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Disappointed in the mindblade. the -10 to cast verbal spells defensively pretty much means spell combat is going to be really hard to pull off.
Some suggestions for the the Mindblade archetype:
Concentration, Concentration, Concentration!:
Consider taking the Combat Casting feat and the Uncanny Concentration feat (from Ultimate Magic). In addition there are several traits that can boost concentration checks. Arcane Temper grants a +1 on concentration and initiative and can be found in Ultimate Campaign; Focused Mind can be found in the Advanced Player's Guide and grants a +2 on concentration checks. You can also get some help from magic items. Spellguard Bracers [wrist][5000][Ultimate Equipment] grant a +2 bonus on concentration checks and can be activated to make two rolls on a single conc check. Gloves of Elvenkind [gloves][7500][Advanced Race Guide] grant a flat +5, and Shadow Chest Piercings (Major) [body][3750][Champions of Corruption] grant a flat +5. All of these are competence bonuses and I don't think those stack.
Other options include using Magus Arcana to boost your attack rolls in ways that aren't solely focused on a higher number. Ghost Blade and Accurate Strike give ways to ignore armor and go after Touch AC. Prescient Attack can give you denying your target's Dex to AC. These can be used with Spell Combat's ability to penalizing your Attack rolls to boost concentration since you are targeting a lower number. Finally, there is the Concentration Magus Arcana. It is there, consider it an option.
Ignore Thought Components:
There are a few spells that do not include Thought components and several are the new Undercasting spells. Consider Mind Thrust, Ego Whip (which can be used to hurt enemy casters or stagger a single foe), and Psychic Crush.
I was originally going to recommend Spontaneous Metafocus (From Ultimate Magic) and Intuitive Spell but I misremembered Spontaneous Metafocus and thought it applied to a single Metamagic feat (honestly... kinda disappointed it doesn't) instead of a single spell. That being said, if you have a single spell you wish to remove the T component from, that is an option if you have a Charisma of 13.
Battle-Field Movement:
Remember the Following:
1)Touch ranged spells grant an extra attack as a free action that can be used after movement.
2)When spell combating, you can choose to cast the spell either before or after your attacks.
3)You can take a 5-foot step between spell and attacks while spell combat, before or after. This allows you to cast the spell, 5-foot step, and do the rest of your spell combat.
These factors combined can allow you to use Spell Combat if the battle field layout is to your advantage.
Finally, consider spells that move you as part of the spell. Bladed Dash (Inner Sea Magic) is the classical option as is Force Hook Charge (Ultimate Magic) and both are cool thematically. As is using the Dimension Door feat line from Advanced Player's Guide.
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Question - Does the occultist archetype Battle Host qualify for feats with fighter levels as prerequisites? (I.e. Weapon specialization, greater weapon focus, etc.) He has the bonus feat feature but I'm unsure whether I can take these feats as my bonus combat feats.
Just having bonus feats doesn't let you qualify. You must specifically count as a fighter for the purpose of selecting feats.
See classes such as magus for examples of class features that allow you to qualify for fighter-only feats.
Does this make sense? ^_^
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Little disappointed the Mindblade does not give you competence in at least medium armor. After all psychic stuff does not deal with arcane spell failure.
True... although if you're willing to accept the class/spell progression hit, a single dip of another class lets you use all armor right from the start.
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Thank you sir. You are a gentleman and a scholar.I've been hearing about the Silver Balladeer bard archetype. Being a big fan of Wellman's Silver John stories, could someone here please share some information on just what makes this archetype special?The changes are fairly minor compared to a lot of other archetypes, but they are very flavorful. You have to be good and use a silver or silver-stringed instrument. You get performances versus curses and one that prevents undead or evil subtype creatures from entering a room. You get some bonuses vs. curses, hexes, and charms, and you also get some abililies that make silver or mithral weapons better for you. I like it.
Always glad to help a fellow Wellman fan. :)
Little disappointed the Mindblade does not give you competence in at least medium armor. After all psychic stuff does not deal with arcane spell failure.True... although if you're willing to accept the class/spell progression hit, a single dip of another class lets you use all armor right from the start.
And there is always the Mithral-Breastplate-with-the-Armor-Expert-trait trick.
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And there is always the Mithral-Breastplate-with-the-Armor-Expert-trait trick.Little disappointed the Mindblade does not give you competence in at least medium armor. After all psychic stuff does not deal with arcane spell failure.True... although if you're willing to accept the class/spell progression hit, a single dip of another class lets you use all armor right from the start.
True. Or the comfort enchantment.
True. Or the comfort enchantment.And there is always the Mithral-Breastplate-with-the-Armor-Expert-trait trick.Little disappointed the Mindblade does not give you competence in at least medium armor. After all psychic stuff does not deal with arcane spell failure.True... although if you're willing to accept the class/spell progression hit, a single dip of another class lets you use all armor right from the start.
Yes, good call. I had forgotten that option. Just buy your way into medium armor.
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Another trick you can do if you've got the money (and carrying capacity) is mithral full plate with the steelbone frame from People of the River, and either the comfort enchantment or the armor expert trait. -6 ACP, reduced to -3, reduced to -1, reduced to 0. Full plate with no armor check penalty. Expensive, though.Yes, good call. I had forgotten that option. Just buy your way into medium armor.True. Or the comfort enchantment.And there is always the Mithral-Breastplate-with-the-Armor-Expert-trait trick.Little disappointed the Mindblade does not give you competence in at least medium armor. After all psychic stuff does not deal with arcane spell failure.True... although if you're willing to accept the class/spell progression hit, a single dip of another class lets you use all armor right from the start.
Wow... well done. ^_^
Wow... well done. ^_^Another trick you can do if you've got the money (and carrying capacity) is mithral full plate with the steelbone frame from People of the River, and either the comfort enchantment or the armor expert trait. -6 ACP, reduced to -3, reduced to -1, reduced to 0. Full plate with no armor check penalty. Expensive, though.Yes, good call. I had forgotten that option. Just buy your way into medium armor.True. Or the comfort enchantment.And there is always the Mithral-Breastplate-with-the-Armor-Expert-trait trick.Little disappointed the Mindblade does not give you competence in at least medium armor. After all psychic stuff does not deal with arcane spell failure.True... although if you're willing to accept the class/spell progression hit, a single dip of another class lets you use all armor right from the start.
Yes, indeed! That is a nice, and very exotic, combination.
Another trick you can do if you've got the money (and carrying capacity) is mithral full plate with the steelbone frame from People of the River, and either the comfort enchantment or the armor expert trait. -6 ACP, reduced to -3, reduced to -1, reduced to 0. Full plate with no armor check penalty. Expensive, though.Yes, good call. I had forgotten that option. Just buy your way into medium armor.True. Or the comfort enchantment.And there is always the Mithral-Breastplate-with-the-Armor-Expert-trait trick.Little disappointed the Mindblade does not give you competence in at least medium armor. After all psychic stuff does not deal with arcane spell failure.True... although if you're willing to accept the class/spell progression hit, a single dip of another class lets you use all armor right from the start.
That is pretty smurfing impressive!
But I see that the Steelbone Frame takes up the magical slot for armor, so the armor it is being used with can't be magical.
Looks like the Ectoplasmatist suffers the same problem as the Mind Blade. The archetype gives spell combat but does nothing about needing to take a move action or take -10 on thought based concentration checks.
What is the point of an archetype giving spell combat that is then basically impossible to use?
It is a shame as the concept is fun, but it gives up rather a lot for what it gets and to work it really needs some way to deal with the concentration check penalty.
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Very first post on this page goes into detail on how to get past the T component. Some of it is still applicable here. You can start off with a +6 bonus on Concentration through 1st level feat and trait alone - +8 if using human bonus feat towards concentration and not going weapon finesse. That brings the penalty down to a much more manageable -2 before any other options! And that's for the Mindblade, Ectoplasmist can hold off till 3rd level since that's when they get "spell combat".
Secondly, progress far enough (5th level) and you get Reach for the Ectoplasmist. Speaking of Reach, I missed a potential option for both Ectoplasmist and Magus - the Lunge feat.
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Magus also has the Longarm Spell at 1st level. A minute/level increase to your reach should get you by in most situations until you encounter enemies with +15ft reach and by then you can either grab other ways to increase reach or you have the gold to boost your concentration checks.
It's honestly far from crippling the archetype, it just takes some minor investment.
The archetype honestly gives you enough goodies that it is more than a fair trade to have to work around those DCs.
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Magus also has the Longarm Spell at 1st level. A minute/level increase to your reach should get you by in most situations until you encounter enemies with +15ft reach and by then you can either grab other ways to increase reach or you have the gold to boost your concentration checks.
It's honestly far from crippling the archetype, it just takes some minor investment.
The archetype honestly gives you enough goodies that it is more than a fair trade to have to work around those DCs.
Nice catch.
Another thing to note for the Mindblade, specifically, is that the weapon you manifest is a melee weapon of your choice. There doesn't appear to be any restrictions or modifications to the qualities of the weapon of your choice other then enhancement bonus as you level up. This means you can choose to manifest melee weapons with reach. Spears, various Polearms, and the whip are all available options as you see fit (and that's just in the core rulebook).
When a Mindscape has been made permanent and no one is in it, who would be the target for Mindscape Door?
A tree that falls in the forest when no one is around to hear it?
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Reading it: Very dense, legalistic. Forget seeing forest for the trees the writing has you concentrating on bark and you have to pan out from there to see how the classes work and get a reasonable picture of what it does.
Yes, thank you, that encapsulates perfectly the feeling I got when trying to make sense of the Kineticist. Hell, I haven't even looked at the other classes yet, several days later.
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Reading it: Very dense, legalistic. Forget seeing forest for the trees the writing has you concentrating on bark and you have to pan out from there to see how the classes work and get a reasonable picture of what it does.Yes, thank you, that encapsulates perfectly the feeling I got when trying to make sense of the Kineticist. Hell, I haven't even looked at the other classes yet, several days later.
My theory is that they're trying to cover all the nitpicky/pure-RAW FAQs in advance, to the significant detriment of readability and ease of use.
I'm building entire characters just to try and figure out what their classes do...
How do you build a part of a character?
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How do you build a part of a character?
Depends on the type of prosthetics ya want.
I use cardboard boxes, an old vacuum hose or two, mom's rusty old colander, some old tin cans, wiring from an old radio if I'm lucky :-)
Edit: drat, Ninja'd again!
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Magus also has the Longarm Spell at 1st level. A minute/level increase to your reach should get you by in most situations until you encounter enemies with +15ft reach and by then you can either grab other ways to increase reach or you have the gold to boost your concentration checks.
It's honestly far from crippling the archetype, it just takes some minor investment.
The archetype honestly gives you enough goodies that it is more than a fair trade to have to work around those DCs.
There is another thread for this, that is probably a better place. A Mindblade gets spell combat at level 1. A human taking up all his feats and one trait can get to the point where they can effectively get a spell off defensively 40% of the time. Now if that was the base, and the penalty for what the class gave, that would be ok, but this is the chance AFTER you spend your first two feats and a trait to increase your concentration. Can you think of any other class that needs two feats and a trait, just to get a 40% chance to use one of their main class abilities?
Wait, are we talking Legends of the Fall, or Spirit, Legend of the Cimmaron, starring the neigh of Matt Damon:-)
So, am I reading this right? At level 18 a Earth Kineticist has the ability to gain at will Earthquake? For no burn? I know earthquake tends to not be a great spell, but it is a level 8 spell.
So, am I reading this right? At level 18 a Earth Kineticist has the ability to gain at will Earthquake? For no burn? I know earthquake tends to not be a great spell, but it is a level 8 spell.At level 12 an aerokineticist gets control winds (5th level) at-will (though it requires concentration) and at level 16 control weather (7th level) at-will. At level 18, a hydrokineticist gets access to tsunami (9th level) at-will. And at level 18, any kineticist gets access to ethereal jaunt (7th level) at-will and can even extend the normal duration by taking burn. Even including earthquake (8th level), I think the most powerful is still probably control winds once you're up to 15th or 18th level...
Tsunami does not bother me as it requires a point of burn, but I didn't notice that wind didn't have burn on it's two abilities. Man that is crazy.
So is the Kineticist overpowered or underpowered!?
So is the Kineticist overpowered or underpowered!?
I think it is just right, decent but not great damage, lots of options and utility. Some more feat support would be nice if nothing else.
Also, I think the Mindblade being so non-functional is a bug and not a feature. They probably forgot about the inherent -10 concentration penalty for psychic spells as they were writing it.
Also, I think the Mindblade being so non-functional is a bug and not a feature. They probably forgot about the inherent -10 concentration penalty for psychic spells as they were writing it.
I disagree, and I also don't think they expect people to try and negate that penalty by boosting their Concentration by every means possible, rather, changing how you play the character to accomodate. Even when the Magus came out I felt similarly, mechanics like Concentration don't exist so you can pass a check all the time.
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Also, I think the Mindblade being so non-functional is a bug and not a feature. They probably forgot about the inherent -10 concentration penalty for psychic spells as they were writing it.I disagree, and I also don't think they expect people to try and negate that penalty by boosting their Concentration by every means possible, rather, changing how you play the character to accomodate. Even when the Magus came out I felt similarly, mechanics like Concentration don't exist so you can pass a check all the time.
You just need to adjust your positioning so you don't need to cast defensively. Two-handed weapons with spell combat mean you can spell combat from reach without having to use a sub-par feat intensive weapon like the whip, and you can easily extend that reach with enlarge person, long arm, or both.
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I'm starting to really like Occult Adventures. I've been revolving my campaign setting around a "low power but common magic" Pathfinder world that advanced itself to a modernish tech level (Alchemists and engineers cooperate on stuff, so magic and science are both responsible for technology.) and has professionals trained to deal with especially dangerous monsters, rogue witches, demons, and stuff. Occult Adventures has plenty of new toys I can use for that sort of game, so I am happy. I've also just gotten into Supernatural, which gives me worldbuilding inspiration for stuff that Occult Adventures has content focusing on.
You just need to adjust your positioning so you don't need to cast defensively. Two-handed weapons with spell combat mean you can spell combat from reach without having to use a sub-par feat intensive weapon like the whip, and you can easily extend that reach with enlarge person, long arm, or both.Also, I think the Mindblade being so non-functional is a bug and not a feature. They probably forgot about the inherent -10 concentration penalty for psychic spells as they were writing it.I disagree, and I also don't think they expect people to try and negate that penalty by boosting their Concentration by every means possible, rather, changing how you play the character to accomodate. Even when the Magus came out I felt similarly, mechanics like Concentration don't exist so you can pass a check all the time.
They can't use Spell Combat with two-handed reach weapons until 13th level, so that won't help a lot of people. (PFS players for example.) There are other options for lower levels, though.
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I disagree, and I also don't think they expect people to try and negate that penalty by boosting their Concentration by every means possible, rather, changing how you play the character to accomodate. Even when the Magus came out I felt similarly, mechanics like Concentration don't exist so you can pass a check all the time.
That would be fine, but the penalty pretty much insures you can not make the check any time. You get spell combat at lvl 1 and a level 1 has a +4 on average. With the penalty that is a -6 to the roll. The DC for a lvl 1 spell (And remember, almost all, if not all, magus spells have verbal components) is 17. That means no chance for success on one of your main class abilities. Could that be the intention, to give an ability at level 1 with the character having no chance to use it? What other class ability requires a feat or trait to use when you get it. All of the options being tossed around will work at higher levels, but all require major investments just to get to a point where they "might" be able to use the ability.
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Or you could have shocking grasp and magic missile as your first spells.
Start of turn: Next to enemy.
Attack
5-Foot Step
Magic Missile
Start of turn: 5 feet away from enemy.
Cast Shocking grasp
5-foot step
Attack with Shocking Grasp (Touch or Spellstrike)
Finish Full-Attack
It doesn't have to be those two spells of course. Just don't put yourself in a position to have to make a concentration.
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Or you could have shocking grasp and magic missile as your first spells.
Start of turn: Next to enemy.
Attack
5-Foot Step
Magic MissileStart of turn: 5 feet away from enemy.
Cast Shocking grasp
5-foot step
Attack with Shocking Grasp (Touch or Spellstrike)
Finish Full-AttackIt doesn't have to be those two spells of course. Just don't put yourself in a position to have to make a concentration.
That is great for the very first round. If you win init. After that the enemy is going to follow you. And yes while you can step back after the attack, for a Magic Missile, Then what are you going to do with that spellstrike ability you get at level 2. Use it once, IF you win init, then done? I understand that there are feats to take, and tactics to use that will get you close to what a regular magus can do, but why would you take this archtype and spend all that. The benefits are no where near enough to make it a worthwhile option when you have to invest so much just to make is usable "some of the time"
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Or you could have shocking grasp and magic missile as your first spells.
Start of turn: Next to enemy.
Attack
5-Foot Step
Magic MissileStart of turn: 5 feet away from enemy.
Cast Shocking grasp
5-foot step
Attack with Shocking Grasp (Touch or Spellstrike)
Finish Full-AttackIt doesn't have to be those two spells of course. Just don't put yourself in a position to have to make a concentration.
That is great for the very first round. If you win init. After that the enemy is going to follow you. And yes while you can step back after the attack, for a Magic Missile, Then what are you going to do with that spellstrike ability you get at level 2. Use it once, IF you win init, then done? I understand that there are feats to take, and tactics to use that will get you close to what a regular magus can do, but why would you take this archtype and spend all that. The benefits are no where near enough to make it a worthwhile option when you have to invest so much just to make is usable "some of the time"
The magic missile/color spray option will work whether you win initiative or not. Color Spray will open up opportunities to hit enemies with your shocking grasp/spellstrike. and the benefits are either one/two/three extra attacks a round as you level up or 1.5 strength modifier plus maybe reach (or other weapon properties) if that's your interest. Plus arcane pool point expenditures on weapon enhancement are lower overall. Psychic Crushing your enemies or Exploding Heads you enemies after you full attack can benefit from lowered hit points. Finally, you have extreme control over your weapons, capable of changing your weapons to the needs of each fight, since you can just change the damage type, enhancement properties and so on each time you manifest your psychic weapon.
It's an archetype that comes with costs and benefits. Maybe it doesn't fit your tastes due to its costs (and that's fine you feel that way) but that doesn't mean it is broken and can't work at all. It can work fine if you want it to.
for some reason people are worried about arcane spell failure chance with the mindblade but im just gonna put it out there that first of all the mindblade is not an arcane caster meaning that they aren't subject to arcane specific rules and second that they don't even have somatic components as a result of psychic spellcasters changing spell components
so just pick up medium and heavy armor proficiency and then do everything you can to avoid making concentration checks and the mindblade should be fine