Mysterious Stranger's page

Archeologist bard, inquisitor, magus and warpriest would be my choices.

All characters are medium BAB classes with 6/9 spell casting and good fortitude and will saves. You get two arcane casters two divine casters, two spontaneous casters, two prepared casters, two skill monkeys, ¾ of the party has some access to healing and can at least use wands. If the inquisitor takes the right inquisition, you also have two face characters.

What it comes down to is the all characters need to contribute their share to the success of the party. In most campaigns combat is the single most important and common obstacle. So, in most campaigns a character that is not contributing to combat in a meaningful way is going to need to solve the majority if not all the other problems the party encounters to do their share. If the character is not contributing to combat in a meaningful way the other characters in the group are going to need to make up the difference which will lower their ability to contribute to solving other problems.

At minimum the character will need to be able to fill the roles of face, healer (with all condition removal), trap removal (including magical traps), and skill monkey (including all knowledge skills and scouting). In addition to the above requirements the character needs to be able to survive the combat without any help from the party. If one of the other characters needs to protect this character that will reduce that character ability to contribute to combat and now the party is in even worse shape.

The only class I can see that might pull this off is a human empiricist investigator. They will need to have the infusion talent so they can use their extracts on others, and a few other talents to allow them to use inspiration to boost their skills without needing to spend inspiration points. They would also need the trait student of philosophy to allow them to use INT instead of CHA for Diplomacy and Bluff. Between the archetype and the trait, he can use INT on all parts of Diplomacy, but can only use Bluff to lie. Precise Treatment will get INT to heal. Focused Study will give him skill focus 3 times instead of any one feat. That will help with the skills that are not INT based. With INT being his highest stat and getting 6 skill points per level and the human extra skill point he should have lots of skill points. Studied Combat and Studied Strike will give him some combat ability even with no other resources are used for combat.

Since UMD will be INT based the character will be able to use scrolls and other magic items for spells that are not on his list. This is going to be how the character will be able to bring a dead character to life.

Heroism is going to be very useful for this character as it lasts a long time and gives a bonus to all skills, attacks and save.

The big problem I see is the other characters may not want to be relegated to playing beat sticks.

I have played a character like that, but not in Pathfinder. I played a character in a Hero System game that had almost no direct combat ability but had skills that were incredibly high. The campaign was set in modern times, but we fought strange monsters. In many ways it was similar to Call of Cthulhu. Most of what we went up against was immune or at least highly resistant to normal damage. My characters job was to figure out how to kill the monster, then I let the rest of the party do the actual fighting.

I was also a highly skilled doctor and on more than one occasion saved the other PC’s from dying. We had no access to magic, so normal medicine was the only way to keep the characters alive. The campaign was also heavy on investigation, and my character was the absolute best in that area as well as in technology. In many cases I would invent or modify the weapons the other characters used to allow them to hurt the monsters.

So, while I did little or no damage, I still made major contributions to combat. In Pathfinder that is the equivalent of the buff and support that the OP does not want to do.

Melkiador is right about the party size. In your typical party of 4 having 25% of the party not contributing significantly to combat is going to hurt. In a party of 6 that drops it down to 17% of the party not contributing significantly to combat.

You also need to make sure the non-combat area you are focusing on is extremely useful to the party and occurs enough that your ability makes up for not contributing in combat. Having a single skill or ability at high levels is not enough no matter what the skill or ability is. For example, having a high bluff or diplomacy is not going to cut it. Having a high bluff, diplomacy and sense motive and a few other abilities to boost your ability to be useful in social situations would be more acceptable. Your abilities also need to be significantly higher than anyone in the party for this to work. If the bard in the party has an equal diplomacy and the inquisitor has a higher sense motive this concept does not work.

An inquisitor works well for this concept. I have a build I call the Voice of God that is extremely good at social situations. He is a half orc with an 8 CHA with the reformation inquisition and takes the half orc FCB of intimidate and identify. He maxed out diplomacy, intimidate, sense motive, and perform oratory. His bluff is also high, but not as high as the other social skills. At 12th level he matches the 15th level mythic paladin that also has maxed out diplomacy. I took signature skill for intimidate, but if you switch it to diplomacy, he would be able to alter the attitude of an NPC in one round with a +16 bonus after taking the -10 penalty.

This character is actually very good at combat, but you could change the build to be less focused on combat than he is.

Since the player has already played 2 clerics and a warpriest the oracle would be the easiest for him to play. Although the clerics may have focused on buffing and healing, they still had access to their entire spell list, so the player is probably at least familiar with the spell list. By 12th level an oracle of heavens with the blackened curse will have 16 spells from just his mystery and curse. If he plays a human oracle and puts the favored class bonus into extra spells known he will still have 12 0 level, 7 1st level, 7 2nd level, 6 3rd level, 5 4th level, 3 5th level and 1 6th level for spells he can choose. He can also have 3 offensive revelations (spray of shooting stars, interstellar cold, and dweller in darkness) in addition to awesome display. His color spray should be able to affect creatures as if they were 7 HD less, so it will knock out, blind, and stun creatures of up to 9HD, and blind up to 12HD.

But the player wants to try a spontaneous arcane caster. Since he is looking for damage, crowd control, and utility my suggestion would be to play a school savant arcanist with the admixture as his school. Intense spell will add damage to all his evocation spells; Versatile evocation will allow him to change the damage type to overcome resistances or exploit vulnerabilities. Being able to prepare an extra evocation spell per spell level will be very useful. Most evocation spells are focused on damage, but it does have some crowd control spells as well. Wall of Force is a very good crowd control spell.

The arcanist gives him the ability to boost either his caster level or the DC of the saving throw. Both can help increase the damage he deals with his spells. For feats he can take spell focus and greater spell focus evocation to boost the DC of the saving throw. Spell penetration and greater spell penetration are also something he will want especially as he levels up. If he goes for an elf he could (with potent magic) boost the caster level by 8 to overcome spell resistance. Or he could boost the save on his evocation by 4 and the caster level would still be 6 higher than normal to overcome spell resistance.

Since the player has already experienced at playing a prepared caster that should minimize the problems many inexperienced players with having to memorize spells.

If you can play a Grippli warpriest that should give you everything you want. It does take longer to develop than the human but has much better out of combat ability. Grippli get a climb speed which gives you a +8 bonus on climb and the ability to take 10 even while in danger. They also get a +4 bonus to all stealth rolls due to size, and an additional +4 in marshes and forest. Having a high DEX is going to boost that even higher. Use a trait to get a stealth as a class skill and a +1 bonus and you will not need many skill points to have a good stealth roll. WIS is going to be your primary mental stat and that will give you a good bonus to heal, perception, sense motive and survival. A trait can give you a +1 to perception and make it a class skill.

With all those bonuses this character can still make a decent scout even with very few skill points. Being able to spontaneously convert any spell to a cure spell, fervor, channel energy and access to condition removal spells you are also the healer of the group. In social setting your perception and sense motive allows you to be aware of what is going on.

In Combat divine favor is your main buff and at higher levels you will have it up for all combats. The feat Dual enchantment means you can boost both your weapons, but only with the lower bonus enchantments. But adding an extra d6 of elemental damage to all your attacks is still pretty good.

Bellow is a build that could work.

Grippli warpriest 12
Small humanoid (grippli)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15
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Defense
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AC 26, touch 19, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +2 deflection, +6 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size)
hp 87 (12d8+24)
Fort +13, Ref +14, Will +16
Defensive Abilities sacred armor (+2, 12 minutes/day)
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee +1 kukri +19/+14 (1d8+15/15-20) or
+1 kukri +19/+14 (1d8+11/15-20)
Special Attacks blessings 9/day (Good: battle companion, holy strike, Protection: aura of protection, increased defense), channel positive energy 5/day (DC 21, 4d6), fervor 11/day (4d6), sacred weapon (1d10, +3, 12 rounds/day)
Warpriest Spells Prepared (CL 12th; concentration +17)
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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 25, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 20, Cha 10
Base Atk +9; CMB +8; CMD 26
Feats Dual Enhancement[ACG], Greater Weapon Focus (kukri), Greater Weapon Specialization (kukri), Improved Critical (kukri), Improved Two-weapon Fighting, Slashing Grace[ACG], Two-weapon Fighting, Two-weapon Grace, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (kukri), Weapon Specialization (kukri)
Traits highlander (hills or mountains), seeker
Skills Climb +16, Heal +10, Knowledge (religion) +6, Perception +15, Sense Motive +11, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +21 (+23 in hilly or rocky areas, +25 in marshes and forested areas.), Survival +11, Swim +5; Racial Modifiers highlander (hills or mountains)
Languages Common, Grippli
SQ camouflage, swamp stride
Other Gear mwk mithral chain shirt, mwk kukri, mwk kukri, 52,284 gp
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Special Abilities
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Blessings (9/day) (Su) Pool of power used to activate Blessing abilities.
Camouflage +4 Stealth in marshes and forested areas.
Climb (20 feet) You have a Climb speed.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Dual Enhancement When using div bond or sac wep, you may enha 2 wep or both ends of a dbl wep.
Fervor (4d6, 11/day) (Su) Standard action, touch channels positive/negative energy to heal or harm. Swift to cast spell on self.
Sacred Armor +2 (12 minutes/day) (Su) As a swift action, grant armor enhancement bonus or certain powers. Use 1 fervor as free action to also activate Sacred weapon.
Sacred Weapon +3 (12 rounds/day) (Su) As a swift action, grant weapon enhancement bonus or certain powers.
Slashing Grace (Kukri) Treat chosen weapon as 1-handed piercing weapon and can add Dex instead of Str to dam.
Swamp Stride (Ex) Not slowed by difficult terrain in swamps, unless magically manipulated.
Two-Weapon Grace Can gain effects of certain feats limited by free off hand when two weapon fighting.
Warpriest Channel Positive Energy 4d6 (5/day, DC 21) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Why is fasting giving a bonus? If the fasting is supposed to have some sort of mental or spiritual benefit using magic to fast would not help. If the reason for the bonus is a physical reason like fasting before surgery, it would help.

Androids are superficially identical to humans in many ways, and to the uninformed it can be difficult to differentiate the two. In the right light, though, androids’ alien nature is revealed by the metallic sheen in their eyes and the biological, tattoo-like circuitry that riddles their skin. Their bodies are completely artificial, though made of materials that mimic the flexibility, shape, and density of human flesh and bone. Their organs mirror those of humans so well that only by examining the materials and makeup of these systems—which use sheeny oils and polymer alloys rather than blood and marrow—could one guess that their physiology is alien. Androids are roughly the same size as humans; on average, they are 6 feet tall and weigh 200 pounds.

The description states they have organs that are nearly identical to human and function in the same manner. That would mean they have such things as stomachs and a digestive system. That would indicate they do in fact need to eat and eat what humans eat. If they had a different diet the waste products produced by their digestive system would be completely different. The fact they are not immune to poison and only get a +2 save further reinforces this. Many poisons attack specific organs in the body if those organs functioned substantially differently, they would be immune to poison.

Do not ignore any combat maneuver. The 3rd tier champion path ability Maneuver Expert will allow you to use any combat maneuver without provoking an AoO, and you can spend a mythic point to gain the benefit of both the improved and greater maneuver feat.

As to what maneuvers to actually spend feats on both Grapple and Sunder have a couple of mythic abilities that you can pick up. Grapple has 4 path abilities, and Sunder has 2.

By that logic you have to make a craft roll to eat off a plate. Creating a plate requires a craft roll, so eating off the plate must require the same skill roll.

That sounds like a case of poor game etiquette than a rules issue. The only people who should be involved in a discussion about a character’s alignment is the GM and the characters player. Unless the GM is asking for opinions the other players should stay out of it. This is an aspect of rule zero.

How much of alignment being used against a character is because of a poor GM and how much of it was coded into the game. Except for paladins and to a lesser extent some of the other divine casters, alignment does not have that much of an impact on most classes. The problems that are due to a poor GM should not be held against the game.

Zon-Kunthon’s obedience requires you to have the consent or legally own the subject before causing pain. That seems to keep with a lawful alignment. You cannot simply torture anyone you want to gain the benefit. If he were neutral evil consent or ownership would not be required. If he were chaotic, he would encourage nonconsensual torture.

How someone structures their followers is an important indication of their alignment. Nidal is where most of Zon Kunthon’s followers are located. Nidal is Theocracy under control of Zon Kunthon and his followers. The rules are 3 immortal servants that receive power directly from Zon Kunthon. Despite being thousands of years old the original members are still in control, and no one has challenged their authority. All other organization in Nidal are tied to Zon Kunthon including an order of druids. These organizations are connected and mostly work together even if they do not always agree with everything the other organizations do. Nidal is probably the single most stable government on the world and is definitely LE.

Who is to say that the laws of physics in a world where magic works is the same as our world. As Oil Ironbar brought up Alchemy in the Pathfinder universe actually works. If medieval alchemy actually works that would seem to indicate that the natural laws of the universes diverge at some point. That being the case electrolysis may not work.

Bottle of the Bound allows you to use Summon Monster IX. The description of Summon Monter IX states you can use it to summon 1 monster from the level 9 list, 1d3 Monsters from the level 8 list, or 1d4+1 from a lower level list. The spell already allows you the option of summoning multiple lower tier creatures.

First, the character needs to have an appropriate craft skill to make an item with Fabricate. Since Electrolyzing water is a modern technique, the character will not have the relevant craft skill.

Second quality of the finished item depends on the quality of the base material. Ocean water is probably considered very low quality for making lye. Before electrolyzing sea water, it is filtered and treated. Typically, you also add electrolytes and potassium hydroxide. This will mean the quality of the lye created is extremely poor.

Finally, the casting time of the fabricate is measured in full rounds. That will give the merman a time to move out of the area you are creating the lye in. Since you are underwater, the lye will also end up being diluted. Given the slow creation time and poor quality of the lye it probably will not do that much.

Salt (Sodium) is considered a mineral so the target is reduced to 1 cubic foot per level.

As I mentioned the feat catch of guard allows you to use an improvised weapon without penalty. It also makes unarmed foes flatfooted vs you when you attack with an improvised weapon. Any martial with catch of guard and power attack should be good enough to fight their way out. Rogues will get even more benefit from this feat as it will allow them to use their sneak attack anytime, they are fighting an unarmed opponent. Even if you do not have catch of guard, you can still use improvised weapons with a -4 penalty to hit. That can be offset by a high STR and or BAB.

A single point in craft weapon is going to be enough to craft a simple weapon even without tools unless they have bought down their INT or have some other penalty besides not having tools. Many simple weapons do not cost anything so should be able to be made quickly. Clubs and wooden stake will probably be the easiest to make.

If the GM is running a gearless scenario, they should not be using challenging opponents with full gear. Any GM that does that is being a dick. So, even though the character might not be as efficient as normal, they should still be able to deal with the situation. The lesser damage and chance to hit should be offset somewhat by the fact the opponents having less AC and HP.

Both Gunslinger and Swashbuckler are full BAB with proficiency in martial and simple weapons.

Swashbucklers class abilities work with any light- or one-handed piercing weapon. That means they can use them with a lot of weapons including daggers and knives. Shivs and wooden stakes are probably the easiest improvised weapon to make and would qualify as a light piercing weapon. They usually use power attack for damage so will have at least a 13 STR and can still add damage to their attacks. About all a swashbuckler would really lose is weapon specific feats like weapon focus and specialization.

They also have a high DEX and can use ranged weapons. The fact most of their AC comes from DEX and nimble means they will usually not suffer as much from lack of armor as a martial class that relies on heavy armor.

So, unless they are not able to find or make any weapons they are probably about as effective as the brawler and monk. A swashbuckler with a knife and dagger can still add his level to damage if he has at least one panache point left.

Gunslingers are a different story. Most of their abilities are tied to firearms, but not all are. Like the swashbuckler they are a high DEX class with nimble, so their AC is still good. They can still use any ranged weapons they find, and their high DEX gives them a good chance to hit, but they will have trouble with damage. Some of their feats will be usable with other weapons. Both quickdraw and rapid shot are common for gunfighters so they can use them with thrown weapons. They may lose a lot, but they are not as bad as some classes.

Will the character be going against creatures with gear? Any full BAB class with proficiency with martial and simple weapons can take the weapons of their opponents and use them. Just because you start out with no weapons does not mean you have to stay that way.

The feat catch of guard allows you to use just about anything as a weapon without penalty.

Monk’s and brawlers do have some advantages without gear, but they are not completely free of the need for gear. Without gear their defenses are still lower and they rely just as much on things like belts, headbands as other characters.

The cost of a material component is an abstraction designed to make the game playable. The game mechanics specify things in terms of GP value to simplify the game. This way the player just has to pay the price and does not get bogged down in the details of metal purity, how finely ground the s of the silver is or other details that the character (not the player) would be dealing with.

Another thing to consider is what spells you are casting in combat. Blasting may be fun but there are often more effective spell that can be cast. There are also lots of spells that can be used more than once. Flaming Sphere lasts 1 round per level so single casting will last for the entire combat.

Summoning spells can summon multiple creatures that also last longer than a single turn.

Battle field control and buffing is also useful. Casting haste on a party of martial focused characters and pets will often do more damage than a fireball.

The main advantage a sorcerer has as a blaster is the ability to spam a spell until it gets the job done. If I have a spell that can damage the targets or be modified to damage the targets, I can keep using it till the target drops. The wizard cannot do that, so is at a disadvantage. If the wizard only memorized one fireball for the most part that is all he can cast. There are a couple of ways to cast more but they are limited.

An Arcanist has aspects of both a prepared and a spontaneous caster, so they can work well as a blaster. My suggestion would be to go with an Admixture School savant. The extra Evocation spell per day is very useful. Versatile Evocation allows you to alter the damage type to exploit weaknesses and reduces the chance that energy resistance or immunity will render your spells useless. Intense spell may not match some of the bloodline damage bonuses, but it helps, and it boosts all evocation spells.

Potent Magic can either increase the caster level (damage in most cases) or the DC of the spell by 2. Either of those are very useful to a blaster. This should be your first Arcana. After that Dimensional Slide would be my next choice.

You can change out your spells like a wizard but can spam out spells like a sorcerer. You will get less spells per day but have more flexibility than either a sorcerer or a wizard.

The school savant will deal slightly less damage than a bloodline arcanist with a damage per die bonus, but not much. A 12th level blood arcanist with Draconic bloodline will do 12d6 +12 damage with a fireball (assuming fire is the bloodline energy type), the school savant will deal 12dd +6 damage and be able change the energy type. The school savant will also deal 5d4+11 damage with magic missile vs the 5d4+5 from the blood arcanist.

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Hero System is my preferred system, but I like Pathfinder 1E. I friend got me into Pathfinder, and I started running it after a while. I have a substantial amount invested not only in books but also in Hero Labs. When Pathfinder 2E came out I took a look and found that Hero Labs for 2E is only available online, so that killed any interest in using that and put me off from upgrading. Pathfinder 1E is a mature system that has enough options to make it interesting. The system works very well for a simple game that does not take a much effort to create a character but offers enough variation that I can create pretty close to the character I want. If I want a more complex system that allows me to do anything I will use Hero System. I see no reason to invest more money in a third system.

Off topic sidebar: In your opinion, which is better Fantasy Hero or Pathfinder?

Fantasy Hero is the better system, but Pathfinder has more resources available. Setting up a FH campaign is a lot more work, but worth the time if done properly. The combat system is far superior and allows a lot more tactical options.

The big difference is that Pathfinder is a complete game. Fantasy Hero is more of a structure that allows the GM to create the game they want.

Hero System is my preferred system, but I like Pathfinder 1E. I friend got me into Pathfinder, and I started running it after a while. I have a substantial amount invested not only in books but also in Hero Labs. When Pathfinder 2E came out I took a look and found that Hero Labs for 2E is only available online, so that killed any interest in using that and put me off from upgrading. Pathfinder 1E is a mature system that has enough options to make it interesting. The system works very well for a simple game that does not take a much effort to create a character but offers enough variation that I can create pretty close to the character I want. If I want a more complex system that allows me to do anything I will use Hero System. I see no reason to invest more money in a third system.

The feat Feral Combat Training allows you to use the chosen natural weapon with flurry of blows. So, if the GM wants the dragon to be able to use bite with flurry of blows this feat would allow it.

By 7th level of warpriest I can have the following feats, Channel Smite, Cleave, Great Cleave, Guided Hand, Heightened spell, Power Attack, Preferred Spell, Weapon Focus, and Weapon Specialization. This allows me to cast Divine Favor as a swift action and still attack. When I attack with a bastard sword, I will have a +14 to hit and be doing 1d10+15 damage. I also did not have to spend a feat to get proficiency in heavy armor.

The 7th level cleric takes the following feats, Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Channel Smite, Combat Casting, Guided Hand, and power attack. That gives him a +9 to hit and doing 1d10+9 for damage. He cannot spontaneously cast Divine Favor so has to memorize it using 1 spell slot for each use he plans on using. That means he will probably not have it available for every combat.

On round 1 the warpriest uses fervor to cast divine favor as a swift action and uses great cleave. When attacking a creature with an AC of 22 (15 + his level) he has a DPR of 12.3 without factoring in cleave. The cleric attacking the same target has a DPR of 5.075. If the cleric casts Divine Favor or any other spell for that matter they do not get to attack on the first round and his DPR goes to 10.175 on the second round but does not have the ability to attack more than a single target.

This also means the cleric is not using his feats to boost his spell casting. A spell focused cleric should be using his feats for things like spell focus, spell penetration, and maybe some metamagic feats instead of combat feats.

As the warpriest levels up there are still a lot more feats he can take to improve his combat ability. By 12th level the warpriest will have picked up greater weapon focus, greater weapon specialization, Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike and Weapon Trick (two handed). This would allow him to be doing 3d10+20 when using cleave and greater cleave. This is without figuring in sacred weapon or other magic items.

That would be 12 HP OR 12 skill ranks for 2 feats. To get both requires a feat which would put the warpriest up by 3 feats. If I really want those skill points and HP I can simply take toughness and cunning. So, trading 12 HP or 12 skill ranks for 2 feats basically breaks even. If the character manages to get to 18th level he will get a 3rd feat.

As a human cleric the character gets 9 feats, as a warpriest he gets 15. Don’t forget that a warpriest gets proficiency in heavy armor and martial weapons. The human FCB as a cleric is a bonus to overcome spell resistance of an outsider, as a warpriest it is 1/6 of a combat feat. As a cleric he gets 2 channel energy per day, as a warpriest he gets 4. By 12th level the cleric will have 11 feats, the warpriest will have 20 feats. The cleric will still have 2 channel energies, compared to the 6 of the warpriest. The warpriest will also have sacred armor and sacred weapon so can add enchantments to his armor and weapons. The warpriest also gets access to fighter only feats.

With the build I am suggesting the character can get divine favor up as a swift action in every combat and that gives him a +4 to hit and damage. While this does not increase his BAB it does put his attack bonus on par with a full BAB class and gives him and extra +4 to damage.

The player is also a new player so probably does not have a lot of system mastery and is probably unfamiliar with a lot of the more obscure cleric spells. Playing a full caster-based cleric takes a lot of knowledge and I do not recommend that for a new player. So, in this instance the cleric may have on paper a higher potential, but in play is probably not going to be realized.

The extra feats take less system mastery because you only need to understand how the feats you have work. With spells you have to understand how all of them work and have enough information to choose appropriate spells. The spells the warpriest will be using will for the most part be self-buff spells, that makes it easier to focus on a smaller portion of the spell list. But since he still has access to the full list it gives him the opportunity to learn them for the next character he plays.

My advice is based on what the OP said he wanted. He expressed interest in playing a melee focused character and a warpriest can do that better than a cleric.

Normally I would agree with Azothath about STR, but in this case the character has already invested heavily in WIS, so it is a little late now. As far as the guided property I doubt the character can replace his equipment right away. Relying solely on an enchantment for a combat focused characters combat ability can be dangerous. If he loses the weapon or it is otherwise rendered non-magical it makes the character worthless. Using feats may seem wasteful, but the character has lots of feats. If he is human, he gets a bonus feat at 1st level and can use his favored class bonus to gain an extra feat every 6 levels. This is in addition to the bonus feats of the warpriest. At 7th level the character has 7 feats.

What the character should do is to continue to advance WIS but also advance STR with magic items. Focus more on WIS to increase his chance to hit and gain more uses of fervor as well as some extra spells.

If the character could be completely rewritten, I would be giving different advice, but given the constraints of what can be done I think the advice I am giving is the best way to rebuild the character.

The most important thing is to be familiar with your spells and abilities. Assuming your GM is allowing all the material from the various expansion books you have a huge spell list. There are around 150 1st level cleric spells (warpreists use the cleric spell list). Warpriest also allows you to add enchantments to your weapons and armor. Become familiar with those as well.

If possible, I would switch to using the bastard sword two handed. I am not sure why your character cannot do so.

Fervor is your most important ability. Not only does it let you heal yourself in combat as a swift action, it also allows you to cast buff spells on yourself as a swift action. It also allows you to ignore somatic components, does not require a free hand and does not provoke AoO. But those spells only affect your character even if they would normally affect others. This means you may not be able to buff the whole party quickly but can boost your own abilities and still get be able to attack in the same round. If you know you are about to encounter something, consider casting some of the party wide buffs before combat starts and use fervor for personal buffs.

One spell I would really recommend for buffing the whole party is Blessing of Fervor. It has a list of benefits that each target can choose from, and the benefit can be changed from round to round.

As I mentioned take greater weapon focus and greater weapon specialization as you level up. Boosting your bonus to hit and damage keeps you closer to a full martial character.

Warpriest would work even with the WIS focus. Normally I would not recommend guided hand, but it can work on this build. Your high WIS gives you enough bonus to hit you can afford the penalty for power attack even if you are using it one handed it still boost your damage. That and the extra feats warpriest gets make for a better melee focused character. Make sure to pick up weapon specialization and latter get greater weapon focus and weapon specialization. If you are human, the FCB of warpriest will give you and extra feat ever 6 levels.

WIS also gives you more uses of Fervor and that allows more uses of channel energy More Fervor also allows you to cast self-buffs on yourself as a swift action. This reduces the need for combat casting.

Take Fates Favored and load up on divine favor. Being able to get a +4 to hit and damage as a swift action is really good. This might even be worth taking heightened spell and preferred spell for.

If your GM will let you take Fey Foundling as one of your 1st level feats. It works really well with Fervor when healing yourself. Your GM might not go for it, but it does not hurt to ask. The fact you are not starting at 1st level means you can don’t have to sit through waiting for your build to become functional.

DO NOT MULTICLASS.

Ouch this is going to be fairly difficult to pull off. Clerics are an incredibly versatile class and can be built to do almost anything, but they cannot do everything. That is one reason that makes the class difficult for a beginner. In all honesty I normally recommend beginners avoid clerics. As a divine prepared caster they have access to every spell on their list they are high enough level to cast. Their spell list also has a lot of very situational spells. Those spells tend to be either incredibly useful or completely worthless depending on the situation. That means the player has to be familiar with all his spells which most beginners are not. But you are playing a cleric so the only thing to do is to make the best of it. I would recommend spending a lot of time going over all your spells especially the more obscure ones.

The most important thing when building a cleric is to figure out what you want the character to do and focus on that. If you try to do everything you end up doing nothing well. The role of a melee cleric can be done, but honestly a warpriest is much better at this than the cleric. You also focused mostly on WIS so that is going to make it even more difficult. With the constraints of your stats, I am not sure that is a wise choice. Guided Hand requires two feats and will boost your chance to hit but does nothing for your damage.

If you are going to go with a melee cleric you need to be able to do damage when you hit. Since your stats are already fixed, we need to look at other ways to get your damage up. Ditch Heightened Spell and Preferred spell and take power attack. Ditch the shield and use the sword two handed for the extra damage.

Since you are focusing on melee combat that means you will often be on the front line when casting spells. Casting spells provokes AoO unless you cast defensively which requires a concentration check. As it stands your chance of casting defensively will very low. You have a 15% chance to fail casting defensively when you cast a 1st level spell that goes up to a 45% chance for your 4th level spells. Take Combat Casting to reduce this so your character can actually cast spells on the front line. With Combat Casting you have no chance of failing on a 1st level spell, and only a 25% chance of failing on a 4th level spell. If you are using traits and they can be changed you can take a trait like focused mind to give you an additional +2 on your concentration to reduce those numbers by 10%. At that point you no chance of failure on a 1st or 2nd level spells, a 5% on a 3rd level spell and a 15% on a 4th level spell.

With your stats and the constraints on what you can change you might want to focus less on melee and more on casting. Even with this build you are probably going to fall behind the inquisitor and swashbuckler. That would require completely different feats, and your combat ability would be much less.

If your GM would allow you to swap to a warpriest we could do a lot better.

One of the most important parts of being a GM is being able to keep the game in balance. Often a player may want to do something that runs counter to keeping the game in balance and the GM needs to reign in the player. It is one thing when a player wants to build his character to do certain things. When the character is taking feats or archetypes, he should be able to do something most if not all other characters cannot. But when he wants a vanilla character to be able to do the same thing that is something that the GM needs to address.

I’m trying to hav other things attack w the poison instead of myself so I can focus on other things

Use a quickened telekinetic volley then. What you are trying to do is to circumvent the action economy. This is purposely made difficult for game balance. Any way to do that is going to be difficult and probably require a high-level character.

No, because running into a target would require an attack roll, and unseen servants cannot make attack rolls of any kind.

Unseen servants are also shapeless which would make it impossible to apply poison to.

The skills used in combat will be the same skills used out of combat. If the character is climbing the skill used is climbing, if they are jumping the skill used is acrobatics. That being said not everything the player wants to try should be allowed. If what the character is attempting to do is covered by a class feature or feat, they do not have the character should not be able to do it.

Trying to jump on the wyvern and climb it is a class ability of the vexing dodger so unless the rogue has that archetype, they should not be allowed to do it. If this is something you want a character to be able to do the GM could make a custom feat or rogue talent that would grant the ability.

Another thing to make sure is that you are applying all the negative aspects of what the character is trying to do. Moving through a threatened square usually provokes an AoO. He could use acrobatics to avoid that but that would require a separate acrobatics check. By climbing on the wyvern, he was considered moving through his opponent's square, which increases the DC of the acrobatics check. Looking up the Wyvern the DC for the acrobatics check would be 28 (5+ CMD of 23), or the rogue provokes an AoO. The wyvern is in combat so probably counts as a severely unstable surface, that raises the DC of the acrobatics check to 38. When climbing the character moves at ¼ speed and loses DEX to AC, considering this is rouge that probably means he is losing a lot of AC when he gets hit with the AoO. If the character has the vexing dodger archetype, they do not have to worry about the AoO he does lose AC, but that will probably be offset by penalty to attack the wyvern suffers because of limb climber.

Cure spells may not be worth memorizing but using them when you know you are going to need the spell slots is a different thing. Casting cure spells when in downtime or in a safe location saves the cost of the wand and stretches it out further. Those charges on the wand of cure light wounds can add up.

It's all about utilizing your resources wisely.

One thing I have not seen mentioned is spell books from defeated wizards. If you kill or otherwise defeat to the point you are taking all his equipment taking his spell book can give the wizard in the party a lot of extra spells. This is better than finding scrolls, because most wizards will have more spells in their books than they do in scrolls.

Druids and clerics both have the ability to convert their prepared spells to other spells. This means that even if they prepare the wrong spells, they can still often use these slots productively. The druid's ability to spontaneously cast summoning spells means they can still use their spell slots in combat even if all their spell choices are wrong.

The Herald Caller archetype gives the cleric the ability to spontaneously cast summon monster spells in addition to healing spells. That means the Herald Caller always has 3 choices of what to use his spell slots for. He can cast the prepared spell, a summon monster or a cure spell. The archetype also gets augmented summoning and superior summoning without having to actually spend the feats. About the only summoning feat they need to actually take would be sacred summons. With this archetype you might not even need to actually cast most of the spells you actually memorized.

Rangers and Paladins actually have it easier than full casters for this. Their spell casting is very limited and is gained late. Because they are so far behind other casters most of their offensive spells are not that powerful. Between their lower level and lower casting stat the DC of their offensive spells are often so low that most level appropriate monsters can easily make the save. But their spell list also has a lot of combat buffs that can boost their already good combat even higher. Most of those spells tend to focus on the caster so knowing what you are facing is less important. An archer focused ranger casting gravity bow will get the benefit no matter what they are facing. Likewise, a paladin will be able to use heroic defiance in any combat he takes damage in.

No, you do not have the class feature if it has been replaced.

If it is for a PC, I go with the 1.5 cost to scribe it into the book. If it is for an NPC Hero Labs has some prewritten spell books that I often use for this especially if the NPC is not a significant character and I don’t want to spend a lot of time creating them.

The race builder rules are too easily broken, and most GM's do not allow a PC to use them. For the most part they are designed to be used by the GM not players.

Just out of curiosity why did you not go with tiefling for your race? Devil Spawn tiefling make excellent inquisitors. CHA does not do much for an inquisitor especially with the right inquisition. Their favored class bonus is similar but the tieflings is actually much better.

Honor divorced from morality would focus more on reputation and reliability. Keeping your word is important because it allows mutual beneficent deals. When both parties know that the deal will be honored cooperation become possible. In cases like this the letter of the law is usually more important than the spirit.

Even protecting other can be seen as beneficial to the person doing the protecting because it often leads to rewards latter. Which is better taking the peasant’s last gold and having them starve or collecting a lesser amount each year for decades? The trick is to leave them enough to thrive but still getting the most out of them. The lawful good character will take enough taxes to support the state but still leave the peasant enough to thrive. The lawful evil will take as much as they can but leave the peasant enough to survive. The lawful neutral will take somewhere in the middle. They want as much as they can get but also want the peasant to produce more so they get more over the long run.

What the real difference between lawful good and lawful neutral are often the reasons behind the actions instead of the actions themselves. The good character actually cares about others and wants everyone to prosper and be happy. The neutral character is more concerned with the results.