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After reading about the Soulbound Puppet resonant power I knew I had to build a Necromancy Occultist. What we ended up with was the very memorable Eliot Upton. He's a creepy childish halfling with a doll fixation and focus on ranged attacks.
Str 12 Dex 14 Con 13 Int 16 Wis 8 Cha 14
racial- took the 30ft movement speed and Jinx
Focus Powers- Energy Ray, Mind Fear, and Shape Mastery
Feat and traits- Childlike feat, Omen and Fast Talker traits
Knacks- Light and Touch of Fatigue
1st level spells- Burning Hands and Cause Fear
Necromancy Implements (used familiar)
Evocation Implements (used bonus to evocation damage)
Our party consisted of Level 2 Samurai, level 1 ninja, level 3 Sacred Fist, Level 3 Mastermind, level 2 Magus, and my level 1 Occultist.
Intro- It's nice to have a couple of points to put into Knowledges. I was able to roll well, but the higher level Magus blew me out of the water. I wasn't very useful while we were sailing to the Gloomspire, but once we got to the top of the tower Mrs. RackleShack (my doll familiar) did prove to be a sneaky scout. We realized that she had no ability to speak Common and our GM had a lot of fun playing charades while we questioned the doll about what she found.
We walked up to the cannibals after knowing where and how many were there thanks to my familiar. Knowledge checks let us know that mind affecting spells would be useless so I wasn't about to use Mind Fear (or for the rest of the adventure for that matter. Vermin, Undead, and these guys)
I had trouble in this fight and most of the others trying to do my ranged attacks. This is to be expected at 1st level and not having access to point blank shot. I slinked through the forest to get a good angle to Burning Hands (4 damage) three of the guys. Our Magus fell to the raging warriors and our Samurai acted as tank with three of them beating on him. The investigator dueled one on his own while the sacred fist worked on keeping people up and casting bless. I used my sickle to move in and attack (2 damage) and then shifted away to energy blast (7 damage, electrical) one of the last warriors. Not being able to effectively use my Longbow was frustrating, but I liked having multiple options for things to do.
We used my familiar to scout some more. I cast Light on her and dropped her down the crevice on a rope. We climbed down (after the sacred fist and samurai took damage from falling statues) and moved into the room with the Hag Face. My very curious halfling managed to avoid the cannibalistic impulses and shove them into the dark places of his mind like usual.
The leech got the jump on most of the party and attached itself to our Sacred Fist. The others surrounded it. Since the water was so deep I was stuck on the steps, but my arrow managed to crit and delivered the final blow. It took two rounds and wasn't really much.
Our GM was very good at expressing just how gross this room was with the ghouls and the feeding on unnatural flesh. Most of our party had Holy Water and pulled those our in the first two rounds to use on the flesh pile. Our Samurai rocked it out by KOing two of the creatures with one hit each. I took a terrible risk to try and give our ninja a flank and ended taking an AoO which dropped me to 3/10 hp. The next hit took me out and I spent the rest of combat (made Con save immediately with a 19 on the die) watching the rest of the party mop up the baddies.
We talked a little bit with the Ghast, but our party wasn't really going to let him unlive (I'm playing my Necromancy abilities without using any of the undead options because Eliot respects Pharasma.)
The stench aura affected me and the Investigator-mastermind. The Samurai became paralyzed pretty early on, but I shaped my Burning Hands to avoid hitting him while getting the Ghast and one of the festerogs. The Sacred Fist and Magus finished that festerog off while the ninja and mastermind went after the other one. The investigator was paralyzed as well and the sacred fist got some good blows on the ghast after my energy ray missed (the -2 for sicken and shooting into combat made chance of success really low but the 5 on the die did me in) After our sacred fist punched through the ghast's lung I moved in and did another shaped burning hands to finish the festerog and combat.
After all the other combats we steamed rolled the final ghoul in the last room and completed the scenario.
I love all the options I have to choose from: ranged touch ray, area affect spell (that can be selective), ranged weapon, fear affect, and melee attacks in decent armor. I wasn't crippled like the mesmerist at the other table (Crypt of the Everflame) who's psychic powers didn't affect the undead of that adventure. I was equal to the level 2 magus as far as entering melee combat. I rolled well on the die but the plus 1 for my evocation implement was nice. The familiar is fun and I realized if Eliot continues to make dolls I can change what my familiar is each day and have a lot of flexibility on the bonus it gives me. I may have to reconsider my focus on range attacks but I'm not too worried.
Overall I like this class for its flavor and its abilities. My one worry is not having enough Mental Focus points to power my implements and focus powers effectively. That, however, is going to be a separate number crunching post.