Paizo Advanced Class Guide: Second Impressions

So earlier this week they released v2 of the new base classes that will be found in the Advanced Class Guide. Here are my thoughts:

Arcanist: It is still a full arcane caster so its going to be insanely powerful. The new arcane exploit mechanic is a fun tool to play with and there are some interesting ideas there. I like the idea of counter-spelling but never actually find a use for it in game. Hard to say "no" to boosted caster level and save DCs as well. 

Bloodrager: Only minor tweaks here. Some of the bloodlines are still way better than others. This one just needs a bit of polishing.

Brawler: Lots of people seem to like this class but its just not for me. It seems to do what its meant to do ok but its just not a concept I care for.

Hunter: I like the tweaks to this class. The Hunter can now buff his pet and himself. I just feel this class is still weaker than its two parents - the ranger and druid.

Investigator: Ugh. Super nerf. The new Studied Combat/Strike mechanic is great conceptually but is piss poor in execution. It has way too many limitations. You need an 18 int for it to do anything, duration is ok but it ends as soon as you make a single Studied Strike (which does less than a sneak attack would). AND you can't use it against the same opponent for another 24 hours.As a skill monkey this class is still great with its variety of skills, inspirations, and extracts. It just sucks even worse in combat than before. The crappiness that is the Rogue class is dragging it down.

Shaman: Now with Druid casting with some sweet Cleric spells thrown in. This is a class with some awesome potential. Not a great healer however.

Skald: They made it more martial oriented with more weapon proficiencies and medium armor casting but I'm still not sure I like it. The Rage song is much better now but this class still doesn't appeal to me. There are better ways to make a Gish. 

Slayer: Last version was way better than a Rogue but still worse than a ranger. The gap between ranger and Slayer has closed and the slayer is now the ultimate combat rogue since it gained more skills, access to ranger combat styles, trapfinding and poison use through Slayer Talents (which are improved). The ranger's spells give it more flexibility and but these too are pretty close in terms is goodness now.

Swashbuckler: I still have mixed feelings here. I strongly disagree with the design team not giving this class dex to damage. Precision damage is lame even it the bonus is higher since it doesn't work against all creatures and isn't multiplied on a crit. The Swashbuckler has rogue saves (terrible) but lots of neat tricks. I'm still hoping they change their mind on Dex to damage but with more polishing this class will be decent. Seems to be ok defensively (especially with Crane Style) but has only moderate damage capabilties.

Warpriest: A few small changes have made this class much better. Ferver is a cool new mechanic but this class still suffers from MAD. I haven't played around this the revised class to much but it seems pretty good now.

Paizo Advanced Class Guide: Preview

I don't know why they don't do these releases via Bittorrent? Instead they crash their website for half the day, losing sales and annoying their fans who want to read the play test.

That bitch aside here are my first impressions of the new classes in the playtest:

Arcanist: It is a full arcane caster so its going to be insanely powerful. It is basically a wizard with delayed (sorcerer) casting but more flexible casting options. Seems pretty solid.

Bloodrager: Barbarian with limited arcane (Magus spells) casting and a bloodline. Loses all Rage powers. Seems solid.

Brawler: An improvement over the vanilla Monk but I'm not convinced we have a winner here. A much sturdier melee combatant and less MAD. I'd like to see one in action.

Hunter: Don't care for it. If you wanted a full power animal companion as a ranger you could get it by spending a couple feats. I'm not a fan of Teamwork feats and that your animal companion shares yours seems to be the big draw here. This class loses the ranger's martial prowess and the druid's 9th level spells and gets Teamwork feats? No thanks.

Investigator: The rogue killer. Seriously why would anyone ever play a rogue ever again? You lose a little bit of sneak attack, 2 skills per level, and evasion. You gain alchemy and a ton of cool tricks that come with it, a bunch of neat poison stuff, Inspiration, and Investigator talents which are at least as good if not better than Rogue talents.

Shaman: Cleric like casting (wisdom, prepared, no delay), blends mysteries with hexes. I'm sure there is stuff in there to love. Seems pretty solid.

Skald: Bardbarian. Seems very niche, more of an archetype for bard then a full blown alternate class. The bestow rage power is cool but would really only benefit large groups with lots of melee fighters. Spell Kenning (cast any arcane spell) give this class great versatility - as long as you are not in a rush.

Slayer: The other reason to never play a rogue again. For people that think rogues should be deadly melee opponents this is the class for you. An unlimited use, more flexible but less powerful Favored enemy, slower sneak attack progression, Ranger saves, Ranger BAB, Rogue talents.

Swashbuckler: I can see what this class is trying to be. It is a decent melee combatant that hits easily but doesn't do much damage. It does, however have a ton of tricks at its disposal, cool tricks but most are limited. I like the flavor, but I'm afraid for most campaigns this guy would be an underachiever, but probably really fun to play.

Warpriest: Hmm, a cleric with crappy casting but nicer weapons and armor. Does get lots of bonus feats but doesn't say anything about being able to choose fighter only feats. Would make a strong archer, but I think for melee combat the cleric is the stronger choice.

So that's my initial impression. I have not tried any builds yet or seen any in play. I rather question the existence of some of them but I'm sure they will find people who will love them (maybe even me). They do render the rogue obsolete and put another nail in the monk's coffin (other than some of the strong monk archetypes, I don't know why you would play one anymore).

I am going to try to squeeze the Skald into an upcoming encounter and I see a spot when I could swap in the Bloodrager. The brawler and Slayer are intriguing and I'm sure I can squeeze them in somewhere. Let's see if they can score some kills this weekend (or if any of the replacement PCs use classes from the playtest).