SangoProduction
2021-01-07, 03:19 AM
Well. This year's shaping up to be an interesting one. Maybe we should work on our cardio for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Well, I've got good news! This intro is over, and the review of the Athletics sphere is here to comfort you by letting you can pretend you don't have the stereotypical gamer body.
Post-Review Analysis: Eh. Yeah. "Eh" about sums up this sphere. There are some stand outs among the crowd. But in a game where movement is largely optional, this is a movement-focused sphere. And I tried really hard to not be docking points for that. Probably overcompensated considering the sheer boredom I felt reading this sphere.
Flexibility: There are a certain few good talents. But they are locked behind the excessively mediocre base sphere. And the good ones kinda feel like they aren't really "situational." Just something you either want in your build, or you don't. The Fly and Swim base sphere packages are an exception.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: You would certainly not complain about having this, especially in the right builds / situations.
(B) Bad: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
- Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling, or personal use. I'll just place it where I guess the average result would put it.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
Base sphere.
Coordinated Movement (N-B): You will never want to disengage purely for the martial focus. So it's a neat little addition to an action that's rarely used except on the retreat. But at least it's gained on top of the package.
Motion talents: You may apply 1 motion talent to a movement. They tend to be restricted to use in a certain type of movement.
Packages: On gaining the base sphere, you can select one package's effects, gaining its effects and ranks in the associated skill.
Climb (N-B): It makes your climbing better. Big shocker. But Climbing is one of the weakest methods of movement without a dedicated climb speed, in which case this is useless. And of the dedicated speeds, aside from swim in an inappropriate campaign, climb is also the worst.
Fly (<G>): Allows you to hover, and be less beaten around by wind. Generally good. Nothing to go insane over. Unless you're a mundane flyer, then you would enjoy it more than those stupid perfect flying spell casters.
Leap (F): Makes falling not hurt so bad. Very thematic. Actual usefulness? Not worth a talent.
Run (N-B): So...the Run feat. The Run feat. I've only taken the Run feat once. And that was in a game where we were given like 3 mythic feats for free. And I wanted to meme around rather with a sniper than be optimal, since I cared nothing for the mythic feats. And somehow my character got the nerf bat. Not sure how. I guess Run feat is pretty good?
Swim (<G>): Neat. If you're actually in a campaign that makes active use of water and swimming, this is substantial. You'd probably prefer swim speed from 1 talent in Alteration sphere, but if you can't...
So, in general, the bases packages aren't worth picking up, so the talents have to be quite exceptional to stand for the base sphere tax.
Close Quarters Training (S): It's strange how cover is just a bonus to AC rather than a chance of the cover getting hit. But still, as is, this is pretty great, whether used offensively or defensively.
Reactive Motion (S): Someone move up on you? Move as a readied move action. Easy. Not even any need for waiting for an attack.
Compact Frame (<S>): The fluff on the ability doesn't make much sense. But if you are a front liner, and we are using the soft cover rules, and are consistently running up against them, then have fun. You also gain a tiny bonus vs projectiles, and a worse deflect arrows while you're at it.
Skillful Charge (G-S): Improves your charge's attack to be an attack action, so long as you don't use pounce or similar such ability. Yeah. Nice. SoM loves attack actions.
Reflexive Twist (G): Immediate action, and spend martial focus to replace your AC with skill check. That's probably going to be higher than the attack roll, so yeah.
Ace Pilot (G): You make use of Profession(pilot)? Well, you can use any talent from this sphere with it, so long as the piloted vehicle possess the appropriate movement mode. Assuming there are good talents exclusive to each mode of movement, it would be nice to get them all.
Lashing Serpent (G): Attack of opportunity if they miss you. Cool.
Whirlwind Flip (G): Move through the threatened area of a creature and regain martial focus. Cool.
Elevation Mastery (B-G): Meh. It's better if you get it rules that flying counts as high ground...without the ground. But the bonus is rather small.
Mighty Conditioning (B-G): Add both Dex and Str to related skill checks. Eh. MAD is a thing.
Swift Movement (B-G): Increases move speed of related packages. Cool.
Armored Athlete (B): Well. Sure. Kind of like a worse skill focus, which applies to all packages you pick up. Especially cool if you, for some reason, want to wear full plate in a nautical campaign. Not really worth a talent.
Expanded Training (I): The base spheres themselves aren't particularly good. Not even really worth half a talent, in most cases. But maybe there are some package-specific talents you're looking for?
Mobility (B): Mobility is mobility, but worse.
Multiple Motion (N-B): 2 motion talents if you spend martial focus. Meh.
Rope Swing (G-S): As a non-magical world traversal tool, this is pretty handy. Using a grappling hook on an enemy is only a swift action, even if it requires a grapple check. Combined with Cloth Snake Puppetry from equipment sphere and Reactive Motion, you do have quite the means of controlling any area you want to, and not really be threatened by enemies.
Scale Foe (I): I honestly don't understand what it's trying to do. It's a cool thing to do that's semi-reliable due to how easy scaling Climb is, for only a move action. And you get effective AC against the climbed target. Though it only works when they are larger than you. Yeah. I simply don't really know what niche this would fall into.
Sure Grip (B): Eh. Essentially immunity to disarm and steal. That's such an incredibly narrow bonus.
Powerful Wings (<G-S>): Now you essentially have perfect maneuverability. Which is cool, so long as you otherwise wouldn't have it. Making your own fog just by flying near the ground is also cool.
Diving Strike (G): Meh. Bonus damage on a charge, so long as you fall at least 10 feet. For flying, it means you essentially use a full round to get as high as you can, and then drop for 1d6 damage / level. Alteration sphere can grant 100 fly speed, so that'll do you for almost all the campaign. But you also take the bonus damage you are granted. (All of the problems of charging barbarian, with less of the one shot potential.)
Sinking Blow (I): There are better, more reliable methods of grounding a flying target. But this is just an addon to whatever else you do. But I think falling is 240 feet or so. Will adding 30 feet really make much of a difference?
Diving Strike (<S>): If you're using the ridiculous acrobatics build which takes absolutely every bonus to acrobatics and the multiple acrobatics damage dealers, then this is one of the things you will take. If you're not using that build, a 10 ft leap is DC 40. You're not getting literally any use out of this if you're not that build. Hopefully the Leap Package doesn't reduce this Leap talent's damage. I guess you'd need to define "normal."
Dolphin Strike (<S>): Again, if you've got that build, this goes in it. And hey, if you're only looking to get an extra 5ft of reach, that's only DC 20. Basically air-borne lunge. I mean, lunge has its uses. But this is only for the air.
Locust Pounce (<S>): If you already use your move action for something other than movement, this is a great pick up. 15 or even 20 foot leap is reasonably achievable. If you just use move action for moving then...yeah. SoM isn't short on attack actions that let you freely use your move action.
Unwilling Boost (G-S): Add your opponent's (or ally's) strength score (not modifier) to your acrobatics check. OK then. "That build" won't get as much use out of this due to the already insane numbers they reach, meaning no enemy will ever take the AoO. But they can still user their ally's strength score.
Store Momentum (<G>): If you're maxing out your jump, this grants +4 to one jump, each time you recharge it. So probably once in a fight. But it's another option for more damage.
Wall Stunt (B): Meh. If you fall next to a wall or creature, you can break your fall.
Armored Drop (N): ...Maybe don't leap higher than you can take? Replacing armor is expensive. I don't see what purpose this talent serves.
Tumbling Recovery (S): Free action movement even out of your turn. Drop prone at the end of it, but still. Also get to stand up as an immediate action by using martial focus.
Charge Through (G): Charge, hit, keep going.
Sharp Turn (B-G): Making a turn during a charge is handy. Especially if your build is centered on charging (in which case, bump this up). But...meh. I don't think I'd bother outside of such a build.
Strong Lungs (F): Neat as it would be to have in real life, this actually has very little effect in game.
Store Momentum (N): 10 ft of movement for 1 move action is nothing.
Terror Below (B-G): Cool. It's like a reposition that targets reflex save instead of CMD. But most importantly, is that it gets people in the water, who were wanting to be on land. Honestly, this entire package feels like it was made for NPCs.
Dolphin Strike / Sinking Blow / Strong Lungs (B): Not much to talk about. These seem like pretty incredible after thoughts with little utility to swimming. I mean. Sink Below is cool vs things without a swim speed. But...you're probably in a water campaign if you're taking it.
Dizzying Tumble (S): Will save or Nauseate for a round when you end movement next to someone. No other qualifiers needed. Other than the 1 hour cool down per person. But still, 1 round of nauseate on anyone for basically no cost. And even sickened is one of the best of the basic debuffs.
Blustering Hustle (G): Neat. Feint effect for free...when you acrobatics through their threatened squares. I mean. Why not. SoM grants a lot of freedom to use move action however you like.
Moving Target (G): Gain miss chance against ranged attacks. Or all attacks if taken twice. It's definitely good. Especially if you can 10ft step. Not totally ground breaking unless you are in a truly lethal campaign.
Shoot And Scoot (G): Reload sucks. Getting rid of it is preferred. But this is a bit of a work around, which can hopefully be retrained once you've fixed the reload. Then retrain this.
Knockdown Tumble (B): Expend martial focus, and acrobatics through their square to force a reflex save or go prone. A lot of ways for this relatively minor effect to fail.
Bewildering Motions (B): Will save or inflict Battered. Very minor.
Wind-Up Brace (N-B): So, you spend an action, make a check, and then tell your target that his next attack on his next turn will deal nonlethal damage...against only you. OK. He attacks someone else.
Post-Review Analysis: Eh. Yeah. "Eh" about sums up this sphere. There are some stand outs among the crowd. But in a game where movement is largely optional, this is a movement-focused sphere. And I tried really hard to not be docking points for that. Probably overcompensated considering the sheer boredom I felt reading this sphere.
Flexibility: There are a certain few good talents. But they are locked behind the excessively mediocre base sphere. And the good ones kinda feel like they aren't really "situational." Just something you either want in your build, or you don't. The Fly and Swim base sphere packages are an exception.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: You would certainly not complain about having this, especially in the right builds / situations.
(B) Bad: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
- Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling, or personal use. I'll just place it where I guess the average result would put it.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
Base sphere.
Coordinated Movement (N-B): You will never want to disengage purely for the martial focus. So it's a neat little addition to an action that's rarely used except on the retreat. But at least it's gained on top of the package.
Motion talents: You may apply 1 motion talent to a movement. They tend to be restricted to use in a certain type of movement.
Packages: On gaining the base sphere, you can select one package's effects, gaining its effects and ranks in the associated skill.
Climb (N-B): It makes your climbing better. Big shocker. But Climbing is one of the weakest methods of movement without a dedicated climb speed, in which case this is useless. And of the dedicated speeds, aside from swim in an inappropriate campaign, climb is also the worst.
Fly (<G>): Allows you to hover, and be less beaten around by wind. Generally good. Nothing to go insane over. Unless you're a mundane flyer, then you would enjoy it more than those stupid perfect flying spell casters.
Leap (F): Makes falling not hurt so bad. Very thematic. Actual usefulness? Not worth a talent.
Run (N-B): So...the Run feat. The Run feat. I've only taken the Run feat once. And that was in a game where we were given like 3 mythic feats for free. And I wanted to meme around rather with a sniper than be optimal, since I cared nothing for the mythic feats. And somehow my character got the nerf bat. Not sure how. I guess Run feat is pretty good?
Swim (<G>): Neat. If you're actually in a campaign that makes active use of water and swimming, this is substantial. You'd probably prefer swim speed from 1 talent in Alteration sphere, but if you can't...
So, in general, the bases packages aren't worth picking up, so the talents have to be quite exceptional to stand for the base sphere tax.
Close Quarters Training (S): It's strange how cover is just a bonus to AC rather than a chance of the cover getting hit. But still, as is, this is pretty great, whether used offensively or defensively.
Reactive Motion (S): Someone move up on you? Move as a readied move action. Easy. Not even any need for waiting for an attack.
Compact Frame (<S>): The fluff on the ability doesn't make much sense. But if you are a front liner, and we are using the soft cover rules, and are consistently running up against them, then have fun. You also gain a tiny bonus vs projectiles, and a worse deflect arrows while you're at it.
Skillful Charge (G-S): Improves your charge's attack to be an attack action, so long as you don't use pounce or similar such ability. Yeah. Nice. SoM loves attack actions.
Reflexive Twist (G): Immediate action, and spend martial focus to replace your AC with skill check. That's probably going to be higher than the attack roll, so yeah.
Ace Pilot (G): You make use of Profession(pilot)? Well, you can use any talent from this sphere with it, so long as the piloted vehicle possess the appropriate movement mode. Assuming there are good talents exclusive to each mode of movement, it would be nice to get them all.
Lashing Serpent (G): Attack of opportunity if they miss you. Cool.
Whirlwind Flip (G): Move through the threatened area of a creature and regain martial focus. Cool.
Elevation Mastery (B-G): Meh. It's better if you get it rules that flying counts as high ground...without the ground. But the bonus is rather small.
Mighty Conditioning (B-G): Add both Dex and Str to related skill checks. Eh. MAD is a thing.
Swift Movement (B-G): Increases move speed of related packages. Cool.
Armored Athlete (B): Well. Sure. Kind of like a worse skill focus, which applies to all packages you pick up. Especially cool if you, for some reason, want to wear full plate in a nautical campaign. Not really worth a talent.
Expanded Training (I): The base spheres themselves aren't particularly good. Not even really worth half a talent, in most cases. But maybe there are some package-specific talents you're looking for?
Mobility (B): Mobility is mobility, but worse.
Multiple Motion (N-B): 2 motion talents if you spend martial focus. Meh.
Rope Swing (G-S): As a non-magical world traversal tool, this is pretty handy. Using a grappling hook on an enemy is only a swift action, even if it requires a grapple check. Combined with Cloth Snake Puppetry from equipment sphere and Reactive Motion, you do have quite the means of controlling any area you want to, and not really be threatened by enemies.
Scale Foe (I): I honestly don't understand what it's trying to do. It's a cool thing to do that's semi-reliable due to how easy scaling Climb is, for only a move action. And you get effective AC against the climbed target. Though it only works when they are larger than you. Yeah. I simply don't really know what niche this would fall into.
Sure Grip (B): Eh. Essentially immunity to disarm and steal. That's such an incredibly narrow bonus.
Powerful Wings (<G-S>): Now you essentially have perfect maneuverability. Which is cool, so long as you otherwise wouldn't have it. Making your own fog just by flying near the ground is also cool.
Diving Strike (G): Meh. Bonus damage on a charge, so long as you fall at least 10 feet. For flying, it means you essentially use a full round to get as high as you can, and then drop for 1d6 damage / level. Alteration sphere can grant 100 fly speed, so that'll do you for almost all the campaign. But you also take the bonus damage you are granted. (All of the problems of charging barbarian, with less of the one shot potential.)
Sinking Blow (I): There are better, more reliable methods of grounding a flying target. But this is just an addon to whatever else you do. But I think falling is 240 feet or so. Will adding 30 feet really make much of a difference?
Diving Strike (<S>): If you're using the ridiculous acrobatics build which takes absolutely every bonus to acrobatics and the multiple acrobatics damage dealers, then this is one of the things you will take. If you're not using that build, a 10 ft leap is DC 40. You're not getting literally any use out of this if you're not that build. Hopefully the Leap Package doesn't reduce this Leap talent's damage. I guess you'd need to define "normal."
Dolphin Strike (<S>): Again, if you've got that build, this goes in it. And hey, if you're only looking to get an extra 5ft of reach, that's only DC 20. Basically air-borne lunge. I mean, lunge has its uses. But this is only for the air.
Locust Pounce (<S>): If you already use your move action for something other than movement, this is a great pick up. 15 or even 20 foot leap is reasonably achievable. If you just use move action for moving then...yeah. SoM isn't short on attack actions that let you freely use your move action.
Unwilling Boost (G-S): Add your opponent's (or ally's) strength score (not modifier) to your acrobatics check. OK then. "That build" won't get as much use out of this due to the already insane numbers they reach, meaning no enemy will ever take the AoO. But they can still user their ally's strength score.
Store Momentum (<G>): If you're maxing out your jump, this grants +4 to one jump, each time you recharge it. So probably once in a fight. But it's another option for more damage.
Wall Stunt (B): Meh. If you fall next to a wall or creature, you can break your fall.
Armored Drop (N): ...Maybe don't leap higher than you can take? Replacing armor is expensive. I don't see what purpose this talent serves.
Tumbling Recovery (S): Free action movement even out of your turn. Drop prone at the end of it, but still. Also get to stand up as an immediate action by using martial focus.
Charge Through (G): Charge, hit, keep going.
Sharp Turn (B-G): Making a turn during a charge is handy. Especially if your build is centered on charging (in which case, bump this up). But...meh. I don't think I'd bother outside of such a build.
Strong Lungs (F): Neat as it would be to have in real life, this actually has very little effect in game.
Store Momentum (N): 10 ft of movement for 1 move action is nothing.
Terror Below (B-G): Cool. It's like a reposition that targets reflex save instead of CMD. But most importantly, is that it gets people in the water, who were wanting to be on land. Honestly, this entire package feels like it was made for NPCs.
Dolphin Strike / Sinking Blow / Strong Lungs (B): Not much to talk about. These seem like pretty incredible after thoughts with little utility to swimming. I mean. Sink Below is cool vs things without a swim speed. But...you're probably in a water campaign if you're taking it.
Dizzying Tumble (S): Will save or Nauseate for a round when you end movement next to someone. No other qualifiers needed. Other than the 1 hour cool down per person. But still, 1 round of nauseate on anyone for basically no cost. And even sickened is one of the best of the basic debuffs.
Blustering Hustle (G): Neat. Feint effect for free...when you acrobatics through their threatened squares. I mean. Why not. SoM grants a lot of freedom to use move action however you like.
Moving Target (G): Gain miss chance against ranged attacks. Or all attacks if taken twice. It's definitely good. Especially if you can 10ft step. Not totally ground breaking unless you are in a truly lethal campaign.
Shoot And Scoot (G): Reload sucks. Getting rid of it is preferred. But this is a bit of a work around, which can hopefully be retrained once you've fixed the reload. Then retrain this.
Knockdown Tumble (B): Expend martial focus, and acrobatics through their square to force a reflex save or go prone. A lot of ways for this relatively minor effect to fail.
Bewildering Motions (B): Will save or inflict Battered. Very minor.
Wind-Up Brace (N-B): So, you spend an action, make a check, and then tell your target that his next attack on his next turn will deal nonlethal damage...against only you. OK. He attacks someone else.