Wish for a skillier Animist

[Staffan Johansson]

One of the cool things about the 3e Binder was how it could often pick a vestige in order to get various skill bonuses, not just combat bonuses. I wish the animist could do a similar thing. Maybe something like this:

* Drop Nature as a mandatory skill (this keeps the net additional skills at level 1 to one, as you're getting two from your apparitions).
* Have each apparition provide Trained in one non-Lore skill. If this is too much combined with two Lore skills, say you get your choice of the two Lore skills. So for example the Imposter in Hidden Places would give you Stealth plus either Fortune-telling Lore or Underworld Lore. Only Lore skills would get the automatic skill advancement at levels 8 and 16.
* Add some class feats that let you improve your granted skills. Perhaps a level 2 feat that gives you Expert in your primary apparition's skill, expanding to a second at level 4 and all at level 6 (which is functionally three until level 12 when your fourth apparition comes online), as well as a skill feat in one of your apparition skills. At level 8 you can take a second feat that gives you Master in your primary, expanding to a second at level 10, a third at 14, and boosting your primary to Legendary at 16; plus a second skill feat.

The base level would allow the Animist to adapt not just their spells but also their skills to upcoming challenges. We're infiltrating somewhere? Attune to a Stealth and a Deception apparition. We're traveling through hostile wilderness? Nature and Survival. And so on. The class feats would then allow Animists who so chooses to lean into actually being good at skills, eventually gaining one legendary, two master, and two expert skills above the baseline.

[breithauptclan]

I don't think they need to be above the baseline. Having the flexibility to pick skills with temporary on-level proficiency in those (similar to Tome Thaumaturge) would be just fine with me. It would be something like the Trickster Medium Spirit.

[Staffan Johansson]

breithauptclan wrote:

I don't think they need to be above the baseline. Having the flexibility to pick skills with temporary on-level proficiency in those (similar to Tome Thaumaturge) would be just fine with me. It would be something like the Trickster Medium Spirit.

The overall baseline for a 1st level character is 5 + Int trained skills plus a Lore. This usually comes from:

1. One or more mandatory skills for your class (or sometimes "Skill A or skill B", like the Fighter has the choice of Acrobatics or Athletics).
2. Other skills of your choice to get to a total of 4 plus Int.
3. One regular skill and one Lore from your background.

It's fairly common to be at +1 or even +2 skills from this baseline. Wizards and magi are at -1 (probably because someone thought they shouldn't have all the skills just because they have all the Int), and rogues and investigators are significantly above it.

If animists kept Religion, Nature, and two more and also got two more from their apparition, that might be a bit much even for someone like me who thinks everyone should have rogue-level skill increases. So, drop Nature which gets them at -1 natively, or +1 with the bonus skills. But dropping them to only Religion +1 would feel like they don't know anything on their own which seems kinda dumb. So the end effect is one skill above the baseline, which is not really that big a deal.

[John R.]

breithauptclan wrote:

I don't think they need to be above the baseline. Having the flexibility to pick skills with temporary on-level proficiency in those (similar to Tome Thaumaturge) would be just fine with me. It would be something like the Trickster Medium Spirit.

Agreed. Maybe add a wandering trait feat that grants a bonus skill feat or 2 for the day based on what skills you picked.

[Staffan Johansson]

Another option would be to just make the "additional skills" part of the Tome thaumaturge a class feat for the animist. In that case I'd do something like this:

Add an "Inspired skill" to each apparition. You are Trained in the inspired skill of your primary apparition.

Add a "Spiritual tutelage" feat, probably at about level 2. This would auto-scale as follows:
Level 2: Trained in your primary apparition's skill + the skill of an additional apparition.
Level 4: Expert in primary + Trained in one additional.
Level 6: Expert in primary + one more.
Level 8: Master in primary + Expert in one more.
Level 10: Master in primary + one more.
Level 16: Legendary in primary + Master in one more
Level 18: Legendary in primary + one more.

This is pretty close to the progression of the Tome thaumaturge, except delayed by one level so they don't coincide with when you get your regular skill increases. The exception is 16/18, which is one level sooner for one skill and one level later for the other.

Maybe add an "Advanced tutelage" feat at some point that lets you also choose some additional skill feats, like maybe 1/4 levels, based on your apparitions' skills.

[breithauptclan]

John R. wrote:

breithauptclan wrote:

I don't think they need to be above the baseline. Having the flexibility to pick skills with temporary on-level proficiency in those (similar to Tome Thaumaturge) would be just fine with me. It would be something like the Trickster Medium Spirit.

Agreed. Maybe add a wandering trait feat that grants a bonus skill feat or 2 for the day based on what skills you picked.

Along with a separate Wandering feat that gives one on-level skill proficiency. So gives Trained by default, gives Expert once you reach level 7, and so on.

It would be less than what Tome Thaumaturge gives as far as number of skills, but it wouldn't give less power for the skill that it does boost.

It also compares reasonably to the Summoner feats Dual Studies and Skilled Partner.

[ElementalofCuteness]

This could be pretty interesting actually.