Are we going to see a new thread for this? If we're choosing Zeitgeist over Throne of Night and/or Burning Sky, it might be better to have its own title.
Plus, I really do prefer it when we have the Character Creation rules on the first post!
Search Posts
In the alleyway encounter with the demon hashashin, Arcantos managed to succeed on a knowledge check about their order and cleverly crafted an illusion of the demonic paradise that was promised to them by the original Grandfather of Assassins. He then bluffed the succubus assassin into believing that the party were demonic angels from the Red Paradise sent to punish the current balor grandmaster for abject heresy. Hilarity then ensued as the dreamvapor-addled succubus assassin turned on the balor while crazily singing the party's praises as the Blessed Angels of Blood to her former cohorts and railing against her grandmaster as a filthy heretic while combat devolved into a three-way brawl. Oh, oh wow. That is great. I'm not sure I would have considered something like that myself, but godamn I really hope I would have if I had the chance to do that encounter. Because that is bloody brilliant and hilarious, and absolutely in-character for Arcantos. Heck, its stuff like that which is why I am so intrigued by the Illusionist aspect of the game, spheres or no-spheres, it simply opens up so much more when it comes to sheer creativity and possibilities in the game. Entirely necessary to have the DM be open to it and to roll which such chicanery, but potentially delightful. In the encounter with Miraxa the Pirate Queen of the Slumbering Sea and her crew, Arcantos managed to pull off several stunts that I felt would suit his personality. There were several fun applications of illusion magic, but I think the funniest thing here was your companion ticking off the (optional) skywhale kaiju and baiting it into crashing Miraxa's ship, which cut off some of her reinforcements and dealt with the issue of her living ship being able to participate in combat itself. Considering that Cynder's crusing speed is, as previously mentioned, sitting at a cool Mach 2. She probably is the best one to bait a kiaju to smashing into the a living ship, save for those with long-distance teleportation. And a fantastic job by Cynder too, super-glad that she got a highlight moment, not just Arcantos. Really am hoping I can get into your next campaign too. These encounters and anecdotes really give the impression you are an open-minded DM that I would enjoy playing with.
@Fury of the Tempest: Oof, that's kinda embarrassing on my part. I was certain that he was built as a blasty type that was hard to actually hit/substantially damage by virtue of those defensive sphere choices and clever use of illusions. Most of your ranged kinetic blasts being put under the attack section just reinforced it mentally on my part. Sorry about that misread on what you were going for, even if I do still think Arcantos was a good character in that role. Yeah, I can see how the mistake was made, especially with me specifying it is 'Kinetic Blast' rather than going 'Kinetic Blast/Blade' in my attack section. Simply adding that would have been a good reminder of their close-and-personal capabilities. Especially as the dramatic nature of Performing Combatant, and bringing gladiatorial-type stuff into life-and-death struggles is a key point of their fluff! Still, would be happy to hear if you have any fun anecdotes about Arc's performance, beyond being fun to play, if any exist! And hey, if they did a good job at being a blaster. Then clearly I did a good job at building them as an effective Switch Hitter!
@Fury of the Tempest: Arcantos was honestly a blast to play, pun fully intended. The character could play a good keepaway game while tricking foes with illusions and blasting them to smithereens, all while harrying foes with his pet. Arcantos, like a few other characters, only got cut because of how the final party composition was shaping up. Heh, funnily enough, the character is designed, or at least imagined, more as a Melee Fighter, or a Switch Hitter. Instead of fulfilling the role as a Blaster. Hero's Display only has a 30ft range, and I invested a decent amount of resources into getting a free-action 30ft demoralisation that I can ignore fear immunities with. Between that, my Shield Sphere investment, and the Mythic Combat Reflexes, the Blasting side of my character is more to give me options outside of raw damage and increase my capability of landing crucial debuffs and crowd control, rather than being the primary means by which my character fights. Still, between Supercharge, Kinetic Acceleration, Mythic Supercharge and Temporal Haste... I can drag my Burn costs down, so flinging out quickened kinetic blasts is surprisingly easy for me, so I can see why you might have taken the Blaster route. Happy to hear that Cynder didn't have any issues getting involved either. Was worried, as its hard to buff conjured creatures after a certain level, but the free templates really helped, and taking the Evolver boon was likely the right choice. Basically, either the DM had to make every enemy immune to crits (which cheapens the value of crits), or the character would have to fight with 1 hand behind their back most of the time and not use every tool they had available (which just cheapens the effort of everyone else to have someone with pocket God mode on demand). Hmmm, well, while better than 3.5, Pathfinder does have plenty of ways to be immune, or to mitigate the power/likelihood of a Crit at this level, and it likely wouldn't feel cheap to me? But outside of that... yeah, it would be tricky for your character not to be doing massive, massive damage, with that combination of abilities, huh? I also see that you picked up the Stone Blast, so your Destructive Blast would ignore Spell Resistance and similar defences, negating a different potential avenue for disrupting it. And the Inspired Strike also adds Int to your attack roll when in use, making it hard for the DM to create a character that could have an AC high enough to resist, except maybe that 70 AC monster they mentioned. Impressive damage numbers. Looking at it, if I make a full-attack action with my Amplified Thunderstorm Blast in Kinetic Blade/Whip form, with Temporal Haste up, I'll do an average damage of 744 if all attack hits? Which is, decently impressive (free Empowered blast thanks to Mythic really helps bring the pain), but if you're doing something like, 5-6 attacks, all with the 300 damage rider... yeah, that'll leave a mark, and at this level, we have spell points for days.
Training Weapons could be used to grab Extra Combat Talent, and thus this might help mitigate some of the loss. I don't use any weapons, only my Kinetic Blast/Blade, so, a Training Weapon would not be useful, and would feel cheesy to pick up simply for the taeltns. Actually, this is explicitly allowed by the gestalt rules, from here:A gestalt character may trade feats for combat talent progression (under the normal rules in Spheres of Might for doing so) even if they have a High-Caster class on one side of the gestalt, but only if they have at least one class that is not a High-Caster at any level But it does seem we were wrong, and my character was fine with the talents after all, which is quite a relief.
No worries, easy mistake, though I am very dang curious about why you think your character was too OP? Isn't part of the point of a game like this to make OP characters?
Ah, whoops. You are entirely right about that. Shows how inexperienced I am at actually building and playing High-Casters to miss something like that. Losing out on 5 extra combat talents would have a noticeable impact on my character's combat capabilities! I realized this, because I also made this mistake once, when I tried to make an Arcane Weaponeer Magus with access to Spheres of Might. I really don't get why the Arcane Weaponeer is a High-Caster when all other Magus are half-casters...
To those who were not selected, do not despair! I may yet have an idea brewing that those hungry for my singularly crazed GMing style. Let me know if you'd like me to message you directly in the event that idea becomes a reality. You mean, outside of this? Because sure, why not, send me a message. And honestly, I would also like to know what I could have done to improve my character. Well, the backstory was the weak point, I'm guessing, and I really should have done more to flesh it out, even if I was going to leave it open-ended. But if there's anything else, I would like to know.
@Fury of the Tempest: Wait, THEY are the ones behind that studio?! Awesome! I'll definitely have to check that out then, because Tinker is hella fun to play. Rex and Hydronz do seem to be the main people behind DRS, yeah. I think there might be others, and I'm not entirely sure what Hydronz worked on as part of DDS, but Rex absolutely was one of the main developers of the Tinker Sphere, that much I can say for certain.
That writeup does make Throne of Night sound pretty cool (though I haven't personally read up on WoBS significantly). Would the new Polished Dark Sphere be allowed? Because a Drow themed game seems like a good excuse to mess with that (assuming I don't decide to mess with either Tinker or Void Conduit Summoner, instead). @ChrisAsmadi: I've never heard of the Polished Dark Sphere, shockingly enough. I'd be willing to give it a lookover if we go with Throne of Night! Even without Throne of the Night, I have to echo Polished Dark support. Diamond Recrational Studios are developers from Drop Dead Studios who aren't quite happy with the current state of the studio and Spheres in PF1, so is releasing new material for it, including Polished Dark, and most likely more Polished material in the future. For the record, one of the biggest developers of DRS and Polished Dark in particular, is known as Rex, very active on the Discord and the main developer behind the Tinker Sphere.
So what we have left is, obviously, Throne of Night and War of the Burning Sky. Anyone have thoughts on those? I like the War of the Burning Sky. While its a bit typically 'People vs Empire', it has many fascinating elements, such as the recent assassination of an Emperor and a new Queen not Empresses (unless that was a mistake). And it sounds like a fully realised world, too. 'The eternally-burning fey forest of Innenotdar'? That sounds delightful! Plus, it gives us more freedom: In the War of Burning Sky, you can still be evil, as long as you are against the Empire. But in the Drow Throne, it sounds rather hard to not be evil. Not to mention our races are far more limited. People can see that restriction breeds creativity, true... but I'm more for freedom here with the War of the Burning Sky.
Despite that, I don't know if I want to try running more than one of them alongside Coliseum Morpheuon. I don't want to make the mistake of accidentally overcommitting and having the quality of all the games suffer as a result. Wise choice, and I do appreciate that for sure. Personally, the drow-only game is the one I have the least interest in, but if it is the AP you are most experienced with and are the most confident in running? I do have to suggest that one. Especially if you are doing the Epic-Game alongside it.
Heh, I tend to wait for the recruitment, see the rules, and use that to help inspire my idea. Though with spheres, I do have a few builds I would like to give a shot sometime.
@Fury of the Tempest: Looks like you were able to choose before I could reply! Interesting combination. Thank you. If you have any questions about my character sheet, please, let me know and I'll do my best to make the sheet easier to read. I do have two rule questions. 1. Regenerating Companion (form) requires the Natural Aspect (form) (fast healing option) talent to be picked, and turns the fast healing into regeneration. Suppose my Companion has Fast Healing from another source (like say, a template). Can I count that fast healing as the Natural Aspect (form) talent? Or do I still need that talent to pick up Regeneration Companion? 2. The Spheres Half-Fiend Template says the following:
Magic: The half-fiend gains a bonus magic talent plus an additional talent for every 2 Hit Dice it possesses beyond the first. If it does not already possess spellcasting or racial casting, the creature gains a caster level based on their racial Hit Dice (see Table: Racial Caster Level Progression by Creature Type) and may select a casting tradition. Emphasis mine. Does this include the +2 talents that normally come with a casting tradition? Edit: Also, just for kicks, but if I'm understanding my mechanics right, my Animal Companion's flight speed is a little over Mach 2.
@Fury of the Tempest: What's your companion's theme? Fast and stealthy dragon. Currently thinking of going Half-Fiend and Idomitable for 3 CR, then either Quickling or Advanced & Fighter Class. Half-Fiend gives Fate magic, while Idomitable gives access to the Guardian Sphere for some Patrol capability. Then Quickling would let them cast as a swift action and gain an extra move action, while the Fighter Class would give me extra feats that would flesh out my Spheres of Might capabilities. Pros and cons to both. Could always take Quicken Spell, of course, but Quickling means I don't need to spend spell points... and hmmm, well, if I take the extra Combat feats, what would I get? Hindering Projectiles (snipe)? To The Hilt (exploit)? Perfect Shot would be nice to ignore concealment, and maybe a few more Guardian Sphere talents, but otherwise... and I don't need Advance at all, my ability scores are high enough as is. Okay, I've talked myself into it. Half-Fiend, Indomitable, Quickling it is.
Where? I specifically went through the thread, Ctrl+Fing 'Tradition' to see if the Mythic Traditions had been discussed before, but they aren't brought up at all? Unless you referred to them as something but Mythic Traditions?Funnily enough, they were referred to as "Mythic Drawbacks and Boons" when they were brought up earlier in the thread. I knew it As it is, I'm thinking of grabbing the Boon of the Evolution's Chosen a second time to apply it to my Conjured Companion, does anyone have any good suggestions for them? Honestly, pure stat upgrades from the templates aren't interesting, as I've got near-max stats already where necessary. Instead, I'm looking to shore up their defences/immunities, and/or give them more tools to play with. They have decent sniping and AoE abilities, but giving them a bit more flexibility in case they are struggling to hurt people would be appreciated.
Where? I specifically went through the thread, Ctrl+Fing 'Tradition' to see if the Mythic Traditions had been discussed before, but they aren't brought up at all? Unless you referred to them as something but Mythic Traditions? Not that I'm disagreeing with the answer or anything. I'm just confused that there are claims it was discussed earlier in the thread when I checked the thread specifically to see if it was discussed before asking. Anyhow, managed to blitz through my character faster than anticipated. The only thing left to hash out now is items, and, of course, the fluff. So I should be able to get them fully finished by Wednesday at the latest. And honestly, selections taking a while is fully understandable.
Whoops, forgot to check that the Element Infused Creature, specifically the Air-Infused version of the template, would be an acceptable choice. Still, I'm making good progress. Class features & talents, Sphere choices, skills and feats are all hashed out. Just got the Mythic and items to sort out, figure out my second boon, and pull together my Conjured Companion Oh, and what about the Mythic Spheres Mythic Traditions? Are they on the table?
Man, these statblocks are proving time-consuming to deconstruct! I've been steadily working through them at a decent pace over the last two days, but it's likely going to take a few more days to properly lay everything out so that I can start checking in with people and see if they're willing to fix errors I found before I begin deliberations. So, does that mean its still a few days before the recruitment ends? Cuz my Character Sheet is coming together, but its somewhat slow business, even after I've figured out what I want to do.
Hmmmm, the Savant is too focused on Intelligence, and the Time Seer doesn't really fit my character. But both Alacritious and Thunder Child have their strengths and bonuses, so I will consider them carefully. And you know, I'm starting to wonder if I should even both with Difficulty Classes at all. Because like, I'm looking at my options here, and I'm seeing stuff like 'Mind-Affecting Effect' or 'Paralyzation' or 'Ability Damage', and I can't help but think 'Immune, Immune, aaaand Immune'... is being careful in what status effects and crowd-control we try to use an important part of building our characters?
Question. Are the enemy NPCs going to have saves in the 25-30 range as well, or are we more likely going to see 40ish as previously mentioned? Because while covering the AC we are likely to see the enemies have, and what attack rolls they might have to know what we should do in terms of attack rolls and AC. This bench-pressing post of yours didn't cover what saves the enemy might see to help inform of us potential Difficult Classes we'll need to be looking at to stand a good chance. Cuz like, 10+10 (Class levels)+15 (40 in ability modifier) = a DC of 35. And even then, getting 15 in the ability mod isn't always guaranteed. So unless saves are more likely at the 25-30 end, it's going to take a lot of investment to get DCs up to a challenging height. Honestly, how someone got their DC up to 60 is beyond me.
@Fury of the Tempest: I'd say no to elves and half-elves. Even in the drow-only version, there's going to be a few options: drow, drey (a savage offshot), szarkai (albino drow), aquatic drow, and half-drow. I'm not using noble drow in this game. Huh, any chance of links to all but the drow, so we know what racial abilities we're working with? @Monkeygod: The thread wasn't expressly for the purpose of gathering votes, I just wanted to read the room temperature and see if there was interest for the ideas since they're third-party and I plan on using spheres as the 'core' experience. Well, from the looks of it, all of the stated ideas are 'yes please!' so you don't have any lacking interest there, that's for sure.
@Fury of the Tempest: What themes are you looking for with templates and PrCs? Well, my character is going to be a wandering teacher and mentor. Someone who knows a lot of stuff, and has appeared in many stories as someone who helps the heroes of the tale grow and flourish. A tricky individual who uses Illusions to misdirect and deceive allies and enemies alike. And then there are the few stories where he lets loose, and reveals himself as a living storm. So fast and furious that he warps time itself to his command, whilst bringing forth a powerful draconic ally to wreck havoc among his foes
So, I'm playing a Kitsune Air/Time Legendary Kineticist | Fey Adept that focuses on Illusions and Conjuration. Dex/Cha build, with a slight dabbling in Bard. Does anyone have recommendations for potential Templates to pick up with the Boon of the Evolution's Chosen? I've been toying with the Sublime Creature for its pretty significant HP increase and ability modifier increases, and the Paladin Class template would be nice for Divine Grace to give my saves a pretty significant boost. But other suggestions and ideas would be appreciated. That, and maybe ideas for the Boon of the Well-Traveled Wanderer? It really fits the flavour of my character, but I have no idea what PrCs I would pick up for it.
Might consider the Great Mind PrC, possibly in conjunction with the Boon of the Well Travelled Wanderer. Ummmm, this does not give me extra sphere talents? I guess there is Martial Scholar, but from the looks of it, it only turns the Great Mind into a Proficient SoM user, not the character as a whole? So like, only 2 talents? And even if it works like you seem to think it does... that's SoM talents, not SoP talents. Besides, the Great Mind is a complicated class, and I just said I wanted to actively avoid complicated!
I'm curious about something. If I choose to go with Throne of Night, would people prefer the Drow Overlord option or would they prefer an 'any underdark race' type of game? I would say Drow Overlord for the more cohesive narrative. But perhaps mechanically, we could pick Elves or Half-Elves for a potential 'race' package to allow for a bit more variety in racial traits?
@Fury of the Tempest: I'm not really allowing sweeping template changes because it could open a whole can of worms where my adjudication is required for potentially dozens of requests. That's fair. A shame, would have been nice to have an extra 10 talents to play around with, but I'll have to deal without it.
Fair enough. I have a quick question. Sphere Half-Fiend is a template that is taken by others, for good reason as it is pretty strong. But I was wondering if we could use this to create a Half-Fey version of it? Where instead of Alteration, Death, Destruction, or Fate talents, its Alteration, Fate, Illusion or Mind? And switching Smite Good for Smite Law Either that, or the Becoming, True feat allows me to ignore the alignment restriction involved. Currently thinking of going straight Legendary Kineticist 20 | Fey Adept 20. Trinity Knight is pretty strong, but also complicated, and I only have a week left.
@Fury of the Tempest: Apart from the bans mentioned in the OP, I've been making rulings on allowing or banning things case by case. There's way too much third-party out there to sift through everything. Hmmm, fair enough then. I'll probably try to keep to stuff on the Sphere's Wiki and the Legendary Kineticist. I really do enjoy the Legendary Kineticist and its elements. There are no currently accepted PCs, but there are plenty of applications here. Godwyn Blaecwulf's player has kindly compiled a list a page or two back. There have been a few additions since then, but it covers roughly about 2/3 of the applications. Characters have been submitted for basically every broad archetype imaginable- skill monkey, gish, melee blender, sniper, ultracaster, support bot, etc- so you're liable to step on a few toes one way or the other. My suggestion to you is just build what you want and work to differentiate yourself into a niche you would enjoy playing. So, recruitment really has been going on for over a month? Damn. That's, impressive. And yeah, I've found it. Quite the collection, a lot of Lawful creatures. Also, 6 Males, 3 Females and 1 Agender. Just an interesting note there.
but I haven't made any plans for anything against the Spider Queen. Well, you are an experienced DM, and all the stories and YouTube videos always tell me that Players often do stuff the DM never expected. So, suppose this now is a warning? Heh, only if it works out that way, and I get selected.
@Fury of the Tempest: There's about a week left and character creation hasn't changed, although there have been a few things that were banned or clarified. Perfect! So I will get to work on my character sheet tomorrow, as it is 20 minutes to midnight here. And I would politely request: A. A list of banned materials. B. A list of current PCs? Or is this an entirely second party? Just, would be nice to have suggestions on where to avoid stepping on others' toes. Though admittedly, with how big these characters are, it's less I'm worried about stepping on others' toes and more I'm worried about taking a chainsaw to their leg.
I much prefer the Burning Sky AP, but I would still shoot my shot for the Drow-Kingmaker RP. Just wonder how much of that will force us to follow the Spider Queen, or if we might be capable of eventually leading to a Drow revolution against her.
... How much time left until recruitment ends, and has the character creation changed at all from the Opening Post?
... Well bugger. This is what happens for putting off building my character. I lose track of time, and when I come back to double-check when recruitment ends, it's ending right now. Good look for everyone who made a character. I guess I'll have to try my luck next time.
I've decided on my build. Iron Mage Martial Hedgewitch 20 | Prismatic Duelist Swashbuckler 20. Pure spheres, no Legends martial. Much as I love L.Games Kineticist and Vigilante, I decided I prefer the flavour of the Swashbuckler and am going all in on it.
Alright. So going through the recruitment, we have: Big Changes to character creation. Really wish Pazio's forums would be updated to allow you to edit posts. It's ridiculous that you can't. And we have Bench Pressing with the aim being... not 20 surely? We are Gestalt, and I think that's about a +2/3 bonus, so Brench Pressing Level 22 or 23? Still <i>limited</i> compared to how, silly one could get accidentally, but a little bit of leeway at least? Anyhow, classes from what I've seen: Blacksmith | Occultist
Quite the mix honestly. Doesn't help me try to figure out what I want to play here. So many options, hard to know what I would actually enjoy playing...
Going to note my interest in this. What I actually make, I don't currently have any idea. But it does seem like the character creation is going to be very fun.
... Why don't you just make an entirely new system rather than trying to tack on something this mind-numbingly complicated onto 3.5?
Okay so, been quite a bit more than a week since the DM posted here... guessing this is as good as dead?
... So uh... what do people think about my ideas for Tinker...?
I was thinking something similar to Omiros in that Tinker wasn't part of the team originally? My idea was that they were awakened by a white dragon (who is also her sire) to be the leader of an army of awakened animals they were making, only for the white dragon's cowardness and lack of morality to disgust her whilst the technology and teamwork of the squad fascinated her until she turned on her sire and helped the team defeat him and joined them from then on. And yeah, White dragons aren't in the remake, but we aren't just using remake material, so I figured it would be fine to use them still.
Jadis can use perform instead of Diplomacy, so thats +22 Ah yes, that is much better.
Yay! Hmmm, party wise we have... Armor Inventor/Supusition Barbarian/Wrestler (with a dabble of Medic)
Me and the Monk/Barbarian are decent tanks with grappling lock-down and Whirlwind Throw to toss b#+$%es around. Our Fighter and Inventor bring close-range DPS, while the Rogue seems to be an archer. The Sorcerer/Bard brings both healing, buffing and some CC, while my dabble in Medic also gives me some decent healing too... Seems pretty balanced, though I am quite wary of the fact that our highest Diplomacy check is a mere +14. Unless there is something I'm missing?
Aye, my question about the flavour of a class is an important one. A Rogue/Bard and Champion/Bard would play very differently from each other.
Plots and plans and go overs the classes to try and come up with a good class
... I think I might need to go back to the drawing board... Are we allowed to change the flavour of a class? Because, I rather like the Champion, Strength and Charisma, an absolute tank that can defend allies and strike out at enemies. But the entire Divine aspect of the class doesn't sit well with me. I'd rather it be in the pursuit of an ordeal or some type of oath, rather than being so heavily divine.
Going to throw up Tinker. I'm pretty sure I've got mechanics done, so I just need to finish up the fluff which shouldn't be too hard. Backstory should wait until we know who is in the party, right?
An evil team of assassins... okay, I admit, not my normal fare, but I think I'm willing to give this a shot. I currently have zero idea what I will actually play for a Level 14 game admittedly, but I can answer the first question. 1. How familiar are you with the 2E ruleset?
Friday is the cutoff. Okay... and is an Awakened Animal allowed or not? It's a Rare Hertidge, you said I need to ask for Rare material, and you haven't exactly given us much time to get characters completed, considering its Thursday as I write this!
Troupe mascot? Well, the director who has contacted us might try that, but my character won't accept it. I'll probably be backstage helping with the special effects.
Uncommon stuff is freely given, but Rare stuff needs a question? Alright, I'm currently toying with the idea of playing an Awakened Animal, potentially Awakened Animal Inventor, is that acceptable?
Going to note my interest in this. PF2E Level 11 start was enough to catch my interest alone. But Dual Class and Ancestral Paragon and Free Archetypes? Sign me the heck up! Shame that Player Core 2 doesn't seem to be up on aonprd yet, would love to give that stuff a poke about
|