The Creator of Spheres of Power Here: Ask Me Anything

[EldritchWeaver]

Will the book have the same art as the PDF? I have the PDF and I find some of the art rather... underwhelming. (However my primary concern in books is crunch and this has lots.)

I don't think that there is a difference between the print version and the version you can currently download.

Regarding the Soul Weaver: When I first saw this class, it failed to grab me. I never could see me actually playing one and mechanically the way you use souls seemed cumbersome as well (although flavorwise it isn't bad). Nice, that I'm not the sole one who thinks this. You even found more weak points than I actually suspected. It might be in the far future, but I hope that once Spheres of Powers spreads far enough to have playtesting on the level Paizo books (like ACG) have before these are published that Adam creates an updated version which fixes such problems.

[Grimm2769]

I also agree on the soul weaver. I think the flavor is awesome but it does feel as though incanter does the same job better.

Questions.

1: Can a level one shapeshifter take the feat extra bestial traits for a beastial trait since it is one of their class features just no actual beastial traits till level 2?

2: Had a little confusion at the table from wording on wands. do you need to have the base sphere to use them like with staves? Or just "access" to the sphere by having access to sphere casting even if you don't actually possess the stated sphere much like old style Wands needing to be able to cast and further have the spell on your spell list but not actively in your spellbook and if you lack that it's a UMD check?

[RegalKain]

Ok! So here's my question for you, I will try to be as clear as possible. For the purpose of this Experiment, assume it's a level 5 character.

Weather Sphere Talents Associated- Greater Weather, Severe Weather, Heat Lord, Cold Lord, Wind Lord, Rain Lord.

Ok so here's my question for you, if I use Greater Weather (2 Spell Points 3 Categories) with Severe Weather (1 Spell Point, Severity Increased by 1) With the associated Lords, I can hit Severity 5 on all of my weathers, Can I utilize Greater Weather (3 Categories) to affeect Cold (Lower it's severity level) Heat (Raise it's severity level) and say Wind (Raise it) keeping myself in a safe eye. Doing this, can I hit a Severity 7 on the Heat scale? Because I am actively draining cold, and raising heat? Or do the two not stack in such a way?

If it's a level 20 character doing this (Who can with the previously mentioned talents hit Severity 7) can he "break" the meter so to speak getting things even hotter/colder? Does it scale faster? (Escalating Severity twice a round instead of once a round as is per standard?) to be fair, the book is very clear in how many levels of Severity there are, so I don't think you could break the scale by RAW, however I am curious as to the Level 5 question, as well as if you can increase/decrease faster with Greater Weather in the temperature thing.

Another thought experiment and question. If I have the Easy Focus Boon (Move action to concentrate) can I then use Greater Weather to Affect 3 things, Concentrate on it with Easy Focus, use my next turn's standard action to Affect the 4th thing, and concentrate on it with my Standard actions? I'd be immobile, and couldn't move etc but, I could then affect all weather around me? This is useless of course, if you cannot double dip Cold/Heat to speed them up, make the Severity more punishing etc.

Edit 2: Follow-up question, if I have the Maximize Metamagic, can I Maximize Boiling Lord? Causing it to do it's max damage? Or would I maximize preciptation? What would I maximize to cause my boiling rain to do it's max damage?
Edit 3: Follow-Follow-Up Question! If the Heat Severity around me is say 5 (Of my own doing) can I (Say with Greater Weather) raise the cold Severity in my square? To counteract that? Or do I have to first lower the heat levels? How does that work? Do I oppose myself?

Edit: Fixed spelling errors, added clarification.

[EldritchWeaver]

1: Can a level one shapeshifter take the feat extra bestial traits for a beastial trait since it is one of their class features just no actual beastial traits till level 2?

As I had a similar discussion about the Hedgewitch, I can authoritatively say: No, the Extra feats require the class feature. If you do not have the class feature, you may not choose the feat. A similar ruling has been provided for the Arcanist by Paizo, too.

2: Had a little confusion at the table from wording on wands. do you need to have the base sphere to use them like with staves? Or just "access" to the sphere by having access to sphere casting even if you don't actually possess the stated sphere much like old style Wands needing to be able to cast and further have the spell on your spell list but not actively in your spellbook and if you lack that it's a UMD check?

I believe you got it confused:

A caster must possess the wand’s base sphere in order to activate it.

Looking through the Staff text I only found this regarding the Magic Talent ability:

Any caster wielding the staff gains access to a magic talent contained within the staff.

Aside from having access some way to the required spheres (by having it or a companion having it or having a wand or staff having it) for creation purposes, only wands require the base sphere when using it. So you could create staffs with only a base sphere talents and then employ wands for the rest if the magic talents do not suffice on their own.

Ok! So here's my question for you, I will try to be as clear as possible. For the purpose of this Experiment, assume it's a level 5 character.

Weather Sphere Talents Associated- Greater Weather, Severe Weather, Heat Lord, Cold Lord, Wind Lord, Rain Lord.

Ok so here's my question for you, if I use Greater Weather (2 Spell Points 3 Categories) with Severe Weather (1 Spell Point, Severity Increased by 1) With the associated Lords, I can hit Severity 5 on all of my weathers, Can I utilize Greater Weather (3 Categories) to affeect Cold (Lower it's severity level) Heat (Raise it's severity level) and say Wind (Raise it) keeping myself in a safe eye. Doing this, can I hit a Severity 7 on the Heat scale? Because I am actively draining cold, and raising heat? Or do the two not stack in such a way?

If it's a level 20 character doing this (Who can with the previously mentioned talents hit Severity 7) can he "break" the meter so to speak getting things even hotter/colder? Does it scale faster? (Escalating Severity twice a round instead of once a round as is per standard?) to be fair, the book is very clear in how many levels of Severity there are, so I don't think you could break the scale by RAW, however I am curious as to the Level 5 question, as well as if you can increase/decrease faster with Greater Weather in the temperature thing.

It is a safe thing to assume that you can't circumvent the SP, talents and caster level requirements just by some clever argument.

Another thought experiment and question. If I have the Easy Focus Boon (Move action to concentrate) can I then use Greater Weather to Affect 3 things, Concentrate on it with Easy Focus, use my next turn's standard action to Affect the 4th thing, and concentrate on it with my Standard actions? I'd be immobile, and couldn't move etc but, I could then affect all weather around me? This is useless of course, if you cannot double dip Cold/Heat to speed them up, make the Severity more punishing etc.

Instead of checking, if the weather sphere can work like this, I'll answer generally: It is allowed to use both move and standard actions to concentrate on two different spells, as otherwise Easy Focus would have been formulated differently as it is. Be aware, that you still can do a 5-ft. step in this situation.

Edit 2: Follow-up question, if I have the Maximize Metamagic, can I Maximize Boiling Lord? Causing it to do it's max damage? Or would I maximize preciptation? What would I maximize to cause my boiling rain to do it's max damage?

All variable, numeric effects of a spell modified by this feat are maximized. Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables.

I don't see why Maximize wouldn't work, although it is a waste of SP here. Personally, I would use a spellcrafted effect, which includes the Destruction sphere.

Edit 3: Follow-Follow-Up Question! If the Heat Severity around me is say 5 (Of my own doing) can I (Say with Greater Weather) raise the cold Severity in my square? To counteract that? Or do I have to first lower the heat levels? How does that work? Do I oppose myself?

I'd say that counteracting your own magic works either like counteracting normal weather effects, if you don't sustain the previous effect, or like counteracting an opposing mage, where you automatically win the check, if you still sustain the previous effect (with Easy Focus). Which means that you always start at the current level and not at the level where the first spell started.

[RegalKain]

It is a safe thing to assume that you can't circumvent the SP, talents and caster level requirements just by some clever argument.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear (I was tired, my apologies.) I am not trying to circumvent SP, talents etc. I am actually trying to see how certain talents and SP usage is handled when utilizing the weather Sphere. In this case, Spending 3 Spell Points (Greather Weather 2, Severe Weather 1) with all associated Lord Talents, allows a character (Of any level with said feats) to increase their max severity with all weather effects by 2, so a first level with all the feats (Getting them through whatever ways) can control/effect up to level 5 Severity levels.

The biggest question, is if you utilize Cold and Heat at the same time,, can you double the rate at which the severity changes? If I use the Weather Sphere, and affect the Cold Severity by attempting to decrease it (Make it warmer) while ALSO (Through Greater Weather Talent) affecting Heat Severity and attempting to raise it (Making it warmer) do I slide twice on the severity scale? I am led to believe yes, since Temperature is said to share the same chart with 13 levels, but Cold and Heat are different talents, meaning you can affect them seperately. That is what I was trying to ask. It's not a clever arguement to circumvent SP, talent and Caster level requirements. It is using all three of those things, to boost the effects I can create with the Weather talent, and I am wondering how certain interactions happen that's all!

Instead of checking, if the weather sphere can work like this, I'll answer generally: It is allowed to use both move and standard actions to concentrate on two different spells, as otherwise Easy Focus would have been formulated differently as it is. Be aware, that you still can do a 5-ft. step in this situation.

This is what I assumed (I am unsure about the 5ft Step however) but I wanted to clarify! It never hurts to be safe when making a judgement call on rules, especially when the Creator of the material at hand, is willing to answer a question! Edit: The reason I am unsure about the 5ft Step, is because this is not technically a full-round action, it is a round in which you use your move and standard action on seperate tasks, so I was unsure if you were allowed to utilize a 5ft step.

I don't see why Maximize wouldn't work, although it is a waste of SP here. Personally, I would use a spellcrafted effect, which includes the Destruction sphere.

It's not a waste of SP actually, let me break it down. Level is irrelevant here so long as you have the proper talents, let me break down what you would need. For now, we'll assume a level 20 Incanter though.
Weather Sphere, Boiling Lord (This one is especially important), Greater Weather, Heat Lord, Rain Lord, Severe Weather, Storm Lord (Twice), Wind Lord, Maximize Spell, Empower Spell. If (Big If) advanced magic is allowed, Greater Size, Climate(Advanced Magic Talent)

Furthermore, assume I have the Easy Focus Boon.

This is how I view this as working (again, why I asked, if I am wrong I'd like to be corrected. ) As a 20th level character, I can affect up to 5th level Severity, I spend a spell point on Severe Weather, I can now affect level 6 Severity, with all Associated Lords (Heat, Rain, Wind) I can now affect level 7 Severity. I use 2 spell points on Greater Weather, which now allows me to affect 3 weather categories at the same time. I want to increase the Severity of Heat, Rain and Wind to 7, creating an "eye" of the storm equal to my character's space, using Wind Lord to create a downdraft so that the wind blows outwards from me. I then spend 3 Spell points to Maximize, and 2 Spell points to Empower. As per Boiling Lord "When using control weather to create precipitation of Severity 4 or above in an area of Heat severity 4 or above, you may cause the rain to boil, dealing 1d6 fire damage per precipitation level, per round to all creatures within the affected area.) base, that means I am dealing 7d6 Fire damage (No save) per round to all creatures within the area of which I can affect weather. If I maximize and empower that, it is now dealing 63 points of Fire damage (No savE) per round, to all creatures within my affected zone. Furthermore, if Advanced Magic Talents are allowed, I spend an additional spell point when I initially cast, and affect a 2-mile Radius (After the casting time of course.) as per the Climate talent. Which means that within a 2-mile radius of me, all creatures take 63 points of fire damage from boiling lord (No save), furthermore the entire area is affected as though it was a Great Flood (As per Precipitation table) And because the Heat is severity level 7, this means they take an additional 3d6 (MAx/Emp for 27 a round no save) from the heat, or! a full 10d6(Max/emp for a 90 a round no save) because of immersion in boiling liquid. In addition to this, because of taking Storm Lord twice, I choose where Lightning bolts strike (As per storm effects) and this happens once per round, my lightning at this point deals 10d8 (Max/Emp for 120 a round reflex/half) per round. Because Maximize/Empower is affecting a single spell (Greather Weather, Weather Sphere in this case) and this is a 2-MILE RADIUS.

So a Recap- 63 Fire Damage (No Save) a round from rain, 27 fire damage a round (no save) from heat Severity, or! 90 damage a round from immersion in boiling liquid (Also no save) in addition to 120 lightning damage (reflex half) once in each round, in a 2 mile radius around me, this is also a move action to maintain after it's initial casting, the first spell point dump to it, is 9 Spell points (2 Greather Weather, 1 Severe Weather, 3 Maximize, 2 Empower, 1 Climate)

I'd say that counteracting your own magic works either like counteracting normal weather effects, if you don't sustain the previous effect, or like counteracting an opposing mage, where you automatically win the check, if you still sustain the previous effect (with Easy Focus). Which means that you always start at the current level and not at the level where the first spell started.

This is what I thought, but I wasn't sure.

Another question, if an area has Heat Severity 5, can I use Cold to bring that down? Or do I have to bring it down with Heat, then immediately switch over to cold to make it say, a Cold Severity 5?

[TheEvilGM]

Under Summon, Where it says “ Every companion comes with one of the following base forms, chosen by the caster. Once made, this choice cannot be altered.”

If a caster has (and applies); Biped, additional limbs, armored companion, the first time he summons this companion. Are all the choices locked in or is Biped the only one?

Where the caster gains a new form talent, can he add it to his companion or does he need to acquire a new companion to add it to?

Or am I totally out to lunch?


Thanks, The Evil Gm

[EldritchWeaver]

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear (I was tired, my apologies.) I am not trying to circumvent SP, talents etc. I am actually trying to see how certain talents and SP usage is handled when utilizing the weather Sphere. In this case, Spending 3 Spell Points (Greather Weather 2, Severe Weather 1) with all associated Lord Talents, allows a character (Of any level with said feats) to increase their max severity with all weather effects by 2, so a first level with all the feats (Getting them through whatever ways) can control/effect up to level 5 Severity levels.

The biggest question, is if you utilize Cold and Heat at the same time,, can you double the rate at which the severity changes? If I use the Weather Sphere, and affect the Cold Severity by attempting to decrease it (Make it warmer) while ALSO (Through Greater Weather Talent) affecting Heat Severity and attempting to raise it (Making it warmer) do I slide twice on the severity scale? I am led to believe yes, since Temperature is said to share the same chart with 13 levels, but Cold and Heat are different talents, meaning you can affect them seperately. That is what I was trying to ask. It's not a clever arguement to circumvent SP, talent and Caster level requirements. It is using all three of those things, to boost the effects I can create with the Weather talent, and I am wondering how certain interactions happen that's all!

There is no way to affect temperature like this. You start for both effects separately at the same level and move at the same speed down or up.

This is what I assumed (I am unsure about the 5ft Step however) but I wanted to clarify! It never hurts to be safe when making a judgement call on rules, especially when the Creator of the material at hand, is willing to answer a question! Edit: The reason I am unsure about the 5ft Step, is because this is not technically a full-round action, it is a round in which you use your move and standard action on seperate tasks, so I was unsure if you were allowed to utilize a 5ft step.

You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement.

There is no mention that you have to do a full-round action to benefit from this.

It's not a waste of SP actually, let me break it down. Level is irrelevant here so long as you have the proper talents, let me break down what you would need. For now, we'll assume a level 20 Incanter though.
Weather Sphere, Boiling Lord (This one is especially important), Greater Weather, Heat Lord, Rain Lord, Severe Weather, Storm Lord (Twice), Wind Lord, Maximize Spell, Empower Spell. If (Big If) advanced magic is allowed, Greater Size, Climate(Advanced Magic Talent)

Furthermore, assume I have the Easy Focus Boon.

This is how I view this as working (again, why I asked, if I am wrong I'd like to be corrected. ) As a 20th level character, I can affect up to 5th level Severity, I spend a spell point on Severe Weather, I can now affect level 6 Severity, with all Associated Lords (Heat, Rain, Wind) I can now affect level 7 Severity. I use 2 spell points on Greater Weather, which now allows me to affect 3 weather categories at the same time. I want to increase the Severity of Heat, Rain and Wind to 7, creating an "eye" of the storm equal to my character's space, using Wind Lord to create a downdraft so that the wind blows outwards from me. I then spend 3 Spell points to Maximize, and 2 Spell points to Empower. As per Boiling Lord "When using control weather to create precipitation of Severity 4 or above in an area of Heat severity 4 or above, you may cause the rain to boil, dealing 1d6 fire damage per precipitation level, per round to all creatures within the affected area.) base, that means I am dealing 7d6 Fire damage (No save) per round to all creatures within the area of which I can affect weather. If I maximize and empower that, it is now dealing 63 points of Fire damage (No savE) per round, to all creatures within my affected zone. Furthermore, if Advanced Magic Talents are allowed, I spend an additional spell point when I initially cast, and affect a 2-mile Radius (After the casting time of course.) as per the Climate talent. Which means that within a 2-mile radius of me, all creatures take 63 points of fire damage from boiling lord (No save), furthermore the entire area is affected as though it was a Great Flood (As per Precipitation table) And because the Heat is severity level 7, this means they take an additional 3d6 (MAx/Emp for 27 a round no save) from the heat, or! a full 10d6(Max/emp for a 90 a round no save) because of immersion in boiling liquid. In addition to this, because of taking Storm Lord twice, I choose where Lightning bolts strike (As per storm effects) and this happens once per round, my lightning at this point deals 10d8 (Max/Emp for 120 a round reflex/half) per round. Because Maximize/Empower is affecting a single spell (Greather Weather, Weather Sphere in this case) and this is a 2-MILE RADIUS.

So a Recap- 63 Fire Damage (No Save) a round from rain, 27 fire damage a round (no save) from heat Severity, or! 90 damage a round from immersion in boiling liquid (Also no save) in addition to 120 lightning damage (reflex half) once in each round, in a 2 mile radius around me, this is also a move action to maintain after it's initial casting, the first spell point dump to it, is 9 Spell points (2 Greather Weather, 1 Severe Weather, 3 Maximize, 2 Empower, 1 Climate)

I didn't think about those combinations before (and thought that it was just 1d6 fire damage at most). I'd say, druids are really scary. If you fly around you could eradicate vast swathes of land. And you are heavily protected as well. People have to enter the disaster area to fight you first.

Another question, if an area has Heat Severity 5, can I use Cold to bring that down? Or do I have to bring it down with Heat, then immediately switch over to cold to make it say, a Cold Severity 5?

I'd say you can make a desert freeze in the middle of the day, but not warmer via Cold.

Under Summon, Where it says “ Every companion comes with one of the following base forms, chosen by the caster. Once made, this choice cannot be altered.”

If a caster has (and applies); Biped, additional limbs, armored companion, the first time he summons this companion. Are all the choices locked in or is Biped the only one?

Where the caster gains a new form talent, can he add it to his companion or does he need to acquire a new companion to add it to?

Or am I totally out to lunch?


Thanks, The Evil Gm

My understanding is that form talents only apply to a single companion. You do not need ever to take a second companion to do that. Once you have made a choice it is locked in (unless you use Retraining rules). This goes for the basic form as well.

[Adam Meyers]

Sorry for the delay in posts; Paizo Con took a lot more out of me than I thought it would.

@Kaidinah: The book is at the printer, and will arrive before Gen Con.

@Ezekiul: You can always spend a magic talent to add a new form talent to one of your summons.
Weather was a strange one to get right; there are so many rules in regard to environment, and when we looked at druid weather spells as a potential guide they were all over the place in regard to strength and severity. The levels of weather severity were based on the wind severity chart, and as far as when different effects came into play, they were also based on that chart (wind doesn't begin affecting battle until about severity level 4, so we used that same metric to gauge the other areas of weather to keep it consistant). Combined effects are awesome, but since they are strictly additive (a storm gets storm effects, wind effects, and precipitation effects), we didn't want them to come into play until severity level 4 either. There are many other ways it could have been done, this was just the approach that we felt best meshed with the environmental rules as-written.

@gparall: There are some standard tweaks that need to happen when converting pathfinder to 3.5 (drop hit dice by a die size for most casters, etc.) and the balance for the classes were based on Pathfinder mechanial levels, but as for the magic system itself, I don't think that many alterations would really be necessary. If you add the system to a 3.5 campaign, I'd be curious to hear how it ends up going.

@Rasma: We wanted to give people the power to design their own casters with SoP, but we also know that some people love using written flavor and story rather than always building their own from scratch. We wanted SoP to appeal to both groups, so we included classes that came with specific flavor (Soul Weaver, Symbiat, etc.), and others that were designed as blank templates so people could build with them (Mageknight, Incanter, Thaumaturge, Hedgewitch). That way, we could hopefully avoid both the 4th ed. problem as well as the RAW problem (losing all flavor in favor of mechanical ease to the point it isn't inspiring anymore vs. feeling obligated to use the rules as-written because if you don't you're 'doing the game wrong'.)

In essence, I wanted people to be able to create setting-parameters on the MITH classes without feeling like they were stomping player creativity (deciding that in one world all thaumaturges are warlocks and should use Cha, for example), while also giving permission to people that wanted to alter the set classes (change the casting stat of the elementalist, for example) by giving them examples of other classes in the same book they could point to that allow that freedom. Does that make sense?

@stack: If the Fey Adept still says 2, it was an oversight on our part; the Fey Adept should only get 1 form talent per companion instead of 2.

@Azernak0:
1. With page count already much higher than we'd originally planned, there was a point (especially in regard to how spells and spheres mixed) where we needed to stop and leave the rest up to the GMs. Personally, I would say Desecrate would work with the Death Sphere, yes.

2. We gave them a limited supply of bound nexus and channel energy because their abilities became so dang powerful as they raised in level. If you want someone who has all of the Death sphere, an Incanter is great. But a Soul Weaver has save or dies and unbeatable summons, and as the only class that gains them, they can be quite powerful. In my games, Soul Weavers definitely earned their keep. However, that being said, in hindsight I think I made them too specific to a niche playstyle, and increasing their channels and bound nexus to 3+Cha certainly wouldn't be a problem.

3. In a future release, we're planning on including a 'companion' you can choose with the Conjuration sphere that allows you to summon half-strength companions as an at-will ability, even changing up the body type and form talents (to represent a summon-monster style versatile conjurer). We ran out of page space to include this idea in the main book and it still needs to be tested, but that 's the idea we're playing with.
@squab: the book will look like the PDF.

@Grimm2769:
1. That's a question for how Pathfinder works instead of specifically how SoP works, but I believe the standard Pathfinder answer is that you have to have the class feature before you can spend feats to get additional types of that class feature. That being said, I wouldn't have a problem allowing it in my games.

2. You need to have the base sphere in order to use a wand, unless you want to activate it via Use Magic Device. If I were writing my own RPG instead of a Pathfinder supplement I probably wouldn't do it that way, but with the way Pathfinder works, it's what we decided to go with.

@RegalKain:
1. The two wouldn't stack that way, no.

2. That one would work.

3. Maximizing the use of the weather sphere that created the boiling water would maximize the damage, yes.

4. If you have Heat Lord, you can choose not to increase the heat in just your square. Otherwise, you can't create a weather effect that only targets one square.

5. Heat and Cold have a lot of separate things, but it's better to think of them as the same category; that's why you can't affect heat and cold at the same time as you asked about above. So you can use Cold to bring down heat, or heat to bring down heat.

@TheEvilGM: All choices of form talents and forms are locked in once chosen. New form talents can be added to old companions.

[RegalKain]

@Adam- Thanks for the replies and clearing things up! It certainly helps, also love the system it has replaced Vancian in our games, we are just trying to fine-tune things we feel need it for our playstyles.


In response to the wand question posed by Grimm, I do have a sort of follow-up question. What's a good way to tweak that for us? We feel needing the base Sphere defeats the purpose of the base Wand (1K GP wand) as it does nothing you can't already do if you can just auto-use it. It defeats the purpose of low level wands except for UMD people, who are probably better off spending the 1K somewhere else. Is there a way people can think of to help alleviate this issue? My group and I debated making it so if you have Spherecasting you can simply use Wands period, that isn't such a big deal at low levels, but I feel as though it gets more and more crazy as Wands go up in power, furthermore it makes the Barbarian who takes Basic Magic Training, capable of using all wands globally, any happy middle ground?

[Grimm2769]

Further question.

On the Thaumaturge if you take Master of Cosmos feat, am I correct in the assumption that it means when calculating the strength, or hd, of the summon you just add your forbidden lore bonus to the total no risk just sweet boon as it seems to imply from the feat?

or

Does it mean that if you apply that bonus now as you could not before that you now suffer a 15% chance of failure at summoning the companion whenever you summon him but get the boost if the cast succeeds and take the penalties if the cast fails?

[EldritchWeaver]

I've been wondering if people shouldn't get the Cantrips feat for free, if they have the Casting class feature. It provides characters with a bit more options outside of their chosen spheres (but drawbacks should be still taken into account). Also, detect magic is really missing ingame. Only problem is that this is the Detection base sphere which no one in my group actually has, as the competition is fierce. Maybe allow a cantrip which merely can tell that magic is around, but no school/sphere distinction, close range, requires concentration. Maybe 1 minute base casting time instead of 10 minutes.

[Vhaidara]

As a note, I do give free Cantrips to my players.

I think the complete list of Spheres houserules I have are as follows
1. Pick your casting stat [customization ftw]
2. Anyone with casting (or Radiance House's Occultist) can choose to get the Cantrips feat for free [because it won't break anything]
3. High Casters may not spend more than 1/3 of their base (class) talents on the Conjuration Sphere. Mid Casters may not spend more than 1/2. (This one might change is someone wants to play a thaumaturge. It may just became Incanter who is limited instead of High Casters) [because full Conjuration Incanter is BS]
4. Greater Transformation doesn't add one trait, it doubles the number you can use [Because Alteration is fun, and, in my case, my players are emulating a werewolf and a guy who turns into a dragon]

And I think that's all. Though, to be fair, they've only touched about half of the spheres/classes.

Oh, and one of my players is going to use Fey Adept to make a Toon Town character. Yes, he's going to pull classic cartoon gags with illusions. And we're working on figuring out how to Killer Gnome his shadowstuff, because I find superreal illusions hilarious.

[EldritchWeaver]

3. High Casters may not spend more than 1/3 of their base (class) talents on the Conjuration Sphere. Mid Casters may not spend more than 1/2. (This one might change is someone wants to play a thaumaturge. It may just became Incanter who is limited instead of High Casters) [because full Conjuration Incanter is BS]

BS because such a character is overpowered? Also, your restriction should be more something based on the magic talents only as the number of talents is the real problem, not the caster level. Considering your rule, I'd say the number of Conjuration talents should not exceed character level / 2 (minimum 1).

4. Greater Transformation doesn't add one trait, it doubles the number you can use [Because Alteration is fun, and, in my case, my players are emulating a werewolf and a guy who turns into a dragon]

I've seen somewhere the houserule that you can use otherwise superfluous traits can be spent as +2 each to one physical attribute. It makes certainly sense to provide someone with a high caster level some way to improve his abilities over someone with a low caster level, if otherwise there is no way to spend a trait (e.g. turning into a housecat has limited physical traits to pay for). Not sure if combining this houserule with yours would be a good idea or not.

And we're working on figuring out how to Killer Gnome his shadowstuff, because I find superreal illusions hilarious.

"Killer Gnome" is a verb here? I don't get this.

[Vhaidara]

The Conjuration fix was a quick slap together after I built a one man party with a level 6 Human Incanter (24 hour duration Beatstick, blaster, and skillmonkey). It hasn't actually become relevant for my players, and since one of them IS an Incanter using Conjuration, the principle seems to work.

Well, I would allow it, but I also run very high power games (27 point buy DSP/SoP/RH Gestalt)

Killer Gnome being the Shadow illusion build in 3.5 that achieves 120% reality with their illusions. We're looking into doing that here.

[EldritchWeaver]

Killer Gnome being the Shadow illusion build in 3.5 that achieves 120% reality with their illusions.

"We are sharper than reality!"


@Adam: What do you think about using one page or two for house rules in the Wizards Academy book? There are number of proposals which seem to popup more often and it would be nice to have them collected somewhere.

[Adam Meyers]

@RegalKain: Include a feat: Wand Aficionado. Prerequisite: caster level 1. Benefits: You can use any wand, even if you do not possess its base sphere.

@Grimm2769: The first one, but the second sounds like a great houserule if someone is trying to abuse that power and you need an additional check on it.

@EldritchWeaver: Free cantrips and a cantrip detect magic wouldn't break the game, but it would alter it. This is one of those design decisions that basically boiled down to 'what kind of game do I want to play'.

Pathfinder is the first game in the F20 tradition that allowed Detect Magic and Read Magic to be available at-will, and it significantly changed the way the game was played. I didn't include it as a cantrip because, at least for my games, I preferred it that way (if you want to read all scrolls for free and know the make, model, and hidden location of all magic items, I'd rather you pay at least a 1 magic talent fee for the power). If you don't prefer it that way, a magic-detecting cantrip (or even just giving all casters the Divination sphere as a bonus sphere) certainly would alleviate the problem.

@ELdritchWeaver: A thread collecting houserules is the kind of thing I'd love to see at the Drop Dead Studios forum; that way we can have a centralized online database for people who want to see alternate ways of doing things.

[Azernak0]

More questions from the jerk to the guy that makes all the things.

1. So, is Light supposed to still last minutes per caster level for everything? Bound Light is a touch attack no save versus Entanglement that has a save every round versus Staggered as well as having Dimensional Anchor. That is pretty damn powerful for lasting minutes a caster level and only needing a ranged or melee touch attack.

2. Also, was it your intention to have some of the classes be generally more powerful than some of the other classes in base Pathfinder? Comparing the Armorist to the Fighter was a lot like reading the Warblade compared to the 3.5 Fighter. Perhaps it is just that some of the Spheres are quite powerful. IE, a level 1 Armorist can teleport 25 feet at will with Warp or War's Rally abilities that are basically the same as the Marshal Mythic Powers.

This is not me being a "ugga bugga, too powerful!" I am actually curious if you intended the Mageknight and Armorist better than the Big Stupid Fighters?

3. The Evil GM and Ezekiul are a player and the DM in a current campaign I am in (guess who is who...). I think we might be one of the first groups to try out Mythic and Spheres of Power. Some of the ones work fine; a Swift Action attack from the Champion works out the same way. However, we are really quite confused on how a couple of things might work. Could you give us a little taste on how these two things might work?

The Archmage's and Hierophant both have a Mythic Power that is essentially "cast a Spell without using a Spell Slot, add two caster levels, and if you are spontaneous caster just cast whatever the heck you want." At the moment we are just running with "use a Sphere without burning SP" but that fails to capture the true power that it would have for spells. Would it be possible to throw us the slightest of hints or lifelines on how these things could interact?

Thanks so much for coming to these here forums and giving us some information.

By the way, you spell "that light, shiny metal that makes good armor" as both mithral and mithril in the book. :-P

[EldritchWeaver]

This is not me being a "ugga bugga, too powerful!" I am actually curious if you intended the Mageknight and Armorist better than the Big Stupid Fighters?

According to Tier classifications, Fighter is Tier 5. The general recommend Tiers for play are 3 and 4, so balancing any class against the Fighter makes the class too weak. So if you want people to play Fighters you need to boost them. I've heard about the Unchained Stamina system, that it helps in this regard.

The Evil GM and Ezekiul are a player and the DM in a current campaign I am in (guess who is who...).

Hmm... That's really difficult... You?

[stack]

I just confirmed that the last update does say two form talents for the create reality companion, so that's one for the errata list.

I suppose that companion, since it is actually an illusion, gets to benefit from staves or other effects that increase the illusion sphere CL?

[Fallenreality]

Hey, I'm one of the players in Keledrath's game (The one who was actually familiar with Pathfinder)

I've been loving the Spheres of Power stuff, started out with a Fey Adept that I intend to get back to once we reach a plot relevant point.

I rather enjoy how you managed to do the level of customization in the classes themselves that most Pathfinder classes only do with archetypes.

Are there any plans for an Artificer style class for use with Spheres of Power?

[Azernak0]

According to Tier classifications, Fighter is Tier 5. The general recommend Tiers for play are 3 and 4, so balancing any class against the Fighter makes the class too weak. So if you want people to play Fighters you need to boost them. I've heard about the Unchained Stamina system, that it helps in this regard.

Right, I wasn't saying it was a bad thing to have the Armorist/Mage Knight to be superior to the Fighter. Reading through them, I thought the same thing when I first saw ToB: "Don't let a Warblade/Armorist in the same party as a Fighter." 'Melee needs nice things too', which is why I love ToB and the Armorist/Mage Knight.

[Adam Meyers]

@Azernak0:

1. It would not be inappropriate to say it lasts for a round per caster level when used in that way.

2. I've actually found the fighter and armorist to be an amazing team when they work together: The armorist creates the perfect weapon for the situation and hands it to the fighter who, thanks to weapon training, can wield it better than the armorist ever could.

Balancing for the core fighter is like balancing for the core rogue; with the community in more-or-less agreement that it's underpowered, you always end up a little bit behind the other classes. With so many house rules (and thanks to Pathfinder Unchained, official alternate options) out there for making the fighter and rogue more powerful, we didn't feel like it was a problem if the Mageknight or Armorist were balanced more to the other martial options.

3. Mythic guidelines are in development for SoP so hopefully there should be more info on that coming, but we're playing with combinations of 'doesn't cost a spell point', 'gain the use of a talent you don't possess,' and 'increase caster level by 2'. Personally, I think all three work for that ability, and 'talent you don't possess' can be a new sphere.

@stack: That is correct.

@Fallenreality: The first class we ever did was called the Artisan, and might fit your needs. Also, see the custom tradition created for the Artificer's Guild on page 205. Beyond that I can neither confirm nor deny if we'll revisit the idea in a sphere-specific way in the future.

[Mehangel]

@Fallenreality: The first class we ever did was called the Artisan, and might fit your needs. Also, see the custom tradition created for the Artificer's Guild on page 205. Beyond that I can neither confirm nor deny if we'll revisit the idea in a sphere-specific way in the future.

If you do revisit previously published classes, I am a fan of the Dilettante class that you published and would love to see an official conversion of it into spheres of power.

[stack]

So, one thing that has bugged me is the punitive degree that the thaumaturge gets penalized for failing when using forbidden lore. Cross posted from the Drop Dead forums:

"The penalty for failure is so punitive that I think it ruins the class outside of death/conjuration builds. A 15% chance to waste your action, spell points, and to take a -1 to attacks, saves, and skills is killer. I can't imagine risking it except in utter desperation, to the point where I would just run a different class instead. If the spell still went off and the penalties lasted rounds or even to the end of the encounter, I think the class would be vastly more attractive. Risking losing SP, an action, and eating all-day penalties is just too much. (Passing it off on another creature is certainly helpful, but doesn't come online until level 7, making life hard for lower level characters)

I think the comparison to the wilder is worthwhile, both granting an ability to take a risk to boost caster level. Let's assume wild surge's ability to pay for the augmentation is offset by enervation's cost in PP, so you are left with your surge's status penalty vs forbidden lore's penalties. The best surge type, student, gives a stacking dazzled for rounds equal to your surge, which at higher levels is basically just -1 per point of surge to attack rolls for the rest of the encounter. Others are sickened or staggered, conditions that inflict real limitations but still allow the character to function (free surge and daze being the exception, but that is only there for legacy reasons as far as I can tell). Wild surge still allows the power to go off, thus not wasting a precious action in combat. The two classes are similar, trading breadth for (risky) power, but a wilder is dramatically more able to use its signature ability."

So, is there something I'm missing that would change my feelings about the class?

[TheEvilGM]

More questions from the jerk to the guy that makes all the things.

3. The Evil GM and Ezekiul are a player and the DM in a current campaign I am in (guess who is who...). I think we might be one of the first groups to try out Mythic and Spheres of Power. P

Don’t let AzernakO say fool you, he is much more evil than me, when he GM’s.

That said (being evil and all) I am running the players through a heavily modified ‘Wrath of the Righteous’ campaign. I required all the players to be Aasimars’ and am only allowing classes from ‘Spheres and Powers’. They are at the end of the first module so; 5th level class and 1st Tier Mythic. We as a group are also new to pathfinder (been playing D&D since first edition). I expect to have a lot of rules ‘discussions’. I also expect a lot of our questions to show up here.

And speaking of questions, One of my players just asked;

Light has a talent called Dancing Light with lets a caster use the Glow ability without a target and can direct them as a free action.
Is it possible to direct them to attach to a target so that the target will be affected by Glow?

My thoughts

Yes but you still need to meet the basic glow requirement;

Glow: As a standard action, you may cause an object or creature to glow for 1 minute per caster level, outlining it with light as a candle, which may be of any color you wish. This requires a touch attack or ranged touch attack.

I can just imagine 4-8 (or more) lingering glows all swarming my; kind, minding their own business mobs, and as a free action 'the glows' attack all my mobs and have negative effects placed on them. while the PC performs another action.
And I am not going to let it be a free action to get unlimited (or however many dancing lights you have) attacks. That would definitely break the action economy.
normally it takes a standard action per attached glow to get the negative effects to be applied.
As a standard action, you can direct one glow globe to get a 1 (your) full BAB touch attack.

I am willing to try letting you use a move action to get more (than 1)[have to play with # to get a balance] at a reduced BAB (have to decide how much reduced).

Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks, The Evil Gm

[EldritchWeaver]

My thoughts
...
As a standard action, you can direct one glow globe to get a 1 (your) full BAB touch attack.

I am willing to try letting you use a move action to get more (than 1)[have to play with # to get a balance] at a reduced BAB (have to decide how much reduced).[/INDENT]

In general, this sounds good, so I'd only add, if you have Divided Mind already that you should be able to attack with multiple glows, if your BAB is high enough.

[CashanDraven]

The Shifter BEastial Talents need to get a look over to be honest, Quick Healing and Barding especially. Quick healing is a really, really BAD substitute for fast healing, and barding comes online far to late to be useful, as you can get the wild enchantment long before you can this talent. Lvl 14 is way to high, as most campaigns will top out before you have access to the talent. compare this to the Flight ability you can get at lvl 2.

[Adam Meyers]

@stack: The comparison to the Wilder doesn't quite work, because the Thaumaturge's ability is inherently superior to that of the Wilder. In the SoP system, caster level isn't just caster level, it's also spell level; imagine if the Wilder didn't just increase his caster level, but also applied Heighten Spell for free. And, since the Thaumaturge can maintain many effects through concentration, he can make the check once and keep the ability going for as long as he wants. That was the reasoning behind the more powerful penalty.

@TheEvilGM: It wasn't the intention of the ability to allow someone to attack a target with a dancing light, and I personally wouldn't allow it for that same action economy reason you laid out. It can already get dangerous enough when people are using it to strategically place Blinding Lights and other such things.

@CashanDraven: Quick Healing is a very powerful tool for players to possess; a ring of regeneration costs 90,000 gp and heals only 1 point of damage per round. True that's a regeneration spell and not just Fast Healing, but as few GMs deal in severed limbs it's practically the same thing. Quick Healing is pulled almost word for word from the Alchemist ability Spontaneous Healing, as an example of how to do healing as a class option. As for Barding, the Wild enchantment is a +3 enhancement, which means it cannot come into play with lower than +4 equipment, and at its highest level can cost 36,000 to add to a suit of armor. For these reasons, Barding (which lets you get these benefits without having to dedicate a +3 armor bonus to achieve it) is considered a top-level class option.

[stack]

Many powers a wilder is augmenting have a save that scales with PP spent, so not raising the level isn't as big of a difference unless other level dependent effects come into play, but point taken. However, an all-day penalty to faster level is a huge deal precisely because of the reasons you cite. Losing caster level hurts every spell you cast until you rest. That is such a huge drawback that I, personally, lose all interest in the class. It's just not with the risk when I could play an incanter instead and have a huge breadth of options and the same power, since the power boost is too risky to use. Losing both actions and caster level is just incredibly painful.

[CashanDraven]

@stack:

@CashanDraven: Quick Healing is a very powerful tool for players to possess; a ring of regeneration costs 90,000 gp and heals only 1 point of damage per round. True that's a regeneration spell and not just Fast Healing, but as few GMs deal in severed limbs it's practically the same thing. Quick Healing is pulled almost word for word from the Alchemist ability Spontaneous Healing, as an example of how to do healing as a class option. As for Barding, the Wild enchantment is a +3 enhancement, which means it cannot come into play with lower than +4 equipment, and at its highest level can cost 36,000 to add to a suit of armor. For these reasons, Barding (which lets you get these benefits without having to dedicate a +3 armor bonus to achieve it) is considered a top-level class option.

And the Quick Healing is honestly a bad option, there is a magic item that heals on average the same amount per day and doesn't take one of your valuable slots as an Alchemist or as a Shifter which has many more powerful abilities available at every level (Evasion vs Fast Healing is a joke at 2nd level, and at every chance there are better choices for such a limited ability). Also grab a bead of healing and you have a once per day cure serious wounds (3d8+5, average 17) so you have to be AT LEAST lvl 10 before you can beat this ability.

Also, Barding vs Wild enchantment, a +4 bonus means you need 16k, plus the cost of the armor, so let's say Mithral Breastplate (4,450gp) for a grand total of 20,450gp, which you can obtain in an average game (according to WPL), at lvl 8 with about 13k to spare. Enough for a weapon which you don't need given your options of natural weapons and a small scaling enhancement bonus. This puts the class ability a full SIX levels behind what you could be getting for your gold which is much easier to come by.

Personally, I would say lvl 10 would be a good compromise, though level 8 would be better, but again I'm willing to work with things here. This puts the class ability as an option that many players would actually see in play, rather than dreaming about for later. As it is right now, you're wasting a Bestial Trait option, as you can pick it up with gold MUCH earlier. If it came online sooner, you could at least be breaking even.