Spheres of Power Wiki Home Page

This Wiki is an independent reference for some systems and powers for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game created under the terms of the Open Game License Version 1.0a (see Legal and OGL link on the sidebar). We encourage you to buy the original products (and any supplements you'd enjoy) as a way of supporting the many people who worked to create this content. You can find their books online or by ordering through your Friendly Local Game Shop.


About the Spheres

Latest Release (2/24)

ultimate-engineering.png
Ultimate Engineering
$19.99

The Spheres are a collection of three optional rule systems for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, published mainly by Drop Dead Studios and supported by other third-party companies. In these systems, players may choose from a range of martial, magical, and skill spheres, spending Talents to create a uniquely customized character. The Spheres rules are very flexible and allow players to build to an idea, rather than a specific class.

Spheres of Power is the original system and focused on a range of magical abilities. Content in this system uses blue links.

Spheres of Might is the second system and focuses mainly on non-magical combat and some use of skills. Content for this system uses reddish links.

Spheres of Guile focuses on a wider range of skills, from making items to running organizations. Content for this system uses purple links.

Champions of the Spheres focuses on content that blends multiple systems together (such as a character who gains both martial and magical talents). Champion content uses green links.

Citations Guide: [Apoc] is used to mark Spheres Apocrypha, which are small, official releases. [CS] is used to mark Champions of the Spheres content (whether from that book or not) in areas where it may not be obvious. [3PP] means content is from someone other than Drop Dead Studios, so it is not official Spheres content. [Wiki] means the content was created by the wiki or the community. [(Name) HB] marks content from specific handbooks. [NS] helps mark content published in Spheres books, but that does not specifically use Spheres content.



Other Systems

The Spheres systems are the main focus of this site, but they're not the only high-quality subsystems created for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Below, you'll find links to other systems (from other publishers) that are also available on this site.



About: The Akashic Mysteries focus on veilweaving, an ancient art that can form manifestations of energy and bestow a wide variety of effects.



About: The City of 7 Seraphs is a planar campaign setting that makes use of content from a variety of publishers, including its own original material. This section includes content helpful for playing in this setting.



About: The Cthulhu Mythos focus on the uncountable, nameless horrors beyond space and time - and their inevitable return when the time is right.



About: Gonzo is a collection of wild and crazy classes. From mimes and rockstars to magical girls and nuclear mages, these options start at crazy and get rapidly weirder from there. The only thing that's certain is your games will never be the same.



About: Heroes of the Jade Oath offers content with a strong eastern flavor to it, making it ideal for characters or campaigns involving such themes. This page includes new classes, races, feats, character traits, magic systems, and more.



About: Legendary Worlds covers content from the Legendary Planet Adventure Path and supplementary material. Product Identity in this section is used with permission.



About: The Mythic rules are an addition to the main ruleset of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, allowing players to access truly legendary powers and abilities and confront foes that are far more dangerous than the usual enemies of the game.



About: This subsystem focuses on making pacts with otherworldly entities and calling upon them for power. In addition to a new base class, Pact Magic offers archetypes for many of Paizo's classes, over one hundred different spirit allies, and numerous other options for characters.



About: Strange Magic is a collection of flavorful and unique subsystems, each revolving around a different style of casting. From channeling the power of the universe into ethereal blasts to composing magical melodies or reciting true names, these powers are strange indeed…



About: Arcforge is a sci-fi setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game published by Legendary Games. This section includes rules for running games in the Arcforge setting.



About: This section contains class options, new choices, and other material too small to deserve its own section, but too numerous to be put on the front page. Come in and take a look - you never know what interesting new rules you'll find next.


Other Resources

In addition to the rulesets listed above, this site offers a number of other resources to help you run games.

  • BB Code Profile Template - If you play games online, this pre-formatted template will help you create an attractive, easy-to-read profile.
  • Character Roles - An introduction to the various roles that characters can take in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and how to build a character who is effective at that role.
  • Citations Guide - Some rules on this site have citations referencing other products. If you aren't sure what those refer to, check this guide.
  • Creating New Spheres - Want to develop and maybe even publish your spheres? Here are some design principles to help you get started.
  • Creature Templates - A collection of templates to quickly and easily modify creatures by granting them exotic new abilities
  • Damage Types - An overview of the different types of damage types in Pathfinder, including their traits and how they're resisted by foes.
  • Developing Fantastic Nations - Rules exist for generating standard settlements, but fewer options are available for generating nations that better suit a fantastic setting. This page offers some tables and techniques for quickly generating exotic locales.
  • Errata Log - This page logs some of the errata applied after Ultimate Spheres of Power.
  • Mastering Magical Items - This guide for GMs (and, to a lesser extent, players) covers some of the principles behind treasure distribution. It is particularly oriented towards newer GMs, but also contains some advice for experienced GMs.
  • Running Cataclysmic Games - This guide covers tips and concepts for running apocalyptic games with material from The Cataclysm Handbook.
  • Running Guile Games - This section has rules for running games that focus on Spheres of Guile and general intrigue.
  • Starfinder to Pathfinder - These guidelines cover backwards conversions to help bring content from the Starfinder Roleplaying Game into the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
  • Tricks and Strategies - Here are some rules-legal tricks and techniques you can do with the spheres systems. Many of these were suggested by the community.
  • Wiki Weapons - New weapons for characters to use, developed by the Wiki.

House Rules

These rules are a collection of options for modifying the game. These are not official rules, but instead represent adaptions of other content by the wiki.

  • Deific Talents - Deific talents represent particularly powerful sphere abilities. Most of these are not suitable for players to have permanent access to - rather, they're for major villains, epic NPCs, godly avatars, and similar legendary characters within a game world.
  • Recharge Sphere Magic - This is an alternate, unofficial ruleset for Spheres of Power intended for use with particularly high power and/or low-player games.
  • Virtues - Virtues represent motivations for characters and how powerfully they tend to feel about different topics. These are primarily a roleplaying aid designed to help flesh out characters, motivations, and likely responses to a given situation. Despite the name, they are not exclusively limited to good-aligned characters.

  • Newsletters - Check out the archives of the newsletters and see what's going on with the site.
  • Recent Changes - This page details the most-recent changes to the Wiki.
This website uses cookies. See the Legal & OGL page for important information. Any material NOT covered by the Open Game License Version 1.0a is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.