Ok guys, here is the Spiritualist (PEACH)

[SilverStud]

I've spent a long time coming up with a class called the Spiritualist. I wanted a class that could do a lot of spell-like things, but not another caster.
Spiritualists are split into Animists, who work with the spirits of all things living, and Mediums, who work with the spirits of the dead.

Right off the bat you have an ability from both sides, so you kinda sorta get an idea of what to expect from each side.

I tried to make the Animist more of a de/buffer in combat, while the Medium gets more direct abilities. Also, I tried to give the Animist more social abilities and the Medium more information-gathering abilities.

Please Evaluate and Critique Honestly. But also explain yourself. Coming in here just to say "it's OP" or whatever doesn't help, though I will be grateful you at least read the thing.

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SJ6dKLB1e

Changelog:
Replaced all "Charisma" with "Wisdom"
Changed Soul Ritual
Added a cost to Amplify/Diminish
Added 5th level ability to Animist
Changed Manifest Weapon
Lowered the cost of Breath of Life
Added exclusion option to Depressing Aura and Exciting Aura

[SilverStud]

SHAMELESS BUMP

Not feeling the love here, guys... I really want to get this polished up!

[ravencroft0]

The concept and mechanics are cool on the surface, but reading through it left me scratching my head at times.

The concept of Rapport is interesting, but I don't care for what features you have in place to help you manage rapport points. I also don't like how your spirits just go away when you run out of it. Soul Ritual is a good mechanic, but I feel you get it too early. Sure wizards get arcane recovery at 1st level and it does essentially what soul ritual does. However, you don't have spells. At higher levels, as written, you're going to be able to get ALL of your rapport points back, potentially 6 times per long rest. That's too much. On top of that, it's 10 minutes of concentration. If you insist on 1st level, what about 1/short rest, 1 minute concentration, half of your maximum rapport? Then when you get to a higher level, as a one time 1/long rest upgrade, you can get them all back. In this way, you have to be careful about how you use your points. Challenging and it parallels other casters' abilities.

Also, how your spirits go away.... at one point that is really going to suck. I don't disagree that they don't last, but they shouldn't just leave. Why not just have them last for a certain amount of time or concentration based?

I haven't scoured the entire class page, but those two things stuck out. Other than that, good job with the 'brew. Good gaming.

[SilverStud]

You know, I genuinely thought that I would get a lot of OP-criers. But I am getting more people who think that it might be a little under powered.

With exception to the Rapport thing.

Since you didn't mention the Animist section, I'll only refer to the Medium side of things.

I wanted the Medium to work with the spirits of the dead; not through brute force, like necromancy, but through good will. Rapport represents, essentially, how much good will you have left. You know how most people are always willing to do small things for each other, like move their cart in the aisle, or grab something from the top shelf for you? But if you start asking for bigger things, people give you weird looks and refuse. Because you've used up your good will and are asking too much. Rapport represents this. That's why it takes Rapport to get your spirit to perform Favors. When your Rapport (good will) is gone, then the spirit has no reason to stay.

All of that is fluff and explanation for this simple mechanical fact:
Favors cost Rapport. No Rapport, no Favors.

I think the main reason why I made the Soul Ritual so readily available is because at level 1 you only have two points of Rapport. If you use both abilities available to you, you get to take half-damage once, and have a slightly better mage hand once, then you're done. That's it. I compared it to a monk's ki. At least monks get some extra attacks or can disengage/dash with their tiny point pool. They are also a lot better off when out of Ki than a Spiritualist is without Rapport. So I tried to make it so that a Spiritualist can nearly always have Rapport.

But I can totally see the balance issue with always getting max Rapport at high levels. Perhaps I can make it a roll? 1d6 + WIS?

I'm interested to hear what you think of the Animist!

Also, other people: please join in the conversation!

[PotatoGolem]

Soul Ritual is just clunky. Why not go full monk and recover rapport on a short rest?

[Flashy]

I have trouble picturing what this class does on a round to round basis in combat. It's got reasonable out of combat features, but what action does a 10th level medium take in most rounds of combat? Bonus action is commanding the undead minion, reaction goes to spirit protector, it manipulates the mage hand in some way because it's there and it's free, and...makes a single shortsword attack for 1d6+dex?

It's a solid basis, but I feel like the options are skewed too hard toward the exploration/interaction end of the spectrum. That's obviously super thematic for a spiritualist, I'm just left with the suspicion that you might spend a lot of combat rounds feeling like sort of a chump.

[SilverStud]

Soul Ritual is just clunky. Why not go full monk and recover rapport on a short rest?

Yes, several people were expressing concerns about the Soul Ritual. I have changed it, so now you can perform it whenever you want, but you must complete a short or long rest before performing it again. That makes it slightly more flexible than short rest recovery, but it is still basically short rest recovery.



I have trouble picturing what this class does on a round to round basis in combat. It's got reasonable out of combat features, but what action does a 10th level medium take in most rounds of combat? Bonus action is commanding the undead minion, reaction goes to spirit protector, it manipulates the mage hand in some way because it's there and it's free, and...makes a single shortsword attack for 1d6+dex?

It's a solid basis, but I feel like the options are skewed too hard toward the exploration/interaction end of the spectrum. That's obviously super thematic for a spiritualist, I'm just left with the suspicion that you might spend a lot of combat rounds feeling like sort of a chump.


I can see what you're saying for sure. My vision for this class is that Out of Combat, the Medium takes care of scouting (Familiar Form), various Divination stuff (the Favor list is far from complete), and intimidating the local populace with Paranormal Activity; meanwhile, the Animist is totally dedicated to buffing/debuffing (Amplify/Diminish, other Favors I haven't made yet). IN Combat, the Medium has Manifest Weapon, Banshee's Wail, Fear of the Grave (Fear spell), and Spectral Whispers (Dissonant Whispers).

I definitely plan on making more Favors for both sides. Got any ideas?