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ProfessorCirno's page
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I dunno if you guys saw this before or if it was posted here before or what, but I'm posting here anyways.
Quote: For my son's 8th birthday party he convinced me to run Dungeons and Dragons for four 2nd graders... I decided to take actual characters made in the DND Insider and simplify them us that the boys could have fun without much of a learning curve. Here are the six characters I made from scratch for the game. I am happy to report it was a huge success, each boy had a fantastic time... and so did I. I would happily do it again. After making the six boy characters, he went on to make six girl characters, and a side page for summons.
Boy characters
Girl characters 1
Girl characters 2
Summons
PS: The bard is the best character. Let's be friends!
This is the thread where people who swore on their life that this would happen can come in and discretely apologize and admit to being wrong.
Yep. Let's do this. It's gonna be really brief and informal though, since I'm "borrowing" my housemate's copy :B. I won't go too in depth either.
Might expand the thread (or make others) at a later date for other parts of the book.
Alchemist: Most of the new discoveries look p. sweet. I also like a few of the archtypes as someone who almost primarily plays BOMBERMAN Alchies - it gives some good depth.
Bard: Masterpieces really, really annoy me. They're incredibly difficult to get and just generally not worth it. Perhaps two are worth a feat, maybe a spell slot. You give up a lot to not only get them but to then also use them. If they were drastically easier to get - maybe the feat gives you a number based on your charisma modifier? - they'd be way better. As it is, they just rankle as something potentially good that dies in execution. As for the archtypes, none of them really shine to me. Geisha seems kinda weird - you burn potentially a lot of bard song rounds, but when it takes ten minutes and only lasts for ten minutes, there's an incredibly small window of when it would be really used. Songhealer is pretty boss though, so that gets a thumbs up.
Cleric: I rarely if ever play clerics. That said, increased good options are always good. A good number seem a bit on the weak side. I'll be honest, I just sorta glanced through here. Clerics aren't really my thing. The archtypes almost all seem on the weaker, not so great side; CC has been discussed to death, Seperatist I'm kinda eh on -most DMs I know would just let you grab another domain if you can give a good IC reason for it - but that's sorta cheating since you can't balance by houserules, whoops guess I'm a bad reviewer, Theologian feels like it should get a bit more bang for it's buck. Undead Lord is pretty sweet though, I'll grant it that.
Druid: New domains that are for ~*~druids~*~ only is actually a good thing, I think! Helps domain druids stand out a bit more. New companions are also always good (Haha no I'm not going to number crunch how efficient or "optimized" they are). Archtypes though...let's take a seat. Now, most of them are actually sorta good! Some are a bit specialized, but overall what you lose and what you gain are vaguely equal. But the dragon shaman, what happened there? It has nothing to do with dragons! It's a lizard shaman!
Inquisitor: Never played one. More good choices are always a good thing. not much else to say here as I don't have the experience :B
Monk: Vows are awful. Qinggong monk is a cool idea but the actual abilities it gets tend to be weak and cost far too much. I have come to the realization that Paizo literally hates you if you want to be a monk. They are not allowed nice things.
Oracle: A phrase you are no doubt tired of: more good choices, always a good thing, etc. Vaguely disappointed there aren't other curses, and that the METAL mystery doesn't give a headbanging bonus. Not much to say here, overall good.
Paladins: Ouch. Some of the oaths are kinda nice, but overall suffer from a common theme - you have to both take the oath on top of your normal paladin code and lose class abilities. I eagerly await a flood of more paladin falling threads.
Rangers: This part fills me with anger. Why is Trapper a thing? Would it've been so awful to just make a single feat that gives rangers all the traps? Maybe add a second feat that gives them the Launch Trap ability? This does not need to be it's own archtype, and the traps aren't anywhere near being worth a feat apiece.
Sorcerer: Good options, blah blah. Some of the boodline powers are distinctly better then others, but w/e.
Summoner: I like the new evolutions and the new base form, but I'm admittingly vaguely iffy on the models since they don't...well...add stuff. As far as archtypes go, I'm glad there's the warning about how multiple eidolons can take up a lot of time (because they can you see), oh and SYNTHESIST OWNS DON'T CARE IF IT IS OR AIN'T OPTIMIZED IT OWNS.
Witch: Here I'm seeing something that was niggling at me earlier become a full on :|. There's a lot of vaguely cool [abilities] (hexes in this case) but some are so very clearly not all too useful. As for the archtypes, the only one that stares at me is the Hedge Witch, which I ma as well rename "We don't need no stinkin' clerics." The hexes thing is pretty annoying, though, and overall wait I can make a male witch that punches people with his moustache oh my god.
Wizard: Wizard made out like bankrobers, yo. I'd go so far as to say that a good number of Arcane Discoveries are unabashed power creep. Scrollmaster is also pretty bizarre.
Ranger traps are p. sweet and should just be a normal thing rangers get. Unfortunately, they became an awful archtype that seems to do naught but buff up the word count, and the feat is especially awful and laughably not worth it.
Therefore, Trapper Ranger is murdered and cannibalized, all rangers get all traps automatically, and a feat is made to give them the whole "set traps at a range" thing
4th Edition owns. What's up Paizo forums?
The other day before the weekend I was at Borders and there were groups of people getting ready to play all different editions and I was in the mood for some 4th so I went to that group and asked if I could join. They were super chill and invited me in and I joined as a one shot NPC (I was a dragonborn warlord it was awesome). I love the huge variety of options available to me even though I'm not some lame wizard. In combat I was giving advice and setting my allies up and pointing out openings and illustrating my dragonborn's inborn tactical knowledge, and out of combat my high diplomacy and history skills were a huge welcome to the party.
Then after the game a few people were grumpy but everyone there was chill so there weren't edition wars or anything.
This weekend I was in a 3.5 game because while I like 4e I like 3e too, and it was crazy fun, like, you wouldn't even believe it! I was a half elf bard/Sublime Chord, it's great.
Man even the supplements own! Gamma World is crazy fun and the board games are some of the best board games I've played (though admittingly I'm no connesoir).
Being a gamer right now is way sweet, and I'm super glad I have all this awesome stuff to play. Thanks, WotC!
There's been a lot of talk around here about wanting swashbucklers or musketeers and whatnot, and since guns themselves are a part of this playtest, I thought I'd issue a new thread on them.
So, guns. Guns are cool! I mentioned that in my earlier thread. I know I'm not the only one to think guns own. However, there are disagreements on what the gunslinger should be. I think this is less an argument about gunslingers, however, and more an argument about guns.
I'd like to say that, overwhelmingly, it seems that people are all unhappy with the current state of guns in the playtest we have. I'm not going to be yelling about them sucking or bluh bluhing over disliking them. Instead, I'm using this to present a set of questions both to you, dear reader, and to the developers.
1) Are guns meant to be a weapon used by non-gunslingers? Currently, guns need gunslingers, or at least gunslinger abilities, to function well. If guns are meant to be sort of a "gunslinger only" thing then this technically is functioning as planned. However, this limits the number of archtypes you can make down to, well, 1 (the gunslinger)
2) Are guns intended to be a "main" weapon? Currently, the only "main" ranged weapon is the bow due to its ability to full attack. Crossbows and throwing weapons serve as a secondary weapon due to being a one shot deal and due to how everyone has proficiency in them. Guns have the negative trappings of both.
3) Are other archtypes intended to be useable? That isn't to say mechanical archtypes, but rather, do you see the ability to make swashbucklers or musketeers with gun rules? There was a feat in 3.5 that allowed a person to dual wield a hand crossbow and a melee weapon and to fire it without taking an AoO. Is it possible to see similar feats or abilities or etc to cover other styles of play?
4) What reason do characters have to spend a feat to gain guns? Guns have most in common with crossbows. With misfire rules in place, guns are an actively worse weapon then crossbows are, x4 notwithstanding, and most crossbows are simple weapons. Are they an exotic weapon for fluff reasons or because you feel they are actively strong enough to deserve it?
5) What are the reasons for the extreme costs? A gun costs more then a magical set of armor as it currently stands. Is that desirable? It seems to paint magic as being distinctly more common then even the weakest of guns. Likewise, bullets are literally lead that costs more then gold (bet those alchemists feel silly now).
Woops put this in the wrong thread. I'm putting it here now instead!
I abhor how the ninja, the gunslinger, and the samurai - and the monk, and all the other martial base classes - have these "x per day" restrictions to abilities. The gunslinger could be better since he can recharge his, but...well, there's a big heap of problems regarding those that I cover in my m-m-m-megathread.
Per-encounter is no more abstracted then per-day is, since both are inherently abstract game functions. The same goes for rechargable points - since the x/day mechanic is already an abstraction, being able to regain them is no more or no less of one.
The problems with per day/unrechargable: There are a lot. First off, it's where the nova is born from. It also leads to strange-ities such as having to balance how many encounters a day you have, as well as trying to track out how many "resources" each encounter takes off. But most of all, for a martial class, it just isn't that fun. I mean, I'm a ninja, I'm supposed to be flipping out and killing things every fight, but I can't because woops I only have so many ki points left. Guess I can't be a ninja anymore. We see it probably hardest in the monk, who has to all but vomit ki points copiously to keep up with everyone else - and he only has so many.
I'm going to assume we ain't about to jump into a per-encounter system. That said, being able to "recharge" the daily points would help tremendously. As much as I have so many problems with the Gunslinger, the fact that he can GAIN grit points is an incredible step in the right direction. I really feel that all non-casters should have a means by which they can "recharge" their daily abilities. Potentially you could have the recharge mechanics based on things done in combat to prevent a character from just recapping to full after each fight.
I abhor how the ninja, the gunslinger, and the samurai - and the monk, and all the other martial base classes - have these "x per day" restrictions to abilities. The gunslinger could be better since he can recharge his, but...well, there's a big heap of problems regarding those that I cover in my m-m-m-megathread.
Per-encounter is no more abstracted then per-day is, since both are inherently abstract game functions. The same goes for rechargable points - since the x/day mechanic is already an abstraction, being able to regain them is no more or no less of one.
The problems with per day/unrechargable: There are a lot. First off, it's where the nova is born from. It also leads to strange-ities such as having to balance how many encounters a day you have, as well as trying to track out how many "resources" each encounter takes off. But most of all, for a martial class, it just isn't that fun. I mean, I'm a ninja, I'm supposed to be flipping out and killing things every fight, but I can't because woops I only have so many ki points left. Guess I can't be a ninja anymore. We see it probably hardest in the monk, who has to all but vomit ki points copiously to keep up with everyone else - and he only has so many.
I'm going to assume we ain't about to jump into a per-encounter system. That said, being able to "recharge" the daily points would help tremendously. As much as I have so many problems with the Gunslinger, the fact that he can GAIN grit points is an incredible step in the right direction. I really feel that all non-casters should have a means by which they can "recharge" their daily abilities. Potentially you could have the recharge mechanics based on things done in combat to prevent a character from just recapping to full after each fight.
Big Deed On His Hip
Let's talk deeds. I don't like them, either - they're really weak.
Leap for Cover: Sounds good until you remember you then have to get back up.
Deadeye: Likewise, sounds good until you note it costs one grit for each range increment. Nothing like burning all four grit of the day in a single shot!
Quick Clear: Terrible, terrible patch to a mechanic that shouldn't exist in the first place.
Pistol-whip: First thought: why is this level 3? Does it take me that long to realize I can hit someone with the big piece of iron in my hands? Second thought: why does this cost grit? The chance to knock prone may as well be nonexistant as gunslingers won't have high strength.
Gunslinger Initiative: This ability is good because it doesn't cost grit.
Covering Shot: A weird one. I like it, but it's strange that it can't be done on purpose. Maybe chance it so you can do it on command.
Targeting: This one irritates me to no end. It shouldn't be a class ability, it should be something for anyone with a gun or crossbow can do. Why not bows? Because screw bows.
Bleeding Wound: At level 11, this is just laughable.
[u]Utility Shot[/i]: This is the worst deed. The worst. There's no reason it takes you until level 11 to get this. There's no reason it takes a grit to sunder a lock with a a gun. There's only three utility shots too, and the "Stop bleeding" is just plain weird, on top of not being that good. Terrible, absolutely terrible.
Startling Shot: Insultingly bad. Grit is the most important thing in the world to you - not only is this ability not very strong, but it costs you TWO grit. AND you don't get it until level 19, which I guess is a good thing, as having it would just make you angry.
Deadly Shot: Looks good right up until it can only be done after confirming a crit. Pay two grit, get a not so good SoD, only at level 19, only can be done after a crit.
Look, maybe one of those abilities is worth spending grit on. The vast, vast majority of them, though, really shouldn't cost grit at all, much less grit that is as hilariously rare as you have. A lot of them are horribly unimaginative, most are incredibly weak. Congrats to the Magus, it's found something even worse then his Beta 1 arcanas.
Time to add my two cents to this.
The Magus is Pathfinder's fighter-mage in a can, their answer to the Duskblade or the Psychic Warrior. Does it add up? I will unfortunately have to say: "No." But stick around, and let me explain the answer.
First, let's look at the main chassis.
The Magus is MAD. It's really, really MAD. Currently it requires a minimum of intelligence, constitution, dexterity, and strength. I'll discuss ways of limiting this later, but for now, this is absolutely terrible. The class is abnormally split between all of it's stats, but unlike the druid or the cleric, he can't really decide if he wants to be really good at fighting and not so good at casting, or vice versa.
3/4ths BAB is irritating but can be doable. After all, the Psychic Warrior had 3/4ths BAB and it was a great class. There's a lot of other 3/4ths BAB classes, too, that can do combat stuff decently enough. I'll be pointing out how this really doesn't work for the Magus, though.
Two saves, and they're the two important ones. No complaints here.
Now let's look at the abilities.
Spellstrike: If you are using a weapon with reach, then this is a fairly good ability! However, these weapons are very few and far between. In the end, if you aren't using a whip, you won't see this coming into play very often.
Cirno's fix: Spellstrike and standard action attacks can be combined - including Vital Strike or lunge. In other words, if you make a standard attack, you do both damage and get the spell off. This may in fact be how Spellstrike already works! But it's a bit awkwardly worded, if that's true.
Spell Combat: Here's where some of the major problems hit. Before we go into Spell Combat, let's talk about the other classes I mentioned.
Monks can flurry for full BAB. Bards have Inspire Courage. Inquisitors and Clerics both have a wide variety of self-buffs to increase their attacks. Inquisitors can tack their judgements onto that. Druids get wild shape.
Do you see what each of these do? They give the 3/4ths BAB class a means of raising their attack bonus. The Magus, on the other hand, has his main ability do the opposite. At level two, you are now attacking for -3 modifier (your attack misses) and you take -2 to your concentration check (your spell fails). In 3.5, Flurry of Blows for the monk was renamed "Flurry of Misses." How on Earth did you manage to make an ability that caused you to miss even more then that?
Spell Combat does not work when you get it. It literally does not function. This is a terrible trap for players who see this awesome cornerstone ability at level two, only to discover it doesn't work - you're just going to spend your turn whiffing away. At later levels it gets better, but is it so much to ask for an ability that works when you get it?
Cirno's Fix: Put Spell Combat at a later level where it doesn't have the major penalties, axe the penalties entirely - do SOMETHING here. The problems in Spell Combat are actually a part of the Magus' big problem overall, so there'll be more on this
Arcane Weapon: It's pretty nice. Not much else to say here. It's important to note however that "you have extra gold" has never been a particularly powerful class ability, and that the Magus needs more equipment then just about any other character in the game - including fighters.
Cirno's Fix: No real fix here. It's just a sorta nice ability
Fighter Training: I can kinda see the meaning of this, but I don't forsee it really coming into play. There's a startlingly small amount of fighter-only feats, and many of the good ones are at levels you won't be able to reach.
Cirno's fix: Again, no real fix here. Every class has abilities that are just sorta "alright."
Counterstrike: Too little, far too late. I don't think you'll ever even see Counterstrike happen. At level 16 the enemy is most likely flying, invisible, and shapeshifted.
Cirno's Fix: Having this earlier would make it a much more useful ability. Games going to 16 is rare as is, and this hardly gives you incentive
Weaponbond: Almost pure flavor. Little to no in game uses. At level 19 the old "you're kidnapped and naked in a prison cell!" storyline doesn't really work out, and disarm isn't much of a level 19 tactic.
Cirno's Fix: Would it be so much to have this at an earlier level where it might actually be meaningful?
True Magus: Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Is this a capstone or was there a bizarre typo? You could've had this 20-15 levels early and nobody would've noticed.
Cirno's Fix: Again, this is something that should've been at an earlier level. Make a decent capstone for god's sake.
Magus Arcana's I'll be covering each one and then offering my thoughts on the whole.
Arcane Accuracy: Currently the Magus will be needing to use this just about every attack. Part of a problem with the Magus as a whole.
Broad Study: The last line kills it. Bizarrely enough, the only use I can see for Broad Study is to combine it with a divine class - but you'd probably be better just playing said divine class from the start.
Concentrate: A strange ability. Almost a neccesity at early levels, but once per day hurts it a lot. At later levels you'll rarely notice it.
Critical Strike: Powerful ability, but the Magus will be using his swift actions perhaps too much for it to be used to it's full glory. The level limit is also harsh
Dispelling Strike: Just have your wizard cast dispel. The limit on what spells it can dispel hurts it significantly.
Empowered Magic, Maximized Magic, Quickened Magic, Silent Magic, Still Magic: A good ability! Sorta! They all share the same flaw.
Familiar: No complaints here - a good and thematic thing to have.
Hasted Assault: Just cast haste. I suppose it could be good for emergencies.
Maneuver mastery: Why whips go with scimitars as the only weapons you'll be using. Most likely something every Magus will want.
Reflection: Level limit makes this spell borderline useless. When would you use this at level 15? Who's casting level 4 or 5 spells when they've got level 7 or 8?
Spell Shield: Limited usefulness. AC isn't very potent to begin with.
The whole shebang: Most of the Magus Arcana's suffer from three flaws. First, they're only once per day. Second, you get them at a level where they're no longer useful. And third, you already have so few spell slots, that in most of these cases, it's not worth the sacrifice.
Cirno's Fix: Give the Arcanas that are once per day the following tagline: "At level x/y/z the Magus can use this 2/3/etc times per day instead." Remove or at least shift back the level limits for some of them. Consider giving double the bonus for the ones that spend a spell slot.
Spell List: I really, really hope there's good spells in the book to come. This is again a part of the Magus' biggest problem - he can't hit things. There's too many spells here that are neither touch spells nor offensive buffs. Don't get me wrong, it's nice having more spells! But they're spells that won't see a lot of use.
Cirno's Fix: We'll see what new spells we get.
The Big Flaws
The Magus suffers from three fatal flaws.
First, so many of their abilities are just "Sorta OK" at best. It looks like a lot of cool early level abilities were made, and then stretched out to cover the later ones. The capstone especially is hideously bad. So many of the level 11+ abilities could've been given before 1 and nobody would've batted an eye. The end result is a character that still seems very front-loaded, as the later abilities simply aren't worth it.
Second, the front-loaded doesn't really work. The Magus has the same flaw the 3.5 Monk did - the ol' Flurry of Misses. I mentioned it before, but all those other 3/4ths BAB classes had a means to increase their attack bonus. The Magus does not. Look at his spell list - how many of those increase his combat capabilities while not removing his spellcasting? He cannot offensively buff, he has no real attack bonus increasing abilities, and his main attack ability makes things even worse.
Thirdly, the Magus is hitting a problem that the 3.5 bard had, but even worse at it. Jack of all trades...more then barely competent in none of them. He can't really cast. He can't really fight. He most certainly cannot do both at the same time. If his abilities are all front loaded but the front loaded doesn't really work, where does that leave him?
The Minor Flaws
There are exactly three weapons you will see on every Magus due to how his Spell Combat works. Whips, rapiers, and scimitars. And the rapiers are only for players who can't get Dervish Dance instead of Weapon Finesse. While your melee damage hurts in this situation, it at least alleviates your MAD issues. Dervish Dance is close to being a "must" for Maguses, which is annoying seeing as how they already require Combat Casting. That you have to keep one hand open is annoying as hell.
The Magus is terrible at multiclassing into other arcane classes...but Broad Study lets them do it with divine casters. Kinda weird! Maybe not a full flaw, but just sorta weird.
The comparison
I mentioned the comparison to Duskblades and Psychic Warriors at the beginning - lets look at that. The Duskblade comparison seems pretty obvious and easy - but the Duskblade has better HP, better attack bonus, better spells, and it can learn outside spells too. The Magus has more "tricks" but, if the monk taught us anything, it's that "tricks" cannot replace "is actually good at things." One thing the Duskblade had were wizard spells that appeared at lower level so he could cast them, like disintegrate. Why doesn't the Magus have this? The Duskblade's weapon of choice was a reach polearm. The Magus in comparison can't use that.
The psychic warrior is also a good comparison - 3/4ths BAB caster-fighter class relying on self buffs. But the psychic warrior had a lot of offensive buffs to give him that extra edge that the Magus doesn't have. He also wasn't limited to using a single hand weapon, but even then had numerous powers that let him attack bare handed. Where are the offensive power buffs?
In conclusion, hopefully me vague solutions here could help show light on the problems and how to fix them. I'm a fan of fighter-caster types, but the Magus just doesn't work.
First off, I love it. The Alchemist is the class I thematically loved best when it first was revealed, and the changes make me :D big time. I'm just eyeballing it right now, so I'll look at the main abilities and a few discoveries. Mostly bomb discoveries. Pretty much primarily bomb discovers. I like bombs.
A few changes I so very strongly support:
Spellbook: Yes. That's more or less all I can say here. Yes.
Bombs. As a straight standard action, they're now far more usable, and they're at the place they've always needed to be. The twenty foot range means they no longer have to be standing right next to enemies when they use it. A well deserved change!
Brew Potion: Just like bombs, this is something that should - and now is :D - an iconic part of the class.
Mutations: The changes make this much more usable for all alchemists. Now the discoveries give you the choice between having a decent stand by with the standard mutation, or pumping it into something awesome. Very appreciative of this change, as I rarely if ever used mutation before - now even bomb alchemists can see the chance for them to chug it down.
Discoveries at every 2 levels: See spellbook comments. Also, yes.
Again, eyeballing discoveries for the most part, but already I love precise and fast bombs - the bomb alchemist will finally get some respect! I'm sure some will complain about having only one delayed bomb, but hey, haters gonna hate.
End result: This is exactly what I wanted to see. It's beautiful. I sincerely cannot wait to see how this tests out. Thank you :D
Edit: Cleared up a few things
I've been playing the Alchemist in a Pathfinder game I'm in, and another player has been trying it out in a semi-Pathfinder game I'm DMing. While we may give the other classes a swing later, alchemist is the one we've all been really interested in. Thought I'd share the results.
Game 1 party: Alchemist, druid (casting), rogue, paladin, sorcerer. Started at level one, currently at level 4 and ending.
Bombs: The first thing I thought I'd notice was that my bombs would go by very fast, at which point I essentially become a rogue who cannot sneak attack or find traps, or a bard who cannot buff others. This was partially the case, though most highlighted at level 1 - rather, depending on initiative and enemy placement, I either used a bomb once in a battle, or not at all. The fact that it takes a move and a standard to use a bomb, and that the range increment is only 10 feet, meant that, often enough, I couldn't hit the enemy on the first round. Worst, after the first round, I couldn't use the bomb for fear of destroying the rogue and the paladin. So instead of using all my bombs and then sitting on my thumbs, I proceeded straight to sitting on my thumbs from the start. I guess every now and then I could throw a chair.
Poisons: Didn't really come up at all. I thought about making a somewhat cool build based around throwing, between bombs and throwing daggers, but it didn't really play out. While I see the link between poison and alchemy, in practice, it's somewhat of an odd duck that either defines the character or is never used at all.
Extracts: For the love of god, make Infusion a level 1 ability. My party just LOVED watching me brew a potion that either the rogue or paladin could really use, and then have me tell them "No, you uh...can't actually use any of my potions." They then taunted the idea of an alchemist who can't make potions for others mercilessly. 1d4 feelings damage ;_;. Aside from that, it...just never came in handy. Like, at all. Well ok, casting cure light wounds once per day (!) came in handy kinda sorta, I guess? But not really.
Mutagens: Can't really cure ability damage at such an early level, so this isn't something that can be used very often. Trouble is, even as an "oh crap!" button, it doesn't do a whole lot. Ironically most powerful at early levels, when you can use it the least.
Discoveries: I've just now finally gotten one, and was the wait worth it? Well...no, not really. Some discoveries are far better then others (Hey, for a thousand gold and 2 int damage, I can choose two different ways to really feebly boost my stats and take MORE ability damage! Or, I can choose to make my bombs bigger, more powerful, and light things on fire. Hmmmm). But NONE of them struck me as being really "The wait was so worth it!" types.
Group 2, in which I DM'd a technically Pathfinder game, though 3.5 material was readily used by others - in fact, more often used, the cheeky dorks. Party: Alchemist, Scout/ranger (Swift hunter), totemist, warlock, and archivist. Started at level 5, currently at level 6.
What the dude has felt: He can't see the purpose of the class. Oh sure, it sounds cool. But it doesn't really have a niche. He's not a blaster, not compared to the warlock who can go all day and never worry about hitting enemies. He's not a buffer because, even after taking the goddamn mandatory Infusions as his discovery, he just doesn't have the casting power or spell list to really help. He can't really heal for that same reason. He can't find traps, so two or three of his abilities don't really do much. Overall, he loved the idea of an alchemist, but it's fallen very flat.
End Thoughts, or "Man you type a lot":
The class needs work. Infusions is one of the most infuriating things about playing the class: it's flat out mandatory, but you don't get it until level 4, and it rips the already slim number of discoveries you get to being even lower. On that note, discoveries are way too few and far between. Maybe cut out the poisons, make discoveries more often, and allow poisons as more potential discoveries.
The class just doesn't seem to have a niche. It's 3/4ths bab and a semi-caster, so it's supposed to be a sorta-bard, but it lacks bard spells, fighting ability, skills, perform, and buffs. It's blasting capabilities are limited, and even beyond that, as there's no way to control or eliminate the splash, it's very party unhealthy - and the crap range and large number of actions needed means you'll find it very hard to get off on the first round. It's a cool idea for a class, don't get me wrong, but I just don't see where it fits. It's not a front man, not a skill monkey, not a wizzort or a divine dude, and it doesn't make a very good fifth member.
Amadeus Bastion has not participated in any online campaigns.
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