| Saldiven |
Our group has decided to start running Strange Aeons. We're going for kind of a classic Cthulhu investigator type party concept rather than typical Pathfinder party, so our character concepts are being based on the things you usually see in horror RPGs (shoe-horned into Pathfinder character classes as well as can be).
I've decided to play a Renfield type character. He's totally nuts having had voices in his head ever since he went through puberty.The voices are rambling, indistinct, raving, and non-sensical, not the type that tell him to murder people. Consequently, he's prone to unpredictable, but not necessarily malicious behavior. Fundamentally, he's a decent person, but is easily distracted and often involved in conversations with entities that nobody else can see.
What he doesn't know, or even suspect, is that his mind is linked by an ever-so-fine micro filament connection to Azathoth, and he has become a Cleric to the mad god. The character has no idea where these mystical abilities come from, and doesn't really have any understanding or knowledge of the Elder Mythos. He's had an birthmark on his right cheek that resembles an eight pointed star, but not even he realizes the significance of that mark, other than it seems to glimmer when he manifests his mystical powers.
As for the build, he's going to be a Human CN Cleric of Azathoth. He's not going to be the douchey type CN. The alignment merely represents his madness. As I mention, he's a friendly enough person, and kindly in his own way, but has gotten in trouble in the past for doing such things as bathing naked in a mud puddle in the middle of the street and chasing down important town functionaries to relay messages of "dire" import he heard from the voices babbling in his head. He's mad as a hatter, but not vicious; he is only untrustworthy in that he doesn't place the same level of importance on things that others do, and he's likely to forget promises that he's made. He has a propensity for playing with fire; he likes watching things burn and becomes mesmerized by the dancing flames.
I have permission to combine two archetypes that, strictly, do not normally combine: Elder Mythos Cultist and Herald Caller. His one Domain will be Void(Dark Tapestry). He will, of course, focus on creature summoning; for fluff, all his summoned creatures will be re-skinned into things appropriately Cthulhulian in appearance: an eagle will appear as an insect winged collection of mismatched mandibles; a dire rat will appear as a wetly flopping conglomeration of tentacles from which appears a disturbingly full-lipped human mouth for bite attacks.
Now, for the advice.
I'm trying to decide if I should go full on Caster, using a missile weapon for physical damage combat, or work more towards a Reach Cleric build.
If full Caster using missile weapons the array would be:
10-16-14-12-8-16(18)
If Reach Cleric:
16-14-12-10-8-16(18)
Will definitely have the Birthmark Trait, since that allows for him to have a Divine Focus without actually carrying around a (un)holy symbol, which isn't something he'd really do.
What first level feats would be good? A lot of summoner cleric builds suggest taking summoning feats at first level, but I'm not so worried about that since first/second level monster summoning is pretty weak. Herald Caller gives free summoning feats at 4 and 8. I think I can get by with other feats at lvl 1, and start working on the summoning feats at lvl 3.
Considering the Elder Mythos Cultist's specialized channel energy, and the number of uses I'll have with the high Cha, I think Selective Channel is pretty important.
Anyway, I've rambled enough. I'm curious what other people think about the direction to take this character beyond the initial concept.