Ethereal Gears
2014-10-02, 06:39 PM
Hello, esteemed playgrounders. So, for an upcoming game I've sort of homebrewed together this little hybrid-ish class that hopefully will have the flavor of a sort of Lovecrafty detective who mixes making strange substances for people to drink and turn 'em into monsters with some occult/spiritual type abilities. A lot of stuff is just basically cribbed from various 1st- and 3rd-party sources (special shout-out to Rite Publishing's 101 Simple Archetypes for the idea behind "Theory and Practice"), but I still think the end result feels rather playable and fun.
Anyway, hopefully I'll be playing one of these in an upcoming game this weekend. GM has OK'd it, but I figured it never hurts to get some second opinions from all the clever folk what haunt these here fora. Any notes on balance would be greatly appreciated. The main idea is to pass around eldritch draughts to buff the party and then leverage hexes and revelations for my own sake. I am bit unsure about the power level though. GM is fine with it since he knows I'm not going to try to build some superoptimized monstrosity to blow everyone else in the party out of the water, but it'd still be good to know whether I've veered at least somewhat close to the Tier 3 mark I was aiming for with this guy.
Cheers in advance,
- Gears
The Alienist
"All life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other."
- H.P. Lovecraft
Alienist (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8e09cD4OAF3bGRxNFhaMHcwU0k/view?usp=sharing)
The alienist is a base class for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Starting Wealth: 4d6 × 10 gp (average 140 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.
Class Skills
The alienist's class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Dex), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Knowledge (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Ranks per Level: 6 + Int modifier.
Table: Alienist
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Eldritch Pool
Special
1st
+0
+0
+0
+1
Int + 4
Curse, eldritch draughts, hex, revelation
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Int + 6
Hex, reason prevails
3rd
+2
+1
+1
+3
Int + 8
Fleeting revelations, revelation
4th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Int + 10
Eldritch recall, hex
5th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Int + 12
Theory and practice
6th
+4
+2
+2
+5
Int + 14
Hex, improved draughts
7th
+5
+2
+2
+5
Int + 16
Revelation
8th
+6/+1
+2
+2
+6
Int + 18
Hex
9th
+6/+1
+3
+3
+6
Int + 20
Theory and practice
10th
+7/+2
+3
+3
+7
Int + 22
Hex
11th
+8/+3
+3
+3
+7
Int + 24
Revelation
12th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Int + 26
Hex
13th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Int + 28
Theory and practice
14th
+10/+5
+4
+4
+9
Int + 30
Greater draughts, hex
15th
+11/+6/+1
+5
+5
+9
Int + 32
Revelation
16th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Int + 34
Hex
17th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Int + 36
Theory and Practice
18th
+13/+8/+3
+6
+6
+11
Int + 38
Hex
19th
+14/+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Int + 40
Revelation
20th
+15/+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Int + 42
Enlightenment, hex
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Alienists are proficient with simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, rapier, sap, shortbow, short sword, and sword cane. They are proficient in light armors, but not shields.
Curse
All alienists are haunted by a curse, but this curse comes with a benefit as well as a hindrance. At 1st level the alienist select's one curse from the oracle class' list, and once made, this choice cannot be changed. The alienist’s curse cannot be removed or dispelled without the aid of a deity. An alienist’s curse is based on his alienist level plus one for every two levels or Hit Dice other than alienist.
Eldritch Draughts
At 1st level, the alienist gains a reservoir of eldritch energy siphoned from his own magical aura that he can draw upon to create transformative consumables called eldritch draughts. This pool contains a number of eldritch points equal to 4 + the alienist's Intelligence modifier at 1st level. At each level after 1st, the alienist adds 2 additional points to the pool. His eldritch pool is replenished once per day after 8 hours of rest or meditation; these hours do not need to be consecutive.
The alienist can invest any number of eldritch points (up to a maximum equal to his class level) into the creation of an eldritch draught, which he can imbibe or inject a target with. Creating an eldritch draught takes 1 minute. The alienist can imbibe an eldritch draught himself or inject an adjacent creature with it as a standard or swift action. Alternatively, he can hand the draught over to another creature, who can imbibe it or inject an adjacent creature with it as a standard action. Targeting an unwilling creature with an eldritch draught requires the creature trying to inject the target to succeed on a free melee touch attack. Once created, an eldritch draught persists until the next time the alienist replenishes his eldritch pool, at which point it goes inert. An eldritch draught grants its user a number of temporary eidolon evolutions whose total cost in evolution points must equal the number of eldritch points spent in its creation. These evolutions are selected by the alienist at the time he creates the eldritch draught. The evolutions granted via an eldritch draught persist for 1 minute per class level of the alienist who created it. The effects of an eldritch draught are considered a polymorph effect with a caster level equal to the alienist's class level, meaning they do not stack with other polymorph effects. A creature under the effects of an eldritch draught cannot possess evolutions whose total cost in evolution points would surpass the class level of the alienist who created the eldritch draught, even if it imbibes or is injected with several consecutive draughts whose durations overlap. In this case the newer evolutions replace the older ones, and the creature must choose which to switch out upon being affected by the draught that brings it above this maximum limit.
The alienist can create eldritch draughts which grant evolutions that allow for the expenditure of additional evolution points to upgrade them, and his draughts can also grant upgrades to such evolutions or any others that the target already possesses. Creatures affected by an eldritch draught must meet any prerequisites of the selected evolutions. The alienist and his allies may count themselves as bipedal eidolons with a summoner of a level equal to his alienist class level for this purpose. They are also considered to possess one instance each of the limbs (arms) and limbs (legs) evolutions for this same purpose. Imbibing or being injected with an eldritch draught does not allow the target to exceed the maximum number of natural attacks that an eidolon with a summoner of equivalent level would be allowed to possess.
Hex
Alienists learn a number of occult tricks, called hexes, that grant them powers or weaken foes. At 1st level, an alienist gains one hex of his choice, selected from the witch class' list of hexes. The alienist uses his class level as his effective witch level to determine the effects of his hexes and which he is eligible to select. He gains an additional hex at 2nd level and for every 2 levels attained after 2nd level. An alienist cannot select an individual hex more than once, nor can he select major or grand hexes in place of regular hexes.
Revelation
At 1st level, the alienist gains a revelation, selected from an oracle mystery of his choice. At 3rd level and every four levels thereafter he gains an additional revelation, and also gains access to a new mystery to choose his revelations from. If he gains further revelations via other means (such as the Extra Revelation feat), these revelations do not grant the alienist access to additional mysteries. The alienist uses his class level as his effective oracle level to determine the effects of his revelations and which he is eligible to select, and likewise uses his Intelligence modifier in place of his Charisma modifier for such purposes.
Reason Prevails (Ex)
At 2nd level, the alienist learns how drape himself in the mantle of pure reason to negate assaults upon his mind. If he has successfully identified a creature via a Knowledge check, he gets to add his Intelligence modifier on all saving throws to resist its mind-affecting abilities.
Fleeting Revelations (Su)
Beginning at 3rd level, once per day when his eldritch pool is replenished, the alienist can choose to gain a new revelation in place of the most recent revelation he has already learned. In effect, the alienist loses the revelation in exchange for the new one. He can only change the most recent revelation gained, and his new revelation must be from the same mystery as the one he is exchanging it for. Whenever he gains a new revelation, the previous revelation becomes set and cannot be changed again.
Eldritch Recall (Su)
At 4th level, the alienist gains the ability to use his eldritch pool to recall expended uses of his occult abilities. As a swift action he can spend 1 eldritch point to regain an expended daily use of one of his hexes or revelations. For abilities initially only usable once per day, this cost increases to 2 eldritch points (this holds true even if the ability subsequently gains additional daily uses). For abilities with daily durations rather than daily uses, the alienist can instead expend 1 eldritch point as a swift action to regain a single increment of such a duration (e.g. one round, minute or hour).
Theory and Practice (Ex)
At 5th level, the alienist can choose one type of Knowledge skill. He can use his bonus in that skill in place of his bonus in one associated skill. When substituting in this way, the alienist uses his total Knowledge skill bonus, including class skill bonus, in place of the associated skill's bonus, whether or not he has ranks in that skill or if it is a class skill. At 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the alienist can select an additional type of Knowledge skill to substitute.
The types of Knowledge and their associated skills are: Arcana (Spellcraft), Dungeoneering (Escape Artist), Engineering (Disable Device), Geography (Linguistics), History (Appraise), Local (Disguise), Nature (Survival), Nobility (Sense Motive), Planes (Fly) and Religion (Heal).
Improved Draughts (Su)
At 6th level, the alienist can create eldritch draughts whose evolutions persist for 10 minutes per class level rather than 1 minute per class level. Creating such an eldritch draught takes 10 minutes rather than 1 minute.
Greater Draughts (Su)
At 14th level, the alienist can create eldritch draughts whose evolutions persist for 1 hour per class level. Creating such an eldritch draught takes an hour.
Enlightenment
At 20th level, the alienist finally comes to a full understanding of his occult quest. He loses all negative effects of his curse, but retains all the positive ones. Any evolutions he grants via one of his eldritch draughts remain until the next time he replenishes his eldritch pool, and when granting evolutions to himself he only expends half the amount of eldritch points he ordinarily would. Furthermore, he can use his fleeting revelations ability at will, and can use it to gain access to the final revelation of the last mystery he selected a revelation from.
New Feat
The following new feat is available to all alienists:
Extra Eldritch Pool
You can use your eldritch pool more times per day than most.
Prerequisite: Eldritch pool class feature.
Benefit: You increase your eldritch pool's maximum amount by 3.
Special: You can gain Extra Eldritch Pool multiple times. Its effects stack.
Anyway, hopefully I'll be playing one of these in an upcoming game this weekend. GM has OK'd it, but I figured it never hurts to get some second opinions from all the clever folk what haunt these here fora. Any notes on balance would be greatly appreciated. The main idea is to pass around eldritch draughts to buff the party and then leverage hexes and revelations for my own sake. I am bit unsure about the power level though. GM is fine with it since he knows I'm not going to try to build some superoptimized monstrosity to blow everyone else in the party out of the water, but it'd still be good to know whether I've veered at least somewhat close to the Tier 3 mark I was aiming for with this guy.
Cheers in advance,
- Gears
The Alienist
"All life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other."
- H.P. Lovecraft
Alienist (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8e09cD4OAF3bGRxNFhaMHcwU0k/view?usp=sharing)
The alienist is a base class for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Starting Wealth: 4d6 × 10 gp (average 140 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.
Class Skills
The alienist's class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Dex), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Knowledge (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Ranks per Level: 6 + Int modifier.
Table: Alienist
Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Eldritch Pool
Special
1st
+0
+0
+0
+1
Int + 4
Curse, eldritch draughts, hex, revelation
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Int + 6
Hex, reason prevails
3rd
+2
+1
+1
+3
Int + 8
Fleeting revelations, revelation
4th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Int + 10
Eldritch recall, hex
5th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Int + 12
Theory and practice
6th
+4
+2
+2
+5
Int + 14
Hex, improved draughts
7th
+5
+2
+2
+5
Int + 16
Revelation
8th
+6/+1
+2
+2
+6
Int + 18
Hex
9th
+6/+1
+3
+3
+6
Int + 20
Theory and practice
10th
+7/+2
+3
+3
+7
Int + 22
Hex
11th
+8/+3
+3
+3
+7
Int + 24
Revelation
12th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Int + 26
Hex
13th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Int + 28
Theory and practice
14th
+10/+5
+4
+4
+9
Int + 30
Greater draughts, hex
15th
+11/+6/+1
+5
+5
+9
Int + 32
Revelation
16th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Int + 34
Hex
17th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Int + 36
Theory and Practice
18th
+13/+8/+3
+6
+6
+11
Int + 38
Hex
19th
+14/+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
Int + 40
Revelation
20th
+15/+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Int + 42
Enlightenment, hex
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Alienists are proficient with simple weapons, plus the hand crossbow, rapier, sap, shortbow, short sword, and sword cane. They are proficient in light armors, but not shields.
Curse
All alienists are haunted by a curse, but this curse comes with a benefit as well as a hindrance. At 1st level the alienist select's one curse from the oracle class' list, and once made, this choice cannot be changed. The alienist’s curse cannot be removed or dispelled without the aid of a deity. An alienist’s curse is based on his alienist level plus one for every two levels or Hit Dice other than alienist.
Eldritch Draughts
At 1st level, the alienist gains a reservoir of eldritch energy siphoned from his own magical aura that he can draw upon to create transformative consumables called eldritch draughts. This pool contains a number of eldritch points equal to 4 + the alienist's Intelligence modifier at 1st level. At each level after 1st, the alienist adds 2 additional points to the pool. His eldritch pool is replenished once per day after 8 hours of rest or meditation; these hours do not need to be consecutive.
The alienist can invest any number of eldritch points (up to a maximum equal to his class level) into the creation of an eldritch draught, which he can imbibe or inject a target with. Creating an eldritch draught takes 1 minute. The alienist can imbibe an eldritch draught himself or inject an adjacent creature with it as a standard or swift action. Alternatively, he can hand the draught over to another creature, who can imbibe it or inject an adjacent creature with it as a standard action. Targeting an unwilling creature with an eldritch draught requires the creature trying to inject the target to succeed on a free melee touch attack. Once created, an eldritch draught persists until the next time the alienist replenishes his eldritch pool, at which point it goes inert. An eldritch draught grants its user a number of temporary eidolon evolutions whose total cost in evolution points must equal the number of eldritch points spent in its creation. These evolutions are selected by the alienist at the time he creates the eldritch draught. The evolutions granted via an eldritch draught persist for 1 minute per class level of the alienist who created it. The effects of an eldritch draught are considered a polymorph effect with a caster level equal to the alienist's class level, meaning they do not stack with other polymorph effects. A creature under the effects of an eldritch draught cannot possess evolutions whose total cost in evolution points would surpass the class level of the alienist who created the eldritch draught, even if it imbibes or is injected with several consecutive draughts whose durations overlap. In this case the newer evolutions replace the older ones, and the creature must choose which to switch out upon being affected by the draught that brings it above this maximum limit.
The alienist can create eldritch draughts which grant evolutions that allow for the expenditure of additional evolution points to upgrade them, and his draughts can also grant upgrades to such evolutions or any others that the target already possesses. Creatures affected by an eldritch draught must meet any prerequisites of the selected evolutions. The alienist and his allies may count themselves as bipedal eidolons with a summoner of a level equal to his alienist class level for this purpose. They are also considered to possess one instance each of the limbs (arms) and limbs (legs) evolutions for this same purpose. Imbibing or being injected with an eldritch draught does not allow the target to exceed the maximum number of natural attacks that an eidolon with a summoner of equivalent level would be allowed to possess.
Hex
Alienists learn a number of occult tricks, called hexes, that grant them powers or weaken foes. At 1st level, an alienist gains one hex of his choice, selected from the witch class' list of hexes. The alienist uses his class level as his effective witch level to determine the effects of his hexes and which he is eligible to select. He gains an additional hex at 2nd level and for every 2 levels attained after 2nd level. An alienist cannot select an individual hex more than once, nor can he select major or grand hexes in place of regular hexes.
Revelation
At 1st level, the alienist gains a revelation, selected from an oracle mystery of his choice. At 3rd level and every four levels thereafter he gains an additional revelation, and also gains access to a new mystery to choose his revelations from. If he gains further revelations via other means (such as the Extra Revelation feat), these revelations do not grant the alienist access to additional mysteries. The alienist uses his class level as his effective oracle level to determine the effects of his revelations and which he is eligible to select, and likewise uses his Intelligence modifier in place of his Charisma modifier for such purposes.
Reason Prevails (Ex)
At 2nd level, the alienist learns how drape himself in the mantle of pure reason to negate assaults upon his mind. If he has successfully identified a creature via a Knowledge check, he gets to add his Intelligence modifier on all saving throws to resist its mind-affecting abilities.
Fleeting Revelations (Su)
Beginning at 3rd level, once per day when his eldritch pool is replenished, the alienist can choose to gain a new revelation in place of the most recent revelation he has already learned. In effect, the alienist loses the revelation in exchange for the new one. He can only change the most recent revelation gained, and his new revelation must be from the same mystery as the one he is exchanging it for. Whenever he gains a new revelation, the previous revelation becomes set and cannot be changed again.
Eldritch Recall (Su)
At 4th level, the alienist gains the ability to use his eldritch pool to recall expended uses of his occult abilities. As a swift action he can spend 1 eldritch point to regain an expended daily use of one of his hexes or revelations. For abilities initially only usable once per day, this cost increases to 2 eldritch points (this holds true even if the ability subsequently gains additional daily uses). For abilities with daily durations rather than daily uses, the alienist can instead expend 1 eldritch point as a swift action to regain a single increment of such a duration (e.g. one round, minute or hour).
Theory and Practice (Ex)
At 5th level, the alienist can choose one type of Knowledge skill. He can use his bonus in that skill in place of his bonus in one associated skill. When substituting in this way, the alienist uses his total Knowledge skill bonus, including class skill bonus, in place of the associated skill's bonus, whether or not he has ranks in that skill or if it is a class skill. At 9th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the alienist can select an additional type of Knowledge skill to substitute.
The types of Knowledge and their associated skills are: Arcana (Spellcraft), Dungeoneering (Escape Artist), Engineering (Disable Device), Geography (Linguistics), History (Appraise), Local (Disguise), Nature (Survival), Nobility (Sense Motive), Planes (Fly) and Religion (Heal).
Improved Draughts (Su)
At 6th level, the alienist can create eldritch draughts whose evolutions persist for 10 minutes per class level rather than 1 minute per class level. Creating such an eldritch draught takes 10 minutes rather than 1 minute.
Greater Draughts (Su)
At 14th level, the alienist can create eldritch draughts whose evolutions persist for 1 hour per class level. Creating such an eldritch draught takes an hour.
Enlightenment
At 20th level, the alienist finally comes to a full understanding of his occult quest. He loses all negative effects of his curse, but retains all the positive ones. Any evolutions he grants via one of his eldritch draughts remain until the next time he replenishes his eldritch pool, and when granting evolutions to himself he only expends half the amount of eldritch points he ordinarily would. Furthermore, he can use his fleeting revelations ability at will, and can use it to gain access to the final revelation of the last mystery he selected a revelation from.
New Feat
The following new feat is available to all alienists:
Extra Eldritch Pool
You can use your eldritch pool more times per day than most.
Prerequisite: Eldritch pool class feature.
Benefit: You increase your eldritch pool's maximum amount by 3.
Special: You can gain Extra Eldritch Pool multiple times. Its effects stack.