[Drop Dead Studios] Spheres of Might Open Playtest

I'm going to have to look at it closer, but Im nervous about how close it compares to a combat/spiritualist hedgewitch. On the surface, the prodigy gets good reflex saves, a martial tradition, five more talents, and the sequence effects. The hedgewitch gets tradition secrets.

Hey so just looking at some scholar things, and how would a Scholar's pet work assuming they had both Animal Training Small and Large, while it was a Sage Familiar? The increase to Intelligence looks not at all weird, but something funky happens with Sage's Knowledge. Basically it gives the familiar 2 Skill Points per level and a cap of your Familiar Level in any one skill. But since your Familiar in this case already gets some Skill Points from it's real Hit Dice, and has a skill cap normally equal to it's number of real Hit Dice, things are weird. There seem like 4 interpretations that make any sense:
Since now it has real hit dice giving Skill Points, you only use the Animal Companion points.
Since specific trumps general, you only use the rules from Sage's Knowledge, and toss out any Skill Points from the Animal Companion advancement.
You still gain the points from both sources at appropriate intervals, and you use the higher cap granted to your companion from Sage's Knowledge for all purposes.
You use both skill point sources and also both caps, so that at level 8 your familiar has 30 total Skill Points and a cap of 15 in any one skill. (Note this one is stupid but I could see someone argue for it)

I personally think 3 makes the most sense, but wanted to make sure.

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Originally Posted by Mithril Leaf

Hey so just looking at some scholar things, and how would a Scholar's pet work assuming they had both Animal Training Small and Large, while it was a Sage Familiar? The increase to Intelligence looks not at all weird, but something funky happens with Sage's Knowledge. Basically it gives the familiar 2 Skill Points per level and a cap of your Familiar Level in any one skill. But since your Familiar in this case already gets some Skill Points from it's real Hit Dice, and has a skill cap normally equal to it's number of real Hit Dice, things are weird. There seem like 4 interpretations that make any sense:
Since now it has real hit dice giving Skill Points, you only use the Animal Companion points.
Since specific trumps general, you only use the rules from Sage's Knowledge, and toss out any Skill Points from the Animal Companion advancement.
You still gain the points from both sources at appropriate intervals, and you use the higher cap granted to your companion from Sage's Knowledge for all purposes.
You use both skill point sources and also both caps, so that at level 8 your familiar has 30 total Skill Points and a cap of 15 in any one skill. (Note this one is stupid but I could see someone argue for it)

I personally think 3 makes the most sense, but wanted to make sure.

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I'm leaning towards the third option as well, but I'm going to try and double-check with my contacts at Paizo since this would come up for certain Shaman builds as well. I suspect it's niche enough that they haven't considered it yet, but I'd like our rulings to be consistent with theirs on the subject.

I'm still not sure why Striker is unarmed-only, with the possibility to expand it to light one-handed ones. I get the concept it's trying to emulate, but that concept can use all sorts of weapons.

So I finally got around to reading the Troubadour and I quite love it. Is it likely to get something of the bonus feat genre in the full release?

Also you guys should probably include some language stating that Tame animals can't pick up the Beastmastery Sphere and in turn have their own Tame animals, and so on until you run out of animal merchants in town. That way lies madness.

This is written in kickstarter page, by Adam at 23rd of August.

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Release

There is very little left for us on this end, so I am expecting Spheres of Might to be ready for layout by the end of the month. Thank you all once again for helping this project to happen, and I can't wait to show you what we've created!

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So when can we expect a release?

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Originally Posted by Hal0Badger

So when can we expect a release?

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After layout is complete, pdf's will be ready. However, similar to the sphere handbooks, there is a time period between pdf and print, because inevitably punctuation, grammatical, and format errors are found in the pdf. With sphere handbooks, this usually translates as a 2-4 week wait inbetween pdf and print copies being available. Spheres of Might however is much larger and may very well remain in pdf form for 1-2 months before being made available in print.

So can we expect a PDF release this month?

According to Adam, at this point half of the book is mostly layouted. So my personal and unconfirmed opinion is that it's more likely to be published next month.

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Originally Posted by EldritchWeaver

According to Adam, at this point half of the book is mostly layouted. So my personal and unconfirmed opinion is that it's more likely to be published next month.

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That would be really great! I cannot wait to run a SoP&SoM only game, especially with the conversion archetypes. It would be really amazing if we can get our hands on a PDF version.

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Originally Posted by Mithril Leaf

So I finally got around to reading the Troubadour and I quite love it. Is it likely to get something of the bonus feat genre in the full release?

Also you guys should probably include some language stating that Tame animals can't pick up the Beastmastery Sphere and in turn have their own Tame animals, and so on until you run out of animal merchants in town. That way lies madness.

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Tame animals taking animals will be fixed in the final, thanks.

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Originally Posted by Morty

I'm still not sure why Striker is unarmed-only, with the possibility to expand it to light one-handed ones. I get the concept it's trying to emulate, but that concept can use all sorts of weapons.

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Writer of the striker here, and the reason for that is actually more mechanical, mostly due to not wanting to give too many attacks with a two handed weapon to avoid dealing too much damage. The light/unarmed is to keep the damage more in line with the other classes and the base assumptions of the book. Since it's a send up to the monk, the unarmed is also for flavor, but I didn't want to limit it to just monk weapons since I enjoy more variety there.

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Originally Posted by N. Jolly

Writer of the striker here, and the reason for that is actually more mechanical, mostly due to not wanting to give too many attacks with a two handed weapon to avoid dealing too much damage. The light/unarmed is to keep the damage more in line with the other classes and the base assumptions of the book. Since it's a send up to the monk, the unarmed is also for flavor, but I didn't want to limit it to just monk weapons since I enjoy more variety there.

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I know that Favored Weapon exists as a striker art, but is it too late to request another striker art that allows monk weapons in general to be used?

Going to repeat my concerns about Dimensional Lunge

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I have a question regarding the legendary talent Fencing (Dimensional Lunge). If you count as being in all unoccupied squares within 30' for reach and range increment purposes, does that include ones you cannot see due to walls and such? Ones above you that you couldn't actually be in due to lack of flight or similar? Ones on the floor(s) below (Or above) you, or are other wise underground? If yes on the first and last ones, does that grant you awareness of those squares? Awareness of the area around them?

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Originally Posted by N. Jolly

Writer of the striker here, and the reason for that is actually more mechanical, mostly due to not wanting to give too many attacks with a two handed weapon to avoid dealing too much damage. The light/unarmed is to keep the damage more in line with the other classes and the base assumptions of the book. Since it's a send up to the monk, the unarmed is also for flavor, but I didn't want to limit it to just monk weapons since I enjoy more variety there.

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That's unfortunate, but understandable. I guess my preferred combat style would require using another class. Probably Conscript.

Am I right in assuming the conversion archetypes will account for SoP conversion archetypes where applicable? In the case of SoP+SoM Magi/Bloodragers, for instance.

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Originally Posted by Dr_Dinosaur

Am I right in assuming the conversion archetypes will account for SoP conversion archetypes where applicable? In the case of SoP+SoM Magi/Bloodragers, for instance.

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Whenever possible, yes. In some instances we found that it simply wasn't possible to incorporate the SoP archetype with the related SoM archetype, but in those instances we'll try to address the gap in Champions of the Spheres, the gish add-on book, with new archetypes designed to blend both systems.

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Originally Posted by Ssalarn

Whenever possible, yes. In some instances we found that it simply wasn't possible to incorporate the SoP archetype with the related SoM archetype, but in those instances we'll try to address the gap in Champions of the Spheres, the gish add-on book, with new archetypes designed to blend both systems.

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I think it should also be noted, that in cases where a SoM and SoP conversion archetype aren't compatible, you can always use the SoP archetype and then sacrifice 5, 7, or 9 feats to grant yourself a SoM talent progression.

Glad that even those edge cases are eventually getting support. Ideally I'd like to be able to just have those archetypes replace the base classes for games I run so not having to require certain characters to lose several feats would be ideal

Read the whole thread, and I didn't see it.

Alchemy Sphere requires selecting Formula or Toxin. Can I take the sphere again to get the other? If that's mentioned somewhere, where should I look for it in the Playtest Docs?

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Originally Posted by RedMop

Read the whole thread, and I didn't see it.

Alchemy Sphere requires selecting Formula or Toxin. Can I take the sphere again to get the other? If that's mentioned somewhere, where should I look for it in the Playtest Docs?

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Master Chemist in the Alchemy Sphere.

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Originally Posted by Mithril Leaf

Master Chemist in the Alchemy Sphere.

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Perfect. Are there equivalent things in the other spheres, such as Guardian?

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Originally Posted by RedMop

Perfect. Are there equivalent things in the other spheres, such as Guardian?

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Yes. Any sphere divided into packages has an option to gain the other packages.

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Originally Posted by stack

Yes. Any sphere divided into packages has an option to gain the other packages.

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Awesome. Thanks.

Next question. Investigator archetype Empiricist's Ceaseless Observation as a Scholar Knack. Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by RedMop

Next question. Investigator archetype Empiricist's Ceaseless Observation as a Scholar Knack. Thoughts?

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I'm asking if it would break anything, not if it should be included in the book.


Q: If I brew something up with the alchemy sphere, say Improved Tanglefoot Bag, then gave it to someone without the alchemy sphere, say a monkey familiar, does it still work as an Improved Tanglefoot bag?

Q: Scholar's Knack Animal Training Large: What do I use for calculating the critter's HPs, Familiar or Animal Companion?

I may be going mad, but I can't find anywhere that you get the 2 bonus initial talents like a Spherecaster would upon first gaining Combat Training? Can anyone confirm or point me to the right place? Thanks

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Originally Posted by Aipaca

I may be going mad, but I can't find anywhere that you get the 2 bonus initial talents like a Spherecaster would upon first gaining Combat Training? Can anyone confirm or point me to the right place? Thanks

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You don't. Instead you might get a martial tradition which contains 4 talents. Might because you need to take your first level in a practitioner class.

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Originally Posted by RedMop

I'm asking if it would break anything, not if it should be included in the book.


Q: If I brew something up with the alchemy sphere, say Improved Tanglefoot Bag, then gave it to someone without the alchemy sphere, say a monkey familiar, does it still work as an Improved Tanglefoot bag?

Q: Scholar's Knack Animal Training Large: What do I use for calculating the critter's HPs, Familiar or Animal Companion?

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Bump? Anyone?

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Originally Posted by RedMop

Q: If I brew something up with the alchemy sphere, say Improved Tanglefoot Bag, then gave it to someone without the alchemy sphere, say a monkey familiar, does it still work as an Improved Tanglefoot bag?

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Yes, I believe it does still work as an Improved Tanglefoot Bag; and No, I dont think it will break anything.

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Originally Posted by RedMop

Bump? Anyone?

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Your improved alchemical items retain all of their benefits even if you give them to someone else. The scholar with Beastmastery and a flock of birds using the Bombard trick is one of our more insane test builds.

For the improved companion, use whichever statistics are most beneficial. So if animal companion hit points will give you more (typically but not always the case), use those.