Red Griffyn
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So I have this Samsaran boon burning a hole in my PFS pocket. I really like the idea of a shaman and the speaker for the past archetype. So I've decided to make a melee reach build, poaching a number of choice buff spells off the Paladin spell list. Skill ranks will all go to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Perception so he can act as a face out of combat.
Spells will primarily need to be used for self buffing including with a few extras at each spell level for a one off control spell, group buff, or condition removal. The battle spirit gives Magic Vestments so with 1-2 lesser rods of extend you can have all day Magic Vestments, Greater Magic Weapon, Barkskin, and Heroism up almost all day before getting into combat and save money on weapon/armour enchantments. The Temporal Celerity hex will ensure you go first most of the time, especially combined with heightened awareness. First round you can use a the time flicker ability to get a 20% miss chance to augment your lack of AC (especially useful in a surprise round). Fourth level spells give you divine power and holy sword to wreck face. At 8th level you get a swift action bane ability.
Do you guys have any other suggestions or build tips?
Shaman (Speaker for the Past, Witch Doctor) X
Race
1 - Samsaran
Alternate Racial Traits:
Mystic Past Life -
1 - Divine Favor (L1)
2 - Align Weapon (L2)
3 - Greater Magic Weapon (L3), this is early access as the shaman version is L4. This meets PFS rulesets as the cleric/oracle list has it at L3 so it drops down one level.
4 - Prayer (L3)
5 - Holy Sword (L4), the real spell we are using the samsaran to get. Its a core Paladin spell that gives you a +5 Holy weapon.
Traits/Drawbacks
1 - Extremely Fashionable (Bluff)
2 - Fates Favored
Stats (Level 1) - 20pt
STR - 14
DEX - 12
CON - 12
INT - 9 (7+2 Race)
WIS - 18 (16 + 2 Race)
CHA - 12
Spirits
1 - Life (Retrain at Level 4 to Battle)
Hexes/Revelations
2 - Life Link (Retrain at Level 4 with Spirit to Battle Master)
4 - Channel Energy (the reason you retrain things to remain qualifiedfor Channel Smite
4 - Temporal Celerity (Divination Wizard goodness)
6 - Time Flicker (Blur then blink to shore up mediocre AC)
8 - Counter Curse
8 - Enemies Bane
9 - Extra Hex - Flight or Familiar (since Overland Flight is available to you now)
11 -Extra Hex - Comprehend Languages (for facing)
12 - Time Hop
Feats (F)
1F - Channel Smite
3F - Guided Hand
5F - Phalanx Formation
7F -Power Attack
8CF - Weapon Specialization (Longspear)
9F - Extra Hex (Flight or Familiar - since Overland Flight is available to you now)
11F - Extra Hex (Tongues) or Lunge or Combat Reflexes or Improved Initiative
| cavernshark |
I think if your intent is to be more of a battle shaman, you could afford dropping Wisdom down to 16 and reassigning up to 4 points into other stats (maybe a 15 Str and 14 Dex with 16 Wisdom). None of your hexes are particularly offensive and you're using a lot of your spells just buffing yourself (no DC needed). You could toss a point into Strength at level 4 to get to 16 unbuffed.
That said, I'm fairly certain you can't retrain your spirit in PFS. It seems like you're jumping through a lot of hoops (some of which may not be legal) just to get Guided Hand. The extra point in strength and Weapon Focus in place of Guided Hand would net you +2 hit and +1 damage - and you'd only loose 2 hit from no Guided Hand, so it's net positive in damage (more when you start factoring in Power Attack). You could also use that first feat for something like Heavy Armor Proficiency to help boost your armor.
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Red Griffyn
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I think if your intent is to be more of a battle shaman, you could afford dropping Wisdom down to 16 and reassigning up to 4 points into other stats (maybe a 15 Str and 14 Dex with 16 Wisdom). None of your hexes are particularly offensive and you're using a lot of your spells just buffing yourself (no DC needed). You could toss a point into Strength at level 4 to get to 16 unbuffed.
That said, I'm fairly certain you can't retrain your spirit in PFS. It seems like you're jumping through a lot of hoops (some of which may not be legal) just to get Guided Hand. The extra point in strength and Weapon Focus in place of Guided Hand would net you +2 hit and +1 damage - and you'd only loose 2 hit from no Guided Hand, so it's net positive in damage (more when you start factoring in Power Attack). You could also use that first feat for something like Heavy Armor Proficiency to help boost your armor.
The plan is to never buff STR except via Bull Strength/Enlarge/Righteous Might. Unless I can get it to a 18, the increase in damage is negligible (i.e., +1/+2) from increasing STR and negatively impacts on using my wealth to boost DEX/CON (saves which need the most attention). The damage will come from Greater Magic Weapon, Divine Favor, Divine Power, Prayer, Holy Sword, and the swift action bane. I would say half the spells cast will be self buffs (the hour/level and 10 min/level in particular). The other half can be control spells (entanglement line), DR bypasses (e.g., weapon alignment, ghostbane dirge, etc.), Anti-swarm spells (burning hands, flame strike, etc.). This will require a DC so having a slightly lower melee damage will help keep the PC much more flexible overall.
For retraining, it should be 5pp to retrain a class feature. Examples given for retraining are things like a cleric domain so there shouldn't be an issue. Otherwise you can GM baby it up to level 4. The build is really at it's prime and fun form L5 to L11 anyways.
| cavernshark |
If you start with 15 in strength, add +1 at 4, and get a +2 belt, you're already at 18. The two feats you saved not going Channel Smite and Guided Hand could have just as easily been used on Greater Fortitude and Lightning Reflexes for an effective +4 Con/Dex boost to your saves.
It's 5pp and 50xGP per level to retrain a class feature, that's true, but the list of class features you can retrain is fixed based on class. I believe Shaman count as their parent classes for retraining synergy (I can't find that reference), but there's no ability to retrain a base spirit (or an oracle mystery or witch patron) to the best of my knowledge and Shaman aren't on the table with defined class features allowed to be retrained.