The rare Medium well done

[Mellok]

I recently service myself the challenge of building a Medium that was effective, fun to play, and true to the class concept.  To find a single build that will work for all spirits requires limiting the focus of each.  As I dislike both the location requirements and prepared spell casting I have chosen to use the Relic Channeler.  This character should do well as the party face, minor buffer, support damage.

 

The Build

Halfling 20 point buy Fleet Footed

Str:10 Con:14 Dex:16 Int:13 (14 at 4th) Wis:10 Char:16

 

1st Weapon Finesse FCB skill point

Skills: Diplomacy 1, Sense Motive 1, Perception 1, Spellcraft 1, Umd 1, Linguistics 1

Spells

Medium 0:Prestidigitation, Detect Magic

Arch mage 0: Acid splash, Mending 1:Magic Missle, Magic Weapon

Hierophant 0: Create water, Mending 1: Shield of Faith, Divine Favor, Cure light after 6th

Champion EWP Whip, EWP Scorpion Whip

Tricksters edge: Disable Device, Acrobatics, Stealth

 

2nd FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Arcana 1, Religion 1, Planes, Heal 1, Bluff 1

Spells

Medium 0: Guidance

 

3rd Exotic Weapon Proficiency Scorpion Whip FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Sense Motive 2, Sense Motive 3, Diplomacy 2, Diplomacy 3, Linguistics 2

Spells

Medium 0: Stabilize

 

4th +1 int FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Sense Motive 4, Diplomacy 4, Linguistics 3, Linguistics 4, Perception 2, Perception 3

Spells:

Medium 1: Long Arm, Silent Image

Arch Mage 2: Scorching Ray, Alter Self

Hierophant 2: Lesser Restoration, Resist Energy, Cure Moderate

 

5th TWF FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Diplomacy 5, Sense Motive 5, Linguistics 5, Perception 4, Perception 5, Bluff 2

Spells

Medium 0: Fey Aspect 1: Unseen Servent

 

6th FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Diplomacy 6, Sense Motive 6, Linguistics 6, Perception 6, Bluff 3, Bluff 4

Spells

Medium 1: Expetious Retreat

 

7th Piranha Strike FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Diplomacy 7, Sense Motive 7, Linguistics 7, Perception 7, Bluff 5, Bluff 6

Spells

Medium 0: Grave Words 2: Haste, Invisibility

Arch Mage 3: Fireball, Dispelled Magic

Hierophant 3: Stone Shape, ?, Cure Serious

 

8th +1 dex FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Diplomacy 8, Sense Motive 8, Linguistics 8, Perception 8, Bluff 7, Bluff 8

Spells

Medium 2: Mirror Image

 

9th ITWF FCB 1/3 seance bonus

Skills: Diplomacy 9, Sense Motive 9, Linguistics 9, Perception 9 Bluff 9, UMD 2

Spells

Medium 1: ? 2: ?

 

There are still some holes to fill but using mithril BP and 2 agile Scorpion whips should make for a build with lots of options.  The questions I have are, does arch mage suffer arcane spell failure and does relic Channeler get to pick a different skill for the trickster seance bonus or is that set too?

[haremlord]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/occult-adventures/occult-classes/medium wrote:

Archmage Arcana (Lesser, Su): Instead of your normal spells per day for your medium level, you use the spells per day from Table: Mesmerist. For each level of spell you can now cast (including level 0), each time you channel an archmage spirit, select a single spell of that level from the sorcerer/wizard spell list to add to your medium spell list and spells known until you lose contact with the archmage. When you cast these spells, they count as arcane (though not for the purpose of fulfilling prerequisites), and thus you must provide verbal and somatic components instead of thought and emotion components.

The Archmage casts their extra spells as Arcane spells, meaning it has ASF. This doesn't count for your other Medium spells, those are still cast as Psychic spells.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/occult-adventures/occult-classes/medium/archetypes/ paizo-llc---medium-archetypes/relic-channeler-medium-archetype wrote:

Once a relic channeler selects a choice for taboos and spirit powers (such as archmage arcana and legendary champion), those choices remain in effect every time she channels that legend; unlike normal mediums, she can't select a different option each time.

A Relic Channeler makes every choice ahead of time for spirit powers. The spirit powers are those marked as being lesser, intermediate, etc. The Seance Boon isn't technically a Spirit Power, so that should still be flexible, but I'd understand if that isn't RAI.

[Mellok]

Ill outline the functionality focus of each spirit:
General:
Feats: Dex driven TWF with scorpion whips
Skills: Party face skills will be always on and the primary role.
Spells: Illusion and personal buff spells

Archmage: Blaster - Combining séance bonus to damage for multi target spells and minor battle field control with versatile spells.

Champion: EXP: Whip and EXP: Scorpion Whip will give you a weapon that does, as a Halfling, 1d2 damage that can be used either adjacent without provoking or at a reach of up to 15' plus the range from long arm to 20' that does provoke. All damage is lethal and can be done to any level of armor. The séance and spirit bonus combine with agile to add between 8 and 18 damage to your 1d2 based on level and dex belt.

Guardian: . . . I guess have an enchanted bashing light shield and see if you can talk your DM into piecemeal armor where your chest armor carries the enchantment but you add greaves, gauntlets and helmet to make it half plate with an enchanted mithril breast plate. Guardian is hard to legitimatize for the Medium.

Hierophant: Buff and healing support still with some melee ability between long arm and scorpion whips.

Marshal: Seriously boosted face skills with spirit surges. All of the séance boons can be helpful here and this may be the best default spirit.

Trickster: Pretty straight forward rogue skills with some versatility in the floating boon class skill. Combines well with twf, invisibility and greater invisibility spells and sneak attack.

This build is heavily dependent on having a pile of magic items namely, 2 agile scorpion whips, Dex belt, charisma hat or circlet of persuasion, mithril bp, light bashing shield in addition to the standard items.

I would welcome any additional ideas on what to do with this character.

[Mellok]

Hate having a conversation with myself but does anyone see any rules issues I might be missing? Arcane spell failure is the main one I am having trouble with.

[Casual Viking]

I'd love to have a conversation about what a functional job-changing class needs, because the Medium doesn't deliver.

[Shadowlords]

Honestly the title drew my interest to this thread, i just came to applaud your clever title and its actual relevance to the post. Well done good sir.

[Mellok]

Casual Viking wrote:

I'd love to have a conversation about what a functional job-changing class needs, because the Medium doesn't deliver.

Agreed that the functionality of a role switching class is very tough, that is why I made sure to have face skills on a charisma based class to always have a functional role. The character itself I thought might play well as The Pretender, which realistically is a spy that can actually be what he/she is pretending to be that day.

It would be nice if there was some way to switch roles mid-day even once a week but even if you can't prepared spell casters deal with this a bit every gaming day.

[Ryzoken]

I see you're a Halfling! May I recommend that you work into your backstory that you are, perhaps, a fugitive on the run? It would make you a small medium at large...

[Markov Spiked Chain]

@Casual Viking I think Unsworn Shaman is much closer to a functional job-changer. It also kind of highlights how far off Medium is. :(

Unsworn Shaman is a full caster, not a 2/3rd caster. If you're going to role switch, losing a bunch of casting power relative to a dedicated character is very rough. Medium doesn't have much to make up for it (Haunts? Some save and skill bonuses from Boon/surge?)

Unsworn Shaman hexes and spirit magic provide actual flexbibility. Medium as a class has pretty narrow definitions of each role (I cast healing spells, I cast damage spells, I spend my action every round buffing, etc.) Where Unsworn Shaman has witch hexes and shaman hexes like Life Link, Evil Eye, Heaven's Leap, etc that let you have your own take on a role.

I think they both have similar issues to make role switching viable, though:
Attributes. Medium helps some here by collapsing the casting stats. But you still need a good Strength if you're ever planning on Champion-ing, which is probably wasted when you're Hierophant. A lot of the Boons mitigate that a little, but getting a buff to a stat you've got a 10 in doesn't help much. So job-changers end up with pretty broad stat arrays, likley at least 1 behind someone with a dedicated role.

Feats. Pathfinder rewards specialization, and trying to fill a role without feat support is rough. Missing Selective Channel makes in combat channeling marignal. Missing Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, etc makes direct damage or SoS casting hard (particularly rough since your DC is probably already lower because you're MAD, and also lower because you have lower level spells.) Missing PBS, Precise Shot, and Quick Shot makes archery very rough. Summoning without Augment Summoning is a big loss, etc.

Melloc's build put pretty much all the feats into combat, which means as an archmage, they've got no relevant feats (vs a Wizard with bonus feats!)

I think floating bonus feats would help the Medium a lot, maybe every 3 levels like the Inquisitor's Teamwork feats?