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Oh, I'm not against god wizards at all... as long as it's the PCs opponents, not the PCs themselves :D
Still good to hear that I didn't spend my money for nought (= just for having stuff ^^). I already own a lot of the Drop Dead offerings, so the prospect of being able to actually use them for what I plan to do, makes me an even more happy buyer. Now I only need to actually get me to work on that damned idea I have had in my head for way too long now.
But I digress. So just as another question: Who wrote that introductory tale for SoM, because I really like this stuff?
But I digress. So just as another question: Who wrote that introductory tale for SoM, because I really like this stuff?
Unless I am mistaken, I believe Adam Meyers writes the introductions. I also like the introduction, but I dislike how it constantly switches between narrative and informative texts. I would prefer if they were separated with the narrative story or informative text first, followed by the other.
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EDIT: Quick question: I absolutely adore DDS' Luchador class. How would that work in Spheres of Might?
To a certain extent, when I wrote The Luchador it was kind of a test run for some of the basic system of Spheres of Might. The Luchador was something I put together in part as an example of what I meant when I tried to explain the concept of "cinematic combat" to Adam before it became the design directive of SoM. We also reprinted a couple luchador feats since they had already fixed certain things with grappling and CMD and there was no need to reinvent the wheel.
So overall The Luchador is very compatible, and if the book hadn't already been so dense I would have included at least one luchador archetype in there. The only stumbling block you might run into is that some of the luchador's stable talents were used as the basis for certain Wrestling talents, so you'll want to avoid overlapping them.
Also, since my earlier question appears to have been missed...
Should things that grant a Shield bonus, but aren't actually shields, count for the Shield Sphere?
I thought that Ehn had answered this for some reason, but generally no, unless it has text that says "..this (item, weapon, etc.) acts like / can be used as a shield" or something to that effect. There's a monster talent for using your tail as a shield in SoM for one example, and another example would be the shield cloak wondrous item which says that it can be used "as if it were a masterwork light wooden shield". Essentially, granting a shield bonus alone isn't enough, it needs to say somewhere that it can be treated as or used as a shield as well.
A backer here, and boy was I pleased. Especially a fire breathing true dragon that ain't weak to cold damage, finally! I didn't even expect one to appear in this book...
Anyway, I have questions too.
1. As someone may have already said somewhere else, do the spheres associated with Improvd Unarmed Strike automatically gain its original benefits (always considered armed), even with no mention of it already included in the text?
2. For sphere martials, would you recommend the whole Vital Strike chain as the main source of scaling damage? Or was I lazy and didn't find SoM's own damage scaling methods already in the book?
3. It's a mix of a request and a question; which Conscript Sphere Specialization would reap its class level+1 scaling benefits the most? As such, do the scaling skill ranks for certain spheres and talents also benefit from said feature (21 ranks at conscript 20)?
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A backer here, and boy was I pleased. Especially a fire breathing true dragon that ain't weak to cold damage, finally! I didn't even expect one to appear in this book...
The martial monsters section was something I was very excited to get to work on and something I'm glad we fit in the book :)
Anyway, I have questions too.
1. As someone may have already said somewhere else, do the spheres associated with Improvd Unarmed Strike automatically gain its original benefits (always considered armed), even with no mention of it already included in the text?
Yes. We had some disappearing text there that will be updated before we go to print.
2. For sphere martials, would you recommend the whole Vital Strike chain as the main source of scaling damage? Or was I lazy and didn't find SoM's own damage scaling methods already in the book?
Not every build will need it, but it's generally going to be a strong and anticipated option for a lot of builds, yeah.
3. It's a mix of a request and a question; which Conscript Sphere Specialization would reap its class level+1 scaling benefits the most? As such, do the scaling skill ranks for certain spheres and talents also benefit from said feature (21 ranks at conscript 20)?
Yes. The scaling ranks are also affected by the sphere specialization ability, which makes all the skill spheres strong choices for specialization since this tends to roll down to DCs, effects, and pretty much every other function of the sphere. Dueling and other spheres with damage scaling options like Sniper can also benefit from the faster damage acquisition.
Thanks for the quick answers! Speaking of iron dragons, I found out the great wyrm is missing one extra fully ranked skill (probably due to missing out the inherent bonus), and some places have typos like "kowledge"...
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Thanks for the quick answers! Speaking of iron dragons, I found out the great wyrm is missing one extra fully ranked skill (probably due to missing out the inherent bonus), and some places have typos like "kowledge"...
I'll check that out and get it added to our errata docs so we can fix it before the print run. Thanks for the catch!
Rules for adding SoM to monsters made it in?! *eyes glint and a devious smile appears* goooooood.....l
Along with new and modified monsters covering CRs 1-21! And an entire GM Toolbox section with tips for running and structuring encounters, special martial monster talents, and other handy tools. It's one of my favorite chapters and not just because I wrote a significant portion of it :)
I got to playtest a lot of the monsters we included in the book, and several monsters that didn't end up being included, and it was some serious fun. One of the first martial monsters I threw at my group was a hill giant with the power forward tradition and it really forced the party to get smart about how they needed to handle the fight.
Hi Guys
How many pages is it?
I like using pages to give me an idea of cost per page
Hi Guys
How many pages is it?
I like using pages to give me an idea of cost per page
238
238Hi Guys
How many pages is it?
I like using pages to give me an idea of cost per page
Thank you
With associated feats, if I take the Barrage sphere I get two basic things. First I get PBS then I get the Barrage ability that has Rapid Shot as an associated feat. Do I still need to take Rapid Shot as a feat if I would like to take a Full Attack to take advantage of a Haste spell and the extra shot from Rapid Shot? Or by virtue of having the Barrage sphere I can opt to either; Attack action Barrage or Full Attack with Rapid Shot?
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Reading the Scholar's Glider ability, and the first part of the second paragraph makes it sound like a 6+ level Glider can be used to fly for multiple hours. Yet the next sentence makes it sound like the Glider is limited in uses per day that can't last longer than 1 hour.
Is there something I'm not understanding?
Hmmm, it looks like there was some editing done either for space or clarity that ended up muddying the waters a bit. I'll try and get it straightened out so it reads as it should but essentially it's supposed to work like this-
At 1st level the scholar makes a glider that allows her or an ally to glide and fall safely for up to 1 + Int mod rounds per use. This is single use for an ally, but the scholar can use hers up to 1+Int mod times without breaking it.
At 6th level the glider can now be used to fly up to 30 ft. per round with average maneuverability; we had a minutes per class level clause associated with this that must have been eaten or edited out at some point, but same deal as the normal gliders, this option is single use for anyone other than the scholar while the scholar gets multiple uses based on her Intelligence.
At 10th level the fly speed improves to 60 ft. with good maneuverability and this is where the hours/level duration is supposed to kick in.
So there's two trackers involved- how long each use can last, and how many uses a given glider grants. It's always single use for an ally, kind of like if the scholar was a wizard casting a feather fall or fly spell with a contingency trigger on the ally, while the scholar who created the glider is familiar enough with how it operates to use it multiple times without breaking it.
I'll be having a quick discussion with the group to clarify how we're going to clean this up again for the print version so it both reads and works as intended.
***EDIT***
Here's the new text I proposed for the errata, let me know if this helps clarify function-
The scholar has learned how to construct a basic
gliding apparatus that can be quickly assembled and disassembled
for easy use. It takes the scholar 1 hour to assemble the
glider, and it has a number of hit points equal to the scholar’s
class level, hardness equal to twice her Intelligence bonus (minimum
2), and weighs 10 lbs. The scholar may attach the glider to
her or an ally’s pack or clothing as a standard action; while it is
attached, the character can make a DC 15 Fly check to fall safely
from any height without taking falling damage. When falling
safely, they may make an additional DC 15 Fly check to glide,
moving 5 ft. laterally for every 10 ft. they fall. Allies may use a
glider in this manner once for a maximum number of rounds
equal to 1 + the scholar’s Intelligence modifier before it breaks,
and the scholar can use the glider in this way a total number
of times per day equal to her Intelligence bonus (minimum 1)
for the same duration; any attempt to exceed this usage results
in failure and causes the glider to break, forcing the scholar to
spend an hour building a new one before it can be used again. Only one glider can be attached to a single creature at a time.
At 6th level, the scholar and any ally given a glider are able to fly with a speed of 30 ft. and average maneuverability. The duration that the glider lasts during a single use increases to a number of minutes equal to 1 + the scholar’s Intelligence bonus. In addition to using the glider to fall safely, the scholar can use the glider to fly a total number of times per day equal to 1+ her Intelligence bonus; any attempt to exceed this usage or remain in flight after the glider’s normal duration results in failure and causes the glider to break, forcing the scholar to build a new one before it can be used again. Allies using a glider still suffer breakage after the first usage.
When the scholar reaches 10th level, her gliders instead grant a fly speed of 60 ft. with good maneuverability and may now stay aloft during a single use for a number of hours equal to 1/2 the scholar’s class level (rounded down).
In addition to my Associated Feat question for Cone of Death, Barrage adv talent, does it no longer have the scaling BaB requirement? Being able to take it 3 times pre lvl 10 is amazing and terrifying.
Okay I have a question.
One of the things I adore about spheres of power is that you can just plug and play spheres into any spellcasting class you want barring dealing with specific class features that don't play well with sop.
So how about spheres of might? How easy is it to plug and play a som version of random class that catches my eye?
SoM seems much easier to just blend in than SoP does to me. I still have confusion on how some things work for SoP that I'll eventually need to figure out, but SoM is pretty straightforward for the most part
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In addition to my Associated Feat question for Cone of Death, Barrage adv talent, does it no longer have the scaling BaB requirement? Being able to take it 3 times pre lvl 10 is amazing and terrifying.
I bumped your previous question over to Adam and haven't heard anything back, sorry. I'll bump him again and let him know that this question could use addressing as well since I don't know if that's an intentional update or if something got trimmed for space that shouldn't have.
Okay I have a question.
One of the things I adore about spheres of power is that you can just plug and play spheres into any spellcasting class you want barring dealing with specific class features that don't play well with sop.
So how about spheres of might? How easy is it to plug and play a som version of random class that catches my eye?
SoM is very dippable and accessible. You can simply spend feats on talents, or you can take a feat replacement option to gain a talent progression. Because martial combat is different than magic and isn't so much a subsystem as it is a core part of the game, you can't just trade one class feature out for another (like trading vancian spellcasting for spheres casting and a spell pool), but we did our best to make it as accessible to as wide an array of characters as possible.
@Robert Jordan: Dang, you've found things that need to be updated. Taking barrage doesn't let you make full attack Rapid Shots, and by that logic I guess it should be removed as an associated feat.
For Cone of Death, you should only be able to take that once 'per 5 bab you possess'; we'll add that in our pre-print update.
No problem you guys always deliver. Barrage and Sniper are the two spheres i paid the most attention to during the llaytest, while my wife will be sad about not being able to drop army slaying salvos at level 6 I am glad it was just an editing error.
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So, since it sounds like we're definitely getting a pre-print update... do we have an estimate for when that might be?
(If not, that's also fine. XD I know that sometimes it's hard to give even a rough range until you're sure of what you need to do and how long it'll take. I'm just curious.)
I believe that we're hoping to have both the Champions of the Spheres PDF and the Spheres of Might print option out before the end of December, but of course the amount of corrections that end up needing to be made will inevitably affect that since there's a delay between scheduling the print run, receiving and approving the proof, and finalizing the order, let alone shipping and receiving.
We're definitely working to keep that window between now and the time people have print copies in their hands as narrow as possible while ensuring the quality of the final product though.
Sorry if it's been brought up already, but the talents in the statblocks of sample characters needs another pass. In a majority of cases it's a minor issue where the talent listed doesn't quite match its actual name. For example, the armiger Justyna has Barrage's Vigilante Sharpshooter and Lancer's Opportune Impale, where it should be Impalement, while the blacksmith Blake has Beserker's Leg-Breaker vs. Leg-Smasher.
In other cases it's a little more confusing, where the talent harks back to a name from the playtests: the conscript Aira has Fencing's Create Opening which, I remember digging through the copies I had made of the playtest materials in my trash bin and finding out what its new name was, but it has no obvious reference by which to figure it out.
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Sorry if it's been brought up already, but the talents in the statblocks of sample characters needs another pass. In a majority of cases it's a minor issue where the talent listed doesn't quite match its actual name. For example, the armiger Justyna has Barrage's Vigilante Sharpshooter and Lancer's Opportune Impale, where it should be Impalement, while the blacksmith Blake has Beserker's Leg-Breaker vs. Leg-Smasher.
In other cases it's a little more confusing, where the talent harks back to a name from the playtests: the conscript Aira has Fencing's Create Opening which, I remember digging through the copies I had made of the playtest materials in my trash bin and finding out what its new name was, but it has no obvious reference by which to figure it out.
We're looking into it. Several of the sample characters were created by Kickstarter backers who paid to have their characters featured in the book, so in all likelihood we received their characters, verified them against an older copy of the rules before the post-playtest review phase where some of the talents and names where changed, and marked them as completed, and then didn't catch the changes as they were moved to layout. Regardless of how it happened, we'll work on getting it all cleaned up and run an update ahead of the print release.
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Does anyone else feel like the Gun Kata talent does not live up to it's namesake? I hear Gun Kata and think Equilibrium but can't use the talent to recreate that.
I guess I could use it with a charge, but then I need a specific gun anyway and those are expensive, so at low-levels where it would be great because you only have one attack... you can't use the smack and shoot option.
I think it does just fine really. Cleric John just seems like a high level character beating down, for the most part, lots of low level mooks.
Movie aside, there are invariably going to be some things that work much better in some settings than others, mainly ones where guns are easily available.
To use in a setting like Golarion; start with a class that gives Gunsmithing. (That's the feature that starts with a junky gun, right?)
With Custom Training from the Equipment sphere if you are a race that has Weapon Familiarity and therefor treat an exotic weapon with X in it's name as martial does it count as an Exotic weapon using 2 weapon slots from Custom Training? Or does it count as 1 weapon as it is Martial for your race?
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I think it does just fine really. Cleric John just seems like a high level character beating down, for the most part, lots of low level mooks.
Movie aside, there are invariably going to be some things that work much better in some settings than others, mainly ones where guns are easily available.
To use in a setting like Golarion; start with a class that gives Gunsmithing. (That's the feature that starts with a junky gun, right?)
I suppose my desire for it to be more than a single attack is so you'd actually use it after getting iterative attacks. That seems to be a design choice though. With Sniper it makes perfect sense, but for other Spheres where you want to make more attacks, like Dual Weilding... the most you get is two? Is this to make Barrage(which is awesome but resource intensive) look even better?
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With Custom Training from the Equipment sphere if you are a race that has Weapon Familiarity and therefor treat an exotic weapon with X in it's name as martial does it count as an Exotic weapon using 2 weapon slots from Custom Training? Or does it count as 1 weapon as it is Martial for your race?
It should count as 1 since you treat it as a martial weapon.
I suppose my desire for it to be more than a single attack is so you'd actually use it after getting iterative attacks. That seems to be a design choice though. With Sniper it makes perfect sense, but for other Spheres where you want to make more attacks, like Dual Weilding... the most you get is two? Is this to make Barrage(which is awesome but resource intensive) look even better?
You can stack up multiple attacks, you just don't do a traditional full attack routine. My gun kata monk character from a playtest game used Monk Weapon Training, Gun Kata, and the Dual Wielding sphere to make up to 3 unarmed strikes and one pistol attack off of his main attack action. His normal attack routine was unarmed strike (attack action), pistol attack (swift action), unarmed strike (monk weapon training), unarmed strike (dual wielding), using the last unarmed strike to attempt to trip the opponent. If he tripped the opponent and they provoked an attack of opportunity trying to stand up on their turn, he'd use Dual Opportunity to hit them with two more unarmed strikes.
Then things should be as good as Full Attacking at all levels, yes?
What do you mean by "as good as"? If you mean "deal as much damage with an attack action as a full attack" then that's that not "as good as" that's "better than". Like I showed above, you can get in a really strong multi-hit routine using our system if that's the way you want to go. A character who wants to make a build that gets in a dozen attacks a round can do so, they're just going to be using AoOs and other options to set up the routine.
For an attack action that involves debuffs and such though? No, it really shouldn't be dealing as much damage as a full attack. You're getting the advantage of debuffs, enhanced positioning, personal buffs, and other effects. If you got all that and still dealt as much damage as a full attack, we would have failed in our attempts to make a balanced system. So if you want to make a whole bunch of attacks, you can build to do that, and your damage will be on par with a traditional full attacker (potentially just a teensy bit better than some full attacks since you can more consistently take advantage of your AoO attacks than a traditional combatant). If you're building for a lower number of hits with a larger number of debuffs and abilities, you're making that trade between utility and damage. Generally you're going to finish the fight in the same timeframe thanks to the enemy being weakened and made more vulnerable by your techniques. The other thing is, even if you find yourself in a position where you literally can't debuff or reposition to any greater effect, where the enemy is lying broken and bleeding directly in front of you while surrounded by your allies and all you need to do is finish it, we didn't take away your option to just full attack out if that's the thing you think will work best. A conscript in one of my games took just the Dual Wielding specialization and spent his bonus and regular feats to branch out into full attack TWF options and ended up being ridiculously strong thanks to the fact that he was either moving and making 2-4 attacks with debuff riders, or standing still and dropping 6 attacks in a blender routine.You're always going to have effective and strong options using Spheres of Might, but "effective and strong" doesn't necessarily mean, and shouldn't mean, "always deals as much damage as a full attack".
An idea for a tradition:
Disciple of Andre
Equipment: Rock Toss
Brute
Wrestling
Variable - choice of : Equipment: Unarmored Training, Open Hand: Counterbalance or Barrrom: Barrom Expert (tables, chairs etc).
Wouldn't it be better to name it after Fezzik?An idea for a tradition:
Disciple of Andre
Equipment: Rock Toss
Brute
Wrestling
Variable - choice of : Equipment: Unarmored Training, Open Hand: Counterbalance or Barrrom: Barrom Expert (tables, chairs etc).
That could work. I was sort going after Andre's whole thing - I know in wrestling he would lean on and just push people around (hence the brute, not even thinking "brute squad") the the Barrom Expert. But yeah...
The new title:
Fezzik's disciples.
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Wouldn't it be better to name it after Fezzik?An idea for a tradition:
Disciple of Andre
Equipment: Rock Toss
Brute
Wrestling
Variable - choice of : Equipment: Unarmored Training, Open Hand: Counterbalance or Barrrom: Barrom Expert (tables, chairs etc).That could work. I was sort going after Andre's whole thing - I know in wrestling he would lean on and just push people around (hence the brute, not even thinking "brute squad") the the Barrom Expert. But yeah...
The new title:
Fezzik's disciples.
I'd just never seen him throw a rock at someone outside of the movie :P
It's a fun discipline though, I'm really glad the team took to the idea. I originally wrote them up as a possible compromise for how we could give martial classes the equivalent of the two bonus spheres SoP characters get without overloading them at 1st level, and everyone hadn't even finished approving the change before they were in there making their own new martial disciplines. I think we cut like a dozen out of the book solely because we had to draw a line somewhere.
How's the gish book looking so far?
Sweet :)
You feeling good about the content?