SangoProduction
2021-02-13, 05:29 AM
Well, I've been successfully peer pressured into it. You only have yourselves to blame. We're reviewing the Light sphere now.
Post-Review Analysis: This is an incredibly solid sphere. Not one that I personally am excited to try and play, but it's extremely solid, and I think that you would be hard pressed to go wrong with this Light sphere.
Full or Partial Caster: Few of the talents offer any notable scaling with CL (if any at all). So if you're fine with lower DC, and lower radius of Bright Light (read: you don't want to use for direct offensive effects), being a partial caster is essentially equivalent to being a full caster with lesser duration.
With that said, being a full caster does offer the mentioned benefits, and there are some nice directly offensive (light) talents.
So...amazingly, there are both full and partial caster builds that could use this sphere and not feel bad about it.
Flex Talents: Black Light lets you continue to cast light even if you can't beat the dark. Infravision lets you track down escaped packets of XP. Rose-Tinted is nice for just flashing a room and then cheesing it (let the puns flow through you). Fenestrate is decent if you suddenly come across a Fog spell. Revealing Light takes care of the invisible without needing to target them directly. Weird Radiance for when you need to light up a whole lot of space. Shining Arsenal for ghosties and things that have DR, if you like being kind to your martials. Precious for distractions. Bound Light to prevent teleportation. Halo Effect for a particularly important Diplomacy check.
Style is great whenever you need to make a marking or silently communicate at range. But such situations tend to be common enough that I don't know if it's a true "flex talent"
Flex Talents are those that are not generally useful, but if you have the ability to just pick them up when you need them, they are particularly notable.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds.
(M) Meh: 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.
(G-S): Powerful talents that are almost, but not quite, universally useful or desirable.
(M-G): These are pretty reasonable talents of mediocre strength.
(N-M): It technically has a use, but the cost simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
Base Sphere
Glow: Standard action, medium range, 1 minute per CL. Outline the targeted creature or object with light as a candle, negating invisibility, blink, darkness (?) and similar effects. Oh, and the -20 to stealth check is pretty neat in that same vein.
Affecting the unwilling requires a (ranged) touch attack and penetrating spell resistance.
Free action to increase this to the light of a torch with normal light out to 20 ft. Free action to reduce it.
Glow and Darkness effects automatically attempt to suppress one another within their respective areas.
Yeah...not much to comment on. It's a light effect. Doesn't even cost a spell point.
Bright Light: Standard action to cause one glow effect in medium range to shed bright light. Could also do it in the same Standard action of casting the Glow. Bright Light (the light level of being outside on a sunny day) out to Close range, and increases light level out another Close range.
Unfortunately, this one requires concentration, or a spell point to maintain for up to 1 minute / CL.
The innate ability of this is rarely worth the cost. But it is pretty impressive omnidirectional light range, which most torches and lanterns don't allow for. It will have occasional use if you're dungeon delving without darkvision.
Lens: Spend a standard action to place a lens on a target, or space if applicable, within Glow range.
Also requires a (ranged) touch attack / spell resistance if they are unwilling.
But these generally tend to be buffs, and just innately last for an hour / level for 1 spell point. That's insanely generous for the base sphere effect. You can also simply concentrate on them for free, which is nice when you run out of spell points.
Telescope (lens): A light bonus to perception. If your DM is a stickler for perception fall off with range, this becomes stupendously handy. I've not really seen a DM remember that's a thing, but I'm sure there are a few. But even so, you have CL magnification to your sight. Great for spying on people discretely.
Light Talents: These add additional effects to your glow ability, but you may only apply 1 at a time, by base. And multiple sources of the same Light talent don't stack.
Nimbus Talents: These alter how the area of your glow. You may also only apply one at a time, but may switch between them and normal glow as a free action once per round. (This wording isn't clear, but the Trail talent essentially states that you can also switch directly between nimbus talents.)
Black Light (S): If you can't beat the Darkness, join the Darkness. And you can be much more stealthy while still benefiting from it. In fact, your light produces no light, which is the only real warning anyone has that there's an area of "Oh gods, I'm burning" around you, or where the effect ends. That is pretty rad, and perhaps slightly broken.
Lingering Glow (G-S): 10x the duration is nice, once you've already gotten a fair few other talents that make you care about Bright Light's duration.
Dual Light (G): The AoEs are so large that this would probably only be a concern for particularly small parties. And plus you can glow yourself, and glow your sword. But for Bright Light effects, you save a spell point compared to casting 2 Bright Lights.
Dancing Lights (G): There are definitely benefits to having a quick-flying ball of pure light, lighting the path. Particularly if you're weary of ambush. Or if you don't want to deal with unwilling participants needing to be touched. Ew. Or worrying about spell penetration. Yes, I'm looking at you.
Style (G, F): This is like Illusion-lite, getting a huge amount of the non-deceptive utility of a visual illusion. Except that its duration is tied to your Glow duration, which... well, Illusion sphere requires concentration unless you've taken additional talents. This is like free, infinite, nonmagical chalk that takes all of a standard action to use. And we all know how useful chalk is. Especially when it works on literally any surface, or any creature. If you're especially childish... I'll leave it to your imagination.
Glory (G): Lets you ignore the cost of Bright glowing, but only affect out to a 5 around them. But you are paying the talent cost of this option. The best possible use is probably self-casting Encompassing Light, which cares nothing for the light radius. So it's a solid option to improve the efficiency of self buffing with that. Most (light) talents aren't self-buffs.
Flash (M-G): Definite benefits to getting to apply effects of your (light) more freely. Particularly notable benefits that are worth your time, effort, and resources to get? Debatable.
Bend Radiance (M): Well, I mean. It's neat. Not really enough cubes to give your whole party safe places to stand until quite a few levels. Best used to actually just to keep your target from being affected by the light. So, you're probably using this so your frontliner has an aura of effect.
Light Link (<M>): You know, there are better ways to do this, but this (combined with Black Light) can effectively let you tag someone to figure out where they are going. That's a beyond niche usage, and requires 2 talents. But for the sake of fairness, I had to mention it, and give it the situational rating.
Doubled Nimbus (M): Very nice that it allows you to either increase cost, or casting time. The choice is nice. Not...incredibly useful though.
Intensity Control (N-M): A very incredibly light increase (or decrease) to your light radius. Or doubling it, so long as you use it for nothing but being a light source. Which... I guess... is fine? Not really worth the talent though.
Area Glow (N-M): In a very small bubble, you can cause everything to glow for a spell point. Somewhat underwhelming. It has potential use vs swarms at least. But all non-lens Light effects are already AoE. Most of the good, offensive light talents really only work while it's Bright, which this doesn't help with. Maybe if you really messed up, and forgot to buff everyone before the fight...with your minutes long cantrip. Maybe if you're trying to negate invisibility.... in fact, I think it's exactly for the purposes of negating invisibility. Scroll of Faerie Fire is still superior. And Revealing Light compares very favorably to this.
Flare (N): I mean. It is untyped damage. So it is comparable...yeah, to the free version of the Destructive Blast and Energy Sphere talent. But with no option of augmentation, unlike those, which can both be picked up with a single talent and some drawbacks that don't make a difference if this was all you wanted. You can even tack on a blast type for yet another drawback, which does even more for this one trick you were wanting to do.
Mass Lens (N): You reduce the duration by 6 times, and add on a spell point cost in order to save on action cost of an hours-long buffs. Even if it lets them all last with a single spell point, you need to hit at least 12x the targets to achieve same cost per hour. This isn't possible until CL 24. Twenty Four! You at least have the argument that you might not need the continuous effect, and 10 min/CL might be enough for a dungeon run, and thus save you points. So cool, if your DM reads it in that manner, and you have a large party, and you're high level, and the reduced duration is still an adventuring day, then go ahead.
Dim Light (S): Using Glow offensively? Well, you grant immunity to the negative effects of your own glows, and light sensitivity. An interesting concept, being a light mage in a Drow party. The first sentence is probably just fluff.
Obscure (G-S): Once per round, grant an attacker disadvantage to hit. I think that's pretty powerful. Not overwhelmingly so, but this lasts an hour / CL, so your frontline should be able to make steady use out of it.
Infravision (<G-S>): It does what it does without fail. If being able to see through fog and track warm blooded prey is what you need to do on a regular basis, then here you go.
Periscope (<G-S>): Basically a medium range scrying effect that require you to see be in line of sight of the sensor. If that's something you can make use of, then it's something you probably already picked up before I finished writing this down. Less usefully, it's a stealthy way to peak around a corner.
Rose-Tinted (G): If you're fighting at least 4 creatures that you can hit with this, then it's probably a decent trade off for your action. Requiring more targets if they are especially resilient, or fewer if it's more likely to land. I just assumed they get affected 60% of the time. Unfortunately, this isn't a Glow effect, so Dim Light doesn't prevent harm.
Chameleon (G): Light sphere's Invisibility talent. You do have to move very slowly to be able to hide while being observed.
Halo Effect (I): The bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff (and Perform) is very minor. A dedicated face probably has that stuff on lock down already, and this won't turn a non-face into a face. But... I... guess it's another option for where to get your bonuses from.
Aiming Scope (N-M): At absolute best, this is providing a +3 effective bonus, if you're making use of the extra range increment. Normally it's going to just be a +1. And that's really nothing to write home about. Conceptually works well with Telescope.
Irradiance (C): AoE fort save or nauseate every round in a pretty huge AoE. They fail, they can't attack or cast or anything, being restricted to a move action. They succeed? They're still sickened. Oh, and you can sicken as a cantrip.
Encompassing Light (S): Big punchy man => bigger punchy man. And it was good.
Blinding Light (S): Assuming you guard your party with Dim Light lens, just plop this on your front liner, and have passive AoE blinds going off each round for the next several minutes. Even at 2 or 3 spell points, that's quite nice.
Bound Light (S): Dayam! Touch to entangle (but not root?) for a couple minutes, and then each round, it must save or also be staggered. And no teleportation. The Swords of Revealing Light wished they were this sexy.
Revealing Light (<S>): If you regularly face Inviso Bill, you finally have a tool to counter him.
Shining Arsenal (<S>): Counter ghosts as a cantrip, which is insane when you need it. Also gain the effects of any material...for a spell point, and only for weakness / damage reduction purposes. A mostly useless secondary effect.
Precious (G-S): Definitely expensive, and not a true fascinate where they simply become passive. But if you're trying to be nonviolent (at least personally), then this can be a form of pacification, and forcing those fools to fight over a shiny stone. They get multiple saves, but only once they have it already, and they spend a standard action admiring their precious. This is such a unique effect that I almost want to rate it higher.
Searing Light (G-S): OK, a bright light costs 1 spell point. Destruction sphere can do 1d6/CL for a spell point. But this is a pretty large AoE, and happens every round for minutes at a time, with no save. So this is very efficient, and effective damage - especially if you can tag multiple foes at once - doubly so if they are vulnerable to sunlight. This may actually be the one way to deal insanely efficient and reliable AoE damage without it just getting banned...by having it happen over time, spread out over a large populace. Like taxes.
Disorienting Patterns (G): Very solid. Makes getting to your backliners rather difficult, and can basically a free "trip" attempt at the end of each of your turns. Definitely not bad for its cost.
Fenestrate (G): Rather than rattle on for several more paragraphs, just read the comments below this review. It has its uses - probably enough that it'd be useful on enough occasions. You'd definitely have to work with your DM to see how much Concealment applies a penalty to searching for things. Or if it does at all, even when the thing you're searching for is also transparent, because the text says it's a penalty to hide. Honestly, this thing kinda hurts my brain.
Beacon Of Hope (<G>): If facing fear effects is common, then getting to try and end them early every round is pretty great.
Revelation (<G>, F) If explosive runes are common, this is especially useful. If your setting has a library which could have pertinent information, then this is useful. If you've got monster manuals, then this is useful. If you are just playing a hoarder of knowledge, and translator of languages then...cool. I like your style. It's a cantrip effect.
Visual Overload (M-G): Bound light, but instead of a guaranteed entangle, it has a lower end option to spend just 1 rather than 2 spell points. And spending 2 spell points is a chance at daze for the round instead. But 2 consecutive saves ends the effect. Very powerful, but there are just more reliable options.
Lure Light (M): Forces people to use their move actions in a particular way, preventing full attacks, or moving away...until they save, at which point they are immune for 24 hours. But it is just another layer of area control for the front line. Doesn't fascinate while luring, so can't very well pick off guards using just this.
Flicker (I): Honestly, I'm pretty mixed on this. It has uses. But only affects 1 target for a spell point (or concentration). It has uses. Incredibly useful uses? Debatable.
Repelling Light (M): I can't very well make this rated worse than Lure Light. This doesn't have a 24 hour immunity. But I do think Lure Light is more generally useful. Forcing movement > preventing movement. And this has an extra spell point cost. OK. I guess I can make it rated worse.
Guiding Light (N-M): Might actually be lower that this. A -1 or -2 to a single creature's AC is simply not much of an effect.
Inner Sun (N-M, F): Gives a new definition of "Light saber." I like it. If your DM reads that it's just a passive bonus to any of your bright lights, then it's pretty cool. And can be a tiny bit of extra damage to an existing martial's weapon. 1d4 extra damage. Fire damage. If you must use a Bright Glow specifically for this, as the (light) tag indicates... well, this is the rating I'd give it.
Sunstroke (N-M): You know how Searing Light does very consistent AoE damage with no save? Well, this is nonlethal single target, unreliably higher damage with a save that can completely negate it. Just pick up the destruction sphere.
Hypnotic Pattern (N): 2 spell point AoE fascinate, which can explicitly be used in combat (at a penalty). But they get a save every round, and one save makes them immune to it.
Note: I am assuming that when it says "spend a spell point to create bright light that does x," it is saying it's an additional spell point to the normal bright light cost.
Weird Radiance (G): You could take this instead of Dim Light, and just use your free action to adjust your lighting accordingly. It doesn't get as many cubes as the Cone version of Beam, but does grant equal or more cubes than the line version. The flexibility of it though is pretty fun, and the 20 ft radius increase of light level from any of the cubes basically means you can light up almost any room. So yeah. I think I'll rate it as a solid G, mostly for it being a semi-viable alternative to a talent that almost every offensive glower will take.
Beam (I): 80 foot torch light down a long corridor as a cantrip? Seems useful. Probably not worth going out of your way to get.
Trail (I): Perhaps the weirdest nimbus talent, and the one which I have the hardest time conceiving a good use for. Or any use for.
Defiant Radiance (<S>): +4 to your attempts to beat back the darkness. For when it's viable to fight the darkness rather than needing to just exist in it.
Seraphic Glow (<S>): You in a campaign fighting Evil? You Good? Then this good! You do good!
Illustrious Light (G-S): You can quickly ramp up to very large illusions, which serve as base areas around which the light then extends. You could envelope entire battlefields in light with a good couple of levels. And then you also get a spell point savings for extending the illusion and light.
Searing Brilliance (G-S): Yeah. Again. No one's really going to complain that you're dealing 2 hp / CL each round. Even though it only cost you 1 action and 1 spell point. So yeah. And being the bane of every Vampire is fun...until you're dead
Wave-Particle Duality (<G-S>): If cover and walls are consistently being a pain, take this. Not sure what Illusion sphere has to do with it though.
Sense Light (<G-S>, F) Lets you play the blind monk without being vulnerable to blinding. But as for it's power? Generally pretty much worthless. But you like it when you need it.
Sunlight Strike (<G-S>): This is really not something to go out of your way to get, being a rather minor bonus in all but the most dedicated of campaigns. But if you were already Arcane Striking, and you're running across a lot of targets, go ahead.
Destructive Radiance (G): It has its uses. Especially if you set up with Fenestrate so that you have full cover, but can still simply blast away. Not many more uses though.
Shining Stars (G): I'm not sure what would be a good use of this, but I'm certain there is a good use for it.
Bioluminescent Transformation (G): I do not rate the strategy of concentrating on Alteration and Bright Light as very highly, or moderately highly, or... but if that's something you want to go for, this is build-enabling.
Illuminated Vigilance (G): First impressions? Quite reasonable.
Luminous Aegis (M-G): Actually... I do see this as potentially useful, letting you pick a glow buff on demand. Just need an Aegis that you reliably want on people.
Crimson Flash (M-G): Neat. Turn order manipulation. But it requires the target to have not acted yet in combat. But you can at least raise one person to your level. If you rolled well.
Twilight Adept (M): Probably decent. But I would absolutely never go out of my way to use this. And I would probably prefer Black Light if I happened into a teammate who used Dark sphere. I'd rather not waste the light altering effects.
Luminous Flame (M): May seem slightly redundant to allow fire to glow. And there is really very little point to tying your bright light to a fire. At best you get to add fire's damage to your light effect. At which point... why not... just... use destruction sphere? Well...fine. I guess Searing Light, plus direct single target damage. But...create fire is such little damage, and you're tying your actions up.
Photosynthesis (M): You...can generate your own light. You are a living perpetual motion machine.
Hard Light (N-M, F): Yeah... I see very little point to this?
Coronal Shroud (I): I...um... I'm just going to leave this here. Maybe revisit it if I ever mess with the weather sphere. First impressions are poor.
Constellation (N-M): Dancing Lights does this better, for the most part. Weird Radiance gets the targeted light effects. This... What's this doing that can't be handled already, within the same sphere? Well, I guess they can work with Trail if you have Dual Nimbus for a grand total of 3 feat-equivalents for something that's arguably good.
Ensouled Illuminations (N-M): Expends a lot of text to do so very little.
Aurora (I): Honestly baffling. What possible benefit are you gaining from this?
Afterglow (N): No real point, honestly.
Lightshow (N): I don't see any actual use. It doesn't even seem to simply initiate a glow, but instead glows for the round you maintain the performance.
Flash Warp (N): Are there any (light) talents which you would appreciate using for precisely an instant? Doing an AoE 1-2 damage / CL...requires bright light. I wouldn't spend a spell point for that. Yeah. I don't think there are good options.
Beam Propulsion (N-): Hah. haha. Wait. You're serious?
Oh gods. I think I just lost a good third of my sanity points. This literally has as many bloody words as an academic essay.
Post-Review Analysis: This is an incredibly solid sphere. Not one that I personally am excited to try and play, but it's extremely solid, and I think that you would be hard pressed to go wrong with this Light sphere.
Full or Partial Caster: Few of the talents offer any notable scaling with CL (if any at all). So if you're fine with lower DC, and lower radius of Bright Light (read: you don't want to use for direct offensive effects), being a partial caster is essentially equivalent to being a full caster with lesser duration.
With that said, being a full caster does offer the mentioned benefits, and there are some nice directly offensive (light) talents.
So...amazingly, there are both full and partial caster builds that could use this sphere and not feel bad about it.
Flex Talents: Black Light lets you continue to cast light even if you can't beat the dark. Infravision lets you track down escaped packets of XP. Rose-Tinted is nice for just flashing a room and then cheesing it (let the puns flow through you). Fenestrate is decent if you suddenly come across a Fog spell. Revealing Light takes care of the invisible without needing to target them directly. Weird Radiance for when you need to light up a whole lot of space. Shining Arsenal for ghosties and things that have DR, if you like being kind to your martials. Precious for distractions. Bound Light to prevent teleportation. Halo Effect for a particularly important Diplomacy check.
Style is great whenever you need to make a marking or silently communicate at range. But such situations tend to be common enough that I don't know if it's a true "flex talent"
Flex Talents are those that are not generally useful, but if you have the ability to just pick them up when you need them, they are particularly notable.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds.
(M) Meh: 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.
(G-S): Powerful talents that are almost, but not quite, universally useful or desirable.
(M-G): These are pretty reasonable talents of mediocre strength.
(N-M): It technically has a use, but the cost simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
Base Sphere
Glow: Standard action, medium range, 1 minute per CL. Outline the targeted creature or object with light as a candle, negating invisibility, blink, darkness (?) and similar effects. Oh, and the -20 to stealth check is pretty neat in that same vein.
Affecting the unwilling requires a (ranged) touch attack and penetrating spell resistance.
Free action to increase this to the light of a torch with normal light out to 20 ft. Free action to reduce it.
Glow and Darkness effects automatically attempt to suppress one another within their respective areas.
Yeah...not much to comment on. It's a light effect. Doesn't even cost a spell point.
Bright Light: Standard action to cause one glow effect in medium range to shed bright light. Could also do it in the same Standard action of casting the Glow. Bright Light (the light level of being outside on a sunny day) out to Close range, and increases light level out another Close range.
Unfortunately, this one requires concentration, or a spell point to maintain for up to 1 minute / CL.
The innate ability of this is rarely worth the cost. But it is pretty impressive omnidirectional light range, which most torches and lanterns don't allow for. It will have occasional use if you're dungeon delving without darkvision.
Lens: Spend a standard action to place a lens on a target, or space if applicable, within Glow range.
Also requires a (ranged) touch attack / spell resistance if they are unwilling.
But these generally tend to be buffs, and just innately last for an hour / level for 1 spell point. That's insanely generous for the base sphere effect. You can also simply concentrate on them for free, which is nice when you run out of spell points.
Telescope (lens): A light bonus to perception. If your DM is a stickler for perception fall off with range, this becomes stupendously handy. I've not really seen a DM remember that's a thing, but I'm sure there are a few. But even so, you have CL magnification to your sight. Great for spying on people discretely.
Light Talents: These add additional effects to your glow ability, but you may only apply 1 at a time, by base. And multiple sources of the same Light talent don't stack.
Nimbus Talents: These alter how the area of your glow. You may also only apply one at a time, but may switch between them and normal glow as a free action once per round. (This wording isn't clear, but the Trail talent essentially states that you can also switch directly between nimbus talents.)
Black Light (S): If you can't beat the Darkness, join the Darkness. And you can be much more stealthy while still benefiting from it. In fact, your light produces no light, which is the only real warning anyone has that there's an area of "Oh gods, I'm burning" around you, or where the effect ends. That is pretty rad, and perhaps slightly broken.
Lingering Glow (G-S): 10x the duration is nice, once you've already gotten a fair few other talents that make you care about Bright Light's duration.
Dual Light (G): The AoEs are so large that this would probably only be a concern for particularly small parties. And plus you can glow yourself, and glow your sword. But for Bright Light effects, you save a spell point compared to casting 2 Bright Lights.
Dancing Lights (G): There are definitely benefits to having a quick-flying ball of pure light, lighting the path. Particularly if you're weary of ambush. Or if you don't want to deal with unwilling participants needing to be touched. Ew. Or worrying about spell penetration. Yes, I'm looking at you.
Style (G, F): This is like Illusion-lite, getting a huge amount of the non-deceptive utility of a visual illusion. Except that its duration is tied to your Glow duration, which... well, Illusion sphere requires concentration unless you've taken additional talents. This is like free, infinite, nonmagical chalk that takes all of a standard action to use. And we all know how useful chalk is. Especially when it works on literally any surface, or any creature. If you're especially childish... I'll leave it to your imagination.
Glory (G): Lets you ignore the cost of Bright glowing, but only affect out to a 5 around them. But you are paying the talent cost of this option. The best possible use is probably self-casting Encompassing Light, which cares nothing for the light radius. So it's a solid option to improve the efficiency of self buffing with that. Most (light) talents aren't self-buffs.
Flash (M-G): Definite benefits to getting to apply effects of your (light) more freely. Particularly notable benefits that are worth your time, effort, and resources to get? Debatable.
Bend Radiance (M): Well, I mean. It's neat. Not really enough cubes to give your whole party safe places to stand until quite a few levels. Best used to actually just to keep your target from being affected by the light. So, you're probably using this so your frontliner has an aura of effect.
Light Link (<M>): You know, there are better ways to do this, but this (combined with Black Light) can effectively let you tag someone to figure out where they are going. That's a beyond niche usage, and requires 2 talents. But for the sake of fairness, I had to mention it, and give it the situational rating.
Doubled Nimbus (M): Very nice that it allows you to either increase cost, or casting time. The choice is nice. Not...incredibly useful though.
Intensity Control (N-M): A very incredibly light increase (or decrease) to your light radius. Or doubling it, so long as you use it for nothing but being a light source. Which... I guess... is fine? Not really worth the talent though.
Area Glow (N-M): In a very small bubble, you can cause everything to glow for a spell point. Somewhat underwhelming. It has potential use vs swarms at least. But all non-lens Light effects are already AoE. Most of the good, offensive light talents really only work while it's Bright, which this doesn't help with. Maybe if you really messed up, and forgot to buff everyone before the fight...with your minutes long cantrip. Maybe if you're trying to negate invisibility.... in fact, I think it's exactly for the purposes of negating invisibility. Scroll of Faerie Fire is still superior. And Revealing Light compares very favorably to this.
Flare (N): I mean. It is untyped damage. So it is comparable...yeah, to the free version of the Destructive Blast and Energy Sphere talent. But with no option of augmentation, unlike those, which can both be picked up with a single talent and some drawbacks that don't make a difference if this was all you wanted. You can even tack on a blast type for yet another drawback, which does even more for this one trick you were wanting to do.
Mass Lens (N): You reduce the duration by 6 times, and add on a spell point cost in order to save on action cost of an hours-long buffs. Even if it lets them all last with a single spell point, you need to hit at least 12x the targets to achieve same cost per hour. This isn't possible until CL 24. Twenty Four! You at least have the argument that you might not need the continuous effect, and 10 min/CL might be enough for a dungeon run, and thus save you points. So cool, if your DM reads it in that manner, and you have a large party, and you're high level, and the reduced duration is still an adventuring day, then go ahead.
Dim Light (S): Using Glow offensively? Well, you grant immunity to the negative effects of your own glows, and light sensitivity. An interesting concept, being a light mage in a Drow party. The first sentence is probably just fluff.
Obscure (G-S): Once per round, grant an attacker disadvantage to hit. I think that's pretty powerful. Not overwhelmingly so, but this lasts an hour / CL, so your frontline should be able to make steady use out of it.
Infravision (<G-S>): It does what it does without fail. If being able to see through fog and track warm blooded prey is what you need to do on a regular basis, then here you go.
Periscope (<G-S>): Basically a medium range scrying effect that require you to see be in line of sight of the sensor. If that's something you can make use of, then it's something you probably already picked up before I finished writing this down. Less usefully, it's a stealthy way to peak around a corner.
Rose-Tinted (G): If you're fighting at least 4 creatures that you can hit with this, then it's probably a decent trade off for your action. Requiring more targets if they are especially resilient, or fewer if it's more likely to land. I just assumed they get affected 60% of the time. Unfortunately, this isn't a Glow effect, so Dim Light doesn't prevent harm.
Chameleon (G): Light sphere's Invisibility talent. You do have to move very slowly to be able to hide while being observed.
Halo Effect (I): The bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff (and Perform) is very minor. A dedicated face probably has that stuff on lock down already, and this won't turn a non-face into a face. But... I... guess it's another option for where to get your bonuses from.
Aiming Scope (N-M): At absolute best, this is providing a +3 effective bonus, if you're making use of the extra range increment. Normally it's going to just be a +1. And that's really nothing to write home about. Conceptually works well with Telescope.
Irradiance (C): AoE fort save or nauseate every round in a pretty huge AoE. They fail, they can't attack or cast or anything, being restricted to a move action. They succeed? They're still sickened. Oh, and you can sicken as a cantrip.
Encompassing Light (S): Big punchy man => bigger punchy man. And it was good.
Blinding Light (S): Assuming you guard your party with Dim Light lens, just plop this on your front liner, and have passive AoE blinds going off each round for the next several minutes. Even at 2 or 3 spell points, that's quite nice.
Bound Light (S): Dayam! Touch to entangle (but not root?) for a couple minutes, and then each round, it must save or also be staggered. And no teleportation. The Swords of Revealing Light wished they were this sexy.
Revealing Light (<S>): If you regularly face Inviso Bill, you finally have a tool to counter him.
Shining Arsenal (<S>): Counter ghosts as a cantrip, which is insane when you need it. Also gain the effects of any material...for a spell point, and only for weakness / damage reduction purposes. A mostly useless secondary effect.
Precious (G-S): Definitely expensive, and not a true fascinate where they simply become passive. But if you're trying to be nonviolent (at least personally), then this can be a form of pacification, and forcing those fools to fight over a shiny stone. They get multiple saves, but only once they have it already, and they spend a standard action admiring their precious. This is such a unique effect that I almost want to rate it higher.
Searing Light (G-S): OK, a bright light costs 1 spell point. Destruction sphere can do 1d6/CL for a spell point. But this is a pretty large AoE, and happens every round for minutes at a time, with no save. So this is very efficient, and effective damage - especially if you can tag multiple foes at once - doubly so if they are vulnerable to sunlight. This may actually be the one way to deal insanely efficient and reliable AoE damage without it just getting banned...by having it happen over time, spread out over a large populace. Like taxes.
Disorienting Patterns (G): Very solid. Makes getting to your backliners rather difficult, and can basically a free "trip" attempt at the end of each of your turns. Definitely not bad for its cost.
Fenestrate (G): Rather than rattle on for several more paragraphs, just read the comments below this review. It has its uses - probably enough that it'd be useful on enough occasions. You'd definitely have to work with your DM to see how much Concealment applies a penalty to searching for things. Or if it does at all, even when the thing you're searching for is also transparent, because the text says it's a penalty to hide. Honestly, this thing kinda hurts my brain.
Beacon Of Hope (<G>): If facing fear effects is common, then getting to try and end them early every round is pretty great.
Revelation (<G>, F) If explosive runes are common, this is especially useful. If your setting has a library which could have pertinent information, then this is useful. If you've got monster manuals, then this is useful. If you are just playing a hoarder of knowledge, and translator of languages then...cool. I like your style. It's a cantrip effect.
Visual Overload (M-G): Bound light, but instead of a guaranteed entangle, it has a lower end option to spend just 1 rather than 2 spell points. And spending 2 spell points is a chance at daze for the round instead. But 2 consecutive saves ends the effect. Very powerful, but there are just more reliable options.
Lure Light (M): Forces people to use their move actions in a particular way, preventing full attacks, or moving away...until they save, at which point they are immune for 24 hours. But it is just another layer of area control for the front line. Doesn't fascinate while luring, so can't very well pick off guards using just this.
Flicker (I): Honestly, I'm pretty mixed on this. It has uses. But only affects 1 target for a spell point (or concentration). It has uses. Incredibly useful uses? Debatable.
Repelling Light (M): I can't very well make this rated worse than Lure Light. This doesn't have a 24 hour immunity. But I do think Lure Light is more generally useful. Forcing movement > preventing movement. And this has an extra spell point cost. OK. I guess I can make it rated worse.
Guiding Light (N-M): Might actually be lower that this. A -1 or -2 to a single creature's AC is simply not much of an effect.
Inner Sun (N-M, F): Gives a new definition of "Light saber." I like it. If your DM reads that it's just a passive bonus to any of your bright lights, then it's pretty cool. And can be a tiny bit of extra damage to an existing martial's weapon. 1d4 extra damage. Fire damage. If you must use a Bright Glow specifically for this, as the (light) tag indicates... well, this is the rating I'd give it.
Sunstroke (N-M): You know how Searing Light does very consistent AoE damage with no save? Well, this is nonlethal single target, unreliably higher damage with a save that can completely negate it. Just pick up the destruction sphere.
Hypnotic Pattern (N): 2 spell point AoE fascinate, which can explicitly be used in combat (at a penalty). But they get a save every round, and one save makes them immune to it.
Note: I am assuming that when it says "spend a spell point to create bright light that does x," it is saying it's an additional spell point to the normal bright light cost.
Weird Radiance (G): You could take this instead of Dim Light, and just use your free action to adjust your lighting accordingly. It doesn't get as many cubes as the Cone version of Beam, but does grant equal or more cubes than the line version. The flexibility of it though is pretty fun, and the 20 ft radius increase of light level from any of the cubes basically means you can light up almost any room. So yeah. I think I'll rate it as a solid G, mostly for it being a semi-viable alternative to a talent that almost every offensive glower will take.
Beam (I): 80 foot torch light down a long corridor as a cantrip? Seems useful. Probably not worth going out of your way to get.
Trail (I): Perhaps the weirdest nimbus talent, and the one which I have the hardest time conceiving a good use for. Or any use for.
Defiant Radiance (<S>): +4 to your attempts to beat back the darkness. For when it's viable to fight the darkness rather than needing to just exist in it.
Seraphic Glow (<S>): You in a campaign fighting Evil? You Good? Then this good! You do good!
Illustrious Light (G-S): You can quickly ramp up to very large illusions, which serve as base areas around which the light then extends. You could envelope entire battlefields in light with a good couple of levels. And then you also get a spell point savings for extending the illusion and light.
Searing Brilliance (G-S): Yeah. Again. No one's really going to complain that you're dealing 2 hp / CL each round. Even though it only cost you 1 action and 1 spell point. So yeah. And being the bane of every Vampire is fun...until you're dead
Wave-Particle Duality (<G-S>): If cover and walls are consistently being a pain, take this. Not sure what Illusion sphere has to do with it though.
Sense Light (<G-S>, F) Lets you play the blind monk without being vulnerable to blinding. But as for it's power? Generally pretty much worthless. But you like it when you need it.
Sunlight Strike (<G-S>): This is really not something to go out of your way to get, being a rather minor bonus in all but the most dedicated of campaigns. But if you were already Arcane Striking, and you're running across a lot of targets, go ahead.
Destructive Radiance (G): It has its uses. Especially if you set up with Fenestrate so that you have full cover, but can still simply blast away. Not many more uses though.
Shining Stars (G): I'm not sure what would be a good use of this, but I'm certain there is a good use for it.
Bioluminescent Transformation (G): I do not rate the strategy of concentrating on Alteration and Bright Light as very highly, or moderately highly, or... but if that's something you want to go for, this is build-enabling.
Illuminated Vigilance (G): First impressions? Quite reasonable.
Luminous Aegis (M-G): Actually... I do see this as potentially useful, letting you pick a glow buff on demand. Just need an Aegis that you reliably want on people.
Crimson Flash (M-G): Neat. Turn order manipulation. But it requires the target to have not acted yet in combat. But you can at least raise one person to your level. If you rolled well.
Twilight Adept (M): Probably decent. But I would absolutely never go out of my way to use this. And I would probably prefer Black Light if I happened into a teammate who used Dark sphere. I'd rather not waste the light altering effects.
Luminous Flame (M): May seem slightly redundant to allow fire to glow. And there is really very little point to tying your bright light to a fire. At best you get to add fire's damage to your light effect. At which point... why not... just... use destruction sphere? Well...fine. I guess Searing Light, plus direct single target damage. But...create fire is such little damage, and you're tying your actions up.
Photosynthesis (M): You...can generate your own light. You are a living perpetual motion machine.
Hard Light (N-M, F): Yeah... I see very little point to this?
Coronal Shroud (I): I...um... I'm just going to leave this here. Maybe revisit it if I ever mess with the weather sphere. First impressions are poor.
Constellation (N-M): Dancing Lights does this better, for the most part. Weird Radiance gets the targeted light effects. This... What's this doing that can't be handled already, within the same sphere? Well, I guess they can work with Trail if you have Dual Nimbus for a grand total of 3 feat-equivalents for something that's arguably good.
Ensouled Illuminations (N-M): Expends a lot of text to do so very little.
Aurora (I): Honestly baffling. What possible benefit are you gaining from this?
Afterglow (N): No real point, honestly.
Lightshow (N): I don't see any actual use. It doesn't even seem to simply initiate a glow, but instead glows for the round you maintain the performance.
Flash Warp (N): Are there any (light) talents which you would appreciate using for precisely an instant? Doing an AoE 1-2 damage / CL...requires bright light. I wouldn't spend a spell point for that. Yeah. I don't think there are good options.
Beam Propulsion (N-): Hah. haha. Wait. You're serious?
Oh gods. I think I just lost a good third of my sanity points. This literally has as many bloody words as an academic essay.