CalethosVB's page

tl;dr: I wrote a PrC that gestalted Malefactor (TPK Games) and Swordsage from Bo9S a while back, and need help updating it to Stalker (DSP) instead of Swordsage.

Way, way back when, I got the Malefactor class booklet as part of a kickstarter promo and fell in love with the idea of the class. A GM I had gamed with previously (who is all about homebrew and custom content) said he was going to run a new game and that we could run whatever 3pp material if he decided it was balanced enough. We both enjoyed Tome of Battle and he made liberal use of 3.5 splat material in his PF games. I asked him about writing a custom PrC to use in this game to cross the Malefactor and the Swordsage. I came up with Yla's Blade to that end, which ended up becoming approved.

The game is over, but the battle is not finished. I'm not very familiar with Path of War, but I would like to convert this to use with the Stalker instead of the Swordsage, and would appreciate any input. I would be preferable to keep the feel of the class, the debuffer that can also effectively melee.

He can summon the equipment but still has to buy, find, or make batteries.

I think this is a character that is already set in stone and being played, right? You just needed a quick numbers check to see if everything looked right because things seemed slightly off somewhere?

I think most of the Spheres are supposed to be weapon agnostic, so you could use your natural weapons with almost anything (some exclusions may apply). Also, the Alternative Unarmed Training feat in the document allows you to treat your natural attacks as unarmed strikes, letting you use relevant Spheres and effects.

While the EA deals similar damage to the standard kineticist, wouldn't it be more consistent due to multiple shots per round vs a single big shot, which EAs can still do if they want?

Kinetic Blasts are Wild Talents. If this kineticist has no battery or a dead battery, they can no longer blast.

A battery costs 100 gp. At 1st level, they are dead after 5 blasts with no further method of attack or damage. Hopefully they pick up fresh batteries in that dungeon.

You still gain the attack and damage bonuses of elemental overflow, but now you don't also gain the size bonuses gained from elemental overflow. Those size bonuses stacked with the enhancement bonuses from belts. Now instead you have the option to pick up an enhancement bonus from an implant, which is now mandatory to preserve your attack and damage boosts.

There is absolutely no reason to play this archetype as written over a conventional kineticist. It could be flavorful, but this is damaging.

I couldn't tell you without talking to the devs about why not, but going through the material, including the TK Handbook, it looks like the SoP version of telekinesis is a rough lump of raw power, not easily manipulated into a fine, finessable form. You may have a ton of power there, but it's harder to apply it exactly the way you mean to.

That, and there's ways of improving your caster level into the 30s on your lonesome before also being able to apply feats to combat maneuvers. Yes, -5 sucks, but if you want to go all out to perform a trip with your TK, you can find ways to do it, above and beyond what a martial class can already do, and still have the same options with which to do it.

I don't think that should be a stretch goal myself. I think handbook additions should be something they get to when they get the chance and not, "If you don't spend more money now, we won't do it later". I'm not saying that's how it is, but that's what it feels like.

How they have the Patreon set up for the SoP handbooks feels right for this sort off thing. And even if it's a little bit later, when they get there, they get there.

On a similar note, I think the gish book should be a separate thing from this kickstarter. You know there's a call for it already, just make it happen some time after this one is printed.

Hmm. Perhaps. But I'm seeing that Rapid Assault and thinking, yeah, this is how she plays. Lots of frenetic action. Moving between attacks. Not every attack is even alike in their delivery.

And the Paradigm System just calls out as everyone is an Armiger.

It may have had a weird, convoluted, "why do I even care?" plot, but at least the combat was fun to watch.

Now, would Lightning from FFXIII be an Armiger? I can see so many things happening within the Spheres and her basic attack routine with Rapid Assault.

Deadly Shot via crossbow from a range, move closer, follow up with a reach weapon (I'm waiting to see what Sphere may be good there), Sucker Punch into Launching Counter with a free grapple, a dagger to the chest on the way up, and finally a set of bolas to keep him tripped up. Switch up to the Open Hand weapon and if he's prone when he comes back down, Axe Kick him.

Beyond the ones already mentioned there aren't that many must haves, since you have the touch AC blast it might be worth taking deadly aim. Extra wild talents might be good.

Deadly Aim doesn't work with ranged touch attacks.

Kinetic Blade as an infusion, Weapon Finesse to get Dex-to-hit with Kinetic Blade, and a cestus backup weapon so you can threaten and so you can do something to fire-immune enemies.

Point-blank Shot, Precise Shot.

If your party Wizard isn't using haste, Boots of Speed are pretty good.

Death From Above is pretty good once you get Greater Flame Jet, though you're only attacking touch so, not as good.

Pick up Fire's Fury.

Iron Will. Your Will save is your weakest save.

Belt of Dex/Con. This is your basic attack and damage belt.

I doubt this is the right time for this suggestion, but how about a special weapon ability that allows the wielder to use the Sphere and talents stored inside the weapon? Similar to how staves in SoP work. If you aren't wielding the weapon, you don't get that Sphere. This is what the Armiger already does, essentially, with his bonded weapons. But allow that ability to be purchasable. I don't know if Path of War does it (I know this isn't a ToB-type book), but ToB had wondrous items that would hold a single maneuver.

jedi8187 wrote:

I do like uppercutting for falling hammers.

Also going off that interacting spell idea: Maybe and advanced talent or something to allow spell sundering? I cut your fire ball in half for no damage type thing, with a successful roll of course.

actually how about on failed save you cut the fireball instead on successful save you throw the fireball back to caster itself

A fan of the Dragonball series, I take it?

I'd love to see that boxing preview as that's one I'm really looking forward to.

I'm building a pugilist out of a gestalt fighter/kineticist right now for a future game. Something like Vegeta from DBZ. Boxing would seem to be right up this character's alley.

My personal favorites have been:
A moderately modded Skyrim, Borderlands 2 (get the Game of the Year Edition or the Handsome Collection, they're worth it), Grim Dawn (the spiritual successor to the Diablo series), Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Undertale, Witcher 3, Overwatch, Minecraft, and if you have a really nice computer, get ARK Survival Evolved (don't get it if your computer doesn't have at least a GTX 750+ graphics card and 8 gigs of RAM).

The Raven Black wrote:

I hope there will be something for a master of improvised weapons and shields able to use his environment for both defense and offense, even against foes with DR. And benefitting from enhancement bonuses :-)

"I once saw him kill three men in a bar with a pencil. With a ****in' PENCIL."

You ever watch Casino? The pen scene.

A thread was born to advertise a fundraising project and had an entire page dedicated to what potential customers might call it.

You guys have some dedicated followers, it appears.

You could call it either and I'd be content with the content. However, I think I agree with the Spheres of Might title instead of Combat, because caster and martial alike enter combat together in a party, but not all casters are mighty. (Don't tell the Dex Rogue about being mighty.)

CalethosVB wrote:

I just give it to the players. It's one of the only universally applicable skills that has some bearing of fruit with each skill rank. If anything, PFU skill unlocks don't go far enough in making skills useful for Regular Joe characters.

You mean that as a DM, you give your players free skill rankss in speaking various languages? Or do you give the full Linguistics skill complete with deciphering and forging abilities?

I mean that, as a DM, 1 skill rank invested in Linguistics gets the character their choice (secret languages excluded) of any language they wish to learn, plus the ability to forge/check for forgeries, and decipher script written in any language they know.

It's a quantifiable use of a skill rank where most skills aren't much different between the first and second ranks.

I just give it to the players. It's one of the only universally applicable skills that has some bearing of fruit with each skill rank. If anything, PFU skill unlocks don't go far enough in making skills useful for Regular Joe characters.

My first character, a Fighter with rolled stats, had an abundance of skill ranks every level. Picking up a few extra languages let me parley with the dragon at the end of the campaign long enough to provide a distracted for the dwarf who suplexed it into the ground.

You can also use the retraining rules to pick up 1+Int extra languages without spending skill ranks in Linguistics. It's 20 days a language, but could be worth it if you have massive amounts of downtime, or start at a later level.

Okay, I may not be getting it, but why two tower shields?

Lord Mhoram wrote:

CalethosVB wrote:

Will there be any interaction mechanics to pair with SoP? Something like what the Magus does with sword and sorcerer? The last real gish type character I played was a Swordsage / Malefactor gestalt; curse the target while simultaneously performing complex maneuvers on it. I'd like to recreate a similar feel.

Secondly, gimme a link. :D

Yeah - a class that used SoC for Martial abilities and SoP for magic, and class abilities to blend them, mid in BAB and mid CL.

We shall call it the Eldritch Sphere Knight!

There is a Destruction talent that has you make a standard action attack with your weapon. If it hits, the target also takes the damage of your destructive blast.

That is what I'm talking about.

Will there be any interaction mechanics to pair with SoP? Something like what the Magus does with sword and sorcerer? The last real gish type character I played was a Swordsage / Malefactor gestalt; curse the target while simultaneously performing complex maneuvers on it. I'd like to recreate a similar feel.

Secondly, gimme a link. :D

I really dig the Zen Archer Inquisitor.

I also enjoy a straight up Two-weapon Warrior Fighter URogue.

Alternating back-and-forth Unarmed Fighter/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple/Eldritch Knight.

I don't recall any erratas that allow DD's Blood of Dragon's to affect Bloodrager Bloodlines, but everything else makes sense.

It's not an errata, it's a FAQ.

Serante the Mageknight resolves to quit ignoring his AC. And he shall reclaim his stolen lordship from his uncle. But A before B, methinks.

Auferro the Arcanist will, this year, become the immortal demigod he's always wanted to be. At the moment, he's still struggling with the tagline, "I am a god for about a minute a day."

Malefactor Saisuira is sure to regain her memory. She hopes the guy who started this little adventure wasn't her boyfriend (that would be awkward).

Sgt. Ravek vows to be the most righteous Inquisitor possible, that she may gain audience with her Holy Light, Sarenrae, to try to lift the curse of undeath from herself. Damnable witches!

I think, since you don't have actual Sorcerer levels or a Sorcerer Bloodline as a feature that came from one of your multiple classes, you gain the Bloodline Powers bestowed by your Dragon Disciple levels as a Sorcerer of your Dragon Disciple level. You may end up with redundant or extra uses of a power, but never any actual Sorcerer levels.

When you gain your breath weapon from your Dragon Disciple levels, it would function as a Sorcerer of your Dragon Disciple level, plus you may have a breath weapon granted by your VMC Sorcerer level. These would be separate abilities, each with their own separate strength.

As an aside, in this scenario which class would you use to qualify for the unprepared arcane caster requisite? Which class would you add your Dragon Disciple levels to for spellcasting?

Does granting a creature temporary hit points cause that creature to automatically stabilize if they are dying?

Take the spells stabilize and virtue, for example. One says it automatically stabilizes, the other grants 1 temp hp. If temp hp automatically stabilized a creature, there would be no need for the first spell, would there?

Can you even make aoo atacks without kinetic whip?

Kinetic Fist and IUS.

Are these multiclasses characters or gestalt?

A +2 belt of Dex/Con for each of them would be nice (10k), or a +4 belt of Dex or a +4 belt of Con (16k) would be nice as well. Other than that, Kineticists don't have a lot of cheap beneficial magic items available to them by way of weapons and attack/damage potential.

A custom magic item could be that flaking sword that could take advantage of the user's kinetic blast at the same rate as maybe kinetic fist (+1d6 X damage per 3 damage dice if kinetic blast minimum 1d6).

Take the Elemental Annihilator archetype. You gain the equivalent of Weapon Training with your Devastating Blast, and it amounts to the same as taking levels of fighter for the same effect (no Utility Wild Talents) without killing your progression in Kineticist.

Each time you gain a new level, pick a class. That class gains +1 level. You gain no benefits for that level from any other classes you have.

A fighter 1, sorcerer 1 is a 2nd level character that may use any ability they currently have access to from their class levels.

My first DM had us roll 4d6 drop lowest in three groups of 6. Once we figured up what the totals of the dice rolls were, we would get to select from one group of 6.

I myself point out the point-buy table and say you get 20 points.

With my last group though, I think I should have just given the players a static array because 20 points buys a lot of 13s. 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 is my choice.

Automatic Bonus Progression looks cool and goes a ways away toward dealing with the Big Six. But it is laid out kinda funky. It doesn't look like a standard progression. So I decided to standardize it and add my own stuff.

But I need your help. I need opinions. I need critique. I need an honest review before I make a commitment to any of this.

This isn't just the Big Six, it's also a different take on VMC, and on general character progression.

You can leave comments in this thread or on the doc itself. If the wording is off, doesn't conform, or just doesn't make sense. If you see something weird, let me know.

Let me know how you think it would affect specific classes or types of classes. Would you want to play under these rules? Did I go too far in one direction, or not far enough?

Click me in case you missed the first link.

Thanks. I missed the "for movement" portion of that sentence then.

Is the speed decrease with medium and heavy armor inherent to the armor type (medium, heavy), or to the type of armor (breastplate, full plate)? If I buy a mithral breastplate and have it count as light for all things except proficiency, does it remove the decreased move speed (30 to 20, 20 to 15)? Does elven chain (actual light armor) keep the 20/15 ft move speed reduction?

CalethosVB wrote:

Here's a link to a multiclass 7th level caster. Cleric 3, Rogue 2, Bard 2.

Casting Traditions are a collection of pros and cons that help more clearly define your ability to cast. These tell you whether you can cast in armor, if you have to verbalize your spells, and more, while also granting you more Spell Points. Think of it like Monk Vows.

FYI, These are RECOMMENDED casting traditions. For what I have read, from both the website, and the two books (SoP and SoP:EO) you do not have to choose a casting tradition.

-- david

I did note in the doc that this is a choice. Unless the GM says, "This is how it works in this game," you are free to choose a preexisting tradition or make up your own.

Here's a link to a multiclass 7th level caster. Cleric 3, Rogue 2, Bard 2.

I think your misunderstanding with the system is that it follows the same rules and guidelines of the Magic and Spells chapters of the Core Rulebook. It doesn't. This new magic system has to be relearned since it changes Magic from a fundamental standpoint within Pathfinder RPG. The definitions are there to help you learn how to use the system. Everything is defined for you in a very quick and concise manner.

Caster level is similar to Base Attack Bonus in that multiple classes can contribute to one pool of it and that different classes accrue it at different rates.

High-casters gain a caster level for every high-caster class level they acquire.

Mid-casters gain a caster level on a 3/4 class level schedule.

Low-casters gain a caster level on a 1/2 class level schedule.

Sphere abilities are like Cantrips. You can use them at-will and they're never expended.

Spell Points let you create big effects with your Sphere abilities, but are limited. You gain a Spell Point every time you take a new level of a casting class. You gain more Spell Points for a high casting ability modifier (CAM).

Casting Traditions are a collection of pros and cons that help more clearly define your ability to cast. These tell you whether you can cast in armor, if you have to verbalize your spells, and more, while also granting you more Spell Points. Think of it like Monk Vows.

Spell ranges are covered up front so you know what each Sphere is capable of instead of having to refer to the range on each talent.

MSB and MSD are the CMB/CMD of the magic world. If you need to check against SR, you roll your CMB. If you want to counter or dispel, roll CMB vs. CMD. MSB is equal to your total levels across all casting classes. Your MSD is 11 + your MSB.

You can concentrate on an effect and cast another thing at the same time as long as both take different types of actions (swift, move, standard, etc.).

All Sphere abilities take a standard action to cast and concentration is a standard action. There are ways to do both with other actions, including casting as a move action.

Metamagic increases the cast time by 1 step per metamagic applied. Swift becomes move, move becomes standard, standard becomes full-round, full-round becomes 1 round, and so on.

A lot of spells cannot be replicated.

Magic items work slightly differently depending on their construction. A +1 longsword gives you an enhancement bonus to attack and damage, but it might also give you an enhancement bonus to your caster level with a Sphere. Wands don't have 50 charges, they have unlimited ability to use a base Sphere and 1 to 10 rechargeable charges.

Nobody is restricted to a Spell list. Everybody has complete freedom to pick up any Sphere they desire.

Thanks to the power of feats, Fighters may also cast. The class isn't exactly built around it, but they can do it if they want.

Except for certain archetypes, Sphere Casting leaves all your other class features alone.

What else do you want to know?

So your Spell Points are your level (in almost any instance this refers to class level unless otherwise defined) plus your casting ability modifier.

Charm refers to the power the Mind Sphere gives you. Some other powers, as you noted, boost your charm in different ways such as range and access to the powerful version of any charm talent you pick up.

Similarly, a lot of Spheres tell you that their power has a different name so that you can easily differentiate between them. The Death Sphere, for example, has two base abilities, ghost strike and reanimate. The rules of goat strike say you gain exhausting strike, which follows the ghost strike rules but has an effect to it as described. When you pick up another talent marked (Ghost Strike), it means it is a new attack that follows the rules of ghost strike but has an effect that is different from exhausting strike.

Honestly, what you describe as your free flow of thought building your character is what I would expect of any new player being tossed a Core Rulebook or the Player's Handbook and told to make a 5th level character. The game as a whole, even before third-party supplements, is not intuitive.

Spheres of Power works partly with what is already there and modifies magic to be a bit more intuitive. You only get so much magic, nobody gets access to magic someone else can't have, and everybody gets access to the same magic at the same time. The only difference is really how power scales between the classes.

MSB/MSD only really come up when attempting to counterspell, dispel, or against SR.

About "not intuitive":
For example, what happens if you cast Enlarge Person on yourself one round, and then next round cast Beast Shape I on yourself? You know from having trodded back to the Magic chapter that you can't do that. The second polymorph effect cancels out the first.

But when you pick up the Alteration Sphere, it tells you in its rules that you can't have two Alteration effects going on the same target at once, and one must cancel out the other. It even gives both casters, if there are two of them, a chance to keep their Alteration in place by forcing a MSB vs. MSD check. But if you only pick up the Mind Sphere, you don't have to worry about what Alteration's rules are.

Leadership is the ultimate "You need to consult your GM" feat.

CalethosVB wrote:

There's not enough Light to invest in.

Illuminator's Handbook provides some interesting buff and debuff options. Go Light if you want to be the Shining Warrior who's shine means something.

Looks like I have another Handbook to pick up that I didn't know about. Maybe I should get in on that Patreon?

Nothing against your idea but if this is a plot device character that exists to progresss the story for the characters then it really doesn't need rules.

It can move beyond tree range because it has to for the plot. Fluffy reasoning it's a rare unbound dryad gifted the ability to travel far to further X deities agenda.

Unless you have a dryad in the group, rules are not required.

But if you would prefer to keep within the rules for your dryad instead of home brewing something why not take this approach

The dryad is a regular dryad bound to a tree. But the tree gets teleported by someone/something and the dryad goes along with it .

After a while the group may recognise the tree before they see the same dryad which would be a cool way to let them know they were safe even in an area which just before seemed very dangerous.

It's also a PC option.

TPK games also has their Feats Reforged line that takes feats from Core, Advanced, and Ultimate books and rewrites them to scale with level.

Sense Sean brought it up. Can anyone offer their opinion about someone specializing on a single sphere? If so what spheres would be the most flexible and which would be the most restrictive. As in only being able to do basically one single thing through out the entire battle.

It depends on which handbooks you're willing to pick up?

The Destruction Sphere basically has a save to almost every blast type. You can entangle, grapple, stagger, blind, deafen, sicken, and more, and still deal your favored kind of damage. You can do it as a ranged touch attack, as an emanation, a burst, a line, a wall, as an energy blade, as an energy tether. Destruction has lots of options for dealing damage, but none for really dealing with damage or conditions. As a melee-specialized low-caster, having a resource-free source of ranged damage is a godsend.

Personally, I like the feel of the Telekinesis Sphere. As base abilities, it's a better mage hand than mage hand, you can catch thrown things, you can throw people, you can make an attack with something (or somebody) you lift with your mind. And that's just a base. And the talents just keep enhancing those abilities. Pick up the Telekinetic's Handbook and you're getting the ability to hold a shield and get its AC bonus with your magic, set things caught or picked up into orbit like an ioun stone, pick up items in the tons. And this is something that even as a low-caster you could invest a few talents into.

An Alteration specialist can bring lots of utility to the group. At level 5 you can grant everyone a fly speed. You can turn into a swarm and proceed to poison things that touch you every round. You can turn your goat companion into a dragon. You can turn your goat companion into a goatman. You can turn your goat companion into a celestial being, complete with dr/evil. You can turn the dragon into a goat. You can gift your friends with Darkvision at level 1. If it is a physical feature of some creature, you are likely to be able to pick it up as a talent and give it to your friends.

Conjuration is too talent-intensive for a dip. You need to have a lot of excess talents to make it worth it, like an Incanter, or be satisfied with a warrior, expert, adept, commoner, aristocrat with a slam or bite attack. You can make a pretty good 15 hit die monster, but you'll have really nothing else you can do.

I really like picking up the Warp Sphere with anybody. With just a one talent investment, you can pick up and get out of Dodge on your next turn, or port in on top of the wall, in front of the guard, wherever. With a few more talents, you have a free bag of holding, maybe a good resting place for the night with no hassles, emergency Evasion. But I wouldn't go neck deep in Warp till the Handbook comes out, unless you really want your demiplane at 15.

Nature didn't grab me personally, but it has its appeal. Affect the physical world around you sort of thing. I have the Geomancer's Handbook. If you're going for a druid feel, pick up some of these talents in your preferred theme and you'll be good.

The Weather Sphere seems to me to be devastating for any caster that has prep time and a large tract of land to affect. This is the army killer, but not the soldier killer, if you take my meaning. Forcing your enemies to deal with environmental effects that can slow then or force saves. Boiling rain, deathly cold, hail storms, and lightning bolts every round. If you wanted to play X-Men's Storm, this would be your go-to Sphere. This scales really well with caster level, but a +4 staff maxes you out as a low-caster so you could feasibly be as strong as a high-caster, eventually. And when you're forcing saves every round, it doesn't matter if the save is only DC 12; someone will roll a 1 eventually.

Unless you're a good Cleric or a Soul Weaver, there's no reason to go heavy into Life.

Death is a mixed bag of raising the dead vs. save or suck. Raise an army or give everyone free negative levels. It's powerful, but you should really specialize in either saves or army when you pick this up.

There's not enough Light to invest in. There's just enough Dark to be thematic.

The Diviner's Handbook actually covers a lot. Got the Divination Sphere and another Sphere? Boom, free abilities. Get Trapfinding as a talent. Get Improved Uncanny Dodge as a talent. See Invisible. Scrying. Detect the capabilities of your foes without knowledge checks. If you need a detective character, I would recommend a deep dive here. There's even some pretty good feats available here, such as using your MSB (levels in a casting class) as the variable that sets the duration of your (sense) talents, or gaining bonuses to AC, attack, damage, and saves depending on how many (sense) talents you have active; really good stuff for the Unchained Rogue archetype presented in this book.

For Protection, grab one or two things and go somewhere else. Things scale easily with caster level, so you'll get a hardly-noticed friendly bump when you level up.

Enhancement has a problem of it scales too well with caster level. It's useful for the low-casters because they're the ones most likely to need their equipment enhanced, but it's most powerful and less useful to a high-caster. There's am oxymoron for you. I do not have the Enhancement Handbook. Honestly, ask your Incanter or Cleric to pick it up for you and hope they don't laugh and go for something more useful. It's also needed for Craft Magic Arms and Armor, if your group allows item creation feats.

Fate is the "screw an alignment" sphere. If you're fighting a specific alignment, Fate can do good things for you. You don't do damage, but you buff allies and occupy enemies' precious moments in initiative. I wouldn't go whole hog, but you could do worse I guess.

Mind is great if you're willing to pump save DCs excessively. It's the Charm X / Dominate X / Suicide X of the system. Why kill them yourself when they can do it and have no blood on your own hands. Force the Paladin to turn against his comrades, smiling as he does it. Lesser charms are like Witch hexes: at-will but once per day per target. Greater charms are not as at-will (they require a Spell Point), but are generally more powerful. Powerful charms are you panic button, I absolutely must get this done now with no arguments type of mind-affecting effects. If you are a fan of SAD casters, this is another one for you.

Illusion is, I feel, in a weird spot of it covers enough and not enough at the same time. It screws with all your senses and makes a thing that appears real, plus invisibility, but somehow I wish there was more. I'm sad that the whole Sphere can be summed up in two pages. Good for tricksters that just need a temporary diversion or if you want a dip for invisibility. I guess it could be fun for a laugh at parties.

Time is a Sphere that scales with caster level in the areas of duration, area of effect, and DCs. With the base ability, for example, you'll only ever be able to give a guy one extra attack no matter if your CL is 1 or 20. If you have a magical companion from the Conjuration Sphere, delegate this Sphere to it and free up your actions for something else.

Ah, War, the Babysitter Sphere. Buff your allies. Watch your allies do work. Good for a replacement Bard or Skald. Drop an effect on an area, and when an enemy does something to your ally, do something to screw the enemy. I'm not a fan of this Sphere except for the item creation potential. Dropping physical tokens that create an aura that enhance your allies really, really kicks up the whole WoW shaman vibe for me. Other than for item creation, delegate this Sphere to your Conjuration companion if you don't have a Bard-alike in the party.

As a GM, I'm constantly building new and (hopefully) interesting creatures either to aid or hinder my players. One that I've come to like the idea of is a mobile dryad druid that shows up in the adventure in different locations as required by the plot to divvy out information or grant special boons or items. This dryad can move from location to location at will and is not bound to a 300 yd radius around her chosen tree.

I don't know if there are any third-party supplements that take care of this situation, but I've come up with the following compromise. Let me know what you think.

Mobile Dependence (general)

Prerequisites: Dryad, Tree Dependant

Benefits: You may take the Treesinger Druid (elf) archetype. You must gain a plant companion through this archetype.

You become bonded as Tree Dependant to your plant companion, with a range of 50 ft +10 ft per HD of your plant companion instead of 300 yards. Treat half your racial hit dice as druid levels for the purpose of determining your plant companion's abilities.

If your plant companion is killed or otherwise dies, or you dismiss your plant companion without making a new bond to another plant companion or a tree, you immediately become nauseated. After one hour and every hour thereafter, you must make a Fortitude save or become nauseated. This DC is equal to 10 + your plant companion's hit dice total when it died. After 24 hours, if you have not started the ritual to bond to a new plant companion or tree, you must make another Fortitude save with the same DC or suffer 1d6 points of Constitution damage. Each day you have not started this ritual, you must make this save again.

You may spend 24 hours and make a Will save (DC 10 + the adjusted hit dice of your new plant companion, or 10 + 1/2 your total hit dice if bonding to a tree) as per normal to bond to a new plant companion or to a tree. If your plant companion is dead or dismissed during this time, you are still sickened or nauseated but may perform the bonding ritual, and gaining the nauseated condition during the ritual does not disrupt its completion. After the ritual is complete, you immediately remove the sickened condition altogether, or reduce the nauseated condition to sickened for 1 hour.

Bonding yourself to a tree increases your Tree Dependent radius to 300 yards.

Staff of Conjuration doesn't increase the HD of your summoned companions. It gives them a circumstance bonus equal to the staff's enhancement bonus to attack rolls and skill checks. Same with undead animated through the Death Sphere. For almost everything else, a staff is good.

As for the base Creation vs Protection vs Destruction with the Rebuff talent:

It depends on what you want the Sphere itself for. If you want to make things out of nothing or repair your weapons and stuff, get Creation. If you're looking to protect yourself and your group with more and more boosts, Protection. And, of course, you know what you can do with Destruction.

I've played around with crafting. It's more interesting and to me seems easier than standard item creation. Maybe because you get a big list of effects based on the Spheres you want to use?

Use X Sphere, add Y talent, increase duration to Z, make it usable T times per day, and then multiply by the listed cost.

Forge Ring covers all your wearable items that give you a +1 to something, such as belts, rings, and cloaks (examples). Oddly, this does not cover actual rings that do something other than +1 to something.

Craft Rod covers all your continuous and at-will effect items. A ring that allows you to become invisible at-will is created through Craft Rod.

Crafting Metamagic rods under this system takes some reverse engineering. A metamagic feat takes a number of Spell Points per casting equal to the increase in spell slot it wouldrequire you to take up. So +1 complexity for each Spell Point the metamagic feat would force you to spend. Minimum CL is 9. So a Quickening Rod would be priced at 90,000 gp and could be used regardless of Spell Level, and a +1 Spell level rod would be priced at 18,000 and could be used with any Spell Level. Both of these are less than Greater rods but more than Normal rods.

Wands are now set up kinda like staves? They give you an at-will ability with no charges, and it's actually worth it to get wands of a higher caster level. These are also expensive, with the lowest price Wand being 1000 gp, and the highest price Wand being 100k. These are rechargeable as well! Don't bother buying wands of Cure, you'll only be disappointed. You have to activate it with the wand's Spell Points and it may not have any depending on how the Wand was made.

Staves are freaking awesome. Seriously, buy or build one. These are truly a caster's best friend, like they were meant to be. These give a temporary enhancement bonus to your caster level with 1 Sphere. Caster level affects DCs, range, duration, and potentially spell effects. A +5 Destruction Staff nets you 3d6 to all of your Destructive Blasts, or 5d6 if you spend a Spell Point. These don't, how've, raise the HD of summoned companions nor do they allow a necromancer to animate more dead, but it does give bonuses appropriate to those creatures.

Potions of higher caster levels are kinda worth buying or making sometimes. You don't need to increase caster level to increase range or duration. You buy potions of Cure, not wands.

Scrolls are good for a standard action spell in a can that manages to do a lot of things at once. Caster level affects duration and distance but not as much as just going off the charts given, and in most cases caster level grants a better effect.

Wondrous items are kinda cool, especially if your GM tells you that you can do the things you think you can do with them. They're the X/day items. Using Craft Wondrous Item, I've made potions that refill themselves once per day for emergency whatever. Out of Spell Points but need one more minute of Transformation time? Chug this Wondrous Potion. A ring that allows you to become invisible 3/day is a wondrous item.

You can select takes to add to whatever form you are using from among the traits listed under each form you've picked up. With Avian Transformation, for example, it says

You can add the following traits to any form:

• 2 talon attacks as granted by the avian form. This may be granted once per pair of legs the target possess. The target must possess wings or another means of being airborne to attack with the talons.
  
• 2 wings and their benefits or flight speed, as that granted by the avian form.
  
• 2 wing attacks (secondary, 1d4, 1d3 small) may be given once per pair of wings possessed.

What this means is that if you use the Alteration Sphere to turn yourself or somebody else into something, you can add one of those above traits to that form, up to your maximum number of traits.

Alteration says your transformations grant 1 trait, +1 per 5 caster levels. I usually pick up Greater Transformation for an early additional trait to forms.

I have a Shifter character hanging around on Drive. Here's a link to him as an example. Don't mind the formatting, this is more for my own ease of use.

I'm interested as well.

@Gobo Horde: Seems that some of the things like Material Casting and Magical Signs ought to have options to be specific to certain spells (yes, I see where it talks about General Drawbacks and Sphere-Specific Drawbacks, but a little more customizability could be helpful (even within one spell, how about something like you can cast the basic version with no Material components, but if you want the really good version, you have to shell out for it . . . .

That's what Spell Points represent. You get most of the basic abilities of the Spheres for free, but the more advanced abilities you have to spend a Spell Point for. To get extra Spell Points beyond level + ability mod, you pick up Drawbacks like Material Casting (you must spend 1 silver piece/CL worth of magic materials to cast even basic things) and Magical Signs (big neon message saying, "I'm the healer, kill me first.")

Though, there is inspiration in some of the companion books. In The Telekinetic's Handbook the Soaring Blade archetype has a custom Sphere-specific drawback and boon: