Spheres of Power: Illuminator's Handbook Open Beta

[AmberVael]

Welcome to the playtest of the Illuminator's Handbook, a book in a series of themed expansions for Spheres of Power. For those unfamiliar with it, Spheres of Power is a new magic system published by Drop Dead Studios which divides magic into 'spheres,' themed sets of magical abilities that aim to provide support for a wide variety of concepts from level one, using at-will abilities as well as more resource limited powers.

The Illuminator's Handbook is focused on expanding the Light sphere of magic, and so all its content is related to creating or manipulating light and its properties. It introduces many new talents, including two new series of talents: nimbus talents that allow you to alter the areas of your light magic, and lens talents to give you abilities related to the manipulation and control of light. Also within the book are new archetypes and class options (such as the Astrology tradition and the Sun Warrior archetype), as well as feats, equipment, and more.

You can find the playtest document here. Feel free to comment within the document, or post your comments and feedback here.

I look forward to your input!

[stack]

Congrats on the open playtest.

The book needs more light themed monsters. Because the bestiary isn't bloated as it is.

[TheIronGolem]

If nothing else, I have learned that "syzygy" is an actual word instead of an attempt to cheat at Scrabble.

[A.J.Gibson]

If nothing else, I have learned that "syzygy" is an actual word instead of an attempt to cheat at Scrabble.

Someone must have been cheating very hard, since there are only 2 'y' tiles in a standard scrabble game.

:)

[Morcleon]

Someone must have been cheating very hard, since there are only 2 'y' tiles in a standard scrabble game.

:)

You could use a blank tile as one of the Y tiles.

[A.J.Gibson]

You could use a blank tile as one of the Y tiles.

Arg...been too long since I've played scrabble.

*goes back to video games*

[Carboncopy]

Irradiance:
Comparing this talent to blinding light, the glow feels very strong. Dazzled is a minor rebuff compared to sickened. Blinded and nauseated are more comparable, but irradiance still out classes blinding light significantly, IMO. I'd suggest a duration penalty or a spell point cost to add the glow, maybe both.

Infravision:
This lens talent seems quite comparable to the dark so here's meld talents. As such, it seems undercosted compared to melds which cost 1 spell point for the similar 1 hour per level. This seems especially relevant as this could possibly replace the dark vision meld when encountering living foes in a dark room. Not to add further text to a long entry, how would this talent interact with gaze attacks in darkness as compared to dark vision?

Good work on the addition. Sorry it's taken me a few months to comment.

[Mithril Leaf]

Assuming this is still alive, I really love the potential combination of Star Genesis and Everglow to make really rad underground greenhouses! It has a lot of neat world building applications that are very interesting to me personally. The Lens talents are also quite neat.

If one had Everglow, Permanent Transformation, and Bioluminescent Transformation, would it make sense to allow permanently attaching Light talents in the place of traits?

[stack]

Light is very much alive and in fact it is next in line for publication!

I'll leave the actual question to our esteemed author.

[khadgar567]

amber and stack can vampire with dim light and everglow talents become immune to sun

[AmberVael]

Assuming this is still alive, I really love the potential combination of Star Genesis and Everglow to make really rad underground greenhouses! It has a lot of neat world building applications that are very interesting to me personally. The Lens talents are also quite neat.

Thanks! Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

If one had Everglow, Permanent Transformation, and Bioluminescent Transformation, would it make sense to allow permanently attaching Light talents in the place of traits?

I purposefully avoided Bioluminescent Transformation having an effect outside of concentration duration - by the time you've spent spell points to maintain glow or shapeshift without concentration, you're out of the purview of Bioluminescent Transformation.

In addition, Everglow does not allow permanent (light) talents.

amber and stack can vampire with dim light and everglow talents become immune to sun

No. Dim Light only protects against the glow effects of the caster, not all light effects. In addition, Dim Light is a (lens) talent, and so Everglow has no effect on it.

[khadgar567]

No. Dim Light only protects against the glow effects of the caster, not all light effects. In addition, Dim Light is a (lens) talent, and so Everglow has no effect on it.

to bad just get day walking vampire idea (aka regis from witcher) and now its hosed

[Mithril Leaf]

I purposefully avoided Bioluminescent Transformation having an effect outside of concentration duration - by the time you've spent spell points to maintain glow or shapeshift without concentration, you're out of the purview of Bioluminescent Transformation.

In addition, Everglow does not allow permanent (light) talents.

Yes I realize that it's all not in the rules as currently written. I was asking if you as the author of that material would think it reasonable for that level of investment to allow the effect I described. If the cost of a Light Talent is about equal to the cost of Trait, and you need to have both of the Permanency Talents, maybe it'd be okay?

EDIT: I do suppose I can just spellcraft it.