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View Full Version : Pathfinder Existentialist Base Class - Needs Critiques



Arcanemuses
2016-01-01, 11:15 PM
Creator's Note/Introduction
When composing this class, I had two goals in mind: create a class based on the theurges of the Draybair Cluster and invent a skill-based magic class without spells.
The word theurge is a term used to describe the mystical warrior philosophers of my Four Winds – One Storm novel series. They were conceptualized for a world without deities, extra planes, or any form of afterlife. Thematically, they are intended to fill the roles of any and all spellcasters, depending on how each individual theurge comes to be.
The word theurge is also already in use for game content created by other designers. And so, to avoid confusion, I am dubbing this class the Existentialist. This new class is presented with deliberate vagueness in theme and flavor, as it is intended to fill the role most desired by the player. Depending on how the player wishes to design their character, the existentialist can function as warrior, mage, skill master, or and combination of these.
The existentialist is a skillcaster, in that their supernatural power is in their skills. By consolidating such power into skills, there is no need to look up complicated spell rules. Many existing spell effects can be duplicated in some way by the existentialist’s empowered skills or maxim powers. In short, this is an alternate magic system in one class.
From Aristotle to Ayn Rand, from Newton to Nietzsche, philosophers appear throughout history with their own modes of thinking and understanding. They have existed in all stages of developement and will continue to do so in future stages. It is my hope that this class can be customized to fit any style of campaign and played alongside any other class.

And so, I present the Existentialist in the link below. Please look it over, playtest it, tear it apart, and let me know what you think.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12e6SRjN5RaihBIXeyD9ceoQomACjceOUfFOebJyRQuk/edit#

Digitalfruitz
2016-01-02, 06:09 PM
This is an amazing class I plan on using in the future

dragonjek
2016-01-03, 09:12 PM
There are a couple issues with transcending skills--how balanced any given skill is varies drastically. Acrobatics lets you phase, Fly lets you fly, Heal lets you cleric, and Disable Device lets you... do exactly what disable Device normally does, in a little less time? Use Magic Device makes you a bit better at Use Magic Devicing for a few specific purposes? Then you have something like Linguistics--yeah, being able to quickly learn a language is cool, but unlike most of the other transcended skills it doesn't unlock higher abilities when you grow (yes, the language known will last longer... at only one minute per level, which by itself isn't very impressive, either). Some skills get more advanced abilities as they level up, while others don't, or get them less/more frequently.

Additionally, with your maxims you have an issue with damage types. You've listed a vast number of damage types as all inflicting equal damage, and that just isn't balanced. Slashing/piercing/bludgeoning are all stopped by damage reduction, which is common; however, fire/cold/acid/sonic are only stopped by their respective individual resistances, some of which (fire, cold, acid) are more common than others. Only a handful of living beings resist damage from negative energy.