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Brandon, to me the book is a success. (Due to importation issues in my country, I won't have it in my very hands for some time, but I'm eager to physically hold it.)
The question that remains unaswered for me is how quick will Paizo be at fixing the (admittedly few) editing errors in the book. Any ideas on how will Paizo proceed in gathering possible FAQ information?
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I know the conversation's moved a little past this, but I wanted to address comments like this one:
My beef with the book is that it offers little to nothing for existing material to be used with. Very few feats and other options to consider for a character already built.While it's true that new classes and their archetypes take up just shy of 100 pages of this 260+ page book, and only 24 of the 68 feats are for general use by other classes, that dismisses the incredible amount of content for use by all classes that are in this book's pages.
For old classes, there are 22 new archetypes.
There's 113 new spells, and 56 (almost exactly half) are usable by non-occult spellcasting classes. The new occult rules chapter is 21 pages of auras, chakras, psychic dueling, possession, and rituals that are usable by all classes. AND there's the occult skill unlocks, which with 1 feat (Psychic Sensitivity) open up a whole new world of abilities for anyone who qualifies and wants to buy their way into occult abilities, any class at any level.
And of the 21 pages of new magic items, totaling 104 new items, only 11 are occult-class specific, leaving 93 occult-themed items there for the taking!
I stand by what I said. If you are looking for more options for classes not included within the book, you will find a few gems but not much else. Looking over the items again, I found a couple stand out items that I liked but I'd say most of this book is for DM use.
Which honestly isn't a bad thing. Mythic Adventures is primarily a DM book as well. I just feel it's important for folks to be informed. This book is geared more towards DMs than players.
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This book is freaking awesome! I devoured the pdf as soon as I got my email and spent a whole day just going through the book when it arrived. Now I'm taking my time and working through it slowly so I can absorb it all. I've already got pages of notes and the ideas are still leaping off the page. I really think Paizo hit this one out of the park and into low earth orbit. I've been waiting for Paizo's take on "psionics" for years now. Paizo has been quite clear from the get go that their version of psionics would not be based on the 3e psionic rules and I am so very happy that they didn't. I love what Dreamscarred has done with the 3e Psionic rules and nothing in Occult Adventures replaces or supersedes that material. If anything, they complement each other. I know I'll be using them side by side. What I wanted was to see Paizo's unique take on the themes of psionics or psychic. Paizo has not let me down. I now have the foundations of a new form of magic that that I can build my own material on. This is the last piece of the puzzle to me. Now I feel that I have a complete rule system that I can do almost anything with. That is freaking awesome!
SM
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never said it was true, all I said is just because Brandon doesn't agree doesn't mean people can't be disappointed at a grand total of 9 class agnostic feats; and if that's what they think, they should say so. The by-line matters.
You can be as disappointed as you like, 9mm. Like anyone, you're entitled to your opinion, and free to express it. I'm just trying to keep everyone honest.
But that isn't the issue. The issue is you stating your opinion with the assumption that everyone else will share it--that if something doesn't suite you, it won't suite anyone else--and that's where you're wrong, as a host of positive comments here and reviews both good and bad demonstrate. There's material in this book suited for a wide range of playstyles--just because it isn't to your taste doesn't mean others "probably won't" find something suited to their own enjoyment. Heck--even Scavion, whose comments parked my response, found a few gems, and that's great, even if I don't agree with his misleading assertion that a book with 100+ pages of new class content for players is "geared more towards DMs."
You've essentially said "I bought this box of 64 crayons and didn't like any of the colors, and you probably won't either." That's just...well...the essence of hyperbole.
Also note your feat count for non-occult classes is way off.
EDIT: Kinda awesome to see someone post while I was replaying about how they liked every color in the box of crayons.
So as for the OP I kind of like it so far! Which is a big surprise for me as I was not very optimistic about this. The only real flaws I'm seeing so far is the Kineticist being not very good if the math everyone is listing off checks out. The other disappointment is that the Medium is still kind of boring compared to its inspiration i.e the Binder.
Outside of those two things though they look like the rest shall be a wonderful addition at my table.
Now I need to figure out how to re-fluff it with Dreamscarred's stuff. Oh boy that's gonna be fuuuuun /s
As I said, Chakras are the only things that really tick me off about the book.
They could have been to the Monk what Skill Unlocks were to the Rogue, and Stamina/Combat Tricks were to the Fighter, but instead came off as just... waaaaaaay too much of an investment to every actually be worthwhile.
The system by design punishes you for using them to gain effects that aren't even CLOSE to worth the pain & effort, and so punishes you ever further in a meta sense by making you go "oh, god, I paid a Feat for THIS!?"
But that's, what... 4-5 pages out of a 270-some page book that are a wash? That's pretty dang good in my opinion.
So as for the OP I kind of like it so far! Which is a big surprise for me as I was not very optimistic about this. The only real flaws I'm seeing so far is the Kineticist being not very good if the math everyone is listing off checks out. The other disappointment is that the Medium is still kind of boring compared to its inspiration i.e the Binder.
Outside of those two things though they look like the rest shall be a wonderful addition at my table.
Now I need to figure out how to re-fluff it with Dreamscarred's stuff. Oh boy that's gonna be fuuuuun /s
As far as I can tell just reading the forums, the Kineticist math is off because they're comparing apples to oranges and ignoring the stuff inside the peels.
As far as I can tell just reading the forums, the Kineticist math is off because they're comparing apples to oranges and ignoring the stuff inside the peels.
How so? What exactly makes it apples to oranges? Damage is still damage and its the Kineticist big thing or at least the thing it will be used the most for. Don't mean to sound confrontational, im just genuinely curious.
How so? What exactly makes it apples to oranges? Damage is still damage and its the Kineticist big thing or at least the thing it will be used the most for. Don't mean to sound confrontational, im just genuinely curious.
Because damage isn't the only thing kineticist does.
Considering that we call PCs murderhobos"Murderhobo" is an archetype that needs to happen.
I would say "non-murderhobo" would be an extremely rare archetype for any class.
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I love it :-)
And I was one of those not overly excited, in I hated Psionics, but this, this is great! It takes the new age cheese out and just leaves good old fashioned Occult stuff, like cliche Halloween cool stuff! Ouija boards, Stephen King, alien conspiracies, things that kill in your dreams, all of that is possible, also plenty of space to play your new age hippy if you want, we won't judge :-)
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Well, let's try to compare apples to apples.
Classes
Of our group at GenCon this year, four came back excited about different classes. And the remaining two classes look potentially fun with archetypes provided in the book.
Even though we'll probably decide some don't work, it's already doing better than the ACG, Ultimate Magic, and Ultimate Combat. And will probably end up about on par with the APG.
Character Options
There are about half a dozen archetypes/bloodlines that I'm interested in for existing classes, including two getting new spontaneous casting options.
The spells are also pretty cool, but not head and shoulders above other books for existing classes. There are some cool feats, but my favorites just provide access to the optional rules below.
For making characters with existing classes, I'd tend to put this above the ACG and Ultimate Magic. The APG probably beats it in this area.
Optional Rules
The optional rules material will definitely get folded into my games. I'm not sure about psychic duels and chakras, but the skill unlocks and rituals are going straight into the toolbox.
That puts it ahead of Mythic Adventures for most of my campaigns, but also beats out Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, and Ultimate Campaign. Pathfinder Unchained should win here, in theory, but I haven't ended up using it at all yet.
Campaign Advice
There's a nice section at the back about integrating occult themes into the game. There isn't much to compare this to, but I think it's much more effective than the Mythic Adventures equivalent.
Overall
The APG is the supplement my group draws from the most. Occult Adventures probably won't pass it, but is in the same ballpark.
While there's some stuff that could suit me better, I think Occult Adventures compares very favorably to the rest of the line.
Cheers!
Landon
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Many of these feats are incredibly narrow in focus and would only be taken if your GM literally said "This is going to happen in my game AND it's going to be a huge deal."
I'm not sure how other people DM but I do exactly this. On character creation I gave out a list of creature types and terrain types and which skills need points so the players could plan accordingly.
The campaign I'm running is in Ustalav, and I can see this book getting great use as a DM.
It also fills holes in the current rules, such as haunts being featured in modules but difficult for players to deal with if they don't have channel positive energy or one of those glass tubes from the Carrion Crown AP. This gives actual ideas and rules.
I would say "non-murderhobo" would be an extremely rare archetype for any class.Considering that we call PCs murderhobos"Murderhobo" is an archetype that needs to happen.
Mok of the White Lotus.
Monk of the White Lotus.I would say "non-murderhobo" would be an extremely rare archetype for any class.Considering that we call PCs murderhobos"Murderhobo" is an archetype that needs to happen.
And I raise the bids with Tranquil Guardian Paladin
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And I raise the bids with Tranquil Guardian PaladinMonk of the White Lotus.I would say "non-murderhobo" would be an extremely rare archetype for any class.Considering that we call PCs murderhobos"Murderhobo" is an archetype that needs to happen.
Just because you don't actually do the murdering yourself, doesn't mean you aren't a murderhobo if you let someone CDG them after you knock them out.
Just because you don't actually do the murdering yourself, doesn't mean you aren't a murderhobo if you let someone CDG them after you knock them out.
Well the tranquil guardian paladin being a paladin is the most likely to be against CDG-ing helpless foes.
And I raise the bids with Tranquil Guardian PaladinMonk of the White Lotus.I would say "non-murderhobo" would be an extremely rare archetype for any class.Considering that we call PCs murderhobos"Murderhobo" is an archetype that needs to happen.
I see your bid and raise you a Cavalier with the Order of the Blue Rose :P
Just because you don't actually do the murdering yourself, doesn't mean you aren't a murderhobo if you let someone CDG them after you knock them out.Well the tranquil guardian paladin being a paladin is the most likely to be against CDG-ing helpless foes.
Well a monk Of the white tolus doesnt even need to KO them. He gets a suped up touch of Serenity to use lol
Well a monk Of the white tolus doesnt even need to KO them. He gets a suped up touch of Serenity to use lolJust because you don't actually do the murdering yourself, doesn't mean you aren't a murderhobo if you let someone CDG them after you knock them out.Well the tranquil guardian paladin being a paladin is the most likely to be against CDG-ing helpless foes.
The problem with "an Archetype that's not a murderhobo" is that being a murderhobo is all an RP choice in the first place.
True, you're almost certain to get into fights, but that kinda comes without saying in an action-adventure RPG of any kind.
And you don't HAVE to focus on Lethal damage - it's easier, sure, but in real martial arts it's also easier to attack lethally than non-lethally.
So creating an Archetype to compensate for RP choices doesn't really work in the end - if someone in your group wants to play a murderhobo, they're going to play a murderhobo whether you like it or not.
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For anyone interested, I did create an alternate to Chakras that still keeps mostly with the themes presented.
Rather than Rock Lee (which is what the current system looks like), I looked to Guru Pathik from Avatar the Last Airbender's method of opening Aang's chakras for influence.
They require a Feat each time you open one, but the Feat adds Ki like Extra Ki, the effects are permanent (though they often require a bit of Ki to activate the abilities), and they're tied more-closely to your Ki pool and HD than they are to themselves. The end result is that someone who devotes themselves to opening their Chakras is going to be a pretty radically-different Ki user than normal.
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My thoughts are as follows
Classes:
Kineticist- Awesome, if it gets continued support in further books it should be on par with the other classes in about a year, as it is now if you want a lower powered magic character you finally have one.
Medium- Same deal as above, but a halfling who focuses on the Champion spirit with the FCB can be a pretty good psychic 1/2 caster martial with crazy flexibility.
Mesmerist- Pure awesome, this class is on par with the bard and looks really fun. Hopefully we get some new interesting stares and archetypes in the future, because this could be in my top 5 classes.
Occultist- Interesting and already on par with other 2/3 casters, this one seems to actually have a really balanced version of casting that I would suggest using for all classes.
Psychic- Another full caster, but I do like the variable spell-list and abilities. This is the most balanced of the full casters yet in my opinion.
Spiritualist- This class is great, play it and you will have fun without being overpowered.
Archetypes:
Archetypes for the classes are good, but I would like more that remove the abilities that aren't only useful in an occult focused game as that seems to be what is holding back a few of the classes from being as powerful as the older classes.
Investigator one is cool if someone wanted a more caster rather than martial version of the Investigator then they got it.
Cavalier stuff is awesome and some of it is even powerful.
Alchemist stuff made me say "finally" and also "ugh" at how much you had to give up for the Protean archetype, you literally have to abuse the construct creation rules to bring yourself back up to speed with that archetype.
Magus stuff is amazing and also made me say "finally."
Inquisitor archetype is literally amazing, fun, and not overpowered.
Everything else in this section got a meh from me.
FCB's:
Humans- Better than others on average as usual
Dwarves- Worse than others on average as usual
Elves- Not bad, but only a few are good as usual
Gnomes- One really good, the others not worth really
Half-Elves- Nothing really original here, made me go meh
Half-Orcs- Some really nice damage options as usual
Halfling- Somebody loves halflings because they got pretty good ones this time
Feats:
I am glad that the classes got some feat support that mattered, but I am sad that the psychic sensitivity feat isn't worth a feat except to those with very specific skills in most campaigns(some it will be amazing in admittedly)
Psychic Magic:
Some nice spells for some classes, wish Druid had got more but that's mainly because I'm playing one right now.
Occult Skill Unlocks:
Yes, finally more uses for skills. If only the DM's I played with like skills being useful.
Auras:
I'm glad they expanded on the auras from previous times, it makes me happy.
Chakras:
Nooooooooo, why you do dis to me? D=
Psychic Duels:
Really awesome, makes characters who are very mental stat focused rock other people in the correct situation.
Possession:
Rules that work for possessing stuff!
Occult Rituals:
WHY NO TAKE 20? ME WANT MORE RITUALS AND FEAT TO TAKE 10/20 ON THEM, ME LIKE.
Running an Occult game:
Already do this, but I'm glad others will do it more now too.
Occult Equipment/Magic Items:
Some super interesting magic items, but really lame equipment(I love non-magical equipment, so I'm probably pretty harsh)
So when is this stuff getting released to the PRD/d20pfsrd/Archives of Nethys?
So when is this stuff getting released to the PRD/d20pfsrd/Archives of Nethys?
Expect a 2-3 week delay from Print Launch for d20pfsrd and Archives, and at least 1-3 months for the PRD.
WHY NO TAKE 20!?
Because Rituals are supposed to have drawbacks, MAJOR ones. And you're supposed to be able to f&#@ up the ritual and suffer the bad things if you're not careful.
AND rituals require multiple Skill checks of multiple skills, too. AND multiple participants (usually).
And since you're already taking HOURS at a time to conduct the Ritual in the first place, taking literally several DAYS to WEEKS just to take 20 on the skills is a little ridonculous.
Just think of it like Crafting: it takes SO long and is SO complicated and has SO, SO little margin for error that there's no "doing it safely" - you are ALWAYS in danger of screwing up and ruining it somehow, no matter how careful you are.
Except you can take 10 with crafting, not with rituals. The difficulty, consequences of small amounts of failure, and number of checks you need to make mean rituals are pretty unusable unless you succeed on all of the relevant skill checks on like, a 1.
Spiritualist You will want to play one if your favorite Teen Titan is Raven or your favorite member of the Doom Patrol is Negative Man. You have a phantom (or fragment of your own psyche) that dwells within your mind that you can send fourth to do your bidding. Like Raven's Soul Self and the negative energy being in Larry Trainor, the range is limited.
I can see DM's hating this class, or at least having to make adjustments for it. The phantom is the ultimate scout, at least for distances of of 100 yards or less. Not so much for overland scouting, but for peeking ahead in the dungeon. A phantom can manifest in either ectoplasmic or non-corporeal form and both forms can pass through doors and other solid objects. So:
DM: "You kneel to listen at the door..."
Spiritualist: "Hardly. I send my phantom through the wall next to the door. What do I see through our shared senses?"
Dm: "It is dark in there"
Spiritualist: "It has darkvision. And it isn't solid and has ranks in Stealth"
DM: "Pit on the other side of the door."
Phantoms can hold their own in combat, but there will be plenty of times when just having a mobile non-corporeal or ectoplasmic perception point will be worth more to the party than having a spare combat follower. There may even be times when yo can send your phantom through a locked door to open it from the other side, or to pull the level that deactivates a trap (when? when you don't have a party rogue and the DM didn't intent a simple locked door or trap to be the thing that turns the party back from exploring his dungeon). I would definitely play one in our group's upcoming Iron Gods campaign, but I already rolled-up my rat folk Alchemist. The DM took one look that the class and sent out a pre-emptive email: All starmetals will block a phantom in ectoplasmic form and a specific one can even block or contain a fully non-corporeal one.
Kineticist Hands-down winner as class most likely to take Toughness because you will need all the hit points you can get since you will be doing non-removable non-lethal damage to yourself all the time. If your party is fighting a kineticist you will want to hit him with non-lethal damage because odds are he already had some and he can't use abilities that mitigate non-lethal if he has any Burn at all. There is one player in our group who might play one in the next game. The party healer has already told him that when he reports he is about halfway down on hit points he doesn't mean halfway to zero, but halfway to that point where he will will go unconscious for several hours even with a positive hit point total.
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I want to wait until I've fully absorbed the book from front to back, before I write up a proper review- but I have to say at least this much... Completely amazing!
The sheer creativity that went into this book, is only matched by how much knowledge the developers have of old occult traditions. They translated it perfectly into Pathfinder.
I feel too much of the discussion on this book has been focused on number crunching- pure damage output. Personally, I could care less about how these classes compare to a Wizard or other classes in terms of being a terror in battle. What's important to me is character options- and this book allows for the creation of some of the most interesting classes in any RPG.
Something else I feel the creators of this book deserve serious credit for, is the absolutely lush atmosphere and mood this book invokes.
I had no interest in another psionics book- this is an occult RPG book. Paizo did their job well by separating the two with miles of thematic elements between them.
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WHY NO TAKE 20!?Because Rituals are supposed to have drawbacks, MAJOR ones. And you're supposed to be able to f*&+ up the ritual and suffer the bad things if you're not careful.
AND rituals require multiple Skill checks of multiple skills, too. AND multiple participants (usually).
And since you're already taking HOURS at a time to conduct the Ritual in the first place, taking literally several DAYS to WEEKS just to take 20 on the skills is a little ridonculous.
Just think of it like Crafting: it takes SO long and is SO complicated and has SO, SO little margin for error that there's no "doing it safely" - you are ALWAYS in danger of screwing up and ruining it somehow, no matter how careful you are.
I actually got that, I meant why no taking 20 no matter if you could take it under duress. I get it more now, and with some finagling 20+ level 1 NPC's on a CL 20 ley line could definitely hit the DC's if they were humans with skill focus( +5 ley line +5 secondary casters +1 rank +3 Class skill +3 Skill Focus +2 from one of the +2 feats = +19 for each of the casters while only having to succeed on 1/2 the checks only 1-3 should die max)
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If your party is fighting a kineticist you will want to hit him with non-lethal damage because odds are he already had some and he can't use abilities that mitigate non-lethal if he has any Burn at all. There is one player in our group who might play one in the next game. The party healer has already told him that when he reports he is about halfway down on hit points he doesn't mean halfway to zero, but halfway to that point where he will will go unconscious for several hours even with a positive hit point total.
Yet someone else who doesn't understand how non-lethal works giving out misinformation.
When you take non-lethal damage (including burn) you keep a tally of NL damage that is right next to your regular HP. If you ever have more damage than your current HP, you fall unconscious. Doing regular damage will knock out a Kinectist faster than doing NL, because you will likely do more damage and not need to switch to backup weapon or take a -4 to hit.
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Personally I love the dark and gritty nature of all the classes and content. It is a welcomed departure form the high fantasy magic in most of pathfinder supplements. But I can see it clashing with established classes and magic systems. I am more drawn to flavor of characters then potency, this is in my opinion a welcomed edition.
I particularly like the down sides added, things like Burn for the Kineticist, Taboos for the medium and emotions Spirits for the Spiritualist allow the player to make decisions and not all outcomes are good. Something that in my humble opinion pathfinder needs, force the players to make hard decisions on what and how they use there powers.
I am thinking taking these classes, adding unchained rouge, fighter and gunslinger and starting a 18th century horror campaign. I think it would play out very well :)
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If your party is fighting a kineticist you will want to hit him with non-lethal damage because odds are he already had some and he can't use abilities that mitigate non-lethal if he has any Burn at all. There is one player in our group who might play one in the next game. The party healer has already told him that when he reports he is about halfway down on hit points he doesn't mean halfway to zero, but halfway to that point where he will will go unconscious for several hours even with a positive hit point total.Yet someone else who doesn't understand how non-lethal works giving out misinformation.
When you take non-lethal damage (including burn) you keep a tally of NL damage that is right next to your regular HP. If you ever have more damage than your current HP, you fall unconscious. Doing regular damage will knock out a Kinectist faster than doing NL, because you will likely do more damage and not need to switch to backup weapon or take a -4 to hit.
Toss in an admonishing ray or two in there and havoc gets wreaked.
Back on topic though, I'm needing to devise a nice ritual for creating an artifact god-killing WMD that my group is to be making in half a dozen or so sessions...
Personally I love the dark and gritty nature of all the classes and content. It is a welcomed departure form the high fantasy magic in most of pathfinder supplements. But I can see it clashing with established classes and magic systems. I am more drawn to flavor of characters then potency, this is in my opinion a welcomed edition.
I particularly like the down sides added, things like Burn for the Kineticist, Taboos for the medium and emotions Spirits for the Spiritualist allow the player to make decisions and not all outcomes are good. Something that in my humble opinion pathfinder needs, force the players to make hard decisions on what and how they use there powers.
I am thinking taking these classes, adding unchained rouge, fighter and gunslinger and starting a 18th century horror campaign. I think it would play out very well :)
Not all of them are that gritty. There is literally a Psychic Discipline which represents a Psychic who got his/her powers through the power of friendship.
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Not all of them are that gritty. There is literally a Psychic Discipline which represents a Psychic who got his/her powers through the power of friendship.Personally I love the dark and gritty nature of all the classes and content. It is a welcomed departure form the high fantasy magic in most of pathfinder supplements. But I can see it clashing with established classes and magic systems. I am more drawn to flavor of characters then potency, this is in my opinion a welcomed edition.
I particularly like the down sides added, things like Burn for the Kineticist, Taboos for the medium and emotions Spirits for the Spiritualist allow the player to make decisions and not all outcomes are good. Something that in my humble opinion pathfinder needs, force the players to make hard decisions on what and how they use there powers.
I am thinking taking these classes, adding unchained rouge, fighter and gunslinger and starting a 18th century horror campaign. I think it would play out very well :)
So friendship IS magic lol xD
Awakened horse here i come lol
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Don't forget the Psychedelia discipline... whoa!... the trails...so many trails man!....
So far, I really like Occult Adventures. I haven't fully digested the additional rules like the chakra, psychic duels, and the like. While the classes use existing mechanics for most of their layouts, I think they are quite unique. I also feel that the new classes are not overly powerful compared to existing classes. Therefore, this will hopefully keep the "power creep" folks at bay. So far my favorite is the kineticist. The archetypes for existing classes are pretty interesting. I especially like the Mind Blade and Psychic Investigator.
I think my favorite part is that the rules are not super exploitable the way I have seen with psionics... I learned to dislike the psionics rules after seeing some of the ridiculous things one could do with it.
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Don't forget the Psychedelia discipline... whoa!... the trails...so many trails man!....
The Psychedlia discipline is probably my favorite thing to come from Occult Adventures. I wasn't too interested in the Psychic till I found this discipline. The roleplay opportunities are great.
Don't forget the Psychedelia discipline... whoa!... the trails...so many trails man!....
Sorry bra'. I kind of zoned out thar' fer' a spell. What were ya' sayin' again maaaan?
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Responding to the OP (and, I suppose, to Brandon): I also really like the book. There's a lot of flavor and a lot of creativity, and it's given me a lot of ideas. It's really fantastic!
It seems as though the class designs in this book are intermediate forms between how Pathfinder classes have been designed in the past and how they are expected to be designed in the future. I don't know if that's better or worse, but it's certainly interesting, especially with the way the Vigilante playtest has played out.
I can see where a lot of complaints are coming from in terms of character options. Given a static number of choices (feats, spells), it's going to be incrementally harder for options in each new book to be interesting since they've got more and more competition. That makes it hard for someone skimming a book to see the value in the new choices. I don't know that it says anything about the quality of the book, though.
I wanted to throw one last thing out there--I also really like the OA version of skill unlocks! Fantastic flavor, and a mechanic I hope to occasionally make use of.
On the whole I think Occult Adventures is a very flavorful addition with poor mechanics that disinterest me in many of the classes; this review predominantly regards the Spiritualist however, as I playtested that class extensively and had high hopes for it.
Brutal honesty time because I really did like the flavor of the Spiritualist and feel as though my expectations of the class were entirely dashed.
I was disappointed with the lack of developer feedback on the Spiritualist during the playtests, and I remain disappointed with the class in its final iteration. The additions to the class seem lazy and/or lacking.
The Phantom doesn't appear to have any viability as a martial combatant without use of an archetype; its stats are lacking, its abilities while flavorful and varied are incredibly fixed in terms of options and rarely contribute meaningfully to augment its combat prowess to an acceptable level. Incorporeal scouting and phasing through walls remains cool, but of limited impressiveness beyond low levels.
The archetype that trades away the physical manifestation of the Phantom appears to then nerf the incorporeal Phantom rather than empower it, taking away its emotional focus in exchange for some bland, generic "ghost" powers.
The foci themselves have seemingly not been updated at all since the playtest, beyond adding a couple of foci that just seem like retreads of abilities from other foci.
The spell list is obviously much improved with the addition of the unique psychic spells, but the Spiritualist still gets a painfully small amount of them with no real options in-class that seem like an acceptable alternative use of that important standard action. Considering one of the two "better than the base class" archetypes sucks up spell slots like crazy, that's pretty painful.
My PFS Spiritualist already felt close to a burden to the tables I played at, with most of its contributions coming in the form of "cute" tricks with the incorporeal Phantom or using the ectoplasmic Phantom as nothing more than an option to soak up damage and AoOs that might have gone to "real" combatants in the first couple of rounds of combat. On the other hand, I never felt incentivized to keep my Phantom within my psyche, and that feeling is entirely unchanged regarding the final class.
tl;dr: I feel that my concerns with the Spiritualist class in the playtesting period were almost unanimously ignored in favor of haphazard feature additions that feel underpowered.