Hello all. It’s been quite a while, and I’m sorry about that. If you’re interested in the reasons behind this delay and the plans around material in the future, you can find a post about that here.
We do have an update today, though! It’s primarily changes to Avowed 1, with some adjustments made to Avowed 2 to make it line up with the altered rules. Here’re our changelogs for today:
A1 Changelog:
The Avowed
Aether pulse’s base form no longer exists; it has been adjusted to be Aether Blow and Aether Ray. Each avowed gets the first selection of one of these for free at 1st level.
Patronage is no longer a class feature; we’ll be doing a larger section on how avowed can be created by a PC in collaboration with the GM when we go to the final release, but it’s not written right now.
The class skills gained from Pact Skills are now listed as Ex; the skill boost is still Su.
Clause save DC is now properly based on caster level, like pact and aether pulse DCs. It was previously class level by mistake. This is particularly relevant to betrothed, whose clauses are used at half CL unless they and the companion both take the action (this was intended to cut the DC, but didn’t by RAW until now).
Pacts
Court Fey pact's 4th-level ability has had its bonus damage reduced. This turned out to just add way too much potential damage to weapon shape users.
Elemental pact’s attunement now deals a consistent amount of damage (1 per level) instead of dice with powerspikes every 4-5 levels.
Elemental pact’s 4th level ability has been replaced with Elemental Eruption. Now, the attunement includes the ability to ignore immunity to your element, and a new 4th-level empowerment has been added to help elemental choice feel more meaningful.
Elemental pact's 4th level ability got renamed to "Overwhelm" now that the name's open.
Self pact’s bonus attack has been moved to the 4th-level empowerment, and the Cha to saves has been moved to the attunement, but made to scale (capped at +1 per level).
Shapes
Aether Command previously implied that weapons that don’t normally add an ability modifier would get Strength to damage. This wasn’t intended, and we’ve fixed the wording.
Aether Lance does not exist anymore as a standalone shape. It’s now a Beam+weapon shape combination feat. The big reason for this is that as a whole, Aether Lance was overtuned at lower levels as a “weapon” shape, more accurate than other AoEs at higher levels, all while bringing mobility as part of its package. We’ve made sure that each of its aspects (line attacks, line AoEs, higher mobility and charging lines) can still be gotten, but they now come at a cost commensurate to their effect.
Clauses
As part of the Aether Lance rework, we’ve added a new least clause focused on mobility, called Surge.
Lock and Key now applies an Alarm to the object you locked (and can be used without trapping it, solely for the alarm effect).
Inferno Pulse, like the elemental pact’s attunement, now deals 1 point of damage per level on its burn instead of the jagged-scaling dice.
Scream’s shaken effect can no longer escalate other fear effects, or be escalated. As an actionless aura, it’s way too good for it to quickly create Frightened or Panicked conditions on most targets.
Feats
Aether Lance does not exist anymore as a standalone shape. It’s now a Beam+weapon shape combination feat.
Like inferno pulse and the elemental attunement, Lingering Pulse’s damage is now 1 per level.
Other
Aether Blow has been removed; it’s now just a basic shape.
Baleful Infusion has been adjusted. It was generally overly centralizing; it’s been changed to, instead of being a free feat and extra benefits, instead just be a burn-based damage booster.
Alicorn and Decataur FCBs, which previously boosted Aether Lance, have been changed to now boost charge damage (which works with the new Aether Lance).
A2 Changelog:
Matching the Fey pact’s reduction in bonus damage, the Undead pact’s level 4 ability has had its damage reduced.
Abilities that used to deal damage as fractions of a base Aether Pulse have been adjusted similarly to Inferno Pulse. Likewise, references to Aether Pulse damage have been fixed. If you previously had an ability that dealt damage as if by an unshaped Aether Pulse, it likely deals a flat amount of dice (for capstones) or uses Aether Ray/Aether Blow (for most other abilities).
With the changes to the base Aether Pulses, the Aether Skirmisher feat is no longer a thing. It’s been rolled into the basic shapes, Aether Ray and Aether Blow.
With the changes to Aether Lance, the Aether Drive feat is gone as well. It’s just default behavior now.
On the aspirant, we’ve removed the Aether-Venom Stinger and Brutal Gore form modifications. These will be returning once we get a good way to adjust them, potentially alongside a new shape, but right now our focus is on Aether Lance.
On the betrothed companion abilities, the Horns and Stinger no longer have their minor ribbon for Aether Lance.
The bulk of today’s changes are centered around the following three things.
Basic Aether Pulses: After looking at feedback and the results of testing, we’ve made the choice to remove the delineation between the “basic” aether pulse and shapes. Unshaped aether pulses are no longer a thing. To help cut down on some of the weirdness inherent in the shapeless pulses, as well as make the avowed’s rules more consistent and clean, we’ve introduced two “basic” shapes, called aether ray and aether blow. Every avowed gets one of these for free at 1st level on top of their normal shape, and they can now be invested in similarly to other shapes. These ones have a niche of being about mobility with single hits, much like the Aether Skirmisher feat previously allowed, and scaling damage instead of remaining at 1d6/odd level all the way through.
Aether Lance:Aether lance had problems. One of our earlier-designed options, it was initially made as a way to support the fantasy of a single charging line attack… but also added to support line attacks in general, which stretched it in two opposed directions. Its damage was built like an AoE shape, but at the time, we didn’t think about just how much more accurate it’d be than Reflex-targeting AoEs. In addition, from the start, it was much better at low-levels (before full attacks) than melee weapon shapes, to an extreme degree. And that’s before we even touch its free mobility aspects.
When we added aether beam, we took more looks at aether lance as the other primary-line shape, and in the end, decided to redesign it. With that in mind, we’ve split off its concepts; if someone is going to be a line-attack-focused avowed, aether beam (and potentially aether breath for a more varied and less specialized line-blaster) is there. For those who want to make AoE weapon attacks with a mobility perk, we’ve consolidated that effect into the other weapon shapes. Aether Lance is now a combination feat for aether beam and any weapon shape, allowing you to make line attacks with scaling distances, as well as the old “charge followed by line blast,” in a way that will hopefully be more balanced alongside the lower-level weapon shapes, without becoming useless as a tactical tool at later levels.
Elemental Pact: A very common criticism of Elemental-pact avowed is that they’re boring. One of our earliest-made pacts, we revisited it and revised it. It should, hopefully, now support more builds and combat styles, as well as having more thematic effects early on for different elements. Whether you’re an AoE specialist, a weapon-user, or something in-between, Elemental pact should be giving you something interesting to do as you scatter energy around the battlefield and reliably assault foes with your element, instead of just giving you an underwhelming “pierce” effect for energy damage.
With that all said, the changes can be found in the playtests’ respective docs. Here are the links, for convenience’s sake: Avowed 1 and Avowed 2
Well it certainly has been a long time, and we apologize for that. There's been a combination of A Lot Of Stuff in this update, and life stuff in general getting in the way. However, after far too long, we have an Avowed 1 update for you all!
There are a couple major changes in this update, which I've gone through in some detail here, though you should check the full changelog to see what else it has.
Discussion of Major Changes:
Aether Beam
We've added a new shape to this update! Aether beam, a dedicated line-attack option, represents a "wide line"—that is, 10 feet wide, much like the lines in 3.5, and should help fulfill peoples' laser needs. Previously, the only lines were aether breath and aether lance, which didn't really support the concept of a massive laser blast, so now we have this for that.
Reactive Healing
The celestial pact's rune of penance has been buffed to help it stop being so meaningless by higher levels, and remove the weird break points around multiples of 10 damage. Now, instead of granting fast healing 5 per 10 damage taken, it will instead heal creatures for half the damage they take, over time.
This comes with a new mechanic, Reactive Healing, that exists to codify the avowed's brand of healing. The avowed is a very at-will class, and we wanted to write a mechanic that keeps that feel, without breaking the game for attrition-heavy GMs and groups. Thus, Reactive Healing, which only heals in response to damage actively being taken, and can't heal you for more than that damage, has been added to handle this.
The Old One pact attunement has also been adjusted to follow these rules (though nothing really changed there).
Another round of changes for Rounds and Channel
Last time, we updated the melee weapon shapes and provided a Pounce clause because we wanted people to feel less forced to go all-in on any given shape, vs taking 1-2 as they like to get a versatile character. Aether rounds and aether channel had the issue of really requiring the third selection to continue to be a damage option, unlike the other shapes, so we've changed it (much like the AoE shapes getting their own scaling). At CL 4th, these shapes will now add damage automatically.
In addition, we've cleaned up the wording and helped clear interactions to function as intended, particularly around things like single-weapon TWF. There is a slight nerf here, though: the shapes no longer add their bonus damage on some types of extra attacks. Feats and options that give attacks above and beyond what other fighting styles can manage are great, but we don't want the shapes to multiplicatively scale quite as hard in these cases.
A1 Changelog:
Pacts
We’re introducing a new mechanic for handling avowed at-will healing such as the Celestial pact’s Rune of Penance, or the Old One pact’s attunement. It can be found at the start of the pacts section, and is called Reactive Healing.
Celestial pact’s halo can now be dismissed without turning off your attunement,
Court Fey pact’s bonus damage against flanked and flat-footed enemies has been moved to the 4th-level pact empowerment. Poaching it with Split Loyalties was a bit much.
Court Fey pact’s capstone has had a note added about how it works with spells that require saves (unaware creatures fail automatically against teleportation effects, and are penalized otherwise).
Elemental pact’s sense now specifies that creatures can be assumed to have an example of your element in their bodies.
We’ve buffed Shadow pact’s sense so that it no longer overlaps with the Sightseer clause, and also added a small scaling benefit to it.
Clauses and Shapes
Pulse Shapes now have a note that concentration on them does not turn off all your other SLAs. Whoops.
A new shape, Aether Beam, has been added to Avowed 1.
Aether Channel and Aether Rounds have been revised (again, haaaah…) to now get their “adds damage to the attack on top of weapon damage” at caster level 4th, instead of coming from a rank of the shape. However, we’ve also added some changes to a couple cases, namely, single-weapon TWF (like a brawler or monk’s unarmed strike) is now treated as multiple weapons for it, and the bonus damage is also added to only attacks gained from base attack bonus, haste and similar effects, off-hand weapons, natural weapons, and attacks of opportunity. Other extra attacks no longer benefit from the added damage.
Aether Command’s swift action 2nd rank has had a note added that it can’t be used in the same turn as other shapes.
Aether Rampage is now just a base of 1d6 per odd level + Str, instead of also adding unarmed damage.
Aether Rampage’s 4th rank is now similar to that of other melee weapon shapes, granting pounce, and its 3rd rank (rend) has been nerfed in damage significantly. It now, however, grants an extra trigger of modulation effects.
Aether Rounds’s 2nd rank now works to create phantom copies of thrown weapons as well.
Hunter’s Instincts now lets you optionally not leave tracks.
Relinquish can no longer be used to counterspell.
Feats
The Aether Torrent feat can now be taken if you have Aether Beam (it still works for Aether Wrath).
Skillful Pact now functions properly with the new pact skills.
Other
Bonuses that were previously doubled on non-attack-roll shapes have been changed to scale at the same speed as the AoE damage scaling, increasing for those shapes but not others.
When a shape's damage dice would round down to 0, it now rounds down to 1 point of damage.
Anyway, thanks for reading, all, and I hope you enjoy the update!
LordInsane wrote:
This is a bit embarrassing, but I haven't been able to find an official answer (either Paizo or WotC) for how constant/continuous SLAs interact with spells that require concentration (do not require concentration, only work when concentrated on but don't need to actually be cast, can be cast as if under the renewing a dispelled constant SLA rule...). Is there one I've missed, and if not, what was assumed for the Avowed's changed detect magic sense when it was changed?
Spells that require concentration run into issues with continuous SLAs, I believe, but bear in mind that you can always simply suppress and restart the SLA (a swift action), and that the non-detect magic senses are supernatural, not spell-like.
Hello all. Today we at DSP have for you a brand-new public playtest for a concept that’s been a long time in the making: the rajah, an initiator that blends akashic power with martial might. This unique class melds akashic concepts and martial skill, taking to the battlefield as a glorious leader who can aid, empower, and strike through their allies!
Within this document you will find:
The rajah base class, a half-BAB initiator with an akashic bent and a unique take on combat. This also includes a variety of racial favored class options for the rajah, located at the end of the document.
Twenty-four new veils unique to the rajah (but accessible by others, don't worry!). These veils are of a brand-new veil type called Titles, and are shaped on allies to grant them a benefit, rather than the rajah themselves.
An assortment of new feats to support the rajah class, the Title veils, and akashic initiators in general.
And finally, brand-new magic items tied to the rajah.
So click this link to jump right into our playtest!
This isn’t all that this playtest has to offer, though. The rajah as an initiator has access to a new discipline, Radiant Dawn, which represents a combination of akashic and martial techniques. This discipline is focused on healing, party support, and debuffing, with mystical and esoteric effects that can be enhanced with akashic essence (which the discipline grants just by having it). The document also includes new style feats for Radiant Dawn users, as well as a martial tradition, The Bank of the Sun! :smallbiggrin:
Radiant Dawn is not in the same document as the rajah (for the sake of keeping Google Docs from melting our computers…), and can be found here at this link.
As always, thanks for taking a look. We hope you enjoy the playtest, and look forward to your feedback!
Hello, all! We've just finished up and reviewed a new archetype for the highlord; we've got several in the works, and this one is the first that's deemed ready for public eyes, so without further ado, the Cherished.
The Cherished is a highlord with a custom, more expansive tenet that makes them much more focused on their allies than enemies. Instead of a conscription method, they've had their chassis and manifesting slightly revised. Better at supporting the party with psionic powers (particularly through the collective), and armed with the ability to empower a chosen champion to fight for them, the cherished is well-suited to playing as a backline support class. Enjoy!
Hello! It has been quite a while since our last major update. After a lot of tinkering, playtesting, and reviewing, we’ve got some new material and tweaks to old material, both in Avowed 1 and Avowed 2.
So what’s changed, then? The biggest things to note are skills (the avowed is being buffed to become a 6 + Int mod class, and gets a boost to a useful skill based on pact), the nation pact (totally reworked, command effects turned into a shape), area-of-effect shapes (had their damage scaling changed), and weapon shapes (we’ve made the 4th rank less mandatory).
Here are the changelogs for the playtests; discussion on the changes can be found in the third spoiler.
Avowed 1 changelog:
Pacts
Nation pact has been reworked; see the discussion on it below.
Otyugh pact attunement now grants you diseases for free as you level up.
Otyugh pact 4th now deals damage immediately for the first failed save, though only once per round.
Otyugh pact 8th has been buffed, and punches through disease immunity.
Otyugh pact 16th now allows you to pierce ability damage and drain immunity.
Clauses and Shapes
We’ve made wording clearer on how the AoE shapes that add Cha to damage work, noting the damage in their descriptions.
Shapes that previously increased damage to 1d6 per CL at rank 2 no longer do (the addition of Charisma to damage is meant to cover that increase, making it more reliable. We overbuffed it a bit. They’ve got new 2nd ranks, and we’ve adjusted shapes to have different scaling (see the discussion below).
The Aether Command shape has been added.
Aether Grasp’s second selection now has an effect that helps pierce Freedom of Movement.
Aether Grasp’s third selection (the force choke) now requires a full-round action to use.
Aether Lance has a new 3rd selection, emphasizing its extreme mobility.
Aether Rounds has been reworked to be more similar to Aether Channel, and thrown weapons are now part of it instead of the latter.
Aquatic Affinity now accounts for creatures with very low (but not nonexistent) land speeds.
Hunter’s Sense now benefits the whole party with a Pass Without Trace effect.
Nightfall’s Deeper Darkness upgrade comes at CL 7th now, instead of 10th.
Reveal Your Secrets now reads and copies books.
Feral Rush clause added
Feats
Overcharge Modulation’s damage has been reworked.
You now cannot use clauses while a Pactbound Guardian familiar is holding the charge on one.
Other
Ascension has a note about appearances being flexible.
Patronage no longer changes pact type.
Balefire Infusion got renamed Baleful Infusion to make it less fluff-locked.
The avowed now gets 6+Int mod skill points, and each pact grants a skill bonus.
Bonus shapes aren’t a thing on pacts anymore. Instead, the avowed just gets an extra shape at 1st level.
Avowed 2 changelog:
Aspirant
Aspirants now have a barrage-based form modification.
The Gale Wings form modification notes that it does not have to be actual wings.
The Savage Claws least effect now adds bleed damage instead of being superfluous once you upgraded it.
Fiend aspirant’s Aura of Dread now only affects opponents.
Betrothed
Companions now get traits and darkvision.
Note added for companions, betrothed, and Extra Clause.
Betrothed and their companions can exchange which Aether Pulse progression each has.
Pacts
Genie subpact no longer gives you the elemental subtype.
The Agathion subpact’s Blood of Martyrs ability now affects more allies, but not you.
Celestial (Angel), Undead (Ghost), and Undead (Nightshade) subpacts added.
Clauses and Shapes
Aether Circus has less missiles at lower levels now, and has been reworked to be able to fire clusters of missiles at the same target(s).
Aether Beast’s hit points have been increased to half that of the casting avowed instead of 1/10.
Least Wish clause added.
As with the Avowed 1 area shapes, the Aether Well and Aether Circus have had their damage scaling changed.
Feats
Aether Drive has been adjusted to work better with weapons, particularly magic ones.
Aether Focus has been revised to be way clearer on how it works.
Aether Skirmisher has been buffed.
Split Loyalties no longer gives the 4th-level pact ability at level 16.
Clauses
Flourishing Pulse removed for the time being; its effect proved a bit problematic with the Otyugh pact.
Discussion of major changes:
Nation Pact
The overwhelming feedback we’ve gotten on the nation pact is that it was disjointed and didn’t really feel like it had a cohesive mechanical setup—its attunement wanted you in melee, command abilities wanted you to lead allies, other abilities seeming to be about buffing, etc. We’ve revised the nation pact, in particular changing the attunement to function regardless of reach and weapons, creating an area of terrain around you even if you’re a “caster” type or a ranged weapon user, and scaling the area. We’ve also added two new abilities that help the avowed interact more narratively with the game; creating crowds and leading armies to victory. These replaced the command effects that the nation pact previously had, but don’t fear, there is now a new shape, aether command, that allows the avowed to help their allies attack from level 1, instead of making you wait until later. We hope that these changes will help make the nation pact fill the buffer/leader role better, while still having plenty of avenues for different builds and playstyles.
Otyugh Pact
The otyugh pact had some problems of its 4th- and 8th-level abilities being a bit underwhelming. Overall, they didn’t really do what they were intended to do (turn diseases into a combat debuff), so we’ve reworked them. In addition, otyugh-pact avowed now gain the ability to punch through immunity to disease and later on, ability damage, with their abilities.
Shapes
Something we’ve heard a decent amount is that there is a pressure to all-in on a single shape, capping it at rank 4 before you move onto other things. Particularly for weapon shapes, we think this is a problem; the way the shapes are set up is meant to allow, but not force, someone to specialize, and with that in mind, we’ve made a few big changes.
Weapon Shapes
The weapon shapes getting pounce at rank 4 meant that if you were being a melee character… you kinda needed to get that rank by the time you get iteratives, if you wanted to full attack well. To fix this, we’ve created a new lesser clause, feral rush, that grants the avowed pounce. We haven’t removed the pounce effects from the shapes, though! If you don’t want to spend a clause on the ability, the shapes are there for that (and get an extra effect if you have pounce already), but otherwise, there is now another avenue for competent meleeing at later levels.
Area Shapes
We overbuffed the area shapes way back, when we added the Cha to damage based on rank… and like weapon shapes, we caused the issue of pressuring players into picking more of the same shape instead of diversifying. To address this, we’ve changed how the scaling of these shapes works entirely; they no longer scale damage by rank at all, not even at the 2nd selection. We’ve added in a new effect on each of the shapes that previously had a damage dice boost, and now, each of the shapes that had that get a new scaling that speeds up each time a weapon user would have gained a similar increase to overall damage.
So what does this mean? If you were all-inning on a shape at lower levels, it probably means you’ll be doing slightly less damage. Sorry about that. However, for mid levels and higher levels, the damage of area shapes is increased, and the shapes are now much better for avowed who’re branching into the effects, letting you pick up more varied powersets or even just grab all the AoEs you want! We recommend that GMs allow players who had invested in these shapes to decide if they want to swap them for other selections, now that they’ve been changed.
Skills
The avowed’s out of combat utility isn’t bad, but it could use a little help. With that in mind, we’ve upped the number of skill points the avowed gets to make it comparable to similar characters like the bard, and also added a skill boost of +1/2 level to each pact, listed in their pact skills section.
As always, thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy.
Hello, all! It's been quite a while. Over the past nearly-a-month, a lot has gone on our end, including receiving a decent amount of feedback on the highlord. There's been a couple recurring topics when it comes to the class; we hope that the large update we're posting today will help address them (along with many other issues, especially readability and wall-of-textness).
"Why does this class exist? What makes it unique/not just a tactician/etc?"
Overall, we want the highlord to have its own niche; from the start, we intended it to have a particular... callousness about the use of its collective, in a way. More than just a tactician, the highlord is a class that uses its allies as raw materials to win the fight, much like a kineticist (psion, not occult firebender) uses energy and matter to blow things up, or a shaper uses objects and ectoplasm as materials to bring their imaginations to life. Even a good-aligned highlord will often use their collective as a cudgel to beat their enemies with instead of just a network for directing their allies, and with that in mind, we've made some adjustments to the fluff, crunch, and direction of the class.
The core thing we want to express with the highlord is that they use their collective as raw materials; this is possible for them because of a slightly closer bond created by their collective. Instead of just touching the minds of creatures in the network, a highlord shares his mind, either assisting in a deeper manner, or overwhelming others through this stronger connection. This is represented in a couple abilities, including Open Heart, Lifeblood Siphon (formerly Siphon Servants), and their decrees. We hope that the adjustments made to the class' fluff and crunch will help it stand taller on its own, as its niche of a tight bond isn't a thing anywhere else in psionics yet.
"The class is really boring; it doesn't do anything of its own, and the tenets are underwhelming."
On the mechanical side of things, we've made some major adjustments to the highlord's tenets. Previously, they were a bit underwhelming; overall, they were focused on numerical boosts to the highlord or his allies, and while they might have been good from a mechanics standpoint, they didn't really grab many people. After going back over the class and revising it, we have changed the abilities of the tenets slightly, and added seven brand-new psionic powers, one for each tenet.
Unlike most psionic powers, these are unique to a given tenet, and can only be manifested by a highlord of the proper tenet. In a way, one might be better off thinking of them as unique "class features" that tie more heavily into the psionics subsystem than most features, and they exemplify each tenet's goals and thematics in their own ways. Where beforehand, many felt that the highlord was forced to scrounge for meaning through feats (or not taking the class at all), this
is no longer true—the tenets bring powerful, unique abilities for every highlord, alongside the rest of their progression and advancement.
"The class doesn't feel like it does enough to justify picking it."
With all of that in mind, we've also adjusted many of the abilities, including the siphon (changed to work better with the 6-level manifesting of the class), tribute, various decrees, and the resonance effects of each tenet. We hope that the new highlord catches your fancy in ways the old version didn't. As always, thanks for reading! We're using the same playtest document as before, which can be found here or through the link in the first post. :smallbiggrin:
1) It was not future-proofed well. The old archetype gave all INT skills as class skills shortly before we started seeing a bunch of X to INT traits (like the ones in Ultimate Campaign). As written, LW would let you take traits like that and instantly give you more class skills.
I don't really have much to weigh in on regarding this, but I wanted to point out that this statement is wrong; that's not how the stat replacer traits work, nor how lore warden works.
Per the FAQ on these abilities, "this changes the check only at the time of rolling, so this does not change static class features or options made during character building such as your class’s class skills." It then goes on to call out the lore warden's wording as something that that sentence applies to. So, while I'll agree that the lore warden ability might lead to some confusion thanks to how it's worded, it doesn't actually work the way you've stated, as-written.
I'd hope that the rewrite is more about adjusting the wording to match the rules, rather than nerfing it based on this...
Hey all! With more of DSP's older playtests moving from "sitting for a while" to "finally released," Dreamscarred Press is moving on to some new material! Today I've got a playtest doc for a brand-new psionic class, the Highlord. This 6-level manifesting class uses their collective both for leading their allies and destroying their enemies, drawing foes into their mental network to force them to do their bidding... or merely crush their minds.
In the following document, you'll find the highlord base class, including many customization options and seven different subpaths. In addition, there's new feats both for the highlord and for other users of collectives, and a set of racial favored class options for the class!
Hey all! Been a while. There's been a lot of hectic times on our end, so we don't have a full update to the avowed playtests today, but we do have a brand-new product for you, which can be found here as a free download!
Ooooh! A shiny new product! Gimme! Waiiiitttt...What day is it... Nah... you wouldn't do us like that. :P
The Avowed: April Edition has three new less-than-serious pacts for the avowed.
Hey all! Been a while. There's been a lot of hectic times on our end, so we don't have a full update to the avowed playtests today, but we do have a brand-new product for you, which can be found here as a free download!
What - non-racial - options are there to get mind-affecting effects at level 1 as an Avowed? I noticed frightening pulse doesn't actually say it is mind-affecting, and it seems a bit annoying in play to have an avowed character whose attunement does nothing until level 6.
Uses of the Intimidate skill are definitely mind-affecting fear effects, and while I can't seem to find a definite answer James Jacobs seems to imply that all fear effects are mind-affecting (And common sense too, if nonmagical fear doesn't affect something magical fear probably won't unless specifically called out). So Frightening Pulse is probably mind-affecting just by virtue of being a fear effect.
That is correct; frightening pulse is mind-affecting by virtue of being a fear effect. I'll make sure to get an explicit note in it, so people don't have to dig into the FAQ.
So, today we have another update, this time some small tweaks to wording and balance in some places, and a total rework of how the skill-boosting clauses function.
Here are the changelogs for A1 and A2:
Avowed 1 changelog:
Pacts
Court Fey pact’s attunement now has a sneak attack-lite effect, to help them fulfil their striker role.
Court Fey pact sense can sense through walls now.
Dragon pact has new stuff added to its attunement, to make it worthwhile compared to other pacts’ attunements.
Elemental pact has gotten a fairly big rework. Consolation Flare was moved to level 1, becoming the bulk of the pact’s attunement, since previously, that ability was basically negligible (and vanished at level 12…). The effect also now works on missed aether pulse attacks, but still only 1/round per enemy. In addition, the pact has a new 8th-level ability, No Escape, that allows them to reliably affect some of the more evasive enemies they may face.
Clauses and Shapes
Aether Channel and Rounds note that when using their first rank with Vital Strike/critical hits/etc, it uses the weapon’s original base damage.
Aether Swarm’s second rank properly doubles its speed now.
The skill booster clauses have been changed (see the discussion spoiler, below)
Hidden Knowledge has been split into the Dungeon Crawler, Eldritch Knowledge, Survivalist and Volksgeist clauses.
Feats
Merciful Pulse specifies it only works on damaging clauses.
Other
“Perceive” has been replaced with “see” on most things, because what started as a way to account for other senses became a really awful rules tangle that doesn’t hold up under examination.
Pact senses are now noted as requiring line of effect unless otherwise stated. This was the intended function, but it was never directly specified.
Avowed 2 Changelog:
Aspirant
Elemental Aspirant punches through “they heal from energy damage” now.
Otyugh Aspirant’s save DC for the level 4 pact ability now uses its pact save DC.
The Giant Size form modification no longer changes your size bonuses/penalties to AC and attack rolls.
Betrothed
Fixed some wording bugs.
Divine betrothed is base shape Any.
The Arms customization has been replaced with Biped, which now comes with optional legs, but otherwise works the same. Quadruped has been renamed Many-Legged to be more clear what it does.
Pincers, Quick Jaws, and Stinger customizations are now immediate actions to proc (letting them be used on AoOs).
Clauses and Shapes
Artificer’s Insight has been reworked along with the skill clauses in A1.
And here’s a spoiler with a discussion of the changes:
Read here first, probably:
Skill Clauses – Lowered ceiling, reliable floor.
So, the skill-boosting clauses have been an occasional point of contention for a while now. Whether you thought they were fun, thought they were boring, or felt they should be nerfed, they did have a lot of problems. Our goal with the skill boosters, similar to how the Warlock in 3.5 had them, was to have a set of abilities that feel good to pick. It’s not enough to get something like Bardic Knowledge, which is a slow-scaling ribbon ability. If you pick up silver tongue, you’re giving up a slot that could have been walking on walls, killing mosquitos, shooting lighting from your hands, or blowing things up with a laser. The +6 bonuses, we felt, did that, but that came at a negative cost of game health.
Our goal with the changes we’ve made to the skill boosters is to make them less centralizing. This has been the goal of most of our recent changes—to make the avowed a class you pick because it’s cool, strong, and you want to use it, rather than one you pick because “oh well, someone in the party had an avowed, I need to use that subsystem too if I want to keep up.” That’s not ideal, and is part of why aether channel and the SAD feats were changed.
What the skill boosting clauses were meant to do is two things:
Enable an avowed who doesn’t have the skill points to invest in a skill to be able to contribute with it, even if it’s not great.
Boost an avowed who is focusing on the skill an amount commensurate with the cost.
The original versions helped the former, but boosted the latter way too hard. The result was an incredibly reliable, very high floor, that far outpaced anyone of other classes. The Legalistic feat was introduced in part to help counteract that, but it still had its own issues—we don’t want to force the party investigator to go “if I can’t beat them, join them” to the avowed. We want the avowed who focuses on skillmonkeying to feel like a good skillmonkey, without making all the other skillmonkeys regret their choice.
So with that said, we’ve made some changes aimed at bringing the ceiling down while keeping the intention intact. The skill-boosting clauses now only grant a +2 bonus on checks with the skills they boost. However, they gain the following two effects: you can always take 10 on the boosted skills, and when you do decide to roll, you roll 2d20 and take the highest.
People familiar with D&D 5e’s math might note that this is Advantage, a mechanic whose effective “bonus” ranges from around +1 to +5, depending on what number you’re trying to hit on the die roll. When you’ve got an even chance (need a 10 on the die), the number is highest. When you have a better chance, the effective bonus drops, and likewise, it drops when you have a lower chance. What does this mean? It means that avowed with the skill boosts will be more reliable when they’re about on par with the game’s expected math, particularly at low levels, but will hit diminishing returns as their bonuses climb higher through other investment. At the same time, they won’t surpass any other skillmonkeys a huge amount. It weights their luck, but they now have about the same ceiling as everyone else.
Aether Channel, SAD, and centralization – Let’s talk about nerfs.
Aether channel, among avowed mechanics, was hit with the highest-visibility nerf up until the removal of the SAD feats. If you weren’t watching this playtest before said nerf, what it originally did at its second rank was turn your base attack bonus from avowed levels to full BAB. The idea behind this was that it was a cool thing for them, to make them stand alongside the full BAB martials as far as “weapon using” when they’re stabbing people with magic. Aether channel was our hideous blow analogue, intended to enable people to stab people with a weapon at the same time as stabbing with their magic. We missed the mark, and got something that, instead, pushed the avowed ahead as pretty much the best melee damage dealer. Full BAB is way overvalued in this system, but we accidentally undervalued it here—when taken as a whole, alongside the bonus damage, utility of clauses, and pact abilities, the cost was far too little, and the power increase far too great, to keep it.
It might have been possible to keep the BAB substitution, and lower the damage in another way, but we believe that that would cause more problems than solutions, and that moving forward with with current state of aether channel is a better direction. Overall, what we want from aether channel is a shape that allows an avowed to use a weapon as a vector for their power, much like a magus and their spells. The magic is what we wanted to push as the important thing, rather than the “also as skilled a master warrior in a direct fight” aspect that the old channel gave.
With that in mind? We understand completely that people liked it, and will be doing something similar to that concept in the future, likely as an archetype that gets full BAB and lowers damage elsewhere, focusing more fully on the STABBING than the magic.
The SAD changes were done for similar reasons to the skill-boosting clauses’ and aether channel’s nerfs. The avowed was far too efficient, to the point where it was game-warping. It wasn’t because of Altered Life and Unnatural Resilience, two DSP feats we included in our playtest, but because of the general ease with which the avowed could run their offenses off one focused ability score, without any real downsides. A 14 in Constitution is fine; Altered Life wasn’t even really needed to push the avowed to an imbalanced state… And in the end, the decision we arrived at is that we would force a multiple stat dependency, even if it’s not a particularly debilitating one. We’re keeping those feats around for now, to test their balance alongside the Constitution feats.
Weapon shape users now require their attack stat and Charisma, as well as a tertiary Constitution (which isn’t something they need to focus heavily, if they go for defensive clauses to shore up their weaknesses). We have the scaling penalty to a target’s saves in a round where they succeed against your modulations to help weapon shapes debuff. In contrast, “caster” avowed can still manage to be SAD. They just max Charisma and blast away, and this is intended. They’ve got less burst damage, but do different things. So right now, we’re pretty happy with the way this setup is looking. The Body of the Ancients and Heart of Magic feats are mirrors of Altered Life and Unnatural Resilience, letting you swap Cha to Con for the same feat cost as swapping Con to Cha, effectively, and we’re moving forward with testing those as well.
(Also, for those who liked the muscle avowed, Embodiment of Aether will likely return in some form, at some point, as an archetype emphasizing your physical form and an alternate method of determining save DCs. I’m not sure when, but we’re planning on doing it.)
Known Issues, Future Plans – We’re making some avowed-specific items.
Right now, we’re working on tuning the damage of some shapes, particularly aether barrage, to make them fun and functional. The biggest issue, which has been brought up a bunch of times in testing, is that there isn’t an equivalent of the warlock’s chasuble of fell power or the kineticist’s diadem... Which, if it applied blanketly to all shapes, would cause problems for math in other places. Our solution is going to make a boosting implement item for each shape, likely for Avowed 2, with unique effects that help shore up each shape’s weaknesses, and giving avowed things to spend their hard-earned money on.
I know it's not Forrestfire, but you did work on this project, right? I don't understand how this works if I don't take levels in Barbarian. Tia.
Kumiho Huntress(Combat)
You are particularly good at extracting the most delicious parts of your prey.
Prerequisites: Kumiho kitsune, rage powers class feature, base attack bonus+5.
Benefit: You gain the bloody fist rage power, even if you do not meet its prerequisites or aren’t a barbarian. You can use it one additional time per rage
Bloody Fist (Ex)
Prerequisites: Barbarian level 12th.
Benefit: While raging, the barbarian may attempt to punch through an opponent' s flesh and rip out one of its vital organs. In order to do so, the barbarian must confirm a critical hit against an opponent with a natural attack or unarmed strike. The barbarian deals damage as normal for a critical hit and the opponent must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the barbarian' s class level + the barbarian' s Strength modifier) or take 1d4 points of Constitution damage as one of its vital organs is ripped free from its body. This power can only be used once per rage
It requires the Rage Powers class feature, and will work with any rage equivalent from your class. So, bloodragers and similar classes can use it. I'll get a clarification into the Bloodforge playteat.
Aaaaand here we have a rather large update, involving a lot of changes to the basic framework that avowed optimization runs on. So without further ado, let's get down to business:
Avowed 1 Changelog:
Pacts
Celestial pact 4th no longer adds a bonus to save DCs.
Court Fey pact’s Fetch clause now notes what memories they have.
Nation pact 4th now has a clarification on what happens if the allies leave your range.
Nation pact 16th has been buffed significantly, since it was previously rather minor.
Self pact attunement has been reworked; it now gains some scaling benefits instead of the AC bonus.
Clauses and Shapes
”Area Shape” is now a tag on some shapes; it means they get more damage (0.5 Cha bonus per selection).
Aether Blast’s area has been upped by 5 at all levels (undoing a nerf we’d tried).
Both Aether Channel and Aether Rounds have been reworked slightly. Their rank 1 effect is now a damage substitution, and the rank 3 effects now add the full damage.
Aether Grasp now allows you to use Dex with it if you have Weapon Finesse (rather than requiring Agile Maneuvers, though that feat will be useful to boost the rest of your combat maneuvers).
Aether Wrath is now medium-range at all ranks, and has a new rank 3 and 4.
Fly on the Wall has had its Stealth bonus adjusted to properly include its size.
Feats
Embodiment of Aether, Spirited Swordsmanship, and Steel’s Betrayal have been removed. They may return in another form later, but right now they’re no longer a thing.
Aetheric Armor’s prerequisite is now Str 17, and it has a different, scaling secondary benefit.
Merciful Pulse has been revised. Instead of increasing damage, it adds to save DC when trying to be merciful.
Overcharge Modulation requires avowed 3 to take now.
Other
The avowed’s aether pulse now deals damage in d6s instead of d8s.
Tinkers can’t get free material component spells anymore when swapping wand spells.
Balefire Infusion is now element-agnostic.
Avowed 2 Changelog:
Aspirant
Dragon and Otyugh pacts added.
Betrothed
Celestial and Divine pacts added.
Betrothed and companion aether pulses have been revised significantly.
Companions can now pick different shapes than their avowed.
Companions now get max HP at their first hit die.
A bunch of the companions’ customizations now make some of the supernatural effects you can get as an avowed extraordinary. For example, wings will make a companion’s flight Ex, since it owes to their form, not their magic.
Clauses and Shapes
Aether Beast and the new Aether Circus have been added.
Five new modulations have been added.
Feats
Aether Detonation, Aether Hive, and Aether Queen, Legalistic, and Split Loyalties feats added.
Hellfire Talent’s bonus damage has been nerfed.
The Heart of Aether feat has been removed, and Heart of Magic is now accompanied by a new feat called Body of the Ancients.
Of Two Minds now works for creatures gotten through feats (like a Pactbound Guardian).
Discussion of Changes:
Embodiment of Aether and Spirited Swordsmanship removed – We’re sad too, but the avowed no longer is.
The biggest changes you’ll see in the new pdf is that the SAD options are gone. After a lot of feedback and discussion, we’ve decided that this is, overall, contributing to major balance problems with the class, and that it can’t exist in this form. Weapon shape-using avowed will need to go dual stat (Physical + Mental, tertiary Constitution), and “caster” avowed can still be basically SAD (Cha-focused, but less overall damage and more a focus on debuffs, utility, and the like). We believe that the current interaction between modulations and weapon shapes will help soften that blow and keep it playable, while bringing the avowed down somewhat to a more balanced level.
Another thing to note is that Self pact has lost its Cha to AC. We found it to be too good of a boost, and so, they’ll just need to get a chain shirt or something.
Heart of Constitution – Fortuitously, this remains.
Heart of Aether has been removed, and the new feat Body of the Ancients exists to fill a similar niche. With two feats, an avowed can change their casting stat fully to Constitution from Charisma, but they can’t run attacks and damage off of it.
d6s, Overcharge Modulation, Merciful Pulse, and Channel/Rounds – Damage reductions.
Next up, you’ll notice that we’ve tuned down the damage of the avowed’s options, particularly Overcharge Modulation and Merciful Pulse, and aether pulses as a whole. Merciful Pulse now has a different effect—rather than bonus damage, it ups your save DC when attacking nonlethally. Overcharge Modulation also has a minimum level on it (3), to keep it from unbalancing low levels.
Aether Channel and Aether Rounds have also had some adjustments—the base shapes no longer add bonus damage, instead giving something similar to the warpriest’s Sacred Weapon ability. We want Aether Channel to be less dippable, while still being useful, so at low levels, it’ll mean you hit with magic and overcome magical DR/apply debuffs, and at higher levels, it still adds the damage it did before. We’ve also changed the way the multiweapon halving works to be more intuitive, and allow mixed weapons without screwing you too hard on the main hand.
Betrothed pulse adjustments – More damage reductions.
The betrothed has an issue: it’s working as intended, but we still missed the mark a bit on its damage. We want the archetype to be a sidegrade, not an upgrade. It’s an archetype, so it should be a change in playstyle rather than a straight boost to the avowed, and right now, it was working as a boost to the avowed’s damage capabilities.
We’ve adjusted how betrothed aether pulses work to bring them down to par a bit; this doesn’t affect AoE users might at all, but will nerf weapon and barrage shapes a bit.
Other changes – Some other stuff.
The rest of the documents have been changed around the above adjustments, as well as small tweaks, such as to Nation pact’s 16th (a buff), Celestial pact’s 4th (a nerf), and a bunch of new stuff added into Avowed 2.
As always, we hope you enjoy, and look forward to your feedback.
Alrighty! As noted earlier, here's the update to the Avowed 1 pdf; there's a couple major adjustments being made, which I'll detail in this spoiler:
Discussion on Changes:
There's three big adjustments being made to the player options in this update: Self Pact has been revised a bit, Aether Channel has been tuned down some, and Overcharge Modulation has been nerfed.
Self Pact: Punching and dipping a bit too hard.
Self pact is, overall, a very strong striker package for characters—too strong, originally, thanks to the power of extra attacks combined with aether channel. The way the bonus unarmed strikes worked also locked them into aether channel, generally with just unarmed strikes, which wasn't ideal. Finally, the strong +Cha as an AC bonus made it a phenomenal dip for anyone looking to punch things, which wasn't, strictly, the intended result. The other attunements scale on class level, this one didn't.
So, the changes made to the Self Pact are aimed to combat these things and bring it down to match similar pacts. Their bonus unarmed strike attacks have been changed—instead of dealing 1d3+Str (+other bonuses+aether channel+magic, etc), they now have a scaling damage roll. The bonus unarmed strike in the attunement, as well as the one from Strength of Body, deal your aether pulse's base damage on a successful hit, without any bonuses (or penalties) being applied. This way, it's basically an extra group of debuff procs (if using aether channel), and consistent bonus damage across any playstyle of melee avowed, rather than being overwhelmingly good with aether channel and awful with everything else. The bonus unarmed strikes from the Self pact also don't reduce your bonus damage to other attacks when using aether channel, though, so it'll be worth using regardless.
On the note of the dips, the Self pact's attunement has been adjusted. The armor bonus it gives is now limited to 3 + your class level, which will scale up quickly for people who're focusing Cha and taking levels, but only be about as good as a chain shirt otherwise.
Aether Channel: BAB substitution caused problems.
This nerf is some news that I'm really sad to give. The aether channel BAB substitution was the first part of channel that got written, but in the end, it's contributed to some major issues with balancing its average and potential damage. We've replaced the second rank of aether channel with a similar bonus to attacks (a scaling enhancement bonus ala greater magic weapon), which should hopefully bring aether channel's explosive pouncecharge potential down to the levels we were intending for it.
Overcharge Modulation: Too much damage.
The Overcharge Modulation feat has been reworked thanks to remathing how it interacted with the weapon shapes; it now adds a scaling number of damage dice to your aether pulse, rather than applying a free Empower SLA to the ability. It no longer requires Empower Spell-Like Ability, and functions alongside it, but the general damage that the feat adds will be lower. This change doesn't mean a lot for the AoE shapes, though. They didn't get a lot of bonuses to not multiply, so they're still hitting pretty hard with it.
If you want to skip that and just know the changelog, that's here:
Changelog:
Pacts
Elemental pact attunement now stacks with your existing resistance.
Elemental pact’s Elemental Ally ability no longer gives you the subtype (generally redundant or actually a downside), and the summoned elemental gets your Cha bonus to its attack roll to keep it relevant.
Dragon pact’s 4th and 8th-level ability have had their order swapped, and Dragon pact’s shapeshifting no longer changes ability scores.
Self pact’s Cha-to-AC capped at 3 + level to make it less of an attractive dip.
Self pact’s unarmed strikes have been revised to not strike as overwhelmingly hard, but also to not halve aether channel damage for other weapons.
Clauses and Shapes
A note on how bonuses and Empower SLA work with weapon shapes has been added.
Aether channel has had its rules for using multiple weapons tightened and clarified, and its second rank now has a different effect.
Aether grasp now adds to CMD when using it.
Aether retaliation now notes what happens if you push someone into something (they don’t get pushed).
Fist of the sky now notes that it can be used in the air.
Insectile transformation no longer adjusts ability scores, nor does it adjust size bonuses or penalties to attacks, AC, CMB, and CMD.
Feats
Embodiment of Aether now notes that it works for avowed bonus feats too.
Overcharge Modulation has been adjusted; this is overall a bit of a nerf, but a necessary one—the effect dealt way more damage than was workable.
Pactbound Guardian notes what happens now if you already had a familiar (it stacks levels and upgrades the other one)
Other
Avowed save DCs properly list caster level instead of class level for their scaling. This was intended to be a thing a while ago, but it wasn’t added in.
Atstreidi, Eiremian, and Ethumion FCBs added.
The Path of War rules notes have been moved to the apprendix; this section will be expanded later—for now, it’s just the iaijutsu stuff.
Hello all! It's been a very long time, and I'm sorry for the long delay. Between between travel, wonkiness with work hours, and illness, we haven't been able until now to get everything we wanted done, done. However, today we've got an update each for both Avowed 1 and Avowed 2. The changelogs are long, and there's a lot of ground to cover, so instead of grappling with this forum's formatting restrictions, I've posted it up in this post on Giant in the Playground's forums, so I would like to direct people there to read the changelogs for A1 and A2, as well as look for responses to their thoughts.
As always, I hope you enjoy the work we've uploaded, and look forward to your feedback.
Looking over A1 and A2 I noticed the only detecting magic options for Avowed seem to be limited to objects specifically (the Reveal Your Secrets clause) or automatic within 30 ft but limited to spells being cast on two very limited specific lists and requiring being a specific pact (Divine Pact) - is this a deliberate design choice?
Nope, not at all. We just missed it, repeatedly. It'll be in the next update. Thanks to spending a week of time away and unable to do work on the Avowed 1 document, there's a lot of stuff to put into it. Hoping to get it done and uploaded soon, though!
Is there any chance of getting the Aspirant a clause that allows Embodiment of Aether to also switch strength in place of charisma for determining rounds per day of aspiration form?
I need to adjust the wording on Embodiment of Aether. I just checked it and realized that it should do that by default, but it doesn't. In the next update to A1 (coming sometime this week; we've received a lot of feedback, done some more testing, and are tweaking a few things in addition to the work on A2), it'll do that properly.
Don't quite have the energy or time right now to address comments in full, but rest assured, they're being accounted for for the full beta of Avowed 2, and the next update of Avowed 1.
In addition, the votes are tallied for this month's project now that the week's over, and the end result is that FFS will be creating the start of our technological stuff project. Expect a small release (for FFS; we're shooting for about 16-20 pages in Google Docs/12 worth of PDF for this month, since we also want to focus on Avowed 2's beta) at the end of the month along those lines.
Thanks again for all of your feedback, and have a good one!
Volvogg wrote:
The new race (Penitent) is awesome! I am assuming that it's inspired by the 3.5 Hellbred race?
Cheers
Volf
Yep! Taveena and I always enjoyed the concept, so she wrote something inspired by it, though running on a different base fluff.
Augh, sorry for the triple post, but I've just pushed an update to Avowed 1's PDF:
Clauses and Shapes
- Aether Barrage has been fully reworked after taking a further look at it.
- Aether Grasp’s “(see text)” has been removed—it was meant to imply that the grapple maintaining was part of it, but so far it’s just caused confusion.
Feats
- Empower Spell-Like Ability now has a note saying that for multi-round aether pulses, you need to expend a use for each round (so you can’t, say, open with an Empowered swarm thn reap the benefits for an entire fight).
Other
- Clarified that going into mystic theurge doesn't double-dip clause progression
Penitents' Humanoid Origin ability says "If he chooses human..." but does not allow choosing human as written ("a penitents must choose a humanoid subtype from the following list: dwarf, elf, goblinoid, orc, tengu, kitsune, strix, vanara or reptilian").
Apologies for starting with that nitpick; I am quite enjoying Heart and Soul thus far!
Heyo! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season (or, at least, a non-terrible one, particularly for those like me who worked all across Christmas), and a happy New Years.
Got a couple things for you today.
First, there’s an update to The Avowed: Promises of Power. This update includes a lot of small fixes and adjustments. The biggest one is that aether rounds has been restored to something closer to its original power (we overnerfed it), but with some tweaks to keep it sane. Lots of typo fixes, a couple balance tweaks.
Changelog:
Pacts
Celestial pact’s Heavenly Body now adds its bonus as a sacred bonus, not untyped.
Celestial pact’s rune of penance now notes that creatures are aware of the punishment it can cause.
Court Fey pact’s attunement clarified—it redirects to one target, not every possible target.
Fiend pact’s Disquieting Gaze is now 1/round.
Shadow pact’s attunement now grants a defensive benefit if you go fast.
Clauses and Shapes
Aether pulses now carry elemental descriptors if they deal energy damage.
Aether channel has been adjusted to have lowered damage when making touch attacks with weapons, in addition to with TWF.
Aether rampage’s rend is now Strength or Charisma, not just Charisma.
Aether retaliation lets you melee if you have aether blow.
Aether rounds has been buffed back up to applying to every attack, but adjusted to have lowered damage with TWF and touch attacks.
Air lock’s phrasing was adjusted to not reference “zones.”
Weatherproofing notes that it affects riders on the pulses too.
Feats
Aetheric Armor has had its prerequisites loosened a bit to allow for non-pure-muscle avowed to grab it.
Embodiment of Aether now also swaps for pact abilities that rely on Cha, but no longer buffs Spellcraft.
Merciful Pulse now works for clause damage too.
Other
Typooooo fixes.
Clauses can now be dismissed (it’s in the base class’ clause section).
Starting age of the class has been added.
Specific names of multiple websites have been removed from the Specials Thanks section in order to prevent any trouble that it might cause if said websites don’t want me listing them.
Second, it’s the end of the month, and so we’re bringing you this month’s (and part of last month’s) project. The playtest materials for The Avowed: Heart and Soul can be found in this Google doc. This has been a long time in the coming, but sadly, it’s not quite done yet. We’re putting the playtest up in its alpha form, much like Avowed 1 was. However, this time, it’s a lot more complete than the first pdf of A1 was… And, of course, big. This 43-page doc includes the following:
The Aspirant, an avowed archetype based on transforming into something greater. They give up all-day usage in exchange for increased power for a very limited time per day.
The Betrothed, an avowed archetype based around having a particularly close relationship with one’s patron—not necessarily romantic, but that’s certainly an option. This archetype brings a companion to the table, as an ally in and outside of combat.
Two new pacts: Divine (patron) and Undead (symbiotic).
Subpacts! These are like mini-archetypes for individual pacts. In The Avowed: Heart and Soul, we’re including subpacts for the Celestial, Fiend, and Undead pacts, for various different subsets of the larger groups of beings.
A new shape, aether well, which leaves damaging areas around the battlefield.
Four new clauses for all avowed to take; one a skill buff and the other three modulations.
A new race, the Penitent. These beings are souls returned from the lower planes to find redemption—or fall back into damnation. We’ve included the base race as well as several alternate racial traits, a set of alternate favored class bonuses, and a race trait for them.
And speaking of traits, in addition to the race trait for the Penitents, there’s two generic traits for people to take, that tie into the Penitent’s fluff, but aren’t limited to only them.
Finally, we have 13 new feats—eleven for the avowed bonus feat lists, and two new damnation feats.
Avowed 2 isn’t finished yet, but most of the content is up. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be adding the rest of the pacts’ Aspirant and Betrothed versions, as well as possibly new feats or expanded stuff as needed. In any case, here’s A2, and there’s more to come. Enjoy, and happy New Years!
On top of that, it is frustrating how it sets a precedent that Golarion-centric games are things that everyone will be playing, because some GMs don't like refluffing and thus it unfairly locks-out a character (and indeed, their player) from being able to do cool or awesome things because they don't worship the right imaginary god, or didn't get picked-up by fairies when they were a kid.
It's a Golarion-centric book. Should Paizo not produce books that support their own setting?
While I'm not the person you responded to, I think that yes, Paizo should definitely be producing books that support their own setting. However, Pathfinder is a way bigger game than just Golarion, and it doesn't hurt anyone (or hurt the material in any way) to add a passage about options in other settings.
Mostly, I personally wish that these options were written with more emphasis on building interesting characters that fit into the setting one is playing in, rather than dictating a specific path of characterization in order to achieve a certain mechanical concept.
An example I brought up a couple posts ago was D&D's Oriental Adventures, which had some feats with very important setting and characterization implications, but also included this paragraph:
Oriental Adventures, p. 60 wrote:
Characters are not limited to choosing ancestors from their own clan, since intermarriage between clans is common. It is quite possible for a Dragon samurai, for example, to claim a Crane ancestor through his mother’s side. The ancestor feats are listed on Table 4–3: Ancestor Feats, grouped by clan for convenience only. The names and backgrounds of ancestors apply for human characters in Rokugan; nonhuman characters and characters in other campaign settings can name their ancestors and detail their histories as they like, but the feat benefits do not change.
Their goal there was to make the book accessible to as many people as possible, broadening those who can use and enjoy it to its fullest. That's the ideal I like to strive for as a homebrewer and 3pp designer. I think that it's a lesson that everyone should take follow, myself.
I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:
Forrestfire wrote:
I think your posts lead readers to the wrong conclusion, then. Not to be rude, but my reading was that you seem to be arguing that any amount of refluffing at all is wrong and "playing the game wrong."
I'm saying that if you don't think of the game-world as REAL, then you're playing it wrong; that should not be a point of contention. Of course individual DMs can customize material for their own game-worlds.
I REALLY hate those terms "flavor" and "fluff," though; it's like you're saying "it's not important," when it IS. We don't play the game for the mechanics, we play it to live in another universe, and the mechanics are just a sort of UI.
I disagree there. Personally, I think that the game-world is just as "real" as the mechanics. However, I put the fun of the players at the table as even more real and important than that. If someone at my table (or playing with material I wrote) has a concept that fits into the game world, but differently than the original stuff? I see that as just as valid, and just as real, as the words on the page. There isn't an arbitrary distinction between "game designer" and "game player" here. We're all playing (or writing) the game to create compelling stories in another universe, and if someone has a story they want to tell (or play through), I think they should be encouraged, rather than halted.
It's not about fluff/flavor/characterization not being "important," but about giving every player at the table—GM or otherwise, writer or otherwise—the respect they deserve as people collaborating with the others to tell a fun story and play a fun game.
It's NOT "entirely subjective;" you have to accept the premises the game designer, be it a company like Paizo or a homebrewing DM, present to you, otherwise there is no game.
By this argument, can't one just create your one's own premise, stripping out parts of the game they don't like, replacing them with things more palatable things for themselves and their group, then go on keeping playing the game? After all, as you've said, someone who adjusts the game is presenting a new set of premises to accept.
Generally, "subjective" as shorthand for the concept you're describing—a situation where, depending on the person, the premise presented can vary.
No one plays the exact same game of Pathfinder. Every group—every player—is concurrently running their own systems, based on their outlooks and preferences. We just clump it all into the same group for ease of discussion.
Mark Seifter wrote:
N. Jolly wrote:
Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:
So basically the intent of the OP is that nothing special should ever be invented for a religion or a diety because it's an unfair denial to everyone else?
Nah, it's that nothing should be flavor locked as well as that flavor should not be used as a balancing point for an ability because it's arbitrary at best.
Personally, I think a trait along the lines of Isa's, BNW's, or mine would be fine, keep the flavor wanted, and still work for those who don't want flavor balancing. I think threads like this show that there's room for workarounds like those suggested, and that there's design space that is open for people that really want to play the game in a different way. Overall, this thread's actually given me quite a few design ideas, so it's a net gain for me.
While combining multiple deity-specific things (much like multiple style feat chains or multiple totems for barbarians) is in itself a powerful potential boost, I think most typical people who would take the trait wouldn't be trying to do that anyway and would instead just be trying to take a single thing from an off-deity. Thus, I think such a trait should be balanced with those people in mind (and with a protection to curb abuse cases) by using something most similar to your idea:
Heretical Knowledge
Choose a religion other than your own. You have studied and perfected all of its secret arts. You gain a +2 bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks involving the chosen religion and Knowledge (religion) is a class skill for you. (This is almost exactly from your idea and is now roughly near the limit of what a trait should do without also allowing the combos that most people aren't even going to try to do, so let's finesse it to prevent that but still allow options for those who aren't doing that:) You can choose to count as a follower of the chosen religion instead of your own to determine what abilities you can gain. Once you make this choice, it is permanent.
That's a really neat idea, and similar to what my group does. Gotta say, it's nice to see that you've got a similar outlook.
I can't say I'm a huge fan of the Golarion-specific deity locking (I wish that Pathfinder had a similar passage to D&D's Oriental Adventures, regarding fluff restrictions), but it always felt implied to me that the intent was that they're mutually exclusive, rather than it being completely hard-locked.
Okay, got a small update today, mostly some mistakes that got caught last night, and a few small changes. The Avowed can be found at this link, as usual.
Changelog:
Clauses and Shapes
Aether channel, aether rounds, and aether rampage are now properly free actions to use.
Aether channel’s BAB enhancement has been fixed to also apply to thrown.
Aether circus’ miss chance against things you can’t “see” has been changed to “perceive,” like similar effects here.
Weatherproofing now properly affects riders like Lingering Pulse.
Feats
Removed legacy text on Aether Duelist about aether blades vanishing.
Added a minimum damage for level 1 off-hand Aether Duelist blades.
Deaf Oracles now get Silent Recitation for free, like they do with Silent Spell.
Other
Balefire Infusion now has any burn-accepting Empower/Quicken not expend a use.
Profane damage has a sidebar explaining what it is.
I wanted to chime in and say that your work is down right impressive Forrestfire. This iteration of the warlock is probably one of the best I have ever seen. The abilities/write-up/fluff is exemplary. I only have one slight request .... please, please, please include a death pact in Avowed I.
Cheers
Volf
There won't be a Death pact in Avowed 1, but we're looking at adding an Undead pact, which will have likely similar thematics to the idea, in Avowed 2, and a larger-scale "with the concept of death" pact later down the line.
Got another update today, with some typo fixes people caught and a couple quick changes, along with a table of contents being added, cus I neglected that before. Sorry.
Thanks again for all of your support and feedback.
Changelog:
Pacts
Fiend pact attunement now scales.
Old One pact sense had the “you can exclude people from the sense” that other pacts got added to its sense.
Clauses and Shapes
Fixed an issue with aether grasp’s 4th rank conflicting with the third one.
Feats
Aether outburst no longer blows up its caster.
Mystic Reflexes now grants you threat range to actually hit things with it.
Steel’s Betrayal now has a bookmark.
Other
A couple typo fixes.
Table of contents added.
Iron Heart wrote:
Ooh, fully bookmarked. I love your work even just for that, Forrest. I especially adore the heart's burning intensity that a Self-pact avowed with Balefire Infusion inflicts on people. The only thing I find hinky about that class feature is that the three free invokes are used up first even if you don't use the feat for free (such as by paying to convert the damage to irresistible).
• Steel's Betrayal is plain hilarious.
• Potential better wording in Spirited Swordsmanship is "When used in this way, your Charisma modifier to damage is multiplied by 1/2 for a shape wielded in an off-hand and multiplied by 1-1/2 for one wielded in two hands."
• Lingering Pulse is missing a few words in the core of its effect (filling the area created).
• Here's a catch: Dreamscarred Press is singular (being a company, a collection of people), so you'd refer to Dreamscarred Press's Ultimate Psionics, barring more pressing style reasons to do otherwise.
• GM guidance question: Does a deaf oracle/avowed (who "casts all of her spells as if they were modified by the Silent Spell feat") still use verbal components for her clauses?
The typo catches and wording suggestions I've added in; the thing with DSP's name I'm iffier on, I'll get back to that. For the GM guidance, I would say that they shouldn't need verbal components. I'm not sure where to put the sidebar about it, so I'll get that in the next update. Good thought though, thank you.
Jonathon Wilder wrote:
Hmm, the Nation Avowed could work fairly well in building Undyne from Undertale. The ability "Hearts Beat As One" is eerily named and appropriate, and her being the captain of her king's royal guard works well with the more military focus it appears to have.
Thanks for all the well-wishes, and I'm so very sorry for the delay. The past weeks have been a hell of a time; I had the flu, then bronchitis, but I'm mostly better now. During this time, when I could, my co-author and I kept writing. Avowed 2's work is chugging along, but what's important for today is that, finally, we can say we've got a full beta of The Avowed: Promises of Power.
The below spoiler has the truly massive changelog, incorporating feedback from here and other places, adjustments we've needed to make from playtesting, and many other things, but for the tl;dr on the changes... The document has gone from 48 pages to a massive 67 pages, including the following:
Fiend pact has been fully reworked.
Weapon-based pulse shapes have been tinkered with; their action types and stat dependencies have changed.
The pacts section has been revised for easier reading and parsing.
We have 90 alternate favored class bonuses, on top of the "any" that the default avowed can get. We've covered all of the currently published DSP races, and almost every 1pp Paizo race (the only ones excepted are those that are generally considered too powerful for normal games, like the high-RP ones in the ARG).
A pile of new feats and a pile of new Final clauses have been added.
A section has been added to the end detailing a variant ruleset for buying and selling souls (where the old Fiend pact went, really). This is a preview of Mage's Magnificent SkyMarket, a magic items and variant rules-themed set of releases that we at FFS are planning. In each release going forwards, we're going to have a small SkyMarket section at the end of the PDFs, presenting variant rules, magic items, little extras, or even just design talks. Later, we hope to do a full book of magic items, but right now, it's mostly a thing for adding more content in a fun way to each book.
In addition, we're testing a feat that a lot of Strength fans might be interested in seeing; Embodiment of Aether, on page 44, allows one to run your save DCs on Strength. We're keeping very close watch on this feat for balance issues, but we hope that it playtests well and is fun to use.
Changelog:
Pacts
All the pacts are now in one section, in alphabetical order, instead of divided by type of pact.
Celestial pact’s Heavenly Body ability’s bonus to damage is now doubled with AoE shapes that don’t use attack rolls.
Celestial pact now has a sidebar discussing refluffing and thematics of its “runes.”
Court Fey pact’s attunement is now an immediate action instead of an AoO.
Added a missing passage stating that the Court Fey’s fey realm at 20th level is actually big, not just one acre. The faerie capstone clause has been renamed to homecoming.
Reworded the bonus in Dragon pact’s Draconic Infiltrator to actually give a bonus on Bluffs about your form.
Elemental pact’s Consolation Flare ability now procs once per round.
Elemental pact’s Elemental Ally ability can be maintained now, instead of needing to resummon each round.
Elemental-pact (earth) avowed no longer entomb themselves when they use their capstone.
Elemental-pact (water) avowed no longer drown when they use their capstone.
Fiend pact has been completely reworked.
Old One pact’s attunement has been buffed; it now includes a defensive ability. The telepathy got moved to level 4.
Old One pact’s sense has been buffed to also sense mind-affecting effects in addition to fear.
Old One pact’s Obey ability has been nerfed; it now requires a standard action to use the Approach, Flee, or Halt commands.
Old One pact’s Shatter ability is now optional to perma-insanity people with Flee.
Otyugh pact’s Disease Application ability has been nerfed; it now takes a minute to gross-up an object or area, and you can only apply it to one thing at a time. It also now has a listed range (your reach).
Self pact’s Strength of Body ability has been replaced with a similar, but different ability in order to synergize more with other weapons and aether channel’s normal effect.
Self pact’s Indomitable ability has had a defense against instant death effects added.
Shadow pact now has a sidebar suggesting other ways to use Nevercast Shadows in campaigns.
Clauses and Shapes
The avowed now gains 2 shapes at 1st level; one from his pact and one chosen. These cannot be the same shape (preventing getting the second rank early).
A large amount of new final clauses have been added, bringing the total up to 25 (we’re now done adding clauses to Avowed 1, with 25 at each grade giving a good amount of choice)
Aether channel has been nerfed with regards to off-hand weapons.
Aether rounds has been nerfed to only apply to 1/2/3 attacks per round (though the reload applies to the whole round).
Aether wave has been renamed to aether cascade.
Nightfall now scales further up to deeper darkness, and lets you locate creatures in the darkness made.
Aether blade no longer has limited uses per round.
Aether blade, aether channel, aether rounds, and aether rampage are now 1/round free actions to use, instead of swift actions. Overall, the swift bottleneck on weaponlike shapes has been lifted to allow for more open design space, after remathing them.
Aether blade and aether lance no longer freely substitute Charisma for Strength. This proved to be a bit too good as a free effect, and centralized the class around Charisma to the point that other stats didn’t even matter, so there’s now a cost for it, the Spirited Swordsmanship feat.
Aether blade and aether channel now grant Pounce at their 4th ranks instead of free movement.
Aether lance 2nd and 3rd ranks have been swapped (again) after reviewing math on them. The enhancement bonus scaling has also been buffed to be nicer at mid levels.
Aether retaliation no longer removes your ability to use other shapes in the next round.
Agonizing pulse is now a final clause, instead of a greater. It’s otherwise unchanged; it just proved way too good at that level, and more okay at really high levels. Kinetosis Pulse has been added as a greater modulation clause, to fill the gap left by agonizing pulse.
Emaciating pulse now procs once per hit/save negates, instead of once per round/save half.
Into the night now moves at double speed when shadow walking at night.
Nightfall now lasts 24 hours, but you can only have one up at once.
Feats
Aether Armory feat removed.
Aetheric Armor, Aether Outburst, Embodiment of Aether, Overcharge Modulation, Spirited Swordsmanship, and Steel’s Betrayal feats added.
Mystic Reflexes can now be taken if you have any of the melee weaponlike shapes.
The avowed bonus feat list got expanded by a couple more feats.
Other
Typo and wording glitch fixes. So many.
The avowed now has a note that as a psychic (if nonstandard) mage, they can use psychic skill unlocks.
The finished version of the cover has been added.
Layout of the pacts section has been reshuffled.
Reordered the Making Pacts section to make it clear that the retraining-into-avowed thing is a general rule.
A new magic item, called silver shoes, has been added to the end of Chapter 5.
The list of alternate racial favored class bonuses (for 90 races in total) has been finished and added to the class in an appendix at the end.
A note about how items like conductive weapons function has been added to the appendix.
Added a section at the end with a set of variant rules for soul trading in campaigns. This is a preview of Mage’s Magnificent Skymarket, a later set of projects that will be a place for magic items, variant rules, and other options that fit its tone and themes.
In any case, I wanted to thank everyone again for your patience and support. Now that Avowed 1 is in full beta, we're going to be grinding away the rest of Avowed 2, so we can get the new archetypes, pacts, and options to your game tables as quickly as humanly possible!
Wanted to let people know that I'm stuck in bed after picking up an illness of some sort over Thanksgiving, which might delay Avowed 2 by a couple days. It'll happen shortly, and I'm sorry about that. November's been a hectic month.
Rough, mate. Hope you recover quickly.
Me too.
After seeing a doctor, it turns out that I've got the flu, so that's gonna knock me out of commission for a bit.
Overall, between Avowed 1 running nearly three times as large as I'd planned for "a month's work of writing" to be, and the various stresses and messes I've had to deal with in November, on top of this illness, it's looking like what will need to happen is to finish writing the Avowed 2 project over December, shooting for putting it up in the middle of the month.
Recently, we've been remathing some of the stuff in Avowed 1 and that's taken some time to figure out, and the Avowed 2 stuff needed to go through some significant rewrites for its archetypes, so we're basically having to start nearly from scratch to make the concepts actually work.
Work will continue apace, but there will not be a vote for the project for December. This is one of those months mentioned on the Patreon that things aren't moving as quickly as they could be.
I hope you all are enjoying the current work that's up, and I'd like to thank everyone who's taken a look and/or given feedback. We'd be dead in the water without you all. I'll probably be back with another update to Avowed 1 in a couple of days, depending on how sick I continue to be. It'll include some fixes based on feedback and fixed math in a couple cases, as well as a real list of FCBs (finally!) and some more Final clauses.
For hypnotic strands' stagger, it's because the fundamental isn't meant to be used on allies. It's an effect that, ideally, would be used on enemies to make them attack each other, rather than being used as a buff. However, since "opponent/ally" is kinda a meaningless designation for this purpose (you can attack an ally to make them an opponent), I decided to bake in a softer restriction to it. It's still usable in a pinch to buff allies, and in some cases, will be an amazing option there (follow up their full attack with two more hits to hopefully end the fight and have the stagger not matter), but it's not meant to puppeteer your allies as its primary function.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I'd been looking at it more like a 4e Warlord going 'The barbarian hits you with his axe, I hit you with the barbarian' rather than as primarily an offensive thing.
Yeah, it was meant more as an enchanter feel than a warlord.
Also, wanted to say that I've just uploaded a hotfix to the avowed; a couple errors were caught, including some typos, the Fey pact missing Stealth as a class skill, and an issue with tinker archetype UMD.
It's not 100% finished; there's still some more Final clauses to write, as well as FCBs, but all of the pacts for Avowed 1 are in, along with the full 25 each for Least, Lesser, and Greater clauses, new feats, an archetype, two ACFs, and an expanded fluff section on making pacts. We've also gone through and made adjustments in response to feedback given here and in other places, and I am super thankful for that.
Changelog:
Pacts
Celestial, Court Fey, Elemental, and Self pacts added.
Dragon pact’s Hoarding Instinct ability now provides an insight bonus on saves that scales more slowly, in order to interact better with items.
Dragon pact’s Draconic Infusion ability now provides a stacking inherent bonus to the stat, to avoid creating a situation like succubus profane gift optimization.
Fiend pact’s Soul Eater ability has been nerfed some.
Old One pact’s Wither and Flee abilities have been reworked slightly; Wither no longer prompts a save but the ability damage recovers quickly once they leave the area, Flee’s effect has been adjusted as a result.
Nation pact’s sense has been replaced with a nationality detector.
Nation pact’s Nationalistic Fervor ability now works against rebels and traitors as well.
Nation pact’s Hearts Beat As One ability adjusted to be more clear in what it’s supposed to do.
Shadow pact lost Survival as a pact skill and gained Stealth.
Clauses and Shapes
Adjusted scaling for AoE aether pulse shapes to be a more natural progression.
Aether breath has been nerfed some; the lingering effect is now a feat and it has to choose which breath it gets at the 1st rank (getting both at the 3rd).
Aether claws has been adjusted to better convey that its fluff is open-ended, and renamed to aether rampage.
Aether grasp’s 3rd and 4th ranks have been swapped.
Aether lance’s 4th rank has been made baseline, and it’s gained an accuracy booster.
Aether shield has been renamed to aether retaliation to better fit the mechanics.
Aether wave’s loop-back ability now has a line noting that you can only do it once per use.
Escape clause has been nerfed to only work in response to attacks, and hamper you on your next turn.
The lock and key clause can now be found and disabled as a magic trap.
Inferno pulse now continues to burn undead and constructs after destruction (previously had just used “die” in its text).
Sacred flame pulse has been removed and replaced with a class feature substitution. Sacred flame wall has been changed to balefire wall. Balefire wall now fully ignores fire immunity.
Unbind spell clause has been buffed to repeat regardless of failure.
A whole bunch of clauses were added.
Feats
Clarified that Empower/Quicken Spell-Like Ability don’t have infinite uses with aether pulse. Also noted that they still need the minimum CL (6th and 10th) to get the feat in the first place.
Aether Torrent, Lingering pulse, and Skillful Pact feats added.
Other
New cover added—right now, this is an unfinished work in progress; the final version still needs to be cleaned up.
Tinker archetype added.
Aether Blow and Balefire Infusion class feature substitutions added.
The “Making Pacts” section has been expanded significantly, and reworded a bit.
The Personal Contract drawback has had it clarified that you can later turn the item into a magic item, even though the initial one can’t be.
Moving forward, Avowed 2 is still on schedule and should be posted up by the end of the month, and some of the single-target shapes (particularly aether rounds) are being looked at more closely, math-wise.
Enjoy!
Ikiry0 wrote:
Sweet, I'll be sure to pick that up for my local group.
I was a huge fan of the spellburst Savant since the very first version and decided to do some homebrew of my own for it.
A question about the latest version: What is the reasoning behind the decision to make the 'Give your allies an extra attack spell' stagger them? Seems like way too high a cost to lose all your extra attacks from a full attack for a single out of action attack.
Hey, that's a pretty neat homebrew. I really like the Empty Sleeves ability, that's just cool as hell.
For hypnotic strands' stagger, it's because the fundamental isn't meant to be used on allies. It's an effect that, ideally, would be used on enemies to make them attack each other, rather than being used as a buff. However, since "opponent/ally" is kinda a meaningless designation for this purpose (you can attack an ally to make them an opponent), I decided to bake in a softer restriction to it. It's still usable in a pinch to buff allies, and in some cases, will be an amazing option there (follow up their full attack with two more hits to hopefully end the fight and have the stagger not matter), but it's not meant to puppeteer your allies as its primary function.
Hey all, just wanted to check in to let you guys know that I'll be uploading a more full version of the Avowed 1 PDF tomorrow during the day (need to finish up just a few more things), and that I will ideally have the Avowed 2 stuff up by the end of the month. I didn't mean to take this long on finalizing the first Avowed PDF, but at this point, it's 45 pages and counting. Going waaaaay over my goal pagecount of 15-20 pages per release caused some delays...
Are you selling these as well? I'm not a patreon supporter, but would still like to pay you for the work.
I will be, once things are ready for publishing. The Spellburst Savant will be put up on DriveThruRPG.com as a "pay what you want" item (it was originally written and uploaded as homebrew, and I think it'd feel wrong to charge for it), and further projects, including the Avowed and anything else, will be sold once they're finished and playtested.
In other news, I've uploaded a new copy of the Spellburst Savant. Not much this time, just a new fundamental (charged by enchantments and illusions most of the time, and with a mind-affecting theme), and some small tweaks to wording.
I'm going to eventually write the fundamentals-focused archetype, but I do not think that it's going to be going into this first book of the Spellburst Savant. Instead, I'll likely have a project later down the line that adds some more archetypes and possibly feats. Thus, I'm likely going to be finalizing this project soon and not adding new material other than tweaks as needed before its 'release'.
SS v.49:
Changelog:
• Spell list now properly references itself in the rules text.
• Hypnotic strands fundamental added, to allow for something that works with illusions and enchantments.
Alrighty, status update! After reviewing the votes for this month's project (they ended last night), it looks like Avowed book 2 wins out. I'm hoping to have the last parts of the first book up by the end of this week (have a couple pacts to finalize, some more clauses to write, and the archetype, as well as some reworks to AoE shapes), and you should expect Avowed 2 sometime towards the end of November.
Are there any archetypes coming for the Avowed? Anything you have in mind already?
The first book will only have one archetype, the Tinker, which harkens back to the 3.5 warlock's item subtheme. The second book, when it happens, will have several archetypes (listed in the spoiler above).
Alrighty. It's October 31st, at 10:30ish pm, and my Patreon promises at least one thing per month. The last couple weeks have been a bit of a nightmare on my end, and I'm sorry for the long delay. However! Here's a Halloween treat!
I'm happy to announce that I've gotten the Avowed ready for public playtesting. This is not 100% completed (there's still several pacts to add and a decent chunk of clauses to fill out the Greater and Final grades, more feats to write, and one archetype that will be included in this book, and finally an expansion on the fluff section. Also a new cover in the works, but that's not content).
In this PDF is the Avowed base class, playable from 1-20, and the Dragon, Fiend, Old One, Shadow, Otyugh, and Nation pacts. The other pacts for this book (Celestial, Court Fey, Elemental, and Self) haven't been finished yet, but will be up soon, as they're written.
I'll be putting up the vote for November's project in the morning. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy what I've got posted up now, and I look forward to any feedback you've got.
I forgot to ask, but why did you reduce the number of skill points from 6 to 4? Isn't the spellburst savant supposed to replace the rogue to some extent, which includes spending some skill points in the appropriate skills?
It was part of an overall slight reduction in utility. The substitutions of casting stat are relevant enough to that concept that I felt they could use slightly less skills, given they've still got utility spells (even if you'll want to use one spell per combat in most cases).
The Journeyman archetype (fundamentals-focused) will have more of an emphasis on skills, getting more points and some unique uses.
Okay, I missed that part and overreacted somewhat. The damage is comparable, assuming you still hit.
Yep. And the current fundamentals are actually a bit more accurate (starspray now hits touch attacks, and nova flare's save DC scales way better).
Quote:
So what spells would you use for artillery purposes? Also, my reasoning is that I want a roguish spellcaster with at-will capabilities. Meaning that the avowed falls flat at this moment. Basically opening doors, disabling traps along with some easy to use stuff for damage purposes. The flexibility of damage types is great, too. That's why I am a fan of SoP. But as I can't use that I need some kind of replacement and the arcade version so far fits the bill.
That is fair about the avowed. In the interest of this discussion, I ran through the Sorc/Wiz spell list and picked out some spells that I, personally, might consider using as an artillery Savant. There's a list in the spreadsheet I used for the fundamental comparisons.
I can see what you mean regarding the avowed. I think I will write the "less spells, more at-will" archetype mentioned above. I'm not sure when, since right now my priority is getting the Avowed ready for eyes, but rest assured, it'll be here eventually.
I'll see about finalizing what I've got half-written right now (need to write some sections and finish out a couple almost-done pacts) and uploading it sometime tonight or tomorrow, then.
Do I see correctly that fundamentals are no longer at-will? Or rather, you can use them on cantrips but the damage output is even with metamagic thanks to nova spells no longer relevant at high levels? I admit, the biggest draw for me were the at-will fundamentals which scaled nicely with level. So now it feels like that the class is forced to use its spells more, but does not receive any more spells or goes on to higher levels.
That is a correct reading; fundamentals scale with the spells you charge them with now. The scaling on them has been adjusted as a result. It’s based both on the spell you charge your fundamentals with, and, importantly, on the actions you use.
For starspray, this means that in a fight where you open with your highest level, it’s a slight nerf until the highest levels (however, the fundamental is a touch attack now, which is a significant buff to it). For nova flare, it’s a straight buff of damage dice at all levels, albeit with a slightly lower (1 point) average damage per die. Nova flare also has additional synergy with Circlet of Brass, which will add its damage twice instead of once.
Having the fundamentals work only after casting a spell and using the spell level for scaling means that you have a minute where instead casting something else you have another attack option. The save DC works fine, but as the damage is crappy compared to spells, which other casters can dish out, this means that one would go for either BFC or debuffing the enemies. It doesn't help that nova works for a fundamental only once.
In the first round (when you charge the fundamental), you will have about half the fundamental DPR you previously did, but you’ll also have it as a swift action (past the earliest levels, where you can get by by charging them between combats with cantrips and not lose anything). After that, the damage output is slightly less (thanks to metamagic only working on one use of the fundamental), but still consistently high if you optimize for a fundamental.
EldritchWeaver wrote:
So I'm not sure where the artillery stuff is supposed to be. The new version has its uses, but the focus has shifted. The loss of at-will damage similar to the Warlock feels more like nerfing the class to the ground in this aspect. Or at least how I planned to play it.
The artillery stuff is still there; it’s in the spells more than anything else. I’m sorry that you aren’t a fan of this rework, but as it was, the original was way too strong. The Spellburst Savant is not a Warlock. It’s a spellcaster that had some at-will stuff that accidentally stole the show. The revised version is meant as a middleground; the fundamentals are still there and still around the same power level, but it does mean you’ll need to cast at least one spell per combat, instead of relying entirely on them.
If you want a true at-will blaster, I’d recommend looking into the Avowed when I get the rest of book 1 for that release uploaded. Right now I’m working to finish up the remaining pacts, though I might upload the class and add each pact as it gets done.
EldritchWeaver wrote:
Of course, the arcade version still remains, but since you said "no more changes!", this means that flaws you patch in the new version aren't patched in the arcade version, where actually applicable. I'm particular annoyed by the fact that Armor of Force has not been provided the buff of this version. After all I did mention this in the discussion, which lead to the nerfing in the first place. Would it be possible to convince you to keep the arcade version somewhat parallel to the new version?
I’m not going to continue to update the Ex Turbo version with new material, though I will still fix any wording issues that crop up. The original is not a class that I want to support; I do not think it’s balanced, and while it’s fun, it’s not what the Spellburst Savant was meant to be and doesn’t play well with a great many classes. For one thing, it far outstrips classes like Wizard and Arcanist at the levels most people seem to play at (1 to 8), which is… A hell of an accident, really.
I hope that the nerfs and revisions that have been applied to the current version help bring it back into line with what a class should be expected to do.
What I may do, however, is write an archetype that lessens its focus on spellcasting to make the fundamentals its main tool and doesn't need spells to charge them, instead of a tool that carries a dual focus with spells.
I'm happy to say that I finally got the Revised Spellburst Savant written up and uploaded for you all. The biggest changes are to fundamentals, making their power more tied to which spells you use (but still keeping lower power versions as at-will abilities), and the ACFs that were tied to them.
And yes, this does mean there are nerfs to the class. It's been brought to a slightly lower power level and is a bit more reliant on its spells to work at full potential, but I hope that y'all still enjoy the class. I know that I am; the way it's been playing in my test scenarios is pretty fun, like if you crashed Invoker into Ryze.
Changelog
• Skill points changed to 4 + Int modifier
• Fundamental spells completely reworked
• Spellburst Scholar no longer has diminished spellcasting
• Spellburst Meditant's shining fist ability is reworked to function with the new shining blade.
• Armor of Force class feature substitution no longer trades away a fundamental.
• The following class feature substitutions have been rewritten to work with the new rules for fundamentals: Bullet Storm, Insidious Shadows, Kaizo Blockade, Layered Barrier, The Path of Explosions, Wave Motion Strike.
• Yoku Master has been removed, folded into the base fundamental.
I had thought that I was going to be done updating this one, but I've uploaded another copy of the EX Turbo version of the Spellburst Savant, with some adjustments, clarifications, and fixes. Home sick today, so hoping to get some more writing done if I can.
Changelog
• Aura Sense had a note added that you don't get the ability to tell what sort of caster a person you detect is.
• Added a note that Absorb Spell doesn't give you super-high-level slots from being able to Nova Heighten Spell things.
• Spellburst Scholar's DRM fluff has been adjusted and elaborated on; a sidebar about how two different Scholars interact with each others' DRM has also been added.
• Spell Notebook pages are noted to not work with metamagic reducers.
• A note about identifying a Spell Notebook page as what it is has been added.
• Spellburst Scholar deconstruct intention adjusted to +1.
• Akashic Dabbler now has a clarification that it does count abilities that increase capacity of the veil.
• Blockade blocks are noted as being solid.
The trapfinding and Wisdom are meant to allow them to fill that role, but I do not intend to give them that ability. Fluffwise, they're better at magic traps than mechanical ones, and this is an intended interaction.
In any case, I have a new PDF for you all today, with a fairly large changelog. While I don't have the revised version of the Spellburst Savant, I have decided to finish making the adjustments I'd planned based on playtest feedback to the current version. I personally think it's a bit overly strong, but I know that people are using it and having fun with it, so I want to support that.
Moving forward, this version of the Spellburst Savant will not be updated. It's now a stand-alone, and I'll be working on the revised version in the future instead of this one. I'll be keeping it in the linked drive, however, so don't worry, it's not going anywhere. The revised version will be toned down a bit.
Thanks again for all the help and feedback you all have given.
Changelog
Spoiler:
• New title.
• Typo fixes and layout adjustments
• Wording added about partial spell preparation (like other prepared casters)
• AC Bonus replaced with Armor of Force
• Nova Counter now has wording about what happens if you’re the only one targeted by an area spell
• Yoku Master’s “you get one extra block” moved to when casting it as a nova spell. Yoku Master can be used to make patterns or images on your blocks.
• Intuitive Understanding and Stir Heart and Mind both now affect Knowledge (arcane) as well.
• After a lot of feedback, sickening shadows has been replaced; it’s now an AoE sicken aura.
• Insidious Shadows likewise adjusted to apply the new effect, centered on the secondary target.
• Nova Flare adjusted to no longer be a true AoE (breaking compatibility with Catastrophic Spell).
• Likewise, The Path of Explosions has been slightly tweaked to work with the new version.
• Wording added to clarify how Spellburst Meditant’s Shining Fist ability interacts with spells that create simultaneous touch attacks (such as a scorching ray used with Deconstruct Intention).
Does Akashic Dabbler account for existance of Circlet of Brass?
Yes.
Quote:
Does starspray benefit from damage-increasing boosts and stances? Can it be used to deliver strikes?
Yes and yes (it's an attack), no (like all abilities that have their own action).
Quote:
Why do fundamentals get only 1/2 nova spell rank to DC? It basically forces the use of heighten to keep up with saves scaling.
Now that I think about it, Spellburst Savant could really use passive DC bonus, like 1 per 4 levels, to justify using spells that allow a save, and not shooting things with starspray and using actual spell slots for buffs and utility.
For exactly that reason. As noted above, the intent of the fundamentals was for them to not be your mainstay options. The Spellburst Savant was meant to be using spells for combat, and the fundamentals as backup. This turned out not to work as planned, so the class is being reworked to bring the fundamentals to a more central place.
Another update: After getting my internet back, I've been reading some playtest feedback, writing adjustments to the Spellburst Savant, and I need to push the next update to that back.
The reason for this is that the fundamentals are not quite doing what I wanted them to; they were written into the class as something like "actually working reserve feats" (the 3.5 ones). Backup options for when your spells aren't being used, rather than the main dish of the class.
Obviously, this didn't really end up being the case. I'm going to be reworking them—not to turn them into my original idea, but to tie them more closely to the workings of the Spellburst Savant and bring them to a more central position in the class.
I hope you all enjoy the changes when they get put up. I'll have them ready as soon as possible :)
I've got a bit of an odd question that came up in my group. At the time, we ruled it conservatively, but after doing some digging, I'm honestly wondering how it's meant to work.
If I use Empower (or Maximize) Spell on a spell that has a source of dice-based bonus damage (in particular for this case, sneak attack), do those additional dice get affected too?
I found this post that seems to imply that the bonus dice would, but it' from 2010 and I wasn't sure if it still held.
The FAQ on Empower Spell says that the feat works on numerical bonuses, but the state of bonuses like sneak attack's damage boost feels vague.
So, I guess my question is: is there a ruling (or rule somewhere that I missed) you know of for how bonus dice work with Empower and Maximize spell? If not, what are your thoughts on this?
Hey all, wanted to check in to apologize for not having the update to the Spellburst Savant I'd mentioned up. The hurricane knocked out my power and Internet this weekend and left me unable to do much.
Work continues apace on the Avowed, however, and I hope to have the preliminary release/playtest (class, clauses, a selection of pacts for Book 1, favored class bonuses, and feats) up sometime next week, with archetypes to follow as they're written.
Temptation is, in fact, meant to give you the first list of spells at-will. Being a negative status remover is the intended result of it. I had considered more one-time abilities, but the problem with that is that in many cases, they just stop being useful class features outside of small fluff things.
I'd rather you always be able to "buy" someone's soul to give them benefits when you want to, rather than a one-time more powerful effect. Any party with a prepared divine caster of that level effectively has similar things, and that's just as part of their spells. It's not particularly game-breaking, and doesn't mess with attrition much (it doesn't heal HP). Just helps you negate long-lasting negative status effects that could cause an adventure to grind to a halt.
I dunno, I guess the flavor implications of this just bother me a bit. It seems weird that the first thing a Fiendish Avowed says when joining a group is "Right, everybody give me your immortal souls so I can heal you when you need it." I guess it's not too powerful (in niche situations it can be since Clerics won't have dozens of those spells prepared, but those are niche situations so it's not a big deal), it's just a huge hit to the flavor of something like selling your soul.
Maybe that's just me, though.
Well, what kind of tempter would you be if your response to someone coming back for more was "nope, all out of juice"? The idea is partially that it is simple, useful, and good for the person who sold their soul to be around you. That's how you get them.
Aaaaaalrighty then. I've got a new thing for anyone watching: a preview of the upcoming warlock port, the Avowed. This 18-page PDF includes the base class and the options needed to play it up until level 10, as well as a single pact: Fiends.
Feel free to give feedback on this teaser; there'll be more to come about halfway through the month when I have the full book ready for eyes. Many more pacts, ranging from the classic fey and old ones to celestials, hags, inevitables, and weirder stuff like apallies and krakens, several archetypes, and a ton more clauses.
(For the people who've discussed the Spellburst Savant, I'm looking to get some time to respond to that feedback sometime early this week. Been a busy weekend, and I wanted the Avowed ready for its preview sooner rather than later)
