QuidEst's page

Mesmerist. They get the DCs of a full caster with the flexibility of 3/4 BAB, a damage boost, and defensive abilities.

Antipaladin gets a permanent summons, which is otherwise a capstone ability. I usually go for Insinuator, though, so no casting there.

Gorbacz wrote:

*throws his PDF against the wall repeatedly*

*kicks it*

*spills hot water on it*

Fine as new!

Interesting. You must use a solid-state or flash drive rather than a hard drive platter

Or something more exotic.

I'd recommend just the skill point boost. That makes them the skilled full-BAB class with a dash of magic. Switching stats is giving them nearly a level's worth of help, which is a lot.

Is there a way to ask a dev specifically about this, since this is apparently a confusing thing, or do I have to hope one sees my question?

You DO get a bonus hex, no question. You do not get to freely choose what that bonus hex is; it's tied to the patron theme. You can still take Slumber or Cackle or whatever with your regular hex at first level.

This hex has, in my opinion, two uses. One is the hex itself- generally one of the weaker hexes, although there are exceptions. (Generally, the better the hex, the harsher the drawback.) The other is having a hex at first level if an archetype normally would mean you wouldn't. That lets you take Extra Hex from first level, rather than waiting.

Rysky wrote:

The Imperator wrote:

So does the Patron theme replace your first level hex and give you a downside, or does it give you an additional first level hex and a downside?

Your first hex and some patron spells are locked and you get a drawback.

Huh, not really a fan of strictly worse options for play, and a drawback with no upside is that.

Misunderstanding, I think. You get a specific bonus hex at first level, in addition to your regular hex, assuming you didn't trade that away.

The ability to shove a bunch of energy into one place doesn't guarantee the ability to remove a bunch of energy from one place. It's the opposite skill.

Attacks that don't drop an enemy below zero are injuring and/or tiring them out and wearing them down. At one hit point, they're on their last leg. The one damage flare gun attack is still 100% of their remaining health- and if that seems unrealistic, it's because it's unlikely. But it's not impossible. They stagger, fall, and crack their skull. They take it straight to the face. Whatever works for you.

Eh, no problem. Programmer here as well.

A tier ten computer on a belt buckle is... pushing the limits of things, to say the least. And that hack is just accessing the hardware, not accessing the super-protected data.

The remote hack is a special ability unique to a class. I'm willing to give some leeway to avoid the "only magic can do cool things" problem. Hack stuff with electromagnetic induction like a boss!

How does the Witchborn alternate racial trait interact with the new heritages?

I think there are about four it works with.

QuidEst wrote:

Raccoon. Strength 8, much better will saves than a fox, and better at holding things.

I had not noticed the raccoon before. Better will and ac, very slightly lower strength. But a poor move speed. Seems right in the mix depending on what you need.

Fox sits at slightly better str, -1 ac, -2 will, 40ft speed, +1 fort, better familair bonus,

Flying fox slightly better str, -2 ac, -1 will, +1 fort, -1 ref, 60ft fly, better familiar bonus.

Compsognathus same str, equal ac, +2 fort, -3 will, 40ft move , 20ft swim, best familiar bonus.

That's the basic breakdown of the difference using raccoon as a base. All seem worth considering depending on need.

I noticed raccoon before the mauler archetype came out. Built a lazy Shaman with a super-competent raccoon familiar kitted out with all the carrying capacity boosters and Batman levels of mundane/alchemical gear.

Raccoon. Strength 8, much better will saves than a fox, and better at holding things.

Scaled unchained monk 1/oath of vengeance paladin 4/sorcerer 1/dragon disciple 1

Cha to hit, Cha to AC, Cha to damage, Cha to heal, Cha to cast, and the ability to expend lay on hands for extra smite uses. Proceed through dragon disciple to get more levels of sorcerer spell casting, make sure to take prestigious spellcaster and favored presto eve class for maximum benefit of 10 levels in a prestige class. Get yourself some Bracers of Celestial Intervention and a few extra uses of lay on hands to convert and go to town.

That's two classes with lawful requirements. Most GMs are going to require being within one step of a deity's alignment to get worship benefits, and Desna is CG.

Bard, Oracle, or any of the other medium BAB progression caster classes are a nice choice for this. Since the feat makes you use your casting stat for melee and ranged combat, you're pretty free to take feats for fun things or casting-focused stuff, like Spell Focus.

I have players having +13 in these tricks at Level 1, and (before we knew about the Ghost mistake), had +17 in Ghost. That is ridiculous by ANY standard. No 1st level player should have +13 in ANYTHING! Why even have such a massive boost to ANY skill? This is way broke IMO, and unless it is fixed in errata, I'm going to houserule it down. What say the Devs? Any chance of reducing all of these via errata?

Three from bonus feat, four from ability, one from skill, three from class skill. That's +11. Additional +2 racial gets you +13. Any lashunta can get that with their starting feat on any class. It seems reasonable to me?

That's cool, I play an elven green hag changeling and I am so curious to see if there are any changes for her!

Shouldn't be anything mechanical for elves. It's the usual situation where different sizes are possible, although I think there was also an allowance for unusual body types, like centaurs.

Yes, non-human changeling fathers are covered!

Yes, hag deities and common witch deities are covered!

QuidEst wrote:

nighttree wrote:

Question....do the new Heritages replace the "Hag racial trait" chosen at character creation ?

They are that.

So they have just added altered ability score modifiers right ?

Yes and no. There's also the awakened hag heritage (and of course, now you have ten heritage options instead of three).

Question....do the new Heritages replace the "Hag racial trait" chosen at character creation ?

They are that.

nighttree wrote:

Bloodline.....
...hmm....sounds like many of the abilities are intended to be constant, not just while raging (which I'm OK with)....maybe Lissa will see this and chime in on intent (hint...hint...)

Intent was really to make it work similar to other bloodlines in that these things only work while raging; to give you something you can do to affect combat when you can't be adjacent to a foe but didn't overlap with hag-riven issues. It's advantageous when you can't reach a foe in a single move or when you have multiple foes and one of your friends a couple squares away is in trouble and needs an easier target.

I personally like to have options, so things that can soften up a particular foe for everyone is pretty great use of a standard action. Situational but not an uncommon situation. I also didn't want a lot of overlap with the Hag Riven.

Thanks for the clarification! And it does make sense for it to have a more caster-y feel than some of the other bloodlines.

What are groups of Skittermanders called.

Asked Google for help.

These seem stealable, especially as you go down the list.

What is the Hag-called physchic about?

Does the Arakineticist gain Hexes or a new infusion?

One more question for those who have a copy. Would it be better to describe this as the Changeling race book, or as the Witch character class book? It sounds more like the former than the latter.

It is very solidly both.

Changelings get ten subraces, at least three feats, two traits, and special coven rules, and a unique drawback with a d100 table of arcane malignancies.
Witches get expanded patron rules, three archetypes (all of which are good if you use the expanded patron rules for earlier hex access), five curses, and some rituals. For flavor, they also get a section on witch religions.

I assume your not trading ALL wep prof for the claws, just a reduction to simple weapons or some such ?

You assume correctly.

Are the claws better dmg than what a changeling already get's ?

Yep. But since there's no benefit to already having claws (the archetype generously grants permanent claws), you might as well take any trades that get rid of them.

Does the NA scale well enough to make the loss of DR acceptable ?

That's a matter of opinion. I suspect the natural armor is there to balance out the fact that you need your neck slot for something other than natural armor now. It's a well-designed archetype. You get something else that's pretty nifty in exchange for your DR, but exactly what would be too much detail pre-release.

Bloodline.....

...hmm....sounds like many of the abilities are intended to be constant, not just while raging (which I'm OK with)....maybe Lissa will see this and chime in on intent (hint...hint...)

I'd certainly appreciate a chiming-in on this, but I don't want to presume on it.

One comment you made has me totally confused....could you elaborate to some degree ? "It's limited use per day, and if your charisma is higher than your constitution, you have to spend all your rounds of rage at first level just to get all your uses of it"

Do you mean the evil eye uses up rounds of bloodrage ?

As a bloodline ability, it's usable only while raging. As a standard action, you are giving up doing anything benefitted by rage that turn. So you are essentially spending rounds of rage to use it (and taking associated penalties), in addition to the Sorcerer-esque 3+ Cha uses/day. I'm bringing that up as evidence that the ability might be intended to be usable outside of rage.

Stuff I liked:

Heads up for those interested in the Malice Binder:

-I guess if the system had a password you could discover it and get a +5, or if it had a physical security key you could find it and get another +5. But this means that a computer with extra security precautions such as a password/physical key is inherently less secure than one without them.

Keep in mind, if it doesn't have password/physical key, then either nobody else can access it without hacking in, or there's no need to hack in at all. There are cases where either is desirable, of course, but it's generally not the case.

In some cases, the GM might approve one or more aid another attempts. A team of low-level hackers might be able to get root access. But yes, working alone means you need to get a token and password. With a little training and some uninterrupted time, you can get root access with just one of those. Eventually, you can make do without either.

Can we get a basic run down of what the Hag Bloodline grants, and what they Hag Riven Archetype does (and looses) ?

Do changelings need to be witches to form a coven?

Yes (barring archetypes of other classes granting access to the hex), unless they take a feat. If you can get a full-witch changeling coven, it's really good- while having feat-access weakens it a fair bit, as does VMC access.

Witch, the new cleric archetype, and hexcrafter magus would make for a good team.

Do any of the heritages get a strength bonus?

What does the Kineticist archetype do?

Mesmerist. With one feat, you have flexible immediate action defenses. You get good mileage out of low-level spells due to freebie debuffs, and with some useful condition removal. Painful Stare makes falling back on combat much less troublesome than for other 6/9 casters.

Fey bargain for power, but he can't remember whatever it was he gave up.

His spouse died, but he was able to use his power save them by putting their soul in an animal.

The witch was originally an animal, and somebody else's familiar. He conned some rube into striking up a deal with sufficiently vague terms, and ended up with the human body as a result. (The now-familiar is really ticked, but has been strung along with promises of a new, better body.) Not evil, but kind of a jerk.

Hmm. One nice thing about the modified patrons is that it seems like they allow any archetype that trades away low-level hexes (but not patron) to still get access to a hex at first level to start taking them with feats. (That's good, because two of the archetypes would otherwise have to wait until 6th or 8th for their first hex.)

My two cp: you can advance further on Team Evil. Kick lots of butt and backstab wisely, and you'll advance. Nobody on your team trusts you, but they don't trust anyone else, either. If you're a fallen celestial, you're thrown into the deep end, sink or swim. If you're a redeemed fiend, though, you begin a long and difficult process of spiritual and moral rehabilitation and growth. Evil probably has dead/imprisoned fallen celestial, while good probably has redeemed fiends that are slowly bettering themselves. Evil looks better, since it produces quick success stories at the cost of many failures, while good probably has fewer fatal failures, but also fewer noteworthy "I became a demigod in twelve short millennia" success stories.

nighttree wrote:

OMG this is already sounding AWESOME....

Can we get a brief run down on the Archetypes ???

Quote:

Malice Binder? Arakineticist?

** spoiler omitted **...

Ooh! Definitely a couple of those that I find intriguing!

.....Arakineticist ???........SPIDERS ???

Finally, we'll be able to make Spider-Man.

Subraces would be very cool to hear about if you have the time!

Noticed a sharp drop in quality for the newer artworks in the book.

Some of the artwork looked really rush or is meant to be just a sketch in photoshop and not the final artwork.

Given the past level of art quality in previous books, especially for flavor heavy books, this seems really weird.

What is happening?

Huh? There was a lot of really cool art in here, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I am sure the shifter will have a good fort save but hopefully it will get a good ref save or even better a good will save.

Good fort and reflex seems likely to me. That's what animals get, after all, and they don't seem to have the level of "the class wouldn't make much sense without good will saves" that Vigilante does.

Size in Starfinder has no effect on weapons, either cost or damage.

And we HAVE had a playable draconic race for years now.

Yes, those monstrous races in BoS have that cavaet, as even though they're toned down they're still really, really strong. But then that cavaet applies to all non-core races. Not every GM will let you show up with a Drow or Aasimar.

There's also a weaker dragon-kin race that's easier to get GM approval for.

All the customization I can do!

I've got my choice of classes, which then come with a choice of class features and spells. On top of that, there are archetypes, allowing me to get things just right.

I've got my choice of races, with a choice of alternate racial features.

I get two traits to round things out- generally one for mechanical purposes and one for flavor.

I can usually take care of combat viability with two or three feats, leaving the rest open for further customization at higher levels. For some classes, I can even afford to take VMC, giving me a mini-class to work with!

Once I've got the character applied, I've generally got something pretty memorable.

Yeah, I'd expect something very close to that, but without Sense Motive (out of place on a nature class) or possibly Acrobatics (which isn't handed out as often as you'd expect- even Ranger doesn't get it), but with the addition of Fly.

Nope. It's concentration plus x rounds, so once you stop concentrating, it's now x rounds.

Plus, of all the alignment restrictions and flavor requirements, I feel like Druid-like is the easiest to get GM approval on dropping- even more so on a non-caster. I'll probably be making a lawful evil VMC rakshasa bloodline character and grabbing the tiger or wolf aspects, if they're in.

I'm bummed that it's a nature themed class, or seems to be. While the game needs a martial shifter I was hoping for something with customizable flavor: Morphing into undead, constructs, dragons, etc based off flavor preference.

I'll be happy if there are archetypes with different flavors.

The podcast mentioned that there will be archetypes with other flavors, citing the ooze archetype as an example.

QuidEst wrote:

Tarik Blackhands wrote:

What I'm curious about is if the class incentivizes shifting into a form other than raptor/big cat for combat. It'd be a real shame if the pounce forms remain the one true beatstick options.

Agreed. The interview mentioned combining a pounce aspect with a strength-boosting aspect (I think?) was good, so pounce might still be king.

Pounce and +Str on the same package? Geez, if that's true a shifter is only really going to have listed aspects -1 available to choose since I can't think of much of anything that can even eat the dust trail left by Pounce+Str

That's a combination of two aspects.

What I'm curious about is if the class incentivizes shifting into a form other than raptor/big cat for combat. It'd be a real shame if the pounce forms remain the one true beatstick options.

Agreed. The interview mentioned combining a pounce aspect with a strength-boosting aspect (I think?) was good, so pounce might still be king.

Well, this is a predictions thread, so here are my thoughts on the "nice to haves" suggested.

Still could use a few immunities like aging, disease, poison, paralysis, sickened, nauseated, staggered, and/or stunned.

Ranger and Hunter don't have any immunities. Druid does get immunity from aging penalties and poison, so those are possible. If I'm right about the multi-step aspects, and what aspects we're getting, then I'd expect something like poison immunity to fall under snake.

Immunity to disease is an archetype deal even for Druid. Immunity to sickened and nauseated aren't thematically related to the class, and pretty much reserved for Oracle curses and maybe some bloodlines. Immunity to staggered and stunned I don't think have been given to PCs ever outside of maybe expensive items and possibly Unchained Synthesist Summoner? I really don't see them showing up here out of the blue.

Constant spell like effects that are supernatural and/or extraordinary such endure elements, freedom of movement, etc. would be nice.

That seems a little patchy for a non-casting class, so I wouldn't expect them on the class chassis itself. If somehow against all odds I got even the progression right, constant Freedom of Movement would make sense for a level 19 aspect capstone. Mouse, maybe?

I would be surprised if the shifter didn't get wild empathy, woodland strike, and/or similar abilities.

You make a good point! Wild Empathy should probably be added to first level features, and Woodland Stride seems like a possibility for second. (Placing Woodland Stride is hard, because the other nature classes get it at 2, 5, and 7.)

We know they get wisdom to AC but do they get additional dodge(or natural armor) bonuses as they level.

I'd lean towards 'probably not', but I'm not sure. I think the interview mentioned that it was making up for the lack of casting defensive buffs, which would include Barkskin, but I don't recall for sure. You can reasonably expect to have a Wisdom bonus of +5 by level twenty, which is what you'd get from an Amulet of Natural Armor. Beast Shape III gives you a net +2 in huge. That's missing +2 or +3 from Unchained Monk at high levels, and you're getting major strength bonuses that the Unchained Monk doesn't get.

I would love for them to get 6+int skill points but would be fine with 4+Int skill points.

I'd put my money on 4+Int. It's most directly modeled after Druid, and it can't step on the Barbarian's toes too much. That said, Hunter and Ranger are both 6+Int, so that's far from out of the question.

I wish the shifter got a natural armor bonus based on it's con mod.

We've had almost no constitution substitutions, and the biggest was reverted back. It'd also make a dragon archetype less likely- it'd have to either trade that feature out or take a big hit somewhere else, since the Form of Dragon spells give big Con bonuses, where animal forms don't. It might be cool, but it wouldn't be balanced.

QuidEst wrote:

Azten wrote:

I fear Shifter is going to be too Druid for it's own good.

They'll have archetypes for that.

Like the ooze and dragon and vermin mentioned(or at least thought of) up thread? We have those druids already, so not there.

I think a construct archetype would/could be pretty nifty. Slowly watching as your body became less and less composed of flesh and blood...

Ah, I assumed you were talking about the alignment restrictions and stuff. The ooze archetype was something mentioned in the interview as dropping some of those Druid-like aspects. If you mean it's like a Druid more broadly, that seems a little like Bloodrager's similarities to Sorcerer.

I fear Shifter is going to be too Druid for it's own good.

They'll have archetypes for that.

Huh.

That's some interesting deductive work.

I wish. Sadly, it's almost entirely inductive. :P

It'll be fun to see what the actual version is!

(The scaling on the aspects is the biggest leap, I think. It would certainly make that ooze archetype tricky!)

I put together my best guess as to what the Shifter looks like. I'm pretty happy with it.