Comparison / Review of Arcanist Archtype - Harrowed Society Student

[Numbermancer]

Arcanist Archtype Harrowed Society Student Occult Origins p22.
PFS Req: ownership of Harrow Deck.
*rating* 1-poor, 2-poor, 3-avg, 4-good, 5-excellent.
For comparison the Exploit School Understanding lets an Arcanist get a Wiz School first lvl ability that runs on CHA and for 1 Arcn Pool point get the whole ability for CHA mod r.

*3* Psychic Reader(Ex): get Psychic Sensitivity(*4*), Diplo, Percpt, SnsMtv as class skills for 1st Lvl Arcanist Exploit. Ummm, a toss up. Sadly only 2 Skl pts per Lev...
*1* Harrow Reservoir(Ex): 5min ritual to get 9/6*[ArcnLvl/8]{free} Arcn Pool points instead of Consume Spls of (CHA bns)*(Spell Lvl slot) Arcn Pool points, Horrible Deal! HomeGame GMs just add this in for free.

Divine the Mysteries:

Divine the Mysteries (Ex): At 5th level and every 2 levels thereafter, a Harrowed Society student can select a divination spell from the spell list of any class, including classes that cast divine or psychic spells, and add it to her list of spells known. This spell must be at least 1 level lower than the highest-level spell she can cast. She casts these spells as arcane spells, using her normal spell slots, but must use a harrow deck as an additional focus component. If such a spell is normally a psychic spell with an emotion or thought component, she must also add that component.

*3* Divine the Mysteries(Ex): @ArcnLvl 5,7,9,11,13,15... learn Divination spl of any class of Spl Lvl one below maximum castable Spl Lvl with Harrow Deck as Focus. Not bad but it's an information gathering spell and if you're a Wiz:Diviner you have many that you have to take already... probably good to pick up some psychic divinations but in PFS you will be ADDING components not replacing them...
*2* Trump Card(Su): @9th std actn draw card for one self or ally or enemy within 30ft gains +2 to +4 one time bonus (or negative value for enemy). At 9th a Wiz:Diviner would std actn Tch +4 insight bns for 1r [3 +INT bns]/d... it's a mix again, lower bns but good duration, usable on enemy but easy Will DC[10 +ArcnLvl/2 +CHA bns] to save and only one at a time. The killer is it runs off Arcn Pool points(so -1)!

overall that's a *2.25* rating so definitely lost some power.
The deck as a Foci might be handy if you can replace Scry focus and some other expensive foci...

[Melkiador]

I’d rate psychic reader at more like a 4. You give up an exploit for a feat and roughly the equivalent of 2 traits. And the arcanist is an intelligence based class, so the extra class skills stand a good chance of getting used.

Harrow Reservoir isn’t that bad. It doesn’t net you as many maximum points as consume spells could, but you don’t have to give up any spells to use it. And it doesn’t rely on charisma like consume spells does. It’s at worst a 2 and more like a 3. And it can pretty easily be done at the beginning of your day to top off your reservoir, so the 5 minute time usage is mostly irrelevant.

Divine the mysteries is just an ok ability, but you don’t technically trade anything for it so that makes it pretty good.

I personally don’t like Trump Card. Giving up a point to get a random bonus that I may not even be able to use isn’t my thing. I wouldn’t trade an exploit for it.

[Melkiador]

Not sure if this is the intent, but divine the mysteries adds those spells to your “spells known”, not your spellbook. And “Feats and other effects that modify the number of spells known by a spellcaster instead affect the number of spells an arcanist can prepare.”

So, that means the ability gives you all of those divination spells without them taking up any of your prepped spells. That raises it to at least a 4 and maybe a 5.

[Numbermancer]

on Divine the Mysteries - I posted the text behind a spoiler.
From the text they are just prepared for expending "your normal spell slots", no extra slots like the wizard school specialization. Similar to Page of Spell Knowledge. So YES, a plus.
I'll repeat that the components for psychic spells are cumulative due to the wording in the ability rather than substitutive. That impacts action economy as they become full round castings and that's a big negative.
I'll add in that Divinations are usually not cast in the middle of combat, so it is more of a wash toward the positive.

[Numbermancer]

on Psychic Reader
I'm not keen on replacing an Arcane Exploit (Dimensional Slide) with a good skill that runs off Appraise and some class skills. Sure if you spread out the same skill points you normally get you can pick up 9 'in class' skill points. They are some Good skills and after 5 or so levels it will pay off with slightly better skill bonuses as you spread out your skill points BUT you are becoming more of a generalist at the cost of your primary skills. A better general character but not a better Arcanist, so that's equivalent.

Lastly the multi ability requirements of an Arcanist make the class a balancing act. Tying things to CHA (your secondary ability score) is not a good thing unless you are planning to go Sor/Arcn with good CHA and an okay INT. Skill points are gonna suffer.

[avr]

The good part of Divine the Mysteries is that since the spells gained aren't set by the feature, you can use spells from the newest sources. As compared to a bloodline where they were fixed long ago, or a domain likewise, etc. If you want to use it to pick up e.g. Locate Portal (from the First World book) or Mind Thrust V (Occult Adventures) you can do so.

Adding components only lengthens the casting time if you're casting defensively (or on a ship, or other difficult conditions) and want to avoid that 10 point penalty to concentration. If you're standing on a solid stone floor behind some competent goons the casting time is the usual.