Spiritualist Level 1 - PFS #6-06: Hall of the Flesh Eaters


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Liberty's Edge

I played a level 1 Spiritualist named Yellow Pete in Hall of the Flesh Eaters. Our party consisted of all Occult classes. 1 mesmerist, 1 medium, and 2 spiritualists, of which I was one.

My build:
Yellow Pete
Human Male
STR 10 DEX 15 CON 13 INT 14 WIS 14 CHA 10
Feats:
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Traits:
Reactionary
Possessed

Hatred Phantom: Captain Whistleteeth
Feats: Weapon Finesse, Power Attack

The overall shtick is that Yellow Pete was the only surviving member of a pirate crew that was lost at sea. He is now haunted by the captain of his ship, Captain Whistleteeth, who wants Pete to get their booty back. Unfortunately, the captain thinks Pete is a scaredy cat, hence the nickname.

The RP between the two characters was a lot of fun for me, much more so than any other pet class I have played. The fact that the phantom can talk and interact with his spiritualist host, as well as the other PCs, brought a lot of RP value.

Unfortunately, that's where the fun ended.

Yellow Pete was not very exciting as a caster. He didn't have much magical or psychic flavor. He had 2 spells at level 1: Mage Armor and Cure Light Wounds, and 3 spells per day. I cast mage armor on Pete and the phantom and that left Pete with one spell for the day. Because we were all fresh out of the box level ones, healing was a big issue for us, so I saved that spell for cure light. And boy did we need it.

I sent the phantom off to scout and triggered the first combat encounter. (I should say here that I got the idea to use the phantom as a scout from reading the forums. The idea would not have come to me naturally as there is no mention of scouting in the spiritualist's description or that this was the initial design decision for the phantom, but it seems to have become its default role). Fortunately, I had manifested the phantom in incorporeal form, so even though he triggered combat, he couldn't be hurt. But once combat was triggered I didn't know how to switch him to ectoplasmic so he could fight.

Turns out phantoms can't switch forms. Well, they can but it involves dismissing the phantom and then remanifesting it in a ritual that takes 1 minute. So, basically switching can't be done in combat. Luckily, Pete had a light crossbow and feats in ranged combat! The other spiritualist didn't even have his phantom manifested, and couldn't manifest it in time, so was basically out of combat that first encounter. His character hid.

The party would have TPKed in every encounter if it weren't for our kind GM. None of our classes were effective in combat and the mobs hit very hard.

In the middle of the first combat, the other spiritualist announced that he wanted to change classes. We talked him out of it, but maybe we shouldn't have because we barely survived the scenario. But the difficulty level may have had more to do with that particular scenario than the Occult classes being under-powered. Any brand new level ones would have had a hard time I think.

At one point we decided to sleep overnight in the dungeon so we could recover spells and heal a little. The next day I saved my spells for cure light wounds (cast out of combat between fights) and didn't cast mage armor, but again we almost TPKed in the final fight. Without mage armor the Captain only has an AC of 14. Pete was the last man standing, and, once again, thank goodness for point-blank shot and precise shot (and his light crossbow!). Pete took down the BBEG and lived to tell the tale with 3 hit points remaining.

This class needs some kinks worked out before it is ready for prime time. Phantoms need to be able to take advantage of the versatility of their forms and spiritualists need more ways to survive, especially at low levels. Perhaps touch spells can come at level 1 instead of 3. I don't see any reasons for phantoms to have incorporeal form at level 1 when they can't cast touch spells yet. Scouting can be done just as easily with ectoplasmic form and phase lurch (if that is going to be the phantom's real role). I had fun playing Pete and the Captain, but that had more to do with my character concepts than anything else.

For more info on this playtest from the mesmerist's POV, click here

Liberty's Edge

Uh...how'd you get those stats. By my reading, as a human, that's 16-18 point-buy, and thus wrong.

With 20 point-buy, your stats should've been

Str 10 Dex 16 (+2 from Human) Con 14 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 10

And that assumes no dumps and about the same (suboptimal) initial layout. With a good layout, you could have something like this:

Str 10 Dex 18 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 8

And be quite a lot more effective as a ranged character.

Also...why'd you waste Mage Armor on yourself? You're not forbidden from wearing normal armor in the least. And, indeed, have Light armor Proficiency. As a ranged character +1 or +2 AC doesn't seem worth the spell.

And so on, really. This just looks like a really suboptimal stat layout that would have had a bit of trouble as almost any Class. I mean...a high stat of 15 is really just not a great way to go.

And I say this as someone of the firm opinion that Spiritualists need some help/changes...I'm just noting that your experience may not be representative.

Liberty's Edge

Deadmanwalking wrote:

Uh...how'd you get those stats. By my reading, as a human, that's 16-18 point-buy, and thus wrong.

With 20 point-buy, your stats should've been

Str 10 Dex 16 (+2 from Human) Con 14 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 10

And that assumes no dumps and about the same (suboptimal) initial layout. With a good layout, you could have something like this:

Str 10 Dex 18 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 8

And be quite a lot more effective as a ranged character.

Also...why'd you waste Mage Armor on yourself? You're not forbidden from wearing normal armor in the least. And, indeed, have Light armor Proficiency. As a ranged character +1 or +2 AC doesn't seem worth the spell.

And so on, really. This just looks like a really suboptimal stat layout that would have had a bit of trouble as almost any Class. I mean...a high stat of 15 is really just not a great way to go.

And I say this as someone of the firm opinion that Spiritualists need some help/changes...I'm just noting that your experience may not be representative.

Thanks for pointing that out. I got those stats by writing this at 2am. I have no idea what I was looking at... My stats were:

STR 10 Dex 18 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 10


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I should also point out that the Phantom doesn't qualify for Power Attack--Strength 13 is a prerequisite.

Since it has Weapon Finesse it does qualify for [url=http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Piranha%20StrikePiranha Strike[/url], though, which is functionally equivalent.

I always recommend a Cure Light Wounds wand with your first 2 Prestige, but if someone else can cover that you may want to consider a wand of Mage Armor (or get that next). Use your L1 rebuild to pick up Shield as one of your spells known. Then you can cast Mage Armor and Shield on your Phantom to get its AC up to 24.

That is, assuming you want to keep playing the class.

Liberty's Edge

redward wrote:

I should also point out that the Phantom doesn't qualify for Power Attack--Strength 13 is a prerequisite.

Since it has Weapon Finesse it does qualify for [url=http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Piranha%20StrikePiranha Strike[/url], though, which is functionally equivalent.

I always recommend a Cure Light Wounds wand with your first 2 Prestige, but if someone else can cover that you may want to consider a wand of Mage Armor (or get that next). Use your L1 rebuild to pick up Shield as one of your spells known. Then you can cast Mage Armor and Shield on your Phantom to get its AC up to 24.

That is, assuming you want to keep playing the class.

Gosh, thanks for pointing that out and for the advice. I'm coming across like such a noob.

I'm definitely getting a wand of cure light with my first 2 prestige. I think I'll play him again on Monday in a season 3 scenario. I suspect he'll perform better. I'll post an update if I do.

Liberty's Edge

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Fiasko wrote:
I think I'll play him again on Monday in a season 3 scenario. I suspect he'll perform better. I'll post an update if I do.

I played Yellow Pete and the Captain again tonight in 3-23 The Goblinblood Dead. Our party was made up of a bloodrager 2, an oracle 1, and a magus 3. I did have an easier time, if only because the mobs didn't hit as hard or for as many hit points. Pete and the Captain played like basic level 1 characters. Not too many bells and whistles.

Pete got himself a wand of cure light and cast mage armor and shield on the Captain. Then Pete fired at range with his light crossbow. Still had difficulty hitting, but did alright for a level 1.

With Point Blank Shot and his dex bonus he has a +5 to hit and does 1d8+1 damage.

The Captain, with Piranha Strike and his Hatred bonus has a +4 to hit and does 1d6+5 dmg.

They did okay against anything but the big bad. They weren't able to hit at all in the final combat. In 4 rounds they never hit once, which could have been my bad die rolls, or the fact that the big bad had an AC above 20, but still it was frustrating.

This time I kept the Captain manifested in ectoplasmic form the entire scenario. There doesn't seem to be any point in manifesting him in any other way at first level. He used phase lurch to scout and that was a lot of fun. He also used it to get around mobs in narrow corridors. It was generally useful.

I'll probably actually continue playing them because they're so fun from a role play point of view.

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