The write-up of the class devotes a lot of space to "you can become an avatar of your spirit" but this is an ability that only ever matters at levels 19 and 20 (the same levels divine casters get the spell "Avatar".) A lot of characters might never see these levels, so a lot of this rules text feels superfluous.
Hypothetically, you should be better at this than other people, and battle forms often have a "heightened" line to make them relevant at a range of levels. Could perhaps "incarnate your spirit to become a battle form" be available at levels where your career is not nearly over, just at a lesser effect? It's not like in folklore and mythology "avatar" necessarily means "incredibly powerful", after all in some Hindu traditions every living thing is an avatar of Vishnu. There's even a tradition of "full avatars" vs. "partial avatars" in that Rama, Krishna, and Narasimha (for example) embody Vishnu more fully than do other Avatars of Vishnu.
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It feels like a really sudden pivot. For 18 levels you're a primary caster, and then suddenly you have a battle form that's presented as if it were a capstone class feature.
When I previously played a cleric in Age of Ashes I wasn't really tempted to use Avatar anyway, because last I looked you still couldn't cast spells in avatar form.
Yeah, it feels reasonable to discuss "at what levels you can expect people to actually dramatically change up their combat routines" and that level is probably not "19".
Either making "something analogous but less good" available at lower levels or "completely removing this class feature in exchange for something else" would seem to me an improvement.
making "something analogous but less good" available at lower levels
Like Walk of the Wilds and Wind Seeker? Or is that not analogous enough?
I basically ignored the Avatar because it isn't different from what other divine casters get.
I agree. It's presented by the class text as some super cool feature but in practice doesn't give anything new.
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I do kind of wish there was a 'lesser avatar' spell somewhere in the game that let you tap into this font of divine power before the end of the game.
I don't necessarily have a problem with unique avatars for Animists, it's thematically very cool, but at the same time a spirit only has four entries in its description, so it's kind of feelsbad that one of them is possibly never going to be relevant.
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The write-up of the class devotes a lot of space to "you can become an avatar of your spirit" but this is an ability that only ever matters at levels 19 and 20 (the same levels divine casters get the spell "Avatar".) A lot of characters might never see these levels, so a lot of this rules text feels superfluous.
Hypothetically, you should be better at this than other people, and battle forms often have a "heightened" line to make them relevant at a range of levels. Could perhaps "incarnate your spirit to become a battle form" be available at levels where your career is not nearly over, just at a lesser effect? It's not like in folklore and mythology "avatar" necessarily means "incredibly powerful", after all in some Hindu traditions every living thing is an avatar of Vishnu. There's even a tradition of "full avatars" vs. "partial avatars" in that Rama, Krishna, and Narasimha (for example) embody Vishnu more fully than do other Avatars of Vishnu.
I think the idea is that Apparitions end up giving an Animist the same kind of power a deity gives to their Cleric. Hence Avatar.