Ultimate Magic

Viktyr Gehrig · May 14, 2011

Pretty big chunk of it is up over at PFSRD and I've been looking through it to wile away the time until I can obtain my own.

Magus class, some kind of Gish-in-a-can that I don't care about.

Bunch of new options for the other casters. New archetypes for everybody.

New discoveries for Alchemist. Archetypes include Chirurgeon. Psychonaut, and Vivisectionist.
Specialty bardic performances for Bards. Archetypes include Demagogue and Geisha.
Whole list of ACFs for Channel Energy for Clerics. Cloistered Cleric, Separatist, Undead Lord.
Animal and Terrain Domains for Druids. Dragon Shaman, Saurian Shaman, Reincarnated Druid.
Replacement Domains for Inquisitors.
Monk Vows. Meh. Only one archetype, but it's a big one; the Qigong Monk, which replaces almost all of the standard features for a buffet of options.
New Oracle Mysteries. Dual Cursed Oracle, Enlightened Philosopher.
Oathbound Paladins. Basically a huge list of Archetypes. The Ultimate Mercy feat lets them spend 10 uses of Lay on Hands to raise dead with no material component.
Ranger Traps and an Archetype to use them.
New Sorcerer bloodlines and archetypes that modify them.
Eidolon templates for the Summoner, new Evolutions. Broodmasters have multiple weaker Eidolons. Synthesists fuse with their Eidolons to become melee monsters.
Arcane discoveries for Wizards. Replace bonus feats, give you everything from crafting bonuses to animal speech to immortality. Metal and Wood elemental schools.
Saved my favorite for last. Witch. Oh god yes. New hexes. Alternate patron lists. Archetypes. The Hedge Witch Archetype sacrifices her 4th and 8th level hexes for spontaneous healing like a Good Cleric. With no alignment restriction. A full spellcasting, Int-based, arcane healer with no alignment restriction. I have wanted this for ten years and everyone keeps telling me to just play a Cleric. Awwwyeah.

Bunch of new feats, goodies for everyone, but the stuff that really stands out to me are the Paladin feats. Paladins got a lot of love in this book.

Whole bunch of new spells, expanding everyone's spell list and several spells exclusively for use as Qigong Monk SLAs.

Create demiplane, complete with lesser and greater versions. Available to Cleric, Wizard, and Witch but requires permanency to last longer than 1 day/level. I am now choosing to view the absence of permanency from the others' spell lists as an oversight. Hope my DM sees it my way.
Anthropomorphic animal. It's like a temporary, weird version of awaken.
Interplanetary teleport. Conspicuously absent from the Witch list.
A 5th level version of astral projection.
Cape of wasps, in case you want to be COVERED IN BEEEEEES. Also, a pretty nice spell, like a cross between fire shield and fly.
Control summoned creature. "Nice looking succubus you just summoned. Mine now."
All kinds of really specialized mind control.
Next time the town guards decide to hassle you, cast epidemic or plague storm. Hope they like leprosy.
You can make it rain poisonous frogs. Poisonous. Frogs. From the sky. Yes.

I haven't even read half of it yet, and I am already very, very happy with this book.

frankthedm · May 15, 2011

Viktyr Korimir said:
Interplanetary teleport. Conspicuously absent from the Witch list.

Seems reasonable that the witch's patron would want to keep the witch within Its sphere of influence.

Celtavian · May 15, 2011

re

Cross-blooded sorcerer Dragon and Orc bloodline here I come. The ultimate blaster lives. I will destroy everything...every damn thing.

Viktyr Gehrig · May 15, 2011

frankthedm said:
Seems reasonable that the witch's patron would want to keep the witch within Its sphere of influence.

Makes sense, but it's been called to my attention that interplanetary teleport is still listed as a Witch spell in the Inner Sea World Guide. I don't have the book yet, but it suggests that the absence is a mere oversight.

Dingo333 · May 15, 2011

I am ready to build a synthesist summoner

One step away from being a eidolon itself, and just as powerful I feel

Add the feats and spells this book adds, and you have a winner with me

Only flaw I see is a lack of an archer type magus, heres hoping for ultimate combat though

Henry · May 15, 2011

Important Question: Is there even a NEED for an "Interplanetary Teleport" spell, given that Greater Teleport at 7th level says:

1. There's no distance limit
2. You don't even have to have been or seen the place you're going, you just need a description?

Given that the planets aren't "planar" travel, I can't say there's even a good reason there's a spell beyond Greater Teleport (???)

paradox42 · May 15, 2011

I had an idea for a Summoner that I couldn't quite make work before- but now it's easy! Master Summoner Archetype. Eidolon is Small, never gets bigger, and isn't built for combat at all- instead it's built to have high INT and as many maxed-out Knowledge skills as possible. The kicker: it looks like an animated book, like the "Monster book of monsters" from Harry Potter.

Idea is, the Summoner consults the book and uses it to Summon up some help when he needs it. With the old Summoner, he wouldn't be able to have both the book and a summoned critter out at the same time; with Master Summoner he now can. And as an added bonus, he can even do more SLAs per day, and can keep up any number of them at one time! I am so building this when I get a proper chance.

Thazar · May 16, 2011

Basically this is an expansion due to a campaign setting with more then one planet. Greater teleport in core is not designed for a game with more then one planet. There is a lot of discussion on the Paizo forums about this from the devs.

Basically if you hate this new spell, then leave it alone in your game. Otherwise the intent of greater teleport is to be on the same world... not new worlds or new planes.

Viktyr Gehrig · May 16, 2011

Henry said:
Important Question: Is there even a NEED for an "Interplanetary Teleport" spell, given that Greater Teleport at 7th level says:

1. There's no distance limit
2. You don't even have to have been or seen the place you're going, you just need a description?

Given that the planets aren't "planar" travel, I can't say there's even a good reason there's a spell beyond Greater Teleport (???)

The existence of interplanetary teleport essentially retcons a range limitation into greater teleport. Quite honestly, I prefer it that way.

Volaran · May 16, 2011

Henry said:
Important Question: Is there even a NEED for an "Interplanetary Teleport" spell, given that Greater Teleport at 7th level says:

1. There's no distance limit
2. You don't even have to have been or seen the place you're going, you just need a description?

Given that the planets aren't "planar" travel, I can't say there's even a good reason there's a spell beyond Greater Teleport (???)

You may want to check out the Interplanetary Teleport thread on the Paizo boards. It started when the new campaign setting came out.

The weird thing is, I was pretty sure James Jaccobs had stated in that thread that the spell was in the Golarion book, and wouldn't be in Ultimate Magic because that particular restriction was specific to official campaign settings. For that reason, I was surprised to see it in Ultimate Magic.

Easy enough to just ignore if you prefer PCs having access to multiple planets when they would have access to 7th level spells instead of 9th. I think for me it would largely depend on the kind of campaign I was running.