Halae
2015-06-10, 12:58 AM
Okay, so, this is a bit of a strange request, but I'm building a cleric at the moment and stumbled upon a potentially powerful combo setup and I'm wondering if it, you know, actually works. Here's the concept.
The first part is that I'm taking the Fiendish Vessel (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-tiefling/fiendish-vessel-cleric-tiefling) archetype due to my character being a tiefling. the reason for this is simple - taking the Devil Spawn tiefling type gives me a penalty to charisma so my channeling ability becoming basically useless doesn't matter nearly as much, the fiendish familiar is a straight add-on, with no trade-offs or conditions to its use, and Asmodeus has a domain I want. Specifically, the Ash Subdomain. I'll get back to that later (Also, everybody knows imps are better than quasits *nodnod*). By and large though, this doesn't have an amazing amount of impact on the real question.
The second archetype I'm looking at taking is Theologian. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo---cleric-archetypes/theologian) This is an extremely cool archetype because it can allow your cleric to be a blaster. Remember the ash subdomain? It grants you fireball at level 5, which, conveniently, is when you get the opportunity to upgrade your fireball with a literally free empower spell. If you make it to level 15, the subdomain also gives you access to disintegrate with another free empowerment, which is all kinds of ludicrously powerful. The main drawback of the Theologian is that you only get one domain to choose from (Ash in this case) and while you can prep the domain spells in non-domain slots, you can no longer spontaneously cast domain spells.
This is where things start getting weird, though. Ecclesitheurge (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo---cleric-archetypes/ecclesitheurge) is yet another archetype I'd like to take that has a severely weird set of rules and interactions with other archetypes. The first, and one big problem solved by being a blaster and thus a backline caster, is the lack of armor. This is a badly worded thing because while I lose proficiency with the vast majority of weapons, armor, and shields, it never actually lists what I'm prohibited from wearing and thus by RAW (at least I think that's what it means) I'm not prohibited from wearing armor at all, I just don't have the proficiency for it. It delays my channeling, which I already don't care about, in order to give me a bonded item in the form of my holy symbol, making this one of the incredibly few builds that actually has both a bonded item and a familiar, without actually being a class that normally gets either.
The important details are in the Ecclesitheurge's Domain Mastery ability. this is really interesting because it specifies that I get to choose two domains, in direct contrast to the Theologian's stipulation of only gaining one. And what's more, I can swap around the domain spells of my secondary domain to another domain entirely - so I could, for example, have ash as my primary with law as my secondary, but using spells from Trickery, which is altogether the best you could damn well hope for for an Asmodean cleric.
The problem I'm seeing though is how Focused Domain and Domain Mastery interact. Domain Mastery stipulates that it alters (but doesn't replace) the way the normal Domain ability works. Focused Domain states "In all other respects, this works like and replaces the standard cleric domain ability." If I'm reading this right, if you apply the Ecclesitheurge's Domain Mastery ability overtop of Focused Domain, the only thing you lose in the long run is the ability to spontaneously cast domain spells.
Am I reading this right? Did I miss something? For that matter, are there any rules preventing me from having a bonded object and a familiar at the same time?
Bonus Question: For some reason I'm reading the ability of the Bonded Holy Symbol to add wondrous item bonuses to it as if I had an item creation feat as technically not taking any time or money to do. That can't be right. Is that right?
The first part is that I'm taking the Fiendish Vessel (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-tiefling/fiendish-vessel-cleric-tiefling) archetype due to my character being a tiefling. the reason for this is simple - taking the Devil Spawn tiefling type gives me a penalty to charisma so my channeling ability becoming basically useless doesn't matter nearly as much, the fiendish familiar is a straight add-on, with no trade-offs or conditions to its use, and Asmodeus has a domain I want. Specifically, the Ash Subdomain. I'll get back to that later (Also, everybody knows imps are better than quasits *nodnod*). By and large though, this doesn't have an amazing amount of impact on the real question.
The second archetype I'm looking at taking is Theologian. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo---cleric-archetypes/theologian) This is an extremely cool archetype because it can allow your cleric to be a blaster. Remember the ash subdomain? It grants you fireball at level 5, which, conveniently, is when you get the opportunity to upgrade your fireball with a literally free empower spell. If you make it to level 15, the subdomain also gives you access to disintegrate with another free empowerment, which is all kinds of ludicrously powerful. The main drawback of the Theologian is that you only get one domain to choose from (Ash in this case) and while you can prep the domain spells in non-domain slots, you can no longer spontaneously cast domain spells.
This is where things start getting weird, though. Ecclesitheurge (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo---cleric-archetypes/ecclesitheurge) is yet another archetype I'd like to take that has a severely weird set of rules and interactions with other archetypes. The first, and one big problem solved by being a blaster and thus a backline caster, is the lack of armor. This is a badly worded thing because while I lose proficiency with the vast majority of weapons, armor, and shields, it never actually lists what I'm prohibited from wearing and thus by RAW (at least I think that's what it means) I'm not prohibited from wearing armor at all, I just don't have the proficiency for it. It delays my channeling, which I already don't care about, in order to give me a bonded item in the form of my holy symbol, making this one of the incredibly few builds that actually has both a bonded item and a familiar, without actually being a class that normally gets either.
The important details are in the Ecclesitheurge's Domain Mastery ability. this is really interesting because it specifies that I get to choose two domains, in direct contrast to the Theologian's stipulation of only gaining one. And what's more, I can swap around the domain spells of my secondary domain to another domain entirely - so I could, for example, have ash as my primary with law as my secondary, but using spells from Trickery, which is altogether the best you could damn well hope for for an Asmodean cleric.
The problem I'm seeing though is how Focused Domain and Domain Mastery interact. Domain Mastery stipulates that it alters (but doesn't replace) the way the normal Domain ability works. Focused Domain states "In all other respects, this works like and replaces the standard cleric domain ability." If I'm reading this right, if you apply the Ecclesitheurge's Domain Mastery ability overtop of Focused Domain, the only thing you lose in the long run is the ability to spontaneously cast domain spells.
Am I reading this right? Did I miss something? For that matter, are there any rules preventing me from having a bonded object and a familiar at the same time?
Bonus Question: For some reason I'm reading the ability of the Bonded Holy Symbol to add wondrous item bonuses to it as if I had an item creation feat as technically not taking any time or money to do. That can't be right. Is that right?