Asking for opinions on some tweaks to the conclusion of They Watched the Stars.

[DarkSpiral]

So, my players are about to reach Egede. I've already made some changes to the AP, namely making Equendria the actual antagonist, responsible for all the blackfrost undead, and her servants are the driving force behind the unrest in Egede, while placing Osoyo into a "natural disaster" kind of role. The Black Whale doesn't actually want to *hurt* you, it just wants to to go home, but its release will kill half the planet so...

Anyway. I had an idea, one I see has been tossed around the forums already, of ending the chapter by giving all the players a Free Archetype of the Summoner dedication, and pushing Sakuachi/Snowy Owl into an advisory capacity instead of a party support.

The question is whether the dedication feat, free or not, is going to add anything to the party members, or just make things more complicated for little functional gain.

The party is a cleric of Apsu, a 2h fighter, an Alchemical Sciences Investigator, and a Witch with the Starless Shadow Patron.

I'm fairly sure the Investigator will make fine use of a second set of skill checks, so no worries there. They'll be able to use wands and scrolls, and I've read that the Meld feat could be of some use.

The Basic Summoner Spellcasting feat confuses me. As written, it says the characters actually remove all spells from their repertoire when they lose the spell slots of that level. For example, when they lose level 1 slots they also lose all level 1 spells they had in their repertoire.

[Tridus]

Summoner is IMO one of the worst class archetypes in the game. Without Act Together, the Eidolon is mostly an action tax and having it out makes you more vulnerable as it creates a second target for enemies to attack and its defenses don't progress at the same rate as a normal Eidolon. It's adding a lot of complexity for not a lot of benefit, and if I was a player I'd really rather be given a different archetype that I'd get more use from.

And yes, that is how wave casting works. You lose the 1st rank slots entirely and gain 3rd rank slots instead. You can just keep the same repertoire by having those spells be higher rank if you want, but you're pretty limited in terms of what you have access to (ie: instead of having it at 1st, you have it at 3rd).

It tends to be uncommonly used in my experience as the standard spellcasting archetypes add more spell slots, so you wind up with more options (and as archetype spell slots are primarily useful as utility/support, having more of them is preferable).

[Curaigh]

I love the idea as this adds more agency for the players. I have tried to make a campaign where all characters suffer a nightmare which later manifests as an eidolon/free archetype. However the mechanics are clunky as Tridus says and free archetype really only gives you four feats by the end of Gatewalkers.

I have seen a character's subconscious mind substituted for that role and it worked well. For your players, maybe that is the witch's patron?

Spoiler:

by 'role' I mean Snowy Owl's sacrifice. (Glass Canon's play through of Gatewalkers just ended for more on the psychic substitution.) :) Snowy Owl is a Scion of Domorra....

I played the Scions of Domarra as a free archetype with my Reign of Winter witch and really enjoyed it. The story of the archetype is pretty much Sakuachi's story so maybe you can give that to your Gatewalkers? It doesn't even have to be the whole archetype either (level 10 remember), instead treat the dedication as a free ability. This may let you put Sakuachi into an advisory role without adding as many complications. :)

edited

[DarkSpiral]

Thanks for the responses, and clarifications!

I hadn’t considered the Scion of Dromorra. The plan is currently to have Rhuun offer to split his essence among the party as well as Sakuachi, so as not to overwhelm her. “Snowy Owl” would never exist. Perhaps I’ll gibe the players a choice between the two.

I know full well at least one of the players will take the Summoner because it would let them use wands and staves, but the Witch might like this option more.

[Tridus]

DarkSpiral wrote:

I know full well at least one of the players will take the Summoner because it would let them use wands and staves, but the Witch might like this option more.

Staves are limited by your available spell slots, so they'll have to take Summoner Spellcasting feats to actually be able to do anything with a staff.

[DarkSpiral]

I'm aware.

They're already high enough level to take the spellcasting feat once I introduce the free archetype. Thanks for the reminder though.