Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Shadowhunter

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 39
1
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!
« on: April 04, 2018, 11:27:31 AM »
I think the only thing about Mystery of Xen'drik that is worth considering is that for a prepared caster, they needn't have prepared it ahead of time, while Secret of Power can only reclaim spells you've prepped. So another tool alongside Uncanny Foresight and Alacritous Cogitation. Maybe they thought that was worth the higher price.

Still means it's pointless for Sorcerers/Bards though so... it could do with a bit of quality assurance, that's for certain. Then again, it's 3.5 so that applies to a lot of things, and in the end it doesn't matter much what's theoretically possible, as much as what your DM allows. But it does make it wonky for those of us that enjoy crafting builds in a vacuum just to tinker with the tools, that's for sure.

2
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!
« on: April 03, 2018, 02:10:49 PM »
Then there's Primordial Scholar as well, practically giving you infinite 1st-5th spells.
I never understood why people bring that Class up. It takes 2ap to recover a Spell Slot, not 1, so you are limited unless you tap into a real loop like a Mongoose with Raging Luck (assuming it works).

I think you are thinking of:
Quote
Mystery of Xen'drik
Choose one of your known spells, of a level equal to your class level or lower, (only characters with a spellbook or a spells known list can choose this option:) You can spend 2 action points to cast that spell without counting it against your daily limit. If you normally prepare spells, you need not have prepared a spell to cast it in this way.

while I am referring:
Quote
Secret of Power
Spend 1 action point to regain a number of spells (or spell slots, if you cast spontaneously) that you have already cast today. The total levels of the spells or spell slots regained can't exceed your class level.

3
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!
« on: April 03, 2018, 10:47:21 AM »
Yeah, I was never sure it held water properly. When your core argument turns into "Do they need to be a spellcaster, or did the writers just assume that anyone casting a spell would be one" it's on thin ice. Oh well, Metamagic Effect still works (doesn't care who cast the spell, just that it is present). Leaves you with only one shot at Persisting 1 round spells like Wraithstrike, but it'll work. Have to save Co-op for an actual spellcaster.

Interesting about the Wand modulation. It never occurred to me that you could make a item holding an infusion, what a simple thing to overlook. Huh. I've read the handbooks countless times, I'm now amazed at my own ability to avoid realizing this until now. Artificer really is the person who says "screw the rules, I have money" when you start mixing all these ingredients already mentioned.

Unfettered Heroism is such a silly spell. Like, not in itself and not within the context of using it for the basic functions listed in the ECS. But combined with everything else keyed to it... Wand surge working with Staves is probably high up on that list. Then there's Primordial Scholar as well, practically giving you infinite 1st-5th spells.

My idea actually came from trying to figure out a way to have a Blade of Orien that could be very liberal with their teleportations and looking to UH combined with Unlock Dragonmark. Unfortunately, Orien's Fury is keyed to whenever you use your Dimensional Jump as a swift action, and using Unlock Dragonmark is a standard action.

I wonder if there's any substance to a Decisive Strike Monk using UH and Dragonmarked Fist.

4
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!
« on: March 30, 2018, 10:37:34 AM »
I'm not sure this is a new find, but I've not seen it mentioned anywhere during the years. I came up with this idea quite some time ago, but I'm neither sure it's new nor that it's water tight as far as rules go. Regardless, it involves Cooperative Metamagic and a ring of spell storing.

Here's the gist of it: Incantatrix puts Wraithstrike/Bite of the Wereboar/Greater Blink or something to that effect into a ring of spell storing. Gives it to an ally, let's say a Barbarian. Readies an action to use Cooperative Metamagic to apply Persist to the spell when it's cast from the ring. Barbarian casts the spell out of the ring and you now have a shot at making the effect persistent.

You can apply the same basic principle behind Metamagic Effect as well, though I think you only have one shot at attempting to Persist Wraithstrike since it only lasts 1 round, either via Coop or Effect.

An upside to this is that now you can get full usage of both your 3+INT per day abilities, even if there are no allied spellcasters or a lack of spells they want to persist (Warmage or Beguiler and their lack of buffs comes to min).

The only question of legality comes down to technicalities if a character casting a spell out of the ring makes them a spellcaster at that specific point or not. Metamagic Effect only cares about ongoing spells, so that's all fine, but Cooperative might not work, depending on your DM's interpretation.

So have your party all chip in and pool a Ring of Spell Storing, preferably a Major one by the time you can cast 8th level spells. They'll all enjoy it.

5
Loresong from Dragon 335 probably nets you enough Spellcraft to skip the item familiar, if that's all you're using it for.
Quote
Loresong
Divination
Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level

You gain temporary mastery in a skill, even one that you have never studied before. When you complete this spell, select a single skill (other than Speak Language). You gain a +4 competence bonus on all checks with it, with an additional +1 bonus for every 2 caster levels, and you may use it untrained.

Something I noted when I bodged together my own Unseen Seer build was that technically Metamagic feats don't require any spellcasting ability to pick up. So you can pick metamagic feats as a level 1 rogue. Not sure if it's relevant here, because I don't know in which order you're taking your feats.
Similarly, you can pick Spellgifted (Divination) as a level 1 rogue. That Trait might help give you another 1d6 sneak via Hunter's Eye, not sure about your CL.

Wraithstrike doesn't affect ranged attacks, as an fyi.

Persisted Guided Shot probably will help:
Quote
GUIDED SHOT
Divination
Level: Ranger 1, sorcerer/wizard 1
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round
With a guttural utterance made with unmoving lips, you magically focus your attention on a distant foe. Upon aiming your weapon, you note how clearly defined your intended target is.
While this spell is in effect,your ranged attacks do not take a penalty due to distance. In addition, your ranged attacks ignore the AC bonus granted to targets by anything less than total cover, and also ignore the miss chance granted to targets by anything less than total concealment. This spell does not provide any ability to exceed the maximum range of the weapon with which you are attacking, nor does it confer any ability to attack targets protected by total cover.

If you're going ranged attacks, consider Persistent Cloud of Knives for a free extra attack.

If you're going to be playing in the big leagues, consider 3 more levels in Unseen Seer for another advanced learning:
Quote
CHOOSE DESTINY
Divination
Level: Destiny 9
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
You gain a limited ability to discern a successful path for your actions. For the duration of the spell, any time you make an attack roll, skill check, ability check, or saving throw, you may roll twice and select which die roll to use.

Note the "Range: Personal" part there...

6
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Soul Bow and making it a cool archer
« on: November 02, 2017, 11:43:43 AM »
If you want something pretty straightforward, I'm sure you can mix a few levels in Monk, Paladin and Soulknife with a generous helping of Soulbow.
Season with Hidden Talent
(click to show/hide)
to get the manifesting needed for Tashalatora
(click to show/hide)
and pick up Flowing Blade
(click to show/hide)
Make it into a Halfling, give 'em Yondalla's Sense and Zen Archery for some Wisdom to Initiative and ranged attack rolls, some Serenity to switch the Paladin saves to Wisdom.

Flurry with mind arrows, get neat passive abilities. Not as good as spellcasting, but pretty straightforward. Oh and one last piece of advice. Figure out how to flatter/blackmail your DM into allowing you other weapon enhancements than the one listed and pick the +3 bonus of Splitting  ;)

7
D&D 5e / Re: Party of 3, Curse of Strahd.
« on: August 30, 2017, 11:24:49 PM »
Given that Thief gets UMD by 13th level and the adventure is scheduled to end with characters at 10/11th level, that's probably not going to cut it.
The Druid will be a Moon druid, I am uncertain about the Rogue 'cause it's going to be her first time ever playing rpg's (and also my DM's first time DM'ing 5th). I don't want to rain on the Rogues parade and tell her what to do and don't too bluntly, but I find myself slightly bothered by the fact that my second idea of playing a Light domain Cleric will mess with her light sensitivity a lot*. Oh well, I have about a week to figure it out... let's get back to the drawing board and consider my options.

EDIT:
*Not to mention the Dawnblade/Sunblade or whatever it's called... I... should probably mention that part to my DM and the Rogue actually... if she's going to be using it and fight constant disadvantage, that's going to be terrible. Like... real bad.

8
D&D 5e / Party of 3, Curse of Strahd.
« on: August 29, 2017, 09:56:30 AM »
I find myself being the third player in what will be an attempt to play Curse of Strahd with only 3 players. The other two are playing a Changeling Druid and a Drow Rogue. I'm leaning towards playing a Bard, but I am not totally sure. Between the full casting, buffing peoples skill checks and adding extra healing upon short rests, it seems to me they have a lot to offer in this situation.

Anyone have any other ideas?

9
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Good repeatable feats?
« on: April 23, 2017, 10:48:25 AM »
Iron Will, Endurance, Steadfast Determination, Indomitable Soul

Repeatable = Reserve Feats?

Repeatable=Stacks when taken multiple times.

Oh, those feats are always awful.

In regular games, I'm inclined to agree with you. In E6/E8, some of 'em actually become legit since you're not feat-capped anymore. Well... the only one which specifically fit in the category of "Same Feat that stacks with itself" that seems good enough is Font of Inspiration and Psionic Talent now when I think about it.

I was thinking of taking Psionic Body and load up on [Psionic]feats (most notably Psionic Talent), Shifter feats, that sort of thing... but that's not quite what was mentioned.

10
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Get pounce on animal companion?
« on: March 28, 2017, 01:48:32 PM »
I mean it won't help you in this case since KillerK doesn't allow Magic of Incarnum, but I think technically you could get your AC to take Open Least Chakra and
Shape Soulmeld (sphinx claws) to get pounce with natural weapons. This is assuming an Animal Companion can fulfill the prerequisite of "Character level 6" with its hit dice.

11
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Ways to boost UMD checks?
« on: December 14, 2016, 07:29:13 PM »
Dragon Magazine also have the Incantatrix-favourite "Loresong".

Quote
Loresong
Divination
Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level

You gain temporary mastery in a skill, even one that you have never studied before. When you complete this spell, select a single skill (other than Speak Language). You gain a +4 competence bonus on all checks with it, with an additional +1 bonus for every 2 caster levels, and you may use it untrained.

Usually used for Incatatrix to boost Spellcraft, you can also use it to boost UMD.

12
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: In need a creepy undead villain
« on: November 11, 2016, 06:19:20 AM »
I don't have too much to add, but I feel like the Evolved Undead template from Libris Mortis might be useful here. +2 STR and CHA, fast healing 3, +1 AC and a spell-like once per day. Maybe the Greater Invisibility option can help with making it reoccurring.

13
If he likes self-contained options and melee combat, my brain tells me maybe a Totemist or Incarnate?

14
Thank you geniussavant  :)

Practically speaking, it'd be up to the DM I'd be playing with and this isn't a build I intend to throw at your average DM in the first place. So for now, I'm just going to pretend I have the more generous DM in my head saying "this'll work the way you want it to".

As an aside....metamagic feats don't have a spellcasting prerequisite. That's a bit odd, but convenient for someone who picks his first level as Rogue and is a bit feat-starved.
Hello Flaws, nice to see you. Oh well, I guess I can fluff that as a natural talent for learning spellcasting that he discovered, just like the Spellgifted (Divination) trait...

15
Alright ladies, gentlemen and anyone else preferring to be defined by another term. I've recently taken to update a few of my old character builds and as I was poking at my Sneaky Spellcaster (Rogue 1/Diviner 5/Unseen Seer 10/Incantatrix 4 if anyone cares) trying to get the best Loresong and Hunter's Eye I could manage without consumptive field shenanigans, I became unsure how the following works:

Quote
Elder Giant Magic
You have learned a technique developed by ancient giant spellcasters, allowing you to channel additional power into your spells.
Prerequisite
Spellcraft 9 ranks,
Benefit
When casting a spell with a casting time of no more than 1 round, you can increase the casting time by up to 3 rounds. For each additional round that you extend the casting time, your effective caster level is increased by 1. This increase affects all the variables that depend upon caster level, including checks lo overcome spell resistance. Using this power is not without danger. Each round of increased casting lime, you must succeed on a Concentration cheek ( DC 15 + spell level + 1 for each previous check) or lose the spell. You cannot lake 10 on these checks.
Special
Creatures of the giant type can also use this feat to improve spell-like abilities, and they gain a + 4 competence bonus on Concentration cheeks made to use the feat.

Quote
SPELL ENHANCER
Transmutation
Level: Sorcerer/wizard 4
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round
You utter an ancient word tied to the fundamental principles of magic and immediately begin casting another spell.
This spell enhances the next spell you cast, making it more difficult for targets to resist. The next spell you cast this round is cast at +2 caster level, and its save DC increases by 1.

Do you need to cast Spell Enhancer during the turn you finish casting a spell, or on the turn where you start to cast a spell? Because in one of these scenarios, you can "Cast Spell Enhancer, start casting Other Spell. Prolong OS by 3 rounds. Cast OS at CL +5" and in the other one you cannot.

Which one should it be? I keep going between both options and my sleepy mind decided to outsource the whole issue to the braintrust. Any input would be kind.

16
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!
« on: October 06, 2016, 07:08:10 PM »
This is many years late, but I just realized that if you can spend turn undead attempts for additional swift actions (as many times as you have said TU) as a Ruby Knight Vindicator, then there's one piece of shenanigans that isn't mentioned in the cleric handbook. It mentions prestige paladin with the feat, it mentions quickened spells. . . but using Wish to emulate Arcane Spellsurge would allow you to spend your entire payload in one turn more effectively than DMM-Quicken.

Never mind, the spell explicitly states it modifies the casting time for arcane spells. Whoops.

17
Gaming Advice / Re: Reincarnate spell 3.5e
« on: September 02, 2016, 10:44:44 AM »
Tangentially relevant discussion:
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1592.0

Reincarnate gets a tad funky when you squint at it for too long.

18
Min/Max 3.x / Re: [E6] Help with a war leader.
« on: August 26, 2016, 06:38:58 AM »
Is there anything else I should be doing? Is there another (better) way to do what I'm trying to accomplish?
You selected a good base to work with really and considered your ACFs.

So let's talk Spells,
* Ancient Knowledge gives you a single +5 insight to your next Knowledge Check.
* Combined Talent allows you to share 1 Skill Rank per CL which could really be handy with Practiced Spellcaster.
* Inspirational Boost & Harmony both increase Inspire Courage's Bonus by +1, with Harmony's casting time you can kick both out.

According to the Spell Compendium, Harmony was reworked into Inspirational Boost, much like how Kaupaer's Skittish Nerves turned into Nerveskitter. So I don't think you can stack the two, normally.

19
Just seems really weird to see this thread be literally entirely about pulling CR shenanigans to the exclusion of using any actual monsters or anything that might be seen in any kind of actual game. I'd much rather see a list of monsters at different CRs that are tough fights, or pairs that work together well, rather than seeing a list of monsters with the largest HD with "non-associated" Cleric levels so they cast as Clerics of their CR or "Phaerim with X Sorcerer levels" at every CR.

To be fair, I at least did mention the fairly regular crab a few posts up ;)

20
This reminds me of something.... oh yes. About six years ago this was born.

Slow, Pathetic, Magebred Toads with Shape Soulmeld: Dissolving Spittle and random Feat that gives a point of essentia.
10 of them is CR 1.
Nothing like the "Amphibian Paraplegic Assault Brigade" to ruin your day.

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 39