The greatest artists seek inspiration beyond their imagination. A complete 1-20 hybrid class based on the bard and spiritualist.
The prodigy is an uncompromising aesthete and expert on a mission to imbue the Material Plane with otherworldly beauty in all its forms. Though capable with a blade, she is most useful as an adept spellcaster. With the expertise of a genius and the confidence of an entertainer, the prodigy and her muse bolster companions in combat, dazzling and confusing foes with their creative tactics.
A prodigy begins play with the aid of a spirit from the Outer Planes called a muse. After selecting its prodigy through a mysterious process involving psychic magic, a muse is drawn from its Outer Plane to inhabit the Ethereal or Material Plane in which the prodigy resides.
Written by Dave Breitmaier and Beth Breitmaier
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This hybrid class clocks in at 15 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial (misspelling author names), 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let's take a look!
The prodigy class gets d8 HD, 4 +Int skills per level, proficiency with simple weapons, saps, rapiers and light armors, 3/4 BAB-progression and good Will- and Ref-saves. Spellcasting-wise, the prodigy gains access to the bard's spell-list, but casts these spells as psychic spells.. She also gets access to all spiritualist spells with somatic components - for a grand total of RAW NONE. Let me quote the base rules of psychic magic: "Therefore, psychic spells never have verbal or somatic components..." This is a big, nasty glitch in the base spellcasting engine of the class - undoubtedly, this was supposed to provide a means to balance the class...but however it was intended to work...it unfortunately doesn't. No go. The prodigy spellcasting is governed by Charisma and spontaneous.
The spellcasting also fails to specify that the class gains the spiritualist's knacks - or is it supposed to get the list of e.g. the psychic? I assume no, but yeah. Second glitch in the base spellcasting engine that should have been caught.
Thematically concise, but problematic and odd would also be the wunderkind ability: If the prodigy is a young creature, her abilities are calculated as though she was 2 levels higher. I *get* what this tries to do, but it should really be an archetype. Why? Because in games where everyone plays young creatures, that's an advantage no other class offers. In games where PCs are adults, it does not provide the template...making it not really work as intended for any group.
The key class feature of the prodigy would be the muse, which shares alignment (why? -Come on, LG prodigy with CE muse could be amazing!) and languages with the prodigy. A muse can either be harbored in the prodigy's consciousness or partially manifested. It may also be manifested fully and is then treated as a summoned creature. Full manifestation takes 1 minute and it retains hit points, unless slain, in which case it regains 1/2 maximum hit points. The little word "can" regarding refusal to manifest in the presence of other pets should probably be eliminated. More on the details of the muse later.
At 1st level, the muse, while within the prodigy's consciousness (and I assume, when it's partially manifested, since that is not explicitly mentioned in a needless oversight) Skill Focus in a Knowledge and Perform skill, as determined by the muse's artistic focus. At 14th level, the muse's artistic focus' benefits are constantly maintained.
The 3rd level ability has not been properly bolded and nets bonded manifestation, though a muse may only manifest in incorporeal form. 4th level nets either Deceitful or Persuasive as bonus feats.
Starting at 6th level, the prodigy gets an ability I generally applaud: Masterpiece Adept. This ability seeks to unchain, if you will, bardic masterpieces, which are an amazing, but problematic piece of crunch - the big issues of the masterpieces would be that they have exceedingly steep costs and are not that flexible. The prodigy may use these during incorporeal bonded manifestation and uses her class level as her bard level and spend prodigy spells known to meet the prerequisites. So, what about other costs? Well, at 12th level, the prodigy may perform a bardic masterpiece without spending the associated cost to learn it and at 20th level, the prodigy may use any Perform skills to meet the prerequisites of the masterpieces. Wait, what? Okay, so, there are a couple of issues: For one, the text contradicts itself - once, the ability is gained at 5th level, while another sentence quotes 6th. Secondly, since we use the muse's bardic performance to fuel bardic masterpieces, who takes the actions to activate it? The prodigy? The muse? The precise way in which the masterpiece is activated is opaque - RAW, neither prodigy, nor muse can meet the activation prerequisites, since the prodigy knows the masterpiece, but does not have the resource used to power it. Also: Does the muse have to maintain the performance? The action economy here needs clarification. That being said, considering that this is a freshman offering, the rules-language is better than I expected!
7th level yields a bonus spell determined by the muse: Magic circle against good/evil or remove curse, depending on alignment. The spells have not been properly italicized. At 11th level, the prodigy can 1/day generate a variant of secure shelter (correctly italicized!) and at 12th level, up to 8 creatures that spend 8 hours there, can add a +1 enhancement bonus to their melee weapons - for a total of prodigy class level rounds. Activation is a swift action. 17th level adds a special weapon quality, determined by the prodigy's alignment. These qualities have not been italicized. As a further nitpick: The ability RAW allows generating an enhancement bonus beyond +5 - this should cap.
At 17th level, the muse's emblem spell is unlocked as a 5/day SP. As a final complaint: 2nd, 5th, 10th and 19th level yield no ability. 10th at least nets a new spell level, but the others are dead levels.
Okay, let's look at those muses! Muses get d10, are incorporeal creatures and thus use Dex for atk and CMD. Muses get 2 + Int mod skills per HD, 3/4 BAB-progression and Red- and Will-saves are good saves, Fort the bad save, capping at +5 and +9, respectively, similar to the phantom. Muses begin play with 1 feat and increase that to a total of 8. Analogue to that, starting at +8, the muse increases her Charisma and Wisdom scores by up to +8 over her 20-level-progression. This should be noted, since the muse, being incorporeal, receives her Cha-mod as a Deflection bonus to AC. They begin play with 2 natural slam attacks (imho should specify primary/secondary) with a base damage of 1d4, increasing that to up to 2d6. Muses have the spiritualist's phantom link and share spells at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, excluding 20th, they increase an ability score by 1. Muses can duplicate countersong, fascinate and inspire courage (scales up to +4, according to the table). At 12th level, inspire greatness is unlocked and such performances only work while fully manifested. Per se a cool idea: A muse's bardic performance, while based on a bard, is influenced by her prodigy's Perform check, which is made upon resting: Failure to meet DC 10 equals the loss of 1 round and meeting DC 20 and 30 nets 2 and 5 bonus rounds, respectively - which is rather potent, considering how easy to cheese skills are. The muse gets the 30 ft. delivering of touch spells of the phantom, with the corresponding upgrade at 12th level to 50 feet. Table and text contradict each other regarding emblem spell, which ostensibly can be cast 1/day as a SP by the muse. 6th level nets the muse always-on fly speed of 50 ft. with good maneuverability, which is rather soon when compared to other pets. At 7th level, the muse's attacks become magic for the purpose of overcoming DR.
Base stat-wise, muses get the make-believe muse-subtype (why invent a subtype?) 30 ft. movement, +2 dodge to AC, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 15. Bluff, Diplomacy, Fly, Knowledge (planes) (lacks the bracketed "int"), Sense Motive and Stealth are class skills, +1 freely chosen at 1st level. Additionally, the muse gains a Knowledge and Perform skill based on artistic focus chosen - unnecessary: The muse gains auto-ranks in these bonus skills, which means she's always capped for them. Sooo, why not give the muse a mechanical reason why she'll WANT the skills at max potency? Just sayin'.
A total of 9 different artistic focuses are presented, ranging from Callie (epic poetry) to Ula (astronomy). I like the choices here, but the impact on the overall class should be expanded - beyond the skills the respective choice grants, the focus only influences the emblem spells and grants a single ability, which is gained at 9th level. These are interesting, in general, and include a 30 ft.-aura of heroism (not properly italicized - like all spells in this section...) - do the allies lose the effect when they leave the aura? I assume so as per similar abilities. What's the CL for dispelling purposes? Taking 20 for a Knowledge (history) check as a standard action in conjunction with lore master, comparatively, seems weaker. Another muse nets a 4d6 channel energy that improves to 5d6 at 17th level, using Wisdom as governing attribute and another one nets improved evasion - sooner than the rogue, but on par with the monk. A concentration-hampering field of hilarity is a cool idea.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting...are not up to par. There are a bunch of instances where formatting is flawed and the rules-lingo could have used some adjustments here and there. Heck, the editorial gets the author's names wrong. Layout adheres to an aesthetically-pleasing two-column full-color standard with nice artworks. The pdf comes with very basic bookmarks - I would have expected a bit more here. Annoying comfort-detriment: Copying text is disabled. If you want play these folks, you'll have to print this out. So, that's a minus.
Beth Breitmaier and Dave Breitmaier have not taken the easy route here. The prodigy hybrid class tries to take some exceedingly complex concepts and blend them into one class. When I saw that this was a freshman offering, I expected a train-wreck...and I did not get one. Now, mechanically, the action economy needs a bit of fine-tuning and so do other aspects of the class - the prodigy can be very potent (seriously - two strong spell-lists, plus a phantom with bardic abilities...ouch!), but it's not a class whose strength is immediately apparent. Perhaps also since it, time and again, references its parent classes and demands that you read up their abilities and puzzle them together with the prodigy's...which is a no go. Nobody should have to flip between 3 classes to get how one class works.
So, as you've seen above, beyond my formal complaints, I have to call this a flawed class - I wouldn't allow this as written and it needs some serious fine-tuning. At the same time, it actually fulfills several expectations I have for hybrid classes: The prodigy plays different than its parents, which is a big plus. Furthermore, it *feels* completely different. It does feel like it has its own concept and niche. Which brings me to the artistic focus component: It's what sets the muse apart and should have been more pronounced. By talking away power from the base chassis and making this choice matter more, the class could have gained a massive boost of diversity between different prodigies. So, as a note for the future, dare to be distinct and further develop the unique aspects of the identity of the class! The basics are here already! :D
What does that leave us with? Concept-wise, the prodigy is cool, but it would have required a good rules-editor/dev to polish it into shape. I am positive that this has the potential to be a 5-star offering with some retooling and tweaking. The imagination, the ideas, the distinct identity and soul are there - the class feels distinct and not just like a Frankenstein-hybrid of stitched together parts. So yeah, it is a promising start for the author duo, but also highlights the inexperience with some of the finer rules-aspects. I'd bash this more, but I do tend to give freshman offerings some leeway...and if you're willing to invest a bit of time, a bit of nerfing and a bit of tweaking/expanding, you can make this a pretty cool addition to the game without having to rewrite everything. And it actually feels like an original class, not just two smashed together. While the editing and formatting is jarring, I can see this class have value for some rounds, in spite of its flaws. Taking the freshman bonus into account, my final verdict will clock in at 3 stars - if you invest time in it. If you want something to whip out and play, steer clear.
This class is great!
As a collector of classes for my ever growing campaigns I was drawn to this class right off the description. I needed a class that was more... "bardy" than bard. I always liked how bard had the unique magical music aspect but was hungry for more of that particular aspect. This class delivers big time.
First thing I noticed is that it's one of a kind. A lot of 3rd party "hybrid" classes are just mash ups, a bunch of stolen abilities from the two parent classes with nothing new. This class is unique and has new abilities, feeling like neither the bard nor the spiritualist. Think of literally playing a famous celebrity and actually focusing on the music instead of fighting and other aspects. This class has a lot of what I believe the Diva and the Geisha archetypes should have been.
The bardic masterpiece feats were MADE for this class. Not only do they fit well with the flavor of the class the class features make them easier and more fun to use. At higher levels you'll be collecting at least 4 or 5 of them and your character will become a master performer. It's so awesome xD.
My wife play-tested this class for me and we both love it. With an imaginative GM the muse aspect could be really awesome, an inspiring entity who for some reason has chosen the PC to become an artistic harbringer of the next age. Not only does the entity tutor the prodigy, it can also protect her during those rare combat instances where the fans get a little too crazy. It's a class everyone should have in their roster, it can hold it's own in the dungeon and be a complete boss in the urban and roleplay portion as well.
I hope to see a selection of muses for crafting as well.... painting perhaps? A certain famous Korvosan painter could use a class reskin in my CotCC game xD
She find beauty in the contradictions of the classic "non-Euclid geometry" that ties to the mythos. She isn't crazy,but wishes to share that beauty she sees. To her the inherent alien-ness of what she is trying to quantify, to be able to share what she sees with others, without driving them mad, as exposure to such things normally do, is her life's goal.
Because what she is trying to achieve, but has not, does in fact have a negative impact to those exposed to it, she adventures to practice what she is doing, sharing her incomplete visions to "bad guys". Beings who's removal would be considered useful by society, and allows her to practice until such time as she can achieve her aim, and create the beauty that will not drive other mad, or cause pain.
Less florid writing: She sees beauty in the weird geometry that goes with the old ones, and wants to share it with the world, without damaging them.
After the horrors at Gallowspire Abigail just wanted to return home and marry her lover Rasheed. They had been through many battles together, defeating the whispering way and saving Ustalav from the return of The Whispering Tyrant. Back in Ravengrow Abigail and Rasheed's marriage went on without a hitch and they lived happily for two blissful years.
That's when the dreams started. Horrible visions of demons warriors, undead armies, and cites swallowed up into the Abyss. The nightmares always had a butterfly in them and after a short time of ignoring them Abigail shared her concerns with her husband. They both knew what was happening.
The same goddess that had called upon Abigail's heavenly song at the Stairs of the Moon was summoning her aid once more. Desna was calling the hero of Ustalav to The Worldwound.
Abigail is my wife's character. She's a bard who loves to use summon good monster (angels, archons, and azatas) to fill the party and protect the innocent. Abigail has always been entranced by the song of heavens, the voices of the angels, and the melody of redemption. She summons the essence of the higher planes itself to sing songs that make evil quake, that make darkness hide, and that send demons back to the pit from whence they came.
I always loved old stories. The stories of heroes who did the right thing, even when they were suffering and didn't know better. Even if they wouldn't ever hear a thank you.
Growing up, I took the habit to think "what would my hero do?" before doing everything. More often than not, that brought me trouble. But I didn't give up...
I continued to live my life as if "they" were real. And sometimes I nearly convinced myself that they were. I could hear their voices in my head. I could talk and argue and laugh and cry with them. Sometimes, they went on arguing and laughing even without me.
My life could be quite ordinary, but at least I had that. I had this dream. This illusion...
Then, one day, they came to me for real.
And life has been completely crazy from that day on.
I love it!
Life in her small village was quaint and routine for Kimioshi Yoru, child of a retired Pathfinder. The only things that brought her true joy were chasing fireflies through the trees and the tales her father spun.
And what tales they were! As he puffed on his pipe, the smoke would curl into shapes reminiscent of Chelish galleons, undead monstrosities, and treacherous spies. He spoke of daring escapes, of bringing hope to the downtrodden, and of recovering knowledge thought to be long lost. The young Kimi was enthralled by her father's life, and craved nothing more than adventures of her own - to the point where, one day, she set off for Absolom with nothing more than a small purse of coin, the clothes on her back, and her father's wayfinder, determined to be a great Pathfinder like him.
Unfortunately for the kitsune lass, she hasn't yet realized that 'Pathfinder' is not synonymous with 'hero', and she continues to take the moral higher ground, chafing when her orders require her to stay covert or leave others in perilous predicaments. Still, she continues to adventure, driven by a wish to be the 'Pathfinder' her father would be proud of.
(Kimioshi Yoru is my PFS lore warden/slayer with an overly bubbly attitude and a tendency to dive into danger if it means helping people. She's gotten the party in trouble several times before, but never gotten anyone killed!)
Kimioshi Yoru sounds like a very fun and interesting character. Her father must have handed her an heirloom wayfinder, my guess. He sounds just as intriguing. But the story of Kimioshi as a heroic pathfinder demands to be told.
No, it should have been added to your downloads here at Paizo. If it still isn't there by end of Paizo's business day on Thursday, Drop me an email at malikjoker@gmail.com and I will sort it out.
So, the quick & dirty issues from what I'm seeing at a glance...
Spellcasting: mix of bard + spiritualist spells is thematically appropriate in concept but exceptionally strong. This really needs some balancing on it's own, like getting less spells per day &/or spells known. I prefer to keep the spellcasting stuff balanced with other spellcasting stuff when I can.
Some of the wording needs a bit of cleanup, don't know if that's from a bad transcription or in the original text. For example, Patronage says you get skill focus for 1 skill but then references getting a bonus to 2 skills. No idea which it is. For Constant Patronage, I assume this one is “even when it's not fully manifested” instead of what it says.
Wunderkind is some super-niche half of trait thing. That probably could've been expanded on or something. A trait is normally a +2 to class level for something when multi-classed, but this also adds an extra requirement. It'd be better if it were just a trait or something instead of a taking up class feature space.
Bonus spell: Not every spell is created equal & when it comes down to it, remove curse tends to come up way more often. Not sure what to do for this honestly. Perhaps have them improve to also grant Dispel Good/Evil at a later level &/or Protection from good/evil to be more competitive with each other.
Muse Performance's part that adjusts the rounds of performance per day based on the prodigy rolling a person check just seems a bit like a pointless chore more than something to be invested in as it has very negligible impact on the overall rounds.
Overall, the spellcasting is very powerful but the class itself is super-flavorful but also super-niche which gives it, at a glance, a few too many lackluster abilities. That said, there are certain abilities not actually listed in their entirety on the site. As a result, I sadly can't reliably rate overall mechanical power & overall quality
Eh, I don't have the actual product & the site I pulled the info used for the analysis left out a few key things & I only spent a few minutes looking over what I did see, so it lacks the necessary things to be a proper review
This class is great!
As a collector of classes for my ever growing campaigns I was drawn to this class right off the description. I needed a class that was more... "bardy" than bard. I always liked how bard had the unique magical music aspect but was hungry for more. This class delivers big time.
First thing I noticed is that it's one of a kind. A lot of 3rd party "hybrid" classes are just mash ups, a bunch of stolen abilities from the two parent classes with nothing new. This class is unique and has new abilities, feeling like neither the bard nor the spiritualist. Think of literally playing a famous celebrity and actually focusing on the music instead of fighting and other aspects.
My wife play-tested this class for me and we both love it. With an imaginative GM the muse aspect could be really awesome, an inspiring entity who for some reason has chosen the PC to become an artistic harbringer of the next age. It's a class everyone should have in their roster, it can hold it's own in the dungeon and be a complete boss in the urban and roleplay portion as well.
I hope to see a selection of muses for crafting as well.... painting perhaps? A certain famous Korvosan painter could use a class reskin in my CotCC game xD
The authors here. Thanks to InfernosReaper and Raheed for their comments!
InfernosReaper wrote:
class itself is super-flavorful but also super-niche which gives it, at a glance, a few too many lackluster abilities. That said, there are certain abilities not actually listed in their entirety on the site. As a result, I sadly can't reliably rate overall mechanical power & overall quality
Not all of the abilities were listed on the preview that the website provided. Hopefully, those who have access to the full prodigy class will find it balanced and that it has a solid amount of abilities.
Rasheed the Truth Seeker wrote:
This class is great!
As a collector of classes for my ever growing campaigns I was drawn to this class right off the description. I needed a class that was more... "bardy" than bard. I always liked how bard had the unique magical music aspect but was hungry for more. This class delivers big time.
First thing I noticed is that it's one of a kind. A lot of 3rd party "hybrid" classes are just mash ups, a bunch of stolen abilities from the two parent classes with nothing new. This class is unique and has new abilities, feeling like neither the bard nor the spiritualist. Think of literally playing a famous celebrity and actually focusing on the music instead of fighting and other aspects.
My wife play-tested this class for me and we both love it. With an imaginative GM the muse aspect could be really awesome, an inspiring entity who for some reason has chosen the PC to become an artistic harbringer of the next age. It's a class everyone should have in their roster, it can hold it's own in the dungeon and be a complete boss in the urban and roleplay portion as well.
We're glad you and your wife were able to play-test the prodigy. (Fitting because it was written by a husband wife team :-) Which artistic focus did your wife choose? Just curious.
Rasheed the Truth Seeker wrote:
I hope to see a selection of muses for crafting as well.... painting perhaps? A certain famous Korvosan painter could use a class reskin in my CotCC game xD
Interesting idea. In order to create crafting muses, we think it would have to be a new archetype because all of the language in the prodigy says perform, not craft, but it could be fun. All of the artistic foci were based on the classic muses, which unfortunately didn't include painting.
Since you were able to play-test it, would you be able to leave a review in the review section as well?
