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Greetings everyone, initial post here.
I'm here looking for some clarification from the Occult Adventures team on some oddities in the Battle Host archetype (to make fixing the issue for my occultist in someone's game easier to swallow for the GM), but am also eager for player and GM input as well, as the more unofficial input I can get the better the outcome.
The problem I'm speaking of is the loss of the battle host's 6th level implement school. The Panopoly Bond ability calls out that it only gains a single implement school at first level (and thus accounts for its absence):
"The bonded item starts as an implement for any single school of magic at 1st level, and gains access to additional schools of magic at 2nd, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels, granting the battle host access to base focus powers and resonant powers accordingly."
This sentence also calls out that the next implements to be gained are at 2nd, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels. This means the 6th level ability is missing, but could very well just have been intentionally left out of the progression, or so it would seem...
I believe the loss of the 6th level implement is in error, and not meant to be missing. I will include precedents, rulings, possible reasons, and solutions regarding this issue.
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Precedent 1: Archetypes in General
No other class/archetype has a lost ability w/o specific notation as to what replaced it (that I have noticed so far; while certainly not a definitive source of research and credibility, I do build 20-level progression charts for characters in my spare time just for fun or to match them to characters I've created in my art that need PF representation). This indicates that a missing ability should always be called out, which this one is not.
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Precedent 2: Occultist's Tome-Eater Archetype
"The bonded tome starts as an implement for any two schools of magic at 1st level, and it gains access to additional schools of magic at 2nd, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels, granting the tome eater access to base focus powers and resonant powers accordingly."
The tome eater loses the 6th level implement in the initial implements description, w/o notation (just like the battle host), but it is later explicitly replaced, along with shift focus, magic, circles, outside contact, binding circles, and fast circles by Devour Books and Scrolls ability.
"This ability replaces shift focus, the implement gained at 6th level, magic circles, outside contact, binding circles, and fast circles."
This indicates that the omission of the 6th level from the ability must still be accounted for later in the archetype, as simply not mentioning it isn't good enough to account for its loss, which means that the battle host must call out why it doesn't have 6th level implements because the tome eater had to do it.
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Precedent 3: Occultist's Curator Archetype
The curator loses one of the standard implement schools at 1st level to instead gain a collection of relics that can serve as one of two potential schools, but no more than one at a time, gaining two new potential schools at 6th and 14th levels.
"At 1st level, a curator acquires a collection of esoteric relics that function as occultist implements associated with two schools of magic; he must select these schools and their associated spells when he gains this feature."
"At 6th level and again at 14th level, a curator chooses two additional schools of magic—in addition to their spells— and adds them to his collection."
This set of relics replaces one of the 1st level implements, as well as the implements gained at 6th and 14th levels, and are specifically called out.
"This ability replaces one of the two occultist implements learned at 1st level as well as the implements learned at 6th level and 14th level."
This further indicates that when an ability is different at certain levels, it must be called out.
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Precedent 4: Occultist's Geomancer Archetype
The geomancer loses one implement school at 1st level, but it is called out as being replaced by getting access to Geomancy.
"A geomancer learns one fewer implement school at 1st level. Instead, the spells that he knows are partially determined by the type of terrain he is currently in (and the level of spells he can cast)."
This again indicates that the loss of a core ability must be accounted for and called out.
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Precedent 5: Occultist's Necroccultist Archetype
The necroccultist loses one implement school at 1st level, which is stated.
"At 1st level, a necroccultist gains access to only the necromancy school of implements."
While it is easily assumed to be a trade for the bonus necromancy spells, the only relevant information is that the missing implement school is explicitly called out.
The necroccultist also loses the 14th level implement school, but is once again explicitly stated.
"At 14th level, he doesn’t gain an additional school of implements. Instead, at 14th level, the DCs of saving throws to resist a necroccultist’s necromancy spells and necromancy focus powers increase by 2."
This further indicates that missing abilities need to be called out, whether they are specifically noted to be replaced by an ability (necromancy DC+), or listed as being gone/replaced explicitly and the replacement for the lost ability is only inferred (necromancy spells).
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Precedent 6: Occultist's Reliquarian Archetype
The reliquarian is stated to only have one implement school at first level, and the other's loss is for the domain abilities.
"A reliquarian gains one implement school at 1st level. Additionally, the reliquarian gains a relic of her god, typically a holy symbol of significant age, a fixture from a lost temple, or bone or hair from a prominent historical figure of the religion. This grants the reliquarian access to one of her deity’s domains, as detailed above."
Again, this shows that a loss must be accounted for.
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Precedent 7: Occultist's Secret Broker Archetype
The secret broker loses one implement school at 1st level, as stated by the ability. The replacement ability is assumed to be the bonus to skills, but the important part is the calling out of the single school.
"The secret broker starts play possessing a single divination implement, typically a ledger of secrets. She gains new implements as normal at 2nd level and every 4 levels thereafter, and they can be of any school."
Once again, the omission is noted.
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Precedent 8: Occultist's Sha'ir Archetype
The sha'ir completely loses the implements ability, and replaces them with jin that serve effectively as two schools each.
"At 1st level, a sha’ir learns how to contact a jin—a minor, insubstantial genie that makes its home on the elemental planes. She learns how to contact a second jin at 6th level and a third jin at 14th level."
"This ability replaces implements and alters mental focus, spellcasting, and implement mastery."
The key difference here is that the implement ability is completely replaced by the jin ability, which replaces anything and everything contained within that ability, and provides a full list of what the sha'ir gains instead.
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Precedent 9: Occultist's Silksworn Archetype
The silksworn changes what the implements are, as well as how many they get, but the extra implement schools are noted in the altered ability.
"At 1st level, the silksworn gains access to four implement schools instead of two. At 2nd level and every 4 occultist levels thereafter, the silksworn gains access to an additional implement school, to a maximum of nine schools at 18th level."
This shows again that any deviation needs to be specified.
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Rules: Archetypes in General
Archetypes are specified in the rules as either altering or replacing base abilities in a class. When an ability is replaced or altered, only specified changes are made and anything not specifically altered or replaced remain.
"All other class features of the base class that aren’t mentioned among the alternate class features remain unchanged and are acquired normally when the character reaches the appropriate level, unless noted otherwise. A character who takes an alternate class feature does not count as having the class feature that was replaced for the purposes of meeting any requirements or prerequisites."
This means that if an ability is replaced, everything changes about that ability and only the listed rules apply in its stead; if it is altered, then it's supposed to be as normal, save for those functions that are specified in the alteration.
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Possible Reasons for Omission 1: Copy and Paste Error
The text of the panopoly bond is identical to that of the tome-eater's, with the exception of the archetype name, the bonded item itself (item for battle host, tome for tome-eater), the number of starting schools (single for battle host, two for tome-eater), and the word “it” in the post-comma pause for tome-eater. This is likely just a simple copy/paste error, as tome-eater *does* explicitly lose level 6 implements and have it replaced with devour.
"The bonded item starts as an implement for any single school of magic at 1st level, and gains access to additional schools of magic at 2nd, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels, granting the battle host access to base focus powers and resonant powers accordingly."
"The bonded tome starts as an implement for any two schools of magic at 1st level, and it gains access to additional schools of magic at 2nd, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels, granting the tome eater access to base focus powers and resonant powers accordingly."
"Devour Books and Scrolls (Sp)
This ability replaces shift focus, the implement gained at 6th level, magic circles, outside contact, binding circles, and fast circles."
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Possible Reason for Omission 2: Forgotten Annotation
It's possible that heroic splendor is meant to take the place of both outside contact and the level 6 implement school, as outside contact isn't normally gained until level 8, but heroic splendor is gained at level 6; if this is the case, then the replacement should have been noted in the description of heroic splendor. As a side note, heroic splendor's progression mirrors that of outside contact (every four levels) and caps out at the same number of uses per day, but does it two levels earlier; this makes me wonder if splendor is meant to be gained at 8th level instead, if the loss of the 6th level implement school is not intended.
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Possible Reason for Omission 3: Forgotten Ability
It's also possible that the 6th level implement was meant to be replaced by a whole other ability, such as the DC increase for necroccultist and planar harmonizer, but that the ability never made it to print, possibly lost among the apparent copy-paste shenanigans from tome-eater.
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Potential Solution 1: Put it Back
The quickest, easiest, and non-homebrew way to fix this issue is to simply put the 6th level implement back in, as this is in-line with the rules above for archetype alterations that lack specified omissions. I see this option as the RAW way to handle the problem, and is in-line with my perception of the intent of the archetype that suffered from hasty copy-paste wounds.
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Potential Solution 2: Buff Heroic Splendor
A second option is to power-up heroic splendor some more, some way, some how, as it is great early on, but doesn't seem to warrant losing seven spells, a base power, a resonant power, a list of potential focus powers, and outside contacts all in one swoop. However, this requires homebrewing, which is not the best idea.
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Potential Solution 3: Get a New Ability
The third option is to just create a new ability from scratch to gain at level 6 (possibly rewriting heroic splendor to the level 8 track); it would have to be along the power lines of the necroccultist's +2 DC ability for their lost implement school. Unfortunately, this is even more homebrew-intensive as it involves creating a new ability from nothing but class intent and hope.
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Potential Solution 4: Sit and Wait
The last option is to wait and hope that someone else notices this problem and that the development team decides to rescue us from ambiguity. This post is an attempt to prevent this from needing to happen, as well as get it started just in case.
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The bottom line here is that I believe the ability was accidentally omitted during copy-paste from tome-eater, given the word-for-word replication of the grand majority of the ability, and they simply forgot to put "6th" back into the text. 6th level implements are not called out as being changed from the alteration of the implements ability.
It could be argued that the ability calls out when the battle host gains new implement schools for the bonded item (which doesn't include 6th), but the tome-eater does the same thing (exact same actually), but still manages to state what the 6th level school was lost to, meaning battle host was supposed to as well, but did not.
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Thanks for reading my wall of text. I apologize if I did anything incorrectly and/or out of line with prescribed formatting, but I didn't see any guidelines listed on how to post, just to not be a jerk. Any feedback on my formatting and posting etiquette is welcome as a learning experience, and input on the posted issue is greatly desired: I just hit level 5 and still adamantly insist this is an error and would like it to be addressed, one way or another.
Side note: I originally didn't even notice the loss of the 6th level ability, because it wasn't called out in the following abilities, and neither did my GM. It wasn't until I was level 3 until we realized the missing implement; they agreed that it was an omission for a bit, but have changed their mind upon gaining 4th level, and I can't wait any longer for someone else to ask my questions for me.
Thanks again everyone for your input, time, and patience, and thanks to the team for a fun supplement either way.
That was a hige wall of text, and I'll be honest - I didn't read it all.
I think you're asking for a solution to a problem that isn't there. The Battle Host changes your Implements, and calls put when you get them. As you've noticed, you don't get one at 6th level.
You do get Heroic Splendor at 6th level. Heroic Splendor replaces Outside Contact, which you would normally get at 8th level. This seems to me to show that they're giving you something at 6th to replace your lost Implement.
As far as your personal situation goes, I think it would be fair for the GM to let you change your archetype if you're not happy with what you have - especially since they agreed with you. You were expecting to get that Implement, and the GM had said they'd give it to you even when the rules descrepency was discovered.
If you want to make a more Martial Occultist I'd just go no-archetype and take the Trappings of the Warrior Panoply. Now you're a full-BAB 6th-level caster. Heavy Armour and Tower Shield profiency are only a feat away if you want them.
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Thanks for the reply MrCharisma.
On a personal level, the problem is the loss of the implement at 6th; but the real problem is that the loss of the implement just isn't annotated is all.
The tome-eater has the same text in the implements section as battle host (both simply not mentioning the 6th level implement), but tome-eater does go on to explain why it's not there. That's the actual, simple level of the problem; the reason for the loss is up for debate for sure, but that's only because it's not called out is all.
The solution to the problem is just the addition of text to indicate where the 6th level implement went; whether I'm happy or in agreement with the decision afterwards is my own problem to deal with, but it'd be nice to know definitively why that text is missing and where it should go.
So it could be a mistake in copy-paste from tome-eater, it could be a mistake of not adding a few words to heroic splendor to indicate replacement, but the mistake is still there.
Where did you go, little text?