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Messages - Larkas

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Source. And yeah, Avatar Roku is just awesome.


Monastic Magus (Archetype)

Magi usually embrace weapons and armor, producing veritable twisters of steel and magic. A monastic magus, however, believes those implements only get in the way of perfection. Leading secluded lives not unlike a monk's, cultivating their minds and their bodies, these magi show that eldritch might meshes perfectly with unarmed - and unarmored - martial prowess.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A monastic magus is proficient with the bolas, club, dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, quarterstaff, nunchaku, sai, shortspear, short sword, shuriken, siangham, sling, and spear, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor interferes with a monastic magus' movements, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.

When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monastic magus loses his AC bonus ability. This replaces the normal magus weapon and armor proficiency feature.

AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored and unencumbered, the monastic magus adds his Intelligence bonus (if any) to his AC and his CMD. In addition, a monastic magus gains a +1 bonus to AC and CMD at 4th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every four monastic magus levels thereafter, up to a maximum of +5 at 20th level.

These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the monastic magus is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load. This ability replaces the ability to cast magus spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance.

Unarmed Strike: At 1st level, a monastic magus gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A monastic magus' attacks may be with fist, elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a monastic magus may make unarmed strikes with his hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monastic magus striking unarmed. A monastic magus may thus apply his full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all his unarmed strikes.

Usually a monastic magus' unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but he can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on his attack roll. He has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.

A monastic magus' unarmed strike is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

A monastic magus also deals more damage with his unarmed strikes than a normal person would. A monastic magus unarmed strike damage is the same as a monk's of his level and size. Furthermore, a character's monastic magus and monk levels stack when determining his unarmed strike damage.

Fast Movement (Ex): At 7th level, a monastic magus gains an insight bonus of 10 ft. to his land speed. A monastic magus in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed. This ability replaces the Medium Armor class feature.

Movement Blending (Ex): Starting at 13th level, a monastic magus' Spell Combat ability counts as a full attack action instead of its own kind of full-round action. Furthermore, the bonus to his land speed provided by Fast Movement increases to 20 ft. This ability replaces the Heavy Armor class feature.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Arcane Preparation for Divine characters?
« on: May 08, 2013, 07:11:15 PM »
There is no official feat to let spontaneous divine casters prepare a spell.  I'd probably recommend just tweaking "Arcane Preparation" to be "Spell Preparation" and let any kind of caster use it.

The designers derped when it came to spontaneous divine and letting them have similar things to spontaneous arcane, mostly because it's a niche that wasn't already thoroughly established, and thus they spent their efforts on other things.

Speaking of changing it though, that's going into the 1001 homebrew ideas thread.

I guess. It doesn't make any sense for Arcane Preparation to be, well, arcane only. It's the kind of specificity that could only bring this kind of stupidness. "We don't have any spontaneous divine spellcaster". Nice, then you don't need to worry about any taking Arcane Preparation! You don't have to spell it out in the feat. Really...

Thanks anyways, Jack!

/thread

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Gaming Advice / Re: Arcane Preparation for Divine characters?
« on: May 08, 2013, 09:58:10 AM »
So... Any ideas? Southern Magician -> Arcane Preparation doesn't work, since "The actual source of the spell's power doesn't change, nor does its means of preparation." Magical Training -> Alternative Source Spell -> Arcane Preparation doesn't either, since the Dragon feat says that "An alternative-sourced spell uses up a spell slot from the class that normally grants the spell."; I would be using the Sor/Wiz casting from Magical Training to cast the Sanctified spells, and as a result I wouldn't have the necessary slots. Besides, that would be THREE feats!

I'm completely lost. =/

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Gaming Advice / Arcane Preparation for Divine characters?
« on: May 07, 2013, 09:07:18 AM »
So, considering the Favored Soul and T.G. Oskar's retooled Healer, I was thinking of ways for these classes to access Sanctified spells without having to rely on something like Troubadour of the Stars. Do you guys know if there's any kind of feat or one-level dip that provides Divine characters with something akin to Arcane Preparation?

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Min/Max 3.x / Re: Making a Cleric a better Fighter than a Fighter
« on: May 01, 2013, 01:49:53 AM »
Oh, so you want to beat the Fighter at his own game of feats? Then just get the Magic Domain and carry a bunch of Heroics scrolls! Or get the aforementioned Spell Domain and duplicate it with Anyspell. Or use the ACF Divine "Make Your Own Domain" Magician, and get Heroics as a spell known, and get a staff with it (also works with Magic Domain). Go ahead and also get Polymorph, if it strikes your fancy, and be outright better than the Fighter at its job.

EDIT: Or a Runestaff with Magic Domain or Divine Magician. Or a Divine Staff of the Spell Domain. The possibilities are endless!

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Was there more than just the first post of his? I'd love to get a true summary, if there's more to it, I was using that first list as my official errata.

There isn't much more, but there are a couple of other things that might come up at the game table. I'll whip up the mini-handbook, then!

@SirPercival: I've actually used your fix to great effect once! However, this mini-handbook is aimed at those people who aren't too sold on using homebrew in their games, be it as a DM or as a player. As RedWarlock said, an author's fix is the next best thing after an official errata, and in many games where homebrew won't fly, such a fix can be used without much fuss. Anyways, YMMV, but I think that each piece has its place. :)

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The main part of the errata is actually found in Reply #10 on that thread. It doesn't cover the small things Ari said in the rest of the topic, however.

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I've been thinking about making a really small handbook on Ari Marmell's fixes for the Shadowcaster. Basically, it would present his proposed fixes for the class (mainly on the second post in that thread, but there is information scattered elsewhere in it) in a format not unlike official errata. Is there any interest for that?

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Gaming Advice / Re: Any creatures with fewer HD than CR?
« on: April 26, 2013, 06:16:32 PM »
Can they run abilities from different monsters simultaneously?

Regen+Fast Healing+Energy Resistance = yum.

That's the idea, but there will be some limitations. Constant abilities specially will run for very few rounds. Such a combination would run simultaneously for some 3 rounds at most. And to initiate such an ability, it will take a swift action, so...

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Gaming Advice / Re: Any creatures with fewer HD than CR?
« on: April 26, 2013, 05:56:53 PM »
Ah, heck, back to the drawing board...
What is it you are trying to accomplish?  If you can tell us that, we may be able to help you.

Let's see if I can articulate this... I'm basically trying to enable the learning of monster abilities as spell-like abilities by a class. Now, I won't be using regular spell limitations, but I must put some kind of limitation to stop a character from learning an ability too soon. It won't make much sense without seeing the whole class, but the character will need to pass a Knowledge check (DC 15+X) to identify the ability and a level check (10+Y) to actually learn it. Now, as this must be generalized, I'm trying to decide which statistic to base X and Y on. I think that, as flawed as it is, I'll have to go with CR. I'm trying to assess my options. I'm thinking if I should modify CR in some way, or HD, or anything really. This is still in brainstorm phase, so I'm not set on anything. I just don't want to face the same pitfalls that face the Truenamer.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Any creatures with fewer HD than CR?
« on: April 26, 2013, 03:49:02 PM »
Noble Djinni too. Ah, heck, back to the drawing board... Thanks, guys! :)

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Gaming Advice / Any creatures with fewer HD than CR?
« on: April 26, 2013, 01:14:33 PM »
Aside from humanoids with NPC classes (such as an elf warrior), are there any creatures with fewer HD than CR?

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Handbook Discussion / Re: Request: Swordsage Handbook
« on: April 24, 2013, 08:27:59 PM »
There are a couple at Giantitp, but alas, no cached copy, and the site is still offline.

Scratch that. Here they are.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Lawful Good [Evil] and Incarnate Avatar
« on: April 24, 2013, 11:46:36 AM »
This seems an odd way to treat it, since you're basically saying that creatures who take Shape Soulmeld can be better with that soulmeld than a creature with a level investment in the class that soulmeld was designed for.  In effect, it's a reward for not being an incarnate.  I much prefer the idea of incarnate avatar only granting the bonuses for one alignment component at at a time, as then it applies consistently to anyone using the soulmeld.

Considering that (a) if you're not an Incarnate, you'll have to expend a feat in Shape Soulmeld; (b) Incarnate Avatar (and Weapon, for that matter) won't do anything without essentia invested in it, and that in order to get an essentia pool you need either to have levels in an Incarnum class, be an Azurin or a Duskling or burn another feat to get a point; (c) essentia capacity is pretty low unless you're an Incarnate or a Totemist; (d) Totemists have several good soulmelds to worry about and to invest in; (e) Incarnate Avatar isn't exactly stellar unless you bind it, and you can't do it before epic levels unless you're an Incarnate; and (f) Soulborn could certainly use the help to hit, damage and AC; then no, it doesn't worry me much. :)

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That is a somewhat cheesy proposition. After all, it is much easier to get extra Move and Standard actions than it is to get extra Swift. That said, however, the only "way" that I know is using the DMG's rules to using wands. It is always at least a standard action. That was changed in the Rules Compendium, however.

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As a homebrew alternative, why don't you just use PF's Dhampir? Drop the Dexterity bonus and you're good!
Right now there's no homebrew allowed. If anything, the DM might allow it, but with a +1 LA like the tiefling and aasimar.

Awww, bummer, that's too bad. Anyways, if it must be taken with an LA, be sure to keep the Dex. It wouldn't be worth it from an optimization point of view, but if you're going just for flavor it wouldn't hurt so much. And if you must argue as to why it should be LA +0 without the Dex bonus, just point to the creature type and explain why Outsider is so valuable.

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As a homebrew alternative, why don't you just use PF's Dhampir? Drop the Dexterity bonus and you're good!

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Gaming Advice / Re: Lawful Good [Evil] and Incarnate Avatar
« on: April 23, 2013, 03:18:50 PM »
Hmmm, got it. Thanks, SorO and Jack! I think that my main issue with this is that Incarnate Avatar doesn't give you a choice (something like: "Incarnate avatar is treated as your choice of chaotic, evil, good or lawful effect, but it must conform to your own alignment."). If you don't get to choose, it seems to me that, necessarily, you are bestowed all the bonuses to which your alignment components qualify for.

This seems to be an oversight from the authors. RAI isn't even unclear: it is non-existent. I would houserule that you can access all the bonuses available to all your alignments simultaneously (unless you're an Incarnate; it doesn't matter if you're a pit fiend: if you're dedicated purely to law, you will only receive the bonuses given to lawful Incarnates). But that would be only that: a houserule. It makes just as much sense to rule otherwise, saying that you are, indeed, given a choice, and that you must make it when shaping the Avatar, or even that you must take Shape Soulmeld for each of the forms separately (i.e.: Shape Soulmeld (Lawful Incarnate Avatar)). But, IMHO, as is, the ruling is incomplete and must be amended either way.

I consider this issue solved then! If you have any parting comments, though, feel free to post them! :)

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Gaming Advice / Re: Lawful Good [Evil] and Incarnate Avatar
« on: April 23, 2013, 01:48:35 PM »
At OP, pick one.
Incarnate avatar is treated as a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful effect, based on your alignment.
It's not an and based choice but or. You only benefit from one choice no matter how many Alignments you have (such as chaotic evil is technically 2).

Hmmmm, gotcha. But let me ask you one thing (honest question here): in other places in the system, when you want to give an inclusive choice, does WotC put "and/or"? Because "or" isn't necessarily exclusive (though it certainly can be).

Really? See thats one I missed, means I'll have to reread Savage Species  :banghead

That is actually in the SRD:

Quote from: SRD
Evil Subtype

A subtype usually applied only to outsiders native to the evil-aligned Outer Planes. Evil outsiders are also called fiends. Most creatures that have this subtype also have evil alignments; however, if their alignments change, they still retain the subtype. Any effect that depends on alignment affects a creature with this subtype as if the creature has an evil alignment, no matter what its alignment actually is. The creature also suffers effects according to its actual alignment. A creature with the evil subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any weapons it wields were evil-aligned (see Damage Reduction, above).

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I must say, if I followed the reading most of you guys are following here, I would agree entirely with wotmaniac. However, IMHO opinion you are missing a very important piece of information:

Quote
Dual-school spells, featured in this book for the fi rst time, have effects that encompass two distinct schools of magic. In all cases, treat these spells as if they belonged to both schools simultaneously. Effects that prevent a spellcaster from accessing one school of a dual-school spell prevent all access to that spell. For example, a specialist wizard cannot learn a dual-school spell if either of the spell’s schools is one of his prohibited schools. Benefits that apply to a school of magic do not stack with themselves even if the spellcaster can apply them to both schools of magic. For example, if a spellcaster has the Spell Focus feat for either school, it applies to the dual-school spell normally. However, spellcasters who have taken the Spell Focus feat for both of a dual-school spell’s associated schools only increase the DC of the dual-school spell by +1.

Bolded for your convenience. Now, dual-school spells care only about the spellcaster, not whatever the spellcaster is doing to access those spells. Shadow Evocation can't duplicate pure Abjuration spells, but unless the spellcaster is a specialist Wizard that has banned Abjuration, there is nothing preventing it (the caster) from casting Abjuration spells. As such, again IMHO, we must take the permissive reading and come to the conclusion that, as the spell is both an Abjuration and an Evocation, and the spellcaster hasn't banned Abjuration, it can be mimicked with Shadow Evocation. Since the spell is an Abjuration, but also an Evocation.

The Warmage stuff is a little more complicated. Nothing prevents the Warmage from casting Abjuration spells but his spell list. However, Advanced Learning says that the spell must be an Evocation. I take the permissive reading here again, the spell is an Abjuration, but is also an Evocation, and as such it qualifies for the class feature. However, this can go both ways. The restriction here comes from Advanced Learning, not from the spellcaster and dual-school spells.

Anyways, again, this is just my opinion, and how I'd rule it in my games. It seems to me that the idea behind dual-school spells is to be fairly open but for specialist Wizards. But there is no specific ruling here, and I can understand people adjudicating the other way.

TL;DR: Ask your DM! :)

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