Spheres of Power and the M / C Disparity

[DrNegative]

I'm curious. I know Spheres of Power is very good system, but for all of you who have used it, what do you think this does for the Martial/Caster Disparity? Better for martials, worse for martials, unchanged?

Your thoughts?

[Gambit]

I havent used it myself, but from everything I've seen it does indeed solve said issue, or at least goes a long way towards doing so.

Honestly, if they ever make a 2nd edition, I hope they dont just full on "nerf magic", but rather take the approach to make it more nuanced, maybe going AD&D style where magic is somewhat easier to disrupt in combat and some spells have drawbacks or are slightly dangerous to use.

Disclaimer: I have never personally experienced "martial/caster disparity", not saying it doesnt exist for those who have experienced such things, but we've never had a problem with it at our table (although our main DM is extremely good at spotlighting).

[Michael Sayre]

It's definitely an improvement. It doesn't change the basic truth of the game that having magic is better than not having magic, but it goes a long way towards alleviating the biggest issues.

Since all magic in Spheres of Power is essentially distributed along "magic feat trees", you don't have silver bullet casters with an option for everything. Instead, much like martial characters, you eithet have specialized characters who've mastered a specific type of magic, or generalists who have a wide bag of tricks that lacks serious depth and power.

The other benefit is that SoP is very modular. You have most of the 8th-9th level equivalent spell effects gated behind an optional subsystem, so if you have a magic heavy game, you can make those options available. If you've got a grittier game, or a martial heavy party, you can simply choose not to use them.

[Luthorne]

It's also worth noting that anyone can pick up some magic under the Spheres of Magic system by taking Basic Magical Training, Advanced Magical Training, and Extra Magic Talent, which can allow martials access to pounce, the ability to enhance their own weapons, teleportation, flight, and other such helpful abilities.

But yeah, I'd agree with Ssalarn. It's still generally better to have magic than not, but you can't just cherrypick the best and completely unrelated spells from your spell list, leaving you to either specialize to get one really good trick, or generalize to have a number of solid but less impressive tricks.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Plus there's a system by which you can give drawbacks and restrictions to magic while giving something to the caster to compensate without over-balancing it. Things like restricting buffs to only go on other people, but you get an extra buff option.

[Luthorne]

SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:

Plus there's a system by which you can give drawbacks and restrictions to magic while giving something to the caster to compensate without over-balancing it. Things like restricting buffs to only go on other people, but you get an extra buff option.

Indeed, Casting Traditions are one of my favorite parts of Spheres of Power.