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I remember reading a feat once where rolling a nat 1 made was treated as rolling a natural 20. I THINK it was fortitude saves only and that it had some heavy prereq costs.

Could have been core 3.5, third party, pathfinder. Unsure. If anyone knows what I am talking about and can help me find the source it would be much appreciated.

What format are you thinking of doing in terms of Roll20? Play-by-post etc.

My +1 and I are looking to get into a good play-by-post campaign. If you've got room and it's a play-by-post I'm down. Our current in-person campaign is Gestalt and we've been having a lot of fun so I'd be curious to try any of these variant morestalt things you're suggesting.

The character concept I've been really wanting to try is a lawful-evil mind controller with profession lawyer. I feel like that could be pulled off very well in a morestalt campaign.

Oof. I was really excited to see what this surge crystal was until I realized it took a headband slot. +3 manifester level while surging is great but... headband of mental superiority+6....

This is an interesting exercise but I feel like you're leaving important character aspects on the chopping room floor to achieve this.

Unless there is another way to achieve my +6 Charisma?

I mean...favored enemy elf also covers drow so its not that unusual a favored enemy. Much like a ranger bounty hunter with favored enemy humans probably doesn't despise humans, but is really great at hunting them down and fighting them

Both valid reasons to take those favored enemies. And either should be a part of your backstory.

If an elf takes favored enemy elf because they hunted drow you would likely talk about their past where they've fought drow.

If a ranger takes favored enemy human I'd reason there should be some bounty hunter/bodyguard/soldier element to their backstory.

They might not be as massive elements of roleplay as the elf who hates elves, but still worth mentioning.

So I'd stand by my point the only way to play your character wrong, is to just ignore it. Some character elements come with roleplay attached. Be that a warlock's patron, a ranger's favored enemy, a clerics deity, etc.

Your class is not your character in that you the player get to define how these elements affect your background, personality, behavior etc. And there are many ways you can choose to define these aspects of your character.

But I think it's bad roleplay to have major character elements you make no attempt to explain and account for.

I'd say a bigger problem is people ignoring class and background aspects because they see some mechanic they want and toss all flavor and fluff out the window in the pursuit mechanical coolness or fluffy snowflakeness.

This. Some class abilities/descriptions are very flavorful and would have an impact on a character's personality and background.

For instance, I once had an elven ranger with favored-enemy elf. A lot of people might gloss over that, but it was a defining aspect of that character's roleplay for me. This was an elf who hated other elves, and that was worked heavily into his backstory and the way he interacted with other elves.

In saying "Your class is not your character" you could say, take favored enemy elf as an elf and instead of explaining it that he suffered some deep betrayal that made him embittered toward his own race and people... you could say your elf grew up in an area where there was in-fighting between elven tribes leading to a very different take on that particular ability in terms of roleplay.

In our current campaign, one of our characters has a few levels in ranger and practically worships dragons (Literally I guess considering his diety is Apsu.) We gave him favored enemies related to dragons to reflect the fact he knows a lot about and has spent time around those creatures. Spending a lot of time in the presence of good-aligned dragons means you know more about that evil dragon you need to help fight.

But if you literally never mentioned why you had this ability that causes you to be better at killing elves or dragons or whatever, it never affects your roleplay with elves/dragons etc. then I might say you're roleplaying your character wrong. Not because you chose to take an individualized spin on that element of your character, but because you chose to ignore it entirely.

TL:DR - The only way to roleplay your class wrong is to ignore it.

Truestike is far from a useless spell but yes, the action economy makes it bad in most scenarios. A scenario that makes it good though is for-instance, a build based on a single big hit such as a mounted lancer or especially a sniper casting a silenced truestrike immediately before initiating an ambush.

Or anyone casting the regular version when the DM says something like "You hear them rushing toward the door. You have one round to prepare. What do you do?"

Their first hit is going to hit nearly unerringly and if they are a big hit focused build, that's huge.

Like most arcane spells, it's fine because while it is situational, you don't have to prepare it. Just keep it around as a wand or scroll for when you need it.

The psionic version is just straight better though. You can use it just like truestrike when needed, or use it for a +5 bonus as a swift. THIS DOES NOT ASSUME ANY ADDITIONAL POWERPOINT COST. This assumes 1 powerpoint AKA 5th level psion with an int of 11 can do this 25 times a day. A 5th level phycic warrior with a wisdom of 14 could manifest this 12 times per day.

It only gets better from there if you do choose to use more powerpoints.

As I said. It is objectively better in every single way.

Again I'm not arguing psionics are overpowered. Though I personally would never play a non-prepared caster over a psion. Then again I dislike non-prepared casters as a rule anyway. I feel like they match a well-played wizard in power level, filling a role of a less versatile caster who is very good at the things they are good at.

After some additional digging, I answered my own question. There is a "Practiced Manifester" feat in 3.5 that is exactly what I had in mind.

We're currently running a campaign based on the Pathfinder 1.0 ruleset. But the DM has never done PF before and is allowing all the content from regular 3.5.

In 3.5 there is a feat "Practiced Spellcaster" that can be used to make up lost caster levels:

Practiced Spellcaster

Is anyone aware of something like that either in Pathfinder or 3.5 for multiclass psions and their manifester levels? I'm sure the DM would allow either if I can find it. I just haven't been able to so far.

In my experience, you do need healing (at least for refreshing health after combat) and someone who can absorb damage on the frontline. Those are near requirement. The other two roles are something you need your party to fill unless your DM is going to go easy on you because you don't have them.

That being said, one character can fill multiple roles, or a role can be spread across several characters. For instance, a caster who can summon strong minions or take more powerful physical forms can be a very effective frontline. Especially if you aren't starting at level 1. So your wild shaper druid can be both your priest/healer and your frontline.

So 4 characters that fit four rock-solid roles? Not at all needed. A well-rounded party that makes sure all important aspects are covered? Fairly important if your DM isn't a softie.

I just ran across a sorcerer variant today called "Eldrich Scrapper" that gets martial flexibility like a brawler. Martial flexibility is used to temporarily give yourself a combat feat (or multiple combat feats at later levels) you don't actually have.

I absolutely love how versatile that is. Like I once ran an entire build that was based on disarming opponents. It was insanely good in every instance other than say when I'm fighting a monster with no weapon.

Martial versatility at later stages would allow you to take a few key feats to do a disarm, or grapple, or whatever build at whatever point it's situationally useful. Have those abilities when you need them, don't when you don't.

Adding spellcasting into that mix... pretty cool. The only concern is it doesn't change your BAB so you'd likely need to use spells to augment your physical abilities.

Magic Jar would go a long way though. Bad BAB hurts you less when you're possessing a giant.

So looking at something like Inevitable Strike compared to Truestrike I can definitely understand an argument on how good Psionics are.

Truestrike. +20 to your next attack as a standard action.

Inevitable Strike. +20 to your next attack as a standard action. Or +5 as a swift action. And either get +2 per powerpoint spent up to a maximum of +25.

It's just in every way better.

That being said... I can learn literally every wizard/sorcerer spell in the game as a wizard and have scrolls of most of them that I prepared myself. That kind of versatility is hard to beat.

They both have their place in a well-rounded party with their own strengths and weaknesses that they each bring to the table. And if they both fill a distinct/fun-play role that's worth filling, that's really what tabletops are all about isn't it?

We're actually playing an all Gestalt campaign set in a wild-west setting based on Pathfinder rules right now. A bit of a side tangent but...

Factotum is probably THEE best gestalt class out there. A straight 20 levels of it. It's a 3.5 class but apparently the creator said its meant to work fine for Pathfinder and I personally had no issue translating it over once my DM oked it.

The thing that makes it so good for Gestalt is it complements casters SUPER well. A lot of its functionality scales on intelligence and it's inspiration abilities can be used to seriously augment some things you could never do as a regular factotum. For instance, you can burn inspiration points to get off an additional standard action in a round. You can also burn inspiration points to IGNORE a targets spell resistance for around.

So the absolutely glorious factotum/mystic-theurge I built for my fiance can as a full round, use a quicken metamagic to get off one spell, then weave together a divine and arcane spell a single standard action, then give herself an additional standard action using inspiration points, and for this entire round she's firing off a total of 4 spells say "Hey big boss with spell resistance. You don't get that this round."

Not bad for a class that already adds intelligence to their initiative as a bonus modifier.

I've never seen a character more capable of ending boss fights.

If your DM allows a cohort, then a cohort can very effectively be the main healer for a party. You could just take a cleric cohort, give it mystical healer at level 1 (If allowed) and you're pretty much good to go.

You have a character you can dedicate entirely to healing and buffing leaving you to stack int and go full-wizard to your heart's content.

That's assuming immediate access to a cohort though. Leadership can't be taken at level one.

Frequently my DM will allow someone who knows they will eventually take leadership to bring their cohort in from level 1 as a hireling.

You might also check out Mystic Theurge. You'd lose a bit of wizard casting but 3 levels wizard, 3 levels cleric, 10 levels mystic Theurge gives you both 13th level wizard and 13th level wizard casting at level 16.

PF Mystic theurge is definitely stronger than stock 3.5 theurge if you're familiar. The level 10 ability Spell Synthesis gives you the ability to cast an arcane AND divine spell as a standard action. So absolutely great action economy for a big moment in combat there.

Ubahtias, You seem to be talking about PF1 and not PF2. This thread is talking about the PF2 versions of these classes.

I'm out the loop I think. We're currently running a campaign based on the rules the pfd20srd. Where would I go to see the PF2 rules and how they differ?

Check out the mystical healer feat. It's 3rd party but great if your DM will allow it. Adds additional dice to every single healing effect you use and scales up rather fast.

I'm curious why such a high wisdom modifier? Is it a prereq to one of the abilities you are running, feeds well off of something you have in there or is it just because you want to roleplay the group wiseman?

I ask because usually, I run with 6 - 10 wisdom in my wizard builds. There isn't much benefit to high wisdom in a wizard as a general rule.

Also, my fiance is currently running a mystic theurge so if you did throw something in that build the scales well because of wisdom, it might be useful for her current build.

If Summon Monster 1-9 count as "A single spell" then Summon Monster. By far the most versatile spell in the game. Not only can it be a little combat buddy but there are so many other practical applications. I've saved party members from downing, being sucked out into space, falling to their death etc. all by throwing a swimming creature here, a flying creature there etc.

Can also be used as a way to check for traps. XD

If we're not counting Summon Monster 1-9 as a single spell then enervation. Never really a level at which giving your enemies negative levels with no save is a bad idea.

This may just be my personal playstyle but I don't think a witch can't really achieve what I'm aiming for as well if I focus wizard.

Wizards begin play with "Scribe Scroll". I use this to scribe any unused spells I have in the downtime at the end of each day. Balancing those scrolls between selling them for profit, and keeping them for personal use.

As soon as it's affordable I get a cart/cart animal and hire a driver. I then use any travel time to continue on with my mad scroll scribing.

I start diverting that gold toward broadening my spell list (since wizards can learn as many wizards spells as they want). Eventually, I have a broad arsenal of scrolls at my disposal. A lot of very situational spells I'm unlikely to use in a given day but would be handy when I need them are then prepared as scrolls.

The best part is this spell arsenal doesn't set me back any gold at all as I fund it with scrolls that I sell.

This usually puts me in a situation of having more spells than anyone else in the party as well as a huge variety of what I can cast.

The only way a DM can really stop me from doing this is either giving me no downtime (including travel time as I turn that into scroll scribing downtime) or making NPCs refuse to buy my scrolls. I've never had a DM do this TBH what I do kind of feels like the way wizards were meant to be played.

In addition to this, I spread my skill points through the knowledge trees, eventually coming to have very high (if not max) ranks in every single knowledge.

So endgame I'm that guy to go to if you need practically any spell on the wizard spell list or to know most anything about anything.

I can see where you can do all this with a witch, but that involves taking scribe scroll as a feat and finding some way to deal with only a few knowledges being class skills.

TL:DR - I feel like wizards excel in being an arcane jack of all trades. Both in terms of the spells they can cast at any given moment, and terms of being really good at knowledge by virtue of having all of them as class skills and stacking int.

With no scribe scroll / not all knowledges as class skills it seems like you need to do some stuff to make a witch into a wizard.