Shek the Unwise's page

I'm still debating this one. I've got a player clamoring to craft a permanent hallow item, and we've got these contradictory examples of what the cost should be.

A Darkskull is a permanent mobile unhallow, with a permanent, say, Freedom of Movement tied to it. What's more, it can be tied to your belt and costs 60k gp.

A Lord's Banner of the Crusades is a permanent mobile hallow. It appears ( http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/rules/aPGMagicItemsLordsBannerOfCrusades&page=1&source=search#0 ) to not grant a permanent spell effect. It also takes a pole to hold up and costs 100k gp.

Is a Darkskull just cheaper and better due to evilness?

The best handling of "left-behind loot" I know of is the DM handling it as an "investment."

Think realistically about the negative consequences that might have stemmed from looting and selling what was left behind:
If the PCs had looted that evil, bloodstained alter jewelry and sold it? It might have ended up in the hands of a new cult, lending it legitimacy.

Think what material cost those consequences might have had:
The cult grows bolder and kills several merchants before eventually being destroyed by the city guard at great cost. The gold available for PC rewards goes down, and the price of goods goes up.

Now reverse that, given that the PCs did the right thing:
The PCs reach town, where trade is thriving, and are given a bonus on their reward. Later, when they are looking for an expensive magical item, it's available at a discount from a new merchant who opened a shop where the shady merchant who used to buy questionable loot used to be.

If PCs give up valuable loot by being dumb, though... well, make them suffer for it, just as if they had squandered a valuable consumable.

I've decided to roll up a trip-specialist alchemist for kicks. I'm looking for some optimization help, since I've got a lot of options.

My goal is to use my awesome self-buffing powers to try and not fall too far behind a barbarian or other, more martial, maneuver expert, while retaining alchemist utility with bombs and other buffs. Enlarge person extracts will let me threaten a lot of the battlefield with tripping goodness, and keep medium-sized or smaller foes from reaching me unless they can get past tripping AoOs.

This'll be a PFS organized play character, so I have access to only PF core + PF sourcebook rules, and can't count on any DM rule-bending. I also can't count on a lot of specific magic item availability. PFS max level is 12, so I don't need to worry about higher level viability than that.

The Build:
STR 15
DEX 17 (with human +2)
CON 12
INT 16
WIS 7
CHA 8

Feats:
(1)
Combat Expertise
Imp. Trip
(3)
Fury's Fall (adds dex bonus to trips src: Cheliax)
(5,7)
Imp. Disarm?
Martial Weapon Prof? (guisarmes?)
Mobility-> Spring Attack (dodge is a bonus feat for alchemists in PFS, replacing Brew Potion)
Ranged attack feats for bombs?
(9)
Greater Trip
(11)
Whirlwind? (trips for everyone!)

Key buffs:
(1)
+4 STR (Mutagen) [Alchemical]
+1 CMB (Enlarge) [Size]
+2 STR/-2 DEX (Enlarge) [Size]
(4)
+4 STR (Bull's) [Enhancement]
+4 DEX (Cat's) [Enhancement]
(7)
+2 CMB (Heroism) [Morale]
+1 CMB (haste) [Untyped]
(11)
+2 CMB (Greater invis) [untyped]

Additional bonus from a masterwork/enchanted sickle

Any thoughts? I'd like to catch any possible boosts or drawbacks I've missed, though I'm enchanted enough by the character concept I wouldn't want to suddenly switch back to a mundane tripper or something weirder like a eidolon tripper--despite my focus on trips, I'd like to maintain the alchemist fun for when tripping can't solve all problems.