The Wasting curse gives immunity to the sickened condition, and several curses use the sickened condition as their malus. Is a Dual-Cursed Oracle with Wasting immune to sickened? Both sources are curses.
I too would go Sorcerer over Bloodrager. Though I would go Oracle + Racial Heritage + Scaled Disciple (with a Mystery that had at least a couple good revelations that weren't level dependent like Lore, Nature, or Shadow) over the arcane options.
Bard Archaeologist archetype. It so badly wants to be Indy, but I just don't buy Indy being a 3/4 BAB caster. Maybe I'm being too picky.
I'd like to see your take on an Indiana Jones inspired character. Preferably a non-caster, though I could see him with a great UMD.
Bonded Mount from the Nature Mystery is a Mount class feature. Should qualify just fine.
Hmm, this is in the same book as the Create Armaments spell. So if you want to make an adamantine full plate, your options are
Not being a spellcaster really blows in this game.
So Improved Spell Sharing (Teamwork) functionally allows me to regain Share Spells, since you're only ever targeting yourself- assuming the use of a saddle that shares teamwork feats or a class feature to do the same. Totem Beast Mouse aspect can even get back the evasion and improved evasion that was traded away. Use of the Perfectionist Shavtoosh as a slotless item can get it Improved Unarmed Strike, which is a great way to open a lot of options given its limited HD and feats. Is there any way for the companion to gain improved uncanny dodge? Or any other good corner cases to give it features that might keep it alive or relevant past level 10? I'm looking for good bang for your buck, preferably applicable to a horse (mount).
Channel is channel is channel. It doesn't matter specifically what the name of the feature is, nor how deeply it's nested in other class features. What matters is are you functionally given a channel as a class feature. Technically Oracles get a Mystery class feature, which contains a Revelation class feature, which may contain a Channel class feature, which may not be identical to Cleric Channel Energy, but those differences only matter if you're specifically trying to read things from an exclusionary and contrarian point of view. They get Channel as a class feature so they can take Channel feats. Even the fact the feature is contained in a larger feature doesn't matter, nor is it being a limited resource. Rage domain Clerics get Rage. It's a daily limited resource and encapsulated in a class feature that does other things (domains). Even the fact that the rules are different for the particular feature doesn't matter. Animal Companions can have drastically different rules from class to class and archetype to archetype, but they're all animal companions. Even the class feature restriction itself can be a grey area as Boon companion is intended to be compatible with Animal Ally. Spirit Guide Oracles get hexes as a class feature. Heck, they can also get Channel from the Life spirit, so the rule comes full circle. The question is the details of how they qualify or are affected by particular feats that are written with caveats of ambiguous meaning RAI.
A crossblooded sorceror doesn't have 2 separate bloodlines. She can't open a vein on the left arm and leak Rakshasa and then open a vein on the right to pour Dragon. Her singular bloodline is the culmination of 2 ancestral bloodlines that contributed to make it. Dragon Disciple advances the sorcerer's single bloodline, and the faq clarifies that that includes sorcerer's whose bloodline is crossblooded. Being a Dragon Disciple doesn't make her mom less her parent, or her heritage less mixed.
Hi Mark, How does an Alchemist gain Craft Staff? How is the Monstrification Staff supposed to exist? Besides the text specific to the Monstrification Staff, are there any other ways non-spellcasters can recharge staves? Can a Rogue use UMD with a Pearl of Power to recharge a staff? If you can, how many UMD checks would be involved? What about an Arcane Battery? I want to like staves, but most of the time my spellcasters would be better served by pearls, pages, shards, etc., and it seems there's been a concerted effort to exclude non-casters from them. Why is that? From a design standpoint, what do you see as the role of UMD?
I read your breakdown of power disparity between casters and martials. I appreciate your take on the situation, but I feel like something pivotal to the discussion is getting glossed over. Martials are given static powers and class abilities. Sure, you can choose from a vast array of feats and class abilities, but you're locked in once you've decided how you want to solve problems. This means that any problem they ever face will be evaluated against their build, which in turn flattens that wide array of choices as so many are discarded for being suboptimal, or even harmful. Casters are given spell slots. These are wild card operators. They don't have to build answers, they just tap into the array to pull out an answer whole cloth. In this way, their build doesn't have to answer anything. They can afford to be flavorful, or suboptimal, or specialized, as long as they continue to be attached to an array that has all their answers available to them. This is a systemic disparity that would have to be addressed at a design level, and I'm not sure that has resonated. There have been introductions of new classes with new pools of answers from new arrays, but the strongest pools are still being given to casters (arcanist, magus, etc.), while at the other end of the spectrum you have Swashbucklers. Martial flexibility and stamina are at least steps in the right direction from a power perspective, but they're buried under the weight of the entire feat tree and so require a level of system mastery that's even worse than Vancian magic (and otherwise tend to highlight problems with the feat tree in general). I agree that the level of the disparity is mitigable, addressable at the table, and colored by the experience each participant brings to the discussion. I agree that the conversation can be nuanced and complex and often people talk across each other because the terms are poorly defined. But I also think the Kineticist is one of the most brilliant classes I've seen in a while(kudos), and it has a series of interlocking mechanics that give it both an array and a build. To me this is such a drastic break from the previous trend of half measures most martials have seen that I want to believe it represents an understanding of the problem from a design perspective, even if the conversation didn't convey that to me. Anyways, if you have the opportunity to answer my UMD questions I'd appreciate it. I have big dreams of playing an explorer who wields his magic walking stick with Science! Cheers, |
