deleted and moved

AT Sorc(DLC)

Race: Human

Alignment: Any

Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 17
Con: 15
Int: 10
Wis: 7
Cha: 19 > 24

Final Build: Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 2/Sorcerer(Draconic. Any Fire) 8/Arcane Trickster 10

Main skills: Mobility 4, Trickery(Max), Knowledge: Arcana 4
Suggested secondary skills: Persuasion (Max)*
*for teh story

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Alchemist - Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Lvl 2: Sorcerer - Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 3: Sorcerer - Spell Specialization
Lvl 4: Sorcerer
Lvl 5: Sorcerer - Accomplished Sneak Attacker
Lvl 6: Arcane Trickster
Lvl 7: Arcane Trickster - Spell Focus: Conjuration
Lvl 8: Arcane Trickster
Lvl 9: Arcane Trickster - Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration
Lvl 10: Arcane Trickster
Lvl 11: Arcane Trickster - Heighten Spell
Lvl 12: Arcane Trickster
Lvl 13: Arcane Trickster - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 14: Arcane Trickster
Lvl 15: Arcane Trickster - Elemental Focus: Fire
Lvl 16: Sorcerer
Lvl 17: Sorcerer - Greater Elemental Focus: Fire
Lvl 18: Sorcerer - Toughness
Lvl 19: Sorcerer - Improved Critical: Ray*
Lvl 20: Alchemist - Cognatogen
*Or whatever else you fancy

Spells:
Lvl1: Grease, Reduce Person, Magic Missile, Shield, True Strike
Lvl2: Sense Vitals, Mirror Image, Scorching Ray, Glitterdust, Burning Arc
Lvl3: Stinking Cloud, Fireball, Haste, Spiked Pit
Lvl4: Greater Invisibility, Dragon’s Breath, Animate Dead, Dimension Door
Lvl5: Fire Snake, Icy Prison, Angelic Aspect, Echolocation
Lvl6: Sirocco, Chain Lightning, Hellfire Ray
Lvl7: Waves of Exhaustion, Legendary Proportions, Firebrand
Lvl8: Stormbolts, Seamantle*
Lvl9: Heroic Invocation*
Alchemist Spells: True Strike, Shield
*Optional

Spell Specialization:
Lvl 3-6 Magic Missile
Lvl 7-10 Fireball
Lvl 11-15 Fire Snake
Lvl 16-17 Stormbolts
Lvl 18 Hellfire Ray
Lvl 19+ Stormbolts

Gear: Fire Aura Robes, Arcane protector x2(or whatever else), Ring of circumstances, Profane Amulet from Varnhold DLC, Absolver Cloak, Quicken Rod, Rod of Flaming Vengeance, Grandmaster Rod, +Stat gear
Late-game: 2x Arcane Protector, Strigoi’s Embrace, Ring of Circumstances, Greater ring of ultimate protection, +6/8 Belt, +8 Bracers, Ambrosial Attire of Arcane Annihilation, Amulet of dying wisdom, Rod of flaming vengeance, Grandmaster rod, Rod of power source, Quicken Rod, Extend Rod.

Cha=24+8(hat/cloak)+2(ring)+2(amulet)+4(cognatogen)+2(Elixir)=42(+16)
Level 9 Heightened Sirocco DC=10(base)+9(spell level)+4(foci)+16(Cha)+1(Ring)+3(Rod)=43DC
Sneak dice: 7d6+5d6(Sense Vitals)=12d6

Max stormbolts damage:
Rod Of flaming Vengeance Equipped, Grandmaster rod Activated:
240(base)+42(average sneak damage)+(bloodline 20+12)*2(elemental per dice)*1.5(empower)=240+42(avg)+96 AoE Fire Damage=378 avg damage stormbolts 3 times per day.

Note Rod of flaming vengeance activation is just a regular Maximize rod. All the juicy stuff is passive, so if you need to swap the damage type - unequip the rod.

That is the most damage you can squeeze out of AT. Things are not free in life, though. The harsh reality is you are 2 levels behind a wizard in spell progression(just 1 behind Wiz/AT, though). And you have virtually no control spells till sirocco. I picked a bit of utility here and there, but it’s not even comparable to conjuration sorc in that regard.

Base Sorc? If I want to drop Dazzling, what should she pick?

Main skills: Mobility 4, Trickery(Max), Mobility 4, Knowledge: Arcana 4, Persuasion 1
Suggested secondary skills: Persuasion (Max)

Mobility 4 twice

Level 1 you can't cast any spells because of int lower than 11.

Gozreh Cleric Merc

Race: Human

Alignment: Any(with deity restrictions)
Deity: Gozreh
Domains: Water+Animal
Pet: Leopard

Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 15
Con: 15
Int: 7
Wis: 19 > 24
Cha: 11

Final Build: Cleric(Ecclesitheurge) 18/Alchemist(Vivisectionist) 2

Important Skills: Perception

Detailed leveling breakdown:
Lvl 1: Cleric - Spell Focus: Evocation // Spell Focus: Conjuration
Lvl 2: Cleric
Lvl 3: Cleric - Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration
Lvl 4: Cleric
Lvl 5: Cleric - Boon Companion
Lvl 6: Cleric
Lvl 7: Cleric - Heighten Spell
Lvl 8: Cleric
Lvl 9: Cleric - Extend Spell
Lvl 10: Cleric
Lvl 11: Cleric - Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Lvl 12: Cleric
Lvl 13: Cleric - Skill Focus: Perception
Lvl 14: Cleric
Lvl 15: Cleric - Blind Fight
Lvl 16: Cleric
Lvl 17: Cleric - Extra Channel
Lvl 18: Alchemist
Lvl 19: Alchemist - Extra Channel // Cognatogen
Lvl 20: Cleric

Key Spells: Entangle*, Shield of Faith**, Sound burst*, Barkskin**, Stat spells**, Stinking Cloud(+heighten), Animate Dead, Archon’s Aura, Slowing Mud, Cloudkill, Vinetrap, Blade Barrier, Mind Blanks
*earlygame CC
**Pet buffs

Key Items: Amulet of Dying wisdom, +Stat items, Ring of circumstances, Necromancer’s Staff.

Decent DC’s for heightened control Spells, pet, some heals, bit of damage, summons. Is not as good at the job as sylvan sorc is as he lacks some debuff spells and doesn’t double as a resident dazzler, but has heals, so if you have to condense roles - he will do fine. Better than companion clerics at any rate. Channels will mostly go to blessings of the faithful and that’s what your empty rounds should consist of.

I still prefer evil sage sorc for higher DC through dlc staff, even on AT (and skill points). I think +2 spell dc beats +1/ selective damage per die. I guess it can be a +1 difference but not really as you want to have the +1 damage per die to all elements equipped and not undying wisdom.

Stormbolts is hell powerful but horrid wilting is huge radius in comparison and can be centered anywhere you want (not centered on caster). If main pc could equip charred cload (regondar's final quest item) maybe the lightning would be worth it. HW can be tricky to taget though cause it ends up killing anything not named jaethal though. In the end you are going against non undead mostly too.

Oh yeah and you want to equip the mastercraft robe (an extra +1 elemental) damage per die once you get it from the artisan, or probably leviathan's gift before then because you can do something like maximaize a level 6 spell using leviathan's gift and also quicken it at the same time through a quicken rod.

Hi, first just wanted to thank you for the amazing wealth of information you wrote in all these threads, you can’t find this stuff anywhere else, really helping me enjoy this game even more.

I am very interested in the Dex Scion build for playing on hard difficulty, but since i’ve never played an evil character on a CRPG, i wanted to go full edgelady on this one: Tiefling, Scythes, LE. I understand that the best monk robes are LG and there aren’t really good scythes but I’m ok with suffering a bit for RP’s sake.
Would that build work with a 2h weapon user tho? Or would i need to go 1h sickle with a free off-hand to get all the benefits from scion and monk?

Just do a melee sorc. That'll do alright. Scythes are indeed kinda garbage, but on hard not being totally optimal is not much of an issue.
Doing dex with a scythe is not possible, though. No way of finessing it.

Cannot find full 2h fighter build - really would not want to put even 1level in other class. Not sure what feats should i buy.

I really like your Kineticist builds. But I would really like a build based on Blue Flame, so I want double fire and maybe earth? Do you have any tips for that? I know, immunities, resistances may be a trouble, but I don't solo anyway, so maybe there can be an idle foil companion that can deal with fire dragons :)

blue flame is ok, only real problem is you won't use it to much apart from ghosts. Other than that, there are not that many fire immune enemies, so it's not that much different from any other. And you will use magma blast anyways as you need earth component for bowling.
But all in all unfair kineticist won't be that much different with fire>earth>fire progression.

Hi,

I am playing main campaign as a sorcerer
And reached level 4 spells, but i cannot find spell acid pit in the spell list, while level up.
I have all DLC's installed.

Is this a bug? Or i am missing something?

Thanks.


Nevermind, i missed arcane unleashed DLC

@InEffect

I just stumbled across this game, new to Pathfinder, and found your guides.

I want to thank you for all the work you put in. I love the format and you answered so many questions in a direct and clear manner. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I haven't managed to find it, but do you have an example somewhere of a pure Vivisectionist build? In your notes, you mentioned that a 20 level Vivi is powerful, and I'm curious what that would look like.

Really appreciate it, thanks! I have been playing a Paladin/Fighter archer, and find it somewhat underwhelming.

I was looking for a fun archer build with lots of skills. My preference when playing crpgs, is to be a very strong central character that adds companions for flavor, but doesn't need them to succeed.

Thanks for all the wonderful builds!

I was wondering if you can make a build for me. Something that would resemble baldurs gate blackguard. A 2handed weapon user (I would like great axe or scythe for theme) who can summon the dead. So some kind of deathknight

I would guess it would be either with cleric or sorc. Anyways would greatly appreciate it if you could draw me up something of the sorts.