Lead Designer
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The announcement just went up, the Surveys for the Occult Adventures Playtest are LIVE!
You can get all the news at this link.
Did I also mention that the blog post also contains the first look at the art for one of the Iconics for this book? Check out the art for the Occultist!
Go read the blog, check out the art, and fill out those surveys!
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Survey feedback: the Medium survey has a lot of questions that can be interpreted in several different ways, i.e.
3. Is it easy and fast to build a medium and level a medium up? (1 means they are extremely painstaking to build, 5 means the class is extremely easy to build)
It can either be a nightmare or a breeze and it's not necessarily easy to tell which it's going to be right away. We're also missing a layer of build complexity that's noted in the playtest document (Law/Chaos alignments for each spirit). If you intend to build in terms of a very singular direction, it's easy. If you have more than 14 CHA at level 1, it's going to be very, very difficult.
Similarly:
6. Does the medium have an adequate number of options to choose from when creating a character? (1 means it has too few options, 5 means it has too many options, 3 means it is about right)
There's a large number of choices slated, which is good, many of them are readily available, which is also good, but the options don't have a lot of impact at level 1 for certain spirits.
Lastly:
2. Are the mechanics and abilities of the medium easy to use at the table? (1 means they are extremely difficult to use, 5 means they are perfectly smooth and easy to use)
This is really, REALLY hard to answer. Levels 1-4? Easy. Levels 5-10? Slightly harder, but not much. 11-16? Tricky. 17+? Terrifying. From pg 9 of the Medium thread:
Ex. Say your pick for the day is 1. Bear, 2. Twin, 3. Rabbit Prince, 4. Owl: you have all of the spirit bonuses, but only the abilities from Bear (DANG I'M HUGE). You cannot trigger any of the "this counts as a Strength Spirit" abilities because you don't have any of them. Twin does nothing. It's really good at that.
You then Trance Rabbit Prince and make a Finesse attack. For the purpose of the attack, you suddenly have Rabbit Prince counting as a Strength Spirit, which causes you to shift one step up on the ability chart, allowing you to activate Capricious Battle for the attack as an Immediate Action. This may or may not be useful.
Ex 2. Your pick is now Twin, Rabbit Prince, Owl, Bear. You Trance for Rabbit Prince, causing Twin to become a Neutral Dexterity spirit until your next Trance. Twin now causes you to get the spirit bonus for Dexterity and Rabbit Prince grants the Lesser and Intermediate powers. You then make a Finesse attack, causing Rabbit to also be a Strength spirit. You then cause Bear to shift from providing the Strength bonus to providing its lesser power, giving you claws. Note: THIS IS TERRIBLE. It's everything you don't want because you lose out on the bonus hit/damage. Only Twin and Owl provide their spirit bonuses in this scenario. Additionally, you have a redundant lesser because you tranced a spirit that you also seanced in, so Twin's Copycat is wasted.
Ex 3. Your pick is now Owl, Bear, Twin, Rabbit. You kill a qualifying enemy and Owl becomes a Strength spirit in addition to Wisdom, providing you with both Strength and Wisdom spirit bonuses until your next turn. Bear begins providing its claws and turns you into a large critter. Twin does nothing (layabout that it is) and Rabbit provides its Dexterity spirit bonus. You don't lose the Strength spirit bonus because Owl provides it in the gap. Once the next turn starts, you revert to medium size and get your normal hands back. The Bear returns to providing its Strength spirit bonus.
Ex 4. Your pick is now Twin, Bear, Rabbit Prince, Owl. You trance Big Sky, turning Twin into a Good Strength spirit and giving you the ability to ignore DR as per Big Sky's lesser ability. Bear now provides you claws and large size, Rabbit Prince and Owl both provide their spirit bonuses. This is the most generically useful scenario of the 4.
You'll note that The Twin is ONLY useful in the primary position. Otherwise, all it provides are the spells and the seance boon. You cannot trigger the Copycat ability in any way if it is not the primary spirit, meaning it will never provide a spirit bonus outside of primary position. Please note that this analysis only applies to the spirit selections you indicated. If you also slot in another Charisma spirit, Twin can Copycat something else because it can have its lesser power, but you do condemn yourself to having another Charisma spirit in your line-up. If you intend to use the "counts as Strength" abilities, it essentially requires that you put the spirit with that ability into the primary position.
I didn't even break down all of the permutations for those 4 spirits, let alone that a level 17 character (which is what I was writing this about) would have a minimum of 8 spirits to choose from, assuming 10 or less CHA. Moreover, it's going to get trickier by release given the current plans.
This isn't to say that I have terribly many issues with the class design. I'm trying to point out that the survey lacks a bit of depth and might not be as informative as you hope.
Agreed, Serisan, in all those nuances. But it'll give some data, anyway, and making it simple and numerical means we can do some analyses on it. At least this year we don't have a situation where you compare the class in question to a single other class without rating the comparator class. :)
It would be nice if each class had a fill in section like there is in the general section so you could put one thing you like or want changed with the class. Having just 1 for the whole playtest is quite limiting and I feel it will lead to some less popular classes not getting comments they might need.
The occultist looks like the personification of the Christmas Tree effect of PF and 3.5e.
I am very glad to see many of the specific issues for each of the classes addressed in these surveys. I hope the designers find the feedback useful!
Just did the survey. Was enough space to note everything I found important, so that's good. But yeah, the mesmerist... is a sad panda...
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I didn't think the question about undercasting as an option for sorcerers is necessarily asking what you want. I answered 1, that I'd stick to arcane components...but that's because I think a sorcerer should stick to being arcane and not psychic. It has nothing to do with if the psychic T & E components are equal and fair to traditional arcane components, which is what I thought the question was about.
If I was going to change how a sorcerer works with psychic magic I'd move undercasting to be an option for all spontaneous casters.
I didn't think the question about undercasting as an option for sorcerers is necessarily asking what you want. I answered 1, that I'd stick to arcane components...but that's because I think a sorcerer should stick to being arcane and not psychic. It has nothing to do with if the psychic T & E components are equal and fair to traditional arcane components, which is what I thought the question was about.
If I was going to change how a sorcerer works with psychic magic I'd move undercasting to be an option for all spontaneous casters.
The components question asks whether you would consider the change to be beneficial mechanically. That said, we expect to have some people answer it like you did, so we'll take that into account.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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The components question asks whether you would consider the change to be beneficial mechanically. That said, we expect to have some people answer it like you did, so we'll take that into account.I didn't think the question about undercasting as an option for sorcerers is necessarily asking what you want. I answered 1, that I'd stick to arcane components...but that's because I think a sorcerer should stick to being arcane and not psychic. It has nothing to do with if the psychic T & E components are equal and fair to traditional arcane components, which is what I thought the question was about.
If I was going to change how a sorcerer works with psychic magic I'd move undercasting to be an option for all spontaneous casters.
I think it isn't possible to split the mechanics and flavor in this case - having the sorcerer not be an arcane caster essentially is a big mechanical change in itself.
I think it isn't possible to split the mechanics and flavor in this case - having the sorcerer not be an arcane caster essentially is a big mechanical change in itself.The components question asks whether you would consider the change to be beneficial mechanically. That said, we expect to have some people answer it like you did, so we'll take that into account.I didn't think the question about undercasting as an option for sorcerers is necessarily asking what you want. I answered 1, that I'd stick to arcane components...but that's because I think a sorcerer should stick to being arcane and not psychic. It has nothing to do with if the psychic T & E components are equal and fair to traditional arcane components, which is what I thought the question was about.
If I was going to change how a sorcerer works with psychic magic I'd move undercasting to be an option for all spontaneous casters.
I envision a sorcerer bloodline, like a psychic bloodline. Or maybe it would be an archetype. You essentially cast psychic spells innately due to having it in your blood. I personally view the primary aspect of a sorcerer as the fact that they get power from their bloodline, not that they cast arcane spells. It's a neat idea in concept.
I didn't think the question about undercasting as an option for sorcerers is necessarily asking what you want. I answered 1, that I'd stick to arcane components...but that's because I think a sorcerer should stick to being arcane and not psychic.
Right there with ya. Glad to hear the design team is savvy to that as well. I perceive a very large difference in how arcane magic and psychic magic work and components are one of the things at the heart of such differences.
I rather like the idea of the sorcerer being a psychic caster. After all it doesn't makes sense for someone who casts instinctively to know the specific incantations, gestures, and rare objects necessary for an arcane spell, while casting without those components fit them perfectly.
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I rather like the idea of the sorcerer being a psychic caster. After all it doesn't makes sense for someone who casts instinctively to know the specific incantations, gestures, and rare objects necessary for an arcane spell, while casting without those components fit them perfectly.
"Sense" does not enter into the discussion, and frankly being unable to cast spells when you are a bit unhappy, doesn't work for a lot of sorcerer concepts.
The announcement just went up, the Surveys for the Occult Adventures Playtest are LIVE!
You can get all the news at this link.
Did I also mention that the blog post also contains the first look at the art for one of the Iconics for this book? Check out the art for the Occultist!
Go read the blog, check out the art, and fill out those surveys!
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
I filled out the surveys based on my player's feedback on the Mesmerist and the Kineticist.
The occultist looks like the personification of the Christmas Tree effect of PF and 3.5e.
Christmas tree effect???
I rather like the idea of the sorcerer being a psychic caster. After all it doesn't makes sense for someone who casts instinctively to know the specific incantations, gestures, and rare objects necessary for an arcane spell, while casting without those components fit them perfectly."Sense" does not enter into the discussion, and frankly being unable to cast spells when you are a bit unhappy, doesn't work for a lot of sorcerer concepts.
I don't think that's how emotional components work. You have to be under external mental influence to be unable to cast.
The occultist looks like the personification of the Christmas Tree effect of PF and 3.5e.Christmas tree effect???
It's a shorthand for the fact that in order to remain competitive, adventurers end up covering themselves with items like ornaments on a Christmas tree.
At least, that's how I've always understood it. :)
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The occultist looks like the personification of the Christmas Tree effect of PF and 3.5e.Christmas tree effect???It's a shorthand for the fact that in order to remain competitive, adventurers end up covering themselves with items like ornaments on a Christmas tree.
At least, that's how I've always understood it. :)
That seems it already happen with magic items
Oh. Didn't think the game would promote the sort of trees mentioned in Jeremiah 10. But then, it kinda does. "Dress yourself up with LED LIGHTS!"
Kinda reminds me of the guy in the Megarace computer game. (I watched a lets play, and all I can remember is the oily announcer).
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I rather like the idea of the sorcerer being a psychic caster. After all it doesn't makes sense for someone who casts instinctively to know the specific incantations, gestures, and rare objects necessary for an arcane spell, while casting without those components fit them perfectly."Sense" does not enter into the discussion, and frankly being unable to cast spells when you are a bit unhappy, doesn't work for a lot of sorcerer concepts.I don't think that's how emotional components work. You have to be under external mental influence to be unable to cast.
Yes, but the effect of a dragons frightful presence could cripple such a character.
Yes, but the effect of a dragons frightful presence could cripple such a character.I rather like the idea of the sorcerer being a psychic caster. After all it doesn't makes sense for someone who casts instinctively to know the specific incantations, gestures, and rare objects necessary for an arcane spell, while casting without those components fit them perfectly."Sense" does not enter into the discussion, and frankly being unable to cast spells when you are a bit unhappy, doesn't work for a lot of sorcerer concepts.I don't think that's how emotional components work. You have to be under external mental influence to be unable to cast.
True. Psychic characters might need some way to mitigate this. Still, I like not having to use the normal components enough to prefer psychic spellcasting.