_shredder_'s page

I like almost everything what I read about the playtest necromancer, especially the awesome thrall mechanics. Except that it is always occult and I just don't see any mechanical or thematical reason why it has to be this way. The occult necromancer is a concept that should be playable, but so is the divine, arcane or primal one. A primal necromancer especially would be so cool and unique. And simply adding an additional subclass that changes your spell tradition would take very little design and page space, so those who only want occult necromancers wouldn't really loose anything,while others would have options for so many new character concepts.

A lot of the animists themes seem to be based around perceiving stuff others can't, yet the playtest has the same awful perception progression as every other caster who isn't a bard. I think giving the animist expert perception at lv1 scaling up to master or maybe even legendary would fit the class really well (better than it does the bard) and make it more different from a cleric. It always annoyed me a bit that every character build around really high perception in pf2e is a martial, and the animist would be the perfect opportunity to change that. The class looks otherwise really cool so far!

I will play a summoner in pathfinder society soon, a kobold with an angelic emissary eidolon. I like the character, but I don't have experience with the summoner class and am worried that I don't really get what makes it strong and will play the character in a suboptimal way.

When I look at discussion about summoners almost everyone seems to choose STR eidolons and invest in maneuver feats, and the control focused plant eidolon seems to be generally the strongest one.

But I rarely see anyone talk about the DEX eidolons. Are they not so great? The AC bonus is nice at low levels, but the eidolon is still not a tank. With 12STR, the angelic emissary can not use maneuvers effectively and hits like a swashbuckler who never gets panache. Being able to have a switch hitter eidolon is cool and I will definitely take ranged combatant at lv2, but it seems pretty weak and there is no way to improve the attack later.

Am I missing something? Will a DEX eidolon feel underwhelming at lv1? Are there any special playstyles/strategies that a DEX eidolon and ranged combatant enable?

We will hopefully start next week playing outlaws of alkenstar and I'm really excited. My PC will be a kashrishi enigma bard who got shot in his horn by a gunslinging bandit, started to channel his innate psychic powers into beautiful music by playing his horn like a flute, travelled to alkenstar to find the owner of the gun and meet his muse again but got wrongfully arrested for being a member of a thieves guild.

Everyone else made martial characters, so I want to build him as a utility, support and knowledge focused bard who can also offensively target will saves. I plan to go multifarious muse(maestro) and get psychic (silent whisper) as my free archetype to get amped daze and later message. I have played both a bard and a psychic before, but always with at least one other caster in the party.

Are there any feats/spells that will be especially useful as the only caster? Would another psychic conscious mind be a better choice? Amped produce flame, ray of frost, shield and guidance sound all really nice. How much should I invest in INT? I would like to be good at bardic lore and occultism checks as the only PC besides the spellshot who didn't dump INT, but starting with more than 12 seems to make me terribly MAD.

The rest of my party will be
- human triggerbrand gunslinger/rogue with a triggerbrand
- half-elf champion of calistria/marshall with a whip and a shield
- kobold spellshot gunslinger/alchemist with a jezail
- poppet thief rogue/thaumaturge with shears and later a mirror

If there is something that I want more than anything else from a kineticist it is the option(!) to make a magical blaster character who is as single target focused as possible. Right now, a kineticist who just blasts every turn is neither very effective nor very interesting to play.

Single target blasting would be more fun and powerful if the class would give you the option to pick blast maneuvers instead of AoE attacks that function like a martial disintegrate: For 2 actions you make a normal blast and if it hits, the enemy has to make a save against your class DC. There should be maneuvers that debuff, add extra damage, move the target, etc. They would fulfill a similar role to the blast infusions in pf1, giving a kineticist the option to just improve their basic blast instead if they don't care about AoE.

Just a few ideas for potential maneuvers:

rock bomb - ranged earth blast,
extra acid damage on a failed reflex save + splash

terrifying flames - ranged fire blast, frightened + extra mental damage on a failed will save

freezing wave - ranged water blast, reduced speed + extra cold damage on a failed reflex save

unnerving shiver - ranged wind blast, frightened + extra cold damage on a failed will save

toxic fumes - ranged fire blast, extra + persistent poison damage on a failed fortitude save

stone crush - melee earth blast, deafened + extra sonic damage on a failed fortitude save

holify water - melee water blast, extra damage to undead/fiends

lightning slam - melee air blast, prone + extra lightning damage on a failed fortitude save

If there was a lv1 feat that allowed you to substitute DEX with WIS for attack rolls, would that have any non-obvious consequences?

At first sight starting with 16WIS and 14DEX and attacking with WIS looks strictly worse to me than 14WIS and 16DEX and attacking with DEX.

If something like this was balanced and easy to integrate I would love to see it in the final class. Attacking with a mental stat makes the class feel so much more magical. Wisdom will always be the stat I associate most with Avatar-style bending and hitting with a blast because of my characters spiritual connection to their element is just so much cooler to me than landing a blast because my character is good at throwing stuff.