I've always enjoyed the Puppeteers from the show Naruto, and always wanted to capture that feel in Pathfinder. Until Spheres of Power, it didn't seem like I could really find the 'right feel' for it. However, with Spheres of Power, and, more specifically, the Telekinesis Sphere, it seems like we finally have something that can capture the essence of a Puppeteer.
Using the class build that Parka created a few years ago here (Class Inspiration) and Spheres of Power, I created what I think to be the closest I could get to being a Puppeteer. I like the overall feeling of it, but balance and usability are definitely two things I want to be sure are as good as I can get them. Any feedback will be nice.
Here is a link to the class:
The Puppeteer
Hey Sarfan1,
Your Puppeteer class looks really interesting, and kudos for using Spheres of power, its a great system that needs more love.
So on reading through it the class looks good, there is some interesting rp possibilities, and the mechanics seem like they provide for a new twist on having a minion based class. That said I had a few questions/concerns about the class.
First, in relation to the stats of the Marionette, it seems to be missing a few stats. You establish strength and dexterity, but wisdom and charisma are not covered. The lack of intelligence and constitution makes sense, as they are mindless constructs, but they really should have listed wis and cha stats(even golems and poppets have these). Same story with base saves for fortitude and will, unless they are meant to use the normal progression for constructs.
Second, is the intent for multiple puppets to be usable simultaneously? Hidden Theater, states:
"At level five, and every five levels after that, the Marionette can activate an additional Marionette with the same action."
Does this simply allow multiple marionette to be restored to full size or is it meant to imply that they can be actively used at once? If the later, is this a native function or does it require the use of something like the Divided Mind talent?
Third, the combat puppet knack seems a bit underwhelming compared to the other options. Its just my opinion, but other than to use magic weapons I can't see why this would be taken instead of one of the others. Even in the case of magic weapons, its slam attack and an amulet of mighty fists or similar item would net you the same possible benefit and save a knack. Also, hidden battalion seems almost like a "must take option" when considered alongside the "up sizing" function of hidden theater.
Hello Awun, sorry for taking so long to respond. I've recently put in a bit more work into fleshing the class out a bit. I'll leave the link here, but I'll also let you know directly what I've updated.
Not having scores set up for Wisdom and Charisma was definitely an oversight on my part, so I added in that Marionettes have a score of 10 in both. However, the addition of the Charisma score did allow me to add a way to increase it as part of one of the knacks.
I added the clarification that the Puppeteer can activate multiple at once, but will still need to have Divided Mind to control multiple at once. The original intention is that you can only directly use one a turn, but having multiple means you can swap your control to a different one each turn. Since, when not being directly controlled, they just kind of stand there.
I gave the Combat Puppet knack a boost to make it more appealing. It now does everything it did before, but it also increases the BAB of your Favored Puppet to be equal to the Puppeteer's caster level. That might be too powerful, but I'll just have to play around with it and see.
I also realized I didn't give enough options to help with controlling multiple Marionettes. Once you get past a couple, moving that many becomes a bit of a chore with how limited the movement of the Telekinesis sphere can be. So, I added two knacks to specifically help with this style of combat.
have you looked at the Conjuration book for Spheres of Power?
They have a Puppet Companion as an archtype in there. you could simplfy things a bit by giving the class automatic Conjuration Sphere with a limit that all companions are puppets. That way your puppets use the Conjured Companion rules. Then as a unique class ability you let them augment the puppet companions in different ways, without having to spend talents for extra Forms. Puppeteer Knacks sort of thing.