I've re-read it a bunch of times, and searched around a bunch. I have a few problems with it that I can't fully understand. It reads;
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Uncommon, Archetype, Metamagic
Archetype Harrower
Access This feat is available to all players in a Stolen Fate campaign
Requirements You have an active harrow omen.
You manifest a ghostly deck of harrow cards. Draw a card from a harrow deck, then select a target within 60 feet. The card flies through the air to strike at that target, inflicting 4d6 damage, with a basic saving throw against your class DC. The type of damage inflicted is determined by your active harrow omen; if the card drawn is in the same suit as your active harrow omen, the target takes a –2 status penalty to its saving throw. The damage increases to 6d6 if you're 10th level and 8d6 if you're 15th level. You can continue to throw cards at targets on your turn as long as you Sustain the Vengeful Spirit Deck—throwing a card takes two actions. This effect lasts as long as you Sustain it, up to 1 minute, or until you no longer have an active harrow omen. Once the effect ends, you lose your active harrow omen.
Hammers: cold damage
Keys: fire damage
Shields: poison damage
Books: electricity damage
Stars: mental damage
Crowns: acid damage
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So the problems I have with this are that, it didn't list what saving throw it was, it has the metamagic trait, and the action economy doesn't seem right to me (1 action to sustain, 2 actions to throw a card)
From searching around I found out that the saving throw was supposed to be listed as reflex, so that's one problem knocked off.
The other two problems are not so cut and dry. I found a reddit post asking if it really was 3 actions to keep throwing cards and it seemed like the consensus was that it was. It reads that way as well, but that doesn't leave any room for even moving around and I feel like I'm missing something.
The metamagic trait as well confuses me because I thought that was for influencing other spells, but this almost seems like a spell of it's own.
Anyways, I'm going to be using this feat with my next character so any clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, this is my first post to the forum.
Yeah, that feat looks a bit wonky.
Two action Metamagic doesn't really work for the vast majority of spells. You could only use it on spells that cost one action to cast.
And yeah, one action to sustain the effect, then two actions to throw another card. Though if you need to move, you could sustain for one action and forego throwing a card that round. You could spend those two actions on other things and the Vengeful Spirit Deck effect would still be sustained.
I'm guessing that since this is an archetype from an AP that it didn't get the polish that it needs. Houserule it to something that makes more sense to use. Probably to make it behave more like Biting Words - that spell also has a similar feel of spend some resource and then benefit from it repeatedly for the rest of the battle.
But the fact that you can spam it over and over again for the cost of 1 action seems okay.
As written, you don't spam it over and over again for 1 action.
You can continue to throw cards at targets on your turn as long as you Sustain the Vengeful Spirit Deck — throwing a card takes two actions.
In addition to the action to sustain the effect in the first place.
I'm still confused as to why this has the metamagic trait in the first place, am I supposed to cast another spell at some point?
I'm also wondering if it was intended to be something like, sustain for 1 action, or throw a card for 2 actions which also sustains the effect or something like that, but somehow got all jumbled up. Almost like how you can command a minion by sustaining a summon spell as the same action.
I'm still confused as to why this has the metamagic trait in the first place, am I supposed to cast another spell at some point?
I'm expecting that is an error. It doesn't look like it should be metamagic. And with a 2-action initial cost, it wouldn't work with most spells.
Houserule until errata shows up.
I'm also wondering if it was intended to be something like, sustain for 1 action, or throw a card for 2 actions which also sustains the effect or something like that, but somehow got all jumbled up. Almost like how you can command a minion by sustaining a summon spell as the same action.
That is also a reasonable houserule to play the game with, yes.
That is also a reasonable houserule to play the game with, yes.
Alright, I'll probably just go with that then.
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I think it would also be reasonable to have the 1A sustain vs 2A throw a card as 2 different options.
It's hard to say for sure if this is the RaI, but if I were GM I would rule that the 2A throw a card counts as sustaining the effect.
I do not know of a single spell/effect in the game where it is a separate action to sustain it or loose it, and then you also need to spend other actions to actually get the effect. Every time, sustaining and using are one in the same.
This leads me to think that the 1A sustain option for this ability is an alternative in case you cannot spend 2A to throw a card. It gives you a fallback sustain to avoid loosing the ability.
And honestly, even with that ruling, I think I might only consider that Feat if I wanted the style / theming of it. The damage is just too low to even compete with Electric Arc on 2 targets.
At L11 EA does 14d4 (avg: 35) damage, while that card is doing 6d6 (avg: 21).
While there is the "-2 for the save if the suit matches," (and your spell DC may lag behind class DC) the notion that a Jolt Coil can at all reasonably compete with the Feat is... really something.
Does sustaining even do anything? If there's no cost but actions, you can just... do it again next round, anyway.You lose your harrow omen when the effect ends, and you need a harrow omen to trigger it. So ya gotta sustain to do the attack multiple times.
Hopefully you pay the feat tax on Restore Omen or else this and nearly all other abilities from the Harrower archetype stay at mutually 1/day abilities.
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Yeah and it takes an hour to cast the harrowing ritual again (plus a decent chunk of gold in most cases). I do like the idea and the flavour, it fits the character concept I had pretty well so even if it ends up being a bit weak that's fine. I'm starting to think it has the metamagic trait because the card drawn influences the damage type, but it's still a bit weird cus it's not a spell as far as I'm aware.
My DM agreed to let me use the two actions to throw a card to also sustain the effect.
Yeah and it takes an hour to cast the harrowing ritual again (plus a decent chunk of gold in most cases).
I will note that the harrowing ritual is different than the 'draw a card, get Harrow Omen' feature of the archetype.
Just to make sure that no one is confused and thinking that they have to do a full harrowing ritual and pay the costs for it in order to use their archetype abilities for the day.
I will note that the harrowing ritual is different than the 'draw a card, get Harrow Omen' feature of the archetype.
Oh I completely misread that, thanks for the catch!