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As Occult Adventures did not include rules for Variant Multiclassing with the new base classes, I thought I'd set up my own. Thoughts?
Occult Variant Multiclassing:
Kinetist
A character who chooses Kineticist as her secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Elemental Focus: At 3rd level, she chooses an element on which to focus (aether, air, earth, fire, or water)
and gains that element's basic ultility talent (basic telekinesis, basic aerokinesis, basic geokenisis, basic
pyrokinesis, or basic hydrokinesis). She uses her character level as the caster level and Constitution as her key ability score.
Kinetic Blast: At 7th level, she chooses a kinetic blast wild talent of her choice. The kinetic blast must be a
simple blast that matches her element. Her effective character level for this talent is half her character level.
Infusion: At 11th level, she gains one infusion from the list of those available to a kineticist of her character level -5.
She must still fufil the pre-requistes required to learn this infusion. If the infusion requires the caster to accept Burn
she uses her character level as the caster level for both determining the amount of non-lethal damage gained and the damage
of the Infused Blast. (This means that infused blasts will do more damage than non-infused blasts)
Utility Talent: At 15th level, she gains a utility wild talent from the list of those available to a kineticist of her character
level -5. She must still fufil the pre-requisites of the wild talent to select it.
Expanded Element: At 19th level she gains the Expanded Element class feature gaining the appropriate Basic Utility Talent and appropriate Composite Blast, her effective kinetist level for her composite blast is her character level. If she chooses the same element as she previously chose she instead learns either an additional Infusion or a Utilty Wild Talent available to a kineticist of her character level -5.
Medium
A character who chooses Medium as her secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Spirit: At 3rd level, she gains the ability act as the vessel for a spirit as a Medium of her character level; however, she does not gain any of the spirit's Spirit Powers; however she does gain the appropriate Spirit Bonus and Seance Boon.
Spirit Surge: At 7th level, she gains the Spirit Surge ability of a 1st level Medium. This ability never improves, she always adds 1d6.
Lesser Spirit Power: At 11th level, she gains the Lesser Spirit Power of her channeled spirit. If the channeled spirit is the Archmage she does not get the Archmage Arcana ability, she instead selects a single 1st, and 2nd level spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list and can use each of them once per day as spell-like abilities, if she selects the Hierophant she does not get the Divine Surge ability, she instead selects a single 1st, and 2nd level spell from the cleric spell list and can use each of them one per day as spell-like abilities.
Taboo: At 15th level she gains the taboo ability allowing her to use her spirit surge ability an additional two times by accepting a taboo.
Intermidiate Spirit Power: At 19th level, she gains the Intermidiate Spirit Power of her channeled Spirit, if the channeled spirit is the Guardian she may cast Paladin's Sacrifice as a spell-like like ability once per day in addition to gaining the Absorb Blow ability. If the channeled spirit is the Archmage or the Heirophant she does not gain either the Arcane Surge or Divine Surge abilities, she instead may also select a single 3rd level spell when selecting spells for her Lesser Spirit Power to be able to cast. Also she may cast any of her spell-like abilities gained through her Spirit additional times by allowing her channeled spirit to gain 1 additional point of influence over her.
Mesmerist:
A character who chooses Mesmerist as his secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Hypnotic Stare: At 3rd level, he gains the Hypnotic Stare class feature of a 1st level Mesmerist.
Mesmerist Trick: At 7th level, he learns a single Mesmerist Trick, he treats his character level as his Mesmerist level for this trick. He can use this trick a number of times equal to his charisma modifier.
Knack: At 11th level if he has an Charisma score of 10 or higher, he chooses a mesmerist knack from the mesmerist spell list and can cast that knack as a spell-like ability at will. He uses his character level as the caster level and Charisma as the knack's key ability score.
Bold Stare: At 15th level he chooses a single augmentation for his Hypnotic Stare from those available to a Mesmerist of his level.
Masterful Trick: At 19th level he learns either a Masterful Trick or another Mesmerist Trick and can use is a number of times per day equal to his charisma modifier.
Occultist
A character who chooses Occultist as his secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Implement: At 3rd level he learns a single Implement School from those available to an Occultist learning the base focus power and a single new focus power from that implement. He gains a pool of mental focus equal to his intelligence modifier. His effective Occultist level for his Implement powers is his character level.
Object Reading: At 7th level he gains the Object Reading class feature.
Improved Focus Power: At 11th level he learns another focus power from his chosen implement school, this focus power can be any that an Occultist of his character level-6 could learn.
Greater Mental Focus: At 15th level he gains an additional 5 points of Mental focus, and gains the Aura Sight Class feature.
Greater Focus Power: At 19th level he learns another focus power from his chosen implement school, this focus power can be any that an occultist of his character level-6 could learn.
Psychic
A character who chooses Psychic as her secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Detect Thoughts: At 3rd level she gains the Detect Thoughts class feature.
Psychic Discipline: At 7th level she selects a Psychic Discipline and learns one of its 1st level abilities, her effective Psychic level for all of her Discipline abilities is her character level.
Knack: At 11th level if he has an Intelligence score of 10 or higher, he chooses a Psychic knack from the Psychic spell list and can cast that knack as a spell-like ability at will. He uses his character level as the caster level and Intelligence as the cantrip's key ability score.
Greater Psychic Discipline: At 15th level she gains the 5th level ability of her Chosen Discipline, as well as her Discipline's other 1st level ability.
Telepathy: At 19th level she gains the telepathy class feature.
Spiritualist
A character who chooses Psychic as her secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Shared Consciousness: At 3rd level her phantom is not powerful enough to manifest itself and simply resides in her consciousness at all times. She gains the Shared Consciousness class feature.
Phantom: At 7th level she can manifest her phantom for short periods of time, her phantom has the abilities of a Spiritualist of her character level-4. Normally confined to her consciousness as a standard action she can cause her phantom to manifest itself in an adjacent space, on subsequent rounds she need only spend a swift action to maintain her Phantom's manifestation. Her phantom can only remain manifested for a number of rounds per day equal to 3+her character level, these rounds need not be consecutive. She also gains the Etheric Tether class feature.
Knack: At 11th level if he has an Wisdom score of 10 or higher, he chooses a knack from the Spiritualist spell list and can cast that knack as a spell-like ability at will. He uses his character level as the caster level and Wisdom as the knack's key ability score.
Improved Phantom: At 15th level her phantom increases in power to that of a spiritualist of her character level.
Greater Phantom: At 19th level the amount of rounds she can manifest her Phantom increases to 3+double her level, and she can manifest her phantom as a swift action rather than a standard action should she wish.
Nice save, I've changed it in the original post.
And in terms of weapons I assume you mean the battle oracle with the right revelation right?
Do any of the classes qualify for additional X power?
How do you mean? The extra *blank* feats? I said no extra talent feats, but that's the only one so far.
The developers have stated that the specific ones that say they don't qualify for "Extra _" specifically don't qualify for a reason. The others seem to be fair game.
Should probably be the same here?
I agree, I feel that extra wild talent is probably too good as some of them give too much flexibility, but any others are probably fine.
Nice work! Not to toot my own horn, but rather to provide a complementary contribution, I have done a writeup on Consolidated/Background Skills for Occult Characters.
Nice work! Not to toot my own horn, but rather to provide a complementary contribution, I have done a writeup on Consolidated/Background Skills for Occult Characters.
Good stuff
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I like it. :)
I have a player that VMC's into Occultist as a Ranger. At 3rd level, I let him have a full Mental Focus (Ranger level as Occultist Level), since Int Bonus is typically going to be low (Maybe 14 at best) for anything not a Wizard type. I also allowed him to pick up a single Implement and the basic Resonate Power attached to it. 7th level he got the Base Focus Power as well as 1 other Focus Power of choice, using his Level as the class Level.
So, at 3rd level he too Divination, with 4 mental focus points (3rd level, 12 Int). He already has low light vision, so that didn't do anything for him. 5th level he got Darkvision though (though that meant he used ALL his mental focus points).
7th level he can either See Invisibility once per day (he has a +2 Int item), or use his Mind Eye (Sp) throughout the day (not both since it costs 9 mental focus to get the See Invisibility and he has level +2 from Int).
Point being, at least in my case, if it was just "Int Bonus", you wouldn't get anything from 3rd level, 5th level, 7th level (except a once or twice per day use of Mind Eye).
I haven't looked at other Implements, but maybe something to think on. :)
EDIT: Oh... his Sudden Insight is where I subtracted -6 from his level. There it made sense. :) So he can, at 7th level, spend a mental focus point for a +1 to his attack roll. By 20th level, that's +7.
I like it. :)
I have a player that VMC's into Occultist as a Ranger. At 3rd level, I let him have a full Mental Focus (Ranger level as Occultist Level), since Int Bonus is typically going to be low (Maybe 14 at best) for anything not a Wizard type.
That's a fair point, I think that full is probably too much when compared to the other options for VMC, but maybe either 3+Int or half character level with no int might be alright.
Of note, I'm only posting because I have live experience with an home brewed Occultist VMC. Not necessarily trying to change your mind on things, more wanting to give you empathy towards the player that will take this VMC.
My player wanted Mind Eye (Sp). He didn't care about any of the rest, and I think it's fair to say that chances are, that any player who wants to VMC into an Occultist has a particular focus in mind (or set of foci) for their character. So, you're obviously on the right track about putting feats into implements (with the exception of Object Reading/Aura Sight, which doesn't strike me as an interest point for anyone wanting to VMC into the class).
Now, -my- problem is that I rarely see games that get to a level they'd get that 3rd feat, much less the 4th or 5th... so I rushed the Mind Eye to 7th when it probably should have been 11th.
3rd level obviously needs Mental Focus/Implement, or the whole thing is pointless... and probably limited to the Resonant Power (Resonant Powers tend to be feat-level powers). If not doing this for my particular player, my level 7 would likely have been the Base Focus Power but with any effects from the Base Focus Power treating the player level at -6 for Occultist Level. then the following 3 feats would have gone towards picking a single Focus Power attached to that Implement (though again with any effects being treated as if the Occultist level was 6 levels lower than the Player level).
With your system, my level 11 is your level 3. This makes it impossible to -not- VMC into Occultists. What fighter in the world isn't going to want to do Divination Occultist when, starting at level 3, they get a bonus equal to half their level to attack rolls, ending up with +10 by 20th level? With my system, applying the -6 to effect instead of qualifications, that's going to be +6 at 20th level, and doesn't start helping until 7th level for my current game, or 11th level if I used my aforementioned system.
I think the extra stuff is just extra... the amount of Mental Focus they gain doesn't really matter, since the implement has level restrictions on what they can do. And anything not dealing with Implement Focus is non-interesting (in my opinion) to players, eg Obj Read/Aura Sight.
Also... I was checking, the -6 seems to only apply, in existing VMCs, for "effects" not for "qualifications". I could be wrong, since I didn't feel like going through all the VMCs, but for the ones I did go through (such as Cleric), it was only for effects. As such, I would recommend this change:
A character who chooses Occultist as his secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
Implement: At 3rd level he learns a single Implement School from those available to an Occultist gaining access only to the Resonant Power of that implement. He gains a pool of mental focus equal to his character level plus his Int modifier. His effective Occultist level for his Implement powers is his character level -6.
Base Focus Power: At 7th level, he gains access to the base focus power for the implement he is attuned to. His effective Occultist level for this is his character level -6.
Focus Power: At 11th level he learns a focus power from his chosen implement school, this focus power can be any that an Occultist of his character level could learn.
Improved Focus Power: At 15th level he can choose to either gain another Focus Power, as the 11th level feature, or select a 2nd Implement gaining both the Resonant Power and Base Focus Power of that Implement. His effective Occultist level for effects of these is equal to his character level -6.
Greater Focus Power: At 19th level he learns a focus power from a known implement school, this focus power can be any that an occultist of his character level could learn, but his Occultist level is his character level -6 for any effects.
And truth be told, even with this downgrade, I feel it is still potentially overpowered, albeit because I allowed a 2nd school at 15th level... but I can understand that someone interested in an Occ VMC will have multiple foci in mind for the theme of their character. However, say they went Divination and Transmutation at 15th level, by 20th level they'd get +6 to attack rolls, +2 for adding race specific Bane or Holy, or anything else to their already maxxed weapon. Not to mention the +6 Strength for the Transmutation Resonant Power.
Occultist VMC could easily be one of the most powerful VMCs for a martial class with these 2 implements... So maybe better to drop the option to gain a 2nd implementation at 15th level. And definitely needing to switch the level stuff to effects rather than qualifications.
Two notes: First, to get Kineticist on par with similar VMCs, the element should be chosen at first level, even if you don't gain related powers untill third. See: VMC Oracle's curse, VMC Witch's patron or VMC Cleric's god.
Also, some occult classes have limiting mechanisms you forgot to add to the VMC. Kineticists have a maximum amount of burn they can take a day, and you probably should keep that limit (though the non-lethal damage is another mechanism towards the same goal). Even more glaring, there seem to be no disadvantages to a VMC Medium. So you can choose a taboo and brake it willy-nilly, or use the powers as much as you wanted.
I understand that this would only add even more text to the VMCs, but I consider it important for a good hoebrew.
Also:
I like it. :)
I have a player that VMC's into Occultist as a Ranger. At 3rd level, I let him have a full Mental Focus (Ranger level as Occultist Level), since Int Bonus is typically going to be low (Maybe 14 at best) for anything not a Wizard type. I also allowed him to pick up a single Implement and the basic Resonate Power attached to it. 7th level he got the Base Focus Power as well as 1 other Focus Power of choice, using his Level as the class Level.
So, at 3rd level he too Divination, with 4 mental focus points (3rd level, 12 Int). He already has low light vision, so that didn't do anything for him. 5th level he got Darkvision though (though that meant he used ALL his mental focus points).
7th level he can either See Invisibility once per day (he has a +2 Int item), or use his Mind Eye (Sp) throughout the day (not both since it costs 9 mental focus to get the See Invisibility and he has level +2 from Int).
Point being, at least in my case, if it was just "Int Bonus", you wouldn't get anything from 3rd level, 5th level, 7th level (except a once or twice per day use of Mind Eye).
That changed since the playtest: now the static powers are set when you invest focus, and remain while there's at least one point invested. They do not decrease. So he cnak keep the See invisibility and use Mind's eye a couple times.
That changed since the playtest: now the static powers are set when you invest focus, and remain while there's at least...
Yeah, I know this but my post and point are a bit skewed. I meant to say that he can See Invisibility once (beginning of the day, obviously the duration is up until...), but once he uses Mind Eye (Sp), he loses his See Invisibility (because now he doesn't have enough Mental Focus stored in his implement). It requires 9 points in the implement to see invisibility, and he has a grand total of 9 mental focus points (level 7 +2 from Int Mod). So until he gains a few more levels, See Invisibility will likely be effective at most once a day, after which he's likely to have used some Mental Focus to deal with the scene. :)
Occultist
A character who chooses Occultist as his secondary class gains the following secondary class features.Implement: At 3rd level he learns a single Implement School from those available to an Occultist gaining access only to the Resonant Power of that implement. He gains a pool of mental focus equal to his character level plus his Int modifier. His effective Occultist level for his Implement powers is his character level -6.
Base Focus Power: At 7th level, he gains access to the base focus power for the implement he is attuned to. His effective Occultist level for this is his character level -6.
Focus Power: At 11th level he learns a focus power from his chosen implement school, this focus power can be any that an Occultist of his character level could learn.
Improved Focus Power: At 15th level he can choose to either gain another Focus Power, as the 11th level feature, or select a 2nd Implement gaining both the Resonant Power and Base Focus Power of that Implement. His effective Occultist level for effects of these is equal to his character level -6.
Greater Focus Power: At 19th level he learns a focus power from a known implement school, this focus power can be any that an occultist of his character level could learn, but his Occultist level is his character level -6 for any effects.
Fair points on all accounts Sphynx, to be honest the occultist is the class I was least familiar with going into this. I definitely see what you mean about it being overpowered when compared to the other options for VMC. Wouldn't reducing the amount of Mental Focus the character get bring it more in to balance with the way the other VMC have been handled? I'm not quite sure how much would be appropriate.
Two notes: First, to get Kineticist on par with similar VMCs, the element should be chosen at first level, even if you don't gain related powers untill third. See: VMC Oracle's curse, VMC Witch's patron or VMC Cleric's god.
Also, some occult classes have limiting mechanisms you forgot to add to the VMC. Kineticists have a maximum amount of burn they can take a day, and you probably should keep that limit (though the non-lethal damage is another mechanism towards the same goal). Even more glaring, there seem to be no disadvantages to a VMC Medium. So you can choose a taboo and brake it willy-nilly, or use the powers as much as you wanted.
I understand that this would only add even more text to the VMCs, but I consider it important for a good hoebrew.
True, I'll add the burn mechanics and cap in the next iteration and the element choice at 1st level; well as is, as they get the whole seance mechanic they still have to avoid accruing too much influence or suffer the spirit drawbacks. Or do you mean there is no innate downside such as suffering the Spirit's influence penalty automatically?
It;s a fair query, the real question is how important are the implement bonuses to the player. Maybe a better idea would be to grant them full mental focus in points, but double the cost of using powers, similar to how it costs double if you use generic mental focus points. This cuts the resonant and focus powers down to half as many uses, but lets them have the full benefit of their single implement.
Then again... a base Occultist has to split his mental focus up amongst a variety of implements, whereas the VMC only has one implement... so maybe it is a good idea to redux that. I know for our player, he was going to go full occultist, but was asking to make an archetype for a single implement, and while trying to iron out the concept, the VMC idea just popped into my head, and worked... we didn't go into this with the idea of making a VMC, he just wanted that one focus... My point being, even though base Occultists have to split their mental focus up amongst several implements, it's possible that they don't... after all, why not just maximize a single implement?
I think the double cost for powers, and full pool is the better of the ideas.
For the Kineticist, you need to add the Burn feature. That's kinda mandatory for talents ;)
Well, in regards to the Kineticist, I think, from the viewpoint of someone wanting to VMC into the class, it misses the point (though still glad someone wrote something up). I don't think anyone who would VMC into Kineticist would do so for the blast (not even infusion). Their blast would always be subpar, and pointless... I think the 5 feats should: 3rd level: Defense. 7th level: Utility. 11th level: Utility 15th level: New Element+Defense or Utility. 19th level: Utility.
Most of the interesting utilities (such as Flying) have requisites, so you'd be at best 11th level to get the real benefit, for aether, you'd barely be able to finesse/haul by 11th level, but is almost exactly the worth of the lost feats... However, I just don't think anyone would VMC into Kineticist for the blast... and you don't want to make something nobody is going to use...
I could be wrong though, but if I wanted an Electric Blast, I'd more likely just 1-level dip into Wizard or Sorcerer... which grants so much more via spells.
Sadly, the more I think about it, the more all of these VMCs are more powerful than the ones by Paizo... I mean, if you didn't know, what would you think a Wizard VMC would do? They get their first Cantrip at 11th level. :/
While I would absolutely allow it in a game (obviously, I'm currently allowing it in a game), the VMC stuff should never be more powerful than a feat. Utility Wild Talents, Implement Power Focus... these are all quite a bit more powerful than what a feat would offer I think. Someone tell me I'm wrong please...?
^If you don't allow them to be ever more powerful than a feat, you are going to be in trouble, because some feats are considerably more powerful than others (it isn't for nothing that quite a lot of feats get a Red rating in all guides that mention them at all . . .). This also holds true for the existing official VMC chains -- some of them are just Red, whereas a few can be better than feats in the right build, but not for all builds. The latter sounds about right.
Edit: I wish they would come out with VMC options along with each new class, and I wish that they had done this with the Occult Adventures classes, although that might have been hard to coordinate with the overlapping development processes of Occult Adventures and Pathfinder Unchained.