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Hello everyone! I have been obsessed with the Exemplar since I got my War of Immortals PDF early, and even before that I loved the playtest Exemplar. I've wanted to share this love of Exemplar class with others, so I made a guide for it! I hope that y'all enjoy and can make good use of it.
Challenging the Divine: an Exemplar Guide
In the guide I address optimization as any guide does, but given that Exemplar is a [Rare] class I also address that status to the GMs, what the [Rare] tag really means there and how to include an Exemplar into a party without succumbing to Main Character Syndrome or anything of the like. I discuss the combat Rhythm of the class and how it's a class with a very high skill ceiling but can be difficult to play, and I also address problem features that stand out above the rest---particularly, Victor's Wreath, and the infamous Exemplar multiclass archetype. I give suggestions for potential nerfs to Victor's Wreath and Exemplar archetype; these sections are oriented towards GMs to read, so if you're a player and you *really* want to play a multiclass Exemplar, consider pointing your GM to my guide with some of my gathered or crafted suggestions on nerfs to find a compromise that makes them and you happy! My hope is that through my guide, a player is able to play either the Exemplar class and/or a multiclass Exemplar when their GM had initially rejected the request.
I'll likely expand the guide over time with additional Example builds, and elaborate upon the Items section, but right now the guide is 90 pages long and I'm feeling a bit burnt out on writing all that. Example builds are just that---examples; and the Items section is not all that necessary I feel in Pathfinder when most of your wealth goes to "be sure that you have level-appropriate Fundamental Runes and Item bonuses to your favorite Skills".
This is my first Pathfinder optimization guide, so if you have any constructive feedback or see anything I missed (niche use cases of certain feats or Ikons or otherwise) please let me know!
Please note that I am more easy to reach via my Reddit., but I will try to reply here too as best I can.
Thanks a lot for your effort, you are giving me a great help at understanding the class!
For Only the Worthy your wrote:
This is the ability of Thor’s hammer, and even better; it applies all the time; not just dependent on your divine spark’s location. It also applies to all of your worn and weapon Ikons. You can spend an action to activate your weapon as though it were an Immovable Rod that scales off your class DC, and can be placed over prone creatures to make them waste actions. This results in very effective and punishing combat maneuver artists: trip an enemy, then drop your weapon on them. Their turn, they’ll escape (remember that Escape has the [Attack] trait) and cause your weapon to fly back to your hand automatically, then stand up from prone, which triggers your Reactive Strike, and now you’ve wasted two of their actions plus given them a -5 penalty on any attack they might make as their third action. This also completely destroys any caster types, who may be unable to successfully escape and cannot cast most spells with just 1 action.
The feat does this:
You can designate your ikons as movable by only your own hand, leaving them fixed in place as surely as if they were lodged in stone. Whenever you Release an ikon, you can spend an action to command it to remain motionless. While motionless, the ikon can be moved only if 8,000 pounds of pressure are applied to it or if a creature uses Athletics to Force Open the ikon with a DC equal to your class DC. You can Release your ikon over an adjacent prone enemy to hold them down with the ikon's motionlessness - while so Released, you can't use the ikon, but the enemy must succeed at the Athletics check to Stand or to move. The ikon automatically flies back to your hand when the effect is broken or if you spend an Interact action to hold out a hand and draw it back.
A caster is likely to just cast while prone. I wouldn't assume NPCs are going to waste 2 actions to try to escape and then stand.
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I have absolutely had encounters where I just started firing off spells while prone on the player side, as long as they're not attack rolls prone doesn't impact it at all.
There are two things that stood out to me
1) Equipment for small PCs has its bulk halved*, with 1 bulk items becoming light (See "Items and Sizes" on page 170 of the Player Core). This doesn't eliminate bulk issues because tiny creatures treat every negligible bulk item as light, but a Pixie with a Starshot Ikon should be quite viable since 1 bundle of ammo is just 1 light bulk, and most of the weapons and armor you'd want get reduced to light bulk as well.
2) I tried running the numbers, and Titan's Breaker doesn't impress me. Fracture Mountains runs into all the problems Power Attack/Vicious Swing does, and the slight increase to your immanence's bonus doesn't hell compensate for losing the second strike like one might think because that second strike would also get your immanence damage bonus. Fracture Mountains is beneficial when dealing with resistances, but energized spark makes bypassing resistances easier
*Pathbuilder doesn't automate this, so you have to manually adjust bulk
eboats wrote: For Only the Worthy your wrote:
This is the ability of Thor’s hammer, and even better; it applies all the time; not just dependent on your divine spark’s location. It also applies to all of your worn and weapon Ikons. You can spend an action to activate your weapon as though it were an Immovable Rod that scales off your class DC, and can be placed over prone creatures to make them waste actions. This results in very effective and punishing combat maneuver artists: trip an enemy, then drop your weapon on them. Their turn, they’ll escape (remember that Escape has the [Attack] trait) and cause your weapon to fly back to your hand automatically, then stand up from prone, which triggers your Reactive Strike, and now you’ve wasted two of their actions plus given them a -5 penalty on any attack they might make as their third action. This also completely destroys any caster types, who may be unable to successfully escape and cannot cast most spells with just 1 action.
The feat does this:
You can designate your ikons as movable by only your own hand, leaving them fixed in place as surely as if they were lodged in stone. Whenever you Release an ikon, you can spend an action to command it to remain motionless. While motionless, the ikon can be moved only if 8,000 pounds of pressure are applied to it or if a creature uses Athletics to Force Open the ikon with a DC equal to your class DC. You can Release your ikon over an adjacent prone enemy to hold them down with the ikon's motionlessness - while so Released, you can't use the ikon, but the enemy must succeed at the Athletics check to Stand or to move. The ikon automatically flies back to your hand when the effect is broken or if you spend an Interact action to hold out a hand and draw it back.
A caster is likely to just cast while prone. I wouldn't assume NPCs are going to waste 2 actions to try to escape and then stand.
It's also ambiguous to state that "their turn, they'll escape." (If you meant "they'll get free" disregard, but I suggest changing the text.) Per the feat text, the Escape (capital E) action is not an option. They can ONLY use Athletics to use the Force Open action to get free. If they are in the minority of creatures that lack Athletics, they can do nothing to free themselves. If they have Athletics they will still suffer a -2 penalty to Force Open unless they're carrying around a crow bar. Maybe it'll become a common accessory if Exemplars proliferate, but then they're still using an interact action to draw it, so go off GMs.
Dubious Scholar wrote: I have absolutely had encounters where I just started firing off spells while prone on the player side, as long as they're not attack rolls prone doesn't impact it at all. The permanent AC penalty and inability to get out of persistent zone/duration damage effects (e.g. Wall of Fire) is an impact.
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