I'm going to visit family here in a couple of weeks and I'm gonna run a one-shot for my brothers(Homebrew, level 14). One of my brothers expressed interest in the Occultist. Due to the high level, I wanted to study the classes they all chose so that I could get a decent idea of what shenanigans they can pull and so I could fairly adjudicate those situations when said shenanigans were pulled.
Which brings me to the Occultist ability "Magic Circles" and this link "http://www.thedicedecide.com/mack-blog/pathfinder-occultist-guide-part-one /".
The guide itself, is a good read, very informative, and more or less, upbeat. But, when I got to his description of Magic Circles my brain locked up. To MY understanding, all this ability does it create a permanent Magic Circle Against Alignment(let's say Evil). To my understanding(again), Magic Circle Against Evil spews out a 10ft emanation from the creature touched that 1)Is mobile, 2)Keeps out Evil summoned critters, 3)grants everyone Protection From Evil while in it(badguys included..which would be hilarious if one of the PC's was evil), and 4)All the binding stuff. It keeps NOTHING else out of the circle. Not Undead, Not Outsiders here by their own means, not Jehovah's Witnesses, Nor your crazy Ex. That's it. Right?
So, is Magic Circles any different(besides permanent and 4 spells packaged into one ability)? Am I seriously overthinking this? For some reason it just seriously FUBARed my brain. Anywho...
Sorry for being long-winded.
Thanks!
But undead are evil...
Sorry to necro this thread, but I was confused by the difference between Magic Circles and Magic Circle against (let's say) Evil, as well.
The way I understood Magic Circles is that the circle is essentially the material component of a bog-standard Magic Circle against Evil spell, except permanent and with the downside that the circle not be broken. This means that in the process of drawing the circle, the Occultist touches a creature who can then move away from the circle and emanate a protective aura whereever they are.
However, the description of this ability states that the circle functions as a Magic Circle against Evil which is a phrase that really confuses me. That's like saying "This fork functions as Stoneskin", what on Earth does that even mean? One's a physical object, the other's a spell.
One way to interpret this (and the way the guide writer apparently did) is that the physical circle itself describes the limits of the protective aura. So, the circle has a radius of 10 ft and the protective aura emanates not from any creature touched, but from the center of the circle, making the aura stationary rather than mobile.
This strikes me as some pretty heavy houseruling since the description of the ability does not state that there's any change as to what the aura emanates from. The first version seems closer to the rules (mostly keeping the spell Magic Circle against Evil intact, including range and area), but the second version would explain the weird wording in the ability's description.
I would really love to know the intention behind that ability.