Danny Morrison's page

It seems that Shaman could be a good fit for this, both thematically, and the abilities they offer. There is some decent flavor to be found in the archetypes, but even just a Vanilla Shaman would work.

I had initially dismissed Shaman as a little too nature-y, but it actually looks pretty perfect for this idea. Probably the Ancestors Spirit and the Speaker For The Past archetype.

You mean other than 9/10 spellcasting progression from the Ib Stone and significantly improved durability, combat ability and senses? Well, there is the immortality bit... ;-)

Oh dang, I missed that.

Guardian of immortality, an investigator archetype, is just a whisker away from this concept.

OTOH an inquisitor - practically any archetype- is a sneaky/holy character if that's what you're after.

Guardian of Immortality is definitely not too far off from this. A few ideas could be reskinned to have less of a connection to Thuvia, since this game wouldn't be set in Golarion anyway. Is this archetype any good, mechanically? I've never played an investigator before.

And yeah, inquisitor is definitely a solid fallback if I can't find a specific "this was built specifically for this concept" option. Also considering making him a bladebound magus.

Titan mauler 3, 2 handed fighter 4, living monolith 10

I'm not really envisioning this guy as a hulking barbarian type character. Going for more of a subtle character who mostly relies on his mental stats.

EDIT: I just looked at the Zealot Vigilante, which seems pretty weak, but is the kind of sneaky/holy flavour I'm looking for.

There is also a caster option in the prestige class.

For Living Monolith? I don't see much in that PrC that could really benefit casters.

this is literally what the living monolith prestige class is supposed to represent.

edit: part of why i hate all the advice that flies around here about dipping into it

Definitely has the Osirian/Egyptian vibe I'm going for. This looks like a pretty tanky prestige class. What do you think would be the best base class to build to it? Fighter, maybe?

Site bound oracle

That definitely works as a member of this guy's order, but it would be a little bit hard to play a campaign as.

This is a very specific question, but I'm wondering if there are any archetypes that are specifically suited to a character who guards an ancient Egyptian/Osirian-style tomb.
The character concept is a little bit like the Medjai guy from the Brendan Fraser version of The Mummy. This character would discourage outside archaeologists and tomb raiders from desecrating the burial sites, and take down undead if/when they do rise up. He's motivated partly out of a desire to stop undead rampages from killing people, but also out of a desire to protect his cultural heritage from outside imperialists. He might also break into museums and steal artifacts for repatriation.
Inquisitor, Investigator, Cleric, and potentially Paladin seem like good classes, and obviously there are plenty of ways to make an undead hunter character, but I'm just wondering if there are any options that are specifically flavoured about protecting tombs or other places of cultural significance.

What about 3rd party races?

Hexbreather is a child of a hag and an orc.

Hexbreather looks pretty cool and might make a decent NPC, but I'm mostly looking for something a hag could make through a ritual or something.

So my idea is that this caliban dude was created by a hag to be her "son" (grown in a cauldron like a bacterial culture). That got me thinking about how maybe the other hags in the coven might have their own "sons". Any other monsters out there that would go well as a hag's bodyguard?
Ideally creatures suited to a northern woodland/hill climate; this game is set in something loosely resembling northern Ontario. An origin in North American (especially Native) folklore would be a bonus.

I haven't played 2e yet, personally. Might get into it if they published a bit more material, but for now it looks pretty limited (I have the same problem with D&D 5e, which has like seven official books out). My favourite thing about Pathfinder 1e is how much stuff there is for it. It's great for world-building because it gives you so many options.

Wow. If you didn't like my Thawn idea upthread, you could've just said so, not said "no homebrew races" then straight up agreed to a monster as the race a couple posts later. :)

Seriously though, Caliban is probably more accurate to what you needed anyway so good call.

I was originally planning on trying to keep this guy within the rules of what a PC could be, but I made an exception when I saw there was a monster race that was already exactly what I was looking for.

One thing of note. In Pathfinder 2e there are male and female Changelings as defined as "children of hags". The main difference being that male Changelings rarely hear "the call" as their mothers really don't care about them very much and most likely just pass as human pretty well.

I've skimmed a few 2e books but so far it seems pretty rudimentary in terms of character options. Maybe I'll give it another look once they've published a bit more material.

Changelings in general seem a bit too frail and spellcasterly for what I'm looking for. That -2 to Constitution is pretty rough.

Did not know there was a creature just called a Caliban, but that's definitely what I'm going for.

I actually am the GM and this guy is an NPC, so I can probably throw a few class levels on him anyway. This critter would probably work best as a straight-up barbarian, I suppose?

Assuming you're willing to forgo a mechanical connection, which I think you should, my vote would go to arcane bloodrager.

Why not an arcane bloodline and the hag-riven archetype? That looks like a pretty decent archetype for smashing stuff up and doing touch spells.

Grab a Thawn, power it down to CR 1/3, then build your PC on top of that. I've used the Thawn to sub in for a monstrous son of a hag that WASN'T slain by their mother in the past, as a GM. It's not much of a stretch to take a CR2 Humanoid(Giant), size them down to Medium but really big and broad shouldered, hideously ugly, and with a penchant for camouflaging in mud and refuse, slap a Str and Wis bonus on them, a heavy Cha penalty, and a penalty that if they spot their own reflection they need to make a scaling Will save or get Sickened.

For racial abilities give them +2 to Stealth in mud or rocks; +2 on Craft: Traps, and Low-Light Vision. They also get Throw Anything as a bonus feat; they can trade the bonus feat and Craft: Traps to instead have Enlarge Person (self only) 1/day, plus one use every 5 levels?

I don't know, just a few thoughts.

We're playing kinda loose with the lore, but homebrew races are out, I'm afraid.

I mean, if that's the case just play a male character with some sort of magic the manifests in a unique way.

What if the reason hags don't have male off-spring is simply because they kill them all at birth because they don't have any similarities to hags and something about the way male hags were in the ancient past has led all hags to always kills their male children, except for your character which somehow escaped that fate.

That leaves you infinite room really to explore your character however you would like.

Exactly. I would still like to have some thematic connection to hags in the build, though.

I've also just remembered that Accursed oracles are a thing. The downside to that curse looks pretty situational, and might not be a big problem depending on who else is in the party, and I get a couple of nice debuff spells in return.

So of the Hag-Riven bloodrager and the Accursed oracle, which would make a more effective tank? Or are there any other options I should consider?

Eh....I mean it's your and your GMs world, but the hag-riven archetype reads descriptively as though it's intended only for Changelings (though doesn't appear to actually be required) and Changeling's are exclusively female on Golarion.

So...if you're trying to stick to Golarion lore friendly options I think the answer is...male off-spring of hags don't exist.

This guy would be an anomaly. We're playing relatively loose with the lore.

Way back in the days of 3.5, there was a Forgotten Realms book called Unapproachable East with a race in it called the hagspawn. Unlike the weird-but-pretty female changelings of Pathfinder, the hagspawn was a hag's brawny-but-ugly son. Something about the idea was pretty cool, and I made a hagspawn barbarian character I quite liked, pretty overtly based on Caliban from The Tempest.

So now I'm wondering what the most optimal way to recreate this character in Pathfinder would be. Hag-riven bloodrager looks like the most obvious way to make a hag-descended tanky character, but is there anything else hag-related I'm missing?

I haven't seen many guides to optimizing the hag-riven, nor is it mentioned in any of the bloodrager guides I've seen, so I'm looking for some practical optimization advice for making this concept work. Reskinning the changeling is an obvious racial pick (although I don't see anything in the rules that says the archetype is exclusive to changelings), but I'm a bit leery of building a melee character with a charisma penalty, so I might just go human or even tiefling.

The hag bloodline works thematically but it also looks kinda weak.

This might be too ambitious but I'd love to have another funk band with like a sci-fi motif, the way Parliament Funkadelic were always singing about spaceships and things.

A quartet of cavaliers, all Order of the Blossom, use their Enthrall ability as part of their act; they are of course called The Corsairs (make them Mowtown in genre).

A trio of changeling witches form a Coven, singing their coven spells around a unique cauldron that, instead of boiling things in they burn things in instead. They keep rhythm by snapping and generally one takes the lead while the other two "Oohh" a harmony (doo-wop) and call themselves The Shrew-Ells (y'know... like the Shirelles?)

A trio of spellcasters: an Ifrit sorcerer with the Elemental (Fire) bloodline, one an Evangelist Cleric with the Earth Domain and one as a Sylph Sky Druid, perform funk-rock and disco with panache! They call themselves Fire, Earth and Wind...

Oh wait I forgot to ask: are puns ok?

Some great ideas here but I don't get all of them. Not quite sure what the Order of the Blossom Corsairs joke is. That would be a solid name for a motown act, definitely. I'm also trying to have a bit more variety in each band, and give each one either a bard or skald on deck.

I do have a riot grrl trio (currently called Brat Worst, but I'm open to suggestions on that one) who are a changeling witch, a half-orc Sister-in-Arms cavalier, and a human cleric with the triadic priest archetype.

Don't know why I didn't think of an Earth, Wind, and Fire-inspired elementalist group. That's brilliant.

Yes, puns are okay. I have an all-catfolk metal band whose lead singer is an oracle with the Deafened curse. You might call him a deaf leopard.
Also, the drummer is a Constructed Pugilist brawler.

Have you seen the Rockstar from Gonzo? How about the Breakdancer, Harmonicist, or Cantor from Composition Magic on the Spheres of Power wiki? These four classes lend themselves well to adventuring parties as bands.

I was thinking of a Josie and the Pussycats type vibe through your favorite campaign world!

It feels a bit cheap to me, using third-party content that's already in there as a joke. This whole thing is only funny if it repurposes things that are fairly serious for comedic effect.

A catman psychic with psychedelia discipline to emulate a hippie of the 70

Hippies didn't really listen to funk, though. A psychedelia psychic would definitely fit into one of the other bands (probably the southwestern guys, who have kind of an acid rock vibe).

A band that spends its time battling undead versions of previous drummers, all of whom died in mysterious circumstances.

Would definitely need a dwarf druid in there somewhere.

Updates:

A zydeco band (most of whom are scaleheart skinwalkers), a southwestern rock band along the lines of Tom Petty or Kansas (fronted by an acid dragon sorcerer), an anarchist sludge metal band, and a riot grrrl group (including a changeling witch, a triadic cleric, and a half-orc sister-in-arms cavalier).
The main villains are an easy listening quartet of a vampire antipaladin crooner, a ghoul cleric who sings duets with him, a lich piano player, a kyton skald saxophone player.

The thing I'm having trouble with now is that I'm trying to come up with a doowop/early Motown type band, because it's one of my favourite genres but I also feel like it's not as personality-driven or as theatrical as some of these other genres. Aside from the frontman being a thundercaller bard (in honour of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers) I have nothing.

Might also add a '70s funk band but the only idea I have there is some kind of fire mage or pyrokineticist (in honour of "Fire" by the Ohio Players).

Any character options that work with either genre?

I'm running a rather silly adventure involving rival adventuring parties, all of whom also play together as bands. This means there will be a large number of major NPCs and so I was wondering if anyone could recommend specific archetypes and/or race combinations well-suited thematically and/or mechanically to the different bands. It doesn't need to be optimized, but it does need to be at least functional. I'm also making Perform a class skill for everybody.
So far I have:

Stakes n' Bones, a hair metal band who hunt vampires
On vocals and guitar: dhampir inquisitor (kinslayer)
On solo guitar: half-elf skald (Fated Champion)
On bass: human sorcerer (shadow bloodline)
On drums: catfolk bloodrager (Destined bloodline, Prowler at World's End archetype)
could maybe also use a paladin or cleric on keyboards or something

Putrid Chalice, a death metal band who worship disease
On vocals: human spiritualist (Grim Apostle, with the pestilence phantom)
On lead guitar: aasimar (angelblooded) antipaladin (blighted myrmidon)
On drums: ratfolk alchemist (ectoplasm adept, plague bearer, vivisectionist)
On keyboards: probably a human bard (provocateur)?
Might also give these guys a cleric of Apollyon or some other disease god

Thud and Blunder, an orcish metal band along the lines of Lordi or Gwar
On vocals and guitar: orc barbarian (invulnerable rager)
On backup vocals: half-elf skald (demon dancer)
On drums: orc brawler (constructed pugilist)
On keyboard: half-orc sorcerer (red dragon bloodline)/dragon disciple

The Silver Mountain Band, a country band who hunt monsters
On guitar and lead vocal: human bard (silver balladeer)
On harmonica: human ranger (two-weapon style, not sure about animal companion)
On string bass and backup vocal: dwarf druid (menhir savant)
On banjo and backup vocal: tengu gunslinger (pistolero)

Vvviper, a glam metal band who are part of a snake cult
On guitar and lead vocal: vishkanya skald (serpent herald)
On backup guitar: vishkanya sorcerer (serpentine bloodline)
On bass: vishkanya gunslinger (mysterious stranger)
On drums: nagaji monk (scaled fist)
On keytar: human shifter (weretouched, deinonychus focus)

Also considering an occult-based R&B group and a Cthulhu-worshiping prog rock band.
Any more character options I should consider or ways to improve what I already have?

Trying to think what the ideal class might be for this guy. Warpriest looks like a good enough match but I'm wondering if there's any effective way to lean into the shapechanging element of barghests without going full Wild Shape. I've looked at the Hunter but all the wolf-based options (both the Animal Focus and the Animal Companion) seem relatively weak.
Looking at the mooncursed barbarian (although the tiger option just seems vastly superior to everything else) and the agathiel and avenging beast archetypes for vigilante (although I really don't understand that class and it looks a bit more Charisma-reliant than a reskinned Hungerseed wants to go; same problem with the Bloodrager and Oracle options.)
Is there a good martial shapechanging option for an oni-spawn tiefling's ability spread? Maybe a beast totem barbarian?

Danny Morrison wrote:

Like is there some obscure barghest-based tiefling heritage?

Well, you could take an existing heritage and refluff it. Oni-spawn is probably the closest: same alignment (typically), bonus on Str (barghest's highest stat), +2 on Disguise & Intimidate, alter self, the hunger theme, and can be bulky. You will need some glue for the fur, though.

Yeah, that might be my best bet. Maw Or Claw might also be a good fit instead of the spell-like ability.

There are some things flavored for werewolves that might be easy to use... the Shifter class in general might be the best place to start. A Beastmorph-Vivisectionist Alchemist is certainly another approach. I don't know of anything specifically designed around the Barghest, though.

Depending what level the game is at/level the character is starting... I would just let you play as one.

You wouldn't get the free +4/+4/+2/+2/+0/-2 stat adjustments for adding class levels, but if we were level 6 I would let a Barghest join as a level one PC. If we were level 9, a Greater Barghest as a level one PC. Give them appropriate WBL for where the party is to start, probably.

If they are okay with being lower class levels than the rest of the party, then I don't see it being a problem.

I will dig around and see if I can find something specifically Barghest, though.

Thank you. I feel a little inundated by beastmorph/vivisectionists right now. There's that ratfolk guy you suggested in my Disneyworld-inspired adventure, and one of the PCs in that game is a bloodmarked skinwalker beastmorph/vivisectionist too.

The way barghests gather those growth points, plus the fact that they're literal fiends, make them ill-suited to being playable creatures, I think.

I really like barghests. The visual design on them is super cool. Unfortunately, they're clearly not suitable to be player characters. So I guess what I'm wondering is are there any character options - races, feats, class archetypes, &c. - that thematically tie into barghests? Like is there some obscure barghest-based tiefling heritage?

3rd party stuff is probably fine as long as it's reasonably balanced.

You said that there's no one monster in charge of the whole. So I imagine multiple factions are vying for power/territory.

The Ratfolk are just one such faction. Their defining principle is that resistance is futile. You either join them willingly, or they bring the plague. Prisoners are subject to horrendous experiments and the dead are brought back to serve an eternity in undeath.

Factions, yes, but most of them are limited to very small gangs. There are almost no humanoid-type creatures left alive in the whole city. Most of the creatures around are barely sentient at all, if that. It's a ruin, not an ongoing war zone.

Danny Morrison wrote:

...or a cybernetic lich.

I have an absolutely wonderful Android Lich that is a gestalt of Constructed Pugilist-Living Weapon Brawler and Crossblooded Sorcerer (Impossible and Nanite Bloodlines)... robot arm, energy weapons, Lich stuffs... lots of fun.

Let me know if such a thing suits your fancy.

I was thinking of basing him more on Alling Third from the Iron Gods adventure path.

I like your grossout ratfolk alchemist ideas. Not quite sure how to incorporate them into the backstory but I'll figure something out.

If there's a vivisectionist I can probably work in some disturbing Island of Dr. Moreau flavour with some creepy herky-jerky anthropomorphic animals straight out of the uncanny valley (in which case they would probably end up as a very dark parody of the animatronics at Splash Mountain).

Don't remember what Beastiery it was but Fleshwarped critters all of them are perfect. Instead of being Drow made the gnome and Hobgoblins made them. Ghosts work especially well since a lot of people died violent deaths in the city. As far as the gnome himself make him an Alchemist combination. It fits with your theme and you could say he's made his version of the Sun Elixer. He's still alive and now young again. His mental stats are boosted with his physical stats being what you need them at.

Fleshwarped creatures have definitely occurred to me. In my setting, they're not unique to the drow; derros do some fleshwarping too, so maybe Kals and his crew were the first surfacers to dabble in it.

If you do Byrgenwerth, you need to show how they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams too – perhaps Lawful-aligned outsiders took an interest in the city, and perhaps some of them lay in wait in the utmost depths of the town.

I don't want to get too deep into the weeds of outsiders; I think maybe one or two might work but I feel like once you get into other planes and pocket dimensions the whole thing becomes a little bit too ungrounded.

Also I'm trying to keep it so that there's no one monster or creature in charge of the entire place, so there shouldn't be many monsters that are really high-level and smart. Plenty of rampaging dumb beasts, but I don't want too many powerful fiends around.

So what would be some good monsters to incorporate here?

Just discovered this third-party monster and I've decided that a lot of the city's success came from Welther wishing on a star. Now he is a starbound petitioner, returning to the ruin as the comet is once again visible in the sky.
https://articles.opengamingnetwork.com/2018/04/starbound-petitioner-cr-6/

I have all of those stages, though not entirely in that exact order.
The city's founder was a ratfolk named Snye Welther. He built the city of Morrowmarsh (Ideation, Construction) deep in the Mudbottom swamps, and once things were up and running (Rocky Start) they were pretty good. They attracted the attention of some of the brightest minds around, and were a fully-functional self-sustaining city (Good Luck Run). Although mostly isolated, they did operate the Hospitality Towers, where officials from other governments would be hosted while they toured the city, since Welther was very proud of how well it ran and he wanted his ideas to be imitated elsewhere. As the Hospitality Towers became an increasingly prestigious place, it also became a minor resort for simple tourists, bringing in a bit of outside cash, but overall, Morrowmarsh withdrew from the issues of the outside world, with little need for trade in anything but ideas (Boom).
After Welther died (Crisis), power was seized by one of his most trusted advisors, the gnome Eisen Kals (Usurpation, a lot later than your model had), who had even more ambitious ideas: Welther had been content to build the society of tomorrow, but Kals wanted to build the people of tomorrow (Sin). His regime became increasingly obsessed with experimental surgery, mind-altering drugs, and other alterations to the humanoid form. He established a secret werewolf hit squad to dispose of his enemies. He also focused the Hospitality Towers more on pure hospitality than on exchange of ideas, although a few special guests from the hobgoblin Confederacy and other evil powers were given tours to see how he had cultivated a pliable populace: basically a Lawful Evil vision of "the city of tomorrow".
The people weren't as passive as he thought, though, and they began leaving in droves. Eventually Kals shut down the gates out of the city and put the whole place into lockdown, establishing martial law. This erupted into a full-scale civil war, and, with nowhere else to go, the city tore itself apart (Fall).

The Ratfolk founder could have become undead forgetting his original concept or deciding or other creatures make better citizens.

I think the founder just died, but after he did, power was seized by a much more overtly villainous character (Michael Eisner) who turned the place into a police state and ultimately lead to its downfall. Most of the really bad stuff comes from him, and he might still be lurking around as either a lich, a technological lich (like Alling Third from the Iron Gods adventure path), or just a very evil and insane guy. Probably the big bad of the adventure, either way.

Monsters I currently have:
-caulborn (they had an embassy here before the city fell, and a few are still trapped inside, half-starved)
- otyughs (a colony of them live in the city's sewers. Together with the caulborn, they're the most reasonable guys around)
- a nuckelavee roaming around the Jungle Cruise (attracted by the pollution the otyughs couldn't clean up)
- phantom armour (pretty much animated mascot costumes)
- vukodlak (the bad guy had a secret police force of werewolves, who were kept locked up in the day and only released when they transformed. They starved to death when the city fell, and came back as vukodlak)
-gravesludge (the bodies of everyone who died in an elevator crash when the power went out; probably a few Haunts around them too)
- necrocrafts swarming in the rafters of one of the domes (as constructed undead, these guys would be one of the first clues that there's a conscious and evil force, and not just bad luck and neglect, behind this place)

I'm writing up an adventure set at an abandoned arcology, loosely modeled on a nightmare version of EPCOT, and looking for some cool mad science-y encounters, monsters, &c. to put in there.
The place was established out in the swamps as "the blueprint for the cities of tomorrow" but after a succession crisis when its ratfolk founder died, it was torn apart in a civil war. Some people got out, some died, and some got turned into monsters (undead, mutants, and things like that).
I realize morlocks are kind of the default monster for any lost city but I think this place has only been abandoned for about ten or fifteen years which is not enough time for morlocks to happen.
The overall tone I'm going for is kind of Bioshock-meets-Bloodborne (especially the Byrgenwerth College and Research Hall areas). What are some good monsters that fit that kind of visceral scifi-horror flavour?

I have a campaign world I wrote up for fun where there are no gods, but clerics instead subscribe to ideologies that power their spells. This was a steampunk setting so all the ideologies are about technology, economics, politics, and other cultural issues of the Industrial Revolution, but you could just as easily tailor yours to the themes of the setting.

I would also like to draw your attention to the Elder Deep One, which is able to grant cleric spells through its Deific ability. Like the Annunaki, they have their basis in ancient Near Eastern mythology via the Phoenician/Philistine god Dagon, though the Lovecraft flavour might distract from what you're going for.

I see now that the page 182 is in the same source of Ultimate Wilderness. I don't own that source, so can't tell you which creatures it adds, but I just assume any plant-type companion should be good.

It adds a few more plant companions to the ones in Advanced Race Guide.

Baby treant is good too, but that might take some negotiation from the gm because the baby treant is listed under the treesinger druid.

Doesn't Plant Master get access to the same bunch of plant companions as the treesinger? Or do I just get a plant version of a regular (animal) companion? The wording is ambiguous.

Seriously though a Wyrwood Witch for flavors.

Yeah, that's a cool concept, and mechanically great. If we pick up another player I might suggest that.

It says in the d20pfsrd entry on Plant Master that they get an animal companion with the plant type but otherwise unchanged, right? So I'd get a wolf or something but it would be made of plant matter and have a plant's immunities? Is that how that works?

Oh, I just found the Plant Companions list. I guess Carnivorous Flower looks like what I'm going for.

Its the plant master archetype, plus hunter has (late) access to all of the plant based druid spells you'd want to be a poison ivy character.

Yeah, that looks pretty cool. And then if I go big into the teamwork feats (which the hunter seems to be all about, although I've never played one before) then I can get great use out of that Shared Training spell.

It says in the d20pfsrd entry on Plant Master that they get an animal companion with the plant type but otherwise unchanged, right? So I'd get a wolf or something but it would be made of plant matter and have a plant's immunities? Is that how that works?

There's a plant focused hunter prc as well that you might be able to make use of.

Honestly if you've got a lot of melee? I'd like to introduce you to Shared Training Its a great way to pre-buff your melee by giving them things like outflank or paired opportunists

Oh dang, that would be a great spell for this party.

Having a look at some of the bard archetypes. What does everyone think of the archivist? Could be a fun know-it-all type character with a bit of a Velma Dinkley vibe, and there's some buffing and debuffing that looks like it would come in handy. A little more healing couldn't hurt, either.

The kineticist really isn’t a weak option. But it is “tricky”, since you are much better off as a melee build that can switch hit when necessary. The first instinct for most is to focus on range, but the class doesn’t shine in that role.

Did not know this. I feel like that's really another reason not to take it, though, since we're already full to the gills with melee characters. We need some artillery and/or ranged debuffing.

BTW I like your avatar. The world needs more crocodile-headed rakshasas drinking tea.

I don't really know about Dual-cursed Oracles or Psychics. Do they have good healing?

It seems like a Sorcerer with powerful offensive spells is more like what the party needs, and like you said, the Verdant Bloodline seems fine and in keeping with what you want.

This oracle looks like he'll be a passable healer, and our alchemist can pick up a bit of the slack too with potions. I think he is planning to take the Healing Touch discovery.

Psychics - Rebirth psychics in particular - seem to be generally a good magical Swiss Army Knife class. Not good at blasting, but pretty good for most other things. Kind of equivalent to a wizard. I don't think the Rebirth discipline gives access to healing though.

Verdant sorcerers look like mediocre blasters but I think we have enough melee DPS that I'm not too concerned by that. They seem to mostly be about summoning and battlefield control, which is fine, but I feel like what the party really needs right now might be a good debuffer.

Maybe I should go back to the drawing board and try to make a sciencey witch or something?

Well, if you think Leshy Warden is weak, and the party already has an Alchemist and a solid tank-character, then Sorcerer with Verdant Bloodline is probably the way to go. What are the other characters in your party?

Alchemist (Beastmorph and Visisectionist archetypes)

There's one other player who is undecided but leaning towards Slayer.

So we'll be a very melee-heavy party, it looks like.

Danny Morrison wrote:

What's the big advantage to being from a plant race?

Well, aside from being able to use the same spells and effects on yourself that you use on your plant "friends". The only advantage I'm aware of is that it's easier to make use of the feat Grow Plant Creature

Grow Plant Creature wrote:

Plant creatures are particularly adept at growing other plant creatures of the same type. Sentient creatures of the plant type gain a +5 racial bonus on their Knowledge (nature) checks to cultivate other plant creatures, halve the time required to grow the creature, and reduce the materials cost by 25%. A plant creature improves the success chance of any awakening ritual it personally performs by 5% per Hit Die it possesses.

of course if you just want to create a leshy you don't need the feat, but you get the same discounts for being a plant creature yourself.

That does look pretty cool. I was thinking of using this character to fortify our base of operations with a garden of killer plants so this looks like what I would want for that.