Alhazred the Occultist
The road to the darkest dungeon is full of death and regret. Some, like Dismas, regret actions they've made in the past. Others, like Amani, regret the things that have happened to them. Alhazred, the Occultist, regrets what he has learned.
After spending a lifetime researching deeper and deeper into the void, Alhazred is cursed by his knowledge of the eldritch horrors that lurk there. The tendrils come ever closer, driving everything they touch to madness.
His only chance of survival outside of the hamlet is to inflict the visions of what he has witnessed on others. It's grim.
Like many newcomers to Darkest Dungeon, I thought the Vestal was the best healer at first. I mean, it's obvious, right? Her heals don't have crazy downsides, like wild variation or inflicting some malady like bleeding.
But as the game goes on and the dungeons get, well, darker – the limitations of a healbot start to shine through. Every turn and action becomes too important. If a turn goes by that does not require a heal from a dedicated healer, that turn is somewhat wasted.
Enter the Occultist. As his power grows over time, the good rolls on his heals become high enough that the average is worth the risk. Meanwhile, his many non-heal abilities never lose their lustre. The opposite is true, in fact. In the darkest dungeon, the Occultist's curses, forced movement and bleeding can be the difference between winning and losing, regardless of healing.
So how do we build him in Pathfinder?
Keys to the Character
$%*! (Cursing)
Alhazred's years spent researching eldritch horrors have left him resistant to their effects, but cursing others with a glimpse of them really ruins their day!
The Bad Doctor
Generally we prefer our healers not to injure us in other ways while they treat us. Well you can't always get what you want.
What's the Bloody Point?
When curses and visions of horrible aberrant monsters don't work, there is always the backup plan: stabbing.
Call of the Void
Alhazred's magic is powered by awful, abyssal eldritch horrors. Aberrant tentacles, creepy eyes, and many other shocking things are par for the course.
In Pop Culture Pathfinder terms, Alhazred is listed as a Healer, rather than an Enchanter. This is true to my experience with Darkest Dungeon – despite having much more utility and damage skills than healing overall, I would slot the Occultist into my party in the healer role. Let's continue with that here, making a healer who can heal, but mainly wants to curse and hinder his foes.
The distinction reminds me of MOBAs, where the "support" role often has the longest stuns and the craziest movement shenanigans. The power imbalance compared to the carries is there to make up for the (Ed. Note: perhaps?) less fun time spent healing allies.
With that in mind, on the battlefield Alhazred the Occultist is a powerful healing support. With many feats invested into making Battle Medicine more powerful, frequent and useful, he is always ready to patch up his allies when they are willing to risk the treatment.
Plus, his Occultist magical tradition gives access to a few magical heals – like Soothe – or other, "wyrder" ways of reconstructing allies health – like Spirit Link.
But where Alhazred really shines is those actions between healing friends. Rather than sit about ineffectually, like some dainty cloistered cleric, the Occultist makes life a living torment for his foes. In doing so, he severely weakens them, leaving them open for cleanup by his allies. The best defense really is a terrifying offense.
To meet this goal, Alhazred uses a combination of Witch hexes and Occult curses – both from his own magical tradition and a Curse Maelstrom Archetype, which is powerful enough to debuff everyone nearby, including allies.
Outside of battle, Alhazred's legendary intimidation can terrify people into giving the party what they want – but surely there is a better way to get it, right?
Build OVERVIEW
- Skill-based healing leaves lots of class feats
- Weakens foes for allies to finish
- Reads a lot
- Might plague his party with visions
- Curses may spread to friends
- Am I bleeding more than before?
Ancestry
Versatile Human
I didn't realize until now that there isn't really an "aberrant" ancestry or heritage available in Pathfinder. There is an aberrant bloodline, and there are many fey ancestry feats, but that's as close as it comes.
That doesn't affect this build in any way – after all, Alhazred is a human who has merely witnessed the horrors of the aberrant. It just seems like a missed opportunity.
In any case, the Versatile heritage gives our Occultist access to Battle Medicine right from level one. This establishes a theme that will be found throughout the build: loading up on healing General & Skill feats, while using class feats for curses and hexes.
Background
Cultist
This may be one of the shortest blurbs we write for a background. It's literally in his name, it's just missing two letters.
The background gives a free skill training of our choice, since his class already gives him Occultism, and the Intelligence boost is what we're looking for.
The Schooled In Secrets represents the Occultists vast knowledge of edlritch horror – we hope he keeps it to himself.
Class
Witch - Curse Patron
The Witch class gives our Occultist a few very occult-y things right from the get go. For one, access to spellcasting and the occult spell tradition. That's table stakes for Alhazred, but the flavor doesn't stop there.
Hexes, one of the unique features of the Witch class, are exactly what we're looking for in a curse-heavy Occultist build. And the Curse Patron, while not quite an Aberrant Patron (which doesn't exist currently), is a great source of extra cursing and other debilitating. This primarily starts with Evil Eye, the Curse Patron's hex cantrip.
Evil Eye frightens enemies 1 or 2 on a failed check, then leaves them immune to the cantrip for 1 minute. The immunity is annoying for a cantrip, which doesn't require a spell slot or focus point. However, while the hex is active, the foe can't fall below frightened 1. A penalty of 1 to every DC and check can be very powerful over time – it makes every other curse and spell the Occultist casts on the foe easier to hit, as well as all those of the Occultist's allies.
Alhazred has multiple ways of sustaining curses like Evil Eye – Cackle, Effortless Concentration and just hard-casting Sustain a Spell among them. So if Evil Eye lands, he can keep a target frightened for as long as he wants.
To meet the fantasy of our Darkest Dungeon Occultist, we'll add a fee archetypes to the Witch class. The main one is the Curse Maelstrom archetype. This gives Alhazred the option of rerolling a successful check in order to enter a curse maelstrom state, which confers a penalty to all checks and saving throws to everyone nearby.
The second archetype is a Rogue Dedication, courtesy of Multitalented. We just grab one feat from it otherwise – sneak attack, to give a little extra damage to those rare dagger strikes.
Skills & General Feats
Obviously, to make being a healer curse-hog work, Alhazred will need legendary Medicine.
Other than that, he is equally skilled at Occultism (his knowledge of the abyss) and Intimidation (scaring people with that knowledge). Honestly, with the high intelligence needed to do witch things, he is almost trained in everything, but those are the three areas the Occultist excels.
Legendary: Intimidation, Medicine, Occultism
Master: -
Expert: -
Attribute Increases
Equipment
Suggested Starting Equipment
Key Spells
Changelog
