Okay,
So I'll be playing Skull and Shackles in the not too distant future and I wanted to have my character become a really badass Pirate Captain. One who has his own ideals and sense of morality and although not strictly evil, doesn't care if he carries out evil to reach his own ambitions.
The original concept for him was to have him as a Trickster. Someone who can teleport and confuse his enemies while using his surroundings and abilities to his advantage. Like Blackbeard's ability in Pirates of the Caribbean 4, I liked the idea of being able to animate rope but later realised Clerics could only animate objects, not rope.
So, the domains I've chosen have been the Trickery and Deception Subdomain, along with the Travel and Trade Subdomain to grant invisibility, teleportation and other handy abilities.
In addition to this however, he won't be wearing any armour (Pirates never did, and there's nothing suitable for pirates to wear other than long coats), so as this will massively reduce my chances of surviving the campaign, I decided I needed something else, so I figured I'd focus heavily on Necromancy while keeping the pirate traditions and fighting styles (power attack, cleave) firmly in place.
As opposed to Zombies, my focus is Skeletons, with the eventual goal to summon a Skeletal Dragon to do my bidding for me. Sadly skeletons can't fly, but the images brought with the description are worth it in my opinion.
Anyway, I was just hoping you could take a look at my multi-focused build and advise me on where I can improve things please?
I have a good understanding of most things within Pathfinder, but my strongest points are creating effective two-weapon wielder's, Barbarian's and magi.
Name: Captain Cortez
Race: Human
Alignment: CN
Deity: Besmara
Travel Domain - Trade
Trickery - Deception
HP: 10
AC: 12, Touch: 12, Flat-Footed: 10
Speed: 40ft, Initiative: 2
Str: 14
Dex: 15 (+2 human)
Con: 12
Wis: 14
Int: 10
Cha: 14
BAB: 0
CMB: 2
CMD: 14
Fort: 3
Ref: 2
Will: 4
Traits:
Buccaneers Blood (Campaign)
Pirate (2nd trait) - Class Skill: Knowledge Geography
Heirloom Weapon (reflavoured) Cutlass
Skills:
Acrobatics = 2
Bluff* - (1 rank, 2 cha, 3 class) = 6
Intimidate - (1 rank, 2 cha) = 3
Perception = 2
Stealth* - (1 rank, 2 dex, 3 class) = 6
Not yet put ranks into:
Appraise*
Disguise*
Knowledge Geography*
Knowledge History*
Knowledge Nature
Profession* Sailor
Sense Motive*
Spells:
Cantrips
Detect Poison
Purify Food or Drink
Spark
Level 1
Magic Weapon
Summon Monster 1
Domain - Disguise Self
Potential Feat Chain:
Level 1 - Power Attack
- Cleave
Level 3 - Spell Focus Necromancy
Level 5 - Skeleton Summoner
Level 7 - Versatile Channeler
Level 9 - Spell Focus Conjuration
Level 11 - Augment Summoning
Level 13 - Superior summoning
Level 15 - Critical Focus
Level 17 - Undead Master
Yea, though sticking with the theme of Piracy, I'm not going to be wearing Armour. I'll try to save up for ability boosting items on that front, such as belts of Dex, Tomes, Bracers of Armour, Rings of Protection and Amulets of Natural Armour, but I find it even hard to believe a Pirate would wear Studded Leather under his Linen Shirt.
Basically I'm thinking I'll have to rely on tactics, summons and my own healing abilities (which will be primarily positive).
That would be pretty awesome. I guess the trouble with a Pirate setting in pathfinder is that Pathfinder is primarily a Medieval Fantasy based adventure, so without Armour you're pretty much stuffed.
This got me thinking though - Can you actually make a character without Armour work? I think you can, but obviously not as effectively as one with Armour. Just gotta hope I find some decent AC items I guess!
Try wearing a heavy coat, medium armor. It's basically an armored trench coat. Also ditch str down to a 13 and raise your wisdom a bit so you can cast higher level spells without having to devote so much time and money into wisdom boosting items. If you ditch your dex down to a 12 and str down to 13 you can raise your wisdom to a 16. Also you cannot take power attack at level 1 as it requires a +1 bab. Might I recommend channel smite and guided hands, that way you can use wisdom to hit and damage with a rapier. If you keep str at a 13 you can still take power attack at 3.
Yep, you really do need some kind of armour if you are going to be a front line hitter. Yes the concept is good, pirates don't wear armour in RL but this is a game where you are going to get hit badly if you don't.
Im running it, the first book is a killer. GET ARMOUR! you won't last long without it! Once you get past the first book then maybe get rid of it.
Char is going to really help too for the Captin, make sure you plug Bluff up to full each level, you need it for infamy. The Captain in my game is a high bluffer and it really helps.
Why not straight Trickery? Invisibility is quite good for a summoner, and copycat would help with low level survivability.