Kysus Arelius's page

Any suggestions?

So to jump start this, here's a few builds I've came up with so far. I'm not super familiar with Cavaliers, Mounted Combat, and whatnot but hopefully this gives an idea of what I'm kind of wanting.

Some feat retraining/shifting may be needed. Anything look wrong in the builds and is the Emissary route or the Gendarme route better overall? Emissary's trick riding allows me to possibly ignore 1 extra attack a round aimed at my mount.

Also, is Order of the Cockatrice worth it in conjunction with the Taunt feat and Shatter Defenses feat? I'm mainly considering Order of the Dragon or Paw but if Cockatrice is worth spending the feats it may be worth it?

Hello all,

I've never played a Cavalier or a mounted character really... The majority of my characters have been Support or Divine Casters. So, I'm a bit lost with how to build a decent Halfling Cavalier that works well mounted with dealing damage and keeping himself, his mount, and his allies alive.

Traits: Helpful
Racial Trait: Caretaker or Outrider? Which is best?

Stats: Best suggestion for Strength based Cavalier? I'd rather deal with the small penalty instead of spending extra feats. I'd like to use feats for more defensive or mounted stuff.

Orders: Order of the Dragon, Paw, or Sword?

Cavalier Archetypes: Honor Guard seems great, is it worth taking Emissary in conjunction or is the loss of tactician and banner too much? Free Mounted Combat, Mobility for myself and mount, and Trick Riding seems useful.

Character Concept: My main plan is to use Ride checks to prevent my mount from getting hit, to bodyguard my mount or nearby ally from attacks, my mount bodyguard or In Harm's Way to protect me from danger, and have decent focus on dishing out damage.

------------

So what pitfalls should I avoid and how can I make this bodyguarding mounted knight in shining armor kick butt and save lives?

It appears that the Veneficus Witch archetype is PFS legal. Not sure if going the full distance with Witch or if going 2 levels of Witch with rest in Alchemist is better. Looks like you could do a Misfortune + Toxic Words combo to poison someone, then cackle. From the looks though it appears that the Hex may get resisted easily later on since the DC is partially determined by Witch class level.

Do we have something effective here or is it giving up more than the benefits that Alchemist is providing?

I've got two build ideas in mind, tell me what you think.

*Casts True Resurrection on Thread*

So, there's been some new releases that have came out since the last post. I'm not sure if Nagaji was a legal race back then either (I believe so but I could be wrong). So how can we build a poison based character more effectively?

For example, Dirty Tactics Toolbox added the following.

Poisons
*Red Tears poison (DC 15 injury, 1/round for 10 rounds, 1d6 bleed dmg, 50 gp)
*Addlemind (DC 15 ingested, 1/minute onset, 1/minute for 10 minutes, 1d2 Wis, Cure 2 saves, 75 gp)
*Laughing Gas (DC 12 inhaled, immediate onset, 1/round for 5 rounds, Dazed 1 round, Cure 1 save, 500 gp)
*Sap Will (DC 18 ingested, 5/minute onset, 1/minute for 10 minutes, -4 penalty to Will saves and Wisdom based skill checks for 1 minute, Cure 2 saves, 2,500 gp)
*Whisperwound (DC 20 ingested, 1/minute onset, 1 round, 1d6 Con, When attempting to cast a spell or speak above a whisper take 2d6dmg, Cure 1 save, 5,000 gp)

Feats
*Deep Toxin: When using a poisoned weapon to make a Vital Strike, increase poison's duraction by one frequency increment. Poison takes effect immediate and does not have an onset time. Prereqs: Vital Strike, BAB +6, Craft Poison 6 ranks or poison use class feature.

Powerful Poisoning: When damaging an opponent with a Power attack while using a poisoned weapon, you can forgo the bonus damage from Power Attack to increase the save DC of the poison by 1. When BAB reaches +4, and every +4 therafter, bonus to poison's save DC increase by an additional 1. This can't cause the save DC to exceed 15 + 1/2 your character level. Prereqs: Power Attack, Craft Poison 3 ranks or poison use class feature.

Rage Poisoner Powers
*Enhance Venom: Add Con mod to DC of poisons delivered via Viper's Kiss or Viper's Breath. Must have both of those rage powers to take this.
*Viper's Breath: While holding a dose of poison in mouth, exhale 15-foot cone of inhaled poison. Everyone in area must make save vs Poison's DC - 4 or suffer effects with immediate onset. Must have Viper's Kiss to take this.
*Viper's Kiss - Can drink 1 dose of ingested poison as a move action if poison is in hand at start of turn. Can hold dose in mouth for number of rounds equal to Con mod with suffering harmful effects. Next successful bite applies poison with immediate onset; this consumes the dose. Must have a bite attack (at least when raging) to select this rage power.

Discoveries
*Poisoned Explosive, level 4: Apply dose of contact or injury poison to a bomb. If the poisoned bomb hits its target, bomb deals damage as normal, but the target must also succeed at a saving throw against the poison or be affected by the poison. Poisoned Explosive doesn't stack with other discoveries that modify bombs.

Btw, it seems that Daggermark Poisoner prestige class is not a PFS legal option and it also looks like the new Alchemist Archetype "Toxicant" is not legal either. Any other books add more stuff to our arsenal since August of 2014?

Check out http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r3tv?Making-use-of-poison-in-PFS#1

Appreciate the response, it's been more than a year since that thread has had a post though and there's been multiple splatbooks that have came out since then. Dirty Tactics Handbook and Weapon Master Handbook to name a few. Has any new stuff came out for Poison builds? Can we get some example builds of Alchemist, Cleric, or etc builds to see how well people can build some Poison users? I'll try to add one or two builds by tomorrow.

Few things:

1) Poisoned weapons are not practical, are expensive generally, and aren't the most effective method of winning combats.
2) I'm interested in how to build a character for PFS that's built around poisons, even if it sucks.
3) With that being said, lets see how well we can actually build a character that uses poisons.

It seems that going Separatist Cleric of Norgorber (to pickup the Venom subdomain) and later going into Exalted prestige class is a decent option. But I also noticed that Alchemists seem to get some good bonuses to Poisons and the ability to craft poison.

Are there items, feats, or traits that I'm missing? Or are there other classes that get boosts to using poisons? I'd really like to mesh something together and see how far it would go in PFS despite some of the difficulties.

Can someone advise what the standard stance is with someone that has Irori as a favored deity with Guided Hand, granting them +Wis instead of +Str to IUS strikes, if that also correlates to using +Wis to melee touch attacks?

Both actions are using your hand/fist to deliver the action so I'm confused if you'd still have to use +str to touch or instead be using +wis because of Guided Hand with Irori.

I was in a conversation recently at my local PFS venue and we got to talking about Wizards and illusion magic. I brought up Gaara from Naruto who controls sand around him to create armor, a protection bubble, forms sand to blind, slam, and grab opponents and it got me wondering if there's actually an effective way to recreate him in Pathfinder.

My initial thoughts would be a red headed gnome with the Effortless Trickery feat to maintain an illusion of a sand wall for cover or etc. as a swift action while being able to move and cast other spells. Someone mentioned that one of the classes from the Occult book could work also. The idea would be to use illusion magic, earth spells, and shadow conjuration/evocation to create creatures/objects/and effects with sand and earth. Anyone care to give a shot on how to best create someone that uses the element of sand to fight for him/her?

Gaara

Just wondering how to recreate this character just for fun and flavor.

Any summoner or illusionist build ideas for a painter?

If anyone has some good suggestions I'd love to see.

Ok I'm seriously digging the Relm character idea with painting creatures into existence. Maybe a Summoner or Illusionist Sorcerer (maybe Gnome with their Illusion feats/spells?) Bob Ross was an awesome painter and he sure made things like trees, rivers, and etc. come to life so that does fit the extraordinaire painter concept. Just veers me away from the nightlife murder mysterious background perhaps.

So, what kind of build did you have in mind? How to best take advantage of this Illusion or Summoning painter? Paint me an example build. :P

Have you considered a Weapon and Shield style ranger? You could TWF with your improvised paintbrush weapon and a shield as your palette, and it gets plenty of skill points.

Definitely a great idea RDN. I may veer towards that path of Weapon & Shield style.

-----

Kerney, I must admit that isn't a bad idea. It takes away from the art of using the Paintbrush (Iron Brush) as a deadly weapon that people wouldn't suspect....but the painting creatures into existence does remind me of Relm from FF3 which was super cool.

Ok let me know how this build works out. Maybe I'm going about it the hard way but trying to get ITWF and ITWFeint online asap while still having decent Sneak Attack damage later.

Kysus Arelius wrote:

Tangaroa wrote:

Well you're no fun :)

Anyways, you've already declared lack of interest, but I made this so I might as well post it:
** spoiler omitted **...

Where did you get the 5 skill points per level? Clerics get 2 skill points per level, human gives +1 and 13 int gives +1. Maybe you're factoring in a +1 to int at 4th or 8th level?

2 for cleric

1 for 13 int
1 for human
1 for favored class bonus via fast learner
That's 5.

My vote's in for Geisha Bard. Craft Calligraphy is pretty much like painting. I'd have to see if any of their weapons are reminiscent of a paintbrush or palette knife. Maybe fighting fan as a canvas.

Geisha Bard is a good idea but won't work for this guy. I'm essentially make a Bob Ross clone, with a murderous night life. Daytime his career is successful and he wants to use the PFS to propel his image and line of art to the "next level." But his night life essentially explains his fighting style and class concept. So a high or medium Sneak Attack progression would be preferred.

You could make a Feral Hunter that paints himself into various shapes. At that point, you'd just have your normal natural attack build after you reached level 4. You could get Refine Weapon earlier than that and use the paintbrush at lower levels, but at higher levels, you'd just paint yourself into the form of a tiger or something and lay waste.

Interesting concept. I actually already have a level 4 Nature Fang druid in PFS though. She's a female Tarzan. My fears of going Nature Fang with this build is the weak Sneak Attack progression and feeling forced to continue in it to progress my Druid spell casting level.

I think the Martial "Iron Brush" weapon will be just fine as the weapon being used. I'd really like to go high sneak attack with this build and go TWF, ITWF, TWFeint, ITWFeint route and use swift actions to make them flat footed and deal multiple sneak attacks a round. A feint build of sorts. I could maybe go with Half-Orc and pickup some feats & trait to disguise himself as a Human (being more human looking than Orc) and pickup the Bite attack which would give him another attack for Sneak Attack dmg.

Character concept update:
I think the route I want him to go in is he's jealous, sneaky, and some of his competition has had untimely demises in the art/fashion world. Kind of a mysterious person outside of his popular facade that he maintains for the public. Successful business/art person but at night a cold killer to anyone that tries to twart his success.

Well you're no fun :)

Anyways, you've already declared lack of interest, but I made this so I might as well post it:
** spoiler omitted **...

Where did you get the 5 skill points per level? Clerics get 2 skill points per level, human gives +1 and 13 int gives +1. Maybe you're factoring in a +1 to int at 4th or 8th level?

Character concept is focused around "Fashion/Art designer, popular, painter, mysterious". Not looking to play a Cleric or Inquisitor. This character's focus is not worshiping a deity or exacting their brand of justice.

Brawler is good but not what I'm wanting for this character. Looking to play a mysterious, probably high 6+ skill points per level class with some type of shtick that works well. So far the Lore Warden 2 dip and rest Rogue seems well for Improved Two-Weapon Feint to get multiple sneak attacks off with Iron Brushes. Maybe there's some other build ideas out there that may work? Anyone able to think of one?

EDIT: I don't think I can enchant an improvised weapon so it looks like the Iron Brush will be the go-to weapon for this character then.

Quote:

I could go with the Iron Brush, but Monks & Rogues are not proficient with the Iron Brush by default.

Human bonus feat. Half-elves can get Exotic Weapon Proficiency as an alternate racial trait.

No one has offered a good excuse for using an Iron Brush though. I could just as well use a paintbrush as an improvised weapon and with a +2atk bonus which that makes it better than an Iron Brush.

Maybe TWF with improvised weapon paintbrushes and taking the Two-Weapon Feint feat? Lore Warden & Rogue multiclass?

You could use an Iron Brush, see ultimate combat eastern weapons; http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/combat/easternArmorAndWea pons.html

As for class and build, first thing I'm thinking is Bard with the Scribe Scroll feat. Instead of your classic normal scrolls, flavor each one as a different work of art. If you go this route, I'd suggest the Magician archetype to allow yourself a larger spell selection. You could also forgo Scribe Scroll and use the Magician's archetype ability Arcane Bond for a wand that's flavored as a paintbrush.

Using the wand? You mean drawing a picture into reality right in front of everyone's eyes. Bonus you can have a buckler/shield like you wanted.

This may be a stretch though. It's all I got, sadly.

Scribe Scroll is replaced by "Spell Focus: x" and you can't reskin things like a wand being a paintbrush in PFS.

For the most part, the "Profession: Painter" or "Craft: Painting" side of the character is merely flavor along with the look and feel of the character.

I could go with the Iron Brush, but Monks & Rogues are not proficient with the Iron Brush by default. If using the Iron Brush the Swashbuckler, Ranger, and Fighter are proficient with Martial Weapons. I'm wanting the character to be more of a mysterious urban person.

It won't take many levels in Craft Painting to become a very, very good painter. With ranks in Alchemist and Master Craftsman, you will be able to make your own Marvelous Pigments.

PFS does not allow crafting. How to build this character around combat though?

Hey all,

I'm wanting to build a character that's a painting artist and owns a profitable painting or art line. He's decided to join the PFS to gain some more publicity and show of his great paintings and artistry. So that's the background.

Here's the meat and potatoes though. I want this character to fight with a paintbrush (and possibly a shield, being used as a paint palette but that's optional). I'm debating between making this character some type of Rogue variant, Monk variant, or something else if it fits well. The two Monk classes that stick out are Far Strike since improvised weapons have a 10ft throw range so he's auto proficient with it or a Monk of the Empty Hand would work. Both of those would be able to flurry but I'm not sure how well that would work. Rogue with Catch Off-Guard may be useful as he surprises people by jacking them with the paintbrush handle or just whips the brush at their face. The question on that is how would I build to disarm people and that would only work vs Humanoids with no natural weapons.

I'll be taking the trait "Surprise Weapon" which gives a +2atk bonus with Improvised Weapons. I don't think the trait "Rough and Ready" is necessary since I'll probably either be proficient (Far Strike or Monk of the Empty Hand monk) or I'll probably be grabbing Catch Off-Guard which makes me proficient anyways.

So, I need your help with making this Picasso painter a reality with a 20pt stat buy in PFS. Class suggestions and how to make fighting with this improvised weapon are needed. Let me see what you can come up with.

Requirements
1) PFS, 20pt Buy
2) Uses Paintbrush as a weapon
3) Half-Elf or Human (Because all good painters in history have been Human....and also because I have a certain idea/plan in mind that only works with Half-Elf or Human.)

Usually, they have the "minimum 1" next to the "1/2 class level", meaning that you start with 1 for your class level at level 1. These kinds of class abilities usually look like "equal to 1/2 her ninja level (minimum 1) + her Charisma modifier".

They probably didn't include it in Ninja because they don't get the ki pool until 2nd level, so there was no confusion (likewise with the monk's ki pool).

I've never seen the "minimum 1" text applied to the entire class ability, just to the minimum class level. If your charisma is low enough, you can potentially have a negative ki pool (whatever that would mean).

Your negative Ki Pool would cause your body to implode and deal 20d6 to everyone in a 30ft range. You may now reroll a new character. :)

Any other thoughts or suggestions. Would like some ideas on some good feats.

Crane style requires the Dodge feat as a prerequisite

You might need to wait until level 2 for crane style since your strength is so low and you likely need the weapon finesse

Unarmed Fighter gets a free style feat at 1st level that ignore pre-reqs. Thanks though, but Dodge isn't needed in this situation.

You can get crane style as the fighter. But slashing grace won't work on the butterfly sword since it is a light weapon. Also I don't think the Osyluth guile feat helps you at all since you don't have a charisma bonus

Guess I'll have to settle with an Aldori Dueling Sword...I love how Pathfinder limits your options on what weapons to use. For a 1handed weapon to use Dex for damage it's either Aldori Dueling Sword or Scimitar only....

I must have had a higher Charisma score earlier when I was looking at Osyluth Guile also. I think trying to improve my charisma score to 12 would most likely hurt me more than it'd be worth. Any suggestions on feats?

I was trying to make a defensive fighter and came up with the following build. This character is for PFS and I wanted to boost AC up greatly and still do some decent damage.

Been wanting to play a small character (Halfling) and I figured I could play to their strengths to have a hard to hit character that can stick to enemies and be a "decently sized" pain in their side.

Would you change any of the feats or etc? Looking for suggestions. :)

Take Blood Arcanist (Fey) that will give a flat +2 DC to enchantment(compulsion) spells use sleep for early levels...

Check with you GM enchantment focus can make a GMs live a real pain, ending encounters the where planed for a evening in less than 10 sec.

Breiti

Bloodline Development does not gain access to the Bloodline Arcana, only the 1st level Bloodline Power.

Charm Person is more for having someone act friendly towards you, but it doesn't allow you to control them at all. Confusion and Dominate Person seem pretty powerful though. Necromancy seems to have some good spells but they mostly seem single target. Thoughts?

you cannot take extra exploit until you have the exploit class feature. So School savant have to wait until level 5. But the extra Spell prep pr Day and the School stuff is worth it. IMOP. And you May want to re read the bloodline development exploit before trying to get a staff via that route.

Your character still looks like you just picked the best choices from 3 different guides and ditent decide what way to go. If you want to specialice in different save or suck spells and from different schools?
And be a conjurer.
And a buffer.
If you want to save or suck you need to Pick one School and take Spell focus and that kind of stuff. If not then you...

I don't want to be a "conjurer". Between the different Wizard Schools there's only 3 really good ones: Teleportation, Foresight, and Admixture. I decided to go with the Teleportation school due to the swift action "Shift" and standard action "Dimensional Steps". Since most of the time I won't be able to Quicken a spell I'll be free to use "Shift" and it can help get out of grapples or full-attack range easily. Also helps to move into range, cast a spell, and "Shift" behind a wall to avoid be targeted.

I don't think I've geared towards being a buffer at all. I'm considering taking 1 feat to increase buff durations by 50%. Is that what you mean?

I have Potent Magic which already puts me on the same playing field as someone with Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus. Albeit it doesn't let me qualify for Spell Specialization or Varisian Tattoo, but I'm not "worse" than any caster with just those two feats.

I mentioned earlier that I was already aware of not being able to take Extra Exploits until I finally got an Exploit at 5th level. I could remove both Improved Initiative and Familiar from my feat list but thats a +8 initiative bonus. If I went the alternative route instead of a Familiar I could take the Bloodline exploit and I've already read it. It does grant me access to an Arcane Bond and I can cast only a 1st level Sorcerer spell but if I spend 1 Arcane Point I can cast a spell of any level known. 1 Arcane Point for a 5th or 6th level spell? I'll gladly take that.

The only feats I see that I could remove would be Metamagic Persistent, Metamagic Dazing, Consume Magic Items, or Spell Penetration. But if I'm focusing on a Save or Suck spell I better have Persistent metamagic...

Have it been FAQed that you can take extra exploit before you get one "real" exploit? Rules say "A character who takes an alternate class feature does not count as having the class feature that was replaced for the purposes of meeting any requirements or prerequisites."

I was thinking about this after I posted that and I believe you're absolutely right. I'll just take Improved Initiative and Spell Penetration at 1 and 3 until I qualify for Exploits. No biggie.

Does Persistant Spell metamagic cause enemies to get hit twice by Ray of Exhaustion and Ray of Enfeeblement? Both say they receive an effect if the enemy makes their save (Enfeeblement is 1/2 Str penalty) and Ray of Exhaustion makes the enemy fatigued if they save.

Lol, first you are a brown fur transmitter, then a blaster, now a teleporter. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of magic!

One possibility I have considered in the past is taking school savant, getting the bloodline development exploit and taking 1 level of sorceror. Full bloodline plus full school! Of course, it would delay spellcasting a level, so it would depend on your build and what you want to achieve.

Yeah, I get overwhelmed by all the options. But luckily you guys are here to help me sort through all the crap lol.

I don't want to slow down my spell progression any as I'm already behind a Wizard. Good thought though.

----------------------

So I'm thinking of moving a few things around. Quick Study to level 1 since I only have so many spells I can use a Buff spell, Quick Study to exchange it for a debuff or damage spell and have options instead of half my spell selection being self buffs.

I'm considering taking Bloodline Development (Arcane) at 9th level to use a "Staff of the Master" for half price (15k instead of 30k) as my Arcane Bond.

----------------------

The more I think about my character, the more I want to have a dominating or debuffing focus. At my local PFS area most of the casters I've seen use "Create Pit", "Fireball", or "Magic Missle" with a few random less effective spells.

I think I'd still take a few damage spells just to have something to blow stuff up if needed. But most of the spells I'm really liking are Necromancy or Enchantment. I could use some advice on what choices are good.

Trying to figure out what spell would be great to throw Magical Lineage and Wayang Spellhunter on to reduce metamagic on it by -2. Glanced through Core only spells so far but these are the ones I liked between level 1 - 5.

I'm only looking at Core spells with the above but if you know of any spells that would rock as debuff/dominate spells let me know.

My School Focus would stay Teleportation School but my Opposition Schools would be Divination (I can use scrolls for spells if needed) and some other school. I hate to make Evocation an Opposition but I don't want to hurt my buffing schools (Abjuration and Transmuation).

*bump* Any suggestions?

Ok, revised my Arcanst's build. School Savant does seem like a decent choice when taking the Teleportation School focus. Taking Enchantment and Necromancy as Opposition Schools.

Plan to use Additional Traits to grab Wayang Spellhunter and Magical Lineage to add both to 1 primary spell and use metamagic Persistent for free on it.

Still thinking Quick Study and Consume Magic Items are worth getting. I think my character is close to be finished. If anyone has some suggestions feel free.

Any suggestions for good save or suck spells that are worth burning Magical Lineage & Wayang Spellhunter, also using Spell Specialization? I could use some good suggestions for a Save or Suck Arcanist.

@Ragoz - Thanks for the additional info/advice you provided. After considering your stat build I adjusted mine to what I feel a bit more comfortable with 7str, 16dex, 12con, 20int, 11wis, 7cha.

---------------

I'm wanting to have a "save or suck" or "blaster" feel to my character, but I'm still planning to focus on being versatile and using battlefield control. I'm just trying to consider what spell I should put Magical Lineage into and what spell I should pick if I go Spell Focus and Spell Specialization feats.

Which spell would be great to focus on?
1) Shocking Grasp (using Reach metamagic or Spectral Hand spell)
2) Scorching Ray
3) Blindness/Deafness
4) Touch of Idiocy
5) Ghoul Touch
6) Phantasmal Killer
7) Confusion

I'm really not sure what spells are great for Save or Suck as I do want to be able to lay down a crippling spell or lots of damage if it comes down to it. Any suggestions anyone?

Would a 7str, 14dex, 13con, 20int, 12wis, 7cha stat build be better than my current 7str, 16dex, 12con, 19int, 14wis, 7cha build?

Drop metamixing and quickstudy right off the bat. You don't need these if you just prepare a bit ahead of time. I think most buffs either last too long long to bother spell tinkering because they are 10/min or 1/hr or are too short to bother rd/lvl so drop it too. You can always just cast the spell again if needed.

Don't bother with consume magic items. You have consume spell naturally as an arcanist if you are desperate for additional pool points.

As with above drop piercing spell and grab spell pen.

I think you should pick a school of magic and grab spell focus and greater. Along with this buy your int to 20. Your dcs just increased by 3. You even can get additional spells by having a higher int. I'm not sure what wisdom does at a 14 on this character.

Since you take a familiar maybe get an improved familiar later? They are very strong.

...oh yeah and staff of the master because ultimate power.

Not sure I'm following your suggestions here. From what I understand, the Quick Study exploit allows an Arcanist to replace a higher level spell with a lower level spell with metamagic on it, or just replace equal level spells if they come up against something unexpected. Not all PFS scenario descriptions give you an idea of what you'll encounter and sometimes they throw in a monster or two that can throw you for a loop. I'd think having this exploit is what really makes an Arcanist as flexible, or more, as a Sorcerer.

The metamixing exploit allows you to throw one of your known metamagic feats onto a spell on the fly without increasing the casting time. Wouldn't think be a pretty decent exploit? It can prevent elongating casting time and allows you to put metamagic on a spell on the fly.

Spell Tinkerer can be used on an Extended spell. So a level 3 Mage Armor that has been extended with a Metamagic Extend Rod lasts 6 hours. Using Spell Tinkerer on it you're increasing it to 9 hours. Later on this allows buffs to reach 24 hour duration quicker and afterwards extend into days after so you don't have to spend spells or arcane points on them the next day. In PFS missions usually last only 1 day but sometimes they span over a few days. Having 24 hour Overland Flight earlier (and later having it extend multiple days) seems like a really good exploit to me.

Consume Spells eats away my limited spells per day. If I spend 2 prestige I can get 5 2nd level spells on a scroll which with Consume Magic Items can get me 5 arcane points back without depleting my effectiveness for the day. I'm thinking this is a far better trade.

I don't think I'm going to go for Improved Familiar. I know a familiar that can use wands would be great but if I do that I'll lose the +4 initiative I gain from having a Rabbit familiar. With Reactionary, Fleet-footed Elf racial, +3 mod Dex, Improved Initiative, and Familiar I'm looking at a +15 initiative. Saving a feat and going first more often seems better to me.

If I drop Wis from 14 to 11 I can raise Int to 20 but then I'm lowering my Will save, Perception, and Sense Motive by 2. Not sure if I should do this. I can't lower my Con as 12 is already low and I'd rather not lower my Dex (since it affects my touch AC, Initiative, and Ranged touch attacks). Str and Cha are already dumped. Any suggestions?

Ehh.

Not a fan of quicken spell until 13-15 because it is a +4. Your looking at quickened 1st level spells. Not worth it yet.

Dazing is good by level 11 because you could then daze with 2nd level spells.

Persist is good at 7. I would say 5th but an arcanist is on sorcerer progression so 7 is more optimal.

I recommend persist 7 and dazing at 11. Drop quicken and buy a lesser rod of extend so you have extend spell.

Drop piercing spell....grab spell pen at 9. And pick up a few dewomer essence snd your looking at a +9 to spell pen.

Thanks for your response, very insightful. Any other feats I should consider or that I'm missing?

Well, I'm having a hard time fitting everything in but I decided to go with Elf.

I have a couple questions. Are my metamagic feats I'm selecting good or should I be getting wands of these instead? I'm trying to figure out how to make use of Metamixing and Greater Metamagic Knowledge.

Are there some feats that I'm really lacking here?

The good thing about the elf FCB is that it's dippable. You can pick up hp at the low levels when you need it and grab the extra pool at higher levels.

Note that the elf FCB doesn't increase your starting number of points per day. It just allows you to store more.

Ok, I think it get it. So the Arcanist gets 3 + 1/2 spell points a day for their Reservoir and any points from the previous day are lost. So a 6th level Arcanist would have 6 Arcane Reservoir points to start with but their maximum point allowance would be 9.

I see now where the Elf FCB only increase the maximum allowance and not how many points you start with at the beginning of the day after studying spells. I plan on using Spell Tinkerer at Mid-levels to make some spells combined with Extend Metamagic to last a long time. I also think I'd be using Lepidstadt Shifter at times as it allows me to cast spells while using Polymorph spells such as Beast Shape I and greater. I'm assuming I'd be using Quick Study at times to quickly shift my spells known for the day to adjust for the situation also. Using these three abilities makes me think I'm going to be running through my Arcane Reservoir pretty quickly. I'm not even including Potent Magic which would up my crucial save of suck spells' DC.

I guess I could consume spells or consume magic items to help regain lost points after fights. But it seems I should pickup Extra Reservoir at least once or twice? Anyone care to give some advice on how much a typical person runs through their Arcane Reservoir and if Extra Reservoir needs to be taken once or twice?

Really appreciate the info you guys have given so far.

*bump*

How much Arcane Reservoir points are enough? (Using level 2, 6, and 10 as example?) If I go Elf I'm down to 12con, would putting the FCB into +1 Arcane Reservoir points be a dangerous situation?

Maybe going Half-Elf and spending 1 feat on Elven Spirit would be a better choice?

At what amount of Charisma is Arcane Barrier worth getting? It seems like it doesn't absorb much damage at level + Cha mod.

From what I'm reading on Twilight Transfer, in order to use Breath of Life there also has to be a willing or unconscious living creature within 300ft with equal or greater HD that will instantly die. How would someone use this in PFS? This seems a bit situational at best.

Seems the Twilight Sage doesn't gain much in usefulness unless I'm missing something here. I like the Twilight Barrier but the Consume Life seems like it may get some eyebrow raises at a PFS table.

What are your thoughts on the Twilight Sage archetype? Also, how much is enough for Arcane Reservoir points and would going Half-Elf and spending the feat be more worthwhile to avoid the Con penalty while still having access to the Elf's FCB?

I played a very generic 'good stuff' build of Arcanist to 8 in society. It is just a generally useful character and has all the benefits of prepared casting, spamming your best spells because of spontaneous casting, and gaining utility from exploits.

Arcanist is almost for sure better than a sorcerer though if you want to know if it's better than a wizard I would just say that's impossible.

Can you elaborate on how you think the Arcanist is better than a Sorcerer in PFS? Just wanting to get multiple opinions before I roll a lvl 2 Arcanist or Sorcerer (the character has 3 scenario credits already).

Kysus Arelius wrote:

What is "Tattooed impossible?"

Tattooed Sorcerer is an archetype from Inner Sea Magic.

Impossible is a bloodline from Champions of Balance.

Thanks Desolate.

So, is there anyone that thinks Arcanist is better in certain situations over a Sorcerer? So far I've only heard "play Sorcerer in PFS" pretty much.

Anyone play Arcanist in PFS have some comments on whether or not they are better than just picking a straight Sorcerer or Wizard?

What are your thoughts on Elf, Human, and Half-Elf for Arcanist? Are any of the Favored Class Bonuses worth it as an Elf or Human? Going Elf as a Sorcerer would be a bad idea but maybe it's pretty decent for Arcanist?

Id think that even if I don't have a companion fighter that almost any random party member would benefit from my being able to give others "self only" spells as Brown Fur.

What is "Tattooed impossible?"

So is there any reason to play an Arcanist over a Sorcerer in PFS? Thinking if I'm picking up a familiar as a Sorcerer I'd be stuck with the Arcane bloodline.

Kysus Arelius wrote:

please check out my build and give some advice on what could be better.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rk8j?Arcanist-Optimization-Guide

Brown-Fur Transmuter gets his archetype-defining ability at level 9, i.e. ~2 years into PbP, though 3rd level one is decent too. Both require cooperative beatstick though.
Elves are BAD because constitution penalty, though I'm not really knowledgeable on amount of enemies with SR in PFS scenarios.
Human Occultist (SF(conjuration), Augment Summoning at level 1, Superior Summoning at ~7) is a party on his own pretty much like a Summoner.
School Savant plays more like a wizard.
Most PFS scenarios won't let you sleep and can be solved with "generally good" spells (summoning, control, buffing) (or should I say "can't be circumvented with dirty Wizard tricks"?), so I dare say that for PFS sorcerer is better than both wizard and arcanist.

I would think the Greater Metamagic Knowledge versatility and the Potent Magic exploit to boost CL or DC by 2 would both be worth noting over a Sorcerer? Am I wrong? Also Dimensional Slide and Spell Tinkering seem quite useful (Spell Tinkering seems to stack on top of an Extended spell, allowing some self buffs to have some really long durations).

Maybe I'm missing why it would be better to just play a Sorcerer?

EDIT: I've actually read through that guide and added quite a bit of the advice to the build already. I also ran through a few of the Arcanist that andreww built for a couple playtests that he did. I based my character's stats off of one of andreww's characters, and took his advice on dumping Charisma.

I appreciate the link, but I'm hoping for some additional advice as I'm only able to pull so much from those two sources since I'm not entirely familiar with playing Arcane Casters in general and since I'm completely new to Arcanist.