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So, lets discuss the Arcanist archetypes here...I was looking over the Arcanist and its archetypes... and quite honestly, they are pretty cool. What do you guys think?
Blade Adept is actually pretty cool. By grabbing the Eldritch Blade exploit you can easy pump up your Black Blade with the Eldritch Knight archetype pretty easy. The fact you get spell strike as well is pretty cool. allows you to play a more casty Magus...
Blood Arcanist is makes my cry honestly... I mean, with this in existance, doesn't this just straight make the arcanist a better Sorcerer? The only advantage the sorcerer has over the arcanist is a few bonus feats... which are usually decent,but not great...
Brown Fur Transmuter seems pretty good... Very awesome for powerful buffing of your melee guy... or if you are a trying to go EK...
Eldritch Font These guys seem.... interesting. The lose a lot but the ability to potentially consistantly spam your Arcana Pool seems awesome...
Elemental master eh... doesn't seem that great... maybe if you could combine with Eldritch Font to maintain your Pool... but otherwise really meh...
Occultist is awesome... then again... spammable summons is always awesome xD
White Mage is actually pretty cool. Strong? No, but having the ability to heal when you need to but also having access to the Arcane spell list is damn cool :P. The ability to hand out fast healing is also cool.
School Savant is kind of meh. Expands their spells prepared but kinda boring to me. Actually... with this, the Arcanist is pretty much an Exploiter Wizard+....
Spell Specialist seems like it was built for blaster guys... kinda dull and not that great but cool I guess...
Unlettered Arcanist really meh... being forced to use the Witch spell list hurts... alot.
I'm seriously digging the Blood Arcanist and the White Mage.
Blood Arcanist: I was really groovin' on a Nanite Bloodline Sorcerer. I'm still torn between the Sorc and the Blood Arcanist, mainly because the levels of the surrendered exploits make me cringe.... But I'm seriously considering an Android Blood Arcanist w/ Nanite Bloodline + Eldritch Heritage Serpentine (with IEH if I can talk the GM into letting me get Envenomed instead). I got a thing for poisons :p.
-That said, it does irk me that they practically become better sorcs. It's only through the sorc's sheer number of spells per day that make me still consider playing one. And the Wild Blood, since I doubt Blood Arcanists can get a wild bloodline.
White Mage: My fiance has always been intrigued with arcane casters, but usually stuck with the Rogue (and boy can she make a Rogue useful). At most, she's played one oracle to date... She usually plays the healer types in MMOs, so I think I might be able to ease her into arcane casters with this archetype. This one makes me very, very happy.
The only comments I have is that four of the archetypes strike a awkward note,
White Mage: while have some nice healing exploits, they should have access to all cure spells as well, otherwise your just an arcane caster with a nice heal effect.
Unlettered Arcanist: While the ability to use a familiar and witch spells are cool, without access to some of those Hex abilities the archetype falls short of the mark.
Blood Arcanist and School Savant: And the wizard and sorcerer have died. don't get me wrong, if you like the bonus spells, feats, and skills available to these classes they are still viable options. but when you compare the spell versatility against the wizard and the number of spells learnable compared to the sorcerer and the fact that these two archetypes in a sense gives you all the class features that made them strong, you have just sent them home packing. so unless you ban these archetypes and their related exploits from your homegame you may find less sorcerers and wizards at your table and a whole load of arcanists.
I like to think arcanists will become the new vanilla, not just the first few months, the class is versatile, cool and player friendly, along with the archetypes mentioned you can patch on a "Sorcerer" or "Wizard" sticker on and the old guys will start to look like rigid Alternates of the Arcanist, not vice versa.
I also like to advocate blasting as a valid character build direction, that the Elemental Master achetype gets an extra daily spell at nearly no cost, that there is very powerful, you essentially get all of your regular spells along with a bonus free blast at each spell level.
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Re: School Savant, this favored class bonus:
"Wizard: Select one arcane school power at 1st level that is normally usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the wizard's Intelligence modifier. The wizard adds +1/2 to the number of uses per day of that arcane school power."
...is not available to the arcanist. For my divination wizard, that's 10 extra rerolls per day by level 20. That and getting spells at 3, 5, 7, etc. instead of 4, 6, 8, etc. makes me still lean towards the wizard.
I definitely think ACG contributes to Class power creep, you can find proof of this comparing bloodrager bloodline powers with Sorcerer bloodline abilities.
The ability to increase the Caster level and save DC of your spells with Arcane reservoir is very good.
1st Level Bloodrager claws (Such as Draconic) deal 1d6 damage.
1st level Sorcerer claws(Such as Draconic) deal only 1d4 damage.
I know that these classes have a distinction difference of "Martial" vs "Caster", but note that both of these abilities are supposedly supposed to grant equal strength since they both unlock at the same level and at the same cost.
The creep is subtle, not enough to turn me off the system, but it is there, the example given only has a power difference of 1! point of damage.
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It doesn't take much to improve upon Sorcerer bloodlines.
I definitely think ACG contributes to Class power creep, you can find proof of this comparing bloodrager bloodline powers with Sorcerer bloodline abilities.
1st Level Bloodrager claws (Such as Draconic) deal 1d6 damage.
1st level Sorcerer claws(Such as Draconic) deal only 1d4 damage.I know that these classes have a distinction difference of "Martial" vs "Caster", but note that both of these abilities are supposedly supposed to grant equal strength since they both unlock at the same level and at the same cost.
I'd compare them closer to rage powers, really. In which case they are weaker, because you don't get to choose your powers every two levels(or at all, archetypes not included) and they aren't as strong as some rage powers period(Superstious, Witch a Hunter, Spell Sunder...)
A key point for the occultist is that they get access to their summons on the wizard progression. I'm sure many have noticed this anyway.I read this archetype threw my hands up in the air and could only say. "Welp they don't care"
Seriously. That may be the worst idea I've seen in a long time.
Why would you give a full caster free max level summons as a bonus?
The arcanist is strong but that puts it in league with the exploiter wizard.
Funny thing is... the Exploiter is not nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be. They lose their bonus school spells (so they are pretty much generalist) AND they lose their bonus feats for a few exploits gained at a slower rate... and they don't get the greater exploits. They are limited to the basic ones.
Ok It's on the same level as sin magic.Funny thing is... the Exploiter is not nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be. They lose their bonus school spells (so they are pretty much generalist) AND they lose their bonus feats for a few exploits gained at a slower rate... and they don't get the greater exploits. They are limited to the basic ones.A key point for the occultist is that they get access to their summons on the wizard progression. I'm sure many have noticed this anyway.I read this archetype threw my hands up in the air and could only say. "Welp they don't care"
Seriously. That may be the worst idea I've seen in a long time.
Why would you give a full caster free max level summons as a bonus?
The arcanist is strong but that puts it in league with the exploiter wizard.
Yeah, Sin Magic is actually a lot nastier than the Exploiter Wizard.
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Exploiter Wizard doesn't give up its bonus feats.
The Unlettered Arcanist looks like a downgrade. They have the all-eggs-in-one-basket thing going on that the witch does, but unlike the witch, they don't have a bunch of stand-alone offensive abilities in the form of hexes. At best they have some nice blasting powers. Further, the witch list is just not as strong as the wizard's, and without a patron, they lose even more versatility. Are there some exploits worth giving up the whole witch bag of tricks for?
Blood Arcanist and School Savant: And the wizard and sorcerer have died. don't get me wrong, if you like the bonus spells, feats, and skills available to these classes they are still viable options. but when you compare the spell versatility against the wizard and the number of spells learnable compared to the sorcerer and the fact that these two archetypes in a sense gives you all the class features that made them strong, you have just sent them home packing. so unless you ban these archetypes and their related exploits from your homegame you may find less sorcerers and wizards at your table and a whole load of arcanists.
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While I really like both of these archtypes, I don't think they replace either the wizard or the sorcerer in any meaningful way. Whether it's the amazing sorcerer FCBs available (increased DCs for specific schools or vastly more spells known), the significantly larger number of spells per day, high level spell versatility provided by items like the mnemonic vestment, or the fact that it's charisma based casting I think the sorcerer has plenty of upsides for specific characters. Similarly, the wizard's faster spell access, much greater diversity in spells prepared at any given time (especially high level spells), unique magic item optiosn (e.g. annihilation spec's), and larger number of spells per day offers it plenty of upside.
This to say nothing of the fact that all three classes have their own flavor that is quite distinct. Wizards are people that tease out power through knowledge, sorcerer's are raw untrained bloodlines that sling magic like drunken sailors sling coins, and arcanists are those that blur the line between the two.
I have sorcerers and wizards that I'd rebuild as arcanists, because its flavor more closely matches what I wanted in the first place, but I've also got plenty where the arcanist doesn't fit conceptually - and that's more important to me than any small mechanical advantage I can eek out.
YMMV.
The arcanist has made me do something that I never thought possible - take my long running wizard and re-spec him as another class.
As to the archetypes - I looked at all of them, and while they look interesting, I think its much better to be without an archetype and just pick the stuff you want. There are some scary DCs and powers in that direction.
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Re: Unlettered Arcanist
About the only "good" things about it (other than flavor) are:
1) The ability to mix some decent spells (although, without patrons or some other method of expanding the selection, not that many of the best ones) from the cleric, druid, and sorcerer/wizard lists
2) A familiar (without using an exploit or taking Eldritch Heritage)
3) It can be stacked with another archetype; a brown fur transmuter unlettered arcanist (considering the witch spell list, that could probably be "brown chitin transmuter"), while not having as many options as a normal version, could make a creepy option for a drow or ettercap villian if nothing else; an eldritch font unlettered arcanist could use their surge abilities to make the most out of their more limited spell list; an occultist unlettered arcanist makes a good summoning-focused "witch"; an unlettered arcanist white mage can make a better healer than many divine classes.
Re: Unlettered Arcanist
About the only "good" things about it (other than flavor) are:
1) The ability to mix some decent spells (although, without patrons or some other method of expanding the selection, not that many of the best ones) from the cleric, druid, and sorcerer/wizard lists
2) A familiar (without using an exploit or taking Eldritch Heritage)
3) It can be stacked with another archetype; a brown fur transmuter unlettered arcanist (considering the witch spell list, that could probably be "brown chitin transmuter"), while not having as many options as a normal version, could make a creepy option for a drow or ettercap villian if nothing else; an eldritch font unlettered arcanist could use their surge abilities to make the most out of their more limited spell list; an occultist unlettered arcanist makes a good summoning-focused "witch"; an unlettered arcanist white mage can make a better healer than many divine classes.
I only you could stack Blood Arcanist with Brown Fur and Unlettered... get the Nanite Bloodline Arcana and get the Brown Fur's capstone a littel early xD
The Occultist is strong at low levels, but the ability to cast Summon Monster with arcane reservoir points doesn't scale well. At higher levels, it essentially means that all Summon Monster spells are always prepared spells if you have Swift Consume exploit. However, the minutes/level duration and standard action summons never lose their usefulness.
School Savant is well worth taking. The extra spell known greatly increases versatility, especially at even levels where you're doubling the number of spells known at the highest level.
I think the White Mage archetype is underrated. Yeah spontaneous healing isn't the strongest ability, but if you're starting at level 1, it's useful and you're only giving up exploits at 1st and 9th. The only drawback is you can't take one of the stronger archetypes.
Blood Arcanist gives up too many exploits for my taste. It would be worthwhile if they received the bloodline spells.