CalethosVB's page

I don't think that should be a stretch goal myself. I think handbook additions should be something they get to when they get the chance and not, "If you don't spend more money now, we won't do it later". I'm not saying that's how it is, but that's what it feels like.

How they have the Patreon set up for the SoP handbooks feels right for this sort off thing. And even if it's a little bit later, when they get there, they get there.

On a similar note, I think the gish book should be a separate thing from this kickstarter. You know there's a call for it already, just make it happen some time after this one is printed.

The Raven Black wrote:

I hope there will be something for a master of improvised weapons and shields able to use his environment for both defense and offense, even against foes with DR. And benefitting from enhancement bonuses :-)

"I once saw him kill three men in a bar with a pencil. With a ****in' PENCIL."

You ever watch Casino? The pen scene.

A thread was born to advertise a fundraising project and had an entire page dedicated to what potential customers might call it.

You guys have some dedicated followers, it appears.

Serante the Mageknight resolves to quit ignoring his AC. And he shall reclaim his stolen lordship from his uncle. But A before B, methinks.

Auferro the Arcanist will, this year, become the immortal demigod he's always wanted to be. At the moment, he's still struggling with the tagline, "I am a god for about a minute a day."

Malefactor Saisuira is sure to regain her memory. She hopes the guy who started this little adventure wasn't her boyfriend (that would be awkward).

Sgt. Ravek vows to be the most righteous Inquisitor possible, that she may gain audience with her Holy Light, Sarenrae, to try to lift the curse of undeath from herself. Damnable witches!

Here's a link to a multiclass 7th level caster. Cleric 3, Rogue 2, Bard 2.

I think your misunderstanding with the system is that it follows the same rules and guidelines of the Magic and Spells chapters of the Core Rulebook. It doesn't. This new magic system has to be relearned since it changes Magic from a fundamental standpoint within Pathfinder RPG. The definitions are there to help you learn how to use the system. Everything is defined for you in a very quick and concise manner.

Caster level is similar to Base Attack Bonus in that multiple classes can contribute to one pool of it and that different classes accrue it at different rates.

High-casters gain a caster level for every high-caster class level they acquire.

Mid-casters gain a caster level on a 3/4 class level schedule.

Low-casters gain a caster level on a 1/2 class level schedule.

Sphere abilities are like Cantrips. You can use them at-will and they're never expended.

Spell Points let you create big effects with your Sphere abilities, but are limited. You gain a Spell Point every time you take a new level of a casting class. You gain more Spell Points for a high casting ability modifier (CAM).

Casting Traditions are a collection of pros and cons that help more clearly define your ability to cast. These tell you whether you can cast in armor, if you have to verbalize your spells, and more, while also granting you more Spell Points. Think of it like Monk Vows.

Spell ranges are covered up front so you know what each Sphere is capable of instead of having to refer to the range on each talent.

MSB and MSD are the CMB/CMD of the magic world. If you need to check against SR, you roll your CMB. If you want to counter or dispel, roll CMB vs. CMD. MSB is equal to your total levels across all casting classes. Your MSD is 11 + your MSB.

You can concentrate on an effect and cast another thing at the same time as long as both take different types of actions (swift, move, standard, etc.).

All Sphere abilities take a standard action to cast and concentration is a standard action. There are ways to do both with other actions, including casting as a move action.

Metamagic increases the cast time by 1 step per metamagic applied. Swift becomes move, move becomes standard, standard becomes full-round, full-round becomes 1 round, and so on.

A lot of spells cannot be replicated.

Magic items work slightly differently depending on their construction. A +1 longsword gives you an enhancement bonus to attack and damage, but it might also give you an enhancement bonus to your caster level with a Sphere. Wands don't have 50 charges, they have unlimited ability to use a base Sphere and 1 to 10 rechargeable charges.

Nobody is restricted to a Spell list. Everybody has complete freedom to pick up any Sphere they desire.

Thanks to the power of feats, Fighters may also cast. The class isn't exactly built around it, but they can do it if they want.

Except for certain archetypes, Sphere Casting leaves all your other class features alone.

What else do you want to know?

Sense Sean brought it up. Can anyone offer their opinion about someone specializing on a single sphere? If so what spheres would be the most flexible and which would be the most restrictive. As in only being able to do basically one single thing through out the entire battle.

It depends on which handbooks you're willing to pick up?

The Destruction Sphere basically has a save to almost every blast type. You can entangle, grapple, stagger, blind, deafen, sicken, and more, and still deal your favored kind of damage. You can do it as a ranged touch attack, as an emanation, a burst, a line, a wall, as an energy blade, as an energy tether. Destruction has lots of options for dealing damage, but none for really dealing with damage or conditions. As a melee-specialized low-caster, having a resource-free source of ranged damage is a godsend.

Personally, I like the feel of the Telekinesis Sphere. As base abilities, it's a better mage hand than mage hand, you can catch thrown things, you can throw people, you can make an attack with something (or somebody) you lift with your mind. And that's just a base. And the talents just keep enhancing those abilities. Pick up the Telekinetic's Handbook and you're getting the ability to hold a shield and get its AC bonus with your magic, set things caught or picked up into orbit like an ioun stone, pick up items in the tons. And this is something that even as a low-caster you could invest a few talents into.

An Alteration specialist can bring lots of utility to the group. At level 5 you can grant everyone a fly speed. You can turn into a swarm and proceed to poison things that touch you every round. You can turn your goat companion into a dragon. You can turn your goat companion into a goatman. You can turn your goat companion into a celestial being, complete with dr/evil. You can turn the dragon into a goat. You can gift your friends with Darkvision at level 1. If it is a physical feature of some creature, you are likely to be able to pick it up as a talent and give it to your friends.

Conjuration is too talent-intensive for a dip. You need to have a lot of excess talents to make it worth it, like an Incanter, or be satisfied with a warrior, expert, adept, commoner, aristocrat with a slam or bite attack. You can make a pretty good 15 hit die monster, but you'll have really nothing else you can do.

I really like picking up the Warp Sphere with anybody. With just a one talent investment, you can pick up and get out of Dodge on your next turn, or port in on top of the wall, in front of the guard, wherever. With a few more talents, you have a free bag of holding, maybe a good resting place for the night with no hassles, emergency Evasion. But I wouldn't go neck deep in Warp till the Handbook comes out, unless you really want your demiplane at 15.

Nature didn't grab me personally, but it has its appeal. Affect the physical world around you sort of thing. I have the Geomancer's Handbook. If you're going for a druid feel, pick up some of these talents in your preferred theme and you'll be good.

The Weather Sphere seems to me to be devastating for any caster that has prep time and a large tract of land to affect. This is the army killer, but not the soldier killer, if you take my meaning. Forcing your enemies to deal with environmental effects that can slow then or force saves. Boiling rain, deathly cold, hail storms, and lightning bolts every round. If you wanted to play X-Men's Storm, this would be your go-to Sphere. This scales really well with caster level, but a +4 staff maxes you out as a low-caster so you could feasibly be as strong as a high-caster, eventually. And when you're forcing saves every round, it doesn't matter if the save is only DC 12; someone will roll a 1 eventually.

Unless you're a good Cleric or a Soul Weaver, there's no reason to go heavy into Life.

Death is a mixed bag of raising the dead vs. save or suck. Raise an army or give everyone free negative levels. It's powerful, but you should really specialize in either saves or army when you pick this up.

There's not enough Light to invest in. There's just enough Dark to be thematic.

The Diviner's Handbook actually covers a lot. Got the Divination Sphere and another Sphere? Boom, free abilities. Get Trapfinding as a talent. Get Improved Uncanny Dodge as a talent. See Invisible. Scrying. Detect the capabilities of your foes without knowledge checks. If you need a detective character, I would recommend a deep dive here. There's even some pretty good feats available here, such as using your MSB (levels in a casting class) as the variable that sets the duration of your (sense) talents, or gaining bonuses to AC, attack, damage, and saves depending on how many (sense) talents you have active; really good stuff for the Unchained Rogue archetype presented in this book.

For Protection, grab one or two things and go somewhere else. Things scale easily with caster level, so you'll get a hardly-noticed friendly bump when you level up.

Enhancement has a problem of it scales too well with caster level. It's useful for the low-casters because they're the ones most likely to need their equipment enhanced, but it's most powerful and less useful to a high-caster. There's am oxymoron for you. I do not have the Enhancement Handbook. Honestly, ask your Incanter or Cleric to pick it up for you and hope they don't laugh and go for something more useful. It's also needed for Craft Magic Arms and Armor, if your group allows item creation feats.

Fate is the "screw an alignment" sphere. If you're fighting a specific alignment, Fate can do good things for you. You don't do damage, but you buff allies and occupy enemies' precious moments in initiative. I wouldn't go whole hog, but you could do worse I guess.

Mind is great if you're willing to pump save DCs excessively. It's the Charm X / Dominate X / Suicide X of the system. Why kill them yourself when they can do it and have no blood on your own hands. Force the Paladin to turn against his comrades, smiling as he does it. Lesser charms are like Witch hexes: at-will but once per day per target. Greater charms are not as at-will (they require a Spell Point), but are generally more powerful. Powerful charms are you panic button, I absolutely must get this done now with no arguments type of mind-affecting effects. If you are a fan of SAD casters, this is another one for you.

Illusion is, I feel, in a weird spot of it covers enough and not enough at the same time. It screws with all your senses and makes a thing that appears real, plus invisibility, but somehow I wish there was more. I'm sad that the whole Sphere can be summed up in two pages. Good for tricksters that just need a temporary diversion or if you want a dip for invisibility. I guess it could be fun for a laugh at parties.

Time is a Sphere that scales with caster level in the areas of duration, area of effect, and DCs. With the base ability, for example, you'll only ever be able to give a guy one extra attack no matter if your CL is 1 or 20. If you have a magical companion from the Conjuration Sphere, delegate this Sphere to it and free up your actions for something else.

Ah, War, the Babysitter Sphere. Buff your allies. Watch your allies do work. Good for a replacement Bard or Skald. Drop an effect on an area, and when an enemy does something to your ally, do something to screw the enemy. I'm not a fan of this Sphere except for the item creation potential. Dropping physical tokens that create an aura that enhance your allies really, really kicks up the whole WoW shaman vibe for me. Other than for item creation, delegate this Sphere to your Conjuration companion if you don't have a Bard-alike in the party.

I've played around with crafting. It's more interesting and to me seems easier than standard item creation. Maybe because you get a big list of effects based on the Spheres you want to use?

Use X Sphere, add Y talent, increase duration to Z, make it usable T times per day, and then multiply by the listed cost.

Forge Ring covers all your wearable items that give you a +1 to something, such as belts, rings, and cloaks (examples). Oddly, this does not cover actual rings that do something other than +1 to something.

Craft Rod covers all your continuous and at-will effect items. A ring that allows you to become invisible at-will is created through Craft Rod.

Crafting Metamagic rods under this system takes some reverse engineering. A metamagic feat takes a number of Spell Points per casting equal to the increase in spell slot it wouldrequire you to take up. So +1 complexity for each Spell Point the metamagic feat would force you to spend. Minimum CL is 9. So a Quickening Rod would be priced at 90,000 gp and could be used regardless of Spell Level, and a +1 Spell level rod would be priced at 18,000 and could be used with any Spell Level. Both of these are less than Greater rods but more than Normal rods.

Wands are now set up kinda like staves? They give you an at-will ability with no charges, and it's actually worth it to get wands of a higher caster level. These are also expensive, with the lowest price Wand being 1000 gp, and the highest price Wand being 100k. These are rechargeable as well! Don't bother buying wands of Cure, you'll only be disappointed. You have to activate it with the wand's Spell Points and it may not have any depending on how the Wand was made.

Staves are freaking awesome. Seriously, buy or build one. These are truly a caster's best friend, like they were meant to be. These give a temporary enhancement bonus to your caster level with 1 Sphere. Caster level affects DCs, range, duration, and potentially spell effects. A +5 Destruction Staff nets you 3d6 to all of your Destructive Blasts, or 5d6 if you spend a Spell Point. These don't, how've, raise the HD of summoned companions nor do they allow a necromancer to animate more dead, but it does give bonuses appropriate to those creatures.

Potions of higher caster levels are kinda worth buying or making sometimes. You don't need to increase caster level to increase range or duration. You buy potions of Cure, not wands.

Scrolls are good for a standard action spell in a can that manages to do a lot of things at once. Caster level affects duration and distance but not as much as just going off the charts given, and in most cases caster level grants a better effect.

Wondrous items are kinda cool, especially if your GM tells you that you can do the things you think you can do with them. They're the X/day items. Using Craft Wondrous Item, I've made potions that refill themselves once per day for emergency whatever. Out of Spell Points but need one more minute of Transformation time? Chug this Wondrous Potion. A ring that allows you to become invisible 3/day is a wondrous item.

You can select takes to add to whatever form you are using from among the traits listed under each form you've picked up. With Avian Transformation, for example, it says

You can add the following traits to any form:

• 2 talon attacks as granted by the avian form. This may be granted once per pair of legs the target possess. The target must possess wings or another means of being airborne to attack with the talons.
  
• 2 wings and their benefits or flight speed, as that granted by the avian form.
  
• 2 wing attacks (secondary, 1d4, 1d3 small) may be given once per pair of wings possessed.

What this means is that if you use the Alteration Sphere to turn yourself or somebody else into something, you can add one of those above traits to that form, up to your maximum number of traits.

Alteration says your transformations grant 1 trait, +1 per 5 caster levels. I usually pick up Greater Transformation for an early additional trait to forms.

I have a Shifter character hanging around on Drive. Here's a link to him as an example. Don't mind the formatting, this is more for my own ease of use.

A simple analogy for explaining Spheres vs. Vancian casting:

In standard casting, lift bag is a 1st level spell almost any class has in their spell list. And everyone that picks it up can lift up a 10 pound bag per caster level at 1 round per caster level, which means a Bloodrager can pick up a 50 pound bag for 5 rounds at level 5, and so can the Inquisitor and the Wizard. The only difference between them after a while is that the Inquisitor always has access to lift bag but can only use it as many times per day as she has Spell Slots, and some days the Wizard didn't prepare lift bag and his life kinda sucks because he forgot to leave a slot free for utility like that.

Now, Spheres doesn't have specifically lift bag, but it has the Lift Sphere which allows you to lift some minor things for a duration of concentration, or you can spend a Spell Point to Lift for 1 minute per level, and one of the options for it is Bag. The same Bloodrager, Inquisitor, and Wizard all decide to pick up the Lift Sphere and the Bag option.

Now, at level 10, the Bloodrager only has a caster level of 5 since he only gains 1/2 level as caster level. But he can Lift a 50 pound bag, all day long, at any time he wants with no expenditure of resources except his standard action, and he can hold it as long as he concentrates on the spell, or he can spend a Spell Point to hold it for 5 minutes.

The Inquisitor has a caster level of 7 (3/4 level equals CL) and can Lift up a 70 pound bag for a duration of concentration or a Spell Point for holding it for 7 minutes.

The Wizard, however, gets more magic talents. He spent a talent on the Many talent which falls under the Lift Sphere. So now not only can he Lift a 100 pound bag, but now he can choose to divide that 100 pounds between any number of bags up to that 100 pound limit. He can concentrate of his Lift to keep the effect, or he can spend a Spell Point in order for him to continue to Lift without concentration while he also uses Lift on another up to 100 pounds of bag/s on his next standard action.

Level 7 Incanter, just for grins. This doesn't include anything other than listing Spheres and Magic Talents and what feats you get per level. I also include an explanation as to why I picked what I did.

Spheres of Power changes two very important things about casters, the first being that it removes Vancian magic from the caster and magic behind to resemble feat chains, and that the power of the magic is completely dependent on their caster level which is different for different classes.

A Wizard will always have a caster level equal to their class level with the exception of a Sphere Specialization, akin to Schools. A Paladin, however, will have a caster level equal to about half his class level. The Sphere Paladin archetype also grants casting at 4th level so their actual caster level becomes 1/2 class level -3. This functions similar to Base Attack Bonus in that multiclassing will have a significant effect on your caster level and that these caster levels stack between different classes and even different magic types.

Magic Talents themselves resemble feat chains. In order to cast a fireball, you must have the requisite Sphere, Destruction. You then must take Magic Talents within that Sphere, such as Explosive Orb and Fire Blast, to create the effect you want. With three Magic Talents (Destruction Sphere, Explosive Orb, Fire Blast), you can create a Fireball. You could also take Ice Blast and deal cold damage instead of fire damage. Or you could simply take Explosive Orb and deal bludgeoning damage as the base Sphere grants you. And you can do this at level 1.

A Wizard and a Paladin may both take this combination of they desire, and they'll both have it scale with them as they level. But while a Wizard at level 10 may be putting out 5d6 of any damage type of his choice, or may spend a Spell Point to deal 10d6, based on his talents chosen. A Paladin will be weaker, only blasting at 2d6 damage based on his weaker caster level, or 4d6 if he spends a Spell Point, and his selection of blast types being fewer due to not having as many Magic Talents to perform well with.

A Wizard gets lots of Magic Talents, 3 per 2 levels (2 talents at level 1, 1 Talent at level 2,and so on). A Paladin gains a single Magic Talent every time he gains a caster level (1 at 5, 7, 9, 11). By level 6, a Wizard can have access to every base Sphere by spending all his feats and class-granted Magic Talents to do it. A Paladin will assuredly never have access to every base Sphere. But the Wizard 6 that has every base Sphere will never use them all, and isn't as useful as the Paladin that took Warp talents and flashes right into battle in front of his enemy's face and put his +2 longsword into his target at full BAB. Sure, that Wizard could hit the target with a Destructive Blast (3d6 bludgeoning damage), but he doesn't have talents that'll allow him to deal damage to a swarm (area effect), and his Mind Sphere Abilities only target creatures similar to himself because he was focused on only picking up the basics instead of the talent that allows him to affect mindless or creatures other than his kind.

A Fighter may take a feat, Basic Magic Training, and gain a Sphere. He gains a caster level of 1 and 1 Spell Point. He can then use that Spheres base power any time he likes and has the option to spend his Spell Point to enhance that power as listed in its description. He picks one mental ability score, Int, Wis, or Cha, and uses that to determine the DCs of his abilities. He may decide that he wants more power and takes Advanced Magic Training, which bumps his caster level to 1/2 his hit dice, gives him Spell Points equal to his chosen mental ability score, and allows him to choose a "Casting Tradition" to allow him to pick up more Spell Points and other casting boons.

Casting Traditions are a set of rules that define how you use your magic. They are a set of drawbacks and boons. You could choose that all of your abilities require Somatic components, or that they have a big, flashy neon sign that says "This guy is about to shoot a lightning bolt". You may choose to prepare your magic, like a non-Spheres wizard would, except what you are doing is choosing how many if your Spell Points will go toward your Sphere abilities instead of which spells to prepare. A Wizard, depending on his selected casting tradition, may even be able to come to the battle dressed in full plate and suffer no ill effects.

Otherwise, Spheres of Power flattens out the power curve differences between martial and caster. It forces the caster to focus on one or two things instead of them having an answer to all things, and it allows martials to have a few extra toys with minimal investment. It also allows casters to have a shining spot alongside martials earlier on in the game, say even from level 1, while also not completely outstripping martial classes later on.

Spheres of Power Expanded Options has since been released that covers the conversion of up to the Advanced Class Guide classes, and if you look carefully some of the suggestions made in this thread seem to have made their way into the book. Not all, though. The additional Sphere-specific supplements have added even more options as well, such as an Unchained Rogue archetype that gains Sphere Casting and can pick up more Magic Talents as Rogue Talents.

Here is a link to a relevant FAQ

For the sake of accuracy, witches are arcane casters, not divine.

To continue this, Witches cast a few spells that appear on the Cleric list. The Cleric is a Divine spellcaster. Through the Cleric donations, they gain access to spells on the Wizard list, an Arcane spellcaster. The Cleric casts her domain spells as Divine spells, and the Witch casts all of her Witch spells as Arcane spells.

In all of Paizo's printing of Pathfinder RPG as a tabletop RPG system, they have not yet printed a class that casts as both arcane and divine. They have blurred the lines with some classes, but all classes are either one or the other.

As of 2016. If someone decides to necro this thread in 2020 I can't predict the content made in the next 4 years.

Ultimate Archetypes, detailing several new and updated archetypes for most of Pathfinder's classes.

Ultimate Monsters, detailing new options for GMs to add to current monsters to update their ability and flavor without sending their CR into the stratosphere.

Ultimate Prestige, Unchaining prestige classes, including making several of them into their own base classes (see Arcane Trickster, Mystic Theurge, Shadowdancer). Also includes several new prestige classes including a Kineticist-based PrC that focuses on a single element.

1) I shall blatantly rip off Drop Dead Studios' Spheres of Power as our default casting system.
2) I shall also steal the Advantage/Disadvantage system from 5e.
3) I will also pull out cherry picking alternative class abilities presented in 3.5e PHB II as an alternative to wholesale replacement via archetypes.

1) Vancian casting
2) Combat Expertise and other feat tax type feats
3) Magic items that are required by every character in order to adequately perform at his role

Stances are considered maneuvers unless something specifically specifies "stance". You cannot select stances with your maneuver slots. However, 1st level Swordsage gives you any stance you qualify for.

Go two Swordsage levels for Wisdom to AC in light armor.

Next, every 2 levels of a non-initiator class counts as 1 level of an initiator class for determining your initiator level. Up through level 3,he is initiator level 1. 4-5 is initiator level 2. 6-7 is initiator level 3, and he can pick any 2nd level maneuvers his class gives access to. Level 8 is initiator 4, and at level 9 he can pick up any 3rd level maneuvers he meets the prerequisites for. Some maneuvers and stances will require at least 1 or 2 maneuvers from a specific discipline before you can take them.

Page 39, top right.

And since you have enough levels to qualify for 3rd level maneuvers, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to take them, as long as you can fill prerequisites.

2d6 extra sneak attack isn't great though. I think Island of Blades would be a lot better. Pearl of Black Doubt is pretty good as well, if you have a good way to gain concealment, you could have some impressive AC for a round. Of course, you could always take Martial Study / Martial Stance and get all these anyway without a level dip if you want a couple more levels (level 11).

VMC Barbarian gives Rage. The Con would grant a temporary damage increase and an increase in the amount of Burn you could take to increase the effectiveness of your Defense, but you'd suffer for it once the Rage wore off. If you could get your GM to count it as Unchained Rage, that would be a little bit better. You would gain temp HP instead of Con, but use Kinetic Blade and Whip with a damage bonus. You would get a bonus to Will saves either way.

VMC was a good idea the writers had that has more flavor than useful mechanics. There's really not a lot of useful in it, unfortunately, for the wide majority of builds, including a Kineticist tank.

Just my opinion though.

Just wait until your Paladin hits level 6 and the Kineticist is still rocking 3d6+3+Con all in one shot, while the Paladin is hitting twice for 2d6+9+Smite. The only reason your Kineticist player is having a good time of it now is because the levels are low and +1 doesn't make that big a difference right now.

Start adding in creatures that have DR/cold iron, DR/silver, or even DR/good, and your Paladin will start shining a whole lot more.

Moment of Clarity also states that you use up that round of Rage but don't gain any of the usual benefits or drawbacks of Rage during that time either. That means no extra +4 to Con while Raging to your Kinetic Blast.

Read the Wheel of Time series. Robert Jordan got the Inquisitor class right when he wrote the Whitecloaks. These guys are not Paladins. There are most certainly evil elements in their ranks, that are accepted and to some degree glorified and feared, and deemed necessary to the goals of what they assume to be the Creator's wishes.

Playing an Elemental Ascetic reduces the cost of Kinetic Fist to 0 Burn at level 1, though you give up all blasting.

The only way I can see Kinetic Fist really working is with TWF and/or multiple riders on each attack. The damage per hour isn't that great. A basic blast worth of damage will net you 2d6 per hit at level 11, or 2d6 at level 7 with an expensive composite. Being able to knock around bad guys with standard action combat maneuvers on each hit sounds fun though. Dispelling Fist, ho!

The advantage (and disadvantage) of Kinetic Fist is that you always target AC and are never subject to SR, so you can get away with using an energy blast.

Also, combine Elemental Ascetic with Monk VMC for all the win. Larger damage dice for your Flurry, a Ki pool (that you can use with your Flurry), and Evasion. Plus you don't have the "must be lawful" requirement unless you want to overcome DR/lawful.

The Overwhelming Soul is an archetype of the Kineticist. Look to the base class, read it, and figure out what Overwhelming Soul trades out for its abilities.

You can use Gather Power to reduce the Burn cost of any Blast Wild Talent, using a Move action to Gather Power for 1 Burn reduced, a Full-Round action to reduce the Burn cost by 2 for your Blast in the next round, or combine a Full-round action in round 1 with a move action in round 2 to reduce the total Burn cost by 3 points. At 11th level you gain Supercharge, which increases these values to 3 points reduced for a Full-round action and 2 points for a move.

Infusion Specialization, Composite Specialization, and Metakinesis Mastery also reduce the total Burn cost of their components, depending on level.

You can combine Infusion Specialization, Composite Specialization, and Metakinesis Mastery with Gather Power to reduce Burn costs of any Blast Wild Talent.

The Overwhelming Soul also gains an ability to reduce the Burn cost of any Wild Talent once per day by 1 point, increasing to a number of times per day based on your level. This replaces Internal Buffer, which the base class gains.

Many Infusions become free eventually due to Infusion Specialization. The Overwhelming Soul can never use a Composite Blast without Gathering Power first unless they knock off a point or two of Burn using their 1/day 1 Burn reduced ability.

You must choose an element first, then select a Basic Blast from those available to that element. Magma Blast is a Composite Blast, not a Basic Blast, so you cannot choose it at first level.

I would choose Earth or Water Blast at first level so you aren't hosed against energy resistant/immune enemies until 7th level, then Expanded Element into an energy blast. Fire is the one with the biggest possible numbers, but also is the element resisted the most in the game.

You gain 2 talents for free the first time you gain the Casting class feature. After that, refer to the tables for each class to determine how many talents you have. Think of it like this: if you were to normally gestalt a Cleric and a Wizard, how many spells do you get at each level?

If you decide to go the separate traditions route, you would have two caster levels, one for each class. If you don't, your highest caster level is your caster level.

When no other gods will touch you because you are god X's chosen people, it makes it hard to worship anyone else. Also, people like knowing they have a place in the grand scheme of things, with priests of a particular deity under the assumption that on Earth (or campaign setting), all matters of the Divine go through them first. Even being the servant of an evil deity, knowing you matter to them counts for something.

Track all characters played by a single player's XP. Once you reach 500,000 XP across any combination of characters, each character played by that character has their point-buy increased by 2. This may be applied immediately to all characters.

At 1,000,000 total XP, they gain a free 3rd level or lower SLA once a day, chosen from the Cleric or the Sorcerer/Wizard list.

At 2,000,000 XP the characters also gain the first level of another class for free at character creation. Treat this add a gestalt character for that first level.

At 5,000,000 XP, each character played by that player gains an additional 3 points in their point-buy.

At 10,000,000 XP, each character starts the game with a +1 weapon, armor, or other similarly enhanced piece of equipment. This also grants proficiency with that one piece of equipment.

At 15,000,000 XP, the bonuses are increased by 100%. This means you gain an additional 5 points to your point-buy that you may apply immediately, a second +1 piece of equipment or upgrade your first piece to +2 for free. You gain another 3rd level or lower SLA or are able to use your previously gained SLA three times a day. Each character also gains an additional level of a gestalt class.

At 20,000,000 and every 5,000,000 XP thereafter, each character played by that played gains the an additional +5 to their point-buy, an additional 3rd level SLA or 3 times the users of the previous SLA, and an additional +1 to their equipment. The character gains an additional gestalt class level.

At 50,000,000 XP, each character created by this player gains 1 Mythic Tier to add to his characters, +1 for every 10,000,000 XP thereafter.

Additional (new) players that have no Legacy Experience begin with an amount of Legacy Experience equal to 1/5 the account of Legacy Experience accrued by the player with the highest amount. All players lower than this amount begin play with at least this amount of Legacy Experience.

For reference, 500,000 XP is equal to a character just short of 14th level using the Slow advancement track. You gain 1,000,000 XP a little after 15th level in a single character.

2,000,000 XP is gained by a 17th level character.

A character can accrue 5,000,000 XP at 19th level and not hit 20th on the Slow progression track, whereas a Fast track character gains 2,000,000 XP by level 19.

If you play a single game from levels 1-20, your players will have gained enough XP to increase their total point-buy by 5, gain a SLA, and a single gestalt level. Players new to the table gain 2 points to their point-buy and a free SLA, plus they can start gaining experience themselves.

Spheres of Power has a short companion book that gives Sphere archetypes to the APG, UM, and ACG classes, gives racial favored class bonuses, and a bunch of flavorful archetypes for the SoP classes.

The FCBs cover the Core races, Aasimar, Tiefling, Orc, Goblin, and Merfolk.

4 + Int skills
Wild talents at every level, with half of them being utility talents, Extra Wild Talent feat, being a Con based caster. Life is good.

Let's talk magic items. Is there anything specifically made with Kinetic Blasts in mind or for the Kineticist? Like Monk's Robes, Bane Baldric, Corset of Dire Witchcraft?

When adding new levels of an existing class or adding levels of a new class (see Multiclassing, below), make sure to take the following steps in order. First, select your new class level. You must be able to qualify for this level before any of the following adjustments are made. Second, apply any ability score increases due to gaining a level. Third, integrate all of the level's class abilities and then roll for additional hit points. Finally, add new skills and feats. For more information on when you gain new feats and ability score increases, see Table: Character Advancement and Level-Dependent Bonuses.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/classes.html

You be the judge.

Races:
Human
Suli with the ability to specialize in an element
Tengu
Dwarf with Duergar specialization
Goblin
Elf with options for Half-elf and Drow
Dhampir

Classes:
Magus (Paizo)
Malefactor (TPK)
Shifter (Drop Dead Studios / DDS)
Mageknight (DDS)
Kineticist (Paizo)
Unchained Monk (Paizo)
Sorcerer (Paizo)
Inquisitor (Paizo)
Talented Fighter (RGG)
Incanter (DDS)
Oracle (Paizo)
Mighty Godling (RGG)

Diablo 3 is undergoing transition to a new patch. They just started Season 2 (a version of ladders). The gameplay of D3 greatly differs from D2 and D1. Now you're expected to find uniques to play content. High rolled rares are only good until you find high rolled uniques.

Difficulty is something that's undergone massive changes since the beginning of the game as well. It used to be that they had four difficulties, which was really levels 1-30 (Normal), levels 31-50 (Nightmare), levels 50-60 (Hell), and Inferno was what you jumped into once you hit 60. NOW all monsters scale to your level. Once you hit the max level, you start gaining Paragon levels, which is another way to extend the life of the game.

All gear can also drop for your level. Once it starts dropping at its appropriate level, it becomes available to drop at any time from then on, dropping with stats appropriate to the level of the character when it dropped. I know it doesn't start dropping at 31, but let's say Malad Heal starts dropping at 31, just for reference. If you find it at level 31, it'll have stats appropriate for a level 31 character. From then on, it always has a chance to drop, though uniques don't drop as much as rares of magics. A level 70 Manald Heal has stats appropriate to a level 70 character.

You can swap your skills out at-will, as long as you're not in-combat at the time. You wish to try out Hydra but you like your setup? You could trade out Meteor and see if that works for you.

Skills come in elemental flavors. They updated everything for Reaper of Souls to now make elemental damage matter. Each class has access to 4 elemental damage types. Blizzard is weeding out the 5th element for specific classes that still have those.

Blacksmithing is worthwhile while leveling, but you will replace your gear quickly.

Low level gems are useful until you find higher level gems.

Always socket an emerald into your weapon. This is by-and-large the best DPS gain in the game, because crit is king.

Every character gears the same. Every character.
Crit chance / crit damage, main stat, socket your main stat gems into your chest and pants, and then you have room to play around with the socket in the helm.

Rings and amulets are always crit chance, crit damage. No exceptions. If you don't have those affixes on your gear, you're doing it wrong. With the introduction of Legendary Gems, you now have to decide if you want main stat, socket, cooldown reduction, increased attack speed (very rarely do people use this after the near immediate nerf to it shortly after release, with an obscured reference you'll see pop up on the forums every now and again about Bashiok's "Aren't you thankful?").

Your character is your gear. Without gear your character is worthless. Unlike D1 and D2 where you allocate skill points, you now have to carefully build your character by finding the right gear. Good luck.

I do enjoy D3. Millions of others agree with me. No, it's not perfect. It's nowhere near perfect. It's also nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be. I've never quit D3, I've always taken a break after several weeks and come back for new patches, again for several weeks. It's one of those ones where it's really fun to come back to and rediscover playing the game.

The one big negative that D3 absolutely deserves is that it's an always online game. There is no offline mode. You can play solo, but you're always going to be connected to Blizzard servers. If you aren't online to play, you aren't playing.

There is a free to try version of the game to see if you're interested. It's even better on console than it is on PC due massively to the layout of the controller versus mouse and keyboard. Plus couch co-op is just awesome. And the game can be played on your console without having to connect to Blizzard servers or indeed be online at all. You can play it offline.

The premise of this thread is slightly flawed.

Improved Familiar, as written, does not require an Arcane Caster Level.

It requires an Arcane Spellcaster Level.

This wording has been an issue for a while, and I am not aware of any clarification ever being made.

You're right. I was in error.

If a class, archetype, feat, or other ability references your Effective Wizard Level, does that satisfy the requirement of having an Arcane Spellcaster Level for the purpose of gaining an Improved Familiar via the Improved Familiar feat?

Familiar can be gained in multiple ways now, by anyone and everyone that wants one.
1) Be a Wizard. Instead of a bonded object, you've chosen a familiar. A Witch is also given a familiar whether she wants one or not (barring certain archetypes). The Arcane Sorcerer also can gain a familiar. Also as a Magus Arcana.
2) Eldrich Heritage. This requires some charisma investment and two feats, but you can get a familiar if you want one. Taking the Boon Companion feat brings your familiar up to your level.
3) Be a Rogue. I'm not kidding. This requires three (3) whole investments of Rogue Talents and a minimum of 10 levels of Rogue to get the Familiar Advanced Rogue Talent, but there you have it, as well as burning a feat on Boon Companion to get your familiar up to snuff.
4) The new feat, Familiar Bond, as well as Improved Familiar Bond to give your familiar all its good familiar features.
5) Trade in your first level Bloodline ability for one. This also grants your familiar cool features based on your Bloodline.

Those are the ways I know of, off the top of my head.

Improved Familiar allows you to trade in your old, unwashed familiar for something new and shiny. How do you get one? By taking the Improved Familiar feat, of course. Anyone with a familiar can take this feat. Maybe.

Huh? What's up with that? How do I gain an Improved Familiar, maybe?

You require an Arcane Caster Level. How does one go about this?

Classes that grant Arcane Casting:
Wizard
Sorcerer
Witch
Bloodrager
Magus
Rogue (using Minor/Major Magic Rogue Talents)
Summoner
Bard
Monk (through specific Qinggong abilities)
Ninja
Arcanist
Skald
Investigator (Rogue Talent - Minor Magic), also depends if Extracts count as Arcane spellcasting
(Alchemist maybe, if Extracts count as Arcane spellcasting)

Races that grant Arcane SLAs (Wizard/Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, Bard, Paladin, Ranger):
Elf (alternate racial traits)
Gnome
Drow
Aasimar
Dhampir
Fetchling
Ifrit
Sylph
Tiefling
Undine
Duergar
Kitsune
Nagaji
Samsaran
Svirfneblin
Wayang

Specific traits can give a 0-level SLA and a caster level of 1, but those don't progress the character's CL with that SLA.

The Arcane Talent feat gives you a 0-level SLA 3/day with a CL equal to your character level.

Any one of the above that eventually grants a CL of 3 or higher (with Arcane spells or at least one Arcane SLA) qualifies you, if you already have the means to gain a familiar, to take and use Improved Familiar. Everyone else is out of luck.

Honestly, this is a lot of ways. But with the new book out, Familiar Folio, not everyone that can gain a familiar can gain an Improved Familiar. Maybe this is just fine, as some of those non-improved versions can still take archetypes that the Improved versions can't take. Still, it'd be nice to have the option.

Unless the ability says it stacks with similar or same-named abilities, then it doesn't stack.

You can gain Channel Energy as a Cleric, Paladin, and Oracle. Each class has their own progression and can only use Channel Energy so many times per day, each time using a progression an ability modifier tied to each specific instance of Channel Energy to determine DC.

Rounds of Rage do not stack with rounds of Bloodrage or Raging Song.

Because prestige classes in the Core Rulebook say that multiple sources of Sneak Attack stack, it is generally assumed that multiple classes that grant Sneak Attack stack the damage. Vivisectonist Alchemist specifically calls this out as well, saying it gains Sneak Attack as a Rogue, but only gains as much if multiclassed with a Rogue as equals one-half their combined class levels (+1d6/2 levels, minimum 1d6). So a Rogue 1/Vivisectonist 1 only has 1d6 Sneak Attack, even though the Vivisectonist gains Sneak Attack at level 1.

84) The PCs have all awakened in Hell, and an archdevil has contracted them to run a few "errands" for him.

Perks include:

Not being able to die - you're already dead and if you "die" you just spawn back at the boss's office. Unfortunately, you don't get paid.

Getting cool loot. Obviously this has to be given back when it comes time to torture you for eternity.

Invasion of Heaven. Kill all the angels you want. Eventually.

The Witch should get a talent at every caster level, just like the Wizard, plus the additional talent every other level, just like the Wizard. Instead of bonus feats and arcane schools, the Witch gets hexes. There's the balance.

The Bonded Eidolon class feature seems a bit weird to me.

I think the Summon Monster SLA should be replaced with the Extra Companion talent. Here's why:

You start off the Conjuration sphere with ONE summon available to you. Obviously, this is going to be your Eidolon. You need a second (or third) companion to back you up when (if) the Eidolon goes down.

And then for the Eidolon, you get to pick which of your summoned companions gets the Greater Summoning AND Lingering Companion talent (1 day summons, yeah!). In addition to this, at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, the sphere summoner may select an additional Conjuration talent to be used with his eidolon. These talents may not be used with his other companions unless taken with the talents he gains from gaining a caster level. At 18th level this gives the eidolon an additional 8 talents over standard summons, including Lingering Companion. Yeah, you could choose Lingering Companion as a standard summoner talent and have all your summons get that, but then the eidolon still has 6 over everyone else.

Then have all abilities that reference the eidolon instead reference this creature.

Man, this really makes the summoner seem truly weird. It acts as a full caster and has a ton of abilities that make it seem like it is, but then it's squished down into this half-caster abomination. It's a freaking druid that has an ungodly emphasis on his animal companion.

I'll go back through, but I'm not remembering seeing Suli in this thread. I'd like to see a Suli something. They already have a neat Magus archetype. How about a blaster Arcanist or a Ranger/Hunter with an elemental companion?

I see a lot of feats as something any character should be able to just do. Power Attack and Deadly Aim are a couple of those. Weapon Finesse is one of those.

Stuff like Weapon Focus, that should have to be selected as a feat since you're choosing to focus, training yourself with a single weapon to the point of doing better with it over all others.

Eschew Materials is something that can easily be covered by a spell component pouch. If you're really worried about it, pick up the feat, but have the pouch anyway for when you need stuff to cast a Resurrection.

Step Up is a no from me.

While Two-Weapon Fighting shouldn't be given away for free, if you've picked it up, you should automatically gain Improved and Greater when you qualify.

Just my two cp.

Gilarius wrote:

CalethosVB, while I would enjoy playing such a caster, I fear I need to point out that you should include some sort of drawback otherwise there would be no reason to play a single classed caster and many people feel that casters are already too powerful.

I would think that "One set of spells" [b]is[/i] the drawback, as it sounds like the spells by level would be closer to that of one of the classes, rather than 4+3 cantrips, it might be only the 4, and so on, up the level list.

There would be advantages, but the drawbacks would be fairly large, since you would lose not just the highest level of spells a single-classed caster would get, but you only have as many spells as the lower level of one class would give you.

Unless I misunderstood...

Correct. Instead of gaining spell slots per class, you would gain them on a character-wide level, but the spell level of those slots depends completely on your level in each class.

For example: A Wizard 3/Cleric 1 would have a caster level of 4. He could choose to fill his 1st level slots with either Wizard or Cleric spells, as he chooses, but can only fill his 2nd level spell slots with Wizard spells. He may choose to lose any prepared 1st level slot to spontaneously cast Cure Light Wounds at a caster level of 4. At level 4, he follows the Wizard table for total spells per day, +1 1st level Domain spell slot. If the character has a high enough Intelligence score, he would gain extra spell slots to power Wizard spells, noted separately from any other class's spells he has prepared. If he has a high enough Wisdom score, he would gain extra spell slots to power Cleric spells, noted separately from any other class's spells he has prepared. Otherwise, he gains a single spells per day table.

This Wizard 3/Cleric 1 would have 4 0-level spell slots, 3 1st level +1 Domain spell slots, and 2 2nd level spell slots. He may choose to fill his 0th and 1st level spell slots with spells gained from either class, but may only prepare 2nd level spells from his Wizard list since his Cleric levels aren't high enough to support 2nd level spells. All spells cast by this character are cast at CL 4.

Additional rules would be made for spontaneous casters mixing with prepared, or 4/6/9 level casters mixing classes.

It's a fair bit complicated and perhaps the current system is better balanced, but I'm going to be looking at how everything squares over the next few days.

I'd love a Big Book of Racial Archetypes. The ARG was a good start, but then stopped. It seems like it ended too quickly.

General:

There is this big rant by Sean K Reynolds (love him or hate him) on the usefulness of prestige classes in PF. Basically it comes down to entry level and missed opportunities but in their current form they are underpowered. The opening lines of the product address the notion that these prestige classes are designed to be a cut above the power level expected of a typical prestige class. That being said, players and GMs should consider what they want out of the game and judge content accordingly.

I just watched that video a few minutes ago to find what you were talking about. I agree with what he said there, and with what you've said here as well.

Thanks for going through my big long message earlier. It really gets the point across that, yeah, these PrCs are supposed to be really good compared to what you're giving up.

By the way, for anyone interested, I recommend the Beastlord for any class that doesn't already get an animal companion, even casters.

Rock on.

A lot of these items have the potential to be really good items. The problem seems to be that nobody is near any of the authors to point out what's good or bad with these items, where to fix grammar, terminology, syntax, etc. I really hate to vote against a great idea only because the author missed a small detail that fudges the whole thing, while the other item is a boring +1 weapon with a spell effect attached to it but as-written works.

Sold. Thanks.

As an addendum, I'm looking at enhancing a Fighter some, so I'm going to be looking at the Acrobat and the Weapons Master.

I may even use the Arcane Dabbler, if compatible, to enhance my Rogue. Perhaps even Beastlord.

Thanks for the response.

Can you give a quick and dirty to each class without delving into mechanics? Just from the description I'm halfway sold.

When I GMed for a diehard Bo9S player that wanted to convert it to PF, we sat down and looked at stuff and came to an agreement that Concentration checks for the Bo9S classes would work exactly as it does for casters in PF, d20 + initiator level + Ability modifier. This makes all your Diamond Mind maneuvers have a slight edge over 3.5, as you can afford to spend your skill points elsewhere, as well as it being keyed off your class's preferred ability modifier instead of constitution. Unfortunately Fighters and other classes that take Martial Study don't really get a chance to take Diamond Mind maneuvers because their initiator level is half that of the Bo9S classes, which is okay because there's still a lot of other good maneuvers to choose from. I prefer Iron Heart or Shadow Hand.

Take a look a DSP's Paths of War. There are feats there much like Martial Study, but better, that allow a character to pick up higher level maneuvers within one discipline.

Hell, just go pick up Paths of War. It's written to be Pathfinder's version of Bo9S, and it does a good job of it.

Battledancer is only useful to epic-level characters (dat 30 skill ranks). Unfortunately, Pathfinder is stuck with using 3.5's Epic Level Handbook, because the "Beyond Level 20" rules/guidelines in the Core Rulebook don't handle truly epic levels. There might be a case for making it a Mythic ability, but I'd lock it behind 3rd tier at the earliest and 6th tier at the safest, or break it up to a bunch of 1st tier abilities that tie together.

Your second ability, "Echoes of the Edge", is also something I'd recommend for Mythic, with it being a 1st tier ability.

What if, unique to the actual fighter class, whenever they took a combat feat that had an attribute requirement... Instead of it being a prerequisite, it instead is an 'untyped adjustment'...

So like when you take combat expertise, instead of requiring a 13 intelligence, it 'bumps your intelligence' to 13.

Or if you take lightning stance... Instead of requiring a 17 dex... it raises your dex to 17.

The feats still work the same they always have for every other class.

But for fighters...

That would allow a fighter to put his point buy and points for leveling into other attributes, like int for better skills...

It always seemed wierd to me the concept of 'you must be this strong or this quick to do this technique'... Instead shouldnt it be 'if you practice this technique, you will *become* this strong or this quick...'?

There's also your second post, disallowing multiclassing, quick I cannot quote here due to my phone screwing up the formatting.

I can see where you are coming from with this system. It gives the player of the Fighter a bit of a narrative boost that other classes gain by virtue of being better with skills, or by having spells, or other class abilities, whereas the Fighter only pokes things with his sharp stick.

I can get behind that point.

But my question then becomes, "What makes the Fighter class inherently MAD?"

If all I want to do is poke things with my stick, unless I can gain access to a Bestiary feat, I'm better off not even taking Power Attack, which messes with my ability to poke things with my stick. (Unless this is not the way you envision your Fighter ability.)

I could instead become a Two-Weapon Fighter, raising my Dexterity up by quite a bit over the long run, which would also include Reflex saves and AC, except in heavier armor. But I could reliably afford to tank my Dex in favor of Str instead and gain a load of damage.

If I wanted to be skilled, then there's no reason for me to take Combat Expertise because instead of that 14 I spent on Intelligence to gain extra skill ranks, I would lose some because I took that feat . (Or is this not the way your envision it?)

Would these ability score enhancing feats be only combat feats or all feats?

I believe this Fighter ability would make other look at the Fighter with envy (not a bad thing) but also come with the side-effect of making every other character that doesn't have good ability scores, or class options, feel like those feats that grant a Fighter ability score bumps aren't worth as much in his own character's build.

Would there be a point to giving a player that intended to single-class as a Fighter any point-buy?

If you were in the position of using this Fighter exactly as you've posted here, what would your build be at every level? What would you start with in your point-buy calculations? Would you sink feats into only feats that "grant" bonus ability score bumps?

If you can honestly say you would enjoy this Fighter as you've imagined, please design and share something to make the Monk and Rogue as useful and fun. And then show up what you're doing with the rest of the classes.

If you're after something to "fix" the Fighter, giving him ability score boosts is, in my opinion, not the way to do it. Already, he hits things with a stick pretty hard. When he levels up, he hits them with a stick harder. Or with two sticks. Granting a Fighter class features outside of hitting creatures with a stick (which he already does very well) would be better appreciated.