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Class Skills: A ??? gains Bluff and Stealth as class skills.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
The ??? is not proficient with medium armor or shields.
Focused Shot
At 1st level, the ??? gains focused shot as a bonus feat.
Occult Sneak Attack
At 3rd level, the ??? can deal sneak attack damage as a rogue equal to half her ??? level.
This ability replaces knacks and all spellcasting, and the ??? is not considered to have a caster level.
Improved Focused Shot
At 11th level, whenever the ??? spends a standard action to make an attack with the focused shot feat, she can make an additional attack at a -4 penalty on the attack roll, adding her intelligence modifier on the damage roll. In addition, when using focused shot, creatures normally immune to critical hits and sneak attacks lose this immunity against the ???’s attacks until the end of the ???’s turn.
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What do you think, is spellcasting a fair trade off? Do you think it's underpowered or overpowered? Anything you'd add/change?
And most importantly, is there anything about it that can be broken?
Isn't spellcasting vital to an occultist? All of their major class features revolve around it.
It might be better just to make an unchained rogue archetype with a few occultist abilities.
Isn't spellcasting vital to an occultist? All of their major class features revolve around it.
Not really, beyond a couple of their resonant powers, as far as I can see none of the occultist's class abilities rely on spellcasting. In a similar way to the psychometrist, even without spellcasting the implements and focus powers function just fine, and this archetype keeps all of the non-spellcasting magical abilities that make the occultist fun to play.
(And i think we can all agree the rogue gets too many archetypes already)
Make it an archetype that gains access to a special implement that doesn't grant spells and they get one less implement. This implement's resonant power would be sneak attack 1/4th to 3/4ths that of a rogues. The base power could be an ability that treats a target as if it was flatfooted, and can be fed more points to get a bonus to hit. Other powers could be toggleable rogue talents or the like.
That sounds like a bit too much of a hefty upgrade to any occultist going melee, allowing them to keep almost their entire selection of spells while also giving them up to 3/4 the rogue's sneak attack. I mean, it's a fair idea, and I appreciate the contribution, but that archetype would put a rogue to shame, especially with focus powers that make flat footed, a roster of spells/resonants from the other 5 implements and other focus powers. As it stands, thanks to the base occultist's buffs from spells it pretty much already outshines the rogue, if you're going to start giving it 3/4sneak attack as well for a single implement trade-off, that's creating a monster.
I did think of this originally to be fair, but I eventually concluded giving up spellcasting was the only way to try and balance out the power disparity, without creating something that completely loses the iconic occultist flavor. Now i'm just trying to make sure what i've made isn't going to be underpowered, overpowered or able to be broken by any combos of feats/multiclassing.
Psychometrist Vigilante is more or less this. You get your choice of full BAB or modified sneak attack, and while you don't get resonance or as many implements, you do get a bunch of social talents to boost skills with, plus some solid combat-boosting talents.
It's an implement that technically would take the place of two implements, since you have to select it and lose out on selecting another, limiting you to 3 implements. Also, take a glance at the Eldritch Scoundrel Rogue archetype.
If it took up 2 implements you'd have 5 normal implements by max level... (they get 7 in total) so that's hardly a blip in their normal spellcasting. Eldritch Scoundrel seems cool, if you want spellcasting and no implements, but lets try to stay focused on the idea of a spell-less occultist, as per the intent of the thread. Feedback on the balance of the archetype compared to other non-spellcasting classes is very welcome.
Psychometrist Vigilante is more or less this. You get your choice of full BAB or modified sneak attack, and while you don't get resonance or as many implements, you do get a bunch of social talents to boost skills with, plus some solid combat-boosting talents.
Oh yes indeed I do like that archetype, it's certainly my outright favorite despite the vigilante not being one of my favorite classes. I did have certain issues with it which I guess made me want to homebrew this, mainly that their focus power acquisition is a little... slow. Ok, it's very slow. They dont get their first non-base focus power until 6 if I remember correctly. Plus vigilantes can often present problems in normal adventures, not game breaking ones but often tedious, so rather than reflavoring or simply ignoring the dual identity aspect of that class I thought i'd try approaching it from the occultist's side, because I dont think the occultist class has yet gotten the love it deserves.