Spheres of Power Help, Advanced Talent: Everglow

[ChaoticHarmony]

Hey you guys. I am very new to the Spheres of Power system for Pathfinder. I was able to make a character for a game that was going to be run usong it. While I wasn't able to play due to RL issues, I was able to make the character. This character specialized in the Light Sphere, and a talent I was originally interested in was Everglow. How it was worded(by my understanding) made it less than ideal for what I wanted, so I didn't take it.

Prerequisites: Light sphere, Lasting Light, 1st caster level or higher.

By spending a spell point you can make a glow permanent, so long as it is not placed on an unwilling target. This also transfers control over the glow effect to anyone who holds the object, or the creature affected, allowing them to choose when to shed light or to simply glow. They may also turn the glow off completely as a move action, or turn it on again as a standard action.

These permanent glows cannot be caused to shed bright light, and cannot have (light) talents applied to them. Any alterations of the glow’s area or other qualities must be applied and determined when it is made permanent and cannot be changed; a permanent glow may only possess one unchangeable Style that cannot stain its surroundings, and may only have one (nimbus) talent applied, which cannot be changed after the glow is created, though the direction of talents such as Illuminate and Beam can be altered as a free action normally.

But now I'm curious. Other than basically making fuelless lanterns, what can Everglow be used for? If I make a glow emit bright light as part of the same action(as per the Light Sphere), can I make a permanent Bright Light? Can Everglow be applied to Dancing Lights? What about creations made with the Dual-Sphere Feat Hard Light? If they can, how does the on/off feature of Everglow work? Can (lens) talents like Camouflage be applied to Everglows? Do they become permanent if you can? Can you put multiple Everglows on a single target?

I would greatly appreciate of I could get both the official ruling, and what you would allow on a game you were DMing, for these questions. Thank you very much

Everglow can only be applied to objects or creatures, not Dancing Lights or Hard Light. Everglow can never emit bright light. (Lens) talents do not become permanent with Everglow

Originally, I wanted Everglow to make a permanent Bright Dancing Light Constellation for my character, so he would always benefit from his Photosynthesis Feat(which can only work in Bright light)

[stack]

Questions like this will get the quickest response in the Ask Me Anything thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?561876-Drop-Dead-Studios-Ask-Me-Anything-3), which many of the others check regularly.

The talent is clear that it cannot shed bright light. I will leave the remaining points for AmberVael, the author.

[ChaoticHarmony]

Thank you stack, I appreciate it. That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure because the Light Sphere has two ways of making Bright Light. The first, spending a standard action to make a Normal Light, then some time later spending another standard action to make it a Bright Light. The second is having the Light start as Bright in the same action, otherwise following the same concentration rules.

I didn't know if Everglow meant if you make a Normal Light permanent, you can't later make it Bright, but you can make a permanent Bright Light; or if it meant no Everglows can ever glow(pun intended) Bright.

Thank you for clearing that up

[EldritchWeaver]

The way you can create bright light is irrelevant to all talents employing bright light. Also, Everglow contains this line:


These permanent glows cannot be caused to shed bright light, and cannot have (light) talents applied to them.

Checking the definition of the various Light talent categories, there is no overlap between them. So (lens) and (nimbus) talents actually work (although the latter is restricted to one talent only).

But to your other questions: Dancing Glow can work, if there is a way to determine who can control such an untethered light. That one is missing and needs to be clarified by Amber. Hard Light should work as well. But if the object is broken I'd rule that Everglow ceases to work. Actually, I'm not sure if there is a benefit to employ Hard Light with Everglow in a single action compared to just using Everglow after the item creation. Also, multiple Everglows on a single target should work, and would create a swiss army knife of Light stuff.

[Necroticplague]

Checking the definition of the various Light talent categories, there is no overlap between them. So (lens) and (nimbus) talents actually work (although the latter is restricted to one talent only).
Except that Lenses don't involve Glows, so the ability to make a Glow permanent is utterly irrelevant to Lenses, since they aren't Glows.

[ChaoticHarmony]

The way you can create bright light is irrelevant to all talents employing bright light Also, Everglow contains this line:


These permanent glows cannot be caused to shed bright light, and cannot have (light) talents applied to them. The source I had read from(teaches me to NOT use wikidot for info) had said Everglow cannot be MADE to glow, hence my confusion. When the Bright Light was created would have been important then.


But to your other questions: Dancing Glow can work, if there is a way to determine who can control such an untethered light. That one is missing and needs to be clarified by Amber. Hard Light should work as well. But if the object is broken I'd rule that Everglow ceases to work. Actually, I'm not sure if there is a benefit to employ Hard Light with Everglow in a single action compared to just using Everglow after the item creation. Again, unreliable source, said target object or creature, so I wasn't sure for Dancing Light since that is made from nothing. I would assume that the same force that allows you to normally control its movement allows you to move it after it is permanent. Hard Light would benefit greatly from being affected by Everglow, it would make the Creations permanent instead of fading after so many minutes.


Except that Lenses don't involve Glows, so the ability to make a Glow permanent is utterly irrelevant to Lenses, since they aren't Glows. That is unfortunate but makes perfect sense. It kinda eliminates the point of stacking Everglows unless you want a multi-Nimbus flashlight

[EldritchWeaver]

The source I had read from(teaches me to NOT use wikidot for info) had said Everglow cannot be MADE to glow, hence my confusion. When the Bright Light was created would have been important then.

Glow != Bright Light.


Again, unreliable source, said target object or creature, so I wasn't sure for Dancing Light since that is made from nothing. I would assume that the same force that allows you to normally control its movement allows you to move it after it is permanent. Hard Light would benefit greatly from being affected by Everglow, it would make the Creations permanent instead of fading after so many minutes.

That is actually a different interpretation than mine. If Everglow can help with permanent creations depends on, what takes precedence. I would have said that Hardlight follow Creation primarily, so Everglow simply works until the item vanishes. But again, something for Amber.

[AmberVael]

Making permanent, fuelless lights is pretty much all Everglow is meant to do. I was concerned about what permanent (light) effects could be used for (turning a bag of pebbles into a ton of damage and debuff effects that annihilate all your opponents, for example), so did my best to limit Everglow to just making light.

As written, you cannot make a permanent bright light.

I did intend for Everglow to work on Dancing Lights, though there is definitely uncertainty on who 'controls' a dancing light. While not RAW, I'd suggest a caster could choose from the following options:
1) The Dancing Light is tied to and controlled by a single person. It always remains in range of them, getting dragged along if they would move out of range.
2) The Dancing Light is tied to specific location, and controlled by whoever is closest to it. It always remains in range of the point in space it was tied to, and cannot move beyond that range.
3) The Dancing Light is tied to a specific location, and cannot be controlled by anyone. Its conditions are set and immutable once it is made.

Hard Light does not actually create a glow effect. It shines light AS IF by your glow effect. So, Everglow does not apply to it. The "glow" of hard light objects lasts as long as the object itself though, so if you want permanently glowing objects, make the objects permanent and the glow will also be permanent.

(Lens) talents are not glows or tied to glows, so they have no interaction with Everglow at all.

I see no problem with putting multiple glows on a single target.


As for your particular desire, I would recommend the Glory talent. Not only does it let you shed bright light without spending spell points or actions on maintaining it, which would keep Photosynthesis active, but its also very nice for activating (light) based buffs such as Flicker or Encompassing Light.