Just played a level 1 Arcanist in Thornkeep Accursed Halls. I like how the Arcanist feels when it comes to spells. Simple Weapon Prof means you can keep a spiked gauntlet, heavy mace, longspear etc, in order to help with flanking and possibly even hit yourself if you don't dump Str completely. I use touch spells so I went with 12 Str and 14 Dex.
The blood focus ability just doesn't feel right and I'm glad it is going away. I used 2 of my 3 points enhancing my Chill Touch to allow me 2 touches at level 1. Then I had that last point that you pretty much can't spend. I had elemental bloodline but couldn't use the bloodline power at all since I used my 2 shots of blood focus on Chill Touch.
Arcanist really feels like it is missing something that stands out. Something that screams "I'm a different class and this is what I do that's different". It felt like I was playing a 3.5 caster again with no special abilities other than spells. The spells prepared/spells per day felt right. I didn't have free reign to blast away like a sorcerer would, but I also wasn't stictly limited to one copy of each spell I prepared. It felt great and I ended up not using grease at all. On a Wizard that would have been an unused spell slot so this is a nice feature.
To sum it up, I felt like a watered down sorcerer because I had no other abilities to back me up. Blood Focus was gone in 2 uses and was nice while it lasted (2 touches at level 1), but compared to sorcerers and wizards getting 7+ uses per day of their school/bloodline powers, this didn't seem to measure up. I did get to really shine and save the day when we got to the (spoilered at the bottom), however so that really made it a positive experience.
Zadim
Human Arcanist 1
N
HP: 11
AC: 16 (+4 Armor, +2 Dex)
STR 12
DEX 14
CON 13
INT 18
WIS 12
CHA 8
Fort: 1
Ref: 2
Will: 3
Bloodline: Elemental
School: Necromancy
Feats: Spell Focus(Necromancy), Toughness
Skills: Knowledge(Arcana),Knowledge(Local),Knowledge(Planes),Knowledge(Religion),Li nguistics,Spellcraft
Spells Prepared
1(3/day)Chill Touch(DC16), Grease(DC15)
0 Detect Magic, Acid Splash, Open/Close, Light
Spellbook: Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Chill Touch, Ray of Enfeeblement, Grease, Cause Fear, Feather Fall
P.S. Arcane Bond plz! :)
What happens when an arcanist with the arcane bloodline uses Blood Focus to use the Arcane Bond Bloodline Power. Does do you need to choose and it is fixed, (familiar or bonded object).
Does a familiar or bonded object just appear for X rounds.
Then there is this power.
"New Arcana (Ex): At 9th level, you can add any one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list to your list of spells known. This spell must be of a level that you are capable of casting. You can also add one additional spell at 13th level and 17th level."
You don't have a list of spells known list.
"School Power (Ex): At 15th level, pick one school of magic. The DC for any spells you cast from that school increases by +2. This bonus stacks with the bonus granted by Spell Focus."
Does this schools power stack with.
"Whenever the arcanist casts a spell of her chosen school, using one of her arcanist spell slots, she can expend one use of her blood focus as a free action to bolster the spell."
What happens when an arcanist with the arcane bloodline uses Blood Focus to use the Arcane Bond Bloodline Power. Does do you need to choose and it is fixed, (familiar or bonded object).
Does a familiar or bonded object just appear for X rounds.
Then there is this power.
"New Arcana (Ex): At 9th level, you can add any one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list to your list of spells known. This spell must be of a level that you are capable of casting. You can also add one additional spell at 13th level and 17th level."
You don't have a list of spells known list.
"School Power (Ex): At 15th level, pick one school of magic. The DC for any spells you cast from that school increases by +2. This bonus stacks with the bonus granted by Spell Focus."
Does this schools power stack with.
"Whenever the arcanist casts a spell of her chosen school, using one of her arcanist spell slots, she can expend one use of her blood focus as a free action to bolster the spell."
They have already skipped the Blood focus power frpm this class.
But i dont know the answer to your question if you wanna try the class like it is the book.
Hah... Statements like "Paladin is OP" or "Paladin is the strongest class in the game" are so far from the truth that it's not even funny.
Good saves and self healing doesn't make anything OP. It merely allows the front-liner to do his job without being dominated all the time or spending all the Cleric's resources on him.
You won't see a Paladin do anything nearly as powerful or world-breaking as what casters can pull off.
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Hmmm... I kind of want to make a Dwarf Paladin now, that wields a Large Dwarven Waraxe(2d8 points of pure pain)
combine with glory of old + steel soul (or the magic-resistant racial thing) for even MORE resilience!
** spoiler omitted **
Hmmm... I kind of want to make a Dwarf Paladin now, that wields a Large Dwarven Waraxe(2d8 points of pure pain)
Good defenses doesn't mean it's OP. It just means it has good defense. Paladins still don't have anything even close to the narrative influence casters have. Nor do they have the same versatility and problem-solving skills as Bards, Inquisitors, Rangers or Alchemists (and full casters, of course).
Paladins are a good martial class. That's all. They shine when they are supposed to shine but are not made useless during other situations.
(Viable) Options are what make a class powerful, not numbers. That's why casters are so much more powerful than martial classes.
But if you want a dwarf Paladin, I can share a few ideas. :)
combine with glory of old + steel soul (or the magic-resistant racial thing) for even MORE resilience!
Fun Fact: Glory of Old can be taken by characters of any race. oO
I'll try a playtest to see for sure, but from where I stand I don't think this is either A: What I think a Sorcerer/Wizard hybrid should be, or B: A collection of things they probably should've put into both base classes separately in the first place. It makes me think that maybe the split between Sorcerer and Wizard should be maybe Selection vs. Power, not just Prepared vs. Spontaneous.
** spoiler omitted **
Hmmm... I kind of want to make a Dwarf Paladin now, that wields a Large Dwarven Waraxe(2d8 points of pure pain)
Good defenses doesn't mean it's OP. It just means it has good defense. Paladins still don't have anything even close to the narrative influence casters have. Nor do they have the same versatility and problem-solving skills as Bards, Inquisitors, Rangers or Alchemists (and full casters, of course).
Paladins are a good martial class. That's all. They shine when they are supposed to shine but are not made useless during other situations.
(Viable) Options are what make a class powerful, not numbers. That's why casters are so much more powerful than martial classes.
But if you want a dwarf Paladin, I can share a few ideas. :)
combine with glory of old + steel soul (or the magic-resistant racial thing) for even MORE resilience!Fun Fact: Glory of Old can be taken by characters of any race. oO
yes, but not every player or DM wants to have the blood of dwarven heroes in their lineage (namely most elves, half-orcs, and some humans.)
I had a Wizard in my last campaign, Lerned a secret method that allowed him to memorise one spell more per level than he could cast. That way he had more versatility(universalist the was). This could be an option for the Arcanist as well. It is not the full power of the casting as it is not.
The wizard in our game got the power when he entered the inner circle of his order. But i think the power will stay with universalists in my games.
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(Viable) Options are what make a class powerful, not numbers. That's why casters are so much more powerful than martial classes.If that was such an absolute truth, we would be overwhelmed with "Rogues are OP" threads ;-)
he said viable options.
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(Viable) Options are what make a class powerful, not numbers. That's why casters are so much more powerful than martial classes.If that was such an absolute truth, we would be overwhelmed with "Rogues are OP" threads ;-)
That's why I added "Viable" in there. Rogues really don't have as many real options as it seems.
yes, but not every player or DM wants to have the blood of dwarven heroes in their lineage (namely most elves, half-orcs, and some humans.)
I know... It's just an odd fact that I wanted to point out. And I mostly ignore the official fluff in favor of creating my own, anyway.
Um no. The paladin has better attack rolls than the fighter, better AC than the fighter, better Saves than the monk, better damage than the barbarian, and just enough magic to let him deal with most casters. His ONLY weakness is bad skills, which his magics and a VERY small amount of gold can fix. Paladin is OP, its designed to BE op. In fact its SO OP that they have to add a CODE OF CONDUCT to try and reign him back in...
He only has better attack/damage/AC than those classes when he's using Smite Evil, a limited resource that affects 1 enemy at a time and doesn't work against all opponents. And if that's the case. He should be the best around! Fighting Evil is what the class is all about! Being effective at what they do is not "OP" it's exactly how they are supposed to work!
The Code of Conduct is there just for flavor. Not Balance. Clerics, Druids, Summoners and Wizards are far more powerful than Paladins and have a much laxer code or none at all.
But yeah, back to Arcanist.
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I'm really excited to hear about the upcoming changes to the Arcanist. It sounds like Paizo is looking to make the class more along the lines of the "master of the arcane" I suggested in my last post, and I'm looking forwards to seeing what new abilities the class gets.
Recently my gaming group ran into an underground forest that was isolated from the world for more than 10k years.
The Arcanist fits the bill for me to portray how magic was before evolution caused the split between sorcerers and wizards.
It gives the feel that the Arcanist might have been a predecessor of the sorcerer and the wizard.
With the proposed changes, the updated Arcanist could be a sort of Higher Order of spellcaster. (Pug analogy is perfect since he studied both sides of magic).
I can almost see the Pug analogy exept the 2 sides he studyed was not exactly Sorcery and wizardy but somthing else, in a book and he was more like a mythic wizard than just another class.
And even if he was a SUPER class, i dont think we want the Arcanist to be that.
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Just a quick question about spell prep for the Arcanist. Wizards can prep low level spells in higher level slots and Sorcerers can spend higher level slots to cast low level spells. Does the Arcanist have the option of either? Personally I'd be inclined to say yes as this brings it in line with how meta-magic works for them. Thoughts?
I can almost see the Pug analogy exept the 2 sides he studyed was not exactly Sorcery and wizardy but somthing else, in a book and he was more like a mythic wizard than just another class.
And even if he was a SUPER class, i dont think we want the Arcanist to be that.The Pug analogy was brought up in a much earlier post in this thread. But we never really looked at Pug and tried to place him in the scheme of what classes he could have ended up with.
I was refering to the Arcanist being a useful class on the originally written concept as an ancestor version of Sorcerer/Wizard.
And the updated Arcanist being a channeller type class from the sounds of it.
Ok thanks for the reply.
The new direction has me excited. I can't wait to try the revised version!
Lead Designer
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With the revision of the arcanist, this thread is locked. Please move all discussion on the new version of the class to THIS THREAD.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer