What's Next For The Skelemancer? [SoP]

[Afgncaap5]

In a Pathfinder game, I've been running an Incanter known as Lord Nefarious, The Skelemancer. While he has an obvious penchant for Skeletons, his actual focus is on things that look like a typical sinister sorcerer (despite being demonstrably Chaotic Good most of the time). So his Incanter specialties included Destruction specialization and the power of the Cleric's weather domain.

Sadly, we just hit level 8, and this caps any new abilities he might learn from the Weather Domain or from being an Incanter, and while I think the general progression of Incanter beyond this doesn't look "bad" per se (two talents at level 9 isn't anything to sneeze at), I can't help but feel that a student of nefarious arcana such as this would look elsewhere. There's a lot of options out there, and many that look really good, but I'm trying to go for "cool" or "fun" more than "powerful".

If it matters, I'll drop Nefarious' current SoP abilities from spheres and classes in this tome.


Sphere Abilities

Destruction Sphere:
-Destructive Blast, Nether Blast, Thunder Blast, Stone Blast (I mean, uh... Bone Blast...)
-Crafted Blast, Explosive Orb, Sculpt Blast, Guided Strike

Death Sphere:
-Expanded Necromancy (Every skelemancer should have flaming skeletons)

Nature Sphere:
-Water Package
-Expanded Geomancy: Earth Package
-Waterwalk (No mere moat or lake will stop The Skelemancer!)
-Speak With Stone (Gravestones included!)

Divination Sphere:
-Alternate Divinations: Elements (Earth and Water), Undeath, Hostility
-Read Magic
-Read Omens (via rolling the bones, naturally)




Class Abilities

Weather Domain Abilities:
-Storm Burst: Low power "zot" for nonlethal subduing, or for angrily tormenting people for being jerks.
-Lightning Lord: For smitin' chumps who doubt my power!


Destruction Specialization Abilities:
-Intense Magic: Add more destruction to Destructive Blasts! Theoretically I could hit level 20 and "roll twice to overcome spell resistance" but that's a *lot* of levels for little gain. I'd take it if it was at level 10, but as it is...
-Movement Burst: Surfing the wave of a Bone Blast, Lord Nefarious is nothing if not mobile.
-Elemental Wall: Boooooonnnneeeeee sssstooooooooooorrrrrrmmmmmm...

For upcoming talents, I was considering the Conjuration sphere so that I can summon a skeleton (Ramikin) instead of waiting for dead bodies to show up (I made this fellow before learning that the DM would be taking us through the Iron Gods adventure path, a fun dungeon crawl that is amazingly bereft of creatures with actual skeletons.) I'm also considering the Weather sphere to help him perfectly time thunder behind his ominous comments, but I've been putting off studying the basic mechanics of the Weather sphere. The Warp Sphere also appeals to the "things an evil sorcerer should be able to do" sensibilities. Ultimately, though, I'm more concerned with my next class level than my next sphere abilities.

[inuyasha]

I'm a little jealous that you're getting to play with SoP, I don't think I'll ever get to.

Have there been any allies, cohorts, or followers that were loyal to your party before their untimely demise? A conjuration-sphere minion that looks suspiciously like an undead version of them could be amusing!

As for class, that depends on which ones are available. Has your DM allowed SoM, and declared the Sphere-[caster class here] archetypes fair game?

[Afgncaap5]

As for class, that depends on which ones are available. Has your DM allowed SoM, and declared the Sphere-[caster class here] archetypes fair game?

The DM seems to have taken a kind of quiet, angry acceptance of the existence of SoP. Magic that isn't based on spell slots doesn't sit well with him, unless you're playing 3.5 and call it psionics. I've pointed this out to him, and he says he doesn't see the similarity, but is willing to let me keep playing. I *think* he's fine with archetypes, but I've not asked him.

I've definitely asked him before using any non-standard option, though. Read Omens, for instance, is an Advanced Talent, so I checked with him before taking that one. As for Spheres of Might: I think he'd be fine with it, but I haven't asked. SoM abilities feel like they'd be mostly outside of what the Skelemancer's whole thing is, though.

[noob]

Are you fine with spellcrafting some custom spells for your sop caster?
If you are then a dip into Eclectic Researcher for one level and you somehow instantly get two feats and two talents at the cost of getting the Focus Casting drawback.
Then you call the spellbook you use "Necronomicon" or whatever you want.
Or you could take a dip in Soulfire Master Thaumaturge and then be able to sacrifice your own vital energy to power up your thingies(and plausibly causing a fort save against sickened).
If you have way more charisma than constitution then lichling is a quite cool dip.

[Afgncaap5]

Are you fine with spellcrafting some custom spells for your sop caster?
If you are then a dip into Eclectic Researcher for one level and you somehow instantly get two feats and two talents at the cost of getting the Focus Casting drawback.
Then you call the spellbook you use "Necronomicon" or whatever you want.
Or you could take a dip in Soulfire Master Thaumaturge and then be able to sacrifice your own vital energy to power up your thingies(and plausibly causing a fort save against sickened).
If you have way more charisma than constitution then lichling is a quite cool dip.

I've definitely been considering spellcraft in general, but I don't know if Eclectic Researcher is the right milieu for Lord Nefarious. He's less "study arcane tomes on the field to blast enemies" and more "cackle at the top of the tower and rain destruction down." Not that you *can't* do that with Eclectic Researcher, but it's not a go-to for the theme of the class, if that makes sense. At least, not in my imagination, not yet.

[noob]

The two other dip options I mentioned were not related to spellbooks.
Also maybe you can re-fluff the spell-book into being an unholy skull etched with blood or whatever you want(or even have a spellbook that looks like a hook and replace your hand with it) and who research by killing people.
What are your stats?
Is your character very charismatic?
If yes then lichling is both thematic and gives you a hp boost.

[Afgncaap5]

The two other dip options I mentioned were not related to spellbooks.
Also maybe you can re-fluff the spell-book into being an unholy skull etched with blood or whatever you want(or even have a spellbook that looks like a hook and replace your hand with it) and who research by killing people.
What are your stats?
Is your character very charismatic?
If yes then lichling is both thematic and gives you a hp boost.

I might take Soul Weaver, but I don't think I'd want to go Lichling. Liches are similar to skeletons, but deviate from them in some ways that feel off-brand for me. Plus, my primary reason for wanting Soul Weaver would be to get energy channeling, and Lichling trades that away.

Don't get me wrong, Lichling is a fun archetype, and really nice, it's just not got the right flavor of fun for me.

Soulfire Master might be fun, but I think the baseline Thaumaturge would appeal more or less as much. The class as a whole is a bit of a let-down for this character, though, due to the lack of talents gained.

[noob]

Regular sphere wizard have no fluff with it and gets two talents at first level so if you just want more talents you can do that.
Sphere arcanist is the prepared version of spheres of power and if you use spell craft(for which you do not need a book if you only use a limited number of spells) you can load up some spells with talents you would otherwise not use(you would have a penalty for casting them but it means that you can have a limited access to some talents you would otherwise not take as permanent talents)