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Occultism as a skill is sticking out like a sore thumb due to its current key ability not matching with the two occult spellcasting classes. I think it was smart to have Nature and Religion both key off Wisdom, because you would expect clerics and druids to be knowledgeable about their subject matter. Naturally Arcana stayed Int-based because alchemists and wizards will both be pumping those stats.
It's just a bit weird that bards and aberrant sorcerers, who will be specializing in occult magic, will have far worse progression with their key knowledge skill. I understand the relationship that Int has had to Knowledge skills, but we've already slayed that sacred cow with Nature and Religion.
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Occultism as a skill is sticking out like a sore thumb due to its current key ability not matching with the two occult spellcasting classes. I think it was smart to have Nature and Religion both key off Wisdom, because you would expect clerics and druids to be knowledgeable about their subject matter. Naturally Arcana stayed Int-based because alchemists and wizards will both be pumping those stats.
It's just a bit weird that bards and aberrant sorcerers, who will be specializing in occult magic, will have far worse progression with their key knowledge skill. I understand the relationship that Int has had to Knowledge skills, but we've already slayed that sacred cow with Nature and Religion.
I think you can come up with a way to say that intuition aids your understanding of nature and religion once you understand the basics (you need wisdom to interpret self contradictory religious texts, not intelligence), but it's hard to come up with a reason why you can persuade yourself to know more about the occult. Plus intelligence is already the closest thing (other than Strength) to a dumpstat.
I'm guessing the later Occult classes will mostly be Int based casting.
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I think you can come up with a way to say that intuition aids your understanding of nature and religion once you understand the basics (you need wisdom to interpret self contradictory religious texts, not intelligence), but it's hard to come up with a reason why you can persuade yourself to know more about the occult. Plus intelligence is already the closest thing (other than Strength) to a dumpstat.
I'm not saying Charisma should be used to trick yourself into having knowledge. Since Charisma also governs things like personal magnetism and strength of personality, perhaps outsiders are more likely to communicate with someone of high charisma. Maybe the strength of personality is what's key to not being lost when you gaze into the void.
There's plenty of ways to justify it from an in-universe perspective. From a game perspective, we have four kinds of primary spellcasters. Three of them get their Knowledge check coming from their primary stat, and one does not. So from a game perspective I have an objection.
Also, regarding Intelligence as a dump stat, I disagree. Most classes have just enough skills to cover their signature ones, and nothing more, so if you want to dabble anywhere else, you're either raising intelligence or using some of your precious skill boosts. Sorcerers are an exception to this right now, but I imagine that their number of trained skills might be edited soon.
I think you can come up with a way to say that intuition aids your understanding of nature and religion once you understand the basics (you need wisdom to interpret self contradictory religious texts, not intelligence), but it's hard to come up with a reason why you can persuade yourself to know more about the occult. Plus intelligence is already the closest thing (other than Strength) to a dumpstat.I'm not saying Charisma should be used to trick yourself into having knowledge. Since Charisma also governs things like personal magnetism and strength of personality, perhaps outsiders are more likely to communicate with someone of high charisma. Maybe the strength of personality is what's key to not being lost when you gaze into the void.
There's plenty of ways to justify it from an in-universe perspective.
Not for Recall Knowledge.
From a game perspective, we have four kinds of primary spellcasters. Three of them get their Knowledge check coming from their primary stat, and one does not.
Two don't - Bard and Sorcerer.
From a game perspective, we have four kinds of primary spellcasters. Three of them get their Knowledge check coming from their primary stat, and one does not. So from a game perspective I have an objection.
From a game perspective, I don't consider bards to be the primary occult spellcaster.
Honestly I am okay with it being int based. Bards and sorc are more intuitive casters they are not book study nose to the grind stone type casters. Their feel for occultism is more inborn/innate so it does make some sense that they are not as steeped in the study of it. I think a lot of bards probably wind up with decent int's anyway just to boost their skill numbers/usage.
Perhaps it would be better to have a class ability for both Bards and Sorcerers to key their "knowledge" skills off their primary stat and leave them as Int/Wis for everyone else?
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I like it as Int based. For Bards, Int as a secondary or tertiary ability makes sense for the Lore-bard, who I see as the closest to primary occult spellcaster, where for Sorcerers, it's not like Arcana was Cha based. But I suspect the primary Occult caster, likely either the witch or the occultist, will be Int based, so I'm OK with it being int, and in the mean time, it's much more sensical for Occultism to be driven by int than cha, even if we don't have any Int Occult casters.
Occult magic is folk magic; it's not learned from dusty old tomes but rather passed down through family tales or gained spontaneously through strange visions. I think it goes against the flavor for the people most knowledgeable of the school to be the people with a lot of book larnin'.
Occult magic is folk magic; it's not learned from dusty old tomes but rather passed down through family tales or gained spontaneously through strange visions. I think it goes against the flavor for the people most knowledgeable of the school to be the people with a lot of book larnin'.
Intelligence represents more than just reading books. It is the capability to learn and reason, to perceive and understand patterns. If that is not a match for the trial and error method of folk magic, I'm not sure what is.
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From a game perspective, we have four kinds of primary spellcasters. Three of them get their Knowledge check coming from their primary stat, and one does not. So from a game perspective I have an objection.From a game perspective, I don't consider bards to be the primary occult spellcaster.
I may be mistaken, but I believe that's how they were advertised in the blog.