There's so much more to martial combat than swinging a sword, and so much more to martial characters than waiting for the next fight.
Spheres of Might is a brand new approach to building martial characters in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. From the makers of Spheres of Power, Spheres of Might changes combat into a cinematic experience, replacing boring, repetitive combats with tactical decisions, dynamic exchanges, and a host of options that let martial characters be as fun to play outside of combat as they are inside.
Within this book, you'll find:
8 New Classes — including the armiger, the blacksmith, the commander, the conscript, the scholar, the sentinel, the striker, and the technician.
23 Combat Spheres — granting a host of new abilities based on concept, including alchemy, athletics, barrage, barroom, beastmastery, berserker, boxing, brute, dual wielding, duelist, equipment, fencing, gladiator, guardian, lancer, open hand, scoundrel, scout, shield, sniper, trap, warleader, and wrestler.
Full Archetype Support — both for new classes and old classes, giving a breadth of new options for creating and enjoying martial play.
Legendary Talents — for when games deserve to become truly epic, legendary talents allow games to reach beyond the gritty to truly mythical proportions, including leaping mountains, stealing skills, and bending armies of monsters to your will through sheer force of personality.
Non-Magic Support — with the help of the scholar's knowledge, the blacksmith's skills, and the technician's inventions, Spheres of Might gives a variety of options to facilitate games with little or no magic at all, greatly expanding the stories that can be told with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game without requiring extensive re-balancing.
GM Support — including monsters from CR 1-21, along with guidelines for making the most of cinematic combat and the Spheres of Might system in your games.
NPCs for every new class to spark ideas or drop into a game.
Starfinder Conversion — giving you the information needed to adapt the system to Starfinder rules.
And much, much more!
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Game Masters, Beware! Fun system for Players that is ripe for abuse!
I read the glowing reviews from Endzeitgeist and thought, wow, this will be a neat system for the players. Little did I know that the players would take literally every opportunity to abuse this system that they could. They will take abilities that chop up their action economy and have them acting through and literally on top of every other player’s turn in the game.
The system itself is quite creative. It uses a power points system that moves away from what smarky players like to call “Vancian Casting”. If you want to try a power points modular system, this is a good one to go with. The problem is that this system doesn’t take game balance, IE the literal math upon which the entire game is built, into consideration. It throws balance and game economy out the window.
My recommendation to GM/DMs is to only allow this if you trust your players 100%. It is too easy to abuse, and I’ve had to learn over the course of three campaigns spread through five years that Spheres of Power/Might players will do everything they can to destroy the game balance and make the entire game about them and their single PC.
As for design, I can only give this system three stars. The way the creators take action economy and literally IGNORE it is a pain in the derriere. Taking the notion of acting on top of other players' turns is just a horrible idea. Once may be acceptable, but over and over is not. It's a game designed for a group of people to play and enjoy, not for one player to take control of every other player's turns. It's honestly disgusting.
In summation, an interesting system. Horrible for game balance. Too easy to abuse by power gaming players.
Recommended to avoid at all costs, unless you want your game destroyed. Only let your friends that you absolutely trust play with it. Otherwise, avoid it.
This massive rules-book clocks in at 238 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of ToC, 1 page forewords, 1 page blank,1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 229 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
This review was requested by my patreons.
All right, we begin this massive beast of a tome with a brief piece of introductory prose to get you into the proper mindset, before explaining the basics of the system: Each character gets a series of talents, called combat talents. The number of these is defined by the class, though a feat exists that nets you an additional one. A combat talent may also be spent to gain access to a combat sphere, gaining that sphere’s base abilities and providing access to the sphere-specific talents. If a character would gain a sphere they already possess, you instead choose a talent. Saving throws, if any, are based on DC 10 + ½ BAB of the attacker + the relevant key ability modifier, here called “practitioner modifier.” If a character uses a talent, but has no class feature that defines a practitioner modifier, you default to Wisdom. Multiclass characters may use the higher of the two modifiers of their practitioner modifiers – this is important, since it retains multiclassing viability sans requiring a feat tax. Combat training nets you bonus talents that usually, but certainly not always, mirror the BAB-progression: Full BAB is equal to “Expert”, ¾ BAB-progression to “Adept” and ½ BAB-progression is equal to “Proficient.” This codifies talent-advancement in a way that is independent from the classes and easy to reference, while also providing an elegant balancing tool. Furthermore, characters may choose to exchange feat-progressions they’d gain to instead purchase Proficient or Adept combat talent progression – this, fyi, maintains compatibility with Spheres of Power.
And that’s already the basis of the system! Nope, I am not kidding! It’s that simple and elegant. That being said, there is more associated terminology that we need to define, some of which you’ll know from standard Pathfinder. It is a testament to the foresight exhibited by the authors that e.g. the Attack action as such is properly defined – something that regularly causes confusion on the various messageboards. This step is also important, since some combat talents and e.g. Vital Strike, both modifying an Attack action, can be applied to the same attack. This also properly mentions the interaction, or rather, lack thereof, with e.g. Cleave and similar Standard action-based attack forms. In short: Attack action =/= standard action. The definition here also makes clear that we can expect the book to reward flowing combat, i.e. fights that do not boil down to just trading full attacks and waiting who keels over first. “Special attack actions” should also be noted – they behave pretty much like attack actions, but only one per round may be executed. This is an important balancing caveat.
“Associated feats” denote feats whose effects can be duplicated by specific talents, which also means that the talents can act as prerequisite-substitutions for the associated feats. This is important once we get to the feat-groups that require a significant array of feats to qualify for and retains transparency in that regard without invalidating the feats themselves.
Now, the book does something really clever with action economy to combat the tendency to constantly just trade blows. The book takes a two-pronged approach here. The first would be the battered condition, which imposes a -2 penalty to CMD and also prevents you from executing AoOs. Furthermore, certain talents have different activation actions or effects versus battered targets. The condition may be removed simply enough – the Life sphere’s restore does the trick, as do effects like lesser restoration…and here, things become interesting: You can get rid of it via taking the total defense action. This obviously costs you precious actions, but it makes sense – when we picture being subjected to a battering down, like e.g. in the original Star Wars trilogy or similar media, it makes sense that you have to collect yourself. The second approach here would be the introduction of the martial focus. Any character with a combat talent or a feat granting access, gets the martial focus after a minute of rest or after taking the total defense action. HOWEVER, you may never regain the focus more than once per round. You may expend this focus as part of making a Fort- or Ref-save to have the result rolled treated as 13, and, analogue to psionics, there is a VAST amount of options that is based on expenditure of the focus. Once more, we have an action economy game here, and one that ties into the battered condition: Since you regain the focus as part of the same condition-removing action, this encourages you to actually alternate between combat strategies. Additionally, the base ability use allows you to be more reliably competent versus things that you should be capable of evading.
This modification of basic combat strategies are absolutely amazing, but the book does not stop there, not by a long shot. We also get rules-clarifications for e.g. double-barreled weapons and e.g. improvised weapon damage by size. Similarly, unarmed damage now scales independent of class, which is a huge plus as far as I’m concerned. The number of talents the character has governs the damage inflicted.
Now, the book does not just leave you in the dark regarding actual expressions of martial arts in the game world. You do not have to read and digest the whole book to start using it: Instead, we begin with a massive chapter of martial traditions, some of which are gained as part of the proficiencies of a class. This codifies basically a talent array for you, not unlike e.g. combat styles of the ranger class. One could also see them as thematic suggestions and the book provides notes on designing your own martial traditions. This section, beyond codifying mini-talent-trees, can also be seen as a perfect guideline for your own tinkering. Want to have a shield master? Check the tradition. Steppe rider? Suitable talents noted. I love this.
Now, the book contains no less than 8 new classes. If I analyze these in the level of depth that I usually go for, then this review will become a bloated 30-plus-pages monstrosity, so I’ll be a bit briefer than usual. The first class would be the Armiger, who gets d10 HD, 4 + Int skills, full BAB-progression, good Fort- and Ref-saves, proficient talent progression and may choose a mental attribute as practitioner modifier. This would also be a good time to note that classes here grant e.g. a martial tradition when taken at 1st level – this provides access, obviously, but also prevents multiclass-cheesing. The armiger is obviously inspired by games like the latest Final Fantasy, centering around the idea of customized weapons, each of which grants a sphere and talent – basically, you have combat modes hard-coded into the class, and no, you can’t cheese that with dual-wielding. Only one customized weapon grants its benefits at a given time – though TWFing with them, obviously, is still possible. The class also gains options to cycle through these special weapons, which also improve. The low general progression regarding talents is offset by the modes, making this an inspired class. I really, really adore it.
The blacksmith get d10 HD, 4 + Int skills,full BAB-progression, good Fort- and Will-saves as well as Expert martial progression, with Constitution as governing practitioner modifier. The blacksmith is obviously somewhat equipment-themed and can provide benefits to allies by finetuning their equipment, basically providing 24-hour buffs. They also are sunder/anti-construct specialists, gaining scaling bonus damage and later learning to damage natural armor/weapons. The class also has some serious crafting prowess going on and the class receives an array of smithing insights that can provide e.g. Gunsmithing, damage objects to hurt their wielders, etc. He can also learn to reforge items, which is pretty cool.
The commander gets d8 HD, 6 + Int skills per level, ¾ BAB-progression, good Fort- and Will-saves and Adept martial progression, with Int or Cha as governing practitioner modifiers. Now, there are a couple of really good, commander-style classes out there. As far as favorites are concerned, Amora Game’s battle lord from Liber Influxus Communis, and, obviously, Dreamscarred Press’ Tactician come to mind. Where the former is a leader from the front, the latter is a coordinator defined by a psionic network and psionics. The commander is, chassis-wise, closer to the latter. The commander actually has next to no overlap with both: While tangible and potent benefits for allies are the bread and butter of these fellows, we also have terrain-specific tricks and logistics specialties – these provide really uncommon and intriguing benefits that focus on adventuring beyond combat. This class is fantastic. Love it to bits.
The conscript gets d10 HD, 4 + Int skills per level, full BAB-progression, good Fort- and Ref-saves as well as Expert martial progression, governed by one of the mental attributes. This is basically the “build your own” SoM-class type class. From dual identity to banner to studied target, it allows you to customize options galore and also comes with sphere specializations, basically bloodline/domain-ish linear ability progressions that kick in at 3rd, 8th and 20th level. This is the class for the folks who want a certain skillset be viable sans requiring a ton of multiclassing shenanigans.
The scholar gets ½ BAB-progression, good Ref- and Will-saves, d6 HD, 8 + Int skills per level and proficient martial progression governed by Intelligence. Beyond being capable of providing some healing, we get flashbangs, DaVinci-style gliders, etc. – this is basically the Renaissance ideal of the universal scholar, embodied as a class. Super helpful, versatile, interesting – and perfectly capable of working in even no/low-magic games. That is not to say that this fellow is not viable in your regular fantasy setting though! I really love how the system allows you to play a really smart, versatile non-magical scholar. Another huge winner.
The sentinel gets d12 HD, full BAB-progression, good Fort- and Will-saves, 4 + Int skills per level, as well as expert martial progression, using Wisdom as governing practitioner modifier. The class, unsurprisingly, is the tank of the roster, and is an actually viable defensive base class. It is pretty technical in comparison, but comes out rather nicely. I am not a fan of the decision to be able to use Wisdom bonus instead of Dexterity to govern the one, at least pro forma, bad save of the class, but the capping of class level here prevents low level characters with universally good saves. Otherwise, the focus on challenges, ability to lock down targets etc, is nice., and stalwart, one of my least favorite abilities in all of Pathfinder (evasion for Fort AND Will) is relegated to 9th level. So yeah, I enjoy the class more than I figured I would!
The striker gets d10 HD, 4 + Int skills per level, good Fort- and Ref-saves, full BAB-progression as well as Expert martial progression governed by Constitution. The class is something of a monk-ish specialist, but that, at least in theory, sounds less interesting in the system, with monk-ish powers not more broadly available. Well, instead of just slapping several talents on the class, the striker takes a different approach: It is, in essence, a mana-bar martial. Let me explain: The striker has a resource called “tension” that increases upon taking damage, upon successfully hitting creatures, and upon moving a lot. This builds and may be expended to generate special effects, with the class gaining striker arts, which can provide unique effects or expand the ways in which you can spend the resource. And no, you can’t hoard it out of combat, and it doesn’t have a dumb per-combat mechanic. The playing experience here is really interesting and fun – but from all the classes, this is one that has the most expansion potential. Basically, you have a cool resource-management game in addition to the spheres-engine, making this a surprisingly strategic class to play.
Finally, there would be the technician, who receives d8 HD, 6 + Int mod skills per day, good Ref- and Will-saves, 3/4 BAB-progression as well as adept martial progression governed by Intelligence. This class takes up no less than 18 pages, and it is a BEAST. This is, in essence, the practical inventor to the scholar’s more theoretic approach; the sapper, the golemsmith, the pulp fantasy exploring inventor. It is the most complex class herein and the one that requires the most amount of system mastery, but it rewards you for allowing for an impressive amount of different concepts being realized even before you begin diving into the depths of the spheres system.
Now, the book also contains a ton of archetypes for your perusal: Alchemist, antipaladin, brawler, cavalier, fighter, gunslinger, hunter, investigator, magus, monk, paladin, ranger, ninja, rogue, samurai, slayer, swashbuckler, thaumaturge and even the vigilante get their due here, and that is before we take a look at the archetypes for the new classes, some of which made me smile from ear to ear. Battlefield armigers, for example, modify their chassis to instead make an improbable weapon, like an axe-bladed crossbow or the like. The iron chef blacksmith is a neat take on the battle cook, while the techsmith provides the means to poach in the technician’s playground, while doctor or slime savant scholars make for meaningful tweaks of the base engine of the class. Some of these tie in with the spheres system to a rather impressive degree, with e.g. the adamant guardian changing the focus of the sentinel from challenges to patrols, while another interacts with the berserker sphere. There also would be basically a true neutral paladin-ish variant here. Striker can opt for blackpowder or mutation specialties, and expert shadowed fists, scouts and grappling specialists are covered here as well. Technicians may elect for the mad scientist archetype (yes, you can make shrink rays…), and a suit pilot and basically a mythbuster can also be found here.
The whole classes/archetypes-chapter has been a huge surprise for me. You see, as much as I like Spheres of Power, I’m not the biggest fan of its classes. To me, they always felt like vessels to conduct the sphere-engine, not like truly distinct concepts that would make me go for them on virtue of their own engines. This book does not suffer from this limitation. I absolutely would love to play, in slightly varying degrees, all the classes introduced within this book. There are a TON of amazing concepts here and the engines presented for the classes are actually compelling and interesting BEFORE you start adding the sphere-engine! Furthermore, the classes herein allow you to do unique things that set them apart before diving into sphere-selection. That is a huge plus as far as I’m concerned. Add to that the fact that the classes actually manage to present compelling engines that reward versatile playstyles even before the main meat of the system is in place, and we have what must be called a resounding success.
Using a friends PDF of this atm (waiting for print to be available). Read it cover to cover. The Legendary talents are the funnest part of this book and some of the Martial spheres are a bit weak IMO but overall lot of flavor and good design. Easily a 5 star product, on par /w Ultimate Psionics as far as content quality and a big step up in overall quality from DDS other titles. Waiting for handbooks now :)
Disclaimer: I backed the Kickstarter for this project and followed it since the beginning and participated in the playtesting of this material.
One thing that I would like to say upfront is that if you are ONLY planning to purchase this product in hopes that it will make martials on-par with Tier 1 classes (such as the Wizard, Cleric, and Druid), DON'T. Even if your game has replaced core vancian spellcasting with spherecasting, Spheres of Power is still without a doubt superior to martials using Spheres of Might. It has been discussed at length that it wasn't the mission of Spheres of Might to fix martials in that regard.
What I will say this product does do, is allow you to build martials who are defined not so much by their class, but how you build them, and it all starts with Martial Traditions.
In Core pathfinder, all too often you will find GM's and Players who are under the false impression that in-order to play a specific character concept, you must have levels in a base class or prestige class which matches the name. For example, if you want to play a ninja, you must have levels in the ninja class; if you want to play a samurai, you must have levels in the samurai class; if you want to play a druid, you must have levels in the druid class, etc.
Spheres of Power (the older companion product), throws this notion out the window with the use of Casting Traditions. With casting traditions you can play any spherecasting class and just choose the relevant casting tradition. For example, you could be an Armorist with the druidic casting tradition, a Hedgewitch with the druidic casting tradition, or an Incanter with the druidic casting tradition; it makes no difference.
Spheres of Might, does the same thing for martial characters with the use of Martial Traditions. Which allows you to define your character even further by defining just how your character was trained. Where you a knight? A thief? A gladiator? There are martial traditions for these and 30+ more, while also including guidelines to creating your own. And that is just the beginning.
After picking your martial tradition (which determines bonus starting proficiencies and starting combat spheres), you can further build, define, and expand your character even further by picking up spheres and talents from a list of 20+ combat spheres which cover aspects such as Alchemy, Beastmastery, Dual Wielding, Sniping, and Scouting (just to name a few).
Spheres of Might also includes Legendary Talents (which like Advanced Talents from Spheres of Power) must be approved individually by a GM. Personally, for a number of legendary talents, I feel they were locked behind a specific level unnecessarily. Most notably legendary talents such as Sever, which allows for the amputation of limbs (but is locked behind a BAB prerequisite of +11). The problem I see with this is that it infers that soldiers in war do not experience limb loss unless fighting something with 11 or more HD. It also infers that a medieval surgeons cannot amputate limbs before 11th level. Ofcourse the authors have repeatively given their explanation for such saying that it is because they don't want players to lose limbs before magic is available which can restore the condition (which I feel is a weak argument, seeing that death is a condition that players face at 1st level without affordable means or restoring that condition). However, these small gripes are not ones that I consider strong enough to reduce my rating of this product significantly.
Spheres of Might also offers a wide range of new base classes (and archetypes) which utilize Spheres of Might to its fullest potential, all of which I feel are fun alternatives to a number of Paizo Classes. For example, the Scholar class could easily fill the role of a number of classes (alchemist, bard, cleric, or wizard); whereas the rogue class could easily be replaced by the new Conscript, Striker, or Technician class (depending upon the type of rogue built).
For GM's Spheres of Might includes an array of pre-statted monsters ranging from CR 1-20, aswell as fast and easy guidelines for giving Martial Traditions to monsters.
Personally, I feel that Spheres of Might shines the most when combined with Spheres of Power, as they compliment each other nicely by lowering the power of casters, while raising the utility of martials; and while Spherecasters are without a doubt still superior to Spheremartials, this product does allow a martial to more fully enjoy his contribution to the game table.
Plenty of neat options for a different kind of Martial character
This book offers Martial Options for players that want less full attack and more Action Movie/Anime/Video game imagery. If you play a martial to optimize your DPR and make all the full attacks, then at the very least, the Spheres of Might provide utility, movement, and defenses, as well as something more meaningful than just regular attacks when you can't full attack.
If you want to play like the book wants you to play, with less full attacking and using all your actions to do different things, then you'll probably enjoy this, and they have some fun creative classes to take advantage of the system, as well as some archetypes and easy conversion system for the first party classes.
effects scale well, so your debuffs and bonuses can stay relevant in to the late game.
Very notably, the Guardian Sphere does a decent job of letting people play tanks.
While most of the content seems relatively balanced, there's some things that leave me scratching my head, like the sentinel class gaining evasion across all 3 saves.
All in all, I like this book and the direction it goes, but I'd like it a lot more if there were more options competative with full attacks.
Our biggest issue right now is that there's just so much of it, and we budgeted for a 15k word handbook (which we've already significantly surpassed). There's a lot of great ideas and feedback coming in from the playtest, but we're really trying to drill down to the comments on the stuff that's already there rather than looking for suggestions for more things we can add, particularly since we're really looking at every opportunity to cut unnecessary materials and get the word count down.
Overall though I think there's a lot of really cool stuff that's going to be in Champions of the Spheres and I'm excited to see it become a finished product.
GM Rednal wrote:
Is the Gish book just archetypes, or can we expect to see entirely new classes in it?
Tons of archetypes, additional class features like new scholar knacks and mageknight mystic combats, and three additional classes, the Prodigy, the Sage, and the Troubadour. It is quite literally overflowing with new options.
Just to make sure, you can impale with ANY weapon, right? Not just a piercing or slashing weapon?
The silliest thing I can think of if so is a Battle Poi that's lit. :)
Yeah, it doesn't lock you into a specific weapon type. If your GM questions your attempts to impale someone with a great club, I recommend acting it out until they concede and move on :P
With enough force blunt items can go in anything. This will do wonders with Open Palm to trip someone and Impale to keep them on the floor. Axe Kick too.
EDIT: A conversation with a friend.
Him: "You can't impale the dragon with the halfling!"
I am dismayed to discover that the Technician's Improved Backpack Freezer has no stated ability to inhibit decay.
I've bumped this feedback over to Adam for review, along with some personal commentary about the roleplaying opportunities inherent in carrying a deceased party member or a diseased halfling inside your backpack freezer.
I am dismayed to discover that the Technician's Improved Backpack Freezer has no stated ability to inhibit decay.
There comes a point where the complete implications of something is in the hands of the GM; we can't forsee everything you might do with a freezer to make a pre-ruling on it. that being said, we should have the space to add a line like that to the freezer improvement.
The Darkness Defense Reckless Stance mentions "dedication from the Berserker sphere". Is that still somewhere in this system, or is this a typo-holdover?
The Darkness Defense Reckless Stance mentions "dedication from the Berserker sphere". Is that still somewhere in this system, or is this a typo-holdover?
It's a holdover. We've got it on our errata list so we can get it updated before the print run.
Is there a reason the Conscript's Athletics specialization provides the climb speed first and the swim speed later, or would it be okay to allow some swapping of the two?
I started up a Tradition Workshop thread over in Homebrew if anyone is interested.
I think both the Casting and Martial Traditions are a great way to add a lot of flavor to your setting. I'm putting together a Sphere based campaign now and I'm starting off with an Orc Horde, so I have created a Martial and Casting tradition specific to the Horde. It feels like a small detail but it really helps solidify the image of the the tribe the Players will be fighting and sets them apart from other Orcs.
Is there a reason the Conscript's Athletics specialization provides the climb speed first and the swim speed later, or would it be okay to allow some swapping of the two?
There's some argument to be made that a swim speed has more value than a climb speed, but I don't think it would be too problematic if you houseruled them as selectables.
GM Rednal wrote:
Minor: The Impaler Devil's DC for martial abilities looks a liiiiiiiittle high. I think taking off the first two digits would be appropriate.
Should the Goblin Scholar FCB be bumped up or the Tiefling FCB bumped down?
Based on the other FCBs, Tiefling should probably be bumped down, though I do like it quite a bit. I'm running it by the rest of the team to get a consensus.
I think just the +1/4(maybe +1/3?) to the sulfuric detonation would be fine.
While on the FCB subject, why do Goblins get a Scholar FCB and Orcs don't? Orc might have an Intelligence penalty but at least they are organized in pathfinder.
I think just the +1/4(maybe +1/3?) to the sulfuric detonation would be fine.
While on the FCB subject, why do Goblins get a Scholar FCB and Orcs don't? Orc might have an Intelligence penalty but at least they are organized in pathfinder.
I actually didn't realize that someone had added a goblin FCB for the scholar class until you brought it up here, but I'm going to say it's probably because goblins have a storied history with fire and fireworks in Pathfinder so the class that gets assault firecrackers makes sense having some goblin support.
I've been reading through the Spheres one at a time(except Scoundrel. I don't know why) and now it's time for more questions! :)
Spoiler:
1a) Unarmored Training currently says you lose the bonus if you carry a shield. Should it be use a shield or does having a shield on your backpack make you lose the bonus?
1b) Does Unarmored Training prevent monks(and any other classes that need to be not wearing armor) from using their class features?
2a) Does Gauntlet Shield count as a shield for the purposes of Unarmored Training?
2b) Does it count as a shield for anything in the Shield Sphere besides the Bashing Shield talent, like active defense or the Blockade talent?
2c) Not a question but if the talents are listed in alphabetical order then Gauntlet Shield should come after Garrote Grappler.
3a) Can anything that counts as a weapon be used to make a deadly shot as long as it has an attack roll, like a spell or kinetic blast?
3b) If the answer to the above question is yes, do talents like Hindering Projectiles work with them? It does say "weapon or ammunition" but if the weapon doesn't stick around... (Just making sure on this one. Air Kineticist Sniper seems nasty!)
4) Anyone can answer this. What is your favorite Class/Sphere combination? This can include using Martial Traditions or trading feats(pg 10) on classes that don't get talents naturally.
5) What in the world is Azeem fighting on page nine?
6) Does the augmented unarmed damage from the spheres like Open Hand work with brass knuckles and similar weapons?
1a) In this context, I think "carry" means "use", although since "carrying" a medium or heavy load came after, I think it should probably be clarified. XD
1b) Armor Bonuses do not stack. You get the highest.
2a) I would say anything acting "as a shield" counts as such for Unarmored Training.
Yorha Type 2b) If it's used as a shield, yes.
2c) I noticed that, too. Some Legendary talents seem to be out of alphabetical order as well.
3a) Deadly Shot is limited to ranged weapons.
3b) Not applicable.
4) I haven't decided yet, but I am trying to see if I can make a good whip-based trip/disarm build. XD
5) Something regretting its life choices.
6) If they are still part of doing an unarmed strike, then presumably, yes. Not that you really need things to let you do lethal damage, since that's already provided...
1b) Armor Bonuses do not stack. You get the highest.
That's not what I asked. Monk's don't get their Wisdom to AC if they are wearing armor. Given the name it might seem obvious, but there are people out there that would argue against letting them have an armor bonus.
GM Rednal wrote:
2a) I would say anything acting "as a shield" counts as such for Unarmored Training.
I'm not sure, since it is not actually a shield.
GM Rednal wrote:
3a) Deadly Shot is limited to ranged weapons.
Rays and Kinetic blasts are ranged weapons.
GM Rednal wrote:
6) If they are still part of doing an unarmed strike, then presumably, yes. Not that you really need things to let you do lethal damage, since that's already provided...
I'm asking because it's been a solid no for monks/brawlers when ever something like the brass knuckles has been brought up. I'd like to know if SoM did away with Paizo's "No, gauntlets and brass knuckles don't do monk damage even if a monk wears them".
I've been reading through the Spheres one at a time(except Scoundrel. I don't know why) and now it's time for more questions! :)
Let me see how many of these I can answer for you-
Quote:
1a) Unarmored Training currently says you lose the bonus if you carry a shield. Should it be use a shield or does having a shield on your backpack make you lose the bonus?
You need to actually be using the shield in some way. If it's just loot that you've got in your pack, then it doesn't negatively impact it.
More important though, after some discussion a week or so ago we actually decided to go with an errata entry to allow shields.
Quote:
1b) Does Unarmored Training prevent monks(and any other classes that need to be not wearing armor) from using their class features?
No.
Quote:
2a) Does Gauntlet Shield count as a shield for the purposes of Unarmored Training?
As noted above, this will be a moot point. But since you treat it "as a buckler" then yeah, anything that doesn't work with a shield wouldn't work while using Gauntlet Shield.
Quote:
2b) Does it count as a shield for anything in the Shield Sphere besides the Bashing Shield talent, like active defense or the Blockade talent?
Yes.
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2c) Not a question but if the talents are listed in alphabetical order then Gauntlet Shield should come after Garrote Grappler.
Noted. I'll add that to the pre-print run errata so we can fix that.
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3a) Can anything that counts as a weapon be used to make a deadly shot as long as it has an attack roll, like a spell or kinetic blast?
As long as it can be used as part of an attack action. That would actually mean that most rays wouldn't qualify since they're part of the standard action used to cast a spell, but if it's ranged and you can use it as part of an attack action, whether that involves holding a charge or some other ability that allows you to use it as part of an attack action (like how the kineticist's Kinetic Blade talent specifically says it can be used with attack actions), then you should be able to use it with the Sniper sphere.
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3b) If the answer to the above question is yes, do talents like Hindering Projectiles work with them? It does say "weapon or ammunition" but if the weapon doesn't stick around... (Just making sure on this one. Air Kineticist Sniper seems nasty!)
If it can be used with the base ability then I would allow it to work with the talents. You could fluff it as particulate, burnt or frozen flesh, etc.
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4) Anyone can answer this. What is your favorite Class/Sphere combination? This can include using Martial Traditions or trading feats(pg 10) on classes that don't get talents naturally.
Commanders with Beastmastery. After a conversation with a friend the other day about Rexxar from the Warcraft games, I played around with a half-ogre Commander build that had some trained wolves using the Beastmastery sphere and it's awesome. Commander and Warleader let you coordinate your companions to best effect, and Beastmastery lets you recruit an army of animal minions.
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5) What in the world is Azeem fighting on page nine?
I'm going with albino werewolves enslaved by the iron dragon from the cover.
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6) Does the augmented unarmed damage from the spheres like Open Hand work with brass knuckles and similar weapons?
Not normally, but the Unarmed Training talent can open that up.
So, was looking at the Street Fighter monk archetype, and I noticed a sort of oddity and was wondering if it should be changed:
In the Ki Pool monk feature, it mentions that they can spend a Ki Point to gain an extra attack during a Flurry of Blows. Street Fighters traded out the Flurry of Blows for Flurry Strike
Can the Street Fighter still spend a ki point to get an extra attack, but now during Flurry Strike instead of Flurry of Blows?
They go from 100% bab to 75% bab and get 75% talent progression.
Their bloodline powers are pushed back a few levels and they get spell strike. From what I can see they don't lose anything just get it later.
They lose
will and gets the ability to cast a spell as a swift action if he crits with storm strike. Don't know if this is good or bad depends on crit range and how often you use storm strike.
So you gain a 15 of talents, spell strike and swift action spells sometimes.
and lose 5 bab and +4 to will saves when raging and you get your bloodline stuff later.
So what can you get with 15 talents
1. Critical genius. 18-20 crit chance.
2. Armored Defense. up to +4 CMD (could be more but I think it's based on armorers AC without magic stuff on it.)
3. Armor training to get full plate
4-8. Arcane Armor 4 times so you don't have any arcane spell failure in full plate.
9. Custom Training Get proficiency in some weapons you want to use.
let's change sphere
10. Athletics. Climb. You kind of has a climb speed also, you get free climbing skill ranks. but not the +8 skill bonus.
11. Expanded Training. swim and Run. You now have more or less a swim speed and you are a lot better at fighting under water. you do not gain the +8 swim bonus. and from the run bit, you now have the run feat. and of course, do not forget the free skill ranks in swim and acrobatics.
12. Berserker. lower AC to gain temp Hp could be useful. Also, you can debuff people now.
13. Shatter Earth create a radius 5ft+5/10bab, cone 10ft+5/5bab or line 15ft+10/5bab of difficult terrain as a full round action or a standard one.
14. Shrapnel so we can do up to 8d6+up to 10d6 damage people with our battlefield control as well. Not that the 10d6 extra damage comes from a material with hardness 50 don't know where you find it. +1d6-4d6 is more common.
15. Bone-Breaker. make the old debuff thing better with an extra -1-1/4bab on attack and damage roles.
That's a few things you can get instead of 5 bab. i would say that the sphere talents are worth it every time.
Not the biggest deal, really. I mean, come on, if a person using Sneak Attack is climbing onto a creature that is now full capable of taking it's new pest wherever it wants, attacking it is not the only solution a lot of the time.
If we use an iconic monster, a dragon, the possibilities are flying up really high so it doesn't want to kill you and fall to it's death, breath weapon, spells, and diving underwater/ground to drown/suffocate you.
So, was looking at the Street Fighter monk archetype, and I noticed a sort of oddity and was wondering if it should be changed:
In the Ki Pool monk feature, it mentions that they can spend a Ki Point to gain an extra attack during a Flurry of Blows. Street Fighters traded out the Flurry of Blows for Flurry Strike
Can the Street Fighter still spend a ki point to get an extra attack, but now during Flurry Strike instead of Flurry of Blows?
Yeah, it should be usable with Flurry Strike instead. I'll look into that, see if we can make an update to the archetype.
Zautos' wrote:
Scale Foe
Seams really strong with "The creature is also flat-footed against your attacks."
So no dex to ac and sneak attack all day.
You also have to deal with needing a hand to climb the creature, which limits your combat style choices, and the fact that it leaves a good bit of room for the creature to dislodge you. Just rolling around on the ground is a solid way to dislodge a pesky climber before they have time to make more than one attack, and deal 1d6 damage per size category to them. In the case of something like a dragon, Scale Foe isn't going to help accuracy much and means that you travel with the dragon, including if it decides to dive into a bed of molten lava, underwater, etc.
Obviously there's some variation in effectiveness based on monster type, but you're entering into a situation where the monster retains a lot of control on what happens and when and how it happens.
Vacuum Slice: Is it just the weapon's damage die + Str mod, or would bleed(and similar effects, like flaming or energy drain) also be be applied?
Bleed damage, Power Attack bonus damage, and other damaging effects all still apply, you just can't use the ability for AoE trips or as a trigger for other non-damage effects that key off the attack action.
Or even a youtube video. I don't think it's that complicated, per se, I just want to make sure I'm doing it right, and not making assumptions. I also want to make sure I get it before I try to convince my group to give it a shot. :)
The legendary Open Hand talents, God Hand and Soul Sunder, reference Mythic Fists when I think it is supposed to be Mystic Fists.
Thanks, changed in the errata doc. It's nice getting the chance to change things like this before the print run, make sure we're putting out the best product we can.
