The Outer Channeler (Fixed)

 Some time ago, I played with the idea of a Medium character, in order to create a versatile type that could fill many different roles. I liked the Outer Channeler archetype for the chance to get an aligned familiar- but as I tried it, I noticed something was off.

1) If the Outer Channeler is channeling the Hierophant spirit, replacing the intermediate power makes the greater power useless, as it’s based on the character’s ability to channel energy.

2) When the Outer Channeler gains the Trance of Three ability, what good is it for him since all his outer spirits grant the same intermediate power?

I tried asking the archetype’s original author about that, but too much time had passed and he didn’t remember anymore. So I tried to do something about it myself. Here’s the fixed version. The boldfaced parts are mine.

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Outer Channeler

Rather than invite strange entities and departed souls into their bodies, outer channelers invite extraplanar entities to inhabit them, allowing the likes of angels and demons to use them as vessels in exchange for power. However, this bond always comes with a cost.

Outsider Invocation (Su): At 1st level, an outer channeler chooses one outsider subtype from among those listed under Outsider Spirits. His alignment must be within one step of the outsider’s alignment in order to choose it, and once chosen it cannot be changed. Instead of channeling spirits, an outer channeler invokes outsiders of his chosen subtype during his seance.

Each subtype lists six outsiders that, when invoked, provide the outer channeler with the same benefits as the outsider’s associated spirit. For example, an outer channeler with angel as his chosen subtype can invoke the astral deva, balisse, empyrean, movanic deva, planetar, and solar outsiders, which function like the trickster, hierophant, archmage, champion, marshal, and guardian spirits, respectively.

An outer channeler doesn’t gain the intermediate power normally granted by his invoked outsider’s associated spirit. Instead, he gains the intermediate power noted in his invoked outsider’s subtype, regardless of which spirit that invoked outsider is associated with. The medium can later choose to gain an intermediate spirit power replaced this way in place of the greater or supreme power granted by the same spirit. Furthermore, the outer channeler gains a gift at 13th level, as noted in his invoked outsider subtype.

An invoked outsider acts as a spirit for all other effects, including the astral beacon class feature.

This ability alters spirit and spirit power (intermediate).

Taboo (Ex): Whenever he invokes an outsider, an outer channeler must accept one taboo from among those listed by his chosen outsider’s subtype before the outsider will enter his body. Accepting this taboo provides the outer channeler with no benefits other than those gained from channeling a spirit; if he wishes to gain additional uses of his spirit purge ability as described by the taboo class feature, he must accept a second taboo from among those listed by the legend that his chosen outsider subtype functions as. If the outer channeler breaks this mandatory taboo, the outsider immediately leaves and the outer channeler can’t invoke a new outsider until he atones (as per atonement). This ability alters taboo.

Shared Seance (Su): An outer channeler’s ally cannot gain the seance boon from an outer channeler’s outsider spirit if that ally’s alignment is more than one step away from the outsider’s alignment.

This ability alters shared seance.

Servitor (Ex): At 3rd level, an outer channeler can summon the spirit of an outsider of his chosen subtype and house it within the body of an ordinary animal. Initially, the outsider takes the form of this animal and acts in all ways as an ordinary familiar of that type. At 7th level, the animal transforms into an outsider, taking the form of an improved familiar with the outer channeler’s chosen outsider subtype (such as a cassisian for an angel-invoking medium). The outer channeler doesn’t need to meet the prerequisites to gain this improved familiar, and the improved familiar gains the ability to change shape between its outsider form and its animal form at will (as per beast shape II).

This ability replaces a medium’s haunt channeler and connection channel.

Site Channeling (Su): At 5th level, an outer channeler can invoke outsiders from any site tied to any of the following: creatures of his chosen subtype, deities that grant his chosen subtype as a cleric subdomain, or planes that creatures of his chosen subtype are native to. This is in addition to the usual list of sites from which he can channel his outsiders.

This ability replaces location channel.

Ask the Planes (Sp): At 14th level, an outer channeler gains the ask the spirits ability of the standard medium, except he sends his consciousness to a native plane of his chosen outsider subtype (Heaven for archons, Hell for devils, any good-aligned plane for angels, and so on).

This ability alters ask the spirits and replaces astral journey.

Trance of Three Worlds (Su): At 15th level, the medium learned to host the spirits of the natural world and the deceased within his body, in addition to outsiders. This works as trance of three, except the medium gains the base intermediate power of his secondary spirit. This alters trance of three.

Ranger Archetype: Spirit Listener

Here's a hybrid archetype I made long ago on the Paizo boards. It was part of my attempt to convert another of the Cyborgs... 005!

The team's strong guy is strong in soul as he is in body. Proud of his Apache heritage, he is always in contact with the spirits of nature, and this makes Ranger one of his chosen classes. (As for the second... we'll see another time...). At the same time, I felt that with the Advanced Class Guide rules out, the Spirit Ranger archetype needed an updating. Here's the result.

Spirit Listener (Ranger)

A spirit listener learns how to commune with the spirits who inhabit the lands he has sworn to protect. Reflective and wise, this shamanic ranger acts as a true intermediary between man and nature.

Spirit Bond (Ex): At 4th level, instead of forming a bond with his hunting companions or an animal companion, the spirit listener forms a bond with the spirits of nature dwelling in his favored terrain. He chooses one shaman spirit related to his first favored terrain. He adds that spirit’s 1st–4th level spirit magic spells to his ranger spell list, and can cast these spells spontaneously sacrificing a spell slot of equal level. These are the choices of spirits dwelling in each terrain:

Cold: Mammoth, Waves

Desert: Flame

Forest: Nature, Wood

Jungle: Nature, Wood

Mountain: Stone, Wind

Plains: Mammoth, Nature

Planes: Heavens, Life

Swamp: Bones, Waves

Underground: Bones, Stone

Urban: Battle, Lore

Water: Waves

The spirit listener also gains the spirit ability of his terrain spirit. At 9th level, he gains one hex of his choice from the list of hexes available to his terrain spirit. At 16th level, he gains the greater spirit ability of his terrain spirit. The spirit listener doesn't need to be in his favored terrain in order to use these abilities. His effective shaman level for them is equal to his shaman level -3. This ability replaces hunter’s bond, evasion, and improved evasion.
Spirit–Wise (Sp): At 12th level, as long as he is within one of his favored terrains, the spirit listener can temporarily bond with a spirit related to that terrain. He gains access to one hex from the list of that terrain’s spirit for 24 hours, but the bond ends if he leaves the spirit’s terrain. If he is in his fixed spirit's permanent terrain, he can choose a second, temporary hex granted by that terrain's spirit.
The spirit listener can’t forge a temporary bond with more than one spirit at a time, and can’t bond with a new spirit before 24 hours are passed, even if the first bond ends before this time. The spirit listener doesn’t gain access to the spirit magic spells or abilities granted by his wandering terrain spirit.
At 17th level, the spirit listener needs no more to stay in one of his favored terrains in order to forge or maintain the bond with that terrain’s spirit. This ability replaces camouflage and hide in plain sight.

Fixed Archetype: The Nature Sage

While waiting for my rant about my favored priestly Druid characters... here's one I did myself. A little Ancient Guardian, a little Halcyon Druid, and a little Nature Priest.

Nature Sage

A nature sage is devoted to a deity of nature and community, charged with the duty of  mediate between civilization and nature, so that woodland settlements may prosper and man and green can benefit each other.

Faithful: Like a cleric, a nature sage must worship a deity and her alignment must be within one step of her deity’s. This replaces the normal druid alignment restrictions.

Tamed Faith: A nature sage is proficient with her deity’s favored weapon.

Chosen Druid (Ex): A nature sage must choose a domain for her nature bond. Her choice is limited to her deity’s domains (or subdomains) in place of those typically available to a druid.
This ability alters nature bond.

Patience of Nature (Ex): A nature sage adds Diplomacy, Perform (oratory), and Sense Motive to her list of class skills and gains an insight bonus equal to half her druid level on such checks. This ability replaces nature sense and trackless step.

Dispel Hostility (Su): A nature sage doesn’t gain spontaneous casting at 1st level. Instead, she can channel stored spell energy into a spell capable of dispelling hostile thoughts and strong emotions. She can “lose” a prepared spell in order to cast calm emotions as a 1st level spell. Instead of the normal Will saving throw for that spell, the DC of a calm emotions spell cast with this ability is 10 + ½ the nature sage’s druid level + her Wisdom modifier. This ability replaces spontaneous casting.

Clerical Sage (Su): At 3rd level and every level thereafter, a nature sage chooses one spell from the cleric/oracle spell list and adds it to her druid spell list. The chosen spell must be of a level she can currently cast.
This ability replaces wild shape.

Unimpeachable (Ex): At 4th level, a nature sage gains a +4 bonus on saves against enchantments. This ability replaces resist nature’s lure.

Mental Strength (Ex): At 9th level, a nature sage gains immunity to charm and compulsion effects. This ability replaces venom immunity.

A Thousand Voices (Su): At 13th level, the nature sage can communicate with any creature with a language, as if using tongues, for up to 1 minute per druid level per day. These minutes do not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments. This ability replaces a thousand faces.

Fixing Archetypes: The Nature Rager

Up your hand if, like me, you have been disappointed by the version of the Enlightened Bloodrager archetype published in the Adventurer's Guide. I quite liked the Arcane Anthology version -even if I wouldn't have used the extra bonus feats- but retarding 0-th level spells casting to 4th level isn't a thing I can approve. Above all, this way you lose your 1st-level bloodrage power without nothing in exchange till later!

It is a thing, though, and we can't use the old version of the archetype if we want to be faithful to Rules As Written. It's not as if they were two slightly different versions, both available, like the two Grenadier alchemists or the Drunken Rager and Drunken Brute for barbarians.

Still, my 7 years old boy wants to be a lightning-casting rager with nature spells and an animal companion, and how bad a mother would I be if I didn't make him happy? So what I can do is try to "fix" the archetype taking the better parts from both versions, and removing the masked hero part to make it more setting-neutral.

What do you think about the...

Nature Rager

Through meditation and union with the forces of the world around them, some ragers gain a spiritual illumination, becoming the loyal and serene guardians of nature.

Nature Spellcasting: A nature rager’s sophisticated outlook allows him to cast an expanded array of spells. Instead of his normal spells per day and spells known for his bloodrager level, an enlightened bloodrager uses the spells per day from the medium class. This grants him the ability to learn a number of 0-level spells, which are cast like any other spells, but don’t consume spell slots and can be used again.

The nature rager adds all druid spells of 4th level and lower (including 0-level spells) to his bloodrager spell list. If a spell appears on both the bloodrager spell list and the druid spell list, the nature rager uses the lower of the two spell levels listed for the spell. The bloodrager treats any druid spells he takes with this ability as bloodrager spells for the purposes of other abilities (such as greater bloodrage).

At 5th level and every 3 levels thereafter, the nature rager can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, he loses the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least 1 level lower than the highest-level spell the nature rager can cast. The nature rager can swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

This ability alters spellcasting and replaces the bloodline power gained at 1st level and all bonus spells gained as part of a bloodline.

Illumined Bloodrage (Su): At 4th level, while bloodraging, a nature rager can still use Intelligence-, Dexterity-, and Charisma-based skills and can use abilities that require patience or concentration. This ability alters bloodrage and replaces the bloodline power gained at 4th level.

Bloodline Feat: At 6th level, a nature rager adds Nature Soul and all feats that list Nature Soul as a prerequisite to the list of feats she can select as a bloodline feat.

This ability replaces the damage reduction the bloodrager gains at 7th level; the bloodrager gains DR 1/- at 10th level, and this increases by +1 every 3 levels after that.

Bloodline Powers: At 8th level, a nature rager gains the bloodline power normally granted at 1st level. At 12th level and every 4 levels thereafter, he gains the bloodline power normally granted 8 levels earlier, to a maximum of gaining at 20th level the bloodline power normally gained at 12th level. This ability modifies bloodline power.

Bloodline: The following bloodlines are especially suitable for a nature rager: celestial, destined, draconic, elemental, and fey.