Sneak a Peek at the Occult

Spell focus instead of scribe scroll, wish that was an option built into the class.

Well technically outside of PFS there is not a thing stopping you from having it be.

No scifi in my fantasy.

I'd allow early firearms/gunpowder but my fellow GMs say no.

There is basically nothing in this book that I would consider sci-fi.

Well, ok, there is a tinfoil hat, which is sort of a sci-fi concept, I guess. An a "Lemurian" thought record that ultimately comes from the Richard Sharp Shaver dero stories, but beyond that, this is mostly ancient occultism with some Victorian-era flourishes here and there.

One of the reasons we did not call it "psionics" is that we didn't want the book to have a sci-fi vibe at all.

Why is it that the psychic is a badass in every piece of artwork that's been released?

Because she is a badass?

14 sided die wrote:

The "unplayable archetype" mention, I believe references PFS. I don't play PFS, so I'm not sure but I think that leadership is not allowed

It isn't, but PFS has been known to make house rules to fix things like this before (for example, the wizard gets Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll). Swapping Leadership with Skill Focus (Bluff) would be functional and flavorful.

But the archetype still would need major rewrites as many of his abilities are based on followers and cohorts

I encourage anyone interested in Occult Adventures, to watch the show "Penny Dreadful". I'll avoid spoilers, but there is a character that really makes me think of the Medium!

Also, it just a great freaking show! It's steeped in Victorian Occultism.

I, for one, have never had a problem with leadership. I've played a few games and GM'd a few others with leadership and I never encountered any problems. I think that's kind of a crux of many issues. Not everyone has the same problems.

We used to use leadership to fill in for missing roles in the party, but since going up to 6 players it is just one more character in the initiative, and bogs the game down. We still use it from time to time but as a background character development thing. The cohort rarely will travel with the party.

Not every GM disallows Leadership. Most GMs I've played with allow it just fine. Paizo needs to write for all variety of games, so having leadership as a bonus feat or just getting a group of people is fine if it fits the theme.

And, well, being a cult master is awesome. But being a cult master without a cult isn't, so.... cult get!

What if you changed it to like, skill focus perception. That way you can play it in every campaign instead of like, 1% of campaigns.

I am counting campaigns that "allow" leadership but no one takes it because of how dumb it is as disallowing leadership

Cheapy wrote:

Not every GM disallows Leadership. Most GMs I've played with allow it just fine. Paizo needs to write for all variety of games, so having leadership as a bonus feat or just getting a group of people is fine if it fits the theme.

And, well, being a cult master is awesome. But being a cult master without a cult isn't, so.... cult get!

What if you changed it to like, skill focus perception. That way you can play it in every campaign instead of like, 1% of campaigns.

I am counting campaigns that "allow" leadership but no one takes it because of how dumb it is as disallowing leadership

But the whole close seems to be based around recreating Thulsa Doom. All of the abilities and flavor is "cult leader", so why would you use this character if you weren't allowed to lead a cult?

Just a Guess wrote:

No scifi in my fantasy.

I'd allow early firearms/gunpowder but my fellow GMs say no.

There is basically nothing in this book that I would consider sci-fi.

Well, ok, there is a tinfoil hat, which is sort of a sci-fi concept, I guess. An a "Lemurian" thought record that ultimately comes from the Richard Sharp Shaver dero stories, but beyond that, this is mostly ancient occultism with some Victorian-era flourishes here and there.

One of the reasons we did not call it "psionics" is that we didn't want the book to have a sci-fi vibe at all.

The relevant thing about occult adventures I said was that it has a gaslamp fantasy feel I don't see fitting for the classic fantasy I want.

The quote above was done when some schoolmaster began to lecture me about golarion alredy having scifi and gunpowder.

Albatoonoe wrote:

I, for one, have never had a problem with leadership. I've played a few games and GM'd a few others with leadership and I never encountered any problems. I think that's kind of a crux of many issues. Not everyone has the same problems.

We used to use leadership to fill in for missing roles in the party, but since going up to 6 players it is just one more character in the initiative, and bogs the game down. We still use it from time to time but as a background character development thing. The cohort rarely will travel with the party.

The main time I had a problem with leadership was when a master summoner took it to get a cavalier cohort.

Galnörag wrote:

Albatoonoe wrote:

I, for one, have never had a problem with leadership. I've played a few games and GM'd a few others with leadership and I never encountered any problems. I think that's kind of a crux of many issues. Not everyone has the same problems.

We used to use leadership to fill in for missing roles in the party, but since going up to 6 players it is just one more character in the initiative, and bogs the game down. We still use it from time to time but as a background character development thing. The cohort rarely will travel with the party.

The main time I had a problem with leadership was when a master summoner took it to get a cavalier cohort.

One player doing turns for the summoner, the eidolon, the summons, the cavalier and the mount was just too much.

Well, to be fair, the player shouldn't have been doing turns for the eidolon AND the summons...

Just a Guess wrote:

Galnörag wrote:

Albatoonoe wrote:

I, for one, have never had a problem with leadership. I've played a few games and GM'd a few others with leadership and I never encountered any problems. I think that's kind of a crux of many issues. Not everyone has the same problems.

We used to use leadership to fill in for missing roles in the party, but since going up to 6 players it is just one more character in the initiative, and bogs the game down. We still use it from time to time but as a background character development thing. The cohort rarely will travel with the party.

The main time I had a problem with leadership was when a master summoner took it to get a cavalier cohort.

One player doing turns for the summoner, the eidolon, the summons, the cavalier and the mount was just too much.

Well, to be fair, the player shouldn't have been doing turns for the eidolon AND the summons...

The master summoner can have both active at once.

But the whole close seems to be based around recreating Thulsa Doom. All of the abilities and flavor is "cult leader", so why would you use this character if you weren't allowed to lead a cult?

I don't think the only way to lead a cult is the leadership feat

I can't wait until this hits the streets. I've already begun porting the fluff of Fading Suns over to Pathfinder so that by the time Occult Adventures is released I'll already have everything ready. The Technology Guide made it possible and this seals the deal. I haven't been this excited about gaming in a very long time.

SM

Albatoonoe wrote:

But the whole close seems to be based around recreating Thulsa Doom. All of the abilities and flavor is "cult leader", so why would you use this character if you weren't allowed to lead a cult?

I don't think the only way to lead a cult is the leadership feat

But I like that it's baked into the class. You don't have to run special downtime or specifically take a feat. As a class, you have a cult. That's cool.

My impression boils down to omg there is a fat guy and an old lady iconic. Win win.

Yeah I know we finally have an old lady, fat guy, and I am hoping that the kineticist will be a little human girl and not a Halfling or gnome.

Yeah I know we finally have an old lady, fat guy, and I am hoping that the kineticist will be a little human girl and not a Halfling or gnome.

Having a child of any race is all kinds of unlikely. They've spoken before about how placing children in danger tends to be a pretty big no-no.

Children can't be Player classes, the rules for playing children in Ultimate Campaign limit them to NPC classes.

Yeah I know we finally have an old lady, fat guy, and I am hoping that the kineticist will be a little human girl and not a Halfling or gnome.

So you want Charley from Firestarter?

beyond that, this is mostly ancient occultism with some Victorian-era flourishes here and there.

What is ancient occultism? Which ancient cultures/eras does it draw from?

The C19th occultism didn't interest me at all, but if it is has deeper roots in history then that makes it a whole lot more appealing.

Erik Mona wrote:

beyond that, this is mostly ancient occultism with some Victorian-era flourishes here and there.

What is ancient occultism? Which ancient cultures/eras does it draw from?

The C19th occultism didn't interest me at all, but if it is has deeper roots in history then that makes it a whole lot more appealing.

Well...I know the book is covering stuff like chakras and reincarnation, which are concepts that go back thousands of years.

also a lot of the classes, while drawing from 19th century occultism, can be used for lots of other concepts. The Medium for instance works with any sort of concept dealing with possession, from a Voodoo Houngan to a tribal Shaman. And the Spiritualist is basically a summoner with a "ghost buddy", and people summoning and controlling ghosts are pretty old. And a lot of stuff with the Occultist goes back to ideas of magic that are from the Middle Ages if not older.

Are all of the six classes casters?

Can I get a summary on the following three aspects regarding the classes?

How many spell levels?
Spontaneous or prepared?
Main casting stat?

Erik Mona wrote:

beyond that, this is mostly ancient occultism with some Victorian-era flourishes here and there.

What is ancient occultism? Which ancient cultures/eras does it draw from?

The C19th occultism didn't interest me at all, but if it is has deeper roots in history then that makes it a whole lot more appealing.

A lot of them do when you think on it.

The Occultist, for example, works with items, enhancing them to make them magical, understanding those that are magical, etc. You could very easily work in a Native American shaman flavor, with the items representing fetishes.

Are all of the six classes casters?

Can I get a summary on the following three aspects regarding the classes?

How many spell levels?
Spontaneous or prepared?
Main casting stat?

The playtest book is available for free.

Five of the six classes are casters, the last is a pseudocaster focused on a blast SLA that is Con-based.
All are spontaneous.
3 6th-level Cha casters
1 6th-level Wis caster
1 9th-level Int caster

Oooh, spontaneous Int caster. And I think that's the Psychic? From the pictures she's already my favorite anyway. I may have to read the class over.

Yeah, it's the Psychic. She will do well to backline Cha or Wis for some of her class abilities, much like the Arcanist.

I haven't played with it-- the only one I got in-depth with was the Kineticist, and I dabbled in the Occultist enough to realize that the playtest version's mechanics needed a lot of polishing-- but on paper it looks like a fairly solid class.

I didn't have to look at the Psychic to know she's going to be strong - she's a 9th level caster, after all. I participated in the kineticist and spiritualist playtests; the kineticist had a solid starting chassis that just needed a few tweaks and more selectable abilities to be perfect, the spiritualist was basically garbage and needed a complete rework to be relevant in any scenario. I hope it got said rework, it's a great idea and one that I'd want to play.

3 6th-level Cha casters

1 6th-level Wis caster
1 9th-level Int caster

The medium is actually a 4th-level Cha based caster, not a 6th-level one.

kestral287 wrote:

3 6th-level Cha casters

1 6th-level Wis caster
1 9th-level Int caster

The medium is actually a 4th-level Cha based caster, not a 6th-level one.

Is it? I was reading fast, my bad.

Yeah, the Medium is the first 3/4 BAB, 4th level caster. We'll have to see how that works, but it's Seifter's design so I expect it'll be viable in the end.

To be fair, the medium has a lot of customization options, that give it some serious role versatility

Is it really still 3/4?

-_-

Samy wrote:

Are all of the six classes casters?

Can I get a summary on the following three aspects regarding the classes?

How many spell levels?
Spontaneous or prepared?
Main casting stat?

The playtest book is available for free.

Linkified for Samy (and anyone else who might want it).

I would say ether Charley or Carrie. Also did they ever say what kind kineticist(aether, pyro, etc.) the iconic will be?

Is it really still 3/4?

-_-

Well, we never heard about any changes...

There's no new information on that front from any time recently, though.

the spiritualist was basically garbage and needed a complete rework to be relevant in any scenario. I hope it got said rework, it's a great idea and one that I'd want to play.

Before unchained came out I liked the spiritualist as a summoner fix.

As far as I know there hasn't been any word of any of these classes been given fighter BA bonus but you never know.

The relevant thing about occult adventures I said was that it has a gaslamp fantasy feel I don't see fitting for the classic fantasy I want.

The quote above was done when some schoolmaster began to lecture me about golarion alredy having scifi and gunpowder.

Yeah, that may turn out to be a fair criticism, but in general I suspect you will find it less egregious than you might fear.

Erik Mona wrote:

beyond that, this is mostly ancient occultism with some Victorian-era flourishes here and there.

What is ancient occultism? Which ancient cultures/eras does it draw from?

The C19th occultism didn't interest me at all, but if it is has deeper roots in history then that makes it a whole lot more appealing.

19th century occultism, in the main, is deeply rooted in gathering and systematizing ancient esoteric arts and practice, sometimes for real and sometimes as a pretense.

Auras, lots of psychic phenomena, chakras, the astral plane, and the etheral plane, for example, are drawn from the mythology of ancient India. 19th century movements like Theosophy cribbed a little from here and a little from there to concoct a picture of the hidden "truth" in the lore of major world religions.

What is 19th century? What is ancient? It's hard to tell sometimes.

Ancient times or 19th century, it's all interesting to me:)

The Dream Voyage illustration has a definite Carrier in the Bleed vibe.

Which is quite alright by me since we are dealing with hidden occult realities and we already knew Planetary was a source of inspiration for the Pathfinder Society.