Character Creation Discussion Thread

[Taggerung559]

@Djacob91 I asked about reaper earlier, it is available.

Edited January 5 by Taggerung559 (see edit history)

[CRook]

Is the Veilweaving Sphere for spherecasters available?

[Saberfan]

On 1/3/2024 at 9:06 AM, Mister Doctor said:

@Saberfan

Toying with a couple of ideas

First, how do you feel about a Collective Wraith? Playing a literal mook squad could be a lot of fun.

Edit: Am I allowed to make a second race for my cohorts from the Leadership sphere?

Secondly you mentioned allowing the Starfinder class conversions on the Spheres Wiki so long as they took archetypes to convert them into spheres characters. I'm not seeing any archetypes for that anywhere. Were you referring to the spheres rules for trading spellcasting or character progression feats for spheres progression?

Collective Wraith is a cool archetype and has a lot of narrative potential depending on how you want to spin it and/or combine it with your custom race: alien insect-humanoids belonging to a hivemind, unquiet spirits who have grown into a haunted tangle of psionic echoes, siblings born with a single soul, etc. Feel free to experiment with it at your leisure.

You may create your cohort's race as well.

The Starfinder archetypes are buried deep within the Spheres wiki, so it takes quite a bit of digging to get to them.

On 1/3/2024 at 1:54 PM, Rudra said:

How do knowledge skills interact with the multiverse setting?

I mean, my character has good reasons to take more than decent knowledge skills for her homeworld, but no reason to have them apply for the rest of the multiverse(in fact shes supposed to be incompetent in this area).

I was thinking, given the infinite number of worlds, would it be possible to take lore (my homeworld) as a catch all for every knowledge skill? enough to tell it's history, the nobles, religion, nature ecc but limited to her own homeworld

I am keeping the Knowledge abilities the same for simple ease of use. That said, I would allow for Lore (Homeworld) to cover a wide range of topics for a singular world to be taken as part of your Background Skills.

18 hours ago, Faeryl_ said:

So it's explicitly called out that Striker's AC Bonus stacks with Unarmored Training (here in an AMA by the devs and here again on the wiki page), but not with other AC bonuses like Monk's. This makes sense of course, but my question is: does Unarmed Training stack with the Entropic Sage's AC bonus (which is essentially identical to Striker's) given they are two different types of bonus (armor vs untyped)? My Spherecasting Mod is likely to wind up higher than my Con Mod since I will be using magic a lot, but I want to be certain about this. Given the precedent, I think it ought to, but others/the GM may disagree so I'm putting it here.

Additional Question: The Hedgewitch's Umbral Path gives me the Shadowstuff class feature (the same as the Fey Adept class). Does this mean I treat my Hedgewitch level as my Fey Adept level for the purposes of the Shadowmark portion of this feature? The Hedgewitch Path doesn't specify.

 

There are actually quite a few differences between the Striker's AC Bonus feature and that of the Entropic Sage. That said, the wording of Entropic Sage's AC bonus bears mentioning because it, quote, "does not stack with similar abilities, such as possessed by the monk."

Hedgewitch levels do count as Fey Adept levels for the purposes of the Shadowstuff and Shadowmark features.

27 minutes ago, CRook said:

Is the Veilweaving Sphere for spherecasters available?

The Veilweaving Sphere is available.

[Niblooey]

I've got a couple questions for uh, custom races. Making a dreammoth kind of species.

I was planning on giving them the DreamspaceDreamspace (Dual Sphere)
Prerequisites: Mind sphere, Warp sphere.
Benefit: When you sleep, you may choose to project your mind into a quasi-real space, or dreamspace. This dreamspace is a single 10-foot cube in size (increasing by a single 10-foot cube every 4 character levels, their arrangement determined when you level) and you can select the ambient light level, temperature, and cosmetic style when entering the dreamspace or as a standard action. The cosmetic style of your dreamspace is only partially under your control, reflecting your current dreams, state of your mind, and conscious desires.

When you use an action to adjust the style it will always reflect your intended changes, but you do not have fine control over its appearance and your unconscious mind may be reflected in its subtler elements. You can choose to have it appear as a castle, but not a specific castle or place you have seen, and if you are worried it may appear to be under siege or shrouded in shadow.

You interact with the dreamspace using a copy of your body and all you wear, leaving behind your physical body in the real world. You may also choose to bring up to a heavy load of unattended, inanimate objects within touch range into your dreamspace with you, causing them to disappear when you fall asleep, and may choose to bring them back in a similar manner when you wake. Your dreamspace and any items left within it persist even while you are not in it, though they enter stasis until you return.

Because the dreamspace is not a true physical location, you cannot take any actions that would cause you to leave the dreamspace other than waking up, or that would affect your body or the real world. In addition, the dreamspace cannot be entered using normal teleportation or planeshifting effects. At the GM’s discretion, effects allowing travel to normal dreams can enter the dreamspace, and it may count as a dreamscape for certain effects.

Otherwise, actions have their normal effects in the dreamspace. Regardless of how you spend your time in dreamspace, you gain the normal benefits of sleep. feat as a static bonus feat, but since the feat requires the Mind and Warp spheres as prerequisites, it's not a legal choice (relevant textStatic Bonus Feat (2 RP): Prerequisites: None; Benefit: Choose one feat with no prerequisites. All members of this race gain this feat as a bonus feat at 1st level. ). The feat doesn't rely on either of the prerequisites since it scales off of character level, so would it be like, fine? General idea is that their society exists primarily in networked dreamspaces mediated by specialist dreamthreaders, so knowing how to build your own place would be a crucial skill in your night-to-night.

Also considered using static bonus feat and getting Extra Origin TalentExtra Origin Talent [Origin]
Benefit: You gain an additional origin talent.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times. The effects stack. to nab the Quick RestYou only need to sleep 2 hours per day to gain the benefit of 8 hours of sleep. This allows a character that requires rest to regain spell points or prepare spells to do so after only 2 hours, but this does not allow a character to regain spell points or prepare spells more than once per day. form-utility talent as a racial feature (there isn't really an equivalent in the race builder), but this feels kinda like an exploit since it lets me use origin sphere stuff using racebuilder mechanics. The whole 'rest in 2 hours as if you slept 8' thing is also kinda common in hyper-optimized builds for some reason, usually getting it from a ring of sustenance (people seem to use it to reset their daily spellslots quickly, but I've never seen a game where that trick was actually utilized, even when they had the ring), though I'm primarily using this talent as an excuse to have my character's species take tons of short naps all the time without it wrecking their health.

Edited January 6 by Niblooey (see edit history)

[Saberfan]

20 hours ago, Niblooey said:

I've got a couple questions for uh, custom races. Making a dreammoth kind of species.

I was planning on giving them the DreamspaceDreamspace (Dual Sphere)
Prerequisites: Mind sphere, Warp sphere.
Benefit: When you sleep, you may choose to project your mind into a quasi-real space, or dreamspace. This dreamspace is a single 10-foot cube in size (increasing by a single 10-foot cube every 4 character levels, their arrangement determined when you level) and you can select the ambient light level, temperature, and cosmetic style when entering the dreamspace or as a standard action. The cosmetic style of your dreamspace is only partially under your control, reflecting your current dreams, state of your mind, and conscious desires.

When you use an action to adjust the style it will always reflect your intended changes, but you do not have fine control over its appearance and your unconscious mind may be reflected in its subtler elements. You can choose to have it appear as a castle, but not a specific castle or place you have seen, and if you are worried it may appear to be under siege or shrouded in shadow.

You interact with the dreamspace using a copy of your body and all you wear, leaving behind your physical body in the real world. You may also choose to bring up to a heavy load of unattended, inanimate objects within touch range into your dreamspace with you, causing them to disappear when you fall asleep, and may choose to bring them back in a similar manner when you wake. Your dreamspace and any items left within it persist even while you are not in it, though they enter stasis until you return.

Because the dreamspace is not a true physical location, you cannot take any actions that would cause you to leave the dreamspace other than waking up, or that would affect your body or the real world. In addition, the dreamspace cannot be entered using normal teleportation or planeshifting effects. At the GM’s discretion, effects allowing travel to normal dreams can enter the dreamspace, and it may count as a dreamscape for certain effects.

Otherwise, actions have their normal effects in the dreamspace. Regardless of how you spend your time in dreamspace, you gain the normal benefits of sleep. feat as a static bonus feat, but since the feat requires the Mind and Warp spheres as prerequisites, it's not a legal choice (relevant textStatic Bonus Feat (2 RP): Prerequisites: None; Benefit: Choose one feat with no prerequisites. All members of this race gain this feat as a bonus feat at 1st level. ). The feat doesn't rely on either of the prerequisites since it scales off of character level, so would it be like, fine? General idea is that their society exists primarily in networked dreamspaces mediated by specialist dreamthreaders, so knowing how to build your own place would be a crucial skill in your night-to-night.

Also considered using static bonus feat and getting Extra Origin TalentExtra Origin Talent [Origin]
Benefit: You gain an additional origin talent.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times. The effects stack. to nab the Quick RestYou only need to sleep 2 hours per day to gain the benefit of 8 hours of sleep. This allows a character that requires rest to regain spell points or prepare spells to do so after only 2 hours, but this does not allow a character to regain spell points or prepare spells more than once per day. form-utility talent as a racial feature (there isn't really an equivalent in the race builder), but this feels kinda like an exploit since it lets me use origin sphere stuff using racebuilder mechanics. The whole 'rest in 2 hours as if you slept 8' thing is also kinda common in hyper-optimized builds for some reason, usually getting it from a ring of sustenance (people seem to use it to reset their daily spellslots quickly, but I've never seen a game where that trick was actually utilized, even when they had the ring), though I'm primarily using this talent as an excuse to have my character's species take tons of short naps all the time without it wrecking their health.

I am willing to allow an exception for Dreamspace, although I will require you to meet those pre-reqs to actually use it mechanically. That should be an acceptable compromise. As a big fan of Hollow Knight, I'm interested in seeing this dream moth race of yours.

[Saberfan]

I just remembered that there is something that has yet to be addressed: party size. The goal was to recruit a party of five and, barring exceptional circumstances, that is how many will be chosen come February.

[Inquisitor D]

So, took a look at the Starfinder conversions on the spheres wiki. In addition to the classes, there's also some suggestions for converting Starfinder gear. Would that be on the cards? It's a way bigger source of technological stuff than the PF Tech Guide or the Tech Sphere, but the conversion guidelines seem kinda makeshift.

[Dawson06]

Have you taken a look at origin traditions as an option for custom races? This would be an alternative to the normal race-builder, and is found here -- http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/origins#toc6

Edited January 7 by Dawson06 (see edit history)

[dalamb]

I may have missed something, but: what sources are allowed for non-Class things like feats? I was thinking of making a flyer, and being able to use the 3rd-party Improved Flight feat would be nice instead of piling up +2 race points to get from the base Clumsy manoeuvrability to Average.

[TheFred]

Origins is maybe almost as bad as the Paizo race-builder (in different ways) but it does allow some options that the latter doesn’t. The DM has OKed taking Extra Origin Talent, though (and that’s also a feat with no prereqs so you could take it as part of your race for 2 RP).

I would like to know if we can take Origins Variations, though - I assume yes because it says you can take them whenever you’d gain a talent (so certainly if you take the feat to gain a talent, you ought to be able to pick up variations then) or at DM’s discretion when gaining a level. This would let us do things the Paizo one doesn’t, like non-bipedal races.

Another question: could we take Basic Magical Training as a bonus racial feat? Technically it has a prereq, but that’s only that you don’t already have casting (as it becomes Extra Magic Talent then). It’s also common amongst the Spheres Alternative Racial Traits (but doesn’t have an RP cost associated with it).

[VennDygrem]

1 hour ago, dalamb said:

I may have missed something, but: what sources are allowed for non-Class things like feats? I was thinking of making a flyer, and being able to use the 3rd-party Improved Flight feat would be nice instead of piling up +2 race points to get from the base Clumsy manoeuvrability to Average.

I believe maneuverability only improves the bonus (or penalty) you get on fly skill checks. Anything that adds a bonus to Fly is effectively the same as improving your maneuverability. If you're asking because you want to do something like Hover or what-not, there are feats for that, but also the Athletics sphere has 'Powerful Wings' which has several benefits to make flying easier.

[Niblooey]

On 1/6/2024 at 8:50 PM, Saberfan said:

I am willing to allow an exception for Dreamspace, although I will require you to meet those pre-reqs to actually use it mechanically. That should be an acceptable compromise. As a big fan of Hollow Knight, I'm interested in seeing this dream moth race of yours.

Thanks! Minor clarification, is it "You" as in my character? Or anyone of that race? I'm fine investing in both spheres to get it to work, but I'd rather not like, give the whole race basic magical training in both Warp and Mind spheres just so they can fulfill the prereqs by default.

And another thing; the Outsider (Native) subtype assumes you're currently on your home plane, with you swapping that designation out the moment you end up elsewhere (it's a bit more accurate to say it's Outsider (Material Plane) for tieflings and the like). Will outsiders lose the native subtype the moment they enter Nexus or other realms, making them subject to banishment and stuff? Or is it like, any not Material-ish planes?

Hrm. Can Gatewalkers be banished in general? They're like, kinda funky.

[Laird Ichofox]

27 minutes ago, Niblooey said:

And another thing; the Outsider (Native) subtype assumes you're currently on your home plane, with you swapping that designation out the moment you end up elsewhere (it's a bit more accurate to say it's Outsider (Material Plane) for tieflings and the like). Will outsiders lose the native subtype the moment they enter Nexus or other realms, making them subject to banishment and stuff? Or is it like, any not Material-ish planes?

Hrm. Can Gatewalkers be banished in general? They're like, kinda funky.

I mean, if Gatewalkers can be banished, all it does is buys the banisher just over 3 minutes? But this is a good question, how are Outsiders with the Native subtype affected.

[dalamb]

16 hours ago, VennDygrem said:

I believe maneuverability only improves the bonus (or penalty) you get on fly skill checks. Anything that adds a bonus to Fly is effectively the same as improving your maneuverability. If you're asking because you want to do something like Hover or what-not, there are feats for that, but also the Athletics sphere has 'Powerful Wings' which has several benefits to make flying easier.

I understand all of that - and Powerful Wings does avoid some of the fly checks - but there are other situations where being cliumsy is a disadvantage. So, that Improved Flight feat would still be useful if 3rd party feats are acceptable.

[VennDygrem]

No doubt! I just figured I'd offer some alternatives in case it's not allowed, though I can't imagine why it shouldn't be. :)