Spheres of Power: help!

[geekintheground]

hello again you guys!

i've been looking a lot at spheres of power (and might) recently, and they both sound REALLY cool, so im trying to make a Fey Adept for a new game... the only problem is im having a hard time wrapping my head around it. can you guys double check me to make sure im understanding this right?

when you get a talent, you can use that to unlock a sphere that you dont have yet, or get a talent from a sphere you have
a level 1 Fey Adept gets the base illusion sphere as a bonus, and also gets other talents to spend as they wish.

on a more mechanical note: how many spheres is too many? should i focus on one, or diversify myself?


this system looks really cool, and im sure im gonna enjoy it... as soon as i figure out how to use it. its so open ended and customizatable that my brain parts cant really grasp it quite yet. it feels like the first time i realized how massive 3.5 is (not size wise, but options wise)

[Ssalarn]

when you get a talent, you can use that to unlock a sphere that you dont have yet, or get a talent from a sphere you have
a level 1 Fey Adept gets the base illusion sphere as a bonus, and also gets other talents to spend as they wish.


Seems like you're getting the basics so far!



on a more mechanical note: how many spheres is too many? should i focus on one, or diversify myself?

For a fey adept you're probably not going to want to diversify too much, but you'll want more than one. At 1st level you probably want illusion + 1 other sphere; the other sphere can be pretty much whatever meets your character concept best. My personal favorites for secondaries would be either Time for some additional buffing/debuffing, traps, and other effects that complement your illusions nicely, or either Conjuration or Destruction. Conjuration could give you some potent companions to provide the punch behind your illusions, but there's a fair chance it'll eat up your spell points early on. Destruction would give you traps and some direct damage options.

[geekintheground]

thanks for the help! im surprised there isnt more literature out there for this stuff (like, handbooks and guides).

my next question is on feat selection. im digging the surreal feats, but other than that im lost. the usual castery feats idk if they work w/ spheres.

and a more general question: what ways are there to increase my DCs? is there a spell focus equivalent im not finding?

[Hunter Noventa]

thanks for the help! im surprised there isnt more literature out there for this stuff (like, handbooks and guides).

my next question is on feat selection. im digging the surreal feats, but other than that im lost. the usual castery feats idk if they work w/ spheres.

and a more general question: what ways are there to increase my DCs? is there a spell focus equivalent im not finding?

There is a Sphere Focus feat that increases your DCs for a Sphere by 1.

And it shocks me too, that there are only a handful of Spheres-related handbooks.

[Kesnit]

on a more mechanical note: how many spheres is too many? should i focus on one, or diversify myself?

Before you look at spheres, decide what you want your PC to do. (BFC, buff/debuff, damage, etc.) Once you know that, look at the spheres and decide which work for what you want to do. 2-4 spheres is probably a good mix, depending on your character concept.


this system looks really cool, and im sure im gonna enjoy it... as soon as i figure out how to use it. its so open ended and customizatable that my brain parts cant really grasp it quite yet. it feels like the first time i realized how massive 3.5 is (not size wise, but options wise)

I've been playing a Brawler in a Pathfinder for about a year, focusing on combat maneuvers (mostly grapple and trip). I recently discovered Spheres of Might, and thought my head had exploded. It's my Brawler, but better! (I switched to the Brawler option in SoM. He has Drunken Brawler, Boxing, Open Hand, and Wrestling.) My wife is playing a Bard in the same game. She recently decided she wants her Bard to eventually become a lich, so I introduced her to the Death sphere in SoP, and now she's hooked. (SoP Bard gives up Bardic casting and gets access to spheres.)

What I love about the books is they are so flexible. Decide what you want to do, and there are spheres for that. (You can also mix and match between the books.)

[geekintheground]

I've been playing a Brawler in a Pathfinder for about a year, focusing on combat maneuvers (mostly grapple and trip). I recently discovered Spheres of Might, and thought my head had exploded. It's my Brawler, but better! (I switched to the Brawler option in SoM. He has Drunken Brawler, Boxing, Open Hand, and Wrestling.) My wife is playing a Bard in the same game. She recently decided she wants her Bard to eventually become a lich, so I introduced her to the Death sphere in SoP, and now she's hooked. (SoP Bard gives up Bardic casting and gets access to spheres.)

What I love about the books is they are so flexible. Decide what you want to do, and there are spheres for that. (You can also mix and match between the books.)

exactly! thats basically been my reaction to SoP. Might still has me head scratching, but thats probably because im so used to looking at stuff like path of war for martials. i was toying around with another build for this game as a martial, and was really pleased that i was able to grab even just a couple talents from SoM, and will probably always do so when available going forward, just not sure when i would play a straight SoM character.

[NomGarret]

2-4 spheres, especially for a high caster, is usually a good range. Start out with two, invest enough talents in those to really get your key trick (though not necessarily in the Illusion sphere sense) down, then add on more spheres a couple levels down the road.

As to what to pick, I’d focus on a sphere that will give you something useful to do when illusions aren’t the answer. Destruction and Warp are never bad options, but you may save those for later as you get a lot out of a little dip. Conjuration can take a few talents to get what you like, so that’s one to start early. Creation, Nature, and Weather are all interacting with the environment in ways you can fake with Illusion, so probably skippable. Enhancement, Fate, Protection, and War are going to compete for your actions in combat and/or spell points early on.

I would look at Life. Even a modest investment gives you healing and status relief that will stay relevant. Filth Fever is something that can’t easily be illusioned away, so it’s helpful in those situations. The other one Is look at is Divination. Illusion is a great toolbox for interacting with creatures and the environment, but it doesn’t do a whole lot to tell you what or where the things you want to interact with is.

[geekintheground]

2-4 spheres, especially for a high caster, is usually a good range. Start out with two, invest enough talents in those to really get your key trick (though not necessarily in the Illusion sphere sense) down, then add on more spheres a couple levels down the road.

As to what to pick, I’d focus on a sphere that will give you something useful to do when illusions aren’t the answer. Destruction and Warp are never bad options, but you may save those for later as you get a lot out of a little dip. Conjuration can take a few talents to get what you like, so that’s one to start early. Creation, Nature, and Weather are all interacting with the environment in ways you can fake with Illusion, so probably skippable. Enhancement, Fate, Protection, and War are going to compete for your actions in combat and/or spell points early on.

I would look at Life. Even a modest investment gives you healing and status relief that will stay relevant. Filth Fever is something that can’t easily be illusioned away, so it’s helpful in those situations. The other one Is look at is Divination. Illusion is a great toolbox for interacting with creatures and the environment, but it doesn’t do a whole lot to tell you what or where the things you want to interact with is.

thanks! this is all super helpful! i'll keep it all in mind

[Serafina]

Illusion in particular can be combined well with several other Spheres via feats:

- with the Tactile Illusion (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-focused-feats#toc114) feat, and a little (two talents) investment into Telekinesis, your Illusions can support weight, block movement and so on.
- with the Solid Illusions (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-focused-feats#toc114) feat, you can enhance your Illusions via the Enhancement sphere as if they were real.
As a Fey Adept, you can already make "real" Illusions via Shadowstuff, so you don't need those feats, but they might still be worth considering since it can save on uses of Shadowstuff - there's a huge difference between creating "real" Walls at-will, or using a limited resource for it.

And then take a look at all the Dual Sphere feats (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/dual-sphere-feats#toc56).
Shade is really good if you want to also focus on the Darkness sphere - it basically doubles your action-economy when using Figments, and aside from just making things darker the Darkness-sphere can be used for really cool things such as trapping enemies inside it, debuffing them, moving around darkness, and all sorts of stuff like that.
Asymetrical Warfare can allow you to make good use of the War sphere. You usually don't want to invest into Totems much (they're not great), so being able to Rally (which are good effects) without Totems is worth a feat.
Vudu can be nice bonus damage if you actually want to use the Death-sphere, and it allows you to have Skeletons/Zombies that just look as if they were alive.
The other Dual-Sphere feats are more for the benefit of other Spheres, rather than being about Illusions per se, but they're still worth a look.

Also, ask your GM about how the game will handle Rituals.
If you don't know, Rituals (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/rituals) are basically spells with a long casting time that don't cost spell points and instead some money, and often have effects you can't do via normal Spherecasting. That can be as simple as an Arcane Mark, or as mighty as Heroes Feast or Earthquake.
To use Rituals, you need to know their assosciated Spheres - unless you take a feat for that (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/ritual-feats#toc0). If that feat is worth it depends on what Rituals are available in your game - if it's none or only a handful it might be worthless, if it's "basically as many as you want" then it'd be incredibly good.
There's a lot of space in between, and it's perfectly fine to accept any result. Ideally, Rituals should never make Spherecasting obsolete, they should just be there for some nice extra effects so Spherecasters never feel left behind compared to the variety of normal spellcasting.

[geekintheground]

Illusion in particular can be combined well with several other Spheres via feats:

- with the Tactile Illusion (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-focused-feats#toc114) feat, and a little (two talents) investment into Telekinesis, your Illusions can support weight, block movement and so on.
- with the Solid Illusions (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-focused-feats#toc114) feat, you can enhance your Illusions via the Enhancement sphere as if they were real.
As a Fey Adept, you can already make "real" Illusions via Shadowstuff, so you don't need those feats, but they might still be worth considering since it can save on uses of Shadowstuff - there's a huge difference between creating "real" Walls at-will, or using a limited resource for it.


thanks for the tips! i actually did take tactile illusion. im playing a tibbet from 3.5, and my plan is to stay in cat form and continuously make new illusions and rest on their shoulders to try and trick the party and enemies into targeting the wrong part.

[geekintheground]

ok, looking around at the spheres more, i have a new question:

in the divination sphere, one of the alternate divinations for the dark sphere is "Divine Dark" (what a name) it says "you may devine the surrounding area at medium range. While divining, you can see in darkness"

does this just mean i can see through darkness at medium range, but am still limited to line of sight? or can i divine around corners and such? honestly, i guess im just confused aobut divining in general xD

[Serafina]

Divine talents do penetrate barriers to a certain extent:

Divining can penetrate most barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.
So as far as I can tell, if you Divine Dark, you'll not just be able to See through Darkness at up to medium Range - you'll also be able to see through obstacles and thin walls at that range, which would be really damn impressive.

Just be aware that Divining prevents you from taking any actions at all, other than free actions. Unless you have the Tabulated Mind (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/sphere-focused-feats#toc95) feat, in which case you could be able to move, or even take a Standard-action if you have the Easy Focus boon.

But for actually enhancing your senses during combat or other activities, that's what Sense-talents are for.