Lirya's page

The base damage still requires that you move them into the wall (meaning if the wall wasn't there, they would now be in the space occupied by the wall or beyond it), requiring a base distance of 5 ft. moved beyond the point where they were adjacent to it.

I looked up the answer on discord and it is clearly wrong.

You may make a trip combat maneuver against the target as a free action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you possess the Hammer talent, a successful trip allows you to use the ground to deal damage as if it were a wall

The relevant part here is that you get to treat the ground as if it were a wall. Since it doesn't say anything else you obviously have to otherwise follow the rules outlined in Hammer as long as that is possible.

As long as you have martial focus, whenever you would bull rush, drag, or reposition a creature into a space occupied by a wall, creature, or object no more than one size smaller than the creature, the target of the maneuver stops its movement in the adjacent space and both the creature and the wall, other creature, or object suffer bludgeoning damage.

...

This damage is increased by the listed amount again for every 5-ft. square the creature would have traveled beyond the wall, other creature, or object.

So hammer requires you to move the creature into a wall. This requires at least 5 ft. of movement beyond the square next to the wall (as moving them adjacent to the wall isn't enough).

This means if you first resolve all the movement and then apply drop they will only end up prone on the ground without the forced movement left to push them into the ground and thus not take any damage from Hammer.

The argument in the spheres discord was that the timing requires you to resolve the whole bull rush before you get to apply the manhandle, but this is wrong.

Determine Success: If your attack roll equals or exceeds the CMD of the target, your maneuver is a success and has the listed effect.

When you successfully perform a bull rush, drag, reposition, or overrun combat maneuver (assuming the target decided to block you and did not simply move out of the way), you may apply the effect of one (manhandle) talent you know to that creature.

The key here is that the combat maneuver is a success when you make the CMB roll and then you apply the effects, giving the normal effect of the combat maneuver and the manhandle the same timing. Effectively the manhandle is just another effect from a performing successful combat maneuver.

So my understanding is that if you don't "save" any distance to use with drop, you don't get to deal any hammer damage.

I can't say I am very confident in my ability to post regularly enough, but here I am.

Lirya
Female Human Incanter 5
Neutral Good Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +8; Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 21, touch 14, flat-footed 19 [+2 Dex, +4 Armor, +2 Shield, +1 Natural, +2 Deflection]
hp 36/36 (5 HD; 5d6+10)
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +6
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee Touch +1
Ranged Touch +4

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Magic
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Caster Level 5; MSB 5 (7 Light); MSD 16 (18 Light); Concentration +10 (+12 Light)
Drawbacks Focus Casting, Magical Signs, Somatic Casting x2, Verbal Casting; CAM Int
Spell Points 12/15
Divination Sphere
Light Sphere - CL 6; DC 18; Duration Concentration/1 min. per caster level; Range (Medium, 160 ft.);
Talents (Bend Radiance, Dancing Lights, Dual Light, Intensity Control, Irradiance, Revealing Light, Searing Light);
Protection Sphere - CL 5; DC 17; Duration Concentration/1 round per caster level/1 hour per caster level; Range (Close, 35 ft.);
Talents (Armored Magic, Distant Protection, Energy Resistance, Greater Barrier);

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Statistics
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Str 8, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 21, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +1; CMD 15
Feats Improved Initiative, Extra Magic Talent x4, Defiant Radiance, Searing Brilliance
Skills Knowledge (Arcana, Dungeoneering, Planes, Religion)[5] +13, Knowledge (Engineering, History, Local, Nature)[1] +9, Linguistics [1] +9, Perception [5] +6, Spellcraft [5] +13, Stealth [5] +7
Traits : Reactionary, Magebreaker
Languages Common, Celestial, Elvish, Dwarf, Giant, Draconic, Halfling
SQ (Special Qualities, i.e., your various powers and abilities that don't fit elsewhere - just the names)
Other Gear +1 Orb of Light, +1 Cloak of Resistance, +2 Headband of Vast Intelligence,
+1 Amulet of Natural Armor, 1 500 gp
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Special Abilities
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Glow Cause an object, creature, or point in space within medium range (160 ft.) to glow for 1 minute/caster level. If you select a point in space you can move it 60 ft. each round as a free action. The glow produces 20 ft. radius of normal light and increase the light level by one step to a maximum of normal for 20 ft. beyond this.
Create brigt light for concentration or 1 minute/caster level with a spell point. The bright light extends any distance up to 40 ft. + 5 ft./2 caster levels (55 ft.) and you can remove up to three 5-ft. cubes of bright light.
Dual Light Spend 1 spell point to apply two light talents to a single glow. You can place the same light talent twice but you must pay any spell point cost for both talents.
Irradiance When you cause a target to glow, you may choose to make it sickened. By spending a spell point to create bright light, all creatures in the bright light must make a Fort save (DC 18) or be nauseated for 1 round. They must save each round and are still sickened on a successful save.
Revealing Light You may spend a spell point to create bright light that reveals all invisible creatures and objects.
Searing Light All creatures in the brigt light suffers 6 fire & 6 untyped damage each round. Double the damage against Undead, Oozes, and creatures harmed by daylight.
Wards Wards are centered within close range (35 ft.) and can have a radius of up to 35 ft. They have a duration of concentration, or you can spell a spell point to have it last 1 round/caster level. Wards remain in the location they are created.
Barrier Create a wall around your ward perimeter or in a flat plane that must begin within close range (35 ft.) and cannot extend beyond medium range (150 ft.) that consists of five 10-ft. squares.
Either way, the barrier has 9 hit points and a break DC of 17. The hp is renewed each turn as long as you concentrate. You can spend a spell point to increase this to 50 hit points and a break DC of 27, but if you do so the hp cannot replenish.
Energy Resistance Choose fire, cold, electricity, sonic, or acid. Any of that damage type dealt within the ward is reduced by 10 + Cl (15).
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Lirya must an orb as her implement to focus her magical energy properly. When she channels a sphere ability, the orb lights up with symbol of the sphere she is channeling. If she does not have a proper implement, then she has to contend with a DC 20 + 1/2 CL concentration check as she creates a makeshift sphere of light to serve as her focus.

It is worth noting that Sneak Attack should work with Shove, as long as the target is flanked/denied Dex to AC.

"Whenever a creature’s attempt to initiate or maintain a grapple or swallow whole attempt against you fails, or when you choose to release a grapple against an unpinned creature, you may make an attack of opportunity against them. Ending a grapple initiated with the grab universal monster ability does not grant you the same leverage as other uses of this ability and the attack granted for ending such a grapple can only be taken as a swift action instead of an attack of opportunity."

This looks good to me. You are probably right that this combination is unlikely to actually break anything outside of theorycraft, but getting enough buffs to hit on a 2 and gaining the ability to reroll 1s is certainly possible. Especially if you are part of an adventuring party.

Just because you can do similar broken chains in Pathfinder doesn't mean we shouldn't try to root out broken chains in SoM. The issue here is you can produce a chain of AoO that doesn't end until you run out of AoO. As long as the combination exists the accuracy problem can be solved.

One example, be a Conscript with the +Sphere Caster specialization (4 points) and Maneuver Training (1 point). Use your magic talents to gain the Alteration Sphere (Greater Transformation + Size Change + Tentacles + your favorite form). You now get Size bonus to Str, Grab, and a full SoM progression with all the BAB, CMB and Talents needed to excel.

This problem should be solved, preferably by making Grab incompatible with Slip and Strike to prevent "infinite" loops.

My understanding is that Extra Combat Talent can be taken by a character who doesn't have a SoM progression, gaining a Sphere + the ability to use Martial Focus.

A blaster wizard with Core + APG + UM should be perfectly viable (as in, able to melt most opposition), as Cross-blooded Sorcerer dip + Spell Specialization + Admixture sub-school + Metamagic + Spell Perfection at high levels should keep up fine for the most part. Everything beyond that is for the most part overkill.

Honestly, if I got Whirlwind Attack without prerequisites. I would rather be enlarged with a reach weapon and have lunge, power attack, dazing assault, and combat reflexes than have combat expertise, dodge, mobility, and spring attack.

As for cleave, it can be great if you often fight multiple weaker enemies. Personally I find the feat cost of dwarf-cleaving to be too great.

I thought Whirlwind Attack was on the top 10 list of most taxed combat feats in pathfinder.

I can't give a specific date yet, but everyone's goal is to get the next playtest up and running ASAP, so we should have an update on that in the near future.

This sounds perfect for some temporary replacement PCs that will be needed soon. The party in my Spheres of Power campaign managed to split in half where 2 are stuck on Celestia while the other 2 are stuck on the Prime Material.

I am really looking forward to seeing the Conscript.

I was doing a simple class DPR comparison recently. By level 8 many martial classes seem to be right above 100 to about 138 (in the case of the barbarian). Admittedly, my calculations didn't take nat 20s, nat 1s, or misses into account. (this definitely caused a skewed result for unchained rogues who were dual wielding, who are looking at something close to 180 on a full attack with average damage and no misses)

I don't know how you reached that high numbers, but using Elite Array + normal WBL I think only really maxed out natural attack builds or heavily buffed ones come anywhere close to this Striker. It is too much and some of these options need to be nerfed.

Death Combo: Fiery Offense +2 + Set Up Strike + Brutal Strike + Launching Counter + AoO + Exploited Opening

DPR vs. AC 24: 177.06 (no brutal strike: 146.66); No actual falling damage is included
DPR vs. Immune to Falling, AC 24: 140.96 (no brutal strike: 110.56)
Note: Vs. immune to falling you can easily make the Counter Punch Impaling as you
hit on a natural 2 anyway with that attack.

Chance of Blind vs. Fort +11: 38%

I was looking at some math for the Striker, and with Alternative Unarmed Training, Improved Critical, Deadly Hand, Finesse Training, Heavy Arms Training, Launching Counter, and Set Up Strike (and 8 talents in Boxing + Open Hand) I can get above 140 DPR (against enemies that can fall) with a 10th level elite array character.

140 DPR is enough to 1-shot a typical CR 10 monster according to Monster Creation, and it is way more damage than typical martial characters are able to pull off.

I think especially allowing a x3 crit multiplier to stack with Deadly Hand, the +2 accuracy from Equipment Sphere, and the damage dice increase from Heavy Arms Training should be considered for nerfing. There are some similarity with PoW Broken Blade where various unarmed damage increases that individually looked acceptable. However, when each of the factors in the damage calculation grows the end result grows exponentially due to them all being multiplied with each other.

Heavy armor is not inherently better than light.

This is wrong in pathfinder. In addition to reducing MAD, you gain +1 AC each time you upgrade how heavy your armor is (chain shirt 4 Dex + 4 Armor = 8, breastplate 3 Dex + 6 Armor = 9, full plate 1 Dex + 9 Armor = 10).

However, I agree that the equipment tax needs to be kept low. All the classes should be playable without spending talents for proficiency and all of them should want 1-2 talents (but never more than 2) for proficiency.

For actual changes, I think the Blacksmith should be proficient with Shields, and the Paragon should lose heavy armor and gain tower shields.

With the large amount of accuracy and damage buffs the Blacksmith has, they can afford to be a bit MAD, they have Smithing Insights that improve shields, and they don't need 2h power attack to deal acceptable damage.

The Paragon still needs Shield Sphere + Tower Shield Adept before tower shields become superior to heavy shields. Some Paragons may want to use Heavy Armor + a Polearm instead of shields, but that is still only 1 talent away.

Here are a couple of Strikers. Both 10th level with Elite Array.

Here is a new and updated post/version of my 10th level dwarf blacksmith, built taking options that felt like they make sense for a dwarf using the elite array and without any WBL advantage for having crafting feats.

1) Replace the base Imp. Sunder ability with the option for the Berzerker to rage for a number of rounds equal to 1 + 1/2 BAB (rounded down, minimum 1) as a swift action, after which he's fatigued unless he expends his martial focus. Means he's got more ways to burn his focus, but we have some ideas for that if we run with this idea.

2) Let Dedication to the Berzerker sphere remove the normal rage restrictions on skill checks and such, but only for the rage granted by the berserker sphere. This lets you have the kind of focused berserker, Moment of Clarity thing going on and could be very useful for classes like the Blacksmith and Troubadour.

3) Change the battered condition so that it applies a -2 penalty to the opponent's CMD and prevents them from taking attacks of opportunity normally provoked by combat maneuvers. This makes the battered condition something that both promotes martial versatility and aids the party without adding an additional AC penalty to a system that has a lot of accuracy boosters already available.

Rage is incredibly strong if you have abilities that require saving throws as the bonus stats affect the DCs. Meaning if you want to be able to make enemies confused by running in circles around then you better rage first.

I think giving out "Improved Sunder" is fairly thematic as berserk is often associated with smashing things. Also if Spell Sunder is in this sphere then the base sphere should probably allow you to sunder without provoking.

The Exertion abilities already provide a psudo-rage flavor by burning Focus/Fatigue for super-strength special effects.

For the dedicate ability I would like a defensive or utility type ability. This is actually one place SR could work (sort of like Superstitious for the Barbarian). As a dedicate it can be turned on and off as a swift action, and it gives the allies or enemies doesn't matter they can all go to hell kind of feel. Alternatively I would look at a Die Hard/Fearless type of effect.

Armor Maintenance and Sharpen Weapons are probably the go to effects, especially if you have 1-2 armor wearing and weapon wielding allies.

The rest are really good if you have knowledge of specific threats in advance (say, Polish is amazing if you are going Beholder hunting).

I kind of want to build a Dwarf Blacksmith to see what it would look like. But I think I would prefer for the dwarf to pick up heavy armor from the Equipment Sphere, defensive abilities from the Shield Sphere, and use a weapon based sphere for attacks. (so all spheres that haven't been previewed yet).

Shieldsmith and Master Shieldsmith would be used to gain basically a free shield bash when performing a full attack. Between Sharpen Weapons, Penetrating Blows, and Practiced Power I think attack and damage might be good enough even with a 1h weapon and slightly subpar strength.

Boxing [Dedicate] with Shoulder Roll and Surprise Counter combined with Open Hand with Deadly Hand, Snap Kick, and Sweeping Kicks looks quite sick. Then again, 7 talents is a fairly heavy investment into unarmed fighting styles.

While the critical threat increase from Boxing [Dedicate] says it stacks with everything, is the increase calculated before or after Improved Critical? Also, Deadly Hand doesn't say anything about how it interacts with Improved Critical or similar effects.

One question did occur to me; will there be anything in SoM to allow sphere combatants to learn combination attacks of some kind? Individual comboing is obviously the priority, but I was just curious if it might be an option for a pair of Conscripts that have walked through hell together to combine their acquired skills for a special attack.

I cannot say for certain, but I imagine a pair of conscripts with teamwork feats like Coordinated Charge, Seize the Moment, and/or Paired Opportunists could trigger any number of talents on each others turns for special combo attacks.

Since the system is supposed to build upon the normal combat rules, features like "use an attack action at the end of a charge" or triggers like performed a successful charge/AoO against opponent with circumstance X seem likely.

Personally, I think the most natural niche for Crossbows would be to let them work well for standard action sniping. Especially for people who do not want to invest feats into archery, but rather use it as a backup weapon.

Buffing the archery full-attack doesn't sound desirable to me, and 5 levels of Bolt Ace already makes Crossbows viable in that regard.

On the other hand that sounds exactly like a situation of "they both swing their swords, there's a brief flash during which you can't see anything, they've passed each other and both seem fine, then one falls down".

This has to be a possible outcome somehow.

Backer #46

Here is an Int-based Incanter focusing on the Light Sphere with a slightly cleric-like feel. She doesn't quite provide the healing and condition-removal expected of a cleric, but has a fairly good offense using Light Sphere instead.

While her status effects suffer from mostly being Fort negates, Light means you target a massive area and the effects are fairly party friendly. Also due to Dual Light and Searing Brilliance, her damage option (that comes online at level 5) is quite solid.

I am pretty sure nothing like that exists. Do be careful with this kind of effect however, as some Spheres don't care much about caster level (Life Sphere scales almost purely by the number of talents taken, and several of the good Divination and Fate sphere talents have the same effect regardless of caster level).

The martial warlord just isn't an archetype pathfinder supports. Your best bet is to refluff a Bard, Investigator, or Inquisitor.

Alternatively you could look at 3rd party options like the Warlord from Path of War.

Here is a Warlord class I swiftly threw together. It is (or at least looks) way overpowered compared to normal martial classes like the fighter, but it shouldn't break any math. Any spellcaster optimized so far as to break the game would laugh at it, and in a decently optimized party of Wizard/Cleric/Druid/Warlord the main concern is likely if it can keep up with the rest of the party.

A conductive weapon is able to channel the energy of a spell-like or supernatural ability that relies on a melee or ranged touch attack to hit its target

Sphere abilities from Spheres of Power are not spell-like or supernatural abilities, so they cannot be used with the conductive property.

Wow... so by pathfinder RAW you can no longer "Cease concentration on a spell" while nauseated since that is defined as a free action.

Skill Used in Creation: Spellcraft or Craft (armor).

Skill Used in Creation: Spellcraft, Craft (bows) (for magic bows and arrows), or Craft (weapons) (for all other weapons).

Seems to me like the craft skill allowed with each crafting feat is specifically called out, so Master Craftsman (weapons) + Craft Magical Arms and Armor only allows you to craft weapons, Master Craftsman (bows) is needed for magical bows and Master Craftsman (armor) is needed for magical armor.

Take a look at the spell Imprisonment. It is not a "lol, I killed the tarrasque spell", but this isn't about combat. It is about the ability to seal unkillable things away for 1 000 of years so that the next adventuring group has a "sealed evil in can" to unleash upon the world.

As others have said, once teleport is a thing (so 9th level), it isn't that difficult to teleport to Absalom (or a metropolis of your choice) and visit a wizard college to fill up on all your extra spellbook needs. Apart from that, evil wizards are quite common in paizo APs and scrolls are frequently used as loot.

As for Arkalion, he has a 20% or so chance of becoming a normal wizard after a Disjunction (which honestly only is a slight improvement). Mind Blank + Invisibility has a fair chance of keeping your location well enough hidden for you to cook up a plot to make that stick (I suggest wishing in an army of gated Pleroma Aeons or alternatively Simulacrum of those if gating them is inconvenient, 21 simulacrum have a 90% or so chance of dropping his spellbane and thus ALL the buffs).

If you want, you may play around with this typical 10th level Wizard who is much more interested in adventuring with her friends than fighting 1v1 duels. She has +25% Wealth but Scribe Scroll and Craft Wondrous Item should cover that. In a typical in game setting, the idea is to just tag along with the group and solve the problems they ask you to solve (and not any other, BMX Bandit should feel free to show off with his awesome BMX skills as long as he is convinced his plan will work). Spell Slots marked with ? are left open so that Lirya can fill them with 1 minute of study when she needs something specific or after a combat to fill up on spells that seem useful.

Disagree. The hunter has a much better spell list to play with than the inquisitor, the inquisitor doesn't gain bonus tricks for their AC, have less teamwork feats than the hunter, and slower access to Animal Focus and Raise Animal Companion.

Granted the Inquisitor is more powerful individually with bane, but the Hunter's companion is more powerful and they have better ways to buff it.

They are about equal in overall power, and which one is "better" is really just a matter of personal taste.

Except the Sacred Huntsmaster can by RAW select feather subdomain to advance the animal companion at double speed (the feature specifies it stacks levels if you get an animal companion from a different source, class feature and domain ability must surely be different sources?).

Note that RAI is probably that you use the rules for animal companion + animal domain specified with the Divine Hunter archetype (Hunter), but they didn't change the Sacred Huntsmaster in the errata so I guess it is legit.

While the default sphere abilities are not "spells", they are even more similar to spells than spell-like abilities.

Sphere abilities have a spell-level (1/2 the caster level used rounded down), they provoke attacks of opportunity unless cast defensively, they can have components (depending on the drawbacks of your magical tradition), they allow for SR, metamagic can be applied to them, and sphere abilities can be counterspelled.

Finally, it is implied in the sphere sorcerer archetype that at least some sorcerer bloodline arcana apply to sphere abilities. And due to how bloodline arcana are worded, that requires sphere abilities to count as actual spells.

Also, you can create actual "spells" if you use the advanced rules for spellcrafting.

In general, if I were to GM I would rule that sphere abilities count as spells for the purpose of all paizo material that can be applied to spells. But if a GM wants to be strict, then sphere abilities is an alternate magic system that does not fall in under the categories spell, spell-like, supernatural, and extraordinary.

As a Mageknight, consider getting Mystic Maneuver and later Time Shift to use your favorite combat maneuver as a swift/free action with a large bonus to your CMB. This becomes amazing at 11th level, as you can spend a few spell points to reliably shut down enemies using Dirty Trick Master, but it is always a good ability to have.

As a 1/2 caster, you want to focus on spheres that give you a nice benefit without requiring a high caster level. Alteration Sphere + Size Change talent allows you to grow large, or huge at 10th level while Illusion Sphere + Invisibility + Lingering Illusion gives you 1 min/caster level greater invisibility (except with a very limited bonus to stealth). Divination Sphere, Fate Sphere, and Warp Sphere are also great for grabbing a few talents that open up really good abilities regardless of CL.

You should probably use some sphere specific drawbacks to front load your magic talents, and some general drawbacks to get more spell points to fuel your magic and combat maneuvers.

I don't remember Quick Ben or most of the other mages from Malazan using much besides magic. Though others, like Anomander Rake (who actually might be using both gestalt and mythic), seemed to enjoy murdering people with a sword when he didn't just polymorph into a dragon or play at being a high mage.

Playing a mage who eschews armor and weapons to focus purely on spells should ideally be a viable concept, just like being a warrior who doesn't rely on magic should ideally be a viable concept.

Some threats like ancient dragons, spellcasting monsters, and outsiders will likely be tougher to deal with without 9th level casters. But avoiding the world shattering full caster power is likely worth it.

Readying an action doesn't require or change initiative -- only the readied action going off affects initiative. So yes, by the time the action triggers, you're rolling initiative, but it's not at all necessary before then.

Readied Action is a special initiative action. You cannot perform a special initiative action without first being in initiative. So yes, it does require initiative.

Edit:

Special Initiative Actions

Here are ways to change when you act during combat by altering your place in the initiative order.

If you ready an action "If that suspicious guy attacks me I will cast Hold Person on him" and then when that guy attacks, HE rolls initiative and gets a number that tells him when (in the surprise round) he can attack. That's his initiative and it is (now) also yours - you'll go on the same initiative count and act immediately ahead of him, in the surprise round because you were ready.

It doesn't work this way. If Player1, Player2, and Player3 meets NPC1, NPC2, and NPC3, and they all consider each other suspicious and ready actions to attack each other (a very likely scenario if you rule the way you do), then that leads to the creature with the lowest initiative from the team that did not trigger the chain of readied actions to go first.

That the creature with the lowest initiative (that is, the worst reaction) goes first is utter nonsense and luckily not how the rules work.

This ignores the fact that the NPC readied an action.

You cannot ready an action outside of initiative order. If you can, then both parties can. And that leads to only stupid results that do not make sense.

Edit:

Readying an Action: You can ready a standard action, a move action, a swift action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, anytime before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character's activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action. Your initiative result changes. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

As you can see, a readied action changes your initiative. And you cannot change your initiative before you have an initiative.

When people are just standing there talking, they are not "combatants" and they certainly are not aware of any "opponents".

If some assassin sneaks up through the bushes, unspotted, and takes a shot at one of the talkers, then clearly they were unaware of that opponent and there is a surprise round. Obviously.

But if one of the talkers decides to suddenly attack the other one, without warning, then that other talker is unaware that he even has an opponent and so is clearly, by the rules, "unaware of his opponent" at therefore will be surprised while the attacker gets a surprise round.

In short, there are more possibilities that fall under the definition of "unaware of their opponents" than the simple obvious case of not having seen them.

Once one of the parties involved attempts to perform a hostile action all the talkers are combatants. If everyone is aware of each other (which is usually the assumed situation), then there is no surprise round. If the creature who declares his hostile action does so while attempting to deceive everyone else that he has no hostile intent, then you resolve this with a Bluff check opposed by the Sense Motive of everyone else present to determine who manages to see through the subterfuge. Those who succeed their Sense Motive check are not surprised, while everyone else can be ruled as unaware of their opponent. Finally, everyone rolls initiative to determine the order of action, and everyone who acts in the surprise round is aware that the person who declared a hostile action is initiating hostilities. However, the rule that each creature is flat-footed until they get their first action in combat applies, so it is possible for someone to get the drop on the creature who initially declared a hostile action.

In the opening post, it is clear that both the BBEG and the Player who wanted to cast Create Pit are aware of each others hostile intent. As such they have to roll off using initiative to determine who acts first, this is how none of the parties involved is doomed to death before they start. The one with the best reflexes gets to shoot first.

No one was treating this BBEG as an opponent. They are not even aware that this was an opponent as characters, because they were meta-gaming the hell out of this. The only player that could act aggressively (due to the fact that the others were under the effects of calm person) is this particular player. Due to the overall tone though he was not.

If only Player1 and BBEG are aware that hostility would soon be initiated, then they get to roll initiative to determine who goes first. This is a surprise round if there are other people present who are surprised, or a normal round if nobody is surprised. The call for initiative happens as soon as one of them declares a hostile action (Player1 declaring that he casts Create Pit), and the one of them that wins initiative casts his spell first, the other is flat-footed (because he reacted slower) and cannot perform immediate actions until it is his turn.

The best thing to do is just tell them, straight up: The golem sees you [/i]but you don't know that[/i]. Roll Initiative.

This.

If the golem wants to play the waiting game, you should wait with calling for initiative until someone wants to perform a hostile action (and the players do not have to be informed that the golem has spotted them until one of them does so, though I might ask for a Sense Motive check to realize that the golem has spotted them). But the players have to be informed if they have a surprise round or not, as once hostilities begin the characters will be fighting to the best of their ability no matter whether they think they got the drop on their enemy or not. So fooling them into thinking they have a surprise round is metagaming and cheating your players out of their move actions.

Option A:

Player1: I try to Bluff this guy.
GM: The NPC seems to sense your motive; he keeps talking.
Player1: I cast a Pit under him. Surprise!
GM: The NPC was suspicious and had readied an action, he begins casting something.
Player1: I cast Emergency Energy Sphere.
GM: Done. OK, let's resolve the NPC's spell, then everyone roll Initiative...

Option B:
Player1: I try to Bluff this guy.
GM: NPC seems to sense your motive. Everyone roll Initiative.
Player 2: Why? Sense Motive doesn't cause a combat.
GM: I know, but everyone has to roll Initiative anyway.
Player3: 24
Player4: 18
Player2: 15
Player1: 13
GM: OK, Player3, what do you do?
Player3: Is anything happening?
GM: No, the NPC is still talking.
Player3: I guess I keep listening.
GM: OK. Player 4, what do you do?
Player4: Uh, I keep listening too.
GM: Player2?
Player2: I guess I keep listening too.
GM: Player1, are you listening too?
Player1: No, are you kidding? I'm the disruptive CN d00d. I'm just playing my toon, man, but he's CN, so I gotta trash your narrative. I can't help it, it's what my guy would do. I cast Pit under him. Surprise!
GM: The NPC was suspicious and had readied an action, he begins casting something.
Player1: I cast Emergency Energy Sphere.
GM: Done. OK, let's resolve the NPC's spell...

Both of these options are wrong. For the first example, you cannot ready an action outside of initiative. For the second example, you should never roll initiative before combat actually begins. As such, the correct way to resolve the situation is as follows.

Player1: I try to Bluff this guy.
GM: The NPC seems to sense your motive; he keeps talking.
Player1: I cast a Pit under him. Surprise!
GM: Due to sensing your motive, the NPC is not surprised. Roll initiative to see who acts first.
Player3: 24
Player4: 18
NPC: 16
Player2: 15
Player1: 13
GM: Ok, as player one grabs for his spell component pouch and starts chanting, you see the NPC starting to cast a spell of his own. Player 3, it is your turn, what do you do?
Player3: I perform action X.
GM: Player4, it is your turn.
Player4: I perform action Y.
GM: The NPC casts Hold Person on Player1.
Since Player1 is flat-footed, he cannot perfom the immediate action required to cast Emergency Force Sphere
GM: Player2, it is your turn.
Player2: I perform action Z
Player1: It sucks, I declared my action first, why do I go last?
GM: I am sorry, but the NPC made his sense motive check so everyone was aware that combat could commence at any moment. As such, nobody gets a surprise round, and initiative determines who acts first. While it was your intent to strike first, everyone else had better reflexes than you this time.

Serious question on a related topic: When I'm writing adventures, there are times I "need" the players to discover something or learn something in order to progress the story/plot. Often the info is best discovered via a skill check of some kind - Knowledge, Perception, whatever. In these situations, rather than picking some arbitrary "low" number, I often set the skill DC to "highest score", meaning the player who scores the highest on the skill check (roll + bonus) succeeds, no matter how low their score ends up being. If only one player tries, they auto-succeed, but I don't tell them that.

Is this the same as what the GM in the OP is doing and does it make me a terrible GM?

I hope it doesn't, but I could see how it "cheats" the players in a similar way as they aren't going against a predetermined DC.

It isn't the same as setting a DC of roll 15+ on the fly, and it is a common technique to use when you want to info dump. But it isn't ideal because you are ignoring if PCs are investing in the skill or not.

A better solution for a knowledge check to advance plot, is to give a range of set DC (like you find in many paizo AP) AND include an NPC Sage or Library where the PCs can automatically gain the information they need to proceed the plot. If the PCs have someone who invested a lot into the relevant skill, they get extra information allowing them to better prepare for the adventure ahead. If the PCs have someone who invested a reasonable amount into the relevant skill, they get to know what they need to know to proceed with the plot, perhaps they will discuss what they know with the NPC Sage/Library, but the PC will have accomplished something compared to the world around him. If nobody can make the skill check, then the NPC Sage/Library will seek out the PCs and inform them of whatever plot important details they have to know to proceed.

For a Perception check that must be met to proceed, assuming that at least one PC has invested into Perception is a much safer assumption. But still, include a few fail safes such as a map indicating what and where the thing they need to find is, or a legend that can be deciphered.

Finally, you can always fall back on one of the classic tropes. Have the BBEG send a kill squad (or multiple kill squads) after the party (he does not realize the PCs failed at noticing/knowing a vital detail). The members of the kill squad can then be aware of the vital detail allowing multiple ways for the PCs to get back on track without being too heavy handed.

I think our boards have a consistency problem. While both the attitude expressed here ("Don't revise challenge levels to oppose PC investments, that defeats the point of investing") and the attitude expressed on other threads ("If your players are optimizing a lot, adjust encounters to keep challenging them") are good and valid concepts that I agree with, they don't exactly mesh, do they?

In theory, I would try use both approaches but with different types of skill checks. If a player is interacting with the world around him, then challenge levels should be independent of how competent the PC is. If the player is interacting with a BBEG, then the challenge should adjusted to be appropriate for the PCs. Just keep in mind that "adjusted to be appropriate for the PCs" doesn't mean hard counter the PCs every single time, and at least to some degree should look like "making adaptions to account for PC strengths and weaknesses, due to divination/spies etc".

In practice, I find making the right call is often difficult, especially since you as GM get to see the result of the PC check before you have time to consider what is a reasonable DC (ie: The PC declares that he attempts something you haven't prepared for, and makes the roll pretty much immediately).

If I have a fetchling shadow sorcerer who built for massive stealth (which I did once build lol) is getting noticed a lot, I am going to get annoyed. And funny thing is, it is easy to know your modifiers roughly. If I am getting a (20 invisibility+ 10 ranks+ 5 dex+ 2 racial+ 5 umbral ability+ 4 stealthy+ 6 skill focus) +52 to stealth before ever even rolling (this is assuming moving. If stationary it jumps to 72) and assuming and average of 10 roll for a total of 62 stealth at level 10 I know that, EVEN IF THEY ROLLED A PERFECT 20, they would need a perception of +42... that is not happening... and if im some ho getting regulairly detected, then imma be.pissed cuz your just making stuff up.out of nowhere...

I would never have random creatures detect you regularly, but perhaps one of the bad guys would be a half-elf Inquisitor with feather subdomain, eyes of the eagle/perceive cues, and see invisibility/acute senses, giving it a +55 bonus to Perception (+4 wis +10 ranks +3 trained +6 skill focus + 20 spell + 5 domain + 2 race +5 item/spell). A half-elf Investigator can easily achieve similar numbers (int based perception, the correct extracts are on your list, free 1d6+2 inspiration instead of the domain bonus).

In a diplomacy example it is a bit less clear cut, but as a GM I would talk to my players and work out how we should run it so that it is fun for everyone as soon as I realize that one of them is a diplomancer. It is no fun if diplomacy solves nothing, but a simple skill roll cannot be the solution to everything either.

When making up DCs on the fly, my opinion is that the GM should focus on how difficult the task is in world, rather than the chance of PC success or failure.

Yesterday I had a Zen Archer who wanted to descend down some stairs swiftly, so he asked to make an Acrobatics check to slide down Legolas style. I quickly ruled in my head that this sounded like a DC 15 task, failure of 1-9 meaning he moves as normal, and a failure of 10 or more resulting in the Zen Archer falling prone instead of moving (As mundane acrobatic trick, this is something a trained hero should be able to do more often than not and I don't want to punish martials for trying do nice things DC 15. As for falling, a normal person should be able to avoid falling more often when realizing the controlled slide isn't that controlled after all, given that there was solid objects within reach to help stabilize). The Zen Archer rolled a natural 1 giving him a result of 8, so while not as swifly and graceful as intended, his natural dexterity and monk training allowed him to catch himself in time and switch back to descending normally.

Is there some way to do a d6 damage/Level blast without spending a spell point (like, say, using your full round action)?

Here is Adam Mayers comment regarding a homebrew talent that allows you to do a d6 damage/Level blast without spending a spell point.

@Blasting Discussion: We were thinking of making it just cut the cost by 1 spell point so it could also apply to blast shapes as well, and making it cost a talent for the reasons mentioned, and because we feel it's similar to talents such as Enhancement's Lingering Enhancement; it's a way for those who want to invest in the sphere to go from 'i can be cool when I want to' to 'I can use this all day'.

So while there isn't any option for blasting all day yet, you can show this part of the discussion to your GM and ask him to houserule in that talent.

Edit: Unless we can get someone from Drop Dead Studios to make an official ruling as to intent, I suppose...

I looked through most of the Ask Me Anything thread on Giant in the Playground, and while other posters have had examples of Sphere builds using orc bloodline to boost their damage with sphere effects, Adam Mayers hasn't commented on that (as far as I could see).

A lot of people seem to be using orc bloodline sphere sorcerer, but doesn't the orc bloodline only work with spells, which sphere magic doesn't provide, and thus should be swapped out for a focus sphere for the +1 caster level? Your DM might houserule it, sure, but by that argument your DM might also houserule it that a kineticist could dip orc bloodline sorcerer (or take variant multiclassing) and benefit with their kinetic blasts...

I mean, I'm all for generous DMs and all, but I don't think it ought to be taken for granted when comparing/contrasting the two classes...

Technically a Sphere effect isn't called a spell, but the spellcrafted effects are actually called spells. And all sphere effects count as having a spell level = 1/2 the caster level (rounded down) it is cast at, and shares basically all the features of spells when interacting with the world of spells. Really, a sphere effect is more similar to a spell than a spell-like ability is, a normal spellcaster can counterspell a sphere effect with a readied dispel magic (spell-like abilities cannot be counterspelled).

The Casting: ability is not typed as (Sp) or (Su), just like normal spellcasting, and in the end a GM would have to make a ruling about what sphere casting is in his world. The default answer the way I see it is that sphere effects = spells for all purposes when interacting with the world around you.

Focus Sphere: Many bloodline arcanas do not function correctly when using the Spheres of Power system. As such, a sphere sorcerer may always choose to replace his bloodline arcana with a focus sphere. The sphere sorcerer gains one sphere of his choice as a bonus magic talent and treats his caster level as being one higher when using that sphere.

When I read this text, my understanding is that many bloodline arcana are not compatible with sphere effects due to the difference between vanician casting and sphere casting. However, many bloodline arcana still function so the player may choose if he wants to replace it or not.

Of the bloodline arcana, every single one in the Core Rulebook says it only works with your spells. If your sphere effects do not count as spells for the purpose of your bloodline arcana, then the above rule text should have said you have to make the exchange due to the other option not being functional. If you assume it works with spells, then the Arcane Bloodline isn't functional due to metamagic no longer increasing the spell slot needed, while all the bloodline arcana that refer to a subschool would need a GM ruling about which sphere effects apply (though it is generally quite easy to spot the equivalents). Assuming it is possible for a bloodline arcana to apply to a sphere effect, then Draconic and Elemental are the two that can be applied as damage types and energy descriptors still exist. Similarly, if it is possible for a bloodline arcana to apply to sphere effects (and my reading of the above rule text says it is), then the orc bloodline arcana applies, as changing your vision and the fact that some spells deal damage is unchanged when you switch from vanician to sphere casting.

A GM would be free to rule however he likes. But once he allows spheres of power, I believe ruling that orc bloodline does not apply to sphere effects should also be called a houserule.

Gah! Elementalists are Cha based casters, so swap Cha and Int in the examples above. This reduces skill points and screws over your spellcraft check for spellcrating, so you will need a +X item of Spellcraft to have a chance at making the DCs.

By the SoP rules you can also dip 1 level in Incanter to get all your casting to your favorite mental stat, and a +1 CL bonus to Destruction, (and 2 first level domain powers), and a couple of extra magic talents.