Help Building/Gearing a Character (Using Spheres of Power)

[SwordChucks]

Hi all. I'm building my first character using Drop Dead Studio's Spheres of Power.

The concept is a gruff surgeon that doesn't give up even when his patients die. This isn't for any particular game and is a practice run using a new book, but I do want to use this concept in the future.

So far I'm thinking human Incanter with the life and death spheres. After 5th level though I run out of interesting (to me at least) death talents.

As for life talents, I plan to pick them up using the feat Extra Magic Talent. With the Incanter's bonus feats, human bonus feat , leveling, and flaws I can take it 8 times by 5th level. This is where the real help is needed because I'm not sure what to pick to be a competent healer. I could take all of the talents that add +1d8 to Cure and still have Mass Healing and Ranged Healing, but I'm sure there are better options.




Death Talents
Life Talents


Command Undead
?


Empowered Reanimate
?


Expanded Necromancy
?


Lingering Necromancy
?


Mass Reanimate
?


Greater Reanimate(x3)
?


Permanent Undead
?


Summon Spirit
?



After Level 5 what sphere/s should I go into?

[Mithril Leaf]

Hi all. I'm building my first character using Drop Dead Studio's Spheres of Power.

The concept is a gruff surgeon that doesn't give up even when his patients die. This isn't for any particular game and is a practice run using a new book, but I do want to use this concept in the future.

So far I'm thinking human Incanter with the life and death spheres. After 5th level though I run out of interesting (to me at least) death talents.

As for life talents, I plan to pick them up using the feat Extra Magic Talent. With the Incanter's bonus feats, human bonus feat , leveling, and flaws I can take it 8 times by 5th level. This is where the real help is needed because I'm not sure what to pick to be a competent healer. I could take all of the talents that add +1d8 to Cure and still have Mass Healing and Ranged Healing, but I'm sure there are better options.




Death Talents
Life Talents


Command Undead
?


Empowered Reanimate
?


Expanded Necromancy
?


Lingering Necromancy
?


Mass Reanimate
?


Greater Reanimate(x3)
?


Permanent Undead
?


Summon Spirit
?



After Level 5 what sphere/s should I go into?

While in general I'd say Incanter is a better class, the Hedgewitch literally has a Secret designed for this character concept. Might be worth considering as the Herbology tree is pretty decent.

[SwordChucks]

While in general I'd say Incanter is a better class, the Hedgewitch literally has a Secret designed for this character concept. Might be worth considering as the Herbology tree is pretty decent.

After looking more into the Hedgewitch it looks like I could take 2 levels to grab Surgeon. I'm not terribly impressed with the secret and if I have to wait until 10th level to raise someone anyway I might as well take the advanced talent: Resurrection.

Do you know of any spheres that complement Life and Death?

[Mithril Leaf]

After looking more into the Hedgewitch it looks like I could take 2 levels to grab Surgeon. I'm not terribly impressed with the secret and if I have to wait until 10th level to raise someone anyway I might as well take the advanced talent: Resurrection.

Do you know of any spheres that complement Life and Death?

Creation with the Fleshcrafting talent lets you mess about with flesh, if you take the other few advanced talents you can make corpses to raise.

[Vhaidara]

Fate has a very thematic link to Life and Death.

Conjuration lets you slap Undead Companion and Magical Companion onto it to get a little undead healing helper.

Divination lets you tell how healthy someone is

Creation has a strong thematic tie to Life

Time could also be very thematically fitting

Warp for an Extradimensional Space to store your tools in.

[Der_DWSage]

Lessee, some notes...

1:I would ditch Mass Reanimate and possibly one or two of the Greater Reanimates. Mass Reanimate isn't entirely useful, and the Greaters are redundant after a certain point-or at the very least, you can wait until after 5th level to take it.

2:For Healing talents, I heartily recommend Resuscitation for one of your 1st level talents. It's when things are swingiest, and the ability to apply 1d8+1 healing to a person that's beyond -10 can be a literal lifesaver. I would also recommend Revitalize early on, simply because 1 spell point for 10 HP/level (Even if you do have to wait a few minutes) is the best bang possible for your buck. You can even double that healing with Greater Healing.

3:Some of the Healing talents that add 1d8 are actually pretty nice. It's not the 1d8 you're really going for, it's the fact that you can remove status conditions - few of them are needed at low levels, but it's worth looking at Break Enchantment, as it removes all magic that has a duration. That said, taking Greater Healing a few times can put you in a place where you're doing half a Heal spell at the cost of 1 spell point, and might make it worth using in combat.

4:I would recommend Destruction(With Drawback:Energy Focus for Nether Blast) for the other talent. Maybe add in Energy Sphere, just so you have a ball of death. Alternatively, the Darkness Sphere is pretty fun and works well with the concept of life and death. War isn't that thematic, but if you've got a bunch of minions, you can do worse than giving them all a +2 on damage. And as Kel said, taking the basic Divination sphere lets you monitor the status of living creatures. (As well as giving you the nifty ability to speed read.)

Also, don't forget to slap some equipment on your undead-even basic equipment can help significantly, and if nothing else, they can make wonderful meatshields. And get a Staff of Life and Death Spheres for yourself, so that you can heal even more things and control even more Undead. It's priced like a weapon, so a Staff of +1 CL to both Life and Death is only 8000 GP, fairly affordable by level 5, and it only gets better from there.

[SwordChucks]

From what's been said so far I think this looks good for a 5th level Incanter (in no particular order):



Death Talents
Life Talents
Destruction Talents
Warp Talents


Command Undead
Resuscitation
Nether Blast
Extradimensional Storage


Empowered Reanimate
Greater Healing




Expanded Necromancy
Revitalize




Greater Reanimate
Break Enchantment




Lingering Necromancy
Ranged Healing




Permanent Undead





Summon Spirit







If anyone has any other suggestions though let me know. Also what mundane gear would a character like this have? I can see healer's kits, surgeon's tools, needle and thread, and empty jars and sacks for storing interesting specimens. Any other Ideas?