Knightfox's page

The Reanimated Medium has a LOT of really cool flavor, but seems to have been left by the wayside somewhat. The writing of several key features (mostly Channel Self) simply do not work as written and go against the direction of the intent. Lets first break down what is currently written and then address how I propose fixing these problems.

• 1.) As written a medium may channel a spirit for 24 hours after performing a 1 hour seance and then may not do so again for 24 hours. When the 24 hours has passed the medium loses the spirit and all influence with it. In the Reanimated Mediums case this means that after 24 hours he would lose all influence and enter a coma for 24 hours.

• 2.) The description of the Reanimated Medium says "A reanimated medium becomes more powerful the more influence it has over its body," but the influence track is left the same, meaning that having more influence actually imposes a penalty on the medium, a -2 initiative and a penalty based on the spirit emulated (negatives to strength, caster level, unable to accept spells from allies).

  The text of Channel Self indicates that Reanimated Mediums should want to have more influence, but realistically they benefit more from having at least 1 influence but less than 3, to subvert the influence penalty. This means that the Reanimated Medium actually suffers a penalty until using his spirit surge at least once while the standard medium suffers no penalty until using spirit surge twice.

• 3.) Channel Self says that a Reanimated Medium can have a maximum of 6 influence, but rules as written cannot attain more than 4 (3 from channeling self and 1 from Propitiation).
  

• 1 & 3.) I believe the Reanimated Medium is supposed to be able to channel self at most once every 24 hours, but is not required to. Unlike a normal medium the Reanimated Medium would maintain his spirit choice and influence from day to day. He would be able to channel self to add 3 influence to his current total and change his spirit choice if he wished. This would also allow the Reanimated Medium to reach 6 influence.

• 2.) I propose that the influence penalty direction be reversed, like most other aspects of the Influence system in this archetype. Instead of having a penalty for having 3 or more influence the Reanimated Medium would not suffer the influence penalty until he has less than 3 influence. This would represent the Medium having less influence over their body and the players spirit devolving into the emulated spirit. To regain full control the medium would need to channel self again and reassert control over their body. This would also allow the medium an additional use of Spirit Surge before incurring the penalty to make up for the loss of Taboos.
  

bump

I need some clarification on Channel Self, I believe that the class feature was edited and lost some of the intent of the writer.

I believe the Reanimated Medium was supposed to be able to maintain his influence indefinitely, not requiring a seance every day and rolling over any influence from the previous day that was not spent.

My support for this is that if he loses his channel self after 24 hours, but is not able to channel self until 24 hours have passed (the channel itself requiring 1 hour after the 24 hours have passed), meaning that he would lose all his influence and go into a coma as described by the channel self feature.

My next support is the statement that a Reanimated Medium can have a maximum of 6 influence, but the maximum attainable is 4 (3 from channeling and then 1 from Propitiation).

I think it was intended that the Reanimated Medium would be able to roll over any Influence and Legendary Spirit Potential he had from the previous day and would not have to channel each day except to change his Legendary Spirit Potential or to gain additional influence.

Finally, I think the Influence Penalty should be reversed, ie the Medium suffers the influence penalty for having less than 3 influence. I believe that this portion is correctly written in Occult Adventures but it doesn't make much sense. "A reanimated medium becomes more powerful the more influence it has over its body," if this is the case why is it that the more influence he suffers a penalty? It would make more sense to say that when the Medium has less than 3 influence he devolves and falls sway to the Legendary Spirit Potential he is trying to emulate, and becomes more like the Spirit (suffering the Influence Penalty).

If the current rules are correct then the Reanimated Medium can only have 4 influence max, and can only use spirit surge 3 times, but after using it twice he loses the biggest draw backs from his spirit. Personally I would trade 1-2 rerolls for a +2 Initiative and have Buffs cast upon me, or a +2 Initiative and not take a -2 to intelligence checks and caster level.

Reanimated Mediums are supposed to want to have a lot of Influence (up to 6), but in reality they would seem to want to have 1 or 2 influence, but cannot get more than 4.

Kevin Heavner wrote:

Can we get a clarification? Kinetic Whip only gives the blade "reach" (10 ft reach) so unless it gets 15 ft reach like an actual whip can the name be changed to Kinetic Spear?

Think anime, with tentacles of energy whipping about the hero/villain and shredding things that get too close. It's like being a living octopus of elemental material. Whip is the closest word to it without actually saying "elemental tentacle" which sounds like asking for trouble from certain obnoxious players with dirty minds. Like me. Elemental tempest would kind of fit the imagery as well, but it brings too much of an AoE DoT effect to mind. Can you think of another term that fits the image better? Spear works best mechanically, but whip has closer flavor.

or fry.

I disagree, while your description matches your imagery for the ability the wording is much more ambiguous

"You form a weapon using your kinesis. You create a non-reach
one-handed or light weapon in your hands formed of pure
energy or elemental matter"

"You form a long tendril of energy or elemental matter using your
kinesis."

Tentacles would match some elements, like air or water, but for elements like fire, electricity and earth a flexible tentacle makes little sense. For my electric blast it's better to picture Zeus's lightning bolt for whip. And it explicitly says in whip's description that it functions exactly as blade which says it appears as a weapon in your hand.

Can we get a clarification? Kinetic Whip only gives the blade "reach" (10 ft reach) so unless it gets 15 ft reach like an actual whip can the name be changed to Kinetic Spear?

Hi, so I was wondering, if Kinetic Blasts are considered spells of half the Kineticists level, and the strength of Kinetic Blasts are determined by the Kineticists level, would increasing the Kineticists caster level increase the damage of his Blast, ie with an item or feat that increases caster levels?