|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm surprised no one else has posted an AMA for the new book on this forum yet. I know there is one on Reddit and perhaps elsewhere but I decided to go ahead and start one up here.
NoNat1s and The Rules Lawyer have done videos on YouTube on the entirety of the Thaumaturge and Psychic, respectively, so I suggest going there for all of the information on those.
For everything else, I have the PDF. So, ask away.
Umm, what are the Psychic 20 feats other than the obligatory extra 10th slot?
Thanks for doing this ^^
Is the psychic duelist archetype exclusively related to mindscapes or does it do anything beyond that?
I know what the Alter Ego Dedication does, what are the improvements via feats?
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks for doing this ^^
Is the psychic duelist archetype exclusively related to mindscapes or does it do anything beyond that?
It seems they are not dependent on mindscapes but it is a rare archetype and you are required to have been in a psychic duel before to take it.
I know what the Alter Ego Dedication does, what are the improvements via feats?
It's definitely an intrigue focused sort of archetype. Most, if not all, of the feats focus on deception, stealth, mimicry and trickery. Mostly bonuses and extras added onto some skills and a few innate spells.
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Umm, what are the Psychic 20 feats other than the obligatory extra 10th slot?
There is a sort of "manifestation" sort of feat called Become Thought that changes your physical form.
One feat doubles the duration of Unleash Psyche.
The other lets you cast a non-cantrip spell for free once per minute. There are limitations to what spells but I'll keep that vague to avoid being too specific.
|
|
How's the artwork?
Generally good but as always, art is subjective.
I love the border art.
Outside the obvious representations of Thaleon and Mios, the other iconics heavily represented in the art are Feiya (Witch), Korakai (Oracle), Quinn (Investigator) and Sajan (Monk). A few others show up once or twice as well.
2 specifics: There is a good piece of character art for anyone who would want to play Mios as a Grippli. Also, for some reason there's a duck...on a stump....with a hammer....like it thinks it's an anvil or something.
Umm, what are the Psychic 20 feats other than the obligatory extra 10th slot?
What are the levels of the mini adventures ? And do you have any view on how much game time they might take to play through? Are they true one evening one shots? I assume they must be because PFS are 4 hours and I doubt there is the page count for 8 of those
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
What are the levels of the mini adventures ? And do you have any view on how much game time they might take to play through? Are they true one evening one shots? I assume they must be because PFS are 4 hours and I doubt there is the page count for 8 of those
Most of the adventures are 6 pages long, with the last adventure being 8 pages long. They're said to take 1-2 sessions each to complete. First adventure is at 3rd level, and then the second adventure through the seventh one are a level each, starting at 5th level (so the level spread is 5th-10th). The final adventure is 12th level.
What does the initial Thaumaturge Multiclass Dedication provide?
|
|
What does the initial Thaumaturge Multiclass Dedication provide?
Trained in Thaumaturge class DC, trained in 1 of Arcana, Nature, Occultism or Religion and a weaker version of Esoteric Vulnerability called Glimpse Vulnerability that always only imposes weakness 2 from your attacks. You also get the ability to use esoterica abilities and an implement but you can't actually use the implement for anything until you take a 6th level feat to gain its initiate benefit.
|
|
What are the levels of the mini adventures ? And do you have any view on how much game time they might take to play through? Are they true one evening one shots? I assume they must be because PFS are 4 hours and I doubt there is the page count for 8 of those
I'll trust Ezekieru's answer as I'm trying to avoid spoiling those little scenarios for myself.
What does the initial Thaumaturge Multiclass Dedication provide?
Trained in Thaumaturge Class DC, trained in either Arcana, Occultism, Religion or Nature (or a skill of your choice if trained in all 4). You get an implement, but not the Initiate benefit for it. You get esoterica in order to use actions with the esoterica trait. And you get a unique action called Glimpse Vulnerabilities.
For 1 Action, limited to once per round, and requires you have your Implement in one hand: The enemy you select gains weakness 2 to your unarmed and weapon Strikes until you choose to Glimpse Vulnerabilities again.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there anything like Object Reading in the occult skill feats? That was my favorite unlock, so I'm wondering if it made the cut.
|
|
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there anything like Object Reading in the occult skill feats? That was my favorite unlock, so I'm wondering if it made the cut.
Yes, it is a 1st level uncommon feat called Read Psychometric Resonance. They brought back about half of the 1e occult skill unlocks and added a couple new ones.
How many archetypes are common, and what are they?
|
|
Can you give a little info on the chronoskimmer and the archetype with the mindblade?
Chronoskimmer is rare. The vast majority of the 11 archetype feats are once per hour or lower frequency. Definitely lacking in abilities you'll be putting on a combat regular combat rotation, if that is your thing.
The dedication lets you choose to either "take 10" on initiative or roll to either "take 1" or "take 19". It says you CAN choose one of the 3 options. That's a lot of options so I'm to sure if that's more of a MAY or MUST.
There's a few fortune effects for yourself and allies....a sort of move, attack and make a U-turn ability.....a way to give easy flanking for the team....a 10th level quickened effect...a casting of the slow spell....phase out for a round...turn strides into teleports that don't provoke AoOs.....reuse a once-per-day Chronoskimmer ability.
|
|
How many archetypes are common, and what are they?
The common archetypes are Sleepwalker and Mindsmith. That is it. If rarity is typically a limiting factor in your games, you might be missing out on a lot of this book because I'd say most of the options in this book are uncommon or rarer.
Both classes are common though so there's that.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The dedication lets you choose to either "take 10" on initiative or roll to either "take 1" or "take 19". It says you CAN choose one of the 3 options. That's a lot of options so I'm to sure if that's more of a MAY or MUST.
To be more accurate, you get 3 choices: Roll initiative regularly, stabilize your timestream, or destabilize your timestream. If you stabilize, your initiative is 10 + initiative mod. If you destabilize your timestream, then you roll a DC 11 flat check. If you succeed the flat check, your initiative is 19 + initiative mod. If you fail the flat check, your initiative is 1 + initiative mod.
Additionally, if you tie with someone else in initiative, you go first no matter what. And the other Chronoskimmer abilities use either your Spell DC or your Class DC, whichever is higher.
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there anything like Object Reading in the occult skill feats? That was my favorite unlock, so I'm wondering if it made the cut.Yes, it is a 1st level uncommon feat called Read Psychometric Resonance. They brought back about half of the 1e occult skill unlocks and added a couple new ones.
Oh that’s cool! I didn’t know that was in there.
I love the whole psychic detective who can read the murder weapon shtick
|
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there anything like Object Reading in the occult skill feats? That was my favorite unlock, so I'm wondering if it made the cut.Yes, it is a 1st level uncommon feat called Read Psychometric Resonance. They brought back about half of the 1e occult skill unlocks and added a couple new ones.Oh that’s cool! I didn’t know that was in there.
I love the whole psychic detective who can read the murder weapon shtick
There is some artwork on the same page of Quinn doing just that.
What is your favorite new skill feat in the book?
|
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
What is your favorite new skill feat in the book?
I'm pretty sure the occult skill feats are the only new skill feats in the book. I'm not in love with any of them but they're definitely all neat and useful in their own way. I think I'd have to say my favorite is Aura Sight. You stare down a living person for 1 minute (without blinking) to generally learn their current state of mind and physical health.
Is there anything like Object Reading in the occult skill feats? That was my favorite unlock, so I'm wondering if it made the cut.Yes, it is a 1st level uncommon feat called Read Psychometric Resonance. They brought back about half of the 1e occult skill unlocks and added a couple new ones.Oh that’s cool! I didn’t know that was in there.
I love the whole psychic detective who can read the murder weapon shtick
A streamer showed it off since then, and it looks like you'd be likely to get a reading of the murder victim from it- useful evidence without giving away too much.
Could you list the archetypes in the book? Just the name, I can't find it elsewhere.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think my biggest complaint about this book is it really needed to be a volume 1, 2 and 3 kind of thing.
So many interesting ideas and we get an appitizer's worth of material to use (not counting the adventures).
I would have rather gotten two of these sections fully fleshed out, then another book with two more sections fleshed out, and repeated until we had everything.
What is the actual text and function of the Mindsmith, and how close is it to Unlimited Blade Works? :P
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it just me or do you not get proficiency in your martial mind weapon? RIP Rogues I guess.
takes out regular dagger, stabs competently
takes out mind dagger, inexplicably forgets how to stab
That's because Bards, Druids, Rogues, & Wizards, have weird proficiencies for no real good reason.
|
That's because Bards, Druids, Rogues, & Wizards, have weird proficiencies for no real good reason.Is it just me or do you not get proficiency in your martial mind weapon? RIP Rogues I guess.
takes out regular dagger, stabs competently
takes out mind dagger, inexplicably forgets how to stab
Druid is Trained is Simple weapons. That is hardly weird.
And I agree they could have made Bard and Rogue Trained in Simple weapons only and Wizard Trained in Unarmed attacks only.
It would have been far more simple. But I'm pretty sure people would have complained.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
At least Bards do have the in-class option of taking the Martial Performance feat to get scaling proficiency with all martial weapons. Rogues don't have a similar option.
I'll note that the Mauler Dedication is probably the 'cheapest' way to get scaling proficiency if you choose the two-handed Mind Smith weapon. (Probably not the best choice of weapon form for Rogues, though.)
| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
...
And I agree they could have made Bard and Rogue Trained in Simple weapons only and Wizard Trained in Unarmed attacks only.
...
I think they should just have given Rogues martial weapon proficiency. It didn't cause balance issues with Investigators.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm confused about the 12th level Mind Smith feat Metallic Envisionment. The description is all about flexibility — being able to adjust to different weaknesses. But the mechanics seem to make the choice of cold iron or silver a one-time choice. The incongruity makes me wonder if some text about switching metals got removed.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
My only real problem with the mindsmith is the d4 and d6 options. The d8 and d10 only lack a minor trait to qualify as a regular martial weapon, e.g. versatile p on a slashing weapon, which is perfectly fine.
In contrast, the d6 is missing both a major and a minor trait compared to the rapier or shortsword. And then the d4 option is a worse version of a simple weapon (dagger), missing both an entire die size and a minor trait.
We already know that d6 agile finesse weapons are not a no-go zone for something like this, so why have two seperate and underpowered options? I don't get it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Mind Smith aside, most of the archetypes are pretty useful and very neat, as far as I know. :o (Even Mind Smith can be good, it just takes undue investment and the "right" weapon choice.)
I especially like Living Vessel, but for the most part they're all quite good.
| 9 people marked this as a favorite. |
Man, the mind smith is such a huge let down.
The dedication feat makes you worse for using it, you have to buy back traits with a feat, but only from a very limited list. If you aren't investing in Athletics your only real choice is whether you want to get stuck with nonlethal or not.
Does Paizo just not remember that Athletics is a skill and therefore not something every single martial is going to invest in it? Because they certainly act like everyone will, Inventor has the same problem too.
Even though your weapon starts out worse than a martial weapon (worse than a simple weapon for the agile/finesse version), it's treated as martial for proficiency, which makes taking this archetype miserable for rogues and non-martials for literally no reason.
There are some cool things you can do with like, reach + grapple, especially since you can freely pick between club and spear for crit spec (assuming you get crit spec ofc) but that requires specific choices for optimization and sort of just makes you feel like a bootleg inventor.
The feat selection feels kind of lame too. I like Just The Tool conceptually and malleable movement also has good flavor, but the lack of a tier 2 version of mental forge, the fact that there's only one unique combat activity... idk, this feat chain about creating your perfect weapon through your imagination is weirdly lacking in both customization and creativity.
IDK. I'm just getting kind of tired of these archetypes that feel like you're either penalizing yourself for taking them or forced to fiddle around for ways to optimize (often at the expense of character flavor) in order to make them have value.
I like it when my players feel empowered by cool mechanics to do cool and imaginative things with their characters. Not when they look at an option, grimace, and go "Well I guess I could make this work"... but the latter is, unfortunately, the reaction I keep running into instead with stuff like this.
Shame, I was really excited for this one.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm confused about the 12th level Mind Smith feat Metallic Envisionment. The description is all about flexibility — being able to adjust to different weaknesses. But the mechanics seem to make the choice of cold iron or silver a one-time choice. The incongruity makes me wonder if some text about switching metals got removed.
I, on the other hand, nod sagely when any Paizo feat makes a claim in the introductory sentence that is not backed up by the following specific mechanics.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm confused about the 12th level Mind Smith feat Metallic Envisionment. The description is all about flexibility — being able to adjust to different weaknesses. But the mechanics seem to make the choice of cold iron or silver a one-time choice. The incongruity makes me wonder if some text about switching metals got removed.I, on the other hand, nod sagely when any Paizo feat makes a claim in the introductory sentence that is not backed up by the following specific mechanics.
Point taken. :)
But I'm used to vague and broad descriptions being narrowed down by rules. This feat seems to be a bit more directly contradictory than usual.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does Paizo just not remember that Athletics is a skill and therefore not something every single martial is going to invest in it? Because they certainly act like everyone will, Inventor has the same problem too.TBT if you are a STR character, I see no reason to avoid investing in Athletics.
Sure but they shouldn't assume every martial character is a STR character then.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does Paizo just not remember that Athletics is a skill and therefore not something every single martial is going to invest in it? Because they certainly act like everyone will, Inventor has the same problem too.TBT if you are a STR character, I see no reason to avoid investing in Athletics.
Athletics is a really good skill and maneuvers are very useful. From a mechanical standpoint, I can't disagree with you.
My quibble is just that this game has 16 skills in it (plus Lore) that players can freely invest in, plus not everyone is going to be Strength based.
The choices of traits here just put too much emphasis, imo, on making sure the player is good at one particular skill in general. Like I said it's the same problem I have with weapon inventors. I dislike the emphasis on making the correct skill increase choices in order to make the build work.
"Warrior who wields a psychic weapon" is a broad enough concept that there should be lots of room for ideas that don't include "is good at tripping" in them.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does Paizo just not remember that Athletics is a skill and therefore not something every single martial is going to invest in it? Because they certainly act like everyone will, Inventor has the same problem too.TBT if you are a STR character, I see no reason to avoid investing in Athletics.
I have been playing with the idea of Mind Smith on an Investigator with Athletic Strategist. A one-handed d6 finesse, trip, modular weapon, for example, does sound appealing since they could use Int on attack rolls for strikes (gaining Strategic Strike damage) and for Athletics Checks to trip.
But then I keep thinking that they could use a whip without taking any feats. (And reach is probably worth giving up the higher damage and multiple damage types anyway.)