Foak's page

Sympathetic weakness definitely feels tax-y but I haven't been super impressed with Rule of Three. It doesn't do anything until Round 2 and even then it's just comparable to bless/inspire courage/inspiring aura. Round 3 it gets better but that's a long time for a single mob.

I think I'd characterize it more as a neat feat if you don't have any party buffers but otherwise just okay.

Maybe it's because I usually play in small parties (2-3 players), so other buffs aren't that common, but +2 to attack and the enemy is instant Flat-footed seems to be a bonus hard to let it by. Even more in comparison to the other LVL 6 feats

I'm not sure if I'm being misunderstood or I'm misunderstanding, but this was all just an observation about how the Thaumaturge seems to be designed to encourage a charisma-based spellcasting multiclass. Not that it is necessary for the class to function properly or that free archetypes are needed for it to function either. Just a "oh how cool!" observation. I'm also not suggesting the Thaumaturge should itself be a spellcasting multiclass. That seems to be the impression some seem to be getting as well.... Maybe I misspoke somewhere since I wasnt completely mentally present for the OP.

No, no, maybe I wrote in a way that gave the wrong impression. I get it what are you saying, my point was that if the CHAR as the main attr was to encourage MC into spontaneous spellcasting, that would imply that it was expected for the player to go in this direction, and I think that has weight by itself in the class, that may interfere with the build, e.g. you can't start with 18 STR or DEX,even though you are a martial class, but you also almost don't use your CHAR

Creating my playtest thaumaturge for a lvl 10 adv, what I feel is that the class have a lot o "tax feats". I mean, you kind of have to buy the ESOTERIC LORE at lvl 1, RULE OF THREE at lvl 6, and SYMPATHETIC WEAKNESS at lvl 8, because otherwise, you seems to lose a lot of value in the class. Idk if it's only my impression about it or the way I usually make my builds. What's everyone thinking about it?

Moreover, while I agree that almost everyone uses free archetypes, the class should be self-contained, and the dedications were used to give you more of a flavor or some other very specific ability that you may want (e.g. wild shape for a monk, to make a wukong kind of build)

Foak wrote:

So I kind of don't agree with you. I mean, while having a spellcasting dedication is always a nice bonus, I don't think that the thaumaturge theme fits a true spellcaster, I mean, you are a character that isn't bound to any tradition, that uses every little shenanigan that you can to make something work, not a being with god(or other being)-given power that simply does magic

I think the theme totally fits with a myriad of spellcaster concepts; and there are plenty of folks for whom “theme” is a far distant country they arrive at once they have left “build” and are about to “start the game”.

Still, isn't kind of weird for the thaumaturge to use real magic? Like, why would a wizard focus on learning esoterica stuff, like which trinket is linked to which rumor, if it could just learn a new spell for it? It would not be useless ofc, but for me kind of diverges from the idea, like if John Constantine was a real caster

So I kind of don't agree with you. I mean, while having a spellcasting dedication is always a nice bonus, I don't think that the thaumaturge theme fits a true spellcaster, I mean, you are a character that isn't bound to any tradition, that uses every little shenanigan that you can to make something work, not a being with god(or other being)-given power that simply does magic