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The Genius Guide to Arcane Archetypes provides the material necessary to give spellcasting classes new forms of arcane magic or to add arcane power to classes that normally lack it. It does this through the use of archetype packages—a way to remove a set of related class abilities normally included in a base class and replace them with new powers (in this case, tied to arcane magic). These archetype packages can change how magic works for a character (as you’ll see with the Sigil Mage and Shadow Master archetypes) or add an element of arcane spellcasting to a character that normally lacks it (with archetypes such as the Hedge Wizard and Warder).
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The Genius Guide to Arcane Archetypes
Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."
oooh, shiny...*buys* *reads*
From Page 6
"A student thrown out of wizard school for spending too much time scrying on the girls’ dormitory" imagine if they learned the invisibility spell before being dismissed...
So anyway...
With the 'non-caster' and 'caster' restrictions, how do talents that provide minor spellcasting play into that? The rogue talent for instance, does that classify the class as a caster class if it is chosen? What about a mighty godling with the ability to cast a few spells?
With the hedge wizard package, it seems to imply that they dont start with any spells in their spell book and only gain 'for free' the spells they get at odd levels starting at 5th. Is this correct?
Shadow master looks very interesting, particularly for a sorceror. Giving up a bloodline for a big bump in versatility/flexability (even if it is at the cost of 20% effectiveness sometimes) is an interesting trade.
Small nitpick, on page 12
"Rather preparing or learning a spell normally, you can create a sigil spell that connects the spells written on two locations of your living tapestry of spell formulas."
It appears the word than is missing from the beggining of that sentance.
I like the spellblaze. It seems like something interesting add to, well just about any class. Would be great to add to say an enchanter/illuionist wizard, for those times where manipulation of mind simply wont help for instance.
2 things about the last sentence of the warder's counterspelling ability:
"You are also still free to attempt counterspelling normally."
First of all, in the pdf, depsite the fact that there are spaces in the sentance (its copied and pasted above) they are not visible. Perhaps thats just my viewing the pdf or something but its odd because its the only place that happens for me.
Second. I dont quite follow. Both this Counterspell ability and normal counterspelling are readied actions. Are you saying you can ready an action against a caster, and when he casts a spell attempt a perception check, attempt to counter it with the warder ability, then if you fail, attempt to identify it with a spellcraft check and counter it with the same spell (or a counter spell as listed in spell descriptions)?
Oh and again, thank you very much for the section at the end detailing archtypes for your existing classes. I realize you dont want people to feel they need other products to use this one, but it is a great boon to those of us who already have them.
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oooh, shiny...*buys* *reads*
From Page 6
"A student thrown out of wizard school for spending too much time scrying on the girls’ dormitory" imagine if they learned the invisibility spell before being dismissed...So anyway...
You know Hogwarts keeps boys out of the girl's dorms for a reason. But, oddly, girls are free to enter the boy's dorms. And then there's the room of Necessity...
With the 'non-caster' and 'caster' restrictions, how do talents that provide minor spellcasting play into that? The rogue talent for instance, does that classify the class as a caster class if it is chosen? What about a mighty godling with the ability to cast a few spells?
I'd say if you have to spend a talent or similar ability choice to gain a tiny amount of spellcasting ability, that's fine. But anything as flexible or broad as ranger/paladin spellcasting is too much.
With the hedge wizard package, it seems to imply that they dont start with any spells in their spell book and only gain 'for free' the spells they get at odd levels starting at 5th. Is this correct?
Yes. Of course they can learn spells from other wizard sources all they want.
Small nitpick, on page 12
"Rather preparing or learning a spell normally, you can create a sigil spell that connects the spells written on two locations of your living tapestry of spell formulas."It appears the word than is missing from the beggining of that sentance.
Yes. Yes it is. I shall have the error gremlins flogged.
I like the spellblaze. It seems like something interesting add to, well just about any class. Would be great to add to say an enchanter/illuionist wizard, for those times where manipulation of mind simply wont help for instance.
That's definitely one strong choice. I've also seem a fascinating fighter/spellbalze in playtesting, with lots of feats designed to augment the magic attack's effectiveness.
2 things about the last sentence of the warder's counterspelling ability:
"You are also still free to attempt counterspelling normally."
First of all, in the pdf, depsite the fact that there are spaces in the sentance (its copied and pasted above) they are not visible. Perhaps thats just my viewing the pdf or something but its odd because its the only place that happens for me.Second. I dont quite follow. Both this Counterspell ability and normal counterspelling are readied actions. Are you saying you can ready an action against a caster, and when he casts a spell attempt a...
I'll look into the spacing. It's likely a justification issue.
As for what that means -- the warden's counterspell requires an opposed caster level check. But if you use the normal counterspell rules, where you ready, identify the spell, and then cast *exactly* the same spell, it just works.
In playtest, a question came up when a warder tried to shut down the defenses of a much higher-level, but surprised, wizard. The warder readied, and when the wizard cast resist energy, the warder touched him and cast counterspell resist energy. When you use the exact spell, no roll is required.
So it won't come up often, but if a warder would *rather* use the totally standard counterspell rules, to counterspell abjurations cast by an enemy, he may.
I see, so a warden can after say identifying the spell choose to just counter it if that makes more sense IE if he has the spell that the caster is casting available to avoid the caster level check. That makes more sense then the way i read it the first time.
The nice people at Robot Viking posted a review.
I had a couple questions about this PDF (which I just picked up, thanks for the sale).
Pact scion - can they use armor without spell failure? No mention one way or the other. I'd assume yes since they are just browbeating an unidentified entity rather than channeling energy themselves...but it is unclear.
The specialist progression - Limits on cantrips/day is intentional? Seems a bit out of sync with Pathfinder as a whole.
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I had a couple questions about this PDF (which I just picked up, thanks for the sale).
We lvoe questions! And, you are welcome. :)
Pact scion - can they use armor without spell failure? No mention one way or the other.
Nope. It's spell ability specifies "as a sorcerer" and that's exactly what we mean. Of course you can always cast such spells out of combat and take off your armor (surprisingly effective playtesting found, if you focus on divinations), or grab Still Spell for everything.
The specialist progression - Limits on cantrips/day is intentional? Seems a bit out of sync with Pathfinder as a whole.
Like a wizard, that's how many cantrips you can have prepared in a day. Casting them does not remove them from preparedness.
This was touched upon in the posts above here, but...
The Warder gets the Specialist track, and casts as a Sorcerer. Is the cantrips section just the number of cantrips they know? That wouldn't make sense since there's exactly one abjuration cantrip.
In fact, the Warder's spellcasting seems wonky just in general. They can "prepare and cast" as a sorcerer? By level 20, they'll have 40 abjuration spells. What happens with the extra spell you know at level 1? Is it wasted? Does it roll over? You can only choose Resistance at level 1. Then at level 2 and 3, do you lose those spells too?
The counterspell ability seems a bit weird too. At level 10, I can counterspell level 3 spells? That seems a bit...low.
Is the specialist track getting level 6 spells before level 4th and 5th spells intentional?
Bump? I'm still curious.
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Sorry, I missed this earlier!
The Warder gets the Specialist track, and casts as a Sorcerer. Is the cantrips section just the number of cantrips they know? That wouldn't make sense since there's exactly one abjuration cantrip.
That is the way it works, which I realize limits your cantrip options. You can expand that some by allowing 3rd party publisher spells (which at least gets you things like resistance to fear, in which case I also recommend allowing "universal" school spells.
In fact, the Warder's spellcasting seems wonky just in general. They can "prepare and cast" as a sorcerer? By level 20, they'll have 40 abjuration spells. What happens with the extra spell you know at level 1? Is it wasted? Does it roll over? You can only choose Resistance at level 1. Then at level 2 and 3, do you lose those spells too?
If you use the broader range of 0-level spells available through 3pp, that's not an issue.
The counterspell ability seems a bit weird too. At level 10, I can counterspell level 3 spells? That seems a bit...low.
Considering you can give the archetpe to fighters and paladins, we found being able to counterspell *any* spell of lower levels to be quite useful. But, I confess, I have playtesters with very devious minds and great timing.
Also, by 10th level can always use dispel magic to counterspell normally with a roll. The thing about the counterspell ability is you can dispel lower-level spells without expending your 3rd level spell slot (since every sane warder picks up dispel magic once they can).
All that said, I may have been too conservative with the warder, which was based on some very concerned playtest reports. When we do a revision of this book, I'll take another look at it.
Is the specialist track getting level 6 spells before level 4th and 5th spells intentional?
Nope, that was an error. They should get 6th level spells at 19th level.
The pact Scion essentially as the druid spell list and the sorcerer/wizard spell list as his "class spell list," and thus counts both of those for Spell Completion and Spell Trigger.