Playtest feedback and thinking ahead.


Ultimate Intrigue Playtest General Discussion

Shadow Lodge

Hello all.

I recently playtested the warlock at level 1 in anall vigilante party, and noticed a few things.

thoughts:
I realize the devs have said they are working on buffing the social side and fixing the change time, so I'm only going to say that we had to handle ID swapping with a certain degree of care, since we don't know about eachother's IDs. I noticed that at level one the only change was a narrative one (when we caught up to the BBEG we had changed IDs and was wondering who we were).

Beyond that I noticed that as a warlock I ran out of spells fairly quickly, and didn't really have much to do. Spellcasting looks like a lesser feature due to low spells/day (which isn't a problem for classes like bard because they have useful non-spell options) and beyond that I was just a skill monkey in a party full of them. I still had lots of fun, but this seems like its certainly a flaw.

and now some armchair speculation:
I haven't had a chance to play around with most of the toys in the class, but here are some of the things I noticed looking into the later levels.

Mystic bolt looks neat, but it needs a bit more oomph for something low-grade resistance can defeat. Maybe a save effect like on the aranist exploits. Or letting TWF work.

Although I like the idea behind the casting talents, I don't like having half of my talents drained by spellcasting. Even if I stop at level 3 spells, I've burned a fifth of my combat abilities to gain mediocre spellcasting. I'd like to see some fix where warlock/zealot get scaling casting and avenger/stalker get bonus talents. Rewarding you for playing martials instead of punishing you for playing casters.

I feel like the cool melee abilities (arcane striker, bond of blood, mystic bolt) should have more power. Bond of blood for example, is only 1/hour, and later is contingent on taking a certain type of damage. Arcane striker is only better than a feat at level 12, and is another ability that energy resistance can significantly weaken.

Elemental battle armor I think should be able to be turned off, because it might have RP problems when you are always walking around on fire, but overall is a really cool ability. I'd like to see it show some synergy with mystic bolt though.

Finally, dual-identity. I'm going to try not to rehash what everyone has been saying, but instead to give the positives. Immunity to divinations is definitely awesome, if situational. Awesome for NPC's or all-vigilante parties. And the narrative power of having another name to pin all of your crimes on has potential. With some buffs to the social I could easily see this being a very powerful ability in all campaigns.

All of that said, the class definitely needs a buff. I'd like to see a pool system implemented that both aspects could draw on some (but not too much). For instance, a pool of 1/2 level+cha or int mod that would let you double social graces bonuses, change IDs quicker, raise spell DC's or durations, augment attacks, etc. would be cool. Or alternatively each specialization could have a different pool (grit for avengers, arcane pool or resevoir for warlocks, Fervor or something new for zealots (like a zeal pool), and then a ninja-esque ki pool for stalkers) and then give them abilities at certain levels that changed between specs like bloodline powers.

I realize that there is some dislike for pool powers, but they are consistant ways to buff a class and still keel it 'on-par' with others.

Thoughts anyone?


I'm in the pool power dislike column, so personally I'd like the abilities to work on their own. That said any buff would be nice at this point.

The rest of your points I agree with.

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