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Min/Max 3.x / Minmaxing Pact Magic (No, not TOM, Secrets of Pact Magic)
« on: January 14, 2016, 09:30:54 PM »
Secrets of Pact Magic, and it's sequel, Villians of Pact Magic, from Radiance House are considered among teh better 3rd party D&D 3.x content. Alongside from Dragonlance and Dreamscarred Press's Psionics (+Hyperconcious, because they build off of it), they're the 3rd party content I am willing to use.
The class design from Radiance House is actually pretty good, and I really like the way they set up the Spirit Binding system.
The actual spirits on the other hand... are not quite up to DSP or WOTC quality. Still usable though, if you have a DM who is willing to step in to rule on stuff, and fix some issues from things like not using the proper terminology or formats established by WOTC's official books, or the author apparently using a homebrew or older edition version of Haste.
My current 3.5 game plans are based on "Learn an Alternate Magic System already modbannit!" so the Supernatural Exchange feat is a really nice way of letting people use Caster classes without using spellcasting (which in my setting, makes your head asplode outside of rare safe zones).
I found one previous thread on this topic, but it had like two posts.
Anyway, enough rambling, on to how to optimize this stuff:
PrC's:
Because of the funky way it's secret Spirit Ability works Unmarked Vessel is like, the best 1 level dip ever. If you have a high Binder or Caster level, one dip gets you a very potent spirit... in addition to any spirits you already have. Like unless you want a 20th level capstone or need all your feats for other stuff, there is no reason not to dip a level of this class. A Duskblade 18/Unmarked Vessel 1 can have a 9th level Spirit bound. If said Duskblade also takes Supernatural Exchange, it can swap out it's spells for another 5th level spirit. (Or using the "Binding Lesser Spirits" rule, for 5 1st level spirits, or a 2nd and a 3rd level spirit, etc.)
Master Soulwright is also an pretty absurdly good 1 level dip. You get the ability to bind a granted ability from a spirit into an item. Which means you can hand one of your granted abilities (in item form) to a familiar and have it use it's actions to use the ability for you. Win the action economy!
More latter...
The class design from Radiance House is actually pretty good, and I really like the way they set up the Spirit Binding system.
The actual spirits on the other hand... are not quite up to DSP or WOTC quality. Still usable though, if you have a DM who is willing to step in to rule on stuff, and fix some issues from things like not using the proper terminology or formats established by WOTC's official books, or the author apparently using a homebrew or older edition version of Haste.
My current 3.5 game plans are based on "Learn an Alternate Magic System already modbannit!" so the Supernatural Exchange feat is a really nice way of letting people use Caster classes without using spellcasting (which in my setting, makes your head asplode outside of rare safe zones).
I found one previous thread on this topic, but it had like two posts.
Anyway, enough rambling, on to how to optimize this stuff:
PrC's:
Because of the funky way it's secret Spirit Ability works Unmarked Vessel is like, the best 1 level dip ever. If you have a high Binder or Caster level, one dip gets you a very potent spirit... in addition to any spirits you already have. Like unless you want a 20th level capstone or need all your feats for other stuff, there is no reason not to dip a level of this class. A Duskblade 18/Unmarked Vessel 1 can have a 9th level Spirit bound. If said Duskblade also takes Supernatural Exchange, it can swap out it's spells for another 5th level spirit. (Or using the "Binding Lesser Spirits" rule, for 5 1st level spirits, or a 2nd and a 3rd level spirit, etc.)
Master Soulwright is also an pretty absurdly good 1 level dip. You get the ability to bind a granted ability from a spirit into an item. Which means you can hand one of your granted abilities (in item form) to a familiar and have it use it's actions to use the ability for you. Win the action economy!
More latter...