Mcdt2
2015-03-24, 12:36 PM
So, as was probably inevitable, I jumped on the bandwagon and got myself a copy of Spheres of Power (http://paizo.com/products/btpy96pr?Spheres-of-Power). For those unaware, it is an alternative system of magic, designed around twenty "spheres", each with a base effect or two along with multiple "talents" to add to or augment the base spheres. These spheres are generally at-will effects, though some require the expenditure of "spell points", roughly analogous to the monk's ki pool.
I absolutely adore the system, but the main complaint I currently have is that some of the classes are rather dull. Now, I could go and rewrite each class to make it more exciting... but I think I can do something a little more interesting. I'm a big fan of the 3.5 variety of Prestige Classes, so I figured I'd go back through my old books, and find 20 different prestige classes, and rework them to fit the various spheres. I've got a few ideas lined up already, but I'd love to hear suggestions as to what classes you'd like to see converted.
In regards to power level: These classes will offer effects on par with the advanced talents. They are recommended for mid- to high-power games only.
List of Classes
Pyromaniac (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19331715&postcount=3)
Swiftblade (lower in this post)
So, first in the line-up... The Swiftblade! (Original class found here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327))
Becoming a Swiftblade
Mageknights make an obvious choice for swiftblades, with martial weapon proficiency and sphere-casting. While their talents and caster level are limited, they make up for it with martial prowess. Incanters can easily enter this class by taking a single level in Fighter or another warrior-type class, though the extreme focus clashes with the incanter's typically generalist nature.
Besides their casting stat, Dexterity is important for swiftblades, as it increases initiative, allowing them to strike first, as well as avoid blows. As with all melee characters, Strength and Constitution are important. In order to capitalize on their mobility, it is suggested to take Acrobatics in order to tumble around the field with ease.
Prerequisites
Base Attack Bonus: +3.
Skills: Spellcraft 5 ranks.
Casting: Time sphere (After Image, Improved Haste, Time Freeze)
Feats: Dodge, Mobility.
Weapon Proficiency: Must be proficient with all martial weapons.
I'll be using spoilers like this to share my thoughts on the classes and the changes I have made.
So first off, we have the prerequisites. The first obvious change is changing spell-casting to sphere-casting, requiring the Time sphere for its haste ability that is the cornerstone of the class. The other talents are required due to the various similar abilities granted by the class.
Another big change is that it now requires proficiency with all martial weapons, not merely one. I did so because the sphere-casting system makes CL loss less painful, so it's not as big of a concern to lose 1 level by taking a fighter dip.
I left Dodge and Mobility as the prerequisites mostly because I don't know what I'd put in their place. At least PF's version of Dodge isn't that horrible, compared to 3.5's.
Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Reflex Save
Will Save
Special
Caster Level
Talents
1st
+1
+0
+2
+2
Casting, Spell Pool, Magic Talents, Chronomastery, Swift Surge (+1 atk/AC/Ref)
+0
1
2nd
+2
+0
+3
+3
Blurred Alacrity
+1
1
3rd
+3
+1
+3
+3
Sudden Haste, Bonus Feat
+1
2
4th
+4
+1
+4
+4
Arcane Reflexes, Swift Surge (+10 ft/+1d6 dmg)
+2
2
5th
+5
+1
+4
+4
Evasive Celerity
+2
3
6th
+6
+2
+5
+5
Fortified Hustle, Bonus Feat
+3
3
7th
+7
+2
+5
+5
Swift Surge (+2 atk/Ac/Ref)
+3
4
8th
+8
+2
+6
+6
Diligent Rapidity
+4
4
9th
+9
+3
+6
+6
Perpetual Options, Bonus Feat
+4
5
10th
+10
+3
+7
+7
Innervated Speed, Swift Surge (+20 ft/+2d6 dmg)
+5
5
Hit Dice: d8
The Swiftblade’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Knowledge (arcana), Perception (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str)
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
This table gives a few hints about what's to come, but I'll cover most of that later. BAB and saves are unchanged, as are skill points and most of the skills. HD got bumped up 1 step as per PF convention. You'll notice that they are low-casters, but fret not: the Chronomastery ability below changes things.
Class Features
Casting: A swiftblade may combine spheres and talents to create magical effects. A swiftblade is considered a Low Caster and uses the same casting modifier as his previous class. If he possesses multiple casting modifiers, you may choose which to use for swiftblade (this choice is permanent).
Spell Pool: A swiftblade continues to increase their reservoir of mystic energy. Count each swiftblade level as any previously taken casting class for the purpose of gaining spell points.
Magic Talents: The swiftblade gains a magic talent at first level, and every odd level thereafter.
Chronomastery: A swiftblade treats uses his class level as his caster level with the Time sphere. This stacks normally with caster levels gained from other sources. All swiftblade abilities count as Time sphere abilities for the purposes of caster level and save DC.
Fairly straightforward. I changed the wording compared to Bokor, mainly to make certain things more clear.
Chronomastery is where it gets interesting. As you can probably guess, I essentially copied this word-for-word from classes such as the Elementalist. I plan for each class to have an ability such as this, allowing them to cast their dedicated sphere as a High Caster, and only as a Low or Mid caster otherwise.
Swift Surge (Ex): You've imbued yourself with so much temporal energy, it's starting to have residual effects. You gain a +1 bonus on attack rolls and a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. These bonuses stack with the bonuses gained from the improved haste talent.
At 7th level, these bonuses increase to +2.
At 4th level, you gain a +10 foot enhancement bonus to all of your modes of movement and deal an extra 1d6 points of damage during any round in which you move at least 10 feet. These bonuses stack with the bonuses gained from the improved haste talent and skirmish ability.
At 10th level, this bonus increases to +20 feet and an extra 2d6 points of damage during any round in which you move at least 20 feet.
As the original, though I cleaned up the formatting some.
Blurred Alacrity (Ex): At 2nd level, while you are under the effects of a haste effect you cast yourself, you gain concealment (20% miss chance against all attacks). This miss chance increases by +10% at 3rd, 4th, and 5th level. The effect of this ability does not stack with other blur effects or similar spells.
Once again, unchanged except to refer to the Time sphere instead of spells.
Sudden Haste (Ex): At 3rd level, you learn to burst into action at any moment. You may spend 1 spell point to use your haste ability on yourself as a swift action. This effect still requires a standard action to concentrate and maintain the effect, unless you spend another spell point as normal to increase the duration to 1 round/CL. This effect cannot be combined with the Group Time talent.
The original ability allowed you to quicken haste 1/round, which doesn't work quite as neatly with Spheres. It now requires a swift action and 1 spell point to do so, and has a range of Personal. A considerable nerf, though the class makes up for it in the end.
Bonus Feats: At 3rd level, and every 3 levels thereafter, you gain a bonus feat from the list of combat feats, or any feat which has casting as a prerequisite (Craft Item feats, metamagic feats, sphere focus, Circle Casting, etc.).
I've said it many times and I'll say it again: any class designed to fight directly needs bonus feats.
Arcane Reflexes (Ex): At 4th level, you infuse the energy of previous haste castings into your natural reaction time. You receive a competence bonus on initiative rolls equal to your casting ability modifier.
Legacy ability. Unchanged.
Evasive Celerity (Ex): At 5th level, you become quick enough to even dodge magic itself. While under the effect of a haste effect that you cast yourself, individually targeted magical abilities (such as supernatural abilities, spells, sphere abilities, or SLA's) have a 20% chance of failing against you. This spell failure chance increases by +10% at 6th, 7th, and 8th level. This effect does not stack with blink or any other effect that can nullify spells.
Legacy ability. Unchanged.
Fortified Hustle (Ex): At 6th level, you learn how to intuitively absorb the haste effect into your body. While under the effect of a haste effect that you cast yourself, the effect becomes extraordinary rather than a continuous magical effect, and therefore cannot be dispelled by any means. The haste effect otherwise functions as it normally would, is expended normally, and can be countered as normal at the moment of casting.
Legacy ability. It's kinda boring, though, and I'd love to hear an idea to replace it.
Diligent Rapidity (Ex): At 8th level, you automatically overcome magic and mundane obstacles with haste. While under the effect of a haste effect that you cast yourself, you can move and attack normally, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement, as the freedom of movement spell. As an additional effect, you can also move across the surface of placid or flowing water, but not whitewater rapids or stormy water, by making two move actions in a round. You immediately sink any time you make a single move action in a round or come to a complete stop while traversing water.
Again, unchanged from the original. This is a potent ability to be sure, and one which is difficult to replicate with sphere casting
Perpetual Options (Ex): At 9th level, you can perform even more actions with haste. Instead of making one extra attack at your highest base attack bonus while under the effect of a haste spell that you cast yourself, you now have the choice of making one extra move action or one extra standard action. For example, you could make three consecutive move actions with this ability, two move actions and one standard action, one move action and two standard actions, a full attack action and a move action, a full attack action and a standard action, a full round action and a move action, or a full round action and a standard action.
Once more, unchanged ability. When applied to standard spell casting, this is very very powerful. However, I feel it is much more manageable with sphere casting. If this is too much, I might consider adding in an extra spell point cost (either at the time of casting or each time you take an extra action).
Innervated Speed (Ex): At 10th level, your mastery of the temporal magic can bring the world around you to a standstill. By spending 3 spell points as a standard action, you may create an effect similar to the time freeze talent, except as follows: it offers no save, you must choose to exclude yourself from the effect, it affects all of reality (infinite range), and for each additional 3 spell points you spend on this ability, the duration increases by 1 round.
Now this is true mastery over time! The most infamous of temporal spells, the legendary Time Stop!
This... may be kinda overpowered. It has an extremely large cost in terms of spell points, and buff effects aren't nearly as bad in sphere-casting as with spells. That being said, it's still very strong.
And there you have it! I welcome critique and suggestions of all sorts, so please leave a comment or two!
I absolutely adore the system, but the main complaint I currently have is that some of the classes are rather dull. Now, I could go and rewrite each class to make it more exciting... but I think I can do something a little more interesting. I'm a big fan of the 3.5 variety of Prestige Classes, so I figured I'd go back through my old books, and find 20 different prestige classes, and rework them to fit the various spheres. I've got a few ideas lined up already, but I'd love to hear suggestions as to what classes you'd like to see converted.
In regards to power level: These classes will offer effects on par with the advanced talents. They are recommended for mid- to high-power games only.
List of Classes
Pyromaniac (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19331715&postcount=3)
Swiftblade (lower in this post)
So, first in the line-up... The Swiftblade! (Original class found here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327))
Becoming a Swiftblade
Mageknights make an obvious choice for swiftblades, with martial weapon proficiency and sphere-casting. While their talents and caster level are limited, they make up for it with martial prowess. Incanters can easily enter this class by taking a single level in Fighter or another warrior-type class, though the extreme focus clashes with the incanter's typically generalist nature.
Besides their casting stat, Dexterity is important for swiftblades, as it increases initiative, allowing them to strike first, as well as avoid blows. As with all melee characters, Strength and Constitution are important. In order to capitalize on their mobility, it is suggested to take Acrobatics in order to tumble around the field with ease.
Prerequisites
Base Attack Bonus: +3.
Skills: Spellcraft 5 ranks.
Casting: Time sphere (After Image, Improved Haste, Time Freeze)
Feats: Dodge, Mobility.
Weapon Proficiency: Must be proficient with all martial weapons.
I'll be using spoilers like this to share my thoughts on the classes and the changes I have made.
So first off, we have the prerequisites. The first obvious change is changing spell-casting to sphere-casting, requiring the Time sphere for its haste ability that is the cornerstone of the class. The other talents are required due to the various similar abilities granted by the class.
Another big change is that it now requires proficiency with all martial weapons, not merely one. I did so because the sphere-casting system makes CL loss less painful, so it's not as big of a concern to lose 1 level by taking a fighter dip.
I left Dodge and Mobility as the prerequisites mostly because I don't know what I'd put in their place. At least PF's version of Dodge isn't that horrible, compared to 3.5's.
Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Reflex Save
Will Save
Special
Caster Level
Talents
1st
+1
+0
+2
+2
Casting, Spell Pool, Magic Talents, Chronomastery, Swift Surge (+1 atk/AC/Ref)
+0
1
2nd
+2
+0
+3
+3
Blurred Alacrity
+1
1
3rd
+3
+1
+3
+3
Sudden Haste, Bonus Feat
+1
2
4th
+4
+1
+4
+4
Arcane Reflexes, Swift Surge (+10 ft/+1d6 dmg)
+2
2
5th
+5
+1
+4
+4
Evasive Celerity
+2
3
6th
+6
+2
+5
+5
Fortified Hustle, Bonus Feat
+3
3
7th
+7
+2
+5
+5
Swift Surge (+2 atk/Ac/Ref)
+3
4
8th
+8
+2
+6
+6
Diligent Rapidity
+4
4
9th
+9
+3
+6
+6
Perpetual Options, Bonus Feat
+4
5
10th
+10
+3
+7
+7
Innervated Speed, Swift Surge (+20 ft/+2d6 dmg)
+5
5
Hit Dice: d8
The Swiftblade’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Acrobatics (Dex), Climb (Str), Knowledge (arcana), Perception (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str)
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
This table gives a few hints about what's to come, but I'll cover most of that later. BAB and saves are unchanged, as are skill points and most of the skills. HD got bumped up 1 step as per PF convention. You'll notice that they are low-casters, but fret not: the Chronomastery ability below changes things.
Class Features
Casting: A swiftblade may combine spheres and talents to create magical effects. A swiftblade is considered a Low Caster and uses the same casting modifier as his previous class. If he possesses multiple casting modifiers, you may choose which to use for swiftblade (this choice is permanent).
Spell Pool: A swiftblade continues to increase their reservoir of mystic energy. Count each swiftblade level as any previously taken casting class for the purpose of gaining spell points.
Magic Talents: The swiftblade gains a magic talent at first level, and every odd level thereafter.
Chronomastery: A swiftblade treats uses his class level as his caster level with the Time sphere. This stacks normally with caster levels gained from other sources. All swiftblade abilities count as Time sphere abilities for the purposes of caster level and save DC.
Fairly straightforward. I changed the wording compared to Bokor, mainly to make certain things more clear.
Chronomastery is where it gets interesting. As you can probably guess, I essentially copied this word-for-word from classes such as the Elementalist. I plan for each class to have an ability such as this, allowing them to cast their dedicated sphere as a High Caster, and only as a Low or Mid caster otherwise.
Swift Surge (Ex): You've imbued yourself with so much temporal energy, it's starting to have residual effects. You gain a +1 bonus on attack rolls and a +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves. These bonuses stack with the bonuses gained from the improved haste talent.
At 7th level, these bonuses increase to +2.
At 4th level, you gain a +10 foot enhancement bonus to all of your modes of movement and deal an extra 1d6 points of damage during any round in which you move at least 10 feet. These bonuses stack with the bonuses gained from the improved haste talent and skirmish ability.
At 10th level, this bonus increases to +20 feet and an extra 2d6 points of damage during any round in which you move at least 20 feet.
As the original, though I cleaned up the formatting some.
Blurred Alacrity (Ex): At 2nd level, while you are under the effects of a haste effect you cast yourself, you gain concealment (20% miss chance against all attacks). This miss chance increases by +10% at 3rd, 4th, and 5th level. The effect of this ability does not stack with other blur effects or similar spells.
Once again, unchanged except to refer to the Time sphere instead of spells.
Sudden Haste (Ex): At 3rd level, you learn to burst into action at any moment. You may spend 1 spell point to use your haste ability on yourself as a swift action. This effect still requires a standard action to concentrate and maintain the effect, unless you spend another spell point as normal to increase the duration to 1 round/CL. This effect cannot be combined with the Group Time talent.
The original ability allowed you to quicken haste 1/round, which doesn't work quite as neatly with Spheres. It now requires a swift action and 1 spell point to do so, and has a range of Personal. A considerable nerf, though the class makes up for it in the end.
Bonus Feats: At 3rd level, and every 3 levels thereafter, you gain a bonus feat from the list of combat feats, or any feat which has casting as a prerequisite (Craft Item feats, metamagic feats, sphere focus, Circle Casting, etc.).
I've said it many times and I'll say it again: any class designed to fight directly needs bonus feats.
Arcane Reflexes (Ex): At 4th level, you infuse the energy of previous haste castings into your natural reaction time. You receive a competence bonus on initiative rolls equal to your casting ability modifier.
Legacy ability. Unchanged.
Evasive Celerity (Ex): At 5th level, you become quick enough to even dodge magic itself. While under the effect of a haste effect that you cast yourself, individually targeted magical abilities (such as supernatural abilities, spells, sphere abilities, or SLA's) have a 20% chance of failing against you. This spell failure chance increases by +10% at 6th, 7th, and 8th level. This effect does not stack with blink or any other effect that can nullify spells.
Legacy ability. Unchanged.
Fortified Hustle (Ex): At 6th level, you learn how to intuitively absorb the haste effect into your body. While under the effect of a haste effect that you cast yourself, the effect becomes extraordinary rather than a continuous magical effect, and therefore cannot be dispelled by any means. The haste effect otherwise functions as it normally would, is expended normally, and can be countered as normal at the moment of casting.
Legacy ability. It's kinda boring, though, and I'd love to hear an idea to replace it.
Diligent Rapidity (Ex): At 8th level, you automatically overcome magic and mundane obstacles with haste. While under the effect of a haste effect that you cast yourself, you can move and attack normally, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement, as the freedom of movement spell. As an additional effect, you can also move across the surface of placid or flowing water, but not whitewater rapids or stormy water, by making two move actions in a round. You immediately sink any time you make a single move action in a round or come to a complete stop while traversing water.
Again, unchanged from the original. This is a potent ability to be sure, and one which is difficult to replicate with sphere casting
Perpetual Options (Ex): At 9th level, you can perform even more actions with haste. Instead of making one extra attack at your highest base attack bonus while under the effect of a haste spell that you cast yourself, you now have the choice of making one extra move action or one extra standard action. For example, you could make three consecutive move actions with this ability, two move actions and one standard action, one move action and two standard actions, a full attack action and a move action, a full attack action and a standard action, a full round action and a move action, or a full round action and a standard action.
Once more, unchanged ability. When applied to standard spell casting, this is very very powerful. However, I feel it is much more manageable with sphere casting. If this is too much, I might consider adding in an extra spell point cost (either at the time of casting or each time you take an extra action).
Innervated Speed (Ex): At 10th level, your mastery of the temporal magic can bring the world around you to a standstill. By spending 3 spell points as a standard action, you may create an effect similar to the time freeze talent, except as follows: it offers no save, you must choose to exclude yourself from the effect, it affects all of reality (infinite range), and for each additional 3 spell points you spend on this ability, the duration increases by 1 round.
Now this is true mastery over time! The most infamous of temporal spells, the legendary Time Stop!
This... may be kinda overpowered. It has an extremely large cost in terms of spell points, and buff effects aren't nearly as bad in sphere-casting as with spells. That being said, it's still very strong.
And there you have it! I welcome critique and suggestions of all sorts, so please leave a comment or two!