Mana's all in the Mind (Advanced Talents in Review)

[SangoProduction]

Preamble: Hey, it's been a while. I've had a bit of a medical catastrophe. After which, I am feeling pretty great, with quite literally everything going right for me. I'm even getting to work on the video game that I just... stopped working on. Of course I'm not done with the advanced talents yet, but I'll get there. And hopefully they keep releasing new books.
Still haven't fully decided if I'll redo the reviews after a while, in light of the several talents released since the review hit (and new experiences), or simply update them. I mean, Telekinesis certainly didn't change much in the years since I reviewed it. It's still garbage.

Post Review Analysis: Honestly, I expected *a lot* more Mind sphere advanced talents to be in the Warning or at least Questionable category. But no. Almost nothing is particularly notable, above and beyond their base versions. Except Deadly Vision, which is a (single target) save or die. But there are also more than a few [mass]-able save or absolutely bloody lose, if-not-die, base talents in Mind sphere.
Mana was a bit more predictably tame. Even assuming that you regularly throw mages at them so they can feel useful.

Spoiler: Ratings

Show

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.

Mind

Spoiler: Warning

Show

Mind Control (lvl 10): Well. OK then. First talent to actually substantially increase the power of the sphere in question. This is basically an indefinite number of NPC minions. 3 spell points per cast...for (caster level) days. This is a straight up ban in my book.

Zeitgeist (lvl 10): Legitimately game breaking. But perhaps in a fun way. Depends on the player, honestly.

Psychic Backlash (lvl 1): Does next to nothing. Requires you to actively target the bloody mage with mind magic.... which is mind magic's worst target. Unless you're attempting to inflict confusion, in which case it's worth the low chance. But feels like **** to be the actual player in that case. I would honestly ban this, because it will be impossible not to metagame this, and is going to feel really awkward when you want to let their nonsense function...and they roll a 1. Same goes with the non-advanced version. But that's my game. If you do typically use mind magic and your NPCs don't take into account who is most likely to resist, then maybe the player could find some use in it. Or maybe its an underdark campaign. A lot of things like to use blanket mind magic. Especially things with tentacles.

Spoiler: Questionable

Show

These two are here specifically to single them out. (Also because nothing else fit in this category.) If you want mind magic to have explicitly immune enemies, and so they can't *only* use one type of magic, then ban these. Else, they are fine.

Recondite Stimuli (lvl 1): Lets the mind mage use the mind magic against (plants and oozes) or one of the other normally immune types.

Discern Alien Cognition (lvl 1): Spell point to ignore immunities to mind-affecting effects, unless it comes from the creature type itself. That's cool. Lets a dedicated mind caster keep doing their thing even against some normally immune creatures.

Spoiler: Acceptable

Show

Catatonia (lvl 10): Permanent duration. But let's be honest. It's sleep. One coup de grace from a martial character, and they were dead anyway. Especially with an actual 4x crit weapon. So this is actually largely fluff. Now... the disadvantage on saves to wake up might make this sleep tactic more problematic than it normally is.

Insanity (lvl 10): Same deal as Catatonia: If you allowed the base Confusion, then having the effect be Instantaneous (but still curable by an advanced talent), isn't a particularly egregious increase in power, as it already lasted well past an entire combat by level 10. So it will, at best, be used in out of combat situations. But that is notable.

Deadly Vision (lvl 10): Phantasmal Killer (literal save or die), but gained 2 levels after it's available to vancians, and offers no compensation damage on a successful save... but expends mana points rather than spell slots, letting it be cast more often at maximum power, and automatically scales its DC. But those are inherent benefits to all talents.

Epiphany (lvl 5): I legitimately do not understand what exactly is the point of this. For a spell point, when gathering information, you gain +1/5 CL additional information. If you would have succeeded. Or you explicitly get misinformation if you failed.

Flawless Precision (lvl 10): Pure fluff...except the final 2 sentences, which state that you get a few rerolls, for almost any d20 roll. Probably 5-8 rerolls. But that only lasts for 1 minute per CL. Still... pretty good.

Spoiler: Fluffy

Show

Greater Communication (lvl 10): Cross planar communication... for those you are personally familiar with. So you can phone back to gramma while battling ifritti on the plane of fire.

Memetic Link (lvl 10): Basically a meme. But it's neat to let your friend also read peoples' minds. Functionally, this is equally as well done through Greater Communication... But I mean, this has the fluff of much more directly providing the information.

Mana

Spoiler: Warning

Show

Knowledge Drain (lvl 1): We are assuming that the mana sphere is at all useful, meaning that you are at least occasionally throwing mages at them. Which means that they can get an indefinite number of extra talents, at the cost of 1 spell point per talent. Even from allies. Now, if they get greedy with their talent collection, that is a meaningful cost... but per spell point, that's an insane deal of value, for an indefinite amount of time. And by prerequisite, they can explicitly steal real spell points. Granted, as mentioned, Manathief is one of the least useful uses of their action, but still.

If you let them have this, then it's best to tap them on the shoulder and say "At any time, I may want to deny access, or prevent the re-gaining of some talents," before giving the go-ahead.

Spoiler: Questionable

Show

Cruel King (lvl 15): By level 15, it's not nearly as broken as it seems... directly. Still turns out to be busted. So long as the target has at least one mental ability that's one point higher than the spell's cost, the player may, without cost to themselves, cast any of their spells, with whatever metamagic they please. And anyone who knows about metamagic knows the costs can get absolutely insane. And so can the effects. This might even include a Quickened stat killer spell... Granted, by level 15, there are plenty of save or dies flying around and if the player guesses wrong about the remaining mental points, they waste the cast entirely.

Manathief (lvl 1): There's probably some infinite mana cycle that can happen if the mana transferred through the Flow talent is a real spell point. But otherwise, not too spectacular. Definitely need to be able to directly steal mana from a caster. But that's rarely as useful as... literally anything else you can do, unless you're level 1.

Spoiler: Acceptable

Show

Vassalize (lvl 7): Allows you to forcefully drain enemy spell points... so long as they can have spell points (aka, you can't just link it to a squirrel and kill them through ability damage). So it's just harder anti-mage stuff. Neat. Has synergy with metamagic.

Curse Of Mana (lvl 10): Permanent Marks. Which is neat, but not particularly game changing. Can even be used to attempt to "tie up" enemy mages.

Eternal Shackles (lvl 15): Infinite range mana bonds with unwilling targets. I literally have no idea what it means by attempting a magic skill check to end the manabond. I've never seen that rule outside of this talent. But it's here, assuming that that's a meaningful counter to the counter to manabonds.

Harness Ambient Knowledge (lvl 15): Randomly flex a talent from an effect that you counterspell.... for 1 round. 1 round. Bump it up to 1 minute / 1 cast. Come on.

Unbind Spell (lvl 10): Immediate action counterspell for 2 spell points, but potentially recouping some of the spell points the enemy spent.

What’s Yours Is Ours (lvl 1): Have to admit, I love the flavor of sharing consumable items and magical healing and food with your Soulmate. It does have a notable benefit... if you use consumable items, since you both get a copy of the effect.

Spoiler: Fluffy

Show

Infinite Bond (lvl 10): Infinite range mana bonds with willing targets only. Means next to nothing, in 99% of cases. Especially after the prerequisite Ranged Mana x2.

Ties That Bind (lvl 10): Both permanent and infinite range, and can't be dispelled. But it requires an Oath of Loyalty, which might be trying to use the actual oath system, which... let's be honest, I've had only 1 game where that was allowed. But if just taken as a mundane "I swear to be loyal to my friend," then it's perfectly fine.