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Magic Archetypes

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

For the next month or so, every Tuesday we are going to be digging into some of the new rules and options you will find in Ultimate Magic, which is due to release in May. This week, we'll take a look at some of the new archetypes that take up a full 32 pages of this 256 page tome.

One of the first things you will notice about this book is that the new classes from the Advanced Player's Guide receive archetypes in this book (except the cavalier, who does not use magic). Here is an example of a new alchemist archetype, the vivisectionist.

Vivisectionist (Archetype)
A vivisectionist studies bodies to better understand their function. Unlike a chirurgeon, a vivisectionist's goals are not related to healing, but rather to experimentation and knowledge that most people would consider evil. A vivisectionist has the following class features.
Sneak Attack: At 1st level, a vivisectionist gains the sneak attack ability as a rogue of the same level. If a character already has sneak attack from another class, the levels from the classes that grant sneak attack stack to determine the effective rogue level for the sneak attack's extra damage dice (so an alchemist 1/rogue 1 has a +1d6 sneak attack like a 2nd-level rogue, an alchemist 2/rogue 1 has a +2d6 sneak attack like a 3rd-level rogue, and so on). This ability replaces bomb.
Torturer's Eye: At 2nd level, a vivisectionist adds deathwatch to his formula book as a 1st-level extract.
Cruel Anatomist: At 3rd level, a vivisectionist may use his Knowledge (nature) skill bonus in place of his Heal skill bonus.
Torturous Transformation: At 7th level, a vivisectionist adds anthropomorphic animal to his formula book as a 2nd-level extract. When he uses this extract, he injects it into an animal as part of a 2-hour surgical procedure. By using multiple doses of this extract as part of the surgery, he multiplies the duration by the number of extracts used.
At 9th level, a vivisectionist adds awaken and baleful polymorph to his formula book as 3rd-level extracts. When he uses the awaken and baleful polymorph extract, he injects it into the target (not a plant) as part of a 24-hour surgical procedure. He can make anthropomorphic animal permanent on a creature by spending 7,500 gp.
At 15th level, a vivisectionist adds regenerate to his formula book as a 5th-level extract.
Bleeding Attack: A vivisectionist may select the bleeding attack rogue talent in place of a discovery.
Crippling Strike: At 10th level or later, a vivisectionist may select the crippling strike rogue talent in place of a discovery.
Discoveries: The following discoveries complement the vivisectionist archetype: alchemical simulacrum*, concentrate poison, doppelganger simulacrum*, feral mutagen, parasitic twin*, plague bomb*, poison bomb, preserve organs*, sticky bomb, tentacle*, tumor familiar*, vestigial arm*, and wings*.

Of course, the classes from the Core Rulebook receive a number of new archetypes as well. Take a look at the Undead Lord archetype for the cleric.

Illustration by Eric Belisle

Undead Lord (Archetype)
An undead lord is a cleric focused on using necromancy to control undead. Her flock is the walking dead and her choir the keening spirits of the damned. This unliving congregation is the manifestation of her unceasing love affair with death.
A cleric cannot take the undead lord archetype unless her deity's portfolio includes the Death domain or a similar domain that promotes undeath. An undead lord has the following class features.
Death Magic: An undead lord must select the Death domain (and the Undead subdomain from the Advanced Player's Guide, if available in the campaign). She does not gain a second domain. In all other respects, this works like and replaces the standard cleric's domain ability.
Corpse Companion (Su): With a ritual requiring 8 hours, an undead lord can animate a single skeleton or zombie whose Hit Dice do not exceed her cleric level. This corpse companion automatically follows her commands and does not need to be controlled by her. She cannot have more than one corpse companion at a time. It does not count against the number of Hit Dice of undead controlled by other methods. She can use this ability to create a variant skeleton such as a bloody or burning skeleton, but its Hit Dice cannot exceed half her cleric level. She can dismiss her companion as a standard action, which destroys it.
Bonus Feats: All undead lords gain Command Undead as a bonus feat. In addition, at 10th level, she may select one of the following as a bonus feat: Channel Smite, Extra Channel, Improved Channel, Quick Channel, Skeleton Summoner*, Undead Master*.
Unlife Healer (Su): At 8th level, the undead lord's spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities used to heal undead heal an extra 50% damage. At 16th level, these effects automatically heal the maximum possible damage for the effect + the extra 50%. This does not stack with abilities or feats such as Empower Spell or Maximize Spell.

Well, that about wraps up this week. Next week, we will take a look at the magus. Before I go, here is one last bit to get you excited for this book. A complete list of all the archtypes found in Ultimate Magic (except for those sneaky magus archetypes, I'll save those for next week). Each one of these classes has other rules bits associated with them as well, but we will talk about those in a future blog. Enjoy.

Class Archetypes
Alchemist: The chirurgeon, clone master, internal alchemist, mindchemist, preservationist, psychonaut, reanimator, and vivisectionist archetypes.
Bard: The animal speaker, celebrity, demagogue, dirge bard, geisha, songhealer, and sound striker archetypes.
Cleric: The cloistered cleric, separatist, theologian, and undead lord cleric archetypes.
Druid: The dragon shaman, menhir savant, mooncaller, pack lord, reincarnated druid, saurian shaman, shark shaman, and storm druid archetypes.
Inquisitor: The exorcist, heretic, infiltrator, preacher, and sin eater archetypes.
Monk: The high-fantasy qinggong monk archetype.
Oracle: The dual-cursed oracle, enlightened philosopher, planar oracle, possessed oracle, seer, and stargazer archetypes.
Paladin: This section presents the oathbound paladin archetype.
Ranger: The magic trap using trapper archetype.
Sorcerer: The crossblooded and wildblooded archetypes.
Summoner: The broodmaster, evolutionist, master summoner, and synthesist archetypes.
Witch: The beast-bonded, gravewalker, hedge witch, and sea witch archetypes.
Wizard: The metal elementalist and wood elementalist wizard schools and the scrollmaster wizard archetype.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

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Tags: Alchemists Archetypes Clerics Design Tuesdays Eric Belisle Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Undead
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LazarX wrote:
Erik Mona wrote:
ProfessorCirno wrote:

Vancian wizards are more science-y then any other character. They sit in laboratories testing out new functions and formula and make use of advanced combinations of various items together. They aren't just point and thrusting their will on reality.

Plus you know, Jack Vance as a sci-fi writer.

Indeed, a lot of people would tell you that his Dying Earth series, upon which the magic system of D&D (and thus Pathfinder) is based, is science fiction and not fantasy at all.

That only shows just how bad a grasp most SF fans have of science, or of fantasy. There are distinctions between the two even if science fiction is descended from fantasy.

Not really.

Read some (admittingly p. bad) 70's fiction. Sci-fi and fantasy was more or less chocolate and peanut butter, getting merged and mixed together all over the place. As I recall, it was actually all put under the label of Sci-Fi, as "fantasy" hadn't yet come into it's own genre yet.

The Sorcerer archtypes sound very interesting to me. So does an alchemist with sneak attack, the songhealer,the monk one, all the druid ones,witch ones,and oracle ones. I hope the cloistered cleric one is unarmed/unarmored.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16

We may already have seen the Cloistered Cleric archetype. From the RPG Superstar 2011 round 2 rules:
Cloistered Cleric (Cleric)
A cloistered cleric typically lives in a temple and rarely interacts with the outside world. They are bookish and well-learned in the lore of the faith, paying less attention to its magical and martial aspects.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Cloistered clerics are proficient with light armor and with the following weapons: club, heavy mace, light mace, quarterstaff, and sling. They are not proficient in shields.
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Breadth of Knowledge: A cloistered cleric gains a bonus to Knowledge skills equal to half her class level (minimum +1) and can make Knowledge skill checks untrained. This ability replaces channel energy.
Brewmaster (Ex): At 3rd level, a cloistered cleric gains a +2 bonus on Craft (brewing) checks.
Fish Friar (Ex): At 5th level, a cloistered cleric gains a +2 bonus on Profession (cook) checks when preparing fish.
Chip Monk (Ex): At 7th level, a cloistered cleric gains a +2 bonus on Profession (cook) checks when preparing potatoes.
Wander the Countryside (Ex): At 9th level, a cloistered cleric gains a +20 enhancement bonus to her land movement speed.
Vigil wrote:

We may already have seen the Cloistered Cleric archetype. From the RPG Superstar 2011 round 2 rules:

Cloistered Cleric (Cleric)
A cloistered cleric typically lives in a temple and rarely interacts with the outside world. They are bookish and well-learned in the lore of the faith, paying less attention to its magical and martial aspects.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Cloistered clerics are proficient with light armor and with the following weapons: club, heavy mace, light mace, quarterstaff, and sling. They are not proficient in shields.
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Breadth of Knowledge: A cloistered cleric gains a bonus to Knowledge skills equal to half her class level (minimum +1) and can make Knowledge skill checks untrained. This ability replaces channel energy.
Brewmaster (Ex): At 3rd level, a cloistered cleric gains a +2 bonus on Craft (brewing) checks.
Fish Friar (Ex): At 5th level, a cloistered cleric gains a +2 bonus on Profession (cook) checks when preparing fish.
Chip Monk (Ex): At 7th level, a cloistered cleric gains a +2 bonus on Profession (cook) checks when preparing potatoes.
Wander the Countryside (Ex): At 9th level, a cloistered cleric gains a +20 enhancement bonus to her land movement speed.

You had me up until I saw the bonuses for cooking fish. I hate fish!! >_<

Brewmaster, Fish friar, Chip monk...Nice.
Contributor
Dragon78 wrote:
Brewmaster, Fish friar, Chip monk...Nice.

It's from a joke my high school math teacher used to tell:

One day while driving home from his fishing trip in the pouring rain, a man got a flat tire outside of a monastery. A monk came out and invited the man inside to have dinner and to spend the night. The stranded motorist gladly accepted the monk's offer.

That evening the man had a wonderful dinner of fish and chips. He decided to compliment the chef.

Entering the kitchen, the man asked the cook, "Are you the fish friar?" "No," the chef replied, "I'm the chip monk."
Shadow Lodge

What are the chances of stealing back some of the Inquisitor and Oracle Archtypes to the Cleric? Otherwise looks nice.
Shadow Lodge
Beckett wrote:
What are the chances of stealing back some of the Inquisitor and Oracle Archtypes to the Cleric? Otherwise looks nice.

I agree. Exorcist, Preacher, and Heretic all seem like they would be better Cleric archtypes.

But is is easier to make archtypes for the Inquisitors, who have more features to swap.
Shadow Lodge

All the more reason to go Cleric. Inquisitor really doesn't need it thematically or mechanically, while Cleric does need some archtypes, in my opinion.

I have a question about the "Torturous Transformation" bit with the vivisectionist.

The part I'm wondering about says:

Torturous Transformation: At 9th level, a vivisectionist adds awaken and baleful polymorph to his formula book as 3rd-level extracts. When he uses the awaken and baleful polymorph extract, he injects it into the target (not a plant) as part of a 24-hour surgical procedure.

Does that mean that when the vivisectionist uses awaken in his 'procedure', that he has to use baleful polymorph on the same subject as well? Or can he use them separately?

It sounds like something I remember from the 70's movie version of "The Island of Dr. Moreau" in which Prendick is getting mutated by the doctor, and is becoming animalistic but retains his human intelligence.
Vigil wrote:


Chip Monk (Ex): At 7th level, a cloistered cleric gains a +2 bonus on Profession (cook) checks when preparing potatoes.

this is stupidly overpowered, and unneeded.

Contributor
Eric Hinkle wrote:
Does that mean that when the vivisectionist uses awaken in his 'procedure', that he has to use baleful polymorph on the same subject as well? Or can he use them separately?

He can use them separately.

Eric Hinkle wrote:
It sounds like something I remember from the 70's movie version of "The Island of Dr. Moreau" in which Prendick is getting mutated by the doctor, and is becoming animalistic but retains his human intelligence.

Good. :)

originally is from H.G. wells.

It's ALWAYS originally from H.G. Wells, even tabletop wargaming ^_^

What I'd like to see next:
-The options for Magus as a favoured class (maybe for elves, helf-elves and humans?) like the ones in APG
-Conversions for the variant alignment paladins of 3.5 Edition (as alternate classes)
-A Beastbrewer Alchemist archetype (creator and tamer of magic beasts)
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