DH's Channeler Rework

[Doomed Hero]

Well worded. Edited.

Thanks again.

[Doomed Hero]

Ok, the Spiritualist is nearing completion. I need to finish formatting it and arranging the abilities in a little less of a jumbled mess, but it's readable. Tell me what you think.

[Doomed Hero]

As a note, I've removed Mastery of Spirits and changed Mastery of the Unnatural because i wanted ghostly things and outsiders to be more the domain of the Binder.

Also, this one feels like it's "big" abilities are available a little sooner than the Hermetic's are, but aren't quite as big. Any thoughts or critiques?

[Luiniel Blades]

The idea of completely removing Mastery of Spirits form the Spiritual Channelers abilities seems a little off.  I think it would make more sense for the Spiritual Channeler and the Binder to have the same ability but have them differentiate themselves like the good and evil Clerics when they Turn/Destroy or Rebuke/Command undead, except in this case it would be spirits.

[Doomed Hero]

The issue is that Midnight classifies a lot of different things as spirits. Spiritual channelers used to be the most broad-spectrum of the channeler types, their mysteries covering everything from plants to angels.

In my rework I'm trying to focus them a bit more. They are masters of nature. To that end I've added elementals to their list, and even added magical beasts.

Spirits of the dead, possessing spirits and outsiders are not their forte. That's the realm of Binders and Witches.

The reason I've added the Esoteric Study ability to the list is to allow people to customize a bit more. If you're playing a spiritual channeler and you want them to be able to exercise spirits, you just need to steal a couple abilities from other channeler lists.

[TwiceBorn]

DH,

Sorry for taking so long to provide feedback on your work.

I finally had the time to to fully digest the updated hermetic, and what can I say but, wow! Very inventive! The hermetic never grabbed me before (it certainly was underdeveloped and underwhelming, IMO, compared to the spiritualist and charismatic), but now it's a class I would be happy to play. You've added depth and interesting options without making it overpowered (especially now that you've incorporated Dave's excellent feedback). I have nothing more to offer, aside from perhaps needing a bit more clarification with regards to creating a cypher... I'm not sure I get exactly how long it takes to create a cypher (presumably, the higher the DC the longer it takes)? Any guidelines? Or are they right under my nose and I'm not getting them?

Also, with regards to Quick Study: any guidelines on how many pages of text a hermetic might be able to absorb in a standard action?

Finally, I initially was doubtful about having feats as prerequisites for certain tradition gifts (no other class requires that a PC have specific feats in order to qualify for class abilities/talents)... but given that the channeller class gives the player the option of acquiring those as bonus feats, this really doesn't pose a problem.

Great work! I'll take a closer look at the spiritualist when time permits...

Thanks again!

[Doomed Hero]

It's part of the process of copying the spell into the book. it doesn't take any extra time, it just requires that you make the linguistics check during your work.

"Learning an additional spell through lorebook or scroll study requires an expenditure of 16 hours of careful work per spell level."

So you just do that, and toss in a Cypher while you're writing.

[Doomed Hero]

Due to some questions I've gotten recently, I'm bumping this thread for additional feedback and working on the Charismatic in the upcoming week.

Any comments are welcome.

[Luiniel Blades]

Recovering Spell Energy for the Spiritual Channeler; Where as the Hermetic Channeler uses thought exercises and new learning to recover Spell Energy, the Spiritual Channeler recovers either by communing with nature or others.  15 minutes a day spent listening to the wind, feeling the water, watching life around them, or with others in thoughts of self reflection and inner learning.  It could be anything from simply sharing an experience with one another or communing to learn a new spell.  A Spiritual Channeler can effectively regain Spell energy with 15 minutes of spiritual communion and 8 hours of rest.  They must be sound of body and spirit, not fatigued or exhausted, and not have Constitution or Wisdom damage in order to regain spell energy efficiently.  If they are not sound of body and spirit they regain 1 Spell Energy point per hour spent communing.

Something interesting I thought of for the Charismatic Channeler could be using the emotions of other people bolster his/her spells.  Example:
The Hearts of Many  Many Charismatic Channelers use their powerful presence to inspire the emotions of others, some however have learned to use the emotions of others to inspire themselves be they friend or foe.  When 10 or more people are enraged the damage for Fire/Evocation spells increases by +1 per damage/dice.  When joyful the duration for Transmutation/Wind spells increases by 1 round, When sad the Caster level for Water/Divination spells is increased by 1.  When frightened the D.C. for Necromancy Spells increases by +1, When fascinated they take a -1 to all saves against Enchantment/mind affecting spells, when confident the bonuses for all Morale/Transmutation spells are increased by +1.  To use this ability the Channeler must spend a move action to activate it and be within 60 feet of the targets and he must be able to see and hear them.  This effect lasts as long as the Channeler concentrates and for 5 rounds afterwards.  This effect may be maintained for up to one round per Channeler Level.

[Doomed Hero]

I like it. It's a little too situational/clunky, but it's definitely a neat idea that I can use as a series of player options. I'm getting ideas now, thanks.

[Luiniel Blades]

Yeah, I was a little short on time and just got the basic idea down the other day.  The idea was for the Channeler to be able to gain different abilities depending on the mood of people rather than the static bonuses you see written in the book.  Narrowing the field down to any of the inspiration abilities and granting different bonuses to those affected is probably a better way to go.

Inspire Woe: The Channeler can inspire a sense of dread within his enemies weakening their attacks and hindering their abilities.  To be affected the enemy must be within 60 feet and able to see and hear the Channeler.  The effect lasts as long as the Channeler maintains the ability (or as long as the enemy can see and hear the Channeler) and for up to five rounds after.  The effect may be maintained for up to 1 round per Channeler level.  An affected enemy receives a -1 morale penalty to all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws.  This is a mind-affecting ability.

Improved Woe:  (Requires Inspire Woe): When the Channeler uses the inspire woe ability, affected creatures gain an additional -1 morale penalty on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws.  This gift may be taken multiple times.

[Luiniel Blades]

Are we going to see more of this? I would really like to see all of the Channeler variants fleshed out all the way.

[Doomed Hero]

We are. It's mostly just a matter of time. Things have just cleared up a lot for me, so I should have the next archetype up soon.

[TwiceBorn]

Looking forward to the next additions.

Can't recall if you had access to the following sources as potential inspiration for the Midnight version of the Binder (Pact Magic Unbound was designed for PFRPG)? http://paizo.com/companies/radianceHouse