Fury of the Tempest's page

Good Question, and My feeling is JUST Spheres of Power, do not get me wrong I like Spheres of Might and/or Spheres of Guile but that really is egging the pudding to much so, lets keep it just simple for now,

Unfortunante, but understandable. Though it does look like some people might need to remake their characters, as it is unusual for Spheres of Power to be allowed and the other Spheres not to be.

Edit: The game is still E6, right?

Also, do Animal Companions get any bonuses in this game? Otherwise, I fear they'll end up pretty weak and not worth using.

When you say Spheres of Power, is it just Spheres of Power, or is Spheres of Might and/or Spheres of Guile allowed?

Furthermore, as Namo asked, how heavy of a focus will we have on the Pillars of Combat/Exploration/Social be?

Still waiting for these questions to be answered.

Also, there's already significant gap in optimization between several of the builds posted, but hopefully people can tone down as needed, depending on the final party.

I'm hoping Spheres of Might and Guile are allowed for that exact reason. I have a pretty solid Support build lined up that brings plenty of buffs and crowd control to the table, and while it might have means of dealing damage, it's far and away not the primary focus.

When you say Spheres of Power, is it just Spheres of Power, or is Spheres of Might and/or Spheres of Guile allowed?

Furthermore, as Namo asked, how heavy of a focus will we have on the Pillars of Combat/Exploration/Social be?

6d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 4, 2, 5) = 18

Edit: Yeash, no one's, but an average of 3 for a mere 18. Well, I won't be playing my Butching Axe Occultist with rolls like that.

Given that kinetic blast does not have damage dice that scale beyond what is listed I would tend to think you would just always use the regular blast damage dice but that is just me.

... I mean, Unarmed Strike maxes out at 2d10 if I have 20 talents, while Kinetic Blast at this level is already 4d6, and every 2 levels will only make it bigger? Not to mention, as I'm going Scion, I can spend an SP to make it deal 7d6 damage? Or I could have a Composite Blast to make it 8d6?

All firearms are accepted.

Neat, one Gun Chemist-

Also I may have said no to spheres earlier but if you want to you may go that route.

Oh. Oh no.

Welp, one Scion Kineticist coming right up! But it does have another question come up, too.

The Striker class has the Favored Weapon Striker Art. This lets me treat a light melee weapon or 1-handed ranged weapon (like the Kinetic Blade/Blast) as an unarmed strike for the Striker's class features... and how much damage it deals.

If I want to play a Kineticist/Striker and pick up Favoured Weapon: Kinetic Blast, would this permanently restrict the Kinetic Blast's damage to unarmed strike damage? Or would I be allowed to use the Kinetic Blast damage, as it's higher?

Please note that if the Kinetic Blade's damage is allowed, this combination can be quite strong. Which, I think, is half the point of a game like this and the flavour? But, I feel like it's best to be up-front and honest about that fat.

There might be con based casters in spheres if you want to hyper focus on one stat and be a kineticist.

Spheres isn't an option? Like, I asked on Page 2 and got told no? And I don't see anything being said otherwise?

The Orc Witch Archtype uses Con for spells if you arent a spheres guy

Scarred Witch Doctor, you mean? That got errated to only being a +2 to your Intelligence instead of being full Con-based.

Toying around with material now, and I would like to know what Firearms are allowed for potential build.

22 of a stat feels too important to sacrifice to a 1PP Kineticist.

I'll roll stats too. I know I'm going to play as a Kineticst, but I'm uncertain what the other side will be currently.

5d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2, 3, 2) = 19-2 = 17
5d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 2, 1, 4) = 13-1 = 12
5d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 3, 4, 5) = 19-3 = 16
5d6 ⇒ (6, 4, 2, 6, 6) = 24-2 = 22 godamn
5d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 3, 3, 1) = 9-1 = 8
5d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 2, 2, 5) = 16-1 = 15

So, 22, 17, 16, 15, 12, 8... that's a generally very strong stat spread, with a heck of a range.

Hmmmm, DM said they are reopening this, but hasn't posted since then.

I'll not a vague interest, likely a Gestalt, but aside from that... I'll leave my options open.

I am but I’m on holiday for another 3 weeks travaling in Asia so pushing this back two weeks

:)

Huh, neat. I still have time to actually complete my character then.

Fair enough, seems I have some time to get my character done, which is good! Hope to get them written up this week.

Might be hard to field a balanced party if everyone is an Archmage. I'm focusing on not needing a meatshield.... Probably still need a skill monkey and bandaide! ;-P

Well, I'm not sure about needing a skill monkey as we're pest control? As for bandaid... can't we just get Wands of Cure Light Wounds

And Meatshield, well, I am the Meatshield. Who summons more Meatshields! So no issues there!

How do you get SM IV and not III, Fury?

Honestly, I forgot that the Wild Arcana does restrict you to the spells on your class list when I said that.

I'm honestly stuck. Samsaran's Mythic Past Life would be amazing for my class, allowing me to pick up Summon Monster IV as a third-level spell for my Arcanist class alongside Haste as a 2nd Level spell. The Half-Elf, however, gives me the Occultist FCB of +1/2 Focus Power, and +3 Focus Power is nothing to scoff at, not to mention I can switch Skill Focus for Exotic Weapon Proficiency and grab a Butchering Axe.

I guess I don't know if I want to go all in on the Summoning or make myself able to swing a massive axe while also being a Summoner. Cuz SM IV would really help out the Summons...

That's... fair. Honestly, I just wanted to try my shot at a summoner as this game felt like it might work well, and Archmage for Speedy Summons + Wild Arcana to cast Summon Monster IV for an MP is a combination I cannot say no to.

... Are we all going Archmage path?

Or level 6 with 6 mythic tiers...

Hey, only 3 feats at least.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:

This question seems to have been missed. Retraining being allowed would have a pretty big impact on my build.

Yes I did state that retraining was if you get the same thing from your gestalt classes

Perfect, 1 Mythic Vital Striking Occultist/Arcanist Half-Elf coming right up!

There always is. But this is just level 5.

Imagine similar rules but level 20 odd.

Found another question.

The Achmage has a Path Ability called Speedy Summons, allowing me to Summon Monster as a Standard Action. The Achmage's Wild Arcana allows me to cast spells even if I don't have them prepared or on my list, as long as they take a Standard Action or less to cast.

Would Speedy Summons allow me to Wild Arcana into a Summon Monster spell?

Though... hmmm, feats... Vital Strike is BAB +6 so I can technically get it, but you get feats at odd levels... is retraining allowed?

This question seems to have been missed. Retraining being allowed would have a pretty big impact on my build.

Oh great! I can play as a two-handed weapon warrior then, perfect, very fitting for an occultist!

Though... hmmm, feats... Vital Strike is BAB +6 so I can technically get it, but you get feats at odd levels... is retraining allowed?

I think, for the shenanigans, I'm going to go Occultist 6/Arcanist with the Occultist Archetype 6.

I'll be going Half-Elf. And I have a question for the DM. Trappings of the Warrior Panoply means I need to 'hold' a shield. Do I need to be actively wielding it, or can I hold one without needing to wield it?

Hmmm, E6 but Gestalt and Mythic? Sure, I'll give this a shot. Definently feels like it can be fun!

Tempted to try out a summoner build, as while Gestalt and Mythic allow for some crazy stuff, we are in the low-mid levels, so the normal monsters are still going to back a punch.

I'm guessing that because this is E6, we'll get feats instead of level-ups, and they'll be 'capstone' feats that let us get 8th-level class features.

Also, rolling!

6d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 1, 5, 6, 2) = 21

And one reroll: 1d6 ⇒ 2

22+12 = 34. Not bad, not bad.

Aye, nothing here as well, hope they're doing okay.

Bold choice to try and join a game this close to the end of the recruitment period.

@Saashaa: how familiar are you with Spheres? The casting stat is chosen as part of your casting tradition, it can be Int, Wis or Cha as you wish.

There is an option for Constituion as well, though you need to take the Draining Casting tradition, making your Spell Points act in a similar fashion to Kineticist Burn (though the HP burn you suffer is far, far less than the Kineticist's burn)

Also, for characters with Unarmored Training looking for armor that isn't armor, there's leather armor made from stable shadowstuff, which may be slightly cheaper than clothborn. And, unlike clothborn or leatherborn plate armor, you don't have to have heavy armor proficiency to wear it! (Though granted, there's no penalty for wearing armor without proficiency if the ACP is 0.)

That, huh. I didn't know that existed. That's, actually incredibly powerful, isn't it? The AC bonus wouldn't stack by itself, but it would be a powerful way for a Monk or similar to get extra AC, and even if it doesn't give you any further AC bonus, you can still use it to get armour enhancementslike Fortification, can't you? Though honestly, 3.5 has far superior armour enhancements. Soulfire is damn strong.

And I admit, I couldn't find how much Clothborn actually costs.

Excellent, excellent! I will probably begin the review process in a day or two for those who have already finished and give everyone else maybe a week to finish everything up out of fairness. This way I can be more efficient with everyone's time and not end up repeating the mistake I made with my Coliseum Morpheuon game's review process. For context, I waited until everyone was finished before starting reviews, which lengthened the recruitment by about a week or so longer than it probably needed to be. I don't want to make that mistake again, which is why I will be tackling those initial reviews soon.

Sounds like an excellent plan to me. My character's mechanics are easy to complete, but I need to review the setting a bit more to lock down the flavour, so having the extra week/till the weekend is good to have!

@Fury of the Tempest: Oh, you needn't worry, I have ideas for how to handle that whenever it becomes pressing. Probably one of the simplest solutions is a magic boon- or empowering death energies- from a fey that could 'evolve' an animal companion or such. Other things including a blessing from one of the beast god shrines in Elfaivar, some weird relic from the Age of the Ancients, coming across a foe whose own companion has magical barding/armor/claw sheathes/whatever, etc. At this stage of the game, basic companions should be fine as-is.

Quite fair, quite fair.

Also, I have to say its so frustrating that I can't change Alias names. You need 10 posts to be able to edit an Alias, but once you've made 10 posts, you can't change the name...

If Paizo forums didn't have fun RPs like this one, I really wouldn't bother, as it is such a pain. Can't edit after an hour has passed, can't change Alias names, have to manually add in all the formating...

@Fury of the Tempest: Companions get max HP per HD and that's basically it. The game isn't particularly harder than the original, so they don't need ABP-lite and such.

That... could become a significant issue later in game, as we can't buy any stat-boosting items, but the Big Six are generally necessary for PCs and Companions to keep up.

Still, for now, it should be fine. Max HP it is!

So quick question. What are the rules for companions exactly? What do they get?

I'm assuming they get the max HP, maybe the +5 HP, and the Automatic Bonus Progression-Lite as well. But do they get anything else? Do they get the improved feat progression, for example? Or what about the free +2 to ability scores?

Apart from some items, my companions are all I have to sort out, so its pretty important to know how they stand.

Definitely one of the best Spheres written in my book.

You should be happy to hear then that DRS, the creators of Tinker - and Polished Dark - are now looking to create a Polished Telekinesis and have a Poll up about that exact project, looking for as much feedback as possible.

I really like these characters. All seem unique, despite everyone using the Tinker sphere lol

To be fair, it is quite an expansive sphere, with 5 packages and many, many talents.

Honestly, Tinker isn't a Sphere. Its a subsystem that you access via Spheres.

HAHA do we seriously have one of every theme on our hands?

Which is good, more variety, and it means the DM can select one party member for every theme!

@Fury of the Tempest: I'd rule no on that substitution.

Dang, well. Worth asking. Guess I'll just have to spend a feat for the Shadow Shield so I have something to do with my Shadow pool before level 7.

Hey Pasha? Sorry for asking even more from you, but. Would it be possible for an Umbral Hedgewitch to switch out the Shadowmark for the Solipsist's Introspection ability?

It feels much more in-character for, well, my character.

For people who are still looking for a concept, the themes we haven't yet seen a completed character for are:

Docker/Notorious Celebrity - a.k.a. OG influencer

Still working on my character, but this is what I decided to lock into.

Admittedly, I am going to be doing nothing with the Notorious Celebrity PrC, so it's mostly flavour. But still.

We get the feat for free, right?

I'm handling FCB the same as I did in my Coliseum Morpheuon recruitment: there's no race restrictions on which FCBs you can take and you get an FCB for both sides of the gestalt.

Oh, that's pretty nice. Won't mean much currently, but next level? Oh boy!

@Fury of the Tempest: The Tinker As Guile Sphere optional rule is permitted for anyone who wants to go that route.

Tinker Utility Talents are also fair game.

Yay! Now I no longer need to be a martial character, thanks Pasha!

Got further questions as I work out my character.

Is the Tinker As Guile Sphere optional? It would be nice for my Power/Guile built to be capable of poking around with the Tinker Sphere without needing to go into a Martial Progression for it.

There is also the Tinker Utility Talents, are they allowed, even if the former is not?

@Fury of the Tempest: Fair point on the Light Element! I'd agree that Illusion or Light are both appropriate for associated spheres.

Arhcetypes that replace Metakinesis would replace the options that, in turn, replace it, as well as completely removing Metakinesis options from the Utility Wild Talent Pool. Does that sound fair?

Sounds perfect to me, I'll start working on my Light/Void Fusion Kineticist | ??? soon!

@Fury of the Tempest: I'm not great at formatting or being super formal, so I'll just give you the changes.

Thank you very much! Though I do have 2 small things to say?

First, I understand the Logic behind Light Element = Light Sphere. But the Light Element has a lot of Illusionary abilities, so shouldn't it be Light Sphere and Illusion Sphere?

And secondly, are archetypes that interact with Metakinesis still allowed? There is a lot of Archetypes that switch out one Metakinesis, and losing access to them because of this Spheres Archetype, cool and enjoyable as it looks, is a bummer.

Evolutionist looks interesting! I think I vaguely remember a player linking it to me years ago, but I don't think I allowed it since it was homebrew and I wasn't too well-versed in how it functioned. I will admit that I used the hell out of the Tome of Radiance stuff from Giantitp though.

Pretty fair, homebrew is far less used than 3PP content after all, even on gittp. Which is a shame, some of the homebrew content is fun, Path of War actually started as homebrew on GITTP if you go looking for it, and I have always wanted to combine Spheres with Project Heretica.

As it is, how's the Kineticist Archetype coming along?

To be fair for Gun's Everywhere, you are limited from the locations you can be from, there is RP restrictions to keep in mind with building a character grabbing Dex to Damage for Guns.

That, and unless you are going full barrage, Dex to damage is hardly gamebreaking.

Hmmm, this talk about Conscripts/Incanters, and how strong/useful they are in Gestalt, reminds me of the Evolutionist from Giant in the Playground.

As a class, its kinda basic, mostly a 'build your own monster' class that is meant to focus on natural weapons with maybe one or two exotic abilities. But the problem is that when it gets put into Gestalt, it turns into pure gas, taking the other side of the Gestalt and jacking it up to 10 with bonus feats, increased ability scores, and other such tricks.

Not sure if it's quite the same thing here or not, but yeah. I can see why Conscript and/or Incanter are popular as one side of a Gestalt. Helps turn a build online easier with all those bonus talents and feats.

@Fury of the Tempest: Almost finished cleaning up the archetype. To give a quick rundown of what the archetype's all about: Destructive Blast/Kinetic Blast are homogenized, your choice of Elemental Focus gives extra Wild Talent options taken from associated spheres, and the various Metakinesis features are replaced by extra Wild Talents (although the Metakinesis options ARE folded in to Utility Talent Talent options in case you want to take them!) and the standard pool of Spell Points that you can use to either spend with Sphere Talents OR to mitigate Burn point-for-point. That brings my take on Spheres Kineticist to a rough parity with other Spheres classes since Kineticist was already a little underpowered even in a first-party comparison.

Sounds fun, very fun! Yes, I think a Kineticist will be a perfect fit for this game with this new archetye, thank you very much for putting in the extra work for me!

With this…let’s say it gets added to an unarmed strike. The unarmed strike is 1d4+5 normally and the blast is 3d6. Would this together be 1d4+3d6+5?

Yes. That is how Destructive Strike works.

Third:

ABP gives +1 enchantment.

You failed to read the rules.

You gain all the benefits of Automatic Bonus Progression except for the following: Armor Attunement, Legendary Gifts, and Weapon Attunement.

No Weapon Enhancements, so the Enhancement Sphere functions as normal.

@Fury of the Tempest: I'm almost done tinkering with that archetype I was telling you about.

Quick work, looking forward to seeing it tomorrow or later today!

@Fury of the Tempest: Oh you don't need to worry about that, it's going to be specifically for the Legendary Kineticist and will be compatible with many- although not ALL- third-party elements.

Perfect, sounds like it will fit my needs exactly!

@Fury of the Tempest: Yeah, Scion is one of the few Spheres archetypes that feels... overcooked, I guess is the word? It definitely guts the core class of way too much of its identity and makes it kinda lame in my book. Give me up to two days to tinker and you should have a shiny archetype in your hands that is a far more loyal translation of the Kineticist to spheres. I already have ideas that can fix that the concept.

Hmmm, fair enough. Here's hoping the new Archetype works with Legendary Kineticist, or some of the 3PP elements, but I'll look forward to seeing what you make regardless!

Yeah, those racial balance options you mentioned don't really jive with me, honestly.

Kitsune are something I can imagine, yes, but only from Risur, Elfaivar, Ber, or parts of the Yerasol Archipelago.

Understandable, I'll poke around the Adventure Past Guide some more to help get better ideas of what I might end up making.

Hmmm... what's the status on the Kineticist here? It does have a Sphere Archetype, but that's very limited in what it can work with, basically no synergy with any other 3rd Party Content (and a Kineticist without its 3rd Party Content is, much sadder), and even if you play a Scion... it still gets its own wild talents and stuff?

So, yeah. What's the thoughts on potentially playing a Kineticist in this game? Still toying around with what I will play, but knowing where my favourite class stands would be nice.

Also, about Races. Did you know Diamond Recreational Studio, basically Drop Dead Studo 2.0 have a Free Book focused on Racial Parity/Balance? Though admittedly, the main way is basically saying 'Every race can chose their ability score modifiers and gets a bonus feat & weapon discipline' which does take away some of the specialness of it the races.

Aside from that... are Kitsunes a potential fit for the game, or don't really fit the fluff/vibe?