Interesting stuff in Pathfinder

[Snowbluff]

This has probably been posted before, but I was just looking at Simulacrum and noticed that the Pathfinder version doesn't require any hair/blood/whatever from the creature, just an ice sculpture of it.  So now even without cheesing around components, you can make one of (at least) any creature you know the appearance of, or that you know anyone who knows the appearance of.

Also, Simulacrum is a 5th level spell for Summoners.  Which makes a self-growing Simulacrum army possible without extrapolating hypothetical 26th level casters to copy.
1) Staff of Simulacrum (10 charges) and Detect Magic (1 charge), CL 10th.  28.5K gp.
2) The staff's "target" is a 20th level Sorcerer, therefore creating a 10th level Sorcerer simulacrum.
3) The simulacrum can recharge and use the staff, generating another copy every ten days.
When you get enough money, upgrade the staff to make copies faster.

Edit: Also, since crafting doesn't cost XP, and is much less reliant on knowing specific spells, Simulacra can do that for you also.

Uh huh. You can cast Blood Money to ignore the pricy cost of the spell, too.

[Ice9]

Sadly only for yourself though; since you need to be actually casting it instead of using a staff, that puts the caster above 10th level, and therefore not a simulacrum. 

Unless ... a Samsaran (Mystic Past Life) Witch 10 could add Simulacrum to their list as a 5th level spell, and then cast that at 9th level.  Only Witch, I think, since it needs to be a full-progression arcane caster that doesn't already know Simulacrum.  Without the staff required, you'd get quadratic growth. 

Only issue is the familiar; it would cost 4500g to replace.    Even so, it's about 60x faster than using staves, for the same price, but it would be nice to find a way around it.

[Snowbluff]

Hm... on that note, simulacrums of something like that are aiming pretty low. I wonder if there is a monster capable of casting simulacrum? Well, Wyrms can cast spells of that level. Is it kosher to find the one Wyrm that know simulacrum and blood money?

[Ice9]

Half power is the tricky part.  At least it's clarified a bit in Pathfinder as specifically half the HD, but it also calls out "and the appropriate hit points, feats, skill ranks, and special abilities for a creature of that level or HD", which would most likely reduce racial spellcasting and could reasonably reduce a SLA of Simulacrum to Lesser Simulacrum or something.

If you posit advanced monstrous NPCs as existing, then something that had racial casting and stacked the matching class on top could hit more than 20th level casting, thus more than 10th when simulacra'd.  But if possible, I'd rather do this with existing material.

If you use the (rather broken) rules for playing as a monster, you could probably make a "20th level" character that had more than 20th level casting.  Let's see:
Venedaemon Sorcerer 20 is technically a 20th level character, and the Simulacrum would be a 13th level caster.  But ... for a Sorcerer, that means no 7th level spells.   

Edit: Winter Hag adds Simulacrum to a coven, and is only CR 7 / 10 HD.  So assuming simulacra can form covens, that could give you it as a SLA.

[zook1shoe]

Just have a hunter w 5 ranks in Knowledge (planes) and Planar Focus and you get a burrow speed equal to your base speed.

Is this the main way in PF to gain a burrow speed?

[Power]

No, main way is to play a Druid. You can also cast the following spells:

• Burrow (1 min/lvl, 3rd level spell)
• Elemental Body I (1 min/lvl, 4th level)
• Beast Shape III (1 min/lvl, 5th level). Elemental Body actually provides Earth Glide instead (you can also just cast Earth Glide - 4th level - but it's horribly inferior to Elemental Body). Also, Oreads have a special alternate racial trait (Oread Gem Magic) that allows them to make Elemental Body last 10 min/lvl instead at the cost of 150+elemental body level gp.

In terms of gear you can get the Delving property (10 foot burrow speed, but cannot go through solid stone) on your armor courtesy of Ultimate Equipment or you can get the Elemental Earth Belt (24k gp, which is 8k more than a Belt of Mighty Constitution +4 - a benefit this belt also provides) and use that to turn into a large earth elemental.

Druids can earth glide for up to 12 hours at level 6 though by turning into an earth elemental.

[Ice9]

One that I just came across recently:

Witches, excellent for armies.
1) Take a Witch with the Fortune and Cackle hexes; possible at 1st level with the Extra Hex feat.
2) Gather as big a group as you want, that will fit in a 30' radius.
3) Use Fortune on them, one at a time, using Cackle each round so none of that expires.
4) Now just use both actions to Cackle for however long - let's say eight hours.
5) The Fortune buff now lasts for however long you Cackled, beyond when you stopped Cackling.  So if that was eight hours, the group now has eight more hours to kick ass.
6) But wait - it gets even better.  Cackle extends the duration of any Fortune effect, not just one you created personally.  So with multiple Witches, you can extend the duration a lot more. 
7) For example, if ten (1st level) Witches spend an hour, the Fortune effect will last for 19 hours!  Or if those same Witches spent eight hours, it would last for 144 hours (6 days)!

This applies to the negative hexes too, but you'd need to have the victim restrained/asleep/whatever, so you could just CdG them instead.  But if you're very spiteful, you can give someone a temporary pseudo-curse that's hard (maybe impossible) to get rid of.  Might be useful for Charm, in fact.

Shaman can do this too, if you want to be more dignified about it (chanting instead of cackling).  But they do need to be a level higher.

[phaedrusxy]

One that I just came across recently:

Witches, excellent for armies.
1) Take a Witch with the Fortune and Cackle hexes; possible at 1st level with the Extra Hex feat.
2) Gather as big a group as you want, that will fit in a 30' radius.
3) Use Fortune on them, one at a time, using Cackle each round so none of that expires.
4) Now just use both actions to Cackle for however long - let's say eight hours.
5) The Fortune buff now lasts for however long you Cackled, beyond when you stopped Cackling.  So if that was eight hours, the group now has eight more hours to kick ass.
6) But wait - it gets even better.  Cackle extends the duration of any Fortune effect, not just one you created personally.  So with multiple Witches, you can extend the duration a lot more. 
7) For example, if ten (1st level) Witches spend an hour, the Fortune effect will last for 19 hours!  Or if those same Witches spent eight hours, it would last for 144 hours (6 days)!

This applies to the negative hexes too, but you'd need to have the victim restrained/asleep/whatever, so you could just CdG them instead.  But if you're very spiteful, you can give someone a temporary pseudo-curse that's hard (maybe impossible) to get rid of.  Might be useful for Charm, in fact.

Shaman can do this too, if you want to be more dignified about it (chanting instead of cackling).  But they do need to be a level higher.

And if you have all of your targets marked with a Scar, you can do it from a mile away so you don't drive them insane from all the Cackling. 

[zook1shoe]

"... caused by the witch..." seems to imply it's only your hexes, not any witch's.

A shaman using chant can do the same as a witch, if you wanna max Wis instead of Int.

[Ice9]

Aww, on closer inspection that's true.  No massive durations then, although you can still charge up for eight hours (while sleeping with earplugs, perhaps) to be awesome for eight hours after that.

Scar would be cool, but it has a limit on number of people attuned, so no good for armies.  Works fine for having your followers buff you though.

Incidentally, a Choker Witch could make their hexes twice as long lasting after the laughter stops.  Was discarding that before, because recruiting a bunch of L1s seemed easier, but with that out of the picture it's worth getting if you can.

[zook1shoe]

Choker witch?

[Ice9]

As in Choker, the creature.  Quickness is an extra move action, so you can Cackle 3x a round and make things last twice as long after you stop.

[zook1shoe]

oh... ok

[phaedrusxy]

Always wanted to play a big brute that is sneaky? Now you can.

[Snowbluff]

Always wanted to play a big brute that is sneaky? Now you can.

... what is this? XD

A black dragon might take it. They're sneaky.

[Jackinthegreen]

Ogre ninja!

[phaedrusxy]

looks more like an ettin ninja

[deadkitten]

Also from Pathfinder: THE VIGILANTE PLAYTEST!!
 

[zook1shoe]

Lol

[Snowbluff]

Yeah, it's very bad. I looked at it, saw the fluff feature, and just banged my head into a wall.

Who wants to talk about better alternatives for you disguisE? I nominate Synthesist Summoner.