Does this seem balanced as an alternative Capstone ability?

Elemental Ascension (Ex)
At 20th level, you transcend mortal limits, becoming a living embodiment of your primary element.

You can accept 1 point of burn to transform into a Medium Elemental of your primary element, as if using Wild Shape. While in this form you retain your ability scores, skills, and class features, and you can use all kineticist abilities, including wild talents, while transformed. You also gain Darkvision 60 ft and Immunity to bleed, paralysis, poison, sleep, and stunning.

If you have the Kinetic Form utility wild talent, you can activate it while in elemental form, letting you transform into a Huge Elemental of your primary element.

Once you have accepted burn to activate this ability, you can freely shift between your elemental form and your normal form as a standard action until your burn is removed. This ability is a polymorph effect, and any other polymorph effect applied to you will override your elemental form until it ends, at which point you can resume your transformation if this ability is still active.

I find myself surprised that when I showed the other 2 Illusion attempts, I didn't post the final result. Once the player saw the Mesmerist class, he knew that was the class for his Gnome, and all we had to do was remove the parts he didn't like (Stare, which he felt was unthematic for his character), and its children (Painful and Bold), and replace them with Illusion boosts. For the most part, we tried to mirror what existed, so rather than just -2 Will, we did -2 Will vs Illusions (The stare was single target, so it balanced that the illusions weren't, since it was limited to illusions only).

Of note: this was his final character, he's still playing it today (though this is the 2nd time, this time as a Rogue Gestalt), and the most fun for him.

Mystique - Mesmerist Archetype

Phantastic Phantasms (Su)
A mystique can use a Full Round Action to cast an Illusion spell rather than a Standard Action. Doing so will allow her to enforce the illusion with more realism, making it more difficult to recognize as an Illusion. Anyone who attempts to disbelieve the illusion suffers a -2 penalty on Will saving throws. This penalty changes to -3 at 8th level. This does not stack with the Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus feats.

This replaces the Hypnotic Stare class ability.

Phurious Phantasms (Su)
A mystique may cause her illusions to damage to those that interact with them. As a Standard Action, you can draw upon energies from the Plane of Shadow to cause an ongoing figment spell that you created, to damage a foe as if the illusion were real. The target must be both visible to you and within or adjacent to the area of your illusion. You must make a melee touch attack, using your own melee touch attack bonus. If you hit, the target takes an amount of damage equal to 1/2 the mesmerist's class level (minimum 1). Reminder that any such interaction with an illusion is an immediate opportunity to re-roll the saving throw to disbelieve the illusion, even if the attack misses.

This replaces the Painful Stare class ability.

Phorceful Phantasms (Su)
Drawing from the plane of Shadow, the Mystique makes her illusions more solid, capable of physical interaction to the sense of touch.
At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, a mystique's illusions can have further effects. The mystique chooses one option each time he gains a new phorceful phantasm improvement, and the choice cannot be changed later. The mystique cannot choose the same phorceful phantasm improvement more than once unless otherwise noted. All of the mystiques phorceful phantasms improvements affect the target as long as it is affected by an illusion spell of the mystique.

This replaces the Bold Stare class ability.

The Mystique’s illusions gain a small degree of physicality. Creatures attempting to move through the illusion treat the area as difficult terrain. This effect persists even if the creature disbelieves the illusion.

When one of the Mystique’s illusions ends, it persists as a shadowy echo for a number of rounds equal to the Mystique’s Charisma modifier. During this time, the illusion remains visible and solid enough to block line of sight and provide cover, though it cannot move or deal damage.

Creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects or illusions are not entirely unaffected. Instead, these creatures receive a +2 bonus on saves to disbelieve and have a 50% chance each round to ignore the illusion’s effects. Ignoring the illusion doesn’t end the illusion, but does allow the creature to act normally for that round.

Grants the Shadow Gambit feat, though when the feat causes damage, the illusion does not end.

The Mystique’s illusions gain enough reinforcement from the Plane of Shadow to affect creatures with blindsight or blindsense. These creatures still perceive the illusion, though they receive a +2 bonus on any saves to disbelieve.

.

(NOTE: We only have 5 Bold Stare replacements because we invented them as we played, and there are no more after 20th level, more could be added if ideas are thrown at me).

Okay, I've been having issue with the Auto Bonus Progression rules, and decided that what they really need, is a complete rewrite, so that it's more dynamic... a pick-n-choose system. The key here is remembering that we want to remove the 'must have' of items, the incrementally getting-better armor (Uh-oh, they reached a new level, their +1 should get to +2, so now to find a place to add that for everyone)... Because of this, and seeing that melee types all have certain things shared across all their lists (Boots of Speed), I'm creating something more modular that lets a player pick-n-choose.

First thing I've done is analyzed the player's equipment and wishlists... I see that with the exception of Wizard/Sorcerers, at least 67% of their wishes fall (in regards to Character Wealth by Level) into Resistance/ACs/weapons/stats/boots of speed/, rarely does anyone have more than 33% of their wishlist value as something other... Except Wizards who spend a lot on Wands (in my group) and at least 1 staff... (This is where the real problem lies... when people's gear needs to be more than the remaining wealth available).

So, I start out with 2/3 vs 1/3 (as opposed to the current ABP where your Character Wealth by Level is halved). 2/3rds of your value is in ABP and your character only gets 1/3rd...

Here's my initial thoughts for the ABP table... where we basically set the wealth per level to 1/3rd, and the other 2/3rds become points by dividing the remaining amount by 1,000... (KISS)

Level 02: 001 pts - Wealth: 500

Level 03: 002 pts - Wealth: 1,000
Level 04: 004 pts - Wealth: 2,000
Level 05: 007 pts - Wealth: 3,500
Level 06: 011 pts - Wealth: 5,000
Level 07: 016 pts - Wealth: 8,000
Level 08: 022 pts - Wealth: 11,000
Level 09: 030 pts - Wealth: 15,000
Level 10: 040 pts - Wealth: 21,000
Level 11: 055 pts - Wealth: 28,000
Level 12: 072 pts - Wealth: 36,000
Level 13: 094 pts - Wealth: 47,000
Level 14: 125 pts - Wealth: 62,000
Level 15: 160 pts - Wealth: 80,000
Level 16: 210 pts - Wealth: 100,000
Level 17: 275 pts - Wealth: 135,000
Level 18: 350 pts - Wealth: 180,000
Level 19: 450 pts - Wealth: 230,000
Level 20: 600 pts - Wealth: 300,000

Following that, there are the groupings.

Resistance
The character receives a resistance bonus to all saving throws based on ABP points spent.
+1 resistance Prerequisites: none. Cost: 1 ABP Point
+2 resistance Prerequisites: +1 resistance. Cost: 3 ABP Points
+3 resistance Prerequisites: +2 resistance. Cost: 5 ABP Points
+4 resistance Prerequisites: +3 resistance. Cost: 7 ABP Points
+5 resistance Prerequisites: +4 resistance. Cost: 9 ABP Points

Armor Enhancements
The character can attune herself to one suit of armor and one shield in her possession; she can change that attunement once per day. If she selects a normal set of clothing as her armor, it counts as having a starting enhancement bonus of +0. Attuning to a new piece of armor allocates all ABP points spent on armor enhancements to the newly attuned piece of armor (similarly for a shield). Note: A piece of armour's enhancement bonus can only go to +5 still, the additional levels are for additional weapon properties, such as 'fortification', which can only be purchased through ABP points. Other armor properties that have a static value comes out of the character's wealth, not ABP Points.
+1 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: attuned piece of armor or shield. Cost: 1 ABP Point
+2 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +1 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 3 ABP Points
+3 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +2 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 5 ABP Points
+4 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +3 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 7 ABP Points
+5 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +4 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 9 ABP Points
+6 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +5 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 11 ABP Points
+7 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +6 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 13 ABP Points
+8 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +7 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 15 ABP Points
+9 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +8 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 17 ABP Points
+10 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +9 enhancement bonus to this piece of attuned armor/shield. Cost: 19 ABP Points

Weapon Enhancements
The character can attune herself to any one weapon in her possession, and can change that attunement once per day. Attuning to a new weapon allocates all ABP points spent on weapon enhancements to the newly attuned weapon. Note: A weapon's enhancement bonus can only go to +5 still, the additional levels are for additional weapon properties, such as 'flaming', which can only be purchased through ABP points. Other weapon properties that have a static value comes out of the character's wealth, not ABP Points.
+1 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: attuned weapon. Cost: 2 ABP Point
+2 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +1 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 6 ABP Points
+3 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +2 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 10 ABP Points
+4 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +3 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 14 ABP Points
+5 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +4 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 18 ABP Points
+6 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +5 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 22 ABP Points
+7 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +6 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 26 ABP Points
+8 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +7 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 30 ABP Points
+9 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +8 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 34 ABP Points
+10 enhancement bonus Prerequisites: +9 enhancement bonus to this attuned weapon. Cost: 38 ABP Points

Deflection Bonus
The character gains an innate deflection bonus based on the ABP points spent.
+1 deflection bonus Prerequisites: none. Cost: 2 ABP Point
+2 deflection bonus Prerequisites: +1 deflection bonus. Cost: 6 ABP Points
+3 deflection bonus Prerequisites: +2 deflection bonus. Cost: 10 ABP Points
+4 deflection bonus Prerequisites: +3 deflection bonus. Cost: 14 ABP Points
+5 deflection bonus Prerequisites: +4 deflection bonus. Cost: 18 ABP Points

Natural armor
The character gains an innate deflection bonus based on the ABP points spent.
+1 natural armor bonus Prerequisites: none. Cost: 2 ABP Point
+2 natural armor bonus Prerequisites: +1 natural armor bonus. Cost: 6 ABP Points
+3 natural armor bonus Prerequisites: +2 natural armor bonus. Cost: 10 ABP Points
+4 natural armor bonus Prerequisites: +3 natural armor bonus. Cost: 14 ABP Points
+5 natural armor bonus Prerequisites: +4 natural armor bonus. Cost: 18 ABP Points

Primary Ability (Physical or Mental)
The character chooses an ability (Strength, Constitution or Dexterity for physical; Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma for mental) to be their primary ability. Raising that primary physical ability uses the following table for ABP point costs.
+2 Ability Score Prerequisite: none. Cost: 4 ABP Points.
+4 Ability Score Prerequisite: +2 reached in primary ability via ABP Points. Cost: 12 ABP Points.
+6 Ability Score Prerequisite: +4 reached in primary ability via ABP Points. Cost: 20 ABP Points.
Each additional +1 Prerequisite: +6 or higher reached in primary ability via ABP Points. Cost: 28 ABP Points.

Secondary Abilities (Physical or Mental)
The character's non-primary abilities can be raised using the following table for ABP point costs.
+2 Ability Score Prerequisite: Primary ability chosen. Cost: 6 ABP Points.
+4 Ability Score Prerequisite: +2 reached in secondary ability via ABP Points. Cost: 24 ABP Points.
+6 Ability Score Prerequisite: +4 reached in secondary ability via ABP Points. Cost: 54 ABP Points.
Each additional +1 Prerequisite: +6 or higher reached in secondary ability via ABP Points. Cost: 28 ABP Points.

Speed
For 12 ABP Points, the character may act as though affected by a haste spell for up to 10 rounds each day. This haste effect's duration need not be consecutive rounds.

NOTE: I'm looking for advise here, not suggesting that others use this rule system... Are there other 'common' items that should be added, so half the party don't all need the same item? In our group, half the characters have a Ring of Sustenance, but not sure that should apply (and the idea that there are a lot of these so the rulers of starving countries are always 'comfortable' can make sense), but most lose them for better rings at higher levels. Also... any suggestions for that Wizard/Sorcerer type that doesn't want their 'wealth' wasted on weapons/ac/etc? That want a powerful Staff, a bag-of-holding filled with Wands and Metamagic Rods, etc? I feel like for those, I'll have to let them go without the ABP entirely, making them really 'wealthy', but hard to thematically justify why there's so much loot specifically for them... :P

I've seen a few posts of late where characters become gods... I realize that there are no rules for this, so how have those who have received deification achieved this? Some homebrew system? Or is this just a GM stating that the character is now a god?

Not looking to get deified, just curious... seems like you would need a system where you could not only grant powers and spells, but also a system to interact with the sheep... perhaps even gain power through their worship?

I was going through some old notes and found my first level-20 character (Not quite my 1st character... don't remember that one). It was made sometime around 2010 I think, before the Qinggong archetype came out (I remember this because it was a big deal to get that archetype :P), and we played at least 6 years I think...

Syrinx Zen Archer Monk.

Without boring you with the details of the sheet, he ended up with the following attacks according to my notes:

+32/+32/+32/+27/+27/+22/+22/+17 1d8+32+1d6(Electricity) [Clustered Shots]

He had exactly 4 possessions by game's end... and rarely had more than a couple, having taken a Vow of Poverty when Ultimate Magic came out..

• Ring of Sustenance
• Ring of Chameleon Power
• Coat of Mist (though it was a Robe of Mist in our game)
• +5 Composite Longbow with Adaptive, Endless Ammunition, Guided, Shock, and Greater Sniping weapon properties.

Skills of note (higher than 15):

• +23 Escape Artist
• +30 Fly
• +23 Knowledge (Religion)
• +35 Perception
• +35 Sense Motive
• +38 Stealth
• +23 Survival

Absolutely nothing like what I play these days (Kineticist). :P

I'm posting this in hopes of seeing other people's groups. I realize it's a LOT of typing to go showing so much information, so not for the feint of heart this... but I've always been curious how the game looks for other people around the world... how much of char-gen is homebrew, what the common characters are, etc...

Looks like I'll actually have 7 players (but as we all know, likely a couple will drop out early, so I like starting with a larger than desired group). My wife, a teacher friend of mine, another parent, and 4 teenagers, 2 have never played Pathfinder, but have some experience with D&D 5e. I just want to express what I deal with here... :P (May sound like a complaint, but I love every minute of my issues, as it lets me get creative with the homebrew).

PS. We use the World is Square rules (so everyone starts with Power Attack, Deadly Aim, and things like Dodge/Mobility are a single feat), as well as Auto Bonus Progression (only for weapons and armours, magic items are still prevalent).

The game is a long-term campaign but will be starting at 8th level (with plans to go Mythic at some point).

Lady Fee (Wife): Investigator - Cipher (Unchained) Kitsune.

Refuses to use a melee weapon, insists on only using a shortbow (which the Cipher's Tenuous Threat won't work with...). We already had to (Unchained) the Archetype so it actually did what you'd think it'd do... but she found Pragmatic Activator and Student of Philosophy and not only took those, but wanted the same for Perception... in the end, we did a custom feat to use Intelligence in place of Wisdom for Perception checks. Her other feats are Additional Traits (Ease of Faith and Fast Talker), Skill Focus (Perception), and Needle in a Haystack. Starts the game with 22 Int, 20 Dex, and mediocre stats. Note: she's using only a bow, so no "Agile" to damage and no Studied Combat (Though I may homebrew that as well, but only let it apply to Ranged combat). She tends to go do things during combat, and just plays for the between-combat parts of the story. :/

Dylan Lleu (Friend): Summoner - Storm Caller (Unchained) Human.

He's a vet player and sometimes GM, and just has always wanted to play a Storm Caller for the theme of it, but it was too broken. Took all the basics, Augmented and Superior Summoning, Spell Focus, in addition to Leadership and Mounted Combat. His Eidolon looks like a Gryphon, has Large Size, Mount, Claws and Bite, Improved. And of course, the Extend Metamagic Rod. He's my 'opti-build' player, and even then, not so much... (No sheet for the Cohort yet) 22 Cha, 16 Int, 14 Dex, 12 Con.

Sir Galahad (Son): Magus - Eldritch Bladebound Scion Suli.

First time playing more than 1-shots. We raised him on Warhammer Quest, and moved to Pathfinder recently but still rolling for tiles, then to storytelling. It's his first campaign. He loves the idea of a Magus, the blade of Guts, and is hooked on Bladebound. My every push into another direction led back to this... but he wanted fewer rules since he already has to be learning magic/spells. So, his combat is just combat, but he can prep with spells. His feats are all about Cleaving with the exception of Skill Focus (Acrobatics) to try and provide flanking to allies. Str 19, Cha 18, 14 Dex and Con, 12 Int. Crowd Dodger trait and a Nodachi as his weapon of choice for the Black Blade. I'm thinking of merging his Suli ability (Elemental Assault) with his Magus/Sorcerer ability (Elemental Strike) for the best of both worlds... Use Eldritch pool to gain +2d6 fire and lasts for a number of rounds equal to his level (so extending longer than his Mystical Focus).

<no name yet> (Teacher): Bard - Archaeologist Half-Elf.

We both agree that Archaeologist is a bit on the weak side, ESPECIALLY with how he plays... he is the skill monkey, Dex 18 (per my insistence), Int 16, Cha 21. Spell Focus (Illusions), Lingering Performance, Enforcer, Leadership and Spell Focus (Illusions). I decided to gift him that, at level 7, his Luck applies to all allies within 30' if he applies his luck to a Perform skill, and they can either see or hear his performance (So, a limited version of Bardic Performance). Other than that though, my least amount of homebrew...

<no name yet>: Wyvaran Bloodrager (Gold Dragon [Fire], Primalist, Spelleater).

He wants to be a Dragon, and this was as close as I could get him (at this level). We have a Custom feat to turn his "Slapping Tail" racial trait, into an actual tail Slam attack. Took Fiend Totem to get a Gore, so has a Bite (Dragon Disciple), Gore (Bloodrager Power), Tail (Racial Feat), and 2 Claw attacks (Bloodrager & Dragon Disciple). He built up to Fast Healer and has a 20 Con, 23 Str, and 16 Cha. (He's my most experienced player amongst the kids). Also having his Dragon Disciple stuff work when he rages (instead of rounds per day) so he can use a single system to track everything.

<no name yet>: Human Ranger - Feral Ranger, Packmaster (Unchained)

The Feral Ranger archetype was made specifically for him in an earlier game that didn't pan out fully. Exchanged all 'favored' Ranger abilities for Wild Shape. He'll also do the Packmaster archetype this time, which uses the XP table rather than levels to calculate the overall levels of his mob. He learned last game that Cats are just a better choice, so instead of doing Wolf again, he'll do Cats. Build a 'Pride' of Tigers I think. So a larger number of natural attacks in this campaign than usual... (what with the bloodrager being all natural as well).

<no name yet>: <unknown race> Paladin - Warrior of the Holy Light (Unchained)

Just got to notified that another kid will be joining, and after an initial talk of what he wants, he decided that a Paladin without spells was what fit his concept best. He sacrifices all of his spellcasting to better act as team support. I've suggested a 2-handed Falchion to him because he was originally wanting sword-n-board, but that could make him a bit too weak... told him it's his god's job to be his shield. ;)

Game starts first weekend of 2025, and next week we have our first sit-down to figure out how the characters all know each other, to decide if anything on the sheets need finishing or changing to make it a more cohesive group, etc... If anyone has suggestions, I'm happy to throw them at the players (Such as the hundred cuts spell for the bard, to get him more into melee instead of his XBow without a Precise Shot feat...), but mostly I'm posting this in hopes of seeing what YOUR group looks like in return.

As you probably figured from my recent return, and new Archetypes (Unchained), I'm starting up a campaign soon (after the holidays, so early Jan). So far we have a Storm Caller Summoner, and a Cipher Investigator. My son will be playing for the first time (just turned 16), and is excited about a Bladebound, and after watching too much "Guts the Berserker" wants the blade to be 2-handed. He doesn't want to deal with spells so much, and after some banter, where I tried to convince him to go Fighter or Barbarian if he wants a "Guts" character, he learned of fighter feats.

His request is to replace Spell Combat and Spellstrike with Weapon Focus/Specialization (and the Greater versions). He wants magic, but as a preparatory thing (Enlarge Person, Haste, Shield, Etc), and I'm inclined to agree, though we'll have to homebrew some parts of it for both the 2-handed aspect, as well as for the fact that he wants to go Eldritch Scion for the Fire Element (the dangers of letting him have access to my books :P).

Before I go creating this homebrew though, wanted to see if there wasn't something better to suggest. Unlike some here, I may have all the core books, but never got all the sub-books (Modules, Adventure Paths), so I don't know everything. And a lot of classes (such as pretty much anything Hybrid or in the Occult book, except for Kineticist), I've never even seen in a game, so don't have much experience with...

Otherwise I'll homebrew a 2-handed Bladebound Scion...

My wife loves the idea of a Cipher, but as I told her, that's some of the most broken stuff in the game... all the 'special' of being a Cipher pretty much never works... not enough targets, too easy to save against, etc... But I always help a player get a balanced version of what they want to play (hence all my Unchained archetypes), so am making a balanced version where they basically evolve into at-will Invisibility (Like Kinetic Invisibility), remove the Compulsion, etc...

Before I go undully influencing anyone's opinion too much on how best to do this, thought I'd ask you guys how YOU would go about making Cipher an interesting archetype... I'll post my thoughts in a few hours after I think it through some more. :)

What's your opinion on allowing a Rogue 1/Magus (Greensting Slayer) 3, qualify for Arcane Trickster? He can cast 2nd level Arcane spells, has Mage Hand, all skill requirements, and (by spending an arcane point) +2d6 sneak attack...(1d6 from rogue, 1d6 from arcana)...

The objective here is just to make the archetype as interesting mechanically, as it is thematically. It's, for the most part, a rewrite though. Note: Electrical Polarity has been removed meaning that the storm caller gains access to the shield ally and greater shield ally of the summoner.

Summon Storm's Fury - Lightning Bolt (Sp)
A storm caller can, at 1st level, cast lightning bolt as a spell-like ability, as a standard action with a caster level equal to his summoner level. This replaces the 1st level of the summon monster class feature. Using this ability does not count against the number of times the storm caller can use the summon monster class feature.

Summon Monster I (Sp)
When summoning monsters using the class ability, the storm caller is limited to one of the following:
I - Replaced by Summon Storm's Fury - Lightning Bolt
II — small air elemental, small lightning elemental;
III - Replaced by Summon Storm's Fury - Call Lightning
IV — medium air elemental, medium lightning elemental,
V — large air elemental, large lightning elemental;
VI — huge air elemental, huge lightning elemental;
VII — Replaced by Summon Storm's Fury - Call Lightning Storm
VIII — elder air elemental, elder lightning elemental
IX — advanced elder air elemental, advanced elder lightning elemental.

All summons via this ability gain immunity to electricity. If a group of elementals is summoned, due to summoning a lower level of creature for the spell level, each elemental can cast lightning bolt as a spell-like ability, with an effective level equal to the spell level of the spell (so elements summoned with a spell equivalent of summon monster IV would be treated as being 2nd level for purpose of the lightning bolt), with a minimum effective level of 1. Each summon that gains this feature, may only use it once.

Summon Storm's Fury - Call Lightning (Sp)
At 5th level, as long as his eidolon is within 100', the storm caller can expend one use of his summon monster class ability to cast call lightning as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his summoner level, except as noted below. This can even be done while he has summons active from his summon monster class ability.

Each bolt of lightning deals 3d6 points of electricity damage. This damage increases by 1d6 at 7th level and every 2 levels thereafter, to a maximum of 10d6 at 19th level. The prevailing weather has no effect on the damage of the lightning bolts. The Reflex save DC is equal to 10 + half the storm caller’s summoner level + his Charisma modifier. If the storm caller uses this ability again before he has used all of his available bolts of lightning, any unused bolts are expended with no effect.

This replaces the 3rd level of summon monster

Aspect of the Storm (Su)
At 10th level, a storm caller gains a flight speed equal to his eidolon, with the same maneuverability of his eidolon. This has no cost in the way of evolution points. This replaces the aspect and greater aspect of the summoner.

Summon Storm's Fury - Call Lightning Storm(Sp)
At level 15, the storm caller may replace call lightning with call lightning storm when using the summon storm's fury - call lightning

This replaces the 7th level of summon monster

I feel this lines up better with a vanilla summoner, both thematically (Ie: replacing Aspect instead of positioning, for an aspect), and mechanically. Thoughts before I go adding it to my list?

None of the guides really dig into the archetypes…. Can anyone rate the efficacy of the various archetypes? Thinking of a Storm Caller, but wondering if it would be a downgrade from vanilla…

So, I'm a level 5 Shadowdancer currently with 12 levels of Aero/Aether Kineticist before that.

I don't feel like going further in either class, and am looking for a fun class to finish my character off with.

Truth is, adding 3 levels of Shadowdancer or Kineticist is kinda pointless. I'd never use Quicken (too expensive), I only have Infusions with a 2 burn requirement and don't want the higher burn ones..., and don't really see much use for the Shadowdancer powers after level 5. (The level 3 Shadow companion was quite a let down already).

I'm pretty much as powerful as I care to be, I can move 960' per turn (Extreme Range + Air's Reach + Ride the Blast), can Hide in Plain Sight with a +50 on my Stealth meaning my Sniping is about as best as can be... plus already have ranged skullduggery via Telekinetic Finesse and a +35 Disable Device... and am not looking for a 'boost' perse, just something fun.

Thought about using the 3 levels to create a really fast companion/familiar/eidolon of sorts, but that seemed pointless after giving it a try, there's just no way for them to keep up with me... Sky Druid seemed like a fun idea at first, but I move 10x+ faster than my companion ever could... Maybe some sort of Oracle or something? Or a Prestige Class that is fun if you don't mind that it's not boosting you at all? :P Any idea except more levels of Kineticist or Shadowdancer, that 3 levels worth of is still interesting.

It's been approved already for a new game, where I'm playing a Sylph, I just want to make it look/read professional-like (though comments on mechanics are always welcomed of course)

Elementalist (Racial Kineticist Archetype)

Aether is the tool by which the elements are drawn into our realm, thus it is no real surprise that a Aetherkineticist with a strong attunement to a particular element, would become equally skilled at both the Aether and the element from which he is attuned. Kineticist from the elemental races of the ifrit, oread, sylph and undine may choose this archetype.

Elemental Focus (Su)
Elementalists focus on two elements instead of one. These are always Aether and the element linked to their race. She gains the basic utility wild talent from each of these elements, and may select Wild Talents from either element. This modifies the elemental focus class feature.

Elemental Defense (Su)
At 2nd level, she may select only 1 of the elemental defenses granted by the 2 elements. This clarifies the elemental defense class feature. This does not alter the class feature, so may be stacked with an archetype that alters the elemental defense class feature.

Limited Infusions (Su)
Elementalists gain the Extended Range Infusion at 1st level, and at 9th level they gain both the Extreme Range Infusion, and the Snake Infusion. These are the only Infusions an Elementalist may have, even if another source (such as the Extra Wild Talent Feat) may give them access to Infusions. This modifies the Infusion class feature.

Advanced Defense (Su)
At 7th level, the Elementalist gains the elemental defense from the other element, granting her access to both elemental defenses. Any burn spent to enhance one of the defenses, enhances them both by that amount of burn.

Expanded Element (Su)
At 7th and 15th level, when expanding elements, the element must be one of the available elements that she already knows. This modifies the Expanded Element class feature, and may stack with an archetype that similarly requires the kineticist to expand into an elemental focus.

I've had a concept in my mind based on the Wardancers of the Warhammer Fantasy Wood Elf army, and wanted to just slightly increase their mystical nature (Ie: some spells, in addition to their enchanted blades). Since they are dual-wielding types I was bending over backwards trying to create a multi-class fighter/wizard(or sorcerer) creation when I finally just decided to hybrid them, and the more I hybrided them, the more Magus they seemed... so I tried an Archetype instead. I -think- it's balanced, but would like some input from others, since I've not played anything like a Magus in quite a long time (Not since the Kineticists came out). Tried to take away more than I added, but not sure I'm objective enough on this.

Elven Blade Master

Elven blade masters are a group of noble born warriors of Xoth Sarandi, trained in both the martial arts of the blade as well as in the mystical arts. The difference between them and other members of the Magus class is that they see the weapon as the tool of the martial aspects, and keep it separated from the mystical aspects of their training. They use a pair of blades and perform katas that appear almost like a dancer, allowing them to flow through a battle much as water flows through a sand barrier.

Class Skills: Elven blade masters gain Perform [Dance] (Cha) as a class skill. This modifies the class skills of the magus.

Diminished Spellcasting
Due to their martial focus, they do not learn to project spells towards living targets, and instead focus most of their spell casting on themselves. When generating the Difficulty Class to resist a spell, the elven blade master always treats her intelligence bonus as 0.

Arcane Pool (Su)
When calculating the amount of arcane points in his pool, an elven blade master uses his whole level rather than half his level, however when using the reservoir of mystical energy to fuel and enhance his weapons, he must spend 2 points from his arcane pool, but gains the benefits onto both of his weapons when doing so. This ability modifies the arcane pool ability of the magus class.

Two Weapon Fighting (Ex)
Elven blade masters start the game with the Two-Weapon Fighting feat as a bonus feat, however, she must meet the requisite of the feat to gain the benefits the feat. This ability replaces Spell Combat.

Two Bladed Defense (Ex)
At second level, an elven blade master gains +1 shield bonus to her AC anytime that she is wielding two light bladed weapons, and wearing light or no armour. This increases by another +1 every 5 levels after 2nd level. The elven blade master may spend one point from their arcana pool to add the enhancement bonus of a single weapon they are wielding to their AC. Note: this is an enhancement bonus, so would not stack with the enhancement bonus of magical armour. This ability replaces spellstrike, medium armour and heavy armour.

Magus Arcana
At third level, the elven blade master gains the dual bladed magus arcana automatically (See below), in place of the Arcana she would otherwise receive at 3rd level. This alters the magus arcana ability of the magus class and replaces the improved spell combat as well as the greater spell combat of the class.

Bonus Feats
Elven blade masters do not gain the bonus feats that other members of the magus class receive, rather they receive Improved Two Weapon Fighting at 8th level as a free bonus feat, and Greater Two Weapon Fighting at 16th level as a free bonus feat. They must still meet the prerequisites of the feats to benefit from them.

Elven Blade Master (Su)
At 20th level, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to all attacks made when wielding two light bladed weapons. This ability replaces the true magus ability of the magus class.

Magus Arcana:
Dual Bladed (Su)
Benefit: When wielding 2 light bladed weapons, she may spend a single point from her arcane pool to use Dexterity instead of Strength in determining damage with her primary hand. This effect lasts for one minute. At 7th level, she may add her dexterity bonus to her damage rolls for both weapons rather than just the primary weapon during this effect, this raises the cost to two points from her arcane pool..

I'm making a character for a level 16 game, where we were told to feel free to optimize because it'll be a tough game (And there's already a Divine Archer/Paladin). So rather than go for my usual weakest-character-in-the-party build, I thought I'd try something I've always been curious on...

Kasatha with 4 Kukris. However, aside from realizing that I need the two-weapon feat tree, the improved critical feat I can't figure out where I want to go from there. Fighter seems the obvious choice, but also seems a bit boring, and I don't really know which feats to take other than those listed and Weapon Finesse.

Rogue lacks the boredom, and lets me add my Dex to all 4 attacks for damage at 3rd level+, but as a 2/3 BAB seems like I might be struggling to hit... and dependent on sneak attacks (which isn't a terrible thing).

Hunter seems interesting since I seem to be feat-light... alloing me some spells and such.

I have a feeling that I can't support that Swashbuckler might be a good choice, but no guns allowed in our game.

Can anyone help me with a really great 4-weapon build? (I do not want to go Archer, despite the Kasatha archetype available)

The Syrinx, protected by their lofty monastery-cities, high on the cliff-side of the tallest mountains, rely primarily on their devastating hunters to feed the elite amongst them, leaving the lower classes and slaves in their wingless forms, to toil the ground for their food. The greatest of the hunters gain partners amongst the breed of giant owls from the region, these giant owls do not gain the true size of the greatest of the giant owls, often barely reaching 2 meters in height, though ranging up to 16 meters in height. These 2 form a partnership which pits them against each other in striving for greatness in skill.

Winged Parliament is a racial archetype for the elusive Syrinx race presented in the Pathfinder Inner Seas volume. Although intended for Syrinx, it is available to the Strix race as well.

Animal Companion (Ex)
When choosing an animal companion, members of the Winged Parliament must select a Giant Owl as their companion (Or a Roc, if a member of the Strix race). Use the Roc Companions statistics and 7th level Advancement to create the companion. This alters the Animal Companion class feature.

Paragon (Su)
At first level, a Syrinx Hunter loses the racial Nocturnal bonus to the Stealth skill, replacing it with a permanent Animal Focus of the Owl, in addition to improving their fly maneuverability to good. At 8th level they replace the Nocturnal advantage entirely, gaining in place an additional permanent Animal Focus of the Falcon, in addition to their fly maneuverability improving to perfect. This replaces Wild Empathy, Swift Tracker and their Second Animal Focus.

Royalty (Ex)
At 5th level, a Syrinx and her animal companion gain the Wingover feat as a bonus feat, and has their fly speed increased by +10 for every 5 class levels. This replaces Woodland Stride and Bonus Tricks class features.

Working on a 12th level Syrinx Hunter, with a Roc Companion (The closest I could get to a Giant Owl).

Any general advice on the direction I should go? I was thinking Stealth Synergy with Flyby Attack and Death from Above, the low dex is bothersome...

The only Hunter guide is missing so much info (or expects you to go back and forth between different guides to evaluate companions and such). And of course, fails to address unique races (for obvious reasons), such as the Syrinx...

So I guess basically what I'm asking is... are there any things that are must-haves for a solid build? Magic items? Feats? Priority list for Teamwork feats (particular with a low Dex)?

I have a player suggesting the following. I'm considering allowing it, but thought I'd get some input from the community first.

Agile Fist: At 1st level, an unarmed monk is allowed to use his Dexterity bonus in place of his Strength bonus for both attack bonus and damage bonus, when using Flurry of Attacks. This replaces Stunning Fist.

My concern is that I don't want Strength to be a 'dump' stat for a Monk, so would personally like a way of including a strength requisite into the rules. Then again, one could just take Weapon Finesse and an Agile Amulet of the Fists and get these benefits anyhows. So I can't tell if it's underpowered, or overpowered, or if I should even be concerned about someone with a potential Strength as low as 5 doing this level of damage in melee... :/

Help please?

Our level 12 Bard has the Leadership feat, and I let him build his own minion because his last one turned into a PC (one-shot guest keeps returning :P)

He has almost no offense really, the minion that is, but his defense is pretty formidable. Admittedly, he was built as a 'bodyguard' for the Bard, who is very non-combatant, which is ok... but as a Paladin/Sacred Shield, his 'defense' is contagious to the rest of the party.

Question being, should I allow as-is, or should I have him make changes? I'm in no way wanting to use this as a chance to mess with him... I'm sure he has no intention of abusing it, I just don't want to walk into something I'm not ready for...

Thanks for any advise. :)

Recommended costs for the following items?

WindStorm Shirt
Description: This dark-grey, silk shirt whips about constantly as if being blown by a strong wind; the effect making it appear as if dark storm clouds are constantly rolling across it.
Effect: If the wearer is capable of flight, or under the effects of a fly spell, she may use a swift action to fly her fly speed a number of times a day equal to her level. This has no effect if the wearer is not personally capable of flight, such as using a flying carpet.

WindStorm Gloves
Description: These thin leather gloves are dark-grey and finely stitched. The finger-tips are left open, allowing ones fingers to protrude just slightly enough to allow for proper feeling for delicate tasks.
Effect: The gloves contain unseen extra-dimensional spaces on both the back and palm. The spaces in the back are just enough to hold a single small item weighing no more than 1lb, or a set of thieves' tools. The palm sides however, are capable of holding as much as 5lbs of material each. This not only grants the wearer extra space to hold things, but a +5 to both Sleight of Hand checks (assuming the palm extra-dimensional spaces are not already full), and Disable Device checks.
This otherwise uses the same rules as a bag of holding, which means reaching into a bag of holding, or handy haversack, while wearing these gloves can have disastrous effects.

Windstorm Boots
Description: These fine leather boots, which are colored similar to a storm cloud, have softened soles and tiny wings at the ankles. They wrap tightly around the calves of the wearer when worn.
Effect: When worn, the wearer doubles their movement speed, up to a maximum of +30 to that movement speed. This effect may be used a number of movements per day equal to the level of the wearer.

Thanks for the advise. :)

Levitate Allies
Element Aether; Type utility (Sp); Level 3; Burn 0
Prerequisite telekinetic haul
You can move a number of willing creatures or objects, up to 30' in a single direction, even upward. The number of creatures is dependent on their weight as per the telekinetic haul wild talent, including the option to accept burn to increase the weight limit. The creatures may not be restrained in a way that would prevent movement; such as being grappled, and must all be within a 30' radius. If you end your turn before the creatures are on solid ground, they will begin falling on your next turn unless you use levitate allies again.

Levitate Enemies
Element Aether; Type utility (Sp); Level 5; Burn 1
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes Prerequisite levitate allies
You are able to lift and restrain several targets in the air. This has the effect of preventing any movement, including a 5' move, though they can still perform other actions such as fighting or spell-casting as normal. This is a combat maneuver using your Constitution modifier in place of your Intelligence or Charisma modifier. The maximum number of opponents is based on their weight as per the telekinetic haul talent, and all opponents must be within 30' of each other. Additional burn for increased weight is not allowed when using this talent. Combat maneuver checks to continue holding those targets that fail their CMD check, receive a +5 circumstance bonus to hold them in place in the following turn, though you do not have to expend any burn to maintain the levitation in followup rounds against those targets, until they either succeed in their CMD check, or you fail to maintain your hold on them.

Zephyr (Sylph Racial Kineticist Archetype)

The sylph race has the strongest attunement possible with the element of air, being offsprings of the planar denizens. This connection allows them to more finely manipulate wind in a manner resembling the effects of a telekineticist.

Motion Focus (Ex): At 1st level, a zephyr must choose air as her primary element, and when expanding into another element, she must always choose air; however she is treated as having both aether and air as her primary element for selection of infusions and utility wild talents, and gains the basic wild talents of both elements. She may only gain a single air based kinetic blast at this time, and the other at 7th level. When she gains the air blast, it qualifies for any infusion that has the telekinetic blast as the associated blast.
At 2nd level, she gains both forms of Elemental Defense for air and aether. This alters the elemental focus, infusions, elemental defense and elemental expansion class features.

Aerokinetic Specialization (Ex): At 5th level she gains one of the following Kinetic Talents for which she qualifies for. If she does not qualify for any of the talents, she can gain the talent at a later level as soon as she does qualify for it. She gains a 2nd talent at 11th level, and the final talent at 19th level. This replaces the infusions gained at levels 3, 5, 11, 13 and 19.

Aerial Sniping (Ex):
Without a visible component, the air blast’s origin is not as discernible
Prerequisites: Air blast, 5 ranks of Stealth.
When using the air blast, a zephyr receives a bonus to her sniping penalty as per the level 5 unchained rogue skill unlock for Stealth.
(Reduce the Stealth penalty from sniping by 10.)

Aerial Motion (Ex):
An unseen air blast acts as a perfect distraction.
Prerequisites: Aerial Sniping, 10 ranks of Stealth.
Zephyrs gain the level 10 unchained rogue skill unlock for Stealth on the same turn in which she uses the air blast.
(Stealth check penalties for moving quickly are halved, including the ability unlocked at 5 ranks, moving full speed, and reaching concealment after creating a distraction.)

Tesla Burst (Su):
Being a conduit for electricity allows one to create a flashy and effective display of power.
Prerequisites: Electric blast, kinetic fist.
This is a level 2 form infusion that costs 2 burn, with both electric blast and thunderstorm blast as associated blasts. Anything within 5’ of you takes damage as per the Kinetic Fist wild talent, as does anything that ends its turn next to you before the beginning of your next turn.

Tesla Explosion (Su):
The zephyr releases the pent up energy within her, allowing it to flow outwards.
Prerequisite: Tesla Burst.
She extends the range of her Tesla Burst to 10’, and adds +1 damage for every d6 damage caused. This is otherwise still treated as a level 2 form infusion that costs 2 burn.

Thunderstorm Finale (Su):
Nobody is more the master of the thunderstorm than those born into it.
Prerequisite: Level 19, thunderstorm blast.
When using the Thunderstorm composite blast, the zephyr has the option to convert all her blast’s die to d8’s instead of d6’s. This increases the composite blast cost to 3 burn instead of 2.

PPhPP : Long for Pathfinder PhP Project.

As you may or may not have known from my past posts, I've been working on a php program to make calculations easy for character creation and progression. It allows you, at a glance, to see easily if something like Power Attack is right for your character... Admittedly, only with "full round" attacks (or combos, such as the Gather Power + Kinetic Blast of a Kineticist). I was using it to compare my Kineticist to other classes, since I found the Kineticist to be far more powerful in play than other players did.

The reason for this post is to see if anyone wants to expand on this project or not. The classes are written, though addendums will be needed for feats and classes I haven't tested, and the character creation is relatively easy (and will be made even easier as time progresses). You can see the results (ignore the House Rules stuff, we play differently than most people :P) here: http://gryphynx.eu.pn/Campaign/

Here is a quick sample of what creating a character looks like currently:

Places where you see comments (//) are things I still plan to implement into the character class.

Currently you'd need at least a smidging of php understanding to make a character, but I'm eventually thinking of porting this to a form and saving in a mysql database...

Again, this is just a feeler to see if anyone's interested in my making this more user friendly for you rather than keeping it as a personal tool.

Note: This really is our group, though I took liberties to push them through level 20. The fighter is actually 2 levels lower than the Bard, who has him as a Cohort, he is not a PC of the group. ;)

I'm working on automating some stuff for our games and came across an archetype I'd not posted yet. Thought someone might like this.

Influential Diplomat
Not all Bards are performance oriented, these bards act as diplomats to foreign and hostile areas, striving to bring peace.

Why can't we all just get along?
No npc is hostile towards the diplomat unless attacked or provoked into attacking the diplomat. This works as if the diplomat had succeeded in a diplomacy test with a single success. The diplomat may still make a diplomacy test to increase the number of steps, but must roll against the actual attitude of the npc before the effect of this feature. At 7th level, the diplomat receives a +5 competence bonus on any diplomacy test to influence attitude. At level 13, hostile enemies will still go out of their way to avoid attacking the diplomat. This replaces the bardic performance class feature.

Influential Charisma
As of 2nd level, any bluff, diplomacy or intimidate roll may use the diplomat's level in place of skill ranks. This replaces the versatile performance class feature.

NOTE: This was made for a old-aged non-combatant/pacifist Gnome Illusionist Bard. He refuses to carry a weapon, wear armour, or have anything to do with combat. Obviously, his end result is a lot weaker than the typical bard, but he just couldn't see himself singing and playing musical instruments as we went dungeon crawling. It's probably not most people's cup of tea, but it's nice that we have someone to handle all our "social" conflicts in the group. And his illusions are nice too. ;)

After the eye-opening comments by Calethos, I began to understand why my archetypes were so failing... not only because I was trying to under-dog them to be viably acceptable, but because I was trying to merge them into a single archetype, losing a lot of their "theme" in the process... so, while still a work-in-progress, here's my enlightened attempt to do it again.

Notes:

Ifrit - The goal being to make them the the -best- at pyrokineticism. If you want a powerful blaster, this should fit the bill without breaking things in the process.

Oread - Lacking dex/con as a bonus, I made them pure-blade (like the Jaedai), and made sure they could use their bonus to strength to enhance their melee abilities, so they can actually dump dex now, and pump up con/str.

Sylph - The real 'utility' archetype of the class, not much different than my previous attempt, but this time with fewer penalties.

Undine - What the Chirurgen could have looked like, and still have been effective in combat. Good healers without sacrificing offense.

Suli - Unlimited on elements. Unlike Caletho's version earlier which tends to force them to focus on a single type of blast, I kept my generalized to all elements but at the huge price of reduced Utility wild talents.

Click HERE to see...

Would seriously love some input from anybody. :)

I hope this to be my final attempt at this... it finally starts to feel like what I'm wanting in an archetype. I just worry that they perhaps get too many utility wild talents... :/

Elemental Kineticist - Kineticist Racial Archetype

I have a problem that I can't seem to resolve without destroying a characters usefulnes...

I'm so torn between Aerokineticist and Aetherkineticist that if I ever got a chance to play a gestalt game, I'd play double-class kineticist just to get all the utilities and a lightning blast.

I keep trying to build a proper archetype that would somehow let me double-down on utilities, but not become ineffective in combat. I'm thinking it'd have to be an Outsider (element) Archetype that either gives Aether utilities to the character, or forces them to choose Aether initially and get their element as a bonus. Anyone have any ideas? I want to start with electrical attacks, telekinetic utilities, and air utilities, but not be overpowered. :/

Jaedai Knight - Kineticist Archetype
The Jaedai Knights are an order of Knights who focus on an element they refer to as "The Force". This is an element which bears many semblances to the Aether element, except that whereas most kineticist draw from the Ethereal Plane, a Jaedai Knight draws from the Astral Plane, giving them power over the mind.

Prerequisite: Kineticist with Aether elemental focus.

Light Saber (Su): All Jaedai Knights start with the Kinetic Blade infusion, however this only works if they have a device through which to focus their blast, which all characters start with. Through the use of crystals, harnessed in a mithral casing, she is able to focus the far more random power of the Astral plane into a weapon. Once a Kinetic Blade is formed, it is sustained turn by turn as a simple action unless the device harnessing the crystal is dropped. Replacing or fixing a damaged or sundered light saber requires 2d4 days, 2 lbs of Mithral and a crystal worth no less than 1,000 GP. The jaedai receives a +10 to their CMD to avoid having their light sabers sundered.

A Jaedai Knight is treated as having fighter levels equal to his levels as a kineticist for the purpose of qualifying for feats, but only with the light saber. Otherwise, all other rules for the Kinetic Blade remain the same, such as it never counting as being wielded.

Infusions (Su): Jaedai Knights can not gain the Kinetic Whip infusion. This alters the infusion class feature.

Utility Wild Talents (Su): Jaedai Knights have access to the following Aether utility wild talents: basic telekinesis, kinetic healer, telekinetic finesse, telekinetic haul, touchsight, telekinetic maneuvers, self telekinesis (but not the greater version) and touchsight (reactive). In addition, they may gain Astral utility wild talents listed below.

Kinetic Blast (Su): Jaedai Knights do not gain the ability to shoot ranged blasts, and are limited to using their Light sabers for their kinetic blasts. This alters the kinetic blast class feature.

Elemental Defense (Su): Once per round, when your light saber is activated, you can deflect any attack against you by making an attack roll against the roll used to attack you. You must exceed, not match, the attacker’s roll in order to deflect the attack. This replaces the elemental defense class feature.

Power of Light (Su): Upon reaching 7th level, your light saber increases it’s critical to 19-20/x3 instead of the default of 20/x2. You can spend 1 burn to double the critical of the light saber for 1 round per level. At 16th level the critical increases to 18-20/x3 and the damage of the Kinetic Blade, and for 2 burn you can add your Elemental Overflow damage bonus to attacks made within the duration. This replaces the Expanded Element and the Composite Specialization class features.

Wild Talents, Utility

Influence
Element(s) astral; Type utility (Sp); Level 2; Burn 0; Saving Throw: Will negates
You are able to change the attitude of a creature at a small level. Turning rage into annoyance, happiness into discomfort, or give a feeling of apathy to anyone that is not under a strong emotional influence. This can shift any creature’s attitude towards the party by 1 degree. From Hostile to Unfriendly to Indifferent to Friendly to Helpful, though this may only be used on any creature once per day.

Influence, Greater
Element(s) astral; Type utility (Sp); Level 4; Burn 0
You are able to make a suggestion (as per the spell) to a creature, one time per day per creature.

Misdirect
Element(s) astral; Type utility (Sp); Level 2; Burn 0
You are able create a single minor illusion that are purely visual as per the Silent Image spell, though the size of the illusion can be large or greater. This illusion requires a move action to maintain.

Sense Life
Element(s) astral; Type utility (Sp); Level 4; Burn 0
You are able to sense the presence of a living being by focusing on an area within 120’ of yourself. When activated, you are treated as under the influence of a See Invisible spell for anything within 30’ of the area you focus upon, though you must still have line of sight to actually see your target(s). This lasts for as long as you spend a standard action focusing on that area.

Foresee
Element(s) astral; Type utility (Sp); Level 3; Burn 0
You receive insights of the future. This grants you a +4 bonus on all initiative tests, for 1 minute per level. Accept 1 burn to have this effect last until the next time you recover burn.

Enhanced Athleticism
Element(s) astral; Type utility (Sp); Level 1; Burn 0
As the Air’s Leap talent. Additionally, you can add your levels in burn to all balance checks.

Greater Enhanced Athleticism
Element(s) astral; Type utility (Sp); Level 2; Burn 0
You gain the effects of the Endurance feat for 1 minute per level. While under this effect your running speed is equal to 5x your normal movement speed instead of 4. Accept 1 burn to have this effect last until the next time you recover burn.

Not all Kineticists develop their powers under the influence of dungeons and wilderness, where haphazard use of powers isn't bound to wrought collateral destruction. Their blasts have to be more precise, and they gain more use of utility talents than their kinetic peers.
Controlled Burn (Su): An urban kineticist reduces the amount of burn they can accept per round by one, starting at zero burn for the first 6 levels. They can still use burn from gather power or specializations that reduce burn to zero. This alters the burn class feature.

Urban Talents (Su): The urban kineticist focuses only on controlling their blast, not on the effects of their blasts. They do not get to learn any substance infusions, but learn their form infusions at 1st level, and every 4 levels thereafter starting at 5th level. After first level, all form infusions are treated as one level lower for determining if they can be learned. Unlike other kineticists, they gain their utility wild talents at every level in which they do not gain an infusion talent from this class feature. This alters the infusions and wild talents class features.

Extended Form (Su): At 5th level the urban kineticist may use the extended form infusion along with any other form infusion, except for the extreme range infusion, but must pay the additional 1 point of burn for using the extended form infusion, though this cost may be offset by the infusion specialization class feature as normal. She must still have learned the extended form infusion to benefit from this feature.

Damage for Defense (Su): When expanding into a new element, the urban kineticist does not learn any composite blasts, nor may she learn them at a later time. She does however gain the expanded defense of the new element. This alters the Expanded Element class feature.

Extreme Form (Su): At 16th level the urban kineticist may use the extreme form infusion when using any other form infusion. Otherwise this works as the extended form class feature but with the cost being 2 burn. This replaces the composite specialization class feature.

My thanks to everyone who helped me do the calculations and corrected my many mistakes in playing the game and class. If anyone sees any mistakes, please feel free to holler at me here. :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByRf9gGg2fwGaUphWjlpNEhZbWM/view?usp=shari ng

As I mentioned in my Telekinetic Guide thread, I've been analyzing numerically, the damage of the Kineticist. When I first made my Kineticist, I went more with gut feeling than numbers, and evaluated it as "awesome" damage. With numbers, my following comments may seem less than raving, but it is not intended as a tear-down of the class. Not only is this the only class I'll ever play again (in PF anyhows), I still rate it as 5-stars in all regards.

That being said, and we measured DPRs for all sorts of classes/characters to try and get an "average" in damage output, at all 20 levels (we're programmers, so we wrote a php class to do this, then pumped it with different character builds).

It's obviously not fool-proof, but it gave us an idea of the "average" dpr we should be expecting for any class that focuses on doing damage, -but- without using limited resources (so avoiding Smite Evil, Rage, Etc...) or situational (Preferred domain, sneak attack, etc)

Here's the rounded averages per level (basic full-attack actions, no magic):
1) 5
2) 6
3) 8
4) 10
5) 12
6) 15
7) 20
8) 40 (Boots of Speed Boost)
9) 50
10) 55
11) 65
12) 70
13) 80
14) 90
15) 100
16) 110
17) 120
18) 140
19) 150
20) 175

Note: Some of these numbers are deflated due to evaluating 2-handed/2-weapon along with sword-n-boards. Without Sword and Boards, the DPR was +10(80) by level 12, +20(110) by level 15 and +25(200) by level 20.

Then, using Kineticist (no burn, but move-action to Gather)... we have the following DPR
** DPR vs AC of Level+14. Starting Dex/Con = 17 each.
(##%) is percent chance to hit AC of Level+14 with a physical blast.

1) (40%) 3,15 = -2
2) (40%) 3,15 = -3
3) (45%) 7 = -1
4) (45%) 7,5 = -2.5
5) (40%) 12,6 = +0.5 (Maximize Boost)
6) (55%) 20,4 = +5 (+2Con/Dex, Belt Physical Might +2)
7) (55%) 25,2 = +5
8) (60%) 27,3 = -13 (No Boots of Speed Boost)
9) (60%) 33,15 = -16
10) (65%) 36,4 = -19 (Belt +4)
11) (65%) 42.7 = -22
12) (70%) 48.75 = -21 (Con4, Dex2) // Note: (Dex4, Con2) has slightly better DPR, but not enough to be worth the lower Con.
13) (70%) 54 = -26 (Belt +6)
14) (70%) 54 = -36
15) (75%) 66.4 = -33
16) (85%) 75.6 = -35 (Con4, Dex6) // Note: (Con6, Dex4 has a much lower DPR)
17) (80%) 76.5 = -43
18) (85%) 83.7 = -56
19) (85%) 124.2 = -26 (Maximize + Empower, -2 for SuperCharge, -1 for Metakinetic Master)
20) (85%) 124.2 = -51

We come out almost exactly even with a non-fighter, melee type using a sword-n-board build.

The reason I show this is 2-fold. 1) Seems a waste to not share these findings so people can compare their builds with what the "average" should be at a given level, and I'm hoping people collaborate a bit to fine-tune these numbers for precision purposes... and 2) Because in my guide, I want to give an honest evaluation of how the class compares to others for damage, so they don't feel like they did something wrong when building the character. Throwing the same numbers together, I also evaluate how important (for the TKer) that stealth and invisibility are, for the obvious +4 (+20%) to hit (+2 and an average +2 from targeting flat-footed instead of base AC) which by level 16 gives you a 95% chance to hit (2+) even without using touch-ac, and gives about roughly a 10% boost to DPR.

I'm also seeing why I always thought it was super easy to hit with my blasts since I started testing at level 8, which (with my high use of stealth) often took my 60% chance to hit up to 80%.

So... do my numbers seem off to anyone? We seem to have the absolute best "to hit" in the game, which I guess is kinda required when you're a 1-hit per-round build, low end on the DPR despite that. This seems to me to imply that a guide should have players focus on effects more than damage...

After lengthy discussions, I'm thinking instead of some monk/druid hybrid which risks balancing issues, to just add in some Ki Powers for the player.

I have 2 Ki Powers that -mostly- simulates what he wants without requiring him to morph into Dire Tiger.

Ki Bite - Gain a Bite (1d6) Attack with a full strength bonus added to damage. Spend 1 Ki to have this effect for 1 minute per level. Must be 8th level to take this power.

Ki Jaw - Prerequisite: Ki Bite. Spend 1 from your Ki Pool to double the dice for any natural attack. This effect lasts for 1 minute per level.

Also thinking of simulating Pounce (natural attacks only) as a Ki power... It seems fair to me, basically granting an additional natural attack with his 2 claw attacks, to stack with his Flurry of Blows (albeit at -5 to attacks). And a "Strong Jaw" spell at the cost of 2 ki.

His goal is a whirlwind of death (how many attacks can you squeeze into a round). This puts him at a couple of attacks higher than Greater Two Weapon Fighting, but without the bonus Critical that Rapiers get (which I -think- balances out evenly). And while true that TWF requires 3 feats to do fully, he'll undoubtedly have to spend a lot of feats getting the Ki Pool necessary to do this multiple times a day, as well as fuel his other powers...

House Rule: Catfolk Monks can take Guardian Feline as a Ki Power at 8th level.

I want to maximize my natural attacks and having already gotten to Dire Tiger with the aforementioned house rule, and am wondering what to do next. I have a Helm of the Mammoth (So more of a Dire Sabretooth), and Agile Amulet of Might Fists (very high Dex). So a Pounce'd: Gore, Bite (Grab), Claw (Grab), Claw (Grab), Rake.

Is there a reason to stay in the Monk Class? I was thinking of going War Priest (Sacred Claws, which I -think- would also apply to the Rake), or maybe Fighter for the feats (or maybe dip a lot for all the classes that give multiple feats at 1st level). I realize there's the Bear Fisted Fighting guide, but it's a bit out-dated with Unchained... and the latest comments suggest that it shouldn't be used with Unchained. Are there any suggestions here?

I have a player that wants to play half unchained-monk, half druid... seemed like a good opportunity to conjure up a Monk/Druid hybrid class... any suggestions?

Obviously he's not that into the Druid spells, but a way to Dire Tiger into a Flurry of Blows... pounce/rake/grab...

My initial thoughts are to straight up replace Ki Pool/Ki Powers with Wild Shape (both are level 4's, so that's pretty straightforward). But Monk Powers are more equivalent to Druid Spells, so I'm afraid I'm taking a bit much here...

Guessing I'd have to rewrite Flurry of Blows to work with Natural Weapons. Basically letting you "add" an extra Attack to one of your Natural attacks at 1st and 11th levels, and granting Improved Natural Attack feat to the class at various levels...?

Ideas?

Your deity helps you keep your Oaths, giving you the tools needed to fulfill them.

Prerequisite: You may only take the Greater Oathbound archetype if you have the Oathbound Archetype as well.

Mercy is for the Weak: Anytime you would gain a Mercy, you instead gain +1 healing per die rolled from using the Lay on Hands class power; this does not stack with other healing bonuses, such as that given by Fey Foundling.

After 5th level you may choose to gain a Divine Bond, rather than the +1 heal per die rolled, the next time you would otherwise gain a Mercy. This allows you to have both Divine Bonds, a mount and a weapon. If you do not gain a Divine Bond, due to another Archetype for example, you may not gain a Divine Bond in this manner.

If you have an Oath that replaces one or more of your Mercies, you may not replace the features given to you in place of mercies for the healing bonus. This replaces the mercies class feature, although you may take this Archetype with any Oath that alters the mercy class feature.

Couple of questions...

Some of the racial powers state:
"Each additional time you take this trait, increase its cost by 1 RP"

Does this mean each level is +1 more expensive than the previous level? Ie: Buy it at 2RP, and buying it again means the 2nd purchase is 3RP, and buying it again is 4RP (so 3x is a total of 9RP)

Or does it mean just +1 to the total, so 2x is a total of (2RP+1RP+1RP=4RP)?

Flight states that every additional 2RP spent increases the maneuverability/speed. But flight is a 4RP cost. So, does this mean that everytime you "upgrade" flight (at 4RP) you get +2 maneuverability, +20 speed? Or do you pay 2RP per upgrade which, in an Advanced Race game, where you are limited to 4 traits per category, spending a total of (4+2+2+2=10) 10RP maxxes out your Movement traits? One way caps at Perfect/90', the other at Good/60'.

I'm starting up a new campaign, and as part of the process, I want to make sure that players have -exactly- the character that they want to play. I've already had them describe the character (their most ideal character, without mentioning any class/race) and 8 scenarios with them explaining how this character would handle the scenario.

We are currently working on classes, because I intend to house rule things in a manner that they can play their ideal character (hence the recent "Temporal Bard" thread, for the guy who wants to play a highly charismatic time traveller).

I'm also thinking of letting them home-brew their own races, and whatever they home-brew, making sure that their creation is the 'standard' for that race. I will force them to pick an existing race and modify it, but only if it's a thematic change...

I've never let people home-brew races before, and never had the pleasure of playing in a game with a home-brew race, so first thing I'm asking the community is, if there's anything I need to make sure to avoid?

My intent is to allow them to start with an 12RP race, and allow them to "evolve" (something that won't be so common amongst the races in game) by 1RP per level (2RP at 2nd level).

For example, having tested this as if I was the player instead of the GM, I was thinking of taking the Sylph Race, 3 points into Outsider (Air), 5 points into Sneaky (+4 Stealth) and 4 points into Flight (Clumsy/30'). Each 4 levels, add another level of flight so he has the max flight by level 12. (Can't imagine the game would go past level 12, but if it does, that shouldn't be a problem).

I realize the guy playing the catfolk will likely jump on a chance to maximize natural attacks, but since thematic is a thing, he obviously would be limited to claws and a bite at best, maybe a slapping tail...

Seem fair? Or is there a reason people don't let players create their own races? :P

TEMPORAL BARD (ARCHETYPE)
A Temporal Bard has learned to create temporal distortions through using a very precise sound frequency. This is typically done through a very eerie sounding whistling noise they make with their lips, or a wind instrument. Although they are skilled in effecting time, their effects on the living is greatly hindered as their performances are seen as creepy and at times even nauseating if not downright frightful.

.
Performances (Ex):
The bard loses all access to other Bard performances, but picks up the following performances.
Slow time (Su): The temporal bard may whistle a tune that slows down time for everyone other than herself. Add 10' plus 10' per 5 bard levels to her move speed while whistling.
Swift Movement (Su): The temporal bard gains an additional move action while under the effects of this performance.
Push through Time (Sp): For the duration of this performance, beginning at 3rd level, make a melee touch attack to send an opponent forward through time. The target disappears for a number of rounds equal to half the bard level of the temporal bard, and then reappears in the same exact square he disappeared from at the end of the bard's turn on that round. This attack deals no damage, and no effect on the creature happens during those rounds. This may also be used on a willing target, allowing you to push them through time, past a battle, to receive medical attention.
Rewind Time (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, the temporal bard may roll 2d20 on any one roll per round and take the highest result.
Speed Time (Su): Beginning at 7th level the temporal bard may act as if under the effects of the Haste spell.
Flicker through Time (Sp): Beginning at 7th level the bard may choose to be under the effects of the Blink spell while using this performance.
Time Hop (Su): At 7th level, the bard can teleport rather than use its land speed. This is done by stopping time and moving to the next location, thus the temporal bard must have line of effect to the location he is teleporting to. Due to actually traversing the distance, anything that would impede movement, such as difficult terrain, reduces the distance teleported.
Insightful Battlement (Su): The temporal bard is able to see things moments before they happen, giving him time to prepare for them. This gives him the opportunity to use his mind in place of his physical characteristics in many situations. Beginning at 2nd level, the temporal bard may use his Int bonus in place of his Dex bonus for dodge AC and Reflex saves, he may also use his Int bonus in place of his Strength for melee attacks. Additionally, the temporal bard rolls all initiative rolls with 2d20 and takes the highest roll. This replaces versatile performance.
Stretched Performances (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the temporal bard may extend his performance to one additional willing subject, within 5' of the bard. At the beginning of each of the bard's rounds, the other subject must be within 5' of the bard or the effect on the other subject is cancelled. This replaces spells and orisons.
Evasion (Ex): At 3rd level, a temporal bard gains the Evasion class feature as the Rogue.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) At 5th level, a temporal bard gains the Uncanny Dodge class feature as the Rogue.
Merged Performances (Su): When doing a performance, beginning at 7th level, the temporal bard may choose to also be under the effect of either Slow Time or Swift Movement for the duration of the performance, in addition to being under the effects of his current performance. Doing this prevents doing a performance as a move action. At 13th level, a temporal bard may choose to be under the effects of both mentioned performances in addition to the effects of the current performance, though this requires a Standard Action to activate rather than a Swift action.

Writing up some Feats that I think would help Kineticists without unbalancing them... Seem fair? Anything else we should hope to see?

Skilled Infusionist
You can learn some Infusion Wild Talents sooner than others of your class.
Prerequisite: Kineticist level 3 or higher.
Benefit: Treat your Kineticist level as 1 higher for the purpose of qualifying for Infusion Wild Talents **Get those pesky level 2 talents at 3rd instead of 5th

Expanded Element
You gain a talent of your choice.
Prerequisite: Either 7th or 15th kineticist level.
Benefit: When expanding into a new element, you gain a single talent from a previously known element if you would otherwise qualify for it. This must be an infusion talent or utility talent. **Basically Extra Wild Talent without the "2 levels lower".

Foe Hurl
Your ability at tossing opponents is not restricted by form.
Prerequisite: Foe Throw infusion wild talent, and either Extended or Extreme infusion.
Benefit: When using Foe Throw, the range you can toss an enemy is 120' if you have the Extended Range infusion, or 480' if you have the Extreme Range infusion. You are still limited to 30' for selecting your target to throw.

As a continuation to my current project of categorizing just how powerful each martial class can be in DPR, I'm attempting to expand into Cavalier next. Does anyone have a level-20 build, with each level advancements listed, they believe is the most powerful a Cavalier can achieve? Otherwise, any advise on how best to combine 'specific' class feature/feat combinations that are more effective? I know the basics, I have the guides, so I don't need a reiteration of things all martials already know. I'm looking either for builds (both/either archer/melee) or things that those of us who have played martials, but never a cavalier, may have missed.

As part of my project to categorize all the best builds, starting with high DPR Martials from each of the martial classes, I'm beginning with the Barbarian. I played a Sylph Urban Barbarian for awhile (don't ask :P), and while reading the guides, realized the importance of Come and Get Me at level 12. Also the importance of an Invulnerable archetype. However, I'm no expert on the class...

Anyone care to help me with the ultimate DPR build for the class? How to best maximize the come-and-get-me power? If there are any ranged-attack builds that would be interesting? Best feats? Magic Items? Traits?

Please don't recommend I go look at the Guides, I do know the guides pretty well, but they are generalized and may lack any special combinations that hard-core barbarian players may have come across that boosted DPR more than expected. I'm specifically looking to see just how much damage one can output as a barbarian at any given level. :) If I don't get any input, I'll just assume that the guides are solid enough and I'll add a basic Barbarian to the list using the (according to the guide) best options listed in the guides, and try to calculate the DPRs accurately on my own, per level.

Up until now I've used what I called an "Evolving Magic Items" houserule, which basically auto-upgrades magic items. If your wish-list, which I have players fill out as part of their character creation process, has a +5 Fortification Greater Shadow Mithral Chainmail, I throw in a +1 mithral chainmail at some point, and when they gain certain levels, the bonus increases, or a property is added on.

Typically, this means far fewer treasure troves of magic items in the world, and a consistent happiness for the players who look forward to going up a level (usually a level in which the class doesn't have the most impressive upgrade going on) to achieve a new power.

However, I've noticed that +5 <insert armour) +5 <insert weapon>, +5 Cloak of Resistance, and +6/+6 Stat boost (I limit to 2 stats in my games) are always on everyone's lists... as they should be.

So, what do you think of a new houserule in which there are no enhancement modifiers at all? So no Cloak of Resistance, and the only reason for a magic armour/weapon is for the purpose of special abilities.

What else needs modifying to make this balanced? Ie: Paladin Weapon needs mod'd to only allow for special abilities on their summoned blade.

Also, rather than grant stat boost items, I'm thinking +1 Stat per level instead of per 4 levels. Stat boosts seem pretty important to players, and while I'm ok with just removing stat boost items entirely, save for size-mods, etc... I don't think it'd be unbalancing to have stat increases per-level.

The overall result is hopefully a lesser dependence on magic items, and a much wider variety amongst what are otherwise very varying characters.

Can anyone see any problems with these ideas?

The Extra Wild Talent feat says you can take any infusion or non-infusion wild talent, just not a blast or defense wild talent.

Does this mean you can not take the "Expanded Defense" Utility Wild Talent? Or was the thought that you can't just go taking any blast/defense wild talent to prevent people from taking off-element talents (since normal blasts and defense talents don't list a prerequisite)?

I ask because Hero Lab seems to think we can't take Expanded Defense with our feat. :/

In various threads I'm often told how un-optimized the characters in my games are for damage-per-round. The guides, while interesting, don't actually show you how optimized you can be. I would like to propose that we make a compilation of the most optimized for DPR per class which is clearly marked for each level's advancement (so if you're a level 8 character, you can compare yourself to the optimized at level 8). Guides are great, but actually seeing the character sheet of what it -could- be would be far more interesting for anyone actually wanting a guide (especially if reasons for selections are clearly stated in the process).

While I'm not personally interested in having a high DPR character, I'm curious just how far behind the 'best' I lag. I also realize that not all classes are about damage output, rather depending on high DPR classes to do the damage while they do the battlefield control, and obviously I mean BFC in this as well.

Similarly, things like Summons, which people claim are the best way to do magic, explaining how it's better...

Anyone care to chip in on the project?

Hey all, is there any way to make this Wild Talent worth getting? At its very best, how does it fare against a monk? I have a very high Dex, Weapon Finesse, and am thinking of taking Improved Unarmed and the Fist, but want to make sure I'm getting the most out of it if I do this.