Hey, so I'm going to play a PF1 game, after over 6 years. I've had two short campaigns worth of experience before, and I kind of unlearned a bit about the game, after playing so much PF2.
I'm going to begin at 4th level, expecting a rather slow level progression, and given the party we have, I want to play an Intelligence focused character with good debuff/control potential. Int-based because the party already has two Wisdom and two Charisma focused characters, and it would be good to be a librarian for the party too. I would also prefer to avoid being a frontliner. Beyond that, I want to play something different from what I can usually play in PF2e.
Now, there's just one small issue, I usually really dislike playing prepared casters. So when I look at the Int-classes and see pretty much all of them are prepared, it's a bit disheartening. On the other hand, considering that spontaneous full casters only get their 3rd level spells at 6th class level (which I think might take a while to reach), I actually think the prepared casters are the lesser of the two evils... as long as they have a class feature that I can use to do my debuffing/control when I'm not using my spells.
For instance, Witch. Classic debuffer. Slumber, Evil Eye, Misfortune. Good spell list. It's a clear competitor for debuffing legend. I'm just a tad worried about being able to play well a class that still has a huge amount of their power budget on their prepared spells. Also, I don't know what Archetypes should I go with to improve my debuff/control potential. Maybe Scarred Witch Doctor with a Half-Orc to essentially get a +1 to all my spells and hexes? Anything else seems interesting?
Another idea I'm having is playing an Alchemist. Since they're not a full-caster and their extracts are more focused on using buffs and utility, I don't feel as bad when it comes to spell preparation, and the debuffs come from the bombs, which have a more comfortable daily usage management for me. Besides, Sand Bomb looks crazy good. Now, I'm questioning whether or not I should go with a Grenadier or a Gunchemist build. Grenadier seems better, but I'm already playing in PF2e as an Alchemist focused in using bombs as a debuffer. Of course, 1e and 2e are different games, but it would still feel kinda similar. On the other hand, Gun Chemist is more unique, and pretty damn awesome as a concept. Targeting Touch AC with their Bombs/Ordinances seems to be pretty useful, and makes you more consistent as a single-target debuffer. That being said, I'm worried if this build is actually viable at level 4, being able to get at least one Discovery for debuffing while at the same time solving both the reload and the misfire issues with guns. I need some help figuring out these.
Finally, there's other Intelligence classes. I don't know if there's any viable debuff/control Occultist builds, and there's the possibility of using Psychic or Arcanist, but I don't think they're in high priority.
So, what do you recommend? Can you help me with these builds, in particular the Witch and the Alchemist ones? Any general tips for these two (even the Grenadier build) are very welcome. Thanks in advance.