I got in some playtesting yesterday with a group of characters using Spheres of Might and Spheres of Power. The six PCs, all level 7, were:
- Dwarven blacksmith
- Human sentinel
- Aasimar sage
- Halfling unchained rogue (bought in as an expert practitioner via feats)
- Human sphere druid (bought in as an adept practitioner via feats)
- Tiefling incanter (specialized in creation, destruction, and telekinesis)
The sentinel was killed almost immediately after improbably being hit with crits on both attacks of a full attack from a raging ogre barbarian. It would have obliterated any level 7 character, so it doesn’t say much about the class. Actually, the ogre chose to attack the sentinel rather than the rogue because the sentinel had challenged it so the class was working as intended.
The sentinel got replaced with a hobgoblin striker after that first combat.
- The blacksmith (specialized in berserking) was really effective. The Sharpen Weapons maintenance was a solid boost to the party’s damage, and Thunderous Blows made him extremely effective at sundering equipment on enemies without high CMDs. He totally chewed through a rogue who’d snuck up and shanked him by sundering the rogue’s rapier and leather armor. He hasn’t had a chance to use reforge yet, but the party has already found a weapon that’ll be a good candidate for it.
- The sage seems a little underwhelming so far. He had some good ways to use maneuvers, but so did the blacksmith, striker, and rogue, and his damage potential was notably lower than theirs. The healing was useful, though. I’ll need to do more playtesting to see, but right now I’m leaning towards thinking that the low BAB just causes more problems than it’s worth for the sage.
- Giving an unchained rogue a bunch of talents from the athletics and scoundrel spheres led to awesome mayhem. The combination of specializing in acrobatics and taking Scale Foe meant that she could potentially take 30-ft. flying leaps onto larger foes. The raging ogre that killed the sentinel went down to being sneak attacked by the rogue, who’d climbed on to it.
- The striker was likewise awesome (her highlight was impaling an annoying wizard/rogue, and then gore tossing him onto the ground to make him easier to blast with the incanter’s explosive orb). However, having to track both tension and combo rhythm makes the class a little fiddly - the player forgot to use both a couple of times. That will probably get better with more experience with the class, though.
- It’ll be nice to see what emerges from the skill-focused stuff. The striker, especially, is very mobile an has a good stealth score, but otherwise doesn’t have much to contribute out of combat. The sage’s healing and the blacksmith’s crafting and sundering (especially with sunder spell) give them a little more utility.
- Impale already has a long description, so I’m not sure about asking for additional verbiage, but it could use some clarification about how it interacts with miss chances and mirror image. The striker cornered a wizard who had blur and mirror image up and impaled him on her handaxe. At that point, should any subsequent attacks with the axe ignore miss chance and mirror image? The fluff of the ability suggests yes, since the axe is already stuck in the wizard. On the other hand, that might make impale too good against creatures with invisibility and so on.
- Does Confounding Tumble work against an enemy that a character starts adjacent to and then moves away from? The wording says “each enemy you pass adjacent to during your movement,” which led me to rule no, but a clarification might be useful.
- This may be intentional, but given how cheap +5 skill items are, characters using the Scoundrel sphere can get their effective CMBs much higher than anyone else’s. The unchained rogue had a +22 bonus with her focus dedicated to Scoundrel. In comparison, the sage’s CMB was +15.