Using Spheres of Might

In the Spheres of Might system, each character gains a series of talents, called combat talents. The number of combat talents a character gains are determined by their class, although a character may always spend a feat to gain a combat talent via the Extra Combat Talent feat.

Whenever a character gains a combat talent, they may spend it on a combat sphere. The first time a character spends a combat talent on a sphere, they gain that sphere’s base abilities. After a character possesses a base sphere, they may spend additional combat talents to gain talents specifically associated with that sphere. If a character is granted a bonus sphere that they already possess (such as through a class feature), they instead may gain one talent of their choice from that sphere.

Once a talent is spent, it cannot be changed except through retraining, which follows the same rules as retraining a feat. Unless noted otherwise, all abilities granted by combat spheres and their talents are extraordinary effects.

If a combat sphere ability requires a saving throw or skill check to resist, the formula for determining the DC is 10 + 1/2 the attacker’s base attack bonus + their practitioner modifier, unless otherwise indicated. If a character does not possess levels in a class that grants a practitioner modifier, they use their Wisdom modifier as their practitioner modifier. Characters who multiclass into a second practitioner class may use the higher of their practitioner modifiers for determining all relevant effects of their combat sphere abilities.

Some practitioner classes gain the Combat Training class feature, granting them bonus talents based on their role in combat. The acquisition of these talents will typically, but not always, mirror the practitioner’s base attack bonus progression. The three advancements for talent acquisition are listed in Table: Combat Talents.

Table: Combat Talents

While any class can buy some facility with the combat spheres by taking the Extra Combat Talent feat, some characters may want to delve deeper into the system. A character can gain a combat talent progression by trading out some or all of their standard feat progression as described in Table: Feat to Talent Progression Conversion.

Characters who gain a combat talent progression in this manner gain it only for levels gained in classes that do not grant a combat talent progression or High Caster casting progression (including classes that grant 9th level spellcasting or an equivalent), adding all such levels together to determine their total number of combat talents, but still losing the exchanged feats. This means that High Casters and classes that already grant a combat talent progression gain no talents from this exchange.

Feat to Talent Progression Conversion

Some classes who naturally combine martial prowess with spellcasting, such as the inquisitor, paladin, and ranger, can choose to opt to replace their spellcasting progression with a combat training progression. Classes whose maximum spell level would be 4 (or Low Casters if using Spheres of Power) may exchange their spellcasting for the Proficient combat training progression, and classes whose maximum spell level would be 6 (or Mid-Casters if using Spheres of Power) may exchange their spellcasting for the Adept combat training progression. Characters who trade their spellcasting for a combat talent progression use whatever ability score affected their spellcasting as their practitioner modifier (for example, a paladin who trades their spellcasting for a Proficient combat talent progression would use Charisma as their practitioner modifier).

An attack action is a type of standard action. Some combat options can modify only this specific sort of action. When taking an attack action, you can apply all appropriate options that modify an attack action. Thus, you can apply both the Boxing sphere’s counter punch and Vital Strike to the same attack, as both modify an attack action. You can apply these to any combat option that takes the place of an attack made using an attack action (such as the trip combat maneuver), though options that increase damage don’t cause attacks to deal damage if they wouldn’t otherwise do so (such as Vital Strike and trip).

You can’t combine options that modify attack actions with standard actions that aren’t attack actions, such as Cleave.

Some spheres and talents overlap the function of existing feats. Such a feat is listed in the talent as an associated feat. Talents with associated feats allow a character to qualify for feats that have the associated feat as a prerequisite, including any prerequisites the associated feat normally requires, and for abilities that modify the feat’s function (such as a mythic version of the feat, which a character can use with the talent that has the regular version of the feat as an associated feat unless there's a conflict in their rules that would make it impossible for them to work together). Unless noted, talents do not stack with their associated feats. Any time you would gain an associated feat, you may instead choose to gain the sphere or talent it is associated with. You must still meet the prerequisites for a talent gained this way, such as possessing the base sphere.

See Also: Associated Feats & Skills

Heavy blows have left a creature with this condition vulnerable to further attacks, imposing a -2 penalty to the creature’s CMD and preventing them from taking attacks of opportunity provoked by a creature performing a combat maneuver. Some talents have different effects or activation times against battered creatures. The battered condition can be removed by taking the total defense action, or through the restore ability of the Life sphere (see Spheres of Power), the lesser restoration spell, or similar effects. When inflicting the battered condition on a target that is already battered, the rounds stack when determining duration.

Some abilities require a character to expend their martial focus to use them; unless otherwise noted, expending martial focus happens as part of the specified action and does not require an action itself. A character will continue to receive any benefits accorded them for having martial focus until the action they choose to expend it on is complete.

Legend and myth are filled with the exploits of heroes who defied logic, reason, and the very laws of physics. Whether the hero in question is Cu Chulainn, Beowulf, Hercules, Pecos Bill, Coyote, Son Goku, or any of the numberless other heroes whose stories are scattered across the world, the one thing these heroes all have in common is abilities that exceed the mortal limitations average people are familiar with.

The talents presented at the bottom of each combat sphere, called ‘legendary talents’ are truly extraordinary, drawing from elements such as American folktales, Celtic mythology, anime, and wuxia films. If you don’t feel that such options are appropriate for your game world, perhaps because you envision a grittier world or a world whose physics more closely mirror our own, you can simply forego the following options. However, if you believe that your game world should be truly fantastic, exceeding the bonds of physics and reality as we know it in our world, those options can assist in allowing you and your group to have truly fantastic adventures.

While a character using legendary talents should not be more powerful mechanically than a character using only basic talents, they nevertheless introduce powers and concepts that allow a character to move far beyond the limitations of their mortal kin, and might not be appropriate for all tables. A table using only basic talents will find itself working in almost any story from the gritty to the fantastic. A table using legendary talents, however, will find itself moving more towards the realm of superhero stories and wuxia adventures, where mortal men leap mountains and bend rivers through nothing but the power of their own bodies.

Legendary talents are only available with GM permission, but if the GM has granted permission, any character can spend a talent to gain a basic talent or a legendary talent of their choice. However, unlike basic talents, legendary talents often come with prerequisites that must be met before they may be taken.

The main hand and off-hand designations apply specifically when using two weapons or a double weapon to gain more attacks than that action would normally grant. You must designate one weapon as your main hand weapon when making an attack; all other manufactured weapons are treated as off-hand weapons and only add half your Strength modifier to damage on attacks.

A character who has the combat training class feature, the Extra Combat Talent feat, or who has gained a martial tradition or combat talent progression by some other means can achieve martial focus.

Characters gain their martial focus after a minute of rest, or by taking the total defense action. You may not by any means regain focus more than once per round.

When you have martial focus, you can expend your focus as part of any single Fortitude or Reflex saving throw you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your saving throw is treated as if you rolled a 13, similarly to taking 10 on a skill check, except that the number you add to your saving throw is 13. You can also expend your martial focus to gain the benefit of certain combat talents and class features, as described in their entry, while other talents and abilities may require you to currently have martial focus.

Once you have gained martial focus, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance).

Martial traditions are a combination of talents a character gains at 1st level.

Practitioners are characters who train in combat spheres. Whenever a sphere or ability refers to the practitioner, it is referring to the individual creature using that sphere or talent.

A practitioner modifier is an ability modifier that the practitioner uses to determine the saving throws for their talents. If a creature has more than one practitioner modifier, they may use the highest practitioner modifier to determine the saving throws for their talents. If a character does not possess levels in a class that grants a practitioner modifier, they use their Wisdom modifier as their practitioner modifier.

A special attack action represents a unique method of making an attack. These special attack actions are granted by certain spheres and talents, and whenever a creature makes an attack action, they may choose to perform a special attack action they know, assuming they meet that special attack action’s requirements. A special attack action can be augmented by feats and talents just as if it were any other attack action, but a creature cannot perform more than one special attack action at a time. (Thus, if a character trained in both the Barrage sphere and the Sniper sphere makes an attack action, they may choose to perform a barrage or a deadly shot, but not both.)

Stance talents (marked with a [stance] tag) are different than normal martial talents, requiring a swift action at the beginning of a practitioner’s round to activate and lasting until the beginning of their next round (or a number of rounds equal to the practitioner modifier if martial focus is expended while activating it).

Offering new benefits and advantages, only a single stance can be active at a time, regardless of if another could be activated, and activating a stance talent while another stance talent is active ends the previous stance’s duration, even if it would be longer than the new stance.

The Catgirl Handbook makes a number of references to the catfolk race (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Race Guide). For the purposes of this book and much of the content inside of it, any cat, catfolk, creature treated as catfolk, or other being with notable feline heritage, including certain cat-like outsiders such as some azata and rakshasa, are considered “felines”.

When using an attack action to attack with both barrels of a double-barreled weapon, bonus damage and effects from talents apply only to a single bullet or cartridge.

Note: This means bonus damage applies one time to one of the bullets, and effects from talents apply one time to the same bullet as any bonus damage, unless an ability specifically says otherwise.

Characters who wish to determine the martial tradition of a practitioner or champion utilize Knowledge (local), which is detailed below:

Knowledge (Local) (Int) (Trained Only)
You can use this skill to identify combat sphere talents or abilities as soon as they are used, or recall tactics used in historic battles, as well as identifying warriors or generals in those battles or identifying heroes or villains in history and modern times.

You can identify combat sphere abilities and talents used by a combatant. The DC’s for Knowledge (local) checks relating to various tasks are summarized below.

An improvised weapon includes both making an attack with an item not originally intended for use as a weapon, as well as using a weapon in a way it was not meant for (for instance, using a bow or arrow to make a melee attack, or throwing a longsword at an enemy). A character not proficient with improvised weapons suffers a -4 penalty when making an attack in this fashion.

Improvised weapons have a range increment of 10 ft. when thrown, and when throwing any melee weapon, the weapon deals its normal damage on a successful hit. When using ranged weapons as melee weapons, darts, pistols, and shuriken deal 1d4 damage (1d3 Small), while bows, larger firearms, and light crossbows deal 1d6 damage (1d4 Small), and heavy crossbows deal 1d8 (1d6 Small).

A creature may use an improvised weapon two sizes smaller than they are as a light weapon, one size smaller as a one-handed weapon, and the same size as they are as a two-handed weapon. Generally, items larger or three sizes smaller than the creature are impractical to use as a improvised weapon. A GM may always rule that particularly dense objects (such as a stone statue) count as being one size larger than they normally would due to their weight.

For wuxia-themed games where every notable warrior has a basic understanding of certain martial arts, the Light Body Technique optional rule gives the ability for any important character to fight unarmed and perform acrobatic stunts without sacrificing any resources. Anyone with class levels (not NPC classes) gains bonus talents and feats as they gain Hit Dice. If the character would gain a sphere or talent they already possess, they may instead gain another talent from the Athletics sphere as a bonus talent.

• At 1st level, the character gains the Athletics sphere as a bonus talent, selecting either the (leap) or (run) packages. Additionally, the character gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.
• At 3rd level, the character gains the Wall Stunt talent as a bonus talent.
• At 5th level, the character gains the Air Stunt legendary talent as a bonus talent.
• At 7th level and every two levels after, the character gains a bonus talent from the Athletics sphere.

In the world, there are certain great practitioners who wish for more than to just fight. Destined to pass on their legacies to others, these grandmasters seek to see their talents spread to the next generations… or that is what the less benevolent would like people to believe. In truth, grandmasters have a wide variety of reasons for taking on pupils, and yet they continue to be highly sought after individuals for their ability to enhance the abilities of their students to unheard of levels, making legends out of even the most hopeless of individuals.

A creature must have at least 15 Hit Dice and 15 martial talents in the chosen sphere to become a grandmaster. In addition, they must spend one year in seclusion with only enough food and water to survive, burning incense worth 100,000 gold in total. At the end of this long process, the creature emerges as a grandmaster, gaining a permanent +2 bonus to their practitioner modifier ability score (often, but not always, Wisdom), all the benefits as if they were under the effects of a martial contract (see below) as well as the ability to create martial contracts for a sphere of their choice (this choice cannot be changed later). A grandmaster can maintain a number of contracts equal to their practitioner modifier; if they would attempt to form another, they must choose one of their previous contracts to end.

A grandmaster can make a contract with any creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher that possesses 1 or more class levels who is not a grandmaster. Generally, grandmasters will require a tribute in order to take on a student, varying between individuals. Some require potential students to complete a trial to prove worthiness, while others wish for monetary reparations (typically 100 gp for the first benefit, 1,000 gp for the second, 10,000 gp for the third, and 100,000 gp for the fourth). Particularly evil ones will request sacrifice of sapient creatures in their name.

A student or grandmaster can choose to end their contract at any time. If a student ends their contract, they lose all benefits of it, although any payment or service to their grandmaster is forfeit. If a grandmaster ends their contract, the student retains any benefits of it, but the grandmaster keeps any payment or service granted. A student who is still receiving the benefits of a martial contract ended by their grandmaster must forsake all benefits of it in order to enter into a new martial contract, and cannot gain new benefits from an ended martial contract.

Yet the benefits of these contracts are enough that those who seek them deem the risk worth it.

• At 1st level, the student gains the grandmaster’s chosen sphere; if they already possess it, they gain a talent of their choice from that sphere.
• At 5th level, the student gains the 3rd level ability of the conscript’s sphere specialization class feature for their grandmaster’s chosen sphere (if they already possess it, they gain an additional talent from the sphere).
• At 10th level, the student gains the 8th level ability of the conscript’s sphere specialization class feature for their grandmaster’s chosen sphere (if they already possess it, they gain an additional talent from the sphere).
• At 15th level, the student gains an additional talent from their grandmaster’s chosen sphere and gains an additional focus (if they possess the Great Focus feat, they gain a third focus), although it can only be used with martial talents from the grandmaster’s chosen sphere.

A martial contract can only be broken by the agreement of those involved (which typically involves any payment being returned and any abilities gained from it being forfeited), the death of the student, or by way of challenge. When a creature reaches its 15th character level, they gain the ability to break their martial contract while retaining its benefits by challenging their master to combat on the terms of their grandmaster. This can be to the death, unconsciousness, or any other variance with other terms such as no weapons, magic, or equipment.

As long as the match is agreed upon by both participants, the results stand. If the student is victorious, they immediately become a grandmaster without the need for incense or a year of seclusion.

Due to this possibility, many grandmasters demand incredible service before their student gains this benefit in hopes of not having the risk of being defeated. More evil grandmasters even attempt to have their students killed, hoping to take their life force and deeds for themselves. Battles against grandmasters and their machinations can make great inclusions in campaigns, allowing for practitioners to take on new relevance in the setting. Such mighty figures can be adversaries or legendary hermits. Take some time to help players understand the importance of such characters in the setting. If the setting does not have characters who typically reach 15th level, consider lowering the level of grandmasters to one which is appropriate, although avoid lowering the level at which the benefits are gained, as giving too many can be unbalancing. Grandmasters should embody the sphere in which they specialize, and becoming a grandmaster may even cause a person’s body to change into a form which better suits their mastery of their chosen sphere. All in all, meeting a grandmaster should be an incredible event from a player’s standpoint, so make sure these moments are kept special.

Because of how centralizing an idea like this can be, it is preferred if more than one player has a grandmaster. It also helps the balance of the game if everyone has the granted benefits, keeping anyone from becoming more powerful than the rest of the party. Grandmasters can be a good way to introduce people into the Spheres of Might system, allowing them to gain a small taste of what is available without having to dedicate resources to it.

Author's Note: You cannot become a student or grandmaster for more than one sphere. Grandmasters cannot also be students.

If using the retraining rules from Ultimate Campaign, you may retrain combat talents for the same time and cost as feats. If you retrain the class you took at 1st level into a class that qualifies for a martial tradition, you may choose to gain a martial tradition at that time, though you lose all other class-based proficiencies you may possess.

Talents gained as part of a martial tradition can only be retrained if you retrain the entire martial tradition and replace it with a new martial tradition, which requires 15 days of retraining.

If your martial tradition included a base sphere that is required for other talents you possess and your new tradition does not include that base sphere, you must retrain an additional talent you possess from that sphere into the base sphere, though this can be done at no additional cost in time or money.

If you gained the base sphere from multiple sources, you do not need to retrain an additional talent as long as you still possess the base sphere after retraining.

When using an attack action to attack with a scatter weapon or another weapon that attacks an area, any relevant talents you may possess affect only the nearest creature targeted by the attack. In the event that multiple creatures are equally close, the player may choose which one they want to treat as the primary target for talents and effects.

Some effects allow you to select more talents than you could normally apply to what you're doing. For example, the Sniper sphere's Sniper Shot talent allows you to apply two (snipe) talents, when you can normally apply one. In these cases, you cannot select the same talent more than once unless an option specifically allows that.

A subordinate is any controlled character gained by class features, talents, feats, or other effects. This is a specific term to be used for when an ability or effect applies to all creatures under an individual character’s control, rather than all allies or a specific type of controlled character.

As a non-exhaustive list, subordinates include an animal companion, Conjuration sphere companion, eidolon, familiar, independent invention, Leadership sphere cohort, or raised undead.

Temporarily-Controlled Characters

In some circumstances, a character may control other characters for shorter periods of time. Magical compulsion effects, such as the charm person or dominate person spells or the Mind sphere Enthrall (charm) basic talent or Mind Control advanced talent, can temporarily place other creatures under a character’s control, or at the very least that character’s direct influence.

A controlled creature should only be considered a subordinate if they are under the character’s direct control and are not resisting that character’s orders. This is subject to GM discretion; player characters should generally never be considered another player character’s subordinate.

Sphere Restrictions for Subordinates

As a general rule, player-controlled subordinates should not have access to sphere abilities which grant the ability to create more creatures that would be subordinates.

Sphere Restrictions: Subordinates cannot gain the base sphere or talents from the following spheres: Beastmastery, Conjuration, Leadership, Mana, Tech.

The Mana sphere has been uniquely restricted from subordinate access due to its ability to amplify a primary character’s resources.

GMs may rule that a subordinate may take spheres or talents from a sphere which has been restricted from subordinates that do not innately grant additional subordinates. Treat this access as being similar to an advanced talent from Spheres of Power.

Examples of these limited exceptions could include: A Leadership sphere cohort gaining the Beastmastery sphere for the (ride) package.

A uniquely powerful Conjuration sphere companion gaining the Death sphere for ghost strikes, but not the reanimate ability. GMs should also review spheres whose primary focus does not grant permanent subordinates but could create temporary ones, restricting subordinate access to those talents as appropriate.

This includes the Blood sphere Extract Blood Construct, Death sphere’s reanimate, and Enhancement sphere’s Animate Objects (enhance), and the Tech sphere’s Drone and Artificial Intelligence gadgets. While a subordinate with access to the Enhancement sphere to cast enhancing effects on its master is not unreasonable, allowing a subordinate to create a large number of additional bodies through Animate Object might be.

Combat where one creature is tethered to another is a surprisingly common staple of fantasy combat - from hanging off a flying dragon, to playing tug of war with strong foes. This ruleset attempts to add some structure to tethered combat, keeping it simple where possible. In the event that an interaction occurs that is not covered by these rules, the GM should make a reasonable determination at that time to maintain the flow of the game; Pathfinder is not a physics simulator.

Using Tethers: In addition to the Tinker sphere Grappling Hook talent, regular grappling hooks, hooked arrows, and other reasonable means (see below) may be used to tether or attach to other creatures, objects, or surfaces.

A tether can be attached to creatures, unattended objects, and surfaces. When attaching a tether to a target (or object or surface), the user makes a melee or ranged touch attack, and if successful, attaches the tether to the target. A tether can be attached to a target within the user’s reach as a standard action without making an attack roll (provided the target is a willing or helpless creature, unattended object, or surface). Attaching the tether to a target beyond the user’s reach is treated as using a thrown weapon with a range increment of 10 feet, to a maximum range of the tether’s total length. If throwing the tether at a willing target, the target’s AC is 10 (or 5 for an unattended object or surface).

Successfully attaching a tether causes the target to become a “tethered target”. If throwing the tether independently (and not firing it as part of another weapon, etc.), a tether does not damage a target it attaches to.

Tethered Creatures: A tethered target is prevented from moving further away from another source controlling the tether; a tether target may move anywhere within the tether’s length, limited by the tether’s length. At GM discretion, tethers can collide with the environment (wrapping around objects, being blocked by corners, etc.). A creature dragging an object follows normal carrying capacity and encumbrance rules, but must perform a drag or reposition combat maneuver to move another tethered creature.

Controlling a Tether: A creature “in control” of a tether is either a tethered creature (a creature the tether is directly attached to) or a creature that has grabbed one part of the tether, such as the center of a rope connecting two points. Any creature in control of a tether is treated as a tethered creature, provided they are unable to let go, be disarmed of the tether, etc. Grabbing a tether is a standard action (and may be done as part of a drag or reposition combat maneuver check against one of the tethered targets); a controlling creature that is not tethered may let go of a tether at any time.

An object or surface may be in control of a tether, but primarily acts as an anchoring point for the tether.

Pulling on a Tether; “Choking Up” Slack: A creature in control of a tether can attempt a drag or reposition combat maneuver against a tethered creature by pulling on the tether (at any point on the tether’s length). For the purposes of these rules, unattended objects are treated as having a CMD of 10 + twice their size modifier. A tether may be pulled free of a surface with a Strength check (usually to yank or pull the tether free from the object) against the object’s Break DC; this may break an object free of a greater object (such as a gem embedded in a statue’s eye) at GM’s discretion.

When throwing or attaching a tether as part of an attack action, the user may attempt a drag or reposition check against a successfully tethered target as part of that action (treating this combat maneuver attempt as being part of the same standard action).

If a creature attempts to move further than the tether’s length, they must either succeed at a drag combat maneuver check against the other tethered target or a contested Strength check against the target; success allows the creature to pull the other anchors of the tether as part of their movement. If the tether is anchored to an immovable target (such as a wall), this may break the tether instead.

A creature controlling a tether may “choke up” slack on the tether by coiling the tether as part of moving closer to the other end of the tether, performing a drag maneuver against the other tethered creature (choking up slack equal to the distance moved), etc. A creature usually requires a free hand to hold the tether (and additional slack) if not directly tethered or able to retract the tether’s slack into a winch (or similar object) as part of moving.

Removing Tethers: Unless otherwise stated a creature can remove any number of tethers (excluding binding tethers such as those that pin) from themselves as a move action with either a Strength or Escape Artist check against the tether’s removal DC, but take a -2 penalty to their check for each tether they are attempting to remove past the first. If the tethered creature attempts to escape as a full-round action, the tethered creature halves this penalty (suffering only -1 per tether past the first). The “removal DC” of a tether is either stated on the tether, or is equal to 5 + 1.5 times the tether’s hardness.

Tethers can also be sundered, as though sundering a normal object of that kind.

Multiple Tethers: If a creature is subject to multiple tethers (or in control of multiple tethers), treat each tether as an independent instance. If a creature would interact with a tether in a way that affects other tethers (i.e. creature A pulls on tether A attached to creature B, that is also holding onto tether B attached to creature C in a “daisy chain”, a check for creature A to drag creature B past tether B’s maximum length must also be able to drag or move creature C). Apply any rolls that succeed against a controlling creature to the next set of tethered targets as appropriate.

Climbing a Tether: A physical tether can be climbed similarly to a rope (either to the object or creature supporting the weight). Both the suspending object (the tethered target anchoring the tether, such as the top of a wall for a grappling hook or a creature holding the rope at the top of a cliff; the “suspending creature”) and the tether must be able to sustain the “dangling” creature’s weight. Climbing a tether attached to an unwilling creature is more difficult; the Climb DC is increased by 1/2 the suspending creature’s combat maneuver defense.

Vertical Drag: Flying creatures can drag a grounded creature into the air by succeeding at their drag maneuver check at a -2 penalty, -2 per size category the grounded creature is larger than the flying creature. When a grounded creature is lifted into the air, if the creature has no means of flight or aerial movement (such as gliding wings, or a parachute), the controlling creature no longer needs to attempt drag checks to move the lifted creature so long as they do not move more than half their fly speed. Vertical drag can only be performed on a tethered creature.

Note and Advice - Exotic Tethers and Other Interactions: Many other effects may exist that should function as a tether (such as the Destruction sphere Energy Tether talent). GMs should apply reasonable restrictions on how such tethers can be interacted with (i.e. an immaterial tether could not be choked up on except by the caster, but a creature could attempt a magical skill check to break free or treat the removal DC as the effect’s spell DC. Other checks may be reasonably included, where appropriate, to allow characters of different skill sets not feel excluded or “hedged out”, i.e., a character heavily invested in Disable Device with correct tools may be able to roll Disable Device against the tether’s hook itself to unlatch it from the rope and free themselves (rather than rolling Escape Artist).

Practitioners who train in certain spheres focused on unarmed combat, such as Boxing, deal additional damage with their unarmed strikes based on the total number of unarmed spheres and talents they possess, as shown in the following table. Practitioners from a class that already grants an unarmed damage progression, such as the brawler or monk, may treat their unarmed strike as one size category larger if they have 3 or more talents in an unarmed combat sphere, but receive no further benefits. In addition, any practitioner with at least 1 talent in an unarmed sphere gains the benefits of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.

Table: Practitioner Unarmed Damage

Due to the size of Ultimate Engineering and the Tinker sphere, its rules and content are available on their own hub page.

Some talents and options allow you to make additional attacks. In general, you may only apply things that can modify an attack action once when making that attack action unless the option itself specifically says otherwise. For example, when making a Barrage or using Dual Wielding, it's normally the case that only your first attack counts as an attack action for the purpose of modifying it with talents and feats, and all the other attacks are extras that you cannot apply attack action modifiers to. This includes things like any form of Split Shot, where your first attack can be split between multiple targets. You only apply the attack action modifiers once, period, unless an option explicitly states otherwise.

An example where this doesn't apply is the Triangle Slash legendary talent of the Dual Wielding sphere, where you can make three attack actions in one turn as long as you meet the prerequisites for using that talent.

Maneuvers created by magical talents (usually) do not originate from you and do not work with many combat talents that synergize with or trigger after performing a maneuver, unless you have an additional ability allowing this. This is because most of these talents require the practitioner to be present for the additional effect or is part of "continued" momentum from the triggering action.

This includes but is not limited to being prohibited from using Brute sphere manhandles with the Telekinesis sphere Telekinetic Maneuvers talent, or applying the bonus damage from the Brute sphere Smash talent to bull rush effects caused by a magical effect.

Some alternate rulesets, such as the Elephant In The Room feat tax rules, remove or replace certain common effects in the game (Weapon Finesse, Power Attack, etc). While exact rulesets vary, characters should generally qualify as having the appropriate talents for the purpose of meeting prerequisites when 'universal' abilities are sufficiently similar, or they should be able to take talents instead of the universal effects as if those effects were associated feats.

Spheres of Might has been developed under the assumption that actions taken out of turn whether immediate actions (such as Parry and Riposte), free actions (such as speaking), attacks of opportunity, or otherwise do not prevent taking a readied action later in the round before your next turn. While this differs from the original rules as laid out by Paizo, this approach is recommended as it allows several options such as the Boxing sphere to work more smoothly and as originally intended by their authors.

Spheres of Might is designed to work largely with itself and with the base rules of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Certain options from other systems, such as the Seize the Opportunity feat or the Respect Bushido ability of the Bushi from Path of War, are extremely powerful when used together with Spheres content, and in most situations too powerful. Material from other systems should not be used with Spheres content without express permission from the GM, and the GM is well within their rights to ban content at a later date if something becomes clearly problematic. The fact that a build is technically "legal" does not mean it was intended, or that it is appropriate to use in most games. The default rule here is that a character cannot take or mix such options at all.

If a Base Sphere grants an additional talent (such as via a package selection or drawback) the additional talents do not count as talents spent for abilities that count the number of talents spent in a sphere. (This most often applies to gaining skill points or improving unarmed damage.)

Unless the ability specifies that you spend martial focus after an effect (such as an immediate action after landing a successful blow, etc.), a practitioner expends martial focus as part of making the roll and is treated as maintaining their martial focus until that action resolves (such as expending martial focus on an attack action and benefiting from an effect "while maintaining martial focus" during that action and its immediate resolution).

When expending martial focus to "take 13" on a saving throw, this decision is made when the saving throw is made, not after a die is rolled or results are revealed. If the practitioner would be forced to roll twice or reroll the results of their saving throw, they may only "take 13" on the first die rolled for that check.