In pursuit of higher consciousness: classes and feats

[Drychnath]

I have an interest in creating a character who pursues mental discipline and higher perception.

The first question is, which class would be best for this purpose? The two obvious solutions are Wizard and Monk. The Wizard was my first thought, having obvious uses for and abundance of mental discipline feats, and magic itself can serve as a stand-in for elements of perception. Monk comes in a close second, by virtue of the various unique qualities of the class and its general flavor. Some fashion of cleric or related Wisdom caster comes in third, but I find it least favorable as a consequence of drawing power from an outside source, rather than through comprehension or internal discipline.

The theory is generally to take feats that maximize or alter Concentration, in particular, as well as certain Knowledge (Arcana or Religion), and any sort of Perception enhancements.

I suppose for the Monk I would be curious whether it would be possible to transform him into an anti-caster of some sort; whether there is a Perception feat chain that would, for example, allow some sort of detection of magic.

Has anyone an obvious preference and solution?

[blackbloodtroll]

Mindchemist/Psychonaut Alchemist.

[Imbicatus]

A Lore Oracle might work, especially if you took the Clouded Vision or Deaf curses.

[Icyshadow]

Cleric of Irori works if you ask me.

[Victor Zajic]

Bard Archaelogists are the best at perception.

[Imbicatus]

If you do go Wizard, I'd choose Diviner.

[Seriphim84]

A few ideas, all of which purely for fluff. If you need crunch though I have a few ideas:

Enlightened Philosopher oracle - a great flavor of self perfection, does come with the downside of outside power.

Empyreal Sorcerer - Wisdom based sorcerer can go along way in your goals. Possibly combined with seeker archetype for more perception based powers.

Champion of Irori - No one is more self perfected than a Paladin/Monk. Its very MAD but very strong.

Scroll Scholar Divination Wizard - This guy knows everything. Knows when troubles coming, knows every monster weakness and can speak every language. He even knows when he is being scryed on.

Theologian Cleric of Irori - This guy is dedicated to the one person who ascended to God hood through self perfection. Scroll Scholar and Cloistered Cleric would also be choices worth looking at.

Hope that helps. I thought of a few more but they weren't as good.

[Drychnath]

The discovery of Irori as I perused the handbook was something of a *ahem* revelation.

I suppose it would come down to what I want to emphasize when the time comes to play the character; I'm relying pretty heavily on the idea of Wisdom being key, based on the distinction from Intelligence (which acquires and retains knowledge) vis-a-vis comprehension.

I suppose the only real hold-up for the Monk (or Monk-ish classes) is the emphasis on physicality in terms of flavor. I am presently enamored of thinking about the idea of the continuum of all things through the unity of existence, and the concept of being able to manipulate external things handily by virtue of understanding that continuum as a character is appealing to me.

So I haven't read very much that discusses the details of how Divine magic is supposed to work in the Pathfinder conception; the closer it gets to 'ask, and ye shall receive' the less appealing it is. But if the power is simply available to tap into for those of the appropriate comprehension and disposition (read: alignment and understanding of the god in question), the more successful a solution it becomes. Particularly in the case of a deity like Irori.

Of course, I proceed from the school of thought that Arcane magic in the DnD universe is an advanced form of metaphysics, representing the same intellectual sphere science and many branches of engineering would serve in real life.

To what degree, do you think, does magic entail specific mental disciplines? I find the memorization system, in particular, as leaning heavily towards practices like modern memory champions, requiring a disciplined mindset functionally alien to that of regular people.

Would a feat called Twin Mind, allowing one to cast spells normally while maintaining a concentration effect, given a certain DC check, be inherently overpowered? What if it allowed the maintenance of two concentration effects simultaneously, with another DC check?

[Lamontius]

Sensei Monk

[Seriphim84]

The more you describe the more I think that the Empyreal Sorcerer is the go to. Arcane magic via metaphysical understanding.

There is a feat called Effortless Trickery that is for gnomes that seems fairly balanced. It is only for one school and makes it a concentration a swift action.