My inspiration for this character (actually it's my wife's character) is from the animatedmovie The Quest for Camelot. Their is a character who is a hermit in the woods blind, but not ruled by it. He is accompanied by a hawk that helps him in combat by screeching while at the location of his enemies. The hawk also shrieks to provide info about terrain and other things.
The drawbacks of this build is the constant concealment rolls, which will be lessened by blind-fighting feats.
The benefits are major. Not affected by gaze attacks, unaffected by mirror image. Sight based illusions are easily ignored, silent image and color spray for example.
The build will be using the Menhir Savant. Why? Because the race is Assimar and the first feat will be Ceslestial Servant. This will allow the Druid to always "see" his hawk. The detect unread/outsider/fey/etheral can always be active with occasional concentration checks. And when the occasional check is failed it just takes a moment to activate it again. This will also allow the character to be less of a hindrance on the rest of the party. Another must have is a trait called defensive strategist; this will allow the Druid to avoid sneak attacks coming from the hidden rogue. The last two musts are a avian companion and be a master of the staff. These cannot be changed because of the recreation of the character from the movie.
Again this is for a PFS character so that means 20 point build and Max level 12 must bee taken into consideration
So here is what I have so far.
Angel -Blooded Aasimar
STR 18
DEX 12
CON 12
INT 10
WIS 13
CHR 10
Trait -Defensive Strategist
Trait -?
Feat - Celestial Servant
Skills -Handle Animal
-Knowledge :Geography
-Knowledge :Nature
-Perception
all of the bonus attribute points will goto Wisdom to keep up with spell casting.
Not sure about the other trait.
Level 2
Skills :same
Level 3
Skills :same
Feat -Blind-fighting
Any other suggestions?
Maybe a trait and feat that boost concentration.
i believe that you are not understanding the rules on concentration. in order for the menhir savant to use the ability to detect spirits he MUST use a standard action EVERY ROUND to concentrate on the spell. the 1 minute per level is just the maximum duration possible before having to recast it. you will not be able to use it to constantly 'see' your animal companion and still get to do anything other than move actions.
(almost) every benefit given for a blind character a normal character could achieve by just closing his eyes for the combat.
honestly i think you would be better off just taking 1 level of nature oracle and choosing the blind curse. it hinders your sight but doesn't make you completely blind, because being blind is a ridiculously huge hindrance to any character, especially if you're melee.
another possible route of getting a hawk is to take domain instead of the animal companion for your bond. that way you can choose the frog or monkey domain and get a familiar, get the improved familiar feat then choose a celestial hawk. then your hawk would actually be intelligent.
another option is raising your charisma to 13 and going the eldritch heritage feat route to any familiar.
The other weaknesses is the penalty to perception and initiative.
also i just noticed if that is an angel blooded stat line, i think you only spent 15 points
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Really your best bet thematically and mechanically is to with a Nature Oracle with the Blind Curse. Pick up a hawk for 18gp, and the speak with animals revelation and you can talk with him all day.
Also, another option might be the Falconer Ranger, if you want to focus more on melee.
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Coming from someone who's written up a blind character via GM Credits, a few notes. Because it's PFS and there's no legal source for "just being blind", you can't actually be truly blind at 1st, just "never opening my eyes" which could lead to table variation (which is important for the Colour Spray bit at earlier levels. Nothing really stops the spell from even working on you anyways, even if you close your eyes. It's weird like that.) The only legal way to be blind is to have a caster hit you with Blindness/Deafness and forego the save, which requires a minimum fame of 5 because it isn't always available.
As for playing it, just know what the blind rules do and that getting to the point where your acrobatics modifier is +9 is imperative.
Oops you are right about the concentration. Hmmm OK...
So if I went with the Nature Oracle, I would end up with a mount and a animal companion?
So with blind curse after 30 ft I would start having to roll percentile dice for miss chance?
If this were anything but PFS, I would say roll with the concept you have...but...
I think you need to be very careful about having your wife introduce a character that you are trying to make 'less of a hindrance to the party' for a PFS table.
Regardless of how cool the concept is, you're going to need to make sure this character has some good things that it brings to the table, rather than just concentrating on downplaying the disadvantage of 24/7 Blindness effects.
That being said, I agree with BBT. You can build the flavor your wife is looking for with a class that has the poor-sight mechanic built-in and already balanced out.
Oops you are right about the concentration. Hmmm OK...
So if I went with the Nature Oracle, I would end up with a mount and a animal companion?
yes, i'm pretty sure that's how they're ruling it if you want a hawk. if you want your druid animal companion to not be an animal on the short list for nature oracle, you must split them, so your druid levels would only count for your hawk, and your nature oracle level would effectively give you a level 1 animal companion horse (but it would be a smart horse, so it might not be that bad)
you could just go nature oracle instead of druid, not get the animal companion, and take the eldritch heritage feat to grant a hawk familiar. you would have to wait until level 3 for the hawk, but the angel blooded aasimar has perfect stat bumps for a melee oracle.
EDIT:or hell just take battle oracle with the blind curse and use eldritch heritage for the hawk.
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also i just noticed if that is an angel blooded stat line, i think you only spent 15 points
@_@? Where and when was there such a ruling in PFS???
As for the OP's character ideal, Oracle with a blind curse is the best option. Being an "actual" blind character is not ideal for PFS, as players at the table may not be warm to a character that may hinder the party.
You all have given me a bunch of ideas and thoughts about what to do.
I really appreciate this community! Thanks so much!
also i just noticed if that is an angel blooded stat line, i think you only spent 15 points@_@? Where and when was there such a ruling in PFS???
are you talking about the alternate bloodlines for teiflings and aasimars from the blood of X books, i believe it is in the additional resources list for them.
aasimar is pretty much the best pfs race to be now, with 7 options which all get +2 to 2 stats but no -2 to anything, darkvision, and usually a useful 2nd level sla once a day (one is even glitterdust)
no no no no no
he is not saying that if you choose angel-blooded aasimar that you only get to spend 15 points
he is saying that Rogar spent his points wrong and only spent 15 points, which it totally looks that way to me as well
you have 5 more stat points, Rogar, for a 20point PFS build
About my stats I see that you are right. Thanks
If you actually are determined to do this, my advice for you is to take slow advancement so that you can work with this as long as you can.
Because once you get into the A-Game of 6+ level play especially with the Season 4+ modules, a character like this is going to do a lot of face planting. Low levels and the earlier seasons, are a bit more forgiving of extreme characters like this.
I don't think I could convince my wife to do this.
eldritch heritage is better than dipping into a class that would only get you a level 1 druids animal companion.
take skill focus knowledge(any that float your boat, probably nature for your theme) then take eldritch heritage and get an intelligent hawk familiar that will get more powerful as you go up in level.
the new animal archive book would be nice too for companion/familiar archetypes, whichever you choose.
infiltrator is pretty nice archetype for familiars, and eventually you will get to scry on your familiar much earlier than normal, allowing 'sight' for a few minutes each day when necessary.
i believe i am typing too slow for this thread lol
I think that would be an interesting character to play. Is there any kind of familiar/companion feat or ability that lets you see through the animal's eyes? I know of Beast Eye but that is a 10th level witch hex and only available for a few minutes per day.