Has anyone else tried viewing this on an ipad? The PDF is so large that I have to swipe my finger 7 or 8 times just to get from the left side to the right. I can't pinch the screen to shrink it either - it thinks I am closing the browser window.
Huh. That's very weird. I've only viewed this on a regular laptop and on my android phone. Worked fine on either. Not a pad user myself, so I'm afraid I cannot help you out. Sorry. :/
So a few more updates. I won't post direct links; all the latest versions of each document are in the Google Drive folder linked in the OP.
I've fiddled a bit more with the uncommoner and the world deformer. The latter lost access to the horrorist archetype's umbral illusions ability, instead gaining four new gloamings: gift of madness, the land hungers, warp creativity and warp mastery.
The uncommoner now must sacrifice three unexplained phenomena uses to gain 2 shadow points. This is to reflect the fact that you gain more unexplained phenomena uses than an ordinary shadewright does shadow points. A small nerf, but it seems balanced as I'm looking at the archetype right now.
Cheers,
- Gears
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So, this now exists:
It's basically a spooky shadewright who slowly but surely stops existing in some macabre, umbral fashion, and can cause the same to temporarily happen to her foes in the process. Enjoy!
People might notice it uses the old iconic originally used for the uncommoner. Since I changed the uncommoner's picture but I thought this one seemed so appropriate for the nobody's theme, I decided to put it in instead of hunt down a new pic! :)
Cheers,
- Gears
For those who enjoy a bit of modularity in their classes, I've created a pair of simple alternate class features for the shadewright:
The Shadow Sage and the Shadow Scholar
These basically let you play a Wisdom- or Intelligence-based shadewright rather than a Charisma-based one. These are two alternate class feature options available to shadewrights of all archetypes (or none of them) except for uncommoners, who don't get access to this option because of balance reasons and due to their flavor.
Hope y'all enjoy!
Cheers,
- Gears
This is my first time using A pc to browse the forums in years. I decided to do so that I may open the pdf. Apparently I am way too used to my tablet keyboard because typing this is pretty hard!
The skill list is good. Appropriately number of class skills, all seemed thematically correct. I only mention this because there have been very few time I haven't had a criticism of a class skill list.
I was wondering why you decided on your list of weapon proficiencies. it seems that a shadewright would probably stick with short sword and rarely never look elsewhere.
I am unclear on Lesser Shadows. Is this a list of 1/day SLAs? Or are they at-will? If it's at-will, then eleven cantrips at 1st level seems like an awful lot. You should drop it down to maybe 3 or so and add more with level. Or require spending points to use them.
My only criticism of Shade Blade is the duration and the time it takes to conjure. I might change to 1 hour per level, and can conjure it as a full=round action that provokes AoOs.
I really think Shadow Reservoir needs a new formula. All of the "+ Cha" on the class table look strange. It matches up precisely with Class BAB + 1 + Cha mod, but that might be a weird way to say it too. I feel that if the formula were changed to "4 + 1/2 level" with no Cha, then you would end up with the numbers being very close to what you have now. That way the wordy formula is gone, and your column reads "4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7..."
I think that Shade Strike needs reconsideration for the two reasons. #1 You have too many appearances of shade, shady, shadow, and shadows. Gloaming is cool. Could you rename one of your features to Umbral something? #2 Causing the GM to roll a saving throw multiple times in a round is as annoying as fighting poisonous monsters with 4 attacks per round, except not as deadly. Perhaps limit it to one save on the first successful attack or something.
I feel like 4 skills for Shady is too many. With 6+ skill points the character is already doing pretty good (and since she doesn't add Str or Dex to damage rolls, there is less MAD to the class). Perhaps limit the bonus to areas of dim light or darkness? That's pretty rough though.
Thanks for taking the time to take a look at the class, Ciaran. Since my response is a bit wordy, I'll put it in a spoiler below:
I suppose I could limit lesser shadows, although I really don't feel like it's a balance issue. Yes, it's an at-will ability (I will clarify that, though; thanks for the catch!). I'll change it to 3, plus an additional one gained at every even-numbered class level (from that list); since I don't care one way or another but someone else feels it's a bit too much, I have no issues with changing it. If I get a lot of people saying it's too big a nerf, I may change it back though.
Well, a few people do seem to think shade blade takes too long, but I like the idea of it being a bit of a lengthy ritual. There is a feat you can take to speed it up if you like (Shadow-Stuff Mastery, at the bottom of the doc). This is just one of those idiosyncratic things where the current set-up just feels right and I don't feel moved to change it. If anyone wants to change it as per your specs in their home game they have my blessing as the shadewright's creator; I don't think it would unbalance anything or be OP.
While I appreciate you might find the shadow reservoir formula a little tricky, it's clearly written out on the class table, so I don't find it problematic. Also, I assume you meant to suggest changing it to 4 + level, not 4 + 1/2 level, because the latter would assuredly lead to a smaller shadow reservoir, not an equally sized one? As things stand now, I want Charisma to be important for this class and I want it to influence the pool size. Shadewrights use this pool for everything, so 1/2 level + Cha is too small. I tried level + Cha in a playtest, but that seemed slightly too big considering the power of call shadows. The current set up (effectively 3/4 level + Cha, but I phrased it differently) has thus far felt just right while playtesting. If anything, it might be prove to be necessary to buff it to level + Cha after I've progressed further in the playtest.
I could certainly imagine that change to shade strike. Would you say it would make the ability more or less powerful? I'm somehow finding that hard to mathematically figure out. It would make success more spiky, obviously, but I get the complaint. Although, I'm not sure if a class ability being as fiddly to keep track of as a monster with poison is necessarily enough to justify me rewriting a class feature, especially one which interacts with a whole bunch of gloamings and archetypes that would also potentially have to be somewhat rewritten. I'll have to mull it over. It's a good observation, though.
I don't think I'm going to be renaming any class features, I'm afraid. I like the current names and don't find them confusing, nor have I come across that complaint before.
I think shady is fine. I don't think getting 1/2 class level to four skills is too much, even on a 6-skill-rank chassis. The bard gets so much more in terms of skills. As does the investigator. There's a part of me that might want to limit it to dim or less light for flavor reasons, but I agree that's probably too big a nerf. I'd be willing to change it if someone could convince me why it's OP. Right now I'm afraid I just don't see it.
Again, thanks for the critique. Certainly some things to mull over, even if I don't agree with everything you pointed out. It's always appreciated all the same! :)
Cheers,
- Gears
EDIT: In re Ciaran's comments and my spoiler-tagged response, I've now altered lesser shadows to start out at 3 cantrips, granting access to an additional one at 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 20th level. I agree it feels more elegant than slapping them on all at once, and I daresay Ciaran was right in thinking (if I'm inferring correctly) that it probably provided a bit too much versatility at 1st level. As for changing shade strike and the rest of it, I'm still mulling that over.
Sorry for the double-post. I missed the edit-by deadline. I just wanted to add that after considering things, I decided to implement another of Ciaran's suggestions, after initial reluctance. Forging a shade blade (and using certain other 10-minute abilities granted by various archetypes) now only takes a full-round action instead, which can be shortened further via the Shadow-Stuff Mastery feat. I'm starting to see I've been needlessly stubborn about this and the 10-minute forging time made the class feature clunky to use.
Cheers,
- Gears
So, this is just a small update, but I thought it worth mentioning. I've created a new gloaming for the world deformer:
The shadewright can use her warp reality ability to open up a worldmaw anywhere within 60 feet. This functions as per create pit, using the shadewright's class level as her effective caster level. The worldmaw remains for up to 1 round per class level, although the shadewright must spend a move action each round after the one wherein it was created to concentrate on the worldmaw. Otherwise, the worldmaw's duration is canceled prematurely. Beginning at 6th level, the shadewright can spend 1 additional shadow point when using this ability to instead have it function as per spiked pit. At 9th level, she can have it function as per acid pit by spending 2 additional shadow points, although unlike acid pit, this version of the worldmaw deals cold damage rather than acid damage. Beginning at 12th level, by spending 3 additional shadow points when using this ability, the shadewright can have it function as per hungry pit. If the shadewright expends a standard action instead of a move action to concentrate on her worldmaw, she can move it up to 30 feet as part of concentrating on it. Note however that moving the worldmaw further than 60 feet away from the shadewright immediately cancels its duration. A shadewright must possess the warp reality ability to learn this gloaming.
I thought it suited the archetype's flavor rather neatly, and I also think it interacts quite well with the move earth version of the warp reality ability which, while it can create "pits" of a sort, would merely lower creatures down into them harmlessly, rather than the more aggressive effects of the create pit line of spells.
Anyway, I hope people like it! The Google Drive document has been updated to reflect this addition.
Cheers,
- Gears
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First the Blood Scion and now this, you are a creative fellow indeed Ethereal.
I think I will be playtesting the Shadewright and many of its archetypes the first chance I get. I admit, the class feel like it would be more appropriate for a Occult Adventures style campaign then vanilla Pathfinder campaign. Either that, or perhaps a more horror themed campaign.