JadeBlades's page

The Souldrinker prestige class gets Enervation as an SLA, if that's your jam.

God, I love souldrinker. Definitely plan on taking it to maximize my number of death rays. That, and a Necromancer's Athame.

Hello! Looking for a bit of guidance from the gurus here on the forum about how to make an idea of mine come together.

One of the things that drew me to Pathfinder was the sheer volume of cool and powerful necromancy spells, ones that aren't restricted to just NPCs and monsters. It's fun to make characters that use dark and dangerous powers instead of rainbow beams of goodness and friendship. My favorite part about it is all the interesting and powerful ways to debilitate opponents with ability score damage and similar effects, so I'm wondering what advice you all can enlighten me with to help me construct a necromancer wizard that focuses on such spells.

Right now I have only a few things set in stone for a build idea, based on what I think is fun.

-I definitely want to take Planar Infusion at level 1 and set it to the Negative Plane so I count as undead for the sake of positive and negative energy. I once got jumped by a bunch of shadows and because their touch specifically states its a negative energy effect, this single-handedly saved my life.
-Deathwine is something I really want to work into the build for fun's sake
-I know Weapon Focus in rays is an obvious choice, as is Spell Focus, but I'm unaware of any other interesting feats or items that might help.
-THE ALLMIGHTY ENERVATION is probably going to be something I take Signature Spell for at level 15, and the end goal is to be able to spam this spell until everything drops dead.

-I have a fun plan involving Shadow Projection and an Amulet of Grasping Souls, leaving my body in a demiplane with my familiar while my shadow goes out and adventures with the party, using the amulet to wear my clothes so that, with a party member's help, I can disguise as a normal human. Incorporeal and immune to nonmagical damage? Check. Undead and immune to all mind-affecting effects? Check. Half damage from all energy types? Check. Fat channel resistance? Check. Basically unkillable and if someone manages to destroy my shadow and set me to -1 hitpoints, my familiar is right there ready to pour a bottle of deathwine down my throat so I can teleport in and blast the idiot who thought they could actually kill me.

This is pretty much all I have in mind at the moment. If anyone who knows a lot more about spellcasting could fill me in on the nuances of ray casters and how to make a debuff-focused necromancer work, I'm all ears! Assume that I don't really know any of the nuances of playing a wizard properly and I've not heard of any of the obscure and cool feats that would make this work.

Bombs are a decent ranged option that requires no investment whatsoever, so if that sounds good then go for it. With a very small amount of investment 1-2 discoveries) Bombs can be a VERY good backup ranged weapon.

Sneak Attack is bonus damage that you will sometimes get - and the Vivisectionist might be the best at utilizing it since you get Greater Invisibility at level 10 (and Pounce at the same level with Beastmorph, so that could stack up pretty quickly).

Whatever suits your concept better, they're both good.

The plan is to stack mutagen and polymorph at the same time for mega strength, which is loads of fun. The abilities that beastmorph mutagen gives you still function while poly’d, which can lead to fun combinations. That gets the whole “chimera” aspect I was hoping for. Well, that and the fact that I can turn into a literal chimera!

You bring up a good point about the bombs. I do need a backup, and the sneak attack isn’t a constant guarantee, so it might be better to skip on vivisectionist. Though, I think I might not have a problem with running out of polymorphs and therefore losing my natural weapons. The simple solution is to spend money crafting potions, and then using Alchemical Allocation to make those potions last forever!

Thanks for the helpful tips.

The point of retraining Feral Mutafen is that Feral Mutagen gives 3 attacks, pretty much every beast also has 3 attacks. Once I get Beast Shape and the other polymorph spells, there’s no need for Feral Mutagen, so I can swap it out. In case you haven’t noticed, I said I’m not going to go all in on natural attacks in my base form anymore, because that’s not fun for everyone else , and I want to focus on polymorphing. The beastmorph isn’t terrible in this case because I can apply pounce to monsters that would otherwise not have it. At this point, of course, none of this is OPTIMAL, but I went into this knowing that Viv+Beast is already OP and that I’m not taking any skin off anyone’s back by doing it in a less-meta way. Calling that “betraying my party” is toxic as all hell.

I've decided I'll put way less of a focus on natural attacks while not-polymorphed. Just Feral Mutagen up until level 7, in which case I'll retrain it and cast Beast Shape on myself from then on. That way I'm not spoiling anyone else's fun with way too many dice, and I can turn into animals and monsters!

Personally I don't think much of Power Attack before +4 BAB

Good point! I'll take your advice on that. Same with the ability scores. I was told that 18 Str and 12 int was the best way to do it, since I can afford a +2 and +4 headband of intellect at the exact levels I need them to cast my higher level extractions, but in reality I'm going to be buffing my strength so much that I won't need it.

My gripe now is that Derklord has a point when it comes to the "you're not polymorphing" part. If I invest everything into natural attacks:

• 2 Talons from Skinwalker
• 2 claws and a bite from feral mutagen
• 2 secondary wing attacks from Powerful Wings and the Wings discovery
• A tentacle slap from the Tentacle discovery
• A sting from the Fleshwarped Scorpion Tail Whip
• A gore from a Helm of the Mammoth Lord

All of this will disappear if I cast Beast Shape, and I'll be left with a bear with two claws and a bite. Granted, I'm probably not going to go this far. That's a ridiculous 10 attacks with sneak attack if I'm flanking. There's a point where the amount of dice being rolled will become boring for everyone else. I'll probably stop with just Talons, Claws, a Bite, a Sting, and Wings, since that completes the Manticore look I'm going for. That doesn't change the fact, though, that I'll lose all of it if I decide to cast Beast Shape on myself to ACTUALLY turn into one, which feels omega-bad. I still want to get the fun size bonuses to strength that come from polymorph spells, but I don't know what to do if Enlarge Person is the only one I can use.

I hope you're aware that this build isn't actually using polymorphing.

My bad. I meant to specify that I would be using Beast Shape at later levels, especially when it gives me access to magical beasts.

So, wereraptor skinwalker sounds like a good call, and I've heard good things about pairing Spell Discovery with Arcane Strike!

Overall, you think I shouldn't be worrying to much about sneak attack? If that's the case, should I drop vivisectionist and just keep my bombs? They're not useless by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn't plan on making ranged attacks.

This looks like tons of fun! I'll be sure to try it sometime.

For a while, I've had the idea in my head to make a character that focuses on natural attacks and polymorphing, two of my favorite mechanics in the game. After some discussion, I've stumbled upon a meta build that does just that and excels, Alchemist with the vivisectionist and beastmorph archetypes.

I know that this is generally considered a VERY op setup if done right, and while I do love making effective characters, I'm more interested in making a monstery fella than I am breaking the game over my knee. I like it because it gets rid of bombs and poison, the two parts of alchemist I don't plan on using, and turns it all into stuff that encourages being a big cool monster.

So far I've got these Ability Scores: 25 PB- Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 7.

For my race, I've got two main options I'm thinking of. The first is human, since it's plain and simple and an extra feat on a class that doesn't get any bonus feats is nice. The second is Skinwalker with the Wereraptor subrace so I can get 2 talon attacks. If I take the wereraptor race (I know the wereboar is better, but I just don't like pigs), the admins of the westmarch I'm in told me that I can't take Feral Mutagen until level 6, that way I don't have 5 attacks before everyone else has 2, which is understandable.

For feats, I know Power Attack is a must for any strength oriented attacker and I plan on taking that at level 1. Beyond that, though, I'm a little stumped. I know that, due to vivisectionist and my potentially absurd amount of attacks, I want to maximize the time spent full attacking while flaking or denying enemies their dexterity so I can pile on sneak attacks. Apparently, going down the Spring Attack chain of feats is a good way to get into position for that, and the Cornugion Smash and Shatter Defenses feat paths are other good ways to be able to consistently achieve your sneak attack damage.

What do you all think? Which race should I choose? What feats are good for this build? I'm still very new, so assume I don't know most feats. I've also not played a proper melee character before, so I'm not terribly familiar with a lot of the nuances of being on the front-line.

I've dabbled with the Medium a bit but it held fairly little interest to me for a good bit of time. I tend to NOT like putting my characters at risk of losing control of themselves.

That said, I did use a dip into the Medium to set up some interesting backstory for a Summoner I built. Specifically the Reanimated Medium archetype. I thought it was sort of cool that someone's spirit could simply re-possess their own body. I used that to set the stage for the character to project themselves outwards as an Eidolon (or spiritualist if you want to do that), and allow an ally spirit spirit to occupy your now vacant body to operate it while YOU get the job done.

I LOVE that idea! And since you can have your eidolon participate in the seance, you can go Marshall have them benefit from the +2 damage from the champion seance boon and also use the spirit surges on your eidolon. That sounds like a ton of fun!

One of the builds I've wanted to try for the longest time is a sort of Scarf-Dancer. After seeing the Dancing Scarves and Bladed Scarves, I thought it would be really nifty to combine the two into a character whose offense and defense fully revolves around comfortable and fashionable neckwear.

I've done a bit of digging to figure out how it would work, and the results I've found are... less than ideal

-Dancing Scarves are light armor that have no check penalty or max bonus, but they only provide their +2 ac if you move at least 10 ft every turn.

-Bladed Scarves are an exotic two handed weapon with Trip and Disarm, that are able to utilize Weapon Finesse

One would assume that, based on these factors, the best idea would be to make a dexterous character who moves quickly and attacks from reach, but there's just one problem. The Bladed Scarf does not have reach.
This means that we need to get into threat range of enemies, limiting our movement to a 5ft step, which means we get no AC from our armor. In order to fix this, we need to make our 5ft step a 10ft step. We could use Lunge and stand behind the frontline, but then we still get no AC when making a full-attack.

The one thing I have found that can achieve this is Outslug Sprint, which requires Outslug Style, Lunge, Outslug Weave, Combat Expertise, and Weapon focus. With all of that, we can gain an extra 5ft on our 5ft step and maintain our AC, as well as a very nice +2 dodge bonus from the style among other benefits.

Problem with that, Outslug style requires you to use punching weapons, from the Close Weapons fighter group. If we want to do this with the scarves, we need to modify them with the Versatile Design modification. No big deal, that's only 500 gp. But wait! Modifying an exotic weapon takes it to a level of complexity above exotic, making it unuseable! In order to wield the scarves, we now need either Weapon Adept or Modified Weapon Proficiency!

That brings us to the following list of feats, in order.

-Weapon Finesse
-Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bladed Scarf)
-Weapon Focus (Bladed Scarf)
-Combat Expertise
-Lunge
-Outslug Style
-Outslug Weave
-Outslug Sprint
and finally
-Modified Weapon Proficiency

All that just to be able to use the weapon and armor at the most basic level...
AND WE DON'T EVEN HAVE SLASHING GRACE because the scarf is a two handed weapon! So it's all that for just a d6! It would take a character without bonus feats until level Seventeen just to be able to do this, and we havent even begun to invest in the tripping, feinting, and disarming that the weapon and armor are meant to be used for.

There must be some better way to use these! Does anyone know any other way to make these two items work together?

Howdy, welcome to the forums!

Personally, Mediums make a very strong Fighter+ with the Champion spirit and Spirit Focus. I spent most of my time in Champion mode unless I needed some condition removal or a specific spell. Marshal feels kind of weak to me. Could definitely use a houserule or buff since a Bard is just kinda...better for the same purposes. There's also some really strong niche benefits from picking up Scribe Scroll for your Hierophant or Archmage spirits.

The most recent game I played a Medium in was an Elder Scrolls inspired game where I was a Dunmer haunted by the spirits of his ancestors.

There's a really nasty set of feat combos to really bring the SMASH into a 2handed build. Power Attack -> Intimidating Prowess ->Cornugon Smash -> Hateful.

It's always fun to tie things in with the world lore. I'm surprised that high strength is one of the better ways to play the class! Thematically, a psychic letting themselves be possessed in order to use powers didn't scream "Frontline Warrior" to me, but when you're letting Conan The Barbarian copilot your body for a day, I suppose you would make a pretty competent strongman!

(Also, I just noticed that I wrote "Fill a Combat Combat". Not sure what sort of mini aneurysm I was having there, but I meant to say "Fill the role of Melee DPS")

I've been told that Marshall can be very good! So far I've enjoyed using it, and with Taboo's, I can throw out four d6's as immediate actions before incurring penalties, and give everyone the perfect passive bonus for them at the start of the day.

The only legend I've seen people say is completely useless is the Guardian, and apparently that's more an issue of Defense being a mediocre investment in Pathfinder as a whole. Reading it, I do see how it might be sub par, considering it gives you the defense required to frontline, but then... nothing to do once you get there.

I do like, however, that the variety of tools that the spirits provide encourage you to have toys you bring along for each spirit, like how you would keep a special exotic weapon to use when you decide to be a Champion, and a set of metamagic rods for when you're an Archmage or a Hierophant! It's not optimal at all, but it's fun!

Hello! This is my first post on the Paizo forums, so I'll give a bit of an introduction.
I go by Jade! I've been playing Tabletop RPG's for a few years now, and after being introduced to fantasy RPG's by good ol' DND 5e, I've branched out and tried a few other systems. Pathfinder has stuck as one of my favorites due to the sheer wealth of options and meaningful mechanics.

Over the past few weeks, I've been reading through the Medium class, and I love it! I believe I've gotten a good understanding of how it works, what's good and what isn't, but I know very little about how the class interacts with the rest of the game. I'm still learning about feats, skills, and practical application of most of the tools available to me, so I wanted to ask you all how you would personally play the Medium? What sort of story, what sort of personality, and what sort of abilities would you build around the class' framework?

The character I've made is an Azata Blooded Heavenborn Aasimar. Their story is that they were born in Elysyum, and lived their life among the exalted souls of powerful heroes. Yearning to be a hero as great as those they saw every day, they left and went to the material plane to prove themselves. However, they're a runt. With only 7 strength, they're frail and weak, unable to fight. So, they channel the spirits of the same legends they wish to emulate, glad to allow these spirits to influence them and show them how to be a hero.

At level 3, I had to sacrifice my feats on Weapon Finesse and Slashing Grace with a scimitar, and I plan on investing into Sarenrae's divine fighting style and other scimitar-centric abilities.

I play in a West-March game, so I need to fill a different role every session. When I need to fill a combat combat, I use the Champion for its combat benefits. When the group needs a healer, I pick Hierophant. Usually, however, I pick Marshall and use my Spirit Surge on my allies as much as possible. My only regret is that I can't use feats to improve my performance with non-combat spirits because using a dex weapon requires so much investment. I still need weapon focus and other similar feats.

I look forward to hearing about the interesting ways you all use this class, and unique ways you've discovered to use their abilities!