Archmic's page

I know I tore it apart in my post, but there are elements of the class that work just fine. I agree that it doesn't feel like a Wisdom based class, but it has the feel of being a Dwarven Exclusive archetype.

Change the runes around a bit and give level restrictions to them, give it a proper spell progression and caster level, possibly even a unique ability or two, and remove most of it's ungodly power and it becomes balanced. It has fine options for allowing a player to do some things that are fun and unique, but nothing to keep it constrained.

Let's see...

Alignment: I don't really see them being chaotic... but honestly shouldn't have a restriction

Race: Dwarf... because it feels right.

Casting ability: Intelligence; you're doing research here not getting divine inspiration.

HP: d6; you're not a cleric you're a weird Dwarven spell caster.

To keep some of the feel, give it medium armor pro but only simple weapon proficiency. Again, we're going for Dwarven feel.

BAB: 1/2 You're a weird wizard Harry.

Saves: Will good, Ref and Fort bad.

Skills: Appraise, Craft, Fly, Heal, Knowledge (Arcane and History), Linguistics, Lore, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device.

Skill Points: 2 + int mod

Spell progression up to 6th level spells, require a spell book and give it spell slots up to 4 from class per level like a wizard.

Spells: Give it a unique spell list. Mix and match spells from several different classes.

Rune Casting: complete overhaul. Make it a pool of points equal to 2 or 3+Int Mod. and increase it by maybe 2 points a level. Have it spend those points to make the runes.
Limit the number of runes to location. One per armor set, one on a shield, one on a weapon. One on a person and have it use a spell slot.

Size and visibility: not sure why size is a thing with it but the runes should have to be visible at all times to be used/activate.

End state: get rid of this concept... it just doesn't work.

Dismissing and Dispelling: Dispell magic should work on a rune; even an inert one; like normal for a spell. Erase should work on runes with an opposed caster check. Dismissing... well that thought should just be thrown out.

Runes (Renamed to Runic Mastery) (SP): This should be the uniqueness of the class, and it should be limited. Activating them should be a move action or standard action. Should be be allowed to pick on every 2 to 3 levels.
Accuracy: remove; or have it allow you to ignore all cover bonuses save for total cover for a round or a few rounds as the class levels up.
Air: see Elemental Runes at bottom.
Bear: see Animal based runes at bottom.
Blast: can be placed on a piece of ammunition, adds 1d6 per Rune point used. Limit the number of points to something like 1 point per 2 levels up to 5 points. This gives them some attack bonus. Note: only one piece of ammunition can be modified with this so if you want more you're spending more points.
Bleed: can be placed on any slashing or piercing weapon but not ammunition. Lasts for 1 round per 2 levels, adds 1 point of bleed damage to the weapon.
Blocked Trails: remove
Cougar: see animal based runes at bottom
Earth: Rename it to invulnerability make it work on armor and have it give a bonus to saves or resistances for a few rounds.
Eldritch: remove
Fire: see elemental runes at bottom
Fog: get rid of it.
Hardness: Keep what it does for armor and shield, change duration to 1 round per level.
Healing: place on a person. Allow it to be activated by them as a move action and have it heal like a cure light wounds spell. Have it upgrade with levels to change into cure moderate and serious.
Incompetence: remove
Inspiration: remove
Misfortune: remove
mitigating: remove
Mongoose: see animal based runes at bottom
owl: see animal based runes at bottom
ownership: change it so that it persists for 1 day per caster level or 2 and would probably be the only mark that doesn't have to be visible. Allow the Rune Caster to sense the items location while the mark is activated. Fun little utility thing.
Shielding: allow it to give resistances to elemental damage; 5/10/15; that has to be designated by the activator at time of activation and have it last for 1 round per 4 levels.
War: remove or change so it affects the user, giving them a +X morale bonus to attack rolls for the next round; NOT ROUNDS.
Wolf: See animal based runes at bottom.
Elemental: place on a weapon and give it one of the following properties for 1 round per 2 levels - Flaming, Frost, Corrosive, or shock. Allow it to upgrade at a higher level to include the upgraded versions of these abilities or have it deal a flat damage amount of the elements.
Animal Based Runes: could do the following; gives a small limited bonus to ability scores, or skills, or feats, or something like that for a few rounds or minutes and the abilities should fit the animal. Ex: Wolf could give scent, or owl could improve perception, fish could grant a swim speed or water breathing etc. etc.
Add a few more runes to give it a few more options.

Logos: replaced with proper spell casting

Rune Lore: remove or have it grant read magic, or create scroll, or something to that affect.

Runic Mastery: removed and name taken and given to the "Runes" ability

Runelord: Allows you to double to the number of runes you can have active on yourself. So two runes per area on yourself or allows you to spend X Rune Pool points to increase length of time Runes are active.

There... a few hours work and the class is WELL on it's way to being balanced and mildly unique.

Archmic wrote:

How about an "Egg of rebirth"?

Rather than actually bringing the char back to life when it activates it changes them into a rabbitfolk, lock them in that race and puts them under a geas to plant bombs in cities? This would make the desire to be able to be reverted back to their original form, especially if the rabbits are running a muk.

Hahaha! that's fantastic!

How hard would it be for them to return to their original race afterwards?

I'd say pretty hard. Since it would be a cursed version of the druids spell reincarnate.

End result could be that the only way to break the curse would be to eat the carrot or use it to change the egg of rebirth into a chocolate egg they have to then eat.

For added suspense they have a time limit to cure the curse otherwise they change completely and forget they were ever anything other than rabbitfolk and lose their chars as they become faithful servants of the... Easter Bunny...

The egg could even change color.to show them how much time they have left... "when the egg turns brightest pink your former self will be lost forever! Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!"

How about an "Egg of rebirth"?
Rather than actually bringing the char back to life when it activates it changes them into a rabbitfolk, lock them in that race and puts them under a geas to plant bombs in cities? This would make the desire to be able to be reverted back to their original form, especially if the rabbits are running a muk.

Someone need to ask for clarification on that one in the rule forum.

I don't really see the point of going on the rules forum for clarification.

The guy with blindsight who always relies on these senses picks up on the person all the time. Technically, the only way to hide from someone with blindsight is to either: A.) Be outside the range of their blindsight, or B:) Have total cover From them. And when I say total cover I mean more along the line of; there is absolutely no way in heck that you would be able to see them. If there is a hole large enough for a sighted person to be able to reasonably see through at a distance, the guy with blindsight can see through it too.
Partial cover means that they can still be seen; you've gotta look at it in a 3 dimensional way.
I'm not counting incorporeal creatures in this.

I think blindsight is too powerful a thing to give to a pc race. Here's a little blurb on what can and can't happen with it along with blind sense.

Blindsight:
Some creatures possess blindsight, the extraordinary ability to use a non-visual sense (or a combination senses) to operate effectively without vision. Such senses may include sensitivity to vibrations, acute scent, keen hearing, or echolocation. This makes invisibility and concealment (even magical darkness) irrelevant to the creature (though it still can't see ethereal creatures). This ability operates out to a range specified in the creature description.

Blindsight never allows a creature to distinguish color or visual contrast. A creature cannot read with blindsight.
Blindsight does not subject a creature to gaze attacks (even though darkvision does).
Blinding attacks do not penalize creatures that use blindsight.
Deafening attacks thwart blindsight if it relies on hearing.
Blindsight works underwater but not in a vacuum.
Blindsight negates displacement and blur effects.

Blind Sense:
Blindsense lets a creature notice things it cannot see, but without the precision of blindsight. The creature with blindsense usually does not need to make Perception checks to notice and locate creatures within range of its blindsense ability, provided that it has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent that cannot be seen has total concealment (50% miss chance) against a creature with blindsense, and the blindsensing creature still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see.

If we follow this reasoning, anything that relies on a creature who uses sight as it's main way of perceiving it's environment does not affect a creature with Blindsight. So you can safely assume that things like illusions that don't create sound, don't work against creatures with it, since Blur and Displacement are both illusion based spells. At the same time you've also given the PC an effective 360 degree vision that's only limitations are the distance of it's blindsight and if there is something completely blocking them from being able to perceive an area... like the thing is hiding in a box. So technically they can NEVER be caught flatfooted by something trying to sneak up on them as they are perceiving everything within their area of blindsight... like the rogue trying to steal something from them or one of their allies... or the bandits that are just up the path.

I know you said that you thought about tweaking their Blindsight to counter this, but certain illusions and almost all gaze attacks rely on a players ability to see to be effective.

Yes, they have the draw back of being unable to perceive an ethereal creature, but how often does that really pop up in a campaign? Not often enough to off-set the benefits.

I played in a campaign where my char went completely blind; it was a 1-in-100 chance of happening and I got the 1. The thing was my sight was replaced with an ability called "Magical Sight - the pc goes completely blind to normal means unless in the presence of magical things; spells and items only. The item sheds light to the pc based on it's strength. The PC can also instantly identify any and all magic incorporated into the item as well as any spell that is being cast as if they had studied it for 5 rounds." I didn't realize I was blind until we left the dungeon we were in because the entire thing was highly magically infused. Since magical beasts and creatures don't radiate magic I couldn't see at all and ended up having to buy a ring that had a minor epic level spell on it; yeah I know contradictory but the spell was detect living with an epic range on it making it a level 10 spell; just so I could see out to 120 feet. Not a good ability for the groups cleric to have.

I started out playing Rogues; not by choice mind you, everyone else always got to choose their classes first so I got stuck with either a Rogue or a Bard and I absolutely hate playing a Bard.

The Rogue is one of those classes that CAN be a massive damage dealer when built right. It takes time, patients and the ability to work around the other players. However, I feel pathfinder nerfed; you can use the term nuked if your more familiar with it; their prestige options, namely taking away the Assassin's spells which allowed a Rogue char to stand toe-to-toe with almost any melee based class as long as you used cunning rather than brute force. They did kind of fix this with some of the arch-types; I found the Sniper to be especially good at dps while staying out of range of melee and giving spell casters something to really worry about.

But as far as fixing the Rogue... it's not the Rogue that needs to be fixed. It's the adventures. When was the last time you played an adventure where being sneaky, finding information, being able to get into particularly hard to reach areas, etc, etc was part of the adventure? Traps are easy to fix; you compound them. Make it both magical and mechanical. Yeah the spell caster can nullify the magic, but what if the magic was only one part of the trigger? Or better yet, the magic was the trigger? You activate the magic and the trap goes off, you nullify the magic and the trap goes off; it can work both ways. Change the traps from something small and insignificant, like a poison dart, to the WHOLE room. Trap goes off, room seals, when the wall seals shut it finishes a set of runes that don't have a magical aura because they form a giant circle of no-magic. Now the room starts filling with something; water, acid, oil, swarms upon swarms of insects; and now you have to figure out how to reverse the trap. That's where a Rogue who focused on those skills comes in real handy. I've killed entire groups of adventurers because they didn't have some one who could work on a trap like a Rogue can.