Black Feather's page

Assuming you can't be a race with spell resistance...

Dwarf Void School Wizard http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/arcane-schools/paizo--- arcane-schools/elemental-arcane-schools/void-elemental-school

With http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/steel-soul

In order to affect you, any spell or SLA will have to be of the "no saving throw" variety, or you get +10 and can roll twice vs. it at 20...and you're a pretty good caster yourself...

If you want to make it even more unfair, concentrate on debuffs and tag-team with a well-designed pally, barb, or even monk.

If you use the "non-human aasimar", it gets interesting as well. For instance, my first PFS character was born a dwarf (Adopted trait to represent this), grew up in a dwarven town, and wasn't THAT different from dwarves (I dropped Cha to 7) except for being a good bowman...and hair that looks feathery. When the wings sprout, it'll be a bit more obvious...

Call them furies http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/CodexAlera?from=Main.Codex Alera

About Prismati Player:

Since your Oracle ability says "up to two categories below your own size", doesn't "up to" in this context mean that it would work on anything smaller (such as that which is covered by the trait)?

If there's a problem with that, you can simply use a small-sized race and still do it (it's thematic for halflings but wayangs might be better mechanically).

Really the only thing I have issues with in the pally's code of conduct is the "never lie" part.

There are many times in the life of an adventurer when subtlety and bluffing are necessary.

Unless you get your DM to OK it, you can't take Boon Companion more than once, which means your companion is going to be less than good...
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RAW the SF: Kno (nature) / Eldrich Heritage / Sylvan Sorcerer trick doesn't work because the Sylvan Wildblood replaces more than just the arcana...but if your DM OK's it it's fair game and is the easiest way to gain an unrestricted-list companion.
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The only way, by RAW, that you can be a small-sized race and get a flying companion that will scale with you and not be one of a small number of classes, is as follows:

Small-Sized Aasimar with Scion of Humanity racial. 1) Racial Heritage: Orc. 3) Nature Soul. 5) Animal Ally. 7) Beast Rider (pick Pteranodon). You now have a Pteranodon that is one level below you. You can also pick Celestial Servant if you wish.
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You'll raise some eyebrows, but it's very legal. If I used that design, I'd probably do Agathion- or Archon-blooded Scarred Witch Doctor.

Since your feat selection is tied up until 7, you're limited if you want an effective character to something that either gives you enough feats to use your stuff (fighter or monk probably) or else something that doesn't rely so much on feats.

Gunslinger with Musket Master and Pistolero. Those are mechanically the strongest; bolt ace if you don't want to have guns in your world.

Ranger Freebooter archetype is pretty strong until after 10 when it gets outshone. Beastmaster is a lot of fun but you won't want it.

Never dying from any hit point damage dealing attack roll ever.

Thing I don't like about that is that Ferocity is limited to once / day. If you're taking hits like that regularly, ferocity won't necessarily do a whole lot for you; you'll need to still rely on your party to heal you up.

You do need ferocity to qualify for certain feats though. Assuming you really want to build your character that way, you need ferocity. Otherwise, and considering what you can do with the tatoo, it's usually a better mechanical choice.

Convince your GM to run an underdark campaign, where all the party are drow nobles.

Would be a bit high-powered, but the balance (between party) would no longer be a problem.
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I, for one, think it would be a very interesting campaign.
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If you want to do a neutral version (rather than evil), then do a party of all svirfneblin, and / or other races you might want to mix in.

Scalykind Domain (or Saurian Subdomain) works too.

There was a debate about Eldrich Heritage: sylvan working for getting a pet...consensus was that it didn't because the wildblood ability replaces not only a bloodline but something else as well.

To modify pets:

Half-orc / orc feat Beast Rider lets you pick from a limited list of animals and treat your druid level as +2 with those as long as it isn't higher than your hit dice.

Aasimar feat Celestial Servant gives your pet a celestial template (scaling resistances, dr/evil, smite 1/day) and count as a magical beast while being treated as an animal (so no better hit die or BAB for you)...still worth it probably.

Dhampir feat Vampiric Companion gives your pet the undead template, your weaknesses, and fast healing 5.

There are two ways to get an elephant pet as a ZAM, but neither one lets you do it at 1.
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Half-Orc feat progression:

1) Nature Soul
3) Deadly Aim
5) Animal Ally
7) Beast Rider

You now have a choice of Elephant, Triceratops, Pteranodon, etc at your character level -1. You can do it this way with another type of character as well, but it'll have to be something that gives you enough feats to do your job well...
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XXX feat progression

1) Nature Soul
3) Deadly Aim
5) Animal Ally
7, 9, 11) Boon Companion, Clustered Shots, etc.

You go into the Mammoth Rider PrC -- you get your choice of a limited number of animals including an elephant or mammoth, and it's also Huge. This has the advantage in PFS that you can do it with any race you like, and the disadvantage that you've taken at least one level that's not ZAM and a boatload of non-class skill points until you've taken the PrC and a pet that won't fit a lot of places...

Bad idea...unless you're making an NPC...what you give up isn't worth what you get. Of course, people still make Eldrich Knights so whatever.

There's a trait you can get in PFS to make your spell level count as 2 higher as long as it's your HD or under.

Lenny. And have him be best friends with another character called George...

I was thinking of something like celestial armor and trying to reverse-engineer it onto mithril bp for the +8 dex. But my point about expense still stands for most of the character's life before celestial chain is outshone.

That's an interesting point about ki strike / ki focus weapon on arrows. I've not played to 17 in Pathfinder and there are still some changes from 3.5 I'm not used to. It's not that major but I see your point there. You'll punch through a lot with that; but so will a ranger with abundant ammo on whatever the requisite enchantment is he wants (granted it takes a bit more setting up).

My point isn't that ZA's aren't strong, it's just that when the build point / gear / world conditions don't favor them they're not always the best choice. If your GM is running a grittier campaign with limited point buy, wealth, and materials...it's still a strong choice but maybe not the "best".

There have been some tests if I remember right.

With more points to spend in character creation and more money / flexible crafting rules (getting discounts on crafted stuff and doing something like Vest of Armor rather than Bracers of Armor etc), Sohei usually wins. Especially if your party specializes in helping each other. The weaknesses of any monk build (even archery ones) are your reliance on multiple stats and equipment...which is mitigated by those conditions. With fewer points to spend on stats but decent crafting / wealth rules, the advantage shifts to the ZA...your big break comes from needing only Wis super-high so you get a lot of ki to play with.

With fewer points to spend and no crafting / creative substitution / etc. it's the ranger if you're fighting favored enemy a lot and the paladin if you're fighting evil and only consider the smited stuff. So usually the ranger.
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Most of the ultra-high dps builds get that way by ignoring basic defensive measures or other utility to squeeze out the very highest offensive numbers though, so most of what I said applies only to characters you'd actually play in an actual game...

ZA: Bracers of Armor +8 = 64K gp AND you don't get to wear Bracers of Archery. Now add your Wis bonus to that (call it +8). Your Dex won't get you quite as much but let's call it +3.

Ranger: Mithril Breastplate give you +6 for about 4200. You can get a +5 to it by spending another 25K. Call your Dex bonus +8. You've got exactly the same AC and you've spent less than half what a monk has. AND you get to wear Bracers of Archery.
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DR isn't overcome unless you've got special materials or spend Ki every turn...or you took Clustered Shots (which other builds can get).

Seriously, have you even played, GM'd or been at the same table as people using these builds?

I mean, ZA is pretty strong but it's one among MANY and other archer builds can be just as good and sometimes better in many ways.

Some of this stuff comes from a disconnect between "crunch" and "fluff".

Lots and lots of people get bullied a bit, no matter what they grow up to be; but there are a lot of other ways to explain hyper-quick reactions...the paragon from the inner sea region does the same thing without having to tailor a backstory for some people who treat fluff like holy writ.

It's like in 3.x when people decided that PrC's had to have this fluff rather than just what the mechanics said, even if the description said something like "maybe this, maybe that". It's fine to do stuff like that in YOUR game but don't pretend the rules mean everybody has to play it like that.
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A few rules even in the basic book fly in the face of science and / or logic. It's just something you have to deal with. Summoning a whale on top of an enemy falls under this; there's no reason you CAN'T do something like this but if it could go that way, there's no way an opposing summoner won't use exactly the same tactic...and a TPK from ambush that way isn't really satisfying for anybody.

Kind of like in the Order of the Stick when Redcloak can summon elementals made from actual elements. If a GM threw that at me, I'd ask him if he really wanted me throwing around elementals made from more reactive materials still (like Cadmium, Sodium, Lithium, etc). The reason you don't introduce stuff like that is you don't want me throwing around the equivalent of nuclear bombs back at you.
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The minor stuff, though, does irritate me. If you shapechange into a bird with a syrinx that in the real world can be trained to speak...you can't speak because, even though you can control every other muscle in the body, apparently not the breathing and vocalizing mechanism...it's like telling someone that if they've got a shape with hands they somehow don't know sign language anymore because a wild gorilla / chimp / etc doesn't "speak" it.

The cleric can mix it up OK probably.

I'm assuming the ranger is an archer, so no melee there.
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A Sylvan Sorcerer or Summoner would work pretty well in that party; you've got arcane magic + a pretty nice tank if you build for it.

Saurian or Lion Shaman focusing on summoning stuff at around 5 can just put Nature's Allies wherever on the board they need to be along with a decent companion to tank (and can join in later on too with wild shape / natural spell).

Oracle, if you build it right, can be great at melee or have a companion that's great at melee.
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For just straight melee, Paladin for great tanking and OK dps, Barbarian for great dps and OK tanking, other stuff depending on what you want really.

I guess you are right. I have to deal with flank/full attack and being mainly a one-trick pony with crappy saves. I was just thinking that with all the crazy stuff in Pathfinder, there may be some options that I was unaware of. I guess the only thing not married to a full attack would be a vital strike build. Has anyone made something like that?

The best vital strike builds I've seen generally involved being a druid.

Most of your damage in D&D doesn't come from your weapon die but rather your modifiers after your hit (power attack, weapon buffs, or even sneak attack).

All vital strike does is give you an extra die to roll with one hit...it's actually weaker than a full-attack action most of the time (and can't be used WITH a full-attack), unless you're shapeshifted into a T-Rex or something else really nasty.

You need a lot more stats and equipment to make a ZA work than some other builds. Lots of this theorycraft depends on having just the right stats, just the right gear, etc.

The only stat you can really afford to drop is Cha, unless you just want to push damage as much as possible and don't care about other facets of your character...in which case you probably should have gone with a Ranger with Instant Enemy.

You can't drop Int, Con, or Dex because they help with skills, hp / Fort, and AC / Ref / skills respectively.
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Ranger's in a similar position but Instant Enemy is just that good; you can drop Int a bit more along with Cha, though, so it'll help you if you want more Dex or Str. Abundant ammo (especially) and gravity bow are also good buffers for you; will save you money. Armor is less expensive than what a monk uses instead too, so you can spend more on your weapon. Your per-shot damage will be better than all except maybe the paladin with smite; you have more feats and skills too and a companion.
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Pally has good buff spells and smite means you're a contender for damage but you can't drop anything except Wis and Int; skills are then your big weakness. It's a simpler build and costs probably less than most though.

Standard DPS ninja in PFS uses Tengu with alternate trait for claws.

Three natural attacks on a flank, all at highest bonus. Get an amulet of mighty fists (it increases natural attacks and they count as magic and whatever else you put on).

The only thing you're missing is you can't take the rogue racial arch that gives you pounce (but that's pretty limited anyway), and you would have wanted to run your ki pool on Wis rather than Cha (for which you need at least 4 monk levels).

If you're a melee specialist, you'll need to have some way to fly later on...and either move fast or slow an opponent down (which is one reason why spells that either debuff or tactically cut up the battlefield are so strong and why "god" wizards are so nice).

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/instant-enemy

Yes. Yes, they are.
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As for Pallies, they don't have to be mounted to be good archers; I only stressed that because at 5 you get a choice between having a divine spirit weapon -- more useful than a mount until you have the feats to make your mount go somewhere and then full attack...in other words, being the most mobile archer around with another potential source of damage in the mix too.

A few ways to go about this.

Nagaji Naga Aspirant: you lose spontaneous SNA but you gain access to some neat spells (both arcane and divine). Personally I feel that most domains aren't as nice as having a pet but Feather Domain + Boon Companion is probably worth it as it costs you a feat for an extra domain spell every level and a bonus to Perception. Note that the Naga Aspirant doesn't lose regular wild shape options either, making it among the strongest druid archetypes around.

Shaman Druid: you spontaneously cast SNA from a limited list but you can (ab)use the young template and standard-action casting. Competes with summoners for being the best summoner...and can do a lot of other things the summoner can't.

Cleric of a deity with Feather Domain + Boon Companion feat: you're not a druid and can wear better armor right out of the box and you can channel and have better summons. Unfortunately you can't spontaneously summon and your skills aren't so good. If you can be a Samsaran and use their ability, though, you can pick up some Druid spells...I'd say Barkskin and Animal Growth at the very least.

Sylvan Sorcerer: if you can use Samsaran racial ability, you want Barkskin (from Summoner List) and maybe some stuff from Witch patrons (your GM needs to be lenient but Witch patron spells are arcane even though they're sometimes normally from divine list -- like Divine Favor / Power). Or just crank up your UMD check enough to use what you want.

Anything else + Nature Soul + Animal Ally + Boon Companion. Just be woodsy and toss magic spells around. If you don't melee or scout, you don't need Wild Shape, and so you're left with spells + companion as your schtick.

Archery isn't the most damaging thing around, but, unlike in other editions, it competes better. Feats like Deadly Aim and Clustered Shots help it deal more consistent damage and deal with damage resist better.

It LOOKS higher sometimes because you don't have to move in order to hit most of the time so you can full-attack...and with the aforesaid Clustered Shots you do better against damage resistant things than someone who has to pull out this material vs. this enemy (hope you've got lots of greatswords...)

In order to build an archery build that damages "better" than many melee builds, you've got to spend lots of feats and usually Dex (Wis for a ZA but they can't drop it too low) + Con + another stat (Str for every bowman). If you're a gunslinger it's more feats + money to give you rate of fire and, while not dropping Wis or Con (or Int if you want any skills) you only have to focus on Dex (which is nice).

The builds people have most issues about are monk (Sohei and Zen Archer), Gunslinger (musket master usually but sometimes pistolero), and Paladin archers. Ranger is a contender too if you build it right and run into the "right" enemies (and when you get above 10 you've usually got a spell to make one target the "right" one no matter what).
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Melee theoretically does a little more damage still (with the right build) but positioning means you're not going to be as steady a DPS'er as an archer usually...so archers LOOK more powerful especially with the right build and some luck.
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There are some guides floating around but seriously archery is so feat-intensive there's not that much variety in a min-max build.

Long and short: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Deadly Aim, Clustered Shots, Improved Precise Shot, Point-Blank Master if you can get it (or Gunslinger), Weapon Focus / Weapon Specialization (if you can get it), and Rapid Shot / Manyshot (unless you're a ZA).
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Zen Archers get called cheesy because they give you a lot of those feats for free (so at about 10 or so you can actually choose some others if you like) and have more shots than a fighter would (the only build that competes featwise).

Fighters just get feats...take all the strong archery-related feats and you're good to go. Just don't neglect Str and Con in your initial design.

Paladins don't get extra feats but smite is a very powerful mechanic if you can use it from everywhere (as can an archer). If you can pick up extra feats for mounted archery it's extremely good...otherwise you can still do it but you've got to wait until the teens until it really comes together.

Ranger gets not as many bonus feats as a fighter but the favored enemy and spells and companion mean they can do a lot more extra than a fighter can and only do a little bit less damage in the worst circumstance and a bit more in the best.

Sohei is like the ZA except it doesn't run on just Wis + Str but you get more attacks than anyone else (Multiattack and Rapid Shot don't stack with ZA but do with Sohei flurry)...and you're potentially more versatile because you can flurry with other things too and wear armor if you need as well.

Gunslinger attacks touch AC and runs only on Dex. The balancing factors are the money you spend on firearms, ammo, etc...which is mitigated some by the feats you get and skills you can pick up. And of course you're probably going to need to be closer to enemies than absolutely necessary for other builds. All you need is to start with high Dex, decent Will and Con and crank Dex all the way. You're also mostly locked into your feat selection unless you dip something with bonus feats (like a Pally might).

Does it work with the favored class bonus from the base class? In other words, does it allow you to choose the favored bonus from your aligned class?

I've been looking everywhere and I can't find that information.

I'm wondering whether Aligned Class lets you do Favored Class Bonuses. If it doesn't, then it's probably not as strong as some of the FCB's would be...

I'm not too familiar with the new book but slashing grace + 1 level of cleric of callistria (or other god that has whip as favored) + W Finesse + W Focus + Crusader's Flurry + Whip Mastery + Combat Reflexes on a character with 6 levels of Flowing Monk seems like it might do as a Dex-based character that can control space and deal adequate damage.
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If all you're looking at is versatility and DPS, there are many ways to go, including Barbarian, Alchemist, Summoner, Gunslinger, etc.

If I wanted spell-less DPS and some versatility, I'd do a Gunslinger build of some type. The one I'm going to do next for PFS I think is simply Half-Orc Paladin 7 / Gunslinger 5 with Beast Rider and Boon Companion. Riding a flying Pteranodon and shooting a musket at foes I've smote seems pretty awesome once it gets going.

Every class could be flavored as a pirate (even a ninja...)

Some might need a stretch or dip in another class to make the most flavorful though.

Even if there's an alignment restriction, you could still do it -- you could even be a LG Paladin and a privateer (you'd need a letter of marque from an accepted authority).

Animal Companion starts with more hit dice than an Eidolon but loses steam afterwards. Celestial Servant helps narrow the power disparity some but companions aren't as modular in design as Eidolons can be.

Buffing your companion is fun though; especially eventually when you can use Polymorph spells that normally target you on your companion.
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Basically, it depends on your build. If you're doing a pet class, it's somewhere between everything for your pet and something that just kind of hangs out with you.
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Just my opinion of grades I'd give in various categories:

Sylvan: A+ Buffs, A+ Debuffs, A+ Crowd Control, B Summons, B+ Pet, C- Physical Toughness, C- Skills

Summoner: B+ Buffs, B Debuffs, B Crowd Control, A Summon or A Pet, B Physical Toughness, C- Skills

Shaman Druid: B+ Buffs, C Debuffs, B+ Crowd Control, A Summon, B Pet, B Physical Toughness, A- Skills

The existence of Banner of the Ancient Kings makes that combo subpar.

If the banner doesn't exist in your game, or you don't have a Longspear-wielding character all or partially based on Cha with that item, then it's decent.
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The other thing about Dervish Dance + Flagbearer is that Dex melee builds are generally overshadowed by 2-hand Str builds (the Weapon-finessed Agile Elven Curve Blade with 2 levels of Ranger to get Power Attack comes close but then you've dipped in at least one class and spent several feats and +1 on your weapon bonus in order to boost Dex over Str and almost get the damage back).
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And the other thing is that if you're running a low point buy, it can be trickier to run on Dex and have a good Cha...but I don't know how often that comes up.

If you looked at it as an alien (or even some other terrestrial species), while there are behavioral differences between sexes, they're not usually that major...in the grand scheme of things...

Since you're a cat, unless you're in heat, there are even fewer differences than there are between human beings. Far less than there would be in the arthropod world (pity the poor males of most of THOSE species), or birds, or even many primates.
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That said, there have been many, many options in RPG's that require being female to take, and, while there are quite a few that are not that great, there have been some that ARE. Offhand, I can think of only ONE that requires being a male. I really hope paizo refrains going down that road more than it already is...

In a MMORPG, females are often IMO drawn much better than males of their species (not always but most of the time). So, though I haven't played tabletop RPG as a female except as a stock premade character, I've played quite a few MMORPG's as female.
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Just go with it. You don't have to be over the top (and it might be offensive if you were) and it doesn't mean anything except you're a decent RPG'er.

Spellcasters simply have more options.

They don't always do the most damage (but they can be built to do respectable damage and lose only a little flexibility).

They're not the toughest (but they can be built so as to render that moot -- spells like mirror image, invisibility, displacement, etc).

They don't have the most skill points (unless you're a bard, but skills don't really matter as much as roleplaying generally and most other classes don't get skills either -- and if you need it there are often spells / magic items to buff what you need).

They ARE the best crafters...so much that PFS banned all the crafting feats.

They often make the best leaders...Leadership feat is often banned as well.

They are the best at buffing, the best at summoning creatures, creating /leading undead, debuffing, and controlling battlefields. You can also build one for save or die (though this is suboptimal from the point of view of having fun IMO...you're either useless or the battle is a cakewalk).
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In short, they can do just about anything you as a player want to do better than anyone else except for the occasional damage or tank build...and if you build them a certain way they could even compete in these areas.

Paizo has wised up a bit really and made it so that with only a little bit of system mastery you can build a non-caster that's viable in the "sweet spot" where most people play their campaigns. Still when you see the amount of options a caster gets for someone with a sufficient amount of system mastery...you either get jealous or want to experiment yourself.

What's fun, though, for me at least, is to see how a build develops and plays. At levels above 11 or 12 at the latest casters start pulling way ahead in options available.

...victory...

(I had to say it)

I'm building an Evangelist Cleric as well. Osiriani Aasimar, deity Horus, LN, channel negative energy, alternate channeling rulership (you lose damage on your channel anyway, might as well do half damage from that and get a useful status effect), Feather domain.

It's a build for several combos: Banner of the Ancient Kings + Longspear + Flagbearer + Inspire Courage + Prayer for one, Feather Domain (Roc) + Celestial Servant + Boon Companion + Divine Power / Favor for another, and of course Rulership alternate channeling + Channel Force / Improved.

I was thinking of Ankylosaurus for the daze / stun and good natural armor, but Horus is the falcon of the sun and Roc just seems more thematic.
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Aasimar can take Scion of Humanity if you'd prefer to be affected by enlarge person etc. I almost did it using Erastil Feather + Growth and then Evangelist PrC but you can only use Enlarge person once / day on your companion (share spells ability only uses real spells not wand / scroll which is a shame)...which is nice but it's only one combat of an adventure. The Erastilian Evangelist boon is great as well but it's more a late-game buff you'll never use in PFS unless you go to cons a lot.

There are a few ways to go with an eidolon.

Multiweapon fighting + EWP: Wakizashi + lots of arms gets pretty amusing. That build struggles if you tangle with enemy DR and you can only give your critter basic weaponry because of cost but it puts out truly ridiculous damage.

Pounce is really nice but takes a while to get going. Because your eidolon is modular except for the initial choice (you need quadruped) you can make it shift to whatever you need at the level...your first few levels you might want it to be a tripper and then when you have enough evolution points and levels you can redesign out of that.

If you don't care about pounce, biped has more base strength. That's +1 to all melee attacks, which will never really go away.

Support eidolon also works; +8 to UMD isn't bad and you can give it some group buff or teamwork feats if you can't afford them on yourself. Likewise +8 to Perception or whatever.
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Half-elf is the best race to pick, generally, unless you've got something specific in mind (Aasimar Beastkin for Summon Nature's Ally so you can qualify for Starlight Summons, Half-orc for Ferocious Summons, etc). Human's nearly as good and a free feat is worth much more on a caster than most other types of character. Small characters can ride the eidolon and use mounted feats wherever they need to go...it's a fun build but loses a bit of pure power to other types.
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At higher levels, you have enough level 2 slots to do almost every combat like this: 1) Standard Action Summon Monster (buffed with all your summoning buffs) 2) Full-round Summon Eidolon (so it gets your summon buffs as well) 3) Haste 4) other buff, debuff, or control spell.

If we're going by that metric, apes / baboons won't be able to hold anything either because their "hands" aren't actually as good at manipulating / holding stuff as human hands are. And yet a chimpanzee can use a tool to pull ants out of an anthill (for example).

I've seen raptors (falcons, eagles, etc) grasp other birds, lizards, small mammals, and fish in their talons; and they can hold other things too (seriously, check out some falconry sites; it's pretty interesting how they are trained and what they do)...the problem is that nobody has actually seen a dinosaur do similar things because all we have to go on is the morphology of the bones and other things like feather imprints, trackways, etc.

Everyone agrees that the forelimbs were used to grasp; the question is how much they could.

It would cost one natural attack (and using a buff to a stat that doesn't necessarily help in combat and has no mechanical benefit at all except for something like this) to set it up but it just seems like a cool thing to do.
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Of course, I'm enough of a naturalist to have some issues with other rules / justifications like the parrot...if one wild-shapes into a parrot one can control all one's muscles in a complicated manner EXCEPT the syrinx (the larynx equivalent in birds that lets parrots, ravens, mynahs, etc produce speech sounds)...but that's another issue entirely...

The feat False Focus is great for stuff like this too. You don't actually have to use an acid (or whatever) reagent, as long as the value is below 100 g (and you have a holy symbol worth 100g).

Deinonychus had grasping claws on its forelimbs. It used them for hunting / gripping prey.

Therapods are pretty fascinating critters; the mechanics that let them grab and pull would eventually lead to some of them developing powered flight.

Legally I think you can do this but I'm just checking.

Deinonychus (Druid Animal Companion) - Cha of 14

Human option Eye for Talent +2 Int or Cha, raise the other one once so Cha = 15+, or else wait for level 9 and raise each one point.
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Int at 3 lets the pet take any feat for which it is qualified, and with 15 Cha it qualifies for Flagbearer.

Given the right gear and / or campaign, anything...

For pure power, it's hard to beat a well-built, well prepped summoning character.

In 3.0, the answer was cleric archer, especially if you were a necromancer type as well.

Druids were of course scary strong, and they're still a contender.
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There really needs to be a metric for power though...survivability, damage, versatility, instant death / debuff spell or attack, etc. One of the most powerful builds possible in the 3.5 days was the "half-elf hippy" diplomancer. Diplomacy was so high it always worked no matter what.

Bard or evangelist cleric would be helpful to everyone. Grab Flagbearer feat if you can and buff everyone.

Druid would be a good jack of all trades; it can do everything from controlling to melee to sneaking around.

Summoner with the right build gets a lot of critters on the ground and buffs well to boot. I don't know if APG counts as core though.

The thing about Wizards is that you get Scribe Scroll for free and so you just prep the spells you think you're going to need that day, and learn others that are situationally useful so you can scribe them. It's slightly costly but you are the swiss army knife and experience tends to equalize at mid-high levels.

Depends on what you're going for I think.

Tiefling (maw or claw option) Dual-Cursed Deaf / Wolfscarred Lunar Oracle with a pet tiger is fairly strong.

You get claw / claw / bite and so does your pet. Buy a wand of cure light or infernal healing with prestige, and as good an armor set as you can with your money (four-mirror for you and barding for your tiger).

Not quite the ultimate damage or the ultimate pile of hit points, but pretty good at each and great supporting character.

There are loads of two-person teams that could totally wreck something like PFS modules.

The reason being, they're less lethal generally because you often never know who you're going to be playing with so you need to design accordingly (generalize not specialize).
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One classic is Luck domain cleric + Zen Archer. The ZA can flurry every single round with his bow, and the Luck domain cleric can use a standard action to let the ZA roll twice for every shot. Not only that, but as a cleric you've probably a high enough Cha to have Flagbearer feat and if you're the Evangelist archetype you can use Bard Song too.
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PFS means necromancer zookeeper types and master summoners are out mostly, so I can't do one of my favorite D&D tricks with a "wall of bodies" easily. However, a caster-build summoner or druid shaman (so as to get standard-action summons) + a good buffer & / or protector almost does the trick. If you both throw down summons and you regularly party with a buffer / skill monkey type (I know a few in PFS) you'll pretty much walk over any challenge.
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Two (multi or single-classed) Sohei both with the Lookout feat can wreck any surprise round for anyone who's not them. Gunslinger 3 / Weapon Master 3 / Sohei 6 means they can both flurry in the surprise round...with guns...

1) Yes. It's a competence bonus and they're considered allies
2) Yes. It's a morale bonus and it works for the whole party
3) Yes. The banner buffs your Flagbearer morale bonus to +2, and you're treated as a bard 4 levels higher than you are.

Bless is a morale bonus. It doesn't stack with Flagbearer. Prayer, however, is a luck bonus, so it does.
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There are a few ways to make a character like that. If everything is available, the Leadership feat is probably the easiest way to go. You can make your cohort the ultimate buffer while making yourself a master summoner or necromancer (summons and minions also count as allies).

Many people disallow the Leadership feat because it's so easy to abuse. A cleric of an ideal with Feather and Saurian gets a pet from each subdomain but needs to spend a couple feats at least to keep them relevant. A shaman druid can use standard-action summoning limited to having his totem. A master summoner can summon as a standard action as well -- the eidolon he has is kind of weak for a combatant but can be designed as a buffer so his stuff crushes his enemies. Depending on your campaign, you might be given opportunity to make (or enslave) undead -- cleric was the traditional way to do this in D&D.

Fey is good for flavor and it'll give you some nice spells and boost enchantments, but it won't actually boost your illusions.

One thought is to party with a Wizard of the Void school...while your spells aren't actually boosted, the debuffs he can toss out might make it seem that way.

Maybe it's trite, but pick something you think looks fun and run with it.

I built my Zen Archer as a dwarf but when I heard you could use planetouched I switched races to Aasimar...the whole winged shooter thing appealed to me. Unfortunately, in PFS, by the time your wings come online you have to retire the character soon unless you find one of the "seeker" campaigns...depending on your time / resources you may or may not be able to (also high-level mods are rare enough around here I've been stuck at 9 for a bit).

My next build was a Sylvan Wildblood Razmiran Priest Sorcerer with Celestial Servant. I built the character to buff / support but of course the problem with that in PFS is you never know who you're running with at each table so I always have my own tank (pet) to monsterize -- if there's another tank he / she gets buffs too.
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I've got a few other ideas in mind as well. If you want to do a summon-focused summoner (as opposed to running with the eidolon 24/7) you might want to pick up Agathion-blooded Aasimar as I think that's the only way to get summon nature's ally as a summoner and thus qualify for Starlight Summoning down the road.

+2 to performance and the Bard's Versatile Performance makes you the best social skill monkey around, while saving you points so you can put them in whatever you want. I'm still not sure it's necessary or that the human's extra skill point isn't a better deal if you want a character like that. Skills aren't generally the strongest part of the game anyway especially since they got rid of the "diplomancer" abuse you used to be able to do by RAW.

I played 3.x for a while and so some of the new stuff I'm not so familiar with -- I always liked casters and minion masters so I'll probably do a cleric and a druid using the race. I'm less sure about Oracle or Summoner.

If you've got enough build points, you can potentially stack Dex, Wis, Int, and now Cha to AC...

Of course, there aren't very many ways to do a viable build that way.
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The thing about RAW or RAI is that intent doesn't always come into it...some of the most famous and memorable inventions, games, ways of doing things, etc were unintended byproducts, accidents, and uses the original designer never "meant".
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There are a few ways to use this arch in a ranged build but standard paladin seems like a stronger choice to me.

It's hardly ever done because scimitar is a lot better than unarmed strike in almost every situation...but it is legal by RAW.

The 18-20 crit range means you get to multiply most of your damage sources by 2 and that's a LOT better than a bigger damage die. Especially considering how much you have to put in comparably to buff one vs. the other (though Paizo has fixed the unarmed disparity a bit).

It's great for several builds, and not quite so nice for others.

Unfortunately, many people seem to feel that the only race that can be that good for so many designs should be human...
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Versatility (of bloodline) + scion of humanity means you can get on the human gravy train of feats / favored class bonuses while having your own thing too.

Seriously, if you want wings / flight they're arguably the best (though they take two feats to get it rather than only one like Sylph or none like Strix), or if you're a pet class they're probably among the strongest (Celestial Servant).

In other words, if you build around the race they're nice and if you don't they're not quite so much...just like most of the good race choices out there.

Something a bit cheesy but clever nonetheless...if you're going for an unarmed build, anyway.

Dervish Dance (Combat)

You have learned to turn your speed into power, even with a heavier blade.

Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Weapon Finesse, Perform (dance) 2 ranks, proficient with scimitar.

Benefit: When wielding a scimitar with one hand, you can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on melee attack and damage rolls. You treat the scimitar as a one-handed piercing weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a duelist’s precise strike ability). The scimitar must be for a creature of your size. You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand.

All the feat says is "melee attack and damage rolls". It does NOT say "melee attack and damage rolls with a scimitar"

It's one way to drop strength entirely and still do some relevant damage.

I also like to do builds that play tricks on people, and flowing monk has this wonderful ability to trip anything that attacks you.

Haven't played flowing monk + dervish dance build yet but it's something I may want to try one of these days.
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Also, I always wondered when I saw that archetype: is the Cha you add to your Dex bonus to AC limited by armor in the same way as your Dex already is? From the description of it, it seems it may be, but if so it makes the archetype much weaker.