SangoProduction
2019-07-11, 05:13 PM
Idea behind the build: Slimes are cool... and slimy, and kinda wet. Often quite acidic too. So, let's get a bunch of them. And join in the Gooeyness.
Classes (Levels): Scholar (10)
Archetypes: Slime Savant
Why the class/archetypes: The Slime Savant is self explanatory, gaining up to Int Mod slimes under your control. Scholar is because of Slime Savant, as well as Aspect Infusion, which grants elementals, which are just wierder slimes, really.
Material Impositions: You get 4
Ooze: You are forced to take it, and it's the entire reason for the build. So suck it up. Not literally, of course.
Aspect Infusion: Air, Earth, Fire or Water. The most broadly useful ones would be the air and earth elementals. Seriously messes with any attempts at dungeons the DM may have. And so suddenly all cave walls are rebar-reinforced. Can be taken multiple times. Oh and you can now deal actual damage with your at-will Flashbang...so long as you are adjacent to the elemental. Since activating Aspect Infusion to bring out an elemental causes your oozes to return, it's mostly about utility and flexibility, rather than combat effectiveness.
Belladonna Barrier: Average of 7 Strength damage on a failed save. Not bad, considering those with low fort saves tend to also have low Strength, letting you quickly down casters. Of course, if you aren't seeking to abuse the damage to make low Strength attributes "lose," then this becomes a bad imposition, as those who actually use Strength also have good Fort, and often also have good Con.
Howling Herbology: Sonic Damage. One of the best sources of Sonic damage in the game. Either a 1d4/lvl AoE (which returns your oozes), or a nice 1d6/lvl single target. Not only that, but it also increases your flashbang's save DCs by 2 (3 if you don't take Wraith), and allows your flashbangs to Blind and Deafen undead and objects, which presumably includes constructs. No out of combat utility though.
Magnesium: Blind target for 20 rounds. At will. Have fun. Oh also dispels darkness, but that's almost nothing comparatively.
Any other choice is based solely on your campaign situation.
Scholar Knacks: You get 4
Amateur Arcanist: Gain 2 feats, which essentially allows you to transform in to an Ooze or swarm, or swarm of oozes. Really up to you.
Arcane Studies: gain 3 more Spheres of Power talents. Pretty good.
Liquifying Injections: Turn people in to beautiful oozes...which you can tame for free.
Lightning Rod: If you want a way to constantly deal damage, and did not want to take Howling Herbology, then here's your ticket. Also basically gain immunity to electricity....from Attacks specifically, if you want to nit pick the wording.
Cunning Attacker: +Int +3 to attack. That's notable. Pretty hard to dodge a cunning strike. Lets you dump your physical stats even more securely.
Studied Technique: 3 talents in Spheres of Might. Pretty good.
Expert Healing: This grants a +5 to heal checks, which is +15 hit points using your healing class features, and any excess healing is instead temporary healing. This alone is better than improved toughness, and is in addition to being able to invest in the heal skill. Hell, an optimized heal check could allow you to double a barbarian's health through temporary hit points with this.
Everything is is *incredibly* situational.
Martial Talents: (Not including advanced talents) You get 5 talents, +1 bonus alchemy sphere talent, +2 bonus Beastmastery sphere talents, +1 martial tradition
Alchemy Sphere: Gain maximum ranks in Craft(Alchemy)
*Base Sphere, Formulae Package, which grants a bonus Formulae talent.
--Salve: Ridiculous healing. Basically 0 to 100 anyone, and single handedly makes the healing class features of Scholar almost meaningless.
-Sneezing Powder: staggered. Plus it has improved scaling on its DC, ensuring you have at least one round of staggering multiple enemies.
-Improved Acid Flask: AoE damage. It's less than Howling Herbology, which is free and constant, but also has a really big AoE.
-Improved Itching Powder: Either trades one attack of yours for a full round of multiple enemies, or they all take a bunch of penalties.
-Master Chemist: if you took Liquifying Injections (which you should), then this lets you actually use that Scholar Knack.
Beastmastery Sphere:
*Base sphere, Tame package: Gain 10 HD worth of creatures as permanent allies.
*Broad Skills: Allows for those creatures to be slimes. Gives an actual purpose to the Craft Slime feat, other than general chaos.
*DRAWBACK: Those creatures may only be slimes.
-Greater Trainer: Increase maximum HD of slimes by up to 30 (if taken 3 times)
-Purposeful Training: Gives your slimes a bunch of tricks (Only needed if DM doesn't allow for full control of tamed slimes. Many do.)
Scout Sphere: Gain maximum ranks in Stealth.
-Base sphere: get to scout a target. Presumably you can use your preference of knowledge or perception. This is really only needed if you take Cunning Attacker.
-Great Senses: Gain maximum ranks in Perception. You probably already have more skill points than you know what to do with. Prob don't need this.
Equipment Sphere:
-Armor Training: Light and Medium armor proficiency, or heavy if you have light already. Lets you dump Dex.
-Fast Draw: Draw and attack with a weapon in the same action.
-Shield Expert: +1 AC from shields.
-Tower Shield Mastery: Remove attack penalty for Tower Shields, which is effectively a +2 AC over heavy shields.
Martial Traditions Choose one.
-Animal Trainer: Up to 3 talents in the Beastmastery sphere, two of which could be equipment sphere.
-Armored Dreadnought: Armor Training, Shield Expert, and 2 more equipment sphere talents.
-Daring Scholar: +1 Alchemy and Scout talent, and +1 of either Alchemy or Scout
Obviously, get your basic stat boosters, particularly your ninja headband of intellect. Healer's Gloves only cost 2500 gp, and grant +5 to heal skill, which is worth +15 temporary hit points with Expert Healing at level 9. Leechwort herb can be used 1d4 times for +2 to healing skill for only 3 gp.
Everything else you do with the build is for customization's sake. I would recommend Traits which improve your Craft Alchemy, as well as potentially even a Skill Focus Craft (Alchemy), simply because you're going to be relying on your Alchemy sphere to do your damage until you get Howling Herbology or Lightning Rod, and oh so much power is gained by just improving your Craft Alchemy. High Craft Alchemy also allows you to craft stronger oozes earlier.
Classes (Levels): Scholar (10)
Archetypes: Slime Savant
Why the class/archetypes: The Slime Savant is self explanatory, gaining up to Int Mod slimes under your control. Scholar is because of Slime Savant, as well as Aspect Infusion, which grants elementals, which are just wierder slimes, really.
Material Impositions: You get 4
Ooze: You are forced to take it, and it's the entire reason for the build. So suck it up. Not literally, of course.
Aspect Infusion: Air, Earth, Fire or Water. The most broadly useful ones would be the air and earth elementals. Seriously messes with any attempts at dungeons the DM may have. And so suddenly all cave walls are rebar-reinforced. Can be taken multiple times. Oh and you can now deal actual damage with your at-will Flashbang...so long as you are adjacent to the elemental. Since activating Aspect Infusion to bring out an elemental causes your oozes to return, it's mostly about utility and flexibility, rather than combat effectiveness.
Belladonna Barrier: Average of 7 Strength damage on a failed save. Not bad, considering those with low fort saves tend to also have low Strength, letting you quickly down casters. Of course, if you aren't seeking to abuse the damage to make low Strength attributes "lose," then this becomes a bad imposition, as those who actually use Strength also have good Fort, and often also have good Con.
Howling Herbology: Sonic Damage. One of the best sources of Sonic damage in the game. Either a 1d4/lvl AoE (which returns your oozes), or a nice 1d6/lvl single target. Not only that, but it also increases your flashbang's save DCs by 2 (3 if you don't take Wraith), and allows your flashbangs to Blind and Deafen undead and objects, which presumably includes constructs. No out of combat utility though.
Magnesium: Blind target for 20 rounds. At will. Have fun. Oh also dispels darkness, but that's almost nothing comparatively.
Any other choice is based solely on your campaign situation.
Scholar Knacks: You get 4
Amateur Arcanist: Gain 2 feats, which essentially allows you to transform in to an Ooze or swarm, or swarm of oozes. Really up to you.
Arcane Studies: gain 3 more Spheres of Power talents. Pretty good.
Liquifying Injections: Turn people in to beautiful oozes...which you can tame for free.
Lightning Rod: If you want a way to constantly deal damage, and did not want to take Howling Herbology, then here's your ticket. Also basically gain immunity to electricity....from Attacks specifically, if you want to nit pick the wording.
Cunning Attacker: +Int +3 to attack. That's notable. Pretty hard to dodge a cunning strike. Lets you dump your physical stats even more securely.
Studied Technique: 3 talents in Spheres of Might. Pretty good.
Expert Healing: This grants a +5 to heal checks, which is +15 hit points using your healing class features, and any excess healing is instead temporary healing. This alone is better than improved toughness, and is in addition to being able to invest in the heal skill. Hell, an optimized heal check could allow you to double a barbarian's health through temporary hit points with this.
Everything is is *incredibly* situational.
Martial Talents: (Not including advanced talents) You get 5 talents, +1 bonus alchemy sphere talent, +2 bonus Beastmastery sphere talents, +1 martial tradition
Alchemy Sphere: Gain maximum ranks in Craft(Alchemy)
*Base Sphere, Formulae Package, which grants a bonus Formulae talent.
--Salve: Ridiculous healing. Basically 0 to 100 anyone, and single handedly makes the healing class features of Scholar almost meaningless.
-Sneezing Powder: staggered. Plus it has improved scaling on its DC, ensuring you have at least one round of staggering multiple enemies.
-Improved Acid Flask: AoE damage. It's less than Howling Herbology, which is free and constant, but also has a really big AoE.
-Improved Itching Powder: Either trades one attack of yours for a full round of multiple enemies, or they all take a bunch of penalties.
-Master Chemist: if you took Liquifying Injections (which you should), then this lets you actually use that Scholar Knack.
Beastmastery Sphere:
*Base sphere, Tame package: Gain 10 HD worth of creatures as permanent allies.
*Broad Skills: Allows for those creatures to be slimes. Gives an actual purpose to the Craft Slime feat, other than general chaos.
*DRAWBACK: Those creatures may only be slimes.
-Greater Trainer: Increase maximum HD of slimes by up to 30 (if taken 3 times)
-Purposeful Training: Gives your slimes a bunch of tricks (Only needed if DM doesn't allow for full control of tamed slimes. Many do.)
Scout Sphere: Gain maximum ranks in Stealth.
-Base sphere: get to scout a target. Presumably you can use your preference of knowledge or perception. This is really only needed if you take Cunning Attacker.
-Great Senses: Gain maximum ranks in Perception. You probably already have more skill points than you know what to do with. Prob don't need this.
Equipment Sphere:
-Armor Training: Light and Medium armor proficiency, or heavy if you have light already. Lets you dump Dex.
-Fast Draw: Draw and attack with a weapon in the same action.
-Shield Expert: +1 AC from shields.
-Tower Shield Mastery: Remove attack penalty for Tower Shields, which is effectively a +2 AC over heavy shields.
Martial Traditions Choose one.
-Animal Trainer: Up to 3 talents in the Beastmastery sphere, two of which could be equipment sphere.
-Armored Dreadnought: Armor Training, Shield Expert, and 2 more equipment sphere talents.
-Daring Scholar: +1 Alchemy and Scout talent, and +1 of either Alchemy or Scout
Obviously, get your basic stat boosters, particularly your ninja headband of intellect. Healer's Gloves only cost 2500 gp, and grant +5 to heal skill, which is worth +15 temporary hit points with Expert Healing at level 9. Leechwort herb can be used 1d4 times for +2 to healing skill for only 3 gp.
Everything else you do with the build is for customization's sake. I would recommend Traits which improve your Craft Alchemy, as well as potentially even a Skill Focus Craft (Alchemy), simply because you're going to be relying on your Alchemy sphere to do your damage until you get Howling Herbology or Lightning Rod, and oh so much power is gained by just improving your Craft Alchemy. High Craft Alchemy also allows you to craft stronger oozes earlier.