Character Gen and discussion

Having never done spheres before Im a bit overwhelmed. Am I restricted to only spheres classes or can I use traditional pf classes too?

You can do traditional nw. Chunky is also leaning that way I believe.

Start from the fluff. Come up with a character pic/appearance, a personality and a backstory. From there, come up with the kind of powers you want your character to have (spheres can recreate most things, so don't think about it in terms of mechanics: rather, literally go "I want my character to control time" or "I want my character to be a shapeshifter" or whatever. It can literally be anything, just let your fantasy run free), and try to lock what kind of role you want to play for the party (skirmisher? Nuker? Tank? Party face? Something else? Don't think about what role your powers are good for, don't think about what role would work with this or that mechanic: think about the role that you, personally, would have fun playing).

From there, I will be glad to help you select the right class and the right selection of spheres. I find that proceeding this way is the best way of helping people ease into the system ;)

EDIT: of course, I am extending this offer not just to Librarian, but to everyone who's having troubles locking a class!

I'm definitely going for the shadowy sneaky idea, striking from being hidden. I was considering the darkness sphere.

The darkness sphere has two uses: sneaky stuff, and battlefield control. By which I mean: creating darkness can allow you to use said darkness to hide, or to teleport around (shadow jump), or to improve your dastardly maneuvers thanks to the talent Tenebrous Legerdemain, so yeah, if you want to take a class that blends spherecasting with martial abilities, and use it to create what essentially is a magical rogue on steroids, then that's definitely one way to go. The end result would be something similar to Violetta and the Smoke Knights, if you've ever read the webcomic Girl Genius. If you haven't read Girl Genius, then just imagine a rogue mixed with a shadowdancer (the pathfinder prestige class).

However, the darkness sphere can also excel at battlefield control: it can use the enemy's shadow to pin them to the ground and prevent their movement, it can transform an area of darkness into a pool of shadowy liquid so that the enemy will drown in it, it can lower the enemy's saves, it can be mixed with the telekinesis sphere to create literal black holes. Or heck, you can mix it with the war sphere, creating areas that will buff your allies while simultaneously debuffing your enemies, essentially turning you into a traditional zoner: you mark certain zones of the battlefield, and then decide what happens inside those zones.

In general, the wider the uses of your powers, the more you tend to be pushed into a control/support role: traditionally, such a role is better left to the most experienced players at the table, as it requires minute knowledge of many moving parts which might fly right over the head of the newcomers... And with Yamazaki playing a tank, it looks like the control/support role is going to fall at my feet, either with the Herrscher concept I detailed earlier, or with something else entirely (either way, it seems like the more offensive Daybreak concept is off the table for the time being, as attacking with weapons, being a more straightforward way of dealing damage, is better left for the newcomers). So yeah, of the two uses of the darkness sphere I have described I honestly recommend you stick with the first one, as the second one would probably be a bit too complex for you.

Does this make sense? If so I will suggest some potential classes next.

So a classic assassin trope? I can work with that! I have two ideas that you can use as an idea spring board.

Here's the simpler route you could go:
Sounds like maybe the Talent Thief Rogue will be a good starting point. It's a rogue archetype that gets some spellcasting (low casting progression, which means half your class level), but really the trick here is to snag magic that isn't heavily dependant on caster level.

The dark sphere has a lot buff-type talents called 'melds' - they only work in your own created darkness, but given that you can create both a sphere of darkness and a 'blot' of darkness (think a 2D inky pool of black on the floor), this isn't that big of a deal. Choose wisely a meld or two (hide in darkness and step through darkness are quite handy, as is Clearsight to buff allies so they can see thru your darkness).

And here's I would go about it.... (aka Yama is CRAZY!!!)Side note: my Bloody Queen build is fairly self-sustaining in the healing department, what with Blood sphere's Sanguphilia talent (any blood loss or bleed damage I dish out can heal or give Temp HP - which I'll be dishing out a lot of both), combined with a single talent dip into Life (for a vitality talent). Also decent in the damage department (dishing out bleed and Piercing Blood w/spell attack is quite handy). She'll make for a great flanking buddy lol

I'm disappointed you didn't recommend combining the Scoundrel sphere with the Tenebrous Legerdemain talent so as to be able to literally do this :p

Assassin trope is definitely the goal

Sadly, Scoundrel and Tenebrous Legerdemain doesn't actually combine well, because the scoundrel trick talents cannot be used with steal/DT's performed as a free action. Which is what Tenebrous Legerdemain does.

That said, they're both very fun to use. I love a good dirty trick build.

Ok so, how about we cut the nerd talk with myself and Yama so as to not scare off the new players.

If you want to be an assassin of darkness, you're going to need three things:

1) Illusion sphere for invisibility, mixed with as many darkness sphere talents as you find to be appropriate

2) Scoundrel sphere for the sake of doing roguish things

3) Fencing sphere for pseudo-sneak attack

As Yama explained, the mountebank is probably your best bet, as it gives you illusion and scoundrel by default. With those two spheres being already yours (meaning, you don't need to spend a talent to "purchase" them) and a total of 12 talents to spend by level 10, putting together a solid build should be easy enough. Essentially magic for you would be something you use exclusively to jump around shadows, gain concealment and hide, with the meat of your damage coming from your sneak attacks. The class abilities the mountebank gives you are also quite straightforward, so figuring out what your character is going to be about should be easy enough.

Awesome. I have been playing some form of dnd for over 20 years, so it makes sense, its just different. We never did spheres in any games I've played, or if we did it was just one person

Let us know if you need help picking specific spheres. And Chunky if you need similar help do ask!

In the links thread there is a click to my discord, and there is a sphere channel there Yama has been helping people in. As well as a place people can ask OOC stuff as I find it often goes quicker in discord.

So, is Chunky still here or are we bringing in someone else in the end? Either way, it looks like I'll be playing a full caster for this one: you guys like my Herrscher concept I detailed earlier in this topic, or do you think I should go for something more specifically focused on support?

Gene seems up to more spheres experimentation so I'll bring him in.

Barbarian of sorts for me.. :) Yes and Sphere of Might most likely.

Welcome aboard! If you're planning to be a Barbarian of some kind, I strongly recommend you check out the Bear sphere. It was created as an April's Fools joke, but it is a fully functional sphere, and it has a fun and flavorful archetype for Barbarians. Plus, think of all the bear puns you could make.

I cannot promise characters won't be struck by divine lightning for puns :P.

What lightning strikes fur puns. Not like I would do that.

Tears, if you're going for your Herrscher build, I'll pack a bit more healing into my build. I already snagged alchemy and salve (blood potion is awesome!), so dumping a feat or two into using the heal skill wouldn't be a bad idea. It'd be mostly out of combat healing, but that isn't a major pain.