The Slayer, Pop Culture, and Class Fantasies

[Justnobodyfqwl]

My first impression of the Slayer is that it's interesting seeing how much it leans into a very common kind of Class Fantasy that I've seen a lot more these days.

I've noticed a really big uptick in players wanting a very specific kind of "Monster Hunter Class"- someone who has every trick up their sleeve, a badass signature cool weapon, and an encyclopedic knowledge of monsters and the supernatural.

Obviously, the big pop culture touchstone that I think a lot of people are drawn to is The Witcher. While I'm sure there's people who are trying to recreate Buffy The Vampire Slayer too, 9 times out of 10 it's some variation of "how can I play The Witcher". But you're also likely to see a lot of similar Pop Culture fantasy stories thrown in too- I've noticed that these requests usually have a lot of elements from the Monster Hunter & Bloodbourne games, as well.

Before The Slayer, people often pointed players at The Thaumaturge for the go-to way to play this in PF2E. Unfortunately, I think this is kind of a total mistake! The Thaumaturge class description and fantasy SOUNDS like it's supposed to be that kind of Monster Hunting Class, and a lot of players go into it expecting that. But I've realized that the Thaumaturge is trying something different- it's trying to be the Sympathetic Magic Of Everyday Objects class, with monster weaknesses being just one part of that.

So I want to congratulate The Slayer for just outright screaming from the rooftops: this IS the Witcher, Monster Hunter, Bloodbourne style class. This IS for players who want to be a cool badass who's a little monstery themselves. You have a big bundle of Just The Right Thing you can use to apply onto your weapons to target a weakness. You kill things, take their best parts, and use them to make yourself more badass. You even literally get a feat just for saying "I wanna specialize in Bloodbourne combination weapons"!

I think this class feels like a laser guided wrapped present to an extremely common character fantasy, and the pop culture that inspired it. It's a much stronger thematic hook than I expected, and helps feel like this class justifies its own existence. Hats off to the Paizo team!

[John R.]

Thaumaturge (along with ranger) was like an oval that filled the circular hole that was a witcher-type class. It needed a tilt and maybe a little wiggle but you could get it to fit through. Now, the slayer is the perfect fit which also helps thaumaturge and ranger have more distinct identities. It's great!

[Perpdepog]

Justnobodyfqwl wrote:

Before The Slayer, people often pointed players at The Thaumaturge for the go-to way to play this in PF2E. Unfortunately, I think this is kind of a total mistake! The Thaumaturge class description and fantasy SOUNDS like it's supposed to be that kind of Monster Hunting Class, and a lot of players go into it expecting that. But I've realized that the Thaumaturge is trying something different- it's trying to be the Sympathetic Magic Of Everyday Objects class, with monster weaknesses being just one part of that.

Yeah. It's much more aligned with fantasies like John Constantine, Harry Dresden, or a magical MacGyver than any kind of monster hunter.

Also, love how they're doing the same thing they did in thaum's feats and giving the slayer feats and features that take the form of items. That's obviously something pretty much anyone could do with some reflavoring, but having it out in the open like that really helps people get over that flavor barrier early.

[OceanshieldwolPF 2.5]

Sure. The various fantasies are… real. The class…doesn’t really deliver mechanically however. At least…not in the current form.

[YuriP]

IMO the problem is despite this class being Monster Hunter like oriented class where you know and have info about the creature that you hunt and directly dispatch to take it. This won't work in most games where you usually don't fully know what you will face and many times it's a humanoid.

The class currently it is over specific to just one type of game style and basically unless to the rest. Even the investigator that is more mystery oriented still can use their abilities to help in many other aspects like for example find a clue of what creature it will hunt in a Monster Hunter like games and use this on its favor even with the adventure not mystery focused.

[Dubious Scholar]

Especially post-remaster, Investigator gets to still fall back on having all the skills. And cases are easy enough to set up that they can have constant +1 bonuses to the narrative no matter type of story you're telling. If they do get blindsided, it's not a big deal, because having Rogue level skill proficiency is a fantastic baseline. And in combat... Strategem's a respectable ability even without making it a free action (Rogue is definitely the better fighter, but that's more because rogue is a top tier killing machine than a failure of investigator)