Welcome to the Occult Adventures Playtest Feedback Forum

[Jason Bulmahn]

This forum is for posting feedback based on actual play experience. Comments, concerns, and ideas generated without playtest feedback should be posted in the Rules Discussion Forum.

When posting to this forum, please list the specifics of your encounters in terms of character levels, foes faced, and any changes in play style that deviate from the norm (ie very high character wealth, house rules that impact play, etc).

This feedback is very valuable to the design team as it evaluates these classes and rules. Thank you for taking part in the Occult Adventures Playtest. We look forward to hearing about your game.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

[Jason Bulmahn]

So, this thread (and this forum) are for posting feedback from play testing. As noted above, please post your general thoughts in the Rules Discussion forum in its own thread.

Thank you.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

[rsgeneralnerd]

Got a question, how does burn interact with damage reduction form say an invulnerable rager?

[kpuff11394]

kpuff11394 wrote:

Played as a Kineticist tonight and have to say i love it so far, I'm just afraid that it will get nerfed really bad, but i will enjoy it til it lasts and forever until retired. My only qualms for kineticists are simple weapon proficiency and the 2 skills + Intelligence, buuuuuut it does counteract the at will kinetic blast thing soooooo it's fine, It would seem like 4 skills + int or something kind of makes sense. The scenario i played was The Devil We Know part III, and it was a blast, i was a level 1 Earth Kineticist, and my friend was a level 1 Lore Psychic, and another used a level 1 Aether Kineticist. There were other classes but they weren't occultist so i won't include them as much. Me and the other Kineticst, even though playing in a tier 3-4 game were able to amass the most body counts, with that 1d6+1+ constitution modifier it made the enemies easy to take down(though they were mostly skeletons and mites), my build relies on strength(16) and Constitution(16), while minoring in Intelligence(14) and Dexterity([14] might switch with strength stat) and dipping my wisdom(9) and Charisma([7]initially human, now it's; [9] i'm a re-classed aasimar). So while strong and health heavy for a d8 hit die(at 17 w/tribal scars too) i found that the flesh of stone talent helped well even with the 1 non-lethal burn(i didn't care about that at all) and the fact it lasts forever seems cool, but a little OP. The Aether user(not sure of stats) was awesome too while using fallen skeleton bones to kill other skeletons and humans, was awesome. The Psychic(also not sure of stats) did well also by putting things to sleep, blinding them and burning them. We were all pretty squishy but i was also the tank w/15 AC and i didn't have complaints. To add to the qualms up above i wish that Kineticists could use medium armor, or some martial(not all) like maybe light ones. that's my insight from tonight i'm sure i will be playing this character as much as possible and will encounter different creatures to see how he is against them. But overall amazing classes.

[Shiroi]

kpuff11394 wrote:

kpuff11394 wrote:

Played as a Kineticist tonight and have to say i love it so far, I'm just afraid that it will get nerfed really bad, but i will enjoy it til it lasts and forever until retired. My only qualms for kineticists are simple weapon proficiency and the 2 skills + Intelligence, buuuuuut it does counteract the at will kinetic blast thing soooooo it's fine, It would seem like 4 skills + int or something kind of makes sense. The scenario i played was The Devil We Know part III, and it was a blast, i was a level 1 Earth Kineticist, and my friend was a level 1 Lore Psychic, and another used a level 1 Aether Kineticist. There were other classes but they weren't occultist so i won't include them as much. Me and the other Kineticst, even though playing in a tier 3-4 game were able to amass the most body counts, with that 1d6+1+ constitution modifier it made the enemies easy to take down(though they were mostly skeletons and mites), my build relies on strength(16) and Constitution(16), while minoring in Intelligence(14) and Dexterity([14] might switch with strength stat) and dipping my wisdom(9) and Charisma([7]initially human, now it's; [9] i'm a re-classed aasimar). So while strong and health heavy for a d8 hit die(at 17 w/tribal scars too) i found that the flesh of stone talent helped well even with the 1 non-lethal burn(i didn't care about that at all) and the fact it lasts forever seems cool, but a little OP. The Aether user(not sure of stats) was awesome too while using fallen skeleton bones to kill other skeletons and humans, was awesome. The Psychic(also not sure of stats) did well also by putting things to sleep, blinding them and burning them. We were all pretty squishy but i was also the tank w/15 AC and i didn't have complaints. To add to the qualms up above i wish that Kineticists could use medium armor, or some martial(not all) like maybe light ones. that's my insight from tonight i'm sure i will be playing this character as much as possible and will encounter different creatures to

...

I find it interesting that you admit to being the party tank, but would like better armor. The class has amazing HP potential simply by having Con as the damage stat, so a 2 stat focus of con and Dexterity offers a very defensive light armor class. While I don't see anything overpowered about giving the class access to any and all weapons, that is only because I see little to no use for them. I would almost always prefer kinetic blade and a simple reach weapon for a melee kineticist. This is merely my take on your information, and I hope it assist you in your adventures!

[Phylotus]

Tonight, I played the Penumbral Accords using a level 1 Psychic using the Discipline of Abomination. At my side were the level 1 iconic investigator and cleric, as well as a level 2 barbarian. The start was not so good, the dice were against us and I ended up having to wade into combat because (for reasons undisclosed cause of spoilers) my spells were entirely useless. The other encounters went much better as the game went on, and when I got my spells off the encounters were made significantly easier (daze and color spray are wonderful). Once the game got rolling I enjoyed the flavor and play of the class, but in the points where my spells would be of no use, I felt like nothing more than a cheerleader in the background, performing aid another and praying that the thing didn't decide to attack me instead. My impression from this run through is that Psychics have a very specific niche and low levels (and buffing is not it, seeing how all they have in that department is Enlarge Person, Mage Armor, and Shield), and if you're against creatures with a good will save or no brain, you're kind of out for the count, seeing how your only recourse in that scenario is ranged, melee, or magic missile, none of which are optimal. My thought is a spell list that involves less entirely on mind-affecting effects and has some buffing potential would be a major boon (though I understand the difficulty flavor-wise of a psychic buffing his allies in ways that aren't covered by higher level psychic spells).
Short of it: Mindless creatures are your bane, creatures with brains need be very wary of your presence.

[burtschoder]

tonight i played horn of aroden using a brand new terrakineticist .... i didn't hit crap. literally i missed everything. now it was one session and i know dice go cold. but i felt pretty ineffective. for those who know it, that scenario has a good blend of diplomacy and fighting and i felt left out of both. i am honestly not looking for an easy button. it would have been nice to hit something though. i could go into what mechanics i think would change it, but i am going to wait until i get to level 2 or three before i weigh in on those

[Meadow lark]

Ok, so I played the Mod "Master of the Fallen Fortruss"

Party
1 Barbarian
2 Kyra's
1 Psychic (me)

Well it was not too bad,
The main offensive spell was Bleed, which was unfortunate. Mind BLast was good, and using the abomination form was not bad.

It was ruled by the GM that the spell Bleed if cast with "Dark Half" stacked the bleed damage, though a offical ruling would be nice.

Basically being a modual, I had
Mage Armour
Mind Thrust 1

Using Mage Armour gave me 2 more level 1's for ALOT of fights, and basing my character Charisma and Intellect, meant that I needed to look at point blank shot etc otherwise once I had cast 2 spells, the character was largely useless.

I did not have the defense to risk Melee, when I did I died (twice) the final time was a crit.

Feedback
More Offensive spells or the ability to do a spell like, I dunno, dominate mind or something, a psychic version of a grapple to make the Character more useful after burning it's spells.

The DR would have been nice at level 1, so at first level DR 1 rising to DR 3 at 3 and then DR 5 at level 5 (you are a caster, you have low HP and die very fast)

More "Psychic" type spells, the class is great fun, but lacks flavour, the spells I have access to are extreemly limited and with only Bleed as a level 0 spell, offensivness is mute.

The way I would like to see this character is either

1) Play on the psychic idea - turn it into an offensive caster - more damage spells or abilities to boost damage spells

2) Make the class more defensive - maybe the ability to do a psychic dual with the person attacking you, liek a swashbuckler - if you roll and attack and if you win the attack goes astray!

As it stands the class does not feel very fluid, it feels almost thrown together and not powerful, or strong!

Or free up a level 1 spell and give them the ability to cast mage armour X amount of times per day for free.

[savokk]

This weekend at Gamehole Con in Madison WI. I had the chance to play the first three levels of the Emerald Spire with a new kineticist (aether).

My Build:
Halfling Telekineticist, Str 8, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 9
1st level feat: point blank shot, 1st level wild talent: extend range
2nd level wild talent: kinetic blade
3rd level feat: precise shot

Level 1 / Emerald Spire 1
This level was painful to play. The adventure by its nature made my character mechanically disadvantaged. When I was able to use my blast I felt like I was always missing (hit 26%, 5/19), due to cover and using my blast into combat. I never used my wild talent.

Level 2/ Emerald Spire 2
I felt that my character considerably improved during this level, I was hitting quite a bit more (hit 50%, 5/10). I used 3 burn to get my force ward to 5 temp hps and it prevented a 5 hp attack. I never used either wild talent.

Level 3/ Emerald Spire 3
I felt great going into this level having finally gotten precise shot. I used burn to get my force ward to 5 hps again and also gain the benefits of feel the burn. Force ward again prevented an attack and also prevented an additional effect the would have occurred from that attack. I hit 55% of the time (6/11) although due to a color spray I sat out most of one battle. Again I never used either wild talent.

Thoughts:
This class needs 4+ skills. Because the combat for a kineticist is so straight forward, I really wanted to be able to do more out of combat.

I also felt the telekinetisist should get disable device instead of knowledge (engineering) as a class skill or telekinetic finesse should make disable device a class skill.

I really wanted to be able to throw things from different directions around the room. The current description of telekinetic blast states an unattended object "nearby". I felt this meant within 5' but that was only my interpretation.

Thus, I feel there should be an aether wild talent that allows a telekineticist to use an unattended object from close range (25+5/2 levels) or else this should be a regular part of the telekinetic blast. This was also something brought up by different players at my tables.

I felt the AC was good for this class.

I think the burn mechanic is good at these levels.

The force ward ability was good when burn was used to increase it. But I think it would be better if each point of burn increased the force ward by the kineticist level instead of by 1/2 the kineticist level.

[Lee-Ang]

Played "The Stolen Heir" as a Level 1, Human Air-Kineticist, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am glad to finally see elemental classes that actually use the element itself (as opposed to air=lightning/earth=acid/water=cold), and the idea of being an elemental bender is something that I always wanted to do as a character. There was a comment higher in the forum about the skill ranks, and I have to agree that 2 + INT seems a bit low-balled. With the lack of weapon proficiencies, I would have liked to be able to grab more skills.

Another in the party played an Occultist and seems to enjoy the character as well.

[Raymond Lambert]

I wanted to say thank you for experimenting with the system and giving us new styles of play.

[CEBrown]

savokk wrote:

I really wanted to be able to throw things from different directions around the room. The current description of telekinetic blast states an unattended object "nearby". I felt this meant within 5' but that was only my interpretation.

Thus, I feel there should be an aether wild talent that allows a telekineticist to use an...

If they do this and it's a Talent, not a Feature, I'd suggest calling it Poltergeist. Love the idea.

[Husk Bloodborn]

Played Level 1 of Emerald Spire with my Fire Kineticist.

Thoughts:

Kineticist is one-dimensional. shoot fire till dead.
More skills would help.maybe turn kinetic blast into a per day usage;add defense at 1st.

point blank/precise shot are a must take.

[greypilgrim]

We have two players that are both playing Aether Kineticists. Mine is half-elf: S=14, D=14, C=18, I=15, W=14, CHA=15. (The original role for C was 16, but had the +2 from half-elf race trait.) The second Aetherist was human; I don't remember the his stats, except his C was 1 higher than mine. The other party members vary in race classes between a couple of goblins, a half-orc and a Succubus.

The first session was little combat other than foraging to gain "stuff" - we were escaped prisoners in a city under attack and were keeping our heads down to arm ourselves and just "get out of Dodge". The GM pushed a "fait accompli" to push us up to 5th level for the next game so we'd be able to face what he was wanting to throw at us. Okay, so much for background.

For the second game, our regular playgroup was down to only 3 players, aside from the GM: both Aether Kineticists and the Succubus. This session was mostly roleplaying before the King. The main combat point was the Kineticists squaring off in simultaneous duels against the King's uppity Prime Mininster and Treasurer. I was up against the PM, the other Aetherist against the Treasurer - who was also an Aetherist!

My combat went quick. The PM threw a spell (a magicaster - I don't remember the specific class) which missed. I shoved a marble at him (both of our PC Aetherists had at least one bag of marbles.) With the 5th level Meta feature giving +50% on variable effects added to the 3d6 +3 +CON(4) my result worked out to 25 points, which exactly equaled his HP plus his Constitution, so it was a perfect instant one-shot kill.

My companion Aetherist wasn't so lucky. His opponent missed, but he made an impact. Then his opponent hit, but he was using contact poison on his marbles [paralysis] which put my companion on the ground. Fortunately, Kineticists don't need to move [oh - wait - we screwed up: his hand DOES need to move; our bad!]. Well, the combat still ended with him on the ground, the Treasurer cheated by trying to stomp on his throat - and the King's Paladin instantly beheaded the Treasurer for "fighting without honor", thus my companion still survived and won by default.

A bit of combat ensured later before game was called for the night as we reentered the old Orc fortress under the city that the Thieves' Guild had taken over (which we had started to clear out the previous session.

So, granted we have not really had a lot of nitty-gritty battle to test the class, but I do like the damage progression as the levels rise. The option of longer range (120' Extended) makes the class more pliable than being stuck to only a 'close range' of 30', plus we can "make our own weapon" in our hand in close melee. The restriction to simple weapons and light armor makes sense as they are "spellcasters". The slightly better HD for the class than spellcasters is a plus. I agree with the others that claim that the Skill points per level is too low; I am not aware of any class that is limited to only 2+INT. Perhaps this was intended to offset the "no limits" to the use of our powers as opposed to the spellcasters' limited number of spells they can cast each day; we can keep swinging alongside the fighters every round.