In today’s update, we take a look at the ideas behind one of our most complex classes: the Invoker!
If you’ve read Path of the Wilds, you know that the invoker is a VERY dense class. The ability to essentially pick two subclasses each day, a companion that can cast spells, and even a means to merge together…there’s a lot going on in this class. So how did this class come to be, and how is it updating in Paths of Magic?
The Invoker, by Miguel Angel
When I sat down to write Path of the Wilds, I already had a good idea of the different classes to include, one of which was invoker. It had a few major inspiration points and goals. In last week’s blog post I mentioned that many ideas fall into three categories: mechanical, referential, and thematic. The invoker was primarily a referential inspiration, followed by a mechanical desire for the class.
The primary referential inspiration was the protagonist from my favorite video game: Sagi, from the game Baten Kaitos: Origins. In the game he is known as a “spiriter”, someone that has bonded with a guardian spirit (though in that setting the spirit isn’t a separate creature, like it is for the invoker). In combat he was mostly a warrior-type that used elemental weapon attacks, which is incorporated in much of the invoker’s design. Many of the invoker’s spirit powers are pretty much special moves from this game: the “Sky Strike” power from Lightning Strikes, Thunder Roars, for example, is modeled after the “Cliffsunder” ability that Sagi uses, and the “Thrashing Gale” power from Tempest Herald a Coming Storm is named after a move used by one of the game’s main antagonists.
The mechanical goals for the invoker were twofold: a spellcasting companion, and a build-your-own class design.
The spellcasting companion was a desire to flip the usual roles on its head in most “pet” classes. Just about every one of them is the eidolon/phantom/animal companion up in front, while the PC keeps their distance. Sometimes the two will fight more equally (like hunters or rangers) but in any case the companion is always a combat partner and not much else, even in systems and settings outside of Pathfinder. Switching around the two opened up a rarely-used design space that I wanted to explore.
The build-your-own class design came from wanting to write my own take on the another spirit-based class: the medium. I LOVED the ideas of the playtest medium, even if it was clunky. I still like the concepts of the final medium released in Occult Adventures, but it leaves a lot to be desired performance-wise (and no one likes the reward for using influence being “you get to stop playing”). With the invoker being based on spirits as well, it provided a good chance to create a class based on mix-and-matching different options each day. This is also part of what gave rise to the dominion/oath restrictions on invoking, to capture that same feeling that the alignment/ability score restrictions did for the playtest medium (also to rein the class by restricting your power set a little).
So with the ideas covered, we get on to the actual creation of the class.
Every class that I’ve made for the Paths series went through several revisions. Some were major changes to core theme, whereas others were just mechanics restructuring. The invoker is no exception, and it was BY FAR the most difficult class to write. Like, not even close. I went through a huge number of different designs.
An early idea was that the invoker simply got “primal strikes”, which were basically just special attacks kinda like Dreamscarred Press’s Path of War content or 3.5e Book of Nine Swords. However, the way it worked was rather than a separate resource pool, the primal strikes were done by burning spell slots. At this stage the invoker’s companion had 0-6 spell levels, so as a “balance” both the spirit and the invoker used spell slots to attack. This idea was dropped soon (namely because it had few persistent class features), but it served as the basic idea for what would eventually be spirit powers, and also as an inspiration for what became the spell twist mechanic for elementers.
The next major revision is what introduced the oath/dominion concepts. It still kept the “primal strike” abilities, but narrowed the scope of what powers you could learn based on the dominion and oath of your spirit companion. However, the dominion/oath was more like a fixed subclass, rather than multiple ability packages like the current invoker. Once you picked “Guardian of the Land”, those were the abilities you got at levels 2/8/14/20, with no way to change it. It worked well enough, but ended up being a bit bland, outside of the spellcasting companion.
One of the next designs, and one that stuck around for quite a while, was when invocation of spirits was introduced. You used to get nine spirits, divided into three tiers: lesser, greater, and elder. You would get three of each tier which each gave you a base spirit power, along with the ability to invoke one spirit per tier to create synergies of abilities. I liked this design a lot, but…it was too much. Similar to the playtest Medium that inspired this version of invoker, the sheer volume of content required was excessive. 5 dominions x 3 oaths x 3 tiers = 45 spirits, each with a separate spirit power and invocation, for a total of 90 abilities. Doing this was untenable, and needed to be revised.
That brought me to the current design of the invoker, where a single spirit has one spirit power and four invocations. “Wait a minute”, you might be thinking to yourself. “Isn’t that still a ton of abilities?” Which you’d be correct. 5 dominions x 3 oaths x 5 abilities per spirit = 75 abilities, hardly a big reduction from the previous 90. The trade-off is in focusing the design. Rather than coming up with 45 separate powers, I only needed 15, and the remaining four abilities per spirit build off of this one power, which helps direct the ability design for each spirit. There’s also fewer permutations from a player standpoint (since you can combine only 2 out of 15 spirits, instead of 3 out of 45), which not only reduces complexity but also helps avoid unintended ability interactions.
Even with that, designing these spirits was HARD. Since one of the main draws to a build-your-own class is the synergies between options, I had to plan out where those combinations would be, and encourage both what I called “direct” synergies and “indirect” synergies.
The direct synergies are the ones within a single oath or dominion. The oaths are pretty obvious: Guardian spirits should all help you defend yourself, Acolyte spirits should focus on debuffing enemies, while Harbinger spirits should have offensive combinations. The synergies within a dominion are sometimes clear (like the movement/teleportation synergy between Sky spirits) while others were less obvious. For example, the Depths Beckon With Silent Murmurs spirit causes confused creatures to deal cold damage, while Northern Waters Freeze Solid causes cold damage you inflict with invocations to cause fatigue or exhaustion.
Indirect synergies are ones that require you do combine two spirits that don’t match either oath or dominion, which you can do by taking an oath/dominion that intersects the two. For example, if you are an Acolyte of the Sky, there’s an indirect synergy between Blinding Sands Scour the Desert (Acolyte of the Land) and Clouds Blanket Sky and Ground (Guardian of the Sky). The sand squall power from Blinding Sands causes those within to treat all creatures as though they have concealment, while Clouds causes any creatures that miss your allies due to concealment to take electricity damage.
And let me tell ya, planning out all of these synergies took a looooooooooong time. More time than I would have liked, but the end result is, I think, one of the coolest classes in the book.
Well that was pretty wordy. But what is the class getting in Paths of Magic?
For starters, the invoker’s spell list is getting some big expansions. The original spell list was a bit too narrow (a common problem for the classes in their original runs) so I’ll be adding quite a bit of utility spells and effects.
There’s also a brand new dominion of spirits: the Heavens! This includes new abilities for your spirit companion and avatar powers, along with three new spirits: Stars Dance Across Heaven, Moon Watches the World Beneath, and Sun Burns With Glorious Heat, as your Acolyte, Guardian, and Harbinger spirits, respectively. The Moon spirit is included below as a preview.
Until next time!
Moon Watches the World Beneath
The tranquil spirits of the Moon serve as protectors of the night. Their pale radiance comforts those in need, serving as a beacon to guide the weary through their darkest hour.
Type: Guardian of the Heavens
Spirit Power: An invoker that’s bonded with this spirit can use the following spirit power.
Lunar Shroud (Su): As a swift action, you can spend 1 spirit energy to coat yourself in a shroud of moonlight. You gain energy resistance 5 to either acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic damage, chosen upon using this ability. This resistance increases to 10 at 5th level, 15 at 11th level, and 20 at 17th level. The shroud lasts for a number of rounds equal to your invoker level + your Charisma modifier and does not stack.
Spells: 1st—alarm, restful sleep; 2nd—darkness, see invisibility; 3rd—protection from energy, remove curse; 4th—lunar prophecy*, moonblast*.
Invocations: An invoker that invokes this spirit gains the following bonuses.
Moon’s Glow (Su, Lesser): You gain low-light vision. While your lunar shroud is active, you shed pale moonlight in a 10-foot radius around you, creating dim light. You are treated as having the benefits of the Blind-Fight feat against foes within the area of the moon’s glow. Treat this as a 2nd-level light effect for the purpose of interacting with darkness effects: if a higher-level darkness effect overlaps the area of your moon’s glow, the glow is suppressed but your lunar shroud remains. The effective light level increases by 1 when you gain this spirit’s intermediate, greater, and grand invocations.
Lunar Phase (Su, Intermediate): Upon activating your lunar shroud, you can enter into one of two lunar phases: Full Moon, and New Moon. If you choose Full Moon, your allies within the light created by your moon’s glow lesser invocation gain the same energy resistance you gain from your lunar shroud. If you choose New Moon, enemies within the light created by your moon’s glow are dazzled (no save). Sightless creatures are unaffected by the dazzling effect. You can change between full moon or new moon phases as a move action while your lunar shroud lasts.
Beautiful Radiance (Su, Greater): You now gain the effects of Improved Blind Fight against foes within the light of your moon’s glow lesser invocation, and the radiance of the moon’s glow increases to 20 feet. When you activate your lunar shroud spirit power, you can select two energy types to gain resistance against instead of just one.
Alluring Glow (Su, Grand): Enemies that enter into or start their turn within the light of your moon’s glow lesser invocation are entranced by the moon and must make a Will save. If you are currently in Full Moon phase, creatures that fail their saving throw cannot move any closer to you for 1 round. If you are in New Moon phase, creatures that fail their saving throw cannot move any further away from you for 1 round, instead. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. Sightless creatures are unaffected by the alluring glow.