So. We (my gaming group and I) stopped playing our campaign, kingmaker, nearly half a year back because my DM went into the Marines. Well. He's back.... but.... he lost all the data from our game (we play ala skype and such).
Now, he's thinking he may have us restart kingmaker from the beginning as we really enjoyed the setting. There's talk of us starting new characters at the same level as when we left off (lv. 6) and upping the encounter difficulty accordingly.
Here's where the title comes in. Having been out for some time now, I'm interesting in seeing everyone's thoughts after playing an arcanist. Are they as good as a wizard (my last character)? Or are they somewhat lack luster in comparison?
I'm fairly set on some sort of magical character, I have fun with them. But am mulling over two very specific non-magical types that I could go with. Half tempted to try out the occultist or kineticist from the occult playtest though.
Anyways. What say you arcanist players? Good stuff? Or Meh Stuff?
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Arcanist is an odd duck. They can actually do some things better than a Wizard, and they poach a bit too much from their parent lasses for my taste, but they're interesting enough.
The Brown Fur Transmuter in particular is pretty amazing. Ever wanted to give your martial characters Monstrous Physique, or many other personal only Transmutation spells? Now you can!
Fun thing to note: Time Stop is a Transmutation spell. At really high levels I've always thought it would be a neat trick to smack a Conjuration specialist with Time Stop and come back to find the battefield covered in stuff. And then have them use their turn to cast Time Stop and do it again. those sorts of shenanigans.
I'm actually interested in Arcanist opinions as well; is the Eldritch Font any good?
Occultist and school savant are the archetypes I feel are worth something.
Eldrich font has an issue that you have less high level spells to cast, making it painful. and for what? you get to "surge" twice a day for a few options and it uses up your exploits.
I personally prefer the exploiter wizard. It has the faster spells of the wizard, and the arcane pool and exploits of the arcanist. Grab the school power if you need it, (like admixture for blasting), and you're set.
Occultist and Kineticist are fun (I'm especially fond of the Kineticist; Occultist has too much bookkeeping for my tastes), but if the game runs long keep in mind that they'll be getting re-released and the Kineticist at least is getting some pretty big changes.
Yeah, I'll probably not do Occultist. I don't think I understand it quite well enough to make it work as well as I'd like. I also read that people were having trouble hitting. Kineticist is still a possibility. They don't have much in utility talents yet, but they look so much fun.
I'm still on the fence about the arcanist. They seem to be one step behind a wizard, which is fine (a lot of things are). Their are some nifty things they can do, which I like. Potent Magic as mentioned is definitely one of them, but an Exploiter Wizard might be able to do it better. Occultist Arcanist is tempting though. Summons.
I guess it's just one of those things where I have so many different character ideas (largely magic, but not all) I like and I'm not sure which I want to go with. Ah well. Thanks everyone.
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I am replacing a 3rd Level wizard with a 3rd level arcanist right now. I have a 30 point buy, and trying to calculate how far I want to push up my Charisma. I have been running manual math on this all week long in the evening. It appears that I don't want less than a 12 and probably want the outcome of a 14. While I still have flexability it is not necessary depending on your plans for exploits and other things to put points into it. I am looking for all the effects that a higher Charisma is actually going to do for an arcanist. I am very deliberately plowing through all the material I can find.
Arcanist mops the floor with a wizard.
I am going to disagree with that. They are pretty even in my playing experience with the wizard being slightly ahead.
Of course playstyle does matter since one poster claimed the ability to change out spells as a full round action was a game changer because they used it a lot. However, I almost never use the ability.
The ability to increase my caster level or the DC of the spell seems to be my top choice. The ability to counterspell on the fly is a close 2nd.
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Arcanist mops the floor with a wizard.
I am going to disagree with that. They are pretty even in my playing experience with the wizard being slightly ahead.
Regardless of whether or not that's true, I do notice in my area that ever since the arcanist was first printed, pretty much nobody has made a wizard any more (and absolutely nobody has made a sorcerer).
So to answer the OP's question, it is clearly "good stuff".
Arcanist mops the floor with a wizard.I am going to disagree with that. They are pretty even in my playing experience with the wizard being slightly ahead.Regardless of whether or not that's true, I do notice in my area that ever since the arcanist was first printed, pretty much nobody has made a wizard any more (and absolutely nobody has made a sorcerer).
So to answer the OP's question, it is clearly "good stuff".
I agree. It is really good. I find it more interesting than the wizard or sorcerer, and I already found the sorcerer more interesting than wizards.
Wizard has been my favorite class since i was introduced to D & D.
Arcanist tops it hands down. I can do anything with a wizard. Now i can do anything even better with an Arcanist.