Maximized Disguise

[Emparawr]

So I'm making a character who is a custom race, and who's levels are going to run something like Psion Telepath 3/Tatooed Sorcerer 3/ Diablist 1/ Loremaster 1/ Cerebremancer 2/ Thrallherd 1/ Body Snatcher 1/ Cerebremancer 3-10.

He is all about bending the minds of others to his will, illusions, misdirection, and most importantly, getting others to do his will when ever possible. The trick is that in this campaign world, mind influencing abilities such as enchantment magic are illegal, so I need to prevent people from being able to detect my casting/manifesting as much as possible but also my character will quite literally never be walking around as himself. He will always be in disguise because nobody outside of his familiar and animal companion have any clue who he really is. Also I wan't him to be as maximized as possible at disguising himself as other specific individuals as well so I dont have to use mind switch all the time. So I have been doing huge amounts of research on Disguise and maximizing it as much as possible. At this point however I am seeking out the knowledge and experience of all of you to try to see if I can put together a coherent plan.

Disguise Self (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/disguise-self)
So obviously disguise self can create a disguise that is actually an illusion so whenever targets interact with it they get a save against it and in the meanwhile it provides a +10 unnamed bonus to disguise which it would seem polymorph spells do as well in their school description. The advantage to this is that this can change the appearance of your clothing and equipment as well. The only problem with disguise self is that obviously it doesn't actually physically change you, hence the save opportunity from physical interaction with the illusion, and you are limited on size change etc. This thought of course leads to

Alter Self (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/alter-self)
Alter self actually physically changes you into a being of the same type, possibly a different subtype, and gives you a very very small range of abilities. However this doesn't at all describe the extent of the change or how detailed it could be as far as using it to turn into a specific individual which I am curious about. Also since spells of the polymorph school give and unnamed +10 bonus to disguise, and disguise self does as well, one could hypothetically use alter self to change your physical body and then use disguise self to alter the appearance of your clothing and equipment etc and so the bonuses would stack. This however leaves out one final limiting factor as far as I can tell, beyond not having intimate details of the targets life which might be obtained through mind bending so to speak, and that is the voice. Which can be altered by...

Vocal Alteration (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/v/vocal-alteration)
So with this spell I could change the sound of my voice to replicate the voice of my target and as far as npcs making a check against my disguise by hearing my voice I would have a +10 unnamed bonus but since it's purely auditory I don't believe it would stack with disguise self and alter self although I guess it would depend on how the GM wanted to play it. If an NPC was simply making one cohesive check then maybe all three would stack but if it was prompted purely by my voice then I think only this bonus would apply. Lastly as far as I can tell as a topper is

Cultural Adaptation (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/cultural-adaptation)
Cultural adaptation allows me to refine both my auditory communication and my body language to appear as a native of a certain culture and grants a +2 circumstance bonus to my disguise.


So with all these, I would still be limited in a few ways.
1) I can't imitate anything that's not medium of small, although the disguise skill description does mention disguising yourself as a smaller or large size by taking a penalty on your disguise. But either way, obviously I wouldn't be able to disguise myself as anything other then a humanoid of some kind within that size range.
2) If anyone interacted with my clothing or equipment, assuming it appeared drastically different then it actually is, they would prompt a save.


Anyways at this point what I'm looking for is any options that I have missed, prefereably low level as I am trying to have all my disguise options not take up my much needed spell slots but I am open if the options are solid enough. Also if there is anything that I seem to have wrong or have obviously missed out on in all this please let me know. I could use the help :)

[Invader]

All those bonuses don't stack with each other at least how I interpret the rules so I'm not sure you're getting the result you're looking for.

[Emparawr]

They are all unnamed bonuses (which stack) and all from different sources. I think in practice it would really depend on what was prompting someone to make a check against your disguise.

[Deophaun]

I'd be careful using disguise self or alter self, as they could automatically blow your cover. The benefit of the Disguise skill is that magical detection does not pierce it. However, such protection can pierce those spells. Even if the bonus still applies, the fact that you've been revealed to have those spells active on you identifies you as an individual deserving of heightened scrutiny.

[Ashtagon]

They are all unnamed bonuses (which stack) and all from different sources. I think in practice it would really depend on what was prompting someone to make a check against your disguise.

Disguise self can't stack with alter self because they are both polymorph effects, and one polymorph always cancels a previous polymorph.

[TuggyNE]

Disguise self can't stack with alter self because they are both polymorph effects, and one polymorph always cancels a previous polymorph.

That seems plausible, but is it actually stated? ([Polymorph] subschool rules, while enlightening, have no actual impact on spells like alter self or disguise self.)

[Splendor]

Disguise Self is an Illusion, Alter Self is Transmutation.

If someone touches you they get a save against Disguise Self (PHB 222, last paragraph of Disguise Self). If they make it, you're screwed.

Since neither Disguise Self, nor Alter Self say they change your voice; Vocal Alteration would be necessary. As a DM I would say its still a disguise check to alter your voice, but Disguise/Alter Self bonus wouldn't apply (Vocal Alteration would).

You could also look at the spell 'Friendly Face'. While it doesn't grant a bonus to disguise it does grant a +5 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks.

Also if you get them on magical items don't forget 'Nystul’s Magic Aura' so they don't radiate.

[Ashtagon]

That seems plausible, but is it actually stated? ([Polymorph] subschool rules, while enlightening, have no actual impact on spells like alter self or disguise self.)

Alter self is specifically noted as being a polymorph subschool spell (along with any spell that is based off its mechanics; PHB2). It may come down to RAI whether disguise self is based off alter self's mechanics; it is a different school (which doesn't rule out same subschool), but it uses identical phrasing in terms of how it affects Disguise skill checks.

[Invader]

Isn't the source a spell so they wouldn't stack. I understand unnamed bonuses would stack of one sadism, one was am item, etc. To play it otherwise seems pretty cheesy to me.

[Yuki Akuma]

Disguise self can't stack with alter self because they are both polymorph effects, and one polymorph always cancels a previous polymorph.

Disguise Self (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disguiseSelf.htm) is is an Illusion (Glamer).

[Emparawr]

lol im a total idiot, i forgot to put in the title PATHFINDER ONLY.

So yeah, disguise self is an Illusion Glamer, Alter Self is a Transmutation Polymorph. Click the links and see :) I'm glad to see that so far my logic is following through. As I said though I am totally open to any more options for my master manipulator to increase the power of his disguise.

One thing that I had forgotten about which was brought up as a very good point is that both Disguise Self and Alter Self are vulnerable to True Seeing and therefore I need to make sure that before even making either of these alterations I make sure to put on a mundane disguise, that way even if my cover is blown, all they see is my mundane disguise which still isn't me, so although my cover is blown my actual identity isn't necessarily exposed, because they still need to make a check and even then unless they knew me, which nobody does, they couldn't identify me, they would just know that I wasn't what my disguise made me look like. So my mundane disguise would prevent my being Ided until I can make my get away.

Obviously later on some other polymorph school spells might be appropriate to replicate other Types but this campaign world seems to mostly be populated by humanoids, monstrous humanoids, and outsiders, so I dont need to take it too far into disguising as dragons or plants n whatnot. I mean that would be cool but that's a HUGE high level spell investment as far as I can tell and I really need my Sorcerer spell slots for Enchantment and Illusion Spells.

[Emparawr]

@Invader, the rule about bonuses from the same source not stacking means unnamed bonuses from the same spell or spell like ability for example. I can't cast disguise self multiple times and have it stack on me.

@Splendor, hiding magic auras is a very good point, so far in Pathfinder I've found
Magic Aura (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/magicAura.html#_magic-aura)
and
Mask Dweomer (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/spells/maskDweomer.html#mask-dweomer)

Not sure which to use yet though, for later as well since this character is allllll about secretiveness I think a daily casting of Nondetection would be good. I mean he is part of a supposedly non existent secret society type guild that performs assassinations, coups, etc so being able to not be found without a significant caster level check would be good.

@Ashtagon and Tuggy, Disguise self is an illusion glamer not a transmutation polymorph spell.

[TuggyNE]

Disguise Self is an Illusion, Alter Self is Transmutation.

Serves me right for being lazy and not checking an assertion I was a little dubious about.