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Spheres of Might Discussion (Patreon)

Published:
2025-12-12 21:15:58
Imported:
2026-10

Content

It’s been a little over a month since my last post, which I hope is plenty of time for people to look things over. While more of the rules are forthcoming, I did want to hear people’s opinions on the chassis while it’s stripped bare, if that makes sense. I wanted to remind people that a discussion channel just for the patreon was added to the discord, and I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on things.

What do you think of the stunt system?

What do you think about the changes to death and dying?

What do you think about the simplifying of how numbers are calculated for attack, defense, and skill?

More specific discussion can and will be asked for in the future, but for now I really just want to hear some unfiltered thoughts and first impressions on how the chassis looks before we go hanging anymore bells or whistles onto it.

Thanks again to everyone who’s joined and taken a look,

Adam

Comments

That Odd Deer

I see a lot of elements of 5th edition and bounded math trying to remove the onus for creating a smooth power curve that is common heroic fantasy and it's very disheartening. The stunt system seems all right. I have no strong feelings one way or the other as it is mostly something that's about setting ground expectations at the system level. Some systems have it some systems don't and whether it's something DMs enjoy or don't is highly subjective

Spheres of Power the TTRPG

I’m not sure I understand. You’re referring to the leveled bonus numbers going from 1-10 instead of 1-20 a la PF2?

That Odd Deer

Not exactly. More so the enforced rigidity you seen in both 5e and pf2e. That and avantage ripped wholesale and how that affects the buff and debuff design space. I'm not stupid enough to request or suggest a complete design shift of a system this deep into it's conceptualization, more just explaining why I feel I won't be supporting this system in the future.

Spheres of Power the TTRPG

Well that is the entire point of an alpha test; now is the perfect time to explain what you don’t like and why. If we were in beta I’d agree with you, but I really want to know your feelings about the buff and debugging design space and what exactly you mean by enforced rigidity.

Darth Bayes

To explain my issues with and understanding of the 'bounded math' issue: It guts buffing. In 5E, most buffs just give advantage, so they don't stack. If you have some intrinsic means of getting advantage, like stealth or high ground or flanking or a class feature, you suddenly no longer benefit from most buffs. You also basically can't have multiple buff-focused characters in a party, and often can't even have one. PF2E is less bad in this respect, but also cuts buffs down almost entirely to a non-stacking bonus type (status), and also cripples debuffs with the Incapacitation keyword rather than something like get-a-new-save boss bonus action options. PF1E has multiple bonus types pretty explicitly so that playing multiple buffers in a party (e.g. bard and wizard and cleric) is possible and useful (and works with characters with self-buffs like a barbarian), and the magnitude of buffs makes them feel useful and impactful. The downsides this had were (a) it being difficult to balance an encounter against a 3-DPS-1-tank party, and a 4-buffer party (like Paladin Cleric Bard Wizard) that did less damage (at least to start) but was much more likely to beat AC/saves and have unhittable AC/saves. (b) people 'being forced to take the Big Six items' when they didn't have a party that would cover those stats with buffs, and the power expectation included that level of buffs, and that turning into 'nobody ever uses Shield of Faith because everyone has Big Six'. (Spheres did a great job of reducing this IMO, with Enhancement's scaling and power, and there being other items that were more attractive than Big Six.) (c) it being too easy for certain stacked buffs and debuffs to boost (casting ability score & DC > enemy saves) to allow beating any at-level boss via save-or-die, or become invulnerable to a monster that only used one means of offense (e.g. physical attacks). But overall I want to play buffers (or if not, then debuffers) and that doesn't feel good in 5E or PF2E, and SoPtTTRPG seems to be borrowing that aspect of the math. (One reason I like SoP PF1E is that buffing feels even better, is more viable, is more varied and flexible, and Martials can benefit from it more and in more ways that just 'more dps'.)