Syries's page

Hi- I was the gunslinger

From my perspective, I felt like a badass in round 1 with Ghost Shot+Vital Shot as an opener (only viable to do because of the 20th level feat Perfect Readiness, mind) and felt like a really bad fighter the rest of the time.
I will say, that 4th combat was a lot of fun for me. I've never gotten to use S2D that effectively before and it was very satisfying.

I tried sticking with just gunslinger feats to test out what they can do. Unfortunately I just felt that the trick shots were a neat, well, trick, but in terms of combat effectiveness they really were not great. Risky Reload is a must have because it saves well on action economy, but even then I only used it when it was my first attack of the round and when the enemy was flat-footed due to me being hidden or me benefiting from Dread Striker. Hell, I even ended up spending my 16th level feat on the rogue MC sneak attacker feat, because I could already tell my damage was going to be so low on a non-crit and I wanted something that could shore it up a bit. I mean, the Fatal Bullet 16th level feat would have been an extra d10 on a crit, or I could take a 4th level multiclass feat for an extra d6 on a much more consistent and frequent basis.

This session also has proven to me that Dread Striker is pretty much a must-have if you're playing a ranged character, just for the bonus chance to hit- especially if you have an ability (like sneak attack and vital shot) that relies on an enemy being flat-footed.

I used Shattering Shot once, in the combat with the Sards, and it was really sad damage for level 20. It's okay-ish for a non-MAP single action ability but at the end of the day I was probably better off just making another Strike.

Various formatting because of what is likely due to two different writers does not change the core rules of the individual effect. Tempest surge states the target must make a basic reflex save. That means no damage on a crit success, 1/2 damage on a success, full damage on a failure, and double damage on a crit fail. There is absolutely no room for debate on that subject as it so clearly states that it is a basic save, and basic saves are clearly written as to how to handle them, even if there is additional text that describes what else happens, if anything, on a given degree of success.

Eh to me the point of the Ancient heritage is not that you’ve just lived a long time, but that you’ve also been able to pick up some tricks from a class that is not your own without formal training or whatnot.

So if you’re a half elf that’s old and justifiably able to make sense of how you ended up training with every martial weapon (or at least every weapon group) to be able to start with Fighter dedication, even though you’re a wizard, yeah sure why not.

I found taking sorcerer dedication and basic bloodline spell for angelic halo to be pretty worthwhile for the Life Oracle I playtested. I realized when building her that I’d want to have a revelation spell I can cast each combat so that gave me a decent way to heal after combat when I only had to deal with my minor curse, but still have the moderate curse benefit in combat.

Though I shouldn’t have had to multiclass to do that in the first place in my opinion.

Really, Paizo, it’s okay to make the oracle revelation spells a teensy bit more powerful (and usable) than other class’ focus spells. They do have to contend with the curse drawbacks after all.

I personally like the witch for the most part. A few relatively minor tweaks here and there and it should be good to go.

But it lacks the ability to get Reach Spell, which is not only a pretty big disconnect from the other spellcasters- all of whom have that feat as an option- but also makes it difficult for Witches to use many of their offensive hexes without putting themselves in extreme danger.

Yeah I'm not sure why Oracle's don't get an extra spell per day since they're meant to be similar to sorcerers in that regard. Why does having special blood give you more spells but seeing the face of god doesn't.

I for one would love to see Life Oracles have a feat that grants them the same benefit as the Divine Evolution sorcerer feat for heal, at the very least.

Actually now that I think about it, that is a pretty major problem. When i playtested my 4th level Life Oracle I felt that I had to reserve my precious 3 second level spell slots for heal and utilize Adapted Cantrip human feat for my non-healing needs with electric arc. Having that bonus feat would have been really nice to have, and sorcerers already have it. I don't see Oracles outclassing divine sorcerers even if they had equal number of spell slots.

Well, I had fun playing a level 4 Life Oracle healing 2d12+20 HP to allies. Admittedly, I was utilizing Angelic Halo from MCing into Sorcerer and picking Basic Bloodline Spell at 4th level, but it worked out pretty well. I found the base revelation spells for Life Oracle fairly niche, so Angelic Halo was a good way to utilize revelation spells and the curse benefit.

So it's different. But not so different from other spellcasters that it upsets the balance of the game. I mean, 2e's whole design revolves around comparable classes being on relatively equal footing, so a cloistered cleric is roughly equal to a divine sorcerer is roughly equal to an oracle.

My issue is if they're continuously able to cast focus spells without having to refocus then that can make the balancing between the classes fall apart.

If you're unconscious you can't cast focus spells, so I don't see why being conscious and unable to cast focus spells would be anything but an upgrade in my opinion.

Which is why I like the idea of a class feature (maybe just a line under Curse or Mystery) that states 'Once per day you may cast a revelation spell without advancing your curse.' It grants Oracles a way to utilize their major class feature better without compromising the integrity of the 2e system as a whole. In addition, having that class feature makes Advanced Revelation and Greater Revelation not become mandatory feats, but nice bonuses so an oracle will have at least 1 use per day but as many as 3 uses of revelations per day that don't advance the curse.

A fairly major drawback should be put in place if you overclock yourself with revelation spells. But like I said before, unconsciousness is pretty bad, narratively, and can lead to a lot of in-fighting and drama at a table.

I think what is really interesting and has potential for more storytelling, is the intense drawback of overclocking while still allowing the Oracle to fight their way out of danger. Your table's flame oracle can shoot off one more fire ray as a last ditch effort to take down the BBEG that's killed three of your party members, but doing so fatigues the Oracle and gives them the doomed 1 condition as well as losing their revelation spells until they rest for 8 hours and make daily preparations again. Or something of the sorts. Having them just fall over unconscious just makes the whole thing either a pain the whole table has to deal with or a mechanic that will never, ever occur. Let it have meaning, so that when it occurs it helps create a good story for the table. Unconsciousness is just a cop out IMO.

I'm really, really hoping designers are at least considering these, because I love the oracle class and I don't want to see them turn into a Cha-based cleric

TL;DR Giving Oracles the ability to overclock their revelation spells without literally becoming a drag to party members is major as it can help lead to good storytelling and less IRL dissent among players.

The helicopter pumpkin:

Gourd leshy monk with cat fall skill feat, Seedpods and leshy glide ancestry feats, and Student of Perfection+ Perfect Ki Adept(Unfolding Wind Rush) archetype feats.

At the start of combat launch yourself in the air with Unfolding Wind Rush, then use Leshy Glide to slowly fall and move around the battlefield while using Flurry of Blows with your seedpods

(Basing these a bit after what others have already said)
Int-
Mastermind: Your brilliant planning pushes you to make the smart decision. You can be a lieutenant in an underground gang planning heists, or be the guard captain in charge of maintaining a city's defense.

You quickly study your opposition, planning on how to best take them down. When you roll Initiative, select one target you are aware of. You may make a Recall Knowledge check against that target as a free action. If you succeed or critically succeed, that target is flat-footed to you during your first round of combat. You may continue making Recall Knowledge checks as normal against an individual target; each time you succeed, they are flat-footed to your next attack in that same round. If you critically succeed, they are flat-footed to you until the end of your turn.

You are trained in Society and one other skill of your choice- choose from Arcana, Nature, Religion, or Occultism. You may choose Int as your key ability score.

Wis-
Opportunist: You're diligent and don't mind waiting for the perfect opening to exploit your opponents. You might be a patient martial artist who has been trained to spot weaknesses in others, or a stealthy ambusher waiting for the right moment.

When a creature is flat-footed due to Surprise Attack, that creature also takes a -1 penalty to their Reflex saves and DC, as well as their Fortitude save DC against Grapple and Shove maneuvers. In addition, whenever a creature critically misses you in combat and that creature is within your weapon's reach, you may take a reaction to Strike that opponent.

You are trained in Survival and Acrobatics. You may choose Wis as your key ability score.

Con-
Bulwark: You're a sturdy force to be reckoned with. You might be a bouncer, or a front line soldier on the battlefield.

Your bulk has the ability to make others feel the pain you absorb and unbalance them. When you are critically hit with a melee attack, as a reaction you may make a fortitude save vs a Hard DC based on the creature's level (See table 10-5) or their class DC, whichever is higher. On a success, the creature takes damage equal to twice the number of weapon dice that was dealt to you, or three times on a critical success. Regardless if you succeed at the fortitude save or not, the creature is then flat-footed to you until the end of your next turn.

You are trained in Athletics, and can choose Con as your key ability score.

For Produce Flame, Burning Hands, and Fireball granted by the elemental sorcerer's bloodline, the fire traits are not removed due to choosing the Air, Earth, or Water traits. Which means a water elemental sorc can't cast their 'water'ball underwater.

I'm a bit surprised it took so long for someone to bring up Kineticist :)

Because a con-based caster is pretty much describing the kineticist exactly.

Off-topic, but I am actually working on a full homebrew kineticist as a focus-based caster. When I'm done I'll have the multiclass archetype for it and everything! Got the chassis done (and gave them a d6 HD because their casting stat IS con) and just need to work on the feats.

Something I got a lot of use out of from my spontaneous caster oracle in 1e was my ability to just cast a lower-level spell in a higher level spell slot, even if it didn't have any heightened effect.

And sure 2e isn't the same game, but I think it's a core aspect of spontaneous casters to be able to cast the same spells over and over and over again. As such, I think it's really important that a spontaneous caster is able to cast a lower-leveled spell using a higher level spell slot without the heightened effect (assuming it's not a signature spell)

I can do you one better. 20th level Elf monk with Fleet and Nimble Elf, MC Barbarian for Furious Sprint (at level 20 lol).

Elf -> 30ft
Nimble Elf -> +5 ft untyped
Fleet -> +5 ft untyped
20th level monk -> +30ft Status bonus.

Puts us at a base of 70ft, or 350 ft in 4 seconds with furious sprint. or 560 ft in 6 seconds. With Haste and using another Stride that puts us a grand total of 630 ft in 6 seconds. Which is 71.6 miles per hour, according to google.

*You could also acquire this much earlier with Fleet Step instead of monk levels, but that's only for one minute.

A Wizard who combines Eschew Materials, Conceal Spell, and Silent spell plus Shrink Item to hide his spellbook. Never gives away that he's casting spells if he can help it, and if caught pretends he's a sorcerer. His friends wonder why he always spends a full hour and ten minutes in the garderobe in the mornings, though.

To be fair the sorcerer also has to spend an hour prepping in the mornings.

** spoiler omitted **...

You can't take the sorcerer dedication at 6th because you need to have 2 additional wizard feats beyond the dedication feat (for 3 total)

I'm wondering for those who have played a fair amount at this point what sort of Lore skills you may have encountered or found particularly useful.

There have been a couple of society scenarios where Pathfinder Society lore came in handy.

I also imagine Ship or Vehicle lore would help a lot too, as a driver/sailor.

...they're unarmed attacks. He bolded exactly what they are, Syries.

And what, pray tell, is the weapon group for unarmed strikes?

A class with Master thievery is just as good as the rogue class with Master thievery. Trapfinding doesn't matter at that point.

You're trying to say that NOT INVESTING in a skill makes you not as good as a character that DOES invest in the skill. Which, you know, duh. The Rogue needs to invest in Trapfinding. A wizard who just gets trained in thievery didn't invest much; a rogue investing in trapfinding invested an entire class feat for it.

Hey if you want to abuse your loyal companion, I guess that's your prerogative.

But as it was already mentioned in another thread, you're still only Striking one target; splash damage doesn't count as a Strike, and the bear/bird only uses its support ability on people you successfully Strike.

Arachnofiend wrote:

Am I right in thinking that a Strike that does AOE damage would apply the bleed from the Bird companion to all targets (assuming they are within the bird's threatened range)? A Ranger/Alchemist might be an interesting idea if that is the case.

RAW, it looks like you're right. Still, it's pretty overpowered. Applying Bleed in an area without even rolling anything... I expect a fix, with the ability applying only if you hit an enemy, like the Bear Support Benefit.

The bird has to threaten the enemy though for the bleed damage to work. So good luck doing splash damage when you're also hitting your bird too (usually)

Need to point this out now because it's been mentioned on this forum a couple of times:

Scholar does NOT grant you Assurance in any skill you're trained in; you ONLY gain assurance in Nature, Arcana, occultistm, or Religion based on your choice when you have the Scholar background. Archives of Nethys has it written incorrectly:

You have a knack for learning, and sequestered yourself from the outside world to learn all you could. You read about so many wondrous places and things in your books, and always dreamed about one day seeing the real things. Eventually, that curiosity led you to leave your studies and become an adventurer.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You’re trained in your choice of the Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion skill, and gain the Assurance skill feat in your chosen skill. You’re also trained in the Academia Lore skill.

You have a knack for learning, and sequestered yourself from the outside world to learn all you could. You read about so many wondrous places and things in your books, and always dreamed about one day seeing the real things. Eventually, that curiosity led you to leave your studies and become an adventurer.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You’re trained in your choice of the Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion skill, and the Academia Lore skill. You gain the Assurance skill feat.

The fastest way for a non-rogue, non-human to get the vital Medicine feats is to do Assurance (Medicine) at 2nd, Continual Recovery as a general feat at 3rd, and Ward Medic at 4th.

I made the dwarfiest dwarf.
Rock Dwarf Fighter with a focus on using a Greatpick. Miner background, of course.

Goblin white dragon-blooded sorcerer, who is REALLY disappointed it wasn't a fire breathing dragon heritage.

a Gnome storm druid with a hawk familiar. Hermit on the mountaintop style

After posting this question I immediately found the answer. It's all to do with contact poisons:

Contact: A contact poison is activated by applying it to

an item or directly onto a living creature’s skin. The first
creature to touch the affected item must attempt a saving
throw against the poison; if the poison is applied directly,
the creature must attempt a saving throw immediately
when the poison touches its skin. Contact poisons are
infeasible to apply to a creature via a weapon attack due to
the logistics of delivering them without poisoning yourself.
Typically, the onset time of a contact poison is 1 minute.

it applies the effects of the poison, provided that poison can be delivered by contact or injury.

Keeping this question up here on the forums so others who might be confused can see.

There's some lore stuff regarding goblins helping longshanks in Isger and the Whisperwood. A specific adventure is the Free RPG day We Be Heroes? one-shot.

In any party, one person with Assurance (Medicine), Battle Medicine, Continual Recovery, and Ward Medic will be able to Treat Wounds to multiple people every 10 minutes. At level 3, they will always be successful at the DC 15 to treat wounds, at level 6 with expert, they'll always hit the DC 20 and treat two people at once. At 14 with Master, they'll always hit the DC 30 and be able to treat four people at once, every 10 minutes.

Battle Medicine is optional but is good to have on hand in case someone needs emergency health.

But literally anyone can fit the role of medic with this combo.

Not that you particularly want to use assurance with a skill you plan on bringing to legendary AND have a high ability stat in.

Assurance is best with skills that you don't invest the ability stats in. For you, having assurance in Religion or Nature is better than Occultism or Arcana, because you likely have a significantly lower wis than int.

FWIW, Assurance in Medicine with 10 Wis is great starting at level 3; always succeed in at least the DC 15 check. Lv6, get expert Medicine and auto succeed at the dc 20. 14th with Master, auto succeed at the dc 30. If you somehow get to level 22, with legendary Medicine auto succeed at the DC 40.

A versatile human can indeed get Gnome Weapon Familiarity at 1st level, all other ancestries can get it at level 5. At the cost of a general feat and an ancestry feat, which are quite limited resources.

But that means every ancestry must spend two feats to get access to the weapon, except Gnomes who only need one. That's a fairly hefty feat tax for access to a single weapon that isn't SO powerful every fighter needs to get it.

Keep in mind a ton of the 1h fighter feats require the enemy to be within reach of your open hand, not just within reach of whatever weapon you wield. And in any case you only get one AoO per round; if you crit someone and knock them down when they provoke, they can still just stand up again with impunity.

They can be found in the various class features and feats, dependent of the ability and class.

Draconic sorcerers receive Dragon Claws as a focus power when they choose their bloodline, for example, but the feat Advanced Bloodline 6th level feat grants you the Dragon Breath focus power.

therein lies another issue. Apparently a familiar only uses your level as its attack bonus. That means no proficiency or ability scores are involved. Familiars will quickly be unable to deliver bad touch spells or escape dangers because of its abysmal modifiers.

*edit* Actually, a familiar wouldn't realistically be able to do that ever; a level 1 character with a familiar will have a +1 to hit around 17-19 AC, and it only gets worse from there.

That's really not the point.
The point is a familiar SHOULD be able to do so, even if a player realistically wouldn't normally.

Maybe the GM wants a plothook and thieves steal your familiar. Is it really SO unreasonable to say your familiar will do whatever is within its power to escape, including attacking?

The rarity isn't stopping me from wanting to play the game- far from it.

I'm merely expressing concern about how rarity is going to be handled for a campaign with a huge melting pot of people from all over the world going on adventures all over the world and even to different planes.

If I go on an adventure to Qadira can I stop at a local market to purchase a weapon that's common to the area (aka a kukri) or do I just have to get lucky and find it on a chronicle sheet?

If I'm by the Acadamae, can I spend my downtime researching an uncommon spell to learn?

I'm honestly fine with having a rarity system, but I think the hard-set rules for how uncommon+ things are handled aren't going to translate very smoothly to PFS. It's going to bum me out so much if I have to research what I get on my chronicle sheets before I play an adventure, so I know who I want to bring to the game.

Rare and Unique items being severely limited? That's fine, because it indicates it's so hard to come by only a select few people can get/make the thing (rare) or it's literally one of a kind (unique). But Uncommon falls under neither of those, so I feel there should be a system in place where a person can consistently obtain uncommon items for their characters.

Org Play Guide wrote: wrote:

Achievement Points: By playing, running, and reporting Pathfinder Society games, participants earn Achievement Points (abbreviated ACP), a special online currency with which they can purchase special rewards like access to uncommon ancestries, items, spells, and more.

If that's the case, that really helps alleviate my concerns. That being said, hopefully a player can obtain enough achievement points to acquire uncommon items/abilities at a reasonable rate.

Angel Hunter D wrote:

I think the main problem is that it sounds like pretty baseline stuff we used to do in society are no longer accessible - and the Society getting weaker doesn't sit well with lots of us.

... how often were you using teleport in PFS 1e?

Quote:

The other issue is, without reliable access to uncommon things, why waste time printing them? Every uncommon item will just serve to be either chronicle fodder or wasted ink because nobody will get to use them.

Uh, just because you can't get them in PFS doesn't mean I can use them in my home game.

Teleport is not the only uncommon spell in 2e, and I was just using that as an example. But a Cleric using Circle of Protection would easily want to use that spell pretty often and that is just as uncommon. Allegro, Discern Lies, Detect Poison, and so many other spells are just walled off for little reason, and with little indication that players will be able to gain access to such a spell.

I really don't like the implication that I have to do something special or play a certain scenario so my cleric can learn Raise Dead.

Piggybacking off of this thread I really want to discuss the limitations of character concepts within the realm of society play. Particularly with the use of learning spells, but this also very much applies to magic items, feats, and mundane equipment too.

As it is right now (and hopefully this will change when the actual society role play guide is released), all common equipment with an item level of your level or lower is always available to purchase. To purchase uncommon or rarer equipment, it has to be your level or lower AND appear on a chronicle sheet. In the case of uncommon equipment, it could also be purchased if you have a feat or ability that explicitly opens up uncommon options for you, such as weapon familiarity ancestry feats.

There is also the Home Region slotless boon which grants access to uncommon equipment based on your region.

So from what I can tell there is a huge issue that society play is going to face that home games uniquely don’t have to. And that’s how the game will support players who wish to play very specific character concepts. Examples are found in the thread I linked above. How often can we rely on encountering a particular wizard with exactly the spell we want for a build in their spellbook, at an appropriate time for us to be able to learn such an uncommon spell like teleport? Or a cleric to use Circle of Protection?

If I want to make a character concept that, at its core, requires the use of particular uncommon equipment feats or spells, how does Society handle that? PF2 wants to put that sort of power in the GMs hands, allowing someone who wants to make a specific character to actually do so. But GMs don’t have that authority in society play to allow players access to that.

I’m afraid a lot of people are going to be turned off from 2e Society play because too many things that would be core to a character concept would be unavailable because they’re labeled uncommon.

And I don’t believe the answer should be making them available in the form of feats; it wouldn’t make sense in my mind for availability to come from skill or class feats, and general feats are so limited already (we only get 5 throughout our whole career! And PFS probably won’t be going to level 20 very often!) that it really wouldn’t be fair to force players to pick up a general feat for that when other players can pick whatever else they want.

Boon rewards probably makes the most sense, being able to gain access to equipment based on reputation, but I didn’t see that as an option when I looked through the online guide.

And this whole thing is primarily for uncommon stuff; I think between that and common items, most people will be satisfied in whatever concept they have. Rare and unique items being accessible through special boons or rewards makes sense for the most part. I just don’t want to be stuck with needing to go through particular adventures to get an item on my chronicle sheet that is a big part of a character’s concept. And I’m concerned that is what is about to happen.

Sorry-not-sorry, this whole "ask your GM" thing really, REALLY doesn't cut it for me in the rules forum.

There should be a baseline for acquiring uncommon spells/items/feats/etc for something as simple as, say, acquiring a Kukri to use as a weapon. This shouldn't require a feat to obtain either, especially not one tied to a class, because then you're just restricting the availability of the item or feature even further.

I really don't see the justification of rarity of certain things. Absalom really doesn't have weaponsmiths that produce uncommon items that cost 6 silver pieces? Wizards from Tien Xia really don't sell their research to the world at large?

The only reason a thing is rare is due to geographic location/culture or how abundant the resource the thing requires. So a huge trade city like Absalom shouldn't have a problem acquiring goods and research from all over the world that this book labels as "uncommon." Starfinder did a decent job at resource management with equipment based on level at least, though I still think that system had major flaws too. But at least there you could buy any item of your level+1 in major cities, level in smaller cities, and level -x in towns, villages, etc, and was fairly clear on what sort of stuff was available in resource-scarce locations.

But things like Kukris being rare in a location like Lastwall might make sense (cliche paladin shield and broadsword weapons, flails, and hammers would be common there) but Changdo, with its aescetic martial art schools, will find nunchaku, katanas, and sais; these items wouldn't be uncommon there. Quite the opposite. 1st edition even had that problem; an estoc doesn't necessarily take any more training than a longsword to master, but because the creators decided an estoc was more "exotic" it became a exotic weapon and made people jump through that one extra hoop just to be able to use it properly.

So I kind of went off on a rant there but TL;DR the arbitrary idea of rarity in a game system like this limits character creation and forces players to jump through hoops to make the character they want to play, which could ultimately turn people off from the idea altogether.

You get the familiar though the Kinetic Whispers wild talent; With high Dex you can certainly go all out and get a hare for a +4 to init but I'd actually recommend a hedgehog for the +2 will saves; it's your only poor save so shoring it up is a great option IMO.

As for Sage, you can pick a regular familiar archetype (except for figment, I think- check Ultimate Wilderness) for your kinetic whispers, and Sage is a great one since your Int isn't phenomenal. Your sage can roll knowledge checks for you and let you know what they know.

Elemental Overflow gives you size bonuses to your physical scores based on how much burn you have. At 12th level it's +4 to one physical stat (str dex con) and +2 to the other two.

With those stats chances are unless you encounter particularly high AC, or vs a target with vulnerability to cold, you should be using composite or physical basic blasts exclusively. With elemental overflow +4 and a size bonus to dex of +2 or +4, you're ability to hit the target will be pretty solid even against normal AC. So spell penetration can totally be optional.

The Erase from Time ability from a Time oracle does something very similar. Check it out here

I’d rule the affected creature the same way it’s spelled out from that ability.

if you have a penalty to AC it applies to normal, touch, flat footed, and CMD unless otherwise specified.

Yeah- you have the ability to channel energy, albeit some days you might not be able to for that day, if you choose a different spirit that day. But you still can channel.

So while you gain no benefit from channeling feats while not utilizing that spirit, there’s nothing stopping you from taking the feats.

FWIW alchemists can handle traps pretty well too, even magical ones if you can learn the Aram Zey’s Focus extract (it’s possible that you might not be able to since it’s associated with the pathfinder society, ask your GM)

That being said... you can go pure wizard on one side and multiclass empiricist investigator 3/Mindchemist alchemist 17 for some silly bonuses to skills. Int for perception, SM, some diplomacy, disable device, etc, free inspiration dice on all knowledge skills and double your int bonus to recall knowledge on top of that. Plus trapfinding and most of the fun stuff alchemists get too

Level 4 medium focused on melee really only needs two feats: Spirit Focus (Champion) and Power Attack. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Unless you expect this medium to survive and become a recurring character I wouldn’t worry about feats like Legendary Influence.

If you’re giving the medium at least 7k worth of wealth consider also giving him a +1 Spirit-Bonded Breastplate. Now their spirit bonus can be as high as +4 as a 4th level medium, when you include Spirit Focus feat too.

If you’re planning on building a character with high DR, you might as well put the vicious enchantment on your weapon. Once you get DR 6/- you can’t take any damage from your own attacks anymore, giving you a good 2d6 bonus damage on enemies.

As Pathfinder developed, with new feat and class options for everyone, the team wanted to take another look at the four classes shown. Barbarian, Summoner, Monk, and Rogue all had pretty glaring things that would break games, slog them down, or make the player feel significantly less powerful than any other player simply because of the class.

To summarize, Barbarian had some needless bookkeeping with the fluctuating str/con buffs and some rage powers needed some tweaking. Not that Pf:Unchained solved anything after introducing Bloodrager and Skald in to the mix but oh well.

Summoner was at a weird point where it was overtuned compared to other classes. The eidolon and spell list needed some pull-back; Summoners were making pouncing, shapeless monstrosities with a thousand attacks per round and oh they also got Haste as a 2nd level spell. Unchained Summoner forces the eidolon to take a base form that limited what kind of evolutions it got, and their spell list was pretty heavily altered.

Monks have so many weird things going on that it wasn't keeping up with other martials. d8 hit dice, no native attack bonuses and a fairly annoying fluctuating BAB. Unchained Monk made things much more simple in terms of stuff to keep track of and made it more in line with other martials like Slayer and Ranger.

Rogues just needed a massive buff. They were falling behind other classes, even the Spiritualist, and is widely considered the worst (combat) class in pathfinder. Unchained Rogue is honestly still fairly weak compared to other martials but still a huge upgrade to core (on a personal level I think they should have gotten full bab and d10 HD like any other martial). I'm still very salty over the fact that Unchained Rogues do not have access to a ki pool through rogue talents, though.

A potion of reduce person is 50 gp. Regular PFS scenarios go up to level 11 and give you 3 xp per level. Meaning that if you chug on average 3 potions of reduce person per scenario you're only chugging 99 potions throughout your entire (normal) career. That's just 4950 gp spread out over 11 levels. Pretty cheap compared to some of the options listed here.

A fast way to chug one down is to take a spring loaded wrist sheath, swift action pull it out and standard action drink it. You can actually go faster if you worship Urgathoa- Pull out a potion as a move action, swift action drink it thanks to this feat and you still have your standard action. Better yet, just keep a potion in hand at all times- this makes it JUST a swift action. Two levels of Alchemist can get you vestigial arm which can be used for such a purpose, allowing you to always use your other two hands for your weapons, and you can hide the spare arm beneath your cloak when you want to.

What Fighter is sadly still missing is pounce.

Now, any character can get dimensional dervish a few times per day if you invest in four feats to get it...

Whatever kind of offensive magic you want to use, grab Spell Focus and Greater spell focus. Around level 7 is when you start more commonly seeing creatures with SR, so spell penetration is good (or buy a piercing metamagic rod)

Dispel magic is good, consider Dispel Focus too.

I can never seem to have enough revelations for my oracles, so Abundant Revelations and Extra Revelation are good picks too.

Improved initiative helps get buff spells out there that much faster.

Skill focus+Eldritch heritage can help get you another ability from the 1st level bloodline powers, maybe there something there that you can snag too.

As a buffer oracle your job is fairly easy. Stay out of the way and help allies. But some easy options for you to be offensive can be spells like Barbed Chains, burst of radiance, bestow curse and similar spells. Being offensive is fun and can sometimes be more helpful than a buff.

Yes on both

And to clarify, at level 15 you can designate one unarmed strike as a leg sweep and a second unarmed strike as a flying kick, you can’t use both style strikes with the same unarmed attack, if that was your original question.

From the Advanced Weapon Training options from Weapon Master's Handbook:

Fighter's Finesse(Ex)

The fighter gains the benefits of the Weapon Finesse feat with all melee weapons that belong to the associated fighter weapon group (even if they cannot normally be used with Weapon Finesse). The fighter must have the Weapon Finesse feat before choosing this option.

Throw on Trained Grace AWT to double their WT bonus on top of that.