A J Gibson's page

A J Gibson wrote:

SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:

Okay, I've got this. Slightly disappointed there doesn't seem to be an "urban ranger" archetype. Wouldn't even take much: some small tweaks to Wildspeak and Relentless Stride.

What sort of tweaks?

Wildspeak is mostly fine, depending on how often certain types of creatures are encountered in an urban setting.

Relentless Stride needs a change to the part about not being impeded by undergrowth.

Those are the basics, but there might be greater tweaks: Wildspeak might be better switched for a comprehend languages or psychometry ability. The parts of Relentless stride dealing with Climb are fine in a city, but the water-based bits could be exchanged for something like supreme balance to better have a running battle across rooftops.

I'm not saying it's strictly necessary. It's just an archetype I was kind of expecting.

That's kinda neat, but it really feels like something that should be a rogue or even slayer class.

Okay, I've got this. Slightly disappointed there doesn't seem to be an "urban ranger" archetype. Wouldn't even take much: some small tweaks to Wildspeak and Relentless Stride.

What sort of tweaks?

The handbook for the Protection sphere has also gone into playtest, here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dsup9yABZEx4p8_SSWSCcVzKoZtaYLmmHSQ1MUG 86iU/edit?usp=sharing

If nothing else, it's free swag!

...It could've been worded better, but I think it's saying that Totemic Aura is the bonus talent you get for having Personal Conflict, and you must choose it. Note the later part where it says you can get Totemic Aura without the drawback if you already have the War Sphere, and if you already have the Sphere and that talent, you can just choose any other Talent instead.

The implication here is that you should only be getting the equivalent of one bonus talent. That is, either one talent, or two talents and a drawback. If you could select Totemic Presence, you're getting more power than intended.

Yep. The idea is that you use Fervor if you want to swift action a totem on yourself, which is what Totemic Presence lets you do. I would not consider it unbalanced if the GM let you take totemic presence instead, however.

agreed this also pasively boosts war sphere talents to be usefull hell lets made war hybrid sphere were auras and real combat stuff in same package

War sphere already has methods of sharing feats in the new handbook. I suspect the new system will work with that.

My question: will there be interaction with the stamina system in PFU?

A J Gibson wrote:

Flame Effigy wrote:

Would it be possible for the Life Sphere to get some sort of offensive ability where it overcharges a target with healing energy?

Like putting too much air into a balloon!

Just a random thought I had.

It's been suggested before. Back in 1e, if you visited the plane of positive energy, you healed 2d6 hit points per round until you reached double your maximum hit points and exploded. It worked there, because everyone there attacked you the same way, but in a normal situation, if you're trying to kill someone by healing them to death, you're actively working against the rest of your party.

Invigorating Blast (blast type)

You may spend a spell point to have your destructive blast deal positive energy damage to non-living creatures using d4 dice instead of d6. Living creatures instead of taking damage gain an equal number of temporary hit points (which cannot exceed their maximum hit points) which last for 1 hour, but also must make a Fortitude save or become dazed for 1 round.

Well Destruction has this, which I now realize is almost exactly what I suggested.
So if Destruction can have it, even though it's "working against the party"...
Shrug. Seems like it'd fit into Life way more than Destruction.

Invigorating blast doesn't kill you by healing you to death, it's an attack vs undead (though the wording suggests it works on animated creatures as well) which has some healing ability. Really, it's just Cure/Invigorate from Life sphere.

I personally have no problem with Life sphere having some means of doing damage. Others really despise the idea, however.

stack, you mentioned Blood in the Skype chat on July 10th.

I really like Spheres of Power and I would probably enjoy expansions to any of the Spheres.

I'm not sure how many people entirely replace Vancian with SoP, but I hope and pray that interesting thematic options come up, but the broken spells of Pathfinder stay far away.

Yeah, mutation is sort of under alteration, and disease usually falls under death for thematic reasons, even though as modern humans we know bacteria is a form of life.

JonathonWilder wrote:

A conversion for the Alchemist and Investigator classes, consideration for Alchemy, mutagens, and bombs with maybe even its own Sphere.

Considering alchemy normally just means "casting" spells as extracts, it seems to me like Skilled Casting (Craft: Alchemy) as a casting tradition might have that covered, and it has a nicely chaotic feel for your mad scientist types as they're brewing up magic on the spot, as it were.

There is a conversion for alchemists in the nature book.

As you said, alchemy is really a tradition, so not much else is required.

Would it be possible for the Life Sphere to get some sort of offensive ability where it overcharges a target with healing energy?

Like putting too much air into a balloon!

Just a random thought I had.

It's been suggested before. Back in 1e, if you visited the plane of positive energy, you healed 2d6 hit points per round until you reached double your maximum hit points and exploded. It worked there, because everyone there attacked you the same way, but in a normal situation, if you're trying to kill someone by healing them to death, you're actively working against the rest of your party.

Possible new spheres:

Null Magic

I made one of these for my home game. It included various extra tricks on top of a base 'dispel' ability. Spell resistance, the ability to heal when resisting hostile spells, attacks that drain spell points, destroying spells explosively and making casting more difficult for your enemies (or more unpredictable).

I made sure it wasn't a 'no fun allowed' list. Rather, it's to expand on the ordinary counterspell feat and make it a lot more varied and interesting.

I suspect that you'll be seeing things like this in the Protection handbook. Protection is basically abjuration, which is the school dispel magic falls into, and anti-magic field is already a protection ability. Currently, Protection is the only book that does not have a writer assigned, however.

A J Gibson wrote:

The Life sphere book is going to be a mixed bag, since most of the basic stuff dealing with Life has been covered pretty thoroughly in the main book.

And even then some people aren't happy with how many talents it takes to heal everything. So having even more talents would probably make them vocal.

It's healing: it doesn't do much.

If you're talking restore, there is actually an easy solution for it: scribe scroll. You can scribe a scroll that restores a condition you don't have the talent to fix, and since caster level has no impact (except for poison) it's always going to cost 25gp. The Life book will also introduce a 'emergency restore' talent that can restore any condition inflicted in the previous round. Cure is already pretty much covered - out of combat curing is amazing as is, and there are ways to get good in combat cures. Invigorate is something that will get boosted a bit, since it was sort of an after thought in the core book.

I would also like to see a life sphere handbook, mostly just out of curiosity if they can make new talents that make one of the boring but practical elements of the game, the healer and his/her kit of magical band-aids, more exciting for someone to pick up. The other handbooks have been great for expanding how a sphere can be used, so I'd be interested to see the results.

The Life sphere book is going to be a mixed bag, since most of the basic stuff dealing with Life has been covered pretty thoroughly in the main book. There will be more invigorate-related talents, some talents for integrating the Heal skill into the Life sphere, talents relating to racial abilities, some 'adrenaline surge' related abilities, and some more positive energy manipulation abilities (for those who like to play undead-hunters). Archetypes (currently) include: a ranger that heals using the heal skill, a druid spirit healer with the soul weaver's bound nexus ability, an alchemist that makes drugs instead of bombs, an inquisitor undead-hunter, a brawler that is totally not a Wolverine rip-off, and a soul weaver that can turn healing abilities into mutating attacks.

A J Gibson wrote:

Wizards get:

-30 talents,
-arcane bond (worth a feat)
-arcane school (worth 2 feats)
-Scribe Scroll
-4 meta-magic/item creation feats,
-sphere specialization (worth about 7 feats)
for a total of about 45 feats.

Sphere Wizards do not get Arcane Bond/School. Sphere Specialization replaces it.

Wizards are actually a poor man's Incanter: the Incenter can get everything they can get and has more options.

I stand corrected.

Some of my estimates of value are probably off (is a cleric domain really worth 2 feats?), but they get a lot of nice stuff. It's why I put the Iron Mage in the War handbook.

Unfortunately the system falls short in at least one way which makes it unusable for me. That is the way healing is handled, especially how many picks you need to cover the various problems...around 15 or so, and you have to buy the same effect several times to make it work. On the other side you can have a competent blaster with 4 picks. And I'm not even talking about the farce that clerics get less picks than wizards, which certainly helps them to stay humble (*sarcasm off*).

Anyway, the system isn't too bad, but it was written for "arcane" casters and to punish the healers (and the support to some extent...those "duration: concentration" buffs suck hard), so keep that in mind before using it.

It's true there is not equivalent to the cleric 'Heal' spell - SoP makes in combat healing more expensive. But 15? For that huge an investment you can restore everything and heal 5 hit points per caster level.

As for clerics vs wizards, the way I see it:

Wizards get:
-30 talents,
-arcane bond (worth a feat)
-arcane school (worth 2 feats)
-Scribe Scroll
-4 meta-magic/item creation feats,
-sphere specialization (worth about 7 feats)
for a total of about 45 feats.

Clerics get:
-10 Life or Death talents,
-10 miscellaneous talents,
-5 domain talents,
-cleric BAB (worth 5 feats),
-channel energy (worth 5 feats),
-2 domains (worth 4 feats),
-d8 hit dice (worth a feat),
-good fort saves (worth 2 feats),
-better proficiencies (2 armor, shield, and one martial weapon) (worth about 4 feats)
for a total of about 46 feats.

Although wizards have a better skill list, so they don't really come off as being that different.

Others have pretty much covered it, but I'll echo it here:

Spheres of Power let's you play magic the way you want. In my current group, I'm an arcane style caster who:
-does not need somatic components
-can heal
-is an effective blaster
In PF, this slaughters 3 sacred cows. The inability of PF (and D&D) to simply let people play the character they want (for 'tradition' reasons) borders on the incompetent. Add to that the innate imbalance of Vancian casting (quadratic power levels, extreme versatility) and you're left wondering what the designers were thinking.

Good to see some free battle-magey (majestically?) play-test stuff out there. ;)

It's only free until it goes to print ;)

Comments are welcome. I tend to err on the side of overpowered (since no one will say anything if its underpowered), so I won't get offended.

It's been in beta for sometime, but I thought I would mention it here: the Spheres of Power handbook for the War handbook is being playtested.

You can find it here.

I'd like to see ways to build a healer who doesn't have to use all of his picks just to be able to deal with all the usual stuff. As is, the healing this system provides is not working except for NPCs.

Agreed. It's a pain being a healer and having to spend feats to fix conditions that don't come up very often. I was playing a healer in a recent game and the magus got blinded, and I couldn't do anything about it.

5e spells don't need anywhere near the level of fixing that PF spellcasting did. What it really needs are more spells (and more spells that don't require concentration) and maybe a some more/better cantrips. But a complete rewrite isn't called for. A 'build your own spell' system might be good, with some options to create at-will and per encounter spells.

A J Gibson wrote:

SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:

Drop Dead Studios asked people in there "What do you want?" thread not to ask for more SoP stuff there (presumably because they've already got enough of that to think about). But I know there's got to be stuff people want to ask for, so I'm making this thread mostly as a way to get it out of our systems. DDS can ignore this thread until they want new ideas.

For me I'd like archetypes for Dreamscarred psionic classes to SoP. The same reason I like SoP over the core magic system is the same reason I'm not interested in DSP psionics: I don't like having long lists of powers. However a part of me wants the psionic classes for whatever irrational reason so I'd love a conversion.

I also think it would be cool to have some non-caster classes coverted into minor SoP casters. Specifically the Barbarian, Brawler, and Ninja and/or Slayer. The latter because of the various anime magic ninjas (it's possible there's something in the books that already manages that and I just can't remember it). The Barbarian especially: I remember hearing about the sorts of powers 4e Barbarians got being part of the Primal power source and think a magic fighter Barbarian would be cool.

So what do other people have that they want to just get out and leave for DDS to possibly get to at their leisure?

I'm curious, what is it about the psionic classes you would want to see? Psionics could be built as a tradition, and several existing SoP classes mirror the psionic classes.

a tradition? I guess you could do something with crystals?

Precisely. Focus casting is meant for exactly this thing, and the upcoming Mind book will (probably) have similar things. As for the classes - well, the thaumaturge is a lot like the wilder, and the armorist is a lot like the soulknife, and the mageknight could probably do the psychic warrior, and so forth. What specifically would people want to see converted?

Drop Dead Studios asked people in there "What do you want?" thread not to ask for more SoP stuff there (presumably because they've already got enough of that to think about). But I know there's got to be stuff people want to ask for, so I'm making this thread mostly as a way to get it out of our systems. DDS can ignore this thread until they want new ideas.

For me I'd like archetypes for Dreamscarred psionic classes to SoP. The same reason I like SoP over the core magic system is the same reason I'm not interested in DSP psionics: I don't like having long lists of powers. However a part of me wants the psionic classes for whatever irrational reason so I'd love a conversion.

I also think it would be cool to have some non-caster classes coverted into minor SoP casters. Specifically the Barbarian, Brawler, and Ninja and/or Slayer. The latter because of the various anime magic ninjas (it's possible there's something in the books that already manages that and I just can't remember it). The Barbarian especially: I remember hearing about the sorts of powers 4e Barbarians got being part of the Primal power source and think a magic fighter Barbarian would be cool.

So what do other people have that they want to just get out and leave for DDS to possibly get to at their leisure?

I'm curious, what is it about the psionic classes you would want to see? Psionics could be built as a tradition, and several existing SoP classes mirror the psionic classes.

So I was looking at the Kineticist and was into it, until I really started trying to build with it. I found it a little too constraining (and the weirdness of Aetheric Boost annoys the hell out of me). Then I remembered the Elementalist from SoP. Does anyone have experience playing this class? How is the power level? Is there some way to do a d6 damage/Level blast without spending a spell point (like, say, using your full round action)?

So is force blast worth it? I know that force affects a lot of things that other elements don't, but doing half damage seems like a pretty serious drawback.

So what is a telekinetist supposed to get a good composite blast? If you grab a different element you get stuck with a weak composite for 8 levels, and if you go expanded (aether) you get force blast, which does half the damage as all the other composites (okay, it's force, but that doesn't make up for the fact). How is aether supposed to keep up?

A J Gibson wrote:

I get that, but how much damage? Is it simple blast damage +1 or composite blast damage +1?

(whatever blast your applying it to's damage) +1

But doesn't that really suck? If you go aether, you basically don't get a composite blast, and on top of that the pure aether composite only does regular damage (granted, it's force, but still).

I get that, but how much damage? Is it simple blast damage +1 or composite blast damage +1?

The description of aetheric boost makes it sound like it does the same damage as a simple blast with +1 per die, but Force Blast does damage as as a simple blast and it is described differently. How much damage would an aetheric boosted blast do?

According to the book, the XP reward for the Shucked Oyster quest is equal to the XP you get for defeating the creature who's head you return. The PC's in my group brought Cadrilkasta's head, who is worth 204800XP, but this seems kinda excessive, doesn't it?

Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:

Reading the stats for the cleric of Zon Kuthon, who is LN, with apparently the ability to channel Positive Energy -- is this a mistake? According to the CRB, neutral clerics of an evil deity still have to channel negative energy.

He can channel positive energy; it's not a mistake, although it DOES go against what the Core Rulebook says. If you want this cleric to comply with the Core Rulebook, that's fine and it's an easy change to make, but in the development of the adventure, I felt it made sense for the character and his near heretical take on his religion to support that heresy by bending the rules.

Does this mean he should also have the ability to swap out spells for cure spells instead of inflict spells? I ask because I'm grabbing him as a cohort as well - I actually had Jasper with me from the second book, but the GM decided he should stay behind at the abbey!

I've searched the forums and couldn't find a clear answer on this. If an evil druid summons a (neutral) elemental to attack someone with protection from evil, is the elemental unable to make 'bodily contact'? I've been told that summoned creatures are considered the alignment of the summoner for this purpose, but I've also heard the opposite as well.

A support build is probably the best build for him. With the Wis boost at 4, I might take a charisma boost at 8 (he's going on 7 now) and then get a headband to boost both (if I find the money, gotta outfit my sorcerer first).

Any spell recommendations? Blessings of Fervor, I guess.

Jasper is Chaotic Neutral and worships Groetus, God of the End Times. And yes, retraining isn't an option. He currently doesn't have any attribute enhancing gear, though that might become an option at some point if I ever get enough money together to spend on him.

Jasper actually uses his healing channel a fair bit. We don't have a huge amount of healing the party. Currently he tends to channel and use spiritual weapon a lot. I'm not even certain what other spells I should take for him. He can't really wade into battle to use his madness-type spells because he'd get slaughtered.

My GM allowed me to take a NPC cleric as a cohort using the leadership feat, with the caveat that it had to be the NPC cleric we met. His name is Jasper and he's from the Shattered Star campaign. He was level 3, but now he level 7 and I'm trying to figure out how to best use him. I can decide what he takes after level 3, but I'm stuck with his choices up to level 3. How can I best utilize him? He does need to have some healing ability to fulfill that party role (rest of the party has some healing, but no one is a full on healer: we have a paladin, druid, alchemist, swashbuckler and my character, a sorcerer).

Here he is at level 3:
Jasper, Human Cleric
Str - 10
Dex - 14
Con - 12
Int - 8
Wis - 17
Cha - 13
Domains: Madness, Destruction
Feats: Extra Channel, Selective Channeling, Toughness
Jaspers holy symbol is a heavy flail he also uses in combat (if he ever attacked anything physically)

I'm not worried about his skills. I just want to make him useful, but his weird attribute and power set-up makes him hard to optimize. He has feats dedicated to channeling, but a low charisma bonus, and he has a great melee weapon, but no strength. What should I do with him?

steadfast personality feat from the ACG, increases your save vs mind affecting effects by adding charisma to it as an insight bonus on top of your resistance.

Cap of the free thinker: roll twice on mind affecting effects and take the better roll.

For Steadfast Personality, what does mind affecting effects not include that will might be used to save against?

In particular, her will save. Yeah, it's her best save, but after a near TPK at the hands of some Seugathi, I'm thinking she needs better.

So I'm looking at getting a (better) Cloak of Resistance, some Ioun Stones, and I'm hoping my GM will let me take the Self-Delusion feat (even though it's third party). Aside from Wisdom enhancers and Iron Will, is there anything else that really good?

She's level 8, BTW.

Haste, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly...

We have a character in our campaign who got died (hilariously) and got reincarnated. He originally chose to put his +2 attribute bonus into strength (being a paladin and all), but according to the spell text, he loses the +2 strength and gains +2 constitution. Is this correct? Why the weird limitation?

Silver Spindle is also an option

In your original post, you said tensers transformation, which was alchemical. Transformation is enhancement, but I thought you might be thinking of using the old one since you said you can use old stuff.

Also, blood rage is lvl 2 for bards, so for potion making purposes you could have a bard make the potion for you to get the cost as low as possible. But if you're taking the spell yourself, then yeah, it's lvl 3.

d20srd.org has it as enhancement?

Also, blood rage is a lvl 2 spell. So you could buy a potion of blood rage, a potion of enlarge person, and then cast bull's strength on yourself to get a +16 to strength without taking a stupid number of spells just for that purpose.

Bloodrage looks pretty good, thanks, this is the sort of thing I've been looking for. Level 3, BTW.

As for Transformation, the full BAB is really the only feature that interests me, as most of the other things don't stack. The attribute bonus is an enhancement bonus (not alchemical?) which doesn't stack with bull's strength or with my belt of physical prowess. The natural armor bonus doesn't stack with the natural armor bonus from my blood line either. still, I'll probably try it when I get to level 12; it will make my breath weapon more useful if nothing else.

How does arcane strike apply to Scorching Ray?

I've been looking at 3.5e, and Wraithstrike might be just the thing I need. I know it's not the most efficient use of a level 2 spell slot (the affore mentioned Scorching Ray comes to mind) but given we just finished Curse of the Ladies Light by killing the boss in 3 rounds, I think we're okay.

Thanks everyone for your insight, but I think I gave you the impression that I'm going for a dedicated melee build. I'm still going to be a primary caster, I just thought it'd be fun if I can punch someone in the face now and then. It's like a wizard who wants to be able to use a sword - taking a level in fighter is overkill.

Amulet of Mighty Fists is an option (but is really overpriced, in my opinion). What I was hoping for was maybe some equivalent to Magic Fang. It's a home game, so my DM probably won't mind too much if it's from some 3rd party book, or from 3.5e, or if it's a divine spell, as long as it's not over-powered.

I don't have the books handy, but I was under the impression that the lattice had to be wielded, but the pages do not?

So my level 7 draconic sorcerer has these awesome claws (which will be even more awesome when I grab a Robe of Arcane Heritage), but her crappy BAB means that they're not going to hit much. I'm looking for options to improve on this. This is for a home game, so my DM would probably be open to third party resources (he already ready let me take Wings of Cover from 3.5). I'm looking for things that will help, in particular spells (maybe something like Tenser's Transformation, but less terrible), treasure (like Amulet of Mighty Fists) or feats (like Arcane Strike). I'm not willing to multi-class just for this. I've looked at the various archetypes (like Eldritch Scrapper) but they aren't what I'm looking for.

Suggestions?