Occultist 1.0 (Pre-Release)
Added 2020-08-28 06:58:06 +0000 UTC
This is it, the Occutlist 1.0; there's been too many changes to track all of them from the 0.9, but changes from the 1.0 forward will be tracked.
If you are playing the 0.9 version and want to continue to access it, please use this link: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M-WtrKeZNFdEXq0MKXw/-MCpPfuHii7KzeDnBvvW
At a high level:
- Oracles have been tweaked quite a bit. Testing revealed the Oracles died a lot. A lot of their health costing abilities have been reduced or tweaked. Abilities that provoked multiple saves have been tweaked or streamlined to reduce saving throw overhead. Various multiturn tracking has been reduced where possible, and some levels have been tweaked. Relevation of Battle now gives them Paladin smite spells (Paladins don't use them much and they are good fit...); the old Revelation of Battle has been renamed Truth of Strife. Mystery of Death is now less fatal for everyone evolved, and Inevitable End added as it's 3rd Rite. As I burn renamed Voracious Flames and buffed slightly to account for a slight nerf to Mystery of Fire, Mystery of Fire has had it's hit point cost reduced to account for said slight nerf.
- All instances of Mysteries dealing damage to you have been converted to reducing your current health to avoid various shenanigans and the tedious "this damage cannot be resisted or avoided".
- Master of Mysteries has been converted Enlightened Understanding, a purely defensive version that gives you a good chunk of temporary hit points to work with to account for the fact that you spend your hit points doing Oracle things.
- The Augury part of the 1st level ability is split out into Fate Reading to give it a 3rd level feature and reduce the overload on the 1st level.
- Curses and Boons remain largely the same.
- Shaman has the wording an functionality of Call Spirit tweaked, Empowered Spirits damage curve is changed to nerf Manifested Damage somewhat.
- The 14th level ability is swapped out for a new one, that fits the gish-y nature better (essentially Improved War Magic).
- Energized Weapon returns in a nerfed form, and Shaman's Touch talent is added for those that want to explore their MAD Gish roots further (but will generally be worth than Extra Attack accounting for Empowered Spirit's damage).
- Witches saw Black Coven get a large buff to the Familiar Bond, while Green is slightly tweaked, but mostly the same. Overall they stayed relatively stable, though Animate Hair has been overhauled, a few new Talents appear (like Evil Eye). Riding Familiar is capped at large to avoid various shenanigans (it used to be just 1 size larger, so if the Witch was for some reason Large due to Enlarge or something, you could end up with a Huge familiar...). Witch's Claws have been added for another option. Rite of the Moon has been expanded to be a full list of spells (I refused to let moonbeam completely go!)
- Overall, Corrupt Item shows up as a new Rite, Specialized Poisons is overhauled to look more like the versions we saw in Assassin and Skulker Warlocks, and a few new Rites popped up.
- The spell list has been trimmed down a little with some stuff (like my aforementioned Moonbeam) being dropped. The spells have gone through a balancing pass.
- Alarcity can no longer stack with Haste for obvious reasons.
- Animate Object edited for clarity and functionality.
- Baba's Walking Hut nerfed.
- Boil Blood slightly nerfed.
- Cruel Puppetry clarified to prevent spamming it over and over.
- Electrify buffed in terms of damage, but can no longer be upcast (as +1d10 scaling would be too good).
- Killing Curse has been revamped a little.
It has had a lot of playtesting since the last version; between that and me dealing with a move has been the reason for the delay, but things are back on track :)
It'll see a public release (i.e. Reddit/Twitter/Facebook) as soon as I get a chance, but I'll probably do another proofreading pass (or two).
There's a lot more to do with it, but that can be be future versions. I have some big news posts coming up, but I'll save those for their own update post (I will be streaming again next week, I'm mostly done with the move, and I have a lot of stuff coming up, and some good plans for September).