I am a big fan of the various Into the Breach pdfs. I own the Magus, Oracle, and Summoner ones, plan on getting the Witch, Gunslinger, and Cavalier ones as well soon. However, there are a few things in a couple of the pdfs that I'm somewhat unsure about. I don't have the pdfs with me at the moment, so I can't post exact text, but I'm hoping I can get a few ideas at least.
Into the Breach: Summoner
Shadow Caster Archetype. The Shadow Caster replaces its shadow with an Eidolon (must have the shadow body type described within the pdf) in a ritual that takes 1 hour. If the Eidolon is not present, others can make a perception check (versus the DC of the slight of hand check to hide the Summoners glowing rune)to notice they have no shadow. The shadow eidolon can move freely in areas of dim light or darker. When in areas of light brighter than dim, the Eidolon may "attach" to its summoner and is forced to move with the summoner.
Now fluff wise, that all makes perfect sense. However, a few minor mechanical questions come up. First, is that 1 hour ritual in place of the 1 minute summoning time that most eidolon's have? Or is that just sort of a "if you are starting a campaign at level 1 and want to see the Summoner come into possession of its Eidolon" type thing. It doesn't say it replaces or modifies the summoning time, but I'd like to make sure. Second, how does the shadow eidolon look? Yes, I know, they can look roughly however you want. Reason I ask this is the section about you replacing your shadow with the eidolon, and that there is a check to notice when the outsider is gone. Is the eidolon a 2D shadow? Is it 3D? Can it alternate between being flat on the ground and standing upright? Again, it probably doesn't matter in most situations, but there have been a few scenarios where my GM wasn't sure how to rule some...stealth tricks I was asking about with my shadow. Finally, when in areas of normal light, the eidolon has to be attached to its summoner and is forced to move where it moves. Does this mean that if the Summoner moves more than 5 feet, the Eidolon cannot make a full attack, like a mount moving more than 5 feet causing its rider to lose the ability to full attack? It's not called out that it does or doesn't, but I want to see what others say. If it is the case, if the Summoner charged, would the Eidolon be considered charging as well?
Lyrical Summoner prestige. This one is a lot more simple. The Lyrical Summoner is a prestige that advances both your bardic performances and your eidolon, along with the casting abilities of one class or the other. At level 1 or 2 (not sure which at the moment,) the eidolon gains the bardic performances and rounds per day of a bard where its bard level equals its hit die. Now, nowhere in the text does it say what performance you get. Is it the standard bards performances? Whatever performances you get in the bard archetype you used to get into the prestige? Whatever bard archetype?
Into the Breach: Oracle
Alternate Class: Warlock. Oh man...this was the reason I bought this PDF. I really liked the warlock of 3.5 (never got to play it)and I was not disappointed with this incarnation. Sure, it's different than the 3.5 version, losing the at will abilities that mimic spells, but gaining access to all the Oracle revelations was a neat touch. My only issue is that the pdf does not list its armor or weapon proficiencies. Is it the same as the Oracle, as it is an alternate Oracle? Are they different?
Well thank you very much for the response anyways. I had assumed that the Warlock was proficient in the same armor and weapons as the Oracle. Simple weapons and light armor makes sense to me as a base, but it would cause a weird issue. If the Warlock takes the Skill at Arms revelation from the battle mystery, it would mean they have proficiency in light armor and heavy armor, but not medium. All or nothing I suppose.
I am a freelancer who writes for Flying Pincushion. I wasn't involved with either of those books, but I think that at least the oracle book received a revision that fixed the issue you cited. You might want to try downloading the file again from whatever store you purchased from to see if the updates address your issues. I could be wrong though.
I'll bring this post to the attention of the senior staff to see if they can address your questions in more detail.
Also, since you are a fan of the series, check out the opportunity to get a free copy of Into the Breach: the Cavalier in exchange for writing a review!
Accidentally flagged as being in wrong forum. Didn't see it was in the Advice/Rules Question subforum of 3PP stuff.
This is in completely the right forum, and I am a bad bad person.
Yes OSW, you are bad.
I'll definitely look into re downloading the Oracle pdf, see if that fixes it. And I already have a copy of Cavalier, so the free copy can go to someone that needs it, but I will be writing a review for it when I look it over more thoroughly. Thanks for mentioning it though!
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Hey, Mark! Long time no see. Tell Frank to pop by here and answer some questions for this guy. It was his creation. And he worked on the older books nearly alone.
Did you know that in the time it took to write this post, I could have emailed him and told him directly? I didn't and now I'm going to bed. I'm great at making the smart calls. G'night!
@DHAnubis
Hi I'm Frank Gori one of the co-owners of Flying Pincushion Games.
Let me start by saying thank you for being a fan, we've been working hard to improve our books as they progress and you have a couple of our earliest efforts.
RE: Shadow Summoner: When I designed it I pictured the shadow as remaining 2d and actually attacking other people's shadows when striking, the damage seeming to come from an invisible foes. Unless someone was particularly observant. I think I somewhat failed to represent that, it was my first editorial effort and the book suffered for it. You have the intent correct I wanted a stealth Eidolon for a more roguish feel. The intent was that the shadow be entirely 2d.
I would treat the Eidolon's ability to full attack exactly as a rider's in that scenario but ti would almost certainly be up against flatfooted AC unless the attacked party was familiar with it's abilities.
Re: Lyrical Summoner: would follow the bardic performance path of it's master.
Re: The summoner book in general
I've gone back and forth on revamping this book or simply writing a new one under FPCG so that eventually I can go to print on an omnibus print edition without dealing with the IP issues.
RE: Warlock: There's been plenty of objections to this incarnation of the warlock for balance issues. Yes they are the same as oracle with regards to weapon and armor. I'm making a separate pdf with the warlock on it's own and rebalanced. I'm also going to add a variety of new content and I'll give everyone with Oracle a free copy. I anticipate that dropping in the summer with our current work load.
Not a problem. I really enjoy the various Into the Breach series. Even bought them for 3 classes I normally have little interest in playing (Cavalier, Witch, and Gunslinger) because of the interesting archetypes they usually contain.
It makes sense that the Eidolon would be treated like a mounted combatant in that case. Otherwise, the Eidolon essentially has Pounce due to the Summoner moving for it. Though that raises the question then, if the Summoner charges, is the Eidolon considered to be charging as well, like a rider and its mount?
Following the performance path of its master is generally what I assumed, but wanted to double check.
Very curious to see the new version of the warlock. I've always been a fan of classes that, while not as versatile or world shaping as, say, a wizard, are able to do a few things all day long. The warlock was always thta for me because of its unlimited eldritch blasts and various at will things.
It makes sense that the Eidolon would be treated like a mounted combatant in that case. Otherwise, the Eidolon essentially has Pounce due to the Summoner moving for it. Though that raises the question then, if the Summoner charges, is the Eidolon considered to be charging as well, like a rider and its mount?
That would be how I'd rule it yes.
Following the performance path of its master is generally what I assumed, but wanted to double check.
Yep no problem, always happy to support my designs.
Very curious to see the new version of the warlock. I've always been a fan of classes that, while not as versatile or world shaping as, say, a wizard, are able to do a few things all day long. The warlock was always that for me because of its unlimited eldritch blasts and various at will things.
Overall the basic blast will remain unlimited but several of the more powerful blast shapes need some limitations. I'm also going to dial revelations back to roughly 12 (like the original warlock's evocations.) I'm making warlock specific revelations, new blast forms, and a few other bits of support like warlock specific magic items ect.
Warlock is my favorite but when I play tested it at higher levels (something I had not done previously) it became apparent it doesn't take a brilliant optimizer to outshine most others. I want the blaster aspect but it should bot make everyone else near irrelevant. In my opinion it works well from level 1-9ish around level 10 or so it starts getting out of hand.
Understandable, yeah. I did notice a few things with the warlock after reading it over once or twice that gave me pause. Like a lack of saves on the entangling/fatiguing blasts, a confusion between the general difference between the Strike evolution and the Claws evolution (why would one take the claws when Strike seemingly lets you apply the damage to any melee attack), and the increased power of some of the multi elemental blasts. I think, if anything, its some of the elemental type changes that would need to be limited, such as the one that deals...electric and sonic damage, I believe it was? The shapes, cone, line, burst, etc, sort of limit themselves due to not wanting to hit allies with it as well.
Also, while Im failing to think of what damage type would be good, I would suggest having the at will blast be something other than Negative energy. Not only from a fluff stand point (because despite Warlock connotations, people may want to fluff it to be more of a divine vessel in a way Oracle, Cleric, etc dont quite work), but because I could just play a race that is healed by Negative energy and just shoot myself several times with EB until I'm healed after every fight.
And one more quick question about the Shadow Caster. You say the enemy should be flat footed unless they understand the Eidolon is a shadow. What check would they make to figure that out? Perception versus its stealth? Or a disguise check to be a shadow versus sense motive? Knowledge check? I'm debating playing one in a gestalt campaign, so I'd like to have all the questions clear.
Perception vs stealth to notice the shadow is behaving abnormally, then knowledge planes to understand it's extra planar nature DC comparable to recognizing any Eidolon. Personally I'd add a circumstance modifier of +1/per Summoner level.
Perfect. I think that about covers everything, unless other questions pop up for Cavalier, Gunslinger, or Witch. You've all been an immense help, thank you very much. Now to decide if I want to make the Eidolon a shadowy claw blender, or be a literal shadow of death and wield a scythe.