pfs arcanist occultist

[Shalin]

hi two questions -

1. is occultist a pfs legal archetype?
2. can i take additional exploits as a level 1 feat if i am an occultist?

(got a bad feeling about the 2nd question, as occultist says replaces 1st level exploit :-( )

[Kalindlara]

1: You'll want to check the Advanced Class Guide section here. From the link:

Archetypes: all archetypes on pages 75-133 are legal for play, except forgepriest, hex channeler, musketeer, mutation warrior, packmaster, primal companion hunter, primalist, spirit summoner, and steel hound.

So, yes, occultist is legal.

2: No, for the same reason a 1st-level rogue can't take Extra Rogue Talent. You can't get more of something you don't have yet.

Hope this helps. ^_^

[Shalin]

thanks for quick response!

yeah, that's what i thought, was getting excited about occultist's with potent burning hands at 1st level... ce la vie

[Shalin]

Is this a viable build?

s 7
d 14
c 12
i 18 (+2)
w 10
ch 10

human occultist
4 arcane pool - usable to cast SM1 as a standard action

traits - Reactionary +2 Init & ???

Feats - SF - Conjuration & Augment Summoning.

spells memorised - Grease & something else.

obvious advantage is he's got 8 'spells' per day, giving much more lasting power.

What's lost vs a straight conjurer? the swift teleport ability, a familiar (which is quite a loss) and whatever the 2nd feat would have been.

would it be better to do something else with his feats? feels a bit boring as stands. Coudl get SF Evoc and Spell Specialisation (+2CL feat) giving him a reasonable blast power. Would that be better?

[Kalindlara]

I couldn't tell you what's best - the plan you have looks pretty solid, though. ^_^

The Teleportation school is definitely a big loss, but I think an arcanist can get an exploit for that eventually. I'd stick with the Augment Summoning plan, at least for now.

[andreww]

Shalin wrote:

Is this a viable build?

s 7
d 14
c 12
i 18 (+2)
w 10
ch 10

human occultist
4 arcane pool - usable to cast SM1 as a standard action

traits - Reactionary +2 Init & ???

Feats - SF - Conjuration & Augment Summoning.

spells memorised - Grease & something else.

obvious advantage is he's got 8 'spells' per day, giving much more lasting power.

What's lost vs a straight conjurer? the swift teleport ability, a familiar (which is quite a loss) and whatever the 2nd feat would have been.

would it be better to do something else with his feats? feels a bit boring as stands. Coudl get SF Evoc and Spell Specialisation (+2CL feat) giving him a reasonable blast power. Would that be better?

It looks perfectly fine although you could also dump Charisma to increase Con, the vast majority of exploits that require much charisma are terrible.

For traits I would recommend anyone with a high Int grab either Clever Wordplay or Student of Philosophy. Diplomacy is probably the second most common skill check in the game in PFS and it is well worth being able to step into the face role.

Your feats are fine, augment is very strong. You might consider pushing it back to 3rd and grabbing improved initiative instead. I wouldn't grab the blasting effects and be an occultist, it isn't worth it. Your summons will do more damage over time at a lower cost than blasts.

If you do want to go down the blast route then you probably want potent exploit instead. Then you could be throwing 5d4 burning hands at level 1 with an arcane pool point and spell specialisation.

[Taenia]

With the one minute duration on your summons augment is great at this level so I will have to disagree with dumping it. Keep in mind that you start with 3 summons and 3 first level spells and can easily turn spells into summons. Dropping and eagle every fight to attack 3x for 1d4+2 can be very effective especially into flank or with high ground.

[Melkiador]

I'm going to second grabbing augment as soon as possible.

I'm not sure if I'd advise maxing intelligence in a point buy with this build. An 18 is really expensive, and a summoning type build won't need a high save as often as a lot of other casting builds. I also don't like completely dumping strength as it will come back to bite you from time to time, but to each their own.

[Shalin]

Yeah. I'm going over to 18 after racials being enough.

What I'm more concerned about is the size of the arcane pool.

3+.5/lvl. But then the summons go up by level.

Lvl 1 - 3.5 Pts = 3 sm 1s
Lvl 3 4.5pts = 2 sm 2s
Lvl 5 5.5pts 1 sm3s
Lvl 7 6.5pts 1 sm4

See the problem. Elves fcb is +1 pt. do I 'need' to take this to get enough points to make the whole build worth while? Of course that then pushes augment back...

Do you round the .5s up? That would make it a little better. But not much!

[Melkiador]

If going after the elf FCB, I prefer to pick it up through half-elf, so you don't have to take a -2 to constitution. Note that it is generally assumed that the elf FCB only increases your maximum pool size and not your starting number of points per day.

But the main thing is that you will want to fill your points up outside of combat by burning your spells. So, at level 7 your maximum pool is 10, while your starting pool is 6. So, at the start of the day you could burn your two 1st level spells and one 2nd level spell to fill up those last 4 points. An extra summon monster 4 should be well worth those lowbie spells. And that's the great power of the arcanist: The ability to burn up your lower level spells to empower your higher level spells.

Either way, you will eventually want to pick up the Quick Consume Exploit for those special cases where even a full supply of reservoir points isn't enough for a single combat.