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View Full Version : Please critique: Arcane Hunter archetype



krackenjack
2016-11-05, 12:50 PM
Never made an archetype so not sure how well constructed this is, but I've had the idea for a while and want to try it out. Concept is a wizard who is devoted to study and the craft. More specifically, a field researcher - literally - exploring the natural (and sometimes supernatural) world to tease out the magical potential in each feather, claw, pelt, and tooth. Which is better for enchanting armor that resists acid - the blood of a green dragon or bile from an ankheg? If your artificer knows you can thank one of these mages.

This concept owes a lot to the "esoteric spell components" and wondering who tested them all. I envision it as a Wizard with the hunting/favored enemy abilities of a Ranger. I also really like the Arcane Heirophant (from 3.5's Races of the Wild) Companion Familiar feature that lets one creature be both your animal companion and familiar. Basically I like the idea of this wizard having a wolf, lion, eagle or other similarly rugged familiar.

Arcane Hunter

The Arcane Hunter studies mundane and magical creatures as diligently as their tomes and scrolls. By observing creatures in their natural habitat - and bringing them (or bits of them) back to the lab for study - the mage gains insights and unknown lore that improves their own magical abilities. Which they then use to hunt increasingly larger prey.

Class Skills: An arcane hunter adds Survival to the list of class skills.

Arcane School: An arcane hunter does not select a school.

Companion Familiar: An arcane hunter must select a familiar for their arcane bond. The arcane hunter may select their familiar from the list of animal companions available to a druid of equivalent level. Use your class level to determine the companion familiar's bonus Hit Dice, natural armor adjustment, and Strength/Dexterity adjustment as per the animal companion chart as well as the Intelligence bonus and special abilities as per the familiar chart. The Hit Dice, hit points, attack bonus, saving throws, feats, and skills of the familiar companion are determined as normal for an animal companion. Due to the companion's unusual Intelligence score, it may very well have more skill points than other animals of its kind. The companion is a magical beast (augmented animal), but you can bestow harmless spells on your companion as if it were an animal instead of a magical beast. If your companion is killed or dismissed, you can summon a new familiar companion by performing a ceremony requiring 24 hours of uninterrupted prayer. [What's missing? Are Tricks redundant with the Intelligence Score? No multiattack?]

Researched Target: An arcane hunter can study a creature in their notes to gain bonuses against them. When the mage prepares spells for the day they can select a creature type from the ranger's favored enemy list. The mage gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks attempted against creatures of that type, and a +1 bonus on weapon (or weapon-like spell) attack and damage rolls against it. The DCs of spells and class abilities used against those creatures increases by 1. An arcane hunter can only maintain these bonuses against one creature type at a time; these bonuses remain in effect until the mage studies a new target. At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, the bonuses increase by 1. In addition, at each such interval, the slayer is able to maintain these bonuses against an additional creature type at the same time.

Track: The arcane hunter gains Track as a ranger of the same level.

Quarry: At 11th level the arcane hunter can, as a standard action, denote one target within line of sight as their quarry. Whenever following the tracks of the quarry, an arcane hunter can take 10 on Survival skill checks while moving at normal speed, without penalty. In addition, they receive a +2 insight bonus on attack rolls made against their quarry, and all critical threats are automatically confirmed. An arcane hunter can have no more than one quarry at a time and the creature's type must correspond to one of their current Researched Target types. The mage can dismiss this effect at any time as a free action, but cannot select a new quarry for 24 hours. If the mage sees proof that the quarry is dead, they can select a new quarry after waiting 1 hour.


Thoughts: I think this does everything I had imagined; my biggest concern (other than "will it work?") is does it get too much too soon? On the other hand, Track isn't very powerful, standard Wizards already get two school abilities at 1st, and all the abilities gained early are based on other classes' 1st level abilities.

What do you think?

nikkoli
2016-11-05, 03:21 PM
This is for Pathfinder correct?

Technically wouldn't the familiars HD and bab be upgraded to the D10 and full, respectivly, that magical beasts have, or would this be akin to some templates that say "don't adjust HD bab or saves" ?
I think that tricks don't matter since the familiar will have an INT score greater than 3 as per the familiar advancement.
Only thing I would say would be maybe add either bows or the choice of one martial weapon to their automatic proficiencies.
Bonus:Also not having a school means the wizard has 1 less slot per day than a wizard with a school, so the net loss is pretty solid. But I could see either reducing their spells per day by 1 at each level or requiring them to have the oposition school still, having spent so much time in the wild rather than in study they don't have as strong a grasp of this or that school.

krackenjack
2016-11-07, 09:18 PM
Yes, for Pathfinder. Thought I'd tagged it; is there any way to fix it?

Yes, the companion becomes a magical beast. Looking at the original text (from a 3.5 book) it just says it grants bonus hit dice as per the chart; doesn't specify hit die type or even mention BAB or saves. Does a normal familiar gain improved BAB, darkvision, and low-light? If so, I assume the Companion Familiar would as well.

Why add bows? For balance or flavor?

Not sure what you're saying about the lost spells per day; are you suggesting an additional -1 per level or saying that the loss of the bonus spells from the school is enough? I had forgotten about those spells; kinda feel like that balances my concerns about overpower.

Do you feel this balances? I like it for the flavor, but don't like taking a mechanical penalty just to get the fluff I want.

Thanks for the comments!

nikkoli
2016-11-07, 09:34 PM
A normal familiar does not improve in actual HD like animal companions, they count as a number of HD as their master and half their HP.

Adding bows would be flavor I think.

I was saying the loss in spells for specialization sucks but not all wizards get it (generalists), but I was also suggesting that since their companion is the best features of an animal companion and a familiar and they get favored enemy and quarry that losing a spell per day, making the base 3 at each level before high INT modifiers, balances out those bonuses. I also thought that having an opposed school instead of the extra reduced spells per day a little more balancing.
So normal spells/day, but they still have an opposition school because they focused on fluff rather than that school of magic.

krackenjack
2016-11-07, 09:52 PM
Got it.

Yeah, looked again at the archetypes that remove arcane school and they all have 3 or even 4 opposition schools. That seems severe, but definitely suggests that 1 or 2 would be balanced.

Thanks again for the comments!

Oroul
2016-11-08, 04:55 PM
1. Low BaB is critically crippling. The slayer ability doesn't even come close to compensate.
2. There is no tradeoff. Almost all abilities added by archetypes have the mention "This ability replaces X", or "this ability modifies X".

IMHO, would make more sense to modify the Ranger class. Then all you have to do is:

> Make Ranger abilities work with Intelligence.
> Replace Handle Animal > Know (Arcana), Know (Nature) > Linguistic, Know (Dungeoneering) > Know (Planes)
> Replace the Ranger's bond with a familiar.
> Replace the spellcasting with arcane spellcasting as a wizard. Must choose 3 prohibited schools, must prepare their spells ahead of time. Same spell progression, Learns 1 free spell per level but can learn spells as a wizard otherwise.
> Replace Endurance for Arcane Armor Training

Bam! A competent archer, more flexible spellcaster if more loot dependant (because scrolls).

Edit: Optionally, you can choose metamagic / item creation feats instead of Fighting Style Feats.

Red Bear
2016-11-08, 11:17 PM
For the balancing question maybe you can compare it with a wizard with the improved familiar feat and the child of nature trait with the ranger variant multiclassing.