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Meet Strides-Besides-Death and his Eagle (reflavored Owl) familiar for the Curse of the Crimson Throne game my group just started.

Its been a while since I've played anything but an Arcane caster, and I loved a build snippet I found on reddit for this class, but am having trouble fleshing it out to a full build. The idea is to build up a large pool of channel (Restoration Spirit+Channel Luck) with buff riders, and support with those and hexes.

I'm already level 2 (though we haven't played a session at 2 yet so I can still change my hex choice) and need some feat options and maybe a better hex progression? I have a strong Luck theme going, but not sure the character will be effective all the way to 17 (though hes a full caster, so hes probably fine). Wandering Spirit will be Lore most of the time for Wizard spells Hex. Using Half-Orc FCB to get cleric spells (picking up Ant Haul at 3 to mitigate poor strength).

Build is below, any advice is welcome.

Shaman (Serendipity) 17
Half-Orc (FCB: HP or Cleric Spell) (Sacred tatoo)
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 17, Cha 14
Traits: Fate's Favored, Missing Sibling
1 - Endurance (racial bonus), Defiant Luck {Restoration Spirit}
3 - Selective Channeling
5 - Fateful Channel (worships Pharasma)
7 - Quick Channel
9 - Extra Hex (Spirit Magic)
11 - Spirit Talker
13 - FEAT
15 - FEAT
17 - FEAT

Hexes
2 - Witch Hex - Protective Luck
4 - Chant
8 - Channel Luck
10 - Tweak the Odds
12 - Fortune
16 - Hex


That... actually looks pretty solid.

Given you might want to go first to get some Luck/dice effects off, maybe grab Improved Initiative? Divine Interference Might be useful but unsure if you'll have the needed spells to burn. Split Hex is also pretty handy BUT it's Witch only. Given the fact Shaman is part Witch, talk to your GM about what you can actually qualify for.

Final bit is Flexible Hex which lets you as a Swift action swap your Wandering Spirit. This is great as you can swap into some Benefit of Wisdom to use WIS instead of INT, and then swap back to Arcane Enlightenment to relearn/pick your wizard spells.

I, TRIED, to do this gimmick build/idea but I also played in Iron Gods where my spell/hex list wasn't... very up to par(Cough, resist mind effects, cough). I hope your run goes better in Crimson Throne.


I quite like this concept. If you can reliably make the DCs then I suggest looking into the Ritual Hex feat. It gives you some more flexibility with your hexes; letting you utilise some of the more niche options or 'try before you buy'. In theory if you didn't take Witch Hex - Protective Luck it would allow the 'Witch Hex' hex to be an available option for Ritual Hex thus allowing you to pick a different temporary witch hex each day.


First, thanks for your suggestions, there is some good material here I will address below. I want to apologize for taking so long to get back to this thread (its been a hectic two weeks).

MerlinCross wrote:


Given you might want to go first to get some Luck/dice effects off, maybe grab Improved Initiative? Divine Interference Might be useful but unsure if you'll have the needed spells to burn. Split Hex is also pretty handy BUT it's Witch only. Given the fact Shaman is part Witch, talk to your GM about what you can actually qualify for.

Final bit is Flexible Hex which lets you as a Swift action swap your Wandering Spirit. This is great as you can swap into some Benefit of Wisdom to use WIS instead of INT, and then swap back to Arcane Enlightenment to relearn/pick your wizard spells.

I may take improved Initiative as a filler feat if I wind up with one not doing anything else. Divine Interference is also an interesting pick. Flexible Hex/Spirit Talker/Ritual Hex all occupy the same 'more hex choices/day' area, and while all are good, I may not have the feats for all of them and channel feats.

Decimus Drake wrote:

I quite like this concept. If you can reliably make the DCs then I suggest looking into the Ritual Hex feat. It gives you some more flexibility with your hexes; letting you utilise some of the more niche options or 'try before you buy'. In theory if you didn't take Witch Hex - Protective Luck it would allow the 'Witch Hex' hex to be an available option for Ritual Hex thus allowing you to pick a different temporary witch hex each day.

Ritual Hex can have a 100% uptime by level 13 if I did my math correctly, so I'll stick it in the build there. Rotating Witch hex would have been nice... maybe I could retrain? However Protective Luck is a very thematic bit of this build so ditching it may not be an option.

I've also started looking at more channeling-based feats like the Bless Equipment line. I also want to pick up a Blessed Keepsake (8000gp neck-slot item) for free alignment channel since we just fought our first Rakshasa and I suspect they might be a *thing*.

Scarab Sages

This is an amazing feat for higher level play:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/tenacious-survivor-orc-half-orc


great buffer build!


Hmm interesting build, makes me wonder if it can be made into a reach build but looks pretty tight. Of course it isn't allowed in PFS...sigh


ekibus wrote:
Hmm interesting build, makes me wonder if it can be made into a reach build but looks pretty tight. Of course it isn't allowed in PFS...sigh

I'm curious why you would try to make this a reach build? Nothing wrong with the idea, but I'm still only level 3 and want to explore my options.


The idea would be based off the reach cleric guide. Basically during your turn you would do your normal thing and you could act during the opponent's turn fishing for attacks of opp. You would need a longspear, combat reflexes, power attack and most say 14 str. It is a nice idea to add some damage. But the problem becomes getting the stats to line up


Quick thoughts on Prestige Classes.

Fateful channel really fits the build - and requires a death deity/Pharasma - but if you can give that up and change your deity to Pulura - the stargazer prestige class is amazing for almost any shaman and more so for one that leans more towards cleric/channeling

If sticking with Pharasma (N deity) check out Envoy of Balance - esp: twinned channeling endowment: This might make it attractive to try to get a level of cleric with the Undead subdomain as it's death's kiss power can let you negative energy heal living party members- so you can twin negative energy heal and harm and include/exclude the right beings with Selective Channeling.

Evangalist is almost always good and Pharasma's obedience is a reasonable one. This would probably add these three feats: Deific Obedience, Favored Prestige Class, Prestigious Spellcaster

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