SangoProduction
2022-05-01, 06:17 PM
Preamble: Got a neck injury taking care of my bees, and now I've got a fear of lying down and making it worse. So instead of resting and letting it heal, I'm going to occupy myself with this until I pass out. Clearly this is healthy bee-havior.
Anyway... The one sphere I literally overlook the most: The fencing sphere. And I mean actually, with no contest, this is the one that I most forget exists. For me, Duelist and Fencing are just so conceptually intertwined, that the two swirl together, and Duelist wins out on my perception. It typically takes active effort to find it, and I still click on Duelist the first time. I am not kidding. I think I have a problem.
I basically only know that it's the "sneak attack" sphere. And I was unimpressed. I hope this review turns that around.
Post Review Analysis: Better than I remember. Probably because of the focus on feinting, which is just a generally mediocre effect, and requires excessive investment just to make it workable. But there are some actually good things here. I might add fencing to more of my builds in the future. Maybe not the highest priority in the builds. But... so long as I remember this sphere exists, I'll probably pick up the sphere and an exploit at least. It's an extra rider effect for just 2 talents.
Flex Talents: Hand Slash: to disarm weapon users.
To the Hilt: vs DR
(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) Mediocre: 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.
Skill ranks: Gains [HD] ranks in Bluff. Yay. You(r character) is slightly more capable of social interaction. (Clearly intended to work with feint but... well, I have a feint build in the sig... even when using good resources, it's still disappointing.)
Fatal Thrust (4): It happens once per Attack action, not per attack in an attack action. But each AoO procs it. Against *a* target. They must be within 30 ft, and either: you are flanking, or they are flat footed or lost Dex bonus.
On fulfilling the conditions, deal 1d6 + 1d6 / 5 BAB. And you get to apply an exploit talent to the fatal thrust.
This has relatively limited utility, unless you're going hard on the AoO build. But hey, it's a tiny bit of extra damage that you can potentially do, without excess cost (outside of the talent), and could maybe add a rider effect.
This is uniquely awkward to work with AoOs though, due to the extra sets of requirements: that of sneak attack. Flanking someone is trivial. Flanking someone who is provoking AoOs... not so much. You kind of need to build around it to get that AoO optimization. And probably a compliant teammate who helps you do your nonsense. Probably a bullrusher of some type would be most useful. And you need to use the various methods to flank more easily... Or you can feint. Which... I guess is probably going to be less of a hassle at this point.
Fun thing to note: It says "when you make [the attack]", with "make" not being a well-defined term here. So a very lenient DM might say it procs every attempt. Or a restrictive DM might say it procs only when you spend the [attack] to successfully deal damage.
I think I have grown to really hate their phrasing in SoM, since I started this review. Probably because it's so easy to do a "common sense" read of it. But when you're trying to actually figure out exactly what the rules are saying, it's so muddy and unclear. I'd like a short, and simple, USOM that just comes in and redoes the phrasing of these base spheres.
Not off to a strong start. Let's see what else it's got in store.
Skewer (1): I am pretty sure that this spends MF to have faster damage scaling, which I care less about. But it also enables 2 exploit talents in one strike (with that same MF spend), which is actually useful. There are a fair couple of effects you wouldn't mind imposing, and they don't even ask for saves to impose them.
Footwork (1.5): Better than the related 5-foot step feats in every way. More flexible as well. Lets you nope out, or keep AoO range on someone. It's good (for what it is), whether you take it once or twice. Twice probably lets you more easily maintain flanking, but maybe once per round. Not a great use if that's your primary purpose.
Pace Setter (1.5, F): For reach AoO builds, this is insanity. Nothing will ever touch you.
Parry And Riposte (2): Spends and recoups its own MF. Basically lets you trade an AoO to make an opposed attack roll to deflect their attack... Which presumably was a good enough attack to hit above your AC. So... a lot of calculus to determine the minimum relative usefulness of this. But by head-math, it tends to be better than 15% chance of turning the hit into a miss (and relative to your AC, the minimum useful number, it gets better with levels). Costs an AoO... Which AoO builds probably don't care about - they have plenty. And non-AoO builds basically have a 1/round defense. Until someone talks me down, I'll say it's Good.
Group Cover (3): Choose one enemy. While you're adjacent, with MF, gain +2 AC against others. It's fine, I guess. More useful if your DM consistently uses swarmy monsters.
Read Foe (3): +HD ranks in sense motive. Yay. I think I'm universally going to rate all [ranks] talents at this level. It's like spending half a human (the feat) to get the other, less sexy half (skill points). Not a horrible trade one way or the other.
Lunge (4): It will be very occasionally useful to get +5 ft range to melee attacks, in exchange for -2 to hit. But I would say that those occasions are so rare... I mean, unless you're playing a 0 ft-reach melee build. Which does just kinda seem silly. I mean, it helps prevent people from just 5 ft stepping onto you through your reach, if you haven't optimized it. But so would Footwork, but better, with more flexibility.
Expert Fence (5, F): +2 AC, from a particular direction, for a swift action. There are a lot of good uses for the swift action. A lot that are better than +2 AC.
Death From Afar (?): It's a range talent. Take it if you need it. Say this with every one of them. Definitely convenient to use your ranged attacks while outside of waddling range of a typical person.
Impassable Defense (?): You give up your standard action for +4 AC. But you still get AoOs, which is kind of an encouraged build path. So... I mean, functionally, for the AoO build, this probably is a nearly free +4 AC, and that's probably fine. I mean, it also means you can't proc your own AoOs with your attack action. Really, I just don't know. I need someone with more experience.
Masterful Defense (?): 1 additional AC when fighting defensively, or total defense. And only take -2 to hit on defensive fighting. Defense is just inherently less interesting than offense. Making the numbers line up such that it is a trade off many would take... is probably putting it to the point where it's objectively overpowered. Like tanks in videogames.
I'm rating the below as though you already wanted to use Feint
Fast Feint (1+): If you're making use of feints, this is actually required. Highest priority. Getting to get your move and feint off for martial focus is just extra.
Unlikely Feint (1+): Ah yes. Hey. look. You need this on as much, if not higher, priority than Fast Feint. Being able to actually feint 99% of monsters is needed, if you want to do anything involving feinting. And you also get a chance at feinting mindless as well, if at a much reduced rate. So... yeah. Needed. Unless you're playing a city campaign. Those tend to have higher rates of humanoids than others.
Expert Feint [1]: They lose dex bonus against all attacks until beginning of next turn. As a buff for your allies? Generally disappointing. As one piece in the grand puzzle that is: making effective use of this with AoOs? Probably of utmost importance.
Focusing Feint (2): Regain MF on feinting someone. As a swift action. But it should be relatively unconditional, given that bluff isn't hard to do. So, assuming that you typically feint (in which case you already have a spender in Fast Feint), this is above par with other focusing talents.
Open Guard (2): Batter for a round, when you feint them. Makes it easy to trip, given that Open Hand is the most reliable way to give yourself AoOs while actually being useful with the attack action.
Darting Crane (4): Stance. When they miss you, spend AoO to feint as free action. Can't be used in conjunction with similar effects...which would have given you attacks instead, and procced your Fatal Thrust.
Feint Strike (4): Attack as a swift action. Or an AoO for your martial focus, which at least procs your FT. Very unimpressed.
Fatal Opening (5): While feinted, your attacks have double (base) critical rate. Say 18-20/x2. 15% chance to add your weapon damage again. For a medium greatsword, that's a little over 0.5 average damage. (Not that it has 18-20 crit, so that's an overestimate), +1/6 of your other non-die bonuses. So +1 expected damage, if you had +5 strength and weapon specialization. And it stacks with no other crit modifiers. So... Yeah. Bloody useless.
Verbal Feint (?): Range feat. And allows for unarmed feint (you couldn't before???). Take it if you need it.
I'm just going to assume that, if you pick up a "do maneuver as a free action" talent, that you can reliably do the maneuver, and rate it as such. Doesn't make much sense if you can't. But you already know that. That's not useful information by now.
Ankle Strike (1): Trip attempt as a free action. Open Hand has a talent which gives AoO when they are tripped. Great synergy. You stabbed them so that you can stab them again!
Hand Slash <1>: Assuming you can reliably disarm, getting to disarm someone who needs a weapon as a free action is rather potent.
To The Hilt (<1>): Optimistically, this is as much as 1/2 BAB damage. And again, optimistically, this also applies to your entire team, so you could be adding as much as 2 damage per BAB in a round, from attack actions of your team. Plus your AoOs. People have already argued that 1/2 BAB is good bonus damage. If I didn't make this top rank, for situational use, I would get absolutely roasted.
Face Strike (2): 20% miss chance. 1 round. Doesn't stack with concealment.
Ankle Strike (2): Unnamed -2 penalty to most checks involving that arm. 1d4 rounds. Nearly a sickened-effect. It's good.
Chest Strike (2): Sickened for 1d4 rounds. Sickened doesn't stack with other effects that sicken, so which one you pick is probably based on if you guys already apply sickened.
Wide Open (2): -2 to armor class for until your next turn ends. I mean... feels unremarkable. But that's like giving everyone +2 to hit (them), as a simple rider effect. That's better than some actual magical buffs. Less duration though. And more narrow.
Distracting Blades (4): Target loses AoOs for a round. Cool. I guess. So fencers counter themselves. Which makes sense actually. But really is probably not a meaningful effect for most campaigns.
Belt Cutter (4): Steal attempt. These don't tend to move the needle.
Repositioning Strike (5): Gets free action movement. But it is not freely usable. You must have already been in stabbing distance. And now you're forced to be adjacent at the end of it. It is funny how, if you had a line of targets, 15 ft apart, trained to move 5 ft, after being lightly stabbed, you have an indefinite-speed rail way line.
Anyway... The one sphere I literally overlook the most: The fencing sphere. And I mean actually, with no contest, this is the one that I most forget exists. For me, Duelist and Fencing are just so conceptually intertwined, that the two swirl together, and Duelist wins out on my perception. It typically takes active effort to find it, and I still click on Duelist the first time. I am not kidding. I think I have a problem.
I basically only know that it's the "sneak attack" sphere. And I was unimpressed. I hope this review turns that around.
Post Review Analysis: Better than I remember. Probably because of the focus on feinting, which is just a generally mediocre effect, and requires excessive investment just to make it workable. But there are some actually good things here. I might add fencing to more of my builds in the future. Maybe not the highest priority in the builds. But... so long as I remember this sphere exists, I'll probably pick up the sphere and an exploit at least. It's an extra rider effect for just 2 talents.
Flex Talents: Hand Slash: to disarm weapon users.
To the Hilt: vs DR
(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) Mediocre: 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.
Skill ranks: Gains [HD] ranks in Bluff. Yay. You(r character) is slightly more capable of social interaction. (Clearly intended to work with feint but... well, I have a feint build in the sig... even when using good resources, it's still disappointing.)
Fatal Thrust (4): It happens once per Attack action, not per attack in an attack action. But each AoO procs it. Against *a* target. They must be within 30 ft, and either: you are flanking, or they are flat footed or lost Dex bonus.
On fulfilling the conditions, deal 1d6 + 1d6 / 5 BAB. And you get to apply an exploit talent to the fatal thrust.
This has relatively limited utility, unless you're going hard on the AoO build. But hey, it's a tiny bit of extra damage that you can potentially do, without excess cost (outside of the talent), and could maybe add a rider effect.
This is uniquely awkward to work with AoOs though, due to the extra sets of requirements: that of sneak attack. Flanking someone is trivial. Flanking someone who is provoking AoOs... not so much. You kind of need to build around it to get that AoO optimization. And probably a compliant teammate who helps you do your nonsense. Probably a bullrusher of some type would be most useful. And you need to use the various methods to flank more easily... Or you can feint. Which... I guess is probably going to be less of a hassle at this point.
Fun thing to note: It says "when you make [the attack]", with "make" not being a well-defined term here. So a very lenient DM might say it procs every attempt. Or a restrictive DM might say it procs only when you spend the [attack] to successfully deal damage.
I think I have grown to really hate their phrasing in SoM, since I started this review. Probably because it's so easy to do a "common sense" read of it. But when you're trying to actually figure out exactly what the rules are saying, it's so muddy and unclear. I'd like a short, and simple, USOM that just comes in and redoes the phrasing of these base spheres.
Not off to a strong start. Let's see what else it's got in store.
Skewer (1): I am pretty sure that this spends MF to have faster damage scaling, which I care less about. But it also enables 2 exploit talents in one strike (with that same MF spend), which is actually useful. There are a fair couple of effects you wouldn't mind imposing, and they don't even ask for saves to impose them.
Footwork (1.5): Better than the related 5-foot step feats in every way. More flexible as well. Lets you nope out, or keep AoO range on someone. It's good (for what it is), whether you take it once or twice. Twice probably lets you more easily maintain flanking, but maybe once per round. Not a great use if that's your primary purpose.
Pace Setter (1.5, F): For reach AoO builds, this is insanity. Nothing will ever touch you.
Parry And Riposte (2): Spends and recoups its own MF. Basically lets you trade an AoO to make an opposed attack roll to deflect their attack... Which presumably was a good enough attack to hit above your AC. So... a lot of calculus to determine the minimum relative usefulness of this. But by head-math, it tends to be better than 15% chance of turning the hit into a miss (and relative to your AC, the minimum useful number, it gets better with levels). Costs an AoO... Which AoO builds probably don't care about - they have plenty. And non-AoO builds basically have a 1/round defense. Until someone talks me down, I'll say it's Good.
Group Cover (3): Choose one enemy. While you're adjacent, with MF, gain +2 AC against others. It's fine, I guess. More useful if your DM consistently uses swarmy monsters.
Read Foe (3): +HD ranks in sense motive. Yay. I think I'm universally going to rate all [ranks] talents at this level. It's like spending half a human (the feat) to get the other, less sexy half (skill points). Not a horrible trade one way or the other.
Lunge (4): It will be very occasionally useful to get +5 ft range to melee attacks, in exchange for -2 to hit. But I would say that those occasions are so rare... I mean, unless you're playing a 0 ft-reach melee build. Which does just kinda seem silly. I mean, it helps prevent people from just 5 ft stepping onto you through your reach, if you haven't optimized it. But so would Footwork, but better, with more flexibility.
Expert Fence (5, F): +2 AC, from a particular direction, for a swift action. There are a lot of good uses for the swift action. A lot that are better than +2 AC.
Death From Afar (?): It's a range talent. Take it if you need it. Say this with every one of them. Definitely convenient to use your ranged attacks while outside of waddling range of a typical person.
Impassable Defense (?): You give up your standard action for +4 AC. But you still get AoOs, which is kind of an encouraged build path. So... I mean, functionally, for the AoO build, this probably is a nearly free +4 AC, and that's probably fine. I mean, it also means you can't proc your own AoOs with your attack action. Really, I just don't know. I need someone with more experience.
Masterful Defense (?): 1 additional AC when fighting defensively, or total defense. And only take -2 to hit on defensive fighting. Defense is just inherently less interesting than offense. Making the numbers line up such that it is a trade off many would take... is probably putting it to the point where it's objectively overpowered. Like tanks in videogames.
I'm rating the below as though you already wanted to use Feint
Fast Feint (1+): If you're making use of feints, this is actually required. Highest priority. Getting to get your move and feint off for martial focus is just extra.
Unlikely Feint (1+): Ah yes. Hey. look. You need this on as much, if not higher, priority than Fast Feint. Being able to actually feint 99% of monsters is needed, if you want to do anything involving feinting. And you also get a chance at feinting mindless as well, if at a much reduced rate. So... yeah. Needed. Unless you're playing a city campaign. Those tend to have higher rates of humanoids than others.
Expert Feint [1]: They lose dex bonus against all attacks until beginning of next turn. As a buff for your allies? Generally disappointing. As one piece in the grand puzzle that is: making effective use of this with AoOs? Probably of utmost importance.
Focusing Feint (2): Regain MF on feinting someone. As a swift action. But it should be relatively unconditional, given that bluff isn't hard to do. So, assuming that you typically feint (in which case you already have a spender in Fast Feint), this is above par with other focusing talents.
Open Guard (2): Batter for a round, when you feint them. Makes it easy to trip, given that Open Hand is the most reliable way to give yourself AoOs while actually being useful with the attack action.
Darting Crane (4): Stance. When they miss you, spend AoO to feint as free action. Can't be used in conjunction with similar effects...which would have given you attacks instead, and procced your Fatal Thrust.
Feint Strike (4): Attack as a swift action. Or an AoO for your martial focus, which at least procs your FT. Very unimpressed.
Fatal Opening (5): While feinted, your attacks have double (base) critical rate. Say 18-20/x2. 15% chance to add your weapon damage again. For a medium greatsword, that's a little over 0.5 average damage. (Not that it has 18-20 crit, so that's an overestimate), +1/6 of your other non-die bonuses. So +1 expected damage, if you had +5 strength and weapon specialization. And it stacks with no other crit modifiers. So... Yeah. Bloody useless.
Verbal Feint (?): Range feat. And allows for unarmed feint (you couldn't before???). Take it if you need it.
I'm just going to assume that, if you pick up a "do maneuver as a free action" talent, that you can reliably do the maneuver, and rate it as such. Doesn't make much sense if you can't. But you already know that. That's not useful information by now.
Ankle Strike (1): Trip attempt as a free action. Open Hand has a talent which gives AoO when they are tripped. Great synergy. You stabbed them so that you can stab them again!
Hand Slash <1>: Assuming you can reliably disarm, getting to disarm someone who needs a weapon as a free action is rather potent.
To The Hilt (<1>): Optimistically, this is as much as 1/2 BAB damage. And again, optimistically, this also applies to your entire team, so you could be adding as much as 2 damage per BAB in a round, from attack actions of your team. Plus your AoOs. People have already argued that 1/2 BAB is good bonus damage. If I didn't make this top rank, for situational use, I would get absolutely roasted.
Face Strike (2): 20% miss chance. 1 round. Doesn't stack with concealment.
Ankle Strike (2): Unnamed -2 penalty to most checks involving that arm. 1d4 rounds. Nearly a sickened-effect. It's good.
Chest Strike (2): Sickened for 1d4 rounds. Sickened doesn't stack with other effects that sicken, so which one you pick is probably based on if you guys already apply sickened.
Wide Open (2): -2 to armor class for until your next turn ends. I mean... feels unremarkable. But that's like giving everyone +2 to hit (them), as a simple rider effect. That's better than some actual magical buffs. Less duration though. And more narrow.
Distracting Blades (4): Target loses AoOs for a round. Cool. I guess. So fencers counter themselves. Which makes sense actually. But really is probably not a meaningful effect for most campaigns.
Belt Cutter (4): Steal attempt. These don't tend to move the needle.
Repositioning Strike (5): Gets free action movement. But it is not freely usable. You must have already been in stabbing distance. And now you're forced to be adjacent at the end of it. It is funny how, if you had a line of targets, 15 ft apart, trained to move 5 ft, after being lightly stabbed, you have an indefinite-speed rail way line.