I've never played an occult class before, and they all appeal by about the same amount to me for one reason or another.
I'm wondering what occult class people tend to prefer, and why? Role playing potential, overpowered, originality, well-designed class, etc.
J
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I personally love the Kineticist, you can go spooky with Aether or Void, or go fantastic with Earth, Fire, Air, Water or Wood.
But I have a soft-spot for the Mesmerist, because enchantment is my favorite school of magic and the Mesmerist is a beguiler with an actual theme.
I think the Medium has some of the best roleplaying potential in the game. Especially if you do voices when in character, because you can have 7 different voices (one for your character, and one for each spirit you channel). Perhaps more if you channel different spirits in a roving campaign.
Telekineticist. With Ranged Finesse, it's the Arcane Trickster I always wanted.
Personally, I like the Occultist and the Mesmerist. None of them seem OP. We just starting a new campaign and this is the first time any Occult classes have been played. We have a Psychic and an Occultist. It is too early to judge how each performs.
I find the Kineticist to be an interesting class but I can't just can't build one out that I am happy with. The Occultist has great flavor but for melee builds suffers the same problem as the battle cleric - takes too long to buff.
Well, most of them I DON'T like. Psychic/spiritualists are pretty much sorcerer/summoner archetypes. Kineticist have burn and I loathe burn. Medium is funky and requires locations.
That leave Mesmerist and Occultist. Occultist can be a bit fiddly with multiple resource pools so I wouldn't call it a favorite. So that leave the Mesmerist.
Mesmerist: I like the design, it gives a new spin on damage, letting you add to others damage, and has lots of nifty tricks to let you steer the class in different directions. This is my go to occult class. Also, it's a class that's a perfect match for a kitsune on fox form! ;)
Special note: there are some archetypes that completely rework some classes that I like a LOT more than the base class. For instance, Spiritualist has Ectoplasmatist and Phantom Blade which turns a pet class into stand alone class with fun abilities. They are a close second to the Mesmerist for me.
Occultist and Psychic. I love full casters so psychic is a no brainer. Int based spontaneous caster with some very fun unique spells. Heck yeah. Occultist has amazing flavor. Its a very versatile class that can be built in tons of different ways. Also its one of the few 6th level classes that can be built as a full caster
I'm very fond of the Kineticist and the Occultist. The Kineticist isn't really meaningfully "occult" (you could have printed it in Planar Adventures and nobody would bat an eye) so the tie probably goes to the Occultist.
All of them.
Harry Dresden (occultist)
I am rather fond of the Medium, as it allows you to create a character who is very good at melee combat and adequate in a variety of other roles. This can be very good when you are playing with people who don't put any thought into synergizing with the rest of the party.
I am rather fond of the Medium
I could have more love for the class if I'd didn't see some DM's being quite persnickety about locations needed to channel the spirit you want. I'd suggest anyone thinking of playing one get together with their DM and make sure how easy/hard it will be to find spirit locations.
Or play an archetype that isn't location dependent. Since I would be wanting to be able to shift roles on short notice, I am looking primarily at the Rivethun Channeler and Spirit Dancer archetypes. Even though the Spirit Dancer is theoretically not free of the location dependency, it is also highly unlikely that such a Medium would be in a location where he couldn't summon his choice of spirits. The worst likely case would be if you are forced to do your séance in the exact same place you did it yesterday -- then the GM might force you to repeat all choices from the day before.
The Relic Channeler gives up too much flexibility, but the Udo Wendo archetype does give a more standard Medium a way to avoid location dependence. I think there might be one or two other archetypes that do that as well by now, but I can't recall them at the moment.
Occultist.
Cool class features, flexible build options, great flavour tied to the magic, and a weird (but limited) spell list that has cool school based themes to it.
It does Wizard schools better than the Wizard; and I think thats rad. You have to choose your weaknesses and strengths and you can actually make an illusionist or enchanter that truly BANS evocation or transmutation.
So cool.
Or play an archetype that isn't location dependent.
That works too. Just putting location on the RADAR as a possible issue. ;)