Head in the Clouds (Spheres in Review)

[SangoProduction]

I changed up my formula. I am now using Google Docs to create SiR.

But you can still see everything here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JZUndhAokxz0hzxoNhUyLRotuN3otQPkVAKE_TKNkgs/edit?usp=sharing

Post-Review Analysis:
Overall, it’s not as terrible as I expected.
I… had much higher hopes for shrouds. They seemed quite decent on their face. And they had the synergy effects...Those effects seem to be better than the actual talents in most cases.
For Control Weather, Precipitation really overperformed to my expectations with its use for stealth. And wind does have its very niche uses. Including reducing perception checks.
The Mantles? Man, they blew me away. My first (20 dozen) pass(es) were so distracted by the scaling with severity that I missed that most of the benefits don’t come from that.

Flex Talents:
Mirage Sight for defeating miss chance. Clear Skies to give negate weather mages. Sodden vs Fire.

Full or Partial Caster: Full Caster, all the way. Granted, if you only want the first bit of weather control, and the duration doesn't bother you, it doesn’t matter what you CL is, if it’s at least 1.

[Seerow]

I changed up my formula. I am now using Google Docs to create SiR.

But you can still see everything here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JZUndhAokxz0hzxoNhUyLRotuN3otQPkVAKE_TKNkgs/edit?usp=sharing

Post-Review Analysis:
Overall, it’s not as terrible as I expected.
I… had much higher hopes for shrouds. They seemed quite decent on their face. And they had the synergy effects...Those effects seem to be better than the actual talents in most cases.
For Control Weather, Precipitation really overperformed to my expectations with its use for stealth. And wind does have its very niche uses. Including reducing perception checks.
The Mantles? Man, they blew me away. My first (20 dozen) pass(es) were so distracted by the scaling with severity that I missed that most of the benefits don’t come from that.

Flex Talents:
Mirage Sight for defeating miss chance. Clear Skies to give negate weather mages. Sodden vs Fire.

Full or Partial Caster: Full Caster, all the way. Granted, if you only want the first bit of weather control, and the duration doesn't bother you, it doesn’t matter what you CL is, if it’s at least 1.

Just throwing out there as awesome as Mantles are you may still be underestimating them. Haven't read your full review yet but this:


Mantles
You can apply mantle talents as a standard action touch for a spell point. They last for an hour/level.
Your DM may or may not allow multiple instances of the same mantle talent on a single creature. But the rules don’t forbid it.


Is not how Mantles work.

You don't apply a Mantle talent. You apply a Mantle. When you apply a mantle, the target gets the benefit of every mantle talent you possess, as long as the weather qualifies for it. It's a mechanic that seriously rewards diving deep into the sphere.

[SangoProduction]

Just throwing out there as awesome as Mantles are you may still be underestimating them. Haven't read your full review yet but this:



Is not how Mantles work.

You don't apply a Mantle talent. You apply a Mantle. When you apply a mantle, the target gets the benefit of every mantle talent you possess, as long as the weather qualifies for it. It's a mechanic that seriously rewards diving deep into the sphere.

Holy Hell.... You're right. Almost every other talent type in SoP is that way, so I guess I didn't read it properly.

Makes the permanent self-mantle less relatively good. But damn. Bumps up all the mantles massively.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

This one honestly sounds awesome. If I ever make a SoP character, it'll probably be the first place I look. Create a playlist of thematic songs like "Force of Nature", "Riding the Storm Out", and... uhm, I'm really blanking here, actually. "Red Water Dreams"? "Calamity"? EDIT: "Cold as Ice", naturally. Knew I had one more in me.

[Kitsuneymg]

As a hilarious note, if you play the morale boost build, and have temperance, and have an ally use this does not spark joy, you can dismiss temperance to get double the penalty (which is equal to your suppressed morale bonus) for one round. It’s not a thing you’re going to do often, but the look on your GMs face when your wizard hauls back and beats someone with his text book at +16 to hit, ac, saves, and 8 to strength and damage is worth the convoluted build.

I’m very interested in the save debuff shrouds. A cheaper rod of quicken MM means a fairly potent debuff on key spells. It can almost allow a gish to have full caster cl.

[astrerouge]

From the meager experience i had with the weather sphere, I believe that the tempestarii prc really help make it more fun to play simply on the merit of quickening your weather change, so it is a nice option should you consider a weather focused caster.

[Kitsuneymg]

From the meager experience i had with the weather sphere, I believe that the tempestarii prc really help make it more fun to play simply on the merit of quickening your weather change, so it is a nice option should you consider a weather focused caster.

My opinion on it:

It’s cheese level broken too. Going straight to your highest weather category means even when LoS/LoE is accounted for (like in a dungeon) you can jump straight to free action lightning bolts and save or con damage on round one. I’d highly recommend ignoring it (and anything published in the setting books. They are all very poorly conceived.)