Welcome to Spheres of Might, a combat supplement for 5th edition games. On this site you’ll find a new way to create and play martial characters in your 5e fantasy games, expanding not only what they can do, but also how combats flow and what sorts of characters you can play.
Spheres of Might makes use of very few new mechanics (all of which are introduced below), instead opting to use the core mechanics in new and interesting ways to make combat a more cinematic experience. Instead of simply trading blows, Spheres of Might gives characters an array of new tricks, tactics, and techniques so they can empower their allies, debilitate their foes, and make combat a fun and engaging part of their stories.
Like Spheres of Power, the alternative magic system, Spheres of Might is a concept-based approach to character creation. Rather than simply picking a class and being tied to that style of play (rogues for skills, fighters for damage, barbarian for absorbing damage, etc.), characters can combine spheres and talents to craft a much more exact replica of the idea in their head. And while class certainly plays a part in creating that image, it is by no means the only determining choice.
The rest of this introduction details some of the different rules and terms required to use Sphere of Might, as well as a walkthrough for how to build a Spheres of Might character. These rules are very similar to the core experience, but are still presented below in order to be as explicit as possible.
Martial Spheres and Martial Talents
There are 22 martial spheres: Alchemy, Athletics, Barrage, Barroom, Beastmastery, Berserker, Brute, Dual-Wielding, Equipment, Fencing, Gladiator, Guardian, Leadership, Retribution, Scoundrel, Scout, Shield, Sniper, Tinkerer, Trap, Warleader, and Wrestling.
Martial spheres grant powerful techniques but are separate from spellcasting ability. Whenever a character gains a martial talent, they may spend it in one of two ways: to gain a new base martial sphere or to gain a talent associated with a martial sphere they already possess. The number of martial talents a character gains differs between classes. Once a talent is spent, it cannot be changed unless retraining is allowed. Some class features or other options grant you a bonus sphere or a particular bonus talent. If you ever gain a sphere or talent which you already possess, you may gain a talent of your choice from the same sphere instead.
Legendary Talents: Basic Talents may be taken by any character that possesses the sphere the talent belongs to, but legendary talents are different in many key ways. First, Legendary talents have prerequisites that a character must possess to take them. Second, while basic talents are appropriate for virtually any gritty, realistic setting, legendary talents are different.
Legendary talents allow a martial character to perform inhuman feats of power, such as leaping over mountains or striking so powerfully that it rips holes through dimensions.
As such, legendary talents might not be appropriate for all games and therefore require GM permission to use.
New Rules and Terms
Martial Focus
A character who has a martial tradition or possesses martial talents can achieve martial focus. Characters gain their martial focus after a minute of rest, or by taking the Dodge action. You may not by any means regain focus more than once per round.
When you have martial focus, you can expend your focus before making any single Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw to treat the die as if it had rolled a 10. You can also expend your martial focus to gain the benefit of certain martial 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).
Key Ability
A character’s martial tradition determines what ability score (usually Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma) is used to determine the strength of their combat prowess. This ability score is referred to as their key ability. The terms ‘key ability’ and ‘practitioner ability’ are used interchangeably.
Your key ability modifier (KAM) is used to determine many things, such as the Difficulty Class of your sphere abilities, as well as some practitioner class features. If a character has both a martial tradition and a magic tradition (see Spheres of Power), they may use their spherecasting ability as their key ability for both their magic and martial abilities, if it is higher.
The Multiple Traditions optional rule can allow for a character to have more than one key ability modifier
Practitioner
Practitioners are characters who train in martial spheres. Whenever a sphere or ability refers to the practitioner, it is referring to the individual creature using that sphere or talent.
Saving Throw Difficulty Class
Whenever a martial sphere ability calls for a saving throw, the Difficulty Class (DC) for that saving throw is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + their tradition’s key ability modifier. If the targeted creature meets or exceeds this number with their saving throw, they often reduce or negate the effect. If a character does not possess a martial tradition, they default to using Wisdom as their key ability modifier.
Special Attack
A special attack represents a unique method of making an attack. A special attack augments the attack you make when making the Attack action; you cannot make multiple special attacks in a round, and if you can make multiple attacks, this augments only one. Special attacks are granted by certain spheres.
Variants
Martial spheres sometimes have variants, which are listed at the end of their pages. These are considered part of Martial Traditions and are normally selected the first time a character gains access to that sphere. These variants inflict some type of drawback or limitation, but also provide a benefit to compensate, as listed in their descriptions.
While largely optional unless the GM selects them as part of creating martial traditions, variants offer a way to customize characters and provide mechanics that better match a specific character concept.
Other Rules
Doubling Proficiency Bonus
A proficiency bonus cannot be more than doubled. If a class, sphere, or other ability allows you to double a proficiency bonus (such as to a skill, similar to the expertise rogue or bard class feature), this cannot be doubled again, even if the character also has the expertise class feature.
Multiclassing
If using the optional multiclassing rules, the new classes presented on this site use the following as their multiclassing prerequisites:
- Alter Ego: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 13
- Armiger: Strength or Dexterity 13
- Artisan: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 13
- Commander: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 13
- Conscript: Strength or Dexterity 13
- Scholar: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 13
- Striker: Strength or Dexterity 13
Proficiencies
No Spheres of Might classes grant additional weapon or armor proficiencies when taken after the first level, though such proficiencies may be gained from a martial tradition if one was not already possessed.
Rule Reminders
Many martial spheres include rule reminders above their basic talents, but below the default abilities for the sphere. These are not talents, but rather reminders of standard or optional rules that are especially relevant to what characters using that sphere may want to do on their turns. Unless the GM says otherwise, characters are generally assumed to have access to the content in the rule reminders regardless of whether or not they know that sphere.
Weapon Damage Die Sizes
Some classes, features, or sphere talents and abilities can change how much damage a weapon or attack deals, decreasing or increasing its damage die size by one or more steps. This table should be used as a reference guide for such occasions when no such information is provided.
Damage Dice Progression Table
| 1 |
| 1d4 |
| 1d6 |
| 1d8 |
| 1d10 |
| 2d6 (or 1d12) |
| 2d8 |
| 3d6 |
| 3d8 |
Class Options
Characters with levels in a martial class (barbarian, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, or rogue) or any other class with GM permission may trade out their subclass for martial talents, gaining 2 martial talents instead of their subclass feature at any level that they would normally gain a subclass feature.
Fighting Style Options
1st-level or higher feature (enhances Fighting Style)
When you gain the Fighting Style feature, the Martial Spheres Apprentice style is also added to the list of style options available to you.
Martial Spheres Apprentice
You gain a bonus martial talent. If you don’t possess it already, you gain the ability to achieve martial focus.
How to Build a Character
Spheres of Might grants a degree of flexibility that can make creating a character for the first time more time consuming. This is less of an issue when one is experienced with the system, but for new players, the following advice may prove helpful. The following guide demonstrates how to build a character from concept to final creation, accounting for these additional choices.
The process for building a character is, roughly:
1. Concept
2. Race and Class
3. Background and Tradition
4. Attributes and Proficiencies
5. Talents and Feats
Building Indira
Each step of building a character includes an example of that step, with a player named Allison building her half-orc character, Indira.
Concept
What is your idea for the character? What can they do and how do they do it? Is your character a skilled swordsman, a muscular brute, or a wise mystic? Are they an inventor, a performer, or something else entirely? Once you know what type of character you wish to create, many of the other choices will flow easily. Note that some concepts will play better or worse in different games and settings. Please speak to your Game Master about what type of game you’ll be playing and what sorts of concepts would be most appropriate.
Building Indira, Step 1
Allison decides that she would like to create a practitioner. She decides that she wants to play an intimidating pirate who is as competent with words as she is with the large two-handed blade that she wields.
Race and Class
Now, look at the races and classes to see what ones give the most fitting set of abilities. Adaptations for existing classes can be found in Chapter 3, as can several new classes.
These new classes include the Alter Ego, the Armiger, the Artisan, the Commander, the Conscript, the Scholar, and the Striker.
Building Indira, Step 2
Allison wants her pirate to be a powerful half-orc, and makes the appropriate notes on her character sheet. As for a class, she knows that she could very well simply use the fighter, ranger, or rogue class, but she wants more control over what her character can do and would like to have lots of spheres and talents baked in. Thus, she looks at the classes and subclasses in Spheres of Might, finding that the armiger, commander, and conscript are each appropriate. Allison ends up choosing the conscript because she really likes the look of all those talents, and selects the fury combat specialization to complement her character concept. She makes Indira a conscript and notes the class’s proficiencies and 1st-level class features on her character sheet; Including the Martial Training feature that grants Indira a bonus martial talent of her choice.
As a 1st-level conscript, Indira has 1 Hit Die—a d10—and starts with hit points equal to 10 + her Constitution modifier. Allison notes this and will record the final number after she determines Indira’s Constitution score. Allison also notes the proficiency bonus for a 1st-level character, which is +2.
Backgrounds and Tradition
In addition to the usual benefits of choosing a background, when using Spheres of Might, backgrounds might give you access to a martial tradition, which expands what skills and abilities your background have given you. Each background includes a variety of potential martial traditions, so pick the one that best matches your concept.
More information about martial traditions can be found on the Martial Traditions page.
Building Indira, Step 3
Allison decides that Indira was not raised among other orcs, let alone on the land, but instead raised on the sea as a mariner. Allison decides that Sailor is the obvious fit for a background, and while the Pirate variant fits her original concept, she feels that the Ship’s Passage background feature is too good to pass up. She notes the proficiencies and special features this background gives her.
For personality traits, Allison decides that because Indira should have a way with words, she should generally be described as a leader capable of delegating to get ‘a job well done’. Indira believes in the ideal of ‘freedom’ with strong bonds to whatever ship she is attached to. Not only does she have loyalty to her ship, but she also respects the chain of command aboard the vessel, obeying most orders even if they don’t reflect her personal moral compass.
Allison’s table allows only martial traditions published in Spheres of Might. Allison looks through the available martial traditions that the Sailor background offers (Petty Officer, Pirate, and Rager), and settles on Pirate to further accentuate the fact that Indira spends most of her time at sea in the company of pirates, rather than getting drunk in port or aboard law-abiding vessels. She notes that her key ability score is Charisma and notes the martial talents that she begins with: Equipment sphere (Pirate Training, Unarmored Training), Fencing sphere, and her choice of either the Athletics or Gladiator sphere. Finally, Allison writes down the starting equipment from her background and martial tradition. Her starting equipment so far includes a rapier, 2 daggers, a shortbow (and 20 arrows), a flask of alcohol, a belaying pin (club), 50 feet of silk rope, a lucky charm (a topaz that glows faintly in stormy weather), a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gp.
Attributes and Proficiencies
Now it is time to finish the rest of your character’s starting information. Generate and distribute your attributes per the method you are using in your game, then select variable proficiencies from your background, martial tradition, and class.
Building Indira, Step 4
Allison decides to use the standard set of scores (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) for Indira’s abilities. Since she’s first and foremost a melee combatant, she puts her highest score 15, in Strength. Her next highest, 14 goes in Charisma (her key ability score).
Indira being unarmored wants to have a decent Dexterity and Constitution, so she allocates the next two highest there. After applying his racial benefits (increasing Indira’s Strength by 2 and Constitution by 1), Indira’s ability scores and modifiers look like this: Strength 17 (+3), Dexterity 12 (+1), Constitution 14 (+2), Intelligence 10 (+0), Wisdom 8 (-1), Charisma 14 (+2).
Allison fills in Indira’s final hit points: 10 + Con (+2) = 12 hit points.
Allison reviews the proficiencies granted by her race, background, and tradition before deciding on what proficiencies to gain from the conscript class. Indira’s proficiencies so far are as follows, Armor (light), Saving Throws (Charisma and Constitution), Skills (Athletics, Intimidation, Perception, Persuasion, and Survival), Tools (Carpenter tools, Navigator’s tools, and vehicles (water)), Weapons (Rapier, shortsword, scimitar, trident, net, hand crossbow, war pick, and all Simple weapons).
Talents and Feats
Now that you know your character’s concept and class, you can begin choosing their spheres and talents, which determines their capabilities. If you are using the optional feat rules, you may also choose appropriate feats to fit your character concept.
Your choice of martial tradition will have already granted you some beginning talents, while your choice of class will determine how many talents you gain and at which levels, including if you gain any additional talents at 1st level. You may spend a talent to unlock a new sphere to gain new abilities, or to gain a new talent in a sphere you already possess, expanding the power and capabilities you gain through that sphere. Keep in mind the exploration and social aspects of the game, as well as having options for combat. Focusing too heavily on one area may leave you with limited options when that one thing is not relevant. If you use martial spheres, consider how often you will expend focus and consider picking an ability to regain it more easily.
Building Indira, Step 5
From steps 2 and 3, Allison knows that Indira has the Pirate Training and Unarmored Training talents from the Equipment sphere, the Fencing sphere, and the Scoundrel sphere from the Pirate martial tradition, and one talent of her choice from the conscript class. Because Indira is supposed to wield a large two-handed sword, she looks through the Equipment sphere to see what (discipline) talents grant proficiency with the greatsword. Allison uses her one martial talent from the conscript to purchase the Bushido Training (discipline) talent.
Allison writes down that Indira has the following martial sphere talents and abilities:
Equipment sphere – Talents (discipline) Bushido Training, Pirate Training; (other) Unarmored Training discipline (Bushido, Pirate); proficient with katana (longsword), longbow, naginata (glaive), nodachi (greatsword), rapier, shortsword, scimitar, trident, net, hand crossbow, wakizashi (shortsword), and war pick
- Unarmored Training; AC 13 = 10 + Dexterity modifier (+1) + Key ability modifier (+2) while unarmored
Fencing sphere – Talents none • fatal thrust, feint, (30 ft.), DC 12, instantaneous or 1 round
- Fatal Thrust; When making a melee attack that has advantage, you may reroll one of the dice once.
- Feint; Help action to grant yourself or another ally within 5 feet advantage on their next attack roll.
Scoundrel sphere – Talents (trick) Twist The Knife; Proficiency (Sleight of Hand), DC 12, instantaneous or varies (1 round or minute)
- Dirty Trick or Steal; When you perform a dirty trick or steal, you can apply one (trick) talent.
- trick (Twist The Knife) You can make a single attack against that target.
Now review the character and evaluate the result. You may want to go back and tweak things or even start over with a different concept, possibly inspired by options you found during the creation process.
Want to play this character?
Indira has a full character sheet showing her at first level. Click her name at the start of this paragraph to be taken directly to her ready-to-play character sheet.
Option Introductions
Here's a brief overview of the classes and spheres introduced by Spheres of Might.
Classes
| Class | Description |
|---|---|
| Alter Ego | Alter Egos are capable of shifting between different roles, each of which has distinct powers. This can range from acting as a vigilante who haunts the night to literal possession by some otherworldly power (benign or… otherwise). This class is a good choice if you don't want to be trapped in one role too much, or if you have a complicated character concept that would be hard to represent without such a split in your abilities. |
| Armiger | Armigers specialize in customizing their equipment to meet different needs. This is a very flexible class, and it can get even more flexible if you take the subclass option that provides access to magical talents. Armigers split their talents between permanent and temporary choices linked to their weapons. For example, if your enemy suddenly jumps into the air to run, an armiger with a customized bow can swap to that and gain access to useful ranged abilities. This is a good class to play if you like planning ahead and flexibly adjusting to the situation. |
| Artisan | Artisans are creators. Whether you're making food, equipment, or something stranger, artisans are excellent crafters and benefit especially well from imagination and creative play. This is a good class to play if you enjoy making things for yourself and/or the party. |
| Commander | Commanders are outstanding leaders, capable of guiding companions and allies with a variety of tricks and support options. While they can be entirely functional characters while alone, Commanders show their true value in games with cooperative allies and an emphasis on tactical play; they can make a team much more than the sum of its parts. |
| Conscript | The Conscript is Spheres of Might's version of the Incanter. Rather than having one direction, it allows for more freeform building than any other practitioner class. This is the class to pick if you want to have as much control of your build as possible, or if no other class is capable of representing your fundamental concept. |
| Scholar | The brains of a group, Scholars understand the plants, chemicals, and history of the world around them. This is a good class to play if you're looking for a more skill-based character, or someone who can use their wits to succeed in areas where brute force fails. Scholars gain access to various ability choices outside of their subclass, so they're also quite flexible and can be strong supporters for almost any party. |
| Striker | Strikers are direct combatants who focus on managing their Tension gauge, which goes up and down throughout combat based on actions taken. This is a good class to play if you enjoy managing your resources, but without quite the level of complexity that the Prodigy (in Spheres of Power) requires. |
Spheres
| Sphere | Description |
|---|---|
| Alchemy | The Alchemy sphere allows its users to brew up items and toxins that can provide various effects. Notably, this sphere includes a mundane healing option in its Salve formula, as well as various ways to deliver its effects. |
| Athletics | The Athletics sphere deals with movements in various forms, ranging from tumbling through an enemy's square to pole vaulting across areas. |
| Barrage | The Barrage sphere focuses on making rapid attacks with ranged weapons, making it the favored choice of people who want to attack as rapidly as possible. |
| Barroom | The Barroom sphere focuses on using improvised weapons and drinking alcoholic brews for various effects like gaining temporary hit points or improvements to ability scores. |
| Beastmastery | The Beastmastery sphere deals with riding and taming animals and similar mount-like creatures. |
| Berserker | The Berserker sphere allows its users to batter their foes and accept AC penalties to gain the benefits of adrenaline effects like reducing damage or rerolling missed weapon attacks. |
| Brute | The Brute sphere focuses on disarming and shoving foes around, allowing them to manipulate the battlefield and weaken foes before finishing them off. |
| Dual Wielding | Dual Wielders are similarly to Barrage users in that they can make more attacks, but this sphere focuses more on melee weapons than ranged ones. Dual Wielders can also gain other benefits while using two-weapon fighting, such as increasing cirtical ranges or learning how to help their allies instead of making more attacks. |
| Equipment | The Equipment sphere deals with equipment proficiencies, as well as helping people make the most of their existing gear. Some of these talents are closer to the effects of Feats, making them a useful starting point for a customized combat style. |
| Fencing | The Fencing sphere grants benefits to creatures who attack with style, allowing them to aid their allies and perform better when attacking with advantage. Specific talents allow the user to impose various effects on enemies after successful strikes, allowing users of this sphere to tailor their strikes in ways that hinder foes the most. |
| Gladiator | The Gladiator sphere allows its users to gain effects for boasting after performing specific achievements in combat. It's also useful for demoralizing enemies with intimidation, and the fact that many of its abilities can work as reactions makes them easier to integrate into a combat routine. |
| Guardian | The Guardian sphere is a heavily defensive option, with the ability to endure hits better or even delay taking damage for long enough to grant the opportunity to get healed before falling. |
| Leadership | The Leadership sphere is somewhat unique in that it does not deal with the user's personal power. Rather, this sphere deals with the people surrounding the party, providing a wide variety of benefits and support that can be useful throughout a campaign. |
| Retribution | The Retribution sphere focuses on retaliatory strikes, allowing its users to prepare for incoming strikes and interrupt foes before the hits can land. |
| Scoundrel | The Scoundrel sphere focuses on dirty tactics in combat, ranging from imposing penalties on foes to stealing items from them. |
| Scout | The Scout sphere allows its users to look for strengths and weaknesses in enemies, find their weak points, or gain bonuses for avoiding attacks from scouted enemies. Scouts are also trained in stealth and can hide from foes both in and out of combat. |
| Shield | The Shield sphere, unsurprisingly, focuses on using a shield in combat. Like the rest of Spheres of Might, this is mainly an active sphere, allowing you to use your reaction to increase your AC and deflect attacks in different ways. |
| Sniper | The Sniper sphere focuses on precision strikes, gaining extra accuracy when attacking with advantage and allowing for special trick shots that can hinder foes in different ways. |
| Tinkerer | The Tinkerer sphere focuses on creating gadgets, ranging from alchemic wonders to clockwork contraptions or even futuristic technology. The gadgets from this sphere are highly versatile and can provide a variety of benefits when in combat or exploring the world. |
| Trap | The Trap sphere allows users to create temporary traps that can trigger different effects, ranging from piercing dart traps to snares that sound alarms, blind their foes, or restrain targets. |
| Warleader | The Warleader sphere focuses on battlefield control, with shouts that can affect allies or enemies to create effects in a range and tactics that can benefit allies when they cooperate. This sphere is especially potent among groups that enjoy tactical play and can work together to maximize their benefits. |
| Wrestling | The Wrestling sphere focuses on grappling foes, allowing its users to slam their targets in different ways throughout the brawl. |
| Spheres of Might by Drop Dead Studios | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Using Spheres of Might | ||||||
| Classes | ||||||
| Alter Ego | Armiger | Artisan | Commander | Conscript | Scholar | Striker |
| Spheres | ||||||
| Alchemy | Athletics | Barrage | Barroom | Beastmastery | Berserker | Brute |
| Dual Wielding | Equipment | Fencing | Gladiator | Guardian | Leadership | Retribution |
| Scoundrel | Scout | Shield | Sniper | Tinkerer | Trap | Warleader |
| Wrestling | ||||||
| Other Rules | ||||||
| Combat Actions | Conditions | Feats | Martial Traditions | Mundane Equipment | ||
| Buy It Now On DriveThruRPG | ||||||