Looks like this was just an interpretation problem from the preview material.
- Spliced Weave has an inherent benefit over Threadweaving: Spliced Weave is, in itself, a Simple Action. That means you can Threadweave via Spliced Weave on the same turn as spellcasting (via Spellcasting or Concise Casting).
- Additional Ranks in Spliced Weave do have value: Rank is the maximum number of threads that can be woven. Therefore, if you want to weave 8 threads, you need at least Spliced Weave 8. Doesn't matter if you can achieve all eight successes on a single Threadweaving test, you still can only use as many (cumulative) successes as you have Ranks in Spliced Weave.
As a result, this thread is pretty much dead (in a completely good way). If you're just stumbling onto this, you won't really find much insight within now that the clarification above is available.
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Maybe I'm having a bad day, just seems like I'm pouring all kinds of angst on here.
On the old forum, I'd kicked off a thread talking about The Threadweaving Tax. It basically amounts to how unfortunate it is that magician's primary scaling function - extra threads - requires multiple Standard action, meaning they actually effect combat less frequently than everyone else.
Spliced Weave seems like it addresses it, but it seems to leave a lot lacking.
First, it's Circle 15. Unless there's something else waiting in the wings, only the most epically legendary of legendary magicians will ever see this.
Second, every time I look at it, it seems like a fairly unfulfilling way to end the Discipline. This is a Talent that, as written, really only begs for a couple of Ranks. Master magicians get four extra threads, and spells will have an average base of one thread. That's five total, if you want to spike the ball as hard as you can. A Circle 15 really should be pulling out 2-3 successes on any Threadweaving test shy of Master spells.
If this is the solution we have for the tax, I'd really really rather see this converted to something else, maybe a Circle 15 Karma ability, and something much more interesting as the top-Talent for the magicians. Even better would be if each magician's top Talent were unique (which is I think the current iconic thing at Circle 14). Again, this just seems kind of sad to me: "Congratulations, you are now the pinnacle of Nethermancy; your reward is ... the exact same as every other caster *sad trumbone*"