Custom Kineticist - Would love some feedback.


Homebrew and House Rules

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Hi everyone,
Here's a custom character that I've built, and I'd like your opinion on him. He uses a type of elemental creature that was published recently in Paizo's Bestiary 5 to enhance his elemental attacks. Let me know where he might be too strong, too weak, or too complex. There are, of course, several potential Wysp cards listed below his character and role cards.
Thanks!
Tyler

NOTE: [c] = checkbox

Matamba
Traits: Male Human Kineticist
Strength: d6 [c] +1 [c] +1
Dexterity: d8 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3
Ranged: Dexterity +2
Constituion: d10 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3 [c] +4
Fortitude: Constitution +2
Survival: Constitution +1
Intelligence: d6 [c] +1 [c] +2
Wisdom: d4 [c] +1
Charisma: d8 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3

Proficient with: None
Hand size: 5 [c] 6
For your combat check against a bane, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity trait.
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity trait to reduce that damage by 2.
[c] Discard a card to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 Electricity damage.

Weapon: 2 [c] 3
Spell: - [c] 1 [c] 2
Armor: - [c] 1
Item: 4 [c] 5 [c] 6
Ally: 5 [c] 6 [c] 7 [c] 8
Blessing: 4 [c] 5

Wysp Channeler
Proficient with: None
Hand size: 5 [c] 6
For your combat check against a bane, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity trait. ([c] You may additionally recharge a displayed card with the Wysp trait to add 1d10 and that card’s traits) ([c] and ignore the bane’s immunity to Electricity).
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity ([c] or Acid, Cold or Fire) damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity ([c] or Wysp) trait to reduce that damage by 2 ([c] 4).
[c] Discard a card ([c] or recharge a card with the Wysp trait) to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 Electricity damage.
[c] You may have up to 2 cards with the Wysp trait displayed, ignoring powers on cards with the Wysp trait which would require you to recharge the first.
[c] You may treat cards with the Wysp trait that you have displayed as if they were in your hand for all purposes.

Dark Elementalist
Proficient with: [c] Weapons
Hand size: 5 [c] 6 [c] 7
For your combat check against a bane, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity ([c] or Cold or Fire) trait.
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity trait to reduce that damage by 2.
[c] Discard a card to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 Electricity damage.
[c] When you defeat a non-villain monster and it would be banished, you may recharge a card to place that card on top of your deck. You may banish a monster from your hand to recharge 2 random cards from your discard pile ([c] or to reduce all damage dealt to you by 3).
[c] When you would fail a check to defeat a monster, a character at your locaition may bury ([c] or discard) a card to add 1d6 ([c] +1) to the check; take the new result.

Ally B: Stormborn
Traits: Elemental, Electricity, Wysp
Owner: Matamba
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d4+1 to your checks with the Electricity trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, you may treat this card as if it were in your hand for the purposes of revealing it for powers.
While displayed, you may bury this card to reduce all damage dealt to a character at your location by 3.

Ally B: Lightning Wysp x2
Traits: Elemental, Electricity, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d4 to your checks with the Electricity trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 2, or 3 if it is Electricity damage.

Ally B: Fire Wysp x2
Traits: Elemental, Fire, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d4 to your checks with the Fire trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 2, or 3 if it is Fire damage.

Ally B: Ice Wysp x2
Traits: Elemental, Cold, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d4 to your checks with the Cold trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 2, or 3 if it is Cold damage.

Ally B: Corrosive Wysp x2
Traits: Elemental, Acid, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d4 to your checks with the Acid trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 2, or 3 if it is Acid damage.

Ally 1: Swamp Gas Wysp x2
Traits: Elemental, Poison, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d6 to your checks with the Poison trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 2, or 3 if it is Poison damage.

Ally 2: Magma Wysp x2
Traits: Elemental, Fire, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d6 to your checks with the Fire trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 3, or 4 if it is Fire damage.

Ally 3: Hurricane Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Electricity, Aquatic, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d6+2 to your checks with the Electricity trait or your checks which invoke the Aquatic trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location. After the check, each character at your location is dealt 1 Electricity damage.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 3, or 5 if the damage was caused by a bane with the Aquatic trait.

Ally 3: Hail Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Cold, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d8 to your checks with the Bludgeoning or Cold traits. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, for your combat check you may bury this card to use your Charisma skill + 2d8 with the Cold and Bludgeoning traits.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 3, or 4 if it is Cold damage.

Ally 4: Thunder Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Sonic, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 2d8 to your checks with the Sonic trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 2, or 4 if it is Sonic damage.

Ally 4: Grave Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Undead, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d10 to your checks with the Undead trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 2, or reduce the damage to 0 if it was dealt by a bane with the Undead trait.

Ally 5: Blackfire Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Cold, Fire, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 2d8 to your checks with the Cold or Fire trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 3, or 5 if it is Cold or Fire damage.

Ally 5: Destruction Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d12 to your checks with the Bludgeoning, Slashing, or Piercing trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt Combat damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage to 0.

Ally 6: Heavenly Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Divine, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 2d10 to your checks to defeat banes with the Undead or Outsider traits. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, bury this card and reduce that damage by 4, then shuffle a card from your discard pile into your deck.

Ally 6: Master Wysp
Traits: Elemental, Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, Wysp
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d12 + 4 to your checks with the Acid, Cold, Electricity or Fire traits. Add an additional 1d6 for each other card with the Wysp trait that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, if you would be dealt damage and that damage is not reduced to 0, recharge a card with the Wysp trait from your buried cards then bury this card; reduce the damage to 0.


So while I like the idea of this, especially with all the unique/displayable allies, I wonder if the intent is for Wysps to add to "checks" vs "combat checks"? There are probably many ways to break this, but it's immediate in Mummy's Mask, where you can get an Eye of Horus and heavy electricity on every check.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

@Dave: Fair point. I had meant for them to add to every check, but you make a fair point about leveraging the addition of an elemental type to every check you make. I actually just added the recharge ability to the Wysps yesterday that essentially limits you to displaying a single Wysp at once... before that, you could theoretically display any number of them, and I realized how quickly that could escalate. I'll think more on the idea of restricting their bonuses to Combat checks with some specific exceptions for some of the Wysps, perhaps.

Contributor

I'm just theorycrafting here, without playing this, but I had a few thoughts.

First of all, this is a character I'd play. he can run with bows for most combat checks, but whip out the blast if he doesn't have a bow in hand. He's *very* heavy on the extra explores, which I like; I prefer characters that have allies and blessings as a high percentage of their decks, and Matamba fits that very well for me.

I don't see a favored card type listed; I suppose it's probably allies.

Eventually, he has a strong tie to Wysps. Seems like you'd have to carry Wysps with you when playing this character, the same way Lirianne has to carry guns with her. It seems almost like you're designing a class deck here, rather than a single character.

In your base powers, I'm not sure that adding to a combat check "against a bane" is a useful qualifier. The times you make combat checks against boons (e.g., some allies) or against locations seems so rare that you might as well drop the qualifier to make the power more streamlined. Or do you have a specific case in mind where you don't want this power to be used?

Treating displayed cards as if they're in your hand seems cumbersome to me, and opens up all sorts of rules interactions that require thought and, possibly, more words (must you discard them as damage if you're hit? can you hand them to other characters prior to your move step and, if you do, are they still displayed for that character?). I think you should eliminate that concept entirely and let "displayed" mean "displayed," not "displayed or maybe in your hand too."

You've cleverly named your wysps; I like that "hail" is the combo of Bludgeoning and Cold, for example.

Thanks,

Ron


cartmanbeck wrote:
@Dave: Fair point. I had meant for them to add to every check, but you make a fair point about leveraging the addition of an elemental type to every check you make. I actually just added the recharge ability to the Wysps yesterday that essentially limits you to displaying a single Wysp at once... before that, you could theoretically display any number of them, and I realized how quickly that could escalate. I'll think more on the idea of restricting their bonuses to Combat checks with some specific exceptions for some of the Wysps, perhaps.

Like I said, I really like the idea of the character, and I LOVE the Wysps, I just get a vibe that this might be something past the level of "Lini's animal reveal trivializes everything" in certain sets. Like, I played Adowyn in Wrath and I went straight for not just the Lini power, but Steal Soul never left my deck, so we were talking about 2d4+2 to everything I did. With the option for that, there's no way I'd got for anything but Wysp master as a role. We're talking 1d4+1d6+3 to all checks by AP3, and once that Master Wysp comes into play, oh baby!

For my part, I didn't find the "treat as if in your hand" confusing, but I can see why it doesn't feel like it adds a whole ton for the extra mental bandwidth. Of course, if you get the large reveal for damage reduction power, that should all but make you immune, outside of massive check failure, to the next idea:

I like the limit on burying displayed Wysps if you take damage. It feels like the Barbarian War Paint to me, which I think is a good choice. My wife's been playing Brielle in SotR and we were surprised how often "no cards in your hand" actually ends up coming up. It's good to have balance like that on cards that do a lot outside of your hand and are basically permanent.

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Great feedback, guys!

@Ron: Favored card should, indeed, be Ally. That's normally the one thing I forget to toss into my characters, because it's only consequential at the very beginning of the scenario.

I definitely meant him to take these Wysp cards with him into any given AP you might play him in. That's why I made sure there are at least 2 of them per adventure deck... gives you the chance to actually FIND them in a big deck of allies.

"Against a bane" was meant to keep you from using your blast to gain an ally who might have a Combat check, but those are rare enough that I'm happy to drop that wording.

The displayed cards treated as if they were in your hand actually was more useful with my original set of powers, which I scrapped, which involved revealing Wysps to get extra stuff. I dropped most of the reveal powers, so that power is almost useless now. I DID think it could be useful to discard the Wysps for damage instead of letting them be buried, but when you could have more than one of them displayed at a time that was also more useful than it is now. I'll come up with a good replacement for the power.

I appreciate that you appreciate my naming of the Wysps. I probably put more thought into those than I really needed to, so I'm glad that paid off. :)

@Dave: The requirement of burying them if you take damage is, in my opinion, the hallmark of the Wysp cards. It lets you get a relatively strong bonus but you are constantly trying to make sure you don't lose that bonus by taking even 1 damage. The fact that this character has no armors to start out makes it even more of a gamble. At the same time, each Wysp you have in your deck is one fewer possible exploration card, so they have two negative things about them to balance out the relatively massive positive. So while the character MAY end up being a bit Lini-ish, I don't think it's going to be something overly strong. I haven't playtested him at all yet, so that's still to be determined, really.

I'll make a few changes and post an updated version here in a few minutes. Thanks for your feedback so far, guys!

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Oh, other question: What do you think I could do to make the Dark Elementalist more of an attractive option? Are there any of that role's powers that seem particularly weak, or is it simply that the Wysp Channeler seems overly powerful, in comparison?

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Updated version (the other Wysps required no changes):

Matamba
Traits: Male Human Kineticist
Strength: d6 [c] +1 [c] +1
Dexterity: d8 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3
Ranged: Dexterity +2
Constituion: d10 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3 [c] +4
Fortitude: Constitution +2
Survival: Constitution +1
Intelligence: d6 [c] +1 [c] +2
Wisdom: d4 [c] +1
Charisma: d8 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3

Proficient with: None
Hand size: 5 [c] 6
For your combat check, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity trait.
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity trait to reduce that damage by 2.
[c] Discard a card to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 Electricity damage.

Weapon: 2 [c] 3
Spell: - [c] 1 [c] 2
Armor: - [c] 1
Item: 4 [c] 5 [c] 6
Ally: 5 [c] 6 [c] 7 [c] 8
Blessing: 4 [c] 5
Favored Card: Ally

Wysp Channeler
Proficient with: None
Hand size: 5 [c] 6
For your combat check, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity trait. ([c] You may additionally recharge a displayed card with the Wysp trait to add 1d10 and that card’s traits) ([c] and ignore the bane’s immunity to Electricity).
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity ([c] or Acid, Cold or Fire) damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity ([c] or Wysp) trait to reduce that damage by 2 ([c] 4).
[c] Discard a card ([c] or recharge a card with the Wysp trait) to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 ([c] 1) Electricity damage.
[c] You may have up to 2 cards with the Wysp trait displayed, ignoring powers on cards with the Wysp trait which would require you to recharge the first.

Dark Elementalist
Proficient with: [c] Weapons
Hand size: 5 [c] 6 [c] 7
For your combat check, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity ([c] or Cold or Fire) trait.
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity trait to reduce that damage by 2.
[c] Discard a card to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 Electricity damage.
[c] When you defeat a non-villain monster and it would be banished, you may recharge a card to place that card on top of your deck. You may banish a monster from your hand to recharge 2 random cards from your discard pile then draw a card; ([c] or to reduce all damage dealt to you by 3).
[c] When you would fail a check to defeat a monster, a character at your locaition may bury ([c] or discard) a card to add 1d6 ([c] +1) to the check; take the new result.

Ally B: Stormborn
Traits: Elemental, Electricity, Wysp
Owner: Matamba
Display this card. If you have another card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge it. While displayed, add 1d4+1 to your checks with the Electricity trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, you may recharge this card and discard a card from your hand to explore your location.
While displayed, you may bury this card to reduce all damage dealt to a character at your location by 3.


I'll be honest, reading this card, I had a fairly strong negative reaction, that I cannot really begin to explain. I think there are a few legitimate critiques to make, but my post may be influenced by that reaction, so bear that in mind when considering my response. Overall, it's a solid design, as usual.

As is often the case with you and other's characters, all of your secondary skills are tied to your largest dice. In general, characters with more than two skills will tend to have at least one attached to a lower die skill to balance out. I don't know if there's a particular flavor reason to tie Survival to Con for this character (ie a Kineticist ability) but if not, I'd strongly consider moving that somewhere else, possibly increasing the bonus to compensate.

Your first power I think may be a bit strong. It is almost exactly comparable to the Sorcerer blast ability at the baseline (d12,d6+2 vs d10,d8+2). The Sorcerer power can upgrade in damage slightly faster, since it uses both power and skill feats, while yours is more than made up for by allowing a recharge. Also, since you are a weapon user, I think the power should lean slightly weaker, as that does normally seem to be the case. A common method to do that might be to restrict card types that can be discarded/recharged for the power. (Another comparison might be Athnul from the Monk Class deck. She is also able to add a skill to her basic combat check, but only starts at d10,d6+2, and can never get weapons, which means she is essentially required to use the power, which justifies her getting to recharge)

I'm also a bit unsure about a power that allows you to reduce combat damage at a very minimal cost -- revealing a card, a type of which you should have heavy access to (I was going to rant about the interaction with the 'reveal while displayed' wysps, but you fixed that interaction, so no problem there). I may be being overly cautious here, but I'd definitely monitor this interaction closely.

I'm not a fan of the third ability, but I'm also not a high-risk, high-reward player, which this is obviously designed for. Given the overall strength of the rest of the card, I worry that this puts him over the top, but the ability itself is fine.

For Wysp Channeler, I'm a bit confused how the last power would work, particularly when you tried to put out a 3rd Wysp, and I'd consider re-writing the whole mechanic.
On thw Wysp cards, I'd write:
Display this card. Then, if you have more than one card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge all but one of those cards.
Then on the role you could have:
When you display a card with the Wysp trait, you may recharge all but two cards, instead of all but one.
I don't know if that works, but I think it's closer. (Also, there's some rules oddities that come up if a Warpriest gets ahold of these things. They can display them using their power, which doesn't trigger others to be recharged, but then if they play a Wisp normally, it theoretically would still see the ones displayed for the Warpriest power and force a recharge. It's weird)

Another interesting asymmetry I noticed was that Wysp channeler gets access to extra elements for defense, while Dark Elementalist gets more for attacking. If this was deliberate symmetry, it works. However, Channeler adds 3 elements to defense, while Elementalist only adds 2 elements. I think it would read much better to even those out, one way or the other.

On the second to last power of Dark Elementalist, I think the added power feat may need some extra oomph, especially after the buff you gave to the first part. Recharging 2 cards is almost as good as preventing 3 damage, since it's like damage prevention you can do retroactively, and with the draw a card bonus, I can't see ever using that second power, much less spending a power feat on it.

For the last power on Elementalist, are you supposed to be able to use it yourself? The way it's written right now you can, but I had initially interpreted the flavor as you stealing power from an ally to get that extra boost. If so, I'd recommend making that 'another character' instead of 'a character'.

Again I apologize if I was over-critical. Hopefully you can get some use out of my feedback. Good luck!

(On further self-reflection, I think what got me is spelling Wisp with a y. I'm sure it's something that was actually in the beastiary and everything, but it really bugged me for some reason. Again, I apologize that I let a minor issue cloud my overall opinion.)

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

isaic16 wrote:

I'll be honest, reading this card, I had a fairly strong negative reaction, that I cannot really begin to explain. I think there are a few legitimate critiques to make, but my post may be influenced by that reaction, so bear that in mind when considering my response. Overall, it's a solid design, as usual.

This is excellent feedback, no need to worry about strong critiques! I more than welcome them!

isaic16 wrote:


As is often the case with you and other's characters, all of your secondary skills are tied to your largest dice. In general, characters with more than two skills will tend to have at least one attached to a lower die skill to balance out. I don't know if there's a particular flavor reason to tie Survival to Con for this character (ie a Kineticist ability) but if not, I'd strongly consider moving that somewhere else, possibly increasing the bonus to compensate.

I will admit, I am guilty of this. I will think about moving Survival away from Con, or dropping it in favor of another skill related to one of the lower dice.

isaic16 wrote:


Your first power I think may be a bit strong. It is almost exactly comparable to the Sorcerer blast ability at the baseline (d12,d6+2 vs d10,d8+2). The Sorcerer power can upgrade in damage slightly faster, since it uses both power and skill feats, while yours is more than made up for by allowing a recharge. Also, since you are a weapon user, I think the power should lean slightly weaker, as that does normally seem to be the case. A common method to do that might be to restrict card types that can be discarded/recharged for the power. (Another comparison might be Athnul from the Monk Class deck. She is also able to add a skill to her basic combat check, but only starts at d10,d6+2, and can never get weapons, which means she is essentially required to use the power, which justifies her getting to recharge)

If you haven't gotten the chance to, look at Yoon from Mummy's Mask. This power is directly built off of her ability to add her Constitution skill to any combat check that she makes. In this case, I've restricted it to NOT be used with weapons, and to require a discard to start off (whereas hers is a recharge) which makes it significantly weaker than Yoon's power based off the Kinetic Blast ability.

isaic16 wrote:


I'm also a bit unsure about a power that allows you to reduce combat damage at a very minimal cost -- revealing a card, a type of which you should have heavy access to (I was going to rant about the interaction with the 'reveal while displayed' wysps, but you fixed that interaction, so no problem there). I may be being overly cautious here, but I'd definitely monitor this interaction closely.

Again, this one's based on Yoon's power which lets her reveal a card that has a trait matching Acid, Cold, Electricity, or Fire to reduce that type of damage by 3. My power reduces it to 2, extends it to Combat damage, but requires the reveal of a card with the Electricity trait, so I think it's a reasonable tradeoff.

isaic16 wrote:


I'm not a fan of the third ability, but I'm also not a high-risk, high-reward player, which this is obviously designed for. Given the overall strength of the rest of the card, I worry that this puts him over the top, but the ability itself is fine.

This is obviously meant to be a high-risk, high-reward ability as you mentioned. The idea here is that you want to have a card with the Electricity trait in hand when using this power, so that you can reduce the damage you would cause to yourself. I'll think on the power level, but I do think it's pretty similar overall to the power level of Yoon (who gets to recharge a blessing at the end of every turn!!)

isaic16 wrote:


For Wysp Channeler, I'm a bit confused how the last power would work, particularly when you tried to put out a 3rd Wysp, and I'd consider re-writing the whole mechanic.
On thw Wysp cards, I'd write:
Display this card. Then, if you have more than one card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge all but one of those cards.
Then on the role you could have:
When you display a card with the Wysp trait, you may recharge all but two cards, instead of all but one.
I don't know if that works, but I think it's closer. (Also, there's some rules oddities that come up if a Warpriest gets ahold of these things. They can display them using their power, which doesn't trigger others to be recharged, but then if they play a Wisp normally, it theoretically would still see the ones displayed for the Warpriest power and force a recharge. It's weird)

Yeah I'm not happy yet with the wording on that. I'll have to think on the best way to get across what I want. Basically, I'd like to have the Wysp Channeler be able to display an additional Wysp. Making that happen with the wording I've used for Wysp is obviously the issue, so I'll work on it.

I hadn't thought about the complications of a Warpriest, but really there are several ways to display cards that this could interact with, and at most they're going to give you an extra 1d4 on some checks, so I don't think it's a game-breaking situation.

isaic16 wrote:


Another interesting asymmetry I noticed was that Wysp channeler gets access to extra elements for defense, while Dark Elementalist gets more for attacking. If this was deliberate symmetry, it works. However, Channeler adds 3 elements to defense, while Elementalist only adds 2 elements. I think it would read much better to even those out, one way or the other.

The only reason I had the Dark Elementalist add Cold and Fire was I was thinking of sort of "darkfire", which would have the mechanical benefits of both Cold and Fire, as well as look really cool when imagined, for this character. Acid really doesn't fit my thought process there, but Poison totally could, so I will probably add Poison as an option there.

isaic16 wrote:


On the second to last power of Dark Elementalist, I think the added power feat may need some extra oomph, especially after the buff you gave to the first part. Recharging 2 cards is almost as good as preventing 3 damage, since it's like damage prevention you can do retroactively, and with the draw a card bonus, I can't see ever using that second power, much less spending a power feat on it.

Good point, and I think I'll flip the order on that power, so that you can reduce damage using a monster first, and then you can use a power feat to suck the life out of them and heal a bit. :)

isaic16 wrote:


For the last power on Elementalist, are you supposed to be able to use it yourself? The way it's written right now you can, but I had initially interpreted the flavor as you stealing power from an ally to get that extra boost. If so, I'd recommend making that 'another character' instead of 'a character'.

Yes, I was thinking it could be thought of as similar to the RPG Kineticist's "Burn" mechanic, where you can hurt yourself to power your abilities, or you could channel the life force of one of your allies in this case instead. So I did mean for it to be "a character", not "another character".

isaic16 wrote:


Again I apologize if I was over-critical. Hopefully you can get some use out of my feedback. Good luck!

(On further self-reflection, I think what got me is spelling Wisp with a y. I'm sure it's something that was actually in the beastiary and everything, but it really bugged me for some reason. Again, I apologize that I let a minor issue cloud my overall opinion.)

You were in NO WAY over-critical, and brought up some great points. I appreciate it very much (and yes, Wysp is a creature from Bestiary 5, spelled exactly that way. :-P

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Reposting Matamba with recent changes. All of the Wysps now have the wording that Stormborn now does for the forced recharge.

Matamba
Traits: Male Human Kineticist
Strength: d6 [c] +1 [c] +1
Dexterity: d8 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3
Ranged: Dexterity +2
Constituion: d10 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3 [c] +4
Fortitude: Constitution +2
Survival: Constitution +1
Intelligence: d6 [c] +1 [c] +2
Wisdom: d4 [c] +1
Charisma: d8 [c] +1 [c] +2 [c] +3

Proficient with: None
Hand size: 5 [c] 6
For your combat check, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity trait.
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity trait to reduce that damage by 2.
[c] Discard a card to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 Electricity damage.

Weapon: 2 [c] 3
Spell: - [c] 1 [c] 2
Armor: - [c] 1
Item: 4 [c] 5 [c] 6
Ally: 5 [c] 6 [c] 7 [c] 8
Blessing: 4 [c] 5
Favored Card: Ally

Wysp Channeler
Proficient with: None
Hand size: 5 [c] 6
For your combat check, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity trait. ([c] You may additionally recharge a displayed card with the Wysp trait to add 1d10 and that card’s traits) ([c] and ignore the bane’s immunity to Electricity).
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity ([c] or Acid, Cold or Fire) damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity ([c] or Wysp) trait to reduce that damage by 2 ([c] 4).
[c] Discard a card ([c] or recharge a card with the Wysp trait) to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 ([c] 1) Electricity damage.
[c] When you display a card with the Wysp trait, you may recharge all but two cards, instead of all but one.

Dark Elementalist
Proficient with: [c] Weapons
Hand size: 5 [c] 6 [c] 7
For your combat check, you may discard ([c] or recharge) a card to use your Ranged skill plus your Constitution skill with the Electricity ([c] or Cold, Fire or Poison) trait.
When you are dealt Combat or Electricity damage, you may reveal a card with the Electricity trait to reduce that damage by 2.
[c] Discard a card to add 1d8 ([c] 2d8) and the Electricity trait to a combat check by a character at your location, then that character is dealt 2 Electricity damage.
[c] When you defeat a non-villain monster and it would be banished, you may recharge a card to place that card on top of your deck. You may banish a monster from your hand to reduce all damage dealt to you by 3 ([c] or to recharge 2 random cards from your discard pile then draw a card).
[c] When you would fail a check to defeat a monster, a character at your locaition may bury ([c] or discard) a card to add 1d6 ([c] +1) to the check; take the new result.

Ally B: Stormborn
Traits: Elemental, Electricity, Wysp
Owner: Matamba
Display this card. Then, if you have more than one card with the Wysp trait displayed, recharge all but one of those cards. While displayed, add 1d4+1 to your checks with the Electricity trait. Add an additional 1d4 for each other card with the Wysp that is displayed by any character at your location.
While displayed, you may recharge this card and discard a card from your hand to explore your location.
While displayed, you may bury this card to reduce all damage dealt to a character at your location by 3.

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