Spheres of Power!

[sammyp03]

Hello all!
I recently bought the variant Magic system Spheres of Power. I personally despise venetian magic and have been looking for new ways of spell casting for a while now. After reading through it, I really enjoy their take on magic and how they provide a pretty neat system. This system looks great in theory.

A few questions I have are:
Is it balanced?
How does it stack up with traditional fire and forget (Prepared Casters)?
Is it easy to implement into classes not offered in the book/pdf like a favored soul?
What are your experiences with this system?
What are some house rule you have implemented to make this suit your GM style?

[Der_DWSage]

Well, as another recent buyer of the system...

1)It's more balanced than Vancian, though I know that's not a high bar. To put it another way, it's very low on save-or-lose (Aside from Charm-like effects, but they have their own issues, and it categorizes 'reasonable demands' much more clearly.) and save-or-suck effects. I think the most worrisome thing you can do is use Conjuration to get multiple allies.

2)You'll have to explain that one a bit more for me to understand what you're asking. They're strictly weaker, if only by merits of 'spells known' being much more limited, if you're asking in terms of sheer power.

3)Look into the archetype section of the book. There's already a way to archetype every core class, and it's not difficult to extrapolate from there.

4)It's great! Even playing a 6th-level illlusionist (Well, Incanter that focused on Illusion) that is forced into spending spell points every time he throws out something tricksy, I never feel like I'm really hurting for a way to contribute or that I'm running on empty...and I rarely have the 'perfect thing' for shutting down an entire encounter, while still having enough raw power to counter other mages.

5)Haven't seen any need for houserules yet, honestly. Though the homebrew sphere archetypes might fall under that purview. (I admit, I'd be tempted for a Bloodrager Spherecaster...)

[sammyp03]

2)You'll have to explain that one a bit more for me to understand what you're asking. They're strictly weaker, if only by merits of 'spells known' being much more limited, if you're asking in terms of sheer power

Well with the removal of spell levels, is there still enough incentive to play a full on spell caster as opposed to say the mage knight?

[Mithril Leaf]

Well with the removal of spell levels, is there still enough incentive to play a full on spell caster as opposed to say the mage knight?

I'm a caster by heart and would still enjoy playing a full caster (specifically I'm currently building a Fey Adept). A large number of things are locked by caster level as far as effects are concerned. I'd recommend including the Advanced Talents to make it worthwhile to grab the weaker classes with good casting.

[Der_DWSage]

Ah. Yeah, that and the fact that your caster level is tied to your class. (Aside from picking up a feat to be a 1/2 caster from any class.) Combined with any sphere that is dependent on caster level for effects, like Destruction or Creation...yeah, there's still plenty of reason to be a full caster.

[sammyp03]

Ah. Yeah, that and the fact that your caster level is tied to your class. (Aside from picking up a feat to be a 1/2 caster from any class.) Combined with any sphere that is dependent on caster level for effects, like Destruction or Creation...yeah, there's still plenty of reason to be a full caster.

Like what? Other than your destructive blasts damage increase? there aren't very many advanced magic choices.

[Mithril Leaf]

Like what? Other than your destructive blasts damage increase? there aren't very many advanced magic choices.

Conjuration's minions are based on CL. That's a big bonus. Many of the better Advanced Talents are CL locked as well.

[sammyp03]

Sweet. Like I said from reading it, the way the system works seems very good. Now the tier system won't be as apparent.

[Mithril Leaf]

Sweet. Like I said from reading it, the way the system works seems very good. Now the tier system won't be as apparent.

I'd say as a rule of thumb, the half casters are 3 or 4, the 3/4 casters seem consistently three, the full casters range between 2 and 4 with the Incanter maybe able to hit a low 1.

[Der_DWSage]

...It can't hit tier 1 at all, since you can't repick talents. By definition, a tier 1 character needs to have gamebreaking options available that it can change on a daily basis. I could agree with Incanters hitting a high 2 with certain choices, but more often they're going to hover around a strong tier 3, or a weak tier 2.

[Mithril Leaf]

...It can't hit tier 1 at all, since you can't repick talents. By definition, a tier 1 character needs to have gamebreaking options available that it can change on a daily basis. I could agree with Incanters hitting a high 2 with certain choices, but more often they're going to hover around a strong tier 3, or a weak tier 2.

A tier 1 doesn't actually require the ability to change their gamebreaking options on a daily basis, they simply need to be able to solve any given problem that occurs on a given day. Basically if you can have 3 or 4 different potentially gamebreaking abilities within a week, you're tier one. Doesn't matter if you can access all of them on a given day or not.

[Vhaidara]

The only Sphere you need to watch out for is Conjuration. Since the minions scale up with only a couple of Talents thrown in, it can get out of control. I recommend the following limit:
High casters cannot spend more then 1/3 of their Talents on a single Sphere
Mid Casters cannot spend more than 1/2 of their Talents on a single Sphere (exception: a specialized Sphere, like Elementalist to Destruction, has no limit. You're supposed to specialize there)
Low Casters can spend their talents however they want. The worst their companion will be is a flanking buddy. It can be pretty scary at level one before the high casters have a chance to pull away from them in Talents and Caster level, but it won't scale.

[stack]

Didn't they just boost the spell point cost of the companions?

[Vhaidara]

Didn't they just boost the spell point cost of the companions?

Not sure. I heard the nerf was just that they start with 1 free talent instead of 2 on your first one, but I'm having a hard time getting my updates because of different e-mails on the store and on paypal.

[Der_DWSage]

Relevant details about the Summoning sphere:

It takes 1 point to summon and maintain via concentration, and an additional point to have it last for 1 minute/level. Two talents can make it so that the Summon lasts all day, one talent can make it last for 1 hour per level-which is also a form, so you have to take it multiple times to make it last on multiple companions.

They only get one free Form talent.

It still seems a bit troublesome...but admittedly, less so than the actual Summoner class.

[Vhaidara]

Wait, it's 2 spell points for keeping it now?

Mother of god....

One of my players took Wild Magic. This means he has to roll twice each day.

[Der_DWSage]

Let us know when he inevitably turns blue on a permanent basis.

[Vhaidara]

This is my table (http://centralia.aquest.com/downloads/NLRMEv2.pdf)

NO IT IS DOWN!