Lost Spheres Publishing FAQ

[crystal_entity]

Q.178 I'm looking at the Aethernaut class in Co7S, and I'm a little confused by a paragraph in the Aethernaut's Device ability. It says:

An aethernaut can add additional abilities to his device as if he had the required item creation feats, if he has the prerequisite level; he treats his aethernaut levels as spellcaster levels for this purpose. He need not meet any spell or psionic power requirements of the item as long as he can use rift edges or rift wards of the same aura type and strength as the item.

Does this mean an aethernaut can add any magical or psionic effect to his device, as long as he meets the strength and aura type requirements? Or does this have to be based on an existing item?

I'm specifically thinking about adding Tongues to a Ring. If a fifth level aethernaut character has mastered the Astral Plane, giving access to Divination-based rift edges, could she do this? Or because there is no Ring that grants Tongues in Pathfinder, is this forbidden?

[Kris Moonhand]

Q179: In Akashic Realms 1, the Rabbit constellation lets you summon a "giant hare animal companion". However, there is no such companion, either in the book or in vanilla, that I could find. What is the stat block for the giant hare?

[Ssalarn]

Q179: In Akashic Realms 1, the Rabbit constellation lets you summon a "giant hare animal companion". However, there is no such companion, either in the book or in vanilla, that I could find. What is the stat block for the giant hare?

It's in the book, under the animal companions section on page 37. It's listed alphabetically under the header "Hare, Giant".

[Kris Moonhand]

It's in the book, under the animal companions section on page 37. It's listed alphabetically under the header "Hare, Giant".

I have no idea how I missed that... Thank you.

[Ssalarn]

I have no idea how I missed that... Thank you.

No worries!

[Lost_Spheres]

Q.178 I'm looking at the Aethernaut class in Co7S, and I'm a little confused by a paragraph in the Aethernaut's Device ability. It says:



Does this mean an aethernaut can add any magical or psionic effect to his device, as long as he meets the strength and aura type requirements? Or does this have to be based on an existing item?

I'm specifically thinking about adding Tongues to a Ring. If a fifth level aethernaut character has mastered the Astral Plane, giving access to Divination-based rift edges, could she do this? Or because there is no Ring that grants Tongues in Pathfinder, is this forbidden?

A.178Fantastic Question!!! The TL:DR is yes your Ring of Astral Articulations could totally be an aethernaut device! But let's get into why...

Firstly, the aethernaut's device ability lets us ignore feat and feat requirements so despite Forge Ring's normal requirements (7th level) we are good to go at 5th with the following considerations. What the device ability DOES care about is school or effect, caster level of intended item, and item aura strength vs. aura strengh we have for our plane. Other than that the aethernaut player should partner with the GM looking at page 550 in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and aura strength as defined in detect magic. For our ring we see that tongues is a 3rd level spell for wizards. This sets our caster level for a continuous Ring of Astral Articulations at 5th and gives us a starting cost of 30,000gp (15,000 crafting materials) plus the base masterwork ring. It also sets an aura strength of "faint" for a 3rd level spell as per detect magic which matches the faint astral rift edge we unlocked at 3rd level. So we have all of our boxes checked at 5th level with the Astral mastery. Cost is the real limiter here as that 15,000gp in grafting materials might be prohibitive at 5th level BUT if we made our amazing ring a start with 1/day charges you could begin enchanting your ring for as low as 3,000 gp in crafting materials plus ring cost and upgrade as it levels. Very doable at 5th level.

Awesome device idea!

[crystal_entity]

A.178Fantastic Question!!! The TL:DR is yes your Ring of Astral Articulations could totally be an aethernaut device! But let's get into why...
...snip...
Awesome device idea!

Brilliant! Thanks for your response, especially the detailed working, that's now very clear - and I like the name Astral Articulations too!

I'd completely forgotten about the cost aspect, yes, that is indeed a real limiter. I was thinking of using the Astral mastered plane's "any that teleports" for accessing Planar Travel (5th level power available to 9th level psions) and Teleport (5th level spell available to 9th level Wizards) when reaching 7th level and access to "moderate" rift edges, but I'd not factored in the monetary cost for both (not totally out of the question at 1/day, but pretty large amount still - not that plane shifting into Hyraeatan is a good idea anyway - but there's nothing I've spotted saying you can't plane shift out ).

Thanks very much for your help! And I should say, I really like Co7S, it's an amazing piece of work, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do in the future!

[Kris Moonhand]

Q180a: Is the Archetype Maneuver Progression table in Codex of Blood supposed to be different from the previously released version of that table? It ends up with 2 fewer maneuvers known and 1 fewer stances. The Animus Archetype Maneuver Progression table also is different from the one used in Warpath Follower, though the newer one has 2 more maneuvers known and readied, 1 more maneuver granted, and 1 less stance.

Q180b: If they are supposed to be different, are they meant to override the previous tables, or are they only for the new archetypes in that book?

[AlienFromBeyond]

Q180a: Is the Archetype Maneuver Progression table in Codex of Blood supposed to be different from the previously released version of that table? It ends up with 2 fewer maneuvers known and 1 fewer stances. The Animus Archetype Maneuver Progression table also is different from the one used in Warpath Follower, though the newer one has 2 more maneuvers known and readied, 1 more maneuver granted, and 1 less stance.

My guess would be because it is erroneously based off of the old Pathwalker/War Soul maneuver progression that was errata'd to follow the progression outlined in PoW:E. No idea about the Animus Archetype Maneuver Progression difference however.

[Thealtruistorc]

My guess would be because it is erroneously based off of the old Pathwalker/War Soul maneuver progression that was errata'd to follow the progression outlined in PoW:E. No idea about the Animus Archetype Maneuver Progression difference however.

This is correct. As for the Warpath Follower, I didn't know that table even existed.

Errata will likely be released soon.

[Kris Moonhand]

Q181: Can you shape veils that go into esoteric slots without a specific ability allowing it? For instance, the Lesser Shape Veil customization for Aegis lets them choose from the Daevic list, which includes Blood veils, but doesn't have the wording that Daevic does which says they gain the Blood slot. I would assume no, but I'd like to be sure.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

A181: I asked this on the discord recently. Per the author you need at least one level in Vizier, Daevic, Stormbound, etc to access their unique slots at all

[Ssalarn]

Q181: Can you shape veils that go into esoteric slots without a specific ability allowing it? For instance, the Lesser Shape Veil customization for Aegis lets them choose from the Daevic list, which includes Blood veils, but doesn't have the wording that Daevic does which says they gain the Blood slot. I would assume no, but I'd like to be sure.

A181 I see this was already answered, but just to make it "official": if you don't have the class or an option that specifically gives you the unique slot, then you don't possess the slot at all and can't shape veils in it, with or without binds. Most people don't have ring or blood chakra slots at all; they're either developed through training (viziers) or evolved through an outside influence (daevic).

[kaiouchiha]

Q182 In Codex of Blood, the Parasite class gains the "Animus Well" Class Feature at level 16, yet this is never explained. Is this an oversight from the Playtest?

Q183 Also for the Parasite, the Siphon ability says: "As their opponents struggle, a parasite grows in power, harvesting energy from their weakness. When a parasite affects a creature with a strike, counter, or boost-affected attack, they gain 1 point of animus and the affected creature takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls for a number of rounds equal to the parasite’s initiation modifier (minimum 2). This ability can be used once per round at 1st level, and this penalty does not stack with itself.

At 8th level and every 8 levels thereafter, the penalty increases by 1."

Is this intentionally phrased the way, that it seems to be intended to get progressed past a once per round usage? If yes, how does it progress?

Thank you for your great work!

[Thealtruistorc]

Q182 In Codex of Blood, the Parasite class gains the "Animus Well" Class Feature at level 16, yet this is never explained. Is this an oversight from the Playtest?

Q183 Also for the Parasite, the Siphon ability says: "As their opponents struggle, a parasite grows in power, harvesting energy from their weakness. When a parasite affects a creature with a strike, counter, or boost-affected attack, they gain 1 point of animus and the affected creature takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls for a number of rounds equal to the parasite’s initiation modifier (minimum 2). This ability can be used once per round at 1st level, and this penalty does not stack with itself.

At 8th level and every 8 levels thereafter, the penalty increases by 1."

Is this intentionally phrased the way, that it seems to be intended to get progressed past a once per round usage? If yes, how does it progress?

Thank you for your great work!

Originally, the intent was that Siphon's triggers could progress past one animus per round at higher levels. This feature was later removed, as it boosted certain fighting styles far more than others.

The lack of text of Animus Well was my bad. It should be a copy of Font of Animus from the Mystic class.

[Kris Moonhand]

Q184: Can Sparking initiators take the Advanced Study feat?
Q185: Does Spark of Inspiration count as the Combat Stamina feat for prereqs?

[Ssalarn]

Q184: Can Sparking initiators take the Advanced Study feat?

A184 No. They have a suite of maneuvers and do not have the maneuevers readied class feature, which is a prerequisite for the feat.

Q185: Does Spark of Inspiration count as the Combat Stamina feat for prereqs?

A185 No, primarily because Combat Stamina offers a significant ability that Spark of Inspiration does not (though the stamina pools overlap and don't stack). It would be an entirely reasonable house rule to allow players to take feats that have Combat Stamina as a prereq as long as they have Spark of Inspiration (though I'd give them a heads up that anything that interacts with the circumstance bonus from Combat Stamina won't work with Spark of Inspiration).

[oyzar]

Q186: What is the effective spell level of pooling black for interacting with magical light effects? I'm specifically wondering how it interacts with normal vanican lightning. Normally the higher spell level one suppresses the lower one.

[Ramza00]

Q187: So I just learned of Codex of Blood: Parasites & Paragons, what are other Lost Spheres books that expand on Path of War from Dreamscarred Press?

[Ssalarn]

Q186: What is the effective spell level of pooling black for interacting with magical light effects? I'm specifically wondering how it interacts with normal vanican lightning. Normally the higher spell level one suppresses the lower one.

A186 The effective spell level of veil effects is equal to half your veilweaver level, rounded down.

Q187: So I just learned of Codex of Blood: Parasites & Paragons, what are other Lost Spheres books that expand on Path of War from Dreamscarred Press?

A187
City of 7 Seraphs is an enormous tome that has Path of War support.

Lost Paths: Voltaic features a new initiating class and an alternate initiation system.

[Zulwarn]

Q188: I saw mention of a Mythic Akashic earlier in this thread and I can understand with the Pandemic that it's probably been delayed, but are there any plans for Mythic Path of War as well; and if there's nothing currently planned do you think it might be something you'll do in the future?

[oyzar]

189 If you are multi-classing with initiator classes, can you use maneuvers you've learned with one class as prerequisites for maneuvers from another class?

[Kris Moonhand]

189 If you are multi-classing with initiator classes, can you use maneuvers you've learned with one class as prerequisites for maneuvers from another class?

That's probably more of a question that could be asked in the simple RAW thread than here, but the answer is yes. If you know a maneuver, it counts for prereqs. This is because you can only know a maneuver once, regardless of how many levels you take in different classes, unlike how you might know CLW once as a bard and again as a cleric.

[oyzar]

I'm not sure what RAW thread you're referring to? Which other thread is this publisher answering questions in? Anyway, I have another one I can't find an answer to.

Q190 If using battle dragon stance with two weapon fighting and secondary natural attacks, for example a bite, does the natural attacks benefit from the bonus to damage?

[Ssalarn]

I'm not sure what RAW thread you're referring to? Which other thread is this publisher answering questions in? Anyway, I have another one I can't find an answer to.

Q190 If using battle dragon stance with two weapon fighting and secondary natural attacks, for example a bite, does the natural attacks benefit from the bonus to damage?

A190That's actually a Dreamscarred Press maneuver reprinted in The Voltaic for reference, not one of ours, so this answer is more guidance than an official clarification.

If I were GMing a game where this question came up, my answer would be "Battle Dragon's Stance says it "[...] adds 1d6 + initiation modifier to melee damage while fighting with two weapons", so I'd only allow the bonus damage to apply to the TWF attacks, not the secondary natural attacks."

[Kris Moonhand]

Q191: The Daevic table lists "Passion" as something gained at 20th level, but as far as I can tell there are no 20th level abilities gained from your Passion. Is that just vestigial text from an earlier time or something?

[Ssalarn]

Q191: The Daevic table lists "Passion" as something gained at 20th level, but as far as I can tell there are no 20th level abilities gained from your Passion. Is that just vestigial text from an earlier time or something?

A191Yeah, once upon a time part of their capstone was loaded into the Passion, but when the playtest docs were finalized into the print book, the old table got dragged over instead of the new one.

[AlienFromBeyond]

Q192: If a Braggart is targeting something other than AC (such as touch AC or CMD), can they still qualify for a flair if they exceed the target by 5 or more? As it's written it always checks against AC which I doubt is the intent in this scenario, and I've already had people argue with me that that's how it should work (though guns become extremely easy to flair with otherwise).


Not really a question, but a few concerns about the Braggart release that make me extremely wary of purchasing the product (I've only looked at the 4 page preview on DTRPG). The ToC has an Appendix Information section with a bunch of reprinted SoM talents so the class works without needing a separate book. No issues there that makes sense and is what the OGL is around for, but the list of talents is also clearly ripped from the Spheres of Power Wikidot, as many of the talents have the wiki-only square bracket tags such as [Apoc], [Youxia HB], or [3PP], with that last one feeling especially weird since the entire book itself could be considered that. I'm not sure about the legality of taking stuff from a public wiki and putting them in a for profit product, but even if it's okay such blatant copying feels very not good. On top of that, the Succeed with Flair class feature mentions making "an attack action or special attack action and beats an enemy's AC by 5 or more" which I finding worrying because a special attack action by definition is an attack action, and so it makes me wonder how familiar the author really is with the Spheres of Might system they are using. I am intrigued by the class but right now I just don't feel comfortable paying money for this.

EDIT: Friend let me look at his copy, and the SoP wikidot square bracket tags are even printed in the actual talent names, while never being explained in the book what they mean. On top of that, a quick search for "wiki" shows that the SoP wikidot isn't even in the OGL (though some other one is so it can certainly be done), which I believe could land you in some trouble. Pretty disappointed in LSP about this release as a result.

[crystal_entity]

A City of 7 Seraphs query from me. p24 says that the only safe entry to Hyraeatan is by the Lattice, as plane-shifting magic considers Occlusion part of the city. I assume that this is because the arrival point for Plane Shift has a large radius of error on the target plane. That makes me think of two questions:

Q193 - Can travellers using the Gate spell or a highly augmented Planar Travel power (that can precisely target a location) enter the city safely?
Q194 - Can Plane Shift be used to leave the city safely if you're not fussy about precisely where on the destination plane you go?

Or does Occlusion interfere with these travel methods too?

This setting is amazing, I'd love to see more!

[Lost_Spheres]

Q192: If a Braggart is targeting something other than AC (such as touch AC or CMD), can they still qualify for a flair if they exceed the target by 5 or more? As it's written it always checks against AC which I doubt is the intent in this scenario, and I've already had people argue with me that that's how it should work (though guns become extremely easy to flair with otherwise).

Not really a question, but a few concerns about the Braggart release that make me extremely wary of purchasing the product (I've only looked at the 4 page preview on DTRPG). The ToC has an Appendix Information section with a bunch of reprinted SoM talents so the class works without needing a separate book. No issues there that makes sense and is what the OGL is around for, but the list of talents is also clearly ripped from the Spheres of Power Wikidot, as many of the talents have the wiki-only square bracket tags such as [Apoc], [Youxia HB], or [3PP], with that last one feeling especially weird since the entire book itself could be considered that. I'm not sure about the legality of taking stuff from a public wiki and putting them in a for profit product, but even if it's okay such blatant copying feels very not good. On top of that, the Succeed with Flair class feature mentions making "an attack action or special attack action and beats an enemy's AC by 5 or more" which I finding worrying because a special attack action by definition is an attack action, and so it makes me wonder how familiar the author really is with the Spheres of Might system they are using. I am intrigued by the class but right now I just don't feel comfortable paying money for this.

EDIT: Friend let me look at his copy, and the SoP wikidot square bracket tags are even printed in the actual talent names, while never being explained in the book what they mean. On top of that, a quick search for "wiki" shows that the SoP wikidot isn't even in the OGL (though some other one is so it can certainly be done), which I believe could land you in some trouble. Pretty disappointed in LSP about this release as a result.

Alien,

Sorry for the delay replying, but we were busy acting on the error you pointed out. We have communicated our apologies to Rednal. He and the wikicommunity are an invaluable asset to keeping this Spheres and Pathfinder RPG community vital. We added attribution, more links to the Wiki, and a message thanking them for their work. A miscommunication internally cause this release to roll out without proper OGL edits. Still it shouldn't have worked that way and we will do better. We always want releases to be usable while still encouraging them to visit the Wiki or ultimately, buy the book from DDS to keep them supported and generating more content. Thanks for the call out and the chance to keep growing.

As for the rules content...

A192(a)Flairs check against AC regardless of required hit mechanics. This is purely a balance consideration because of Touch AC and possible 3pp system mixes (Path of War, etc) and the original mechanic being a variant of older "Called Shot" mechanics. Touch AC is often omitted from rulesets like this and we felt the class was powerful enough on it's own and was intended to reward BAB investment as most Spheres of Might systems do.

A192(b)The choice of language referencing "an attack action or special attack action and beats an enemy's AC by 5 or more" was due to confusion from the use of "an attack action" in end users of the Lost Champions classes. It was done in editorial and wasn't exclusively the choice of the designer. It may be redundant but even our internal playtest team felt it was a good change to call out that it worked with both. We are sorry that that choice has undermined your faith in us.

Thank you for your valuable insight. We will keep learning.