On a battlefield where positioning is key, the portalist is king. By uncovering the secrets of leaping through hidden tears in the fabric of reality the portalist changes the rules by which ordinary melee is fought. Part warrior and part planar sage, the portalist keeps himself lightly armored and lightly armed, maximizing his ability to move in ways previously thought impossible. A true rarity, some portalists form a secret order dedicated to the mysteries of dimensional travel, while others are loners who study the secrets of teleportation on their own. Individual portalists are as different as the style of portals they create. Many are flashy, travelling through inter-dimensional wormholes with a cacophony of thunder and lightning, while others silently slip in and out of the world through tiny fissures near-invisible to the untrained eye.
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This supplement of Frog God Games' Lost Lore-series clocks in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let's take a look!
What is the portalist? The simple reply would be that it is a new base-class that gets d10, full BAB-progression, 4+Int mod skills per level, good Ref-saves, proficiency with simple and light as well as single-handed martial weapons and light armor, but not shields. Portalists receive +1 to initiative at 1st level, increasing this bonus by +1 at 7th level and ever 4 levels thereafter, but their signature trick, obvious, is the eponymous ability to create portals.
A portalist may create one such portal +Int-mod per day at 1st level, +1 every level until 5th, where the progression slows down to +1 every odd level thereafter for a maximum of 12 portals per day at 19th level. In order to create a portal, a portalist has to expend a swift action and designate a start and an exit point, with the start point being either his square or one adjacent to him and the exit square not being more than 25 ft + 5 ft/2 levels away. Portalists need to have line of sight to the exit square and the exit square must not be occupied - if it is, the attempt is expended and fails, though the ability does work against tiny and smaller creatures. Portals collapse immediately upon passing through or at the end of the portalist's turn and may only be used by the portalist that created them. Portals are loud and easy to detect, so no silent infiltration...which is a pity, concept-wise. This, alas, does leave me with some questions: Can you look through a portal to get line of sight? Can you cast through a portal when you have an action readied? Is a portal a Conjuration [teleportation]-effect? It should be. If so, at what CL? This becomes relevant for means of teleportation-suppression. Do you need a free hand to make a portal? The proficiencies suggest so, But I'm not sure.
Starting at 2nd level, the portalist learns a portalist trick - basically, the talents of the class utilized to manipulate the portals and, unfortunately, here, the wording falls a bit apart: Take Ally Portal. It's simple in concept: Take an ally with you through the portal. "A portalist may pull a single willing adjacent ally of the same size or smaller through his portal so the two of them travel together. The Portalist and his ally must exit the portal in separate but adjacent squares. Using an ally portal only expends a single portal." Simple, right? Nope. Does the ally have to expend the movement? If not, why not? Does the ally have to ready the move through the portal? No idea. At 2 uses of another ability, a portalist may, as a full-round action, create a portal, move through it, attack, and return to his origin and similar combinations with charge attacks and the like are possible. Another issue that came almost immediately up would pertain the portal combinations: Can multiple such special portal tricks be applied to the same portal? Could you e.g. combine aforementioned two tricks?
On the other side of things, making portals elemental blasts upon opening and immediate action evasion or ignoring the line of sight requirement for the exit portal are interesting options - as is e.g. a spider climb-style perching on ceilings and the like. The other abilities of the class, unfortunately, also sport some minor inconsistencies - when e.g. an ability talks about "rough" terrain and obviously means "difficult terrain." Combining attacks and portals receives circumstance bonuses at 7th level and every 4 levels thereafter and 10th level provides basically the advanced portal tricks, so-called arch portals - and here we have per se interesting mechanics: Like accelerating in the initiative order past an opponent adjacent to which the portalist came out or contingency portals. The capstone of the class allows for one portal per foe in range of his ability and basically whirlwind attack at range 1/day.
The pdf provides 10 new feats that cover extra portals and similar basics, but also feature e.g. the option to combine readied actions with portals, +1 portal per successful crit after exiting a portal (kitten-proof due to 1:1 expenditure/reward-ratio) or an option to eliminate the place-swapping trick of transposition portal's AoO. There are also some rather weak filler feats here, though: +2 dodge bonus after porting (+4 at 10+ ranks in Acrobatics)? Yeah, right, let me waste a feat on that one...
The pdf also sports new favored class options for the core-races and a new skill use for Acrobatics: Porting onto big monsters - and this section, with plenty of skill modifiers, may be worth the pdf's low asking price alone for you. The pdf also sports a new weapon special quality, portallic - this is basically a duplication of flaming, frost...etc. - with one caveat: Each may only be used once per day and only after passing a portal. The Rod of the Portalist allows for 1/day use of any portalist trick, whether the wielder knows it or not.
The pdf closes with no less than 4 pretty inspired fluff-only sample portalist-organizations on a evocative high note.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting on a formal level are very good. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard with parchment-style background in full-color featuring solid b/w-artworks. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.
Michael Kortes' portalist is a pretty awesome class in concept; thinking with portals and the ramifications for their use make for utterly unique tactical options and generally, the crunch manages to juggle even complex concepts rather well. Rather well, but certainly not perfectly - from minor violations of rules-language to some required information missing regarding the functionality of portals, this pdf, alas, is an exercise of "almost" getting it right. Basically, the class is functional, but requires some minor DM-judgments to properly work. That's not the issue - as provided, it is certainly not bad. However, the class, to me, feels pretty much like it does its best to miss its own target demographic.
So, you're the cool portalist guy, pretty MAD (Str, Con, Int or Dex, Con, Int), but you have the portals...and can use them, at 19th level 12+Int-mod times per day. At first level, 1 +Int-mod times. Yay? The problem is that almost all class features here are predicated on using a resource that is not only severely limited, it is painfully limited. My playtest confirmed this, alas. Once you take the crit refuel-feat and combine it with crit-fishing, you can maintain (provided you're lucky) a certain array of portals, but you'll still liable to run out of juice very fast - faster than comparable core classes. And once you run out of fuel, you're basically a fighter without bonus feats or proper proficiencies. Yay?
Basically, the class imho needs to do one of two things: 1) Nerf portal options and provide more portals per day to make the full BAB-chassis work. Or 2), make the class 3/4 BAB and provide significantly more portals per day. As written, the class plays great for short bursts and then becomes pretty much useless - and this criticism by the guy who is a huge fan of resource-management/attrition in my games and designs...so yes, I like that design-type, but it must remain feasible. Ultimately, the portalist has all the makings of an awesome class, but stumbles pretty hard and ends up being a good scavenging ground/base from which you can work, but needs more power to make its unique concepts work consistently. My final verdict will clock in at 3 stars.
The portallic weapon special ability lists acidic and electric as possible weapon special abilities...are these supposed to be corrosive and shock, or am I missing something?
Just wondering what the chassis of the class is built upon, is it similar to a magus (3/4 BaB, two good saves) or the fighter (full BaB, one good save)?
Just wondering what the chassis of the class is built upon, is it similar to a magus (3/4 BaB, two good saves) or the fighter (full BaB, one good save)?
Thanks, as always, for the review End. You've provided some excellent feedback, as always, and given me some things to look at and reconsider going forward.
I generally don't "rebut" a review, because it's mostly pointless. That said, I'll just close by saying that the reason the number of uses of the portal ability is limited is because the author had the exact opposite reaction as you, it seems, during his playtesting. He found there needed to be a limit or else it was just too much. Maybe he pulled things back too far, of course. Or maybe it's just a factor of his group and yours having vastly differing play styles. Either way, it's more food for thought for me as the developer going forward. And that's always a good thing.
Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here.
Thank you for taking the time to provide a detailed review. It was very much appreciated.
I wanted to take a moment to answer the specific questions posed in the review. Mostly because I just love making FAQ's...
Does a portalist need a free hand to make a portal?
No, a free hand is not required. Only movement, to enter and exit a portal, is needed. A portalist could, for example, wield two-handed weapons or dual weapons and still create and pass through portals.
Can you cast a spell through a portal when you have an action readied?
No, neither the portalist nor an allied caster can cast a spell through a standard portal. Nor could a missile weapon be fired through a portal. Only the portalist who created the portal can pass through (p.4). An exception is the arch portal ability called the reaching portal (p.7) which enables the portalist to stab a melee weapon through the portal to attack a foe.
Is a portal a conjuration [teleportation] effect? If so, what is the caster level? This could be important for situations such as teleport suppression.
Yes - an excellent point and one not considered or set out in the text. In my view, the caster level should be equal to the portalist's level.
Portals are loud and easy to detect, so is silent infiltration not possible?
The base DC for a Perception check to observe an exit portal is zero (p.4). As such, absent special modifiers such as the involvement of significant distance or additional magic, undetected infiltration would be quite difficult with a standard portal. The portal trick stealth portal (p.5), however, facilitates this quite significantly changing the mechanic to an opposed roll of Stealth vs. Perception with a +2 circumstance bonus for the portalist, making infiltration a more realistic tactic.
Can multiple portal tricks be applied to the same portal? Could you e.g. combine two tricks?
No, normally only one portal trick or arch-portal can be applied to a portal. However, there is a specific portal trick called combination portal (p.6). This portal trick enables a portalist to combine two portal tricks at an enhanced cost.
When using the ally portal trick, does an ally have to expend the movement?
No, the ally does not have to expend any movement. The portalist on the other hand expends movement as normal as per a standard portal. This may enable the portalist to set up an ally for some impressive tactics. It is somewhat similar to using a push or pull maneuver on an ally, but with a teleportation effect. Note that the ally does have to be adjacent to the portalist for the trick to be performed and so in practical terms there may be circumstances in which the ally may need to first take one or more move actions for the portal trick to work.
Does the ally have to take a readied action to move through an ally portal?
No, no readied action is required. The ally is pulled through the portal by the portalist on the portalist's action (p.4).
I hope this is of some assistance and thank you again for trying out the portalist.
... the reason the number of uses of the portal ability is limited is because the author had the exact opposite reaction as you, it seems, during his playtesting. He found there needed to be a limit or else it was just too much. Maybe he pulled things back too far, of course. Or maybe it's just a factor of his group and yours having vastly differing play styles. Either way, it's more food for thought for me as the developer going forward. And that's always a good thing.
In my view, attenuating the exact number of portals the class should have is a tricky thing. Like the reviewer I enjoy the resource management aspect of the game, and I agree it's never fun to completely run out of juice! Here are a few thoughts on how more portals can squeezed out that one might first expect:
If taken at 10th level or higher, the arch portal, perpetual portals (p.7), ultimately provides the portalist with unlimited standard portals, albeit with the restriction that they can only be fired off every second round (p.9-10).
As early as first level, the portalist can acquire the portal trick efficient portal (p.4). This enables the portalist to perform three standard portals at the cost of a single portal, effectively tripling the portalist's reserve. The portals do though, have a shorter range, which is a trade-off.
If the PC participates in one of the new optional organizations such as the Eldritch Corsairs, The Stepless Order, or the Iris Gate, the PC will be able to perform an additional portal trick effectively for "free" once per day. With the Knights of the Black Paradox organization, that freebie can actually be the efficient portal portal trick, resulting in three "free" portals a day.
The feat Portal Mastery (p.7-8) drops the cost of one favored portal trick or arch portal enabling the PC to effectively "spam" a specific portal trick or arch portal more than expected. If the PC has a favourite portal tactic, this can conceivably double the amount of portaling performed in a day.
The feat Extra Portals (p.7) confers two extra portals per day, albeit at the cost of a feat, and Endzeitgeist picked up that Portallic Critical (p.8) provides a mechanism for recharge, albeit one which is probably unreliable unless selected in concert with an investment of other feats to make it work.
