Angra Mainyu's page

You can optimize if you like, but dont forget about the requirements to have things like diplomacy trained. Season 5 (so far) has a lot of RP requirements. Combats arent as bad as some of the difficult season 4's.

Demoyn, as you apparently do not reside or play in San Antonio, you probably have no idea what the situation is in San Antonio because of 'politics'. Perhaps you should venture here and determine what the situation is currently. Braedons desire to be in the politics is rather irrelivent as he is going to be in partial control of the region. He is going to have to be part of it simply because of his position.

Braeden, we already have venues in San Antonio. The VLs we had until recent events did a wonderful job setting everything up.

Dont underestimate Evil Eye. Its a guarenteed effect on anything that is subject to mind effecting. If the target saves, it still lasts a round and can be extended with cackle. Probably not necessary at level 1, but probably worth it at 2. Its pretty versatile and can be stacked to each attribute. So one round hit saves, next round hit ac, etc. It also jumps to a -4 at later levels.

I look at combat with a witch this way: your one bbeg just saved against misfortune or slumber and your out of spells (pretty normal at low levels). What are you going to do every round? Stand there and delay or hammer away with Evil Eye.

Jingasa of the fortunate soldier. +1 ac and once a day it can negate a crit or sneak attack.

I started off rolling without a screen because we have had a gm in our home game admit he wasnt honest about his rolls behind the screen and usually in favor of the monsters. Another was suspect. I wanted to be more transparent about my rolling and havent wanted hide any of my rolls.

Thats not saying I dont fudge in the favor of a brand new player or level 1-2 toon when necessary. Math can conviently be mistaken on close rolls and the few players that are metagaming the math usually wont complain if its in their benefit.

That said, there was one time I had to fudge a damage roll and an individual said something. He is one that always metagaming monster knowledge and looks over the GM notes while your not looking though. So I'm really not too concerned. I don't think he understands that sometimes its more important to keep a new player happy. Luckally in my experience, this is a rare individual.

I guess what im rambling about is that rolling behind a screen is not necessary in order to protect the players, if thats your modivation for using the screen.

if you go with the animal companion(AC) your going to want to up your charisma. To get your AC to do a trick requires a dc 10 handle animal check. To make it do something without a trained trick is a dc 25 'push' handle animal check.

Is there any word on what to do with these? As a GM, Im not comfortable handing out these pregens as they make bad examples of what a character can do.

...Some of us have system mastery and don't need such things, we're likely only to use it for power, like retraining tribal scars into toughness at later levels, or grabbing a new feat when it's awesome. ...

This is the type of concept people are 'hating'. Im pretty sure most people are ok with people fixing bad choices for feats and such. The problem is people are going to further power game options. Its also probably why there is the prestige tax on top of the gold cost.

Could you share more about her build? Casty druid? wild shape focused? Level? etc

I am rather opposed to the idea of retraining traits of any kind (including the approved racial traits). Skills, feats, classes are all things that are trained. Trained things can be retrained. People can learn how do use a different weapon or swing it in a new way.

But, traits are something that act at a deeper level to the character. It gives it a method of behavior that is much more difficult to unlearn. Yes they act as mini-feats, but that is a secondary effect of the trait. Yes, people pick traits based on what they add to the characters abilities. The primary reason for them to exist is for the flavor added to the character. Retraining a trait would mean your erasing a background and replacing it with a new background. That just doesnt work out in my mind. I think the mistake made by Paizo was allowing racial traits retraining. Without that, there would be no debate here.

If they are going to allow general traits to be retrained, they may as well allow race to be changed too. Because nothing says 'this makes no sense' like allowing the race to change.

There was some discussion about how some people plan out details and some people dont and make the wrong choices. Well, if people choose to not plan details either by choice or by not knowing any better they really should live with those choices. I made plenty of mistakes on character development and I learned because of those mistakes. A mistake on a trait is so minor it doesnt really matter. People can 'suffer' with a useless trait on the rare occasion that one was picked.

I did a quick audit on the new pregenerated characters and found some possible problems. I love the effort to get new pregens out, but would like to see some corrections made.

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Barbarian: has two combat traits

Bard: has a potion of expeditious retreat which is a personal spell and personal spells cant be potions.

Druid: level 4 has Natural spell. Cant legally take this at 3 as far as I know as druids dont get wild shape until 4. So the earliest I can justify it is 5th level.

Monk: Spring attack has a bab requirement of 4 and at 4th level it has a bab of 3.

Ranger: has two combat traits

Samurai: level 7 has Greater Weapon Focus which has a class requirement of 8.

Wizard: the defensive concentration bonus is 16 and should be 18 by my math.
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Anyone else find anything?

there are a few advantages to the shaman lines. Totem Transformation and the ability to summon your animal type as a standard action and with templates. For the bear shaman, there is no advantage in wild shaping, only negatives. So the question is: are the benefits worth the -2 on wild shape? For most people thats going to be a no on anything other than the saurian shaman since theres such a large list of dinosaurs to pick from.

...
I posted the idea on facebook for my local PFS folks, so I could get feed back, and the response has been much worse than here. The nicest being:
"Doing it's a great way to end up being tripped as the party flees."
"A wizard who doesn't cast spells would only be kept around until a wizard who did cast spells showed up."

The terms "babysitting" and "Incompetent" were thrown around alot.

That plus the other thread (in the non-PFS section) I started asking for opinions and getting nothing but crap thrown back at me about how it's basically a stupid idea really took me from loving gaming, to wanting to bail on all the gaming I do (3-4 games a week)for a long wile, in the space of an hour or so.

People are bold when their face is hidden behind a screen. Sorry your concept was not well taken. Its a great concept, but unfortunatly many great concepts just don't work out.

The main problem is the expectation that everyone will come to the table prepared for combat. Using scrolls are nice conceptually. But, then you run into the problem that you have to pay for those scrolls constantly, so you have no money for items.

I like your melee sorcerer idea. Its not something usually played. It would probably go over with some confused looks until everyone got used to you killing everything.

I do buy things during the course of a game if they make sense to buy at the time. That makes sense to have a GM initial. Other stuff, I need time between games to research. As a GM, I don't look forward to having to review all players' purchases and sign off on them... heck, it's hard enough to complete some scenarios at conventions when you are on a schedule and just get the standard paperwork filled out (Chronicles, etc.). (groan)

Love it when people misread the guide. Only things it says to initial are learning a new spell from a scroll or training an animal companion. Its in Step 8 of the guide on page 36. The only other mention of signing off the sheet is following a full review of the filled in sheet and signing at the bottom on the GM signiture line.

Technically, the players responsibility is to write purchases and fill in the top of the sheet before the GMs final signiture.

...

Magic Item buys: CLW wand, Magic Fang Wand, ?? Druid Vestment for 1 extra shape/day? Natural armor amulet+1?
...
Spells:
lvl 1: CLWx4
lvl2: Barkskinx3
lvl3: CMWx2
...

With PFS, the opportunity to spend 2 prestige on a single 750g item usually means everyone should spend 2 prestige on a CLW wand early on. This really frees up the 'healer' to memorize useful spells. So, my best recomendation is have everyone get their own wand and hand them to you during the scenerio. I would probably leave one CMW and CLW for just in case instances where your wild shaped (your wand is morphed into your shape and cant use it) and in-combat emergencies. The rest of the healing can be handled between fights and with wands usually.

Theres two basic problems with the stratagy of creating and selling. first, you as a GM have the ability to limit the resources available to him for crafting items. Its not 'I remove gold from my pile and craft an item'. They have to go to a shop and buy the materials. So limit the amount available. Also, shops have to buy the item. There are limits on what a town can afford. I forget where that chart is, but I'm sure someone can post it for you.

Theres also rules about how long it takes to craft items in the core book. Read it carefully. While traveling its basically 250g worth of an item per day.

Crafting is often a problem for effective wealth and power per level. Our home group had to ban it because it caused too much of a problem.

Had a random thought and started being curious. How many arms are required for a medium sized creature to carry a large two hander? I remember seeing that it was 3 somewhere, but have been unable to find that thread. Anyone know?

You may have picked some invalid evolutions combinations here. What evolutions have you taken?

To use a katana you are going to need limbs(arms). To use the slam, you also need a set of arms. So thats 2 sets of arms. After that, you would have a bite and a set of claw attacks from your legs.

As long as you have the correct evolutions, yes, its perfectly legitimate to have full natural attacks and 2 swings with your sword.

Don't forget that you can also cast shield and barkskin on your eidolon for another huge boost to its AC.

Something our VL does for people interested in GMing, but a bit nervous, is to set up a home game with the more dedicated players and the new GM. This sets up a more caring and nuturing environment where the seasoned players can offer advice, know the rules, and they dont work against the scenerio. The primary goal is to get the GM comfortable leading. After a couple games like this, the GM has a better idea of what to expect and gets a little GM credit on a character. Having the players bring snacks and such also helps make the game more comfortable.

If you are looking for guidelines of what are preferable to each race, you may want to consider picking up the Animal Archive companion book. Page 5 makes excellent suggestions of what would be appropriate for a particular race.

Do some GMs cheat? With the number of GMs in the PFS world it would be silly to make a claim that at least one doesnt. The odds are some do. The reality is that its a tiny problem. The odds are also that the GM your suggesting isnt cheating.

Have you considered that your mistaken? Its easy to misread dice from across a table or even right in front of it. Happens to me every time I play. I have misread my own dice and had to recant an optimal situation. It happens.

Have you considered that the GM isn't targeting anyone? I know many power gamers (closeted and outspoken). Each of them express this problem each time something doesnt go in their favor. It is easy to spotlight a single occasion and ignore the rest, its human nature. Its hard to evenly review the complete situation and still come up with the same conclusion.

Just like the GM makes the choice to cheat as you claim, you also make choices every time you sit at a table to play. You have the choice to not sit at all, enjoy the game for any aspect you chose, or not enjoy it at all. In this case, you seem to have chosen to not enjoy it at all yet sit and play.

What is your modivation to play? Is it to do the most damage, participate in a group activity, enjoy a plot, maybe break a scenerio. Im not saying any of these are wrong or right. But, you may find your answer is not meeting up with those around you. This in itself will cause tension and may be spotlighting nothing into something as compensation.

You have mentioned that your comfortable speaking with players. Speak to the GM. Hopefully in a civil and non-accusitory way. You may find that all those questions I posed are not without merit.

If your going to be as hostile as you have been in this thread, you may want to reconsider talking to anyone. Evaluate your modivations and consider the posiblities your ignoring. Based on pure odds alone, your probably mistaken about many things and the thread posts you have made may point to them.

Theres some good advice in this post chain and theres some you should probably avoid. Talking to the player is always the best route. The player may simply be mistaken and not cheating. As a gm, you really should give the players the benifit of erroring that way. This prevents GM verses Player.

GM verses Player is basically saying im the boss and you have to do what I want all the time. Nobody wants to play under a tyrant. Messing with the players character as punishment is another example. It sets up a conflict between people and personalities begin to clash, feelings get hurt and friendships are lost.

As a GM, your pretty much responsible for knowing the majority of what classes being played can do. You cant know everything. At the table, its ok to admit openly that your unfamiliar with a particular rule and would like to see something in the book. Asking gently for the player to locate something while you continue on is perfectly fine. The phrasing of your question can be the difference between a hostile player and one that is excited to get to show off their knowledge. Shoot for the excited.

Just like there is GM verses Player there is also GM verse characters. One of the trap many gms fall into is combating everything a character can do. Basically, this is the gm style of 'oh, you have invisibility now and everything has see invisibility'. It works and is effective at one thing: Making the players feel like their choices in character development are pointless. Players react to this as if its GM verses Player and may start taking it personal. Breaking abilities sometimes is great, breaking them always is really bad.

My opinion of GMing is probably pretty obvious by this point. The GM is there to bring a world to life and give the players a fun experience all within the confines of a rule system (in this case Pathfinder). The GM has to sacrifice his own drive to be a player and win. Winning kills (hp or abilities) the characters which is no fun for players.

Specifically to the witch: its a powerful debuffing class. Theres not a lot that can be done about that fact. When created properly, it should be able to do something about everything. Just make sure its legal.

Specifically to the blood drinking: evil is what you define it as. If you consider the characters actions evil, warn the player, wait for it to continue, then slide the player one step towards the alignment you find appropriate. The player has to make up their mind of what they want to play alignment wise within the rules you set for your world. Be clear and consistant.

Putting that all into perspective on what you wrote, I think your on the right track and you picked up on something fishy. Talk to your players as adults and try to keep a civil conversation on what you think evil means and what the rules mean. If it continues, consider talking to the player more pointedly. It if still continues, consider asking the player to leave or step down as GM.

Both classes can do a lot of different things. The hard part is focusing them on a couple. Some people like to focus them on doing one thing extremely well, but this can lead to situations where they cant do anything at all. So I think its something to avoid. Having one concept as a primary idea is good, just keep a secondary one that you can do well and you should be ok.

Summoners tend to be build improperly because they take very careful reading of the complete section. Most players forget that if it doesnt specifically say you can take an evolution multiple times, you can only take it once. Reach is also misread and applied to multiple attacks. It only does a single attack.

Im a huge fan of the oracle. The big down side to them is they get a limited spell list like a sorcerer. So, picking spells takes a lot of care. I recommend picking ones that are either versitile or ones that you would want to cast multiple times in a day. The rest can be scrolls that you carry around.

the only allowed companions are listed in the core rule book, the bestiariesn and maybe some of the random companion books. I believe they are all animals. sorry.

*Note: The Animal Magic Item Slots table found on the inside front cover of the book is not legal except under the following conditions. First, an animal companion, familiar, or bonded mount, may choose one slot listed under its body type when taking the Extra Item Slot feat (this feat may be taken multiple times, each time selecting a different available magic item slot based on the creature’s anatomy). Second, access to specific magic item slots may be granted at a later date by another legal source.

What slots are available by default? There was some confusion before about what was legal and what was not. The general concensus I got was that armor with the proficency feat and a necklace was legal. Does armor require an additional feat for the slot? I guess the neck slot is out now?

Hey a bit off the topic, but got me thinking about it anyway. If a Witch's Hex states a "Will Save" negates, can the hex be of any use at all against monsters that have no will save (or wisdom score for that matter)?

Depends on the curse. Some of the are mind effecting so it depends on the immunities of the creature.

At level 1 the witch gets 3 level 1 spells plus int modifier. Its on page 67 of the APG.

The only problem I see is that you will have problems outside of a fight with a charisma of 7. Society loves diplomacy for its faction missions.

Something worth noting is that you can always pick up a Wand of Magic Missile with 2 prestige points. Its an auto hit for a little damage and you always feel like you have something to do. That one wand can get you through the first few levels as well. It doesn't get you away from the UMD thing you mentioned, but you end up with versitility of your main spells.

Pretty much, expect about 4 combats per scenerio without resting. Theres exceptions, but they are pretty few.

As far as I know, the person who created the event will need to report it.

The only problem I see with the build would be that you took power attack at level 1. The prerequisite is "Str 13, base attack bonus +1". A summonerers bab is 0 at first level.

A few things to consider - reach for at least one of the eidolon's attacks (bite)

reach can only be taken for one attack (not type) and only one time.

Other than that, it looks interesting. Hopefully this build works out for you.

I find it interesting that you say, "I personally like rolling in the open because it shows the players your not lying to them," but that is what you advocate with your dice tactics. I don't take issue with your intentions, I just think the methodology is odd.

I probably should have been more clear. This is something that is very uncommonly used. Perhaps once per a low level game. It is also done for the benefit of the player being attacked so they dont die. I have no problem knocking a player out, but I really don't want to kill one at low levels unless they are clearly being stupid about things.

There are good sides to the screen and there are bad. I personally like rolling in the open because it shows the players your not lying to them. But, what they see is a die roll not the math going on behind it.

There are subtle tricks to fudging rolls when rolling in the open.
- dont tell them the final total on the attack roll. Ask for their AC value instead and then tell them if it hit or not. If you have to fudge, this is your chance to lower it so you actually miss.
- damage is more difficult because you have to give a total. But mistakes are made in math all the time. When its in the players favor, they usually will not say anything thinking they got lucky.
- use dice that are hard to read. Theres lots of color combinations out there that make it difficult to read at a distance.
- roll the die and pick it as quickly as possible to read it. You rolled in front of everyone to give the appearance of honesty, they couldnt read the die, and you gave the appearance you couldnt either until you picked it up. This means you can make up whatever number you need. Just in case they saw the roll, never give it a higher value.
- the more experienced players may realize what your doing. But again, your working in their favor so they arent going to say anything.

I have also seen where people using the screen will confirm the crit rolls to the players by lifting the screen to give the appearance of honesty too. This goes a long way to gain the appreciation of the group.

Dispel Magic works very well.

... It's too powerful and should be removed as it makes ranged attackers useless no matter what they do. Maybe if it only affected one target I'd say ok.

Going by this method, fly should be banned because it causes most melee to be useless. The reality is, sometimes people are useless. Thats why its a group game and they should work together to overcome obsticals. Both divine and arcane casters can use dispel magic and a group without either is going to have a lot of trouble accomplishing anything after level 7 or 8.

What can the skeleton/zombie template be applied to and still be PFS legal?

I play a bones oracle in PFS and now have the Raise the Dead revelation. But, im not sure what to do with it. In the rules section it was mentioned at one point that the skeleton can be anything not just a human skeleton from the bestiary. Is this true for PFS?
-What stats get used for the skeleton/zombie?
-Does a human type have a 20point buy as well?
-How many hit points does it get for the first level?

Raise the Dead (Su): As a standard action, you can summon a single skeleton or zombie to serve you. The undead creature has a number of Hit Dice equal to your oracle level. It remains for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. At 7th level, you can summon a bloody skeleton or fast zombie. At 15th level, you can summon an advanced skeleton or zombie. You can use this ability once per day plus one additional time per day at 10th level.

I like the dwarf for your idea. Just not with the lame curse. I would probably recommend legalistic out of Blood of Fiends. It comes with no draw backs basically and you wont get enough levels in oracle to ever get benefits of a curse.

I wouldnt say your feat starved by any means. You only need 3 feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, and Vital Strike. You still have a floater at level 5. You can save one feat (Improved Critical) by getting keen on your weapon as well.

As a dwarf, you can move full speed in heavy armor, you just dont get the speed increase from barbarian. If you take the Dance of Blades revelation you would still get 30 feet. If you go with Armored Hulk and get profenciency you wouldnt have to take the Skill at Arms revelation which frees it up for Dance of Blades. Sounds like a nice combination. Later with the Armored Hulk bonuses, you would definatly be quick in fullplate.

With multiclassing in barbarian, you have to be very careful with your rage rounds. At the end of each rage your fatigued for 2 rounds for every 1 round of rage. So, you have to conserve so you dont run out mid fight and become an exhaused lump. Pretty much, you just rage after getting to the bad boy of the group and not when attacking mooks.

When it comes to your casting ability, you have to make a choice of how important its going to be to you. Either have more melee ability or more casting. Everyone is going to be preferenced to one or the other. There really isnt a middle ground or set method to pick.

...

Here's what I have figured:
- I want to be a dwarf, lame metal rage prophet who only ever does 1 thing a round
- Recover some speed and get heavy armor with revelations
...
So questions:
- Will I actually be able to hit anything? Sure I'm always at full BaB but I'm also taking on an inherent -2 from the oversized weapon and don't have full BaB progression
- If hitting is a problem is furious focus a good idea or is it a waste because there are other ways to deal with these issues?
...
- What barb/oracle split should I do? I know I need at least 2-2 but after that I can't decide
- Do I really need more than a starting cha of 12 that I boost as I go? There's no real reason to have more cha than what I need to cast my highest level spell right?
- Any general advice on stuff to take?

Lame on a dwarf is going to hurt really bad. You will only be moving 15ft and the benefits are already given to you by being a dwarf. You would get +10 movement from being a barbarian, but you dont get that in heavy armor.

This benefit applies only when she is wearing no armor, light armor, or medium armor, and not carrying a heavy load

You could take "Dance of Blades" and "Skill at Arms", though your burning a feat (Extra Revelation) for one of them. The problem with this is that with the Lame curse, your base speed just jumped to 30ft and that means your going to lose 10ft of movement, so your back to 20ft again.

I recommend sticking with medium armor. You could get your dwarf up to 30ft movement with the lame curse which is pretty nice to have. You would also save a feat by not having to buy a second revelation.

Since your going the the route of power attack/vital strike and a two hander, I do recommend furious focus. You are going to want as much attack bonus as you can get early on. It doesnt hurt later when your taking a -2 or more on your first swing. Some people do think its a waste though later on when you get more than one attack. I lean towards higher attack bonus is better.

I wouldnt bother going any farther than 2 in oracle. Its benefits dont show until you get to 4 with 2nd level spells. Spell casting doesnt seem to be what your looking for. If your going to go with an oversized weapon and 2 hand it, I also recommend the Titan Mauler. It replaces your fast movement, which doesnt matter if you stick with heavy armor. If you do go with the titan mauler, you may want 6 levels of it so you negate that -2 for oversized weapons. 3 levels of titan mauler would work too and it would get you into Rage Prophet at 6.

A 12 in charisma at level 1 should be fine. You wont need more than that until after level 12. This can be solved by putting your 4,8,or 12 stat adjustment into charisma or getting a headband of charisma. I prefer the stat adjustment route myself.

When you succeed in a save, you know. You may not know what you saved against, or by how big a margin you made it, but you know.

But one may remain blissfully oblivious of a failed save.

Sorry, my fault. I meant if the players were casting the spell.

When GMing, I tend to have a conflict with myself over telling players the results of a spell save. Spells with a visual effect if the save fails are easy (suffocation for example). But, what about ones where there are no visual clues that something has happened? For example, a witches misfortune hex or doom. Any GMs out there have an opinion?

Edit: I should have put in there that the players would be casting the spell. Should they know if their spell failed basically.

Kingmaker has the problem of being basically single fight days. Its difficult to combat any caster like that. Witch debuffs are pretty brutal given time to use them all. Realistically, without breaking the AP your sorta stuck with a witch with lots of debuffing.

The key reason to play a witch is for their debuffing prowess. Its pretty much the only job they have. Taking that away by artifically cranking up saves is just going to piss off your players and you may be asked to not GM again. We had to ask a GM to stop his AP because he fudged the rules so much. He fell into one of the fatal traps GMs run into and started combating the pcs.

I always get a little scared when people offer advice and basically say 'break the rules'. The DM has the responsibilty to enforce rules. If they can't follow them, then the expectation is that the players aren't going to either.

Best recommendations are to move away after getting misfortuned, the cackle also has a range of 30ft. So just moving 40ft total distance shuts down the combination. The natural response from the witch will be to move closer and closer before using the hex. Eventually, they will just get close enough for the monsters to hit them. Be careful not to do this everytime, though.

I have a demon-spawn teifling bones oracle. Its lots of fun to play in pfs when you have the right players at the table. Like mentioned before, its not a weak mystery. Its just 'different'. Its not a heavy hitter by any means. Its just really fun to play and is still effective. I have raise the dead, deaths touch and undead servitude on mine so far.

Raise the dead is interesting...theres little direction on what can and cant be your skeleton base creature so its going to be up to the gm on what they are going to allow which can get uncomfortable to some. I recommend talking to your coordinator or VL on what is allowed and what isnt. I still need to do that with mine, until then I am using the human skeleton from the bestiary. Its not a killer, but makes a great flanking buddy for the group.

Deaths Touch is not as bad as it seams. It does not provoke AoO when used and does not have a save when it hits like inflict spells do. Since its a touch attack, its easy to hit things with it. Like you also mentioned, it can be used to heal undead too.

Undead Servitude is pretty potent. I was able to aquire a zombie minion with it in the first fight of one game and never lost it throughout the scenerio. I have heard of others grabbing some pretty impressive undead with it. Its limited to your hit dice so sometimes its not useable unless you take the Undead Master feat. This is pretty much my answer to what to do when attacked by undead.

Bleeding Wounds is my next revelation, I think I originally underestimated it. Theres been too many times when the enemies were sitting at 1 or 2 hit points and the bleed would have finished the fight. It also allows for continued damage after switching targets.

I do use inflict spells along with everything else as my main damage dealing. Cast, then walkup and touch works well for a leading attack before using deaths touch or my morning star.

Have your friend do a lot of reading on whats possible with animate dead and the lesser animate dead spells. Humanoids are very good to animate, but creatures are pretty great. I just hit level 4 and haven't had a chance to animate anything yet, but should be fun. Again, talk to the leadership and see what they are going to allow in terms of number of minions. Theres different interpretations floating around.

If you want reach spell, use a rod. its cheap and wont eat up higher level spell slots.

I have a design for a flame oracle thats an archer. Since its PFS, you can take the andoran trait "hunter's eye" which will give you profeciency with either a longbow or shortbow and will save you that feat. If you go with human, you get point-blank and precise shot at level one.

feats:
1: Point-blank shot, precise shot
3: Rapid shot
5: Weapon focus
7: Deadly aim
9: Manyshot
11: whatever

Your not going to keep up with damage output compared with other archers, but others arent going to have blasty spells like burning hands and fireball. Flame also has the ability to fly at 7th level which is a must with some pfs scenerios.

The party healer is a bit misunderstood. I think most people hit on it by saying its not 'needed'. But, it depends on your GM.

I've played a healing focused cleric, a melee focused cleric and a battle oracle. So far, I like the oracle the best for its ability to heal while fighting and focus stats better than a cleric. It also ends up with plenty of spells per day to throw out heals between fights and buff.

That being said, I have the problem of firehose GMs throwing out enough damage for multiple healers. My current game has 3 players able to heal and usually we run out of spells after 3 fights. His favorite way to 'challenge' the party is to kick up the attack bonus to meet the highest AC in the group meaning everyone else gets hit on very low numbers. He also increases their hitpoints and the number of monsters. Needless to say, theres a lot of damage dice flying around behind the GM screen. Ok, I think im done complaining now.

I strongly discourage a focused party healer. Its boring as hell, just leads to frustration for the player and some GMs just want to throw more damage to keep the healer busy. I do encourage 2 half healers (witch, druid, inquisitor, etc) though. That way nobody is stuck playing the healer, everyone has something to do in combat and if one healer goes down the other can bring them back to life.

Can people please quit recommending potions of see invisibility, they dont exist see invisibility is a personal only spell and is not eligible to be a potion barring GM fiat.

Perhaps if you pointed out where this rule is people would listen? I have yet to find it myself.

Sometimes invisible fliers happen. You can go the route mentioned repeatedly counter everything the party does and basically punish them for being creative. I wouldnt. We have a couple people that like to GM this way and it ends up making no sense.

One person mentioned that NPCs learn the parties tactics...This make no sense because the usually the tactics are used to wipe out the opponents. Unless a random boss is watching at every turn, they are never going to learn the parties tactics. But, rare occasions when people run away or somehow survive happen too. This can give some caution to the boss and make for a more interesting encounter later. It also gives a legitimate posibility for things like see invis and such.

Another suggestion was to buff encounters. This works to a limited degree. Our gms tend to over do it though and adjust the encounter to the difficulty of the most overpowered character in the party. This just ruins the fights for the average PC and encourages meta and overpowered gaming.

Given what little I know about your situation, I would have moved the fight away from the dungeon too. It makes little sense for the barb to stay where he got the sword when theres an army to raise. I would have also made it extremely difficult on the party to find the barbarian after he left. An eight hour minimum (spell recovery time) head start is pretty good. There would have been encounters along the way too. I learned the hard way that casters with a full spells per day list is pretty powerful. Wearing them down some helps cut down the 1 minute rampage effect. Module dungeons (in my opinion) are just there to drain the party while providing a direct avenue to the boss. Moving it outdoors really shouldn't change that methodology.

I say, chalk it up to experience and keep GMing. If the fights are a little easy, its less work for you. The big thing is keeping it fun for everyone, including yourself.

I let a game run that the players enjoyed, but I stopped enjoying as the GM. It burned me out over a couple months of trying to create something that would challenge and entertain them in combat. It didn't work because they would always do something unexpected. Its how it goes. I recommend letting them have their tactics and not take them away from them. That just becomes frustrating for everyone.

A battle oracle can get access to all martial weapons. Though some of the bonus spells would be a waste.

If your gm would allow it, theres a trait in the PFS guide for andoran that gives access to either a longbow or shortbow (your choice). That would allow archery without feats or multiclassing.

Theres always an inquisitor as well. Seems like they were designed to be an archer firehose.

One of the reasons the chain fighter was popular in 3.5 was that the spiked chain had reach. In pathfinder it does not have reach. You probably already noticed that though.

The build looks fine. The only unusual thing I see is your AC. Since your going to be in melee range all the time, a 15 seems really low. I recommend getting 4-mirror armor at 45g. It will slow you to 20ft, but the 6ac will help a lot.

I also recommend dropping your str to 18 and increasing your con to 14. Your not taking toughness and your going to get hit a lot as a two-handed fighter.

What are you planning for your main function when not animating? You mentioned a little about healing but that wont take too many rounds up. It would be a little easier to help you with your build if we know.

Not sure if this will be helpful or not...I chose the oracle over the cleric for animating/touch spells due to the better focus on stats and spells per day boost. My demon-spawn tiefling bones oracle focuses on save or suck type spells along with inflicts. For that my stats ended up as 16,12,13,10,8,18. This gives him something to do with touch attacks and melee with his morningstar in the event of running low on spells and combating undead. I dont recommend the wisdom hit, but it works out in the long run with will being a good oracle save.

Feats:
1: Extra Revelation: Undead Servitude which grants Command Undead
3: Spell Focus: Necromancy
5: Undead Master (ultimate Magic)
7: ? probably combat casting
9: Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
11: ?