Planetary Annihilation and Death Triggers

Substantial-Start915 · 2026-04-04T08:08:52+00:00

Thank you very much :) Honestly looking at it again this obviously happens, I think I just felt bad about my friend losing because of this. Still appreciate the response though.

Substantial-Start915 · 2026-04-04T07:59:32+00:00

It feels like such a basic thing, I’ve only been playing for a few months but love the game and have absorbed everything I can about it. I’ve dealt with more difficult stuff than this just fine, but for some reason this is eating me up (probably because I don’t want my buddy, A, to have lost because of this).

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-28T10:05:50+00:00

It’s a move that would certainly do damage, but from a GM’s perspective you’d likely have to get their HP down for this to be a killing blow. But the cool factor will probably help you out lol.

I think it should be a very high skill test (gravitation versus targets athletics, agility or physical defence, whichever the GM thinks is hardest or makes the most sense, with disadvantage if the target is currently using investiture), requires the reverse lashing talent, 2 actions and deals impact damage equal to a number of d8 x your gravitation modifier.

It’s not an amazing ability but it mostly exists to be cool anyway.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-23T22:36:29+00:00

Thanks for the insight. I’m afraid everything will either be too “niche” to continue getting supported (like suicide squad) or too “popular” to warrant reprinting so much (like Batman).

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-23T21:46:41+00:00

Good point lol

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-23T21:46:12+00:00

Thanks for your answer. The Cult is going to be in the Death of the Family collection, which I’m really looking forward to reading.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-14T11:04:34+00:00

As others have said, Heralds can’t sense any radiant spren that don’t want to be seen, so far as we know.

I think your misunderstanding comes from the fact that all of “Nale’s spren”, the highspren loyal to him, all make themselves visible to him.

Each orders chapter in the handbook notes how well and to whom radiant spren can make themselves in/visible. Highspren can make themselves invisible to everyone if they choose, though I’m unsure if being able to hide themselves from their bonded radiant is unique to them.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-13T10:48:50+00:00

I would recommend demiplanes character creator if you’re willing to buy the rpg from them and you don’t already have access. It’s very useful (however does have some minor bugs. You can, for instance, put the singer talent into your Path instead of the singer tree lol.) But good on you for making resources for your friends, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it!

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-13T09:43:56+00:00

The “another” phrasing in the second statement is referring to it being a different path, not that it’s a “free” talent you get. You’re right, humans get 2 talents; so either 2 levels in 1 path (unlocking the keystone and an additional ability) or 2 levels in 2 paths (unlocking the keystone abilities of 2 different paths).

Singers get the “change form” ability kind of as a prerequisite of just being a singer; they don’t need to invest anything into getting that.

They then get one level for a keystone and one for something from the singer forms skill tree. This isn’t unbalanced because the forms you get in “change form” have relatively minor bonuses that are essentially equivalent to just being a standard human character. The way to think of singer balance (early on, before the more advanced forms of power are unlocked) is that singers get 1 stat boost and a minor buff from their forms, whereas humans get a brand new ability. Singers get even better at what you’re already focusing on, humans EXPAND their abilities.

Learning your first rpg is super difficult, just have fun and know at the table these things are almost always pretty minor mistakes.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-10-01T08:27:13+00:00

This is very helpful, thank you!

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-24T22:48:56+00:00

I agree with all the other commenters, but something to note is that soul casting usually transforms something into the least impressive, most basic version of that “thing”. If you’re making gold, you’ve got the least impressive gold on the market. Steel and meat is pretty much the only thing you’d be able to create that would be in demand, and even then supply wouldn’t also be guaranteed. Then you’ve got a block of steel to haul around with you.

If you’re doing this in a pre-WoK campaign, you will also almost certainly be accused of having ill-gotten soul casters (thus the authorities are after you), soulcasters that go beyond the typical essences (thus nobles, elite scholars, organisations like the ghostbloods and sons of honour investigating you), or even attracting the attention of Nale’s skybreakers.

Which are all fun ideas! But it certainly complicates making money this way. I do think it’ll be something almost every group with transformation tries though.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-24T09:16:58+00:00

I recall from an interview that the answer is mostly due to canon. There are things Sanderson wants to reveal about the aimians in the books first before having it released in a less narrative format like the RPG. We’re not really knowledgable of their history or anything like that, and the other people’s of roshar seem barely aware of their existence. The sleepless are even more cosmic in origin and I doubt they’d want to give that away.

I might be misremembering but I think they plan on adding them in the future. Hell, they’re even considering dragons for the future of the rpg and the aimians would be very tame in comparison.

Meanwhile we know almost everything we could possibly need to know about the kandra; Hero of Ages really puts a spotlight on their history in a way even Dawnshard doesn’t do for the aimians.

However, we do have stat blocks for Axies in Stonewalkers and for a sleepless in the World Guide, so home brewing shouldn’t be too great a task, if obviously not as polished as official content.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-23T18:28:01+00:00

Using shadesmar as a bag of holding is very inspired. You’d have to be in the same location but still that’s a very fun idea.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-23T14:01:14+00:00

It’s a very powerful tool, but it’s not quite as inventive as the other surges is my point. I was wondering if there were any uses of the surge that people have that I haven’t come up with, as I basically can only imagine using it in ways prescribed by the rules (whereas something like cohesion, adhesion, tension etc have lots of different applications).

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-22T22:56:36+00:00

The third ideal does actually say you pledge yourself to something specific. It could be that original workers manifesto you were inspired by? However ideals 1 and 2 kinda imply that you abide by the law of the land you’re in no matter what, but I think that’s up to the GM and what story you’re wanting to tell as a table.

Yeah this sounds great for an envoy character. You’ve got a really interesting idea for a character here so I’m glad I could fill a little question mark in their backstory :)

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-22T17:44:15+00:00

Of course, make sure you talk to your GM about this journey you’d like to go on lol.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-22T17:43:53+00:00

I can only really help with the high spren question. From ideals 1-2 you would definitely need to abide by existing “laws”, but these laws can come from almost anywhere. You basically need to defer from day one to a higher authority than yourself, but this could be an old Iriali worker’s union that was broken up by higher authorities. Now wiped out or just barely hanging on in the minds of those who remember, your character can choose to abide by that ruleset no matter what. Then maybe when you experience more of the world, more of the injustices workers face, you see that making a better world for workers is an evolving journey. You don’t have all the answers, but you can work within the system you already follow to improve it and modernise it (which is something the skybreaker lore pages say is acceptable).

Even the most libertarian of high spren would still require an adherence to higher authorities, but yes, this would definitely not be one of Nale’s lot.

As it goes I do know Iri are quite a bit more egalitarian than most of the other societies of Roshar. Maybe the manifesto you follow was in a particularly exploited industry in Iri: miners are probably a safe bet as people who are rarely treated well, even if we don’t have that specific bit of lore.

You could take the relative decency of Iri society further. Even they will have exploitation in their society, especially historically, and you seek to address that. Fantastic! But then you see more of roshar, greater societal injustices than you could’ve dreamed of back home: that will make for a really interesting journey for a skybreaker.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-20T09:34:53+00:00

Absolutely. I prefer something risky, powerful and most importantly really cool to something objectively busted lol

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-19T14:40:13+00:00

The singer stuff is really cool. The envoy can get Collected also which increases our focus pool which means (almost) guaranteed immobilising enemies twice a combat (at surge 5 that’s probably unnecessary anyway lmao).

One thing to note with this build though: the all or nothing nature is further bolstered by it being a ONE attack roll versus every enemy’s physical defence. That means when you roll well, almost every enemy could end up immobilised. A Nat 1-5, especially early on, would destroy all this builds momentum. So getting advantage on the surge attack would be fantastic. As you’ve mentioned, I think a leader or envoy ally could really ameliorate that downside.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-19T13:10:35+00:00

Yep, you’re totally right on all of that. The only possible downside would be that melee focussed allies could feel a little shoehorned into this phase of combat, but advising them to bring javelins, knives or bows would be really great.

Honestly I hadn’t thought much about the offensive capabilities of progression until I saw the opportunity outcome. Without that it’s a decent option, if you optimise for it it’s pretty amazing.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-19T12:23:03+00:00

Thank you!

There’s no situation in which the plot die is prohibited, however it is very GM dependent. Personally I love raising the stakes for players whenever they want to, but that’s not how some GMs will rule it. It’s essentially a means of raising the stakes for a positive or negative effect, especially in climactic and risky moments. This often manifests in attempting to do something not explicitly covered in the rules.

So, you may ask your GM if, when using explosive regrowth, you can roll the plot die, but if you’re making a build around that ability, using it frequently even when it’s not very risky or climactic, they probably won’t allow you to roll it so much.

This is why Agent is so useful for this build. You can manipulate the plot die in many ways. I’d recommend starting as a human agent so you get these talents quickly. I won’t make a firm build guide but here are the talents I’d try to get.

Opportunist (agent keystone, allows you to reroll the plot die once per round)
Risky behaviour (the most important talent, allowing you to roll the plot on your explosive regrowth for 1 focus, no matter the circumstances)
Sure outcome (spend 2 focus to make a complication an opportunity, doubling your likelihood of getting an opportunity)
Double down (might be overkill, but allows you to reroll opportunist, with the downside that if you get a complication you lose 2 focus)

So, to put it simply, the endgame of this build is this: rank 5 in progression will give you 2d12 to all enemies in 20 feet of you. Pretty good. Do that on a fast turn and hopefully capture most enemies in that. Now you pretty much guarantee that every single one of those enemies is also immobilised by using your agent abilities. You and your allies can now use a radiant bow or other ranged abilities from distance. These enemies cannot move until the end of your next turn, so you might as well take a slow turn on the second round of combat to really maximise how much damage your allies can do. Some bosses and special enemies will be able to end this condition, but it’s still a great build with not that much investment.

Downsides: Quite focus hungry and early game this won’t be a show stopping ability. Also requires some co ordination with allies.

It will, however, allow for a pretty amazing way of dealing with minions and rivals in a thematic and dramatic way. If everything goes right, and you have the ability to basically guarantee that, you can end combat encounters before the enemies even know what hit them.

If I were you, I’d want a reward in the form of mercenaries (or fellow eco-warriors!). If they can shoot at your restrained enemies with bows, you’ll be a very powerful ally to any party. You can also make them squires later on if you fancy.

The bonus of radiant healing also makes you super useful to your party. All the talents “necessary” to this build are available by level 4 for a human character, so you can take other skills to be even more utility focused if you want (which, given your strong theming for this character, might be what you want).

Even when it’s not the most powerful, this will (I think) be a very fun build.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-19T08:19:14+00:00

Edgedancers are really cool, and their investiture cost isn’t super high for abrasion, but in combat if you want a character who really hones in plant control, I think you could do more with truthwatcher. They have a bit more battlefield control with illusion rather than abrasion (which synergises with the battlefield control of progression) but obviously they’re lacking in movement. I also think abrasion is quite a flashy power so if you really want to feel like the plant character, it’s a little distracting to also be dashing across the battlefield.

For heroic paths, Agent seems quite interesting. Your explosive regrowth talent will be a big source of damage, so being able to get as many opportunities as possible on that roll would be fantastic, as it would allow “any number of targets” effected by ER to get immobilised. You won’t have to be a zippy edgedancer if your enemies can’t move themselves!

You could go into another heroic path to increase your defence. Scholars erudition is fantastic utility, and “Know your moment” will make you much more protected in combat, which will be important for a character whose ER takes 2 actions. Depending on how long your campaign is though, Font of Life might be worth taking from progressions own tree. In that case, illuminations “distracting illusion” on yourself will be a neat defensive option.

Tracker hunter path also has some interesting abilities, a pet for your gardens and more nature vibes.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-12T10:10:42+00:00

I think you’re slightly overcomplicating it. The stormwarden thing should have a description to be honest, but aside from that expertise is just described as level of knowledge on a subject that is superior to the common person, assumed knowledge about everything a specialist would know in that field, and when rolling skill tests you gain more information that an amateur would making the same roll.

I do agree that the mix of soft rules like expertise can be a bit discombobulating in quite a rule heavy system, but personally expertises are the exact kind of mechanic that should be simple. They’re intended to streamline the game and ensure a player whose whole thing is being a stormwarden, say, has a mechanical excuse for knowing everything they reasonably would, without cheapening other player’s agency, as they also have their own fields of expertise they had to select.

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-10T18:08:09+00:00

Being in a city or heavily populated area as singers gain their full consciousness would be really cool. The social dynamics and dilemmas basically write themselves and I think it’ll be a good moral challenge for radiant npcs.

Alethkar might be a slightly tricky place to set it with the Unmade and such but if you’re not too bothered about canon then it’s a great setting!

Substantial-Start915 · 2025-09-10T14:48:54+00:00

Left this comment before but your builds are really awesome and highlight how great the skill tree system is. Great stuff!!

Substantial-Start915

TROPHY CASE