|
this class seems like a trip to rp. it gives you plenty of hooks, and some flavorful abilities that work with them.
i don't really wanna get spoily about the scenario, so ill just give nitty gritty. it might still spoil the fights, so if you dont wanna know them, please dont read em.
team was me as a 4th level medium, a level 2 psychic, 2 level 1 occultists, a level one geokineticist, and the arcanist pregen.
my build is in this thread if you wanna see it.
fight one, we know baddies are around, so i sent a wisp around a corner to draw them closer so arcanist can color spray. the baddies attack the wisp and miss it twice during surprise round.
my first turn, i spend trancing to get the lost, as we know there are quite a few guys here and there is a possibility that confusion might be relevant. i didnt trance pre-combat, because we had no idea when the fight would start. baddies go, one attacks the wisp and dies, the others come around the corner, one fails it save against color spray, one is dazed by team. damage is dealt by team. next round i move up to be in the thick of things and summon another wisp, becoming confused at the end of turn. baddies see i am confused, saw what the wisp did, and just ignore me. some more drop, next turn i am still confused and end up babbling. i can see it is getting me nowhere so i end it at the end of turn. more baddies drop, and on my next turn i finish one off with my crossbow.
in 4 rounds of combat, did 12 damage and used one of my dailies. the gm said the animals attacked the wisp because they could smell us, and their masters told them to attack nearest creatures.
next fight, they start buy popping out and critting the earthbender. my wisp is right next to him, but there is no reason to attack it. everyone fights, i shoot off crossbow bolts for rounds 1 and 2, and on round 3 when the last one is standing next to 2 of our downed party members i antagonize it away. (before the session i changed tien and orc to ignan and terran, the sheet posted doesn't list that). the last guy gets killed before it goes again, i prolly coulda just shot it but i wanted to play it safe.
in 3 rounds of combat, did ~8 damage, using no class abilities.
next fight, obviously a boss monster, i spend my first round trancing lantern to get the miss chance. get attacked 4 times and it never triggers, end up paralyzed and just being a meat shield.
in 4 rounds of combat, used one daily. the ac boost from dex spirit made one attack a miss.
last fight, out of abilities, only have spells left which do nothing. shoot crossbows. baddie casts sound burst which pops a wisp and does 8 damage to him and knocking him out.
in 3 rounds of combat did 13 damage, 8 of which is from a source the developer has said shouldn't be applying. i don't know why you wouldn't want the wisp to trigger from aoes, as that is currently the only reasonable way for them to be attacked. in all my games, i have never seen a creature or player attack a dancing light. as that is a cantrip, it can be safe to assume any intelligent creature would have seen it at some point in their lives and assume it is a harmless thing.
questions brought up: what is the creature that is made with wisp? it says a tiny creature, but no stats are given, such as type, move speed, saves, senses.
overall, class plays pretty much how i thought it would. as a 4th level player with a table of 1s and a 2, i felt about equal to them in strength. from what i can tell there is currently no advantage to taking more than one level of this class. the fights would've been the same if i were a level 1 medium/ level 3 warrior. well actually, i mightve not been paralyzed with a better fort save. why does lantern give sleight of hand? it isnt a class skill and cant be used untrained? honestly most of the seance boons seem trivial and tacked on.
Thanks for the playtest! This playtest also was when I succeeded on my d20 roll for a new spirit. I've posted it in the medium thread.
|
|
also after trancing the lost, it gained a lot of excitement for possible combos with azata's whimsy. people were just as confused as me why the spirit bonus is added to rolls in a straight one to one ratio. it feels like 5% per point of bonus makes more sense. the 2% bonus i had never actually made a difference, and feels like more a nuisance to keep track of than anything
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, Contributor
|
I was one of the occultists at this table, so I thought I'd put my feedback here, to keep it all together.
Teeno Fum
Male sylph occultist 1
N Medium outsider (native)
Init +3; Senses darkvision; Perception +5
DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +3 Dex) (+2 vs. ranged)
hp 10 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +3; +2 bonus against air and electrical effects
OFFENSE
Speed 35 ft.
Melee longsword +1 (1d8+1 19-20/2)
Ranged longbow +3 (1d8 20/3)
Occultist Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +5)
0—mage hand, stabilize
1st (2)—enlarge person, unseen servant
STATISTICS
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 7
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 14
Feats: Airy Steps
Traits: Reckless, Pragmatic Activator
Skills: Acrobatics +8, Disable Device +7, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (local) +5, Perception +5, Sleight of Hand +7, Spellcraft +8, Use Magic Device +8
Languages: Aquan, Auran, Common, Elven, Ignan, Terran
SQ breeze kissed, like the wind, whispering wind, mental focus (7)
PC Gear lantern, Pathfinder’s kit, studded leather armor
Implements Known: conjuration, transmutation
Focus Powers: Psychic Weapon, Servitor, Sudden Speed
After the VC breifing, I decided to invest 3 focus in lantern to use the Servitor focus power, and 4 in my longbow for Legacy Weapon. The briefing made it seem likely that derro would be our main opposition, so I chose Derro-Bane for my weapon. (This turned out to be a fun but probably sub-optimal choice. Still, bane!)
In the first combat, I shot arrows at baddies, none of whom were derro. Think I did 8-12 damage. Not too shabby for a character that basically uses ranged combat as a back-up.
Following the combat, there was an investigation phase which I enjoyed role-playing. (Thinking Teeno is obsessed with finding out secrets and forgotten artifacts. This scenario sort of had both.) It did make me anxious to get to 2nd level and get Item Reading. (A power which I love, by the way.) I cast unseen servant and had it help us do a thing, then had it hang around and help me beat the other occultist to any clues/items that might be around.
Second combat started out fairly brutally with our earth kineticist getting crit by a nasty in the surprise round, so I summoned an eagle servitor in round 1, then plinked away with arrows in subsequent rounds. Baddies take out the other occultist, but we defeat them. By the time we are all healed up, servitor has expired.
Third combat was rough--featuring one of the tougher opponents for a low-level party, IMO. The terrain also had us boxed in. I summoned a servitor eagle, which prevented a certain medium from being coup d'graced and ate an attack before it died. Next round, repeat summoning, attacking, servitor dropping. Out of mental focus in my lantern. (Luckily, not that big a deal, as the resonance power is useless.) Enemy was mostly taken out by our party's psychic, who went dark mode.
In between combats, I stealthily scouted ahead to check things out. Being dex based, and with the bonus from sylph, I felt competent at it, despite not investing any skill points.
Final combat: My moment to shine, as I saw a derro, beat it in initiative, used Sudden Swiftness to move into position, and skewered it with an arrow. It was very effective. The derro killed himself by popping the medium's wisp, and the party mopped up the minions.
End of the day, I had used 3 focus from my conjuration implement and 1 from my transmutation implement. I had used one level 1 spell, and had used my knacks a few times when we were investigating and cleaning up after battles.
I plan on focusing on summoning with this character, using spells for support from ranged, using my bow as a backup, and using some of the sylph-only feats. Even in the first scenario, I was able to play to that concept.
The Good
-Felt like I always had something to contribute in combat, which is tough for a 1st level spellcaster. Being a halfway competent martial character really helps the low-level caster blues.
-The other occultist and I filled different niches, and didn't feel redundant. He was melee, and had different chosen different implements than I. Having the spell list tied to the implements really helped with this, as it meant we had to have some different spells prepared.
-Had enough skills to get the job done. With the high INT encouraged by the class, 4/level feels like enough to me.
-I didn't need to chose certain traits to make this work--in fact, I might change them up a little before I level to 2. Nice to have that versatility.
-Easy role-playing hooks.
The Opportunities
-The conjuration resonance power doesn't do anything, as there are no summoning spells on the list. (And with the servitor focus power, I probably wouldn't use them if they were on there.)
-Not being able to detect magic/identify items from the get-go is a bit of a bummer, but I'd say it's livable. If I really wanted to, I could have chosen divination implements, I s'pose.
-It would be nice if there were more focus powers that didn't have level requirements. Choosing between Conjure Implement and Sudden Swiftness wasn't much of a choice, and neither of those powers really help forward my character concept. This was probably my biggest beef on character creation.
