"There's a Sphere for that."

[SangoProduction]

Kamehameha

Basically, a blast with a charge time, where the longer it's charged, the more effective/big/damaging/longerlasting it is. How long it can be charged depends on the character's personal capabilities in some respect. Ideally, the longer the blast is charged, the longer it can be maintained - not just an instantaneous blast, but something continuing over an area for as long as you can maintain the power built up to perform the blast in the first place.

That's... actually pretty difficult. The closest I could come up with would be from the Life sphere actually.
Affliction lets you invert your positive energy to negative energy. But you've got to ignore the line that specifically says it can't be combined with Fount of Life. So not *actually* usable.
But with Fount of Life, you can charge up your pool of life energy, and then blast it out all at once, with Mass Healing to get that "Area" deal.

But even that is instantaneous, and does not require concentration.

If we ignore that charging aspect (at least the indefinite charging, because Gather Energy is a thing), we can go back to the Destruction sphere.
Explosive Orb and Guided Strike get the typical shapes that the energy blasts seem to come in. Sculpt Blast grants a cone or line, which I do... somewhat remember as being the shape of the Kamehameha.
They are all technically instantaneous. But the difference between a sustained series of "instantaneous" bursts of a laser and a continuous stream is typically an "academic" differentiation when you are on the receiving end. And is also subject to refluff. It does require continuous inflow of spell points in order to sustain it... although the action, again, is technically just to "cast it again" rather than "sustain it."

Energy Wall gets us a line which can be sustained by concentration, but doesn't require additional spell points to power the sustained duration. So this would not be my go-to for representing it.

Those are the best options I could think of. There are other sphere effects which deal (much) lower damage per round, but do it over more rounds. But they tend to suffer from similar problems for this: They tend to be Set and Forget (so no additional effort after casting), have a shape that doesn't match a hamekameha, no charging to speak of (save for illusion sphere), and their damage output is relatively low, which isn't wanted from an ultimate move.

Strangely enough, I think the Stand is more possible, because it has different parts that can be worked on separately, while this move has quite a few requirements for just one move.
I was really expecting this to be a "He is blast shape. Here is custom blast type. Thanks."

[icefractal]

It doesn't do the "continual beam" thing, but as for long charging times I think we can do that with metamagic. Every metamagic feat, plus Admixture, Gather Energy and Cooperative Destruction, adds a step to the casting time, which goes:

Standard -> Full-Round -> 1 Round -> 1 Minute -> 10 Minutes -> 1 Hour
Unfortunately pretty granular - even as long as it took in DBZ, I don't think anything past a minute makes sense, and honestly the "1 minute" time is only realistically an option when launching a surprise attack (or if you have a way to store it for later). If there were 2-round / 3-round times those would be ideal.

But for reaching the 1-round casting time, still notably slow-feeling, it just takes two increases, which could even be worth it to use in combat.


Edit:
An alternate method, which does let you do an (effectively) 2-4 round casting time, is to use Spell Capacitor in combat. It's a decently powerful payoff too, as you're releasing three full-strength blasts at once. Although still not usually good tactics in a non-ambush situation.

[noob]

It doesn't do the "continual beam" thing, but as for long charging times I think we can do that with metamagic. Every metamagic feat, plus Admixture, Gather Energy and Cooperative Destruction, adds a step to the casting time, which goes:

Standard -> Full-Round -> 1 Round -> 1 Minute -> 10 Minutes -> 1 Hour
Unfortunately pretty granular - even as long as it took in DBZ, I don't think anything past a minute makes sense, and honestly the "1 minute" time is only realistically an option when launching a surprise attack (or if you have a way to store it for later). If there were 2-round / 3-round times those would be ideal.

But for reaching the 1-round casting time, still notably slow-feeling, it just takes two increases, which could even be worth it to use in combat.


Edit:
An alternate method, which does let you do an (effectively) 2-4 round casting time, is to use Spell Capacitor in combat. It's a decently powerful payoff too, as you're releasing three full-strength blasts at once. Although still not usually good tactics in a non-ambush situation.

In dragonball the opponent sits and waits in front of you charging their own energy while you are charging.
In dnd the opponent tries to kill you or prevent you from acting in one turn at the first turn of the fight and if they fail it is your turn to do that or contingent spell shenanigans happens or celerity shenanigans.

[SangoProduction]

It doesn't do the "continual beam" thing, but as for long charging times I think we can do that with metamagic. Every metamagic feat, plus Admixture, Gather Energy and Cooperative Destruction, adds a step to the casting time, which goes:

Standard -> Full-Round -> 1 Round -> 1 Minute -> 10 Minutes -> 1 Hour
Unfortunately pretty granular - even as long as it took in DBZ, I don't think anything past a minute makes sense, and honestly the "1 minute" time is only realistically an option when launching a surprise attack (or if you have a way to store it for later). If there were 2-round / 3-round times those would be ideal.

But for reaching the 1-round casting time, still notably slow-feeling, it just takes two increases, which could even be worth it to use in combat.


Edit:
An alternate method, which does let you do an (effectively) 2-4 round casting time, is to use Spell Capacitor in combat. It's a decently powerful payoff too, as you're releasing three full-strength blasts at once. Although still not usually good tactics in a non-ambush situation.

Good catch.

[Jack_Simth]

Oh... hmm. OK, how do I gaslight this so that it seems as though I already knew that... hmm.... hm...

Ah! I got it! You would need DM fiat to make it visible to [all plot-relevant characters], and not just those you want it to be visible to. And even then, you would need to use spellcrafting in order to make it an inherent part of the stand. Therefore it doesn't work! Check and mate!
Wait. I think I said the quiet part out loud.

Oh, that just means that the non-selected plot-relevant folks need to have some way to see invisible things. And, well, something specific to the viewer is generally how that's handled anyway, no?

[Kitsuneymg]

Why not make use of the charge spells drawback? It’s worth two, and you can grab a boon with it. Takes 10 rounds to charge and cast a spell. Lol

[SangoProduction]

Why not make use of the charge spells drawback? It’s worth two, and you can grab a boon with it. Takes 10 rounds to charge and cast a spell. Lol

You know? Fair enough. Although that would apply to every single spell the character has, and doesn't make a charge-on-the-spot blast any more powerful, despite....
Unless you only prepare the half-blasts. And then prepare-on-the-spot your full power blast. That could definitely work. Definitely a self-nerf, but.... eh.

And from there the rest of the post does kind of work.

[unseenmage]

Shapesand. More precisely an something that is a new object whenever you need.

On my list of silly things I enjoy playing with its about at the top.

[SangoProduction]

Shapesand. More precisely an something that is a new object whenever you need.

On my list of silly things I enjoy playing with its about at the top.

Sounds like refluffed Creation sphere. Maybe with a custom drawback of needing to carry around a gourd of sand, and if it breaks/is destroyed, it's harder to cast Creation effects.

[Eldan]

Let's just dig up some powers I've recently seen in games I've been a part of! (Mostly Fate games or custom magic schools in Unknown Armies, so a lot of creation freedom.)

A character with a magical sketchbook who can draw pictures of past events by standing in a place and specifying a time they are going to draw.

A character who can create rumours about someone: if they fail a saving throw equivalent, everyone who knows the target, anywhere in the world, will retroactively have heard this rumour about them and think of it if they see the target.

A character with the power to always find transportation, no matter where they are. Quite broad. Most often, an unoccopied taxi just always comes around the corner if they need to get somewhere fast. In a fantasy setting, probably a horse cart or similar.

A judge's sword that only cuts specific people, like only those who have committed a certain crime.

The "Who's your Daddy" spell from a certain webcomic we can't link here. You travel back in time and seduce the target's mother, so that you are secretly their father. Upon casting the spell, the target finds out and is stunned by the revelation.

Oh, and can Spheres do powers with drawbacks or weaknesses? For example, fey characters in Dresden Files lose their powers if they are pierced by iron or I currently have an air mage character who can not use his powers if in contact with soil or stone.

[Xei_Win_Toh]

A judge's sword that only cuts specific people, like only those who have committed a certain crime.

Not Spheres, but the Inheritor's Crusader prestige class' level 3 ability is almost exactly that.

[Prime32]

Punching people so hard that their soul flies backwards while their body stays in the same place.

Cursing your opponent to take the same damage you take, or creating evil duplicates of your opponent which have this property.

Two creatures that can't die unless both are killed at the same time.

Connecting your mind to another person, and creating a mental realm in which you spend years of subjective time together while only moments pass outside. You can use this time to train the subject, permanently increasing their skills or fighting ability.

Auto-reflecting any moving attack back at the attacker, striking with the same force as the original. Must function 24/7, even when you don't know you're being attacked, and can't have any limit on the number of attacks it can reflect.

Serving food to an enemy general that's so delicious that it convinces them to surrender. The general won't eat anything that detects as poison or magic.

The ability to trap your opponent's soul, but only after defeating them in a children's card game.

The ability to summon minions that explode if they touch each other, and cannot turn this function off.

[Kitsuneymg]

Sounds like refluffed Creation sphere. Maybe with a custom drawback of needing to carry around a gourd of sand, and if it breaks/is destroyed, it's harder to cast Creation effects.

Flowstone exists. It’s telekinesis instead of creation. Unstable Shadowstuff may work too.

[Lord Raziere]

That's... actually pretty difficult. The closest I could come up with would be from the Life sphere actually.

This is because, for some reason, the way they made it so you can do a kamehameha in the Spheres system is to take the Sage class, then take the Piercing Beam ki blaster esotery. I guess they want the ki stuff to all be one class and Sphere magic to not be ki? I don't know why. but Sage is technically a Sphere-using CLASS even if its not using the Spheres itself. but then again, the Sage uses the martial spheres so....I guess its class features are to provide the magical hybrid part of that particular class and customizable part is the fighting style.

[SangoProduction]

Oh boy. Got a lot of them today.

Let's just dig up some powers I've recently seen in games I've been a part of! (Mostly Fate games or custom magic schools in Unknown Armies, so a lot of creation freedom.)

A character with a magical sketchbook who can draw pictures of past events by standing in a place and specifying a time they are going to draw.

A character who can create rumours about someone: if they fail a saving throw equivalent, everyone who knows the target, anywhere in the world, will retroactively have heard this rumour about them and think of it if they see the target.

A character with the power to always find transportation, no matter where they are. Quite broad. Most often, an unoccopied taxi just always comes around the corner if they need to get somewhere fast. In a fantasy setting, probably a horse cart or similar.

A judge's sword that only cuts specific people, like only those who have committed a certain crime.

The "Who's your Daddy" spell from a certain webcomic we can't link here. You travel back in time and seduce the target's mother, so that you are secretly their father. Upon casting the spell, the target finds out and is stunned by the revelation.

Oh, and can Spheres do powers with drawbacks or weaknesses? For example, fey characters in Dresden Files lose their powers if they are pierced by iron or I currently have an air mage character who can not use his powers if in contact with soil or stone.

Divination: (Divine Time)... although only extends up to 1 hour per caster level in the past. But assuming it's within that time frame, it works. Drawing pictures based on what you see can either be part of your Somatic Components, or a Craft / Performance check.

You had me in the first half, with me going for Mind: Inception to create rumors as a cantrip in the target's minds... But everyone who knows the target? That's entirely different. An incomprehensibly very high level Mass Charm might suffice, but they must all be within range.
HOWEVER. With the Advanced talent Zeitgeist, you may spend 3 spell points and 10 minutes to affect a community as large as 5000 people. With a generous ruling the "people who know this person" could count as that community. And unless you're targeting a super star (especially for pseudo-medieval times), that should nab everyone.

Transport - Creation sphere. Also tech sphere. Refluffed to be calling the transportation from off screen rather than conjuring it from thin air.
For the judge, there's... somewhat close Destruction sphere drawback called Aligned Combatant, which deals no damage to those who possess the given alignment. Given flexible ruling, a custom drawback can be made that is more exacting. Then just use the blasts as melee touch to simulate a magical sword of justice.

"Real" time travel's rough. At least backwards time travel. But you can certainly make the target believe that you're the father with a spell crafted Mind sphere: Inception and Paralyze.

Yes, although they are called Casting Traditions. Fey-Infused Magic makes it substantially harder to cast while wearing, or targeting, iron. And if hit by iron/steel weaponry, it triggers a "counterspell" on your magical effects. Considering how common such weapons are, and how it's only worth one drawback... I've never seen this taken.

Punching people so hard that their soul flies backwards while their body stays in the same place.

Cursing your opponent to take the same damage you take, or creating evil duplicates of your opponent which have this property.

Two creatures that can't die unless both are killed at the same time.

Connecting your mind to another person, and creating a mental realm in which you spend years of subjective time together while only moments pass outside. You can use this time to train the subject, permanently increasing their skills or fighting ability.

Auto-reflecting any moving attack back at the attacker, striking with the same force as the original. Must function 24/7, even when you don't know you're being attacked, and can't have any limit on the number of attacks it can reflect.

Serving food to an enemy general that's so delicious that it convinces them to surrender. The general won't eat anything that detects as poison or magic.

The ability to trap your opponent's soul, but only after defeating them in a children's card game.

The ability to summon minions that explode if they touch each other, and cannot turn this function off.

Death sphere: Hollow Body leaves the body completely intact but empty of a soul, if you kill them with a Death sphere effect. It remains "alive" in a catatonic state. Plop your death sphere effects with a [Strike] talent, and Killing Curse... well, you get to punch them a couple times and then their soul leaves their body.
For a less permanent solution, any Stunning Fist can easily be fluffed as a spiritual attack, and them coming back to their senses is their soul trying to reenter the body.

Blood sphere for the Bloodbind talent. Entwine health with your opponent, to have them take the same damage you took... once per round...up to CL damage. But that's in addition to Entangle. Plus it's blood sphere, give it a break. Dark sphere has Shadow Lurk, which stuns the target when destroyed. Not quite the same.

Dreamspace feat allows for sort of what you're asking. Hedgewith can select Dreamwalker to merge with others, allowing for cooperative dreaming, and as a Grand Secret, an have her dreamspace have Subjective Time, up to twice as fast as the real world. Considering you get to do your sleeping while doing this, it's really as though getting a full extra day of productive training / crafting each night. Two full work days each day.
Similarly, Create Demiplane from Warp sphere can create increased speed planes. But also only to 2x speed. And you have to actually speed your waking time in it. Clearly inferior. But could be hypothetically combined, with the justification that you're dreaming twice as fast, which doesn't matter care that you're also on a faster plane. Letting you get the full 8 hours of sleep (which is worth 16 hours of dreaming) in 4 hours of out-of-demiplane time. Given a very favorable ruling by the DM.
Of course, actually permanently increasing skills or fighting ability is generally not possible without level up. Even if a peasant did 100 pushups every day, they'd never gain any Strength of Con unless they went out and cut some fools. (Or completed xp-granting...anyway, game rules. Shh.) But you can craft in dreamscape and bring it out.

Auto-reflecting as a truly passive, thing? Best I could come up with was reactive damage, or AoO on getting attacked. But they did not have the same force as the original, and weren't constant. AoOs required knowledge as well. So nothing I found fits your requirements.

Serving delicious food is somewhat trivial. You can get multiple times the Performance (Chef) check to attract the attention of extra-dimensional beings, if you really tried. And especially if you're allowed to have a bunch of assistant chefs granting Aid Other.

Death sphere. Create Soul Gem lets you transform the "life force of a dying creature or one that has died in the past round" into a soul gem. Just have the children's card game apply the status of "dying" to the loser.

If they... simply touch each other? Well. That can be done with Corpse Explosion feat (Or simply Corpse Bomb if you don't care about damage.) When combined with Contingency, you can make them explode on touching one another. Not my way of using Contingency. I would prefer exploding on touching an enemy instead, but you do you.

[Kitsuneymg]

Save point shenanigans

Get a magical conjuration companion. Imbue it with either a way to teleport to you, or telepathically talk to you. It also needs retry.

Sphere craft eject and an hour/level duration spell. Ready that spell to cast with a trigger condition of “companion moves.”

Your companion moves, you eject it. In an hour/level it comes back. It’s standard action is to contact or otherwise ascertain your condition. If you are dead or otherwise indicator, the companion then casts retry. Returning to the start of its last round. Then it does not move, wasting your readied action, indicating something went wrong, and incidentally resetting you and the party to the condition your were in hour/level ago. While it’s down the retry spell points, since none of the other actions have occurred, you should be able to make new choices for the adventure.

So now you have a save point. Tada.

[unseenmage]

I've been playing an awful lot of Rimworld lately so how about a character who can harvest limbs and organs and sell them for profit? (That game is called a war crime simulator for good reason. You don't HAVE to play evilly but it sure makes things easier.)

Reattaching the limbs and organs is possible too.
With mods you can harvest limbs from corpses.
Mods would also let a Rimworld surgeon operate on animals and beasts.

Limb removal solves a surprising number of problems actually...

[Asmotherion]

To be frank, it's kinda like saying "there's an other RPG that does this better". Ok, good to know, but most cases it's irrelevant to the question, as spheres are mostly a different system, and need DM permission to be implemented in a game. And not only that, but everyone at the table needs to be on board. Something rare, as most groups I know tend to cling to a system and rarelly if ever try out something new.

That said, I'd like to see how to implement a more versalite character. For example, an almighty being like Ainz (Overlord), who has a lot of different abilities.

[Prime32]

That said, I'd like to see how to implement a more versalite character. For example, an almighty being like Ainz (Overlord), who has a lot of different abilities.

That's kind of cheating. Ainz is already a barely-disguised D&D 3.5 character (in the novels he even says things like "Why did they nerf the negative touch my class gets at lv1? Undead using it for infinite self-healing isn't broken because it's too slow to use in combat") so any SoP attempt is going to be less accurate by default.

[SangoProduction]

To be frank, it's kinda like saying "there's an other RPG that does this better". Ok, good to know, but most cases it's irrelevant to the question, as spheres are mostly a different system, and need DM permission to be implemented in a game. And not only that, but everyone at the table needs to be on board. Something rare, as most groups I know tend to cling to a system and rarelly if ever try out something new.

That said, I'd like to see how to implement a more versalite character. For example, an almighty being like Ainz (Overlord), who has a lot of different abilities.

About Ainz: As was already mentioned, He's basically a character with (homebrewed) D&D levels, complete with Vancian spell levels. So it's going to be most accurate using homebrewed base system. Then give him epic levels, and place in a world where being level 4 or 5 is a momentous achievement.

And, although it does require DM permission... just like every character you bring in, just some permissions are implicitly given by saying "This is a Pathfinder game"...and then they can ban and allow any set of rules or classes they feel like. Including after you get into game with an Ubercharger, which wasn't explicitly banned.
Oops. Getting off track. Although it does require DM Permission, it's not as though you can't play with Vancians and mundane martials. In fact, that's the party make up in the majority of the games I've played with spheres.... actually I can't think of a game where I played spheres and there wasn't a non-spheres user.

I've been playing an awful lot of Rimworld lately so how about a character who can harvest limbs and organs and sell them for profit? (That game is called a war crime simulator for good reason. You don't HAVE to play evilly but it sure makes things easier.)

Reattaching the limbs and organs is possible too.
With mods you can harvest limbs from corpses.
Mods would also let a Rimworld surgeon operate on animals and beasts.

Limb removal solves a surprising number of problems actually...

Heal checks, mostly. But if you want to do it in combat, the Wrestling sphere lets you rip off legs and arms (and probably other limbs, given GM adjudication) with Limb Ripper. Probably not going to be in the most sellable state.
If you want to reattach (to dead bodies) then you can use the Death sphere's Corpse Manipulation. Also Fleshcraft from Creation sphere. Get permanent creation, and you have an infinitely renewable source of hearts that you can place in your minions before ripping them out.

[Serafina]

As for how to implement versatile characters with lots of different abilities (power level is of course a matter of level, as always):
The Armiger class with the Antiquarian archetype can flexibly switch between different casting spheres (and martial spheres) both during the day, and between days. You can be a summoner and weather controller one day, and a healer and diviner the next (or whatever tickles your fancy).

It's usually at 3/4ths caster progression, but if you go for sufficient optimisation that can be solved if you want to go for that (though a lot of spheres are just fine with 3/4ths caster level, and you do get a lot of talents).

[icefractal]

Also Arcanist (with Quick Study), which can only flex magic talents but can do so as many times a day as you want, and is a full caster.

The most flexible thing is Complete Temporal Reversion, which is simple to get but requires CL 15th. It can change everything, even your class levels. It is fairly energy-expensive (10 SP), but if you're doing this for an evil overlord, then take the Manathief or Vassalize talent and siphon SP from your minions (or prisoners). You can even take Cruel King to suck a bit more power from your non-casting minions/prisoners.

[dragonsamurai77]

FF-style Dark Knight: A heavy armored swordsman who can sacrifice HP to unleash powerful dark-elemental (or neutral) waves of energy.

[stack]

FF-style Dark Knight: A heavy armored swordsman who can sacrifice HP to unleash powerful dark-elemental (or neutral) waves of energy.

Any gish build (prodigy, hedgewitch, etc.) that goes for heavy armor and Destruction with a negative blast type, take the casting drawback that deals damage to you.

[Kitsuneymg]

Any gish build (prodigy, hedgewitch, etc.) that goes for heavy armor and Destruction with a negative blast type, take the casting drawback that deals damage to you.

Soulfire could help too. Granted, only really useful after you’ve expended regular SP.

[SangoProduction]

FF-style Dark Knight: A heavy armored swordsman who can sacrifice HP to unleash powerful dark-elemental (or neutral) waves of energy.

"Wait, Batman did what?"
"Oh.... OK, now that makes sense."

[inuyasha]

Here, I've got two that I often have trouble statting up in RPGs:

1. Miroku from Inuyasha
2. Pride, the homunculus, from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

If you're up to it, I've actually statted up Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist as well, but I'm curious to see how you'd stat him up too. I tinker with Spheres a lot in my spare time but I think you've got a better grasp of the system.

[unseenmage]

Inspector Gadget.

Having the ability to do so much, a seeming curse of obliviousness, and the luck to somehow always still succeed.

GO GO GADGET [insert sphere power name here]!

[Eldan]

Ooh, for something super overpowered, how about Lucius the Eternal from Warhammer 40k.

Anything that kills Lucius becomes Lucius. As in, whoever kills him mutates into a copy of him and then his soul takes over.

[SangoProduction]

Here, I've got two that I often have trouble statting up in RPGs:

1. Miroku from Inuyasha
2. Pride, the homunculus, from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

If you're up to it, I've actually statted up Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist as well, but I'm curious to see how you'd stat him up too. I tinker with Spheres a lot in my spare time but I think you've got a better grasp of the system.

1. Wind Tunnel? Destruction sphere: Sculpt Blast (Cone shape), Admixture (mixes 2 blast types into one), Air Blast (Bull Rush with pull rather than push) and Disintegate (Untyped lethal damage, and remove it from play on destruction).
Otherwise, I think he's just a Fighter with some ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy.

2. I have to admit, Pride was the single least memorable character from FMAB for me. As in I didn't even know he was a character. But based on the the wiki....
Human with fairly heavy investment in the Conjuration sphere and Young template.
Mind sphere: Command, with limitation on targets being those with an exposed soul seal nonsense.
Everything else is relatively minor. Maybe some Divination / Dark sphere stuff.

Inspector Gadget.
Having the ability to do so much, a seeming curse of obliviousness, and the luck to somehow always still succeed.
GO GO GADGET [insert sphere power name here]!

Alteration sphere has you for most of the powers. Minimize Sense Motive and Perception. Gets a DM that just exasperatedly places the plot right in front of your character.

Ooh, for something super overpowered, how about Lucius the Eternal from Warhammer 40k.

Anything that kills Lucius becomes Lucius. As in, whoever kills him mutates into a copy of him and then his soul takes over.

Death sphere: Possession as a Contingent spell could somewhat work. Although it's time limited, and gives the victim's body, rather than transforming it.
But that's fine if you also combine it with a Permanent Transformation from Alteration sphere. Although the physical stats don't change much.
And you'll also want to give the Contingent spell a bunch of Ghost Strikes, and to have the Killing Curse talent (where 3 failed saving throws against a your Ghost Strikes kills them).

Oh, right. You can just take the Wraith class, rather than the Death sphere Possession. Have the Contingency trigger off of your host body dying, and then just move over to the newly killed and transformed host.
Take Lengthened Control Haunt so that it lasts an hour / level per spell point. But that's about the only Wraith-based ability presented, so probably the rest is some form of Fighter, based on what I know about WH40k. (And I will avoid talking about GW.) The Advanced Magic Training talent turns half your non-casting levels into half-casting levels, with no bonus spheres.
Have a very high caster level so that you can effectively not be resisted, and boom. You're done.