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I’m GMing a game and fairly soon players will be encountering a demon that wants to trick them into making a corrupted wish posing a a benevolent Djinni captured by said demon. I suspect stat bonus is a likely but corruptions for other possible wishes are welcome.

Big things I DO NOT want:
Instant character death
Forced shift to evil alignment or other means of taking away player agency on character personify
Fluff only negative effects

I’m strongly considering a slow burn so effect may not be readily apparent. (Read: I’m going to come back and post the specific wish here after its made to get more specific means of having the twist show up.)

Thanks in advance.

I'm currently running an AP and as written the players have been trouncing most as written encounters without a sweat and it has been agreed to allow me to beef up and add a few homebrewed nasties. After coming across an idea in a summon focused cleric build, I've tweaked and fleshed a bit to make it even nastier but want to make sure it looks appropriate for a the party and if I should make any additional adjustments

The party consists of 5 level 14 PCs and one level 12 cohort at the time of the encounter. (Not sure I want to give details on party make up since I don't want to make something that is gear to fighting them to specifically. But I will say they are specialized in fighting undead with a strong secondary focus on Evil creatures.) Character is built off a high fantasy array and has the wealth of an equivalent level PC.

Main things I'm looking at are spells and additional equipment to help bolster his allies. But I'm interested in any other suggetions that people have on other parts of the build.

The Kennel Master
LE Half-Orc 16th lv Cleric of Asmodeus (Evangelist)
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 14 + 4 Belt
INT 10
WIS 14 + 2 Racial + 4 level
CHA 15

Traits: Diabolic Dabbler (+1 hit point/hit die of devils), Flames of Hell (Channel DC +1)

Domain: Trickery

1st: Sacred Summons
3rd: Spell Focus (Conjuration)
5th: Augmented Summons
7th: Superior Summoning
9th: Ferocious Summons
11th: Discordant voice
13th: Conversion Channel
15th: Quick Channel

Notable Equipment:
Phylactery Of Negative Channeling
Banner of the Ancient Kings

Tactics:
When alerted by the sounds of the combat in the previous room, he begins casting Master's Escape on an Edavagor hidden in the ceiling that he'd Gated in previously, Anti-Life Shell, Fickle Winds, Summons 1d3+1 Ferocious Cerberi, ending with by Mass Invisibility and using his Copycat power at some point during that.

He then uses a scroll of Silent Image of an ally they'd met earlier to lure them into the room and begins inspiring courage on his first turn.

After his dogs have all lost their invisibility, he cast Lunar Veil to try to regain the visual advantage for himself and his dogs.

Additional spells: Blessing of Fervor, Burning Disarm, Jolting Portent, Mass Suggestion (to hurry ahead and go rescue their friend), Confusion, Chain of Perdition, Cold Ice Strike.

As necessary, he will summon more ferocious Cerberi with standard actions and quick channeling to harm enemies while healing himself and his dogs.

Once he drops below 40 hit points, he uses a swift action to activate the Master's Escape, although he may attempt a final summon and channel first.

Link to Achetype

This is a fun looking but messily written archetype that trades the cavalier's traditional mount and most class abilities for a phantom-like mount and a couple of nice abilities. Due to the way it's written, it leaves a lot of questions about how the new mount works.

1) What feats can it take?

It's a phantom, not an animal companion anymore. RAW, it looks like it's thus open to any feat for which it meets the requirements.

2)Is the animal selected for the ghost mount anything but cosmetic and does size affect its stats?

The stats for a ghost mount is included on the page already and even for a halfling that picks a wolf it has a bite and two hoof attacks (...yeah) and lacks the typical trip. RAW, no matter what animal it looks like, it's a medium or large horse. And since the stats are the same for a large ghost mount does that mean it takes the -1 to all attacks and AC without gaining larger damage dice or reach? (And if a ghost mount horse has reach unlike a normal horse, then the wolf with hoof attacks suddenly is only the second strangest thing here.)

Additionally, phantoms don't change in size like an animal companion so the wolf would remain medium even up to level twenty. Although this makes sense since the wolf is technically no longer alive.

3)Does the increased slam damage dice that a phantom normally gets applied to a ghost mount's natural attacks?

This seems like a major oversight due to RAW wording since ghost mounts already loose a significant offensive ability due to no emotional focuses and since they can't deliver spells like a phantom. RAW the only way to boost a ghost mounts damage output is to use the cavalier's neck slot to wear an amulet of mighty fist. This is especially important since as a phantom they don't get iterative attacks.

3) Skills per level?

Do they get the normal 2 per HD like a normal phantom despite a lower intelligence? I tried comparing this to the typical phantom rules, but it's as big a mess as the ghost rider wording. Not counting their automatic bonus increase in the emotion tied skills, RAW they get two per HD but RAW if their intelligence INCREASES by only one or two, the number of skill points DECREASES to one per level instead of two. As is, I'd think the ghost mount gets two per HD, and no bonus from emotion, until this mess gets cleaned up.

4)Stacking with spiritualist levels?

This is a bit of a left-field question since they probably don't expect a ghost rider to multiclass into Spiritualist. Neither Spiritualist class description nor this archetype says the levels stack when calculating the phantom's level with other classes that grant a phantom. Or does this mean that a Ghost Rider/Spiritualist would have two phantoms, albeit only one manifesting at a time? Judging from PFS rules in this FAQ on cavalier mount and druid companion animals stack so this may stack since both are phantoms. However, since the ghost mount type phantom is unavailable to the Spiritualist, the levels may not stack akin to cavalier levels not stacking for druid bird companion.

Another PFS player and I have been arguing about how the merciful weapons work.

He claims that RAW a merciful long sword would have a -4 penalty to attack rolls since you're trying to deal nonlethal damage and it doesn't have the "nonlethal" descriptor. He claims that technically since a merciful long sword lacks the "nonlethal" descriptor it is still a lethal weapon and thus must take the penalty to attack. Thus he argues only weapons that have the "nonlethal" descriptor don't have to take the attack penalty with an active merciful enchantment.

I've been countering that since a merciful weapon (when the enchantment is active) deals only nonlethal damage and the rules for attacking nonlethal specifically say the penalty apply when the weapon deals lethal damage, merciful versions of lethal weapons do not have to take a penalty to use. Nowhere is there a requirement that a weapon have a "nonlethal" descriptor mentioned nor does it say anything about lethal weapons. All that descriptor does is say that the standard weapon deals nonlethal damage and I argue that a merciful weapon functions identically.

Which of us is right here?

I've been trying to work up an idea of an alchemist doctor that focuses on using his mutagen to turn himself into a werewolf without the numerous nasty side effects of traditional lycanthropy.

This is meant to be a fun character idea more than an min-maxed uber character so I'm making some choices more for flavor than optimization. That said, I still want something that can survive the grueling life as an adventurer. I'm intending a front line fighter that survives mostly due to the massive amount of damage that he can take.

TLDR: Trying to make a werewolf themed Mr. Hyde blood shield build that is PFS legal.

Race: Half-Orc NG

Stats:
STR 14
DEX 16
CON 16
INT 13
WIS 11
CHA 7

Alchemist Archetype: Beastmorph

Feats and Discoveries
1st: Ex Disc: feral mutagen
2nd: Tumor familiar, armadillo [protector archetype] (fluff wise this is going to be an animated wolf fur pelt that he wears under his armor that gives him a tail)
3rd: Die for Your Master
4th: Spontaneous healing
5th: Ex Disc: Lingering Spirit
6th: Healing Touch
7th: Dodge
8th: Preserve Organs
9th: Rending claws
10th: Mummification

Level in Master Chymist
11th: Rending Fury

If he does take part in higher level adventures, he'll take one more level of Master Chymist for furious mutagen before returing to just Alchemist levels.

I have yet to decide on traits. I'm leaning to Reactionary and Purity of Faith. The latter is to help with the horrid will saves this guy will have. Although I've been considering having Beastkin for the flavor despite it being significantly less powerful.

My biggest problem is that he'll be lacking in combat without his mutagen and it will be difficult to always find an hour between fights to craft a new one.

The main reason I'm considering Half-Orc is for the orc-ferocity. This would allow me to chug a cure light wounds extract when dying to stay standing, especially with the stacking from spontaneous healing.

I'm very weakly attached to anything at level 7 and above. And if anyone have any advice for some way to make him more werewolf-like or better at surviving I'm all ears. Thanks for any help.