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

[Forrestfire]

Hello all. Today we at DSP have for you a brand-new public playtest for a concept that’s been a long time in the making: the rajah, an initiator that blends akashic power with martial might. This unique class melds akashic concepts and martial skill, taking to the battlefield as a glorious leader who can aid, empower, and strike through their allies!

Within this document you will find:

• The rajah base class, a half-BAB initiator with an akashic bent and a unique take on combat. This also includes a variety of racial favored class options for the rajah, located at the end of the document.
• Twenty-four new veils unique to the rajah (but accessible by others, don't worry!). These veils are of a brand-new veil type called Titles, and are shaped on allies to grant them a benefit, rather than the rajah themselves.
• An assortment of new feats to support the rajah class, the Title veils, and akashic initiators in general.
• And finally, brand-new magic items tied to the rajah.

So click the image below to jump right into our playtest!

(or this link)

This isn’t all that this playtest has to offer, though. The rajah as an initiator has access to a new discipline, Radiant Dawn, which represents a combination of akashic and martial techniques. This discipline is focused on healing, party support, and debuffing, with mystical and esoteric effects that can be enhanced with akashic essence (which the discipline grants just by having it). The document also includes new style feats for Radiant Dawn users, as well as a martial tradition, The Bank of the Sun!

Radiant Dawn is not in the same document as the rajah (for the sake of keeping Google Docs from melting our computers…), and can be found here:

(or this link)

As always, thanks for taking a look. We hope you enjoy the playtest, and look forward to your feedback!

[AGrinningCat]

Hello! Author here! If you have any questions, comments, or complaints, please let me know and I'll do what I can to help you out.

I hope you enjoy the class and the discipline!

Edit:

The tracker can be found here.

[Swaoeaeieu]

I have been thinking about making a Akashic Initiator Front liner, guess he gets to be support instead :D

great to see two cool systems coming together :) I will take a closer look when i find the time.

[GreatGoatEater]

Hate to start off with such a morbid question, but here's one concerning The Treasury Heraldry

The Treasury (Su): Your unseen servants can conjure your personal treasury as a full-round action. This functions as an extra-dimensional storage space that appears as a heavy, wooden chest holding up to 50 lbs per class level plus 50 lbs per point of initiation modifier. When dismissed (a full-round action on the part of the unseen servants), any creatures inside the extradimensional storage are ejected, and the treasury, along with its contents, teleports to a secure location on the astral plane.

What happens when a Rajah with this ability dies? Does the chest stay on the Astral Plane, its contents lost forever until someone finds it?

[khadgar567]

I wish rajah can summon more solid servants maybe as an archtype cuz unseen servan i thing dont do justice to ruler of lesser kind

[Powerdork]

Non-creatures like the soldier from Striking Mirage can't be attacked, sure, but are creatures mislead into thinking they can attack it anyway, wasting attacks of opportunity attacking the space it's in? Basically, how is it obvious to literally anyone that it's not worth effort disrupting?

Additionally, you may force the creature to enact a simple command of two words or less. For example, you may tell a creature to ‘move here’ or ‘start talking’, but you couldn’t tell the creature to “go to the city” (As this would be too many words) or “tell the truth” as it’s both too many words and ‘truth’ is too complex for this ability.

How about 0-word commands?

[Ninjaxenomorph]

FLOW OF BATTLE FIXES MY PROBLEMS WITH THE VEILED LORD THANK YOU

... Ahem, in regards to normal feedback, this class looks awesome. I really dig the entire concept. For Narcissism, wouldn't it be easier if the first line was just "When this feat is selected, choose a veil with the Title descriptor."

[khadgar567]

Can constructed comforts useble with house of servants?

[Tuvarkz]

Radiant Dawn has a LOT of cool stuff, particularly in terms of pure utility. Now, my question is, I've noticed its overall damage dealing capacity with strikes (as some of the boosts are up to par) is incredibly low compared to other disciplines all around-is this meant to be the new standard for all other disciplines to be eventually rebalanced around (which would be a massive nerf to single-hit strikers because as is it'd never keep up with full attacks), or is it just that Radiant Dawn is meant to be weak in terms of direct HP damage?

[khadgar567]

Radiant Dawn has a LOT of cool stuff, particularly in terms of pure utility. Now, my question is, I've noticed its overall damage dealing capacity with strikes (as some of the boosts are up to par) is incredibly low compared to other disciplines all around-is this meant to be the new standard for all other disciplines to be eventually rebalanced around (which would be a massive nerf to single-hit strikers because as is it'd never keep up with full attacks), or is it just that Radiant Dawn is meant to be weak in terms of direct HP damage?

I dont know Tuvarkz self healing every turn instead of scaling damage feels good in my opinion

[legomaster00156]

Bolster: The affected ally gains a morale bonus equal to the rajah’s initiation modifier to their AC or on a single saving throw (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will) for one round. If they are suffering from an ongoing effect that allowed a saving throw, they may instead make a save against that effect with a morale bonus to that save equal to the rajah’s initiation modifier.

Just for clarification, you should probably add, "A successful saving throw negates or reduces the effect, as if the target had passed the original saving throw."

Sun's Gleam (Su): A Radiant Dawn disciple can choose to fire a ray of light as a ranged touch attack at a target within close range (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 initiator levels) in place of making a ranged weapon attack as part of initiating a strike from a maneuver the initiator could invest essence into. This does not require a free hand. The initiator can choose to use their Strength modifier in place of their Dexterity modifier when firing a ray in this fashion. The ray of light deals force damage equal to 1d6 plus the initiator's initiation modifier on a hit, plus any effects of the strike (such as additional damage or conditions). The disciple may choose to deal nonlethal damage with this attack at no penalty.

Personally, I think you should make this a feat with a prerequisite of "one Radiant Dawn maneuver or stance known", rather than just giving it out for free. If nothing else, force damage is a very valuable damage type.

[Tuvarkz]

I dont know Tuvarkz self healing every turn instead of scaling damage feels good in my opinion

We need a mix of stuff that feels good but that also actually works good. Each more round of life the enemy gets is a round in which he gets to whack you back, and I'm not sure whether that healing will scale to match or not.

[twas_Brillig]

FYI, the link for The Ring of a Thousand Names in the Titles sidebar links to your internal item document, not the subsection header. (Looks like it's got the same stuff, so don't panic about accidentally leaking secrets :P)

Very cool! I love that akashic stuff in general breaks the usual generic western fantasy mold and this is a wonderful addition to that.

Does Symbol of Mercy let you command effected creatures once, or any number of times? And is it intended that it lacks the usual caveats against ordering creatures into self-destructive situations? (Which I think totally fits the flavor of the Rajah as a whole.)

EDIT: Also, just being totally pedantic here in the interest of heading of the inevitable flood of pedants in the future: as much as bases are as likely as acids to be corrosive, having alkaline bullets deal acid damage just feels wrong.

Does The Sniper let gun-wielders extend their touch AC range?

[AlienFromBeyond]

It's unclear to me if the Rajah's bind limit applies to all veils or just Titles. If all, this seems like it really limits use of non-Title/Rajah veils and punishes multiclassing extremely hard. On that note, I also don't see the Rajah veil list that is mentioned, I assume it includes all Titles but what about regular veils?

Empowered titles could be changed to more clearly say, "The rajah can bind Title veils she has shaped onto her allies to her own [list of bind slots]", as until you get to the section discussing Titles much later in the doc it's very confusing whose bind slots are used.

Regality is an odd name/word choice, I'm not even sure that's an actual word. Maybe Magnificence or Sovereignty would be better? I also don't understand why it's so limiting, in addition to only getting a single increased essence capacity class feature, it doesn't even affect all essence receptacles, limiting the option of using Akashic feats.

I noticed there's no size limit on the Invite Luck Heraldry, what's the stop someone from defining their nation or even the world as "the land" for the benefits of this? The fluff is fantastic and thematic, but I worry about the PC investing in a large business such as a big bank and bringing luck to it.

Narcissism says "When this veil is selected" instead of "When this feat is selected".

The Dragon chest bind makes it sound like it activates after hitting another, different creature than the first one hit to activate the free breath, but I'm guessing the intent is it activates at the same time as the default breath. Just remove another and I think it'll be more clear.

The Duelist Title seems incredibly potent, considering that it can get up to +10 essence in it beyond what it has when you use its bind. I also don't like that the bind doesn't scale with essence itself either. Maybe limit the additional essence bonus from the bind to the original amount of essence invested, limiting it to doubling the essence bonus and incentivizing putting more essence in?

The Specialist "Normal: It's just really good ammunition. Masterwork. It looks so pretty as it kills people." isn't really appropriate. Why not give material DR bypassing abilities here based on essence invested, given the recent stupid Paizo ruling?

Veiled Lord Warlord archetype in Akashic Mysteries should get Radiant Dawn as an additional discipline, replacing Piercing Thunder or Tempest Gale in the same way as Steelfist Commando and Riven Hourglass, etc. as described on page 86 of Path of War: Expanded, instead of being an optional swap in.

And all that from just the Rajah doc, haven't even gotten to Radiant Dawn! Loving it so far though, great work here. The Titles feel strong and unique, though with just the Rajah doc alone before getting to the initiating it already seems like a full class that is contributing enough to make a Bard blush.

[MilleniaAntares]

Vassalage may get funky when you take its current text and try to apply stuff like Lion's Roar... It affects everyone within range around the ally, but doesn't affect the ally with a title themself.

Typo check:

"a lesson that many rajah’s fail to learn"

[Cybershark]

Finally! A good, Charisma-based initiator that does back-line support AND does fun stuff with Akashic Mysteries! Guess I'll have to put away the homebrew docs for another time, then.

I do have one question, however.

The Rajah has good Fortitude and Will saves, despite filling the role of a "backline support" class that no other Initiator has really hit upon and done well. Despite being half-BaB, it still retains 2 good saves- something which no other half-BaB class in first-party content has (at least, not to my knowledge). The Vizier, released earlier in Akashic Mysteries, also has a good Fortitude and Will saves. These are the only two half-BaB classes with two good saves, both of which are Fortitude and Will. I won't complain about having two good saving throw progressions on an initiator (that also has access to rather nice veilweaving, I might add), because a number of others have only one good saving throw progression (but access to a save-booster using their initiation modifier, i.e Stalker's with WIS to Reflex saves). I'm just curious as to why the Rajah has two good saving throws as a half-BaB initiator.

[MilleniaAntares]

Rajah:

The Nightmare veil gives me a hilarious mental image when a spellcaster cursed by it teleports away.

The description may wish to clarify whether the bull rush is made with its normal action cost, or if it's made as part of the move action.''

For The Specialist veil: "Daily uses across the weapon, such as that of a dagger of venom's poison effect, are shared across the original and all other phantom copies."

Across is used twice, and I think the first should probably be another word ("of"?).

The Twins seem like they'd make a great Shattered Mirror stance. :D

The Narcissism feat could be simplified a bit. Combine "When this veil is selected, choose a veil from any class’s veil list." and "Additionally, this veil must have the Title descriptor." sentences together: "When this veil is selected, choose a veil from any class’s veil list with the Title descriptor".

Ring of a Thousand Names typo: "even if that would put it over it’s maximum capacity."

Amulet of War: "Furthermore, this amulet can be gain enhancement bonuses,"

Radiant Dawn:

I love that this has its own built-in ray ability. I kinda hope that elemental flux may gain one too!

Curse of the Pharaoh: "This attack brings with it a short lived curse that weakens one will to live."

Should be "one's".

Decree of Vengeance: "Each point of essence invested into this counter increases the total amount of healing done by 10 hit points, and allows another ally within range to perform an attack action or initiate a standard-action strike a single standard attack against the attacker."

You may want to reword the bolded portion here...

Path of the Sun: "Each of your unexpended maneuvers and stances is treated as though it had essence invested in it equal to the number of maneuvers you've expended from this stance's source, to a maximum of ½ your initiator level. Only maneuvers from the class (not feats) that granted this stance are counted towards this."

"from this stance's source" may make more sense as "from the class that learned this stance", perhaps, with the subsequent sentence removed. Perhaps not though!

Bank of the Sun:

"and if the candidate is okayed by at least three-quarters of the existing Elite"

I think "approved" may fit the tone more than "okayed".

Typo: "The Bank traces it’s history"

"In the end, Suna proposed to his first mate, with the Bank of the Sun as the ring, and everyone got what they wanted—Suna got the man she loved"

Another typo, but perhaps it's intentional because Suna is a warder. :P

[AlienFromBeyond]

What exactly is the reasoning behind the Amulet of War? Does the Rajah really need a weapon at 75% cost that takes up their neck slot?

Ring of a Thousand Names reads like it would stack on the same veil if you were wearing two of them. This was never an issue with Akashic Catalysts because of the slots they occupied (with using hands for Ring slot veils instead of actual rings), but rings have two distinct slots that can be used for different or duplicate magical items (the reason why Akashic Catalysts work the way that they do for rings). Even if you can't stack them on the same one, you could affect two different veils, have the ability to change them every round, and is ridiculously cheaper than an actual Akashic Catalyst? Least is only 25% cheaper, but Lesser and Greater are almost 75% cheaper for the RoaTN. Again, why does the Rajah deserve getting such a discount on items designed for it (and in the ring's case the ability to choose to have two of them if you wish)?

[Thealtruistorc]

As cool and creative as this class is, it feels a little bit weak as of right now. There just doesn't seem to be enough power to justify the d6 hit dice, especially given how often this class will be making attack rolls regularly and how few options it possesses for boosting its combat abilities compared to the Guru or Vizier. There are a lot of great support options, certainly, but given how the vasselage class feature implies that a Rajah will be making attacks often it seems that it won't be very effective at it. Perhaps if it had access to a lot of the veils and binds that the vizier and guru use for combat purposes, then I could see it working (hand cannons and loyal paladin's spear of light, perhaps). As it stands, however, this class lacks the punch I feel is necessary.

I would suggest one of two changes
1. Alter the BAB and hit dice to be equal to that of a stalker or rogue. This way, the rajah can still fight with vasselage without becoming a frontliner.
2. Give the rajah more essence capacity increases (seriously, the akashic warrior archetype for fighter has more), more shaped veils, and the ability to bind more veils (maybe as much as the Guru), and a larger selection of veils which they can utilize. I personally recommend the latter changes, as they would make the class a lot more unique and interesting.

[Roadie]

Some random thoughts:

Royal Mandate's Bolster ability should really be phrased "a single type of saving throw", not "a single saving throw". The current phrasing could be interpreted as meaning "usable on one saving throw roll during the round".

Judgment Day's "experience sunrise" clause makes it less-than-useful for people who live in the Darklands, as they can only ever benefit from it once unless they make a journey to the surface afterwards.

Combining Sun's Gleam with Solar Wind (via one of the feats) and Strength-based touch attacks seem likely to lead to shenanigans.

The first two sentences of Crown of the Sky Sovereign are awkward in the way they repeat, and they also don't account for non-Str/Dex attack stats (for example, starknife tomfoolery). Also, is the "weapon attacks" usage intended to work with Sun's Gleam?

The "change the die roll" effects of Warrior of the Court are both kind of awkward and really limited. Why not just give something like the skill mastery rogue talent instead?

As written, I could use The Emperor's New Clothes at low level to conjure up clothes made entirely out of mithril thread and sell them for a bajillion dollars. With that and the name in mind, it seems like it'd be more interesting if you could generate infinite numbers of outfits but they were done like a permanent phantom object effect, including the "pops out of existence if disbelieved" clause.

Valued Customer should use the minor/medium/major categorizations and availability that already exist (see the random roll tables for specific examples), perhaps with the outsider counting as a "community" of a size that scales with the PC.

Ring of a Thousand Names seems likely to become really awkward in play, because you're already going to have to basically pass around notecards to the group each time you change your essence around detailing what their granted abilities can do, and now you want to go above and beyond in changing that every round?

[AlienFromBeyond]

I know it might be a bit soon to talk about archetypes, but I really hope you're planning some kind of Int-based Philosopher King themed archetype, it feels like it would be able to fit very well in.

[AGrinningCat]

Good evening everyone! I apologize for my silence over the past few hours after release -- I had stayed up to make sure everything was in order, then fell asleep shortly after posting. So let’s get to feed back!

I see a lot of archetype talk, and those of you who have been looking for them have found them not there. Don’t worry! Archetypes will be coming later, but we wanted time for the Rajah and Radiant dawn to sink in by itself before throwing even more content at y’all, so keep an eye out for them in the future!

There’s also a lot of talk about typos, and I’ll be cleaning those as they’re pointed out. Thanks for keeping an eye out for me!

Hate to start off with such a morbid question, but here's one concerning The Treasury Heraldry
What happens when a Rajah with this ability dies? Does the chest stay on the Astral Plane, its contents lost forever until someone finds it?

As of right now; it stays in the Astral plane until you’re revived to be able to call it back. This does cause an issue that, if you’re carrying all the party’s resurrection components, that means they can’t access it! This will be changed in the future to (safely) pour out around you like you’re a Diablo 3 rift boss when killed, so this ability won’t become a liability.

Non-creatures like the soldier from Striking Mirage can't be attacked, sure, but are creatures mislead into thinking they can attack it anyway, wasting attacks of opportunity attacking the space it's in? Basically, how is it obvious to literally anyone that it's not worth effort disrupting?

I’ll add in the text so that the mirage is an obvious fake that enemies won’t use AoOs on.

How about 0-word commands?

What exactly is a 0 word command? Before you mention gestures or body language, do note that gestures or body language usually have some sort of context behind them. Holding an index finger to your mouth vertically may not be a word, but for us here in the US, it can be taken as the command ‘Be quiet.’

Can constructed comforts useble with house of servants?

Constructed Comforts (the palanquin) can be carried by the Unseen servants, provided that their combined Strength scores can lift your weight! So be sure to have a high Charisma (Or lay off the enhanced water).

Radiant Dawn has a LOT of cool stuff, particularly in terms of pure utility. Now, my question is, I've noticed its overall damage dealing capacity with strikes (as some of the boosts are up to par) is incredibly low compared to other disciplines all around-is this meant to be the new standard for all other disciplines to be eventually rebalanced around (which would be a massive nerf to single-hit strikers because as is it'd never keep up with full attacks), or is it just that Radiant Dawn is meant to be weak in terms of direct HP damage?

Radiant Dawn is indeed supposed to be weak when delivering damage by yourself. I think the only exceptions are Tyrant’s Command and Judgement Day. Of course, there are a few strikes that boosts your allies damage when everything goes according to plan. Teamwork makes the dream work!
As for why we did this, the design decision when going into RD was that it’d be behind every other discipline to help protect other discipline’s niches. RD takes some cues from Golden Lion and Silver Crane, but unlike the two former, it can’t match the damage. In exchange, it has it’s own tricks and niche it fills; so you can have two or all three of these disciplines as a part of your initiator.

Just for clarification, you should probably add, "A successful saving throw negates or reduces the effect, as if the target had passed the original saving throw."

I’ll get to adding this in to help clarify.

Personally, I think you should make this a feat with a prerequisite of "one Radiant Dawn maneuver or stance known", rather than just giving it out for free. If nothing else, force damage is a very valuable damage type.

There was some talk about this, actually, when the ability was first introduced! Ultimately, what was decided is that players would agree that it’s a nice ability that could be priced as a feat (Which is not saying much, as feats wildly vary in power), but players would still prefer to take other feats over these abilities -- Ranged characters wouldn’t want this because they had better ranges and damage, and Melee characters would simply suffer without it. Thus, Sun’s Gleam became a part of the core discipline, to help melee people apply the debuffs of the discipline over to people outside of their range.

FYI, the link for The Ring of a Thousand Names in the Titles sidebar links to your internal item document, not the subsection header. (Looks like it's got the same stuff, so don't panic about accidentally leaking secrets :P)

Thanks for catching that! It should be fixed now.

Does Symbol of Mercy let you command effected creatures once, or any number of times? And is it intended that it lacks the usual caveats against ordering creatures into self-destructive situations? (Which I think totally fits the flavor of the Rajah as a whole.)

You can give them a single commands. I’ll adjust wording so that this is clearer. Also you could say ‘Kill yourself’, which while it’s a bit gruesome (And probably on the evil side of things); you literally just prevented their death. Anything past that one command is in the realm of diplomacy, intimidate, or other esoteric abilities.

Does The Sniper let gun-wielders extend their touch AC range?

This does not. The range is still calculated from the ‘bounce’ point and the target you’re hitting, so if your ‘touch range’ is 50 feet, and you shoot a ‘bounce’ point 25 feet away to hit a creature that’s 40 feet away, that’s a combined total of 65 feet, which is outside of your range.

It's unclear to me if the Rajah's bind limit applies to all veils or just Titles. If all, this seems like it really limits use of non-Title/Rajah veils and punishes multiclassing extremely hard. On that note, I also don't see the Rajah veil list that is mentioned, I assume it includes all Titles but what about regular veils?

The Bind limit should only apply to the veils granted by the Rajah class. Multi-classing, Feats, Gestalt and so on will follow rules from the class. This will be updated to reflect this.
The Rajah veil list is all the title veils listed + The Demiurge, so basically everything in the document. I’ll get some wording to clean that up.

Empowered titles could be changed to more clearly say, "The rajah can bind Title veils she has shaped onto her allies to her own [list of bind slots]", as until you get to the section discussing Titles much later in the doc it's very confusing whose bind slots are used.

I’ll get some wording on this.

Regality is an odd name/word choice, I'm not even sure that's an actual word. Maybe Magnificence or Sovereignty would be better? I also don't understand why it's so limiting, in addition to only getting a single increased essence capacity class feature, it doesn't even affect all essence receptacles, limiting the option of using Akashic feats.

Regality is the state of being a king or a queen. It is a word! (I had to look it up just to be sure)
As or why it’s so limiting, it’s to prevent them from getting a boost to the Radiant Dawn discipline, which was designed around specific caps at certain levels. A feat can break this by 1, but only for one maneuver, which was deemed acceptable, but a large boost across the discipline is something we wanted to avoid. I’ll bring this up on internal about allowing feats to be accessed here, which shouldn’t hurt too much.

I noticed there's no size limit on the Invite Luck Heraldry, what's the stop someone from defining their nation or even the world as "the land" for the benefits of this? The fluff is fantastic and thematic, but I worry about the PC investing in a large business such as a big bank and bringing luck to it.

I’ll get a sidebar up to help clarify this.

The Dragon chest bind makes it sound like it activates after hitting another, different creature than the first one hit to activate the free breath, but I'm guessing the intent is it activates at the same time as the default breath. Just remove another and I think it'll be more clear.

Cleared this up

The Duelist Title seems incredibly potent, considering that it can get up to +10 essence in it beyond what it has when you use its bind. I also don't like that the bind doesn't scale with essence itself either. Maybe limit the additional essence bonus from the bind to the original amount of essence invested, limiting it to doubling the essence bonus and incentivizing putting more essence in?

The bind sort-of scales with essence. The penalty to the counter becomes offset as you get more essence into the veil; which helps you, well, counter better.
Do note that you only get one essence/round for this; so the growth will be very slow. For long encounters, this can be quite potent, but for combats that are resolved by round 3 (even if cleaning up takes a few rounds after); you’ll be getting more out of the base essence investment.

The Specialist "Normal: It's just really good ammunition. Masterwork. It looks so pretty as it kills people." isn't really appropriate. Why not give material DR bypassing abilities here based on essence invested, given the recent stupid Paizo ruling?

I’ll bring this up on internal, but there’s no promises at the moment. Consider that the elemental typing of ammos bypass DR, so for most cases, simply just bypassing DR won’t be as good of as a choice as getting the bypassing from elemental + the side effect.

Veiled Lord Warlord archetype in Akashic Mysteries should get Radiant Dawn as an additional discipline, replacing Piercing Thunder or Tempest Gale in the same way as Steelfist Commando and Riven Hourglass, etc. as described on page 86 of Path of War: Expanded, instead of being an optional swap in.

Veiled lord is a bit out of my scope, but I’ll see if they can’t get it as an additional one. Do note that they can just replace any other discipline for Radiant Dawn, just like any initiator.

Vassalage may get funky when you take its current text and try to apply stuff like Lion's Roar... It affects everyone within range around the ally, but doesn't affect the ally with a title themself.

I have been getting complaints about weird edge cases with Vassalage. Expect a rewrite or three in the future to help with clearing up the intent. In the meantime, Lions Roar should indeed affect the ally it came from.

The Rajah has good Fortitude and Will saves, despite filling the role of a "backline support" class that no other Initiator has really hit upon and done well. Despite being half-BaB, it still retains 2 good saves- something which no other half-BaB class in first-party content has (at least, not to my knowledge). The Vizier, released earlier in Akashic Mysteries, also has a good Fortitude and Will saves. These are the only two half-BaB classes with two good saves, both of which are Fortitude and Will. I won't complain about having two good saving throw progressions on an initiator (that also has access to rather nice veilweaving, I might add), because a number of others have only one good saving throw progression (but access to a save-booster using their initiation modifier, i.e Stalker's with WIS to Reflex saves). I'm just curious as to why the Rajah has two good saving throws as a half-BaB initiator.

While hit dice and Base attack bonuses are tied together, saves are more flexible. A Cleric (D8, full caster) has a good fortitude and will save, while a rogue (D8, martial) has only a good reflex save. Monk (Chained) is even a D8 with all good saves! As saves are a bit flexible, we decided to give the Rajah what they need in order to be able to not be a burden on their team -- Having seen a mind controlled Rajah freely attack their allies or suddenly having your buffs turn off due to a knock off poison gas can really hurt the party; so the Rajah has good Fortitude and Will saves.
As a half-BaB class, the Rajah went through three previous iterations before everything was thrown out the window and we sat down and said ‘What if it wasn’t the expected d8/d10 front-line initiator’. The chassis for a d6 ½ BaB followed shortly thereafter, and helped paint the image for the abilities that followed.

[AGrinningCat]

A lotta words

Okay! I think I addressed everything here. If I forgot something, let me know!

What exactly is the reasoning behind the Amulet of War? Does the Rajah really need a weapon at 75% cost that takes up their neck slot?

Amulet of War was a class feature-turned feat-turned item. It’s entire purpose is to enable the 'weaponless Rajah' concept without having to resort to unarmed strikes. Of course, because it’s not really a weapon, you get a small discount for those times where you can’t use the Vassalage feature for whatever reason (Such as threatening adjacent spaces, for example).

Ring of a Thousand Names reads like it would stack on the same veil if you were wearing two of them. This was never an issue with Akashic Catalysts because of the slots they occupied (with using hands for Ring slot veils instead of actual rings), but rings have two distinct slots that can be used for different or duplicate magical items (the reason why Akashic Catalysts work the way that they do for rings). Even if you can't stack them on the same one, you could affect two different veils, have the ability to change them every round, and is ridiculously cheaper than an actual Akashic Catalyst? Least is only 25% cheaper, but Lesser and Greater are almost 75% cheaper for the RoaTN. Again, why does the Rajah deserve getting such a discount on items designed for it (and in the ring's case the ability to choose to have two of them if you wish)?

You are correct, the current wording of RoaTN allows for raising the cap, but it’s been fixed so that a veil can only benefit from one ring at a time. You can get 2 rings, of course, for two different veils, which totals out to +6 essence capacity raised, comparable to the +3/+2/+1 of Akashic catalysts.

Akashic Catalysts function differently than the Ring in any case -- Where the Ring raises the essence cap, the Akashic catalysts raise the essence cap and then gives you the extra essence on top of that. Thus, with the rings, you have to supply your own essence.

The scaling does look a bit weird, too, and I am checking to make sure the math is correct -- I’ll have to get back to you on that. So it's been looked into; and the prices have been adjusted Bonus^2 x 4,000gp. So your prices end up looking like 4/16/36k with half that for crafting. Document should be changed now to reflect that.

As cool and creative as this class is, it feels a little bit weak as of right now. There just doesn't seem to be enough power to justify the d6 hit dice, especially given how often this class will be making attack rolls regularly and how few options it possesses for boosting its combat abilities compared to the Guru or Vizier. There are a lot of great support options, certainly, but given how the vasselage class feature implies that a Rajah will be making attacks often it seems that it won't be very effective at it. Perhaps if it had access to a lot of the veils and binds that the vizier and guru use for combat purposes, then I could see it working (hand cannons and loyal paladin's spear of light, perhaps). As it stands, however, this class lacks the punch I feel is necessary.

I would suggest one of two changes
1. Alter the BAB and hit dice to be equal to that of a stalker or rogue. This way, the rajah can still fight with vasselage without becoming a frontliner.
2. Give the rajah more essence capacity increases (seriously, the akashic warrior archetype for fighter has more), more shaped veils, and the ability to bind more veils (maybe as much as the Guru), and a larger selection of veils which they can utilize. I personally recommend the latter changes, as they would make the class a lot more unique and interesting.

The final paragraph of Vassalage is an accuracy fixer for when using maneuvers through your vassalage class feature. One of the goals I'll be working towards when reworking vassalage is making this more visible to make the Rajah's purpose and mechanics more clear.

With all of your veils shaped onto others, you end up with an effective +17 to hit at 20th, making the Raj marginally more accurate than a 3/4ths BaB class, just without the extra attack.

The Rajah also gets one essence per level, with an additional essence from Radiant Dawn should they invest maneuver selections into them. The Akashic Warrior only gets 1/2 their class level, making me a bit on this claim.

While I won't assume anything on your end, it seems you're looking at this as a pure akashic class -- in which it's not. It's an Akashic initiator; relying on both halves for the rajah to perform their unique function in the group. More veils and more binds won't really help here, and it already has a very large selection of veils to choose from -- 24 in fact; while the Vizier has about 50. Since this is a half-and-half class, having roughly half the veils to choose from makes sense, considering you also have full 9th level progression for maneuvers on your other half.

Naturally, one of the things I love about Akasha is that it is a very 'sharing is caring' type subsystem -- So if you wish for more veils, you can always take Shape veil feat to pick up some veils that you think you're lacking. Rajah has some unique feat choices, but the class provides a very solid base for letting the player decide which feats they want to pick up.

[Florian]

Symbol of Mercy: Additionally, you may force the creature to enact a simple command of two words or less. For example, you may tell a creature to ‘move here’ or ‘start talking’, but you couldn’t tell the creature to “go to the city” (As this would be too many words) or “tell the truth” as it’s both too many words and ‘truth’ is too complex for this ability.

... Bah, I loathe "word count mechanics" that only function with english.

[Adam1949]

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.

[AGrinningCat]

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.

Symbol of Mercy: Additionally, you may force the creature to enact a simple command of two words or less. For example, you may tell a creature to ‘move here’ or ‘start talking’, but you couldn’t tell the creature to “go to the city” (As this would be too many words) or “tell the truth” as it’s both too many words and ‘truth’ is too complex for this ability.

... Bah, I loathe "word count mechanics" that only function with english.

I'll see what I can do here. I make no promises, however, but I do want to say I'm looking into it.

[The Blade Wolf]

Hello there, I hope people do not mind me dropping in like this. I would be more than happy to give Rajah a look other and share my thoughts on the class. But before I do, is it acceptable to ask a question here related to previously released Dreamscarred Press material? Specifically, I am curious about how a Path of War feat and a Soulknife Blade Skill may possibly interact with one another.

[Milo v3]

But before I do, is it acceptable to ask a question here related to previously released Dreamscarred Press material? Specifically, I am curious about how a Path of War feat and a Soulknife Blade Skill may possibly interact with one another.

You'll want this thread for that.

[The Blade Wolf]

You'll want this thread for that.

Ah, thank you. Thank you very much.

[AGrinningCat]

Some random thoughts:

Some random responses!

Royal Mandate's Bolster ability should really be phrased "a single type of saving throw", not "a single saving throw". The current phrasing could be interpreted as meaning "usable on one saving throw roll during the round".

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.

Judgment Day's "experience sunrise" clause makes it less-than-useful for people who live in the Darklands, as they can only ever benefit from it once unless they make a journey to the surface afterwards.

This is on my radar; and I’ll be getting to this probably when I wake up.

Combining Sun's Gleam with Solar Wind (via one of the feats) and Strength-based touch attacks seem likely to lead to shenanigans.

Mostly any other weapon would be better than just getting touch attacks -- Sun’s gleam lacks the feats, class features, and similar abilities to actually support it, while nearly any other ranged weapon (especially when combined with options provided from DSP) will be a better choice.
That being said, Sun’s gleam is on the radar; if it proves to be problematic, we’ll change it as needed.

The first two sentences of Crown of the Sky Sovereign are awkward in the way they repeat, and they also don't account for non-Str/Dex attack stats (for example, starknife tomfoolery). Also, is the "weapon attacks" usage intended to work with Sun's Gleam?

Crown of the Sky Sovereign allows you to use your initiation modifier to attack and damage when using vassalage in place of your strength/dex mod. Starknife fighting style does not allow you to add your strength/dex mod, so you don’t get anything from this half of the ability.
When not using vassalage, you only get your initiation mod to attack, and no strength mod to damage. If you’re using a substitution for your strength, such as deadly agility, then you don’t get that damage bonus either. If using the starknife fighting style, again you get anything, as Starknife is a replacer for attack and damage; and Sky Sovereign is a replacer for attack and damage. If you intend to use the Starknife style feat, you should look into one of the other two crown options.
Sun’s gleam is not a weapon, no.

The "change the die roll" effects of Warrior of the Court are both kind of awkward and really limited. Why not just give something like the skill mastery rogue talent instead?

It’s no more awkward than Cyclops helm, but rather than smacking down a 20, you get a 11 or a 15, depending. The limited times per day is something that was factored into this notably due to skill-based maneuvers.

As written, I could use The Emperor's New Clothes at low level to conjure up clothes made entirely out of mithril thread and sell them for a bajillion dollars. With that and the name in mind, it seems like it'd be more interesting if you could generate infinite numbers of outfits but they were done like a permanent phantom object effect, including the "pops out of existence if disbelieved" clause.

I’ve written a bit to say that they don’t hold up under inspection (thus, not worth money). As with an infinite amount of anything, it’s usually past the point of “too much”; and thus would become a problem if someone couldn’t disbelieve them. Also I don’t think anyone wants their clothing to be suddenly disbelieved!

Valued Customer should use the minor/medium/major categorizations and availability that already exist (see the random roll tables for specific examples), perhaps with the outsider counting as a "community" of a size that scales with the PC.

This was briefly considered. It was ultimately decided to eschew these rules in favor of making the ability simple: Rather than consulting charts, having scaling for the outsider, and so on, it’s a simple yes or no question from the GM. The sidebar helps clean up what’s considered common for the Outsider to bring; adventuring groups probably relying on potions, odd off scrolls, wands of cure X, and so on. During downtime, such as when the party is resting, traveling, or in between legs of their adventure, parties can get other items (Cloaks of resistance, headbands and belts of attributes, Feather Tree tokens); with little need to actually worry about availability rules or the fact that they’re stuck in the Drift.
Naturally, if the GM is worried about having a portable magic-mart, we recommend extending the time it takes to find items, or homebrewing their own solutions, whether it be using magic availability rules or more esoteric rules.

Ring of a Thousand Names seems likely to become really awkward in play, because you're already going to have to basically pass around notecards to the group each time you change your essence around detailing what their granted abilities can do, and now you want to go above and beyond in changing that every round?

The ring doesn’t require you to change it’s target every round, nor are you required to reinvest your essence every round either, nor is it even recommended to do so every round -- The Rajah, being an initiator, has plenty of good outlets for their swift actions (either for counters or boosts); and even if you were gaining from a constant shuffling of essence, you probably would gain more through your initiator side.