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Toying with making a gnome illusionist for PFS. It seems rather unique in PFS(I haven't seen any anyway), and will be an interesting concept that makes me work my brain a little more. I know that I will likely be screwed at certain tables, with certain DM's, but 80% of my gaming is with the same group who I know will allow me to do creative tricks with illusions.
Anyway, just looking for general input. I am leaning heavily towards an arcane sorcerer for my class, though I'm open on bloodline, and so far have also considered fey. I like the flavor of the oracle, but she doesn't seem to have enough illusion tricks. I'm also toying with mystic theurge or arcane trickster(with ninja) classes, actually, I guess I'm pretty open to anything that might be fun. I want to be effiecient, but I don't need to be totally optimized for this guy.
My early feat plan was:
1) Effortless Trickery
3) Spell Focus: Illusion
5) Threatening illusion
Considering Magical lineage as a trait, and using it for a 2nd or third level because of my late entry on my first metamagic(minor or major image come to mind).
So any class, spells, unique combo ideas? Just basically looking for general input. Thanks.
My advice: don't specialize in Illusion as a Gnome.
You gain the benefit of the racial Gnome Magic trait regardless of your school of specialization and you can still take all those Feats and more without needing to pick Illusion as your school. The School Powers of Illusion suck big time compared to some other schools, namely, the Air Elemental School and the Divination (Foresight) Subschool. Between those two, the Air Elemental School is easier because you could entirely do without Earth spells if you had to (but you don't, they just require double the spell slots, so... it's practically without a downside at all).
If you would rather not do the elemental alignment thing, then just take the Foresight subschool and cast a lot of Illusions (Pick from Necromancy, Evocation and Conjuration your two "opposition schools" then take the Opposition Research Feat to recover Conjuration or Necromancy). This way, you have the benefit of ultra-high Initiative to lay down control over the battlefield, and your enemies even take a -2 penalty to save due to Foretell (no save?!) which means that your Illusions (and everything else) will be more difficult to resist than if you specialized in Illusion.
Shadow Step and Extended Illusions (the only half-decent Illusion Powers) are just not good enough to compete with Forewarned, Prescience and Foretell. Period.
Well, I wanted to rock as a sorcerer or oracle cause I haven't played either of them in PF yet. On close examination, the oracle doesn't really have any good illusions, and even heavens oracle doesn't seem like enough to bump me over there. Not that its not powerful enough, but I'm going more for tricky than I just solo'd this encounter.
I already have a conjuration wizard, and played a divination wizard/seer Psion/cerebremancer in a game, so I know what you mean, they are beast. I have wanted to try the air school, just kind of wanted to try something outside of wizard.
Any thoughts on trying a bard? They actually have a lot of illusion spells, but I'm not sure they'd have the Oomph to do what I'm trying to accomplish.
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You might want to consider Sorcerer (Rakshasa bloodline). The advantage to the sorcerer is that a) you use Cha as your casting stat, which is arguably better for an illusionist (and definitely better for a Gnome), and b) you get more spells per day than a wizard. Normally, this is offset by the wizard's greater spell selection, but since there are only so many illusion spells...
Rakshasa bloodline is good because anyone trying to "read" your casting gets a penalty to their Spellcraft rolls, and, if they fail by 5 or more, you get to pick which spell they think you've cast. It makes a great compliment to an Illusionist.
Also, don't forget Spell Bluff, which adds to the Spellcraft DC, and there's also a feat (but the name escapes me at the moment) that let's you make a sleight-of-hand check to obscure the somantic components of spells.
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"My advice: don't specialize in Illusion as a Gnome."
This is just wrong. Why wouldn't he, gnomes are best illusionists.
@Op
Your feat plan was okay, don't forget there is Trickster (+1 caster lv to illusions) trait from the Gnomes of Golarion book.
Color spray, Vanish and Silent Image are good lv1 spells.
Later on it's easiest way to simply mimic conjuration spells with Silent Image illusions and might want summon monster 2, 3 and so on. It's fun to create 1 illusion and 1 real monster. Focus on creation of items (pit spells for example) and illusions will fill the gap perfectly.
Be sure to have backup spells and gear. I purchased wand of magic missiles as soon as I could to have some damage mechanism if illusions fail.
don't forget Spell Bluff, which adds to the Spellcraft DCPer the RAW it only works when another caster is trying to counterspell, but it would be decidedly silly not to let the bonus apply in all other cases too.
there's also a feat (but the name escapes me at the moment) that let's you make a sleight-of-hand check to obscure the somantic components of spells.
Secret Signs. I consider it a "must have" for covert casters such as illusionists and enchanters.
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@Aunt Tony
We can continue this debate entire day but I wont smudge his topic. Gnome illusionists are perfectly fine. Sure, sorcerer might be slightly better, due to having Charisma instead of Intelligence but wizards are fine and completely playable also. All of your comments imply that class "sucks", is "gimped", cannot "compete" with others and it's bad way to explain things.
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Any thoughts on trying a bard? They actually have a lot of illusion spells, but I'm not sure they'd have the Oomph to do what I'm trying to accomplish.
Well it all depends on the flavor of the character. Gnomes make great Bards in my opinion, but Bards also sacrifice a bit of their casting power in exchange for being skill monkeys. On the plus side, between Bardic Performance and your spells you could possibly work double time as an Illusionist and an Enchanter.
Also, I haven't playtested this so others might have some better ideas, but if you are going to go in as an Illusionist Bard you may want to look at the Magician Archtype. This will allow you to grab a few additional Illusionist spells that aren't in your Bard spell list which may be nice, and the other abilities in that Archtype may have you feeling more like a Sorcerer than a Bard.
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So any class, spells, unique combo ideas? Just basically looking for general input. Thanks.
Playing an gnome arcane sorcerer as an "illusionist". It's working out OK, but there are a few pitfalls to be aware of:
1. Color spray is the best possible spell to take at first level. Stacking Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus/gnome racial/maximum Charisma score will make this a dominating spell for most of the early game in a large number of situations.
2. The figment spells (silent/minor/major) are good, but they're EXTREMELY GM dependent. GMs have this strange irrational desire to constantly and repeatedly nerf these spells into the ground. When picking spells at a new spell level (4th/6th/8th/etc.), don't pick a figment spell. You want to pick a "spammable" spell for your first pick per new spell level, and the figment spells have just not been reliable in my experience due to poor GMing. They're great utility and can be extremely helpful in the right situations.
3. Given the dominating nature of color spray in the early game, I've had a lot of success focusing other spells on things that A) do not check SR and B) work on "immune to mind-influencing effects" creatures. Grease and glitterdust are true stars here. If I were making my character again, I would have picked grease as my second 1st level spell and glitterdust as my 1st 2nd level spell pick at 4th level. They're so effective (even after being nerfed from 3.5) that they're ridiculous.
4. Always have a way to deal consistent damage most of the time. I think magic missile is still a superior spell choice at 3rd level. Wands of magic missile or scorching ray are always welcome.
5. Since the arcane bloodline forces you to deal with metamagic feats, I think the clear winner for this build (and most builds) is Persistent Spell. You can pick up Threatening Spell or even Piercing Spell at 3rd/5th level -- but at 7th level there's really no choice much better than Persistent Spell.
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I know this may be late for you, but after reading the various suggestions i figured i would add my 2 cents worth since i currently have a level 7 gnome sorcerer (anarchy bloodline for story reasons) but who specializes in illusions.
3 points i would like to make:
1) taking the trait 'magical lineage' is a good idea, but what i did with it is to choose ghost sound. the reason for this is that you can add the metamagic feat 'threatening illusion' to it and still have it be a 0 level spell you can cast whenever, helps for letting rogues get sneak attack, or if you win initiative maybe let some people charge into a flank by putting it on the opposite side of the bad guys. really not bad for a spell that doesn't cost anything but a standard action.
2) effortless trickery let you maintain an illusion spell as a swift action instead of a standard. what i like to do is cast major image when i wake up in the morning, and have it shaped as something weird (ie no knowledge check would work on it, because of my bloodline i call it a chaos elemental named bob :) ). This is just a nice little thing to have around, maintain it all day (basically giving up all your swift actions) to have it enter rooms to possibly set off ambushes, create giant glowing arrows above peoples heads to draw attention to them, or anything you can think to make it do. i once was in a area of silence with possibly aggressive people and used it to make a glowing sign in the air to communicate that we came in peace. plus once you can cast 4th level spells you can add threatening illusion to it too to have a constant flanker for people (with level 4 spells you can also indefinitely maintain a shadow conjuration 'rain of frogs', which is just funny). plus it gives another ongoing illusion to use in the point below.
3) the feat 'shadow gambit' fits well in that it allows you to do 'real' damage(not a lot, only 1d6 per level of the spell, but its real) with your figment illusions. as a standard action you can destroy one of your ongoing illusions to do damage to someone. the neat thing is you choose what damage it does based on what you make the illusion do. turn it into a bunch of swords that rush at your enemy (doing a ranged touch attack that does slashing damage) or make it turn into a bucket of acid that pours on their head (and have them take acid damage with a reflex save for half). i have a lot of fun coming up with imaginative ways to make enemies take damage, plus its very versatile for doing the type of damage you need to do (ie fire/acid vs trolls or whatever). also note that its any figment illusion it works on. your mirror image spell down to its last image? turn that image of you into a version of you that spits fire, making them take 2d6 fire (save for half) or make that image of you suddenly throw a ton of daggers making a ranged touch for piercing damage. then you can cast another mirror image if necessary and do it again when it gets low. not super powerful but very fun.
also id like to concur with the 'trickster' trait, it comes in handy
hope this helps.
Dipping a level in heaven oracle to get the effect level reduced by your CHa modifier for color spray can break the spell. I have a dual cursed oracle and I can misfortune anyone lucky enough to save to make them roll again.
Aghh, I forgot about this thread. I went with a Heavens Oracle. At level 6 I'll dip into veilied illusionist to pick up loathsome veil, and then at 7 Major Image.
I was thinking of shadow gambit, but it seemed steep for getting rid of my major image and the little damage it does.
My goal is to Major Image a dwarf fighter with threatening defender and keep him going all day with Effortless trickery. He'll be my animal companions;)
meabolex - Great point on the figments. That was part of my problem with going illusionist in the first place. Illusions really depend a lot on GM's, and in PFS you never know how one may interpret things. I tend to let players get away with nearly anything creative because I love the concept on illusions and trickery. But I know some GM's may be different.
Once I get into Veiled Illusionist I have lots of good illusion spells. I think my first level 4 spell will be Shadow Conjuration because of the versatility it offers as my only spell.