A couple of things that I noticed:
The Words of Power spell Purify is better than the spell Restoration in several ways (no expensive components, no 1/week limit, shorter casting time, and it can also function as Remove Curse/Remove Disease/Neutralize Poison) although it doesn't cure ability damage or drain.
The feat Divine Interference seemed quite powerful (force opponents to reroll attacks a potentially large number of times per day).
I've been mostly reading through spell descriptions as I find em most impacting on gameplay.
Various damage dealing spell effects have been improved. I still have to play test it and see how they scale compared to older similar spells and to martial character classes in dpr.
Several powerful enchantment spells were added, which was not needed in my opinion and a few other useful utility spells.
Other than that mostly bunch of spells that will see little or no use in combat.
Impact to blasting casters is the highest one obviously as enchantment spells were already very good.
I was hoping for more necromancy effects that don't deal with instant death but are still useful in combat. No luck so far.
The most "powerful" necromancy combat spell is pretty much not worth wasting an action on it even if it was free to cast unlimited use spell: Orb of the Void.
Well I would like to see more necromancy spells that use positive energy(ex:greater disrupt undead, positive energy wave, positive energy aura, negative energy resistance,etc)
More abjuration spells(ex: mass resist energy, protection from weapons-DR10/magic, Mass protection from energy, Fey skin-DR10/cold iron, etc.)
Well, they DID include a section on defining and developing new spells, so that's a hole that can be plugged... though its not anything that we couldn't have done before, its helpful to have guidelines to work with.
Atavism looks like a nice spell, and the additional Poly spells for Undead and Monstrous Humanoids look like fun. I've been concentrating on the Druid stuff, because its most relevant to me, and so far I haven't seen anything overwhelming.
So they have polymorph spells for Monstrous humaniod, Undead, and Vermin but still no Fey.
Spell Hex and Split Hex seem quite good.
I've been mostly reading through spell descriptions as I find em most impacting on gameplay.
Various damage dealing spell effects have been improved. I still have to play test it and see how they scale compared to older similar spells and to martial character classes in dpr.
Several powerful enchantment spells were added, which was not needed in my opinion and a few other useful utility spells.
Other than that mostly bunch of spells that will see little or no use in combat.
Impact to blasting casters is the highest one obviously as enchantment spells were already very good.
I was hoping for more necromancy effects that don't deal with instant death but are still useful in combat. No luck so far.
The most "powerful" necromancy combat spell is pretty much not worth wasting an action on it even if it was free to cast unlimited use spell: Orb of the Void.
I've never understood why they don't expand the necromancer's arsenal in the way of debuffs and damage over time spells or combinations of both.
The dual Bloodline thing is nasty for your Sorceror spells known, but with Bloodline Arcana applying to ALL casting, etc, that you do, can be crazy as a 1 level dip with Wizard/Cleric/etc, depending on the Bloodlines of course.
Icy Prison has hidden strength. It is apparently a Save or Get Gimped spell that targets Reflex saves. That's very uncommon. Combined with the fact that it has an impact even with a successful save makes it very good.
I agree. I saw that spell and was like "YES!" (I have a cold-based sorcerer character.)
Skinsend is scary and awesome.
You magically tear off your own skin (all of it) and transfer your waking conscious into it. It walks around and does stuff at your command (even casting spells) as though it were you. Meanwhile, your skinless body lies helpless at a perpetual 0 hit points. Only powerful magic, like regenerate or heal can allow you to grow back your skin (destroying your old skin and forcing you back into your body as well).
Simply cast this spell. Adventure in your "skin" with near full abilities. If your skin "dies" while your consciousness is in it, the spell ends and you die.
However, if you use contingency to cast heal on your skinless body just before your skin puppet is destroyed, you are forced back into your body (which would be a LONG ways away and hidden like a lich hides his phylactery) and alive with a crap ton of hit points.
Unlike magic jar, there doesn't appear to be a range limit.
Simply reset the contingency, cast skinsend again and teleport back to the person who "nearly" killed you.
Rinse and repeat.
EDIT: Oh yeah, skinsend is only a 2nd-level spell.
Skinsend is scary and awesome.
You magically tear off your own skin (all of it) and transfer your waking conscious into it. It walks around and does stuff at your command (even casting spells) as though it were you. Meanwhile, your skinless body lies helpless at a perpetual 0 hit points. Only powerful magic, like regenerate or heal can allow you to grow back your skin (destroying your old skin and forcing you back into your body as well).
Simply cast this spell. Adventure in your "skin" with near full abilities. If your skin "dies" while your consciousness is in it, the spell ends and you die.
However, if you use contingency to cast heal on your skinless body just before your skin puppet is destroyed, you are forced back into your body (which would be a LONG ways away and hidden like a lich hides his phylactery) and alive with a crap ton of hit points.
Unlike magic jar, there doesn't appear to be a range limit.
Simply reset the contingency, cast skinsend again and teleport back to the person who "nearly" killed you.
Rinse and repeat.
EDIT: Oh yeah, skinsend is only a 2nd-level spell.
What exactly is the utility of this spell if you don't have contingency?
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Symbol of Mirroring is a party buff, not a trap.
1) Inscribe symbol on inside of someone's shield.
2) Before entering dungeon, Set off symbol with whole party (and no one else) gathered around.
3) Every person in the party has their own mirror image, which renews every round...
Part of trying out helpful symbols, along with symbol of healing. I'll be curious if it works out or not.
Antagonize is so powerful, not only does it force an enemy to attack, it can make the GM sitting across the table from you reach out and slap you!
If the party is into pretty straightforward tactics, a permanent symbol of revelation on someone's armor or shield is a pretty effective means of helping out the non-casters in the party when it comes to dealing with miss-chance illusion effects and invisible creatures.
The Requiem of the Fallen Priest-King is definitely on my short-list of things to have my PCs use from this book.
I'm also looking at the Sound Striker bard. Lets a caster-bard deal more than his usual damage amount, though still less than an archer.
-Matt
What exactly is the utility of this spell if you don't have contingency?Easy access to your (skinless) corpse for resurrection (assuming a low-level group could afford it) should you die?
Beyond that... I'm not seeing much. Aside from being able to walk around as living sheets of skin.
But you got to love the flavor:)
I really feel like making an alchemist with this spell and the infusion discovery. Then he is going to hand his friends skinsend extracts labelled 'Cure Serious Wounds'. Best practical joke ever.
Evolve Familiar -- Loving this idea.
The magus archetypes are great, and the fact that a single magus can take all of them is neat too.
Wizard options are looking very nice and I'm much happier with where the sorcerer is going to be now - he's become a much slippery and surprising character.
The superior summons is of superior taste as well... maximized empowered summon monster 5 (trait to reduce the spell level by 1) to get 8 lantern archons is going to be tasty (1d4=(4x1.5)=6+2=8).
a link
Don't suppose we could refrain from linking to the UM stuff until its released to the public? That'd be swell.
What exactly is the utility of this spell if you don't have contingency?Easy access to your (skinless) corpse for resurrection (assuming a low-level group could afford it) should you die?
Beyond that... I'm not seeing much. Aside from being able to walk around as living sheets of skin.
But you got to love the flavor:)
I really feel like making an alchemist with this spell and the infusion discovery. Then he is going to hand his friends skinsend extracts labelled 'Cure Serious Wounds'. Best practical joke ever.
Sadly, it's personal range and thus can't be made into potions (unless the alchemist has some ability to surpass that, that I'm unaware of).
It IS on the alchemist's list though. :)
Maeirmydra: Since your skin has compression (see Bestiary II) it can get into places your cast normally wouldn't be able to, such as the small crack under the base of a locked door.
Infiltrate, do stuff (with near full combat capability) and then come out again. Sounds pretty useful to me.
It IS risky though. If your skin is destroyed while your consciousness is in it, you die. If you transfer your consciousness back to your body prior to its destruction (a standard action) you are stuck in your helpless/skinless body at 0 hit points (hopefully far from danger) until someone can heal you with powerful magics.
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I'm also looking at the Sound Striker bard. Lets a caster-bard deal more than his usual damage amount, though still less than an archer.
The Sound Striker underwhelmed me with its utterly weak-assed first ability. Luckily it's Inspire Competence rather than Courage that's replaced. I can see more use in the second ability, but even that is not dangerous by a long stretch. Those are some tiny, tiny damage numbers.
At least he can deal that damage every round while performing and continue to fire his bow and cast spells, right? That makes it quite worthwhile, then.
BTW, have you noticed Sacred Summons? That strikes me as extremely powerful. The full-round casting time of summoning spells are their greatest balancing factor. Rather than granting everybody a free chance of playing piñata with the conspicuously summoning cleric, he can now summon at the snap of a finger. Adding Superior Summons to that makes it only worse...
The soundstrikers Weird words could be useful if you can use them all vs the same target. The text is ambiguous about that. It'd be phenomenal if it was treated as a spell. Hellooo toppling spell.
Sadly, it's personal range and thus can't be made into potions (unless the alchemist has some ability to surpass that, that I'm unaware of).
It IS on the alchemist's list though. :)
He said extract, not potion. With the Infusion discovery, you can give any extract to anyone you want (and sometimes people you don't want).
Evolve Familiar -- Loving this idea.
The magus archetypes are great, and the fact that a single magus can take all of them is neat too.
Wizard options are looking very nice and I'm much happier with where the sorcerer is going to be now - he's become a much slippery and surprising character.
The superior summons is of superior taste as well... maximized empowered summon monster 5 (trait to reduce the spell level by 1) to get 8 lantern archons is going to be tasty (1d4=(4x1.5)=6+2=8).
With the Magus archetypes you could technically take all of the, but some aren't really compatible, for example a quarterstaff can't be a black blade, and the staff magus loses the proficiencies for the weapons that can be.
Another fun little combo is that same trait that affects metamagic, combined with magic missile and toppling spell. Each missile would get a trip check at your full caster level plus prime stat. That's pretty scary for a level one slot, especially once you get near the missile cap
Evolve Familiar -- Loving this idea.
The magus archetypes are great, and the fact that a single magus can take all of them is neat too.
Wizard options are looking very nice and I'm much happier with where the sorcerer is going to be now - he's become a much slippery and surprising character.
The superior summons is of superior taste as well... maximized empowered summon monster 5 (trait to reduce the spell level by 1) to get 8 lantern archons is going to be tasty (1d4=(4x1.5)=6+2=8).
With the Magus archetypes you could technically take all of the, but some aren't really compatible, for example a quarterstaff can't be a black blade, and the staff magus loses the proficiencies for the weapons that can be.
Another fun little combo is that same trait that affects metamagic, combined with magic missile and toppling spell. Each missile would get a trip check at your full caster level plus prime stat. That's pretty scary for a level one slot, especially once you get near the missile cap
Whoops, I was confusing Concussive Spell with Toppling! I was thinking "It's strange that Toppling needs Sonic..."
A lesser rod of toppling will be one of my purchases from now on for Wizards / Sorcs. If only you could change elemental damage to be Force :(
Reckless infatuation seems like a quite good choice of 3rd level spell. As I read it, you can designate a focus who isn't present.
Compared to Hold Person, the target is only staggered rather than paralyzed, but he doesn't get any extra saves, and the duration is hours rather than rounds.
If one feat gave access to multiple masterpieces, it'd be golden.
...Not...so much as it stands now. The Planar Ally one can be really good though.
The void-touched Wildblooded bloodline is pretty nifty IMO.
If someone fails their save vs an evocation spell of yours (pick one guy only if the spell affects multiple targets), they are silenced for a round. Offers an interesting method for dealing with casters.
Their minute meteors also deal cold damage instead of fire, so it'll affect more.
And finally, at level 9 they get Ice Storm + Deeper Darkness once per day, and they can use it more as they level up.
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For what it's worth Ultimate Magic introduced several new get out of dead free options at a fairly low level.
Clone Master Alchemists can craft a Clone for 5000gp at 8th level. If they are killed they wake up in the clone.
If a Reincarnated Druid dies she reincarnates (as the spell but without material components) in a new body after a day. (After 5th level)
Both choices have the downside of giving up a bit of character power. If never dying is important now you have some fairly low level options.
BTW, have you noticed Sacred Summons? That strikes me as extremely powerful. The full-round casting time of summoning spells are their greatest balancing factor. Rather than granting everybody a free chance of playing piñata with the conspicuously summoning cleric, he can now summon at the snap of a finger. Adding Superior Summons to that makes it only worse...
Sacred Summons is not very different than Animal Shamans from the APG, though. And Animal Shamans don't even need to spend a feat for that. So I'm not sure it's unbalanced. Sacred Summons and Superior Summons are good, but not obviously much more than Augment Summoning itself, I think.
BTW, have you noticed Sacred Summons? That strikes me as extremely powerful. The full-round casting time of summoning spells are their greatest balancing factor. Rather than granting everybody a free chance of playing piñata with the conspicuously summoning cleric, he can now summon at the snap of a finger. Adding Superior Summons to that makes it only worse...Sacred Summons is not very different than Animal Shamans from the APG, though. And Animal Shamans don't even need to spend a feat for that. So I'm not sure it's unbalanced. Sacred Summons and Superior Summons are good, but not obviously much more than Augment Summoning itself, I think.
The summoner also can use his summon monster spell-likes as a standard action.
Is the Wildblooded option something that applies to any/all Bloodlines you have, even those from Eldritch Heritage or Mixed Bloodlines for example?, or can you select one Bloodline to be Wildblooded and another to not be?
Is the Wildblooded option something that applies to any/all Bloodlines you have, even those from Eldritch Heritage or Mixed Bloodlines for example?, or can you select one Bloodline to be Wildblooded and another to not be?
It's an archetype for a specific bloodline. So an alternate alternate.
The summoner also can use his summon monster spell-likes as a standard action.BTW, have you noticed Sacred Summons? That strikes me as extremely powerful. The full-round casting time of summoning spells are their greatest balancing factor. Rather than granting everybody a free chance of playing piñata with the conspicuously summoning cleric, he can now summon at the snap of a finger. Adding Superior Summons to that makes it only worse...Sacred Summons is not very different than Animal Shamans from the APG, though. And Animal Shamans don't even need to spend a feat for that. So I'm not sure it's unbalanced. Sacred Summons and Superior Summons are good, but not obviously much more than Augment Summoning itself, I think.
Not to mention that Words of Power summoning spells only take a standard action to cast.
The soundstrikers Weird words could be useful if you can use them all vs the same target. The text is ambiguous about that. It'd be phenomenal if it was treated as a spell. Hellooo toppling spell.
I think you can. Else it would have read "each word affect one different target within 30 feet." Plus, it would be strange to have an attack roll for something you can't direct.
As it is, with a bard with a 18 charisma score, it deals twice the amount of damage of Scorching Ray (85 against 42), if all ranged touch attack rolls succeed and if all (fort) saving throws fail.It should be well-worth exchanging suggestion for high charisma bards.
Murderous Command is a 1st level cleric spell. It can still win fights at 20th... The wizard getting full attacked by his bodyguard is a lethal effect. It's also great if extended. They haven't printed a PF version of Chain Spell yet, but sooner or later.
I also do not understand how this did not make the witch spell list...
In a tier 1-2 PFS, against an oracle level 3-4......this is definite character death country
A elf level 2 mindchemist alchemist / 6th level synthesist summoner can have a +45 to any knowledge skill checks. Is that potent?
Sacred Summons is not very different than Animal Shamans from the APG, though. And Animal Shamans don't even need to spend a feat for that. So I'm not sure it's unbalanced. Sacred Summons and Superior Summons are good, but not obviously much more than Augment Summoning itself, I think.
Also useless to Summoner Druids, which gives me a sad.
The magus archetypes are great, and the fact that a single magus can take all of them is neat too.
Wait... what? I totally missed the idea that you could stack arcetypes, as long as they don't overlap. Am I reading that right?
Wow.
A elf level 2 mindchemist alchemist / 6th level synthesist summoner can have a +45 to any knowledge skill checks. Is that potent?
How does that work exactly?
The magus archetypes are great, and the fact that a single magus can take all of them is neat too.
Wait... what? I totally missed the idea that you could stack arcetypes, as long as they don't overlap. Am I reading that right?
Wow.
Yup it's awesome that way. So long as they don't over lap on what they give up.
A elf level 2 mindchemist alchemist / 6th level synthesist summoner can have a +45 to any knowledge skill checks. Is that potent?How does that work exactly?
Some of it, at a guess...
Possibly +8 from having a intelligence of 26 (18 starting, +2 elf, +2 levels, +2 item)
+2 more from an Intelligence Cognatogen (+4 mental enhancement potion, equivalent to a mutagen)
Then add that +10 again, as the 'perfect recall' ability of the Mindchemist lets you add it twice
+8 from Eidolon – it's a 1 point evolution to get that on any skill.
+3 from class skill
+3 from skill focus
+8 from 8 levels learning it.
= 8 + 2 + 10 + 8 + 3 + 3 + 8 = 42
So, I'm missing a trick somewhere, but that's still not bad. I assume the trick is somewhere in the five levels of Summoner that I'm not particularly using there. Possibly another +1 from a trait.
I also note that, perhaps more impressively, a level 2 mindchemist/level 1 Synthesist Summoner could get:
+7 from intelligence 24 (18 base, +2 racial, +4 from Cognatogen)
+7 from that applied again
+8 from Eidolon 'skilled' evolution
+3 from it being a class skill
+3 from actual skill ranks.
So, that's knowledge rolls at +28, at level three.
Just realized an alchemist can now take their first Arcane Trickster level at 5! If you're into that sorta thing, it's an interesting earlier and less painful than usual entry. Haven't looked over the alchemist's list well enough to see if that's useful at all though.