TheFez's page

Right now, it feels like you might as well play a Cleric instead of a Warpriest because then your spell list, domains, and channel energy wont be gimp. Or an Inquisitor because then you get all those features.

Agreed. The space they're trying to wedge Warpriest into is crowded. If they made it a not-necessarily-holy-not-necessarily-LG Paladin class, though - that's a wide open area to explore. Heck make LG and CE off limits to the Warpriest so no toes are stepped on, if you must.

I think if the class went for a "deity-specific Paladin" style, then you'd be onto something - A more martial, less inquisitive, version of the Inquisitor.

I'll second that.

That said, the Divine caster classes, Warpriest particularly, have problems other class types don't have because of the god-and-Domain-and-favored-weapon angle which is raised in this thread a few times. (I'd like to play a dwarven warpriest who uses a dwarven waraxe and worships a dwarven wargod. Or maybe an elven warpriest, weilding an elven curve blade, worshipping an elven war god, but...)

To give Divine classes the build flexibility that Arcane classes and Martial classes enjoy, you'd need a perfect Pantheon of deities, offering every Domain/alignment/favored weapon combination possible. That's do-able (if tedious) for alignments and Domains, but then every time you add a weapon (Dogslicer), your headaches exponentiate.

One fix might be to declare some gods alignmentless, so their agents could be of any alignment.

Another might be to grant gods more than one favored weapon and/or to declare a group of weapons as favored. So Erastil might have Bows and Spears as favored weapons, while Ketephys has Bows and Swords.

My take on this is that although Paizo is obviously going for a book full of hybrid classes, this class works better as a Neutral/CG/LE version of straight Paladin, with specific Paladin abilities taking their effects from a choice of god and Domain.

So if the Warpriest of Mhar takes Fire as their Domain, they get a Lay on Hands that does fire damage instead of healing and likewise with Channel. Their Aura woud provide Fire resistance instead of fear save bonus. If you allowed a Magus-Spell-Combat-like ability for this alt-LoH you come up with something like Smite Evil without having to hand out unwanted abilities such as giving the Mhar Warpriest Smite Lawful (which few players want, but whose analog would still be available for the handful who do by taking Chaos as their Domain).

Obviously, there would be some wrinkles to iron out, but I think it's likely that Paizo already debated this internally, which might explain why Warpriest was the last announced. I think they decided to prioritize Book Concept over Class Concept in this instance and, personally?, I think that would be A Very Bad Reason™ not to go alt-Paladin with this class.

Thanks. I suspected as much, but wanted to know what my options were a little more concretely.

I just registered for Society play, and I'm building a character. I'd like to attend a game in late February, but the scenario they're running, Lost at Bitter End is for character levels 7-10 (and supposedly challenging at that level). So, does that mean I'm limited to playing one of the level 7 pregens?

I read the Guide to Society Play's section on character creation, and the FAQ but I didn't see any explicit reference to what level new characters had to be restricted to, which leaves me wondering if I can create a legal level 7 character to bring to that scenario. Every instinct says absolutely not (and the assumption I see when I read it seems to be new characters are level 1), but I don't understand why it wouldn't be in the Guide explicitly as, "All new characters start at level one." Even when I go to register a character, it asks what "Classes/Levels" the character has, not simply class as it would if all new registered characters were level one automatically.

Can someone set me straight? I'm not really into the pregen characters, but would like to get involved in Society play before next Season.