Just received my hardcover Alien Archive, the pages are fine until page 40, which appears on the left, the right page is Page 57 and continues through page 159 to the end of the book. The binding doesn't look like it's torn or pages fell out.
I have a picture but not sure if I can link it here.
Graverobber who has been partially swayed by the will of a long-dead necromancer. After a string of successful plunders of Tengu burial mounds, he unwittingly stumbled into a burial mound of an ancient tengu necromancer (which thankfully had been previously defeated by adventurers years prior). The contact with the dormant magic of the necromancer's bones and tools were a catalyst for the graverobber's psychic abilities which unfortunately made him more in tune to receive the suggestions of the necromancer's remnant will, to carry on where the necromancer could not.
Feats: Point-Blank Shot; Precise Shot
Dex 18, Int 16
Skills: Disable device, Diplomacy, then the Knowledges and UMD
Primary Weapon: Short Bow; Imbued with Shocking (Bow of a Tengu holy warrior)
I had 7 mental focus to spread around, so I put 3 into the Short Bow for Shocking, then spread the others as follows: 2 into necromantic focus (the necromancer's skull); 1 into spirit shroud (necromancer's robe); and, 1 into soul puppet (wishbone of the necromancer's dead raven familiar).
This allowed me to have a means to do energy damage (shocking), a familiar, more HP for a level 1, and the ability to summon 3 (or 4?) skeletons during the course of a scenario. I could also cause fear in a pinch. I selected Magic Weapon and Inflict Light Wounds as my level 1 spells.
I planned to have my party members and my skeletons be my meat shields and bone walls, respectively.
Party composition: Occultist 1 (me), Earth Kineticist, Fighter, Pre-gen Cleric
HERE BE SPOILERS
Spoiler:
In the Intro, there wasn't much I could contribute other than assisting on diplomacy. The extra int-mod languages provided me with the ability to speak goblin, which allowed me to negotiate with the town's goblins on the party's behalf.
Inside the dungeon, I animated the necromancer's familiar into a fleshy, skeletal talking raven. I had imbued it earlier in my prep but felt it worked better to describe the effect to not animate until I called upon it. I didn't want a talking skeleton raven in town. A living one is bad enough. Plus it's more fun describing it animating and introducing the familiar to the party inside the session. Since I could give out the implement, I commanded it to assist our Earth Kineticist as he was our eyes in the dungeon, giving him the bonuses. The raven didn't like that so it would occasionally politely ask the Kineticist to die a horrible death and other little fun vignettes. It also attempted to devour one of our defeated foes, only to have the meaty bits fall through its abdomen back onto the floor over and over. There is a lot of RP opportunity here with a resurrected familiar, or animated toy or doll, especially with the ability to give it out to others.
The first encounter was melee oriented and the creatures died before I could do anything with a back-up club. The second encounter the Short Bow worked out nicely. The extra 1d6 made up for the lack of access to a d8 longbow and high strength mod. I hit 3/5 shots. I was able to keep a 18AC (5 hide armor+3 dex) which allowed me to avoid damage in this encounter. Encounter ended and 2 goblins escaped.
We went downstairs and a failed perception check from our Earth Kineticist which led him to fail the pit trap. An inactive skeleton at the bottom of the pit got me curious on how I could get its bones up top so I could animate it and take it with us, but the party didn't want to bring up each bone one by one with two goblins who could return to ambush us, so we moved on.
The next encounter with the skeletons by the pool was interesting. The Earth Kineticist took the Kinetic Cover infusion which allowed him to provide cover as we advanced through the room. My bow hit 2/3 times with blunt arrows and took down two of the skeletons. After the encounter was over, I was eagerly anticipating raising my new army for the rest of the dungeon. I planned to raise 2 skeletons (1HD each), equip them out with my spare longspear and a goblin's shortbow. Before the GM could rule if any of that was possible, we determined that the pregen cleric had spent all of her healing and that we would likely not survive much further into the dungeon.
It took us 3 and a half hours to get to this point and it was a good stopping point to end the session (we only got partial xp and partial PP). Everyone made it out alive though!
General impressions
Transmutation Implement: I used by class abilities to improve my damage for session-long 1d6 shocking damage. I had the choice to cancel that buff to to give out a +1 enhancement bonus to others. If I or my other party members somehow had a +1 weapon already, I could have used this to grant effect bonuses like ghost touch, fire/ice/cold, etc to myself or others as well, and the ability grows stronger as a I level. I wish I had the spare focus to do this at least once while I still had my shocking weapon, but then again I was only level 1.
Necromancy Implement: The temporary HP didn't come into play for me.
I wasn't able to make use of the ability to animate undead as it only works on humans. Because I wasn't able to use it on a humanoid (goblin) I wasn't able to raise a skeleton within the scope of this session. This ability seems like it could be powerful in the first couple of levels and its restrictions seem fair. However I'm curious how this scales beyond the first few levels.
The Soul Puppet implement is interesting. Notwithstanding the RP opportunities, it would essentially allow for a disposable familiar of any type you wanted (to enhance your selected skills or needs for that session). You can finally let the familiar out of the bag and scout, and at later levels deliver touch spells. If it died, it doesn't have any debilitating effects to the Occultist such as storing spells or a high replacement cost.
Unresolved Questions
Is the Occultist's ability to animate the dead considered an evil act? It's not per the Animate Dead spell and it doesn't contain the evil descriptor. The playtest had them as PFS legal so it would suggest not, but it may be there for testing purposes.
If you destroy an enemy skeleton or zombie, can you animate it yourself under your command? As written, the ability refers to the bestiary entries, but what if the enemy skeleton has a template or use of other weapons? Can I give the animated skeletons a spare weapon or armor? A long spear would allow it to threaten 5' (claw natural weapon) and 10' (spear). A bow may also be very useful. This may have been solved in discussions regarding the Animate Dead spell which I am unaware.
Do I need to have 1 point in Necromantic Focus to be able to animate dead? If so I would not be able to ever spend that 1 point contained in that implement to animate dead. Example: I would be draining the focus from the spirit shroud and familiar first, then any excess in the Necromantic Focus. I'd have that one last point that I could only then use on the fear effect.
If the Soulbound Puppet dies, can you still draw focus from it?
If I got hit and the the Spirit Shroud temporary HP's is consumed, does the focus stay in the shroud to be drawn out to fuel a power at a later time?
Does Psychic Weapon stack with the Magic Weapon spell, to allow a minute-long enhancement bonus?
