So what does that class do anyways? Examining the Occultist

[ShadowcatX]

So about a year ago I started a series of posts examining various third party classes and possible builds for those classes. I've decided to pick that back up and now we're going to examine the Occultist class from Radiance House.

The build will be a 20 point buy and examined at levels 4 and 8. I'm not trying to say that this is the only way to play the class, or even the most optimized way to play the class, but it is a way to play the class.

My prior takes on classes:

Mighty Godling

Taskshaper

--------------------------Level 4--------------------------

Level 4 Aasimar (Angelkin) (Could be the dual stat human, but angelkin is better if available, and I've already done a human for this series) Occultist

Str 19 Bab: +3
Dex 12 AC: 18 (10 + 5 armor + 1 dex + 2 insight)
Con 14 HP: 38
Int 10 Fort: +7
Wis 8 Ref: +3
Chr 16 Will: +6

Skills:
4 skills of choice (knowledge (planes), perception and use magic device recommended, other for fluff).

Feats:
Toughness, Iron Will, Flexible Pact Making, Power Attack*, Vital Strike*

* From binding the Tyrant

Greatsword +1: +9 to hit, 4d6 + 7 to damage (using vital strike, not including power attack). (Also not including the profane bonus to strength.)

So what do you do?

Well for starters you've bound General Hessant for the first couple of levels and fought with a free masterwork long sword while throwing around a significant save or suck and the ability to make foes dazed with a melee strike. Not bad for a meleer all considered though your armor class is going to be a bit low (hence the toughness feat).

At third level you could keep doing the same but you should probably switch up to Tyrant Cromwell. But decide who you want to bind up front because you're going to want to gain that +10 to binding from flexible pact making (for making the pact last 5 days) so that you always get a good bind and thus always gain your pact augmentations (probably using it to boost your to strike roll at the moment). (Don't worry about constellation aspects, they're a trap.)

So if you channel the anti-paladin, what are you going to do? Well, the simple answer is kill things. Kill things very, very well. Now if you're thinking "what makes me so good at killing things, because +2 strength part of the time isn't that great," well, you're right, his major granted ability is nice, but it isn't the draw here. Instead the draw is the gaining of Vital Strike.

Now normally vital strike isn't a great feat, but until you gain multiple attacks vital strike is the bees knees, effectively giving you 7 free damage per strike if you use a great sword and a free 4.5 damage if you use a lance (both of which he gives you proficiency in). Also remember, it is perfectly legal to use a lance when you aren't mounted as just a 2 handed weapon with reach.

Rough outline of equipment:
Greatsword +1, Chain shirt +1, cloak of resistance +1

At this level you're sporting an acceptable, though not great, AC, good saves, but very good damage, very likely rivaling the group's barbarian.

--------------------------Level 8--------------------------

Level 8 Aasimar (Angelkin) Occultist

Str 20 Bab: +6
Dex 12 AC: 17 (10 + 4 natural + 0 dex -1 size, +1 deflection +3 insight)
Con 14 HP: 72
Int 10 Fort: +10
Wis 8 Ref: +5
Chr 16 Will: +9

Skills:
4 skills of choice (knowledge (planes), perception and use magic device recommended, last for flavor). Alternatively, you could work towards filling all of Fey Baraddu's totems for the extra +2 by taking only 2 of the recommended skills as well as perform (dance) and survival.

Feats:
Toughness, Iron Will, Flexible Pact Making, Weapon Focus (claw), improved initiative, power attack*, vital strike*

* From the Tyrant

Attack routine (dire tiger form):

2 claws +17 (2d4 + 14 + 2d6) (grab), 1 bite +16 (2d6 + 14 + 2d6) (grab),

Pounce, Rake (2 claws +17 2d4 +14 + 2d6)

Spell like ability: Alter Self.

So now what do you do? Well for starters you bind Fey Baraddu. His major granted ability is beast shape 2 which allows you to pounce. In addition you gain a scaling enhancement bonus on all your natural attacks, which frees up your amulet of the mighty fist to do cool things.

For the second bound spirit, there you have a lot of flexibility, just whoever you take make sure if you didn't get a good bind on Fey to get a good bind on them (use flexible pact making to be sure) because the +4 to damage (and yes, you're now using the pact augmentations for damage because you shouldn't really need the to hit with natural weapons and being strength based). The Tyrant is probably your best bet for swift action strength boosts (which stack with pretty much everything being profane) and the bonus to AC.

33,000 gp.

Amulet of Mighty Fists +2 (Holy) 16,000
Cloak of Resistance +2 4,000
Ring of Deflection +1 2,000
Belt of Strength +2 4,000

Other suggested purchases include a wand of mage armor (or first level pearl of power if you have a friendly caster).

Over all at this level you're playing very similarly to a melee focused druid, where you give up spell casting for a few more self buffs and the ability to wildshape every 5 rounds (rather than X times per day) which allows much more interaction with the party. It seems very solid, but in no way broken.

[Alexander Augunas]

Looks good! Quick note, unless your base race also has claws, you shouldn't be able to take Weapon Focus (claws). Spirits never allow you to meet the prerequisites of feats or prestige classes, so unless you already possess a set of claws you don't meet Weapon Focus's prerequisite of being proficient with the natural weapon. Just like how a wizard couldn't take Weapon Focus (claws) just because he can turn into a tiger via beast shape.

Other then that, I Really like these builds. Kudos!

[ShadowcatX]

Alexander Augunas wrote:

Looks good! Quick note, unless your base race also has claws, you shouldn't be able to take Weapon Focus (claws). Spirits never allow you to meet the prerequisites of feats or prestige classes, so unless you already possess a set of claws you don't meet Weapon Focus's prerequisite of being proficient with the natural weapon. Just like how a wizard couldn't take Weapon Focus (claws) just because he can turn into a tiger via beast shape.

Other then that, I Really like these builds. Kudos!

Actually, if a wizard could keep beast shape up for 24+ hours he should be able to take weapon focus claws. An occultist, especially one with flexible pact making, can stay in beast shape 24+ hours, and thus qualify for the feat.

Is the spirit not allowing you to meet prerequisites in the pdf because I don't recall that at all?

That aside, weapon focus: claws could easily be substituted for another feat, honestly that was one of the things I noticed when building this guy, feats weren't really at a premium, hence the iron will and toughness. (Though I admit, I hate having low will saves. One of the things I hate most in any game is loosing control of my character.) The only truly important feat to the build is flexible pact making, +10 to the pact making roll is just so good.

[Endzeitgeist]

ShadowcatX, Just let me chime in and thank you for your work in this series! I really enjoy reading your thoughts and have scavenged your statblocks for my campaign. ^^ Two thumbs up!

Now after the Occultist - what about Swordmaster, Puppetmaster, Tinker or Medium? ;D

[ShadowcatX]

I've actually just started reading the medium. That's a lot of class to go through.

I don't own swordmaster, puppetmaster, or tinker. Yet. :)

[Lyingbastard]

Just as a note - 4WFG is reworking some of our classes from Paths of Power. We should have revised versions available soon. I don't know if our work was on your radar or not, but I wouldn't want you to put something up and the next week see a completely revised version.

[ShadowcatX]

Lyingbastard wrote:

Just as a note - 4WFG is reworking some of our classes from Paths of Power. We should have revised versions available soon. I don't know if our work was on your radar or not, but I wouldn't want you to put something up and the next week see a completely revised version.

Thanks for the heads up. I look forward to it.

[Alexander Augunas]

ShadowcatX wrote:

Actually, if a wizard could keep beast shape up for 24+ hours he should be able to take weapon focus claws. An occultist, especially one with flexible pact making, can stay in beast shape 24+ hours, and thus qualify for the feat.

That seems pretty cheesy to me, personally. I would make an FAQ about it in the rules forum and tag it as an FAQ. Abilities earned by spell effects shouldn't allow you to meet the prerequisites of feats or prestige classes.

Quote:

Is the spirit not allowing you to meet prerequisites in the pdf because I don't recall that at all?

That might have been a line that got cut; I just spent about 10 minutes looking through my book for it and I couldn't find it. *Makes note to slip this into the FAQ he's working on*

Basically, I didn't want people to think that they could, say, seal a pact with Tyrant Cromwell and use his granted ability to qualify for Furious Focus or Improved Vital Strike. That's not how the ability was intended; most granted abilities give you the benefits, not the feat itself. I think that there are a few spirits who need errata in this regard.

Quote:

That aside, weapon focus: claws could easily be substituted for another feat, honestly that was one of the things I noticed when building this guy, feats weren't really at a premium, hence the iron will and toughness. (Though I admit, I hate having low will saves. One of the things I hate most in any game is loosing control of my character.) The only truly important feat to the build is flexible pact making, +10 to the pact making roll is just so good.

I agree. Its a minor nitpick of a feat that is easily replaceable with myriad others. For example, you could swap out Weapon Focus for Rapid Recovery and get to use Tyrant Cromwell's Vestigial Might every 4 rounds instead of every 5. :)

If I recall correctly (I might not), Fey Barraddu has a delayed progression compared to a druid's Wildshape, and Fey Barraddu only ever lets you transform into animals. I don't have the book in front of me at the moment, however.

[ShadowcatX]

Alexander Augunas wrote:

That seems pretty cheesy to me, personally. I would make an FAQ about it in the rules forum and tag it as an FAQ. Abilities earned by spell effects shouldn't allow you to meet the prerequisites of feats or prestige classes.

Different people have different definitions of cheesy, and the rules are pretty clear, anything that lasts 24+ hours counts as permanent and allows for selecting of feats and the like so I don't think I'm going to try and get anything FAQ'd.

Quote:

Basically, I didn't want people to think that they could, say, seal a pact with Tyrant Cromwell and use his granted ability to qualify for Furious Focus or Improved Vital Strike. That's not how the ability was intended; most granted abilities give you the benefits, not the feat itself. I think that there are a few spirits who need errata in this regard.

It is worth noting, even if they do allow you to qualify for feats and the like that once you loose the prerequesite you loose the ability to use the feat you have selected. So a binder who uses Tyrant Cromwell to meet the vital strike requirement of improved vital strike could only ever use improved vital strike while bound to the Tyrant.

Quote:

I agree. Its a minor nitpick of a feat that is easily replaceable with myriad others. For example, you could swap out Weapon Focus for Rapid Recovery and get to use Tyrant Cromwell's Vestigial Might every 4 rounds instead of every 5. :)

If I recall correctly (I might not), Fey Barraddu has a delayed progression compared to a druid's Wildshape, and Fey Barraddu only ever lets you transform into animals. I don't have the book in front of me at the moment, however.

I had considered that, and if I were really trying to squeeze every drop of usefulness out of it I probably would have picked that up in place of iron will.

And actually Fey is significantly better than Wildshape, if (and only if) you can hit his capstone. He allows vermin and magical beasts. However, beast shape II is the most important one because it is the one that allows pounce.

[Alexander Augunas]

I'm working on an FAQ for PMU,V1 now and a few of your points made it into the thread. You can view it (and submit your own questions to it) here.

[ShadowcatX]

Sweet!