Firebeard92's page

So, as many have noticed, the elemental blast feature is a bit wordy and basically comes out to them being unarmed attacks that are not actually unarmed attacks. Also, they each have two stat blocks to represent a melee and ranged version. I appreciate the intent of this, but it seems to me that this could be simplified a fair amount.

My first suggestion is to simply use one stat block and have them all be ranged unarmed attacks. Ranged attacks already provoke attacks of opportunity, which the melee versions currently do anyway due to them being Impulse abilities. These are blasts and that makes me think ranged anyway.

Second suggestion, give the blast attacks the Impulse trait as a weapon trait. Meaning it can only be used after Gathering an Element and allows Con to be used for the attack roll. As for other traits; allow earth and water to keep forceful and sweep respectively; add propulsive to all blasts, while bumping earth to a d10 so that it can maintain the damage over the others. Additionally, I think air could be bumped up to a d6 with range dropped to 90' range and be fine.

Third, alter the Flexible Blasts feat to be a feat that grants extra traits to various blasts so that they can expand their utility. Air getting Versatile (electricity), Fire getting Deadly or Scatter, Earth getting Shove or Parry, and Water getting Versatile (cold) or Trip.

This sets Gather Element as an action similar to entering a stance to gain the associated unarmed strike through the Impulse trait. Which they can then use their key ability for on their attack rolls. This also boosts the damage output for the class's primary offensive ability and provides a way to extend the options for the blasts via Flexible Blasts.

I personally believe that these two should be combined into one ability. This is the main thing that is going to give the Thaumaturge its identity as a hunter of the strange and otherworldly. And EA can be done on Find Flaws check outside of Critical Failures. With them being trained in all of the big Recall Knowledge skills and it keying off of their key ability score will really help with Recall Knowledge checks, but as others have pointed out, the weird Uncommon or Rare creatures have hefty modifiers to identify them, which makes it harder to identify them. Some of my suggestions to fix these issues:

-Make Find Flaws and EA one ability. I could see it becoming 2 actions to do so, but I think that the Thaumaturge could automatically succeed on Recall Knowledge checks on creatures of its level or lower. On top of that, I think that they should get a bonus on identifying uncommon or rarer creatures (I was thinking +2, +3 when gaining a second implement, +4 when gaining a third implement).

-Incentivize them actually being prepared. I think that this could be done by reducing the damage granted by EA. Perhaps the Thaumaturge only deals the Implement Empowerment damage to targets that they have identified with Find Flaws, but can increase a natural weakness that the target has by half their level if they hit them with it.
-So a 4th level Thaumaturge would deal an extra 4 damage to a Werewolf without a silver weapon, but if they had a silver weapon its weakness would bump up to 7. This still gives a benefit to EA, but also rewards being actually prepared for an encounter.

-Multiple target identifying. I think that the Thaumaturge needs an ability to use Find Flaws/EA on more than one target at a time. I personally think that this progression could line up well with Implement Adept (Identify up to 2 targets) and Implement Mastery (Identify up to 3 targets).

-Additionally, there should be some kind of bonus for skills like Intimidation and Deception against identified enemies. Maybe an option to get a bonus to AC or attack against them. I know Rule of Three does this for attacks, but I think it should be part of the base class rather than a feat since it compounds onto Find Flaws.

-Maybe they should always use Esoteric Lore and it be a class given skill. Not too sure about that though.