Can someone explain to me how this class works or gets a competent build going?
What is your role in the party? What can you really do?
I read through the class but it just wasn't clicking for me. I could use additional insight.
In my opinion, it is a skill and spells generalist. An int based caster with 4+int skills per level and some nice spells and special abilities. The occultist should be able to participate no matter what you are doing.
Edit. I was mistaken. It's 4+
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Implements:
- You get spells known as you choose implements. Choosing an Evocation implement once allows me to know 1 evocation spell per spell level I can cast. Choosing two Evocation implements allows me to know 2 evocation spells per spell level I can cast.
- Ergo, you can dabble in many types of spells (as opposed to an Inquisitor, who cannot be a good evoker; or a Magus, who cannot be a good enchanter; or a Hunter, who cannot be a good enchanter or evoker). This allows you to fix some holes in your party configuration: for example, a Fighter, a Cleric and a Rogue could use a heavy Evocation Occultist. A Druid, a Ranger, and a Monk could still use an Evocation Occultist, but the Druid can fill that role to some extent as well, so the Occultist could help the party out with some Enchantment too. A Barbarian, an Inquisitor, and a Witch may need an Occultist who mixes Evocation with Transmutation for the buff spells they are missing, and so on.
Mental Focus:
- Mental Focus is assigned to implements, granting a resonant power that varies on how many points you put in a given implement. The resonant power give you boost to fulfill that role better.
- Mental Focus can be spent on Focus Powers, which are implement-dependent. Focus Powers are abilities that work very similarly to spells and help out in making up for the relatively low level of spells of the Occultist.
- Ergo, if you have an Evocation/Transmutation/Divination Occultist, you could put more Mental Focus on Divination if you require someone who can spot traps or invisible enemies (it grants a Perception bonus and it has a Mental Focus that can grant you a boost to saves/AC as an immediate action, which is pretty sweet if you trigger something). However, if you are about to go fight a bunch of Orcs, perhaps Transmutation would be better to improve your physical prowess. Finally, in case you intend to fight hordes of Goblins, the Evocation side of your build could use more Mental Focus to have more damage and use your Focus Powers that grant extra damaging spells to have a larger arsenal.
Other S!@#:
- You can identify items and use wands and stuff like a champ thanks to Object Reading and Magic Item Skill.
- Magic Circles allows you to generate safe spots for your party.
- Medium Armor Prof and martial weapon proficiency mean that you can be a great archer, 2H mauler, or even use a shield and a weapon.
- Psychic spells means you are s@%& at casting while threatened if you don't use a move action to concentrate, so spell selection should keep that in mind.
- I think that's it.
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You can be a crappier wizard.
Just like every other class.
Sorcerer? Crappy wizard.
Bard? Crappy wizard with a lute.
Occultist? Crappy wizard that hoards shiny things like a crow.
Rogue? Extremely crappy wizard.
Fighter? Worst possible wizard. Doesn't even get spells.
Build wise, with Transmutation, you can build a decent magic melee fighter. Sink mental focus into Legacy Weapon, and cue up either normal magic pluses to your weapon, or a magic plus and a weapon enchantment that might be handy (i.e. burning when you face a troll). It also gives a bit of haste, a fly speed, IMO the best school of implements available to an occultist.
That said, Necromancy is a very close second. With necromantic servant, you can make quite the sturdy meat shield and with focus you can make quite a few other undead as you see fit. Psychic curse seems fun and Soul Bound puppet lands you a familiar. All around good stuff.
Illusion and divination are solid, but IMO seem to be more decent back ups to the other implements.
Now, I'm still shaky on the rulings myself, but i believe if you were to say invest 9 of your mental focus into Transmutations Physical Enhancement resonant power, you'd get your +6 to your physical stat. Then, when you wish to utilize Legacy Weapon focus power, you spend focus from the pool you used in the Physcial Enchancement towards Legacy Weapon. I may be recalling wrong, but I believe even if you spend like 6 of those points, you still get the +6. Only losing it when you deplete those mental focus points completely.
Others have said as much if not more above though.
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Snallygaster? Is there something about the Spontaneous casting mechanic you don't like?
The only thing the wizard had going for him is being able to change out spells and having an unlimited amount of spells in a tome. To me, it isn't enough to make up for the amnesia that he suffers from.
I notice you didn't mention the Cleric...
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???
Snallygaster? Is there something about the Spontaneous casting mechanic you don't like?
The only thing the wizard had going for him is being able to change out spells and having an unlimited amount of spells in a tome. To me, it isn't enough to make up for the amnesia that he suffers from.
I notice you didn't mention the Cleric...
I didn't mention cleric because the cleric is a pretty good wizard. One class feature, nine spell levels.
Also I'm just messing around and I don't believe anything I say.
Bard? Crappy wizard with a lute.
I almost choked on my sweetroll. Thanks for that.
They're a pretty versatile class, probably my favorite thing to come out of OA. Depending on what implements you've chosen and where you invest your mental focus, you can switch between a couple different roles every day.
The main thing is to look at each implement and see what their resonant power does for you and check on their "on use" power. Some, like Transmutation or Abjuration, require a lot of investment for their resonant power to be useful, and end up being sort of your primary focus for the day. Others, like Necromancy, have super useful activated powers and moderately useful resonant ones, so you could put as many points as you have left over into these and just use their ability as needed. That's not always the case, and it'll change day by day, but the implement powers are the baseline. You also get powers that you attach to a specific implement (like Aegis for Abjuration). These use up points from that implement but give it a wider range of options.
A cool thing is that you can hand off the implements to party members and they get the effects of the resonant power. It's not a best-case scenario always, and it gimps you a bit, but say you were down to your last Evocation charge for the day but it had a good resonant bonus: you could hand it off to your wizard who has a chain lightning still prepared and they would get the bonus damage from your implement.
The summoning circles are really cool and a fun addition, and getting advice from a specific outsider along with Object Reading and Divination implement stuff makes them really good at cracking campaigns open.
They can also be super tanky and pretty good at combat if they go for Transmutation, Abjuration, and Divination. Though they'll use up their resources buffing themselves that's not much of a problem, and they can perform admirably in the role. The main thing is like people have said above; they can fill in the cracks for the party, and they're really good at being what's needed on a daily basis. They get Disable Device and UMD, martial weapons, shields, medium armor, and a good number of skills.
Having seen one play for a little bit now I'd say they're at least on par with an Inquisitor, maybe even better because of how Legacy Weapon works (Transmutation is seriously strong) and the fact that they have access to the arcane spell list.
Build wise, with Transmutation, you can build a decent magic melee fighter. Sink mental focus into Legacy Weapon, and cue up either normal magic pluses to your weapon, or a magic plus and a weapon enchantment that might be handy (i.e. burning when you face a troll). It also gives a bit of haste, a fly speed, IMO the best school of implements available to an occultist.
The action economy on enhancing the weapon and then using it is pretty bad. Thanks to its short duration you kind of have to do this in combat.
I'm imaging the medium/occultist duo. The entire genre of a few exceptionally adaptable PCs grips my imagination.
A party of two mediums and two occultists could potentially cover every base, though it'd probably be on the weak side (or at least dependent on UMD). You could do a fun Extraordinary Gentlepeople campaign with that setup.
And yeah, the biggest issue/balancing factor for the Occultist is that it's heavily gated by action economy. That's why I'm hesitant to say it's actually "better" than an Inquisitor, since it takes a couple rounds to really set up once combat begins.
Build wise, with Transmutation, you can build a decent magic melee fighter. Sink mental focus into Legacy Weapon, and cue up either normal magic pluses to your weapon, or a magic plus and a weapon enchantment that might be handy (i.e. burning when you face a troll). It also gives a bit of haste, a fly speed, IMO the best school of implements available to an occultist.The action economy on enhancing the weapon and then using it is pretty bad. Thanks to its short duration you kind of have to do this in combat.
Very true. I also got my abilities mixed up as well. I had meant sink the points into the Physical Enhancement then use the Legacy Weapon, but one does still have to do the standard action which is a bummer. I think it's still potentially worth it, as you can adapt the weapon to what you need, but that is one attack / spell you won't be using that turn.
Sort of wish there was a feat or something that made Legacy Weapon a swift action. I'd use that feat. Heck, other feats that effect the focus powers could be cool too.
Occultist and Medium (lesser extent Kineticist, too) really seem to have gotten the short shrift when it came to the class-specific feat options. Especially Medium. I'd love to see some feat like "As long as you have at least 3 points in your necromancy focus, all of your created or summoned undead get X" or a Transmutation one that gave different small bonuses depending on which physical attribute you have active.
Legacy Weapon taking a standard makes sense, though, since a more efficient economy on that sort of ability is more a Warpriest/Magus thing. Makes up for the fact that they can do three other things at the beginning of the day that other classes can do.
I'm imaging the medium/occultist duo. The entire genre of a few exceptionally adaptable PCs grips my imagination.
Medium was clearly supposed to be the "repurposable multitool," as My Self put it, so it's interesting to see people describing the Occultist filling that niche instead.
Unfortunately, the Medium only actually has one good spirit (the Champion) until 11th level when he has two good spirits (Champion and Marshal), although the Champion is still probably better for combat because your party will be used to/based on you using the Champion and you won't be able to both full-attack and use Inspiring Call in the same turn until 17th. Otherwise, the other spirits are for "Alright, we're almost definitely not having combat today, so you can switch out for some spare utility that we might want if you can find a séance spot for anything other than Champion, but I will strangle you if you take a Trickster Taboo." Before I got a look at them, I figured people were exaggerating, but it doesn't seem like they were by all that much.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm imaging the medium/occultist duo. The entire genre of a few exceptionally adaptable PCs grips my imagination.
I'm imagining a medium/occultist duo who have gone through a messy breakup but are still stuck being adventuring partners. Each morning they go through their prep rituals to get their class features set without speaking to one another (other than through the psychic resonances left on a disdainfully passed coffee mug) and then they see how they are going to make it work today.