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Hi:
I have a dwarven sorcerer (yes, really) who just took a dip in Hunter. I've chosen the Verminous Hunter archtype and am having trouble with my cockroach. For example, it has no intelligence so it cannot learn any tricks. But it has one bonus trick because it is a companion. On the other hand, a giant cockroach has two feats (diehard & endurance). An animal companion has 1 feat. Does that mean he has 3 total feats to start with, or do I have to nuke endurance to get him down to the 1 feat listed?
Oh yeah, one other thing. My dwarf has a low wisdom. So with spell bonus, I believe he winds up being able to cast 0 first level hunter spells. Is that right? I assume he can still do the orisons....
Here is a link to the character. Please help me make sure he is PFS Legal.
Rumple Dergskin
Thanks for your time and feedback!
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I don't know about the animal companion questions, but to answer the spell slots question... You don't lose your spell slot for having a Wisdom penalty, however, in order to cast a spell of any level, your casting stat must be at least 10+the spell level. So you need at least an 11 to cast 1st level spells.
For the orisons... It's possible you won't be able to cast those either. The Orison's section does not mention the WIS requirement, however, it does say, "These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again." So casting like any other spell might mean you need at least a 10 WIS to cast them. I'll let someone a little more knowledgeable about that weigh in.
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Oh fudge! I guess I'm still in the AD&D world. I was thinking the min requirement was 9. Darn... This character is already gimped enough as a dwarf sorcerer. As much as I love the idea of this creepy bugger having a cockroach following him around, I don't want to create a character that will drag down any group he is in. Assuming the roach works out as a pet, do you think it would be enough of an asset that I wouldn't be ruining anyone else's fun by being too weak?
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You could be a sylvan sorcerer and have a fairly useful animal companion. If you haven't played at level 2 yet you're still eligible for your level 1 rebuild.
If you only have 1 trick you probably want defend. You can get a critter to follow you eventually, but having it hit the thing that hit you is something you don't want to spend multiple rounds on.
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Very cool idea, but no thanks. I want to keep the theme of this character. Undead bloodline sorcerer. Necromantic affinity. Obsessed with watching things die (because he hopes to witness them crossing over, not cause he wants to see them suffer). The roach companion was just icing on the cake. I plan to keep him straight sorcerer after this, with most of his spells being from the necromancy school. I do not plan to continue advancing the hunter/companion; it would take too much away from trying to level a dwarf sorcerer. :)
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Oh! Thanks for mentioning a rebuild! I can change his stats. If I tank his strength more, then I can get the wisdom up.
Str: 7
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 16
I'll probably have to spend prestige points to get a vanity porter, though, because this guy will barely be able to put his robes on in the morning, let alone carry a bunch of junk around. :)
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As for your question about the animal companion: the Cockroach will have 1 feat (which is endurance). Two reasons for this.
1. You don't use the bestiary statblock, but the animal companion stat block (Giant Cockroach for reference). In it you see that at lvl 1, they gain Endurance as a bonus feat (Diehard at lvl 4, but you'll need 4 Hunter levels for that or Boon Companion).
2. As it is Mindless, the Cockroach will get no skill points or other feats (as seen in the mindless section on the same site I linked). It gets 1 trick + bonus tricks according to leveling scheme. If it gets a single point of Intelligence, then it loses the mindless trait and gain all tricks, skills, and feats as normal.
Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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Hi:
I have a dwarven sorcerer (yes, really) who just took a dip in Hunter. I've chosen the Verminous Hunter archtype and am having trouble with my cockroach. For example, it has no intelligence so it cannot learn any tricks. But it has one bonus trick because it is a companion. On the other hand, a giant cockroach has two feats (diehard & endurance). An animal companion has 1 feat. Does that mean he has 3 total feats to start with, or do I have to nuke endurance to get him down to the 1 feat listed?
Oh yeah, one other thing. My dwarf has a low wisdom. So with spell bonus, I believe he winds up being able to cast 0 first level hunter spells. Is that right? I assume he can still do the orisons....
Here is a link to the character. Please help me make sure he is PFS Legal.
Rumple DergskinThanks for your time and feedback!
If you haven't played your character yet at 2nd level, Hold Up! You can freely rebuild your character still, so if you have access to Ultimate Wilderness (I highly recommend it!) and Familiar Folio (which I also recommend!) you can use the Bloodline Familiar option from the latter to pick a cockroach familiar from the former. You don't need to multiclass into a hunter or take any feats, the cockroach is treated as undead, and you get 3 additional HP for it. You'll lose the "Grave Touch" ability, though, but the Familiar is way more useful anyway.
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I was already going to have to pick up Ultimate Wilderness to get the cockroach. The other book sounds good to.. Merry Christmas to me :)
I was kind of liking the idea of a cockroach the size of a dog, but I can definitely get over that. The bloodline familiar is, by far, the best suggestion I've gotten so far. Thank you. Thanks to everyone who has responded!
This way I get to have my roach and eat it to.... ummmm..... I mean... :P
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G'day Mate! Welcome to the neighborhood! Always nice to have another Vermin friend around!
I'd introduce your lil'buddy to Huey (my Companion) but I've been having some issues teaching Huey NOT TO EAT GUESTS! and I'm afraid having a 'roach around... Huey'd have some trouble telling it from a Prawn. Totally not Huey's fault. Best not to stress them...
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Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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I was already going to have to pick up Ultimate Wilderness to get the cockroach. The other book sounds good to.. Merry Christmas to me :)
I was kind of liking the idea of a cockroach the size of a dog, but I can definitely get over that. The bloodline familiar is, by far, the best suggestion I've gotten so far. Thank you. Thanks to everyone who has responded!
This way I get to have my roach and eat it to.... ummmm..... I mean... :P
You could have it turn into a dog-sized cockroach by taking the mauler archetype, although the medium size and strength bonus won't help it much in combat, since cockroach has a strentgh of 1 :D
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Wait wait wait!!!
Why not do both?
Get the bloodline cockroach familiar at 1st level and then take a level of hunter the first time I level up? With the reworked abilities, I'd be able to cast 2 1st level hunter spells, and I think Itching Curse fits well.
So then I'd have a regular sized cockroach living in my beard and a dog sized one following me around.
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Keep in mind that with only 1 level of hunter, the medium roach will be very fragile. Even if you take boon companion, it’ll never be higher than 5th level. Meaning its hit points will be fairly low when you’re higher level and it isn’t. And unlike a familiar, it can’t hide in a pouch to stay safe from area of effect attacks.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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Not to mention that society restricts you to 1 active companion, 1 mount, and familiar only gives you alertness and the static bonus.
https://paizo.com/organizedplay/faq#v5748eaic9vh9
Sorcerer gains spells 1 level slower than, say, a wizard. You wouldn't be getting 2nd level spells before level 5, which will make your first 4 levels pretty rocky.
And the cockroach companion not scaling will mean it'll become, uh, obsolete pretty quickly.
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Party poopers! :)
True, but when it is dead, I get a buff, right?
If the hunter’s animal companion is dead, the hunter can apply her companion’s animal focus to herself instead of her animal companion. This is in addition to the normal one she can choose, and (as with a companion’s focus) remains in effect until the hunter changes it instead of counting against her minutes per day.
Actually, I think what you are witnessing is someone who has not played many high level characters. I have a 5th and and 8th. The rest are only 1st or 2nd level. And pretty much every time one gains a level, I want to mix in some other class because their stuff sounds cool. In addition to the hunter, I had also been toying with an Oracle so he could have 1 minute of wings. My excuse of, "But I'm not a min-maxer. I'm not trying to make a super powerful character" only goes so far. The character has to be playable.
I'll think about it some more. But I set out to create a dwarf sorcerer, so I need to stay true to that goal.
Thanks for all the advice and kicking me back to reality.
(plus, I already bought those two PDFs :) )
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Is your dwarf sorcerer using the empyreal archetype? You can use wisdom instead of charisma for a casting stat, that would let you get more out of hunter too.