Syphoner (Cipher) Class: Focus Spells

[IsaBen]

This past year I been working on porting the Cipher class from pillars of eternity, lately i'd been focusing on porting their uniques abilities (specifically from the Deadfire sequel) and so here it is!

Essentially, I want the class to be a gish. Focused on generating focus points through dealing damage (as the original class fantasy is). And to use that focus points the syphoner needs spells to use them: about Striking, Controlling, but all of them targeting others to buff allies, debuff enemies, or both.

I don't think is wise to copy and paste every spell made or to copy and paste the post on reddit I'd made. So i'll link it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2eCreations/comments/1llpj7u/syphoner_ci pher_class_focus_spells/

If you have any advice on any regard I would appreciated!

[QuidEst]

Welcome to the Paizo forums in that case! Sounds like this would be a good fit for the homebrew forums.

Some thoughts on the first-rank focus spells:

Antipathic Tether refers to both "target" and "targets" in a rather vague manner, and is a bit of an odd effect in how it scales the impact to allies based on the save of an enemy.

Insightful Echoes is in a weird spot. At low ranks, it's not giving enough, with its low AC bonus. Lay on Hands is giving a bunch of healing instead of +1 damage, Protective Wards is protecting allies in an area and sustaining, and there are several sustained +1 status bonus to AC. On the flip side, the only way to get a +3 status bonus to AC in the game is more than a focus spell would normally give, although rank 9 and one round mean it's not unreasonable. It's just going to be rough playing a focus caster who is using a focus point to toss out a single-round buff on somebody who might not be targeted, y'know?

Essence Shock is fun- a damaging emanation from an ally is a nice little trick to have up one's sleeve, especially if they're getting flanked.

Soul Wave's target and area are confusing. By default, a cone comes from you. If you target an enemy more than fifteen feet away, how does the cone hit them? Should this say that the cone comes from the target?

[Teridax]

Hey there! I'd recommend posting this thread in Homebrew and House Rules, but your work looks fantastic! I'll give some feedback on that Reddit thread, and will be happy to discuss your work here too once you post it to the other subforum. :)

[Maya Coleman]

Thread moved to Homebrew and House Rules! Thank you, everyone!

[IsaBen]

First of all, thank you Maya!

Second of all, ill clarify and revisit the text (specially the Tie trait) as it is kinda cumbersome as it stands lol.

Second of all, and before I share the core class features, I want to give some insights on the direction of this class:
- Of course, this is heavily inspired by the Cipher class from the Pillars of Eternity games. But the more I went into development the more I shifted the focus onto an "absorbing & releasing of power" fantasy. This is due to not conflict with the existing Psychic class concept, and to give a class that I think we do not have on the game yet.
- As stated above, the class would have 2 main features: acquiring focus points (through Strikes primarily) and a way to release them (beyond using focus spells). This can be challenging to balance, specially as there are no ways to get focus points in the middle of combat this early and in this way (to my knowledge).
- I said is a gish, and by that I mean that it would be a "martial class". At the start I tinker with being a new bounded caster, but access to a spell list doesn't follow the core theme of the class of absorbing and releasing energy. So it's magic potential would be focused on the use of focus points primarily.

I already have all the class features, I need to tweak them before sharing the first draft. And I'm already tinkering with some class feats too! (Spoiler: you can have a familiar).

If you want to follow the project, stay put to any further posts here and on reddit!

[Maya Coleman]

IsaBen wrote:

First of all, thank you Maya!

Second of all, ill clarify and revisit the text (specially the Tie trait) as it is kinda cumbersome as it stands lol.

Second of all, and before I share the core class features, I want to give some insights on the direction of this class:
- Of course, this is heavily inspired by the Cipher class from the Pillars of Eternity games. But the more I went into development the more I shifted the focus onto an "absorbing & releasing of power" fantasy. This is due to not conflict with the existing Psychic class concept, and to give a class that I think we do not have on the game yet.
- As stated above, the class would have 2 main features: acquiring focus points (through Strikes primarily) and a way to release them (beyond using focus spells). This can be challenging to balance, specially as there are no ways to get focus points in the middle of combat this early and in this way (to my knowledge).
- I said is a gish, and by that I mean that it would be a "martial class". At the start I tinker with being a new bounded caster, but access to a spell list doesn't follow the core theme of the class of absorbing and releasing energy. So it's magic potential would be focused on the use of focus points primarily.

I already have all the class features, I need to tweak them before sharing the first draft. And I'm already tinkering with some class feats too! (Spoiler: you can have a familiar).

If you want to follow the project, stay put to any further posts here and on reddit!

You're welcome! I wish you luck with your campaign as well!

[Teridax]

To pick up on a few developments on the Reddit thread: I like how OP split the tie trait into two separate traits to better reflect different components of the Syphoner's focus spells. I'm particularly curious to see how the Syphoner will be able to generate Focus Points, as I think the idea of a class with a martial chassis and no innate spell slots who uses Focus Points as a generate-and-spend resource in combat sounds like a really interesting engine, and a unique form of gameplay for a Pathfinder class.

Another aspect I found especially interesting in the focus spells is the way some of them take the best feature of one ally and share it among the whole party: the idea of sharing and transferring unique abilities I think is full of untapped potential, as it hasn't been done yet to my ability but could allow players to feel like they're dual-classing in a normal game. Assuming it's budgeted appropriately for the class, this could make for a really unique form of buffing and could unlock some really fun synergies. In general, I think there are a lot of innovations in this class that I'm keen to learn more about and playtest, and I look forward to see how this brew develops!