The Occultist: Freeing The Monster Within
Added 2016-06-20 16:26:19 +0000 UTCOur second full class this month comes from designer Mike Myler, and it's an unusual one! The Occultist allows you to play a monster, with a choice of three distinct paths - an abomination, a vampire, or a werecreature! Delve into the dark and secret creatures of the night, cursed to exist as monstrous beings shunned by the world. Illustrated by Ellis Goodson.
Comments
I dug this up in the Touch of Class book, and I'll admit I'm somewhat confused particularly for the were creature. I absolutely adore the idea of playing a truly specialized were wolf focused on hunting down prey and giving truly deadly strikes. My issue is that reading all the features up and down I'm a little confused as to how viable it really is. My concerns with it are as follows: 1. You can at first level shift from werewolf form and beast form. Although super cool that you can be a terrifying were-creature or an animal is really nice flavor but it is just flavor. 2. At third level, you get advantage on perception rolls related to hearing and smelling. But... You already get advantage on perception by being an Occultist at level 3 or level 5. 3. Lycanthropic Hide gives really nice resistances, but hardly anything that would wow a group in a fight or be interesting. 4. Quadruple your jump distance. I got super giddy reading this. The idea of leaping up buildings or pinning a fleeing foe in one great horrifying leap sounded great. Good flavor and maybe good utility, but I don't know how strictly useful. 4. Big o'l bite. Sweet, I do some extra damage and if I lose my prey they turn into a were-wolf and can probably use those new werewolf powers against me and my team.. 5. Finally the Master Werecreature. Really sick that I get to break the caps on my strength and my dexterity, but with all I'd said previously its hard from a mechanical gameplay perspective to see a good reason to play a were-creature.. Any thoughts? I'd love with a passion to play some sneaky terrifying were-beast, but I don't know if I should give it a shot without knowing if I'm looking at this the wrong way or theres some playstyle i'm not getting
John House
2017-05-24 01:43:43 +0000 UTCDid a quick check and it looks like it was just designer error; the ASIs should be there as usual.
Joey
2016-07-01 00:46:15 +0000 UTCNo ASIs?!? WTH? Am I missing something?
Chris Carlson
2016-06-28 18:17:52 +0000 UTCI can see why vampires and clerics don't usually get along!
Josh Gentry
2016-06-21 13:04:14 +0000 UTCI can't really think of an efficient way to play a vampire in my campaigns. I mean, every cleric and paladin has a holy symbol, often on their shield, weapon or amor. There are dozens of gods, so you'll definitely see quite a few holy symbols. BOOM! 2d6 damage. Looked again? BOOM! Damage again! Not even talking about fighting. Auto damage every turn or look away for disadvantage. Traveling? Well, looks like I have to take my coffin with me. Sneaking into someones house? Not gonna happen, as I can't enter. At least the running water thing doesn't happen a lot (at least in my campaigns). Don't get me wrong, it's definitely an interesting option, but not for my type of campaigns.
Tim Maier
2016-06-21 07:04:53 +0000 UTCI don't see any problem here. As a bonus action, you empower your Dark Strike to a. add your CON modifier to attack/damage rolls and b. deal necrotic damage. You can't choose to deal necrotic damage after you hit.
Joey
2016-06-20 17:46:49 +0000 UTCHow can I add my CON modifier to attack rolls if I have to decide to deal necrotic damage after I hit the attack?
Leo 86
2016-06-20 17:25:48 +0000 UTC
