Lost Spheres Publishing FAQ

[Nyaa]

Q013
How does Aegis' Augment Suit interact with akashic customizations?

Q014
How does Expanded Veilweaving work when qualified via Shape Veil? For that matter, how does Shape Veil work when taken twice? Do I still have total veils shaped of 1 and have to choose which one to shape for the day, and Expanded Veilweaving aims to fix that and allow me to shape both veils?

Q015
Life Bond. Am I reading it correctly that with 1 point of essence invested, it heals the target for 6 hp while the user loses 1 hp? Was Con 17 considered to be a fair opportunity cost for it?

[SangoProduction]

Q 16: Was it intended for the Chronomancer's Enhanced Teleportation to also apply to Time sphere abilities that normally don't have a scaling duration, like Steal Time, which normally just Dazes for 1 round (and gives you another standard action to use).

I mean, this is basically the only case where I'd even consider taking a Symbiat, because in all other cases, other classes do their things better. But it does seem like a fairly potent scaling on a save-or-die for SoP. (Other time sphere talents do have better scaling save-or-not-contribute spells like the one which forces someone out of the timeline, but they also can't be attacked during that time.)

[singera]

Q17 is it possible to get some clarification on what the rhyzala favored class bonus for the necros class actually does, it is oddly written and my best guess is giving all your undead an extra free 5 foot step for every six levels of the necros

[AlienFromBeyond]

Q 16: Was it intended for the Chronomancer's Enhanced Teleportation to also apply to Time sphere abilities that normally don't have a scaling duration, like Steal Time, which normally just Dazes for 1 round (and gives you another standard action to use).

Wrong thread, you should be asking DDS not LSP, since it's their content.

[CactusAir]

Q013
Q014
How does Expanded Veilweaving work when qualified via Shape Veil? For that matter, how does Shape Veil work when taken twice? Do I still have total veils shaped of 1 and have to choose which one to shape for the day, and Expanded Veilweaving aims to fix that and allow me to shape both veils?

This is correct, AFAICT

In 3.5, most assumed that Shape Soulmeld gave you an extra Soulmeld you could have active along with any you already had, but Akasha uses different wording and thus operates as you outlined here.

[Ssalarn]

Q013
How does Aegis' Augment Suit interact with akashic customizations?

Could you be more specific about what you're asking here?

Q014
How does Expanded Veilweaving work when qualified via Shape Veil? For that matter, how does Shape Veil work when taken twice? Do I still have total veils shaped of 1 and have to choose which one to shape for the day, and Expanded Veilweaving aims to fix that and allow me to shape both veils?

A014 Assuming that you have no levels in a veilweaving class or archetype, Shape Veil gives you one veil known and one veil shaped. Each additional instance of Shape Veil increases your library of veils known but does not increase your total veils shaped. Expanded Veilweaving increases your total veils shaped, allowing you to have more veils shaped at once.

Q015
Life Bond. Am I reading it correctly that with 1 point of essence invested, it heals the target for 6 hp while the user loses 1 hp? Was Con 17 considered to be a fair opportunity cost for it?

A015 Correct, if you have 1 point of essence invested and spend a full-round action, you can take 1 point of damage to heal the target for 6 hit points. As this is a Dreamscarred Press feat requiring you to have 5 veilweaver levels, Con 17, the feat in question, and a full-round action to perform the healing, it's actually a bit heavier on prereqs than comparative DSP healing options, but appropriately so given its top-end potential.

[Ssalarn]

In 3.5, most assumed that Shape Soulmeld gave you an extra Soulmeld you could have active along with any you already had, but Akasha uses different wording and thus operates as you outlined here.

"Most" is a pretty broad claim lacking basis. Shape Soulmeld both referred the player to the general meldshaping rules which include the line "A meldshaper's level limits the number of veils he can have shaped at any given time" and the feat itself included the lines "You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack.[...]"

Shape Veil is essentially (heh) a clarified version of how Shape Soulmeld was always supposed to work (though with a few upgrades like giving you full veilweaver level instead of half), based on both general system analysis and conversations with individuals who worked on MoI.

[Nyaa]

Could you be more specific about what you're asking here?

Augment lasts for a few rounds. Shaping veils takes an hour. Do veils from augment come shaped and bound?
IIRC the answer regarding PoW was "RAW - you need to spend 10 minutes preparing maneuvers, making Augmenting into maneuvers pointless. Rule of cool - all the readied maneuver slots you get from Augment come filled with your choice of maneuvers you get from Augment".

[Mithril Leaf]

Q018
Should the Xodai's Hellcore Affinity ability also apply to any spell-like abilities or veils they acquire? If so, perhaps abilities would work better than spells or powers, as that includes most things that aren't items.

[Ssalarn]

Augment lasts for a few rounds. Shaping veils takes an hour. Do veils from augment come shaped and bound?
IIRC the answer regarding PoW was "RAW - you need to spend 10 minutes preparing maneuvers, making Augmenting into maneuvers pointless. Rule of cool - all the readied maneuver slots you get from Augment come filled with your choice of maneuvers you get from Augment".

A013 The veils gained through the various aegis augments are immediately shaped (and bound if applicable) when applying the augment that grants them.

[Nyaa]

Q019
Which veilweavers count as high casters for the purpose of Combat Training for Non-Spheres of Might Classes?

[stack]

Rajah is DSP, not Lost Spheres, and Ssalarn wasn't involved in writing it.

[AlienFromBeyond]

Q019
Which veilweavers count as high casters for the purpose of Combat Training for Non-Spheres of Might Classes?

Definitely the Vizier is the most full caster of akasha. They get 30 essence by level 30, and by far the most veils shaped as well as the ability to eventually bind every slot they have access to. The Radiant probably would be considered one as well.

[Ssalarn]

Q019
Which veilweavers count as high casters for the purpose of Combat Training for Non-Spheres of Might Classes?

A019 Of the three OG akashic classes and the four Lost Spheres akashic classes, the vizier, radiant, and lunar zodiac (but not solar zodiacs). As a loose rule of thumb, anyone with an essence pool class progression that goes up to 30 is a full caster equivalent, 20 is a mid-caster equivalent, and 10-15 is a low caster equivalent.

[Eldaran]

Q20 The Dragoon's Legendary Drake Power breath weapon says "The drake gains the draconic breath weapon racial trait" what is this racial trait?

Q21 The Dragoon's Legendary Drake Power breath master says it gains the "Expanded Breath Weapon and Powerful Breath Weapon feats" what are these feats?

[Lost_Spheres]

Q012
How many improvements does the Machine Cultist archetype of the Reaper get on each invention?

A12They scale improvements as a Technician of their Machine Cultist Level.

[Lost_Spheres]

Q17 is it possible to get some clarification on what the rhyzala favored class bonus for the necros class actually does, it is oddly written and my best guess is giving all your undead an extra free 5 foot step for every six levels of the necros

A17The ability should grant a free action 5' step as that the Rhyzala's undead are temporally inconsistent. Wording will be updated.

[Lost_Spheres]

Q018
Should the Xodai's Hellcore Affinity ability also apply to any spell-like abilities or veils they acquire? If so, perhaps abilities would work better than spells or powers, as that includes most things that aren't items.

A18:This was submitted to us via the KS feedback email and the updated text is clearer but yes, it covers both SLAs and veils and has been clarified to impact class features as well. The celestial alternate does the same for all [good] descriptor effects.

[Lost_Spheres]

Q20 The Dragoon's Legendary Drake Power breath weapon says "The drake gains the draconic breath weapon racial trait" what is this racial trait?

Q21 The Dragoon's Legendary Drake Power breath master says it gains the "Expanded Breath Weapon and Powerful Breath Weapon feats" what are these feats?

A20&A21These referred originally to feats and abilities in the Legendary Drakes supplement by Legendary Games. For ease of use they were added and text updated in the 1.2 release of the Dragoon.

[Sam C.]

A12They scale improvements as a Technician of their Machine Cultist Level.

So two improvements per invention at 5th level and another improvement per invention every 4 levels thereafter?

[Nyaa]

Q022
Nexus' Convergence says 'At 1st level, 4th level, and every four levels thereafter', but there's no Convergence listed in the table at 20, only Planar Attunement, which doesn't seem to grant an instance of Convergence. IIRC the default rule is text > table, but probably the table should be fixed for the final release.

Q023
Is it intended that Planar Detonation never upgrades to attack action? Would it be fair to allow it to work with Spell Attack at level 6+?

Q024
Underworld tier 2 convergence doesn't mention where the cylinder can be placed. Presumably in Close range as basic planar detonation?

[Ssalarn]

Q023
Is it intended that Planar Detonation never upgrades to attack action? Would it be fair to allow it to work with Spell Attack at level 6+?

A023 It intentionally gets a standard action upgrade instead of an attack action upgrade because of how much customizable damage they can crank out. Between weapon-like veil bonus damage plus enhancements and the bonus damage from planar detonation (which can typically be either one of at least two different types for most nexus characters, more in some instances) the nexus's top-end damage formula is going to be something like (STR × 1.5) + (CHA × .5) + (11d6) + 20d6 + (base weapon dice) + (+5 enhancement bonus) + (+5 enhancement equivalents) + (+12 Power Attack) + (+18 Circlet of Brass or equivalent). That damage starts out good and scales pretty evenly across the class progression. Generally it would be overkill to stack attack action boosters on top of that, which is why it's specifically a standard action instead of an attack action.
If you're using other systems where stacking that much bonus damage on top of an attack action won't distort the party's performance, something like Spell Attack or an equivalent feat is probably fine.

Q024
Underworld tier 2 convergence doesn't mention where the cylinder can be placed. Presumably in Close range as basic planar detonation?

A024 Correct, it can be placed anywhere within the planar detonation's usual range.

[CactusAir]

The Zodiac notes that summoning a Constellation causes you to take and essence burn cost, which cannot be healed until you dismiss the summon.

However, earlier Akasha rules note that Temporary Essence is always burned first.

So lets say I manage to get a few points of temporary essence and burn them to summon a Constellation.

What then?

Do I count my non-temporary essence as having been burned for the same number of points once the duration on the temp essence goings away?

Is the amount of "temp essence" i can have reduced by the amount burned until the summon ends?

[Ssalarn]

Q025 The Zodiac notes that summoning a Constellation causes you to take and essence burn cost, which cannot be healed until you dismiss the summon.

However, earlier Akasha rules note that Temporary Essence is always burned first.

So lets say I manage to get a few points of temporary essence and burn them to summon a Constellation.

What then?

Do I count my non-temporary essence as having been burned for the same number of points once the duration on the temp essence goings away?

Is the amount of "temp essence" i can have reduced by the amount burned until the summon ends?

A025 The essence burn for a constellation acts as an assigned value. If that temporary essence would hit its normal expiration and you would no longer be able to sustain your constellation, the constellation is immediately dismissed. If the temp essence would reach it's normal expiration and you have enough essence available to sustain the constellation out of your normal essence pool, you can immediately subtract the difference from your normal pool as burn. We'll get this published in an official update.

[signaste]

Q026 Is the Corpse puppet from the Necros class intended to act as an undead you Reanimate for effects such as Superior Reanimation?

[Ssalarn]

The veil, "Ceradon's Eternity" has this line in the Chest Chakra Bind:

I'm just slightly confused by the word "attempt."
Q027 Is there supposed to be a dispel check involved, or is it automatic, like most counterspells? Given any word on a dispel check being mentioned or the use of veilweaver level in place of caster level, am I correct in assuming that it is the latter, an automatic counterspell?

A027 It does not require a check. "Attempt" just exists in the event that there is some other effect in play which could interrupt or prevent something being countered.

Q028 Another question, Essence Burn recovers at a rate of 1 per minute, correct? What does this mean if you burn essence once per round, for say, 10 or more rounds? Can you begin to recover one point of essence burn while suffering from another point of essence burn?

A028 Yes. Essence burn recovers naturally at a rate of 1 point per minute and the first point of essence burn you took continues to recover at that rate even if you take additional points of burn.

[Kaouse]

Thanks for answering my question.

[calyst]

Q027 Is it intended for Veryx that take the weaver caste alternate trait to lose any bite or claw attacks along with the venomous bite and spellmark?

[Llyarden]

Q028: I haven't dabbled much with akashic stuff, so I might have missed something, but a 20th-level Radiant gets access to eight veils. Let's say they shape the Immaculate Touch (hands), Avatar of Light (head), Headband of Holy Light (Headband), Sparkling Alicorn (Neck), Unicorn's Barding (Belt) and Ceradon's Eternity (Body) veils. That's six of their eight veils. What are they supposed to do with their remaining two veils? All their veils occupy one of the above six slots and you can't shape multiple veils into the same slot without the Twin Veil feat.

[Ssalarn]

Q028: I haven't dabbled much with akashic stuff, so I might have missed something, but a 20th-level Radiant gets access to eight veils. Let's say they shape the Immaculate Touch (hands), Avatar of Light (head), Headband of Holy Light (Headband), Sparkling Alicorn (Neck), Unicorn's Barding (Belt) and Ceradon's Eternity (Body) veils. That's six of their eight veils. What are they supposed to do with their remaining two veils? All their veils occupy one of the above six slots and you can't shape multiple veils into the same slot without the Twin Veil feat.

A028 The radiant actually does have access to veils that occupy other slots, they simply can't bind all of them.

For example, a max level radiant could have the entire Circle of Six set shaped and bound, with Cloak of Thorns in their Shoulders slot and Heart of Yggdrasil in their Chest slot unbound.

Binds are not a given for veils; an unbound veil is functionally right between a cantrip and an at-will 1st level spell. Binds upgrade this to a higher level ability. (this is a rough design doc I use for akasha that kind of explains the approximate power levels of different slots). Since the radiant, much like the eclipse, has very powerful class features, they also have weaker veilweaving. Those two extra veils are basically ways to round out the radiant's abilities without escalating them too powerfully outside of their intended niche.