SangoProduction
2022-04-03, 07:32 PM
Preamble: I had the feeling like I've already done the Warleader sphere. But I couldn't find it anywhere. So clearly I didn't, and I want to correct that state of things. Oh, also I was incredibly bored and gripped by existential angst so I needed a distraction.
Was pretty sure it was bad. but I also was sure that the War sphere was bad. And the War sphere was amazing. Perhaps unintentionally. I hope this proves itself as well.
Post Review Analysis: Shouts are hyper-dependent upon incredibly slow scaling. Literally everything they do scales. Slowly. But they also do jack all starting out.
The tactics are not particularly fun either, but they are useful when they are useful.
Overall, I think they really should go back with a clearer vision for the sphere. This feels a lot like someone trying to fill a quota rather than caring about the product. Not to insult anyone in particular.
Flex Talents: Harangue (shout): Gives allies another chance to save vs effects.
Protective Warning (shout): When you desperately need a +2 to save vs a very dangerous ability.
Coordinated Reflexes / Fortifying Phalanx / Militant Will (tactic): When facing a particular type of save.
(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.
Tactics (2): Move action to start. Move or swift to maintain. Use one (tactic) for the area while active. Affects allies within 10 + 5 / lvl radius of a square in line of sight of you. Can recenter it as part of the swift action concentration. (Move action could have just made it from scratch where you wanted.) It ends if you're unable to act. The blind don't benefit from this.
All in all, not implicitly bad. A bit of an action sink, no doubt.
Aggressive Flanking (3): Eh. Easy flanking. Useful if you have a rogue. Else I couldn't really care.
Shouts (4): 10 + 5/2 lvl radius, centered on self. Immediately not great. But not horrible. It lasts for 1 round + 1 / 4 lvl. So a remarkably short duration. And it's a standard action. Wow. I hate literally everything about this. But at least you can still affect the deaf. Only +5 to saves. But you can't do it while silenced.
Fierce Shout (6): Adds 1 + 1/2 lvl damage... to the first attack each turn. First attack! Not first hit! Pull out a 1d10 weapon, and you'd need to be affecting more at least 5 damage dealers per shout. Do literally anything else with your action. Might be at least not-insulting when you're at least level 6. Ignoring literally any other method of scaling damage.
Short answer: Almost no shouts are worth literally anything before level 4. Let's assume you are level 4 for this review, which mean it now lasts 2 rounds.
Harangue <1>: If your team has ongoing effects, you can give an additional save. Literally just 1 per effect. But one per effect per person in a single shout. Does not scale in any way. Which is fantastic, relative to the rest of them.
Protective Warning <2>: As a standard action? This sucks. Immediate action? So long as their targets are near you, you grant them +2 to that save. So... cool? I guess. I'm really trying to not hate on the Shouts.
Frightful Roar (3): Knock off intimidate build, all condensed into 1 talent rather than an entire build. Shaken is a nice -2 to everything... for 2 rounds.
Cry Of Confrontation (3): Expend Martial Focus. Spend Standard action. Give everyone -2 to hit unless they target you. For 2 rounds. Eh...?? I am unimpressed. But no save.
Focusing Cry (4): Expend MF to grant MF to 2 others. As a standard action. Great for an NPC so that the real players get their nonsense off at no expense.
Inspiring Speech (5): Suppresses the penalties of some of the lightest of the named debuffs.
Invigorating Call (5): Immunity to sleep and fascinated. I think I've been put to sleep exactly 1 time to my knowledge. And fascination tends to not work in-combat. This is such a hyper-specific talent.
Rallying Speech (5): Reduces frightened and shaken by 1 step for the duration. These 3 talents could have just been one, and it would have been a neat talent, even if still unimpressive.
Rousing Claxon (5): 1 temp HP per level. For a very short duration. At the expense of your MF. God I cannot express how much I hate this, even as an AoE
Distracting Cacophony (6): +3 to concentration check DCs... But NOT stacking with any other effect. With maybe a 10% spell failure chance. OK. So if you affect 10 mages, and they all take damage, then on average, you'd have paid back your standard action.
Call Attention (F): Conceptually, it's neat. And being the "Hey, look at me, I'm a distraction" guy is actually useful. But this skill just functions so weirdly that I literally can't conceive a particularly great use for it.
Disarming Roar (?): Expend martial focus, in order to force will saves to make others lose theirs... Alright. I guess.
Dispiriting Roar (?): Reduce morale bonuses by 2. This can range from "Meh" to "utterly pointless." Even the objectively better "This Does Not Spark Joy" weather talent is... well it's at least tremendous vs one build. But this just slightly reduces a bonus.
Coordinated Reflexes / Fortifying Phalanx / Militant Will <2>: Adds 1+1/4 to reflex/fort/will saves. And get to spend an immediate action to reroll.
Covert Operations [2]: +3 to Acrobatics, Escape Artist, and Stealth in an area. It does its job. Definitely feels like it drops off with levels. But it starts off quite strong. Taken twice, this grants scaling increased miss chance, which works with Stalking (purring) feat. And magical darkness, because the source of the miss chance is the lack of light, not the magic itself. I think. Maybe.
Deadly Herdsman (2): Free action BR / reposition on hit? Neat. I think. Potentially. Remember that free action maneuvers don't proc associated (talents).
Synchronized Strikes (4): If an ally hits. The next ally's next hit ignores DR / hardness. Woo.
Shieldbrothers (5): Adjacent allies gain +1 AC. Woo.
Preparation (5): 1/4 of Improved Initiative until level 8, which you must put active effort into using. And can only do so for 1 hour a day.
Courier’s Dash (5): Bonus move speed. While in a small area. Pass.
Masterful Coordination (5): Even for an Aid Other build, this sucks.
Unified Morale (5): OK. I get it. Morale builds exist, and letting them fully extend their bonuses
Well, with those disappointments out of the way, let's see if the general talents give any context which redeems the whole sphere.
Verbal Counter (1): Just a straight up non-combat use for Diplomacy. Forces them to make an opposed skill check whenever they attempt to bluff you. Else they must either tell the truth or take massive penalties.
Marauding Monkey (1): On successfully damaging a creature with an attack action or AoO, increase duration of an active warleader ability by 1 round. Note: this requires damage, not simply damageless tripping, but bleed damage is damage.
Triumph (1): Assume there's a shout you want to use. Now you can use it on a swift rather than standard action.
Heraldry (1.5): Grants +5 lvls of scaling to tactics (few as you may care for, there are some), and you gain a passive +1 to hit while in a tactic, while holding a banner, which can simply be placed on your long spear while you trip stuff. It does soak your swift / move action though. So only passive if you already wanted to use tactics. Which is probably not a constant thing.
Bandmaster / Semaphore (2): +15 ft of radius? That's actually rather substantial.
Persisting Influence (2): +1 round of duration. Lets shouts actually be used earlier on. Still at incredibly impotent levels. But still actually used.
Strategically Distant Examination (2): +1 to morale bonuses of tactics and shouts. Basically 4 levels of scaling. Arguably include Heraldry. But probably not.
Projecting Voice (3, F): Center your shouts on your tactics instead of self. Also ventriloquism.
Breath Support (3): Funny. Lets you actually be a back liner. But cones are really awkward shapes.
Verbal Commands (4): Removes LoS and sight requirements for tactics. But grants verbal requirements.
Roaring Reservoir (4): Progress Fatigue instead of spend martial focus.
Lasting Oration (4): Spend 1 minute out of combat to gain 1 minute + 1 / 4 levels of duration. Which... OK. If you get plenty of warning of what you're fighting, and can easily flex into the very hyper specific buffs, then maybe this is worth it. And it might make your initial shout not detrimental to use. Still of minimal benefit. But not detrimental to use. Unless your oration leads to someone overhearing and starting the combat.
Advanced Notice (5): There's literally 1 shout that isn't a friendly AoE. There's no doubt some intention to add more in a few more years of development. I'm sure. (Or they could just change it to a friendly AoE and remove this so that you're not further talent taxed.)
Focusing Tactics (?): Not going to lie, it had me in the first half. Then it basically said "No animal companions or familiars."
Was pretty sure it was bad. but I also was sure that the War sphere was bad. And the War sphere was amazing. Perhaps unintentionally. I hope this proves itself as well.
Post Review Analysis: Shouts are hyper-dependent upon incredibly slow scaling. Literally everything they do scales. Slowly. But they also do jack all starting out.
The tactics are not particularly fun either, but they are useful when they are useful.
Overall, I think they really should go back with a clearer vision for the sphere. This feels a lot like someone trying to fill a quota rather than caring about the product. Not to insult anyone in particular.
Flex Talents: Harangue (shout): Gives allies another chance to save vs effects.
Protective Warning (shout): When you desperately need a +2 to save vs a very dangerous ability.
Coordinated Reflexes / Fortifying Phalanx / Militant Will (tactic): When facing a particular type of save.
(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.
Tactics (2): Move action to start. Move or swift to maintain. Use one (tactic) for the area while active. Affects allies within 10 + 5 / lvl radius of a square in line of sight of you. Can recenter it as part of the swift action concentration. (Move action could have just made it from scratch where you wanted.) It ends if you're unable to act. The blind don't benefit from this.
All in all, not implicitly bad. A bit of an action sink, no doubt.
Aggressive Flanking (3): Eh. Easy flanking. Useful if you have a rogue. Else I couldn't really care.
Shouts (4): 10 + 5/2 lvl radius, centered on self. Immediately not great. But not horrible. It lasts for 1 round + 1 / 4 lvl. So a remarkably short duration. And it's a standard action. Wow. I hate literally everything about this. But at least you can still affect the deaf. Only +5 to saves. But you can't do it while silenced.
Fierce Shout (6): Adds 1 + 1/2 lvl damage... to the first attack each turn. First attack! Not first hit! Pull out a 1d10 weapon, and you'd need to be affecting more at least 5 damage dealers per shout. Do literally anything else with your action. Might be at least not-insulting when you're at least level 6. Ignoring literally any other method of scaling damage.
Short answer: Almost no shouts are worth literally anything before level 4. Let's assume you are level 4 for this review, which mean it now lasts 2 rounds.
Harangue <1>: If your team has ongoing effects, you can give an additional save. Literally just 1 per effect. But one per effect per person in a single shout. Does not scale in any way. Which is fantastic, relative to the rest of them.
Protective Warning <2>: As a standard action? This sucks. Immediate action? So long as their targets are near you, you grant them +2 to that save. So... cool? I guess. I'm really trying to not hate on the Shouts.
Frightful Roar (3): Knock off intimidate build, all condensed into 1 talent rather than an entire build. Shaken is a nice -2 to everything... for 2 rounds.
Cry Of Confrontation (3): Expend Martial Focus. Spend Standard action. Give everyone -2 to hit unless they target you. For 2 rounds. Eh...?? I am unimpressed. But no save.
Focusing Cry (4): Expend MF to grant MF to 2 others. As a standard action. Great for an NPC so that the real players get their nonsense off at no expense.
Inspiring Speech (5): Suppresses the penalties of some of the lightest of the named debuffs.
Invigorating Call (5): Immunity to sleep and fascinated. I think I've been put to sleep exactly 1 time to my knowledge. And fascination tends to not work in-combat. This is such a hyper-specific talent.
Rallying Speech (5): Reduces frightened and shaken by 1 step for the duration. These 3 talents could have just been one, and it would have been a neat talent, even if still unimpressive.
Rousing Claxon (5): 1 temp HP per level. For a very short duration. At the expense of your MF. God I cannot express how much I hate this, even as an AoE
Distracting Cacophony (6): +3 to concentration check DCs... But NOT stacking with any other effect. With maybe a 10% spell failure chance. OK. So if you affect 10 mages, and they all take damage, then on average, you'd have paid back your standard action.
Call Attention (F): Conceptually, it's neat. And being the "Hey, look at me, I'm a distraction" guy is actually useful. But this skill just functions so weirdly that I literally can't conceive a particularly great use for it.
Disarming Roar (?): Expend martial focus, in order to force will saves to make others lose theirs... Alright. I guess.
Dispiriting Roar (?): Reduce morale bonuses by 2. This can range from "Meh" to "utterly pointless." Even the objectively better "This Does Not Spark Joy" weather talent is... well it's at least tremendous vs one build. But this just slightly reduces a bonus.
Coordinated Reflexes / Fortifying Phalanx / Militant Will <2>: Adds 1+1/4 to reflex/fort/will saves. And get to spend an immediate action to reroll.
Covert Operations [2]: +3 to Acrobatics, Escape Artist, and Stealth in an area. It does its job. Definitely feels like it drops off with levels. But it starts off quite strong. Taken twice, this grants scaling increased miss chance, which works with Stalking (purring) feat. And magical darkness, because the source of the miss chance is the lack of light, not the magic itself. I think. Maybe.
Deadly Herdsman (2): Free action BR / reposition on hit? Neat. I think. Potentially. Remember that free action maneuvers don't proc associated (talents).
Synchronized Strikes (4): If an ally hits. The next ally's next hit ignores DR / hardness. Woo.
Shieldbrothers (5): Adjacent allies gain +1 AC. Woo.
Preparation (5): 1/4 of Improved Initiative until level 8, which you must put active effort into using. And can only do so for 1 hour a day.
Courier’s Dash (5): Bonus move speed. While in a small area. Pass.
Masterful Coordination (5): Even for an Aid Other build, this sucks.
Unified Morale (5): OK. I get it. Morale builds exist, and letting them fully extend their bonuses
Well, with those disappointments out of the way, let's see if the general talents give any context which redeems the whole sphere.
Verbal Counter (1): Just a straight up non-combat use for Diplomacy. Forces them to make an opposed skill check whenever they attempt to bluff you. Else they must either tell the truth or take massive penalties.
Marauding Monkey (1): On successfully damaging a creature with an attack action or AoO, increase duration of an active warleader ability by 1 round. Note: this requires damage, not simply damageless tripping, but bleed damage is damage.
Triumph (1): Assume there's a shout you want to use. Now you can use it on a swift rather than standard action.
Heraldry (1.5): Grants +5 lvls of scaling to tactics (few as you may care for, there are some), and you gain a passive +1 to hit while in a tactic, while holding a banner, which can simply be placed on your long spear while you trip stuff. It does soak your swift / move action though. So only passive if you already wanted to use tactics. Which is probably not a constant thing.
Bandmaster / Semaphore (2): +15 ft of radius? That's actually rather substantial.
Persisting Influence (2): +1 round of duration. Lets shouts actually be used earlier on. Still at incredibly impotent levels. But still actually used.
Strategically Distant Examination (2): +1 to morale bonuses of tactics and shouts. Basically 4 levels of scaling. Arguably include Heraldry. But probably not.
Projecting Voice (3, F): Center your shouts on your tactics instead of self. Also ventriloquism.
Breath Support (3): Funny. Lets you actually be a back liner. But cones are really awkward shapes.
Verbal Commands (4): Removes LoS and sight requirements for tactics. But grants verbal requirements.
Roaring Reservoir (4): Progress Fatigue instead of spend martial focus.
Lasting Oration (4): Spend 1 minute out of combat to gain 1 minute + 1 / 4 levels of duration. Which... OK. If you get plenty of warning of what you're fighting, and can easily flex into the very hyper specific buffs, then maybe this is worth it. And it might make your initial shout not detrimental to use. Still of minimal benefit. But not detrimental to use. Unless your oration leads to someone overhearing and starting the combat.
Advanced Notice (5): There's literally 1 shout that isn't a friendly AoE. There's no doubt some intention to add more in a few more years of development. I'm sure. (Or they could just change it to a friendly AoE and remove this so that you're not further talent taxed.)
Focusing Tactics (?): Not going to lie, it had me in the first half. Then it basically said "No animal companions or familiars."