The Occultist's Reliquary
A Guide to the
Pathfinder Occultist
“It says...it says there was a great disturbance here, long ago.”
—Mavaro, Iconic Occultist
As Allerseelen (Community Use Policy)
As All Souls Gaming (Commercial License)
OCC 101: Opinions on Occultists
Table: Spells Known (⅔ Casting Classes vs. Occultists)
Skills: Infiltration & Interaction
Infiltration & Interaction (INT/CHA)
Dhampir (Ru-shi or Ajibachana)
OCC 605: Dips, Gestalt, and Prestige
The Slayer (Combat: Two-Handed)
The Swashbuckler (Combat: Finesse)
The Spellsword (Combat: Anticaster)
The Sorcerer (Casting: Blasting)
The Witch (Casting: Debuffing)
The Illusionist (Casting: Illusions)
The Necromancer (Casting: Summoning)
The Bard (Skills: Interaction)
The Investigator (Skills: Knowledge)
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Ho, Pathfinders!
You know the reputation that some of the classes introduced in Occult Adventures have: some of ‘em are needlessly complex (lookin’ at you, Kineticist), some of ‘em are brokenly weak (lookin’ at you, Medium), and some of ‘em feel suspiciously like core classes that already exist (lookin’ at you, Psychic). Admittedly, many of the psychic classes have a higher level of complexity to them than we’re used to: Mesmerists have to deal with implanting hypnotic tricks in allies that can be triggered hours later, Kineticists have to manage the wacky system that is burn, elemental overflow, and metakinesis, and Spiritualists have to figure out what the heck all these terms like “fully manifested” or “incorporeal or ectoplasmic forms” mean. In many cases, all that the psychic classes get is one quick glance before players turn around and walk away.
Well, I’m here to tell you that that’s a crying shame. Psychic spellcasting is cool, occult skill unlocks are cool, and many of the classes—once you can get your head wrapped around them—are some of the coolest, most powerful classes in the game. So it is with the Occultist, a psychic casting class that lives and breathes objects. Whether great artifacts owned by paladins of legend or lowly farmers’ pitchforks or anything in between, Occultists have a keenly tuned sense of the invisible lives of objects. Over the course of their careers, they’ll learn how to read psychic information from objects, place a portion of their own psychic power within objects, and ultimately draw that power back out those objects, bigger and badder than ever. And in a world like Golarion that’s filled with wondrous items, magical arms and armor, and artifacts of unimaginable power, what could be cooler than interfacing with those objects directly?
From a mechanical standpoint, Occultists often catch a lot of flak for their implement schools being needlessly complex, but I’ll do my best to introduce some good mnemonic devices that will help you understand how class features like mental focus, focus powers, resonant powers, and implement schools work. I promise it’s not that hard! And once you figure out how to make those class features work for you, an Occultist’s focus powers and resonant powers can turn them in a “⅔+” caster that beats the pants off of many other classes in versatility and power. Remember how Magi can use their arcane pool to grab special weapon enchantments from a short list? Well, so can Occultists, except they can get any weapon or armor enchantment in the game. Checkmate. Remember how everyone always wants A+ spells like invisibility, haste, and fly? Well, Occultists get all those spells as focus powers that can be cast many, many times per day. Checkmate. Want permanent see invisibility, permanent invisibility that doesn’t break with spellcasting, or permanent full BAB? The Occultist can do all of those things, and can even change which tricks they have based on the day’s needs. Their spellcasting may be limited, but spellcasting for an Occultist is only the tip of the iceberg visible above the water—there’s a whole world of rock-solid, so-cool-it’s-cold ice down below the waterline, just waiting for you to take advantage. So what are you waiting for, Pathfinders? Come on in! I’m not psychic, but I think you’ll find the water’s fine.
With best regards for a good game,
I typically like to spend the early parts of my guides defining how Paizo intended for their classes to be played, based on the raw mechanics given to each class. In some cases, the most important decisions you make for your character will be made at 1st level—bloodlines, mysteries, and elements pretty much define what Sorcerers, Oracles, and Kineticists are going to do (for the most part) right at Session 0. In some cases, the character’s role evolves as they gain access to talents, discoveries, etc., like the Rogue, Investigator, Vigilante, or Alchemist classes. Some classes, like the Wizard, Cleric, Druid, or Shaman, simply refuse to be pinned down at all, and maintain their flexibility throughout their lifespan. I can honestly say, however, that the Occultist is unique among Pathfinder classes in many ways, and it often fails to conform to these “categories” of class designs—sometimes to its detriment, but mostly to its benefit.
Although Occultists can’t flex into different roles quite as effectively as Wizards, Clerics, Druids, Shaman, and other prepared full casters can, I genuinely can’t think of another class that can be built to be literally anything you want in the same way the Occultist can. Want a full arcane caster? Boom, Silksworn. Want an infiltration specialist? Babow, Performer’s Accoutrements. Full-BAB martial monster wielding a greatsword and heavy armor? Yep, Trappings of the Warrior has you covered. Master of undead minions? Necroccultist and the necromancy implement school can have you rocking 160 HD of animated undead at 20th level. Occult spy? Easy enough with Mind Eye and riding possession. And if you don’t want to build for anything in particular, the Occultist is the ultimate jack-of-all-trades class, using its focus powers and implement schools to do just about anything you need it to do. Lots of players get intimidated by the occult classes and put off learning about them, but it’s my goal to take that fear away! The Occultist is a truly cool class that everyone deserves to understand and love, because it returns on your investments in a major way. Let’s dive into what makes the class strong, and also try to pick out where its weaknesses are.
As with any Pathfinder class, the way that you capitalize on a build’s strengths while shoring up its weaknesses depends on what you’re building the character for, but there are some general takeaways for Occultists that should apply to nearly any build.
A couple guides ago, I started doing a deep dive on the rules text of each class I reviewed, partially to ensure that I understood the class features I was working with, and partially to ensure that you understand the class features we’re working with. So we’re going to delve into what makes Occultists good and bad as a class—even before any choices about archetypes, implement schools, etc. have been made—and talk about some key points that are easy to miss in the rules text. Let’s press forward!
Throughout this guide, you’ll see feats, spells, class features, etc. rated using a color coding system that was first introduced by Treantmonk and since copied in many other guides. Everyone tends to use their own colors, though, so here’s what we’ll be working with:
Purple ratings are singular, the one ability at a given level or for a given playstyle that is cream of the crop. The apex, the zenith, the pinnacle: purple options are the royalty, the nobility. You will pick purple abilities, and damn the torpedoes.
Blue abilities are the cream of the crop: options that define the way a class is played, or that otherwise provide some exponential leap in effectiveness. Try your utmost to pick up these options.
Green abilities are almost universally useful, a good pick for nearly any build. If they’re not gamebreakingly powerful, they’re definitely holding up the line at a solid B+.
Yellow abilities are our C standard, neither particularly good nor particularly bad. A yellow rating can also denote situational abilities that might be useful to some playstyles but not others. In this latter instance, I’ll typically give a second rating for how useful the ability is to the specific playstyle that needs it.
Red abilities are the traps. Stay away from these.
d8 Hit Die: It’s a well-established rule that ⅔ casters with ¾ BAB progression get a d8 Hit Die. Occultists can be sturdier than some d8 HD classes, thanks to medium armor, a good Fortitude save progression, and their various focus powers, but you probably won’t want to let Constitution sink below 12—and you’ll want to get it to 14 if you reasonably can at point buy.
¾ BAB or Full BAB Progression: How many classes do you know that can be a ¾-BAB class one day, and a full-BAB class the next? Well, Occultists can be through their Trappings of the Warrior panoply! This wonderful ability to flex into full BAB can make Occultists excellent strikers and tanks one day, shifting into different roles as their mental focus pool allows.
Skills: 4 + Intelligence skill ranks per level isn’t exactly skill monkey territory, but your generally good class skill list, high Intelligence modifier, and ability to take advantage of resonant powers from your implement schools and panoplies will mean that you’re much more skill-oriented in practice than you appear on paper. If your group hasn’t investigated the Background Skills ruleset, I highly recommend you do so; Appraise and Knowledge (History) are two class skills that wouldn’t normally get much love, but they’re right at home thematically on an Occultist, and they’re both Background Skills. Here are all the skills available to you—if it’s italicized, that means that it’s a class skill.
Armor Proficiencies: Psychic spells don’t have any spell failure chances, so Occultists can feel free to pursue light or medium armor however they wish. Strength-based Occultists will typically pick medium armor or take a feat to progress into heavy armor, while Dexterity- and Intelligence-based Occultists will typically pick light armor. There’s no wrong answer—it just depends on what your build priorities are. Don’t sleep on shields, either! A +4 suit of armor and a +3 shield cost the same together as a +5 suit of armor on its own, so there are definite cost-benefit considerations to take into account here. Even a buckler can really help.
Weapon Proficiencies: Martial weapon proficiency opens up new vistas of exploration for the Occultist that are not available to several other ¾-BAB classes. Falchions, greataxes, earthbreakers, greatswords, kukris, rapiers, longbows—it’s all up for grabs.
Good Fortitude and Will Saves, Bad Reflex Save: Fortitude and Will are, without any question at all, the two most important saves in Pathfinder. Reflex can always be patched, but there’s no substitute for good Fortitude and Will saves. Helps you take a lickin’ and keep on kickin’.
(1) Spells: Occultists are ⅔ psychic casters, which means that they eventually advance to 6th-level spellcasting. Instead of the somatic and verbal components usually required by arcane and divine casting, psychic spells require you to provide thought components (which replace verbal components) and emotion components (which replace somatic components). You could quibble about which is mechanically better, but the fact is that both psychic casting and divine/arcane casting have their downsides and upsides. A psychic caster can cast while silenced or without breaking stealth (no verbal components) and can cast while grappled, pinned, paralyzed, etc. (no somatic components) but can’t cast while under a fear or emotion effect (emotion components) and will have a much harder time with concentration checks to cast defensively (thought components impose a -10 penalty to concentration checks unless you spend a move action centering yourself). The metamagic feats Logical Spell and Intuitive Spell can help you ignore emotion and thought components, respectively; Logical Spell (or the associated metamagic rod) is almost a must-buy for any Occultist, since one failed Will save can shut you completely out of your casting. Okay! Time for our deep dive.
An occultist casts psychic spells drawn from the occultist spell list, limited by the implement groups he knows. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. Every occultist spell has an implement component (see Implements on page 47). To learn or cast a spell, an occultist must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an occultist’s spell equals 10 + the spell level + the occultist’s Intelligence modifier.
Pretty standard language here. Occultists are spontaneous casters, which means that they know only a few spells, but can cast each of their spells known in any combination throughout the day. With regard to the second bolded clause: you can build an Occultist with a lowish Intelligence modifier if you’re leaning heavily into combat rather than casting, but you should always aim to get your Intelligence score up to 16 by about 4th level. I wouldn’t leave it any lower than 15. Also note that Occultists’ casting ability is tied to their implements, a group of objects imbued with psychic magic. If you don’t have the implement associated with a particular school of magic, it becomes much, much harder to cast your spells.
An occultist can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table 1–6: Occultist. In addition, he gains bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table 1–3 on page 17 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook).
Again, standard stuff. You get extra spells per day if you’re really smart, but you’re limited to a certain number. Every caster in Pathfinder plays by these same rules.
The occultist’s selection of spells is limited. For each implement school he learns to use, he can add one spell of each level he can cast to his list of spells known, chosen from that school’s spell list. If he selects the same implement school multiple times, he adds one spell of each level from that school’s list for each time he has selected that school. When the occultist learns to cast a new level of spells, he immediately adds one spell of that level to his list of spells known from each implement school he knows (plus any extra spells from schools he has selected multiple times).
This is one of the wackiest parts of the Occultist, so saddle up! Here’s the deal: Occultists get their casting partitioned among the various schools of magic (abjuration, conjuration, necromancy, etc.) far more than other spontaneous casters. If you’re playing a Sorcerer or Bard, gaining a new level allows you to pick one or two new spells known from the entirety of your spell list, no holds barred. Occultists only learn new spells based on their implement schools. We’ll get to what implement schools are in a bit, but for now, think of them as buckets: you start play at 1st level with two buckets, and each bucket only accepts spells of a single school. So maybe you’ve got an abjuration bucket and a transmutation bucket, or two necromancy buckets, or an illusion bucket and an evocation bucket. Each bucket holds exactly one 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-level spell of the matching magic school—no more, no less. As you level up, you get both more buckets (enabling you to branch out into other schools of magic you haven’t explored yet) and add new spell levels to your existing buckets.
Choosing which buckets (implement schools) to take and when to take them is the most crucial procedure in building and playing an Occultist! You’ll have only 7 implements by the end of your career in this class, each of which holds only 6 spells, for a total of 42 spells known. Every other spell, even if it appears on the Occultist spell list, is treated as though it wasn’t on the Occultist spell list. You’ll need to hit the hard UMD checks for scrolls or wands that aren’t on your spell list if you want to use those spells. Occultists therefore need to work pretty hard in order to cover their basic defensive and offensive bases early, usually with an abjuration bucket at 1st level. If your AC is poor and you feel like shield would really help you out, you’re faced with the harsh reality that you cannot cast shield unless you previously picked up an abjuration bucket and put shield in that bucket as your 1st-level spell pick. I’ll return to this point again and again: you cannot pick your implement schools and spells known carefully enough on an Occultist.
At 5th level and every 3 occultist levels thereafter (8th, 11th, and so on), an occultist can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the occultist loses the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level occultist spell the occultist can cast. The spell learned must come from the same list of spells provided by the implement school of the spell lost. An occultist can swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for that level.
Occultists aren’t permanently locked in the spells they chose for their buckets, but you don’t get many chances to swap out. Choose the best choices at each level, and only swap out when a spell is OP at low levels but falls off in usefulness at later levels.
An occultist need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.
More standard language on spontaneous casting. Whatever spells you have in your buckets, you can cast them at any time you like.
(1) Focus Powers (Su): Spells are all well and good, but focus powers are what really make Occultists awesome. Think of focus powers like superpowers: they’re cool abilities (usually supernatural or spell-like abilities) that can be used at will throughout a day of adventuring. They run off of a resource called mental focus, which an Occultist divvies up between his implement school buckets at the start of every day. As long as you have mental focus left in a bucket, you can continue to use focus powers from that school of magic; run out of mental focus in a bucket, and you can’t use focus powers from that school of magic anymore unless you transfer some mental focus from another bucket. This is why Occultists can’t get enough mental focus—it powers their coolest, most useful abilities.
At 1st level, an occultist learns the base focus power from both of his two implement schools (see Implements below) and can select one more focus power from the list of those available to him through those schools. Whenever the occultist learns a new implement school, he gains the base power of that school. In addition, at 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, he learns a new focus power selected from the options granted by all of the implement schools he knows. The occultist can use focus powers only by expending mental focus (see Mental Focus on page 48). Unless otherwise noted, the DC for any saving throw against a focus power equals 10 + 1/2 the occultist’s level + the occultist’s Intelligence modifier. The occultist can’t select a focus power more than once. Some focus powers require him to reach a specific occultist level before he can choose them.
Occultists get two buckets (hereafter called implement schools, their technical name) at 1st level, and gain the base focus power that goes with that bucket. You could technically choose two of the same implement schools at 1st level, but you’d be restricting your spell and focus power options unnecessarily. Choose two different implement schools at 1st level (transmutation and abjuration are classics) and add repeats later as necessary. One cool thing about focus powers is that their save DCs scale with your class level; even if a focus power’s effect mimics a low-level spell, it’ll hit as though it’s a much higher-level spell. That helps keep focus powers relevant against enemies long past when your low-level spells will have stopped working.
(1) Implements (Su): All of an Occultist’s spellcasting and focus powers come from their implements. Implements are objects of some psychic significance, whether they were owned by a famous adventurer or spiritual leader, used for some terrible or glorious purpose, or handed down from long-dead civilizations. Implements don’t have to be magical items, although many Occultists will choose to use common wondrous items like cloaks of resistance, rings of protection, etc. as their implements in order to keep things simple. Each school of magic is associated with a different type or types of objects, so you have some flexibility in what gets assigned as your implement.
At 1st level, an occultist learns to use two implement schools. At 2nd level and every 4 occultist levels thereafter, the occultist learns to use one additional implement school, to a maximum of seven schools at 18th level. Each implement school adds one spell per spell level of that school of magic to the occultist’s spell list. No spells from any other school are considered to be on the occultist’s spell list until he selects the associated implement school. He can’t use spell trigger or spell completion magic items from unknown schools without succeeding at the appropriate Use Magic Device check. An occultist can select an implement school more than once in order to learn additional spells from the associated school.
A very important first paragraph. As I said in my earlier analogy, implement schools are like buckets. You’ll get seven of these buckets throughout your career as an Occultist, each of which holds six spells, one of each level. If you pick an evocation bucket, only the six evocation spells you put in that bucket are considered to be on your spell list. Every other spell—even another evocation spell!—requires a UMD check. This is the reason why Occultists have to be very, very careful about their spell choices. Pick a bad spell to put in your bucket, and you’re locked out of casting a good spell of the same level, even with wands or scrolls! You can always expand your spellcasting options by getting a second bucket for the same school of magic, but with only 7 implement school buckets available from 1st to 20th level, you have to be very discerning about what implement schools to take.
Each implement school is represented by a small list of objects. Every day, the occultist selects one item from that school’s list to be his implement for the day for each implement school he knows. The occultist needs only one such item to cast spells of the corresponding school, unless he selected that implement school multiple times, in which case he needs one item for each set of spells gained from that school. Implements don’t need to be magic items, and nonmagical implements don’t take up a magic item slot even if they’re worn. Implements that are not magic items are often of some historical value or of personal significance to the occultist, such as the finger bone of a saint, the broken scepter of a long-dead king, the skull of a mentor’s familiar, or the glass eye of an uncanny ancestor.
The main takeaways here are that any object can be an implement (well, any object that matches your implement school’s list of acceptable objects) and that implements don’t have to be magical. If your implement school says that rings are acceptable implements, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the One Ring or Jennifer Aniston’s toe ring—it’s all the same to the Occultist.
Whenever an occultist casts a spell, he must have the corresponding implement in his possession and present the implement to the target or toward the area of effect. This act is part of casting the spell and doesn’t require any additional action. If the occultist lacks the corresponding implement, he can attempt to cast the spell, but must succeed at a concentration check (DC = 20 + the spell’s level) to do so. Spells cast by an occultist without the appropriate implement are always treated as if they were cast at the minimum caster level for the spell in question (caster level 1st for a 1st-level spell, caster level 4th for a 2nd-level spell, and so on).
This paragraph warns you that Very Bad Things™ will happen if you try to cast spells without your implements. If they get stolen, sundered, dropped, lost, etc., you have a very good chance of simply not being able to cast the spells contained within that implement. Even if you manage to pass the concentration check, the spells will be cast at a much lower caster level, making durations shorter, buffs smaller, and spell resistance checks harder to pass. Do not under any circumstances allow your implements to be threatened.
Each implement school also grants a base focus power. This power is added to the list of focus powers possessed by the occultist (see Mental Focus below). In addition, each implement school grants access to a number of other focus powers that the occultist can select from using his mental focus class feature.
Picking a bucket for the first time gives you one focus power—the base focus power—for free. Neat! It also opens up a menu of other focus powers for you to buy with the focus powers gained at every odd level. Because the resonant power, base focus power, and other focus powers are all unlocked the first time you buy into an implement school, getting repeats of implement schools is only useful if you want to add to your list of spells known in that school. For those of you who have played with Spheres of Power/Might, you can think of implement schools as spheres, the base focus power as the base sphere ability, and the other focus powers as magic or combat talents. Come to think of it, that system maps almost identically onto the Occultist. Funny little world we live in.
(1) Knacks: Knacks is just another name for 0-level spells, cantrips, orisons, whatever you want to call them. Unlike 1st- through 6th-level spells, knacks aren’t restricted based on the implement schools you select. Whenever you get a new implement, you just get to pick a knack, any knack, give a dog a bone, free of charge.
(1) Mental Focus (Su): I mentioned in the focus power section that your focus powers would need fuel, just as superpowers need fuel. Superman’s got the sun, Batman’s got childhood trauma, and Occultists have mental focus, a pool of psychic energy that refreshes every day. At the start of every day, Occultists will make a choice about which buckets (implements) they want to put their mental focus in. If it’s going to be a day in which you do a lot of scouting, but not a lot of combat, maybe you’ll put a bunch of your mental focus into a divination bucket for Mind Eye and the Perception bonuses; if you know you’re going to be doing a lot of combat, maybe you’ll put a bunch of your mental focus into your abjuration and transmutation buckets for Aegis, Legacy Weapon, and Physical Enhancement.
You get two benefits for putting mental focus into your implements: first, you get what’s called a resonant power. These are passive abilities that continue to operate as long as any mental focus remains in the bucket; resonant powers can range from skill bonuses or boosts to spells to increases to your BAB (!) and always get better the more mental focus you place in the bucket at the start of the day, up to some maximum benefit based on your Occultist level. Second, you can use the mental focus in a bucket to fuel the focus powers that belong to that implement school. Got 10 mental focus in one of your illusion buckets? All 10 of those points can be used on illusion focus powers—but not on necromancy focus powers, conjuration focus powers, etc. You didn’t put ‘em in the right bucket for that, ya ding-dong! Now, you can choose not to put your mental focus in any bucket, in which case the system refers to it as generic focus. Generic focus (i.e., mental focus that you didn’t put in a bucket at the start of the day) can be used to fuel the focus powers of any implement school...but at twice the cost. Because generic focus doesn’t activate any resonant powers and is twice as expensive to spend on focus powers as invested mental focus, Occultists will generally want to put all their mental focus into some configuration of buckets at the start of the day unless they have a compelling reason to leave it outside of their buckets. Und jetzt gehen wir ins “Deep Dive.”
An occultist can invest a portion of his mental focus into his chosen implements for the day, allowing him to utilize a variety of abilities depending on the implements and the amount of mental focus invested in them. An occultist has a number of points of mental focus equal to his occultist level + his Intelligence modifier; these points refresh each day. He can divide this mental focus between his implements in any way he desires. If an implement is lost or destroyed, the focus invested in it is lost as well, though the occultist still refreshes those points of focus normally.
First thing you might notice about mental focus is that you don’t actually get a lot of it, especially considering that it’s your main class feature: 1st-level Occultists will have 3-5 mental focus, and 20th-level Occultists (absent any feat or favored class bonus investment) will likely have mental focus somewhere in the high-20s to mid-40s, depending on your capstone, archetype, feats, favored class bonuses, and Intelligence modifier. Because it’s a scarce commodity, you’ll want to be as lean and mean about your use of mental focus as you can. Don’t burn mental focus on focus powers that cost more than 1 point unless you really need to; try to leave as little mental focus “on the table” through generic focus as possible; use spell slots to replicate low-level spell effects, rather than mental focus. Lastly, we’ve already spoken about dividing mental focus; Occultists will have between 2 and 7 buckets into which they can invest their mental focus at the start of the day. You can put all your focus into one bucket, spread it evenly between all of them, focus on only a few buckets, etc. How you apportion your mental focus will depend on the resonant powers you’re looking to get and how many focus powers you envision yourself using from that implement school in a day.
Once mental focus is invested inside an implement, the implement gains the resonant power of its implement school (see page 50), and the occultist can expend the mental focus stored in the implement to activate the associated focus powers he knows. If a resonant power grants a bonus that varies based on the amount of mental focus invested in the implement, the bonus is determined when the focus is invested, and is not reduced or altered by expending the mental focus invested in the item. Once all of the mental focus in an implement has been expended, it loses its resonant power until mental focus is once again invested in the implement.
So, this is a neat feature of resonant powers that I was totally unaware of before I did this deep dive, and it really changes the way you invest mental focus. Let’s take the evocation implement school’s resonant power, Intense Focus. For every two points of mental focus you put in an evocation bucket at the start of the day, Intense Focus makes all your damage-dealing, instantaneous-duration focus powers and spells deal one additional point of damage. So let’s say you put 10 mental focus points in your evocation bucket at the start of the day—that grants you +5 damage from the aforementioned spells and focus powers. Here’s the key point, though: no matter how much mental focus you spend, your resonant power keeps working just like it did at the start of the day. If you shoot a couple baddies with some energy rays and draw down to 6 mental focus, your Intense Focus bonus doesn’t get reduced to +3! It stays just as strong as it was when you put 10 mental focus points in it at the start of the day. Only once all of the mental focus is gone from the bucket does the resonant focus stop working. Then boom, the play is over, the playwright walks out onto the stage, and exeunt omnes, pursued by a bear.
The implement grants its resonant power to whoever possesses it; the occultist can lend the implement to an ally to assist that ally, but if he does so, he has difficulty casting that implement’s spells (see Implements on page 47) and can’t expend that implement’s focus on focus powers until he retrieves the implement or refreshes his focus.
This is also an incredibly cool feature of implement schools that I didn’t know about until I read the fine print. Other people can benefit from your resonant powers! (The downside is that enemies who steal your implements can also benefit—note that it says “to whoever possesses it.” Whoops. Be careful about that.) Other classes will often be better suited to using resonant powers than even you will: conjuration’s Casting Focus is great for Summoners, Wizards, or other conjuration specialists, divination’s Third Eye is great for martial allies who need to be able to see invisible foes, and enchantment’s Glorious Presence works wonders for Bards and other party faces. You get the gist. Now, giving away your implements comes at considerable cost: you can’t expend mental focus from that implement until you get it back, and the spells contained in that implement become much harder to cast. For short bursts, though, passing off implements is a great tactic that will supercharge your group.
The occultist refreshes his mental focus once each day after receiving at least 8 hours of sleep. After refreshing his mental focus, the occultist must spend 1 hour preparing his implements and investing them with this power. Mental focus that is not used before the next time the occultist refreshes his focus is lost.
Like many casters, Occultists need their beauty rest in order to get their class resources back. Use rope trick, tiny hut, create demiplane, etc. to make sure that you have someplace safe to lay your head down.
The occultist can choose to save generic mental focus inside his own body instead of investing all of it, but expending this focus comes at a higher cost. Any focus power the occultist activates with generic focus costs twice as much mental focus to use (and to maintain, if applicable). The occultist can expend his generic focus through an appropriate implement on any focus power he knows, but an implement he didn’t invest any focus in at the start of the day grants no resonant power.
Generic focus is an important concept to understand for the Occultist. You get the flexibility of being able to expend mental focus on any focus power you have, but using those powers is twice as costly and you don’t get any resonant powers. Follow the 7 P’s when thinking about where to invest your mental focus: proper preparation and planning prevent piss-poor performance. It’s better to invest your focus and have to adjust later using the shift focus class feature than it is to leave it all on the table as generic focus. (There are some exceptions to this rule, notably archetypes like Naturalist that can use generic focus to fuel focus powers, but the maxim generally holds.)
(2) Magic Item Skill: Remember that Occultists have extremely limited casting—even more limited than most spontaneous casters—and you’ll begin to see why UMD is such a crucial skill for the class. Occultists are limited in their spells known based on their implement schools; even once you “unlock” spells from a certain magic school with an implement, you don’t treat all the spells of that school as though they were on your class list, only the 6 spells (one of each level) that you placed in your implement! Occultists will only ever learn 42 spells: 6 spells per implement times 7 implements. Every other spell you cast will need to be cast through wands, scrolls, or staves, and UMD DCs are pretty stiff for those, with a flat 20 for wands and 20 + Caster Level for scrolls. You can’t take 10 on UMD checks, so getting big bonuses to UMD as fast as possible in your career is crucial.
My recommendations would be to get the Pragmatic Activator magic trait in order to use your Intelligence modifier on the skill, rather than Charisma, then buy a custom magical item that grants a +5 competence bonus to UMD for 2,500 gp. With these strategies in hand, you’ll be able to hit the flat 20 for wands by about 5th level (5 ranks + 3 class skill + 2 magic item skill + 5 custom skill-boosting wondrous item + 4 Intelligence with Pragmatic Activator = +19, enough to succeed on a Nat 1). Do note that the bonus from magic item skill is untyped, so it’ll stack with any other bonus type you throw at UMD.
(2) Object Reading (Su): Object reading is actually one of my favorite Occultist abilities. It’s a surprisingly good quality of life spell, allowing you to identify magical items easily with no skill checks, and the metainformation you get about the history of the item and its last owner is often very useful. Flavorful and thematic.
(4) Shift Focus (Su): One of the primary reasons for not leaving mental focus “on the table” as generic focus is that you have a mechanism to shift mental focus from one bucket to another! Spoiler alert, it’s this class ability. Shift focus isn’t perfect, as it eats into your resonant powers and costs you 1 mental focus every time you shift. If you were using generic focus, however, 1) you wouldn’t be getting those resonant powers anyway, and 2) you’d have to spend twice the mental focus on any focus power you used, which is likely to be way more expensive than just the 1 mental focus you lose when shifting focus.
At 4th level, an occultist gains the ability to shift his mental focus from one implement to another, though some of the focus is lost along the way. Shifting mental focus removes a number of points of mental focus from one implement and adds the same number – 1 to another implement; this takes 1 minute of quiet contemplation while touching both implements. The occultist can shift his mental focus only from one implement to another implement; he can’t shift generic focus into an implement. Unlike expending focus normally, this shift can reduce the effect of a resonant power in the implement from which the mental focus was taken. It does not, however, add to the resonant power of the implement to which the focus is added.
As I said, shift focus isn’t perfect: the “from” bucket loses resonant power, but the “to” bucket doesn’t gain resonant power. In light of the alternative, however, shift focus is as good as you could hope for. The Efficient Focus Shift feat is available at 7th level in order to help you manage focus shifts.
(5) Aura Sight (Su): Aura sight essentially gives you an upgraded detect [alignment] suite of spells that’s usable at will. Aura sight doesn’t require you to detect one alignment at a time, either—you pop this bad boy, and you simply learn the alignment and relative strength of every aura within 120 feet of you, no questions asked. This will be incredibly useful when determining the trustworthiness of other people, detecting lurking enemies, and examining items. It’s not foolproof, especially when you’re up against high-level abjuration and intrigue magic that causes someone to detect as another alignment. Good enough for quick scans, though.
(8) Magic Circles (Su): Hmmm. Unlike magic circle against [alignment], which travels with you, the magic circles you draw are stationary and take considerable time to set up. This will get better later, but for now it leaves much to be desired as a defensive power.
(8) Outside Contact (Su): I’m just going to go ahead and disclose my bias that I don’t particularly like any of the class features Occultists get at 8th level and after. In my view, Occultists are all about implements, and bargaining with outsiders seems like a bit of a hard left turn for the class. If my ratings seem a bit low, well, like I said, I’ve got a bias.
So, the basic thrust of outside contact and its various upgrades is that you can force outsiders to do your bidding by spying on enemies, unraveling mysteries, answering questions, delivering messages or objects to allies, etc. Making such “requests” (demands, really) requires at least 2 points of mental focus, 1 for the magic circle itself, and 1 to turn it inward and bind the outsider. It also requires a fairly trivial amount of gold. I don’t particularly like outside contact for a few reasons: first, the outsider always resents being used in this way, even if your alignment components match. The outsiders you summon have no more than 3 HD, but what if they report to one of their planar superiors that they keep getting used for errands by some petty human? Depending on the outsider’s access to resources and willingness to harbor a grudge, this could turn into a dangerous situation for you. Second, many of the outsider’s effects are ones that you could just as easily gain through focus powers or spells. Sending is a 4th-level evocation spell; Mind Eye can scout locations much faster and more effectively than an imp; the Mage’s Paraphernalia panoply can grant you access to augury a bunch of times per day. I dunno, it just doesn’t excite me much.
(12) Binding Circles (Su): Another ho-hum power. Capturing enemies can definitely be useful if you want to have a nice chat or interrogation, set up some elaborate deathtrap execution method, or simply subject them to your newest mix tape. It’ll trap even high-level casters or outsiders, who can’t teleport or dimension door away. Caveats apply, however: creatures must match the alignment you chose when you created your circle, they must be alive (so no undead, constructs, etc.), and they must fail an initial Reflex save plus additional Will saves for every hour they’re held within the circle. I think you’re unlikely to be able to consistently fulfill all of these conditions, but if you can, it clocks at least a green.
(16) Fast Circles (Su): Fast circles opens you up to make magic circles during combat, which can be useful if you’re up against summoned creatures, need to bind a foe quickly, etc. As I’ve mentioned before, I think that all of those functions are of limited utility on an Occultist, but at least fast circles lets you do it without a huge time investment.
(20) Implement Mastery (Su): Capstones are always good, and implement mastery is no exception. Given that the ability boosts both the save DCs and effective caster level of your focus powers, as well as the resonant power of the implement school you chose, you’ll want to select a school that has a good resonant power and plenty of targeted, save-based spells and focus powers. Abjuration, transmutation, and conjuration are going to be the weakest implement schools, as they’re mostly built around buffing yourself/allies or creating effects like fogs that don’t feature any saves. That leaves you with divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, and necromancy; you’ll know by this level which implement school most needs the help.
Alternate Capstones: But wait, there’s more! Chronicle of Legends introduced alternative capstones that you can take instead of your normal capstone. Each class has one class-exclusive capstone, and then several others that are more general for all characters, all spellcasters, etc. Here are my ratings:
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that Occultists are a major Swiss Army Knife of a class, capable of being built for just about anything you want. That flexibility comes with decisions, though, in that you need to choose what your Occultist is going to be good at. In general, each Occultist should have one primary role and one secondary role. The primary role is going to be some kind of combat function or offensive casting (blasting, debuffing, summoning, etc.) in order to ensure that they can contribute to the party’s martial efficacy, while the secondary role is going to be some kind of ancillary combat function (anticaster tactics, e.g.), back-up casting (buffing, battlefield control, scrying and spying, etc.) or skill monkey role (infiltration and interaction, Knowledge jockey, etc.). You should aim to have your build goals for your primary role more or less completed by 5th level, which coincides with the end of Book 1 of most Paizo APs, then continue to expand your primary role capabilities while layering in secondary capabilities as your levels progress toward the double digits. By the time you reach 13th level, it’s the Wild West: take whatever you want, whenever you want, because your build goals will probably all be met by that point.
The Strength-based melee build has always been Pathfinder’s goldenest oldie, and demands an attribute allocation along the lines of STR, INT > CON > DEX, WIS > CHA. Pump your Strength at point buy, leave Constitution somewhere in the positives (14 is a good benchmark for melee fighters), park your Dexterity near your armor’s maximum Dexterity bonus (especially easy if you’ve opted for Heavy Armor Proficiency as a 1st-level feat), and then go to work with Power Attack. It’s simple and effective, especially for classes that get no bonus feats—the joy of having to spend only one feat on Power Attack in order to be fully functional in combat can’t be overstated for classes like the Occultist.
As far as a two-handed melee combat flow goes, there’s not a lot of subtlety to it. Lead blades + shield + Martial Skill + Size Alteration or enlarge person turns you into a giant smash-monster by 2nd level; sprinkle in mirror image, displacement, resist energy, bullet shield, thaumaturgic circle, stoneskin, enchantment foil, and other defensive abilities to taste at later levels. Two-handed melee builds will want to consider the Heavy Armor Proficiency feat more seriously than their sword-and-board cousins in order to make up the gap in AC, especially at early levels. By 7th level you should be running fly or Mind Over Gravity and haste or Quickness more or less permanently in combat, so just close quickly, lay down the hurt, and all will be well.
Pros | Cons |
Less multiple attribute-dependent than other builds. The more you need to spread your point buy to a bunch of different stats, the lower all your stats are. Simple enough, right? Strength builds keep you focused on Strength, Intelligence, and a little bit of Constitution for stamina. Everything else can be left in the 10-12 range, or (in the case of Charisma) dumped below 10. | Speed and armor check penalties aren’t the best. If this is the worst that can be said about the two-handed Strength build, I’ll take it. Very manageable with Mind Over Gravity, mithral armor, and select armor enchantments. |
Very easy on feat investment. Whereas Dexterity-based melee builds need to dive into Weapon Finesse and the Grace feat line in order to hit and deal damage, Strength builds are ready to rumble right out of the gate. The addition of 1.5 x Strength modifier is especially nice if you’re using a two-handed build. | |
Strength builds stand to gain the most from martial weapon proficiency. Falchions, greatswords, ranseurs, glaives, greataxes...you name it, martial weapon proficiency has probably got it. (Unless you’re being mean to your GM with an orc hornbow or a butchering axe or something.) Better damage dice, better crit ranges and modifiers, etc. are all available here, and almost all the good weapons in the martial category benefit Strength builds the most. |
A sword-and-board playstyle (i.e., a one-handed weapon and shield playstyle) is less an entirely different path for the Occultist and more a slight modification on the existing two-handed Strength build. Let me clear: we’re not interested in any of that fancy TWF shield-bashing nonsense on an Occultist. We have neither the feats nor the ability scores for that. No, we’re here purely because Occultists are proficient with shields, because +4 armor and a +3 shield cost the same as +5 armor, and because the Trappings of the Warrior panoply specifically mentions needing to “hold” a shield. There’s considerable debate about what precisely “hold” means in the context of the Occultist, as you’ll see when you get to the Trappings section; suffice it to say that if your GM holds a strict view of the panoply rules text you may be left with no option but to play a sword-and-board build if you want to groove down with Trappings of the Warrior.
There’s not much left to say about sword-and-board builds: they have better AC (thanks, shield) but poorer damage numbers (bye-bye, 1.5 x Strength bonus from two-handing a weapon, and bye-bye, big damage dice from two-handed martial weapons). Your attribute allocation won’t really change at all (STR, INT > CON > DEX, WIS > CHA) so there’s nothing special to be done with point buy. Likewise, wielding a shield doesn’t require any extra feats unless you’re trying to shield bash, and if that’s the case, shoo, go on, get out of here. No, you can’t have the buckler. Bucklers are for closers. I’m not going to bother with the suggested spells, implements, or archetypes sections for sword-and-board builds, because they’ll be almost identical to the two-handed Strength builds. Trappings, abjuration, transmutation, self-buffing, lay waste. You’ve heard this all before.
Pros | Cons |
Higher AC than two-handed builds. A shield build’s main advantage over a two-handed build is that it’s more survivable, at least against attack rolls. This turns out to be less of a big deal for Occultists (who have shield as a 1st-level abjuration spell) than it is for non-casters, but is still very nice. | You take a hit to damage. Being relegated to one-handed and light weapons definitely takes a toll on a shield build’s damage output that experienced players will notice even with lead blades and enlarge person running. It’s still livable, though. |
More fodder for Aegis. Abjuration’s Aegis focus power is a great one, especially if you know your way around armor enchantments. With both a shield and armor, you’re free to burn two points of mental focus to give yourself more cool enchantments. | Even worse armor check penalties. Shields have their own set of armor check penalties that stack on top of armor’s ACPs. Good luck swimming, climbing, and tumbling through. It ain’t gonna be easy. |
For players less interested in the hack-and-slash of Strength-based melee combat, there’s always the Weapon Finesse feat line, which allows players to use Dexterity to attack, and the Dexterity-to-damage feats like Starry Grace, Fencing Grace, and Slashing Grace. This playstyle has a few notable advantages and disadvantages over mainstream Strength builds that we’ll get into later, but suffice it for now to say that you’ll want your attribute allocation to look like so: DEX, INT > CON > WIS > STR, CHA. You can browse down to the feats section if you’d like to understand just which feats you’ll need to get started with a Weapon Finesse build, or you can continue on to the Pros and Cons below. It should be noted that the Weapon Finesse route is greatly improved by a single-level dip in the Inspired Blade Swashbuckler archetype. Normally I’m not a fan of dipping away from Occultists, but in this case, you’re feat-starved enough that getting two feats, better Reflex and Fortitude saves, better BAB, and a free pool of panache to use with parry and riposte is a great deal. We’ll talk about that more in the dipping section.
Pros | Cons |
Dexterity is already a bit of a god stat; point buy is simple. Dexterity governs Reflex saves, initiative, AC and touch AC, a bevy of skills, and on and on. Adding attack and damage to that list makes Dexterity the One Stat to Rule Them All. | You take a hit to damage. Dexterity builds never get 1.5x their Dexterity modifier to damage, and damage dice for finessable weapons tend to be quite small. Finesse Occultists won’t hit as hard as their two-handed cousins. |
Better Reflex saves, initiative, AC, skills, etc. As I just mentioned, Dexterity is in charge of rather a lot of checks in Pathfinder, and boosting your Dexterity in order to get better attack and damage rolls leads to better checks in a lot of other areas. | Feat-intensive. Weapon Finesse takes a minimum of three feats to do well (Weapon Finesse → Weapon Focus → ___ Grace), and Occultists are hard up for feats already. Spending feats here means fewer focus powers, mental focus points, or other abilities. |
Easier to find racial stat bonuses. Strength bonuses are a little hard to find in the Pathfinder races, but Dexterity bonuses are as common as dirt. Dexterity/Intelligence is a particularly popular pairing—perfect for these builds. |
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that melee Occultists of any stripe are interested primarily in self-buffing. The Occultist has a lot of buffs on its class list anyway, so why deprive yourself of the way Paizo intended the class to be played? Abjuration and transmutation are the big winners in self-buffing, although illusion does a surprisingly good job; conjuration helps with self-healing, and divination is perpetually useful against casters.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | Shield — | Cure light wounds — | Anticipate peril Heightened awareness | — — |
2 | Bullet shield Resist energy | Ablative barrier Cure mod. wounds | See invisibility — | Tactical acumen — |
3 | Resist energy, comm. Thaumaturgic circle | Cure serious wounds — | Locate weakness Threefold sight | — — |
4 | Enchantment foil Stoneskin | Cure critical wounds Dimension door | Glimpse of truth — | — — |
5 | Spell resistance Stoneskin, comm. | Teleport — | Battlemind link True seeing | — — |
6 | — — | Heal — | — — | Cloak of dreams — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | Illusion of calm Vanish | — — | Enlarge/reduce person Lead blades |
2 | Force sword — | Invisibility Mirror image | — — | Darkvision Versatile weapon |
3 | Twilight knife — | Displacement — | — — | Fly Haste |
4 | — — | Greater invisibility — | Death ward — | Echolocation — |
5 | Ectoplasmic hand — | Mislead — | — — | Particulate form — |
6 | Contingency — | — — | — — | Invoke deity Statue |
Unless you have a very compelling reason not to, abjuration and transmutation should always be a melee Occultist’s first implement schools. Beginning play with these two implement schools gives you Legacy Weapon, Aegis, Size Alteration, early-game physical stat bonuses and resistance bonuses to saves, shield, enlarge/reduce person, and lead blades. These are all mainstays of any melee Occultist build. More to the point, accessing these two implement schools at 1st level frees you up to take Trappings of the Warrior at 2nd level, which can and should be the move that nearly every combat-focused Occultist makes for their third implement school—Martial Skill is simply too good to ignore. If you have to prioritize, keep these rankings in mind: Trappings > Abjuration, Transmutation > Conjuration, Divination, Evocation, Illusion > Necromancy > Enchantment. Which green implement school you choose will depend largely on what you’re trying accomplish as a secondary combat role: conjuration specializes in battlefield control and tanking; divination is good for scouting and anticaster tactics; evocation does battlefield control and anticaster tactics; and illusion can be massaged into being good for a tank. Necromancy and enchantment can generally go straight to the garbage can unless you’re working toward a specific design vision, although the possession and curse spells from necromancy can do plenty of fun things if you’re creative and have a halfway decent Intelligence score.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
Warding Talisman Mind Barrier Aegis Energy Shield | — — Flesh Mend Side Step | Third Eye Sudden Insight Danger Sight — | — — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — Radiance — | — — Unseen — | — — Soulbound Puppet — | Physical Enhancement Legacy Weapon Mind Over Gravity Quickness |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— — — — | — — — — | — — — — | Martial Skill Combat Trick Counterstrike Shield Ally |
Like so many combat builds, the suggested archetypes are going to come down to a battle between Haunt Collector, Panoply Savant, and Psychodermist. Haunt Collector and Panoply Savant are pretty mainstream recommendations for Trappings of the Warrior builds, and for good reason: they’re powerful. Psychodermist is a bit of an unusual choice, but jiminy christmas, can residual hatred and manifest abilities turn you into a monster in the right circumstances. Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Naturalist and Geomancer; Naturalist is great for anticaster builds, since natural focus can be used to help blow past a caster’s save-or-suck abilities, and Geomancer brings a lot of casting versatility to the table. I’d mention Battle Host as well, but since Battle Host and Trappings of the Warrior are mutually exclusive, it’s probably a trap unless you have a very specific need for more feats.
Compound longbows are like the lightsabers of the Pathfinder universe: elegant weapons for an uncivilized age. They’re also incredibly powerful, enabling you to use feats like Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Improved Precise Shot, and more to pummel enemies from afar. In addition to being better on offense than many melee builds, ranged builds also tend to be more survivable than many melee builds because they’re able to stay well away from enemies. Not to mention that you get all the bonuses associated with Dexterity as your primary attack stat! Wonderful indeed, right? Well, for every rainbow in Pathfinder, there’s a cloud, and ranged combat is no exception. The primary limitation with ranged builds is that they’re incredibly feat intensive. You’ll need Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot to even be able to function as a ranged character without constantly missing, plus Improved Precise Shot at higher levels to let you shoot through cover. Then, of course, you’ll need Rapid Shot, Manyshot, and Deadly Aim to boost damage. If you’d like not to provoke an attack of opportunity for firing your bow, you’ll need Point-Blank Master, and the ability to threaten enemies with your bow has to be bought back through Snap Shot and Improved Snap Shot. For classes that get a lot of bonus feats—Zen Archer Monks, Rangers, Fighters, Slayers—this isn’t a huge deal. For little old Occultists, though, you bet your sweet bippy it’s going to be difficult to work all those feats in.
I wish I had better news for you about how to build a ranged Occultist, but it’s a tough row to hoe. Occultists get no bonus feats, and due to the way their implement schools work, Occultists are punished even more harshly than other ⅔ casters for dipping away from their base class. My basic recommendation is to allocate your attributes as you usually would for a ranged character, DEX, INT > STR > CON, WIS > CHA, then stick with only the basic feat requirements: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot. That’s it. You can obviously decide to stack on more at a later date if you like (Manyshot is always good, and Deadly Aim is a must if you’re going with Trappings of the Warrior) but you’ve got to focus on the core chassis before anything else. Ranged combat tends to be a somewhat binary “This is working” vs. “This really isn’t working” affair, and I want you to fall firmly into the first camp. If your party is playing with Elephant in the Room feat tax rules, that ruleset makes Point-Blank Shot more or less optional, which is fantastic for ranged Occultists, who wouldn’t take it if they had the choice. Oh, one last pointer: it’s helpful to think about how you’re going to allocate your physical stat enhancement bonuses on a ranged build. Your physical stat belt will give you permanent bonuses, so you should likely assign your belt to Dexterity when you’ve got enough money for one. That still leaves you with the Physical Enhancement resonant power from transmutation, though, and my recommendation would be to sink that into Strength. Compound bows are an easy way to boost damage as a ranged character, but most classes can’t pump Strength without tanking Dexterity a little; Occultists don’t have to make that tradeoff. Make sure to add the adaptive enchantment to your bow for 1,000 gp when you can so that your compound damage bonus scales up and down with buffs, ability damage, and Physical Enhancement. There’s nothing worse than taking a few points of ability damage or drain and realizing you suddenly can’t use the weapon you’ve spent all your money and feats on being able to use effectively.
As far as combat flow goes, ranged builds are even simpler than melee builds. Stand back, then keep full-attacking until all the enemies are gone. What’s that, you say? Not enough detail? Well, because I can’t help but give, I’ll give you some more. Because ranged builds don’t have to focus their entire being on survivability, other schools of magic apart from abjuration and transmutation start to come into focus a bit. Conjuration and evocation, for example, have multiple high-quality battlefield control spells that would be great on a ranged build; many feature no save and are perfect for walling off a boss from its minions or vice versa. Necromancy eventually lets you use possession and greater possession to hop into enemies’ bodies for a while, and although possession is a bit risky mid-combat because it leaves your insensate body lying on the ground for anyone to coup de grace, it’s at least safer to perform such a maneuver on the back line. Regardless of your other implement schools, though, abjuration, transmutation, and Trappings of the Warrior still reign supreme for combat builds, even ranged ones. You want full BAB unless there’s an extraordinarily compelling reason not to pursue it, and effects like shield, bullet shield, reduce person, thaumaturgic circle, fly, haste, echolocation, Quickness, Aegis, Legacy Weapon, and Mind Over Gravity are all as wonderful for ranged characters as they are for melee characters. Fly to a good height, partition the battlefield, adjust with self-buffs like echolocation or see invisibility if you need to deal with casters, and then shine down on ‘em with the patented Occultist death ray. Wawawawawa.
Pros | Cons |
Deadly, deadly, deadly. Between Rapid Shot, Manyshot, and Quickness/haste, ranged Occultists will get a...let’s see, I believe the technical term is “metric stink tonne” of attacks, and full-attack actions are a lot more feasible when you can let your arrows do the moving, rather than having to hoof it to each new target. Each attack stacks damage in a way that is pleasing to me on a spiritual level. | Feats, feats, feats. Oy gevalt iz mir. Yes, ranged builds need a metric stink tonne of feats to generate their metric stink tonne of attacks, and all of those have to be taken on a class with no bonus feats to help out. Consider playing a human, bribing or coercing your GM into playing with Elephant in the Room feat tax rules, or potentially dipping a level of Fighter. |
Less multiple attribute-dependent than other builds. With lower chances of getting hit at range and no need to pump Strength to the moon, ranged builds are free to focus on Dexterity and Intelligence, both of which have immediate and outstanding effects for Occultists. | More limited by terrain and positioning. Because of the way that cover bonuses work, ranged characters need to have strategies in place to deal with walls, fogs or mists, soft cover, and more mundane and supernatural obstacles. Self-buffs like fly or ashen path can deal with a lot of this, as can focus powers like Mind Over Gravity or Side Step. |
More survivability. Ranged combatants tend to get attacked less than melee combatants, mostly because they’re harder to reach. You’ll still want to keep effects like bullet shield, resist energy, shield, mirror image, displacement, planar aegis, and thaumaturgic circle around to defend yourself and prevent enemies from getting up in your business effectively. | |
Easier to find racial stat bonuses. Strength bonuses are a little hard to find in the Pathfinder races, but Dexterity bonuses are as common as dirt. Dexterity/Intelligence is a particularly popular pairing—perfect for these builds. |
Yeah, don’t build one of these builds. Crossbows (heavy crossbows, at least) will require two feats, Rapid Reload and Crossbow Mastery, to get off the ground in addition to all the other necessary ranged feats you’ll need for a ranged build; firearm builds will need Rapid Reload, a feat to grant you proficiency in firearms, and Gunsmithing/Amateur Gunslinger if you want to do anything cool with them. All of these are non-starters for a class that gets no feat or archetype support for either of these playstyles. Go compound longbow or go home.
Pros | Cons |
No significant advantages over a compound longbow, and even more feats than normal ranged builds. You just don’t have the tools to make this work effectively, and the advantages to doing so even if you could are minimal. |
Ranged combat builds ultimately function under the same mandates as melee combat builds: if you want to hit things hard enough to make them dead—and stay alive long enough to do so—there are implement schools, spells, and archetypes that you simply can’t ignore. This section is likely not to vary too much from the melee section.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | Shield — | Cure light wounds — | Anticipate peril Heightened awareness | — — |
2 | Bullet shield Resist energy | Ablative barrier — | See invisibility — | Tactical acumen — |
3 | Resist energy, comm. Thaumaturgic circle | Cure serious wounds — | Threefold sight — | — — |
4 | Freedom of movement Stoneskin | Cure critical wounds Dimension door | Glimpse of truth — | — — |
5 | Spell resistance Stoneskin, comm. | Teleport — | Battlemind link True seeing | — — |
6 | Repulsion — | Heal — | — — | Cloak of dreams — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | Vanish — | — — | Enlarge/reduce person Gravity bow |
2 | Gust of wind — | Invisibility Mirror image | — — | Darkvision — |
3 | Wind wall — | Displacement — | — — | Fly Haste |
4 | — — | Greater invisibility — | Death ward — | Echolocation — |
5 | — — | Mislead — | — — | Control winds Particulate form |
6 | Contingency — | — — | — — | Statue — |
Ranged Occultists like BAB just as much as melee Occultists, so it won’t come as any surprise to anyone that the classic Trappings + Transmutation + Abjuration combo is as good here as it is elsewhere. We’ll set our rankings in the same place as for melee builds: Trappings > Abjuration, Transmutation > Conjuration, Divination, Evocation, Illusion > Necromancy > Enchantment. Conjuration, divination, and evocation will probably be the strongest contenders for your fourth implement school. Conjuration sets you up for Side Step, which is a necessary ability for dodging out of the way of huge melee bruisers; it also gives you plenty of battlefield control to help you partition the battlefield and isolate targets for your full-attacks. Divination is mainly useful for Sudden Insight, Danger Sight, and the eventual constant see invisibility effect from Third Eye—you can’t fill an enemy full of arrows if you can’t see them. Finally, evocation gives you even more battlefield control and illumination tools for countering casters or shutting down enemies. Anything that can prevent enemies from reaching you while you continue to rain down death is helpful for a ranged build.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
Warding Talisman Mind Barrier Aegis Energy Shield | — — Psychic Fog Side Step | Third Eye Sudden Insight Danger Sight — | — — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — Radiance — | — — Unseen — | — — Soulbound Puppet — | Physical Enhancement Legacy Weapon Mind Over Gravity Quickness |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— — — — | — — — — | — — — — | Martial Skill Combat Trick Counterstrike Shield Ally |
The same basic build goals as melee builds make the same basic archetypes valuable: Haunt Collector, Panoply Savant, Psychodermist, Geomancer, and Naturalist will suit you best. Go and do likewise, gentlefolk.
The notion of an “anticaster”—a character that specializes in killing spellcasters—is prevalent for one specific reason in Pathfinder: spellcasters are, bar none, the deadliest enemies you will face in the game. More than full-attacks, spells are the deadliest weapons you will square off against in 1e, and at later levels nearly every enemy is some form of spellcaster, whether that casting comes from spells or spell-like abilities. The elements that go into creating such an anticaster are somewhat nebulous, but I generally define the role as one that meets as many of the following prerequisites as possible:
If you’ve followed each of these steps dutifully, you’ve achieved the goal that every anticaster sets out for: to make all of a caster’s options bad options. They could try to blast you, but then they remember that you’ve got great saves and touch AC. They could try to hide, but then they remember that you can see invisible creatures and aren’t fooled by concealment. They could try to drop you into a pit, but then they remember you’re flying. They could try to run, but then they remember they’ve been locked in place by dimensional anchor. They could try to 5-foot step away, but then they remember that you’ll follow and take an attack of opportunity. Oh, and the cherry on top: they’re blind, deaf, staggered, entangled, prone, bleeding, on fire, cursed, etc. What casters primarily use to defeat martial characters are options: options to control, slow, penalize, obscure, summon, deter—and in their hour of greatest need, to escape or hide. Take away those options, and a caster is just a poorly armored nerd waving their arms around. There’s no feeling quite as satisfying as killing a caster that you’ve finally beaten at their own chess game; all it takes is some imagination, preparation, and systems mastery to do that consistently. Anticasters aren’t generally going to go toe-to-toe with casters on spell save DCs, but even so, an anticaster build will demand higher investment in Intelligence than most combat builds would need. Let’s call it STR, INT > CON > DEX, WIS > CHA for Strength-based anticasters, and DEX, INT > CON > WIS > STR, CHA for Dexterity-based anticasters.
Pros | Cons |
You could single-handedly stop a TPK. No, that’s not an exaggeration. Casters are the deadliest enemies in Pathfinder, and killing them quickly could avert disaster for your team. | Takes a bit more feat support. Step Up is a must, and you can layer on Following Step, Step Up and Strike, and more defensive feats as needed to be competitive against full casters. |
You have most of the tools you need already. Becoming an anticaster is less about radically redefining your build than it is about stocking up on a few choice scrolls, choosing your focus powers and implement spells with a bit more of a focused eye, and learning more about how casters tend to operate in combat. Certainly you’re more suited to this role than other non-magical martial classes. | Takes a bit more systems mastery. Just as I wouldn’t recommend that new players attempt to play full casters, I wouldn’t recommend that new players attempt to beat full casters. It takes a while to get inside casters’ heads: how they think, how they move, how they react, what they’ll try next. Once you know that, it takes some in-depth knowledge of the system to pick the right tools to counter, ignore, or forestall their tactics. |
It’s satisfying. Checkmating a caster is a gigantic tactical and systems mastery puzzle to figure out, and there’s no feeling quite like flexing into the perfect combination of weapon enchantments, armor enchantments, feats, focus powers, actions, etc. to bring your team a big win. |
The good news about an anticaster loadout is that it doesn’t vary significantly from what you’d have been taking as a normal melee/ranged combat build. There are a few more targeted debuffs (rigor mortis, confusion, mindwipe, cold iron fetters, etc.) and straight-up anticaster spells (dispel magic, antimagic field, dimensional anchor, summoner conduit, etc.) but otherwise you should view an anticaster build as a refinement of a combat build, not an overhaul of one. Honestly, as long as you can work in two abjuration implements, one transmutation implement, and one or two implements from the conjuration, divination, and evocation schools, you should be golden—scrolls and wands will have to make up the rest. I wish Occultists got twice the implement schools they do, but they don’t, so we’re all going to have to live with the crunch and make the best of it.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | Shield — | — — | Anticipate peril Heightened awareness | — — |
2 | Bullet shield Resist energy | Ablative barrier Glitterdust | See invisibility — | Calm emotions — |
3 | Dispel magic Thaumaturgic circle | — — | — — | — — |
4 | Break enchantment Dimensional anchor Dismissal Freedom of movement | Dimension door — | Glimpse of truth — | Confusion Mindwipe |
5 | Dispel magic, greater Spell resistance | Cold iron fetters — | Battlemind link True seeing | Mind fog Forbid action, greater |
6 | Antimagic field — | — — | — — | Cloak of dreams — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | Shadow trap Vanish | — — | Feather fall Liberating command |
2 | Force sword Gust of wind | Invisibility Mirror image | Brow gasher Purge spirit | Darkvision Warp wood |
3 | Daylight Invisibility purge | Displacement — | Bestow curse — | Fly Haste |
4 | Brightest light Etheric shards | Greater invisibility Impossible angles | Death ward Summoner conduit | Echolocation Rigor mortis |
5 | Ectoplasmic hand — | — — | Entrap spirit Major curse | Control winds — |
6 | Contingency — | — — | Harm Umbral strike | Disintegrate — |
Abjuration and transmutation, I wish I knew how to quit you. Yes, the abjuration and transmutation schools are again at the top of the list. They have the best anticaster spells, and you simply must have Mind Over Gravity, Quickness, Aegis, and Legacy Weapon if you want to respond quickly to caster threats. Anticaster builds aren’t quite as beholden to Trappings of the Warrior as mainstream combat builds due to casters’ low AC, but full BAB still helps a ton, and Trappings grants you more abjuration and transmutation spells, all of which you’ll need desperately. By the time you get to 6th level, I would make an evocation or conjuration implement your priority, with a slight emphasis on evocation. Evocation’s focus powers beyond Radiance aren’t any great shakes for what you’re trying to accomplish, but its spells for regulating darkness levels, purging invisibility, and slapping around incorporeals are exactly what you’re starting to need. Conjuration should come in at 10th in time for Side Step and dimension door. Divination might be a good 14th-level pick for true seeing and constant see invisibility. The ratings stand at: Abjuration > Transmutation, Trappings, Evocation > Conjuration, Divination, Necromancy > Illusion > Enchantment.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
Warding Talisman Mind Barrier Aegis Unraveling | — Servitor Side Step — | Third Eye Sudden Insight Danger Sight — | — — Mental Discord — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — Radiance — | Distortion — Shadow Beast Unseen | — — Soulbound Puppet — | Physical Enhancement Legacy Weapon Mind Over Gravity Quickness |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration Metamagic Knowledge Spell Power | — — — — | — — — — | Martial Skill Combat Trick Counterstrike Shield Ally |
Haunt Collector and Naturalist are probably your two most powerful anticaster archetypes from 1st level, the former for its Champion, Guardian, Trickster, and Hierophant spirit bonuses, and the latter for natural focus’ ability to shrug off really bad save-or-die effects. Panoply Savant isn’t quite as good here due to a reduced need for high BAB from Trappings when fighting casters, but still does great work if you want to go that direction. Finally, Psychodermist bursts late, but there’s no beating residual hatred and manifest abilities for versatility and power against endgame casters. Haunt Collector will have a lower ceiling, but it’ll also be a heck of a lot easier to play than Psychodermist, which requires very careful management of trophies and active monster abilities.
Battlefield control is a tried-and-tested “God Wizard” strategy that focuses on wasting enemies’ time. Combat in Pathfinder is, at its core, a battle of tempo: whoever keeps up a vigorous pace of assault and doesn’t get slowed down too much wins. Battlefield control is therefore all about breaking an opponent’s tempo. What good are those eight natural attacks if an enemy is at the bottom of a pit they have to spend five turns climbing out of? What good is that finger of death if a wall is between the caster and your team? How effective are all those minions likely to be if they’re caught in the middle of a sleet storm? Battlefield control builds are usually pretty light on saves, and those that do require saves typically target the (statistically) weaker Reflex save. Battlefield control builds (along with summoning and buffing builds) can therefore afford slightly weaker Intelligence attributes than they would otherwise have—save DCs don’t matter too much. We’ll set our stats at INT > DEX > CON, WIS > STR, CHA.
Pros | Cons |
Very effective. Battlefield control is a favorite Wizard strategy for a reason: it just works. | None. This role is a staple because it kinda just builds on what your team already has, and does it without complaint or huge investment requirements. |
Minimal feat investment. Because spells that control the battlefield rarely require saves or spell resistance checks, this role can usually be filled pretty handily even by combat builds. No need for Persistent Spell, Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, or any of that noise. Just get up and go. | |
Targets the weak Reflex save. Conjuration and evocation effects typically target Reflex, which is perfect for any caster. Fortitude and Will are statistically much higher, especially in the upper CR tranches, so battlefield control hits big, slow enemies where they’re naturally weakest. |
The Occultist’s spell list is not particularly tailored to this role, but we’re going to try our best with it anyway. Evocation and conjuration are by far your two most important implement schools as a battlefield controller, and in that order. Darkness, deeper darkness, etheric shards, wall of force, and blade barrier are really all you need to set about partitioning the battlefield, monkeying with enemies’ vision, and hindering movement. At later levels, you can think about adding another evocation or conjuration implement for more walls and pits.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
2 | — — | — — | — — | Aversion — |
3 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
4 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
5 | — — | Wall of stone — | — — | Mind fog — |
6 | Repulsion — | Roaming pit Wall of iron | — — | — — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | Shadow trap — | — — | — — |
2 | Darkness Gust of wind | — — | — — | — — |
3 | Deeper darkness Wind wall | Shadowmind — | — — | — — |
4 | Etheric shards Wall of fire | Impossible angles — | — — | — — |
5 | Interposing hand Wall of force | — — | — — | Trans. mud to rock Trans. rock to mud |
6 | Blade barrier Sirocco | — — | — — | Disintegrate — |
Evocation, Abjuration, Transmutation > Conjuration, Illusion > Divination, Enchantment, Necromancy will do pretty well for our purposes here. Every Occultist needs at least one abjuration and transmutation implement to shore up their defenses and offenses, but your 2nd-level and possibly 6th-level implement schools should be evocation; 10th or even 14th level is about when conjuration should get added into the mix, as there really aren’t any quality battlefield control spells on the conjuration list until 5th level.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
— — — — | — — Psychic Fog — | Third Eye Sudden Insight — — | — — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — Wall of Power — | Distortion Minor Figment Mirage — | — — — — | Physical Enhancement — — — |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration Metamagic Knowledge Metamagic Master | — — — — | — — — — | — — — — |
Planar Harmonizer will be the obvious pairing for a battlefield control build, as that archetype gets to poach a whole bunch of conjuration spells off the Wizard/Sorcerer list. I’m not a huge fan of what the archetype trades away, but there’s no denying that it will make you a better battlefield controller with that one class feature alone. I think the stronger choice, though, is Geomancer. Many of the spells you receive from your terrain focus are battlefield control spells off the Druid list, which is generally one of the stronger battlefield control spell lists in the game. Plus, you get Wall of Terrain at 13th level, Dominion at 7th, and the whole archetype stacks with Panoply Savant in case you wanted to grab Trappings of the Warrior or Mage’s Paraphernalia while you were at it. Panoply Savant + Paraphernalia unlocks some really powerful wand abilities, too, which every battlefield controller can take advantage of.
The “Blaster Caster” is another time-honored trope of roleplaying games, and in games like Pathfinder is usually played out by full arcane casters: Sorcerers, Wizards, and Arcanists, primarily. The goal of any blasting build is pretty simple: deal as much damage to a mob of enemies as possible with as few spell resources as possible. Occultists don’t work so well in this role for a few reasons. First, damage-dealing spells almost without exception rely on failed saves to deal the most damage. Raising save DCs requires high mental stats, high spell levels, and potentially metamagic to make blasts bigger, more damaging, or harder to successfully save against. Occultists don’t fit any of those bills particularly well! They’re ⅔ casters, their spell list (even in evocation or conjuration) is extremely limited, and they have less leeway to use metamagic effectively. Evocation focus powers can help you blast, of course, but they’re usually on the weak side and are very expensive, relative to other focus powers.
Second, blasting as a strategy is just inefficient—a heck of a lot of fun, but inefficient. Every time you deal damage as a spellcaster, you’re burning some kind of resource that won’t get replenished until the next day, whereas martials can deal damage with swords and axes and bows all day long. It therefore makes more sense, especially for ⅔ casters like Occultists, to help the martials hit harder or get to their targets more easily, rather than destroying enemies themselves. Casting-based Occultists want to be the arm or the anvil, not necessarily the hammer. Third, psychic magic is more vulnerable than arcane or divine magic to disruption. One failed save against an emotion or fear effect, and your magic is gone. Not harder, not requiring a concentration check—gone. Effects like grappling or silence can hamper arcane casters, of course, but you usually have to catch an arcane caster before you can pull out those tricks, and that’s not always the easiest thing to do.
Pros | Cons |
Sometimes damage needs to get dealt. I think this one probably speaks for itself. | A ⅔ casting chassis doesn’t set you up to succeed, even with archetypes like Silksworn. Your save DCs will always be lower than full casters’ save DCs, and you’ll always have fewer spells per day. Yes, even Silksworn. |
It’s fun to shoot baddies! Also self-explanatory. | Blasting is inefficient. Too much squeeze, not enough juice, you know what I mean? |
Psychic magic is vulnerable to disruption. Any fear or emotion effect gone astray shuts down your only party trick. |
Evocation, evocation, and more evocation. But you knew that coming in, didn’t you? The Occultist’s spell list is certainly not the greatest for blasting, but you usually have at least one good single-target and AoE blast at each spell level. Necromancy does surprisingly well at blasting, and both abjuration and transmutation have their upsides. Most blasters will probably be going either Silksworn or Panoply Savant + Mage’s Paraphernalia; the latter combo requires evocation and necromancy implements, so you’ll be picking them up as a matter of course.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
2 | Node of blasting — | — — | — — | — — |
3 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
4 | Planar aegis Wreath of blades | — — | — — | — — |
5 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
6 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | Burning hands Shocking grasp | — — | — — | — — |
2 | Flaming sphere Frost fall | — — | Brow gasher Purge spirit | — — |
3 | Fireball Lightning bolt | — — | — — | — — |
4 | Ball lightning Pyrotechnic eruption | — — | Masochistic shadow Summoner conduit | Parchment swarm Rigor mortis |
5 | Cone of cold Fire snake | — — | — — | — — |
6 | Chain lightning Contagious flame | — — | Harm Umbral strike | Disintegrate — |
Well, you’ll need Evocation, then whatever else you’ve got room for. That will mean at least one necromancy and divination implement if you’re a Panoply Savant working toward Mage’s Paraphernalia, or simply multiple evocation implements if you’re playing a Silksworn who can’t access panoplies. The blasting role dovetails pretty nicely with battlefield control, so you may want to throw in some control spells with your evocation implements (etheric shards, deeper darkness, wall of force, etc.) or mix a conjuration implement in whenever you can.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
— — — — | — — — — | Third Eye Sudden Insight — — | — — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
Intense Focus Energy Ray Energy Blast Shape Mastery | Distortion — — — | — — — — | Physical Enhancement — — — |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration Metamagic Master Spell Power | — — — — | — — — — | — — — — |
Silksworn will definitely give you a leg up in spells known and spells per day, as well as spell save DCs in later levels; both of these are big improvements on the base Occultist chassis. If you’d like to retain some modicum of martial skill, however, rather than trade away all chances for panoplies or medium/heavy armor, you’re going to be left with Panoply Savant + Mage’s Paraphernalia. Panoply Savant’s implement specialist ability allows that archetype to use wands at the user’s caster level, which can be a huge, huge benefit to blasters. A single wand of scorching ray becomes far more deadly when it can continue to shoot more and more rays every level.
“Buffing” might honestly be too restrictive a word for what Occultists can do: they facilitate. Struggling with deeper darkness? Boom, out comes Radiance. Martial needs to get huge in a hurry? Boom, Size Alteration. Ally needs a pick-me-up? Boom, Inspired Assault. This role is where many of the Occultist’s focus powers truly shine. Sure, you’ve got spells like haste and fly—and those are as good as they always are—but your mental focus pool can also buff your allies or yourself. Again, combat in Pathfinder is really about tempo, so the more you can increase your own party’s tempo, the greater the chance you stand of winning.
Pros | Cons |
Very effective. Just like battlefield control, buffing just works. No muss, no fuss. | None. This role is a staple because it kinda just builds on what your team already has, and does it without complaint or huge investment requirements. |
Minimal feat investment. Spells targeting your own team don’t require any spell resistance checks or saves, so outside of maybe Combat Casting and metamagic rods of extend spell or logical spell, you don’t need any investment to rock in this role. | |
No saves, no spell resistance. Speaking of which: buffing doesn’t require any saves or spell resistance checks, so you’re as effective as you need to be right at 1st level. Nearly every Occultist should do some amount of team buffing, because you can practically trip and fall into a good buffing build. |
It won’t come as any surprise to anyone that abjuration and transmutation are again your best options for buffing, as they focus more than any other school on defense and offense; buffing is usually the easiest casting role for combat-focused Occultists to get involved in, as it doesn’t require a strong Intelligence score and mostly fits in with spells and focus powers you would have taken anyway. Illusion is probably the third-best buffing implement school, especially if you have an ally with sneak attack dice. Beyond that, you’ve pretty much tapped out what the Occultist has to offer.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | Shield Warding weapon | Cure light wounds — | Anticipate peril Heightened awareness | — — |
2 | Resist energy Bullet shield | Ablative barrier Cure mod. wounds | — — | Calm emotions Tactical acumen |
3 | Thaumaturgic circle Resist energy, comm. | Cure serious wounds Penumbral disguise | Locate weakness — | — — |
4 | Freedom of movement Stoneskin | Cure critical wounds — | — — | — — |
5 | Spell resistance Stoneskin, comm. | — — | Battlemind link — | — — |
6 | — — | Heal — | — — | — — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | Vanish — | — — | Enl./red. person Tears to wine |
2 | — — | Invisibility Mirror image | — — | Perceive cues Versatile weapon |
3 | — — | Displacement Invisibility sphere | — — | Fly Haste |
4 | Fire shield — | Greater invisibility — | Death ward — | Echolocation — |
5 | — — | — — | — — | Overland flight Particulate form |
6 | — — | — — | — — | Statue — |
I’ve included a build in the builds section that utilizes the Saint’s Holy Regalia panoply, and I suppose you could use Mage’s Paraphernalia for buffing. Both of those strategies are kind of like using an axe to cut butter, though: it’ll get the job done, sure, but isn’t it overkill at a certain point? The Regalia don’t really add a lot of options you wouldn’t have otherwise had (it being generally the weakest of the panoplies); Mage’s Paraphernalia works best in a buffing role if you’re also going with Panoply Savant so that you can boost the caster level of wands on the fly. That can be a pretty excellent strategy. Otherwise, though, you’re probably looking at something like Abjuration, Transmutation > Illusion, Conjuration, Mage’s > Saint’s > Everything else.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
Warding Talisman Mind Barrier Aegis Energy Shield | — — Flesh Mend Purge Corruption | Third Eye Sudden Insight Danger Sight — | — — Inspired Assault — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — — — | Distortion — — — | — — — — | Physical Enhancement Legacy Weapon Mind Over Gravity Quickness |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration Metamagic Knowledge | — — — — | Font of Healing Restoring Touch Guardian Aura Rebuke Anathema | — — Shield Ally — |
Haunt Collector, Panoply Savant, and Silksworn, as usual. Haunt Collectors don’t have a huge amount to offer a buffing role specifically, but it’s a strong archetype that I suppose you could pair with the Hierophant spirit for some amount of synergy. Panoply Savant is best used with Mage’s Paraphernalia, as I mentioned—implement specialist boosting the caster level of wands will do far more for you as a buffer than Saint’s Holy Regalia ever could. Lastly, Silksworn just get more spells per day, more spells known, and more mental focus. And because they’re never going to be in melee themselves (at least not if they can help it) that frees up more resources to help buff the team.
Debuffing is another tried-and-true role of TTRPG combat that involves softening up enemies so that they can’t hurt your team as effectively, or so that you can hurt them more effectively. Debuffing can take many forms: spells that burn actions, lower attack or damage rolls, penalize movement or AC, control actions, force status conditions or miss chances, waste spells, etc. can all be considered debuffs, so it’s often difficult to tell where the debuffing role ends and something like a charm/dominate or battlefield control build begins. On the whole, debuffing is not something that I would say the Occultist class is built to do very well. You get a couple chestnuts like bestow curse or mind fog on the enchantment and necromancy lists, but there’s not a lot of archetype support or focus power support for such a role. Moreover, the restrictions on mixing and matching spell schools really hits the Occultist hard. Glitterdust is a great low-level debuff, but with no meaningful other debuffing spells or focus powers on the conjuration list, who’s going to take a conjuration implement to get it?
Beyond the lack of spell and class feature support for a debuffing role, debuffing always involves enemy-targeted spells; enemy targeted spells almost always mean saves; saves always mean high save DCs. And in this, Occultists are stumped. You’ve got ⅔ casting, which slows your save DC progression there, you’ve got to split your mental stats with physical stats so you’ll be at least okay in a fight, which slows your save DC progression there, and you don’t have a lot of leeway for metamagic like Persistent Spell that could encourage enemies to fail saves. It’s just a tough row to hoe, y’all.
Pros | Cons |
Probably more effective and efficient than blasting. The math gets a little complicated here, but basically, martials will almost always out-damage casters in single-target damage competitions. Softening up foes for martials to plow over is effectively dealing damage yourself, while often keeping the party safe at the same time. | Reliant on save DCs and spell resistance penetration checks. Like pretty much all blasts, pretty much all debuffs require enemies to fail a save and require you to pass a spell resistance check at higher levels. Your caster level is fine, but save DCs remain a constant challenge for ⅔ casting classes. |
Synergizes well with buffing. Buffing makes allies better; debuffing makes enemies worse. Often buffs will be pretty much maxed out in a high-level party (who isn’t going to have haste, heroism, etc. in a 16th-level party?) but debuffing never loses its oomph. | Psychic magic is vulnerable to disruption. Any fear or emotion effect gone astray shuts down your only party trick. |
Enchantment and necromancy are by far your best implement schools for debuffing, but the focus powers associated with those schools are some of the weakest available to Occultists. You may want to consider an archetype like the Necroccultist, both for its ability to grant you spells of the Wizard/Sorcerer list as well as for its baked-in increases to save DCs.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | — — | — — | — — | Murderous command — |
2 | Node of blasting — | Glitterdust — | — — | Aversion Inflict pain |
3 | Dispel magic — | — — | — — | Hold person — |
4 | Break enchantment Dimensional anchor | — — | — — | Confusion Mindwipe |
5 | Greater dispel magic — | Cold iron fetters — | — — | Dahak’s release Mind fog |
6 | Antimagic field — | — — | — — | Cloak of dreams — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | Shadow trap — | — — | — — |
2 | Beacon of guilt Pilfering hand | — — | Brow gasher Spectral hand | Disfiguring touch Warp wood |
3 | Deeper darkness Invisibility purge | Shadowmind — | Bestow curse Retrib. reparations | Forced mutation Slow |
4 | — — | Impossible angles — | Conditional curse Masochistic shadow | Rigor mortis Warp metal |
5 | Alaznist’s jinx Ectoplasmic hand | — — | Major curse Unwilling shield | — — |
6 | — — | — — | Umbral strike — | — — |
As I said, any true debuffing build will need at least one necromancy or enchantment implement, with all the other schools coming in at distant third and fourth places. As usual for offensive casting builds, the Mage’s Paraphernalia will be an excellent implement to investigate for debuffers.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
— — Unraveling — | — — — — | Third Eye Sudden Insight — — | — — Mental Discord Binding Pattern |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — — — | Distortion — — — | — — Pain Wave — | — — — — |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration Metamagic Master Spell Power | — — — — | — — — — | — — — — |
You could go with something typical like Panoply Savant, Haunt Collector, or Silksworn for a debuffing build, but the real right call is Necroccultist. Necromantic magic simply rules the debuffig roost in Pathfinder, and the ability to cherrypick spells off the Wizard/Sorcerer list is well worth what the archetype trades away. Since there’s so much common ground between a debuffing Necroccultist and a summoning/minion mastery Necroccultist, you may as well plan to do both; goodness knows that minion mastery doesn’t particularly benefit from the Necroccultist’s boost to save DCs.
I’m trying to describe this role as best I can, but words can only do so much. Included in the following list are spells and abilities that let you scry on enemies, conjure invisible sensors to spy for you, pick up information from your surroundings or dead bodies, hide yourself or your team from divination magic on demiplanes, charm or dominate enemies into giving you information, and possess enemies’ bodies in order to infiltrate organizations. It’s a broad mandate, I realize, but knowledge is power in Pathfinder: the more you know about enemies’ numbers, patterns, vulnerabilities, etc., the more you’re able to hit ‘em where it hurts. Of course, many abilities that fall under category require a willing GM who has a command of what enemies are up to, knows about anti-divination or anticaster tactics, uses counter-scrying to prepare for the PCs, understands the history of the campaign well enough to give you information when you cast spells like retrocognition, etc. Some GMs will simply not want to bother with this kind of thing, and you could find yourself facing their anger or arbitrary pushback if you “cheapen” their encounters with too much divination and prep work. Personally, I love to have players who think tactically, gather information, and don’t rush headlong into things, but you’ll probably want to have a candid discussion with your GM about how much they intend to play ball with scrying, spying, intrigue, etc.
Now, most Occultists will only have room to do one or two of the things listed early in the paragraph above: a necromancy specialist might have access to riding possession for easy spying, but not remote viewing from divination. A divination specialist might have the Mind Eye focus power to scout out locations ahead of time, but not False Persona from Performer’s Accoutrements to outright infiltrate an enemy base in disguise. The tactics you use will depend on what you’re specifically built for, and that’s likely to be different for every Occultist.
Pros | Cons |
Knowledge is power. Some GMs feel like divination magic “cheapens” the play experience, but what do they know? If you can scout out locations ahead of time, scry on enemies to learn their weaknesses or patterns, then I feel you should be rewarded for that appropriately. | Very little combat applicability. Scrying and Mind Eye don’t do you a lick of good when you get into an out-and-out combat, so this role will most likely come as an ancillary role to a more mainstream casting or combat lineup. |
Can be great for plot hooks. So long as you tell your GM in advance what kind of divination magic you’re planning to use (retrocognition, greater scrying, etc.) this role can have great utility for picking up on plot hooks, getting hints about what to try or where to go next, etc. | Requires some resources. Not as many as a blasting or debuffing build, but you’ll still likely need to take Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, and Greater Spell Penetration at some point. Comes with the territory. |
Not surprisingly, divination has the best spells for scrying and spying, as well as some of the best focus powers. Spell support for this role doesn’t really get started until 11th level, when you get 4th-level spells and scrying, but analyze aura, blood biography, and retrocognition do great work at earlier levels. If you’re really leaning into hardcore caster divination wars, you’ll want an abjuration implement at some point to get you nondetection and other anti-divination spells.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | — — | — — | Psychic reading Speechreader’s sight | Charm person — |
2 | Obscure object — | — — | Analyze aura Blood biography | — — |
3 | Nondetection — | — — | Arcane sight Retrocognition | Suggestion — |
4 | Enchantment foil Nondetection, comm. | — — | Detect scrying Scrying | Charm monster Mass charm person |
5 | Nex’s secret workshop — | Lesser create demi. — | Remote viewing True seeing | Dominate person Mass suggestion |
6 | — — | Create demiplane — | Greater scrying — | — — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
2 | — — | Misdirection — | — — | Rope trick — |
3 | — — | — — | Riding possession — | — — |
4 | — — | — — | Possession — | — — |
5 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
6 | — — | — — | Greater possession — | — — |
Surprising no one, divination is the hot school of magic for supernatural espionage. I mean, Third Eye and Mind Eye alone can make you a better spy than just about any other class for only a couple points of mental focus every day. Necromancy is also curiously good, giving you Soulbound Puppet for a disposable familiar and all the scouting it’s capable of as well as great espionage spells like riding possession at later levels. Lastly, those truly engaging in espionage and counter-espionage will want to pick up the Performer’s Accoutrements. False Persona, the base focus power, is an incredibly hard counter to many casters’ divination tricks, so this lets you spy without being suspected by your enemies.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
— — — — | — — — — | Third Eye — Mind Eye Powerful Connection | — — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — — — | — — — — | — — Soulbound Puppet — | — — — — |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration Metamagic Master Spell Power | — False Persona — — | — — — — | — — — — |
Oddly enough, there really isn’t much support for the scrying and spying role in the Occultist’s archetypes. If you truly want divination to be the only thing you do, Silksworn will probably come out on top for its improved spell save DCs, spell slots, and mental focus pool. If you’re adding this role as an ancillary pick-up to a more mainstream role, all you really need is a decent Intelligence score and a divination implement and you’re golden. Panoply Savant is an option, since one of the implements in the Mage’s Paraphernalia panoply is divination; the addition of Arcane Inspiration and Spell Power to take divination spells from the arcane spell lists as well as beat spell resistance checks is always worthwhile. This is the better choice if you’d like to play a more or less “normal” Occultist with the addition of some spying abilities on the side.
Occultists are not summoners in the traditional sense: they receive no summon monster or summon nature’s ally spells on their spell lists, can’t learn gate or other high-powered conjuration magic, and don’t receive any permanent animal companions, mounts, or familiars. So...what gives? How can they be summoners? Well, if you’re ready for things to get dark, Occultists may be pretty poor at actual summoning outside of abilities like Shadow Beast or Servitor, but they rock at necromancy and creating undead minions with animate dead. I go into much more detail about this feature in the necromancy implement school section, but the basic idea is that the resonant power of a necromancy implement allows an Occultist to control double the HD of undead servants as other classes, and to create much more powerful undead servants with each casting of animate dead. You’ll end up spending most of your wealth by level on onyx in order to fuel that spell’s material components, but what of it? Undead are permanent, powerful creatures that can boast fast healing, full movement speeds, and even teamwork feats if you have something like Charnel Soldiers. And that’s not even adding on the necromancy implement school’s focus powers!
All that power, of course, comes at a cost. The necromantic playstyle for an Occultist requires a huge amount of mental focus to be invested in your necromancy implements—up to 40 points at 20th level. If you want to squeeze every last drop of utility out of that implement school, you’ll need a high Intelligence score, a favored class bonus that grants extra mental focus, and the Extra Mental Focus feat in case you want to, I don’t know, do any other stuff other than necromancy. Creating undead is also an unalterably evil act that will provoke the wrath of deities like Pharasma and her many worshipers on Golarion. You have to be prepared not to make any friends as a necromancer. If you’re ready to walk the left-hand path, though, it’s a powerful playstyle that the Occultist does very well.
I do want to touch on Servitor and Shadow Beast briefly. Servitor is a focus power from the conjuration implement school that allows you to cast summon monster for 1 point of mental focus. The ability scales up to summon monster VI by the very end levels, but there are some problems with that. First, summon monster already scales pretty poorly: summon monster IX, the 9th-level spell that Wizards and Sorcerers and Summoners get, caps out at about CR 14 when your party is 18th-20th level. You might be pitting a CR 14 creature against a CR 20+ creature! Not a recipe for success. And Servitor scales even more slowly: summon monster VI caps out around CR 7, so you’ll be using those creatures at 18th-20th level. Again, really not a recipe for successipe. Shadow Beast, the illusion focus power, scales all the way to summon monster IX but gives you a 50% reality rating on all your summoned monsters, meaning you’ll get only 50% damage and a 50% chance of special abilities working against foes that pass their save to disbelieve the illusion. That’s worse than Servitor in some ways, but better than Servitor in others. If I were going to build a summoner along these lines, I’d probably do it with Shadow Beast, but that may be just me. Lacking the ability to apply the Solid Shadows metamagic feat really hinders that path, but it scales better than Servitor
Pros | Cons |
Extremely powerful. We’ll get into this more with Brewer’s Guide to Undeath below, but undead have many advantages over summoned monsters of a comparable level. Bloody skeletons even heal themselves! Power is, not surprisingly, why most people turn to the dark arts. | Eeevil. We’ll return to this point time and again: creating undead is really evil. Get ready for lots of pushback. |
Surprisingly light on feats. With the exception of the Charnel Soldiers feat and perhaps Undead Mastery, an undead build needs nothing more than as much mental focus as it can get its hands on. So hop to it. | Incredibly hard on mental focus reserves. Necromancy’s resonant power requires a ton of mental focus to run, but there aren’t that many good necromancy focus powers to use your invested mental focus on! You’ll need to explore every avenue to get more focus, and maybe try to get into the Mage’s Paraphernalia panoply in order to be able to use your necromantic mental focus on good stuff. |
Good archetype support. The Necroccultist archetype is as tailored for this role as you could possibly want, granting bonuses to save DCs and extra spells known off of the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list. Great stuff. | Requires a lot of monetary investment. Creating undead costs 25 gp per HD, which can add up to a lot in the long run. Do everything you can to prevent your undead from being destroyed, either through inflict spells or the bloody skeleton template, which receives fast healing. |
Life as an undead minion master is pretty easy: select animate dead when you reach 3rd-level spells, acquire some onyx, and then start raising the dead like it’s going out of style. Heal your undead with the inflict spells as needed, rope in new living servants with charm monster, or use greater possession to wear an enemy’s body like a track suit made of hamburger. Simple enough? Simple enough.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | — — | Unseen servant Mount | — — | Charm person — |
2 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
3 | — — | Draconic ally — | — — | Suggestion — |
4 | — — | — — | — — | Charm monster Mass charm person |
5 | — — | Lesser planar binding — | — — | Dominate person Mass suggestion |
6 | — — | Planar binding — | — — | — — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | — — | Inflict light wounds — | — — |
2 | — — | — — | Inflict mod. wounds — | — — |
3 | — — | — — | Animate dead — | — — |
4 | — — | — — | Possession Torpid reanimation | — — |
5 | — — | — — | Greater object poss. — | — — |
6 | — — | — — | Greater possession — | Animate objects — |
So necromancy is the obvious implement that every minion master needs. You’ll probably still want to pick up Servitor through a conjuration implement—summons can be meat shields, heal bots, team buffers, and flanking partners, even if they won’t do much on their own in combat. Illusion is generally very strong for casters, thanks to the Distortion resonant power, so you can plan to pick that one up (along with Shadow Beast) around 10th level.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
— — — — | — Servitor — — | — — — — | — — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — — — | — — Shadow Beast — | Necromantic Focus — Necromantic Servant Soulbound Puppet | — — — — |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration — — | — — — — | — — — — | — — — — |
If you’re looking for the undead minion master build, there’s nowhere you should be looking other than Necroccultist. It’s a great archetype that makes everything about your necromancy better, and with its ability to pick up necromancy spells from the Wizard/Sorcerer list, it can very easily become a primo debuffer on top of the minion mastery. Panoply Savant with Mage’s Paraphernalia can also be a good pick for its ability to grant your necromancy implement more mental focus; Arcane Inspiration lets you cherrypick necromancy spells off an arcane caster, albeit at greater expense than the Necroccultist, and the implement specialist class feature does wonders for your wand proficiency. Lastly, a more mainstream option is Planar Harmonizer. This isn’t a great archetype, both because it gives away many of your best class features and because it locks you out of panoplies (all your implements have to be tuning forks) but it will allow you to steal conjuration spells from other spell lists, and that could build you into a decent summoner. You’re still limited by spell level, though, so keep that in mind.
This role covers many traditional “Rogue-like” responsibilities: sneaking into the palace, unlocking the postern gate, distracting the guards with illusions, gladhanding or bluffing your way out of trouble if you get caught—that kind of thing. There are some major problems with this playstyle on an Occultist, namely lack of class skill support and the tendency to dump Charisma and Dexterity in favor of Strength and Intelligence, but with planning and investment, Occultists can leverage their focus powers to tremendous effect in more mainstream infiltration, intrigue, and interaction operations. You’ve just gotta know how to do it.
Let’s start with traits: this playstyle requires a lot of traits, because you’re going to have to find a way to switch most of your Charisma-based interaction skills over to Intelligence instead. That means Student of Philosophy, Bruising Intellect, or possibly Clever Wordplay, depending on your needs, or the Orator and Skill Focus (Linguistics) feats if you want to be able to bypass Charisma-based skills altogether and just route everything through Linguistics. If you’re going to be doing any sneaking around, you may need the creeping, shadow, and locksmith armor enchantments in order to reduce your armor check penalties to Stealth and Disable Device. Illusion and enchantment implements will probably be necessary so that you can distract people, hide yourself or go invisible, charm people into helping you, erase memories, etc.; a divination implement also wouldn’t be a bad idea for Third Eye and its bonuses to Perception checks as well as Mind Eye’s ability to scout locations before you physically come onto the scene. If you want to embed yourself in enemy organizations without getting caught—deep cover—you’ll need the Performer’s Accoutrements panoply for Actor’s Skill (its resonant power) and False Persona (its base focus power). If you manage to get all that done, you’ll as good as or better than any Rogue at infiltrating enemy organizations, whether in the short or long term. Achieving the goal will suck up nearly all of your resources, though, and you have to question whether that’s worth it when you could take the Student of Philosophy trait and Mind Eye focus power and skip nearly all mundane scouting and interaction.
Pros | Cons |
Sometimes the party needs a Bard or a Rogue, and there’s none to be found. Even if Occultists aren’t going to be great at this stuff without a lot of investment, they will at least be good enough that they can act as a secondary face/scout in a pinch. | The class isn’t naturally set up for this role. Really nothing about the Occultist class lends itself naturally to infiltration and interaction. You can bend it to your will with enough investment, but that brings us to our next point... |
Intrigue is thrilling. What’s more fun than pulling a heist, but with magic? | ...it requires a lot of investment. Traits, feats, money, implements, panoplies—you need a very specific build in order to be able to do this successfully. Do you want to play that build, understanding that it might shut you out of a lot of other roles? |
As I mentioned above, your spell needs will vary depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. At the very least, you’ll need an enchantment implement for charm person, suggestion, etc., and an illusion implement, for invisibility and the various image/hallucination spells. Divination and its spells for spotting traps, magical auras, invisible dangers, and other nasty surprises would also be wise.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | — — | — — | Heightened awareness Psychic reading | Charm person — |
2 | — — | Apport object — | Analyze aura See invisibility | — — |
3 | Nondetection — | Penumbral disguise — | Arcane sight Pierce disguise | Suggestion — |
4 | Enchantment foil Nondetection, comm. | Dimension door — | — — | Charm monster Mass charm person |
5 | — — | Teleport — | True seeing — | Dominate person Mass suggestion |
6 | — — | Getaway — | Find the path — | — — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | Auditory halluc. Silent image | — — | Pass without trace Tears to wine |
2 | — — | Invisibility Minor image | Unsettling presence — | Hidden knowledge Perceive cues |
3 | — — | Audiovisual halluc. Major image | — — | Assume appearance Shrink item |
4 | — — | Complex halluc. Greater invisibility | — — | Greater assume app. — |
5 | Ectoplasmic hand — | Persistent image Scripted halluc. | — — | — — |
6 | Contingency — | Permanent image Triggered halluc. | — — | — — |
You want enchantment for interaction and illusion for infiltration—and hey, guess what? Those are the two required implement schools for Performer’s Accoutrements. My recommendation would be to take abjuration or conjuration at 1st level with illusion, enchantment at 2nd, Performer’s Accoutrements at 6th, and then divination at 10th. You’re losing out on a transmutation implement, but I warned you that there would be tradeoffs you’d have to make in order to pursue playstyle. You’re not a Bard—you don’t just get this stuff handed to you for free.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
— — Aegis — | — — Side Step — | Third Eye Sudden Insight Danger Sight Mind Eye | Glorious Presence — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — — — | Distortion Minor Figment Masquerade Unseen | — — Psychic Curse — | Physical Enhancement Legacy Weapon — — |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
— Arcane Inspiration — — | Actor’s Skill False Persona — — | — — — — | — — — — |
Ostensibly, Ancestral Aspirant and Secret Broker are meant to be intrigue archetypes for the Occultist, but they both stink pretty badly, so we won’t be taking them. That leaves Panoply Savant with the Performer’s Accoutrements and Silksworn as the other major contenders. Panoply Savant is always pretty good, but there’s a shortage of magical masks and musical instruments to use with implement specialist, and panoply specialization requires you to take your panoply implement schools before anything else. You wouldn’t be able to pick up abjuration and basic defensive magic until 6th level, at least, and that’s not a great recipe. Silksworn, meanwhile, locks you out of panoplies altogether—say goodbye to Performer’s Accoutrements—but silksworn eloquence is a great class feature for this role, and you’ll certainly be working with more implements, making it easier to fit in an illusion and enchantment implement.
The knowledge jockey role is one that’s based on figuring stuff out without spying on enemies directly—that falls more into the scrying and spying role. Instead, knowledge jockeys try to crush Knowledge skill checks to identify monsters’ weaknesses and strengths, learn metainformation through spells like blood biography or retrocognition, and generally help guide the party in how to adventure smarter, not harder. As a class, Occultists aren’t ideally suited for this role—at least, not as suited as dedicated skill monkey classes like the Investigator—but they have several advantages: a decent number of skill ranks per level with three of the monster identification Knowledge skills as class skills, an Intelligence focus to boost Knowledge checks and grant more skill ranks, several key Knowledge-boosting spells, and ways to answer questions with effects like commune or augury when they’re just stumped otherwise. That’s more than many classes have! I’m also lumping Perception ability in with this role, because that’s a form of information gathering, too.
Pros | Cons |
Play smarter, not harder. Understanding enemies’ strengths and weaknesses like DR, spell resistance, energy resistance, and vulnerabilities can turn error-laden encounters into much smoother sailing. | None, really. It’s a pretty low-investment playstyle that has good rewards for tactical play. |
Pretty well set up for it already. You’ve got pretty good class skills, enough skill ranks, plenty of Intelligence, and a good amount of spells to facilitate this role. | |
Not much investment needed. Building a knowledge jockey is more of a nudge than a push, and can be accomplished with a few carefully selected traits and spells, rather than a huge feat chain. |
No surprises that divination, the information-gathering magic school, does the bulk of the work for the Occultist, with anticipate peril and heightened awareness bringing up the vanguard. After that, transmutation is the real winner, boasting both tears to wine (an excellent spell for all things Intelligence- and Wisdom-based) and perceive cues. I’d love for you to be able to get investigative mind out of enchantment more easily, but it’s just not a good implement school for most Occultists. I’d leave it alone. If you’re looking for outright supernatural knowledge, divination is the place to go—augury, akashic communion, retrocognition, commune, the whole nine yards.
Spell Level | Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
1 | — — | — — | Anticipate peril Heightened awareness | — — |
2 | — — | — — | Augury Blood biography | Investigative mind — |
3 | Guarding knowledge — | — — | Akashic communion Retrocognition | — — |
4 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
5 | — — | — — | Commune — | — — |
6 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
Spell Level | Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
1 | — — | — — | — — | Tears to wine — |
2 | — — | — — | — — | Perceive cues — |
3 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
4 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
5 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
6 | — — | — — | — — | — — |
Divination is the only one that’s absolutely necessary to this playstyle, although as I said, transmutation also helps on the spell front. If you can fit it in (the necromancy and evocation implements will probably be hard to stomach for a dedicated knowledge jockey, niche as those implement schools are) the Mage’s Paraphernalia panoply can do some cool stuff with its resonant power and base focus power. Between Scholarly Knowledge granting more information on Knowledge checks and Arcane Inspiration allowing you to poach select spells off the Wizard/Sorcerer list, it’s a match made in heaven if you can make the space.
Abjuration | Conjuration | Divination | Enchantment |
— — — — | — — — — | Third Eye — Future Gaze — | — — — — |
Evocation | Illusion | Necromancy | Transmutation |
— — — — | — — — — | — — Soulbound Puppet — | — — — — |
Mage’s | Performer’s | Saint’s | Trappings |
Scholarly Knowledge Arcane Inspiration — — | — — — — | — — — — | — — — — |
This might come out of left field a bit, but Psychodermist is actually one of the strongest Knowledge jockeys in the game. It helps that Psychodermist is generally very strong, of course, but it gives you an additional two Knowledge skills used in monster identification as class skills for free (leaving only Dungeoneering off the list) and the monster hunting lore class feature gives you a bonus equal to half your level on monster identification checks. Since Psychodermists can also adjust their implements on the fly by crafting new trophies and pull in even more skill bonuses through residual hatred, this archetype should be your top consideration for the role. Beyond that, most of the Haunt Collector’s spirits (but especially the Trickster spirit) have some form of skill bonus as their spirit bonus. They’re pretty short-lived, but useful if all you need to do is crush a Knowledge check.
Apart from archetype and implement schools, an Occultist’s race is the only other element that truly determines their suitedness for the various roles discussed in the previous section. The choice of race or ancestry in Pathfinder is important for three reasons:
As has been usual in my last few class guides, I’m not going to go over every race, as that would be minimally fruitful. Simply ask yourselves the questions, “Am I getting bonuses to Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence? Is the favored class bonus going to grant me more mental focus or focus powers? Are the racial abilities ones I can live with? Does this fit my backstory?” If the answers to those four questions are yes, congratulations: you’ve got a winner.
Dwarves are one of my favorite core races, which is why it pains me to say that they’re simply not good Occultists. Slow movement speed, no bonuses to any of our necessary attributes, a worthless favored class bonus, and no racial traits apart from Hardy that aren’t available elsewhere. I do have a Reliquarian build in the builds section, though, if dwarves just have to be your jam.
Pros | Cons |
Hardy and darkvision are good. That’s a pretty thin list of accomplishments, though. | Poor stat array. No bonuses to Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence. Not great for a class that really needs help in at least one of those stats. |
Poor favored class bonus. Bonuses to Appraise and UMD checks don’t really do a lot for us. UMD is good, but overly restricted in this context to stone and metal items. | |
Not a lot of stand-out racial traits. I would recommend Fey Thoughts, Iron Citizen, Rock Stepper, and Shadowhunter pretty unequivocally for dwarven Occultists. |
Ah, yes, elves. Haughty and imperious, the Fair Folk make the second-best Occultists of all the core races, and arguably the best Occultists for especially for ranged or casting builds. Their stat bonuses are on point (the Constitution penalty is a hard pill to swallow, but unavoidable; half-elves can do as well as elves, if you want the favored class bonus without the Constitution penalty), the favored class bonus is to die for, and they have a variety of useful racial traits.
Pros | Cons |
Excellent stat bonuses. Dexterity and Intelligence bonuses make elves wonderful archers, Weapon Finesse melee fighters, or casters. With the Constitution penalty, you may want to keep them back out of the fray more urgently than you would a half-elf, though. | None. Elves are the pick of the litter. |
The best favored class bonus of all. More mental focus is exactly what Occultists need. Half-elves should always take their elven parent’s favored class bonus, not their human parent’s favored class bonus. | |
Plenty of good racial traits. Elven Immunities, Elven Magic, and Keen Senses are all great. Unless you’re making an elven curve blade build with Weapon Finesse, you should trade away Weapon Familiarity for Fey Thoughts or Shadow Hunter. If you don’t plan on casting offensively much, you could also trade Weapon Familiarity + Elven Magic for Human-Raised. |
I normally wouldn’t give gnomes the time of day for an Intelligence-based class, but gnome Occultists do actually have a niche role as casters! Between Gnome Magic (or any of the alternative racial traits that improve other magic schools) improving their spell save DCs and their excellent favored class bonus focusing on the Distortion resonant power from the illusion implement school, gnome Occultists can make hard-to-pin-down, tricksy casters that are constantly invisible by about 10th level. Gnome Silksworn are especially potent, as the race’s Charisma bonus can finally pay some dividends where other races can’t in that archetype. Just don’t try to swim against the current and get gnomes to be great in a combat role.
Pros | Cons |
Lovely favored class bonus for an illusion specialist. Distortion is among the most powerful abilities in the game for its capacity to make you permanently invisible until you attack. If you’re mostly casting spells—like any good gnome caster should—you can expect to keep that invisibility on more or less permanently. With the favored class bonus, you can expect to reach that state by 10th level. | Somewhat mediocre stat array. Charisma doesn’t benefit anyone but Silksworn Occultists, and Constitution won’t necessarily help you be any better at attacking. They function best as casters who don’t need to worry about physical attack attributes as much. |
Some good racial traits. Gnomes Occultists should usually be casting-focused, hence Gnome Magic (or Fell Magic, Genial Magic, Bleachling Magic, Fey Magic [HftF], or Utilitarian Magic, depending on your implement school specialty) is quite good. You don’t need Defensive Training, Hatred, Illusion Resistance, Obsessive, or Weapon Familiarity; my alternative picks would be Eternal Hope, Fey Thoughts, and Nosophobia. |
Half-elves are the other powerhouses of the core races, and arguably outstrip even elves as the top of the pack. They’re flexible, the favored class bonus is exactly on point, and their racial traits just don’t quit. Between Adaptability, Dual Minded, Weapon Familiarity, Ancestral Arms, Blended View, Fey Thoughts, a floating stat bonus, and either the human or elven favored class bonus, a half-elf Occultist can take on absolutely any role you want, and take them all on well.
Pros | Cons |
Floating stat bonus. Any class with a floating stat bonus can be built into pretty much whatever you want them to be in Pathfinder, which is excellent for half-elf Occultists. Intelligence will make a caster; Strength or Dexterity will make a combatant. Your choice. | None. Half-elves are the best of the best, where Occultists are concerned. |
Access to the elven favored class bonus with no hit to Constitution. Half-elves count as both elves and humans for all purposes related to race, including favored class bonuses. That really, really works out in your favor here. Always take the elf favored class bonus: it’s like getting a free feat every 4 levels. | |
Free Skill Focus. A lot of people sneer at a free Skill Focus feat, but it’s actually really good for Occultists. You’ll always need more UMD skills, for example, and Skill Focus (Linguistics) + Orator can easily turn Occultists into Intelligence-based party faces. If you don’t like it, get Dual Minded, Weapon Familiarity, or Ancestral Arms instead. | |
Good other racial traits. Multitalented is the only other racial trait I would consistently trade. Blended View and Fey Thoughts are the obvious candidates. |
Halflings are most comparable to gnomes in how they play, with the exception that gnomes make better casters due to their favored class bonus and racial traits while halflings make better combatants due to their attributes and racial traits. Although social interaction and intrigue aren’t really what Occultists are built for, halflings and gnomes can both get up to some shenanigans with the Silksworn archetype or the Performer’s Accoutrements panoply.
Pros | Cons |
Excellent favored class bonus. Halflings are the only race apart from elves to get bonus mental focus as their favored class bonus, and it rocks. | Slightly better stat array than gnomes, although still not great. A Dexterity bonus is of interest to ranged and Weapon Finesse builds, and allows halflings to pursue more than just a casting build. Still no Intelligence bonuses, though, so consider archetypes like Silksworn or Panoply Savant + Performer’s Accoutrements for their synergy with Charisma. |
Halfling Luck/Adaptable Luck + Fate’s Favored. The combo is a bit cheesy, but it’s cliched because it works. The Fate’s Favored traits boosts all luck bonuses, and hey, look at that! You have luck bonuses to saves on your list of racial traits. Whether you take Halfling Luck or Adaptable Luck is really a matter of preference. | |
Good other racial traits. Nothing so caster-focused as gnomes’ racial traits, but Fleet of Foot and Shadowhunter are always good. |
Half-orcs are almost always near the top of the heap when it comes to core races, which makes their mild underperformance in the Occultist class a bit of a puzzler. Perhaps not so much, though, since the race usually specializes in combat roles. Occultists don’t particularly need Weapon Familiarity, they’ll all take the human favored class bonus anyway, and what you’re left with is a...human with darkvision? I think the best argument for a half-orc’s role in the Occultist class is as an anticaster, using Dragon Sight, Sacred Tattoo + Fate’s Favored, and Shaman’s Apprentice as alternative racial traits, then adding the human favored class bonus to increase your focus power options. It’s still not quite the pinnacle of elves or half-elves, but it gets pretty close.
Pros | Cons |
Floating stat bonus. Always good. | None in particular. There’s nothing to disqualify half-orcs as Occultists, but there’s also nothing to really distinguish them. I’m at a loss to explain my reticence. |
Human favored class bonus. Even if bonus focus powers aren’t what I prefer taking with an Occultist, it’s good enough to merit a green. | |
Good racial traits. Many of the boilerplate racial traits don’t do a lot for Occultists. Weapon Familiarity, Orc Ferocity, and Intimidating are all underwhelming, so my suggestion is to go for Dragon Sight, Sacred Tattoo, and Shaman’s Apprentice. Sacred Tattoo is as boss as ever, Dragon Sight is useful in dungeoneering and against casters, and Shaman’s Apprentice can let you build into Diehard or even the Deathless Initiate/Master/Zealot feat line, if you want. |
Humans may be the most common race in the Inner Sea, but their mechanical power is definitely uncommon. Between the floating stat bonus, free feat at 1st level, and bonus skill ranks, humans are the ultimate blank slates, ready to be turned into whatever you want them to be. The loss of the elven/halfling favored class bonus is the only thing that prevents them from achieving true greatness in the Occultist class.
Pros | Cons |
Floating stat bonus. Been here before, neh? | None, as usual. Humans are strong in Pathfinder. What can I say? |
Free feat and skill rank at every level. Humans have the simplest racial traits, but also some of the most powerful. That free feat can be really, really important if you’re not playing with feat tax rules, and more skill ranks definitely don’t hurt. | |
Good favored class bonus. Again, focus powers are generally less valuable than mental focus, but I won’t turn my nose up here. |
Base aasimar are pretty uninspired choices for most Intelligence-based classes, not least because they don’t get any Intelligence or physical stat bonuses. Variant heritages were eventually released, however, and with these came the emberkin aasimar, descendents of peris who have some fire-based abilities. With bonuses to both Intelligence and Charisma and no physical stat penalties, emberkin aasimar make top-shelf Silksworn Occultists, and even get bonuses to useful Knowledge skills, some energy resistances, and darkvision. Of note, nearly every aasimar Occultist will want to take the Scion of Humanity alternative racial trait in order to access the human favored class bonus and qualify themselves for effects like enlarge/reduce person.
Pros | Cons |
Two stat bonuses with no penalty! Very few other races get this perk. As I mentioned, Silksworn Occultists benefit from increases to both Intelligence and Charisma, so you should consider that archetype seriously for this race. | None, really. Aasimar at least as good as half-orcs in the Occultist class, and maybe even a little better. |
Human favored class bonus, with Scion of Humanity. Sure, being both a native outsider and a human opens you to a few niche spells based on creature type, but mostly it opens you up to take the human favored class bonus and receive spells that only target humanoid enemies. | |
Good racial traits. All of the aasimar’s racial traits are acceptable for Occultists. Celestial Resistance is a must-have if you see yourself fighting a lot of undead or necromancers, and Truespeaker is amazing for Orator builds. Crusading Magic will serve you well if you intend to cast spells offensively. |
Who hasn’t wanted to play as a vampire from time to time? Dhampirs used to be pretty bad choices for Intelligence-based classes, but that was before variant dhampir heritages were introduced. With the advent of the ru-shi and ajibachana heritages, Intelligence-based classes now have options to increase both their primary casting stat and one of their main physical stats. Particularly in undead-heavy games where their Resist Level Drain racial trait can come into play, they’re great Occultist picks.
Pros | Cons |
Bonuses to a physical stat and Intelligence. Well, that’s as good as it gets, isn’t it? Ru-shi make great heavy armor Strength Occultists, while ajibachana excel at Weapon Finesse and ranged builds. | No racial favored class bonus. This one is a bit of a bummer, and unlike other races, dhampirs don’t have any racial trait that lets them act as though they were human. It’s okay. Skills or HP it is. |
Great racial traits. I’m generally a fan of dhampirs’ racial traits. Low-light vision and darkvision are of course always preferable, but the real pick-ups are Undead Resistance—I can’t stress enough how little psychic casters want to get hit with mind-affecting effects—and Resist Level Drain, both of which can save your bacon in a tight spot. Neither of the variant dhampirs has a particularly bad weakness, but Heir to Undying Nobility doesn’t work particularly well for Occultists, as the save DC is Charisma-based—I’d stick with Dayborn or your natural spell-like abilities. |
In my guides, I typically write up the five elemental races (suli, ifrit, undines, oreads, and sylphs) all together, as they tend to be pretty same-ish in racial traits. For Intelligence-based classes, we’re mainly interested in lavasoul ifrit (+2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Dexterity), rimesoul undines (+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma), and sylphs (+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Constitution). All of these genie bois have Intelligence bonuses and bonuses to one physical stat—lavasoul ifrit will be the best choice for heavily armored Strength Occultists, while rimesoul undines and sylphs should be your choices for Weapon Finesse and ranged builds. I’ll give you some advice about racial traits below—I’m not usually hugely impressed by the geniekin’s selection, but there are some decent standouts available. Unless you have a really compelling reason, certainly all geniekin should take the Mostly Human alternative racial trait in order to benefit from the human favored class bonus.
Pros | Cons |
Generally good stats. Nothing penalized that we want to be high at point buy—that’s good. | None, really. The geniekin are good all-arounders, about on par with half-orcs. Solid B+ for Occultists. |
Okay racial traits. There’s not a whole lot you couldn’t in a race like the half-orc, but hey, I’m not complaining. Lavasoul ifrit should take Wildfire Heart and whatever racial trait they want to replace Fire Affinity—they’re all pretty bad. For sylphs, I’m a fan of Breeze-Kissed and Like the Wind; you can choose whether Whispering Wind is better for you than a 1/day feather fall. Amphibious and Hydrated Vitality are obvious picks for rimesoul undines. None of the racial traits replacing your cold resistance are very good. | |
Human favored class bonus, with Mostly Human. The geniekin either have to take the human favored class bonus with Mostly Human or content themselves with HP or skill ranks. I know which I’d pick. |
Ratfolk make excellent Investigators, and I rated them highly in my guide on that class. As Occultists, they’re still pretty good: they’ve got bonuses to Dexterity and Intelligence, the same favored class bonus as humans, and some cool racial traits like Cheek Pouches. As one of the few Small-sized races that gets an Intelligence bonus, ratfolk are probably best suited to a casting role in the Occultist class, but Weapon Finesse and ranged builds also fit their stat distribution.
Pros | Cons |
Good stats. Strength is pretty disposable for casters or ranged/Weapon Finesse builds, and I can guarantee that you’ll be playing a ratfolk in one of those three roles. These bonuses do what they need to do. | |
Human favored class bonus. More focus powers never hurt anyone. | |
Decent racial traits. It’s your call whether to trade darkvision for a faster movement speed with Surface Sprinter—that’s a preference thing. Cheek Pouches should definitely replace Swarming in order to stuff wands into your mouth (no innuendo intended there) and Cleanliness, while highly mediocre, is at least better than Rodent Empathy. You’ll want to hang onto Tinker, not least of all for the Use Magic Device bonuses it grants. Love those in this class. |
Samsarans are notable for one specific reason: their Mystic Past Life alternative racial trait, which lets them snag 4-5 spells from another caster’s spell list. In this case, that could be the Medium, the Spiritualist, the Mesmerist, or the Psychic—you choose. Now, Mystic Past Life isn’t as good for Occultists as it is for other casting classes because of the way Occultists interact with their spells: just because an Occultist has a spell on their list doesn’t mean that they can cast that spell any easier without a dedicated implement. Regardless, Mystic Past Life is an incredibly powerful racial trait that can be used to spiff up nearly any Occultist’s spellcasting options. With a penalty to Constitution and no boosts to physical stats, samsarans will most likely end up as casters, and that’s just fine—you’ll want an Intelligence modifier of at least 18 at point buy so you can take advantage of all those Mystic Past Life spells.
Pros | Cons |
Mystic Past Life, Mystic Past Life, and oh—have I mentioned Mystic Past Life? Poor spell selection is a real problem for some Occultist builds; you’d be amazed at how much 4-5 carefully selected spells can do to alleviate the pain. My recommendation would be to decide what you want your Occultist to be able to do, look at the Occultist spell lists in this guide, identify where your weak spell levels are going to be, and then supplement with spells off of the Mesmerist, Spiritualist, Medium, or Psychic spell lists. This is a gross overgeneralization, but 1st-, 5th-, and 6th-level spells tend to be pretty weak for Occultists, while 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spells are pretty strong. Maybe supplement in the weaker levels. | No favored class bonus. HP or skill ranks it is. |
Good stats for a caster. A bonus to Intelligence alone is fine if you don’t intend to do much combat. Samsarans probably shouldn’t do much combat. |
Thanks to the magic of variant heritages (of which tieflings seem to have several dozen) tieflings can be made to fit nearly any build nowadays, and Occultists are no exception. Although grimspawn (daemon-spawn) are an option, base tieflings are probably better on balance, with their drawback in the mostly-useless Charisma stat. Tieflings have some excellent racial traits available, but unfortunately, you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place with an Occultist: because tiefling Occultists don’t have a favored class bonus, you either need to get Pass for Human, grabbing the human favored class bonus and abandoning most of your tiefling racial traits, or content yourself with HP/skill ranks as your favored class bonus and take Scaled Skin, Prehensile Tail, Vestigial Wings, and Maw or Claw. Combat-focused builds will probably prioritize the latter path, while casters or infiltration specialists who rely more on focus powers may choose to walk the former path. Just know that you have to choose.
Pros | Cons |
Great stat bonuses. Dexterity and Intelligence are exactly what many Occultists need, and a penalty to Charisma is ultimately unremarkable. Most Occultists will dump Charisma anyway, so the tiefling just gives you a head start. | No favored class bonus except with Pass for Human. One of the reasons I’d maybe recommend not getting Pass for Human is that the human favored class bonus for Occultists is only good, not truly excellent. It’s your choice. |
Fantastic alternative racial traits. A 1/day darkness is the best base racial trait tieflings have to offer Occultists, but honestly, combat builds should probably trade out nearly everything for the four alternative racial traits I listed in the description above. They’re a fantastic package altogether. |
Occultists live and breathe objects. Whether ancient swords of mighty heroes or the burlap sacks worn by their neighbors, Occultists have a more intimate relationship with objects than many people have with people.
The abjuration school primarily handles defensive magic, which is why nearly all Occultists will have at least one abjuration implement. Spells like shield, dispel magic, freedom of movement, stoneskin, and resist energy all live here, so if you want to survive the harsh world of Golarion, you’re going to need these spells. You could maybe get by without an abjuration implement at 1st level, but I wouldn’t wait any later than 2nd. Plus, abjuration is one of the required implements for the ever-popular Trappings of the Warrior panoply, so you’re going to have to dive in if you want to get your hands on that full-BAB goodness.
Warding Talisman (Su): Cloaks of resistance are one of those Big Six items that all Pathfinder encounters are balanced around, so it’ll come as no surprise to most players that you want resistance bonuses to your saves to be as high as they can possibly be. Resistance bonuses don’t stack, though, so you’ll have to make the choice between Warding Talisman and a cloak of resistance. If you’re a combat-focused build that’s going with the classic abjuration + transmutation implements at 1st level, it’s well worth your time to invest heavily in Warding Talisman, as it’ll save you 25,000 gp (well, 36,000 gp, if you consider that this power actually scales to +6) in the long run. If you’re only jumping into abjuration for spells and don’t intend to use many focus powers, Warding Talisman will likely be superseded by cloak of resistance bonuses. At any rate, it’s a strong and worthwhile resonant power.
Mind Barrier (Sp): Mind Barrier isn’t a bad focus power to get as your base, but I wish it were a little more efficient. Blocking 2 points of damage per level is really not a lot—it’s likely to shrug off only a hit or two at most, although the phrasing “prevents a total of 2 points of damage per occultist level” makes me think that you don’t even count blocked damage as a hit, which could be useful for shrugging off on-hit save riders. It is nice that there are no limitations on the type of damage, though: no matter what you’re facing, Mind Barrier has you covered. Even though Mind Barrier can be dispelled via dispel magic, it’s a swift action to cast, which means that it provokes no attacks of opportunity. It can be activated as an immediate action for twice the mental focus cost, too, which, while not optimal from a mental focus perspective, lets you soak just that much more damage before you fall unconscious or die. Could save your bacon.
Aegis (Su): In all likelihood, you’ll be outfitting your main suit of armor with permanent enhancement bonuses, so Aegis will either act as a supplement to that enhancement bonus pool, a source of special armor enchantments, or as a shield/buckler booster when you need to pull up some extra AC in a hurry. At any rate, it’s flexible enough to easily earn its blue ranking. Make sure you peruse the armor enchantment section so that you know what’s worth spending these bonuses on.
Planar Ward (Sp): Extraplanar entities are almost always the foes that PCs are least equipped to fight, frequently boasting SR, DR/Alignment, spells or SLAs, and nasty supernatural auras. But Planar Ward is pretty expensive, short-lived, and outmoded by spells like thaumaturgic circle or even plain, old-fashioned protection from evil. It’s decent, but it wouldn’t be my first purchase in abjuration.
Energy Shield (Sp): Unlike Mind Barrier, which is a bit disappointing in its number of absorbed HP, Energy Shield gives you 5 HP per level. Much better deal! The downside is that you can’t use it to absorb blows from weapons, spells that don’t deal energy damage, etc. That’s a slight bummer, but the increased power and ability to absorb any type of energy damage without needing to specify what you’re guarding against more than makes up for any of the ability’s weaknesses. Like Mind Barrier, Energy Shield can also be activated as an immediate action, which is fantastic for when you get slammed with an elemental attack you weren’t expecting; you’ll be able to pull up resist energy next round, but you’d hate to take the full brunt of a breath weapon before you’re even aware you’re in a fight.
Loci Sentry (Sp): You could think of some non-downtime uses for Loci Sentry, like setting it up as a trap to block a charge lane, socking an enemy with the dazed condition within a 5-foot step of your full attack. Maybe good for sneaky snakes who like that kind of thing.
Unraveling (Sp): Dispel magic is one of those spells that never goes out of style: flexible, powerful, and eternally useful. Unraveling is slightly hampered by the fact that you have to get right next to a spell effect in order to use it, but not so hampered that it falls from its blue position.
Globe of Negation (Sp): Hmmm. Globe of Negation makes for a decent stationary spellcasting or archery platform, especially in one-on-one caster fights. Your mobility is limited, so any conjurers worth their salt will simply summon a huge monster to drag you out of your little bubble of safety, but it’s nice to be able to protect allies with the globe.
Conjuration is normally a pretty powerful spellcasting tool, encompassing most if not all of the summoning, calling, healing, teleportation, and battlefield control spells in Pathfinder. Conjuration for the Occultist is...a bit weaker. The spell list isn’t great until you get to 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-level spells, and the focus powers (with the exception of Side Step) are pretty meh. Even the resonant power is poor! This makes conjuration a great school for archetypes like the Haunt Collector, which give away the resonant power of the implement school for some cool Medium spirits. At any rate, I can’t envision taking conjuration more than once as a combat-focused Occultist, possibly twice as a casting-focused Occultist.
Casting Focus (Su): Casting-heavy archetypes like the Silksworn are most likely to be interested in conjuration as an implement school; its healing, walls, mage armor, etc. are all good additions to a casting rotation. Even for them, however, Casting Focus isn’t good. The vast majority of your conjuration effects are either instantaneous or have durations longer than rounds per level, meaning that Casting Focus doesn’t actually apply to that many spells. Of course, implement schools with poor resonant powers but good focus powers make excellent candidates for the Haunt Collector archetype, which lets you trade away useless resonant powers like this one for better stuff. Maybe consider that if you’re focused on conjuration.
Servitor (Sp): Never underestimate the power of the perfect summon at the perfect moment. As with all my write-ups of summon monster, I can’t possibly recommend Redrazors’ Master Summoner app enough for learning your available options while using Servitor—it’s a game changer. Now, your Servitor doesn’t scale all that well—it gets you up to only summon monster VII—and summon monster already doesn’t scale that well, in terms of the CR of your summoned creatures vs. the CR of monsters you’re fighting. You could add feats like Augment Summoning to Servitor if you’re really leaning into the role, but I don’t know—there’s only so much proverbial lipstick you can slap onto a CR 7 pig. But summons are so useful in any form that I’m duty-bound to rate Servitor blue. If nothing else, they can act as admirable meat shields!
Conjure Implement (Sp): Since Occultists are so dependent on their implements for so many things, getting one sundered or stolen can be a big crisis. Conjure Implement is mainly used in those crises. Weapons, armor, and shields can also function as implements, so it would be possible to summon these items with Conjure Implement, then use them for their regular functionality. All of these uses are incredibly circumstantial, however, making Conjure Implement at most yellow, and bordering on red.
Mind Steed (Sp): Mounts of all kinds will be quickly outclassed by fly and Mind Over Gravity from transmutation, unfortunately, and you’ll have overland flight or teleport eventually to handle cross-country travel. Mind Steed isn’t worthless, but it’s far from the best effect you could spend your limited focus powers on.
Flesh Mend (Sp): Mental focus seems like a pretty steep price to pay for effects that most players get with wands of cure light wounds, but the effect scales nicely. Unfortunately, because Flesh Mend doesn’t imitate a spell, it can’t be used with Quicken Spell-Like Ability.
Psychic Fog (Sp): Some great battlefield control spells—fog cloud is a classic for inflicting heavy miss chances on your enemies. Get your allies kitted out with goz masks or fog-cutting lenses, or pick up a wand of ashen path, and you’ll be all set to help your team take total advantage of these spells. If you can reliably abuse fog tactics with those items, Psychic Fog will probably ease up to blue.
Purge Corruption (Sp): These effects likely don’t come up often enough to warrant a permanent focus power on your roster. I’d stick with scrolls or just let your party’s divine caster take care of poisons and diseases.
Side Step (Sp): Now that’s an effect I can get behind! Low-cost teleportation that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity is wonderful for maneuvering around crowded battlefields, getting out of pits or over walls, zipping through keyholes or doors, or appearing at a fallen ally’s side for some well-timed healing. Your 7th-level focus power will have to be a choice between Side Step from conjuration and Mind Over Gravity from transmutation unless you want to take the Extra Focus Power feat. Both will end up in nearly every Occultist’s repertoire at some point.
Overall, the divination implement school is quite powerful. Mind Eye is the standout focus power, and can act as a peerless magical spy that renders many divination spells—and all mundane scouting—obsolete. Apart from that, you probably won’t need to take more than one divination implement unless you’re really heavily specialized in the school—there aren’t so many amazing spells that you’ll be grabbing implements hand over fist just to cast them. But divination’s cut-and-dry nature is one of the things that makes it nice as an implement school: you get in for Third Eye and Sudden Insight, pick up Mind Eye at 5th level, and then just let the spell levels come to you, grabbing Powerful Connection at 13th-17th level if you want to get into high-level scrying. Simple, no-nonsense stuff.
Third Eye (Su): Between the uncommon insight bonus to Perception checks and the many new sensory modes you can gain through Third Eye, there’s lots to like here. The primary draw for most players will be the constant see invisibility granted when you invest 9 mental focus at 7th level. That’s...pretty boss, especially since your resonant power doesn’t change until you’ve exhausted all of the mental focus invested in the implement. Stick 9 or 10 mental focus in a headband at the beginning of the day, and unless you totally drain the implement, you’ll have see invisibility all day.
Sudden Insight (Sp): Daaang, these are some big bonuses. You probably won’t want to use Sudden Insight on skill checks or most ability checks because of how quickly you’d burn through mental focus, but attack rolls can be great in a pinch, with Sudden Insight acting as a miniature true strike. Yeah, this is a good base focus power.
Future Gaze (Sp): Augury isn’t a bad little spell, but it’s available as a 2nd-level spell, and you have far, far more important focus powers in divination to be spending your mental focus on. I’d as soon move on.
Powerful Connection (Su): High-level scrying cold wars can and do happen between full casters, as each jockeys to learn more about their rival while protecting themselves from scrutiny in return. Truthfully, though, if you’re able to bribe, coerce, or charm a BBEG’s underling into drawing you a likeness, stealing a bit of clothing or hair, etc., you’ve already got ‘em dead to rights—you don’t particularly need Powerful Connection for that level of overkill. Potentially good as a high-level focus power (13th, 15th, 17th levels) if you want to continue your campaign of magical espionage, but by that point you might start running into mind blank and other hard counters to your tactics.
Watchful Eye (Sp): Tiny area, surprisingly short duration, huge drain on mental focus, and foiled by even basic infiltration magic like invisibility. No, I can’t recommend Watchful Eye at all.
Danger Sight (Sp): If Sudden Insight is your offensive insight bonus machine, Danger Sight is your defensive insight bonus machine. It’s as flexible and powerful, and as defense against spells and save effects is arguably far more important than offense in Pathfinder, you’ll likely want it.
Mind Eye (Sp): And just like that, you suddenly learned the layout of every castle, every fortress, every dungeon, and every lair ahead of time. Between invisibility and its natural Stealth score as a Fine-sized magical sensor (Fine-sized creatures are less than 6 inches tall, and absent other information, I would assume that it’s about the size of an apple, same as an prying eyes) it’s pretty dang hard to spot, and you have great range, great mobility, and even the ability to extend your resonant power through the eye. Got low-light vision, darkvision, and see invisibility from your resonant power? Got constant detect magic or arcane sight? So does your Mind Eye. It’s impossible to overstate what an advantage this power creates for your team, as you can zoom through any hazardous area, picking out enemies, traps, treasure, haunts, etc. ahead of time and at no risk to your life or limb.
Object Seer (Sp): The fact that you can never ask more than one question, and the object is limited to its own pool of “knowledge” (which will be considerably more limited than the outright deities you get to question with commune) makes me think that Object Seer just won’t be very good. At the very least, it’s an extraordinarily inefficient way to spend your mental focus.
I’ll say it: enchantment is the Occultist’s weakest implement school, both in terms of the resonant power and focus powers it offers and in terms of its spell list. Occultists have the fewest enchantment spells of any of their schools, and the over-reliance on failed saves prevalent throughout the focus powers and spells makes it a really tough row to hoe for a ⅔ caster. Bards, Sorcerers, and Mesmerists will always be better at this stuff than Occultists, so you may want to give enchantment up as a lost cause unless you’re really set on the flavor. You can put together a pretty good face build as a Silksworn between silksworn diplomacy and Glorious Presence, or as a Panoply Savant between Performer’s Accoutrements and Glorious Presence, but those are pretty edge cases.
Glorious Presence (Su): Oof. That is...not great. I mean, for starters, Occultists aren’t naturally going to be good at Charisma-based anything; as an Intelligence-based, ¾-BAB caster, some stat has to hit the chopping block at point buy, and guess which one it’s going to be? If you guessed Charisma, you’re right. Now, certain archetypes like the Silksworn or Panoply Savant (with Performer’s Accoutrements, natch) can get considerably better at face skills, but this is still not what an Occultist is primarily meant to do. You’re not a Bard. And man, did it have to be a competence bonus? You can buy a +5 competence bonus to any skill in a custom magic item for a measly 2,500 gp. Why would you want to invest 10-12 points of your precious mental focus in order to get benefits to these dubiously useful skills when it’s not even really meant to be your wheelhouse?
Cloud Mind (Su): Cloud Mind, wherefore art thou stanky? Let me count the ways: short range, incredibly short duration, single-target, mind-affecting, poor status conditions, Will save negates, limited effects based on Hit Dice, and immunity for a full 24 hours no matter whether the target fails or succeeds at their Will save. I’ll wholeheartedly recommend that you throw this turd in the garbage, where it belongs.
Inspired Assault (Sp): Feels a lot like heroism to me, but with a more limited scope of bonuses and a much shorter duration. I’d normally give heroism a blue or purple, so a green feels about right here.
Mental Discord (Sp): High risk, high reward. The targets you’d most like to affect with Mental Discord are also the ones who are most likely to crush Will saves to negate the effect. Assuming you can make it stick, it’s pretty much game over for any caster, and doubly so for psychic casters. Remember that it targets only living creatures, even though it’s not explicitly mind-affecting.
Obey (Sp): Command is a bad spell, and Obey doesn’t improve on it at all. Enchantment is just full of bummers.
Mind Slumber (Sp): It’s like all the worst aspects of Cloud Mind got extended out to a bunch of rounds. This is bad, bad, bad.
Forced Alliance (Sp): It’s expensive, mind-affecting, a Will save negates once or possibly more times, and the effect doesn’t stop your target from just murdering your allies instead of you. Dang it, enchantment, you were supposed to be better than this.
Binding Pattern (Sp): Binding Pattern is the focus power that Cloud Mind should have been. It’s still got short range, it’s still single-target, it’s still mind-affecting, it still affects only living targets, but there the similarities end. Paralyzed and staggered are fantastic status conditions, and the duration is nice and long. You need to stick the initial Will save, of course, but if you do, the enemy is essentially crippled no matter what. Big, dumb martial bruisers are the best targets: if they get paralyzed, have someone coup de grace them; if they get staggered, at least they won’t be troubling you with full-attack actions anytime soon. Watch that TWF Fighter turn into a mewling baby.
Evocation is a bit of a polarizing implement school. On the one hand, evocation magic is usually not the most efficient way to spend resources, whether mental focus or spell slots. On the other hand, sometimes damage from spellcasters really is called for, and no other school does damage as well as evocation. Most evocation specialists will probably have taken the Silksworn or Panoply Savant archetypes, which give you a bevy of spellcasting benefits that the base Occultist just doesn’t get. If you want my advice, though, everything in the implement school—resonant power, focus powers, spells, everything—is eminently skippable until about 7th level, when you finally get 3rd-level spells. From that point on, evocation actually has one of the strongest spell lists of any implement school, with plenty of great blasts, battlefield control spells, and illumination abilities. My opinion is that evocation works best as a 10th-, 14th-, or 18th-level implement pick; getting the implement school later lets you avoid relying on a lot of the mediocre 1st- and 2nd-level spells and get straight to the awesomeness that is etheric shards, twilight knife, fireball, cone of cold, wall of force, etc. My two cents.
Intense Focus (Su): A small but meaningful boost to damage for all the blasty blasts you’re going to be using as an evocation specialist. Even if it’s not my favorite resonant power of the whole bunch, it’s for sure better than nothing. If you’re here for light spells, more walls or battlefield control spells, etc., you might want to skip Intense Focus. Haunt Collector will be your best friend here again.
Energy Ray (Sp): Hmmm. Spending resources on damage usually isn’t a great call for spellcasters, as martial combatants can lay out much more damage as long as they’re properly buffed to be able to reach or hit targets. Energy Ray targets touch AC, though—always useful—and can be flexibly changed to any damage type you like, which might be useful for taking advantage of enemy vulnerabilities, stopping regeneration, or generally looking like Iron Man as you zap people with laser beams. SR will apply here, remember, so I think we’re going to give it a yellow on balance. I debated green; it probably bumps up to green if you’re investing heavily in Intense Focus.
Radiance (Sp): Let me be clear: the power of Radiance does not lie in being able to limn your foe in light, although that’s certainly a decent option if you’re up against concealment or invisibility tactics. No, it’s that Radiance is treated as a light spell that scales with your level! Light spells dispel darkness only if they’re of an equal or higher level, which is why you need daylight to dispel darkness and not merely light. Because your Radiance scales with your class level, it’ll eventually dispel effects from deeper darkness all the way up to polar midnight. That’s actually worth quite a bit.
Shape Mastery (Su): Wow, this ability could get expensive in a hurry. You don’t want to use this power unless you really have to. Get creative about when and how you blast. Don’t just lob fireball after fireball into a crowded room and expect your party to be okay with it.
Light Matrix (Sp): You have both light and dancing lights on your spell list. What more do you want? The Fortitude save effect only happens once per casting of Light Matrix, and Fortitude saves get really, really high later on. I’m not psyched about this focus power.
Energy Blast (Sp): Hmmm. A slightly weaker fireball (well, weaker for most of your career) that adjusts to whatever element you want it to be in. Especially with the increased mental focus cost, I don’t know that Energy Blast would be worth the expenditure in all but the most ideal situations, but hey, you got into evocation to blow stuff up, right? Bayhem. Another one that benefits from Intense Focus.
Energy Ward (Sp): Blech. You have resist energy on your spell list, which works 200% better than Energy Ward for a much longer period of time. Forget the energy damage dealt to melee attackers—it’s trivial and you should laugh at it.
Wall of Power (Sp): Incredibly mediocre damage, and it actually fails to do the two things you generally need walls to do: 1) keep enemies from seeing you or your allies, and 2) passing through the wall. It’s not even that high, for crying out loud! Most things will just fly over it at this level.
Illusion is a generally strong implement school that’s not just for those looking to misdirect and dupe enemies! With a powerhouse resonant power (especially for casters), good focus powers like Unseen and Shadow Beast, and multiple must-have spells including invisibility, mirror image, and displacement, nearly everyone will want at least one illusion implement at some point, even if they don’t go whole-hog on figments like silent image or major image. Spell choices tend to fall off precipitously in higher levels, and combat-focused Occultists might find themselves letting their 4th-level and higher spells from illusion languish unused—although that’s not the worst thing in the world. If you’re looking to build a dedicated illusionist, though, I’ve got one in the builds section that’s quite potent. I really wish Occultists got access to shadow conjuration, shadow evocation, etc., but what can you do?
Distortion (Sp): Distortion is an incredible resonant power for casting-focused Occultists, who can expect to spend a significant portion of their time casting spells, using magical items, or using focus powers rather than attacking. You should routinely have this power active while adventuring or sleeping, as it works wonders in surprise rounds and in other instances where you get caught off-guard. Heck, even traps that require attack rolls have a chance to miss due to concealment while you have Distortion active! Anyway, royal purple for casting-focused Occultists, and still a solid green for combat-focused Occultists, who can use it during adventuring, while closing the distance to an enemy, or before running through a bunch of attacks of opportunity. This is a pretty peerless defensive power. The gnome favored class bonus for Occultists ups the miss chance from Distortion by 2% per level, which gets you more defense faster and lands you in permanent invisibility range by about 10th level. Gnomes make great illusion-focused Occultists, by the way, especially in conjunction with either the Silksworn archetype (for general purposes) or the Panoply Savant archetype (for Performer’s Accoutrements shenanigans and intriguing).
Minor Figment (Sp): Hmmm. Well, getting ghost sound isn’t really an upgrade at all—it’s a cantrip that Occultists can use for free anytime they want. Minor image is better, but still not crazy-good. I’d say it’s a yellow below 7th level, and a green once you upgrade to minutes per level duration at 7th level.
Cloak Image (Sp): Hats of disguise are cheap, useful magical items that should be in every adventurer’s toolkit. Why wouldn’t you just use one of those, or cast disguise self? These abilities are really too expensive for their effects.
Color Beam (Sp): Ugh, also bad. Will negates, mind-affecting, lasts only 1 round, and hits a hard cap based on HD. Beyond a certain point, nearly all enemies will have more HD than you do, and dazzled is the weakest status condition in Pathfinder. As a rule, even-CR enemies tend to have 1 to 5 HD more than PCs, depending on level. You’d therefore have to fight enemies whose CRs were 3 or 4 below your level in order to find a viable target. Those are terrible odds.
Unseen (Sp): One of illusion’s best focus powers, hands down. Invisibility absolutely never goes out of style, so you’ll be happy to be toting around this many castings every day. It gets kind of expensive when you’re giving it to other people, though, so maybe use your spell slots to cast invisibility on the Rogue if they keep begging.
Mirage (Sp): Major image is a great spell that’s among an illusionist’s best tools for trickery and misdirection. Mirage is somewhat limited by the fact that you need to change the terrain, but even so this is a solidly good resonant power. Disguising pits, hiding the party, making it appear as though walls or rubble are blocking access to a hallway...there’s a lot that creative players can do with these abilities.
Masquerade (Sp): Masquerade is incredibly useful for infiltration, spying, etc., with a massive bonus to your Disguise check that will help you pass yourself off as different sizes, different sexes, different races, etc. The bonuses to Perception checks to see through these disguises can get pretty gnarly if you’re not careful, so mind the Disguise skill rules as you steal identities left and right.
Shadow Beast (Sp): Ah, what I wouldn’t give for the Solid Shadows metamagic feat applied to Shadow Beast. But Shadow Beast is a spell-like ability, and spell-like abilities have their own metamagic feats that aren’t compatible with normal metamagic. Remember how the rules for illusory damage work: enemies get a Will save to disbelieve the illusion when they’re hit with an attack or special ability. If they fail, the illusion is real to them, dealing full damage; if they succeed, they disbelieve the illusion but still take 50% damage and have a 50% chance of being affected by any of its special abilities. The fact that you can cast summon monster IX over and over for 1 point of mental focus is pretty crazy, regardless of the 50% damage clause. You’ll obviously want Redrazors’ Master Summoner app to keep track of all your summoning options and weigh the pros and cons of each.
Necromancy is not popular on Golarion, to say the least; undead are innately evil creatures that are inimical to sentient life in the Pathfinder campaign setting. There are therefore two paths open to you in the necromancy implement school: first, you can really lean into the evil-aligned undead summoner role. This will demand high mental focus investment in Necromantic Focus (up to 40 points!), plenty of Necromantic Servant and Soulbound Puppet summoning, and a focus on the animate dead and inflict spells to keep your minions hale and hearty. Adding the Necroccultist archetype can help you poach necessary spells like command undead from the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list. Second, you can treat necromancy as a more mainstream debuffing vehicle, in which case you’ll devote limited mental focus to the resonant power—or even trade it away with the Haunt Collector archetype—and devote the bulk of your spells to classics like bestow curse, possession, greater possession, masochistic shadow, etc. The former role will likely want two necromancy implements for a range of spellcasting options to pair with Spell Focus (Necromancy), but the latter will be okay with only one necromancy implement. Unlike transmutation, abjuration, divination, and other stronger schools, there aren’t a huge number of worthy spells or focus powers to be found in necromancy, so don’t worry if you can’t ever devote an implement to it.
Necromantic Focus (Su): Before we get into this ability even a little, I want you first to go and read Brewer’s Guide to Undeath, which is still the best resource on the market for new players (or even veterans) to figure out how the heck animate dead works. The short version is that animate dead allows you to control up to 4 HD of undead creatures for each caster level you have—but you can only create 2 HD of undead creatures in a single casting of animate dead for each caster level you have. A 10th-level Occultist can therefore control 40 HD of undead creatures in any configuration, but can only animate targets with 20 HD or fewer with a single spell.
Now let’s look at how Necromantic Focus changes the game. Every point of mental focus invested in a necromancy implement allows you to control and create an additional 2 HD of undead. Using our 10th-level Occultist again, investing 5 points of mental focus would allow you to control 50 HD of undead ([4 x HD] + [2 x Mental Focus]) and animate targets with 30 HD or fewer ([2 x HD] + [2 x Mental Focus]) with a single spell. Investing 20 points of mental focus (the maximum benefit for a 10th-level Occultist) would instead bump those benefits up to 80 HD of undead ([4 x HD] + [2 x Mental Focus]) and 60 HD in a single casting of animate dead ([2 x HD] + [2 x Mental Focus]). You can see pretty easily that these bonuses are nuts—like, ridiculously good—but that using Necromantic Focus to its utmost requires incredible mental focus and material component investment. What you get in return, though, is a mobile army of difficult-to-kill bloody skeletons and fast zombies often taken from creatures with much higher HD caps than summon monster would normally allow, all of which have a permanent duration. Big investment, but amazing rewards to compensate.
There are some lore issues, though. First, Golarion’s cosmology dictates that the forces of undeath spring from the Negative Energy Plane, and these forces are invariably and without exception evil. Animate dead has the evil descriptor. If you cast this spell, you are knowingly and with malice aforethought committing an evil act that flies in the face of the natural cycle of birth and death. And you know who pretty much hates people tampering with birth and death? Pharasma. Many psychopomps and Pharasmin Clerics/Paladins make it their lives’ work to track and kill undead creatures, and they hate the people who create those undead creatures even more. If you are a necromancer in the classical sense, you have to be prepared to die by the sword, because there are forces in the Planes that won’t stop hunting you until you’re utterly destroyed. Maybe petition Urgathoa or Orcus to protect you. They’re reasonable, right?
Tl;dr: Animate dead is very powerful mechanically, and Necromantic Focus makes it even more powerful. You can control a lot of undead with Necromantic Focus. You also need to be prepared to be 1) relentlessly evil, and 2) hunted by powerful Paladins, Clerics, psychopomps, etc. whose purpose is to stamp out the blight of undeath wherever they find it. If you are ready to be a true necromantic minion-master, Necromantic Focus is one of the best abilities in the game, especially when paired with desecrate and command undead; if you’re just here to be a good debuffer, you’ll never use Necromantic Focus and will likely stay as far away as possible in order to avoid the consequences of interfering with the River of Souls. For these latter cases, archetypes like Haunt Collector can help you turn your useless resonant power into something worthwhile.
Mind Fear (Sp): Mind-affecting, fear, HD caps, a Will save to negate, and a relatively weak condition. Nope. Even if you have a bajillion mental focus invested in your necromancy implements for Necromantic Focus, you’d still want to use them on better focus powers like Necromantic Servant or Soulbound Puppet.
Soulbound Puppet (Su): For my money, Soulbound Puppet is necromancy’s best focus power. Familiars are pretty boss, first of all: they grant you the Alertness feat, they can deliver touch spells, they roll skill checks using your ranks, they act as scrying foci, they can scout and report back about what they saw, and they even grant bonuses to skills, initiative, saves, etc. Usually, of course, classes that grant familiars can’t change their familiar choices, and getting a new familiar if the old one dies is an ordeal. Soulbound Puppet changes all that by allowing you to flexibly swap out the familiar’s form, movement speeds, attacks, archetypes, and granted bonuses for a measly 1 point of mental focus—assuming you had the foresight to carry around a few different types of animal bones, that is. Want +4 to initiative right before a fight? Boom, rabbit familiar. Better Reflex save when going up against an evocation Wizard? Boom, weasel familiar. Scouting ahead? Boom, cat familiar. The ability to grab Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Improved Initiative, or any Skill Focus feat whenever you want them is amazing, not going to lie, and it’s pretty lenient on the mental focus expenditures. You don’t even have to worry about replacing a familiar if yours dies—not like it was a living creature anyway—and can just summon a new one from more bones.
Necromantic Servant (Sp): Necromantic Servant is a bizarre yet cool ability that’s somehow similar to animate dead while also serving in its own niche. So, let’s start with the cons: why is Necromantic Servant worse than animate dead? First, you’re limited to raising human skeletons. This is a big deal because animate dead retains the target’s Strength score, Dexterity score, Hit Dice, and natural attacks, but precious little else; a creature with five natural attacks, 30 HD, and a massive Strength score is going to make one intimidating bloody skeleton, but human skeletons are CR ⅓ creatures that can’t become very intimidating even when they’re using your BAB and getting a bonus to damage. Second, its HP will be way lower than skeletons or zombies raised with animate dead. Necromancers regularly use animate dead to resurrect targets with far more HD than the necromancer has, but that’s not possible here—your servant just gets half your HP. Third, the Necromantic Servant lasts only 10 minutes per level. Not exactly the permanent duration you came to expect with animate dead.
But Necromantic Servant isn’t all downside—it also has some unexpected upsides. First, you don’t need a corpse to use Necromantic Servant. Second, this focus power is a spell-like ability, which means that it has no material components. No throwing away half your wealth by level on onyx for animate dead! What a concept. Third, the Necromantic Servant only gets better as time goes on. The base creature you’re summoning never gets that much better, but 5th and 13th levels see big upticks in power as you become able to heal and then duplicate your undead friend. By the time you reach 20th level, you can have up to 10 Necromantic Servants on the field, all equipped with whatever teamwork feat you’d like to give them. Give ‘em something offensive like Outflank and watch the foes fall, or use something defensive like Shake It Off to surround yourself with minions and get massive bonuses to your saves. If nothing else, they make good bodyguards and meat shields.
Spirit Shroud (Su): Pretty weak healing, and the resistance bonuses granted won’t stack with cloaks of resistance. It’s not as bad as Flesh Rot, but it’s still quite bad for a focus power.
Flesh Rot (Sp): It’s basically the inflict line of spells, but packaged as a focus power. Actually, I take that back: it’s not even as good as the inflict spells, because those spells explicitly use negative energy, which allows aspiring necromancers to heal their undead minions. Flesh Rot targets only living creatures, and can’t be used to heal undead. So...why would you ever take this? The weak damage? No thanks.
Psychic Curse (Sp): Hmmm. Out of all of these, the mental block option is by far the weakest, as it features multiple ways to beat the curse and only blocks very specific actions (casting a specific spell, attacking with a specific type of weapon, etc.). Pain confusion could be powerful if you have an ally that’s built for crit-fishing, but otherwise is likely to disappoint. Memory lapse may be the strongest option, bizarrely enough, as this particular version of the focus power does not specify that the target gets a save. Erasing hours of memories per level with no save could have all kinds of dastardly uses to the creative player. Even if you have to refresh the memory lapse once in a while (the curse lasts only days per level, after all) that’s not such a big deal.
Pain Wave (Sp): The long duration and AoE targeting put Pain Wave at a higher tier than Flesh Rot or Mind Fear, but ultimately the ability is still mind-affecting, pain, living targets only, Will save negates, and with a condition that’s only a little better than shaken. It’s better than nothing, but still not fantastic.
The transmutation school for Occultists is all about buffs: team buffs, personal buffs, flight, haste, enhancement bonuses to ability scores, you name it. It’ll be of primary interest to combat-focused Occultists, especially as it’s one of two required implement schools for the Trappings of the Warrior panoply, but casting-focused Occultists can find excellent buffs like haste, tears to wine, and echolocation ready and waiting here. It’s one of the Occultist’s most solid implement schools, through and through, and can turn any flavor of Occultist into something better—I don’t think there’s a single build in the builds section of this guide that fails to take a transmutation implement before 10th level.
Physical Enhancement (Su): Physical Enhancement is actually quite cheap for what it does, and scales extraordinarily quickly when you think about how early other classes would have access to +2/+4/+6 physical stat belts. Heck, physical stat belts don’t even reach +8 (this one goes to 11) and Physical Enhancement can. Most Pathfinder PCs will likely want to shift their permanent enhancement bonuses from a physical stat belt to an off-stat like Dexterity or Constitution, which would then leave them free to invest all this goodness in Strength or Dexterity. If you need any argument for why Physical Enhancement is awesome, look at the cost difference between a +6 stat belt (what you’d normally be able to purchase) and a +6/+6 double stat belt (what you’re effectively getting--and then some--with Physical Enhancement): 54,000 gp (90,000 gp - 36,000 gp). You save 54,000 gp investing in Physical Enhancement. Still not convinced? How about an extra 60 HP and +3 to your Fortitude save, or +3 to your Reflex save, AC, initiative bonus, and Dexterity-based skill checks at 20th level?
Legacy Weapon (Su): Legacy Weapon is off-the-walls awesome. Even the Magus, that king of weapon enchantments, has to pick from a limited list of available buffs with its arcane pool class feature. Occultists? They can pick any weapon enchantment they want. Granted, Occultists pay a higher action cost and never see their bonuses never scale as high as Magi, but other than that, it’s aces. You’ll be able to penetrate higher forms of DR, hit harder and more accurately, and pull in circumstantial weapon enchantments like ghost touch, bane, or holy/unholy/anarchic/axiomatic at a moment’s notice with Legacy Weapon. It’s cheap and incredibly versatile. Use it. Love it. We’ll cover the best weapon enchantments down in the Items section, so never you fret your pretty beribboned head.
Sudden Speed (Sp): As an untyped bonus to speed, Sudden Speed will stack with expeditious retreat, haste, or any other effect that increases your movement speed on land. And it’ll do it right! 30 feet is a non-insignificant amount when you need to cross a huge distance to close with an enemy, blow over some difficult terrain, make a really difficult long jump, catch a foe that’s running, etc., and the swift action activation time makes it easy to fit into a normal combat round. What else are you going to take as a 1st-level transmutation power, anyway? Philosopher’s Touch? Don’t make me chortle, Gary.
Philosopher’s Touch (Su): Let’s get one thing straight: if you just need one weapon that can bypass DR, Legacy Weapon will do the job much better without ever having to spend a focus power slot on Philosopher’s Touch. Remember, kids: enhancement bonuses bypass DR. (+3 penetrates DR/cold iron and silver, +4 penetrates DR/adamantine, and +5 penetrates DR/alignment.) Philosopher’s Touch is therefore only good if A) you’re fighting lots of demons, fey, werebeasts, constructs, etc. at low levels and haven’t scaled your Legacy Weapon bonuses enough yet, or B) have a bunch of melee fighters that all need their weapons changed. Option A isn’t too likely, as cold iron and silver weapons are cheap enough that even 1st-level characters can get their hands on them; Option B should probably be handled on a team-by-team basis.
Size Alteration (Sp): Enlarge person and reduce person are great spells! Don’t mistake me here. The only reason why Size Alteration doesn’t get a higher rating is because the spells it copies are both 1st-level spells, easily accommodated by a wand, scroll, potion, whatever. You don’t need to spend mental focus on that. It’s lovely to be able to stack enlarge person with lead blades to hit like a truck at 1st level, though, and if you have non-humanoid allies like native outsiders, animal companions, etc. for whom enlarge person won’t work, Size Alteration can be considerably better.
Quickness (Sp): If Mind Over Gravity is fly, but better, then Quickness is haste, but better. Both of these spells are tried-and-true mainstays of mid-level Pathfinder combat for good reason: they’re simply excellent at what they do. If you’re wondering why Mind Over Gravity got the purple and not Quickness, it’s because Quickness affects only one creature, while haste affects many; Quickness is therefore not strictly a better version of the spell. Mind Over Gravity, however, literally is fly, but improved in every way. Anyway, Quickness and haste are both great purchases, and I would recommend having both for different occasions.
Mind Over Gravity (Sp): Occultists get fly on their spell list, but why waste valuable 3rd-level spells when you can simply spend 1 point of mental focus to get an even better effect? Mind Over Gravity has better maneuverability, isn’t penalized by armor like fly, and generally rocks. I won’t apologize for it.
Telekinetic Mastery (Sp): Telekinesis is a great, versatile spell that’s normally a 5th-level spell for Occultists. That’s a high-level resource to be slinging about for only 1 point of mental focus! If you’ve made it this far, you’ve earned a good focus power, and Telekinetic Mastery fits the bill.
I’ll come right out and say it: unless you’re using sacred implements at very low levels, they’re just bad. Even though these things are intended to expand your options or provide powerful new focus powers, nearly all of them are expensive, weak, situational, or some unholy amalgam of all three. You get no new spells for selecting a sacred implement (a huge downside) and also take a penalty to your caster level in an opposition school (also a huge downside). With no addition of spells, resonant powers, or other focus powers, the opportunity cost of these implements is simply too high where they don’t already actively stink.
Amber Prison (Su): Opposed to transmutation. Transmutation is another hugely popular school of magic for Occultists, but at least Amber Prison compensates for the caster level penalty by being a good power, capable of removing even massive enemies from the field pending a single Reflex save. It’s an expensive gambit, but it’ll keep an enemy out of the fight long enough for you to summon back-up, buff up, dump them in a pit of lava or acid, or just teleport out of there.
Wake (Su): Opposed to evocation. Wake doesn’t specify a save, so I assume it works without one. There are massive Diplomacy and Intimidate bonuses associated with this power, which is the reason why I’m recommending it; you certainly should never use it to inflict the dazzled condition. Talk about pearls before swine.
Parity (Su): Opposed to divination. So...as far as I can tell, you don’t actually have any transmutation spells that grant you an enhancement bonus to physical or mental stats. I mean, scrolls of bull’s strength or the like are always possible, but how did no one catch this problem? Anyway, it’s fun to be able to flexibly assign bonuses to attributes, but I think most classes invest in the stats they invest in for a reason.
Footsteps of the Rough Beast (Su): Opposed to abjuration. Slow, incredibly expensive, and limited to only earthbound creatures. Why on earth would you do this to yourself, especially with abjuration as the opposition school?
Forgotten (Sp): Opposed to illusion. Ha! Are you kidding? 3 points of mental focus for a weak version of modify memory? Just use the Psychic Curse focus power from necromancy if you’re so worried about this.
Grandmother’s Ward (Su): Opposed to abjuration. Grandmother’s Ward might be good in campaigns that feature a huge number of undead creatures (Carrion Crown, that kind of thing), but is otherwise incredibly expensive, short-lived, difficult to use for melee characters, and imposes a caster level penalty on one of the most useful schools of magic for all Occultists. Hard to recommend this sacred implement to anyone.
Psychic Mirage (Sp): Opposed to conjuration. I swear to God, someone is punking me with these abilities. In case you need it spelled out for you, no, this is not a good power. You have Unseen available in illusion, and invisibility on your spell list! How is a weaker version of invisibility worth the same cost?
Panoplies, introduced in Psychic Anthology, are a cool subsystem of the implement school mechanic that (in at least one case) drastically change the way Occultists can be played. The basic idea is that a panoply is a special type of implement school that can only be “purchased” once you’ve unlocked the two or three implement schools associated with that panoply. Think of it like Captain Planet: “When these powers combine…” Every time you select a panoply, you get access to its resonant power and base focus power, just like any other implement school, and unlock a set of focus powers to purchase in the normal way. You also get to pick one spell known from each spell level, although these spells known can come from any school of magic associated with the panoply. Using a panoply focus power draws mental focus from any of the implements associated with the panoply (your choice where it comes from) and the resonant power adds up all the mental focus invested in each of the panoply’s associated implements to determine its effects.
Let’s look at a quick example. We want to turn our Occultist into a full-BAB martial class with ⅔ casting using the Trappings of the Warrior panoply. The panoply itself can’t be unlocked until we have both an abjuration (shield) implement and a transmutation (weapon) implement, so we take those two schools as our implement schools at 1st level. We’re then free to purchase Trappings of the Warrior using our 2nd-level implement school. A panoply is a set of objects, rather than an object, so we don’t invest any mental focus into Trappings of the Warrior itself; its associated implement schools are abjuration and transmutation, so we put mental focus into our shield and weapon in order to fuel the panoply. At 2nd level, we’ll have an Intelligence of 18, so 6 points of mental focus. We invest 3 points in our shield, and 3 points in our weapon. We get the resonant powers for abjuration and transmutation, same as normal, but we also get the resonant power from Trappings of the Warrior as if we had 6 points of mental focus invested. That’s 3 points in the shield + 3 points in the weapon = 6 in the panoply overall. We can draw mental focus from our implement schools to fuel abjuration and transmutation focus powers, same as normal, but we can also use focus powers from the Trappings of the Warrior, choosing each time we do so whether to draw mental focus from our shield or our weapon. Once the mental focus in all implements associated with the panoply is gone, the panoply’s resonant power stops functioning.
Oh: one last thing. The panoply rules text states that characters need to “hold” all of the panoply’s implements in order to benefit from its resonant power and focus powers, but this phrasing gets weird when you consider that items like the mask implement from Performer’s Accoutrements or the robe implement from Mage’s Paraphernalia are clearly intended to be worn, not held. Panoplies like Trappings of the Warrior require you to “hold” a shield and a weapon, but it may suffice to wear the shield and weapon on your person, rather than actively wielding them. Wearing the implements on your person is a much more workable option than wielding implements, an option that should be discussed with your GM.
Mage’s Paraphernalia is a bit of an unusual panoply. The entire chassis is aimed at making you more like an Intelligence-based full caster—a Wizard, an Arcanist, that kind of thing—who can prepare spells, crush Knowledge checks, beat SR, use metamagic reliably, etc. The spell slots and mental focus points given to base Occultists will likely be insufficient to fully enable this playstyle, however; you can’t run around burning 3-6 mental focus on a single metamagic play and not expect to be gasping for breath by midday. Mage’s Paraphernalia is also the only panoply to require three implement schools, which delays base Occultists’ entry into the panoply until 6th level at the earliest. Even though the resonant powers and focus powers are good, you perhaps shouldn’t get too invested (no pun intended) in the Mage’s Paraphernalia unless your favored class bonus grants more mental focus. Mage’s Paraphernalia is one hungry, hungry hippo.
(Note: If you’re thinking that the Silksworn archetype might be a good way to solve these problems—after all, they get more mental focus and spell slots, and they’re the closest the Occultist has to a full arcane caster—the problem is that panoplies require specific implements, while the Silksworn archetype specifically mentions that Silksworn don’t get to choose specific implements. Thanks to my patrons for pointing this out to me. If you want a casting-focused Occultist that uses the Mage’s Paraphernalia, it’s worth checking out the Panoply Savant archetype, which at 8th level starts allowing you to cast spells from wands using your caster level, rather than the wand’s caster level. In conjunction with all the UMD madness that Occultists are already capable of, Panoply Savants can become truly excellent wand-based casters. And they don’t have to surrender any of their armor or weapon proficiencies, like Silksworn do!)
Scholarly Knowledge (Ex): It’s basically the bardic knowledge skill packaged into a resonant power. And hey, great! Bardic knowledge is an awesome class feature. Mage’s Paraphernalia is basically meant to set you up as a pocket Wizard, which includes being great at Knowledge checks. I wish you got more useful Knowledge skills on your class list, but you can afford at least one rank in each before letting Scholarly Knowledge and your natural Intelligence score do the rest.
Arcane Inspiration (Sp): The versatility afforded you by Arcane Inspiration is almost unparalleled, but the slow prep time and huge mental focus cost ensure that you won’t be using this focus power for every little thing. If you’re casting high-level spells, focus on things with permanent or days per level durations—permanency, contingency, create demiplane, etc. Lower-level spells (1st- through 3rd-level spells, primarily) are probably efficient enough with hours per level durations—greater magic fang, mage armor, magic vestment, that kind of thing—but still require careful thought before you select a good candidate for Arcane Inspiration. You simply can’t afford to be burning through 6 points of mental focus to cast some evocation blast or short-lived buff.
Metamagic Master (Su): Now here’s a good focus power. Obviously, you won’t be able to keep up a continuous onslaught of Quickened or Maximized spells, but cheap metamagic like Extend Spell that will only cost you 1 point of mental focus can be an exceptionally good deal. It all depends on whether you’re trying to conserve spell slots, mental focus, daily uses of a metamagic rod, etc. The fact that you can use Metamagic Master to effectively bust the spell level cap on metamagic (e.g., Extending a 6th-level spell wouldn’t normally be possible without access to 7th-level spell slots, but Metamagic Master lets you ignore the level increase) is even cooler.
Spell Power (Su): Again, incredibly expensive, but when you need to beat spell resistance, you need to beat spell resistance. Obviously take feats like Spell Penetration in order to boost your caster level checks before resorting to Spell Power. Favor what’s cheap and constant over what’s expensive and fleeting, my friends.
Metamagic Knowledge (Su): Metamagic Knowledge is a great focus power, kind of like the Brawler’s martial flexibility had a baby with the Wizard’s bonus metamagic feats. I think you’re better off selecting metamagic feats using your normal feats, rather than with your expensive Metamagic Knowledge, but the option to flex into Quicken Spell, Enlarge Spell, etc. at need is still very powerful. Just be judicious about when you use this focus power.
If you’re looking to go all-in on an infiltration or intrigue build for an Occultist, the Performer’s Accoutrements are definitely the place to start, probably with the Panoply Savant archetype. In addition to continuing to amplify the bonuses to Charisma-based skill checks that you’re getting from the enchantment implement school’s resonant power, Glorious Presence, this panoply also presents you with some good options for spying, coercing, and hiding from magical or mundane scrutiny. I’d also recommend the divination and necromancy schools for just about any intriguer or spy—Mind Eye, scrying, riding possession, greater possession, etc. are all potent tools in your toolbox. Transmutation (for the assume appearance line of spells) wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.
Actor’s Skill (Su): Between the enchantment implement school’s resonant power and Actor’s Skill, Occultists can start accruing pretty large bonuses to Charisma-based interaction and intrigue skills. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, as there are definite benefits to being able to infiltrate enemy organizations, bluff your way past guards, charm a witness, etc. in certain types of campaigns. My primary issue with it is that there are other classes that fill this type of role much better than the Occultist. Bards do it better, without a doubt, thanks to their spell list and versatile performances; Inquisitors can arguably do it better, with stern gaze, their inquisitions, and some of the archetypes available to them; heck, even Oracles and Sorcerers can get pretty good at these functions, if given the proper bloodline, mystery, and spell support. With the exception of some focus powers and a few spells on the illusion or enchantment lists, Occultists just don’t have the tools to be able to facilitate this playstyle to its utmost, especially as most Occultist builds will involve dumping Charisma, then using traits to replace your Charisma modifier with your Intelligence modifier on Charisma-based skill checks. That said, I will cover the intrigue/spying roles that an Occultist can fill in the Occultist Roles section, and at least one character build will use this panoply. It’s a lot of fun, even if it’s not mechanically optimal some of the time!
False Persona (Su): False Persona is notable to my eyes for two reasons: first, enemies get no save to pierce this persona. You choose the aura, alignment, and background details, and those scrutinizing you simply have to deal with that. It’s kind of like a more flexible Vigilante identity, and more or less functions as mind blank against divination effects—an 8th-level spell. Second, it lasts just as long as mind blank: 24 hours. So, in essence, for 2 points of mental focus per day, you can permanently remove yourself from the radar of just about any divination magic under the sun. As the text points out, you still appear to be the same person and would need to invest in mundane or magical disguises to fool plain old Perception or Sense Motive checks, but that’s what you have spells, wondrous items, Glorious Presence, and Actor’s Skill for.
Puppet Master (Sp): The scaling save DC is one of the nice parts about Puppet Master, as is the option to erase memories with no save. In addition to the mainstream infiltration techniques you could use with this ability (“Open the postern gate at nightfall,” “Slip this liquid into your master’s drink,” “Place this letter in my rival’s coat pocket,” etc.) it’d also be great for thievery: “All your potion bottles need polishing. Why not leave them with the potion bottle polisher who’ll be stopping by in a few minutes?” Then you pop back in, disguised, and reap the rewards as the shopkeep hands over all their merchandise with no memory of what happened.
False Confidence (Sp): If your party is running around without a source of heroism or similar morale bonuses, False Confidence probably bumps up to green. The ability is great for sudden betrayals, as you can boost an “ally” and their confidence for a bit, then bring it all crashing down as soon as the party jumps them. That’s a pretty niche application, though; in most cases you’ll probably just use it as heroism.
Hypnotic Gaze (Sp): Fascinated is generally a weak condition for in-combat applications, and Hypnotic Gaze is no exception: threatening actions of any kind break the fascinated condition. Now, your hypnotic gaze might act as a decent way to soften up targets for charm person, dominate person, possession, etc., but you’d want to check with your GM about this clause in the fascinated text: “Any obvious threat, such as someone drawing a weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a ranged weapon at the fascinated creature, automatically breaks the effect.” Can you cast a spell without breaking that effect, since psychic magic has no verbal or somatic components? If so, I’d think of this ability more highly. If your GM rules that any type of casting, psychic, arcane, or divine, breaks the effect with no save, then what was the point of giving them penalties to their Will save that last only as long as the fascinated condition lasts?
The Saint’s Holy Regalia is meant to turn your Occultist into a pocket Cleric, healing folks left and right. Just one problem: it’s not actually very good at accomplishing that goal. Restoring Touch is good enough as a base focus power for healing ability damage and drain, but Font of Healing (the resonant power) and all of the other focus powers are aggressively mediocre. My advice would be that you play as a Succor or Life Oracle or some brand of Cleric if you want to rule the roost in healing and protection; this panoply is likely to disappoint you.
Font of Healing (Su): I’m not going to rate this ability red, even though I think it pushes dangerously close to that territory. Let’s run through the list. First off, it’s weak and expensive: you need 30 points of mental focus invested in your implements to get 10 points of extra healing at 20th level. Second, it doesn’t apply to much: not wands, not scrolls, not staves, not heal, just spells that you cast off your own spell list. Third, even though I would never advise that you use cure spells to damage undead, it is nice to at least have the option, which Font of Healing doesn’t even give you. As with the Performer’s Accoutrements, there are many classes that heal better than Occultists can, even with a bunch of investment in the Occultist, so I don’t know how hard you should try to specialize in this role.
Restoring Touch (Sp): Occultists don’t gain access to lesser restoration through their spell list, so Restoring Touch isn’t completely useless at low levels, but I still can’t help but feel that a wand, scroll, or potion does a better job at this. Things get much better at 10th level, when you can start curing permanent ability drain. It’ll always be an expensive option, but good to have in your back pocket.
Guardian Aura (Sp): A full-round action and 3 points of mental focus are big expenditures in terms of both time and resources, but at least the bonus is a sacred bonus that should stack with nearly all common buffs. Reducing your speed to 10 feet per round seems like an unnecessary penalty, especially given what you’re already paying to use the ability in the first place.
Rebuke Anathema (Sp): It’s not outright horrible, but I know that I would rely on thaumaturgic circle or magic circle against [alignment] to keep me safe from bad creatures that want to touch me. The alignment restrictions and Will save to negate are likely to pose problems, although I do like the fact that there are no additional saves after an enemy fails their first.
Martyr’s Benediction (Sp): Wow, an ability that only works as you’re about to go unconscious or die. The whole point was to try not to die, though, right? Even if you’re planning to fall unconscious often, Martyr’s Benediction is only going to be the equivalent of a cure moderate wounds at 20th level, and allies might not even be in range. I feel totally fine about putting this one in the red.
To the best of my knowledge, the Trappings of the Warrior panoply is unique in all of Pathfinder in that it allows a ¾-BAB class to become—more or less permanently—a full-BAB class. The implications of this change cannot be overstated! With the Martial Skill resonant power, Occultists can act as 6th-level casters, frontline melee or backline ranged combatants, and even fulfill auxiliary roles through their focus powers and UMD casting, all for the low price of acquiring two of the best implement schools available to the Occultist class, abjuration and transmutation. Even though Occultists will always be limited by their feats, preventing them from achieving the same level of brutal efficiency as Slayers, Rangers, and Fighters, there’s no denying that BAB is the primary dividing line between classes that can mostly handle themselves without huge buffs and those that need magical enhancement to contribute meaningfully to combat. Better attack rolls, more iterative attacks, and better CMB/CMD are all in your future with this panoply.
There are a few caveats, as there always are. The biggest of these is that you’ll need to talk with your GM about how they interpret the clause in the panoply rules text that dictates how panoplies get activated. If you need to hold both a weapon and a shield in order to benefit from the panoply’s effects, that’s a very different ballgame than if your GM rules that “hold” means “have on your person.” It doesn’t say “wield,” after all, and people wouldn’t reasonably expect Mage’s Paraphernalia or Performer’s Accoutrements builds to run around holding robes or masks in their hands. If you want a full, detailed write-up on nothing but Trappings of the Warrior, I can’t recommend Rekijan’s excellent guide to the Trappings of the Warrior Occultist highly enough. The addition of full-BAB martial prowess to a ⅔ caster really is a paradigm-shifting ability, and he does a great job discussing all the implications of this panoply.
Martial Skill (Ex): This resonant power right here is why you want to play a Trappings of the Warrior Occultist. If you can afford to invest 4 points of mental focus in your abjuration and transmutation implements at 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels (to a total of 20 points of mental focus) you get to act as a full-BAB character, with all the attack roll, iterative, and CMD bonuses that go along with that. Talk to your GM about whether they’ll allow Martial Skill to help you access BAB-gated feats like Improved Critical; some will allow you to use these feats so long as you have enough mental focus invested on a given day to qualify for them, while some will rule that Martial Skill is a temporary bonus to BAB and therefore does not qualify you for feat selection.
One last, cool, niche feature of Martial Skill: it’s an extraordinary ability, which means that it functions even in an antimagic field. And hey, look at that! Occultists have antimagic field on their spell list. It’s a very late addition to the game, but one of the reasons why Occultists can be such excellent magehunters is that they can pop an antimagic field and still be treated as having full BAB for the purposes of attacking, grappling, or tripping a rival caster. No other class that can cast antimagic field can have full BAB without buffs.
Combat Trick (Ex): Even on a limited, expensive basis, the Brawler’s martial flexibility class feature is still incredibly powerful. Flex into Vital Strike, Blind-Fight, Dedicated Adversary, Lightning Reflexes, any of the Improved [Maneuver] feats, any of the Item Mastery feats, any of the Critical feats, you name it. Occultists have fewer feats with which to satisfy prerequisites than Brawlers do, and can never advance as far down feat chains, but that’s no reason to penalize this ability. If you’re looking for this effect on the cheap, though, the real big-brain move is to use Legacy Weapon to grab the training enchantment, which grants a combat feat for only 1 point of mental focus. More on that in the weapon enchantment section.
Counterstrike (Ex): You wouldn’t want to run around counterstriking all day long, as it’ll start to eat up mental focus pretty quickly; nevertheless, it’s a great ability for amping up the pain on enemies. Thankfully the swift/immediate action economy isn’t too tight for Occultists—Inquisitors and Warpriests would have a really difficult time finding the room to use Counterstrike.
Shield Ally (Ex): Expensive and circumstantial, but Occultists are much better equipped to handle Fortitude saves, Will saves, and possibly attacks (depending on their armor and active spells or focus powers) than many of their squishier allies. Shield Ally can be a lifesaver at the right moment.
Warrior’s Resilience (Su): If you get hit with an enormous crit or something, Warrior’s Resilience might be all that prevents you from permanently dying. It’s incredibly expensive, especially at later levels, and you’ll likely want to pretend to drop unconscious even if you’re technically disabled in order to avoid getting attacked again. Still, not a bad focus power if you have room for it later.
One of the coolest parts about being an Occultist is that, while their spell choices are restricted by which implement schools they selected, they actually get more spells known than any other ⅔ caster, a fact that’s illustrated in the table below comparing ⅔ casters’ spells known to Occultists’ spells known. It’s also true that Occultists can’t cast spells that are nominally on their class list with wands and scrolls as easily as other classes, but this again turns out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise: thanks to Occultists’ huge bonuses to UMD, you’ll eventually be able to cast spells off your own spell list at no chance of failure, and once that happens, you can cast spells off of anyone’s spell list with no chance of failure. A 6th-level Occultist who’s finally hit that magic +19 to UMD won’t just be able to use wands of spells from the Occultist spell list—they’ll also be able to use wands of spells off the Bard, Inquisitor, Wizard, and Paladin spell lists. It takes a while to get there, but you do in the end.
The other thing to note is that Occultists are psychic casters, not arcane or divine casters. Where arcane and divine spells have somatic and verbal components that require you to declaim incantations loudly and wave your arms, psychic casting happens entirely in the mind. Psychic casting is therefore much more resilient to effects like grapples and silence than arcane or divine casting are. It comes with a price, however: psychic casting requires thought components, which impose a -10 penalty on concentration checks made to cast defensively unless you take a move action to “center yourself,” and emotion components, which cannot be provided while the Occultist is under the effects of a non-harmless fear or emotion effect. Thought components are generally easy to avoid, as a move action is typically not too difficult to provide when you’re casting defensively unless you’re trying to cast a metamagic-enhanced spell while threatened, in which case a jewel of centering will be a great purchase for you; emotion components, on the other hand, are trouble. Pathfinder abounds in fear auras and enchantment spells that can and will put your casting down for the count unless you proactively address the weakness. Both the Core: Defenses portion of the Feats section and the Emotion Components of the Items section will help you do so with panache.
Every psychic caster should ideally have at least a few layers of defense against fear and emotion effects. The first route is to start with a good Will save. Yes, I know the class’ Will progression is already good, but any minor bumps up to 12 on Wisdom can make your life easier, as can feats like Iron Will. If you’re willing, you can also go hunting for bonuses to saves against mind-affecting effects (which tends to be an umbrella descriptor that encompasses both fear and emotion effects) or fear and emotion effects themselves. While more niche, these bonuses tend to be larger than the ones you’ll find to flat Will saves, so that’s something. Yet another layer of defense that every psychic caster should have is some kind of item that allows them to reduce the severity of fear conditions with repeated saves. Several of these items are available as items, and usually allow you to progress from cowering → panicked → frightened → shaken in successive rounds. It won’t stop you from getting placed under, but it may prevent you from spending 85 rounds running in panic from a dragon if worst comes to worst. Lastly, every psychic caster should have access to the Logical Spell metamagic feat, whether that’s through the feat itself or through a lesser metamagic rod. More severe fear effects won’t let you cast these spells or use the rod as you flee at top speed, but they’re essential for when your casting gets shut down by something like the shaken condition. We want you shaken, as the saying goes, but not stirred.
Table: Spells Known (⅔ Casting Classes vs. Occultists) | ||||||||||||||
Level | 0 ⅔ | 0 Oc | 1 ⅔ | 1 Oc | 2 ⅔ | 2 Oc | 3 ⅔ | 3 Oc | 4 ⅔ | 4 Oc | 5 ⅔ | 5 Oc | 6 ⅔ | 6 Oc |
1st | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
2nd | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
3rd | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
4th | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
5th | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
6th | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
7th | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
8th | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
9th | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
10th | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | — | — | — | — |
11th | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | — | — | — | — |
12th | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | — | — | — | — |
13th | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | — | — |
14th | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 | — | — |
15th | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | — | — |
16th | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 6 |
17th | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
18th | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
19th | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
20th | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
Resistance: Resistance won’t survive in your arsenal beyond the first cloak of resistance your party gets, but man, is it great for a cantrip at low levels. An easy pick.
Shield: Far and away the best 1st-level abjuration spell available to you. That +4 shield bonus to AC never goes out of style, especially as it applies to your touch AC and guards against incorporeal creatures.
Warding Weapon: The duration is short, but being able to shrug off defensive casting as a 1st-level spell is an intriguing benefit. If you’re playing a more casting-focused Occultist, this could easily become quite good.
Alarm: Even if you wanted this spell, it’s far better as a wand than it is as a spell known, especially with your implement-limited casting.
Fastidiousness: An okay quality of life spell. It’s got no real combat use, but the 24-hour duration means it’s very low-maintenance.
Hold Portal: Limited uses as a tool for covering a tactical retreat, but mediocre otherwise.
Abjuring Step: Maybe okay if you’re trying to cast team buffs in a crowded battlefield, but otherwise not good even for casting-heavy archetypes like the Silksworn.
Hex Ward: Please name for me the last time you ran into Witch hexes. I’ll wait.
Peacebond: It can be okay at low levels, before the advent of magical weapons makes object saving throws an appreciable obstacle. In the long term, though, it’s as bad as they come.
Shock Shield: Shock shield sacrifices half of shield’s AC bonus for 1d6 electricity damage to yourself. In what world is this spell worth it?
Resist Energy: Resist energy is the best 2nd-level abjuration spell, 100%. Against enemies that traffic heavily in energy damage, this’ll turn insanely difficult fights into cakewalks.
Node of Blasting: Hear me out on this one: node of blasting is permanent until discharged, does not target spell resistance, and deals quite respectable damage with a brutal debuff. Node of blasting can therefore survive into higher levels as a nasty booby trap and personal item protector. Favorite trick? Store up five gold coins with node of blasting cast on each one, then dump ‘em on the floor where an enemy will find them. As they scoop up the coins, they’ll be hit with 15d6 to 30d6 psychic damage and the staggered condition for a full minute. That’s when you leap out for the surprise round. You can also cast it on fine wire filaments that you wrap around door handles, important levers, etc. Place it on enemy maps, weapons, and items! Do anything with it! If you find yourself with 2nd-level spells leftover in downtime, these are great resources to create for yourself.
Bullet Shield: Although the name implies that bullet shield only works against, well, bullets, it actually provides its deflection bonus against all ranged attacks. Deflection bonuses don’t stack, so bullet shield will eventually compete with a ring of protection; these bonuses will always win, however. At 10 minutes per level, I call this a pretty good get. Not phenomenal, but solidly good.
Allied Cloak: I’d happily give allied cloak a green if it lasted longer or were a 1st-level spell. As a 2nd-level spell that lasts only rounds per level, it just doesn’t do anything for me that shield can’t do better.
Arcane Lock: Just as niche as hold portal.
Conditional Favor: Conditional favor is interesting enough for intrigue scenarios, but you almost certainly don’t want to use your limited implement spells on this one.
Obscure Object: Circumstantial, but definitely of benefit if you’re facing off against a divination specialist. I’d still probably go for a wand.
Crimson Confession: Potentially useful if you anticipate your implements or important items being stolen, but higher-level enemies will almost always pass the Fortitude save to avoid the effects anyway.
Escape Alarm: Why would you need escape alarm when you have alarm?
With the Wind: Realistically, with the wind is useful only for very small creatures that have reason to fear gust of wind, wind wall, and similar spells. It’s not likely to see any use for Small- or Medium-sized adventurers.
Thaumaturgic Circle: Thaumaturgic circle only specifies that you can use it to guard against outsider subtypes, not that you’re forced to—after all, the spell text also says that it functions as though it were all four versions of magic circle against [alignment]. The fact that thaumaturgic circle acts as five spells in one to protect you from literally any type of interplanar being is why the spell merits an increased spell level on all spell lists...except the Occultist and Medium. Brilliant spell.
Dispel Magic: Flexible, powerful, and great in so many circumstances, dispel magic will never not be a fantastic pick as a spell known. I like dispel magic more than Unraveling, the focus power that emulates it, so make of that what you will.
Magic Circle Against [Alignment]: Surprise! Thaumaturgic circle is strictly superior, at least for Occultists. Take that instead. Magic circle against [alignment] is still a great spell, though, and it deserves for everyone to know that.
Resist Energy, Communal: As good as resist energy, but now protecting the entire team! This will literally save lives in energy damage-dominant fights.
Cloak of Winds: Kind of like bullet shield and with the wind had a baby. I like cloak of winds fine, especially as an anti-swarm tool, but it may be better as a scroll than a spell known.
Guarding Knowledge: It’s a little narrower and shorter in duration than I’d like, but it’s still good at what it does when you know you’re going to be facing a very specific enemy. I’d still probably make this a scroll spell.
Protection from Energy: Protection from energy is a good spell, and it will keep you alive in many of the same situations that resist energy would. For my money, however—and especially with the Occultist’s limited casting selection—communal resist energy is the way to go. Against powerful enemies that deal energy damage, like dragons, communal resist energy will block far, far more damage in protracted fights than communal protection will, and for a lower-level spell. Still, this is a good one to have in your pocket if you can spare the spell known.
Erase Impressions: Only psychic casters can erase impressions, but then again, only psychic casters would be interested in reading those impressions in the first place. It’s not useless, but it is highly circumstantial. I would think this would be more of an enemy Occultist ability.
Free Swim: Clearly a scroll spell, not a spell known. Otherwise, yeah, sure, it’s good if you happen to need to explore aquatic environments.
Nondetection: Better than a tinfoil hat against divination specialists, but still unlikely to last long enough to be super useful for an Occultist.
Quell Energy: About the only reason you would want quell energy instead of communal resist energy or communal protection from energy is that it can negate special effect riders that accompany the damage dealt. It’s still just not great, though: a Will save and SR are gambles; a team buff is not.
Explosive Runes: Even if you wanted to make traps, why on earth would you use explosive runes when you have the clearly superior node of blasting available as a 2nd-level spell?
Guardian Monument, Lesser: Only works for humans, and provides weak DR that’s easily bypassed by even a +1 weapon.
Scales of Deflection: Wow, it blocks one whole touch attack? You shouldn’t have, Paizo. Really. You shouldn’t have.
Selective Alarm: Why are we still considering these spells when alarm or a tin can on a string will do?
Vigilant Rest: Just have someone cast keep watch on the best Perception jockey in the party. No need to burn a 3rd-level spell on this effect.
Freedom of Movement: Just because Occultists are psychic casters that don’t need to use somatic components to cast their spells doesn’t mean you can get away from freedom of movement scot-free. Far from it! Freedom of movement is one of those spell effects that’s such a hard counter to so many of the worst debuffs in the game that every character would be infinitely improved by having it running all the time. If you have to take one spell out of abjurations 4th-level spells, make it this one.
Break Enchantment: Unlike dispel magic, which can only break effects that have a finite duration, break enchantment can break effects that are instantaneous—i.e., the ones that last forever unless something changes them. Usually, you’ll use this to help an ally get over the effects of really nasty curses, transmutation effects, etc. It’s a good one to have in your back pocket.
Dimensional Anchor: Dimensional anchor is baby’s first foray into destroying high-level casters. No save, just a ranged touch attack, and if you hit, basically any teleportation magic they could try to use is shot for minutes at a time. They might still be able to use something like burst of speed or fly to escape, but they won’t be doing it by porting out of there.
Dismissal: Dismissal’s big advantage over dispel magic is that it can send away not just summoned creatures but also called creatures and outsiders that just happen to be on your plane of their own accord. If you can get it through SR and a Will save, it’s basically a one-hit KO on an outsider, which is always nice.
Enchantment Foil: At hours per level, an untyped +4 bonus to saves against some of the worst effects you can be subjected to (dominate person, charm person, suggestion, etc.) is pretty dang great. Many enchantment spells also happen to be emotion spells, as well, which makes enchantment foil a great line of defense against effects that would lock out psychic casting.
Planar Aegis: Planar aegis does two very important things: first, it deals quite a lot of damage to anything that hits you with just about any kind of melee attack. Second, it basically gives you improved evasion against one energy type. If you succeed at any save against an effect that would deal energy damage, it instead deals no damage; if you fail, or there’s no save for half, you take half damage. These effects don’t explicitly stack with resist energy or protection from energy, but they also don’t explicitly not stack, like resist energy and protection from energy do with each other. These effects act as supreme defensive countermeasures and very good offensive countermeasures, provided you’ve sussed out an enemy’s immunities and resistances. Even if your opponents resist mainstream energy effects, you can still use positive energy (against undead) or negative energy (against living creatures) in order to deal damage. You may also be able to heal allies or undead cohorts? Not sure about that interaction, though. In any case, the spell’s main limitations are its short duration and its material component, which must be gathered from specific planes. Maybe bargain with some geniekind for those materials.
Stoneskin: A classic! The material component is a bummer, but when you need it, you need it. DR 10/Adamantine is way too good to be ignored.
Wreath of Blades: Wreath of blades + planar aegis creates a powerful incentive for monsters not to get up in your business. The damage is decent, it can hit multiple foes in crowded corridors, and it completely negates the need for defensive casting. Good.
Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser: It’s a decent spell to have on hand when you’re fighting a caster, but you have to be prepared for them to just dispel it and come after you anyway. Full casters are about to have 6th-level spells available, too, so you should be ready for the more dangerous half of a spellcaster’s arsenal to pass through unhindered.
Life Bubble: Long duration, multiple allies, and a variety of environmental and anticaster uses make life bubble quite good as a spell known.
Conjuration Foil: I mean, eh? It’s not worthless by a long shot, but it has an incredibly short duration and only works if your opponent is trying to summon something—and if you’re aware that that’s happening, you should probably just hit them really hard so they lose the spell, rather than burn a 4th-level spell to deal a little bit of damage to the summoned creature.
Curse of Magic Negation: Giving an opponent SR is a bit of a dangerous gambit. On the one hand, yes, if you can manage to make a caster fail their Will save against this effect, chances are good that their casting will become less reliable, although how much less reliable depends on their caster level and mental ability scores. But you also give them protection against your spells, and you have to spend 250 gp each time you do it. It’s a hard trade to make.
Nondetection, Communal: As nondetection.
Peacebond, Greater: We’re into weird territory now where the weapons themselves are making Will saves. Bizarre, huh? On balance, the increased target cap and save DC make greater peacebond better than peacebond, but you’ll still have to contend with object Will saves, object SR, immense Strength scores, and a general lack of manufactured weapons among high-level enemies. It barely squeaks up to a yellow.
Absorb Rune I: Let the Wizard take care of this. It’s not something that you should be able to do with your precious few spells known.
Ban Corruption: The power of this spell depends entirely on whether your group is using the corruption rules from Horror Adventures. That’s probably not going to be most people.
Fire Trap: Node of blasting is better than fire trap, and for a much lower-level resource. 10-minute casting time, my foot.
Soothe Construct: Niche, niche, niche.
Spell Immunity: Casters trying to destroy you can afford to do so creatively at this level.
Symbol of Sealing: Wildly expensive for the benefit, and not useful in any tactical retreat because of its 10-minute casting time.
True Form: Break enchantment and dispel magic should be more than enough to take care of polymorph effects. Supernatural shapeshifting abilities are too rare to really be worth the extra spell slot.
Unbreakable Construct: You’re probably not going to be using Craft Construct, so…?
Dispel Magic, Greater: Dispel magic is the best 3rd-level spell available to you, and greater dispel magic is the best 5th-level spell available to you.
Spell Resistance: SR is a great anticaster tool, which means that it’s a great all-purpose spell for later levels in which nearly every enemy is some kind of caster.
Stoneskin, Communal: Communal stoneskin is great for the whole team. Expensive, but great.
Nex’s Secret Workshop: Assuming you have the money to pay for the material component, nex’s secret workshop is the anti-divination spell you’ve been looking for. Begone, casters!
Bloodstone Mirror: Bloodstone mirror is a great spell for days when you know you’re going up against a full caster, but the expensive material component is prohibitive in most cases.
Talisman of Reprieve: The planar effects are probably kinda niche, which is the reason why it gets the yellow.
Guardian Monument, Greater: As bad as its younger cousin.
Spell Immunity, Communal: As spell immunity.
Antimagic Field: The Occultist is one of the few classes I know of that can manage to have full BAB and create its own antimagic fields. The resonant power of Trappings of the Warrior is an extraordinary ability, meaning you can rock full BAB while hunting casters. As the spell text points out, when an antimagic field is in play, a sword is still a sword—and a masterwork sword, at that.
Repulsion: I’d prefer to let enemies come in close with planar aegis and wreath of blades, but maybe that’s just me. At any rate, repulsion will keep enemies away if you can stick the Will save.
Forbiddance: It’s a scroll spell for your demiplane, if it’s anything.
Absorb Rune II: As absorb rune I.
Alleviate Corruption: Corruption rules are pretty niche.
Globe of Invulnerability: The power differential between your enemies and globe of invulnerability is just too high at this point. Globe excludes 4th-level spells and lower, but by this point your enemies will be rocking 9th-level spells. Too much.
Symbol of Vulnerability: Incredibly expensive.
Create Water: There’s a lot you can do with infinite water, if you’re creative. Help out some drought-stricken farmers, at the very least. Cue that Jean de la Florette theme from La forza del destino...
Stabilize: Sometimes you can’t reach an ally who’s bleeding out, and in those times, you need stabilize.
Unseen Servant: Wow, you know it’s a weak spell level when unseen servant is one of the most OP spells available. Unseen servant has few uses in combat or exploration, apart from blundering into traps, but there’s something so wizardly about getting an invisible butler to do all the work for you. Who couldn’t love this lil’ guy?
Cure Light Wounds: Sure. Take it, and use it at the end of the day if you have extra spell slots.
Mount: See, now, why would you need the focus power when you can get mount as a 1st-level spell known or a wand? It’s a good spell for traveling. What can I say?
Barbed Chains: Trip doesn’t scale at all well into the endgame, and the emotion, fear, mind-affecting tags make a considerable chunk of enemies outright immune. I’m not much of a fan.
Icicle Dagger: I like it. It’s fun. Is it a good spell? No, not particularly. But it’s a lot of fun.
Mage Armor: Most Occultists will have absolutely no qualms about wearing armor. If you’re a Silksworn Occultist, that’s a different matter.
Desperate Weapon: You could as easily take the Conjure Implement focus power and just summon a masterwork weapon as a transmutation implement. Forget desperate weapon.
Guardian Armor: People wear the armor they wear for a reason. Teleporting medium armor onto your Wizard is only going to make him annoyed.
Instant Portrait: “Yes, officer,” you’ll say to the captain of the guard, “the perpetrator looked like...this!” That’s about the only scenario in which instant portrait would be useful.
Returning Weapon: Thrown weapon builds will need to get returning weapons or a blinkback belt anyway, so it’s hard for me to imagine a short-lived spell coming in handy.
Glitterdust: Your best 2nd-level conjuration spell, no questions asked. Glitterdust is like see invisibility for the whole team, not to mention potentially mass blindness and great anti-stealth capabilities. This’ll be your first pick.
Ablative Barrier: An oldie but a goodie, ablative barrier is a great way to prevent yourself from dying, and really saves you on healing costs—don’t forget that healing applied to nonlethal damage heals HP in parallel with lethal damage. Plus, nonlethal damage heals very quickly on its own, whereas lethal damage does not.
Cure Moderate Wounds: Again, use this if you still have spell slots at the end of the day.
Apport Object: The size and weight limits are serious restrictions on the spell, but I feel like there are some uses here for creative play. At the very least, you can plant drugs on your enemies?
Delay Poison: I’d take a scroll, rather than a spell known.
Mount, Communal: Only in niche circumstances will you want to use communal mount.
Wicker Horse: I’m inclined to think that the bonuses you can get with wicker horse don’t really make up for the higher spell slot from mount, but YMMV.
Restful Cloak: I dunno...you’ve got rope trick on the transmutation list, and I think that spell does a much better job of setting up a defensible campsite than restful cloak.
Returning Weapon, Communal: The only thing more niche than thrown weapon builds is an entire team full of thrown weapon builds.
Draconic Ally: The casting time and material component make draconic ally a poor choice mid-combat, but man, at days per level duration, you can get a lot of mileage out of Toothless here. Whether for combat, scouting, or transportation, dragons are useful creatures that can do lots of stuff. Good spell.
Penumbral Disguise: Big, big bonuses to Stealth and Disguise here that will apply in many lighting conditions. Good long duration, too.
Cure Serious Wounds: As cure light and cure moderate.
Minor Creation: Minor creation gives you access to just about any wooden item you could want for hours per level. It’s a solid ability for creative players.
Create Food and Water: A scroll will suffice here.
Phantom Steed: You can now fly, so you won’t be using phantom steed. It’s a good spell for martial companions who need extra mobility.
Sepia Snake Sigil: It’s an expensive gambit, but can work wonders if it hits, featuring a Reflex save and no SR.
Create Drug: Unless you’re leaning into some kind of Mahathallah Fiendish Obedience build, there’s no reason you should be creating drugs with spells known.
Pernicious Pranksters: Maneuvers like trip and dirty trick can be good if they land, but the endgame is not kind to combat maneuvers. You’re likely to see the effects of that unkindness right around 7th level, when this spell becomes available.
Phantom Driver: Before Golarion got Uber and Lyft, they had phantom driver. It’s a pretty crappy spell. No real uses here unless you use a carriage to get everywhere.
Pocketful of Vipers: Well, that’s one way to guard your stuff. I think I’d just, ya know, keep it in a bag of holding and avoid the snake gimmick.
Summon Ship: You’ll know whether you’re in the type of campaign that needs access to frequent water travel.
Symbol of Healing: Gross. 500 gp for what amounts to a mass cure moderate wounds. No thanks.
Urban Step: Reminds me of one of Milani’s Deific Obedience boons. Urban step is pretty bad, but you’ll get much better teleportation magic soon.
Dimension Door: Yeaaah! Now here’s a proper introduction to teleportation magic. Dimension door is the best for precise, medium-range teleportation; use teleport for long-range stuff, and Side Step for short-range stuff.
Cure Critical Wounds: As cure light, cure moderate, and cure serious.
Major Creation: Major creation is better than minor creation in a major way. Now you can create anything for some amount of time.
Surface Excursion: A lot of high-level adventuring takes place underground or in extensive dungeons, and using teleport to get in and out requires you to familiarize yourself with different areas, prepare for mishaps, and more. Surface excursion is a nice, no-nonsense quality of life spell that will get you out of dangerous underground places and back to the surface world where you belong.
Phantom Steed, Communal: As phantom steed.
Rising Water: Freedom of movement will be prevalent starting about now, so rising water won’t present a threat to most casters. It’s fun to cast it on anything with a high armor check penalty, though, and watch them flounder.
Flash Forward: I get the gist here. Really. But combat-oriented Occultists will want to end up next to the enemy they’re charging, and casting-oriented Occultists won’t want to charge at all. See the problem?
Phantom Chariot: Seems to me that sticking all the party members together in one place is a recipe for trouble. Plus, why isn’t everyone flying by this point? Use communal phantom steed, if you’re so worried.
Poisonous Balm: Not worth the higher spell slot.
Straightjacket: Nothing with a CMB check should make you happy.
Teleport: Teleport will certainly change how your Occultist plays Pathfinder, and that’s a guarantee. Unless you have another arcane caster who always takes care of teleportation, you’ll want this.
Wall of Stone: Your first good battlefield control spell. It’s a pity you had to wait this long. Wall of stone is fabulous for separating groups of enemies, but beware that its duration is instantaneous—once you summon it, it stays in that position until someone physically or magically destroys it.
Cold Iron Fetters: Good for binding a lot of outsiders and fey in place while you run up and beat them to death. You don’t want these enemies escaping with dimension door or greater teleport. Still, you could have just used dimensional anchor.
Create Demiplane, Lesser: Every high-level caster needs their own demiplane, right? So it is with you. Cook up your own personal living space and enjoy life in comfort and privacy.
Planar Binding, Lesser: Getting 6 HD worth of outsider is not a great deal for this level, but it synergizes with what the Occultist is expected to do with fast circles and other summoning class features.
Secret Chest: Whatever you do, don’t lose that replica. A good quality of life spell, but you could now just as easily store stuff on your demiplane.
Bind Sage: Your own Knowledge checks will far surpass a caulborn’s at this level. Give it up.
Cure Light Wounds, Mass: Wow, what a waste of a perfectly good 5th-level spell. You could have taken four or five hits off a wand of cure light, but nooo, you had to use a greatsword to cut an apple...
Heal: No muss, no fuss, just 150 HP and a bevy of bad status conditions, healed in an instant. Heal is always one of the Best In Show at whatever spell level it appears in.
Getaway: Barring dimensional anchor or antimagic fields, getaway is about the best panic button a high-level adventuring party could want, spiriting you away from danger to a place of certain safety with little fuss.
Wall of Iron: A wall of iron is harder to shape than a wall of stone, but correspondingly more durable. Even stevens.
Create Demiplane: As lesser create demiplane.
Roaming Pit: The pit spells are always pretty good for their level, if only because they offer no spell resistance and target Reflex, which tends to be the weakest monster save at high levels. It’s fun to zoom your pit around, scooping up baddies, but you have to be prepared at this level for a lot of flying encounters and monsters that are simply too big to fall into a 10x10 pit.
Planar Binding: As lesser planar binding. Again, thematic for the Occultist, but 12 HD of outsiders ain’t gonna break the bank at this level.
Balance of Suffering: I mean, forgive me for not getting excited about balance of suffering, which heals on average about 50 HP on a failed save and 25 HP on a passed save, when you have heal at the same level. No competition.
Call Construct: What’s up with the Occultist list and assuming you can craft constructs?
Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass: As mass cure light wounds. Still just a waste of space.
Treacherous Teleport: Why would this be something you needed to do?
Detect Magic: Okay, well, you need detect magic for obvious reasons. This is one of your 1st-level cantrip picks, no questions asked.
Guidance: A small bonus with a common bonus type, but free. I’ve always liked guidance.
Read Magic: At 10 minutes/level, you can easily keep read magic up on yourself all day, right from 1st level. It’s good for most interactions with magical objects or traps.
Detect Poison: Detect poison does more than most players realize, and Occultists can do more with it than most arcane or divine casting classes, thanks to their ability to cast it silently and with no somatic components. Still, it’s probably not good enough to merit a spell known.
Detect Psychic Significance: I get that this is your schtick as an Occultist, but you can perform object readings without needing the cantrip.
Know Direction: Alternatively, you could buy a compass?
Sift: Somehow worse than a Perception check.
Anticipate Peril: Anticipate peril is an awesome 1st-level spell. Just remember that your base Sudden Insight focus power can also boost initiative checks via insight bonuses, and that insight bonuses don’t stack. You’ll need to choose which one to use. Anticipate peril is probably the better choice until you get to 10th-12th level, when Sudden Insight’s bonus will start to outstrip anticipate peril’s bonus and mental focus becomes more plentiful.
Heightened Awareness: Nice long duration, decent bonuses to any number of great skills, and even a bonus to initiative, in a pinch. I think there’s an argument to be made that heightened awareness is strictly better than anticipate peril for Occultists, due mostly to the overlap with Sudden Insight. Heightened awareness grants an untyped initiative bonus that will stack with Sudden Insight; anticipate peril’s bonus will not stack.
Psychic Reading: Not actually a bad spell for high-level Occultists who can crush Sense Motive checks. The restriction to humanoids is a bit rough, but you don’t otherwise have great avenues for discovering metainformation like this.
Speechreader’s Sight: Rated more highly than I usually would rate it because your Mind Eye allows you to use sensory abilities like speechreader’s sight. It’s particularly useful if you can’t or don’t want to get close to targets, but still want to spy on what they’re saying.
Comprehend Languages: It’s a wand or scroll, if it’s anything.
Cultural Adaptation: It’s a fun spell when you want to go incognito in a native population, but too circumstantial to waste a spell known on.
Detect Charm: Charm, possession, and enchantment effects are very real threats sometimes, but again, I’d maybe buy a wand with 10 or so charges. That should last you through much of a campaign.
Diagnose Disease: As with detect poison, diagnose disease does more than many people think. It still won’t come up often enough that you’d want to burn a spell slot on it, though.
Mindlink: It’s great for interspecies communication, but building up the trust to be touched by a stranger in a world where shocking grasp exists can be tricky.
Detect Secret Doors: Take 20 on a Perception check, if you’re so worried about it.
Detect Snares and Pits: This spell doesn’t even detect most kinds of traps. What a bad deal!
Discern Next of Kin: Good for cold readings in order to impress someone with your “otherworldly” knowledge, or for making realistic threats against commoners. How often do you need to do those things, though?
Identify: Occultists can do this with their object readings, no spells required.
Linked Legacy: Every table I’ve ever played at, heard of, or GMed myself allows players to share information from Knowledge checks as a free action by speaking. Unless you’re in an area of silence or something, this won’t come up.
Object Reading: Again, you already have a class feature to do this. Archetypes that traded object reading away may want a wand.
Rune Trace: A Wizard spell, if there ever was one.
Skim: How often do you need to read a book really quickly?
True Appraisal: Appraise is a bad skill, by and large. Don’t give yourself bonuses to it.
Analyze Aura: Analyze aura is a great, flexible psychic caster exclusive that will let you glean valuable information from any target with no save or SR. This will stay relevant forever, basically.
See Invisibility: See invisibility is one of those spells that absolutely everyone must have access to in some form all the time. Divination’s resonant power can get you there at 7th level with 9 points of invested mental focus, of course, but on days when you don’t want to invest that much or can’t invest that much, you’ll still need access to see invisibility. For my money, this is also a great candidate for permanency.
Blood Biography: Not to be confused with blood money, blood biography is a good crime scene investigation spell that will help you figure out what the heck happened in any number of circumstances. Sometimes this will help you greatly as you advance the plot, other time it will be purely thematic, but either way, it’s cool and flavorful.
Detect Magic, Greater: It would stink to have to burn a higher-level spell slot for greater detect magic, but it grants useful information above and beyond what detect magic can grant and is therefore worthy of your consideration.
Enchantment Sight: Enchanters often won’t think to cast nondetection or mind blank on enchanted targets, which makes them easy pickings for enchantment sight. A good candidate for permanency once you can scrounge up 2,500 gp.
Residual Tracking: A fun Ranger-exclusive spell that does good work for its spell level. Sometimes you really do need this kind of information. With no save or SR and no real level-dependent effects, a wand or scroll might be more economical, however.
Augury: I’ve always been “meh” about augury. It costs money, it doesn’t reveal much information, it has a chance to feed you bogus information, and it can’t forecast out very far into the future. It’s not awful, but it’s far from the best spell you could pick at 2nd level.
Locate Object: Because you need to have physically seen the object in question and various physical or magical safeguards can block the spell completely, locate object may not always get you where you want to go.
Share Language: No save, no SR, and no CL-dependent effects make for a good scroll.
Status: It has its purposes, but you probably won’t be burning 2nd-level spells on the effect regularly. I’d stick with something more general, like scrying, if you get separated.
Voluminous Vocabulary: As share language.
Create Treasure Map: Ha! No.
Find Traps: If you got at least 10 minutes/level I might consider it, but it’s too short-lived to do much. Let the Rogue take care of this.
Know Peerage: Wow, that’s niche.
Mindshock: You could maybe pull off some Enforcer shenanigans with mindshock, but Enforcer builds need more consistent access to nonlethal damage than a 2nd-level spell that lasts rounds/level. I’d leave it.
Seed Spies: Gathlain-only, and completely outclassed by Mind Eye. Stick with your focus power.
Sense Fear/Madness: Very niche abilities that won’t see much use at all in campaigns.
Share Memory: Mindlink is a 1st-level spell. Use that.
Retrocognition: Such a cool spell, and you get it at a very low level, comparable to other classes. Assuming you’ve warned your GM ahead of time that you might be gazing as far back as 2,000 years into the past, this spell is absolutely aces for gleaning valuable information about a particular place—kind of like if legend lore were actually a good spell. Fantastic for PC information-gathering and gentle GM nudges.
Arcane Sight: Kinda like greater detect magic. Another great candidate for permanency once you can spare 7,500 gp.
Threefold Sight: Even though I’ve never read the source book, I’d wager this is one of Magdh’s spells. She’s all about things that come in threes. Threefold sight is interesting in that it takes a normally flat probability distribution (each number on a d20 has a 5% chance of being rolled in any single roll) and turns it into a parabolic distribution with the likeliest outcomes grouped around 9, 10, 11, and 12. You can see this effect at anydice.com by comparing the distributions of output 1d20 and output [middle 1 of 3d20]. You contain about 60% of the variance within the middle 40% of numbers. If you’re in a fight where you know that middling rolls (whether saves or attacks) are likely to be sufficient, but there’s a high cost to failure, threefold sight can actually get the job done quite well. Okay. Nerdage over.
Akashic Communion: The heavy reliance on caster level makes scrolls a poor choice, but the material component, long casting time, and dubious value of the answers you receive may not make it the best spell known, either. I think you’re likely to know ahead of time whether this spell is worthwhile to you—i.e., if you’re the party’s resident Knowledge jockey.
Follow Aura: Real, real niche. You’d need to be tracking an outsider, Cleric, Warpriest, Paladin, Antipaladin, etc., and it’s not often you need to do that.
Locate Weakness: Locate weakness’ power will depend a great deal on your weapon of choice, your crit range and modifier, and any relevant transmutation effects such as lead blades or enlarge person you may have on you. But let’s assume you’re using a Medium-sized keen greatsword. Here’s how these effects would play out:
As you can see, locate weakness is good for crit-fishing builds, but is likely to underperform for other weapon builds. You’re probably safe skipping this one unless you really pursue crits actively.
Pierce Disguise: A decent stopgap until true seeing.
Replay Tracks: Likely to be pretty circumstantial.
Seek Thoughts: Between the limited range and the Will save to negate, I don’t think seek thoughts will come in handy all that often, but you never know.
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance: Another divination spell that’s completely obviated by Mind Eye. Use that instead.
Meticulous Match: Not likely to be useful often.
Mnemonic Siphon: Useless for Sorcerers and Occultists, who can’t copy spells into a spellbook or teach them to a familiar. Your casting is limited by your implement schools, not by what spells you have available to be prepared.
Share Language, Communal: Tongues is starting to be a common spell by this level. Just forget it.
Symbol of Revelation: Expensive and slow to cast. These are almost always bad guy spells, not PC spells.
Witness: Also completely destroyed by Mind Eye.
Scrying: Yeaaah. This is where things start to get good in the divination world. As I mentioned in the divination implement school write-up, this is the perfect time to start thinking about the Powerful Connection focus power. As you can see from scrying’s spell text, possessing some link to a creature can give you an overwhelming advantage in the cold wars that scrying is so good at winning, and Powerful Connection can basically ensure that no enemy ever succeeds at their Will save to resist your intrusion ever again. When going up against a powerful organization, every divination specialist should attempt to bribe, coerce, or enchant a minion or lieutenant to deliver a likeness, garment, or body part gathered from the boss to you. You’ll be spying on them in no time. Remember, though, that even if you gather these items, you can still be spied upon in return with detect scrying, shut out with no save via mind blank, or forced into a caster level check with nondetection. I meant what I said: divination is a cold war, and there are many feints and counterfeints that diviners use to outmaneuver each other.
Detect Scrying: At 24 hours duration, detect scrying is a useful anti-divination tool right out of the box, no modifications required. Plus, if you can beat the other caster’s CL check, you can actually turn around the effect and get a glimpse of them, including information on where they are!
Locate Creature: Better than locate object, although the caveat that high-level casters take precautions against this kind of thing still applies.
Unerring Tracker: Not quite as good as find the path, but still nice for locating creatures that you need to locate.
Glimpse of Truth: You’d hate to have to burn a 4th-level spell for one round of true seeing, but when you need that spell and can’t access true seeing yet through your own spell list, there’s no substitute.
Mind Probe: It’s okay for what it is, but I’d think you have better lie detection and interrogation techniques available at this level.
Arcane Eye: Absolutely destroyed by Mind Eye. Aren’t you glad one focus power can replace so many excellent divination spells?
Commune with Texts: Find yourself researching at libraries constantly, do you?
Contact Other Plane: Failure to pass a flat Intelligence check on contact other plane reduces your Intelligence and Charisma scores to 8 for weeks at a time. In no world is that acceptable to an Intelligence-based casting class.
Reveal Emotions: Analyze aura is a 2nd-level spell that works just as well.
Symbol of Scrying: Expensive and bad, as all symbol spells are.
Vicarious View: Likely to be inferior to Mind Eye in most important ways.
True Seeing: True seeing is an indispensable tool in any high-level caster’s toolbox, cutting through all garbage of illusions, magical concealment, supernatural darkness, polymorph effects, etherealness, etc. If you make one spell pick at 5th level, make it true seeing.
Remote Viewing: Part of the scrying/greater scrying/remote viewing triad that makes Occultists such good spies. The psychic impressions you get of a place will sometimes be as valuable or more valuable than the physical location information. Maybe tell your GM what you’re planning on viewing ahead of time so they can think up the analogies or images they want to conjure.
Battlemind Link: An effective +4 to your initiative and attack rolls. Quite good, if a little short in duration.
Find Quarry: Another good “find this enemy for me” spell.
Commune: Expensive, but more reliable than spells like augury.
Prying Eyes: It has some advantages over Mind Eye, notably its long duration, but Mind Eye is still going to reign supreme in most circumstances.
Foretell Failure: For my money, too expensive for what it does.
Locate Gate: Niche. Very niche.
Scrying, Greater: Greater scrying is everything you could want in a divination spell, allowing you to follow a target for hours and hours, learning everything about them and the organizations they’re a part of. Obviously, you should use Powerful Connection to make this spell even harder to resist.
Analyze Dweomer: Thematically perfect for Occultists, who love objects. I think you’re likely to be able to replicate these effects with Spellcraft checks and lower-level spells such as arcane sight, but it’s not a bad spell to have, just in case.
Find the Path: Sure, yeah. I don’t think it screams “6th-level spell” to me, but it’s good enough.
Prediction of Failure: It’s a high-level resource to burn, and the debuffs don’t quite earn a good rating. It can be crippling to slap on a big, dumb martial fighter with a terrible Will save, though.
Legend Lore: Blech. Just use retrocognition.
Soulseeker: Cool and very flavorful, but not useful in most scenarios.
Daze: Scales not a bit past 3rd or 4th level, and is of dubious usefulness even before then.
Charm Person: I’ve cooled on charm person over the years, at least for ⅔ casters who aren’t entirely focused on their save DCs. It’s still good, but it’s limited to humanoids, is mind-affecting, and doesn’t work particularly well for classes that aren’t Charisma-based.
Murderous Command: Even though it’s brief, you can at least use it to try to get a caster’s bodyguard to smash his boss’ face in. That’s got to be worth something.
Command: 1 round, language-dependent and mind-affecting, Will negates, SR applies, living targets only, close range, poor effects...do I need to keep going? Command is a bad spell.
Forbid Action: All the same problems as command, and with no significantly improved effects.
Hypnotism: Fascinated is useful only outside of combat, and you have charm person for those occasions.
Memorize Page: Why would you ever need this? Just take the book, drawing, or map with you.
Memory Lapse: An extraordinarily poor way to cover your tracks. If they pass their Will save, not only will they know that you gave the game away, intimidated them, etc., but that you then tried to use magic to erase their memory of the event. This is likely only to inflame already tense situations.
Sleep: Scales not at all past 3rd or 4th level, and as with daze, is only slightly useful before that point.
Aversion: At days per level, aversion hits hard and below the belt. Any target can be made at least sickened for that much time, and pending a Will save, nauseated. Really not bad for a 2nd-level spell! Toss it on a melee enemy and watch as they either have to step out of the fight entirely or become nauseated.
Investigative Mind: One of my favorites from the Investigator/Alchemist spell list, and it’s still great here. You have enough good Knowledge skills on your class list to favor investigative mind, although you might want to wait until later levels to retrain into it—you won’t get many rerolls at early levels.
Tactical Acumen: Flanking and cover bonuses are always pertinent, and doubly so with tactical acumen. Obviously better as you add more melee combatants to the party.
Calm Emotions: Good on offense against enemies that rely on morale bonuses, inspire courage, rage, or bloodrage, and good on defense to snap your allies out of fear and confusion effects. Quite the useful little spell, calm emotions.
Inflict Pain: A pretty hard-hitting debuff against martial foes—that -4 will hurt.
Demand Offering: Kind of like a magical disarm maneuver.
Bestow Weapon Proficiency: People don’t choose to build their characters around weapons they’re not proficient in, so…
Daze Monster: As bad as daze.
Hoodwink: Attacking hoodwinked foes snaps them out of the effect, so you won’t get much mileage here.
Hold Person: Even with the target restrictions and new saves every round, hold person can still be a great move in a tight spot. Throw it on those with poor Will saves, obviously, to maximize your duration.
Suggestion: You know suggestion, you love suggestion. It’s great for securing the “cooperation” of other creatures.
Control Summoned Creature: Depending on the strength of your save DCs, this might actually be a good gambit against conjuration specialists. I’d maybe stick with a scroll, though.
Deep Slumber: HD limits are bad in the long run. It might make a decent spell right at 7th level, but you’ll want to retrain shortly thereafter.
Symbol of Laughter: Nooo, no symbol spells allowed.
Charm Monster: Charm monster is one of those spells that really changes the way things work in your campaign. Monsters are likely going to be much more amenable to killing people you point to, and they’re also less likely to be missed by families or communities. Disposable cannon fodder it is! And at days per level, you’ll have ‘em in service for a long time. Great spell.
Confusion: I love confusion. The condition is a strong one, you can target a 15-ft. radius right out of the gate, and there aren’t any repeated saves to break the status effect early. Tag a group of minions with it, and watch themselves do most of the heavy lifting tearing themselves apart before you move in to mop up.
Charm Person, Mass: With an HD cap now imposed, mass charm person gets even a little more niche. You’ll want to charm mostly nameless NPCs with this spell, as they tend to have both low Will saves and few HD.
Demanding Message: It’s a bit more subtle than suggestion, but not much: remember, psychic spells have thought and emotion components, not somatic and verbal components. Suggestion should be a purely mental action. Demanding message therefore just gets the spell extended out to medium range.
Hold Monster: Much better target selection than hold person, but the same problems with repeat saves still apply.
Mindwipe: Negative levels are pretty powerful, especially when they cause casters to lose spells. Sequential mindwipes can quickly wipe a caster out as their Will save gets debuffed through the floor. It’s not a flawless strategy, and quite resource-intensive, but it can work.
Mind Swap: I guess maybe if your party restrained you, then you swapped minds with someone? But why would you not just impersonate them instead of trying to possess them? Seems like the juice isn’t worth the squeeze here.
Planeslayer’s Call: Useful only for spellcasters. Maybe if your party has a lot of those?
Curse of Disgust: Aversion will do this much better. The permanent duration isn’t worth it for adventurers, who will mostly debuff enemies, then kill them. Okay as an NPC spell, though.
Daze, Mass: As bad as daze.
Hypnotism, Greater: You’re not likely to be a nagaji. If you are somehow, greater hypnotism actually does a great job of fixing many of the problems with hypnotism, and it can be used to secure the cooperation of many low-level creatures.
Mad Sultan’s Melody: Works on shockingly few creatures at all, features a Will save and SR, and causes you to take Wisdom damage. No thanks.
Symbol of Distraction/Persuasion/Sleep: All NPC spells meant to guard an evil lair. PCs will be too mobile, too broke, and too rushed to bother.
Mind Fog: Jeeeez. A -10 to Will saves and Wisdom checks is brutal. If you ever wanted to soften a group of creatures up for further enchantment spells, this is the way you’d want to do it. Especially given that Wisdom is the stat that would normally govern thoughts like, “Huh. A fog rising up around me probably isn’t normal. I should go tell my boss,” I’d think that a -10 would be a great way to get enemies to stand there and take whatever you throw at them. If you ever want to watch something hilarious, go watch Skid Maher as Nestor Coyne roleplaying the effects of mind fog.
Dahak’s Release: A great spell for turning a powerful martial enemy on its caster boss. Especially potent if you can use wall of stone, wall of iron, etc. to shut that martial enemy in with the caster boss (dimensional anchor might help) or minions so that there’s no escape as it tears them apart. Bye, Felicia.
Dominate Person: Even with the caveat that commanding a target to act against its own nature grants a new save, dominate person still represents total control over a single humanoid. That can be extraordinarily powerful. Remember that a pretty trivial Sense Motive check can determine that there’s something fishy about the creature, though.
Forbid Action, Greater: Unlike forbid action, which lasts a measly 1 round, greater forbid action works for rounds per level. Now you can command all creatures not to cast spells for rounds per level, not to attack, not to move, etc. With some creativity, it can be even better than greater command because there are no repeat saves.
Command, Greater: The addition of multiple targets and a rounds per level duration does a lot to boost greater command to greater heights than its little cousin managed to attain. Most likely, you’ll just want to use it as a janky mass hold monster by commanding targets to halt.
Inflict Pain, Mass: Hard-hitting debuff, as usual, but good only against martial enemies.
Suggestion, Mass: No HD caps, finally. That’s what makes mass suggestion better than contagious suggestion.
Contagious Suggestion: Maybe good for transmitting a suggestion like, “It’s a lovely night. I should step out of my evil lair for a bit!” up the food chain to the BBEG, but the HD cap will hit you fast and hard at these late levels. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could only get one target with it anyway, which makes suggestion just as good.
Symbol of Stunning: No, no, poi no.
Cloak of Dreams: Cloak of dreams features a lot of pretty hard-hitting saves, and if an enemy fails even one, they’re right in coup-de-gracing range. Yay!
Charm Monster, Mass: With the HD cap, you’re actually going to be better off charming monsters one at a time unless they’re all very low-level.
Lost Legacy: Probably more of an NPC spell, but it has some story purposes for PCs.
Antipathy/Sympathy: NPC spells. I can think of nearly no situations in which PCs would be able to use an effect this specific and location-based.
Demanding Message, Mass: Demanding message is already a bit niche for psychic casters. Mass demanding message just isn’t worth the 6th-level slot.
Symbol of Insanity/Strife: More symbol spells. Nope.
(Note: Spells whose damage is boosted by evocation’s Intense Focus resonant power are italicized.)
Dancing Lights/Light: Every party needs access to light somehow. In the longer term, Radiance is a great focus power for dispelling darkness effects, but for mundane adventuring, light and dancing lights are your go-to spells.
Telekinetic Projectile: Telekinetic projectile is a nice damage cantrip that’s only available to a few classes. What makes the spell so nice for Occultists is that it qualifies for Intense Focus, meaning that its damage will actually scale to a respectable 1d6+10 by 20th level. Game-breaking? No. But it sure beats having to lug a bow around.
Spark: Good little quality of life spell.
Flare: Dazzled is a poor status effect, and a Fortitude save negates anyway.
Shocking Grasp: Even if shocking grasp isn’t the burst damage nova wrecking ball for Occultists that it is for Magi, it's still your best 1st-level damage spell, at least for single targets. You could choose to do the Magical Lineage trait + Intensified Spell metamagic combo in order to ease it up to 10d6 damage eventually, but I just don’t think it’s really worth that when you can’t perform spellstrikes and fish for spell crits.
Burning Hands: An early swarm-killer and troll regeneration stopper, but limited in the long run by its exceptionally low ceiling.
Floating Disk: Floating disk is a decent utility spell that can do some fun things with the Magic Trick feat. You’ll probably outgrow it once bags of holding become an adventuring mainstay, though.
Bestow Planar Infusion I: The bestow planar infusion line of spells only works when you’re on a different plane—no effects in the Material. It’s therefore a poor choice for early-level adventurers, who are (almost without exception) on the Material Plane.
Force Sword/Ghost Whip: Two spells that both aim at the same thing: killing incorporeal creatures. Now, the Legacy Weapon focus power from transmutation can set you up with a ghost touch weapon for a song, but if you’d rather use a freaking ghost whip to do it, it’s more than effective. At any rate, everyone needs some means of killing incorporeal creatures.
Pilfering Hand: OP as all get out against weapon-wielding martials and spellcasters who rely on material components or spellbooks. What is the Wizard going to do if you steal his spellbook, say mean things to you? How about the crit-fishing Rogue who loses both kukris?
Beacon of Guilt: I covered node of blasting in the abjuration spell section, and mentioned how it’s great for setting up honeypots for enemies. See a coin lying on the ground? Whoops, they just took 6d6 damage, gained the staggered condition, and are now in combat. Beacon of guilt can do something similar, making it very difficult for enemies to escape while outlined in faerie fire. Combine beacon of guilt and node of blasting for extra fun.
Darkness: One of the evocation school’s first battlefield control spells, and plenty good as time goes on for manipulating lighting conditions.
Gust of Wind: Good for dissipating clouds, fogs, etc., and for blowing away swarms.
Campfire Wall: I mean, it’s interesting, for sure, but it ain’t subtle. You have rope trick available as a 2nd-level spell, so I’d recommend that you use that spell instead.
Continual Flame: A scroll, if it’s anything.
Extreme Buoyancy/Neutral Buoyancy/Lead Anchor: Scroll spells.
Flaming Sphere: Reflex negates, and it’s limited to ground-based enemies. It’s got its place in early swarm-killing, but loses effectiveness pretty quickly.
Frost Fall: Very limited damage, and a tiny area of effect.
Shatter: The damage against crystalline creatures is pretty good, but it’s hard to leverage the effects of the sunder maneuver.
Sound Burst: Fortitude negates the status effect, which is the main reason you’d use sound burst. Not terribly effective.
Burning Gaze: Incredibly weak damage that eats up all your standard actions. No thanks.
Contact Entity I: Opening yourself up to contact with these creatures is a really, really bad idea. Don’t invite cosmic horror into your life—it’ll find you easily enough without an invitation.
Defensive Shock: Shocking grasp can do this better.
Flickering Lights: Why would you want the lighting level to fluctuate this wildly?
Protective Penumbra: Useless unless you’re a dhampir.
Daylight: If you’re not picking up the Radiance focus power, daylight is a spell that you 100% need in order to counter darkness tactics.
Deeper Darkness: Now you’re starting to be able to deny vision even to foes that can see in the dark. It’s a good deal.
Fireball: Everybody’s favorite mid-level evocation spell! Fireball does good damage in a wide area, targets the weak Reflex save, and has an excellent range. If you want to blast, fireball + Intense Focus is a good way to get started.
Invisibility Purge: See invisibility works well enough, but what if you need the entire team to be able to see an invisible foe? That’s where invisibility purge comes in. No save, no SR, just stripped of the effect. Simple and incredibly effective.
Twilight Knife: If you’re a melee Occultist, twilight knife is aces. It flanks with you, it hits at your BAB + Intelligence, it deals force damage to cut through all DR and energy resistance, and it even deals sneak attack damage!
Daybreak Arrow: Good to have a scroll around for when you’re fighting undead.
Lightning Bolt: Better damage type than fireball, but worse blast shape to compensate. It’s a solid B spell.
Moonrise Arrow: Between moonrise arrow and Legacy Weapon granting ghost touch, ranged Occultists can really lay the hurt on incorporeal foes. Good for piercing DR/Silver, too, which many PCs don’t think to equip themselves for.
Motes of Dusk and Dawn: I don’t know what good it does you to have both darkness and light at the same time, but it’s nice to have a more powerful version of dancing lights. I’d still probably choose daylight or deeper darkness, in a pinch.
Spotlight: I don’t like spotlight quite as much as either glitterdust or faerie fire, but it’s still good at what it does.
Tiny Hut: On par with rope trick as a great quality of life and camping spell.
Unflappable Mien: A good “get out of my personal space” spell for casting-focused Occultists.
Wind Wall: Small flying creatures, gases, and ranged combat aren’t an “every encounter” kind of threat, but they occur often enough that you’ll want access to wind wall in some capacity. The auto-suppression of ranged attacks is particularly nice.
Call Lightning: Only a little more effective than flaming sphere, and eats up your standard actions. Watch out for that interruptible 1-round casting time, too.
Talismanic Implement: The rare Occultist exclusive! The problem is that the spell levels you can contingency are super limited, and the loss of mental focus from your implements is a hard, hard hit to your efficacy, especially as it dings your resonant powers, too. I’m inclined not to like it, but it might be a decent way to dump a bunch of buffs on yourself all at once as a fight starts. For BBEGs, maybe?
Agonize: Occultists are set up pretty well to call outsiders, given the various “circles” class features they have. But good gravy, why would you want to antagonize extraplanar entities this badly? These are serious customers we’re talking about.
Contact Entity II: As contact entity I.
Wall of Split Illumination: I’ve gone over my reasons for disliking this spell in previous guides, but the gist is that the wall obstructs vision, so you can’t see through to the creatures you’re illuminating, and they can’t see you in the darkness. Why change the light level at all if no one can see anyone? Why not just use a regular wall spell, or a regular daylight/deeper darkness spell?
Etheric Shards: One of the rare psychic-only spells. Lemme be real: etheric shards slaps. It’s battlefield control, it’s invisible, it lasts for hours per level, and enemies need to pass a Reflex save for each 5-foot cube they move through. Failed Reflex saves mean 1d8 damage and, most crucially, stacking bleed damage. Get an effect like telekinesis or forceful hand going, and you can slap enemies around in this invisible broken glass field (just saying that made me shudder) until they bleed out. Not even incorporeals are safe!
Ball Lightning: Electricity resistance is the thing to watch out for with ball lightning, as even resistance 10 will take a huge chunk out of the damage this spell provides. Other than that, however, it’s aces! Casting-focused Occultists can use their move action each round to keep zapping foes, and the spheres’ ability to fly and impose penalties on saves to enemies wearing metal armor make them much better investments than burning sphere. One of the most resource-efficient evocation spells you can get, and highly recommended for Silksworn blasters.
Brightest Light: Again, the Radiance focus power can beat brightest light in short bursts, but an hours per level duration makes this spell a great mainstay for combating darkness tactics. Cast it on a weapon in a sheath, a stone kept in an opaque pouch, etc., so that you don’t have to worry about it spilling light absolutely everywhere when you’re trying to be stealthy.
Controlled Fireball: So, there are two reasons why you might consider making the leap to controlled fireball. First, it deals less damage to your allies if they’re in the melee scrum when you let loose. (You do need to watch out if you’re investing a lot of mental focus in Intense Focus, as the damage from that ability gets tagged onto the minimum damage allowed by this spell. Use communal resist energy liberally to avoid friendly fire.) Second, if you’re clever, you can trick foes into thinking that someone other than you cast the spell. Remember, psychic magic features no somatic or verbal components, so you can just think about the fireball originating from a rival, and it will be so. Because spellcasters performing Spellcraft checks will identify the spell as fireball—no save—they’ll assume it came from the hidden caster in their midst and will cut down your competition. Pretty neat.
Fire Shield: Planar aegis is fire shield’s “sister spell,” and they’re both great. Planar aegis is better on defense because of its variable energy typing, but fire shield is better on offense because fire-based enemies tend to be vulnerable to cold, and vice versa. Good spell that stacks with resist energy.
Pyrotechnic Eruption: Assuming your enemy doesn’t have fire immunity, pyrotechnic eruption is a big ol’ stack of d6s—about 25d6 over the course of the spell, assuming you cast it at CL 15. Great single-target blast that’s mean, mean, mean for the way it follows people no matter where they go. Toss it on a big, slow bruiser and watch the flames roar higher.
Wall of Fire: Another classic battlefield control spell. Throwing etheric shards up in front of the wall can make it even more intimidating for enemies to try to move through and attack you, as they have to move at half speed, take damage from both the shards and the wall of fire, and generally bleed out or get immolated in doing so.
Contingent Scroll: Better than talismanic implement due to the higher spell levels allowed and absence of mental focus expenditure, but also limited by a short-ish duration. Poke around reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG for advice about contingency—it’s been done to death, so I won’t go into it here.
Ice Storm: Ice storm remains a good battlefield control spell, but etheric shards is better for air coverage, incorporeal coverage, variable shaping, and duration. Grab that spell first and come back for ice storm if you still feel yourself lacking.
River of Wind: Generally too short-lived and narrow to be of much use, river of wind does have one oddly specific combo for Occultists: etheric shards + river of wind in a narrow corridor. Enemies have to fight and bleed to get through the shards in the first place, and then river of wind can blow them back through the shards, imposing penalties to their Reflex saves all the way home. It only works in exceptionally tight quarters—enemies can just move around the wind if it’s a 10-foot corridor—but it’s devastating when it works. You could also set etheric shards up as a wall, then have a river of wind blow in parallel, shunting enemies sideways through the shard field when they try to cross the invisible boundary.
Wall of Ice: Wall of ice is a little less versatile than wall of fire or etheric shards, but they can grow to an enormous size and present an actual physical barrier that enemies can’t just walk through. I think I’d still prefer wall of stone from conjuration, but this ain’t bad for area denial.
Bestow Planar Infusion II: As bestow planar infusion I.
Resilient Sphere: Sealing away martial opponents is a solid tactic, but the size limitations are real and many enemies will simply teleport out or take the opportunity to buff themselves to the gills, summon reinforcements, etc. Gotta watch out with resilient sphere.
Rope Tornado: River of wind will generally be more effective, but rope tornado can get some big enemies prone for a song. It’s just good family fun to knock an ancient dragon on its butt.
Sending: Interplanar text messaging, in essence. Someone on your team needs sending, even if it isn’t you. A scroll will probably suffice, since 4th level is slam-packed with evocation goodness and sending has no CL-dependent effects to speak of.
Shout: If it has a use, it’s deafening casters with poor Fortitude saves. The damage is negligible, compared to other evocation spells of a similar level.
Spirit-Bound Blade: Many of the weapon enchantments on offer are made for particular builds: cruel won’t be good unless you’re demoralizing, keen won’t be good unless you’re crit-fishing, etc. Ghost touch is fine, but at this point you have force sword, ghost whip, etheric shards, twilight knife, Legacy Weapon...you’ve got plenty of methods for dealing with ghosties in the Occultist class. I don’t think I’d really jump at one more.
Contact Entity III: As contact entity I.
Flaming Sphere, Greater: Flaming sphere was already dubious at lower levels, and the greater version doesn’t improve it much. Not being able to fly is a huge limitation by now, which is why ball lightning is going to be your go-to spell for this type of effect.
Unbearable Brightness: You have Radiance, you have daylight, and you have brightest light. To quote a certain hermit crab I know, what more is you lookin’ for?
Ectoplasmic Hand: Ectoplasmic hand has something for everyone, whether that’s flanking with a melee Occultist and his twilight knife, delivering nasty touch spells, stealing weapons, component pouches, and spellbooks a la pilfering hand, or triggering traps and manipulating objects from afar. Even with its relatively short duration, ectoplasmic hand is easily the best spell available to the evocation school at 5th level, and one of the top 5th-level spells generally for Occultists.
Cone of Cold: It’s a higher level spell slot than fireball, but it also hits harder and is easier to shape so you don’t tag allies. Also a nice candidate for the Rime Spell metamagic feat.
Interposing Hand: Crucially, you don’t get soft cover from the hand, just cover. That’s +4 AC, +2 to Reflex saves, the ability to make Stealth checks against the opponent, and immunity to attacks of opportunity. Quite a good package, all in all, and the enemy even has to move more slowly to get to you. Pair with etheric shards to really make an enemy work for every step.
Wall of Force: The pinnacle of wall technology in Pathfinder, wall of force is a hard check on any corporeal enemy. You’ve got etheric shards to handle incorporeals, though.
Alaznist’s Jinx: This spell runs into some of the usual anticaster problems, like requiring a Will save when casters are the most likely to be able to pass Will saves, or requiring a concentration check when full caster are the most likely to be able to pass concentration checks. It’s brutal when it works, though, and nothing frustrates a caster more than losing a high-level spell and getting staggered.
Fire Snake: Fireball or cone of cold will get the job done in most circumstances, but fire snake is nice for when you need to thread the needle between multiple friendly allies.
Call Lightning Storm: Ball lightning is demonstrably superior, which is weird, because they’re separated by only one letter.
Contingency: Ah, yes. The Wizard’s ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. Contingency is one of the things that makes arcane casters so tough to take down: if you get close to killing them, chances are good that they have some spell that’s going to be triggered just as you do. If you’re here at 19th level, you might as well grab the Extra Contingency feat. What else are you going to spend it on at the very end of your career?
Blade Barrier: Hefty force damage will cut right through DR and energy resistance, and the physical protection offered is quite good, too. You know how I love wall spells.
Chain Lightning: Yeah, good stuff. This is your hardest-hitting and most selective evocation spell yet, and it’s welcome in the lineup. Enemies have to be fairly tightly clustered for it to work to its full advantage, though.
Cold Ice Strike: The damage is as good as cone of cold, but hits in a much narrower area. The real draw is the swift action cast, which lets you work it seamlessly into a larger casting lineup without the use of Quicken Spell metamagic. Still probably a B-lister, in the grand scheme of things.
Contagious Flame: Lots of little damage chunks get penalized more heavily by DR and energy resistance than one big damage chunk, but assuming you’re facing enemies without significant (read: any) fire resistance, contagious flame can gobble enemies up quickly. Ranged touch attacks are positively OP at this level.
Sirocco: Sirocco does a little bit of everything: a little damage, a little control, a little debuffing. I’d say the most useful part is being able to hit enemies with the exhausted condition after two rounds of damage—as a reminder, exhausted characters take a -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity, can’t run or charge, and move at half speed. Quite nice to be able to lay that down on an entire field of enemies, and the fatigued/exhausted conditions aren’t even negated by successful Fortitude saves, only the prone condition.
Forceful Hand: Forceful hand unfortunately offers no real benefit over interposing hand. CR 16-20 creatures have median CMD scores ranging from 44 to 54, making the hand’s +28 bonus pretty meager. I’d just stick with interposing hand.
Freezing Sphere: It’s not god-awful, but cone of cold or cold ice strike can handle your cold damage needs better at this point.
Betraying Sting: Clearly meant to be one of Calistria’s spells. It’s bad. You have far better ways of dealing damage at this point than 9d8 or 10d8 single-target damage. Heck, cone of cold deals 15d6 to all creatures within 60 feet for a 5th-level spell.
Contact Entity IV: As contact entity I.
Last Azlanti’s Defending Sword: Shield and twilight knife could have taken care of this spell effect ages ago.
Ghost Sound: Ghost sound is always a good cantrip. Create your own radio dramas, fool gullible enemies about the approach of an enemy Balrog, and conduct your own invisible choir. Even cooler for psychic casters, who won’t give any indications that they’re casting a spell at all.
Auditory Hallucination: Auditory hallucination is a nice little upgrade over ghost sound. The main upgrade is that the sound plays out exclusively in the targets’ heads, so you don’t actually need to create the sound of a dragon roaring in order for targets to believe that one is nearby. This allows you to avoid alerting absolutely everyone that there’s a spellcaster nearby.
Silent Image: Versatile and powerful. Enemies only get a save if they interact with the figment; if they can’t or don’t do so, they simply believe that it’s real. Summon imaginary monsters, create (or conceal) gaping chasms or massive walls, convince a ruler that his friends are plotting against him by showing them doing so, Iago-style...lots of possibilities.
Vanish: Probably better as a buff for allies than as a spell to use on yourself. You’ll have the Unseen focus power before long, anyway.
Disguise Self: A solid intrigue ability, although easily duplicated by a hat of disguise.
Illusion of Calm: Psychic casters that get up into melee range are in particular trouble, as thought components impose a -10 penalty to concentration checks unless you spend a move action to center yourself. With illusion of calm, you can cast a spell in melee range without casting defensively, then run away without provoking an attack of opportunity. The duration isn’t half bad, either. Not great, but not rounds per level.
Shadow Trap: Shadow trap immobilizes targets, confers the entangled condition, causes fliers to fall, and burns actions as the enemy tries to escape. A good single-target debuff, especially for a 1st-level spell.
Magic Aura: Not an every day kind of spell, but also not terrible. There may be times when you need a wand of magic aura with a few charges.
Mask Dweomer: Similar to magic aura, but for spell effects. If you’re trying to disguise the fact that you’re under the effects of disguise person or something, mask dweomer does a good job.
Alter Musical Instrument: Why would you need this spell?
Blurred Movement: Illusion’s resonant power is much better than blurred movement, if you’re so inclined.
Decrepit Disguise: Made for GMs and NPCs, not PCs.
Disguise Weapon: It still looks like a weapon, so what’s the point?
Echo: I could see some minor uses for echo, but it strikes me as too finicky for a spell known.
Hide Bruises: Really no point for PCs.
Mirror Mantis: What a roundabout way to get the shaken condition for a few rounds. Woof.
Quintessence: Again, not sure why you would ever need this spell.
Shadow Weapon: Just attack with your regular weapon. Is this that hard?
Mirror Image: Between Distortion and mirror image, casting-focused Occultists specializing in illusion magic can be darn tough to hit. This is one of those defensive spells that everyone should take if they can.
Invisibility: A classic. Even though you have Unseen for yourself, invisibility still isn’t a bad choice; Unseen casts double the mental focus cost when it’s cast on other players, whereas invisibility always costs the same amount.
Minor Image: Silent image can only realistically be used to imitate living targets in situations where the distance between the illusions and the deceived target is great enough that the target wouldn’t expect to hear anything. Minor image can be used more comfortably at medium range, so that targets can see and hear the illusion, but not so clearly that they would expect to hear intelligible speech. If you’re going to be an illusionist, you might as well up your arsenal of figments, right?
Misdirection: Helps keep your secrets secret, and that should be of interest to any illusionist.
Mask Dweomer, Communal: As mask dweomer.
Shifted Steps: A little hard to use effectively, but not intrinsically terrible.
Sympathetic Aura: Maybe for concealing your implement collection to look like a bunch of harmless trinkets?
Assumed Likeness: It’s not a terrible spell, just frightfully outside of the Occultist’s wheelhouse. Leave this to Bards and Mesmerists, please.
Blur: Again, completely outclassed by illusion’s resonant power, Distortion.
Disguise Other: Anyone who wants to be an infiltrator should get the means to do so themselves, or borrow a hat of disguise.
Ghostly Disguise: Some fun shenanigans you could pull with this gh-gh-gh-ghost disguise, but far too situational to dedicate to a spell known.
Implant False Reading: An NPC spell, if it’s anything. Cold wars between psychic casters don’t occur very often.
Instigate Psychic Duel: Psychics are probably the only class that can really, truly engage in psychic duels with any regular degree of success. It’s an incredibly complex system that most GMs won’t have a lot of patience for.
Invisibility Bubble: Being invisible underwater is an incredibly niche need.
Magic Mouth: Vastly underpowered for a 2nd-level spell.
Obscured Script: This is for BBEGs to hide their dastardly plans, not for PCs.
Phantom Trap: NPC spell. You’re better off wrapping your door handles with wire infused with nodes of blasting, if you want to actually create traps.
Symbol of Mirroring: Why give everyone mirror image?
Displacement: It’ll take a long, long time for your Distortion resonant power to reach a 50% miss chance; in the meantime, there’s displacement. It’s a pretty fantastic defensive spell, at least until true seeing becomes commonplace.
Audiovisual Hallucination: As auditory hallucination.
Invisibility Sphere: Better than casting invisibility a bunch of times, and helps bring the entire party along for the invisible ride.
Major Image: The pinnacle in early-level figment technology. A 3rd-level spell is a pretty big resource to spend, but when you absolutely need to convince someone of the truth of an illusion, this is the spell you’d want to turn to.
Shadowmind: Good for blinding targets that have the ability to see in magical darkness, like devils. Will negates and SR applies, but it’ll affect a crowd of enemies.
Aura Alteration: A really good anti-divination tool that’ll help you or allies out in any number of circumstances. I wish you had the spells known for aura alteration, but you’ll probably have to settle for a scroll.
Magic Aura, Greater: Again, I really, really wish you could spare a 3rd-level spell to greater magic aura every few days, but you can’t. Not with spells known. This spell is for prepared casters.
Adjustable Disguise: Just use a hat of disguise again.
Geomessage: What use would this have for PCs?
Illusory Script: Not for PCs.
Instant Fake: As a spell known, it leaves a lot to be desired.
Invisibility Bubble, Giant: As invisibility bubble.
Mirage: Not a PC spell.
Undetectable Trap: Not for PCs.
Vision of Hell: Unless you’re playing in an all-Paladin party, vision of hell will debuff your allies just as much as enemies. You don’t want that.
Complex Hallucination: It’s the enemy-targeted version of major image, and as good as the other hallucination spells.
Invisibility, Greater: As with invisibility, it’s primarily for other people. You don’t particularly benefit from being invisible constantly in combat.
Impossible Angles: A fun spell that pairs well with effects like etheric shards. It’s good for creating “Oh No No” zones where enemies have an incredibly difficult time moving around freely.
Wandering Star Motes: Dependent on failed Will saves and living enemies, but its ability to jump to new targets elevates it over other spells at this level.
Illusory Wall: A fun spell, but with a permanent duration and no caster level-dependent effects to speak of, you’ll make do with scrolls and use lower-level figments like silent image for these effects most of the time.
Quieting Weapons: Good for stealth attacks, but a scroll will do just fine.
Illusion of Treachery: Even with the caveat that this is meant for intrigue games, this is pretty situational.
Shocking Image: Not at all worth the extra spell levels over mirror image.
Symbol of Striking: The symbol spells are bad. Pass.
Telepathic Silence: It would be okay for hunting other psychic casters, but how often do you need to do that?
Persistent Image: Removing the concentration component from your figment spells does a lot of good things for you.
Scripted Hallucination: Functionally similar to persistent image, except the illusion can be entirely in targets’ heads.
Mislead: A good spell for when you’re trying to escape a determined enemy. Be wary that true seeing and see invisibility will cut through this ruse in a heartbeat.
Dream Reality: Good if you need to cause someone to forget a crime or something. Stick with a scroll.
Seeming: A scroll will do everything you need when this spell would be useful.
False Vision: Taking part in anti-divination cold wars isn’t really your jam. Tell your Wizard to take care of this.
Illusion of Treachery, Greater: As illusion of treachery. How often are you framing other people for murder or assault, exactly?
Permanent Image: Permanent durations can do a lot of things in Pathfinder. Permanent illusions will most likely need to be static by their nature (what’s the point of a permanent illusion if you need to concentrate to move it?) but can be used to create buildings, walls, pits, traps, impenetrable thickets of thorns, etc. all without needing those things to actually exist.
Triggered Hallucination: A fun intrigue spell that convinces people of all kinds of nonsense.
Project Image: Is there anything here that you couldn’t do with major image?
Touch of Fatigue: Touch of fatigue would actually be a decent spell if you had any way of bumping up the save DC to something reasonable, but the DC on a cantrip is likely to be so low that nearly no enemy ever fails it.
Bleed: If an enemy is unconscious, that’s enough.
Grave Words: With a 1-minute casting time and only a 10% chance of learning useful information, I’d say grave words’ use is limited, but that might be overselling it. You have much better cantrips available.
Decompose Corpse: Maybe for an undead-heavy game? It’s a decent debuff to those creatures if you can get it to stick.
Grasping Corpse: Possibly useful in early levels when CMD scores are still reasonable. Totally outmoded beyond about 7th level.
Inflict Light Wounds: A necessary healing spell for would-be necromancers. For everyone else, it’s a weak damage ability that’s not worth a spell slot.
Sculpt Corpse: It’s not a horrible spell, and I can envision some uses, but as a 1st-level spell, even commoners will have a pretty easy time being like, “Hey, that’s not my dad’s body that you brought back, that’s the old goblin hobo that lives out near the toll bridge!” And then it’s torches, pitchforks, yadda yadda yadda. What a hassle life is for a necromancer.
Skin Tag: The Powerful Connection focus power from the divination implement school really, really rewards you for acquiring the body parts of people you want to scry on, so skin tag isn’t totally useless. High-level enemies won’t fail the Fortitude saves necessary to even get the skin tag to manifest, however, so you’re probably better off bribing the BBEG’s underlings to steal some fingernail clippings for you.
Cause Fear: HD caps are always a bad idea. Maybe a yellow in early levels, but loses all usefulness beyond about 3rd or 4th level.
Itching Curse: HD caps again. Nope.
Preserve: When would you need to preserve food or small objects for a week at a time?
Restore Corpse: Medium or smaller creatures is a pretty small selection, and not usually what you’d be choosing to animate anyway.
Brow Gasher: Magical healing and immunity to bleed damage are the only counters to brow gasher, which is a great way to deal no-save bleed damage, blind or penalize martial targets, and force concentration checks on casters. You don’t have many other 2nd-level spells worth your time, so why not?
Purge Spirit: A great all-purpose spell for destroying haunts, incorporeals, and casters trying to escape while ethereal. Pretty cheap at 2nd level, too.
Spectral Hand: Spectral hand is a fantastic spell for casters to deliver touch-range bestow curses, shocking grasps, etc. at little risk to their person. I wouldn’t say that Occultists have a great spell list for a Bad Touch playstyle, but their mastery of scrolls, wands, staves, etc. ensures that they’ll never lack for options outside of their class spell list.
Unsettling Presence: The area of effect and hours per level duration are the interesting portions of unsettling presence, which can be used to create infighting among a group of creatures. Get lucky with a few failed saves, and you might even cause some creatures to attack each other. Saves you the trouble!
False Life: Kinda like a cure moderate wounds that you get to cast in advance. There are worse uses of your spells.
Inflict Moderate Wounds: As usual for necromancers and everyone else.
Animate Dead, Lesser: It’s no less expensive than animate dead, but infinitely less powerful. Just wait until 3rd level.
Crafter’s Nightmare: Not for PCs.
Object Possession, Lesser: If the goal is to spy, the Mind Eye focus power from divination does way, way better.
Pernicious Poison: Occultists don’t poison things.
Scare: HD caps again. Nope.
Skinsend: An extract for Investigators and Alchemists looking to force enemies out of their bodies with no save. It doesn’t do a whole lot for other casters, and leaves your real body unacceptably vulnerable in the meantime.
Symbol of Exsanguination: Jeez, that’s horrifying. Also weak. Also expensive.
Animate Dead: As I mentioned in the intro to the necromancy implement school, animate dead is expensive and invariably evil—evil to the extent that Pharasmins or psychopomps might go to great lengths to hunt you down and kill you. But if you’re interested in being a true necromancer, few classes do it as well as the Occultist, whose Necromantic Focus resonant power can create truly ludicrous numbers of reanimated minions when paired with animate dead. Add command undead and desecrate (scrolls or wands, since they’re not on your spell list, or else acquired through the excellent Necroccultist archetype) and you have a really, really potent combo. A reminder to look at Brewer’s Guide to Undeath: it’s short, to the point, and contains all the information you’ll need about how to build a top-tier necromantic minion master.
Bestow Curse: Bestow curse is one of the best low-level save-or-suck effects in the game, if not the best. I mean, come on, a -6 penalty to an ability score? A -4 penalty to all d20 rolls? A 50% chance to take no actions? These are incredible debuffs, and you’ll always be able to find the perfect tool for whatever enemy you’re facing.
Riding Possession: Oof, riding possession is tasty. If you’re looking for quick-and-easy scouting, the Mind Eye focus power from divination is probably a better bet, but Mind Eye lasts minutes per level where riding possession lasts hours. That’s a huge difference. If you want to map out enemy positions in a fortress, observe guard rotations, get a sense for how enemies avoid their own traps, see what the chain of command is like, etc., riding possession can do all of that. It’s lovely that you also get the option to immediately cast a mind-affecting spell whenever you want—you can chain riding possession into dominate monster or dominate person in an instant, performing an act of sabotage, subterfuge, or assassination quick as a blink.
Retributive Reparations: Part of the node of blasting/beacon of guilt/retributive reparations trifecta. Slap these three debuffs on some coins to “pay” enemies not to attack you, and they’ll start off fatigued, staggered, glitterdusted, and with as much as 6d6 damage right off the bat. Stack these spells on multiple coins to offer an enemy, and you might just insta-gib them on the spot. Retributive reparations is a little more difficult to pull off, since you need to be holding, wearing, or wielding the item, but it doesn’t say that the item they take can’t be one that you’re holding and offering to them. Hey. We play dirty in necromancy, and I won’t apologize for it.
Sands of Time: The lack of a save is what makes sands of time appealing in a debuffing rotation—for sheer power, there’s no beating bestow curse at this level. Sands of time can be particularly brutal against martial characters who rely on their physical stats to do their jobs.
Gentle Repose: Okay as a scroll, but definitely not a spell known.
Inflict Serious Wounds: As usual for necromancers and everyone else.
Create Soul Gem: Create soul gem is primarily of use to daemons and the Soul Drinker prestige class, who can use feats like Soul-Powered Magic to create devastating spell effects, barter souls for gold in Abaddon, or call powerful outsiders with souls as the payment. Typically a cacodaemon familiar is the best way to procure more soul gems, though; create soul gem is an inferior copy, expensive and impermanent. Plus, it’s really evil—like, so evil that Pharasmins and psychopomps will probably go out of their way to kill you if they notice you using soul gems.
Flesh Puppet: It’s like animate dead, but re-tooled for...intrigue purposes? I’m genuinely unsure how that’s supposed to work. Poorly, I would guess. You’re safe leaving this spell alone.
Healing Thief: It’s simply not enough for a 3rd-level spell, and certainly not for a casting class as limited as the Occultist. Relegate this to Mesmerists, who get it as a 1st-level spell.
Sessile Spirit: We blow ghosts up with purge spirit; we don’t appease them. What is this, Europe’s response to the German invasion of Poland?
Toxic Gift: Ummm, no. Again, Occultists don’t poison stuff.
Possession: A psychic casting classic that more than earns its purple rating. Total control. Hours per level duration. One save. As with most possession effects, you’ll need to ensure that your body is closely guarded, whether by leaving it with your allies while you scout ahead in your host body, placing it in a prismatic sphere or behind a wall of force, or even just forcing the host body to carry your apparently dead real body. This can be an especially fun gambit if there’s a bounty on your head; the host “bounty hunter” waltzes in with your body, attacks the bounty issuer, and as soon as the host is killed, you pop up to finish the job.
Conditional Curse: If nothing else, conditional curse can act as a 4th-level bestow curse. In the right intrigue applications, though, it can still do great work for you. I’ve mentioned before how important acquiring body parts is to high-level scrying battles, for example—what if you cursed a target, and the curse isn’t lifted until they bring you such a body part? Great stuff.
Death Ward: A straight-up “I win” button against incorporeal undead, evil-aligned Clerics, etc. You need this as a scroll, even if you can’t afford to spare a spell known for it. Negative levels are the worst.
Masochistic Shadow: Oooh, now this is one I’ve not encountered before...and I love it. Assuming that you can land the initial Will save, the Strength damage accumulates rapidly—so much so that slower targets hit in darkness (looking at you, core Fighter) will likely kick the bucket or wind up permanently crippled in combat. It’s a little more expensive than bestow curse, and certainly slower, but it’s one of the more reliable save-or-die effects you have on your spell list.
Torpid Reanimation: Torpid reanimation is to animate dead as conditional curse is to bestow curse. At the very least, it’s a 4th-level animate dead spell slot; at the very most, you can sneak dead bodies into a location, then “summon” them with a command word as soon as you need them.
Fear: Ah, now we’re getting warmer. Cause fear and scare can go jump off a cliff, because fear is where it’s at. Multiple targets, no HD cap, and a partial effect even on a successful save. Make sure that you use it in confined spaces or seal your exits so that panicked targets can’t careen wildly into other encounters and pull everything, Leeroy Jenkins-style.
Object Possession: Now that larger objects are becoming increasingly available, object possession is getting better all the time. The range constraints and problem of what to do with your limp, insensate body are still going concerns, so solve those concerns before using this spell willy-nilly.
Summoner Conduit: I might consider having a scroll of summoner conduit on hand, as it’s a really nasty way to surprise a conjuration specialist. Flooding the field with summon monster spells? Surprise! Every time they take damage, the caster on the other end of the line also takes damage. See how quickly they dismiss their hired help then.
False Life, Greater: Unfortunately, doubling the temporary HP granted is not worth the doubling of the spell level. Stick with regular false life, if you must.
Inflict Critical Wounds: As usual for necromancers and everyone else.
Spellcurse: Good against high-level casters that like to buff themselves to the gills, but mighty expensive as a 4th-level spell. I’d tend to leave this to other classes that get it at 2nd or 3rd level.
Flesh Puppet Horde: They can attack now, but still require a swift action input every round. Why are you not sticking with animate dead?
Poison: Fortitude negates, and Fortitude saves at this level are really high. Poison immunity is also a huge problem.
Red Hand of the Killer: Why…?
Symbol of Fear/Pain: Ugh, no symbol spells.
Umbral Infusion: Making an undead creature simultaneously more powerful and less amenable to control seems like a poor idea, no?
Curse, Major: Save major curse for targets like spellcasters that might actually escape you. If things start to go south, they’ll usually teleport out and live to fight another day, so upping the caster level DC is only useful in those instances. Most other targets of bestow curse will die long before they have a chance to try to remove curse.
Object Possession, Greater: Now you get some truly large forms, you can control constructs, and the range is extended considerably. I’ll take those odds.
Entrap Spirit: Purge spirit will work well if you just want to deal a bunch of damage, but entrap spirit is a good way to take an incorporeal out of a fight immediately. Also works on casters using ethereal jaunt and similar spells, provided that you have effects like true seeing to help you see into the Ethereal Plane.
Unwilling Shield: The material component is expensive, but otherwise this is the perfect spell to cast on dumb melee martials with poor Will saves—every time they hit you, they’re dealing damage to themselves. As with all luck bonuses, consider the Fate’s Favored trait to really amp up your AC and saves.
Inflict Light Wounds, Mass: Ha! Don’t make me laugh.
Suffocation: Mass suffocation is a really good spell; suffocation, its younger cousin, is not. Short duration, Fortitude save negates, SR applies, single-target...no, not good at all.
Symbol of Weakness: As all other symbol spells.
Possession, Greater: The ultimate in possession technology! Now your body just jumps into your host’s mind, allowing you to simply use a foe’s body as a giant sleeve of HP. Try to pick big, dumb, strong targets that will fail their Will saves and contribute nicely to your physical attribute scores.
Harm: Good as a nuke against living creatures, or a potent heal for one of your undead minions. Heal and harm are always good spells.
Umbral Strike: Great single-target damage and the potential for rounds per level blindness, but a Fortitude save negates the condition and halves the damage. There’s a high likelihood of a successful save at this level, so unless it’s used on an arcane caster or other target with soft Fortitude saves, it won’t be great at either damage or debuffing.
Plundered Power: It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s evil and expensive. I’d just as soon leave it alone unless you’re frequently performing ritualistic executions of outsiders in order to absorb their powers.
Inflict Moderate Wounds, Mass: As poor as all the other mass inflict spells.
Rotting Alliance: A really, really mean way to slowly destroy a bunch of people’s lives, but not something that’ll find a use in combat scenarios.
Symbol of Death: More symbol spells. Go home, Paizo, you’re drunk.
Temporary Resurrection: Use gentle repose or real resurrection magic.
Mage Hand: Even with all its limitations—close range, weight limits, nonmagical and unattended objects only—mage hand is still a great cantrip, good for everything from holding up mirrors to check around corners to activating traps from a distance.
Message: Low-level walkie-talkie mode. You’ll need message for communicating with teammates often.
Mending: Mending gets kind of a bad rap—more than it deserves. It’s great for repairs to a variety of objects, assuming that you have the time to use it. Against run-ins with minor damage to your equipment, it’s good enough at repairing your stuff for a free spell.
Purify Food and Drink: If you have this cantrip, there’s no reason for you ever not to cast it before eating something. Why would you take that risk? Good god, why?
Open/Close: Open/close isn’t terrible, but it’s also not worth one of your valuable cantrip slots. Pick something else from transmutation.
Gravity Bow/Lead Blades: Both of these spells do essentially the same thing: increase your weapon damage. Normal 1d8 weapons will move to 2d6, granting on average 2.5 points of bonus damage; 2d6 weapons like greatswords will jump up to 3d6, granting on average 3.5 points of bonus damage. If you stack it with enlarge person, those numbers can get even more formidable. For my money, the best spells of 1st level that aren’t replicable elsewhere.
Enlarge Person/Reduce Person: Mmmm, yeah. You can get these effects through the Size Alteration focus power if you want, but I prefer the spells unless I’m playing with native outsiders or animal companions. Enlarge will generally be for Strength-based melee fighters, while reduce will be for Dexterity-based melee fighters, ranged fighters, and casters.
Liberating Command: I don’t say this lightly: you never know when a well-timed liberating command will save an ally’s life. Monster powers like swallow whole can and do kill PCs.
Tears to Wine: Phenomenal bonuses that only get better as levels go by. If you want to consistently crush Knowledge, Spellcraft, and Perception checks, this is your chance.
Expeditious Retreat: Expeditious retreat grants a nice boost to your land speed, and lasts a great deal longer than the Sudden Speed focus power. It’s a good spell to have in your back pocket if you can afford it.
Feather Fall: Falling damage can absolutely kill low-level PCs, so you’d like to avoid that if at all possible. I’d consider the boots of the cat first, though. They are literally the cheapest magical footwear in the game, and they’ll protect you from falls from pretty much any height.
Ant Haul: Ant haul is quite the nice little quality of life spell, but with so few spell slots, you have to choose carefully. You might make this a pick in later levels in order to carry around more magical equipment. Then again, muleback cords are only 1,000 gp…
Crafter’s Fortune: A decent wand if you’re into crafting. Useless otherwise.
Funereal Weapon: It’s really niche. I’d get a scroll if you’re concerned about undead damage reduction.
Grappling Scarf: An okay scroll for low levels, but completely outclassed by Mind Over Gravity and fly at 7th level.
Keen Senses: Competence bonuses to Perception will quickly be outclassed by items like the eyes of the eagle, so keen senses has a limited shelf life.
Longshot: Usually more relevant for firearms and thrown weapons than for the longbows that you’re likely to be using. But hey, you never know!
Magic Weapon: It’s decent to have as an oil in early levels, but I’d never pick this as a spell known, especially not with Legacy Weapon as your base focus power for transmutation.
Pass Without Trace: A long duration elevates it from red, but not so much so that most PCs will ever choose pass without trace.
Refine Improvised Weapon: Maybe a concealed scroll for emergencies?
Sculpted Cape: You might be able to use it to provide yourself cover as an archer, to perform a Stealth check, etc., but the uses are pretty circumstantial.
Vocal Alteration: Useful in intrigue scenarios. Probably nowhere else.
Alter Winds: The only characters who might want alter winds are ranged Occultists in order to help them shoot straight, but even then, this spell only functions against natural winds, not magical winds. It’s a scroll, if it’s anything.
Break: Nah. Breaking objects doesn’t come up enough to make this a spell known.
Charge Object: PCs aren’t generally interested in leaving valuable information about themselves lying around. Why would you do this?
Crafter’s Curse: Bad, bad, bad.
Erase: Way, way too niche.
Jury-Rig: Planning for the broken condition will leave you waiting a long time.
Mirror Polish: Unless you’re roleplaying a knight who’s wedded to the blade, you don’t need mirror polish.
Negate Aroma: Far too niche to be of any use in 99% of circumstances.
Reinforce Armaments: Unless you face the sunder maneuver in literally every encounter, reinforce armaments is worthless.
Spirit Share: You’re not an Alchemist.
Sundering Shards: Don’t sunder. It’s not worth the heartache, at least in Paizo-published materials. Play a Blacksmith with the Berserker sphere, and we’ll talk.
Wizened Appearance/Youthful Appearance: Just get a hat of disguise instead.
Perceive Cues: Nice long duration, good skills. I wish the bonus weren’t a competence bonus, but what can you do? Becomes much less valuable if you own eyes of the eagle, as competence bonuses don’t stack. It does stack with tears to wine, though.
Versatile Weapon: DR/Type comes up surprisingly often, and can’t be penetrated with enhancement bonuses from Legacy Weapon. You’ll want versatile weapon to patch that hole for you.
Warp Wood: A great spell to have when you want to seriously mess up spear, bow, or club users.
Darkvision: Good to have for those in the party who don’t have darkvision.
Disfiguring Touch: It’s kinda like a demi-bestow curse, but on the transmutation spell list. Interesting!
Knock: Great for opening locked doors and chests at range.
Rope Trick: Your first demiplane! Great quality of life spell.
Ropeweave: Versatile enough to be worth a look. You can create a lot of cool mundane-ish effects with ropeweave.
Unerring Weapon: I’m not sure why the Occultist was the only class that got this as a 2nd-level spell, but we’ll deal with it. Unerring weapon is a little too short-lived to jump up to blue, but it’s a great bonus if you’re trying to crit fish as an Occultist.
Weapon of Awe: Fairly minor bonuses to damage, but still good.
Wood Shape: Versatile enough to do good things for you, especially with an instantaneous duration.
Air Step: It’s not bad for a 2nd-level spell, but I can’t get too excited when Mind Over Gravity and fly are just around the corner.
Ant Haul, Communal: As ant haul.
Badger’s Ferocity: Those looking to crit fish will usually have the means, between Improved Critical and the keen weapon enchantment. That said, badger’s ferocity isn’t bad at low levels if you have a lot of martial allies.
Bowstaff: A cheap way for ranged fighters to threaten in melee range, but otherwise pretty blase.
Codespeak: Okay as a scroll for intrigue scenarios.
Effortless Armor: Most Occultists will probably end up wearing something like a mithral breastplate eventually—low ACPs and little in the way of reduced movement speed, while retaining good AC numbers. Effortless armor suffices at low levels as a scroll, however.
Fool’s Gold: Generally a pretty mediocre spell, but it can be great when paired with node of blasting from the abjuration spell list to set up the little gold trap I mention in that spell text.
Ghostbane Dirge: It’s almost always disappointing against incorporeal creatures. Realistically, everyone in an adventuring party needs to make their own preparations for swarms and incorporeals, and you’ll get no sympathy from me if you’re not. The Occultist’s best method of preparing is usually Legacy Weapon to grant a +1 weapon the ghost touch quality, and you have force sword, ghost whip, etheric shards, purge spirit, entrap spirit, and a whole mess of other spells and abilities that can destroy ghosties if Legacy Weapon is off the table. I’d just as soon skip ghostbane dirge.
Hidden Knowledge: Maybe if you needed to cheat on a discern lies or zone of truth test?
Huntmaster’s Spear: I’ve grown considerably more cautious about this spell over the years, mostly because I now read its text and think that the bane weapon quality and DR penetration only apply to the single extra-powerful attack you can make. If so, that’s not great. If those qualities apply to more than one attack, I’d rate it blue.
Make Whole: As mending, but better.
Mirror Hideaway: I love this spell from a flavor perspective, and it could be really cool for spying, biding your time for an assassination, etc. But mirrors are conspicuous in many places, and you wouldn’t want anyone to smash it prematurely.
Spider Climb: It’s okay for now, but you’ll be flying by 7th level.
Splinter Spell Resistance: You may not face a lot of SR now, but it will come up later in the game. Not bad, but the limits on stacking prevent it from rising into a better tier.
Violent Accident: I mean...good for killing or seriously maiming commoners? Makes a decent threat: “Give me a discount or your wife suffers a terrible accident.” You can establish an alibi easily, but the person will still get hurt while Zyphus looks on, grinning.
Accelerate Poison: Occultists are not meant to be poisoners.
Billowing Skirt: No meaningful upgrade over feather fall, which is already approaching the end of the road at 3rd-level spells.
Certain Grip: You won’t be balancing much when you’re flying through the air at 7th level.
Chill Metal/Heat Metal: Weak, weak damage.
Enter Image: This is more of an ability for the rulers of nations, not for humble adventurers.
Fear the Sun: Fortitude negates, SR applies, and the best you’ll get is one round of blinded.
Feast of Ashes: No real uses except for making people’s lives miserable, which is why this is usually an enemy ability.
Glide: Not when fly and Mind Over Gravity are so close.
Grasping Vine: You’re not likely to be a vine leshy.
Kalistocrat’s Nightmare: Flavorful, but mechanically weak.
Levitate: You’re about to have much better options.
Magic Siege Engine: Used siege engines often in Pathfinder, have you?
Masterwork Transformation: At some point, every piece of equipment will be masterwork. This is an NPC spell.
Quick Change: PCs generally can’t change shape.
Reinforce Armaments, Communal: As bad as reinforce armaments.
Rotgut: Nah, not worth it.
Rune of Rule: There are some good effects mixed in here, but they’re too short-lived to be of much use.
Silk to Steel: You have shield on the abjuration list. Use that instead.
Surefoot Boots: You’ll be flying in a few levels.
Telekinetic Assembly: Yeah, don’t use siege engines.
Winged Sword: Just not necessary. Use the weapons you use in the way you usually use them.
Haste: You know it! You love it! Give it up fooorrr haste! Yes, haste is the bee’s knees and the cat’s pajamas. The Quickness focus power is superior if it’s just you, but haste affects the whole party, which is why you’ll typically want to grab it at the first possible opportunity.
Fly: Everybody loves fly, and for good reason! It’s one of the best 3rd-level spells around. Mind Over Gravity is strictly better, with tighter maneuverability and no speed penalties for wearing armor, but fly is still well worth having on your list of spells known for when you can’t spare any mental focus.
Forced Mutation: Forced mutation gives you access to a list of pretty brutal debuffs, assuming that you can get a creature to fail its save against your touch attack. Well worth considering if you want a Bad Touch playstyle.
Heart of the Metal: What versatile weapon does for DR/Type, heart of the metal does for DR/Material. The fact that this spell can affect your whole party is what makes it so good.
Shrink Item: Versatility is the name of the game with shrink item, especially once you get around to making cloth patches out of everything. There are even arguments to be made that corpses are counted as objects, in which case you can shrink down enemies, take their bodies with you, and reanimate them as undead, steal their appearance, interrogate them, etc. as you wish.
Slow: Slow is real bad news for enemies. Will negates, and SR applies, but if you can stick this debuff on even a few enemies, it’s game over.
Assume Appearance: I love assume appearance. It’s a phenomenal infiltration spell, at least when you’re primarily fighting humanoids, and at days per level, you can get up to all kinds of shenanigans with it. A scroll will likely suffice if you can’t dedicate resources to a spell known.
Bloodhound: At hours per level, bloodhound is a good way to acquire all-day scent and some other assorted goodies. I wish you got it at 2nd level like the Inquisitor, but what are you going to do?
Countless Eyes: All-around vision is one of those subtle buffs that you’ll never need until you really, really need it, like when you’re fighting a few high-level Rogues or an Inquisitor/Hunter with Outflank. The hours per level duration is what makes it worth your while.
Deft Digits: What a fun spell! I don’t think I’ve run into this one before, but it’s like a souped-up mage hand. Obviously a much more expensive resource, but the 10 minutes/level duration allows you to get into plenty of hijinks with it.
Keen Edge: A good buff for you or your martial colleagues. Remember that you can use Legacy Weapon to grant yourself keen.
Magic Vestment: You’ve got plenty of options for buffing your armor, ranging from outright purchasing better enhancement bonuses to using the Aegis focus power from abjuration to buff your numbers. Magic vestment is a long-lasting buff that does what it needs to well, however, so keep an eye on this one.
Magic Weapon, Greater: The counterpart to magic vestment. Now, these enhancement bonuses don’t allow you to penetrate DR, but they can still be great if your primary weapon gets stolen or destroyed, you pick up some followers or cohorts, etc.
Rags to Riches: Versatile and powerful enough to provide some good team buffing when you need it. Remember that just about any skill can have a set of masterwork tools!
Stone Shape: As with wood shape, versatility is the name of the game here.
Age Resistance, Lesser: The age resistance suite has grown on me over the years, primarily for its ability to give you much better mental scores with no hit to your physical scores. One caveat applies, however: first, you have to watch out for dispel magic. If your age resistance gets dispelled, you’ll suddenly take anywhere from a -1 to a -6 penalty to each physical attribute. That’s bad news.
Darkvision, Communal: You’ll know if your team needs this spell. Otherwise, you have darkvision for yourself at 2nd level.
Dongun Shaper’s Touch: Even though I love the concept, the practical uses are likely to be limited when you’re constrained to unattended, nonmagical objects that aren’t part of a larger whole. Lemme think about this one.
Gaseous Form: Gaseous form is slooow, making it a poor choice for anytime that combat might break out. It’s okay for slipping through keyholes and the like, but you can absolutely get by with a scroll.
Ghost Brand: Okay for sneaking weapons around, concealing large items on your person, etc., but it’s not fundamentally better than a bag of holding.
Mark of Buoyancy: If you ever needed this spell, it would be a scroll for sure.
Tailwind: Decent for traveling via overland flight.
Borrow Corruption: Optional corruption rules again.
Cup of Dust: Slooow.
Daggermark’s Exchange: Occultists really don’t have the means to be good poisoners. Leave this alone.
Flame Arrow: Weak damage easily blocked by even resistance 5.
Full Pouch: You’re not an Alchemist.
Hostile Levitation: Minor penalties, and a Will save negates.
Irregular Size: Forced mutation will do a better job in most circumstances.
Secret Page: Way too narrow for our purposes.
Spider Climb, Communal: Completely outclassed by fly at this level.
Symbol of Slowing: Expensive and not functionally different than casting slow.
Tail Current: Not unless you’re in an aquatic campaign.
Temporary Graft: All of the effects are better duplicated elsewhere without having to tote around dismembered body parts.
Echolocation: Heck yeah, echolocation! Easily the best spell at 4th level. Blindsight at a range of 40 ft. for 10 minutes/level is an incredibly good deal, and will act as a hard counter against many of the worst vision-impairing and concealment effects you’ll face in Pathfinder.
Assume Appearance, Greater: The ultimate in infiltration technology. Appearance, voice, aura, and a days/level duration. Good deal.
Parchment Swarm: A great blasting spell that can be anything you want it to be, thanks to the ability to expand the radius or attach spell effects. Powerful and versatile.
Warp Metal: As warp wood.
Aroden’s Spellsword: Occultists will probably have a lot of rods and staves on their person, as Pathfinder’s resident Use Magic Device experts, and aroden’s spellsword is a good spell for keeping them handy.
Rigor Mortis: A good spell to toss at squishy casters—it deals quite respectable damage and has good debuffs attached. Slough + rigor mortis makes a nasty one-two punch.
Rusting Grasp: You’re one of only a few classes that even get rusting grasp. It’s good against enemies who use manufactured weapons or armor, but remember that you’re destroying your own loot.
Slough: It’s evil for obvious reasons, but also quite a powerful debuff. As I mentioned, slough + rigor mortis is a great combo, as slough will drop your target’s Constitution score (and Fortitude save, which is what we’re after) while also debuffing their saves vs. pain effects. Then rigor mortis hits them with a pain effect while they’re suffering a -6 penalty to their Fortitude save.
Age Resistance: As lesser age resistance. Still good bonuses if you happen to be long in years.
Air Walk: Air walk lasts longer than fly and doesn’t require any Fly checks to work, but it’s generally not as good as fly. Keep this in mind for teammates, though.
Darkvision, Greater: For my money, not a meaningful enough upgrade over darkvision to be worth the higher spell slot. YMMV.
Mirror Transport: It’s the King’s Roads from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell! So cool. I can’t imagine this spell will be needed very often, but it’d be a nice scroll to have.
Planar Adaptation: The very definition of circumstantial.
Magic Siege Engine, Greater: You’re not still looking at these spells, right?
Majestic Image: Too narrowly constrained by having your likeness on things.
Malfunction: Works only against constructs, Fortitude negates, and SR applies. Just too niche.
Rapid Repair: You’re not going to have allied constructs.
Revenant Armor: This is a 4th-level spell? Really?
Treasure Stitching: Why not just use a bag of holding?
Control Winds: A heck of a lot of options here, and some of them are downright destructive. You’ll be glad to have control winds.
Fabricate: Fabricate can do so many things. It’s ridiculous. Create shelter, create nonmagical weapons or armor, create transportation, create walls, take existing structures and knock them down by turning them into something else...if you can’t think of a way to use fabricate, you’re not thinking hard enough.
Overland Flight: A great quality of life spell for traveling long distances. Will the rest of the party be able to join you? Who cares! You’ll meet them at the campsite.
Particulate Form: An awesome team buff that makes encounters against Rogues, Swashbucklers, Investigators, Fighters with Bleeding Critical, etc. a cakewalk. Try seeing how well they do without all their precision damage, crits, and bleed effects.
Telekinesis: You’ll almost certainly want to use the Telekinetic Mastery focus power to achieve these effects, as a 5th-level spell is a big resource to use. The benefits are all good, though.
Transmute Rock to Mud: A great battlefield control spell that can be used for all sorts of hijinks. The classic one-two punch is to sink enemies into the ground with rock to mud, then imprison them there with mud to rock. Oops! Looks like you’re stuck in the floor now.
Transmute Mud to Rock: Mud to rock is pretty awesome when you’re dealing with burrowing creatures, which will come up semi-often at this level.
Age Resistance, Greater: As lesser age resistance, except now you can be venerable.
Air Walk, Communal: Everyone can and should be flying by this point. It’s just hard to imagine that you’d need communal air walk.
Awaken Construct: Even if you did want to do this at some point, you’d use a scroll.
Energy Siege Shot: Nope, no siege weapons.
Ghostbane Dirge, Mass: There were barely excuses for not being able to handle incorporeals when the single-target ghostbane dirge was around. Now? Definitely no excuses. Get ghost salt weapon blanches, a ghost touch weapon, the Ghostslayer feat, etc. etc. Don’t use this spell.
Waft: Gathlain only, and a bad spell even without the racial restriction.
Animate Objects: Fight for your master, flatware! Fight! Yes, animate objects is a pretty good “summoning” spell that lets you get a couple of Beauty & The Beast allies on the field. Short duration, but you’ll be able to animate Gargantuan objects at this point, and that’s quite cool.
Disintegrate: A classic Pathfinder spell, and for good reason. Massive single-target damage, utility against force effects and common battlefield control spells, and a partial effect on a successful save. I’m not a fan of Fortitude effects at this level, because enemies will almost always pass, but you can pick and choose your targets carefully with good Knowledge checks.
Invoke Deity: The exact nature of invoke deity will depend on your deity’s specific domain portfolio; nevertheless, with a long duration and good bonuses, this spell is likely to be powerful in just about anyone’s hands. Keep that 1,000 gp material component in mind, because it’s a bear.
Statue: O statua gentilissima del gran Commendatore! (Honk if you get that reference without googling.) Statue is a bit of a confusing spell, but the way I’ve ruled it at my tables is that targets under its effects are treated as inanimate objects while statued: they get DR 8/—, take half damage from energy and ranged attacks, can’t be crit or hit with nonlethal damage, etc., but they also can’t take attacks of opportunity, take extra damage from effects like shatter, and can be affected by the sunder maneuver or transmute rock to mud. With great power come great risks!
Planar Adaptation, Mass: You’re actually at a point now where planar adaptation becomes useful—nearly all high-level adventuring is planar in some form or another.
Scribe’s Binding: Either a very expensive save-or-die effect, or a very expensive way of commemorating a fallen comrade. You’re not likely to use it often, but man, is it cool when you can.
Artificer’s Curse: It’s basically a save-or-suck effect against items, which is an unusual take on the old trope. The restriction to enemies who use magical equipment and presence of a save and SR make it less than ideal, but it’s powerful if it works for you.
Control Construct: Definitely worth having a scroll of control construct, as it’ll allow you to leverage your naturally great Spellcraft score to create an extra advantage in construct encounters. Not a spell known, though.
Knock, Mass: Enemies usually have much more sophisticated forms of restraint available at this level (hello, I have imprisonment on the line for you) but it’s good for opening doors and chests, freeing slaves, etc.
Transfiguring Touch: Makes nice fodder for fabricate.
Break, Greater: Material component, weak effect, and destroys your own team’s equipment. Nah.
Enemy Hammer: It’s hilarious, I grant you, but gives enemies way too many ways to break or resist the effect, and sucks up all your standard actions.
Energy Siege Shot, Greater: As energy siege shot.
Ironwood: This is for Druids looking to create their own armor, not you. I suppose for the Naturalist archetype, too, but if you don’t have non-metal armor by this point, I’m not sure how you’ve been surviving for 16 levels.
Transformation: Transformation isn’t quite as stanky for Occultists with their many focus powers as for other classes, but that’s not saying much. Go with Trappings of the Warrior if you’re so concerned about BAB, and devote some mental focus to your resonant power if you’re so concerned about ability scores. Both of those will yield much better dividends in the long run.
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Celestial / Deific / Fey / Fiendish / Monitor Obedience / Diverse Obedience / Damned Disciple / Damned Soldier: Obediences are awesome feats for just about any character, depending on the deity you worship. Of course, it’s an enormous system, so you’ll be happy to know that I’ve already been there, guided that! Have fun browsing.
Combat Stamina: You can do almost anything with Combat Stamina and the associated combat tricks, so Combat Stamina is a cool priority after your main combat feats.
Flickering Step: Dimension door a few times per day. What are you waiting for?
Improved Initiative: Has there ever been a build for which Improved Initiative wasn’t great? This feat can effortlessly improve any build you put it in.
Lunge: -2 AC is a small price to pay in order to get reach whenever you need it. Great feat.
Step Up / Following Step / Step Up and Strike: I’ve grown to appreciate these feats more and more as time goes on. They’re often overlooked, but so incredibly useful for positioning into flanks, cutting off an enemy’s retreat, forcing casters to continue casting while threatened, taking more attacks of opportunity, and generally keeping up offensive pressure on an enemy. Especially with Occultists’ access to full BAB through Trappings, there’s no reason Step Up and its older cousins couldn’t be priorities after something like Power Attack. These feats are great on anticaster builds, too.
Vital Strike / Improved / Greater: No one is arguing that Vital Strike is better than a full-attack action, but let’s be real: sometimes you can’t full-attack, for whatever reason. In those instances, Vital Strike is way better than nothing. Particularly appealing to Occultists with large damage dice, like greatsword or greataxe builds.
Barroom Brawler: Even limited, even only 1/day, the ability to flex into new combat feats is always powerful. Keep this around if you’d rather not use the training weapon trick with Legacy Weapon or the Combat Trick focus power from Trappings of the Warrior.
Big Game Hunter: As a 3.5e-compatible feat from early in Pathfinder’s publication, GMs probably shouldn’t allow you to have Big Game Hunter. If they do, though, it’s a big bonus to attack and damage rolls that will apply in nearly every combat from about 9th level onward.
Blind-Fight: There are usually weapon enchantments available with Legacy Weapon (heartseeker, truthful, seeking, etc.) that can help you deal with concealment and miss chances, but Blind-Fight really isn’t a bad idea, either. You can pick it up with a training weapon if you like, or purchase it outright.
Creature Focus: Unless you’re playing a Psychodermist, you won’t naturally have access to a Ranger’s favored enemy class feature. This also counts as favored enemy for the purposes of feats, so you can use it to access a bunch of other cool feats—the “[Enemy] Expertise” feats are all awesome.
Weapon Versatility: I’m not fond of the Weapon Focus prereq, but it’s great for overpowering DR/slashing, DR/piercing, or DR/bludgeoning. Those can’t be overcome with enhancement bonuses from Legacy Weapon, sadly.
Artful Dodge: The basic benefit of Artful Dodge is very ho-hum, but two other clauses in Artful Dodge stand out: first, the feat counts as Dodge for the purposes of prerequisites. Mobility, Spring Attack, Shot on the Run, etc. all require Dodge, so it’s not unheard-of that you might want to satisfy that prereq. More to the point, though, Artful Dodge allows you to use your Intelligence score instead of your Dexterity score when satisfying prereqs for feats. Take, for instance, the Two-Weapon Fighting line. Usually, TWF builds need both Strength and Dexterity, Strength for attack and damage rolls, and Dexterity for feat prereqs. Now you can just do it with Strength and Intelligence. It’s not a feat for every Occultist build, but it’s monstrously good for those that need to prioritize Strength and Intelligence while dumping Dexterity.
Combat Advice: A decent little boost for a move action, especially when you can’t reach an enemy.
Combat Expertise / Dirty Fighting: Many Occultist builds won’t want to bother with maneuvers, but there’s no denying that Combat Expertise is a prerequisite for a lot of feats. Taking it allows you to flex into other combat feats, either with the Barroom Brawler feat, the Combat Trick focus power from Trappings of the Warrior, or the training enchantment through the Legacy Weapon focus power. Consider it for those purposes, if for nothing else.
Cunning Killer: A little overly relegated to low-Intelligence enemies, and your Knowledge class skills don’t universally cover all enemy types. Still not bad, though.
Improved [Maneuver]: You can flex into these if you really need to through Combat Trick, but I can’t truly recommend combat maneuvers even to Trappings builds. They’re simply too specialized, and don’t even work much of the time.
Shikigami Style / Mimicry / Manipulation: Very, very narrowly applicable to the Extemporaneous Channeler archetype, but for them it’s practically mandatory.
Weapon Focus: Nobody really wants to take Weapon Focus, they just have to in order to get to other, better stuff. Occultists should generally avoid complicated feat lines that require Weapon Focus, though.
Ghostslayer: There’s no need to get Ghostslayer when your Legacy Weapon focus power can get you a ghost touch weapon so cheaply.
Power Attack: Every Strength-based melee Occultist needs Power Attack, no questions asked. Trappings of the Warrior builds in particular have all the tools they need to take full advantage of Power Attack, and the bonuses to damage are too good to ignore.
Armor Proficiency, Heavy: Strength-based melee builds will want to be able to dump Dexterity to the extent that they can, which will mean heavy armor. Sure, you’ll take hits to your movement speed and Strength- or Dexterity-based skills from your armor check penalty, but that’s a small price to pay for higher AC values. Interestingly, many of the best armor enchantments available through the Aegis focus power (abjuration implement school) are for medium armor only, so that might be a reason to consider sticking with medium armor.
Cornugon Smash: Since melee builds are pretty light on feats, they can usually segue into another ancillary role, as well. Anticaster? Cleave? Vital Strike? Skirmishing? Cornugon Smash is the opening feat you’ll need to step into an Intimidate build, making enemies poop themselves with fear. Cornugon Smash + Hurtful + Intimidate Skill Unlock + Bruising Intellect trait + a cruel weapon can get you some pretty nasty single-target debuffs. Consider it.
Hurtful: Some free damage to pair with Cornugon Smash. No need to get super fancy here—just stick with single-target demoralization as an Occultist.
Cleave / Great Cleave: Cleave is a bit of a niche feat line, since it prevents you from full-attacking, but hey, why not? Strength builds don’t have a lot of other stuff to attend to.
Cleaving Finish: Also a decent Cleave feat. Try to Cleave when you’ve got the enemy bloodied to begin with so you can proc Cleaving Finish.
Cleave Through: Dwarves make pretty bad Occultists, though I do have one in the builds section as a Reliquarian build. If you somehow make it to BAB +11 as a dwarven Occultist in a Cleave build (1 in a 1000, that bet) then sure, go wild.
Divine Fighting Technique: Many divine fighting techniques are quite good; many are quite bad. If your Occultist happens to worship a deity, page through your options here and see what jumps out at you.
Two-Weapon Fighting: TWF requires a lot of feats—feats that pretty much no one but a Battle Host Occultist would have. But you’re not playing a Battle Host when Trappings of the Warrior are available, are you?
Weapon Finesse → Weapon Focus → Slashing Grace / Fencing Grace / Starry Grace / Dervish Dance / Bladed Brush: Whereas Strength-based melee builds can just get busy with one feat, Dexterity-based melee builds need multiple feats before they’re fully functional in combat. Dips like Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1 are still pretty good for Occultists if you want to clear some of these feats away, but dips in general are very difficult for the class because Occultist levels are an all-or-nothing affair: either you reach a new implement school and get new class features because of that, or you don’t.
Combat Reflexes → Deceitful Incompetence: The good old Inspired Blade Swashbuckler dip is as excellent for Occultists as it is for Investigators, and one of the perks of that dip is that you can parry as many attacks per round as you have attacks of opportunity. Can’t riposte ‘em all, of course, but you can sure parry like a maniac. A Finesse Trappings of the Warrior build can do great things with Combat Reflexes and Deceitful Incompetence.
Piranha Strike: Piranha Strike is to Dexterity builds what Power Attack is to Strength builds. Take it if you’re going for a Trappings of the Warrior set-up.
Seize Advantage: A fun little feat for those taking an Inspired Blade Swashbuckler dip. Basically, steal an opponent’s Power Attack bonus from them! Cool.
Agile Maneuvers: I can’t think most Occultists will have the feats or the inclination to pursue combat maneuvers, but this is undoubtedly what Dexterity-based melee Occultists would want to use in order to do so.
Dodge: A minor buff to AC, but Dodge and Mobility are prerequisites to many of the skirmishing tactics (Spring Attack, e.g.) that Weapon Finesse builds might be interested in down the line.
Point-Blank Shot → Precise Shot → Rapid Shot: This is your main combat chassis for a composite longbow build. You’re not going to use crossbows or firearms, because those require feats to help you reload faster, what are you gonna do when you need to kill, and bullets are too slow? No, remember that axiom of building Occultists: three feats to combat efficacy, no more. This is your chassis.
Circuitous Shot: Improved Precise Shot is already amazing, but Circuitous Shot makes it even better. Now even total cover can’t really stop you.
Clustered Shots: Because ranged builds get more attacks, they get penalized more by DR. Now, you’ve got Legacy Weapon to try to penetrate DR altogether, but Clustered Shots also isn’t a bad idea for when you’re low on mental focus or haven’t identified your enemy’s DR type yet.
Deadly Aim: If you’re playing a Trappings of the Warrior ranged character (not a bad idea, given how OP ranged combat is in Pathfinder) you’ll have the BAB to really abuse Deadly Aim. Non-Trappings ranged characters can probably put off this feat for a while until there’s consistent buffing available.
Improved Precise Shot: If Improved Precise Shot were a person, I would make out with it. Seriously, is there anything that it can’t do for a ranged build? You have to wait until BAB +11 to get it (now would be a good time to talk with your GM about whether Trappings builds can access BAB-gated feats early) but it’s a total game-changer when you do.
Manyshot: Between Rapid Shot, Manyshot, and Clustered Shots, is it any wonder that ranged builds bring the pain? Manyshot is fantastic because it hits like a truck and also gives you the benefit of your highest-BAB attack. In the hands of a Trappings build, this can be devastating.
Aerial Roll: Between the perfect maneuverability of the Mind Over Gravity transmutation focus power, a ranged Occultist’s innate Dexterity score, and Fly on your class skill list, you should be perfectly situated to take huge advantage of Aerial Roll. If you ever find yourself wanting or needing more defense as an archer, this is a good place to start. Mind the -10 penalty in the next round, though.
Focused Shot: Range restrictions excepted, Focused Shot is superior in some ways to Vital Strike for ranged builds. Even though creatures immune to crits and sneak attack don’t take damage from a focused shot, it doesn’t say anywhere that this is explicitly precision damage, which makes me think that it multiplies on a crit. You could do a great deal worse for those times when you can’t get a full-attack action off.
Hammer the Gap: Primarily of interest to ranged Trappings builds, Hammer the Gap gives you a nice damage boost if you can manage to land those successive shots. Great for burning down minions, and extra great if you confirm a crit.
Bullseye Shot: Bullseye Shot is probably a wasted feat in most circumstances, given the probability curves of how many attacks are likely to hit given a certain number of d20 rolls. If you find yourself using standard attack actions much more frequently, however, as with a ranged Vital Strike build or various Spheres of Might builds, Bullseye Shot might be considerably better than in an iterative-dominant game.
Fearless Curiosity: Both the Charisma and race requirements are a bit onerous, but a headband of unshakeable resolve (the item that mimics this feat most closely) costs 5,600 gp, so that should give you some sense of the power of this feat. Good for defending your psychic casting.
Great Fortitude / Lightning Reflexes / Iron Will: Your saves can never be high enough. I’d probably prioritize Will, what with psychic casting’s vulnerability to fear and emotion effects, but it’s your choice.
Toughness: More HP. Pretty simple.
Wanderer’s Fortune: Grapples don’t affect you quite as much as divine or arcane spellcasters, but it’s still nice to be able to slip out of these effects before you get swallowed whole or something.
Free Spirit: A +2 morale bonus to only mind affecting effects? Seems like you could have done better by just taking Iron Will.
Destructive Dispel: Every anticaster build needs to be able to cast both dispel magic and greater dispel magic, and there’s no better “forget this noise” move than both stripping an enemy caster of buffs and stunning their weak little Fortitude saves in one blow.
Focused Disbelief: Spell resistance 11 + character level is actually quite good for the cost of two feats, and might help you shrug off spells from ½ and ⅔ casters. Full Druids, Clerics, Oracles, etc. will probably have the mental scores to beat you, but you never know.
Unimpeachable Honor: You’d hate to get mind-controlled, but it is a possibility as an anticaster. At least Unimpeachable Honor makes sure you can’t do any real damage while you’re under.
Dispel Focus / Greater Dispel Focus: One of an anticaster’s bread-and-butter spells is dispel magic, so a +2 on any dispel check is pretty great.
Divine Defiance: A flat +2 on any save made against a divine spell or spell-like ability. It’s not the world’s best feat, but you could do far worse for an anticaster build.
Focused Discipline: Anticasters will need lots of layered defenses against emotion and fear effects, so you should be crushing these saves pretty consistently. Why not buff those defenses and get bonuses to attack and damage each time you succeed?
Painful Blow: The restrictions on how many times per day you can use Painful Blow downgrade it somewhat, but if you’re using Vital Strike as an anticaster, there are few abilities that will hit a spellcaster harder.
Dimensional Agility: Occultists have dimension door on their spell list, which means that they should at least consider Dimensional Agility if they plan to use that spell a lot. Side Step will probably be your go-to teleportation move, though, and that needs no Dimensional Agility to work well.
Critical Focus: Critical Focus isn’t a feat that you’d normally think of and say, “Yeah, that’s as good as it gets.” Things are slightly different for Trappings of the Warrior Occultists, though, in that they can use Combat Trick (or Legacy Weapon with the training enchantment) to flex into combat feats so long as the prerequisites are met. Critical Focus is a prerequisite for all the critical feats, so nabbing this one can allow you to pick up Bleeding, Sickening, Staggering, etc. at a moment’s notice.
Improved Critical: A great investment for just about any combat-focused Occultist, especially those that aren’t eligible for keen. Do remember that Legacy Weapon from transmutation can pick up keen and any other weapon enchantment for a measly 1 point of mental focus, though. A feat may be worth more than a +1 weapon enchantment in many cases.
Accursed Critical: Bestow curse might not always have the save DCs to land in higher-level play, but Accursed Critical improves the action economy nicely in case you want to try a bad touch playstyle. Necroccultists in particular can get some nice save DC boosts, although that archetype is more likely to be playing a casting role, rather than a combat role.
Divine Deception: A whopping +5 untyped bonus to any UMD check involving divine magic items. Brilliant. Divine Deception allows you to play a back-up Cleric very convincingly.
Additional Traits: Useful for scooping up better saves, initiative, and class skills, as well as nabbing the various traits that let you use your Intelligence modifier on normally Wisdom- or Charisma-based checks.
Breadth of Experience: Elves make some of the absolute best Occultists out there, and Breadth of Experience makes you even better at Knowledge checks. Remember this feat for an Investigator dip, too.
Dampen Presence: You wouldn’t naturally associate Occultists with Stealth, but between half-elves being incredibly good Occultists, their free Skill Focus feat (for Skill Focus: Stealth), Fey Thoughts granting Stealth as a class skill, and the creeping or shadow armor enchantments, Occultists can be just as stealthy as Rogues or Ninjas. If you really want to beat extravisual senses in the later levels, though, you’ll need Dampen Presence. No sense in stealthing around if the first critter with blindsight picks you out of a lineup.
Orator: The only feat you’ll ever need to be a party face. It won’t work for feints, demoralization, and that kind of thing, but Occultists shouldn’t really be doing that anyway. If your half-elf Occultist doesn’t take Skill Focus (UMD), they should definitely take Skill Focus (Linguistics) to get into Orator.
Spirit Ridden: Always cool to be able to grab ranks in a skill at will, but with your Intelligence focus, you’ll probably have all the ranks you need before long.
Brilliant Planner: How you use Brilliant Planner will ultimately be unique to your game, but suffice it to say that it can be great for procuring items on the fly. Probably requires a pretty high systems mastery and knowledge of equipment and available services.
Cunning: An extra skill rank at each level. Your Intelligence bonus will probably be high enough that you never feel the skill crunch too badly, even with just 4 + Intelligence ranks, but Cunning and favored class bonuses are there if you need them.
Skill Focus (UMD or Linguistics): UMD is the standard choice so that you can expand your wand/scroll casting faster, but Linguistics is also a pretty good choice if you’re pairing it with Orator.
Artifact Hunter: Some interesting UMD bonuses. Not a top priority, but not bad, either.
Magical Aptitude: We love UMD bonuses in the Occultist class, but the ones you get from Magical Aptitude are too small to be worth considering. Get Skill Focus, if you’re concerned.
Psychic Sensitivity: As a psychic spellcaster, you don’t need this feat to perform occult skill unlocks. They’re not super powerful, all in all, but cool flavor and some occasionally decent bonuses.
Combat Casting: You’ll cast in melee all the time, and you need to pass those checks. Combat Casting should be a requirement for all casting-based Occultists.
Spell Focus / Greater Spell Focus: If you want enemy-targeted spells to work, the DCs have to be on point—Occultists already suffer from slower advancement into new spell levels, so you can’t afford to hinder them even more by not taking Spell Focus
Spell Penetration / Greater Spell Penetration: Feats to plan for starting around 9th level or so. Spell resistance comes up often in high-level play, and you need to be able to pierce it.
Quicken Spell-Like Ability: Focus powers are often spell-like abilities, which means that Quicken Spell-Like Ability can turn them into swift actions as long as they mimic spells. Effects like Quickness (which mimics haste) are therefore fair game, whereas effects like Flesh Mend or Mind Over Gravity are not.
Emergency Attunement: Occultists generally do a lot of self-buffing with abjuration and transmutation spells, but you sometimes run into the problem of having chosen the wrong option in a spell like resist energy. Don’t worry! Emergency Attunement lets you change your choice on the fly without having to recast the spell.
Knowledgeable Spellcaster: Not nearly as universal as Spell Penetration, but correspondingly more powerful. If your campaign pits you against the same type of enemies all the time, Knowledgeable Spellcaster might be far more worthwhile than Spell Penetration.
Lunging Spell Touch: Just not enough good touch spells on your spell list, I’m afraid. I’m always quick to recommend this to classes that would do well with it, but Occultists just aren’t one of those classes.
Abeyance: Abeyance is a blood hex feat. The majority of these aren’t worth the time of day unless you’re a Shaman or Witch, but Abeyance is the exception: foe fails their save, and suddenly they’re locked out of almost all of their spell-like abilities for the duration of a fight. If that’s not an excellent power for Occultists to get their hands on, I don’t know what is.
Divine Interference: Only Reliquarians get divine spells, but man, is Divine Interference a fun one to use. There’s no save, so you can just force an enemy to reroll a critical threat, etc. at will. Even sacrificing a 1st-level spell forces a reroll.
Diviner’s Delving: With scrying and greater scrying on their spell lists, Occultists can make at least passable magical spies. At higher levels (over 10th, perhaps) spell resistance will start becoming more and more troublesome. You’ll need Diviner’s Delving to help out with that, although I’d recommend Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration first.
Extended Scrying: Those with the Powerful Connection focus power may find themselves scrying for big parts of the day; Extended Scrying just improves the efficiency of those spell slots.
Hidden Presence / Manipulative Presence / Intrusive Presence: Occultists can utilize possession and greater possession pretty well; these feats are just designed to make you better at manipulating your host body. Good high-level feats if you like using these spells—Necroccultists in particular can get a lot of mileage here.
Superior Scryer: All sizzle, no steak. Pass.
Charnel Soldiers: Necroccultists and other necromancy implement specialists can get really, really good at creating undead monstrosities to serve them—and for those builds, Charnel Soldiers rocks. Whether you want to grant offensive teamwork feats like Outflank to your creatures or defensive feats like Shake It Off, you’ll never regret having this ability.
Logical Spell: Logical Spell is easily the most important metamagic feat to have access to as a psychic caster of any stripe, whether you get there through the feat itself or through a logical metamagic rod or lesser logical metamagic rod. If you get tagged with an emotion or fear effect, that’s it, game over. Your spellcasting can hit the showers. Logical Spell is the necessary metamagic to escape from your own emotional components. You should do everything in your power to avoid getting tagged with these effects in the first place, but Logical Spell is the much-needed Maginot Line of psychic casters. Except, ya know, more effective than the Maginot Line.
Extend Spell: Combat-focused Occultists will primarily use their spell slots for buffing; casting-focused Occultists might spend considerable time buffing, as well. Extend Spell is a great metamagic feat for improving the duration of buffs. A lesser extend metamagic rod will be enough in most cases, but you may want the feat, too.
Intuitive Spell: Fun story: Intuitive Spell actually does nothing for a spontaneous psychic spellcaster. It’s normally a move action to center yourself and a standard action to cast a spell...but applying metamagic feats to spontaneous spells increases the casting time to a full-round action. You have gained nothing in exchange for the higher-level spell slot. Thought components are by far the less deadly of the two psychic spellcasting components, though, so you wouldn’t particularly need Intuitive Spell even if it weren’t busted.
Thanks to your extraordinarily limited pool of spells known, Occultists are pretty bad choices for Craft Wand, Brew Potion, and Scribe Scroll. For everything else, though, there’s Mastercard, Mastercard in this instance being exceptionally high Spellcraft checks. Each prerequisite that you don’t meet simply raises the Spellcraft DC for a successful crafting check by 5; in the case of wondrous items or magical arms and armor that has only one or two spell components, you can meet this easily with raw Spellcraft prowess. Crafting is always slow, requires downtime to use effectively, etc., but if you can fit it in, there are few powers as worthwhile as saving a bunch of money in Pathfinder. I’ll refer you to The Armamentarium to figure out what exactly you want to make.
Craft Wondrous Item: The original, the one, the only. Craft Wondrous Item is the sovereign ruler of Pathfinder crafting feats for the sheer array of stuff you can craft with it. Anything you want, it’ll be cheaper to get here, although it takes huge amounts of time in later levels. Maybe pop the timeless quality on your demiplane so you can do this effectively.
Craft Magic Arms and Armor: Magical arms and armor aren’t quite as good as wondrous items, for the most part, but they can still do good work if you know specifically what the team is building for.
Item Mastery feats were introduced in the Magic Tactics Toolbox, and they’re pretty cool. The basic gist is that characters can use these feats to coax magic effects out of wondrous items, magic arms and armor, etc. While the effects are most useful for high-Fortitude classes that don’t normally have access to magic, they’re still quite useful for Occultists, acting a bit like miniature focus powers. Will you have space to take them? Maybe not, but they’re still well worth thinking about. You’re probably better off with the Extra Focus Power feat instead of an Item Mastery feat if there’s a focus power you haven’t picked up, but if, say, you love dimension door and already have Side Step from conjuration, well, there’s always Teleportation Mastery. Item Mastery feats can also cover some of the gaps in your focus powers while you’re building up your implement schools, and with the Implement Mastery feat, the integration between focus powers, implements, and Item Mastery becomes even tighter.
Of note, Item Mastery feats use your BAB as the caster level and 10 + Spell Level + Constitution modifier as the save DC; these feats will therefore be most relevant for Occultists who are investing in Constitution and using Trappings of the Warrior to achieve full BAB progression. (Talk to your GM about whether they’ll allow you to use your Trappings of the Warrior BAB in order to qualify for feats and Item mastery spell-like abilities.)
Implement Mastery: Implement Mastery is the feat that brings the whole shebang together for Occultists. Not only does Implement Mastery allow you to select Item Mastery feats in place of focus powers, it lets you use implements as magic items (this can be important, as many Item Mastery feats have upgraded effects depending on the levels of spells used in the item’s construction; with implements, you’re always scaling up the spell levels in the implement) and, most crucially, spend mental focus on these effects! Some spells are better duplicated by focus powers, but not all. Here’s a table:
Effect | Item Mastery Feat and Focus Cost | Comparable Focus or Resonant Power | Which is Better? |
Bestow curse | Curse Mastery (3 mental focus) | N/A | Curse Mastery |
Burning hands / Lightning bolt | Energy Mastery (2 mental focus) | Energy Blast (Evocation) | Energy Blast |
Cure [severity] wounds | Curative Mastery (1 mental focus) | Flesh Mend (Conjuration) | Flesh Mend |
Dimension door | Teleportation Mastery (3 mental focus) | Side Step (Conjuration) | Both, if you can |
Dispel magic | Dispel Mastery (3 mental focus) | Unraveling (Abjuration) | Dispel Mastery for range, Unraveling for melee |
Enhancement bonuses to attribute scores | Ability Mastery (2 mental focus) | Physical Enhancement (Transmutation) | Both, if you can |
Fly | Flight Mastery (3 mental focus) | Mind Over Gravity (Transmutation) | Mind Over Gravity |
Invisibility | Concealment Mastery (1 mental focus) | Unseen (Illusion) | Concealment Mastery, after 7th level |
Minor image | Illusion Mastery (2 mental focus) | Minor Figment (Illusion) | Minor Figment |
Resist energy | Resistance Mastery (1 mental focus) | Energy Shield (Abjuration) | Resistance Mastery |
Restoration, lesser | Restoration Mastery (1 mental focus) | Restoring Touch (Saint’s Holy Regalia) | Restoring Touch, but Restoration Mastery is good in a pinch |
See invisibility | Vision Mastery (2 mental focus) | Third Eye (Divination) | Both, if you can |
Shield | Force Shield Mastery (1 mental focus) | N/A | Shield as 1st-level abjuration spell |
Suggestion | Compulsion Mastery (3 mental focus) | Puppet Master (Performer’s Accout.) | Puppet Master |
Telekinesis | Telekinetic Mastery (3 mental focus) | Telekinetic Mastery (Transmutation) | Telekinetic Mastery (focus power) |
Varies | Racial Item Mastery (1 mental focus) | N/A | Racial Item Mastery, depending on SLA |
Curse Mastery: Not everyone will take a necromancy implement—it’s a bit of a niche school—but bestow curse is definitely one of the all-stars of that spell list. I’m all for getting one of the best debuffs in the game more times per day, and with Implement Mastery you can even cast it as a focus power. Expensive, but potentially worth it.
Dispel Mastery: Dispel magic is eternally useful. Totally good with this feat.
Resistance Mastery: Even though resist energy can provide much stronger resistance, it’s limited to 10 minutes/level, whereas Resistance Mastery lasts a full 24 hours. Given that you’ll probably have a fairly good idea of what elements you might come up against in a day, Resistance Mastery is therefore a top-shelf defensive power that’ll cost you only 1 point of mental focus with Implement Mastery.
Teleportation Mastery: Side Step from conjuration is great and all, but it’s not dimension door. Side Step features a limited range and the requirement of line of sight; dimension door gets huge range and no line of sight. Teleportation Mastery therefore fills a wonderful niche in the Occultist’s repertoire. Using it with Implement Mastery would be expensive (3 mental focus) but potentially worth it in dangerous situations.
Ability Mastery: Between physical stat belts, mental stat headbands, Physical Enhancement (transmutation), and Ability Mastery, you can walk around with enhancement bonuses to four ability scores. I like the 24-hour duration, even if the bonus never scales. Probably the best argument for Ability Mastery is Wisdom, which won’t be getting boosted but still has great effects with Will saves, Perception and Sense Motive checks, etc. Intelligence will be taken care of by your headband, Strength or Dexterity will be taken care of by your belt, and Physical Enhancement will likely improve Constitution. Charisma isn’t worth much to Occultists, so just leave that alone.
Concealment Mastery: Unseen from illusion will have you covered for many purposes, and you have invisibility available. I like the addition of undetectable alignment, though, and an eventual 3/day invisibility ain’t bad. This is one of the cheaper Item Mastery feats when paired with Implement Mastery, and it can help you cast invisibility on allies at no additional mental focus cost, unlike Unseen.
Flight Mastery: You can never have enough fly, although its presence on the transmutation list and the Mind Over Gravity focus power make Flight Mastery a little less useful for Occultists than for other full-BAB non-casters.
Restoration Mastery: These effects are normally available to Occultists only through the Saint’s Holy Regalia panoply, and as the weakest of all the panoplies, I don’t envision many players diving into that barrel of monkeys. Good to have these powers on hand, and extraordinarily cheap at 1 mental focus with Implement Mastery.
Vision Mastery: Divination’s resonant power, Third Eye, will get you constant darkvision and see invisibility, but Vision Mastery is really nice for the days when you need to focus on non-divination mental focus investment priorities. Another feat that I could really see getting in addition to Third Eye.
Curative Mastery: Probably one of the more skippable Item Mastery feats, with the Flesh Mend focus power, the cure spells on your conjuration list, and wands of cure light wounds being slung around by every adventuring party on the face of Golarion. Breath of life is intriguing, though.
Racial Item Mastery: The utility of Racial Item Mastery depends entirely on whether your race offers any SLAs, and if so, which SLAs it offers. For races like aasimar, getting daylight for 1 point of mental focus through Implement Mastery is pretty tasty.
Compulsion Mastery: Comes online weirdly late for suggestion, and enchantment is already one of the weaker implement schools at higher levels because of its general dependency on mind-affecting effects. You want my advice, skip it.
Energy Mastery: Nah. Weak-ish blasts aren’t what you should be spending your feats on. Blasting Occultists will already have evocation implements, Mage’s Paraphernalia, the Silksworn archetype, etc. to help them blow stuff up.
Force Shield Mastery: Part of the appeal of shield is that it gives you your full shield bonus to AC up front. Because Force Shield Mastery scales it reeeeeally slowly, you’re much better off just grabbing shield as your 1st-level abjuration spell. It’s not like you have anything better to be doing in that implement school at 1st level.
Illusion Mastery: Illusion has you covered here with Minor Figment. Dedicated illusionists will want to use that instead.
Symbolic Mastery: Weak, weak blasts, not to mention you don’t have access to domains as an Occultist.
Weapon Evoker Mastery: Wooow. Incredibly weak. This isn’t worth it at all.
Extra Mental Focus: Occultists can never have enough mental focus. If you find yourself stumped for what feat to take, this is your go-to answer. Better resonant powers, more focus power uses, etc. all await you here. Note that you can only take this feat once! It stinks, it’s the worst thing in the world, but you only get one: the feat text doesn’t specify (see Extra Focus Power if you need an example) that you can take it more than once.
Extra Focus Power: Between base focus powers and the focus powers you’re given for free at every odd level, you’ll likely have enough for your purposes, but there are certain levels (5th, 7th, and 9th especially) where you’ve got multiple excellent focus powers coming online at the same time. Extra Focus Power can help you manage that crunch where you want both Side Step and Mind Over Gravity at the same time.
Extend Resonant Power: Giving your implements to teammates in order to grant them the benefits of your resonant powers can be a potent move in certain situations, but the downside is that you become unable to cast your spells normally and can’t use any of the focus powers associated with that implement school while it’s out of your possession. A more elegant solution is Extend Resonant Power, which gives allies a limited version of the resonant power while letting you keep your casting and focus powers. This feat only applies to one implement school, however, so only buy it if there’s a very specific combo you’re setting up (granting a NE Cleric the ability to control more undead with your necromancy implement, for example).
Rapid Focus Shift: There are certain emergencies in which I could see using Rapid Focus Shift. It’s still a very inefficient move that loses focus and eats into your resonant powers without granting you any new resonant powers, but them’s the breaks. Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned.
Implement Focus: This one takes a little thinking. Why would you not want to invest mental focus? If the resonant power is bad. Well, no problo, Rob Lowe, plenty of implement schools have mediocre resonant powers. But then, what does generic focus get you? It doesn’t provide any benefits, and still gets used at twice the cost by other implement schools. So, not a huge gain. In most cases, you’re better off selecting an archetype like Haunt Collector to simply replace poor resonant powers, rather than spending feats to divest your mental focus. In specific archetype pairings that benefit from having plenty of generic focus available (looking at you, Naturalist) Implement Focus could get considerably better by allowing you to skip the resonant power, divest mental focus, then use the generic focus for either set of focus powers.
Strong Implement Link: This feat has a pretty natural connection with Extend Resonant Power, both of which are intended to safeguard your focus powers and spellcasting when implements are out of your position—whether by choice or not. Strong Implement Link helps ease the sting of loaning out implements to teammates, but if that’s your only goal, Extend Resonant Power will probably do better in the long run. Where Strong Implement Link shines is if you face foes who steal your implements using pilfering hand, etc. in order to mess with your spellcasting. Since the feat has to be taken anew for each implement school, I would pick only the implement or two that contained your absolutely essential spells; that’s likely to mean abjuration or transmutation.
Efficient Focus Shift: Hmmm. You’re essentially buying a feat that allows you to avoid a -1 mental focus penalty, twice a day. But if that were the case, why would you not simply buy Extra Mental Focus and get +2 mental focus? It works out better for your resonant powers, rewards those who plan their investment carefully, and works even for archetypes that gave away shift focus.
Occult Conduit: Are you a wyrwood? I didn’t think so.
Archetypes are the bread and butter of any well-versed Pathfinder player, as they allow you to flexibly trade away class features you don’t like from your base class, poach class features from other classes, and more. You can almost always tell how “veteran” a Pathfinder player is by how well they know their way around the various archetypes on offer in the system. In order to help you “rank” the Occultist archetypes in your mind, I’ve introduced a new, handy-dandy table below that arranges them in terms of power and versatility. That way, you don’t have to waste your time scrolling through garbaggio like Sha’ir and Curator. Blech.
Archetype (Wheat) | Versatility | Power |
Psychodermist | +3 | +1 |
Haunt Collector | +1 | +2 |
Silksworn | +2 | +1 |
Geomancer | +2 | +0 |
Naturalist | +0 | +2 |
Necroccultist | -1 | +2 |
Panoply Savant | +0 | +2 |
Reliquarian | +1 | +1 |
Extemporaneous Channeler | +1 | +0 |
Talisman Crafter | -1 | +1 |
Archetype (Chaff) | Versatility | Power |
Battle Host | -2 | +1 |
Curator | -1 | -1 |
Esoteric Initiate | -1 | +0 |
Occult Historian | -1 | +0 |
Planar Harmonizer | -2 | +1 |
Ancestral Aspirant | -1 | -2 |
Construct Caller | -1 | -2 |
Secret Broker | -2 | -1 |
Tome Eater | -2 | -1 |
Sha’ir | -2 | -2 |
Extemporaneous Channelers are Occultists who use improvised weapons and improvised implements to do what they do best. Grab Shikigami Style and a traveler’s any-tool and get to work.
Versatility: +1
Power: +0
Stacks With: None
(1) Weapon Proficiency: Alters weapon proficiencies. A straight loss, but as Extemporaneous Channelers are meant to use improvised weapons anyway, you don’t really need martial weapon proficiency.
(1) Improvisational Combat (Ex): This archetype’s 150% obvious pairing is with the Shikigami style feat line. These three feats, when paired with enlarge person, will give you really massive damage dice (like, 4d8 massive) with improvised weapons, especially improvised weapons made out of wondrous items. Getting rid of the Catch Off-Guard prerequisite is a nice little feat tax refund.
(1) Fleeting Focus (Su): Alters mental focus. Fleeting Focus is an annoying inconvenience, but it’s not a death knell for this archetype. You’ll have quite a bit more mental focus with fleeting focus, but you’ll have to assign it quickly. This class feature ensures that Extemporaneous Channelers are almost never good at sustained resonant power use, but it does give them more flexibility in when and how they expend mental focus on focus powers. Watch out for that 1-round casting time—things can interrupt you while you’re trying to pull focus into your implements.
(1) Transformative Resonance (Su): Transformative resonance is basically the Magus’ arcane pool class feature, and that’s awesome. Shikigami Manipulation will take care of your weapon’s static enhancement bonus (buy a traveler’s any-tool at 5th level for a +2 weapon, then keep upgrading when you find casters who can craft you the same item at CL 12, 16, and 20) which leaves transformative resonance free to stack up cool weapon enchantments instead. Good stuff.
(4) Withdraw Focus (Su): Alters shift focus. You can’t leave mental focus invested in your implements for very long, because doing so slowly eats up your reserve. You’ll be forced to withdraw the focus back into your own body whenever you’re not fighting or preparing to fight, so say goodbye to most of your resonant powers when you’re not actively engaged in combat.
(8) Improvised Spell (Su): Replaces magic circles, outside contact, binding circles, and fast circles. Improvised spell is pretty good. Expensive and slow, yes, but worth it for when you absolutely need that one perfect spell off your spell list that you forget to assign to an implement. A nice bit of versatility.
You have to be willing to commit to Shikigami Style, improvised weapons, and the loss of any ability to maintain resonant powers over the course of an adventuring day. If you’re willing, Extemporaneous Channeler opens up a fun, free-flowing style of play that encourages flexible thinking and careful resource management.
Geomancers are Occultists who draw spells and focus powers directly from the terrain they’re in. It’s a cool archetype that can help you get access to all the niche terrain spells you’d normally use scrolls or wands for.
Versatility: +2
Power: +0
Stacks With: Construct Collector, Panoply Savant
(1) Class Skills: Alters class skills. Pretty much even stevens: Knowledge (Geography) and Knowledge (Engineering) are bad, Survival and Disable Device are okay, and Knowledge (Nature) and Knowledge (Religion) are good. We’ll call it a wash.
(1) Geomantic Focus (Su): Alters mental focus. The Geomancer’s big gimmick is that it turns the terrain itself into one of your implements in exchange for one of your object implements. The type of terrain determines the spells you get; Survivalist is the resonant power; Terrain Stride, Dominion, and Wall of Terrain are the focus powers you’re forced to take. Note that you can only use the resonant power and focus powers while in physical contact with the terrain. Start flying, and you’re done.
(1) Geomancy (Su): Alters implements. Instead of spells you choose, the terrain you’re in chooses your spells for you. Although this sometimes puts you in the unenviable position of having offensive or control spells that every creature in that terrain is resistant or immune to (frostbite vs. ice giants or winter wolves, sirocco vs. desert drakes, etc.) I’d say it’s a positive for you, on balance. What Occultists primarily lack in their spellcasting is versatility; every spell you place in an implement must be the best of the best, even more so than for other spontaneous casters. Geomancy just hands you a list of spells tailor-made for each terrain so that you’re always guaranteed to have something relevant. You wouldn’t want water breathing outside of aquatic terrain, but it’s a fantastic spell if that’s where you find yourself!
Terrain | Spells Granted |
Cold | Frostbite, frigid touch, sleet storm, creeping ice, icy prison, freezing sphere |
Desert | Sun metal, shifting sand, cup of dust, fire shield, flame strike, sirocco |
Forest | Entangle, tree shape, speak with plants, arboreal hammer, tree stride, liveoak |
Jungle | Nauseating dart, sickening entanglement, venomous bolt, poison, snake staff, swarm skin |
Mountain | Stone fist, stone call, stone shape, obsidian flow, cave fangs, move earth |
Plains | Mount, gust of wind, plant growth, aspect of the stag, control winds, whip of ants |
Planar | Endure elements, rope trick, blink, dimensional anchor, planar adaptation, plane shift |
Swamp | Mudball, burst of nettles, lily pad stride, slowing mud, insect plague, mass fester |
Underground | Expeditious excavation, darkvision, meld into stone, echolocation, suffocation, conjure black pudding |
Urban | Urban grace, share language, urban step, zone of silence, telepathic bond, statue |
Water | Air bubble, slipstream, water breathing, fluid form, geyser, control water |
(2) Survivalist (Su): Replaces magic item skill. A straight downgrade. UMD always beats Survival in the pecking order of skills. Survivalist is a little less of a hit because you have so many terrain-specific spells on your list that would normally be covered by wands or skills, but it’s still bad.
(5) Terrain Stride (Su): Replaces aura sight. I mean, meh? It kind of depends on how long this power lasts—there’s no duration specified. The effect is pretty tame, especially given that you can’t fly while using any Geomancer powers, but if it lasted until you switched terrains that could be worth the cost. It’s still worse than aura sight.
(7) Dominion (Su): Replaces 7th-level focus power. Dominion is both an awesome board game and an awesome focus power. Using this much mental focus in a single burst is very expensive, but the morale bonuses you get in return can help you absolutely wreck hard encounters. Highly recommended for boss battles and the like.
(13) Wall of Terrain (Sp): Replaces 13th-level focus power. The only reason Wall of Terrain gets dinged down to a green is that it’s expensive enough that you wouldn’t necessarily want to use it in every fight—it just burns through mental focus too fast. In a pinch, though, walls are amazing for tactical combat, and you can use the focus power on downtime days to create fortifications, mazes, and other cool terrain features.
I’m not usually a huge fan of the Ultimate Wilderness-type archetypes, but in the Geomancer’s case, you get some awesome focus powers while also getting handed a huge platter of spells that will always be relevant to your terrain. Losing an implement school, magic item skill, and aura sight isn’t great, but I’d say that what you get in return more than compensates you with versatility, if not necessarily with power.
The Haunt Collector archetype grants a bunch of class features from the Medium class to the Occultist, and it’s a match made in heaven. Accessing even limited versions of a Medium’s spirits can be a huge boost in efficacy for certain Occultist builds, hence why Haunt Collector makes one of the best pairings with the Trappings of the Warrior full-BAB Occultist strategy.
Versatility: +1
Power: +2
Stacks With: None
(2) Possessed Possessions (Su): Alters implements. Possessed possessions is an amazing archetype feature. Why? Well, the fact is that many resonant powers are simply not that good. Abjuration is bad, conjuration is bad, enchantment is bad, necromancy is bad unless you’re animating undead all the time, evocation is bad unless you’re blasting 24/7...about the only resonant powers that I think are universally useful are divination, illusion, and transmutation. What this class feature lets you do is swap out those bad resonant powers for potentially much better abilities from the Medium class. The seance boons alone aren’t much to get excited about, with the possible exception of the Champion spirit’s +2 damage on non-spell damage rolls; it’s the swift action, one-round spirit bonuses we’re interested in. Depending on how much mental focus you have invested in your haunted implements, you can get these supercharge boosts a bunch of times per day, and they can become extraordinarily powerful. Here are my ratings:
Spirit | Seance Boon | Spirit Bonus |
Archmage | +2 spell damage. I think this one depends on whether the extra damage ticks every time an enemy would be dealt damage by a spell, or only when you cast it. If it lasts throughout longer-duration castings, easily blue. If not, yellow. | Concentration checks, Intelligence and Intelligence-based skill checks. A little underwhelming; I wish they’d added caster level checks to beat SR. Concentration is plenty good for when you’re threatened by multiple enemies, though. |
Champion | +2 weapon damage. This is just what the doctor ordered for most martial Occultists. Simple, durable, and stackable. | Attack rolls, damage rolls, Strength and Strength-based skill checks, Fortitude saves. Again, fabulous for all combat-focused Occultists. Position yourself for a full attack and watch the bodies hit the floor. |
Guardian | +1 CMD. Bleh. No. The enemies who have the CMB scores to beat your CMD can do so with incredible ease. | AC, Constitution checks, Fortitude and Reflex saves. You won’t always be able to anticipate when these effects are about to hit you, but sometimes you’ll be able to do so with ease. Great defensive bonuses. |
Hierophant | +2 healing from spells or abilities. The conjuration school has Flesh Mend and the cure spells, so you could theoretically benefit. It’s unlikely to come up super often, though. | Wisdom and Wisdom-based skill checks, Will saves. The Will saves alone are what make the Hierophant’s spirit bonus decent. Useful for magehunting. |
Marshal | Any seance boon. Okay, great, any seance boon! That’s nice and easy. | Charisma and Charisma-based skill checks. You don’t get spirit surge, so most of this ability is flat-out useless to you. Goodness knows you won’t be rolling many Charisma-based skill checks, either. |
Trickster | +1 to one skill, and it becomes a class skill. I assume you pick this when you invest mental focus every day, in which case it’s nice to be able to shuffle around a class skill depending on the day’s activities. | Dexterity checks, all skill checks, Reflex saves. There’s just a ton of flexibility here. Bonuses to any skill never go out of style, and it’s not like Reflex saves are super uncommon. You’ll find a way to use this ability every day. |
(5) Hauntist (Su): Replaces aura sight. I don’t think I’m out of line when I say that at-will aura sight will get used much more regularly than haunt channeler. It’s not a terrible replacement ability, just not nearly as powerful as aura sight.
(8) Spirit Speaker (Sp): Replaces outside contact. Undead and haunts might not know a great deal about what went on around them, which may limit spirit speaker’s mechanical power. It’s a fun, flavorful ability that your GM can go nuts with, though, and the potential for plot hooks abounds. I don’t think you really gain or lose anything in this trade.
(8) Extricate Haunt (Su): Replaces magic circles, binding circles, and fast circles. Holy wall of text, Batman! The basic gist of this ability is that you can burn a little mental focus and one of your spell slots to create an invisible, spectral trap in a 5-foot square. If an enemy blunders into that square, they trigger the haunt, which casts the spell on them. Thanks to the versatility of being able to equip the haunt with whatever spell you want, extricate haunt is probably a bit more powerful than the circles abilities it replaces; the ability to make the haunt move at later levels is also nice, if not entirely necessary.
Haunt Collector is one of the most powerful archetypes available for the Occultist class. Thanks to the relative strength of the Champion, Guardian, and Trickster spirits, it complements combat and skill monkey roles particularly well; and in return, all you really have to sacrifice are resonant powers that you likely weren’t going to need anyway. Archmage and Hierophant are on the weaker side, so casting-focused Occultists will likely veer toward Silksworn, Panoply Savant, Necroccultist, Planar Harmonizer, or other archetypes that augment that playstyle better.
Naturalist is the nature-based complement to the Geomancer archetype. Both deal with having a strong connection to the land, and each is about as good as the other, albeit in different ways. Cool for a wilderness game.
Versatility: +0
Power: +2
Stacks With: Planar Harmonizer, Talisman Crafter
(1) Class Skills: Alters class skills. Knowledge (Nature) is probably much better in the early game; Knowledge (Planes) is probably much better in the late game. I’ll call it a wash.
(1) Natural Focus (Su): Alters mental focus, and replaces magic circles and fast circles. Finally, a valid reason to leave mental focus uninvested! Natural focus is a lot like the Investigator’s inspiration class feature, except it applies to fewer types of d20 rolls. It’s still full-on amazing. Try to use it only for really important initiative checks (again, initiative is a Dexterity check and therefore counts as an ability check) and saves—those are the best possible things you could be spending mental focus on.
(8) Tree Talker (Sp): Replaces outside contact. Weird—it’s kind of like sending had a baby with speak with plants. I mean, both of these effects are pretty good, so I’m inclined to think favorably of tree talker. I like it more than outside contact, at least.
(12) Reflect on the Land (Sp): Replaces binding circles. Yeah, okay. Commune with nature might not be a spell I’d want to take as a spell known, but it’s certainly good enough to replace binding circles. Again, I’d call this a minor win.
Both Geomancer and Naturalist do the same kind of thing, but where Geomancer is all versatility with its spell selection, Naturalist is all power with natural focus. It’s a tremendously useful class feature that won’t let you down in a defensive pinch.
The Necroccultist archetype, as the name would suggest, specializes in necromantic magic. As I mention in my write-up of the necromancy implement school, creating undead is considered a major party foul on Golarion, but if you want to do it, necromancy’s resonant power is fantastic at helping you control hordes of undead servitors. Necroccultists are not for everyone, but for that classic “minion master” build, there’s no Occultist archetype that does it as well as this one.
Versatility: -1
Power: +2
Stacks With: None
(1) Necromantic Bond (Su): Alters implements and implement mastery. Hmmm, so let’s look at this. Necroccultists lose two implement schools, one at 1st level and one at 14th. Together, these two implements would give you 12 spells known (two at each spell level) over the course of your career. In exchange, the Necroccultist gives you 20 spells known from the necromancy school off the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list, plus the equivalent of Spell Focus (Necromancy) and Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy) at 14th level. You obviously lose a lot of versatility from other spell schools (no resonant powers, no focus powers, no spells) but you pick up a ton of versatility specifically in necromancy, and can cherrypick spells off the Wizard class list that either aren’t available to Occultists or that appear at lower levels for Wizards/Sorcerers than for Occultists. Don’t laugh at that +2 to save DCs, either—it might come online late, but that’s quite powerful as a blanket boost to your main school of magic. Necromantic bond is a classic versatility vs. power trade, but because nobody in the freaking Necroccultist archetype is going to be shocked or appalled that it’s a specialist, I feel safe rating it blue. My recommendations for spells that don’t naturally appear on the Occultist spell list are below; remember that you can also purchase spells that are on the Occultist spell list, too, as long as they’re shared with the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list.
(2) Deadspeaker (Su): Replaces object reading. Blood biography is one of my flavor favorites on the Pathfinder 1e spell lists, and it tends to be very mechanically useful for figuring out what the heck happened to the dead bodies that you find unusually often in the adventuring life. Both object reading and deadspeaker have the potential for lots of plot hooks and mechanical power, so I’d say this is a dead heat (no pun intended).
(5) Ghostly Horde (Su): Replaces aura sight. Ghostly horde is kinda like a really big swarm that you can summon on command. It’s quite expensive, as far as mental focus goes, but as the only two focus powers worth much in a necromancy implement are Soulbound Puppet and Necromantic Servant, you’re probably safe to play a little faster and looser with ghostly horde than you would otherwise. The damage is good enough for an AoE, even if a Fortitude save halves it, and it bypasses all DR. Your necromancy implements are likely to be overflowing with mental focus as a Necroccultist, so I think I’m okay to rate ghostly horde green as long as you cross your t’s and dot your i’s when checking that an enemy is living and susceptible to magical aging. Another versatility vs. power trade.
(8) Life Drain (Sp): Replaces outside contact. A third and final versatility vs. power trade, life drain allows you to slap enemies with negative levels (no save!) as a ranged touch attack and heal yourself in the process. Fabulous against BBEGs and other hard targets.
If you’re all in on necromancy (and Occultists can be very good at animate dead and minion mastery) then there’s no reason why you wouldn’t take Necroccultist. If you’re only interested in necromancy as a school of magic for debuffing, etc., then you don’t want to be here—the loss of two implement schools isn’t good enough to justify what you gain. If you’re a budding lich or member of the Whispering Way, though...yup. You’ve come to the right place.
Panoply Savant focuses on—you guessed it, buckaroo—panoplies. Assuming that you’re positive you want to lean into a particular panoply, Panoply Savant gives you the tools to make that role work harder for you. It restricts your versatility just enough to avoid being put in the top tier of archetypes, but it’s a solid choice, especially for Trappings of the Warrior and Mage’s Paraphernalia builds.
Versatility: +0
Power: +2
Stacks With: Geomancer, Reliquarian
(1) Panoply Specialization: You’re here because you’re focusing on one panoply, so this shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone. This class feature does kind of pigeonhole your 1st- and 2nd-level implement school choices, though; you’ll have to take abjuration and transmutation at 1st level so you can get Trappings of the Warrior at 2nd, for example. The three panoplies with only two required implements can get you to something new by 6th level (implements at 1st, panoply at 2nd) but Mage’s Paraphernalia makes you wait until 10th level. Ouch.
(4) Panoply Focus (Su): Replaces shift focus. Remember what I said in the introduction about Occultists being perpetually short on mental focus? Yeah, this feature helps a lot. Every bit of mental focus placed in your panoply gets you those resonant powers faster, freeing you up to either spend the rest of your focus on different implements or burn some extra focus on the expensive focus powers like Combat Trick. Good, good stuff, and easily better than shift focus.
(8) Implement Specialist (Su): Replaces outside contact. How useful implement specialist is to you will depend greatly on what implements your panoply requires. Mage’s Paraphernalia probably gets the best deal here, because Occultists will use a lot of wands in their heyday, and wands typically cast at the minimum caster level needed to achieve a spell effect; amping that up to your caster level can be fantastic for damage, duration, bonuses, CL checks against SR, you name it. Trappings of the Warrior has plenty of unique weapons and shields to choose from, many of which have CL-dependent effects or 3/day powers. For the Performer’s Accoutrements and Saint’s Holy Regalia implement specialist is somewhat weaker, mostly because you’re limited to very specific item types (I mean, masks? Censers? When was the last time you activated a wondrous item that happened to be one of those?) but can be powerful with the right items. I’ll recommend that you take a look at one of my other guides, The Armamentarium, to figure out which items are right for you.
(8) Panoptic Harmony (Su): Replaces magic circles. Caster level buffs are some of the most powerful buffs you can hunt down in Pathfinder, for the simple reason that caster level determines just about everything about a spell except its save DC. Range? Mostly, yep. Duration? Mostly, yep. Effects? Much of the time, yep. Spell resistance penetration checks? Always. Doesn’t matter who you are: every spellcaster wants a better CL, and there aren’t many ways to get it. You’ll have to plan a bit in order to use it effectively, but for the most part, you’re being rewarded for actions you’d have taken anyway.
(12) Panoptic Call (Su): Replaces binding circles. Apart from re-enacting your very own Doctor Strange moment, panoptic call mostly functions as an anti-theft or anti-disarm deterrent. You can try to steal weapons from humanoid enemies if you’re going Trappings, but that’s probably a waste of actions and mental focus by this level. This ability is nothing fabulous—and probably a little worse than binding circles—but it’s still not bad.
(16) Combined Powers (Su): Replaces fast circles. Actions reign supreme in Pathfinder, especially in high-level play. If you can’t go first and move decisively, then your opponent will obliterate you, simple as that. Being able to stack two buffs, toss out two SLAs, etc. in one standard action is a great improvement on your action economy. The mental focus cost hurts enough that you won’t want to do that often, but as an emergency power, you couldn’t ask for better.
None of the powers that Panoply Savant gives up are great losses, so the most restrictive feature of the archetype is panoply specialization forcing you to take your panoply before you can select any other implement schools. Panoply Savant and Haunt Collector are probably the archetypes of choice for panoply builds: the former gives you CL boosts, extra mental focus, and implement specialist/combined powers; the latter lets you trade away resonant powers that don’t fit your role for great spirit boosts. Both are about equal in power—it just depends on what you’re looking for.
Psychodermists butcher their enemies and use their body parts as implements. Nope, not kidding. It’s quite a powerful archetype, especially in high-level play and especially in campaigns that feature one type of enemy pretty consistently.
Versatility: +3
Power: +2
Stacks With: None
(1) Class Skills: Almost entirely upside here. Knowledge (Engineering), Knowledge (History), and Sleight of Hand are all pretty useless, and Disable Device is only situationally useful. In exchange, Knowledge (Nature) and (Local) are great monster identification skills, and both Heal and Survival have at least some uses. Let’s call this a win.
(1) Trophies (Su): Alters implements. Psychodermists receive Harvest Parts as a bonus feat, which is cool enough on its own, but if you can spare a feat, I highly recommend picking up Grisly Ornament—it’ll grant you nice morale bonuses that are especially useful in campaigns that make you square off against a particular type of creature often (Hell’s Rebels, Ironfang Invasion, Giantslayer, Wrath of the Righteous, etc.). Monstrous Crafter, the upgrade to Grisly Ornament, isn’t generally worth your time. Note that trophies can be integrated into other items, so nothing in the Psychodermist prevents you from taking panoplies.
(2) Monster Hunting Lore (Ex): Replaces magic item skill. I’d normally ding an ability for taking away magic item skill, but in the case of monster hunting lore, it’s worth it. The bonuses for crafting trophies are good enough, but the real power here lies in adding half your level to all Knowledge checks made to identify creatures. These are easily some of the most important skill checks to be able to crush in Pathfinder, and between your Intelligence score, tears to wine, monster hunting lore, and any other bonuses you may have, Psychodermists can easily rival Investigators, Inquisitors, and Bards for monster identification—maybe even surpass them, in some cases. Maybe consider Skill Focus (UMD) to compensate you for lost UMD skills.
(2) Discern Death (Su): Replaces object reading. I would place blood biography and object reading on about the same level of usefulness. Honestly, though, your party shouldn’t be running into too many dead creatures that you didn’t put into the ground yourselves. We’ll call this even stevens.
(5) Seek Prey (Su): Replaces aura sight. Hmmm. I like how versatile seek prey is, as you can use it for anything from detect humanoids to detect constructs to detect outsiders. The problem is that you have know what you’re looking for! Aura sight just pings anything that’s there and lets you worry about the rest later, but seek prey has to be more specific. You’re limited by the number and type of trophies you’re carrying, too. A minor downgrade, on the whole.
(8) Residual Hatred (Su): Replaces outside contact. Let’s start with the bad news: residual hatred only applies to specific creature types (frost giants, rather than all giants; aasimar, rather than all native outsiders; wood golems, rather than all constructs, etc.). Now the good news: holy crap, you just got the Ranger’s favored enemy class feature! You won’t be able to use it all the time, as you’re required first to kill a target, then turn it into a trophy, then spend mental focus on the bonuses. If the boss of an AP book is some exotic creature you haven’t fought before, you might not have had the opportunity to create an appropriate trophy. Many campaigns feature long stretches in which you’re fighting many of the same enemies, however, whether that’s humans, hobgoblins, robots, etc., and considering that a +8 bonus costs only 4 mental focus at 20th level for an entire 24 hours of coverage, this is an amazing deal. It also replaces outside contact, which makes it even more amazing. Probably best in campaigns in which you fight a lot of humanoid enemies distinguished primarily by their class levels—I can think of long, long stretches of Ironfang Invasion or Giantslayer in which residual hatred would be off-the-walls good.
(12) Manifest Abilities (Su): Replaces binding circles and fast circles. And the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. Holy. Crap. Monstrous physique III and IV contain tremorsense, blindsense, darkvision, breath weapons, ferocity, huge swim, climb, burrow, and fly speeds, poisons, rend, freaking pounce, for crying out loud! These abilities alone would merit a purple rating. As if that weren’t enough, though, you can also start poaching SLAs off of slain creatures’ lists, greatly expanding your casting abilities. Try to keep some trophies around for the SLAs, some trophies around for the supernatural or extraordinary abilities, and hold at least one spot in rotation so that you can continue to adjust your residual hatred bonuses. This archetype is crazy.
Psychodermist may be the most stupidly powerful Occultist archetype out there. You’re locked out of aura sight and magic item skill, true, but in exchange, you receive four new good class skills, Harvest Parts with the option to buy your way into Grisly Ornament, a +10 bonus to identify every monster in the game, the ability to detect any monster type at will, blood biography, flexible favored enemy bonuses, and the ability to poach just about any SLA, supernatural ability, or extraordinary ability from any enemy. Armed with even a little foreknowledge of which enemies you’ll be facing (the divination implement school will be your best friend, Mind Eye in particular) the Psychodermist can absolutely wipe the floor with most Pathfinder play. I’ll say it again: crazy.
The Reliquarian is a divine Occultist, with divine casting and access to Cleric domains. Some of the class features force you to split focus between Intelligence and Wisdom during character creation—and that’s never a good sign for a ⅔ caster that needs to be able to prioritize physical ability scores, too—but if your domain abilities and domain spells are exceptionally strong (Animal, Good, Luck, Travel, and Madness come to mind) this can still be a solidly good archetype. Probably the wisest bet will be to park Intelligence somewhere between 12 and 15 at point buy, then focus exclusively on Wisdom. Because your spell save DCs are still based on Intelligence, this move will probably force you into a role that doesn’t do any enemy-targeted casting (buffing, for instance, or maybe some battlefield control) but there are advantages to all your domain abilities that you can’t get elsewhere.
Versatility: +1
Power: +1
Stacks With: Construct Collector, Occult Historian, Panoply Savant
(1) Faithful: Just your basic morality clause—literally. Getting your deity’s favored weapon isn’t likely to be meaningful unless your deity has some exotic favored weapon that you wouldn’t have gotten normally with martial weapon proficiency.
(1) Spells: Alters spells. So you want to be a divine caster, hmmm? Well, psychic casting certainly has its drawbacks, although some people do prefer it. You’ll now use regular somatic and verbal components; there’s still no chance for spell failure, which is nice.
(1) Domain: Whether a domain is good or bad for your character will depend entirely on what that domain is. Domains offer different powers and different spells, and some (Animal, Luck, Travel, Good, Darkness, Madness, etc.) are much better than others (Death, Rune, etc.). I don’t have a lot to say about this class feature that won’t be better discussed in a Cleric guide, but I’ll leave my thoughts on domains from my Inquisitor guide. This guide doesn’t go into spells, as Inquisitors don’t gain a Cleric’s spells, but it will give you a good idea of how a ⅔ divine caster generally approaches domain powers. Getting access to your domain’s spells is a really, really big deal, as these spells are often quite strong, different from much of what you have on the Occultist spell list, and allow you to cherrypick from multiple magic schools with no trouble.
Of course, there is one problem with a Reliquarian’s domains: it doesn’t make any provision for your Intelligence modifier. Even though your spells and other class features continue to be Intelligence-based, your Wisdom modifier governs the uses per day and save DCs of your domain abilities. This is bad. You generally want one mental stat and one physical stat that are the focus of a character build—less, if you can help it. Divine focus is only going to compound this problem. Domains are good enough that I don’t think this hurts you too badly, but it’s already not great. As I said in the intro, the best move will probably be to focus on Wisdom instead of Intelligence, ignore enemy-targeted spells, and do the bare minimum to be able to cast new spell levels. Mental focus is more important to most Occultists than spell save DCs.
(1) Diminished Focus Power (Su): Alters focus powers. Depending on which domain you took, your 1st-level domain power may beat the snot out of whatever focus power you could have taken at this level. I’ll take Bit of Luck or Touch of Good over Size Alteration any day of the week.
(1) Sacred Implements (Su): Alters implements. The Reliquarian doesn’t ultimately sacrifice any spells known (your sacred implement still grants 7 spells like any other implement school) but it does sacrifice focus power selection. Sacred implements don’t unlock any group of focus powers, meaning you’ll be stuck for quite a while with only two or three groups of focus powers, rather than three or four. A minor sacrifice, but still a sacrifice.
(1) Orisons: Replaces knacks. Even stevens. Not much to say.
(1) Divine Focus (Su): Alters mental focus. I’ll keep repeating that if you want to play a Reliquarian, you have to be ready to focus on Wisdom, not Intelligence. Mental focus is too important to ignore, so you’ll have to just clear the bar to 16 Intelligence by the time you reach 16th level to cast 6th-level spells. Keep your focus firmly on buffing spells or spells that require no saving throws and you’ll come out just fine.
I didn’t give Reliquarian a fair shake when I was first reading it, and I regret that. The addition of domain abilities and spells can ultimately be incredibly powerful for the Occultist, who needs abilities that don’t burn mental focus and spells that aren’t locked into one school of magic. Domains can provide all that. You’ll want to reference a Cleric guide for more thoughts on which domains are worth your time—that’s a little outside the purview of this guide. Find yourself a deity, pick the strongest domain you can find, and go to town as a combat- or buffing-focused Occultist! Done and done.
The Silksworn is among the most well-known Occultist archetypes for its ability to turn you into a miniature Sorcerer with focus powers. There are some big downsides to the archetype, notably the loss of panoplies and all your armor/weapon proficiencies, but it’s still an incredibly fun and powerful way to build a casting-based Occultist. I just wish it didn’t exclude panoplies.
Versatility: +2
Power: +1
Stacks With: None
(1) Class Skills: Bluff is good, especially for 12th level’s silksworn deception class feature, but losing Knowledge (Planes) isn’t fun. Knowledge (Nobility) is generally as useless as Knowledge (Engineering), so no losses there.
(1) Spells: Both arcane magic and divine magic share verbal and somatic components, but where divine magic has no spell failure chance with armor, arcane magic does. This is more or less a moot point for Silksworn, who aren’t proficient with any armor or shields, but the loss of armor is a big deal that we’ll get to later.
(1) Implements: Instead of implements, you wear flamboyant, awesome clothes! “Designers, make it work…” There are two problematic parts about the way the Silksworn handles implements: first, and most importantly, “when a Silksworn chooses an implement school, he does not choose a specific object.” Because you can’t choose specific objects, you can’t take panoplies! Silksworn would be very interested in Performer’s Accoutrements or Mage’s Paraphernalia, but you can just throw that thought in the garbage, because it ain’t applicable here. Second, Silksworn (to my knowledge) can’t pass their implements to other people, as they’re worn instead of held.
(1) Cantrips: Even stevens. Fine.
(1) Mental Focus (Su): Alters mental focus. So now you get Occultist Level + Intelligence Modifier + Charisma Modifier! This will mean more investment in a dual-stat headband, but otherwise gives you a few extra focus each day. Peri-blooded aasimar make a great racial pairing with Silksworn, as they get bonuses to both Intelligence and Charisma with no drawback attribute. Don’t expect this change to fully satisfy your mental focus needs, though—you’ll still need to take Extra Mental Focus or mental focus favored class bonuses, since Silksworn don’t have effective combat tools.
(1) Devoted Mystic: Alters implements, weapon proficiencies, and armor proficiencies; replaces outside contact. And with that, you’re a pocket Sorcerer. Silksworn Occultists are only marginally less squishy than full arcane casters; they benefit from a d8 HD, a good Fortitude save, and ¾ BAB for CMD, but other than that, they’ll fall unconscious at the first stiff breeze that hits them. With your armor and weapon proficiencies gone, you really can’t be an effective combatant in this archetype—certainly not in melee, at least, although you could theoretically wield a crossbow better than a Wizard or Sorcerer. No, where the Silksworn excels is in casting. The comparison between Sorcerer and Silksworn is really pretty accurate: a 20th-level Sorcerer gets 54 spells per day (9 spell levels * 6 spells at each level) and knows 34 spells (5 * 1st- and 2nd-level spells, 4 * 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-level spells, and 3 * 6th-, 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-level spells); a 20th-level Silksworn Occultist gets 48 spells per day (6 spell levels * 8 spells at each level) and knows 54 spells (9 implements * 6 spell levels). And because 6th-level spells for ⅔ casters are often listed on full casters’ spell lists as 6th-, 7th-, or even 8th-level spells, Silksworn are just missing that last tier of spell casting—effects like gate, wish, or imprisonment. What few spells per day are lacking for a Silksworn are more then compensated through focus powers, especially always-needed staples like haste, fly, enlarge person, telekinesis, etc.
(8) Silksworn Eloquence (Ex): Replaces magic circles. Okay, so a +8 untyped bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy. That’s already quite good if you want to be the party face, but gets even better once you arrive at…
(12) Silksworn Deception (Su): Replaces binding circles. Oh, yeah. It’s all coming together. Unless you’re facing off against a high-level Inquisitor or Investigator, silksworn deception allows you to completely hide the fact that you’re casting spells, both in combat and out of it. Between your trait switching Bluff to Intelligence, silksworn eloquence bonuses, resonant power bonuses from Glorious Presence or a Bluff-boosting magical item, etc., Occultists at this level should easily be rocking a +35 Bluff bonus (12 ranks + 3 class skill + 8 silksworn eloquence + 7 Intelligence + 5 competence bonus) without any real resources invested. Fantastic for intrigue or staying safe on the battlefield by appearing to be a harmless (if flamboyantly dressed) commoner.
(16) Silksworn Arcana (Su): Replaces fast circles. If you make it this far, this is the class feature that compensates you for the fact that you only have ⅔ casting, shifting your save DCs so that they’re the equivalent of a full caster’s 3rd- through 8th-level spells, rather than their 1st- through 6th-level spells. True, you don’t have wish or similar 9th-level spells, but you should be able to hit a DC 40 scroll check with UMD easily by this point (16 ranks + 3 class skill + 8 magic item skill + 9 Intelligence + 5 competence bonus = +41). That’ll let you cast 9th-level spells with no failure chance.
(20) Implement Master (Su): Alters implement mastery. A straight upgrade over the base Occultist’s implement mastery. Perfect Body, Flawless Mind is still probably the superior capstone ability, but the difference is much slimmer.
Let me start with this disclaimer: I love the Silksworn archetype. I think it’s fun, I think it’s stylish, and I love what a great job it does of turning the Occultist into a pocket Sorcerer with an intrigue twist. That said, the Silksworn has some pretty huge opportunity costs associated with it. You can’t use panoplies (and that link is from an author involved in the creation of the Silksworn archetype), you lose all your armor and weapon proficiencies, and you’re likely to be more strapped for mental focus than most Occultists due to your abundance of focus powers and implement schools. It’s a heck of a lot of fun, and one of the most flamboyant, panache-y ways to build a casting-focused Occultist, but it’s not a panacea for all that ails the class. Still. That flavor, tho.
The main draw of Talisman Crafter is its spellbound talisman and shared talisman features, which let you cast spells (or allow allies to cast spells for you) in new and interesting ways. It does enough to keep itself afloat amid a crowded field of archetypes, but you definitely lose a lot of versatility by trading away object reading, magic item skill, aura sight, and several focus powers.
Versatility: -1
Power: +1
Stacks With: Construct Collector, Naturalist
(1) Talismanic Implements (Su): Alters implements. No real changes here, apart from the fact that you won’t be able to use your talismanic implements as magic items, including weapons, armor, or wondrous items. That’s not a weakness, though, just a different way of doing things.
(2) Spellbound Talisman (Su): Replaces object reading and magic item skill. I debated rating spellbound talisman green, but ultimately didn’t. I think that object reading and especially magic item skill are valuable enough that you wouldn’t want to lose them willy-nilly. The effect here isn’t bad, allowing you to funnel certain buffs, debuffs, or blasts into ranged touch attacks. For certain implement schools like evocation or necromancy, spellbound talisman will probably be pretty good, allowing you to fire off bestow curse or shocking grasp at range. For others, like conjuration or illusion, far too many of the spells fall under the categories that are expressly forbidden for spellbound talismans. There might be a minor improvement in power here for some implement schools, but a big versatility tradeoff through the loss of magic item skill.
(4) Shared Talisman (Su): Replaces shift focus. Team buffs only affect one person when they’re funnelled into spellbound talismans, and personal buffs aren’t eligible for spellbound talismans anyway. This means that you can’t quite break the action economy by helping everyone cast their own buffs, but again, depending on the prevalence of viable spells on your list, you can maybe get close. It helps to be able to pass your casting off to an ally if they know they’re going to be pretty useless in a fight, too—say, if they’re suffering from some bad condition or are heavily invested in a tactic that the enemies are strong against. Shift focus isn’t a fabulous class feature anyway, so I don’t mind losing it for something decent. Remember that you need to expend specifically generic focus in order to create these talismans, though, so maybe stock up on non-adventuring days and then invest focus normally on adventuring days.
(5) Warding Seal (Su): Replaces aura sight and 5th- and 17th-level focus powers. In exchange for aura sight and two focus powers, I’m just not terribly excited about warding seal, ya know? It’s fun to set traps and all, but the Haunt Collector probably does a much better job with it, albeit at a later level. I won’t rate warding seal red, but in my mind it comes pretty darn close, considering what you’re giving up.
Like Extemporaneous Channeler, Talisman Crafter walks that line of doing the bare minimum that an archetype can do and still be called a “good” archetype. It certainly wouldn’t be my first or even fifth choice of Occultist archetypes, but it can be situationally useful to casting-focused Occultists who want to be able to wield spells as ranged touch attacks.
Ancestral Aspirants are Occultists drawn from the ranks of the nobility. It’s not a great archetype, as intrigue is usually only a small, infrequent niche of what PCs do. I’d avoid it.
Versatility: -1
Power: -2
Stacks With: None
(1) Class Skills: Alters class skills. Knowledge (Planes) isn’t good to lose, and Bluff and Knowledge (Nobility) don’t add much to the Occultist chassis. The archetype is still based on Intelligence, after all, and Occultists weren’t really meant to be party faces.
(1) Family Jewels: Alters implements. Implement restrictions, never a great sign. Enchantment is one of the weakest implement schools, too, which further limits the ability’s usefulness.
(1) Emotional Reading (Su): Replaces object reading. It’s okay for deciding how to approach a person, I suppose, but on balance, I think object reading is more useful. Especially given that it can’t detect lies, deceit, etc., I just don’t know what it would be great for.
(1) Courtly Contacts (Su): Replaces outside contact. Likely an NPC ability in an intrigue game.
No. None of the abilities that get replaced are super bad losses, but every one is an incremental step downward.
The Battle Host is kind of like the Fighter class had a baby with the Occultist class. You get heavy armor, bonus feats, and some great SLAs for melee fighting, but in return you surrender a huge chunk of your spellcasting and implement abilities. I get what Battle Host is angling for, but in the end, Occultists live and die by their implement schools; you just can’t give up two implements and expect to get a pass. To make matters even worse, Battle Host requires you to select only one piece of armor, weapon, or shield as your implement for all your casting...but panoplies require at least two implements. See where I’m going with this? You can’t even access Trappings of the Warrior on a Battle Host, which seems like a major party foul for the most martial of Occultist archetypes.
Versatility: -2
Power: +1
Stacks With: None
(1) Class Skills: Alters class skills. Nothing but upshot here. Knowledge (Local) is excellent for identifying humanoids, and Knowledge (Nobility) is on the Background Skills list.
(1) Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Alters proficiencies. The addition of heavy armor is super, super cool for melee, Strength-based Occultists. It makes you less MAD and helps you focus your priorities on Strength, Constitution, and Intelligence. I wouldn’t expect most Occultists to use tower shields, but you never know.
(1) Panoply Bond (Su): Alters implements, mental focus, spellcasting, and implement mastery. The big takeaway from panoply bond is that you lose two implements over the course of your career (along with the 2 knacks and 12 spells known contained in those two implements) and the gap between 2nd level and 10th level is really, really big. The other big takeaway is that limiting your implements to one suit of armor, weapon, etc. makes you unable to provide the implements needed to access panoplies. No Trappings of the Warrior for Battle Hosts, no sir.
(2) Battle Skill: Alters magic item skill. UMD checks usually apply to wands and scrolls, not swords and shields. You might still need this if you wanted to emulate an alignment or class feature using UMD, but it’s very unlikely that those conditions will arise in most games.
(2) Battle Reading: Alters object reading. Again, mostly downside. Not as much downside as battle skill, though.
(4) Bonus Feats: Replaces shift focus, magic circles, binding circles, and fast circles. So now you’re a pseudo-Fighter. Losing shift focus isn’t that big of a deal, because you’ll barely have any implement schools to shift focus from or to. On the whole, I’m very okay with this tradeoff, given how feat-starved Occultists usually are.
(5) Spirit Warrior (Sp): Replaces aura sight. Spiritual ally is a really good spell. Your ally can flank with you, bypass DR, hit incorporeal creatures for full damage, use your BAB for its iterative attacks, etc., and requires only a swift action most turns for positioning. Both aura sight and spirit warrior are worthy of their blue ratings.
(6) Heroic Splendor (Su): Replaces outside contact. Cool. Cool cool cool. Insight bonuses will stack with your Physical Enhancement resonant power from transmutation to give you a supercharged physical stat for one minute. Good stuff.
Unfortunately, it’s mostly not. I love the heavy armor, extra feats, spirit warrior, heroic splendor, etc., but Occultists are meant to be casters, and Occultists rely on implements for their casting. Fewer implements = fewer spells, simple as that. Even if you wanted to play the Occultist as more of a martial class, Battle Host locks you out of Trappings of the Warrior! Sorry, but that’s too much to handle. If you’re looking for a martially flavored Occultist, go with a Panoply Savant, Haunt Collector, or base Occultist specializing in the Trappings of the Warrior panoply. It’ll do for you what Battle Host never could.
The Construct Caller is meant to allow you to use components from destroyed constructs to fuel your focus powers, but it the archetype falls apart when you don’t have access to these destroyed constructs on a regular basis. Likely to be completely useless in all campaigns except those like Iron Gods that feature a lot of construct fights.
Versatility: -2
Power: -1
Stacks With: Esoteric Initiate, Geomancer, Planar Harmonizer, Reliquarian, Talisman Crafter
(3) Constructed Focus (Su): Replaces 3rd-, 9th-, and 15th-level focus powers. Constructed focus is dependent on a steady supply of destroyed constructs, and that simply won’t be possible for most adventurers to get unless you’re in some construct-heavy campaign like Iron Gods. If you do have access to those constructs, however, constructed focus essentially allows you to double the effect your Intelligence modifier has on your mental focus pool each day. Is it worth three focus powers? I’m not convinced of that, but it’s not bad if you’re fighting constructs all the time.
(8) Repower Construct (Su): Replaces magic circles, outside contact, binding circles, and fast circles. You assume control of the construct for an excruciatingly short time until 16th level; I think your class features have an obligation to be useful before the end of a campaign. Again, way too dependent on destroying constructs in nearly every battle.
No. Constructs are only occasional enemies in Pathfinder, and the Construct Caller gives up a number of good abilities in exchange for very niche powers that will affect only constructs. Hard pass.
Curator allows you to flexibly assign large chunks of your mental focus to a series of “collection implements.” Unlike when the Occultist uses shift focus, assigning this mental focus grants you all the resonant powers associated with that implement, so it can be a cool way to flex suddenly into a new role as needed. Doing so comes at a cost, though, primarily an overly harsh division between the mental focus in your collection implements and the mental focus in your regular implements. I think it’s a cool concept the more I look back on it, but I definitely wouldn’t call it a top-tier archetype.
Versatility: -1
Power: -1
Stacks With: None
(1) Extensive Collection (Su): Replaces 1st-, 6th-, and 14th-level implements. Extensive Collection is kind of like a supercharged shift focus. You’ve got a pool of mental focus equal to your Intelligence modifier that kind of sits in limbo while you’re not using your collection, and when you want to, you can dump all of that mental focus into your collection for 10 minutes, gaining the resonant power and whatever focus powers you have in that implement. As you level up, you get to pick from two and then three implements that you can supercharge at will. You don’t get to do it nearly enough times per day, though, and being limited to just your Intelligence modifier in focus will severely limit how good your resonant powers can get. Plus, the spells and focus powers associated with these implement schools aren’t available to you unless you’ve empowered your collection for 10 minutes, and that’s really not cool.
(1) Split Focus (Su): Alters mental focus. So you’re not really losing any focus, per se, since your extensive collection comes with its own pool of mental focus equal to your Intelligence modifier. But placing this Berlin Wall between your non-collection implements and your collection implements definitely limits your options on resonant powers and high-cost focus powers. I’m not generally a fan.
(3) Adaptable Powers (Su): Replaces 3rd-level focus power. What a devil’s bargain! Adaptable powers means that you can have way more focus powers available to your Occultist...but only one implement at a time, and only when your collection is empowered. I think it’s a cool mechanic, but having that many focus powers available to you probably won’t do much good when your mental focus pool in your collection is limited to your Intelligence modifier. You’ll have 3 or 4 points in there at point buy, and then, what, maybe 6-8 by the end of the game? Not too good when you’ve got 15 focus powers knocking around in your collection.
(4) Relic Resistance (Ex): Replaces shift focus. You can probably count on one hand the number of times any of these circumstances have come up in your entire Pathfinder gaming experience. Shift focus isn’t a huge class feature, and relic resistance still undershoots it by quite a bit.
(8) Complex Collection (Su): Replaces outsider contact. I’d almost prefer you didn’t get complex collection, you know? Because now, instead of just having one supercharged implement to take care of, you have to worry about splitting your Intelligence modifier between two implements, neither of which will get very much mental focus for resonant powers. It’s technically an upgrade, but...
(8) Mental Catalog (Su): Replaces magic circles, binding circles, and fast circles. Mental catalog will mean that you actually have quite a bit more mental focus than other Occultists, but due to the way that it’s partitioned between your three collection implements, you can’t access it very well or, again, use it for resonant powers. Good in concept, less so in practice
I’m returning to Curator a second time and finding myself more fond of it. The idea of the collection that you activate at will for a limited amount of time feels like a better version of Extemporaneous Channeler, and could possibly serve as a vehicle to keep more circumstantial implement schools around (lookin’ at you, enchantment) without having to dedicate a full-time implement to them. I’m still definitely not a fan of having to split your mental focus pool between regular implements and collection implements, though. That would make some builds that are dependent on high mental focus investment in resonant powers downright impossible to pull off. I’m revising the rating up a bit, but not terribly much.
Esoteric Initiates belong to the Order of the Palatine Eye, a secret Ustalavan society that sets itself against the machinations of Tar-Baphon (the Whispering Tyrant) and his servants in the Whispering Way. The archetype really doesn’t change much, but it loses just enough to sink down into the chaff.
Versatility: -1
Power: +0
Stacks With: Construct Collector
(1) Implements of the Palatine Eye (Su): Alters mental focus, implements, and shift focus. A decent upgrade over the base Occultist. Getting slightly more expensive implements is no trouble, and in return you get to improve your resonant powers and shift mental focus between implements with no losses. Do remember that shifting focus still detracts from your resonant powers, though.
(5) Symbolism (Sp): Replaces aura sight. Aura sight is far better than comprehend languages, especially when comprehend languages only works on written text. Nah.
Not on balance, no. Implements of the Palatine Eye is pretty good, as class features go, but losing aura sight isn’t great, and Esoteric Initiate will conflict with other, better archetypes if you take it.
The Occult Historian is Paizo’s take on an Indiana Jones-esque Occultist, kind of like the Archaeologist Bard. You get trap sense, you get to learn cool information about the history of ruins, but in return you give up some of your more versatile Occultist class features. It’s not a terrible archetype, just a little too niche.
Versatility: -1
Power: +0
Stacks With: Reliquarian, Secret Broker
(1) Ruin Reading (Su): Replaces object reading and aura sight. Loses a lot of versatility, but gains some power for classic dungeon crawls. Retrocognition is normally a 3rd-level divination spell that’s quite good, after all. I only wish you got more uses per day and could discern the layout of a ruin in a broader radius than just 30 feet; as it stands, the fact that object reading and aura sight are at-will abilities puts them a head by a decent margin.
(3) Trap Sense (Ex): Replaces 3rd-level focus power. Trap sense is widely considered to be one of the weaker class features in Pathfinder, and it’s not one I would take in place of a focus power even if I had the option to. If you want to duplicate this effect, go with the Haunt Collector archetype, grab the trickster spirit, and use that spirit boost to improve your Perception and Disable Device checks as a swift action.
(12) Crumbling Strike (Su): Replaces outside contact 2, 3, and 4. You know I’m not a huge fan of outside contact anyway, so I don’t mind trading it away. Crumbling strike is slow and relies on a failed Fortitude save, but if it lands, man, it hits like a truck. 12th level is easily out of reach of many modules and campaigns, however, and Fortitude saves become consistently high in the upper CR tranches. A good way to blow an enemy full caster to bits, maybe, but you don’t get it enough times per day to make much hay.
If you know you’re going to be involved in high-level dungeon crawls, perhaps, but it’s not a great tradeoff in most other circumstances.
Planar Harmonizers get a bunch of conjuration spells off the Wizard/Sorcerer list, and a few other goodies for surviving in adventures that take you hopping around the planes. Unfortunately, what you gain in power, you give up in versatility—sort of an inverse Geomancer situation. Read through and see whether you can find a use for it in your campaign.
Versatility: -2
Power: +1
Stacks With: Naturalist
(1) Conductor (Su): Alters implements and implement mastery. Conductor is very similar to the Necroccultist’s necromantic bond class feature, in that you receive lots of bonus spells known from one school of magic off the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list. Now, the Wizard/Sorcerer list is pretty boss; it’s loaded with pits, fogs, walls, clouds, and other amazing battlefield control spells. The downside is that, also like Necroccultist, you give away two implements in order to get these spells known—losing 12 spells from your implements, but gaining 20 spells from conductor. Unfortunately, the 14th-level increase to save DCs doesn’t do nearly as good a job for the conjuration school as it does for the necromancy school, largely because one of the strengths of conjuration spells and focus powers is that they often don’t feature saves! Fog cloud? No save. Black tentacles? No save. Most wall spells? No saves. Any of the conjuration focus powers? No saves. I’ve put my list of recommended spells below. I’ve probably missed some obvious candidates, having never played a Wizard before, but you can feel free to (gently) point out my ignorance on Reddit or Patreon.
One last word about this class feature: any archetype that trades away the ability to flexibly choose what its implements are also loses access to panoplies. If you wanted to make a Planar Harmonizer that uses Mage’s Paraphernalia to do lots of cool wizard-y things, too bad—tuning forks can’t satisfy a panoply’s requirements.
(2) Planar Scholar (Su): Replaces magic item skill. Planar Scholar is a net loss for the Planar Harmonizer, even though it’s very thematic and functions as one of the better Knowledge skills in the game. UMD is simply too important to lose for Occultists: delaying entry into reliable wand use is a big deal, and without magic item skill you might never hit the point where you can reliably cast high-level scrolls. It’s better than the Geomancer’s bonus to Survival, though. Yuck.
(4) Harmonic Shield (Su): Replaces shift focus and 7th-level focus power. Many high-level adventures dip into planar exploration, but I’m inclined to think that harmonic shield will be wasted for the vast majority of your adventuring career. I’d call this a loss—not a terrible one, but a loss nevertheless.
(5) Outside Messenger (Su): Alters magic circles, replaces aura sight and 5th-level focus power. If you’re going to replace both aura sight and a focus power, you’d better be bringing the big guns. Outside messenger is not bringing the big guns. Augury is all fine and dandy, but it’s no replacement for what you’re losing.
Conductor is the main reason I’m not throwing Planar Harmonizer into the junk heap. Getting 20 conjuration spells off the best conjuration spell list in the game is really great for helping an Occultist control the battlefield in cool ways. In return, though, you’re giving up two implement schools, access to all panoplies, magic item skill (which is your key to more varied casting), two focus powers, shift focus, and aura sight. That’s a lot of good class features, gone. In my opinion, this archetype can still work in a planes-heavy game, but it falls behind Necroccultist, another “school of magic-dominant” archetype.
The Secret Broker is one of those archetypes that really tries to be good at intrigue, but only succeeds at being good at disappointing me, much as I try to be good at life and succeed only at disappointing my father. You can build a decent skill monkey with Secret Broker, but at the expense of too much else to consider it as a worthy archetype in nearly all games.
Versatility: -2
Power: -1
Stacks With: Occult Historian
(1) Class Skills: Alters class skills. Bluff is plenty of good, especially with all the intrigue you’ll be pulling. More interesting is the addition of all remaining Knowledge skills to your class list. That’s great. Dungeoneering, Nature, and Local should be your first priorities, although even skills like Nobility should get at least one rank.
(1) Knowledge Is Power: Alters implements and implement mastery. Assuming a full 40 points of investment in your divination implement at 20th level, knowledge is power grants you +20 Sense Motive, +20 to all Profession checks, and +10 to all Knowledge checks. Realistically, though, absolutely no one needs 40 mental focus in a divination implement unless you’re burning through Sudden Insights or Danger Sights like they’re going out of style; you’ll probably be okay with 20 or so at 20th level for Mind Eyes and the occasional Sudden Insight or Danger Sight. So, practically, you’re getting +10 Sense Motive, +10 Profession, and +5 Knowledges in exchange for an entire implement. That’s a resonant power, a menu of focus powers, and 7 spell levels. As much as I slaver over skill bonuses (I wrote an Investigator guide, after all) knowledge is power simply isn’t a match for an extra implement. I debated red for this class feature, but those Knowledge bonuses are really tasty, and it’s not like Third Eye is a waste.
(2) Broker Secrets (Su): Replaces magic item skill. Super cool, flavor-wise, but in no way a replacement for magic item skill. There’s not a real mechanical use for it, so unless you’re RPing a Cleric of Norgorber or something, you’ll simply miss your wands and scrolls. Losing both an implement school and magic item skill really cuts into the Secret Broker’s versatility.
(4) Share Memory (Sp): Replaces shift focus. Cool flavor again, but mechanically worse than shift focus.
(8) Steal Secret (Sp): Replaces magic circles. Man, the rare power that’s actually worse than magic circles. It wouldn’t be so bad, except that once a target saves, they’re immune forever. And that really stinks. Spell-like abilities use your Charisma modifier for save DCs unless otherwise specified, and as a 2nd-level spell, your save DC is likely to be something like 13-14 at 20th level. Gross.
(12) Erase Secret (Sp): Replaces binding circles. Erase secret is actually a lot of fun, and the instantaneous duration makes it better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Still not great mechanically, though.
(16) Purge Secret (Sp): Replaces fast circles. Erasing facts like “I’m an enemy agent” from opponents’ minds can be cool, but was the march to 16th level really worth it for this?
No. I really want to like so many of the archetypes in Ultimate Intrigue, but all Secret Broker succeeds in doing is trade away a vast majority of your class features in exchange for some skill bonuses and broker secrets, neither of which is worth the loss of an implement school, magic item skill, and even the magic circle abilities. Pass, probably even for intrigue games. It’d make an awesome NPC archetype, though, or as an enemy archetype in a game like War for the Crown or Council of Thieves.
Sha’ir is an incredibly bad archetype. Read if you want a good laugh, but otherwise avoid like the plague.
Versatility: -2
Power: -2
Stacks With: None
(1) Jin (Su): Replaces implements and alters mental focus, spellcasting, and implement mastery. Holy class overhaul, Batman! Jin is laughably terrible, for a few reasons. Let’s review:
(2) Augment Jin (Sp, Su): Replaces magic item skill and object reading. Your jinni get your saves and half your HP, which definitely makes them a little beefier, but that only addresses the problem of how to prevent them from getting killed. They can still be dismissed, banished, or separated from you; they still can’t be used as combatants because of the range restrictions on your casting, the risk of getting them killed, and (depending on terrain) the space constraints of having 1-3 Large-to-Huge creatures stomping around. It kinda doesn’t matter that they get bigger and beefier, because all their most important weaknesses are still glaringly open to exploitation. And you still don’t have enough focus powers or resonant powers.
(7) Manifest Jin (Su): Replaces aura sight. Wow! I can really give one of my jin the statistics of a Small elemental at 7th level? You mean it, mister? What a sack of poop. All jin should be given scaling stats, considering all that you’re giving up.
(8) Jin Spy (Su): Alters outside contact. Why on earth would you send your elemental to spy for you when it means losing ⅓ to ½ of your casting abilities in an archetype already hamstrung in nearly every conceivable way?
In the words of a friend of mine, “Sha’ir is a cool idea done almost perfectly unplayably,” and he’s right. You never have my permission to play a Sha’ir, no matter the circumstances. A thousand times no.
The Tome Eater archetype tries to mix in some fun scroll and mental focus replenishment abilities, but trips up on the execution enough that you probably won’t want to play with it.
Versatility: -2
Power: -1
Stacks With: None
(1) Bonded Tome (Su): Alters implements, mental focus, spellcasting, and implement mastery. I’m inclined to think that bonded tome makes you weaker in the long run. For starters, consolidating all your implement schools into one object isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: you can no longer effectively loan out your implements to allies in order to gift them your resonant powers, for example, and you have to worry a lot more about the tome getting sundered or stolen. You also lose access to an entire implement school in exchange for the fairly lame ability to increase a spell’s save DC or caster level by 1 once a day. That’s definitely not worth the loss of an implement school.
(4) Devour Books and Scrolls (Sp): Replaces shift focus, 6th-level implement school, magic circles, outside contact, binding circles, and fast circles. Okay, let’s break this down. This ability, which I’ll call DBAS, gives you the option to pay money for mental focus. If it doesn’t seem like that at first, remember that all the options listed (nonmagical books, magical books, spellbooks, scrolls, etc.) are all saleable items. You’re therefore trading the money you would have gotten for selling those items for mental focus. Is it worth it? Well, let’s take a look.
Book Option | Cost / Mental Focus | Price Per Focus |
Nonmagical Book | 25 gp / 1 mental focus | 25 gp/focus |
Magical Book | 750 gp / 8 mental focus Book of extended summoning, lesser | 94 gp/focus, 47 gp/focus crafted |
Scrolls | 1st Level 25 gp / 1 mental focus 2nd Level 150 gp / 2 mental focus 3rd Level 375 gp / 3 mental focus | 1st Level 25 gp/focus, 12.5 gp/focus crafted 2nd Level 75 gp/focus, 37.5 gp/focus crafted 3rd Level 125 gp/focus, 62.5 gp/focus crafted |
Spellbooks | Variable / 4 mental focus | Likely to be high |
As you can see, these just aren’t the greatest bonuses. Taking Craft Wondrous Item and continuously crafting books of extended summoning, lesser will give you up to 8 mental focus in a single pop (this was the cheapest magical book I could find that was both craftable and had a high caster level) but gets costly to run every day. Plus, you never get to devour more than one tome per day, so your potential for unlimited mental focus is, well, limited.
As far as devouring enemy casting goes, the big limitation is that you can only devour scrolls, and even then only when you’ve readied a standard action to do so (at least until 16th level). Between the high likelihood of wasting valuable standard actions in combat and the extremely niche constraints on devouring only scrolls—not wands, not spells, not magic items, not spell-like abilities—you might be waiting a very long time to be able to use DBAS even once. The ability to tap backout power from a book of extended summoning, lesser is the only thing that saves DBAS from being abysmal.
(5) Word Sense (Sp, Su): Replaces aura sight. I get the thematic connection between word sense and the Tome Eater archetype, but this ability simply isn’t a good replacement for aura sight, which is one of the most versatile tools an Occultist has in their toolbox.
No, it’s really not. Losing an entire implement school, aura sight, outside contact, magic circles, etc. in exchange for DBAS just isn’t a great trade.
For new players, “dipping” describes the process of taking some small number of class levels in a different class than the class the player intends to end up in eventually. One-level dips are the easiest, and most players agree that after about three levels you’re not really “dipping” anymore, but going for a truer multiclass. Dipping usually accomplishes a few things—the more things, the better the case for the dip.
With that in mind, what are some good dips for the Occultist?
As far as who might want to take a dip in Occultist, well, it’s probably going to be full martials piling in for a transmutation and abjuration implement. They’ll lose out on a point of BAB for a 1- or 2-level dip, but in exchange they get better Will saves, a few spells like enlarge person or shield every day, and the excellent Aegis and Legacy Weapon focus powers. The bonuses will never scale very high with only 1 or 2 levels, of course, but do you have any idea what a Fighter or Slayer could do with the ability to flexibly pull in any +1 enchantment they wanted? Pretty awesome. Anyone else, don’t bother. Occultists need to be played as single-class as possible in order to achieve maximum results.
Introduced in Pathfinder Unchained, Variant Multiclassing (or VMC, for short) allowed players to progress two classes in parallel, rather than in sequence. The price—there’s always a price—is most of your feats. Womp womp. For classes like Fighter, where feats aren’t a problem, variant multiclassing can be an excellent adjunct to your class abilities, giving you new tools for little overall penalty. The issue with variant multiclassing and Occultists is that Occultists receive no bonus feats, and are already incredibly feat-hungry. That’s not to say there’s no place for variant multiclassing, just that it’s a tool that’s best applied judiciously. Here are some of the better variant multiclassing options available:
Gestalt character creation is a process that essentially combines all the class features and casting capabilities of two classes, and is typically done when PCs need to be extra powerful, as when an adventure path designed for a four-person party is only being run by two or three PCs. Complete rules can be found here. It’s not terribly difficult to pick a gestalt class, because anything you choose isn’t a trade-off so much as an addition. That said, there are choices that maximize what Occultists can already do, so in this section we’ll detail general precepts for what you should be looking out for in a gestalt pairing.
Let’s start off on the martial side, shall we? With more skill ranks, a perfect complement in class skills, a strong Reflex save, full BAB, a d10 Hit Die, bonus feats, and an Intelligence focus, Slayer is the combo that every Occultist dreams about. Sneak attack and studied target are a monstrous combo, and access to the Ranger’s combat styles makes building a combat chassis with fewer prerequisites an absolute cinch. The only thing that’s preventing the Slayer from being even more OP than it already is is its lack of spellcasting—but with the Occultist’s spells and primarily self-buffing focus powers, this gestalt match-up is made in heaven. You don’t even have to pick up Trappings of the Warrior if you don’t want to, since Slayer gives you full BAB! Dynamite. Any martial gestalt section for 1e has to include the Fighter, of course. With a poorer class skill list, fewer skill ranks, a weak Reflex save, and not really any more bonus feats than Slayer once you factor in slayer talents, Fighter doesn’t impress me as much as Slayer. You get free heavy armor proficiency right off the bat, of course, and advanced weapon training can do some truly ludicrous things; bravery is also curiously good when paired with psychic casting, so you might want to consider not throwing that away in an archetype. Brawler and Occultist might honestly be among the most complicated gestalt combos in the game, but if you’ve got the chops for it, it does a lot of the same work as Slayer, granting a strong Reflex save, full BAB, a d10 Hit Die, bonus feats, brawler’s flurry, AC bonuses, and of course—the cherry on the sundae—martial flexibility. Your Occultist half buffs you to the gills, and then your Brawler half drops the hammer. You would need a ridiculous amount of systems mastery to be able to pull this combo off, but man, what a pairing if you know your business. As for all the other full-BAB classes, those will be suboptimal; they’re primarily based on Wisdom or Charisma, and you can’t afford to split your point buy in a gestalt pairing any more than you can in a character with only one class.
Moving on to the ¾-BAB ⅔ casters: pretty slim pickings here. Available Intelligence-based classes include Alchemist, Investigator, Magus, and Ninja/UnRogue. Magus, as far as I’m concerned, is fairly unremarkable as a gestalt pairing. No new saves, no new BAB, no new HD, and your innate medium armor proficiency from Occultist won’t come online for the Magus half until later levels. Since psychic casting has no spell failure chance, you generally want to avoid arcane gestalt pairings—too tricky to handle the mixed casting component sets. Ninja/UnRogue, likewise, is pretty uninspired. Sure, you get more skill ranks and a better Reflex save, but rogue talents are pretty lackluster overall and you don’t gain any BAB increase to make all those sneak attacks hit. What are you getting here that Slayer couldn’t give you, but better? Last and best in their ¾-BAB class, Alchemist/Investigator makes for a nice gestalt combo with the Occultist. They play very differently, of course, with Alchemist leaning harder into combat (either through bombs or mutagens) and Investigators leaning harder into skill dominance (with inspiration and investigator talents), but both are supremely flexible extract casters capable of ridiculous stuff like alchemical allocation abuse, Eternal Potion, and other shenanigans. I’ve already written a guide about the Investigator class, so feel free to look there for more inspiration about this combo.
Lastly, we have the full casters. Typically, these classes won’t offer you a better Hit Die, BAB progression, Reflex save, or skill rank number, but they will offer you more spells. Like, lots more spells. Let’s dive in. If you’re sticking with base Occultist or most archetypes for the Occultist half, I’m afraid to report that the only game in town is Psychic. Psychics get a lot of guff in the community as “Sorcerers, but worse,” but I don’t see that as a fair criticism. I think Psychics are less familiar to most players, and so they get derided without people understanding much about them. Paired with Trappings of the Warrior on the Occultist side, you can have full BAB, a d8 HD, medium or heavy armor proficiency, ⅔ casting and focus powers for self-buffing, and full casting for blasting, divining, debuffing, freaking binary mindscapes, or anything else you might want to do with your Psychic half. Splitting point buy away from solely Intelligence will likely result in slightly softer save DCs than a single-class Psychic would have, but dang it all if you won’t be tough as nails compared with your average Psychic.
But hang on a second! We’ve overlooked the Silksworn, which takes away your panoplies and weapon/armor proficiencies but gives you a bunch more casting tricks to compensate. Silksworn convert the Occultist’s psychic casting into arcane casters, which means that Silksworn will pair quite well with other arcane casters. Wizard, of course, is an obvious, classic choice: the addition of a permanent familiar, prepared casting from the best spell list in the game, and all the metamagic feats you can shake a stick at is a welcome change from the normally limited Occultist casting routine. This pairing leaves you more free than ever to focus exclusively on self-buffs in your Silksworn casting while dedicating the Wizard half to battlefield control, summoning, debuffing, blasting, or whatever else you might wish for. While we’re on the subject of prepared casters, we’ve just got to mention Witch. The spell list isn’t as flashy, but works quite a bit better for debuffing than the Wizard/Sorcerer’s spell list. Plus—who could forget?—the addition of hexes further adds to your casting longevity throughout the day. Now you have two sets of somewhat-renewable resources (hexes and focus powers) and two sets of spells (Witch and Occultist). The Witch + Silksworn combo makes one of the premiere buffing/debuffing builds in the game, so take advantage of that if you possibly can. Saving the best (in my opinion) for last, can we talk about the Arcanist, Mac? I’ve been dying to talk about the Arcanist. I got boxes full of the Arcanist! Arcanists are well known for blending the best of both prepared and spontaneous casting, and their exploit class feature lets them pull out cool tricks from their sleeves in much the same way that the Occultist can with focus powers. These casters hit like trucks and add so much to the Silksworn’s line-up. You can choose to go School Savant Arcanist or Exploiter Wizard if you’d like to mix and match the best of what the Wizard and Arcanist have to offer. Of note, Silksworn Occultists and Arcanists are each somewhat reliant on both Intelligence and Charisma, so you’ll want to go with a race like emberkin aasimar that can grant you bonuses to both at point buy.
The occult classes were released very late in Pathfinder’s lifespan, whereas prestige classes (as holdovers from D&D 3e) tended to be released very early in Pathfinder’s lifespan. Prestige classes are a hard sell for most players in a game where archetypes and judicious multiclassing can do much of what you want to do better than a prestige class. Occultists are penalized even more heavily for jumping out of their base class, because they receive no new spells, focus powers, etc. except at levels when they receive a new implement. If you take enough prestige class levels to miss out on an implement, you’re not just missing out on a portion of the spells and focus powers you would have gotten, you’re missing out on all of them. Additionally, Occultists run on mental focus, whether for focus powers or resonant powers, and mental focus is tied primarily to Occultist level. If you dip jump out of Occultist for another class, you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot. That said, there is one prestige class and one prestige class only that I would give you the all-clear for: Evangelist. Now, the usefulness of Evangelist will depend a great deal on which deity you’re worshiping and what kind of boons they give you, but as you’ll see from the Illusionist and Necromancer builds below the fold, Deific Obedience feats and their associated prestige classes can grant you powers available literally nowhere else. I’ll post the link to my guide, On Bended Knee, which reviews every obedience feat in the game.
Evangelist has a few benefits for Occultists. You get more skill ranks, for one, as well as more class skills to use them on; you get a strong Reflex save to balance out your strong Fortitude and Will saves; you get a very powerful capstone ability in spiritual form; most of all, though, you get boons, special packages of spell-like, supernatural, and extraordinary abilities that thematically match the deity you’re worshiping. Sometimes these boons are really mediocre, but sometimes they’re incredible. Best of all, though, Evangelist grants you an aligned class, which allows you to receive all the class features and spells of one class while you take Evangelist levels. In exchange for 1 level of Occultist—pretty doable—you get all of what Evangelist has to offer! It’s a good deal in many cases, although again, you’ll want to check that the boons you’ll get at 3rd, 6th, and 9th level are worth having. Think it over!
As much as I’d love to give you a detailed run-down of every magical item in Pathfinder, I don’t have to, because I already did! A while back, I released The Armamentarium: a guide that surveys every unique weapon, unique armor, and wondrous item available in the game, then adds content tags to them so that you can easily search for bonuses, ability boosts, and more. It’s a fun little document that will help you build the Occultist you want and need in your own game, instead of the one I could recommend to you from the outside. I will call out a few especially good wondrous items for Occultists, though, and do a thorough review of weapon and armor enchantments that you should be trying to get your mitts on.
“The Big Six”: Magic Weapon/Armor, Amulet of Natural Armor, Ring of Protection, Cloak of Resistance, Mental Stat Headband, Physical Stat Belt (Neck, Ring, Shoulders, Headband, Belt): I know, I know, most veterans don’t need reminding about this. But maybe there are some intrepid new players striking out into the Occultist class who don’t know about the Big Six, and for those who don’t, you definitely need to. Paizo balances all of its encounters around players having most if not all of these items; ignore any of them, and you’ll fall behind the power curve pretty quickly. Make these your first priorities.
Note: As a reminder, Occultists cannot cast any spells while under the influence of non-harmless emotion or fear effects. This is what we in the business like to call “bad.” In general, every Occultist should invest considerable resources into at least one strategy to ensure that they don’t get subjected to these conditions to begin with, and at least one strategy to ensure that they can get out of these conditions pretty quickly if they are subjected to them. Most fear effects in Pathfinder are themselves emotion effects; most emotion effects are, in turn, mind-affecting effects; and most mind-affecting effects rely on failed Will saves. It’s not a perfect model, and there are some fear or emotion effects that aren’t mind-affecting, but generally, increasing your Will save or your saves vs. mind-affecting effects will have positive outcomes in the “downstream” fear and emotion effects.
Four-Leaf Clover (Slotless, CL 5, 3,750 gp): Another extraordinarily cheap item, considering what you’re getting: a 3/day +2 luck bonus to any ability check, skill check, or saving throw. With the Fate’s Favored trait, this gets bumped up to a +3 luck bonus. Using this on saves against spells or effects that will shut down your casting is a Good Idea.™
Ring of the Sublime (Ring, CL 1, 2,000 gp): For a measly 2,000 gp, you get a permanent +4 morale bonus to saves against fear effects. That’s really, really good.
Band of the Stalwart Warrior (Headband, CL 16, 14,000 gp): An expensive, late-game purchase, no doubt, but well, well worth it. Bands of the stalwart warrior make stronger fear conditions like panicked or cowering a thing of the past. Doesn’t matter whether you’re targeted by a Great Old One or a lowly kobold: you’re only shaken. From there, you can use other effects to work your way down from shaken without having to worry about using all your actions to flee at top speed.
Headband of Unshakeable Resolve (Headband, CL 8, 5,600 gp): One of the troubles with the band of the stalwart warrior is that, from a psychic casting perspective, the shaken condition is as bad as the cowering condition. Either one is a total lockout for your emotion components. The headband of unshakeable resolve won’t do quite as well against frightened or panicked as the band of the stalwart warrior will, but it deals with the shaken condition (which is far more common) much more efficiently. And it’s cheaper!
Hollis’s Lucky Rock (Slotless, CL 11, 35,000 gp): Very expensive, but of course good hope is an excellent spell and a +2 luck bonus to all saves against fear and emotion effects (+3, if you were wise enough to take the Fate’s Favored trait) will go a long way toward making your casting more resilient. If you’re looking for a cheaper version of this, a four-leaf clover will give you the same bonuses, but only 3/day on saves you choose.
Hood of Privacy (Head, CL 15, 120,000 gp): I mean, sure, if you’ve got 120k gp lying around, a +4 untyped bonus vs. mind-affecting effects is obviously great. For the rest of us, though…
Manual of Calm Reflection (Slotless, CL 5, 4,000 gp): An hour of work for a +2 untyped bonus vs. mind-affecting effects if Irori is your patron. You could do a great deal worse.
Meditation Tea (Slotless, Mundane, 30 gp): +2 alchemical bonus against mind-affecting effects for 10 minutes, and you can reroll a failed save if you drink it while affected? I’ll take ten dozen!
Mellowroot (Slotless, Mundane, 25 gp): A +5 alchemical bonus against fear effects is excellent, and the drawback is pretty easily avoided, especially later in the game.
Nostalgia Oil (Slotless, Mundane, 80 gp): A little pricy for a mundane item, but one dose lasts 8 hours and grants a +2 alchemical bonus to saves against emotion effects and any compulsion effect that would turn users against their allies. I call that worth it, especially since alchemical bonuses are vanishingly rare.
Padma Blossom (Slotless, CL 3, 8,000 gp): The padma blossom is interesting in that it doesn’t cure the effects that would shut down your casting—it merely suppresses them. But yeah, a +3 competence bonus to concentration checks, a 2/day calm emotions, and the ability to suppress fear, confused, dazed, and stunned conditions at will is monstrously good.
Banner of the Ancient Kings (Slotless, CL 8, 18,000 gp): Initiative bonuses are all well and good, but we want those sweet, sweet chances to shake off mind-affecting effects. It’s very expensive, and not suited for every Occultist build, but mind-affecting effects are powerful indeed.
Book of War Prayers (Slotless, Mundane, 50 gp): Sock one rank in Perform (Oratory) and you can have a more or less permanent +2 morale bonus to saves against fear for the entire party. Incredibly cheap. Why not?
Covenant Rings (Slotless, Mundane, 100 gp): Another great mundane pick-up. Won’t take up a magic ring slot, costs nothing, and grants a +1 untyped bonus to saves against fear effects. Easy peasy.
Elixir of Repression (Slotless, CL 3, 150 gp): 150 gp for 12 hours of +2 insight bonuses vs. mind-affecting effects seems reasonable to me, and you should be able to crush a DC 13 Will save by the time you can regularly purchase these elixirs.
Fortifying Brew (Slotless, Mundane, 20 gp): The bonuses last only 1 hour, but they’ll guard against fear effects with a +2 morale bonus. Doesn’t stack with heroism or books of war prayers.
Icecap Ale (Slotless, Mundane, 40 gp): What a cheap, powerful 1-minute boost! A +2 alchemical bonus to Strength and Constitution, and a +4 alchemical bonus against compulsion and fear effects. You’ll be pretty weak for the next hour, but what of it?
Saga of the Linnorm Kings (Slotless, CL 3, 26,000 gp): Permanent Diplomacy, Intimidate, and save bonuses vs. fear effects always do good work. Too bad it’s so expensive.
Amulet of Courage (Neck, CL 3, 6,000 gp): I like that amulets of courage cast remove fear on the wearer automatically when they’re subjected to a fear effect, but I don’t like that you get that effect only 1/day, and I certainly don’t like that it only works on supernatural and magical fear effects. Any schmuck with a halfway decent Intimidate score can cause someone to suffer a non-magical fear effect that’ll do just as much damage.
Cap of the Free Thinker (Head, CL 10, 12,000 gp): Very expensive for a 1/day reroll, but then again, mind-affecting effects are the worst of the worst.
Grim Helm (Head, CL 3, 48,000 gp): One of the few ways I know of becoming immune to fear effects through an item, but man, what a cost—both monetary and in terms of lost morale bonuses.
Pelt of the Ulfen Wolf (Shoulders, CL 3, 14,800): The best part of the pelt of the ulfen wolf is only available to humans, unfortunately, which knocks it down a bit in usefulness. If you’re human, though, hoo boy, look out, because this item combines all the best features of the band of the stalwart warrior and headband of unshakeable resolve. Anytime you’re affected by a fear effect, the item gives you a new save each round to bring it down by one severity step, all the way to unaffected. Great for shaking off passing shaken conditions.
Ring of Fear Reflection (Ring, CL 7, 48,000 gp): Mama pajama, that’s expensive. These are big, scaling bonuses to saves against fear effects, though, and the ability to turn those effects back on their originators is no small thing. If you’ve ever wanted to see a dragon poop itself because of its own frightful presence aura, here’s your moment. In most instances, though, a ring of the sublime will do almost as much for you at...let’s see, 1/24th the cost.
Rod of Steadfast Resolve (Rod, CL 9, 38,305 gp): You probably have much better, cheaper options available for morale bonuses, but don’t turn your nose up at one of these if it knocks at your door.
Soul Soap (Slotless, Mundane, 200 gp): Good if you need repeated saves against some long-acting mind-affecting effect, but otherwise, a 1-minute activation time won’t make it very good for combat.
Banner of the Scarlet Rose (Slotless, CL 7, 18,000 gp): Expensive, and a resistance bonus. Blah.
Halo of Inner Calm (Head, CL 15, 16,000 gp): Expensive, tiefling-exclusive, and a resistance bonus, which will eventually get outclassed by a cloak of resistance. Nah.
Headband of Sealed Thoughts (Headband, CL 15, 150,000 gp): Incredibly expensive, and only functions for mythic users.
Mind Sentinel Medallion (Neck, CL 1, 3,500 gp): Resistance bonus.
Rimeheart Amulet (Neck, CL 9, 40,000 gp): Expensive, evil, and a resistance bonus. Again, nope.
Torc of Lionheart Fury (Neck, CL 3, 8,000 gp): The morale bonus is beaten handily by a ring of the sublime.
Rod of Metamagic, Lesser Logical (Rod, CL 17, 3,000 gp): Every Occultist needs at least one of these rods. You can feel free to purchase a normal metamagic rod at later levels if you’re a casting-focused Occultist, but most builds that cast spells as a side gig can get by with a lesser version. You just can’t risk being caught off-guard by an emotion or fear effect.
Rod of Metamagic, Lesser Intuitive (Rod, CL 17, 3,000 gp): Thought components were always the less deadly of the two psychic spellcasting components, and with the centering jewel available, I just can’t think of a reason why you would buy this metamagic rod.
Centering Jewel (Headband, CL 1, 1,000 gp): Centering yourself as a swift action is great if you intend to cast defensively pretty often, especially if you intend to cast metamagic-enhanced spells as a full-round action in melee range. The headband slot conflicts with your headband of vast intelligence, though, so you’ll need to talk to your GM about paying a little more money for the jewel as a slotless item or ioun stone unless you’re playing with Automatic Bonus Progression.
Nine-Eaves Key (Slotless, CL 3, 1,500 gp): Nine-eaves keys can be purchased or crafted for a song, and grant a rare +4 insight bonus to activate a single magical item chosen by the user each day. In the early game, these items can help you burst up to the DC 20 UMD check necessary to activate a wand, and once you’re regularly achieving a DC 20 check, you can instead attune it to your highest-level scrolls, whose DCs will continue to increase with their caster level. Cheap, powerful bonuses to UMD are just what we’re after in this class.
Wand Key Ring (Slotless, CL 5, 3,000 gp): We love UMD bonuses in the Occultist class, but a +10 insight bonus is probably overkill in most cases, especially because that bonus will only ever apply to one spell. A nine-eaves key is more what we’re looking for, being both cheaper and more flexible.
Eye of the Overwatched (Neck, CL 5, 10,000 gp): The eye of the overwatched grants a focus power (Spellarmor) that’s fantastic for all Occultists, whose psychic casting is so vulnerable to one-save fear and emotion effects. It’s even better for anticaster Occultists, who can expect to face those effects on a regular basis as intelligent spellcasters seek to strip away their tools. As with so many great magical items, though, the eye conflicts with your amulet of natural armor, which is one of those essential Big Six items that Pathfinder’s encounters are balanced around. I’d encourage anyone to take a look at the Automatic Bonus Progression rules introduced in Pathfinder Unchained, which will allow you to wear these items with no fear that you’re gimping yourself.
Spidersilk Medallion (Neck, CL 3, 3,240 gp): The web spell-like ability granted by the Mindweave Web focus power is decent at lower levels, but simply won’t scale into the endgame. The DC 15 Reflex save that enemies use to determine whether they’re caught in the first round is also the Escape Artist and CMD of the web, and most enemies will be able to crush a DC 15 check before long. Web is always useful for area denial, difficult terrain, granting cover to allies, etc., but it’s not going to slow enemies for long without some way to boost its save DC. Oh, and it conflicts with your amulet of natural armor.
Meldrel’s Underwater Orb (Slotless, CL 7, 32,000 gp): Meldrel’s underwater orb is incredibly expensive, especially given that it grants no permanent bonuses of any kind. One with the Depths, the focus power granted by the item, would be an excellent pick-up in an aquatic-themed campaign like Ruins of Azlant, but the item is far too expensive—and its effects far too circumstantial—to ever consider in a normal campaign. Unless you plan to spend the vast majority of your time underwater, you should plan to use scrolls or wands to pursue subnautical adventuring.
Refocusing Rod (Slotless, CL 10, 5,000 gp): You’re essentially paying 5,000 gp for 1 extra point of mental focus per day. If that doesn’t sound like a good trade, well, you’re right: it’s not.
Wing of the Shorn Harpy (Slotless, Cl 16, 48,000 gp): The idea of replacing spells in an implement is cool, and I wish Paizo had made more items for Occultists along these lines. You’re not actually gaining any spells in your arsenal, though, merely replacing the spells you know with the spells the item grants. That won’t do, especially at the absurd price point of 48,000 gp. If you love these spells so much, get scrolls or wands of them.
Carouser’s Retort (Rapier, CL 3, 3,060 gp): Plenty of Finesse Occultists will be using rapiers with an Inspired Blade Swashbuckler dip, so carouser’s retort is a great purchase. You get a 1/day remove fear that activates automatically if you’re ever frightened or panicked. Perfect for keeping your psychic casting safe.
Clarity (Scimitar, CL 7, 21,015 gp): Expensive, but worth it. A +1 holy scimitar never goes out of fashion, nor does the 3/day remove fear you get.
Luthier’s Rapier (Rapier, CL 11, 25,020 gp): Similar to clarity: expensive, but a powerful deterrent to fear effects, and a good weapon.
Rose Knight’s Blade (Longsword, CL 10, 28,015 gp): Great for shrugging out of mind-affecting effects, but only 3/day, and rather expensive.
Everbloom’s Rose (Morningstar, CL 3, 3,000 gp): A little poorer a weapon than carouser’s retort, and for about the same price point, everbloom’s roses are still good weapons that’ll help you out with fear conditions.
Howling Skull Armor (Studded Leather, CL 7, 20,375 gp): A +4 untyped bonus to saves against fear effects is just what the doctor ordered, and if you succeed at a save, you even get a boost to your Will saves for 1 round. A great anticaster armor.
Inheritor’s Breastplate (Breastplate, CL 3, 2,430 gp): Bless weapon and remove fear 1/day does great for in-your-face melee Occultists, especially anticasters.
Weapon enchantments for Occultists are a bit weird, if I’m being honest. Most classes want to pick up enchantments like keen, agile, culling, cruel, etc. as needed based on their builds for crit fishing, Weapon Finesse, Cleave, demoralization, etc. Occultists aren’t really built to do any one thing, though, and the addition of the Legacy Weapon focus power in your transmutation implement school completely rejiggers priorities for weapon enchantments. Instead of making special weapon enchantments the sexiest permanent options available for Occultists, Legacy Weapon makes basic enhancement bonuses the sexiest permanent options, in much the same way that a Brawler’s martial flexibility class feature makes “boring” feats like Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus, and Power Attack the sexiest permanent options. At the very worst, permanent enhancement bonuses on your weapon of choice will grant you better attack rolls, better damage rolls that multiply on crits, and DR penetration (DR/magic with a +1, DR/cold iron or alchemical silver with a +3, DR/adamantine with a +4, and DR/alignment with a +5). None of those are bad things! Legacy Weapon then lets you assign weapon enchantments far more flexibly: got a load of summoned creatures on the field? How about a summon bane weapon? Incorporeals giving you grief? Boom, ghost touch. Suddenly need to combat something underwater? Blammo, seaborne will take care of most of your troubles. Unless I specify that an enchantment works better as a permanent fixture, you should assume that Legacy Weapon is your best way to get the enchantment.
Generally speaking, though, your strongest move in nearly all circumstances will be to identify the enemy as a free action, then charge up a bane weapon against that creature type. Imagine! Inquisitors have to scrimp for rounds per day, but you just get a full 10 rounds every time you use Legacy Weapon. If you’re fighting outsiders or other creatures that you know have DR/alignment, holy/unholy/axiomatic/anarchic weapons become available at +2, and you can stack both bane and one of the alignment enchantments at +3. Or heck, just skip straight to a redeemed weapon, which will deal +4d6 damage to all evil creatures in addition to letting you bypass DR, granting bonuses on Knowledge checks, saves, and more. Those three sets of enchantments (bane, holy/unholy/axiomatic/anarchic, and redeemed) should take care of approximately 80-90% of your enchantment workload; I’ll recommend that you browse The Armamentarium for a complete list of options in addition to those I recommend here.
+1, Bane: The god-emperor of Legacy Weapon enchantments, bane is cheap, flexible, and gives you both improved to-hit and improved damage. You’ll have to have a reasonable guess about what an enemy’s type is (no metagaming, please) but Occultists’ Knowledge skills aren’t half bad, and you can rely on the team as needed. Bane should almost always be your first enchantment in and your last enchantment out.
+1, Training: Two purple enchantments? Allerseelen, have you gone crazy? No. No, I have not. Training weapons grant you one free combat feat when they are held in your hand. Under normal circumstances, this is no big deal: most classes cannot swap out weapon enchantments on the fly, so training is an even swap, a +1 bonus in exchange for one free combat feat. But you have Legacy Weapon. The training enchantment therefore becomes a cheap martial flexibility, letting you trade 1 point of mental focus for any combat feat in the game. The Combat Trick focus power from Trappings makes you spend 3 points of mental focus on this normally. Use it. Love it. And maybe check out a Brawler guide or the feat web tool to help you navigate that incredibly complex system. (Note: there’s nothing at all in the Legacy Weapon text that prevents you from changing your feat every time you use the ability. This is not some picky rules-lawyer fringe case: bane, defiant, anarchic/axiomatic/holy/unholy, etc. all allow you to pick a different option each time you use Legacy Weapon. Your GM might want to push back and say that you should only get to pick one feat for the day, but you tell them I sent you. Also tell them to look at the text of the paragon surge spell if they want to see how Paizo words effects that they don’t want to change despite multiple castings.)
+1, Courageous: I wouldn’t give courageous the time of day for most classes, but it’s a different story for Occultists, who can’t cast any spells if they’re under a fear effect. Morale bonuses against fear this big don’t come along unless you’ve got a party Bard.
+1, Cunning: You’re an Intelligence-based class with martial weapon proficiency and a bunch of skill ranks for Knowledges. Who wouldn’t want these bonuses to confirm crits, especially if you have a keen weapon, Improved Critical, and an 18-20 falchion, rapier, etc.?
+1, Distracting / +2, Greater Distracting: A top-shelf magehunting and anticaster enchantment. Get yourself a distracting weapon with Step Up and watch as casters start wetting themselves around you.
+1, Ghost Touch: As a permanent enchantment, ghost touch is pretty lackluster. As a temporary enchantment that you can pull in at will with Legacy Weapon, ghost touch freaking rules the school. Get ready to dominate every incorporeal fight for the rest of the game.
+1, Keen: Keen is always a good enchantment if your weapon has a 19-20 or 18-20 crit range. I prefer to take Improved Critical on combat-focused Occultists in order to free up your Legacy Weapon for other effects, but this route is available much sooner.
+2, Anarchic / +2, Axiomatic / +2, Holy / +2, Unholy: Not only do these weapons bypass DR/alignment, they also do +2d6 damage that stacks with bane. Awesomesauce! Watch out for the negative level—you’ll have to stick with enchantments that match your alignment.
+2, Phase Locking: Dimensional anchor is a great spell for preventing outsiders and casters from teleporting away from you. No save here, either—if you hit, they’re locked.
+2, Truthful: Great magehunting enchantment that cuts through a lot of the BS protective effects that casters are usually under, like mirror image or displacement. Nothing wakes a caster up like realizing their protective magic isn’t working.
+3, Redeemed: An incredibly powerful (albeit expensive) enchantment to use against evil-aligned outsiders. It’s not worth it in other contexts.
+1, Cruel: Intimidation tactics are a bit unusual for Occultists, who would need both the Bruising Intellect trait and probably some feat support in order to get a demoralization build off the ground. If you’re in that boat, though, cruel weapons are a way to amp up the debuffing in a very satisfying way.
+1, Dueling (PSFG) / +1, Leveraging: Both performing combat maneuvers and defending against them are a bit niche, but boy howdy, are these enormous bonuses. Fantastic for depriving enemies of weapons, bouncing mooks into the walls, tripping humanoids, and throwing pocket sand! Shishishaw!
+1, Heartseeker: Heartseeker weapons do have some unfortunate target restrictions, but most enemies using concealment will be casters using blur or darkness, etc. Remember that the training enchantment to pick up Blind-Fight is also an option if you’re looking for something with fewer target restrictions.
+1, Limning: Excellent enchantment to keep in mind when you’re fighting enemies with invisibility or stealth powers.
+1, Mimetic: I’m not a huge fan of the fact that you need to keep hitting an enemy in order to gain your energy resistance, but mimetic is still a huge perk to have on board when you’re fighting energy-dominant creatures.
+2, Defiant: The utility of a defiant weapon will depend on a lot of things: the prevalence of diseases, poisons, and other ongoing spell effects, the prevalence of nasty conditions like panicked or stunned, and your investment in the Improved Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, or Iron Will feats. Assuming some or all of those things are in play, defiant weapons make great picks.
+1, Blood-Hunting / +1, Spirit-Hunting / +1, Summon Bane / +2, Heretical / +2, Treasonous: These enchantments are all more niche versions of bane that target different subsets of enemies: Sorcerers/Bloodragers for blood-hunting, Oracles/Shaman for spirit-hunting, Summoners, eidolons, and summoned or called creatures for summon bane, enemies of a particular religion for heretical, and enemies of a particular nationality for treasonous. Like I said: way more niche than bane, but it’s good to know that they’re available.
+1, Breaking / +2, Shattering: Interesting enchantments for when you need to bust through a wall or door, or when you’re facing crystalline creatures. These scenarios won’t come up often, but you should remember these enchantments for when they do.
+1, Fate-Stealing: For the very rare circumstances when you fight a Swashbuckler or Gunslinger, bleed ‘em dry with a fate-stealing weapon.
+1, Guided: Maybe, maybe for a Reliquarian build so that you can focus your point buy on Intelligence and Wisdom. It’s a 3.5e enchantment; if your GM allows you to use it, it should definitely be a permanent enchantment for a Reliquarian. Everyone else can pound sand.
+1, Pitfall: Kind of turns you into a Rogue with trap sense for a minute if used with Legacy Weapon. Certainly wouldn’t be a permanent enchantment.
+1, Seaborne: Man, I could go for some West Wing right now. No? Just me? Okay. Well, a seaborne weapon is everything you’ll need if you find yourself suddenly in aquatic combat. Circumstantial, but that what yellow ratings are for.
+2, Liberating (UI): Helps friends get out from under enchantment effects.
+2, Lifesurge: Outstanding against undead.
+4, Brilliant Energy: An absurdly niche enchantment by the time you gain access to it through Legacy Weapon, brilliant energy is to be used only against enemies with huge armor and/or shield bonuses—the bodyguard to the Wizard BBEG who’s rocking heavy armor and a tower shield, for example. Cuts right through like butter. 100% not worth it unless you’re fighting heavily armored targets.
+1, Planar / +2, Planestriking: These are probably a bit of a trap. If you’re fighting outsiders with DR/alignment, spring for holy, unholy, anarchic, or axiomatic, or try to jump to a +5 weapon if your alignment components would cause you to take a negative level. If you’re fighting outsiders with DR/cold iron or silver, probably best to just burst through to a +3 weapon and bypass it that way. Planar will disappoint in the long run.
+2, Advancing: Too expensive, even if the benefit is good for anticaster builds. My advice would be to purchase Step Up if you want these benefits.
+3, Speed: You have both haste and the Quickness focus power. Ignore.
+1, Mighty Cleaving: Cleave builds wouldn’t be out of the question for Occultists, especially two-handed builds going for Trappings of the Warrior. You could certainly rope in mighty cleaving if you find yourself flooded with minions that you positively need to hit all at the same time.
+2, Culling: Another great enchantment for Cleave builds.
+1, Answering: Assuming you went with a 1-level dip in Inspired Blade Swashbuckler, an answering weapon is fabulous, especially in the early game when you can use Combat Reflexes and a +5 weapon to huge effect when parrying enemy attacks. Loses a bit of functionality as your enhancement bonus climbs, so I wouldn’t keep it around forever.
+1 Fortuitous: Another enchantment that works best on a Combat Reflexes build, fortuitous lets you take more attacks of opportunity against the same enemy in one round—not usually possible.
+1, Agile: If you’re really, really dead set on not getting a Grace feat, agile is kind of the last house on the block. Better as a constant enchantment, though—this is one of the rare ones I wouldn’t use with Legacy Weapon.
+1, Bane: If anything, the bane enchantment is even better on ranged builds, since they can expect to pull off full-attacks more reliably, and the Rapid Shot feat grants an extra attack on top of what’s already possible with your BAB. A Trappings of the Warrior/Rapid Shot/haste Occultist can whip out six attacks in a full-attack action, each of which gets bane and holy damage. If you don’t like the idea of +24d6 damage per turn because of those two enchantments, I have not been painting a very good picture of Pathfinder combat.
+1, Seeking: The seeking enchantment is dependent on concealment and miss chances in your encounter, which (hopefully) won’t be an every-encounter circumstance. When you’re up against blur, displacement, deeper darkness, invisibility, etc., though, cutting right through all concealment is a huge buff.
1,000 gp, Adaptive: Compound longbows are the weapon of choice for ranged Occultists, which means that you’ll be investing at least a little bit in Strength, whether at point buy, through a dual-stat physical belt, or with the Physical Enhancement resonant power from transmutation. No matter what you choose, you’ll need to be able to scale your compound bow’s damage bonus up and down depending to accommodate buffs, changes in your resonant powers, theft or destruction of magic items, ability damage or drain, etc. If you’re wielding a compound longbow with a +5 Strength bonus and you get into a scrap with some greater shadows, you’ll have no sympathy from me if you haven’t spent the meager amount of gold needed to deal with that ability damage.
+1, Ghost Touch: Still pretty boss for ranged Occultists. You want to be able to shoot holes in ghosts, right?
+1, Plummeting: Plummeting weapons are a lot of fun, and very useful in the endgame, when nearly all enemies are capable of some kind of flight. Each time you hit, they’re forced to make a Fly check with a fairly stiff penalty—and if they fail, they start to fall. Against enemies with clumsy maneuverability, casters that haven’t invested a lot into the Fly skill, etc., you may be able to ground fliers with relatively little effort on a full-attack. Good stuff.
+1, Sparkfly Crystal Arrow: Kinda like the team-buffing version of seeking. If you need everyone to get better at hitting, instead of just you, this is your enchantment. Very nasty surprise for casters.
+1, Training: Useful weapon enchantments for ranged builds are a little less wide-open than for melee builds, so you’ll usually be using the training enchantment to pick up the next combat feat in your build, reaching for something a little down the line like Manyshot, Point-Blank Master, Improved Precise Shot, Snap Shot, Improved Snap Shot, etc. I’m bumping it down to blue, but it should still do excellent work for nearly any ranged build.
+1, Veering: Until you get Improved Precise Shot, cover bonuses to AC will continue to plague you. Veering makes those problems so, so much easier to bear.
+2, Anarchic / +2, Axiomatic / +2, Holy / +2, Unholy: Not only do these weapons bypass DR/alignment, they also do +2d6 damage that stacks with bane. Awesomesauce! Watch out for the negative level—you’ll have to stick with enchantments that match your alignment.
+2 Cyclonic: Wind effects or solid fog can make a ranged character’s life hell in a hurry, and certain effects like wind wall just outright block arrows with no save. You don’t need to have cyclonic on for every fight, but you positively must know that this enchantment exists in order to counter casting tactics against smart opponents.
+2, Phase Locking: Even better for ranged builds since they can hit more reliably.
+3, Redeemed: An incredibly powerful (albeit expensive) enchantment to use against evil-aligned outsiders. It’s not worth it in other contexts.
+1, Cunning: Cunning loses some of its punch for ranged Occultists, mostly due to the fact that crit ranges on bows are much higher than the melee weapons you’d be using to crit fish. You still really want to confirm those x3 crits, though...
+1, Cruel: Ranged demoralize builds will probably be using Dazzling Display or something similar to do their work, rather than Cornugon Smash, Enforcer, etc. Assuming you can stick the landing on the AoE Intimidate check, cruel can be even better on a ranged build, because you can then spread the sickened condition around to lots of enemies on your next full-attack.
+1, Distance: Assuming you can even see targets at the 200-300-ft. range that distance compound longbows allow you to attack at, you’re golden. In most circumstances, though, I would think that range increment doubling on a longbow is overkill. This is usually a firearm enchantment.
+1, Distracting / +2, Greater Distracting: A little worse for ranged builds than for melee builds, but still good. The primary problem is that ranged Occultists will have to partner with a melee ally to force those concentration checks, whereas melee Occultists can use distracting, Step Up, etc. all on the same build.
+1, Limning: Excellent enchantment to keep in mind when you’re fighting enemies with invisibility or stealth powers.
+2, Anchoring: Anchoring isn’t great on melee builds, because it forces you to abandon your main weapon in an enemy’s body. When you’re shooting arrows, though, you don’t mind leaving them stuck in, and enemies will have to work hard to get out from under the immobility.
+1, Beaming: A fun one if you’re fighting undead, and ranged builds are ideally suited for taking advantage of high enhancement bonuses to get the most searing lights as possible.
+1, Blood-Hunting / +1, Spirit-Hunting / +1, Summon Bane / +2, Heretical / +2, Treasonous: As it is for melee weapons, so it is for ranged weapons. They’re still very niche, but can be worth it.
+2, Lesser Designating / +4, Greater Designating: How good these enchantments are will depend on the availability of morale bonuses to hit. If you’ve got no Bard and no heroism floating around, blue blue blue.
+4, Brilliant Energy: An absurdly niche enchantment by the time you gain access to it through Legacy Weapon, brilliant energy is to be used only against enemies with huge armor and/or shield bonuses—the bodyguard to the Wizard BBEG who’s rocking heavy armor and a tower shield, for example. Cuts right through like butter. 100% not worth it unless you’re fighting heavily armored targets.
1,875 / 7,500 / 16,875 gp, Sniping: Occultists have no compelling reason to snipe, with no means of acquiring sneak attack dice or other damage that relies on enemies having lost their Dexterity to AC. Ignore these.
+1, Planar / +2, Planestriking: No better on ranged builds than they are on melee builds.
+3, Speed: You have both haste and the Quickness focus power. Ignore.
+4, Nimble Shot: As enticing as it is not to provoke in melee, you’d be spending the entirety of your Legacy Weapon enhancement bonus on this enchantment, and you’ve likely had Point-Blank Master for many levels. Save your bonuses.
+4, Second Chance: A 1/round reroll is a great thing, but far too expensive at +4. Focus instead on increasing your passive bonuses to hit through effects like bane or veering.
Armor enchantments for Occultists are also pretty weird, albeit not quite as weird as for weapons. First, armor enchantments just aren’t as interesting as weapon enchantments. There are fewer of them, they have less exciting effects, and they don’t meaningfully improve your offensive output. Second, AC is one of the least important defensive metrics as you plow into higher levels where on-hit save riders, save-or-die spells, poisons, and sky-high monster attack rolls make AC less relevant than it is at lower levels. Third, Aegis (the focus power that lets you adjust your armor or shield enchantments in the way that Legacy Weapon lets you adjust your weapon enchantments) is not the base focus power in the abjuration school, so you won’t get access to it as soon as you pick up the implement school. Instead, you’ll have to wait to purchase it later on. It’s a minor inconvenience, but one that transmutation doesn’t struggle with.
+1, Defiant: Defiant is to armors and shields as bane is to weapons, which should tell you everything you need to know. Once you have an enemy identified, throw down defiant with Aegis in order to scoop up some easy AC bonuses and DR.
5,000 gp, Rallying: The way the enchantment is worded, I think that the person who wears the armor doesn’t get the bonuses. If you have an allied Paladin, Cavalier, Bard, etc., though, a +6 morale bonus to saves vs. fear effects will go a really, really long way toward keeping your psychic casting safe from a shutdown.
+3, Sensing: Expensive as all get out, but it’s imperative that you remember you have this option available to you in case you ever get blinded or thrown into magical darkness without brightest light, remove curse, echolocation, etc. available to you. For the cost of one standard action to use Aegis, you can be back on your feet.
3,750 / 15,000 / 33,750 gp, Slick / Shadow: Occultists aren’t naturally great at either Stealth or Escape Artist checks (it’s just not really what the class was built for) but there may come a time when you don’t want to throw your party into a combat with a failed Stealth check or get swallowed whole with a failed Escape Artist check. The lesser versions of these enchantments, both of which grant a +5 competence bonus to these skill checks, are no-brainers at higher levels; I would prioritize slick if you have to pick one, though. Creeping may be a better investment for medium or heavy armor users if your ACP is high.
4,500 gp, Amorphous: A decent late-game enchantment for resisting grapples and wriggling into tight spaces.
4,500 gp, Restful: A great enchantment if you intend to do any crafting as an Occultist, or for general watch-keeping.
+1, Mirrored: A good pick if you’re facing off against casters that like to use scorching ray, disintegrate, enervation, etc. Also good as a pairing with an assiduous shield if you’re up against gaze attacks.
27,000 gp, Righteous / Unrighteous / Vigilant / Unbound: Don’t get me wrong, righteous might is an amazing spell for melee Occultists, but couldn’t you have bought a bunch of scrolls for this price point?
+1, Deathless: Encounters with enemy Clerics and undead don’t happen all the time, but it’s great to remember that deathless comes with a 25% chance to ignore level drain. You don’t want negative levels anywhere near you. Remember: the best restoration spell is the one you never have to cast.
+1, Impervious: Specifically for fights against enemies that sunder, rust monsters, etc. It’s not worth it except in those fringe scenarios.
+1, Warding: If you ever have occasion to fight an enemy Cavalier, Samurai, Paladin, Antipaladin, or Inquisitor, remember that you have the warding enchantment at your fingertips. It’ll deal with all those nasty class features.
+2, Frosted: Decent anti-grappling enchantment. Keep it in mind if you ever need to slip the surly bonds of an enemy grappler, or spring for slick armor if you tend to use Escape Artist to get out of grapples.
+3, Ghost Touch: Ghost touch armor is way more expensive that ghost touch weaponry, but when you need it, you need it. Keep it in mind for incorporeal undead fights.
18,000 / 42,000 / 66,000 gp, Energy Resistance: Given how inflexible and expensive these bonuses are, I simply can’t recommend them. You have Energy Shield, resist energy, protection from energy, planar aegis, and fire shield. Make do with those.
+1 / +3 / +5, Fortification: I’ll tell you why you don’t want fortification armor: it costs too much. Not only that, but the withstanding armor enchantment will get you 50% crit/sneak attack negation for only a +1 bonus! Why would you ever need this?
+2 / +3 / +4 / +5, Spell Resistance: Laughably low SR that any full caster will tear through like parchment paper. Nah.
+2, Bloodthirsty: Great for Trappings builds that get lots of iterative attacks, and doubly so for ranged Trappings builds with Rapid Shot. You should be able to rack up quite the enhancement bonus through bloodthirsty armor.
+1, Withstanding: Defiant withstanding armor is a sight to behold: +2 AC, DR 2/—, 50% crit and sneak attack negation, and +2 to all Knowledge checks. You need to be able to identify the creature’s type, of course, but once you do, you’re golden. This enchantment is why you should never bother to pay for medium fortification armor. Why pay +3 when you could pay +1?
+2, Mind Buttressing: Immunity to possession and mental control, including effects like charm person and command. If you have even the slightest inkling that enemy might try to mind-control you, mind buttressing armor is a hard counter.
3,000 gp, Mental Focus: This enchantment was tailor-made for Occultists. 3,000 gp in exchange for a +2 enhancement bonuses to concentration checks (yes, please) and an additional point of mental focus per day (again, yes, please). It’s medium armor only, though, which shows you which side the Occultist’s bread is buttered on.
6,000 gp, Spirit-Bonded: Practically compulsory for Haunt Collectors, who will jump with joy at being able to crank up the efficacy of their spirit bonuses even more.
+1, Bolstering: Competence bonuses to saves are surprisingly rare, so bolstering does a great job of just shoring up all your saves, all the time against single, tough enemies. A little narrower than balanced, but more powerful to compensate.
+1, Balanced: Balanced is a good enchantment to pull in when you know you’re going up against an opponent with lots of save-based effects. Dragons, for instance, are notorious for Reflex saves, while certain enemies may have diseases or poisons that will require great Fortitude saves. Being able to rope in extra bonuses as an immediate action helps protect you from the very worst of these effects.
+2, Bloodthirsty: Great for Trappings builds that get lots of iterative attacks, and doubly so for ranged Trappings builds with Rapid Shot. You should be able to rack up quite the enhancement bonus through bloodthirsty armor.
+1, Terrain-Striding: It’s probably not your best use of Aegis in most circumstances, but terrain-striding armor can still be great by giving Occultists the ability to flexibly change their terrain. Probably loses efficacy as you level up more.
+3, Arrow-Collecting: Way, way too expensive for what it does. This could have been a +1 enchantment.
+2, Mind Buttressing: Immunity to possession and mental control, including effects like charm person and command. If you have even the slightest inkling that enemy might try to mind-control you, mind buttressing armor is a hard counter.
+1, Bolstering: Competence bonuses to saves are surprisingly rare, so bolstering does a great job of just shoring up all your saves, all the time against single, tough enemies. A little narrower than balanced, but more powerful to compensate.
+2, Adamant: A +2 bonus is kind of a big price to pay for DR 3/—, but it may be just what the doctor ordered if you’re up in melee range all the time. Or you could just buy adamantine armor and deal with the cost. At least adamant gives you the opportunity to flex into that, rather than have it on a permanent basis.
+1, Defiant: Defiant is to armors and shields as bane is to weapons, which should tell you everything you need to know. Once you have an enemy identified, throw down defiant with Aegis in order to scoop up some easy AC bonuses and DR.
5,000 gp, Rallying: The way the enchantment is worded, I think that the person who wears the armor doesn’t get the bonuses. If you have an allied Paladin, Cavalier, Bard, etc., though, a +6 morale bonus to saves vs. fear effects will go a really, really long way toward keeping your psychic casting safe from emotion effects.
+4, Bastion: Bastion shields are incredibly expensive, but may just save your life in an anticaster role when you’re hunting down high-powered enchantment specialists—just one extra line of defense between you and a failed save against a dominate person.
+1, Mirrored: A good pick if you’re facing off against casters that like to use scorching ray, disintegrate, enervation, etc. Also good as a pairing with an assiduous shield if you’re up against gaze attacks.
+1, Assiduous: Assiduous is one of those enchantments you would never want as a permanent enchantment—gaze attacks are just too rare for that to be worth a permanent reduction in your enhancement bonus. As a temporary pick with Aegis, though, assiduous is incredibly good for those fights where you are up against gaze attacks.
+1, Impervious: Specifically for fights against enemies that sunder, rust monsters, etc. It’s not worth it except in those fringe scenarios.
+1, Rebounding: So many niche +1 enchantments! Rebounding shields are awesome when you need to shut down an enemy Alchemist using bombs on you. Improved AC vs. splash weapons, and if they miss, you get to decide where the rebound lands.
+2, Arrow Deflection: Occultists (especially those using shields) probably won’t have the Reflex saves needed to take full advantage of the arrow deflection enchantment, but a DC 25 Reflex save—the maximum you’re ever likely to run into—isn’t super hard to hit at higher levels, especially with feat and item support. Maybe something to keep in mind if you’re squaring off against an enemy archer abusing Manyshot against you.
+2, Frosted: Decent anti-grappling enchantment. Keep it in mind if you ever need to slip the surly bonds of an enemy grappler, or spring for slick armor if you tend to use Escape Artist to get out of grapples.
+3, Ghost Touch: Ghost touch armor is way more expensive that ghost touch weaponry, but when you need it, you need it. Keep it in mind for incorporeal undead fights.
18,000 / 42,000 / 66,000 gp, Energy Resistance: Given how inflexible and expensive these bonuses are, I simply can’t recommend them. You have Energy Shield, resist energy, protection from energy, planar aegis, and fire shield. Make do with those.
+1 / +3 / +5, Fortification: Fortification shields aren’t any better than fortification armor. Pick up withstanding on your armor, use the particulate form spell, or find another way to shrug off crits.
+2 / +3 / +4 / +5, Spell Resistance: Laughably low SR that any full caster will tear through like parchment paper. Nah.
X
Role | Race | Class | |
The Slayer | Combat Two-Handed Melee | Half-Elf | Haunt Collector 15 (Trappings of the Warrior) |
The Swashbuckler | Combat Finesse Melee | Elf | Inspired Blade 1/Panoply Savant 14 (Trappings of the Warrior) |
The Ranger | Combat Ranged | Human | Psychodermist 15 (Trappings of the Warrior) |
The Spellsword | Combat Anticaster | Half-Elf | Haunt Collector 15 (Trappings of the Warrior) |
The Druid | Casting Battlefield Control | Rimesoul Undine | Geomancer 15 |
The Sorcerer | Casting Blasting | Half-Elf | Panoply Savant 15 (Mage’s Paraphernalia) |
The Cleric | Casting Buffing | Dwarf | Reliquarian/Panoply Savant 15 (Saint’s Holy Regalia) |
The Witch | Casting Debuffing | Tiefling | Necroccultist 15 (Mage’s Paraphernalia) |
The Illusionist | Casting Illusions | Gnome | Silksworn 15 |
The Diviner | Casting Scouting, Scrying, Spying | Halfling | Silksworn 15 |
The Necromancer | Casting Summoning | Elf | Necroccultist 15 |
The Bard | Skills Infiltration & Interaction | Half-Elf | Panoply Savant 15 (Performer’s Accoutre.) |
The Investigator | Skills Knowledge Jockey | Sylph | Haunt Collector 15 |
CN Half-Elf Haunt Collector Occultist 15
Strength: 15 (+2) Dexterity: 12 Constitution: 14 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 7
Primary Weapon: Greatsword
Racial Traits: Blended View
Traits: Bruising Intellect (Basic: Social); Reactionary (Basic: Combat) or Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic)
Favored Class Bonuses: Mental focus 1-20
1: Implements 2 (transmutation 1 / abjuration 1)
2: Implements 3 (Trappings of the Warrior), magic item skill, object reading, possessed possessions
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Hauntist
6: Implements 4 (conjuration 1 + Champion spirit bonus)
7:
8: Extricate haunt, spirit speaker
9:
10: Implements 5 (divination 1)
11:
12:
13:
14: Implements 6 (evocation 1 + Guardian spirit bonus)
15:
1: Skill Focus: UMD (racial bonus), Heavy Armor Proficiency, Aegis (abjuration)
2:
3: Power Attack, Energy Shield (abjuration)
4:
5: Intimidate Skill Unlock, Quickness (transmutation)
6:
7: Cornugon Smash, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
8:
9: Extra Focus Power, Flesh Mend (conjuration), Side Step (conjuration; feat bonus)
10:
11: Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Quickness), Mind Eye (divination)
12:
13: Hurtful, Danger Sight (divination)
14:
15: Extra Mental Focus, Counterstrike (Trappings of the Warrior)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Trans. | Lead blades | Versatile weapon | Haste | Echolocation | Particulate form | Statue |
1st Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Stoneskin | Spell resistance | Antimagic field |
2nd Trappings | Enlarge person | Bullet shield | Fly | Freedom of movement | Stoneskin, communal | Invoke deity |
6th Conj. | Cure light wounds | Ablative barrier | Cure serious wounds | Dimension door | Wall of stone | Heal |
10th Div. | Heightened awareness | See invisibility | Locate weakness | Glimpse of truth | True seeing | Greater scrying |
14th Evoc. | Shocking grasp | Force sword | Twilight knife | Etheric shards | Wall of force | Blade barrier |
The Slayer build assumes that you’re not really interested in nuance as an Occultist. You wanna smash, you wanna tank, you wanna watch heads roll. We’re going to take the Haunt Collector archetype in order to access the Champion spirit and its static and spirit bonuses to damage—abilities like Champion spirit and Sudden Insight from divination are going to be part of your burst-damage nova potential, so embrace them. At the most basic level, you’ll use lead blades, shield, and enlarge person as your primary self-buffs, paired with haste or the Quickness focus power to increase your movement speed and grant you extra iterative attacks. Trappings of the Warrior is a must-have for full BAB, obviously, so by 5th level you should be attacking with full BAB, perma-hasted, and a greatsword that deals 4d6 base damage. Legacy Weapon, Aegis, Mind Over Gravity, and Quickness should receive the bulk of your mental focus expenditure. You’ll likely want to invest most of your mental focus in your transmutation implement in order to take advantage of the Physical Enhancement resonant power and your many good focus powers; abjuration is mostly included for spells and panoply access, so you’ll only want a few points of mental focus around in case you need Aegis or Energy Shield suddenly.
As levels roll on, we’re mostly interested in three things: increasing our ability to 1) tank hits and self-heal, 2) counter some common casting tactics, and 3) perform some light debuffing. Quickness + Quicken Spell-Like Ability at 10th level let you get a jump start on buffing at the start of combat, while stoneskin, bullet shield, resist energy, thaumaturgic circle, ablative barrier, particulate form, and statue should have your defenses handled on the spell side of things. Get to know your Legacy Weapon and Aegis options well, as they’re what will ultimately make or break your offense and defense. As for countering common casting tactics, that’s the main purpose of the divination implement at 10th level—get enough mental focus invested for permanent see invisibility and you’re golden. Echolocation, spell resistance, antimagic field, freedom of movement, dimension door, true seeing, force sword, and the battlefield control spells you have (wall of force, blade barrier, wall of stone, etheric shards) should go a long way toward countering casters without having to invest much in feats. Lastly, the light debuffing: I built the Slayer as a Cornugon Smash + Hurtful build. Intimidate and demoralization tactics won’t be everyone’s thing, but it’s a good way to drop an enemy’s offensive oomph, and the bonus hits from Hurtful or bonus debuffing from the cruel weapon enchantment will always be relevant. Once you pick up the Intimidate Skill Unlock at 15th, you should be downright monster. Identify the foe, buff up, charge in, and start slaying anything that moves.
LN Elf Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1 / Panoply Savant Occultist 14
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 16 (+2) Constitution: 14 (-2) Intelligence: 15 (+2) Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 8
Primary Weapon: Rapier
Racial Traits: Fey Thoughts (Acrobatics, Stealth)
Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic); Reactionary (Basic: Combat)
Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1, mental focus 2-20
1: Inspired finesse, inspired panache, deeds
2(1): Implements 2 (abjuration 1 / transmutation 1), panoply specialization
3(2): Implements 3 (Trappings of the Warrior), magic item skill, object reading
4(3):
5(4): Panoply focus
6(5): Aura sight
7(6): Implements 4 (illusion 1)
8(7):
9(8): Implement specialist, panoptic harmony
10(9):
11(10): Implements 5 (divination 1)
12(11):
13(12): Panoptic call
14(13):
15(14): Implements 6 (evocation 1)
1: Weapon Finesse (class bonus), Weapon Focus: Rapier (class bonus), Skill Focus: Acrobatics (racial bonus), Fencing Grace
2(1): Aegis (abjuration)
3(2): Combat Reflexes
4(3): Counterstrike (Trappings of the Warrior)
5(4): Piranha Strike
6(5): Quickness (transmutation)
7(6): Extra Focus Power, Unseen (illusion)
8(7): Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
9(8): Seize Advantage
10(9): Shadow Beast (illusion)
11(10): Improved Critical: Rapier
12(11): Mind Eye (divination)
13(12): Flickering Step
14(13): Mind Eye (divination)
15(14): Improved Initiative
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
2nd Abj. | Lead blades | Versatile weapon | Haste | Echolocation | Particulate form | Statue |
2nd Trans. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Dispel magic, greater | Antimagic field |
3rd Trappings | Reduce person | Node of blasting | Fly | Enchantment foil | Telekinesis | Disintegrate |
7th Ill. | Vanish | Mirror image | Displacement | Invisibility, greater | Mislead | Permanent image |
11th Div. | Heightened awareness | See invisibility | Arcane sight | Locate creature | True seeing | Scrying, greater |
15th Evoc. | Shocking grasp | Force sword | Twilight knife | Etheric shards | Ectoplasmic hand | Contingency |
I won’t need to explain most of what the Swashbuckler build does, because it’s designed to be very similar to the Slayer build. The Slayer will hit harder and have better flat-footed AC, but the Swashbuckler will be faster, stealthier, better at skills, and still very resilient to damage, thanks to full BAB from Trappings of the Warrior and the opportune parry and riposte deed from your Swashbuckler dip. Where the Slayer focused mostly on tanking, light debuffing, and light anticaster tactics, the Swashbuckler focuses a bit more on crit-fishing and using larger enemies against themselves. If you have the panache, the basic idea is to allow a creature to attack you, declare a parry, then use Seize Advantage, Piranha Strike, and Improved Critical (or, in earlier levels, the keen weapon enchantment gained through Legacy Weapon) to launch a devastating riposte. Even if you fail to parry, the Counterstrike focus power from Trappings of the Warrior grants you a free weapon attack with a pretty big damage bonus whenever you’re struck in melee, which is great for our purposes. For those of you wondering why I didn’t take Butterfly’s Sting, it’s that pesky Combat Expertise requirement and Desna prereq. It’s a great feat for Dexterity-based crit fishers, but requires too much bloat to make it in this lean build. You can always use something like the gloves of marking to buff your allies with crits, rather than taking the bonus damage yourself.
Defense in this build is less about tanking hits and more about ensuring that you’re not hit in the first place. To that end, you’ll use shield, haste, reduce person, vanish, mirror image, displacement, greater invisibility, and the Unseen focus power to become really, really difficult to even see, much less hit. Did the enemy beat your AC? Surprise! You parried. Did they beat your parry? Surprise! Miss chance from concealment. Did they beat concealment? Surprise! Roll to hit a mirror image. Additional movement modes in later levels (fly, Mind Over Gravity, Flickering Step) can make you maddeningly difficult to pin down, and the heavy investment you’ll make to Acrobatics through the Fey Thoughts trait, Skill Focus: Acrobatics, and cheap magical items like daredevil boots mean you’ll often dance through opponents’ squares to jump into flanking before they can even blink. If things ever get dire, take a step back, conjure a Shadow Beast, and let them take the heat while you regroup.
LG Human Psychodermist Occultist 15
Strength: 12 Dexterity: 15 (+2) Constitution: 12 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 8
Primary Weapon: Composite longbow
Racial Traits: None
Traits: Deadeye Bowman (Religion); Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic)
Favored Class Bonuses: Focus power 1-12, HP 13-20
1: Trophies 2 (abjuration 1 / transmutation 1)
2: Trophies 3 (illusion 1), monster hunting lore, discern death
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Seek prey
6: Trophies 4 (divination 1)
7:
8: Magic circles, residual hatred
9:
10: Trophies 5 (conjuration 1)
11:
12: Manifest abilities
13:
14: Trophies 6 (evocation 1)
15:
1: Point-Blank Shot (racial bonus), Precise Shot, Aegis (abjuration)
2:
3: Rapid Shot, Unseen (illusion)
4:
5: Deadly Aim, Quickness (transmutation)
6: Mind Eye (divination; favored class bonus)
7: Improved Initiative, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
8:
9: Manyshot, Shadow Beast (illusion)
10:
11: Clustered Shots, Side Step (conjuration)
12: Telekinetic Mastery (transmutation; favored class bonus)
13: Divine Deception, Danger Sight (divination)
14:
15: Improved Precise Shot, Radiance (evocation)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Greater dispel magic | Repulsion |
1st Trans. | Gravity bow | Perceive cues | Haste | Echolocation | Control winds | Animate objects |
2nd Ill. | Silent image | Mirror image | Displacement | Greater invisibility | Mislead | Permanent image |
6th Div. | Heightened awareness | See invisibility | Threefold sight | Locate creature | True seeing | Find the path |
10th Conj. | Cure light wounds | Glitterdust | Cure serious wounds | Dimension door | Teleport | Heal |
14th Evoc. | Floating disk | Gust of wind | Daylight | Etheric shards | Wall of force | Contingency |
Even though I’ve laid out suggested implements and focus powers for this build, the beauty of the Psychodermist archetype is that much of the build, from your residual hatred favored enemy bonuses to your manifested abilities, can be altered depending on what you’re using as a trophy. Take the feats and traits I’ve suggested, then try to strike a balance in your trophy selection between great abilities or spell-like abilities for manifest abilities and common enemy types for residual hatred. Again, the Psychodermist works terrifically well as an archetype when you’re fighting a lot of the same humanoid enemies—giants in Giantslayer, hobgoblins in Ironfang Invasion, that kind of thing. This helps keep your favored enemy bonuses relevant more or less constantly. You’ve got all the usual defensive and offensive spells available in this build, plus some basic battlefield control at later levels to partition the battlefield as you rain down arrows. Ranged builds are pretty simple, in the end.
NG Half-Elf Haunt Collector Occultist 15
Strength: 15 (+2) Dexterity: 14 Constitution: 12 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 7
Primary Weapon: Elven curve blade
Racial Traits: Ancestral Arms, Blended View
Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic), Reactionary (Basic: Combat)
Favored Class Bonuses: Focus power 1-6, mental focus 7-20
1: Implements 2 (abjuration 1 / transmutation 1)
2: Implements 3 (Trappings of the Warrior), magic item skill, object reading, possessed possessions
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Hauntist
6: Implements 4 (evocation 1 + Champion spirit bonus)
7:
8: Extricate haunt, spirit speaker
9:
10: Implements 5 (divination 1)
11:
12:
13:
14: Implements 6 (conjuration 1 + Guardian spirit bonus)
15:
1: Iron Will, Aegis (abjuration)
2:
3: Power Attack, Energy Shield (abjuration)
4:
5: Step Up, Quickness (transmutation)
6: Unraveling (abjuration; favored class bonus)
7: Following Step, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
8:
9: Step Up and Strike, Radiance (evocation)
10:
11: Destructive Dispel, Danger Sight (divination)
12:
13: Dispel Focus, Mind Eye (divination)
14:
15: Greater Dispel Focus, Step Up (conjuration)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Dispel magic | Freedom of movement | Greater dispel magic | Antimagic field |
1st Trans. | Lead blades | Versatile weapons | Haste | Echolocation | Particulate form | Disintegrate |
2nd Trap. | Tears to wine | Bullet shield | Thaumaturgic circle | Dismissal | Spell resistance | Animate objects |
6th Evoc. | Shocking grasp | Force sword | Twilight knife | Etheric shards | Ectoplasmic hand | Contingency |
10th Div. | Heightened awareness | See invisibility | Threefold sight | Detect scrying | True seeing | Greater scrying |
14th Conj. | Barbed chains | Glitterdust | Cure serious wounds | Dimension door | Cold iron fetters | Heal |
Let’s go down that list of things that list of things that I said needed to be achieved in order to be a good anticaster, shall we? I want to see how I did by my own criteria.
So…whew! That’s a lot, isn’t it? But anticasting can generally be broken up into three phases: 1) dealing with environmental hazards, including summoning, blasting, and battlefield control, 2) closing the gap and piercing initial defenses, and 3) pressing your advantage to further strip away options. You’ll primarily ignore or dispel in the first phase, fly, teleport, or charge in the second phase—with some extra spells or weapon enchantments to cut through mage armor and the like—and finish up with the 5-foot step and distracting weapon game as you dispatch the caster in the third phase. It’s perhaps not as complicated as it appears at first blush, but still pretty complicated. Being an anticaster requires a very firm grasp of the broad range of spells that full casters are likely to use against you and your team, a deep knowledge of the vast array of weapon and armor enchantments available to you through Legacy Weapon and Aegis, a keen understanding of the action economy, and the willingness to place your character in harm’s way to help out the team. I’ve been playing, GMing, and writing Pathfinder guides for about 5 years now, and I’m just starting to feel like I might be able to do justice to this role.
If you want to feel more prepared to be an anticaster, you might consider asking a friend who’s much more knowledgeable about the game than you are to help you play out mock battles. Give yourself an arena on Roll20 or FoundryVTT, have your friend build a full caster for you to attack, and practice trying to kill that full caster, treating the entire thing as an exercise in tactical thinking. If you fail, figure out why you failed and try to address some of your weaknesses; if you succeed, figure out why you succeeded and keep doing that, or innovate and try to do it even better. Casters the world over are going to use many of the same strategies, and none but the most experienced GMs will be able to play a caster optimally in every move of an encounter. GMs might have more power than players most of the time, but they also tend to be less familiar with their monsters than players are with their characters. You can do it! You can be an anticaster. I believe in you.
N Rimesoul Undine Geomancer Occultist 15
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 14 Intelligence: 16 (+2) Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10 (-2)
Primary Weapon: Composite longbow
Racial Traits: Mostly Human, Amphibious, Hydrated Vitality
Traits: Precise Treatment (Basic: Magic), Reactionary (Basic: Combat)
Favored Class Bonuses: Focus power 1-12, HP 13-20
1: Implements 1 (abjuration 1), geomancy
2: Implements 2 (transmutation 1), survivalist, object reading
3:
4: Shift focus
5:
6: Implements 3 (evocation 1)
7:
8: Magic circles, outside contact 1
9:
10: Implements 4 (conjuration 1)
11:
12: Binding circles, outside contact 2
13:
14: Implements 5 (evocation 2)
15:
1: Healer’s Hands, Aegis (abjuration)
2:
3: Extend Spell, Energy Shield (transmutation)
4:
5: Incredible Healer, Quickness (transmutation), Terrain Stride (terrain)
6: Radiance (evocation; favored class bonus)
7: Extra Focus Power, Dominion (terrain), Mind Over Gravity (transmutation; feat bonus)
8:
9: Extra Mental Focus, Side Step (conjuration)
10:
11: Heal Skill Unlock, Flesh Mend (conjuration)
12: Telekinetic Mastery (transmutation; favored class bonus)
13: Logical Spell, Wall of Terrain (terrain)
14:
15: Resistance Mastery, Psychic Fog (conjuration)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Terrain | Variable | Variable | Variable | Variable | Variable | Variable |
1st Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Greater dispel magic | Repulsion |
2nd Trans. | Tears to wine | Perceive cues | Haste | Echolocation | Control winds | Animate objects |
6th Evoc. | Shocking grasp | Darkness | Deeper darkness | Etheric shards | Wall of force | Blade barrier |
10th Conj. | Barbed chains | Glitterdust | Minor creation | Major creation | Wall of stone | Wall of iron |
14th Evoc. | Bestow planar infusion I | Force sword | Fireball | Wall of fire | Cone of cold | Contagious flame |
The Occultist spell list is mighty thin on battlefield control spells until 4th-level spells come online at 10th level; it is what it is. A big part of what makes the Geomancer archetype cool, though, is that you get the ability to pull in thematic spells from whatever terrain you’re in—and these are very often battlefield control spells like sleet storm or entangle. Your low-level spell slots will mostly go toward these spells. While you’re waiting for your more permanent battlefield control capabilities to come online at 10th-13th level with etheric shards, wall of force, wall of stone, and Wall of Terrain, you can focus on being a top-shelf team buffer. You have all the usual suspects from abjuration and transmutation, including haste, resist energy, Quickness, and Mind Over Gravity (I wouldn’t recommend using this last focus power too often, as you’ll lose your terrain spells when you’re not in physical contact with the ground), but also unusual picks like the Geomancer-exclusive Dominion focus power, which acts like a scaling mass heroism. Definitely excellent. When you’re not trying to control the battlefield or buff allies, you’re also an excellent non-magical and magical healer, featuring Healer’s Hands, Incredible Healer, and Heal Skill Unlock feats, plus Flesh Mend as a focus power in case all that healing fails you somehow. You’ll mostly be casting from the back lines, so no particular need for Combat Casting; just use Extend Spell to keep your best buffs running, partition the battlefield, and then take potshots with your bow for the rest of the combat.
N Half-Elf Panoply Savant Occultist 15
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 16 Constitution: 12 Intelligence: 16 (+2) Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 8
Primary Weapon: Composite longbow
Racial Traits: Blended View
Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic) or Magical Lineage (Basic: Magic), Reactionary (Basic: Combat)
Favored Class Bonuses: Mental focus 1-20
1: Implements 2 (divination 1 / evocation 1), panoply specialization
2: Implements 3 (necromancy 1), magic item skill, object reading
3:
4: Panoply focus
5: Aura sight
6: Implements 4 (Mage’s Paraphernalia)
7:
8: Implement specialist, panoptic harmony
9:
10: Implements 5 (illusion 1)
11:
12: Panoptic call
13:
14: Implements 6 (abjuration 1)
15:
1: Combat Casting, Skill Focus: UMD (Racial Bonus), Danger Sight (divination)
2:
3: Spell Focus: Evocation, Soulbound Puppet (necromancy)
4:
5: Extend Spell, Mind Eye (divination)
6:
7: Greater Spell Focus: Evocation, Metamagic Master (Mage’s Paraphernalia)
8:
9: Spell Penetration, Spell Power (Mage’s Paraphernalia)
10:
11: Empower Spell, Energy Blast (evocation)
12:
13: Maximize Spell, Shadow Beast (illusion)
14:
15: Spell Perfection: Any, Aegis (abjuration)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Div. | Anticipate peril | See invisibility | Threefold sight | Scrying | True seeing | Greater scrying |
1st Evoc. | Shocking grasp | Gust of wind | Fireball | Ball lightning | Cone of cold | Chain lightning |
2nd Necro. | Grasping corpse | Purge spirit | Bestow curse | Masochistic shadow | Major curse | Greater possession |
6th Mage’s | Heightened awareness | Spectral hand | Lightning bolt | Pyrotechnic eruption | Ectoplasmic hand | Contagious flame |
10th Ill. | Vanish | Mirror image | Displacement | Greater invisibility | Mislead | Triggered hallucination |
14th Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Spell resistance | Repulsion |
Panoply Savant is generally a very good archetype, but it does come with a notable drawback for Mage’s Paraphernalia builds: because you can’t choose any other implement schools before you get your panoply, you’re not going to be able to take any non-divination, non-evocation, non-necromancy schools until at least 10th level. Bye-bye, abjuration and Aegis; bye-bye, transmutation and Quickness, Mind Over Gravity, and Legacy Weapon. It’s a lot to stomach, and one of the reasons why I would recommend this build as a build for later levels when it replaces a dead or retired PC; if you’re looking for synergy, though, there’s no question that Mage’s Paraphernalia works best with Panoply Savant, in this case almost entirely because of the implement specialist class feature. Implement specialist allows Mage’s builds to use wands at your caster level (rather than the minimum caster level) multiple times per day, which turns every wand you wield into something much, much more deadly than it was. Wands of scorching ray, for example, are usually pretty tame because all those extra rays are dependent on caster level. A wand charged with implement specialist continues to scale! Or what about tears to wine, bullet shield, or any of those other long-lasting buffs that are normally hampered by low caster levels? No longer a problem. Implement specialist is key because it essentially gives you 3 + Intelligence modifier more spells per day—crucial for a spell-heavy build like this one. Grab your favorite spells that make poor wands and go to town.
The rest of the Sorcerer build is simple, as most blasting builds tend to be. You’ll want to keep most of your mental focus out of your evocation implement, bizarrely enough, as few of the evocation focus powers are worth a thin penny; instead, invest in divination for Third Eye and constant see invisibility as well as illusion for the excellent Distortion focus power. Thanks to Panoply Savant and the half-elf favored class bonus, you should have more than the usual amount of mental focus lying around, so concentrate on using Metamagic Master to charge up Maximized fireballs or any other evocation spell that your heart desires—I’ve tried to do a good job spreading around elemental typing so you’re never at a loss for coverage. Spell Perfection will come online in the very late levels to help with metamagic costs, but there’s only so much you can do to mitigate how spell- and mental focus-hungry this build will be. Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus should improve your save DCs somewhat, and you can always charge up Spell Power when you absolutely must punch through spell resistance and Spell Penetration ain’t gonna cut it. As I mentioned in the roles section, blasting is not what Occultists are tailored for, but the options are here if you want them.
LG Dwarf Reliquarian Occultist 15
Strength: 16 Dexterity: 10 Constitution: 10 (+2) Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 13 (+2) Charisma: 10 (-2)
Primary Weapon: Dwarven longhammer
Racial Traits: Fey Thoughts, Treasuresense
Traits: Fate’s Favored (Faith); Reactionary (Basic: Combat)
Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1-20
1: Implements 1 (transmutation 1), sacred implements (Good domain, Archon subdomain)
2: Implements 2 (abjuration 1), magic item skill, object reading
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Aura sight
6: Implements 3 (conjuration 1)
7:
8: Outside contact, magic circles
9:
10: Implements 4 (Saint’s Holy Regalia)
11:
12: Binding circles
13:
14: Implements 5 (divination 1)
15:
1: Heavy Armor Proficiency, Touch of Good (domain)
2:
3: Combat Casting, Aegis (abjuration)
4:
5: Power Attack, Quickness (transmutation)
6:
7: Extra Focus Power, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation); Side Step (conjuration; feat bonus)
8: Aura of Menace (domain)
9: Implement Mastery, Flesh Mend (conjuration)
10:
11: Divine Interference, Restoration Mastery (Item Mastery)
12:
13: Extra Mental Focus, Resistance Mastery (Item Mastery)
14:
15: Furious Focus, Danger Sight (divination)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Trans. | Liberating command | Versatile weapon | Haste | Echolocation | Particulate form | Invoke deity |
1st Archon | Divine favor | Align weapon | Prayer | Holy smite | Dispel evil | Planar ally |
2nd Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Break enchantment | Communal stoneskin | Antimagic field |
6th Conj. | Cure light wounds | Cure moderate wounds | Cure serious wounds | Cure critical wounds | Teleport | Heal |
10th Saint’s | Warding weapon | Ablative barrier | Communal resist energy | Dimension door | Wall of stone | Getaway |
14th Div. | Heightened awareness | See invisibility | Threefold sight | Locate creature | True seeing | Find the path |
Reliquarian is hard. I love the concept of the archetype—heck, this guide is named after it—but the fact that you continue to use Intelligence as your casting stat while determining domain ability DCs, domain uses per day, and mental focus based on your Wisdom is just a bizarre design choice. But we’re going to skirt around that! Buffing builds are some of the few builds that can get by with pretty low mental stats, so we’re going to park Intelligence at 15, give it an attribute boost at 16th level right as 6th-level spells come online, and otherwise focus our efforts on Wisdom, not Intelligence. Mental focus and domain abilities are 100% more important than spell save DCs in this build, as we’ve positioned ourselves so that there are nearly no enemy-targeted spells! No enemy-targeted spells means no need for high spell save DCs or spell resistance penetration capabilities, hence the low Intelligence score.
What are we getting in exchange for that admittedly Sophie-esque choice? Well, better Will saves and Perception or Sense Motive checks, for starters. We’re also getting a domain, which, depending on what you pick, can be significantly better than an implement school. So it is with Torag’s Good domain and Archon subdomain: you get divine favor, an excellent self-buff, prayer, which buffs the whole party, and both Touch of Good and Aura of Menace. The former is an incredibly powerful one-round buff for a touched ally featuring an unusual bonus type; the latter is a no-save debuff on every enemy in your aura. One of your go-to moves should be standing behind a front-line fighter, swinging for the fences with your longhammer and giving out Touch of Good as needed—statistically, it surpasses even Bit of Luck by about 8th level.
All of your spells are standard buffing fare, with the cure spells and Flesh Mend thrown in for good measure—the cure spells are as boring as they always are, but they benefit from the Saint’s Holy Regalia resonant power. It’s unfortunate that both conjuration and abjuration have such mediocre resonant powers (it doesn’t make you want to invest in either for the Saint’s resonant bonuses) but between Flesh Mend, Side Step, and Aegis, you do at least have some incentive to sock focus in them at the start of the day. At later levels, I’ve even given you some buff-based Item Mastery feats that you can use as normal or spend mental focus on. Lastly, the ace in the hole: Divine Interference. This feat is just mean on divine caster builds. No save, no spell resistance, just a free reroll on an enemy whenever you want for the price of one spell slot. Once you’re rolling in 1st- and 2nd-level spells, feel free to burn those just to make your GM sweat.
NE Tiefling Necroccultist Occultist 15
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 14 Intelligence: 16 (+2) Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10 (-2)
Primary Weapon: Composite longbow
Racial Traits: Prehensile Tail, Scaled Skin, Vestigial Wings
Traits: Magical Lineage: Any (Basic: Magic) or Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic); Reactionary (Basic: Combat)
Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1-20
1: Implements 1 (necromancy 1), necromantic bond
2: Implements 2 (abjuration 1), magic item skill, deadspeaker
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Ghostly horde
6: Implements 3 (illusion 1)
7:
8: Magic circles, life drain
9:
10: Implements 4 (transmutation 1)
11:
12: Binding circles
13:
14: Necromantic bond (+2 save DCs for necromancy spells)
15:
1: Combat Casting, Soulbound Puppet (necromancy)
2:
3: Spell Focus: Necromancy, Aegis (abjuration)
4:
5: Bouncing Spell, Energy Shield (necromancy)
6:
7: Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy, Unseen (illusion)
8:
9: Spell Penetration, Shadow Beast (illusion)
10:
11: Persistent Spell, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
12:
13: Empower Spell or Maximize Spell, Quickness (transmutation)
14:
15: Spell Perfection: Any, Telekinetic Mastery (transmutation)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Necro. | Grasping corpse | Spectral hand | Bestow curse | Possession | Major curse | Greater possession |
1st Bond |
| |||||
2nd Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Spell resistance | Repulsion |
6th Ill. | Shadow trap | Mirror image | Displacement | Complex hallucination | Scripted hallucination | Triggered hallucination |
10th Div. | Tears to wine | Perceive cues | Slow | Slough | Particulate form | Animate objects |
The Witch and the Necromancer builds are both Necroccultists, but they play very differently. Whereas the Necromancer build is all about summoning vast hordes of undead servants, the Witch doesn’t create undead, outside of focus powers like Soulbound Puppet. Instead, we’re focused in this build on debuffing: turning enemies into helpless, quivering piles of jello that your team can easily beat into a soggy mess on the lawn. Sounds like my 5th birthday party! Because the Witch has no need for the necromancy implement school’s resonant power, you actually won’t be investing much mental focus there—just enough to get a few Soulbound Puppets, ghostly hordes, and life drains every day when you need them, and no more. Instead, necromancy just acts as your spell battery, and your mental focus can get divvied up into abjuration, illusion, and transmutation, with the bulk going into illusion and transmutation for constant invisibility (thanks, Distortion) and Constitution bonuses (thanks, Physical Enhancement).
The core of the Witch build focuses on pumping up your necromancy spell save DCs with the necromantic bond class feature and Spell Focus feats, casting spectral hand to deliver touch spells from afar, and then going to town with effects like bestow curse, siphon might, boneshaker, and enervation to drop enemies through the figurative floor. I’ve added some metamagic like Bouncing Spell and Persistent Spell—bog-standard for debuffing builds—on the off-chance that you want to use metamagic regularly, but with your limited spell slots and no Mage’s Paraphernalia for Metamagic Master, you’ll probably be restricted to using metamagic only on whichever spell you select for Magical Lineage and Spell Perfection. Bestow curse with Quickened + Persistent would be a good choice for this combo, although you could instead opt for Empower Spell or Maximize Spell if you wanted to take some of your number-based spells like vampiric touch, siphon might, or wracking ray into S-tier territory. The build is heavily reliant on failed Fortitude saves, which is a bit of a weakness in any build, so you’ll want to do everything you can to debuff enemies’ saves: pair up with a real Witch for Evil Eye, toss out the shaken or sickened conditions, sell your kidneys for a Headband of Vast Intelligence, etc. Enemies aren’t gonna fail those saves on their own.
NE Gnome Silksworn Occultist 15
Strength: 10 (-2) Dexterity: 14 Constitution: 10 (+2) Intelligence: 17 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 12 (+2)
Primary Weapon: Light crossbow
Racial Traits: Eternal Hope, Fey Thoughts, Blended View
Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic); Clever Wordplay: Bluff (Basic: Social)
Favored Class Bonuses: Distortion 1-10, HP 11-20
1: Implements 4 (abjuration 1 / conjuration 1/ illusion 1 / transmutation 1), devoted mystic
2: Implements 5 (abjuration 2), magic item skill, object reading
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Aura sight
6: Implements 6 (illusion 2)
7:
8: Silksworn eloquence
9:
10: Implements 7 (divination 1)
11:
12: Silksworn deception
13:
14: Implements 8 (evocation 1)
15:
1: Combat Casting, Aegis (abjuration)
2:
3: Deific Obedience: Mahathallah, Unseen (illusion)
4:
5: Spell Focus: Illusion, Mirage (illusion)
6:
7: Effortless Trickery, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
8:
9: Greater Spell Focus: Illusion, Shadow Beast (illusion)
10:
11: Diverse Obedience (Tier 1 at 10 HD: Mists of the Mind → Tier 2 at 14 HD: Persistent Illusions → Tier 3 at 18 HD: Breathe Out Death), Quickness (transmutation)
12:
13: Threatening Illusion or Persistent Spell, Mind Eye (divination)
14:
15: Illusion Mastery, Masquerade (illusion)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Spell resistance | Repulsion |
1st Conj. | Mage armor | Glitterdust | Penumbral disguise | Dimension door | Teleport | Heal |
1st Ill. | Silent image | Mirror image | Major image | Complex hallucination | Persistent image | Permanent image |
1st Trans. | Tears to wine | Perceive cues | Haste | Echolocation | Fabricate | Animate objects |
2nd Abj. | Warding weapon | Node of blasting | Dispel magic | Break enchantment | Greater dispel magic | Antimagic field |
6th Ill. | Vanish | Invisibility | Displacement | Greater invisibility | Scripted hallucination | Triggered hallucination |
10th Div. | Heightened awareness | See invisibility | Retrocognition | Scrying | True seeing | Greater scrying |
14th Evoc. | Shocking grasp | Beacon of guilt | Invisibility purge | Etheric shards | Wall of force | Contingency |
Illusions can be very powerful in Pathfinder, largely because (for figment spells, at least) enemies get no save to disbelieve an illusion until they interact with it in some way. If you make a big show of summoning a wall blocking off a hallway, enemies won’t know that it’s not real unless they throw a pebble at it, try to break through it, or punch it in frustration. Even if enemies do interact with it, high enough spell save DCs on your illusions spells make it functionally impossible for enemies to disbelieve: whatever you summon might as well exist in their minds. Well, in this build we’re going to lean on literally every method I know of to increase the effectiveness of illusions (with an emphasis on figment spells) so that whatever you want to exist, exists.
We’re going to be gnomes for this build, and before you ask, yes, that’s mandatory for many good illusion builds. Not only do they get +1 to their illusion spell save DCs right at 1st level, they can also take excellent feats like Effortless Trickery and Threatening Illusion that are gnome-exclusive. We’ll go Silksworn for extra spell slots and mental focus, bonuses to spell save DCs, and the effortlessly awesome silksworn deception and silksworn eloquence class features; the fact that gnomes’ Charisma bonus synergizes a bit with Silksworn is just icing on the cake. You might notice we’re worshiping an unusual deity, Mahathallah, in this build. She’s one of the Queens of the Night (Whore Queens, if you’re being impolite) whose adherents are almost exclusively dedicated to illusions and mind-altering drugs like adyton. There are many reasons why we’d want to worship Mahathallah, chief among them the fact that picking up her basic Deific Obedience at 3rd level grants a whopping +2 to all illusion spell save DCs in addition to all saves against mind-affecting effects. How good can you get in one feat!? She’ll give us silent image, invisibility, and the adyton-generating create drug at 10th level, thanks to Diverse Obedience, then Persistent Illusions at 14th level; this gem increases the duration of any illusion spell with a duration of concentration (plus any number of rounds) by half our level, so that’s an additional 7-10 rounds of duration on every single figment spell we cast. Crazy, right!? Her Tier 3 boon at 18th level is more or less up to you, but I’d recommend Breathe Out Death so that you can commune with other worshipers of Mahathallah in the Adyton without any chance of becoming addicted to the drug.
If you’re keeping track at home, being a gnome is granting us +1 to illusion spell save DCs, while our Deific Obedience to Mahathallah is granting us +2. Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus add another +2, and the silksworn arcana class feature at 16th level will grant yet another +2. In total, each of our illusions is getting a +7 boost to the spell save DC that stacks with our Intelligence modifier and spell level. By 16th level, your spell save DCs should look something like 10 + 9 (Intelligence modifier) + 7 (aforementioned bonuses) + spell level. The median Will save of a CR 16 creature is +16, which equates to a 50% chance of an even-CR foe failing their save against a 1st-level illusion. Heck, if you toss in Persistent Spell, enemies will have to roll twice and take the worse result, which is even more appealing. Between Mahathallah’s Persistent Illusions ability and the gnome-exclusive Effortless Trickery feat, you could reasonably juggle 5-6 active illusions at a time: one that you’re maintaining with standard action concentration, one that you’re maintaining with swift action concentration (Effortless Trickery), and three or four that you’ve let lapse, but that are persisting for several more rounds as if you were still concentrating on them (Persistent Illusions). If you pick up the Threatening Illusion metamagic feat, all of those illusions (even purely auditory illusions!) will flank with allies. Crazy good if you have allied Rogues, Ninjas, Hunters, Inquisitors, or others who rely on consistent flanking to deal damage.
Before we wrap up, let’s talk defenses and mental focus for a second. Another huge reason why I wanted a gnome illusionist build was because they have one of the coolest favored class bonuses of any Occultist: they get to add +2% to the miss chance granted by the illusion implement school Distortion resonant power. If you make it to a full +50%, you become permanently invisible. Holy crap. The +20% you’ll get from your favored class bonus and the 30% you’ll get from having 6 points of mental focus invested in an illusion implement all come together at 10th level, granting you permanent invisibility unless you’re making attacks (which you shouldn’t be). Even before 10th level, you’ll be rocking substantial miss chances—the equivalent of constant blur around 4th level and continuing on from there. You’ve also got shield, mage armor, and mirror image as 1st-level spells gained at 1st level, which should help keep your AC relevant until Distortion can really bring you home. Even if you are spotted, and even if an enemy wanted to hit you, the silksworn deception class feature effectively hides the fact that you’re casting spells at all! A permanently invisible spellcaster with no verbal or somatic components is an enemy’s worst nightmare, right?
Mental focus investiture is pretty simple. You don’t need a huge amount of mental focus invested to keep Distortion relevant—6 points at 10th level and no more, really—but you may wish to add more to that bucket if you find yourself using Unseen, Mirage, or especially Shadow Beast often. (Shadow Beast, by the way, is a fantastic focus power that you should use often in high-level play when you want to conserve spell slots.) I would keep the lion’s share of the rest of your mental focus in your transmutation and divination implements, transmutation for standard Mind Over Gravity or Quickness buffing, Legacy Weapon enchantments for your allies, and passive bonuses to your Constitution score from Physical Enhancement; divination for Mind Eye scouting, Perception bonuses, and eventually constant see invisibility. Abjuration should get maybe one or two points for Aegis, or else just burn generic focus if you need something in a hurry.
CG Halfling Silksworn Occultist 15
Strength: 10 (-2) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 12 Intelligence: 17 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10 (+2)
Primary Weapon: Light crossbow
Racial Traits: Fleet of Foot, Fey Thoughts
Traits: Precise Treatment (Basic: Magic); Clever Wordplay: Bluff (Basic: Social)
Favored Class Bonuses: Mental focus 1-20
1: Implements 4 (abjuration 1 / conjuration 1 / divination 1 / enchantment 1), devoted mystic
2: Implements 5 (transmutation 1), magic item skill, object reading
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Aura sight
6: Implements 6 (necromancy 1)
7:
8: Silksworn eloquence
9:
10: Implements 7 (enchantment 2)
11:
12: Silksworn deception
13:
14: Implements 8 (evocation 1)
15:
1: Combat Casting, Aegis (abjuration)
2:
3: Spell Focus: Enchantment, Danger Sight (divination)
4:
5: Healer’s Hands, Mind Eye (divination)
6:
7: Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
8:
9: Incredible Healer, Side Step (conjuration)
10:
11: Heal Skill Unlock, Quickness (transmutation)
12:
13: Spell Penetration, Binding Pattern (enchantment)
14:
15: Greater Spell Penetration, Powerful Connection (divination)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Greater dispel magic | Repulsion |
1st Conj. | Mage armor | Glitterdust | Penumbral disguise | Dimension door | Teleport | Heal |
1st Div. | Psychic reading | Analyze aura | Retrocognition | Scrying | Remote viewing | Greater scrying |
1st Ench. | Charm person | Investigative mind | Suggestion | Charm monster | Mind fog | Cloak of dreams |
2nd Trans. | Tears to wine | Perceive cues | Haste | Echolocation | Particulate form | Animate objects |
6th Necro. | Skin tag | Purge spirit | Riding possession | Possession | Greater object possession | Greater possession |
10th Ench. | Murderous command | Aversion | Hold person | Confusion | Dominate person | Mass charm monster |
14th Evoc. | Shocking grasp | Pilfering hand | Invisibility purge | Etheric shards | Wall of force | Contingency |
I think this is the only build out of, what, twelve, thirteen builds that uses an enchantment implement? Enchantment really is that niche for Occultists. But here at last is a build that makes it a priority! The Diviner build is all about getting information. You can teleport with Side Step or dimension door, or fly with Mind Over Gravity to infiltrate locations yourself; you can use Mind Eye or riding possession to infiltrate locations without being physically present; you can use scrying, remote viewing, or greater scrying to spy on enemies directly; you can use charm person, charm monster, suggestion, possession, or greater possession to take direct control of enemies and either pump them for information or get them to sabotage their own organizations. At later levels, you can use the Powerful Connection focus power in conjunction with pieces of BBEG’s body that you’ve charmed or dominated underlings to acquire for you in order to spy non-stop with scrying and greater scrying. Even with no targets available, you have investigative mind, tears to wine, perceive cues, and retrocognition to know literally everything there is to know about a place or a situation.
Outside of this well-defined role, this build is a bit of a hodge-podge. You’ve got all the usual abjuration and transmutation buffing favorites, plus some decent debuffs or enemy controls in effects like confusion, aversion, mind fog, glitterdust, and Binding Pattern. I also slapped some non-magical healing capabilities on there, because hey, why not? You don’t have any cure spells, you don’t have Mend Flesh, and the walk to heal is a long one. If you’d rather not monkey around with those feats (Incredible Healer, Healer’s Hands, and the Heal Skill Unlock) you can swap them out for Persistent Spell, Bouncing Spell, Diviner’s Delving, Spell Focus: Divination, maybe Spell Specialization on your preferred enchantment spell, or something else of your choosing. This is your build, kid. I’m just here to help. Divination and transmutation should get the bulk of your mental focus, with abjuration and conjuration in a somewhat distant second.
NE Elf Necroccultist Occultist 7 + Evangelist (Orcus) 8
Strength: 9 Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 14 (-2) Intelligence: 17 (+2) Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 8
Primary Weapon: Longbow
Racial Traits: Arcane Focus
Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic); Reactionary (Basic: Combat)
Favored Class Bonuses: Mental focus 1-20
1: Implements 1 (necromancy 1), necromantic bond
2: Implements 2 (abjuration 1), magic item skill, deadspeaker
3:
4: Shift focus
5: Ghostly horde
6: Implements 3 (transmutation 1)
7:
8(1): Obedience, skilled
9(2): Magic circles, life drain, aligned class, protective grace +1
10(3): Power of Death (divine boon 1)
11(4): Implements 4 (illusion 1), gift of tongues
12(5): Multitude of talents
13(6): Binding circles, Destined for Undeath (divine boon 2)
14(7): Protective grace +2
15(8): Necromantic bond (+2 save DCs for necromancy spells), gift of tongues
1: Spell Focus: Necromancy, Soulbound Puppet (necromancy)
2:
3: Fiendish Obedience: Orcus, Aegis (abjuration)
4:
5: Extra Mental Focus, Necromantic Servant (necromancy)
6:
7: Outflank, Quickness (transmutation)
8(1):
9(2): Charnel Soldiers
10(3): Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
11(4): Spell Specialization: animate dead
12(5): Shadow Beast (illusion)
13(6): Undead Master
14(7): Unseen (illusion)
15(8): Shake It Off
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
1st Necro. | Inflict light wounds | Purge spirit | Animate dead | Torpid reanimation | Entrap spirit | Harm |
1st Bond |
| |||||
2nd Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Communal stoneskin | Repulsion |
6th Trans. | Tears to wine | Perceive cues | Haste | Echolocation | Particulate form | Animate objects |
10th Ill. | Vanish | Mirror image | Displacement | Impossible angles | Mislead | Permanent image |
As I said in the Witch section, these two builds, though both Necroccultists, play very differently. Where the Witch doesn’t play around with undead at all, the Necromancer is all about it: you’ve got animate dead, command undead, geb’s hammer, inflict light wounds for healing, etc. You’re going to look at Brewer’s Guide to Undeath, then come back here for the meat of the build, yes? Okay. You’re back. So, the biggest power of an Occultist necromancer is the necromancy implement’s resonant power, Necromantic Focus. This bad lil’ boi is going to increase the amount of undead you can control and raise at a single time by monstrous margins, but only if you invest a ton of mental focus in it—Necromantic Focus caps out at 40 points by 20th level. We went with an elf to gain an extra 10 points of mental focus over 20 levels, and your high Intelligence modifier along with Extra Mental Focus will have to make up the rest. The basic idea is to load up your necromancy with as much mental focus as you possibly can, using command undead to shift some servants out of your animate bucket if you ever need to divest mental focus from necromancy, and then life drain, ghostly horde, Soulbound Puppet, and Necromantic Servant your way to glory.
Now, before we go any further, you might have noticed that this character worships the demon lord Orcus. Yeah, did I mention this build is really evil? Orcus is the Lord of Undeath, and we’re primarily worshiping him for two mechanical reasons on top of all the thematic reasons: first, his second divine boon, Destined for Undeath, gives us a host of condition immunities and resistances that are amazing; second, he grants animate dead as a spell-like ability in his first boon. Anyone want to guess why that’s good for us? Simple: spell-like abilities have no material components. When your bread-and-butter animate dead costs 25 gp per HD of animation, eschewing that cost—even once per day—is enormous. If you’d rather not worship Orcus or take Evangelist levels, you can simply select Deific Obedience: Urgathoa, which grants inflict light wounds, desecrate, or animate dead in the Exalted’s daily spell-like ability package. Barring other investment than the paths I described, you’ll have Orcus’ animate dead spell-like ability by 10th level, or Urgathoa’s by 12th. Each is highly recommended to keep your undead army going strong on a budget.
As far as what you actually do with undead once they’re created, that’s pretty simple stuff. Per Brewer’s recommendations, keep all undead below 20 HD as bloody skeletons so that they can heal themselves, and turn anything above 20 HD into fast zombies, using Undead Master and command undead to transfer weaker undead to your command bucket. Thanks to Charnel Soldiers, every undead you create will have Outflank (although you could use something else, like Shake It Off or Escape Route, if you wanted to); granting undead Outflank will provide massive bonuses to hit when they’re flanking, and since you’ll have potentially half a dozen or more beefy undead servants, flanking shouldn’t be a problem. You can also flood the field with Necromantic Servants or Shadow Beasts as needed to provide more flanking support or meat shielding. Once all your skinny bones (one of my former student’s names for skeletons) are locked in combat, you can feel free to buff your team and servants, debuff or control the battlefield with your other necromancy spells, or just hang back, taking pot shots with your longbow. If any of your non-bloody undead ever start to look like they’re going to be destroyed, you can use spectral hand and harm to bring them back up to full health in a breeze.
NG Half-Elf Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1 / Panoply Savant Occultist 14
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 15 (+2) Constitution: 14 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 8
Primary Weapon: Rapier
Racial Traits: Fleet of Foot, Fey Thoughts
Traits: Student of Philosophy (Basic: Social); Pragmatic Activator (Basic: Magic)
Favored Class Bonuses: HP 1, Mental focus 2-20
1:
2(1): Implements 2 (enchantment 1 / illusion 1), panoply specialization
3(2): Implements 3 (Performer’s Accoutrements), magic item skill, object reading
4(3):
5(4): Panoply focus
6(5): Aura sight
7(6): Implements 4 (abjuration 1)
8(7):
9(8): Implement specialist, panoptic harmony
10(9):
11(10): Implements 5 (transmutation 1)
12(11):
13(12): Panoptic call
14(13):
15(14): Implements 6 (divination 1)
1: Weapon Finesse (Class Bonus), Weapon Focus: Rapier (Class Bonus), Skill Focus: Diplomacy (Racial Bonus), Fencing Grace
2(1): Inspired Assault (enchantment)
3(2): Additional Traits: Charming Smile, Cunning Soul (Exemplar)
4(3): Unseen (illusion)
5(4): Additional Traits: Bruising Intellect (Basic: Social), Clever Wordplay: Disguise (Basic: Social)
6(5): Puppet Master (Performer’s Accoutrements)
7(6): Virtuous Creed: Mercy
8(7): Aegis (abjuration)
9(8): Enforcer
10(9): Shadow Beast (illusion)
11(10): Dazzling Display
12(11): Quickness (transmutation)
13(12): Improved Critical: Rapier
14(13): Mind Over Gravity (transmutation)
15(14): Shatter Defenses
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
2nd Ench. | Charm person | Tactical acumen | Suggestion | Charm monster | Mind fog | Cloak of dreams |
2nd Ill. | Vanish | Mirror image | Displacement | Greater invisibility | Mislead | Permanent image |
3rd Perf. | Disguise self | Invisibility | Major image | Confusion | Greater forbid action | Triggered hallucination |
7th Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Communal stoneskin | Repulsion |
11th Trans. | Enlarge person | Perceive cues | Haste | Echolocation | Particulate form | Statue |
15th Div. | Heightened awareness | See invisibility | Threefold sight | Scrying | True seeing | Greater scrying |
I thought about taking this build in the direction of Skill Focus (Linguistics) + Orator, but then decided that I wanted to go another direction with it. I wanted at least one Performer’s Accoutrements build for espionage and deep cover, and neither Glorious Presence nor Actor’s Skill improve Linguistics—only the Charisma-based interaction skills. I therefore opted to go a slightly more unusual direction with the Bard: you can see that we have Student of Philosophy and Pragmatic Activator as our 1st-level traits, which are pretty standard for Intelligence-based classes that want to be able to use Bluff, Diplomacy, and UMD well. I added a more unusual pick at 3rd level, however, in Charming Smile, Cunning Soul. This an exemplar trait; these traits were released in Chronicle of Legends, one of the very last books in 1e’s run, so there’s a good chance you don’t know about them. In essence, they allow you to pick more than one trait from a single trait category and grant you a scaling bonus the more traits you have in that category. Each exemplar trait counts as two traits, so you have to either take it as your only 1st-level choice or else select it with Additional Traits, then take Additional Traits again in order to get further benefit. At 5th level, we pick up Bruising Intellect and Clever Wordplay: Disguise, which together key all Charisma-based skills except Handle Animal off of our Intelligence modifier in addition to giving us a +2 trait bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive. Add to these bonuses Glorious Presence (which caps out at +6 to all Charisma-based skill and ability checks at 20th level) and Actor’s Skill (which caps out at +10 to Perform, Bluff, and Disguise at 20th level) and you have a mighty convincing liar. With the False Persona and Puppet Master focus powers, you’re ideally placed to infiltrate enemy organizations without using any constant magical effects that could be picked up by divination magic. In fact, False Persona is a hard counter to just about any kind of divination magic.
When this build isn’t charming the pants off people, it also makes a pretty good melee Dexterity fighter. The lack of an early abjuration and transmutation hurts somewhat—although you could fix that by going Haunt Collector rather than Panoply Savant and waiting until 6th level to take Performer’s Accoutrements—but not too bad with mirror image, decent armor, and full use of inspired parry and riposte from your Swashbuckler dip. I wasn’t able to make space for Combat Reflexes, which is a bit of a drag, but the half-elf’s favored class bonus is well worth the lack of bonus feat you would have gotten from being a human. You can replace Fencing Grace with the agile weapon enchantment if it’s really important to you to have Combat Reflexes. Anyway, you have all the usual Weapon Finesse goodies, including Weapon Focus, Weapon Finesse, and Fencing Grace; since your Intimidate bonus will be so good, I also decided to tack on some demoralize capacities to the build. This is primarily done with Virtuous Creed, which allows you to deal nonlethal damage with no attack penalties, followed by Enforcer. Enforcer is easily one of the best demoralization feats in the game as long as nonlethal damage is on the table, and your ability to consistently scare the poop out of people will make it all the easier to stick effects like charm person, charm monster, and suggestion. At very high levels, I also gave the build Improved Critical, which is nice since Enforcer inflicts the frightened condition rather than the shaken condition on a critical hit, as well as Dazzling Display (for AoE demoralization) and Shatter Defenses (for AC debuffing). Intimidate everything in Round 1, then single out specific enemies for further debuffing with your cruel rapier. Can you be both cruel and merciful? This build certainly intends to try.
CN Elf Empiricist Investigator 2 / Haunt Collector Occultist 13
Strength: 10 Dexterity: 15 (+2) Constitution: 14 (-2) Intelligence: 16 (+2) Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 8
Primary Weapon: Composite longbow
Racial Traits: Fey Thoughts
Traits: Magical Knack (Basic: Magic); Student of Philosophy (Basic: Social)
Favored Class Bonuses: Skills 1-2, mental focus 3-20
1: Alchemy, inspiration, trapfinding
2: Ceaseless observation
3(1): Implements 2 (divination 1 / transmutation 1)
4(2): Implements 3 (abjuration 1 + Trickster spirit), magic item skill, object reading, possessed possessions
5(3):
6(4): Shift focus
7(5): Hauntist
8(6): Implements 4 (Trappings of the Warrior)
9(7):
10(8): Extricate haunt, spirit speaker
11(9):
12(10): Implements 5 (illusion 1)
13(11):
14(12):
15(13):
1: Point-Blank Shot
2:
3(1): Precise Shot, Aegis (abjuration)
4(2):
5(3): Rapid Shot, Danger Sight (divination)
6(4):
7(5): Breadth of Experience, Quickness (transmutation)
8(6):
9(7): Extra Focus Power, Mind Over Gravity (transmutation), Mind Eye (divination)
10(8):
11(9): Extra Mental Focus, Telekinetic Mastery (transmutation)
12(10):
13(11): Spirit-Ridden, Shadow Beast (illusion)
14(12):
15(13): Cunning, Unseen (illusion)
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
3rd Div. | Heightened awareness | Blood biography | Retrocognition | Locate creature | True seeing | Find the path |
3rd Trans. | Tears to wine | Perceive cues | Haste | Echolocation | Control winds | Statue |
4th Abj. | Shield | Resist energy | Thaumaturgic circle | Freedom of movement | Spell resistance | Repulsion |
8th Trap. | Gravity bow | Bullet shield | Fly | Wreath of blades | Overland flight | Animate objects |
12th Ill. | Vanish | Mirror image | Displacement | Greater invisibility | Mislead | Permanent image |
The Investigator build is the only build in this guide to take more than a 1-level dip in another class, and the reason we’re doing so is because the Investigator class is simply much better at skills than the Occultist is. In exchange for that 2-level dip, we’re getting better Reflex and Will saves, a few extracts a day, a bunch more class skills, including all Knowledges, a 1d6 inspiration die that can be applied for free to every Knowledge, Spellcraft, and Linguistics check we ever roll, and the ability (through ceaseless observation, the Empiricist class feature) to use Intelligence on Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive, and UMD checks, as well as Diplomacy checks to gather information. Sure, you lose out on 1 point of BAB and your access to implement schools is slowed a bit, but the Magical Knack trait erases the hit to caster level, and the rest is pretty easily managed in comparison to what you’re getting.
Once you’re out of your Investigator levels and into Occultist, the rest of the build is pretty simple. Use tears to wine, heightened awareness, and perceive cues often, pick up Breadth of Experience and Spirit-Ridden, and lean on your Trickster spirit bonus whenever you need to really knock a Knowledge check out of the park, e.g. with monster identification. The rest is a pretty standard ranged build with basic abjuration and transmutation stuff tacked on. Is there any irony in pairing the Empiricist Investigator, which is all about skepticism and rationality, with the Haunt Collector, which is all about believing in literal ghosts? Hey. I don’t make the rules about what’s good mechanically. I’m nobody’s messenger boy. I’m a delivery boy.
And so, my friends, we reach the end of another class guide. This has been my 4th class guide (after the Inquisitor, Oracle, and Investigator classes), but also my first in many respects, being both my first full-BAB guide (well, nominally full-BAB, at least) and my first guide to one of the classes from Occult Adventures. One of the things that I consistently love about writing class guides is how much fonder I feel of these classes after writing guides for them. Sure, by the end of a guide I’ve seen lots of ways in which they’re limited or can’t do the things I want them to do, but I’ve also seen many more ways in which their flavor, power, and versatility far exceeds my expectations. The Occultist might have outdone them all. You get focus powers, you get resonant powers, you get awesome archetypes like Psychodermist or Haunt Collector, you get enough UMD skill to pick up any scroll or wand in the game and get down to business with it—all with slick at-will abilities like object reading and aura sight. I can genuinely say that Occultist is one of the most powerful classes I know, and much like there’s a Vigilante build for just about any character concept, there’s an Occultist build for just about any character concept. The only question is: what can you imagine?
As for where the future takes me and the crew that supports my guide-writing efforts over at my All Souls Gaming Patreon page, I have a few directions in mind. First off, more class guides, obviously. I’m feeling something Rogue-like, so maybe Slayer, Alchemist, or Vigilante? Then again, I’ve never done an arcane caster, so maybe polish up my in-progress Magus guide or dive into Arcanist? We’ll see how the polling shakes out. Second, I’m going to be going back and updating some of my older guides. My Inquisitor and Oracle guides are beginning to show their age a bit in terms of formatting and ability ratings, and neither was ever updated for the sundown of Pathfinder 1e. Third, I like to juggle larger content guides with smaller class guides—I’ve done The Armamentarium, of course, as well as A Conjunction of Spheres, which was an enormous guide to Drop Dead Studios’ immensely popular Spheres of Might system that continues to receive updates. And one of my more recent guides was On Bended Knee, a walkthrough of all of Pathfinder’s obedience feats. Up next will likely be a revision and port of The Armamentarium into a Google Sheets document, complete with new weapon and armor enchantment pages, a new and more accurate tagging system, and all the speed and sorting abilities that Excel-like programs afford users. I’m looking at creating a similar document with all of Pathfinder’s feats, ranked, tagged, and described in clean shorthand, but that will be a long, long process. And I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about finally approaching Spheres of Power…
But that’s all in the future. For now, thank you so much for your continued patronage, whether that’s just reading and sending me a nice comment or actively supporting these guides on Patreon. This community continues to be one of the best I’ve ever been a part of, and it’s my honor to be able to continue to make this punishingly intricate, lovely, esoteric game just a little easier for everyone to wrap their head around. If you’d like to contact me, the easiest way is on Reddit—I have a Twitter account (@AllSoulsGaming1) that I’m terminally confused by, and of course Patreon has a messaging system, but the fastest response you’ll get from me will be on Reddit. I’m always happy to hear from readers! Until we meet again in Golarion, fellow adventurers, may all your swords be vorpal and all your rolls natural 20s.
Best,
Chris (/u/Allerseelen)
