Lukas Stariha's page

Is this problem unique to 2e witches? I've played with a witch PC in my 1e games about 75% of the time and the familiar rarely if ever got a mention outside of RP. This seems like creating an issue where one doesn't need to exist. Yes there are ways a familiar can get killed but a d##++ead GM can just as easily choose to go after a Wizard's spellbook or a cleric's divine focus.

I’d say with familiars getting much more emphasis as a class feature, it isn’t exactly fair to compare a GM targeting the squishy monkey who is actively helping his witch to an inanimate object that may or may not even be at hand to target.

I think it’s safe to say that, at the very least, Paizo doesn’t want players to consistently feel disappointed by missing studied strike (either the study check or the accuracy check), so it’s absolutely worth our time to communicate that it doesn’t feel very good. However, at this point they do probably get the point considering how many posts and topics have been made about it.

I’m definitely seconding (thirding? Fortiething?) lessening the penalties for losing your familiar. It’s super counterproductive to give a class a familiar and tell the player how cool it is only to penalize that player for actually remembering it exists. Just having the familiar come back the next day is perfectly fine. Your punishment for your familiar getting killed is that you can no longer use your familiar that day and maybe you get a scolding from your patron. It doesn’t need to be any more than that.

HyperMissingno wrote:

More feats for that hair please. I don't care if I'm a lot less effective than a martial, I just want the hair to be a decent option like it was in PF1.

What does the PF1 hex have that the PF2 version doesn't? What does it need for you to be "decent"?

Reach is the big one. The hex has 10' reach and the archetype's reach starts at 5 and increases every 4 levels. The archetype could also do a lot of different maneuvers using INT instead of STR (tripping, pulling, grappling w/ constrict and strangle).

I think if witches were to get subclasses for their patrons, rather than have them be indicative of who your patron is, I’d rather have it be defined by your relationship to your patron. Like, if you had a patron who hid their identity from you, your subclass would be “The Unknown” or something. Whereas if your patron was a force trying to influence you it could be “The Tempter”. That way the actual identity and abilities of your patron would still be defined by what lessons they can teach you.

Honestly I think the best/only change that really needs to be made to make Int more impactful is to make study a suspect some form of intelligence skill check.

Edit: Better yet, an enemy Will save against class DC as someone said upthread.

If there’s one thing I can agree with in this thread, it’s that I wish Mutagenist got a better feature for level 1. Yes, being able to become expert in unarmed at level 7 is good, but it does basically nothing until then (the rules don’t even spell out mutagens can’t be used by someone they aren’t made for), and even when it comes online, it feels like it is just playing catch-up for the Alchemist not being expert in unarmed as part of their class.

Lukas Stariha wrote:

Ah, so it means 1.5x Str and +3 Power Attack, but no bucklers. Interesting! The 1.5x Str is probably mostly wasted, as this feat allows you to use Slashing Grace as well, but this would be the only case in which you could get +3 Power Attack with a weapon that qualifies for that feat and also Precise Strike!

Some of the feats from Armor Master's Handbook might get shields back in the mix. ^_^

Yes, Unhindered Shield even makes Bucklers available to you, if you so choose to use the feats for it!

That too, but a bodyguard who can't protect his ward from arrows is pretty pathetic, especially since he can't really leave their side to kill said archers. (This is what I mean by the idea behind it being weaker, the character concept that would want it essentially breaks down.)

FAQ Friday returns after GenCon!

FAQ wrote:

Bodyguard: The Bodyguard feat says that I can spend one of my attacks of opportunity to use aid another to increase the AC of an adjacent ally, but it doesn’t say one way or the other whether this removes other restrictions on aid another? Particularly, do I need to threaten the attacking enemy? Also, has that enemy provoked an attack of opportunity from me?

You still need to fulfill all requirements of aid another, including threatening the attacking enemy. Bodyguard uses up one of your attacks of opportunity for the round, but the enemy hasn’t provoked an attack of opportunity from you, nor are you making one (which is relevant for abilities like Paired Opportunist).

There's something that feels really wrong about Bodyguard not working against ranged attacks (it makes the feat and the idea behind it much weaker), but I guess we can all hope for an eventual errata to change that...

Druid with a Tiger/Lion companion is way too common; unfortunately for a reason, given how much better they are than the majority of ACs.

The spell list is a problem, but honestly, what really kills Magical Child is the lack of unique talents. It effectively loses access to around 10 talents each version of the base Vig has baked in, while not getting anything in return. That plus half its talents being traded fro one of the worst 3/4 caster spell lists and a familiar+ really makes it underwhelm.

So, this is partially a question for UI, but mostly a general polymorph question, but would Alchemist discoveries like the Tumor Familiar, Wings and Extra Arms be lost when using a polymorph effect (most relevantly the Metamorph's main ability)?
If so, that's unfortunate as it makes even fewer talents viable for the Metamorph to take.

It will definitely be banned in PFS, since they routinely ban anything that might lead to PVP. That Will save is going to be tough since the save DC advances faster than the save bonus does.

I don't foresee many GMs or player groups allowing it in home games either, it's way too detrimental in both the time it takes to resolve and the danger it poses to the party. I'm not a great fan of hamstringing a class option to being nearly unusable just to please people who want to "accidentally" murder their party.

Lukas Stariha wrote:

Having read through the book, I have to say the Brute Vigilante is my biggest disappointment. I understand the idea of mimicking the whole "Hulk is uncontrollable" thing, but the PvP aspect and the difficulty of preventing it means it will probably never be viable as any kind of PC option, which is honestly worse to me than not fitting the trope completely.

I think people would have complained more about it not fitting than the PvP aspect.

I guess I just won't ever understand that complaint, because I can't see many, if any, players being able to use it as is. It is impossible to avoid this PvP mechanic, unlike other archetypes such as Cult Leader or Toxicant.

Having read through the book, I have to say the Brute Vigilante is my biggest disappointment. I understand the idea of mimicking the whole "Hulk is uncontrollable" thing, but the PvP aspect and the difficulty of preventing it means it will probably never be viable as any kind of PC option, which is honestly worse to me than not fitting the trope completely.

In regards to the dwarf and half-Orc Kineticist favored class bonuses: why the change to only work on elemental overflow? They are much more limited than elf(earth and fire only, respectively).

This makes those choices yet another thing you can't chose at your first level in your favored class, a surprisingly strange and confusing thing.

I think you are misunderstanding: the errata is saying that the bonus only applies to blasts that elemental overflow damage applies to, i.e. Kinetic Blade and Kinetic Fist do not get the bonus damage.

The trade-off between elf being more general is that the half-orc and dwarf bonuses scale faster (1/3 level vs 1/4 level).

Ironically, the only Emotion Focus that is fully functional without a slam attack and with no dead features due to the lack of master is the Hatred focus... Which grants Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, a rather lacklustre feat for the STR-crazed Bloodrager.

PS - fittingly, the only way Bloodragers can get a slam attack is Undead Anatomy, without dipping that is.

Urban Bloodrager from Heroes of the Streets seems to stack with Id Rager, so get your rage bonus to Dex instead!

Lukas Stariha wrote:

Upon looking at the Kineticist elements, there is a serious problem with every non-universal infusion for Wood and Void from Occult Adventures: They don't have listed associated blasts.

It is unclear if Pushing is available for both Gravity and Negative Blast or if any Wood Composite Blast can use Deadly Earth, Entangling, Impale or Pushing.

EDIT: I just checked, and indeed the intros (in the simple blast text) tell you the associated blasts.

Phew! Thanks Mark, I was really worried there for a second. I was afraid the elements would get lost in the Player Companion FAQ purgatory. >_>

Also would like to know who designed the Mesmerist, which is also growing on me by leaps and bounds :-)

Fairly certain that would be one Mr. Logan Bonner.

Don't misunderstand, I don't think there's any "hashing out" going on here.

I'm actually quite interested that others might have differing opinions on what spirits are weaker than others. This also makes me excited for new spirit options that will allow players to replace ones they don't want, as it will go a long way toward allowing each Medium player to customize which 6 kinds of playstyles (by way of spirits) they most want to use.

Marshal and Trickster turn it into classes I don't want to play, for the most part, but they're useful when Trance of Three comes online or you can get an hour of downtime before anything important besides skill checks happens.

Interestingly, I actually feel that way about Guardian and Marshal. While Trickster has limited use, I can justify possibly channeling it if party composition necessitates more skills that day. Guardian and Marshal don't give me anything to work with before intermediate powers come online. I just can't see the use in giving up spells, a lot of attack and damage bonuses or near-mastery of skills for either heavy armor+AC boost or getting bonuses to surge (something that can only be done a maximum of 3 times, realistically until 6+).

Ustalavic Duelist Fighter gets a shout-out because at level 13 it gives you the ability to use your weapon for dirty trick, trip and disarm combat maneuvers... Something everyone can already do.

How about the Stygian Slayer? It sounds cool and I'd love to use it were it not for the fact that Paizo seems to have accidentally'd proficiency with all weapons away from the archetype. And the errata still hasn't fixed that as far as I can tell (The linked website still has what I have to assume was a really noticeable error).

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A stygian slayer is

proficient with light armor, but not with medium armor,
heavy armor, or any kind of shield (including tower shields).
This replaces the slayer’s weapon and armor proficiency.

"In the Stygian Slayer archetype’s

Weapon and Armor Proficiency section, in the final
sentence, remove “weapon and”

It was changed in the errata, but d20pfsrd appears to have incorrectly edited it.

Edit: For those commenting, What I've read of Occult Adventures thus far suggests a vastly improved degree of quality.

I will emphatically confirm this.

Put simply, the class presented to playtesters was too incomplete.

It is understandable that the designers wished to keep unfinished subsystems from being used in the playtest, but then explaining that the vigilante was tied to these unseen rules as an excuse for why the social side did very little left a sour taste in many of the playtesters' mouths.

Similarly, another factor working against anyone trying to build the class was the illusion of choice presented in the talents.
-Social Talents had barely any options, as there were only 2 that could be taken without prerequisites and almost all were just class abilities from the 1st round.
-Avenger is a mostly boring Fighter look-alike that gets to choose between feats or other feats with slight additions.
-Stalker fares the best, having several interesting abilities that all seem somewhat viable... Along with 2 or 3 that are head-and-shoulders above the rest.
-Warlock has a couple of unique ideas, but is forced to choose between getting some semblance of progression with spells or less-useful, but fun, talents that are about 50% traps.
-Zealot is like Warlock, but remove the words "unique" and "fun". The exceptions being 1 or 2 (Smite comes to mind) that are legitimately useful and compete with spellcasting.

I won't comment on the flavor of the class, as it seems potentially interesting but not something I personally want to include or build in most settings.

It is a shame that the playtest felt like it was showing off a fraction of a class, as it's current state lead to me getting frustrated with lack of options each time I tried to build one. This means I never got to playtest it proper, but I believe the fact that I couldn't bring myself to ever finish making one out of annoyance is some form of feedback in itself.

Ultimately, I think there is a neat place that this class can be taken, (a few various talent options got me really excited, despite my overall distaste of the class surrounding it) but it needs to be fleshed-out much more before I would consider building or including one in a game.

The social talents kind of blow because there's barely any new powers but overall I think Its good design as it optens up the social persona to do quite a bit. I just hope that future social talents allow you to provide more prep work for your vigilante persona, like an alchemical inventor or some kind of moneymaking mechanic.

It's very disconcerting that there are only 2 social talents that are open at level 1 and both are previous abilities...

Melee Mystic Bolts are finessable, as touch spells can be.

I am wondering why Mystic Bolts requires level 4. I suppose because it is a bit more reliable at that level, but I think it would benefit the specialization to have that option of an alternate to a weapon earlier on (especially since at level 4, it competes with improving your spells)

As I won't be back from class until after the Playtest closes, I'd like to write my concluding thoughts on the Medium, the class I played the most during the playtest. For what it's worth, my experience was at level 1 (PFS), level 7 (Arena battle) and building a level 16 Medium for another Arena that got pushed back to this weekend at the last minute. Hopefully this thread doesn't get too flooded as to get this lost in the shadows~

Medium Final Thoughts:

The class is amazingly fun to build and the intricacies and differences in how you can play are just phenomenal. The same goes for Role-playing the character. Mediums can feel fluid in their personalities, due to the spirits' influence, so the class itself can create an amusingly schizophrenic character whose entire ideology changes with a trance.

There is one huge, huge problem though, build complexity/fun increases at a startlingly exponential rate. Until level 5, the Medium has 1 always-on power and just got some (largely mediocre) spells. Adding the Beseech Spirits ability is nice to give them something to do in situations early on, but you don't get to REALLY begin to start enjoying what the class has to offer until level 5. This makes the Medium a poor choice, in my opinion, for low-level campaigns and honestly for PFS as a whole. You really don't get to to experience the best part of the class (being able to mix and match spirits for an awesome combination) until almost halfway through an average PFS career.

I really love this class, but wish it wasn't so back-loaded with the best features. Creating a medium at 1st level is a dreadfully boring process, picking which 2-3 spirits you COULD potentially channel, but given the fact some give important build feats, mean you probably will stick to a single spirit with very limited trance potential (and when the book releases, beseech spirits) from the others.

Overall, the class fills a great niche that PF lacked and even takes the Binder/Occultist concept in a neat, flavorful new direction than those classes. Unfortunately, I wouldn't build one for every game, as I probably wouldn't be enjoying playing my character for however long it takes to get to the most fun parts of the class. I will, however, love building one whenever I can start above 5. ;)

Is it because it's not worth the trade off? Because it's sub-optimal?

If the benefits from accepting burn are worth it, shouldn't you have also spent burn to increase your miss chance? Or are only Kinetic Form and the defense of Water and Earth (possibly Aether) worth the cost of accepting burn?

Does this mean that people who don't want to be forced to play an elemental or those who don't want to play one of those two (maybe 3) elements just s@!& out of luck?

I fail to see how this is an argument against burn when it seems to be an argument about how much better some elements are than others.

Also seriously people, you don't have to take everything so personally.

So, I don't actually need a second full pkaytest (though I would love one), but I feel like some kind of list of potential/probable changes might be called for. I know this is my favorite Pathfinder class, so, I fully intend to play my kineticist between now and August when the book comes out, and I would really love to play a better character.

Just something like: "yeah, you get more skills, damage progression will probably become X, and you get wild talents every level now: evens for form/substance and odd for utility.

Speaking of which, does anyone know when the playtest is actually over?

I'd like to second this. This is really the only reason I want a second playtest document, so some of the weaker classes (Kineticist, Medium [pre-4] and Mesmerist) are effectively playable in PFS. Especially since it seems no one disagrees the Kineticist needs more skills per level.

I would just like to point out and agree with some other posters that the Anger Phantom is a trap. It's DPR is hilariously low compared to Hatred, except at the lowest levels, and the fact its other abilities are 1/day or the rounds/day Aura makes it almost always the most subpar choice (with the exception of Zeal, which doesn't really seem to do much at all, period.)

I have to say, upon building one, (admittedly, through level 5) I don't think the Medium needs full BAB if it is running a STR spirit.

What it does need, however, is more abilities early on (more uses of trance?) and more/better lesser spirit powers. A few do virtually nothing unless you have spells and a very high amount of them are really only useful as trances (Who wants their one lesser spirit power for the day at levels 1-4 to add to confusion percentile or spot hidden doors?) So really, this leaves 3-5 spirits as viable primaries that early and most of them have largely passive effects like the Bear's Claws or the Beating's Beater.

Additionally, a good fort save would be nice, for the reasons already mentioned thus far.

I honestly didn't realize Trance had a limit on uses/day (it doesn't mention it in the ability description, only on the table) and it really feels like it shouldn't. The Occultist has so little variety at the early levels that invoking trance is one of the few decisions you get to make after your seance.