EDTA

Alright, before I get into it officially, I have an idea for a curse but I'm hesitant about it because it might not be enough, or it might not be what is being looked for. Idea is a scholarly sort of person who delved into old tiefling magic and got cursed with something that makes them enfeebled. But their particular form of magic they were good at I guess I'd qualify it as like puppeteering charms (which bards get tons of). So as the curse progressed and they got less and less able to move around on their own power, they started using that puppeteering magic on themselves so they could move around. And now its to the point they basically wear segmented armor all the time so they can manipulate that directly while putting less stress on their body. Their movements are jerky and their staff implement is probably used as a walking tool more than not but otherwise they can get around just fine mechanically. Thinking Envy as the sin, tied into a lot of stuff they aren't really able to do anymore themselves but their puppeteering magic is still strong as ever, so there's that bit of it too. There's also the description of the curse. I know whatever it is makes them enfeebled but I feel there's probably a really cool and interesting way to describe that/build off that I'm not coming up with right now. Like it could be a lot "more" and I'm just focused on an effect of it now.

Well that's good to know. I honestly only thought in that way because I wasn't sure how tieflings would work with the world fluff but now I know and can work with that. With tieflings actually being a "thing" though I'll probably go easier and just have them be a real tiefling and do something novel with the curse.

I'm still grappling with the curse too. Sin maybe a little, but the curse moreso. I'm thinking since nobody else has done anything with tieflings maybe that could tie into the curse for me? Like there's no formal tiefling 'race' but it's instead a manifestation of a curse. Of course that might push the character to be classified as a monster and I don't know if I want that. And as a curse it doesn't seem like much, like it should be that on top of something probably?

Could maybe pull something like that off with Changeling from Eberron since making changes to physical appearance is a minor action at will power for them, making it part of a curse rather than a race issue. Actually that's sort of where I'm at now, I know I want a fiery tiefling bard (cunning), but I'm not sure how I want to do the curse and sin to a lesser extent. Could tie it to the tiefling-ness or there could be actual tieflings out there which might have implications given the setting. Like a difference between some bloodline that's causing issues or instead maybe a scholar who got wrapped up in infernal type research.

I've just been busy, honestly. Still fully intending to submit something when I can. Although no matter how much time passes, it's fun to see how strikers are the most popular apps overall

I suppose that was a little expected. Spheres seems complex so getting people to look deeper can be an ask. But really I think a lot of it is intuitive and maybe a little more complex but not all that complicated! On the magic side of things, you basically have cantrips as base effects that you can scale up by spending a resource, spell points, the amount you can spend at a time capped by your proficiency bonus. That's wild to me, that they took and applied something that was already in 5e, applied a spheres concept to it, and the execution made perfect sense. Or how a lot of the dual sphere and common sphere themes on the magic side of things that got covered by feats or redundant talents are governed by a brand new Universal sphere since 5e spheres has both fewer feats and fewer talents than Pathfinder. And really the implementation makes me wonder why they didn't do that from the start in Pathfinder. Same with Destruction gaining new options as you take different base spheres. On the martial side, you see that feat issues pop up a bit more because a lot of the base effects and scaling up winds up replicating feats from across the system. As someone who gets annoyed by the lackluster implementation of feats in 5e, this is definitely up my alley. And a lot of the emphasis on maneuvers draw on rules that already existed in the system, albeit sometimes optional ones from the DMG. But that's also really neat to me. As an adaptation, at least as far as I've dealt with it, it doesn't feel like trying to cram Spheres into a 5e shaped hole, it actually seems like thought was put into the translation. Sure there are probably some wrinkles, but I think it works and it's a shame it doesn't seem to be more popular.

Hey it could be worse, you could have already discarded two (and maybe three) character concepts because someone made something using the same class.

So I was thinking Bard and I remembered a fun little tiefling feat, Stirring Song of Baator, but then I remembered a snag. There are a lot of 4e weapons that can let you change the damage type of the powers used through them but for some reason only the Flaming weapon got a stealth errata so rather than converting whatever damage type it did before it only works with untyped damage which is a problem since most of Bard's implement powers are typed damage. I was wondering if I could use the original, non DM Kit version (since it literally only changed Flaming). I think it's still plenty balanced, I need to use multiple feats to use weapons as implements, make up for Flaming being in an expensive tier, and to get a benefit from it in the first place. That, and the secret Flaming change (while leaving all the similar and equally optimizable options alone) is just one of those dumb late design things that happened.

Were there any other prohibitions on materials we can use apart from some of the races? Setting materials, Dragon Magazines, Essentials versus original stuff? Or any other house rules we should be aware of? I seem to remember getting an Expertise feat for free was a popular one back in the day.

There was a precursor to that in a blog post that is also popular . Actually somewhat more popular, that's basically the core of it. It isn't really an issue if something "works" with it or not. It's more basic stuff like whether or not someone needs to take Weapon Finesse at level 1 in order to not be terrible at fighting because you're dexterity based, or getting to take something more exciting than Power Attack at level 1. It's a way to cut down on prerequisite feats and feat taxes that plague certain (martial) types of characters at low levels. There's even an even further stripped down from I've seen where just Weapon Finesse, Power Attack, and Combat Expertise simply don't exist and are just things everyone can do with the proper weapon for Finesse or with 1 BAB for the others.

Any thoughts on using ? If you don't know what it was, it was an attempt to cut down on the random feat bloat martial characters needed to take by condensing some options and outright making some things, like Power Attack, into something any sufficiently skilled warrior could just do.

So I really like the Spheres of Power and Might systems by Drop Dead Studios. Very customizable, modular, just the sort of thing I generally dig and it's reasonably popular in Pathfinder ads here, with dedicated games popping up every so often. DDS also made a Spheres system for 5e which, well, doesn't appear to be as popular as the Pathfinder version. But I think it's a really good adaptation of the rules, and even works really well with the framework of 5e in my opinion. A lot of the 'spheres-isms' get applied to things that were already present in 5e. They also redid some of the spheres and general talent themes and from what I've seen it all seems like it works, making for some interesting options. But the problem as I said before is this system doesn't seem to be that popular. I sort of resigned myself to there not being any ads in the future until recently where there was a hint that maybe a GM was open to it in a game they were starting and it actually seemed to garner some interest. That game never materialized, but it got me thinking about 5e spheres again. Honestly, I don't know how easy the system is to pick up. I knew the Pathfinder version so the 5e version was intuitive and streamlined for me, but maybe it isn't if it's all new to you. In the past I heard arguments that sounded like some 5e fans didn't like the increased complexity it offers but honestly I don't think it's all that bad. More than most of 5e by itself sure, but not anything I think is excessive. So that's where I'm at now, I wanted to see what the overall interest level was around here now, if it's something people would want to see a game or two for. I will start this discussion by saying I've run games in the past but I've also pretty much come to the realization that there is no part of running a game I enjoy. I'd only be looking to play, which I realize is the massive ask. Way more people would be interested trying a new system if you ran the games yourself, but honestly I don't see that happening. That out of the way, the rules are freely available in a pretty nice wiki even. I've been looking at a few different third party RPG wikis lately and the DDS people do a better job at them than most. You can see it here:

-"Human" Bard (Maestro) AC: 15 | HP: 17/17 | Fortunate: +4 | Ref: +5 | Will: +5 | Perception: +5 | Conditions: Active Spell Effects: Did they wake the man at this hour? That was unfortunate! But he seemed to know the rest from the funeral, and given this man's general attitude and maybe Keydas and Evelyn's responses when they came to the shack, well, maybe they had good reason to want some backup? Oh well, too late for that! The man might have known the rest of them but he didn't know Anamaria! She wastes no time fixing that issue. "Oh so sorry to disturb you! My name is Anamaria and we were looking into some problems with the farms in the area. Something coming at night and making a mess, attacking the cows I think! Doesn't that sound scary? We were wondering if you might have had problems too, or maybe if you've noticed anything unusual? It would be ever so helpful if we could get some idea of how many people are being affected to find this beast. I'm sure anything you've noticed would be of great help, if it's not too much of a bother!" OOC OOC/Mechanics Place for OOC

-"Human" Bard (Maestro) AC: 15 | HP: 17/17 | Fortunate: +4 | Ref: +5 | Will: +5 | Perception: +5 | Conditions: Active Spell Effects: The task was underway and the trail of the beast was being followed! Or something like that. Anamaria didn't mind the trudging around because this was them actually doing something exciting! Or something that was going to be exciting. Even if it looked a lot like they were standing in front of a shack that wouldn't withstand one particularly bad storm. But it was a clue maybe, a witness perhaps, so why did Keydas want to leave, just to come back later? "Oh Professor Amrath, how would that look? To come unannounced with a threat after already coming here to say nothing before? We might not be invited,"she says as she flits to the door and raps on it three times, "but that doesn't mean we must assume we're unwelcome. After all, we're here to help!" OOC OOC/Mechanics Place for OOC

-"Human" Bard (Maestro) AC: 15 | HP: 17/17 | Fort: +4 | Ref: +5 | Will: +5 | Perception: +5 | Conditions: Active Spell Effects: Talking with the father was all well and good but he wasn't too keen to help them about Uncle Petros, but they could work on him! And there were other things that could be done in the meanwhile. But being honest, Anamaria is far more excited by what was about to happen anyway! "Are we investigating the hupia now? I think that makes sense, it's the day time now so it shouldn't be active so that just means we need to find where it is rather than guess where it's going to be! Not that I don't think your idea isn't a good one, Nastevya. Maybe if we can't find a lair that would be an acceptable course of action once it starts to get late?" OOC OOC/Mechanics Place for OOC