[Drop Dead Studios] Spheres of Combat Kickstarter!

[Lirya]

Hopefully a combination of the Dual Wielding sphere and the Lancer sphere can turn the Quarterstaff into something awesome.

[NomGarret]

So we have:

Athletics, Boxing, Guardian, Sniping, and Open Hand that we've seen.

Berzerking, Dual Wield, Dueling, Equipment, Fencing, Lancer, and Shield I believe have all been mentioned.

That leaves about 8 more to reveal. I'm just trying to get a handle on how far we've seen.

[Ssalarn]

So we have:

Athletics, Boxing, Guardian, Sniping, and Open Hand that we've seen.

Berzerking, Dual Wield, Dueling, Equipment, Fencing, Lancer, and Shield I believe have all been mentioned.

That leaves about 8 more to reveal. I'm just trying to get a handle on how far we've seen.

Barrage, Barroom, Brute, Equestrian, Gladiator, Scout, Throwing, Traps, Trickster, Tumbling, Warleader, Wrestling makes all the ones currently written or under development, I believe. I think Tumbling may end up folded into Athletics, but all the others are pretty well developed. We're probably going to end up with a few more spheres than SoP had when all is said and done.

[Doc_Maynot]

Will there be any support for Centaurs to count as mounted while using Equestrian?

[Mehangel]

Will there be any support for Centaurs to count as mounted while using Equestrian?

Please say yes.

[Manyasone]

I'm seeing the 'unwilling boost' talent in the leap package, I'm reading 'lancer'... Please, please make a FF style Dragoon possible with this

[stack]

Will there be any support for Centaurs to count as mounted while using Equestrian?

Please say yes.

That won't really work for the sphere's abilities that involve mounting and dismounting. That would ve messy. I will try to keep it in mind for abilities where it makes sense though.

[EldritchWeaver]

What chassis does the Scholar have? d8, medium BAB, 6 SP?

[Ssalarn]

what chassis does the scholar have? D8, medium bab, 6 sp?

d6, 1/2 bab, 8 sp.

[EldritchWeaver]

d6, 1/2 bab, 8 sp.

So considering other information released s ofar, the Scholar is the class capable of fulfilling the roguish niche. I've planned for a stealth sniper build (meaning the enemy does not find me after I hit him), but with this chassis, I'm not sure how viable it is now. Using bows seems not that effective, even with the advantage mechanic. Any option left, I could pursue instead?

[Ssalarn]

So considering other information released s ofar, the Scholar is the class capable of fulfilling the roguish niche. I've planned for a stealth sniper build (meaning the enemy does not find me after I hit him), but with this chassis, I'm not sure how viable it is now. Using bows seems not that effective, even with the advantage mechanic. Any option left, I could pursue instead?

Scholar has a few different ways of overcoming her natural BAB shortcomings, depending on exactly what you're hoping to do. Her cunning attacker ability lets her use Int to attack and adds a competence bonus on attack rolls against targets she's successfully scouted, for example.

There's also going to be some other options that will let you get your rogue-ishness on, depending on how exactly you want to build your character; the Troubadour is a 3/4 BAB class that gets Personas it can swap between, kind of like a martial combination of the Medium and the Vigilante. With the right Persona sets, you can get your Assassin's Creed on and merc a fool before swapping to a different Persona and disappearing into a crowd.

[stack]

Also depends on what you want from your rogue. Sneak attack, trapfinding, skill points?

[digiman619]

...the Troubadour is a 3/4 BAB class that gets Personas it can swap between, kind of like a martial combination of the Medium and the Vigilante. With the right Persona sets, you can get your Assassin's Creed on and merc a fool before swapping to a different Persona and disappearing into a crowd.

Will they let you be the shadow, the true self?

[Doc_Maynot]

One more question, with guardian being such a high AoO sphere, will there be a feat akin to seize the opportunity, or a talent (legendary or not) that allows it to treat AoOs as attack actions?

[Lirya]

I have been looking and thinking a bit about Open Hand. Currently, it suffers from the fact that apart from boosts to raw numbers with unarmed attacks it feels very bland. The talents that add riders to unarmed attack actions mostly just does that, instead of setting up potential combination attacks. I would prefer if some of these moves cannot be triggered by the same action, but are instead chained together on AoO or by spending Martial Focus.

Spoiler: Strong Talents

Show

The Base Sphere ability, Deadly Hand, Lunging Strikes, Mystic Fists, and Piercing Pound are solid raw boosts. Eye Gouger is also a very strong talent, but it is probably stronger for characters who specialize in a piercing weapon and thus forces a Fort save vs. blind with every Attack Action instead of for unarmed fighters who Dedicate Focus to make their attacks piercing. I might even be tempted to have the more nasty conditions from Eye Gouge and Knockout Blow only activate if you spend your Focus or confirm a crit, and otherwise only apply a lesser condition.

Currently, Sweeping Kicks has some synergy with Snap Kick and Axe Kick. However, as far as raw number boosts go Axe Kick is fairly minor since it only applies to Attack Actions, and you would typically need to spend your attack action to knock something prone in the first place. Perhaps Snap Kick could get a note that if you have Axe Kick then the extra damage from that talent applies to the AoO granted by Snap Kick?

Hammer Palm grants you a free Bull Rush attempt, but there is nothing else in Open Hand that interacts with Bull Rush. The talent would be much more tempting if there also existed (or it included) options that allow you to Bull Rush creatures into objects or other creatures for additional effects. Or perhaps turning a successful Bull Rush into a Throw. Basically, make a trio of talents that create enough synergy around Bull Rush to make it a tempting investment.

Shattering Palm and Waving Hand give bonuses to maneuvers that none of the other talents give you free attempts at them or special effects that are triggered from a successful use of the maneuver. I assume more talents are being written to solve this issue, but for now it just looks strange. They could also work if other spheres and abilities interact with the weapon properties, as tax to open up unarmed with those styles. An example would be if Shattering Palm lets the Blacksmith treat unarmed strikes as a hammer for most of his abilities.

Edit: What I want to be able to achieve is something like this. "You move up to an enemy and perform a Sweeping Axe Kick followed by a Snap Axe Kick for massive damage. Then you expend your Martial Focus to allow Hammer Palm to trigger from the AoO granted by Snap Kick, and use the Bull Rush to throw your target into a 2nd creature for further effect."

[EldritchWeaver]

Scholar has a few different ways of overcoming her natural BAB shortcomings, depending on exactly what you're hoping to do. Her cunning attacker ability lets her use Int to attack and adds a competence bonus on attack rolls against targets she's successfully scouted, for example.

There's also going to be some other options that will let you get your rogue-ishness on, depending on how exactly you want to build your character; the Troubadour is a 3/4 BAB class that gets Personas it can swap between, kind of like a martial combination of the Medium and the Vigilante. With the right Persona sets, you can get your Assassin's Creed on and merc a fool before swapping to a different Persona and disappearing into a crowd.

Also depends on what you want from your rogue. Sneak attack, trapfinding, skill points?

Considering the background and intended use, I need to have the ability to employ/create poison and to be able to hide effectively from enemies in combat. This is supposed to be a secondary character and should be able to switched on only if he needs to be actually involved. For the hiding part I might get (discussion with GM still going on) via a special transformation ability, which leaves me at diminutive or tiny size. So not necessarily via the Scouting package. As that character is already in hiding and using ranged weaponry is making more sense for when actually getting involved in combat, I've been thinking about using the Expert Sniper feat, which allows me to employ the "keep hiding after shooting someone" option for only a -10 penalty. Admittedly, that part would be a nice synergistic benefit and not strictly necessary.

For the roguish part, trapfinding is a must, as is dealing with locked doors. Sneaking around is probably covered thanks to above. If I can do stealth attacks, then having sneak attack damage is certainly nice, but there might be other damage options. Strictly speaking, the rogue VMC would be ok to get some of the parts here. Personally, I wouldn't mind being able to do something extra (like the Scholar's healing), but that is purely gravy.

[khadgar567]

I am interested in Troubadour class can this puppy can be used to create v from vendetta series or how thousand faced this guy is( vanilla vigilante, or complete master mind of disguise like diabolik were freaking no one catch him while disguised?

[Sky]

What kind of item support is in the works for Spheres of Might? In particular:

Will there be a way to get an enhancement bonus to BAB, like you can enhance your caster level with a staff?

Will there be a way to purchase objects with talents/spheres invested in them? (e.g. a staff or wand) I see some of this in the Armiger, but will it be available for other classes?

Will there be a way to temporarily grant spheres/talents? (e.g. potions)

Any plans for new armor or weapon enchantments or enhancements?

[NomGarret]

What kind of item support is in the works for Spheres of Might? In particular:

Will there be a way to get an enhancement bonus to BAB, like you can enhance your caster level with a staff?

Will there be a way to purchase objects with talents/spheres invested in them? (e.g. a staff or wand) I see some of this in the Armiger, but will it be available for other classes?

Will there be a way to temporarily grant spheres/talents? (e.g. potions)

Any plans for new armor or weapon enchantments or enhancements?

I have trouble seeing enhancement bonus to BAB as a broad rule, but a specific enchantment that lets you count your BAB as X higher for determining the effects of talents might work.

On a different note, I'm convinced that the Dueling sphere will support Iaijutsu. If I'm wrong, please let me down now.

[khadgar567]

can flurry sphere be used with odd objects like sword ala unlimited blade works or gate of babylon?

[phlidwsn]

I have trouble seeing enhancement bonus to BAB as a broad rule, but a specific enchantment that lets you count your BAB as X higher for determining the effects of talents might work.

On a different note, I'm convinced that the Dueling sphere will support Iaijutsu. If I'm wrong, please let me down now.

Or cap it at character level like the various multiclassing helper feats/trais.

[khadgar567]

Or cap it at character level like the various multiclassing helper feats/trais.

still it gives full bab to even wizard which bit unnecessary one thing i like to see actually way to put might talents to weapons and let fighter use them by using weapon it self like shirou emiya with his trace on skill .

[LordOfCain]

I'm playing a striker from the preview in an online campaign with my friends right now and it's really fun!

[N. Jolly]

I'm playing a striker from the preview in an online campaign with my friends right now and it's really fun!

Awesome, glad to hear it! Please let us know what did (or didn't) work for you with the class so we can make sure to help tune it to perfection.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Am I the only one that's somewhat concerned with the talents like Rope Swinger that seem to represent something characters should already be able to do? Using a grappling hook to swing across a gap/past enemies shouldn't be gated behind a talent imo. This was actually one of the first things I house-ruled out of my D&D and Pathfinder games, like the Rogue Crawl talent, Leadership, and most Teamwork feats. I'd hate to remove these options from characters and ignoring a bunch of options baked into the system would not be my preferred way to avoid that.

I'm also confused as to why Combat Stamina isn't being used as the obvious answer to Spell Points? Only having Martial Focus seems like it severely limits an already more limited system compared to SoP.

I'd be glad to have these worries prove unfounded, but right now I've seen nothing to assuage them.

[digiman619]

Noticed the 10 planned Mighty classes, and I've gotta say, I'm liking that there are 2 low-BAB classes, as it mirrors the two low-casters in SoP. The Technician sounds like a class for brother (who wanted to build steampunk stuff in my RotRL campaign) and part of me wants a Troubador archetype about shadows just so I can make the Persona joke. Also, if Troubadors work like the fluff suggests, an archetype using Vigilante talents seems like a no-brainer.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

part of me wants a Troubadour archetype about shadows just so I can make the Persona joke.

Might take a look at the Master Chymist. Having a "superpowered evil/id form" a la shadows or Mr. Hyde seems right up this class' alley.

[khadgar567]

Might take a look at the Master Chymist. Having a "superpowered evil/id form" a la shadows or Mr. Hyde seems right up this class' alley.

nah its more about summoner then alchemist with weird cocktails the basic premise of 5th game progtagonist and his cast uses masks as focus to summon their eidolons with small problem hero uses multiple eidolons bound to multiple masks.

[digiman619]

Might take a look at the Master Chymist. Having a "superpowered evil/id form" a la shadows or Mr. Hyde seems right up this class' alley.

nah its more about summoner then alchemist with weird cocktails the basic premise of 5th game progtagonist and his cast uses masks as focus to summon their eidolons with small problem hero uses multiple eidolons bound to multiple masks.

Yeah, but they literally have a class feature named Persona. How could I not make that joke?

[khadgar567]

Yeah, but they literally have a class feature named Persona. How could I not make that joke?

chemist or trobodour which one you are talking about.