Battle Host Occultist Spell Selection


Advice

Silver Crusade

What does everyone recommend for a PFS melee based Battle Hosts’ 1x level 1 spell known?

As it currently stands......
L1 Half Elf Battle Host Occultist
Str 17(incl racial +2) , Dex 12, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 7
Traits: Clever Wordplay (Diplomacy), Indomitable Faith.
Transmutation @ L1 – So will effectively have 19 Str.
Planning on taking Abjuration @ L2
L1 Feat - Extra Mental Focus
L1 Focus Power – Sudden Speed (so im not a slowpoke in my masterwork Full Plate)

Im running around with a greatsword & earthbreaker at this stage.

I plan on taking the Elf FCB, Power Attack & Aegis @ L3 & potentially Furious Focus at L4.

Level 1 Transmutation Spell List: Alter windsAPG, ant haulAPG, breakAPG, charge object*, crafter’s curseAPG, crafter’s fortuneAPG, enlarge person, erase, expeditious retreat, feather fall, gravity bowAPG, jury-rigUC, keen sensesAPG, lead bladesAPG, liberating commandUC, longshotUC, magic weapon, mirror polishACG, negate aromaAPG, pass without trace, reduce person, refine improvised weaponACG, reinforce armamentsUC, sundering shardsACG, vocal alterationUM, youthful appearanceUM.

My frontrunners – Enlarge Person, Feather Fall, Lead Blades, Liberating Command, Expeditious Retreat

* I already have Legacy Weapon as a standard action buff so that makes Lead Blades less attractive although having two buffs available does seem useful.

*Similarly Enlarge Person is a useful buff but I can potentially do it to myself with a focus power. From a purely selfish view, I wasn’t planning on using a reach weapon or getting combat reflexes so that makes Enlarge Person less useful as well.

*I like Feather Fall & Liberating Command as they are swift/immediate actions and seem useful.

*Additional food for thought is that I could get Lead Blades / Enlarge Person / Expeditious Retreat as wands as with 1min/level durations they would still function for most, if not all, of a combat.

*Expeditious Retreat appears to stack with Sudden Speed as SS is an untyped bonus vs ER’s enhancement bonus.

*Occultists can swap a spell known for a new one at 5 / 8 / 11 etc. ie Featherfall could be swapped out for something else at 8 after I've learnt Mind over Gravity.

Anyway I guess the moral of the story is that I cant decide. What are everyone else's thoughts?


I recently specced out a very similar character, Half-Elven battle host occultist. Same schools.

I'd go for spells in all slots you can't easily duplicate in a better fashion with your focus powers. Legacy Blade + Sudden speed is 2 mental focus per combat. By level 3 or 4 you should have more than enough to get you through an adventuring day. So go for spells that give you utility.

I agree that Lead Blades is a poor first round action, so unless you have time to prebuff a wand is superior. Enlarge person is equally pre-buffable and really undesirable to cast in combat as a full round since you're melee. I'd personally choose Featherfall, but Liberating Command is a good choice too. You could take expeditious retreat, but honestly how often are you going to need 80 movement that takes a standard action to activate? Level 1 is really tricky since you can really easily get a wand of these spells and just cast when you need them. So I'd stick with the immediate action options for on-demand spells.

In the 2nd level slot, I think you could go two directions. Either grab some offensive spells or go for utility. Chill Metal (or Heat Metal) are pretty good in a lot of cases, but Disfiguring Touch for debuffing also wouldn't hurt. Both have decent combat application and you can reasonably expect to use them if you need them. On the utility side, Versatile weapon could be useful to get past a lot of annoying DR situations. Effortless armor can help get you out of awkward I'm in full-plate situations. On the Abjuration side, it's pretty weak. Resist Energy is probably your safest bet, so you can also buff party members. But Node of Blasting does have some interesting applications if you're creative.

In the 3rd level slot, Transmutation hands down needs to go Haste. You can cast it yourself on your party. Don't bother with the Focus Power, it will let you cast haste sooner, but it'll really burn your pool and it only helps you. In contrast, the Fly spell and Fly focus power are near identical. For Abjuration, I like Magic Circle of Protection, again to help boost your defenses and the melee around you.

Finally, 4th is a real crap shoot for transmutation. I'd go Echolocation to have an answer to Invis unless you're going Evocation at 10 to get Invisibility Purge in your 3 slot, Divination to get See Invis in 2, or Conjuration for Glitterdust in 2. If you do take one of those schools for those reasons, grab Malfunction to have an answer to constructs. This level really is dedicated to Abjuration. Dimensional Anchor or Dismissal are really powerful depending on what you're fighting. Stoneskin is also a real winner. I'd mostly plan to use one of those.

Unsolicited advice: at 10, I'd grab Evocation. Gives you some good boosts to leverage spell storing weapon and some battle-field control out of your spells so you don't have to invest any focus in the implement (most of which will still probably be tied up in Transmutation and Abjuration).

Sample Build:
1: Liberating Command (T), Shield (A), Shocking Grasp (E)
2: Effortless Armor or Versatile Weapon (T), Resist Energy (A), Gust of Wind (E)
3: Haste (T), Magic Circle vs. Evil (A), Invisibility Purge (E)
4: Malfunction (T), Dimensional Anchor or Dismissal (A), Etheric Shards or Spirit-Bound Blade (E)

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