elgenath's page

Hmmm, the good, the bad and the maybe.

The new rules for sacred weapons, open up a lot of options, which is good, yet I find it niggles at me. If a warpriest specializes in the favored weapon of their god, they actually lose out, because choosing a separate weapon as the focus, gives you two sacred weapons. This could also cause a lot of characters using their gods favored weapon as their backup. It's minor and yet it irks me.

The niggles continue with the sacred weapon damage. I think the intent is to make all the favoured weapons usable, which is good. It's the side consequences that get me, making a mid level warpriest, you'd never choose longsword over rapier/scimitar. That seems off message for an ability called sacred weapon.

So yes, not exactly clear thoughts, it just seems to me that in enabling warpriest variety and making use of your gods weapon practical, it can make wielding the weapon of their god less practical. For instance, a warpriest of Norgorber should not be penalized for wielding their god's weapon (shortsword) over say a kukri, which is now simply better.

I'm trying to think of solution, the 'best' I've managed is to have a warpriest call forth their sacred weapon, not unlike a soulknife. It uses the current sacred weapon damage and a humble x2 crit. Then it gains extra properties according to their god. Apply all difference of the favored weapons from D6 damage, x2, except worse damage. So Scimitar/Rapier give crit range, longsword gives a slight damage boost, greatsword gives more damage but requires two hands etc. It prevents some stange choices and has your gods weapon help in a good way. (I don't claim this is great, I can see the clunkiness, it's simple an attempt to cure what I see as a jarring problem with the class.)

On other notes, fervour look promising, though it's trying to be a lot of different powers at once.

The MAD is very noticeable. I mostly view it as the price to pay for this many options, but there are limits. My half-orc warpriest of Shelyn has 13 starting con, that's ouchy. (In technical terms)

The class does seem to have many things going on, sacred weapon, blessings, fervour all ontop of the spell casting. Scared armour and channel divinity also turning up. Makes the class feel like it lacks some cohesion. It has no core mechanic, it has several competing for the privilege.

So yes, progress is good, but I don't think it's there, this longer than intended post shall finally end.

Do summoned creatures accept the ragesong?

It affects all allies, but offers them the choice. A summoned creature does what you want, only if you can talk to it, otherwise it merely takes it's best guess. So is the choice the players, the GM's, is it automatic?

I'd assume they do, but I can't find anything that proves it.

I've seen a lot of comments, complaining about the shaman being a wiz caster, argued from the mix of classes giving birth to the Shaman.

To me though, it should be wisdom, as it feels thematically right. The shaman is the wise-man/spiritual leader of the village, the person you go to seeking wisdom. A shaman should be wise, plus a bit charismatic.

Also following the theme, a quick Google gives the definition of shaman as:
A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic or sorcery for purposes of healing, divination, and control over natural events

healing, divination, and control over natural events, sounds like a druid spell list to me. (Custom would be better still, but hey)

Also, shaman's really ought to have ancestor spirits, as an option.

The more I look at this class, the more I'm just seeing a bard variant. But I would really like it to be more. (I see promise in try to make it an alternative style of support character)

The traditional Skald is essentially covered by Bard, with the Court Bard archetype actually being the closest. (mockery, satire, glorious epic)

But I think there is an angle, the man who wishes to record legends in the making, the maker of a great Edda, filled with heroic deeds he not only chronicled, but was there for. A Skald should be worse at dealing with the ordinary, but give more, when dealing with the extraordinary.

Make the class have a sympathetic feedback. Other classes have recharge from crits etc, to me a Skald should be able to see a great deed and use it as fuel to encourage people to try and best it.
- The barbarian rages at the Minotaur, dealing a solid blow and the Skald yells, "That the best you can do, even Olf the Haggered could kill a Minotaur in 1 blow". Then the barbarian got really angry, carving a great gash across the beast front. "Now that's what I'm talking about", mused the Skald to himself, before grabbing his axe and joining in the fun.

An ability called something like chronicle deed. That makes it a support, like a bard, but with a very different tempo in play, that differentiates it.