I've DMed it several times through since it first came out, but I'm good at separating in character and out of character knowledge. If you'd prefer I still don't participate, I fully understand.
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Presenting Alphonse Zindelo, human enchanter. Fluff is done; just need to finish off gear and familiar statistics for crunch.
I almost exclusively go with the familiar. They're just so cute!
Sleep can be amazing and end fights at level 1, but its long casting time can be a pain, and it quickly becomes useless after another couple of levels. Memory lapse can be amazing for those creative sorts, and hypnotism is sometimes just the ticket at low levels, if a tad situational, though you can work to bring it up often enough. Heroism is an excellent long-duration buff from the enchantment school, and hideous laughter is still a fairly solid choice as a SoL spell at level 3 if you are taking a Spell Focus early on (even after the blow it took in the PF update, though if you don't have Spell Focus, just rely on a spell from another school, like glitterdust for the same purpose).
Confused targets automatically attack whatever last attacks them after becoming confused. If you confuse a handful of enemies, one of them is likely to attack the nearest creature, often times an ally. That ally is attacked and thus attacks its friend in response. For the duration of the spell they beat on one another, or at least until one of your friends joins in. It is great to use on a horde of monsters, far less usefull on small groups or singular enemies. Not a huge fan of hold person (don't like the "person" requirement), but hold monster is a personal favorite for the opposite of the above situation (singular enemies or extremely small groups).
From the CRB, confusion, hands down, for the 4th level slot.
If you use (compulsion) spells a lot more often than you use (charm) spells you should be fine. Pesonally I like to hover a bit closer to 12 or 14, but 10, or even 8 is passable if you can live without charm person and charm monster living up to their full potential. Using enchanting smile your Charisma-based skills should still remain more than good enough if you keep them fully ranked-up. Keep in mind that when two caster's try to mind-controll the same creature it is resolved with a Charisma check, so having not a negative can still go a long way if your fighter friend gets charmed/compelled and you want to put him back on your team. Al was an enchanter that I played for several levels until the game he was in died, for reference.
...and sorry you can't have more fun with likeable spellcasters. Hey! I'm likable!
I play a Wizard and he is the party face. Charisma 12, maxed ranks in Diplomacy, no magical tricks. You'll never be great at it, but you'll be decent, since with your high INT you have the skill ranks to throw at it. Getting them as class skills would be nice, but if you've already started in play you probably don't have that option (traits), unless your GM allows you to do a little tweaking - practice your real life convincing skills! :-) Depending on how you set up your traits, if you have traits, you could take the Additional Traits feat as soon as you get the chance and have an open feat slot, it is arguably better than Cosmopolitan, depending on what you want from it.
A fun way to resolve diplomacy to make the check and then role play the result to the best of your capacity. If you end up with a result of 4 then you get a free pass to be a jerk.
"Talking bird"?I... don't know how to make that clearer. A thrush is a bird. As a familiar, it can talk. That is, speak one language. This makes it an incredibly useful scout, messenger, and spy. That it helps you out with a +3 Diplomacy is an added bonus. I think he's parroting you, unless I'm seeing a joke that isn't there.
Most GMs will also take bribery into account on some NPCs. Handing over a small handful of gold is usually worth a circumstance modifier on diplomacy in most games I've seen, or by handing over enough being able to bypass the need for the check entirely. Cologne may grant you a +1 circumstance bonus on CHA skill checks. That is an excellent idea for a "masterwork tool" to grant a +2 circumstance bonus on a skill check. I wonder how many GMs would allow it.
Fast Talker (bluff) and World Traveler (diplomacy) for traits. Human bonus feat: Cosmopolitan (perception and sense motive). Al was face for his party, course he was an enchanter with a +2 CHA mod, so his social skills bested the bard's. Charm Person can stand in for diplomacy in a pinch, but with no modifier in CHA it'll be a bit more difficult to convince your new friend to do things not normally in their nature. Eagle's Splender at level 3 can help make up for the lack of a CHA mod, but that is a touch sacrifice at low levels. Making a Circlet of Persausion at low-mid levels would be a good investment, though you'll likely want another party member to wear it.
Unfortunately the party wiped during a session that I, and by extention Alphonse, couldn't make it the game do to a scheduling conflict. The rest of the group decided to begin a new campaign afterward so it looks like Al has unfortunately retired before his time was up. He'll need to find a new game to join eventually, but is set aside for the time being.
The Fast Talker (Bluff) and World Traveler (Diplomacy) traits, along with the Enchanter class ability, have made Al the face in his party to the point that the bard has stopping putting ranks into the skills. Without burning a feat on Cosmo, they are really the best way to go (without multiclassing, of course). |