ElyasRavenwood |
When I hear Technomancy, I think of the Technn-mages of the Babylon 5 universe and the technomancy they practiced. They were one of my favorite characters in Babylon 5.
One of Arthur C Clarks laws: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
I don't think you really need a brand new class...perhaps an archtype might do....
But all you really need to do is change the flavor of spells slightly then you have "sci fi tech".
For example: stick a handle on a "wand of Scorching Ray" and you could have a "plasma" gun.
A good book to read is City of the Fallen Sky. The main character is
I am however interested to learn more about Numeria, and what sorts of things the Technic League digs out of Silver Mount.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Cthulhudrew |
As I reread the entry on Numeria in the Inner Sea Worldguide, I'm struck by the description of the Technic League as "... a band of powerful and debased arcanists..."
Now, I (and probably others) have always assumed that to mean these guys are wizards and/or sorcerers. But, with the advent of the upcoming Advanced Class Guide, could we be looking at a more literal translation of the term, with the Technic League being Golarion's first official gathering of Arcanists?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
As I reread the entry on Numeria in the Inner Sea Worldguide, I'm struck by the description of the Technic League as "... a band of powerful and debased arcanists..."
Now, I (and probably others) have always assumed that to mean these guys are wizards and/or sorcerers. But, with the advent of the upcoming Advanced Class Guide, could we be looking at a more literal translation of the term, with the Technic League being Golarion's first official gathering of Arcanists?
Before the Advanced Class Guide, we used the word "arcanist" in the same way as "priest." It was a generic word for "character who can weild arcane magic like a bard, wizard, sorcerer, witch, alchemist, magus, or the like." In fact, I argued against using the word arcanist for a class for this exact reason—hunter is another tricky one, but not as bad.
There may well be arcanists among the Technic Leage, but the vast majority of them are sorcerers, wizards, and magi.
Cthulhudrew |
Ah, thanks, James. I figured it was the case, but as a big fan of the v2.0 Arcanist, I was hopeful they may have found their niche location, even if only by retcon due to wording. :)
While we're at it, though, do you think any of the Advanced Classes might pop up in the AP at some point, or is it unlikely given the concurrent development times of the two products?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
You can still try to beat some sense into other mechanics developers heads with a styrofoam bat and make them call that class mage or something...
1) Mage is WAY too close to magus.
2) I'll see what I can do... but now that the playtest is out and the name "arcanist" is in everyone's head... doubtful that'll change. Folks will just have to be confused now and then.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Ah, thanks, James. I figured it was the case, but as a big fan of the v2.0 Arcanist, I was hopeful they may have found their niche location, even if only by retcon due to wording. :)
While we're at it, though, do you think any of the Advanced Classes might pop up in the AP at some point, or is it unlikely given the concurrent development times of the two products?
Arcanists will have a place in the setting... not sure where yet, since of all the 10 classes, their flavor is the one that's the weakest and needs the most work to give them a stronger role in any world. There can certainly be arcanists among the Technic League... but that group is by design made up of all sorts of classes.
At this point, some of the Advanced Classes could pop up as soon as in Iron Gods. After all... Advanced Player's Guide came out the same day as Souls for Smuggler's Shiv, and that adventure had a witch...
Cthulhudrew |
Arcanists will have a place in the setting... not sure where yet, since of all the 10 classes, their flavor is the one that's the weakest and needs the most work to give them a stronger role in any world.
Understood. I imagine they should be fairly rare, in any event. Which reminds me, I need to get back to work on adapting the story (and arcanist-like character) that I had started years ago for a Mystara-Alphatian setting to Golarion; so far the shift has been pretty organic, but maybe I can get in into the Pathfinder fiction contest this year.
Joshua Goudreau |
Nanomancers.
Nanomancy is an ancient and secret art studied on Old Earth.
I believe you are thinking of neuromancy.
N'wah |
Drejk |
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:Nanomancers.Drejk wrote:Nanomancy is an ancient and secret art studied on Old Earth.I believe you are thinking of neuromancy.
Different thing.
Robert Brookes RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4 |
Sean K Reynolds Contributor |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I just published Classy Characters: Robomancer today, which is on-topic for this discussion...
Cheapy |
I just published Classy Characters: Robomancer today, which is on-topic for this discussion...
I do plan on buying this once it's out on Paizo (and add it to my list of Artificer / engineer type options...Never thought I'd have you on that list!). I'm especially curious to see if you used a construct stat block as the basis of the mechrilon, and if so, how you solved the issues that causes with some of the Outsider intrinsic designs of the normal eidolon.
Sean K Reynolds Contributor |
I do plan on buying this once it's out on Paizo (and add it to my list of Artificer / engineer type options...Never thought I'd have you on that list!). I'm especially curious to see if you used a construct stat block as the basis of the mechrilon, and if so, how you solved the issues that causes with some of the Outsider intrinsic designs of the normal eidolon.
There are construct elements that you can build into your mechrilon, like DR/adamantine, a breath weapon like an iron golem's, and so on. They informed the design ideas, but did not constrain them (I think it's better to not alter the eidolon framework too much and just use evolutions to create a construct-like eidolon, than to scrap most of the existing outsider eidolon setup and replace it with a construct chassis, which could have harmful design consequences in interactions with other rules).
Cheapy |
Excellent to hear. I've seen a number of homebrew attempts at a similar concept, and they tended to use construct as the base. They then have huge struggles with how to fix all the issues it causes, and it just brings the archetype down. Like not going away when it's asleep :) Now I just need to bribe Liz to get it up here faster...
Sean K Reynolds Contributor |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sean K Reynolds wrote:I just published Classy Characters: Robomancer today, which is on-topic for this discussion...I do plan on buying this once it's out on Paizo
Drejk |
Excellent to hear. I've seen a number of homebrew attempts at a similar concept, and they tended to use construct as the base. They then have huge struggles with how to fix all the issues it causes, and it just brings the archetype down. Like not going away when it's asleep :)
That one would be very simple - instead of vanishing, the construct servant would go inert.
Yes. I worked a bit on a variant of summoner-based artificer, like a legion of other compulsive homebrewers, but never reached the phase of posting it.