Akyrak

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Organized Play Member. 29 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 3 Organized Play characters.



Sczarni

I'm playing in a campaign module as a level 5 Gnomish Alchemist. I took the Chirugeon and Wasteland Blighter Archetypes, along with Healing Bombs and the Healing Hands Feat, in order to act as the party's demi-healer. But mostly we do fine with potions and wands, so my healing powers are handy but not 100% essential. Which means that usually I contribute damage to the group in the form of bombs. And they do great! It's awesome!

But even as a Gnome with the Favored Class Bonus, I can only throw 9 bombs a day as a level 5 Alchemist, and we usually have multiple combats between each rest period. These combats also tend to be small affairs, with 1-3 enemies, and usually it's just not the perfect situation for tossing bombs. Sometimes I just need to snipe.

What are some good options to boost my non-bomb damage? My stats are aimed at casting and bomb-throwing, with Dex and Intelligence being my best, and Strength being the worst (it's a 9). I do have a decent AC (19 before buffs) and the highest HP of the party (48). If I can get a recently-looted Mithril Shirt reshaped to fit a Small creature instead of a Medium creature, it'll be even better.

My +1 Crossbow is doing ok for damage, but I'm just not great at using it, since my Feats are being eaten up by bombing and healing. Any suggestions on a low-investment way to do semi-useful damage as an Alchemist when either out of bombs, or trying to conserve them?

I do have Targeted Bomb Admixture for single target damage, but that still uses up my limited bomb supply for the day.

Sczarni

I've done a bunch of Google research, and read threads here, on Reddit, and on some other forums. It seems like the general consensus is that an Alchemist CAN act as a party healer in Pathfinder, mostly thanks to the Wasteland Blightbreaker + Chirurgeon Archetype combo and the Healing Bombs Discovery. There's some extra boosts in the form of Spontaneous Healing + Healing Touch Discoveries, too. A Wand of CLW is pretty boss, too.

'm playing in a game using the Strange Aeons, and the DM is kinda new. So he's wary of me getting TOO crazy with material from all sorts of random books. I think he'd prefer if I was just an Oracle or something, but... I've done Oracles and Clerics. I don't really enjoy them.

What I DO enjoy is the idea of throwing bombs at people to heal them, and fixing their wounds by stabbing a syringe of health into their face.

Does this sort of Alchemist seem viable to keep a party of fairly newbie players alive? Or should I bite the bullet and play something more mundane and more suited for healing?

Sczarni

The War Blessing Feat says it requires a Domain or Mystery, so it seems it's designed to be a thing Oracles can get... but I have no idea which Blessings an Oracle Mystery qualifies you for.

"Choose two warpriest blessings when you take this feat. Each of these blessings must be tied to a domain granted by your deity or to one of the two domains that represent your spiritual inclination and abilities."

I assume the "one of the two domains that represent your spiritual inclination and abilities" line is referring to Oracles. Nowhere in the Mystery descriptions do I find any references to which Domains are related to each Mystery. What Blessings can a Bones Oracle or Life Oracle pick from?

Obviously I'd say Death for Bones and Healing for Life, but the Feat specifically says "one of the two domains" so.. there should be a second, right? How do you figure that out? Is the second half of Bones... Darkness? Destruction? Evil? Magic? Do Life Oracles choose from Healing and... Good? Protection?

Sczarni

My first PFS character, a Bones Oracle / Undead Sorcerer just leveled up, giving me access to the Raise the Dead revelation. Now I can raise a skeleton or zombie with 3HD (my Oracle level is 3). That's pretty cool, except I have no idea how to calculate a 3HD skeleton or zombie.

I've searched the forums and found that there doesn't seem to be a consensus on if you just take the generic "Human Skeleton" or "Human Zombie" template and keep adding hit dice to it, or if you can summon any zombie/skeleton that has that many hit dice.. or if you apply the zombie/skeleton template to a regular monster with that many hit dice. The first choice (just buffing the regular Human Skeleton) seemed to be the simplest.

So I went at it. I'm running off internet resources, since I had no idea that I'd need the Bestiary just to use my Oracle Revelation. It's on my to-buy list, but I haven't gotten it yet.

According to what I've read here on the forums and gotten from the System Reference Document, each a 3HD skeleton should look like this:

Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 12 (3d8)
Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +3
DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee broken scimitar +2 (1d6), claw –1 (1d4+1) or 2 claws +4 (1d4+2)
STATISTICS
Str 15, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 14
Feats: Improved Initiative

I took the basic 1 HD skeleton, added +2 BAB, +1 Fort, +1 Ref, +1 Will and +8HP. Does that look correct? I think each HD adds 0.75 BAB, +0.33 For, +0.33 Ref, +0.5 Will and +4HP.

Sczarni

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

I'm working on an undead-slaying caster character headed for the Soul Warden prestige class. I just hit level 4 in PFS, so I'm almost ready to take my first level of Soul Warden. One more rank of Knowledge (Religion) will qualify me.

My question is how the different forms of Channeling that I'll have will stack and combine.

From being a Bones Oracle with the Undead Servitude Revelation, I get the ability to Channel Negative Energy (Charisma Mod +3) times per day. This ability is only to use the Command Undead feat, but it does count as a Channel and can be modified with Feats that improve the Channel ability.

From being a Soul Warden, I'll get the ability to Channel Positive Energy (Charisma Mod +3) times per day. I can only use that to damage undead, but again, it counts as a regular Channel and can be improved or modified by Feats.

The big questions are:

1) Do I now have two different abilities? I can Channel Negative X times per day, and also Channel Positive X times per day? Or do I only get X Channels and have to decide if it's negative or positive each time I use it?

2) When using the Soul Warden Positive Channel, do my levels in Bone Oracle (4 of them) add to my damage? The Soul Warden text says that "Soul warden levels stack with levels in any class that grants channel energy for the purpose of determining the number of damage dice his channel energy ability deals to undead (if any)." And I DO get Channel Energy from being a Bone Oracle, it's just a different type and for a specific reason. I still have it. So I should be able to count those 4 levels of Oracle towards my damage dice for Channel Positive?

Man, I love me some Pathfinder but there's just so many rules questions! Especially when I'm playing PFS and I can't always rely on what I think is the "intent" of the rules. Each DM is different. Darn individuality.

Sczarni

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

I've done some basic searching and not come up with a good answer for this: can Treesingers train their plant companions? Teach them extra tricks (beyond the Bonus Tricks) or train them to a general purpose? Push them, etc?

It seems the intent is for Treesingers to treat their plant companions as if they were animals, but the matter of using Handle Animal on your plant companion is never mentioned that I can see. Without it, how do you control or influence your companion at all? With.. Knowledge (Nature) or Survival or something?

The Treesinger is such a great, flavorful idea... but it seems like there are a LOT of questions involved in their rules that just never got answered in the limited space given to them. A Treesinger FAQ would be amazing.

This question is specifically for Pathfinder Society play, but it's a rules question. The Treesinger archetype is legal for PFS, that's not the issue. So anything like "Ask your DM" or "House rules" aren't helpful because I'd like to play this character with a variety of groups.

Sczarni

This is my first time creating a Pathfinder Society character, and actually the first time in many years I've played any d20 system outside of the D&D computer games (BG, NWN, IWD, etc). So I'm not real familiar with the system or what's possible.

So far I've played three games, and now it's time to either remake or level up my character: Voska the Half-Orc. I wanted to play him as a spellcaster that uses "bad" spells but just because that's what comes naturally to him, not as a result of his own morality. He's a bit selfish and materialistic, but still pretty decent. Chaotic Good alignment.

So I started him off at level 1 as a Sorcerer with the Undead Bloodline (grandpa was a vampire!) but now I'm considering multi-classing him into Oracle to get the Bone Mystery for a further focus on undeath and necromancy, coming at it from both the divine and arcane sides. I like that his stupid levels of Charisma work great for both (even though I know Charisma is objectively the worst stat to invest in) and I don't have to split between two different power stats

My issue is that I'd like to be at least somewhat helpful to a group while still playing a character that I enjoy and works with this idea of a mercenary necromancer. I like the idea of spontaneous casting, because it goes back to him using necromancy because that's just what he does. He didn't study it, train and work to be a necromancer, he just IS one. So he decided to make money with it.

But maybe there's a more efficient way to go about that? Or there's a Prestige Class I should aim for, or something else. Any advice is appreciated.