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So obviously lots of things are getting renamed/ditched with the remaster, one thing I’d like to see is Barbarian being renamed to Berserker, or something along those lines. Barbarian hasn’t been a good moniker for that class for awhile, among other reasons (mostly insults, or not Greek), it comes down to the many ways to flavor Rage, from actual anger, to fight or flight instincts, to adrenaline, to a battle trance and very little to do with culture. You don’t have to be from the wilds to be a Barbarian, they can read and write. Barbarian is non-indicative. The core of the class is the Rage. Everyone can have rage. People in the city are more likely to have rage honestly.
So the immediately noticeable thing about Thaumaturge is that they're Trained in Arcana, Nature, Occult, and Religion (plus two more Skills plus whatever their Intelligence modifier is). This looks really cool on paper, until you realize that since you use Recall Knowledge for your Core Mechanic you won't have any room Skill-wise to boost other skills other than your Recall Knowledge, especially when you add in wanting to grab Society as well. So while there's a pretty big constraint another issue arises when looking at it's abilities, should the Thaumaturge be the generalist/master of none type (Archivist)? Or should they double down on dealing with monsters/hazard (Inquisitor)? I personally lean towards the latter since we already have the generalist with Bards but then also the Int based classes such as Investigator and Wizard, etc. So a way to solve that and free up some space is give the Class a built in Unique Monster/Hazard/Opposition Lore* that Find Flaws works off of and advances with them rather than eating up all your Skill stuff. *Esoterica Lore doesn't cut it since it's only Trained and then you only get Expert when you get one of your other Class Skills to Legendary. It just doesn't keep up.
So 4 key issues I've noticed with Find Flaws as I look it over. 1) Why am I penalized extra for (crit) failing my core ability that I'm inclined/supposed to use a lot? On a Crit Fail I've A) failed B) got wrong information and C) now I'm flat-footed. Why is that necessary? Edit: I'm not opposed to Dubious Knowledge, I quite like the Feat, it's the flat-footed I take issue with. Also there needs to be a baked in way for using Find Flaws against a group of similar creatures because otherwise there's too many issues: 2) Find Flaws is the core ability... and if I'm dissuaded from using it most of the time because it's a waste that's pretty bad. 3) Fighting a group of the same creatures and failing a check after making one/some not only feels bad but is nonsensical.
4) Sympathetic Weakness is a feat tax, it's not something fun to work to or a powerup in feel, it's you feel bad till you get and then you have to take it or you'll feel bad after. Also the scope of the feat as is is entirely too vague.
Seeing the same complaints that happened back in the Occult Adventures playtest (and supplementary materials) so figured it need to be said. Again. It's not Psionics. It was never going to be Psionics. They're not trying to copy Psionics. You're not getting nova-inducing pools of Power Points to spend on not-casting. They're spellcasters. The closest you'll get is the Focus costing AMPs.
A lot going through my head right now but I'll try to be coherent. I'm not here involved in the forums and discussions just because of the systems. Finding the Paizo forums led me to becoming genuinely happy for the first time in my life, I had found purpose, I had found friends, I had found family, all of it interwoven together. I have my subscriptions as a way to support the people who I look up to and admire, the editors, the artists, the freelancers, and what they do. If I just wanted the rules I wouldn't have to pay anything, I could just use Archives of Nethys and you wouldn't see a cent from me. I have my subscriptions to support the people making the books and to voice "Hey, we need more of this!" (I am terribly lacking in writing reviews though, and that needs to be alleviated), similar to being a patron on Patreon. The people actually pushing for awesome things, for good things, to make theirs and other's dreams come true, I wish to support. The writings espouse inclusiveness and joy and fantasy and supporting that I am more than glad to do. More inclusiveness please, it's not a quota, keep going. You take that away however, you take them away however, and there's no reason for me to continue supporting this company with my wallet, or for me to be here.
Sorry to be a bother but in the interest of not adding to y'all's workload I put off on bringing this up for awhile but I figure I should bring it up at some point. I've qualified for the free Society subscriptions for both Pathfinder and Starfinder since that incentive was implemented I believe but I haven't received access to many of them (though I could have sworn I got the emails letting me know, or rather the "purchase/order" emails they send out). For Pathfinder I'm missing
For Starfinder I'm missing
If I messed something up/missed something or took too long to bring this to your attention my apologies but also no worries.
It's not the final version of the class. We're not picking it apart because we don't want it to exist, we want it to be better, even if you like the class as is you should still want it to be better, why not? It's much harder to improve and fix a class after it's published. Don't let the flavor that appeals to you bias you against any improvements, nothing in the flavor is lost by improving the class so that if anything it's more true to its flavor and design. Right now for a lot of people it's simply unfun and unfulfilling in multiple ways, with what ever flavor it has not being able to overcome that and make it be appealing, so we rather it become appealing so more people play it and it being an awesome class. I love flavor over mechanics, but flavor doesn't mean anything if there's nothing to eat.
Currently you're encouraged and penalized for storing and using your EP. You gain increasing bonuses through your "universal instinct" (maybe? That whole section needs to be rewritten so people know that the EP track is the instinct as opposed to a missing ability between the track) that slowly build up over a fight. But you also gain your Drawback for having any and have to spend them to use your Niche's abilities, so your bonuses and abilities you have access to per round are on a slider that changes every round, which is a rather big cognitive load that can easily lead to mistakes being made. It doesn't really promote tactical play in choosing whether to conserve or spend your EP, it's just frustrating and confusing.
With the ability to branch out with more than just guns, including melee, that hopefully gets expanded in the final product methinks a more open name would be more appropriate and lead to less confusion and type-casting. Fighters aren't called Swordmasters after all and "I'm a Gunslinger that uses a bow/crossbow!" is really clunky and awkward, conversation-wise anyway, hopefully not mechanic-wise (*swoon over the possibility of Path of the Sniper archer*). Marksman is more open but also more restrictive in a different unfortunate way. So, Sharpshooter? Deadeye (I'm partial to that)? Trigger? Shootist*? *I don't care for that but it is indeed an actual term XD
An idea I had, right now we have two arrays for Eidolons depending on the type. 16/16/16/08/12/10 for Divine and Primal and 16/16/16/10/10/10 for Occult and Arcane. And while they get ability boosts the same as the Summoner they don’t/can’t benefit from Apex items the Summoner’s wears (unless I misread that). And so this solution, either have a designated main stat or pick one and have it be equal to the Summoner’s Charisma. When the Summoner boosts or wears an Apex item that boosts it the Eidolon’s stat likewise rises, which deals with that annoyance (This is also means the Summoner doesn’t have to pay twice for an Apex item for themselves and a hypothetical one for their Eidolon out of their wealth budget). And also frees up one of the stat boosts to further mold the Eidolon how you want. Also also it incentivizes the Summoner to boost Charisma, which they don’t have a lot of reasons to do so at the moment.
The starter ability of the Infestation Faculty, Malignant Mist wrote: When you form a cloud array or sheath array, you can use a nanite surge to damage anyone who contacts those nanites. Your cloud array deals 1d6 piercing damage (Fortitude negates) to each creature that starts its turn in or enters the cloud's area. Your sheath array deals 1d6 piercing damage (Fortitude negates) to any creature that hits you with a melee natural weapon, melee weapon without the reach special property, or unarmed strike. After a creature attempts a saving throw against either effect, it is immune to damage from this ability for 1 minute. You are immune to the effects of your malignant mist. As a reaction, you can grant one creature you can see within 30 feet immunity to your malignant mist until the beginning of your next turn. The damage dealt by this ability increases to 1d8 at 3rd level, to 2d6 at 5th level, and by 1d6 every 2 nanocyte levels thereafter. Yes the damage goes up (in a bit of an odd pattern there at the beginning) but since it only affects an opponent effectively once (if they don’t save) it feels a bit meh to me. Would knocking the damage to d4s but making it affect every round flow better?
So I forgot where it was brought up but one of the designers or developers brought up Mortics (from Tyrant’s Grasp’s bestiaries) being a playable Ancestry or Heritage (most likely the latter) was on the table but it got cut due to being too out there at the start of the new edition (my apologies if I’m misremembering). For those curious, Mortics are still living creatures that have been infused with negative energy that makes them more comparable to their common undead variants, similar to the Tomb Tainted Soul feat back in 3.5 DnD. My favourite is the Gurgist, the human one. They have to eat a certain amount of raw meat in a week otherwise their body begins to rot. They don’t have to kill people and it doesn’t have to be humanoid meat, just raw. I’d really like to see them make a comeback.
Saw a couple of similar threads going around so I figured I start this one, what was your favourite non-Paizo products for First Edition? At the top for me is Letters from the Flaming Crab: Murder Bunnies. Want to be a smol and badass frontliner? Here ya go! Three words: Lucky Halfling Foot Also I loved all the issues of the Wayfinder magazine.
This is a spoiler filled resource thread for part six of the Extinction Curse Adventure Path, The Apocalypse Prophet by Lyz Liddell. Other GM reference threads for Extinction Curse: Part one, The Show Must Go On Part two, Legacy of the Lost God Part three, Life's Long Shadows Part four, Siege of the Dinosaurs Part five, Lord of the Black Sands
This is a spoiler filled resource thread for part five of the Extinction Curse Adventure Path, Lord of the Black Sands by Mikko Kallio. Other GM reference threads for Extinction Curse: Part one, The Show Must Go On Part two, Legacy of the Lost God Part three, Life's Long Shadows Part four, Siege of the Dinosaurs Part six, The Apocalypse Prophet
This is a spoiler filled resource thread for part four of the Extinction Curse Adventure Path, Siege of the Dinosaurs by Kate Baker. Other GM reference threads for Extinction Curse: Part one, The Show Must Go On Part two, Legacy of the Lost God Part three, Life's Long Shadows Part five, Lord of the Black Sands Part six, The Apocalypse Prophet
This is a spoiler filled resource thread for part three of the Extinction Curse Adventure Path, Life's Long Shadows by Greg A Vaughan. Other GM reference threads for Extinction Curse: Part one, The Show Must Go On Part two, Legacy of the Lost God Part four, Siege of the Dinosaurs Part five, Lord of the Black Sands Part six, The Apocalypse Prophet
This is a spoiler filled resource thread for part two of the Extinction Curse Adventure Path, Legacy of the Lost God
Other GM reference threads for Extinction Curse: Part one, The Show Must Go On Part three, Life's Long Shadows Part four, Siege of the Dinosaurs Part five, Lord of the Black Sands Part six, The Apocalypse Prophet
This is a spoiler filled resource thread for part one of the Extinction Curse Adventure Path, The Show Must Go On by Jason Tondro. Other GM reference threads for Extinction Curse: Part two, Legacy of the Lost God Part three, Life's Long Shadows Part four, Siege of the Dinosaurs Part five, Lord of the Black Sands Part six, The Apocalypse Prophet
So lots of new neat stuff, but the more I look over the more ehhhh moments I'm having. Revelation Spells wrote:
I don't foresee this playing nicely with multiclassing, nor people wanting to play Oracles or wanting to multiclass with them liking that. Oracular Curse wrote:
1) Does it have to be from deities? Can't it be from the planes themselves? Or other sources? 2) So the gods are idiots. 3) minor thing, but why not "after casting a Revelation spell"? 4) I don't care for this for how super specific it makes the flavor of the Oracle. "I have to play mediator for a bunch of jackesses" is a neat theme, I don't like it being the only theme. 5) What does "at it's worst" even mean? 6) I REALLY do not like this. I like thematic climatic sacrificial abilities (Champion of Gwynharwyf and Frenzied Berserker were my favourites Prestige Classes in 3.5, and I love playing Barbarians in all recent editions). Things that damage or kill you for the right, desperate payoff are awesome, I live for that s%$*. Death is unpleasant because you lose your character most likely, the second most unpleasant experience is showing up to play and not being able to. "Okay since you did this your character is still alive, you're just not allowed to play" is not a good experience by any measure. Overclocking, good. Dying, not good but okay. Telling the player they're not allowed to play even though they didn't do anything wrong, not okay.
Vivacious Bravado wrote: Your panache swells your ego with bravado, granting you a temporary reprieve from your pain. You gain temporary Hit Points equal to your level plus your Charisma modifier that last as long as you have panache. Getting temp HP is nice, but the manner in which you get it I foresee leading to two odd scenarios. The first has you play it safe and not use your Finishers (barring good luck with the Feat Finishing Follow-Through, which I think should be a core ability honestly), which just seems at odds with the daredevil badassery of the Swashbuckler. The second is to still use Finishers, and promptly lose your temp HP, making the Feat rather unreliable, even though you do get more temp HP every time you resume Panache.
The following is NSFW, just a head’s up. My buddy and all around kickass person and artist Alexis Flower just launched the KS to collect and bind the latest chapters of his online comic (you can read here for free, again NSFW) into physical form and he’s already funded! The higher reward tiers include art prints as well as a dice box and a set of dice (ah, got your attention now do I) that are gorgeous like the comic itself. Even if you don’t back it I highly recommend checking the comic out, it’s absolutely gorgeous and whimsical, also free (and NSFW. There’s a lot of sex). |