the Orrery - a Handbook to the Spheres of Power

[stack]

It was a big project, but I made a general handbook to the Spheres of Power system by Drop Dead Studios. I hope to refine and expand it as time goes on. I will admit that my practical experience is not what I would like to be undertaking such a project, but I hope that others will chime in and correct me where I go astray.

LINK

[Mithril Leaf]

How does Insanity work in your book, because in mine it applies only to Confusion Charms.

When applying a confusion charm to a target, you may spend
an additional spell point to change this charm into an instan-
taneous effect. The charm has no duration and cannot be dis-
pelled. This cannot be removed except through the Restore
Mind and Body advanced Life talent or through a similar effect
such as a greater restoration spell.

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How does Insanity work in your book, because in mine it applies only to Confusion Charms.

D'oh! Will fix it. Thought that seemed wrong.

[Mithril Leaf]

D'oh! Will fix it. Thought that seemed wrong.

It would be somewhat too strong if you allowed it to apply to say, Enthrall. I might be able to toss together some info on Dipping, as it's a paradise of Dips.

Sorcerer gets a separate but still quite excellent +1 to CL for a specific Sphere from the Wizard and Incanter.

EDIT: Also spellcraft yourself up a free Life Restore for Fatigue as a full round action in order to get the most from the Overcharge Boon.

EDIT 2: On the other hand, you could Spellcraft yourself up an Alteration and Mind Spell, that you spend absolutely absurd amounts of Spell Points on that gives you permanent minions.

[Mehangel]

One thing that I appreciate with how you classified spheres is that you did not just apply color to it based on cost, or when comparing it to another sphere. Instead, you classified the talents while comparing them to other talents in the same sphere or general use (or atleast it appeared to be). I know that there have been some who feel that spheres able to be used at-will without concentration or expending spell points means that they are automatically 'more powerful' but I disagree, and I appreciate that you did not seem to encourage such thoughts outright. I also like how you gave classifications on spheres based on how much investment one should put into it and how much should be invested aswell, etc.

I apologize if I am not correlating my thoughts very cleanly. I cannot think straight at the moment.

[Endless Rain]

The link is broken, I can't access it.

[Mithril Leaf]

The link is broken, I can't access it.

Works fine for me, try this one.

EDIT: You are also missing the Anthropomorphic Transformation. Fantastic for Necromancers as it gets your undead feats. Meh for everyone else.

[EldritchWeaver]

EDIT: You are also missing the Anthropomorphic Transformation. Fantastic for Necromancers as it gets your undead feats. Meh for everyone else.

Where is it written that having no intelligence score means no feats as well? I can't find it myself.

[Mithril Leaf]

Where is it written that having no intelligence score means no feats as well? I can't find it myself.

Most vermin, however, are mindless and gain no skill points or feats.

It's mentioned there and every monster without an Int score in the bestiary only possesses bonus feats. Not sure where it's explicitly called out as I'm on mobile.

[stack]

Might be a good point for the ask me anything thread.

[Mithril Leaf]

I believe you are underestimating Ranged Summoning. There's nothing stopping you from applying it to all day companions.

Picture it this way:
You are ambushed at a party that your companion didn't fit in at. You go second or third in the turn order. Your Barbarian charges first. You then spawn your Quick Roguish Asura companion on the other side of the enemy and it gets a flanking full attack off with all it's arms.

[Ironsides]

I know you rated Summon Spirit blue for the guide but I do not think you realize all the things you can do with this powerful talent, Permanent Undeath and Expanded Necromancy/Empowered Reanimate. Here is a question I posted on DDS's message boards asking Adam Meyers about what I could do with these talents.

Here is what I posted.

I am going to be playing a fairly deadly campaign soon and I have some sphere-related rules questions about bringing back dead party members at a low-ish level using necromancy. The Summon Spirit advanced talent says that I can summon a spirit (like a dead PC) and use their spirit to make an undead creature. I wonder if my other talents can be used to augment them in the following ways:

• Use Empowered Reanimate to give them a +4 Enhancement to Str and Dex.
• Can I give them the bloody skeleton template with Expanded Necromancy talent so they don’t get die permanently when they inevitably die (again)?
• Can I use the desecrate from my Voidstick to give them +1 HP per hit dice.
• Also could I (I probably wouldn't do this even if given the opportunity) raise them as a higher HD creature? It seems that if you do this you subtract 1 hit-dice from the creature base for every class level available. So A 10 HD Minotaur and a lvl 5 PC ends up being lvl 5 PC and 5 bloody skeleton templated Minotaur HD.

Am I looking at the rules correctly? Summon Spirit seems rather good to me at 5th level.

Here is Adam Meyer's reply.

You are reading things correctly, yes. We wanted to give people the option to really play with undead, if they so wanted to build in that direction.

[stack]

It would be somewhat too strong if you allowed it to apply to say, Enthrall. I might be able to toss together some info on Dipping, as it's a paradise of Dips.

Sorcerer gets a separate but still quite excellent +1 to CL for a specific Sphere from the Wizard and Incanter.

EDIT: Also spellcraft yourself up a free Life Restore for Fatigue as a full round action in order to get the most from the Overcharge Boon.

EDIT 2: On the other hand, you could Spellcraft yourself up an Alteration and Mind Spell, that you spend absolutely absurd amounts of Spell Points on that gives you permanent minions.

1. Absolutely insanity would be too powerful with other charms. I can't believe I missed the limiting bit.

2. Sorcerer's plus one would work in place of menhir savant druid's limit +1 CL and free up a level, as well as being more likely to be allowed. I will update. Three levels of geomancer would also net +2 CL if you were using nature sphere but prevent you from having room for specialization on top of forbidden lore, so I guess there are a few ways to get there.

3. Free restore would be great to spellcraft, if allowed. I can see many DMs balking at free restores for any casting time though, same with heals.

4. Yeah, there's a reason spellcrafting explicitly requires permission and approval. Permanent minions is high on the list.

I believe you are underestimating Ranged Summoning. There's nothing stopping you from applying it to all day companions.

Picture it this way:
You are ambushed at a party that your companion didn't fit in at. You go second or third in the turn order. Your Barbarian charges first. You then spawn your Quick Roguish Asura companion on the other side of the enemy and it gets a flanking full attack off with all it's arms.

Fair point. Though in any situation that you have your companion summoned, you would probably be better served with the warp sphere. I'll make a mention and think about the rating.

I know you rated Summon Spirit blue for the guide but I do not think you realize all the things you can do with this powerful talent, Permanent Undeath and Expanded Necromancy/Empowered Reanimate. Here is a question I posted on DDS's message boards asking Adam Meyers about what I could do with these talents.

Huh, didn't consider undead party members. Interesting. Works better if you can get an undead that keeps class levels (juju zombies, for one), I think. Have to look into that one and give it a mention.

[stack]

Made most of the suggested updates, still need to review the summon spirit advanced talent. Had lots of helpful feedback on the doc itself and some good observations here. Keep it up!

May need to take a break from writing new handbooks for a bit, three in a row was a fair bit of writing and I'm getting busier with other stuff. May homebrew some spheres stuff as well.

[Lirya]

1) Try spellcrafting Steal Time onto your favorite Destruction Sphere effect. This basically adds a very cheap Dazing Spell effect and a Quicken Spell effect, as once you get 3+ targets chances are at least one of them will fail the will save. (You spend a full-round action and 3 spell points to cast a Temporal Stoneball, at least one of them fails the will save vs. daze, so you regain a standard action you can use to cast a 2nd destruction effect. For comparison, a quickened Stoneball costs 6 spell points.)
Also note that the Temporal Stoneball allows you to daze pretty much anything that can fail a will save, as almost no creatures are immune to daze, it is SR:No, and it allows for basically no immunities. Pair with a Temporal Forceball to murder incorporeal and ethereal targets as well.

Also, spellcraft an AoE talent (such as Group Time or Group Charm) onto long term buffs that your whole party might want such as various Aegis or Meld effects. This will save huge amounts of spell points.

2) You rate Counterspell, Greater too low. This is basically the Sphere version of Mage's Disjunction (rated as a blue 9th level wizard spell). You unfortunately lose the ability to destroy spells without rolling, but instead you get to suppress magical items without worrying about your target having a buff Will save, or that the target rolls a natural 1 on the save of items you really want to loot. Very few magic items that matter are going to have a CL above 15, and important items such as Ability Score Boosts will typically have a CL of 12 (giving MSD of 23 to 26), while you use your MSB +2 (from Counterspell Mastery). The all or nothing approach hurts you a bit, but you will have a 60% or better (likely 85% at 20th level) chance of shutting down ALL enemy magic items. Considering the outsiders and dragons are likely to be kitted out with magical loot, this can be a huge and reliable debuff. Against an NPC like a high level antipaladn, you might be debuffing his hit rate by -9 (+5 weapon, +6 enhancement to strength, +1 competence), and his saves by -10 (+5 cloak of resistance, +6 enhancement to charisma, +1 luck, +1 competence), and his AC by -17 (+5 armor, +5 deflection, +5 natural, +1 luck, +1 insight) as well as removing all the magical toys he needs to compete in a high level environment.

In addition, Counterspell, Greater allows you to dispel nasty Midnight or Climate effects without locating the center of the spell.

3) You rate the Obstruction Aegis too low. DR X/- where x = CL/2 is amazing, and the limit of 10 x CL damage absorbed is basically irrelevant. There is a reason Invulnerable Rager is considered the default barbarian archetype, and spells like Defending Bone is considered a top choice for Inquisitor. Communal Stoneskin is rated green in the wizard guide, and a spellcrafted AoE Obstruction Aegis has no expensive component, cannot be overcome, has a longer duration, and while the DR starts out lower (likely DR 5/- instead of DR 10/adamantine) at 9th level, it will likely reach DR 10/- around 16th level (+4 staff, or +3 staff and Ioun Stone) and cap out at DR 13/- at 20th level (+5 staff and Ioun Stone). If you choose to take Protection talents, you want Obstruction.

4) Potent Alteration exists so you can apply effects such as Change Material and Forge to animated objects. The problem is, while the talent specifically calls out that this allows you to affect golems, it still might not work against most golems using RAW as they tend to have Spell Immunity and I haven't been able to find anything saying (some) creation talents are SR:No. As a GM though, I would certainly allow a creation specialist to turn a Mithral Golem into cloth or paper, or whatever if it fails its fortitude save. It is one of the weaker Creation talents, but saying repairing magic items and sundering stuff is bad and ignoring the fact that it allows you to apply change material and forge to animated objects is doing the talent a disservice.

5) You mention that you can spellcraft effects onto long duration spheres like Aegis to increase their duration. This is only partially true, as under spellcrating it says the following.

Adjusting Durations: If your base ability has a duration of concentration and you are adding abilities with a duration of 1 minute per caster level or longer, reduce the spell’s cost by 1 spell point. If your base ability has a duration of 10 minutes per caster level or longer and you are adding abilities with a duration of 1 round per caster level or shorter (including concentration), increase the spell’s cost by 1 spell point and decrease the spell’s duration by one step (1 hour per caster level becomes 10 minutes per caster level, 10 minutes per caster level becomes 1 minute per caster level).

So if you spellcraft, say Haste, onto an Aegis effect the duration would be reduced to 10 minutes per caster level. Still awesome and generally enough to last the whole dungeon, but it needs to be mentioned.

6) In your Thaumaturge Guide you mention dipping cross-blooded sorcerer during the comparison against elementalist. Note that cross-blooded sorcerer is not compatible with sphere sorcerer, due to cross-blooded sorcerer reducing spells known while sphere sorcerer replaces spellcasting (and thus spells known). A dip in sorcerer for the orc-bloodline arcana is still easily worth it for anyone with a focus on destruction.

[EldritchWeaver]

Great advice here!

6) In your Thaumaturge Guide you mention dipping cross-blooded sorcerer during the comparison against elementalist. Note that cross-blooded sorcerer is not compatible with sphere sorcerer, due to cross-blooded sorcerer reducing spells known while sphere sorcerer replaces spellcasting (and thus spells known). A dip in sorcerer for the orc-bloodline arcana is still easily worth it for anyone with a focus on destruction.

That sounds like as if the compatibility issue can be solved. "Spells known" translates into "magic talents known". So instead having 20 talents over 20 levels, one could say, a sphere sorcerer has only 15 talents. 10 seems too low, especially as they are fixed (compared to the sphere arcanist).

[stack]

1) Try spellcrafting Steal Time onto your favorite Destruction Sphere effect. This basically adds a very cheap Dazing Spell effect and a Quicken Spell effect, as once you get 3+ targets chances are at least one of them will fail the will save. (You spend a full-round action and 3 spell points to cast a Temporal Stoneball, at least one of them fails the will save vs. daze, so you regain a standard action you can use to cast a 2nd destruction effect. For comparison, a quickened Stoneball costs 6 spell points.)
Also note that the Temporal Stoneball allows you to daze pretty much anything that can fail a will save, as almost no creatures are immune to daze, it is SR:No, and it allows for basically no immunities. Pair with a Temporal Forceball to murder incorporeal and ethereal targets as well.

Also, spellcraft an AoE talent (such as Group Time or Group Charm) onto long term buffs that your whole party might want such as various Aegis or Meld effects. This will save huge amounts of spell points.

2) You rate Counterspell, Greater too low. This is basically the Sphere version of Mage's Disjunction (rated as a blue 9th level wizard spell). You unfortunately lose the ability to destroy spells without rolling, but instead you get to suppress magical items without worrying about your target having a buff Will save, or that the target rolls a natural 1 on the save of items you really want to loot. Very few magic items that matter are going to have a CL above 15, and important items such as Ability Score Boosts will typically have a CL of 12 (giving MSD of 23 to 26), while you use your MSB +2 (from Counterspell Mastery). The all or nothing approach hurts you a bit, but you will have a 60% or better (likely 85% at 20th level) chance of shutting down ALL enemy magic items. Considering the outsiders and dragons are likely to be kitted out with magical loot, this can be a huge and reliable debuff. Against an NPC like a high level antipaladn, you might be debuffing his hit rate by -9 (+5 weapon, +6 enhancement to strength, +1 competence), and his saves by -10 (+5 cloak of resistance, +6 enhancement to charisma, +1 luck, +1 competence), and his AC by -17 (+5 armor, +5 deflection, +5 natural, +1 luck, +1 insight) as well as removing all the magical toys he needs to compete in a high level environment.

In addition, Counterspell, Greater allows you to dispel nasty Midnight or Climate effects without locating the center of the spell.

3) You rate the Obstruction Aegis too low. DR X/- where x = CL/2 is amazing, and the limit of 10 x CL damage absorbed is basically irrelevant. There is a reason Invulnerable Rager is considered the default barbarian archetype, and spells like Defending Bone is considered a top choice for Inquisitor. Communal Stoneskin is rated green in the wizard guide, and a spellcrafted AoE Obstruction Aegis has no expensive component, cannot be overcome, has a longer duration, and while the DR starts out lower (likely DR 5/- instead of DR 10/adamantine) at 9th level, it will likely reach DR 10/- around 16th level (+4 staff, or +3 staff and Ioun Stone) and cap out at DR 13/- at 20th level (+5 staff and Ioun Stone). If you choose to take Protection talents, you want Obstruction.

4) Potent Alteration exists so you can apply effects such as Change Material and Forge to animated objects. The problem is, while the talent specifically calls out that this allows you to affect golems, it still might not work against most golems using RAW as they tend to have Spell Immunity and I haven't been able to find anything saying (some) creation talents are SR:No. As a GM though, I would certainly allow a creation specialist to turn a Mithral Golem into cloth or paper, or whatever if it fails its fortitude save. It is one of the weaker Creation talents, but saying repairing magic items and sundering stuff is bad and ignoring the fact that it allows you to apply change material and forge to animated objects is doing the talent a disservice.

5) You mention that you can spellcraft effects onto long duration spheres like Aegis to increase their duration. This is only partially true, as under spellcrating it says the following.

So if you spellcraft, say Haste, onto an Aegis effect the duration would be reduced to 10 minutes per caster level. Still awesome and generally enough to last the whole dungeon, but it needs to be mentioned.

6) In your Thaumaturge Guide you mention dipping cross-blooded sorcerer during the comparison against elementalist. Note that cross-blooded sorcerer is not compatible with sphere sorcerer, due to cross-blooded sorcerer reducing spells known while sphere sorcerer replaces spellcasting (and thus spells known). A dip in sorcerer for the orc-bloodline arcana is still easily worth it for anyone with a focus on destruction.

1. I had hoped to eventually expand the spellcrafting section. Excellent suggestions.

2. Fair points, I'll have to look at that one again. I don't ever really play at high levels, which I am sure shows at times.

3. I suppose I was thinking too much about PC builds that make big damaging attacks rather than the many monsters that have numerous smaller natural attacks. Should have known better. A thaumaturge can hit DR 10/- at level 10, since getting to CL 20 at that point is possible.

4. I'll look at it again. Changing an animated object to adamantine seems like good spellcrafting material. Uses against golems is limited, even without the rules issue. How many do you fight in a normal campaign? Though changing them to paper would be pretty funny.

5. Good catch. I thought that was a little too easy.

6. Been awhile since I checked the archetype, should have reviewed it again before putting that up after it was suggested.

Great feedback, thanks.

[Lirya]

4. I'll look at it again. Changing an animated object to adamantine seems like good spellcrafting material. Uses against golems is limited, even without the rules issue. How many do you fight in a normal campaign? Though changing them to paper would be pretty funny.

Potent Alteration is orange at best, and might very well still be red. But changing an ally's magic weapon into mithral (silver) or cold iron can also be nice if there is a DR or regeneration issue. You can't change stuff into adamantine as you are never allowed to affect adamantine with the creation sphere. I just want combining it with change material and using it against animated objects to be mentioned as that strikes me the best use. You can also combine it with Forge to reforge magic items of the wrong type into something your fighter can use. So if you find a +X magical axe of awesome, but your fighter uses swords. Then you can reforge the magic item into a sword. Basically, the talent has very niche applications. But assuming you already have a lot of alter talents to combine it with, there will be multiple niche applications so some of them might show up allowing you to use the talent to perform awesome deeds. The player just needs to be creative which is a key requirement for the whole sphere really.

[stack]

Well stated. I may just have to quote you directly on that. Permission?

[Lirya]

Well stated. I may just have to quote you directly on that. Permission?

Feel free.

[stack]

I thought adamantine was on the list, but it isn't. Huh.

Quote added to guide. Haven't changed the rating yet. Not sure if forge let's you make weapons without the exquisite detail talent. Armor is specifically barred, but weapons tend to be of simpler geometry.

[Lirya]

My understanding is you need Fabricate to use Forge to create anything that the GM would call for a craft check to make. Exquisite Detail doesn't automatically add to Forge, but if you have Fabricate then you may want to spellcraft Exquisite Detail onto it as well for the huge bonus to craft checks. So yes, you would need Fabricate + Potent Alteration to reforge magical armor and weapons.

I played around a bit with an Incanter with a lot of creation talents, and figured out I could create about a fully kitted out War Galley out of nothing after about half a day of work (taking 10 on my craft Ships, Sails, etc. for a result of 55, assuming I have spellcrafted Exquisite Detail onto Fabricate). Your size limitation is large enough to work with a colossal object, but Fabricate calls out that you spend 1 round per 10 cubic feet, so it takes some time to finish the whole ship.

[stack]

I would give the ship wings rather than sails so you can then turn it into a permanent animated airship using enhancement.

[Lirya]

Bestow Life

Edit: Create Demiplane + Bestow Life = Playing God

[Lirya]

I just noticed, you have forgotten to mention one of the best Fate Sphere talents, Freedom. It gives Freedom of Movement with all the usual benefits for concentration, or 1 round/CL if you spend a spell point. Spellcraft this onto your Aegis or other 1 hour per CL buff with an AoE talent to give your party Freedom of Movement for 10 min./CL.

[stack]

I just noticed, you have forgotten to mention one of the best Fate Sphere talents, Freedom. It gives Freedom of Movement with all the usual benefits for concentration, or 1 round/CL if you spend a spell point. Spellcraft this onto your Aegis or other 1 hour per CL buff with an AoE talent to give your party Freedom of Movement for 10 min./CL.

Thought I had that one...goes on the fix list then. Thanks. Definitely a good one to have.

[Tulya]

Am I missing something on Warrior of Holy Light, or does their pseudo-smite eat two spell points and two standard actions? One standard to make a weapon glow, one standard and one spell point to make it glow brightly, and one spellpoint to gain the benefits of smite.

The only alternative seems to be to run around with a gleaming beacon constantly, moving at half speed so that you can concentrate each round.

(Not that Utterdark Champion smite is per se better, but at least Darkness has much more interesting rider effects.)

[stack]

Am I missing something on Warrior of Holy Light, or does their pseudo-smite eat two spell points and two standard actions? One standard to make a weapon glow, one standard and one spell point to make it glow brightly, and one spellpoint to gain the benefits of smite.

The only alternative seems to be to run around with a gleaming beacon constantly, moving at half speed so that you can concentrate each round.

(Not that Utterdark Champion smite is per se better, but at least Darkness has much more interesting rider effects.)

The base glow lasts for minutes per level, so is easy to keep up, though maybe not so good for stealth. To not require concentration on the glowing brightly does take a spell point. No extra action needed for the smite, but yes, if starting from nothing you need two standards and two spell points to smite without concentration, which is problematic, though most of the time I expect you to have the glow up and running so it's only one standard and two SP. compared to smite evil's swift this is annoying, but getting more SP is easier than getting more smites (outside of oath of vengeance anyhow). Group smiting later in is nifty though.

Smite evil is vastly superior for a single target, but luminous smite is much better against groups.

[stack]

Traits from the organization section of the main book are now added. They had previously been overlooked.

Need to buy Worlds of Power and add its materials, haven't gotten around to it yet.

[stack]

Alternate classes, feats, destruction talents, and ki powers from Worlds of Power are up. I believe this makes me currant with all releases to date.