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INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:
Ugh, I'm so confused.
SECOND IMPRESSIONS:
Oh, if they were an Oracle, they basically they have one “base” Mystery and one “swappable” Mystery. Neat!
THIRD IMPRESSIONS:
Yikes. Seems kinda MAD. Hmmm, let's get in there and mess around.
GAMEPLAN:
Rebuild my Level 2 Pathfinder Society character and hit as many scenarios as I can during playtest period.
On the docket:
L2 in Thornkeep Accursed Halls
L3 in Voices in the Void, Penumbral Accords, Tide of Morning
L4 in You Have What You Hold
In combat? Debuff/buff and summon.
Out of combat? Party face.
STR 8
DEX 10
CON 12
INT 10
WIS 19 (Human)
CHA 15
High WIS for DCs
Mid CHA for +uses per day on any spirit abilities I may grab and face duties
Minor CON because this is PFS and you need HP
Dump STR because she's back line
Strategy: Cleric spells for buffs and condition removal. Heavens Spirit for debuffing and battlefield movement. Secondary spirit will float as needed.
L1 feats: Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augment Summons
L1 Familiar: Scorpion (+4 initiative)
Heavens familiar: The flesh of the shaman’s familiar accurately reflects the stars that would be visible in the night sky, no matter where the familiar is or the time of day. Due to this, it can be used as a star map. In addition,it gains a fly speed of 5 feet; if the familiar already has a fly speed, it instead increases its fly speed by 10 feet. When it uses this ability to fly, a small nimbus of light surrounds it.
L1 Heavens Spirit ability:
Stardust (Sp): As a standard action, the shaman can cause stardust to materialize around one creature within 30 feet. This stardust causes the target to shed light as a candle, and they cannot benefit from concealment or any invisibility effects. The creature takes a –1 penalty on attack rolls and sight-based Perception checks. This penalty to attack rolls and Perception checks increases by 1 at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, to a maximum of –6 at 20th level. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to half the shaman’s level (minimum 1). Sightless creatures cannot be affected by this ability. The shaman may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.
L2: Heavens Hex ability:
Enveloping Void (Sp): The shaman curses one enemy with the dark void. As a standard action, the shaman may cause one enemy within 30 feet to treat the light level as two steps lower, bright light becomes dim light, normal light becomes darkness, and areas of dim light and darkness become supernaturally dark (like darkness, but even creatures with darkvision cannot see). The effective spell level of this hex is equal to half the shaman’s level (maximum 9th). This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the shaman’s level. A Will saving throw negates this effect. This action doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. Whether or not the save is successful, the enemy cannot be targeted by this hex for 1 day.
This is my battlefield debuff spam. Melee, especially rogues, will love me as I blind targets and make them easy pickings.
L3 Feat: Extra Hex (Heavens)
Heaven’s Leap (Su): The shaman is adept at creating tiny tears in the fabric of space, and temporarily stitching them to reach other locations with a limited, oneway wormhole. As a standard action, the shaman can designate herself or a single ally that she can see who is within 30 feet of her. She can move that creature as if it were subject to jester’s jaunt. Once targeted by this hex,the ally cannot be affected by this hex for 1 day.
So, I can move a buddy into flank, position them for a full attack or get them out of dodge.
L4: Wandering Spirit Ability (will vary)
L5 Feat: Superior Summons
Before I could play her in a PFS scenario, I got asked on short notice to sub into a home game of Skull & Shackles. Their normal healer was out so, I played a L9 variation of the above build. The next post will detail that session.
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SKULL & SHACKLES
On short notice, I built up a L9 version of the character above. All I knew about the game was it would be 4 people total. The other characters were a L10 barbarian, L9 fighter and a L10 witch (while a home game, they were built by PFS rules).
While not ideally built for a Life Link build with 66 HP, I figured why not.
STR 8
DEX 10
CON 14 (+2 belt)
INT 10
WIS 22 (Human, L4, +2 headband)
CHA 16 (L8)
L1 Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augment Summons
L3 Extra Hex
L5 Superior Summon
L7 Extra Channels
L9 Quick Channel
Heavens Spirit: Enveloping Void, Heaven's Leap
Life Spirit: Channel Positive Energy, Life Link
Other relevant gear: Phylactery of Positive Energy Channeling
Since I was dropped into the campaign mid-stream, all I knew were that we were clearing an island and there were cyclops on it. I Life Link everyone and away we go.
(minor note: by previous table agreement, the witch would not use slumber hex as to prevent a literal snorefest)
We get caught up in a net and peppered with arrows. I Liberating Command the Barbarian out. The next round, I Heaven's Leap myself to safety. Two rounds into combat and I already love that ability.
I have enough time to cast bless and the witch stops the cyclops' approach cold with a Black Tentacles. I summon an Ankylosaur to meatshield us just as the Cyclops break free.
While the barbarian and fighter do their thing, I toss out a pair of DC 20 Enveloping Darknesses--it's normal light, so they get personal light levels of darkness and are blinded.
Due to poor rolls on our side and big hits on the Cyclops side, I end up burning a channel and then a Breath of Life on the barbarian. After combat, I use another channel because the party doesn't have any wands and are almost out of potions. I've used 2 of 6 channels already...which hurts. Even worse, if I didn't have the Extra Channel feat, I'd have used 2 of 4 already!
After some other non-combat stuff, we explore the ruins, enter a cave and some sort of huge-sized nasty blobby thingy drops from the ceiling and immediately hits/grabs/constricts/suffocates the Barbarian. I drop a Liberating Command, but his roll is not good enough. The fighter moves up and whacks away and witch does some witchy thingy while I channel.
The next round, I Heaven's Leap the Barbarian. I use it to teleport him into flank with the fighter. Man, did I mention how much I love that ability?
However, trouble is brewing. The blobby thingy has grappled and is decimating the fighter. The Barbarian is rolling poorly. I drop a Quick Channel then Heaven's Leap the fighter out of the grapple (marry me Heaven's Leap).
The fighter summarily gets regrappled and murderized. The barbarian is almost dead. The witch has dropped some hexes and done some damage, but we're in a bad place. I Breath of Life the fighter. The next round, I gamble on eating an AOO so I can get the 1 HP Barbarian in channel range--I get smooshed and murderized.
R.I.P Shaman.
(rest of battle / session not relevant to playtest)
Initial Thoughts:
Heaven's Leap is a fantastic hex! 1/day per ally is a solid limit to prevent abuse and makes you weigh whether or not to pull the trigger on using it...but then makes you feel awesome when you do!
Is 30' range and then the 30' reposition on top of that too much too soon--especially as you can get as soon as L2? Perhaps. I'll have a better feel when I play the low level scenarios with it.
Enveloping Void is nice but not an encounter destroyer like slumber hex. Pluses: Not all creatures rely on sight, a good portion have low light/darkvision, there's enough encounters that take place during the day outside, it's a WILL save so caster baddies won't suffer as greatly their meatshield mooks. Minuses: It affects a majority of creatures so this may become a "Go To" hex.
Why you MAD, bro? Already pointed out elsewhere, but the Shaman is MAD and you have to know early where you're going as not to gimp yourself.
Life Spirit Channels Currently, you get 1 + CHA bonus. For a Life Link Oracle, you only need to pump CHA and CON. If you want to be dedicated Life Link Shaman, you need to pump CHA for more channels, CON to eat the damage and WIS so you can cast your Shaman spells. Not only are you splitting your abilities three ways, you also have way less channels to work with.
Suggestion to reduce MAD: Make Shaman channels WIS-Based, but you get only get your WIS bonus for your # of channels. Numbers-wise, Shaman will have less Channels than a Life Oracle and about even with a Cleric until the double digit levels.
Unlimited Wandering Spirits access gives too much flexibility? With access to the cleric spell list, you already have the opportunity to totally prep and change your playstyle as circumstances. Having access to ALL the spirits might be too much in the long run--as more material is published, players will have a spirit for every occasion.
Suggestion: perhaps set an upper # of wandering spirits the player has access to in his "spirit pool"?
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Now that is a playtest. Others take note, please!
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Do you think the wandering spirit flexibility would present less problems if the class's spellcasting were spontaneous
If it were a spontaneous class, it would definitely infringe too far into the oracle playspace.
Caveat: Just like any prepared caster, the power of the flexible Wandering Spirit is directly tied to the style of game you're running. If you have 15-minute adventuring days, the Shaman will have plenty of opportunities to swap from an unlimited spirit pool to cherry pick for next day's one-encounter challenge.
I think a possible solution to still offer choice but not unlimited choice would be:
A vanilla, non-archetype Shaman gets base amount X of wandering spirits to choose from. X increases as the Shaman progresses. For more flexibility (short of an archetype), the Shaman may take feat(s) to add Y number of wandering spirits he can commune with.
This way, regardless of how many Spirits are ever published, there is a reasonable limiting factor.
Anyways, looking forward to trying Thornkeep tonight with a L2 Shammy.
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Knocked out the first level of Thornkeep (The Accursed Halls) with a PFS group.
Party:
Shaman 2 (me)
Warpriest of Asmodeus 2
Warpriest of Abadar 1
Warpriest of Gorum 1
Arcanist 1
Investigator 1
Notes: 1 big-hitting, greatsword wielding Warpriest, a X-Bow Warpriest and another melee Warpriest...all with different builds.
STR 7
DEX 10
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 19 (Human)
CHA 15
High WIS for DCs
Mid CHA for +uses per day on any spirit abilities I may grab and face duties
Minor CON because this is PFS and you need HP
Dump STR because she's back line
L1 feats: Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augment Summons
L1 Familiar: Scorpion (+4 initiative)
L1 Heavens Spirit ability:
Stardust (Sp): As a standard action, the shaman can cause stardust to materialize around one creature within 30 feet. This stardust causes the target to shed light as a candle, and they cannot benefit from concealment or any invisibility effects. The creature takes a –1 penalty on attack rolls and sight-based Perception checks. This penalty to attack rolls and Perception checks increases by 1 at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, to a maximum of –6 at 20th level. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to half the shaman’s level (minimum 1). Sightless creatures cannot be affected by this ability. The shaman may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.
L2: Heavens Hex ability:
Enveloping Void (Sp): The shaman curses one enemy with the dark void. As a standard action, the shaman may cause one enemy within 30 feet to treat the light level as two steps lower, bright light becomes dim light, normal light becomes darkness, and areas of dim light and darkness become supernaturally dark (like darkness, but even creatures with darkvision cannot see). The effective spell level of this hex is equal to half the shaman’s level (maximum 9th). This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the shaman’s level. A Will saving throw negates this effect. This action doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. Whether or not the save is successful, the enemy cannot be targeted by this hex for 1 day.
Having played Thornkeep L1 before, I knew it would be a true dungeon crawl with 7-8 fights. I picked up a Wand of Bless & Wand of Cure Light Wounds for buffing and post-combat.
I tossed out an enveloping darkness. "The melee will love this," I thought.
Nope, the centipedes had darkvision. blerg.
While the frontliners tackled the centipedes, I pushed out a weak -1 to hit for 1 rd Stardust debuff.
We won the battle, but not without some poisoned folks and 1/2 the party unable to contribute.
I moved into the room, invoked Enveloping Darkness to blind the---oh, goblins have darkvision. Dammit.
The War Priests pasted the goblins and the party made a pretty quick fight out of it.
This was the first ugly fight.
I backed out of the fight and blessed with the wand. The Hoppy Thingies dropped two characters. I tried using Aid Another to boost the War Priest's attack: fail. I flanked and tried to hit: fail. These were not so much bad rolls as they were as a consequence of being a low level caster that dumped STR with no good spell options for that particular fight.
Finally, one of the warmages took out the monsters and we recovered.
I start to joke that I'm the Bless bot.
They trigger the Wight and 2 zombie encounter. The wight hits the L2 Warpriest (thankfully) and he eats the negative level, but lives. I drop a bless because, wouldn't you know it, undead have darkvision and enveloping darkness wouldn't work.
The party begins to untangle itself from the hallway when...
...a Shadow comes from the dark room and attacks me at the back of the line. Boom 1 point strength drain. Meanwhile, a zombie drops the investigator. And there's still that wight...
Things, are looking bad.
Then pure awesome hilarity happens. The Arcanist pulls out a Chill Touch and panics the wight! The War Priests kill it with AOOs as it flees then one and one of them revives the investigator. I start summoning a celestial eagle...but before I'm done the Arcanist slips behind me and chill touches the Shadow! It panics! AMAZING!
TPK averted.
We hurriedly search the room and move on.
3 Stirges attack us while we're at the edge of a cavern. I wasted my knowledge check just to ask if they had Darkvision for funsies (they do). Ugh. We polish them off pretty easily.
Not much to say...
It's really hard to give any feedback for the playtest because my build wasn't that well-suited for this particular module (as I played it before, I didn't want to metagame and pick the perfect spells because that's cheesy and no fun for anyone).
I had a wand of bless, Summon Monster I/Murderous Command/Prot Evil memorized and a spontaneous Color Spray from my spirit...given how the combats played out, the specific monsters we fought and tight spaces of a dungeon crawl, I really was reduced to "use bless wand", "maybe Stardust" and then positioning myself to benefit the melee peeps who were just cleaning house. Basically, I felt like another low level cleric or oracle muddling along and dreaming of level 2 spells.
If I had picked the Heaven's Leap ability, it would have been *perfect* for some clutch tactical repositioning during various fights.[/b]
Enveloping Darkness was Developing Sadness
For those of you keeping track at home, I was 0 for 7 on using it (monsters were not/would not be affected). So, right now, the needle is firmly in the "not encounter breaking" side of the dial.
War Priest A-Go-Go
The war priests felt good about their class. There was a variety of builds among the three of them. But even they admitted they might be too front-loaded at L1 as human with access to feats/feat equivalents.
Investigator
The poor investigator in my group got dropped twice, maybe three times. At other times, due to the layout of the rooms, he could not contribute to combat. When he did, he had bad rolls. It just wasn't his night.
Re: skill monkey role--We had enough skills to go around the party already, so I couldn't remember how he fared in relation to others in skill use.
I'm sure I had more thoughts, but after 5 hours of gaming and typing this up, my brain is fried. If I recall more tomorrow, I'll post again.
Awesome, not because you all kicked butt, but because this is exactly the kind of real experience everyone has when they play through a session not knowing what you're going to face. Sometimes you pick the right thing other times you dont!
Keep it coming, I'm sure this is what the designers need to fine tune the new cut'n'shut classes.
With the enveloping void ability, surely in a dungeon the resulting light condition would have been supernaturally dark - meaning darkvision wouldn't help?
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With the enveloping void ability, surely in a dungeon the resulting light condition would have been supernaturally dark - meaning darkvision wouldn't help?
This particular dungeon had normal light from torches on the wall--and even if it didn't we had a party of with non-dark vision characters (including me until my Greater Spirit ability kicks in) which meant we had to provide our own light. Because of the limited range of the hex, I was always casting it in party-provided normal light levels.
I agree, this is a very well done playtest!
And I'm glad that Enveloping Darkness is working out fairly well. I was slightly worried about that ability, especially the supernatural darkness bit. It would give PCs supernatural darkness a bit early, but it's only one enemy at a time, so it's probably not horrible, right? :)
Something like that enveloping darkness power would be situationally very useful but probably in most dungeon fights unless the room is very large you are unlikely to find much to effect with it simply due to most things living in dungeons/underground would have darkvision.
Something like that enveloping darkness power would be situationally very useful but probably in most dungeon fights unless the room is very large you are unlikely to find much to effect with it simply due to most things living in dungeons/underground would have darkvision.
Ah, but the cool thing is that as long as the monster is in dim light or darkness beforehand, it still can't see with darkvision unless it has the very rare See in Darkness ability (basically mostly just devils and dark folk have it). The hex is perfect if your team runs around in the dark using communal darkvision, since most darkvision monsters have no reason to bring along light.
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I decided to skip my improv class and sneak in a game of PFS tonight.
After getting my butt handed to me, I should just gone to class ;)
First off, a quick recap of where my build is now:
Nysseus Nox
Female Human Shaman (Heavens)
Init +6; Senses Perception +4
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor)
hp 24 (3d8+6)
Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +8
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee longspear +0 (1d8-2/x3) and
. . morningstar +0 (1d8-2)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8/19-20)
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 3rd; concentration +7):
2nd (2/day)—summon monster ii (x2)
1st (3/day)—summon monster i, murderous command (DC 15), protection from evil
0 (at will)—detect magic, mending, guidance, light
Spirit Spells available
2nd: Hypnotic Pattern
1st: Color Spray
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Statistics
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Str 7, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 19, Cha 15
Base Atk +2; CMB +0; CMD 10
Feats Augment Summoning, Extra Hex, Spell Focus (conjuration)
Traits dangerously curious, reactionary, world traveler
Skills Diplomacy +8, Heal +11, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (planes) +6, Knowledge (religion) +7, Sense Motive +11, Use Magic Device +9
Combat Gear Pearl of power (1st level) (1/day), Wand of Bless, Wand of cure light wounds
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Special Abilities
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Stardust (Sp)
Enveloping Void (Sp)
Heaven’s Leap (Su)
SPIRIT FAMILIAR (Greensting Scorpion)
Human for the bonus feat and skill point a level.
Because Shaman is MAD, the caster stat priority runs WIS > CHA > INT > CON > DEX/STR. I don't want to dump DEX and kill my AC/REF save, so STR it was.
3 traits (1 extra from a PFS boon): Dangerously Curious because UMD is always handy for a backrow caster, Reactionary for the Init boost, and World Traveler for Sense Motive. I am absolutely of the opinion Sense Motive should be a Shaman class skill.
Scenario: The Beggar's Pearl
Party: I ran the muster for the tables tonight, so I tried to give us a balanced 4-person party in the 3-4 subtier.
L4 Fighter (DEX based)
L4 Rogue 2/Gunslinger 2, lowlight vision
L3 Alchemist (Mindchemist/Internal Alchemist), lowlight vision
L3 Shaman (Heavens)
(I note the visions for later reference)
I was excited to play this one as I was looking forward to giving the melee blinded targets to tee off on and Heaven's Leap them around the battlefield.
We heard yelling from a cave that had a barrier across the mouth. While the Fighter and RogueSlinger tried to batter it down, I popped the wand of bless and the Alchemist activated his Ioun Torch. The barrier dropped and we saw at the far end of cave a giant ant attacking a prone dwarf.
I used one of my Knowledge: Nature Qs to determine if the ants had darkvision. They did. Blerg. But positioning was in my favor.
I dropped an Enveloping Darkness on the Ant and blinded it--it was in dim light radius of the Ioun torch, so treated light levels as Supernatural Darkness, which trumped its darkvision. The alchemist sprang to the rescue and was attacked by hidden ant with a readied action and then AOO'd when he tried to move away.
Down went the alchemist...his Ioun Torch's normal light radius was now kicking my Enveloping Darkness from supernatural darkness to just darkness. Sigh.
The RogueSlinger burst in and got hit by another hidden ant, and was grappled and poisoned. The Fighter tumbled in and poked away.
I told the RogueSlinger to delay. I Heaven's Leaped him out of the grapple but within his pistol range increment. He popped off a shot, crit the ant and killed it.
How awesome is that?
Very, very, awesome. ;)
Not wanting to metagame, I wasted a Murderous Command on an ant since this character didn't know about vermin's immunity to it.
We wrapped up the battle shortly after, but not before the RogueSlinger and Alchemist had eaten STR damage from ant poison.
After this fight, I thought 3 things: 1) Heaven's Leap still rocks! 2) Did I waste a hex slot on Enveloping Darkness! 3) It didn't help our DPS alchemist went down right away, making this fight feel a little more desperate than it should have been.
We traveled to the next mountainous area and failed my cold weather FORT save again. My fatigue progressed to exhausted and left me at 1 STR and 4 DEX. Dear god, that was just not fun. In trying to keep my WIS high and my CHA and INT decent because of MADness, I left myself open to physical debilitation.
We made camp for an hour while I recovered, then entered the dungeon.
...and got sniped down by bolts launched from the darkness beyond.
For the second battle in a row, our Alchemist was dropped right away. I ran around a corner and used my bless wand because I'm a brave Shaman like that.
The RogueSlinger and Fighter moved into the doorway, but before they could go any further, an Ogre rumbled out. The melee tangled with the Ogre and dodge bolts from beyond, eating damage.
Instead of running into the Ogre's reach, I Heaven's Leaped the unconscious Alchemist to me so I could wand him back to action.
The rest of the fight played out with me summoning a Celestial Eagle that took down the ogre with the melee. Then, being the only creature with Darkvision in our party, it flew after the archers hiding in the dark only to have the summon spell expire the round after. Our party, humiliated and not wanting to run face first into archers, slammed the doors closed and tied them shut with rope.
2 fights in and we were 1 & 1...and that single win wasn't very pretty.
The thing that annoyed me as a player was the constant re-ascertaining of light levels as the Alchemist's Ioun Torch moved to and fro with him--even though I didn't cast Enveloping Darkness this fight, the thought of having to force the GM the constantly adjudicate the monster's personal light level seemed like a huge potential headache.
At this point, we were a little frayed as players. The alchemist and I, who also GM regularly, took it in stride as we normally run characters who sleepwalk through scenarios unchallenged. The RogueSlinger and Fighter, being newer players, seemed a little incredulous at how the fights had gone so far.
The alchemist moved to investigate and promptly triggered a pit trap. Yes, that's right, another combat the he was immediately neutralized for. The Fighter tried to navigate around the pit--the player didn't realize she could just jump over it, ended her turn by the edge and fell into the pit (despite DEX being her best stat).
2 of 4 members were out of the fight in the first round.
The RogueSlinger jumped across the pit and landed on the other side unscathed...but the Ioun Torch was in the pit, so he couldn't see where the foe was attacking from.
I summoned a Celestial Eagle and it percepted a Mite in the darkness and attacked it. Then, while moving up, I promptly fell in a pit too.
!@#$%!$!@#^*&
Then began the so-frustrating-it-became-hilarious-then-it-became-frustrating-and-stayed-fr ustrating part of the encounter. The alchemist couldn't make a climb check to get out to save his life. I failed a couple of climb checks then realized I could heaven's leap myself out. Of course, I forgot not to end my turn next to the pit--so I promptly fell back in. The RogueSlinger stumbled around trying to find the Mite. The Fighter finally got out, but he couldn't do much either. The eagle harassed the Mite, but never killed it and it disappeared after 3 rounds.
Finally, many rounds later, the Mite escaped (or the GM took pity on us) and the encounter mercifully ended.
So, three battles in, we're 1 - 2, the alchemist has yet to throw a bomb, the RogueSlinger and Fighter are frustrated by darkness rules and I pretty much resign myself to just trying to complete 2/3rds of the adventure for my 1 XP.
There's some minor exploration stuff, but the RogueSlinger is frustrated as a player (understandable) but acting a little petulantly (not cool), but we push on and ascend some stairs.
Round 1: The Priestess casts Blindness on the RogueSlinger. He fails his save. The mooks surround him. This seems to break the player's will to play.
The fighter and alchemist move in and engage. I do a knowledge check, learn the monsters all have darkvision and the ambient light level means my Enveloping Darkness is useless. I begin casting Summon Monster II to summon multiple Eagles.
Round 2: The Priestess moves closer and we're all hit by her fear aura. The blinded RogueSlinger fails. And me, after buffs, rocking a double digit WILL save, rolls a 1. The fighter and I are feared for 4 rounds.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh---
I lose my summon spell, which would have summoned 3 eagles.
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu---
The RogueSlinger player basically shuts down and from this point onwards, stops contributing in any way. He basically says, "it doesn't matter" "whatever" and puts his stuff away while the combat is still going on.
The alchemist finally gets a chance to start tossing bombs. He analyzes the field and does his best to whittle down the mooks.
Round 3:
The Priestess casts Hold Person on the Fighter. The fighter fails. The fighter is held, the RogueSlinger is blind/feared, I'm feared and the alchemist is the only one left.
The mooks don't coup de grace the fighter (what a nice, merciful GM), but a pair do take a few swipes while another chases down the alchemist.
Alchemist eats AOOs dancing about and tosses another bomb, taking some mooks out. It's just one mook and the priestess now.
I cheer on the alchemist and try to get the RogueSlinger player back into the game. No use. He's checked out.
Round 4:
The Priestess triggers some other fear. The fighter, who just broke the Hold Person, fails. The alchemist, who's single-handedly winning the fight, fails as well. They both flee.
Round 5:
The Priestess and mook charge down the fleeing alchemist and kill him. My fear finally wears off, but I'm 140' away from the fight. I flee the dungeon. The DM handwaves the escape of the RogueSlinger and Fighter.
Thank God, it's over.
I take my 1 XP and 0 PP with a smile, just happy to be alive
In a perfect world, I would have made my WILL save, summoned 3 eagles and Heaven's Leaped the held fighter to safety. Too bad this is the real world and we got the crap kicked out of us.
Quick thoughts:
Best? Once again, Heaven's Leap is a FUN and versatile ability. Being able to Leap someone out of combat and next to me for healing was clutch. Also, leaping someone out of a Grapple continues to be satisfying. It truly and deeply appeals to the battlefield tactician/support player in me.
Bench? Enveloping Darkness for the second scenario in a row was borderline unusable. Both scenarios took place underground where the denizens had darkvision, so obviously that plays a role...but couple that with the logistics of PFS where you have random party members who may or may not have darkvision and sprinkle on the complexity of moving light radii in combat and it just becomes a headache to think about. Not to mention the growing disappointment every time a knowledge check reveals a creature has darkvision.
I'm playing 4 more scenarios this upcoming weekend, so hopefully it won't turn out to be a total bust.
Bless? Just call me BlessBot. Beep bop beep.
Bense Botive Sense motive should be a class skill.
It's almost 2 am in Chicago, so please forgive any grammar/spelling/cognitive errors. I'll add more if I'm functional at work tomorrow.
4 upcoming play test games this weekend:
L3 in Voices in the Void, Penumbral Accords
L4 in Tide of Morning, You Have What You Hold
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Man, that sounds brutal. Glad you were able to have some fun, but ugh. Poor everyone.
Heaven's Step sounds like a blast. I'm with you on Enveloping Darkness, though... but I'm one of those lazy DMs that never really thinks about the darkness rules, so this would be a complete mess in my games.
Cheers!
Landon
Sammy, do you think your view of ED would change in a human heavy scenario?
Rory, I was thinking about making it just a flat miss-chance. Right now it's kind of in a cool position where the effect fluctuates from blindness to miss chance. Just going to straight blindness at all times may be a bit good.
I dunno what's best for the game, but I have faith in the developer :)
Good stuff! Kudos!
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I was thinking about this on my bleary-eyed bus ride to work this morning.
Enveloping Void (which I keep calling Enveloping Darkness) as written is entirely dependent on your GM's campaign:
In dungeon-crawler or darkvisioned monster heavy campaigns, it's too situational to be depended on (unless your party makes specific preparations for it).
In human-centric or darkvisioned monster light campaigns, it's a pretty good ability that would see plenty of play.
In PFS, it's utility will literally swing from battle to battle (unless it's a dungeon crawl).
I'm glad it's not an "I win" button that slumber has become but because it lives in a rules space that most GMs hate (light and darkness) and is dependent on your party members (do they need to provide their own light to see? is that light radius spilling onto the target?), it can potentially be an unfun mechanic to deal with.
What can be done to simplify and streamline it?
SUGGESTION A:
Enveloping Void is a Will Save. Failure means Blindness for 1 rd/level. Creatures with low-light vision get +X to the save, creatures with darkvision get +Y to the save, creatures with See In Darkness are unaffected.
Simple and quick, but potentially hoses creatures with darkvision.
SUGGESTION B:
Enveloping Void is a Will Save. Failure means Blindness for 1 rd/level. Creatures with low-light vision get +X to the save. Creatures with darkvision get +Y to the save; darkvision creatures that fail their save only treat the light level as dim (20% miss). Creatures with See In Darkness are unaffected.
Still simple and quick, does not shut down darkvision creatures but weakens shaman's debuff.
eta: I still think 1 rd/level is a bit long. 1 rd at 1st level and additional rd every 2 levels thereafter (2 rds at L3, 3 rds at L5) seems a bit less onerous.
I realy enjoy your feedback it seems almost as if I am at the table with you experiancing your highs and lows.
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Great stuff, thanks for the entertainment, err, I mean playtest!
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Knocked out two PFS games at Wolfcon today. They were surprisingly quick--we did them both in about 5ish hours.
Nysseus Nox
Female Human (Taldan) Shaman 3
Init +6; Senses Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor)
hp 24 (3d8+6)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +8
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee longspear +0 (1d8-2/×3) and
. . morningstar +0 (1d8-2/×2)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8/19-20/×2)
Statistics
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Str 7, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 19, Cha 15
Base Atk +2; CMB +0; CMD 10
Feats Augment Summoning, Extra Hex, Spell Focus (conjuration)
Traits dangerously curious, reactionary, world traveler
Skills Diplomacy +8, Heal +11, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (planes) +6, Knowledge (religion) +6, Perception +6, Sense Motive +13, Survival +8, Use Magic Device +9
Combat Gear Pearl of power (1st level) (1/day), Scroll of Comprehend Languages (x2), Scroll of Obscuring Mist, Scroll of Remove Fear, Scroll of Remove Sickness, Wand of Bless, Wand of cure light wounds, Alchemist's fire (2), Healer's kit, Holy water (2);
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Special Abilities
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Enveloping Void (Sp) As a standard action, foe in 30 ft treats light as 2 steps lower for 3 rds (Will neg).
Heaven's Leap (Su) As a standard action, ally in 30 ft moves as jester jaunt.
Stardust (5/day) (Sp) Foe in 30 ft sheds light, can't be invisible/conceal & -1 to att & perception checks for 1 rds.
SCENARIO:
Voice in the Void
PARTY:
Inquisitor 1
Gunslinger 1
Rogue 2
Fighter 2
Cleric 1
Shaman 3
PARTY NOTES:
A random table of people at a Con is the perfect stress test, even more so than the regular weekly PFS game at the FLGS.
The Inquisitor & Gunslinger were true L1s with just their starting gear and played by a mature couple. The Rogue and Fighter were also played by a mature couple. These two mature couples would be variously cranky and curt with each other at times over what to do and how to do it. (sigh) The Cleric was played by new-ish Pathfinder player but it was very obvious he was a quick study and picked up the game easily.
GAME NOTES:
Our dice ran cold, so all these combats went a few rounds longer than you think they would have.
The store room is full of stuffed and mounted creatures.
So, naturally, one them attacks us.
The skeletal owlbear (?) smacks the fighter and gunslinger. I do a knowledge check and confirm it was undead (and immune to Enveloping Void). I look over at the Rogue and asked, "Want a flank?" then Heaven's Leap her behind the skeleton. The party surrounds and finishes it off, but the frontliners get roughed up in the process because they have problems overcoming DR--none of the characters (besides me, in the back row) have a blunt weapon.
Again, there is some back-and-forth between the couples about which way to go. For those of you who have never done this scenario: this level is literally just 5 small rooms that all connect to each other AND we could see the whole map since the GM trusted us not to metagame. I couldn't believe they wouldn't just say "yes" to each other and just move things along. The cleric and I head to the next door to speed up the decision process. We open the door.
Wah-wah.
Cue Shaman tear rolling down my check as I use the bless wand again while everyone else ranged it down.
Again, there is some back-and-forth between the couples about which way to go between a door in one wall and another door behind some boxes in another wall. The cleric and I just went and move boxes from the blocked door and get folks to join us.
Out erupts the spider swarm all over the Rogue.
The Fighter runs over and bullrushes the Rogue out of the swarm, pushing her so hard she falls prone.
Then begins a ballet of scurrying about, tossing alchemists fire, missing, and splashing fellow party members. After 4 or so throws, we finally nail the swarm and disperse it.
While healing up, the cleric realizes the box had "magic aura" cast on it and it was just a sucker's trap. While he and I laugh about that, the Rogue peeks through the curtain to the next room...
I drop a Bless from the wand while the Fighter and Cleric rush to engage the zombie. The Rogue retreated to the backline and collapses. The Sorceress moves up and Color Sprays the frontliners. The fighter fails his save and is knocked out of the fight for 10 rounds.
Dammit.
1 round into combat and 2 people are down.
The Inquisitor Rebuks Death and gets the Rogue back into the fight. The Cleric engages the Sorceress and the Gunslinger fires off her musket. I begin a Summon Monster II, intending to conjure multiple eagles.
The next round, I find out the Gunslinger is not Musketmaster when she declares, "I take the full round to reload."
Uh oh.
The Cleric rolls a 19 to hit...and it's still a miss.
Double uh oh.
My Summon Monster II only conjures 1 out of a possible 3 eagles.
Triple uh oh.
We noticed the cord/tendrils running back to the brain tank. I tell the Cleric, "attack the tank" and Heaven's Leap him towards it. He dashes off and sunders a cord from the tank. Amazingly, he makes the sunder check and does enough damage to cut it. The Sorceress screams in pain and comes after the Cleric, casting and missing with a Shocking Grasp.
The party focus fires the Sorceress but can't hit her AC--she's had time to buff. The Sorceress connects with a Shocking Grasp and drops the Cleric. We scrambled to sunder the cords and dropped the Inquisitor with a magic missile.
Another one of my Summon Monster II spells only brings 1 of a possible 3 eagles, but it's distracting enough that we finish sundering cords and I can wand our Cleric back to consciousness. The Rogue, lacking ranged feats, misses constantly on her attacks and almost gives up doing anything. The cleric and I convince her not to just sit there, but to keep attacking because you might just roll a 20.
She rolls a 20 and plinks the the baddie for damage!
The Sorceress, weakened from being disconnected from the brain, is now surrounded and dropped. The GM handwaves us shattering the brain tank as there is no one to stop us.
These are not the Voids you were looking for
Could have Enveloping Void swung the last fight strongly in our favor? Maybe--we were on the defensive from get go, so I never had the chance to pull it out. Regardless, again, in a dungeon crawl Enveloping Void was of no use.
I have a bad feeling about this
I never once thought to use Stardust. Whenever I had no other option in combat, I would aid another one of frontliners with my longspear rather than use Stardust. The debuff is so minor and situational that after the first few playtests this is almost the last thing on my "hierarchy of things to do combat" list. Using it almost feels like an admission that I have nothing else to do.
I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you.
Again, Heaven's Leap made me feel like a hero by dropping a Rogue into flank and teleporting the Cleric past the BBEG so he could do damage behind enemy lines. The GM felt that it was balanced due to the once-a-day-per-person limit.
Next up, The Penumbral Accords
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SCENARIO:
Penumbral Accords
PARTY:
Rogue 2
Fighter 2
Cleric 1
Shaman 3
PARTY NOTES:
These are the same people from the previous scenario. Things moved a quickly and decisions were made without delay since there were no dueling opinions about every decision.
THE MISSION:
We were sent back into the Blackros Museum to save the Blackros daughters from being sacrificed. Upon entering, we discovered the material plane and shadow plane were overlapping inside.
We enter the foyer and are immediately attacked by a skeletal guardian. Since it is undead, it means no Enveloping Void ('wah wah' goes the trumpet). I toss off a bless from my wand and we surround our bony foe. The fighter muscles through the DR while the cleric and I plink away with our CLW wands as it becomes Flank n' Spank 101.
Amazingly, after the scenario WE JUST PLAYED, no one picked up an alternate weapon. I hand off my morningstar to the rogue to use for the rest of the adventure.
We open a door to a room marked Cold Storage and a Iron Cobra ambushes us. My knowledge check reveals it has darkvision, so no Enveloping Void. (The trumpet rests on its musician's knees -- the trumpeter simply sits on the stage, looks at me and shrugs.)
Bless from wand, Flank n' Spank, etc.
After the encounter, I double check the Rogue's math because she's missing way too much...apparently she's been not adding her BAB and STR bonus to hit for this scenario (or the previous one) and only been adding my Bless and situational flank bonuses.
Bonuses properly tallied, we push into the office in the back of the room.
My knowledge check reveals it's a fetchling. Fetchlings have darkvision. (The trumpeter has left the stage. He sits at the bar, buying a tipsy Enveloping Void a drink. They laugh a little too loudly at jokes only they can hear.)
The L4 (!) alchemist runs down the wall and drops the fighter. The rogue plinks away with her bow, missing. A super-brief disagreement occurs when the rogue urges me to walk over and wand the downed fighter, who's laying next to the full attacking melee alchemist. I briefly explain to her that healing is not the best option right now and begin a summon spell.
The next round the Alchemist drops the cleric. The rogue misses.
I grab a die and hope the dice gods are kind to me.
Boom! 3 eagles!
All three full attack and enough attacks hit to drop the alchemist.
Oh. Thank. Gygax.
In the hall, we see the Blackros daughters kneeling before a fetchling in the midst of a ritual. Fetchlings, if you recall, have darkvision.
A dim room. Cracked plaster and broken bedsprings. Enveloping Void silently gathers its clothes. The trumpeter snores, his body sprawled on a too-thin mattress. The door is too embarrassed to creak when Enveloping Void slips out.
Bless is dropped. The cleric charges in, is summarily crit and drops. The fighter and rogue engage the best they can. I begin a summon spell.
The fetchling tangles with the other two PCs and then my summoned cavalry arrives, three beautiful celestial eagles. I Heaven's Leap the cleric to me so I can heal him next round. Before I can even get that far, the eagles tear up the fetchling.
Damsels rescued. Cleric rescued. Museum rescued.
...I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark...
For three scenarios straight I've been unable to use Enveloping Darkness. It's a bit frustrating--especially since I chose it as my L2 hex and burned a feat to get Heaven's Leap. I'm hoping the next scenario, You Have What You Hold, offers more opportunities to use EV.
...we're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks...
It's amazing how much smoother a game goes when people aren't quibbling about every little decision. While I don't mind a little party friction if it's about Important Things (tm) or Big Decisions (tm), when the party argues a couple of minutes deciding which door to go through, I feel my life drain away.
I really need you tonight
Forever's gonna start tonight
Forever's gonna start tonight
Heaven's Leap and I hang out and stuff now. We totally karaoke Bonnie Tyler songs together.
That's it for tonight. I have one more game tomorrow (as a L4 Shaman with wandering spirit). I'll do a fuller feedback then with how that plays out.
Right now, other than Heaven's Leap, my lowbie shaman no different than any other low level buffing/summoning cleric.
Sammy, do you think you'd use Stardust at higher levels, when the penalty is steeper?
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Now, at L4, it's now even with an Aid Another (+2 AC vs -2 to hit), so it's definitely more in the mix.
I see it more as a back-half-of-the-battle/mop-up ability for *me* since I'm likely to open with a casting riff on Buff > Control Spell > Summon(s).
Unless I'm specifically trying to conserve spells or it's an overstacked party-vs-solo-BBEG battle, I definitely won't open a fight with Stardust and probably won't use it mid-fight.*
*=(unless we already know it's an invisibility using foe).
While it's a nice spammable debuff, when I think about how short "typical" fights are at higher levels, by the time I would consider using it the fight has most likely already been decided.
I have no quibbles with it since it scales (hooray), I just don't know how much use I personally will get out of it with my specific build playstyle.
Keep up the awesomeness Sammy, we're lovin'it!
Yes, absolutely keep it up! This is one of the best playtests I've been reading, my bias notwithstanding.
It sounds like Stardust is about working as intended, tbh. Compared to the other Spirit Abilities, it was meant to be a bit weaker starting out, but a good backup at higher levels when you didn't have other things to do. And at level 7, it's a bit more useful than 1d6+3 damage :)
A real pity about Enveloping Darkness.
It's an RP tragedy that your level 3 Shaman played down in Voice in the Void. I was looking forward to the most perfect RP opportunity for a dark tapestry-ish shaman ever, but it's in 3-4 and 6-7, not 1-2.
Also, it seems like the reason you keep not getting use out of EV is mainly that you don't have a team of allies with low-light or better who can make the combo work. In Penumbral Accords, if your team had low-light vision, the enemies were incapable of making it lighter than it was due to the weird effects and you could have blinded any of the enemies. Granted, bringing light was to your advantage in other ways.
I did know ahead of time that those two scenarios were full of things with darkvision--I just didn't want to spoil anything by mentioning it beforehand. In a similar vein, I know whether or not that's true of the next ones you mentioned, but I won't tell in advance, I want to see your playtest!
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@Rogue Eidolon, yeah, in PFS where you can get very random parties of PCs, I'll be lucky if I ever get the "all lowlight/darkvision all-stars." On the plus side, once I get See in Darkness at L6, I won't feel bad tossing out EV on baddies who cast darkness on the party and turn the tables on the them.
Quick Preamble: In the interest of "real world" playtesting in PFS, I like to share what the table is like from my POV. I realize that sometimes my words might be a little unkind or that my attitude might seem a bit elitist--the intent is not to make anyone look bad but to be honest about the actual situation(s) at the table that I'm playing under. Theorycrafting in the perfect world of math is fine, but rarely will you have ideal situations at the table.
SCENARIO:
You Have What You Hold
2nd (1/day)—hypnotic pattern
1st (1/day)—color spray
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Statistics
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Str 7, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 20, Cha 15
Base Atk +3; CMB +1; CMD 11
Feats Augment Summoning, Extra Hex, Spell Focus (conjuration)
Traits dangerously curious, reactionary, world traveler
Skills Diplomacy +9, Heal +12, Knowledge (nature) +7, Knowledge (planes) +7, Knowledge (religion) +7, Perception +7, Sense Motive +14, Survival +10, Use Magic Device +10
SQ hexes (enveloping void, heaven's leap), spirits (heavens), stardust
Combat Gear Pearl of power (1st level) (1/day), Cloak of resistance +1,
L6 Fighter (Archer)
L4 Sorcerer Pregen
L3 Fighter (Sword & Board)
L4 Fighter/Barbarian
L4 Rogue
+ me
We were playing subtier 3-4.
The L6 Archer would be playing down and the player said he would be toning down his attacks. High level of system mastery/tactics.
The Sorceror and S&B Fighter were the couple I had played with the previous night in Penumbral Accords. Average level of system mastery/tactics.
The Rogue and Barbarian are an older couple who I've played with or been around before. To put it kindly, they are nice people who are extremely frustrating to play with as you are basically teaching them the rules over and over every game, if not every fight.
Our mission is simple--pathfinder supply boats are being attacked. Spend some time in town making ourselves enticing targets, fend off the pirates, and find out where they're coming from and who's behind it.
We hit a local tavern and promptly began boasting of our prowess in combat, purposely showboating our skills poorly.
My 7 STR Shaman proclaimed her strength, flexed her 'muscles' then armwrestled the weakest girl in bar (purposely losing). The Barbarian tumbled around and crashed into a table. Hilariously, the Fighter actually didn't roll well enough to fake being bad, so he looked competent when he clambered on the bar's walls. After the other characters finished selling our party's 'weakness' we went to our ship.
Since I expected this to be a combat heavy scenario, I chose Nature as my Wandering Totem to boost my AC and let me use Barkskin. I didn't choose Life because despite not having combat healer if things got dire, the L6 Archer could go turbo and bail us out. Because of the party size, I skip out on my typical summon spells and go for more control spells to help the martials out.
After several days on the boat, we rounded a bend in the river and saw a small ship with archers coming at us.
Even though my Shaman had the highest initiative, she was resting in the ship's supply room. The rest of the party was on the deck and engaged the enemy.
The archer, who only does non-lethal damage with blunt arrows as part of his personal code, dropped one of the raiders on their ship's tiller. As the ships closed, the groups exchanged more ranged fire (quite literally in one case as the raiders had a druid with Produce Flame toasting the Sorceress).
Then a crocodile plopped onto our ship from the water. Yes!
I open the door to ship's interior and see the oncoming ship about to ram us. I ask the Barbarian from the doorway, "You want to be on their boat?" She says yes. I Heaven's Leap her onto the prow of their ship where she immediately cuts down a raider. Meanwhile, the party slowly reduces the enemy's numbers as their ship crashes into ours.
The next round the crocodile wanders over and snaps at me. I toss Enveloping Darkness on it, causing it to treat the light level as dim (Bright > Normal > Dim). Because it has low light vision, it is unaffected.
Blerg.
I tell the GM, "With my move action I close the door."
The ranged and 'ported Barbarian finish clearing out the raider's boat. The crocodile outside my door runs around the corner and drops the Sorceress with a chomp. The Archer goes full auto and leaves a crocodile stain on the deck.
Our interrogation and search of the raiders gave us the location of their base. While there was some discussion about the best time of day and approach to their base, we just settled on openly approaching it.
Pathfinder Swagger, y'all.
Two guards saw us and began ringing a bell. We ranged them down then stacked on the front door. I drop a bless from my wand and the Fighter walks in.
And a bunch of lurking archers fusillade him. Luckily, this is L3-4 and he survives.
The Rogue and Sorceress run around to the back door, hoping to flank from the inside.
Through the doorway, I Enveloping Void a baddie in the room.
IT WORKS! IT WORKS! HE'S BLIND! OH DEAR ARODEN! IT WORKS!
I take a free action to wipe the tear of joy from my face.
The Archer lights up what we think is a caster cleric baddie but the baddie's still standing. The Rogue and Sorcerer finally break in the back door and work their way towards the battle. I cast Enveloping Darkness on the cleric and he makes his save.
I KNEW IT WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME ARODEN! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
The Barbarian and Fighter start clearing out the room and the Archer drops the Cleric. I successfully blind one of the remaining mooks.
I'M SOMEWHAT AMBIVALENT ABOUT MY FEELINGS ABOUT ENVELOPING VOID BUT INSIST ON TYPING IN CAPITAL LETTERS ANYWAYS
The Sorceress blasts the blinded mook's pathetic touch AC with a scorching ray. The GM handwaves mopping up the remaining mook and the base is ours.
The interrogation and a search reveal that the BBEG is a respected local gladiatorial muckity-muck. Thanks to the regional culture of might makes right, we challenge her to a gladiatorial battle and that if she loses, she no longer preys on Pathfinder ships.
Fast forward to the Arena. Our research reveals that there are hidden pits in the arena, so I mentally get ready to use Heaven's Leap to retrieve people. (We also get a brief heads up from the GM that a type of performance combat will be in play--spoiler: absolutely not a factor for us.)
In the holding pen, we finalize our strategy: Archer on the boss, the rest of us clearing out mooks. We are surprised when the arena announcer calls for a "warm-up" fight.
We enter the arena from our pen and face a Manticore. I drop a bless and the wide-open arena allows the party to range it down in 2 rounds. During the fight, some of our party members spot pits and we note where they are.
We are reset in our pen and then the main event is announced. We get our game faces on.
The boss, her pet and her 4 mooks enter the arena floor and its on.
I emerge from the pen and drop a bless, putting the pit between me and the blob of baddies. Others follow suit. The groups exchange ranged fire and a mook goes down. The boss sucks down a potion and enlarges.
Oh geez.
Our Fighter moves to the center of the Arena. The enlarged boss, her pet and two mooks move to meet the Fighter. Trying to slow down their advance, I drop a soundburst in their midst.
They all fail their saves.
Cue the entire party focus firing and ranging the stunned boss into unconsciousness. This breaks the morale of the mooks. The GM handwaves the remaining pet because it was all pretty much over at that point.
Pathfinders rule! Gladiators drool!
Quick Note: Even if the fighter was at-tier for this scenario, it only would have extended the fights by a round or two--the scenarios were so range-friendly that it allowed all the martials and the Sorceror to plink away unaccosted.
80s TRAINING MONTAGE
With the wandering spirit coming online, additional optional totem spells being available and the increasing pool of cleric spells, I felt like my Shaman was finally coming into its own. Even though I'm still a bless-bot in round one, the opening up of options makes me truly feel Shaman-y. In this scenario, I had the chance to pick my Wandering Spirit before the tavern, before the boat battle and before the arena. While I didn't change it, knowing I could tailor it for what we could possible face was an awesome choice.
ROM COM HAVING A BAD DAY MONTAGE
I'm a bit bummed that if I want to advantage of Lore's Arcane Enlightenment Hex for spells, I have boost my INT somehow (while somehow keeping my WIS up for DCs and a decent CHA for assorted CHA-based abilities).
SUGGESTION: Keep the Shaman WIS/CHA-based and reduce MADness by changing the limiting stat to CHA? ("To add these spells to her spell list and cast these spells, she must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level, but the saving throw DCs against these spells is the same as her other shaman spells.")
THE LOSERS PLOT THEIR REVENGE MONTAGE
After a couple sessions with the same folks (or just once in the L6 Archer's case), the players knew how Heaven's Leap worked and were proactively thinking about how to use it in combat. It's a good feeling.
At this point, I have a L5 playtest and a L10 sit-in session or two tentatively scheduled. While I will stick with a Shaman for those, I may not stick with a Heavens-based buffer/summoner.
GM for the last playtest chiming in:
Heaven's Leap is a clear winner. It's tactical, it's fun, and the 1/day/target and 30ft range make me feel that it won't wear down GMs nerves like many of the Witch's hexes do.
Enveloping Void was not annoying for me as a GM, but Sammy did all the work for me (making the checks to ask about vision, noting the light levels). With a less proactive player, and in environments with constantly fluctuating light levels (like a dungeon lit by a mobile Light spell), I can see it slowing things down. For those situations, I'd probably want to have a 20ft radius token under anyone with Light to help track things.
It's only useful against a pretty narrow band of enemies, but it seems like a nice thing to have in a fight with a lot of mooks. You can spam it without wasting charges or spells/day. If his Sound Burst had not ended the fight, he may have been able to effectively shut down the BBEG with it.
All told, it'd be nice to have access to it as a Wandering hex when you know you're going up against humans, but in practice it's a lot flakier than it looks on paper.
Wandering Spirit is a really cool mechanic, but I do foresee some potential for abuse and/or confusion. As a GM, I'd probably want players to give me a heads up on their Wandering Spirit choice so I don't have to ask questions when they start throwing out strange abilities.
Sammy, has the spirit familiar ability been useful?
How would you compare it to Stone's, or Lore's?
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I have a greensting scorpion familiar and the idea of slow flying, sparkly scorpion tickles me to no end!
I do plan to use it for scouting ahead in dark areas (stealth +15, darkvision 60') or for pop-up aerial recon--but that has to wait until I can communicate with it at L5. So, L1-4, not much use for me other than a party trick. L5+ I'll get much more use out of it.
While the 5' fly speed a nice little flavor perk for non-flying familiars, it's more on the player to make it useful and it will most likely only have utility out of combat (unless you have a flying familiar benefiting from 10' speed boost zipping in to deliver touch spells).
This is my first familiar-owning character, so I can only approach this from a theory standpoint: Stone's DR5/Adamantine pays off right away for touch spell familiars thanks to the extra durability. Life's Fast Healing 1 is nice because it's a little peace of mind about your familiar's longevity. Both Stone and Life offer excellent familiar survivability AND trump Heavens for in-combat use, but out of combat, Heavens offers more party utility with familiar flight.
Nice playtest with useful info. If you decide to test other Shaman spirit combos, I would love to read those.
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@blope I'd have a couple more playtests in but, sadly, I have a class during my FLGS' PFS night.
I'll be playtesting a L10 bloodrager Thursday night. I was going to try and run a Shaman, but the party consists of a Sorcerer, Life Oracle, Witch and Barbarian/Rogue--so hit-like-a-truck melee was more called for than another full caster.
(What I was tinkering with was a Monk 2 (MoMS/Sohei)/Shaman 8 (Battle/Nature) that had ridiculous AC, Crane Style feats, could do "ok" damage and L8 spellcasting ability--you couldn't hit it, it would constantly be in your face and it could drop control/buff spells as needed.)