SangoProduction
2018-03-14, 01:47 AM
Challenge: Build something that can spot this bugger. Without seeing magical auras.
This is a 10 level build.
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Race is goblin. +4 Size bonus to Stealth, +4 Racial bonus to stealth, +2 Dexterity Bonus. Pick up the Color Thief trait (goblins of Golorion) for +2 trait bonus to stealth. Stealth is always a class skill for you. Cave Crawler ART for climb speed. (No mechanical boost, but a good ninja-feel.) [Halfling gets better sniping, but I like the more monstrous goblin for this.]
That's a +12 before we even get to point buy. Impressive, all considered.
Obviously, maximize Dexterity to 18. This can be done in all but the lowest point buy without much consequence. So another +4 Stealth. 16 now. Int 14 is pretty safe too.
For classes, we want 2 levels of Rogue for the rogue talent Fast Stealth. That's effectively a +10, relative to before, unless you're fine with creeping along at 10 ft / round. We make up for these lost caster levels with the Magical Knack, for +2 CL. Trapfinding is probably worth more than the piddly bonus Chameleon archetype gives.
We'll want to start with 1 level in Scholar from SoM for access to a martial tradition. (Also, just straight up start with Alchemy and Scout spheres, which means even if you cared only for Stealth, that's +5 skill points). I changed part of this when I realized my misreading of the Alchemy Formulae, and Conscript is likely "better" but it is inconsequential for this build, and I don't feel like changing it.
Sphere Specific Drawbacks: Scout's Hidden Eyes. You can't scout, but you gain Active Camouflage, the talent we wanted in the first place. This grants +10 (not taking Sniper penalty) and half again from your Ranks.
Tradition: Daring Scholar, for 1 Alchemy Talents and 2 Scout talent.
Scout Talents are Lurker, which is like Darkstalker, but even sneakier; and Great Senses, because Perception is OP.
Alchemy Talents (including the one granted by Scholar) are: Formulae, granting Salve; and Panacea; (Hey, it's something to fall back on.)
You have 10 ranks in both Stealth and Alchemy by level 10 because of the talents. This means you can craft 3 formulae in 15 minutes, and have a max at one time of 7 formulae.
Checkpoint: So, 10 skill ranks brings the total stealth bonus (so far) to +26, and we can move fast and Snipe for much less penalty.
We then finish this build off with 7 levels of Incanter (no specialization). This grants us 13 Magic Talents, a magic tradition, 4 bonus feats, at least 9 spell points and CL 9.
Sphere (total talents in sphere, including base): Talent and reason
Light (2): Chameleon for +CL to Stealth for CL hours for a spell point. Also hide regardless of being watched.
Enhance (3): Muffle Sound for effective +CL to Stealth for sound-base perception (which is weird, because then people are better at detecting you by plugging their ears, somehow). Need to take Deep Enhancements so you can spend a spell point and have it last for 10xCL minutes.
Alteration (5): Size Change, which can make you Diminutive from Small, for +8 to stealth, and +4 to Dex (and +2 to hit). Orb to polymorph yourself to an orb, which counts as one size smaller for stealth (+4), oh and fly speed. Perfect Imitation because it grants the alteration trait Camouflage, for +5 Circumstance to Stealth. Might not fly, but assume it does. Lingering Shapeshift is needed to make it last for 2xCL minutes, but you can get all of these in one spell point (and action)
Illusion (5): Invisibility for +CL to Stealth, and Silence for +4 to Stealth. You also need to take Lingering Illusion so you can spend 2 spell points (each) for CL minutes of these illusions. Not fantastic, but could help in a pinch. Could easily drop these. Manipulate Aura lets you make yourself give off a non-magical aura. Considering how blindingly magical you are, this is cool. Also hides magical equipment.
Destruction (x+2): Energetic Affliction, to apply Incandescent Blast for -2 penalty to Perception for CL rounds, while dealing damage for a spell point. You can also freely spam 0.5*CL worth of D6s for no spell points, using your massively inflated ranged to-hit vs touch. Anything else taken here is pure gravy as far as the build is concerned.
Now, if you dropped Illusion, you could take all of these with no drawbacks (and more gravy, if you took drawbacks). Without Illusion, or Alteration you can have +18 to stealth (-2 to perception for those afflicted), with Alteration that goes to +37, with Illusion, it goes up to +50 (52).
Only Light is All-day (effectively) and only Enhance is long-term, but Alteration (and kinda Illusion) should be pre-castable a good bit before the actions are needed, and you can Manipulate Aura as a Trick to appear non magical for CL days.
Checkpoint: Added together with our before-magic total that's +76 (78) to stealth. And you can fly really fast (comparatively) while stealthed with perfect maneuverability, with bonus +5 if you move. (We'll assume we're moving all the time, here on out.)
Now Feats. Let's Address bonus feats from Incanter (4 of them). If Illusion is to be taken, then Extend Spell is rather nice, since you get 2x duration for only 1.5x cost (plus a feat), and you can use it with Energetic Affliction for more total Damage, again, for less total cost. Empower Spell could be kinda silly, if you interpret "bonus equal to caster level" as "variable numeric effects". I won't. Quicken Spell is also like...god tier.
Otherwise, I'm taking Extra Spell Points for +2 SP for each of them. Even burning 1 SP every 90 minutes (keep up Enhance) costs 4 SP for 6 hours. So, say +8 SP, bringing our total to 17. Respectable.
He's also got 5 normal feats from Progression. Obviously, Skill Focus (Stealth) for +6, and Stealthy for +4. If Dispel is prevalent, take Hellcat Stealth. Sneaky Vagabond grants +2 for those actively trying to find you (they aren't finding you by happenstance anyway). ....and...that's it. Literally. So you have 1 or 2 feats left over for Extra Spell Points. Or some other gravy. Maybe Athletics sphere for more speed.
Checkpoint: With feats, the total bonus goes up to +95 stealth, or +97 in crowds, because reasons.
And lastly! At long last! We get to magic items. Such Delicious Magic Items.
First off, Greater Shadow armor costs +33,750 gp. WBL is 62,000 gp. That's just over half, but we'll be generous and allow it for +15 stealth. A Cloak of Elvenkind is a mere 2.5k for +5 Circumstance bonus. Problem: You're either going to need them made for your orb form...which means they are probably so small that you'd lose them if you set them down so they don't merge when you alter yourself.
And....this applies to every single magic item. I mean, so they raise your out-of-orb stealth by 20. You could also probably use consumables before going orb form. This might actually mean you want to actually only use your orb form if they can spot you.
As such, magic items are not really relevant to this build.
Final Verdict: This build can rack up to +97 to Stealth, for a maximum possible stealth roll of 117. If you take the Chameleon Rogue Archetype, then the very first stealth check in a crowd in the day could get a maximum roll of 127.
Take away the spheres spells, then you could still get +65, with Greater Invisibility spell, you get +40 while stationary, netting a total maximum of +105, for a maximum possible roll of 125, or 135 with archetype in a crowd.
This is a 10 level build.
========================
Race is goblin. +4 Size bonus to Stealth, +4 Racial bonus to stealth, +2 Dexterity Bonus. Pick up the Color Thief trait (goblins of Golorion) for +2 trait bonus to stealth. Stealth is always a class skill for you. Cave Crawler ART for climb speed. (No mechanical boost, but a good ninja-feel.) [Halfling gets better sniping, but I like the more monstrous goblin for this.]
That's a +12 before we even get to point buy. Impressive, all considered.
Obviously, maximize Dexterity to 18. This can be done in all but the lowest point buy without much consequence. So another +4 Stealth. 16 now. Int 14 is pretty safe too.
For classes, we want 2 levels of Rogue for the rogue talent Fast Stealth. That's effectively a +10, relative to before, unless you're fine with creeping along at 10 ft / round. We make up for these lost caster levels with the Magical Knack, for +2 CL. Trapfinding is probably worth more than the piddly bonus Chameleon archetype gives.
We'll want to start with 1 level in Scholar from SoM for access to a martial tradition. (Also, just straight up start with Alchemy and Scout spheres, which means even if you cared only for Stealth, that's +5 skill points). I changed part of this when I realized my misreading of the Alchemy Formulae, and Conscript is likely "better" but it is inconsequential for this build, and I don't feel like changing it.
Sphere Specific Drawbacks: Scout's Hidden Eyes. You can't scout, but you gain Active Camouflage, the talent we wanted in the first place. This grants +10 (not taking Sniper penalty) and half again from your Ranks.
Tradition: Daring Scholar, for 1 Alchemy Talents and 2 Scout talent.
Scout Talents are Lurker, which is like Darkstalker, but even sneakier; and Great Senses, because Perception is OP.
Alchemy Talents (including the one granted by Scholar) are: Formulae, granting Salve; and Panacea; (Hey, it's something to fall back on.)
You have 10 ranks in both Stealth and Alchemy by level 10 because of the talents. This means you can craft 3 formulae in 15 minutes, and have a max at one time of 7 formulae.
Checkpoint: So, 10 skill ranks brings the total stealth bonus (so far) to +26, and we can move fast and Snipe for much less penalty.
We then finish this build off with 7 levels of Incanter (no specialization). This grants us 13 Magic Talents, a magic tradition, 4 bonus feats, at least 9 spell points and CL 9.
Sphere (total talents in sphere, including base): Talent and reason
Light (2): Chameleon for +CL to Stealth for CL hours for a spell point. Also hide regardless of being watched.
Enhance (3): Muffle Sound for effective +CL to Stealth for sound-base perception (which is weird, because then people are better at detecting you by plugging their ears, somehow). Need to take Deep Enhancements so you can spend a spell point and have it last for 10xCL minutes.
Alteration (5): Size Change, which can make you Diminutive from Small, for +8 to stealth, and +4 to Dex (and +2 to hit). Orb to polymorph yourself to an orb, which counts as one size smaller for stealth (+4), oh and fly speed. Perfect Imitation because it grants the alteration trait Camouflage, for +5 Circumstance to Stealth. Might not fly, but assume it does. Lingering Shapeshift is needed to make it last for 2xCL minutes, but you can get all of these in one spell point (and action)
Illusion (5): Invisibility for +CL to Stealth, and Silence for +4 to Stealth. You also need to take Lingering Illusion so you can spend 2 spell points (each) for CL minutes of these illusions. Not fantastic, but could help in a pinch. Could easily drop these. Manipulate Aura lets you make yourself give off a non-magical aura. Considering how blindingly magical you are, this is cool. Also hides magical equipment.
Destruction (x+2): Energetic Affliction, to apply Incandescent Blast for -2 penalty to Perception for CL rounds, while dealing damage for a spell point. You can also freely spam 0.5*CL worth of D6s for no spell points, using your massively inflated ranged to-hit vs touch. Anything else taken here is pure gravy as far as the build is concerned.
Now, if you dropped Illusion, you could take all of these with no drawbacks (and more gravy, if you took drawbacks). Without Illusion, or Alteration you can have +18 to stealth (-2 to perception for those afflicted), with Alteration that goes to +37, with Illusion, it goes up to +50 (52).
Only Light is All-day (effectively) and only Enhance is long-term, but Alteration (and kinda Illusion) should be pre-castable a good bit before the actions are needed, and you can Manipulate Aura as a Trick to appear non magical for CL days.
Checkpoint: Added together with our before-magic total that's +76 (78) to stealth. And you can fly really fast (comparatively) while stealthed with perfect maneuverability, with bonus +5 if you move. (We'll assume we're moving all the time, here on out.)
Now Feats. Let's Address bonus feats from Incanter (4 of them). If Illusion is to be taken, then Extend Spell is rather nice, since you get 2x duration for only 1.5x cost (plus a feat), and you can use it with Energetic Affliction for more total Damage, again, for less total cost. Empower Spell could be kinda silly, if you interpret "bonus equal to caster level" as "variable numeric effects". I won't. Quicken Spell is also like...god tier.
Otherwise, I'm taking Extra Spell Points for +2 SP for each of them. Even burning 1 SP every 90 minutes (keep up Enhance) costs 4 SP for 6 hours. So, say +8 SP, bringing our total to 17. Respectable.
He's also got 5 normal feats from Progression. Obviously, Skill Focus (Stealth) for +6, and Stealthy for +4. If Dispel is prevalent, take Hellcat Stealth. Sneaky Vagabond grants +2 for those actively trying to find you (they aren't finding you by happenstance anyway). ....and...that's it. Literally. So you have 1 or 2 feats left over for Extra Spell Points. Or some other gravy. Maybe Athletics sphere for more speed.
Checkpoint: With feats, the total bonus goes up to +95 stealth, or +97 in crowds, because reasons.
And lastly! At long last! We get to magic items. Such Delicious Magic Items.
First off, Greater Shadow armor costs +33,750 gp. WBL is 62,000 gp. That's just over half, but we'll be generous and allow it for +15 stealth. A Cloak of Elvenkind is a mere 2.5k for +5 Circumstance bonus. Problem: You're either going to need them made for your orb form...which means they are probably so small that you'd lose them if you set them down so they don't merge when you alter yourself.
And....this applies to every single magic item. I mean, so they raise your out-of-orb stealth by 20. You could also probably use consumables before going orb form. This might actually mean you want to actually only use your orb form if they can spot you.
As such, magic items are not really relevant to this build.
Final Verdict: This build can rack up to +97 to Stealth, for a maximum possible stealth roll of 117. If you take the Chameleon Rogue Archetype, then the very first stealth check in a crowd in the day could get a maximum roll of 127.
Take away the spheres spells, then you could still get +65, with Greater Invisibility spell, you get +40 while stationary, netting a total maximum of +105, for a maximum possible roll of 125, or 135 with archetype in a crowd.