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The first two things I thought when I saw the Sythesist Archetype for summoners (summon your eidolon around yourself, then act as it) were some kind of totem warrior calling the power of his totem spirit around him, and Mumm Ra the Everliving.
And what other class fits best with that? Barbarian. Also, from a mechanical point of view, Eidolon attacks + Rage = awesome.
So here's a dual progression class for Summoner and Barbarian, that lets you fuse an outsider with yourself, then get angry and beat stuff up.
Prerequisites:
Knowledge: The Planes 5
Rage
Lesser Spirit Totem (Rage Power)
Fused Eidolon
'cause I know of no way to do a table on these forums, here's the short description of the class: Middle BAB, Good Fort, bad Ref, good Will saves.
1st level: Spirit Rage: Your levels in Vessel of the Totem count as levels of Barbarian for the purpose of how many rounds of rage you have, and for the effect of Rage powers you have. They do not count as barbarian levels for any other purposes such as gaining Damage Resistance or additional rage powers. However, you can only use the additional rounds gained from this class whilst fused with your eidolon.
1st level: Totem Synthesis: Your levels in Vessel of the Totem count as levels of Summoner for the purpose of working out the characteristics, abilities and evolutions of your Fused Eidolon. They do not count for any other purposes such as Shielded Meld , Maker’s Jump or spellcasting (which is covered seperately later). As a side effect of the totemic influence upon the Vessel of the Totem's fused eidolon, he becomes unable to use weapons other than his natural weapons when fused with his eidolon.
Spellcasting: At every even class level, a Vessel of the Totem gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in summoner. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known, and an increased effective level of spellcasting.
Rage-Buff I: At level 3, when a Vessel of the Spirit rages, he may call upon the power of the spirits to empower himself. As a swift action he may cast a single spell upon himself (that he is a valid target for). Also valid are spells that would be cast on his eidolon, such as Rejuvenate Eidolon or Evolution Surge. However, any spells cast in this manner that have a non-Instantaneous duration will end when his current rage ends, or their normal duration ends, whichever comes first. At level 6 he may cast two such spells with one swift action, and at level 9, three.
Spirit Totem: At 4th level the Vessel of the Totem gains the Spirit Totem rage power. At 8th level, they also gain the Greater Spirit Totem power.
Greater Rage At 10th level, the intensity of the Vessel of the Spirit's rage increases. This is identical to the Barbarian class feature of the same name.
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So, what do people think? It's quite powerful, for the fact you're getting both rage rounds and buffed eidolon, but you're not gaining the various benefits of the Summoner/Eidolon bond (such as +4 shield, +4 save bonus), and only two specific Rage Powers, rather than five of your choice, as well as no Damage resistance and other Barbarian class features.
It could use a couple more abilities to put in the dead levels, but I'm not sure exactly what.
The reason for removing the option to use manufactured weapon is that the Kali and her 8 arms build is already overpowered for Eidolons, and that's without the benefits of a Barbarians weapon proficiencies and rage. Plus it makes the results look more thematically appropriate and awesome.
Rage Buff needs a better name. I'm also not sure if the duration truncation is needed, but then again, I'm worried about the nastiness of getting Bulls Strength + Haste + Something else + Rage all at once, for a free and a swift action. Thus the limitation balances that someone
The class needs a pinacle ability, but I have no idea what that should be.
I'm not sure why the fused&raging vessel can't use weapons with which the eidolon is proficient? If your eidolon is a more manufactured-weapon-using-type, why not allow that usage?
That said... I like it tons :) As someone who's written a PrC built around an archetype ability, I may be biased, but eh. Nice work.
One criticism would be that the rage rounds from advancing in this PrC only operating while fused seems like excess book-keeping. I now need to keep 2 separate rage totals; rounds I can use outside of my eidolon and rounds I can only use while fused. That kind of sucks, for a player.
I'm not sure why the fused&raging vessel can't use weapons with which the eidolon is proficient? If your eidolon is a more manufactured-weapon-using-type, why not allow that usage?
Two reasons. One is thematics, I like the idea of turning into a scorpion-thing, or a great bear or a Cthulhoid monstrosity. Two, balance. As I understand it, one of the more overpowered builds with Eidolons is taking as many extra arms as possible, and wielding weapons in all of them with multiweapon fighting. That's bad enough on a normal eidolon, compared to one that doesn't have to spend proficiency on using the weapons, gets the rage bonuses to attack, and gets free buffs from the rage buff thing.
That said... I like it tons :) As someone who's written a PrC built around an archetype ability, I may be biased, but eh. Nice work.
Thanks. It just seemed an obvious combination, and thus worthy of a PrC to make that combination viable.
One criticism would be that the rage rounds from advancing in this PrC only operating while fused seems like excess book-keeping. I now need to keep 2 separate rage totals; rounds I can use outside of my eidolon and rounds I can only use while fused. That kind of sucks, for a player.
True. Mostly I was wanting to add a few limitations against the class being overpowered, but I guess this doesn't actually help with that, and does create more bookkeeping.
Any suggestions for more powers to add to the class? Not neccessarily that powerful, just thematic stuff to cut down on the dead levels.
Well, what I meant by "with which the eidolon is proficient" -- you could have the barbarian lose all class/race-based proficiencies while fused&raging. Oh well. I think in general the synthesist is kinda broken, and blending it with rage might be too good, but eh. Playtesting will tell :) And for now I like the flavor ^^
Upon rereading, Rage Buff seems too good. I'd limit it to 1st-level spells, then instead of increasing the number of spells the vessel can cast I'd increase the limit on spell level.
Your empty levels right now are 2, 5, and 7, right? I'll try to think of suggestions.
Here's an ability possibility, though I don't know at what level you should receive it... fusing with the eidolon I'm assuming is the same action as summoning it, since it doesn't say otherwise under the synthesist. So, 1 minute. How about something like "Enraged Fusion (Su) -- when the vessel of the totem enters a rage, if he is not fused with his eidolon he may summon it to him and fuse with it as a {swift (or free?)} action by spending {X} of his daily rage rounds."
I'll think some mo'.
Well, what I meant by "with which the eidolon is proficient" -- you could have the barbarian lose all class/race-based proficiencies while fused&raging. Oh well. I think in general the synthesist is kinda broken, and blending it with rage might be too good, but eh. Playtesting will tell :) And for now I like the flavor ^^
I don't think losing the martial weapons is enough; sure a Kali-build with 10 longswords is better than one with 10 maces or shortspears. It's still overpowered. Thus, I'd lean reasoanably strongly to keeping the 'natural weapons only' thing.
I'm less sure on the synthesist brokenness; yes there are some nice combinations, but you're losing out on the action economy that the eidolon normally gives you, and it having its own skills and feats (e.g. my current eidolon is rather better at Sensing Motives than I am)
Upon rereading, Rage Buff seems too good. I'd limit it to 1st-level spells, then instead of increasing the number of spells the vessel can cast I'd increase the limit on spell level.
Hmmm. I dunno. You're getting a slower spell progression, and I don't think the buffs of the summoner are horifically overpowered, particularly as you're only getting them whilst your raging; drop out of rage and you've lost them. Essentially it's somewhat a makeup for the fact that a normal summoner can buff his Eidolon whilst staying out of the fight.
Your empty levels right now are 2, 5, and 7, right? I'll try to think of suggestions.
Here's an ability possibility, though I don't know at what level you should receive it... fusing with the eidolon I'm assuming is the same action as summoning it, since it doesn't say otherwise under the synthesist. So, 1 minute. How about something like "Enraged Fusion (Su) -- when the vessel of the totem enters a rage, if he is not fused with his eidolon he may summon it to him and fuse with it as a {swift (or free?)} action by spending {X} of his daily rage rounds."
That could work. Means that you don't absolutely positively have to have summon eidolon as a spell. You could have it 'use up' the rage-buff power instead of/as well as costing you rage rounds.
I'll think some mo'.
Greatly appreciated.
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Nice. This is literally the character I'm playing in a Council of Thieves PbP. Maddok
I may think about running this by my DM.
Nice. This is literally the character I'm playing in a Council of Thieves PbP. Maddok
I may think about running this by my DM.
Glad you like it. It's been in my head since the moment I read the synthesist, and since the core abilities (rage rounds + eidolon progression) were fairly simple, it was just a matter of picking the extra stuff and the prereqs.
Any 'in the field' playtest experiences would be appreciated, as well as any suggestions for extra abilities for it.
I may well give it a play myself at some point, probably as a Dark Elf Scorpion cultist from Xendrick (the PF game I'm in is set in Eberron), but given that I'm currently playing a 'vanilla' summoner, I'd rather give it a break of a couple of characters before I do so.