[PF] Pact magic unbound Vol.2

[wintersjackson]

So, my copy appeared in the last few days and I'm wondering if anyone else has seen it? Increases the utility of the class by a huge degree all over again. Plus, lots of new flavour things and two ways to increase effective binder level and a way of getting an improved twelfth level spell at level eight with Barradu =D

Started a doc trying to gauge some of the new choices. Ratings kinda swayed by my own playstyle.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/116FGOVxtypWmReQyJMoPtvmBwjRdZ3sga-6uZwg9vcw/edit?usp=sharing

[Psyren]

Yep! I have it and I'm working on updating my Occultist Handbook (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FGgq3CJYQaeAugHvaaws-ak1ryZzijKou_w1KN0D9HA/pub) with the new info. It's definitely a boon to low-level Occultists, both pure "caster" and gish builds. Forash and Marat in particular are very nice additions to the low-level Occultist spirit repertoire.

[wintersjackson]

Forash is better summoning than a cleric, and Marat is great defence-and, as I realised from your guide, stacks with Barradu.

[Psyren]

Well... "better" summoning is debatable, since (a) the SNA list is weaker than the SM list and (b) you can only ever get one creature at a time, and can't summon another for 4-5 more rounds. Certainly the duration is more useful at lower levels, but at level 3 onward that ceases to be an issue. Fiendish is also weaker since Smite Good is less likely to be useful than Smite Evil in most campaigns.

Agreed on Marat though, he can make a gishcultist quite the beastly tank.

[wintersjackson]

Bumping for another nice combo I just saw: With Facade and Elysium choir, the reusable Holy Word has a caster level high enough to affect level appropriate enemies. So, a level 20 Occultist with the right specs has a fair chance of instantly killing a CR20 foe for no resources. Admittedly at that stage you are unlikely to be fighting CR appropriate foes, but in a small group or against a larger group of lower-CR enemies...

[Psyren]

Bumping for another nice combo I just saw: With Facade and Elysium choir, the reusable Holy Word has a caster level high enough to affect level appropriate enemies. So, a level 20 Occultist with the right specs has a fair chance of instantly killing a CR20 foe for no resources. Admittedly at that stage you are unlikely to be fighting CR appropriate foes, but in a small group or against a larger group of lower-CR enemies...

First off, Holy Word was nerfed in PF - all the effects have a saving throw now, not just the banishment.

Second, most dangerous enemies tend to have higher HD than their CR, especially at high levels. For example, an Ancient Red Dragon is CR 19, but has 25 HD, and the Tarrasque is CR 25 but has 30 HD. So even against equal-CR enemies, Holy Word isn't nearly the showstopper it appears to be.

Finally, you need EBL-10 to instakill people, not EBL-6. EBL-5 will allow you to paralyze+blind+deafen them though.

In any event, +6 EBL is nice but isn't that big a deal. By level 20, divine casters easily have at least that much to their own CL, with effects like ioun stones, candle of invocation and bead of karma. Since there aren't that many other ways to raise your binder level, the Occultist will typically end up behind true casters.

This is not to say that Elysium is bad - they're quite good (Holy Word that auto-bypasses SR is quite powerful), but even with this combo it's fine.