Serpentine Bloodline Sorcerer builds?


Advice


Has anyone played around with the Serpentine bloodline much? I think the idea is interesting, and the mental image of a sorcerer with an involuntary tongue flick is kind of hilarious. But how to make it viable as a build? The ability to affect animals, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids with mind-affecting, language-dependent spells is nice, but the rest of the lower-level abilities are kind of mediocre.

Fangs? Low damage, low-DC poison, only usable a limited number of times per day. Compared to, say, the elemental rays that an Elemental Sorcerer gets, this isn't that useful.

Serpentfriend? An under-leveled viper familiar, and the ability to speak with reptiles at will. How often does anybody have a good reason to speak to reptiles?

+1AC and 9th level? I'm just not seeing it.

So, what are some good ways to make this concept work?


Ah, I have a build I was trying to make with some small amount of melee ability, drawing upon the moonlight stalker feat and liberal use of blur as a spell. It is not really a strong build, in part due to liberal amounts of MAD. But, it would be playable if you aren't up against a killer GM.

Serpentine mage:
Jimiyu
Male Half-Elf (Mauxi) sorcerer 6
N Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +0, Senses low-light vision; Perception +1
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DEFENSE
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AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10, Combat Expertise
hp 41 ((6d6)+18)
Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +5, +2 vs. enchantment spells and effects, As long as you are under the effects of any spell, you gain a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against death effects.
Immune sleep
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OFFENSE
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +6 (1d4+4 plus poison)
Melee masterwork longspear +6 (1d8+3/x3)
Melee dagger +5 (1d4+2/19-20)
Ranged dagger +3 (1d4/19-20)
Special Attacks serpent's fang (8 rounds/day, magical, 1d4+3 plus poison DC 15; 1/rd. for 6 rounds, 1 Con damage; cure 1 save)

Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 6th; concentration +13)
3rd(4/day)-hold person(DC 18)
2nd(6/day)-blur, bull's strength, delay poison
1st(8/day)-burning hands(DC 16), charm person(DC 16), hypnotism(DC 16), magic missile, shield, shocking grasp, true strike
0th(at will)-detect magic, detect poison, light, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic(DC ), touch of fatigue(DC 15)
Bloodline serpentine
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STATISTICS
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Str 14, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 20
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 15
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Eschew Materials, Moonlight Stalker, Skill Focus (Bluff)
Skills Bluff +17, Knowledge (Arcana) +10, Spellcraft +10
Languages Common, Elven, Osiriani, Polyglot
Traits focused mind, magic is life
SQ bloodline arcana (mind-affecting and language-dependent spells affect animals, magical beasts and monstrous humanoids as humanoids with same language), serpentfriend (speak with animals (reptiles only), viper familiar)
Combat Gear wand of mage armor (50 charges), scroll of comprehend languages, scroll of endure elements, scroll of expeditious retreat, scroll of hide from undead, scroll of hold portal, scroll of magic weapon, scroll of fly, scroll of see invisibility
Other Gear amulet of mighty fists +1, headband of alluring charisma +2, masterwork longspear, belt of mighty constitution +2, traveler's outfit, cloak of resistance +1, page of spell knowledge (1st, true strike), dagger, 268.0 gp
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Adaptability (Ex) Half-elves receive Skill Focus as a bonus feat at 1st level.
Bloodline Arcana Your powers of compulsion can affect even bestial creatures. Whenever you cast a mind-affecting or language-dependent spell, it affects animals, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids as if they were humanoids who understood your language.
Bloodline Powers The treacherous and yet hypnotic serpent's blood that flows through you taints your magic with a sinuous and seductive grace.
Cantrips You learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells. These spells are cast like any other spells, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.
Elf Blood (Ex) Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.
Elven Immunities (Ex) Half-elves are immune to magic sleep effects and get a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells and effects.
Eschew Materials
Focused Mind Your childhood was either dominated by lessons of some sort (be they musical or academic) or by a horrible home life that encouraged your ability to block out distractions to focus on the immediate task at hand.
Keen Senses (Ex) Half-elves receive a +2 bonus on Perception skill checks.
Low-Light Vision (Ex) You can see x2 as far as humans in low illumination. Characters with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light that they can see twice as far as normal in dim light. Low-Light Vision is color vision. A spellcaster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to her as a source of light. Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a moonlit night as well as they can during the day.
Magic is Life (Nethys) Your faith in magic allows you to ref lexively use the energy of any spell effect on you to save you from death. As long as you are under the effects of any spell, you gain a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against death effects. If you are reduced to negative hit points while you are under the effects of any spell, you automatically confirm stabilization checks to stop bleeding.
Multitalented (Ex) Half-elves choose two favored classes at first level and gain +1 hit point or +1 skill point whenever they take a level in either one of those classes.
Serpent's Fang (Ex) At 1st level, you can grow fangs as a free action. These fangs are treated as a natural weapon inflicting 1d4 points of damage plus your Strength modifier (1d3 if you are Small) plus poison (Bite - injury; save Fort DC 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + your Constitution modifier; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1 Con damage; cure 1 save). At 5th level, these fangs are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming DR and the poison damage increases to 1d2 Con. At 7th level, your poison requires 2 successful saves to cure. At 11th level, your poison damage increases to 1d4 Con. You can use your fangs for a number of rounds per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Serpentfriend (Ex) At 3rd level, you can use speak with animals at will with reptilian animals (including various forms of dinosaurs, lizards, and other cold-blooded creatures), and you gain a viper familiar using your sorcerer level -2 as your effective wizard level.
Serpentine Bloodline Your bloodline carries the lingering stain of ancient serpent races that ruled when the world was young; your forebears were likely favored slaves anointed by their reptilian masters and gifted with their cold cunning and subtle manipulation. While deception and a mesmeric charm are your birthright, you may struggle for truth in spite of your heritage.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency Sorcerers are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a sorcerer's gestures, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.


Hmm. Interesting concept; have you considered using Enlarge Person as a melee damage buff for this build?

Lantern Lodge

I made a barbarian that used that bloodline...

Mr. Bad Bite:

Mr. Bad Bite
Human Superstitious Barbarian 20
Base: STR: 15 DEX: 11 CON: 19 INT: 7 WIS: 8 CHA: 14
1 Skill Focus: Diplomancy
1 Improved Unarmed Strike
2 Animal Fury
3 Eldritch Heritage: Serpentine
4 Hive Totem
5 Improved Grapple
6 Hive Totem Resiliency
7 Greater Grapple
8 Hive Totem Toxicity
8 Skill Focus: Perception
9 Grabbing Style
10 Superstition
11 Rapid Grappler
12 Eater of Magic
13 Improved Eldritch Heritage
14 Flesh Wound
15 Greater Eldritch Heritage
16 Reckless Abandon
16 Skill Focus: Bluff
17 Ability Focus: Poison
18 Witch Hunter
19
20 Spell Sunder
Mr. Bad Bite takes pleasure in annihilating his enemies through use of his poisonous bite. His tactic is to simply grapple anything and everything. Every time he maintains a grapple, he gets a free bite attack (via animal fury). At most, he can get 6 attacks (3 actions to maintain a grapple, with 3 free bites) all of which are at full BaB. When he activates his fangs gained from Eldritch Heritage: Serpentine, each bite attack delivers a 1d4 con 2 consecutive save poison. His poison DC can get fairly high when constitution is maxed, reaching as high as DC:40. In addition, Hive Totem Resiliency and his SLA gained from Greater Eldritch Heritage stack very well, he can summon swarm of poisonous snakes to fight along side with while being immune to them himself. Against enemies immune to poison, he takes his role as a crowd control and tank, grappling high threat targets. With ridiculous HP and great saves (especially against spells), he can last a long while in heated combat. His downfall is how long it takes for him to be able to start being really useful. A dip into unarmed fighter might be a good idea for this reason.


My main is a Sorcerer with this bloodline (sorry for the late reply), and I managed to design a good infiltrator and social character. Combat isn't a strength here, I won't deny it. But what is a strength is how my Sorc has a bluff skill of 21, intimidate of 15, and a diplomacy of 15, all at only level 5. You gotta max said skills every level up, and take feats like Skill Focus, deceitful, and persuasive, but if you do that on top of taking Verdant spell metamagic, than in conjunction with the arcana, there's vary little you can't lie to or influence. It's a useful bloodline if you're in a RP heavy group, and it can make a sorcerer with it neigh unstoppable in social situations. The other, albeit smaller benefit, is if you use the summon monster bonus spells, then at higher levels you can end up commanding an army of reptiles; provided summoning is your play style.

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