Segev
2019-06-04, 04:15 PM
The Occultist's resonant power (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/occult-adventures/occult-classes/occultist/occultist-implements/) for Conjuration reads as follows:
Casting Focus (Su)
The implement empowers the bearer’s ties to the worlds beyond, allowing his spells to maintain their power for a longer period of time. The bearer can add the implement as an additional focus component to any conjuration spell he casts that has a duration measured in rounds per level. If he does so, he adds 1 to his caster level for every 2 points of mental focus stored in the implement (to a maximum bonus equal to your occultist level). This increase applies only when determining the duration of the spell. Apply this increase after other effects that adjust a spell’s duration, such as Extend Spell.
Sounds cool, but there actually aren't that many Conjuration spells that Occultists COULD learn if they wanted to which meet the criterion of a duration measured in rounds per level. In fact, there are exactly 2:
Glitterdust
major creation (if you make a "rare metal")
I'm almost certain that summon monster was what the designer of that resonant power had in mind, but Occultists don't get that as a Conjuration spell; instead, they get a base focus power that replicates it, but with a flat duration of 1 minute and a much superior 1 standard action casting time. This isn't a complaint about that, but rather a note that this seems an oversight in the design of their resonant power.
Now, because Occultist implements can be handed out, he could give his charged implement to a friendly wizard who has Conjuration spells that fall under this requirement, but I really don't think it's meant to be so niche an ability that not only can't the owner make really good use of it, but he has to have a somewhat specialized fellow party member to make use of it.
Therefore, I'm looking either to be convinced that I overlooked something, or for help devising alternative resonant powers to assign to this implement school.
One fix might be to expand the list of Conjuration spells they could learn to include more spells that fall under that requirement, but given that the most obvious choice is hard-overridden in quality by their base focus power, I am not convinced this is a great choice.
Another might be to remove the "round/level" requirement and make it any duration measured in level getting the level improvement, but that could be a bit on the broken side, and still of questionable utility.
For actually forging a new resonant power, we need to examine the themes of both resonant powers and of Conjuration as a school. Resonant powers provide static benefits that scale with the number of focus points invested in the implement. They usually don't take an action to invoke, though they can (Distortion on the Illusion implement school takes an action to enable its concealment benefits, for example). They do not have a duration, though they can have ending conditions.
Conjuration as a school encompases summoning, creating (but not transforming), transporting (teleportation-like, but NOT flight or other movement-through-intervening-space), healing, and dimensional travel (but not banishment).
One of my first instincts was to steal Nomad's Step from the Pathfinder Psion's Nomad Discipline power, but there's already a focus power of Side Step in the Conjuration Implement school which does more or less the same thing, and thus implies that that's a bit too much for a resonant power. (Counterpoint: Distortion eventually gives invisibility, and Illusion has an Invisibility focus power.)
A second thought was some sort of healing, but the most obvious way of making that passive - fast healing - is waaaaay too powerful for a resonant power, especially if it scales up with level. Another thought that probably still is a bit much but at least is more limited would be to have it provide bonus healing when the bearer receives healing of any sort.
Creating a mount as per the mount spell is out; there's already a focus power that does that. Conjuring tools and the like a) sounds like something that would be done by a focus power and not a resonant power, and b) is already a focus power (but limited to implements from schools the occultist knows). Could do some sort of always-present unseen servant that gets stronger and otherwise better with more FP, perhaps? Stepping on the toes of spells they can cast is fine.
A final thought I had - and the one that I think I like the best, though I need help balancing it - is extradimensional storage accessible to whoever has the implement. Say, one object per focus point, up to a maximum of the Occultist's int mod or level, whichever is higher (so investing more than one FP at level 1 isn't a waste for anything but focus powers), with object weight limits being set to a light load for a character with Strength equal to the Occultist's Int, and which the bearer must be able to at least lift off the ground?
If the first part of this - convincing me it's perfectly okay as-is - doesn't work out, I'll ask a mod to move this to the homebrew forum, but I figured the first part was relevant here, and I didn't want to split up the topic.
Casting Focus (Su)
The implement empowers the bearer’s ties to the worlds beyond, allowing his spells to maintain their power for a longer period of time. The bearer can add the implement as an additional focus component to any conjuration spell he casts that has a duration measured in rounds per level. If he does so, he adds 1 to his caster level for every 2 points of mental focus stored in the implement (to a maximum bonus equal to your occultist level). This increase applies only when determining the duration of the spell. Apply this increase after other effects that adjust a spell’s duration, such as Extend Spell.
Sounds cool, but there actually aren't that many Conjuration spells that Occultists COULD learn if they wanted to which meet the criterion of a duration measured in rounds per level. In fact, there are exactly 2:
Glitterdust
major creation (if you make a "rare metal")
I'm almost certain that summon monster was what the designer of that resonant power had in mind, but Occultists don't get that as a Conjuration spell; instead, they get a base focus power that replicates it, but with a flat duration of 1 minute and a much superior 1 standard action casting time. This isn't a complaint about that, but rather a note that this seems an oversight in the design of their resonant power.
Now, because Occultist implements can be handed out, he could give his charged implement to a friendly wizard who has Conjuration spells that fall under this requirement, but I really don't think it's meant to be so niche an ability that not only can't the owner make really good use of it, but he has to have a somewhat specialized fellow party member to make use of it.
Therefore, I'm looking either to be convinced that I overlooked something, or for help devising alternative resonant powers to assign to this implement school.
One fix might be to expand the list of Conjuration spells they could learn to include more spells that fall under that requirement, but given that the most obvious choice is hard-overridden in quality by their base focus power, I am not convinced this is a great choice.
Another might be to remove the "round/level" requirement and make it any duration measured in level getting the level improvement, but that could be a bit on the broken side, and still of questionable utility.
For actually forging a new resonant power, we need to examine the themes of both resonant powers and of Conjuration as a school. Resonant powers provide static benefits that scale with the number of focus points invested in the implement. They usually don't take an action to invoke, though they can (Distortion on the Illusion implement school takes an action to enable its concealment benefits, for example). They do not have a duration, though they can have ending conditions.
Conjuration as a school encompases summoning, creating (but not transforming), transporting (teleportation-like, but NOT flight or other movement-through-intervening-space), healing, and dimensional travel (but not banishment).
One of my first instincts was to steal Nomad's Step from the Pathfinder Psion's Nomad Discipline power, but there's already a focus power of Side Step in the Conjuration Implement school which does more or less the same thing, and thus implies that that's a bit too much for a resonant power. (Counterpoint: Distortion eventually gives invisibility, and Illusion has an Invisibility focus power.)
A second thought was some sort of healing, but the most obvious way of making that passive - fast healing - is waaaaay too powerful for a resonant power, especially if it scales up with level. Another thought that probably still is a bit much but at least is more limited would be to have it provide bonus healing when the bearer receives healing of any sort.
Creating a mount as per the mount spell is out; there's already a focus power that does that. Conjuring tools and the like a) sounds like something that would be done by a focus power and not a resonant power, and b) is already a focus power (but limited to implements from schools the occultist knows). Could do some sort of always-present unseen servant that gets stronger and otherwise better with more FP, perhaps? Stepping on the toes of spells they can cast is fine.
A final thought I had - and the one that I think I like the best, though I need help balancing it - is extradimensional storage accessible to whoever has the implement. Say, one object per focus point, up to a maximum of the Occultist's int mod or level, whichever is higher (so investing more than one FP at level 1 isn't a waste for anything but focus powers), with object weight limits being set to a light load for a character with Strength equal to the Occultist's Int, and which the bearer must be able to at least lift off the ground?
If the first part of this - convincing me it's perfectly okay as-is - doesn't work out, I'll ask a mod to move this to the homebrew forum, but I figured the first part was relevant here, and I didn't want to split up the topic.