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Thread: Exarch (Base Class, Incarnum)

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    Default Re: Exarch (Base Class, Incarnum)

    Quote Originally Posted by Morphic tide View Post
    As-is, the only serious incentive to take more than three levels is the Auras. Per-day Smite effects are garbage for most situations unless they get crazy bonuses stacked up on them. Fixing this situation of dip-proneness is really simple. Make the effects rely on class level more. The class has too many effects at low levels without fast enough class-based scaling at higher levels to really make sure that people will do more than snag 3 levels of it as an Incarnate or Totemist for a nice boost from an Aura and unlimited healing. Foe Bane is actually so situational and weak that the reason for going three levels is the second available Aura to pick from.
    Auras are probably the biggest reason to take the class, so that's no surprise. Champion's Shield also provides some incentive, even if it isn't as strong. What's wrong with Smite? It's a boost to damage and hit, nothing fancy. Foe-bane isn't mean to be huge, more as a little bonus than a huge benefit.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morphic tide View Post
    The overall mechanics require the character to be either True Neutral or be in a party where everyone shares an alignment with them, which is horrible.
    How do you figure that being Neutral is a requirement?
    LG|LN|LE
    NG|N|NE
    CG|CN|CE
    A non-neutral exarch can share his aura with 5 total alignments on this chart. A neutral exarch can share their alignment with 5 total alignments on this chart. You're just as likely to affect allies. I will admit that it does require a bit more coordination with party members during character creation, but a typical party isn't likely to have radically different alignments, at least in my experience.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morphic tide View Post
    The class also has issues with clarity of effects. Do Auras have their Essentia investment cap with the normal Soulmeld/Feat cap, then go up from there with Greater Champion's Aura, or do they start at zero or one available for Investment, then get boosted by Greater Champion's Aura? I'd just roll the investment cap into the ability description, removing Greater Champion's Aura from the class table as a result and making the Auras fully based on the class. I'll give you a reworded version that rolls Greater Champion's Aura in under the assumption that the intent is to cap at 6 Essentia invested
    They follow the normal rules for the essentia capacity on pg19. So Greater Aura raises the cap to 6.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morphic tide View Post
    Sacred and Profane bonuses are already non-stacking as part of their basic rules, so you don't need to mention that if the bonuses are already typed as Sacred or Profane. I went with Moral rather than Insight for Neutral so that it doesn't overlap with other Incarnum classes and instead overlaps with Marshal, Bard and Divine Mind, thereby making a Neutral Exarch compete for the slot of those classes which actually have similar roles unless the party builds around eachother to avoid wasted bonuses, which has it's own problem of rigid formations.
    I restated the non-stacking aspect since they did so with the Marshal aura description. Just wanted to keep in line with how other classes are written, even if that does lead to redundancy.
    All bonuses granted by a marshal's auras are circumstance bonuses that do not stack with each other.
    And as for what neutral exarch's use, I put that in the Aura description.
    Aura: As a exarch, you have a particularly powerful aura corresponding to your alignment (see the detect evil spell for details). The type of bonuses and penalties that an exarch grant are dependent upon their alignment. A Lawful Good or Chaotic Good exarch effects are Sacred, while a Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil exarch's are Profane. A neutral exarch decides to use sacred or profane at level 1.
    Quote Originally Posted by Morphic tide View Post
    A mechanical issue I have with the class is that you can easily have a build that's incapable of investing all of it's Essentia at quite a few levels. The class has to take feats to invest Essentia in, and most of them won't solve the issue before level 6 because they can only have one Essentia in them, but also grant one Essentia to use for this. So from level 2-5 the class can't actually have all its Essentia invested. To solve this issue, I'd prefer to have more things to invest Essentia into. Perhaps have Smite Opposition give a damage bonus based on Con and invested Essentia rather than class level, or have Sapphire Soul be multiplied by invested Essentia with a class level based cap on investment to make it better over time, so long as you stick to the class.
    Your observation on the inability to invest all the essentia is something I missed. Hmm, I'll have to ponder that. I might tweak the essentia acquisition as you level.

    Thanks for the feedback.
    Last edited by Waker; 2017-06-19 at 09:19 PM.
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