SangoProduction
2022-10-31, 02:59 AM
Title: Cursed Archer
Short Description: Born with little talent, but a lot of luck (or perhaps a lack thereof), has found a cursed quiver, which produces a near-random sample of magical ammunition. It somehow always seems to have quite the right (or wrong) shot for the job.
(It's simply, an incredibly cohesive set of a HUGE number of drawbacks, without needing to force literally anything. It all fits into place seamlessly. And it's such an incredibly simple concept that it fits in 1 sentence.)
Burdened Magic (Makes using the non-spell point effects very difficult.)
Card Casting (represented as the cursed quiver's arrow pulling - spell point-using effects must be drawn. 2x at most for fun. Absolutely no more than 3x. Mana Graveyard is basically unusable.)
Center of Power (The quiver. Obviously.)
Galvanized (Needs to wield a weapon - specifically a bow - to make use of magic.)
Somatic Casting (1x or 2x, doesn't matter. Must draw the arrows in the right way, or the quiver doesn't like it.)
Substantial Magic (Any magic with a duration is emanating from an actual arrow.)
Witchmarked (The...quiver. Can't get rid of it. Very obviously magic and cursed.)
(To represent the curse of the quiver - not just that they may never be rid of it.)
Addictive Casting
Anemic
Decrepit Casting
Draining Casting
Innate Curse
Madness Mantra
Mental Focus (perhaps having to focus or else lose "control" over the curse? The one forced-feeling drawback here.)
Painful Magic
Unsettling Casting (If there's a single person who uses Sanity rules...)
Unstable Storage (I really like this, along with Anemic/Decrepit/Draining - Very much like a leech draining your energy to power the foul magics)
Wild Magic (Make it even more unpredictable!)
Drawback Feat (Most DB feats are for mitigating the drawback, which is pointless. But there are some new Card Casting feats that are neat, and may be worth 2 extra drawbacks for.)
Easy Focus ("You" aren't focusing on it. But it is tiring to keep it going.)
Fortified Casting (Doesn't fit as cleanly, but does very clearly work, to keep feeding the quiver. Especially if making it a "leech.")
Deathful Magic (Again, fits great for something that positively drains your life away in exchange for power. It gets a stronger grip on your life force the weaker you are.)
Sphere Specific Drawbacks of Note
Striker - Optional, as fluff is fluff. But getting to attack with a literal, mechanically-real long bow in addition to your spell does help aid with selling the fluff.
First Picks
Death (duh)
Destruction (duh)
Second Picks
Life (Because shooting your allies to heal them is funny.)
Alteration (even though you lose literally all of its flexibility)
Creation (Nets and the like)
Nature (Imagine an arrow touching the ground, and the ground collapses into a puddle of sand. Or you freeze someone on touching them with an arrow. Such incredible (imaginary) visuals with this.)
Protection (Or War sphere. Or Fate. Either one can exude [hypothetically] powerful auras from arrows stuck in the ground/wall/whatever.)
Third
Dark / Light (Gives a ninja-like vibe to go around shooting out light sources and creating brilliant displays to distract from them.)
Illusion (Same role, but less ninja)
Divination (Don't even need Fast Divines since you don't want to use it for free anyway. Hanzo. Overwatch.)
Warp (Blink Arrow is typical archer ability in ARPGs.)
Hedgewitch, without a doubt. Can't be a full caster, or else the BAB's going to quickly fall behind the full AC requirements. (Well, you can, and just like...work around/not use the Striker drawback. But I want it.)
Could reasonably be Armorist, but that gives much more substantiality to the magic than I prefer for the concept. I prefer the magic to be limited to the quiver.
Mageknight is not viable, because many of their (admittedly great) class features use spell points, and we're going to be bleeding spell points.
Great Paths
Academia - More for the mechanical benefit of 1+1/2 level bonus spell points (and maybe more with secrets) than the fluff of being academic.
Black Magic - Gains an Oracle curse. Already great fluff. Can also spread the curse.
Combat - I mean, Spheres of Might is still great, even if you're not degenerately stacking rider effects. Also gets Magus-style weapon bonuses.
Herbology - Allows for concoctions, if you desperately want *some* control, as well as non magical concoctions
Spiritualism - Great pick. Also allows you to flex talents, and immediately put one flexed effect into your Quiver
Transmuter - Just generally flexible and nearly at-will.
Umbral - Like Spiritualism, but requires more effort to flex. Both are equal in terms of fluff, really. But this gives added stealth, letting the character more easily be a hunter in the past.
Feats
Harrowed Talents: Each turn, in addition to whatever you draw from your main deck, you draw 1 of 6 from your "side deck."
Also Metamagic feats (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?626296-Friendship-is-metamagical-Spheres-in-Review&p=24907497#post24907497) would probably be great, so as to get expensive enough effects for Burdened Magic.
Deck Feats
These count as drawback feats, and alter Card Casting, and grant 1 of a set of deck manipulations. (You can read them yourself (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/3pp-feats).)
Deck Feats in Review (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?651036-Deck-Feats-(Spheres-in-Review)).
Short Description: Born with little talent, but a lot of luck (or perhaps a lack thereof), has found a cursed quiver, which produces a near-random sample of magical ammunition. It somehow always seems to have quite the right (or wrong) shot for the job.
(It's simply, an incredibly cohesive set of a HUGE number of drawbacks, without needing to force literally anything. It all fits into place seamlessly. And it's such an incredibly simple concept that it fits in 1 sentence.)
Burdened Magic (Makes using the non-spell point effects very difficult.)
Card Casting (represented as the cursed quiver's arrow pulling - spell point-using effects must be drawn. 2x at most for fun. Absolutely no more than 3x. Mana Graveyard is basically unusable.)
Center of Power (The quiver. Obviously.)
Galvanized (Needs to wield a weapon - specifically a bow - to make use of magic.)
Somatic Casting (1x or 2x, doesn't matter. Must draw the arrows in the right way, or the quiver doesn't like it.)
Substantial Magic (Any magic with a duration is emanating from an actual arrow.)
Witchmarked (The...quiver. Can't get rid of it. Very obviously magic and cursed.)
(To represent the curse of the quiver - not just that they may never be rid of it.)
Addictive Casting
Anemic
Decrepit Casting
Draining Casting
Innate Curse
Madness Mantra
Mental Focus (perhaps having to focus or else lose "control" over the curse? The one forced-feeling drawback here.)
Painful Magic
Unsettling Casting (If there's a single person who uses Sanity rules...)
Unstable Storage (I really like this, along with Anemic/Decrepit/Draining - Very much like a leech draining your energy to power the foul magics)
Wild Magic (Make it even more unpredictable!)
Drawback Feat (Most DB feats are for mitigating the drawback, which is pointless. But there are some new Card Casting feats that are neat, and may be worth 2 extra drawbacks for.)
Easy Focus ("You" aren't focusing on it. But it is tiring to keep it going.)
Fortified Casting (Doesn't fit as cleanly, but does very clearly work, to keep feeding the quiver. Especially if making it a "leech.")
Deathful Magic (Again, fits great for something that positively drains your life away in exchange for power. It gets a stronger grip on your life force the weaker you are.)
Sphere Specific Drawbacks of Note
Striker - Optional, as fluff is fluff. But getting to attack with a literal, mechanically-real long bow in addition to your spell does help aid with selling the fluff.
First Picks
Death (duh)
Destruction (duh)
Second Picks
Life (Because shooting your allies to heal them is funny.)
Alteration (even though you lose literally all of its flexibility)
Creation (Nets and the like)
Nature (Imagine an arrow touching the ground, and the ground collapses into a puddle of sand. Or you freeze someone on touching them with an arrow. Such incredible (imaginary) visuals with this.)
Protection (Or War sphere. Or Fate. Either one can exude [hypothetically] powerful auras from arrows stuck in the ground/wall/whatever.)
Third
Dark / Light (Gives a ninja-like vibe to go around shooting out light sources and creating brilliant displays to distract from them.)
Illusion (Same role, but less ninja)
Divination (Don't even need Fast Divines since you don't want to use it for free anyway. Hanzo. Overwatch.)
Warp (Blink Arrow is typical archer ability in ARPGs.)
Hedgewitch, without a doubt. Can't be a full caster, or else the BAB's going to quickly fall behind the full AC requirements. (Well, you can, and just like...work around/not use the Striker drawback. But I want it.)
Could reasonably be Armorist, but that gives much more substantiality to the magic than I prefer for the concept. I prefer the magic to be limited to the quiver.
Mageknight is not viable, because many of their (admittedly great) class features use spell points, and we're going to be bleeding spell points.
Great Paths
Academia - More for the mechanical benefit of 1+1/2 level bonus spell points (and maybe more with secrets) than the fluff of being academic.
Black Magic - Gains an Oracle curse. Already great fluff. Can also spread the curse.
Combat - I mean, Spheres of Might is still great, even if you're not degenerately stacking rider effects. Also gets Magus-style weapon bonuses.
Herbology - Allows for concoctions, if you desperately want *some* control, as well as non magical concoctions
Spiritualism - Great pick. Also allows you to flex talents, and immediately put one flexed effect into your Quiver
Transmuter - Just generally flexible and nearly at-will.
Umbral - Like Spiritualism, but requires more effort to flex. Both are equal in terms of fluff, really. But this gives added stealth, letting the character more easily be a hunter in the past.
Feats
Harrowed Talents: Each turn, in addition to whatever you draw from your main deck, you draw 1 of 6 from your "side deck."
Also Metamagic feats (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?626296-Friendship-is-metamagical-Spheres-in-Review&p=24907497#post24907497) would probably be great, so as to get expensive enough effects for Burdened Magic.
Deck Feats
These count as drawback feats, and alter Card Casting, and grant 1 of a set of deck manipulations. (You can read them yourself (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/3pp-feats).)
Deck Feats in Review (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?651036-Deck-Feats-(Spheres-in-Review)).