I Am The Bone Of My Sword

[Storyteller_Arc]

THE EMIYA

[khadgar567]

you know its easier to build archer emiya in pathfinder using spheres system. your class kinda forgets what make emiya in first place which is being mage rather then martial initiator. As another mistake your class assumes is he has a learned combat style. during every road of fate stories shirou learns how to fight by tracing his heroic sprit self.
so if you want to play archer emiya my advice to you is check spheres of power and spheres of might something like armiger 1 prodigy 19 can get you close enough to emiya as current system gets if you want the gilgamesh version lingchi armorist kinda adresses that itch. for the unlimited bladed works using version armiger 1 lingchi armorist 19 fulfill what you are looking for.

[Storyteller_Arc]

... I don't want people coming here to tell me that 'Oh you can already do this if you use X system!'

I want people to come to this thread, have a look at my class, and give me constructive, helpful feedback in order to make sure it is both balanced, and enjoyable to play.

And for your information. I already about Spheres of Power and Sphere's of Might both, and decided that those systems was not appropriate for the character that I wished to make.

[aimlessPolymath]

Can you turn commenting on? It's often useful to be able to make suggestions directly.

Notes as I go:
-6 disciplines is a whole lot. Like, a heckuvalot, especially since you only have up to 15 maneuvers/6 stances. Keep in mind that maneuvers often require you to have multiple manuevers from the same school!

Missing proficiencies. This is important, since I need to know if Eye of the Mind can be combined with armor.

Reinforcement: Do you mean that an item can only be reinforced once at a time? Because otherwise, the armor/weapon clause is nearly useless.

The level 10/14 upgrades to Eye of the Mind are massive static bonuses. Like, +5 to AC between one level and the previous.

Projection: I can see what you're going for with the limit to limited use items, but it's kinda a mess. I would twiddle with this; perhaps limited-use items reduce your effective pool for the appropriate time (use a 1/day item that costs 1/3 your pool? Your pool is reduced by 1/3 for the next day). Also, can you just project as much as you like of these items? That's really powerful, since you can outfit your teammates with weapons, then spend all your gold on consumables and wondrous items.

Hawk Eye: This is a lot of words for something that is rarely relevant- consider at what range it represents a difference of more than 3 points. You should specify that the bonus to attack/damage is with ranged attacks specifically, though.

Marksman: This should probably get moved to before you get Hawk Eye- at least the maneuver part, since otherwise Hawk Eye is double-useless.

Broken Phantasm: I'm not clear on what this does. Double the total enchantment/gold I can project? But I already projected it! Also, using it up on 1 attack for about +5/6 to a single roll is usually a waste, since you need to spend an action to get another weapon.

Kanshou/Bakuya: It is really strange to me that you can get this feature without actually having seen those weapons. I would swap it for a more generic version that lets you choose any items you want to "specialize" in, and then have those weapons be actual items that a player could see and copy with that ability.

TLCW: Ehhhhhhh. You're a martial initiator. Just make up a special maneuver that anyone with the appropriate weapon can learn.

Reality Marble: The projection/phantasm thing works OK here. Just switch it from talking about TLCW to maneuvers.

I think the class is somewhat unfocused- you have a focus on melee maneuvers for most of your early career, then you swap to ranged weapons using melee weapons as ammo, and then you swap to thrown weapons? I think you should trade out some of the more weapon-specific stuff for bonus feats that they can take with those effects, so that the player can select their own specialization. If I want to play a sword-summoner, I don't necessarily want to be an archer as well, or be tied to two specific weapons.

I'm skipping the epic stuff due to the general difficulty of balancing epic.

[Storyteller_Arc]

Can you turn commenting on? It's often useful to be able to make suggestions directly.

Commenting is now on, sorry for it not being on in the first place!

-6 disciplines is a whole lot. Like, a heckuvalot, especially since you only have up to 15 maneuvers/6 stances. Keep in mind that maneuvers often require you to have multiple manuevers from the same school!

Hmmm, good point... lowered it down to four, still a solid number of disciplines, but not Swordsage numbers here.

Missing proficiencies. This is important, since I need to know if Eye of the Mind can be combined with armor.

Whoops, added!

Reinforcement: Do you mean that an item can only be reinforced once at a time? Because otherwise, the armor/weapon clause is nearly useless.

I tweaked that sentence, so hopefully it's clearer.

The level 10/14 upgrades to Eye of the Mind are massive static bonuses. Like, +5 to AC between one level and the previous.

shrugs. A Paladin gains a +2-4 bonus to saves from level 1 to level 2.

Projection: I can see what you're going for with the limit to limited use items, but it's kinda a mess. I would twiddle with this; perhaps limited-use items reduce your effective pool for the appropriate time (use a 1/day item that costs 1/3 your pool? Your pool is reduced by 1/3 for the next day). Also, can you just project as much as you like of these items? That's really powerful, since you can outfit your teammates with weapons, then spend all your gold on consumables and wondrous items.

I don't think its that much of a mess? Pretty sure Soulknife's work the same with /day enchantments? Maybe I can make the wording better...

Anyway, I tweaked the wording so that it hopefully clarifies what it can do, and how it synergizes with Broken Phantasm. Plus, whilst you could theoretically outfight your teammates with weapons and armour, the weapons are much, much weaker than what they can likely buy for themselves, and they aren't permanent creations, meaning you would have to make their weapons each and every battle.

Hawk Eye: This is a lot of words for something that is rarely relevant- consider at what range it represents a difference of more than 3 points. You should specify that the bonus to attack/damage is with ranged attacks specifically, though.

Archer can see 4k, so I needed to reflect that somehow. And no, the bonus to attack/damage is not with ranged attacks specifically. That is purposeful.

Broken Phantasm: I'm not clear on what this does. Double the total enchantment/gold I can project? But I already projected it! Also, using it up on 1 attack for about +5/6 to a single roll is usually a waste, since you need to spend an action to get another weapon.

It's not an ability you'll use every day, that's true. But it has its uses.

Kanshou/Bakuya: It is really strange to me that you can get this feature without actually having seen those weapons. I would swap it for a more generic version that lets you choose any items you want to "specialize" in, and then have those weapons be actual items that a player could see and copy with that ability.

They're pretty iconic to Archer, so they're pretty necessary.

TLCW: Ehhhhhhh. You're a martial initiator. Just make up a special maneuver that anyone with the appropriate weapon can learn.

This is pretty iconic and relies on the bonding ability between Kanshou and Bakuya to actually work. So its staying.

I think the class is somewhat unfocused- you have a focus on melee maneuvers for most of your early career, then you swap to ranged weapons using melee weapons as ammo, and then you swap to thrown weapons? I think you should trade out some of the more weapon-specific stuff for bonus feats that they can take with those effects, so that the player can select their own specialization. If I want to play a sword-summoner, I don't necessarily want to be an archer as well, or be tied to two specific weapons.

1. You don't have to focus on melee maneuvers for most of your early career at all, it is entirely possible to take non-melee maneuvers.

2. You don't swap from one to the other to the other at all. You gain all these abilities, allowing you to operate at various different ranges. You have long-range sniping abilities, medium range volley abilities, close range throwing, and melee range attacks. I don't want to play a sword-summoner, I want to play as Archer, who despite what the name suggests, is very strong in melee combat and not just archery.

I'm skipping the epic stuff due to the general difficulty of balancing epic.

That's fair

[aimlessPolymath]

Comments made.

[aimlessPolymath]

I have to go, but to wrap up our editing session, here are the changes I remember you making based on my criticism:

-Disciplines from 6 to 4
-Added one class skill
-Set mental ability stat for initiation
-Twiddled with Eye of the Mind: you no longer get your full level to AC at level 18, and the scaling for saving throws at 14 has changed from 1/4 to 1/5 level; a total of a +1 change at level 20. In addition, the distribution between untyped and dodge bonus has shifted slightly.
-Hawk Eye now gives you extra range
-Fixed a mistake on weapon size
-Clarified that it can use light armor with Eye of the Mind.

Left in:
The mechanics of projection were left unchanged.
K & B were left unchanged.
Total numerical power between level 1 and 17 left unchanged.

Let me know what else you did while I was gone.

[Storyteller_Arc]

Let me know what else you did while I was gone.

Changed Eye of the Mind again, instead of getting more and more numbers, you instead gain more proficiency in using Counters at the higher levels.