The Occultist Class [WIP, PEACH]

[Urist Mcmage]

the occultist class is a base class inspired by the archetype of the scholar of forbidden lore, the cultist of dark lovecraftian gods. due to my inability to use this forum's tables, i have posted the class on a googledoc, available here https://docs.google.com/document/d/13bvtPrKu82ypIwWxKerbBLT-jS1vZ-xhLwtbNhTIudM/edit?usp=sharing
enjoy.

Change Log

4/25/2015
changed psyspell matrix to effect psionic powers as well as arcane and divine magic
added the invocation word of wind's fury
added feat Master of Dark Speech
4/12/2015
changed the DC for invocation of binding chains to 16 + occultist level
changed the DC for chant of boiling blood to 16 + enemies constitution modifier
changed the damage dealt to you by chant of boiling blood to 1d4
changed lesser incantation of dark fire to sicken and fatigue rather than daze on a failed save
added the invocation "lesser invocation of the dreaming gulf"
added the invocation " Incantation of the eternal shield"
changed the damage dealt to you by word of madness from constitution damage to nonlethal damage
changed the damage dealt to you by lesser lore of the serpent kingdoms from dexterity damage to nonlethal damage
changed greater incantation of dark fire to sicken and fatigue on a failed save rather than daze
added the invocation "lesser lore of darkness"
added the invocation "Greater lore of the serpent kingdoms"
added the invocation "Greater lore of darkness"
added the feat "word of destruction"
changed the bonus granted by master of lore from +50 to +25
changed underworld lore to grant the spells speak with dead, legend lore, identify, augury and raise dead
changed dark word to only sicken for one round plus one more round for every four occultist levels they have
changed the DC of dark word to 10 plus your occultist level plus your intelligence modifier

The occultist is designed to be an incredibly versatile class, capable of filling many different roles. Primarily, the occultist is a caster (although i have no doubt that with the right spells from fell lore and the right invocation, the occultist could make a passable gish). The occultist's vast amount of knowledge skills will also be a boon to most parties, especially those going up against demons, devils, cults and/or ancient magic. the rationale behind having most of the occultist's abilities damage them in some way was that (aside from being somewhat fluffy) i felt that the spells that the occultist gets are somewhat more powerful than those of the warlock, and thus to balance them i added a drawback, although as you can see from the change log that i made, i have toned some of the drawbacks down.

thank you for your criticism,
Urist Mcmage

[Zale]

I notice they don't have Craft or Profession on their skill list, which are more or less universal.

I've not seen their invocation list, but their Fell Lore looks fun. Currently their strongest class feature.

Per week abilities are usually not worth the effort in my personal experience. Especially when they get that at level 18. You may also want to put the abilities in order of level, to avoid that confusion.

I was wrong, Dark Word just took precedence as their strongest ability. The save DC is very odd. It goes from 1+INT mod at level one to 40+INT mod at level 20. You can spend a swift action 2+CON mod times per day to sicken and daze all creatures within thirty feet who fail that save for one round per level.

So a level 20 Occultist can force everyone within 30 feet to make, what, a DC 50? fort save or be dazed for 20 rounds. They can't take any actions for 20 rounds. (Which is also kind of exclusive with confusion.)

I feel like you didn't mean to pick daze. There's a reason it's usually a one round duration effect.

Bonus feats are always solid. No problems there.

Oooo. Capstone is +50 on all Knowledge checks. Interesting. I can't, off the top of my head, think of anyway that +50 to all Knowledge checks could hurt that much but I still feel slightly alarmed at seeing +50 to any skill.

Let's look through the Invocations.

Least

Binding Chains is.. interesting. At level one, an Occultist can force someone to make a DC 21+INT ref save or be affected by Bands of Steel. So they're either entangled or stuck for until you fail a DC 16~ Concentration check. This turns into a DC 15+level, so, what, DC 40~ at the most? Steep but I'm sure a dedicated person could handle it. Bands of Steel is also a third level spell, which you would be getting at will, level one.

The DC seems painfully high, especially for something they can spam at will.

Dark Fire does half unblockable damage which is odd as something that can be picked up level one. Not entirely broken, since the most unblockable damage it can do is like 20 at level 5, if you roll as high as you can. The fact that you'd then have to make a DC 34~24 save (Depending on if the fire got through as well) also kind of takes the wind out of things. Losing a turn is never that fun. Though I have to say the one round duration does mean that they'd simply leave the daze effect once their next turn came around, IIRC.

Boiling Blood seems less useful. Occultists have bad fort saves and probably won't prioritize constitution enough to make a DC 19+ save consistently. But then again, 1d6 damage isn't that bad, but at level one that could be most, or all of, of your health.

Reality Warp inflict wisdom damage on allies, which is really painful early on. That's one to four days of healing before they return to normal whenever you use this. However, teleportation is a really useful effect. At higher levels it'd become less painful, but probably not something you want to use recklessly.

Lesser

Word of Madness isn't something I'd ever really want to use. Sure it confuses and inflicts a rather large amount of WIS damage, but you take a non-negotiable 1d4 CON damage. Assuming you're not worried about additional CON damage, or how your health will sink.

I mean, if you have an amazing (For a non melee class) 18 CON, and you use this, you lose at least 6 max health, and up to 12 max health. If your health is sitting (With that CON) at an average of 45, then that does hurt. Especially since that's just the first use of the day. On average, you're probably gonna lose at least one hp per level every time you use this, and it won't heal by itself for literally days. Unless the cleric wants to pop out a Restoration, or blow some of their low level slots on Lesser Restoration, you're not gonna wanna use this willy nilly.

Serpent Kingdoms. Dear god, you take 2d6 dex damage that can't be stopped. You are dancing with day-to-week long paralysis every time you use this. Sure it inflicts 2d10 CON damage, but you may be paralyzed for daring to use this.

Greater Dark Fire's pretty ok compared to the ability damage you get from everything else. You're going to fail that save almost always though.

Dark

Dark lore: Cast any [Evil] or [Shadow] Wizard spell below 8 at the cost of 1d10 INT damage. You'll only be able to do this once or twice a day, but I guess that's the only way you're getting level 8 spells. But if you roll well, you may be able to squeeze more in. The randomness of this would be pretty scary, since you may end up drooling for days because you'd hoped to roll a one.

Feats

Most of the feats that let you spend uses of Dark Word don't strike me a worthwhile- Multi-round daze is flatly better than many of those effects, and even with a large CON bonus you're probably not getting more than six to eight uses per day.

Controlled Chants looks useful, and the Psionics addition is a nice bit of versatility.


So, in a general overview, I'd like to ask what you want this class to bring to the party. Because they have very few ways of assisting others that don't involve them painfully hurting themselves. The only abilities they have that they can use without harming themselves are Dark Word and Fell Lore, and they're likely gonna want to use Fell Lore to nab Lesser Restoration and/or Restoration so they can heal the crippling ability damage they'll be taking later on. So when they run out of uses of they per-day abilities, they fall back on their at-will invocations, of which the only non-backfiring one is Binding Chains. So I, personally, would just spam Binding Chains and use Dark Word to help control the battlefield for my allies, using the other Invocations only when I absolutely had to.

That's the real thing I find confusing about this class. Invokers are based on the idea of not having to worry about conserving power that much, since they can just keep going forever. This class includes really painful prices on most invocations which incentivize you to not use them unnecessarily- unlike, say, the Warlock.

There's nothing wrong with having some abilities that have hefty prices for what they do, but you can't have every ability be like that or it leaves the players with a very small list of things they can do safely.

So, I would make Dark Word not daze for eternity, make Underworld Lore a bit more convenient and add more invocations that don't steal your soul for using, and you'd have a fairly solid class. I like the theme of forbidden knowledge, and love invoker classes of all kinds.

[Bad Wolf]

Master of Lore might be a bit too strong. I'd cut it down to 25, a good capstone for those who stick it out to 20th level.

[Southern Cross]

Your Occultist document requires permission to view, which I haven't received.

[Urist Mcmage]

the google document should hopefully be viewable now.

[Southern Cross]

It's viewable now. I'll be trying to recreate the occultist class table soon.

[Southern Cross]

Here is my preliminary table for the occultist class.




Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Invocations



1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
Occult Knowledge, Invocation (Least), Dark Word
1



2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
-
1



3rd
+2
+1
+1
+3
Bonus Feat
1



4th
+3
+1
+1
+4
-
2



5th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Fell Lore I
2



6th
+4
+2
+2
+5
New Invocation (least or lesser), Bonus Feat
3



7th
+5
+5
+5
+2
-
3



8th
+6/+1
+2
+2
+6
Bonus Feat
4



9th
+6/+1
+3
+3
+6
Fell Lore II
4



10th
+7/+2
+3
+3
+7
-
5



11th
+8/+3
+3
+3
+7
New Invocation (least,lesser or greater), Bonus Feat
6


12th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
-
6


13th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8
Fell Lore III
7



14th
+10/+5
+4
+4
+9
Bonus Feat
8



15th
+11/+6/+1
+5
+5
+9
-
8


16th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
New Invocation (least, lesser, greater or dark)
9



17th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Fell Lore IV
9



18th
+13/+8/+3
+6
+6
+11
Underworld Lore
9



19th
+14/+9/+4
+6
+6
+11
-
9


20th
+15/+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Master of Lore
9