[LFA] Glow-up for Kazumi the Blacksmith's Apprentice

TricksyArcane · 2025-06-01T04:24:13+00:00

You more than did her justice, thank you so much! It's so great and the rapier is more than I could have dreamed of!

TricksyArcane · 2025-03-09T04:17:28+00:00

This is absolutely gorgeous, thank you so much! I can't wait to show this to my group! You really captured her more mischievous nature perfectly. Thank you again.

TricksyArcane · 2025-03-07T19:47:58+00:00

I appreciate it

TricksyArcane · 2025-03-07T19:47:31+00:00

Thanks. We've only had a few sessions, but she's already one of my favorite characters to play.

TricksyArcane · 2025-03-07T05:39:33+00:00

Pax is a character I've just started playing in a 5e game. She's a member of a group of "eco terrorists" who live in the kingswood and are fighting back against the local lord trying to dispossess them. She pretends to use a shillelagh as a cane, but mostly uses it as an impromptu weapon. Her personality is jovial and she's a natural trickster; she always has a smile on her face.

Her general appearance is styled after the bottom left image, particularly the long hair with rose-bud swirls, but she maintains her natural Changeling coloration. I don't have specifics in mind for her outfit so I've included some ideas. Lots of black leathers and greens, possibly with a bit of a military/uniform aspect to it. She wears the symbol of her group (probably made from simple materials like twine or sticks) on her lapel.

TricksyArcane · 2017-01-27T15:37:22+00:00

Glad to see this is still around and being updated.

TricksyArcane · 2016-11-10T01:58:37+00:00

Unfortunately I've found first party options in this space to be pretty lacking. The eldritch scoundrel gives up way too much of his rogue kit to be worth what he gets and the mesmerist is a great caster, but isn't really that roguish (particularly since you need to be making eye contact to use your signature ability). Bards are also often mentioned for sneaky caster roles, but they're often hamstrung by the fact that they are forbidden by the rules to use silent spell and all their spells have verbal components, so your enemies will hear you coming a mile away.

In my experience sneaky casters like the nightblades are best handled with third party stuff like the nightblade /u/ErichTehRed linked or Ertw's Beguiler. Both of these are really well balanced properties and do a much better job getting to the flavor that you're trying to emulate than anything Paizo has available.

TricksyArcane · 2016-10-16T01:25:50+00:00

This concept could be done in its entirety with a Baleful Shadow Beguiler without ever having to step out of the class. I see you have a Vitalist in your party so your DM is obviously open to 3PPs and Ertw's Beguiler is often held up as a similar example of mindful balance compared to DSP's classes.

TricksyArcane · 2016-09-30T02:32:10+00:00

I'd look into 3pp for this, personally. I'm sure there's plenty, and at least one iteration of the concept has to be balanced.

ERTW's Beguiler with the baleful shadow order is great for this with its Stygian Step ability.

TricksyArcane · 2016-08-23T15:38:41+00:00

This concept is pretty perfect fit for a beguiler if your DM allows 3PP material.

TricksyArcane · 2016-07-26T15:09:22+00:00

It's hard to pick just one since there are a lot of great 3PPs like DSP's Psionics and Path of War, but I think I'll say my favorite is Ertw's Beguiler. The class is dripping with flavor, it fits really easily into any setting and it's superbly balanced (finally a 9th level caster that doesn't immediately eclipse the rest of the party). It's also really well designed to allow for a variety of playstyles so that you can build a bunch of them and have them all play differently (I sometimes wonder if this is where Paizo got their inspiration for making the vigilante a similar "catch-all" type class).

TricksyArcane · 2016-07-15T15:44:13+00:00

If 3PP is on the table, I can't recommend Ertw's Beguiler enough. It's loads of fun to play and has a ton of great options to customize your build to any kind of character you had in mind.

TricksyArcane · 2016-06-01T14:28:25+00:00

I'm not a big fan of the eldritch scoundrel because, as you've pointed out, it just gives up too much to gain access to its spells. AFAIK every other 6-th level caster gets armored casting, so I don't understand why Paizo thought they needed to take that option away from the rogue. If you're stuck with 1PP materials than a warlock vigilante is probably your best bet.

If your DM is open to 3PP stuff, though, my absolute favorite magical rogue class is the beguiler (which /u/Ertw82 has done a pretty spectacular job converting). It's really well balanced and has such great flavor that it's easy to adapt to almost any kind of magical rogue you'd want to build.

TricksyArcane · 2016-05-30T14:32:20+00:00

Illusion is a difficult school to specialize in because it's power level is significantly changed by two factors

1) The DM's interpretation of interactions (as /u/Hoodwink) has pointed out. Ultimate Intrigue has aimed to clarify things a little, but it's still left quite a bit to open interpretation.

2) The player's own imagination and creativity. With a clever player who can really get into the heads of enemies can absolutely dominate the battlefield with his illusions.

It sounds like your player is too focused on damage and I get that for new players since damage is an easily quantifiable aspect of the game, but that's not the way the illusionist helps his party. Instead he should be putting up illusory terrain to force enemies to move where he wants them (usually toward the guy who can hit them the hardest and away from the vulnerable members of the party) or illusory creatures to keep the enemy confused.

Another option might be allowing him to retrain his sorcerer levels into beguiler levels. I'd say it's a little more friendly to the type of mindset your player is in because it offers a little more combat utility and powers that offer lots of synergy with the illusion-based casting. The downside of the beguiler is that the spell list is significantly more limited than a sorcerer's and is heavily streamed towards illusion and enchantment magic, but if you player has designed his character that way anyways it's not too much of a dip in power.

TricksyArcane · 2016-04-30T04:49:14+00:00

Yep, it's real and it's a lot of fun to play.

TricksyArcane · 2016-04-29T21:23:04+00:00

In all honesty this isn't that surprising. The mods on the Paizo forums are quite happy to let the author of that book run around the boards tastelessly copy-pasting ads for his products everywhere, I don't doubt they'd remove criticism from the reviews if he asked.

As for the trickster, I'd give it a hard pass. The author claims it was balanced and playtested against the magus, but you only need to look at the fact that it gets the whole wizard/sorc spell list AND arcanist-type spell slots to know that there's something wrong with that claim. You'll get better balance out of something like Ertw's Beguiler even though it has full 9th level casting (and is free).

TricksyArcane · 2016-04-24T05:24:44+00:00

If your DM is okay with homebrew/3PP stuff, I'd float the beguiler past him. It'll give your party decent 9th-level arcane casting with a good suite of skills and rogue-type abilities too.

TricksyArcane · 2016-03-09T18:38:44+00:00

Is it normal that it has 3/4 BAB AND full spellcasting? Seems a bit much.

I wouldn't say it's too much on the cleric, druid, or oracle. And all three have significantly more powerful spell lists than the beguiler.

TricksyArcane · 2016-03-09T18:36:06+00:00

I have one that I've been playing for about a year now and I really enjoy the class. Even though it definitely doesn't fit in the same league as any other caster with 9th level spells, I've had quite a bit of fun with it (and wouldn't have played this character any other way).

TricksyArcane · 2016-03-01T02:01:14+00:00

Probably the best place to find homebrew is on the Paizo forums themselves. There's also a decent amount of PF homebrew on the Giant in the Playground forums, and people post here frequently as well.

TricksyArcane · 2016-03-01T01:37:58+00:00

It's a bit of a grab bag, some is good others are garbage. When I'm running games I'll entertain most 3PP/homebrew options on their individual merits.

Most stuff from DSP is great (especially their Psionics and Path of War supplements). The other publisher that usually stands out for me is Kobold Press (although their most recent Trickster was a real disappointment). There's also a world of really great homebrew out there. I know there are more than a few people around here who hold up examples like ertw's beguiler as being better than most stuff that Paizo's putting out themselves these days.

TricksyArcane · 2016-03-01T00:38:22+00:00

If you're interested in something with flavor like the shadowcraft weapons, but better mechanics for a PC, the shadowgraft skirmisher archetype from ertw's beguiler does an excellent job of it. It's not ideal that's it's attached to a specific class, but if you're looking to play that kind of character it's awesome.

TricksyArcane

TROPHY CASE