GM Nate's Unaffiliated Thread

Game Master nate lange

Ahhh, half-elf parents. That works.

Now we just need to figure out if Ten’s parents were both halflings or if they were a human and a quarterling...

Are they halflings or is everyone else a twiceling?

Ten's bit is up on the campaign page. Working on gameplay post now, though it may not be finished 'til morning :(

Opening gameplay post is up, and let's officially move discussion over to the campaign discussion thread. If you have any questions, ask me there or PM me :)

hey LL,
I'm not super familiar with the warlock vigilante but I'm going to give it a look real quick right now and see if I can come up with anything...

If this shows back up for everyone else, I apologize.

edit: I've read through the warlock and have a couple ideas floating around... do you have any idea what race you want to be, or definitely don't want to be? oh, actually- which races are society legal right now? and, do you have any racial boons you might be willing to spend?

Also- I forget exactly how loot works in society play... could you plan on getting a certain magical enchantment on a weapon fairly reliably/predictably or no?

Hey, sorry for the silence - busy at work today! Let's see, current Society-legal races are:

All Core
Kitsune
Tengu
Nagaji
Wayang
Sylph
Ifrit
Oread
Undine

I've also got two unused race boons for Samsaran and Aquatic Elf, though I'd been planning to use my Samsaran to make an arcanist.

Loot in Society play is gated somewhat based on your Fame (you earn 2 Fame per scenario) but it's not hard to have a few thousand gold saved up by like, 3rd or 4th level if you watch your spending.

Ok, cool.

So, first off- I love the idea of a kitsune whose social persona is human and her vigilante persona is the natural fox-hybrid form. The keen kitsune racial alternate will give you a great Int. Her social persona could be some kind of sage- keep max ranks in a couple knowledges, scatter some ranks in a few others; social grace and/or entrepreneur would both be good, and at 5th level ancestral enlightnement is a perfect fit; prepare a couple divination spells on days you think you'll mostly be in that form. As a vigilante, focus on being an enchanter- take spell focus and improved spell focus to stack with your racial bonus for great DCs on your enchantments. You won't have as much spell power as a full-caster but you'll be tougher, have more skills, and always have a fair melee or ranged attack option plus, at the levels it seems like most PFS play happens you won't be that far behind a full caster. This would be a 'treat the bolts as a back up plan' kind of build. Although... being a knowledge gal... you could pick up IUS at 5th, Kirin Style at 7th, and Kirin Strike at 9th... that's a slow play, but at Kirin Style isn't bad and at 9th you'd get a nice boost to damage.

Another idea I like is making an ulfen whose vigilante identity is 'the Valkyrie' (sort of a lady-thor)... You could do whatever you want for the social identity. For the vigilante, take electricity for your bolts and the elemental armor talent at 2nd- build like a gish, using spells largely to buff yourself (with a few weather-related evocations and control spells as you go). Go for the reach build with a glaive or some other martial polearm and combat reflexes (so you can make free attacks on the enemies' turns and use your own rounds for casting or throwing lightning). Get a conductive weapon ASAP so that you can channel your bolts into extra damage on your physical attacks.

Are either of those what you're looking for at all?

Are you willing to dip other classes at all? Some other ideas I didn't really flesh out, that require dipping, include:
- making an elven gish and taking elven battle focus (which lets you add Int to damage, with certain weapons)- this is so feat intensive you'd probably have to dip 2 levels of fighter, and it would depend on getting a conductive weapon to make much use of bolts.
- dipping 2 levels of eldritch guardian fighter to get a mauler familiar with all your combat feats... teamwork feats like outflank, paired opportunists, and precise strike are usually combat feats and could help keep damage up while fighting with the bolts.

Another sort of vague idea I had (but haven't had any time to pursue at all) was to look for ways to add status effects to attacks... the damage not scaling might not be a big deal if your able to take advantage of it being a touch attack to lay down some afflictions? Feats, or dips, that let you add, like, demoralize or entangled or other effects to bolt attacks are worth looking at...

Or... how would you feel about vigilante being the dip? I don't know exactly what you wanted out of the character (or if you just wanted to try out the class in which case this would definitely not be the way to go), but it seems like most of the defining elements of the warlock come online pretty early (seemless guise and bolts both start at 1st). If you're not real worried about magic, you could take 1-4 levels of warlock and then switch to another class?

A slayer gets even more skills than a warlock, gets static bonuses to hit and damage from studied target, and will add sneak attack damage to the bolts starting at 3rd... and you might be able to find a ranger combat style that would help in some way?

A lore warden fighter gets the same number of skills as a warlock (as long as you're planning on having at least 2 Int based skills)... they can add to hit a damage with weapon focus and weapon specialization. And the bolts must fall into some weapon group... I have no idea which one, or how to find that out for PFS play, but weapon training would add more hit/damage and (if its PFS legal) the 'focused weapon' advanced weapon training would scale the bolt's damage like a warpriest's weapon. Also, power attack and piranha strike don't apply to touch attacks, but if you only took 1-2 levels of warlock your bolts wouldn't be touch attacks so you could grab one of those too.

A brawler also has the same number of skills as a warlock... and, they can also take weapon specialization... they wouldn't be able to do the focused weapon thing, but martial flexibility could actually be pretty useful no matter which persona you're in.

I still haven't had a chance to look up ways to add status effects to your attacks though.

So, this might be too feat intensive to be worth anything but is combat performance PFS legal? I'm not super familiar with it but I know the 'performing combatant' feat lets you use a performance feat in regular combat... savage display would up bolt damage by 1d6, hero's display looks like it lets you try to demoralize all foes in 30' as a swift action (which is a nice debuff), or dramatic display gives you +2 on attack rolls.

Another option would be to take the 'nature magic' feat and, at 6th, take the vigilante talent that gives you vital strike... going from 1d6+1 to 2d6+1 isn't great on its own but there are several feats like 'grasping strike' and 'winters strike' that let you add status effects on a hit (which would be fairly easy to get since you'd be making touch attacks). The big downside to these is that they're Wis based so that make you more MAD.

Okay - finally have the time to really sit down and respond to everything you've suggested. And wow! That's a lot of different suggestions!

To answer a question from a post or two up, I'm mainly wanting to try the vigilante out but I didn't really want to just do the base class because I'm weird like that. Also because I don't see many vigilantes with archetypes running around in PFS so it'd be nice to stand out a bit.

Of the ideas suggested, I really like the first two you came up with best - the kitsune enchanter and the Ulfen reach-weapon gish. PFS is where I tend to both play my more 'chaotic' characters and my more ridiculous ones so both of those sound like they would be quite easy to fit that sort of trend and still actually be able to contribute even at higher levels. I sorta had in mind someone that's actually kinda 'bad' at the whole secret identity thing, like when they change they just duck around a corner or something and come back with the only costume difference being a goofy black mask or something - it's totally obvious they're the same person but they persist in pretending that they're not no matter the attempts to point it out. Going with that I think the Ulfen gish might work just a little better - especially if people think she's a joke because of the silly secret identity thing and then turns out she's actually kind of a badass when she wants/needs to be :)

*edit* Okay, doesn't look like Performance feats are PFS-legal.

I’d like to try out this class, but I kind of want to be terrible at its defining class feature...

Lol.

The ulfen would be a better fit for that (the kitsune could do a pretty convincing change just by running around the corner and switching forms). For her ‘costume’ you could just always carry around a helmet that covers half her face in a backpack, and she often ‘changes’ by just putting it on. If you want to get fancy you could take the tattoo chamber talent and hide a polearm in there. I think that would be really funny because it would seem kind of obvious she just ran around the corner and put on a helmet but there’ld be that little nagging doubt like ‘but then where’d she get the polearm from’. Let me know if you have any specific build questions, and good luck- sounds like a fun character.

^Lol yeah, pretty much. My husband more or less made this exact face when I mentioned the idea to him.

I also like the idea of using the Tattoo Chamber for an extra dose of usefulness and WTF factor - great stuff :D

Thanks again for all the suggestions and ideas, I really appreciate it :)

That’s an appropriate reaction, lol

And, no problem- making characters (and brainstorming character concepts) is one of my favorite creative outlets so feel free to ask any time :)

I try to do research on my own but I have to admit that sitting down and hashing out every aspect of a potential character build isn't really my jam. Still, I know that for some builds (and especially in PFS where retraining costs are prohibitive) you really *need* to have a plan in place before you start playing the character. Sometimes I'm a little shy about asking for help with stuff like that but if you're certain that it's not a problem then I may very well direct other queries your way in the future :)

I enjoy it enough that when I had more time I used to be a fixture on the advice threads. In fact, I think you mentioned running across a couple of my posts on gestalt characters, didn’t you? So, yeah, I really enjoy actual roleplaying (and love that PbP allows me to use inner monologues for character development) but figuring out character builds kind of is my jam, or one of them, at least, so ask away!

Cool beans and will do!

(And yep, I ran into some your postings on gestalt when I was doing research re: building Luna.)

Sooo....thanks to a very generous friend it looks like I'll have an Aasimar boon for PFS showing up in my mailbox sometime within the next couple of days. Since both aasimar and tiefling boons aren't the easiest to acquire *and* my friend expressed interest in seeing what I come up with, I'd like to make it count and build something awesome. Any suggestions? I know they're fitting for paladins and sorcerers and the like but I'd kinda like to avoid some of the more obvious and/or stereotypical choices and go with something that's a little more different but still has some small element of being 'on theme'....if that makes sense.

I haven’t had a chance to give it a ton of thought, or look anything up, but my first thought would be an oracle... iirc the spirit guide archetype is legal- if you picked the lunar mystery you could revere the moon as sort of the king of spirits (maybe harbor a semi-heretical view that the moon spirit is the celestial king-consort to Sarenrae’s Sun-Queen). The spirits you work with (from the archetype) could been seen as his servants, and several of them make sense with the moon: heavens obviously; waves has the tidal connection; nature, since the sun and moon rule over it; ancestors because the same moon shines on people generation after generation; you could use fire/life if you have some concept of the moon reflecting the sun’s character, or being a lesser version of it... or bones if they’re more like opposites...

I think in PFS you can be pretty much any age and just don’t apply bonuses/penalties, right? I think it would be cool to make her like 12 and take an animal companion for her first revelation (lunar let’s you pick like a tiger or bear, or if you went with nature you could have a horse)- with the celestial servant feat (which I’m pretty sure is PFS legal) at 1st level your companion would be sort of a reprentative of your patron and/or ancestor that guides and protects you. Plus a 12 year old girl adventuring with a heavenly tiger or bear is just super cool imo. You could add that feat that gives a shaman’s spirit bonus to your animal companion temporarily at 3rd (spirit’s gift, iirc)... focus her on casting (and having a few tricks up her sleeve from revelations and spirit abilities) and trust the animal companion to protect her and handle some melee contribution. If you take your racial option for favored class bonus (and apply it to your companion) you’d actually have one of the best animal companions possible (because it’ll be a level ahead of other classes at 6th and 2 levels ahead if you make it to 12th).

Is that at all on track with what you were hoping for, or should I post a handful of idea seeds to see if there’s something you’d rather develop?

That's a pretty cool idea - bonus points since I really like oracles anyway and love how you can make all sorts of different characters with different capabilities with them!

As far as ages go yes, you can't *actually* apply age templates to your characters but I could get away with saying that she's like, 13 or 14 as long as there's no mechanical changes. The annoying thing about the PFS iconics though is that they sometimes cheat....Yoon, the iconic kineticist, is an actual little girl even though you can't apply the young template to a PC.

The Spirit Guide archetype is indeed PFS legal, as is the Celestial Servant feat! My friend did something sorta similar with a non-PFS spirit guide once; each spirit was represented by one of the character's actual ancestors, each with their own distinctive personality. I can't remember all of them but I believe the Nature spirit was sort of a wise old grandmother figure, Heavens was a free-wheeling ladies' man, cool stuff like that. But revering the moon as a spirit king and the like is different enough to be its own thing, I think :)

Yeah, and the spirit guide archetype is even more flexible because you can switch your spirit each day (kind of like the shaman’s wandering spirit).

Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with!

Will do! I'll have some time tonight since I need to stay up so I'm going to start researching (Pathfinder) moon deities and their servants for some inspiration on the different spirits she'd look to bond with.

I'll have to start giving you writing credits on my characters at this rate :)

Lycanthropy curse seems especially fitting for this sort of character given her connection to the moon and all and it's basically like the Tongues curse except you just make animal noises during a fight which is sure to weird out your friends and maybe foes, too. Also found the Tamashigo philosophy to be fitting for her - as a result, she'll be Tian-Min as far as human ethnicity is concerned.

I’m perfectly content ghostwriting ;)

Personally, I’m not super into the lycanthropy curse (probably because I’m not really into lycanthropes), but it is certainly thematic... and, actually, while it kind of hurts to lose all language dependent spells, it’s potentially a pretty handy curse with an animal companion- if you match your companion with the kind of lycanthropy you’ve been touched by then you’ll be able to talk freely with it during combat! I think animal companions get share spell too, right? If so, adding the beast shape spells to your list could have some interesting applications when cast on your companion. I probably would have gone with haunted for a spirit guide (or maybe tongues for an aasimar), but lycanthropy does seem like a pretty good option. And, actually, if your going to play up the lycanthropy angle then the battle spirit could make sense with the moon too... I’m not sure how much you’d want to invest that direction, but there’s a minor wild shape revelation for the lunar mystery, combining that with oracle buffs and the battle spirit might make for a decent melee oracle?

Yeah, normally I'm not super into lyncanthropes either but I thought I'd try playing around with some of the other available curses and see if anything caught my eye. One other thing I was tempted to do was go with an Emberkin aasimar and then take something like the Hellbound curse but with the Lunar mystery and having a tiger (of course, what else would I have picked :3) I liked the idea of doing a basic aasimar with the lycanthrophy curse instead.

And yes indeed, by picking tiger I could still give my tiger orders in battle which is pretty important. They also get Share Spells like familiars do so there's the opportunity for some interesting shenanigans as she levels up. The Lunar mystery seems like a mixed bag of revelations too because some of them are more utility or caster-oriented while others seem geared for buffing up and getting into melee? I'll have to do some more poking around for Lunar Oracle/Spirit Guide Oracle builds.

*edit* I'm also trying to mix it up a bit on curses because across PFS and not-PFS oracles I've got a Dual-Cursed Time (Powerless Prophecy major curse, Haunted secondary curse), a Heavens (Tongues), and a Community Guardian Lore (Accursed). Though that last one is still 1st level so I might rebuild her a bit. I've also done a Flame (Lame) and a Shadow (Powerless Prophecy), though both of those two saw their respective games come to an end.

Yeah, I think you could probably take it a number of directions depending on what you want to do. I don’t usually suggest people try to be good at multiple things (because it’s typically much more effective to be really good at one thing than kind of good at several things) but if you wanted to make a character that can adapt well to what the table needs (assuming this is for society play) there is potential here... you’d end up spreading your points around, so you won’t do damage like an 18 Str fighter or have DCs like a 20 Int witch, but you should be able to get to where you’re decent at whatever you’re doing that particular day.

Something like: Str 14; Dex 14; Con 14; Int 10; Wis 12; Cha 16 maybe?

At first you’d play like a druid (basically casting and using companion), by 3rd you start getting more options... that’s when spirit stuff starts, and if you wait on the spirit’s gift feat you could take ‘extra revelation’ instead.
- if you want to help in melee: battle spirit + beast shape (plus companion)
- if you want to help with ranged damage: fire spirit for a little blasting
- if you want to help with control: heavens spirit for the spells
- if you want to help with scouting: animal companion

You might be able to cover knowledges somewhat with lore but ‘skill monkey’ is the one niche you’d never really fill...

Personally, I’d put more into Cha and worry less about melee but you could go either way with it probably.

Melee is *usually* one of the last things that needs to be covered at Society tables since a lot of people like to bring their fighter-types out to play. It's much more common to be in need of a skill monkey or divine/arcane firepower or ranged.

(Seriously, there's a reason Janira was happy to see people packing bows and the like - I don't know how many times I've seen a flying enemy completely shut down the ability of certain characters to contribute. Like, you never bought a bow or a sling - even just for backup?)

I like the idea of her being able to be moderately flexible and help to fill in (most) missing gaps or bolster a particular niche :)

Lol- I just saw your edit... that is a lot of oracles! I can make some non-oracle suggestions if you like?

I like oracles but I'm always up for hearing other suggestions - maybe one will hit on something new that'll really grab me!

You mentioned the emberkin aasimar earlier... are all 6 variants available? for some reason I thought you were limited to the base aasimar in society play

As best as I could tell with my research, all of the variants are available provided you've got the basic race boon - but I'll check again since it's easy to miss stuff sometimes.

I just wrote up a whole thing with like a dozen suggestions and then was like ‘hmm, I should double check that these are all PFS legal,’ and like 3 out of the first 4 weren’t... so I rage-deleted the whole post. I’ll start again later when I have more time to look stuff up.

Well darn, now I feel kinda bad for (inadvertently) contributing to some increased blood pressure. As always, I appreciate the help and suggestions and there's absolutely no rush as my friend's been sick and hasn't been able to snail mail the boon just yet anyway!

Oh, no- don’t! I enjoyed thinking about the ideas, I was just frustrated with myself for not checking sooner. In retrospect it’s actually kind of good because mistakes like that help me learn which things are PFS legal and which aren’t.

Oh okay, understood! And yeah, it *is* good to get into the habit of checking options before you try taking them as far as PFS is concerned. Really though, as best as I can tell, they allow more than they ban so there's still plenty of options to make use of.

No post today, sorry... the temperatures here have been in the mid-90s the last couple days and it’s really getting to me. I don’t complain when we get cold, snowy, 5-month winters... the last time I wore a real winter jacket it was literally -23 degrees out... but as soon as it gets anywhere near 80 degrees I’m absolutely miserable.

Hey, no worries. It's been 80+ most days here since like, May, and on top of that our AC is on the fritz so it's been pretty uncomfortable here too. Sounds like a good excuse to go swimming if you can find the time!

That -23 degrees thing would probably be the end of me, though. I despise being cold.

Booted this back up because I didn't really want to clutter Joe's Remafosa discussion with dumb comments and ramblings since this campaign was more or less created for dumb comments and ramblings if I remember correctly :P

@Nate & Adam - I'm really starting to think that our Shattered Star game is done or close to it since it's been like, almost two weeks since Zed's posted anywhere. Which life happens, things change, but I still can't help but be pretty bummed since it's been one of my favorite long-running games and I've really enjoyed the party dynamics :(

yeah, I'm afraid you might be right...and I feel the exact same way about it. Right now I'm really hoping he'll pop back in with a "sorry, I'm back now" post... I hate to even think it, much less type it, but if he can't keep going I kind of hope we can figure out some way to keep the campaign alive.

edit: also, I just looked up thread and realized that I never did offer any non-oracle aasimar ideas... is it too late to do that now?

Kinda? I went with the Maagambyan arcanist but I've not actually had a chance to play her yet and PFS characters are 100% malleable until you play them at 2nd for the first time.

On the other hand, I've got a grippli boon I haven't done anything with yet :3

Lol! I have a ton of paperwork I need to do for work, that was all due last Friday (plus a post I need to make for RotRL) but I’ll try to make a few suggestions soon (although, I do like maagambyan arcanists).

No worries and no rush, I know you've got lots going on lately!

Regarding finding a way to keep Shattered Star going if Zed doesn't/isn't able to come back, I'd definitely like to but it's always a hard thing to find replacement GMs for APs. I'm not really in a good position to take over myself plus I'd kinda like to keep going as a player :\

So, as I said before, I really like the Magaambyan Arcanist prestige class and I think the arcanist archetype is probably a pretty decent option for your aasimar. The one thing I would offer for your consideration is that you seem to have a lot of caster PFS characters already and maybe something you play less of might make your aasimar stand out more? You mentioned once before that tables have a tendency to be melee heavy and light on skills/arcane/divine... a bard with a decent UMD can more or less cover all three of those roles, plus act as a force multiplier for the melees. There’s also a ton of legal archetypes. If you went with a musetouched aasimar, then bard is already very thematic. If you went with emberkin, there are two different fire-themed archetypes (and I think you might be able to stack them, iirc). Other thematic options include the faith singer, either of the dervish dancers, or any of the healery ones. What are the animal-celestials, Agathions? I think their aasimar have the wrong stats (Con/wis, iirc) but if you wanted to deal with that there are a few naturey archetypes too.

For your Grippli... personally, I really like the idea of a bad touch cleric! Focus on Wis and Dex and prepare a lot of touch attack spells; start with weapon finesse for your touch attacks and take agile tongue at 3rd for the reach (and awesomeness). Being Dex based (and small) and targeting touch AC you should be good at hitting so from there you can just take fun feats or look at things to up your DCs. Taking a domain or trait to make stealth a class skill would let you play to natural strengths (and an armored frog sneaking up on someone, from above with your climb speed, and cursing them with their tongue from 10’ away is kind of great). The tongue also lets you heal with reach, when can come in pretty handy sometimes.

Just some thoughts, sorry they took so long.

Hey! Hadn't forgotten about this but haven't had a good moment to order my thoughts and give a proper reply until this morning.

Re: Aasimar - I actually do have a bard that's angling for Sound Striker/Duettist cheese but bards, like oracles, are a class that I don't necessarily object to having more than one of if the builds are different enough. On the downside, I just applied a GM chronicle to my aasimar with the aim of taking advantage of a unique familiar option that it unlocks so I'm not sure of the best way to maybe build a(nother) bard that utilizes a familiar.

Re: Grippli - Funny thing is that while I actually have a cleric already, she's an Ecclesitheurge that's almost entirely support so a bad touch cleric would certainly be different enough from her to be interesting! For grippli characters in Society, I see some that are nature-oriented (druid/shaman/ranger) but ones that take advantage of the tongue thing are also popular, like clerics and magi.

Since we're spitballing character ideas, I also recently completed a multi-table special (as a player) and among the boon options I chose one that unlocks the Spellslinger archetype - which is normally banned. I know, Spellslinger isn't a strong archetype but I love the concept of shooting magic with a gun - it makes me think of the magical guns you could get later on in Final Fantasy Tactics! Most of the proposed builds I've seen for Spellslinger seem to be either one level of Spellslinger and the rest as sorcerer (I guess to get more ray-type spells) or doing a sort of Spellslinger/Gunslinger angle into Eldritch Knight, if I remember correctly. I definitely don't have a Gunslinger in PFS so I'd be open to trying something out with it. Thoughts?

aasimar- what's the special familiar option?

grippli- I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to hear that the tongue stuff is popular. Personally, I think a sneaky bad-touch/tongue cleric would still be fun, but I get that it might feel too played out. This kind of steps on the toes of the next conversation but they have good stats for a gunslinger too, and being small (and weak) wouldn't effect their damage that much. If/when you could get a pepperbox (which I think lets you take multiple shots even one-handed) you could climb around outside of things' reach and shoot them.

Another option that I suspect isn't very common would be to make a monk... they have good monk stats except that dealing decent damage will be tricky (which is why I suspect they'll be rare). The Quain Martial Artist trait would help but what you really want is Dex to damage, which is feat intensive, and doesn't let you flurry... honestly, the best way to do this would probably be as an 'impostor monk'. Start at 1st level as a master of many styles monk and take tiger style (and weapon finesse with your normal feat). At second level dip fighter for the bonus feat and take weapon focus in unarmed strike. Your third level feat will get you slashing grace (with your unarmed strikes, which are slashing thanks to tiger style) and you'll just have to figure out what class to run with. You could stick with monk for the scaling damage dice (though you'd be stuck with 3/4 BAB because MoMS doesn't stack with unchained). Or, you could stick with fighter for all the feats and the bonus damage from weapon specialization and training (and to scale your damage with the focused weapon advanced weapon training option, which I think is PFS legal), although that's not great for your saves. And, if you're going to run with fighter make sure to pick an archetype that trades away armor training since you probably won't wear any. Other good options would include leveling from 3rd on as a brawler (good flexibility in combat, and scaling unarmed damage), or maybe taking monk up to 4th (to get still mind and a ki pool, without losing any more BAB) and then switching over to something like slayer (for extra skills and the studied target bonuses; using monastic legacy to scale damage somewhat). In any case, your damage is going to stink until 3rd level (probably 1d4 or 1d4+1) so if you want to take this route it might be worth sinking some GM credits into starting closer to or at 3rd (I think that's how that works, right? You get xp for running things that you can apply to one of your characters?)

spellslinger- The eldritch knight route seems pretty workable. One level of gunslinger gets you the quick clear deed which covers one of spellslinger's biggest dangers (and gets you martial weapon proficiency). Siege gunner would be super helpful (for Int based grit), but I don't think its PFS legal. Still, if you planned on only using your deeds for quick clear you could get away with only a +1 Wis mod, so you're not adding too much MAD.

The sorcerer idea isn't bad either- you get more spells/day to keep your gun firing and there are several bloodlines that up your damage if you're just going full on blaster. If you wanted to focus more on flavor, you could also go spellslinger 1/wildblooded sorcerer and take the sylvan bloodline... take the boon companion feat at 3rd and your companion will be the same as a druid's. Pick something big enough to ride on and you'd basically be a magical cowgirl. This gets you extra survivability (because the mount keeps you out of harms way, and discourages people from engaging you in melee) and utility (because it can scout and stuff), plus a sorcerer only needs to know 1-2 attack spells at each level, so you can learn buffs that are normally self-only and use share spell to cast them on your companion (granting it more combat ability, or greater utility).

Another option to consider might be 1 level of spellslinger into myrmidarch magus? Losing that extra 1 BAB at 1st isn't ideal for a 3/4 BAB class, and the fact that the archetype gives up 1 spell/day at each spell level isn't great either, but there are some potential benefits: you'd be a better switch hitter (because arcane pool can be applied to your gun or to a melee weapon, and you'd still have normal spell combat and spellstrike); if you focused your wizard spells on ones without somatic components, you could wear armor without problems; at magus 4 (5th overall), arcane pool+ranged spell strike+arcane gun will give you a pretty good attack bonus, bullet damage (with the pool bonus), and a bump to your DCs on the attached spell (plus, it looks like you could stack arcane pool with the ability to augment your gun by sacrificing spells from arcane gun to really up the enhancement bonus); and, weapon specialization and training will help keep bullet damage up, so you'll do ok in combat even when not using spells.

Re: Aasimar - It's a soulbound doll :D

Re: Grippli - I'd actually been hoping that there might be something viable for a grippli that involves using a class/classes I don't have represented among my PFS characters yet. Monk was something I'd actually wondered about as well as gunslinger! I'll have to noodle everything over some more, especially given your suggestions above.

Re: Spellslinger - The spellslinger/sorcerer option of course appeals because I like critters but any of your suggestions seem like they'd be fun to run with.

I do have access to another boon (same chronicle as the Spellslinger boon actually) that basically allows me to start a character at 2nd level with the typical amount of cash/fame/prestige a 2nd level character would have. So that could give the grippli or the spellslinger a boost towards effectiveness and then GM credits could do the rest until they're at level where playing them isn't painful.

And yes, GM chronicles in PFS basically function the way you're thinking. You can get credit for a scenario up to four different times in the following way:

Play it in Standard
GM it in Standard
Play it in Core
GM it in Core

To give an example, I originally played the School of Spirits scenario with my crazy Time oracle. When I ran it for the TL;DR group, I chose to apply the GM chronicle to my fighter - who is Liberty's Edge, to take advantage of the faction-specific boon the chronicle had. If you GM a lot, it's fairly easy to build what're called 'GM babies' that solely exist from GM chronicles. Some people use them for the purpose you suggested - bumping a character up to a point where their build finally starts coming online. Others just use them to skip lower-level play. It's a nice perk for GMing :)

Aasimar

It's a soulbound doll :D

Oh man... my head is spinning with options! What kind of feel do you want?

You could do a great creepy character if you went with some kind of emberkin witch. Or, you could do a sort of naive character caught up in something she doesn't fully understand: maybe a vanilla aasimar shaman who's almost the companion herself to a kind of bossy guide/mentor doll (maybe created by a dying parent to watch over her after they're gone).

The one that really jumps out to me, though, would actually be an eldritch guardian fighter... make her a waifish young woman who looks out of place wearing armor and carrying a big sword (like a greatsword or falchion), but take the angelkin heritage and you can start with 18 Str and still have a good number of points for other stats. You'll only get 1 feat at 1st but power attack is all you need. Make the doll be some kind of representation of her god (maybe Ragathiel or Iomedae) and give it the mauler archetype. At low level it would be pretty fragile so you probably wouldn't want to risk it too much, but once it has battle form it can be a flanking buddy and contribute in combat. The doll has humanoid anatomy and both armor and weapon proficiency are combat feats (which you'd share with your familiar) so you could equip it to make it more effective. Take dangerously curious for one of your traits (and keep a 12+ for Cha) and you'll have some extra utility beyond most fighters too. Personally, I'd be tempted to do something like: Str 18; Dex 14; Con 14; Int 10; Wis 10; Cha 12. And maybe take birthmark for your other trait just for the save bonus vs charm/compulsion?

Grippli
If you're thinking seriously about the monk, I think it would probably be a good candidate for investing some of your GM credits because it will really be a pretty low damage build until 3rd. You'd probably want (or need) to bite the bullet and take an 8 in Str, and at least 16 in both Dex and Wis (after racials) and, honestly, 17-18 Dex would be better. For a build, maybe something like...

If you're not overly worried about suddenly having too many gun users, starting with a level of gunslinger and then leveling as an inquisitor has some potential... as I said before, being small and weak doesn't hurt gun damage very much and judgements/bane on a gun could be pretty effective, I think. Plus the normal buff and utility spells (and a good number of skill points).

Spellslinger
Lol- own your love of critters! A halfling has good stats for this and, being small sized, they can ride a medium sized companion right away. Take a big cat (since you love cats, and they're super good once they get large at 7th) and go for it. Using the boon to start at second would let you have your companion right away (which is obviously helpful), although you might need to save that for the grippli if you want to go with the monk.

Aasimar
Hah! Regarding the soulbound doll, there's a history there - which I suppose I don't have to use, but I think it would be more fun if I did...

Of the three ideas you suggested I think I like the witch and the Eldritch Guardian options best.

Grippli

Hmm...the monk would definitely be fun and is a class I don't have represented among my PFS characters yet. It would take a little bit, even with the boost-to-2nd-level boon, but getting such a character to 3rd via GM chronicles wouldn't be hard to do. But man, to be a frog with a gun...decisions, decisions!

Spellslinger

Funny you mention halfling, since I've got one that I've played once as an oracle but kinda wanted to do something else with. And there's always Reduce Animal or the Narrow Frame feat to deal with large companions in tight spaces...hmm...

Aasimar
I kind of feel like there's a little tension between being thematic with the race and being thematic with the familiar... for the witch, you could go with sort of a Nualia-esque backstory (being burdened by unwanted attention) and be kind of skittish all the time with the creepy doll being your one real friend.

I'm not sure what the time frame is supposed to be from creation of the doll to the game beginning, but the eldritch guardian could be a follower or sympathizer, or even relative, of the cleric who feels some responsibility to care for what remains of her in the doll (although the only real aasimar connection there would be like compassion, I guess...); or, I suppose you could combine those for the eldritch guardian... an assimar who feels isolated because of who she is, finds/receives a strange doll who befriends her and starts grooming her to provide protection and muscle? Or, if the original cleric was a villan, you could go the other direction and have a do-gooder aasimar who bonded with the doll to help it atone for its past?

I just remembered that bloodragers can start with a familiar too (I think... I'm pretty sure bloodline familiars are PFS legal). I don't immediately see any really good way to connect the racial theme and the familiar theme there either but it is another decent option if you want to do a melee-type with a familiar. Maybe she comes from a long line of Ragathiel worshipers (possibly even ones who claim their heritage traces back to him), and they all see their bloodrage as somehow connected to the General of Vengeance, but she has decided to worship Nethys instead and sees the doll as a reward for that commitment, and a helper to strengthen her on her new path?

Grippli
Lol- I don't know why but I actually find the idea of a frog with a gun really amusing...

Spellsinger
I does cost gold, but if you're worried about having to deal with a large mount you could always just switch companions... a big cat starts medium (so a halfling could ride it right away), but small cats (like cheetahs and jaguars) reach medium size at 4th- if you switch over then, your mount will never get any bigger than medium (unless you use a buff spell to grow him).