Spheres of Power Ask Me Anything #2

[A.J.Gibson]

I asked the question to post previous to mine

You quoted the Squadron question. Though you did mention question 69, which was mine, so I'll elaborate:

In PF, you can use a spell completion item, such as a wand or scroll, if you have the spell on your class list. In SoP, you can use it if you have the base sphere that would logically have the ability (i.e., if you have the Life sphere, you can use a Wand of Cure Light Wounds). In PF, if you want to create a magic item that requires a certain spell to create the item, you must have it on your spell list or you raise the DC by +5. For potions and scrolls, however, you must be able to cast the spell (this is mostly to stop wizards from creating scrolls of spells they don't have, and then turning around and copying the spell back into their spell book). My question was: do you need every talent required when you create an item, or can you do the +5 DC thing. Adam's response implies that you do need every talent for a potion or scroll, but it's kind of silly.

I think.

The reason I bring it up is because of the more obscure conditions that a Life caster might want to cure but not have the feat for the biggy being permanent blindness which is crippling, but rare in the game, making spending a feat to get Restore Senses annoying. However, if you can create a potion or scroll using only the base talent, then any Life caster with Brew Potion can cure blindness from level 1, given 2 hours and 100gp.

[Doc_Maynot]

I had this idea for an arsenal trick but don't know if it could potentially be completely broken (and don't have the experience of how to really test it)

Armorist’s Gun: You gain Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Firearms)

Infinite Marksman: (Prerequisite: 15th level): Any ranged weapon with a reload time that you summon (Or on a less powerful version, your Bound weapons) gains the boon of the Pistol of the Infinite Skies (Ultimate Combat).

I'm not sure if this is overpowered or okay... (Though I'll say the logic behind it that pretty much every character specializing in firearms is going to buy the PotIS or some equivalent to this by the time they can afford it, hence it's not 'that' bad to allow an armorist PC to summon this item)

Well, given the stuff in Spheres of Might, Armorist using the tricks to take combat feats, can use those to gain extra combat talents. Which include things like "You have proficiency with firearms." And "Reduce the time required to reload a ranged weapon by two steps, you can take this multiple times." and seeing as Bound Equipment come with limitless ammunition already. You can pull that off way earlier than 15th level.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Q73: Out of the metamagic feats to have been released after SoP, the one that's piqued my curiosity most is Eclipsed Spell. Would you allow this to be used with Spheres, and if so what effect would it have on the Light/Dark spheres?

[Warriorking9001]

Well, given the stuff in Spheres of Might, Armorist using the tricks to take combat feats, can use those to gain extra combat talents. Which include things like "You have proficiency with firearms." And "Reduce the time required to reload a ranged weapon by two steps, you can take this multiple times." and seeing as Bound Equipment come with limitless ammunition already. You can pull that off way earlier than 15th level.

Well....... Honestly I haven't seen anything in spheres of might so far, I didn't even know any of it was public yet. But that tells me that a "Pistol of the infinite skies" upgrade is NOT ridiculously overpowered.

[Scowling Dragon]

Q74: How long would a spellcrafted Golem Last on a "Grow Plant" Basis.

So if I used the Nature Spheres: Grow Plant, and then Used Animate Object combined with it? How long would the duration be (Considering grow Plants seems to be instantenous and permanent in duration).

[Slavezero]

Q75: is there any way you know of to apply enhancement bonus's to the telekinetic force created by the Weaponize talent? the extra attack and damage would be useful

[Ualaa]

A 75.

Spheres includes a feat called Spellcrafting.
There is a section which explains it, and then a bunch of examples.

You're basically combining spheres and talents which you know, to create more complex effects.
The combination has a complexity scale, but you can take some drawbacks in the system to reduce the complexity too.

The more complex something is, the longer it takes to cast and the more spell points it will cost to do so.

The section mentions it is more of an art than a science, so you need to use your judgment the same as when you create a paizo spell or magic item.
Still, with the number of examples given, you have an idea of what the developers consider reasonable to base your estimate on.

[Ualaa]

A 73.

That's an interesting feat.
Basically, it gives you the option of making a light generating AoE spell or a darkness AoE spell of doing the opposite of it's normal effect.
Without increasing the spell level.

The guideline for Spheres, is to cost a spell point per level increase in the paizo system.
And that feat has no level increase.

The effect of the chosen Light (or Darkness) Sphere and Talents doesn't change, only the illumination level is different -- the opposite of what it would be.
So you're not gaining Light Sphere or Light Talents, if your character happened to be built around Darkness.
The gain is that you can illuminate an area, instead of making it dark, but with the same options you normally possessed for Darkness.
Or vice versa.

I'd likely go with +1 spell point per use.

[Warriorking9001]

question 1:
Another issue I had is that I made a class concept and then realized that... well at first I thought it was okay before realizing that to some extent it was an amalgam of pretty much all the other good class abilities.

The concept was a warrior who gained abilities through connections with a dragon.

Draconic focus was a slightly more limited version of the elementalist's weave energy ability (Full casting with Destruction when using a small subset of blasts based on your bond dragon's element, though in my defense I thought that was a better plan than just giving them a breath weapon)

Draconic Bond was essentially bound creature in that you gained a draconic mount

my rogue talent equivalent power called "Draconic Traits", a number of them were close to the Shifter's permanent bonus abilities, being able to gain natural weapons, low light vision, Blindsight, scent, etc.

Call steed was ripped completely from the Summoner (Obviously the pet class could summon their partners to their side)

Energy Resistance was the same as elemental defense from elementalist...

I still like the idea of this 'dragon knight' class, gaining abilities from a bond or bloodline, but want to figure out a way to bring it back from being an amalgamation of all the other cool stuff in spheres...

Any advice for how I'd make a class/archetype to fit this concept?

question 2:
Is there anywhere on giant where people are discussing Spheres of Might? now that I've gotten into it I want to learn a bit more.

[Mehangel]

Q76:
Another issue I had is that I made a class concept and then realized that... well at first I thought it was okay before realizing that to some extent it was an amalgam of pretty much all the other good class abilities.

The concept was a warrior who gained abilities through connections with a dragon.

Draconic focus was a slightly more limited version of the elementalist's weave energy ability (Full casting with Destruction when using a small subset of blasts based on your bond dragon's element, though in my defense I thought that was a better plan than just giving them a breath weapon)

Draconic Bond was essentially bound creature in that you gained a draconic mount

my rogue talent equivalent power called "Draconic Traits", a number of them were close to the Shifter's permanent bonus abilities, being able to gain natural weapons, low light vision, Blindsight, scent, etc.

Call steed was ripped completely from the Summoner (Obviously the pet class could summon their partners to their side)

Energy Resistance was the same as elemental defense from elementalist...

I still like the idea of this 'dragon knight' class, gaining abilities from a bond or bloodline, but want to figure out a way to bring it back from being an amalgamation of all the other cool stuff in spheres...

Any advice for how I'd make a class/archetype to fit this concept?

A76: I think that you might be fine with Elementalist with a casting tradition including the Bound Creature boon (from Player's Guide to Skybourne).

Q77:
Is there anywhere on giant where people are discussing Spheres of Might? now that I've gotten into it I want to learn a bit more.

A77: There is a discussion of Spheres of Might here.

[Warriorking9001]

A76: I think that you might be fine with Elementalist with a casting tradition including the Bound Creature boon (from Player's Guide to Skybourne).

Yeah, I knew that would probably be the primary choice... I guess I'm just being picky in that I still see this idea of a character gaining these permanent traits related to that draconic character, and I can tell that came from the other dragon rider based class I saw, being able to gain natural weapons, blindsight, scent, etc.

[mrguymiah]

Q75: is there any way you know of to apply enhancement bonus's to the telekinetic force created by the Weaponize talent? the extra attack and damage would be useful

There's a feat called Enhancing Telekinesis. It's a bit of a weird itneraction, considering the weapon is made of your telekinetic force, but it's still an "object" you're lifting with your telekinesis.

[Slavezero]

There's a feat called Enhancing Telekinesis. It's a bit of a weird itneraction, considering the weapon is made of your telekinetic force, but it's still an "object" you're lifting with your telekinesis.

that sounds cool and I'll take a look but i was thinking something more permanent like some way to add weapon enchantments to the Weaponize talent's attacks. like if you use Telekinesis to attack with an enchanted +1 flaming long sword you can add the +1 to attack and damage as well as the flaming damage but as far as i know there is no way to get that with Weaponize

[EldritchWeaver]

A 73.

That's an interesting feat.
Basically, it gives you the option of making a light generating AoE spell or a darkness AoE spell of doing the opposite of it's normal effect.
Without increasing the spell level.

The guideline for Spheres, is to cost a spell point per level increase in the paizo system.
And that feat has no level increase.

The effect of the chosen Light (or Darkness) Sphere and Talents doesn't change, only the illumination level is different -- the opposite of what it would be.
So you're not gaining Light Sphere or Light Talents, if your character happened to be built around Darkness.
The gain is that you can illuminate an area, instead of making it dark, but with the same options you normally possessed for Darkness.
Or vice versa.

I'd likely go with +1 spell point per use.

Thinking about this a bit more, I'm not sure if this feat fits SoP. Light allows to change the illumination level upwards already, as does Dark downwards. So naively I'd say that one should choose both spheres to get the required effects. Now that disregards that one would like to use another effect from Light, while not increasing the illumination level. Then Black Light, which turns normal light invisible, but still allows for (light) talents might be the best fit.

[Ualaa]

Not every metamagic from the default game necessarily fits well with a spheres.

I'd personally rather have Light makes things brighter (or leaves them the same), and has whatever additional effects the combination of talents taken can do.
And that Dark can make things dimmer/darker (or leave them the same), and has whatever additional effects the chosen talents allow for.

So, in my game, I wouldn't necessarily want that feat to be part of it.

But if someone liked the feat and wanted to use it in their game.
Or if one of their player's wanted to have it and they were on the fence...
Light, at +1 SP, could have it's regular effects such as purging invisibility or coating an enemy in lights (like a Faerie Fire spell), but would make things dimmer.
Even if things got darker, the Light sphere would not block darkvision or require a Clearsight to bypass/see through the secondary effects of the darkness.

I'd personally not include it (as I'd rather have two separate Spheres, each governing illumination changes in an opposite direction).
But if it were included, since it isn't doing anything aside from reversing the illumination, while doing exactly what it would have done without the feat and illumination reversal, it is more a 'cool' effect than a 'powerful' effect.
So +1 SP would be where I would set it's cost.

[Slavezero]

Q76 is it possible to get a possible ETA on the other spheres books? really would like to know when the rest of the awesome collection is coming out

[Mehangel]

Q78 is it possible to get a possible ETA on the other spheres books? really would like to know when the rest of the awesome collection is coming out

A78 Unfortunately, making an ETA for ALL the rest of the handbooks is impossible. I know that the Dark sphere handbook is planned to be released this month, but after that we have SEVERAL of handbooks in playtesting, and even more about ready to enter playtesting. What is holding us back is that each of these playtest documents needs adequate time to be not only playtested, but also to be reviewed and edited. Adam Meyers has said though that he aims to have the rest of the handbooks published by the end of this year.

[A.J.Gibson]

A78 Unfortunately, making an ETA for ALL the rest of the handbooks is impossible. I know that the Dark sphere handbook is planned to be released this month, but after that we have SEVERAL of handbooks in playtesting, and even more about ready to enter playtesting. What is holding us back is that each of these playtest documents needs adequate time to be not only playtested, but also to be reviewed and edited. Adam Meyers has said though that he aims to have the rest of the handbooks published by the end of this year.

Nitpick: Even publishing one book a month won't get them all out by years end - if Dark comes out in next few days, there will be 10 months and 11 books left.

[Manyasone]

Nitpick: Even publishing one book a month won't get them all out by years end - if Dark comes out in next few days, there will be 10 months and 11 books left.

Has an order of appearance been decided, actually? A friend of mine is whining about the Death one

[khadgar567]

I like to know about conjuration to for eventual classed companion talent or some thing similar

[stack]

I'm brushing conjuration up for playtest in between working on SoM.

There is a fair bit written of death, not sure on the author's timetable for going to playtest.

[TheIronGolem]

Diviner's Handbook:

Q79: The Tradition Mastery ability for Font of Inspiration says it grants +2 to your CAM. Am I correct to assume that this is intended to be the actual ability score that determines CAM? If so, should the bonus be typed as Inherent like it is for the other Traditions that give an ability score bonus?

Q80: Should there be an "amateur" secret for the Inspiration tradition? I'm inferring that there should, since the wording of the Extra Inspiration Secret implies that it could be taken without the tradition, much like Extra Arcane Pool.

[Mehangel]

Diviner's Handbook:

Q79: The Tradition Mastery ability for Font of Inspiration says it grants +2 to your CAM. Am I correct to assume that this is intended to be the actual ability score that determines CAM? If so, should the bonus be typed as Inherent like it is for the other Traditions that give an ability score bonus?

A79: First, the Tradition Mastery ability for Font of Inspiration was meant to be the 20th level capstone ability for the Font of Inspiration tradition (just in-case that was not clear). Second, Yes it was intended to give the bonus to the actual ability score that determines CAM. Third, the Tradition Mastery ability in question was untyped so that it could stack with the Tradition Mastery Ability of the Academia or Combat tradition (Inherent bonuses normally do not stack).

Q80: Should there be an "amateur" secret for the Inspiration tradition? I'm inferring that there should, since the wording of the Extra Inspiration Secret implies that it could be taken without the tradition, much like Extra Arcane Pool.

A80: Yes, there should be an 'Amateur' secret for the Inspiration tradition.

[Hazrond]

Q81: I was informed by the Wiki that there is a Spheres Alchemist? I have Expanded Options but they aren't in there so which book are they located in?

[Mithril Leaf]

Q81: I was informed by the Wiki that there is a Spheres Alchemist? I have Expanded Options but they aren't in there so which book are they located in?

A81: Last I checked Nature and War.

[A.J.Gibson]

Q81: I was informed by the Wiki that there is a Spheres Alchemist? I have Expanded Options but they aren't in there so which book are they located in?

The Nature handbook features the Archaic Alchemist, which is basically a Spheres Alchemist. The War handbook features the Combat Engineer, an archetype that trades out poison, alchemy, and mutagen abilities for the ability to use their bombs to plant area-of-effect sphere abilities (primarily totems, but they can do a few other spheres with the proper discoveries). The Life handbook (entering playtest soon?) will have another alchemist archetype focused on healing via healing potions.

[Scowling Dragon]

Q82: What would you say would be fair as a requirement for applying polymorph effects on things that usually can't be effected by them?

There are rules for targeting things that are usually immune to mind effects, so would it be fair to create something that does something similar too Polymorph effects?

[Warriorking9001]

And yet another thing hit me as a concept but once again am worried about balance (and stepping on other class's toes)

What if there was an object equivalent for Bound creature to have a Black blade equivalent for casters, gaining a Limited scaled bonus to CL (Like a staff) and being able to enhance it as an item of its type?

[Mehangel]

Q82: What would you say would be fair as a requirement for applying polymorph effects on things that usually can't be effected by them?

There are rules for targeting things that are usually immune to mind effects, so would it be fair to create something that does something similar too Polymorph effects?

A82: I would probably refer to the Shapeshifter's Handbook.

What is harmless?
When cast on a willing target, consider shapeshift to be harmless. As a harmless effect, creatures normally immune to polymorph effects, such as undead and constructs, may still benefit from it without further talents or abilities required.

[Scowling Dragon]

A82: I would probably refer to the Shapeshifter's Handbook.

Saints be praised!