[Drop Dead Studios] Spheres of Power Kickstarter

[Aleron]

Seriously curious about what the release date is here! Also if you pre-order the physical do you still get a free pdf at this point?

The last thing after having a short time to glance through the pdf...I was wondering why the destruction starts off as force damage. That seems...like a bad choice as you don't really have a lot of reason to branch out from there. Nothing basically can counter force and it does pretty darn high damage. Feels like the di used should be a d4 or something at best. What was the thought behind it?

[Drop Dead Studios]

@Malwing:

1.Like spell levels, sphere caster levels only apply to sphere classes. That being said, we have a prestige class (True Mystic) for mixing the two systems together.

2. As much as is possible for two completely different systems, we're designing the spheres so they can be used alongside spells in the same world. There is a little fudging on the GM's part (especially if a player tries to sneak in things like Magical Knack, claiming it should apply to spheres) but for the most part they work well together.

3. We will have the work-in-progress PDF (the first 4 chapters of the projected 6) up by Christmas at the latest. Other than that, it depends on so many variables of playtesting that we can't say for certain.

4. Every sphere caster gains 2 bonus magic talents at 1st level, which may be used to gain either a sphere or a talent from a sphere they already possess.

5. The playtest has generally gone very well, all things considered. Some options have been cut, many altered, and we're still taking feedback from players as often as it arrives.

6. Yes.

7. Each companion needs to be summoned separately, which means all but one must be sustained through spell points. It will take a little more testing to see if that balance control is really required or not, but it is the way things currently work.

8. Concentration works exactly the same with spells as with spheres, we just had to add our own language (MSB for concentration checks) to make it translate to the new way of doing things.

9. Casting Traditions are a GM tool first and a Player tool second. Casting Traditions are mentioned in the Casting class feature of each class simply as a reminder that, if casting traditions are to be used, 1st level is when they should be applied.

@Aleron:

Everyone who orders the physical book will get the PDF as well. They wouldn't let me put up a PDF pre-order until the work-in-progress PDF was in order, which is our current priority.

We chose force damage as it was the closest to 'pure magic' we could find. It originally was d4s with everything else being d6s, but the language got clunky as virtually everything became an exception to the base ability. We've found the benefits of blast-type talents make them attractive even if they do not do increased damage on top of their other benefits, but as with all things we're still looking at all options to find the best one.

[Malwing]

Some followup question/comments;

Re 2. I hoped so because I had intended to only allow the new classes access to spheres to keep things simple.

Re 4. That makes me presume that there is some or one universal talent that just gains a new sphere. So in the case of the previewed Elementalist it would have either the destruction sphere and two destruction talents, Two spheres and a talent or three spheres at first level?

Re 7. My first impression on the extra companion talent was that it seemed overpowered because they both scaled, but when I re-read the text on maintaining it I guessed that maintaining only one at a time without point was the limiter on that. The wording makes it work that way but I wanted to make sure.

In that respect this product is way more thought out than I could have imagined.

[Sukebe]

* I just noticed that Drop dead studios answered these but I went through the effort to type it out so I will respond anyway :-)

1: no, Spheres of Power caster levels are considered part of a their own seperate system so they do not stack with normal pathfinder caster levels.

2: the system is made so that it can work in the same world as traditional vancian magic. there is even a prestige class that combines the two. It also works as a replacement of course so it would be up to the DM.

3: I doubt this will be answered as I honestly do not think even the designer can be sure of this.

4: If it is the first SoP casting class you have gained you gain the number of talents listed for 1st level + 2 more. Each talent can be used to gain access to a new sphere or one of the talents in a sphere you already have access to.

5: There are not very many of us who are active in the message boards so this is hard to say. one play group said they encountered some balance issues and that SoP was stronger than it should be. However, I think this mostly came down to the way the DM played things and was not due to the system itself. We also just got an updated version of the system that likely solved the issues we had previously found. Over all, I think it is very balanced but any system that lets you pick and choose effects like this does is likely to get a bit unbalanced if you give your players 100% free reign.

6: They do. All companions you have advance according to the chart. remember though that do not heal until you rest and regain spell points.

7: You would need to spend a spell point to maintain any more than one summon. if you had the easy focus boon you could maintain up to 2.

8: concentration works the same as in pathfinder. there is a boon (easy focus) however that lets you maintain concentration as a move action however.

9: All SoP classes choose casting traditions. They are built into the system. The GM needs to decide what casting traditions they will allow in their game.

[Drop Dead Studios]

@Malwing

Thanks. And yeah, you can spend a magic talent to gain a new sphere, or a talent associated with a sphere you already possess, so all three combinations would be possible for a 1st level elementalist.

[Malwing]

So... What are the traditions like?

The gist I get is that they are restrictions or conditions on your ability to use sphere abilities in exchange for more magic points. So I'm guessing something like - The GM says that in this world you either need to draw runes on targets for them to work or wield a stick to point the magic or make a gesture to activate the magic. And may specify which spheres do that.

I somewhat agree with Aleron: With force damage on the table from the beginning there's little mechanical incentive to branch out to other types of damage. But the alternate blast types have some sort of continuous effect so that alleviates the problem, although I think some of the effects should be more severe. If I were able to make a suggestion I'd say having two more talents per blast type that make the secondary effect more severe would make focusing one an blast type worthwhile and limit 'elemental master' concepts to characters who invest heavily. Alternatively each blast type could have some kind of more severe secondary effect by spending spell points.

[Sukebe]

Casting traditions are indeed restrictions on a characters casting abilities. They are a set of drawbacks and boons (boons are purchased with drawbacks) and any drawbacks that do not get used for purchasing boons will increase the characters spell points.

The 3 normal casting traditions found in pathfinder are included as options in SoP. Traditional magic is Arcane, Divine Petitioner is divine magic, and they also have druidic magic as option.

You can also create very different methods of casting like Runic casters that have to use Profession: Calligraphy to successfully cast their spells, causing spells they cast to take more time. Or Blood magic users who take damage whenever they use spell points but have many boons that increase their caster level under certain conditions. You can even make characters like in the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon who use martial forms to control and direct elemental magic.

As for the destruction sphere, the increase to a D6 for force is a recent change and we are testing it. Keep in mind though that each of the different elemental blast options have their advantages even when they do not increase base damage. Fire leaves creatures burning, lightning gets a hit bonus against those wearing metal, stone ignores antimagic fields and spell resistance etc. Plus, having options in the damage you deal is helpful because while it is true almost no enemy has resistance to force there are also almost no enemies that are weak to it.