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[Let's Read] Spheres of Power & Might for 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8378509" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/BrSl9Fj.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 5: Additional Rules & the Leadership Sphere</strong></p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/b6CbDwS.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p>I covered the <a href="http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/leadership" target="_blank"><strong>Leadership Sphere</strong></a> out of alphabetical order for a few reasons. First, it is “optional” in the sense that GM permission is required to take it up and above such permission when using 3rd party products. Second is the fact that while it can technically be taken at any level, it has a sense of renown in the way that being a minimum of 5th level is suggested as a rule for GMs to include.* Thirdly, much like Beastmastery the Leadership sphere and its talents cannot be taken temporarily or by NPC allies such as animal companions and summoned creatures. Fourthly, for campaigns that place emphasis on warfare, domain building, and similar ventures, the entire party can have a “Leadership pool” where they all contribute talents and make use of followers and sidekicks as a group, and can also gain talents “for free” without needing to wait to level up if they spend enough money and complete quests that grow their power and influence.</p><p></p><p>*This kind of screws over the Commander’s Politician subclass, which gets a Leadership sphere talent as a bonus at 2nd level.</p><p></p><p>The Leadership sphere grants Persuasion as a bonus skill (or +1 talent if already possessed) and centers first and foremost around recruiting loyal companions. The companions are divided into two types, both with their own packages and talent tags, and any costs for food, living standards, and basic equipment is abstracted and already presumed to be taken care of. Sidekicks are characters with special skills and training setting them above the common clay, and apply special sidekick classes on top of an NPC/monster stat block of CR ½ or less. Their total number of levels is half that of the Leadership PC’s rounded down, or ¾ or equal if the Greater Recruitment talent is taken once or twice.</p><p></p><p>Followers are noncombatant characters forming into 1-4 groups of 20 based on level. Individual followers are treated as Commoners or collectively as the Troop template applied to the Commoner stat block, and depending on their talents can perform specialized tasks that can aid the character. (followers) talents are varying kinds of specialized skills they can perform as a group, usually granting them additional proficiencies and the ability to provide the Help action to characters using such checks. For example, the Healers talent traits them in Medicine, lets the followers supply free healer’s kits (that can’t be stockpiled or sold), and those spending Hit Die to heal in their presence roll one die type higher (max d12). Priests and Scholars have ritual books allowing them to cast low-level cleric and wizard ritual spells, while Rangers allow the party to move at normal speed over difficult terrain and can find and capture animals up to a certain CR automatically. The Soldiers talent allows followers to fight in combat as (rather weak) combatants, but can be taken multiple times to grant followers martial talents.</p><p></p><p>Sidekicks already get a whole stat block and class, so the talents part of this package grant them advantageous abilities and moves when used with the Leadership PC. Such (sidekick) talents include the PC and sidekick sharing the highest Perception check result when within 30 feet of each other, triggering an opportunity attack when the other succeeds on a disarm/grapple/shove, and gaining non-stackable +1 AC or to weapon attack rolls when within 5 feet of each other. Legendary Talents include such options as being able to gain additional sidekicks albeit having to split their total effective levels between each other, followers gaining flight speed from magic/flying mounts/etc, expending martial focus to impose the Charmed condition a non-hostile being, and applying undead abilities and immunities to sidekicks. One very notable talent turns a single troop of followers into a sidekick whose level progression is slower and uses one of 3 stat block templates based on the class in question, but gains 3 Hit Dice for every level they gain and have the increased damage of a troop template.</p><p></p><p>Squad is a bit unclear on one aspect. As it is a follower troop becoming a sidekick, do all the proficiencies gained from (followers) talents carry over?</p><p></p><p><strong>Combos:</strong> The Alchemists and Artificers follower talents grant one additional use of Alchemy formulae and Tinkerer sphere gadgets for party members. Followers with the Friends in Low Places talent who become a Troop can use the Help action on Sleight of Hand checks, good for those with the Scoundrel sphere and the Sneaky Trapper talent. The free granting of healer’s kits from the Healers talent works nicely with a Scholar that took the Medicine study or any character with the Healer feat. If one has access to Vancian spells with the ritual tags, they can be taught and transcribed into the ritual books of followers with the Priests and Scholars talents provided that the spells are 1st level or lower, while the PC can also learn such spells from their ritual books. The Rangers talent’s ability to automatically capture beasts is an easy way to gain animals to tame via the Beastmastery sphere. The Opening Maneuver and Opportunistic Teamwork sidekick talents work well if the PC and/or sidekick make use of the Brute, Gladiator, or Wrestling spheres. Sidekicks turned into undead via Master of the Dead can avoid friendly fire from the cone-based AoE Greater Ghost Strike talent from the Death sphere given that ability doesn’t affect undead creatures barring a few talent exceptions. An Artisan of at least 9th level with the Smith subclass and Mystic Craftsman can have their followers craft magic arms and armor. Sidekick troops gained via the Squad template are ideal for builds focusing on reach and Guardian (zone) talents given the large amount of squares they can affect in close combat, and their advantage on Strength checks makes them ideal users of the Brute and Wrestling spheres and other abilities that make use of the Athletics skill. Additionally, the increased weapon damage dice and die size from the troop template can make for some large dice pools when used with certain damaging Alchemy sphere talents or Advanced Era weapons courtesy of Tinkerer.</p><p></p><p>Depending on GM leniency, certain stat blocks are very effective to have as sidekicks. The Thug has a good amount of hit points and advantage on attack rolls when fighting side-by-side with allies. Pixies are frail but come with a lot of powerful spells and effectively-persistent invisibility. Svirfneblin have some useful spells and a good long-duration means of poisoning weaker foes. Lizardfolk are one of the stronger fractional CR humanoid options. Although limited in daylight operations, shadows have a lot of resistances and immunities and can soften up melee-reliant enemies. Sprites have a potential save-or-suck poison with their arrows as well as persistent invisibility. Grimlocks aren’t very strong in terms of statistics, but their 30 foot blindsight grants them a lot of potential utility and scouting options.</p><p></p><p><strong>Existing Comparisons:</strong> The concept of sidekick classes comes from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, as does the “add the class onto an NPC/monster stat block of CR ½ or less,” although the particular classes in Spheres of Power & Might are their own original creations. However, sidekicks gaining 1 level for every 2 the PCs gain without a talent tax is a new addition, whereas in Tasha’s they gained levels at the same rate as PCs. Followers don’t have any concrete equivalents in the official 5th Edition rules.</p><p></p><p>However, the Leadership sphere draws most of its influence from earlier Editions of Dungeons & Dragons. 3rd Edition had a controversial feat of the same name that gave the PC a sidekick known as a cohort and a variable number of low-level followers, while in AD&D PCs who reached a certain level could automatically attract loyal followers with skill sets in line with their class.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/sidekicks" target="_blank"><strong>Sidekicks</strong></a> are being reviewed slightly out of order because they tie into one of the Leadership sphere packages. If you recall I talked about the Spherecaster sidekick class back in Spheres of Power, but besides its existence there wasn’t much in the way of discussing how it interacted with the rest of the system. Or how it can be of use to players besides the assumed use with the rules of the same name in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Well Spheres of Might has answered that question, and to help encourage Leadership-eager PCs we have 3 new Sidekick classes!</p><p></p><p>Each class follows typical rules for existing classes in terms of Proficiency Bonuses, Ability Score Increases, and martial talent progression (1 at every even-numbered level). However, their Hit Die is the same as the original monster/NPC type as the stat block to which the class is being added, gaining 1 Hit Die per level. They also don’t have free selection of martial traditions: each Sidekick class can only choose martial traditions related to one of two Key Ability Modifiers. Explorers cannot choose Wisdom-based Traditions, Students can’t choose Charisma, and Veterans can’t choose Intelligence. They also gain proficiency in one additional saving throw rather than the default two and their additional skill proficiencies are pre-defined save one free choice by the player. Explorers gain pseudo-Ranger movement and survival based abilities, Students gain Evasion and various skill-boosting features like a Bard’s Jack of All Trades, and Veterans gain quick reflex-style stuff such as advantage on initiative rolls and on Dexterity saving throws vs effects that they can see.</p><p></p><p>The classes are obviously lackluster in comparison to the other sphere-using classes; they’re the kind of things you’d choose for an NPC companion and not a PC of your own.</p><p></p><p>We have fewer <a href="http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/feats" target="_blank"><strong>Feats</strong></a> for Spheres of Might than we do its magical sister sourcebook; 4 instead of 8, but they are more or less universally useful for a wide variety of builds. Combat Dabbler gives 1 bonus martial talent and +1 to an ability score of choice (unlike Power’s Extra Magic Talent which only increases the Key Ability Modifier), while Intuitive Combatant also grants 1 bonus martial talent but lets the character replace 1 martial talent with another every long rest. Combat Training grants two martial talents, while Great Focus allows the character to maintain and expend a second independent martial focus (or 3 if a 20th level Conscript). While I’ve used the talent-granting feats for the majority of my builds, I can see Great Focus being a worthy choice for those who take spheres that have a lot of expending talent options such as Alchemy.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong><a href="http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/mundane-equipment" target="_blank">Chapter 6: Equipment</a></strong></p><p></p><p>This tiny chapter covers new equipment introduced in this book: 4 martial weapons and 9 alchemical items, to be specific. The weapons all have a particular theme in mind: the two new melee weapons include a garotte, a finessable weapon that can be used while grappling to choke a target, and a lasso is a thrown weapon that deals no damage but can impose the restrained condition as long as you continue to hold onto it. The two ranged weapons include a bola which deals 1 plus Dexterity modifier damage and knocks a target prone on a failed DEX save and they stay prone until their bonds are cut, and a net crossbow which can be loaded with a bola or net to shoot at a far greater distance.</p><p></p><p>Besides the rapier, the garrote is the only 1d8 finessable weapon type in the game when using Spheres of Might.* And given how I outlined earlier how one can use the Athletics sphere to make a Dexterity-based grappler a viable build, the garrote is great for this purpose.</p><p></p><p>*And the Sling Combatant talent gives you the only finessable bludgeoning weapon, and Staff Mastery makes the quarterstaff and polearms finesseable as well. Lot of DEX-friendly options here!</p><p></p><p>The new alchemical items are normal versions of the Alchemy sphere talents of the same name. Quite a few of them are actually 3rd Edition D&D items that never made the transition to 5th such as tanglefoot bags and thunderstones. Others look entirely new, such as smelling salts and itching powder. We have three pseudo-alchemist fire items that deal energy damage and can impose negative conditions on a target (or in the case of Bottled Lightning, easier to hit metal targets). Four items deal no damage but impose some negative condition or reduce a target’s speed to 0 in the case of the Tanglefoot Bag. And the final two are the visibility-limiting Smoke Bomb and Smelling Salts which can wake up an unconscious target but makes it impossible for them to smell for 1 minute.</p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> I can understand why the Leadership sphere would be a restricted option, but I’m glad that it exists and can make for some interesting campaigns. The balance of the talents are a bit questionable; a few are meant to explicitly aid other sphere types and in some cases class features, but others hew closer to the situational side of things. For example, the bonus languages of Linguists can be easily superseded by language-speaking spells, while Managers lets followers operate businesses in the PCs’ absence which isn’t going to be of use in most murderhobo/traveling campaigns. I already talked about the questionable balance between different NPC/Monster stat blocks even of a fractional CR. A 1st-level party gaining an NPC Thug with a (rather limited) 1st-level class is an incredibly powerful sidekick.</p><p></p><p>I don’t have much strong feelings on the new equipment, but I am a bit pleased to see some earlier edition alchemist-themed items showing up in 5th Edition again.</p><p></p><p>Our book ends with three <strong>Appendices,</strong> collecting information from the rest of the book as well as default rules. One appendix has a selection of combat actions both new and existing along with parenthetical suggestions of what spheres are useful for them, while another appendix compiles all of the new and existing Conditions. The third appendix contains creature statistics, three sample CR ⅛ humanoids to be used with the Sidekick classes, and 4 Troops stat blocks for Commoners and the 3 Sidekick classes present in this book (but no Spherecaster oddly enough).</p><p></p><p><strong>Final Thoughts:</strong> I like Spheres of Might, and feel that it grants a lot of interesting options for PCs who feel that noncasters in the base system are too one-note and lacking in customization. There are a lot of play-styles and concepts for martial/roguish characters here that can’t be done easily or at all in default 5th Edition, and even classes with poor talent progression still have a genuine sense of progress where they can do new things as they level up instead of the same thing but better if so desired. While feats are still very useful, the fact that so many talents do similar things as existing PHB ones can better free up PCs from the dilemma of boring yet practical Ability Score Increases vs foregoing that boost in lieu of new things to do. I also like how there’s a lot of options that are effective for skills and noncombat functions such as the Leadership and Tinkerer spheres, so your fighter-types can also excel in certain actions off the battlefield with little investment.</p><p></p><p>However, I don’t like it as much as Spheres of Power. While I do respect how both books are generous with granting “at-will options,” Spheres of Might’s use of martial focus as Power’s Spell Point/Augmentation equivalent made many options feel comparatively conservative. Even within the Sphere system itself there are cases where something that is a regular option in Power is a Legendary Talent in Might. Compare the Nature sphere’s Forge Earth with Berserker’s Alter Terrain: the former can work at range rather than melee and affect a wider possible AoE, all without the use of Augmented Spell Points. While it costs a Spell Point to activate, the Divination sphere’s Blindfolded Oracle has a larger Blindsight range than Scout’s Sight Beyond Sight, which is at-will but costs a bonus action plus the expenditure of martial focus for a mere 10 feet. There’s also the fact that many spheres encourage a “chaining up” of effects moreso than in Power. The Athletics sphere on its own grants a skill proficiency and new means of restoring martial focus, which doesn’t have as much oomph to it as Fencing’s Fatal Thrust or Retribution’s Counterstrike defaults. The Trap sphere expects to be used in conjunction with other spheres unless one’s a fan of darts. It’s still possible to make effective builds without a heavy investment in talents, but it is a marked difference from Spheres of Power which has more spheres and talents that can be functionally useful in isolation.</p><p></p><p>But overall, the “Spheres of” books rate pretty high and make for a fun alternative for building PCs. I don’t know what product I’m going to review after this one. I’m leaning towards the Eat the Rich! Series, although part of me also wants to try branching out beyond 5th Edition and setting books if only to make things interesting. I should have an answer around early September.</p><p></p><p><strong>But before I do that, I’m going to make 2 more converted characters in my next posts!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8378509, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/BrSl9Fj.png[/IMG] [B]Chapter 5: Additional Rules & the Leadership Sphere[/B][/CENTER] [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/b6CbDwS.png[/IMG] I covered the [URL='http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/leadership'][B]Leadership Sphere[/B][/URL] out of alphabetical order for a few reasons. First, it is “optional” in the sense that GM permission is required to take it up and above such permission when using 3rd party products. Second is the fact that while it can technically be taken at any level, it has a sense of renown in the way that being a minimum of 5th level is suggested as a rule for GMs to include.* Thirdly, much like Beastmastery the Leadership sphere and its talents cannot be taken temporarily or by NPC allies such as animal companions and summoned creatures. Fourthly, for campaigns that place emphasis on warfare, domain building, and similar ventures, the entire party can have a “Leadership pool” where they all contribute talents and make use of followers and sidekicks as a group, and can also gain talents “for free” without needing to wait to level up if they spend enough money and complete quests that grow their power and influence. *This kind of screws over the Commander’s Politician subclass, which gets a Leadership sphere talent as a bonus at 2nd level. The Leadership sphere grants Persuasion as a bonus skill (or +1 talent if already possessed) and centers first and foremost around recruiting loyal companions. The companions are divided into two types, both with their own packages and talent tags, and any costs for food, living standards, and basic equipment is abstracted and already presumed to be taken care of. Sidekicks are characters with special skills and training setting them above the common clay, and apply special sidekick classes on top of an NPC/monster stat block of CR ½ or less. Their total number of levels is half that of the Leadership PC’s rounded down, or ¾ or equal if the Greater Recruitment talent is taken once or twice. Followers are noncombatant characters forming into 1-4 groups of 20 based on level. Individual followers are treated as Commoners or collectively as the Troop template applied to the Commoner stat block, and depending on their talents can perform specialized tasks that can aid the character. (followers) talents are varying kinds of specialized skills they can perform as a group, usually granting them additional proficiencies and the ability to provide the Help action to characters using such checks. For example, the Healers talent traits them in Medicine, lets the followers supply free healer’s kits (that can’t be stockpiled or sold), and those spending Hit Die to heal in their presence roll one die type higher (max d12). Priests and Scholars have ritual books allowing them to cast low-level cleric and wizard ritual spells, while Rangers allow the party to move at normal speed over difficult terrain and can find and capture animals up to a certain CR automatically. The Soldiers talent allows followers to fight in combat as (rather weak) combatants, but can be taken multiple times to grant followers martial talents. Sidekicks already get a whole stat block and class, so the talents part of this package grant them advantageous abilities and moves when used with the Leadership PC. Such (sidekick) talents include the PC and sidekick sharing the highest Perception check result when within 30 feet of each other, triggering an opportunity attack when the other succeeds on a disarm/grapple/shove, and gaining non-stackable +1 AC or to weapon attack rolls when within 5 feet of each other. Legendary Talents include such options as being able to gain additional sidekicks albeit having to split their total effective levels between each other, followers gaining flight speed from magic/flying mounts/etc, expending martial focus to impose the Charmed condition a non-hostile being, and applying undead abilities and immunities to sidekicks. One very notable talent turns a single troop of followers into a sidekick whose level progression is slower and uses one of 3 stat block templates based on the class in question, but gains 3 Hit Dice for every level they gain and have the increased damage of a troop template. Squad is a bit unclear on one aspect. As it is a follower troop becoming a sidekick, do all the proficiencies gained from (followers) talents carry over? [B]Combos:[/B] The Alchemists and Artificers follower talents grant one additional use of Alchemy formulae and Tinkerer sphere gadgets for party members. Followers with the Friends in Low Places talent who become a Troop can use the Help action on Sleight of Hand checks, good for those with the Scoundrel sphere and the Sneaky Trapper talent. The free granting of healer’s kits from the Healers talent works nicely with a Scholar that took the Medicine study or any character with the Healer feat. If one has access to Vancian spells with the ritual tags, they can be taught and transcribed into the ritual books of followers with the Priests and Scholars talents provided that the spells are 1st level or lower, while the PC can also learn such spells from their ritual books. The Rangers talent’s ability to automatically capture beasts is an easy way to gain animals to tame via the Beastmastery sphere. The Opening Maneuver and Opportunistic Teamwork sidekick talents work well if the PC and/or sidekick make use of the Brute, Gladiator, or Wrestling spheres. Sidekicks turned into undead via Master of the Dead can avoid friendly fire from the cone-based AoE Greater Ghost Strike talent from the Death sphere given that ability doesn’t affect undead creatures barring a few talent exceptions. An Artisan of at least 9th level with the Smith subclass and Mystic Craftsman can have their followers craft magic arms and armor. Sidekick troops gained via the Squad template are ideal for builds focusing on reach and Guardian (zone) talents given the large amount of squares they can affect in close combat, and their advantage on Strength checks makes them ideal users of the Brute and Wrestling spheres and other abilities that make use of the Athletics skill. Additionally, the increased weapon damage dice and die size from the troop template can make for some large dice pools when used with certain damaging Alchemy sphere talents or Advanced Era weapons courtesy of Tinkerer. Depending on GM leniency, certain stat blocks are very effective to have as sidekicks. The Thug has a good amount of hit points and advantage on attack rolls when fighting side-by-side with allies. Pixies are frail but come with a lot of powerful spells and effectively-persistent invisibility. Svirfneblin have some useful spells and a good long-duration means of poisoning weaker foes. Lizardfolk are one of the stronger fractional CR humanoid options. Although limited in daylight operations, shadows have a lot of resistances and immunities and can soften up melee-reliant enemies. Sprites have a potential save-or-suck poison with their arrows as well as persistent invisibility. Grimlocks aren’t very strong in terms of statistics, but their 30 foot blindsight grants them a lot of potential utility and scouting options. [B]Existing Comparisons:[/B] The concept of sidekick classes comes from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, as does the “add the class onto an NPC/monster stat block of CR ½ or less,” although the particular classes in Spheres of Power & Might are their own original creations. However, sidekicks gaining 1 level for every 2 the PCs gain without a talent tax is a new addition, whereas in Tasha’s they gained levels at the same rate as PCs. Followers don’t have any concrete equivalents in the official 5th Edition rules. However, the Leadership sphere draws most of its influence from earlier Editions of Dungeons & Dragons. 3rd Edition had a controversial feat of the same name that gave the PC a sidekick known as a cohort and a variable number of low-level followers, while in AD&D PCs who reached a certain level could automatically attract loyal followers with skill sets in line with their class. [URL='http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/sidekicks'][B]Sidekicks[/B][/URL] are being reviewed slightly out of order because they tie into one of the Leadership sphere packages. If you recall I talked about the Spherecaster sidekick class back in Spheres of Power, but besides its existence there wasn’t much in the way of discussing how it interacted with the rest of the system. Or how it can be of use to players besides the assumed use with the rules of the same name in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Well Spheres of Might has answered that question, and to help encourage Leadership-eager PCs we have 3 new Sidekick classes! Each class follows typical rules for existing classes in terms of Proficiency Bonuses, Ability Score Increases, and martial talent progression (1 at every even-numbered level). However, their Hit Die is the same as the original monster/NPC type as the stat block to which the class is being added, gaining 1 Hit Die per level. They also don’t have free selection of martial traditions: each Sidekick class can only choose martial traditions related to one of two Key Ability Modifiers. Explorers cannot choose Wisdom-based Traditions, Students can’t choose Charisma, and Veterans can’t choose Intelligence. They also gain proficiency in one additional saving throw rather than the default two and their additional skill proficiencies are pre-defined save one free choice by the player. Explorers gain pseudo-Ranger movement and survival based abilities, Students gain Evasion and various skill-boosting features like a Bard’s Jack of All Trades, and Veterans gain quick reflex-style stuff such as advantage on initiative rolls and on Dexterity saving throws vs effects that they can see. The classes are obviously lackluster in comparison to the other sphere-using classes; they’re the kind of things you’d choose for an NPC companion and not a PC of your own. We have fewer [URL='http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/feats'][B]Feats[/B][/URL] for Spheres of Might than we do its magical sister sourcebook; 4 instead of 8, but they are more or less universally useful for a wide variety of builds. Combat Dabbler gives 1 bonus martial talent and +1 to an ability score of choice (unlike Power’s Extra Magic Talent which only increases the Key Ability Modifier), while Intuitive Combatant also grants 1 bonus martial talent but lets the character replace 1 martial talent with another every long rest. Combat Training grants two martial talents, while Great Focus allows the character to maintain and expend a second independent martial focus (or 3 if a 20th level Conscript). While I’ve used the talent-granting feats for the majority of my builds, I can see Great Focus being a worthy choice for those who take spheres that have a lot of expending talent options such as Alchemy. [CENTER][B][URL='http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/mundane-equipment']Chapter 6: Equipment[/URL][/B][/CENTER] This tiny chapter covers new equipment introduced in this book: 4 martial weapons and 9 alchemical items, to be specific. The weapons all have a particular theme in mind: the two new melee weapons include a garotte, a finessable weapon that can be used while grappling to choke a target, and a lasso is a thrown weapon that deals no damage but can impose the restrained condition as long as you continue to hold onto it. The two ranged weapons include a bola which deals 1 plus Dexterity modifier damage and knocks a target prone on a failed DEX save and they stay prone until their bonds are cut, and a net crossbow which can be loaded with a bola or net to shoot at a far greater distance. Besides the rapier, the garrote is the only 1d8 finessable weapon type in the game when using Spheres of Might.* And given how I outlined earlier how one can use the Athletics sphere to make a Dexterity-based grappler a viable build, the garrote is great for this purpose. *And the Sling Combatant talent gives you the only finessable bludgeoning weapon, and Staff Mastery makes the quarterstaff and polearms finesseable as well. Lot of DEX-friendly options here! The new alchemical items are normal versions of the Alchemy sphere talents of the same name. Quite a few of them are actually 3rd Edition D&D items that never made the transition to 5th such as tanglefoot bags and thunderstones. Others look entirely new, such as smelling salts and itching powder. We have three pseudo-alchemist fire items that deal energy damage and can impose negative conditions on a target (or in the case of Bottled Lightning, easier to hit metal targets). Four items deal no damage but impose some negative condition or reduce a target’s speed to 0 in the case of the Tanglefoot Bag. And the final two are the visibility-limiting Smoke Bomb and Smelling Salts which can wake up an unconscious target but makes it impossible for them to smell for 1 minute. [B]Thoughts So Far:[/B] I can understand why the Leadership sphere would be a restricted option, but I’m glad that it exists and can make for some interesting campaigns. The balance of the talents are a bit questionable; a few are meant to explicitly aid other sphere types and in some cases class features, but others hew closer to the situational side of things. For example, the bonus languages of Linguists can be easily superseded by language-speaking spells, while Managers lets followers operate businesses in the PCs’ absence which isn’t going to be of use in most murderhobo/traveling campaigns. I already talked about the questionable balance between different NPC/Monster stat blocks even of a fractional CR. A 1st-level party gaining an NPC Thug with a (rather limited) 1st-level class is an incredibly powerful sidekick. I don’t have much strong feelings on the new equipment, but I am a bit pleased to see some earlier edition alchemist-themed items showing up in 5th Edition again. Our book ends with three [B]Appendices,[/B] collecting information from the rest of the book as well as default rules. One appendix has a selection of combat actions both new and existing along with parenthetical suggestions of what spheres are useful for them, while another appendix compiles all of the new and existing Conditions. The third appendix contains creature statistics, three sample CR ⅛ humanoids to be used with the Sidekick classes, and 4 Troops stat blocks for Commoners and the 3 Sidekick classes present in this book (but no Spherecaster oddly enough). [B]Final Thoughts:[/B] I like Spheres of Might, and feel that it grants a lot of interesting options for PCs who feel that noncasters in the base system are too one-note and lacking in customization. There are a lot of play-styles and concepts for martial/roguish characters here that can’t be done easily or at all in default 5th Edition, and even classes with poor talent progression still have a genuine sense of progress where they can do new things as they level up instead of the same thing but better if so desired. While feats are still very useful, the fact that so many talents do similar things as existing PHB ones can better free up PCs from the dilemma of boring yet practical Ability Score Increases vs foregoing that boost in lieu of new things to do. I also like how there’s a lot of options that are effective for skills and noncombat functions such as the Leadership and Tinkerer spheres, so your fighter-types can also excel in certain actions off the battlefield with little investment. However, I don’t like it as much as Spheres of Power. While I do respect how both books are generous with granting “at-will options,” Spheres of Might’s use of martial focus as Power’s Spell Point/Augmentation equivalent made many options feel comparatively conservative. Even within the Sphere system itself there are cases where something that is a regular option in Power is a Legendary Talent in Might. Compare the Nature sphere’s Forge Earth with Berserker’s Alter Terrain: the former can work at range rather than melee and affect a wider possible AoE, all without the use of Augmented Spell Points. While it costs a Spell Point to activate, the Divination sphere’s Blindfolded Oracle has a larger Blindsight range than Scout’s Sight Beyond Sight, which is at-will but costs a bonus action plus the expenditure of martial focus for a mere 10 feet. There’s also the fact that many spheres encourage a “chaining up” of effects moreso than in Power. The Athletics sphere on its own grants a skill proficiency and new means of restoring martial focus, which doesn’t have as much oomph to it as Fencing’s Fatal Thrust or Retribution’s Counterstrike defaults. The Trap sphere expects to be used in conjunction with other spheres unless one’s a fan of darts. It’s still possible to make effective builds without a heavy investment in talents, but it is a marked difference from Spheres of Power which has more spheres and talents that can be functionally useful in isolation. But overall, the “Spheres of” books rate pretty high and make for a fun alternative for building PCs. I don’t know what product I’m going to review after this one. I’m leaning towards the Eat the Rich! Series, although part of me also wants to try branching out beyond 5th Edition and setting books if only to make things interesting. I should have an answer around early September. [B]But before I do that, I’m going to make 2 more converted characters in my next posts![/B] [/QUOTE]
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[Let's Read] Spheres of Power & Might for 5e
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