Drop Dead Studio's next kickstarter has just gone live. Spheres of Magic; a completely new system of magic for Pathfinder, redesigned from the ground up for ease of play, versatility, and just having a blast.
And here's a short presentation we've been trying to link in the project page, but for some reason Kickstarter doesn't want to link. A short description of the project, complete with stick figures.
The real question is: Can you actually put this system into Hero Lab?
Good point xorial, but even before that, how does it work?
Look, it's not a bad idea, nor a new idea. The question really for me is just that: how does it work? I don't think giving a concrete example is a bad idea on the kickstarter page or here - I watched both the videos on the KS page, but while both are very gung ho they are light on details.
I want to see a build.
I want to see a comparison by level with other "regular PF casters".
I want to see a comparison between Spheres of Power builds.
I like the concept and the idea, and Magical Talents sound good, but how many spheres are there in your design currently?
How did you derive them?
How many Magical Talents do I get by level with what build? Can I get them as a fighter achetype of some kind - i.e. will they truly break the martial/caster "disparity"?
Have you dispensed with the Arcane/Divine split (I'm assuming you provide for it, if you haven't explicitly removed the split)?
Without these questions answered, I'd be backing a slick video with a cool concept but have no idea what makes up what you are attempting to do, nor how this will actually work in my game.
Pretty much what OSW said.
And I know me my magic systems...
I'm in for now, but I want more details.
Side note, Xorial? The answer to your question is "No, no it will not be, not unless it finds a way to piggy back off of what exists."
I know this because we were trying to figure out how to get incantations into HL, as there are a lot of them for Midgard. And we do have them in the material, but we had to use a clever way to input them so all classes could have them, and while the text is there, the mechanical inputs aren't quite-- I believe. I'd have to double check, but I'm fairly certain. (And everyone's in Gencon crunch mode.)
-Ben.
@Drop Dead Studios: Well you've reached your funding, and then some in a very short amount of time. I predict you will get at least as much as 10 x your intial goal. More power to you.
We're planning a big video update for Saturday detailing more about the system so we'll link it here, but to answer some of your questions:
We have 12 spheres planned currently for the finished product, and a great multitude of Talents. Building a spellcaster is a matter of choosing spheres and talents, making spellcasters as easy to build, balance, and play as a fighter or rogue, yet will all or even more versatility than the average spellcasting classes.
Spheres constitute the general abilities that a magic-user might possess. Each one contains a simple ability that scales as you level, which can be further augmented by talents.
For example, if a spellcaster gains the Telekinesis sphere, he gets the ability to move objects at will. At 1st level this is little more than the mage hand spell, but at higher levels he can, at will, move much larger objects, including flying the halfling rogue up to those hard-to-reach places for example. By taking further talents, he can learn to use Dexterous skills and combat maneuvers at a distance, make telekinetic attacks, grant flight to allies, and improve the size and speed of his telekinetics, allowing him to throw objects (or enemies) around the battlefield. This allows for a steady progression of a power, and a spellcaster who can throw an enemy across a battlefield never finds himself unable to lift a simple chair.
Other Spheres include destruction, nature, theurgy (healing and infliction), illusion, divination, protection, and others.
The divine/arcane split is not hardcoded into the magic system, but can be provided for, as the system is also designed to be adaptable to whatever setting you have in mind. Likewise, the talent system allows talents to be gained with feats, meaning a fighter can quite easily dabble in magic for only the cost of a few feats.
We'll have more information up here soon and like I said I'll link the video update this Saturday which will have many more details.
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We just hit double our funding goal. Commence happy dance.
We've broken our latest stretch goal, and the book just got bigger. Now we're working on a Spheres of Power bestiary and caster-focused adventure module. With D20pfsrd throwing in a free copy of Open Gaming Monthly as well, our package-deal pledges are starting to get fairly big.
Sorry for the confusion. Yes, the PDF Summoner level gains a PDF of every stretch goal as well.
We made an update that breaks down some of the basic concepts of Spheres of Power, for those who are interested. We'll delve into more details in future updates, so check back often if you're curious to see how this thing works.
I was checking your previous products-- have you generated HL files for any of your released classes?
thanks,
-Ben.
Not yet, but once we've gotten Spheres of Power's Hero Lab files set up, we're hoping to move on to doing those as well.
Ok. Just read THIS Update from your Kickstarter.
Put simply:
* Spell points like a ki pool.
* Talents like a rogue, or a fighter's combat feats.
* 13 (so far) spheres each with a default ability.
Question: Classes, in the following update - do they place special caveats and "class abilities" around the spheres and talents? Provide different uses for spell points?
The new classes, like the core classes, give a series of new abilities and benefits that either augment the spheres and use spell points, or exist outside the Sphere system entirely. For example, the elementalist gains bonuses to damage with the destruction sphere and can augment it even more than usual, and the thoughtspinner grants passive benefits to allies and himself with a class ability that lets him serve as a hub, connecting his allies minds, and relaying information to them.
The Sphere system is designed to simultaneously serve players who want to build concepts from the ground up, who want to play the standard classes but switch out spellcasting systems, or who just want to pick up a fun new class and roll with it with a minimum of prep.
Okay, I broke down & backed this project.
Any news on the release date?
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Any news on the release date?
Late August was the last I read on their Kickstarter Update.
That a pretty fair assessmnet actually. Only the spheres also can be used with a spell pool to make the talents more effective.
No problem.
So yeah, after seeing the deeper descriptions I went ahead and preordered this, but I have a few questions.
1) Like everyone else; Release date?
2) How big is this? I ordered a softcover because it was cheaper but if the product proves to be essential to my playgroup it may be worth getting an extra copy and how big it is makes a difference between hard and soft cover.
3) Will there be a significant boost or nerf to caster power level if they convert to Spheres?
4) How do Spheres interact, if at all, with magic if Spheres are added without replacing casting.
I think I can get a few of these answered:
1.) Not completely sure myself but they originally called for a Fall release date, I think they said late August. With the newest update though I'd wager that's been bunked up a month, so mid or late September?
2.) I don't know the total page count but it's going to be a fairly large book. It has a whole new system of magic, lots of new classes, rules for converting existing ones to the system/archetypes, a ritual system to make up for the Sphere systems weakness, and another chapter for combining Spheres for new effects (I think).
3.) I think the new system leaves casters at a fair middle ground, all in all. On one hand casters have at will abilities throughout the day that are effective, making them feel in many respects more like the 3.5 warlock than a wizard or cleric, at least from a mechanical standpoint. However their talents don't have any real way to replicate a lot of the 'godly' wizard aspects of 6th level+ spells you can often ask people about; in order for sphere casters to get things like wish, resurrection, and such they need to use rituals, at least last I checked.
4.) They are treated as two different methods of casting, though the exact differences are left up to you. They eeven have a True Mystic Prestige class that advances in both methods. Personally, I'm going to have Sphere act as riven magic, as introduced my RGG, in setting where both methods are used; basically traditional spells are the end result of years and years of magic being refined, while spheres represent the original, raw way of handling magic (and as such I might be forcing sorcerers to use the sphere system).
3.) I think the new system leaves casters at a fair middle ground, all in all. On one hand casters have at will abilities throughout the day that are effective, making them feel in many respects more like the 3.5 warlock than a wizard or cleric, at least from a mechanical standpoint. However their talents don't have any real way to replicate a lot of the 'godly' wizard aspects of 6th level+ spells you can often ask people about; in order for sphere casters to get things like wish, resurrection, and such they need to use rituals, at least last I checked.
4.) They are treated as two different methods of casting, though the exact differences are left up to you. They eeven have a True Mystic Prestige class that advances in both methods. Personally, I'm going to have Sphere act as riven magic, as introduced my RGG, in setting where both methods are used; basically traditional spells are the end result of years and years of magic being refined, while spheres represent the original, raw way of handling magic (and as such I might be forcing sorcerers to use the sphere system).
3) I rarely give players a 15 minute workday without consequence so Emanators(Sphere users; for lack of a better term) may have a leg up from Casters in my campaigns if that's the case. In some ways this sounds like the casters I always wanted.
4)I was thinking of doing that, flavor-wise, depending on how it works out in the final product. I didn't want people to HAVE to learn a new system of magic but didn't want it to be more of the same thing.
So, um, anybody got any more of them updates?
It might be a nice gesture to those of us who did something like pre-ordered the product but didn't get to back it if they released some of the preview material to us.
I'd like that but my main concern is that I have a game coming up and I've been itching for glances at it since the August release date was announced. I had found out about it after the kickstarter was over but got excited when it went on preorder at Paizo. I don't suspect that it's a non-product but I'm really itching for updates or more details about the product. Maybe a Work-in-Progress document? Or at least the release date to change from August.
Tell ya what, I'll mention this to Adam over on the backer forum and see what he says. In all fairness though, pre-ordering and being a backer via KS are two different animals, despite having similar appearances.
Very true, but I fell in love with the concept after the kickstarter so I'm addressing the delay like this so I'm not exactly rational. Also I'm feel like the buzz and dialogue needs to stay alive y'know.
I'm a member on the backer forum, so I can kinda give you an idea what the system's got so far without giving away info I shouldn't(hopefully).
There are classes,though some of which can use some more testplay to work out some balance issues. There is a conversion page for using the existing core pathfinder classes, as well. Last I checked, there's nothing for non-core classes(such as Magus), but for the most part the core samples should get you an idea of how to do them up yourself.
Aside from some minor tweaks here and there that should be done, the core of magic system is basically playable. There are some more advanced options(that a GM can disallow) which touch upon the power of normal casters a bit(aka more powerful/specific effects). Some more are still being developed last I checked.
There are feats for improving or picking up casting ability, as well as rules for using metamagic feats with SoP. One or 2 feats are a tad debatable and likely being worked on.
Also, there are casting traditions for customizing how one uses magic, instead of being stuck with the traditional verbal/somatic with arbitrary components/focus items.Item creation rules aren't around yet. I'd imagine it'd be the last thing done. There's also something else that's major that's not done, but I can't remember what it was.
All in all, it's got a bit to go, but has come a long way from what was first posted.
Okay so the rules are still being fully developed? Sounds like the pdf release is pretty far off then unless there are Work-in-Progress releases.
How is the magic system by the way? Not in terms of specific details but general feel of fun levels, power levels, how intuitive it is ect.
With, what 11(?), new classes I'm not 100% sure that caster converting is at all helpful but I wouldn't argue against it.
Are the new classes being balanced against the casters already in the game?
All in all the details that I have seem consistent with what I was expecting so I'm excited.
When I had first heard about casting traditions I imagined that players would be the ones to use it. I guess I'll have to see the product to figure out how to handle it in my games.
Spellcrafting sounds cool . Cant wait for this all to come out for pdf. I'm curious and stoked.
I did not see this page for quite some time, and I apologize for it. For those looking for a preview of how the basic magic works, we put together this sample PDf.
There have been several questions asked here, with different answers given. For those who still have questions, please post them here and I'll do my best to answer them.
So is there a new ETA? Before or after christmas is a good enough guesstimate.
[edit] Sorry if I'm being annoying about wanting to talk about this product. I really liked the concept and really want want to keep the talk/buzz up.
After looking at the sample pdf and sleeping on it I have some more questions.
1) If sphere casters are played alongside normal casters do caster levels stack with caster levels from sphere users or do these default to 'sphere caster levels'?
2) Is the intended default assumption that spheres replace casting or can the sphere classes play alongside normal casters?
3) Seriously, is there a new ETA?
4) When a Sphere class gains the casting class feature does it get a sphere and two talents? I ask because it feels not quite spelled out that it gets a sphere and I only assumed this was true. I also assume that the Elementalist gets two spheres, one from it's casting class feature and one from it's bonus sphere class feature.
5) How has the playtests gone so far in regards to power level/balance?
6) In the conjuration sphere there's a talent that grants a second summoned companion. Do these advance at the same rate?
7) Related: If you have multiple summoned companions can you maintain all of them by concentrating or do you need to spend points to maintain the one you're not concentrating on.
8) Also related, How does Spheres of Power define concentrating? Is it the same as normal, ie spend a standard action to maintain MSB check towards things that would cause concentration checks?
9) I noticed that the Elementalist chooses a tradition. Earlier I was under the impression that traditions were more of a GM tool, are they hardwired into the classes?
Otherwise this is all that I dreamed that it would be and I hope a lot of success on this project. I already preordered a copy.