| cavernshark |
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During 1e, I played a psychic to level 10 in PFS. I decided that I would try to recreate that character, insofar as it's possible, for the play test and run it it through a few scenarios. I am using the PFS play test rules and will be testing against Society scenarios. This is essentially a chronicle of play tests for an Infinite Eye psychic.
In this first post, I will outline my thought process while (re)building the character. I'm building Questin as level 1, 3, and 5 for the play test, but my first game would be at him for 3 so the process I went through for that level is detailed below. Subsequent replies will include my play test experiences in scenarios
Questin Razzlemir (Level 3) in 2e:
N, Small, Gnome, Fey-Touched Gnome, Humanoid
Perception +7; Low-Light Vision
Languages Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Gnomish, Jotun, Sylvan, Undercommon
Skills Acrobatics +7, Athletics -1, Crafting +6, Diplomacy +9, Lore: Mercantile +6, Occultism (E) +9, Society +6
Str -1, Dex +3, Con +2, Int +1, Wis +0, Cha +4
Items Mage Armor, Adventurer's Pack, Healer's Tools, Repair Kit
AC 19, Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +7
HP 32 Speed 25 feet
Melee Sickle +7 (Agile, Finesse, Trip), Damage 1d4-1 (S)
Unleash Focused Intent (Psychic, Psyche) Requirements It’s your third turn of the encounter or later; After some time of acclimating to a stressful situation, your psychic magic flares to greater destructive power; Benefit When you Cast a Spell from your spell slots while you have Unleashed Focused Intent, you gain a status bonus to that spell’s damage equal to double the spell’s level as long as spell deals damage and doesn’t have a duration; Drawback The focus on offense comes at the expense of your defensive instincts. You take a –2 penalty to AC while you’ve Unleashed Focused Intent.
Unleash Self-Defense Requirements (Psychic, Psyche) Requirements You’ve cast two beneficial spells on yourself or an ally this encounter, each on a different round. The conflict-averse aspects of your personality float calmly to the surface, causing your mind to subconsciously deflect incoming attacks, though this comes at the cost of reduced fatal intent behind your spells; Benefit While this psyche is Unleashed, you gain a +1 status bonus to your AC and to one saving throw of your choice, decided when you Unleash your psyche. All of your spells that don’t have the death trait gain the nonlethal trait; Drawback The pacifist influence on your mind makes it difficult for your spells to strike a killing blow. You take a penalty to spell damage rolls equal to the level of the spell, and you take a –1 penalty to spell attack rolls and DC of any spell that deals damage or otherwise affects the target’s health or Hit Points (including those that apply the drained condition, disease or poison the target, or kill the target).
Occult Known Spells DC 19, attack +9 2nd biting words (sig) (H+1), augury (1 slots); 1st mage armor, soothe (Sig), true strike (2 slots); Cantrips detect magic*, guidance*, mind scan*, shield, haunting hymn, telekinetic projectile
Primal Innate Spells DC 19, attack +9 Cantrips disrupt undead
Focus Spells (2 points) Psi Amp; When you cast a psi cantrip (*), you can amp it by spending 1 Focus Point to add the effect described in the spell’s Amp heading.
Additional Feats Assurance, Canny Acumen, Crafter's Appraisal, Fey-Touched Gnome, Gnome Polyglot
Additional Specials Assurance (Medicine), Subconscious Mind (Emotional Acceptance), Conscious Mind (Infinite Eye), Canny Acumen (Perception), Signature Spells, Psi Amp, Unleash Psyche
A few observations:
* Building around cantrips was obviously going to be key; for Infinite Mind this meant aid another and expecting to buff players, and probably making spell attack rolls.
* Choosing between Int and Cha was fine to help streamline different ancestry choices. Recommendation: I'd have preferred the stat choice be a pure player choice and not tied to the specific Subconscious Mind (still selecting that for the particular kind of psychic spellcasting).
* Feat selection felt weak for levels 1-4; if allowed I'd probably have gone for a dedication
* Spell selection was incredibly challenging; almost to the point that it felt boring. I felt forced to optimize my picks and still ended up with staple spells. Recommendation: I'd prefer an extra spell slot per level that could only be used on my Conscious Mind spells known.
Rebuilding Questin Razzlemir in 2e
* The rebirth discipline gave an equivalent to bardic knowledge, which when combined with the Psychic's high Intelligence made him a strong contributor to knowledges and linguistics. His discipline also favored divination spells.
* His discipline also allowed him to pick alternate spell lists to pick up off-class spells. I played this as him communing with various past lives.
* The amnesiac role limited his spell list in favor of recalling spells on the fly; also flavored as him remembering tricks from pieces of past lives.
* He maintained a reasonably high charisma and commensurate diplomacy skill.
* His main offensive fallback was an overcast and heavily metamagiced mind thrust (a divination/mental attack), taking full advantage of Will of the Dead and Undercast Surge.
* He had levels in the Loremaster prestige class to further emphasize his commitment to divination magic and acquisition of knowledge.
* Questin was a member of the Pathfinder Exchange faction, not necessarily driven for money but to acquire books of stories to help explore / research his past lives.
I chose to anchor on the Infinite Eye Mind and build around that since it seemed to most closely match Questin's old pattern of buffing the party and relying on divination as a primary strategy. This informed the rest of my build heavily with some areas going back and forth on how to best play to this style. I knew that I'd probably have a heavier emphasis on spell attack rolls since I have guidance (status) and mind scan (competence) bonuses. I'd also be getting true strike at level 1. Lastly, I know I'll be building around aid another since that's also a benefit of an amp'd mind scan
Ancestry: Gnome; obviously, but I seriously considered whether or not a human, halfling, or even Gnoll would have been better given the reliance on Aid. Their relevant ancestry feats to boost Aid checks seemed like they'd have been useful even before I played my first session.
Heritage: Fey-Touched; the primal cantrip which I can change once a day is at least on brand for Questin's amnesiac / rebirth powers from 1e. He often liked to pick up spells to fill gaps in psychic list or generally to approximate different roles in a party. My default pickup will be disrupt undead to have an answer to a common mindless threats, also a head nod to the 1e Will of the Dead phrenic amp and Questin's past lives come from divine/primal traditions (clerics, paladins, druids).
Ancestry Feat: Gnome Polyglot; my usual inclination here would have been one of the many Gnome reactions that don't usually have competition on a caster (e.g. Empathetic Plea, Live-Giving Magic, or Unexpected Shift. Knowing that I was going Infinite Eye meant I'd probably be saving my reaction for the Aid granted by Mental Scan. Questin knew a lot of languages, though, so this gives a lot out the gate with a potential for a lot more with Multilingual skill feats later.
Background: Magical Merchant; this is a head nod to Questin's old ties to the Exchange. I considered some other similar backgrounds like Merchant or Occult Librarian but decided it didn't much matter. I needed one with an Int or Cha boost to pair with Dex; the skill feats were all roughly equivalent in that they were situational.
Level 1 Class Features:
Subconscious Mind This got tricky for me. I originally wanted to do Precise Discipline to keep the Int primary, but as I looked over the flavor text, the Emotional Acceptance Mind seemed to better capture the fluff of Questin being hit not just by the emotions and experiences of others, but of his own past lives. It also helps that Gnomes get their Charisma boost. In truth, I didn't see either penalty as coming up frequently enough to matter much so this really came down to personal choice and sort of how well the rest of the build clicked together.
Conscious Mind: Infinite Eye; noted above as the cornerstone of this build.
Final Stats Str: 8, Dex: 16, Con: 12, Int: 12, Wis: 10, Cha: 18
Skills (Trained): Occultism (C), Crafting (B), Diplomacy, Acrobatics, Society, Medicine
Level 2 Class Features:
Class Feat: Unleash Self-Defense; When I initially went with Precise Discipline to be Int based, I was excited at the prospect of using this feat slot to grab Ancestral Mind here since I already knew I planned to use innate ancestry spells. Once I switched to Emotional Acceptance, though, Ancestral Mind became unnecessary. I didn't like the look of of Unleash Focused Intent in theory, so picking up a new stance felt okay, or at least safer.
A little aside: PFS play test rules prevent the taking of archetypes, but looking over the available level 1, 2, 4 feats available in the play test I almost certainly would have taken an archetype. Bard Dedication seemed particularly good for this build: getting 2 additional occult cantrips and some skills. At 4 or 6 I could grab Basic Bard Spellcasting for some additional spell slots and Bardic Lore via Muse's Whispers At 8, I could pick up Inspire Courage which would stack with the bonuses of mind scan. Loremaster Dedication would be another path. There's actually a lot I'd probably rather do than what was presented.
Skill Feat: Assurance (Medicine); this is a relatively boring, but safe, pickup. I'm not planning to invest in medicine but since I don't know who I'll be playing with I decided I'd like to be able to hit my Treat Wounds checks if I needed it.
Level 3 Class Features:
General Feat: Canny Acumen (Perception); this character is based on divination so getting a slight edge in detecting threats and acting first seemed thematically appropriate.
Skill Increase: Occultism; no particular reason other than it felt right. Diplomacy or a Charisma skill probably would have been more effective.
Signature Spells: 1st: soothe, 2nd: biting words
Spell Selection
Cantrips: mental scan, guidance, detect magic
1st: true strike, 2nd: augury, 3rd: clairaudience
Getting only 1 or 2 spell slots per level meant I had to make sure they'd count. This meant mostly going for spells which had sustained presence on the battle, a lot of utility out of combat. I knew I wanted at least one 'blast' to simulate Questin's use of Mind Thrust. Looking back over his old 1e level 1-2 spells showed he also used Ear-Piercing Scream, Mirror Image, Placebo Effect, Magic Missile, and Burst of Insight/Adrenaline. I tried to go for similar spells. Knowing that I'd mostly be using cantrips I settled on the following for a level 3 spell list.
Cantrips: mental scan, guidance, detect magic, telekinetic projectile, shield, haunting hymn, disrupt undead** (Fey-Touched)
1st: mage armor, soothe (sig)
2nd: biting words (sig)
Knowing only two-three spells per level, and being able to cast them only 1-2 meant that I'd need one really strong signature spell and one spell that probably was a buff or I'd only cast once. This felt like the best combo to cover a lot of situations given a very small number of spells / repertoire. Biting words in particular felt good because mind scan and guidance are both one action ways to buff my spell attack roll and would give me ways to blast for 3 rounds. Bless would be another good choice since it'd last a whole combat and stack with mind scan.
In general, I didn't feel like there's a lot of room to get creative with psychic spell choices. It was kind of disheartening and I wasn't sure going in whether it'd feel good or not.
| cavernshark |
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Scenario: PF2 1-18: Lodge of the Living God (1-4)
**** This post contains heavy spoilers for the scenario ****
I've done my best to accurately depict actions and choices through the scenario. If any of the party reads and wants to correct the record, I am happy to accept my memory/notes may be faulty.
Character: Questin Razzlemir, Gnome Psychic 3
Rest of Party: Goblin Barbarian 1, Human Champion (Redeemer) 2, Elf Playtest Thaumaturge (Lantern) 3, Goblin Sorcerer (Draconic, Fire) 3
Summary Impressions:
* The Infinite Eye is probably suited to situations against a single strong enemy and suffers a bit in multi-enemy fights with lower CR creatures. I see the benefit in guidance (status) bonus stacking with the mind scan (circumstance) bonus, but in multi-target fights where players and monsters move around a lot I couldn't guarantee to get the benefit of that synergy especially if other players decided to switch to other targets. I felt like I was working twice as hard for half of the benefit of a bard with fewer spells.
Suggestion: It might be cool to have a low level Infinite Mind feat to let you switch your chosen target to another in the original cone as as a reaction. It would let you sacrifice your chance to aid to smooth out situations where the party does things you don't expect.
* Aid Another at low level is just rough. My GM decided that my aid check would be a spell attack roll, so I was even getting the competence bonus from my mind scan. I made 1/5 aid checks I made.
Suggestion: Specify an Aid DC as a hard or very hard DC for the level might have been more elegant than a flat 20. This probably isn't necessary at higher levels, but would help smooth out the lower levels.
* Unleash Psyche, even with both psyches available to a level 3, was underwhelming every chance I got to use it during this scenario. By the time I hit the 3rd round in any combat, it was almost over. Added offense from focused intent - as awkward as it was to trigger -- felt gratitutous and added defense from self-defense felt unnecessary in these situations. This was all compounded by bad luck on initiative rolls setting my timer behind most of the party.
Suggestion: Giving us expert perception out the gate or the option to focus on Wisdom would help. It's particularly on theme for an Infinite Eye psychic.
* Having two reasonable psi cantrips with 1 action casts felt like it gave me a lot of flexibility that felt good round to round. I was able to maneuver and do my thing and could have fit spell casting in alongside it if needed. My spell choices felt right, but I think I'd probably have been better off opening with a spell to sustain alongside my cantrips. I don't know how this would have worked out for another Mind which had to rely more heavily on two-action cantrips. I didn't even count detect magic for myself; there's very few situations where I'd see myself amping detect magic.
Suggestion: Allow a player to intentionally unleash psyche early (at least the initial one) by casting a spell from a slot. This would let the psychic burn hot to prevent hitting the 3rd round instead of waiting until the 3rd round.
Skill Checks: Rebuilding the Fort
The most important skill during this portion was Crafting by far. It was used for the majority of building tasks, even when hiring craftspeople from town to assist. The diplomacy mini-game running alongside the building would have also been something I'd have been suited for, but happened to be the only person trained in crafting so this ended up being the primary thing I did over our two weeks.
The Psychic having a Cha or Int focus meant I'd probably have been able to participate well on either side of these challenges, and the fact that I split between the two was lucky since I had even more flexibility. That said, none of my psychic class powers really came up during this aspect of the scenario so I won't discuss is much beyond that.
Combat 1: The Dungeons, 5 Geckos
As we rebuilt the fort, we eventually had to clear out the dungeons. This triggered a combat against 5 geckos in a small-ish map of about 2 20x20 rooms connected by a small 10x10 hallway. This was my first combat so I was excited to jump in and get amped up. I was on the stairs going into the room and could not yet see our opponents, but our front line could see them up ahead and around the corner.
Initiative: I rolled terribly, a 4. Even with Canny Acumen this made me the last player to act.
Round 1
* Goblin Barbarian runs forward into melee. He makes a nature check to identify these, then rages. I can see where he stopped, but no opponents.
* A geckos moves into my view and hits the Barbarian.
* Sorcerer also strides in, activates Dragon Claws, Strikes and misses. I still cannot see opponents.
* Champion strides in, Strikes (crits), killing a gecko (4 remaining).
* Thaumaturge strides in, does Find Flaws (crits), free action Esoteric Anthisesis, and Strikes throwing his trident to damage a geckos. We now know a lot about these opponents.
* My turn: I finally get to Stride in, still being largely unable to see anything. I use psi-amp on mental scan to designate a target and put guidance on the barbarian. We learn their highest and lowest save (Ref and Will/Fort).
Round 2
* Barbarian uses Intimidating Glare (fails) and then Strikes twice against geckos. He kills 1 (3 remaining).
* Sorcerer uses a 2nd level burning hands against two geckos. Both succeed taking half damage. The GM notes that we did just learn Reflex was their best save and the Sorcerer responds that he knows, but all his best offensive spells target Reflex.
* Champion Strikes 2 and Raises Shield, killing another gecko (2 remaining).
* Thaumaturge does another Find Flaws (success) into a Strike with the trident. Another dead gecko (1 remaining).
* My turn: The combat is basically over and we've been in the middle of downtime skill challenges and this is almost done. I decide to Stride after the last gecko and burn a level 2 spell slot on biting words. I hit with a crit success killing the final gecko. I could just as easily have left a melee member to hit at the start of the next round. Combat ends.
Overall, this was a pretty basic dry run / low-threat combat. It didn't seem to be meant to be particularly high threat so I'm not sure if playing any more aggressively would have mattered. The number of PCs and low-level enemies in a small room made my target designation powers kind of a crap-shoot, but it probably also didn't matter much here.
Combat 2: Attack on the Walls, 8 Skeletons
Two types of skeletons, 4 each, scale the walls and begin attacking us. We're mostly concentrated along the wall above the gate and they're on both sides, but this is pretty defensible. I'm in the middle, unlikely to be attacked in melee.
Initiative: I roll another 4. Going last among PCs and close to last again across all combatants.
Round 1
* Barbarian rages, strides, and strikes a skeleton nearest. He's on the 'south' side of the fight.
* Two skeletons on the south side then move in and begin fighting him. They hit a few times bringing the barbarian to near 0 but are unable to flank him.
* At this point I'm preparing to cast a 2nd level soothe on the Barbarian and then amp guidance on someone rather than what I'd originally planned. This would not be my preferred strategy, but I'm glad for the signature spell choice.
* Our Champion, who had been positioned to block the north side, moves down south to behind the barbarian. He uses Battle Medicine to heal him and gets a great roll returning 15 hp. He also Strikes one of the skeletons with his shield boss.
* Sorcerer is farther south than most of us and opens up a side-show combat against 2 skeletons. This battle is isolated due to
distance and so I won't detail it to much. He will kill 2 over the 3 rounds with flaming sphere and a shove off the edge of the wall(6 remain; 4 north, 2 south)
* The Thaumaturge does a Find Flaws, which fails. He uses Esoteric Anathema and then throws his trident. He crits killing a skeleton south (5 remain; 4 north, 1 south).
*My turn: The Champion's actions allow me the freedom to return to my original strategy. I mind scan north and use disrupt undead against another skeleton. It's a crit fail on the save, which destroys it (5 remain: 3 north, 2 south)
Round 2
* Barbarian and Champion work together to finish the remaining skeletons south (4 remain: 3 north).
* Thaumaturge does another FF/EA and throws a trident; my notes get a little sketchy here (I think my kids ran in) but I think he missed.
* My turn: I amp a mental scan north and guidance barbarian. I'm at a loss for my third action so I shield. I've taken a bit of damage from arrows but am still mostly safe and these are dropping quickly.
Round 3
* Barbarian, now refreshed, heads north toward my designated skeleton. I use my aid another roll, which fails. The circumstance bonus isn't enough to help hit. He strides out of the way.
* Champion moves into the spot now vacated by the Barbarian and strikes. He hits and the circumstance bonus bumps it to a crit, destroying the skeleton (2 remains; 2 north).
* Thaumaturge hits and kills another (1 remains; 1 north).
* My turn: Finally round 3! I go back and forth about entering my stance just to try it, but realize it's just not worth it and I have no idea how much rest we'll get after or if it's the final fight. So I anticlimactically cast disrupt undead finishing the last skeleton ending this wave.
Again the fight was clearly mopped up before I even could consider unleashing psyche. The buffing aspect of the character was fine, but being spread across a lot of targets again stressed how much easier it'd have been to be able to inspire courage and cast a spell in round one, probably contributing more overall. Disrupt undead was the real star of my arsenal; and the unique aspect of Ancestral Mind enabling Int based ancestry casting comes back to me.
The fort is still under siege, but we have a bit of reprieve. We do some light quick healing. I consume a scroll of soothe and some potions to heal up. I use my 10 minutes to refocus.
Combat 3: Attack on the Gate, 7 Zombies
After our 10 minute break, we resumed defensive positions along the wall/gate. This time a horde of zombies broke it down. We started above them along the top of the gate looking down on a bunch outside and inside.
Initiative: I roll a 5. It's just not my night. Luckily, these are zombies and I actually go last among the PCs, but before about 4-5 zombies.
This ended up being another relatively simple fight. I didn't record everyone's rounds as well due to some distractions at home but I did get my rounds and most of the important details informing my choices.
Round 1
* Most of the party moved into melee and began Striking / dispatching zombies. Notably, our champion and sorcerer jumped down and began engaging the group from behind, voluntarily taking some damage in the process but making this go much faster.
*My turn: I decided to unleash a haunting hymn on three of the zombies from above. I got 2 successes, and a fail which was sort of unlucky but okay damage. I used an amped mind scan onto a target next to the Barbarian, being reasonably certain he'd attack it.
Round 2
* Barbarian strikes, I aid. I miss the aid check. It was at this point we began to ask if I get my own circumstance bonus, and the GM decides I do since we're using a spell attack to aid. Despite the missed aid, the Barbarian crits and max-damage destroys it.
*My turn: The champion is down on the ground around 3 zombies, so I guidance him and amp mind scan to designate the target closest to him.
Round 3
* Champion surprises me, using desperate prayer into a lay on hands to destroy one zombie. He then strikes the target of his LoH and kills it. He uses his guidance and competence bonus to strike the zombie I designated. This offsets his MAP and he hits doing damage to the zombie I scanned.
* Other players mop up and finish off the rest.
This fight overall felt like less threat than the first one. Once again a lot of enemies made it a bit harder for me to target. I did realize that while I have haunting hymn, I don't really have a good AoE option for longer range at this level which is a tool that most casters tend to bring. The limited spell slots / spells known may be limiting here (although Occult doesn't tend to go for big bangs anyway).
We had another 10 minutes to recover; I again refocused.
Combat 4: Final Strike, Skeletal Leader + Horse + 6 Skeletons
During the final wave the gates are now down so most of us array around the gates since it's a natural choke point. The Thaumaturge and Sorcerer remain up on the walls but the Barbarian and Champion are up front and I'm a bit back and behind them in the courtyard. A larger skeleton (I'm assuming a skeletal champion (SC) but we never recalled knowledge) rides up on a skeletal horse along with 6 of the weaker skeletons we fought earlier. The horse is injured thanks to traps we set earlier (a byproduct of victory points we did earlier). 3 of the skeletons were at the gate in front of the horse + skeletal champion. Three climbed the walls
Initiative: I finally rolled well and got a 24 initiative. This placed me first to go which was a nice change of pace.
Round 1
*My turn: I amp mind scan the three skeletons on the ground near the gate and designate the middle one as my target. The skeletal champion and horse are too far back from my starting position. I disrupt undead on the southern skeleton below the gate. It fails its save and dies. (7 remaining: SC + H, 2 bottom, 3 top)
* Champion strides forward and strikes my designated target. I finally aid another successfully granting a +2. This makes his strike a hit, which feels great.
* Other party members variously attack the skeletons or go for the horse itself since it's wounded. Net effect across the first round is 2 more skeletons down as well as the horse. The sorcerer has pulled some hijinks and taken some heavy damage from the SC (4 remaining: SC, 1 bottom, 2 top)
Round 2
*My turn: I stride through the gate to get closer to the action, moving so that the champion is between me and the last skeleton on bottom level. I amp mind scan and designate this skeleton, expecting the champion to finish it before moving to engage the SC who is now off the horse. Most of the party has been given a guidance by this point and the hour cooldown hasn't reset, so I used my third action is to draw a scroll of soothe in case the sorcerer still needs help.
* Champion chooses to break off and engage the SC, leaving the skeleton behind. This was surprising and again a situation where I'd have killed for the ability to sacrifice my reaction to designate a new scan target which was within my original cone. I assumed tactical intent and we didn't discuss it as a party.
* Most of the party moves to surround the SC and spends most of the round burning him down but he survives the round and the Sorcerer gets some healing. The Thaumaturge destroys one of the skeletons on the upper area. I take some damage from the skeleton which is left to fight me. (2 remaining: SC, 1 bottom, 1 top)
Round 3
*My turn: I decide do to unleash psyche -- but I'm not sure which one. Ultimately there's not much fight left and Unleash Self-Defense would just neuter my attack. I decide to go with Unleash Focused Intent, burning my level 2 biting words to activate its power and destroy the skeleton in front of me. It's a crit obliterating the skeleton. The SC may have been a better target but it's surrounded and near dead.
* Party wipes out remaining foes.
We conclude the combat and also move into scenario conclusion. I felt a lot better going first since it helped to get my buffs up and also get ahead on the round counter. My rolls were consistently good this combat too which helps. Even with a harder target to focus, I still felt like inspire courage would have been easier to buff with.
Build Correction:
I realized going into this that my stats were a little wrong since I did it manually. I'd picked Magical Merchant which gives an Int/Free boost back when I was doing an Int build and forgot to change when I did a Emotional Acceptance build. I'll be swapping to Merchant (Cha/Free) for future games. It didn't have any mechanical impact to skills training but would net me a different skill feat (I never used Crafter's Appraisal, so it was moot).