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Spheres of Might
Publisher: Drop Dead Studios
by Derfael O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/15/2017 11:41:06

Disclaimer: I backed the Kickstarter for this project and followed it since the beginning and participated in the playtesting of this material.

One thing that I would like to say upfront is that if you are ONLY planning to purchase this product in hopes that it will make martials on-par with Tier 1 classes (such as the Wizard, Cleric, and Druid), DON'T. Even if your game has replaced core vancian spellcasting with spherecasting, Spheres of Power is still without a doubt superior to martials using Spheres of Might. It has been discussed at length that it wasn't the mission of Spheres of Might to fix martials in that regard.

What I will say this product does do, is allow you to build martials who are defined not so much by their class, but how you build them, and it all starts with Martial Traditions.

In Core pathfinder, all too often you will find GM's and Players who are under the false impression that in-order to play a specific character concept, you must have levels in a base class or prestige class which matches the name. For example, if you want to play a ninja, you must have levels in the ninja class; if you want to play a samurai, you must have levels in the samurai class; if you want to play a druid, you must have levels in the druid class, etc.

Spheres of Power (the older companion product), throws this notion out the window with the use of Casting Traditions. With casting traditions you can play any spherecasting class and just choose the relevant casting tradition. For example, you could be an Armorist with the druidic casting tradition, a Hedgewitch with the druidic casting tradition, or an Incanter with the druidic casting tradition; it makes no difference.

Spheres of Might, does the same thing for martial characters with the use of Martial Traditions. Which allows you to define your character even further by defining just how your character was trained. Where you a knight? A thief? A gladiator? There are martial traditions for these and 30+ more, while also including guidelines to creating your own. And that is just the beginning.

After picking your martial tradition (which determines bonus starting proficiencies and starting combat spheres), you can further build, define, and expand your character even further by picking up spheres and talents from a list of 20+ combat spheres which cover aspects such as Alchemy, Beastmastery, Dual Wielding, Sniping, and Scouting (just to name a few).

Spheres of Might also includes Legendary Talents (which like Advanced Talents from Spheres of Power) must be approved individually by a GM. Personally, for a number of legendary talents, I feel they were locked behind a specific level unnecessarily. Most notably legendary talents such as Sever, which allows for the amputation of limbs (but is locked behind a BAB prerequisite of +11). The problem I see with this is that it infers that soldiers in war do not experience limb loss unless fighting something with 11 or more HD. It also infers that a medieval surgeons cannot amputate limbs before 11th level. Ofcourse the authors have repeatively given their explanation for such saying that it is because they don't want players to lose limbs before magic is available which can restore the condition (which I feel is a weak argument, seeing that death is a condition that players face at 1st level without affordable means or restoring that condition). However, these small gripes are not ones that I consider strong enough to reduce my rating of this product significantly.

Spheres of Might also offers a wide range of new base classes (and archetypes) which utilize Spheres of Might to its fullest potential, all of which I feel are fun alternatives to a number of Paizo Classes. For example, the Scholar class could easily fill the role of a number of classes (alchemist, bard, cleric, or wizard); whereas the rogue class could easily be replaced by the new Conscript, Striker, or Technician class (depending upon the type of rogue built).

For GM's Spheres of Might includes an array of pre-statted monsters ranging from CR 1-20, aswell as fast and easy guidelines for giving Martial Traditions to monsters.

Personally, I feel that Spheres of Might shines the most when combined with Spheres of Power, as they compliment each other nicely by lowering the power of casters, while raising the utility of martials; and while Spherecasters are without a doubt still superior to Spheremartials, this product does allow a martial to more fully enjoy his contribution to the game table.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Spheres of Might
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The Secrets of the Metadventurer (PFRPG)
Publisher: Rite Publishing
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/15/2016 12:53:27

Actually I was quite surprised by the class. When I first read it, I was expeciting an overpowered class with overthetop abilities. But to my surprise, the class was actually quite balanced, and I would honestly allow the class to be played in any games I run (however, I may require the renaming of all class features so to promote good roleplaying). The general feel of the class gave me the impression of the factotum class (from v3.5 Dungeons and Dragons: Dungeonscape). It is very adaptable to different encounters while not overshadowing the staple abilities that other players may have. In short it is a very decent class, and one that I would allow to be used in-game.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Secrets of the Metadventurer (PFRPG)
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Psionics Augmented: Soulknives
Publisher: Dreamscarred Press
by Derfael O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/19/2016 13:25:46

This is actually only the first half of Psionics Augmented: Soulknives. As the title and suggestion suggests the pdf contains new archetypes and bladeskills for soulknives.

The Archetypes:

Augmented Blade: Uses a psicrystal to augment existing blades. Thematic, and it has its uses.

Brutality Blade: The easiest way to describe it is a soulknife with a little barbarian rage in its life.

Psychic Armory: This archetype allows the soulknife to manifest several blades that float and orbit around her. She can then launch them at her enemies at a whim.

The Blade Skills:

There are far too many soulknife blade skills for me to go into depth about. However, a large number of the bladeskills allow for the soulknife to acquire mindshaped items that were once archetype specific. Thus, for example, a regular soulknife may acquire a mind bolt or mind armor as if they had the soulbolt or armored blade archetypes. In addition there are new blade skills that expand the mobility and versatility of the soulknife. In short, there is a blade skill here for any soulknife.

What the PDF does not Contain:

  • Feats
  • Prestige Classes
  • Equipment
  • Gifted Blade Powers

In Summary:

Even if you are not interested in giving your soulknife a psicrystal, having it rage out, or surround itself with numerous mind blades, this book contains blade skills that will benefit any soulknife regardless of archetype. If you are instead looking for new feats, equipment or psionic powers for your soulknife, I would recommend waiting for the second half of this document.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Psionics Augmented: Soulknives
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Psionics Augmented: Focused Disciplines
Publisher: Dreamscarred Press
by Derfael O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/11/2015 12:31:43

I cannot help but say that I was disappointed when I flipped through the book for the first time and found not only were there no additional powers, but there was absolutely no support for any of the other psionic classes. Now while I understood that this was a supplement to the psion class, I had hoped that there would be feats or archetypes that would provide other classes discipline powers or abilities.

Unfortunately there were none.

However, the book does what it is meant to, it is entirely focused on the disciplines that a Psion has and it does so in a very elegant fashion. Each discipline has new ways for specialization allowing the player to build his character as he wants. So, while I was initially disappointed, that was more of me expecting what wasn't advertised. And with that I will give it a four star review.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Psionics Augmented: Focused Disciplines
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