Today’s update covers the runic class, the Archivist! First featured in Path of Iron, the archivist was the primary user of its rune magic system, which we’ve discussed in the past few blog posts (see Rune Magic part 1, part 2, and part 3). The archivist obviously got some improvements just by the sheer option increase in runic scripts, feats, and magic items…but what about its base features?
Let’s go over how the archivist class was made, and where it’s going with Paths of Magic.
The Archivist, by Danielle Sands
There was always going to be a primary “rune mage”, ever since the concept of rune magic was first created for Path of Iron. Initially, though, it wasn’t the archivist. If you read up a few weeks ago in Part 1 of rune magic, the runes were originally a passive/active ability pair. You would scribe a rune to gain a passive effect, then break the rune to use its active ability. At that time, the rune-based class was called the Sentinel, and was a full-BAB class. Runes were going to be a much smaller, class-specific option rather than an entire alternative system to spellcasting. Once rune magic expanded and evolved to be much larger in scope, a full-BAB martial character no longer made sense, so it was sidelined in favor of a more traditional mage; hence, the archivist.
The role of the archivist was to be rune magic’s “wizard”. However, I also find wizards pretty boring; I've always preferred using sorcerers for the same role. When it came time to create the core features, I wanted the class to sit somewhere between sorcerer and wizard in design (no, not an arcanist). The archivist logically should specialize in a design of runic scripts, like a wizard does for arcane schools, but I wanted the powers it granted to be more involved than a wizard’s and more akin to a sorcerer bloodline in function.
This is where the idea of the “study synergy” came from for each study: a way for to encourage the use of your specialized runic scripts. It served a similar role to a sorcerer’s bloodline arcana but was designed to promote the frequent use of rune magic’s charge/overload mechanic. The study abilities similarly play a more prominent role in the archivist’s abilities than a wizard’s school usually does, making the different study options feel a bit more distinct.
From there, a couple of supporting mechanics were needed (not just to make the class a bit stronger, but also to not have such large gaps where you got no new features). Bonus feats were an obvious choice as an easy-to-apply boost. The second addition was the Altered Script power, which was suggested during playtesting. The runic charge system was fun, but some script designs (such as alteration and creation) had a much bigger reliance on having a variety of charge types to get their full effect, while other designs (such as destruction) were more easily self-sustaining. The altered script ability granted archivists a way to utilize a broader spread of runic abilities without feeling behind the curve compared to more focused builds.
With all that said, the archivist is seeing some major updates in Paths of Magic. Even outside of the class itself, just the major changes to rune magic in general, as well as the addition of more scripts, feats, and magic items means the class will have a lot more to work with. The class now also has the “Enhanced Fundamentals” ability. This ability was previously part of some designs for archivist, such as destruction, that caused the fundamentals of your chosen study to always be overloaded with runic charges. This has been removed from the destruction study and made a baseline feature, so now every archivist gets more mileage out of their basic scripts.
Some designs have seen changes, as well. The spell resistance from Creation has instead been moved to Destruction study, since with the updates to runic scripts “anti-magic” is now part of the Destruction design (as you “destroy” the magical effects). In its place, the Creation design now has the Warding Sigil ability, which makes your created objects, barriers, and constructs more durable while increasing your own defenses, to boot. Invocation’s study synergy now grants a morale bonus to saving throws, instead of granting energy resistance; the energy resistance is now granted as the 2nd-level study ability, giving the archivist scaling energy resistance whose type can be changed when you overload a script.
There’s also additional archetypes and changes to the existing “focused studies”. The Inheritor archetype has your runic scripts appearing as magical tattoos on your body, which are fueled by your Charisma instead of Intelligence. This returns the archivist to its original mechanics (of always having your scripts prepared), making it effectively a “spontaneous” caster. The Myrmidon archetype goes the opposite direction, losing a significant amount of its daily magical castings to gain a 3/4 BAB, d8 Hit Dice, and better armor and weapon proficiency. Some focused studies were updated to reflect the changes to rune magic on the whole (the “Counterscript” study is now the “Unraveling” study, for example). Some focused studies have been replaced entirely, instead, since they…kind of weren’t good. The Plant study in particular was deemed weak enough to be scrapped and instead replaced with the new Blessing focused study for Invocation, which grants bonuses to aid another checks and the ability to sacrifice scripts to force enemies to re-roll attacks against your team.
We’re on the home stretch at this point! Only a few more development updates remain before we’re ready to announce the release date of Paths of Magic. Until next time!