Don't forget the quick study exploit that lets you switch your prepared spells out as a full round action. Ultimate versatility. There's almost too many great exploits. So many hard choices.
The occultist is an odd case. At low level, they basically get a bunch of extra spells per day, but because you level faster than your pool increases, at higher levels you'll only get about one "free" spell out of it per day. You can still use some consumes to get more off though, so don't skimp on that charisma, when playing an occultist. It's still a really good archetype, but be prepared for a slight playstyle shift as you climb out of the lower levels.
I had an Elemental Master Arcanist as the NPC villain for a few adventures in my last campaign. The players really hated him. I loved the versatility and flavor it added. If I get to be a player again I may roll one up.
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Arcanists are fun. Lazy GMs don't like them because the exploits side step ALL of the conventional rules regarding magic. It's not so bad once one makes the effort to understand them.
mmmh, I was only moderately tempted to try one earlier, but this sounds like fun...
I'll also have to look if arcane discoveries are geared only for wizards or if some can be useful also to an arcanist....
The counter spell exploit is the greatest one of all. Immediate action counters frustrated my DM on many occasions.
The counter spell exploit is the greatest one of all. Immediate action counters frustrated my DM on many occasions.
These exploits combined with greater dispel magic are about half the reason we survived the end of Rise of the Runelords.
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mmmh, I was only moderately tempted to try one earlier, but this sounds like fun...
I'll also have to look if arcane discoveries are geared only for wizards or if some can be useful also to an arcanist....
There’s an exploit to pick one up as a wizard of half your level. But I mean, it’s only fair for wizards to keep a few nice things for themselves.
Arcanists are fun. Lazy GMs don't like them because the exploits side step ALL of the conventional rules regarding magic. It's not so bad once one makes the effort to understand them.I am the Arcanist that vexed Brother Fen so much and in my opinion, Arcanist is THE best arcane casting class, ever. So the bad guy is in the face of the spell caster eh? Dimension slide away...or cast a touch spell, dimension slide in and b$*&$ slap that bad guy with no worries about reach...now if only Dimension Slide could bring along a friend...maybe one day...
Oh, the bad guy has high spell resistance (hehe, used this a lot) then potent magic the caster level and through some meta mixing of spell penetration in there and it is a bad day for the bad guy without changing the casting time of the spell...oh yeah!
Arcanists are fun. Lazy GMs don't like them because the exploits side step ALL of the conventional rules regarding magic. It's not so bad once one makes the effort to understand them.I am the Arcanist that vexed Brother Fen so much and in my opinion, Arcanist is THE best arcane casting class, ever. So the bad guy is in the face of the spell caster eh? Dimension slide away...or cast a touch spell, dimension slide in and b$*&$ slap that bad guy with no worries about reach...now if only Dimension Slide could bring along a friend...maybe one day...
Oh, the bad guy has high spell resistance (hehe, used this a lot) then potent magic the caster level and through some meta mixing of spell penetration in there and it is a bad day for the bad guy without changing the casting time of the spell...oh yeah!
Haha. Yep.
I enjoyed playing the arcanist and plan to do so again. What I liked about being able to use arcane points to boost a spells DC/CL is that that I felt less pressure to take the boring Spell Focus and Spell Penetration (similar reason as to why I like the witch so much); I like feats that have a significant impact on my character e.g. provides interesting combat or rp options and doesn't just add a number here or there.