Hey all,
I was kinda bored today waiting for the family to show up for Christmas dinner, so I took a stab at revising the Archivist class from Heroes of Horror. Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Stonechild
Archivist
Hit Die: d6
BAB: poor
Fort: Good
Ref: Poor
Will: Good
Class
Level/ Special
1/ Lore, Dark Knowledge (tactics) 3/day, Orisions, Scribe Scroll
2/ Dark Knowledge (puissance)
3/ Dark Knowledge 4/day
4/ Still mind
5/ Dark Knowledge (spell breach)
6/ Dark Knowledge 5/day
7/ Bonus feat
8/ Dark knowledge (foe)
9/ Dark knowledge 6/day
10/ Bonus feat
11/ Dark knowledge (foreknowledge)
12/ Dark knowledge 7/day
13/ Bonus feat
14/ Dark knowledge (dread secret)
15/ Dark knowledge 8/day
16/ Bonus feat
17/ Dark knowledge (binding)
18/ Dark knowledge 9/day
19/ Bonus feat
20/ Dark knowledge (immortality)
Class Skills: (4 + Int modifier per level) Appraise, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Linguistics, Perception, Profession and Spellcraft.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Archivists are proficient with simple weapons but not with armor or shields.
Spellcasting: As standard Archivist.
Lore: As the Bardic Knowledge ability.
Dark Knowledge: An archivist may affect aberrations, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, giants, magical beasts, outsiders, plants, undead and vermin with his dark knowledge. Knowledge (arcana) applies to constructs, dragons, and magical beasts. Knowledge (dungeoneering) applies to aberrations and vermin. Knowledge (nature) applies to fey, giants and plants. Knowledge (planes) applies to outsiders and elementals. Knowledge (religion) applies to undead.
Tactics/puissance/foe/foreknowledge: As the standard archivist abilities, with the exception of being gained at different levels.
Spell breach: Beginning at 5th level an Archivist can lend assistance to his spellcasting allies. On a successful Knowledge check allies gain a +1 to caster level checks to overcome a creatures spell resistance. If the archivist succeeds on his Knowledge check by 10 or more, then this bonus increases to +2. If the archivist succeeds on his Knowledge check by 20 or more this bonus increases to +3.
Dread Secret: By speaking aloud a dread secret, an archivist of 14th level or higher can stagger a target creature for one round. Unlike other dark knowledge this ability can only be used against a single creature. If the archivist succeeds on his Knowledge check by 10 or more, then the target creature is dazed for one round. If the archivist succeeds on his Knowledge check by 20 or more, the target creature is stunned for 1 round.
Binding: Beginning at 17th level an archivist can prevent a creature from using it's spell-like abilities for one round. Like the dread secret, this ability can only be used against a single creature. The DC of this check is 15 + the creatures HD. If an archivist succeeds on his Knowledge check by 20 or more the creature is also prevented from using it's special abilities for one round as well.
Immortality: At 20th level the archivist learns the ultimate knowledge, the secret of immortality. He no longer has a maximum age and will never die of old age. Bonuses still accrue and any age penalties remain in place but never increase.
Still Mind: As standard archivist.
Bonus Feat: An archivist can choose from Skill Focus (any Knowledge), Spell Mastery, Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, any metamagic feat or any item creation feat.
Looks pretty good, though I'm not fond of the capstone. I realize it's incredibly impressive within the game for the character, but I generally feel like players don't usually get much benefit out of immortality while they're actually playing - I've never had a campaign span decades where it would matter. YMMV, I suppose.
I was sorta thinking the same thing, it doesn't actually give much of a mechanical benefit. Maybe they should also gain an insight modifier to AC and saves equal to their INT modifier?
Maybe add immunity to death effects, energy drain, ability drain, ability damage?
Honestly, putting in Immortality as the capstone steps on the alchemist's toes and doesn't fit with the logical progression for a guy who studies esoteric lore about anything and everything.
A far more logical capstone and goal would be the secret of self knowledge, being able to apply the Dark Knowledge to all humanoids and monstrous humanoids as well.
Care to add it to the Pathfinder Database?
I've actually done a similar thing and posted it over at the Pathfinder Database. I've been playing an archivist in the the 3.5-converted-to-Pathfinder-partway-through game for about a year now, and there were lots of things I would do to change the class. I also included some class-specific feats, racial favored class bonuses and a pair of class archetypes.
I somewhat toned down the spellcasting availability (curing some of the "find an obscure class with early entry to a neat spell!" cheese), and altered the "dark knowledge" mechanic to require that you could actually identify a creature before gaining bonuses against it. With the HoH Archivist, you could roll against the static DCs to gain abilities against a creature and not be able to actually identify the creature. I also moved the uses of dark knowledge to fit more in line with similar class abilities from the wizard schools and cleric domains and made it 3+casting stat mod. I also made them somewhat MAD, forcing them to have decent scores in both INT and WIS to use all of their abilities.
You can take a look at it here. Feel free to vote on it.
I ended up changing a lot of the ability names (as well as the class) since the Archivist is not OGL, and I wanted to infringe on WotC IP as little as possible.
