RPG Superstar 6 Season Star Voter, 7 Season Star Voter. Organized Play Member. 247 posts. No reviews. 6 lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 1 alias.
Having level independent durations is good. I like the new duration on mage armor. However, buff spells have gone down to between 1 minute to ten minutes. This decrease feels more low magic and low fantasy to me than perhaps what was intended.
I feel like having a hand full of duration increments is probably a good idea from an accessibility standpoint. Plays can ask "Is this a one minute, 4 hours, or 24-hour spell?"
4 hours seems like an improvement to me over the 10 minutes per level former duration of long-term buff spells. It allows them to be cast as part of a preparation phase without having to rush right away from encounter to encounter to get the most use out of the spell.
If you are trying to avoid the paradigm of casters eating the martial or skill monkey's lunch by self-buffing then you could have them have a reduced personal duration such as ", or 10 minutes personal." for spells that allow casters to circumvent having to make skill checks or on spells that improve their combat capabilities. (Although a utility polymorph spell that lets you keep a shape for hours would be very nice.)
As things stand, one-minute durations make it impossible to prepare for difficult encounters except to demand spells from casters from round to round. This change does not feel more accessible over the last edition to me.
Just assigning a new duration increment to these spells seems an easy fix that would take up no more space in the rulebook.
I remember seeing a weapon die advancement table somewhere in the document. It was a very tiny sidebar. it went 1d4>1d6>1d6>1d8>1d8>1d10>1d12>+2 damage for every increase thereafter. I'll look for it later.
If you ready an action (by taking a standard action on your turn to prepare for a given circumstance to happen, in the case the ogre swinging his club) you could either physically break the weapon by striking it (a sunder combat maneuver) or you Gould grab onto the ogre, preventing him from bringing a two handed weapon to bear on you (a grapple combat maneuver, when a creature becomes grappled they may not use a two handed weapon such as a great club)
Without an investment in the feat improved sunder or improved grapple you are going to leave an opening which the ogre can use to try and strike past your defenses and make it nearly impossible to succeed at the check because you then take a penalty equal to the damage dealt to you.
So no, you can't block the ogre with your hands, but you can do something similar using a feat of strength, and you can be able to do so by taking the 'ready an action' action.
I realized I could play a young man who summons a giant robot. All the thing needed was enlarge person and mage armor and later evolutions to boost armor and size. Buster Machine Number 15 could have fists that shoot out by using the reach evolution + slam and improved natural weapon. In order to buff him the young man could do tokusatsu style somatic gestures and speeches about friendship and justice.
Also, if Buster Machine Number 15 ever fell in battle, the young man could call him back to the fight even stronger with a short speech about friendship and force of will, using summon eidolon and augment summoning. I've been waiting for an appropriate game to play that character in.
The other character is an elderly gnome paladin to desna who bonded with an outsider to keep helping those in need by borrowing its strength. He has a few levels in paladin and the rest are in synthesist. His summoning ritual is an oath he swears to defend justice as well as the rights and freedom of all sentient beings. I wrote it out in 10 6 second stanzas somewhere, one for each round in the minute long summoning time. In his transformed form he focuses on armor and multiple enhanced claws. He looks, acts and sounds a lot like a certain autobot transformer, sans the morphing into a truck, and with the addition of limbs that bisect in combat for additional attacks.
i just remembered this ability from the water orm and thought that it would be helpful as a social talent in order to help a vigilante get into costume
Elusive (Su) Water orms are rarely discovered except by their own choice. As a full-round action while in water, a water orm can move up to its run speed (200 ft.) without leaving any trace of its passage (identical in effect to pass without trace). An elusive water orm gains a +40 circumstance bonus to its Stealth check. In addition, when not in combat, a water orm is considered to be under the effects of a nondetection spell. These effects function at caster level 20th and cannot be dispelled.
Maybe call it flee the scene? How many playtesters would find something like this helpful?
Oh weird, yeah, I totally remembered that wrong. its not even a kobold racial trait, its just a suggestion in the bestiary under the kobold characters heading. Neat idea, yeah, you can add quite a bit more damage to the character if he hits that level 8 mark.
This concept is kind of amazing, keeping his hoard safe with safehouse, renown among his tribe and in the local area, startling appearance mimicking the frightful presence of dragons, and dual identity making scry confirm that he is in fact the frightening, totally-not-the-chief-in-disguise god the tribe describes him as.
Keep in mind though, a level 7 heroic classed kobold is only CR 5 because of kobold racial traits. I'd bump him up to level 8 and give him piranha strike as a bonus combat feat with his talent and then he gains weapon specialization from his signature weapon talent and I'd say that he's probably a pretty decent CR 6.
Hope some of this stuff is usable in some capacity, at least in an archetype, or maybe a 5th or 6th specialization depending on how many you are musing over adding to the class.
It'd make a pretty good archetype if it replaced the sort of "terrifyingly emerge from the shadows" class features and maybe stealth as a class skill.
I'll also see if I can get one of my GM friends to let me playtest this stuff to see if its too OP.
A classic trope of the caped crusader genre is the hero with superhuman abilities, whether they are faster, stronger or more durable than the average man while in their vigilante alter ego.
I feel that the avenger could benefit from a progression into superhuman territory, differentiating the specialization from standard full BAB high skill point per level classes.
To my design sensibility, the class feature would be added to Avenger Specialization go something like this:
Superhuman(Ex): While in vigilante identity, the avenger vigilante possesses superhuman attributes. At first level, the avenger gains a +2 inherent bonus to either Constitution, Dexterity or Strength, chosen the first time that he dons his vigilante identity. He gains this benefit each time he dons his costume. This increase is treated as temporary until the Avenger has spent 24 hours in vigilante identity. The temporary hit points gained by the temporary constitution increase remain lost even if the vigilante switches identities multiple times in a day, and are refreshed when the vigilante has rested for 8 hours, though these hours do not need to be consecutive.
At 3rd level the avenger chooses a second ability score among Constitution, Strength and Dexterity to assign a +2 inherent bonus to. A5 5th level he gains a +2 inherent bonus to the Ability Score among the three he has not yet selected. At 7th, 9th and 11th level he increases one of these bonuses from +2 to +4. At 13th, 15th, and 17th level he increases one of these bonuses from +4 to +6. At 19th and 20th level he increases one of these bonuses from +6 to +8.
This way all three ability scores have their modifier increased before the bonus accrues again to the same score, so you don't wind up with a ridiculous strength or dexterity score, but you can surpass the limits that a similar character could achieve. Normally inherent typed bonuses are only available much later, so the bonus stacks with whatever other tricks the vigilante is picking up, but moral, enhancement or even alchemical as a bonus type works just as well depending on how you are flavoring the source of the bonus. I settled on inherent scaling up to +8 because no other class would get this kind of bonus. The most you can get from wishcrafing or tomes would be +5. I initially typed it as a moral bonus, but quickly realized that a moral bonus would make more sense for something the vigilante was hyping themselves up to or pushing themselves to do, which is another common trope in the vigilante genre.
"Superhuman" abilities scores would allow for a wide range of concepts and also serve as a replacement for "That thing that other full BAB classes get that boosts their to hit and damage beyond just having full BAB." And also gives the avenger something of their own that is iconic among the more martial of archetypal vigilantes. The first ability score you choose to increase can only be increased again at level 7, and maybe by that point you want to choose a different one. Maybe you started with strength, but you prefer through the course of your career to emphasize your alter ego's durability so you choose to increase constitution at level 6. Any way you increase it your character is gradually becoming better rounded and more of superior specimen when in their alter ego.
For those vigilantes that have superhuman abilities as their entire shtick, an associated talent could be something like this:
Superhuman Surge(Ex): The vigilante is capable of superhuman displays of strength, speed, and endurance. As a swift action a vigilante may push beyond their physical limitations, gaining a +4 moral bonus to Constitution, Dexterity, or Strength for a number of minutes per day equal to their vigilante level. these minutes need not be consecutive but they must be spent in one minute intervals. At 8th level you may gain this moral bonus to two ability scores, at 16th level you gain this bonus to all three ability scores. The bonuses granted a barbarian's Rage class feature overlaps with the benefits of this ability score increases from Superhuman Surge.
I think moral works better for a temporary surge of additional juice to whatever ability score for the purpose of a combat or perhaps the duration of a feat of superhuman heroism beyond the vigilante's baseline.
And other talents could key off of that one or reinforce the kind of unique superhuman capabilities a super might have for example:
Vengeful Surge(ex): When a critical hit is confirmed against the vigilante or an ally within line of sight you may activate superhuman surge as an immediate action, gaining the benefit for one minute. This does not count against your uses for superhuman surge per day.
Giant's Power(Ex): The vigilante possesses the proportional strength that belies his size, hurling chucks of stone with ease and shouldering the weight of cascading stone. The Vigilante increases his size for the purpose of calculating encumbrance by one category and gains a bonus on saving throws against avalanches and cave ins, debris from crumbling buildings and the like equal to his strength bonus and gains the rock throwing and rock catching special quality. Thrown rocks deal 1d6 points of damage for a medium vigilante (1d8 for a large vigilante and 1d4 for a small vigilante) + 1&1/2 times the vigilante's strength modifier. While benefiting from the Superhuman Surge talent, the vigilante is treated as one size larger for the purpose of rock throwing and an additional size category larger for the purpose of encumbrance.
Super Speed(Ex): The vigilante can move in a superhuman blur. As long as the vigilante gains a dexterity bonus from a class feature he gains a 30 foot enhancement bonus to his base speed. At 4th level while in a Superhuman surge he gains the benefits of blur while moving, at 8th level he additionally gains the benefits of haste, at 16th level he can make an additional attack while making a full attack and the enhancement bonus increases to 60 feet.
Triggered Transformation(Ex): The vigilante's double life is unstable, and the avenger in him rises to the surface when provoked. When the opportunity presents itself for a character of the vigilante's alignment or creed to do preform a strongly aligned deed, such as a good vigilante stopping an unjust act or an evil vigilante harming a vulnerable innocent, the vigilante must make a DC 15 will save. Failure results in an involuntary change from social to vigilante identity. The vigilante may voluntarily fail such a save if he so desires. When this talent is selected the vigilante may choose whether the change causes a surge in mass and shift in bone structure, doubling the character's weight and rendering his regular clothing to shambles, making him more difficult to recognize, if not the vigilante loses the bonus to disguise granted by dual identity.
Silent image is a figment illusion, so it can't alter the appearance of something else, like a card or a die. Glamer illusions can alter the appearance of something, so look for a spell with the glamer sub-school.
I'd like to see the avenger get a pool of temporary hit points when in vigilante identity that refresh at the end of each day. Then we could have talents that key off of that, restoring lost temp hp, increasing the pool or refreshing them for a second wind etc.
Mark, this (mythic?) medium hits all the right flavor notes I want from a iconic medium.
I remeain, however, tantalized by the idea of seeing all 54 spirits and the possible interactions thereof. With 9 spirits for each ability score and 6 for each alignment I'm sure that the finished product will be a lot more accessible than the play test version and allow for tons of synergistic options. I wasn't sure from what I saw in the play test versions I was going to like the harrowed medium, but your meticulous work and commentary on your process for tuning the kineticist's math and flavor has earned my trust in your larger vision for the Harrowed Medium. Seeing the tip of the Harrowed Medium iceburg in the playtest leaves me wanting more.
From what I am hearing paizo doesn't have an appropriate format regarding page count for releasing the harrowed medium unless you can justify a hardcover for the harrow and similar elements. I was looking forward to the utility that using the 54 spirits on monster templates, archetypes, magic items, feats and other things would provide, as well I wanted to see magic items, spells to support the class, and maybe a race of outsiders based on the harrow spirits. Any chance you can convince the other folks at paizo to do a kickstarter for such a book to gauge interest? I'll back it for at least $10 to see the completed harrowed medium in pdf format early and get a pdf copy of the book ahead of release schedule.
What to call it though? Ultimate Augury? Ultimate Harrow? Ultimate Clairvoyance?
Ultimate Pacts or Psychics of Golarion/ the Inner Sea could work too.
Occultism of Golarion could include expanded setting specific stuff that couldn't fit into occult origins and occult realms, fit the harrowed medium, hint at what's to come and expand upon traditions from Vudra and Tian Xia.
Gah, I just really want to see those 54 spirits and the permutations thereof. Its hard knowing that the spirits exist fully ready for release but are trapped in the space between spaces due to page count.
Is there anything the paizo community can do to help free them? Hold a seance, erect/destroy an eldritch monolith, give more playtest results for the playtest harrowed medium?
I played in a core only game with a new GM. I wanted to be a magus, so I made an elf wizard wielding a long sword using the transmutation school to get enhancement bonuses into strength and cast shield and mage armor all the te while setting up flanking. I also had more hp than the barbarian at level 1 with my toad familiar, toughness feat, higher constitution and favored class bonus. His name was hulk hogan]Gary Rrrroderick PAYNE[/hulk hogan] and he used prestidigitaion to appear 7'8" with a handlebar mustache.
Dude played like a fighter, talked like a pro wrestler, had more hp than the barbarian and was actually an Elven wizard. Core only can still get pretty weird and is not more balanced. If I wanted, at any point as a wizard I could have opted to change what spells I was preparing and done any other character class's job, or just been a wizard and been a lot more powerful.
Weirdly the character's viability dropped when my party opted to stop flanking with me. I wound up leaving the game due to the other players making nonsensical choices that ruined my fun. "I won't flank, even though I could, because I don't think I need it *miss*" (this happened more times than was reasonable.) "I don't carry a ranged weapon because this is a melee character, I will stand back here and full defense instead."
I would go with Penanggalenfor the mother, so she can try to "embrace" her daughter. Maybe guecubu for the dad due to how eviscerated the corpse was when the nemesis was finished taking him apart peice by peice while defiling him.
As far as meanness goes, I'd ask the player how awesome they thought what has happened so far is. If these is hesitation and distaste I would talk it over as friends. If the answer is an immediately apparent degree of excitement and expression of awesomeness and "man I can't wait to kill this guy" then proceed.
I really like the class as it stands post revision. I agree with concerns that setting up tricks needs a bit of fiddling with. Perhaps the utility of hypnotic gaze could be increased in order to address some of the concerns playtesters are expressing.
What if the Mesmerist could end his stare to plant a post-hypnotic suggestion on an enemy, as the spell Hypnotism, Command or Suggestion?
What if he could focus his stare on an ally to implant a post hypnotic suggestion and bolster their mental faculties? For example,on an ally , the hypnotic stare could provide a +2 morale bonus to will saves and painful strike could give temporary HP that apply to the first attack taken each round. Applying tricks or the effects of "touch treatment" to an ally you turned you focus onto would address some of the action economy and having to be right next to all the party members concerns that have been brought up.
As far as action economy is concerned I think that whether you up the utility of hypnotic gaze or not, a class that uses so many immediate actions would benefit from having the gaze be usable as a "move or swift" action rather than being swift exclusively. Instead of spending move actions trying to dodge and weave around the battlefield the Mesmerist could let his subtle psychic influence do the walking.
Wouldn't it be an iconic and flavorful ability for all Mesmerists to be able to enthrall an audience, as the spell Enthrall a number of times per day or at will, preferably from level 1 onward?
I really like painful strike. I hope it will be amended so that the mesmerist personally deals an extra 1d6 damage at level 1 and an additional 1d6 damage every 3 levels thereafter, specifically because the mesmerist does not seem to get a way to lower AC or boost his own attack outside of turning invisible, as I look through his spell selection. I appreciate the subtle choices you've made to make this class not scale up to hit bonuses or scale down enemy AC in order to force it to make other choices but when a focused Mesmerist's blows do connect I feel it should have quite a bit of impact. Maybe scaling up the damage could be a bold stare improvement?
Speaking of spell selection I echo the concern that dominate monster is not on the mesmerist spell list but is on the Summoner spell list. I also think that Astral Projection would make sense for a class that draws their magic from the Astral Plane.
I like what you've come up with initially and I'm floored in a good way by how the class has improved with your first pass at revisions,
To beef up monsters. For every two monk levels you add to a monster you add 1 to its CR, up to a total CR increase equal to its base CR. This means you can add:
+ 2d8+(2 x con mod) HP
2 weird bonus feats
+ wis to AC and cmd
Evasion
+3 all saves
2 stunning attacks per day
+1 to BAB
Skill points equal to 12+(2 x int mod)
To a monster all for a total CR increase of +1. Doesn't matter which monster because monk is always considered a non-associated class. Dont forget to modify their base stats by +4, +4, +2, +2, +0 and -2.
Slap that on an owlbear or a dragon. Or a pack of wolves. Hilarity ensues.
Slightly off topic but all this talk about using primal companion hunter to grab evolutions by killing the companion makes me want to play a primal hunter devoted to Lamashtu or the Old Cults who receives a ram animal companion to ritually sacrifice and consume with each increase in power. The idea has a delicious flavor to it.
After all you have to justify your companion being dead and staying dead without acquiring a new one or raising it from the dead.
It might be how you are describing your character's actions. Doing things like asking the other PC's in character to buy you time while you execute a plan or describing your character's reaction when his allies are injured on his behalf may go a way toward the appearance of good.
You can be calculating without being dark and brooding. Dark and brooding characters don't really work in the game because you don't get a chance to narrate those character' sinner thoughts. So you have to say things like "thanks to your sacrifice I was able to damage their flank and break their formation, you sacrificed honorably my friend, the glory this day is ours."
I imagine the whole dark, brooding thing is probably the problem. Say good aligned things to narrate your characters inner monologue after the fact. Play positive PR in character rather than out of character.
I also like the idea of his extracts being delivered by spritzer like old-timey vocal spray, but can't think of a significant mechanical change that would necessitate.
#synthesised voice
I liked the personages but find the more alchemist flavor fits better than the magitech stuff.
Here's an idea you can use if you'd like:
Spoiler:
what about mutated a mutated alchemical ooze (synthosonic harmonicyte?) that coats the vocal chords and changes the Synthesised Voice's singing. The "synthosonic harmonicyte" could require "essential oils" he brews in order to produce more potent vibrations, the emotional characteristics of the voice based on the humors and alchemical oils used. That way you can bring back the personages in a different form.
I could also see the harmonicyte granting a bonus on charisma based checks too.
It could be something like
Synthesize Harmonicyte (Ex): the synthetic voice has turned to alchemy to transmute his aweful singing into something worthy of his intellect. The result is a synthosonic harmonicyte, an ooze alchemically engineered to tune his vocal chords forming a symbiotic partnership.
Synthesising Preformance (Su): the synthetic voice can feed his harmonicyte various mixtures of essential oils and alchemical reagents to boost its performance abilities, allowing him to make stirring performances while the brew's effects last. The brew is delivered by spritzer but otherwise is subject to the creation method, duration, and limitations on number prepared and time that choices must be made as alchemist's mutagen class feature.
While under the effects of a brew he may sing for a number of rounds equal to 4 + his intelligence modifier at 1st level. At second level and every level thereafter he may preform an additional 2 rounds. These rounds of Preformance are recovered once per day when he prepares his extracts by giving his harmonicyte a snack.
Essence of [emotional state x] (Su):
You get the most benefit from wild shape turning into a deinonychus at 4th level for 3 primary natural attacks and one secondary natural attack. Then at 6th level you get pounce, 3 natural attacks with grab and rake as a dire tiger. At 8th level you get pounce, grab, rake and 15 feet of reach as an allosaurus.
The earliest a barbarian gets pounce is 10th level. And don't forge that the size bonuses stack with enhancement bonuses, moral bonuses and alchemical bonuses to strength and constitution.
If you cherry pick forms you wind up ahead of other classes by a lot with wild shape.
And that's ignoring all of the plant, magical beast and elemental shapes you can assume for utility's sake. Look again at the immunities that elemental and plant creatures gain.
Compare that to what other classes get at those levels, and wild shape seems pretty good.
I think I will design two different sets of in game politics now.
In one political system, the high priests of various churches are of a high enough level to cast commune and alignment applies.
In the other political system, the high priest of the church is an elected official with NPC class levels, probably in aristocrat, and no one has an alignment.
I wonder which my players would prefer. A world where good and evil can be proved through empirical evidence or one where good and evil are subjective.
Which do you all prefer. A world where the local priest can send a letter to a pontiff if something is good and a being of pure good can give the pontiff and, down the ladder, you an answer? Or a world where you have to make a call and no force in the universe can really say if its objectively right or not?
Asking a person if they want to get sent to their just reward (note how aweful the hells and abadon are) or be subject to an atonement spell shifting them to the good axis of alignment would be better. A lawful evil dude can still follow his values, he just gets his perception shifted about how much the rights others are worth. A chaotic evil person can be a force for positive change rather than a force for evil. A neutral evil person can trade sadistic pleasure for altruistic pleasure.
Atonement is a cleric spell so you could have a cleric of each faith available, and the church could help them get started doing good to make the transition easier.
Atonement doesn't work on outsiders though, and a killed outsider doesn't have a final reward to go to. So the helm is really their only hope. If it was the helm or destruction, which do you think is more humane?
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I'm pretty sure every cursed item is meant to be played off as comical, so the helm doesnt have any effect more traumatic than any other fairy tale curse would. If it did cause trauma it would say that it stuns them or descibe the in game effects of crushing despair as afflicting evil creatures affected by the helm.
The only trauma the helm afflicts is at the prospect of being forced to return to their former alignment, whether they were a pit feind, or a paladin. Makes no difference.
Archomedes Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7
I needed this thread. I haven't been voting this year like I was last year. I remember being angry a lot while I was voting. There were a lot of negative meme's on the board that I think contributed to how I was feeling. I think I saw some positive feedback about my item this thread.
I think I'll start voting again and leaving positive feedback here.
:)
Its a lot easier to tear something down than to build something. So positivity is a more taxing, but rewarding creative excercise.
I was a bit apprehensive at first. I like it though, at first glance it looks very balanced.
I would, however, take a cue from the spells like Holy Smite on the Holy Strike class feature. Have the holy fire deal untyped damage and deal full damage against evil targets, half damage against neutral targets and be harmless to good targets. You could put in a holy power to have it deal half fire damage and half sacred damage like flame strike if you decide to go that direction.
Or include those as holy powers. Fire is the most resisted element overall.
I like the idea that they lose class features if they wear armor.
The closest thing to this skill in the core rules is Craft (Alchemy)
With craft (alchemy) you can pre-fabricate items that accomplish affects that approach caster level 1 spells. You can also fabricate poisons.
I stress the word pre-fabricate because what you seem to intend for players to accomplish is for players to spontaneously accomplish magical effects in a pinch.
With craft (alchemy) there is an investiture represented by the cost in gold pieces and time invested in crafting as well.
If you wan this to be a skill, it should have a cost. Praying at temples or at roadside shrines, burning incense or making other sacrifices or preforming works that would please the gods should be how points are accumulated.
Mechanically you could have it work like this:
You use the prayer skill to earn (and thus pay half the cost in gold for) influence capital. You could have influence capital be spent equal to the cost of a potion of the desired divine spell, with a prayer skill check equal to the DC of crafting a potion required to successfully have the prayer take effect.
I would suggest that the influence capital is not spent on a failure. if the check fails, the prayer simply did not reach the deity.
You can adjust the cost in influence capital spent (halve or double the cost) based on how effective prayer is in play.
A feat or trait cost and using the Knowledge (religion) skill to make the prayer mechanic work might be the right opportunity cost, depending on how effective this becomes mechanically.
+1 on this class being called beastlord or beastmaster.
Why doesn't he get wild empathy at 1st level when both of his parent classes get it?
What if the beastlord's animal companion was a magical beast combining the druid animal companions as base forms, the eidolon's HD/BAB progression, and limited evolution pools.
To balance things out the abilities animal companions come with could require "purchasing" with evolution points before additional evolutions could be applied.
Oh! I forgot to mention, my biggest issue while playtesting was getting through DR. If my character had not had 20 strength, a two handed weapon and power attack I would have had a very bad time at trying to slay the undead.
I've been playing a slayer a few sessions now and feel overtaxed spending points on knowledge skills to be trained on identifying the stuff that I am going to kill and trying to be a compotent adventurer who invests in climb, bluff, survival, perception and the like. Some kind of monster identification bonus would really make the slayer feel more like an archetypical slayer.
The first two levels were a bit difficult. As fun as favored target has been, there arent many things that distinguish a level one or two slayer from a vanilla warrior. I wound up taking combat trick at level 2 to get heavy armor proficiency. There were other interesting options, but without sneak attack I didn't want spend a level with what were essentially dead abilities.
The DM and I have had a lot of fun with favored target. He sees it as an opportunity to describe the monster further.
I've been having trouble making my saving throws against my favored targets. Maybe some kind of bonus to saves against favored targets abilities is in order.
I like favored target as a move action at level one, but around level 3-5 I think swift activation should be a possibility.
I like the swashbuckler's finesse's effect on crit range, I think if the slayer got an ability that inscreases crit range against favored targets around 2nd or 4th level wold really make the class feel more rewarding.
When I had a fellow party member help me by blinding my foes with the mudball spell the sneak attack damage came in handy. It seems at low levels that it the extra damage is nice when it happens, but that it just does not trigger very often. I don't feel that it fits thematicaly for someone who calls theemselves a slayer to need someone to set up a flank every time they want to get their extra precision damage in.
Maybe expand favored target's utility by allowing a move action to study your favored target and deny them their dexterity bonus to AC against your next attack if made before the start of your next turn. That could become a swift action and apply to all attacks that round at 6th level, and then a free action at level 11 or so.
I really would have enjoyed an ability like that in one of my more drawn out battles at second level.
"Further study" medhanics could actually be really cool, I'd like to see more options like that from tallents and/or baked into the base mechanic.
I've been trying to get away from theory crafting lately. I have had fewer chances to actually play the game recently, and each character that should, in theory, have been a ton of fun to play was uninteresting at the actual table.
I had characters designed to be at the top of the power curve, who could probably cleave through whole adventures on their own because I was used to non-contributing party members.
In practice what happened was that my character was never in any real danger. When I wasn't at the table the party got its clocks cleaned but when I was there I would spend a round buffing and then control the battlefield. That was not interesting for me. Also, my characters combinations of abilities required a more extensive knowledge of the rules than my DMs had. So I wound up having a really miserable time with my "build" even with slightly over 20 points to work wit, because of hostility toward "rules lawyers."
Playtesting shows how the rules work themselves out at various tables during play. Jason is going for fun to play characters. Having all the character classes have vital statistics that are balanced against each other would be interesting, but I think a project like that goes outside of thee scope of the first playtest. Besides, how balanced something is doesn't indicate how fun something is going to be (cough 4E cough.)
I really want the bloodrager to be called the Inheritor. Class features could mention birthright. Or bloodlines could be renamed birthrights in order to differentiate them from sorcerer class features.
"I'm playing a human Inheritor with the Destined birthright. This clan of kobold Inheritors possess the fearsome claws of their Dragon birthright. My aasimar Inheritor takes flight as he his Celestial birthright grants him wings."
Keep a double barreled rifle handy. Use your arcane pool to make it magic and shocking. You can target touch AC up to the first two ranged increments with an advanced firearm so that gives you 2d10+2+2d6 or whatever energy type you imbue it with. Reloading hands is a second level spell which will give you a free reload each round with free conjured ammunition once per round, letting you get a good hit in at a long distance many rounds in a row. I also recommend deadly aim and/or vital strike.
As for the bomb damage, why not have a shock gauntlet or something with catalytic charges equal to your tinker level + your intelligence modifier and state that it is an improvised weapon. Then you can have catch off guard let you deal your intelligence modifier in extra damage with electric damage. Or a shock wrench or something.
Oh and I misread tinkering. Now I am wondering if it isn't too powerful in the way that it interacts with armor. Especially full plate and tower shields. Flat AC bonuses seem too good, perhaps an increase to max dex bonus instead? Also I kind of want to see an option to add chainsaw bits to your weapon for extra damage dice.
Maybe a chainsaw with a limited amount of fuel to replace bombs? Resolves attacks as touch attacks to which power attack can be applied?
Its the master craftsman at 1st level that lets you craft items at that level. Master craftsman lets you craft either wondrous items or magical arms and armor, you choose which when you take it.
