Indeed it doesn't, as you're still primarily humanoid. If a drawback as big as "can't be healed" was part of your package, it'd be mentioned on the race page; since it isn't, I'm ruling it's fine.

You might want to pick your avatar though, or else I'll need to do so for you.

Eh, depends on how construct-y you are. Either you're alive enough to be healed by positive energy, dead enough to be healed by negative energy or you're stuck with Repair from the Creation Sphere.

Or Esoteric Healing, which would specifically allow me to use Life abilities (a.k.a. heals) on constructs and undead since it's no longer using positive energy.

Edit: Ninja'd :P

She's of the Created race, which is basically a type of Cyborg race. So, with mechanical parts, and artificially built rather than born, but still primarily living creatures.

http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/created
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:41, Fri 14 Jan 2022.

Felt like sharing:

Lol

Question for our Overlord: I can't find anywhere in the rules what the rule is for Natural 1's on a Concentration check, if it's an automatic miss even if your check meets the DC?

On the forums there are people arguing that the Natural 1 rules only mention attack -and saving rolls specifically, so it wouldn't count on Concentration rolls. Since it seems to be a matter of interpretation and preference, I'll leave it up to you to make a solid ruling, so we know where we stand on that.

In general, unless the rules say so, a 1 is not an automatic failure; as far as I'm aware, the rules only have the 1 autofail/20 autosucceed for Saves and Attack Rolls. They don't have them for Skill rolls, and while Concentration rolls aren't skill rolls, I couldn't find anything saying they had autofail rules either. So, no, a natural 1 isn't necessarily an automatic failure on concentration check.

Keep in mind that Concentration checks in Spheres are treated slightly differently than in Vancian, due to the lack of spell levels:

Okidoki thanks for the clarification.

So, I'm officially announcing that the time to submit RTJ has now currently closed. I received 16 RTJ, and the majority of those were very good; enough so, in fact, that I decided to expand the number of players I'll be accepting from 5 to 7 (that's in addition to the two I already had when I created the game for them). Any more than that would be impossibly unwieldy.

That still means that at least 9 people will be left disappointed that they were rejected, which I'm very sad about because there's a lot more than 7 RTJ which I thought were really quite good and, in different circumstances, I would have easily admitted to the game. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of PF games to generate a lot of interest and thus to result in people who presented a pretty good concept that had no real weak points of its own to be overshadowed by those whose pretty good concept had something extra and unique going for it. I apologize to anybody who will feel slighted.

I have already read every single submitted RTJ, including the one that was submitted one minute before the deadline, and I have a general idea of who I'll be admitting, but I'm going to sleep now, and will re-read every single one in the morning, which is eight hour from now for me, before making a final decision.

Throughout the day, I will be admitting the people who will make it, but once I'm done with that I will also personally inform every single person who didn't make it as to why I couldn't accept their submission, which hopefully will make the rejections understandable, even if not pleasant. I'm stating this to let people know that I will answer to everyone, although with the people who won't be accepted being contacted later. I hope that will keep anybody from building up false hopes.

While that part of the message was for the people who submitted their RTJ and will be expecting an answer - this is a public thread so everybody should be able to read it - I also need to start the process of building the actual team that will be playing in the game, which is what the rest of this message is about.

Ay and Iona, I would like if you could start that off by making a small post to give the new players a general idea of what your character will be like from a personality and specialization standpoint, emphasizing their most unique traits. That should help in making everybody understand what they should complement as I finalize the character builds of whichever people will be admitted with them; I will be asking them to do the same so that a better coordination between members of the team can be achieved, since I don't want people to double up on things and would rather prefer everybody to have their own established niches, both from a mechanics and from a personality standpoint.

I also hope that seeing the team composition being showcased in this manner will help anybody who is rejected understand my picks as I make them, and why that's not meant as a slight to any specific characters: having characters that could synergize well with each other is an important factor to decide which characters to admit, and that's something that hinges on multiple aspects at once.

Good night to everybody; I'll be back in eight hours to start re-reviewing the RTJ and letting people into the game.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:46, Fri 28 Jan 2022.

Certainly.

First off, welcome to any new players, and to those that didn't make it i hope i'll meet you in another RP in the future :)

As for Iona, she is a Dhampir Cleric (well, Dual Channeler Soul Weaver, but...), able to channel both positive and negative energy. She can infuse them with additional healing, and damaging effects on enemies. Dhampir heal from negative energy and are damaged by positive, but she can 'reverse her polarity' so to speak, so allow me to point out now that this will not be an issue to the party.

She's also a pretty decent party 'face', especially with her ability to take 20s on Diplomacy rolls and some mind-affecting Charm shenanigans. That said however, i am not at all experienced at playing high level characters, so i'll be in need of your support as members of the party :)
This message was last edited by the player at 00:25, Sat 29 Jan 2022.

Exciting that we're getting more team members!!

Ay Matra is a grappling specialist. She's a small Created (half construct) that used to be an assassin but she managed to get out from under the thumb of her master and now lives amongst friends as a martial artist. She's naturally curious and wants to understand people around her, as she spent so much time in isolation as a killing machine.

Mechanically she can teleport and be stealthy and scout, as well as dominate a single enemy in combat through grappling.

For everyone: due to the type of game this is, rings of sustenance are recommended (even though you might have already come to the same conclusion). Aside from that we'd need a way to be able to rest/sleep safely. It's possible that the warp sphere can help with that and maybe someone already has that covered in their build. I wanted to kick off the debate on how we can solve that particular in-game challenge.

Hi everyone!

Verik is a swordsman, all about glory and heroism and proving himself.

Mechanically he's good at offensive magic and melee combat in synergy, and particularly good at dealing with magic-users.

Getting a Ring of Sustenance is easy enough, we have enough treasure that an item to make a Warp realm should be doable?
This message was last edited by the player at 12:09, Sat 29 Jan 2022.

Hello, everyone. I'll be your party's perfectly ordinary librarian for this adventure.

Diata is a scholar from a crumbling clan-based society, currently on the team for some way to save the Republic of Sakuna before the Hell Knights overrun her land again. And because, y'know, Asmodeus' victory in a big divine contest would be really bad.

Mechanically, let's see. She'll be the group's trapsmith and disarmer, she can assist with healing through mundane means, she has a massive array of debuffs she can lay down on the enemy, and she's particularly well-suited for ruining an enemy mage's day. (Fun fact...most casting traditions include verbal components. Verbal components are hard to recite when there's a strangling noose around your neck.) In town, she's a pretty excellent face conversationally, though she's not very good for Gather Information diplomacy and not ideal at Intimidate either. Most iconically, she has read the Monster Manual back to front and can tell you what any enemy is and how to kill it. (Scout sphere ftw.) She's a very good archer, but she would very much appreciate it if the big, meaty and heavily-armored characters would stay between her and the enemy. She's a li'l squishy.

Overlap-wise, I see her pushing a bit into Iona's niche with her healing abilities and as a face (though Iona probably has broader capability in the latter area), and into Ay's niche with the scouting part, and can help Verik in locking down magic users. I don't think this is a problem, but since the GM asked I'm mentioning it. (I, uh, have a lot of areas of expertise.)

Also, if anyone has the Time sphere as a major focus, please tell me. I might have a way to get it, but it's not concept-core, and I definitely don't want to take it if it'd grab anyone else's niche. (I'm actually not committed to it even if it isn't - it's only vaguely in-theme.)
This message was last edited by the player at 12:58, Sat 29 Jan 2022.

I don't have a Ring of Sustenance, though food and water are easy enough to get: In Spheres, it's the Creation Sphere plus the Sustenance Talent, and one person with it should be able to provide for the entire group. I don't have that Sphere myself though, but in terms of sleeping conditions i can step into a tree for 9 hours so my sleep is relatively safe. :P

I did make arrangements to act as an always active communications hub for every party member within 100 ft. of me though, so that should help when relaying messages from the scouts to the rest of the party.

I was going to take the Ring of Sustenance just so that I could get by on 2 hours of sleep and have free time to check star charts. :P

Salutations!

September, or more formally the Duke and Lord Protector of the September Forests, is a magical warhammer, forged by a servant of Achaekek.

He'll be a competent melee combatant but mostly specialize in large-scale magic from the Weather sphere, with some dabbling in Warp and Conjuration so that he can get around.  With good reach, decent disabling effects, and low damage over time, I suppose I'm the cloud controller of the party.
I was also originally going to make him a bit of a combat face (using material like Change of Heart and Instant Friendship).  I'm seeing several other people with high face skills, though, so that might get adjusted depending on whether "subterfuge" wins the poll and how much we plan to split the group.
It's good to know Iona will be our communications relay; that saves me from needed Whispering Wind.
It looks like we have something of a dearth of High-Casters, so I'll try to cover more utility; are there any spheres that we particularly need?

All but one of the RTJ (not of those I admitted, I mean of the whole 18 I received) voted for Subterfuge, so yeah, that one won, and you'll be finding towns within the area. You might however be surprised by their nature. Hopefully it'll be interesting.

Hey, everyone! Banner is a somewhat vengeful Halfling foundling, raised by the faithful Dwarven mercenaries of the Sunhomed, a warrior band, and the repository for their spirits since their final stand at the Ohmen Pass. You might see him muttering to himself, or those inner voices

He is a frontline fighter - carrying the banner staff he bore on that fateful day - and uses a mix of dirty tricks, intimidation, and rage, surrounded by their swirling spirits and summoning those few who retain enough of their sense of self. He can play the role of battlefield controller, (de)buffer, and skill monkey, with a side of the face for when you want folks lent on.

It sounds like there's a pretty solid balance in melee, especially on the maneuvers and complementary styles and buffs side of things. Likewise, between us we cover the different aspects of Face nicely. September, one of Banner's fallen would be honoured to wield you into battle if need be!

Mechanically, he's a Halfling Draugr with Conjuration and a Intimidate-Rage-DirtyTricks mix, so a little of your Swiss Army Army. He brings his fallen friends to the party, and isn't shy of possessing those we're up against to have them fight for us either
This message was last edited by the player at 15:17, Sat 29 Jan 2022.

Not that i can immediately think of.

From the looks of it, we've got a decent amount of support and crowd controllers (myself included), but not much in the way of focusing down a strong opponent. I can load my Channel Energy up with Mana Syphon so my spell point expenditures are a lot more lenient in combat than those of most people, but single opponents are going to be a problem.

I do have Greater Invigorate, Deeper Healing and Mass Healing, so that means for two spell points i can load the entire party up with 45 Temp HP over their max, and at the start of battle i can drop a Powerful Mind Shield to get everyone outright immune to mind affecting that requires Will saves for roughly 15 rounds. That should give us a decent margin for errors, though having someone with the Protection Sphere to layer some additional defenses would be nice: My class only has one strong save.

In reply to Iona de Orasaigh (msg # 30):

I can shut down single opponents pretty easily with flashbangs, snares and arrows - crowd control is weaker for me (though I'll probably have some antigroup bombs). I'm generally going to be better at, for example, screwing over squishy full casters who suck at Reflex and Fortitude saves.

As for THP, ahh...I can do 87 (tentatively) at the start of the day. Can't do group heals as fast as you though - my heals are one target per action.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Sat 29 Jan 2022.

While a bit more unusual than most from an aesthetic perspective that is not the oddest thing about Cube.  What is most unusual is that he isn't designed as a character to be effective on his own, but instead to augment the effectiveness of everyone around him.  He can't heal but he can double the healing used in a large area, he cant fight but he makes everyone else fight better, that sort of thing.

There will at some point be an array of long term personal augmentation features for each of you to pick from, and at least one set of temporary augments to draw from a shared pool in combat that we will find a way to make easy to incorporate and remember.

Hi hi.

Ludovic is a transformation specialist. He can change his body favoring giant and dragon typed forms as he was mostly around when the two races ruled the world. But he also has a laundry list of abilities that can be turned off and on, as long as he has seen it done before.

His limitation is time, takes time to swap abilities and forms. So if we don't have a trap finder we just have to expose Ludovic to a creature with trap sense. So if there is a gap in what the group can do its best that he can fill it rather than people thinning themselves out.

So in effect, you've got a monster in your pocket with a small pool of abilities that can be tailored to the party's needs.

Hi all!

Halasik is a Tatulani Elementalist. He doesn't like talking about his own history, but it was not happy, or particularly good. You get the sense that he is adventuring as much to try and achieve redemption then for any reward.

Mechanically, in combat he primarily focuses on melee with single, hard-hitting attacks that stack on spell effects and spheres of might attack actions. However he can do ranged or even area of effect as well as backup. I can definitely cover the tank and focus on a single target things.
Out of combat, he's got a fair bit invested in the nature sphere, which gives his some druidy-themed tricks. I could go either wisdom or intelligence based for casting. He's definitely *not* a face, although I may take intimidate.

Well, so far i can say that i'd be lying if i said i wasn't interested in taking a look at the feats and talent combinations. GM, can we or would this be too meta?

I'm fine with you discussing this and planning for it a bit if you want to - I'd make sure nobody is doubling down on somebody else's specialization anyway, so it's not really that much of a problem if you all agree on things together.

Of course, keep in mind that, while you all have a general idea of what's going to happen, you don't actually know enough to make tactical and strategical calls at this point, and there might be benefit in having more than one person able to tackle certain situations, instead of pigeonholing somebody into a single role. It'd also be boring for people if they couldn't do things they wanted to, or weren't able to have a varied experience, because of trying to bend to the needs of the group too much. Finding a balance is best.

So, feel free to discuss things if you want, just don't assume you know everything and try to keep in mind your characters and stay true to what you said they would be like - I choose the people I did because I expected them to build into certain directions after all, and for some of you (including yourself, Iona), what abilities you have is a substantial part of your character's identity.