I can see certain Necromancers finding value in vitality energy as a tool for working with undead subjects. Can there be a more efficient way to break up undead materials for necromantic purposes than with vitality energy?
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Player Core pg. 384 Curse of Death's heightened entry needlessly references damage taken on a success since it already states it increases damage for each stage. The success result doesn't deal damage and simply inflicts the curse at a stage like failure and critical failure. The success result likely did raw damage previously and was changed. "Heightened (+1) Increase the void damage taken on a success and during the first three stages of the curse by 1d6."
Other than the Mastery of Life and Death feature, which treats Vitality and Void as equal counterparts, the initial description of the Necromancer also has this highlight: "These occult spellcasters seek the ever-changing borders of life and death, manipulating the energies—vitality and void—to suit their will." The only doubtful part imo is that the abilities we were shown in the playtest are as devoid of Vitality effects and damage as the Occult spell list. I think it all depends on how far they will commit to this Vitality and Void duality that has been somewhat set up. The Void trait list is surprisingly small, isn't it? The Death trait only adds Toxic Cloud to the list too, and Power Word Kill if we're including legacy. All very Necromancer appropriate though imo.
I think major word count could be saved by using traits, like how the Fey Eidolon gives access to extra spells. Would giving Necromancers access to all spells with the Vitality or Void traits be too much or too little? I think it would at least fit nicely and thematically as an additional entry to the Mastery of Life and Death feature they already have.
The last line under Stages has something for being at the highest stage: If a failure or critical failure would increase the stage beyond the highest listed stage, the affliction instead repeats the effects of the highest stage. But yeah, only on failure and says nothing on repeating on any other stage.
You can take Whispers of Weakness on any mystery. Lore just starts off with it for free. Check out the level 10 Oracle feats for comparison. Those feats do have prerequisites based on mystery.
It could be the AP I'm playing but it feels like most of the enemies I fight as wood don't bleed. Half of them don't could as living creatures either. Personally I feel that timber sentinel should be nerfed to once per ten minutes, and given a more competitive (and reliable, a good offensive option against more enemies) offensive option. Bad matchups happen, but for a solo Wood Kineticist, falling back on full support mode is technically a great place to be in. My nerf to Timber Sentinel is to simply make its range be tied to your Kinetic Aura, like Fresh Produce. It would be limited to 10 ft until you invest into Aura Shaping. I think people would realize how much that free 30 ft is carrying the feat now that they'd have to stride more often for optimal placement. If Wood gets a compensation adjustment for anything, it's to their Aura Junction. That junction makes me sad.
You’ve made a guide for almost every class I don’t play so they’re extremely clutch for when I GM for my players that do. I thank you for saving my butt many times when I’ve needed to quickly learn about a class I know nothing about.
I sincerely think the immunity clause remaining is a mistake. I find is suspicious the two preremaster hex cantrips with immunity clauses that made it into Divine Mysteries are the only ones with them. They’re damage cantrips too so you’d expect them to mimic Clinging Ice. Trade Death for Life from the Paradox of Opposites did expectedly follow Clinging Ice’s lead though. That one debuted in Divine Mysteries as a damage cantrip with no immunity clause.
On my pure Wood Kineticist, Hail of Splinters was the single thing that allowed me to do serviceable damage on single targets. Ironic since it’s also such a great aoe option, but the easy bleed application was quite satisfying. I didn’t feel too behind in damage contribution, especially with a bit of luck on the bleed recovery checks.
I think Teridax has the right idea here. At least for familiars, all respawns getting bumped up one notch in efficiency feels fair for everyone. - Witches: Familiar is free, has Undying, and can respawn once per day
Essentially, just normalize Undying on every familiar, but throw the Witch bone. A daily Final Sacrifice, twice for Witch, seems cute at most. I believe the Animist already fits into this mold, so it doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
At the very least, I think the Improved Familiar Attunement Wizard deserves a naturally Undying familiar. It switches the Drain Bonded Item action to Drain Familiar so losing your familiar feels extra bad when you also lose a major action. I assume it’s the same reasoning Witches get Undying since losing a familiar also means losing several class features. It’s a lot less extreme for Wizards, of course but maybe Witches probably deserve a little more. Besides that, I’m surprised we don’t have a spell like Summoner’s Precaution but for familiars. Maybe that’s one avenue that could be taken without stepping on the Witch’s toes.
I think the Paradox of Opposites patron is pretty good. Its cantrip is chip damage and sustained fast healing all in one. The familiar ability is a no save stupified. The Witch is spoiling my Sorcerer with both of these effects so I’m surely biased, but it feels solid from what I’ve seen. The Ripple in the Deep seems really solid as well. No save shove on the familiar ability seems abusable, especially with certain party comps. I just think the hex cantrip is a tad middling.
Divine Mysteries pg. 298-299 The hex cantrips of both the Mosquito Witch and The Unseen Broker should have their temporary immunity limitation removed. Buzzing Bites and Pact Broker still leave their targets immune to themselves for 1 minute and, as far as I know, the major QOL change to most of the hex cantrips for the remaster was supposed to be the removal of this immunity. The immunity lines also seem completely unaltered from their pre-master version, so I have a hunch their removal was reasonably missed amongst the other adjustments made to these two spells.
Dash of Herbs (Rage of Elements pg. 34) Dash of Herbs can grant new save attempts against diseases and poisons, similar to another kineticist impulse, torrent in Blood (Rage of Elements pg. 38), except that Dash of Herbs can potentially cause the affliction to worsen. I think Dash of Herbs should have the same clause as Torrent in the Blood where "on a failed save, the condition doesn't worsen."
Player Core 2 pg. 261 Dread Secret's duration entry and the duration listed in the success result don't match. The duration entry states 'until the start of your next turn' but the success result states 'until the end of your next turn'.
Hex Cantrips (Player Core pg. 182) The first sentence concludes that you can "use only one hex each round." I think is incorrect, because every other reference to the hex limit is stated to be once per turn, not once per round. Hex Spells (pg. 181-182), the Hex trait (pg. 183), and the Hex Master feat (pg. 191) all refer to using or casting hexes as limited to once per turn.
A fungus leshy works too, if not too on the nose. But at this point, I'm so desperate for a leshy iconic that I'll take it.
At the very least, the Wood Aura Junction should also scale more neatly at 9th, 13th, and 17th. Those are the Gate's Threshold levels so you'd instantly get the upgraded versions should you get the junction at a later level than 5th. Besides the poor temp HP scaling, upgrading at 10th then finally at 15th always looked kinda odd to me.
Is a feat like the Summoner's Ranged Combatant for your thralls, or I guess for the Create Thrall cantrip specifically in this case, out of the question. I think a feat like Advanced Weaponry, also Summmoner, that gives upgrades/options to Create Thrall attacks couldn't hurt. Or these could be feats that grant new grave cantrips options altogether that command thralls to do different things. Although I think even Create Thrall could easily afford to be able to command more than just Strikes baseline.
I'd be open to a spell slot progression like Magus/Summoner depending on what we get for it. Maybe a tad more at 3 slots per two highest rank spells instead of 2. Or maybe just have options that allow us to sacrifice/"spell blend" slots for other benefits or to activate other abilities. You know those grave spells that need an existing thrall? Maybe if you didn't want to sac a thrall for whatever reason, you can instead sac a low rank spell slot in place of a thrall to cast the grave spell directly from yourself.
The less noisy way is to use Intimidating Glare with the Battle Cry Demoralize. However, the visual trait means it would be just as overt.
While not quite the same, an Undead Eidolon has the undead trait and void healing but is considered a living creature due to its initial ability. I think most people use this sentence under the Dhampir entry as the best guide for how it's intended to work. "You have the void healing ability, which means you are harmed by vitality damage and healed by void effects as if you were undead." The "as if you were undead" part, which is unfortunately absent in the void healing description, heavily implies that you are targetable as undead if you have void healing, but specifically for void or vitality damage and healing effects. As a Dhampir, you should still be targetable as living for everything else. I don't think it reads that way RAW, but it is how most groups I've seen treat it. With how many different spells and effects that specify they target living or undead while assuming living doesn't have void healing and undead does have void healing, I think the Void Healing description itself should just specify how it affects targeting, if it's even supposed to.
Yeah, I thought I was going crazy reading the Step part of the Divine option. Triggering as a blood magic option would make it more interesting though.
Now that you mention it, since the remaster, several things that target undead has also added the line “or otherwise has void healing.” It’s not on everything, but I think it’s on enough that it’s heavily implied that’s a given. And like you said, having vitality/void healing making you count as living/undead respectively despite what you actually are makes everything work smoothly. Things that have effects for both living and undead like Heal and Harm also become unecessarily difficult, otherwise. I mean, that’s how most of us rule for Dhampirs. Thanks!
This is the additional effect of Nudge the Scales:
I might be overthinking how this works so I could use some confirmation how far off I am. On a regular living creature, if you choose death, you remain living but gain void healing. You now heal and get targeted like how a Dhampir would. Easy. On a Dhampir, a living creature with void healing, if you choose life, you remain living and you ignore your void healing ability. I know it doesn't say "remove" your void healing directly, but I'm sure it's meant to override it with the life alignment effect. You now heal and get targeted like every other full living creature would. Also easy. On an undead, like a Skeleton or any Undead archetype, if you choose life, you remain undead but ignore void healing. You are undead but you ignore void healing, which I have no examples for. Since most vitality healing effects requiring living targets, this really doesn't do much for the still undead PCs. Unless of course, does the line "If you align yourself with life, you are healed by vitality healing effects, as normal for most living creatures" qualify enough as 'specific overrides general' to allow the targeting and healing of an Undead PC with vitality healing effects?
The only mystery that would've needed a completely new mystery benefit is Bones. Everything else was completely unique and sorely missed. Oh and then maybe Lore keeps the extra spell slots since their benefit was one extra spell known per rank.
If you want to also dabble with more earth spells and more spell slots for actual summoning, going Arcane caster with Undead Master archetype is also an option. Otherwise, Undead Summoner is great if you're leaning more towards one big boney buddy and want the Archeologist dedication asap.
Airlift has some neat utility as a single movement Fly spell but for your entire party.
Countermeasure is the same AFAIK. Thanks for the info! Nice to hear about Countermeasure, one of my favorites. The old Extend Spell was so narrow to what it could apply to that I'm honestly glad to hear it change into anything more flexible. But we'll have to see the whole picture on all of these new blood magic changes.
Imperial being my favorite bloodline, it makes me feel elated it got some love. But apparently, maybe a bit too much? Did its other focus spells, Extend Spell and Arcane Countermeasure, get any changes too?
I love everything I'm reading so far, especially for the cursebound trait. Also, we did it Divine Access bros! More domain access is a nice surprise. And of course, more feats for the one of the most feat starved classes deserves a big thanks! Oh man, I cannot wait to fall in love with this class all over again! I'm always down for another round of playing with every mystery.
The glass shield changes are tight. Big ups.
I personally haven't tried this in a game, but I have seen it suggested more and more as a temporary homebrew and/or an actual change ever since the focus point changes. Agreed that it doesn't solve everything, but I do love that it solves the big and annoying issue of the curse locking oracles into one cursebound focus spell after the first encounter from level 1 to 10. And I think it does it in a clean and fun way. The resource management in choosing between paying a focus point or advancing your curse is so my jam. I like how it also plays nicely with how each mystery mostly have different preferred curse levels. It is steadily becoming my favorite new Oracle wishlist change, just behind a built-in Divine Access class feature.
Little quibbles with edge cases aside (they exist but that's for another thread), the new state of condition removal spells is SO much better, I am livin' as a Life Oracle who can feasibly (albeit with some effort!) cover all of that now. Turning 8 condition-clearing spells (Remove Fear, Remove Paralysis, Restoration, Restore Senses, Remove Disease, Neutralize Poison, Remove Curse, and Stone to Flesh) into 4 (Sure Footing, Sound Body, Clear Mind, and Cleanse Affliction) that address everything the old ones did and way more, and do it more practically for combat, is nothing short of blessed. ~w~ Being able to officially remove those conditions from undead PCs with those spells is really nice too since they're all non-vitality healing effects! Well, except Sound Body.
Pour one out for Plant Form. It lost the Shambler battle form option. It only has Arboreal and Flytrap now. Also, I know this was in the preview but Entangling Flora (previously Entangle) not requiring existing plants or fungi is much appreciated. It's now great for setting up effects that do need existing plants or fungi like Nature's Reprisal.
I really can’t express how thankful I am for all the love Paizo has given to plant and now wood options in this game. They already had me with Leshies, but I never expected the ever-expanding garden of 2e to grow this big and often.
I constantly fall in the cycle of forgetting and getting reminded of Daze having a duration entry. I'd love for that to be addressed, and hopefully clarified in general for other things.
Oracle is a mess of good ideas that for me don't quite work. Maybe I am not getting it but the burden of the curse seems to high? I loved oracles in PF1, loved the detriment of 1st level that got benefits to work around/overcome it later. Now the curse/mystery forces a certain kind of playstyle great in theory but unless the optimum moment for your mystery/curse to shine present itself you are playing at a disadvantage for using your classes core mechanic the rest of the time. Imo Cosmos is the only mystery that nets positive on the overall risk/reward. Not so much that the curse bonuses are powerful and morseo that the penalties are easy to mitigate and manage. Its decent focus spells and amazing mystery benefit are what pushes it above the threshold. Everything else just breaks even or is worse off for playing with their curse. Life has great bonuses offset by very risky penalties. Bones has middling bonuses that almost perfectly cancels its penalties. Flame and Tempest are held back by the divine spell list more than anything. Battle's penalties are more significant than its benefits, while Time is the opposite, with its benefits lacking compared to its penalties. Ancestors is intrinsically rough due to its gimmick, but at least its a gimmick. Lore is too tragic to talk about. I haven't played Ash.
I'm pretty high on the Bones Oracle more than most, but I do think it has the worst Mystery Benefit in terms of design and deserves a second look. It's an on daily prep decision to gain negative healing. It's too situational, both in effect and application, compared to the others it often feels like you have no Mystery Benefit to work with at all most of the time. I wish it was something you can do more on the fly instead. Maybe not exactly combat useable but at least as a 10 minute activity once per day. The alternate effect, if you have negative healing already, isn't any better. Specifically since its improved recovery check doesn't stack with Toughness unlike Mountain's Stoutness. It's also disappointingly redundant with the major curse.
These are quite specific so I'm not holding my breath, but the general idea is giving some Sorcerer and Oracle focus spells another look. The few that live rent free in my head:
For Alchemists, I'd appreciate Double Brew and Alchemical Alacrity become more practical. Quick Alchemy brews lasting until the end of your next turn instead of the start would be nice (essentially free Enduring Alchemy), but I wouldn't mind even more of a push than that.
Oracles should at least get their Divine Access feat bumped down to level 1. Then there's debate between just straight up giving each mystery a spell list like the Sorcerer and Psychic or giving the class one free instance of the Divine Access feat. I personally like the latter because it highlights a very unique class feat to players from the very beginning. You get a few thematic spells, but further investment isn't pushed. I also like that everything else is already built-in for it. It just needs to be stated you get it, saving some text space in comparison to a spell list. Other than that, I think all Oracles really need is another balance pass on each mystery's curse risk-reward ratio. This ideally also takes into consideration the strength of the passive mystery benefits and focus spells, which vary quite significantly. I'm fine with the more even risk-reward curses like Bones and Life, but I've gradually preferred wanting a more noticeable lean toward a clearly rewarding like Cosmos. A popular concern I've noticed from those new/unfamiliar with the class is that the minor curse only dishes out penalties. I can see how that feature is a frequent focal point. While I don't think the minor curse needs to grant benefits, I do feel the curse boons need to be more pronounced in spite of the curse penalties (although a few curse penalties are truly just too harsh/limiting as is). At minimum, the moderate curse would need to have eye-catching benefits that make it feel worth pain of being cursed.
Is being stunned on your turn is still up in the air? There was recent errata that touched on stunned in general, but I don't remember if it actually addressed that specific timing. The big 2 for me are already mentioned. Recall Knowledge. Negative healing/undead trait rules, specifically the undead trait entailing immunity to healing effects. I do believe that's the final loose end of those rules and removing it cleans everything else up. Additionally, I think the removal of the word "mitigate" to convey what you can and can't do to circumvent Oracle curses would go a long way. I think every other word used (reduce, remove, negate, and ignore) is comprehensive and clear enough, and mitigate just muddies this.
Life Oracles are set up to have a neat and unique healing playstyle in combat. What you lack in free Heal spellslots, you make up for with damage redistribution with Life Link. Gradually mitigating damage from your party makes for efficient 3-action AoE heals. Your natural d12 Heals under moderate curse makes for great burst heals, which is perfect for your personal Heals since you redirect a lot of damage to yourself. Often this means you are the one in the most need of healing, which seems horrible due to minor curse. But since this leaves the rest of your party generally healthier, you can actually save up on actions and Heal spells. You don't have to chase allies down too much, they go down less from the HP buffer you provide, and maybe you burst Heal yourself once per encounter. Sometimes not even since with Battle Medicine, on top of everything else, you're pretty good at keeping everyone standing by the end of the encounter. Maybe not topped off on HP but standing. And at that point, you can Treat Wounds your problems away. This becomes more serviceable at higher levels when Life Link gains more targets. A bit dependent on party size too as Life Link's heightened scaling is awkward.
1 psychic refocus This and eidolons using mundane items I'm super curious about. With the influx of Summoners and Psychics at tables I've played at recently, I've noticed GMs are pretty 50/50 on how they rule these two. We even had a long but fun quibble on the psychic refocus trick with one table. Hilariously, the Psychic player wasn't even the one who brought it up.
Healer’s Blessing, in particular, does take the penalty separately because it is an additional healing instance to the triggering heal. If it was simply a bonus to a heal, like Undeath’s Blessing, there would be only one instance of healing to penalize.
I'm not sure that Divine Access is a must take, I'm currently playing a cosmos oracle with pretty much no intention of taking it, although that might be the exception to the rule. That’s the beauty of it all. Cosmos is the most independant mystery from Divine Access because of its small deity list, solid focus spells, and its favorable curse balance. Every Oracle getting a free Divine Access feat would appropriately help many of the other mysteries without overimproving an already solid one.
Two changes that are constantly at the forefront of my mind: 1) Enduring Alchemy should be removed as a feat. Quick Alchemy's last sentence should then be changed from "it remains potent only until the start of your next turn" to "it remains potent only until the end of your next turn." At the very least, it's a courtesy to Double Brew and especially Alchemical Alacrity. I think it's perfectly appropriate to expect those class features to function effectively without having to take a separate feat. Alchemical_Genius already touched on this, but I think it's worth reiterating for much it smooths out for such a tiny change. 2) Oracles should get one Divine Access feat for free at 1st level. Divine Access should also at least be a level 2 feat. With the clamor for Oracles getting more spells to better support each mystery, utilizing the already established Divine Access seems to make the most sense. I especially like how it showcases early on how integral and unique the Divine Access feat is to the class, even if some mysteries are more thirsty for it than others.
The ones I’ve got down currently are forestall curse, reach spell, then 16 and 20 are Necromancer’s visage (mostly a flavour choice) and oracular providence. Reach spell for any caster with good 1-action spells is always nice when you can get it. An extra 10th level spell is always welcome. Ironically, I don't think I've played a Bones Oracle after the release of Book of the Dead so I've never even read Necromancer's Visage. It seems really fun in the right campaign so I hope it serves you well. Unfortunately from a character perspective I don’t think there’s any way for this particular bones oracle to get the things you’re talking about through divine access. She worships Pharasma. Thankfully, you don't need to worship the deity you choose for Divine Access at all, so you should be good. You can take Divine Access multiple times after all. I went the diplomacy, Bon Mot route, but intimidate would be better. Strictly combat wise at least. Both are great in different ways, so it's all preference imo. Frightened is just more universal being able to improve all of your save spells while Bon Mot and Evangelize are specialized for Will save spells, which is a lot of what the Divine and Occult lists have to offer. So Frightened will help out your non-Will save spells like Soul Siphon, but inflicting Frightened is usually a Will save anyway like with the Fear spell. Solid spell list too by the way. Those spells are exactly what a lot of Oracle players look for when considering Divine Access support options. You should be fine. |