Hey all, I'm starting a new campaign on Saturday and have a very generous stat generation system and can't decide on what would be best for my Occultist. (I'd consider dropping the archetype, but I've written a backstory that quite heavily leans on my taking this archetype) Here are the two extremes I'm looking at:
Str 6
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 21
Wis 16
Cha 8
or...
Str 6
Dex 16
Con 12
Int 21
Wis 10
Cha 18
Or I could split the difference with a Charisma of 14 or so. What would your preference be? My concern is that without Consume Spells being usable many times a day, eventually my Summon Monster ability will be usable twice a day, tops. Are there other notable perks to having 18 charisma? Exploits worth looking at? Consume spells alone seems like a shaky reason to go from 8 to 18.
You need a good charisma (at least 14, 16 is much better) on an Occultist in order to refill your pool via Consume Spell. You will also want to look at the Consume Magic Item exploit for the same reason.
The cost for the higher summon SLAs is very high and you will want to be able to do both of those exploits multiple times.
With the higher Charisma, the Bloodline Development or School Understanding can also be worthwhile. You would want to review all the options there very carefully, some of them are great while others really need a longer duration in order to be useful.
For an Occultist, to really take advantage of its features I think you're likely to want to be able to churn spell slots for arcane points via Consume Spells, so I think neglecting CHA would be a bad idea for that archetype (for a base Arcanist it is definitely a viable idea, however).
That Strength of 6 though... that's going to be rough. You'll be able to carry the clothes on your back, and not a heck of a lot else at early levels (before access to things like a handy haversack, muleback cords, etc.). Beyond carrying capacity, you're also at serious risk of trouble if you encounter a poison or disease that attacks STR, or a ray of enfeeblement, or an enemy like a shadow.
I'd probably take a CHA of 14 or 16 and boost that STR a little, if it were me (though STR 8 could be manageable).
You need a good charisma (at least 14, 16 is much better) on an Occultist in order to refill your pool via Consume Spell. You will also want to look at the Consume Magic Item exploit for the same reason.
The cost for the higher summon SLAs is very high and you will want to be able to do both of those exploits multiple times.
With the higher Charisma, the Bloodline Development or School Understanding can also be worthwhile. You would want to review all the options there very carefully, some of them are great while others really need a longer duration in order to be useful.
Thanks for pointing out School Understanding; I was planning on taking it, but I didn't read it very carefully and assumed it was still keyed off of intelligence. Important to know!
For an Occultist, to really take advantage of its features I think you're likely to want to be able to churn spell slots for arcane points via Consume Spells, so I think neglecting CHA would be a bad idea for that archetype (for a base Arcanist it is definitely a viable idea, however).
That Strength of 6 though... that's going to be rough. You'll be able to carry the clothes on your back, and not a heck of a lot else at early levels (before access to things like a handy haversack, muleback cords, etc.). Beyond carrying capacity, you're also at serious risk of trouble if you encounter a poison or disease that attacks STR, or a ray of enfeeblement, or an enemy like a shadow.
I'd probably take a CHA of 14 or 16 and boost that STR a little, if it were me (though STR 8 could be manageable).
I've sort of made my peace with the fact that my defenses are flawed and I could be incapacitated or killed by certain spells or poisons. I lean heavily on optimizing proactively, toward enabling my concept rather than defensively, to increase my chances of survival in all scenarios. If I dies or end up useless in a fight, so be it.