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As the title say. I am building my first PFS character, and while I love the Kitsune and arcane spellcasters, I distinctly don't love sorcerers. As a result, after considering a spirit guide lunar oracle kitsune I decided I really wanted prepared casting and whipped up a quick Kitsune Arcanist build that aims to excel at both necromancy an enchantment, abusing the interplay between necromancy's potent debuffs and enchantment's save-or-sucks, while also being more of a generalist and having options the enchantment sorc doesn't. Granted, she loses out on a lot of the kitsune sorc's raw enchantment power, but in return gains a WHOLE LOT more, in my mind. Anyway, here is the rough idea/build for the character, and I'd love some advice on how to improve her that takes my notes at the end into consideration...
Asuka Yuki
Race: Kitsune
Gender: Female
Class: Arcanist
Archetype(s): Twilight Sage
Faction: Dark Archives
Deity: No patron deity/non-pious believer in the Gods
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Traits: Student of Philosophy, Extremely Fashionable (Diplomacy)
Alternate Racial Traits: Gregarious
Favored Class Bonus: +1 HP/Level
Combat Roles: Debuffer, Controller
Out-of-Combat Roles: Socialite, Textbook (Post Sage familiar), General Utility/Toolbox
Character Concept: Think a more tempered/restrained Dexter Morgan. Asuka's a fox with a morbid fascination with death and relishes having power over others. However, rather then embrace these darker urges, she doesn't have the heart to truly follow them down the path towards damnation, caring too much for others and believing too strongly in the goodness of other humanoids to become a monster. However, she still has these thoughts and dark interests, and while she believes herself irredeemable for them, she tries to turn them towards benefiting others and society by protecting and aiding Golarion's Civilized lands with her dark, profane magics and mind control as a pathfinder; it allows her to indulge her morbid obsessions and desire to dominate others while not harming innocents and doing some good in the process. She has a manipulative and selfish streak as well, but none the less remains steadfast in her principles and desire not to let her darker interests let her slip down the slope into depravity.
Starting Abilities:
Strength: 7 (9-2)
Dexterity: 14 (12+2)
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 8
Charisma: 14 (12+2)
Maxed/Key Skills:
Bluff
Diplomacy
Perception
Spellcraft
Use Magic Device
Other/non-maxed Skills:
Knowledge (Arcana)
Knowledge (Religion)
Headband Skills:
Fly
Build:
1st: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 1: Arcane Reservoir, Consume Life, Necromantic Focus, Twilight Shield, Feats: Improved Initiative, +1 Hit Point
2nd: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 2: +1 Hit Point
3rd: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 3: Exploit: Potent Magic, Feat: Spell Focus (Necromancy), +1 Hit Point
4th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 4: +1 Hit Point, +1 Intelligence
5th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 5: Familiar (Compsognathus [Sage Archtype]), Feats: Heighten Spell, +1 Hit Point
6th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 6:+1 Hit Point
7th: Twilight Sage (Arcanst) 7: Exploit: Metamagic Knowledge (Persistant Spell), Feat: Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy), +1 Hit Point
8th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 8: +1 Hit Point, +1 Intelligence
9th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 9: Exploit: Quick Study, Spell Focus (Enchantment), +1 Hit Point
10th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 10: +1 Hit Point
11th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 11: Twilight Transfer, Feat: Quicken Spell, +1 Hit Point
12th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 12: +1 Hit Point, +1 Intelligence
Notes: 14 charisma is non-neogtiable for RP, even if going down to 10 post racial for more con and a -1 instead of a -2 on str would be better. I KNOW the 14 cha is not optimal, and I don't care. I see this character being fairly manipulative and charismatic, so 14 cha, for RP reasons, is an ABSOLUTE MUST and this is NON-NEGOTIABLE despite the fact some people consider it a sin against the Optimization God (Pun-Pun?). So, please, understand this fact before you suggest I drop cha down to boost other stats, thank you.
Likewise, Kitsune as the race is non-negotiable as well. I KNOW there are many better races, but, again, this is an RP decision, not an optimization one. Please keep this in mind before you suggest a race-swap. Thank you.
This is fun concept; it very much taps into some of the darker bits of Japanese folklore surrounding kitsune. (In one myth, a kitsune eats a small girl, transforms into her, and thne lives among her family as their daughter for almost a decade before her brother discovered her true identity and scares her off.)
I can't remember if magic jar is PFS legal, but you should look into that if it is. That, or marionette possession and the like. Those are both necromancy spells and possessing people is a HUGE, relatively untapped part of the kitsune mythos. (Even I did very little of it when I wrote the Kitsune Compendium.)
I might look into Realistic Likeness so your character could "explore the lives of others" and whatnot; Realistic Likeness is really the only way to do that effectively and in my opinion, Heighten Spell is a very easy way to do that.
As someone who has seven kitsune characters, I can tell you that gregarious (the trait) is almost never worth having. I've used it on almost every Level 1 scenario that I've played and the only time its been even remotely useful was in Feast of Ravenmoore because its an 8-hour game that features a LOT of interacting with multiple people several times.
Other then that, it looks good to me. Have fun!
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For RP Reasons, I'm not dumping charisma. I already said that in the OP. I know 8, 14, 14, 18, 8, 10 is the "optimal" stat layout for this character and I -don't care-, for RP purposes, I am going with 14 cha, and thats final.
As for realistic likeness, I considered it, but would I not also need disguise as a class skill to make that work? As it stands, all my traits are -taken-, and arcanists have no way to get new class skills by default. So unless you have a way for me to get disguise as a class skill, I'm not seeing the -usefulness- of realistic likeness for anything other then fluff. Or maybe I'm wrong and it's not required to have a good disguise rank to make it work? I mean, the MAX disguise bonus I'm getting at level 1 is a paltry +3, so if thats enough to make Realistic Likeness work, then yeah, I'd take it in a heartbeat. I just don't feel I'd ever have enough -disguise- to make it worth it.
EDIT: Forgot that the feat actually gives me a +10 curcumstance bonus to diguise, which now actually makes it viable. Though, I still have to take ranks in disguise to make it work. Seeing this, what skill should I drop for disguise? Any thoughts on this would be great!
I could, theoretically, keep my skills and grab disguise if I obtained 14 con so I could put favored class bonus into skills. The best way to do this RP wise would be to go with 6, 14, 14, 18, 7, 14, or possibly 8, 12, 14, 18, 7, 14, and while the perception penalty would hurt like hell, by taking abadar as my deity(fitting with my character's desire to -contribute- to civilization despite her darker interests) I could grab a trait to get perception as a class skill, which would help. I lose out on having -as much- diplomacy, but with -student of philosophy- I'm still doing -alright- on bluff and diplomacy checks, and as I level up and increase int this only will get more competitive and, also, spells can help, too. So I think this would be the best route, yeah. Encumbrance can be overcome with spells and also by packing spare gear on undead once I start making them.
So, with that ...here's what re-vamped Asuka would look like..
Asuka Yuki
Race: Kitsune
Gender: Female
Class: Arcanist
Archetype(s): Twilight Sage
Faction: Dark Archives
Deity: Abadar
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Traits: Student of Philosophy, Eyes and Ears of the City
Favored Class Bonus: +1 Skill Point/Level
Combat Roles: Debuffer, Controller
Out-of-Combat Roles: Textbook (Post Sage familiar), General Utility/Toolbox, Off-Face
Starting Abilities:
Strength: 6
Dexterity: 14 (12+2)
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 7
Charisma: 14 (12+2)
Maxed/Key Skills:
Bluff
Diplomacy
Disguise
Perception
Spellcraft
Use Magic Device
Other/non-maxed Skills:
Knowledge (Arcana)
Knowledge (Religion)
Headband Skills:
Fly
Build:
1st: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 1: Arcane Reservoir, Consume Life, Necromantic Focus, Twilight Shield, Feats: Improved Initiative, +1 Skill Point
2nd: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 2: +1 Skill Point
3rd: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 3: Exploit: Potent Magic, Feat: Spell Focus (Necromancy), +1 Skill Point
4th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 4: +1 Skill Point, +1 Intelligence
5th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 5: Familiar (Compsognathus [Sage Archtype]), Feats: Realistic Likeness, +1 Skill Point
6th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 6:+1 Skill Point
7th: Twilight Sage (Arcanst) 7: Exploit: Metamagic Knowledge (Persistant Spell), Feat: Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy), +1 Skill Point
8th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 8: +1 Skill Point, +1 Intelligence
9th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 9: Exploit: Quick Study, Spell Focus (Enchantment), +1 Skill Point
10th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 10: +1 Skill Point
11th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 11: Twilight Transfer, Feat: Quicken Spell, +1 Skill Point
12th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 12: +1 Skill Point, +1 Intelligence
Anyway, I'd REALLY prefer the 14 cha, if at all possible, but I'd like to know if 6 str and 7 wis is really way too low for PFS, or if I would be fine as long as I played smart and hung back? Any advice on this would be great, thanks.
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Well, I'll need the +2 cha to make realistic likeness even remotely useful, and Twilight barrier does actually use charisma..granted, not for much, but it still checks charisma....as for your ability score layout, it works as long as you DON'T boost con at all via level up. The kitsune +1 to enchantment DCs makes up for the 1st level 17 as long as I stick to enchantment spells and spells that offer no save, which I would be doing anyway since Sleep would have been my go-to 1st level offensive spell even with the starting 18. As for higher levels, I should be -fine- DC-wise as long as I stick with my gameplan of spamming enervation before I hit them with anything that has a DC, which, again, is something I'd be doing even if I had the starting 18. As for not boosting con, if I drop Realistic Likeness I don't need to invest in disguise, which allows me to switch my FCB back to HP and give myself a psudo-14 in con as far as HP is concerned. Perhaps grabbing combat casting in place of Heighten Spell would be best, in this case?
Anyway, with all that in consideration, I'm looking at this...
Race Kitsune
Class: Twilight Sage (Arcanist)
Traits: Student of Philosophy, Extremely Fashionable (Diplomacy)
Starting Abilities:
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 13
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 14
Skills:
Maxed:
Bluff
Diplomacy
Perception
Use magic Device
Spellcraft
non-maxed:
Knowledge (Arcana)
Knowledge (Religion)
Headband:
Fly
Build:
1st: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 1: Arcane Reservoir, Consume Life, Necromantic Focus, Twilight Shield, Feats: Improved Initiative, +1 Hit Point
2nd: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 2: +1 Hit Point
3rd: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 3: Exploit: Potent Magic, Feat: Spell Focus (Necromancy), +1 Hit Point
4th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 4: +1 Hit Point, +1 Intelligence
5th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 5: Exploit: Familiar (Compsognathus [Sage Archtype]), Feats: Heighten Spell/Combat Casting?, +1 Hit Point
6th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 6:+1 Hit Point
7th: Twilight Sage (Arcanst) 7: Exploit: Metamagic Knowledge (Persistant Spell), Feat: Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy), +1 Hit Point
8th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 8: +1 Hit Point, +1 Intelligence
9th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 9: Exploit: Quick Study, Spell Focus (Enchantment), +1 Hit Point
10th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 10: +1 Hit Point
11th: Twilight Sage (Arcanist) 11: Twilight Transfer, Feat: Quicken Spell, +1 Hit Point
Main issue is knowing whether or not Combat Casting is necessary with the lower con, or if I'm free to take something more useful to the build's goals, like heighten spell...
As for realistic likeness, I considered it, but would I not also need disguise as a class skill to make that work? As it stands, all my traits are -taken-, and arcanists have no way to get new class skills by default. So unless you have a way for me to get disguise as a class skill, I'm not seeing the -usefulness- of realistic likeness for anything other then fluff.
Cosmopolitan or Additional Traits would both allow you to pick up Disguise as a class skill.
That said, you probably don't need it. You will have a Charisma bonus, +2 if you use a Disguise Kit, all you need is a couple of ranks to get it to a moderately useful level.
Just have a plan for when people see through the disguise.
Another thing to consider is even if they see through the disguise, that doesn't mean that they know what you normally look like.
"The guy was wearing a fake beard and I think the tattoo was temporary. Too much makeup for me to be sure of their real skin tone. I can describe the disguise, but I'm really not sure how much that will help you, sir."
Once again, you get 2 boosts during play as a PFS character.
The one at 4th, and the one at 8th. The one at 12th is meaningless unless you play at conventions, where you can actually run a level 12+ character.
That is why I said boost int at 4th to a natural 18, and con at 8th to a 14 to get the extra HP for your last 3 levels.
We actually have a fair number of people in Philadelphia who run high-level AP volumes and similar content for their Level 12+ characters. Its not particularly common, but its not unheard of either. Level 12 is hardly the end for a character, but it is certainly a slowing-down point for your character's PFS career.
A shame the Overwhelming Beauty trait doesn't work on humans when the kitsune assumes human form.
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Indeed. That, IMO, would have been a very nice plus to use that trait. Either way, I like where the build is right now, and likely will be taking Realistic Likeness in place of heighten spell/combat casting at 5th and just taking less knowledge ranks to raise disguise just enough where the circumstantial bonus from the feat + charisma + kit are enough to make it useful.