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Hello,
Playing PFS and I'm not sure I understand the benefits of playing either a Reach Oracle or Reach Cleric. I'm aware that Oracle would have a Revelation such as Battle and the Clerics have domains that give some benefits but does anyone have advice as to which one works better?
I'm thinking of using a spear or naginata as my main weapon and probably playing a human. Would I be limiting my versatility by playing a Reach Oracle compared to a Cleric?
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"What do you want to do?" is the pertinent question here.
A Battle Oracle is going to be a better melee combatant than an Oracle thanks to the slew of free feats and relevant Revelations; the Cleric is probably going to be a bit better rounded if you end up with a group that needs you to jump in and cover the healer role for the party. That's the big difference between the Oracle and the Cleric. The Oracle is usually going to be noticeably better at the one thing he picks to do than the Cleric would be at the same thing, even if they both specialized for it, but the Cleric is going to be able to transition between roles and adapt to the party's needs much more easily.
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What I'd like to do is be able to cast plenty of utility spells and be a hard to kill tank that could get some free damage out if the enemy advances on me. To have a little bit of the samurai feel but my main focus being a caster. Possibly mind focus like Hold Person or Command spells.
1) Spell casting to control battles.
2) Tanky/Beefy and somewhat up-close to the fight.
3) Weapon Dmg output - a little but probably nothing to throw a party over unless I've spent quite a few spells buffing myself up.
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What I'd like to do is be able to cast plenty of utility spells and be a hard to kill tank that could get some free damage out if the enemy advances on me. To have a little bit of the samurai feel but my main focus being a caster. Possibly mind focus like Hold Person or Command spells.
1) Spell casting to control battles.
2) Tanky/Beefy and somewhat up-close to the fight.
3) Weapon Dmg output - a little but probably nothing to throw a party over unless I've spent quite a few spells buffing myself up.
So just a note, you are trying to do a lot of things with this build, and it's going to be difficult to be good at all of them. You want a reach weapon so you can make attacks of opportunity, which means you need Dex; you want to use offensive spells, which means you need your primary casting stat high enough that your DCs aren't laughable; you want to be melee focused which generally means STR and CON.
That's a lot of MAD there.My suggestion:
Go with a human Cleric. Pick Shelyn as your deity to give you free proficiency with the glaive. For your starting feats, take Channel Smite (kind of a meh feat, but it gives you access to->) and Guided Hand. This will let you use Wisdom as your to-hit stat, helping to cut down on your MAD, though you'll probably still want around a 13 in STR for things like Power Attack. Boosting your Wisdom will now feed into bonus spells, spell save DC's, and to-hit, helping you meet some of your goals. Consider possibly taking the Crusader archetype and use the bonus feat to grab proficiency in heavy armor. That'll help shore up your defenses and allow you to get away with a 12 Con. Since your plan involves making attacks of opportunity with your reach weapon, Dex is going to be an important stat for you, so you'll probably want at least 14 there.
Good luck!
As far as Oracles go, the Wood Mystery Oracle is (in my opinion) actually one of the more potentially effective Battle-type oracles due to the fact that it gets a lot of basically-free ab from Wood Bond, as long as you use a 'mostly wood' weapon.
You could wield a longspear without having to take any proficiency feats and get +1 ab, +1 more for every 5 levels - basically full BAB without having to do anything, through a stackable competence bonus. Its a great way to enjoy stabbing things up proper with an 8 foot spear.
On the Tanky side, Wood oracles get Barkskin as a bonus spell, and can conjure 'Wood Armor' - fairly weak initially, but eventually becomes pretty absurd AC with a DR 5/slashing bonus. If you play it with a racial favored class bonus, your Wood Armor can be 10AC by level 10, plus magic vestment for enhancement bonus. All of which is runs 1hour/level, and saves you from needing any mundane armor - meaning no penalties to movement, skill checks, or spending gold on defense.
You certainly miss out on some of the fun perks of a Battle Oracle, but since you don't really need to spend feats on extra revelations or proficiencies you have a lot of feats to work with - Toughness at level 1 for beefyness for example.
As an interesting control tactic, you could run Power Attack plus Furious Focus to preserve your nice high ab, take an intimidate trait to get intimidate as a class skill, and then take Cornugon Smash. When you reach-attack, you then have a nice shot at fear-debuffing someone for free, before they even get to you.
EDIT: oh yeah, and if you play a reach cleric/oracle, consider what Forceful strike could do for you on a charge - not a great spell usually, but if it forces someone back into AoO land...
Guided hand looks like an awesome feat. Definitely remembering it for my next cleric. Thanks!
Guided Hand is pretty great when you are gaining bonuses to damage from other places anyhow - when you're stacking abilities at high levels its an amazing MAD cure.
Otherwise, one of the saving graces of PFS ending when it does is that you only end up with a couple of ability bumps, so MADness isn't quite as painful. As an Angel-Blooded Aasimar Oracle, you can get +2 to STR and CHA to start plus a great favored class bonus; for a cleric you could take Oread if they are PFS legal, or a Dual Talent Human (though they trade off a lot). Its not too hard to begin with two 17's this way, and then use your two ability bumps to make them two 18's by level 8.
While not quite as focused as a guided-hand cleric, they do have the benefit of bringing proper strength to their two-handed hits, and saving on two feats - which could then be spent on improving DC or AB, if one were so inclined. Certainly not saying its better, just another option for dealing with MAD at low/mid levels.
As a side-note, I think that you can get a Snakeskin Tunic in PFS for a non-belt +2 DEX buff as well.
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Is there any benefit to being a Cleric with an animal companion over a Druid with an animal companion? I'm considering taking the Animal domain and picking up the Animal Boon at lvl 5 to raise my Animal Companion to equal level. What benefits would you say there'd be in doing this over playing a Druid with an AC?
If you do decide to go Cleric with an AC, Aasimars get a feat that lets you turn your AC into a celestial. If you're going to play a Druid, you might as well hit the 'reset' button on your plans, they're totally different combatants and fairly different casters.
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I'm not really considering playing a Druid I'm just trying to see if it's worth justifying taking the Animal Domain for the animal companion as a Cleric and what benefits a Cleric would have with an AC over a Druid. Possibly a better spell selection? Better Armor AC? and.... anything else?
I'm thinking of a Reach Cleric with a tiger AC and seeing if any teamwork feats would work well.
I think Clerics' spells and abilities are much better for straight combat buffing, like Divine Favor or Divine Power; Druids' spells and abilities are mostly suited for wildshape combat buffing, like Frostbite and Strong Jaw.
The only issue I can think of with a Cleric taking an AC, other than the -3 level penalty, is that the Cleric lacks some of the buff spells for an AC like Greater Magic Fang, though you do have basic Magic Fang as domain.
Still, you can have a really kick-ass Celestial Tiger if you are an Aasimar Cleric and spend 2 feats to bring it up to your level and then 'celestialize' it with Celestial Servant - that's gotta be one of the best racial feats ever.
I don't think there are going to be any teamwork feats worth taking considering how feat-starved you'll be after creating a reach cleric with a good animal. Who cares about teamwork anyways when you've got a Celestial Tiger that has full BAB, High HP, DR/evil, intelligent feats, pounce... and Smite Evil.
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Wouldn't the Share Spells ability that AC's get at level 1 work for the Cleric buff spells on the AC? If the Cleric's spells are more straight combat buffing then I'd assume they'd be much better for an AC than a Druid's standard spell list.
I'm not sure what to focus the Cleric on though if I go the Animal Domain route. I can't go Channeling focused because the AC is just an extra target I'll have to deselect with Selective Channel and in PFS I'll already be having a hard time getting the enemy without hurting someone on my team (since tables have anywhere from 3-6 players at them).
I don't really want to go the Summoning route as it seems like a lot of stat work and I'm not sure if all GM's would let it fly with me having an AC and Summons out on the table at once. It'd slow things down and hog up the focus from other players which I don't really want to do.
I could go Reach STR build but this course puts me up as more of a fighter with an AC. This isn't bad but I'm cutting 2 feats out on my Reach build if I go Aasimar with the Celestial Servant feat. (Losing 1 from not being a Human.)
I was thinking of a Whip based Cleric but that just seems like a bad idea from some of the forums that I read. I wouldn't be able to trip many people or disarm at later levels as most enemies will have flying/range and will be monsters that are large and nearly untrippable or weaponless. I was thinking the Whip would be a good alternative as I don't think it'd take a lot of feats to pull off and the range is a little better. But I don't think I'd be able to be a cleric of Calistra and also take the Animal domain. Maybe there would be a good race I could pick for Whip proficiency and take the Animal domain but I'm not sure how great of an idea the whole whip thing would be.
Other than that I guess I'd be looking at a Spell focused cleric with upping DC's for specific spells as Summons would be out of the question and Channeling would not be a focus.
What are your thoughts? Is the reach build worth it? Is a Whip build worth taking instead? Am I best off just taking some feats like Spell focus and upping DC's for a few key spells? I'm thinking that keeping the Animal Domain, for the AC, is a good choice on any route I go though.
go cleric, do the guided hand thing, now this is important worship Arqueros and take the crusader archetype. One less spell slot/lvl will be worth 3 feats. Take the protection domain and as a crusader grab weapon focus at level 1. Now go to town. You can fight, you can take a hit, you should be wearing the heaviest armors at lvl 5. Just remember to have fun.
Wouldn't the Share Spells ability that AC's get at level 1 work for the Cleric buff spells on the AC? If the Cleric's spells are more straight combat buffing then I'd assume they'd be much better for an AC than a Druid's standard spell list.
Yes and no - shared spells won't let you put Greater Magic Weapon on an AC (because it gets cast on a manufactured weapon), or give you Druid spells like Strong Jaw that make a natural attack more scary, but it certainly has its uses - Righteous Might on an already large celestial Roc or Tiger sounds scary.
As was said above, don't try to do too much. A Reach Cleric riding a deadly animal is already getting to make paired AoO's with his mount, which is pretty cool.
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Wouldn't the Share Spells ability that AC's get at level 1 work for the Cleric buff spells on the AC? If the Cleric's spells are more straight combat buffing then I'd assume they'd be much better for an AC than a Druid's standard spell list.
Clerics have solid self-buff spells that mostly apply to your Animal Companion. This allows a Cleric to put good buffs on an AC. The basic stack-able Cleric buff line up for an Animal Companion at 5th level might be: Bull's Strength (+2 +2), Divine Favor (+1 +1, increases at 6th), and either Shield Of Faith or Protection From Evil. That's +3 to hit, +3 to damage, and +2 to the AC of your AC. Other buffs tend to be more situational, unless you are also an Evangelist.
Does anyone know how this compares to Druid buffs for an Animal Companion?
On another note, I second the suggestion about Erastil as an excellent deity for Reach Clerics. Growth and Feather/Fur are excellent domains for a Reach Cleric, as mentioned above. Here are some other comments on this topic.
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I'd assume I'd want to max UMD and use Mage Armor and Shield wands on my AC or should I be picking Armor Proficiency feats for my AC and using armor?
Also, if I'm picking Erastil who's favored weapon is the bow then shouldn't I settle with a 14str and make dex my main stat for hitting? I'm just unsure why I'd be going Erastil....I could go with Gozrah which would allow me to Negative Channel. I could throw a couple feats in there and do negative channeling (selective) during my turn and make AoO with my spear still right? Maybe that would be making me a bit mad tho? I guess I'd be lowering my Str/Dex a bit and having about a 14wis at start while making Cha my main stat? I guess the benefit would be that the extra Cha would help with UMD wands?
Just thinking the Erastil favored weapon wouldn't be of any help and that maybe I could make a Negative Channel build with an AC while using the Animal and Plant domain focus? (using the better subdomains of those two that is.)
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I'd assume I'd want to max UMD and use Mage Armor and Shield wands on my AC****
Shield has a target of "You", and Share Spells only allows you to share spells granted by the class that gave you the animal companion, so that isn't going to work.
You really need to focus your build. You're trying to do too much. You need to pick one thing you want to be good at, and then maybe one secondary tactic. Trying to be a Reach Cleric making AoOs while also channeling and buffing.... You're going to end up sucking at everything with a build like that. Negative Channel Clerics aren't very useful without a lot of focus and the right race and feats (usually involving an aasimar), and trying to blend it with a reach cleric, who needs a better spread of attack stats and pretty much has to have Dexterity..... You'll be spread too thin.
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I'm laying out options as focusing on an AC deters from any typical build path a Cleric would make.
The idea of playing the Reach Cleric is to get more actions per a round. I'm just wondering if focusing a Negative Channel build would work out since I'm already going to be up close via making use of reach AoO's. The switch would be from great AoO damage and hitting up to 3 targets to probably something more like hitting up to 2 targets a turn (maybe 3) and doing less damage due to a lower Str.
The swap would be from Str to Cha, dropping Str down to 13 and upping Cha. I'd assume either Angel-Blood or Azata-Blooded Aasimar would work best for the setup. (Probably Angelkin more-so). The only Issue I could see is the delay of feats with going Channel focused and Aasimar.
The feat requirements aren't much, Selective Channel, Extra Channeling possibly, Quick Channel possibly. All other Channeling feats are not really that useful and are just for personal flavor. I could picking the UMD trait to make it a class skill and Exalted of the Society as my other trait for the additional channel per day.
The focus would be channeling, the fact that my secondary role would be getting AoO's and poking people for some additional damage is just extra icing while I'm in the midst of the fight since Channeling is a PBAoE (Point Blank Area of Effect) spell.
I'm just throwing the idea out there to see what options I have. Thoughts?
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You could go mounted on your Animal Companion, threatening with your reach weapon and supplementing your attacks with attacks from the AC. Focus on Dex and Wis, maybe some Guided Hand action. The Mount will carry a lot of your gear so Strength is less important, and buffs can supplement your damage. If you want to go negative channeling, you might even find some uses for Channel Smite.
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You have correctly divined that you have many options, and are pondering some of your best choices. They are all reasonable, but you can't do them all.
Indeed, getting outrageous action economy is a reach cleric's specialty. One build might take these actions on round one of a typical combat:
Move action: Quick Channel to heal/harm
Standard Action: Cast a Spell
5' step to a tactically smart position
Possibly a Swift Action spell/ability
Your Animal Companion takes its action
End your turn
Exert battlefield control because foes don't want to draw AoOs
Possibly take several AoOs for about the same martial damage as a full attack by a polearm fighter
Channeling is effective at low and middle levels, but scales poorly at higher levels. Offensive channeling requires a big resource commitment to be effective: high CHA, selective channeling, quick channel, improved channel, et cetera. If you are good at channeling you won't be good at other stuff. It depends what role(s) you want to fill.
Melee focus is good at all levels, but most important at low and middle levels. It's huge to be able to inflict nearly as much martial damage as a polearm fighter.
Spell casting is most important at high levels, but important at all levels. That's why full casters are unwise to multi-class. As a reach cleric you want to focus on buff and utility spells, while mostly avoiding offensive spells.
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I agree Channeling doesn't scale well Magda. Fortunately in PFS the highest level I'll probably ever see is lvl 12 and that's if I don't die before then. I believe Negative Channeling would be falling off right around lvl 10-12 but with a standard selection of spells and an AC I should still be able to find plenty of ways to be useful.
I'm just not foreseeing myself being able to fully maximize reach AoO's in PFS as my teammates will be changing with every session and probably only a handfull will work with me to allow myself to get full use of it. That coupled with my AC getting into the fight I'm sure enemies will focus my AC instead of chasing me and provoking AoO's.
I'm laying out options as focusing on an AC deters from any typical build path a Cleric would make.
If you wanna get really pet focused, Lunar Oracle is the best way to do it.
Aasimar, ideally. get the Primal Companion revelation, select Tiger. Apply Aasimar oracle FCB to Primal Companion revelation; win the game.
Congratulations, you now have an animal companion of a druid 1.5x your level. You’re level 10, it is a level 15 companion… tiger.
Saves the Boon Companion feat from being necessary. The only pet specific feat you might want is Celestial Servant.
Your pet will simply be better. More HD, better saves, better bab, better ability progression, more feats, better stats, more skills.
This leaves ‘all’ your other character choices free to choose as you like. You can focus on Str/Dex and go reach if you like. Keeping your Cha just high enough to cast spells of your highest level. Even a 13 to start would be enough, but a 14 is slightly better. This should be nearly automatic, since you’re an aasimar already. They almost all get Cha.
Lunar does have access to a revelation that lets you sub your cha mod to ac/reflex though… so it could be worthwhile to focus on your str then cha, then con. Keeping your dex at 13 to get combat reflexes, and you’re good to go.
Iono, you’d have a number of options with this route. Your spell selection would be mostly focused on combat buffs, or at least pick up the key ones. Like Divine Favor to start. If you wanna get silly with it, have your first animal companion stat bump be int (at level 3) and then have him take Extra Traits feat – Fate’s Favored and Charger. Then you can buff him with an extra awesome divine favor, and he can charge/pounce from 100ft away.
With a low strength score you're going to be missing AoOs and dealing unimpressive damage when you do hit. Power Attack will shore-up your damage some but just tank your chance to hit even worse. Self-buffs like Divine Favor will also shore up damage a little, but aren't worth the action if you're just sort of having a poke at something now and then. Frankly, if you're going to take a weapon with the intent to harm, why not spear things like you mean it?
To be honest, I just don't like channeling all that much as a character focus anyhow; you're racking up an otherwise unproductive stat in order to get a couple more channels at a couple more DC when channeling damage is an underwhelming 6d6 by level 11.
You know, to go back to your original idea, a thought occurs to me to build on what Ssalarn suggested, making a good weapon-user/spellcaster:
Take Cleric of Shelyn with huge Wisdom, and use your 1st level feats to grab guided hand. You now have good ab with a glaive and good spell DC, and you have the spell Shield from the Protection Domain.
Next, take a level of Monk to grab Combat Reflexes for free and use your huge Wisdom for AC. You now have good unarmored AC buffed with Shield.
Then, for your next two feats, take Weapon Focus: Glaive and Crusader's Flurry: Glaive. Now, you can use Flurry of Blows with your Glaive.
The result is a character with strong spells, very reasonable AC without having to buy any armor, a good reach AoO, and a nasty Flurry of Blows reach attack if you like too.
If you were willing to have a slightly delayed character for the first couple of levels, you could also take the Evangelist archetype; your monk AC and guided hand would have to wait until levels 4 and 5, but you get to add Bardic Performance to what your Cleric can do. By level 8, you can grant your whole party an Inspire Courage buff as a move action, and to cap your character at level 11 you could take the Dissonant Voice feat to add sonic damage to your Inspire Courage buff.
True BadBird, per a round with Quick Channel I'd be looking at more like 12d6 but that's still not great compared to other options.
@Remy - What is the Lunar Oracle? I don't see it anywhere on Archives of Nethys and I'm not familiar with the Archetype (or if it's legal for PFS).
Yeah, Quick burns through your uses even faster and its still really just a 'fireball.'
Lunar Oracle is very nice - check it on the pathfinder srd site. I'm not sure I'd use the build he's describing simply because it seems to draw some 'controversy' and/or hate for being one of those 'broken' things, but its definitely devastating and you're probably well within your rights to do it. With Celestial Servant a level 10 Oracle's AC has 15BAB. Ouch.
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True BadBird, per a round with Quick Channel I'd be looking at more like 12d6 but that's still not great compared to other options.
@Remy - What is the Lunar Oracle? I don't see it anywhere on Archives of Nethys and I'm not familiar with the Archetype (or if it's legal for PFS).
Lunar is a Mystery for Oracles. You can see it here on the Archives.
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The Celestial Servant feat is a mixed bag. Several nice toys (Magical Beast = full BAB), smite evil, DR, resistances...but SR gets added on top.
Moonbeam Oracle: "Okay, Fang, I need to buff you with some spells, please lower your SR."
Fang: "RAWR????"
Moonbeam Oracle:"Fang hold on! I'll cast a heal spell on you, drop your SR!"
Fang: "RAWRR???"
Moonbeam: *sighs and waits for Fang to go unconscious*
Since there is no pre-defined method for a non-sentient to lower SR...and there's no animal handler trick, you're looking at a handle animal 'push.'
And Handle Animal is *not* on the Lunar Oracle's class list. Sooo..DC 25 full-round action, though it's a move action with Link (AC feature). But that's assuming your GM is nice and allows you to do so. By RAW I believe no normal method to lower the SR, or did they find a way around that?
You have to spend the move action and your Animal Companion has to spend a standard action to lower SR. It's..... not very efficient. Celestial Servant is much better for classes like the Ranger or Cavalier who are less likely to be casting spells on their ac's mid-combat.
Since there is no pre-defined method for a non-sentient to lower SR...and there's no animal handler trick, you're looking at a handle animal 'push.'
I could be wrong but... doesn't this apply?
Sentient Companions: a sentient companion (a creature that can understand language and has an Intelligence score of at least 3) is considered your ally and obeys your suggestions and orders to the best of its ability.
Magical Beasts: Magical Beasts are similar to animals but can have Intelligence scores higher than 2 (in which case the creature knows at least one language, but can’t necessarily speak).
Anyhow, SR could certainly have annoying limitations at times, but how often is someone really going to be casting spells on an AC mid-combat, rather than just buffing it up with the usual stuff beforehand? Honest question, I've just not seen a situation where it would seem to matter much.
The Celestial Servant feat is a mixed bag. Several nice toys (Magical Beast = full BAB), smite evil, DR, resistances...but SR gets added on top.
Moonbeam Oracle: "Okay, Fang, I need to buff you with some spells, please lower your SR."
Fang: "RAWR????"
Moonbeam Oracle:"Fang hold on! I'll cast a heal spell on you, drop your SR!"
Fang: "RAWRR???"
Moonbeam: *sighs and waits for Fang to go unconscious*
Since there is no pre-defined method for a non-sentient to lower SR...and there's no animal handler trick, you're looking at a handle animal 'push.'
And Handle Animal is *not* on the Lunar Oracle's class list. Sooo..DC 25 full-round action, though it's a move action with Link (AC feature). But that's assuming your GM is nice and allows you to do so. By RAW I believe no normal method to lower the SR, or did they find a way around that?
Share Language
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/share-language
You can share your facility for one particular language with another creature. For 24 hours the target can read, understand, and communicate to the best of its ability in any one language which you already know. For every 5 levels you possess, you can grant the use of another language you know, to a maximum of 5 languages at 20th level. The target must have the physical capacity to articulate sounds, make gestures, or engage in whatever other method speakers of the language use to communicate with each other in order to actually converse. If the target lacks the mental capacity to grasp an actual language it still gains enough knowledge to respond to and carry out even extremely complex commands or suggestions coached in the language (whether written or spoken). However, since this spell does not endow the target with greater reasoning capacity, merely a temporarily enhanced vocabulary, the person offering up instructions to non-sentient creatures must take care to remove any ambiguity or guesswork.
Similarly, this spell does not affect the basic nature of the target, or its disposition toward you or anyone else, so convincing it to actually carry out these instructions could require negotiation, threats, or outright bribery."
I love this spell for animal companion classes.
Also of note, some of your spells can be cast on your companion even if they have SR. (Or all of them if you interpret it the right way) There is a thread about this in the rules atm.
Share Language...
What gets me, though, is that once your companion has an intelligence of 3, it's allowed to take a rank in any skill... such as linguistics. Which should then grant knowledge of a new language anyhow.
Maybe the rules about "intelligent animals" would specifically contradict this. But then, with Celestial Servant, it ain't an animal anymore anyways...
Share Language...
What gets me, though, is that once your companion has an intelligence of 3, it's allowed to take a rank in any skill... such as linguistics. Which should then grant knowledge of a new language anyhow.
Maybe the rules about "intelligent animals" would specifically contradict this. But then, with Celestial Servant, it ain't an animal anymore anyways...
Yeah, that is another approach. I like share language because I think it is fun to give people random languages, lol.
But yes, you can up your AC's Int, and since it is both a Magical Beast and now has an Int of 3, it can learn languages just fine.
A cleric using a reach weapon and Sacred Summons for standard action summoning is mechanically the superior choice for a martial divine caster. This is something that no Oracle can do because they do not qualify for Sacred Summons. If you do not want to focus on summoning though, an Oracle of Battle is IMO the strongest melee divine battle-caster.
Sacred Summons is only useful for a handful of level ranges though.
A cleric using a reach weapon and Sacred Summons for standard action summoning is mechanically the superior choice for a martial divine caster. This is something that no Oracle can do because they do not qualify for Sacred Summons. If you do not want to focus on summoning though, an Oracle of Battle is IMO the strongest melee divine battle-caster.Sacred Summons is only useful for a handful of level ranges though.You need to plan ahead this is true. But do not forget the feat Summon Good monster, it will greatly increase the effectiveness of Sacred SUmmons and make it possibly effective at alla range lvls. Standard actin summoning is almost too good to be true anyway.
I understand though that not every build is able to fit it in, in these cases Oracles of Battle edge out the battle Cleric IMO.
Well, that requires house ruling those are the right kind of summons for Sacred Summons. The intent is that they probably should be, but they aren't written as such, unfortunately.
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Share Language...
What gets me, though, is that once your companion has an intelligence of 3, it's allowed to take a rank in any skill... such as linguistics. Which should then grant knowledge of a new language anyhow.
Maybe the rules about "intelligent animals" would specifically contradict this. But then, with Celestial Servant, it ain't an animal anymore anyways...
Yeah, that is another approach. I like share language because I think it is fun to give people random languages, lol.
But yes, you can up your AC's Int, and since it is both a Magical Beast and now has an Int of 3, it can learn languages just fine.
For PFS that doesn't remove the requirement to make all appropriate Handle Animal checks. Just because it speaks your language doesn't mean it doesn't still have the inclinations and such of an animal. See here.
"The Handle Animal skill functions similarly no matter how intelligent an animal becomes. A character must still make Handle Animal checks to train his animal and get him to perform the appropriate tasks."
"The Handle Animal skill functions similarly no matter how intelligent an animal becomes. A character must still make Handle Animal checks to train his animal and get him to perform the appropriate tasks."
Enough said, then, about an intelligent animal.
I don't think it's nearly that cut-and-dry though regarding Celestial Servant. The moment you take Celestial Servant, your Companion has literally ceased to be an animal, 'intelligent animal' or otherwise; its a magical beast that meets some or all of the criteria of being a 'sentient companion.'
The post you linked goes on to say this about sentience and magical beasts, though it's referencing 'awaken':
"The spell awaken changes much of this, however, since the spell is specifically designed to raise a creature up to sentience. GMs should feel free to loosen the above guidelines in the case of animals who have been the subject of this spell (since they become magical beasts), but should also note that awakened animals do not continue to serve as animal companions or familiars."
I just took it for granted that it a magical beast became a sentient companion, though I could see arguing against that. One point of comparison could be a Familiar; practically speaking, what distinguishes a familiar from the simple animal that it used to be is the magical beast template and a higher intelligence, making it a sentient companion who does not require Handle Animal checks. The Bonded Mount of a Paladin also fits this criteria, and also appears under the label of sentient companion.
One other thing to note is that the Celestial Servant feat has this clause in it:
"Your Animal Companion... becomes a magical beast, though you may still treat it as an animal when using Handle Animal, wild empathy, or any other spells or class abilities that specifically affect animals."
If the relationship hadn't fundamentally changed, what would be the point of this clause? If it's trying to establish that it's still just business as usual, why say 'you may...' instead of 'you must...' or 'you still...'?
Anyways, that's just my thoughts on magical beast companions and sentience; I wouldn't have gone into it if it didn't seem relevant to the ideas that Kysune is currently looking at.
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Final piece on the Animal Companion thing (it's important to be confident of where you're going if you're considering an ac, especially for PFS):
Celestial Servant: Does this change my companion creature's HD, saves, skill ranks for changing its creature type?
No. All it does is change the creature's type to "magical beast" (which makes it immune to abilities from other creatures which only affect animals) and give it the abilities of the celestial creature simple template (which does not change anything other than what is exactly specified in the template).
—Pathfinder Design Team, 11/08/13