SangoProduction
2023-11-25, 08:20 PM
Preamble: I saw Doctor Strange. Very cool ability to just open portals on demand to anywhere. Then in some later movie that I don't really remember, he's shown severing someone's arm with said portal. Portals are already inherently overpowered, in concept, due to literally not even being objects, but just connections to another point in space. No amount of fire power will ever destroy a typical portal, unless explicitly given such a physical weakness.
So, it's got me thinking for a while: What would be a fun way to make a portal-based fighter? I think I've got a few answers.
Race: Kobold. Mostly because the idea of thing thing wielding a horrific sword of death does get my funny bone tickling.
Class: Incanter (Level 10, as normal for these builds)
Admixture Adept: Admixture talent for free, and + 1/2 level as bonus spell points that can be used on admixture or metamagic. (Reasonable DMs will also allow the more recently introduced Amp talents from mana sphere to be used this way as well.)
(For context: If we instead spent those 2 feats we spend for admixture Adept, we could have 4 bonus spell points, rather than the 5 admixture points, and would have to find Admixture talent from our pool of talents. So since we are planning to use it, it's a good move.)
Sphere Specialization (Warp): Because duh. But it's also kinda useful.
Talents from the class: 18 = 10 (levels) +2 (casting) + 5 (bonus talents) + 1 (admixture adept) +1 (sphere specialization)
Max feats at level 10: 5
Base sphere: Deal damage, on touch attack. (Melee or ranged. Preferred melee. I like to imagine that they are literally throwing the portal blade. And it's a touch attack because lightsaber effect. But moreso.)
Admixture: May apply the effects of 2 blast types at once, using a spell point.
Demolition: Full damage (and then some) to objects. The blade's just changing the location of (parts of) the object.
Gather Energy: Increase casting time to reduce cost by 1.
Damage Control: To more efficiently mass teleport without (lethally) hurting us. Still must deal damage or it doesn't work.
Energy Leap (Blast Shape): Run straight on through, waving your portal around, slicing anything in your way.
Energy Wall (Blast Shape): Opens a huge, toothy portal. (Or not-toothy, with Damage Control. More pillowy.)
Chain Blast (Blast Shape): Hit someone through the portal, onto someone else, onto someone else, onto someone else. And so on. Up to 6 targets, up to 20 feet apart from each other.
Custom Blast, Portal Slash (Blast Type): d6 Force damage. Ignores antimagic field. SR: No. (10 points)
Custom Blast, Shackling Portal (Blast Type): d6 Force Damage. 1 turn entangle and immobilize on failed reflex save (10 points)
Remaining talents: 8
Destruction Sphere Feats
Improved Chain Blast: Upgrades maximum targets to 11, and spell point for all to save for half.
Shape Expert: energy wall, without a spell point, is a 20-by-10 wall instead of 5x5.
Admixture Feats
Space-Rending Admixture: As a spell point, affected creatures are targeted with Unwilling Teleport, up to Mass Teleport's limit.
Remaining feats: 2
Base sphere: Teleport touched creatures up to close range. Spell point for medium range.
Mass Teleport: Teleport an additional 1/2 CL targets for a spell point. (Note, Admixture makes no mention of needing an additional augment spell point to achieve this. Only that it's limited by Mass Teleport's cap.)
Unwilling Teleport: Spell point to unwillingly teleport someone vs a will save. (Never directly used. Arguable that it must be used, spell point included, with Admixture. Wording isn't 100% clear. Would suck if that's the case.)
Extradimensional Storage: It's not good. But who doesn't love just throwing loot into your sword?
Distant Teleport: I don't know when I'll need long range teleport over medium range. But it would be cool to have, when you need it, right?
Wormhole (I guess): Connects a couple squares, such that they are adjacent (specifically for movement)
Legendary Talents
Extradimensional Capacity: Getting to add another 550 lbs to the dimensional storage (minimum) is pretty cool.
Portal: Teleporting and spending *yet another* spell point leaves behind a portal (with up to 55 ft radius, minimum, holy ship), which opens adjacent to the destination you teleported to. That portal alone just cuts off an entire hallway, such that it can't really be crossed through. The two portal locations are considered adjacent for all purposes. But it requires concentration, for only a couple rounds.
Honestly, we don't need this, unless we regularly plan on transporting huge troop formations.
Notable feat, not taken: Portal Combat. Everything it does is already done by the talents already taken.
There are actually no warp sphere feats I care for.
So, with the remaining 2 feats, I'll just take 2 Extra Magical Talents for +2 talents.
Base sphere: Aegis: +3 deflection to AC. It's fine. But obviously, it's representative of having a field of distorted space. (Can easily trade out Ward, and get like Shared Aegis as well.)
Armored Magic: +5 armor bonus, and +3 shield bonus as aegii. Not the best. Not the worst. Disappointing for level 10. Very disappointing. But obviously, you just slapped an actual portal to your arm, and cover yourself with micro-portals. Truly impenetrable. You're just bad at using them.
And for items, it would basically just be stuff that boosted stats, including Dex, Int, and CL. HP would be nice, as would Str, technically.
You could definitely go further, and get the tradition down, and get even more spell points, and talents. But I think I grabbed quite literally everything I actually cared about for the build by level 10, and then some.
So, it's got me thinking for a while: What would be a fun way to make a portal-based fighter? I think I've got a few answers.
Race: Kobold. Mostly because the idea of thing thing wielding a horrific sword of death does get my funny bone tickling.
Class: Incanter (Level 10, as normal for these builds)
Admixture Adept: Admixture talent for free, and + 1/2 level as bonus spell points that can be used on admixture or metamagic. (Reasonable DMs will also allow the more recently introduced Amp talents from mana sphere to be used this way as well.)
(For context: If we instead spent those 2 feats we spend for admixture Adept, we could have 4 bonus spell points, rather than the 5 admixture points, and would have to find Admixture talent from our pool of talents. So since we are planning to use it, it's a good move.)
Sphere Specialization (Warp): Because duh. But it's also kinda useful.
Talents from the class: 18 = 10 (levels) +2 (casting) + 5 (bonus talents) + 1 (admixture adept) +1 (sphere specialization)
Max feats at level 10: 5
Base sphere: Deal damage, on touch attack. (Melee or ranged. Preferred melee. I like to imagine that they are literally throwing the portal blade. And it's a touch attack because lightsaber effect. But moreso.)
Admixture: May apply the effects of 2 blast types at once, using a spell point.
Demolition: Full damage (and then some) to objects. The blade's just changing the location of (parts of) the object.
Gather Energy: Increase casting time to reduce cost by 1.
Damage Control: To more efficiently mass teleport without (lethally) hurting us. Still must deal damage or it doesn't work.
Energy Leap (Blast Shape): Run straight on through, waving your portal around, slicing anything in your way.
Energy Wall (Blast Shape): Opens a huge, toothy portal. (Or not-toothy, with Damage Control. More pillowy.)
Chain Blast (Blast Shape): Hit someone through the portal, onto someone else, onto someone else, onto someone else. And so on. Up to 6 targets, up to 20 feet apart from each other.
Custom Blast, Portal Slash (Blast Type): d6 Force damage. Ignores antimagic field. SR: No. (10 points)
Custom Blast, Shackling Portal (Blast Type): d6 Force Damage. 1 turn entangle and immobilize on failed reflex save (10 points)
Remaining talents: 8
Destruction Sphere Feats
Improved Chain Blast: Upgrades maximum targets to 11, and spell point for all to save for half.
Shape Expert: energy wall, without a spell point, is a 20-by-10 wall instead of 5x5.
Admixture Feats
Space-Rending Admixture: As a spell point, affected creatures are targeted with Unwilling Teleport, up to Mass Teleport's limit.
Remaining feats: 2
Base sphere: Teleport touched creatures up to close range. Spell point for medium range.
Mass Teleport: Teleport an additional 1/2 CL targets for a spell point. (Note, Admixture makes no mention of needing an additional augment spell point to achieve this. Only that it's limited by Mass Teleport's cap.)
Unwilling Teleport: Spell point to unwillingly teleport someone vs a will save. (Never directly used. Arguable that it must be used, spell point included, with Admixture. Wording isn't 100% clear. Would suck if that's the case.)
Extradimensional Storage: It's not good. But who doesn't love just throwing loot into your sword?
Distant Teleport: I don't know when I'll need long range teleport over medium range. But it would be cool to have, when you need it, right?
Wormhole (I guess): Connects a couple squares, such that they are adjacent (specifically for movement)
Legendary Talents
Extradimensional Capacity: Getting to add another 550 lbs to the dimensional storage (minimum) is pretty cool.
Portal: Teleporting and spending *yet another* spell point leaves behind a portal (with up to 55 ft radius, minimum, holy ship), which opens adjacent to the destination you teleported to. That portal alone just cuts off an entire hallway, such that it can't really be crossed through. The two portal locations are considered adjacent for all purposes. But it requires concentration, for only a couple rounds.
Honestly, we don't need this, unless we regularly plan on transporting huge troop formations.
Notable feat, not taken: Portal Combat. Everything it does is already done by the talents already taken.
There are actually no warp sphere feats I care for.
So, with the remaining 2 feats, I'll just take 2 Extra Magical Talents for +2 talents.
Base sphere: Aegis: +3 deflection to AC. It's fine. But obviously, it's representative of having a field of distorted space. (Can easily trade out Ward, and get like Shared Aegis as well.)
Armored Magic: +5 armor bonus, and +3 shield bonus as aegii. Not the best. Not the worst. Disappointing for level 10. Very disappointing. But obviously, you just slapped an actual portal to your arm, and cover yourself with micro-portals. Truly impenetrable. You're just bad at using them.
And for items, it would basically just be stuff that boosted stats, including Dex, Int, and CL. HP would be nice, as would Str, technically.
You could definitely go further, and get the tradition down, and get even more spell points, and talents. But I think I grabbed quite literally everything I actually cared about for the build by level 10, and then some.