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So, I'm feeling pretty adventurous lately... Been liking what I've been reading on quite a few of some 3pp products, and now I'm seriously running a game without any of the base classes or vancian magic.
Instead, I was thinking of using Akashic Mysteries, Spheres of Power, Path of War, and Ultimate Psionics.
Mainly, I'm just curious if anyone has any experience in how all 4 of these products interact (I'd assume DSP's 3 things interact very well together, at the very least); or if anyone's run a similar game before. I like what I read on d20pfsrd.com and friend's copies (and fully plan to buy all of the above when i've got cash to burn, which should be sometime around x-mas), have re-read them at least several times so far, but I'm having some sort of mental block bringing it cohesively together in consideration for replacing a good portion of the basic system.
Anyone have any thoughts/opinions on this? If it matters, it'd be a homebrew game built from the ground-up to account for the changes (I'm not so insane as to leave vancian beasties and NPCs, though it would make for an interesting "you're all suddenly called to another world" kind of game).
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I mix a lot of 3PP togeather and never touch a core book, except for the main rules.
But you need to be careful on two on your list, IMO.
Path of War brings martials up to current Paizo Wizard damage ratio.
Spheres of Power brings that spellcasting down to Paizo martial level.
Mixing those two I find a gap in the casting / martial arena.
"=" means compatible from my playtesting
Paizo = Path of War
Paizo = Spheres of Power
Path of War /=/ Spheres of Power
If i am wrong and I might be, it's just my opinion and testing.
And while mixing magic and psionics is suppose to be interchangeable, I just don't like to mix the two. They work fine together, but I'm not a huge fan of mixing the pot.
I'm not sure if Path of War really comes up to Wizard level power but they're significantly more over the top than psionics and spheres of power. It does make this weird paradigm where martials have prepared slots and casters have a lot of at-will abilities and a pool when you mix Path of War and Spheres of Power.
Honestly I have yet to feel confident enough about it to mix the two in the same campaign so I wouldn't know for sure. I think Ssalarn has.
After hearing so many good things about it, this was the tipping point that convinced me to get Spheres of Power. :P
As to the idea of mixing these systems, try it out. You'll get a much more practical understanding that way.
After hearing so many good things about it, this was the tipping point that convinced me to get Spheres of Power. :P
As to the idea of mixing these systems, try it out. You'll get a much more practical understanding that way.
You haven't yet? Its been on Paizo's top 10 3pp best selling list for months. Usually that's reserved for Ultimate Psionics.
You haven't yet? Its been on Paizo's top 10 3pp best selling list for months. Usually that's reserved for Ultimate Psionics.After hearing so many good things about it, this was the tipping point that convinced me to get Spheres of Power. :P
As to the idea of mixing these systems, try it out. You'll get a much more practical understanding that way.
Funny enough I was in on the Kickstarter back in 2013, but I never did get around to downloading my reward copy until tonight.
Design Manager
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***I havee yet to feel confident enough about it to mix the two in the same campaign so I wouldn't know for sure. I think Ssalarn has.
Yeah, that's actually pretty common at my tables. Spheres of Power is my preferred spell casting system for arcane/divine characters, so I've used it with pretty much every DSP subsystem.
The basic layout of magic for the game I'm currently running actually looks like-Arcane (modern traditions)- Spheres of Power exclusively
Arcane (ancient and/or primitive cultures)- Akashic Mysteries
Divine (deific)- Spheres of Power exclusively
Martial- Liber Influxus (Battle Lord, Mnemonic, Momenta), Path of War (Stalker, Warder, some archetypes and homebrew)
Psionics/Mental (alien or robotic creatures) - Ultimate Psionics
It all clicks together very well.
You haven't yet? Its been on Paizo's top 10 3pp best selling list for months. Usually that's reserved for Ultimate Psionics.After hearing so many good things about it, this was the tipping point that convinced me to get Spheres of Power. :P
As to the idea of mixing these systems, try it out. You'll get a much more practical understanding that way.
I hadn't gotten it before because I don't have a problem with the magic system as is. I have one consistent magic player; he plays Sorcerer and would rather have Disintegrate than Wish any day. :P
Going tonight and reading reviews, particularly yours, convinced me to at least look into it as an option. That it is talked up for being thematic is pretty appealing.
Thanks for all the info folks. I'll have to give it a shot sometime in the near future. Soon as I can get a schedule with anyone from some old groups (currently just my fiance and I, and she can't handle reading for too long on a computer screen, maybe I can hijack a library printer next time I have a bunch of pocket change). Hoping there's a gaming club at the college I'm heading to in January, lol.
That said, I've never heard of Liber Influxus, but it sounds interesting, and I'll have to put that somewhere on my list. Strange Magic is something I've been eyeing, and really, really want that one. Almost as much as UPsi.
So far, I've tooled around with Psionics, and am fairly familiar with it. I was a big fan of Incarnum back in 3.5, so Akashic Mysteries was familiar enough to gauge. I had 0 experience with Tome of Battle, so what I've read of PoW on d20pfsrd.com was rather refreshing. Spheres of Power makes a lot of sense thematically, and reminds me greatly of an old favorite pc strategy game of mine, Age of Wonders, so it's got some nostalgia there, hah.
And, yes... While it may seem odd to some people, I think it'd be rather refreshing to kind of 'flip' the power level with SoP and PoW, if it winds up that drastic. I mean, this is what martials DO, they KILL things/DEFEND things/OTHER combat things. And in a world where magic permeates the fabric of pretty much everything in existence, why wouldn't they do as well if not better than mages and their fireballs?
Hmm... Now I'm considering polishing up my homebrew Channeling system I admittedly ripped and re-jiggered from the Wheel of Time RPG and slapping that down as well. Just because. It'd make for a logical progression of magic. Akashic veilweaving, taking the mystic energies and crudely shaping them -> Connecting directly to the source of magic for much more powerful effects, at the risk of becoming addicted to it and burning yourself out -> Refined organization and careful usage, resulting in recognizing the "Spheres" of magic and their traditions.