Speaker for the Past advice


Advice


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I'm working on a Speaker for the Past Shaman and have a general concept down, along with a pretty good idea of what revelations he'll be taking. But I'm blanking on what to do for feats, and am not really sure what Hexes I should be looking at.

Given the selection of revelations that the Ancestor and Time mysteries have, I figured that they could either be used to build a martial character, which would work best with the Battle Spirit, or a creepy guy messing with time and location like something out of a Japanese horror movie. There's no particular spirit that works perfectly with the later, but I figure the fire breathing of Flame Spirit is good enough for the concept.

Since I was originally intending this character to be a sort of wrathful magician, seeking vengeance for the all the dead spirits that are basically haunting his life, the latter option makes much more sense thematically.

I'm planning to take Time Flicker, Spirit Shield, Time Hop, Spirit Walk, and Spirit Warrior for his revelations, and Delicious Fright for his Witch Hex. The revelations are mostly ones that will let him move around without appearing to move around, and the Witch Hex is the only fear effect hex I'm aware of. I imagine I'll take Cinder Dance and Flame Curse, and maybe Fire Nimbus as well from the Flame Spirit, but I don't have any particular ideas on what other non-spirit-specific hexes to take. Evil Eye + Chant can be played nice and creepy. Fury could be useful if it can be used to prevent an enemy from casting, but otherwise isn't all that interesting for this guy - I'm not trying to make a buff focused character.

I haven't thought much about spells either, beyond probably progressing from Cause Fear to Scare to Fear to Feast on Fear as mainstay spells as he levels. I'll certainly want to use the favored class bonus to grab some Cleric starting at level 3, although I'm not sure which ones I'll want most.

And, other than taking Spirit Talker as soon as possible, I haven't got any particular ideas of what feats to look into. There's no metamagic feats that jump out at me (why isn't there a Fear Spell metamagic feat? Seems like an obvious niche.) There's lots of ways to improve one's defences against mind affecting and fear effects, but I can't find much to get better at them.


Quote:
or a creepy guy messing with time and location like something out of a Japanese horror movie.

ZA WORUDOOOOOO

For feats, it looks like you should get Spell Focus (Necromancy) and perhaps pick up Thanatopic/Thredonic Spell (this one is your Fear metamagic, son). If you want to improve your defenses against mind-affecting and such, you need Iron Will, Harrowed, Steadfast Personality (if you have positive CHA), Stoic...

Though I really recommend Heavy Armor Proficiency if you are going to be time hopping around, plus avoiding getting wrecked by an enemy when you get into melee range to Time Flicker dudes.


I have a concept with a sort of similar vibe, but as a 'spirit warrior' battle-shaman that uses Speaker for the Past X / Kata Master 1. Probably not the way you're looking to go, but...

With a stat array something like 16/18, 12, 14, 10, 14/16, 8, he grabs Dragon Style and Hex Strike: Evil Eye so that once per round he can use a 1.5xSTR unarmed strike on a target that channels a crippling hex; for all other attacks it's two-handed power-attack temple sword flurry. Intimidating Prowess / Cornugon Smash throws in shaken; the unarmed strike uses a Cruel gauntlet. Pre-casting Frostbite adds fatigue. Kata Master allows for a little bit of parrying, if only as a bit of insurance here and there.

Defensively, instead of armor he crosses the Spirit Shield revelation with Wisdom AC. Ironskin is an obvious Cleric list grab. Aura of Doom is also a very handy Cleric list grab for a battle-shaman, causing shaken just by proximity, allowing a charge with a Cruel gauntlet to immediately cause sickened, and allowing for frightened with Cornugon Smash.

Oh, and Temporal Celerity is a really great revelation too...


I've been eyeing off Shamans a lot and this archtype in particular. I do not like multiclassing in PF and not sold it improves this class or archtype tbh.

I was thinking Half-Orc, with either the Toothy or Sacred Tattoo or Shaman's Apprentice trait. Take the greataxe.

Heavy Armor Proficiency, Power Attack, Furious Focus, Vital Strike. You get enlarge person, bulls strength and go to town. That's before factoring in hexes, mysteries and bonus feats. It is exceptionally powerful.

You can also tank Dex, Int, Cha substantially and just focus on Str, Wis, Con (in that order) too. Very easy from an optimisation viewpoint.

Grand Lodge

I'm big on Spiritual Guardian as a feat/ability, and Speaker for the Past Shamans are the only ones with both Spiritual Weapon and Spiritual Ally on their base spell list.

Add in a Toppling Spell rod/feat for some extra fire-and-forget goodness!

Grand Lodge

What levels are you looking at playing?

Heavens is one of the better spirits, and Void Adaptation at 8th looks super sweet (and creepy) with Deeper Darkness. You can pick up Heaven's Leap for teleporting.


He'll be built at ninth. I looked at heavens a few times, but all the light and rainbow spells just don't fit with the scary horror movie character I'm trying for, even though some of the hexes do.


Just realized that Delicious Fright is a major hex, and so can't get it for my Shaman. Not a single fear hex available for him, and a ton of thematically appropriate spells that are on the witch list, but not the shaman list.


Got a sample build in mind?


I've gone through building it ninth. Still not sure what I'll wind up taking for my Witch Hex; for now I've just not taken one.

Not equipped or named yet either.

Human Speaker for the Past 9
Flame Spirit

10 Str
14 Dex
14 Con
14 Int
20 Wis
10 Cha

Intimidate 9 ranks
Know (History) 1 rank
Know (Local, Nature) 4 ranks
Know (Planes, Religion) 5 ranks
Linguistics 9 ranks
Perception 9 ranks
Spellcraft 9 ranks
Stealth 9 ranks
Survival 1 rank

Traits
Conspiracy Hunter (stealth), Omen

Feats
Spell Focus & Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy, Enchantment)
Spirit Talker
Spiritual Guardian

Revelations
Time Flicker
Spirit Shield

Hexes
Cinder Dance
Gaze of Flames
Flame Curse

Cleric spells added with FCB
Burning Disarm
Murderous Command
Shared Sacrifice
Silence
Summon Ancestral Guardian (I figure if anyone can qualify for the "spellcasters with strong ties to their ancestors" bit in Dwarves of Golarion, it's this guy.)
Vision of Hell
Terrible Remorse

Beyond that I expect to take Evil Eye and Chant hexes, and revelations as mentioned in the first post. Still have no particular ideas for feats. I'd look at Threnodic if there were going to be more than just the occasional undead enemy, but it's not worth it otherwise. Maybe Spell Specialization if I find a particular spell I'm using constantly. Maybe Improved Initiative and/or Warrior Priest?

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