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Doing my first PFS game, so here we go... Level 1.
A lot of my regular choices aren't available, so I look at some of the special exceptions for PFS. I'm not spending my starter points on a playtest character. Kobolds are fun, but anything I come up with feels too jokey, especially at level 1. It's lightly armored, so I have to do a Dex build or go through the hassle of the armor feats/archetype mess. Consider ratfolk for a while- dagger, maybe, or a bow. Nothing is clicking, and the level 1 class feats don't help. "Sanctified focus, sanctified focus, two-weapon fighting, two athletics feats in the wrong section."
Eventually, I start humming "It's Good to Be a God" and decide to make Tulio or Miguel from The Road to El Dorado. Dexterity and Charisma, Ascendant Court charlatan selling fake records of who's tried what, doesn't realize he's got a spark of divinity himself. "Tuhl" it is. Human, obviously gotta get the charming smile option (even if it's just worse than the shield booster), so we'll get the sandals because I'm not actually leveling the character up (fun now, but I can't tell you how bad it would feel to actually get this allegedly legendary item to the point where it's replaced by second-rank wands), and the sword/knife group option for +2 spirit damage on twinned daggers. Initial plan is to use Natural Ambition to also get the jumping feats (the better for running away from the Starstone aspirants who realized the guides he sold them were fake), but then I see that the skills are super limited. No first level class feat can compare with two trained skills, so I switch to Natural Skill. Background is Charlatan, naturally.
Thoughts:
- There are a couple effective AC boosters, but Eye-Catching Spot seems almost strictly worse than Palisade Bangles, and it doesn't have an out-of-combat use like Gaze Sharp as Steel. Palisade Bangles hits allies as well and isn't conditional, while the body ikons are self-only and only against certain types of attacks.
- I find myself wanting Eye-Catching Spot to have a small out-of-combat perk, and/or a one-action ability instead of two-action.
- Skybearer's Belt is a trap- if you rely on it, you're locked into maintaining it in combat and staying near allies because dropping it encumbers your allies. It also doesn't affect you, which is weird. You have the ability to make yourself the weakest in the group?
- Thousand-League Sandals run into the Longstrider wand problem.
- First level feats feel sparse, partly because sanctification stuff is narrow flavor and two-weapon fighting is limited.
- I'm on board with low armor for these sorts of characters, but the damage reduction fails on crits healing is limited, and any protections/AC bonuses/etc. will turn off when you shift. It feels a bit off to be required to go with a Dex build, but at the same time, Str build would absolutely demolish Dex build if medium armor were available automatically. Give them a good one-handed melee weapon ikon, maybe? Dunno how to solve that one.
Will update after playing. Cool class, level 1 seems very rough around the edges, probably to try and cram in all the ikons in a balanced way.
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Back from playing! Some thoughts:
- First and foremost, I sincerely apologize to Thousand-League Sandals for my harsh treatment of them. Marathon Dash is absolutely worth it on its own, and helped reposition the group out of a bad situation at the start of combat. Even if the status bonus to speed gets eclipsed, it's still worth it for that access.
- Getting to pick your ikon when you roll initiative really makes the class. Most feel-good feature at 1st level.
- My reservations over Eye-Catching Spot were well-founded. The two-action Captivating Charm is just not worth using, and the passive isn't good enough to stay in compared to the other options. I used it once, and I used the generic one-action Shift Immanence. Fascinated just isn't a very useful condition most of the time.
- With the extra spirit damage on daggers and 12 strength, plus Bard supporting the group, I felt fine on damage. Used Mirrored Spirit Strike once, but the first attack crit to take the enemy out.
- Twin Stars did nothing but take up a hand. I never got to apply the one extra damage.
- Woof, those skills. I poured everything human could give into more trained skills. The other Exemplar didn't, and mostly did nothing out of combat.
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- My reservations over Eye-Catching Spot were well-founded. The two-action Captivating Charm is just not worth using, and the passive isn't good enough to stay in compared to the other options. I used it once, and I used the generic one-action Shift Immanence. Fascinated just isn't a very useful condition most of the time.
Oof, somehow I missed that this was a two-action. Makes this ability pretty awful, considering we already have classes that can functionally get the same benefit out of a 1a. (Battledancer Swashbuckler/Focused Fascination does the same outcome except you're the one rolling vs the enemy's Will DC instead of the other way around)
There would be some utility to the option if it was 1a, as Fascination is one of the only conditions that can successfully draw Spellcaster aggro assuming you cast it directly before their turn; but having it as a 2a removes the option to ready it for that benefit, and forces you to fully-delay your turn. Oof.
- My reservations over Eye-Catching Spot were well-founded. The two-action Captivating Charm is just not worth using, and the passive isn't good enough to stay in compared to the other options. I used it once, and I used the generic one-action Shift Immanence. Fascinated just isn't a very useful condition most of the time.Oof, somehow I missed that this was a two-action. Makes this ability pretty awful, considering we already have classes that can functionally get the same benefit out of a 1a. (Battledancer Swashbuckler/Focused Fascination does the same outcome except you're the one rolling vs the enemy's Will DC instead of the other way around)
There would be some utility to the option if it was 1a, as Fascination is one of the only conditions that can successfully draw Spellcaster aggro assuming you cast it directly before their turn; but having it as a 2a removes the option to ready it for that benefit, and forces you to fully-delay your turn. Oof.
Yeah. This has the advantage of not being incapacitate, but I do feel like any two-action transcends really need to earn their keep because they stop you from playing the game smoothly. Two actions to make two attacks at the same MAP? Golden, no notes, I want to do that anyway. Two actions to fascinate, or move and carry allies? Ehhh... those seem like issues.
Whoops! It looks like I also did a bit of cheating... the class doesn't actually get a first level feat. Well, that explains why the selection was so sparse! That honestly feels reasonable. Then I retract my complaints about first level feats, because there are plenty of second-level feats to round things out.
All right, time for round two! Level 3.
This time, I came into things with a simple dream: Make a character that fit the phrase "crossbow boss crow".
Tengu is freely legal in PFS, which is the main reason we're doing this particular build. (Upon reading the rules, it looks like I can actually make a kitsune exemplar if the credit goes towards my kitsune character, so that's next week.) Crossbow, obviously- a quick review indicates a regular crossbow is still the best deal for common options, and will be bumped to a d10. That determines weapon ikon. As a "boss", we can't exactly fly around, but we can focus on Intimidate. For our Epithet, we're stuck choosing between Brave and Cunning (because Mournful and Radiant don't fit a "boss" character very well), and neither suits a crossbow, but Cunning fits a crow. For our body ikon, Gaze Sharp as Steel is a ranged AC boost even if the transcend is a poor fit. Our mobility is low, so let's get Thousand League Sandals to round it out.
On the Tengu side, we'll put our heritage towards improving our beak, so we can be a functional switch-hitter and maybe even use Cunning + A Moment Unending. For our feat, we'll pick up Electric Arc for a multi-target option when enemies aren't huddled up.
Finally, our class feat. We'll pick up the Zeal domain, allowing our opening shot to be a very solid 2d10 or 2d10+2.
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Playing S'bieci, she didn't feel great. Didn't feel terrible either. Pretty much just felt like martial with very limited features.
- +1 damage doesn't matter much when you have to reload, and the Rain of Seven Lights AoE needing to be reloaded for meant there was no firing off a shot before dropping the AoE. (That was the one notable thing I did on the class, though- hit two enemies for 7 damage each.)
- I also got to use the focus spell once, for an extra two damage. On a better roll, it would have been more appreciated. The Cleric's Magic weapon spell on me got great mileage, though. (Belatedly, I realize that those would have stacked! That would have been a great turn.)
- Gaze Sharp as Steel's transcend feels horribly mismatched. It's base form doesn't do anything in melee, and melee enemies have no reason to provoke. You'd have to move up to a caster and switch out of Body, and even then, you need a reach weapon for it to be useful? Confidently can say that this needs a redesigned transcend ability.
- Thousand League Sandals is not the ranged pick. I should have gone with Victor's Wreath, because a better chance at hitting with my effectively two-action shot is worth more than +1 damage. The transcend would have also helped with poison in this particular game.
- I only participated in skill checks through GM pity and generous interpretation of what my lore could cover.
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Love the ability to pick up any domains; it's very flavorful and fun. Wouldn't mind some domain spells getting a glow-up in remaster, but that's separate.
Crossbow was always going to be a rough pick, but d10 being the largest damage die at the table was nice. Gunslinger crits overshadow any ranged class.
Cunning feels useless, and I think it's the word people want on the most characters. That might be personal bias, though.
I'd like an Intimidation epithet. Fearsome?
I would really like to replace Religion with a freely-chosen skill, or get an additional free-choice skill. The epithet is already limiting choices, and Religion is going to have a poor modifier on most Exemplars.
Need a little more ranged stuff in there. It exists, but it's all very "one choice only", and the choices are all a little off.
All right, we're gonna give it another go! Level 3 again.
Realized last week that spending for the kitsune boon in PFS on a character also lets me make playtest kitsune characters, so it's time to make Reynard the Fox. Dex/Cha build again, Cunning again, this time getting expert Deception. Let's actually play to Gaze Sharp as Steel's ideal strengths: open combat with it up while wielding a reach weapon. "Reach finesse" means that we're going with a Dancer's Spear to fit the flag standard of the image. (This is where it was annoying to go Dex-based: for all the traits Dancer's Spear has, it's two die sizes smaller than a regular reach spear on top of not getting strength. That's less damage on Strike, Breathe, Rend too.) Fancy hat is the Victor's Wreath because we want to try our hardest to actually use Gaze Sharp as Steel.
Background is Charlatan, naturally. Kitsune feat is Kitsune Lore so that (along with Int +1) we have enough skills. Our second-level feats are Lie to Me to get the most out of Deception focus, and snag the Trickery domain. We'll grab Toughness to make up for having 10 Con.
(Just a note, I feel like A Moment Unending should let you step as part of the action. That'd do a lot to shore up the action and, at the very least, make it not completely burning an action past level 6.)
Results are in!
- I made one reactive strike, and one shot missed me because of the +2 vs ranged. I failed one feint, and critically succeeded another.
- I spent two actions trying to get reactive strikes and lost out on four damage.
- Ran into an encounter where the wreath was perfect. Everybody still failed their saves, but it was at least very relevant and would have helped us keep things manageable if it went on too long.
- Damage felt low out of weapon form, at least on this build.
- BUT, facing a lot of skeletons, the versatile B on Dancer's Spear really proved its worth.
- There was never a reason to even consider leaving weapon form after entering it. A guaranteed 1d6 damage vs 1d6+4 with Inspire Courage?
- Kitsune Lore feat felt necessary.
- Domain spell never got cast.