05-03-2020, 12:57 AM
Hello, fine folk of FFD20. I've been running a game in your Pathfinder version for a little while now, and recently a player has decided to run a Culinarian. Now, of course I can homebrew a system that's already a massive homebrew, but I thought the problems with this archetype worth mentioning, as a lot of classes are very overpowered, and I'm not looking to break the Culinarian but instead maybe make it a little more consistent and less disappointing. Chemists already lose a lot versus the Pathfinder class they're based on, and while the Culinarian does offer some back up healing and support options, combat wise it falls flat. Here's a few suggested ideas to help just give the archetype a little push.
1. Full BaB. While Chemist have 3/4ths BaB because they target Ranged Touch attack with their most important abilities, the Culinarian uses Chef Weapons and is very melee oriented. It should really be a full BaB archetype. I know it's a rare thing to change the BaB of a class in an archetype, but this one kind of needs it. Turning a mid-range class into a melee class inherently makes it worse than it was before, and no, the recipes don't make up for losing Infinite Bombs. They're nice, but unlike the bombs they're not infinite, and to make the most of them the Culinarian needs to hit in melee, so again the 3/4ths BaB really hurts.
2. Weapon Spec for Chef Weapons. Culinarians should be treated as Fighters for the purpose of Chef Weapons. Or, since Fighters in FFD20 are a little different from their counterpart in Pathfinder, Culinarians should get Chosen Weapon for Chef Weapons. Whichever flavor suits the rules better.
3. Meals. The main ability of the Culinarian is ... underwhelming. Yes, the ability is really good... when it triggers, 3 or 5 rounds into the fight. That is an incredibly long time to wait. Also I noticed Meals has three options for a 3 Course Meal, but Appetizer has no payout listed. Even so, if I'm understanding it right, the Payout happens after 5 rounds, and yes they do get their Recipe bonus while building to the Payout, but the tradeoff is they can't use their recipes in a flexible manner. If they're serving a meal, they need to serve the elements in the specific order or they get no Payout and the meal is ruined and they lose their class feature for the day. So it's a one time ability that takes time to activate, restricts options, and is only good for one fight. This needs an overhaul. It's just not good enough for everything a Culinarian gives up.
Now I realize the other way to read the Meal is that as long as you're serving the meal you get the bonus listed on all three or five attacks, which is phenomenally better, but then there's no payout at the end, and the way the ability- and the word Payout itself- implies the effect comes at the end of the meal, so if this is the intention the feature needs significant rewording to reflect the intention.
Anyhow, I plan to implement most of these changes in my game, but I really thought they were worth bringing up as it could reflect future ways in which we think about balancing an archetype that completely flips what the class does.
1. Full BaB. While Chemist have 3/4ths BaB because they target Ranged Touch attack with their most important abilities, the Culinarian uses Chef Weapons and is very melee oriented. It should really be a full BaB archetype. I know it's a rare thing to change the BaB of a class in an archetype, but this one kind of needs it. Turning a mid-range class into a melee class inherently makes it worse than it was before, and no, the recipes don't make up for losing Infinite Bombs. They're nice, but unlike the bombs they're not infinite, and to make the most of them the Culinarian needs to hit in melee, so again the 3/4ths BaB really hurts.
2. Weapon Spec for Chef Weapons. Culinarians should be treated as Fighters for the purpose of Chef Weapons. Or, since Fighters in FFD20 are a little different from their counterpart in Pathfinder, Culinarians should get Chosen Weapon for Chef Weapons. Whichever flavor suits the rules better.
3. Meals. The main ability of the Culinarian is ... underwhelming. Yes, the ability is really good... when it triggers, 3 or 5 rounds into the fight. That is an incredibly long time to wait. Also I noticed Meals has three options for a 3 Course Meal, but Appetizer has no payout listed. Even so, if I'm understanding it right, the Payout happens after 5 rounds, and yes they do get their Recipe bonus while building to the Payout, but the tradeoff is they can't use their recipes in a flexible manner. If they're serving a meal, they need to serve the elements in the specific order or they get no Payout and the meal is ruined and they lose their class feature for the day. So it's a one time ability that takes time to activate, restricts options, and is only good for one fight. This needs an overhaul. It's just not good enough for everything a Culinarian gives up.
Now I realize the other way to read the Meal is that as long as you're serving the meal you get the bonus listed on all three or five attacks, which is phenomenally better, but then there's no payout at the end, and the way the ability- and the word Payout itself- implies the effect comes at the end of the meal, so if this is the intention the feature needs significant rewording to reflect the intention.
Anyhow, I plan to implement most of these changes in my game, but I really thought they were worth bringing up as it could reflect future ways in which we think about balancing an archetype that completely flips what the class does.