Bendicott's page

So my GM asked me to make some additional character concepts in case we ever have an extra player show up (and also for some undisclosed plot purposes). I'm working on the cleric now, which has been pretty interesting since it's a class I've never played before.

At the moment, he's a neutral, positive channeling cleric of the Travel and Madness domains with some Lovecraftian flavour. He's got a tattoo for his holy symbol, which showed up on his forearm the morning after his first divine encounter. Planning on treating this as a magical tattoo, which he'll be able to upgrade in the future (as a brief asside for the people arguing that magical tattoos are bad because they bypass the single magic item per slot restriction - he cannot cover it with bracers, else it will cease to function as a holy symbol).

Anyway, I'd like him to focus on unarmed combat. I'd also like to stick with official PF publications for simplicity since I don't know the skill level of whoever will eventually take the reins, so unfortunately Kobold Quarterly's Sohei is out. Is it worth a 1-2 level dip in monk? Are there better options? What would you recommend as enchantments for the tattoo?

Any good resources for crating with alternate materials? I found the guide for using various metals, but haven't found much else. For example, you can get a spider silk rope that weighs 60% less than a standard hempen rope, but cost 200x as much. Some guide on how to convert the costs for say, a tunic would be great. This specific example would be simple enough to hash out with the GM, but others not so much - the interesting part of crafting to me is using the rare materials found while adventuring. So yeah... Any good places to look for conversion info? Bonus points for Paizo-published material, but will consider third party sources if they seem balanced.

How do Final Sacrifice & School Familiar's Greater School Power (Conjuration), Summoned Shell, interact? Would the familiar be damaged, as the conjuration is slain before damage takes place, or would the entire effect of the spell occur before the familiar popped out?

I'm looking for a way to cut the weight of iron vials; so far all I've found is substituting the iron for mithral, as per http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/special-materials#TOC-Mithral. Any other suggestions? The 500 gp/lb. is a bit steep, but I can deal with that if it's the only option.

So I'm playing a wizard and planning on using a familiar as a means of delivering touch attacks (generally debuffs) as needed, and buffing allies. I'm worried about attacks of opportunity, though; what are some good options to allow the familiar to get in and out of melee range without dying to a single AOO?

The extra spells granted by the Samsaran racial trait, Mystic Past Life - need they all be from a single class? I'm leaning that way because of the wording ("You can add spells from another spellcasting class", rather than "other spellcasting classes"), but I'm not sure.

Can you apply an archetype to a class you picked up through variant multiclassing? I'm guessing not, but it would be interesting to see how the two interacted.

If you start off with a Wizard (Spirit Binder) and later take Improved Familiar, is there any way to transfer your familiar's soul to the new body, short of some extremely high level spell like Soul Trap or Major Mind Swap? This seems like a kind~of important point, but I can't find mention of it anywhere.