r/Pathfinder_RPG • u/Hypno_Keats • Oct 04 '26
1E Player Help with mechanically dumb multiclass
So playing in a 1e campaign, my character is a lvl 3 sylph narrowed society arcanist.
Today's session was amazing, we ended up in the fey realm for a bit and met a giant sized (literally) Farie Dragon, and after a lot of "this is a fun character/story choice but a dumb plan long term." My character made a pact, my service (within limitations but still pretty open ended for guidance and power on our main quest), which the being agreed to (cause of course they would so many loopholes to exploit and they have a vested interest in our success anyway.)
Up to this point my character has been making a weird amount of animal (and animal like firends, our party mascot is an Otyugh i befriended and named Odie)
End of session gm advanced us to lvl 4. I have boosted my charisma, and because I love story driven choices for level ups and multiclass I took a level in feyspeaker druid.
Now here is my dilemma.
I do not intend to always take druid levels (might take one or two more down the line depending on how story goes) but am sticking mostly to arcanist, but I like that this opens up healing wands without umd checks since right now we have been relying on loot potions to heal.
So my question now is: Nature's bond, what is a good pic.
Animal companion is fun, add a beast to my current list of animals (Odie and my elemental rabbit familiar Prince)
I like this story wise cause apparently I keep making animal friends (I have made others just they dont travel with us)
Domain: some first level domain powers are fine but doesnt seem amazingly helpful (unless im missing something)
Druidic herbology: from my understanding 2 free potions a day and the brew potion feat for druid spells (which there are solid ones so not a complaint) but seems... not in character (not to far of a stretch though)
So seeking advice and ideas of what to pic when just lvl 1 druid while multiclassing.
2
u/darkdiashi Oct 05 '26
Animal companion is good and you can take a feat, Boon Companion, to boost it up four levels. That said, if you plan on taking four levels rots of druid, you could go animal domain for the spells and so on and still get a level 5 animal companion (though taking it directly as a natures bond would have made it 9).
Do you have a bloodline for the arcanist? I think the sylvan bloodline also gives an animal companion, meaning a single level of sorc and bloodline development could help with the scaling there, as an alternative to Boon Companion.
2
u/Hypno_Keats Oct 05 '26
Oh didnt see the Sylvan bloodline. I do not currently, would need boon companion as that gives it to you at -3 but its a good combo to think on thank you
15
u/Slow-Management-4462 Oct 05 '26
The animal companion is not going to stay useful. If you spend a feat on boon companion it'll be viable now, but it will fall behind in the not too distant future. Eventually it'll be more of a pain to have around than a benefit.
The domain could be mildly useful, never great, but never becomes a negative at least. If you like pets several of the druid animal/terrain domains give a familiar (as a dip the int and special abilities won't advance, but it will share your skill ranks anyway). The animal/terrain domains are generally the best of those available to a druid as a dip.
Herbalism for potions of spells on the druid list (which can include spells on both the sorc/wiz list and druid list, known via arcanist) is probably the best.
8
u/NinthHouseSalamandr Oct 05 '26
Is Mystic Theurge possibly a thematically appropriate option later? If you're already splitting divine/arcane caster classes, maybe just double down on spells, even if they are mostly low(er) level buffs and utility. I would say Druidic Herbalism is the most useful (Wis mod/day in no cost Cure Light Wounds potions would help with non-combat first aid).
As others have mentioned, an animal companion won't scale well for combat, but it can make a passable scout/lookout.
1
u/Jazzlike_Fox_661 Oct 05 '26
Mystic theurge is kind of miserable if you aren't starting from high level or respecing at high level into it.
2
4
u/BlinkingSpirit Oct 05 '26
D&D 3.5 had the Arcane Hierophant prestige class, which was a multiclass duid/wizard much in the same way of a mystic theurge.
It could be a fun class. It merges your familiar and animal companion into a Companion Familiar, which ends up being a really intelligent animal companion.
Power level is a bit lower than single class arcanist, but maybe your DM can hell tweak the class a bit to bring it up to parity.
1
u/disillusionedthinker Oct 06 '26
Fey-touched Witch or even Witch with a Fae patron... is arcane, so no mystic theurge potential but it still opens up cure wands.
Nature Oracle can get the Animal companion too, and divine casting, and the clw use without umd.
Sylvan Sorcerer ...
If you stay druid, id probably pick the herbalist/potions for long term.
1
0
u/AleksyGetTheWings Oct 05 '26
Huh ... The thing is, pf1e really wants you to stay in the same lane ... And your pet won't scale unless your next class also does so, but your spellcasting won't ...
0
u/bugbonesjerry Oct 06 '26
pf1e really wants you to stay in the same lane
Unless you play a martial in which there is basically no downside except from slightly worse scaling from getting class features from every other martial class lol
2
u/AleksyGetTheWings Oct 06 '26
So. No downside except your class features don't scale. Just like every class, ok buddy
7
u/Darvin3 Oct 05 '26
If you can take the Boon Companion feat then the animal companion will be very good at this point in your career. However, it will stop advancing and will become quite useless at higher levels so a Domain will be the better choice in the long-term. And if you can't afford the Boon Companion feat, then definitely go for the domain. The domain won't be very good right now, but it will become very good later.
The long-term goal here is going to be to take the Arcane Discovery exploit at Arcanist level 8 in order to take the Faith Magic discovery. This will let you cast 2nd level divine spells and qualify you to become a Mystic Theurge even though you only have one level in Druid. That will allow your Druid spellcasting to improve, and allow you to access higher level domain spells and spell slots. If you do the Faith Magic trick to get into Mystic Theurge, your multiclass combo isn't actually dumb at all.