Help me build an Animist Shaman

[Kvard51]

I"m interested in playing the Animist, an archetype of the Shaman. Level 1 start, 20 pt buy, core and featured races (core encouraged), 2 traits (1 from Strange Aeons), 3 if I take a drawback. I want to play up the possession angle at level 10. How would you build to maximize that?

[Serafina]

Any race that doesn't hurt your Wisdom works, and a bonus is of course welcome.
Humans, Half-Elves and Half-Orks are quite good for cherry-picking some Cleric-spells onto the Shaman list - there may be quite a bit of overlap, but there's still a bunch of nice stuff.
Samsaran could also be interesting for adding some spells relating to posession to your list - but then again, you can already do that via the lore-spirit.
But you might also want to consider Aasimar and Changeling because they get a +2 bonus to both Wisdom and Charisma.

Really, you can build a shaman in a ton of ways, it's a pretty flexible class. Caster-centric, a focus on attacks of opportunity, or straight-up melee all work pretty well - but you can also go for ranged combat and so on. Given that you want to specialize in possession, a less feat-intensive style would likely be good.

So, how do you optimize posession?

First, the 10th-level ability puts your soul into your familiar. This is great! Now you can move around and get close to your chosen target. Of course, your familiar is squishy and you usually don't want to risk it. So my first suggestion is Improved Familiar - get something that's hard to kill, or better yet hard to see. I really like the Small Aether Elemental (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/elemental-aether/aether-elemental-small/) - it's permanently invisiblite (albeit "only" with a +10 to Stealth), it has a great fly speed, blindsense, and it's at-will telekinesis has great utility outside of combat. Oh, and it's strong enough to carry your lifeless body. And it even fits well as a spirit guide.

There's not really many feats that improve Magic Jar. However, you can and should take Penetrating Possession (http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Penetrating%20Possession ) - it'll require investing quite a bit into Charisma, but that's a good secondary ability for your anyway. That way, you can bypass Protection from Evil (which usually auto-counters possession). You may also want Spirit Vision (http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Spirit%20Vision) to more clearly see what you're about to possess, though that may be redundant with your familiar. Scouting Summons (http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Scouting%20Summons) allows you to possess monsters you summon, which can be pretty neat (id not for the short duration of almost all summons) if you want to get into that right away but doesn't technically make your 10th-level ability stronger. For that, you can always take Ability Focus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/monster-feats/ability-focus) if your GM lets you.

As for other feats - okay, considering that you'll likely often possess other bodies and use those to fight, but can't use their feats, it might be a good idea to go with some basic combat feats. Power Attack, at the very least.


Squeezing all that into a build isn't easy. Here's roughly what you could aim for at level 14, with a Scion of Humanity Aasimar:
Strength 13, Dexterity 10, Constitution 12, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 16, Charisma 21 (increases went into Charisma, boost Wisdom via magic items).
Feats: Power Attack, Improved Initiative, Improved Familiar, any two feats (such as metamagic), Ability Focus (Dominate Spirit), Penetrating Possession
Use the Favored Class Bonus to add a bunch of Cleric-Spells. Possess a strong creature, apply cleric-buffs, go to town with that.
For spirits, I'd go with Lore and grab Wizard-spells too, but other than that and in regards for hexes you're pretty open.

For additional flavor: You could use Planar Binding (or Planar Ally) to call up outsiders and possess those for the day. You have the Charisma to make good use of that, and it can allow some really interesting versatility. Keep in mind that you don't get any special abilities - just the HP, AC, movement, natural weapons and ability scores, so something like an Elder Air Elemental (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/elemental-air/elder-air-elemental/) is a better idea than many other outsiders. However, while you can't activate their abilities, some abilities are constantly on (such as a Nalfeshnees (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/nalfeshnee/) True Seeing and Unholy Aura), so see what you can find there.

In the body of an Elder Air Elemental, you'd be Huge, have Strength 28, Dexterity 33 and Con 18, with 152 HP and two melee slams. Oh, and a 100 foot perfect fly speed. While retaining all your spellcasting and hexes.
If you're aiming for something like that, you might consider dumping Int to get Dexterity 13 and pick up Combat Reflexes. 15 foot reach and 11 AoOs per round can be quite interesting.