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For the most part unless it explicitly states it is positive energy it is not. I could see considering spells that state it harms undead instead of healing it being considered positive energy.

Fire God’s Blessing is orc (or half orc) racial feat. It also requires you to worship the orc god of fire who is CE. The cleric of an evil deity has an affinity to negative energy not positive. They can cast spells that use positive energy but cannot spontaneously cast cure spells, and their channel energy is always negative energy. That makes it highly unlikely this feat uses positive energy.

The rule for unconscious targets automatically being willing is from the targeting rules. Basically, these spells only work if the subject makes no effort to avoid the spell. If you are unconscious, you cannot avoid the spell.

Normally a willing target would voluntarily fail the save, and allow the spell to affect them. This is what happens when you cast a cure spell on an ally. But nothing in the rules state an unconscious target automatically fails a will save. Since Marionette Possession allows for a will save even an unconscious target still gets a will save to avoid the spell.

Once the target fails the save it stays up until the duration runs out or the caster returns to his body.

I understand what you are proposing but I still think the number of spells that this will work with are extremely low. That makes this less optimal than it should be.

For a prepared arcane caster it does not matter because they have no limit on the number of spells they can learn. Having duplicate spells for an arcane prepared caster is no hardship and can even have some benefits. Being able to use lower-level spells for item creation feats can be helpful. Divine prepared casters already know every spell on their list so have no need of this.

So, this system is only really matters to spontaneous casters. Spontaneous caster already can exchange a limited number of spells as they level up. The level after they gain a new spell level all spontaneous casters can swap out any spell of that is at least one level lower than the new spell level they just gained. This repeats again each time they gain the next level after gaining a new spell level. There is no reason the character that took vanish as a first level spell cannot use this to replace it when he gets invisibility.

The existing system is superior to what you are proposing because it allows the character to replace a spell that has become useless with any spell he wants. Using systems at the same time makes spontaneous caters too powerful. One of the main differences between prepared casters and spontaneous casters is that the spontaneous caster has an extremely limited selection of spells but can spam out those spells all day long.

The problem is there are other than summon monster spells there are not enough spell chains to make this work. The Pit spells start at 2nd level and only go to 5th level. The Fog spells are also limited. Lightning Bolt and Chain lighting are very different spells with different tactical advantages. Many of the fog spells also have different tactical usage.

A couple things to keep in mind is that the ghost is going to be hostile to the caster trying to cast protection from evil. That means that the caster needs to make a touch attack to cast it on the possessed creature. Unless the caster is casting defensively this can provoke an AoO from the ghost. Since their primary attack is a touch attack that deals a decent amount of damage that can be a problem. Even if the caster can cast the spell on the target, they still have to make the second save or they are still in control of the target. Also, protection from evil only prevents the ghost from exercising control for the duration of the spell (1 minute per caster level. After the duration of the spell runs out the ghost can resume control of the possessed target.

So, while the spell is helpful against a possessing ghost it does not actually stop it.

No, the Ghost is not the target of the spell. The saving throw is listed as Will negates (harmless). That means the target of the spell can make a saving throw if they wish, but normally they do not because the effect does not harm the target. Some characters must make a save vs any magic cast on them, those character would make a save vs the protection from evil.

Because the ghost is in control the character casting protection from evil will need to make a touch attack to cast the spell on the target. But that and hoping the target fails the save is all the ghost can do to avoid the spell.

I do not play in organized play so I might be mistaken, but I believe that in organized play characters are not allowed item creation feats. From what I understand this is due to keeping game balance so that one character does not gain the ability to gain more gear than they should. It seems like the fact that if false focus can in fact create any 0 or 1st level spell without needing either the feat (which is not allowed) or the gold it would likewise not be allowed. Allowing it to create a scroll of a spell you did not know would make it even more questionable.

The cohort from leadership specifies it can be of any race or class. The cohort is usually from a race that does not have racial HD. Because of that I would not use Leadership as a reference for your question

Monstrous Companion explicitly states the companion can gain class levels. That would indicate it is the exception not the rule. If any companion can gain levels Monstrous Companion would not need to specify it can gain class level.

You are also ignoring the most important thing about my first post. A Skeleton cannot have class levels, that requires the Skeletal Champion template. Unless the GM gave your undead companion the Skeleton template or a custom template RAW it cannot have class levels period.

The undead companion of the Dread Necromancer is a class feature of the class. Anytime in Pathfinder a creature is gained as a class feature how it advances is spelled out in the description of that class feature. In many cases they simply use the description from another class, but how the creature advances is always explicitly spelled out. There are rules for advancing a creature by adding class levels, but those do not apply to creatures gained as class features. This situation will not ever come up on any official class.

Since you are using a homebrew class the rules forum is not the correct form for this and should be posted in the homebrew forum. 3.5 is not Pathfinder so anything from that updated to Pathfinder is by definition a homebrew class.

That being the case look at the template your GM is giving the undead minion. Unless the template is the skeletal champion it cannot have class levels. The skeletal template specifies that that the undead cannot have class levels. That is what the skeletal champion template is for.

Share spells is one ability so the restriction and abilities all apply. So, only spells with a target of you can bypass type.

As to statement 3 and 4 originally only wizards had familiars, but druids, rangers and some clerics could have animal companions. That being the case the restriction on animal companions had to be spelled out in more detail, because you have three classes with different class abilities. I would say statements 3 and 4 are errors of omission.

In the core rule book Wizards did not have any abilities that functioned like spells that were not spells. Druids on the other hand have wildshape which does specify it functions like a (beastshape) spell. The 4th statement was probably put in to make sure that people did not claim that a druid could use share spell to use wildshape on his companion.

It is not about the expense of the component; it is about the focus needing to have a specific property that produces a different effect based on the focus. Using false focus to cast Fire Trap would not be a problem.

In the case of some Transmutation spells that alter the focus as the primary effect of the spell the feat is also useless. Fabricate is the best example of that type of spell.

In all honesty he proposed use of false focus to give the character the ability to attach any spell cantrip or 1st level spell without even having to know the spell is abusive.

If it were four different spells that would be a lot different. First and most importantly a spontaneous caster would only know one of them. Second a prepared caster would have to memorize the specific version they wanted and if they choose the wrong one it would not overcome the DR. This greatly reduces the versatility and usefulness of the spell.

Just because the feat does not work with all spells does not mean I am wrong. RAW false focus does not provide a material component, so any effect relying on a specific material does not work when using those feats.

The way I would handle those feats would be to allow the spell to be cast using the base component, but not using any optional components. Since you are not required to use either of those feats it does not prevent the spell caster from casting the spell with those options if they provide the required component. That may not be RAW, but it seems to be RAI for those feats.

The Mythic rules result in very powerful characters. You are basically playing demi-gods.

Benefit: By using a divine focus as part of casting, you can cast any spell with a material component costing the value of that divine focus (maximum 100 gp) or less without needing that component. For example, if you use a silver holy symbol worth 25 gp, you do not have to provide material components for an arcane spell if its components are worth 25 gp or less. The casting of the spell still provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. If the spell requires a material component that costs more than the value of the divine focus, you must have the material component on hand to cast the spell, as normal.

False focus does not provide a material component; it allows you to cast the spell without the material component. False focus does not replicate anything it removes the need for the component. Since the spell no longer has a material component the option to use a magic scroll as the component is no longer valid.

This simply does not work.

My suggestion was to have all the damage be holy without spending a mythic point. But making all of it holy while spending a mythic point is better than the suggested feat. It is still on the weak side of a mythic feat but is at least in the power level of a mythic feat.

A character with only a 13 DEX can easily run out of AoO. A STR based inquisitor that takes outflank and paired opportunist can get a lot of AoO. I built a half orc inquisitor with those feats and had a couple of other party members using high crit range weapons and he ran through his AoO quite often. He used a falchion and another party member was a swashbuckler.

To my knowledge there have been no “patches” for the mythic versions of spell focus, spell penetration, weapon finesse, weapon focus. Mythic Weapon Finesse is another good example of how powerful a mythic feat can be. It not only allows DEX to damage it can be used with two handed that can be used with weapon finesse to get 1.5 DEX to damage.

I will admit that many of the examples I am giving require specific builds, but the point is they can be very powerful. The proposed mythic feat does not have the same power level that most mythic feats have.

There are a lot of other mythic feats that are powerful.

Mythic Power Attack gives you the two-handed damage bonus without using the weapon two handed, and the damage bonus is doubled on a critical hit before the critical multiplier is applied. You can also spend a mythic point to ignore the penalties on melee attack rolls, and combat maneuvers for a minute. When using a scimitar or similar weapon that means you have a good chance of gaining a +6 bonus to damage per 4 levels with no penalty to hit.

Mythic Spell Penetration gives you half your tier to your caster level check to overcome spell resistance. And if you have greater spell penetration you add your full tier without having to take another mythic feat. So, at tier 10 2 normal feats and a mythic feat gives you a +14 to your caster level to overcome spell resistance. Several other mythic feats give you a two for one bonus which makes them very efficient.

Mythic Combat Reflexes gives you an unlimited number of AoO. It also allows you to spend a mythic point and make an additional AoO on a character that moves if they provoke again.

So, you are blowing a mythic feat and expending a mythic point for a “nice bonus”. Meanwhile the martial with Mythic Vital Strike is doing over 1,000 points without having to spend a mythic point.

High level play has been compared to rocket tag, and mythic to nuclear rocket tag. That description is actually fairly accurate. Other than using mythic rules this feat seems more in keeping with a normal feat, not a mythic feat. If the feat caused all damage to ignore fire resistance without spending a mythic feat that might be worth it, but I would not recommend this feat as is in a mythic campaign.

For a mythic feat is seems underpowered. Feats like mythic power attack or mythic vital strike are a lot more powerful. Channel energy is not that powerful, especially in a mythic game.

Since the amount of fire damage is based on the amount of damage you heal it will not be affected by things that boost up the damage vs undead. For example, the Sun Domain power Sun’s Blessing will not work because you are not channeling positive energy to damage undead. Likewise, the Aasimar FCB of extra damage vs undead and evil outsiders will also not function. That also means other abilities that add effects to channel energy when harming a foe will not work either.

At 20th level tier 10 you will be dealing 10d6 damage to 6 foes within 30 feet of you. If you expend a mythic point 17.5 of that ignores fire resistance. If the targets, make their save they take 8.75 points of damage. Unless you are a life oracle or other CHA based channeler the chances are that any significant target in a mythic campaign will probably make the save. 9 points of fire damage and 9 points that ignores fire resistance is nothing at that level. Your arcane caster at that level will be throwing maximized augmented mythic fireball dealing 200 HP that ignores fire resistance and immunity to all foes within a 40 feet radius.

You mentioned 3 races, the first thing to do is to choose which race you are going to play. One of the races has a bonus to DEX and CHA and a penalty to CON, one has a bonus to DEX and a penalty to CHA, the last has bonus to WIS and a penalty to DEX. Two of them are medium with average flight, and the other is small with poor flight. Each of those races are going to be better at different classes.

The Gathian is a small fey that has bonus to both DEX and CHA and a penalty to CON. To me this suggests a CHA based caster or maybe an archery focused paladin. If you go caster the Gathian FCB for bard and oracle lets you gain spells from another list. The bard can gain druid spells, which do have some decent attack spells, the oracle gains enchantments from the sorcerer list. Gaining extra spells is always useful for a spontaneous caster and gaining them off another spell list is even better. A paladin archer can deal some serious damage when using smite evil with a bow. Being able to do so while flying is even better. But your damage when not using smite will be a bit less than normal due to being small.

A Strix is a medium humanoid with a bonus to DEX and penalty to CHA. This suggests an archer with limited or no magic. A Ranger could work as they do not need a lot of WIS to cast their spells. Fighter would also work well. The FCB for fighter increases the hatred bonus vs humans which are usually fairly common foes.

The Syrnix is a medium humanoid with a bonus to WIS and a penalty to DEX. That makes an archery based character a poor choice. The penalty from DEX is going to make fighting in melee slightly more dangerous. I would avoid A monk for this reason despite the WIS bonus. A monk really should have both a WIS and DEX bonus to AC to help with not using armor. Druid would seem the logical choice for a Syrnix, but druids can gain flight from wild shape and cast spells in wild shape with natural spell. To me that seems like a waste of using a flying race. Another WIS based caster class could work but I would avoid the hunter as it still focuses on fighting and you have no physical bonuses to help in that. As a 6th level caster hunter do not do well as focused casters.

Caligni may behind the curve on some thing but on others they are ahead of the game. They get a +2 to both DEX and CON and a penalty to INT. That is actually a lot more beneficial than almost any other racial adjustment for stats. DEX and CON have a big impact on combat. That gives you bonuses to two saves, AC and extra HP. With a DEX to damage build that means you don’t really need anything in STR.

You can use the point buy to get an equal CON and higher DEX than other races. On a 20 point buy you can get a 10 STR, 19 DEX, 14 CON, 8 INT, 14 WIS, and 10 CHA. A human would for the same points have a 10 STR, 18 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 14 WIS, and 10 CHA. At 4th level when his first stat bonus kicks in his DEX goes up to 20 and he has the advantage over the human until 8th level. At 12th level he regains the advantage but loses it at 16th. So, about half the time you are up +1 on your DEX bonus. For a DEX to damage build that gives you a +1 to both hit and damage. If the human tries to match you on DEX he falls behind on CON which means lower HP and fortitude saves.

When you are up on your DEX you are even with the other races when in bright light. If you do get a magic item to avoid the light blindness you are up even in bright light.

Melkiador while you statement is completely true, and I agree with it a hundred percent. What the original poster was asking was not how to be optimal, but rather how to be useful after buffing the party. A character does not need to be fully optimized to be useful.

In first situation you propose a low strength small bard is probably not going to be a good choice. In that situation very few bards would be a good addition to the party. An archeologist bard might fit, but they give up all performances for a luck bonus on nearly everything. But a small race like halfling is a poor choice for an archeologist in that situation.

I would also like to point out that while the bard spell list is great for buffing the party it also has a decent amount of enchantment and illusion spells. They get Hideous Laughter as a 1st level spell and hold person as a 2nd level spell. Feats like spell focus can make these more useful and allow them to remain useful at higher levels. Casting Hideous Laughter on one of the fighters protecting the boss can work even at high level.

The bard does not need to be an expert at what he does after starting a bardic performance and casting buff spells. What he does at this point is not the main focus of the character. The main focus of the character is providing boost to the party which he has already done with bardic performances and spells.

While a being a focused archer is feat intensive the bard does not need to be that good. At minimum all they need is proficiency with the bow. Point blank and Precise shot would be useful. Often the bard can target foes that are not in melee combat with the party. Having those two feats will very useful, but not absolutely necessary. I would recommend those two feats, but a bard could still take a few feats before taking them.

The reason that not everybody can be returned may be because most souls do not want to return. The person that died might be in a better place or have grown beyond the concerns of their previous life. If souls reincarnate the soul could be in a life that is better than the one, they left.

Let us say you were old and in poor health when you died, and most of your loved ones were already dead. You move on to the next life and are young and have a loving family that you are raising. Suddenly you are given the opportunity to go back to the first life. Would your really want to give up what you currently have? Or maybe you were a king that fought constant wars and now that you are dead you are in heaven with no burdens and are experiencing eternal bliss. Why would you give up paradise to return to a world that demanded so much from you?

In all honesty the concept you are trying to play would work better in a different game system like Champions. Pathfinder is simply not suited for this type of character. It is designed to simulate a completely different genre.

The abilities you are looking will usually be extremely limited and only available at higher levels.

Considering all the dazzled condition does is to give you a -1 on sight-based perception rolls and attack rolls, anything that give a positive bonus on those effectively counters dazzled. Putting a single point into perception will give you a minimum of +1 bonus. Likewise, any combat feat or class ability that give any bonus to hit will also counter the penalty for dazzled.

If the character is start at 10th level the order is not as important, but still gives a few extra HP.

For this build the boon companion will make it a bit stronger. Without boon companion the level of ranger puts the animal companion down a level until the ranger gains hunter’s bond and chooses an animal companion. It seems a waste to blow a feat for the one level difference, but when you add it a few extra spells and speak with animals it is less painful.

The huge size does make the companion a lot tougher, so falling behind the rest of the party in toughness is probably not going to be that big of a deal. An animal companion gets feats and can take Iron will to boost its will save, they also get a +4 bonus vs enchantments so the will save is not as big of a deal. At 10th level it should have a +6 (+10 vs enchantments) will save. Also, as an animal it will not be affected by a lot of spells that target humanoid targets. Fear affects are often necromancy instead of enchantment so those will the ones that can cause problems. If that really becomes a problem the feat valiant steed gives a +4-bonus vs fear.

I would start with the level of ranger for first. That will give you better HP and proficiency in martial weapons. It also gives you the option of taking power attack at 1st level, which the druid cannot do because of the BAB prerequisite. Druids do not have any restrictions on what weapons they can use other than not having proficiency in many weapons. Having access to good weapons until you wild shape comes online will make surviving the early levels much easier.

This will also mean when you gain your animal companion at 5th level (4th level druid) you will be able to take boon companion. If you take 4 levels of druid first, you still cannot take boon companion until 5th level. If you do not have boon companion when you gain your animal companion from the animal doming it will probably have around 9 HP and a 17 AC, if you have boon companion, it will probably have around 22 HP and an AC of 20. The first level companion at 4th level will be a liability instead of a benefit. This assume you are taking the animal domain. If you are not taking the animal domain, boon companion is probably not worth taking.

When you are using AI you need to be very specific about how you phrase things. It pulls information from the internet and the information on the internet can be false. Not specifying things like the edition of the game or the source of the archetype can lead to mistakes as it might be pulling the information from a different source than you are using. When using it for a game it could also be pulling the information from a post with a mistake. How many times on these forums have you seen someone making a false statement.

AI is software so often has updates it needs. I had one case were my system kept insisting that Pope Francis was still pope. Even when I gave it links showing Pope Leo was pope it refused to acknowledge the fact. Even when I pointed out a link it provided showed Pope Francis was dead and Leo was the new pope, it still insisted Francis was pope. After I rebooted the system and it applied an update it no longer did that.

The level of ranger does not stack for the animal companion until level 4 of ranger. Before that you do not have the class feature animal companions, so the levels do not stack. You can take Boon companion but that is another feat.

Mammoth rider also has a prerequisite of handle animal 9, Ride 9 and survival 5. You can not have more point in a skill than your total class level. So, to take 9 points in a skill you need to be 9th level. That means the absolute earliest you can gain Mammoth Rider is at 10th level.

The earliest you can pick up the shapeshifting feats is 7th level. That means it will be 9th level before you get both. If you are only playing till 10th level, you are using up most of your feats for the build and have only 2 (3 if you are human) for anything else.

The build works but does come online late in the campaign.

How much of the other druid class abilities are you willing to sacrifice? Druids are full caster with a decent spell list and a lot of other class abilities. Are you willing to give up caster levels, venom immunity, a thousand faces and timeless body?

Since Saurian Shamans get delayed access to Wild Shape that means you must have at least 6 levels in druid to get wild shape. When taking a reptile or dinosaur form the Saurian Shaman does not gain any benefit from further levels in druid other than increased duration and extra uses. A Saurian Shaman at 6th level can already become a huge reptile or dinosaur 2 times a day and works like beast shape III. Further levels do not improve the size or abilities you can assume in those forms. Further levels in druid will only allow you to assume more powerful forms of other types.

You will also need to be at least a 4th level ranger to have the levels stack for your animal companion. Rangers do not gain Hunters bond until 4th level so until then they do not actually have the animal companion class feature. Once they gain hunters bond, they gain the class feature and the levels do stack.

Shapeshifter Hunter does not increase your wild shape; all it increases is the number of times per day you can use it. You still are limited to your actual druid level for all other purposes.

So, your build will have to be Ranger 4/Druid 6/Mammoth Rider X. That means you have 3rd level druid spells, 1st level ranger spells Your wild shape will max out at 12th level for a reptile or dinosaur and 10th level for everything else but will get a few extra uses.

Playing this character until everything comes online will also be difficult. If you do not have the full 4 levels of ranger first your animal companion will be weak as you gain those levels. That means you do not gain wild shape until 10th level. Both Shapes shifting focus and shapeshifting hunter also require the wild shape feature so you cannot take them until you have 6 levels of druid. That means you will need to be 11th level to pick up the first one and 13th level to take the second if you are trying to have a full-strength animal companion. If start with Druid you can pick up the first at 7th level and the second at 9th, but then your animal companion will be stuck at 6th level until 10th level.

What is the point of this? If you are looking to create a special creature, just give it what you want. This seems to be a pointless experiment for no reason.

Since the caster of the spell can choose the targets, I would say that the creator of the trap can choose the pattern for the secondary targets. That pattern can be anything the creator of the trap wants as long as it is legal for the spell. Since the creator does not know who the targets will be he has to have a preset pattern of targets. The pattern cannot rely on individual traits of the target like class, race, or equipment. They can however use things like position or distance.

For example, the secondary targets could be those at the maximum range, or nearest to the primary target. They could also do something like have it start with those on the left of the target going counter clockwise. Any simple clearly defined patter should work, but if there is any ambiguity it may result in the wrong target or fewer secondary targets being affected.

How useful favored enemy will be is dependent on the nature of the campaign and level. If the campaign focuses on a specific type of opponent favored enemy is incredibly powerful. In the undead focused campaign, I ran the ranger with maxed out favored enemy undead worked very well. The campaign also had a paladin focused on killing undead and in some ways, he was better than the paladin. The paladins smite evil gave the paladin the edge in a boss fight, but the ranger was better at taking down large number of opponents.

Once a ranger gets access to Instant Enemy he can treat any opponent as a favored enemy of your choice. Instant Enemy only takes a swift action so the ranger can get this off and still make a full attack. This spell can allow favored enemy to exceed studied target in a boss fight.

Rangers also gain Quarry earlier than a slayer. Since Instant Enemy allows any foe to be treated as a favored enemy the ranger can select the target as his quarry. This allows a 11th level ranger to get a +8 bonus to hit after the first round. The Slayer does not get quarry until 14th level.

At 11th level the Ranger with a maxed out favored enemy will be +19 (including BAB) to hit and +6 to damage vs. his Quarry. At 14th level the slayer will be +19 (including BAB) to hit and +3 to damage vs his quarry. The 11th level slayer will be at +14 to hit (including BAB) and +3 to damage.

Most martial classes have ways to boost their accuracy baked into the class. In some cases, those boosts may be bonus feats, especially fighters. Feats like weapon specialization and greater weapon specialization may be boring and seem not to be worth taking, but they are very useful. For archer builds or other builds relying on large number of attacks will make them particularly useful. The ranger ability to ignore the prerequisites for their bonus feats and early access is also something you need to take advantage of.

Many of the martial classes combat abilities focus on specific types of foes. A paladins smite evil or a rangers favored enemy can be make a huge difference in the right circumstances. For rangers make sure to choose your favored enemies wisely. Talk to the GM and see what type of foes are going to be common or significant. Undead and Evil Outsiders are usually good choices, but it depends on the campaign. Humans are also another good choice but may not need to be maxed out. A +2 to hit and damage lots of low-level threats is more useful than it seems.

Rangers and Paladins also have spells that can boost their combat ability. Since they do not get a lot of spells and have a lower caster level these can be very effective. Divine favor can grant up to a +3 bonus to hit and damage vs all targets, Bless weapon allows you t automatically confirm a critical hit on an evil opponent. The paladin has a better list for this, but the ranger still has some useful spells. Aspect of the Falcon only gives a +1 bonus to hit but changes the critical range on a bow/crossbow to 19-20/3. Doubling the critical range on an archer may not increase his chance to hit, but it makes it more likely to bring down a foe.

From the sound of it your best choice would be a Ranger. They are one of the few martial classes with decent skills. Their bonus feats not only ignore the prerequisites they often gain early access to them. Gaining improved precise shot at 6th level is a huge advantage.

Why are there no oracle curses that seem like they come from a good source. There are several curses that cause the character to have negative if not outright evil urges, but there is nothing like that for positive or good behavior. I do not count the blackened curse because that simply imposes a physical impairment.

Curses, like covetous and legalistic force certain behaviors. Others have direct ties to specific planes or evil creatures. There does not seem to be anything like that for good sources.

The oracle is the perfect class for the reluctant hero, and a curse that forced or at least encouraged good behavior would make that easier there does not seem to be any support for that.

Oracles are not clerics.

Oracles receive their spells from their mystery not directly from a deity. The source of the mystery is unknown and the deity the oracle worships does not even have to be associated with the mystery. The mysteries have some deities that are thought to be associated with them, but they do not have to be the deity the oracle worships. In many cases the deities associated with the mystery oppose each other and can even be adversarial to each other.

Oracles do not have any of the restrictions of clerics when it comes to spells. They do not even need to use a divine focus for their magic, even if the spell lists a DF as a component. They have no restriction on spells they can cast based on alignment. They also do not have any alignment requirement and can change alignment without losing any class abilities, nor do any of their abilities change based on alignment. The oracle’s alignment does not impact their ability to know cure or inflict spells. A good Oracle can choose to know inflict spells, and an evil could know cure spells. An evil oracle of life can channel positive energy.

The Oracle does not choose their mystery; the mystery chooses the oracle. The player is the one choosing the mystery not the character. So, while Charley the cleric chose to become a cleric of Sarenrae. Oscar the oracle was chosen by the forces of fire to become an oracle.

Pages of spell knowledge work for any spontaneous caster.

The best items for a spontaneous caster are probably a Mnemonic vestment. This is perfect for an Oracle that needs access to some condition removal spells.

An Immediate action can be used at any time. That should mean you can use it after the saving throw, but before the effects are determined.

Some poisons can potentially kill you if you fail your save. This ability would be worthless against those if you cannot use it after the save, but before the effects takes place.

I don’t think you are going to find something in the rules that allows this. The only way you are going to do this is with some sort of homebrew feat. If the GM is willing create a feat that allows you to use a guitar with weapon finesse.

In all honesty I think using STR with a guitar is much more appropriate. When I envision using a guitar in combat I am thinking of a heavy meatal performer smashing things with it. I simply cannot visualize how to use the guitar with weapon finesse.

Opportune Parry and Riposte (Ex) (Advanced Class Guide pg. 57): At 1st level, when an opponent makes a melee attack against the swashbuckler, she can spend 1 panache point and expend a use of an attack of opportunity to attempt to parry that attack. The swashbuckler makes an attack roll as if she were making an attack of opportunity; for each size category the attacking creature is larger than the swashbuckler, the swashbuckler takes a –2 penalty on this roll. If her result is greater than the attacking creature’s result, the creature’s attack automatically misses. The swashbuckler must declare the use of this ability after the creature’s attack is announced, but before its attack roll is made. Upon performing a successful parry and if she has at least 1 panache point, the swashbuckler can as an immediate action make an attack against the creature whose attack she parried, provided that creature is within her reach. This deed's cost cannot be reduced by any ability or effect that reduces the number of panache points a deed costs.

All the text is important, you cannot ignore any of it. Second if you read the full text of the deed, I posted above you will see that it does not mention any type of action. Therefore, it does not override the action type. Making a melee (or ranged) attack is in fact listed as a standard action in the book. It is the first line in the chart of standard action in the section under action in combat.

Opportune Parry and Riposte (Ex): At 1st level, when an opponent makes a melee attack against the swashbuckler, she can spend 1 panache point and expend a use of an attack of opportunity to attempt to parry that attack. The swashbuckler makes an attack roll as if she were making an attack of opportunity;

While Opportune Parry and Riposte is not an AoO it requires the swashbuckler to expend a use of an AoO. There is no question that if the swashbuckler has already taken all his AoO for that round that he can no longer use Opportune Parry and Riposte. That makes it clear that to use the deed the swashbuckler needs to have an AoO to use to parry. If you do not threaten a square, do you have an AoO available to expend? If not, you cannot use the use the deed.

If the attack roll is not treated as an AoO it means it must follow the rules of attack rolls. That means using it takes a standard action and prevents the swashbuckler from taking any other attacks that round. But the second sentence is the description changes that changing the rules from a standard attack to those of an AoO. This allows the swashbuckler to parry an attack and still attack; it also means the attack roll for the parry is at full attack bonus. If you are allowing the swashbuckler to the benefits of it being an AoO you must take the negative aspects of an AoO.

So, if in your game using Opportune Parry and Riposte is a standard action that basically prevents the swashbuckler from attacking that round, I can accept that. But that is no how I do it in games I run.

With a halfling you are going to be use a small weapon and have little or no STR bonus. If you go a melee you are going to want to get DEX to damage and that takes a while to get online. Figure 5th level before you get DEX to damage minimum.

Ranged combat faces some of the same issues but with ranged combat you have more flexibility to choose your target. This can allow you to pick of targets that are almost dead and finish them off. Doing this will require some investment in archery feats, but all you really need is precise shot (which does require point blank shot). After that you can decide who much you want to go with the ranged combat feats.

The bow is a good choice but not the only choice. Halflings have some racial feats and traits that work with slings. War Slinger allows you to reload as a free action, the feat slipslinger style gives you a +1 to damage, allows you to reload the sling without provoking an Aoo. The other feats in the style allow you to use alchemical weapons with the sling. Going this route will take some investment in feats but gives the character a unique build.

That would mean that a swashbuckler can use any weapon including a bow for Opportune Parry and Riposte to parry an attack.

Nothing prevents you from making an AoO with a weapon you are attacking with. If it did you could not make an AoO against a foe moving out of their square once you had been attacked.

Avenger Finesse (Ex): A mysterious avenger gains all of the benefits of the swashbuckler’s finesse class feature, and gains the ability to use a whip in place of a light or one-handed piercing melee weapon for all swashbuckler class features and deeds. This ability alters swashbuckler finesse.

Please read the description again, particularly the bolded section. That directly states that you can use a whip instead of a light or one-handed piercing weapon. The first part of the sentence is just as important as the last part.

If the GM wants to allow a mysterious avenger to use it without the weapon mastery feats that is their prerogative, but that becomes a house rule. RAW they need the feats to use Opportune Parry and Riposte with a whip.

Raise Dead is not that much of a problem because it only works on recently dead characters. Most inheritance are not confirmed right away. Even in the real world there is usually a period of morning before the inheritance is finalized. In a world with Raise Dead the morning period is probably going to be a month to make sure Raise Dead is not used.

Reincarnate gives the character a new body that may not even be of the same race as the original character. That should sever any claims of inheritance by the character.

That leaves resurrection and wish (which can duplicate resurrection) that may cause problems. Resurection is a 7th level spell that can normally only be cast by cleric, oracle, or as an 8th level spell for a shaman or witch. It takes a 13th level cleric with a wisdom of 17 to cast resurrection. Other classes require even higher level and in the case of the shaman and witch an even higher stat. Characters above 12th level are supposed to be world class powers with only a handful per world Finding a character that can actually cast the spell is going guaranteed no matter how much wealth the person looking to resurrect the character has.

Clerics have the least requirement as per level and stat, but they are servants of their deity. As such they will not cast the spell if it will be against the interest or teachings of their deity. Oracles have no such restriction but have a limited number of spells known especially at high levels. No oracle mystery grants resurrection, but life does grant True Resurection as a 9th level spell. So, the chances are that an oracle is not going to have the spell. Shamans as prepared divine casters will have the spell available, but they must be at least 15t level. Witches are prepared divine casters, and no patron gives resurrection as a patron spell, but healing gets True Resurection as a 9th level spell. The chances of a witch knowing resurrection is better than an oracle but is still going to be low. The numbers of casters both willing and able to cast resurrection is going to be small.

Even if you do manage to find a caster that is willing and able to cast the spell the target must be willing and able to return. If the target of the resurrection is not evil, he has gone on to his reward. For the most part the afterlife is supposed to be your reward for the way you lived your life. Often it is a realm of pleasure and joy. If someone is in such a place, why are they going to want to come back?

For evil characters the afterlife is usually less pleasant so they would probably like to return. But many evil characters make bargains with lower powers for favors in life and their souls are not free to return. Typically, that often results the character not being able to be brought backs without facing the power that holds their soul. If that power is a on the level or an arch devil or demon lord that is going to be difficult to overcome.

I must respectfully disagree. Avenger Finesse specifies you can use a whip in place of a light or one-handed piercing weapon. There is no mention of Opportune Parry and Riposte requiring a light- or one-handed piercing weapon. Therefore, Avenger's Finesse does not allow you to use a whip for Opportune Parry and Riposte.

As long as the swashbuckler can make an AoO they can use Opportune Parry and Riposte. If the swashbuckler has improved unarmed strike they can use it without a weapon.

Basically, what Avenger’s Finesse does change light or one-handed piercing weapon to light or one-hane4d piercing weapon and whip anywhere the description says light or one-handed piercing weapon. That phrase is not used in Opportune Parry and Riposte, so does nothing for that ability.

Fleet Charge allows you to move and attack as a swift action and still take the rest of your attacks. It also means you ignore any DR for that attack. It is also available to any champion starting at tier 1. That to me seems well worth spending a mythic point on if you do not have another way to move and make a full attack. For most characters taking the champions path it is better than the alternatives.

The tier 3 champions path ability Fleet Warrior is probably what you want anyways. It does not use a mythic point; it simply allows you to move up to your speed when making a full attack. It also allows you to move before or after the attack. You could even use both in the same round. If you start with Fleet charge you can move up to your move and make an attack, then take a full attack and move away from the target.