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was hoping for some general advice on the build below. it is my first pfs character. my main focus will be on battlefield control, summoning, and general support. i plan on getting improved initiative and improved familiar later on. i will also pick up augmented summoning if i end up using summons a lot.
i am still unsure about equipment. do i need to have two spell books? do i have a place to leave unneeded equipment when adventuring?
elf wizard (teleportation sub school, oppositions enchantment and necromancy)
NN
Init +3
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10
hp 7
Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +1
Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger -1 (1d4-1 19-20/x2)
Ranged shortbow -1 (1d6-1 /x3)
Str 9, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 9, Cha 7
BAB +0; CMB -1; CMD 12
Feats
spell focus(conjuration)
cosmopolitan (perception and either sense motive or survival. languages, not sure)
traits
mathematical prodigy
scholar of the great beyond
familiar: cat
Skills ranks/total
craft 1/9
knowledges:
arcana 1/10
history 1/10
nature 1/9
religion 1/9
planes 1/10
perception 1/7
spellcraft 1/9
stealth 0/6
languages
common
elven
celestial
draconic
gnome
sylvan
orc
??
??
item gold/weight
dagger 2/1
shortbow 30/2
arrows 1/3
backpack 2/2
bag, waterproof .5/0.5
rope, silk 10/5
clothes 0/5
pouch, spell components 5/2
flint and steel 1/0
tourch .01/1
waterskin 1/4
rations, trail (2 days) 1/2
Paper 10 sheets 4/0
vial, ink 1/0
traveling spellbook 0/1
gold 91/1.75
left over gold: 91-ish
0 - all but opposition schools
1 - grease
obscuring mist
summon monster 1
color spray
silent image
enlarge person
feather fall
protection from evil
backgroud (short version):
young life was with traveling merchant clan. one night, when he was young, the caravan was attacked. during the attack his leg was badly injured. the recovery left him weak and with a limp. fearing he would not be able to handle a traveling life, his parents sent him to live with friends of the family in a large city. there he discovered wonders of a grand library.
he would spend weeks hidden away in the library, reading, researching, and learning. it is here he stumbled upon a simple spell book full of simple cantrips. from this book he slowly taught him self the ancient art of magic. in this library his mind grew sharp. he learned many different tongues and gained knowledge.
moving heavy tomes helped him regain some of his lost strength. climbing, sneaking, and crawling around in the hidden areas helped make him nimble again. to avoid falling piles of books or get to hard to research places, he learned to will his self to move with out moving.
it is also here that he gained his cat familiar. the cat started following him around, chasing after the mice that he scared out into the open while searching for the next ancient text.
due to spending much of his life studying books and ancient texts, his social skills and street smarts are some what lacking.
he was advised to join the society in order to gain more knowledge.
PFS characters only get 1 trait (unless something has changed since the last time I checked the rules for PFS).
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was hoping for some general advice on the build below.
Overall your character is fine. I'd suggest dropping summon monster I for mage armor or shield (summon monster I sucks. The line doesn't start getting good until III or IV). You'll also find that in a few levels you're blowing knowledge checks out of the water, but traits reactionary (+2 initiative) and Eastern Mysteries (+2 DC to one spell per day, Qadiran only) will never go out of style.
Unless you're just really fond of cats I'd go with a toad. Three hit points is never a bad thing, especially on a character that gets -2 con. The first skill you should get when you gain more intelligence is linguistics. Take it for the skill modifier, but make sure to pick up all the summon monster languages (celestial, abyssal, elemental planes, etc).
You also seem to be a point over on your stats. Drop strength to an 8 and call it a day.
Thanks for the advice.
I like that trait that gives + 2 to initiative.
greater adept of society looks nice too.
Sorry I accidentally marked this as faq and can't see how to undo it on my phone.
was hoping for some general advice on the build below. it is my first pfs character. my main focus will be on battlefield control, summoning, and general support. i plan on getting improved initiative and improved familiar later on. i will also pick up augmented summoning if i end up using summons a lot.
i am still unsure about equipment. do i need to have two spell books? do i have a place to leave unneeded equipment when adventuring?
Kudos for taking the familiar. Just make sure you realize the familiar is pretty weak in combat. Don't put your familiar in an overly dangerous scouting position (e.g., don't try to scout out a dragon).
Kudos for not taking abjuration as an opposed school. Many people recommend this, but it's ultimately not a good idea.
Cosmopolitan isn't the strongest feat choice mechanically, but perception is so good that it's not a horrible choice either.
1 - grease
obscuring mist
summon monster 1
color spray
silent image
enlarge person
feather fall
protection from evil
Remember, you'll be making scrolls from most of these, so most of these look like great choices. Summon Monster I is the weakest link. Feather fall is a nice choice for a bit later, but it's hard to justify a slot for it in the early game. I'd switch those 2 out for burning hands and identify. You need an AoE damage spell and you need identify as a utility spell (at least for a little while).
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Remember, you'll be making scrolls from most of these, so most of these look like great choices. Summon Monster I is the weakest link. Feather fall is a nice choice for a bit later, but it's hard to justify a slot for it in the early game. I'd switch those 2 out for burning hands and identify. You need an AoE damage spell and you need identify as a utility spell (at least for a little while).
In a home game I might agree with you. This is for PFS, though, and as such this advice should definitely not be taken. Especially the part about scrolls since you can't craft in PFS.
Divination is definitely a good school. The initiative bonus is outstanding. Conjuration, however, has far better spells and its teleportation powers aren't bad in their own right. Overall the schools are equal, with my personal preference tilting slightly towards conjuration (because grapples suck for wizards).
I thought scroll making was not allowed in society play.
Guess I will look at switching my feat and traits. I like the greater adept one. Was hoping to find a trait that made perception a class skill, but I have not been able to find one yet that is allowed in society play. Although I think council of thieves has one, but not sure if that source is allowed.
Also, do I need to go a head and start a back up spellbook?
With conjuration as your focus, I like summon monster I due to the extended duration you receive with your conjuration focus. I would propose the option of going divination as an opposition school since spells like identify and locate object can be used when you have downtime. I do, however, prefer to ready spells that support combat either as battlefield control, buff, debuff, etc. If you drop enchantment as an opposition school I would pick up sleep at first level over feather fall.
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I thought scroll making was not allowed in society play.
Guess I will look at switching my feat and traits. I like the greater adept one. Was hoping to find a trait that made perception a class skill, but I have not been able to find one yet that is allowed in society play. Although I think council of thieves has one, but not sure if that source is allowed.
Also, do I need to go a head and start a back up spellbook?
There is a trait that gives you perception as a class skill but I don't remember where it's located. Really, though, it's just a 15% difference (+3). The wizard can get by without that bonus; especially if you have an improved familiar.
I have never seen an instance where a second spellbook is needed in PFS. It's pretty much a gentleman's agreement not to destroy PC items. Especially PC items that cost tens of thousands of gold.
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With conjuration as your focus, I like summon monster I due to the extended duration you receive with your conjuration focus. I would propose the option of going divination as an opposition school since spells like identify and locate object can be used when you have downtime. I do, however, prefer to ready spells that support combat either as battlefield control, buff, debuff, etc. If you drop enchantment as an opposition school I would pick up sleep at first level over feather fall.
Again... it's PFS. There is no downtime.
I have seen in other posts that swarms can be a pain in pfs. I don't see any 0 level spells that so area damage. Is burning hands the best option other than torch or alchemist fire? My spell slots are limited, but so is my gold and carrying capacity.
Also noticed infernal healing, would that be good to have for self healing or am I better off upping my ac with made armor or shield?
I chose a cat as my familiar because I like cats, the stealth bonus, and kinda want to get a silvanshee as a familiar later on.
In a home game I might agree with you. This is for PFS, though, and as such this advice should definitely not be taken. Especially the part about scrolls since you can't craft in PFS.
Hehe, you can tell I don't play PFS. Dang, a world without massive scroll creation makes a wizard a sad panda. . .
I still think you need some kind of AoE damage at the maximum level you're at. . . often it comes down to "we need you for your special role" -- even if you're not optimized for AoE damage.
I guess if there's no downtime and item identification isn't an issue, feather fall is probably a better choice. You might want to go ahead and pick up magic missile -- you'll eventually get it anyway. . .
The summon monster spell basically will take a hit. That's about it.
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I have seen in other posts that swarms can be a pain in pfs. I don't see any 0 level spells that so area damage. Is burning hands the best option other than torch or alchemist fire? My spell slots are limited, but so is my gold and carrying capacity.
Also noticed infernal healing, would that be good to have for self healing or am I better off upping my ac with made armor or shield?
I chose a cat as my familiar because I like cats, the stealth bonus, and kinda want to get a silvanshee as a familiar later on.
If you purchase 1 alchemist fire and 2 acid flasks at character creation you'll do fine against swarms until you're high enough level for better options like fireball and cone of cold.
Torches don't work against swarms in Pathfinder (they did in 3.5), but since swarms take 150% damage from AoE affects now the consumables are fine. You get 150 gold to start which, for a wizard, is more than max. You can afford it.
Isn't infernal healing an [evil] spell? Even if not I wouldn't waste the slot on it. Wizards should be controlling the battlefield and not be taking damage. Take toughness and just tank stuff in the rare times when you fail controls.
Personally, I wouldn't use a valuable feat slot on a silvanshee. The only reason to take improved familiar is to get something with opposable thumbs and the ability to speak so that they can UMD wands for you, thus increasing your action economy and not costing you rounds to cast spells like enlarge person or grease (to stop charges only) with your own actions.
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I still think you need some kind of AoE damage at the maximum level you're at. . . often it comes down to "we need you for your special role" -- even if you're not optimized for AoE damage.
I definitely agree with this (thus the swarm conversation just above and below), but I'd rather pay 20 gold for 2d6 fire damage (alchemist's fire) than spend a spell slot for 1d4 fire damage that forces me to get close to the enemy (burning hands).
I definitely agree with this (thus the swarm conversation just above and below), but I'd rather pay 20 gold for 2d6 fire damage (alchemist's fire) than spend a spell slot for 1d4 fire damage that forces me to get close to the enemy (burning hands).
It's debatable that alchemist's fire causes an entire swarm to take the same damage that a single target would take (the swarm does take the 1 point of splash damage, as this doesn't target a specific creature). . . but that's beyond the scope of this thread (:
Most people would play with the alchemist fire doing full damage to a swarm.
I guess I will looking at doing the following for feats:
1 toughness
3 improved initiative
5 augmented summoning
7 improved familiar
if I read improved familiar right, I should be very flexible in my options since I am true neutral.
not sure about bonus feats yet, haven't planned that far yet.
for traits:
greater adept of society - for extra 0 level spell slot
reactionary
I like the powers from the divination school, just not its spells. that's the only issue I have with the school. glancing over the list, most I wouldn't mind as a scroll, but none beyond the 0 level ones really stand out as spells I want to use a slot for.
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Stuff
I went back and read my original post before responding and it seems that I just summarized. I'm well aware of the positives and negatives of both schools, but I didn't go in depth enough to prevent your rebuttal.
What I meant to say was that divination has the moderately better powers and conjuration has the infinitely better spells. This leads me to rate conjuration slightly above divination.
Personally, though, I have a PFS conjuration specialist wizard and a home-game Kingmaker divination specialist wizard. I don't really think you can go wrong with either one, but my statement was made to rebuke a previous statement claiming that divination was far superior.
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I have a level three wizard is society play and you definitely want to have some kind of solution for swarms. I rarely prepare burning hands but I always have a scroll or 2 of it with me for back up.
If you want perception as a class skill you are looking at being Osirion and taking the tomb raider trait
After getting 2 PP I definitely recommend picking up a wand of Infernal Healing with it. Its great out of combat healing (guaranteed more healing than the max possible from a wand of cure light). Yes it is an evil spell but since you are True Neutral that isn't a problem for you.
Take a look at the Inner Sea guide for languages to look at. Any ancient language, (Jistika, Ancient Osirion, Azlanti, etc...) has a good chance of showing up as well as some regional languages such as Kellish. Your knowledge of languages along with the Linguistics skill can sometimes be indispensable, especially when you want a chance at getting full prestige.
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I figure that you can spare one slot per level for these spells as they tend to work towards what a wizard should be bringing to the table- a force multiplier. Knowledge is a key component to this and the wizard is and should be the go to character for knowledge.
It's really hard to argue which is better. They're so close that the argument seems silly.
Having said that, though, there's no way that I take see invisibility over glitterdust. See invis is nice, especially when you don't know where to target the glitterdust, but glitterdust does so much more (and isn't good off a scroll where see invis is).
Nothing on the third level list comes near stinking cloud or spiked pit. Sure, some of the spells have uses, but these two conjuration spells are in the top six for the level (along with fly, haste, fireball, and slow).
As for fourth level, no spell beats black tentacles. So I'm told, at least. I always seem to roll in the single digits when setting the CMB.
Sure, you can memorize all of these spells in your standard slots to make room for some divination spells, but why? It's especially tough during the second and third level selections where you can never get enough glitterdust/web and choosing between fly, haste, slow, and fireball (once you get a lesser rod of dazing spell) is nearly impossible as it is.
Again, I don't think conjuration is vastly superior to divination. I never said that. All I said was that they're about equal in order to rebut someone else's statement that conjuration was a sub-optimal choice.
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That they increased it with the foresight school still boggles my mind. Each combat round I roll a d20 and can use that result whenever I want! If I'm worried about rolling a 1 for a save, etc. It's an incredible amount of control.
It's not for the entire combat, just the round you roll it in. Still, it's definitely a great ability and one I have on my divination wizard.
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Was hoping to find a trait that made perception a class skill, but I have not been able to find one yet that is allowed in society play. Although I think council of thieves has one, but not sure if that source is allowed.
If you have not chosen your faction yet, would you care to join us Osirions? We have just the trait for an aspiring Pathfinder like yourself:
Tomb Raider (Osirion Faction): You’ve spent most of
your life exploring the ancient tombs and catacombs
of Osirion. You gain a +1 bonus on Perception and
Knowledge (dungeoneering) checks, and one of these
skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.
Sustarre
"Always carry a torch!"
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I'm still not sure that's legal. It is however, a good way to make your familiar a target.
Personally, I wouldn't use a valuable feat slot on a silvanshee. The only reason to take improved familiar is to get something with opposable thumbs and the ability to speak so that they can UMD wands for you, thus increasing your action economy and not costing you rounds to cast spells like enlarge person or grease (to stop charges only) with your own actions.
It's 100% unquestionably legal and, please, target my permanently invisible flying imp with DR 5 and fast healing 2 that comes back at the end of every module even if you manage to find a way to kill it.
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I would strongly suggest that you might want to think your stat allocation. You don't need to be starting with a 20 Int, a slightly more balanced allocation can go far in increasing your general survivability.
As an 11th level PFS wizard with nearly mirrored stats I can assure you that this character is perfectly survivable. There are other people in your party to handle things like speaking and lifting.
how do I actually get a faction mission?
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Maybe, but choosing an 18 over a 20 at first level gives you 7 pts to allocate in other areas so that you don't have to go for the overdone trope of the giant brain on feeble body. at the low levels there really isn't that much of a difference in overall effectiveness that's worth the tradeoffs necessary. BTW when it comes to doing your faction missions, many of those tend to be solo efforts and you will be on your own for the most part.I would strongly suggest that you might want to think your stat allocation. You don't need to be starting with a 20 Int, a slightly more balanced allocation can go far in increasing your general survivability.As an 11th level PFS wizard with nearly mirrored stats I can assure you that this character is perfectly survivable. There are other people in your party to handle things like speaking and lifting.
The other stats don't matter to a wizard in the slightest. The only reason I even care about having a strength above 3 is because of ray of enfeeblement. On the other hand, that +1 extra save DC just might prevent a TPK. Oh, and that extra skill point means that I can afford diplomacy (after I get my headband of int), which is much better for faction missions than a few measly points in charisma.
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how do I actually get a faction mission?
It's entirely your choice which faction you join before the first mod starts. Your missions themselves will come during mods like previously mentioned.
For a wizard it's pretty simple. If you want higher spell save DCs you go Qadira. If you want +3 to your perception you go Osirion. If you want +3 to your diplomacy (or more summoner-spec'd roleplay stuff) you go Cheliax.