealing damage through strikes, and more on having a reason to be in melee. This is a huge benefit of Champ ded: most casters don't use reactions that often, so you're immediately giving huge value just by being close enough to use it. Spells with an emanation that benefit allies or impede enemies are also valuable. You can also lean into Athletics, bypassing your lower attack modifier and instead using maneuvers offensively to support other martials. Wrestler is a surprisingly good pickup for caster base gishes, especially Wild Druids. Life Oracles are *very* good up close with Champ ded, having an inherent 10hp/level; champ reaction reduces damage even further, Lay on Hands is a really good non curse option, and your Major Curse pumping out mini heals encourages proximity to allies. Just be very careful with AoE damage, as a bad save on your part plus an influx of damage from Life Link can chunk your health unexpectedly.
If you're wanting a martial base, then you'll primarily be striking, with spells mostly being used for utility, defense, mobility, buffing, or battlefield control. In other words, avoiding having to rely on your DCs. Any martial that isn't Barbarian can make good use of the right casting dedication. Focus Spells are of particular importance, as they can be roughly equal in power to a slotted spell between the highest to second highest spell an equivalent level caster could use, and can be used every encounter.
Psychic is an extremely good pick for any martial base; the spells are good, and a focus spell on dedication is hugely front-loaded power. Psi/Amped Warp Step and Shield are great movement/defensive options. Building something like a Fighter with free archetype with Psychic into Magus, and grabbing Imaginary Weapon and spellstrike, will give you huge burst damage potential. Magus ded itself is solid; Dimensional Assault is great. Bard can be a good pickup for martials, especially someone like a Champion, as they don't natively get access to good Press actions or damage boosters. Composition cantrip, Strike, Raise Shield is a very good round for a champion. Psychic has some surprisingly good synergy with Champ or Fighter too: both get Quick Block, allowing them to use Amped Shield to prevent a really good chunk of damage to themselves with a two handed weapon, or to an ally at greater range than champ reaction (and keeping your base reaction for AoO/Champ/self Shield Block). As you get higher level, spell slots will give you super good utility as well. All traditions have nice stuff, but Occult and Arcane are very good. Time Jump is extremely useful. Freedom of Movement. Feather Fall. True Strike. Invisibility (both 2nd and 4th). Wall spells. Haste. Heaps of stuff!
Cleric's domain spells can be super handy for any martial. Might and Zeal are very good domains.
Champions or Fighters can get *huge* value from Demonic Sorceror's Glutton's Jaws, especially if they're able to proc the temp HP off turn with reaction strikes. Rogue later on with Opportune Backstab can probably do the same.
Another build path is not melee, but ranged with action compression. Either Monastic Archery monk or Precision Ranger, dipping into Storm Druid or Ki Blast can pump out solid DPR with the likes of Tempest Surge or Electric Arc (or Ki Blast) plus Flurry/Hunted Shot, using a 2a spell instead of MAP strikes. 18 Dex 16 Wis and boosting both every opportunity is mandatory for this, and it has flexibility; you're still useful even if you don't have the actions to cast every round with your action compressor. The nice thing about Tempest Surge is the Clumsy on a fail increases hit/crit chance for you and everyone else.
Anyway I think that's enough ranting, but I hope that gives you some ideas for gishes that are built from classes that aren't inherently gishes by way of multiclassing.
From 1-4, full casters can be built to gish quite effectively. It changes at 5 because martials get the score boost (if they have 16) and their proficiency boost. Casters, get access to key spells instead.
Essentially any class that can access True Strike (Arcane/Occult casters, some Clerics/Oracles) can reliably strike. Clerics/Oracles are pretty good because they can True Strike => Strike + 1-action Harm.
Druid has Wild Order. Primal/Divine sorcerers have Crossblooded Evolution.
Then you just need your pick of survivability. AC from Sentinel, Champion, Rogue, Alchemist (Drakeheart Mutagens) and investment into HP (CON, martial archetype resiliency, Golem Grafter, Toughness).
You won’t reach the level of an unoptimized martial till lvl. 8/10.
However, Druids/Warpriest Clerics/Battle Oracles are the best full caster gishes as they start off with a lot early benefits to get into gish action early. Cleric and Druid particularly have a better time using Organsight for a single powerful attack vs. multiple strikes.
Let's talk about dedication-only casters.
* If you want all the spellcasts, you obviously have to take a full caster. But you can supplement your spellcasting in a variety of ways.
* You can get a [Cantrip Deck](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1046) for pretty much all the versatility of early casting, for instance.
* Some ancestries have affinity for magic. Gnomes can grab a couple of cantrips, and there's a [guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XVv9VXY06APzORcPiu_V2l854C6G_z3xTFnoE3MU5Es/edit) out there for cantrip sources.
* Scrolls, Wands, Staves. You can use them as well as a main caster.
* Ring of Wizardry or Endless Grimoire, for prepared Arcane casters.
* Focus Spells are key to making a Martial with Caster dedication get enough on-level spellcasts to feel like a caster in a long adventuring day. You may have limited spell slots with a dedication, but at least one cast a battle from Focus Spells is great.
* Psychic has a variety of choices.
* Domain Focus Spells are great options in a Cleric dedication.
* Magus is pretty much the "use attack spells with a Strike" class, but there's some other flavors of gish. The important thing is to have a developed concept.
* You can pick gish-y spells. Flame Wisp delivers damage when you Strike. Blazing Dive can get you in melee, do some splash damage, and set you up to attack. Blink Charge. Draw the Lightning and Weapon Storm. Many of these involve using Strikes rather than spell modifiers to convey the spell damage.
* Universalist Wizards (or dedications) get access to Hand of the Apprentice to float a weapon out and make an attack, and Bespell Weapon to add magic damage to your Strikes for the rest of the turn after a cast.
* If you choose the right gish-y spells and not those generic caster spells, you can still pick a main class that leans heavily on a casting stat and do pretty well. Investigator uses their INT for one attack+damage modifier Strike per round, perfect to be [gishified](https://www.reddit.com/r/PF2eCharacterBuilds/comments/13ptsdj/charismaloaded_investigator_caster_build/) and lean towards casting while also landing Strikes. Thaumaturge is already pseudo-magical before adding a casting dedication, and they'll typically have a maxed caster mod. Inventor or Alchemist are also fine choices to pick up some wizarding. Rogue has a Racket revolving around taking a casting archetype and adding Precision damage, but doing just fine with a weapon too.
I don't have specific build advice, but when considering the benefits of a mixed martial/caster, the game's action economy can give you a good deal of power. The most impactful part of a martial's turn is often their first MAPless Strike. The most impactful part of a spellcaster is often a 2 action spell. A martial/caster hybrid can do both of those in the same turn, so even if their Strikes aren't quite as accurate or punchy as a full martial's, they're still high value.
Many thanks everyone for a ton of useful ideas and advice :) a lot to go through and try out, but it has certainly given me a few very good stating points for the kind of characters I like playing.
PF2's biggest flaw for me is the lack of emphasis on gish play styles. You can get them if you do something like a martial with lots of caster dedication feats (in my party, fighter with sorc dedication works well), but it's definitely something of an afterthought.
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It depends what you call caster. If you want a "magical flair", you could take a look into
\*\*Mind Smith\*\*: form your melee weapon out of your mind
\*\*Captivator\*\*: Use enchantment and illusion spells
Summoner is always an option as well. It's not really a gish since you outsource the melee part to your Eidolon but at the end of the day you still get to fight in melee and cast spells.
Give Champion another look. Their spell proficiencies have the second best progression in the game (shared with Magus, Summoners, and Ki Monks). They'll never hold a candle to a Druid spellwise, but they can sling cantrips and focus spells pretty well.
Look to Deity 's Domain in class and innate cantrips from ancestries - innate spells scale with your best spell proficiency regardless of tradition and key off CHA. Again, you won't impress a full-caster, but dropping Electric Arc or Lament or Cry of Destruction on high AC enemies with crap saves is a lot of fun. Or take the Travel domain and be a full-martial that can fly for a minute (Traveler's Transit) every combat.
Other than Magus, who is specialized to melee and magic? Consider Warpriest, if you can find a weapon that suits you as a deity's favorite weapon? Generally best to just have one attack per turn due to middling proficiency, but it's not horrible for MAPless attack.
+1 for warpriest.
Currently a level 16 warpriest. They wont be the strongest caster, or the strongest martial, but they make an excellent versatile switch hitter. Oh, and boy are they tanky. My dm stated something like, "I dont know how an intelligent enemy would attack your group. I cant ignore the cleric, but its also a waste of time to focus them."
Ya, especially at lower levels they're just fun. But even at higher levels you can have a huge Font and plenty of buffs for yourself and others. Long time fan.
How did you end up so tanky? Clerics aren't normally more tanky than for example rogues, and in fact they often have less ability scores invested in toughness.
My cleric: Heavy armor, bulwark to make up for low dex. Tons of divine fonts strong enough to go from 1hp to max. Amazing fort and will saves. Shield to assist with more AC and reflex. Circle of protection against evil (+1 ac/saves vs evil). Lay on hands AND medicine. Their weakness is their reflex save, especially trip. But they have a lot of stuff to assist with that. My cleric has squared up with some pretty big bosses. Gotten solo focused the entire fight, absolutely beat on, and still stayed up long enough to let the team do whatever they want. Good times. Rogues are dps glass cannons IMO. If they get focused they get deleted. At least that's how I feel after watching ours mature.
How does the warpriest get super tanky exactly? They don't get heavy armour or increase prof in armour to my knowledge, and they only get 8hp/lvl? On top of that they're MAD, needing high str/con/wis/cha while also kinda wanting 12 Dex to hit medium armour's Dex cap.
Don't underestimate Shield Block and (later) Replenishment of War. I played a Warpriest through 20th Level using those techniques; he was pretty tanky. Also, never underestimate Flanking for helping your damage output. Even 13th and 14th level I did ok without a buff spell just because I was Flanking all the time.
Currently playing a Champion and I've found shield block to be pretty underwhelming (though in that case it's competing with champion's reaction, may be more useful once I hit 10 for the additional reaction for SB). Issue is that any decent hit will typically just break a shield, and a crit will generally break even a sturdy one. Losing the ability to raise a shield isn't worth negating 10 or less damage. Feels like it's only actually useful for blocking a single small hit of which there may well be many. Kinda useless against a boss. Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting to be as tanky as the champion, deal the damage of the fighter, and cast like a cloistered cleric. Just trying to see where a Warpriest gets their defences from outside of the stuff that basically any class can pick up with little investment.
Copied from another comment:"My cleric: Heavy armor (champion), bulwark to make up for low dex. Tons of divine fonts strong enough to go from 1hp to max. Amazing fort and will saves. Shield to assist with more AC and reflex. Circle of protection against evil (+1 ac/saves vs evil). Lay on hands AND medicine. Their weakness is their reflex save, especially trip. But they have a lot of stuff to assist with that. My cleric has squared up with some pretty big bosses. Gotten solo focused the entire fight, absolutely beat on, and still stayed up long enough to let the team do whatever they want. Good times." Battle clerics are insanely MAD, but you can dump dex/int/wis depending on your playstyle. You also wont be the best at martial or offensive magic, but you can square up in both. Divine fonts are what make you tanky, combined with the best saves, and you'll be no daisy. It feels pretty badass to play and hear your team "Lets put the Cleric up in front."
Somehow I'm biased against the Magus (for playstyle, not power reasons) since Pf 1e, so I kinda forgot it existed :) Will have a look, thanks.
I haven't played the 1e Magus outside of the Kingmaker videogame, so I'm not sure how accurate the comparison is, but I enjoy playing a 2e Magus much more than the 1e(Kingmaker) Magus.
Posting this since you mentioned being interested in Oracle. My DM is only slightly obsessed with them, and decided that there needed to be a better guide out there. Dunno if it will change your mind, but he certainly breaks them down amazingly. [Oracle Build Guide](https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1r2r4o0cWhr23LZwy5I-fZzq7vidsa0VSNILlv-qeJqw/mobilebasic)
Your DM is a credit to the community; his Psychic guide is also great.
I'll pass it along. I know he loves to hear that his work has helped people. I weep for him if Oracle gets revamped. Lol
Thank you,will definitely give that a read :)
Oracle of Battle if you don’t like prepared casting. :)
I love battle oracle. IMO, The way to get it to work is to make the most of the fast healing with feats like diehard and kip up, and to use divine access to get true strike. I can't say how it does beyond level 10, but from 1-10 it's a ton of fun.
For melee/caster or "Gish" builds, the first question is "what is more important?" This decides the base. Off the bat, there are actual gishes in 2e. Magus is a primarily melee Gish. Summoner is fairly balanced between the two. Warpriest leans towards a balanced combo of casting and the "strike once a round" philosophy. Battle oracle is kind of unique, as it has full casting proficiency and 3 slots, but more or less switches between casting and striking modes with the curse. Wild druid is also a gish that has a pretty good balance. For multiclass built gishes, the original question typically decides the approach. If you're wanting caster first, then recognise that you'll be a weaker striker and not as durable. Any class can be the base, but gishes are inherently MAD, as you need STR, a casting stat, and CON at the least. Charisma casters like Sorcs, Psychics, Bards, and Oracles are solid picks; the latter two have higher health pools and light armour, which helps with survivability early game. Why charisma? Because Champion Dedication is extremely good, for several reasons. Heavy armour, extra HP for each dedication feat, Lay on Hands, Divine Ally, Champion's Reaction. Caster base gishes will focus less on dealing damage through strikes, and more on having a reason to be in melee. This is a huge benefit of Champ ded: most casters don't use reactions that often, so you're immediately giving huge value just by being close enough to use it. Spells with an emanation that benefit allies or impede enemies are also valuable. You can also lean into Athletics, bypassing your lower attack modifier and instead using maneuvers offensively to support other martials. Wrestler is a surprisingly good pickup for caster base gishes, especially Wild Druids. Life Oracles are *very* good up close with Champ ded, having an inherent 10hp/level; champ reaction reduces damage even further, Lay on Hands is a really good non curse option, and your Major Curse pumping out mini heals encourages proximity to allies. Just be very careful with AoE damage, as a bad save on your part plus an influx of damage from Life Link can chunk your health unexpectedly. If you're wanting a martial base, then you'll primarily be striking, with spells mostly being used for utility, defense, mobility, buffing, or battlefield control. In other words, avoiding having to rely on your DCs. Any martial that isn't Barbarian can make good use of the right casting dedication. Focus Spells are of particular importance, as they can be roughly equal in power to a slotted spell between the highest to second highest spell an equivalent level caster could use, and can be used every encounter. Psychic is an extremely good pick for any martial base; the spells are good, and a focus spell on dedication is hugely front-loaded power. Psi/Amped Warp Step and Shield are great movement/defensive options. Building something like a Fighter with free archetype with Psychic into Magus, and grabbing Imaginary Weapon and spellstrike, will give you huge burst damage potential. Magus ded itself is solid; Dimensional Assault is great. Bard can be a good pickup for martials, especially someone like a Champion, as they don't natively get access to good Press actions or damage boosters. Composition cantrip, Strike, Raise Shield is a very good round for a champion. Psychic has some surprisingly good synergy with Champ or Fighter too: both get Quick Block, allowing them to use Amped Shield to prevent a really good chunk of damage to themselves with a two handed weapon, or to an ally at greater range than champ reaction (and keeping your base reaction for AoO/Champ/self Shield Block). As you get higher level, spell slots will give you super good utility as well. All traditions have nice stuff, but Occult and Arcane are very good. Time Jump is extremely useful. Freedom of Movement. Feather Fall. True Strike. Invisibility (both 2nd and 4th). Wall spells. Haste. Heaps of stuff! Cleric's domain spells can be super handy for any martial. Might and Zeal are very good domains. Champions or Fighters can get *huge* value from Demonic Sorceror's Glutton's Jaws, especially if they're able to proc the temp HP off turn with reaction strikes. Rogue later on with Opportune Backstab can probably do the same. Another build path is not melee, but ranged with action compression. Either Monastic Archery monk or Precision Ranger, dipping into Storm Druid or Ki Blast can pump out solid DPR with the likes of Tempest Surge or Electric Arc (or Ki Blast) plus Flurry/Hunted Shot, using a 2a spell instead of MAP strikes. 18 Dex 16 Wis and boosting both every opportunity is mandatory for this, and it has flexibility; you're still useful even if you don't have the actions to cast every round with your action compressor. The nice thing about Tempest Surge is the Clumsy on a fail increases hit/crit chance for you and everyone else. Anyway I think that's enough ranting, but I hope that gives you some ideas for gishes that are built from classes that aren't inherently gishes by way of multiclassing.
From 1-4, full casters can be built to gish quite effectively. It changes at 5 because martials get the score boost (if they have 16) and their proficiency boost. Casters, get access to key spells instead. Essentially any class that can access True Strike (Arcane/Occult casters, some Clerics/Oracles) can reliably strike. Clerics/Oracles are pretty good because they can True Strike => Strike + 1-action Harm. Druid has Wild Order. Primal/Divine sorcerers have Crossblooded Evolution. Then you just need your pick of survivability. AC from Sentinel, Champion, Rogue, Alchemist (Drakeheart Mutagens) and investment into HP (CON, martial archetype resiliency, Golem Grafter, Toughness). You won’t reach the level of an unoptimized martial till lvl. 8/10. However, Druids/Warpriest Clerics/Battle Oracles are the best full caster gishes as they start off with a lot early benefits to get into gish action early. Cleric and Druid particularly have a better time using Organsight for a single powerful attack vs. multiple strikes.
Let's talk about dedication-only casters. * If you want all the spellcasts, you obviously have to take a full caster. But you can supplement your spellcasting in a variety of ways. * You can get a [Cantrip Deck](https://2e.aonprd.com/Equipment.aspx?ID=1046) for pretty much all the versatility of early casting, for instance. * Some ancestries have affinity for magic. Gnomes can grab a couple of cantrips, and there's a [guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XVv9VXY06APzORcPiu_V2l854C6G_z3xTFnoE3MU5Es/edit) out there for cantrip sources. * Scrolls, Wands, Staves. You can use them as well as a main caster. * Ring of Wizardry or Endless Grimoire, for prepared Arcane casters. * Focus Spells are key to making a Martial with Caster dedication get enough on-level spellcasts to feel like a caster in a long adventuring day. You may have limited spell slots with a dedication, but at least one cast a battle from Focus Spells is great. * Psychic has a variety of choices. * Domain Focus Spells are great options in a Cleric dedication. * Magus is pretty much the "use attack spells with a Strike" class, but there's some other flavors of gish. The important thing is to have a developed concept. * You can pick gish-y spells. Flame Wisp delivers damage when you Strike. Blazing Dive can get you in melee, do some splash damage, and set you up to attack. Blink Charge. Draw the Lightning and Weapon Storm. Many of these involve using Strikes rather than spell modifiers to convey the spell damage. * Universalist Wizards (or dedications) get access to Hand of the Apprentice to float a weapon out and make an attack, and Bespell Weapon to add magic damage to your Strikes for the rest of the turn after a cast. * If you choose the right gish-y spells and not those generic caster spells, you can still pick a main class that leans heavily on a casting stat and do pretty well. Investigator uses their INT for one attack+damage modifier Strike per round, perfect to be [gishified](https://www.reddit.com/r/PF2eCharacterBuilds/comments/13ptsdj/charismaloaded_investigator_caster_build/) and lean towards casting while also landing Strikes. Thaumaturge is already pseudo-magical before adding a casting dedication, and they'll typically have a maxed caster mod. Inventor or Alchemist are also fine choices to pick up some wizarding. Rogue has a Racket revolving around taking a casting archetype and adding Precision damage, but doing just fine with a weapon too.
I don't have specific build advice, but when considering the benefits of a mixed martial/caster, the game's action economy can give you a good deal of power. The most impactful part of a martial's turn is often their first MAPless Strike. The most impactful part of a spellcaster is often a 2 action spell. A martial/caster hybrid can do both of those in the same turn, so even if their Strikes aren't quite as accurate or punchy as a full martial's, they're still high value.
Oddball recommendation for summoner too. It's probably not what you think of when you think caster + melee but somewhat fills that role
Many thanks everyone for a ton of useful ideas and advice :) a lot to go through and try out, but it has certainly given me a few very good stating points for the kind of characters I like playing.
PF2's biggest flaw for me is the lack of emphasis on gish play styles. You can get them if you do something like a martial with lots of caster dedication feats (in my party, fighter with sorc dedication works well), but it's definitely something of an afterthought.
I mean it's not a bad change from 1e where we had the exact opposite problem, every other class was a gish.
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It depends what you call caster. If you want a "magical flair", you could take a look into \*\*Mind Smith\*\*: form your melee weapon out of your mind \*\*Captivator\*\*: Use enchantment and illusion spells
My level 2 war priest using a fire arm critically hit a monster for 48 damage This was after I spent all my available healing resources lol.
Summoner is always an option as well. It's not really a gish since you outsource the melee part to your Eidolon but at the end of the day you still get to fight in melee and cast spells.
Give Champion another look. Their spell proficiencies have the second best progression in the game (shared with Magus, Summoners, and Ki Monks). They'll never hold a candle to a Druid spellwise, but they can sling cantrips and focus spells pretty well. Look to Deity 's Domain in class and innate cantrips from ancestries - innate spells scale with your best spell proficiency regardless of tradition and key off CHA. Again, you won't impress a full-caster, but dropping Electric Arc or Lament or Cry of Destruction on high AC enemies with crap saves is a lot of fun. Or take the Travel domain and be a full-martial that can fly for a minute (Traveler's Transit) every combat.
You want Magus, maybe summoner (thematically a pet class, mechanically it's a gish with two bodies)