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So, looking over the Shaman on d20pfsrd. Was reading the hexes and I come to evil eye and I notice that it seems worded differently. I look over the Shaman hexes and the Witch's hexes, and while the Witch's evil eye is spelt out as a mind-affecting effect, Shaman's is not.
Is this an error on d20pfsrd? Is this an error in the Shaman? Or is it simply a flat out better version of evil eye that gets around all the mind-affecting immunity?
Apologies if that has been asked and discussed before, but I tried a search and found nothing immediate on the issue.
This just came up at our PFS game last week. I hadn't played a witch, so I didn't notice the discrepancy when building my to-be shaman until the witch player pointed it out for his own hex. Makes it slightly less awesome than I thought :/
It seems like a definite oversight to me.
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I suppose I'll also add, are the differences to the Life Link ability from the Life Spirit and the Life Link ability from the Life Mystery intentional?
Shaman Life Spirit Version:
Life Link (Su): The shaman creates a bond between herself and another creature within 30 feet. Each round at the start of the shaman's turn, if the bonded creature's hit points are reduced to –5 or fewer, it heals 5 hit points and the shaman takes 5 points of damage. The shaman can have one bond active per shaman level. The bond continues until the bonded creature dies, the shaman dies, the distance between her and the bonded creature exceeds 100 feet, or the shaman ends it as an immediate action. If the shaman has multiple bonds active, she can end as many as she wants with the same immediate action.
Oracle Life Mystery Version:
Life Link (Su): As a standard action, you may create a bond between yourself and another creature. Each round at the start of your turn, if the bonded creature is wounded for 5 or more hit points below its maximum hit points, it heals 5 hit points and you take 5 hit points of damage. You may have one bond active per oracle level. This bond continues until the bonded creature dies, you die, the distance between you and the other creature exceeds medium range, or you end it as an immediate action (if you have multiple bonds active, you may end as many as you want as part of the same immediate action).
1st difference: Oracle has range of touch, Shaman has a range of 30'. Improvement to the Shaman version, but slight (especially with a duration measured in hours). I could see this being intentional.
2nd difference (Bolded for emphasis): The trigger is different. Much different. To the point that the Shaman version is almost useless, because it doesn't activate until an ally is at -5 HP. Which is such a thin margin between dying and death that it is pretty rare it will happen, and if it does you're going to want to do a lot more than 5 HP of healing. I can't think that this is intentional.
3rd difference: Shaman has a fixed deactivation range of 100' while the Oracle uses medium range, the variable of 100' + 10' per level. I could see this being intentional, a shorter deactivation range to trade off with the 30' activiation range.
So, which of these three differences are intentional? All? None? Some?
I also find it wasteful that, despite taking the time to change wording on some hexes, they still don't clarify what range Ward is in the new Shaman version. I can understand the comments people have made about this book showing a very large drop in editting quality control.
Could you post the PFSRD version?
Per d20pfsrd. I do not have the books in front of me, so I'm willing to accept 'PFSRD made a mistake' as a valid solution if someone can give me the actual text on the ability.
Shaman Evil Eye:
Evil Eye (Su): The shaman causes doubt to creep into the mind of a foe within 30 feet that she can see. The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (shaman's choice): ability checks, AC, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts a number of rounds equal to 3 + the shaman's Wisdom modifier. A successful Will saving throw reduces this to just 1 round. At 8th level, the penalty increases to –4.
Witch Evil Eye:
The witch can cause doubt to creep into the mind of a foe within 30 feet that she can see.
Effect: The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (witch’s choice): AC, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier. A Will save reduces this to just 1 round.
This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.
I have the PDF and it reads the same way. I think it is just a typo, and evil eye is mind affecting ability for both classes.
I have the PDF and it reads the same way. I think it is just a typo, and evil eye is mind affecting ability for both classes.
It's possible. Would like official answer (to both issues) though. It's particularly bad because the way they formatted it (re-writing them for shaman instead of directly referencing the Witch class's abilities of the same name, the witch hex option existing to further distance the two classes, changes in wordings on other similarly named class features such as life link) there is a fair amount of evidence to argue it is intentional and meant to work that way. I don't understand why they simply could not have copy-pasted the latest edition of the Class abilities that are shared with other classes.
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I have the PDF and it reads the same way. I think it is just a typo, and evil eye is mind affecting ability for both classes.
I agree, especially since they kept the opening "causes doubt to creep into the mind of a foe" line.
If they were intentionally giving the shaman a non-mind-affecting version of evil eye, I think they would have tweaked the flavor to go along with that change (and maybe even renamed it, ala cackle and chant).
That's my 2 cents though. I FAQd the initial post.
Edit: Added a quote so its clear who I'm agreeing with.
In fairness, it could very well be intended since the Shamans chant is (Ex) instead of (Su) like the Witch's Cackle. Now when that will be relevant is probably an extremely niche issue.