This is shaping up to be my favourite class of the playtest (loving all the customization options), but I do think it could use some fine-tuning, particularly in the early levels. At level 1, your Spirit bonus is very small, you have no spells, and can only Trance once per day. Not sure if any of the spirit powers are good enough to make up for that.
I can see how a high level Medium could be a force to be reckoned with when they have multiple spirits going, but for now I think they could use some beefing up, which a full BAB and/or d10 hit die could help fix, particularly since the class seems to encourage being a beatstick (only 4 levels of casting, can get bonuses to multiple physical stats).
I'd be okay with them keeping their poorer proficiencies to compensate, though. Since the Medium seems to be like the Swiss Army knife of classes, I can understand not wanting to overtune it too much.
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Still going over this one but a quick note, a breakdown of how to read the spirit entries that is much closer to the actual entries would be amazing. By the time you actually get to the spirits proper in the playtest I as the reader have just had to wade through about 2 pages of very thick, compact text and the actual entry that describes the spirits ability in the beginning is not exactly the easiest thing to comb through for answer (much like the alchemy block text in APG). I would love just to have a quick breakdown description just before the spirits to sort of walk through how to read the entries like we get for reading feats or spells in the core rule book would be great.
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I revamped Drek the Destroyer. Looking at the numbers, he's going to be dealing about half the damage of a 2-handed fighter or barbarian. I had originally set Drek up to use a two-handed weapon, but the average damage was even worse.
I could easily bring him up to be much closer to barbarian DPR; dip barbarian or blood rager. Sad that this is so frequently the solution to improving a classes melee ability.
He seems to be missing a feat. If you make it Spirit Specialization (Strength), that'll give another +1 to hit and damage. Compared to the Abyssal bloodrager (most comparable) in a bloodrage, I'm looking at comparable damage and accuracy even without going Huge (I believe down by 1 in accuracy and ahead in damage if they both use manufactured weapons and don't Power Attack, or equal accuracy and behind by 2 in damage if they both use manufactured weapons and do Power Attack), and the reach advantage and better damage than the bloodrager when Huge. Obviously a bigger edge over the non-raging bloodrager.
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Other question that I'm not sure has been answered.
If I activate trance and use it on a spirit I already have it says I gain the, "weakest ability I do not have". Does that mean that I would gain the next level spirit ability? Like if I am a 1st level Medium and I trance for my already channeled bear spirit do I gain the Massive ability?
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He seems to be missing a feat. If you make it Spirit Specialization (Strength), that'll give another +1 to hit and damage. Compared to the Abyssal bloodrager (most comparable) in a bloodrage, I'm looking at comparable damage and accuracy even without going Huge (I believe down by 1 in accuracy and ahead in damage if they both use manufactured weapons and don't Power Attack, or equal accuracy and behind by 2 in damage if they both use manufactured weapons and do Power Attack), and the reach advantage and better damage than the bloodrager when Huge. Obviously a bigger edge over the non-raging bloodrager.I revamped Drek the Destroyer. Looking at the numbers, he's going to be dealing about half the damage of a 2-handed fighter or barbarian. I had originally set Drek up to use a two-handed weapon, but the average damage was even worse.
I could easily bring him up to be much closer to barbarian DPR; dip barbarian or blood rager. Sad that this is so frequently the solution to improving a classes melee ability.
Good points. Thank you.
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So the role of this class is supposed to be "flexible and versatile, filling whatever role the party needs at the moment". I don't really feel like it does that.
If it is going to be a jack of all trades/switch hitting type class then it needs to be on par with the Bard, which it is not.
To start it really needs 2/3 spell casting and two good saves. Also it needs to be able to trance more often, like in the range of 3 times per day at level one and a seance should only take like 10 minutes, so he can switch out between encounters. Also the spirit bonus should probably be higher, maybe starting at +2 at level one.
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Right now, Medium seems to be suffering a lot from Anti-Dipping Disorder, also known as Investigator's Disease. The class is so back-loaded to prevent dipping that it becomes a slog to play for the first few levels.
Consider, what is this class supposed to do? What flavor of this class is going to draw people in?
I'm of the belief that a class should be able to provide both of these things ASAP. Right now, the Medium has a wonderful flavor that people can "get" immediately and get drawn-in by. It seems like the class is supposed to be a versatile jack-of-all-trades type that can adjust on the fly. You just don't get enough uses of abilities to do that until higher levels. Trance once or even twice a day is pitiful. A paladin can get away with one smite evil a day early-on because it's so ridiculously good, and he's still basically a fighter with a couple less feats and ridiculously good saves. A Medium without Trance is a 3/4 BAB, d8 HD class without spells, with a wizard's base saves, and a cleric's proficiencies (except worse b/c no shields).
Suggestions
The direction of the class is based entirely on what the developers do with Trance. If the versatility of Trance is going to be the singular focus of the class, you should be able to do it almost every fight, and probably not as a full-round. Heck, I might even ditch the spellcasting and just make it a d10 HD and full BAB. If this class is not all about Trance, it probably needs 6 level casting and another good save.
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As for the spirit bonus, here's my take: Spirit bonus = 1/2 Charisma modifier per Medium level (minimum 1). Basically, think of a combination of how the investigator's Studied Combat and the duelist/kensai's Canny Defense work with the stat modifier. You can't just dip Medium and get a huge bonus, but you get a solid bonus that scales fairly well.
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Would perhaps granting the ability to trance at will be too much? I know there may be some balance concerns, especially without knowing the remaining spirits and their abilities. However, I feel that the spirit influence is already a good limiting factor for overuse of any one spirit.
If I were to want the Bear's claws, I can only safely trance them twice a day. Anything beyond that will push me towards using a different spirit lest I lose control to the spirit. This would encourage varied play styles throughout an adventuring day. If trancing was at will, an option to reduce a spirit's influence on a character might even be introduced to allow for additional uses of the same spirit.
Would perhaps granting the ability to trance at will be too much? I know there may be some balance concerns, especially without knowing the remaining spirits and their abilities. However, I feel that the spirit influence is already a good limiting factor for overuse of any one spirit.
If I were to want the Bear's claws, I can only safely trance them twice a day. Anything beyond that will push me towards using a different spirit lest I lose control to the spirit. This would encourage varied play styles throughout an adventuring day. If trancing was at will, an option to reduce a spirit's influence on a character might even be introduced to allow for additional uses of the same spirit.
The more stuff you add via trance, the more likely you'll lose control of your character. This, to me, seems like the proper throttle for overuse of the ability, not a static X/day.
I am definitely considering some options for increasing the number of trances, including eyeing the at-will model with a few tweaks.
I will say I am not currently considering using ability score modifiers for spirit bonus. Why introduce a variable and unpredictable element to the class if I don't have to? If I want to up spirit bonuses, I'll just increase them by a static amount.
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I am definitely considering some options for increasing the number of trances, including eyeing the at-will model with a few tweaks.
I will say I am not currently considering using ability score modifiers for spirit bonus. Why introduce a variable and unpredictable element to the class if I don't have to? If I want to up spirit bonuses, I'll just increase them by a static amount.
Depends on what you are going for. If it's staying a half-caster, there's very little mechanical reason to ever have above a 14 charisma (or less, if you know your game isn't going to 13), much like a ranger. Making your key bonus scale off it would motivate people to invest more.
Not only that, but if the Spirit Bonus is an untyped bonus based-off your charisma modifier, then it would prevent stacking with a lot of of other things, as per the recent FAQ.
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One potential (and very minor) upside of removing spellcasting is that it could potentially free up that section of the character sheet if someone wanted to use it to track spirit influence. I feel like the Special abilities section doesn't have near enough room for it. Granted, it's probably still much better to just have extra pages with the abilities (similar to what I'm sure most people, myself included, do with spells), but it's a thought.
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It a medium... Should he have the spell detect undeath like the paladin with detect evil?
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I'm just getting to the actual spirits, and when I saw that the final book will have 54, I'm immediately concerned about having too many options for players at the table. 54 to choose from if you had set spirits would be fine, or upon leveling up, but being able to swap spirits in and out from trance mid play seems like a way to really slow the game down when a player looks for just the right combo.
I'm just getting to the actual spirits, and when I saw that the final book will have 54, I'm immediately concerned about having too many options for players at the table. 54 to choose from if you had set spirits would be fine, or upon leveling up, but being able to swap spirits in and out from trance mid play seems like a way to really slow the game down when a player looks for just the right combo.
You won't have 54 to trance into. You pick starting Cha modifierand add 1 for every 2 levels.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I'm just getting to the actual spirits, and when I saw that the final book will have 54, I'm immediately concerned about having too many options for players at the table. 54 to choose from if you had set spirits would be fine, or upon leveling up, but being able to swap spirits in and out from trance mid play seems like a way to really slow the game down when a player looks for just the right combo.You won't have 54 to trance into. You pick starting Cha modifierand add 1 for every 2 levels.
Thanks, I completely missed the spirits known on my first reading. Might be good to add spirits known to the medium table by level, similar to spells known for a spontaneous caster.
So wait. This class is supposed to be melee-oriented, but it has a d8 hit die, mid BAB, and doesn't get proficiency with martial weapons?
...Weird.
Role: Mediums are flexible and versatile, filling whatever
role the party needs at the moment by channeling the
right spirit.
I like where your going with this guy and I have a suggestion for how to improve the spirits. I have also noticed that your naming some of these spirits after Harrow deck cards so let's keep the theme going.
Each spirit just like the cards has a an assigned ability score. This individually means nothing. When you bind two or more spirits however the Cards interact, granting unique bonuses. For instance if you combined a "dexterity" spirit with an "intelligence" spirit you could get a bonus that makes you far more "rogue like" (say take ten on classical rogue skills).
Thoughts?
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I'm just getting to the actual spirits, and when I saw that the final book will have 54, I'm immediately concerned about having too many options for players at the table. 54 to choose from if you had set spirits would be fine, or upon leveling up, but being able to swap spirits in and out from trance mid play seems like a way to really slow the game down when a player looks for just the right combo.You won't have 54 to trance into. You pick starting Cha modifierand add 1 for every 2 levels.
While this may be true, you're still giving anyone looking into making a medium a very hefty read before making a character. Having to plan out which of the 54 I'm going to start with means reading all 54 before playing a single game.
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Role: Mediums are flexible and versatile, filling whatever
role the party needs at the moment by channeling the
right spirit.I like where your going with this guy and I have a suggestion for how to improve the spirits. I have also noticed that your naming some of these spirits after Harrow deck cards so let's keep the theme going.
Each spirit just like the cards has a an assigned ability score. This individually means nothing. When you bind two or more spirits however the Cards interact, granting unique bonuses. For instance if you combined a "dexterity" spirit with an "intelligence" spirit you could get a bonus that makes you far more "rogue like" (say take ten on classical rogue skills).
Thoughts?
Interesting and not bad in a vacuum but I'm not sure it works with the rest of the medium as written. It'd make low-level mediums worse (as they only get one spirit) unless you start changing up the number of spirits per level pretty significantly.
It also makes life more complicated when you start having 3 or more spirits...
One option might be an ability called "spiritual attunement" which allows a Medium to select a card for they day (e.g strength, dexterity and so forth) allowing him at low levels to bind a spirit of a different "card" but still get the "spirit synergy".
Not sure what do about 3 or more spirits though
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Still reading the playtest document but wanted to add that I think basing the spirits off the Harrow cards is awesome flavour. Nice.
It seems very medium-like to call on a few boons from spirits without going into a full trance. That might help with the "things to do" problem at low levels, especially, if you can access some of the bonuses with limited uses.
So, first off, I love the flavor of this class. As soon as I read it, I knew this was the class I most wanted to play. I love the Harrow deck, and it's great to see it being implemented here.
One thing I was wondering about was whether spirit alignments had an influence on the medium's alignment. Can a good medium channel evil spirits? What happens if an evil spirit takes over a good medium?
The way dual, triune, and fourfold vessel and trance work suggests some advantage to somewhat "specializing" in an alignment and/or ability, though there can be chaining at higher levels. My instinct/play tendency is to want to be a good medium who channels good spirits. I'm unsure how well this will work, as the lesser spirit powers seem more like good things to add on rather than primary abilities. And I feel like sticking to an alignment makes the charisma spirits less useful, because if you take them as the secondary spirit, you don't get a bonus.
I'm going to try to play her for a few sessions at least, anyway, and seek how it goes.
Also, am I reading this right that you only get the spirit boon at second level with the shared seance?
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Got a GM throwing together a special Halloween one-shot for messing around with the new classes, and he decided to go full hog and have us be level 15, so that we really get a chance to feel out the character's spectrum of abilities and potential. Designing my 15th level medium, found some things to clarify in regards to channeling secondary and tertiary spirits. Beginning with...
If you wish to bind the Twin as a secondary or tertiary spirit for the day, does that mean you always must select a Neutral or Charisma based spirit as your primary? When I first glanced at it, I thought it was based solely on "your most recent temporary trance spirit for the purposes of its alignment, ability score, and lesser spirit power" as stated, even at the beginning of a new day, but it also specifies "if you have not yet used trance to beseech a temporary spirit since contacting the Twin, copycat has no effect until you do" effectively maintaining it as a Neutral Charisma spirit until that point. I assume this means since contacting the Twin on that given day? So does it 'reset' to Neutral Charisma at the end of 24 hours? Or if I tranced an Evil Int spirit at the end of the day before, does it start the new day as effectively Evil Int?
Got a GM throwing together a special Halloween one-shot for messing around with the new classes, and he decided to go full hog and have us be level 15, so that we really get a chance to feel out the character's spectrum of abilities and potential. Designing my 15th level medium, found some things to clarify in regards to channeling secondary and tertiary spirits. Beginning with...
If you wish to bind the Twin as a secondary or tertiary spirit for the day, does that mean you always must select a Neutral or Charisma based spirit as your primary? When I first glanced at it, I thought it was based solely on "your most recent temporary trance spirit for the purposes of its alignment, ability score, and lesser spirit power" as stated, even at the beginning of a new day, but it also specifies "if you have not yet used trance to beseech a temporary spirit since contacting the Twin, copycat has no effect until you do" effectively maintaining it as a Neutral Charisma spirit until that point. I assume this means since contacting the Twin on that given day? So does it 'reset' to Neutral Charisma at the end of 24 hours? Or if I tranced an Evil Int spirit at the end of the day before, does it start the new day as effectively Evil Int?
The other option is to intentionally build up and maintain 3 influence with the Twin so that it never leaves you. Of course, that's just what the Twin wants you to do. Or is it?
It seems very medium-like to call on a few boons from spirits without going into a full trance. That might help with the "things to do" problem at low levels, especially, if you can access some of the bonuses with limited uses.
Yeah, if I go to a more robust number of uses of trances, I've considered doing something like you suggest and having a very limited number of beseechings that aren't trances. I have a few options rolling around.
Keep the great feedback coming, folks. Your insights and thoughts will help me in the coming months. There's a few places I wanted to go with this class that were considered somewhat daring at the time but that would directly address some of the feedback so far. If we begin to see that as a trend, you guys might get to see some of those more daring elements come into play. So keep it up! I can use all your feedback to make the awesome parts awesomer and the not-as-awesome parts move up to awesome!
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A few comments:
A agree with everyone else that the class needs a boost. Either Full BAB and good Fort or increase to 6 level casting. Just something to give it some oomph.
I feel that the charisma ones are a bit lackluster. Losing the spirit boon means that if you pick charisma it needs to be your primary spirit or nothing. I don't quite feel that the powers provided stack up as well for losing that boon benefit.
Also an idea might be to change the way that you recharge. If for some reason I can't get 8 hours rest and an hour to meditate I lose ALL my class abilities. I can't even trance because I have no spirits riding me. Even casters get to keep any spells they didn't use from the previous day this seems a bit harsh.
I'm not sure how to balance it. Maybe after 24 hours all spirits still inhabiting you get an additional +1 to their influence if this would push multiple spirits to 4 then it goes in order of Primary, secondary, etc. This would be because you haven't completed your meditation to put up mental walls to prevent your mind being influenced.
With regards to the spirits will your own alignment have any effect on what spirits you can choose?
I feel that this class has AMAZING roleplaying potential. However I feel that mechanically it's not quite there yet.
You can choose spirits of any alignment and it doesn't affect your alignment...at least, not unless you start giving into their influences (the Fiend, for instance, loves devouring innocents; that's still evil!)
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When a spirit goes to 4 or more influence with you what is it reduced down to the next day? Is it 3 or is it the once per day reduction meaning if you got to say 5 influence you would be controlled for 2 days?
The class is already fairly text heavy but with the 0-4 influence scale I wouldn't mind a slight tweak where 0-1 is little to no influence, 2 is slightly influenced, 3 is severe influence then 4 is loss of control.
When a spirit goes to 4 or more influence with you what is it reduced down to the next day? Is it 3 or is it the once per day reduction meaning if you got to say 5 influence you would be controlled for 2 days?
The class is already fairly text heavy but with the 0-4 influence scale I wouldn't mind a slight tweak where 0-1 is little to no influence, 2 is slightly influenced, 3 is severe influence then 4 is loss of control.
I don't think you can possibly get to 5 for pragmatic reasons. Once you hit 4, the spirit is in control already, and nothing yields 2 influence at once.
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Just one more thing Mark. Why the influence system rather than using something like Ego which was already established in magic items?
I understand you wanted a quantifiable tool for measuring control and a resource for using abilities. I just think that tracking influence levels will be something that will be a little bit annoying at later levels when you are throwing around a lot of spirits.
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Just one more thing Mark. Why the influence system rather than using something like Ego which was already established in magic items?
I understand you wanted a quantifiable tool for measuring control and a resource for using abilities. I just think that tracking influence levels will be something that will be a little bit annoying at later levels when you are throwing around a lot of spirits.
Here's a few of the reasons: It's a lot more concrete and measurable than an all-or-nothing ego check, plus it allows tons of RP potential at intermediate stages of influence, whereas ego is binary. Also, it means that if a spirit ever gets full control, the medium was asking for it, since it was predictable and measurable. If there was an ego check each time instead of influence, that means you might lose your character the first time on a natural 1.
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You can choose spirits of any alignment and it doesn't affect your alignment...at least, not unless you start giving into their influences (the Fiend, for instance, loves devouring innocents; that's still evil!)
I would suggest having the medium gain an Aura which matches the alignment of the Medium's primary spirit at any given time.
You can choose spirits of any alignment and it doesn't affect your alignment...at least, not unless you start giving into their influences (the Fiend, for instance, loves devouring innocents; that's still evil!)I would suggest having the medium gain an Aura which matches the alignment of the Medium's primary spirit at any given time.
I had that in there initially. It was dropped in development for complexity. If there's enough call for it to come back, though, we shall see! (given the way spirits from Forest of Spirits work, I can see why it would make sense)
First of...as far as theme, flavor, and feel go...this is one of my favorite classes...OK, tied with Spiritualist...
And it looks like it is the one I will end up doing if the rest of the group goes for participating in the playtest.
That said I'm a wee bit concerned...
Low level play looks to be a nightmare....I understand that we are only getting a very limited number of the spirits to work with...which is a challenge in and of itself since it's looking like synergy between spirits is what's needed to give any of them any "pop" at low levels...and isn't even an option prior to 5th level.
I can't say I like the idea of pigeon holing them into a "fighter" role by upping the BA as that really reduces the flexibility of the concept itself.
Although I can understand Mark wanting to let people find the correct synergies among spirits...I'm also concerned with the class being useful only to Min maxers....I shouldn't need a degree in "cheese" to figure a useful way to play a class...at specially at low levels.
Like I said at the start...love the theme, feel, and flavor....but I'm thinking the execution is going to need some Arcanist level tweeking..
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Diving into it deeper, I have to agree with the observation that the Medium *appears* versatile, but really isn't -- once you decide which spirits you want to concentrate on, your build will lock you into a very limited number of combinations, no matter how many spirits you actually know.
As an example, for something like the Rabbit Prince (N Dex) to do you any good, you should plan on being a Dex based fighter. And the Lesser power gives you Weapon Finesse. But if you are a Dex-based fighter, you *need* Weapon Finesse -- you're either locked into only using the Rabbit Prince for your spirit until level 5 when you get Dual, or you have to spend one of your precious feats (you have no bonus feats!) duplicating something you get from the Spirit. It only gets worse if you want to grab a feat that requires Weapon Finesse as a pre-req -- if you change spirits you lose your entire feat chain.
I could say the same thing about Bear and natural weapon fighting, or the Beating and Improved Unarmed Strike -- you need to commit to the Spirit in order to be minimally competent at what you want to do, but then you've lost the whole idea of the versatile character who can plug in the right spirit at the right time.
As also has been pointed out, there appears to be very little for your character to do at low levels. You will have specialized in a fighting style, and you'll be able to do that...and that's it...except for your single Trance a day. It gets a little better at 4 when spells kick in, and then at 5 when you can dual spirit, but in all honesty this looks like a class that will only start being fun when your level is in double digits...which pretty much kills it for PFS play.
So I'll throw out some ideas I had while brainstorming...
If you want to play up the versatility, then give some ability to lock in some of the advantages of spirits even when you aren't actively using them, so that you don't destroy your entire build by changing spirits. Maybe each spirit a Feat or two associated with it, and the medium gets a bonus feat every so often that can be drawn from any of its spirits known. (Maybe with an upgrade when you actually have the spirit slotted?)
In order to give the medium something to do, give it something that's more like a lot of the 1st level Bloodline or Domain powers -- a non-scaling 3+mod/day power that at least gives you some *options*. So many of the existing lesser boons are more like status effects or passive mods -- which is great but it doesn't give you more variety in what you can do.
Or in the "more to do" vein -- why not Spells per day on the 6-level spellcaster progression (even if you cap it at 4 levels). Given how limited the spells known will always be, I don't think it's out of line to let you use them more often -- especially for a d8 3/4 BAB class.
Anyway, those are the kinds of things I've been thinking about today. I won't have a chance to take one out for a spin for about a week or so, but I'm going to continue playing around with some builds between now and then.
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I had that in there initially. It was dropped in development for complexity. If there's enough call for it to come back, though, we shall see! (given the way spirits from Forest of Spirits work, I can see why it would make sense)You can choose spirits of any alignment and it doesn't affect your alignment...at least, not unless you start giving into their influences (the Fiend, for instance, loves devouring innocents; that's still evil!)I would suggest having the medium gain an Aura which matches the alignment of the Medium's primary spirit at any given time.
Ha! That's the exact adventure my group is playing through right now.
If a spirit "counts as" another ability score (like the Rabbit Prince's lesser power, or the Big Sky's intermediate power), does it grant that ability score's spirit bonus as well?
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Indeed, and in fact while it may also activate powers from your other spirits, that's the most reliable benefit from those abilities. +1 to hit, damage, AC, and Reflex saves per spirit bonus from just one spirit is nothing to sneeze at.
At 1st level, a medium knows how to contact a number of different spirits equal to his Charisma modifier, and gains an additional
spirit known at 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter.
Good lord, this is identical to the Barbarian's Rage, if the Barbarian's Rage granted access to DOMAINS instead of making it a Berserker...
I can't imagine the pages of stuff one'd have to fill just to keep track of a lv10 character with a 20 Cha!
Change it to:
A medium knows how to contact a number of different spirits equal to his Charisma modifier. These must be chosen at first level and cannot be changed. Whenever the Medium's Charisma modifier permanently increases (such as from leveling up) she chooses an appropriate number of spirits for the new Modifier. Temporary increases to Charisma (such as those gained from a Spirit or Spell) do not affect this ability.
This will make it significantly less bulky and still add versatility to the whole mix.
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Also, 54 is REALLY hefty. CLERICS only have 35 Domains, and that's after years of existing; the original amount was nowhere near that many. Stick to around 24-30, to allow for Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, and MAYBE Neutral for all 6 stats.
just want to say after reading this... im usually really good at understanding what im reading.... but the tri spirits..... im still not really understanding how it works after multiple readings..... not even gonna try reading the 4 spirit one... my head hurts
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At 1st level, a medium knows how to contact a number of different spirits equal to his Charisma modifier, and gains an additional
spirit known at 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter.
I really have to point this out in further detail. I REALLY don't want to be mean, but this... it doesn't even boarder on the absurd; this is 7 miles PAST the border and currently frolicking in the Fields of Lovecraftian Insanity.
A Medium with an 18 Cha at lv1 has 4 Spirits, all of which grant 1 different ability; okay, that's fine. You have 4 possible abilities to keep track of.
A lv13 Medium, however, would have 5 (21 Cha) + 12 = 17 Spirits! And they all have up to their Greater Power. So, you would have to keep track of 51(!!!) Powers!
I suppose, for PFS, it's not AS bad, because you have only 34(!!) Powers to keep track of at lv12, but my GOD!
At 20th Level, you have TWENTY-SIX Spirits, and access to ONE-HUNDRED FOUR POWERS, and the amount of paperwork that's needed to keep track of all these is better spent BLUDGEONING YOUR GM TO DEATH WITH!
The WIZARD has less bookkeeping than this. At its current iteration, the Medium looks to be an entire FOLDER'S worth of information, all for the sake of "versatility"
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Bring this down to more human levels, making the number of Spirits a flat "Based on your Charisma," like Grit, Ki, and Channels, and suddenly it's... well, it's still a bookkeeping nightmare, but much less than that Freddy-Kreuger-esque nightmare described above!
Wittling down the Spirits' Abilities to 3 - initial power, Greater Power, and Supreme Power - would further help to curb the shear horror that is the amount of info you need to keep on-hand to play this class.
I am a little concerned about 4 points being the cut off for possession. My reason for saying this is partly influenced from being a Binder fan back in 3.5. If a Medium has a spirit they like to have bound every day, whether it's a mechanical or character reason, and they trance it fairly often to get a boost then they will be possessed pretty often. I realize it's a balancing act, but I'd like to see the "GM takeover" bar be set a bit higher. Maybe 6? Or some way to drop influence beyond the 1 per day across the board.
@chb--I think you missed a factor of 1/2. A 12th level medium with 14 starting Charisma would only have 8 spirits.
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@chb--I think you missed a factor of 1/2. A 12th level medium with 14 starting Charisma would only have 8 spirits.
Ah, yes, I did - for some reason I was doubling this.
I'm still not a fan of that, however.
8 spirits and 16 possible abilities is still quite a lot for lv12; at lv13 it jumps to 24 possible abilities.
This is also assuming you have only a 14 Cha, as well, meaning that you start with Cha 10 at lv1 before Racial bonuses, and increase Cha at lv4 and lv8.
Realistically, NO ONE is going to do that.
It's more likely that players will have a 14-20 Cha at lv1 (12-18 + 2 racial) and up to 16-22 at lv12.
That means that, in the real world, you're looking at (min-maxing, but still) up to 11 spirits at lv12 with 22 abilities, and 33 abilities at lv13.
To put this into perspective, the Barbarian has 6 Rage Powers, the Fighter has 13 Feats, and the Rogue has 4 Rogue Talents + 2 Advanced Talents.
Some serious trimming needs to happen.