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I was disappointed with the way they used harrow cards in the new Occult adventures play-test and upcoming book, so I made my own version of a base class that actively uses harrow cards to fuel its abilities.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VOXuRv_7aV70U7PZlJ4WdeyjepKVio3vpTn0O4_Ls -M
It is very much a work in progress. If you have suggestions, comments, or just want to heckle me then post below!
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Also wanted to make sure you are aware of The Harrow Handbook...
Yeah, it definitely looks like a first draft. And as Oceanshieldwolf points out, there's a book all about harrow decks and using them as weapons. This class seems to kind of ignore all of it.
Well to be fair, there is obviously a lot of work that has gone into this, but I'm not really up on the Harrow deck - the closest I came to understanding it was making an Inquisitor with the suit-seeker archetype for a PbP that dwindled to nothing. And the archetype seemed to trade away way too much for too little gain.
I'm also not a fan of the whole Gambit card-throwing thing - though I did give some feedback to another card-throwing class, the Cardmaster in Homebrew a year or more back...actually, it was more like three years ago...
I am aware of The Harrow Handbook, but many of those archetypes seem forced or are just poor choices and I feel that there is still thematic room for a base class that uses the harrow deck.
As for the gambit card-throwing ability, I included it primarily as a means to do reliable damage, and as a means to use drawn cards you would rather not play (whether to save their play count for later or just because playing them is a poor choice at the time).
The archetypes in the Harrow Handbook are actually quite well done and there's already well established rules for using harrow decks as weapons. So when you make a new class that totally disregards it, it makes me feel "meh" since I feel like you're not using the design space effectively.
The mechanics revolving around the card strike feel really sloppy and awkward. It's a 3/4 BAB fighting class with a card throwing attack as a standard action. They can throw multiple cards only if their Draw ability gets upgraded. But the Draw ability gets upgraded when their BAB allows an extra attack. So it begs the question: why not just let them throw cards as normal attacks? Why arbitrarily limit it? Because they do tons of damage? Just lower the damage, maybe lower it down to what's respectable for a weapon.
The card effects feel really non-cohesive to the class. Many of them just steal abilities from other classes. I feel like the class doesn't have many class features to support it. Especially for one that has a 3/4 BAB.
I do think you had the right idea on how to create a whole class revolving cards -- by having the player/character draw cards and play them as if in a card game.
Finally, some criticism!
I modeled the card strike ability after one of the abilities of the kineticists, but I was also playing with the idea of the cards acting like darts and then getting a 1d6 bonus/2 levels in extra damage. Perhaps scaling damage, similar to that of the warpriest or monk would also do? Input here would be very welcome.
As for the card abilities I based them off of the themes of the cards and the abilities listed Here . Obviously some of these abilities are lackluster or need to be tweaked, which is why this is still beta and I need to play test it. However, if you have an idea for a card/cards then by all means, I would be happy to look at it and (probably) incorporate it!
A cardslinging kineticist or warpriest archetype would be kind of cool actually. With your class, I'd honestly just let them throw cards via Deadly Dealer and then either have a limited use special attack or have the damage scale like a warpriest.
When I design classes, I tend to focus on the core mechanics first. Talents become much easier to design when there's a good foundation to rest on. Another pass on the main class features might be in order.
I updated the card strike mechanic so that it functions as deadly dealer with damage as per a warpriest. I also split the Empower ability into the Draw Power and Power Play abilities, granting more control over what effects you use and when.
Alright, that looks better.
nobody else has any opinions?