Help with an Incanter in a party of Initiators and a Sorcadin (PoW/SoP]

[PlatinumVixen]

So I'm entering a campaign with some friends soon - the DM has elected to play modules due to time constraints and we're starting at level 5. I've been really enjoying the character concepts and such we've set up, but due to the makeup of my party, I'm a little lost as to how I want to build my Incanter's talent list. The Incanter was a personal challenge.

The party make up is currently:

A Sorcadin Dragon Disciple who intends to use his spell list to solely buff himself. Yes, I'm aware that he's a way higher tier than I am and has access to the wizard list and that I would probably be better served by picking something closer to his tier.

A Stalker of some description.

A Rubato Bard.

A Steelfist Commando (who is also dealing with the trapfinding and most of the rogue type stuff.

We don't know what modules we'll be doing, as the DM feels that's cheating. Note that the DM also doesn't really like to think about there being a power disparity between tiers, albeit he's a nice enough guy and greatly rewards roleplay.

Here's the thing: I've been more or less tasked with filling the Cleric and Wizard roles for modules, and I'm having difficulty figuring out how I want to actually accomplish anything close to that.

The party has variously suggested or requested I find ways to take care of healing, undead (I'm not even sure there's a great way to do that part in SoP), battlefield control, group debuffs, miscellaneous buffs the Rubato Bard doesn't have, ranged damage, and/or utility. This is somewhat improbable to do even with ten talents, three feats, and four bonus feats and I don't have a lot of experience with modules - I do have experience with SoP, but up until now it's been in parties with other Spherecasters (and Initiators, don't get me wrong) as opposed to four dedicated melee fighters and i've been able to heavily specialize in one or two spheres - but it wasn't so heavily weighted previously. I feel I should do that here but I'm not even sure where to begin. I'm locked into the unique challenge of trying to make an effective SoP character out of this situation, though I can multiclass (unfortunately I just plain don't enjoy Vancian casters anymore and my choice was made and confirmed when there was only three people in the party)

The Telekinetic/Geomancy/Destruction handbooks are allowed and have been read through. Conjuration is heavily discouraged. My apologies for the somewhat chaotic writing, I'm dealing with some heavy insomnia right now and will happily answer any questions, I've just made and scrapped like twenty different combinations of talents and am a little overwhelmed trying to pick something that feels genuinely useful for the kind of junk modules like to throw. If it helps, my character has sort of a "enchantress from the deep woods" vibe - she's managed to be fairly good in constitution, intelligence, and charisma just by luck of the dice.

(I was specifically asked not to play a Vancian Wizard when the campaign was first being discussed and this fact seems slightly hilarious now because outside of the lack of healing it would probably have made my life a whole lot easier)

EDIT: Only Drop Dead Studios and Dreamscarred Press content has been approved. Straight 3.5e an d 3.0e content isn't allowed.

[stack]

In general, you are going to have to optimize items to get the versatility you need. Someone really needs to write a detailed guide to what I call the 'golfbag incanter'. (Carries a golf bag full of staves, wands, rods, etc)

Healing: You can cover healing adequately with a few talents, though the more the better obviously. My favorite healer in spheres is a triple goddess/spiritualism hedgewitch for full CL and the ability to grab the less used healing talents on the fly. As an incanter, it will be harder since you simply can't afford to keep a talent on hand to remove disease. Of course, getting these on staves gets expensive, but you need full MSB for many of them. Could just use 1 use items or NPC spellcasting to take care of the oddballs when needed, kind of campaign dependent.

Time get you both buffs and debuffs that can work very well in a party of your size. You can haste, slow, or even daze while getting an extra action. Makes a solid choice to focus on.

Grabbing a little warp is good, even if you don't specialize.

Destruction can debuff and BFC pretty well.

With the right party dark could be devastating. Takes coordination though.

I'll try to drop in later and see if I can't pull a more detailed concept together.

[PlatinumVixen]

I did consider a Hedgewitch build earlier - I sort of gave up on it because the DM finds Spiritualism unsettlingly but if this doesn't really work out I'll take another go at pitching it (I do love Triple Goddess though, it's amazing).

Point, hadn't considered that about Time.

I admit Destruction is a lot more interesting after the Destroyers' handbook, so I'm definitely thinking about that. Downside is the DM is nervous about me adding any more damage to the party.

Dark...True, but I don't think the party's really set up for it at this time.

The item grabbag is a good point. I should probably mention that I'm the only party member with hard restrictions on what he's allowed to pick (reanimate was also banned, he gets nervous when I mention Flight with regards to the first module but has acknowledged I'll need it eventually) probably because Spheres allows me to pick whatever more or less.

[stack]

Flight is non-trivial at low levels, given size limits on telekinesis (you can boost CL various ways and/or play a small race) and the avian form from alteration. Elemental transformation costs SP (unless you play an elemental scion at 6+). If reanimation is banned animating objects with enhancement will likely be frowned on.

Focusing on crystal blast would give good BFC while keeping damage down. Glad you like the book.:smallredface:

Dark for a pary that isn't set up for it mainly eats spellpoints to make them immune to your darkness.

Didn't get a chance to post a full set of suggested talents, sorry.

[PlatinumVixen]

No worried, still super helpful man, and your guides are fantastic. I'm my groups' resident spheres' 'expert' (by default) so whenever stuff happens that I'm uncertain on I don't really have anyone to consult with. We have a guy who loves Vancian and Taveena always goes for DSP stuff but when it comes to Spheres, hoo boy.

Yeah, any kind of action economy increase worries him, so I just plain can't add on any NPCs. Traits are out too. He's not worried about Time or Warp or spellcrafting (for some reason) but I feel I might be able to really annoy him with it.

Those are good points about Flight, I'll point it out to him.

I've been sort of trying to maximize what I can do without spell points admittedly.

Thanks!

[stack]

Everybody wants to max what they can do without spellpoints. At early levels it's a big deal. I certainly am guilty of trying to get easy focus on everyone.

I would still be writing guides if writing expansions hadn't taken all my writing time. It's hard to keep the orrery up with the new material, much less update the other guides or write new ones.

If action economy boosts are scary, maybe stealing actions from foes should be avoided. Still other good stuff in time.

[ArchangelAzrael]

hope I am not too late but I think Vitalist seems to be a great solution. It can offer amazing heal I mean really really amazing And with the right feats or archetypes (my personal favourite Life Leech+ sadist cause who doesn't like to put a twist in healing (and do damage and healing at the same time)) you can also do other things as well.

vitalist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/vitalist) the class
PF-Mental-Medicine-a-Vitalist-Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?222365-PF-Mental-Medicine-a-Vitalist-Handbook) the handbook

[PlatinumVixen]

So this all turned out to be largely pointless because another player joined and took care of all the stuff I was being tasked with.

I'm not complaining, I am very happy with my new build given I've been able to focus on what seems fun to me instead of trying to pretend to be a vancian cleric. Thanks for the advice though, it definitely helped.

Actually passed on the Vitalist suggestion to the volunteer healer but she didn't bite. Ah well.