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Too much: The various boons being basic proficiency boosts depending on which Animistic Practice you pick takes up a lot of space but it isn't exciting at all (and it's unnecessarily granular). It also doesn't really make sense--why is a Channeler better at Fortitude saves than a Sage? What's the hook there? It makes sense for a Warpriest to have a slightly different progression (and even this I find awkward), but I'm not feeling the justification here. This could definitely be a more flavorful and exciting ability rather than a basic progression math adjustment, and all Animists could just get the same proficiency progression.
Not enough: Having just two Animistic Practices seems like there's a lot of potential being left out by only having two, while the baseline abilities that Sage gets are so weak I'm not sure why I would ever pick that. Channeler seems close to there, in that it seems to guide you towards a lot of blasting and healing, and swapping primary apparitions in combat was already something my players were thinking about combos for. Hotswapping spirits is cool, and there should definitely be more focus spells for the spirits as you level. Sage seems like it could be oriented more towards something else entirely, with a third Medium Animistic Practice that does the "invite a spirit to possess you in exchange for power" thing.
Medium could, I dunno, bar refocus primary apparition swapping altogether in exchange for a stronger connection with the spirit. More abilities or passive effects at the cost of the versatility of swapping. Fold in Soul Synchronization baseline and/or give each apparition type a specific buff that they lend to the Medium as the primary apparition. Similar to the spirit bonuses and seance boons from 1e.
Sage could lean into the lore aspects of the class (which makes more sense for the name). It'd be cool to have a version of a beat-you-with-Recall Knowledge class that uses Wisdom, maybe giving the Sage bonuses to Recall Knowledge and some additional Aid abilities, passing around advice from the spirits they commune with to party members like a flavor of Bard.
***Also just want to note that Steward of Stone and Fire and Custodian of Groves and Gardens both give wall spells at level 1. Maybe that's intentional, but it's kiiiiinda boring if you want to go blaster/healer, like Channeler seems to encourage.
Yeah, I hope in release subclasses don't determine chassis progression. It only feels bad and makes it more difficult for them to create more subclasses in the future (if they ever want to ofc).
I get why they would want Sage to trade out will save progression for something else, since it's supposed to get immunity to the worst will effects, but... see other threads.
I'd really like for the class to not follow the Cleric path. It's already a wisdom-based prepared divine caster; I'd definitely be happier if it didn't follow the pattern of proficiency progression subclasses. It feels like Sage has its payoff for four levels where you get to have higher AC than the Rogue, and for a glorious two levels of that you're actually ahead of two-handed Fighter.
That said, I can see how the alternative is bad too.
Three-slot casters don't get mid-level features, and it's especially an issue when your main feature is entirely flexible day-to-day. I imagine it's a way to carve out some more space for a meaningful permanent choice. It doesn't feel great, but just having it work like Channeler means that any two Animists can basically just become one another. There's no build distinction outside of feats, not even a key stat choice, and even many feats can be swapped out during daily prep.
(I've mentioned some of this stuff already, so this is also partly just me trying to figure out what feels off about the class to me personally.)
I'm not sure I agree with more practices. As written they're both very minimalistic. You get a single bonus feat and some progression related stuff, there isn't a lot of meat there. Charm resistance is super niche, but switching primaries is only a sometimes option too.
And I think that's kind of fine? They don't need to be big deals and adding more of them would just muddy things up more. If anything they could just standardize the save and armor progression and strip them down even more.
That is why they need a boost, a boon greater then what we have. They add very little but yet is the most insane part of the Animist, play a Channeler, you get so much it is mind blowing, play a sage and sur eyou are limited 1 but you get a weirdly powerful and weirdly weak mind control immunity, which is a two-sided feat with ultimate power but at 1 action cost which may NEVER come up by a normal DM.
My DM used dominate once in a boss fight, one play didn't save against the insane DC which he could only roll a 19 to pass, so the DM never again vowed to use Mind Control since the play had nothign to do for the entire hour the boss fight was going on.
The Channeler is great at slinging spells, but the Sage's better defensive progression definitely enables you to lean-in to Embodiment of Battle and Discomfiting Whispers based play-style of getting up in their face and striking. The feat is obviously less exciting but the chassis progression seems needed for the GISH thing to be viable.
Maybe they can do with more feats like Soul Synchronization that engage with Apparition's Possession? Maybe some wandering feats could give different bonuses for using Appartion's Possession while having different Apparitions bonded? Like a feat that adds the apparition tag to the sneak action and gives some sneaky bonus when one of the apparitions you're attuned to grants Underworld Lore as an apparition skill? Anything to make being possessed a more interesting option.
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I think the problem I have is that when the boon is fundamentally about "increase your save or armor proficiencies" it doesn't really represent the actual difference between the channeler and the sage (i.e. many spirits vs. one spirit) but it does suggest "this is supposed to be the more defensive subclass" in a way that's frankly confusing when you try to stack them against each other. Like which one is more defensive? The sage gets expert armor at 9 instead of 13, but the sage has terrible saves, but it does get resistance.
Unless the subclass is actually supposed to be about saves/defenses we should probably leave those progressions in the class as a whole and just focus on the things that are thematic.
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Sage = more combat oriented is at least a little confusing as far as name to ability.
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From reading the playtest, I knew practices heavily reminded me of something.
When I realized that Animist is the Cleric without deity, it became obvious that these were the equivalent to Doctrines : one is Cloistered Animist and the other is War Animist. Trying to cram what could be two pretty similar classes in a single one.
Just like deities/domains are supposed to be the subclasses of Cleric, so are Apparitions the subclasses of Animist.
I was hoping this would be the type of thing that would be addressed in the Remaster. Warpriest being more than just a proficiency difference from Cloistered Cleric, for example. Every feature should have some element of excitement, especially when it's a feature you pick.
When I build a Channeler I want a bunch of little doodads that make my feature of swapping apparitions that much more interesting as I level. That's why I picked Channeler in the first place, rather than Sage or whatever else Animistic Practice final release has. If there's nothing synergistic with my selection as I level, then it begs the question: why have any distinct progression, why not just give me the ability and call it good?
I'm partial to Channeler doing the hotswap thing and getting some bonuses to healing and damage spells (using), Sage doing something that reflects using the collected wisdom of the apparitions they've communed with (cooperating), and a third Animistic Practice that leans more heavily into maintaining a single primary apparition each day (surrendering). Those feel to me like three distinct relationships with the spirits, if we're going to have these Animistic Practices at all.
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Yeah I will agree the name Sage feels off whem compared to the slightly more martial bent it has.
I almost feel like with the descriptions, Sage should get some sort of boon or passive benefit from their primary apparition. To reflect the deeper connection it forms with it. Almost like the junctions from Kinetecist. But I could see maybe they don't want to tread simillar mechanics so soon. Especially if they wanted to wait and see how well those mechanics were actually received in the end.
And on to the proficency thing.
Maybe the improved armor proficency should be like one of those feats that can be swapped out, so if you have like a spirit with heraldry lore or warfare lore or something like that, you can pick up the feat and for that day/time being you have better proficency with your armor?
That way less of the channeler/sage stuff has to be tied to proficencies and such?
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One thought I've had playing the game is... I think I might be kind of bummed out if the practices were expanded too much.
The fact that I can sort of pick how I want to play my character regardless of practice is a really big positive for me.
I'd like to see Sage maybe get one or two additional things at low levels because it really feels like you just don't get much value early on, but I'd rather not see too many new things tacked onto either.