Warcarft Arcanist paths as archetypes?

[Xuldarinar]

To those familiar, under the warcraft rpg there are arcanist paths, things that bestow their arcanist paths differing abilities. The mage, the necromancer, and the warlock. Recalling the arcanist class from pathfinder, I had a thought I want to bounce off the community here.


Paths bestow an ability at 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level. How about these replacing the arcanist exploits normally gained at 1st, 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th level respectively? How balanced would this be?

[Psyren]

Exploits range from being wastes of space to being better than feats so this is a hard question to answer. I'm not familiar with the Path abilities from Warcraft d20, but chances are they are weaker than the best exploits, so this should be fine balance-wise.

[Xuldarinar]

Exploits range from being wastes of space to being better than feats so this is a hard question to answer. I'm not familiar with the Path abilities from Warcraft d20, but chances are they are weaker than the best exploits, so this should be fine balance-wise.

Thats what I figured but I thought i'd present the thought.


To better evaluate, perhaps this link (http://www.dndwiki.com/wiki/Publication:World_of_Warcraft:_The_Role_Playing_Ga me/Arcanist_Class) would be of some use.

[arkangel111]

I looked through the link and think that overall its a straight downgrade. many of the abilities granted are already available via exploits and in many cases worse, such as the 12th level ability of each of the paths. All the 12ths are specific to certain schools and only boosts caster level by 1, while potent magic gives better to any spell you cast regardless of school, and can be nabbed at first level where it can make a huge difference.

The mage path is completely a downgrade except for the 16th level ability, but one spell free maximized is not likely to change your adventuring day much, especially since it has to be fire (the most common immunities and resistances) or cold (arguably the 2nd most common).

If an arcanist chose to focus on necromancy many of the abilities from the necromancy path might end up redundant, though it might allow a little more flexibility in your spell choices. Overall I'd rather have the free feats from standard arcanist exploits or dimensional slide which is invaluable in the later levels.

The only thing that might be worth it is the warlock path, though even that is questionable. The 8th level ability is actually a complete waste for 2 whole levels. Lesser planar binding is received at level 10, effectively forcing you to waste a path ability. Granted you can adjust this with DM fiat since its a homebrew anyway, but I don't really see how you can do that without messing it up for the other paths as well.

Overall you would be trading away 10 arcanist exploits for 5 abilities, many of which are duplicated or straight up better than the paths as written. If you do such a thing I would offer the path abilities as exploits available at the levels you would get them as a path ability, and further state that you must choose a path the first time you grab the ability and it cannot be changed, then they can choose to take path abilities while maintaining the flexibility of the class normally offered.

If you don't like that idea, you could make the paths similar to the school understanding exploit. In other words you get the first level ability always but can expend a point to boost your level as appropriate for min/level or rnd/lvl. example of the latter option: My arcanist is 10th level and I have chosen the warlock path, I gain a fel companion of 1 HD always active. For 1 point from my pool I can boost the ability to 10th level and gain a stronger fel companion, as well as the 4th and 8th level abilities, for 10 mins (or 10 rounds if 10 mins seems too powerful).

My 2 cp.