Hello, and welcome to this extra-spooky Halloween version of Iconic Design! Since today’s date of posting is literally Halloween, we’re going to be building a special Pathfinder Second Edition character for the holiday: a gourd leshy sorcerer! Let’s get started, shall we?

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Build Concept

• Ancestry: leshy
• Background: herbalist
• Class: sorcerer (hag bloodline)
  • Class Feats: Druid Dedication (2nd), Leshy Familiar (4th), Advanced Bloodline (6th), Enhanced Familiar (8th), Greater Bloodline (10th)
  • Spell Repertoire
    • 5th (4) mariner’s curse (bloodline); black tentacles, chromatic wall, shadow blast, shadow siphon
    • 4th (4) outcast’s curse (bloodline); confusion, dimension door, fly, phantasmal killer
    • 3rd (4) blindness (bloodline); haste, paralyze, slow, vampiric touch
    • 2nd (4) touch of idiocy (bloodline); dispel magic, faerie fire, hideous laughter, invisibility
    • 1st (4) illusory disguise (bloodline); bless, grim tendrils, magic missiles, phantom pain
    • Cantrips (5) daze (bloodline); chill touch, detect magic, dancing lights, prestidigitation, forbidding ward
  • Other Feats:
    • Ancestry Feats: Seedpod (1st); Ritual Reversion (5th); {Player’s Choice} (9th)
    • General Feats: {Player’s Choice} (3rd); {Player’s Choice} (7th)
    • Skill Feats: Natural Medicine (Background; 1st); Intimidating Glare (2nd); {Player’s Choice} (4th); {Player’s Choice} (6th); Battle Cry (8th); {Player’s Choice} (10th)

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Playing the Build

So, we’ve got a spooky leshy build here! Going hag bloodline means that our leshy was probably created by a hag or a witch, while going druid dedication helps us build on our connection to plantlife while also giving us an adorable leshy familiar; perhaps it’s a sibling spirit whose ritual simply wasn’t able to attract enough plantlife to form a proper leshy. Maybe the character’s goal is to perform a leshy-creating ritual themselves in order to fully realize their sibling. Fun story stuff, y’all!

So how does this build actually work? Well, in true Halloween fashion it’s built around scaring your opponents. Why? The frightened condition is one of the few easily accessible effects in the game that lowers save DCs, and the hag bloodline has some awesome focus spells that all allow save DCs. The lower you can knock that save DC, the more likely your foe is to critically fail (or normal fail) your spells, so whenever possible you want to make your foes frightened. Now, another condition that will lower your foe’s saving throw bonuses and save DCs is the sickened condition, and the hag bloodline comes prebuilt with a great spell for inflicting this condition: mariner’s curse. This potent curse can make a foe sickened relatively easy, and makes it VERY difficult to remove the condition. When your foe has all the penalties you can toss on them, spells like paralyze and hideous laughter are potent options, greatly impeding your foe’s ability to act. Shadow blast is another great spell choice, as it does respectable damage whose type you can tailor to your current situation. Debuffs like sickened and frightened also apply to your allies, who will likely appreciate their abilities being more likely to land.

So, what does your familiar do? Your best bet is to take familiar abilities like spell battery for more spell slots and spell delivery for spells like vampiric touch, which will let you cast touch spells without worrying too much about it. (I mean, your familiar will worry but worse to worse you can perform a new ritual to put your sibling spirit into a new body, right?)

Fox’s Cunning author Dustin Knight notes that if you use this build in PFS (ya know, after leshies become accessible somehow), you can actually skip Druid Dedication if you align with the Verdant Circle faction, because they get a feat anyone can take for a leshy familiar.

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In Conclusion,

This is a cute build full of Halloween cheer. You can use this wickedly witchy leshy and their familiar to frighten and ensorcell enemies using a combination of Intimidation, mariner’s curse, and whatever spells they feel like using. Maybe that’s why witches always cackle and are super scary; so they can land their spells!

I’m Alexander Augunas, the Everyman Gamer, and from all of us at Know Direction (plus titlecard artist Alan Cooper), have a very Happy Halloween! Make sure you come back to the site tomorrow, where Luis Loza has some extra-special All Souls’ Day treats (and maybe a few GM tricks) for you!

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex also cohosts the Private Sanctuary Podcast, along with fellow blogger Anthony Li, and you can follow their exploits on Facebook in the 3.5 Private Sanctuary Group, or on Alex’s Twitter, @AlJAug.