[Drop Dead Studios] Spheres of Might Open Playtest

[Eldaran]

Sphere-specific drawbacks are actually technically part of your casting tradition, just look at the example ones in the core Spheres of Power book such as Flame-Blooded or Druidic.

From the book "General drawbacks must be selected as soon as the caster gains her first level in any spellcasting class. Sphere-Specific Drawbacks must be chosen as soon as the caster gains the drawback’s prerequisite sphere."

[EldritchWeaver]

Regarding the Scholar's healing ability: Is there any restriction in regards of the type of the creature I'm missing? Or can I heal undead and constructs, too? If not, how do I get that possibility?

[AlienFromBeyond]

From the book "General drawbacks must be selected as soon as the caster gains her first level in any spellcasting class. Sphere-Specific Drawbacks must be chosen as soon as the caster gains the drawback’s prerequisite sphere."

Well there you go, a contradictory answer within the book itself.

[Quarian Rex]

Well there you go, a contradictory answer within the book itself.

How is that contradictory? Drawbacks come into play when the thing they are affecting comes into play. I see no contradiction. The tradition examples lay a roadmap, they don't dictate how you spend your talents.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Well there you go, a contradictory answer within the book itself.

All that says is that you choose the drawbacks when you gain access to the thing they affect. General (spell point/boon granting) drawbacks don't come in until you have a spell pool from a casting class. Sphere-specific drawbacks are picked when you gain access to their sphere

[digiman619]

Dumb question, but to talents gained via drawbacks with the Brute, Boxing, Open Hand or Wrestling spheres count separately for improving unarmed damage? For example, if at first level I took the Defensive Pugilist drawback to get Tight Guard and I have two unarmed spheres/talents talents, does that qualify as having 4 talents and thus doing 1d6 damage w/unarmed strikes?

[EldritchWeaver]

Dumb question, but to talents gained via drawbacks with the Brute, Boxing, Open Hand or Wrestling spheres count separately for improving unarmed damage? For example, if at first level I took the Defensive Pugilist drawback to get Tight Guard and I have two unarmed spheres/talents talents, does that qualify as having 4 talents and thus doing 1d6 damage w/unarmed strikes?

There is no rule which changes the effect of talents depending on the source of the talent, with only one exception: If you gain a talent only temporarily, it doesn't provide the instant retraining it otherwise does.

[Kaouse]

The Opportunist talent from Trap Wielder allows you to take an attack of opportunity with a ranged weapon if somebody takes damage from your dart trap or fails their save against your snare trap. Does this ranged weapon allowance include splash weapons, or class-based weapons like Alchemist Bombs or Scholar Flashbangs?

[QuadraticGish]

Question about the railgun improvement.

Spoiler: Railgun

Show

The firearm is powered by electricity and magnetism instead of blackpowder. The firearm no longer requires gunpower or blackpowder, meaning it can fire underwater or in other wet environments that would normally stop a firearm from functioning. Additionally, the firearm has its range increment multiplied by 3. This stacks with the multiplier from the improved rifling improvement.

If it no long requires gunpowder or blackpowder, does the firearm still require ammo and reloading?

[khadgar567]

Question about the railgun improvement.

Spoiler: Railgun

Show

The firearm is powered by electricity and magnetism instead of blackpowder. The firearm no longer requires gunpower or blackpowder, meaning it can fire underwater or in other wet environments that would normally stop a firearm from functioning. Additionally, the firearm has its range increment multiplied by 3. This stacks with the multiplier from the improved rifling improvement.

If it no long requires gunpowder or blackpowder, does the firearm still require ammo and reloading?

Common sense says yep. You still need to reload the rail gun and need ammo for it

[CasualViking]

Do the talents that give proficiency with weapons like bastard swords, where the weapon is simultaneously a martial weapon and exotic weapon, give only the martial proficiency or the full exotic proficiency?

Proficiency with a weapon is proficiency, not "partial proficiency". (official rulings on clerics and tengu confirm this).

[Kaouse]

The Opportunist talent from Trap Wielder allows you to take an attack of opportunity with a ranged weapon if somebody takes damage from your dart trap or fails their save against your snare trap. Does this ranged weapon allowance include splash weapons, or class-based weapons like Alchemist Bombs or Scholar Flashbangs?

Looking into this further, while Alchemist bombs are specifically called out to be equivalent in all ways to a ranged weapon, Scholar Flashbangs are never stated to actually be a weapon, just a ranged touch attack. Does this mean that flashbangs can never make use of stuff like Precise Shot/the Sniper Sphere?

[Ssalarn]

Looking into this further, while Alchemist bombs are specifically called out to be equivalent in all ways to a ranged weapon, Scholar Flashbangs are never stated to actually be a weapon, just a ranged touch attack. Does this mean that flashbangs can never make use of stuff like Precise Shot/the Sniper Sphere?

You need to take the Trick Arrows knack to use a flashbang in conjunction with abilities like the Sniper sphere. There used to be text that specifically called them out as being an alchemical weapon and following all the related rules, but it's gone and I don't recall us removing it, so I'm doing a bit of research into when/why that happened.

[Ualaa]

Regarding the physical books.

From the kickstarter page, Adam has said they didn't get enough orders of the physical books for Spheres of Might or Champion of the Spheres for a full print run, like they did with Spheres of Power.

So they were looking into Print on Demand options, for the best possible quality on more limited print runs. They decided on one, and gave the proofs to them about a week ago. The update said that that company would be ready to print in 1-3 weeks after receiving the proofs, so I'm estimating that print books begin during or before the first week of March.

Not sure when that means we'll receive them, but they're coming.

[Kaouse]

You need to take the Trick Arrows knack to use a flashbang in conjunction with abilities like the Sniper sphere. There used to be text that specifically called them out as being an alchemical weapon and following all the related rules, but it's gone and I don't recall us removing it, so I'm doing a bit of research into when/why that happened.

Hmm...it seems like the Scholar gets the short end of the stick in a lot of corner cases. Like how they can't make effective use out of Unarmored Training since they don't have Acrobatics as a class skill, and are barred from selecting the Equipment Sphere with Martial Study. I can understand the reasoning, but it still kinda sucks that you have to expend more resources to reach parity with other classes. Though I suppose every class has to deal with that at some extent.

At any rate, what of Alchemist Bombs? Can they be used with the Opportunist talent from the Trap Sphere?

[stack]

If I recall, bombs are a standard action (or a full attack with fast bombs) so no.

[Triskavanski]

Scoundrel sphere seems to be heavily based around Dirty Trick and Steal combat maneuvers, but for whatever reason, still continues to provoke AoO. Was this intentional?

[CreepyShutIn]

Got a couple of questions here that I need to clear up for a character I'm building:

First, does Extra Combat Talent function even if you're not considered a practitioner? I assume so, since there's no prerequisite, but I'd like to confirm.

Second, reach. Large characters, and certain classes like the Hekatonkheires Symbiat, get a higher natural reach. How does that interact with the whip's unique reach ability (where you can attack anything within your reach) and the Whip Fiend talent from the Equipment sphere?

Yes, I do want to see what I can get with a Whip Fiend Hekatonkheires. Maybe with chakrams as well, for really long range. Dancer Training gives both weapons.

[Ssalarn]

Scoundrel sphere seems to be heavily based around Dirty Trick and Steal combat maneuvers, but for whatever reason, still continues to provoke AoO. Was this intentional?

I'll ping Ehn to confirm, but yes, that's intentional. The Scoundrel sphere grants the Marked Target ability which inflicts the battered condition. Battered is the condition many spheres use to prevent their maneuvers from provoking AoOs.

[torrasque666]

Got a couple of questions here that I need to clear up for a character I'm building:

First, does Extra Combat Talent function even if you're not considered a practitioner? I assume so, since there's no prerequisite, but I'd like to confirm.

Quick question due to me viewing it on the wiki and not during the playtest, but can the Extra Combat Talent feat be used to gain access to spheres without being a sphere using class?

Yes. The word "extra" does throw people off, but the feat has no prerequisites.

Yup.#10chars

[Triskavanski]

I'll ping Ehn to confirm, but yes, that's intentional. The Scoundrel sphere grants the Marked Target ability which inflicts the battered condition. Battered is the condition many spheres use to prevent their maneuvers from provoking AoOs.

I see.. Is there any rules or provisions for when something like a particular martial archetype has a feat talent that a class or race might get automatically. Like for example The Cunning Warleader has the Quick Feint talent.

[Ssalarn]

I see.. Is there any rules or provisions for when something like a particular martial archetype has a feat talent that a class or race might get automatically. Like for example The Cunning Warleader has the Quick Feint talent.

I'm not sure if this answers your question, but feinting does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Every sphere that keys off a maneuver which provokes an attack of opportunity offers some way to prevent provoking attacks of opportunity, whether that be by inflicting the battered condition or some other debuff.

There is a general rule in the introduction for SoM that states when ever you would gain a talent you already possess, ou instead gain a talent of your choice from that sphere. The associated feat rules allow you to choose a talent that has said associated feat in place of the feat whenever you would gain it, so combined with the rules on allowing you to gain another talent from the same sphere if you already have it, you should be covered in most instances of overlap. For example, if you would gain the Improved Feint feat from an archetype, you could instead take the Fast Feint talent, and if you already have Fast Feint, you could instead take any other Fencing talent you qualify for.

[Triskavanski]

Ah yeah, that second part is what I was talking about there.

[EldritchWeaver]

Hmm...it seems like the Scholar gets the short end of the stick in a lot of corner cases. Like how they can't make effective use out of Unarmored Training since they don't have Acrobatics as a class skill, and are barred from selecting the Equipment Sphere with Martial Study.

Unarmored Training keys of skill ranks and in PF you can buy them normally, so the scholar isn't impacted there, compared to every other class and build.

[digiman619]

Unarmored Training keys of skill ranks and in PF you can buy them normally, so the scholar isn't impacted there, compared to every other class and build.

Technically it only does that if you have Acrobatics as a class skill, but there are tons of ways to get it.

[Kaouse]

Technically it only does that if you have Acrobatics as a class skill, but there are tons of ways to get it.

Namely through the spending of traits, hence my comment of "spending resources to reach parity." That said, there are a few races that can make it a class skill via an alternate racial trait, a la "Fey Thoughts," so there's that at least.

[RedMop]

it seems like the Scholar gets the short end of the stick in a lot of corner cases.

If every class could be good at every thing, why have more than 1 class?

[Kaouse]

If every class could be good at every thing, why have more than 1 class?

That's kind of a straw man of my post, where I also said:

Though I suppose every class has to deal with that at some extent.

I'm not arguing for the class to be god tier at everything, just pointing out that there are some cases where the rules of the game do not favor it.

Flashbangs not being considered a weapon means that there are a lot of system elements that don't work with them, like Precise Shot from the Sniper Sphere or Point Blank Shot from the Barrage Sphere, which call out "weapons" specifically.

Considering the fact that these two are basically the cornerstone of every ranged build ever, it's a pretty glaring omission that doesn't exist in base Pathfinder, where Rays and Alchemist Bombs are properly classified as weapons.

And just as a final point, know that such a line of thinking can just as easily be used as justification to never improve terrible classes like the Core Fighter or Rogue or Monk, because, hey, if every class could be good at every thing, why have more than 1 class?

[Kaouse]

On a semi-unrelated note, let's talk more about Traps from the Trap Sphere.

1. Do traps take a penalty for firing into melee? If so, do they benefit from stuff like Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Deadly Shot, Barrage, et al?

2. If somebody takes the Expert Eye talent, and are able to use their skill in Craft (traps) in place of Perception against traps and Disable Device against traps, do they need to use Thieves Tools, or would a Trap Bag suffice? If they had Masterwork Thieves Tools, would they receive the +2 bonus?

EDIT: On a completely unrelated note, When creating poison from the Alchemy Sphere's Poison Package, is there ever a benefit to using an injury poison over a contact poison?

[Zsaber0]

On a semi-unrelated note, let's talk more about Traps from the Trap Sphere.

1. Do traps take a penalty for firing into melee? If so, do they benefit from stuff like Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Deadly Shot, Barrage, et al?

2. If somebody takes the Expert Eye talent, and are able to use their skill in Craft (traps) in place of Perception against traps and Disable Device against traps, do they need to use Thieves Tools, or would a Trap Bag suffice? If they had Masterwork Thieves Tools, would they receive the +2 bonus?

EDIT: On a completely unrelated note, When creating poison from the Alchemy Sphere's Poison Package, is there ever a benefit to using an injury poison over a contact poison?

In addition to this, is there a way to get Trapfinding in Sphere of Might?