Author Topic: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?  (Read 5214 times)

Offline TC X0 Lt 0X

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[PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« on: December 25, 2017, 05:51:15 PM »
Are there any classes that buff allied Spellcasters? Specifically, affecting their spells (be it increasing caster level, adding metamagic, etc).

From my cursory check, all I spotted was Magician Bard, but I doubt that is all there is.

Feats (or anything else really) are fine as well, presuming that they do not require the buffed spellcaster to take them (or the character has a way to provide the feat to the ally)

3rd Party Material is fine, though 1st Party is always preferred.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2017, 06:34:54 PM by TC X0 Lt 0X »
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Offline Skyrock

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2017, 08:11:03 PM »
Dragon Magic has the two new Draconic Auras Power and Energy, which can raise save DCs of elemental spells and CL for overcoming SR. Access is through the Draconic Aura feat or a Dragon Shaman dip.

Spellthief 15 can steal enemy SR.

Offline TC X0 Lt 0X

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #2 on: December 25, 2017, 11:07:12 PM »
[PF]

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Offline ketaro

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2017, 05:45:03 AM »
I know there's several Teamwork feats for stuff like that. Unfortunately, ya, Teamwork feats is also a big drawback.

Offline zook1shoe

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2017, 11:33:42 AM »
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Offline deadkitten

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2018, 08:53:05 PM »
It's possible to boost aid another fairly easily by 4 or so points in pathfinder if you look into it.

Using a boosted aid another with a two level dip of investigator allows you to be able to aid another as a standard, move, and swift actions.

And a quirk of the rules on aid another is that the bonuses stack with themselves.

This culminates in taking a level in witch and grabbing the coven hex, which allows you to use aid another on another witch to boost caster level.

You could easily give someone a +10 or more caster level boost at level 4 this way.

A bit more restrictive than you might want, but there should be something you could work with in the idea.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2018, 09:11:27 PM »
That's pretty impressive... it would work very well for a gestalt witch//investigator I built a while back... which was kind of already focused on buffing the other party members via hexes.
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Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2019, 05:12:51 PM »
The following spells buff allied spellcasters:
Arcane Concordance: Bard/Skald only, Lv3- +1 DC and free metamagic of caster's choice to allies' spells cast within radius of you while duration lasts
Collaborative Thaumaturgy: Almost all casters, Lv3 - immediate action to apply free metamagic to a spell being cast, selection increases per ally casting it, but the otherwise adjusted spell level cannot be above the caster's highest spell level
Spirit Call: Druid/Hunter/Shaman only, Lv1 - +1 CL and +4 insight concentration to all spells (not just allies') on your spirit magic list (excepting wandering spirit) or domain spell list to spells cast within radius of you while duration lasts
Font of Spirit Magic: Shaman only, Lv3 - +2 sacred/profane (alignment determines) to CL checks, concentration checks (yes, that's redundant), and DCs of allies' spells belonging to your spirit and wandering spirit list cast within radius of you while duration lasts
Sharesister: Cleric/Oracle/Warpriest/Witch only, Lv3 - Take 1 negative level to give ally of same gender +1 insight to CL and DCs of all spells. At CL11, you can choose to take 4 negative levels to give ally of same gender +2 insight to CL and DCs of all spells. At CL17, you can choose to take 6 negative levels to give ally of same gender +3 insight to CL and DCs of all spells. Effects that prevent or remove negative levels immediately end Sharesister spell. Negative levels from multiple castings stack. FYI: Dhampir and Shabti races can stack negative levels while ignoring their penalties, and the Death Ward spell, cast afterwards, will also let you ignore penalties from negative levels.
Grand Destiny: Alchemist/Arcanist/Mesmerist/Sorcerer/Summoner/Wizard Lv5, Bard/Medium/Skald Lv4 - 10 min/lvl buff that is expended in 2 uses to give +4 competence bonus to any attack roll, caster level check, saving throw, or skill check. At level 12 and 15, add an extra use.
Rune of Rule: Arcanist/Bard/Occultist/Skald/Sorcerer/Witch/Wizard Lv2 - 1 day buff (cannot be applied to self) but 1 round duration when activated as swift action which gives +3 to will saves and +1 to save DCs of language-dependent effects or alternatively raises DC of a single charm spell by 1.

Aside from that there are a number of teamwork feats that apply to spellcasting.

Class features:
Variant channeling (can be done by any divine caster): Magic gives Channel Bonus to CL checks and concentration checks until end of your next turn. Secrets gives CB to Sense Motive checks, CL checks, divination save DCs until end of next turn. There are a number of Harm effects that penalize saves too.
Arcane subdomain: Standard action, gives +1 bonus to CL or DC (caster's choice each time they cast) for arcane spells cast within 15foot radius until end of next turn. 3+Wis uses.
Coven abilities (Witch's Coven hex, Sorcerer's accused bloodline arcana, Coven-touched changeling racial feat) let you use aid another to give allies +1 CL for 1 round. Stargazer PrC 1 gives witch hex of choice (no dead levels)
Witchguard Ranger - Defend Charge: 1/day (+1 use @ lvl4 and every 3 levels thereafter), Move Action to give adjacent spellcaster +2 Dodge to AC & +2 Circumstance to Concentration (+2 at lvl 5 and every 5 levels thereafter). Bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to Ranger's wis modifier.
Pathfinder Chronicler PrC 9 - Inspire Action: Expend 1 round of bardic performance to give an ally an additional standard action. As a bardic performance action, this action can be done as a standard action, move action (at 7 levels of bardic performance), and a swift action (at 13 levels of bardic performance). Pathfinder Chronicler advances bardic performance at -2 levels, so at level 15 you can use it as a swift action as well. (If you advance from Dawnflower Dervish Bard, you start with move action and get Swift at bardic performance level 10, giving you Swift Action inspire action at level 14 immediately.) Anyway, tons of standard actions for your party's spellcasters. If you use Experimental Spellcaster feat from Ultimate Magic's Words of Power rules to gain the Accelerate effect word, you can have an extra move action. Bear in mind regular Bards/Skalds can also give standard actions with the Heroic Finale (Lv5 standard action, ends performance) spell. Combined with Metamagic Rod (or Spell Perfection) with Quicken metamagic and The Dance of 23 Steps masterpiece performance (starts as free action), you can give 2 standard actions to your target of choice as well.
Bard 8 or Skald 10 (sooner with Doomharp): Enemies within radius (30 foot default, higher with feats or Doomharp) are automatically shaken, no save (-2 to all saves, attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks) until performance expires or they leave radius.
Void variant school specialization - Expose Weakness (Wizard, School Savant Arcanist, or just School Understanding arcanist exploit): 3+int uses/day. Standard action. For 1 round, target creature takes 1/2 your CL as penalty to AC and all saving throws (no save).
Misfortune hex (Witch class, Shaman class, Stargazer PrC 1): Standard action. 1 round. Anytime the targeted creature makes an ability check, attack roll, saving throw, or skill check, it must roll twice and take the worse result. A Will save negates this hex. Duration can be extended by 1 round for each move action spent on Cackle (for Witches) or Chant (for Shamans) hex.

There should be a bunch more stuff I missed.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2022, 10:37:41 PM by Power »

Offline Nanashi

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2019, 11:38:53 PM »
It's also worth looking at abilities that inflict conditions that penalize saving throws. Loads of stuff causes fear conditions, and Dirty Trick can inflict some stats conditions that either lower throws directly or penalize a status. Spells like Enervation (1d4 negative levels=-1d4 on saving throws and other fun stuff), Prediction of Failure (Sickened and shaken for -4 on saves, no save), Prayer (-1 on saves for all enemies plus a bunch of other stuff) can hose saves a good deal.

Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2019, 06:20:42 AM »
There's Mind Fog too, although making enemies fail a will save to take a -10 penalty to their will saves usually isn't much good. You'd have to cheese up the DC and add a Persistent Spell metamagic to it. Mind Fog's primary use-case is if you like to use items with will saves that are ordinarily too low to be viable. Similarly there's the Lullaby cantrip that Bards, Mesmerists, and Psychics get (Two-World Magic magic trait will let you add it to any class's list though). Target takes -5 Perception and -2 Will save vs sleep effects, but will negates (and it has verbal and somatic components to boot, so not a very subtle spell unless you're playing a psychic caster, Sandman Bard, or a Skald using Silent Spell metamagic for some reason, like with Arcane Concordance), so it's not a very practical spell to use.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2019, 12:48:55 PM by Power »

Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2020, 04:54:51 PM »
The Coven Caster feat can be used to give a caster level bonus as a special Aid Another action. Caster level bonus can be boosted further with the Azlanti Inheritor race trait (Adopted social trait circumvents racial requirements) and Ring of Tactical Precision. This also has a special stunt for self-buffing by using Ally Across Time or its greater version, Army Across Time, to give yourself Aid Another checks and boost your own caster level. Aid another bonuses stack so this can result in quite a high caster level. Especially seeing as nothing is stopping you from casting these spells multiple times and benefiting from all of them simultaneously (only limit appears to be how many adjacent spots there are for aid another actions), because these are summoning spells, not self-buffs.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2020, 05:56:51 PM by Power »

Offline TC X0 Lt 0X

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2020, 05:32:47 PM »
The Coven Caster feat can be used to give a caster level bonus as a special Aid Another action. Caster level bonus can be boosted further with the Azlanti Inheritor race trait (Adopted social trait circumvents racial requirements) and Ring of Tactical Precision. This also has a special stunt for self-buffing by using Ally Across Time or its greater version, Army Across Time, to give yourself Aid Another checks and boost your own caster level. Aid another bonuses stack so this can result in quite a fairly high caster level. Especially seeing as nothing is stopping you from casting these spells multiple times and benefiting from all of them simultaneously (only limit appears to be how many adjacent spots there are for aid-another perks), because these are summoning spells, not self-buffs.
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Offline zook1shoe

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #12 on: May 30, 2020, 04:50:35 AM »
Helpful combat trait could raise the +2 to a +3, since it isn't called out as a trait bonus. The Helpful halfling won't work because 1) it's also a race trait and 2) mentions the "normal +2", which Coven Caster doesn't qualify for.

I love the idea of spamming allies to aid your CL like crazy, +4/ally is nasty.
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Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2020, 06:34:09 AM »
The Exceptional Aid teamwork feat would work better for turning a +2 bonus into a bigger one.

Offline Nanashi

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2020, 07:09:25 PM »
There's plenty of ways to hurt enemy saves, which is a good buff to allied casters (many non-casters also benifit from it too).

Mesmerist has Hypnotic Stare as a central class feature. Some of its improvements (Bold Stares and Stare feats) can boost things further (add shaken as an unavoidable rider) and let it hurt other saves and/or lower spell resistance.

Order of the Staff cavalier hurts saves of whoever it challenges, and there's ways to increase a Cavalier's challenge penalty with items. Order of the Staff also gets the ability to boost concentraction checks with Aid Another.

Fear and Sicken are the most obvious way of hurting enemy saves. Shaken is easy to put on things not immune to it, but hard to improve upon. Any strength+charisma based melee character (or any strength one that can afford the trait to make it based on strength instead of charisma) can use Curnogen Smash which is such a well designed feat (easy to understand yet effective and thematic) I have no idea how Paizo never reprinted it as a proper PF feat (it's from PF's days as 3PP 3.5 stuff, but PFS legal). Soulless Gaze+another damnation feat has horrible drawbacks, but you can avoid them by putting them on an Eidolon who doesn't go to any afterlife anyways! A level 3+ Hellknight can take Fearsome as a discipline to improve intimidation. Antipaladin has some fear improving stuff, but it's evil only. In general, the good third party content (DSP, DDS, Legendary Games ect.) is way more friendly to unlimiting intimidate than first party since they're willing to admit PF's nerfs to it were unjust.
 

Offline zook1shoe

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #15 on: July 06, 2020, 03:23:10 AM »
weird... the Order of the Staff aid is a comp bonus, not untyped
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Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #16 on: December 12, 2020, 04:39:37 PM »
I somehow missed this but combining Rune of Rule with Army Across Time as you use the Coven Caster feat is an easy way to give yourself +5 CL per clone before we count other increases. With Azlanti Inheritor and Ring of Tactical Precision it would reach +7 CL per clone. If you cast Army Across Time into another Army Across Time you can easily get yourself extremely high CL.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2020, 06:32:51 PM by Power »

Offline zook1shoe

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #17 on: December 13, 2020, 04:31:20 PM »
Someone on reddit mentioned to recast Army after the increased CL, get even more copies for even more aids. Rinse and repeat.
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Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #18 on: December 13, 2020, 07:07:15 PM »
Yes, that is the trick. Feel free to stack people on vertical panes of transparent surfaces as well, if you're taking this to an extreme, perhaps even attempt to abuse miniature portals/gates or equip binoculars for a longer line of sight. Not that it matters since you can easily break 14400CL chaining this before that point, which is enough to make a rounds/level duration spells last a day (without using Extend Spell metamagic).

I think every GM tends to call a "NO" on that stunt though, so it's really just TO.

I think you can get away with using Army Across Time to boost your caster level provided you don't use shenanigans to raise it to absurd degrees or chain it relentlessly.

Offline Endarire

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Re: [PF] Classes/Feats that Buff Allied Spellcasters?
« Reply #19 on: February 09, 2021, 12:25:16 AM »
Arcane concordance Bard spell.
Arcane Subdomain of the Magic Domain

Likely others.