The Primordial Dancer: Creation's Muse (PFRPG) PDF

The Primordial Dancer for Pathfinder is Interjection Games take on the Dancer class. Surprisingly, there have been many dancers in the history of D&D, from the Kingdoms of Kalamar 3.X base class (variant bards) to elven blade-dancers. There have been WAY MORE magical dancers in videogames, but most are just gimmicky classes, best among them being Mog’s unnamed class from Final Fantasy 3/6, which was kind of a Geomancer that summoned effects via elemental dances. Be it in tribute or just a coincidence, Primordial Dancers have this cool, Mog-y feeling that just plainly makes me smile.

What’s inside?
23 pages of content for 5 1/2 bucks, which include:

-The Primordial Dancer base class: With a chassis weaker than a Bard’s (regular BAB, good Ref save), less skilled (4 skill points to spend on 14 class skills), and only proficient with simple weapon proficiencies and light armor, Dancers don’t look like a class to build a front-liner. They are also medium spontaneous spellcasters with access to part of the Druid spell list: Dancers can only cast Conjuration, Divination, Evocation and Transmutation spells. Their main power, however, comes from Dances. These are supernatural abilities activated by mystical dances. You start knowing two Dances and learn a couple more over you career, to the maximum of 9 Dances at 18th level. Unlike bardic performances, Dances have individual rounds of use, so you have to take extra care not to burn out your favorite Dance. They also have subtypes (cosmos, land, life, sea, sky, subterrane), and the system rewards specializing in a dance type with extra rounds of use to all dances of that type! All dances but Tangos have a passive ability and three active abilities unlocked over your career (1st, 6th and 12th level unlocks). Dances are very powerful and difficult to resist, having a DC of 10 plus class level plus Charisma modifier! Yeah, not half, full class level, and you can increase this via feats! At 1st level Dancers can only activate one dance at a time, but at 5th this increases to two dances, and 3 at 11th. They get From Sea to Mountain at 4th level which lets a Dancer to, once per day (and more times later), activate two abilities of two different dances you are performing with only one dance, which is strange since you can’t perform two dances at the same time until 5th level. They receive evasion and improved evasion a bit higher than other “swift” classes, and as a capstone they receive a pool of points to expend as “dance rounds” on their favored dance subtype. Finally, all races have the same favored class bonus: an extra round of one dance known.

-2 Archetypes: Primalists lose one dance known at first level, are prohibited to learn the Rhythm of Life Dance, and lose the From Sea to Mountain ability; in exchange, they have one extra round of each known dance, plus the ability to create (not summon) a small elemental, upgrading over time to elder! This created elemental follows commands as a summoned creature and can learn one dance taught by its Primalist master. Weavers also lose From Sea to Mountain, but get the awesome ability to re-write creation, changing one energy “instance” to another by expending associated dances’ rounds. Think of this as a kind of metamagical effect that affects any association with that energy type! Suppose your pyrokineticist friend is feeling down because he got his ass kicked by a red dragon. No worries! Just spend 2 rounds of a sea dance and look as how his kinetic flames change color and do cold damage! At first they can affect only willing targets, chaining to unwilling later on (Will to save), and even ONGOING EFFECTS! This is an encounter goldmine waiting to happen! Finally Weavers can meta-element their own spells, which is cool and all but the previous ability just stole this abilities capstone’s thunder (hehe).

-13 Feats: Most of the dances pertain a specific dance, while a few are a bit more open, like increasing DC of one subtype of Dances, increase the range of Tangos, or get more rounds of a particular Dance per day. Believe me you will suffer with your feat choices!

-36 Dances: Each subtype of Dance has exactly 6 Dances, and 1 of these are special Dances called Tangos, which benefit an ally that is within 10 feet when the dance starts, and that ally remains your dance partner for as long as you dance and the ally is within 30 feet. To give an idea of the power of the Dancer’s namesake ability, I will cover two normal dances and 1 Tango of different elements. Beat of the Deep lets you emit Obscuring Mist at increasing range, and later this is treated as Solid Fog. This fog you emit doesn’t impede your vision. As active abilities, you can extinguish all non-magical light sources in your fog’s range, later becoming magical darkness; later you can double the dance’s radius by spending another round, and this dance culminating ability lets you, for two dance rounds, to deal your class level in fire damage (Fortitude negates), gaining a few temporary hit points as part of the deal. Cantering of the Medicine Man gives you fast healing starting at 1, and finishing at 4. As active abilities, you can share this fast healing to allies within 10 feet; later you can spend 1 round to augment this fast healing for a single ally within 60 feet by d10 per point normally granted. This Dance capstone lets you heal ability damage or dispel an effect to one score, and lowering fatigue levels for two dance rounds. Now on the Tangos, the author specifies that all share the same passive text so he doesn’t have to repeat himself, but he DOES REPEAT the text in each Tango’s passive ability! No matter, Aquatic Tango’s active ability let you move your ally 5 feet for free without him provoking AoO, effectively letting you shimmy your ally into full attack range, for example (you do provoke AoO, but see next ability). Later you can ignore one or all AoO of your own movement, and finally, by spending two rounds on the final ability, your weapons (yours and your ally’s, that is) become frost weapons that also inflict non-stacking fatigue for one round (Fortitude to save). Your weapons remain frosty for the duration of your Tango.

Of Note: The design decision to use another class’ spell list may seem lazy at first, but this way you save space on the spell list and it increases with each and every spells book you own. I would recommend Rite Publishing’s landscape-themed books of spells if you want to continue with the Geomancer’s theme. The Dances themselves are intriguing and I would like to see a Master of Forms archetype that can learn only one element and instead do Dance-like katas, or something around those lines.

Anything wrong?: Beyond the glitches on the abilities mentioned and the embarrassing reprint of the passive text of the Tangos, there is nothing else to complain. I think we can “forgive” the author since everything is just plain awesome, even the mistake for the LOLs.

What I want: To play one NOW? Unlike many other books by IG, I have little in the “want” list for this one. I WOULD love to have a small main spell list, with different dedicated spell lists tied to the subtypes, gaining a level worth of access for each dance of that subtype you know, so you would have to master all 6 dances to cast the higher levels spells, but that is something I can do on my own. I would also like the option to have a variant Dancer that has a Dance pool to fuel all dances, and learns them like a wizard, so a single Dancer could know all Dances and prepare a few of them, but then again that’s just personal preference and something I can do myself.

What cool things did this inspire?: A type of fey, similar to veelas, dryads and nymphs, that master one subtype of dance. They could be mentors of PC Dancers and maybe know a unique Dance. Also, a Dragon with a Weaver cohort could be a nasty surprise to a prepared group of adventurers.

Do I recommend it?: I felt a little blue when the author told me this one wasn’t one of his best sellers, since it’s plainly awesome! If you want a much more dynamic artsy PC beyond Bards, or you want to do the Moggle dance, do yourself and your group a favor and give Dancers a chance. 5 steps of the Dance of the Dead for this!

This base class, commissioned by Sasha Hall, clocks in at 26 pages,1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 23 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Chassis-wise, the primordial dancer receives 3/4 BAB-progression, good Ref-saves, d8 HD, 4 + Int skills per level as well as proficiency with simple weapons and light armor. Primordial dancers wearing armors or shields in which they are not proficient cannot use dances. Primordial muses spontaneously cast divine spells of up to 6th level, with the spells drawn from the druid spell list. Her selection of spells increases to up to 6th level.

The central class feature of the primordial dancer would be, surprise, the dance - a dance is activated as a move action and may be maintained as a free action. A given dance has one passive, always-on bonus while it is maintained. While a dance is activated, the primordial dancer may activate one of a dance's active abilities. Dance abilities generally are considered to be supernatural, unless otherwise noted. Each individual dance may be performed for a number of rounds per day equal to 3 + Charisma modifier. Each level beyond first, each dance's total number of daily rounds by +1- The primordial dancer begins play with 2 dances and learns an additional dance at 2nd and 3rd level as well as every 3 levels beyond that. Dances also have subtypes, rewarding specializations - for each dance of a particular subtype beyond the first, all dances with that subtype can be used an additional round per day.

At 1st level, only one dance may be in effect at a given time; falling unconscious, being paralyzed or otherwise completely unable to move also ends a dance. Starting at 5th level, 2 dances may be in effect at any given time, 2ith 11th level unlocking the option to maintain three dances at once.

Active abilities of a given dance consume between 0 and 4 rounds of that dance's allotment and the second and third active ability of dances are unlocked at 6th and 12th level, respectively. In order to activate such an active ability, the character must have a Charisma score of 10 + 1/2 class level required to activate that ability. DCs are equal to 10 + class level + Cha-mod - which means that they are HARD to resist. Replenishing the daily contingent requires 8 hours of rest plus 1 hour of practicing steps to get in the flow.

Starting at 4th level, the primordial dancer may 1/day activate two active abilities in a single action, with the activation using the longer of the two activation actions - nice: They have been listed for your convenience. 9th level and every 5 levels thereafter yield an additional activation of this ability in a given day. 8th level yields evasion, 17th improved evasion and as a capstone, the class looks at the subtypes of dances chosen: The most subtypes chosen determine the favored dance subtype, with ties allowing the player to choose. The primordial dancer receives a primal pool, which consists of the total of Int-, Wis-, and Cha-mod. This pool's points may be used instead of the dance's daily activation cost. The class has a catch-all favored class bonus, namely +1 round of activation for a chosen dance.

2 archetypes are included, the first of them being the primalist, who begins play with only one dance, and may not learn rhythm of life. The daily duration of all dances, however, is increased by +1 round. However, when preparing dances on a given day, the primalist may choose a Small elemental of the 4 basic types, behaving as though it was a summoned creature without actually counting as one. 5th level unlocks Medium elementals, 9th Large ones, 13th level Huge ones and 17th level provides elder elementals. Instead of the quicker activation at 4th level, the archetype gains dancing elements at 5th level - an element created by the primordial dancer is taught a single dance, behaving as though it had 1/2 its master's class level, with 3 daily rounds. Primordial dancers may not activate a dance while the elemental is performing it and vice versa. 9th level and every 4 levels thereafter increase the elemental's dance by +2 rounds. Solid pet option.

The second archetype, the weaver, associates energy types with all subtypes of primordial dance subtypes: Cosmos is assigned to sonic damage, life to positive/negative energy, sky to electricity...you get the idea. Starting at 5th level, while dancing, the weaver may expend 2 daily rounds of a known dance as a standard action, rewriting the an extraordinary or supernatural abilities of a willing creature within 60 ft.: Resistances, immunities, damage etc. of the creature's ability are replaced with those assigned to the dance's subtype. Starting at 9th level, unwilling creatures may be affected, with a Will-save to negate - I assume the DC here to be the dance's DC, but I'm not 100% sure. 13th level may also target ongoing spells, which is REALLY versatile and cool, with 17th level allowing the dancer to spontaneously expend 2 rounds of a dance while casting spells to modify the spell's parameters to conform to the energy of the dance. Positive or negative energy cannot heal via this ability. Once again, this replaces 4th level's dual activation ability. I really like this archetype's complex ability - I think it most certainly could carry more than it does here and even act as a base class chassis. Nice one.

A total of 13 feats is included in the deal and goes beyond the expected extra dance array and increased dance DC. There are quite a few feats that build upon the unique effects of the respective dances. In fact, the feats are entwined with the dances and interact with them thematically: Caterwauling Dance-Magic, for example, nets you lesser confusion as a bonus spell known, continuing the theme of the dance. Other feats penalize, as an example, the AC of a target, whose ray you reflect back on them via a dance. One of the dances creates an iceberg, which you can pilot - with the proper feat, you may pilot it even when not dancing anymore.

Now, it should be obvious at this point that the dances themselves are the central heart and soul of this class, with the first being absolute zero. This dance nets you immunity to supernatural and magical fatigue while dancing, with higher levels providing downgrades of exhaustion to fatigue and immunities. The active abilities provide a bonus cold damage with a short-term fatigue. Higher-level abilities allow for the temporary halving of all nonlethal damage incurred by allies nearby, with the 12th level option providing a fire-damage halving effect (properly codified with hardness, resistance, etc.) as well as a defensive shield of retributive cold.

Other dance passive abilities include growing clouds of obscuring mist, fire resistance and increased damage output for fire spells and dance effects, fast healing, swim speed, a modified, sonic-damage-causing flare and the like. There are, however, also more complex dances: Explorer's Lament nets you a saline point pool equal to class level + Cha-mod; while performing the dance, you may expend a number of these points equal to a penalty to AC to negate the penalty...and upon negating the penalty thus, you become immune to this specific penalty's source for the duration of the dance, which is really cool. Higher levels also allow for the temporary auto-granting of acid immunity, and at 12th level, botching foes can allow you to regain saline points. Those are only the dance's passive benefits, mind you!

I already mentioned active benefits like the hard terrain control iceberg/floe-generation, and hailstorms etc. can also be found among the tricks the class offers; negative levels for foes (capped to prevent cheesing), temporary access to healing while in the proper dance, with a point-based casting mechanic supported by the dance...quite an assortment of interesting tricks. Heck, even the classic elemental options provide their benefits in relatively interesting ways. Self-granting quasi true strikes at range, quicker movement or better standing one's ground - the dances can yield a rather diverse array of different playstyles/switches between them. The visuals are also cool: I mean, who did not want to dance through foes, hurling meteors at them, only to burst in a sudden, nova-like flare when foes get too close? There also would be a flight option that allows the dancer with an engine-tweak to maintain its effects for longer, which is pretty nice.

Where things REALLY get interesting as far as I'm concerned, would be with tangos - these are a bit more complex and allow you to determine an ally within 30 ft. - when you activate one of the active abilities of a given tango, the chosen tango partner also receives the benefits. These include bonus speed boosts for allies, sharing in your mental skill capabilities, reflexive shields that can render targets prone or environmental adaptation. (As a nitpick: Spell-references here are not italicized.) Also cool: Draw a line from you to the partner, cause damage in between. There are some highly tactical and rewarding options to be found here and I frankly wished we got even more of them!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on both a formal and a rules-level - I noticed no serious glitches. Layout adheres to Interjection Games' elegant, no-frills b/w-2-column- standard and the pdf's artworks are mostly swirlies, fractals and the like. The pdf comes bookmarked for your convenience.

Bradley Crouch is a damn good designer; I'll stand by that statement any day of the week. The primordial dancer is an interesting class, somewhat akin to a druidic bard or alchemist. Why? Because the flexibility is closer to the latter than the former. Whereas bards tend to have a ton of bardic performance rounds, primordial dancers really have to be careful in their use of dances to not run out of one dance's array of rounds. This also means that the signature ability of the class forces you to alternate between dances and thus prevents spamming the same trick over and over. The spellcasting adds further flexibility to the playing experience. Now, after testing these guys, I have a couple of observations: a) Dances are awesome. b) You never have enough dances. Yes, you can use FCOs and feats to expand your uses, but the central class feature can only be part of the experience; you can't exclusively rely on them; you need the spells. Now, and this is only a personal preference and will not influence the verdict, but I would have loved to see the class focus a bit more on the dances...but then again, that may just be me and should be taken as a testament of how cool they are. The primordial dancer plays smoothly, is VERY easy to grasp as far as Interjection games-classes are concerned and proves to be a fun addition to the class roster. Can we have more tangos now? Kidding aside, the tangos can be rather rewarding for all concerned, much like their real life counterparts....but I digress.

My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.