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So I've decided to do a gnome illusionist for my next PFS PC, just because it's an old trope that I've never done before. I know with their charisma bonus, they make better sorcerers than wizards. But I've already done a couple of sorcerers, bards, and other spontaneous casters, and I kinda got bored of casting the same spells over and over. I want to do a prepared caster just for the wider variety of spells.
So I'm thinking of doing an actual illusionist, even though there are schools with better powers, just because I'm more interested in being unusual than uber-optimized. The powers are actually pretty good, even if they aren't the best of the best. But there's also the shadow subschool, which also has good powers, so I'm a little torn between the two.
So I've been looking over the spells, trying to decide on opposition schools.
I know the obvious is enchantment, because single target save or suck spells tend to be worthless if the enemy saves, so that's an easily skippable school. But for an ADHD Golarion gnome that wants to use a wide variety of spells throughout his career, enchantment does actually have some fun options. I just wouldn't make it my primary offense, but I could see mixing one or two enchantment spells into my prep once I have a lot of spell slots per day.
I keep looking at divination for an opposition school. Especially in PFS, where the adventures are short, and you don't need to use heavy duty divination to find the plot, this does seem like an easily skippable school, except for screwing up Read Magic and Detect Magic. But magic items are easily accessible in PFS, so wands could easily compensate for those. So I think this could work.
I was actually considering abjuration for an opposition school. That one has a lot more spells I'll want, but most of them are still pretty good as scrolls and wands. This would mean giving up on Dispel Magic, though.
Another possible opp school is necromancy. I see this guy as a fairly silly character, so while this school has a few decent spells, it might be too dark for him. And really, other than maybe Blindness/Deafness, what would I miss?
For feats, I obviously want Spell Focus and Greater in illusions, and I'll need Spell Penetration and Greater eventually. I may also want more Spell Focus feats for other schools that I use a lot, but I'll have to decide which those will be.
I'm also looking at some gnome and/or illusion related feats that could work well for him like Effortless Trickery, Shadow Gambit, and Threatening Illusion. All 3 of those look like they'd occasionally be useful, but aren't good enough to build a PC around, especially if I'm going for spell variety, rather than a sorcerer casting the same illusions over and over.
To go along with the silly gnome theme, I'm taking a trait to get bluff as a class skill with a +1 trait bonus, not dumping charisma, and getting a familiar with the Decoy archetype. So the skunk will also have bluff as a class skill, and be able to speak all my languages (mimicking my voice perfectly) starting at level 5.
That could be fun to play with. And yeah, skunks look like cool familiars, so I'm definitely going there. It's worth it for the +2 fortitude and a twice per day stink spray that can nauseate (or at least sicken, even if they make the fort save) an enemy.
I haven't decided on a second trait. I'm trying to decide if there's a spell I want to specialize in enough to take Magical Lineage. I was thinking maybe Major Image, and using that to put Threatening on it for free, but I just don't think it's worth that big an investment. I might just end up with a generic trait for +2 initiative or +2 concentration.
So, anyone have feat suggestions? Traits? Ideas about the oppositions schools, and spells worth using a lot, or making sure to avoid in opposition schools so I can always cast them?
Oh yeah, and I need a recommendation for good, silly names for a gnome and a skunk. And suggestions for random ADHD, bluff-addicted silliness to throw at the table. I'm going for VERY chaotic neutral on this one. I'm actually tempted to have him change his name before every adventure, and change the skunk's name every time, too, until the skunk can speak for itself at level 5.
I took abjuration and necromancy as my opposition schools, then finally added in opposition research for abjuration(at 10th lvl, IIRC) to get over the two spell slots needed for dispell magic.
For a tricky gnome, I'd also consider one of the tricky feats that allows you to mask your spellcasting.
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Divination and Necromancy are good picks for opposed schools. Abjuration has better spells for you, and Enchantment is surprisingly helpful for an illusionist to deal with the people who disbelieve your illusions :P
If you find yourself regretting the decision you can always pick up Opposition Research for Divination if you haven't managed to cope with magic items up until then.
I'd suggest making your Skunk a School Familiar (the archetype for familiars from Familiar Folio). The Illusion School powers the familiar gains are pretty good.
It doesn't stack with the Decoy archetype though, if you're dead set on that - you could use the Illusion spell Ventriloquism for fun with your familiar talking instead if you wanted?
Persistent Phantasmal Killer could be a good "stuff got suddenly serious" spell? Magical Lineage makes it more affordable and Persistent makes it more effective...
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This is my Core Illusionist gnome wizard. I picked Evocation and Abjuration as my opposition schools, because I wanted to mostly forgo blasting, and lots of the best Abjuration stuff is fine in scrolls and wands (Shield, Resist Energy, etc.). She actually has Spell Focus (necromancy) after GSF in illusion, for Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Exhaustion/Enfeeblement, and so on. But Necromancy wouldn't be a bad idea for an opposition school since you can afford a higher Con in place of False Life.
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Yeah, I'm still debating the opposition schools, but I think it's between divination, abjuration, and necromancy.
Leandro, I looked at the school familiar possibility a couple of weeks ago when I was first considering this PC, and ruled it out. But now I don't remember why, as I don't remember the details off the top of my head. Maybe I'll check the book again when I get home. I just really like the decoy idea - having a familiar who lies as much its master could be fun to play.
While Persistent Phantasmal Killer might be good for a campaign that goes to higher levels, this is for Pathfinder Society, which mostly ends after level 11, and that combo doesn't kick in until level 9. If I'm going to do Magical Lineage, I was thinking a level 1-3 spell with a metamagic feat that only adds a level. Besides, I've had good success in the past using a lesser rod to put Persistent metamagic on level 1-3 spells. My conjuration sorcerer dominates encounters with that on Glitterdust.
I actually toyed with the idea of using Magical Lineage for Threatening Ghost Sound, to be able to provide flanks to allies as a cantrip all day long. That would be useful for something to do at level 1, and occasionally later, but probably not worth the investment of a trait and feat.
Really, there are some metamagic feats that seem like they could be useful here and there, but nothing I'd want to specialize in for this PC. I think it's the whole concept of wanting to do a lot of different spells that's killing my enthusiasm for picking one thing to specialize in. So I may skip Magical Lineage and just go Excitable for +2 on initiative (gnome version of Reactionary).
So maybe something like this for feats:
1 - Spell Focus: Illusion (wizard bonus, replaces Scribe Scroll in PFS)
1 - ?
3 - ?
5 - Threatening Metamagic (wizard bonus)
5 - Shadow Gambit
7 - Spell Penetration
9 - Greater Spell Penetration
10 - ? (wizard bonus - metamagic or arcane discovery)
11 - ?
Effortless Trickery doesn't really seem worth it. For the level 10 or 11 feats, Quicken Spell seems like a decent possibility, and/or Opposition Research.
For the level 1 and 3 feats, more Spell Focus and/or Greater Spell Focus feats are always good. I'm actually not sure if I even want GSF on illusions. I'll use some of them, but I should be spreading my spells around so much that I don't want to overspecialize. I could totally see taking Spell Focus on 3 different schools, just for variety, without ever upgrading to Greater.
Improved Init or Combat Casting are always worth considering right from level 1, too.
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I'm a big fan of gnome illusionists (though they actually do better as sorcerers to take advantage of CHA bonus) - I even have a PFS gnome sorcerer which I got up to level 4 who had almost entirely illusion spells. (His illusion DCs were pretty crazy - Silent Image & Color Spray were at DC 20 with both focus feats and a total CHA of 23.)
But... I don't play him anymore. Far far too much table variation in how illusion spells work. For nearly every session where he had fun splitting up and reducing the effectiveness of foes with image spells so that the rest of the group took them down piecemeal (a useful support role) I had a session where the GM neutered his abilities and I mostly had to use just hypnotic pattern, color spray, and magic missile.
There is a lot in the illusion rules that is subjective and therefore up for GM interpretation, and some GMs don't actually like illusion spells to accomplish much of anything (and you have to explain that figment spells work against constructs/undead). Some think (for example) that merely touching an Image spell is inherently proof that it isn't real - which makes them worth far less than if the GM takes the (far more reasonable in my opinion) that touching it just provides a save against it (still giving a save each round - which is more than most spells give).
So - I'd recommend that you play him in a home game where you talk to the GM beforehand and figure out how he wants to play illusion spells.
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That's part of why I don't want to play a sorcerer and be locked into a small set of spells. This guy will be an illusionist, and have a few illusion spells, but as a wizard, he'll have a LOT more spells besides those, and prepare something different for each adventure. Partially, this is to keep me from getting bored casting the same stuff over and over, as I somewhat have with my conjuration sorcerer, and partially it's to avoid just that problem with table variation on how illusions are handled.
I really don't get the whole shadow line of spells. They recreate stuff that you can already do with lower level spells, but giving the enemies a chance to disbelieve, on top of their normal save. Why not just cast the spells that the shadow spell was copying?
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That's part of why I don't want to play a sorcerer and be locked into a small set of spells. This guy will be an illusionist, and have a few illusion spells, but as a wizard, he'll have a LOT more spells besides those, and prepare something different for each adventure.
That might work if you have the chance to chat with the GM before each session to check how they feel about illusions, not using many if they don't like them. But if you don't have the chance to do so, you'll still have multiple spell slots each day which are potentially worthless. At least my sorcerer still got to use all of his slots.