[Dreamscarred Press] New playtest: the Rajah, an akashic initiator!

[Lord_Gareth]

I'm testing a gestalt psion//aegis+reaver+stalker assassin build that, along with its combat and stealth potential, will eventually use this+reaver+cursed razor to tank the target's saves, then follow up with hustled mind control for a one-round conversion of enemies. It's incredibly fun to light beam a target, then snap your fingers and make an instant "friend".

This is a good time to remind people that we can't and won't balance for gestalt and that gestalt data is essentially useless for this. Like, you do you, I'm not hating on the playstyle, but it is far beyond the scope here.

[Felyndiira]

This is a good time to remind people that we can't and won't balance for gestalt and that gestalt data is essentially useless for this. Like, you do you, I'm not hating on the playstyle, but it is far beyond the scope here.

Oh no, I'm not saying it's overpowered or anything like that. You can similar things in 1pp with something like Antipaladin and Mesmer, no gestalt needed.

Besides, this is something you can do without gestalt. A PsyWar [Reaver] 1 / Psion X (or PsyWar [Reaver] 10), using Martial Training to grab the maneuver (and possibly Expanded Knowledge: Form Astral Suit to get the Cursed Razor stance), can do this pretty easily.

[AGrinningCat]

Its maneuver recovery mechanic is weaker than the other classes (warder, zealot, harbinger, medic) that have the low maneuvers readied progression.

Can you elaborate on this?

[Castilonium]

Can you elaborate on this?

Warders are more than happy to use their maneuver recovery, Defensive Focus, because it locks down the battlefield and prevents enemies from doing much.

Zealots can use Aid Another as a move action, quite frankly one of the most powerful maneuver recovery mechanics in all of PoW, because it lets Zealots refresh and use their best maneuvers every single round. Aid Another is also very easy to increase to high numbers with traits and items, and it activates Zeal at no risk.

Harbinger's maneuver recovery, Dark Claim, is a swift action so it doesn't stop them from using strikes or full attacks in the same round. It can also be improved with feats.

Medics grant their allies a huge amount of temporary HP and a bonus to fort saves, and gives the Medic another triage if they don't have any left. It's a full round action, but it's still powerful and directly helps the Medic do their job by keeping allies alive.

Those are all of the classes with the lowest maneuvers readied progression. Now compare the Rajah's recovery mechanic to them. They have to use a standard action, and they can either:
grant an ally a plain ol' attack,
grant an ally a bonus to AC or a single save,
grant an ally a free saving throw, or
grant an ally movement.
A lot of versatility, you might say! But none of the effects are particularly powerful aside from granting a saving throw. Granting an attack is powerful at low levels if you have a strength-based two-handed weapon user in the party, but pretty weak otherwise. Compared to the first part of Bolster, other classes like Warder, Medic, and Knight Disciple Paladin have much more powerful effects protecting their allies with their recovery mechanic. And sacrificing your standard action to give an ally some movement, without even allowing them to ignore AoOs, is just inefficient.

[master4sword]

Venomous seems very strong at first glance. Free, at-will damage-over-time Con damage is huge, especially since you don't even have to target Fort (most things don't have both good Fort and Will). The existing poison veil (Snakehandler's gauntlets) has an action cost (move action to apply) AND requires a bind (so no one is doing it before 2nd level) while dealing Dex damage, Steel Serpent doesn't get Con damage until 3rd-level maneuvers, and Unquiet Grave doesn't get Con damage until 2nd-level maneuvers. Heck, Headstone Breaking Strike almost seems like the best comparison, as it's a 2nd-level maneuver that deals your choice of physical ability score damage, but it doesn't keep forcing saves every round.

[ATalsen]

Festival of the Bloodied Goddess
This stance feels very weak, but I think that may come from an (potential) expectation on the part of the author that I don't see at my games: a strong idea of whether the extra damage will finish off an opponent.

The stance itself currently gives you no special ability to know if the extra damage you would deal if you sacrificed HP would in fact drop an opponent, and no game I've ever been in would allow that sort of question to be asked without some game mechanic providing that ability. I feel like the stance expects the user and their allies to know when to make use of the extra damage.

I know its not supposed to be as good as other +damage stances, but the sacrifice just isn't worth it, as it stands.

I'd reword it so that its a finishing move sort of thing:

"While you maintain this stance, whenever an ally within close range (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 initiator levels) of you successfully hits a creature with an attack, if that creature would be dropped to 0 or below by taking damage equal to your allies Hit Dice, that ally may choose to sacrifice twice their Hide dice in hitpoints to deal additional damage equal to their hit dice to the creature just struck. An ally may only use this ability once per round, regardless of the number of allies maintaining this stance nearby."

The wording is not perfect, and could use work, but you get the idea

Its not constant extra damage, like an y of the +damage stances, but it allow for a quick and confirmed finish of a wounded foe by sacrificing your own HP.

[knightfall]

The description of profane damage in the Rajah playtest document is entirely different from how profane damage is described in my copy of Path of War.

[ATalsen]

The description of profane damage in the Rajah playtest document is entirely different from how profane damage is described in my copy of Path of War.

Its consistent with the new errata version of profane damage. See the DSP website for the errata doc.

[AGrinningCat]

The description of profane damage in the Rajah playtest document is entirely different from how profane damage is described in my copy of Path of War.

ATalsen is correct, and here's a link for you!

[AlienFromBeyond]

Can monsters with the Daeva subtype (from Akashic Mysteries) pick Title veils with their free veils from the Natural Veilweaver ability, and if so can they entitle others with them as normal? Additionally, if such a monster with regular veils takes the Titles from Distant Shores feat could they entitle their regular veils? They're said to be "part of their physical form" but then says all that means is that the Daeva can't change which veils they have shaped but that they can change where those veils are shaped (normally different slots on yourself, but as a Title on someone else feels like the same sort of thing to me).

EDIT: Empowered Titles states that its limit only applies to veils gained through the Rajah class itself (but not ones from other sources like feats). If you get an additional Title veil through either Inaugurate Title feat or Shape Veil + Titles from Distant Shores + Access X Chakra Slot feat combination, would you be able to bind the Title from the feat past your Rajah limit?

Oh, and since it's relevant to the strength of the attack/damage bonus from Vassalage, do you know how exactly your veils shaped limit works with multiclassing? It feels like each class is supposed to be independent (like spellcasting), but the shared essence pool plus most veils not scaling with veilweaver levels means dips in other classes would let you shape far more veils if it's a limit on veils from each class. Things get especially funny with the non-Akashic class archetypes, as some of them (namely Barbarian, Bard, Magus, and Marksman) say that they increase total veils shaped by 1 instead of having their own limit or scaling a regular veilweaving class if you multiclass them.

EDIT2: I assume attacking through Vassalage breaks the Sanctuary effect from Impassiveness, but what about using Royal Mandate to let someone else attacking, using boosts and counters for defense and thus not breaking Sanctuary?

For Invite Luck, while it's not technically allowed by the rules, do you think using it on a single ship would be appropriate? That feels similar to using it on a single tavern or other business to me, just it floats on water instead of staying still on land. Otherwise I potentially see some issues for Rajahs in island nations unless you could use it on "the docks" but that doesn't seem right either.

[AGrinningCat]

From my cursory readings of the various Titles the Rajah has access to, I'm noticing that it's kind of ending up with the same problem as the Skald has: it's heavily dependent on party composition. Most titles are designed for supporting initiators and others who are gonna be frontlining or spending most of their time in combat focusing on killing things. It isn't a bad place to be in, as a Skald can be a tremendous force multiplier for a combat-focused party, but it still makes them heavily dependent on party layout. A Rajah/Skald in a party with a Warder, Warlord and Stalker is a force to be reckoned with, while a Rajah/Skald in a party with a Magus, Occultist, and Warpriest won't see as much benefit.

Perhaps add in a few more titles that offer support to "gish" types and full casters? I've not got the first clue about balance regarding akashic stuff, but you could certainly do well to add in titles that support gishes, casters that buff, casters that debuff, and blasters. I'm no help when it comes to what those veils would be, but it would make the Rajah more valuable in a more mixed composition of parties.

This is something that I’d like to do, but the balance of such is on a razor’s edge. Casters can already be very strong, and as such, we have to be careful about giving them any veil that would increase their power vertically.

I´ve fooled around with a "pure" Rajah 5 and a CR5 Goblin Troop and a General 6/Rajah 4 (Legendary Games, Ultimate Commander) and ran into two problems: Troops work like swarms, can overlap already occupied squares and will auto-damage anything in their way.
Giving them a title and then using vassalage proofed... dissatisfying because the troop/squad more or less had to target itself. using the rules for uncommon attacks, like "volley" or "magic" also was dissatisfying, as you have to calculate those from the "corners" of the troop outward.

Now troops show up in the later APs quite frequently and I actually do like using them, and I think they thematically fit with your class.

I'm actually unsure of what you're asking of me here. My understanding is that because you vassal an entire troop (As it counts as one creature), you can make an attack from any of it's squares. I don't understand how this would be unsatisfying, as one title gets you multiple creatures, so I think I'm missing what you're trying to tell me. If you could clarify, I'd appreciate it.

Earthbound Immortal seems a bit misplaced here - it really has nothing to do with the rajah's themes (or initiation/veilweaving abilities), and for all that the rajah is Demigod: The Classening, nothing prior to the capstone relates to death in any way. I get that death is cheap at that level, but it's very strange for the class to suddenly want to die in order to access its full power.

Being dead isn't really accessing your full power; rather think of it as a 'life extension' with an upside. While you could kill yourself each day to make the most use of this power, you'd also be out for the rest of the day; no different than a wizard blowing all their spells in one encounter. Thus, it's more of an emergency feature. Furthermore, you also receive a boost to your essence capacities; so even if you never die once you've hit 20th, you're still getting features out of it.

As is, the initiation feels very tacked-on, even as it's a key part of the rajah's schtick in terms of numbers/power/etc.

This is the first time I've heard this complaint; most people feel that initiation feels 'right' by the Rajah. Can you explain this in further detail?

EDIT: Also, in the Favored Class Bonuses:

Is there a reason for the additional "one level below highest" restriction? Other similar PoW FCBs allow you to learn a maneuver at the highest level with the same FCB progression, and ¼ of a maneuver known is already below the power curve for FCBs - as it is only 1/8 of what Additional Maneuvers gets you.

This is a good point; I'll move these to be in line with other classes FCBs.

Also, does the Nightmare veil have range restrictions or line of effect restrictions? If not, there's a really awesome and evil combo I want to try out with Perma-claim, Malevolence, and this veil to really ruin someone's day from possibly across the globe.

The only restriction right now is that you have to have the target cursed. I don't see this being an issue, power wise, but if it does, we'll change it, but for now enjoy with harrassing people

How many "times" does multitarget abilities of different types and timings (Barrage Power, Fireball, Scorching Ray, Energy Missile, Split Ray, Battering Blast, ground effects like Black Tentacles) count as? Is each "time" just one damage on one target, or can aoes or multitarget attacks count as one "time"?

Also, does this counter not apply to: powers, SoP effects, saving throw maneuvers (e.g. Elemental Flux aoes) supernatural abilities, extraordinary abilities that do not have an attack roll, and other unique things that might be introduced with other 3PP supplements? I feel like this counter should be usable in response to "actions" in general rather than having a specific list.

I'll add wording to this to make sure these bases are covered.

If you use the "touch a willing target" option, do you still have to deal 2d6 points of damage to him to get the dispel effect?

No; I'll get wording onto this to clarify.

If that ally chooses to make a melee attack, is it still treated as a melee attack for certain effects (for instance, Eternal Guardian pulls)? Also, just checking, but this is intended to be usable for spells and powers that utilize ranged touch attacks (for instance, with Shared Power + Greater Metamorphosis to create an AoE buff), right?

I'm going to say 'yes' to them being a melee attack for now; but do note that they're not adjacent, so any abilities that require that and made through sunstroke won't work (Unless you are adjacent to them, in which you can carry on as normal). The second part is not the intention at all; and would likely cause a lot of issues. I'll be looking into closing that when I get to rewording Sunstroke to fix some issues that we've found out during playtesting.

The Treasury should probably stay inaccessible while rajah is dead. Making your items fall around you every time you die is just inconvenient at higher levels. I understand most people don't play at 20 or go against enemies with 20 class levels, but a reward for defeating a level 20 rajah being 50 pounds of whatever magical explosives available to him, set to explode as they leave the treasury, every round for 10-15 rounds, probably isn't very fun.

To cover both situations (needed access to the treasures, but could be used as a death-trap), I'd recommend that the treasury be accessible when the Raja is dead, by someone touching the Rajah's body and willing the treasure to come out as a standard action (or whatever).

This means its accessible, but you probably have to know its there to try (i.e. be the raja's friends or know its a rajah), and it cannot be used as an automatic trap.

This is... I'm going to be honest, pretty low on my list. If you're going up against a 20th level Rajah, you are probably more than well equipped to deal with some explosions that'll happen after they're dead. Additionally, if it's a player doing this, that's their own wasted money on setting up a contingency + the amount of money spent on the explosives + actually selecting the heraldry and then using it explicitly for that purpose and even then, it's only when you're dying. If it becomes an issue, which I don't expect to be, then I can fix it, no big deal.

EDIT:
I think the Radiant Dawn healing is likely to be a bit too swingy between campaigns, as it relies almost entirely on the Initiators Cha Mod (or other IM for other classes). This means in some campaigns where you can get (say) 10+ IM it would be more powerful than in other campaigns where you are stuck with an IM of 2 to 4. I don't think a discipline should be that variable in playability.

Maybe make the healing maneuvers more like the Spoils of War stance where there is a base number to add your IM to, and maybe do half IM instead of full IM. That would reduce the swing from table to table.

Radiant dawn's healing maneuvers used to have static numbers built in, but the wording was messy and unclear. Right now, I'm actually happy with the way healing maneuvers are done -- Point buy is a good indicator of the strength of the campaign; and if you're seeing swingy-ness from campaign to campaign, it's probably more the rules of the campaign are different. If you're running 32 point buy vs 25 vs 20 point buy, the maneuvers being based off of Imod are scaling up and down to the strength of the campaign. Static numbers mean that we have to decide where we expect most players to play at, then balance around that. Then at which point, anyone playing under will find Radiant Dawn to be stronger, while those playing above will find it to be weaker.

That being said, as with everything, is a playtest and I'll be monitoring information as it comes in. If you have data on this, I'll be glad to take a look!

Fair enough, but I more meant shooting an arrow through your friend's mouth while being safely away.

Your allies don't provoke from any of your actions when using vassalage, only you.

The Rajah and Radiant Dawn look amazing and incredibly fun! I've reviewed and rated all of the Radiant Dawn maneuvers in my Zealot guide in my signature, if that'll be valuable to you. But the analysis is specifically for Zealots rather than Rajahs, of course.

This is still very valuable, and has been something I've compared to other feedback I've been given. Some of it matches (Curse of the Pharaoh/Sword of Damocles being low on tier for interesting/fun picks), while others it's conflicting (Decree of Mercy). I do thank you for your time on this!

There seems to be a few errors in the Amulet of War's cost table. The Costs should be 75% of an equivalent magic weapon + 50 gp, right? The Cost +1 cell should be 1550 gp, and the Construction +3 cell should be 6775 gp.

Thank you for catching this. The formula is indeed ((Bonus^2*1500) +50), divided by 2 for crafting purposes. I'm glad you caught this, otherwise no one would have been able to construct a +3 amulet at the right time!

The Stormbringer seems like it'd be used by highly mobile characters, especially since it lets the entitled instantly fall any distance. But it'll still become suppressed once the entitled gets out of range! I think it'd be better if it had the "not suppressed when it moves out of range of the veilweaver" clause like The Ephemeral.

This has been added as well!

When you begin making archetypes, do you have plans on one that revolves around the use of sand soldiers? Something that's more involved than simply picking up the Striking Mirage feat!

I'm not discussing archetypes at this time, sadly, until they're finished and ready to go. I don't want to promise an archetype then be able to not deliver it!

I think the maneuvers known/readied progression is fine, but I'd like to see more or better options for the Rajah to recover maneuvers. Its maneuver recovery mechanic is weaker than the other classes (warder, zealot, harbinger, medic) that have the low maneuvers readied progression.

This was something I've been talking about on internal -- I've ran a few play tests and while the Rajah seems to have little issues with combats that only persist for 4 rounds, other encounters (Three-phase solo boss fights, 'rolling' encounters, cleaning out pirate ships, fighting your way through hordes of infinitely spawning enemies) that last longer than most combats the Rajah seems to have an issue here. I'll be adding new functionality to the Rajah's recovery mechanic that allows them to replace a single maneuver every time they recover their maneuvers (And it'll be readied for use), to allow the Rajah to shift their maneuvers as the situation demands; so that they may pull out more specialized maneuvers (Sky Asunder, Shatter spell, etc) if surprises occur.

Feedback on questions

Feedback on questions

Feedback on Rajah recovery

Thank you for this.

Venomous seems very strong at first glance. Free, at-will damage-over-time Con damage is huge, especially since you don't even have to target Fort (most things don't have both good Fort and Will). The existing poison veil (Snakehandler's gauntlets) has an action cost (move action to apply) AND requires a bind (so no one is doing it before 2nd level) while dealing Dex damage, Steel Serpent doesn't get Con damage until 3rd-level maneuvers, and Unquiet Grave doesn't get Con damage until 2nd-level maneuvers. Heck, Headstone Breaking Strike almost seems like the best comparison, as it's a 2nd-level maneuver that deals your choice of physical ability score damage, but it doesn't keep forcing saves every round.

I am looking into changing the functioning of the Venomous, but we found out that early on having players eat significant actions (Such as a move to coat it) wasn't the best feeling for title veils. Fallen sort of gets away with it being a swift action; but even then, we're also looking at changing the Fallen as well. As far as Snake Handler's Gauntlets go; it's an innately very defensive veil, while Venomous is an offensive veil. Scaling DR/Alignment and bonuses to all poison saves is what the shape effect gives, while the bind does give a weak poison. As such, Shape + Essence are defensive aligned, while the bind is the offensive option here. Conversely, Venomous is offensive aligned, with the Shape + Essence + Bind all working towards the poison. As such, while they do share similarities, they're not quite comparable.

Festival of the Bloodied Goddess
This stance feels very weak, but I think that may come from an (potential) expectation on the part of the author that I don't see at my games: a strong idea of whether the extra damage will finish off an opponent.

The stance is actually there for a different reason -- It's to wound the Radiant Dawn's allies so that the RD healing maneuvers have something to heal. It's a strange niche, for sure, but it was indeed made to be more aggressive in comparison to the defensive Spoils of War stance. Ideally, a player with this stance will be able to heal any damage that allies spend (Thus making the stance+healing proactive rather than reactive to spoils+healing), but if allies don't want to spend that sort of HP (For example, not feeling it's worth it), then that's an issue in for itself. I'll mark this on the tracker to see if we can't get some number changes to it.

Can monsters with the Daeva subtype (from Akashic Mysteries) pick Title veils with their free veils from the Natural Veilweaver ability, and if so can they entitle others with them as normal? Additionally, if such a monster with regular veils takes the Titles from Distant Shores feat could they entitle their regular veils? They're said to be "part of their physical form" but then says all that means is that the Daeva can't change which veils they have shaped but that they can change where those veils are shaped (normally different slots on yourself, but as a Title on someone else feels like the same sort of thing to me).

Don't quote me for gospel, since this is out of the scope of the Rajah, but I'd assume they can. I'd also assume they could take the feats as well; and finally, I'd also assume that they would be loathe to do so -- As they'd be literally giving up a portion of their body/life essence to entitle people. Naturally, they'd probably want to go to great lengths to ensure that they're getting the better deal here, hopefully leading into Symbiosis or an otherwise beneficial situation.

EDIT: Empowered Titles states that its limit only applies to veils gained through the Rajah class itself (but not ones from other sources like feats). If you get an additional Title veil through either Inaugurate Title feat or Shape Veil + Titles from Distant Shores + Access X Chakra Slot feat combination, would you be able to bind the Title from the feat past your Rajah limit?

Shape Veil doesn't allow for a veilweaver to shape more veils (As it still uses the normal veilweaving rules, which all classes have a shape limit), but just adds a new veil that one's capable of binding. Since the Rajah doesn't bind veils normally, instead having to rely on their Empowered Title's class feature, you're in this weird spot where veils you shape through feats eat up your shape limit, but follow their own rules for their bind limit.

Inaugurate Title gets around this by adding it directly to your Rajah veil list known; with the caveat that any veil learned this has the conditions of A) Eating your binds/day (Meaning you have to have one), and B), requiring a level so you're not binding things like Vestments of the Majahara at 4th and causing issues.

Thus, if you were very intent on freeing up a bind slot as a Rajah, you could use the combination of Titles from Distant Shores + Access X Chakra, at which point you're using Titles from Distant Shores + Access Chakra to free up a bind slot, although I'm not quite sure it's worth it, given the limited feats on the Rajah.

I realize these feats aren't exactly clear at first glance, and I'll be looking into changing the wording for these feats + empowered titles to make sure that they're a bit more self-explanatory.

Oh, and since it's relevant to the strength of the attack/damage bonus from Vassalage, do you know how exactly your veils shaped limit works with multiclassing? It feels like each class is supposed to be independent (like spellcasting), but the shared essence pool plus most veils not scaling with veilweaver levels means dips in other classes would let you shape far more veils if it's a limit on veils from each class. Things get especially funny with the non-Akashic class archetypes, as some of them (namely Barbarian, Bard, Magus, and Marksman) say that they increase total veils shaped by 1 instead of having their own limit or scaling a regular veilweaving class if you multiclass them.

While I certain I know how this works, I'm posting this question up on internal to make sure that I know how this works and am not feeding you false information. Please be patient with me while I get you a proper answer.

EDIT2: I assume attacking through Vassalage breaks the Sanctuary effect from Impassiveness, but what about using Royal Mandate to let someone else attacking, using boosts and counters for defense and thus not breaking Sanctuary?

Any combat action breaks Impassiveness. Assisting your allies in any manner will break this, while commanding your unseen servants to make tea will not.

For Invite Luck, while it's not technically allowed by the rules, do you think using it on a single ship would be appropriate? That feels similar to using it on a single tavern or other business to me, just it floats on water instead of staying still on land. Otherwise I potentially see some issues for Rajahs in island nations unless you could use it on "the docks" but that doesn't seem right either.

I don't think it would be an issue on a ship; as you could argue that a ship is a single congruent structure, but I'm curious as what you hope to boost on the ship?

[AGrinningCat]

Also posting this in a different post so it's not lost in the wall of feedback. I've started up a Tracker & Changelog -- Basically an informal document where you can see what changes I've made from date to date, as well as seeing what I'm currently working on/investigating. You can find it here, as well as in my first post in this thread.

If there's something not on the tracker that you'd like to be, let me know and I'll see about adding it!

[AlienFromBeyond]

The stance is actually there for a different reason -- It's to wound the Radiant Dawn's allies so that the RD healing maneuvers have something to heal. It's a strange niche, for sure, but it was indeed made to be more aggressive in comparison to the defensive Spoils of War stance. Ideally, a player with this stance will be able to heal any damage that allies spend (Thus making the stance+healing proactive rather than reactive to spoils+healing), but if allies don't want to spend that sort of HP (For example, not feeling it's worth it), then that's an issue in for itself. I'll mark this on the tracker to see if we can't get some number changes to it.

Character HP is generally more precious than monster HP since PCs have less of it, so anything that gives me a worse return on the damage I deal compared to the damage I dealt to myself is just plain awful. I can barely stand similar abilities that are 1:1 ratio! Being after you hit helps some, but also only being for a single attack hurts it and it's a tricky balancing act.

Shape Veil doesn't allow for a veilweaver to shape more veils (As it still uses the normal veilweaving rules, which all classes have a shape limit), but just adds a new veil that one's capable of binding. Since the Rajah doesn't bind veils normally, instead having to rely on their Empowered Title's class feature, you're in this weird spot where veils you shape through feats eat up your shape limit, but follow their own rules for their bind limit.

You're right, I was getting bind and shape mixed up a bit.

I don't think it would be an issue on a ship; as you could argue that a ship is a single congruent structure, but I'm curious as what you hope to boost on the ship?

The simplest example would be fishing/hunting/whaling ability. 50% more fish caught, more whale blubber from more efficient cutting of it. Consistently lucky winds allowing for faster travel giving a reputation for swiftness resulting in being able to make demands for larger payments for merchant ships, or miraculously safer from attacks like fewer pirates spotted. If I can make a bank branch make 50% more profit from its wheeling and dealing, I don't see how I can't make a ship and its crew work 50% better/faster for an end result of 50% more profit (since Invite Luck is a longterm thing anyways).

For Amulet of War, it effectively only replaces a weapon for its statistics and what weapon type it counts as right? If I have TWF and 2 claws and use a strike that allows a full-attack through Vassalage and use Amulet of War to replace those claws with say scimitars, I still would only make 2 attacks with the claws converted to scimitars weapons correct?

Furthermore, what the devil happens when replacing melee weapons with a ranged weapon or vice versa? Could you suddenly make a melee strike into a ranged one as a result, or would it still be against a melee target (since I guess the target is already locked in?), just with a weapon that happens to be ranged (which doesn't matter a ton since no AoOs for ranged attacks through vassalage)?

EDIT: Do the Tainted Essence/Veiled in Purity feats work with The Benevolent/Fallen when they're shaped onto allies for the changing of how your alignment pings? They use a different wording of saying "equipped" veils that isn't used anywhere else or defined, instead of shaped, which might mean they only count veils shaped onto yourself. At the same time, Titles you've given out are still very much your power coming from you, so I could see shaping a [good] Title like the Benevolent affecting you as the energy passes through you to your entitled.

[MilleniaAntares]

Hi, some feedback:

Rajah gains its fourth stance at level 8, but I believe the standard is that the stance should be at level 9.

The Dragon doesn't seem to work off natural attacks. I believe the intent is for Thrashing Dragon to work with paired natural attacks, so perhaps you can add in some language if you want that to be possible.

The Mighty doesn't remove AoOs from bull rushes, but it does for the free trip attempt.

The Nightmare's and the Watcher's "standard action to attack and curse a foe" ability seems a bit weak, especially as levels increase... and also for the rajah, who can't use their vassalage ability with it. How about just have it be a swift action that lets the user's next attack grant the cursed status?

The Twins's illusions would benefit if, say, they looked like the entitled, with a perception DC to spot if they're illusions... Something like 10 + veilweaver level + initiator modifier + (2x?) essenced invested.

The Shatter Spell maneuver is ambiguous as to whether its "touch a willing target" aspect deals damage.

Ring of a Thousand Names is not listed on the outline on the left. It's easy to miss without being listed!

And here are suggestions for new heraldries:

Laying of hands had come partly from a belief that a king's touch can heal. Perhaps something similar could be a heraldry, like X/day remove disease/poison, and perhaps allowing the servants to aid heal checks (or at least allow taking care of more people at once).

Another way to get heraldries would probably be taking things from religious leaders as well.

Tying in to this, Wake of the Emperor does feel a bit... weak-ish? I think a way to make it better would be to add something like water walking (or water parting), and perhaps also making a small (10 ft?) persistent aura around the initiator? Could even throw in an endure elements, too, or something akin to the avowed's air control.

Emperor's New Clothes may benefit from giving bonuses to other skills. Like summoning a ninja outfit for +2 stealth.

Allure I think could be better as like... charm? I don't know, it's tough to salvage the idea. Perhaps you can just cut it in favor of something else, like something called "Charm Offensive" that gives you X/day charm spells.

[AlienFromBeyond]

Interesting interaction I noticed, a Kijin (from Bloodforge) with the Sin Soaked alternative racial trait could take The Fallen as a free veil that doesn't count against its normal limits for veils shaped, letting a Kijin Rajah get just a little bit more boost out of their Vassalage feature than other races.

[Roadie]

Unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re trying to point out, the current wording is correct. Bolster has 3 modes: One gives your Initiation modifier in AC to an ally for one round. One gives your initiation modifier as a bonus to an ally to either Fort, Reflex, or Will for 1 round. The last instead allows the ally to make a save against an on going effect with your initiation mod as a bonus.

My point is that "on a single saving throw" and "on a single type of saving throw" are not the same thing. RAW right now, the second mode you listed is actually "gives your initiation modifier as a bonus to an ally for a single Fort, Reflex, or Will during this round".

When not using vassalage, you only get your initiation mod to attack, and no strength mod to damage.

My point is that the repetition of wording is likely to make some people overlook this. It would work better if it was a single sentence noting the initiation mod to attack for both, and then a following clause noting the initiation mod to damage for vassalage.

I’ve written a bit to say that they don’t hold up under inspection (thus, not worth money).

"Obviously supernatural" and "not worth money" seem like things that don't really logically follow. Maybe "obviously a spell effect" instead (e.g. "people won't buy it because it could get dispelled")? Even with that in mind, it's a little awkward to say you can never get money out of it. Maybe a little sidebar noting that it's a good justification for a Profession skill (e.g. selling your services in magical outfit conjuring for events, rather than selling the outfits).

I would also agree with the word-count sentiment; it gets into strictly-metagame and metaknowledge territory, but several languages are able to contain entire sentences and concepts within a single "word", while others may require multiple extraneous words in order to say what can be translated as merely one or two words in English. While I like the idea of wordcount-based commands in theory (the PC using them has to really be able to think on-the-fly to determine what they should say), in practice it becomes a bit tricky to handle with slang or foreign languages.

For a simple example in Finnish (which has some fairly compact direct imperative forms), Hyppää kalliolta! means "jump off a cliff!".

[Roadie]

For a general question, how does the amulet of war interact with Mithral Current's draw requirements?

Edit: One other complication I've realized—technically, something like an amulet of war (rifle) or even amulet of war (gravity gun) is a valid choice and saves a lot of gold. You may want to put some kind of price limit, or some amount above which the base cost of the weapon gets added to the amulet.

Edit edit: One more question on interactions. I have an amulet of war (culverin). If I use it to attack via vassalage, am I rendered prone?

[MilleniaAntares]

I am making my rajah character sheet on Google docs and new concerns have come up:

Just to confirm, The Dragon's akasha-breath only procs once a round, right?

Also, does this veil benefit different natural weapons? I think it would match the discipline's intent to allow natural weapons to be used, though admittedly you may have a better idea of that than me.

For The Duelist, could you have the mark disappear when enemy is knocked out? Non-lethal damage doesn't necessarily reduce someone's HP below zero. Similarly, the Resolute's ability could be better if it also included being knocked out.

For The Nightmare and The Watcher, I feel it would be better to have it be any cursed creature, rather than creatures cursed specifically by the rajah...

The Primordial should probably have a sidebar that gives the information on Tap Animus. In addition, how long does the circumstance bonus to AC last? Until the temp HP is gone? 1 minute?

The Specialist should probably have the conjured ammunition also count as magic... it makes sense in my view.

[AlienFromBeyond]

I just noticed this, but Path of the Sun care about "the number of maneuvers you've expended from this stance's source", source meaning the class that has this 8th level stance. It seems a little weird that it's not Radiant Dawn maneuvers expended, or maneuvers expended that could have essence invested in them, but instead is just any 10 maneuvers from any discipline as long as they're from the same class.

[PsionMage]

Bloodforge Alicorns with their alternate racial trait: Elysian Resistance (+1 essence, +1 max veil shaped) seem like they should have a favored class bonus.

Perhaps 1/3 essence? or 1/6 increase in maximum veils shaped?

They don't get a bonus to charisma, but they're clearly Akashic biased with that trait.

[Castilonium]

The Amulet of War seems to open a can of worms when combined with multi-attack strikes. Imagine a character with a huge number of natural attacks and non-hand weapons like armor spikes, sea-knives, a barbazu beard, and a dwarven boulder helm. Don't worry about not being proficient with them. Get a 1 level dip of Rajah for Vassalage. Get an amulet of war keyed to a greatsword (or worse, a butchering axe from Adventurer's Armory 2). Use Frenzy Strike (Primal Fury 3).

This character would make a large number of attacks, and they all would be delivered with the amulet's greatsword in place of all the regular weapons. Since an amulet of war costs 75% as much as a normal weapon, it'll have a higher than average enhancement bonus. It's way cheaper to have a single weapon rather than multiple weapons, just ask any TWFer.

[AGrinningCat]

Hello everyone! It's been quite a while -- There's been a bit of turblence in my life, and because of such, I apologize for being extremely quiet. I've read your feedback, and am in the process of getting to it, so don't think I'm just ignoring you all!

Besides apologizing for being gone for the past month and some change, I'm also bringing updates! First off is an update to Vassalage's wording. This wording is aiming at making sure some of the more odd maneuvers (Looking at you, Golden Lion) so that you can use Vassalage as intended without any strange wording issues barring the way. It's also aimed to close certain unintended loopholes with certain veils that would allow the Rajah to have an obscene Attack in certain situations.

Second off: I'm also releasing the Batal for public viewing. The Batal is a transformative archetype for the Rajah that is a front-line fighter that's more self-sufficient than the core Rajah. Abilities include shaping veils onto themselves and a new set of crossroads, as well as better proficiency and hit points to exist on the front line.

You can find the Batal here, and the vassalage update already in the document.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

For The Nightmare and The Watcher, I feel it would be better to have it be any cursed creature, rather than creatures cursed specifically by the rajah

A Soul Hunter Stalker with a Rajah dip can already prevent a creature from moving pretty much permanently if they want. I wouldn't allow them to use just anyone's curse for that

[AlienFromBeyond]

Batal is hilariously, over-the-top better than a Myrmidon Fighter, its closest equivalent. If you try to add in the Akashic Warrior archetype for the Fighter the comparison becomes even more one-sided. The double Toughness equivalent instead of increasing the HD size gives it more consistent HP per level (consistency is king for PCs unless HP retraining is allowed), has a Good Will save instead of Bravery (starts at +2, ends with 1 higher than Bad save + Bravery, applies to all Will saves), +4 skill points per level (even better than a Lore Warden!), gets veilweaving (Akashic Warrior is stupidly awful and removes Armor Training, Weapon Training, and Bravery for Fighter veilweaving), the option of nearly as good Weapon Training (same amount, just slightly slower) or up to +6 increase to armor bonus to AC (better than the Max Dex increase for Str-based martials) or a free mini-Fireball every round that can't friendly fire. This doesn't even consider Rajah utility like House of Servants, Heraldries, or that Rajah has 9 initiating. Even if you argue that Fighters are crap (they're really not if we're talking about only combat and you're okay with boring full-attacks), it significantly outpaces PoW's Warlord class post-nerfs unless someone actually gets to 20 and does some sort of Dual Stance cheese.

At the very least, Batal needs to lose 2 skill points per level, increase the HD size instead of giving flat HP per level, and have the same reduced Weapon Training progression the Myrmidarch or Sohei have. On top of that, the wording on Sword of the Sky Sovereign is really weird and completely at odds with existing archetypes that give Weapon Training (such as the aforementioned ones, hell you could just copypaste and word replace with one of these directly). These tone it down a bit while still being strong, at the very least putting it in a better spot for proper testing. It's just too damn much as it is, I wouldn't even feel comfortable playing a Batal right now. It can even still support with Titles if it so desires!

EDIT: Oh, the bonus feat from Sword of the Sky Sovereign should probably be restricted to combat only since it's kind of the Fighter-lite choice.

[calyst]

Issue with Batal, Royal Mandate requires Titled allies to use but the Batal doesn't really want to give Titles to allies as he can never use binds on allies, but can bind on himself. Since to recover maneuvers in more efficient manner requires using Royal Mandate this archetype feels like it is gimping the initiator side.

[AGrinningCat]

Issue with Batal, Royal Mandate requires Titled allies to use but the Batal doesn't really want to give Titles to allies as he can never use binds on allies, but can bind on himself. Since to recover maneuvers in more efficient manner requires using Royal Mandate this archetype feels like it is gimping the initiator side.

Unless I'm misreading my own writing (Which happens more often than not!), Royal mandate doesn't require any titled allies. It only needs an ally within close range of you (to include yourself); so this shouldn't be much of an issue.

[calyst]

Ah oops, for some reason I thought it was entitled ally.

[Ssalarn]

I really wouldn't use Akashic Warrior as a metric for a Fighter archetype at this point. It was written in 2014 before Armor Master's and Weapon Master's Handbooks existed and there was very little sign that the Fighter was going to be getting a bunch of new toys that would change the whole scope and function of the class. AW gives flexibility and functionality while maintaining the basic numeric framework, but with AMH and WMH out there it's an archetype that I definitely would do differently now.
Batal does seem overtuned, but Akashic Warrior is undertuned by modern game metrics.

[AlienFromBeyond]

AW gives flexibility and functionality while maintaining the basic numeric framework, but with AMH and WMH out there it's an archetype that I definitely would do differently now.
Batal does seem overtuned, but Akashic Warrior is undertuned by modern game metrics.

That's fair, on both accounts.

[calyst]

For Royal Mandate is their anything preventing a Rajah from moving, Royal Mandating themselves(since you are your own ally) to attack and regaining initiator mod of manuevers?