I have finally built a second thaumaturge! It's such a hard class to figure out a build for. As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choice may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.
If you prefer watching over reading, check out the YouTube video on the character!
Let's get into the build for Amaterasu, the Shining Light, from Smite!
AMATERASU, THE SHINING LIGHT
CHARACTER Amaterasu
SOURCE Smite
BUILD GOALS
o A goddess of the sun, Amaterasu hid herself away in despair and grief when her brother destroyed fields and items she held sacred
o She remained hidden until a sound from outside caused her to move the rock away, finding hundreds of friends and family who managed to restore her smile and the light to the world
o She is a melee warrior with mobility options and area damage
o Illuminating Strike applies a glow to enemies she strikes and after three hits, the enemy gains an aura that causes them to take more damage from all sources
o She can activate Divine Presence to heal herself while also switching between an aura of Valor, which empowers herself and nearby allies, or Benevolence, which provides bonus movement speed
o When she uses Heavenly Reflection, she begins charging her mirror while taking less damage. After the full charge or when cancelled, she fires a blast of light in a straight line, dealing more damage based on the damage she inflicted or received during the charge-up
o Glorious Charge is a simple ability that causes her to briefly silence enemies in front of her before dashing, dealing damage and stopping at the first enemy god
o Her ultimate, Dazzling Offensive is a three-hit combo that hits in a cone in front of her. The first hit deals damage, the second damages and slows, and the final hit damages and stuns
o She fights using the Kusanagi, a katana with light and fire capabilities
LEVEL 1
Ancestry & Heritage: Cavern Elf
o Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Dexterity, +Intelligence, +Strength, -Constitution
o Ancestry Feat: Otherworldly Magic – ignition
Background: Sun Dancer
o Ability Boosts: +Charisma, +Strength
o Skill Increase: Performance (trained)
o Background Feat: Fascinating Performance
Class & Subclass: Thaumaturge with a Weapon Implement
o Class Ability Boost: +Charisma
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (trained), Arcana (trained), Athletics (trained), Diplomacy (trained), Esoteric Lore (trained), Nature (trained), Occultism (trained), Religion (trained)
o Class Feat: Scroll Thaumaturgy
Details
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Charisma (Str +3, Dex +2, Con +0, Int +1, Wis +0, Cha +3)
Amaterasu explores some unique options in an attempt to complete her build, starting with the elf ancestry, which I sought to use given her place as a sort of central god to her pantheon, making her presumably ancient. I ended up changing my choice of heritage to cavern while I was putting together this write-up mostly because I thought it was a funny reference to the years that she spent sealed away in her cave. Meanwhile, Otherworldly Magic nets her ignition as an innate spell and while this is better used in melee combat, it will serve as an early reference to the reactivation of her Heavenly Reflection though this only targets a single creature rather than the line it hits. Her sun dancer background is pretty much entirely a reference to her position as a sun deity and because I wasn’t quite sure what else really worked for her. Amaterasu’s abilities cover quite a wide swath of effects and to capture that, as well as the weakness that she grants through her Illuminating Strike, she takes up the thaumaturge – only the second time I’ve used this class!
She starts with a weapon implement which rather than being a katana, I have chosen to represent as a scimitar for the simple fact that it is a sword that has a forceful trait. While incredibly minor, this may help to replicate the increasing damage of her Dazzling Offensive. Meanwhile, the weapon implement comes with the ability to disrupt the actions of others, potentially ‘silencing’ spells they’re casting as per her Glorious Charge. With the idea of representing her Heavenly Reflection through magic, she takes Scroll Thaumaturgy, but I could also see going Divine Disharmony. This calls to mind her own divine nature while also letting her make an enemy off-guard, which is helpful for her more martial maneuvers. As one final mention about the thaumaturge, it being Charisma-focused helps with her innate spells and with the archetype that she will take up.
LEVEL 2
o Class Feat: Esoteric Warden
o Skill Feat: Bon Mot
o Gear: cloak of feline rest
LEVEL 3
o General Feat: Toughness
o Skill Increase: Esoteric Lore (expert), Religion (expert)
o Gear: +1 scimitar, cloak of feline rest, everburning torch
LEVEL 4
o Class Feat: Marshal Dedication
o Skill Feat: Cat Fall
o Skill Increase: Diplomacy (expert)
o Gear: golden legion epaulet, +1 scimitar, flask of fellowship, cloak of feline rest
LEVEL 5
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +4, Dex +2, Con +1, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha +4)
o Ancestry Feat: Elven Instincts
o Skill Increase: Athletics (expert)
o Second Implement: Amulet
o Gear: +1 striking scimitar, golden legion epaulet, bracelet of dashing, flask of fellowship, cloak of feline rest, everburning torch
When Amaterasu begins charging her Heavenly Reflection, she increases her defenses, which is reflected by Esoteric Warden providing a very brief bonus to both her Armor Class and her saving throws against the target of her Exploit Vulnerability. Her next class feat features her starting to tap into the auras that she grants with her Divine Presence by taking the Marshal Dedication though this starts off very minor. This leads to an increase to her Diplomacy as she does seem more diplomatic over intimidating. As part of that focus on Diplomacy, she takes Bon Mot to help her debuff enemies though she herself may not be taking advantage of that debuff too much – instead, it’s a way to help her teammates, which again plays into her Illuminating Strike. Honestly though, skills are a little hard to pick for Amaterasu and I feel like I may have gone a little wide with the choices I made. Elven Instincts is just a very handy feat, granting a bonus on initiative rolls and letting her win on initiative ties – it’s absolutely a bit of stretch, but this somewhat puts me in the mind of iaijutsu type stuff where the speed of the draw is highly important. Finally, she has Toughness since she is a melee character who started with a flaw in Constitution and only has an 8 Hit Point class. She needs all the help she can get when it comes to her Hit Points.
As a thaumaturge, she does gain another implement and she will select the amulet with the damage reduction it can provide through its reaction possibly better serving as the damage reduction from her Heavenly Reflection.
LEVEL 6
o Class Feat: Inspiring Marshal Stance
o Skill Feat: Quick Jump
o Gear: +1 scale mail, +1 striking scimitar, cape of justice, golden legion epaulet, flask of fellowship, cloak of feline rest
LEVEL 7
o General Feat: Fleet
o Skill Increase: Diplomacy (master), Esoteric Lore (master)
o Implement Adept: Weapon
o Gear: cassisian helm, +1 scale mail, lesser cape of illumination, +1 striking scimitar, bracelet of dashing, golden legion epaulet
LEVEL 8
o Class Feat: To Battle!
o Skill Feat: Evangelize
o Gear: boots of bounding, cassisian helm, ring of the ram, +1 scale mail, +1 striking scimitar, cape of justice
LEVEL 9
o Ancestry Feat: Otherworldly Acumen – Arcana
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (expert), Religion (master)
o Gear: +1 resilient scale mail, boots of bounding, ash gown, cassisian helm, lesser cape of illumination, +1 striking scimitar
LEVEL 10
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +4.5, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +1, Wis +2, Cha +4.5)
o Class Feat: Share Weakness
o Skill Feat: Battle Prayer
o Gear: moderate cape of illumination, +1 resilient scale mail, brooch of inspiration, boots of bounding, cassisian helm, +1 striking scimitar
I just realized that the last god I made also used the Marshal Dedication and also went with the Inspiring Marshal Stance, but it’s too good a fit for the Valor aura of her Divine Presence, which enhances her allies. Meanwhile, her Benevolence aura enhances the speed of her and her teammates. She can tap into the former a bit just from being an elf with thirty-foot Speed and then adds onto it with Fleet while to help the movement speed of her allies, she has To Battle! She can spend this action to allow a companion to move as a reaction though this will be further explored with other feats in this build. Amaterasu’s Illuminating Strikes make an enemy weak to all damage, whether it be damage she deals or damage dealt by her allies and the thaumaturge’s Share Weakness can help represent this. Between her bolstering of attacks with her Inspiring Marshal Stance and letting an ally inflict additional damage through this, Amaterasu is turning out to be quite the support party member though hopefully she’ll be able to match their moves with her own. To that end, she takes the weapon’s Adept Benefit, allowing her to deal damage even when the Strike from her Implement’s Interruption misses.
Quick Jump helps Amaterasu get into the fight quicker but then she starts looking into Religion feats based on her being a literal divine being. Evangelize is technically a Diplomacy feat, but it is a good follow-up to Bon Mot. While the effects might stack somewhat, it’s a good combination to throw at casters simply to force that flat check on their spells, quite possibly compounding with her Implement’s Interruption. Battle Prayer lets her just deal some damage by channeling her divine fury, which can be handy if she can’t make attacks for some reason. From her ancestry feats, she can take up Otherworldly Acumen for the arcane tradition, which she can change on a day-to-day basis but I like best for scorching ray to represent the blast of her Heavenly Reflection.
LEVEL 11
o General Feat: Feather Step
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (master)
o Gear: +2 striking scimitar, moderate cape of illumination, ashen weapon rune, +1 resilient scale mail, boots of bounding, ash gown
LEVEL 12
o Class Feat: Sympathetic Vulnerabilities
o Skill Feat: Sacred Defense
o Gear: +2 resilient scale mail, +2 striking scimitar, sun sight, moderate cape of illumination, brooch of inspiration, flaming weapon rune
LEVEL 13
o Ancestry Feat: Avenge Ally
o Skill Increase: Athletics (master)
o Gear: +2 greater striking scimitar, +2 resilient scale mail, greater brooch of inspiration, sun sight, moderate cape of illumination, ashen weapon rune
LEVEL 14
o Class Feat: Esoteric Reflexes
o Skill Feat: Break Curse
o Gear: hellfire boots, +2 greater striking scimitar, brilliant weapon rune, +2 resilient scale mail, moderate midday lantern, sun sight
LEVEL 15
o Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Charisma (Str +5, Dex +2, Con +3, Int +1, Wis +3, Cha +5)
o General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Nimble Elf
o Skill Increase: Diplomacy (legendary)
o Third Implement: Wand
o Gear: +2 greater resilient scale mail, hellfire boots, greater ring of the ram, +2 greater striking scimitar, greater brooch of inspiration, greater ash gown
The weakness created by Illuminating Strikes does spread to other nearby enemies, which influenced the choice of Sympathetic Vulnerabilities letting her spread a vulnerability that she exploits to likewise creatures. Both of Amaterasu’s implements, the weapon and the amulet, have reactions and very good ones at that. To make the most out of them, she takes Esoteric Reflexes, which she can use to get a reaction for each or double up on the same reaction in a round if such an opportunity comes up. She does gain her third implement, which she will use to take a wand implement that is attuned to fire, allowing her to fling magical energy at an enemy based upon her Heavenly Reflection – it even has the option to charge it up! From her skill feats, she has Sacred Defense to bolster her health because as discussed when taking Toughness, she really needs to shore up her health anyway that she can. She can also take Break Curse both since she does have some ability to wipe out some spells with her silence effect and also because she is regarded as a benevolent deity who fights to protect her friends and followers. In Smite, Amaterasu floats around the battlefield, which she demonstrates a bit with Feather Step and then further increases her Speed by using Ancestral Paragon to take Nimble Elf, which helps to represent the speed of her Benevolence aura. Her actual ancestry for this block will be Avenge Ally – this build has some focus on bolstering Amaterasu’s allies and this feat will let her Strike down those that harm them or at least increase the chance of her doing so.
LEVEL 16
o Class Feat: Sever Magic
o Skill Feat: Kip Up
o Gear: greater cape of illumination, +2 greater resilient scale mail, greater midday lantern, hellfire boots, +2 greater striking scimitar, brilliant weapon rune
LEVEL 17
o Ancestry Feat: Forlorn
o Skill Increase: Acrobatics (legendary), Religion (legendary)
o Implement Paragon: Weapon
o Gear: +3 greater striking scimitar, greater cape of illumination, greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient scale mail, hellfire boots, greater ring of the ram
LEVEL 18
o Class Feat: Implement’s Assault
o Skill Feat: Divine Guidance
o Gear: bracers of hammers, +3 greater striking scimitar, major crown of the fire eater, greater cape of illumination, +2 greater resilient scale mail, greater midday lantern
LEVEL 19
o General Feat: Pick Up the Pace
o Skill Increase: Athletics (legendary)
o Gear: +3 greater resilient scale mail, bracers of hammers, 17, +3 greater striking scimitar, greater cape of illumination, greater flaming weapon rune
LEVEL 20
o Ability Boosts: +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence, +Wisdom (Str +5, Dex +3, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +5)
o Class Feat: Ubiquitous Weakness
o Skill Feat: Cloud Jump
o Skill Increase: Intimidation (trained)
o Gear: +3 major striking scimitar, +3 greater resilient scale mail, greater brilliant weapon rune, bracers of hammers, quickstrike weapon rune, major crown of the fire eater
With the silencing effect of her Glorious Charge, she can use the thaumaturge’s Sever Magic to cut a spell out of an enemy, but she has a couple of ways to shut down her enemy’s magic already, so if you want to represent her floating capabilities instead, look into Implement’s Flight for her. Initially, I took Coordinated Charge as her penultimate class feat to represent the speed enhancing effects of her Benevolence aura, but with the area attacks of her Dazzling Offensive, I felt that Implement’s Assault was ultimately a better fit. For her final class feat, she can use Ubiquitous Weakness to fully share the weakness that she divines with Exploit Vulnerability with all her allies instead of just one from her Share Weakness. She selects her weapon for her Implement Paragon option so that all her successful Strikes with her weapon implement disrupt her enemies, not just critical hits. This build got her Acrobatics to master and Kip Up is just too nice of an option to pass up. Divine Guidance is simply based on her being a top god of her pantheon though I suppose its more like her asking herself for guidance, just getting introspective about tough choices. Outside of combat, she has Pick Up the Pace to hurry her allies along, based on one of the auras of her Divine Presence. Then since Amaterasu is can get a bit mopey when she loses the people or precious things that she values, as seen when she first went into the cave, she will take Forlorn as her final ancestry feat, making her somewhat inured to further effects of that nature.
FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: Once more, this build can take up the Marshal Dedication in a free archetype game, squeezing out feats such as Cadence Call, Coordinated Charge, and Tactical Cadence, which all help her hasten allies in one form or another. For more archetypes, I’d likely delve into a caster archetype, probably sorcerer to make use of her Charisma and with a divine tradition. She wants spells like searing light, which can be a little scarce in the divine list but the mix of them are a fantastic fit for them. I like angelic a bit for her, but she could also likely go phoenix and make some good use out of the primal list and the spells there.
BUILD CONCLUSION
Amaterasu, the Shining Light is a cavern elf thaumaturge who wields a weapon implement and has the sun dancer background. This heritage serves to reflect the time that she spent in the cave after her brother destroyed her fields and sacred items. As a thaumaturge, she can Exploit Vulnerability to create a weakness in an enemy that she then shares with her allies through Share Weakness and Ubiquitous Weakness, akin to her Illuminating Strike. She can even use Sympathetic Vulnerabilities to spread the weakness that she creates to other since Illuminating Strike causes the enemy to create a weakness-granting aura. Regrettably, she didn’t have enough implements to be able to grab the chalice, which leaves her a little lacking in the self-healing to represent her Divine Presence, but she uses Marshal Dedication and its Inspiring Marshal Stance to represent the aura of Valor that she gives off with it. She can hasten allies, based on its Benevolence aura with To Battle and Pick Up the Pace when out of the fight while her own speed increase comes from her elven nature, Fleet, and Nimble Elf. Taking up the amulet implement grants Amaterasu a reaction to reduce damage she or an ally takes, which helps cover the damage reduction of Heavenly Reflection. The blast from it can come from ignition initially, which is granted by her Otherworldly Magic. Otherworldly Acumen expands upon this by letting her take scorching ray as does her wand implement, which can be charged up to further replicate this ability. For her Glorious Charge, she’s mainly just going to be running into combat but to cover the silence of it, giving her Paragon Implement with her weapon allows her to disrupt enemies, which is the closest she can get with her silence. There’s also options like Sever Magic and Break Curse, which are inspired by this concept. Dazzling Offensive is probably the hardest to create in Pathfinder since stun isn’t often an option available to martial characters, which the thaumaturge still is. However, the forceful trait of her scimitar helps to represent the increased damage from her consecutive and she can take Implement’s Assault to create the area that she affects.
This sweet and supreme slice of sunshine seeks out soft spots in sinister suspects, silencing and sentencing scoundrels with a swing of her sword while serving as a sublime support for her sidekicks.
Lemme know what you think and what other builds you would like to see!
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Have a fantastic Friday!
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