We still haven't seen any hexes, right? New evil eye or similar? Or are they not changing? Also how does a witch get them now?
We still haven't seen any hexes, right? New evil eye or similar? Or are they not changing? Also how does a witch get them now?
We know you still get one from your patron and the names are unchanged. We don't know if the individual cantrips have changed or if you can get more.
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The new witch familiar abilities are a mixed bag, but include some really good options. They activate when you cast or sustain a hex, not a spell. Also everything is extremely flavorful.
Fervor/Faith's Flamekesper: grants an ally 2+half your level temp HP for the round within 15 feet of your familiar. Great buff to your Frontline, awesome synergy for Stoke the Heart.
Rune/the Inscribed Ones: familiar can flank.
Fortune/Spinner of Threads: grants either a +1 or -1 status to AC to a target within 15 feet. This is just good.
Blizzard/Silence in Snow: your familiar generates a 5 foot burst of difficult terrain. Not very impressive, but does have synergy with clinging ice.
Curse/the Resentment: 15 foot range, Prolong the Duration of any negative conditions on the target by one round.
Shadow/Starless Shadow: if your familiar is adjacent to an enemy to which its concealed, hidden, or undetected, the enemy becomes frightened one. This has potential but I haven't thought through all the ways you can apply concealment yet. If you can get it going consistently without wasting actions, you have a mini Dirge of Doom on your hands.
Wild/Wildling Steward: familiar gains your choice of an imprecise scent, tremorsense, or wavesense, with a range of 60 feet until the start of your next turn, and it can immediately Point Out as a free action. A good combat niche to bust out, but what really makes it is the scouting potential.
A lot hinges on whether hexes have changed, both specifically and in general. (Like ditching the one minute immunity cool down.) And how bad losing your familiar hurts. (It's not likely to be directly targeted, but even if it is you can make that a tactical win. AoE is the big danger.) But there's some great potential here. If the familiar is too fragile I'd consider snagging an archetype focus spell so you can refocus without it.
Also some great new feats I ran of time to post.
So, for example, a Resentful familiar, trudging out on it's own during encounter mode, positions itself 15 feet from an enemy that is suffering from some negative condition, and when their master casts / sustains a hex, BAM, +1 round to duration of said negative condition?
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Hope the hexes are changing significantly because god that rune witch familiar ability is bad.
I know we knew about it in the past but there was always some copium that the abridged, second hand description was missing some critical detail or secondary effect.
... The balance for the familiar abilities in general seems all over the place. Some of them seem kind of amazing and then a couple of them look terrible.
The resentment ability seems kind of wild if you can get some of those "one round on a success" save type abilities and extend them for another. Raw AC modifiers are also always great.
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So easily the most exciting new feats are Spirit Familiar and Stitched Familiar. 8th level feats which give your familiar a two action activity it can use once per 10 minutes. The familiar sheds its spirit or unravels and flies through an enemy, dealing 6d6 damage with a basic save. (Heightens by 2d6 at level 9 and every 2 levels after) Spirit is for divine/occult and heals an ally for half the damage dealt. Stitched is arcane/primal and immobilizes the enemy if it fails their save until it escapes.
Amazing flavor, only costs the witch one action, basically gives an excellent focus spell that doesn't cost a focus point. Feels like a real game changer for the class.
So, for example, a Resentful familiar, trudging out on...The new witch familiar abilities are a mixed bag, but include some really good options. They activate when you cast or sustain a hex, not a spell. Also everything is extremely flavorful.
Fervor/Faith's Flamekesper: grants an ally 2+half your level temp HP for the round within 15 feet of your familiar. Great buff to your Frontline, awesome synergy for Stoke the Heart.
Rune/the Inscribed Ones: familiar can flank.
Fortune/Spinner of Threads: grants either a +1 or -1 status to AC to a target within 15 feet. This is just good.
Blizzard/Silence in Snow: your familiar generates a 5 foot burst of difficult terrain. Not very impressive, but does have synergy with clinging ice.
Curse/the Resentment: 15 foot range, Prolong the Duration of any negative conditions on the target by one round.
Shadow/Starless Shadow: if your familiar is adjacent to an enemy to which its concealed, hidden, or undetected, the enemy becomes frightened one. This has potential but I haven't thought through all the ways you can apply concealment yet. If you can get it going consistently without wasting actions, you have a mini Dirge of Doom on your hands.
Wild/Wildling Steward: familiar gains your choice of an imprecise scent, tremorsense, or wavesense, with a range of 60 feet until the start of your next turn, and it can immediately Point Out as a free action. A good combat niche to bust out, but what really makes it is the scouting potential.
A lot hinges on whether hexes have changed, both specifically and in general. (Like ditching the one minute immunity cool down.) And how bad losing your familiar hurts. (It's not likely to be directly targeted, but even if it is you can make that a tactical win. AoE is the big danger.) But there's some great potential here. If the familiar is too fragile I'd consider snagging an archetype focus spell so you can refocus without it.
Also some great new feats I ran of time to post.
Correct, although it can still be removed by other means and I am unclear how that interacts with Frightened. But as Squiggit mentions, it means that things like successes on a save against slow or synesthesia just... Won't stop.
Hope the hexes are changing significantly because god that rune witch familiar ability is bad.
I know we knew about it in the past but there was always some copium that the abridged, second hand description was missing some critical detail or secondary effect.
... The balance for the familiar abilities in general seems all over the place. Some of them seem kind of amazing and then a couple of them look terrible.
The resentment ability seems kind of wild if you can get some of those "one round on a success" save type abilities and extend them for another. Raw AC modifiers are also always great.
Woah that is kind of crazy. the ones that stood into my mind instantly were slow, paralyze (on a failure thats just a permenantly paralyzed creature), synesthesia, loose times arrow and probably even more incapacitation spells.
I really hope this is as good as I think it is.
I thought monitors were mentioned in Nepheline options.They are, there was just no Chaos/Law Lineages shown though, assuming that means Paizo is abandoning Ganzi is jus that, an assumption.
It would seem to me that Nephilim might be taking on that whole gamut. Holy and unholy, and then however they alter the concept of order and pandemonium.
Hope the hexes are changing significantly because god that rune witch familiar ability is bad.
I know we knew about it in the past but there was always some copium that the abridged, second hand description was missing some critical detail or secondary effect.
... The balance for the familiar abilities in general seems all over the place. Some of them seem kind of amazing and then a couple of them look terrible.
The resentment ability seems kind of wild if you can get some of those "one round on a success" save type abilities and extend them for another. Raw AC modifiers are also always great.
You're not wrong. The flanking buddy is a really good addition to certain parties (ones with an odd number of melee people, basically) and otherwise falls flat. And while I like Discern Secrets it wasn't exactly the most universally useful combat cantrip.
It may be a good ability for melee witches, which are sounding a little juicier with eldrritch hair and nails being combined and making enemies extra susceptible to hexes.
It seems like the best patrons got better and the worse patrons didn't get as much. But we will see what else changes.
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It would seem to me that Nephilim might be taking on that whole gamut. Holy and unholy, and then however they alter the concept of order and pandemonium.I thought monitors were mentioned in Nepheline options.They are, there was just no Chaos/Law Lineages shown though, assuming that means Paizo is abandoning Ganzi is jus that, an assumption.
The last sentence in the second to last paragraph on the left side of the Nephilim first page entry states, “Other Nephilim sometimes earn the name of aphorite or ganzi, though this entry only focuses on empyreans and cambrions.”
If resentment works the way it seems like it will, and if the good spells don't get themselves nerfed, curse witch will be awesome. Another win for occult casters. And another L for arcane judging by that rune ability.
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I'll be judging Discern Secrets depending on how good the Recall Knowledge clarifications are. Giving yourself a +1 to RK checks is a nice-to-have, if you're the designated RK member of the party.
Also, I noticed a new "Subtle" trait on the Charm spell. Maybe for the out-of-combat spells, they'll be less obvious to cast from the get-go? That would improve Discern Secrets' applications out-of-combat tremendously!
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New witch feats also include being able to turn a knife into a wand during your daily preparation with no significant cost. So you basically get 2 free slots a day from it. Starts at Rank 1 at 6th level, and goes up every new rank as well.
There's also Coven Spell, a 12 level reaction that lets you enhance an ally's casting, either by applying a spellshape (ie metamagic) you know or adding the spells rank as a status bonus to damage. Doesn't work for durations, but it isn't restricted against cantrips like Dangerous Sorcery is. Pretty good boost if you've got a fellow caster in the party.
Oddly, dud feats like Murksight at 8th level persisted.
I suspect I'll be taking Familiar Master on my witches in Free Archetype games because the class feat competition is looking stiffer and I'll want to keep the little bugger alive.
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New witch feats also include being able to turn a knife into a wand during your daily preparation with no significant cost. So you basically get 2 free slots a day from it. Starts at Rank 1 at 6th level, and goes up every new rank as well.
There's also Coven Spell, a 12 level reaction that lets you enhance an ally's casting, either by applying a spellshape (ie metamagic) you know or adding the spells rank as a status bonus to damage. Doesn't work for durations, but it isn't restricted against cantrips like Dangerous Sorcery is. Pretty good boost if you've got a fellow caster in the party.
Oddly, dud feats like Murksight at 8th level persisted.
I suspect I'll be taking Familiar Master on my witches in Free Archetype games because the class feat competition is looking stiffer and I'll want to keep the little bugger alive.
Two other things I noticed by implication:
- The change from Temporary Potions to Double, Double implies that Cauldron now gives a scaling number of scaling level free potions/oils every day during daily preparations. (Tentacle Potion/tail feat builds rejoice!)- Devs mentioned that the patron could direct the familiar if the Witch is busy, but there doesn't seem to be a feat for that (with the other patron feats all being accounted for other things). Witch probably gets a feature that's at least the equivalent of free Independent. While arcane Witch still isn't gonna be my jam, the flanking ability does make more sense if the familiar getting into position doesn't require Witch actions or a familiar ability.
Also, absolutely love The Resentment's familiar ability. "PF1 Cackle, but for every timed negative effect on a creature"? That bumps things up to "solid reason to take the class specifically". Divine Witch getting to hand out temporary hitpoints to allies feels good too. The others are generally good, even if they're less unique options.
New witch feats also include being able to turn a knife into a wand during your daily preparation with no significant cost. So you basically get 2 free slots a day from it. Starts at Rank 1 at 6th level, and goes up every new rank as well.
There's also Coven Spell, a 12 level reaction that lets you enhance an ally's casting, either by applying a spellshape (ie metamagic) you know or adding the spells rank as a status bonus to damage. Doesn't work for durations, but it isn't restricted against cantrips like Dangerous Sorcery is. Pretty good boost if you've got a fellow caster in the party.
Oddly, dud feats like Murksight at 8th level persisted.
I suspect I'll be taking Familiar Master on my witches in Free Archetype games because the class feat competition is looking stiffer and I'll want to keep the little bugger alive.
Two other things I noticed by implication:
- The change from Temporary Potions to Double, Double implies that Cauldron now gives a scaling number of scaling level free potions/oils every day during daily preparations. (Tentacle Potion/tail feat builds rejoice!)
- Devs mentioned that the patron could direct the familiar if the Witch is busy, but there doesn't seem to be a feat for that (with the other patron feats all being accounted for other things). Witch probably gets a feature that's at least the equivalent of free Independent. While arcane Witch still isn't gonna be my jam, the flanking ability does make more sense if the familiar getting into position doesn't require Witch actions or a familiar ability.Also, absolutely love The Resentment's familiar ability. "PF1 Cackle, but for every timed negative effect on a creature"? That bumps things up to "solid reason to take the class specifically". Divine Witch getting to hand out temporary hitpoints to allies feels good too. The others are generally good, even if they're less unique options.
Yeah, I was thinking I'd be sinking an ability into independent, but that would be a pretty great boost.
I also think this will breathe some new life into specific familiars. There were already some pretty great options people were sleeping on, but with deploying your familiar becoming a mandatory strategy, they should see more play. Examples:
Shadow Step to move around the battlefield without harm.
Elemental Immunities for survivability
Breath weapons
Fortune effects
Elemental damage boosters
I think Resentment just became the best debuffer in the game.
Hmmm, looks like nephilim got their "your strikes deal +1 alignment damage" feat whacked (blessed strikes for the old aasimar). This means you'll actually have to take a holy rune if you want holy damage. Oh well.
One thing I've noticed (and have for a while) is that innate ancestry spells are often...really bad. Like. Not just "this isn't a great idea to us" but actually unusably bad. The only use for "summon nephilim kin" is buffing and , and this was true for original tiefling and aasimar too.
A 5th level summon fiend/celestial is going to summon a level 5 fiend. At level 13. And before someone says "oh but summon fiend/celestial may change to make this usable in the remaster", no, it kind of can't, because if you look at "rouse the forest's fury" (kineticist 18) it has +30 to hit, scaling to +32 to hit at level 20. This is at +2 over an adult bronze dragon (which is what rank 9 summon dragon spells, the equivalent of level 18 impulses, get), but at best summons in the remaster will summon elite-templated versions of summons.
(also, rage of elements introduces a lot of level 9/11/13 elementals in the bestiary, and I do not think this is coincidence. Those are the levels of things you can summon).
There is no universe where a level 5 fiend/celestial is capable of actually fighting in a level 13+ combat. Yes, it can buff, and yes it can heal and yes it can find traps. But if you were dumb enough to summon something that cannot buff/heal you are screwed.
Likewise, for "celestial mercy"...how often are you going to encounter 10th level diseases at level 13? Let alone at higher levels, because it doesn't scale. At all. And neither does summon nephilim kin.
Thoughts? Arguments? Ways to fix this?
Yeah a little bummed to see that. I posted quite some time ago that changing non scaling ancestry feats like those was one of the things I wanted most for the remaster.
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From one of the screenshots of the Nephilim ancestry,
13th-level ancestry feat Slip Sideways prerequisites: "...or another lineage feat associated with fiends or the Maelstrom"
So, ganzi at least will get folded into Nephilim, and so aphorites as well, presumably. Duskwalkers are distinct enough that they may remain separate, or not. Of the 3, duskwalkers were the only ones besides aasimar and tieflings in the APG, as opposed to later products.
Duskwalkers are separate. They'll appear in Player Core 2, along with Dhampirs and an as yet unannounced brand new versatile heritage.
- Devs mentioned that the patron could direct the familiar if the Witch is busy, but there doesn't seem to be a feat for that (with the other patron feats all being accounted for other things). Witch probably gets a feature that's at least the equivalent of free Independent. While arcane Witch still isn't gonna be my jam, the flanking ability does make more sense if the familiar getting into position doesn't require Witch actions or a familiar ability.
I vaguely remember them saying it's a free action focus spell. Might be mixing this up with something else, though.
Also, absolutely love The Resentment's familiar ability. "PF1 Cackle, but for every timed negative effect on a creature"?
Small correction: It prolongs conditions, not effects. So if you use it one someone affected by Synesthesia, it would probabaly prolong the clumsy condition, but not the rest of the effect.
It's still absolutely amazing for many, many debuff spells, of course.
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Yeah a little bummed to see that. I posted quite some time ago that changing non scaling ancestry feats like those was one of the things I wanted most for the remaster.Hmmm, looks like nephilim got their "your strikes deal +1 alignment damage" feat whacked (blessed strikes for the old aasimar). This means you'll actually have to take a holy rune if you want holy damage. Oh well.
One thing I've noticed (and have for a while) is that innate ancestry spells are often...really bad. Like. Not just "this isn't a great idea to us" but actually unusably bad. The only use for "summon nephilim kin" is buffing and , and this was true for original tiefling and aasimar too.
A 5th level summon fiend/celestial is going to summon a level 5 fiend. At level 13. And before someone says "oh but summon fiend/celestial may change to make this usable in the remaster", no, it kind of can't, because if you look at "rouse the forest's fury" (kineticist 18) it has +30 to hit, scaling to +32 to hit at level 20. This is at +2 over an adult bronze dragon (which is what rank 9 summon dragon spells, the equivalent of level 18 impulses, get), but at best summons in the remaster will summon elite-templated versions of summons.
(also, rage of elements introduces a lot of level 9/11/13 elementals in the bestiary, and I do not think this is coincidence. Those are the levels of things you can summon).
There is no universe where a level 5 fiend/celestial is capable of actually fighting in a level 13+ combat. Yes, it can buff, and yes it can heal and yes it can find traps. But if you were dumb enough to summon something that cannot buff/heal you are screwed.
Likewise, for "celestial mercy"...how often are you going to encounter 10th level diseases at level 13? Let alone at higher levels, because it doesn't scale. At all. And neither does summon nephilim kin.
Thoughts? Arguments? Ways to fix this?
I agree. For me, non scaling item dc (making half of the magic items longer shelf life consumables in sheeps clothing) and non scaling ancestry feats are the only parts of the system I consider actively bad. Permanent additions to your build should be viable for use from lvl 1 to lvl 20
Was there both Phase Familiar and Patron’s Puppet?
Neither was shown or mentioned.
We did see a lost of all witch feats, though, and neither of the two seems to be a feat. Unless it's hidden behind a non-obvious feat name, of course.
I put all the previewed pages into a tidy little PDF for you all. You can find the thread where it is linked here.
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Today my foundry show an remaster note. This may help us to understand better what changed:
You'll notice some changes to the pathfinder system with this update. With the release of Rage of Elements we also received our first preview of the Pathfinder remastered rules. These changes are mostly in how things are named, with no mechanical impact. For example, you'll notice that the "Flat-Footed" condition is now renamed to "Off-Guard". You can read more of these changes in the Pathfinder Core Preview Document. If you are unaware of the motivation for these changes, it was prompted by the need to remove terminology from the game used by a different company's game system.
We want to make moving to the remastered version as smooth as possible for users, and for most groups these changes will have no impact. The new rules are compatible with the old rules, and all outward appearances are that this is mostly a renaming of items. The mechanical changes will not be integrated into the system until we have guidance on how to implement them with no interruption to gameplay. Going forward we plan to follow direction from Paizo and treat the remastered rules as errata to the game. We do not plan on removing any NPCs from the system, though in the future some names may change. There is no need to worry about something simply vanishing entirely on you or your group. We're players and GMs too, and we understand that some groups may be averse to changes, even ones that are just terminology changes.
We have added the new spells found in the preview document, including renaming some existing spells. If the mechanics of the spell changed in a way that it was not clear if it was meant as a replacement for an existing spell, then we kept the original spell as well as the spell intended to fill a similar function. For example, the Ignition spell is a new fire cantrip but because the mechanics of that cantrip are different than Produce Flame and the Psychic class interacts with the mechanics of produce flame directly, both spells have been kept in the system. But the new spell Falling Stars is a direct mechanical replacement for Meteor Swarm. Compendium entries of Meteor Swarm were renamed, and the mechanics of that spell updated to Falling Stars. Existing links to Meteor Swarm will now point to Falling Stars, but copies of the spell on actors were not removed or altered. For ease of reference here is a list of all spells that have had their names changed:
Scorching Ray has become Blazing Bolt
Burning Hands has become Breathe Fire
Calm Emotions has become Calm
Comprehend Languages has become Translate
Purify Food and Drink has become Cleanse Cuisine
Entangle has become Entangling Flora
Endure Elements has become Environmental Endurance
Meteor Swarm has become Falling Stars
Plane Shift has become Interplanar Teleport
Know Direction has become Know the Way
Stoneskin has become Mountain Resilience
Mage Armor has become Mystic Armor
Tree Stride has become Nature's Pathway
Barkskin has become Oaken Resilience
Tree Shape has become One with Plants
Meld into Stone has become One with Stone
Gentle Repose has become Peaceful Rest
Flesh to Stone has become Petrify
Dimensional Lock has become Planar Seal
Magic Fang has become Runic Body
Magic Weapon has become Runic Weapon
See Invisibility has become See the Unseen
Longstrider has become Tailwind
Tanglefoot has become Tangle Vine
Mage Hand has become Telekinetic Hand
Dimension Door has become Translocate
Tongues has become Truespeech
Gaseous Form has become Vapor Form
Some spells have had their mechanics or text updated with no change to the name:Augury
Detect Magic
Fire Shield
Invoke Spirits
Speak with Animals
Speak with Plants
Speak with Stones
Wish
You can also find the following new remaster spells in our compendiums. These are either entirely new spells, or new takes on old spells that have mechanical changes that are not clearly intended as a complete replacement, or the equivalent spell was kept in the system for other mechanical reasons.Figment
Howling Blizzard
Ignition
Manifestation
Mirage
Revealing Light
Thunderstrike
Wrathful Storm
You will also find that some languages have been renamed. Auran has become Sussuran, Terran has become Petran, Ignan has become Pyric, Aquan has become Thalassic, and Sylvan has become Fey.
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One beat little buff from the preview: Nephelim Lore gives Additional Lore on your relevant topic instead of just training in Lore. I imagine the other ancestry Lore feats probably do as well, which is a nice little flavor buff for the scaling proficiency.
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One beat little buff from the preview: Nephelim Lore gives Additional Lore on your relevant topic instead of just training in Lore. I imagine the other ancestry Lore feats probably do as well, which is a nice little flavor buff for the scaling proficiency.
It would be great if Remastered Backgrounds did the same. Alas the Rage of Elements ones still only provide Trained in lore.