Arcanist background/ How to help a young warrior become an Arcanist?

[Elvensilver]

So, my players in a family Pathfinder campaign have taken a shine to a specific NPC (as they well should). Their object of affection is Semis, a 16-year-old human squire (lvl. 2 warrior) in a paladin order, who is sadly somewhat unfit to actually become an effective paladin, as his stats are (I rolled them) Str.: 10, Dex.: 6, Con.: 14, Int.: 15, Wis.: 12, Cha.: 13+2. His exasperated master has entrusted him to the party (Lvl. 4, paladin and witch) for a week to get some perspective/ new insights into paladinhood.

The characters have already halfway brought Semis around to the idea that you can help people without being a paladin, and now the witch’s player has brought up an interesting idea: a side quest to let him retrain to his first PC-class level, one that actually fits his stats. Her suggestion is arcanist.

Since arcanists are fluffwise people with sorcerous potentials but formal wizardly training, this should be twofold: the wizardly part can be easily had through the witch’s exhaustive arcane knowledge and a recently acquired spellbook, but I’m a bit lacking on ideas to actually awaken sorcerous abilities. I looked at the sorcerer backgrounds and they often feature dangerous events or contact with an entity connected to your bloodline.

The setting is: a savannah with a human and halfling nomads (95% good aligned) and rampant curses latching on to people, animals and areas alike, at the beginning of the rainy season.

So: question, then: what are some setting prompts or level-appropriate dangers/ encounters I could bring on a quest to awaken sorcerous powers? It should be open-ended, so that the possible end result does not have to be sorcerer/arcanist: depending on the party’s (and their charge’s) action, Semis could also become a witch, paladin, oracle or wizard, or if everything goes horribly wrong, maybe even a rogue.

Second question: to awaken sorcerous powers, Semis obviously needs a dormant bloodline. What could be ways to low-key imply a bloodline to give the party a hint what to pursue?

tl,dr: The party wants to help an NPC become an arcanist. What could be prompts and encounters to awaken the needed sorcerous powers?

[Quentinas]

I don't know so much of pathfinder but some ideas

Arriving in the site where the curse are unleashed and search the magic source with the NPC that absorb a part of the source (it could be a defend the NPC situation that based on how much time he stay he gain more power , with the maximum being a witch but not at the maximum the arcanist)

An halfling story said that there is a potion/oil/something else that they use on their spellcaster and is said to help awakening their magic. The players should search one of these spellcaster and probably gathering ingredients

They need to search the spirit of an animal /spirits of the family that will help the NPC unlocking his powers so is more an exploration of the NPC background going at the graves or at the place of origin of his family.

As for the bloodlines the ones that could be better

Possessed bloodline In this case is not necessary a past bloodline but rather is a method how the sorcerer could have powers (collaboration of spirits)

Pestilence/Accursed bloodline These are not so difficult to say as the curses could have hitted him so it could be something like being cursed near death and then save his life

Celestial bloodline. With this the approach could be something like (thanks to the words of the master ) "Your ancestor was a paladin so strong! He was able to (insert something) " That with a knowledge check or gathering information on him could identify as a celestial or half celestial or something similar Same with the solar bloodline

Scorpion and serpent bloodline These are more tricky as is not easy to give hints on the bloodline but is easier to do with the spirits of animals approach and to know they could search an oracle or a spellcaster that can divine to gain the hint

These are ideas generated from what I have read on the d20pfsrd so I don't know how much good these are

[Elvensilver]

Thanks, Quentinas, these are some fine ideas I can definitely use.

Especially the idea of visiting the graves of Semis' ancestors should be a good start for a quest to find out more about his bloodline and maybe already awaken it.
Willfully absurbing curses would indeed likely net you the accursed bloodline, but at the cost of, you know, getting even more horribly cursed than it is normal for inhabitants of the region and likely making the party social pariahs for even suggesting it. Looks like a last resort.
I' ll also think about using the ideas of spirits or potions - the players should get something concrete for knowledge checks about obscure "sorcerous power awakening rituals".

Keep the ideas coming, please!

[Firest Kathon]

Well, in an area with rampant curses, the accursed bloodline (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodlines-from-paizo/accursed-bloodline/) comes to mind :smallcool:. Either they simply awaken the potential that was in them all along from an old curse, or being hit by a new curse causes the awakening.

That said, an Arcanist actually does not need a bloodline. The description (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/arcanist/) says:

[They] seek to meld the science of arcane scholars with the natural might of innate casters. These arcanists seek to discover the mysterious laws of magic and through will and expertise bend those forces to their whims.
So it's not about natural magical potential (like sorcerers), but more about controlling magic with their will (more like bards, I guess).

Edited to add: Oops, I missed that Quentinas already suggested the accursed bloodline.

[Eldonauran]

Another idea you could use is that the NPC has several potential bloodlines in which to draw his power from (a lot of beings in Golarion have various degrees of mixed bloodlines), but they are diluted and in competition with each other for dominance, which is preventing any of them from actively manifesting themselves. The formal instruction from the witch would give the NPC an opportunity to sense the competing natures within himself and perhaps to choose a bloodline to awaken. Or not, and just use the latent energies to help him better control his spellcasting.

[Maat Mons]

While an Arcanist can have a bloodline via the Blooded Arcanist archetype, or via the Bloodline Development exploit, a standard Arcanist has no special connection to any ancestry.

If you want him to have a bloodline, I'd just say that the magical training itself is enough to awaken it. So he studies to become a Wizard, but unbeknownst to him, he has latent Sorcerous talent. The Wizard training interacts with his Sorcerous bloodline, and the net result is that he picks up levels in Blooded Arcanist, even though that wasn't what he was trying to do.

From a roleplaying perspective, I like the Imperious bloodline. He is immortal, because he has inside him blood of kings. And it's honestly one of the most plausible bloodlines. In the real world, 8% of men living in the area of the former Mongol empire are male-lineage descendants of Genghis Khan. Go with that bloodline, and you can later have a campaign set thousands of years in the future where the little squire is the magical, immortal god-emperor.