Drop Dead Studios Ask Me Anything #3

[Adam Meyers]

The AMA thread 3 is here!

Previous Threads Thread #1 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?415365-The-Creator-of-Spheres-of-Power-Here-Ask-Me-Anything), Thread #2 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?509636-Spheres-of-Power-Ask-Me-Anything-2)

The Auspician's Handbook (aka Fate sphere handbook - Jeff the Green
The Battlemage's Handbook (aka War sphere handbook) - A.J.Gibson
The Conjurer's Handbook (aka Conjuration sphere handbook) - stack
The Creator's Handbook (aka Creation sphere handbook) - Desril
The Destroyer's Handbook (aka Destruction sphere handbook) - stack
The Diviner's Handbook (aka Divination sphere handbook) - Mehangel
The Enhancer's Handbook (aka Enhancement sphere handbook - Amechra
The Geomancer's Handbook (aka Nature sphere handbook) - Mehangel
The Illuminator's Handbook (aka Light sphere handbook) - AmberVael
The Mentalist's Handbook (aka Mind sphere handbook - Afgncaap5
The Nyctomancer's Handbook (aka Dark sphere handbook - Bhaakon
The Shapeshifter's Handbook (aka Alteration sphere handbook) - stack
The Telekinetic's Handbook (aka Telekinesis sphere handbook) - AmberVael
The Vivomancer's Handbook (aka Life sphere handbook) - A.J.Gibson
Wild Magic - stack



Andrew Stoeckle - stack
N. Jolly - N. Jolly
Michael Sayre - Ssalarn

[viperwolf306]

My original idea was using the creation sphere to create 2 medium sized iron resembling a humanoid, then use the Enhancement sphere to grant it the animation enhancement (with the Armor and Durable add ons) and the Bestow Intelligence enhancement. I was hoping to give them Sphere Abilities for them to use.

[freduncio]

Q2 Companions do not disapears when the caster get unconscious (or sleeps), right? When a Great Summon + Lingering Companion'ed companion does disapear? As soon as the caster goes to sleep? When he wakes up?

[stack]

Q1:
My original idea was using the creation sphere to create 2 medium sized iron resembling a humanoid, then use the Enhancement sphere to grant it the animation enhancement (with the Armor and Durable add ons) and the Bestow Intelligence enhancement. I was hoping to give them Sphere Abilities for them to use.

Q2:
Companions do not disapears when the caster get unconscious (or sleeps), right? When a Great Summon + Lingering Companion'ed companion does disapear? As soon as the caster goes to sleep? When he wakes up?
Please number questions as above for easier tracking.

[Mehangel]

Q1: My original idea was using the creation sphere to create 2 medium sized iron resembling a humanoid, then use the Enhancement sphere to grant it the animation enhancement (with the Armor and Durable add ons) and the Bestow Intelligence enhancement. I was hoping to give them Sphere Abilities for them to use.

A1: Well, if you make an object into an intelligent item, they can also possess feats (although there aren't rules on how many feats an intelligent item possesses, unless you create a specific intelligent item such as the Metamagician's Apprentice); Alternatively, Gear of Power (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zIomq0TFP7uPdlFB8VRAIWQEjAXLV5CYpP3HmjySynU/edit#heading=h.wepx10wd7gbl) includes rules for spherecasting intelligent items, which could also be useful. Ofcourse, all of this is entirely within GM territory, and require GM permission to pull off.

[THUNDERJeffro]

Q3 Why do Sphere-specific drawbacks in Spheres of Might exclusively grant specific talents? In Spheres of Power, many Sphere-specific drawbacks indicate a broad category of talents that you must select from or can't select from, but don't specify a specific talent. Spheres of Might appears to have gone in a different direction.

[Mehangel]

Q3: Why do Sphere-specific drawbacks in Spheres of Might exclusively grant specific talents? In Spheres of Power, many Sphere-specific drawbacks indicate a broad category of talents that you must select from or can't select from, but don't specify a specific talent. Spheres of Might appears to have gone in a different direction.

A3: (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22586096&postcount=808) I believe the following Quote from the Spheres of Might playtest thread answers this question best.

Something I'd like to say here is that the team this time wasn't in love with every precedent that SoP sent. Yes, it did a lot of things right, but we had our own ideas for how to make things more internally consistent, which involved standardizing drawbacks in this way. Drawbacks are a VERY powerful option, and as we've seen, people are capable of utilizing them in ways we couldn't have expected before. Unlike what I assumed SoP had in mind when making them, the SoM team was well aware that we'd have expansions, and because of that, hard locking drawbacks the way that we have secures us from not needing to worry about new talents that possibly break with these drawbacks. The team knows that we won't be working on every future supplement, so while we can ensure that the base drawbacks are fair for core SoM, we can't plan for every possible future book, and because of that, talent locking drawbacks felt like a way to make sure these drawbacks don't eventually become the backbone of breaking the system we've poured ourselves into. This opens the door for future books to include their own specific drawbacks which can be looked over in seclusion because we don't have to compare all the new options and everything else each time, which makes life easier for both our newer developers and the older staff in that we are capable of avoiding chimeric builds being overpowered (as well as we can at least) as well as allow for new specific drawbacks in newer books for new talents, which allows us to make sure our content is more balanced on your end as well as ours.

Is it limiting? Yeah, and we're not 100% happy about that, but as we've learned through this project, we sometimes need certain things in place when creating something like SoM to make sure the entire book doesn't become "Oh, with this one combo, you can do a million damage, book's broken!", as that's something that we've seen far too often to other projects which were otherwise fine. So this is me as a developer telling all of you that these decisions were made both for the health of the base product as well as possible expansions since we need to look at the long game for things like this. Developing for this new system has been a joy, and we do thank every one of you for the feedback, and we'd like to ask that you trust us when we make decisions like this, as we're doing it to make sure we can put out the best product possible. We'll always try to be around when we can to answer questions, and we do accept that not everyone will enjoy this option, but this is the reason we've chosen to structure things like this.

[THUNDERJeffro]

I believe the following Quote from the Spheres of Might playtest thread answers this question best.

Awesome quote from N. Jolly here

Thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for. I figured there had to be a design reason, I just wanted a better understanding of what that was.

Edit to add: If anyone sees this question/answer in the future, the link Mehangel provided was very enlightening. I don't know if that discussion came up on the Paizo forums where I generally spent my time during the playtest.

[Necrikus]

Q4: What are, if any, the limitations on the fleshcraft and bestow life advanced talents (especially the combination of the two)? Also, how do you determine the body/life bestowed creature's ability scores?

From what I can tell, the only explicit limitations of fleshcraft (in the case of creating a body) is that if you want it to look like someone specific, you must make a disguise check, and the only implicit limitation is your size limit for creation effects. As for bestow life (in the case of granting life to an empty body), the only explicit limitation is that the created creature is a "1st level commoner of whatever race its body was crafted to mimic."

It seems a bit questionable to think that someone could make the body of any monster whose size is in the caster's creation range, which could then be reanimated into a incredibly powerful undead, or given life through bestow life and be made the caster's friend. Likewise, it seems odd that bestow life doesn't seem to have an explicit HD cap the way reanimate has, or the CL to HD scaling that animate object has. Yes, it says it makes a 1st level commoner, but that's just a single class level that takes no account for racial hit dice. It feels like these uses of these talents are unusually open ended compared to how other advanced talents are designed.

Likewise, it isn't clear how ability scores are to be determined for the fleshcrafted body/life bestowed creature. At least bestow life's "awaken" function clearly states a straighforward 3d6 for mental scores, which could be extrapolated to the "grant life" function, but fleshcrafting a permanent body is quiet on this point.

So any clarification, rules declaration, the pointing out of something I missed or a previous ruling, or any combination of those would be greatly appreciated.

[Kitsuneymg]

Q5 Can someone give their alchemy sphere items to another to use? If they are a doctor (sage archetype) can they give away the healing infused items?

[digiman619]

Tracking post, don't mind me.

[Azernak0]

Q6
How does Perfect Offensive (Striker Tension), and Piledriver interact?

Scenario:
Lilly the Drunk is unhappy with Steve the Sober so she grapples poor Steve. After pinning Steve, Lilly activates a Piledriver ending the grapple and automatically threatening a critical hit. Can she use Perfect Offensive to auto confirm the crit?

Q7
When does Drunken Boxer's maximize damage come into play?

Scenario:
Lilly the Drunk is at it again, slamming a bottle of rotgut. As she already has Improved Unarmed Strike, she is considered to be one size category large for the purposes of unarmed damage. In this case, 1d6 to 1d8. She attacks Steve and decides to expend her Drunk status to maximize her unarmed dice. Does she deal 6 or 8 damage?

[Galacktic]

Q5 Can someone give their alchemy sphere items to another to use? If they are a doctor (sage archetype) can they give away the healing infused items?

I can't answer this, but where is the Doctor archetype? I can't find it in my copy of Champions!

E: Figured it out, you had misnamed the base class - Doctor is a Scholar archetype!

[EldritchWeaver]

Adam, could you please add the Spheres of Might thread to your first post and close that one?

[EldritchWeaver]

Q5 Can someone give their alchemy sphere items to another to use? If they are a doctor (sage archetype) can they give away the healing infused items?

A5 Looking through the Alchemy sphere I don't see any text restricting the use to the creator. In particular, you can sell formulae. So sharing items seems fine to me.

[Ssalarn]

Q5 Can someone give their alchemy sphere items to another to use? If they are a doctor (sage archetype) can they give away the healing infused items?

A5 Yes, and very intentionally so.

[khadgar567]

Q8 ​how you create akasic mysteries in spheres system.

[mrguymiah]

Q9: Any projections on when the Death Sphere Handbook might come out? I'm just concerned that it may not come out at all, with the authors of various DDS products stating a company concern of preparing for PF2.

[VladtheLad]

Q10: How does the spheres system interact with unchained action economy?

[viperwolf306]

So I read through Gear of Power. I’m still am unsure on how to determine the spellcasting of intelligent items. I could use some help.

[A.J.Gibson]

Q9: Any projections on when the Death Sphere Handbook might come out? I'm just concerned that it may not come out at all, with the authors of various DDS products stating a company concern of preparing for PF2.

A9: I don't know when Luke plans to wrap it up, the Death handbook draft is sitting at 18k words, so I wouldn't worry. I wouldn't worry about any of the handbooks, really.

[CreepyShutIn]

Q11: The text for a Technician's Grand Gadget Invention has two unique improvements: Chemical Thrower and Permanent Gadget. Both of these list a limited number of uses, but neither says if they recharge, or are reloaded, or how or when. RAW, it seems like they just have three/four uses, period, which seems odd for a class feature. It's also a bit strange that the Permanent Gadget improvement exists on a Grand Gadget invention that, in theory, should be doing the job of a gadget permanently anyway. Could we get some clarification?

[VladtheLad]

Q10: How does the spheres system interact with unchained action economy?

To be honest I am actually would be more interested to know what happens if you use unchained action economy with 3 actions+1 swift action, without being able to take more than one swift action per round, since I am not using unchained action economy as is.

[Mithril Leaf]

A9: I don't know when Luke plans to wrap it up, the Death handbook draft is sitting at 18k words, so I wouldn't worry.

Q12:
How much money do I have to slide across the table to have that book enter playtest? It feels like it's been most of the way done for a year now.

EDIT:
Q13:
Can the races that recieve Conjuration as a bonus talent choose to trade out their companion with the Caller drawback? Most of them specify you have to take a certain type of companion.

[mrguymiah]

A9: I don't know when Luke plans to wrap it up, the Death handbook draft is sitting at 18k words, so I wouldn't worry. I wouldn't worry about any of the handbooks, really.

Thank you for the timely response. For me, it’s definitely been highly anticipated Since the release of SoP, I’ve been playing a Soul Weaver, so I’ve been very eager to see the expanded options. I’m glad and relieved to hear that I (and others!) won’t be left to dry because of the approaching system update.

[Azernak0]

Q14
Leg Cutter (Duelist Bleed ability) states "If the creature takes bleed damage from the attack, they must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw or fall prone." When does the saving throw trigger: when Inigo Montoya first hits or when the 6 Fingered Man starts his turn and takes Bleed damage?

Q15
The Conscripts Duelist Specialization 3rd level ability Death By A Thousand Cuts reads "Whenever the conscript deals bleed damage to a creature, it must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the conscript’s base attack bonus + current bleed damage)." When does the save trigger? Does 1 Bleed damage force a save every turn until the bleed is stopped or does a Save take place solely when the Bleed is applied?

[THUNDERJeffro]

Q16


Combat Sphere Specialization (Combat)
Your knowledge of one particular combat sphere is without peer.

Prerequisite: 1 or more combat spheres.

Benefit: Select one combat sphere you possess, you treat your base attack bonus as 1 higher for the purposes of its effects, but not for attacks made with talents from that sphere. At 5th level and every 4 levels afterwards, the chosen sphere’s base attack bonus is treated as an additional 1 higher, although the sphere’s effective base attack bonus cannot be higher than your character level.

Special: You may select this feat multiple times, each time selecting a different sphere.

Does this provide any benefit to a full BAB character? I'm unsure if, for example, a level 7 conscript could be treated as level 8 for a single sphere, but NOT level 9; or if since it can't let you have an effective BAB higher than your character level, this does nothing for a full BAB character.

Upon re-reading it, I'm 95% certain it provides no benefit to full BAB characters. It looks like it's meant to make low BAB characters quasi-mid-BAB and mid-BAB characters quasi-full-BAB.

[stack]

Q16



Does this provide any benefit to a full BAB character? I'm unsure if, for example, a level 7 conscript could be treated as level 8 for a single sphere, but NOT level 9; or if since it can't let you have an effective BAB higher than your character level, this does nothing for a full BAB character.

Upon re-reading it, I'm 95% certain it provides no benefit to full BAB characters. It looks like it's meant to make low BAB characters quasi-mid-BAB and mid-BAB characters quasi-full-BAB.
A16: No benefit if full BAB.

[THUNDERJeffro]

A16: No benefit if full BAB.

Thanks for the quick turnaround.

[ChrisAsmadi]

Q17

Sphere Oracles get a clause so that curses that add spells known actually work with the class, whereas the Hedgewitch Black Magic tradition just includes advice to avoid taking those curses - how come it didn't just get the same clause as Sphere Oracles?

[Kael_Thor]

Q 18: Apologies if this has been answered already, but is there a way to emulate the Astral Construct power using Spheres? I know there is a way to basically get an Eidolon with the Conjuration spheres, but I can't seem to find a way to make short lived, highly customizable minions.

[stack]

Q 18: Apologies if this has been answered already, but is there a way to emulate the Astral Construct power using Spheres? I know there is a way to basically get an Eidolon with the Conjuration spheres, but I can't seem to find a way to make short lived, highly customizable minions.

A18: not currently. I had looked at a new sphere but there is nothing out or currently being worked on.

[DrMartin]

Q18

Is there any way for character picking up firearm proficiency with their martial tradition to gain a firearm with their starting equipment, either a battered firearm like a gunslinger's or otherwise? I can't find one except picking up a trait for extra money, and to me it seems an exception to sphere's general theme of getting character concepts up and running from level 1(-ish).

[DrMartin]

Q 18: Apologies if this has been answered already, but is there a way to emulate the Astral Construct power using Spheres? I know there is a way to basically get an Eidolon with the Conjuration spheres, but I can't seem to find a way to make short lived, highly customizable minions.

obviously not an official answer but spellcrafting create from creation sphere with animate objects from enhancement could emulate an astral construct, in a work together with your DM to make this work sort of way.

[A.J.Gibson]

Q17

Sphere Oracles get a clause so that curses that add spells known actually work with the class, whereas the Hedgewitch Black Magic tradition just includes advice to avoid taking those curses - how come it didn't just get the same clause as Sphere Oracles?

A17: You can apply the advice from Oracle curses to hedgewitch curses. Basically, each thing you gain at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level should be worth approximately a feat. Of course, not every curse follows this exactly, but that's the general guideline. The player and GM should put in a bit of work to do the conversion; though simply granting talents is probably balanced, it's kinda boring to play a class feature that just gives you more feats.

For example, for the blackened curse:

Blackened

Effect: You take a –4 penalty on weapon attack rolls, except for attacks that use fire.

At 1st level, the oracle gains the Destruction sphere with the Energy Focus (fire) drawback. They do not gain this drawback if possess the Destruction sphere from another source. They also gain the Fire Blast talent.

At 5th level, the oracle gains Searing Blast from the Destruction sphere, or another talent from that sphere if they possess that talent already.

At 10th level, the oracle gains Exploding Orb from the Destruction sphere, or another talent from that sphere if they possess that talent already, and his penalty on weapon attack rolls is reduced to –2.

At 15th level, the oracle gains Energy Wall from the Destruction sphere, or another talent from that sphere if they possess that talent already.

[A.J.Gibson]

Q12:
How much money do I have to slide across the table to have that book enter playtest? It feels like it's been most of the way done for a year now.


A12: If I knew, I would have paid it already :)

[Galacktic]

Q18

Is there any way for character picking up firearm proficiency with their martial tradition to gain a firearm with their starting equipment, either a battered firearm like a gunslinger's or otherwise? I can't find one except picking up a trait for extra money, and to me it seems an exception to sphere's general theme of getting character concepts up and running from level 1(-ish).

A 18: I'm not a dev, but in the last thread, this came up and one of the devs said that they would rule it that you start with a battered firearm ala a Gunslinger if it was part of your tradition.

[kkplx]

Q19

The following setup can give a 4th level conscript up to 3 attack action equivalents - is this correct?

Off Hand Attack - Feint (Expert Feint)
Main Hand Attack - Bleeding And Precision Damage (Apply Slickened Grip)
Free Action - Trip (Ankle Strike from dealing precision damage)
Attack of Opportunity (Triggered from "And Stay Down!") - Bleeding and Precision Damage
Off Hand Attack (Permitted from "Dual Opportunity) - Disarm
Attack of Opportunity (Triggered from "Swift Slice") - Bleeding and Precision Damage

Theoretical build details provided by the player:

Class Levels : Conscript 4

Pick 2 Sphere Specialisations, Duelist and Dual Wielding in that order. Pick Finesse Training.
For the Martial Tradition pick Tempest Dancer. You can mostly ignore Double Weapon Training.

Race: Anything with racial weapon proficiency in at least a type of light weapon, preferably something that has access to a one handed and light weapon. Elves and Tengu spring to mind. Dexterity is also a great choice as this will deal dexterity to damage on said weapons.


Talents - MT = Martial Tradition, CS = Class Skill, CL = Class Level, CF = Class Feature, BT = Bonus Talent:
(MT) DOUBLE WEAPON TRAINING
(MT) DUAL WIELDING SPHERE
(MT) FINESSE FIGHTING
(MT) DUAL OPPORTUNITY
(CS) DUELIST SPHERE
(CS) DUAL WIELDING (CUNNING COMBO)
(CL) SLICKENED GRIP
(CL) AND STAY DOWN
(CL) FENCING SPHERE!
(CL) ANKLE STRIKE
(CF) EXPERT FEINT (AS A TRADE IN FOR PICKING "FINESSE TRAINING" FROM CONSCRIPT)
(BT) SWIFT SLICE

Feats:
(1) Combat Reflexes
(3) Any? Maybe something to shore up defences like an extra combat talent to pick up Unarmoured Training or even another talent to add more debuffs to the subsequent bleeds/precision damages. Oh, maybe get Berserker Sphere so you can apply Battered for more penalties to enemy CMD. Also sets up nicely for later debuffs on the below cycle when you progress further in level as you can apply Exertion's to the initial attack (Leg-Smasher springs to mind for more penalties to AC and CMD).

Action Cycle:
Off Hand Attack (Comes before the Main Hand Attack because of "Cunning Combo") - Feint (Expert Feint)
Main Hand Attack - Bleeding And Precision Damage (Apply Slickened Grip)
Free Action - Trip (Ankle Strike from dealing precision damage)
Attack of Opportunity (Triggered from "And Stay Down!") - Bleeding and Precision Damage
Off Hand Attack (Permitted from "Dual Opportunity) - Disarm
Attack of Opportunity (Triggered from "Swift Slice") - Bleeding and Precision Damage

Move with your move action if you like and do swift things with your swift action. You're essentially dealing 3 fortitude saves vs exhaustion in this cycle alongside being an absolute **** to them with the various debilitating effects. The second Dual Wielding specialisation from Conscript lets you forgo "Balanced Blows" to reduce your Dual Wielding penalty.

[Drakhan]

Q20:

I imagine this must have been answered, but came across an interesting interaction and I'm just not sure how SoP intended for it to interact. Sorry if it has been answered.

Energy Blade allows you to make an attack with the blast attached. Wording suggests the blade is the 'parent' effect for the action by allowing the attack to be made as part of the sphere being used.

I didn't think anything of it initially, until I found the Melee Blaster feat.


When using a destructive blast as (or as part of) a melee attack or melee touch attack, your destructive blast does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Now, I played 3.5 for ages before going to pathfinder and I don't know where to find it if it is in pathfinder, but touch and attack spells typically didn't provoke in 3.5. Nothing in energy blade's description SAYS it provokes. However, it IS a sphere ability and therefore, after reading the feat, seems like it must provoke without use of the feat.

So ultimately, the question is: Do you need this feat to energy blade without provoking?

Q21:

Improved energy blade is a swift action which, iirc, is non-provoking, like a quickened spell. However, I likewise can't find where this would be confirmed in either Spheres content or Pathfinder (I know my 3.5 stuff so much better, we switched to pathfinder specifically to use the Sphere system).

So for the question: Is it in fact a non-provoking use of the sphere ability? Are quickened sphere effects likewise non-provoking? If it is non-provoking, is it because its a swift action or because it doesn't say it threatens in the feat? (since there seems to be no explicit swift action protection in pathfinder).

Thanks in advanced!

[AlienFromBeyond]

A20: Correct, all casting provokes by default, and SoP didn't change that. This even means if you're doing a ranged touch attack, you will provoke for casting, and provoke for making a ranged attack. Note that casting defensively is still an option open to you as well instead.

A21: Correct again, Improved Energy Blade does not provoke, and it is specifically because it is a swift action as all spells do not provoke if cast as a swift action regardless of how.

[Drakhan]

A20: Correct, all casting provokes by default, and SoP didn't change that. This even means if you're doing a ranged touch attack, you will provoke for casting, and provoke for making a ranged attack. Note that casting defensively is still an option open to you as well instead.

A21: Correct again, Improved Energy Blade does not provoke, and it is specifically because it is a swift action as all spells do not provoke if cast as a swift action regardless of how.

Thanks for the info!

[Sho]

Q22. When performing these talents from the Dual Wielding Sphere, Brutal Combo, High-Low Combination, Repositioning Routine, and Tricky Combo, in coordination with the Dual Attack base sphere ability, do the combat maneuvers performed suffer the Dual Attack penalty to their checks?

[viperwolf306]

Q23
How does movement work for the Animate enhancement?

[CreepyShutIn]

Q11: The text for a Technician's Grand Gadget Invention has two unique improvements: Chemical Thrower and Permanent Gadget. Both of these list a limited number of uses, but neither says if they recharge, or are reloaded, or how or when. RAW, it seems like they just have three/four uses, period, which seems odd for a class feature. It's also a bit strange that the Permanent Gadget improvement exists on a Grand Gadget invention that, in theory, should be doing the job of a gadget permanently anyway. Could we get some clarification?

Hate to harp on about the subject, but I really do need this explained. I feel like I must be missing something, but I can't seem to find it.

[snailgosh]

Q24: If I possess the Telekinesis Sphere and the Flair magic talent, can I use the Vital Strike feat in conjunction with a bludgeon attack?

Q25: Does Flair only allow the application of feats, or class features as well?
Would a character with the Flair, Dancing Weapon and Mobile Bludgeon talents and the Flurry of Blows class feature gain an additional attack when full attacking while telekinetically wielding a monk weapon?
Could a character with the Flair talent deal sneak-attack damage when successfully bludgeoning a flat-footed target?

[Kaouse]

Greater Dustbringer Aura (from the Dustbringer Archetype for the Mageknight) allows you to subject any missile to your Alter (Destroy) ability. However, I'm not entirely sure what the HPs of most ammunition are. Can somebody help me with this?

[Sam C.]

Hate to harp on about the subject, but I really do need this explained. I feel like I must be missing something, but I can't seem to find it.

A11: For the Chemical Thrower we have

Choose fire, cold, electricity, or acid. 3 times per day as a standard action...
For Permanent Gadget, I would assume it was supposed to be 3 times per day, same as all the other Grand Gadget improvements.

[Ssalarn]

Q14
Leg Cutter (Duelist Bleed ability) states "If the creature takes bleed damage from the attack, they must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw or fall prone." When does the saving throw trigger: when Inigo Montoya first hits or when the 6 Fingered Man starts his turn and takes Bleed damage?

A14 When the attack first hits.



Q15
The Conscripts Duelist Specialization 3rd level ability Death By A Thousand Cuts reads "Whenever the conscript deals bleed damage to a creature, it must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the conscript’s base attack bonus + current bleed damage)." When does the save trigger? Does 1 Bleed damage force a save every turn until the bleed is stopped or does a Save take place solely when the Bleed is applied?
A15 Only when the bleed is applied by an attack. Generally, effects like this trigger on the conscript's turn after they successfully make an attack that deals some amount of bleed damage

[Nyaa]

As a full-round action, you may move up to 10 ft. in any direction


Q26: Does it allow a creature without flight speed to move through the air?

[neversterling]

Q19

The following setup can give a 4th level conscript up to 3 attack action equivalents - is this correct?

Off Hand Attack - Feint (Expert Feint)
Main Hand Attack - Bleeding And Precision Damage (Apply Slickened Grip)
Free Action - Trip (Ankle Strike from dealing precision damage)
Attack of Opportunity (Triggered from "And Stay Down!") - Bleeding and Precision Damage
Off Hand Attack (Permitted from "Dual Opportunity) - Disarm
Attack of Opportunity (Triggered from "Swift Slice") - Bleeding and Precision Damage

Theoretical build details provided by the player:

Q19A: This build is trading 7 combat feats for a specialization, then 5 combat talents for a second specialization, then the remaining 4 combat feats for another feature. Is the intent of the second specialization that it only trades away combat talents and not the remaining combat feats? I had thought it was all remaining combat feats, plus the 5 combat talents.

The build otherwise seems to work as intended, though really only against humanoids with weapons.

[CreepyShutIn]

A11:For Permanent Gadget, I would assume it was supposed to be 3 times per day, same as all the other Grand Gadget improvements.

Ah, thanks! It does make sense that way. I do have one other semi-related question for SoM, regarding the Martial Study Scholar's Knack. Q28:


The scholar chooses a single combat sphere she possesses; she may use her class level in place of her base attack bonus when determining her bonus to hit, combat maneuver bonus, combat maneuver defense, ability DCs, and all other functions of the sphere normally determined by her base attack bonus when using talents or abilities granted by that sphere. The scholar may take this knack multiple times, choosing a different combat sphere each time. The scholar may not select the Equipment sphere with this knack.

Normally, when something like a feat or trait lets you act as if your BAB was higher for the purposes of a sphere, it's just for effects that track that, but this one specifically calls out bonus to hit, CMB and CMD, among other things. The question then is: How does that work? If I choose the Sniper sphere and have a crossbow, do I get the boost to hit only when I use a Deadly Shot? Or when I shoot into melee, since it affects that action? Or with, for example, the attacks of opportunity from the Covering Fire talent?

It seems at a glance like the intent is for it to work only when actively using an ability granted by the sphere or a talent from the sphere, like Deadly Shot, but it feels odd to have someone who's not very good with the crossbow right until he makes an especially difficult shot.

[kkplx]

Q27

Grenades are pretty much useless with their random fuse timer - are there ways to force a detonation, like shooting them?

[neversterling]

Q29:
Wild Magic question:
Does the Epicenter Destruction Talent grant immunity to the altered blast areas or any other additional effects of Destruction Sphere Wild Magic Events?

Epicenter:
"You are immune to any damage and other effects of your own destructive blasts. This includes ignoring difficult terrain from your Crystal Blast and immunity to your own Energy Wall, Energy Cloud, and any other blast shape with a non-instantaneous duration."

Wild Magic Events:
"...Nor are casters ever immune to the results of their own wild magic events, the chaotic nature of wild magic overcoming even creature type-based immunities."

[ChaoticHarmony]

Q30
Can the Advanced Talent Everglow be applied to the talent Dancing Lights or items created using the Duel-Sphere Feat Hard Light?

Q31
If the answer is no to the above question, then is there any benefit to taking Everglow other than to make fuelless lanterns?

[stack]

Q29:
Wild Magic question:
Does the Epicenter Destruction Talent grant immunity to the altered blast areas or any other additional effects of Destruction Sphere Wild Magic Events?

Epicenter:
"You are immune to any damage and other effects of your own destructive blasts. This includes ignoring difficult terrain from your Crystal Blast and immunity to your own Energy Wall, Energy Cloud, and any other blast shape with a non-instantaneous duration."

Wild Magic Events:
"...Nor are casters ever immune to the results of their own wild magic events, the chaotic nature of wild magic overcoming even creature type-based immunities."

A29:Wild magic's "never" has precedence. Nothing lets you cheat it (unless there was a hypothetical future effect that specifically said it trumped wild magic, which I would oppose printing generally).

[ImmortalTimothy]

Q32: In the dark sphere, if I had taken the shadow lurk ability twice would the shadow lurks have any access to Spheres of Might abilities I possess? Would the particular ability having an Associated Feat change this (such as Dual Attack and its Associated Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting)?

For example, could I make a shadow lurk and have it use the Scout Ability as if it were me and then have it despawn giving me knowledge of the targets weaknesses and the benefits that provides.

Would a Shadow Lurk gain my passive sphere abilties such as Armored Defense or Critical Genius from the Equipment sphere? Would these count as Attributes of my character or Feats for the purposes of Shadow Lurk?


As long as these do not bypass the rule of "A shadowstuff-imbued lurk may not attempt combat maneuvers, cast spells, or use its source’s class features." would the above work at all? Or are Shadow Lurks and Martial Characters not intended to mix at all?

[Mehangel]

Q32: In the dark sphere, if I had taken the shadow lurk ability twice would the shadow lurks have any access to Spheres of Might abilities I possess? Would the particular ability having an Associated Feat change this (such as Dual Attack and its Associated Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting)?

For example, could I make a shadow lurk and have it use the Scout Ability as if it were me and then have it despawn giving me knowledge of the targets weaknesses and the benefits that provides.

Would a Shadow Lurk gain my passive sphere abilties such as Armored Defense or Critical Genius from the Equipment sphere? Would these count as Attributes of my character or Feats for the purposes of Shadow Lurk?

As long as these do not bypass the rule of "A shadowstuff-imbued lurk may not attempt combat maneuvers, cast spells, or use its source’s class features." would the above work at all? Or are Shadow Lurks and Martial Characters not intended to mix at all?

I don't know about RAI, but since a Shadow Lurk has your feats, and since you can gain Combat spheres and talents with feats (even if you don't have a Practitioner Progression), I have allowed the Shadow Lurk to use things like the Scout ability.

[netmancer]

Q33
Can you see in your own darkness from the Dark sphere, or do you still have to have darkvision already?

Q34
The Hypnotic Darkness feat is stated as followed:

"Prerequisites: Dark sphere, Mind sphere, Looming Darkness. Benefit: Those within your darkness are particularly vulnerable to your charms and suggestions. Your areas of darkness and blot are always treated as if imbued with Looming Darkness when you use the Confusion, Fascinate, Fear, or Sleep Mind talents."

I don't understand this at all, I'm afraid. Does this mean that your darkness becomes looming when you use one of these Mind talents, and your darkness has to have already been sustained? Or do you create both effects at the same time?

Q35
This might be partially answered by Q34, but the phrase for the SoP classes, "may combine spheres and talents to create magical effects", does this just mean you can take the different spheres and their talents, or does this mean you can cast a talent from one sphere combined with a talent from another?

Thank you!

[netmancer]

Q32: In the dark sphere, if I had taken the shadow lurk ability twice would the shadow lurks have any access to Spheres of Might abilities I possess? Would the particular ability having an Associated Feat change this (such as Dual Attack and its Associated Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting)?

For example, could I make a shadow lurk and have it use the Scout Ability as if it were me and then have it despawn giving me knowledge of the targets weaknesses and the benefits that provides.

Would a Shadow Lurk gain my passive sphere abilties such as Armored Defense or Critical Genius from the Equipment sphere? Would these count as Attributes of my character or Feats for the purposes of Shadow Lurk?


As long as these do not bypass the rule of "A shadowstuff-imbued lurk may not attempt combat maneuvers, cast spells, or use its source’s class features." would the above work at all? Or are Shadow Lurks and Martial Characters not intended to mix at all?

I would have to argue that as long as your class has "casting" and/or "combat training" as a class feature, then any ability gained from a feat would still not be usable as it would bypass that rule...

[ImmortalTimothy]

I would have to argue that as long as your class has "casting" and/or "combat training" as a class feature, then any ability gained from a feat would still not be usable as it would bypass that rule...

(Note: If I come across as rude, stubborn, or excessively argumentative in this message or other messages in the future of this discussion it is not my intention and I am simply trying to further the discussion to a resolution as well as make a case for the answer I desire with the reasoning behind it. I am open to have my mind changed and will, of course, be accepting of any official answers. I just tend to type a lot in my discussions.)

However, this interpretation would also exclude the access to any feats gained by class features such as, lets say for example, the monk gaining Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist (just in terms of the base Feat, not the monk bonuses they get with using it), and ANY bonus Combat Feat a monk would gain. I would definitely argue that those would be intended to be able to be used with the Shadow Lurk (at the very least the any Combat Feat one) because they are more Feats given by Class Features but the Feats themselves are not Class Features (as they are not exclusive to the class and not something that makes the class unique by themselves). However, that is how I see them and I agree with how Mehangel would rule the Talents (however I am biased towards the answer being in favor of this point of view).

Especially since it seems very odd that I could gain Unarmed Training from a Class Feature and not be able to use it with my Lurks. However, if I did not choose to gain Unarmed Training through a Class Feature, I could then gain it as a Feat through normal feat progression to have it work with my Lurks. Or it would make the trading in Feats for a Progression System a lot better system as they are now usable with the Lurks.

It would also make the Shadow Boxer (which in this case a Monk who specializes in the Dark Sphere as a Low Caster) much weaker because they would have really no reason to take the Shadow Lurk ability (even though it would be weaker anyway due to being a low caster) and would have the ability to combine the Shadow Boxer's Martial Abilities with his Lurks. Which the Shadow Lurk Talents meshes well with the classes overarching concept of using shadows to attack enemies (Also, note that I am only using the Shadow Boxer and Monk as easy examples and actually have no interest playing this particular class, so augments about Monk particular things is not the main focus of this discussion).

[ImmortalTimothy]

Q35
This might be partially answered by Q34, but the phrase for the SoP classes, "may combine spheres and talents to create magical effects", does this just mean you can take the different spheres and their talents, or does this mean you can cast a talent from one sphere combined with a talent from another?

This means that you can gain Spheres and Talents (in Spheres that you have gained) and use them when using a sphere ability. Most of the time that means gaining a Sphere's Base ability by spending a talent and then gaining another talent which can be used to change how the base ability functions.

For example, if you were a mid caster and let's say that you have 3 talents in total to spend on Talents. You can gain the Destruction Sphere, Fire Blast (from within the Destruction Sphere), and then Nature (with the Fire Package). You can now make a Destruction Blast of either the default type or a Fire Blast when using the Sphere's Base Ability. However you would have to use a different action to use a Fire Geomancing ability from the Nature Sphere. However, you could also get a Sphere-Focused Feat called Fan the Flame which would let you mix the effects of your Fire Blast from the Destruction Sphere and you ability to Affect Fire from the Nature Sphere.

If you wanted to further mix Sphere Effects and Talents you could use the Spell Crafting System through the use of Spellcrafting Feat.



So basically, that means you can use a Sphere's Base Abilities and augment the base ability with that Sphere's Talent Tree. Then, by use of certain feats (like Dual Sphere, Sphere-focused, and Admixture Feats) and Spellcrafting you can combine the abilities of multiple Spheres together.

Hopefully that is clear and not too long winded.

[netmancer]

(Note: If I come across as rude, stubborn, or excessively argumentative in this message or other messages in the future of this discussion it is not my intention and I am simply trying to further the discussion to a resolution as well as make a case for the answer I desire with the reasoning behind it. I am open to have my mind changed and will, of course, be accepting of any official answers. I just tend to type a lot in my discussions.)

However, this interpretation would also exclude the access to any feats gained by class features such as, lets say for example, the monk gaining Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist (just in terms of the base Feat, not the monk bonuses they get with using it), and ANY bonus Combat Feat a monk would gain. I would definitely argue that those would be intended to be able to be used with the Shadow Lurk (at the very least the any Combat Feat one) because they are more Feats given by Class Features but the Feats themselves are not Class Features (as they are not exclusive to the class and not something that makes the class unique by themselves). However, that is how I see them and I agree with how Mehangel would rule the Talents (however I am biased towards the answer being in favor of this point of view).

Especially since it seems very odd that I could gain Unarmed Training from a Class Feature and not be able to use it with my Lurks. However, if I did not choose to gain Unarmed Training through a Class Feature, I could then gain it as a Feat through normal feat progression to have it work with my Lurks. Or it would make the trading in Feats for a Progression System a lot better system as they are now usable with the Lurks.

It would also make the Shadow Boxer (which in this case a Monk who specializes in the Dark Sphere as a Low Caster) much weaker because they would have really no reason to take the Shadow Lurk ability (even though it would be weaker anyway due to being a low caster) and would have the ability to combine the Shadow Boxer's Martial Abilities with his Lurks. Which the Shadow Lurk Talents meshes well with the classes overarching concept of using shadows to attack enemies (Also, note that I am only using the Shadow Boxer and Monk as easy examples and actually have no interest playing this particular class, so augments about Monk particular things is not the main focus of this discussion).

(Note: No worries at all. Same goes for me...)

To clarify, I wasn't implying that ALL feats gained through a class feature would be unusable, I said just the feats that gave extra magic and combat talents would. The class feature "casting" means the character has access to magic spheres, and "combat training" mean they have access to combat spheres, none of which would be usable by the lurk. Also to point out further, the shadow lurk (level 2) talent does specifically say feats and proficiencies in general are usable, however class features are not, so I haven't disagreed with you on anything so far. Without official verification, when it's referencing class features, I say it's the unique abilities of that class. So with the monk example you provided, the lurk would have Improved Unarmed Strike (since anyone can have it) but none of the ki abilities (since it is available to only specific, dare I say a certain class of, individuals. As with your example of Unarmed Training, even though it is technically a combat talent, it gives the character specific weapon proficiencies, so I would think they would still be usable by the lurk. However any benefits beyond the profiencies would not be usable by the lurk...

[netmancer]

This means that you can gain Spheres and Talents (in Spheres that you have gained) and use them when using a sphere ability. Most of the time that means gaining a Sphere's Base ability by spending a talent and then gaining another talent which can be used to change how the base ability functions.

For example, if you were a mid caster and let's say that you have 3 talents in total to spend on Talents. You can gain the Destruction Sphere, Fire Blast (from within the Destruction Sphere), and then Nature (with the Fire Package). You can now make a Destruction Blast of either the default type or a Fire Blast when using the Sphere's Base Ability. However you would have to use a different action to use a Fire Geomancing ability from the Nature Sphere. However, you could also get a Sphere-Focused Feat called Fan the Flame which would let you mix the effects of your Fire Blast from the Destruction Sphere and you ability to Affect Fire from the Nature Sphere.

If you wanted to further mix Sphere Effects and Talents you could use the Spell Crafting System through the use of Spellcrafting Feat.



So basically, that means you can use a Sphere's Base Abilities and augment the base ability with that Sphere's Talent Tree. Then, by use of certain feats (like Dual Sphere, Sphere-focused, and Admixture Feats) and Spellcrafting you can combine the abilities of multiple Spheres together.

Hopefully that is clear and not too long winded.

Nope, that whole part makes sense, thank you. Now I just have to figure out how that Hypnotic Darkness works...

[ImmortalTimothy]

Nope, that whole part makes sense, thank you. Now I just have to figure out how that Hypnotic Darkness works...

Okay, so basically what that feat does is make it so any darkness you create through the Dark Sphere's ability is considered being augmented with Looming Darkness (even if when you created it you choose it to not be a Looming Darkness) for the purposes of using the Confusion, Fascinate, Fear, or Sleep Mind talents on targets that are within your darkness.

For example, you make a patch of darkness over three creatures, 2 enemies and 1 ally. You chose not to have it be a Looming Darkness to spare your ally the Save Penalty that Talent imposes. However, you then use the Confusion Talent from the Mind Sphere on Enemy 1; for the purposes of the Save for the Confusion Talent, the darkness over Enemy 1 is now considered a Looming Darkness for just him, so it imposes the penalty for the Save for Confusion but Enemy 2 and the Ally in the darkness are unaffected.

[netmancer]

Okay, so basically what that feat does is make it so any darkness you create through the Dark Sphere's ability is considered being augmented with Looming Darkness (even if when you created it you choose it to not be a Looming Darkness) for the purposes of using the Confusion, Fascinate, Fear, or Sleep Mind talents on targets that are within your darkness.

For example, you make a patch of darkness over three creatures, 2 enemies and 1 ally. You chose not to have it be a Looming Darkness to spare your ally the Save Penalty that Talent imposes. However, you then use the Confusion Talent from the Mind Sphere on Enemy 1; for the purposes of the Save for the Confusion Talent, the darkness over Enemy 1 is now considered a Looming Darkness for just him, so it imposes the penalty for the Save for Confusion but Enemy 2 and the Ally in the darkness are unaffected.

Ok, I'm getting that. But how are you targeting Enemy 1? Can you see, or at least sense, into your own darkness? And I'm assuming a spell point has been spent on the darkness so you no longer have to concentrate on it...?

[ImmortalTimothy]

Ok, I'm getting that. But how are you targeting Enemy 1? Can you see, or at least sense, into your own darkness? And I'm assuming a spell point has been spent on the darkness so you no longer have to concentrate on it...?

So from what I can see you would need to have Darkvision for the most part to be able to see clearly. There is a Talent that grants Darkvision in the Dark Sphere. Then you can use Clearsight Talent to see in the Pure Darkness Talent (as long as you already have Darkvision).

Also, if you take two general drawbacks (in casting traditions) you can use them to purchase the Easy Focus Boon which allows you to concentrate using your move action instead of your standard action. That would allow you to concentrate on two effects at the same time by using your move and standard action. However, the spell point option is also a good way of doing it so you do not have to worry about it.

[ImmortalTimothy]

... "combat training" mean they have access to combat spheres, none of which would be usable by the lurk.
... since anyone can have it...

However, your interpretation in regards to the above quotes does not hold up for the Spheres of Might Talents because anybody can gain the Extra Combat Talent without that class feature. If I went a pure Wizard I could gain Extra Combat Talent Feat to gain the Scout Sphere without a class feature giving me that.

I think this may be simply a difference of interpretation and it really needs an author's answer to clear up.

[Mithril Leaf]

Q 36:
Is there any particular reason that the Unchained Monk doesn't get a Spheres of Might archetype? Monk archetypes can't be applied to both, unlike Rogue and Barbarian.

[RedWyvern]

Q 37: Can a troubadour who has taken the masterpiece actor training once use a feat to gain access to a second masterpiece?

The logic being that the masterpiece ability let's you take any masterpiece for which you meet the prerequisites. The prerequisites normally are skill ranks and being a bard. Since I assume that the ability functions as written, once you have taken the masterpieces ability, you must count as a bard for the purpose of being able to take masterpieces.

[EldritchWeaver]

Q 36:
Is there any particular reason that the Unchained Monk doesn't get a Spheres of Might archetype? Monk archetypes can't be applied to both, unlike Rogue and Barbarian.

A36: Considering what is being replaced, the archetype looks compatible to unchained monk.

[digiman619]

A36: Considering what is being replaced, the archetype looks compatible to unchained monk.

Except that even if it doesn't replace anything that the UnMonk couldn't trade away,a) As mentioned, RAW UnMonks can't take Monk archetypes, and b) the UnMonk is different from the UnRogue and UnBarb in that it has different BAB that their chained, which is kinda a big deal with SoM,

[netmancer]

However, your interpretation in regards to the above quotes does not hold up for the Spheres of Might Talents because anybody can gain the Extra Combat Talent without that class feature. If I went a pure Wizard I could gain Extra Combat Talent Feat to gain the Scout Sphere without a class feature giving me that.

I think this may be simply a difference of interpretation and it really needs an author's answer to clear up.

Actually, no you couldn't. Extra Combat Talent specifically states "gain an ADDITIONAL sphere or a talent from a combat sphere you possess." Despite there not being a prerequisite, I would argue you have to a sphere already. But yes, definitely a difference of interpretation. Good discussion...

[Sho]

Actually, no you couldn't. Extra Combat Talent specifically states "gain an ADDITIONAL sphere or a talent from a combat sphere you possess." Despite there not being a prerequisite, I would argue you have to a sphere already. But yes, definitely a difference of interpretation. Good discussion...
It had been stated that the system was made to easily work alongside conventional base and core classes, with Extra Combat Talent serving unto non-Practitioner classes a way to dip their toes into the system.

Despite the bolded wording, a character does not require first having prior Spheres or Talents to gain the benefit of the feat, hence the no prerequisites.

[EldritchWeaver]

Except that even if it doesn't replace anything that the UnMonk couldn't trade away,a) As mentioned, RAW UnMonks can't take Monk archetypes, and b) the UnMonk is different from the UnRogue and UnBarb in that it has different BAB that their chained, which is kinda a big deal with SoM,

a) Where exactly is that RAW stated? b) So? Monk needs a buff. Unchained monk still needs a buff.

[Mehangel]

a) Where exactly is that RAW stated? b) So? Monk needs a buff. Unchained monk still needs a buff.

A) It's written right in the opening paragraph of Introductions in the Classes section of the book.


Finally, with the exception of the monk, these classes should work with any of the archetypes from previous books as long as the classes still have the appropriate class features to replace.

B) You want to houserule it, fine. But RAW, it isn't legal unless it is explicitly also labled as an unchained monk archetype.

[EldritchWeaver]

A) It's written right in the opening paragraph of Introductions in the Classes section of the book.


Pathfinder Unchained, Classes: Introduction, pg 8[/B]]Finally, with the exception of the monk, these classes should work with any of the archetypes from previous books as long as the classes still have the appropriate class features to replace.

My understanding is that the unmonk is so different from the monk in the way the class is structured, that the archetypes aren't compatible anyway. So this isn't a general rule, but an emerged fact, that pre-existing archetypes don't work. Also a quick googling around showed this post (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/87276) supporting my view:


Jason Bulmahn explained that you technically still could take classic monk archetypes as an Unchained monk, replacing Unchained class features at the levels indicated by the classic archetype's features, but it wouldn't be nearly as clean, wouldn't work in all cases, nor would it be legal in PFS.

[kkplx]

Q37

Can a Doomblade use Spheres of Might special attack actions with its blade?
Could it for example impale someone with its touch attack? In that case, would the attack deal the doomblade's damage in bleed when removed or the duration expires?

[kkplx]

Q38

Can the Guardian talent "Defend other" be used after the result of an attack is known? The talent itself does not specify, unlike let's say active defense in the shield sphere, which specifically calls out needing to decide before the result is known.

[Kaouse]

Greater Dustbringer Aura (from the Dustbringer Archetype for the Mageknight) allows you to subject any missile to your Alter (Destroy) ability. However, I'm not entirely sure what the HPs of most ammunition are. Can somebody help me with this?

Any Update on this?

[DrMartin]

Q39

Have there been plans or discussions to expand the martial focus mechanic to casters as well, a-là psionic focus?

[A.J.Gibson]

Q39

Have there been plans or discussions to expand the martial focus mechanic to casters as well, a-là psionic focus?

What would that do and how would that work?

[Scowling Dragon]

Q39

Have there been plans or discussions to expand the martial focus mechanic to casters as well, a-là psionic focus?

A39: Currently its just a drawback mechanic. Don't think it really needs expanding.

[DrMartin]

What would that do and how would that work?

good questions! hence my wonder, whether the developers had thought about it. I know that lately this thread is seen sort of like a FAQ / technical support but my question was 100% in Ask Me Anything spirit :)

The way it work in spheres of might is very elegant, since most (all? would have to check) spheres have a)ways to expend the focus, b)ways to recover the focus, c)abilities that work better if you have the focus, and d)abilities you can only use if you are focused.

The only reference to this concept I can find in SoP is a tradition drawback, mental focus, which makes it difficult to cast if you have lost your focus - that would fall between c) and d) in my categories above. So if one would want to work a system starting from that, and wanting to check all the points above, there would be need of something that requires spending focus in order to work - 3.5 made it necessary to spend psionic focus to use metamagic feats, but maybe there´s more interesting way to apply it, maybe a boon, since in this instance the focus comes from a drawback? and something else that made it possible to recover focus as a consequence to some other action, as most SoM talents affecting recovering focus seem to trigger this way and, as I said above, is a system that I quite like. But in SoP I´d like to see it done differently, by that I mean not through talents, since between all the options already available between handbooks and apocrifas there´s already too many options for my tastes :P

So, again, there comes my question: has the developer team considered developing something like it? it´s evidently not in the books, so if such an idea was considered was it scrapped or reserved for later expansions? and why?

[Mehangel]

good questions! hence my wonder, whether the developers had thought about it. I know that lately this thread is seen sort of like a FAQ / technical support but my question was 100% in Ask Me Anything spirit :)

The way it work in spheres of might is very elegant, since most (all? would have to check) spheres have a)ways to expend the focus, b)ways to recover the focus, c)abilities that work better if you have the focus, and d)abilities you can only use if you are focused.

The only reference to this concept I can find in SoP is a tradition drawback, mental focus, which makes it difficult to cast if you have lost your focus - that would fall between c) and d) in my categories above. So if one would want to work a system starting from that, and wanting to check all the points above, there would be need of something that requires spending focus in order to work - 3.5 made it necessary to spend psionic focus to use metamagic feats, but maybe there´s more interesting way to apply it, maybe a boon, since in this instance the focus comes from a drawback? and something else that made it possible to recover focus as a consequence to some other action, as most SoM talents affecting recovering focus seem to trigger this way and, as I said above, is a system that I quite like. But in SoP I´d like to see it done differently, by that I mean not through talents, since between all the options already available between handbooks and apocrifas there´s already too many options for my tastes :P

So, again, there comes my question: has the developer team considered developing something like it? it´s evidently not in the books, so if such an idea was considered was it scrapped or reserved for later expansions? and why?

If I wanted to make Mental Focus to work more like Psionic Focus, all that would be needed is to make a couple of (drawback) feats (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/drawback-feats), having the Mental Focus drawback as a prerequisite. As for the development team considering something like this, all that it takes is for someone to take reins of it and draft it up (likely as an Apocrypha document filled with 10-12 (drawback) feats revolving around the Mental Focus drawback).

[A.J.Gibson]

good questions! hence my wonder, whether the developers had thought about it. I know that lately this thread is seen sort of like a FAQ / technical support but my question was 100% in Ask Me Anything spirit :)

The way it work in spheres of might is very elegant, since most (all? would have to check) spheres have a)ways to expend the focus, b)ways to recover the focus, c)abilities that work better if you have the focus, and d)abilities you can only use if you are focused.

The only reference to this concept I can find in SoP is a tradition drawback, mental focus, which makes it difficult to cast if you have lost your focus - that would fall between c) and d) in my categories above. So if one would want to work a system starting from that, and wanting to check all the points above, there would be need of something that requires spending focus in order to work - 3.5 made it necessary to spend psionic focus to use metamagic feats, but maybe there´s more interesting way to apply it, maybe a boon, since in this instance the focus comes from a drawback? and something else that made it possible to recover focus as a consequence to some other action, as most SoM talents affecting recovering focus seem to trigger this way and, as I said above, is a system that I quite like. But in SoP I´d like to see it done differently, by that I mean not through talents, since between all the options already available between handbooks and apocrifas there´s already too many options for my tastes :P

So, again, there comes my question: has the developer team considered developing something like it? it´s evidently not in the books, so if such an idea was considered was it scrapped or reserved for later expansions? and why?

To be clear; you're suggesting a mechanic where you have focus, have certain powers available while focused, can expend focus for greater effect, and have ways of recovering focus all based on what sphere you're using? That's kind interesting, though it reminds me a great deal of the Prodigy (except for the Prodigy, focus has levels of focus). It would require an amount of work, and wouldn't be as effective with those spheres commonly used out of combat (like Divination, or any sphere with lots of long duration buffs).

I think Mehangel's suggestion of drawback feats is good: if you could come up with 10 feats that built of Mental Focus, Adam would probably look at publishing it.

(Also: Mental Focus was written as a fix for Arcane Bond more than anything else.)

[stack]

Q37

Can a Doomblade use Spheres of Might special attack actions with its blade?
Could it for example impale someone with its touch attack? In that case, would the attack deal the doomblade's damage in bleed when removed or the duration expires?
A37: You make attacks with the destructive blade in place of normal attacks, so yes, you can use it as an attack action. Given the publishing times, it was obviously not written with SoM in mind. I suppose as written it can be used to impale, but I would be very reluctant to recommend allowing it to deal that much bleed damage. I wonder if touch attacks and lancer don't play that well (or too well, rather) together. I would only allow the base 1d6 (or 1d4 or 1d8 depending on blast type) to be inflicted as bleed.

Q38

Can the Guardian talent "Defend other" be used after the result of an attack is known? The talent itself does not specify, unlike let's say active defense in the shield sphere, which specifically calls out needing to decide before the result is known.

A38:You need to use it before the result is known. It should have been specified for clarity, but I think allowing such things after the result is the more exceptional case.

[viperwolf306]

Q40
Is there any plans to make a warp Sphere handbook or a time Sphere handbook?

[stack]

Q40
Is there any plans to make a warp Sphere handbook or a time Sphere handbook?

A40: Every base book sphere is getting a handbook. Time is currently in playtest.

On my phone, so no link.

[viperwolf306]

Q41
So my curiosity got the best of me and I started wondering if there was any way to temporarily grant a target spellcasting abilities.

[stack]

Q41
So my curiosity got the best of me and I started wondering if there was any way to temporarily grant a target spellcasting abilities.

A41: Hedgewitch with the spiritualism tradition and the infuse other secret.

[ImmortalTimothy]

A40: Every base book sphere is getting a handbook. Time is currently in playtest.

On my phone, so no link.

Time Handbook: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_d9TyFzyZ04I5mIUhUwFzgK6dsUxZl6006-PCgwAOcs/edit



Q42: It seems, at least from what I can observe from outside, that the Spheres of Power team is really busy lately. Are they preparing for a shift to Pathfinder 2.0 or have they yet to make a decision and just seeing where they want to go with the project? I saw on the Patreon in March they said the announcement of Pathfinder 2 did shake things up a bit, has things settled since?

[Kaouse]

Greater Dustbringer Aura (from the Dustbringer Archetype for the Mageknight) allows you to subject any missile to your Alter (Destroy) ability. However, I'm not entirely sure what the HPs of most ammunition are. Can somebody help me with this?

Any Update on this?

Q43. Any Update on this?

[kkplx]

Q44

If the Guardian talent "Defend other" is used to absorb a hit that carries other consequences (impale, seeking ray, ability damage or penalties or drain, a carrier effect from destruction, etc.), does the person "taking the damage" also suffer the negative effects, or does the original target?

[stack]

Q44

If the Guardian talent "Defend other" is used to absorb a hit that carries other consequences (impale, seeking ray, ability damage or penalties or drain, a carrier effect from destruction, etc.), does the person "taking the damage" also suffer the negative effects, or does the original target?

A44: All additional effects go to the one who takes the damage. You are redirecting the attack/interposing yourself to absorb it, not metaphysically channeling the damage to yourself.

[kkplx]

Then you might want to use different wording for the ability, as it states

"If this attack would still hit, you may choose to take the damage in your ally’s place."

instead of stating you take "the hit" or elaborating that this also includes any other effects attached to "being hit" by the ability.

[Desril]

Q43. Any Update on this?

(Non-magical, normal) Projectiles have 5 hardness and 5 HP. (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/damaging-objects/)

[Sam C.]

(Non-magical, normal) Projectiles have 5 hardness and 5 HP. (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/damaging-objects/)

That's the hardness and HP for projectile weapons such as bows, crossbows, etc. The hardness and HP for ammunition probably wasn't included in that table because sundering an arrow was not something likely to come up in gameplay. I would personally treat arrows and bolts as light hafted weapons (5 hardness and 2 HP), as that seems to be the closest approximation, while bullets I would give 10 hardness and 2 hp (due to being made of metal). Enchanted ammo also gains the extra 10 hp and 2 hardness per point of enhancement bonus, and I would probably apply that bonus to ammo fired from an enchanted ranged weapon (to mitigate issues of the greater dustbringer aura trivializing enemy archers). Ranged natural weapons would be entirely up the the GM. Beyond that, you should probably consult the HP and hardness of common substances table to figure out a reasonable HP value for the projectile (such as for thrown rocks). All that said, I am not a developer, so this is just how I would handle it.

[Xararion]

Q45: On prodigy finisher Sunset it states you can apply [dark] talents as normal to the ability, while the imbuement Shadow uses both [darkness] and [dark] tags. My GM wanted to know if the finisher can use darkness talents, or if it's supposed to be only talents from the common dark talents, not specifically dark ones. In this case the question was mostly can you make your sunset into a black lung for example.

My own understanding of it would be that it works as if it was a cast darkness ability from the dark sphere, hence subject to both dark and darkness talents as applicable, and I suppose plot/shadow if you had something that would affect an area of darkness in those.

Q46: On beastmastery sphere, and this is mostly a curiosity thing. Why does the Animal companion talent scale based on your base attack bonus -3, instead of your handle animal -3, when handle animal is the skill that almost everything else in the sphere scales from. That is, when it's not scaling based on your ranks in ride. I just think it'd be more logical considering rest of the sphere and other spheres that grant skill ranks and scale based on them, to not have one exception there out of the blue.

[Drakhan]

Greater Dustbringer Aura (from the Dustbringer Archetype for the Mageknight) allows you to subject any missile to your Alter (Destroy) ability. However, I'm not entirely sure what the HPs of most ammunition are. Can somebody help me with this?
Any Update on this?
Q43. Any Update on this?

So not a dev either but to be fair Sam C was probably right here.

If you look at rope, it's noted as 2 hp/inch of thickness, and then the example given for it is a rope 1 in in diameter. Rope has hardness 0 (inherited from material), 2 hp (2hp per inch of thickness and 1 inch thick) and Break DC 23 (Real life approximation from the devs if I had to guess. I can't math a reason it would be that high. Backed up by a comment later, specifically).
Since hardness doesn't affect an object's break DC, this value depends more on the construction of the item than on the material the item is made of. Consult Table: DCs to Break or Burst Items for a list of common break DCs.

A simple wooden door is Hardness 5, 10 hp and break DC 13. Break DC is arbitrary so no good then, but wood suggests its simply 1 inch thick for that hp.

Following the 2 out we can do a wooden piling 1 inch in diameter that has hardness 5, and 10 hp. You could build a fence of them and would have much more hp than a door, though that could be oddly appropriate. Regardless, that piling could become a walking stick 1 inch thick for the same 5 hardness and 10 hp, which incidentally matches a quarterstaff. As a "2 handed hafted weapon" you have hardness 5 and 10 hp.

Most arrows and bolts probably weren't an inch thick. So it would be a DM call, but 'light hafted weapon' seems appropriate. Or, since ammunition is supposed to be smaller even than that typically, could even do half that hp.

Like Sam C said though, I'd allow ammunition to get the full benefit of enchantments to the weapon so as not to totally ignore ranged attacks with the aura. Even then, many monsters don't tend to have gear with high level of enchantments by default. Usually only humanoid NPCs do, and then rarely so the aura is still really potent.

[ImmortalTimothy]

Q47
Would an Oracle who gains the Skill at Arms Revelation at first level be able to trade that out for a martial tradition instead?

Skill at Arms: You gain proficiency in all martial weapons and heavy armor.

Under Martial Tradition: "characters who do not may choose to trade their starting proficiencies for a martial tradition at 1st level, as long as their normal starting proficiencies include proficiency with all martial weapons or at least one exotic weapon. Some classes who do not gain proficiency with all martial weapons but whose class description implies a strong martial background may trade their starting proficiencies for a martial tradition with GM approval."

I also am aware that there is a ruling already in place against this, however gaining a Martial Tradition in this way would make thematic sense at least to me. "This does not include clerics whose deity’s favored weapon is an exotic weapon or similar features that modify starting proficiencies based on other character choices." As well as, this is gaining much more than just a single weapon proficiency like the Favored Weapon feature.

So could instead of gaining the proficiencies, they gain an martial tradition if taken at first level?

[Valdimarian]

I've been on a Technician binge lately, so I've got a few questions, some of which might be buried in the SoM AMA #1

Q48) Is the listed cost for the Independent Invention the full cost, or cost per Hit Dice? (I can see it being full cost as it's a class ability you have to pay for, OTOH it's a quite powerful class ability)

Q49) Grand Gadgets Chemical Thrower, Permanent Gadget and Laser all say that if you have Mechanical Insight you get 4 uses out of them per day instead of 3, they ALSO say if you take it a second time it's +3 uses, was it intended to still only get +3 uses on the base 4 uses, or was the +3 uses per day meant to increase as well?

Q50) Some clarification on what can be used in the Suit mod and what you can't would be nice. Obviously you shouldn't be able to use a Medium character's wings to fly around in a Colossal mecha that weighs 125 tons, but technically you can since the only clarification is "While in the pilot seat, the pilot and the independent invention are essentially a single creature, using the independent invention’s physical stats and the pilot’s mental stats." (Personal rule that I've been using is that Ex and Su abilities granted by race or template related to physical acts don't apply when in the suit, but there's a lot of fringe cases that I haven't considered, as well as Class abilities like Alchemist's Mutagen.)
Q50a) A note about Magic Items would help. I've been assuming any Magic Item you're wearing that modifies physical stats doesn't affect the Independent Invention, even with Suit. OTOH I've ALSO been assuming you can enchant normal Wondrous Items and equip them to your Invention.
Edit: just saw that I shouldn't have been assuming that last bit as per this line: "They possess only a Strength and Dexterity score, with no skill points or feats or magic item slots."
Q50b) Can / Should the Independent Invention be able to be targeted by Self spells while you pilot it?

Q51) If I use the Robot upgrade to make my Independent Invention have intelligence 10, does it also get Wisdom and Charisma stats? If so what are they? (asking specifically for Skills like Perception or Intimidate)
Q51a) More on Robot Independent Inventions: when using a feat from the Robot instead of my own, do I use the Robot's BAB or my own to figure out the effects? (Examples: 1) at level 11 a Technician cannot qualify for Improved Vital Strike, but a Construct with full BAB does, 2) a Techncian at level 12 using Power Attack is only -3/+6, but a Construct is -4/+8)

Q52) If you have Suit and Covered then are you impossible to target with mental effects, or as pilot of the suit does casting a mental spell at the suit count as casting one at you?


Q53) Unrelated to Technician: It's been established earlier in this thread that RAI a Tradition that grants Gunsmithing should essentially grant the Gunslinger's Gunsmith class ability including a broken firearm and ability to repair it. In an Guns Everywhere world, does that instead grant Gun Training 1 as per the Gunslinger in a Guns Everywhere world? Or is that more of a GM specific question?

[N. Jolly]

Q6
How does Perfect Offensive (Striker Tension), and Piledriver interact?

Scenario:
Lilly the Drunk is unhappy with Steve the Sober so she grapples poor Steve. After pinning Steve, Lilly activates a Piledriver ending the grapple and automatically threatening a critical hit. Can she use Perfect Offensive to auto confirm the crit?

Q7
When does Drunken Boxer's maximize damage come into play?

Scenario:
Lilly the Drunk is at it again, slamming a bottle of rotgut. As she already has Improved Unarmed Strike, she is considered to be one size category large for the purposes of unarmed damage. In this case, 1d6 to 1d8. She attacks Steve and decides to expend her Drunk status to maximize her unarmed dice. Does she deal 6 or 8 damage?

A6: Perfect Offense is only intended when a roll threatens a critical hit, not other sources. And that means actually rolled, not cyclops helmet auto 20 too.

A7: She would deal 8 damage from the 1d8, as the final die is what's maximized.


Q18

Is there any way for character picking up firearm proficiency with their martial tradition to gain a firearm with their starting equipment, either a battered firearm like a gunslinger's or otherwise? I can't find one except picking up a trait for extra money, and to me it seems an exception to sphere's general theme of getting character concepts up and running from level 1(-ish).

A18: It would be perfectly reasonable to give a battered firearm with any martial traditions that grant firearm proficiency.


Q47
Would an Oracle who gains the Skill at Arms Revelation at first level be able to trade that out for a martial tradition instead?

Skill at Arms: You gain proficiency in all martial weapons and heavy armor.

Under Martial Tradition: "characters who do not may choose to trade their starting proficiencies for a martial tradition at 1st level, as long as their normal starting proficiencies include proficiency with all martial weapons or at least one exotic weapon. Some classes who do not gain proficiency with all martial weapons but whose class description implies a strong martial background may trade their starting proficiencies for a martial tradition with GM approval."

I also am aware that there is a ruling already in place against this, however gaining a Martial Tradition in this way would make thematic sense at least to me. "This does not include clerics whose deity’s favored weapon is an exotic weapon or similar features that modify starting proficiencies based on other character choices." As well as, this is gaining much more than just a single weapon proficiency like the Favored Weapon feature.

So could instead of gaining the proficiencies, they gain an martial tradition if taken at first level?

A47: Talking it over with the others, we all think it's a fair way to rule it, so yeah, that'd provide a martial tradition if desired.

[Kaouse]

(Non-magical, normal) Projectiles have 5 hardness and 5 HP. (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/damaging-objects/)

You know, for the longest time I always assumed that it was referring to Bows and the like, rather than the bolts/ammunition that they use. But I guess that makes sense, thank you.

That said, enhancements add +2 hardness and +10 hp for every point of enhancement, and IIRC, enhanced bows pass their enhancement along to their ammunition. So it kinda seems like the Greater Dustbringer's Aura ability will easily stop any mundane bows and arrows from low level, but will be almost completely useless as enemies get better gear. Even at Level 20, you can't so much as inflict the broken condition on an arrow fired from a +5 bow.

I guess it's good at ignoring the attacks of a horde of weaklings, though Unbreakable easily outclasses it in this regards. Still, it's pretty thematic. If only it worked with Touch of Dust.

At any rate....

Q54. Characters who trade out their spherecasting for a spheres of might talent progression, what happens to the 2 free bonus magic talents that they would have otherwise gained? Do they become combat talents, or are they just lost forever?

[Omnificer]

(Non-magical, normal) Projectiles have 5 hardness and 5 HP. (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/damaging-objects/)

So, weirdly enough (and I would hardly consider it a ruling of all projectiles) Drop Dead Studios has already defined the hardness and hp of projectiles at 5 hardness and 1 hp, in the Pinning Shot talent in the Sniper sphere.

I don't think that's meant to be extrapolated to the entire Sphere system and projectiles that interact with it, but it's there for people who want to do that.

[Kaouse]

So, weirdly enough (and I would hardly consider it a ruling of all projectiles) Drop Dead Studios has already defined the hardness and hp of projectiles at 5 hardness and 1 hp, in the Pinning Shot talent in the Sniper sphere.

I don't think that's meant to be extrapolated to the entire Sphere system and projectiles that interact with it, but it's there for people who want to do that.

4 hp isn't really much of a difference, at the end of the day. It does assure that Greater Dustbringer Aura can destroy any nonmagical projectile even at level 1, so if you decide to spend a feat on it at your earliest convenience (Level 3) then it will do it's job until magical weapons become the norm.

Hmm...I wonder if Counterspell Mastery could allow you to dispel an arrow's enhancements before it gets to you? Anyone know if there's a Spheres of Power analogue to Wall of Suppression?

[viperwolf306]

Is an Armorist allowed to use the Blast Vessel encantment?

[Sho]

Q22. When performing these talents from the Dual Wielding Sphere, Brutal Combo, High-Low Combination, Repositioning Routine, and Tricky Combo, in coordination with the Dual Attack base sphere ability, do the combat maneuvers performed suffer the Dual Attack penalty to their checks?

Please, and thank you.

[N. Jolly]

Q22. When performing these talents from the Dual Wielding Sphere, Brutal Combo, High-Low Combination, Repositioning Routine, and Tricky Combo, in coordination with the Dual Attack base sphere ability, do the combat maneuvers performed suffer the Dual Attack penalty to their checks?

A22: I'm going to say no here; landing CMs is hard enough, no reason to make it harder.

[kkplx]

Q55

Can a Darkness Defender expend 2 attacks of opportunity to the same atttack made against an ally to both apply "shield other" and "defend other" to their ally's AC against that attack? (assuming all talents for this have been taken)

[ImmortalTimothy]

I have a few questions about the Summoning Advanced Talent.

Q56 If I have a 25% discount on payments for getting a summoned creature to do a task for me, does that only apply to summoning allies? They have a fixed cost (or at least an equation to get a cost) associated with them that can be easily reduced by the discount. However, hostile summons are much more volatile in the pricing and payment methods, to the point that some hostiles may not even desire a monetary cost and instead want something else in exchange. Would the discount still apply when appropriate?

Q57 Would being limited to only being able to summon an extraplanar being of a particular narrow type (such as only being able to summon devils or only being able to summon angels) be a good drawback to gain extra favor with that type of creature. For example, either gaining a 25% discount or having those creatures count as allied?

Q58 Does the normal Pathfinder Binding rules apply to creatures summoned in this manner? The binding rules has ways to make a summoned creature more likely to summit to your demands if certain conditions are met first.

If they do still follow the rules of Binding, are there any special thing you can do to make Omnimentals summit more easily? For the four classical elementals the following gives a bonus to charisma checks to make deals with them.

Fire Elemental: Keeping large blocks of ice in the room saps the elemental's power and cows it into submission more quickly.

Air Elemental: When summoning an air elemental, inscribe the magic circle with diamond powder.

Water Elemental: A ring of fire around the magic circle exposes the elemental to its hated enemy the instant it appears on the Material Plane, distracting it long enough for the binder to seize control.

Earth Elemental: Prepare the summoning chamber with swirling wind- and air-based spells to prevent the elemental from touching the floor.

[N. Jolly]

Q55

Can a Darkness Defender expend 2 attacks of opportunity to the same atttack made against an ally to both apply "shield other" and "defend other" to their ally's AC against that attack? (assuming all talents for this have been taken)

A55: Since both situations were triggered, yes, both could be used.

[Drakhan]

Q 59)

So, metamagic feats seem fairly limited in Spheres of Power. All the basics are there, as well as an extra few that are fairly useful for the sphere system. Obviously though, there are a great many absent the list, and it's surprising there even IS a list for this as it wouldn't have been something I initially would have considered. In truth, a lot of nuances of the system catch me off guard as there are a great many things I'd not have considered initially.

So question then is this: Was there some fear of what the wide breadth of metamagic would lead to unforseen interactions? Alternatively was it playtested and confirmed? Is it some form of future proofing to ensure things don't get out of hand with content that isn't out yet?

Q 60)

This may have been answered already but, what sparked the idea for the spheres system as a whole? It's brilliant and the entirety of the system really livens up my games. Notably we have battles that can rage across huge areas as people move about. My players can't stand keeping Spheres of Powers effects at close range as a result and will spend multiple talents and or feats for ways to improve range. Closer and tighter battles almost feel claustrophobic. That is a drastic change from the core system, albeit one that works really well. So what sparked it all? Was there something you wanted in your own home games? Was it frustration with the system or just a cool idea that came up? And did you know when you started that the system was going to totally change the entire game while in effect?

Q 61)

What's a day in the life like? For everyone? I know there are a lot of devs on this at this point but how often do you interact with each other? What else is on your plate? And when did things go from 'cool idea' to 'this got real' for any devs that answer this question?

Q 62)

What is the best part of having worked/working on this system? Again, open to any and all devs.

Q 63)

There was an idea that surfaced earlier in the thread about plans for expanding ideas for the sphere system and someone said "all it really needs is someone to take the reins". Is it that easy to get involved? If I have ideas and/or want to try and contribute something to this system, how would that be submitted?

Q 64)

So, more mechanical. Naturally healing by default is atrocious in many games. While I think in combat healing is an "alright" option, realistically it's relatively terrible. Often times the group picks up cure light wound wands to address topping off out of combat, leading to a situation where an item gives a disproportionate value and skews adventure planning (since they get more healing than they're expected to have and tend to start fights topped off instead of missing health). Even my table, where most of my players are fairly far from power gaming, they eventually too came to the conclusion that healing is just...not worth it.

Needless to say, spheres addressed that issue in large part. You can functionally build mass heal and really pump out serious healing. The lately released protection handbook, and the Faithful Sheperd Archetype within, highlight very well how potentially potent such a member of the party can be now.

Yet even so, you include notes on limiting healing from items so that there is no infinite healing if the Dm doesn't wish there to be so. And then revitalize exists that can restore a party multiple times for minimal cost in a day. While a major investment in talents, any healer can heal hundreds of hp in a day for minimal cost using that talent. And if they ever exhaust it, it is almost trivial to reboot it again.

So, I imagine that one of the goals for the life sphere was to make healing 'viable' as an option. More so than in default vancian magic. Yet the infinite healing items and the revitalize talents, seem to suggest that you don't want that attrition in an adventuring day. So the question is this. Was that a design goal? Was it a side effect of how spheres works? Considering how efficient revitalize is, and if that is intended as opposed to a side effect, why wasn't the basis of an advanced talent as opposed to a second talent? It seems, compared to other expanded spheres, to be potent for a basic talent above some others (though to be fair, maximizing the effect takes 9 talents past the entry talent just to unlock the sphere)

[A.J.Gibson]

Q 64)

So, more mechanical. Naturally healing by default is atrocious in many games. While I think in combat healing is an "alright" option, realistically it's relatively terrible. Often times the group picks up cure light wound wands to address topping off out of combat, leading to a situation where an item gives a disproportionate value and skews adventure planning (since they get more healing than they're expected to have and tend to start fights topped off instead of missing health). Even my table, where most of my players are fairly far from power gaming, they eventually too came to the conclusion that healing is just...not worth it.

Needless to say, spheres addressed that issue in large part. You can functionally build mass heal and really pump out serious healing. The lately released protection handbook, and the Faithful Sheperd Archetype within, highlight very well how potentially potent such a member of the party can be now.

Yet even so, you include notes on limiting healing from items so that there is no infinite healing if the Dm doesn't wish there to be so. And then revitalize exists that can restore a party multiple times for minimal cost in a day. While a major investment in talents, any healer can heal hundreds of hp in a day for minimal cost using that talent. And if they ever exhaust it, it is almost trivial to reboot it again.

So, I imagine that one of the goals for the life sphere was to make healing 'viable' as an option. More so than in default vancian magic. Yet the infinite healing items and the revitalize talents, seem to suggest that you don't want that attrition in an adventuring day. So the question is this. Was that a design goal? Was it a side effect of how spheres works? Considering how efficient revitalize is, and if that is intended as opposed to a side effect, why wasn't the basis of an advanced talent as opposed to a second talent? It seems, compared to other expanded spheres, to be potent for a basic talent above some others (though to be fair, maximizing the effect takes 9 talents past the entry talent just to unlock the sphere)

I can't speak for Adam, but I wrote the Life handbook and the Protection handbook, and I can tell you what I think. Basically, daily attrition through hit point loss isn't a thing. Almost every game I've played, we walked into combat at full hp. It might just be the groups I play with, but healing is just not that hard to come by (wands of CLW being case in point). It's spell slot and ability use attrition that forces players to stop, usually. My attempts with those books was to make in-combat healing viable, though not as good as out of combat healing. Hence things like Adrenhalin Surge and Taste of Victory. I'm a big 4e fan, and I loved how the cleric could heal as a minor (swift) action and still function in combat.

[EldritchWeaver]

Q 59)

So, metamagic feats seem fairly limited in Spheres of Power. All the basics are there, as well as an extra few that are fairly useful for the sphere system. Obviously though, there are a great many absent the list, and it's surprising there even IS a list for this as it wouldn't have been something I initially would have considered. In truth, a lot of nuances of the system catch me off guard as there are a great many things I'd not have considered initially.

So question then is this: Was there some fear of what the wide breadth of metamagic would lead to unforseen interactions? Alternatively was it playtested and confirmed? Is it some form of future proofing to ensure things don't get out of hand with content that isn't out yet?

A59: I can at least shed some insight on this. SoP was outfitted with a whitelist of metamagic feats at the point of its creation, which hasn't been updated yet. I don't know which feats were examined, but some feats simply don't work with SoP that well. Like the feat which turns a light spell into a darkness spell at +0 spell level increase. As this effectively invalidates a sphere, this feat needs at least a +1, if allowed at all. I would say, as a guideline, if you can get a similar enough result via a talent, then requiring the talent and removing the feat would be ok. If the feat provides a different trade-off (Reach Spell with +1 SP applicable for every sphere vs. specialized greater reach talents), then it is ok. If having the feat is superior to the SoP way, then it needs to be nerfed or removed.

I suppose, one could collect a list of metamagic feats now and check if they work with SoP or should be placed on a blacklist.

[Zsaber0]

Q 65

Is there a limit to how many alchemy sphere Formulae you can possess at one time? The language is "you cannot prepare more formulae at one time than..." which I interpret to mean in one 30 minute a person can not prepare more that X number of bombs, and that person can spend another 30 minute period to double the number of bombs they have.

[Drakhan]

I can't speak for Adam, but I wrote the Life handbook and the Protection handbook, and I can tell you what I think. Basically, daily attrition through hit point loss isn't a thing. Almost every game I've played, we walked into combat at full hp. It might just be the groups I play with, but healing is just not that hard to come by (wands of CLW being case in point). It's spell slot and ability use attrition that forces players to stop, usually. My attempts with those books was to make in-combat healing viable, though not as good as out of combat healing. Hence things like Adrenhalin Surge and Taste of Victory. I'm a big 4e fan, and I loved how the cleric could heal as a minor (swift) action and still function in combat.

So much goodness.

First thing is first, let it not be said I disapprove of where the life sphere (or protection sphere for that matter) ended up! The fact that my players actually consider healing because it's good is amazing. I can actually make healers in combat that my players want to kill, and frankly Faithful Shepherd is going to be used for a Villain at some point just because I think it is that awesome. And that's just scratching the surface of what I love about the sphere system, and specifically the life sphere.

I find it somewhat interesting though that, coming from a long history of D&D 3.5 prior to pathfinder, attrition is expected but non existent. It's mentioned a few times in the old DM guides and came to pathfinder as an inheritance. Yet, as EVERYONE knows, CLW wand wins the healing game. It's not even a question. I browse the forums mostly as a lurker here but a little more active on reddit and it's almost astonishing when people ask and just don't KNOW about it. Some of the comments occasionally reflect that. Even my party, notoriously low on the 'power gaming' scale, eventually figured that out and does it.

Yet I can't personally help but feel that is an unintended interaction. Potions of Healing are 50 gold. 1st level wands of magic missile are 750. So are first level wands of CLW. After the 15th spell in the wand, compared to potions, it's all free. 35 free heals for the same cost in potions. Or what, 15g per charge? The magic missile wand isn't decried as a wonder, but the CLW wand is because it's so efficient. Yet, take away level 1 wands, keep WBL, and what healing remains? Infernal healing goes with the CLW wand leaving the biggest 2 healing items mia. What other methods of rapid healing exists that doesn't eventually start hurting a character's WBL? Everything close to 2nd place is either mediocre, or bordering on unacceptable. Not that we can do anything about it, it's a part of the game, but I think its an interesting view that has developed in the community as a whole.

Q 66)

So there is a question at the end of all of this. You note that spell slot and ability use attrition tends to force groups to chill out. I am curious though, how quickly does this occur in other games (or playtests) of spheres content? My player's adventuring days on spheres of power are much longer on average, barring some spheres like creation and warp. I've even seen them run out of SP, shrug and keep going. I love that about the system but this is a question just about things seen by both devs and other groups. Do you have longer than normal adventuring days with your groups? Or is it about the same? Ultimately they have fun, but it has left me curious to hear about other groups.


A59: I can at least shed some insight on this. SoP was outfitted with a whitelist of metamagic feats at the point of its creation, which hasn't been updated yet. I don't know which feats were examined, but some feats simply don't work with SoP that well. Like the feat which turns a light spell into a darkness spell at +0 spell level increase. As this effectively invalidates a sphere, this feat needs at least a +1, if allowed at all. I would say, as a guideline, if you can get a similar enough result via a talent, then requiring the talent and removing the feat would be ok. If the feat provides a different trade-off (Reach Spell with +1 SP applicable for every sphere vs. specialized greater reach talents), then it is ok. If having the feat is superior to the SoP way, then it needs to be nerfed or removed.

I suppose, one could collect a list of metamagic feats now and check if they work with SoP or should be placed on a blacklist.

Thanks for this! This is exactly the sort of thing I wouldn't have considered but makes a lot of sense. I'll have to do some reevaluation for some of the current repertoire to see if there are any really good gems hiding there that don't invalidate the system itself. Reach spell, as you called out, was one I thought was really good for the system because it has a serious potential to be expensive in a day vs the talent options available, but is obviously much more versatile.

[N. Jolly]

Q 60)

This may have been answered already but, what sparked the idea for the spheres system as a whole? It's brilliant and the entirety of the system really livens up my games. Notably we have battles that can rage across huge areas as people move about. My players can't stand keeping Spheres of Powers effects at close range as a result and will spend multiple talents and or feats for ways to improve range. Closer and tighter battles almost feel claustrophobic. That is a drastic change from the core system, albeit one that works really well. So what sparked it all? Was there something you wanted in your own home games? Was it frustration with the system or just a cool idea that came up? And did you know when you started that the system was going to totally change the entire game while in effect?

Q 61)

What's a day in the life like? For everyone? I know there are a lot of devs on this at this point but how often do you interact with each other? What else is on your plate? And when did things go from 'cool idea' to 'this got real' for any devs that answer this question?

Q 62)

What is the best part of having worked/working on this system? Again, open to any and all devs.

Q 63)

There was an idea that surfaced earlier in the thread about plans for expanding ideas for the sphere system and someone said "all it really needs is someone to take the reins". Is it that easy to get involved? If I have ideas and/or want to try and contribute something to this system, how would that be submitted?

Q60: I can only speak for myself here with the Spheres of Might side of thing, but the base ideas for what we had was trying to emulate as many real world fighting styles as possible. A lot came from simple concepts that we just really enjoyed, running with concepts that were just a lot of fun to play around. I'm sure I can speak for the rest of the SoM team in saying that we're really happy with the way people have taken to this system.

Q61: We actually have a lot of contact with each other, most of us are on a discord server together, and I run my own development server too. As for how quickly something goes from 'cool idea' to 'working doc', it's actually pretty fast. I've had a few things that were just neat ideas slowly making their way forward into actual projects.

Q62: For me, it's seeing people interact with the system. That includes people talking about what they don't like, what could be fixed, etc. Also, people who write guides for it win my heart in a real way; as a guide writer, it's like a love letter to what I've written. Seriously though, threads like this are some of my favorite parts of the books, and it's too amazing to even involve myself in projects like these.

Q63: I can say that I was able to get involved pretty easily, but then again, I had a pretty good track record beforehand. From what I've seen, it's mostly about getting into contact with Adam M. and pitching to see if he likes the concept. For those looking to get into design work, I run a design server, feel free to PM me for info about that (it's semi-private, so no public links).

[freduncio]

Q67 If you use a mind spy on one trobadour persona, but didn't choose to activate it until he changed personas, the mind spy will work. In my understanding it will return nothing, as stated in the ability about scrying, But one player of mine think that a mind spy isn't a scry, so... just asking

[Tariyan Draegr]

Q68

For the scholars martial study scholar knack, if the scholar were to take that for the brute sphere, would he gain the ability to use his class level for bab for unarmed attacks and the brute maneuvers, or just to shove? As an expansion on that question, if he were to take it for the barroom sphere, would he gain the effect on all improvised weapon attacks?

[A.J.Gibson]

So much goodness.

First thing is first, let it not be said I disapprove of where the life sphere (or protection sphere for that matter) ended up! The fact that my players actually consider healing because it's good is amazing. I can actually make healers in combat that my players want to kill, and frankly Faithful Shepherd is going to be used for a Villain at some point just because I think it is that awesome. And that's just scratching the surface of what I love about the sphere system, and specifically the life sphere.

I find it somewhat interesting though that, coming from a long history of D&D 3.5 prior to pathfinder, attrition is expected but non existent. It's mentioned a few times in the old DM guides and came to pathfinder as an inheritance. Yet, as EVERYONE knows, CLW wand wins the healing game. It's not even a question. I browse the forums mostly as a lurker here but a little more active on reddit and it's almost astonishing when people ask and just don't KNOW about it. Some of the comments occasionally reflect that. Even my party, notoriously low on the 'power gaming' scale, eventually figured that out and does it.

Yet I can't personally help but feel that is an unintended interaction. Potions of Healing are 50 gold. 1st level wands of magic missile are 750. So are first level wands of CLW. After the 15th spell in the wand, compared to potions, it's all free. 35 free heals for the same cost in potions. Or what, 15g per charge? The magic missile wand isn't decried as a wonder, but the CLW wand is because it's so efficient. Yet, take away level 1 wands, keep WBL, and what healing remains? Infernal healing goes with the CLW wand leaving the biggest 2 healing items mia. What other methods of rapid healing exists that doesn't eventually start hurting a character's WBL? Everything close to 2nd place is either mediocre, or bordering on unacceptable. Not that we can do anything about it, it's a part of the game, but I think its an interesting view that has developed in the community as a whole.


The real culprit is the wand crafting rules, and the insistence that cost be proportional to the square of level. 3.5 and PF both had the chance to fix this, but didn't. I'm just trying to make the playstyles people want to play viable. Hopefully 2e fixes some of the wonky math in the game.

[Scowling Dragon]

Hopefully 2e fixes some of the wonky math in the game.

How about if they don't, you do in SOP 2e if you ever make it.

My confidence in Paizo is.....not very high.

[AmberVael]

Q 61)

What's a day in the life like? For everyone? I know there are a lot of devs on this at this point but how often do you interact with each other? What else is on your plate? And when did things go from 'cool idea' to 'this got real' for any devs that answer this question?
I dunno how much you know about the industry, so I'm going to answer with all the information I could have really used when I started looking into doing this stuff. Hopefully you (or at least someone else reading this thread) will find it useful.

The vast majority of writers in this industry, even people who write for companies like Paizo and WotC, are freelancers. We aren't technically employed by any publisher or company (though some have very strong ties to one or more publishers), we are contracted for one product at a time, and earn money based on what we write. (http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2301-What-s-a-Freelance-RPG-Writer-Worth#.Vm4kFEo4GUn) Very few of us write full time. I, for example, work in a hospital emergency room and supplement that job with writing. I do have days dedicated just to writing though. So, here's how writing goes for me.

First, I have to get a contract. There's a few ways to obtain one. Open calls, internal requests, networking, and pitches. Open calls are one of the easiest to get ahold of, since they're well, open. Sometimes a publisher throws a request out into the wild of the internet, saying "hey, I want this, can anyone deliver?" This is how I got started working with DDS: when Meyers wanted writers for sphere handbooks, he posted an open call on this forum, and I responded. If you've already worked with a publisher though, it gets easier. Most publishers use stuff like discord, slack (a more businessy discord), basecamp (a project organizer), or just to regularly talk to their freelancers and keep them apprised of new writing needs and opportunities. This is a good passive feed of work, and most of what I've written has come to me this way. Networking is the second cousin of internal requests, where you know a guy who knows a publishers, and they tell you that this publisher is looking for writers. I have a few writer focused forums and chat groups I stick in that keep me aware of work, and they fall in this category. Lastly... pitches. If you've got a cool idea, you can just throw it at publishers until it sticks. Or you can say "wow that publisher is cool," make something targeted at them and their needs, and throw it at them in the hopes of getting their attention. In the short term, this is one of the least successful ways of getting work... but it is a way to get your foot in the door somewhere new, and establish yourself with another publisher, which leads to getting more internal requests from that publisher.

The actual writing process starts with brainstorming. And for me... brainstorming isn't something I just sit around doing, most of the time. Its a passive process. Basically, my brain is a slow cooker, and I'll throw a contract or seed of an idea in the back of my head while I go about the rest of my day, doing chores, working in the hospital, or whatever. This more relaxed method of brainstorming prevents me from getting locked up by pressure and stress, and allows me plenty of time to come up with good ideas to start with. But usually this process eventually segues into research. Once I have a start on my idea, I often need to refine it. If its mechanics, I'll look for precedent - how similar abilities have been built and phrased, where they might be flawed or if my idea is redundant. I'll also look into relevant topics for ideas and details, especially for fluffy pieces. I looked a bit into the properties and effects of light as well as light based technology when making the Illuminator's Handbook, for example.

Once I've got a good grasp of what I'm writing, I chart out what I'm going to write if I haven't already been provided a template by my publisher. I cut the writing work into the section I consider necessary (like the different chapters of our sphere handbooks) and assign a rough word count to each. This last bit is important, because writers are normally given a range to hit in terms of word count, so it gives me an idea of how much I have to work with when writing the book. And then... I start filling it in. Sometimes I find I don't have enough ideas to complete a section, and I'll go back to brainstorming and researching. The different parts of the writing process tend to mix up and often happen simultaneously rather than being a clean step by step process.

As for staying in contact, I have a lot of instant messaging and online connections with my publishers and other writers (whether I'm working with them or not). We keep in touch, especially when projects are happening.

What's on my plate... quite a bit. The Warp Handbook has been sitting on the back burner for a while. I have an idea for another Apocrypha that I have about half done. I've been commissioned by an individual to write a custom race. I'm working on projects with Rite Publishing and Cobalt Sages Creations, and I'm looking to secure another pair of contracts with two new publishers.


Q 62)

What is the best part of having worked/working on this system? Again, open to any and all devs.
My favorite thing about writing in general is that its an accomplishment I can keep looking to. There's a lot of work that is transient: its not yours, it gets messed up again, the traces of it vanish, that sort of thing. But a book? Once complete, its pretty much here to stay. So I bask in my work and plan to keep piling completed books atop each other until I have built a pyramid-monument to my success that will only stoke my insatiable ego further.


Q 63)

There was an idea that surfaced earlier in the thread about plans for expanding ideas for the sphere system and someone said "all it really needs is someone to take the reins". Is it that easy to get involved? If I have ideas and/or want to try and contribute something to this system, how would that be submitted?
Becoming a freelance writer is probably easier than you'd imagine. If you know the system, have a decent grasp of English, and can assemble something resembling a work ethic, you can probably get started. My perspective on DDS is that there's more need for people handling editing and layout than writers at this point, but there's no harm in giving it a shot. Reach out to Meyers.
If you'd just like to get into writing in general, keep an eye out for open calls and start looking at different publishers. Here are some handy links:
Open Publisher List (https://withinthedungeon.blogspot.com/p/d20-pfsrd-publication-varies-third.html)
Third Party Open Call thread at Paizo (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rxfh?ThirdParty-Publishers-Freelancer-Open-Call)
Most publishers have a section on their site about submissions and pitches, so peer around websites of publishers you might be interested in.
Also, Jolly's design server is great, and I recommend it to anyone wanting to get serious about writing.

[freduncio]

Q 69 I find the Energy Focus drawback a little vague.
You may only make a destructive blast of a single energy type. You may not gain any blast type talents, except with the bonus talent gained from this drawback.
That means that I can only make, let's say, Fire Blasts (that I gained with this drawback)? But can I make a Blistering Blast, if I manage to get it somehow? And what about the base blast?

[stack]

Q 69 I find the Energy Focus drawback a little vague.
That means that I can only make, let's say, Fire Blasts (that I gained with this drawback)? But can I make a Blistering Blast, if I manage to get it somehow? And what about the base blast?

A69: The concept of blast type groups was introduced in the Destroyer's Handbook, so the text in the base book obviously doesn't take them into account. You can take blasts within the same blast type group when you have the energy focus drawback. Example: energy focus fire means you can take any blast type form the fire group (Blistering Blast, Fire Blast, Searing Blast) as the bonus talent and can select the other two normally later, but you couldn't take force blast or acid blast. Of course, this only applies if you are using the Destroyer's Handbook; in a base book only game you would just be locked into flame blast with energy focus (fire).

You cannot use the base blast.

[Ssalarn]

Q68

For the scholars martial study scholar knack, if the scholar were to take that for the brute sphere, would he gain the ability to use his class level for bab for unarmed attacks and the brute maneuvers, or just to shove? As an expansion on that question, if he were to take it for the barroom sphere, would he gain the effect on all improvised weapon attacks?

He would gain it on any attack or maneuver granted by a talent, such as shove or Drop.

[Tariyan Draegr]

He would gain it on any attack or maneuver granted by a talent, such as shove or Drop.

Big thankies

[Nyekomimi]

Q70 Is Elementalist's different CL for Destruction temporary effect or constant one, for purpose of all CL-increasing effects?

Say we got Elementalist 4 (so, CL 3, CL 4 for Destruction), non-caster 1, + trait that gives +2 CL "Up to HD". Does Elementalist apply before or after that, making total CL 5 or 6?

Q71 Gestalt game (two levels of different classes at each lvl). One side is Elementalist 20 (so, 15 CL for other, 20 for destruction). Other is full caster. Does Elementalists effective +5 CL apply, or is CL still 20?

[]Q72[] Elementalist 4/Rogue 2 (with no SoP option taken)/Evangelist 10 (progressing Elementalist) with Advanced Magical training would end up with 6th level looking like this:
>Evangelist 2 (Elementalist 5)
>AMT gives Evangelist 2 +1 CL despite it being non-caster class
>Elementalist 5 doesnt give +1 CL but it has +1 CL for destruction

What's outcome?

[Mehangel]

Q70 Is Elementalist's different CL for Destruction temporary effect or constant one, for purpose of all CL-increasing effects?

Say we got Elementalist 4 (so, CL 3, CL 4 for Destruction), non-caster 1, + trait that gives +2 CL "Up to HD". Does Elementalist apply before or after that, making total CL 5 or 6?

A70: An Elementalist 4/Non-caster 1 with a trait giving +2 CL up to HD will have a CL of 5.


Q71 Gestalt game (two levels of different classes at each lvl). One side is Elementalist 20 (so, 15 CL for other, 20 for destruction). Other is full caster. Does Elementalists effective +5 CL apply, or is CL still 20?

A71: Elementalist 20//Soul Weaver 20 (or any other high caster) will have a CL 20 in all spheres.


Q72 Elementalist 4/Rogue 2 (with no SoP option taken)/Evangelist 10 (progressing Elementalist) with Advanced Magical training would end up with 6th level looking like this:
>Evangelist 2 (Elementalist 5)
>AMT gives Evangelist 2 +1 CL despite it being non-caster class
>Elementalist 5 doesnt give +1 CL but it has +1 CL for destruction

A72: I personally would rule an Elementalist 4/Rogue 2/Evangelist 10 w/ the Advanced Magical Training feat is essentially just an Elementalist 14/Rogue 2 w/ the Advanced Magical Training feat, and thus have a CL of 11 (or CL 15 w/ the Destruction sphere).

My reasoning for this is that Aligned Class feature of the Evangelist says the following (emphasis mine)


Evangelists come from many different backgrounds, and they show an unusual range of diversity. At 2nd level, the evangelist must choose a class she belonged to before adding the prestige class to be her aligned class. She gains all the class features for this class, essentially adding every evangelist level beyond 1st to her aligned class to determine what class features she gains. She still retains the Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, and skill ranks of the prestige class, but gains all other class features of her aligned class as well as those of the evangelist prestige class.

Since the Evangelist has "all class features for the class" she also possesses the Casting class feature and thus would not benefit from Advanced Magical Training.

[Nyekomimi]

Q73 Can we take Spell Perfection (Advanced Player Guide) feat for sphere? Or single sphere-modifying version, say Destruction (Radiant blast) or Destruction (Explosive Orb)?

[EldritchWeaver]

The real culprit is the wand crafting rules, and the insistence that cost be proportional to the square of level. 3.5 and PF both had the chance to fix this, but didn't. I'm just trying to make the playstyles people want to play viable. Hopefully 2e fixes some of the wonky math in the game.

You haven't seen the latest preview on items yet. The gold increase is still wonky and you get a restriction on daily usages, because you have to use resonance. Honestly, some suggestions by players on how to fix this in the discussion thread seem to make much more sense than what Paizo provides. But if they truly listen to playtest results, then complaining about this mess might work still.

[A.J.Gibson]

You haven't seen the latest preview on items yet. The gold increase is still wonky and you get a restriction on daily usages, because you have to use resonance. Honestly, some suggestions by players on how to fix this in the discussion thread seem to make much more sense than what Paizo provides. But if they truly listen to playtest results, then complaining about this mess might work still.

I've seen it. It's the same thing they did in 4e (one magic item per tier per day), 5e (maximum 3 attuned items) and 13th Age (maximum one item per tier or level or something...). The problem here is that they continue to have a system for turning any spell into an item (4e has a list of items and 5e and 13th Age don't even let you make items). Spells are often balanced against three things: their cost in knowing, their cost in actions, and their cost in spell slots. The cost in knowing and spell slots is the same for prepared casters, while knowing is much more expensive for spontaneous casters. For classes that can cast directly from their spell books (like Magus using Improved Spell Recall), cost of knowing disappears.

Then we get items. An item removes the cost of knowing and the cost in spell slots, but not the cost in actions. So combat spells don't make good scrolls, because actions are their main cost. But spells that you use once in a blue moon are great in a scroll. Healing is also pretty bad in an item, because higher level healing is more action efficient, not more efficient in terms of spells, and you do most healing out of combat when it doesn't matter. However, healing is completely cumulative (so is damage, but you generally aren't interested in doing damage outside of combat), and can be a huge spell slot hog. So the only time healing is good in an item is if you can mitigate the spell slot cost - or make it dirt cheap, like a wand of CLW does.

The solution is to not have a formulaic system for items. Spells have different values as items, don't try to treat them as the same. Instead, introduce items that can duplicate spell effects for commonly used items, and add limitations if necessary. The healing potion maybe can't bring you above half max hp, for example. Or maybe keep scrolls/potions around but make them more expensive, so they are only useful for spells you don't want to use very often. Anything with a high cost of knowing would still make a useful scroll.

[Slavezero]

Q74 can the Antiquarian use casting traditions or drawbacks?

[Necrikus]

Q75: Uh... should I just repost my question? I'm afraid it's a bit buried by now and it hasn't seen an answer.


Q4: What are, if any, the limitations on the fleshcraft and bestow life advanced talents (especially the combination of the two)? Also, how do you determine the body/life bestowed creature's ability scores?

From what I can tell, the only explicit limitations of fleshcraft (in the case of creating a body) is that if you want it to look like someone specific, you must make a disguise check, and the only implicit limitation is your size limit for creation effects. As for bestow life (in the case of granting life to an empty body), the only explicit limitation is that the created creature is a "1st level commoner of whatever race its body was crafted to mimic."

It seems a bit questionable to think that someone could make the body of any monster whose size is in the caster's creation range, which could then be reanimated into a incredibly powerful undead, or given life through bestow life and be made the caster's friend. Likewise, it seems odd that bestow life doesn't seem to have an explicit HD cap the way reanimate has, or the CL to HD scaling that animate object has. Yes, it says it makes a 1st level commoner, but that's just a single class level that takes no account for racial hit dice. It feels like these uses of these talents are unusually open ended compared to how other advanced talents are designed.

Likewise, it isn't clear how ability scores are to be determined for the fleshcrafted body/life bestowed creature. At least bestow life's "awaken" function clearly states a straighforward 3d6 for mental scores, which could be extrapolated to the "grant life" function, but fleshcrafting a permanent body is quiet on this point.

So any clarification, rules declaration, the pointing out of something I missed or a previous ruling, or any combination of those would be greatly appreciated.

[Nyekomimi]

Q76 Would admixtured Radiant/Chilling blast that utilizes feat that changes save from reflex to fortitude affect undead, since Radiant's effect affects undead despite being fort based, or rather be fully ignored by undead?

[Aipaca]

Q77 Apologies if this has already been asked, but can a Technician with Mechanical Insight set their detonators to explode after, say, 1 second with the Timed mode, thereby making them explode on their turn? Just confirming how it works. Thanks, Aipaca

[Kullervo]

Maybe a very trivial question, but I have to figure this out...

Q79 In the Lancer Sphere, when it talks about what happens when the impalement status is lost they 'take bleed damage equal to the damage dice of the weapon used to impale the creature.' My question is this: Assuming the weapon is 2d6+6, does this mean they take 2 Bleed (since 2d6?) Or 2d6?

[PandorasBox]

Q78 Do the Amateur X secrets of the Hedgewitch give access to Grand Secrets at the appropriate level?

I've asked this before, trying to get the original author of the class to clarify the intention, but failing that, any consensus from the devs would be much appreciated.

[N. Jolly]

Maybe a very trivial question, but I have to figure this out...

Q79 In the Lancer Sphere, when it talks about what happens when the impalement status is lost they 'take bleed damage equal to the damage dice of the weapon used to impale the creature.' My question is this: Assuming the weapon is 2d6+6, does this mean they take 2 Bleed (since 2d6?) Or 2d6?

A79: It's considered to be the latter, the weapon's damage die, so 2d6 in the example that you've given.

[Kullervo]

Holy crap. Well... I guess thats one of my players going down - they were just fighting a boss who impaled one. Then:

Q80 Once the 2d6 from stopping being impaled has resolved, do they have a 'Bleed' tic on them, then? As in, do they continue bleeding?

Thank you!

[N. Jolly]

Holy crap. Well... I guess thats one of my players going down - they were just fighting a boss who impaled one. Then:

Q80 Once the 2d6 from stopping being impaled has resolved, do they have a 'Bleed' tic on them, then? As in, do they continue bleeding?

Thank you!

A80: Yes, they stay bleeding until they remove it in the normal ways of removing bleed.

[Mairn]

Q81: Does the Brutal Strike granted by Bloody Counter count as an attack action for the purposes of feats such as Vital Strike and other spheres abilities? The wording is unclear, since Brutal Strikes are normally a special attack action.

[DrMartin]

Q82: Can you suggest a way to get the Warlords's 2nd level Tactical Presence (indomitable) (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/warlord/#TOC-Tactical-Presence-Ex-) ability with Spheres of Might? Possibly using already written material, or suggesting the best way to homebrew that in (possibly as a Warleader Tactic?).


We are in the process of converting a campaign from Path of War to Spheres of Might, and this has been one of a character's signature abilities - would be a shame if it got lost in the transition.

[N. Jolly]

Q81: Does the Brutal Strike granted by Bloody Counter count as an attack action for the purposes of feats such as Vital Strike and other spheres abilities? The wording is unclear, since Brutal Strikes are normally a special attack action.

A81: Unless anyone else on the team states otherwise, I am going to say that it is not treated as an attack action.

[Lirya]

81..: The text of Bloody Counter specifically refers to the Brutal Strike it grants as an attack action (the last sentence says) 'If the creature attacking you is battered, you may resolve your attack action prior to their attack being resolved.' where attack action refers to your brutal strike.

[N. Jolly]

81..: The text of Bloody Counter specifically refers to the Brutal Strike it grants as an attack action (the last sentence says) 'If the creature attacking you is battered, you may resolve your attack action prior to their attack being resolved.' where attack action refers to your brutal strike.

Fair point, I'm bringing it up with the others as I'm not sure that was the intention. I may have been wrong, and hopefully we can get this clarified.

[Slavezero]

so what book do you guys think will be next in the spheres handbook series? I've bought almost every one so far barring the newest Abjurer's Handbook and The Auspician's Handbook so i'm curious which one will be next to end up in my collection

[Mehangel]

so what book do you guys think will be next in the spheres handbook series? I've bought almost every one so far barring the newest Abjurer's Handbook and The Auspician's Handbook so i'm curious which one will be next to end up in my collection

I believe the Trickster's Handbook (illusion sphere handbook) will be next in the line up.

[ICN]

Questions about the Lattice Weaver incanter specialization's bullrush abilities:
Q87: Does the incanter's size limitation on bullrushes apply?
Q88: Do any abilities or items the incanter have affect the barrier wall's bullrush checks? (e.g. improved bullrush, gauntlets of the skilled manuever, or dipping into the brute sphere via feats.)
Q89: If the wall fails at its bullrush check, does it stop moving altogether or move around the target? What about in cases where the wall is bullrushing multiple targets and succeeds on one but not the other?
Q90: Rather than moving the barrier 20 ft., would it be possible to instead shrink a cube barrier by 5 ft. on a side? It's not allowed by RAW, but it's a fun idea so I figured I'd ask.

Quite like the specialization on the whole; it's a fun, unique ability.

Edit: Corrected question numbers

[ICN]

Sorry for the double post. Saw a couple questions I could answer when traversing the backlog.


Q33: Can you see in your own darkness from the Dark sphere, or do you still have to have darkvision already?

Q34:
The Hypnotic Darkness feat is stated as followed:

Prerequisites: Dark sphere, Mind sphere, Looming Darkness. Benefit: Those within your darkness are particularly vulnerable to your charms and suggestions. Your areas of darkness and blot are always treated as if imbued with Looming Darkness when you use the Confusion, Fascinate, Fear, or Sleep Mind talents.

I don't understand this at all, I'm afraid. Does this mean that your darkness becomes looming when you use one of these Mind talents, and your darkness has to have already been sustained? Or do you create both effects at the same time?

A33: You cannot see in your own darkness without darkvision.

A34: Basically, whenever you use one of the listed mind sphere abilities on a creature in your darkness, they take the penalty of Looming Darkness automatically, even if you didn't create the darkness with that talent.

An example: Bob the spooky dark caster casts a darkness effect on round 1 as a standard action, applying any darkness talent he'd like, such as Hungry Darkness. On round 2, with his standard action, Bob casts the Fear mind talent on John, who is in Bob's darkness. Therefore, John takes the Looming Darkness penalty to his save against Bob's Fear talent. Does that help?


Q59: Is an Armorist allowed to use the Blast Vessel encantment?

A59: Only if they have the Destructive Weapons (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/armorist#toc24) Arsenal Trick.

[Mithril Leaf]

Q 91:
The Lich Oracle Curses grants (obviously death themed) bonus spells at some levels but not others. How would one make use of this on a Spheres Oracle? Same for any curse that grants bonus spells at some levels really.

[AmberVael]

Q 91:
The Lich Oracle Curses grants (obviously death themed) bonus spells at some levels but not others. How would one make use of this on a Spheres Oracle? Same for any curse that grants bonus spells at some levels really.

A 91

My suggestion is the following:

Any time a curse would grant a Spheres Oracle one or more spells known, they should gain a single bonus talent instead. Otherwise, they get benefits as normal. So the Lich curse would grant its normal benefits at 1st and 15th levels, but would gain a bonus talent at 5th and 10th instead of spells known. Lycanthropy and other curses would work the same way.

[Mithril Leaf]

A 91

My suggestion is the following:

Any time a curse would grant a Spheres Oracle one or more spells known, they should gain a single bonus talent instead. Otherwise, they get benefits as normal. So the Lich curse would grant its normal benefits at 1st and 15th levels, but would gain a bonus talent at 5th and 10th instead of spells known. Lycanthropy and other curses would work the same way.

That does seem the obvious answer, and how I'd rule it as GM, but some confirmation of intention would be nice if available.

[AmberVael]

That does seem the obvious answer, and how I'd rule it as GM, but some confirmation of intention would be nice if available.

Expanded Options predates the formation of the current Spheres team, so its in a bit of a tricky spot. The short of it is that I'm playing carefully with my wording here since I'm not the author or Meyers and don't want to speak beyond my role without a go ahead (though I do have the agreement of several other writers with me on this). But I'm very confident in my response. If that bit gets errata? I'd lay all my money on my suggestion being what happens.

[A.J.Gibson]

That does seem the obvious answer, and how I'd rule it as GM, but some confirmation of intention would be nice if available.

There has been a lot of discussion about this sort of thing in the AoP thread, and I came to exactly the same conclusion Amber did. Pathfinder tends to value extra spells known very differently from case to case - a single feat buys you one spell known, while the human ACF gets you an extra one every level. Even among oracle curses, some grant 1 spell known, and others grant 2. The best way to look at these things is to figure out the original costing in PF. The dual-cursed oracle loses the 5th, 10th, and 15th level abilities of their curse in return for 2 additional revelations, and you can buy revelations with a feat, so one curse power = one feat is probably okay. Frankly, it's not like oracle curses are particularly balanced against each other, so don't worry about getting the balance perfect.

tl;dr - what Amber said.

[stack]

Q76 Would admixtured Radiant/Chilling blast that utilizes feat that changes save from reflex to fortitude affect undead, since Radiant's effect affects undead despite being fort based, or rather be fully ignored by undead?

A76: Good question, this takes a bit of parsing. In my understanding, the initial Fortitude save against the damage applies to undead, since blasts can effect objects, so their immunity to Fortitude saves doesn't apply.

For the rider effects, "any additional effects of the blast types are applied normally." The radiant blast would have its normal effect, while the fortitude save or be staggered effect of frost blast would be blocked by the undead immunities. The radiant blast bypass doesn't transfer to the frost blast rider.

[AlienFromBeyond]

Q92: Is it intentional that the Clear Path (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/guardian#toc22) (zone) combat talent lets you move through your own zone without provoking AoOs in addition to other allies? Punishing Rebuke and Roving Flanker both have very clear wording that they don't benefit yourself, only other allies, but this doesn't despite the fact that it seems very powerful as it makes it way safer to move between multiple enemies provoking AoOs in your Patrol.

[stack]

Q92: Is it intentional that the Clear Path (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/guardian#toc22) (zone) combat talent lets you move through your own zone without provoking AoOs in addition to other allies? Punishing Rebuke and Roving Flanker both have very clear wording that they don't benefit yourself, only other allies, but this doesn't despite the fact that it seems very powerful as it makes it way safer to move between multiple enemies provoking AoOs in your Patrol.
A92: You should not benefit from this. Must have slipped past.

[AlienFromBeyond]

A92: You should not benefit from this. Must have slipped past.
Probably because the feat it's associated with (Escape Route) is just as wonky in how it works, just look at all the arguments people have had about whether a character and their mount having the feat protect each other. Most think it does, so perhaps at the time Clear Path was just done to mimic that? Thanks for setting it straight though, I figured never provoking AoOs while moving around for my Patrol might have been too good on top of no AoOs for allies in the area as well.

[MrSandman]

Q93 The magical signs drawback says that everyone within thirty feet knows when you're using magic as well as the nature of said magic. Does that mean that they know the exact effect that you're using (and thus render illusion and subtle mind control unusable)? If not, what exactly do they know about the effect you're trying to create?

[Mithril Leaf]

Q 94:
Is the limit on Reanimating of 20 Hit Dice applied before or after the additional Hit Dice added by any templates, such as zombie?

[Nyekomimi]

Aside of hoping some of earlier questions get answered...

Q95: Does Masterful Defense count as using Crane Style for purpose of Crane Wing/Riposte?

[ICN]

Q96: Can Air Stunt (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/athletics#toc44) and Diving Strike (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/athletics#toc24) be used together? e.g. Bob gets a 30 on their check to jump as part of diving strike, leaping 30 ft. in the air. At that point, they use Air Stunt and get another 30, jumping an additional 30 ft. in the air. However, Bob would only take 3d6 falling damage, as Wall Stunt states: "Any fall damage that would be incurred is calculated after removing the height of the swift action jump." So would Diving Strike deal 3d6 damage or 6d6?

[pythor]

Q97: What's the height of the standard Barrier from the Protection Sphere in open air? The Core book doesn't say. I've heard arguments for spherical, but there's a newer talent that does that to your barrier, so I don't think that's right.

[Lirya]

Q98: Afterimage says
When moving more than 5 ft. during your turn using the movement mode corresponding to a package you possess, the speed of your motion causes you to leave behind an afterimage, which may foil your foe’s attacks. If you move more than 20 ft., you may expend your martial focus as a free action to leave behind an additional afterimage. These afterimages disappear at the start of your next turn.
...
For every 6 ranks in Acrobatics you possess, you may leave an additional afterimage.

Do you always get the additional afterimages if you have 6+ ranks in Acrobatics, or do you only get the additional images if you expend your martial focus?

My interpretation is that as written I think you always get the additional images for multiple ranks, but that if you do then the talent is too powerful compared to other options and expending martial focus is kind of pointless once you have 6 or more ranks.

Edit: A97: The protection sphere says
Ethereal creatures are technically stopped by the barrier, but can usually find a way around it (as the barrier does not cut through objects, and so usually stops at ground level).

This implies that the Barrier is a sphere that doesn't penetrate solids or liquids, so the coverage you get would depend on your environment (if you are flying then you could get a complete sphere, in a cave it would only produce two walls...)


If creating the barrier would cause it to go through another object, the barrier cuts harmlessly through the material (without compromising the integrity of the object, but preventing the object from being moved). If creating the barrier would cause it to go through a creature or animated object, the barrier shunts the creature just outside the effect of the sphere.

As you can see, all this talent actually does is allow the default barrier to penetrate objects, which is how it prevents more creatures from bypassing it.

[EldritchWeaver]

Q98: Afterimage says

Do you always get the additional afterimages if you have 6+ ranks in Acrobatics, or do you only get the additional images if you expend your martial focus?

My interpretation is that as written I think you always get the additional images for multiple ranks, but that if you do then the talent is too powerful compared to other options and expending martial focus is kind of pointless once you have 6 or more ranks.

A98:

You get only additional afterimages if you expend the martial focus. The last line specifies, that for every 6 ranks the number of potential afterimages increases by 1, so with 18 ranks and expending the focus you have overall 5 images. Without expending the focus, you get only one, regardless of the ranks.

[Lirya]

You get only additional afterimages if you expend the martial focus. The last line specifies, that for every 6 ranks the number of potential afterimages increases by 1, so with 18 ranks and expending the focus you have overall 5 images. Without expending the focus, you get only one, regardless of the ranks.

If you read the text in the book (or my quote) again you will see it says 'for every 6 ranks in Acrobatics you possess, you may leave an additional afterimage', not the number of potential afterimages increases by 1.

English may not be my first language, but in a new paragraph and with a lot of text in between, it is not at all clear that it refers to the images granted by expending focus. Though I agree that is likely the intended interpretation.

[ICN]

Q99: If you have both the leap and run packages and the Swift Movement (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/athletics#toc17) talent, are the bonuses intended to stack? e.g. 30 ft. base speed, boosted to 40 ft. by the run package, and 50 ft. while jumping due to the leap package? Or is it just 40 ft. while running or leaping?

[Von Krieger]

Q 65

Is there a limit to how many alchemy sphere Formulae you can possess at one time? The language is "you cannot prepare more formulae at one time than..." which I interpret to mean in one 30 minute a person can not prepare more that X number of bombs, and that person can spend another 30 minute period to double the number of bombs they have.

A 65:

Not staff, but I can answer this.

The wiki (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/alchemy)has this to say for the Alchemy sphere's formulae:

You may craft any item whose formulae you know in 30 minutes, or 15 minutes if you have access to an alchemist’s lab or alchemist’s crafting kit, but due to the volatile nature of the enhanced formulae you cannot prepare more formulae at one time than a number equal to 1/2 your ranks in Craft (alchemy) (minimum 1) + the number of formulae talents you possess. For every 4 ranks in Craft (alchemy) you possess, you may craft 1 additional formulae as part of the same 30/15 minute time period.

It's meant to be a cap on how many you can prepare PERIOD, and a new bit was added after the book release that allows for being able to make multiple formulae at a time as you rank up the skill.

They're using "prepare" in a sense akin to the way spell slots are prepared.

[Valdimarian]

Q100 Does life sphere's "Clarified Strike" also qualify for the "Spell Attack" feat? (I assume it does, it as just added after Spell Attack was written)

Q101 Bit of an edge case, but is there currently a way to combine "Cone of Death" with "Greater Ghost Strike" or "Sculpt Blast"? (I'm wondering if you just need Spell Attack or if an additional feat would be needed)

[Drakhan]

Q102) This is more of a confirmation question. If a Sphere cleric has the healing domain, do they empower the cure ability of the life sphere? That seems to be the intention and most of the domain powers give entirely new abilities rather than affecting specific spells so wanted to confirm.

[Scowling Dragon]

Q101 Bit of an edge case, but is there currently a way to combine "Cone of Death" with "Greater Ghost Strike" or "Sculpt Blast"? (I'm wondering if you just need Spell Attack or if an additional feat would be needed)

A101: in the works for the death book

[A.J.Gibson]

Q100 Does life sphere's "Clarified Strike" also qualify for the "Spell Attack" feat? (I assume it does, it as just added after Spell Attack was written)

A100 I didn't write Spell Attack, but if it had been around at the time I wrote Clarified Strike, I would have added a caveat to make it compatible. So RAW, no, but that's mostly because of the phrasing chosen for Spell Attack.

[QUOTE=Drakhan;23239913]Q102) This is more of a confirmation question. If a Sphere cleric has the healing domain, do they empower the cure ability of the life sphere? That seems to be the intention and most of the domain powers give entirely new abilities rather than affecting specific spells so wanted to confirm.

A102 This is one of those GM-call situations. The ability says that 'cure' spells are empowered (not spells that heal in general), and then states that it 'empowers' spells by increasing healing by 50% - which isn't what empower does! I suspect that it was written that was to make it compatible with the Heal spell, so I think it would be fair if it worked the same with the Cure ability of the Life sphere for purposes of restoring hit points.

[Slavezero]

A101: in the works for the death book

is there a doc with the book somewhere like the others have? i'd really like a chance to see whats in store for the death sphere

[Galacktic]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?564072-DDS-Spheres-of-Power-Death-Handbook-Open-Beta

[Slavezero]

Q103: if an Armiger with the Antiquarian archtype uses a weapon with the bane enchant to attack with a SoP spell would they gain the increased damage? if no is there anyway they could like if they were using the Destructive Focus enchant?

Q104: when using Weaponize from the Telekinesis sphere to attack it says you deal damage as a bludgeon of the size you specify. does it actually take up the space the size normally needs or does it only use the Table to calculate the damage dice? and it also says if you have the Dancing Weapon talent you can treat it as a weapon you have proficiency with. does that mean if i had proficiency with unarmed attacks and one of the SoM Spheres that increased unarmed damage that my bludgeon would have increased damage as well? and could i increase the size of my blugeon still to add yet more damage on top of that?

Q105: if i get the Extended Range Destruction Talent would that effect Sculpt Blast so i would have a Medium-range cone and a Long-range Line?

[stack]

Q96: Can Air Stunt (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/athletics#toc44) and Diving Strike (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/athletics#toc24) be used together? e.g. Bob gets a 30 on their check to jump as part of diving strike, leaping 30 ft. in the air. At that point, they use Air Stunt and get another 30, jumping an additional 30 ft. in the air. However, Bob would only take 3d6 falling damage, as Wall Stunt states: "Any fall damage that would be incurred is calculated after removing the height of the swift action jump." So would Diving Strike deal 3d6 damage or 6d6?
A96: You calculate based on the falling damage you would take, so 3d6.

Q98: Afterimage says

Do you always get the additional afterimages if you have 6+ ranks in Acrobatics, or do you only get the additional images if you expend your martial focus?

My interpretation is that as written I think you always get the additional images for multiple ranks, but that if you do then the talent is too powerful compared to other options and expending martial focus is kind of pointless once you have 6 or more ranks.



A98:

You get only additional afterimages if you expend the martial focus. The last line specifies, that for every 6 ranks the number of potential afterimages increases by 1, so with 18 ranks and expending the focus you have overall 5 images. Without expending the focus, you get only one, regardless of the ranks.


If you read the text in the book (or my quote) again you will see it says 'for every 6 ranks in Acrobatics you possess, you may leave an additional afterimage', not the number of potential afterimages increases by 1.

English may not be my first language, but in a new paragraph and with a lot of text in between, it is not at all clear that it refers to the images granted by expending focus. Though I agree that is likely the intended interpretation.
A98: The additional images only apply when expending focus. The text ought to be tweaked to make this clear.

Q99: If you have both the leap and run packages and the Swift Movement (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/athletics#toc17) talent, are the bonuses intended to stack? e.g. 30 ft. base speed, boosted to 40 ft. by the run package, and 50 ft. while jumping due to the leap package? Or is it just 40 ft. while running or leaping?
A99: It is a both a typed bonus to speed and from the same source, so it doesn't stack.

Q103: if an Armiger with the Antiquarian archtype uses a weapon with the bane enchant to attack with a SoP spell would they gain the increased damage? if no is there anyway they could like if they were using the Destructive Focus enchant?

Q104: when using Weaponize from the Telekinesis sphere to attack it says you deal damage as a bludgeon of the size you specify. does it actually take up the space the size normally needs or does it only use the Table to calculate the damage dice? and it also says if you have the Dancing Weapon talent you can treat it as a weapon you have proficiency with. does that mean if i had proficiency with unarmed attacks and one of the SoM Spheres that increased unarmed damage that my bludgeon would have increased damage as well? and could i increase the size of my blugeon still to add yet more damage on top of that?

Q105: if i get the Extended Range Destruction Talent would that effect Sculpt Blast so i would have a Medium-range cone and a Long-range Line?

A103: Bane wouldn't apply unless you are delivery the attack through the weapon (energy blade or similar).

104 I will leave to Amber to answer as I know she will do so thoroughly and with authority.

A105: Extended range does not impact the length of fixed-range shapes. If you had an ability that let the cone or line originate somewhere other than the caster, then extended range would increase the distance of the potential origin point, but I don't recall any such ability existing.

[Arcueid]

Q106 In the new nature sphere book for metal/plant/ect.. there's a new Dual sphere feat called "Primal Blast"; When you use this it lets you use casting ability modifier to hit and damage for blasts.
Now i't makes no mention of blast shapes and one can assume its primary purpose is for and blast that needs an attack roll, but how does it interact with Destructive Maw and Energy Blade?
Destructive Maw makes it a natural weapon, but its still an attack with a destructive blast so would it overwrite?
Energy blade uses an attack with a melee weapon along with the blast but i had to ask on this one because while i was about to write it off, technically as it stands Electric Blast blast type(effectively recreating shocking grasp) gives the foe a -3 to AC vs the blast, but as its been understood this does affect energy blade because energy blade is still technically a casted blast. As such it does raise the question if primal blast would result in a route where if someone met the requirements they could get casting modifier to hit/damage when using energy blade instead of the usual str/dex.

Edit: Also i guess i'd ask for how this would work with doomblade archetype for mageknight. Thats in a technical inbetween where its a destructive blast that can be augmented with blast types allowing it to in theory meet the prerequisites.
Blaster Armorist also, as that one also lets you use types and considers that also a destructive blast.

[Mehangel]

Q106 In the new nature sphere book for metal/plant/ect.. there's a new Dual sphere feat called "Primal Blast"; When you use this it lets you use casting ability modifier to hit and damage for blasts.
Now i't makes no mention of blast shapes and one can assume its primary purpose is for and blast that needs an attack roll, but how does it interact with Destructive Maw and Energy Blade?
Destructive Maw makes it a natural weapon, but its still an attack with a destructive blast so would it overwrite?
Energy blade uses an attack with a melee weapon along with the blast but i had to ask on this one because while i was about to write it off, technically as it stands Electric Blast blast type(effectively recreating shocking grasp) gives the foe a -3 to AC vs the blast, but as its been understood this does affect energy blade because energy blade is still technically a casted blast. As such it does raise the question if primal blast would result in a route where if someone met the requirements they could get casting modifier to hit/damage when using energy blade instead of the usual str/dex.

Edit: Also i guess i'd ask for how this would work with doomblade archetype for mageknight. Thats in a technical inbetween where its a destructive blast that can be augmented with blast types allowing it to in theory meet the prerequisites.
Blaster Armorist also, as that one also lets you use types and considers that also a destructive blast.

A106

For destructive blasts without an attack roll (such as most blast shapes), the feat only grants a bonus to damage.
For Destructive Maw, the feat applies to both the attack roll and damage roll with the destructive maw.
For Energy Blade, the feat would apply to the weapon's attack roll (by replacing the previous ability modifier with your CAM) and the destructive blast damage (by increasing the damage dealt by your CAM); the weapon's damage roll is unaffected (keeping whatever ability modification it has, such as Strength mod to damage, etc).
For Doomblade Mageknight, the feat applies to the destructive blade as if it were a destructive blast.
For Blaster Armorist, the feat applies to the arm cannon as if it were a destructive blast.

[Arcueid]

A106

For Energy Blade, the feat would apply to the weapon's attack roll and the destructive blast damage, but would have no effect on the weapons damage.


So for energy blade just want slight clarification.

Would the formula for damage then be:

Weapon Die + Str Modifier(or relevant weapon damage mod) + Destructive Blast + Casting Ability Modifier?

[Mehangel]

So for energy blade just want slight clarification.
Would the formula for damage then be:
Weapon Die + Str Modifier(or relevant weapon damage mod) + Destructive Blast + Casting Ability Modifier?

It is intended that the damage formula would be Weapon Die + Destructive Blast + Casting Ability Modifier. You can however get around this by using the Improved Energy Weapon feat. I will modify my previous post clarify for future readers. modified after discussion

You are correct.

[Arcueid]

It is intended that the damage formula would be Weapon Die + Destructive Blast + Casting Ability Modifier. You can however get around this by using the Improved Energy Weapon feat. I will modify my previous post clarify for future readers.

Ok now i'm a bit confused. Is energy blade not supposed to normally include the weapon's damage mod?

It says
"As a standard action, you may make a single weapon attack in conjunction with making a destructive blast. Any creature damaged by the attack is also struck by the destructive blast."

So i'd assume as it makes no distinction its a normal weapon attack which is Weapon Damage Die + Weapon damage mod + Destructive blast;

You then state the feat would add casting mod but "would have no effect on the weapons damage." So i took this as it would leave the weapon's damage mod.
Or did you simply add that to state that it wouldn't apply the casting modifier twice?

[Mehangel]

Ok now i'm a bit confused. Is energy blade not supposed to normally include the weapon's damage mod?

It says
"As a standard action, you may make a single weapon attack in conjunction with making a destructive blast. Any creature damaged by the attack is also struck by the destructive blast."

So i'd assume as it makes no distinction its a normal weapon attack which is Weapon Damage Die + Weapon damage mod + Destructive blast;

You then state the feat would add casting mod but "would have no effect on the weapons damage." So i took this as it would leave the weapon's damage mod.
Or did you simply add that to state that it wouldn't apply the casting modifier twice?

Damn, I misread the Energy Blade talent, for some reason I thought it read as (emphasis mine):

As a standard action, you may make a single weapon attack in conjunction with making a destructive blast. Any creature hit by the attack is also struck by the destructive blast.

I am altering my ruling to be instead to be the formula that you posted earlier, being:
"Weapon Die + Str Modifier (or relevant weapon damage mod) + Destructive Blast + Casting Ability Modifier."

I again will modify my original answers to match this.

[MrSandman]

Q107
How do I know which spheres/talents are subject to Spell Resistance and which aren't?

[AmberVael]

Q104: when using Weaponize from the Telekinesis sphere to attack it says you deal damage as a bludgeon of the size you specify. does it actually take up the space the size normally needs or does it only use the Table to calculate the damage dice? and it also says if you have the Dancing Weapon talent you can treat it as a weapon you have proficiency with. does that mean if i had proficiency with unarmed attacks and one of the SoM Spheres that increased unarmed damage that my bludgeon would have increased damage as well? and could i increase the size of my blugeon still to add yet more damage on top of that?
I'll divide this into parts to make it clear.

A: Does using Weaponize take up the same 'space' as lifting an object? Yes. The only difference between using Weaponize and not using Weaponize is that you don't have to have the object. Weaponize effectively lets you fake object. It is the Air Guitar and Invisible Cheeseburger talent. If you want to use Weaponize to attack someone with a large greatsword, you have to be able to lift large object and use telekinesis as if you were lifting a large object. If you can only lift large objects, you couldn't, for example, use Weaponize + Divided Mind to bludgeon people as if you were lifting several large greatswords, though you could bludgeon people as if you had two medium greatswords.

B: Can I use Weaponize to attack people with a telekinetic unarmed strike? Yes. You can punch people with telekinetic fists this way. Talk about throwing your punches.

C: Would this unarmed strike bludgeon deal increased damage if I have talents/class features to increase its damage? Yes. If you have talents in unarmed Spheres of Might spheres and/or levels in classes like monk or brawler, that will carry over to the bludgeons you create. There's the possibility that weird wording in an unarmed damage increasing feature could interfere with this, but none of the stuff I've mentioned look like they conflict.

D: Can I increase the size of the Weaponize version of my unarmed strike? Yes. Like any other weapon you mimic with weaponize, you can increase its effective size to any size weapon you could lift with your telekinesis. Unarmed Strikes are treated as light weapons, so the unarmed strike of a medium character would be treated as a tiny sized object for the purposes of weaponize.

[Omnificer]

A107:

Q107
How do I know which spheres/talents are subject to Spell Resistance and which aren't?

The base sphere ability or the talent itself will state if it is not subject to Spell Resistance. If it doesn't state that, it is subject to SR.

For instance the Dark sphere base ability is not subject to SR in its description. The Destruction base ability is subject to SR because it doesn't say it's not but the Stone Blast talent specifically calls out bypassing SR. And below are some additional examples with quotes from the text.

Using the Spheres:

Using a sphere ability provokes an attack of opportunity (unless cast defensively), requires a concentration check in difficult situations, ceases to function in an anti-magic field, and is subject to spell resistance.

Illusion:

You may craft images and impressions of things that aren’t there. Illusion sphere abilities have a range of Close and do not allow spell resistance unless placed on a creature with resistance (Such as with the Illusionary Disguise talent).

Battering Blast:

The blast ignores spell resistance, spell turning, and can penetrate a globe of invulnerability, antimagic field, or antimagic circle, and is not treated as a spell or magical effect for creatures or classes that gain a bonus to saving throws against magic.

[MrSandman]

The base sphere ability or the talent itself will state if it is not subject to Spell Resistance. If it doesn't state that, it is subject to SR.

For instance the Dark sphere base ability is not subject to SR in its description. The Destruction base ability is subject to SR because it doesn't say it's not but the Stone Blast talent specifically calls out bypassing SR. And below are some additional examples with quotes from the text.


Much appreciated!

[ICN]

Q108: How does the Self Confidence ability from the Gladiator sphere work? Do regain martial focus and also perform a boast, or just regain martial focus? You may perform a boast as a standard action to recover your martial focus. Doing so does not require the normal triggering condition for a boast.

[stack]

Q108: How does the Self Confidence ability from the Gladiator sphere work? Do regain martial focus and also perform a boast, or just regain martial focus? You may perform a boast as a standard action to recover your martial focus. Doing so does not require the normal triggering condition for a boast.

A108: as a standard action, you perform a boast. As part if the same action, you recover focus. Normally boasts require certain conditions to be met before you can perform them; this one can be performed without any requirements.

[ICN]

A108: as a standard action, you perform a boast. As part if the same action, you recover focus. Normally boasts require certain conditions to be met before you can perform them; this one can be performed without any requirements.

Thanks, that clears things up nicely.

[Tariyan Draegr]

Q 109

Was it intended for prodigy to not be able to open or link by giving magical buffs? Not really a rules question, just wanted to know if this was intended since concessions were made to make healer based prodigies work.

[Flame_Effigy]

Quick question about Lens talents that I'm sure has already been answered somewhere.

Light talents listed with the (lens) tag are talents that do not create light, but instead bend it or alter its properties. The caster may place a lens as a standard action on any target within the same range as their glow. This requires a melee or ranged touch attack on unwilling targets. A lens lasts as long as you concentrate, but you may spend a spell point to allow a lens to remain for 1 hour per caster level without concentration.

The wording of this seems a little imprecise, unless I'm overthinking it.
Does a lens talent require an already existing glow to be active, or does the "any target within the same range as their glow." mean that a Lens talent has the same range as your normal Glow, which is Medium unless you extend it?

[AmberVael]

Quick question about Lens talents that I'm sure has already been answered somewhere.

Light talents listed with the (lens) tag are talents that do not create light, but instead bend it or alter its properties. The caster may place a lens as a standard action on any target within the same range as their glow. This requires a melee or ranged touch attack on unwilling targets. A lens lasts as long as you concentrate, but you may spend a spell point to allow a lens to remain for 1 hour per caster level without concentration.

The wording of this seems a little imprecise, unless I'm overthinking it.
Does a lens talent require an already existing glow to be active, or does the "any target within the same range as their glow." mean that a Lens talent has the same range as your normal Glow, which is Medium unless you extend it?

The latter. Your quote is old wording that has been errata'd (and updated in the Illuminator's handbook), and the updated section now reads:


Light talents listed with the (lens) tag are talents that do not create light, but instead bend it or alter its properties. The caster may place a lens as a standard action on any target within Medium range. Effects that change the range of glows (such as the Ranged Light talent) also change the range of (lens) talents. This requires a melee or ranged touch attack on unwilling targets. A lens lasts as long as you concentrate, but you may spend a spell point to allow a lens to remain for 1 hour per caster level without concentration.

[stack]

Q 109

Was it intended for prodigy to not be able to open or link by giving magical buffs? Not really a rules question, just wanted to know if this was intended since concessions were made to make healer based prodigies work.

A109: Casting a buff is automatic and often without cost aside from the action (you could cast one and concentrate, for example). Starting a sequence was intended to be a bit tougher, requiring some kind of successful offense. Healing is by its nature reactive and usually carries a cost, so unless you have someone walk around down a few HP so you can start a sequence by healing them in the first round (which would be action-inefficient), it is less certain than casting a buff.

[ICN]

Q111: Can a Conscript with the Warleader specialization share any teamwork feat they possess, or only those gained through the specialization itself? It seems pretty similar to an enhanced tactic the Commander gets, but the wording leaves things unclear. Born Leader: At 3rd level and every five levels thereafter, a conscript gains a teamwork feat he qualifies for as a bonus feat. The conscript may share these feats with any ally currently benefiting from one of his tactics or shouts, even if they would not normally qualify for it.

Edit: Q112: If a character has redirected a condition to their delayed damage pool through use of the Durable or Cold Iron Call talents, and is then subject to an effect that would cure the condition, is the condition removed from the pool, similar to how healing effects work?

Example: Bob is inflicted with the shaken condition, which they redirect to their delayed damage pool. While the condition is still in the pool, Bob drinks a Panacea improved alchemical formulae, which would cure the shaken condition. Is the condition removed from the pool, or does the Panacea have no effect?
You gain a delayed damage pool equal to your 3 x your base attack bonus. When you receive damage, as part of taking the damage you may redirect all or part of it to your delayed damage pool. Apply damage reduction and resistance before redirecting the damage. You may not redirect damage that would exceed the maximum capacity of the damage pool. Your delayed damage pool empties at the end of your turn each round, inflicting any damage stored in the pool on you, bypassing any damage reduction or resistance you possess and resetting to 0. Any additional effects of the attack, such as poison, are still incurred immediately even if the entire damage of the attack is redirected to the delayed damage pool. Any healing you receive in excess of your maximum hp automatically reduces the amount of damage in your delayed damage pool.
Cold Iron Call: When targeted by a spell or spell-like ability, you may delay the onset of its effects until the end of your next turn as if it were damage. Each effect is treated as if it were an amount of hit point damage equal to its caster level for the purpose of your delayed damage pool. If you do not have enough space remaining in the delayed damage pool, you may not delay the effect.
Durable: When targeted by a natural, extraordinary or supernatural ability that inflicts ability damage, ability drain, disease, negative levels, poison or any of the following conditions: (blinded, confused, cowering, dazed, dazzled, entangled, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, frightened, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, petrified, shaken, sickened, staggered, stunned, unconscious) you may delay the onset of its effects until the end of your next turn. Each effect is treated as if it were an amount of hit point damage equal to the attacking creature’s Hit Dice for determining the capacity of your delayed damage pool. If you do not have enough space remaining in the delayed damage pool, you may not delay the effect.

You create a vial of liquid that can be used as a potion, removing a single negative condition the drinker is currently suffering from. The conditions that a panacea can remove are determined by the Craft DC used for its creation:


DC 20: Deafened, fatigued, shaken, sickened.
DC 30: Diseased, exhausted, nauseated, poisoned, staggered.
DC 40: Frightened, blinded, deafened, paralyzed, stunned.

[EldritchWeaver]

Edit: Q112: If a character has redirected a condition to their delayed damage pool through use of the Durable or Cold Iron Call talents, and is then subject to an effect that would cure the condition, is the condition removed from the pool, similar to how healing effects work?

Example: Bob is inflicted with the shaken condition, which they redirect to their delayed damage pool. While the condition is still in the pool, Bob drinks a Panacea improved alchemical formulae, which would cure the shaken condition. Is the condition removed from the pool, or does the Panacea have no effect?
You gain a delayed damage pool equal to your 3 x your base attack bonus. When you receive damage, as part of taking the damage you may redirect all or part of it to your delayed damage pool. Apply damage reduction and resistance before redirecting the damage. You may not redirect damage that would exceed the maximum capacity of the damage pool. Your delayed damage pool empties at the end of your turn each round, inflicting any damage stored in the pool on you, bypassing any damage reduction or resistance you possess and resetting to 0. Any additional effects of the attack, such as poison, are still incurred immediately even if the entire damage of the attack is redirected to the delayed damage pool. Any healing you receive in excess of your maximum hp automatically reduces the amount of damage in your delayed damage pool.
Cold Iron Call: When targeted by a spell or spell-like ability, you may delay the onset of its effects until the end of your next turn as if it were damage. Each effect is treated as if it were an amount of hit point damage equal to its caster level for the purpose of your delayed damage pool. If you do not have enough space remaining in the delayed damage pool, you may not delay the effect.
Durable: When targeted by a natural, extraordinary or supernatural ability that inflicts ability damage, ability drain, disease, negative levels, poison or any of the following conditions: (blinded, confused, cowering, dazed, dazzled, entangled, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, frightened, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, petrified, shaken, sickened, staggered, stunned, unconscious) you may delay the onset of its effects until the end of your next turn. Each effect is treated as if it were an amount of hit point damage equal to the attacking creature’s Hit Dice for determining the capacity of your delayed damage pool. If you do not have enough space remaining in the delayed damage pool, you may not delay the effect.

You create a vial of liquid that can be used as a potion, removing a single negative condition the drinker is currently suffering from. The conditions that a panacea can remove are determined by the Craft DC used for its creation:


DC 20: Deafened, fatigued, shaken, sickened.
DC 30: Diseased, exhausted, nauseated, poisoned, staggered.
DC 40: Frightened, blinded, deafened, paralyzed, stunned.



A112: Looking through the quoted rules, there seems to be only one interpretation. Cold Iron Call and Durable turn other effects than pure damage into something, that is treated as damage. Thus I would treat anything which deals with the non-damage effects as something which heals damage. In other words, unless you are e.g. shaken twice (one affecting you, one in your delayed damage pool), the removal of shaken would affect the shaken in the delayed damage pool.

[kkplx]

Q113

"Melt Earth" Talent:

a) if you melt the earth on a square someone is standing on, they get a reflex save for half, yes?`
b) once they made or didn't make the save they "take the damage for d3 rounds", with Fortitude for half - does that refer to the initial taken damage, or just another CL/d6 each round?
c) It has a duration of concentration - once you stop concentrating, does the creature hit by it continue its d3 rounds of damage? Does it get rooted in place?
d) Can you move that 5ft Square during the concentration? or are you simply keeping that one 5ft square lava-tised?

[Drakhan]

Q114.) I was reviewing the Trickster handbook with a player in my campaign and it was mentioned that there was some discussion around the silence talent, and keeping it in illusion. Could you enlighten me as to how that discussion went and the reason it was kept in illusion? Presumably it was to continue to emulate the core game but at this point my curiosity is piqued.

Regardless, I'm also specifically curious if it was ever mentioned for the protection sphere, since that seems to be the most apt sphere for it from outside the process.

[ImmortalTimothy]

Q115: So I am looking at the Fusion Advanced Talent and I am a bit confused on the exact rulings when paired with the Teamwork feat Cooperative Mind.

Particularly this passage, "You may choose to cooperate, allowing each creature to use the body to take a standard action. This consumes the amalgamated body’s full round action, but leaves each mind with their normal move and swift actions."

So does that mean I could use my normal move action to actually move around? Or does that only allow me to use the move action for other types of actions that require a move action (such as quick teleport)?

I am confused by the wording that it consumes the full round action of the amalgamated body, but we still have our standard, move, and swift actions. Is the wording there to just prevent us from both using full round actions?

Any insights would be appreciated.

[Midnightninja]

Lots of questions about the Sage

Enhancer Esoteric Training

Q116: Can the Sage choose to use an enhance talent as a standard action, on targets within close range, and concentrate on it normally or spend a spell ki point on it for it to last 1 minute/CL? Essentially, can an Enhancer Sage use “Standard Casting” with their bonus enhance talents?

Q117: When casting enhance talents as a swift action, how do an Enhancer Sage’s enhancer talents interact with the following enhancement talents, if at all?

Deep Enhancement
Dual Enhancment
Lingering Enhancement was answered here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22957253&postcount=1192/)
Mass Enhancement
Ranged Enhancement

Q118: Can Rubber ki allow a Sage to apply beneficial, swift-cast enhance talents to their allies within their extended reach? It allows melee touch attacks, so I assume negative enhance talents can be applied using the increased reach.

Q119: Can Extend Spell be applied to swift-cast enhance talents, and if so how would it function?

Q120: Can Extend Spell be applied to the flight, the hardened skin, healing factor, and similar esoteries? (I’m assuming no)

Z Fighter Ki Blaster Esoteric Training, and esoteries.

Q121: For the Ki Blaster esoteries that are similar to blast shapes, do these esoteries count as the blast shapes they mimic for the purposes of prerequisites for feats and talents?
Ex 1: If the Sage has ki bomb, would the Sage qualify for the orb expert feat?
Ex 2: If the Sage has ki bomb, piercing beam, and scatter Blast, would the Sage qualify for the Calamity (blast shape) advanced talent?

Q122: Are ki blasts and chi gong considered separate weapons? If I have weapon focus (chi gong) do the attack rolls for energy bomb and severing ki disc receive the +1 to hit?

Q123: How do critical hits with chi gong and ki blasts work? If a level 20 Sage with ki blaster, severing ki disc, and improved critical (appropriate weapon) spend a ki point for a 20d6 ki disc, does a critical do 60d6 for andaverage of 210 damage?

Style Talents

Q124:The text says a Sage may qualify for a casting tradition, can the Sage take general or sphere specific drawbacks to gain bonus ki points or boons?

Q125: Can the Sage take a unified tradition?

Q126: Can Enhancers and Ki Blasters take sphere-specific drawbacks for the Enhancement and Destruction spheres?

[ICN]

Q127: Does a Prodigy's Imbued Sequence ability count as using a life sphere ability for the purpose of Vitality talents and the Endless Possibilities feat?
At 2nd level, as part of starting a sequence, the prodigy may infuse himself with mystic energy tied to one magic sphere she possesses. Only a single imbue ability may be applied at a time, though the imbuement may be changed as a swift action. If the sequence ends or the prodigy changes the imbuement, any benefits of the imbuement are lost immediately. Each imbuement also unlocks the (finish) ability or abilities tied to the same sphere. If an ability has a range or save DC, it is defined based on the prodigy’s caster level with that sphere. Imbuement effects do not cost spell points or require concentration unless noted. Beginning an imbuement or activating a finisher are sphere effects, though neither provokes attacks of opportunity.

This section also includes vitality talents. A caster with one or more vitality talents may grant a bonus to any ally they use a Life sphere ability on as a free action made when they use that sphere ability. This includes using Fount of Life and granting effects with a duration, such as Revitalize. The bonus lasts for up to 1 minute, or until the ally takes damage from either failing a saving throw or being hit with an attack roll. In the case of abilities with a duration, the minute starts when the ability is used, and ends 1 minute later at the latest, even if the triggering ability is still in effect. If a caster possesses multiple vitality talents, only one talent takes effect when they use a Life sphere ability on an ally, but a single Life sphere ability that affects multiple allies may affect different allies with different vitality talents. A creature can benefit from a vitality talent attached to a Life ability, even if they don’t actually gain anything from the Life ability (such as using cure on a creature at full hit points).


Prerequisites: Fate sphere, Life sphere.
Benefit: Whenever you use a Life sphere ability on an ally, they receive a +1 luck bonus to all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks until the end of their next turn. This bonus increases by +1 for every 5 Life caster levels you possess.


Edit: Missed this earlier

A112: Looking through the quoted rules, there seems to be only one interpretation. Cold Iron Call and Durable turn other effects than pure damage into something, that is treated as damage. Thus I would treat anything which deals with the non-damage effects as something which heals damage. In other words, unless you are e.g. shaken twice (one affecting you, one in your delayed damage pool), the removal of shaken would affect the shaken in the delayed damage pool.

That's how I'd read it, but it would be nice to get some official confirmation

[Mehangel]

Q113

"Melt Earth" Talent:

a) if you melt the earth on a square someone is standing on, they get a reflex save for half, yes?`
b) once they made or didn't make the save they "take the damage for d3 rounds", with Fortitude for half - does that refer to the initial taken damage, or just another CL/d6 each round?
c) It has a duration of concentration - once you stop concentrating, does the creature hit by it continue its d3 rounds of damage? Does it get rooted in place?
d) Can you move that 5ft Square during the concentration? or are you simply keeping that one 5ft square lava-tised?

A113

a) Yes
b) The fortitude is for the damage taken during the d3 rounds after they leave the lava.
c) If you stop concentrating the d3 rounds of damage also stops; If the creature is in the lava when the concentration ends, they are immobilized (creatures who are not in the lava when concentration ends is not immobilized).
d) You cannot move that 5ft square during the concentration.

[MrSandman]

Q128

A caster using the Spheres of Power system can get the drawback Skilled Casting. This forces her to roll a Craft, Perform, or Profession check in order to cast spells. This means that she must be able to perform the action, which is similar to having verbal or somatic casting components. The description of the drawback says:


A caster with Skilled Casting must be able to perform their skill to use their magic, which is similar to but not the same as possessing other drawbacks. For example, a caster who must draw to create magic must have at least one hand free, although unless he also possesses Somatic Casting he may do so while wearing heavy armor without a chance of arcane spell failure.

How would metamagic feats such as Silent Spell and Still spell interact with said requirement?

For example, Thiana the Sorceress has Skilled Casting and Somatic Casting as drawbacks. Her Skilled Casting requires her to roll a Craft (calligraphy) check in order to cast a spell, so she needs a free hand to cast. She also chooses Still Spell as her first-level feat. I can imagine three ways in which the rules might interact:

1. Still Spell would be useless in most cases. She might be able to use it to ignore any chance of arcane spell failure, but she wouldn't be able to cast while being bound or otherwise immobilised, because she still needs a free hand to perform the skill check.
2. Still Spell would allow her to ignore both drawbacks. If she uses Still Spell when creating a magic effect, she doesn't need to move at all and therefore she doesn't need to do any skill checks either.
3. Still Spell would allow her to cast while being bound or otherwise immobilised, but would still require the skill check. So she wouldn't need to have at least one free hand to perform the skill check, but the skill check would still be necessary.

Which one of these is correct? Or do they interact in another way?

[kkplx]

A113

a) Yes
b) The fortitude is for the damage taken during the d3 rounds after they leave the lava.
c) If you stop concentrating the d3 rounds of damage also stops; If the creature is in the lava when the concentration ends, they are immobilized (creatures who are not in the lava when concentration ends is not immobilized).
d) You cannot move that 5ft square during the concentration.

Do they take the full d6 per CL damage every round though, getting a fort save each round to half it?

[Mehangel]

Do they take the full d6 per CL damage every round though, getting a fort save each round to half it?

Yes, the creature gets a Fort save each of the d3 rounds to half the damage taken.

[Drakhan]

Q129

So, advanced magical training allows a caster to get CL as if their non casting classes were low casting classes. They also get to choose a tradition if the GM permits. I suppose this would be GM choice but, if they WERE to take a casting tradition, and elect to not get boons with their drawbacks, would they get spell points as if those non-casting levels were casting levels?


Advanced Magical Training [Core]
Prerequisites: Basic Magical Training or 1 level in a casting class.

Benefit: Treat your levels in non-casting classes as low-casting classes when determining your total caster level. If you do not possess levels in a casting class, increase your spell point pool to equal your casting ability modifier. With GM permission, you may also select a casting tradition when you gain this feat.

Edit: Q129 Part B

Do those 'sort of' casting levels apply to anything else such as MSB and MSD? Or any other derived abilities based on levels in casting classes instead of Caster Level?

[EldritchWeaver]

Q129

So, advanced magical training allows a caster to get CL as if their non casting classes were low casting classes. They also get to choose a tradition if the GM permits. I suppose this would be GM choice but, if they WERE to take a casting tradition, and elect to not get boons with their drawbacks, would they get spell points as if those non-casting levels were casting levels?



Edit: Q129 Part B

Do those 'sort of' casting levels apply to anything else such as MSB and MSD? Or any other derived abilities based on levels in casting classes instead of Caster Level?

A129: AMT does grant spell points and other casting class level benefits. Pretty sure that this was clarified in one of the earlier threads. In that vein, racial levels count as this, too.

[kkplx]

A129correction

AMT does one thing and one thing only, which is letting your non-casting class levels count as low level casting progression for purpose of Spheres CL

- It does not grant MSB or MSD
- It does not grant Spell points beyond those provided by your casting ability modifier, even with a tradition
- It does not apply to racial HD


In previous threads, different DMs as well as the Developers discussed levels of houserules which add one or more of the above aspects to the feat, but Rules as written and originally intended, all you get is what's written in the feat

[stack]

Q111: Q112: If a character has redirected a condition to their delayed damage pool through use of the Durable or Cold Iron Call talents, and is then subject to an effect that would cure the condition, is the condition removed from the pool, similar to how healing effects work?

Example: Bob is inflicted with the shaken condition, which they redirect to their delayed damage pool. While the condition is still in the pool, Bob drinks a Panacea improved alchemical formulae, which would cure the shaken condition. Is the condition removed from the pool, or does the Panacea have no effect?
You gain a delayed damage pool equal to your 3 x your base attack bonus. When you receive damage, as part of taking the damage you may redirect all or part of it to your delayed damage pool. Apply damage reduction and resistance before redirecting the damage. You may not redirect damage that would exceed the maximum capacity of the damage pool. Your delayed damage pool empties at the end of your turn each round, inflicting any damage stored in the pool on you, bypassing any damage reduction or resistance you possess and resetting to 0. Any additional effects of the attack, such as poison, are still incurred immediately even if the entire damage of the attack is redirected to the delayed damage pool. Any healing you receive in excess of your maximum hp automatically reduces the amount of damage in your delayed damage pool.
Cold Iron Call: When targeted by a spell or spell-like ability, you may delay the onset of its effects until the end of your next turn as if it were damage. Each effect is treated as if it were an amount of hit point damage equal to its caster level for the purpose of your delayed damage pool. If you do not have enough space remaining in the delayed damage pool, you may not delay the effect.
Durable: When targeted by a natural, extraordinary or supernatural ability that inflicts ability damage, ability drain, disease, negative levels, poison or any of the following conditions: (blinded, confused, cowering, dazed, dazzled, entangled, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, frightened, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, petrified, shaken, sickened, staggered, stunned, unconscious) you may delay the onset of its effects until the end of your next turn. Each effect is treated as if it were an amount of hit point damage equal to the attacking creature’s Hit Dice for determining the capacity of your delayed damage pool. If you do not have enough space remaining in the delayed damage pool, you may not delay the effect.

You create a vial of liquid that can be used as a potion, removing a single negative condition the drinker is currently suffering from. The conditions that a panacea can remove are determined by the Craft DC used for its creation:


DC 20: Deafened, fatigued, shaken, sickened.
DC 30: Diseased, exhausted, nauseated, poisoned, staggered.
DC 40: Frightened, blinded, deafened, paralyzed, stunned.


A112: Looking through the quoted rules, there seems to be only one interpretation. Cold Iron Call and Durable turn other effects than pure damage into something, that is treated as damage. Thus I would treat anything which deals with the non-damage effects as something which heals damage. In other words, unless you are e.g. shaken twice (one affecting you, one in your delayed damage pool), the removal of shaken would affect the shaken in the delayed damage pool.

A112: Yes, you may remove the effect from the pool.

Q115: So I am looking at the Fusion Advanced Talent and I am a bit confused on the exact rulings when paired with the Teamwork feat Cooperative Mind.

Particularly this passage, "You may choose to cooperate, allowing each creature to use the body to take a standard action. This consumes the amalgamated body’s full round action, but leaves each mind with their normal move and swift actions."

So does that mean I could use my normal move action to actually move around? Or does that only allow me to use the move action for other types of actions that require a move action (such as quick teleport)?

I am confused by the wording that it consumes the full round action of the amalgamated body, but we still have our standard, move, and swift actions. Is the wording there to just prevent us from both using full round actions?

Any insights would be appreciated.

A215:With the feat, each component creature may take a standard action using the amalgamated body. Doing so means that the amalgamated body can't take a move action that turn. Each creature in the body can still take a mental only move and swift action (quickened spell with no verbal/somatic/skill components, concentration with easy focus, etc.)

Q127: Does a Prodigy's Imbued Sequence ability count as using a life sphere ability for the purpose of Vitality talents and the Endless Possibilities feat?
At 2nd level, as part of starting a sequence, the prodigy may infuse himself with mystic energy tied to one magic sphere she possesses. Only a single imbue ability may be applied at a time, though the imbuement may be changed as a swift action. If the sequence ends or the prodigy changes the imbuement, any benefits of the imbuement are lost immediately. Each imbuement also unlocks the (finish) ability or abilities tied to the same sphere. If an ability has a range or save DC, it is defined based on the prodigy’s caster level with that sphere. Imbuement effects do not cost spell points or require concentration unless noted. Beginning an imbuement or activating a finisher are sphere effects, though neither provokes attacks of opportunity.

This section also includes vitality talents. A caster with one or more vitality talents may grant a bonus to any ally they use a Life sphere ability on as a free action made when they use that sphere ability. This includes using Fount of Life and granting effects with a duration, such as Revitalize. The bonus lasts for up to 1 minute, or until the ally takes damage from either failing a saving throw or being hit with an attack roll. In the case of abilities with a duration, the minute starts when the ability is used, and ends 1 minute later at the latest, even if the triggering ability is still in effect. If a caster possesses multiple vitality talents, only one talent takes effect when they use a Life sphere ability on an ally, but a single Life sphere ability that affects multiple allies may affect different allies with different vitality talents. A creature can benefit from a vitality talent attached to a Life ability, even if they don’t actually gain anything from the Life ability (such as using cure on a creature at full hit points).


Prerequisites: Fate sphere, Life sphere.
Benefit: Whenever you use a Life sphere ability on an ally, they receive a +1 luck bonus to all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks until the end of their next turn. This bonus increases by +1 for every 5 Life caster levels you possess.


Edit: Missed this earlier


That's how I'd read it, but it would be nice to get some official confirmation
A127: Beginning the imbuement or activating the finisher count as a sphere effect. It does not specify that they count as an effect of that sphere. I am not sure if there are any other cases were it matters, but I would say yes, it counts as that sphere.

[TheGSE]

Q130: Can a Parzivallian Knight select the special consecration granted by Knight of Wands for their Idylls?

[RedMop]

Q131 - Any particular reason the Armiger can't use customized weapons with siege weapons? Sounds like a good candidate for a Prowess...

[Mehangel]

Q129

So, advanced magical training allows a caster to get CL as if their non casting classes were low casting classes. They also get to choose a tradition if the GM permits. I suppose this would be GM choice but, if they WERE to take a casting tradition, and elect to not get boons with their drawbacks, would they get spell points as if those non-casting levels were casting levels?



Edit: Q129 Part B

Do those 'sort of' casting levels apply to anything else such as MSB and MSD? Or any other derived abilities based on levels in casting classes instead of Caster Level?


A129correction

AMT does one thing and one thing only, which is letting your non-casting class levels count as low level casting progression for purpose of Spheres CL

- It does not grant MSB or MSD
- It does not grant Spell points beyond those provided by your casting ability modifier, even with a tradition
- It does not apply to racial HD


In previous threads, different DMs as well as the Developers discussed levels of houserules which add one or more of the above aspects to the feat, but Rules as written and originally intended, all you get is what's written in the feat

I think Adam Meyers response (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21050658&postcount=1268) in the AMA thread #1 might be relevant:


@digiman619: It was a shorter way of saying they gain one at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, etc..." Level. Advanced magical training grants caster level (and MSB and MSD, I'll add that in the errata), and more spell points if you don't have any, but that's it.

So yes, Advanced Magical Training is supposed to grant/increase MSB and MSD.

As for Racial Hit Dice, Adam Meyers hasn't flat-out said that it will be errata'd to include them, he did however say the following (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19486190&postcount=179):


@Mehangel: Racial hit dice for PCs are such a finicky thing that I've never seen a GM not have to tweak something here or there. I'd allow Advanced Magic Training to work for racial HD, but be ready in case it somehow gets out of hand. I don't think it will, though.

[ICN]

A112: Yes, you may remove the effect from the pool.


A215:With the feat, each component creature may take a standard action using the amalgamated body. Doing so means that the amalgamated body can't take a move action that turn. Each creature in the body can still take a mental only move and swift action (quickened spell with no verbal/somatic/skill components, concentration with easy focus, etc.)

A127: Beginning the imbuement or activating the finisher count as a sphere effect. It does not specify that they count as an effect of that sphere. I am not sure if there are any other cases were it matters, but I would say yes, it counts as that sphere.

Thanks for the answers!

[Drakhan]

I think Adam Meyers response in the AMA thread #1 might be relevant:

Quote Originally Posted by Adam Meyers
@digiman619: It was a shorter way of saying they gain one at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, etc..." Level. Advanced magical training grants caster level (and MSB and MSD, I'll add that in the errata), and more spell points if you don't have any, but that's it.
So yes, Advanced Magical Training is supposed to grant/increase MSB and MSD.



Thank you for the answer! This is indeed what I was looking for!

Now, Bumping this:


Originally Posted by Scholar's Knack

Q 28:)
The scholar chooses a single combat sphere she possesses; she may use her class level in place of her base attack bonus when determining her bonus to hit, combat maneuver bonus, combat maneuver defense, ability DCs, and all other functions of the sphere normally determined by her base attack bonus when using talents or abilities granted by that sphere. The scholar may take this knack multiple times, choosing a different combat sphere each time. The scholar may not select the Equipment sphere with this knack.

Normally, when something like a feat or trait lets you act as if your BAB was higher for the purposes of a sphere, it's just for effects that track that, but this one specifically calls out bonus to hit, CMB and CMD, among other things. The question then is: How does that work? If I choose the Sniper sphere and have a crossbow, do I get the boost to hit only when I use a Deadly Shot? Or when I shoot into melee, since it affects that action? Or with, for example, the attacks of opportunity from the Covering Fire talent?

I'm specifically interested in this: Does using a related sphere ability mean your attack bonus goes from 1/2 BAB to full BAB? IF I choose sniper sphere, and I'm level 10, does that mean I get +5 to ht so long as I'm using a sniper ability? The rest makes sense to me, basically uppng your ability with the sphere to a full BAB character. But the to-hit part throws me off a bit.

Sorry if it was answered, I didn't see it.

[Mithril Leaf]

Q132:
The Transformation feat contains the following line:

The chosen form may be the same as your base size or else Medium or Small. When assuming your chosen form, you gain the chosen size.
Assuming we are large sized and take this feat, then choose to become Medium sized, do strength and dexterity change from that size change? If so, by how much?

[ICN]

Thank you for the answer! This is indeed what I was looking for!

Now, Bumping this:



I'm specifically interested in this: Does using a related sphere ability mean your attack bonus goes from 1/2 BAB to full BAB? IF I choose sniper sphere, and I'm level 10, does that mean I get +5 to ht so long as I'm using a sniper ability? The rest makes sense to me, basically uppng your ability with the sphere to a full BAB character. But the to-hit part throws me off a bit.

Sorry if it was answered, I didn't see it.

A similar question was answered, but yours is more comprehensive.

Q73: For the scholars martial study scholar knack, if the scholar were to take that for the brute sphere, would he gain the ability to use his class level for bab for unarmed attacks and the brute maneuvers, or just to shove? As an expansion on that question, if he were to take it for the barroom sphere, would he gain the effect on all improvised weapon attacks?

A73: He would gain it on any attack or maneuver granted by a talent, such as shove or Drop.

My question would be whether AoOs provoked while the Guardian sphere's Patrol ability is set up, as I see it as a little ambiguous. Characters natively have the ability to make AoOs against targets that leave threatened squares, but if it's provoked by one of the extra threatened squares granted by Patrol, then it is granted by the talent, in a way.

[Play4leftovers]

How does Dual Wielding sphere interact with Multiweapon fighting?
As it says you make an additional attack with an off-hand, I assume it is in singular and only one. But what if you get the Multiweapon Fighting feat? Would it increase or is Dual Wielding still strictly just two weapons?

[N. Jolly]

Q 133:How does Dual Wielding sphere interact with Multiweapon fighting?
As it says you make an additional attack with an off-hand, I assume it is in singular and only one. But what if you get the Multiweapon Fighting feat? Would it increase or is Dual Wielding still strictly just two weapons?

A 133: It's still only a single weapon, regardless of how many attacks you have.

[SwordChucks]

Q134: Was the Street Fighter Monk intended to keep the monk's AC bonus feature? Unarmored Training came out in the same book so it seemed odd to leave it.

Q135: Similarly, the Monk Weapon Training talent gives its secondary effect to characters with Brawler's Flurry and Flurry of Blows which the Street Fighter replaces with Flurry Strike. Is this intended to apply to only archtypeless monks?

[kkplx]

Alchemy questions, all related to using special attack actions to throw an improved alchemist's fire or acid:

Q135
Can you add damage modifiers to the direct hit of your formula? (i.e. Sneak attack, precision damage, bleed damage, snipe damage)

Q136
If you have applied additional damage beyond base+alchemy ranks to a direct hit, does that additional damage factor into the "half damage" splash?

dealing 1d6 fire damage +1d6 per two Craft (alchemy) ranks you possess to the target of a direct hit, half that damage to targets 5 ft. away from the point of contact

Q137
If you have added bleed damage to the initial hit, and it influences the splash damage, would it then also be bleed damage on the splash, or simply be added up into the total?

[kkplx]

Q138

If you hit a creature and apply your bleed - does the creature take the bleed damage from Duelist immediately, as well as at the start of their next turn? Is either answer affected by critical hits?
The confusion stems from the fact that pathfinder has listed bleed under conditions, yet Spheres of Might continues to refer to it as "bleed damage" - the first implying "no" is the answer, the second "yes"

[kkplx]

Q139

Does the reduction of natural armor from "Tear Flesh" stack?

[EldritchWeaver]

Q140: The Object Transformation talent turns people into objects. So does this take care of needing to breath and to sleep and other stuff?

[Nyaa]

Does presence or absence of ambient light, or other creatures` darkvision, have any effect on Chameleon (lens) talent?


You can cause light and color to shift around a target, granting it the ability to blend in with its surroundings. The target gains a circumstance bonus to Stealth checks equal to your casting ability modifier. An object hidden in this way requires a Perception check to notice (DC 10 + the object’s size modifier + your casting ability modifier). In addition, the target gains the ability to hide even while being observed, though the target must move no more than half its speed each round to use this benefit.

[Sho]

Q142: Why is there a Favored Damage Magic Trait when there is a Gift for Magic Magic Trait?

A character cannot take them both, even if the Gift for Magic would be with a different sphere than Destruction, because there is a limitation gaining more than a single trait from a trait category.

[AmberVael]

Q 141 Does presence or absence of ambient light, or other creatures` darkvision, have any effect on Chameleon (lens) talent?

A 141
No. The only limit to the talent is having to move at half speed to gain its secondary benefit. Light levels have nothing to do with it.

[Mehangel]

Q142: Why is there a Favored Damage Magic Trait when there is a Gift for Magic Magic Trait?

A character cannot take them both, even if the Gift for Magic would be with a different sphere than Destruction, because there is a limitation gaining more than a single trait from a trait category.

A142: It is a simple matter of one being published before the other. In this particular case, the Favored Damage trait was published first.

[Von Krieger]

Q143: If an Armiger assigns an Alchemy formulae talent to one of her customized weapons, let's say Salve, do the items remain functional even when the Armiger is not wielding the weapon?

[kkplx]

Q144

Does the Blind-Fight Feat help against the miss chance imposed by the guardian sphere's "Iron Wall" talent?

[A.J.Gibson]

A142: It is a simple matter of one being published before the other. In this particular case, the Favored Damage trait was published first.

To elaborate: Adam's original intent was to have a similar trait in each book, but by the time Life came around (book 11), most of the books hadn't done this. When I wrote the original version, it was Life only, people asked why it was limited (which is like the most common comment I get on any of my works) and I changed it.

The results have been messy. The Destruction and War traits have been replaced with better versions, the Fate trait has been made completely redundant (even though Life came out first), and Conjuration, Alteration, and Dark have racial versions that let you take Focused Concentration or Iron-Plated Will as you Magic trait.

[kkplx]

Q145

If you animate a branch with the nature sphere, does it count as a magical weapon when attacking for example a dragon with DR magic or an incorporeal creature immune to nonmagical attacks.
my gut instinct as DM was to say no, as for example an animated object would not count as such unless previously enchanted. However, I could not find any talent that would allow players to thusly improve animated branches.

Q146

Is there any intent to make apocryphas or handbooks for the Spheres of Might spheres?

[Sho]

Q 147: Concerning Momentum talents from the War Sphere, it is noted that Marauding Momentum has a limit on its use. Is there any particular limit on any of the other Momentum talents? Ex: Resilient Momentum grants damage mitigation equal to the CAM for each one momentum point expended. Could the struck character spend more than one momentum point to reduce the damage by several times the CAM of the War Sphere caster?

[Play4leftovers]

Q148: If you use object transformation and Permanent transformation on a creature and then kill them, they would remain as the transformed object. If you then made them into Platinum for instance would it not completely ruin the economy? It is not as much of a question as it is a consideration to errata it.
A 160 pound man turned to platinum would weigh roughly 3,200 pound and be valued at 1,600,000 gold. It would essentially do what Costly Creation does for a much lower SP price, talent price, and lower caster level needed.

[Mehangel]

Q145

If you animate a branch with the nature sphere, does it count as a magical weapon when attacking for example a dragon with DR magic or an incorporeal creature immune to nonmagical attacks.
my gut instinct as DM was to say no, as for example an animated object would not count as such unless previously enchanted. However, I could not find any talent that would allow players to thusly improve animated branches.

A145 Branches that are animated with the pummel Nature sphere ability do not count as a magical weapon for the purpose of DR/magic or attacking incorporeal creatures. On the plus side however, such attacks are not subject to Spell Resistance.

While not strictly RAW, I would allow the branches to be enhanced via the Enhancement sphere (probably by the Natural Enhancement talent).

[A.J.Gibson]

Q146Is there any intent to make apocryphas or handbooks for the Spheres of Might spheres?[/QUOTE]

I believe N Jolly wants to do just that.


Q 147: Concerning Momentum talents from the War Sphere, it is noted that Marauding Momentum has a limit on its use. Is there any particular limit on any of the other Momentum talents? Ex: Resilient Momentum grants damage mitigation equal to the CAM for each one momentum point expended. Could the struck character spend more than one momentum point to reduce the damage by several times the CAM of the War Sphere caster?

A 147

Most of the momentum talents have some sort of limit on how much you can use, since momentum is often a free action to use, and can be gathered out of combat easily. It would be easy to build up a huge pool of momentum and drop it all on one effect.

Aggressive Momentum (momentum) - requires a swift action
Damaging Momentum (momentum) - once per attack
Demoralizing Momentum (momentum) - requires immediate action
Favorable Momentum (momentum) - once per turn
Marauding Momentum (momentum) - 4 times per turn
Resilient Momentum (momentum) - doesn't stack
Tactical Momentum (momentum) - once per combat maneuver
Threatening Momentum (momentum) - multiple points don't have an additional effect

Resilient Momentum isn't supposed to stack. I guess that isn't obvious from the text. Realistically, it wouldn't be too overpowered if it did stack.

[viperwolf306]

Q149: Is there any way to turn electricity into spell points. Such as a character getting struck by lightning and the damages instead becomes a spell point.
Q150: can animated objects gain class levels?

[Valdimarian]

Q151) Are there plans for more comprehensive rules for converting Dreamscarred Press classes into Spheres?
Namely for something like the Soulknife, which can have either low psionic casting or mid level PoW abilities, would those also let you trade out for Low Sphere of Power / Adept Spheres of Might?

Q151A) Can we expect to see a spinoff book of Spheres adaptations for Dreamscarred classes in the future? That would be nifty if someone went through all the Dreamscarred stuff out and adapted them and / or made archetypes for them.

[Von Krieger]

Q152: With regards to Ceaseless Ammo, if one has a magazine with 10 or more ammo in it, does that mean that you never have to reload?

[digiman619]

Q151) Are there plans for more comprehensive rules for converting Dreamscarred Press classes into Spheres?
Namely for something like the Soulknife, which can have either low psionic casting or mid level PoW abilities, would those also let you trade out for Low Sphere of Power / Adept Spheres of Might?

Q151A) Can we expect to see a spinoff book of Spheres adaptations for Dreamscarred classes in the future? That would be nifty if someone went through all the Dreamscarred stuff out and adapted them and / or made archetypes for them.

I would almost certainly allow a Tactician to trade off his powers and power points for a proficient progression or a Psychic Warrior a adept one, but I'm not a developer, so I don't claim to be an authority. Also, there was a Soulknife archetype in the Time handbook, but it's still in production so it'll be a bit before it sees the light of day.

[khadgar567]

Q153 So playtest of 2e is out and here is the offical question how you guys gonna handle the new edition while spell pool is know part of all caster classes i realy like to know your ideas about the spheres system in second edition.

[A.J.Gibson]

Q153 So playtest of 2e is out and here is the offical question how you guys gonna handle the new edition while spell pool is know part of all caster classes i realy like to know your ideas about the spheres system in second edition.

Unofficially, don't expect anything for a while. Adam wants to see how PF2e plays out and what 'fixes' it might need (by the looks of 4chan, a lot). Until then, there is more SoP stuff to write (and hopefully some SoM stuff, too).

Personally, when I look at the new classes, I can see how easy conversions will be. Basically:
-you retain your spell point pool from the original class
-for every level of spell casting, gain a magical talent
-for every 2 cantrips you receive, gain a magical talent
-whenever you gain a talent, you gain a spell point
-'Extra Magical Talent' is a class feat for all spherecasting classes
Of course, you have to rewrite all the existing material - or at least the best material. I know I really want to rewrite the War sphere - and maybe cut half of it out. You also have to rewrite several aspects of the original classes; anything that refers to spell slots, or the like. I would assume we would do something with our own classes as well.

[stack]

Q132:
The Transformation feat contains the following line:

Assuming we are large sized and take this feat, then choose to become Medium sized, do strength and dexterity change from that size change? If so, by how much?A132: The feat doesn't specify and it should. If you don't apply Size Change bonuses, you run in to the situation where you could grab improved transformation for size change and stack those bonuses on the bonuses your unusually sized base race already had (a huge dragon transforming into a small halfling, than using Size Change to get huge again), so I will say you should apply stat changes per the Size Change talent.


Q140: The Object Transformation talent turns people into objects. So does this take care of needing to breath and to sleep and other stuff?
A140:Shapeshift doesn't change type and the talent doesn't remove the requirement, so you still need to breath and sleep (and can do so in your form). You are in the shape of an object and have some object-like properties, but you are still a living creature (if you started as one of course).

Q143: If an Armiger assigns an Alchemy formulae talent to one of her customized weapons, let's say Salve, do the items remain functional even when the Armiger is not wielding the weapon?
A143: Yes, they remain functional, though you may not have bonuses you would otherwise have had when you go to use them (cluster toss, etc.). Basically, it acts like you had handed the formulae to and ally.

Q144

Does the Blind-Fight Feat help against the miss chance imposed by the guardian sphere's "Iron Wall" talent?
A144: No, the miss chance isn't visual, it is you actively interfering with attacks via feints, interposition, etc.

Q146

Is there any intent to make apocryphas or handbooks for the Spheres of Might spheres?[/QUOTE]
A146: There is will and desire, but the focus of the company is largely on finishing up the SoP handbooks. PF2 also has an impact on long-term planning.

Q148: If you use object transformation and Permanent transformation on a creature and then kill them, they would remain as the transformed object. If you then made them into Platinum for instance would it not completely ruin the economy? It is not as much of a question as it is a consideration to errata it.
A 160 pound man turned to platinum would weigh roughly 3,200 pound and be valued at 1,600,000 gold. It would essentially do what Costly Creation does for a much lower SP price, talent price, and lower caster level needed.
A148: As an instantaneous effect, I believe it would continue, but I wouldn't say that you can harvest reasonable monetary value from the corpse. Probably best to treat it as having the same limitations as the Creation sphere as far as permanent valuable objects. That should go on the errata list.

Q149: Is there any way to turn electricity into spell points. Such as a character getting struck by lightning and the damages instead becomes a spell point.
Q150: can animated objects gain class levels?
A149: There is not currently that I can think of. Its a cool idea, but potentially leads to infinite SP exploits, so I wouldn't expect to see anything like that without significant limitations.

Q151) Are there plans for more comprehensive rules for converting Dreamscarred Press classes into Spheres?
Namely for something like the Soulknife, which can have either low psionic casting or mid level PoW abilities, would those also let you trade out for Low Sphere of Power / Adept Spheres of Might?

Q151A) Can we expect to see a spinoff book of Spheres adaptations for Dreamscarred classes in the future? That would be nifty if someone went through all the Dreamscarred stuff out and adapted them and / or made archetypes for them.
A151: There are no plans that I am aware of. Some classes might work, others overlap with existing classes (wilder/thaumaturge, you can get thematically close to the dread with a fear-focused eliciter), and I expect many are just too tied to the psionics system to make a conversion worthwhile verses making a new class or archetype for a different class.

Q153 So playtest of 2e is out and here is the offical question how you guys gonna handle the new edition while spell pool is know part of all caster classes i realy like to know your ideas about the spheres system in second edition.
A153: It is too early for official plans. I know many of the authors have read or are reading the playtest docs, but we are very early in the game. As the full release of PF2 is a year out (if I recall), I wouldn't hold my breath on real announcements.

[CreepyShutIn]

Q154: The Meld Into Dark drawback for the Dark sphere reads as follows: "You cannot create darkness, and you may only target yourself when granting a (meld) talent. You may only select (meld) talents and Quick Meld from the Darkness sphere. However, you may also use (meld) talents in all dim light and darkness, not just areas of your darkness." If I later buy off the drawback, do I get to keep the benefit of Melds functioning without me having to first set up a darkness? If not, is there any other way to get that benefit? It seems really useful when you don't have the time to set them up.

[RedMop]

Q131 - Any particular reason the Armiger can't use customized weapons with siege weapons? Sounds like a good candidate for a Prowess...

[stack]

Q131 - Any particular reason the Armiger can't use customized weapons with siege weapons? Sounds like a good candidate for a Prowess...

A131: Quick-drawing them leads to back problems.

Mostly we didn't want to work out all the interactions with that set of rules. Siege weapons are not frequently used by PCs in my experience and adding the extra rules to define that didn't seem worth the space.

[TheGSE]

Q154: The Meld Into Dark drawback for the Dark sphere reads as follows: "You cannot create darkness, and you may only target yourself when granting a (meld) talent. You may only select (meld) talents and Quick Meld from the Darkness sphere. However, you may also use (meld) talents in all dim light and darkness, not just areas of your darkness." If I later buy off the drawback, do I get to keep the benefit of Melds functioning without me having to first set up a darkness? If not, is there any other way to get that benefit? It seems really useful when you don't have the time to set them up.

A154: The Sphere-focused feat 'Emerge from the Darkness' does precisely that: http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-focused-feats#toc34

[Drakhan]

Unofficially, don't expect anything for a while. Adam wants to see how PF2e plays out and what 'fixes' it might need (by the looks of 4chan, a lot). Until then, there is more SoP stuff to write (and hopefully some SoM stuff, too).

Personally, when I look at the new classes, I can see how easy conversions will be. Basically:
-you retain your spell point pool from the original class
-for every level of spell casting, gain a magical talent
-for every 2 cantrips you receive, gain a magical talent
-whenever you gain a talent, you gain a spell point
-'Extra Magical Talent' is a class feat for all spherecasting classes
Of course, you have to rewrite all the existing material - or at least the best material. I know I really want to rewrite the War sphere - and maybe cut half of it out. You also have to rewrite several aspects of the original classes; anything that refers to spell slots, or the like. I would assume we would do something with our own classes as well.


Q155.)

What's wrong with the war sphere? I think it has a lot of cool interactions! It's a magic version of the Warleader Sphere, and a character using both is absolutely hilarious in the buff department.

[A.J.Gibson]

Q155.)

What's wrong with the war sphere? I think it has a lot of cool interactions! It's a magic version of the Warleader Sphere, and a character using both is absolutely hilarious in the buff department.

A155: Basically, it suffers from a lack of focus. The original mechanic of Totems didn't really work well in PF, because it was geared toward very large parties (which aren't the norm), and didn't actually do anything to facilitate tactics or party unity, beyond making rallies possible. When I wrote the War book, I tried to solve this problem by giving the War sphere several solutions: totemic auras to make mobile buffers (like Clerics) more playable, Momentum to act as a way to buff party members that don't cost actions for the buffer (reliving some stress from the Warcaster) and that would still deliver value for the low-Caster, Squadron talents to make totems more worthwhile for smaller parties, debuffing totems to make full casters in smaller parties better, Mandates to reward tactical cooperation, and a big heap of feats no one will ever play (has anyone ever played Totem of the Deepest Curse?). There is just so much.

If I had the chance, I would redesign War around the Squadron Leader mechanic (instead of totems) since it is a unique mechanic and several other spheres are based around AoE already. I would make totemic aura and totem feats you can pick up ('all creatures within this aura/totem are considered members of your squadron'). The squadron feats would become talents (mostly) with emphasis on abilities that push cooperation between characters. I would probably dispense with debuffing effects entirely from the sphere. Mandates would probably become flexible, so you could pick who benefits from it when it is triggered instead of it always being the same two people. Momentum I'm not sure about.

[Zsaber0]

Q156

If you have the conjuration talents to keep a companion around for 24 hours is it possible to inscribe a Magical Tattoo on them as "Inscribe Magical Tattoo"?

[Drakhan]

A155: Basically, it suffers from a lack of focus. The original mechanic of Totems didn't really work well in PF, because it was geared toward very large parties (which aren't the norm), and didn't actually do anything to facilitate tactics or party unity, beyond making rallies possible. When I wrote the War book, I tried to solve this problem by giving the War sphere several solutions: totemic auras to make mobile buffers (like Clerics) more playable, Momentum to act as a way to buff party members that don't cost actions for the buffer (reliving some stress from the Warcaster) and that would still deliver value for the low-Caster, Squadron talents to make totems more worthwhile for smaller parties, debuffing totems to make full casters in smaller parties better, Mandates to reward tactical cooperation, and a big heap of feats no one will ever play (has anyone ever played Totem of the Deepest Curse?). There is just so much.

If I had the chance, I would redesign War around the Squadron Leader mechanic (instead of totems) since it is a unique mechanic and several other spheres are based around AoE already. I would make totemic aura and totem feats you can pick up ('all creatures within this aura/totem are considered members of your squadron'). The squadron feats would become talents (mostly) with emphasis on abilities that push cooperation between characters. I would probably dispense with debuffing effects entirely from the sphere. Mandates would probably become flexible, so you could pick who benefits from it when it is triggered instead of it always being the same two people. Momentum I'm not sure about.

Thanks for the response!

If you ever did get the chance, I'd really enjoy that rehaul for the War Sphere. It fills a niche much more closely but I have to say, Totems are AWESOME. I love using the War Sphere as a DM, and on my characters, though I almost always take the aura drawback.

So I guess Question 157.)

Wouldn't your vision be kind of perfect for a warleader sphere handbook? At this point sure, it would overlap far too much with the existing War Sphere but if that weren't there? Maybe have shouts give momentum to affected characters? A tactic to give momentum generation at the cost of another benefit being up. There would be no totem effects because they could be replaced by shouts/tactics. Mandates makes sense for a warleader picking who is affected. Maybe let the warleader spend the focus of affected characters (If they're willing). Plus the whole shtick of the warleader is specifically buffing allies. I mean, Cry of Confrontation and Frightful Roar are the only debuff abilities (Though I suppose Call Attention might be considered a debuff). Those abilities though are fairly thematic, and nice combo abilities when using other spheres.

[A.J.Gibson]

Thanks for the response!

If you ever did get the chance, I'd really enjoy that rehaul for the War Sphere. It fills a niche much more closely but I have to say, Totems are AWESOME. I love using the War Sphere as a DM, and on my characters, though I almost always take the aura drawback.

So I guess Question 157.)

Wouldn't your vision be kind of perfect for a warleader sphere handbook? At this point sure, it would overlap far too much with the existing War Sphere but if that weren't there? Maybe have shouts give momentum to affected characters? A tactic to give momentum generation at the cost of another benefit being up. There would be no totem effects because they could be replaced by shouts/tactics. Mandates makes sense for a warleader picking who is affected. Maybe let the warleader spend the focus of affected characters (If they're willing). Plus the whole shtick of the warleader is specifically buffing allies. I mean, Cry of Confrontation and Frightful Roar are the only debuff abilities (Though I suppose Call Attention might be considered a debuff). Those abilities though are fairly thematic, and nice combo abilities when using other spheres.

I didn't write the warleader sphere, so it's really up to whoever did to make changes to it. If I did, I would probably try to keep it fairly separate from the War sphere, since it's whole thing is to be non-magically inspiring/intimidating.