Phantom AC Bugged

[electric mayhem]

Is it possible that this change to the Phantom AC feat is more of a surprise to player(s), rather than a major problem fundamentally?
Without running a search now to explore the forums, was this fundamental change to Phantom advertised in an easily identifiable place on the forums to the player base? Or just briefly mentioned in the Module Updates section (I know it was there, as I religiously check those on each update, but maybe not everyone does??)
Is this potentially a miscommunication issue at heart?

[Diamore]

Dipping 3 levels into phantom, does not make the class a good option.

Agreed. It was a decent, although not always good, option before this change. Now builds that did this will just revert to using Monk if all they were after was AC along with Hide and MS.

Nor does the countless builds with rogue 3 make rogue a better class.

This statement is difficult to parse so I hope I understood it correctly.

Rogue 3 is a better choice in almost every build I have seen on this site. This does not MAKE Rogue a better class, this is BECAUSE Rogue is a better class. Doubly so for the 3 level dip now.

Is it possible that this change to the Phantom AC feat is more of a surprise to player(s), rather than a major problem fundamentally?

This is part of the problem, but is fixed because of the current RCR periods. I RCR'd out all my Phantom levels after mrm3ntalist'S first post. It probably isn't a major problem regardless as Phantom is a rarely chosen class.

That said, I am always against reducing the effectiveness of classes and their combinations without good reason. Usually this would be because of balance concerns but that doesn't appear to be the case as stated by Chad and Ment.

[chad878262]

Phantom is not a rarely chosen class, I've provided builds to 5 different players just during the rcr build. The objectively best builds are P21/A9 or P25/SD5. Players in the know also enjoy the ability to spam hips/ ghost step when needed which makes you immune to any counter attacks after you sneak attack (to the point it should likely be nerfed.

In addition, phantom should give no confusion as the class doesn't exist in pnp. We've made changes to the ninja class, but the name alone should avoid someone making the assumption that it's exactly the same as Kaedrins.

[Wolfrayne]

There are soooooo many phantoms/phantom dips out there its ridiculous.... even a 3 dip gives some goodies worth it in some cases. I personally dont see a problem with a little loss of AC. It gets so stupidly boring seeing everyone run around with 50+ AC cause why not right?

[Diamore]

Point conceded. Its a frequently chosen dip class and this may impact multiple players.
I have only partied with two people who even had sneak attack in the last 5 weeks so I will have to take your testimony as fact.

All other points still stand.

[SyntheticRose]

Maybe drop those 4 levels of Fighter in exchange for 4 more Phantom? Then you'd have 7 levels of WIS bonus to AC, which is filled out by having 24 WIS and is better than most armour types.

You'd also have 2d6 more sneak attack, lots more skills, and only lose 1 BAB and some feats for the change.

[Diamore]

The theme was a nature god "ninja" of Leira. Fighter was required to access Ki Step and remain non-lawful, handily giving me the Martial Proficiency for my gimmick Halberd (glaive look).