SangoProduction
2023-08-06, 03:23 AM
Preamble: Did you ever have so much work to do, that you just don't want to do it? Well, here I am like that. I looked at the Infiltration sphere, and found the base sphere effect to be relatively compelling, so I'm doing this review of the entire sphere based off of that one ability, and will probably end around time to go to bed, letting me not need to work at all.
Post-Review Analysis: Unironically, might be the best SoG sphere in both thematics and usefulness.
Flex Talents: Most of the (sabotage) talents probably have their time and place. Particularly Hungry Aperture, when trying to run away through a door, and Snapping Implement for screwing over weapon wielders.
(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) Usable: 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: Disable Device.
Skill leverage: DD and Stealth.
Fast Sabotage (2): Reduces basically all previously written Disable Device checks from 2d4 rounds (effectively narrative time) to a single standard action (combat time). Sabotage is extremely flexible, especially with the technologist feat, in the right setting. Like sabotaging a camera to give the wrong feed. And similar such effects with magic, but that tends to be less generally used.
The problem? Sabotage extremely poorly defined, and you need a DM who's willing to go along with it. And to have a setting where it's going to at all be relevant. But if you don't, then you just don't take the sphere, it's really as simple as that.
-Oh? Actually, SoG did a pretty solid job by giving rules definitions for the potential example sabotages, while explicitly not keeping it exclusively to the examples. Notably, you cannot target held/worn items without using a dirty trick. And then must make the check. BUT! But, you get to do the disable device
Light Step (1): Reduce penalty to stealth by 5, when: Moving at full speed, skulking in the open (MMO stealth), for creating a diversion to hide, or relying on positional concealment.
This negates the penalty for fast stealth, entirely (so long as you're at least 5 ft less than full speed). Same with "positional concealment" (new with SoG, using sight cones). And as for skulking... reduces the penalty to -15. Which is still not generally usable Regardless, if you ever use any of those situations (including just freaking moving at your speed), a +5 to your check is one of the best modifiers you can get. It is an approach, so incompatible with others. But this is rather specialized, so you can safely swap it as needed.
Tactical Sabotage (1): Improved Dirty Trick, except that it is just straight up better, and enables sabotaging of personal items so much easier than for the normal rules SoG introduced. So if you are into sabotaging equipment, this is a must take.
Danger Awareness (2): One simple change makes it better than trap sense of barbarians: It works on more than just traps! Plus, spotting hidden creatures is kinda the point of spot checks. It's equal to Skill Focus at level 6, and better at level 9. That's pretty good, even disregarding the trap portion.
Circumvent Magic (3): Very mid. Lets you disable magic traps. You should already have Trapfinding. And divination abilities might not register you. (Including divination trap triggers, yes. But still.)
Confident Sniper (4): Unremarkable. I mean, it literally doesn't cost you anything (aside from a talent), until you choose to outwit them for a snipe stealth check. So... it doesn't really... harm you. And if you snipe regularly, you might even get use out of it on occasion.
Expert Saboteur (?): Honestly, I have no idea how to rate this. I think it's bad. I liked the design of how it enabled two options for getting sabotage effects... but you can only affect creatures in combat as part of a dirty trick, and that exclusively cares about being usable as a standard (regardless of how fast you do dirty trick). So, you are exclusively looking at how it affects unattended objects... Which the best case scenario would probably be to cycle in Jagged Surface to your routine as a move action, and create Improved Caltrops... But... that damage AoE is not a friendly one, so you'll be hurting everyone in the area. So how much actual use will you get out of doing it as a move action? It would probably be pretty limited.
Sensory Decoy (5): Move action diversion, and create diversions using Sleight of Hand instead of Bluff. I... guess it works? I'm probably being generous. Maybe since you get to hide as part of a diversion, you can hide, and then get sneak attack as a standard action? It's probably not bad for an SoM character. But you've already got fencing sphere if that was your goal, and it just does the sneak attack better and more reliably. So the diversion is just about hiding. And whether it's a standard or move action, the end result is the same, if you're not attacking immediately.
Case The Joint [1++]:Full round action reveal plan. But this is one of the most flexible of all the plans I've seen. Steal one item (of "negligible (monetary) value"), or a piece of information. Like passwords and keys. Again, requires a permissive DM, but this is perhaps the single most impactful abilities that are not some high level divinations spells... again, in the right campaign... With the right DM.
Ranged Disable [1+]: I have to give this an especially high rating, for specifically dungeon crawls with extremely lethal traps. Now, noticing the traps from range may be difficult, but even if you get close before noticing them, you can them attempt to disable to pot of lava from a safe distance of 100 feet away at nothing more than a -4 penalty. And if you fail? Oh well, you're 100 feet away. You don't care if it triggers. Also the fact that you can unlock a door, without damaging it, by throwing your axe at it is hilarious. (You can also lock it by firing shuriken. I have to say, this truly does fulfill the fantasy of a "super skill," which SoG normally doesn't, IMO.)
Camouflage (1): Standard action to create camouflage. +4 to stealth in a given environment, with hide in plain sight. To your entire party. Plus as a standard action, you can basically guarantee you'll be in a given environment. So this is a basically nonconditional +4 to stealth, so long as you don't already gain a similar "camouflage" or "invisibility" bonus. Granted, that's among one of the most common unnamed stealth bonuses to get. But you get to give it out like candy, unconditionally.
Light Touch (1.5): +1 (+1/4 ranks) to DD and Sleight of Hand. Plus, you make it really hard to tell that a trap has been triggered / disabled. Which definitely has its uses, especially in dungeons, where you would tend to encounter traps.
Compelling Diversion (2?): To hide at full speed is a -10. Your base sphere approach already mostly handles the penalty you would gain for yourself, if you had to hide while they were distracted. But, maybe you need to create a diversion that lets even your less stealthy party members hide. This removes the penalty for them, as everyone you distract is done so for the entire round. It... has its use cases.
Frantic Escape (3): Spend skill leverage to delay a trap that you trigger until the end of your next turn. If you disable it before its delay goes off, then it doesn't trigger. You need 2 skill leverages to delay it, if triggered by a failed DD check. Pretty mid. But if you're regularly encountering traps, then you will eventually roll a 1, and this is a free reroll, or a "get out of the way," at least.
Shadower (3): There are relatively few good use cases for this, where just a normal narrative "I follow them," with a stealth roll wouldn't accomplish the same thing. But it does give the option to read a move action for moving, rather than having to read your full action.
Skilled Sneak (4): Gain +1 rank in stealth each level. Would I trade a talent (feat equivalent) for +1 rank, when I've probably got plenty as an SoG character already? Certainly not. Would I trade a utility talent for +1 rank? Again, probably not, but I am not certain, as far as utility talents' value goes. But just look above, and you probably have better choices even within this sphere.
Sweep For Traps (?): In my honest opinion, this talent, which is basically "one check per new 'area' " is precisely how checking for traps should probably work, for the sake of time. Or just implement passive perception from 5e. So, I find it hard to give it an honest rating.
Explosive Fragility (?): Rigging up an item you already have to a sabotage should be inherent to sabotage. But it's not explicitly, so here it is. Oh, but they also get -4 to save, and are flat footed against the item. So it's pretty likely to work, and thus is a light upgrade to just doing it normally.
Snapping Implement (1.5): Hey, you know Sunder being a martial-killer? Well, this is that, but better (assuming the DD check isn't hard for you, and you have similar CMB). I mean, disarm is still superior to even this. And they all don't function against those without weapons, but.... yeah. For what it does, it does it well.
Saboteur's Friend (1.5): Unironically? Having an item which imparts a sabotage just by its use, is quite incredible. First off, it offloads the DD check to before you're in danger. Second, it can be used as deviously as leaving a USB stick in the yard. Thirdly, your party can make use of them. How the **** you can make a tool that makes a sword that looks good, but is broken, I honestly have no idea. That's just magic. But cool all the same. Especially when running a business.
Jagged Surface (2): A lot of words to just say "Improved caltrops." Even its damage scaling (1d6+ (1/4 lvl)d6) is clunkily worded. They needed an editor.
Hungry Aperture (3): Its raw stats are good, and entangle (stuck) is remarkably useful. It does require the target to interact with a door or container though. Useful for escaping during a dungeon crawl. Less useful for... just about everything. (No, I lie. It makes for a good protection/warning system if you sleep in a magic room, and thus trap the portal. I mean, you could already just plunk down a bunch of bear traps in front of the entrance. But this does scaling damage.)
Restraining Vestments (3): You tie up someone's armor. Which is annoying, but not really too impactful, as it's undone with a standard action. So actually just rigging an entangling bag to the inside of their shirt would be more useful. But you have to consider that this is in addition to actually causing the armor to break, and it can be applied to multiple "worn items". So, if you managed to get into the armory of the SWAT team, you could delay their response. By a turn. Unless that tips them off that their stuff's been sabotaged, and don't take their soon-to-break armor into the field, and instead tries more armors, which would be more delaying.
Instant Disaster (4): The higher tier disables really aren't all too superior to normal ones. Even compared to rigging up a bucket of alchemist fire to fall on whomever opens the door seems more useful.
Smothering Vestments (4): Blinds the target, on a failed reflex save (in addition to the dirty trick, and then DD check), which can be removed on a standard action (with no failure chance). Also auto-entangles. But that's removed by a move action. So, if you manage to get past the multiple degrees of failure, to make it work in combat, it locks up someone's turn for just your standard action, which is... neat. I guess.
Pinching Joints (5): Funny, but I see literally no use in dealing damage per 5 feet moved. I mean, absolute best case scenario is that you find some slippery skirmisher (who is wearing metal armor?) and you sabotage them as a standard action (with a chance to fail)... And then they remove the sabotage as a standard action (with no chance to fail), and slip away again. I mean, it's a win, if you outnumber the enemy such that your standard action matters less than the enemy's. But let's be honest, if your PC action matters les than the NPC's, you've done something wrong. At least with Restraining Vestments, they have a chance to fall down.
Post-Review Analysis: Unironically, might be the best SoG sphere in both thematics and usefulness.
Flex Talents: Most of the (sabotage) talents probably have their time and place. Particularly Hungry Aperture, when trying to run away through a door, and Snapping Implement for screwing over weapon wielders.
(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) Usable: 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: Disable Device.
Skill leverage: DD and Stealth.
Fast Sabotage (2): Reduces basically all previously written Disable Device checks from 2d4 rounds (effectively narrative time) to a single standard action (combat time). Sabotage is extremely flexible, especially with the technologist feat, in the right setting. Like sabotaging a camera to give the wrong feed. And similar such effects with magic, but that tends to be less generally used.
The problem? Sabotage extremely poorly defined, and you need a DM who's willing to go along with it. And to have a setting where it's going to at all be relevant. But if you don't, then you just don't take the sphere, it's really as simple as that.
-Oh? Actually, SoG did a pretty solid job by giving rules definitions for the potential example sabotages, while explicitly not keeping it exclusively to the examples. Notably, you cannot target held/worn items without using a dirty trick. And then must make the check. BUT! But, you get to do the disable device
Light Step (1): Reduce penalty to stealth by 5, when: Moving at full speed, skulking in the open (MMO stealth), for creating a diversion to hide, or relying on positional concealment.
This negates the penalty for fast stealth, entirely (so long as you're at least 5 ft less than full speed). Same with "positional concealment" (new with SoG, using sight cones). And as for skulking... reduces the penalty to -15. Which is still not generally usable Regardless, if you ever use any of those situations (including just freaking moving at your speed), a +5 to your check is one of the best modifiers you can get. It is an approach, so incompatible with others. But this is rather specialized, so you can safely swap it as needed.
Tactical Sabotage (1): Improved Dirty Trick, except that it is just straight up better, and enables sabotaging of personal items so much easier than for the normal rules SoG introduced. So if you are into sabotaging equipment, this is a must take.
Danger Awareness (2): One simple change makes it better than trap sense of barbarians: It works on more than just traps! Plus, spotting hidden creatures is kinda the point of spot checks. It's equal to Skill Focus at level 6, and better at level 9. That's pretty good, even disregarding the trap portion.
Circumvent Magic (3): Very mid. Lets you disable magic traps. You should already have Trapfinding. And divination abilities might not register you. (Including divination trap triggers, yes. But still.)
Confident Sniper (4): Unremarkable. I mean, it literally doesn't cost you anything (aside from a talent), until you choose to outwit them for a snipe stealth check. So... it doesn't really... harm you. And if you snipe regularly, you might even get use out of it on occasion.
Expert Saboteur (?): Honestly, I have no idea how to rate this. I think it's bad. I liked the design of how it enabled two options for getting sabotage effects... but you can only affect creatures in combat as part of a dirty trick, and that exclusively cares about being usable as a standard (regardless of how fast you do dirty trick). So, you are exclusively looking at how it affects unattended objects... Which the best case scenario would probably be to cycle in Jagged Surface to your routine as a move action, and create Improved Caltrops... But... that damage AoE is not a friendly one, so you'll be hurting everyone in the area. So how much actual use will you get out of doing it as a move action? It would probably be pretty limited.
Sensory Decoy (5): Move action diversion, and create diversions using Sleight of Hand instead of Bluff. I... guess it works? I'm probably being generous. Maybe since you get to hide as part of a diversion, you can hide, and then get sneak attack as a standard action? It's probably not bad for an SoM character. But you've already got fencing sphere if that was your goal, and it just does the sneak attack better and more reliably. So the diversion is just about hiding. And whether it's a standard or move action, the end result is the same, if you're not attacking immediately.
Case The Joint [1++]:Full round action reveal plan. But this is one of the most flexible of all the plans I've seen. Steal one item (of "negligible (monetary) value"), or a piece of information. Like passwords and keys. Again, requires a permissive DM, but this is perhaps the single most impactful abilities that are not some high level divinations spells... again, in the right campaign... With the right DM.
Ranged Disable [1+]: I have to give this an especially high rating, for specifically dungeon crawls with extremely lethal traps. Now, noticing the traps from range may be difficult, but even if you get close before noticing them, you can them attempt to disable to pot of lava from a safe distance of 100 feet away at nothing more than a -4 penalty. And if you fail? Oh well, you're 100 feet away. You don't care if it triggers. Also the fact that you can unlock a door, without damaging it, by throwing your axe at it is hilarious. (You can also lock it by firing shuriken. I have to say, this truly does fulfill the fantasy of a "super skill," which SoG normally doesn't, IMO.)
Camouflage (1): Standard action to create camouflage. +4 to stealth in a given environment, with hide in plain sight. To your entire party. Plus as a standard action, you can basically guarantee you'll be in a given environment. So this is a basically nonconditional +4 to stealth, so long as you don't already gain a similar "camouflage" or "invisibility" bonus. Granted, that's among one of the most common unnamed stealth bonuses to get. But you get to give it out like candy, unconditionally.
Light Touch (1.5): +1 (+1/4 ranks) to DD and Sleight of Hand. Plus, you make it really hard to tell that a trap has been triggered / disabled. Which definitely has its uses, especially in dungeons, where you would tend to encounter traps.
Compelling Diversion (2?): To hide at full speed is a -10. Your base sphere approach already mostly handles the penalty you would gain for yourself, if you had to hide while they were distracted. But, maybe you need to create a diversion that lets even your less stealthy party members hide. This removes the penalty for them, as everyone you distract is done so for the entire round. It... has its use cases.
Frantic Escape (3): Spend skill leverage to delay a trap that you trigger until the end of your next turn. If you disable it before its delay goes off, then it doesn't trigger. You need 2 skill leverages to delay it, if triggered by a failed DD check. Pretty mid. But if you're regularly encountering traps, then you will eventually roll a 1, and this is a free reroll, or a "get out of the way," at least.
Shadower (3): There are relatively few good use cases for this, where just a normal narrative "I follow them," with a stealth roll wouldn't accomplish the same thing. But it does give the option to read a move action for moving, rather than having to read your full action.
Skilled Sneak (4): Gain +1 rank in stealth each level. Would I trade a talent (feat equivalent) for +1 rank, when I've probably got plenty as an SoG character already? Certainly not. Would I trade a utility talent for +1 rank? Again, probably not, but I am not certain, as far as utility talents' value goes. But just look above, and you probably have better choices even within this sphere.
Sweep For Traps (?): In my honest opinion, this talent, which is basically "one check per new 'area' " is precisely how checking for traps should probably work, for the sake of time. Or just implement passive perception from 5e. So, I find it hard to give it an honest rating.
Explosive Fragility (?): Rigging up an item you already have to a sabotage should be inherent to sabotage. But it's not explicitly, so here it is. Oh, but they also get -4 to save, and are flat footed against the item. So it's pretty likely to work, and thus is a light upgrade to just doing it normally.
Snapping Implement (1.5): Hey, you know Sunder being a martial-killer? Well, this is that, but better (assuming the DD check isn't hard for you, and you have similar CMB). I mean, disarm is still superior to even this. And they all don't function against those without weapons, but.... yeah. For what it does, it does it well.
Saboteur's Friend (1.5): Unironically? Having an item which imparts a sabotage just by its use, is quite incredible. First off, it offloads the DD check to before you're in danger. Second, it can be used as deviously as leaving a USB stick in the yard. Thirdly, your party can make use of them. How the **** you can make a tool that makes a sword that looks good, but is broken, I honestly have no idea. That's just magic. But cool all the same. Especially when running a business.
Jagged Surface (2): A lot of words to just say "Improved caltrops." Even its damage scaling (1d6+ (1/4 lvl)d6) is clunkily worded. They needed an editor.
Hungry Aperture (3): Its raw stats are good, and entangle (stuck) is remarkably useful. It does require the target to interact with a door or container though. Useful for escaping during a dungeon crawl. Less useful for... just about everything. (No, I lie. It makes for a good protection/warning system if you sleep in a magic room, and thus trap the portal. I mean, you could already just plunk down a bunch of bear traps in front of the entrance. But this does scaling damage.)
Restraining Vestments (3): You tie up someone's armor. Which is annoying, but not really too impactful, as it's undone with a standard action. So actually just rigging an entangling bag to the inside of their shirt would be more useful. But you have to consider that this is in addition to actually causing the armor to break, and it can be applied to multiple "worn items". So, if you managed to get into the armory of the SWAT team, you could delay their response. By a turn. Unless that tips them off that their stuff's been sabotaged, and don't take their soon-to-break armor into the field, and instead tries more armors, which would be more delaying.
Instant Disaster (4): The higher tier disables really aren't all too superior to normal ones. Even compared to rigging up a bucket of alchemist fire to fall on whomever opens the door seems more useful.
Smothering Vestments (4): Blinds the target, on a failed reflex save (in addition to the dirty trick, and then DD check), which can be removed on a standard action (with no failure chance). Also auto-entangles. But that's removed by a move action. So, if you manage to get past the multiple degrees of failure, to make it work in combat, it locks up someone's turn for just your standard action, which is... neat. I guess.
Pinching Joints (5): Funny, but I see literally no use in dealing damage per 5 feet moved. I mean, absolute best case scenario is that you find some slippery skirmisher (who is wearing metal armor?) and you sabotage them as a standard action (with a chance to fail)... And then they remove the sabotage as a standard action (with no chance to fail), and slip away again. I mean, it's a win, if you outnumber the enemy such that your standard action matters less than the enemy's. But let's be honest, if your PC action matters les than the NPC's, you've done something wrong. At least with Restraining Vestments, they have a chance to fall down.