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I don't really know the flavor trappings that would go with it, but I would like a class based on a resource that by design is supposed to ebb and flow, and is based on alternating between situational or tactical actions that gain you points and direct actions that cash out points to for higher effect.

The kineticist has a small instance of this with Elemental Overflow, where having some amount of burn gives you attack and damage bonuses, but doesn't work for what I have in mind because it doesn't fall (only rises) and there is no reason not to fill up Overflow at the beginning of the day (especially since you have Internal Buffer to do that with).

Imagine if the Swashbuckler's stuff like Superior Feint and Targeted Strike, instead of costing panache, had you gain panache? So you would be pressured to use your more stylish but lesser abilities frequently in order to more frequently fuel your better abilities like Parry and Riposte or Precise Strike. And on top of that, it might also have heightened defenses when panache is higher, so there is a deliberate tradeoff to cashing out that panache.

An upcoming character of mine is a war journalist from an imperial nation. His goals are a) to follow refugees of the war and report on their plight and b) to study other cultures threatened by his nation's expansion and expose their ideas in a positive light, hopefully to curb the fervent nationalism that is feeding the invasion effort.

Eldritch Archer Magus can also grab Bane on the fly once it hits level 15. It's also grabbing Spell Perfection, which means it can Quicken Empowered Intensified Snowball Spellstrike > Maximized Empowered Intensified Snowball Spellstrike > Full Attack.

Admittedly that's well above where the calculations are being done.

Chess Pwn wrote:

A ravener hunter adds all spells of 6th-level and lower on the cleric spell list with the good descriptor to her inquisitor spell list as inquisitor spells of the same level.

...

She cannot cast 2 with the chaotic, evil, or lawful descriptors, even from spell trigger or spell completion items.

I wonder what was supposed to go where the "2" is?

Presumeably "spells".

I'm just upset that we lost the amazing ability "domaravener hunterin".

Huh, looks like they reduced the radius of a fireball too by a bit. I'd still stand by a ruling of a fireball in a 5 foot wide hall and a backstop 10 feet beyond the target is going to spread back and affect someone standing 40 feet away from the target. Normally, the caster and company would be safe. But in that situation, the fireball's spread is channeled towards them.

That would be something that the GM should go over with their players before the campaign starts, because that's a pretty significant houseruling.

GeneMemeScene wrote:

Secret Wizard wrote:

Kensai Magus is the only "true" option other than Monk. Everyone else enjoys the armor better than being unarmored. I'd love a mundane unarmored fighter class.

There are a couple of light armors that have no armor check penalty; the Kensai would prefer to wear those for the ease of enchantment and even just the +1 AC besides.

Wearing that armor for a kensai means you lose uncanny defense.

Canny Defense "is identical to the duelist prestige class ability of the same name", which can be used while in light armor.

If we're going to keep the Swashbuckler as a class (rather than just making it an archetype like it should have been), then these fixes are more inclined to making the Swashbuckler work as advertised; their damage is already fine.

Derring-Do's threshold for increasing dice lowers as you level up. At 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the next lower number on the first d6 also results in another d6 rolled (5 or higher at lvl 4, 4 or higher at lvl 8, etc). At 12th level, the threshold on the second dice begins to lower as well (5 or higher at lvl 12, 4 or higher at lvl 16, etc). At 20th level, if the Swashbuckler manages to roll a third dice, this die resulting in a 5 or 6 will allow the Swashbuckler to roll a fourth dice. In addition, starting at 12th level the Swashbuckler regains one panache point if they manage to roll at least 3d6 with Derring-Do.

Opportune Parry and Riposte does not take an action. Instead, a successful parry causes the attacker to provoke an attack of opportunity from the Swashbuckler. The Swashbuckler can spend one panache point as an immediate action to increase the number of attacks of opportunity they can make in a round (allowing the Swashbuckler to still Riposte even without Combat Reflexes).

Charmed life now gives the Swashbuckler a permanent bonus of their Cha to one of their saves. The Swashbuckler can change which of their saves gets the Cha bonus as a move action, or can spend one panache point to change it as an immediate action.

Precise Strike's precision damage is not doubled by spending a panache point. Instead, the Swashbuckler can spend a panache point as a swift action in order to turn the precision damage into normal damage, allowing it to be multiplied on critical hits and increasing their effectiveness against precision-immune foes.

Superior Feint no longer costs panache. Instead, it requires a successful Feint, with a bonus to the Swashbuckler's Bluff equal to the ability modifier that the Swashbuckler uses to attack. If one of the Swashbuckler's allies hits the target while it is dex-denied from this ability, the Swashbuckler regains one panache point.

Targeted Strike no longer costs panache. Instead, if the Swashbuckler successfully hits the opponent, the Swashbuckler regains one panache point.

At 5th and every four levels thereafter, the Swashbuckler can take an extra 5-foot step in a turn. At 9th level, the Swashbuckler can take one 5-foot step even if they have moved or will move later in the turn (including a charge or move action). At 13th level, the Swashbuckler gains a +10 bonus to their move speed and can

Overall changes: give them more incentives to use their interesting abilities and give them better mobility; their reliable damage against most foes drops but in exchange they stop being null against foes like elementals.

I'd think it could be worn.

But as helmets seem to serve no statistical benefit whatsoever (so that's why people never wear them in situations where they should), and the Cassisian would be rendering himself unable to move for the interim, there would be little reason for one to subject itself to such a dehumanizing (deangelizing?) fate.

The Cassisian actually gives AC and save bonuses to one creature within 5 feet. So assuming that the Cassisian wants to assist the person (they are an Improved Familiar choice) it gives the Cassisian a way to protect its handler while also looking inconspicuous so as to avoid being attacked.

Arcanist: "Did they really need to combine these two classes? Couldn't they have thought of a better idea?" But when I saw the way Arcanist casting worked and the Quick Study exploit, I was quickly won over. Now my opinion is mostly the same, but with a slightly different perspective. It isn't that Wizard and Sorcerer combined to make a cool class...it was that I just f****** hate strict Vancian casting systems, so modifying the wizard's casting is exactly what I would have asked for. I dearly hope that Arcanist casting becomes the norm for prepared casters if/when PF2 comes out.

Bloodrager: I thought this was a cool idea, the primal mirror to the Magus. A warrior with its own buff spells; straightforward and cool, although it was a shame that applying those buffs would cut into time that could be spent raging and hacking. Now I've learned about how useful Bloodrage Powers are and that they get free buffs on raging that last for the full rage. Cool class. Probably my favorite fullbab class (though I haven't played with the UnMonk, so that might change).

Brawler: This wasn't a class on its own so much as it was the limo driving up with superstar celebrity Martial Versatility stepping out into the limelight. It was a cool concept then and remains one now, making a game mechanic out of the otherwise cripplingly annoying feat trees. That said, I wish they had fixed its flurry to work the same way as the UnMonk.

Hunter: Yet another "does this hybrid need to exist?" class. So it got it's niche by focusing on the Animal Companion; that's cool. The fact that you could double up on bonuses by not having an Animal Companion was weird and remains recurring part of some of my quirky multiclass builds.

Investigator: This originally struck me as too restrictive in its flavor and focus. Now though I find that I like the way Studied Strike works much more than the way Sneak Attack works (obviously SA is more powerful, but the idea of closely studying an enemy for multiple rounds and then landing a single finishing blow is much more flavorful than attacking as many times as possible, which should make it more difficult to land with precision). However, the fact that the class doesn't really come online until 4th level is a major hindrance.

Shaman: This was the ACG class I paid least attention to originally. Recently I've decided to play around with it...and wow, this is wonderful. There is so much versatility to this class, both in character creation and just day-to-day options. In my opinion this is the standout triumph of the ACG.

Skald: I *still* haven't given this a proper consideration. But when ACG was coming out I thought this was a solid idea, and it still seems to be so.

Slayer: I didn't really think much about this apart from thinking it was kind of boring. Why I thought this I have no idea, because my favorite Ranger build was a Guide/Skirmisher to have a flexible favored enemy, to lose the animal companion that I just didn't really like, and to lose the spells which felt vestigial. So I realize now that the Slayer is basically the Ranger that I've always dreamed of, and it has become my favorite full martial class.

Swashbuckler: This ended up being opposite the Shaman. When the ACG was coming out this was far and away the class I was most hyped about. In fact, the reason my original thoughts on most other classes in the ACG were so short was because I was devoting so much of my thoughtspace to fantasizing about the Swashbuckler. Now I realize that everything interesting about this class is gained at first level. The fact that it has nothing in the way of actual movement options renders this one of the most flavorless classes in the game, when frankly this should be one of the most flavorful. Fighter + Gunslinger was a terrible approach to this; Bard should have been in there somewhere.

Warpriest: I originally thought this was a stupid idea and just butting into an already crowded niche. But now I can see...that my original idea was almost entirely correct, but I did find a way to justify it's place somewhat: The warpriest is to the inquisitor as the magus is to the bard. The magus analog is especially important because the Warpriest swift action buffing is comparable to the Magus' Spell Combat, the difference being that the Magus has both buffs and attack spells to work with from the arcane list while the Warpriest will much more exclusively be using buffs. Unfortunately the Warpriest's oversaturation of swift actions is still annoying (sacred armor and sacred weapon should be able to activate with the same action imo), but we've got the awesome Arsenal Chaplain archetype to alleviate that some.

Vancian Magic

I neither really like nor dislike the general idea, but I really dislike that it is the standard, rather than a niche case. The idea that you forget a spell after using it for the day doesn't sit with me at all, and the more plausible defense I've heard (that your beginning-of-day preparation is you casting most of the spell and then at the moment of casting you simply finish it) is also annoying because that's exactly what scrolls already do. Between scrolls, spell-triggers, spell-completion, and prepared casting there are way to many subsystems for "cast most of it now and then store it to complete it later". If there was a dedicated "scroll caster" class I would like for them to use Vancian magic, but having it as a standard is unbearable. I would much rather that spontaneous casters switched to a magic points system and prepared casters switched to Arcanist-style casting (with a magic points system as well, for good measure).

The Swashbuckler

As it exists now, this should not be a class. The only really interesting things it gets are at level 1 and level 5 (and even that is just early access rather than unique). Apart from that, it's still mostly just doing the same tired "don't move, full attack" routine; it might as well just be an Archetype of the Fighter, and the Gunslinger basically has the same problem. This ties into a different stance I have that I would prefer a system without any classes at all, but these two are the only unbearable cases. Alternatively, they could given the Swashbuckler a bunch of movement based features that significantly rewarded it for using its move actions rather than full attacking, such as debuffing foes when you tumble around them and stuff to that effect. Though even that sounds like it could be a rogue archetype...but then again, why isn't there a rogue that can do that yet?

Balancing by Day

Casters are given spell slots assuming they get 4 combats per day. But most games I play in tend to have like 2 combats per day and only 4 on a really heavy day. I know this is a result of house play but I really think abilities should have been balanced per encounter or "per scene" rather than per day; something to the tune of 5e's short rest/long rest system would be welcome.

And this is all to say nothing of the per week abilities

The funny thing to me is that I've never met an optimizer that wasn't a good RPer. I've met some people who wanted to be hardcore optimizers that were mediocre RPers, but they were also pretty mediocre optimizers. And of course there are those people that denounce optimization, but I am brought to wonder if they're actually good roleplayers at all or if they're just bitter about optimizers.

The funny thing is that I've never met an optimizer that wasn't a good RPer. I've met some people who wanted to be hardcore optimizers that were mediocre RPers, but they were also pretty mediocre optimizers. And of course there are those people that denounce optimization, but I am brought to wonder if they're actually good roleplayers at all or if they're just bitter about optimizers.

From a character design standpoint, I like Seltyiel for capturing perfectly the image of what I think of when I think of a Magus. The Elric of Melnibone comparison helps.

Besides him, I really like Seelah's story and character, and Valeros seems like a cool guy to drink with.

Gonna join the Bard hypewagon.

Honestly if Bards ever get a Swashbuckler-esque archetype (not the dervish) then they'll probably become my favorite class period.

I still think the UnMonk is better at depicting anything at all than the CRB Monk.

Perhaps in some ways the CRB Monk was more able to do so, but in many, many ways it failed. Plus it was a trainwreck mechanically.

Would I have done the UnMonk the same? Probably not. I'd probably push Flurry to level 5, and *make the hallmark ability of the Monk combining STR AND DEX on attack/weapon damage rolls*.

That could actually be an interesting take: intentionally make the Monk MAD, but then actually reward it for balancing its stats rather than having a spike or a dump. Give it skill points based on Int and Wis, attacks based on Str and Dex, HP based on Con and Str, and AC is already based on Dex and Wis, and etc.

Perhaps similarly to Dark Souls II's "mundane" weapons, which are best used with stats all equivalent to each other (because they scale with your lowest stat, but having a 20 in your lowest would give you similar damage to have 60 strength with a greatsword).

The introduction of Advanced Weapon Training has made the Archer archetype MUCH worse than the base Fighter, because Archer loses Weapon Training. So just stick to the base Fighter or the Weapon Master archetype.

I was in a group with a new player who was playing a bad paladin. His backstory had basically written him as the chosen one destined to do no wrong and yet because our GM used some very common alignment subversions (surprise, the bandits aren't murder-hungry monsters, they're just people trying to feed their children) he's found himself on the verge of falling several times because he interprets anyone that doesn't agree with him as evil. And worse (for me at least) is that he didn't even take the suggestion to make a character arc out of his failings, he just wanted them swept under the rug.

I get the feeling that the whole "Lawful Good = preachy, smitey, no fun for everyone" image is perpetuated by people like this, who play Paladins because they to get the idea that if they are playing the Lawful Good class then they start out as heroes by default and will never have to deal with adversity or failure apart from "I need to be stronger to murderate these evil things better". It's pretty easy to play evil characters with a joking or ironic mindset, but playing a Paladin well typically means encompassing the Paladin mindset as well, at least at the table. I always love to see Paladins where both the character and the player have to conviction to see their characters die for their causes.

Screw Power Attack. Magi don't get the consistent accuracy boosts to make it work.

Around level twelve, yes, the Magus has to shift tactics or upgrade his play. First-level spells don't cut it anymore. This leaves two options.

1. Upgrade Grasp. Pick up Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, and Spell Perfection. Your Grasp goes from 10D6 to 60+5D6, for a 3rd level spell (2nd if you took both metamagic traits). Throw in Quicken Spell and you get two shots of that, albeit one in a sixth-level slot.

And remember that with Improved Spell Recall, you can recall that 3rd level spell for a single arcane point. So the Magus stops nuking as hard but can start doing it more often.

Well as far as combat is concerned, do you need to have the whole hitting specific points and blowing up heads, or will you settle with just having stupidly strong unarmed attacks?

Dipping 1 level in Master of Many Styles Monk and then going Brawler for the rest means you can have Dragon Style (for damage) and Pummeling Style (for the whole "attack spam and deal damage all at once at the end).

Remember that a keen Falcata crits 17-20, not 15-20.

I seem to recall someone talking about playing an fistfighter character who had attained perfect mental control of his physical abilities. This was not a Monk, but a Barbarian, fluffed such that Rage represented a temporary heightened state of physical prowess.

So yeah, classes don't come with any inherent flavor, and you can pretty much make up for yourself what it looks like your character is doing.

That said, if part of the flavor you're going for it "strong and daring champion", you probably want to be at least pretty good at combat mechanics.