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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1980134" data-attributes="member: 15470">Hello, shy one. I'd suggest that a class you've created belongs in the 'House Rules' forum; perhaps a moderator will move this there for us.Your initial paragraph talks about the idea of role-playing, and states that you're having a bit of a trouble with it; I'd like to touch on a few points to that. First, the idea is to enjoy yourself by providing a fantastic outlet, a way to experience a make-believe world through a made-up persona. One way to 'bring it to life' for yourself is to come up with a character (and I mean more in the stage 'persona' meaning) that you can identify with and envy a bit but would basically know what s/he would do in any situation. A great starting point is "What is this person passionate about?" What is their 'cause', as it were? Some people think about it by way of designing or describing a childhood to themselves, and imagining how that person might turn out. "My childhood home was razed by orcs." Hmm, I could a.) hate orcs, and be dedicated to killing them; b.) have sworn never to be powerless to defend the ones I love, or perhaps to defend the helpless, or perhaps just to defend myself; c.) have become exceptionally pacifistic, opposed to violence as a solution.... I'm sure you can come up with other ideas from that, and of course you can pick other childhood events to 'form' a personality from. Some people start with 'I'm going to play, well, ME, just with some cool powers and abilities and none of these real-world obligations, won't THAT be cool!'; others explore the 'I want to let out the dark rat-b*****d that I never let out in real life' path. So, a problem with 'role-playing' is probably best addressed by considering 'What do I want / who do I want to make-believe to be' rather than wandering down the path of inventing your own class. I'd also caution against the make-a-class path in your first campaign; its notoriously easy to 'overpower' a class, making it stack up a bit too well against its neighbors in the rule books. You could certainly play a Druid or a Cleric class with the angle that you have in mind.-------Onward: those first three paragraphs (Characteristics, Alignment, and Religion) are exactly the sort of thing you want to create a 'role' to play; whether they belong in a class description or in a 'personal religion' description of your character (they could both be made to work with either of the 'core' divine-spellcaster classes), they're a great starting point.The core of your work looks like a subtle modification of the Druid; surrendering Wild Shape for a slew of other feats: the Fetishes, Heightened Senses, Heal Animals, Endurance. That probably works. Under Skills, I'm surprised you didn't make 'Listen (WIS)' a class skill, and 'Climb (STR)' also seems to fit the concept (if you think of climbing trees, perhaps climbing walls doesn't fit). The Fetishes, I think are a bit 'abrupt': 2 at first level feels 'strong', and then not getting any more until 10th level is a long time, where you get two more? I'd spread them out, maybe '1 minor at 1st level; 1 minor at 5th level; 1 major at 10th level; 1 major at 15th level; 1 legendary at 20th level'; and then not giving the character any additional feats or powers at that level - the fetish IS your advance in power, really.Modifying 'Animal Companion' to 'Spirit Familiar' or 'Totem Spirit' might be akin-to-balanced, but I think dropping both in is a little powerful (since, from level 5 onwards, you now have three fighting creatures instead of two); maybe if you combine both in a way: spirit familiar starts out very vague, answering 1 question at 1st level, on to 2 at 3rd, 3 at 5th, and from 5th on can be summoned to phisically manifest (in increasing power and for longer duration) over the next level progression. (That's actually my favorite part of the class, btw - a great 'plot hook' device for a GM. "No, your totem spirit tells you to go THAT way..."-------You're also missing a few things which are 'class attributes' and play heavily into the 'am I balanced with other classes equation': Skill Points at first levelSkill points at each additional level   (I'd suggest 2+Int modifier for both, akin to a cleric and less than a druid unless you are reducing some of the overall class power, as noted above)Weapon Proficiency and Armor ProficiencySpell list (w.g., which spells can I cast)-------You need to stat out the Spirit Familiar a bit more; see the Animal Companion rules under Druid for an example.-------The Fetishes look derivative, presumably from one of the works you mentioned above, so I'm probably wandering off into critiquing somebody's published work when I say this, but they aren't particularly balanced against each other: +2 to Swim checks feels 'right' for a weak secondary power granted to a first-level character, while +2 to hit with a single weapon feels stronger than anything a fighter can get at similar level (e.g., a first level Warrior Priest/ess with this fetish is slightly better than a first level fighter toe-to-toe, or even with a fighter who has devoted a Feat to matching it, which feels 'wrong' given spells, etc.); +2 to AC is similarly strong. Both become quite reasonable if they have a 1 min/level once/day restriction, or some such: you can 'buff' up beyond the fighter for a single fight, but over the long haul, your class ought to be weaker than the fighter at slugging it out in the front lines.The Major Fetishes start getting extremely strong: a 15th-level Warrior Priest can dish out 45d6 in healing per day via the Great Healing fetish, which is much much stronger than I would allow in my game; compare it to 'lay on hands' for a 15th-level Paladin, which is "Chr modified x level", and so might be something like 45-90 points, not 45-270 points. I'd wander through them with a fine-toothed comb, comparing them out across the realm of 'all classes' for balance, and err on the side of underpowering rather than overpowering; also stat out how many times they can be used per day, etc.--------The Spells its not possible to critique without a bit more data: spell level and casting time come to mind, and it would also be useful to know what your DM is playing with in terms of accepting other third-party material; for the most part, I'd recommend playing up existing spells with 'colour' rather than creating entirely new spells: there are plenty of divination spells, for example, which are similar in effect to 'Contact Spirits', and could be redirected (instead of speaking with my diety / my dieties' agent, I'm speaking with a spirit); you could certainly 'describe', for example, a Bull's Strength spell with 'I paint two angry red stripes on my face, and the rest of the group sees my muscles bulge beneath my tunic...' to give some of the flavor of 'Spirit Paint' without having to create a new spell. In general, Spells are the most difficult to get 'right' due to the possibilities of combination and permutation, adding one spell with another to get a truly wicked combination. ---------Overall, it looks like a reasonable start, and fun to play, though I would still advise towards playing one of the core classes with the motif and personality you want to give this class rather than embarking on the whole class creation thing!</blockquote>

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