I'm looking to theme a character as a creepy shadow caster, I'm looking at Fetchling, Wayang, Human, and Gnome for races (though I am open to suggestions). As well as Sorcerer and Wizard for classes (though again open to suggestions). This character will basically cast anything he can with a creepy vibe depending on the situation, I havn't decided he's a blaster but I havn't decided he's not.
I'd really appreciate some basic help with him. Which race would be best, which class, why, and if anybody knows of some good guides for a shadow caster I'd be greatly appreciative.
Thanks in advance,
Obe
I think you posted this in the wrong forum, friend ...
Really? They don't actually have any info when I click on the forums button so I went with the one that looked the most pertinent. I want info from other gamers :P Where would I post this to get a useful answer?
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
The Advice forum. This is a forum for finding other gamers.
Huh, for some reason yesterday when I put up my post it was only loading the "Message Boards" portion of the page. I just checked to see if I missed something last time and now it's loading the rest. Thanks guys sorry for wasting your time.
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I vote Wayang wizard Shadowcaster Archetype. Wayang because creepy as all hell. Wizard because you have an int boost and you need save dcs badly when practicing shadow magic. Shadowcaster for thematic reasons mostly. If your allowed 3.5 material there was the Shadowcraft Mage Prc from races of stone
Guides to shadow spells
Shadow Conjuration
Shadow Evocation
If you want more spell variety I would ask the dm about some of the fabulous shadow spells from 3.5 book Spell Compendium(despite the rest of the book the shadow spells are fair). Also I might look at the story feat Eldritch Researcher if you would like to create your own shadow spells
No 3.5 in our games unfortunately it's a house rule we implemented years ago to avoid to much power creep. Oking just that one other thing you know :P
The only issue I see with Wayang is the shadowcaster 5th level bonus is redundant and has no effect to my knowledge with the Wayang's already having 60ft darkvision.
That being said I like where your going, I intend to really give it my all with descriptions the looks I intend to get from my fellow players should be worth a laugh.
Ok perhaps an Arcanist then. Can grab potent spells and extra metamagic to give your spells the extra kick. Still int based which is good. Rather than introducing the spells as 3.5 material you can copy paste them into a word document then present them as spells you might want to research/create. You can also pick up the planar binding spells to summon some of the loverly creatures from the shadow plane. Would suggest getting the ability to see through magical darkness then having heightened darkness permanency on an ion torch. Alot of shadow magic gives bonuses/penalties based around light level in the area. For feats check inner sea magic. It has a section on shadow magic. Also there might be a few more spells in the spells section.
Sorry for text wall. Will clarify any grammar as requested. To late for posting well
you could also go half elf summoner and have a creepy pet altho it would have to be normal summoner not unchained as there is almost no customisation with the unchained summoner
I would hardly call that a wall of text there Dastis :P I appreciate the thought! I hadn't even thought of the Arcanist but I'll take a look! Wouldn't darkness kind of screw over my teamates though (the ones who can't see in the dark at least)? Is there some way to avoid that?
Sorry Lady-J, I've played the summoner and find that they end up taking the spotlight off the other players to much. Recently did a dog grab/buffing build in an attempt to minimize that and it really didn't help. We have two new players and 2 old players and a new gm (who is doing fantastically) and I spent way to much time in the limelight. I intend to be mostly a quiet background character with this guy.
If I go with Arcanist it seems to me I aught to take school understanding and a level of wizard in order to get all of a schools bonuses. What do you think am I reading that right?
could also be an alchemist and take all the creepy discoveries
Don't forget about the umbral mesmerist from Occult Realms!
It trades out mesmerist tricks (which are honestly kind of meh to begin with) for standard action shadow conjuration summons.
The summons don't scale as fast as a summoner's would, to be sure. But, the archetype doesn't trade most of the better class features, while giving you some cool stuff, too.
Like, I stare at this guy, and now he can't see me until I attack him first.
It's a fair archetype, and very flavorful.
Thanks Chris :)
I'd like to avoid summons on principal Ectar :) I appreciate the input though!
Greedy teammates needing to see. Anything with darkvision can see into an area of darkness fine. Most every adventurer gets darkvision when they can. Its only to help lower light levels for the various things that do better in lower light situations. Also it literally adds the creepy effect of the area near you being darker than normal :D. Deeper darkness is the spell that screws everybody over. Though I do recommend getting one of those as well even if it is a more situational tool
Oh and I should note that even if they can't see in the dark a 20ft radius of ussually dim light isn't much of an obstacle. Heck 20ft apart is my parties default marching order after the dm read about dazing fireball. If your party really wants to group up it might even be an RP moment of no I want to walk alone
We have a small house rule that states you can't play a rare or uncommon race often in order to keep the party making sense (4 super rare races all deciding to be adventurers and hang out together makes no logical sense to us). Which means at any given time we may have 2 uncommon or rare races at most leaving most people playing human.
What would you suggest to give humans dark vision? Currently the game is level 4 I don't see this character coming in until 5 or 6 we have a little over average gold for our level I'm not sure what to say. I can't go around screwing over my team mates :P Specifically trying not to steal the spotlight just control the battlefield and creep everybody out :P
That said I definitely want to run around with some form of darklight provider as currently I'm still leaning towards Wayang wizard shadowcaster (still worried about the duplicate darkvision but we wont go there) I like some of the look of the arcanist and see some really cool options there as well. At this point I think Sorcerer is out.
An umbral scion sorcerer might be cool. A number of interesting darkness effects to be had. Not sure how effective it'd be mechanically speaking, but it's a nice shadowy vibe to it. As far as races go, Fetchling seems like the best choice, though Wayangs are quite cool as well, and I'm pretty partial to Drow myself, though a low point buy campaign may not allow them.
Pick up blood of shadows.
Thanks Gnome, at this point though I've decided against sorcerer. While I really think the spontaneous caster would help there doesn't seem to be enough oomph. I feel like the wizard has a good number of options and I really like the Arcanist exploits as well and with a level of wizard I see a lot of options opening up. At this point I'm mostly trying to decide between the two and figure out a few good feats.
Any input further from anybody?
So my DM has ruled that I can take both the arcanist School Savant and Twilight Sage provided I pay a feat to take extra arcanist exploit so I'm pretty much set on this path now. What do you think?
I've been thinking of a Wayang Wizard(Spirit Whisperer) with the Heavens Spirit. Heavens gives you a cool darkness Hex (Enveloping Void) at will at 5th, See in Darkness at 8th, and a couple of other cool things.
Communal Darkvision at 5th level, and Eclipse Spell for Eclipsed Light, Eclipsed Dancing Lights, and Eclipsed Heightened Continual Flame lets you keep up darkness with impunity, and then blind even creatures with Darkvision with an at-will hex.
Any way to get a wizards school's SU ability? I'm looking at the school savant and either illusion (shadow) or divination (foresight) as the school for me. Either set of abilities work though the SU is what I really want from each :P
I feel like the divination school is going to be much more useful but the illusion is going to be more thematic. At the end of the day though the divination abilities will be useful while illusion is first useless (1 rnd +1 per 5 lvls of entangled) then the other is redundant as I intend to pick up Dimensional Slide asap (though as near as I can tell they stack allowing me to move ridiculously far and would be amusing the first time it was done).
Markov that sounds like a great idea though the darkvision is redundant.
I'm pretty sure he meant the communal darkvision to help your teammates
Oh jeebus, I read it three times and didn't see that >.< so embarressed.
well in the lore of pathfinder shadowcasters are usually Illusionist wizards with a level of cleric dedicated to zon kuthon, take the shadow domain.
I get the feeling nobody is actually reading my posts before posting >.< Do I need to open another thread or something?
Obeliske wrote: Arcanist School Savant, Twilight Sage provided I pay a feat to take extra arcanist exploit. {Thoughts}? Markov Spiked Chain wrote: Wayang Wizard(Spirit Whisperer) with the Heavens Spirit School Savant archetype gives you one extra spell prepared (Page of Spell Knowledge) per spell level. The wiz school power is the best part. You do lose out on 3 Arcanist exploits.
Twilight Sage archetype requires Cha for Arcane/Twilight Barrier, possibly elf race, and 2HD livestock.
I'm not sure what you mean - do you pay a feat to have BOTH archetypes? If so do that. Otherwise School Savant is more useful.
If you get to play dhampir then Twilight Sage might be more thematic.
In general you will be going after a 3 feat sequence tree; tenebrous, umbral, shadow grasp. Rime, reach, and persistent will be helpful.
Spells choices ARE limited, so Shadow Weapon, Darkness, Dust of Twilight, Haunting Mists, Shadow Anchor, Twilight Haze, Blacklight(not PFS), Umbral Weapon, Shadow Projection will be your main spells.
Try to get Deeper Darkness, Armor of Darkness, Shield of Darkness, etc added to your list.
The Wizard Archtype Shadowcaster is themed in this area, but honestly the shadow evocations/conjurations etc are not as good as the originals.
I'd add Eclipse spell to the list, although you can probably just use a (Lesser) Rod in a lot of cases.
Shadowmind is also quite effective as a go to spell. In Dim light, it's effectively a mass blind spell, even against targets with See in Darkness.
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