Mysterious Stranger's page

If the player playing the paladin is having a hard time dealing with playing the mage, why not have the player playing the gunslinger play him? That would solve a lot of the problems.

Also if the gunslinger is unhappy with the amount of buffs he is getting he should look into providing more for himself. Potions and other magic items can usually do the trick.

While the game is a cooperative endeavor, each character should be able to survive on their own. If you character constantly requires buffs from other characters to survive when the rest of the party does not you may want to reconsider your build.

Derklord hit the nail on the head so to speak. With all the archetypes and classes available in 1st edition Pathfinder just about any class can substitute for almost any other class.

That being said there is one thing to consider about playing an assassin type character. Most of the time when an assassin kills someone it is because of careful planning not because the assassin is powerful. Setting up a successful assassination is more than just studying the target for x amount of rounds. It is finding and exploiting weaknesses in the target. Most of the time this requires the assassin invest a significant amount of time and effort researching and planning his moves. This is something that is going to be hard to do in a typical game. The rest of the party is not going to want to sit around doing nothing while the assassin character does his thing. The opportunity for the assassin to actually be an assassin will probably not happen that often for a PC. If the player is aware of this and is ok with it they will be fine. If they are looking to actually be an assassin it may create conflict with the party. The assassin does bring some useful skills that the party will find useful so the player will not be total cut off from what he wants, but may become frustrated that he is not doing what he wants to do.

Mages exist on the high seas just like anywhere else. But that does not mean they are cheap. Any mage is probably going to be an officer on a ship, not a crew member. If you are lucky you may be able to convince one to join up, but you are not going to hire 6 of them for a few gold a day.

The price for spell casting assumes you that you go to the caster and he casts it in the safety and comfort of his own dwelling. At best he may travel a short distance, probably no more than an hour. It does not include putting the spell caster in danger. That is going to multiply the cost by a lot.

The price also assumes that you go to the caster and they cast the spell. This leaves him free to charge other people for his other spells. If he is accompanying you, you probably need to purchase all of his spells every day even if they are not cast. By my estimate a 5th level wizard can make 1,000 gp per day by selling all his spells. This would mean to have a spell caster travel with you costs at least that much.

So assuming the caster is doubling the cost for hazardous duty that would be about 2,000 gp per day per caster. If you hire 5 of them, that works out to about 10,000 per day or 300,000 per month. So to hire 5 5th level caster per day on a pirate ship should be about 3,600,000 gp per year. That also does not include room and board, or the fact that the spell casters may decide they deserve a share of the treasure.

At 12th level Magus has slightly better HP(about 4), and better saves. They also have the magus class features like spell combat arcana. Both of them have the same BAB (9), The Eldritch Knight has access to 5th level spells. They will also have access to some of the school powers of a Wizard. That may not seem like much but some of them can be useful. Admixture for example gives you +2 damage on evocation spells, but more importantly it gives you versatile evocation. Being able to change the energy type of a spells is very useful especially if you are dealing with creatures with immunities to specific energy types. Since the number of times per day is based of INT instead of level you get the full number of uses a wizard would get. They also get bonded object witch not only allows them and extra spell per day (of any level), it also allows them to enchant their bonded object without having the craft feat.

Depending on what martial class they used they could also get other advantages. A fighter is going to get an extra feat. Add that to the extra feat for a 5th level wizard and that nets the Eldritch Knight two extra feats. If they go ranger they get a bunch of class skills and access to using more magic items like wands of cure light wounds.

So basically before 9th level the advantage is to the Magus. Starting at 9th level the Eldritch Knight starts to become more equal. At higher levels the advantage goes to the Eldritch Knight because higher level spells are just so powerful there is nothing a can equal them. What it really matter is what you value in the character and how high the campaign will go. In a PFS game where it you finish up at 12th level it may not be worth it. In a non PFS game that goes higher than that Eldritch Knight is probably worth looking at.

You could also use the retraining rules and pick extra hex for the new feat.

Another difference between the eldritch knight and magus is that it takes a while to get the eldritch knight up and running. The magus is probably better earlier in the game, but after a certain point the eldritch knight becomes better. At high level the eldritch knight’s access to higher level spells make it more powerful. The eldritch knight begins to pull ahead at 9th level. Before that the advantage is to the magus.

My advice is to trade Multitalented for an alternative racial trait. Multiclassing in Pathfinder is extremely weak so this trait mostly worthless. Since you cannot choose a prestige class as a favored class it is something that will rarely come up.

Don’t forget that until you get Dervish Dance you cannot use weapon finesse with the scimitar. That means if you dump STR for your first two levels you are taking a penalty to hit and damage using the scimitar. You also probably will not have the funds for any encumbrance reducing items. Dumping STR is really not a good idea. Surviving until you get to third level and can pick up dervish dance may be a problem. At best the rest of the party is going to have to carry you for two levels.

Actually in an undead heavy campaign a ranger with maxed out favored enemy undead is an absolute brute. I am running an undead focused campaign and the ranger in the group often does better than the paladin. Smite evil is great vs the main villain, but when you need to deal with hordes of undead it is does not work that well. Favored enemy on the other hand works all the time. If your combat style focus on getting extra attacks it is even more brutal.

Ranger has a few archetypes that focus on undead. Corpse Hunter is probably your best bet. Divine Tracker also works well and stacks with Corpse Hunter. Your best blessings would be Good and Sun.

The Ranger also has a few decent spells to help out. Versatile Weapon will allow you overcome damage resistance. The ranger in my group is an archer and uses this to deal with DR bludgeoning. Corpse hunter adds a few undead related spells to the rangers spell list.

The nice thing on this build is that it works all the times. Your main source of extra damage is not limited to a certain number of times per day. The paladin is often faced with the choice of using his smite on the minions or saving it in case they encounter the boss. The ranger just kills everything. The bonus to hit is often as important, if not more than the damage bonus. A lot of abilities give you extra damage but reduce your chance to hit. Favored enemy means the ranger is hitting a lot more than most characters.

You need to make sure he is an ex-paladin before going after him. From what you have said that should not be hard, but you will need to talk to the GM about it. It sounds like he already should be, but this needs to be discussed with the GM. Do you know what deity he worships? Many deities have addition to the code that could make it easier. If he is a worshiper of Sarenrae for example he has broken his code multiple ways. If he loses his paladin status he also loses a lot of his defenses.

One thing that would help with giving advice is more information about your character. Without know what you have access to it is kind of hard to give any meaningful advice. Knowing that you are a wizard without knowing what spells and abilities you have access to makes it difficult to figure out your best tactic.

You don’t necessarily need an authority to call it out to. Use it as a roleplay opportunity and a subtle way of causing the GM and other player to put some pressure on it. Lay some ground work before doing anything.

If the player (Not the character) is trying to get the party killed you need to have a serious talk with the GM about his actions.

Have you talked to the GM about his behavior? If the paladin is actually acting in a chaotic manner his alignment should have shifted to neutral good and he should already be an ex-paladin.

What I would be inclined to do is to call out the paladins actions as putting innocents in danger. If the friendly NPC’s have any kind of authority point out that he needs to respect their authority. And if his deity has a paladin’s code check to make sure he is following that.

How does the rest of the group feel about his actions? If they are also sick of it have one of the players appointed as the official leader of the group. Now when the paladin disobeys the leaders order you have a legitimate reason for him to at least get a warning he is violating his code. If there is a cleric of his deity in the party make sure he becomes the leader and his character is going to be in double jeopardy when he disobeys an order.

This is a much better way of dealing with a misbehaving paladin than trying to trick him into unknowingly doing something that violates his code.

FayetteGamer wrote:

I have Poison I'm holding for the party...

How does your Paladin feel about using poison?

Most Lawful Stupid Paladins consider it a violation of their oaths or something to use Poison.

If that's the kind of Paladin he is, you should surreptitiously poison the Paladin's sword. When he kills someone with poison, he'll lose his Paladin abilities until he atones.

While he's atoning, get him to roll up another character, one that doesn't suck this time.

To break the paladin’s code requires the paladin to knowingly do something. This type of tactics do not work.

Secret Wizard is spot on with the sacred monk.

For the other class, go with a crossbred/Wildblooded sorcerer with the Warped and Empyreal bloodline. Focus on Transmutation spells to allow you to change forms into even more disturbing thing. This will allow you to use WIS for your sorcerer spells and get a couple of decent abilities.

If your GM will allow it go for a Nosferatu-Born Dhampir for race.

The description states it is a living creature made of hair. It also states it is carnivorous which means it needs to eat. It does not need to breathe because it has the No Breath ability. Undead do not need to eat. Some of them are driven to consume blood or flesh, but they don’t really need to and do not die from starvation.

Are the times that the raw CHA bonus more important than having skills? I am not familiar with the AP so I have no way to judge. Also does every character in the party need a high CHA? If only one or two characters are going to be adding the stat bonus it may be better to go with an INT based character for skills.

Don’t forget that the party is also going to need some knowledge skills as well. A CHA based caster will not be able to fill this role well at all. Not only do they not have a good INT bonus they have almost no skills. If they are going for any social skills they are not going to have the points to put into knowledges, spell craft and other needed skills.

If the situations where you add your CHA bonus are short term Eagle’s Splendor may be able to boost them. If the character has a moderately good (12-14) CHA and Eagle’s Splendor can be added he gets the best of both worlds. The INT based caster is probably going to have a head band to boost his INT so Eagle’s Splendor would be worth picking up.

Create Pit creates a pit that is 10’ by 10’ with a depth of 10’ per two caster levels. So you can’t create a pit of less than 4 squares.

As to the save it is going to depend on if the ally has acted already. If they have not acted yet they can retreat to avoid having to make a save. If not, or if they have not acted and do not retreat they will need to make a save.

If the enemy is moving past the allies they can always attempt an overrun as part of their move. This of course provokes an attack of opportunity. The ally could use the attack of opportunity to perform a bull rush to push the enemy back into the pit. But if the ally does not have improved bull rush it provokes an attack of opportunity. Like a said in my original post it is going to be a mad scramble.

Another thing to consider is that the spell may not complete fill the area the enemy is standing. While the description does say if creates a 10 x 10 pit it could be a circular pit with just enough area for someone to balance on without falling in. Or the pit could have a enough of a lip to give the person who makes their save a place to stand.

Even if none of those methods work the enemy could use the climbing rules to avoid falling. Depending on the nature of the barrier this may be fairly easy, but will probably put the enemy in a exposed position.

According to your diagram all your allies have to make reflex saves to avoid falling in. 2 of them are on the edge so they get a +2 to the roll. I would resolve those first to see if it opens a free area before having the enemy make their roll. Since the enemy is probably going to have to move more than 5 feet that may provoke an attack of opportunity. If one of your allies uses a bull rush (assuming they made the save) they can push the enemy back and it gets no save.

Basically in the situation you show you are going to end up with a mad scramble of both allies and enemies attempting to avoid falling in. Afterwards assuming you survive your allies may end up being your enemies. Or at least have a long talk with you about not putting them into danger.

What is the reason that CHA is so important for? Often a player’s guide gives very general advice and does not recognize there may be more than one way to accomplish something. As the saying goes there is more than one way to skin a cat.

If for example the reason a high CHA is recommended is because social skills will be very useful it may be better in the long run to have a moderate CHA and a higher INT. The extra skill points from a high INT would mean that the INT based character may have better social skills than the CHA focused character especially social skills that do not depend on CHA. They also have enough skill points to be able to do more than just a few social skills.

Overall the INT based Wizard is going to be more useful than a CHA based one. One thing to keep in mind is that Wizards don’t have any social skills as class skills, and the witch only gets Intimidate. The Sorcerer at least gets Bluff and Intimidate and maybe one other depending on bloodline. They also both only get 2 skill points per level. A CHA based Wizard or Witch is going to have absolute crap for skills.

Be careful or you may end up nerfing your character instead of optimizing it.

While the description of the spell does not directly specify it only protects from direct divination, the target of the spell is one creature. The opening sentence of the spell then states that “The subject is protected”. It does not state anywhere that it blocks divination spell from affecting any other target.

The other thing to consider is that if secondary divinations are blocked they actually reveal information about the subject. Your example scrying on the restaurant does not work, because if the receipt of the subject is blocked it can confirm that the target did in fact eat at the restaurant because only his receipt is blocked. Since Mind Blank prevents divination magic from revealing information about the subject this does not happen.

The reason Mind Blank seems over powered to you is that you are giving it too much credit. What Mind Blank doe is to block any divination spells targeting the subject of the spell. It does not block divination spells affecting other targets.

Actually the description of the lich and the spell both use the words life force. The bolded part of my previous post was taken from the description of the lich. Below is the relevant section from the spell.

Trap the soul forces a creature's life force (and its material body) into a gem.

The spell also uses the word and, not or in regards to the material body. This means that for the spell to work it has to target one creature and affect both its life force and material body. Since a lich does not have its life force in its material body it is not a legitimate target for Trap the soul.

Whether Trap the soul works on a soulless creature is irreverent to it working on a lich. Although I would suggest that the very name of the spell suggests it does not, but like I said that is another argument.

It also kind of depends on the nature of the mythic character. If the Mythic character belonged to a divine spell casting class before becoming mythic they might be considered an extension of the religion they worshiped. For example a paladin Iomedae who gains enough mythic tiers to pick up divine source probably still serves her even though he can grant spells. Her worshipers would probably view him similar to how a saint is viewed in Christianity. This could also be the case for a character that is not a divine spell caster, but is strongly associated with a religion.

If the mythic character is not associated with a religion before gaining the divine source path ability it gets a little more complicated. More than likely that character would be regarded as a demi god.

In a pantheistic society normal people don’t worship a single deity. They pay tribute to all deities depending on their needs. If you are going off to war than making an offering to the god of war makes sense. On the other hand if you are making a long trip on a ship you are going to want to appease the god of oceans. If someone in your family just died honoring the god of the dead is the appropriate action. This also means very few if any deities are actually banned.

Most evil deities come in one of two varieties. The first is those that have useful portfolios. These deities often preside over multiple things some of which may not be directly related to evil. A society may accept them for the benefit they provide while overlooking the harm they do. Think of someone with a lot of wealth, but is suspected of having ties to organized crime donating to charity. Most of the time the charity accepts the money and ignores where the money came from.

The second type of evil deity is one who represents something people do not want. No sane person wants to get a disease, or suffer a famine. These deities are accepted because people hope that by honoring them they will not be affected by what the deity represents. You sacrifice to the deity of disease so that you don’t get a disease. Basically these types of deities are a divine protection racket.

The description of the lich specifies that the phylactery contains the soul of the lich. The process involves the extraction of the spellcaster's life-force and its imprisonment in a specially prepared phylactery. Using the word imprisonment makes it pretty clear that the soul of a lich is permanently contained in the phylactery, not just when the body has been destroyed.

Since the lich’s soul is separate from his body the lich is not affected by trap the soul. The target of Trap the Soul is one creature, not one creature and an object. Since the lich’s phylactery is an object not a creature it is also not a valid target for the spell.

Splitting the book apart may work depending on what exactly they are looking for. If for example you are looking for the name of the person who condemned Christ, that could be sped up by having 5 people search. Sure the people reading the old testament are not going to find anything, but at least those portions where covered.

The idea behind using the aid other was not so much to speed it up, but rather to increase the chance of success. Assuming 4 people can aid other that is a potential +8 on the roll. I am assuming the person making the roll has a decent WIS bonus or they would not be the ones chosen. If the cohort making the roll can get his roll up to +7 and the other 4 make their DC 10 roll the cohort can take 10 and succeed. That is going to be a lot quicker than taking 20.

Taking 20 is supposed to be a quick way to avoid sitting around and making a lot of rolls while nothing else is going on and there is no consequence of failure. It is supposed to simulate that eventually you are going to roll a twenty. I would suggest since this seems to be going on in the background the GM simply make the rolls beforehand and have the cohort come to the PC’s when he is finished. The taking 20 rule does not really seem to fit this situation. This is of course if the aid other option does not work.

This is going to be very difficult. You are going to need good STR, DEX, CON, and WIS. Many of your monk abilities are not going to work while you are raging. Check with your GM to see what is allowable. I could see a GM saying you cannot use your Ki pool while raging. If that is the case you will probably want to reconsider doing this.

Considering Bane is only a +1 enchantment it is actually pretty good. Don’t forget it also increases the enchantment bonus of the weapon by +2. So increases your chance to hit by +2 and adds on the average an additional +9 damage of which 2 is multiplied by a critical hit The additional enchantment bonus can often allow the weapon to bypass damage resistance as well. . Compared to the +1 to hit and damage if you simply increased the bonus of the weapon that is pretty good.

There are plenty of good mythic feats. But much of it depends on your build.

Mythic Spell focus is pretty good for an offensive spell caster, as is mythic spell penetration. To get the most out of these you should have the greater versions.

The mythic version of iron will, lightning reflexes, and great fortitude are also useful for anyone with a weak save.

For an Archmage mythic spell lore will probably be the first mythic feat you take. It can be taken at any level and as you gain tiers it gives you additional mythic spells.

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

I agree that it would be a linguistics check. Instead of taking 20 you could use the rules for aiding other. Have the person with the highest linguistic roll be the primary and as many others as the GM will allow to assist roll to give a +2 bonus each.

Well we're way past what kind of the check it is... as the OP stated, the DC type and amount was set by the writers of the adventure path...

"It's a religious text: The Mysteries of Salaur, holy text of Mahathallah, so that's why it's wisdom. DC was set in Dance of the Damned article on her religion, page 73."

Any reason you cannot use the aid other on the WIS check?

I agree that it would be a linguistics check. Instead of taking 20 you could use the rules for aiding other. Have the person with the highest linguistic roll be the primary and as many others as the GM will allow to assist roll to give a +2 bonus each.

So long as you could of moved without provoking an AoO from the cleric or any of the cleric's allies then the DM is correct about you not getting the +5 to save.

This is wrong. If that is the case any time you are within 5 feet of an ally of a person casting charm person they get a +5 save. So if out of combat an enemy is standing next to a party member (say talking to them about the weather) and I cast charm person from a safe distance away they get a +5 save?

The +5 bonus for the save is from the description of charm person. It states that if the target is threatened or attacked by you or your allies you get a +5 bonus to your saving throw.

Bjorn is right about the confusion of the term threatened. There is the game term threatened and the common English version of the word. The game term threatened is not relevant in this case. What is relevant is the common English term.

What is really comes down to is, what was the congregation doing to you. If they were only protecting the boss, that may not be enough to be considered threatening you. If on the other hand they were pulling weapons and getting ready to attack you that would be considered threatening you.

Dice is the plural version of die. 1d10 would be a die, 5d10 are dice.

Why would an item roll off? If I have a square item with flat surfaces on all sides how does it roll off a floating disk when it is slightly concave? So if I put a small extremely heavy square item in the center of a floating disk it rolls over a foot up the side of the disk and falls over the edge? That makes absolutely no sense.

Also what if you have more than a single item on the disk? What determines which items falls off? If I have a small item already on the disk and I put a large item on the disk that pushes it over the limit which one falls off?

Obscuring Mist can be useful in certain situations, but requires some tactics to utilize. It is not an instant win spell, but allows you to control the battle field. It is generally uses defensively instead of offensively.

It can be used to cover a retreat. Let’s say your party is caught in the open and is being attacked at range from a group that you cannot reach. If you retreat the group can still attack your party. Cast Obscuring mist and the other group cannot attack your party while it retreats.

You could also use it to provide a safe place to retreat for any characters that need it. For example let’s say you have a caster that focuses on buffs and support. Obscuring mist can provide a safe haven from them after they have cast their buff spells. This also works well for summoning focused casters. They can summon up allies without being exposed to being attacked.

Another use for it is to create a diversion. Cast Obscuring Mist on the opposite side of the battle from where your party is planning to attack and watch most of the enemy concentrate their attention there. This will improve the chance of your being able to surprise the enemy. This works very really well when you have lower level spell casters with the party. It allows the low level caster to aid the party without being directly exposed to attack.

These are just a few examples of how to use the spell. Obscuring Mist is one of the low level spells that remain effective at higher levels. Spells like sleep and color spray work very well when you are first level, but once you gain a couple of levels they are almost useless.

How useful Obscuring Mist is depends on how clever you are.

If you overburden a floating disk it falls to the ground.

Why would the heavy object fall through? That makes no sense at all because you could easily have numerous items that weigh less than the limit, but when combined exceed the limit. What would happen in that case? For example if a 1st level caster put 11 ten pound bars on the disk which one would fall through?

If a 10 STR character is carrying a bag weighing 100 lbs. and someone adds an addition weight to the bag the character drops the bag because it is too heavy. Items in the bag do not fall out until they weight is within the limit of the character. A floating disk is no different.

You don’t necessarily have to pay for spell casting services. If you already have a written version (from a scroll or a spell book) you don’t need to pay. The same is true for a cast or active version of the spell. You could pay someone to cast the spell so that you could learn it, but that is not a requirement. You don’t need to pay the ring any gold, but you may need to pay another spell caster for access to the spell to be learned.

The description states thereafter and makes no mention of the spell being lost. It also states the spell caster may cast the spell as though she knew the spell and it appeared on her class’s spell list. The ring is learning a spell not memorizing one so it is not expended when cast, or removed.

No class is going to work exactly like another. If you want a class that play exactly like a paladin but with a different alignment your only choice is to play a paladin and convince the GM to allow you to change the alignment.

If you want to play something that can achieve the same results there are options, but they will achieve it in a slightly different way. For example the warpriest may not have the full BAB of the paladin, but with extra feats and spells he can get the same chance to hit as the paladin.

If the outcome has already been decided and the PC are not involved it is best to use a narrative instead of actually running the combat. I would consider actually running the combat as being bad DMing. The reason being is the game is supposed to focus on the characters not the NPC’s. By actually running the combat takes a lot longer and leaves the players with nothing to do. Nothing is more boring for a player than sitting around and watching a GM roll dice without their characters being involved. Wasting valuable playing time for something that could be handled in a short time by simply describing it is a much better way to handle it.

Meirril is right about letting the players know, when it is a plot device that they should not interfere with, and that it should be rare.

That is exactly my point, in some ways he is a lot weaker than the rest of the party, but in other ways he is a lot stronger. Trying to write something to challenge him by himself is a tough, but when you add in the rest of the party it becomes even more difficult.

This is something I have tried and it never works out well. It seems like a cool idea, but it becomes a headache trying to balance things. But If this is your game so go ahead and give it a try.

If this is your 10th level feat it must be a fighter bonus feat which means it has to be a combat feat. With what you have listed you have a Will save of +2. This a huge weakness that should be fixed or you are going to end up being some succubus’s b~$&+. Assuming you don’t have an archetype that trades away bravery the obvious solution is armed bravery. This will increase your Will save to at +5, and make it harder to be demoralized.

Magic is not the only way of bending people to your will. If other members of your party are using those make sure to call it out. So when the barbarian uses intimidate to get his way call him out. When the rogue uses bluff t to trick someone in to doing what he wants call him out. Don’t be an ass about it, but bring up the fact that they are doing the same thing you are except you use magic.

There are also a lot of enchantment spells that are beneficial to the target. Heroism for example is an enchantment spell. While the mind control spells are the ones most people think of when you mention enchantment they are not the only thing the school does. By taking other enchantment spells you not only avoid some of the negative perceptions of the school, you also broaden your abilities. These type of spells also allow you to use your required enchantment spells when facing something immune to mind affecting spells.

An NPC’s gear is often treasure for the party anyway. I have yet to see a party that does not take the +1 sword the NPC has after they kill them. Extra spells may be used against the party in some cases. It could allow the NPC caster to memorize an additional spell besides the ones they gain from level.

Like any NPC a GM is free to add anything they want. The WBL is more of suggested guideline than a firm rule. If my plot requires a 1st level commoner to have an artifact, the 1st level commoner gets the artifact.

Being flat footed does not prevent provoking an attack of opportunity. It usually prevents someone from taking an attack of opportunity. This may seem like the same thing but is not. The feat combat reflexes allow a person who is flat footed to take an attack of opportunity. If being flat footed prevents you from provoking the attack of opportunity this would not happen. Since the combat reflexes specifically allow an attack of opportunity while flat footed, being flat footed cannot prevent an attack of opportunity from being provoked.

If this is a NPC that I am stating up I give them the amount of spells the class description gives (Starting spells + spells for gaining levels) + any they purchase with their starting gold. If I think they need more I would increase the amount of starting wealth. If they are supposed to be a match for the PC’s I would give the PC starting wealth instead of that listed for an NPC. Since spell books have a listed price you can simply include a few spell books in the NPC’s purchased gear.

If the NPC is part of a group, and the group includes other arcane spell caster that they can copy spells from I would probably allow the spell casters to trade spells for the cost of scribing the spell into their book/familiar. If the NPC is friendly to the party and the party wants to swap spells I would also allow that.

That Crazy Alchemist is right that Pathfinder has no rules for player characters using templates. This is something I would strongly recommend against doing. The CR system is really only for determining XP awarded. It is as really poor mechanism to try and balance characters with.

Templates are incredibly powerful and more than likely you are going to create a severe imbalance in the party. Take the half celestial template. Assuming a 20pt buy the half celestial template gives stat adjustments equal to a 65 point buy. Would you allow another character to have a 65 point buy even if they were two levels lower? That does not even factor in the other abilities of the template. Add in the fact that the character also gets DR, 3 types of energy resistance, spell resistance and can fly. He also gets quite a few spell like abilities. Even if the character is two levels lower than the rest of the party he is going to be a lot tougher.

Consecrated does not allow the weapon to function as a divine focus. It allows you to channel energy through the weapon as if you had Channel Smite. Reliquary is what allows a weapon to be used as a divine focus. The Sacred enchantment will also do this and also allows you to bestow your minor blessing on an ally.

There is a big difference between a living tree and dead wood. Lumber once it is harvested is left to dry out before it is used to build houses. Also the types of wood that are more resistant to fire tend to be hard wood like oak instead of softer woods like pine. Hard woods grow very slowly compared to soft wood and usually don’t get as big. Building a house out of oak would be a lot more expensive than building it out of pine.

Try an inquisitor of Rovagug and start out with an 18 STR. Take the Anger Inquisition to get rage at 6th level without having to dip any other classes. For magic Items get a +1 Furious Great Axe and a Cyclops Helm. Your Feats will be Favored judgement (human), Judgement Surge, Power Attack and Reckless Rage. For spells you need Divine Favor, Flames of the Faithful and Invisibility.

Cast invisibility, Flames of the faithful and Divine Favor, and activate Judgement of Destruction, Rage and Bane just before combat. You use invisibility and stealth to get a surprise round. In the surprise round you use the Cyclops Helm to make your attack roll a 20. Assuming you confirm that is an average damage of 115 points in the surprise round. On the main round if you hit you will deal an average of 46 points of damage without a crit. That works out to be 171 points of damage by the time the first round is over.