Spiritualist - Resentful Aura Help?

[TeaTea]

Howdy! If you're currently playing Rise of the Runelords and in Book 3 please look away!

I was hoping for some input! I have a player who has taken Resentful Aura at Level 7. It seems great! Almost a little too great. Every enemy within 20' has to roll every single attack in their round. This almost guarantees a failure within two rounds of full attack actions. Of course they also should be focusing on the ghost, but being level 7, most enemies can do half damage to the phantom IF they're lucky and have magical weapons. Not to mention if the phantom hits the creature, then they just take a -2 on hitting anyone else. And it goes into effect until the end of the NEXT round.

I would love some advice/help on how other DMs have handled Spiritualist. I don't want to nerf them, but I have had complaints from other players in the party about how trivial it has made some encounters. It feels like game breaking later on when enemies have more options, but right now it's been a sticking point in the party.

Thank you all for your advice and help!

[Pizza Lord]

Full disclosure, I have not run such a character or an encounter with one. I can't speak to your players saying it trivializes some encounters, maybe it does/did, maybe it depends on the encounters or luck (good or bad).

Assuming we are talking about a Jealousy phantom, the ability is:

Jealousy > Resentful Aura wrote:

When the spiritualist reaches 7th level, as a swift action, the phantom can emit a 20-foot radius aura that forces enemies within the aura who make an attack or cast a spell that does not include the phantom in its effect to succeed at a Will saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 the phantom’s Hit Dice + the phantom’s Charisma modifier) or become staggered until the end of the enemy’s next turn.

...

First, I'd say that it's reasonable to assume anyone in the aura senses the effects. It's not a "Oh, you didn't include the phantom, surprise Will save or be staggered!". It's more that they sense that if they don't they might have trouble (but you can rule differently).

So, opponents can obviously move out of the area of effect if possible and attack at range against anyone they wish. Or they can use AoE or multi target spells as long as the phantom is a target. A 7th-level opponent will fire four magic missiles, as long as one is at the phantom (assuming they didn't want to try and blow it away entirely), they're fine. That's the easy answer, anyone can see that. Now this really sucks for casters, since it applies to any spell, including buffs or non-attack spells, whether those even could target the phantom or not.

Otherwise, it also really only effects attackers that either have multiple attacks or planned to attack and do something else with their move action (staggered doesn't affect swift, immediate, or free actions). So, in answer to that, obviously they can just make their Will save, or they concentrate on doing one big attack, like Vital Strike or Power Attacking or whatever with the assumption they will only get one. Or Cleave with the phantom as one target, assuming the other is adjacent.

Stagger is impressive, but only if it actually stops something. So if they move (or do a move action) and attack, and then fail... they've really lost nothing. They can still AoO, swift or immediate actions, etc. So, in such a case, either have enemies that have some swift or immediate actions in their toolbox, can move 20 feet and then attack at range, have AoE or multitarget attacks that can include the phantom as a target, have good Will saves, or just get one (really big) attack anyway

[Diego Rossi]

Jealousy

The Phantom can emit the aura as a swift action.

Phantom Aura wrote:

The auras of these needy phantoms quickly change in color, going from an oily green to orange, to brownish red as they swirl through emotions in their efforts to gain the objects of their dark desires.

Resentful Aura wrote:

Unlike with most creatures, a phantom’s emotion aura often manifests for all to see, even those without the benefit of spells or abilities.

The aura is fully visible. So it is relatively easy to move outside of it before acting. It is mostly a problem for the opponents who use full attacks to deliver their damage.

Now the part that is speculation:
there isn't a duration for the aura. Clearly, it can't be instantaneous, as it will make it useless.
I would rule that it lasts 1 round. Having it constantly active at no cost is a bad mechanic.

Note that the aura says:

Resentful Aura wrote:

Ending the aura is a free action.

That can be interpreted as the aura lasting an indefinite amount of time. Possible, but as I said, a bad mechanic.

Raise of the Runelords was the first adventure path written by Paizo, and it was for the 3.5 edition of D&D. So unless you are running the Anniversary Edition, you will need to adapt it to Pathfinder. That will require some adjustment. As you will already be doing the work, it will probably be a good idea to redo the NPCs a bit to address the problem with the phantom. Even the Anniversary Edition doesn't account for the Occult Adventurers book, which was printed two years later.
the Occult

[TeaTea]

It is the Anniversary Edition!

But even with the Occult Adventures, it seems they weren't playtested as much as other classes.

Thank you all for the advice! I also realized a typo, I meant to say it is *less* game-breaking at higher levels when enemies have more options, but at this 7-9 range, it's been a sticking point.