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Hello,
I'm about to begin the Skull and Shakles AP.
We'll have a Barbarian(melee), Gunslinger(short ranged), Corsair(melee)and a Bard(buff, utility, party face).
I want to try the Advanced Class Guide Shaman, since it has full spellcaster progression and divine spells we'll probably need. I think I'll be a crowd controller, party buffer and missing skill monkey. I'll be using the guidance of the spirit while believing in the essence of Shimye-Magalla (Mwangi Expense Desna|Gorzeth) as flavor.
So here's what I planned so far:
CN Half-Elf (Water Child Alternate Racial - I'll be at home in the water). Also needed cleric spells will be added to my available spell list with Half-elf Favored Class Bonus
Abilities (15 Pts Buy): STR: 9, DEX: 12, CON: 10, Int: 16, Wis: 17(19) (+2 Racial), CHA: 7
Heaven Spirit Shaman. (Ability: Stardust reduce to hit and perception-no save!)
Traits: Seeker (+1 perception, now class skill), World Traveler (+1 Sense motive, now class skill)
Class Features:
2) Hex: Heaven's Leap (Ranged Jester Jaunt!)
4) Wandering Spirit: Switch between Water(Aquatic Combat), Nature (Combat), or Lore(Research)
4) Hex: Fetish (Craft Woundrous Item bonus feat & +2 SpellCraft identify magic items)
6) Wandering Hex: (Depends on the Wandering Spirit)
8) Hex: Evil Eye??
10) Hex: Chant??
12) Hex: Misfortune??
Feats:
1) Believer's Boon: Luck Domain??
3) Extra Hex: Witch's Flight
5) Spiritual Guardian?? (Spells: Spiritual Weapon and Spiritual Ally attack bonuses)
7) Spirit Talker: Hex: (Depends on the need of the day)
9) ??
11) Quicken Spell Like Ability?? (Bit of Luck, Luck Domain power)
My Familiar would be a Snake, Sea Krait, to give me a much needed Fortitude bonus, and his Stealth and perceptions are great, and also he has swimming.
Because of the Heavens Spirit, it would also have Fly 5' at will.
Level 4,8,12 will have ability point in Wis
I will maybe Retrain the Believer's Boon: Luck Domain to Believer's Boon: Conversion Inquisition??, to make myself a second party face if the need arise (Use Wisdom mod to Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate). Luck Domain power: Bit of Luck seems to be mostly for combat, and I will get a lot of useful combat spells. And I'm not sure if my DM would allow using it outside combat: Knowledge check, Perception to search, Crafting Magic items, Climb, Stealth, Diplomacy and the like.
Starting Skills Ranks are: Heal(+8), Know(Nature) (+6), Perception (+11-13 with Familiar Alertness), Profession Sailor (+8), Spellcraft (+6), Survival (+8), Swim (+8, can always Take 10). Aquan and Polyglot languages as flavor.
I plan on taking the followings skills as I level: Knowledge (religion and planes), Fly, Sense Motive, maybe Diplomacy. I'll focus on Spellcraft, Sense Motive, Perception, Knowledges and Fly as I level up.
Weapon will be Spiked Gautlet (more like a claw of a animal (flavor)), and maybe reach weapon if available and I'm forced into melee. (But if I have witch's flight hex I will fly at level 5, so I should be good.)
Anyone has ideas on how to be more efficient, or switch and fill those uncertain(??) selections?
My first reaction is to take Fetish as a Wandering Hex when you want to craft and not waste a full-time Hex on it.
Divine Interference is the traditional 11th level feat for Divine Casters. ;)
I wouldn't invest in Believer's Boon, it's only 1/day and a standard action, and not worth two feats to Quicken. Extra Hex(Fortune) is very similar, can be cackle extended, and has more uses per day (1/party member instead of 1.)
You should at least consider Slumber instead of Flight for your Witch's Hex. It's extremely effective, almost frustratingly so.
Check how your GM is interpreting Hex Vulnerability for beneficial hexes. If they're cool with it resetting Fortune, Healing, and Heaven's Leap, consider those as well.
Depending on how you feel about your Familiar, Speaker for the Past can be very solid, and will free up your Seeker Trait. Witch Doctor, if it looks like you'll be doing a lot of the healing, can be quite good too.
I'm going to echo the call for taking the Witch's Slumber Hex fairly early on. However, you cannot take Fetish as a Wandering Hex since it must be a Hex granted by your spirit, so your decision to take it at 4th level is good. You definetly want the Shaman's Evil Eye fairly quickly (6th is good) since unlike the Witch's Evil Eye, it is not mind-affecting.
Your ability scores could use a rework. I recommend against dropping CHA lower then 10 since it will limit your ability to take advantage of Wandering Hex -> Arcane Enlightenment which is one of the strongest Shaman abilities out there. I also recommend that you reduce your INT to a 13 (so you have the 19 INT required to get 9th level Arcane spells off Arcane Enlightenment with only a +6 headband, which you can craft yourself at half cost, go for Mental Superiority). You can afford to drop your STR to 7 and should really boost your CON higher, as that CON is asking to be killed.
If you really really feel like you want to be a skill monkey, take the Possessed Archetype, although the default Shaman is by far the best Shaman. Disregard the above advice about Witch Doctor, it's not especially good at healing and you can always get Channel Energy by picking up Life with your Wandering Spirit.
Also, technically the FCB doesn't work atm, thanks to the Spells Known FAQ, but I assume most GMs will be ok with it. Don't forget to pick up Paragon Surge as one of your 3rd level Cleric spells known, as this is extremely valuable for any Half-Elf. Neat tricks with Shaman include picking up Spell Perfection (X) spell as needed or Additional Traits to grab Wisdom of the Flesh (X needed Skill). Keep in mind that the Paragon Surge FAQ, makes your choice last for 24 hours, but it's still fantastic.
Thank you for your advice.
First of all, Believer's Boon is indeed not worth it. Sad because Herolab listed it as 3+ Wis mod in the usage section.
So my first level feat is empty. Any suggestion?
Level 11 Divine interference is also a magnificent divine spellcaster feat.
Heaven's leap is already on my list (2nd level hex)
Maybe take Evil eye as third level Bonus hex feat, and Chant at level 8
Would Spiritual Gardian feat be useful? Otherwise i could take an extra Hex at level 5
Flight will allow me to be out of melee range, and give me bonus to swim check.
I personally don't plan to take slumber even if it's effective,(because I Gm a game with a witch and I don't want to copy her(she's a slumber first on everyone, and I find Slumber quite... special. It either broke an encounter, or make us decide strange actions: Okay let's circle it and all delay action to hit him at the same time before he wakes up.)
Speaker for the past is sadly inefficient since I will not have enough skill point for all those class skills added, and losing Wandering spirit is a lot to ask in my opinion.
With the ability rework, I am quite undecided. let's say I get (still 15 point buy):
Str 7, Dex 10, Con 10, Int: 13, Wis 19, Cha 11, that 3 inefficient abilities. (odd numbers)
Str 7 Dex 10 Con 13 Int 13 Wis 19 Cha 10, Still inefficient
Str 7 Dex 10 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 19 Cha 12 sems to be the most possible, but I find it not specialized?
Str 7 Dex 10 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 19 Cha 7 (What is the CHA used for? only number of additionnal time per day you can use your spirit abilities? (Still have the minimum of 3 for most of them I think?) I wish they do as Oracle and put the additionnal use per day as same stat as spellcasting stat)... Only 1 wizard spell memorized, but I can just ignore CHA and go for headband of mental prowess for 2/3 price of mental superiority
Sadly I don't see a pirate shaman worshipping Irori for the Wisdom in the flesh Trait.
Ye be wantin' ta achieve Pirating Perfection o' course me matey. Irori be the patron of that!
Spiritual Guardian is pretty meh to be perfectly honest. Don't forget that RAW, the Hex you get with Extra Hex is limited to your main Spirit (I believe the intent was that you could also pick off the general Shaman list and your main spirit, just not your wandering spirit, but sadly that is not what it says.) Clear it with your GM, they'll probably be ok with it since being restricted to only Spirit Hexes for Extra Hex gives you a very short list of options, but that's just means you need to swap your Heaven's Leap and Evil-Eye around.
The big thing CHA is used for (at least for me) is how many flexible Wizard/Sorcerer spells you get when you snag Arcane Enlightenment with either Wandering Hex or Spirit Talker. 10 seems like the right amount to me, since it will get you 3 spells once you get your +6 headband.
Well... you can actually drop CHA/INT lower if you are willing to use multiple Wishes for bonus Inherent stats, but I wouldn't rely on that. Other options include Profane bonuses or Aging penalties. Or just suffer from only 1 wizard spell and dump CHA as you suggested.
Thanks for your input Anzyr
After Reading extra hex: Spirit hex only, I changed my hexes:
Class Feature:
2) Hex: Evil Eye
4) Hex: Fetish
6) Wandering Hex
8) Fortune
10) Chant
Feat:
1) Improved Initiative
3) Extra Hex: Heaven's Leap
5) Extra Hex: Envelopping Void
7) Spirit Talker
9) Spirit Gardian if I don't find anything better like a crafting skill
11) Divine interference
Abilities: Might as well drop 1 point of Wis to have better stat everywhere else. (As 15 point buy is tough)
Str: 7, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 14, Wis, 18(+2 Racial), Cha 12
Anything I'm missing?
Looks good to me and ya 15 point buy is pretty rough. If you want another crafting skill the next best one after Craft Wondrous is probably Craft Magic Arms and Armor. You could always invest in metamagic feats, and I recommend picking up Quicken Spell for use with a Staff of the Master (Necromancy) and possibly Dazing. At the very least, you want 3 metamagic feats (you can grab one with the Secret Hex) if you want to use Paragon Surge for Spell Perfection shenanigans at 15th level. Eldritch Heritage feats also have some useful abilities and benefit from Paragon Surge. And of course Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration are never bad picks.
I think that Believer's Boon is amazing if you select something like Travel for +10 base speed. . .
As someone playing through the first module of Skulls and Shackles as a Shaman, here are some tips.
- Put maximum ranks in Profession: Sailor. It comes up quite often, and with your sky-high Wis you can be really good at it. Your party will thank you. (Keep Stealth and Diplomacy, they will be useful.)
- I took Evil Eye as my first hex, but I think I would have been better off with Fortune. Evil Eye is useful on occasion, but for the first module there's much less in the way of combat than there is in skill checks; if your DM rules you can Fortune yourself and/or your allies and Chant for the duration of a job, you're set.
- Fort saves and fatigue/exhaustion are a constant bother for the first module. Boosting fort is a good idea.
- On a similar note, you might want Toughness instead of Improved Initiative. I'm playing a Bones shaman, and even with 12 Con and False Life as a spirit magic spell I've come close to dying from whippings and whatnot.
Good luck! I can't wait til I get to ship-to-ship combat with access to Control Water and other weather spells. >:D
Mike the problem is: [Once per day, you can use all 1st-level domain abilities granted to clerics of that domain. You gain access to this one ability only, not the higher-level domain ability, domain spells, or additional class skills that the domain might grant, or any bonus feats that are listed under its granted powers.] I don't really think that the +10' works.
I already plan to max Profession (sailor).
Toughness might be interesting.
Are the following skill useful for a lot of the AP?(no spoilers):
Stealth: If I might not be the best caracter to move by myself around and I have a familiar with +15 when I begin.
Diplomacy: If we have a CHA maxed Bard that will do the talking.
Thanks!
Stealth is important for getting around the ship without getting noticed. Diplomacy is good for convincing others to join your side, which is the focus of much of the first module; your bard will only be able to speak to so many of the crew 1-on-1 by the time things start happening.
My question was more about the whole AP than just the start.
Thanks
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