#love that 5 INT Brawler

[mountainashfae]

Aurien’s parrot has a higher INT stat than one of their previous party members.

[thecreaturecodex]

Skelm, Street

Image © Paizo Publishing. Accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[I love the skelms. They might be my favorite Pathfinder monster new to 2e. I've seen the idea of a male equivalent to hags discussed before. Someone on rpg.net, maybe it was @crinosg or @prokopetz, gave their take the name "coots" and used the Old Man of the Mountain from a Betty Boop cartoon as their model. Paizo's brilliant idea was tying their male hag analogue to ideas of toxic masculinity and entitlement. Since I'm someone who loves to use monsters as tools of social commentary, I was basically their target audience here.]

Skelm, Street CR 3 LE Monstrous Humanoid If not for his unnaturally red face and the rack of antlers growing from his brow, this could be an ordinary human. He wears leather armor and carries a cane.

Skelms are creatures of rage and spite, created spontaneously from evil humanoids overwhelmed by anger. All skelms are male, and some sages posit that they are some sort of metaphysical counterpart to hags. Unlike the prolonged ritual to make a hag, a skelm can arise from a totally normal person in a matter of hours—skelms often hold court over potential recruits and transform them through brutal, humiliating hazing. After transformation, a skelm will often return to their previous life, hiding their inhuman features through magical disguises and changing their pursuits to cruelty and exploitation full time.

All skelms have antlers, which are a source of combined pride and shame. Skelms with smaller racks will belittle those with larger ones, although they will claim other reasons for this scorn if pressed. Even more distinctively, skelms deny that they have antlers when dealing with non-skelms, regardless of evidence or argument.

Street skelms are the weakest of the skelms. In their mortal guise, street skelms exploit the respect most people give to the elderly and the wealthy, and they usually appear as one or both of these in order to recruit a mob. Street skelms have little in the way of magical talents, but they are skilled at finding scapegoats to blame for community ills and sic their followers after. Street skelms have even more of a chip on their shoulder than other skelms do, and their egos are especially delicate. Their combat tactics, whether they are in their monstrous forms or not, tend to revolve around doing an immense amount of damage to a single target at a time, preferably a weak or vulnerable one, and then crowing about it for a few rounds before resuming their assault.

Street Skelm CR 3 XP 800 LE Medium monstrous humanoid Init +2; Senses Perception +7, scent

Defense AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14(+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 armor, +2 natural) hp 25 (3d10+9) Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +5; -2 vs. emotion effects DR 3/cold iron

Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee gore +7 (1d6+6 plus trip) or improvised club +7 (1d6+4), gore +2 (1d6+2 plus trip) Ranged rock +5 (1d4+4) Special Attacks belittling rant,improvisational brawler, punishing strike

Statistics Str 18, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 16, Wis 13, Cha 18 Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19 Feats Catch Off Guard (B), Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Throw Anything (B) Skills Bluff +7,Disguise +7, Intimidate +13, Knowledge (local) +6, Perception +7, Sense Motive +4, Stealth +8; Racial Modifiers +4 Intimidate Languages Aklo, Common SQ change shape (Small or Medium male humanoid, alter self),skelm traits

Ecology Environment urban Organization solitary or gang (1 plus 2-24 humanoids) Treasure standard

Special Abilities Belittling Rant (Su) As a standard action, a street skelm can give a rant that affects all creatures that can hear and understand it within 30 feet. A DC 15 Will save negates the effect. A creature affected by a street skelm is shaken for 1 minute. Anyone shaken in this way takes an additional -2 to damage rolls against the skelm, but gains a +2 morale bonus to damage rolls against other targets. The save DC is Charisma based. Improvisational Brawler (Ex) A street skelm gains Catch Off Guard and Throw Anything as bonus feats. A street skelm treats all improvised ranged weapons as having a 20 foot range increment. Punishing Blow (Ex) As a standard action, a street skelm can exert himself to make a single powerful attack. When he does, he adds an additional damage die of the same type to the attack, and can make a CMB check as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity to push the creature hit 5 feet. After making this attack, the street skelm is treated as being flat footed until the beginning of its next turn. Skelm Traits (Ex) All skelms gain a +4 racial bonus to Intimidate checks, but a -2 penalty to all saving throws against emotion effects.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #132: Mordred (Rider)

It’s surf’s up on today’s Fate and Phantasms, but instead of CGI penguins we’re making Rider Mordred! We’re bringing the big waves and some fancy footwork to keep you afloat while your enemies all sink to the bottom.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: Isn’t it super weird seeing your teacher on vacation?

Race and Background

 Mordred’s a Variant Human, giving him +1 Dexterity and Constitution, Nature proficiency so you’ll know when a big wave’s coming, and the Martial Adept feat for your first surfing tricks. Evasive Footwork adds you superiority die (a d6) to your AC while you move, and a Pushing Attack lets you lean into the wave when you strike, dealing 1d6 extra damage, and forcing a strength save (DC 8+proficiency+your dexterity) on the target, or they get pushed up to 15 feet away. You can use either of these maneuvers once per short rest.

Taking up surfing makes you an Athlete, giving you proficiency with Acrobatics and Athletics. (You also get land vehicle proficiency, but you could easily argue for sea vehicles instead.) You also get the Echoes of Victory feature, giving you a 50% chance of finding a fan in a city within 100 miles of your hometown who’ll give you shelter or info.

Ability Scores

If you want to stay on a surfboard for any amount of time, your Dexterity has got to be top notch. You also need a good sense of balance- that’s Wisdom. Your Constitution is also pretty good, because let’s be honest, wiping out hurts. Your Charisma isn’t bad, though it might be hard to hear you over the waves. Your Strength is pretty low: you’re not weak, but it’s hard to get leverage on a floating piece of wood. Finally, dump Intelligence. I don’t even need an excuse for this, int was your dump stat normally too.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: If you want to fight people while also balancing on a piece of wood, monk’s probably your best bet, let’s just be real here. At first level you get Unarmored Defense, giving you an AC of 10 plus your dexterity mod plus your wisdom mod so you can still duke it out in a bikini. You also get Martial Arts, now all your monk attacks deal at least 1d4, and that grows as you level up. You can also use dexterity instead of strength when you hit people with monk weapons or your fists, and you can make an unarmed attack as a bonus action if you attack as your main action. There’s no rule saying you can’t kick them as you surf over them, so freestyle a bit. I hear judges love that.

You also get proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as two monk skills. History and Religion are kind of vanilla servant skills, but you already got all the physical stuff you need from your background.

2. Monk 2: At second level, monks get Ki points each short rest equal to your monk level. You can spend these to dash, disengage, dodge, or attack twice as a bonus action. You also get Unarmored Movement, bumping up your walking speed by 10 feet. I’m not entirely sure how that affects your surfing, that’s something your DM has to figure out. 

You also get a Dedicated Weapon at the end of each rest, letting you turn a nonmonk weapon into a monk weapon for your martial arts, as long as you’re proficient in it and it isn’t two-handed. I’d argue a surfboard is versatile since you can wield it no-handed, but we still need that proficiency. We’re working on it.

3. Monk 3: If you want to surf good you gotta be able to sway with the waves, and there’s no monk better at swaying than the Drunken Master. You get proficiency in Performance for cool tricks, and you also learn the Drunken Technique. When you use your flurry of blows (that’s the attack twice thing from last level), you also disengage, and your walking speed increases by 10 feet. 

You can also Deflect Missiles, reducing the damage from ranged attacks and possibly throwing it back as a reaction, but that’s not really relevant.

4. Monk 4: Fourth level monks get their first Ability Score Improvement, and we’re grabbing the Tavern Brawler feat. Honestly, this feat is almost completely useless to us. The +1 to constitution or strength probably won’t help either, your unarmed strikes already use d4s, and you spend your bonus actions doing a lot more than grappling. But it does give you proficiency with improvised weapons, meaning your surfboard is a go for monkification!

You can also Slow Fall as a reaction to make your wipeouts a bit less painful.

5. Druid 1: Surfing is fun and all, but you can’t expect a wave everywhere you go, especially not inland.

Or can you? Druids can tip the scales a bit thanks to their Spells, which they cast and prepare using their Wisdom. Also, they learn Druidic. It’s a language.

You get the cantrips Frostbite and Shape Water for some early wave control (more of a splash really) and you can also cast first level spells now. Create or Destroy Water will continue the liquid theme we’ve got, and you can also cast stuff like Protection from Evil and Good and Cure Wounds if you want to play paladin.

6. Druid 2: Second level druids pick a druid circle to join, and if you want the gnarliest waves you gotta head to the Coast, brah! Specifically, the Circle of Land, which gives you a Natural Recovery, letting you regain some spell slots on a short rest once per short rest. The combined level you can gain is half your druid level, rounded up.

You can also use your Wild Shape twice per short rest to transform into a non flying, non swimming creature of CR 1/4 or less. That’s not very in character though, so you can also use it to summon a Wild Companion without using components or spell slots.

You also learn Guidance for slightly better wave riding. Turn off your targeting computer, Mordred...

7. Druid 3: Third level druid, second level spells. You also get new circle spells that you don’t need to prepare, Mirror Image and Misty Step. Copying yourself isn’t in character, but you could probably flavor the latter spell as a really cool surfboarding trick though.

You could also cast Enhance Ability for even better tricks, Pass without Trace because it’s hard to track a piece of wood, and Heat Metal. You have a history with iron and heat, and it’s not a peaceful one.

8. Monk 5: Fifth level monks get an Extra Attack each time they attack as an action, and they can turn an attack into a Stunning Strike, forcing a constitution save (DC 8+proficiency+Wisdom) or the creature they hit gets stunned for a round. You might think not being able to do stuff and giving your enemies advantage on all their attacks would make it hard to stay alive. 

You’d be right.

9. Druid 4: Back in druid for a bit, your wild shape gets a bit better, giving you swimming options and creatures of CR 1/2 or lower. I mean, you can’t prove Mordred can’t turn into a frog. You also get another ASI, so bump up that Wisdom for more AC, stronger spells, and better stunning strikes.

You can also cast Create Bonfire for a summer cookout!

10. Druid 5: Fifth level druids get third level spells, and this is the level you really come into your own. Your circle spells are Water Breathing and Water Walk, which do exactly what you think they do, and they are useful, but we’re here for some other stuff. 

You can also get Tidal Wave to create a 30′x10′x10′ wave, forcing a dexterity save for all creatures in that area. On a failure, creatures in the area take bludgeoning damage and get knocked prone. Also, the water spreads out afterwards-an attack and an escape route all in one!

If you’d rather a more permanent swell, Wall of Water gives you a wall. Of water. Ranged attacks through the wall are at disadvantage, fire attacks deal half damage, and cold based attacks can freeze the wall.

11. Monk 6: Sixth level monks get Ki-empowered Strikes, making your fists magical against resistances. You also get more acrobatic on your board thanks to your Tipsy Sway. You can Leap to Your Feet after a wipeout, going from prone to standing in only 5 feet. You can also Redirect Attack by spending a ki point when a creature misses you with a melee attack, spending it at another nearby creature instead.

12. Monk 7: Your boarding’s gotten fast enough you can outrun explosions. Your Evasion means failed dexterity saves deal as much damage to you as successes would, and successes deal no damage at all.

You also gain a Stillness of Mind, letting you end a charming or frightening effect as an action.

13. Monk 8: Use this ASI to bring your Dexterity even higher, for a better AC and stronger attacks. Who knew monks like dex?

14. Druid 6: Bouncing back to druid one last time gives you the Land’s Stride, letting you ignore difficult terrain that isn’t made by magic. You also ignore damage from regular plants, and have advantage on saves caused by magical ones. That’s great, because going around on a deserted island with just a bikini on would otherwise be a terrible idea.

15. Druid 7: Your fourth level circle spells are Freedom of Movement and the reason we’re still in this class, Control Water. As long as the spell lasts (up to 10 minutes with concentration) you can control a 100 foot cube of water, causing it to flood, part for your nonsurfing friends, change the flow of water, or create a whirlpool. Flooding is particularly powerful- if done it water, it instead creates a 20′ tall wave that passes through the entire area, with a 25 percent chance of capsizing any Huge or smaller vehicles it catches, and carrying them to the other side. The wave even automatically repeats each turn, so yeah, you can basically shoot down any boat in the game with this.

16. Druid 8: Your last level of druid lets you fly with your wild shape, and you get another ASI for a stronger Wisdom score. You’re kicking up some serious waves now, so you have to make sure your balance is top-notch.

17. Monk 9: Ninth level monks get an Unarmored Movement Improvement, letting you walk on water and walls. Paddling’s for dorks, just run out to where the action is! (You do have to get to solid ground before the end of your turn, but your board probably counts)

18. Monk 10: Tenth level monks have a Purity of Body that makes them immune to disease and poison. Nobody wants to get sick during the summer.

19. Monk 11: Your last Drunken Master goodiebag contains Drunkard’s Luck, letting you spend 2 ki points to do a cool flip, negating disadvantage on an ability check, attack roll, or save.

20. Monk 12: Your capstone level is another ASI, maxing out your Dexterity. It’s not a flashy way to end things, but it is pretty useful.

Pros:

Like a lot of monks, you’re pretty hard to hit, with an AC of 19, the ability to disengage while still hitting people, and a solid +30 to your movement speed while in combat. It’s not even a matter of  your armor being good when people just can’t keep up.

Tidal Wave and Control Water are honestly just really good spells, albeit you need a water themed adventure to get the latter’s full power. Also, if you try to surf on your own wave your DM is legally required to give you inspiration, that’s just science.

Not only is your mobility good in combat, if you’re willing to bend canon a bit you can also combine it with your wild shape for utility. A +30 to movement plus being a bird can make moving around much easier.

Cons

Waves are cool and all, but that still means you have a heavy focus on water. If you’re going up against something that resists cold damage, or you’re in a setting that’s landlocked, you’re going to have a bad time.

Taking those druid levels slows your monk progression, and it doesn’t really pay off for this build until you get third level spells. That means you’re dumping a lot of resources into payoff way in the future, while slowing down your AC and martial arts growth.

Using a surfboard as a weapon is really cool, but how effective it is will depend entirely on what the DM makes it. If you have confidence in your DM, this isn’t an issue, but we like to make builds with the least amount of DM caveat as possible here.

[dungeonsnconcepts]

My first DnD character

Was a 4th edition Shardmind Rogue. He was bananas. The campaign was a wild, not from any book, do what you like, mess. I loved it. This was about ten years ago, when I was a Junior in high school. Prior to that I had played two sessions of a giant mech homebrew for 3.5, and I have no recollection of that character (human I think? Possibly a self-insert).

But I digress.

Just last year, I was asked if I wanted to join a friends DnD campaign, as they were about to start "Into the Abyss". I was so excited! They were in a new system, fifth edition(not that I even remember the old system, other than that I had a bonkers amount of choices), and I figured I'd make something cool, but out of the ordinary.

I tried to make a half-orc who wanted to be a monk, but wasn't one. So I went with fighter, but refused to use weapons (dealing 1+3str on the off chance that I connected, as my rolls were terrible). God damned awful. Hilariously bad, to be honest, but I stuck with it. By fourth level I was known as "the one punch orc" because I seemed to have an uncanny ability to only hit after the paladin had already smited, and steal all sorts of kills. Seemed I killed almost anything I ever hit. I punched a ghost to death once. Several drow. A few ooze. Got to my ASI and took tavern brawler to increase my damage.

Then the party got joined by a dwarf fighter/barbarian, who basically filled the same roll as me in the party, but was actually good at it. He came in with a +1 weapon, and +5str, so if I ever hit (about half as often as he did) I dealt D4+3str damage compared to his D8+6, and he was hitting three times a turn (two weapons).

So I started to grumble about my character. He was bad to start off with, but when I can see what it was possible for him to do? It hurt pretty bad. Destroyed my esteem for my character, and thus, destroyed his self esteem. In order to keep up with the party's strength, the DM started throwing some homebrew enemies at us, which was fair for the rest of the party but ABSOLUTELY WRECKED ME. I was all but one-shot KO'd three sessions in a row (by a drow priestess's cloud of death, then by a ghost that possessed me to attack the party, then by a giant homebrew ooze monstrosity that nuked us). During this time, the DM and I had talked, and he allowed me to "rewrite my character". He told me to take some barbarian levels, as that fit how I'd acted, and he was "going to do something to fix me". I'd been asking for brass knuckles that would increase my damage to a D6 or something, so I was stoked. We did a solo session where my character was essentially kidnapped while unconscious. I awoke to an illithid playing with my brain after having cut off my arms (you know, those things that were central to my character?). Turns out that the dragon that rules the one town had sicked his mindflayers on me to "fix my ineptitudes". He also gave the barbarian a magical stat increase so he was +1 more to hit and damage. But it turns out I now have "flencing claws" and "some memory loss of what happened before the start of the campaign" (this I assume was to take away the backstory element that made my character want to be an off-brand monk). I now dealt D10+3 damage, as three foot long claws extended from my finger tips at will. Which was cool, but WILDLY off flavor (weird) for "the punchy orc".

So now I was dealing D10+3 per hit, three hits per turn (off hand attack), averaging about 5 to 8 damage per hit (massively bad rolls), and hitting still about half the time (+6 to hit). The Dwarf was dealing 1D8+7 per hit, three hits per turn, averaging 12 to 14 per hit, and hitting almost always (+10 to hit).

And I am still getting smacked silly by the things the rest of the party are ok at dealing with.

So his "fixing me" didn't really stop my grumbling. Now my character doesn't feel like my character any more (he's a weird, wolverine-ish, barbarian/fighter with memory loss of the backstory that was central to his motivation), AND he is still lagging behind the rest of the party in pretty much every way (note, the Dwarf also has 30 more hit points than me, and took the better barbarian path, so resistance to everything while I was still trying to be in "character" and took battlerager, as I was told to make this choice before my mind was erased or I knew what was being done to me).

And the enemies kept coming. Stronger and stronger. So I kept complaining. "homebrew enemies are kinda wrecking the game for me" I said, repeatedly. Pretty much as soon as we were in combat, I was in danger of falling over (the DM won't let me die for some reason), and outside of combat I'm a low Cha character that no longer really has a backstory.

So we hit a major plot beat, and he (the DM) asked for our input. I sent him a massive message about how I love the game, I love the world he's built for us, I love the party, I like my character, but homebrew is kinda not fun.

So he did ANOTHER solo thing with me, and turned me into Venom, the Spiderman villain. I was infected by an ooze that could give me spiderclimb and a bunch of homebrew abilities (int damage when I perform a bite attack, +temp health when I bite, auto grapple when I bite(which triggers my battlerager feature to deal an additional 3 damage), +1 magical attacks, +1 AC, advantage on wis saves because I have two minds, set to a +9 to hit, D10+8 damage from my claws, D6+3str+1magic from my bites).

Yay... I complained that homebrew was wrecking the game for me, so he turned me into homebrew. Stare into the Abyss, and it stares back apparently. Lol. The concept there is enough to be off-putting to me. But I guess I lost the ability to complain that I'm lagging behind the group in power.

But I no longer love my character. Sure, I LOVE venom. My absolute favorite comic character. But Grobnak the half orc barbarian fighter is not Eddie Brock. And this ooze isn't really venom. It's.... Venom-lite. Because I am not a super hero, which is fine! I don't want to be overpowered! But the thing I'm supposed to be IS overpowered. So I don't really feel like venom. And I'm not Grobnak the wants-to-be-a-monk-and-sometimes-punches-pretty-good any more either.

But I'm going to do my best to learn to love him (Grobnak) again, because the other campaign I've been in (which all of the other characters on this blog were part of) just got put on hold indefinitely.

[crystalelemental]

Now that I have played through EO5 with almost every master class option, I can finally have some proper goddamned opinions on them all.

Except Shield Bearer Dragoon and Spirit Broker Necromancer, who would be the only two guarantees in the next party.

Going in order, here are my personal rankings of each class:

Phantom Duelist Fencer: 5/10.  I really don’t care for it.  It’s not a terrible class, and I’m sure there are ways to build around it, but it feels like the kind of unit that requires very specific setup and a lot of luck to be successful.  I don’t like dodge tanks.

Chain Duelist Fencer: 7/10.  A lot better than Phantom Duelist for me, but ultimately requiring a lot more setup than EO4′s Landsknecht, for a lot less payoff.  It does get the ability to hit all enemies with each follow-up, which is nice, but it lasts for one turn, so you get a good shot in every other turn instead of every turn.  It also only follows up on certain attacks, like stab or all elemental attacks.  Which...I guess is good with Hawk Rover’s multi-hit attack?  But again, specific parties let it be more effective.  Without them, it’s not as impressive.

Shield Bearer Dragoon: ???.  It’s one of two classes I haven’t used yet.

Cannon Bearer Dragoon: 10/10.  Literally the only one of these I will give.  I can’t think of a better all-around option for a party, especially a beginner.  Good natural defense, the ability to draw aggro away from the party with the turrets, having good offensive presence with said turrets, and the absolute absurdity that is Buster Cannon in the front row.  You can argue that three turns for one super attack is kind of limited, especially when status or binds can disable the shot.  You can argue that, because the turrets take up the extra row, it conflicts pretty hard with Rovers and extremely hard with any sort of Necromancer.  Both of which are fair points!  But Rover and the Necromancer I used were extremely underwhelming options, so in that game of favorites, Dragoon wins by far, and really, status and binds will mess up anyone.  Sure, the TP cost is then sunk on an attack that didn’t happen, but damage output is so massive that it’s almost a negligible loss.  Also, it’s a slow activation, which means it’s an excellent option for Formaldehyde.

Barrage Brawler Pugilist: 9.5/10.  Excellent, excellent class for the entire game.  I love the binding combos.  It would frankly be perfect, if it weren’t for two things.  One, DPS isn’t that stellar, so in terms of massive damage, you’ll want another option.  This is definitely more a lockdown class.  The other is that it’s just...not very good against Star Devourer.  Which, considering my hesitation to change up party composition, is a huge hit.  That said, it’s such a good support unit that still gets respectable damage, and being able to (1) double hit with your individual bind attacks, and (2) use a move that can combo into all binds in one turn, makes this class really potent.

Impact Brawler Pugilist: 9.5/10.  Look, I don’t particularly like the design of Pugilist, so I was hesitant to use it.  Needless to say, I’m not thrilled with how much I love it.  Impact Brawler is stupid powerful, and has AoE with some of its skills.  It’s a lot more versatile on damage than Barrage Brawler is, for sure.  The only downside is, it’s a lot of playing with HP values.  It shines best when your HP is lower, and really, it’s best if you have a Healer Botanist.  So, because of a bit of team constriction and requiring certain essential supports like reviving you when your idiot ass gets too low on HP, it’s not a perfect class.

Deathbringer Harbinger: 8/10.  Just because it’s my favorite class doesn’t mean it’s good.  Deathbringer gets the benefit of having a lot of good status options, including Poison, which is insanely powerful.  Said status attacks are also for a row, which is great.  It even gets stat buffs to attack and defense based on the number of ailments inflicted for as long as Miasma Armor is up.  but there’s the issue.  While Miasma Armor is up.  This class requires a lot of skill points to do everything it wants, and you have to keep an eye on applying Miasma Armor so you don’t lose the buffs.  It’s best at cleaning up random encounters, and can do some nice support work against most bosses, including Star Devourer.  But damage is really not that impressive, and as great as the passives to boost attack and defense are, its still underwhelming in DPS and its ability to take hits.

Deathguard Harbinger: 9/10.  Holy shit this class was great.  Ephemeral Reap is fantastic damage, and the debuffs are really good options.  It’s a great option against single-target bosses and FOEs.  That said, there are two problems.  One is setup.  Without a proper team composition, Deathguard spends a lot of time setting up debuffs to Ephemeral Reap.  Even with that setup though, there’s one way bigger problem.  It’s single-target, and dispels the debuffs.  Which means repeated setup is required.  This is compounded with Star Devourer, who turns this otherwise top-tier class into garbage instantly by being able to remove all debuffs, heal for more damage than it can deal, and generally just be a prick.  Seriously, if Star Devourer didn’t exist, I’d feel like classes were a lot better balanced.

Omnimancer Warlock: 6/10.  It’s a support Warlock, only the support isn’t very useful!  Lowering elemental attack is nowhere near as good as lowering physical attack, especially in a game without the dragons.  Stun is never reliable, and having only Arm Bind is...not ideal.  Altar could be good, but the delay really hurts.  Add to it, despite the passive that keeps the previous spell’s element and raises damage, the DPS is just way too small to be impressive.  Now that said, Altar may have one incredible use that I didn’t experience: against Star Devourer.  It’s weak to all elements, so getting two weaknesses hit per cast for three turns to buff its damage significantly may actually result in some pretty strong DPS.  So I wouldn’t completely discount it, but it’s not as good as Elemancer overall.

Elemancer Warlock: 8/10.  It’s not a spectacular class, but I do love it.  It’s a bit standard, and the only interesting thing it can do is Amplify + Focus Chant + Element of choice.  With another class that has INT-based attacks, I’m sure damage gets way better.  But that invites a lot of team restriction, and it’s not my favorite option.

Spirit Evoker Necromancer: 5/10.  It’s a cool idea, but conflict with Dragoon only drags it lower, because it has very little DPS at all, and Wraith Dance was super disappointing.  Even with the best of passives, you’re lucky to get a couple hundred damage.  It’s not a terrible reserve healer, though, and it does get Fire and Ice attacks from the Wraiths, so that helps as an alternative, it’s just...nowhere near as good as the parts it tries to embody.

Spirit Broker Necromancer: ???.  The other class I haven’t used.

Flying Falcon Rover: 7.5/10.  Okay, I don’t like the Rover classes.  The TP cost for the animal alone is massive, and kind of a problem, especially early game where you summon it and can’t do much else.  That said, the Hawk option has one really great move: Sky Dive.  The damage output exceeds even Cannon Bearer Dragoon, and it has Head Bind.  It’s a three-turns-later effect, so similar to the Dragoon as well.  So it’s actually probably better than I give it credit for.  But it took a lot of time to get to that skill, and early and mid-game it’s pretty underwhelming.

Hunting Hound Rover: 5/10.  You know what’s never been good?  Alternate healing classes without revival capabilities, especially in a game where it’s hard as hell to get Nectar II.  It’s more about having an offensive healer, but the lack of revival really hurts it, since most parties are going to want that revival effect if you’re going to deal significant DPS.  It just can’t compete as well for a slot, since it tries to do a bunch of things but isn’t successful at any.

Blade Dancer Masurao: 9/10.  “Great, but not ideal” is a good summation.  Great damage, a lot of good single-target skills makes it a good DPS alongside something that hits a row or all targets.  Its main drawback is that it’s frail.  Like, really frail.  If you want the maximum benefit from its skills, you want all four equipment slots to be katanas.  With only three, you can get a piece of armor, and a 68% chance to second strike with skills.  With four katanas, any hit will now kill you, but you guarantee double-strike, and most skills gain more damage outright, as well as extra hits.  It’s a class where you can decide between three swords for better protection, or four swords for max damage, and that decision is probably based on your party.  Have a Shield Bearer Dragoon?  Probably going to go 4.  Have just a Botanist?  3 might be smarter.  Have neither?  You probably want a different class.  It’s also limited in mid-game.  You need a lot of skills available for this class to shine with multiple katanas, so it’s only really going to stand out in late and post game.

Blade Master Masurao: 9/10.  Great passives, and really, Petal Scatter is such a good skill for dealing with multiple targets.  So really good at dealing with Star Devourer.  Unfortunately, that skill cost a lot more, so expect to need Amrita for that fight...  Still, this is a more consistently great option.  It’s not as much a standout as some in post-game, but early and mid-game still lets it shine spectacularly.

Divine Punisher Shaman: 1/10.  Okay, this seems harsh.  But I stand by it.  Sincerely ask yourself: what does this class have that Divine Herald doesn’t?  Mana Oracle.  That’s it.  But that’s two turns of setup, one of which applies a buff, and the damage the move deals isn’t even that great.  Pretty sure Elemancer can outdamage that one move, which is shameful.  It’s not a good team player, needs very specific parties to the point of feeling gimmicky (I have yet to hear of one with any success without at least two copies of this class), and is vastly outclassed in every possible way.  Which sucks, because “Divine Punisher” is the coolest title.

Divine Herald: 6/10.  Like Princess, but worse!  I think the main issue is that you don’t have enough skill points for the things you want.  Really, you kinda pick the specific buffs you want and otherwise play it as a passive healer.  The problem is, running this with Botanist means you have two incredibly passive characters now, so your front line better be damn offensive if you’re going to make it work.  Otherwise, you give up on revival, which is the same issue as with the Hound Rover.  It’s still a good support, but unlike Princess, it feels too limited.  There’s absolutely no offensive presence at all, there’s nothing like Protect Order that really frees it up, and it’s just...not as impressive.

Merciful Healer Botanist: 7.5/10.  It’s...good.  Not particularly unique or interesting, but good.  Almost necessary for certain party builds.  Because a lot of the best damage dealing classes lose HP or defense, you kinda need this level of revival and party-wide healing that literally no other class has.  So it’s mandatory.  Which frustrates me, because it has so little otherwise.  For Deathguard Harbinger, it can still access Poison or Blind smoke skills, and has an elemental defense debuff to help Elemancer or even Omnimancer.  It also doesn’t need a ton of skills to be effective, so you do have those alternative options.  It’s just boring to me.  A boring linchpin.

Graced Poisoner Botanist: 9/10.  This class, on the other hand, is awesome.  Smoke skills are great to inflict status, and the debuff that makes the enemy more vulnerable is fantastic.  It even hits a row, which is appreciated.  It’s a good team player that retains a row healing spell and revival.  Go figure, a non-healing class has access to a revival skill, but the actual healing alternatives don’t.  That said, its offense isn’t great.  Smokebomb can be good, but if you’re running Ephemeral Reap, you likely won’t want to Smokebomb in the first place, so plan accordingly.  Even then, it’s not that spectacular, so it’s more a good ally for random encounters, especially with Auto-Smoke to mess them up good.  I really loved this class, even if it could be a bit more effective in boss battles.