Looking for class help: Ruins of Azlant campaign (backup char)

[death390]

So to start with no spoilers please, obvious statements like your going to be underwater quite a bit can be said. My party is currently building our backup characters to bring onto the island adventure path as the colonists of the island only show up every now and then. the Ruins of azlant campaign is a colony/mystery campaign with a decently heave focus on combat. We are currently in book 2

I am currently our partys anchor character but here is our Cast
Shadow a human rouge5/arcansit1 (they were interested and picked it up last level.) They are a new player and are pretty passive, doesn't quite know their skill set yet but tries.
Cedric a Dahmpir Sorcer 6 undead? bloodline. has been playing for several years as part of the group but first time playing a caster that survived more than 3 sessions.
W a halfling Paladin6 of Erastil also part of the group for a few years not as much as Cedric (can't remember char name its his 2nd one, first was a Investigator he didn't like the style)
Sil a Human Kineticist6 Aether.

Of the party
Shadow is a combat body with a bit of random skill help. non-meta or munchkin build they are just there to have fun and enjoy.
Cedric is a newbie caster who is unfortunate to have a hard time early because he thought the fire spells were neat, in an underwater campaign.
Also he is doubling as our Magic Item identifier and specializing in Magic item crafting for his feats.
W didn't like the investigator because it wasn't particularly good at combat so swapped to the paladin and is our front line at this point. (even though Cedric takes the most suprise attacks with random target determinations!)

Sil's role in the part is a munchkin power build laterally i am there to pick up the slack we don't have and will fall off either when swarmed by lots of targets (not swarms themselves), focused down, or the fact i went Aether. . .
focus is so heavily split i am the:
main party healer (in part because we had no dedicated healer at the start and 2 dahmpirs [invest was one as well] + positive energy = problems). the downside to my type of healing is unblock-able must rest 8 hours to remove non-lethal dmg = character level, but you do get back 1d6+1/odd lvl + con in HP. (Kinetic healing talent)

magic type damage (Kinetic blast = that heal in dmg + 2 pts per self burn with a cap) S/P/B though so actual AC not Touch. (also hits swarms!)

Utility: its Aether kinetics, move crap with your mind, grab a rope lifted with kinetics to pull you around under water, invisibility [lvl6!], etc.

also i'm the General skill monkey: focus is more on rouge type skills, while cedric has the mage type. Oleander the investigator was our main skill monkey until swapped with a paladin. I actually gave up the ability to do more than a move action gather power for +2 skill points/lvl. one of the few allowances from a non-pathfinder printed work.


Our main limitations for the game is it must be printed by piazo (no 3PP). got a banned class or two (summoner cough cough, unchained anything cough cough), and he is kinda leery of me adding a second Kineticist due to how rare they are. While i could probably compromise on a section or two the main ones i think need to be kept a magic damage and Skill monkey even if i have to run traits to keep the skills up. Shadow seems to leaning towards casting and no one else has the rouge type skills. Outsourcing the healing should be ok with potions/magic items.

any ideas? unfortunately the 3.5 warlock never made the port to pathfinder (or you could say it IS the kineticist). the only two i have found thay may work after a couple weeks are the Witch or Mesmerist. Any other ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Kurald Galain]

I'm confused what you're actually asking. Am I correct that you are playing Sil, you describe your own character as the "munchkin power build", and you're looking for an extra character to add to the party? That is to be played by who exactly?


got a banned class or two (summoner cough cough, unchained anything cough cough)
WHY would you want to ban unchained anything? Unchained classes are well below the power level of a sorcerer or paladin, and the party rogue could well use the boost (especially since they're new).
Speaking of which, you haven't actually mentioned anything about Sil's character that's either munchinly, or power building.
And if Shadow is leaning into casting, someone should tell him that five levels of rogue aren't going to help him with that, so I'd suggest the retraining rules. Going into arcane trickster is good but can be done with much less rogue levels. Heck, maybe he can swap his arcanist level for the Eldritch Scoundrel archetype.

Suggestions for the extra character are (1) Magus, (2) blasty type of Oracle, possibly dipping into draconic sorcerer, and (3) Druid focusing on Flame Blade.

[death390]

I'm looking for a backup character in case my current one dies. We are all prepping one in case we need one due to the difficulty of adding new characters to the setting. they all have some reason to be there.

as stated for shadow they are not there to power build just there for the fun. 5 levels of rouge is because they liked the class. if they end up really liking the arcanist i am sure the DM wouldn't mind letting them retrain.

SIl the Kineticist is your basic blaster warlock type:
kinetic blast 1d6+1/odd level + con+ 2 dmg bur self burn (there is a low limit). this ability does NOT have any limits on times used.
Blast addons: modify the blast in some way that causes burn (the non-lethal dmg = char lvl) can increase the range, add tripping, empower it for 50% damage. more burn = more powerful effect generally.
Gather power: spend 1 move action reduce burn cost of next blast by 1.
Wild Talents: the ability to mage hand 100lb/class level or for 1 unmitigable burn 1000lb/ class level for duration. TK invisibility only 1/2 stealth bonus but works on blindsense/sight, Skill checks can be made at range, Kinetic healing: 1d6+1/odd level +con in healing but take char lvl nonlethal (self or target can take it).

your basic blasty caster by ability, but has dipped a bunch of points in Int and decent class list that i have most of the rouge skills setup at a decent value.

DM doesn't want Unchained anything so we don't use unchained. full stop.

i am just looking to make a backup character for my party that can bring some of what this one does to the table. magic damage> Skills> Utility> Healing. in about that priority.

i considered magus but wasn't sure how well i could get skills into the kit and has no utility healing in piazo content i could find. Good damage though.
Hadn't considered a blasty oracle, i guess it depends on what drawbacks i would have to take more to look into.
definitely not flame blade druid. thanks for the suggestion though.

EDIT: misread this "Speaking of which, you haven't actually mentioned anything about Sil's character that's either munchinly, or power building." thought you were asking for more info i listed above (i got called to dinner).
As i said i Munchkined my character laterally, so i didn't make my character super at One thing, i made them good at several.
my main skills are all 10+ at level 6, have a decent knowlege setup (as backup), only bit i am really missing are some more languages and spellcraft/UMD (all coming in later levels)
at level 6 i have at will invisibility, +really good at-will TK for utility purposes, just picked up the ability to make ranged skill checks with no penalty at "Close" range (let me pick that trap from over here), and the at-will healing (see below)
As stated the healing gives HP = base kinetic blast damage but deals Char level non-lethal dmg to target or my char. so able to basically keep healing people until the are unconscious from it if the let me which has kept us up and able to backtrack to town faster. Cedric has gotten as low as 7 effective health from how much non-lethal he had on him at the end of one dungeon (boss dungeon book1)admittedly he is a sorc but rolls consistently high for his HP and has positive Con.
running overwatch style on my kinetic blast so 2 blasts as readied actions/round (it was either this or called shot stuff. . . ), if i empower i am able to pump out 3d6+3+5[con]+4[burn increaser] twice with one of those geting +50% dmg.
it has saved out bacon several times so far as we have run into things out of order in the module we found out later (Cr7 chuul vs 4lvl5 PCs and 1 DMPC lvl5, or the exiled shade, or the invisible stalker. . . . yeah things got pretty hairy)
Before the investigator swapped i was playing tank for the party since i had a massive con + the Aether kineticist gets class lvl as temp HP (that regenerates in 1 min), that i put several burn into that is now at 15 temp hp that regens to full in about a minute and a half (1 more burn and back to 1min for 18 temp hp). we found a swarm and only 2 people could touch it me and the sorc, well he decided to burning hands me and the swarm since it was on top of my tile and i took more damage from the burning hands than the swarm. it barely broke the temp HP, if the temp HP isn't broken through no rider effects can touch the character, ghoul paralysis, poison from bites, etc.

so all in all i'm filling, many separate rolls well: Face (mostly diplomacy ok bluff/intim), Healer, Scout (both types), Striker (single target blaster), Backup librarian (all monsterID knowledges +6 or better), Utility caster (TK), and discount Tank.


I suppose i should add some of the other things that will eventually be picked up as not really other good options down the road: Self-flight, Mobile sensor like arcane eye (Touchsite [spy] + TK to move it), resurrection within 1 round, self teleportation up to blast range (base 30 but with an enhancement 480ft), evasion, Self-ethereal, %miss chance, Shield bonus (burn = +1 up to 1/2 base which scales).
blast upgrades coming: lvl9 extreme range (480 range on blast) and lvl17 Many throw (You can use your telekinetic blast to make attack rolls against a number of targets equal to your kineticist level within 120 feet, but no two targets can be more than 30 feet apart.)

[Kurald Galain]

i am just looking to make a backup character for my party that can bring some of what this one does to the table. magic damage> Skills> Utility> Healing. in about that priority.
Right. Magus doesn't heal, but has good skill points (due to being a high-int class) and good utility on his spell list; in fact, probably the best utility you'll find outside the sorcerer/wizard list. And of course they specialize at magic damage. Here, have a guide. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?423754-Myrrh-Frankincense-and-Steel-Kurald-Galain-s-Guide-to-the-Magus)

I suppose Alchemist is another good choice. High damage, good skills, decent utility spells and some healing ability. And there's the Hunter, particularly with planar focus, that deals good damage, has good skills, and a lot of nature magic for utility and healing.

And I wouldn't call it "munchkinly" to just build a varied character with lots of skills. I mean, the term "munchkin" has a rather negative connotation, and I don't see anything particularly negative about what you're doing.

[death390]

I'll take another look at the Magus, not sure about the int spellcasting adding much in the way of skill points. 6/9 caster means you really don't get much of a bonus for high int. you get a LOT less of a bonus beyond 22 int because at 24 you only get +1 DC and +1 lvl2 spell insead of getting an extra Lvl2 and 7 spell.

thankfully my DM hates the 2+ Int for so many classes so i would get 4+int minimum.

Alchemist is out because bombs don't work with Underwater combat right. There is a way to use them underwater via archetype but it makes them harder to use on land. i couldn't find a way to use them on both without some kind of problem.

Munchkin does have negative connotations, i suppose i should explain that in my group i would be considered a muchkin because the others build more for fun and fairly randomly while i actually look at mechanics and try to figure out what i want to do. In a group that builds for specializations i would be normal, i don't majorly break things, i can when theorycraftign but i don't make anything that would get posted to forums for game brokenness (why would i break the game? i want to enjoy the character with others).

[Kurald Galain]

you only get +1 DC and +1 lvl2 spell insead of getting an extra Lvl2 and 7 spell.
Your party barely has third level spells; I wouldn't worry about seventh level spells yet :smallamused: Chances are that if you ever get that far, it won't be with these characters.

[death390]

Your party barely has third level spells; I wouldn't worry about seventh level spells yet :smallamused: Chances are that if you ever get that far, it won't be with these characters.

True we are currently low level, the Adventure path we are running does go to level 20