Crowe the Raven's page

We're talking about social skills here. As long as he makes it known that he isn't going to be the party face from the get go, he should be fine. Nobody gets on to the barbarian with the int and cha of 7 because nobody expects him to be the face...

I don't think any GM is going to give you flack for taking a self-imposed RP penalty to social skill rolls.

I had a character with above average Charisma that was not interested in social skills either. I didn't give him any ranks in social skills because he had no intention of using them. He simply told the truth and gave facts.

Me: Do this or I will punch you in the face.

DM: Roll intimidate.

Me: I'm not trying to intimidate him. I'm simply telling him that if he doesn't do this, that I will punch him in the face. He can do with that information whatever he likes.

DM: He tells you "Go suck an egg, I don't want to do that!"

Me: I punch him in the face.

DM: Initiative...

I had bonuses to Social Skills because of my Charisma and even a bonus to certain situations granted by the DM because of my reputation, but had no interest in using them. My character was of the "I'm going to tell you how things are going to be and it would be in your best interest to agree with me" school of thought.

Edit:
Interestingly enough, I was the leader of the party (not the face) because the other characters respected my guy's honesty and he even had some very loyal troops once he got Leadership.

Besides who wouldn't want to see a +2 Shovel of Disruption? Really?...

(edit)

You could explain having useful skills thusly:

Disable Device: you were constantly installing locks and opening doors for the Pathfinders who had locked their keys in their rooms and were called on to disable (even magical) traps that aprentices cooked up but couldn't disarm. "Boy you Pathfinder types sure are a secretive lot. You put locks on everything!"

Stealth: because even in real life, servants like the handy-man seem to kind of fade into the background. "Excuse me sir... yes, sir I am very sneaky" (think John Turturo as the Butler from Mr. Deeds).

etc, etc...

I had a concept for a character of this type.

The Professional

Essentially he was a Rogue with the Rough and Ready Equipment trait that spent most of his first level skill points in profession or craft skills like cook / laborer / blacksmith / gravedigger, etc...

The trait lets you use any tool that is a part of your profession or craft (at least one rank) as an improvised weapon with no pentalty and a +1 trait bonus to hit. So, you end up with a guy who uses shovels, picks, gardening shears, etc... as weapons. This character was going to be a handy-man turned adventurer with a million and one stories concerning his various and sundry occupations.

(in your best Jethro voice) "Did I ever tell you about the time I was a gravedigger for the church of Iomedae? I was digging this grave for ol' Aunt Mae you see and..." then he whack's the guy who is attacking the party fighter with a shovel (from a flanking position of course).

Rogue fit the concept well and had enough skill points to have lots of profession / craft skills and still hit the big ones (Perception, etc..)

For this concept, I could totaly see the handy-man for the local Pathfinder chapter deciding it was high-time he do his part and help these local adventuring types.

I like the spellslinger as an in route to a theurge build. Thinking of yourself as a striker rather than primary caster makes the class a lot easier to digest.

If you don't mind focusing on one spell then the "magical lineage" Shocking Grasp for still spell would get rid of that pesky problem of needing one hand for the somatic components (at least I think that's how Still Spell would interact with spell combat...)

Should work with Spell Strike regardless. I posted a decent build for a Shocking Grasp focused Magus a while back that would work pretty well for this. Would require preferred spell so that you could have a Metamagic enhanced Shocking grasp at your fingertips when you need it but it should work. Elemental Admixture (allowing you to change the element of the spell) would be nice to be able to pull out an "Acid Grasp" or whatever if needed. Later you could drop Quicken for an extra attack or whatever.

I had an idea for a character that believed all of the gods were powerful once-mortal entities that through some means ascended their mortal forms through a process that tied them to a particular plane. He is a scientist minded chap that believed that this process could be replicated and planned on making himself a god. Not for power or prestige, but because he wanted to prove it was possible.

Now, this does not make him an atheist by any stretch because he fully believes the "gods" exist but not in the "all powerful master of my domain, created by the ether to embody an ideal" sort of way. He believes that what is now Otheron, the Mighty God of Whatsawhosit was once, many years ago Fred the bumbling first year student at the mage academy.