SangoProduction
2023-11-23, 09:58 PM
Preamble: I do believe I finished reviewing all the advanced talents at some point in the past, to let DMs know which ones are good to let your players have, and which ones require more consideration.
Let's see if we can't do the same with the Combat spheres. (I'm tired, so just one sphere today. Maybe more tomorrow.)
Post Review Analysis: These legendary talents are generally just fine. As a DM, I ironically dislike many of the (toxin) talents more than the legendary talents.
Warning: This rare rating is given to talents that have truly game-breaking potential. Or at the very least need very close inspection before being allowed.
Questionable: These talents have an outsized impact, and should be considered in context before being allowed.
Acceptable: This is your standard faire advanced talent tier. Worth looking at, but rarely is it going to cause the catastrophic downfall of your campaign.
Fluffy: These little to no functional difference to a character. These are also the safest to give out as reward talents. For example, if they beat the witch who eats children, they might manifest the ability to summon items made of gingerbread.
Unknown: For when I really just don't know where it would lie. It's probably needlessly complicated. Take a good look at it yourself. I'll try and provide a cliff notes version of the talent, along with potential pit falls.
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Alchemy
Aboleth Mucus (toxin): Before giving it out, you must make clear how this suffocation will work. Do they immediately begin to suffocate, when not in water, or do they get rounds equal to twice Con Score, before then making constitution checks, until they then begin to suffocate. The former is beyond incredibly potent, especially for no save, potentially in an AoE cloud. The latter is basically not even worth using, except to effectively be a non-magical waterbreathing effect.
Elixir Of Immortality: Would you pay 50k gp to get +3 to all mental stats, when you get to level 12, stacking with all other modifiers? Yeah. Seems like a good buy. But, if you started at a lower level, and were allowed to start old as possible, you are sitting on -6 to physical stats until level 12. Which is pretty good pay off. For some games, it's a bit silly. For others, it's a nice stretch goal, as long as it's made clear whether or not the campaign will even be planned to go that long.
Mindrot: Lets you choose to use will saves instead of fort saves for poisons. This is pretty great, mechanically, in that the player can take an active roll in deciding the save they target, with the same abilities. It can also make it harder to present good challenges, since they are flexible in the targeting of the same abilities. And mind you, these are abilities that require just 3 failed saves to put a creature on the floor, regardless of anything else that happens to them. That's a problem of the entire toxin subsphere, but it can still be problematic.
Ambrosia: Remove a curse, all temp negative levels, one permanent level, or restoring senses. All reasonably useful. Life sphere kinda does it better.
Elixir Of Life: Nonmagical Revivify. Plus a bit of healing.
Hemorrhaging Poison: Turns Painful Venin into Bleed damage. Which normally doesn't stack with any other Bleed, where untyped damage is just damage. I think the main benefit would simply have to be the fact that you can proc some relatively minor synergies, which simply care about whether or not they are bleeding, since it can reasonably easily hit a good AoE. Hardly feels worthy of a legendary talent.
Necrotic Poison: This... I would honestly say... is perhaps the least problematic of the toxins. Giving a -1 to all rolls, and reducing stats, cumulatively? That's pretty potent, especially if shared around with allied weaponry, but it's also not a 3-save-or-lose by the time you're level 10. And best of all, since it's just a stacking penalty, the HP track, which everyone else is using, is still relevant.
Sorcerers Scourge: A mage-bane version of Necrotic Poison, but comes online 5 levels earlier. It's also perfectly acceptable. And can be actively fun for players to notice spellcasters, and drown them in a deluge of poison to prevent their worst spells.
Aging Toxin: Perhaps the least potent of all the toxins (in combat), the Aging Toxin does admittedly inflict permanent penalties of age.
Contagion: Turns the toxin into a disease, that lasts a really long time, and just generally makes people miserable. It offers roleplay opportunities, and that's just about it.
Philosopher’s Stone: Let's be totally honest. At level 20, you are getting ready to fight gods. Getting to print gold every month (at a rate probably lesser than you could make with the craft rolls you can make by then) is really not much of a concern. Nor is being able to generate a True Resurrection potion once a month.
Witch Doctor’s Curse: 9 times out of 10, this is basically the same as Contagion. With the side benefit of pretending you're a witch cursing a fair maiden in a fairy tale.
Let's see if we can't do the same with the Combat spheres. (I'm tired, so just one sphere today. Maybe more tomorrow.)
Post Review Analysis: These legendary talents are generally just fine. As a DM, I ironically dislike many of the (toxin) talents more than the legendary talents.
Warning: This rare rating is given to talents that have truly game-breaking potential. Or at the very least need very close inspection before being allowed.
Questionable: These talents have an outsized impact, and should be considered in context before being allowed.
Acceptable: This is your standard faire advanced talent tier. Worth looking at, but rarely is it going to cause the catastrophic downfall of your campaign.
Fluffy: These little to no functional difference to a character. These are also the safest to give out as reward talents. For example, if they beat the witch who eats children, they might manifest the ability to summon items made of gingerbread.
Unknown: For when I really just don't know where it would lie. It's probably needlessly complicated. Take a good look at it yourself. I'll try and provide a cliff notes version of the talent, along with potential pit falls.
.
Alchemy
Aboleth Mucus (toxin): Before giving it out, you must make clear how this suffocation will work. Do they immediately begin to suffocate, when not in water, or do they get rounds equal to twice Con Score, before then making constitution checks, until they then begin to suffocate. The former is beyond incredibly potent, especially for no save, potentially in an AoE cloud. The latter is basically not even worth using, except to effectively be a non-magical waterbreathing effect.
Elixir Of Immortality: Would you pay 50k gp to get +3 to all mental stats, when you get to level 12, stacking with all other modifiers? Yeah. Seems like a good buy. But, if you started at a lower level, and were allowed to start old as possible, you are sitting on -6 to physical stats until level 12. Which is pretty good pay off. For some games, it's a bit silly. For others, it's a nice stretch goal, as long as it's made clear whether or not the campaign will even be planned to go that long.
Mindrot: Lets you choose to use will saves instead of fort saves for poisons. This is pretty great, mechanically, in that the player can take an active roll in deciding the save they target, with the same abilities. It can also make it harder to present good challenges, since they are flexible in the targeting of the same abilities. And mind you, these are abilities that require just 3 failed saves to put a creature on the floor, regardless of anything else that happens to them. That's a problem of the entire toxin subsphere, but it can still be problematic.
Ambrosia: Remove a curse, all temp negative levels, one permanent level, or restoring senses. All reasonably useful. Life sphere kinda does it better.
Elixir Of Life: Nonmagical Revivify. Plus a bit of healing.
Hemorrhaging Poison: Turns Painful Venin into Bleed damage. Which normally doesn't stack with any other Bleed, where untyped damage is just damage. I think the main benefit would simply have to be the fact that you can proc some relatively minor synergies, which simply care about whether or not they are bleeding, since it can reasonably easily hit a good AoE. Hardly feels worthy of a legendary talent.
Necrotic Poison: This... I would honestly say... is perhaps the least problematic of the toxins. Giving a -1 to all rolls, and reducing stats, cumulatively? That's pretty potent, especially if shared around with allied weaponry, but it's also not a 3-save-or-lose by the time you're level 10. And best of all, since it's just a stacking penalty, the HP track, which everyone else is using, is still relevant.
Sorcerers Scourge: A mage-bane version of Necrotic Poison, but comes online 5 levels earlier. It's also perfectly acceptable. And can be actively fun for players to notice spellcasters, and drown them in a deluge of poison to prevent their worst spells.
Aging Toxin: Perhaps the least potent of all the toxins (in combat), the Aging Toxin does admittedly inflict permanent penalties of age.
Contagion: Turns the toxin into a disease, that lasts a really long time, and just generally makes people miserable. It offers roleplay opportunities, and that's just about it.
Philosopher’s Stone: Let's be totally honest. At level 20, you are getting ready to fight gods. Getting to print gold every month (at a rate probably lesser than you could make with the craft rolls you can make by then) is really not much of a concern. Nor is being able to generate a True Resurrection potion once a month.
Witch Doctor’s Curse: 9 times out of 10, this is basically the same as Contagion. With the side benefit of pretending you're a witch cursing a fair maiden in a fairy tale.