Anybody gotten "Priest of Celestial Spheres" yet?

[Mouseferatu]

Want to share a little of the design philosophy so the rest of us can appreciate what you were aiming for?

Well, the primary mission statement was twofold:

1) To create a cleric variant for whom the choice of deity had a major impact on both spells available and special abilities.

2) To create something with much of the same feel/flavor as the priests of 2nd edition, while making it fully functional and balanced for 3E. (The 2E priest seems to be one of the few mechanics that people actualy miss from that game.)

The best way to do it seemed to be with a system that combined the old concept of spheres with the current concept of domains. Thus, the choices made by a priest of the celestial spheres not only determine what spells he has available, but also what powers (domain-like and otherwise) he can access.

While the priest can be used in a campaign that also involves clerics, it was really intended to replace the cleric. I'm not claiming it's a "better" class; heck, I'm a big fan of the cleric. It's just got a very different feel to it, and it certainly makes followers of different gods feel different.

 

[Mouseferatu]

BTW and apropos of nothing, I know it's been a while since Lions Den has put up a new PDF. A few unfortunate delays have kept us from keeping to our intended release schedule. We've got some cool stuff coming up, though.

[/uncalled-for pimpage]

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Wow...it worked...

I inded have a few questions about some decisions that probably went into making a "Spheres" system for 3E.

- Did you use all spells from the SRD, or are there spells from other OGL sources in there, too?
- Are there spells in more than one sphere, or did you fit each into one sphere only?
- How difficult would you say is it to expand your system to new gods? I'm asking because I'm looking to add a priest class to the Iron Kingdoms, which brought along a heap of new domains and changed a few according to their background.

And thanks for popping up here and making me want to pop those € immediately.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Can you elaborate a little?

How many spheres are there? Do they correspond to the domains? What happened to turn undead (okay, it's one of these blessings now, so this means not all priests can turn undead?) and spontaneous casting of cure/inflict spells (also a blessing? also only usable as often as you have turning attempts?)

 

[Nellisir]

Mouseferatu - Glad to hear Lion's Den has more stuff forthcoming. Any hints? Are you planning any supplements to the Priest?

How many spheres are there? Do they correspond to the domains? What happened to turn undead (okay, it's one of these blessings now, so this means not all priests can turn undead?) and spontaneous casting of cure/inflict spells (also a blessing? also only usable as often as you have turning attempts?)

There are 16 full spheres: Death, Earth, Flame, Grace, Knowledge, Life, Magic, Mind, Plants, Protection, Roads, Summons, Undeath, War, Water, Wind; 4 limited or minor spheres: Beasts, Fear, Illumination, Lies; and the "meta-sphere" Universal, which all priests get and grants no skills or powers. Each normal sphere grants several additional class skills.
Incidently, there's a reference on page 9 to "12 standard spheres"; I think it's an outdated number (or I need to read this more carefully).

The Life sphere grants turning/destroying, while the undeath sphere grants commanding/rebuking. Some of the sphere powers mimic domain powers; others are new.

The accessory gives a number of generic portfolios and suggestions for associated spheres (Table 1-3).

I don't see any provisions for spontaneously casting heal spells beyond the Spontaneous Sphere feat (which, IMO, charges too high a price - prepared spell + 1 blessing would be better).

There are 6 new/revised feats (Extra Blessings is essentially the same as Extra Turning), and 36 new-ish spells (I think some are reprinted from "The Planar Mage", which I don't have; ergo they're all new to me).

It'd be really nice to see additional spheres and spells - Mouseferatu, did you have any design guidelines regarding spheres that you can share?

My biggest complaint about this? The limited spheres are only noted in their full descriptions; it'd be nice if they were also noted on Table 1-2, Class Skills by Sphere, or if a summary table were added giving a brief description of each sphere, including whether it was minor or major. A pretty minor complaint, I think. ;-)

Hope I didn't give away too much here...
Good work!
Nell.

 

[Nellisir]

A quick thought -- it might be interesting to explore "master spheres", spheres with only 5th level or higher spells, gained through feats or prestige classes.Cheers
Nell.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Okay, I'm sold!

As soon as I can convince my bank account to trickle some more cash on my Paypal account, I'm going to head to RPG Now and make it mine! This sounds like you did some great work, Mouse, and I'm looking forward to reading it and using it in my games.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Hm... so they're not the same as the domains? Too bad.

As soon as I can convince my bank account to trickle some more cash on my Paypal account

Isn't the Lastschrift - method back up? I used that a couple of weeks ago when they were testing it, but that test phase ended and they said it will be back up mid-july. It worked well: They transfer the money to the other guy's account at once and then charge your account. I even got 10 Euro sent to my PayPal account for testing it

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Isn't the Lastschrift - method back up? I used that a couple of weeks ago when they were testing it, but that test phase ended and they said it will be back up mid-july. It worked well: They transfer the money to the other guy's account at once and then charge your account. I even got 10 Euro sent to my PayPal account for testing it

That's something I should check out...even if it doesn't make much difference, with an empty bank account until the 1st of August.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Mouseferatu - Glad to hear Lion's Den has more stuff forthcoming. Any hints? Are you planning any supplements to the Priest?

No supplements planned at the moment. With PDFs, it's difficult to sell enough of any one product for a "sequel" to be worthwhile. We do, however, have additional core classes planned.

There are 16 full spheres: Death, Earth, Flame, Grace, Knowledge, Life, Magic, Mind, Plants, Protection, Roads, Summons, Undeath, War, Water, Wind; 4 limited or minor spheres: Beasts, Fear, Illumination, Lies; and the "meta-sphere" Universal, which all priests get and grants no skills or powers. Each normal sphere grants several additional class skills.
Incidently, there's a reference on page 9 to "12 standard spheres"; I think it's an outdated number (or I need to read this more carefully).

D'oh! Yes, that's an outdated number that should have been changed.

There are 6 new/revised feats (Extra Blessings is essentially the same as Extra Turning), and 36 new-ish spells (I think some are reprinted from "The Planar Mage", which I don't have; ergo they're all new to me).

Yes, some are reprinted from Planar Magic. That's why we included the coupon; don't want people to think we're making them pay for the same material twice.

It'd be really nice to see additional spheres and spells - Mouseferatu, did you have any design guidelines regarding spheres that you can share?

It was actually more or less instinctive. I looked at what domains exist in 3E, what spheres existed in 2E, and I tried to find a combination that would capture the "essence" of both, without blatantly copying either.

My biggest complaint about this? The limited spheres are only noted in their full descriptions; it'd be nice if they were also noted on Table 1-2, Class Skills by Sphere, or if a summary table were added giving a brief description of each sphere, including whether it was minor or major. A pretty minor complaint, I think. ;-)

Hmm... I guess we could have mentioned that. I'll keep it in mind if I do anything in similar in the future.