As for Lead Blades, personally for that purpose I've installed Craft Magic Items mod and had Ekun craft LB wands for my main - it was the only purpose of this mod for me, I've used no other functionalities.
However short of using a ranger, the other "vanilla" method I've considered was a dip in Ecclessitheurge cleric of Torag with primary domain Artifice. That'd allow to cast Lead Blades a few times per day. Even better if you have a mod that has Traits/feats that raise Caster Level for specific spell/class.
Ecclesitheurge doesn't work as advertised. You only get one use of your domain spell per day. You can use spell recall, so 2 uses. The advantage is being able to choose any domain spell from your deity's domains at that level, instead of being limited to the ones you get from your chosen domains. It can be cheesed in some cases. Using a metamagic feat on a domain spell can raise it to a higher level and allow it to be prepared in regular slots at that level. But this doesn't work on all spells and is 100% an exploit so I don't do it.
I think I'll main a ranger in my next run for lead blades. I created a table of the buffs I want and can get them from 3 characters, not 4, if the magus loses her hellfire ray, changes her race and maxes INT instead of DEX:
This allows a third martial to be in the party. I'm doubtful I'd get enough bonus spells to give it to everyone, but I could at least put it on Duncan (probably as a 2H fighter next time) and Corpse Shitter (as a slayer next time). I was hoping to do a party with no animal companion, but the ranger will need share spells so he's getting a dog I guess.
As for legendary proportions, you've convinced me to keep it as a quickened reserve spell for surprise boss fights (all boss fights happen very suddenly), but for the aforementioned reasons I couldn't stand it as a walking around buff. Not sure who will be casting it. I could also just do the same thing with enlarge person, mass. Less damage output but hits everyone. Yes I'll do that. It wouldn't need to be quickened. I'll just use a rod.
I'll probably start that tomorrow. Today the current lot are going to go a bit deeper then retire alive (not sure if I mentioned this is ironman). They have killed their boss, hit max level and got almost perfect gear. There's not much left to do except go as deep as I can be bothered for a better starting bonus for the next lot. I do like to retire them, rather than run them to the death. I put a lot of effort into my characters. Not just their builds, them as characters. Some of them even have backstories. So I'd like to get them out alive and rich. They've earned it.
Of course CotW nerfed/fixed the Vital Strike, so its no longer possible to one-shot dragons and other bosses with it.
It gives with one hand and takes with the other in terms of adding and fixing brokenly OP shit.
- Monk AC bonus is capped at class level like sword saint AC bonus.
- Animal companions are now much weaker. They've been nerfed hard and aren't nearly as valuable in combat. They can take feats though, like outflank and improved critical (you level them manually). My leopard has very good trickery skill and can disarm traps on his turn if needed, but he's pretty shit in combat at high levels even wearing an amulet of mighty fists +5 that I bought him (yeah they can wear some items too).
- Create undead only creates one lousy skeleton and costs diamond dust to use. They did that spell dirty. It's useless now.
- Vital strike is less powerful but still a nice addition to any martial's toolbox.
But you get good stuff too:
- A spell that gives you complete immunity to arrow as an AOE on the party for minute/level with no drawback. Not DR. Outright immunity.
- You get a buff that lets you remove most (or all) of the negative to AB from power attack or piranha strike. For minute level as a level 1 spell.
- You get a buff that maxes crit damage every time as crits should be (referenced in above postings).
- You can equip any armour set without being proficient in it, but you take the armour check penalty as a negative to AB. Still, mithral armour often has no armour check penalty and effortless armour should remove the penalty altogether (so full plate without proficiency is viable, if you want to cast the buff).
- You get a spell that lets you make a character able to attack from reach without being enlarged as a minute/level, level 1 buff with any weapon type, even a dagger (long arm). Dual wielding reach knife master is a thing in this mod, if you use the most broken feature (bonded mind and share spells teamwork feats).
