Level 9 Playtest Report: Kineticist, Occultist, Psychic, Spiritualist

[Mikael Sebag]

Today I ran a homebrew two-hour game for three PCs and one DMPC set in Ustalav. All four characters were level 9 and were equipped with 46,000 gp in magic items; we went off the Wealth by Level table, but the equipment was unquestionably optimal for 9th-level characters. Alas, such is the nature of starting with characters beyond 1st level. Our table typically runs with 25-point buy, but enemy monsters have maximum HP to offset the epic ability scores. Characters took max HP for the first level, with the average for the remaining dice. The only characters with traits were those who took the Additional Traits feat. The party was all human and included a kineticist (exclusively pyrokineticist), an occultist (primarily evocation), a spiritualist (with a jealous phantom), and my DMPC, a psychic (discipline of abomination). The occultist and the psychic opted for dual talent alternate racial trait.

The game was largely a string of combat encounters with some skill checks and a haunt thrown in. I tried to offer a variety of difficulties, especially since the table was at varying degrees of system mastery. The characters first encountered two large animated objects (CR 6), then a pair of extra-limbed, brambly, fire-retardant living topiaries (CR 8), then a custom haunt (CR 9), and lastly an encounter with a custom ghost (CR 10). There were no character deaths, though the occultist and the spiritualist were both brought down to less than half their maximum hit points.

I had the players fill out exit questionnaires at the end of the session, the responses for which I’ve paraphrased in the spoilers for each character, along with brief profiles of the player’s gaming experience and play style.

Vincenzo Cardellini, Spiritualist:

Vincenzo’s player has been playing Pathfinder for a few years and has moderate system mastery. He’s the kind of player who comes to the table to have fun and is reluctant to take in-game matters too seriously. He historically plays skill monkeys.

The phantom’s jealous combatant ability proved to be more useful than he had expected, though the player found the manifestation rules to be confusing and avoided using bonded manifestation altogether. He said the spiritualist feels similar playing a ranger (the only other companion class he has played), but that the class didn’t well support his ambitions as a melee combatant, though he admits that he may have been trying to force the class to conform to his melee-centric play style. In his final reflection, he expressed that the spiritualist needed more oomph, but the phantom performed admirably.

Oliver Graham, Kineticist:

Oliver’s player has been playing Pathfinder since the Alpha playtest and has considerable system mastery; he GMs often. He’s a very immersive player who typically struggles to feel invested with short-lived characters, but was eager to playtest the kineticist in spite of himself. This player historically plays barbarians and switch-hitter rangers.

Oliver’s player said the class performed “fine”, but wasn’t terribly exciting. He didn’t think the amount of burn he was taking was worth the payoff. Less of a nova, more of a fizzle. He expressed disappointment that the wild talents didn’t include more ways to deal blast damage in an area of effect (he says that there was a line infusion, but that the burn was too costly; not having looked at the class much, I don’t know if there were other options he may have missed). He was confused that the class didn’t have a full base attack bonus and d10 hit die as he claimed, “fighting is literally all this class is good for”.

Harrison Blackwell, Occultist:

Harrison’s player has also been playing Pathfinder since the Alpha playtest and has a lot of previous experience with 3.X D&D. He’s very engaged with the minutiae of the rules text and has the most system mastery of the group. He usually only plays classes with at least six levels of spellcasting.

Harrison’s player said that the class was confusing at first, but made more sense as he got towards the end of character creation. The side step ability proved to be more useful than he expected, but he was reluctant to use his abilities out of the desire to avoid recalculating his implement bonuses. The diversity of energy types available to him proved similarly useful. He was disappointed that he knew so few spells and didn’t feel as though he had much opportunity to use any of them. In his final reflection, he was happy with how the class performed, but wondered how much his choice of weapon had to do with it (see GM Impressions below).

Constance Bishop, Psychic (DMPC):

My DMPC to round out the party; I’ve been playing and running Pathfinder since the Alpha playtest and consider myself to be moderate-to-highly conversant in the system. I almost exclusively play wizards and sorcerers (and now arcanists!), though I play witches and bards on occasion as well. I also like the XPH/DSP psion, if the setting calls for it.

While I was initially disappointed by the psychic’s spell list, I was surprised by how much of a wallop mind thrust packed. I was hoping to use Constance’s dark half ability at some point, but never found the opportunity to do so. She performed more or less as I expected, but she wasn’t terribly exciting in the way that the spellcasting of wizards can be. I was glad to see telekinesis and detect thoughts were lower level for the class, but didn’t have a chance to use either (which, as the GM, I realize is my own fault). She failed hard on her one good save, but that was just the dice being unkind. Overall, the experience was sort of…meh. I really wanted to love the class, but find after playing it, that I only like it.

GM Impressions:

While the kintecist Oliver did the most damage total, the occultist Harrison was very formidable in combat. Harrison used a +2 agile sword cane and landed every hit, even without using his transmutation base focus power. Vincenzo’s phantom was also hitting consistently, though she did less damage. Constance was still useful in the party, even against mindless enemies (against which she used slow) and mind thrust was particularly powerful as a non-mind-affecting divination spell. The enemy ghost’s frightful moan ability caused Oliver, Constance, and the phantom to flee in panic, leaving Vincenzo and Harrison alone to fight the ghost just after she reached half HP. Harrison’s energy ray focus power came in handy here, as did Vincenzo’s access to cure serious wounds. In general, Oliver’s turns were quick, but not in the good way: just very straightforward blasts and that was it. I could tell the player was getting frustrated with not having more to do, even though the session was predominantly combat. Overall, the party did very well, but I suspect that carefully selected equipment with a spending budget of 46,000 gp will do that. Moreover, I rushed my encounter design and realized halfway through that I was playing softball with them. The lowest AC in the party was a 21.

TL;DR — Overall, the players felt the classes performed as expected. The spiritualist felt that the phantom was at the right power level, but that the spiritualist itself was lacking in the combat department. The kineticist was the most disappointed, feeling that the class needed access to AoE options to better deliver the concept. The occultist felt that the class performed better than expected, but was very reluctant to use his focus abilities because of the necessary paperwork until it seemed absolutely necessary. I felt that my psychic DMPC performed adequately and that the psychic-only mind thrust spell was powerful, but not too powerful. Still, she wasn’t terribly exciting to play, but I may be jaded from years of playing characters with many of the same spell options.