This is my last impressions post with Animist as we are on the last day of the playtest to answer the forms.
As I completed the Plaguestone speedrun this time I skipped to the 4th chapter of the first AoE book to playtest the 4th level.
This playtest will focus into animist only. For other classes I will post my impressions in their respective forums.
Party composition
A human Animist
A half-orc Exemplar
A half-elf Soldier (from SF2 Fieldtest)
A hobgoblin Alchemist
Build
At this level I got Embodiment of the Balance with the Animist both because he is the party's healer, and because something that happened frequently in previous levels was that I had the apparition spell slots left while I wasted all my divine spell slots with heal. And honestly it was totally worth it.
At this level I got Embodiment of the Balance with the Animist both because he is the party's healer, and because something that happened frequently in previous levels was that I had the apparition spell slots left while I wasted all my divine spell slots with heal. And honestly it was totally worth it.
I also picked up Powerful Leap as a Skill Feat. This allowed me to move more when using Sustaining Dance, although investing in Athletics with a caster that doesn't have strength seems like a waste, in the end it ended up being useful in situations where I needed to climb.
At this level I also get my 3rd appearance, which I ended up choosing for the new Reveler in Lost Glee that was posted on blog because his vessel spell seemed like a very interesting option to have in a long-range caster build.
Impressions
At this level I finally have 3 focus points to spend, which theoretically makes it possible for the "cheese" to sustain 3 Earth's Bile. But in practice it wasn't like that...
Only in a single battle did I actually manage to do this and the effectiveness was somewhat questionable, which was when we faced 6 level 1 spiders.
The questionable thing is because as Bile's progression is slower (Heightening +2) the damage of 3 of them at this level was only a little better than 1 of her + EA. Still, due to the AoE I managed to hit more than 2 spiders a few times, which made it very efficient, but it was the Soldier who actually killed the spiders with his cannon, dealing 2d10 and suppressing in the same area every round.
However, in other fights, such as against a Greather Bargesh and then against some cultists, it has already proven to be much less viable, in the first because the Bargesh, in addition to already having good resistance to fire damage, used Blink, basically invalidating any damage from Bile, including This is one of the biggest limitations of Bile or any other DOT spell in the game, the damage resistances make them unfeasible as normally this type of sustained damage is not high enough to overcome the resistance (unless you are a Kineticist), In the second against the cultists, the fact that they started with a better initiative and causing area damage forced me into healer mode, which basically restricted me to using just one Bile per round because I needed the actions to heal myself. and my allies.
What ended up proving to be quite useful, much more than I expected was the Embodiment of the Balance, since the options for apparition spells are much more limited, being able to use it to heal proved to be an excellent solution, too bad at the cost a feat for that.
This was the level at which I felt least efficient as a DPR, because as I mentioned before, Heightening (+2) means that your effectiveness drops over time until you enter the next level where your magic improves. At this level, specifically where Strike runes also came into play, this became very clear to me.
My conclusion
Playing as the Animist was fun. But the class proved to be a little too complicated and restrictive.
Having the slots divided in the middle, along with the fact that your choices in the list provided by the apparitions are limited to their template, which you normally don't choose because of the spells, ended up making the conjurations that were not of focus very secondary and limited in the my opinion.
Having the focus spells as sustained was cool too, but their choice and form is questionable because having a sustained spell is a double-edged sword, on the one hand it saves you resources, on the other it is a 1-action sacrifice to every spell you sustain, especially in a class that only has a single way to compress it, just by giving an additional movement.
Honestly, I don't know if I would play the animist in a final version that was very similar to this playtest. It would be an interesting class, but I don't know if it's enough to make me excited to play it. Because for several roles in which it is capable, I probably already have better alternatives with other classes. Let's see if the final version changes this.
Considering that you nearly always chose the same couple of Apparitions, what would you think of rebuilding this character as a more static class? Would that be better? I am thinking Wood/Water Kineticist since you are focusing on healing and damage dealing as a spellcaster.
I don't know if this class would be cool if it was more static, because we already have many static options available serving various roles. The animist's idea of being able to alternate his gameplay through appearances isn't bad, it just wasn't well represented in the playtest.
For example, half of the Appearances were focused on melee, I personally didn't want to play melee with a spellcaster because I think the risk of being in melee with a spellcaster is usually not worth it, in addition to the fact that some of these builds punish your spellcasting excessively for being in melee, either lowering your DC or throwing you into a form of battle, preventing you from casting after that.
Then what was left was the Custodian of Groves and Gardens which is interesting, but in practice I found the healing emanation difficult to maintain in combat so it became my secondary Apparition, the Steward of Stone and Fire is especially useful for attacking, so it became my primary, and I was going to take Vanguard of Roaring Waters as a tertiary, but as they released Reveler in Lost Glee and I found it more interesting, I took it instead and even tried to use it as a primary in a fight, but the first action of GM went to launch a fireball at the party I quickly gave up on him and returned the primary appearance to the Steward of Stone and Fire to use the Bile while healing the party.
I might have tested more options if there were more interesting appearances (there will probably be more in the final version, and given the way they are made, new ones should be added as new books are released).
With more apparitions and if they were more flexible, and increased my range of options like a Bloodline does instead of blocking them like a Curriculum, I probably would have found the class more interesting.
I think you misunderstood me. I'm not asking if you think that the Animist class should be more static.
I'm asking if your character would be better served as a different (and more static) class since you generally used the same Apparitions.
In choosing Animist, you are trying to build a character that is flexible. That is the entire point of the class.
If you want to build a character that throws around healing magic and AoE damage in every encounter, you should build a Kineticist.
Basically you are saying that you want to build an AoE damage dealer and healer, so you are going to play an Animist because they have Earth's Bile and can fill all of their prepared slots with Heal.
It is like saying 'I want to build a reliable damage dealing martial character, so I'll play a Swashbuckler because they have Confident Finisher'. Or 'I want to play a skill expert that will rock all of the skill challenges that we face, so I'll play a Tome Thaumaturge'.
I mean... Technically that is correct... But wouldn't your reliable damage dealing martial be better as a Fighter with Exacting Strike? And have you considered Rogue for your skill expert? And maybe your AoE damage/Healer should be a Kineticist?
I think you misunderstood me. I'm not asking if you think that the Animist class should be more static.
I'm asking if your character would be better served as a different (and more static) class since you generally used the same Apparitions.
In choosing Animist, you are trying to build a character that is flexible. That is the entire point of the class.
If you want to build a character that throws around healing magic and AoE damage in every encounter, you should build a Kineticist.
Basically you are saying that you want to build an AoE damage dealer and healer, so you are going to play an Animist because they have Earth's Bile and can fill all of their prepared slots with Heal.
It is like saying 'I want to build a reliable damage dealing martial character, so I'll play a Swashbuckler because they have Confident Finisher'. Or 'I want to play a skill expert that will rock all of the skill challenges that we face, so I'll play a Tome Thaumaturge'.
I mean... Technically that is correct... But wouldn't your reliable damage dealing martial be better as a Fighter with Exacting Strike? And have you considered Rogue for your skill expert? And maybe your AoE damage/Healer should be a Kineticist?
Yeah but maybe they just want to play an animist or thautamaturge instead.
While that's fair - and certainly a reasonable thing to do - I wouldn't then come on to the advice forum complaining about how unreliable my Swashbuckler damage is. Or worse, go onto the rules forum moaning to the game developers that Thaumaturge needs skill feats given out with the Tome Implement so that it compares better to Rogue.
Similarly for Animist and how limiting their blaster-caster build is.
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I think you misunderstood me. I'm not asking if you think that the Animist class should be more static.
I'm asking if your character would be better served as a different (and more static) class since you generally used the same Apparitions.
In choosing Animist, you are trying to build a character that is flexible. That is the entire point of the class.
If you want to build a character that throws around healing magic and AoE damage in every encounter, you should build a Kineticist.
Basically you are saying that you want to build an AoE damage dealer and healer, so you are going to play an Animist because they have Earth's Bile and can fill all of their prepared slots with Heal.
It is like saying 'I want to build a reliable damage dealing martial character, so I'll play a Swashbuckler because they have Confident Finisher'. Or 'I want to play a skill expert that will rock all of the skill challenges that we face, so I'll play a Tome Thaumaturge'.
I mean... Technically that is correct... But wouldn't your reliable damage dealing martial be better as a Fighter with Exacting Strike? And have you considered Rogue for your skill expert? And maybe your AoE damage/Healer should be a Kineticist?
I think I understand what you meant. The fact that I constantly use Steward of Stone and Fire is not that I didn't want more versatility, but rather that I already had the appearances that I found attractive, the other 3 forced me to go to the melee with my character, when they didn't penalize my ability to cast, something I didn't want to do.
Outside of this "I don't want to play melee" condition, I tested the abilities of the other 3 appearances (except Vanguard of Roaring Waters because his Vessel simply seemed weak compared to the others). Even the basis of my character was to use Custodian of Groves and Gardens to heal and provide support, while Steward of Stone and Fire was used to attack when no one else needed support and Reveler in Lost Glee for defense and debuffs.
That's why I said that in the playtest I wasn't able to fully explore the versatility, maybe in the final version with more appearances I'll be able to do better.
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I enjoyed reading your playtest experiences. Sadly, I think it is safe to say, "this class just isn't for me", at least in the current iteration. It clearly has some powerful focus spells going on.
My main thoughts. It is all subjective and I am sure some people love the things I dislike.
I hate the casting so much. Strongly prefer having pure prepared or spontaneous casting.
It feels like I would just use the same focus spell from level 1-20 that synergizes with my feats. Great at level 1-4 but I would get bored so quick. Maybe just having more variety with the full release will help.
Personally, I don't really like the idea of "changing my role" as a niche. I like to make characters around specific roles.
Avatar... why is this locked behind level 19. Such a cool feature that pretty much no one gets to use. They could just scale like other forms.
I will give one positive note. I feel the class feats are a HUGE step up from most casters. Hopefully the remaster will give us some amazing feats like these for all classes. If some of these things change, there is a good chance my opinion might get more interesting.
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It feels like I would just use the same focus spell from level 1-20 that synergizes with my feats. Great at level 1-4 but I would get bored so quick. Maybe just having more variety with the full release will help.
Personally, I don't really like the idea of "changing my role" as a niche. I like to make characters around specific roles.
Obviously tastes differ but right now it's my favourite shapeshifter class in the game from levels 3 through 13. I don't find that boring :-)
I like the mini changing ones role enabled by the chaneller but I agree the "change every day" thing is totally lost on me. I guess it might occasionally be useful to change spells loaded for a particular type of adventure but 90+% of the time I'm building around my set of apparitions and never changing them
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Avatar... why is this locked behind level 19. Such a cool feature that pretty much no one gets to use. They could just scale like other forms.
I see the avatar more like for a question of flavor and to allow to cast a spell that usually require a deity, nothing more.
Usually divine casters requires a deity to casts Avatar. Including this creates a dubious understand if divine sorcerers and oracles can use it once they don't have the Deity feature (some GMs allows you to use spells that requires a deity with non-clerics if you choose a deity to worship while others will only accept if you have the Deity feature from classes/archetypes like Clerics and Champions including to include their anathemas as a "payment" to get access to deities related spells).
So I liked that Animist has its Avatar spell linked to their main apparition and I would like if the same was made to any other spells that requires a deity.
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It feels like I would just use the same focus spell from level 1-20 that synergizes with my feats. Great at level 1-4 but I would get bored so quick. Maybe just having more variety with the full release will help.
Personally, I don't really like the idea of "changing my role" as a niche. I like to make characters around specific roles.
Obviously tastes differ but right now it's my favourite shapeshifter class in the game from levels 3 through 13. I don't find that boring :-)
I like the mini changing ones role enabled by the chaneller but I agree the "change every day" thing is totally lost on me. I guess it might occasionally be useful to change spells loaded for a particular type of adventure but 90+% of the time I'm building around my set of apparitions and never changing them
Yes. I feel it is, in this, extremely similar to a prepared caster : supposedly a lot of versatility, but, in play,a very standard set of abilities with some variation if they have advance knowledge of what will come in the following day.
And prepared casters have scrolls to help compensate for their fixed prepared spells. No such thing for Apparitions.
But then, I would greatly enjoy a spontaneous-style Animist, with fewer Apparitions available but with an easier time changing from one to the other for primary. I feel the fixed choices for Apparitions would give such a character more personality.