Talisman crafter Occultist. Anyone play / opinion?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Heyo heyo

Just curious, has anyone played Talisman Crafter occultist?

I've been eying it for years but haven't tried it yet. (due to a long running game).

Anyone have any particular thoughts or opinions on it?
anyone played it before?

Looks like it would be a fairly hilarious but cool Villain character. but i'm not sure about a PC.
"normally affect one or more target creatures (but not spells that target the caster, spells that affect an area, spells that create effects, or other such spells)" in particular for their spell talismen they can loan out or throw seem to be pretty restrictive.
THough I think it would still let you hand out certain buffs at least. Enlarge person being a buff you could hand out to someone else to use, since it targets a target instead of the caster (even if the caster can use it on oneself). Although in such a case, I think it'd be better for the occultist to retain the spell talisman. Then just throw it at thet person in battle. 20ft touch is nice,

thannks for readin


Another question that occurs to me is . Since they have to use their talismens as implements. Does that mean they can't do panalopy choices? Since you have to invest in certain objects. But this-and several other archetypes- can only invest in specific things?

That would be unfortunate..

The healing one seemed interesting.

the Mage's Paraphenlia sounded really interesting for this archetype. Since you can pay Mental Focus for Metamagic costs. usually not a great deal on Occultists-as they're spontaneous casters.
But Talisman crafters are both. They'r normal casting is spontaneous. But for those valid for the Spell Talisman level 2 ability.. Those are premade. So you could load up on metamagic for a few of those choice things in the morning.
Tempted to load up on some Shocking Grasp metamagic tricks. throw it at 20ft range with metamagic up on it.


I haven't playee it, but here's my opinion:

The flavour is interesting, I definitely like it. I think I prefer the normal Occultist flavour, but it's still great.

Mechanically you don't lose much:

- Implements are altered.

- Magic item skill, object reading, shift focus, aura sight and the focus powers normally gained at 5th and 17th levels are replaced.

Most of the things replaced are basically there for flavour. Magic Item Skill is a bit sad but not really important. The only meaningful losses are the focus powers at 5th and 17th levels.

The real loss here is that Implements are altered so that you won't qualify for Panoplies. Personally I don't think you NEED them, but they are quite powerful. Even without going into specifics Panoplies allow you to "double-dip" your mental focus points for resonant powers, so disallowing them means you have to stretch your mental focus more.

What you gain is 3-fold:

- You change the range of your targeted spells (from Touch to Ranged Touch or vice versa).

- You can change a multi-target spell to a single-target spell, which gives you a +2 to the saving throw DC.

- You can hand out spells to non-casters so that they can cast them. This function costs 1 point of mental focus per spell handed out.

These three functions can be used simultaneously.

You also get an alternative to Magic Circles which is probably more versatile akd comes online 3 levels earlier.

All in all it looks like a good archetype that focuses a bit more on casting, but in the average adventuring day would probably not see much difference compared to the vanilla occultist. If you like the flavour I see no reason not to take it.


I really am sad you can't panaolopy. If you could do the Mage's you could pay for MetaMagic via mental points not slots.
and prepare those spells as talismen, Meaning it wont take you a full round action in battle to use the metamagic spells.

I mean you can do that normally anyway.. but it costs more slots without that paraphenalia trick.

Although you can still pull certain tricks. Like the shocking grasp powered up one I guess if you were a blaster.

I'm not sure which multi person spells that'll come up yet.

Thanks for your input!
I do really love the flavors.

I'll have to read the magic circle portion again.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / General Discussion / Talisman crafter Occultist. Anyone play / opinion? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in General Discussion