SangoProduction
2022-03-11, 10:51 PM
Preamble: Saw Spheres of Origins released to the wiki. Read through it, and enjoyed it. It's a nice bit of "race" customization, while being abstracted out into basically a background of the character rather than purely "race." Thus racial bonuses have been renamed to "origin" bonuses. It's much cleaner than endless "alternative racial traits," and infinitely more refined than the Race Points nonsense. And even includes customizable animal companions and familiars.
However, I do absolutely despise moralizing to the reader, so despite the otherwise quality material (in the opinion of this fan boy), this is one of the few spheres books refuse to buy. Absolutely screw off with thinking you have the moral authority to tell others what to do when playing games.
And before I even get accused of it: I am not reviewing them based on usefulness because I want to make some amalgamate of powers that passes as a race. The organization simply helps me to make informed decisions when building my characters, without being gripped by analysis paralysis.
Post Review Analysis: They did a pretty good job with getting you the regular races as options, and then expanding on them. And in most ways, they are not particularly out of left field - especially for most of them. And it seems that they are thought out well enough to even allow for really edge case (at least aesthetically) monstrous characters that are actually balanced.
I like how the drawbacks are largely very even, making them mostly fluff decisions.
(1) Superb: You always want this if it's relevant to you. And it probably is.
(1.5) Really Good: Particularly useful bits of kit, but aren't quite must-haves. (Kept it decimal, because spreading out Good so far from Superb felt unrepresentative. But I needed a step between)
(2) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds. Among your first picks.
(3) Meh: Doesn't hurt to have. Wouldn't go out of your way for it.
(4) No: It technically has a use, but the cost to take simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
(5) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
(6+) Harmful: Taking/using this is actively detrimental to your character.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(?) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(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.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
Variations: Basically drawbacks. Grants a choice of origin spheres on taking them.
Phenomenal Talents: Exceptional and powerful talents, which require explicit DM permission. (Personally, I would use these as rewards for play.)
Extra Origin Talent (feat): I'm really not sure what to make of this. It simply says you get one origin talent, and doesn't break it down by different levels of origin talents. Well, for the direct comparables, Potent talents are worth 1 feat. Auxiliary talents tend to be worth 1 trait or 1/2 feat, and same with Utility talents. Of course there are plenty of incomparables like Climb Speed, which simply isn't even available as a feat (barring Transformation feat(s)).
These are the basic Stats that each "origin" starts with.
Size: Small or medium.
Type: Basically an aesthetic choice of any type, which basically only affects what can and cannot target you. The DM should probably limit available types based on the desired setting.
Speed: 30 ft. (Variations can reduce this if desired.)
Limbs: 2 "arms" and 2 "legs"
Languages: One or 2 of your choice + bonus for high intellect.
Talent Selection: Either 2 Potent talents, or 1 Potent talent, 3 auxiliary talents, and 1 utility talent.
First one offers less choice, but has the most basic power. There's probably several combinations in the other one, which are better for a given character
Point Buy (1): +10 point buy, and point buy max raised to 20. Optimal for the majority of both SAD and MAD builds. Not so optimal for builds that want 2 very high scores, and one score going to -6, where you already have high PB. Always better than Simple. (Unless your PB is so high you have 18s in all stats. But now you can redistribute them to get multiple 20s. Still better.) I would... probably not allow this in my game, largely for making a typical race attribute choice irrelevant.
Advanced (1.5): +2 to two ability scores, -2 to one. Most classes have a dump score, which you can reduce for effectively free gains
Simple (3): +2 to one ability score. Straightforward and no drawbacks, but limited gains.
Extreme Specialization (1): If it were +2 physical stat, -2 to 2 mental, this would be lower. Maybe a 2. But as it stands... Probably the single best Potent talent for casters. And still decent for martials.
Specialized Training (1): Hey. Look. The reason humans are picked. Available for literally any origin.
Spiritfoe ( [1] ): Honestly, if I knew I was walking into an undead campaign, and was any kind of martial (and thus didn't have access to most of the spheres anti-ghost talents), this would be on my list of options. Right near the top.
Spellhardy (1.5): +2 to all saves... against spell-ish effects. More potent than GoF, but limited to... the things most likely to leave you dead or without control, outside of supernatural abilities.
Gift of Fortune (1.5): Straight up unconditional +1 to all saves? Neat. Also makes a lot of Magic Traditions easier to overcome in the early game as well, without huge point buys.
Elemental Augmentation (2, F): A little more than 1/2 the value of a +1 weapon mod, but can't stack with said mod. The big thing is probably the Falcon Punch flaming hands deal.
Expansive Training (2): A reasonable choice for anyone needing more skills
Augmented Essence (3): +2 to an attribute, for the purposes of non-casting class features of a single class. Not impressive.
Quick On The Pickup (3); If you wanted skills, Expansive Training was already there, and you would already pick skills for favored class. So this is really just Lesser Toughness. Not bad. Just... not worth the act of not taking something better.
Extra Legs (4, F): Want to be a centaur? Well, here you go. You don't even need to take those 2 feats for Hybrid Eternal Transformation. Mechanically, not worth it. Fluff wise? Oh boy, any day of the week. You can also be a drider by spending both potent talents... which leaves you with little else. But you're a drider! Without climb speed. But increased climb speed when you get it!
Evasive Training (4): +1 to AC? Nah. It's not even guaranteed to stack with other modifiers like Dodge can. Even if it's rare.
Artificial Soul (6, F): Used for creating robots. I would have had this be a utility talent, personally. Or even an alteration on what should have been a utility talent. But it is technically "combat." Which doesn't fit utility talents. Extremely rarely useful.
Note: If the DM allows for it, you can trade other talents from class progression specifically (not traditions or feats, or what have you) for extra Auxiliary Talents, at 1:1.
Unbowed [1, C] Perhaps a bit abusive when selecting Precipitation with your team, and you have a rain caller to basically mask your position from miles away, while you all see clearly. Just perhaps.
First to Battle (1): +2 initiative. Half of Improved Initiative, like a trait, but stacks with both the trait and feat. I am not an initiative junky (my current character has a -2 initiative), but I know if I didn't rate it here, I'd get people complaining.
Meld Into Shadow (1, C): Probably excessively OP for a dark sphere user. And thus literally everyone on that user's team. And then all the enemies. And then everyone grabs darkvision, and this whole thing ends.
Negative Energy Affinity [1]: Do you have a party that at least has notable AoE negative energy (like Channel Energy)? Do you want to allow them to both heal and deal damage at the same time, at really efficient rates? Here you go. It's a fairly minimal cost.
Face Your Fears ( <1.5> ): Advantage vs fear.
Swarming [1.5]: Potentially potent with a team of swarming allies. Especially a swarming Large size guardian. And your allies can learn to be swarming, if that's a tactic that works well with your team.
Developed Tolerance [1.5, F]: Just based on the sheer variety of potential choices, you are probably going to find something useful here on quite a few occasions, depending on your campaign, or what you
Natural Attack (1.5): Especially for animal companions, this is probably going to be a staple. You cannot innately spam NAs with this, as you can't select it multiple times. Which is good. That gets degenerate and not in a good way.
Stench (1.5, F): Very potent. But you cannot turn it off. Doesn't even have a written option for a bath. And you can probably be smelled outside of your little range. A feat in Transformation lets you transform into an inoffensive form until combat though.
Reactive Combatant (2): Specialized for AoO and readied actions. +1 to hit also applies to trip, and that's a fairly meta strategy as it stands. Or trips, or whatever. Oh, and Boxing Sphere.
Shield Of Elements (2): +2 AC vs ranged attacks. Not weapon attacks. Attacks. Works against rays as well. I find these sources of attacks to be uncommon, personally. But if it's not for your table, then it's good.
Steady Trek (2): Not sure why it doesn't just say "Ignore movement speed penalty from armor and encumbrance," as that's much more straightforward. And while I normally say movement speed is a non-stat. Having particularly slow speed is actually a noticeable penalty a fair amount of the time. A truly unrealistic penalty for heavy armor, as demonstrated by literal ****ing history. But all the same, rules are there, even if just to punish non-caster. Here's a way to ignore them.
Aligned Armaments [2]: I really like this as an option. I don't like it being available at level 1. This feels like something that should be earned... for standard characters. Angel and demon characters? Yeah. Really appropriate. (And guess what? It *can* be earned. It's not a purely racial trait. I love it!) Best use is when you know the campaign you're going into will feature those weak to your alignment. Sorry. ONLY use (mechanically).
Disciplined Magic (2): A relatively low-cost way to get an unconditional concentration bonus.
Energy Resistance (2): ER 5 for 2 different energies. Fire and cold are fairly reliable choices. Even better when you know your campaign's enemies.
Climber (2, F): Climb speed 20. Neat. So if you wanted to be a Drider, you'd take 2 Extra Legs, and then spend a talent on this.
Glider (<3>): You might not normally have a good use for it, but when you're falling to your death, you'll have wished you didn't skip out.
Longtime Foe [3]: +1 to hit a given (sub)type. Fine if you know the main enemies. Too much book keeping for me.
Stand Your Ground (3): Works well with ranged / reach Boxers, who don't have to move all too much. But exclusively adds damage between your turns. Needs specialized builds to even take advantage of it.
Darkvision (3): 60 ft. Or +30 ft, up to 120 ft. Can be selected 3 times. Neat. You'll occasionally want darkvision.
Thick-Skinned (3): +1 or +2 to natural armor. Eh. It's fine.
Steadfast [3]: +4 CMD is somewhat substantial early on. Worth 2 feats of improving CMB. And it's worth 1-2 CR of CMB scaling. So... Not actually good. But like. Um. OK, It's something! OK?
Train The Best (3): Wanna be the very best, like no one ever was? You gotta train. +2 to a physical stat of any singular "subordinate" (animal companion, familiar, cohort, conjuration etc)? Decent, and flexible enough to fit a variety of roles.
Focused Mauler / Improved Natural Attack (3, F): I like the option of being able to make use of just one natural attack without needing to spam them to get value for it.
Hidden Storage (3): In D&D terms, 10lbs is not a lot. But ... OK, I don't have a way to save that. But it's a hidden compartment, so unlikely to be confiscated. Lock pick's tools!
Resist Level Drain [3]: Eh... I'm hard pressed to say it's even mediocre. But negates 1 negative level +1 per 5 lvls is... fine. If you know you're going to face level-draining undead. Would probably prefer something to resist it instead.
Extra Head (3): Given that Dual Wielding sphere can almost eliminate either the penalty, or need, for 2 one-handed weapons, in most cases anyway. Not super useful. But not many light firearms. Or any. So now I am picturing an albino two-headed Yuanti gunslinger... and I am intrigued.
Spiny (3): Armor spikes. Neat. Not overly useful. 2 talents to make it also a secondary natural attack? Eh.
Iconoclast (4): Barring things like melee splash alchemists... you'll be hard pressed to find a good use out of this. (Although, honestly, this kind of makes me yearn for making one.)
Salvaging Luck (4): You're going to need a fairly specialized build to get good use of this this. Fate sphere has some good sources. It's probably fine. But so niche that it can't be ranked highly.
Defensive Tolerance / Defensive Training (4): Defensive Favored Enemy. Better than having dozens of alt racial traits that do this same damned thing.
Sightless Action (4, F): Mechanically weak. It's best use is when you blind yourself and use a different sense for pinpointing them. (Read: Toph) I love that they condensed it to such a moderate cost, which can be so easily picked up right from the start, and you still have plenty left to customize with. Bumps up if you regularly encounter full concealment, and still aren't carrying a bag of flour.
Able Recuperation / Dramatic Recovery (4, F): Makes recovery from poison and disease quicker. There are better ways. But within Auxiliary talents?
Convenient Appendage (4, F): Fun idea. Not the most useful. Unless you regularly use potions. But who does that? Maybe a meta would develop. Who knows.
Energy Renewal (4): ER 5 against a chosen element, and gain effective HP from healing equal to two times Toughness each day. Objectively fine if you know your campaign. But Energy Resistance offers 2 ER 5s at the cost of not getting the healing, and I find that to be better. By a lot.
Thirst For Vengeance / Weapon Of Choice (4): An almost unconditional +1 damage for front liners. But it... is still just +1 damage
Damage Reduction / Hardened (4, F): Tiny DR. Doesn't stack with anything. But lets you pretend you have a drop of wolf's blood in you. (Probably op to offer much more DR, honestly. But still rather disappointing.)
Scent (4): Surprised they made it cost 2 talents, honestly.
Overflowing Energies (5): This is worth 1/2 a feat's worth of spell points. While an auxiliary talent is worth one talent, which is worth 1 feat. So you'd literally only pick this up if there was nothing else relevant to you, which you would want to spend a talent to get.
Supplemental Artifice (5, F): For when you want to be a living construct, or otherwise "repairable," without using a potent talent on fluff.
Drastic Movement (5, F): Movement speed is normally fairly useless. Conditional move speed even more so. But it's a fun import from... cat folk I think. Gives a flavorful burst of speed.
Sizeshifter (5): Virtually no true use out of this.
Spell Renewal (5): Really hitting it out of the park at the end of the Essence talents for uselessness.
Fleet Movement (5): +5 speed to a single movement type. Woo.
Intuitive (?): Frankly, if I were a DM, and somehow didn't use Elephant in the room, I would just give this out... But I don't know how good it is mechanically, since it uses regular feats which I've almost entirely disassociated from.
Multitalented (?): Treat all classes as favored. I mean... There are probably *some* use cases where this is worth literally anything. I don't imagine they are large in numbers nor impact. But I don't know for sure.
Stonecunning (?, F): Basically pure flavor. But it's iconic of dwarves, and it would have been sorely missed if it was not at least here as an option. Like I said, fairly good quality. Just screw moralizing pricks.
Hover (?): Honestly, no idea where to put this. This does have very situational use, in avoiding environmental hazards and legos. If you have someone to through you, you can even hover in the air, if you're fast enough. Honestly? I see limited use. But I see use. I would never take it.
Light-Acclimated (?) Bleeding hell. I ... I don't know. I just don't know how common light-based blindness is. Are people regularly throwing around flash bangs in the Under Dark? Then you might want it.
Reallocate Improvement (??): I was going to rate it as a 5, with no mechanical reason to exist. But then I thought "Barbarian" And then was like "... huh. OK. So... Dex barbarian???" It's build-enabling. I think. And you don't have to take a very specific archetype. You just spend one auxiliary talent. But I have no idea if that's actually good, even in a vacuum.
Aquatic (?): Uh. If you're playing a pirate campaign??? Dunno. Never got the chance. Ocean's largely just... a lot of water. And if no one else is aquatic, you probably won't get a solo adventure of your own. Makes for a good boatswain, able to work in the water.
Skirt Death (?): Not enough experience with death to tell if this is good. I don't imagine it's overly so.
Specialized Familiarity (1.5): +4 to a background skill. Wow. A lot of sphere's use... oh, doesn't work with combat or skill spheres... But it works with magic spheres? Skillful Casting appreciates the contribution.
Applied Consistency (2): Not only do I like +2 when taking 10, but for things like Alchemy Sphere, where you realistically just want to assume you take 10 on preparation... for consistency sake and gameplay saving time, if nothing else... this is actually added power, which is generally unintended for utility talents. If I understand it right. Not to mention it stacks with similar traits, as an Origin bonus.
Skill Familiarity (2): Yeah. This is what I'm going to stake as "pretty reasonable" at the tier of talent it's put in. And they've condensed all those +2 to two skills feats into just one utility talent. And you can put it in the most useful skills for you in particular.
Quick Rest (3, F): I like it from a flavor perspective. But it's also got some practical uses. Most generally, you get to be the look out. But also if you have a sphere like Alchemy which can take longer than an hour to prepare your full set for the day, and not allowed custom talents...
Freeze (3): Very occasional, if slightly notable uses. It's nice that they brought this in as an option.
Harsh Survivor (3): As a utility talent... Endurance is probably right there with Skill Familiarity. But less flexible.
Luminous Being (4, F): Having torch light on demand without using a hand? Potentially useful. Not particularly though. Very nice for angelic or deep sea creatures,
Estivation (4): Suspended animation has very limited usage. But with some work with your DM, you might look dead, and so can occasionally help pull off a ruse. That could be performed with disguise check.
Keen Senses (4): I would much rather Skill Familiarity. And I think I literally never had low light vision do something functional before.
Dabbling Expertise (5, F): Not actually useful. But makes sense, thematically, for some characters.
Altitude Acclimation (7, F): Either it's never going to be useful, or it's going to be a situation where suddenly the party needs it as well because you brought it up. In 99 out of 100 games. But as purely fluff from being raised in extreme conditions? Cool.
Assistive Device (C): Basically, it's either not a drawback, or it is double Toughness + 10 and better DR than sphere spells offer, and hard caps the damage of a single attack. Oh and it also gives bonus talents. And you can pick it multiple times. I do love the concept of someone just failing to cut through your super glasses with their bloody greatsword. But you will learn to fear blacksmiths, though you hard cap their damage. Why do I feel their PSA about disabilities lead them to making this so excessively good? If it's a drawback, then it should be fragile! Especially when one of your examples is "glasses."
Oral Education (1): Trade reading for a utility talent.
Burdensome Defenses (2): Dwarf speed, and not reduced by encumbrance. Yay.
Elemental Vulnerability (2, F): A bad defensive trade off. But not *that* bad, and you get a pretty reasonable elemental benefit for selecting a damage type to be vulnerable to, which tends to be a fluff decision. In terms of raw defensiveness... acid is pretty uncommon.
Shadow Dweller (2): An additional skill with Skill Familiarity (utility feat), but now they all only get the bonus in dim light / darkness / invisibility / heavy fog / total cover. You can attempt a cheese interpretation with the total cover bit, but the DM probably wouldn't allow it. It's a fairly easily bypassed restriction, with magic, either way you cut it. And it's flavorful enough for few that want to use it nonmagically.
Distinct Vulnerability (2): Cosmetically, it's an equivalent exchange. But ... there are multiple sets of 2 in the list of effect types that you would happily give up one to boost the other.
Vestige Of The Other (2): Be targetable as a second type. But gain an additional +2 vs a type of effect. Surprised that Ooze isn't selectable.
Observer’s Pace (3): 20 ft is not all that slow, and you gain +2 to two skills for it.
Buoyant Traveler (3): Trade legs for dedicated hovering. Meh. If you want to hover, it's probably fine.
Obvious Energies (3): Turns Overflowing Energies from a trait to an extra drawback. Which is fine if you already maxed out your tradition's drawbacks, and have no other auxiliary talents you want to pick.
Grippable Growths (3, F): -4 CMD in exchange for +1 AC or a natural secondary attack. A larger hinderance than help. But CMs are always kind of doomed for PCs.
Gravebound [4]: In low lethality games, it's not that much of a drawback to be hard to revive. But also not much of a benefit. I'll reiterate that Artificial Soul should have been an alteration to Supplemental Artifice.
Waterhome [4]: Trade land speed for swim speed at 1:1 ratio. Useful
Aloof (5): Major penalty to init / perception. Gets a talent focused on out-of-turn bonus to hit/dmg. I would personally take it in a boxer build if I wanted more talents. But that's me and my -6 initiative talking. Also a boxer really wants to have high initiative, and has the worst of the worst case scenarios for low initiative: losing 2 turns on the back end of the fight, rather than the typical one turn.
Quadruped (5): Spell casting furries. Who can't wield weapons. So spell casters! Take twice on animal companions.
Amphibious Skin (6, F): You'd only ever pick this in a situation where it was already a campaign conducive to Aquatic... because that's the only thing it gives. So it's pure fluff. But it still manages to be actually detrimental. But easily bypassed with magic
Unsteady Fleetness (7): You gain a bit of speed in order to be crippled if you come across difficult terrain...
Inoperable Appendage (7): Losing arms is actually really bad. It's at least of limited penalty for gunslingers and casters, who both only really need one, to get their thing done. And all you get is a Utility talent.
Seadweller (8): Can't even breathe air any more. Or walk at all. Why in the ever living hell would you take this? In a purely aquatic campaign, it isn't a drawback. And in semi-aquatic campaigns... this isn't workable without extensive magic.
Deaf (NO): Actually really bad... from an RP perspective. If you work with your DM to say you can read lips, then it's less of an auto-ban. It still also manages to be actually bad, and very functionally limits you, unless your team has telepathy.
Nonverbal (F): Lose talking, but gain a utility talent of your choice. Only really done for flavor. I prefer the oath version, if allowed.
Pidgin Fluency (F): Ranks in linguistics boosts checks by half. But gain double the fluent languages. If you're not doing regular forgeries... Well, languages probably don't matter, except for the fluff of going "Hey, I know 98 languages. I'm so awesome."
Blatant Alignment (F): You gain... no real benefit, outside of having a flavorful aura. But also only face limited penalties.
Ephemera Feeder / Sundrinker (F): Get to feed off of "experiences" like music or sunlight for an hour a day, to never have to eat again. Or even able to eat again. Eating is fluff anyway. And you wouldn't be allowed this in games where it wasn't. Sunlight Dependency is a neat, if inconsequential, "complication."
Partial Construction (F): Gain next to nothing, but also lose next to nothing. In fact, in special circumstances it's a buff. In other's it's a nerf. Take it if you want to be Tree Man or Robo Boy.
Sunlight Weakness (F): Easily bypassed with darkness magic, as already encouraged by Meld Into Shadow. And staggered is much less bad in Spheres than normal for martials. I find it largely flavorful for a vampiric creature. Or a dude who never leaves his computer. Taken twice is a real penalty for no real gain.
Blind (F): Lose sight, but gain 2 talents from choices that circumvent sight. Some of the choices being phenomenal, requiring DM allowance. So... basically gives up your ability to read in exchange for pretending to be Toph: The Last Avatar.
Cold-Hearted (F): One more effect to have +2 against. But lose morale bonuses. Which... pretty flavorful. For monsters. Also not much of a penalty for them, generally.
Dayblind (F): Dazzle is next to nothing. But so is +30 ft dark vision. If you really wanted 120ft dark vision, you can take this twice, and take Light Acclimated (auxiliary), and it's more efficient use of aux talents than taking dark vision 3 times. But you'll probably be called a min-maxer for something mostly irrelevant.
Defensive Familiarity (F): Give up a +2 vs effect, for +2 to skill. Probably actually bad. But equivalent talent-wise, so purely up to your flavor.
(1)
+1/6 bonus to the DCs associated with one magic, combat, origin, or skill sphere of your choice. You cannot improve the DC of a single sphere by more than 1 with this favored class bonus. [Only one sphere / 6 levels. But specialists exist.]
(1.5)
+1/6 bonus to the DCs associated with your class features of this class (such as channel energy or invocations but excluding sphere abilities, spellcasting, and other similar abilities). You cannot improve the DCs of a single class by more than 1 with this favored class bonus.
(2)
Gain +1/6 of a bonus combat talent, auxiliary origin talent, or skill talent.
Gain +1 skill point.
Gain +1/5 of a bonus utility talent from any sphere.
Add +1 to the character’s CMD when resisting two combat maneuvers of the character’s choice. [Normally CMB grows at about 2-3*CR, on the mean. Specialists grow faster. Probably over rating it]
Gain +1/6 of a bonus magic talent.
(3)
Gain +1 hit point.
Choose one class ability that can be used a number of times per day equal to 3 + one of your ability score modifiers (such as a domain ability). You may use that ability an additional +1/2 times per day.
(4)
Gain +1/8 of a combat feat.
Add one spell known or one spell to your spellbook from your class’ spell list. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level you can cast.
+1/8 of an item creation feat.
+1/8 of a metamagic feat.
(5)
Gain a +1/4 bonus to all concentration checks.
(F)
Gain +1 foot to base movement. In combat, this only has an effect for every five increases to the movement’s speed.
Add +1 hit point or +1 skill rank to a subordinate. [Read: Animal companion or the like]
Phenomenal Talents: Probably in their own review.
However, I do absolutely despise moralizing to the reader, so despite the otherwise quality material (in the opinion of this fan boy), this is one of the few spheres books refuse to buy. Absolutely screw off with thinking you have the moral authority to tell others what to do when playing games.
And before I even get accused of it: I am not reviewing them based on usefulness because I want to make some amalgamate of powers that passes as a race. The organization simply helps me to make informed decisions when building my characters, without being gripped by analysis paralysis.
Post Review Analysis: They did a pretty good job with getting you the regular races as options, and then expanding on them. And in most ways, they are not particularly out of left field - especially for most of them. And it seems that they are thought out well enough to even allow for really edge case (at least aesthetically) monstrous characters that are actually balanced.
I like how the drawbacks are largely very even, making them mostly fluff decisions.
(1) Superb: You always want this if it's relevant to you. And it probably is.
(1.5) Really Good: Particularly useful bits of kit, but aren't quite must-haves. (Kept it decimal, because spreading out Good so far from Superb felt unrepresentative. But I needed a step between)
(2) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds. Among your first picks.
(3) Meh: Doesn't hurt to have. Wouldn't go out of your way for it.
(4) No: It technically has a use, but the cost to take simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
(5) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
(6+) Harmful: Taking/using this is actively detrimental to your character.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(?) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(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.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
Variations: Basically drawbacks. Grants a choice of origin spheres on taking them.
Phenomenal Talents: Exceptional and powerful talents, which require explicit DM permission. (Personally, I would use these as rewards for play.)
Extra Origin Talent (feat): I'm really not sure what to make of this. It simply says you get one origin talent, and doesn't break it down by different levels of origin talents. Well, for the direct comparables, Potent talents are worth 1 feat. Auxiliary talents tend to be worth 1 trait or 1/2 feat, and same with Utility talents. Of course there are plenty of incomparables like Climb Speed, which simply isn't even available as a feat (barring Transformation feat(s)).
These are the basic Stats that each "origin" starts with.
Size: Small or medium.
Type: Basically an aesthetic choice of any type, which basically only affects what can and cannot target you. The DM should probably limit available types based on the desired setting.
Speed: 30 ft. (Variations can reduce this if desired.)
Limbs: 2 "arms" and 2 "legs"
Languages: One or 2 of your choice + bonus for high intellect.
Talent Selection: Either 2 Potent talents, or 1 Potent talent, 3 auxiliary talents, and 1 utility talent.
First one offers less choice, but has the most basic power. There's probably several combinations in the other one, which are better for a given character
Point Buy (1): +10 point buy, and point buy max raised to 20. Optimal for the majority of both SAD and MAD builds. Not so optimal for builds that want 2 very high scores, and one score going to -6, where you already have high PB. Always better than Simple. (Unless your PB is so high you have 18s in all stats. But now you can redistribute them to get multiple 20s. Still better.) I would... probably not allow this in my game, largely for making a typical race attribute choice irrelevant.
Advanced (1.5): +2 to two ability scores, -2 to one. Most classes have a dump score, which you can reduce for effectively free gains
Simple (3): +2 to one ability score. Straightforward and no drawbacks, but limited gains.
Extreme Specialization (1): If it were +2 physical stat, -2 to 2 mental, this would be lower. Maybe a 2. But as it stands... Probably the single best Potent talent for casters. And still decent for martials.
Specialized Training (1): Hey. Look. The reason humans are picked. Available for literally any origin.
Spiritfoe ( [1] ): Honestly, if I knew I was walking into an undead campaign, and was any kind of martial (and thus didn't have access to most of the spheres anti-ghost talents), this would be on my list of options. Right near the top.
Spellhardy (1.5): +2 to all saves... against spell-ish effects. More potent than GoF, but limited to... the things most likely to leave you dead or without control, outside of supernatural abilities.
Gift of Fortune (1.5): Straight up unconditional +1 to all saves? Neat. Also makes a lot of Magic Traditions easier to overcome in the early game as well, without huge point buys.
Elemental Augmentation (2, F): A little more than 1/2 the value of a +1 weapon mod, but can't stack with said mod. The big thing is probably the Falcon Punch flaming hands deal.
Expansive Training (2): A reasonable choice for anyone needing more skills
Augmented Essence (3): +2 to an attribute, for the purposes of non-casting class features of a single class. Not impressive.
Quick On The Pickup (3); If you wanted skills, Expansive Training was already there, and you would already pick skills for favored class. So this is really just Lesser Toughness. Not bad. Just... not worth the act of not taking something better.
Extra Legs (4, F): Want to be a centaur? Well, here you go. You don't even need to take those 2 feats for Hybrid Eternal Transformation. Mechanically, not worth it. Fluff wise? Oh boy, any day of the week. You can also be a drider by spending both potent talents... which leaves you with little else. But you're a drider! Without climb speed. But increased climb speed when you get it!
Evasive Training (4): +1 to AC? Nah. It's not even guaranteed to stack with other modifiers like Dodge can. Even if it's rare.
Artificial Soul (6, F): Used for creating robots. I would have had this be a utility talent, personally. Or even an alteration on what should have been a utility talent. But it is technically "combat." Which doesn't fit utility talents. Extremely rarely useful.
Note: If the DM allows for it, you can trade other talents from class progression specifically (not traditions or feats, or what have you) for extra Auxiliary Talents, at 1:1.
Unbowed [1, C] Perhaps a bit abusive when selecting Precipitation with your team, and you have a rain caller to basically mask your position from miles away, while you all see clearly. Just perhaps.
First to Battle (1): +2 initiative. Half of Improved Initiative, like a trait, but stacks with both the trait and feat. I am not an initiative junky (my current character has a -2 initiative), but I know if I didn't rate it here, I'd get people complaining.
Meld Into Shadow (1, C): Probably excessively OP for a dark sphere user. And thus literally everyone on that user's team. And then all the enemies. And then everyone grabs darkvision, and this whole thing ends.
Negative Energy Affinity [1]: Do you have a party that at least has notable AoE negative energy (like Channel Energy)? Do you want to allow them to both heal and deal damage at the same time, at really efficient rates? Here you go. It's a fairly minimal cost.
Face Your Fears ( <1.5> ): Advantage vs fear.
Swarming [1.5]: Potentially potent with a team of swarming allies. Especially a swarming Large size guardian. And your allies can learn to be swarming, if that's a tactic that works well with your team.
Developed Tolerance [1.5, F]: Just based on the sheer variety of potential choices, you are probably going to find something useful here on quite a few occasions, depending on your campaign, or what you
Natural Attack (1.5): Especially for animal companions, this is probably going to be a staple. You cannot innately spam NAs with this, as you can't select it multiple times. Which is good. That gets degenerate and not in a good way.
Stench (1.5, F): Very potent. But you cannot turn it off. Doesn't even have a written option for a bath. And you can probably be smelled outside of your little range. A feat in Transformation lets you transform into an inoffensive form until combat though.
Reactive Combatant (2): Specialized for AoO and readied actions. +1 to hit also applies to trip, and that's a fairly meta strategy as it stands. Or trips, or whatever. Oh, and Boxing Sphere.
Shield Of Elements (2): +2 AC vs ranged attacks. Not weapon attacks. Attacks. Works against rays as well. I find these sources of attacks to be uncommon, personally. But if it's not for your table, then it's good.
Steady Trek (2): Not sure why it doesn't just say "Ignore movement speed penalty from armor and encumbrance," as that's much more straightforward. And while I normally say movement speed is a non-stat. Having particularly slow speed is actually a noticeable penalty a fair amount of the time. A truly unrealistic penalty for heavy armor, as demonstrated by literal ****ing history. But all the same, rules are there, even if just to punish non-caster. Here's a way to ignore them.
Aligned Armaments [2]: I really like this as an option. I don't like it being available at level 1. This feels like something that should be earned... for standard characters. Angel and demon characters? Yeah. Really appropriate. (And guess what? It *can* be earned. It's not a purely racial trait. I love it!) Best use is when you know the campaign you're going into will feature those weak to your alignment. Sorry. ONLY use (mechanically).
Disciplined Magic (2): A relatively low-cost way to get an unconditional concentration bonus.
Energy Resistance (2): ER 5 for 2 different energies. Fire and cold are fairly reliable choices. Even better when you know your campaign's enemies.
Climber (2, F): Climb speed 20. Neat. So if you wanted to be a Drider, you'd take 2 Extra Legs, and then spend a talent on this.
Glider (<3>): You might not normally have a good use for it, but when you're falling to your death, you'll have wished you didn't skip out.
Longtime Foe [3]: +1 to hit a given (sub)type. Fine if you know the main enemies. Too much book keeping for me.
Stand Your Ground (3): Works well with ranged / reach Boxers, who don't have to move all too much. But exclusively adds damage between your turns. Needs specialized builds to even take advantage of it.
Darkvision (3): 60 ft. Or +30 ft, up to 120 ft. Can be selected 3 times. Neat. You'll occasionally want darkvision.
Thick-Skinned (3): +1 or +2 to natural armor. Eh. It's fine.
Steadfast [3]: +4 CMD is somewhat substantial early on. Worth 2 feats of improving CMB. And it's worth 1-2 CR of CMB scaling. So... Not actually good. But like. Um. OK, It's something! OK?
Train The Best (3): Wanna be the very best, like no one ever was? You gotta train. +2 to a physical stat of any singular "subordinate" (animal companion, familiar, cohort, conjuration etc)? Decent, and flexible enough to fit a variety of roles.
Focused Mauler / Improved Natural Attack (3, F): I like the option of being able to make use of just one natural attack without needing to spam them to get value for it.
Hidden Storage (3): In D&D terms, 10lbs is not a lot. But ... OK, I don't have a way to save that. But it's a hidden compartment, so unlikely to be confiscated. Lock pick's tools!
Resist Level Drain [3]: Eh... I'm hard pressed to say it's even mediocre. But negates 1 negative level +1 per 5 lvls is... fine. If you know you're going to face level-draining undead. Would probably prefer something to resist it instead.
Extra Head (3): Given that Dual Wielding sphere can almost eliminate either the penalty, or need, for 2 one-handed weapons, in most cases anyway. Not super useful. But not many light firearms. Or any. So now I am picturing an albino two-headed Yuanti gunslinger... and I am intrigued.
Spiny (3): Armor spikes. Neat. Not overly useful. 2 talents to make it also a secondary natural attack? Eh.
Iconoclast (4): Barring things like melee splash alchemists... you'll be hard pressed to find a good use out of this. (Although, honestly, this kind of makes me yearn for making one.)
Salvaging Luck (4): You're going to need a fairly specialized build to get good use of this this. Fate sphere has some good sources. It's probably fine. But so niche that it can't be ranked highly.
Defensive Tolerance / Defensive Training (4): Defensive Favored Enemy. Better than having dozens of alt racial traits that do this same damned thing.
Sightless Action (4, F): Mechanically weak. It's best use is when you blind yourself and use a different sense for pinpointing them. (Read: Toph) I love that they condensed it to such a moderate cost, which can be so easily picked up right from the start, and you still have plenty left to customize with. Bumps up if you regularly encounter full concealment, and still aren't carrying a bag of flour.
Able Recuperation / Dramatic Recovery (4, F): Makes recovery from poison and disease quicker. There are better ways. But within Auxiliary talents?
Convenient Appendage (4, F): Fun idea. Not the most useful. Unless you regularly use potions. But who does that? Maybe a meta would develop. Who knows.
Energy Renewal (4): ER 5 against a chosen element, and gain effective HP from healing equal to two times Toughness each day. Objectively fine if you know your campaign. But Energy Resistance offers 2 ER 5s at the cost of not getting the healing, and I find that to be better. By a lot.
Thirst For Vengeance / Weapon Of Choice (4): An almost unconditional +1 damage for front liners. But it... is still just +1 damage
Damage Reduction / Hardened (4, F): Tiny DR. Doesn't stack with anything. But lets you pretend you have a drop of wolf's blood in you. (Probably op to offer much more DR, honestly. But still rather disappointing.)
Scent (4): Surprised they made it cost 2 talents, honestly.
Overflowing Energies (5): This is worth 1/2 a feat's worth of spell points. While an auxiliary talent is worth one talent, which is worth 1 feat. So you'd literally only pick this up if there was nothing else relevant to you, which you would want to spend a talent to get.
Supplemental Artifice (5, F): For when you want to be a living construct, or otherwise "repairable," without using a potent talent on fluff.
Drastic Movement (5, F): Movement speed is normally fairly useless. Conditional move speed even more so. But it's a fun import from... cat folk I think. Gives a flavorful burst of speed.
Sizeshifter (5): Virtually no true use out of this.
Spell Renewal (5): Really hitting it out of the park at the end of the Essence talents for uselessness.
Fleet Movement (5): +5 speed to a single movement type. Woo.
Intuitive (?): Frankly, if I were a DM, and somehow didn't use Elephant in the room, I would just give this out... But I don't know how good it is mechanically, since it uses regular feats which I've almost entirely disassociated from.
Multitalented (?): Treat all classes as favored. I mean... There are probably *some* use cases where this is worth literally anything. I don't imagine they are large in numbers nor impact. But I don't know for sure.
Stonecunning (?, F): Basically pure flavor. But it's iconic of dwarves, and it would have been sorely missed if it was not at least here as an option. Like I said, fairly good quality. Just screw moralizing pricks.
Hover (?): Honestly, no idea where to put this. This does have very situational use, in avoiding environmental hazards and legos. If you have someone to through you, you can even hover in the air, if you're fast enough. Honestly? I see limited use. But I see use. I would never take it.
Light-Acclimated (?) Bleeding hell. I ... I don't know. I just don't know how common light-based blindness is. Are people regularly throwing around flash bangs in the Under Dark? Then you might want it.
Reallocate Improvement (??): I was going to rate it as a 5, with no mechanical reason to exist. But then I thought "Barbarian" And then was like "... huh. OK. So... Dex barbarian???" It's build-enabling. I think. And you don't have to take a very specific archetype. You just spend one auxiliary talent. But I have no idea if that's actually good, even in a vacuum.
Aquatic (?): Uh. If you're playing a pirate campaign??? Dunno. Never got the chance. Ocean's largely just... a lot of water. And if no one else is aquatic, you probably won't get a solo adventure of your own. Makes for a good boatswain, able to work in the water.
Skirt Death (?): Not enough experience with death to tell if this is good. I don't imagine it's overly so.
Specialized Familiarity (1.5): +4 to a background skill. Wow. A lot of sphere's use... oh, doesn't work with combat or skill spheres... But it works with magic spheres? Skillful Casting appreciates the contribution.
Applied Consistency (2): Not only do I like +2 when taking 10, but for things like Alchemy Sphere, where you realistically just want to assume you take 10 on preparation... for consistency sake and gameplay saving time, if nothing else... this is actually added power, which is generally unintended for utility talents. If I understand it right. Not to mention it stacks with similar traits, as an Origin bonus.
Skill Familiarity (2): Yeah. This is what I'm going to stake as "pretty reasonable" at the tier of talent it's put in. And they've condensed all those +2 to two skills feats into just one utility talent. And you can put it in the most useful skills for you in particular.
Quick Rest (3, F): I like it from a flavor perspective. But it's also got some practical uses. Most generally, you get to be the look out. But also if you have a sphere like Alchemy which can take longer than an hour to prepare your full set for the day, and not allowed custom talents...
Freeze (3): Very occasional, if slightly notable uses. It's nice that they brought this in as an option.
Harsh Survivor (3): As a utility talent... Endurance is probably right there with Skill Familiarity. But less flexible.
Luminous Being (4, F): Having torch light on demand without using a hand? Potentially useful. Not particularly though. Very nice for angelic or deep sea creatures,
Estivation (4): Suspended animation has very limited usage. But with some work with your DM, you might look dead, and so can occasionally help pull off a ruse. That could be performed with disguise check.
Keen Senses (4): I would much rather Skill Familiarity. And I think I literally never had low light vision do something functional before.
Dabbling Expertise (5, F): Not actually useful. But makes sense, thematically, for some characters.
Altitude Acclimation (7, F): Either it's never going to be useful, or it's going to be a situation where suddenly the party needs it as well because you brought it up. In 99 out of 100 games. But as purely fluff from being raised in extreme conditions? Cool.
Assistive Device (C): Basically, it's either not a drawback, or it is double Toughness + 10 and better DR than sphere spells offer, and hard caps the damage of a single attack. Oh and it also gives bonus talents. And you can pick it multiple times. I do love the concept of someone just failing to cut through your super glasses with their bloody greatsword. But you will learn to fear blacksmiths, though you hard cap their damage. Why do I feel their PSA about disabilities lead them to making this so excessively good? If it's a drawback, then it should be fragile! Especially when one of your examples is "glasses."
Oral Education (1): Trade reading for a utility talent.
Burdensome Defenses (2): Dwarf speed, and not reduced by encumbrance. Yay.
Elemental Vulnerability (2, F): A bad defensive trade off. But not *that* bad, and you get a pretty reasonable elemental benefit for selecting a damage type to be vulnerable to, which tends to be a fluff decision. In terms of raw defensiveness... acid is pretty uncommon.
Shadow Dweller (2): An additional skill with Skill Familiarity (utility feat), but now they all only get the bonus in dim light / darkness / invisibility / heavy fog / total cover. You can attempt a cheese interpretation with the total cover bit, but the DM probably wouldn't allow it. It's a fairly easily bypassed restriction, with magic, either way you cut it. And it's flavorful enough for few that want to use it nonmagically.
Distinct Vulnerability (2): Cosmetically, it's an equivalent exchange. But ... there are multiple sets of 2 in the list of effect types that you would happily give up one to boost the other.
Vestige Of The Other (2): Be targetable as a second type. But gain an additional +2 vs a type of effect. Surprised that Ooze isn't selectable.
Observer’s Pace (3): 20 ft is not all that slow, and you gain +2 to two skills for it.
Buoyant Traveler (3): Trade legs for dedicated hovering. Meh. If you want to hover, it's probably fine.
Obvious Energies (3): Turns Overflowing Energies from a trait to an extra drawback. Which is fine if you already maxed out your tradition's drawbacks, and have no other auxiliary talents you want to pick.
Grippable Growths (3, F): -4 CMD in exchange for +1 AC or a natural secondary attack. A larger hinderance than help. But CMs are always kind of doomed for PCs.
Gravebound [4]: In low lethality games, it's not that much of a drawback to be hard to revive. But also not much of a benefit. I'll reiterate that Artificial Soul should have been an alteration to Supplemental Artifice.
Waterhome [4]: Trade land speed for swim speed at 1:1 ratio. Useful
Aloof (5): Major penalty to init / perception. Gets a talent focused on out-of-turn bonus to hit/dmg. I would personally take it in a boxer build if I wanted more talents. But that's me and my -6 initiative talking. Also a boxer really wants to have high initiative, and has the worst of the worst case scenarios for low initiative: losing 2 turns on the back end of the fight, rather than the typical one turn.
Quadruped (5): Spell casting furries. Who can't wield weapons. So spell casters! Take twice on animal companions.
Amphibious Skin (6, F): You'd only ever pick this in a situation where it was already a campaign conducive to Aquatic... because that's the only thing it gives. So it's pure fluff. But it still manages to be actually detrimental. But easily bypassed with magic
Unsteady Fleetness (7): You gain a bit of speed in order to be crippled if you come across difficult terrain...
Inoperable Appendage (7): Losing arms is actually really bad. It's at least of limited penalty for gunslingers and casters, who both only really need one, to get their thing done. And all you get is a Utility talent.
Seadweller (8): Can't even breathe air any more. Or walk at all. Why in the ever living hell would you take this? In a purely aquatic campaign, it isn't a drawback. And in semi-aquatic campaigns... this isn't workable without extensive magic.
Deaf (NO): Actually really bad... from an RP perspective. If you work with your DM to say you can read lips, then it's less of an auto-ban. It still also manages to be actually bad, and very functionally limits you, unless your team has telepathy.
Nonverbal (F): Lose talking, but gain a utility talent of your choice. Only really done for flavor. I prefer the oath version, if allowed.
Pidgin Fluency (F): Ranks in linguistics boosts checks by half. But gain double the fluent languages. If you're not doing regular forgeries... Well, languages probably don't matter, except for the fluff of going "Hey, I know 98 languages. I'm so awesome."
Blatant Alignment (F): You gain... no real benefit, outside of having a flavorful aura. But also only face limited penalties.
Ephemera Feeder / Sundrinker (F): Get to feed off of "experiences" like music or sunlight for an hour a day, to never have to eat again. Or even able to eat again. Eating is fluff anyway. And you wouldn't be allowed this in games where it wasn't. Sunlight Dependency is a neat, if inconsequential, "complication."
Partial Construction (F): Gain next to nothing, but also lose next to nothing. In fact, in special circumstances it's a buff. In other's it's a nerf. Take it if you want to be Tree Man or Robo Boy.
Sunlight Weakness (F): Easily bypassed with darkness magic, as already encouraged by Meld Into Shadow. And staggered is much less bad in Spheres than normal for martials. I find it largely flavorful for a vampiric creature. Or a dude who never leaves his computer. Taken twice is a real penalty for no real gain.
Blind (F): Lose sight, but gain 2 talents from choices that circumvent sight. Some of the choices being phenomenal, requiring DM allowance. So... basically gives up your ability to read in exchange for pretending to be Toph: The Last Avatar.
Cold-Hearted (F): One more effect to have +2 against. But lose morale bonuses. Which... pretty flavorful. For monsters. Also not much of a penalty for them, generally.
Dayblind (F): Dazzle is next to nothing. But so is +30 ft dark vision. If you really wanted 120ft dark vision, you can take this twice, and take Light Acclimated (auxiliary), and it's more efficient use of aux talents than taking dark vision 3 times. But you'll probably be called a min-maxer for something mostly irrelevant.
Defensive Familiarity (F): Give up a +2 vs effect, for +2 to skill. Probably actually bad. But equivalent talent-wise, so purely up to your flavor.
(1)
+1/6 bonus to the DCs associated with one magic, combat, origin, or skill sphere of your choice. You cannot improve the DC of a single sphere by more than 1 with this favored class bonus. [Only one sphere / 6 levels. But specialists exist.]
(1.5)
+1/6 bonus to the DCs associated with your class features of this class (such as channel energy or invocations but excluding sphere abilities, spellcasting, and other similar abilities). You cannot improve the DCs of a single class by more than 1 with this favored class bonus.
(2)
Gain +1/6 of a bonus combat talent, auxiliary origin talent, or skill talent.
Gain +1 skill point.
Gain +1/5 of a bonus utility talent from any sphere.
Add +1 to the character’s CMD when resisting two combat maneuvers of the character’s choice. [Normally CMB grows at about 2-3*CR, on the mean. Specialists grow faster. Probably over rating it]
Gain +1/6 of a bonus magic talent.
(3)
Gain +1 hit point.
Choose one class ability that can be used a number of times per day equal to 3 + one of your ability score modifiers (such as a domain ability). You may use that ability an additional +1/2 times per day.
(4)
Gain +1/8 of a combat feat.
Add one spell known or one spell to your spellbook from your class’ spell list. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level you can cast.
+1/8 of an item creation feat.
+1/8 of a metamagic feat.
(5)
Gain a +1/4 bonus to all concentration checks.
(F)
Gain +1 foot to base movement. In combat, this only has an effect for every five increases to the movement’s speed.
Add +1 hit point or +1 skill rank to a subordinate. [Read: Animal companion or the like]
Phenomenal Talents: Probably in their own review.