Got batteries, will travel! From Jules Verne to Nicola Tesla, electro-mechanical gadgets have puzzled, empowered, and endangered heroes and common folk alike. Whether rare wonders from a lost age or as shiny exemplars of a brand new one, electrotech opens new doors to new and electrifying possibilities. Age of Electrotech for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game includes a ton of crackling goodness:
Ideas for electrotech in your campaigns.
The technician base class, with diverse "trades" around bombs, crafting, firearms, scavenging, soldiering, symbionts, tinkering, and traps.
Archetypes such as the cyborg, electromedic, esotechnic, necrotech, and transmoglomaniac. Plus new feats.
Twenty-eight pages of electrotech gear: armaments, batteries, household goods, toolkits, vehicles for all terrains, and "wonders of madness" from the cosmitron and hypnogogue to the pleasure orb and zealotron.
Rules to craft and augment characters with bizarre and practical gadgets such as the cricket for your feet, an electromechanical grappling hook, and a life scanner. Every gadget comes with multiple upgrade options to keep gadgets close to one's heart over a career.
Symbionts: rules for growing and implanting biological augments.
Two new races, the mutamorph and nashi, plus a character history generator, traits, downtime and kingdom building options.
Inspiring fiction for an age where science is the romance.
On one hand the Technician class is one of the most diverse tech-based class and has a lot of interesting peripheral material. On the other hand it hits a lot of technology pet peeves making me need to apply house rules to fit it in my campaigns.
Like other tech classes it gains spell-like 'tinker's which represent small disposable gadgets he possesses. In the Technician's case he casts them by preparing them with charges from his personal battery (a point pool mechanic.) They also choose a diverse range of trades that define what kind of technician it is and a list of talents to further diversify the class. Almost everything evokes a lot of flavor and allows the technician to be built as a healer, a bruiser or a general problem solver.
The only class feature I didn't like was Gadgets, mainly because I hate Gadgets. To explain; Gadgets are pretty much technological wondrous items that have a list of upgrades that they can take. You also apply battery points to them in order to power up the upgrades and use them to begin with and that's where it gained friction with me. Its a series of technology that has to be bought, as opposed to being granted by the class, that only one class (unless you take a feat to use it badly) has real access to. It opens a whole new can of worms in regards to the nature of energy and battery points (only Technicians have the right 'kind' of battery points for gadgets) in a world of other technological items. Luckily the battery point pool is actually pretty huge so some house rules letting that battery pool interact with Paizo technological items was easy.
But for a lot of other people this is barely a problem if even that so if that kind of thing doesn't bother you then the the rest of the book is pretty sweet. You get a new kind of item that represents cyborg-ish bits to add as implants, new weapons and armor. Mundane tech gear. New races and some support from Ultimate Campaign Subsystems. All cleanly written, minimum glitches, concise and works well.
Overall this is a great product... but I have to knock off a star. Its kind of unfair but I hate how the Gadgets are bought/crafted items that for the most part one class can actually make or use effectively because it stops playing nice with other tech classes or crunch that could come along and it becomes hard to justify why its not a class feature or why it's exclusive. I just think that little bit is objectively bad enough to drag this product down to four stars despite that I know for a fact that is more likely to be five stars in anyone else's mind.
This book clocks in at 100 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 94 (!!!) pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?
So what is this book? Well, it can be thought of as a huge campaign-template akin to LPJr Design's Obsidian Apocalypse - the age of electrotech has dawned and now, super-science and magic exist side by side, with electricity-based gadgets and the like influencing how everything is run. A fitting analogy would be a kind of Tesla-Punk - how to integrate this (e.g. just one country - à la Golarion's Numeria or Ravenloft's Lamordia) to the full world - all depending on the DM's whim.
The book kicks off with the Technician base class, which receives d8, 4+Int skills per level, proficiency with light armor, simple weapons and shields, 3/4 BAB-progression, good ref-and will-saves and a so-called maximum tinker-level scaling from 1st up to 6th. The class also receives 1 battery point, scaling up to 105 at 20th level...but what does all of that mean?
Well, first of all, obviously, technicians receive Electrotech Proficiency as a bonus feat as first level and they also receive + class level to Craft (electrotech)-checks analogue to alchemist et al. High intelligence increases the battery points the class has and battery points recharge after 8 hours. They are essentially the technician's resource, which powers his gadgets, tinkers and similar devices. hooking up a device to the battery pack requires 1 minute. Technicians may construct so-called gadgets - these can be used by paying their base cost, upgraded by allocating additional battery points. At 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the technician can craft progressively better upgrades from +1 battery point cost to +5 at 13th level. Gadgets take up one of the item-slots - chest, hands, head or feet and equipping/removing them requires 10 rounds, with the option to hasten it at the chance of rendering the gadget broken. Effect generated by gadgets are extraordinary effects, but unlike most such abilities, they are subject to SR and can potentially be counterspelled/dispelled - we have full system-transparency here.
Tinkers on the other hand are devices that can be wielded like wands to duplicate effects, functioning pretty much like spellcasting. Unlike spells, though, a tinker may be charged with battery points to increase the daily amount the tinker can be used. The formula for their creation are marked in a tinker manual, somewhat akin to a spellbook. Now beyond this exceedingly flexible base system, the class ALSO sports so-called innovations - gained at 2nd level, +1 every 2 levels thereafter, these constitute the talents of the class and allow for even more options - for example combining multiple gadgets into one, on-the-fly reassignment of battery points etc. Better driving-skills (more on that later), weaponized tinkers, better weakness analysis of foes - this is very much a scientist-class - but the technician does NOT stop there - at 1st level, the class also decides on a trade (though, again, this can be modified by innovations!) - trades work somewhat akin to oracle mysteries or bloodlines in that they provide a trade skill as class skill, a bonus-feat selection and a linear progression of special abilities gained at 1st, 3rd, 9th and 15th level. Sounds like a bloodline, not a mystery? Yeah, but I also evoked mysteries due to one fact - each trade add certain, exclusive innovations to the array the technician can choose from. The trade provide for a focus on crafting, firearms (including grit), junker's jury-rigging, vehicle/driver-specialization, soldier, tinker, trap and symbiont specialization - more on that later. And yes, were I to go into details regarding these options, this review would bloat beyond belief. More than one page of favored class options can be found herein. It admittedly took some time to properly analyze this complex class...and know what? It WORKS. Superbly so. One note - if you're using Interjection Games' Tinker or Gadgeteer-classes, I'd suggest renaming the technician's tinkers and gadgets. ;)
The technician's flexibility does NOT end here, though - beyond the absolutely astounding flexibility provided by the base class, we also receive archetypes for the class - beyond providing more than superb crunch, these guys cover quite literally everything cool I would have wanted from technician archetypes - Cyborg? Check. Electromedics (who needs clerics?) - check. Pact Magic-crossover occult esotechnicians? Check. Grenadiers? Check. Holotechnicians? Check. Necrotechnicians creating techno-undead? Friggin' yeah and check! Transmogriphiers that specialize in transmuting and mutagens? Check! At this point, picture me drooling wide-eyed and grinning at the screen.
Now a complete subsystem of items and a class should render it no surprise that the pdf also sports quite a significant array of different feats. These include metatech feats (guess what these do...) and the usual improvements for additional uses of limited daily use-abilities etc.
At this point, the 32-page mark, we enter the electrotech gear chapter - yes. I'm not kidding. So, the weapons. The table covers a whole page. And yes, modifications like double barrels can be added to e.g. nucleonic rifles, while sawridge shields and splinterhail grenades as well as stock prods breathe the spirit of scifi, super-tech, tesla-punk...however you want to call it, the chapter is glorious. Beyond these implements of death, several defensive items and household items can be found herein as well - chamber lamps, air stabilizers, heaters, iconographs, phonographs - it may seem like nothing special, but without these, the book would be missing vital pieces that really help get into the mood of the material Specialized tool and skill kits also elp portraying a society that has moved beyond the traditional confines of medieval society.
And then, there would be madnesses. These truly go off the deep-end and constitute technical wonders beyond what is readily available in a default society - what about e.g. a pod that can modify your age, pigmentation and even gender or race? Stasis pods? Helms that can be used to stimulate or hamper a character's performance? Hypnotist's helmets? Color-coded mind-influence? The equivalent of an atomic bomb? A machine to purge foreign subjects from a target? Pleasure-hazes creating orbs, with truly nefarious extensions? A chair that allows you to extend the reach of your magic to miles? Röntgen booths? Machines for forced alignment changes? Yes, these essentially artifact-level wonders run the gamut of traditional scifi and weird fiction, making me constantly envisioning my favorites of the classics - I am not engaging in hyperbole when I'm saying that EACH of these items can change a campaign, nay can even power a whole campaign. They're this iconic, this interesting.
Of course, classic science-fiction is, more often than not, also defined by the fantastic vehicles sported within - especially Jules Verne has become pretty much the default association just about anyone would have in that regard. And yes - from flying saucers to hover-vehicles to jetcrafts and tanks - vehicles upon vehicles, all ready for your perusal...oh so AWESOME!
Now I mentioned gadgets - these do not simply pop up, as one could have expected - instead, concise and easy to grasp rules for research and crafting them can be found within these pages alongside comprehensive tables of gadgets - from ant-inspired better carrying/less armor issues (and even wielding oversized weapons) to blasters, jetpack-like vastly improved jumps, the gadgets are surprisingly versatile - and, more often than not, do something utterly, completely UNIQUE. The gadgets alone would be cool - but combine their neat basic premises with aforementioned, rather interesting special tricks AND the 5-step upgrade system for maximum customization options and we have a system that ends up as not only flexible, but downright brilliant. And yes, we get grappling hooks, bionic commando style, scanners, magnifiers...even personal translators! Beyond these, there are symbionts - and,a s an old Venom fanboy, I was pretty much looking forward to them, their concise rules and implementation. And yes, these symbionts are rather interesting - though surprisingly, and somewhat disappointingly mundane though they turned out to be. What do I mean by this? Well, first of all, there is nothing wrong with the symbionts - there rules are concise, their benefits unique and they make for a very cool way to reward players even in campaigns that sport no electrotech - just explain it via aberrant stuff etc. and you#re good to go. That being said, they are pretty much one note-augmentations - no detrimental effects, no symbiont-highjacks - nothing. Again, this does not make them bad and their acquisition, recovery and death-rules are concise, but especially when compared to the rest of the book, they feel very static and ironically, inorganic when compared to the vast panorama of options provided by gadgets et al. One deserves special mention, though - the animan symbiont can transform normal humans into an animal-like race called mutamorphs, one of two new races.
The base mutamorph race receives +2 Con, -2 Cha, count as both mutamorphs and humans, receive -4 to all cha-based check and get low-light-vision. Additionally, they may select one of 8 basic sets, which align them with e.g. bears, wolves etc. and influence thus their movement rate, a further +2 bonus to an attribute etc. Here, the rules-language could be a) slightly more precise and b) balancing is off. Natural weapons fails to specify whether they're primary or secondary and bite attacks, for example do not adhere to the standard damage for medium creatures. Additionally, we have unassisted personal flight at 1st level for e.g. Bat mutamorphs, which can be a problem in quite a few campaigns. The second new race, the raccoon-folk Nashi receive +2 Con, -2 Int, are small, slow, receive +1 to diplomacy and Knowledge, low-light vision, +2 to Disable Device and Knowledge (engineering), Appraise, Perception and Spellcraft as well as early firearm proficiency. Okay race. Both races receive full arrays of favored class options. Nashi can also select a bunch of alternate racial traits, some of which are pretty strong and replace bland +2 bonuses to skills - which renders them pretty much a no-brainer. Not a particular fan of this decision.
Character traits, new skill uses for old (and new skills) etc. also make an appearance
After the rather sobering racial write-ups, we're back to form - with technician background generators akin to those found in Ultimate Campaign as well as *drum-roll* KIMGDOM-BUILDING SUPPOORT! Electroplants, hydroworks, MONORAIL TRACKS (!!!), radiation sickness, airfields, broadcasting towers - even in completely unrelated settings, the content provided here is gold. Better yet, new rooms and buildings for my beloved downtime system are also provided for - including airfields, factories etc. - and there it is again, the manic, stupid grin that was on my face for most of the time while I was reading this book.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed next to no glitches - quite a feat for a book of this size. Layout adheres to an easy-to-read, printer-friendly 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf has copious amounts of awesome, original pieces of b/w-artwork. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks for your convenience.
Radiance House does not publish books often, but when they do, they tend to rank in the upper echelon - indeed, so far, I have yet to be truly disappointed by a given book. Dario Nardi and Alexander Augunas did not break this trend. Instead, they deliver something special: I expected this to be a PFRPG-book of the Electrotech-world detailed in other supplements - instead, I received a thoroughly concise campaign-overlay. With the content herein, you can easily introduce electrotech in any doses you deem appropriate into your campaign - from full-blown all-out scifi to fantasy with fallen spacecrafts to anything in-between. Whether you're playing Rhûne or Pure Steam, Iron Gods or any other even remotely steampunky/science-fiction-style setting, this delivers. In fact, if you're aiming for a magic-less system sans deities etc., this answers the healing question. From hardcore scifi to teslapunk, in small doses or in buckets - the Age of Electrotech is an absolute must-own publication. The technician is one of the coolest classes currently available and its massive customization options are downright beautiful to behold. After some tinkering, I am proud to say that I could not flaws with this exceedingly versatile class - which is quite a feat. Indeed, this is quite probably the best gadgeteering class currently out there - and one for which I really hope I'll see more material. Making a technician is simply an immensely rewarding experience and the playtesting does show - even more impressive then, that a class of this complexity is so utterly easy to grasp. Kudos indeed!
My criticism towards the symbionts should be considered nagging at a high level, and thus, we only remain with the racial write-ups not being on par with the otherwise exceedingly high quality of this book. But that also pales before the VAST array of utterly inspiring options contained within these pages - from the Ultimate Campaign-support to the vehicles, this book is a joy and one I definitely will get in print as soon as my finances permit it.
Before I gush even more and start to sound like a complete fanboy - the Age of Electrotech should be considered a must-have addition to any game that likes to introduce a bit of the uncommon into their fantasy - the content's rules alone, heck, the class alone maybe worth the asking price. Add to that the fact that you can easily reskin the fluff to treat this as magic, steam or whatever, and we have a massive book of glorious crunch, with inspiring fluff sprinkled in that can easily be summed up with the words "must have". My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval and I nominate this as a candidate for my top ten of 2014 - this book deserves your attention and delivers excellence for its price.
Disclaimer: This review is based on initial read through and impressions. Balanced concerns are touched on lightly.
Chapter One presents the Technician, a new 20 level base class designed around using the tech in this book. It is a 6 level “casting” class. The Technician uses Gadgets, which give bonuses using a point pool and 6 levels of Tinkers, effectively spells. Tinkers and Gadgets draw from the same pool. These choices are made at the start of the day. It feels like a cross between Incarna (or Essence if you follow Dreamscarred Press Akashic material) and a prepared Psionic – where you allocate your points at the start of the day. To be honest it would be pretty easy to reflavor this with magic for a more traditional settings – Gadgets are magic items, and Tinkers are spells, or maybe one time use magic items – to have a D&D 3.5 Artificer like class in your game.
This class has mechanical depth, flexibility and great flavor. There are numerous archetypes, and the class itself has Trades, or paths the Electrotech follows, for greater flavor and role definition. Note that one of the archetypes is a class that deals with symbiotes instead of gadgets.
This is one of the most flavorful classes I have seen in quite a while. Looks very fun to play.
The next 2 chapters deal with tech, and then the Gadgets that an Technician uses. It is a good collection to get you started. Personally I'd like to see more in an expansion, but I'm greedy.
The last chapter deals with game mechanics outside of the class: 2 new races, skill use, advice on how to work the systems into your game. Here we have Favored Class for every class before the Advanced Class guide; and the Technician has favored class bonuses for every race in the Advanced Race Guide. Also included is a history generator for use in the class section of Character History from the Ultimate Campaign Guide; there is support for buildings, towns and kingdom building from the same book, utilizing Electrotech. This level of support for the more “fringe” books is something you don't see very much from Third Party support, and it really should be done more often. Kudos to Radiance House for doing this – here is hoping more publishes take this approach. I would have loved to see Mythic content too, but as I said, I'm greedy.
Included is advice on how to include electrotech in your games, and at what level in impacts the world. The default nomenclature creates a feel for a pulp style approach, I'm using it for a steampunk feel, but change the names to real world names and it is perfect for modern settings – thus allowing for a broader use of the material.
I saw two or three minor editing mistakes.
The layout is easy to read, the art evokes the material.
Overall an excellent book and highly recommended.
5/5 stars.
P.S. If you use Interjection Game's Tinker class, the work Tinker gets multiple definition, I would humbly suggest the word “Widget” for the one time use effect items that a Technician uses.
So I had been waiting for the print/pdf bundle to come out of pre-order status so I could use the store credit a friend got me for my birthday to buy this. Then the Great Golem sale happened, and I used up all my store credit there. Yesterday.
Yesterday! I even double-checked this before ordering!
Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wait a little bit longer. I need this book. You had me at force swords. :P
Don't worry, we'll take your money regardless of when you earned it. :)
Ken Pawlik wrote:
My print copy is in the mail!
She'll be comin' 'round the mountain when she comes!
Okay, so I'm getting ready to join a campaign where I will be playing an android from the future. As such, the GM is going to let me have some higher-tech items than just the standard "sword & board." Unfortunately, I will not have the funds to buy this book before the game starts. :/
Would anyone be willing to share some of how the weapons and armor work from this? I'm mostly interested in the force swords. Are the martial weapons? Exotic?
I promise, I will buy this book as soon as I am able.
Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to NErdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS, d20pfsrd.com's shop and Lou Agresta's RPGaggression.
Also: You can get this at a discounted price for backing the Pact Magic-KS currently running!
Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to NErdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS, d20pfsrd.com's shop and Lou Agresta's RPGaggression.
Also: You can get this at a discounted price for backing the Pact Magic-KS currently running!
Thanks for the review, Malwing! Dario and I appreciate every review that we get.
I'm sorry that you didn't like the technician's gadget mechanic. Personally, I thought that an artificer-themed class that couldn't build anything for himself or for his party that was permanent was lame, and I loved Iron Man, which featured Tony Stark building an esoteric suit of armor that no one else but him could use effectively without his guidance.
That's why this bit of feedback surprised me:
Quote:
Its a series of technology that has to be bought, as opposed to being granted by the class, that only one class (unless you take a feat to use it badly) has real access to.
All technicians actually have an innovation available to them that allows anyone to use their gadgets, even if they don't have Electrotech Proficiency. Its an innovation tax, sure, but its about the same as the tax on alchemists for the infusion discovery.
Quote:
It opens a whole new can of worms in regards to the nature of energy and battery points (only Technicians have the right 'kind' of battery points for gadgets) in a world of other technological items. Luckily the battery point pool is actually pretty huge so some house rules letting that battery pool interact with Paizo technological items was easy.
Its not that each individual technician has the "right" kind of battery points. Its that unless you built the machine, you have no idea how the heck to recharge it. In the early 1920s, standardization between machine types was NOT a government-mandated thing, so you had multiple manufacturers making odd little changes so their machines weren't compatible with others' innovations. It was sort of the Roaring 20s equivalent of Apple making a uniquely shaped charging device for their iPhone in comparison to every other phone on the market, which uses a similarly shaped charger port. That's the imagery that the technician was trying to evoke.
Which is all valid, which is why I generally stress how those kind of criticisms are to be taken with a grain of salt. Some of my concerns are not other people's concerns, much like a lot of people are unhappy with Paizo's Firearms rules where I'm perfectly fine with them.
Typically I'm upset that I can never find technology that wasn't umbilical corded to a class because I wanted to support technology in general. In this case I'm more sore that Gadgets are not baked into the class itself, particularly because they feel like Incarnum constructs. Its a similar feeling if crafting alchemical items were exclusive to Alchemists. The exclusive ones being baked into the class are great but I'm not too keen on a class of items that function like that especially since it seemed described as pretty vital that the technician has these items.
What wound up happening in my games was that since the Technician had a pool of energy charges of some sort I allow it to use those points for any device that uses charges from Paizo's Technology Guide and can bypass the charge and lab requirements for crafting technological items, primarily because I have 4 active tech-based classes (In the context of it's range of technology. I have more but I divide my campaigns into fantasy pre and post1900 and I feel like the Technician falls post-1900) and I needed all of them to be capable of interacting with the technology guide. This put Gadgets in a weird place where there are three technology based classes that can't interact with it without a feat and even then only have one point to allocate.
In the end I wound up running my first game with Electrotech as if Gadgets didn't exist, which went over pretty well but I'm still trying to reintroduce them as generic items or a Technician class feature. I'm leaning towards class feature.
One of the items that ultimately got pushed back to the sequel product, Marvels of Electrotech (which is 100% in the conceptual stages at the moment, thanks to my focus being on the Grimoire) is called the electrocell, which basically works like a pearl of power, but anyone can use it to power any gadget.
So yeah, I hear you and its coming. There's simply only so much room in a single product!
One of the items that ultimately got pushed back to the sequel product, Marvels of Electrotech (which is 100% in the conceptual stages at the moment, thanks to my focus being on the Grimoire) is called the electrocell, which basically works like a pearl of power, but anyone can use it to power any gadget.
So yeah, I hear you and its coming. There's simply only so much room in a single product!
Electrocell, so kind of like the batteries from Technology Guide? Well if that comes out does it come with a free hat for me to eat?
One of the items that ultimately got pushed back to the sequel product, Marvels of Electrotech (which is 100% in the conceptual stages at the moment, thanks to my focus being on the Grimoire) is called the electrocell, which basically works like a pearl of power, but anyone can use it to power any gadget.
So yeah, I hear you and its coming. There's simply only so much room in a single product!
Electrocell, so kind of like the batteries from Technology Guide? Well if that comes out does it come with a free hat for me to eat?
Nah, because it wasn't in the original book. :-)
Age of Electrotech is designed the way that I wish I had the foresight to do Pact Magic; the big, class-defining stuff in book 1 and then the trickling out of electrotech content to other classes in subsequent books. I felt that my original draft for the occultist (in Vol 1) suffered from me also trying to develop occult mechanics for all of the game's core classes, and it was a problem that I wanted to avoid in Age of Electrotech. Which is why I devoted the whole classes chapter to a single class instead of writing stuff for all of them. ;-)
One of the items that ultimately got pushed back to the sequel product, Marvels of Electrotech (which is 100% in the conceptual stages at the moment, thanks to my focus being on the Grimoire) is called the electrocell, which basically works like a pearl of power, but anyone can use it to power any gadget.
So yeah, I hear you and its coming. There's simply only so much room in a single product!
Electrocell, so kind of like the batteries from Technology Guide? Well if that comes out does it come with a free hat for me to eat?
Nah, because it wasn't in the original book. :-)
Age of Electrotech is designed the way that I wish I had the foresight to do Pact Magic; the big, class-defining stuff in book 1 and then the trickling out of electrotech content to other classes in subsequent books. I felt that my original draft for the occultist (in Vol 1) suffered from me also trying to develop occult mechanics for all of the game's core classes, and it was a problem that I wanted to avoid in Age of Electrotech. Which is why I devoted the whole classes chapter to a single class instead of writing stuff for all of them. ;-)
I think there's a medium ground in there. From a pedestrian point of view I saw "Age Of Electrotech" and the description and assumed it was a 1930's version of the Technology Guide with a class attached. In some ways it did feel less like the Age of Electrotech and more like the Age of the Technician. But the final product isn't really bad in that way either I've just been on the hunt for things to support my Dungeonpunk and Space campaigns for a long time. Although I will say that I wouldn't be sore about waiting for the archetypes if I got more electrotech items instead. I enjoyed Paizo's Technology Guide because most things give a technological class but the rest of the game is still stuck in medieval stasis and the Technology Guide is only distanced by a feat or proficiencies which can be granted for free if that technology the norm. Having a lot of mundane electrotech upfront means I can build a campaign around it.
I have something of a concern regarding the electromedic archetype on closer inspection...basically, breath of life. Since it takes one minute to actually use any of them normally, and breath of life only works on creatures who've been dead for one round, it seems functionally useless until 16th level, when you have access to a) 6th level extracts to utilize nanotech tinker with, and b) improved nanotech tinker. Is this intended? It seems kind of lame that there's no point in picking up breath of life when you can first access it because you can't really use it without being able to see the future. I'm okay with the others being mostly intended for out of combat use (though I do kind of wish greater restoration was included, but I guess expensive material components), but it doesn't work for breath of life without giving them a special ability to, say, use breath of life on people who have been dead for, say, one minute per technician level, or a number of minutes equal to the electromefic technician's Intelligence modifier, or whatever.
Anyways, maybe it's intended as a balancing issue that you can't actually use it when you first get it (though if so, it seems like something of a trap), but if it's not intended, I thought I'd point it out.
I have something of a concern regarding the electromedic archetype on closer inspection...basically, breath of life. Since it takes one minute to actually use any of them normally, and breath of life only works on creatures who've been dead for one round, it seems functionally useless until 16th level, when you have access to a) 6th level extracts to utilize nanotech tinker with, and b) improved nanotech tinker. Is this intended? It seems kind of lame that there's no point in picking up breath of life when you can first access it because you can't really use it without being able to see the future. I'm okay with the others being mostly intended for out of combat use (though I do kind of wish greater restoration was included, but I guess expensive material components), but it doesn't work for breath of life without giving them a special ability to, say, use breath of life on people who have been dead for, say, one minute per technician level, or a number of minutes equal to the electromefic technician's Intelligence modifier, or whatever.
Anyways, maybe it's intended as a balancing issue that you can't actually use it when you first get it (though if so, it seems like something of a trap), but if it's not intended, I thought I'd point it out.
So breath of life was an interesting inclusion to the list of curative tinkers for the reasons that you mentioned. Even though its listed as 5th level, you're right in that I never really intended it to be a viable option until 16th level; if you look at the class progression, the electromedic gets 6th level tinkers at the same time he gets improved nanotech tinker, so as soon as you COULD have used nanotech tinker with breath of life, the cost downgrades.
There's a couple of balance reasons for that, one of which is that despite being good at healing, I didn't want the electromedic to be a top-tier healer. Healing magic is HARD, and the nanotech stuff specifically exists to explain how technology might be able to even hope to compare to magic in the first place. To an extent, the electromedic suffers a little bit from "rule of realism," in that we don't want electrotechnology to be like Iron Gods high-science technology; we want it to be at least somewhat plausible. If we didn't, we wouldn't have used evocative word splices like "electro" and "nano." Those draw on very specific ideas and themes and we did so knowing that.
I hate to keep going back to Marvels of Electrotech, but one of the things that I want to do in that product (in addition to adding electrocells) is add a technological item that works like a metamagic rod for tinkers. I'll also keep your comments in mind when I'm designing new feats and other supplemental content for Marvels of Electrotech, but for the time being, the archetype is working as intended.
Alright, thanks for the quick response. I was just looking at it, playing around with a few concepts for fitting the technician into a setting and how well it and its archetypes could handle certain roles...sadly, it wasn't until much later when I mentally went waaaaaaitaminute and popped the book back open to eyeball it and see if it could even make use of breath of life. I am a little worried that it could act as a trap option for people who don't think it through, but yeah. Glad to hear it isn't an oversight, and I am looking forward to Marvels of Electrotech.
Out of curiosity, do you think the Esotechnic still fits in well with the changes you're making in the Grimoire of Lost Souls, or would you want to modify it, hypothetically? I noticed most of the Grimoire of Lost Souls archetypes now run off of charisma, primarily - I assume - because the Astute Binder trait now exists, and often don't get access to spirits quite as quickly as the occultist does.
Out of curiosity, do you think the Esotechnic still fits in well with the changes you're making in the Grimoire of Lost Souls, or would you want to modify it, hypothetically? I noticed most of the Grimoire of Lost Souls archetypes now run off of charisma, primarily - I assume - because the Astute Binder trait now exists, and often don't get access to spirits quite as quickly as the occultist does.
Most of the conceptual design for how I wanted pact magic to work in the Grimoire was already done by the time Age of Electrotech came out, so if anything, the esotechnic was sort of a precursor to all of the other archetypes; the "proto-archetype," if you would. Like most of the revised grimoire archetypes, it doesn't really have anything that the occultist doesn't, which is the basic idea of the Grimoire's rebalancing; the occultist is the master and all of the other archetypes sort of pick up what they can from the occultist and integrate it into what they already do.
If I was designing the esotechnic today, I would likely design its pact magic as being Charisma-focused. That said, the technician gives up a LOT for pact magic, giving up your entire trade is HUGE. So yeah, in my book, the technician deserves those 9th-level spirits and that Int-to-binding bonus.
Out of curiosity, do you think the Esotechnic still fits in well with the changes you're making in the Grimoire of Lost Souls, or would you want to modify it, hypothetically? I noticed most of the Grimoire of Lost Souls archetypes now run off of charisma, primarily - I assume - because the Astute Binder trait now exists, and often don't get access to spirits quite as quickly as the occultist does.
Most of the conceptual design for how I wanted pact magic to work in the Grimoire was already done by the time Age of Electrotech came out, so if anything, the esotechnic was sort of a precursor to all of the other archetypes; the "proto-archetype," if you would. Like most of the revised grimoire archetypes, it doesn't really have anything that the occultist doesn't, which is the basic idea of the Grimoire's rebalancing; the occultist is the master and all of the other archetypes sort of pick up what they can from the occultist and integrate it into what they already do.
If I was designing the esotechnic today, I would likely design its pact magic as being Charisma-focused. That said, the technician gives up a LOT for pact magic, giving up your entire trade is HUGE. So yeah, in my book, the technician deserves those 9th-level spirits and that Int-to-binding bonus.
Oh yeah, I was just curious. Honestly, astute binder is still better just because it does apply to all those 3 + Charisma per day abilities, which the esotechnic's basic ability doesn't, which might make it worth considering picking up anyways, depending on how low your Charisma is and what spirits you're considering. Hmm, though now I want official rules for having supernatural entities trapped in a machine to power it...might be interesting to add in some haunts for the other way around, too...
Silly question time, but just what are the Mutamorph and Nashi races? May I get a brief description of them?
EDIT: Never mind, just read End's review. As usual he covers everything that needs to be said.
In a nutshell, the nashi are a home game race of mine. They're tech-minded raccoon folk, who honestly didn't get the full treatment they needed in Age of Electrotech. Somewhere down the road, I'm going to do a race compendium for them in my Everyman Gaming line.
Mutamorphs are inspired by splicers from Batman Beyond. They're partially human, but they've used the animan symbiont (from Age of Electrotech) to augment themselves with animal parts so thoroughly that they're more beast than man.
Mutamorphs are inspired by splicers from Batman Beyond. They're partially human, but they've used the animan symbiont (from Age of Electrotech) to augment themselves with animal parts so thoroughly that they're more beast than man.
Knew it. Playing a space campaign using Mutamorphs as the people that started messing with animal splicing to survive harsh environments during space exploration.
Silly question time, but just what are the Mutamorph and Nashi races? May I get a brief description of them?
EDIT: Never mind, just read End's review. As usual he covers everything that needs to be said.
In a nutshell, the nashi are a home game race of mine. They're tech-minded raccoon folk, who honestly didn't get the full treatment they needed in Age of Electrotech. Somewhere down the road, I'm going to do a race compendium for them in my Everyman Gaming line.
Mutamorphs are inspired by splicers from Batman Beyond. They're partially human, but they've used the animan symbiont (from Age of Electrotech) to augment themselves with animal parts so thoroughly that they're more beast than man.
I'd buy Everyman PDFs covering both of those races. I really would.
Silly question time, but just what are the Mutamorph and Nashi races? May I get a brief description of them?
EDIT: Never mind, just read End's review. As usual he covers everything that needs to be said.
In a nutshell, the nashi are a home game race of mine. They're tech-minded raccoon folk, who honestly didn't get the full treatment they needed in Age of Electrotech. Somewhere down the road, I'm going to do a race compendium for them in my Everyman Gaming line.
Mutamorphs are inspired by splicers from Batman Beyond. They're partially human, but they've used the animan symbiont (from Age of Electrotech) to augment themselves with animal parts so thoroughly that they're more beast than man.
I'd buy Everyman PDFs covering both of those races. I really would.
I won't be doing it until I finish Nagaji and Wayang. They're the next two on my To-Write list. (I actually started research for the Nagaji Compendium last month, but pushed it back because I got obsessed with upcoming Paranormal Adventures.)
