| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
[Initiating Happy anniversary high five]
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
[Initiating Happy anniversary high five]
*looks* Life-size, huh? How did Cap'n know exactly what your life size was? And on the naked post..?
Yes, I know this isn't FaWtL, but...you're a regular there, so you'll get it.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I got the skeletal structures from Arnold Schwarzenegger's garage sale and the rest just kind of took care of themselves.
I'm not really sure what to make of the red glowing eyes or what the long diatribes against John Connor are about. But as long as it takes care of the bullet holes and such itself when it returns I try not to ask too many questions.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Happy Early Dad's Day, fellas. And congrats on anniversaries and such.
(yeah, just posted similar over at Deep 6, but, hey! Can't tell y'all enough! :) )
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Father's day is this weekend. Interesting...
Happy Father's Day, all fathers: that includes me!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Excuse me, don't mind me, sorry, excuse me, sorry, coming through, excuse me.
You're excused.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Man, I wanna play Kingmaker so bad...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Man, I wanna play Kingmaker so bad...
[rant]
I just wanna RPG. Period!That game sesh that was supposed to go down Saturday night?? Well, Oklahoma-brother audibled to hang out with Germany-cousin (totally understandable, given the 8 years they haven't seen each other), but the decision delay led to a projected 8 PM startup, rather than the planned 7 PM startup. The player whose character has done the most to drive the story forward?? Evidently, 7 PM would have been fine, but 8 PM was too late . . . . Knowing, by way of consistent timetable performance, that he wouldn't be leaving till 1 AM anyway!!!
RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
So, rather than 4 players, I had 2. And 3 is my effective PQ (player quorum). It's a good thing I had my EDH decks with me . . . .
But wait! There's more!!!
Monday is Diablo 2 Day for "Phalanx"-brother and me. "Darth Triage" (a member of the normal TTRPG playgroup) has expressed interest in linking up with us to play DII, and had the latest patch (1.14d). "Phalanx"-brother loaded the same patch onto his laptop Monday morning, in anticipation of 3-player co-op . . . . and of his game data was deleted. All of it. We have farmed this game for just over a calendar year, and both of us had level 88 barbarians. We lost a full set-and-a-half of the Immortal King, an untold number of unique items from all three difficulty settings, multiple item sets, and a handful of carefully salvaged runes and socketed items.
You could say that I am the lucky one -- my 1.13 data still exists on the desktop, so my level 88 barbarian is still intact. But I can't play the game with either of them, now . . . . And something tells me that his data is unretrievable.
So what do we do? Start over again with an epic groan, all in the name of solidarity, or at least save the 1/3 to 1/2 of the farmed stash that was on "my" computer, and hope they can get the 1.13x?
Folks don't show up. Technology breaks s#!7. I wanna take a break from EDH for a while.
The gamerverse conspires against me!!!
[/rant]
So!
As many of you may know, I like my deities statted out and ludicrous levels of PC power. I like that they do things, and that neat stuff can be created with them.
As many of you may also know, I liked the old 3.0 Deities & Demigods book (and the 3.5 Faiths and Pantheons as well), and the old 3.0 ELH besides.
Those rules don't quite work perfectly with each other (though they work well enough), but they also work a little less for PF, as PF has the whole mythic thing going on. What's more, those rules were a right mess - they were broken, weird, and horridly balanced.
That said, I'm still going to add a few things to them, because I heart them so mmmmmuuuuuucccchhhh~!
And away we go!
NEW DIVINE POWERS
Alter Reality, Improved
Prerequisites: Cha 33; alter reality; rank 1 or higher.
Your influence over reality is improved.
All effects of 7th level spells or lower created by your alter reality effect are improved by the empower spell, enlarge spell, extend spell, maximize spell, and widen spell. The DC for the ability is increased to 22 + rank + charisma modifier.
Alter Reality, Greater
Prerequisites: Cha 37; improved alter reality; rank 6 or higher.
The pull of your divinity into the strings of reality is even more potent than that of your peers.
This functions like improved alter reality with even fewer limitations. The free metamagic feats applied increase to cover even 9th level spells; further, the DC for the ability is increased to 24 + rank + charisma modifier.
Alter Reality, Mythic
Prerequisites: Cha 41; alter reality; rank 11 or higher or three mythic tiers.
The power of your divinity to re-order existence is mythical.
This functions like alter reality except that it allows access to mythic spells and effects. If you have improved alter reality or greater alter reality, these spells gain the benefits of the metamagic feats noted in Improved Alter Reality; further, the DC for the ability is increased by +3.
Alter Reality, Epic
Prerequisites: Cha 45; alter reality; rank 16 or higher or a character level equal to 21 or higher.
The power of your divinity to re-order existence is beyond the scope even of typical divine magic.
This functions like alter reality, but allows you to imitate epic spells to a limited extent. Choose a number of epic spell seeds equal to twice your divine category +1. You may reduce the DC for the spellcraft DCs for these epic spell seeds by an amount equal to half of your divine rank plus your ability score modifier (minimum 0). If you have greater alter reality, these spells gain the benefits of the metamagic feats noted in improved alter reality, even though they normally cannot benefit from such feats; if you have mythic alter reality, you further, the DC for the ability is increased by +3.
Divine Ease
Prerequisites: Rank 1 or higher.
The strain of divinity is less for you than for many of your peers.
The time of your rest requirements for recovering after using an ability that requires them are cut in half.
Divine Ease, Improved
Prerequisites: Divine Ease; Rank 6 or higher.
You have shouldered the burden of divinity even more so than before.
The time of your rest requirements for recovering after using an ability that requires are reduced to 1 minute per multiple instead of whatever greater amount it was before. If it was already in increments of 1 minute, the time is reduced to 1 round per effect. This step down stacks with the reduction in time from the Divine Ease ability.
Divine Ease, Greater
Prerequisites: Improved Divine Ease; Rank 11 or higher.
You suffer practically no strain from the vast preponderance of godly powers, and even many of the mightiest effects strain you less than would be expected.
You no longer suffer rest requirements, so long as an ability is used to half its maximum effect or less. For example, if you have the Greater Create Object ability; so long as you create no something of more than 50 gold value, 50 lbs. per rank, or 10 cu. ft. per rank; you may do so with no rest requirements. For abilities that require greater power, the rest requirement (reduced to rounds per increment by Improved Divine Ease) is further reduced by a number of rounds equal to your rank (minimum 0).
Divine Planar Empathy
Prerequisites: Rank 1 or higher.
Even beyond your sacred (or profane) home, your power and influence is given proper due, treating you as if it were your own home.
You may treat any plane you are on as if it were either your godly realm or divinely morphic (whichever is better) for the purposes of divine powers' effects, limits, recovery or rest, and so on; if it is already one of these, it is treated as both. The size of these effects are limited to an area equal to the maximum size of your divine realm on a divinely morphic plane. This does not count against the size of your actual divine realm. Changes to the local area are centered on the location you made them; a location no longer within the radius of effect immediately reverts to its normal properties, unless the changes the god made would normally persist in that planar structures.
Divine Planar Empathy, Improved
Prerequisites: Divine Planar Empathy; Rank 6 or higher.
The realms of reality themselves all welcome you equally. Every domain you enter is your domain.
This functions like Divine Planar Empathy, but it treats the local plane as if it were both your godly realm and divinely morphic, regardless of the normal properties of the plane. Further, changes to an area persist for one minute per divine rank, before reverting to the local plane's traits.
Divine Planar Empathy, Greater
Prerequisites: Improved Divine Planar Empathy; Rank 11 or higher.
All realms defer to your power; truly, you are a master of reality.
This functions like Improved Divine Planar Empathy, except any benefit derived from being part of a divinely morphic or godly realm are increased by one step: if something would double, it now triples; if something was halved, it is now cut to a third; and so on. For example, if a deity has the greater create object ability, it now creates up to 400 gold without requiring a rest. This effect increases a step further on the deity's actaul godly realm (though not on a divinely morphic plane); in the greater create object example, the limit would now be 500 gold, instead of 400.
Divine Planar Empathy, Godly
Prerequisites: Greater Divine Planar Empathy; Rank 16 or higher.
Even the demesne of another god is subject to your power.
This functions like Greater Divine Planar Empathy, except that all benefits increase by three steps, and you may even counter the effects of another deity, so long as that deity does not have a rank of 21+ that is higher than your own. Further, the times to create all changes are halved.
Rapid Divine Power
Prerequisites: An ability with an activation time; rank 3 or higher.
Your godly powers respond more quickly than your divine peers.
A specific salient ability's activation time decreases by one step, as indicated on the list below. The list is inclusive; if an ability's activation time does not appear, simply reduce it to the next lowest action time listed. This ability can be taken multiple times; its effects stack.
- 10 minutes -> 1 minute
- 1 minute -> full-round
- full-round -> standard
- standard -> move
- move -> swift
- swift -> free or immediate (can be used either way)
- free or immediate -> a non-action: unlimited, instant use at any time; this is effectively "continuous" unless a deity would desire otherwise, and can activate multiple times in a round without using up an action; it functions even if the deity is unconscious, as the deity would prefer. The only limit is how often a deity can use its ability. An ability may not be made more rapid than this.
WELP! Nothing could ever go wrong! Enjoy!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hmp. My own thread is starting to get lost in my posts. Saving this for later via this post.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hurray for prolific dotterization!! And hurray for excessive faves!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Why don't people hang at my thread anymore? I don't think I even got a question once. This is what I get for having a theme.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I try every once in awhile. :-)
And i don't even drink tea.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
How many times do praise leaders need to drop the word "worthy" before they think God heard them? Pleonastic tautology that ignores Matthew 6:7, and it's rampant everywhere.
Sorry. I'm kinda in a sour mood.
Also, I'm aware that pleonastic tautology is a tautological pleonasm. It was intentional irony.
At least that's the story I'm sticking to.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Found Idlewild by Outkast at vinnies, pretty excited, it's really, really good.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's latreuocoma. Or latreuophoma. Or carcinolatreia.
Worship-cancer . . . . The most insidious spiritual disease -- ever.
Just last night at evening assembly: "Heavenly Father" was used 7 times in one prayer, and no other name of God was used . . . . Not the same thing, but very close . . . .
"Fluff"-ianity, anyone?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Plan: make a quick text to my brother in law.
Result: spent the morning reading Avatar comics.
New plan: make a text to my brother in law while posting a complaint here.
Result: spent more time on avatar comics, then spent half the rest on the forums
Newer plan: make a text to my brother in law while posting a complaint here and getting breakfast
Result: we want to the eye doctor.
I think I may be doing something wrong.
(Though I finally accomplished the first two parts of my goal.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
no, not wrong at all, Tac. in fact, you're doing it exactly right!! lol
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So~!
... now I'm working on some stuff I'd mentioned before~!
First, I'm going to scribble a few free-form notes from the following:
- Human, Elf/Drow
- - Human: can be any of : standard, dual talent, fey magic, heart of the sea, institutional memory, military tradition, mixed heritage, poison minion, silver tongued, social ties, tribalistic, unstoppable magic;; buccaneer (gunslinger), feral child (druid), wanderer (monk)
- - Elf/Drow: basic is standard drow with surface infiltrator; variants can be : ambitious schemer (drow), ancestral grudge (drow; applies to drow), behind the veil (elf), blasphemous covenant (drow), blended view (elf), envoy (elf), fey magic (elf), fey thoughts (elf), forlorn (elf), poison minion (drow/elf), shadowhunter (elf), seducer (drow), silent hunter (elf), spirit of waters (elf), stalker (drow), voice in the darkness (drow/elf), woodcraft (elf);; demonic apostle (drow, cleric), cavern hidden sniper (drow, fighter)
- Half-elf; the modern inhabitants of the islands, and descendents of the two people
- - child of the sea, drow-magic, drow-trained, eye for opportunity, reflexive improvisation, sea legs, sociable, sophisticate, water child;; bonded witch (witch), bramble brewer (alchemist), wild caller (summoner), wild shadow (ranger)
- Gillmen; the native inhabitants of the isles' waters
- Lashunta; the alien people who followed the drow to the world
- Halflings; not sure, yet, but it feels right...
- Hag; all available
- Changeling; extremely common and the daughters of the mighty hags.
- Shae, Nihiloi, D'ziriak, Shadow Giant, Shadow mastiff; the primary shadow-dwellers
- - shadow beasts, shadow drake, shadow collector, Ankou, Svaltafar, Shadow Garm, and Shadowgarm for important "lesser" creatures of shadow.
- Fetchlings are the result of breeding with the shadow people.
- Shadow Demon; the only kind of demon around, these creatures are versatile, and known to possess the people of shadow. As a result, some of those who would normally be born Fetchlings, are instead born...
- Tieflings are the result of shadow-demon possessed shadow people, and mortals. They tend to be darkly beautiful and caught up in the wills of their dark parents.
Concept: in a large, ancient archipelago, there were once the fey-born - the ancient elves. There, within those lands, the savages settled and learned, growing and becoming powerful. But an unfathomable evil resided in those lands - a creature with the power of a darkness. Their powerful civilization corrupted and destroyed, it feasted upon their remains, until it was finally destroyed by mighty heroes who sacrificed all to destroy it, but the culture never recovered - the cities were no longer inhabitable, as the corruption and evil had been worked into the very stones and preservatives of the places they once lived. As their people faded, and they retreated into the wild, a new people settled the lands - unusual monsters known as "humans" came and settled, becoming part of the local landscape. Though they explored and rebuilt much within the ancient locales, they, too, became prey to the malevolent influences.
... aaaaaaaaaaand here's where I ran out of time, due to thunder storms. I'm posting for now. Next, however, is the Zyphus class, history of hags against the demons, and other such concepts. It's still very much so a "loose" work-in-progress kind of project, with the intent that it can be dropped into any setting's isolated ocean region.
EDIT: link fix
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Two concepts I'm applying, here.
In ancient times, the nameless doom lived up to its name... twice (once destroying the drow "elves", before being sealed away, and once after being discovered and freed by the humans).
It was destroyed for its efforts, but established a host of shadow demons during its time in the islands.
A second major threat to the region is the aboleths and their eight veiled masters, as well as the aberrant monstrosities they bring into the islands. This is heavily tied to themes of the Dark Tapestry - while only a few aberrations are within this demi-setting (not yet decided which; generally lower-CR, and at least somewhat aquatic or water-associated), these represent an extra-planetary threat that invaded - the original reason the drow elves arrived in the first place. The drow originally came to prepare and thwart the plans of the powerful omnipath and its servants in this region. Though they were mostly successful in preventing all-out control, its subsequent arrival and skill at infiltration and subtlety was very dangerous, and greatly destabilized the drow elf society, making it ripe for the arrival of the Nameless Doom.
A grand chess-match-like war between the nameless doom and the omnipath was eventually a loss for the omnipath (being sealed away), but left them so weak that the nameless doom was easily able to destroy the remains of the civilization and take-over, before it, too, was sealed away. With the arrival of humanity, they first unleashed the nameless doom; when their society began spiraling into madness, a major faction, seeking sanity and knowing that something was wrong, eventually (accidentally) opened themselves up to contact with the omnipath offering them "truth" and assistance against their "real" enemy. Through a long struggle of manipulation, the omnipath was eventually freed, as the people aiding it were forced into unwitting slavery, and eventually turned into gillmen; but that same freedom led to the destruction of the omnipath by machinations the nameless doom manipulating a powerful coalition of the drow elven and human peoples - shortly before the nameless doom, itself, was shattered and undone by that same coalition, having had the truth revealed by the aberrant creatures.
Within this demi-setting, the hags are a powerful anti-aberrant and anti-demonic force. Note, this doesn't necessarily make them good, or even non-evil (though it may); instead, it merely makes them foes of a greater evil. It is by the power and influence of the magic of hags that sentient creatures have been able to battle the demons and the aberrant threat. Though unable to directly oppose them, the hags, through careful study and cautious manipulation, they engendered a war between the two most powerful malevolent forces in the islands, and, in so-doing, destroyed them both with each other. In so-doing, they created (more or less incidentally), the hathran and durthan heritage.
The remaining prestige classes are winter witch, veiled illusionist, swordlord, deep sea pirate, coastal pirate. Additionally, chevalier is a powerful prestige class reserved for a rare, few chosen heroes.
Crap, this just became the Wind Waker setting, didn't it. :I
Anyway, Halfing Opportunists, Liberator, Harrower, Crimson Assassin (who specializes in bladed scarves and perform (dance)), Grand Marshal, Bloat Mage, Holy Vindicator, and Brother of the Seal are available exclusively to Halflings.
Assassin, Dragon Disciple, Dragon Fairy Disciple, Duelist, Loremaster, Chronicler, and Shadow Dancer are available to anyone; Arcane Archer is, again, reserved for a chosen few.
Reality has itself, the dark mirror version - called the "dark world" or "darklands" (effectively the plane of shadow) -, and the "wicked lands" - that realm of existence on the other side of the "darklands" that are even more depraved and wicked (effectively the abyss).
Kytons exist, but they are a "threat" that is exclusive to the darklands - and their entire focus is on sealing away the anarchy of the wickedlands. They are aided in their quest by the hellnight organization, or "dark knights" - a devoted cadre of absolute order.
There are other regions, as well, but those are the major ones that play any part, here.
The short racial history is that, after the destruction of the two major evils, there really wasn't much left of either human or drow elf populations - instead, the horrible events brought them together, and created a massive society of half-elf people, far more in harmony with nature than either of their parent races, and it is these half-elves that inhabit the islands today, though they may take some of the boons of their ancestor people.
The remaining elves retreated into further isolation, while the humans mostly just... died off.
The hags have one island that mostly consists of heavily lawful (and mostly good) daughters, who practice the ancient arts of the dragoon. These "wind seekers" are the practitioners of the zyphus class, and serve the islands as powerful warriors.
Also, thinking about classes being limited to NPC classes and racial class variants; otherwise a strict E6 setting, with only prestige classes allowing advancement beyond.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Dragon Disciple probably shouldn't exist, but may well; I put them in above, but am having second thoughts about it. Wyverns are a thing, here, as are rocs. Drakes may be. Wyverns or Drakes might be the origin of dragoons, and they may be currently extinct.
I'm thinking of pulling a "d20 Modern" and having creatures from the shade/fey vanish back into the darkness from whence they came, upon destruction.
Speaking of, Fairy Disciples probably uses the Dragon Disciple chassis, but focuses on fey heritage instead of dragon heritage. Also, yes, this is where Tingle would fall. In this case, it may be that it's deeply tied to weird technology or other oddities, helping to explain Tingle's very weird traits whenever he shows up.
I'm looking for a Prestige class that focuses on destroying possession, but I didn't find one. I'm thinking of low templar and demoniac as possible PrCs.
The above post is also very messy - it's not meant to be binding or definitive, but rather a bunch of ideas or concept that could be fun or interesting. Not all of those necessarily exist - just that they are hypothetically (maybe) available for use (perhaps).
Ooh~! A vague generic template for an item that represents Ganon's power to flood the world with nasty baddies (spoiler warning for CoT)! Also, Ganon likely has Vetala Vampire powers (except, maybe, the charisma drain).
The "power" would be different from the item linked above, of course - much like a ring of elemental command, the creatures cannot attack Ganon, free-willed or otherwise, and grants him some kind of bonus (probably a bonus to all charisma-based checks) against such creatures; and those he's summoned that are freed would persist, even if they're no longer under his control.
But that would fit with the basic idea and concept of such a thing.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hm. Unrelated to anything above, the idea of a living spell, with the 3.5 know greatest enemy, know opponent, and know vulnerabilities spells.
EDIT: "Don't worry, guys, I'll tell you if we should pick a fight or leave quietly! Just let me punch them all first..."
EDIT 2: A living spell with charm monster! Talk about aggressive diplomacy!
*punch*
"Hi, friend!"
EDIT 3: the most tsundre of living spells: living spell of unnatural lust
*smack*
"I must have you."
EDIT 4: the worst healer ever: living spell of cure light wounds (or whatever)
"Hold still, I'll heal you for 1d8 damage; it might sting a bit..."
"Wait, what are you going to do "
"I'm going to punch you for 1d10 damage. Or eat you."
"..." ಠ_ಠ
"Welp! Let's do this!"
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I loved the Living Spells from Eberron. A party I was in had a Living Spell that had the Cure line of spells. The DM had it 'Level Up' with us so that the healing would go up. If I remember correctly we kept it in a bag of holding until we needed to heal out of combat. It was named Healey and the Artificer/x(I forget his other class) treated it like it was his pet.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I loved the Living Spells from Eberron. A party I was in had a Living Spell that had the Cure line of spells. The DM had it 'Level Up' with us so that the healing would go up. If I remember correctly we kept it in a bag of holding until we needed to heal out of combat. It was named Healey and the Artificer/x(I forget his other class) treated it like it was his pet.
Hah! Totally with you on the "Eberron" stuff! I love the setting's magitech and style. I didn't like everything about it (sometimes, I feel it worked too hard to cleave back to D&Disms, instead of embracing its setting on its own terms, and it didn't have any Dragonmarks for the new primary races it introduced, for example), but for the vast majority of things, I think it is an excellent setting with fantastic ideas.
Incidentally, I gave a player his own pet living spell that I'd planned on doing things with... before I, the GM, flaked out on the PbP I was running.
(I have reasons - mostly due to mental stress and computer troubles - but, ultimately, such behavior is kind of an inexcusably jerk move on my part.)
Anyway, it was pretty cool, while it lasted!
Total Sidebar:
We need a Lawyerllama and an Attackantelope. Among others.
Sure! If someone wants them, they could be fun times! :D
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't want Attackantelope. He is a sodding bully.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
How is "Attack" a plan? It's the exact opposite of a plan. Leeroyjenkinsbat already qualifies as our "don't have a plan" plan.
What the hell happened to him anyway? He was...interesting.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I assure you, I never have a plan to begin with.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'd rather call it improvisational, reactionary makes me sound angry, or unintelligent. Not that you were calling me dumb or what have you, I just like improvisational better. :-)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You're dumb or whathaveyou.
No. No. Nooooooope. Please ignore the guy, Caracal. He's stupid.
Vlaeros, stop trying to reconnect with the drow. You're an idiot and can't even be evil properly.
Wait. He didn't just tell me to call him "dumb or something"?
No. Do you even know what a caracal is?
Isn't it that child thing where you ride fake horses?
That... that's carrousel, you moron!
Arg! I'm not supposed to be the smart one!
Idiot.
So... what's a caracal?
It's an African wildcat. Kind of like a sleeker mountain lion.
EDIT: what? I can be intellectual.
EDIT 2: Look, there is literally no iteration of the d20 assassin that doesn't use intelligence.
EDIT 3: Besides! I'm an editor! I see words all the time!
EDIT 4: okay, I looked it up on wikipedia.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Have y'all checked out the Spheres of Power alternate magic system? It's pretty cool -- 20 spells in the game, total, and all the rest can be "built" off of them. A buddy of mine has gone so far as to figure out how to make Meteo, Ultima, Fast, and the like from the Final Fantasy games.
I don't recommend incorporating it with a gestalt campaign, though . . . . Wow. Highest initiative = Victory. Done.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Why not gestalt, specifically? I'm curious what pushes that over the edge compared to normal play?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So... what's a caracal?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well, gestalt is shockingly strong to begin with, right? I know, that goes without saying, but, . . . there it is.
Spheres of Power gives you a pool of 20 base spells from which to choose, and each one of those has an associated at-will effect. When you stack two full-caster classes side-by-side at level one, a character gets a minimum of 4 talents, and each talent can be spent on a new sphere ( = spell ) or a talent that modifies a given sphere (and, usually, one class or the other will grant an additional sphere to replace an "obsolete" class feature, and sometimes both will do so). There are other ways to gain more talents or spell points (which are spent to modify base sphere abilities by means of what your additional talents enable) called drawbacks; you can really go wild with the drawbacks to stack a lot of effects on your casting.
For instance: one of my "wish I could get a game to play him in" characters is a gestalt sorcerer/druid focusing on lightning, flight, and wind. I tried to map him out with the SoP system as a gestalt character, and got bogged down with the options (even though it really simplifies magic -- i.e., you don't need encyclopedic knowledge to use what magic you know --, learning a new system is still pretty involved). So, I decided just to map him out as a pure sorcerer using their rules. And, wow.
- You drop your bloodline altogether, and instead gain a "Focus Sphere", which is one of the 20 base "spells", and you're always treated as +1 caster level with that sphere's effects -- Destruction, of course
- You gain two bonus talents for taking a level in a spherecasting class -- Energy Sphere, either of: Air Blast, Electric Blast
- You can take a feat called Persistent Sphere which increases the duration of your Energy Sphere by 1 round for each round it successfully damages/affects a target
- Result: defenestrating sphere or shocking sphere at level one, every round of combat, with the potential for it to last indefinitely through an encounter provided it hits an enemy each round
Too cool. And that's just one "side" of a potential gestalt build. If you stack three more talents on the druid side (Storm domain granting the Weather sphere, two bonus talents), it gets even more ridiculous.
I know this is not very explanatory, and will likely prompt more questions (which I welcome), but this is all you need to know to continue your own investigation: spheresofpower.wikidot.com.
Triple Edit: Can'tst not types agains. Derperdurrr.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
@DragoDorn --
You can literally do anything you can think up with this system. My "spellbuilding" buddy is running a monk/wizard in the gestalt campaign, and at level three can flurry for 14-44 points of damage per hit 2 or 3 times a day (granted, his attack rolls fail him at a slightly higher rate than average, I would say, but, . . . still . . . .).
Spherecasting does not require any built-in armor restrictions; you can take Somatic Casting as a drawback to limit it to light armor, or take it twice to limit it to no armor.
Drawbacks will get you bonus spell points (which are determined by caster level + casting modifier, initially), extra talents, or boons (2 drawbacks required per boon). You want to feel the bubbles like Raistlin? Addictive Magic is your bag. Willing to have your casting always accompanied by unmistakable auditory, visual, or other sensory displays? Take Magical Signs.
You can essentially build a "holographic projection" of yourself with the Light sphere, and with proper choices in other spheres, you can occupy space and deal damage as though you were in the Colossal size category.
A one-talent dip (full-caster classes get one talent per level gained) in Destruction gets you up to a 10d6 bludgeoning blast every round. Two-dip would let you either pick an energy type to convert it to, a shape type (so, yeah, you can mini-fireball all day from level one), or an attack roll/damage roll boost. If you go three-dip, just as an example, you could drop a close-range, 1d6/2 caster levels, electricity damage, +20 attack roll blast that imposed a -3 AC penalty vs metal-wearing targets every round, all day . . . . And not spend any spell points. If you spend a spell point, then it goes to 1d6/caster level damage. That's right, folks -- a true striking eldritch blast of lightning all day just at the "cost" of three talents of the minimum 22 you're guaranteed to receive.
It does everything, dude. The sky is the limit.
Cool!
I'm not typically worried about +1 CL here or there, but the basics seem sound, as-presented. It still doesn't seem, on the surface, as potent as, say, a normal two-caster gestalt character, though I could easily be wrong, as I've not fully invested myself into the spheres of power concept (and even if I had, not being prevents me from being wrong: human, you know).
I'd guess (but note: this is strictly a guess) it's likely pretty deadly blasting at levels 1-4, after which control casting would start to take over via normal buff/debuff, if not summoning.
For the record, though gestalt certainly increases versatility, and lengthens the adventuring day, I don't fear it all that much, myself. The largest limited in the game is action economy - for that reason, the quickling, alacritous, and agile mythic templates are some of the strongest in the game (though even they can't make up for everything, as I found out when I tried to take a pure fighter solo through an as-printed adventure - even with all those templates, it only took a single battle to guarantee his failure). Gestalt makes people about +1 CR compared to normal - about the same (though probably a little less, depending on choices) as adding the advanced simple template. A dual-caster, though, is going to be one of the strongest in the game, for sure.
Does sphere of power have a dazing spell?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I have Spheres of Power, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I am thinking about using it for a Sci-Fi campaign. Is there a way to build a Jedi/Sith character that gets crazy damage and abilities? I have only skimmed through the PDF so far.
Yes, you can build utterly ridiculous Jedi or Sith with this system.