Spheres of Power: Life Handbook Open Beta

[A.J.Gibson]

After the original was withdrawn several months ago, the new version of the Life handbook has gone into playtesting:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

It incorporates some of the previous book with material I wrote, with some additional material from Derfael Oliviera and Amber Underwood.

[master4sword]

My group's currently looking through it, so we'll have some feedback for ya!

[inuyasha]

Looking through it, the book seems pretty good, but I really don't like Bright-Burning Rage since it acts much better than the existing Barbarian Rage Power that heals them.

[TheIronGolem]

I like the "Player's Guide" with the varied, generalized suggestions on Life-oriented character builds. Should help combat the "healbot" mindset.

[legomaster00156]

Looking through it, the book seems pretty good, but I really don't like Bright-Burning Rage since it acts much better than the existing Barbarian Rage Power that heals them.

Well, that's because said rage power is an objectively terrible choice.

[inuyasha]

I like the Barbarian power for flavor, and I've played (and seen) Barbarians take it and operate just fine. I'm just not too fond of things that deliberately function better than something in the Core Rulebook while effectively filling the same spot.

[A.J.Gibson]

I like the Barbarian power for flavor, and I've played (and seen) Barbarians take it and operate just fine. I'm just not too fond of things that deliberately function better than something in the Core Rulebook while effectively filling the same spot.

Hmmm. It shouldn't just be better, I agree. Let me think about redesigning it.

[legomaster00156]

I like the Barbarian power for flavor, and I've played (and seen) Barbarians take it and operate just fine. I'm just not too fond of things that deliberately function better than something in the Core Rulebook while effectively filling the same spot.

Well, of course the barbarians will function just fine, but that's because their chassis is solid, not because that rage power itself is a good pick.

[LordOfCain]

What happened to the previous beta?

[Mehangel]

What happened to the previous beta?

The old beta was almost nothing but archetypes that granted the Life sphere and/or high-casting of the Life sphere, and magic items. In addition the old writer stopped supporting the document and so a couple of other writers just cannibalized the document, and this is what was spat out.

[digiman619]

So that just leaves Conjuration, Death, Fate, Illusion, Protection, Warp and Weather left, right?

[A.J.Gibson]

What happened to the previous beta?

The old writer stopped working on it, while it was in playtesting. We had a look, and there was a lot of work needed: he had 14 archetypes and a lot of magic items (several of which were variations on each other), but only a few talents (most of which was written by Amber, I'm told). I started fiddling with it, and Mehangel added in the Pharmakon. The majority of the writing is probably mine by now.

[LordOfCain]

Okay, I was just curious. Thanks for informing me.

[A.J.Gibson]

So that just leaves Conjuration, Death, Fate, Illusion, Protection, Warp and Weather left, right?

Conjuration is probably going to be next. It's being written by Andrew Stoeckle (stack) who wrote Destruction and Alteration.

[digiman619]

Conjuration is probably going to be next. It's being written by Andrew Stoeckle (stack) who wrote Destruction and Alteration.

I know stack; he's one of my players in my Legacy of Fire game. Still, if you'd told me that when you were first making sphere-specific handbooks that Telekinesis would be one of the first third, but Warp one of the last, I'd be quite surprised.

[A.J.Gibson]

I know stack; he's one of my players in my Legacy of Fire game. Still, if you'd told me that when you were first making sphere-specific handbooks that Telekinesis would be one of the first third, but Warp one of the last, I'd be quite surprised.

Warp, like Life, was a case of a writer came on board, wrote a bunch, and then dropped. Amber Underwood (who wrote Telekinesis and Light) has taken Warp over.

Some books are just harder to write. Weather, Fate, and Protection are all pretty narrow or overlap with other spheres a great deal.

[stack]

Warp, like Life, was a case of a writer came on board, wrote a bunch, and then dropped. Amber Underwood (who wrote Telekinesis and Light) has taken Warp over.

Some books are just harder to write. Weather, Fate, and Protection are all pretty narrow or overlap with other spheres a great deal.

Whereas others have convenient overlap, like conjuration computation and alteration, since the former steals from the later even in the base book.

[AmberVael]

So that just leaves Conjuration, Death, Fate, Illusion, Protection, Warp and Weather left, right?

Time is being pulled back for some revision as well (its going through a similar cycle as Life did, as it happens), so expect to see that reemerge in the future.

I know stack; he's one of my players in my Legacy of Fire game. Still, if you'd told me that when you were first making sphere-specific handbooks that Telekinesis would be one of the first third, but Warp one of the last, I'd be quite surprised.

I'd intended to get Warp moving quicker, but I'm also writing for one of our Skybourne books, putting effort into editing handbooks, and doing some projects for Raging Swan Press, which means time for writing Warp is pretty limited. Its in the works though! Just back a ways.

[inuyasha]

Is there a link that has all of the sphere-specific supplements in one place?

[AmberVael]

Is there a link that has all of the sphere-specific supplements in one place?

Are you asking about a list of which ones have been published, a link to where they're for sale, or a place where all the content is available?

We've published:

• Alteration
• Destruction
• Divination
• Enhancement
• Light
• Nature
• Telekinesis
• War

You can find them all on Paizo's store, Drivethrurpg, the d20pfsrd store - I don't think we have a category for them though.

The majority of content is available for perusal on the Spheres of Power wiki, though its not really sorted into books there.

[inuyasha]

Cool, thank you! I meant a link to the various threads on this forum, but what you've provided is perfect.

[master4sword]

One of my players is requesting a Reincarnation advanced talent (it's his favorite form of resurrection).

[meemaas]

The old writer stopped working on it, while it was in playtesting. We had a look, and there was a lot of work needed: he had 14 archetypes and a lot of magic items (several of which were variations on each other), but only a few talents (most of which was written by Amber, I'm told). I started fiddling with it, and Mehangel added in the Pharmakon. The majority of the writing is probably mine by now.

Honestly, after the beautiful work you did with the War Sphere, I was excited to see what you did to it. I was not disappointed. Compared to the first beta of the Life Sphere this one is just so much more exciting.

[RegalKain]

So, I have a question for clarification.

The Pharmakon (Soul Weaver Archetype)

Hemorrhage: (Requires base Life sphere: Cure ability) Whenever you use the Life sphere to cure a creature, instead of directly healing damage, you may have it deal an 1d6 damage per class level. A successful Will save halves this damage.

My question is, does the enemy have to be injured to make this work? The wording leads me to believe that is the case? "Whenever you use the Life sphere to cure a creature" makes me think they'd have to be damaged (As you can't heal an already full creature? ) Probably just my poor understanding.

I was going to read it as "When targetting a creature with the Cure ability, you instead-" although that still has the same issue I guess. Basically can I use this to harm people like the Inflict spells? If that is the case, maybe it should be altered so that it does damage equal to talents like Cure heals for? Sorry if I'm just being an idiot here.

[Mehangel]

My question is, does the enemy have to be injured to make this work? The wording leads me to believe that is the case? "Whenever you use the Life sphere to cure a creature" makes me think they'd have to be damaged (As you can't heal an already full creature? ) Probably just my poor understanding.

No the enemy does not have to be injured to use the ability. Just as nothing stops you from using cure on a creature already at maximum hit points.

I was going to read it as "When targetting a creature with the Cure ability, you instead-" although that still has the same issue I guess. Basically can I use this to harm people like the Inflict spells? If that is the case, maybe it should be altered so that it does damage equal to talents like Cure heals for? Sorry if I'm just being an idiot here.

Hemorrhage used to deal damage equal to the cure ability, but it was decided that the damage skyrocketed far too easily.

[A.J.Gibson]

So, I have a question for clarification.

The Pharmakon (Soul Weaver Archetype)

Hemorrhage: (Requires base Life sphere: Cure ability) Whenever you use the Life sphere to cure a creature, instead of directly healing damage, you may have it deal an 1d6 damage per class level. A successful Will save halves this damage.

My question is, does the enemy have to be injured to make this work? The wording leads me to believe that is the case? "Whenever you use the Life sphere to cure a creature" makes me think they'd have to be damaged (As you can't heal an already full creature? ) Probably just my poor understanding.

I was going to read it as "When targetting a creature with the Cure ability, you instead-" although that still has the same issue I guess. Basically can I use this to harm people like the Inflict spells? If that is the case, maybe it should be altered so that it does damage equal to talents like Cure heals for? Sorry if I'm just being an idiot here.

Mehangel can answer this better, but my take is that it works on unharmed people as well as the injured, like inflict. The original design was for it to do damage equal to cure (a nice, elegant design), but both it and Disruption had to be changed because of the optimization hijinks possible. Consider a 3rd level Incanter with 2 levels of Pharmakon: they can have Life sphere (with +1 Caster Level), 4 copies of Greater Healing, and the 6 restore talents that add +1d8 to your healing by that time to do 7d8 + 30 (average 61.5) damage at 5th level.

[AmberVael]

So, I have a question for clarification.

The Pharmakon (Soul Weaver Archetype)

Hemorrhage: (Requires base Life sphere: Cure ability) Whenever you use the Life sphere to cure a creature, instead of directly healing damage, you may have it deal an 1d6 damage per class level. A successful Will save halves this damage.

My question is, does the enemy have to be injured to make this work? The wording leads me to believe that is the case? "Whenever you use the Life sphere to cure a creature" makes me think they'd have to be damaged (As you can't heal an already full creature? ) Probably just my poor understanding.

I was going to read it as "When targetting a creature with the Cure ability, you instead-" although that still has the same issue I guess. Basically can I use this to harm people like the Inflict spells? If that is the case, maybe it should be altered so that it does damage equal to talents like Cure heals for? Sorry if I'm just being an idiot here.

An enemy does not need to be injured to use cure on them, therefore, this alteration of it doesn't need them to be injured for you to use it on them. Normally healing an uninjured creature would be a strange thing to do, but you can do it. Also note that 'cure', in this sense, refers to the ability, cure. Not as in healing hit points.

So, yes, you can just outright harm people with it. The reason it doesn't deal damage equal to your cure is because cure's numbers can be extremely frontloaded - and worse yet, all your investment into frontloading it for damage would give you double return, since it would make you that much better at healing as well.

Edit: I appear to have been swordsage'd and ninja'd.

[RegalKain]

Thanks for the snappy replies guys!

I appreciate you clearing it up for me, wasn't sure how it was supposed to work. Also didn't realize the damage could be front loaded so hard like that, makes sense. The only other question I'd have, concerning the same ability then. Is what type of damage is it? Still positive energy or? Thanks again. :)

[A.J.Gibson]

Honestly, after the beautiful work you did with the War Sphere, I was excited to see what you did to it. I was not disappointed. Compared to the first beta of the Life Sphere this one is just so much more exciting.

Thanks. Compared to War, I was much more focused this time around, where I kinda went nuts with War (at first). I'll probably be adding more material to Life as time goes on, though I'm already over the word count.

[Mehangel]

Thanks for the snappy replies guys!

I appreciate you clearing it up for me, wasn't sure how it was supposed to work. Also didn't realize the damage could be front loaded so hard like that, makes sense. The only other question I'd have, concerning the same ability then. Is what type of damage is it? Still positive energy or? Thanks again. :)

The type of damage used to be explicitly positive energy, but a couple of the other authors felt that it would be inappropriate. Instead we simply left it untyped.