[PF1e] What kind of builds could combining Spheres of Might and Path of War enable?

[EisenKreutzer]

Spheres of Might and Path of War set out to do similiar things, in very different ways.
While PoW wants to make martial classes more exciting by reviving the old ToB maneuver system, Spheres of Might tries to do the same by offering a completely new system for martial characters that offers strong versatility.

Do these two systems offer each other something thats worth building towards? Could a multiclass character, or a character that dips into the other system through feats, gain something effective or just plain cool by combining the two systems?

[stack]

The Sieze the Opportunity feat is overpowered with SoM attack action abilities. Other that that, I'm sure there are lots of tricks you can pull, but have to keep an eye on action economy.

[legomaster00156]

I advise against using both systems in the same campaign. They are not designed to mesh in a way that doesn't break the game, because they are entirely different solutions to the same problem

[exelsisxax]

They don't mesh well. You can't combine really anything in the spheres with initiating capability. But as others have pointed out, things like seize the opportunity totally break SoM, letting you basically take most of a turn as an AoO. SoM can also let PoW classes get a bunch of free stuff by exchanging their proficiencies, getting 4 talents, and buying back the profs they actually want with one of them.

Nothing good comes of this except for minmaxers.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

A few Sphere/Discipline pairs really stand out like Scoundrel+Tempest Gale (ranged Dirty Trick/Steal) and Duelist+Mithral Current (Try it unarmed with that one pow feat!)

But yeah, ban Seize the Opportunity and probably Deadly Agility (or at least add "Take Finesse Fighting twice" as a prereq). I disagree that they can't coexist in a setting that allows for truly incredible martial combatants

[ThatMoonGuy]

One of my players once made a Conscript focused on Barrage and then dipped Warlord (on my recomendation) to get a few Stances and Maneuvers from Solar Wind. We started at level 12 And he was something like Conscript 10, Warlord 2 with Practiced Initiator, so Initiator Level 9. The party also happened to have a Rajah who had Entitled that character with the Specialist (Lightning).
The player gets into the Stance of Piercing Rays (+2d6 on every ranged attack), uses Searing Break (+3d6 on each arrow) and then uses a Barrage to launch four arrows, each dealing 5d6+1d8+5, instantly regaining martial focus thanks to Blitz Focus, for a grand total of 20d6+4d8+20 points of damage.

Another player made a pure Warlord who used a combination of talents and stances to wield a Greatsword that counted as Gargantuan (or maybe it was colossal, not sure now) so his every attack was dealing something around the lines of 8d6+10 before any Combat Maneuver got into play.

The whole party was those two plus a support focused Rajah, a Warder with some Shield & Guardian Talents & an Incanter built around Conjuration (& calling).

Keep in mind, that was not a party of optimizers and some of them hadn't played PF in years but they were still manhandling enemies way above their CR with ease.