How best to represent Dr. Strange in 3.5 + Pathfinder + Spheres?

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

A friend and I are playing in an online game which combines 3.5, Pathfinder 1e, and Spheres content. All content for these systems is allowed - even magazine and web content - pending GM approval. Spheres of Power and Might (the latest versions) are explicitly allowed.

We're using a hybrid of the 3.5 and PF system, which includes these notes:

-41 point buy using the 3.5 point buy system.

-We use 3.5's versions of races like Human.

-We use the PF skill system, meaning we use Stealth instead of separate Hide/Move Silently. And there's a Fly skill. Etc.

-We may use the 3.5 and PF versions of feats so long as we note which version we use so long as they're notably different. For example, 3.5 Persistent Spell and PF Persistent Spell (or Cleave or Power Attack...) are notably different abilities despite the same name. Taking Improved Initiative twice is a waste of a feat since the 3.5 and PF effects for Imp Init are the same and thus don't stack.

-We start at level 10 with 1 free level adjustment (LA).

-We have 49,000G of starting wealth. We can spend all of our starting cash on one item if we like, but we're normally discouraged from doing so due to the practicality of the variety of effects associated with various slots.

-We use the PF craft system, meaning Spellcraft checks and no EXP costs for making metaphysical items.

-The campaign starts on a custom material plane, but is expected to expand into an interplanar adventure.

-The deities of Golarion (Pathfinder's world), Faerun AKA Toril, Oerth AKA Greyhawk, Eberron, Planescape, and elsewhere in D&D 3.x exist in this multiverse.

-The other party members at present are a Wood Elf Fighter Archer, a Human Cleric of Kelemvor/Doomguide, a Human Wizard/Priest of Mystra, a Human Fighter/Warlock Glaivelock, and a dual wielding shadow pouncing Human Telflammar Shadowlord. Thus, this Dr. Strange character need not be built in a specific party role, and I know that Dr. Strange can be portrayed a variety of ways.

Thankee!

[RandomPeasant]

It depends what you mean by "Doctor Strange". The movies? The comics? Are you focused on his wielding the Time Stone, his fighting extradimensional monsters, or something else? Honestly, I don't think you can really do a faithful Doctor Strange at 10th level, as a lot of his signature tricks are pretty high level. You could take some time-based spells, but even something as basic as temporal stasis is an 8th level spell, and using the Time Stone should involve magic substantially more potent than that.

[Quertus]

Well, to faithfully recreate Dr. Strange from the MCU, IMO,
Only one magical item: a sentient flying cloak. Give it the fly skill / make it an item familiar as approriate. (Oh, and like a 0 gp "empty potion bottle", has a 0 gp item "empty Eye".
Class is an issue. Clearly a Sorcerer given that he learned his powers from reading books. Clearly a Wizard given that he doesn't seem to pre-memorize his spells. Clearly a Monk. I'd go with Monk 1 / Wizard 9, except...
His signature spell (at least from the comics) is approximately Gate. In the movies, his "Sling Ring" power is similarly a lot like Gate. So we need to cheese him up to 9th level spellcasting (or 8th, if we can convince the GM "Gate, but with an expensive focus (Sling Ring)" is only an 8th level spell.
The easiest way to square the circle of his spontaneous spellcasing as a book reader may be to make him a Shadowcaster. Good luck trying to convince your group that Dr. Strange is actually, secretly a Gnome. Although that is kind of strange...
If we're after the strange, and we really care about the "eye" theme, we could look at complete cheese of Dr. Strange, who gave up his old life, being an Elan, turned Beholder Mage. That could get us our 9th (8th?) level Gate spell, the eye theme, floating/flying... and even a Charisma penalty thrown in for good measure. Is there anything else really signature to MCU Dr. Strange that we're missing at this point?


So, final build, Elan Monk 1 / Beholder Mage 9, all funds sunk into a sentient flying item familiar cloak (& Sling Ring focus). You may need a custom Beholder to make the HD make sense, though.

(I'm guessing Spheres has some tricks to let you get access to Gate tricks faster than normal that might be less "good-a" than Beholder Mage)

[Biggus]

A few initial thoughts (all 3.5 as I don't know the other systems well enough, and based primarily on the character in the original comics):

For base class, Archivist or generalist Wizard seem to fit best, because he knows a very wide range of spells. His flavor is more arcane, but as Heal is Wis-based in D&D and he was a surgeon before becoming a mage, Archivist being both Wis and Int based fits well. Also, he sometimes draws power/makes deals with from godlike beings like the Vishanti. Even both then into Mystic Theurge might fit best.

Another class which seems to fit him well is Void Disciple, as it models his cosmic awareness as well as having some very powerful abilities, depending on DM interpretation.

The problem with both of these prestige classes of course is they lose quite a few caster levels. But that's the thing with Dr Strange, he's got so many awesome powers you're going to have to make some decisions about what's most important to you, you'd need a gestalt game at the least to represent him at all accurately.

Which leads to my final suggestion: if you can do so without upsetting the campaign too much, cheese him for all you're worth, because he's one of very few fictional characters who actually resembles an optimised D&D caster. For example, from the Marvel Comics Wiki (https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Stephen_Strange_(Earth-616)#Powers):


Energy Blasts: Capable of destroying moons and planets


Dr. Strange has also been shown to amass as much wealth/gold as he desires using magic, as he has done to pay debts he owed.

Oh one last thing, for strict accuracy he should have a level or two of Monk or something similar as he's also noted to be an expert martial artist, but that's gonna be hard to fit into an already overcrowded build.

Slightly off-topic edit: after some more thought I reckon the minimum needed to fully represent him as he appears in the comics is a 28th-level gestalt character, Expert 5 Monk 2 Archivist 21 on one side and Wizard 13 Void Disciple 13 on the other.

[Seward]

I'm not as up on all the versions of Dr Strange that have been out there but I'll toss out a couple things.

The dimensional travel is absolutely his best magic. He's able to take armies with him, travel anywhere blah blah. That said, back when I read Defenders Comic in the 1970s, he could in theory cast damn near anything (that is what Master of Mystic Arts meant, Sorcerer Supreme is when he got the larger scale gate powers).

So here is what I remember, and if making an Expy I'd focus on.

Martial Arts Nope. While trained in an eastern tradition and probably does use martial arts to stay fit and to be better at physically dodging attacks or falling properly or rolling with a blow, that's called "hitpoints, reflex save, etc" in D&D and all of that is just him being higher level than a random temple monk. He had delicate surgeon hands damaged in a crash and he needs them at current function to cast spells. He does NOT engage in fisticuffs. You don't need to give him monk levels. Give him decent dex and call it a day (he needed that to be a master surgeon anyway)

Sorcerer (he did not prepare spells ahead of time. Sorcerers can learn their mystic theory from books, they have Spellcraft and Kn Arcane on their lists, and he'll have a good Int, as he was a master surgeon in our society, and that's competitive academically).


as noted by others, he flies with a Cloak of Levitation, which gives overland flight but can also be detached to do TK-maneuvers and is pretty durable, can't remember if indestructible or sometimes needed repair.


He is Master of Mystic Arts, so he has Limited Wish He can cast nearly anything but if it isn't a signature spell, it's probably harder, and thus why he doesn't stray from them often. He does not favor area direct damage, enchantment, necromancy type spells or even much in the way of illusions. Transmutation is more often on items like his cloak. Most divination is tied up in a single, extremely powerful spell. Conjuration and Abjuration is where you see most of his "on the fly" effects.



Signature Spells

Bolts of Bedevilment - Magic Missiles. They're shiny and do damage to most anything but not a lot and I don't remember them missing. This could also be the entire line of Orb spells, whatever blastery single target stuff you give him, call it that. As he usually eschews area evocations, having his blast coming out of the conjuration school where he is undoubtedly a master would be a good excuse for this being something like orb of force (decent range, moderate damage, works on nearly anything, could theoretically miss but usually will not, can be fired blind) and perhaps metamagic versions of the same

Eye of Agamotto. True Seeing, Analyze Dweomer, the "highest spell power available" ability of Arcane sight and probably Probe Mind all rolled into one. Can cause sanity hazards if opened in some of the neighborhoods he operates in.

Crimson Bands of Cyttorak This is basically forcecage - fire and forget, no physical force can break it, including entities like Hulk, and it always works (no save). Does not have size limits of Forcecage (or 1500gp ruby dust needed), works more like a binding spell (sizes to the target, pins all limbs, but they can still talk). Shifting a physical form to another one, growing or shrinking don't help you escape, the bands adjust. Going gaseous or incorporeal would work and it is possible magically created energy might be able to damage it, although I can't remember that ever happening (typically it is dismissed by caster or dispelled/destroyed by an enemy spell directly)

Noname Spells
These are effects he does often but doesn't always call them out.

1. Magical Shields for self and party (shield, wall of force, mage armor planar-effects-protection etc)
2. Is able to routinely dispel things like Crimson Bands (so Disintegrate, and gust of wind for fogs)
3. Has a variety of counterspell and dispel type options (consider dispel, antimagic field, similar)
4. all that planar travel stuff/teleportation stuff. It tends to manifest as gates. Not sure what is best here.

[StSword]

"That Boomer Kid" made two feats for emulating the Dr Strange movies' mirror realm shenanigans, which you can find here (https://thatboomerkid.tumblr.com/tagged/doctor%20strange).

Doesn't hurt to ask.

Anyway, considering the magic of Dr Strange being more imaginative than rote, and the movies focus on dimensional shenanigans, I think a Sidhe Invoker (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sidhe-invoker) Fey Adept might be evocative, being able to bring the local area partially into faerie for planar stunts.

[Malphegor]

I will throw in that the comics Strange is big on bargaining with eldritch entities for power

AND the first MCU movie specifically namesdropped the Lesser Key of Solomon irl grimoire, which is what the goetic Binder magic in 3.5’s Tome of Magic is based off loosely…

So Some kind of caster/Binder/Anima Mage would be a good shout to scream ‘by the hoary hosts of Hoggoth’ before using a vestige’s powers to strap a metamagic to a spell

[StSword]

Actually binding is more like the black magic reverse possession Dr Strange is known for doing, the closest the MCU has to that is the What If Strange who ate all those entities for a power up.

[Ramza00]

Mystic Theurge with Wizard and Archivist. Comics Doctor Strange the gods (which we get via Archivist) are more “Binder” flavoured and thus Archivist instead of Cleric for the Divine half.

Uncanny Forethought and Spell Mastery which gives Strange some spontaneity on the fly without preparation, everything else is preparation at the start of the day or taking 10 minutes to fill an open spell slot if one does not want to use Uncanny Forethought. Aka flavour the preparation not as reading books but doing rituals, sigils, summoning demons, etc.

Strange is an Illumian Human with the Improved Sigil Krau for early entry into the Theurge, fixing the caster level loss, and more sigils / letters appearing out of nowhere as cosmetic choices of his magic.

Strange has the Oriental Adventures human feat Keen Intellect (updated to 3.5 in Dragon 318 if I recall) which makes almost all his Wisdom skills into Intellect based skills like Perception, Sense Motive, and Heal. Also makes his Intellect modifier power Will Saves instead of Wisdom.


In sum that grabs 4 feats which may be all of but one of your 5 HD based feats … if one is not playing with flaws, bonus feats, etc.

Likewise while it is not necessary Archivists use Bonus Spells for Wisdom, you can just dump Wisdom for you have so many spell slots already or one can take the feat Academic Priest from the 3rd party Dragonlance book Legend of the Twins. This is not really necessary and also not possible without flaws for your Illumian. Keen Intellect is more important.

———

After all this the big thing is to get some crafting done. Lots and lots of Crafting. One can make an intelligent item cloak in Pathfinder and Pathfinder is actually useful with intelligent items being able to cast spells and one can make such a thing. Thus time travel shenanigans are possible with 4th and 5th level spells via using the Celerity line of spells. Then after you Celerity the cloak casts the 2nd level Divine Spell Surmount Affliction, or the superior 2nd level Psychic Magic Placebo Effect moving the daze or other bad thing rounds or minutes into the future. Likewise those two spells allow you to Heal / Dispel / Panacea / etc the underlying condition.


Notice I did not mention Item Familiars the 3.5 UA feat. One can take the UA feat but one does not need to do so with the Pathfinder crafting rules. In sum taking the feat saves oneself some gold and allows things like investing spell slots and other possibilities. It is not necessary I am just saying you have options. One nice thing about the Item Familars feat is the familiar can cast your spells with a variant of Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability.
What to do with the Free Familiar that Wizard grants? Bonded Object works well, Abrupt Jaunt if you go Conjuration Specialist works well, likewise going familiar and changing it out for the an air or elemental familiar via the spell book archive elemental familiar (I do not have the wizards.com webpage of this older page off hand) works as well. Remember elementals have elemental speech, can be humanoid in appearance and thus wear magic items and Wanda, and lastly can have great mobility with 100 ft fly perfect, or Earth Glide. Thus a Familiars whose only job is to cast Benign Transposition swapping two allies with 100 feet (including the familiar itself) via a cheap wand, or using the more expensive wand to cast dimension step or haste is well worth it.


Likewise another Time Related effect is the Battletide spell which normally requires Initiate of the Bane feat, but an Archivist can track down such a person and learn their secret magic. This 5th level divine spell and a standard action allows one to quicken 1st level spells for free at CL 09, 2nd level spells at CL 11, 3rd level spells at CL 13, 4th level spells at CL 15, and 5th level spells max at CL 17. Aka this spell is a waste of actions at CL 09 but becomes useful at higher Caster Levels and it can quicken either Wizard or Archivist spells. At lower levels Spell Matrix Lesser at Wiz 5th, and Spell Matrix at Wizard 7th is more useful.

———

In sum half of Doctor Strange is possible with your rules, full abilities would be a HD 13 and HD 17 thing aka 7th and 9th level spells (though in our case it would be HD 14 and 18 for one is 1 caster level behind unless one does the Inner Sea Magic magical academies, something you can easily do all the time since Archivist allow you to do those Skill bonus spells like Lore of the Gods, Divine Insight, etc.)

Lastly I forgot make such to do Superior Resistance, Reistance, Tyche Touch, Conviction, and Benediction to boost your saves into the stratosphere for all of those are Divine or Wizard spells.

[AnonJr]

Likewise while it is not necessary Archivists use Bonus Spells for Wisdom, you can just dump Wisdom for you have so many spell slots already or one can take the feat Academic Priest from the 3rd party Dragonlance book Legend of the Twins.

Or, if you could get DM approval, you could use the Lost Tradition feat from Bastards and Bloodlines to switch Archivist casting to Int. It would feel a lot more in theme, and get the bonus spells/higher DC from a pumped single thematic stat.

[Ramza00]

Or, if you could get DM approval, you could use the Lost Tradition feat from Bastards and Bloodlines to switch Archivist casting to Int. It would feel a lot more in theme, and get the bonus spells/higher DC from a pumped singlethematic stat.

Does not matter but I hear you :smallsmile:

Archivist is 10+Int to cast a spell,
Save DC is 10+Int+Spell Level,
Bonus Spells is Wisdom based with Archivist. This either Academic Priest or Lost Tradition would do the same effect. But if you wanted to go Cleric instead of Archivist than Lost Tradition would make the Wis based Cleric into an Int based Cleric for all 3 things while Academic Priest would only do it for Bonus Spells and whether you can Cast the Spell.

[Endarire]

The feats Academic Priest and Dynamic Priest change divine casting to INT and CHA respectively.

This request is intended as a mashup of Dr. Strange's powers from all sources without necessarily trying to be all of them simultaneously, even at level 20+.

Thankee!

[AnonJr]

Does not matter but I hear you :smallsmile:

Archivist is 10+Int to cast a spell,
Save DC is 10+Int+Spell Level,
Bonus Spells is Wisdom based with Archivist. This either Academic Priest or Lost Tradition would do the same effect. But if you wanted to go Cleric instead of Archivist than Lost Tradition would make the Wis based Cleric into an Int based Cleric for all 3 things while Academic Priest would only do it for Bonus Spells and whether you can Cast the Spell.

Forgot about that with the Archivist. Never played one myself, but I've played at a few tables that have had them.

[vasilidor]

My initial thoughts were to make a Bokor. the lowest level you can get into it would be level 8 and it would require 3 levels of incanter and 4 of wizard to enter at that point. at level 10 you would have the casting ability of a level 7 wizard and a level 8 Incanter, minus a few talents and feats. If you delayed entry into the class until after you hit ten levels of wizard and then took 2 levels of Incanter and then 8 levels of Bokor you would be casting as a level 18 wizard, level 15 Incanter.
Level 9 spells and all day magic power. For most things you could use your magic talents and occasionally boost with spell points, but when you really needed to hit hard you could break out the high level spells.
My only question is what magic talents fit the theme?

[Anthrowhale]

A relatively simple build with the flavor is something like a Human Conjurer 7/Nar Demonbinder 1/Ultimate Magus <n>

With feats:
Human: Spell Mastery
1. Uncanny Forethought
3. Spell Focus(Conjuration)
Wizard 5: <metamagic>
Otyugh Hole: Iron Will
6.
9. Theurgic Specialist
12. Practiced Spellcaster[Nar Demonbinder]

Uncanny Forethought allows you to have the right spell any time that's needed.

Theurgic Specialist interacts with Nar Demonbinder and Ultimate Magus levels to provide a high caster level for all conjuration spells. For example, at level 10 you'll have caster level 10 (and spell advancement 9) for wizard spells as well as caster level 10 (and spell advancement 2) for Nar Demonbinder spells, implying caster level 20 for all conjuration spells.

Ultimate Sorcerer fits flavorwise.

Nar Demonbinder is off a bit. The mechanics are good, but you'll want to play as something more like a Malconvoker flavor.

[Rynjin]

Spheres Arcanist (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-arcanist) works well out of the box, and extremely simply compared to other proposed solutions. Dr. Strange's primary trait is flexibility in his magic. He's a "do anything wizard" in its purest form. Yeah he has some basic tricks to fall back on, like energy blasts, but he can also whip up a ritual or whatever for any given problem.

Spheres Arcanist gets half its talents as Moldable Talents, which can be changed daily to any other magic talents. The Quick Study exploit lets them change this as a Full Round action for 1 Arcane Reservoir point, giving them a LOT of flexibility.

There is much to be said for a normal Arcane caster being stronger, but Sphere casters do have access to a wide array of incredibly SPECIFIC effects that can be used to replicate weird one-off comic feats that are otherwise difficult to pull off short of a less jank Words of Power system.

[Seward]

I will throw in that the comics Strange is big on bargaining with eldritch entities for power

Yeah. Some Pathfinder trait or feat that lets him use intelligence for charisma (assuming an int-based build instead of a cha-based spont caster) doing diplomacy would be good, especially if it makes diplomacy a class skill. I seem to remember my juggler character built on an Alchemist chasse (a low cha high int elf who wanted to make people happy) had perform based on int and a class skill, so there must be something out there along those lines.

[Biggus]

Spheres Arcanist (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-arcanist) works well out of the box, and extremely simply compared to other proposed solutions. Dr. Strange's primary trait is flexibility in his magic. He's a "do anything wizard" in its purest form. Yeah he has some basic tricks to fall back on, like energy blasts, but he can also whip up a ritual or whatever for any given problem.


Yes, this I what I was thinking. He can use magic to solve almost *any* problem, about the only thing he failed at was bringing back the dead as far as I know.

[Kitsuneymg]

Incanter 10, whatever the most broken LA 1 race/template is. Human is great because feats.

Take warp, mass teleport, wormhole, portal. Keep an eye out for portal network’s prerequisites by 15th level and on maybe trying to have your own demiplanes to trap people in as well.

Time, steal time, mass time, improved haste, improved slow.

Protection and the greater barrier support talents.

I like to refluff crystal blast (use a drawback for this and explosive orb) as a temporal distortion used for offense.

Divination to taste.

If you must have martial arts, consider inheritor sorcerer with a suitable tradition. May as well go 5 into that to get better flex on magic talents. You’ll be short talents though.

This gives you some decent space-time manipulation powers, some barriers, and some ability to do knowledge. You could do the advance conjuration summoning talents as well to consort with otherworldly beings if that fits you image.

[stack]

There are a couple feats in an SoP expansion (Players Guide to Skybourne? I am a bit rusty) that let you prepare vancian spells are rituals, Spell Dabbler and Spell Adept (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/ritual-feats). Slap that on an incanter and you should be able to get within a reasonable distance of anything you need for this.

I normally consider them too high on the power curve to recommend, but given the topic...

[Ramza00]

Okay I am reading and learning my spheres from other sources right now, but while doing so I am reminded of this Endarire thread from 2 weeks back.

My Spheres Knowledge is Basic but to echo what Rynjin, Biggus, and stack said you could always go Spheres Arcanist.

Then throw on the Pathfinder Occultist Arcanist Archetype on it so you can summon monsters up to SM in exchange for Arcane Reservoir Points of 1 to 5. And you can refill your Reservoir Points for 1 SP to 3 Arcanist Reservoir Points.

Likewise you can always Quick Study and swap out 5 Mutable Talents that one gets for 9 levels of Arcanist.

And you can also go big with this see Post 14 and 15 by Rynjin and Jack_Simth


Yup. You make it a Mage Companion.



You could have multiple, separate companions each with a different Talent set too if you wanted. Implement bearer then boosts its CL to essentially full caster level.



They get full Feat progression to do with as you please, though it will likely be spent primarily on "Extra Talent". Essentially for every talent you spend on Extra Companion, you get a number of bonus Talents equal to 1+1*number of odd caster levels.

There is also a Martial Companion form that gets Spheres of Might Talents.

This...is likely the reason for the nerf.


You're math is off by default. They get full feat progression, but the gotcha is that they have fewer hit dice than your caster level; it's specifically a 3/4 progression (just like medium BAB).

That's fixable, though, if you don't mind a little risk: you can combine the Mage (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/conjuration#toc6) and Unwilling (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/conjuration#toc10) archetypes to get a Conjouration companion that has full Hit Dice, Take the Implement Bearer option under Mage (it shouldn't be using it's natural weapons anyway), and it's caster level for a chosen sphere matches your own. Pick a base form with a bad Will save (Avian, Ooze, Quadruped, or Vermin), buff your Conjouration save DC a bit, and the companion will fail the will save about 95% of the time.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?625552-Spheres-How-would-you-build-a-quot-Synthesist-quot

So if I understand correctly and my math is right a base Mage Companion had 8 HD if you have 10 CL in the Conjuration Sphere (and one can't use caster level boosts from items and other temporary sources with the Companion Sphere)

Unwilling makes that 108+2 HD since every 4 HD you have you can give the Companion 1 extra HD (aka it goes from 3/4 HD per CL to 4/4 HD per CL)

Now Mage Companions have a CL of 3/4 their HD thus only 7 CL for those 10 HD8+2.

So the Mage Summons you have 5 Feats. Use Extra Traits to give your Companion "Gift for Magic" (Magic Trait) so in one Sphere the Caster Level is 7+2, and for your second magic trait pick one of the faith or religion traits and the Mage Companions you summon get a Caster Level of 7+1 in 3 other Spheres. (These traits do not stack since the CL bonus is a Trait Bonus.) You have 4 Extra Feats now to grab Feats to give the Mage Companion some basic talents and/or more Spell Points.

But also your Mage Companions can start with Implement Bearer (form) trait via sacrificing its Natural Weapons (which were bad anyway) thus your Mage Companion now has a +3 Implement to boosts its CL or to give it Bonus Talents. In sum by my Math that means your Mage Companions can have a Caster Level of 11 or 12 in a few spheres before drawbacks which is actually higher than the HD of the Companions.

Likewise the Mage Companion can have Sphere Specific Drawbacks where you get more talents but at a cost, but you do not really care much about the cost for you are summoning a specific magical being from an otherworldly place that you "crafted" (even if they are unwilling.) All of this of course has DM okay or it doesn't work.

Now Unwilling has lots of drawbacks but if you summon these Mage Companions to buff you out of combat prior to combat with long duration buffs is this a problem? Likewise we can stack a Familiar Archetype on this Mage Companion as well so it doesn't cost anything to summon these companions spell point wise but then they are only 5 HD and you sinked a lot of talents into it so I am not sure if its worth it?

Did I just create a Binder type effect where you Planar Bind monsters but not technically Planar Binding for it is the Spheres System and also replicate some of the 3.5 Binder Flavor? Is this Comic Stephen Strange whenever he needs to do a crazy feat of strength :smallsmile: (Likewise all the versatility already mentioned earlier with 5 Mutable Talents and Quick Study)

Edit: Forgot to mention a Puppet Mage Companion at Arcanist 10 can do 8 HD+2 Implement plus the Extra Traits Feat with no Planar Binding type effect just you giving directions and it had -1 Spell Point Cost. Thus another option besides tradition Mage Companion, Unwilling Mage Companion, Familiar Mage Companion, etc.

[Jervis]

Well, to faithfully recreate Dr. Strange from the MCU, IMO,
Only one magical item: a sentient flying cloak. Give it the fly skill / make it an item familiar as approriate. (Oh, and like a 0 gp "empty potion bottle", has a 0 gp item "empty Eye".
Class is an issue. Clearly a Sorcerer given that he learned his powers from reading books. Clearly a Wizard given that he doesn't seem to pre-memorize his spells. Clearly a Monk. I'd go with Monk 1 / Wizard 9, except...
His signature spell (at least from the comics) is approximately Gate. In the movies, his "Sling Ring" power is similarly a lot like Gate. So we need to cheese him up to 9th level spellcasting (or 8th, if we can convince the GM "Gate, but with an expensive focus (Sling Ring)" is only an 8th level spell.
The easiest way to square the circle of his spontaneous spellcasing as a book reader may be to make him a Shadowcaster. Good luck trying to convince your group that Dr. Strange is actually, secretly a Gnome. Although that is kind of strange...
If we're after the strange, and we really care about the "eye" theme, we could look at complete cheese of Dr. Strange, who gave up his old life, being an Elan, turned Beholder Mage. That could get us our 9th (8th?) level Gate spell, the eye theme, floating/flying... and even a Charisma penalty thrown in for good measure. Is there anything else really signature to MCU Dr. Strange that we're missing at this point?


So, final build, Elan Monk 1 / Beholder Mage 9, all funds sunk into a sentient flying item familiar cloak (& Sling Ring focus). You may need a custom Beholder to make the HD make sense, though.

(I'm guessing Spheres has some tricks to let you get access to Gate tricks faster than normal that might be less "good-a" than Beholder Mage)

*clears throat* Arcanist