Occultist Dresden build

Hi all,

With the new Occult adventures the occultist reminds me quite heavily of my favorite book series, The Dresden Files. I have a level 2 character I am making in this vein, and I decided the Occultist would be a great fit thematically.

Currently I have the following Build:

Harry Dresden Occultist 2

I know this build will be sub-optimal, but I am trying to keep with the theme and I could use some help optimizing with the theme. Thanks in advance

At some point, start taking Item Creation feats (Wand & Staff, definitely, but also Wondrous Item... maybe ring for his blast rings?).

I haven't read the occultist so I don't know for sure if you can craft items or not.

Also he's really good at summoning magic (the crab demon in the first book and Toot Toot), so don't forget that. Maybe Intensify Spell?

If you want to keep going with him (and you've read the later books) you might end up really borking your character since he kind of goes all over the map as he builds in power.

Oh... and don't forget Mister and Mouse :D

Well the cool thing about occultist is they get summoning circles to ask outsiders for advice/help later which is awesome and fits very well. I figure ill let that class feature take care of that portion.

Additionally I was going to avoid most of the Crafting feats because occultist implements are items you can push focus power into that grant abilities like a cloak of resistance, a damage absorption field and more which allows me to get iconic items like his shield bracelet, pentacle necklace, force rings, staff, and blasting rod.

Leadership might not be bad for his friends, I could get a cohort that is a a Advanced Foo Dog, and a spy network of sprites for the Za-Lord's guard.

Its Harry... take amateur gunslinger and buy a pistol!

You will need much fire and a high Con.

For those who don't know the books Harry Dresden is a Wizard detective in the modern day. His magic deals very much with willpower, emotion

Given the premise you should look at the Psychic Detective archetype for the Investigator

Its Harry... take amateur gunslinger and buy a pistol!

Looking at the PF SRD I'm not really sure I want to use that feat the rules are all over the place for that and I think my DM won't be down for the gun portion.

You will need much fire and a high Con.

I think at level 3 intensify spell with the trait to drop the metamagic cost of burning hands by 1 works well, giving me a 5d4+2 burning hands with a save DC of 16 (DC might be a bit low)

Given the premise you should look at the Psychic Detective archetype for the Investigator

the other items of the occultist line up better than investigator with the other portions of the lore but that is a neat Archetype

You will want to pick up a ring of the ram at some point for the force rings.

You'll also want to pick up the run feat and skill focus: acrobatics (PARKOUR!!!).

Looking at the PF SRD I'm not really sure I want to use that feat the rules are all over the place for that and I think my DM won't be down for the gun portion

Just curious, what do you mean by "all over the place"? Is there something about the firearm rules that doesn't make sense to you, or are you just generally opposed to getting guns in your medieval fantasy? It's always a good idea for a caster to have a backup, only-for-emergencies physical weapon, and guns are kind of awesome for that.

As to the build:
Not super for optimizing, but great for RP, would be the Bruising Intellect trait (Intimidate as a class skill and use Int instead of Cha for the skill), flavored as Harry being an acerbic twit. I personally disagree with the Int to UMD trait, as Harry doesn't actually have a need for UMD. He crafts all of his own magic/wondrous items, and therefore doesn't really need to fake his way through requirements. Something to help him with crafting at some point would be great, though.

I'm also not sure I agree with Spell Focus:Evocation, as Harry points out several times (especially early in his career) that he's actually not very good at it. He has lots of raw power, but what he excels at is divination (lost objects found, gathering information, etc.).

The only focus power that jumps out at me for Evocation is Energy Blast, as most of the other ones are better covered by other abilities (Energy Ward vs Energy Shield) or just patently not Harry (Shape Mastery). For Abjuration, I'd say it's a coin-flip between Aegis flavored as the added protection on Harry's leather jacket(which could totally be an Armored Coat because of the lack of ASF for psychic magic), or Loci Sentry for Harry's "wards".

For your feats, I would say that one of Harry's defining traits is that he just. Keeps. Getting. Up. Toughness would make a lot of sense, as would Diehard depending on how nice your DM is about waiving pre-reqs/giving bonus feats for RP/background purposes (because, Endurance. Blech.) Also, picking up the Craft feats (especially Wondrous Item and Brew Potion) make a lot of sense. It makes me sad that the potion thing kind of died off a little ways in, but oh well.

It's too bad that there's not an option to base the occultist abilities on Wis instead of Int, as Harry's powers really come more from his willpower and sense of self much more than they do from book learning. He literally has an artifact/cohort to make up for the fact that he's not particularly knowledgeable, but he's incredibly canny and perceptive. C'est la vie.

I love the flavor of the occultist, but it's kind of unfortunate that there are so few good options for people who want to play it like a real caster. Most of the best builds people are coming up with are built around transmutation and bane abilities, which really isn't Harry.

Aside from those thoughts and opinions, I think he looks great! I don't think he's particularly sub-optimal, and I hope you have a ton of fun playing him!

EDIT
+1 for a Ring of the Ram. There's optional (possibly 3rd party) rules somewhere for wearing multiple rings, and if your DM would let you swing it then having multiples of those would be fun.