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Unified Theory doesn't make you Legendary in three skills. It's only for checks related to traditions. Spell recognition and magic items identification, mostly. But you'll still be Trained in Nature, Occultism and Religion.
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Hi, I also play a wizard - in PFS! First of many comments: For Specialty Crafting, I recommend Stonemasonry. The Player's Guide makes clear you can rebuild Citadel Altaerein, which is made of stone. For a later skill feat, perhaps Specialty Crafting in Woodworking, which could possibly come in handy for constructing wooden buildings.
Unified Theory doesn't make you Legendary in three skills. It's only for checks related to traditions. Spell recognition and magic items identification, mostly. But you'll still be Trained in Nature, Occultism and Religion.I'll be Trained in Nature, Occultism and Religion, but I can use Arcana, where I'll be Legendary, in place if any of the three.
"Whenever you use an action or a skill feat that requires a Nature, Occultism, or Religion check, depending on the magic tradition, you can use Arcana instead."
As stated, only for checks asking for a Nature, Occultims or Religion check depending on the magic tradition. So, if you have to recognize a spell, it's a check depending on the magic tradition, and you can roll Arcana. If you want to recognize an undead, it's a Religion check and you'll roll Religion.
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Unified Theory doesn't make you Legendary in three skills. It's only for checks related to traditions. Spell recognition and magic items identification, mostly. But you'll still be Trained in Nature, Occultism and Religion.I'll be Trained in Nature, Occultism and Religion, but I can use Arcana, where I'll be Legendary, in place if any of the three."Whenever you use an action or a skill feat that requires a Nature, Occultism, or Religion check, depending on the magic tradition, you can use Arcana instead."
As stated, only for checks asking for a Nature, Occultims or Religion check depending on the magic tradition. So, if you have to recognize a spell, it's a check depending on the magic tradition, and you can roll Arcana. If you want to recognize an undead, it's a Religion check and you'll roll Religion.
I think what SuperBidi descibes is likely RAI, but the Unified Theory feat is so poorly-worded that I think the OP's interpretation is RAW.
For OP's wizard's second-level skill feat, Specialty Crafting in Alchemy is a better choice than Recognize Spell, since it makes the check to Craft alchemical items more likely to suceed at low levels and/or make the process cheaper.
It’s not poorly worded, it is specifically worded. SuperBidi is correct to make the distinction.
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Your class feat selection is good for a crafting-focused wizard, but I suggest taking Metamagic Mastery instead of Archwizard's Might for your 20th-level feat. Metamagic Mastery will help you get the most out of Reach Spell and especially Bond Conservation.
Also, your 14th-level feat choice Superior Bond only grants you a single additional lower-level spell each day. A better choice would be a second rogue multiclass feat. I personally like Evasiveness, but could choose any rogue multiclass feat you like.
Finally, instead of using selecting the ancestry feat Natural Ambition to get Widen Spell, select General Training to acquire Toughness and forget Widen Spell entirely. It's too situational and only works for a relatively small number of spells, but Toughness will keep your wizard alive.
Those are my thoughts on the class feats you chose. Ancestry options and General/Skill feats are a different story.
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I think you would get use out of Metamagic Mastery since you already have both metamagic feats that are worth having.
Reach Spell keeps your character out of melee combat, which means you could focus less on Dexterity. With Metamagic Mastery, you could spend your third action moving, using Recall Knowledge or using Demoralize (although using a Demoralize as a wizard is another discussion.)
The reason Metamagic Mastery is better than Archwizard's Might, in my opinion, is how it interacts with Bond Conservation. MM makes "cascade casting" highly practical, which increases your number of spells per day dramatically and renders Superior Bond completely irrelevant. Old_Man_Robot analyzed this in his wizard class guide.
You can click on his profile above to find it (no idea how to post links on this site). It's worth reading if you have the time, btw.
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You pick up Rogue Dedication at 9.
Would you be willing to trade some high level Wizard feats for Skill Mastery to get some back-end skill proficiency boosts?
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I already have Specialty Crafting from the Tinker background, but it seems to me that the feat give you a bonus on the check only when crafting and not when trying to identify an alchemical item.
That’s true. In that case, you should probably keep Recognize Spell as your second-level skill feat unless you want Specialty Crafting for two kinds of items, like Alchemy AND Stonemasonry.
It is worthwhile to select Specialty Crafting (Alchemy) as your background skill feat, but remember you won’t be able to actually Craft alchemical items until you receive Alchemical Crafting at 2nd level. Normally I’d recommend this outright, but repairing Citadel Altaerein sounds so cool to me.
How you plan to spend Downtime? If you want to repair Citadel Altaerein more than Craft alchemical items, then consider choosing Specialty Crafting (Stonemasonry) for you backgrounds skill and ask your GM if the bonus it grants you will apply to repairing the castle. If you would rather Craft alchemical items in your Downtime, then Specialty Crafting (Alchemy) makes the most sense.
You could select both variations of Specialty Crafting at the cost of a precious skill feat. The problem is one of diminishing returns: pursuing both alchemy and castle repair means each project receives fewer downtime days devoted to it than if you just chose one.
Remember that you do not need either variation of the Specialty Crafting feat in order to Craft alchemical items or to repair Citadel Altaerein, but the feat means your limited number of Downtime days are less likely to be wasted.
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I'm already thinking to change Natural Ambition for Genera Training to acquire Adopted Ancestry Elf and later select Nimble Elf and Ageless Patience.
As for your ancestry options, I recommend you stay with Versatile Human or play a Halfling
The two Elf feats you wanted are not worth the price. Nimble Elf is just Fleet, so you’re spending a general feat and an ancestry feat to get the equivalent of one general feat. Also, the circumstance bonus Ageless Patience provides to skill checks won’t stack with the circumstance bonus to Craft checks provided by Specialty Crafting, it eats up Downtime besides and is too situational for what it costs. In my opinion, very few ancestries have feats that are better than a human’s for your build that relies so much on general feats.
I know this is out of left field, but with a halfling you could still have your ancestry boots to DEX, INT, and WIS without dumping CHA. CHA is useful for a wizard if you intend to use Intimidation to Demoralize in combat (an option I recommend) and if your party does not have a trained negotiator. Halflings have interesting Heritages and several of their ancestry feats are suited for rogue-like characters like yours.The key is to take Cultural Adaptability at 5th level to get access to human ancestry feats, get General Training, then choose human ancestry feats from that point on. Although, Ceaseless Shadows looks fun at higher levels.
It all depends on what your party composition is.
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Here are my quick suggestions for missing feats:
Level 5 Ancestry Feat: General Training - Toughness
Level 11 General Feat: Fleet
Level 12 Skill Feat: Arcane Sense
Level 14 Skill Feat: Streetwise
Level 16 Skill Feat: Quick Identification
Level 17 Ancestry Feat: Clever Improviser
Level 20 Skill Feat: Multilingual
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Arcane Sense frees up a valuable cantrip slot, since you no longer have to prepare Detect Magic.
Streetwise makes you great at Gather Information, which I reckon will come in handy during Age of Ashes.
Both are fine choices for your Level 16 Skill Feat
Adopted Ancestry is a bad choice unless you take multiple feats from the new ancestry. You're only taking one - Mountain's Stoutness. Also, it's odd to spend a fifth-level feat to access dwarf ancestry feats, but not actually take any until Level 17. I recommend General Training, then taking your choice of Toughness, Fleet, Feather Step or Fast Recovery.
Otherwise, your general feats look fine.
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Arcane Sense frees up a valuable cantrip slot, since you no longer have to prepare Detect Magic.I already have an additional cantrip via Cantrip Connection and then I'm planning to use Inventor to obtain the Staff of Divination, and so Detect Magic.
Ah, Arcane Sense won't help you then. Then choose a 1st-level skill feat from one of the skills you're only Trained in.
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So I'm thinking to complete my wizard as follow:
Level 5 Ancestry Feat: General Training - Toughness
Level 11 General Feat: Fast Recovery
Level 12 Skill Feat: Hefty Hauler
Level 14 Skill Feat: Quick Identification
Level 16 Skill Feat: Doubious Knowledge
Level 17 Ancestry Feat: General Training - Diehard
Level 20 Skill Feat: Legendary CodebreakerAny additional suggestion?
Looks good to me. Enjoy Age of Ashes!
Initiative is always welcome on a spellcaster.
Innkeeper: Again, this is Second Edition. Initiative is in general a Perception check, so Wisdom typically goes with Initiative, instead of Dexterity.