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A friend was kind enough to give me her dhampir boon for PFS and I was thinking I'd make a Vlad themed melee/caster.

I envisioned something like a necro-magus such that he consistently makes melee attacks but regularly makes use of his spells during combat.

To enable the best action economy, I was looking at:

Magus (Vanilla, Eldritch Scion, or Bladebound[hexcrafter])

Thematic Spells: Chill Touch, Bladed Dash, Brow Gasher, Defending Bone, Ray of Exhaustion/Siphon Might, Vampiric Touch**

or

Warpriest (Vanilla)

Thematic Spells: Bleed, Cause Fear, Doom, Bloodbath, Death Knell**, Deathwine, Defending Bone, Deadly Juggernaut**, Reaper's Coterie, Death Knell Aura**

Aside from the obligatory buff spells I'd prefer his other spell selections to pertain to necromancy, death, blood, etc.

Just wondering if any folks out there might have any suggestions. If an alternative class/archetype is suggested my only request is that it still have a spell combat or fervor like ability to cast some spells in the same round as making melee attacks. Unless, of course, a strong argument can be made for considering something else.

Thoughts on one choice vs the other or anything else pertaining to this build?

Hello everyone,

I've been trying to put together a 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' inspired character based around the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch for PFS.

I was hoping to find an archetype for a divine class that would allow it to throw bombs but have not had any luck yet.

So far I'm looking at the following build and was hoping to get some feedback. The purpose of the build is to be comical, functional, but does not have to be min/maxed.

Brother Maynard of Antioch

Human Mindchemist X

1: Point Blank, Precise Shot
2: Tumor Familiar ("That's no ordinary" Rabbit of Caerbannog, +4 initiative "Run Away!")
3: Extra Discovery (Precise Bomb)
4: Infusion
5: Splash Weapon Mastery
6: Wings (bird/Angel)
7: Rapid Shot
8: Fast Bombs
9: Extra Discovery (Force Bomb)
10: Explosive Bomb?
11: Improved Initiative/Iron Will?

I'd like the character to provide a lot of support to the party (knowledge, infusions, etc) as well as be able to chuck potent bombs. I'm actually tempted to avoid fast bombs (sacrilege I know!) just because tossing multiple bombs per round seems to cheapen the 'gravitas' of the Holy Hand Grenade.

For the familiar, an emissary or sage would be practical and in line with my intended role although a mauler rabbit would be hilarious... and rather fragile.

Thoughts?

My character concept is an elderly and kind German-themed toymaker/puppetmaster with some type of sidekick (familiar/companion/eidolon/homonculus).

The idea is that he is traumatized by the death of his family as part of some great war and he's not completely accepting of reality and believes that some of his grandchildren still come to visit him.

So the mechanics:

Originally I was planning on Soulbound Puppet with a pure vanilla occultist. The idea being that the puppet would be his 'grandchild' and would do the damage in combat, i.e. "The Puppet Master" while the grandfather jovially watches him 'play'. However, it occurred to me that these puppets function as familiars and therefore cannot wield weapons (for all intents and purposes) which greatly limits its combat performance. If I shifted focus to necromantic servant, I would get much better mileage out of the necromancy implement school and the skeletons could at least wield some equipment but I think it is restricted to chain shirt and scimitar without having penalties. But, as far as I can tell, these remain a bit weak. The later insta-heals and advanced templates help somewhat but I didn't want to focus on swarms of companions.

I also started leaning towards doing a self-contained butterfly sting build where the grandfather would attack with a keen weapon and pass the crit off to his 'grandchild' which would have a scythe or similar x4 weapon. As best I can tell, the main classes that can have humanoid shaped companion with access to feat progression would be a Promethean alchemist or an unchained summoner (same basic stat progression for companion).

I had resigned myself to going the alchemist route but then noticed that they (and the summoner) only get simple weapon proficiencies.

So,

TLDR: Anyone know of a way to set-up a build out of the box to have full martial weapon proficiency and a companion that can use at least one x4 crit weapon and gain the benefit of power attack? Level dip and/or heirloom weapon are the only things coming to mind but hoping for alternatives.

p.s.- The build would need to be street (PFS) legal

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice!

Greetings folks,

I have a level 2(X) Sacred Huntsmaster/1 Daring Champion for PFS.

Damage output is currently underpowered until he gets bane, agile weapon, and AnC (leopard) hits medium size.

He's currently saving up for a cracked white opalescant pyramid and an adamantine elven curved blade. The build hopes to get as much damage per hit and as many AoOs as possible.

Primary feats are:
Combat Reflexes
Combat Expertise -> Pack Flanking
Outflank
Weapon Finesse
Paired Opportunists

I'm a little torn on 'end-game' feats. I'm curious to go nuts with active AoOs as described in this guide's Wallace the Whirlwind build using improved feint, twinned feint, feint partner, and improved feint partner. However, 4 feats is quite an investment to make this work but the pay-off is numerous primary attacks that provoke AoOs for AnC and possibly allies (using tactician or ring of tactical precision) at a nicely buffed attack bonus (being an AoO). Granted it is all dependent on Bluff checks, but that seems fairly easy to buff.

The other option would be picking up precise strike, broken wing gambit, tandem trip, lookout, etc... but that would rely on passive AoOs, hoping the enemy provokes or I crit.

I would like to grab power attack either way but there's little to no room in the feint build.

Thoughts?

Greetings!

I have a PFS Order of the Cockatrice Intimidation build tiefling Samurai X/Ranger 1/Bloodrager 1.

Main reason for the level dips were:

Ranger| lead blades (wand), favored enemy (humans), situational buffs (wands, scrolls)

Infernal Bloodrager| hellstrike (more for flavor), shield (wand), long arm(wand), bloodrage, enlarge person (wand, before I learned that it doesn't work on tieflings), and more situational buffs (wands, scrolls).

(And then I learned about what-a-p.i.t.a. it is to use scrolls vs wands...with one level dips...while wearing armor...anywho)

My samurai is close to picking up cornugon smash and the cruel weapon enchantment. He will finish out with Shattered Defenses and either Furious Focus/Dreadful Carnage or Hurtful/Raging Deathblow.

I am really enjoying this character, despite the learning curve :), however, he relies heavily on "1 minute per level" buffs from wands; so, unless I can anticipate combat via buying gloves of recon or arguably meta-gaming, I am running at less than full potential. I typically just tap shield and go.

Any advice out there on how to improve action economy for buffs?

I'm aware of accelerated drinker but would lose the gold efficiency of using wands over potions. Someone had mentioned familiars would help and yesterday I just learned about the bloodline familiar option but only select improved familiars can use wands and they require CL7 and a feat to get. Unfortunately, magical knack on a 1 level dip will not get me there. I was thinking of picking up a spell-storing item but that only frees up move actions, not standards, and they're very expensive.

After spending an entire evening looking into it, I ashamedly admit, the best I could come up with is using Anthropomorphic Animal on a base familiar and pray that a GM will allow it to use wands, understanding that this is not RAW.

Any PFS legal advice would be most welcome, including YMMV ideas. Ideally, I would like to finish out with levels in samurai to hit greater resolve and continue buffing challenge damage.

Thanks!