Happy holidays, everybody! Today’s topic for Paths of Magic is that of feats-more specifically, technique feats introduced in Path of Iron and how they’re being implemented into Paths of Magic.
Feats are an odd space in Pathfinder. There’s hundreds upon hundreds of them, but most players stick to the same ~50 or so for most characters like Power Attack, Spell Focus, and Rapid Shot. When you design a feat, it has to compete for that space. This is made more difficult by the fact that the majority of players that use 3PP are also likely using house rules to eliminate feat taxes (like the popular “Elephant in the Room” house rules). So you’re stuck making feats that are compatible with vanilla Pathfinder and trying to sell it to people who like chocolate.
Often times I find it best to take an existing option and simply make it work better than it did before. I did this quite a bit with Path of the Wilds, for example, by making a number of feats centered around making Vital Strike a bit more of an attractive option (outside of Shikigami Style shenanigans, at least). Path of Iron similarly had some feats like Powerful Throwing to mitigate the need for a belt of mighty hurling and Double Strike to give some much-needed mobile strength to two-weapon fighters.
The place this is most apparent, I think, is in the technique feats introduced in Path of Iron.
Technique feats were intended to be the fighter’s answer to the monk’s style feats. A collection of three feats that grant you a stance with a self-contained playstyle is a good way to buff up existing options (like Archon Technique does for tower shields), make some options less feat intensive (as with Shinigami Technique) or even do something a bit off the wall (like Protean Technique). And by making them exclusive to each other like styles, you can make them a bit stronger than your average combat feat since they can’t be used in conjunction with each other (Technique Master Fighter excluded).
When designing the techniques in Path of Iron, the first step was deciding upon a unifying theme. Style feats at the time were largely based around animals, like many real-world martial arts. Basing it on other creatures made sense, but I initially considered just using creatures from any type that fit the idea. After a bit of playing around, it become apparent that sticking exclusively to outsiders made a more cohesive concept.
Some of the techniques’ names were pretty easy to figure out. Shield archons use a big tower shield, so the technique that let you use tower shields better got to be Archon Technique. Balors are skilled with whips, so let’s put the whip abilities into Demon Technique. Others were more of a thematic approximation, really, rather than based on a specific creature. Proteans are chaos beings, so making a technique based around making extremely-swingy dice rolls work in your favor felt like a fun idea. Lots of devils use bleed effects, so a Devil Technique can make bleed builds a bit more useful.
Beyond that, it mostly came down to making sure the feat lines felt worth taking. That might seem obvious, but when you combine the techniques themselves and their prerequisites, it’s often asking players to put all of their feats for the first 8 or 11 levels exclusively into one technique. That’s a lot to ask given that many campaigns will end before players can completely finish the feat path, so they needed to be made viable from the first feat in the chain, not waiting until the last feat in line before being effective.
So, while that’s a lot of preamble to describe some of the initial inspirations and designs from Path of Iron, where does that leave us for Paths of Magic?
Funnily enough, near the release point of Path of Iron was when Paizo dropped the Weapon Master’s Handbook and introduced weapon-based style feats, completely defeating the point of techniques! I’ve debated going back on that design choice and renaming all of the techniques to “Styles” but many of the style names are already taken, like Archon Style. So, rather than rename all of them, I plan on including a sidebar in the feat chapter that outlines turning the technique feats into weapon styles, should your table prefer to use them in that way.
Second, all techniques are of course being revisited and re-balanced, both to account for new feats in the book and to make certain options more attractive. Devil Technique, for example, no longer increases the DC of stopping bleed checks, since that was made into a standalone feat (Savage Wounds) in Path of the Wilds. Instead, the ability to stack bleed effects has been moved earlier in the feat chain, and the end of the feat chain deals higher ability damage and also reduces the target’s move speed while bleeding. Inevitable Technique has been completely redesigned, now making it focused around Vital Strike. Rather than raising your minimum die rolls, it instead acts as a sort of round-to-round Hammer The Gap, where you get increased attack and damage rolls against creatures when you repeatedly Vital Strike.
Lastly, as you might expect, Paths of Magic wouldn’t be complete without adding some new techniques, as well! Two new techniques are being introduced: Psychopomp Technique, and Garuda Technique. Psychopomp technique is a mixed combat role combining Snap Shot feats with the ability to heavily penalize your foes’ saving throws, making it good for Arcane Archer-esque builds and archetypes (like arrowsong minstrels or archer inquisitors). Garuda Technique is all about mid-air charges and jumping at foes; if you’re thinking about Final Fantasy Dragoons at this point, you’ve got the right idea.
Both of these techniques are featured below for your previewing. More updates coming after the holidays!
Garuda Technique (Combat, Technique)
You leap into the fray, striking foes from above.
Prerequisites: Death From Above, Acrobatics 5 ranks
Benefit: Whenever you attack a foe from high ground with a melee attack, you deal an additional 2 damage. This damage is doubled when performing a charge.
You can now jump as part of a charge. You make an Acrobatics check when performing the charge, which determines how far you can jump, as normal. The attack from the charge must be made before you land, and you stop after making the attack, even if you miss or have additional distance remaining for your jump.
If the Acrobatics check you made to jump is higher than the CMD of the creature you are charging, you are treated as being on higher ground for the purpose of making the attack, regardless of your actual positioning.
Garuda Dive (Combat)
Your maneuverability while charging is unparalleled.
Prerequisites: Death From Above, Garuda Technique, Acrobatics 7 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Acrobatics checks while using Garuda Technique.
When you jump during a charge using Garuda Technique, you can continue your jump. If you miss, you continue in the normal direction of your jump, but if you hit, you can alter the course of your jump to any other direction, including back the way you came (though this does not grant you any more jump height; it only changes the horizontal direction of the jump).
If you have the high ground, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity for charging toward or moving past the creature you charged. You still provoke from other creatures, as normal.
Garuda Talon (Combat)
You follow up your aerial charges with a second strike.
Prerequisites: Death From Above, Garuda Dive, Garuda Technique, Acrobatics 11 ranks
Benefit: The damage bonus you gain from Garuda Technique increases to 4, and you gain a +1 bonus to melee attack rolls when you have the high ground; this bonus is also applied when using the Death From Above feat.
If you charge at a creature during a jumping charge with Garuda Technique, you can make an additional attack. This attack uses the same weapon and uses your full attack bonuses, with a -5 to the attack roll. This attack cannot be used with other abilities that grant you additional attacks as part of a charge, such as pounce.
Psychopomp Technique (Combat, Technique)
Your attacks carry the burden of fate.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus, base attack bonus +3
Benefit: When you strike a creature with a ranged weapon for which you have Weapon Focus, that creature gains one fate point. For every two fate points on a creature, it takes a -1 penalty to all saving throws against any effects created by you (max -4 penalty). Fate points last for 1 minute. This is a supernatural curse effect.
Psychopomp Fate (Combat)
Every strike gives you insight into your foe’s actions.
Prerequisites: Dex 15, Psychopomp Technique, Rapid Shot, Snap Shot, Weapon Focus, base attack bonus +6
Benefit: For every two fate points a creature has from Pyschopomp Technique, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made as part of attacks of opportunity against them when using a ranged weapon for which you have Weapon Focus (max +4).
For every four fate points a creature has, you treat your threatened area as being 5 feet larger when using the Snap Shot feat with a ranged weapon for which you have Weapon Focus (max 10 foot increase).
Psychopomp Doom (Combat)
Your strikes bring foes ever-closer to their demise.
Prerequisites: Dex 17, Psychopomp Fate, Psychopomp Technique, Rapid Shot, Snap Shot, Weapon Focus, base attack bonus +9
Benefit: It takes half as many fate points to gain the benefits from Psychopomp Technique and Psychopomp Fate for you.
For every two fate points a creature has from Psychopomp Technique, the creature takes a -1 penalty on saving throws against all effects, not just your own. This does not stack with the penalty against your own effects (ex. at four fate points, the creature has a -4 penalty to saves against your effects, and a -2 penalty to saves against anything else).