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1

Introduce Yourself / Yo.

« on: November 16, 2017, 07:13:34 PM »

So... long, embarassing story short, I kind of lost the recovery e-mail. I'm back!

2

D&D 5e / Druids: Wildshaping Forms for Every Occasion

« on: January 19, 2015, 12:02:51 PM »

Let's talk about Wildshaping!

Quote from: 5e Player's Handbook, pg 66-67

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest. Your druid level determines the beasts you can transform into, as shown in the Beast Shapes table. At 2nd level, for example, you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating o f 1/4 or lower that doesn’t have a flying or swimming speed.

We all remember Wildshaping. It's one of the best class features of 3.5. But there have been some changes...

Quote

Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You also retain all o f your skill and saving throw proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the creature. If the creature has the same proficiency as you and the bonus in its stat block is higher than yours, use the creature’s bonus instead of yours. If the creature has
any legendary or lair actions, you can't use them.
When you transform, you assume the beast’s hit points and Hit Dice. When you revert to your normal
form, you return to the number o f hit points you had before you transformed. However, if you revert as a result o f dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to your normal form. For example, if you take 10 damage in animal form and have only 1 hit point left, you revert and take 9 damage. As long as the excess damage doesn’t reduce your normal form to 0 hit points, you aren’t knocked unconscious.
You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities o f your beast form. Transforming doesn’t break your concentration on a spell you’ve already cast, however, or prevent you from taking actions that
are part o f a spell, such as call lightning, that you’ve already cast.
You retain the benefit o f any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable o f doing so. However, you can’t use any o f your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense.
You choose whether your equipment falls to the ground in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece o f equipment, based on the creature’s
shape and size. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t w ear must either fall to the ground or merge with it. Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.

Additionally, there are two advancement rates for druids, according to their Druid Circle class feature- the spellcasting-focused Circle of the Land use the following table, restricting forms based on move speed and challenge rating rather than Hit Dice:

Level	Max CR	Restrictions
2	1/4	No Swimming or Fly Speed
4	1/2	No Fly Speed
8	1	No Restrictions

On the other hand, the Circle of the Moon focuses on wildshaping at the expense of spellcasting power. From level 2, they can select CR 1 forms for wildshaping. And starting at level 6, their wildshape forms open up to one-third their druid level. However, they're still stuck with the movement restrictions. This is going to be a look at my personal recommendations for forms at each level.
[to be continued]

3

Gaming Advice / Early Entry Help

« on: January 05, 2015, 03:50:30 PM »

Okay, this one's gonna be a stretch. I need to be able to cast Giant Vermin as soon as possible to get into Vermin Lord. Anything I can do beyond using Versatile Spellcaster at 6th to burn the 3rd level spell slots to cast it as a Dread Necro?

http://dndtools.pw/classes/vermin-lord/

4

Gaming Advice / 3 year campaign down the toilet.

« on: August 07, 2014, 10:56:21 AM »

Reposted here, might be more relevant.

So. Over the course of the summer, a few party members- that is to say, myself (Clanjos), a friend (beardguy), another friend (Mike), the DM's wife, and another friend (Yami) got it in our heads that we'd be choosing our characters for the next season of Parties and Parodies, a D&D-based radio show. This is a conversation from yesterday. Be forewarned, this ever-expanding clusterfuck took up 20 pages in a Microsoft Word document. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

http://pastebin.com/MQutXife

The gist of it is: DM prefers story over player enjoyment. Development that started last season. I'm probably going to bow out.

5

Off Topic Fun / A three-year campaign. Down the toilet.

« on: August 06, 2014, 11:50:34 PM »

So. Over the course of the summer, a few party members- that is to say, myself (Clanjos), a friend (beardguy), another friend (Mike), the DM's wife, and another friend (Yami) got it in our heads that we'd be choosing our characters for the next season of Parties and Parodies, a D&D-based radio show. This is a conversation from today. Be forewarned, this ever-expanding clusterfuck took up 20 pages in a Microsoft Word document. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

http://pastebin.com/MQutXife

The gist of it is: DM prefers story over player enjoyment. Development that started last season.

6

Gaming Advice / Help with Troll Blooded

« on: September 11, 2013, 09:21:39 PM »

Right, my DM okayed troll-blooded. However, he's also made it so it's impossible for dead souls to leave the plane, for clerics to communicate with gods, or for anyone or anything to travel between planes. Even the ethereal, Astral, and Shadow planes are cut off.

I'd like to show him just what a truly immortal adventurer can do. He's left the 3rd-level party in antimagic shackles, but the rogue still has her gear. I call this a "Payday." We've agreed everyone gets at least one 7500 gp share of the profits from the sale of the shackles.

My question is this- for a preferred price of 7500 gp, with a DM who allows custom magic items, is there a way for me to become immune to fire and acid (which overcome Troll-Blooded's regneration)? What about non-lethal damage and death effects?

Build is Totemist 2/Warblade 1, though open to changes.

7

Min/Max 3.x / Min-Maxing profession?

« on: August 03, 2013, 02:03:49 PM »

This is going to sound stupid. Really stupid.

I want to min-max for Profession (Barrister) and Perform (String).

My DM has said that arguing against or finding loopholes in Faustian Pacts, covenants, the contracs with the Modrons would be a Profession (Barrister) check.

The Perform (String) is so I can win golden fiddles.

Any tips?

8

Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / The Kobolarus Troopers

« on: July 27, 2013, 12:04:40 PM »

In the game I'm part of, a radio show called Parties & Parodies, the kobolds have revolted against the dragons and founded a communist society near the Barrier Peaks. Using skeletons for farm work, to operate machinery as an assembly line, as a rudimentary computer, and as power for a number of vehicles, they try to keep out of people's hair as they bolster their defenses against the constant dangers of a D&D setting. This is a thread for four Prestige Classes dedicated to the specialization of their training- the Necrotechnician, who can create undead that don't need to be controlled (But can only perform a single action such as "push this plough until the farmer says stop" or "twist the wrench when this part comes to you."); the Kobold Minestormer, a prestige class based around fighting inside cramped, dark places; the Kobold Assassin, dedicated to killing high-CR monsters; and finally the Kobold Craftsman- dedicated to alchemy, trapmaking, and quantity over quality.

9

Legends of the Heroes / Building a Patchwork Monster

« on: July 08, 2013, 11:45:56 PM »

Right, had an idea for an adventure hook. A Necromancer, a cleric, and a philosopher have been looking into the mechanics of life and decided that the best way to get some insight on how body parts interact would be to create a new life from scratch- using various undead as the base for each of the new monster's organs. The following is how they get each one:

2 Crawling Claws (Monsters of Faerun, pg 29.). This gives the monster an unnerving effect with two left hands. These were obtained from the city guard, as it was once common practice to cut off the hands of thieves they caught in the act. They grant the claw attack and smite fallen.
Skin Kite (Libris Mortis). Forms the... well, the skin. Something the necromancer had lying around. It grants the monster the Skin Kite's Meld ability, but because it's stitched tightly around the monster it can't steal skin or spawn more kites.
Brain in a Jar (Libris Mortis): Coordinates movements. This particular brain in a jar is an acquaintance of the necromancer, who agreed to operate the body as a favor. The body, however, is out of his control. The skin and bones of the monster block its psionic abilities, but it still yells at the party telepathically to get it out.
Moilian Heart: Creates an area of cold 10 feet wide. Sent to them by a mysterious benefactor. In actuality, it's a minor Iceheart sent by a Winterhaunt of Iborighu in an attempt to alter the climate of the local area.
Zombie Lurking Strangler (Monster Manual III, pg 100): Eyes. Found and killed with its former beholder owner.

The thing is, the body still needs actual blood, organs, and preferably a skull. Are there any low-CR undead monsters who could fill those roles to supplement a skeleton? I'm almost certain there was an undead somewhere that was just a digestive tract animated like a snake.

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Monstrous Decoy Spider

« on: July 07, 2013, 02:39:44 PM »

Right, after seeing this, I thought that a decoy spider would make a pretty awesome monster. Of course, just having them create mosaics on their webs was a little dull.

	Monstrous Decoy Spider (Tiny)
Size/Type:	Tiny Vermin
Hit Dice:	3d8 (13 hp)
Initiative:	+3
Speed:	20 ft (4 squares), Climb 10 ft (2 squares)
Armor Class:	18 (+2 Natural Armor, +4 Dexterity, +2 size), touch 16, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple:	+2/-7
Attack:	1 Bite +6(d3-1 plus poison)
Full Attack:	1 Bite +6(d3-1 plus poison)
Space/Reach:	2.5/0 ft
Special Attacks:	Poison, Web
Special Qualities:	Decoy, Puppetry, Darkvision 60, Tremorsense 60, Vermin Traits
Saves:	Fort +4 Wis +1 Ref +5
Abilities:	Str 8 Dex 18 Con 12 Int 1 Wis 10 Cha 2
Skills:	Craft (Puppetry) +11, Hide +15, Move Silently +7
Feats:	Weapon Finesse (B), Skill Focus (Craft: Puppetry), Stealthy
Environment:	Temperate Forests
Organization:	Single or Colony (3-5), Swarm (10-20)
Challenge Rating:	?
Treasure:	None
Alignment:	Neutral
Advancement:	None

In the clearing ahead, you notice two tremendous sheet webs- one above and below. At the clearing's center lies a spider the size of an elephant, its front legs reared, while the branches above shake.

A Monstrous Decoy Spider is unusual among vermin- not only can it remember shapes and motions with almost perfect clarity, but it can duplicate these by creating sculptures of webbing and detritus from the surrounding area. While it is far from sentient, this spider's decoys fool most of its natural predators, and often show remarkable accuracy. Standing in the canopy of the forest, it will grip threads to make these decoys move like puppets.

Combat
A lone Decoy Spider will usually flee if its decoys do not fend off intruders. A group, however, immediately heads for the nearest threads of web connected to a decoy and proceeds to use it to attack intruders.

Poison (Ex): Those struck by a decoy spider's attack must make a DC 11 fortitude save or be poisoned for 1d2 strength damage.

Web (Ex): A Decoy Spider sets the floor of its clearing with a number of strands of web to alert it to the presence of prey or predators. It can not fire its web, but can create a sheet web on the ground of its clearing.

Decoy (Ex): A Decoy Spider is not a capable combatant- Rather, it relies on its decoys to scare away any threat. The Decoy Spider may spend a day crafting a decoy from objects around the forest- leafs, twigs, rocks, bones, etc. The spider may only craft a decoy of something it has seen within the past three days, but once it has crafted the decoy it may continue using that shape indefinitely. The DC for this check is equal to 10+the mimicked creature's CR. There are limits to a spider's sculpting ability, however- it can not craft a decoy more than two size categories larger than itself. A Decoy Spider uses its dexterity modifier in place of intelligence for the Craft: (Puppetry) check. The exception to this rule is a decoy of a larger monstrous spider- it may be of any size, if available materials permit.

Puppetry (Ex): By attaching thin strands of webbing to a decoy, a spider can give them the appearance of movement. The movements of these decoys, when moved by a single spider, are jerky and unstable, but enough to fool most animals. A Decoy controlled by a single spider requires a spot check (DC equal to the Craft: Puppetry check that created it. This spot check is made with a +5 circumstance bonus for every size category the decoy is larger than the spider.) to distinguish it from the creature is based on.

Collective Puppetry (Ex) When multiple spiders work together, the motions become much more fluid and natural. When at least three spiders work together to animate a single decoy of a size no larger than the largest spider in this group, it becomes an animated object of its size (as per the spell) until the strands of webbing are severed (by a critical hit with a slashing weapon), the animated object is destroyed, or the animating spiders flee. The spiders must each spend a full round action to continue this effect, and the decoy can not move more than 20 feet away from any spider in the group. For each additional spider, increase the maximum size of an animated decoy by 1 (For example, a group of 3 spiders, two tiny and one medium, could animate a medium sized object. If another spider picked up some of the threads, this group could animate a large decoy, and so on). If the group animates a decoy of a monstrous spider, it uses the statblock for an appropriately sized Monstrous Spider without its poison or web abilities.

* A Decoy Spider gains a +6 racial bonus on Craft: Puppetry checks. It gains a +8 to Hide and Move Silently checks made on its web.

It's probably horribly unbalanced, but this IS the first draft. Any suggestions?

11

Gaming Advice / Good template for a crafter?

« on: June 14, 2013, 12:23:10 PM »

Right, I've been invited to join a friend's D&D game and have decided to build an Artificer. Everyone in the party has a template with +4LA or so, and the DM has asked that my character have one too. Any suggestions?

12

Play By Post / [D&D 3.5]: Dungeons and Dining interest check

« on: March 07, 2013, 01:26:39 PM »

Right. The way I figure it, the best way to flesh out the setting is to have people adventure in it to build some history. I'm not very experienced as a DM, but I figure I should give this a go.

It is said:

"There is a kind of dragon in the mountains of the continent, each succulent bite marbled to perfection and melting in your mouth... There are springs deep within the forests which pour forth fine wines made from the succulent juices of the finest jungle fruits, in which bubble infinitely sweet and tart bubbles... That tremendous creatures made of slime continue building sweetness as they eat, and that there are crabs the size of cities with the most succulent meat imaginable..."

The world has entered a gourmet age. People are enchanted by countless dishes, growing stronger by eating the life energy of all creatures granted by the gods. For by eating the flesh of powerful creatures, they hope to gain a bit of their power.

The world is in the Gourmet Age, in which people quest for yet unknown culinary delights! Those who seek out these delights, be they in deepest dungeons, coldest tundras, or blazing volcanic plains are known as... Gourmet Hunters!

Right. The idea is that the group of players (starting level 10) is a team of gourmet hunters with some history together- that's to be worked out by the players. They travel the world in search of fine cuisine, and the tremendous profits it brings them. Wherever they search, adventure awaits. So... anyone interested?

13

Team M.O.N.S.T.E.R. / Team MONSTER OOC

« on: January 29, 2013, 07:56:23 PM »

A giant leap for mankind, the most trivial of tasks for I, MENTAK... THE MAGNIFICENT!

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Gaming Advice / Just how many arms can a guy get? (3.5)

« on: December 23, 2012, 04:28:27 PM »

I'm sure everyone's heard of Ball of Arms Man.

Well, I'd like to see him in D&D. So far, I've figured Anthropomorphic Squid + Girallon's Blessing + Girallon Arms Soulmeld. But that's not enough. Let's get so many arms he can wield everything in the PHB at once.

15

You Break it You Buy it / The Most Jolly Adventurer of All (3.5 for the Holidays)

« on: December 23, 2012, 04:08:27 PM »

This builds off my question about the Spellwarped Template, and the fact that its speed increases, RAW, are permanent and stack. So let's begin.We're going to build us a Santa who can deliver presents to all the good children of your campaign setting of choice in one night- the Winter Solstice. We're assuming one toy per child, approximately 1 child per two adults (actually less), and a total world population of 1 billion (as per the USCB world population estimates for 1850. Reasons include medieval farming techniques mixed with the existence of clerics). First let's do some math.

With 1 billion people, we've got to narrow down to see how many children Santa's got to deliver to. So let's assume that there's approximately one child for every two adults. This means there are 333,300,000 children in this hypothetical campaign setting. However, Santa's not going to deliver gifts to every one of them- the naughty list is a thing after all. Let's assume an equal number of children of each alignment (Chaotic evil Orc and Goblin children, lawful evil bugbear children, neutral evil other children). That would leave us with about 37,033,000 children of each alignment. So since evil children don't get gifts, and chaotic neutral children probably get coal for naughtiness, that leaves us with five alignments- and 185,166,667 toys for Santa to deliver. That's still a lot of houses to hit in one night.

Now, here's the thing- Santa would actually probably travel faster with the Spellwarped template than he would using reindeer. So let's assume the reindeer are what he uses to get back to his workshop. No, instead Santa is a very quick man thanks to his magical Spellwarped Template. To make sure he's fast enough, every time he speaks the command word (Ho!) his belt casts a 4th-level spell on him as a 7-th level wizard- not enough to puncture ECL 20 Santa's SR 28. However, the spell from his belt increases his ground speed by a full 20 feet with every laugh. This raises the question of how Santa travels over water, carries the toys, and gets into houses.

Magic items again. By pressing his nose as a free action, Santa activates his Quickened Dimension Door ring, allowing him to bypass locks and gates in order to deliver gifts and return at will. To get to higher ground, Santa need only don his magical airwalking boots to have the spell continuously active. He holds a magic sack which is actually a portal to a genesis'd demiplane. With Quick Draw, he can take the presents from the bag as he passes through each home and drop them as a free action.

And of course, when his rounds are done, he sits in his sleigh, hitches up his magic Dire Elks, and activates his final magic item for the night. When he shouts "MERRY SOLSTICE TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!", Santa's sleigh casts Gate to return him to the workshop to begin preparations for next year. The legendary Santa Claus, Wedded to History (as a Elder of Legend), has made his rounds.

The consequences of this are rather interesting- Santa's coming is not heralded by the gentle ringing of sleigh bells, but by a sonic boom. Christmas trees are there to give Santa a target for dropping the gifts so they don't punch holes in the walls from momentum. And if I could figure out how, Santa would go give every Evil-aligned child a black eye and a note with a stern warning for the Solstice.

16

Gaming Advice / Spellwarped Template

« on: December 08, 2012, 11:19:10 PM »

Right... I'm looking at the Spellwarped Template from 3.5's Monster Manual 3. Specifically the Spell Absorption.

Spell Absorption (Su): Whenever a spell fails to penetrate a spellwarped creature’s spell resistance, the creature gains one of the following beneﬁts, chosen at the time that the spell resolves. Might: The spellwarped creature gains a +4enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute. Agility: The spellwarped creature gains a +4enhancement bonus to Dexterity for 1 minute. Endurance: The spellwarped creature gains a +4enhancement bonus to Constitution for 1 minute. Life: The spellwarped creature gains temporary hit pointsequal to 5 × the level of the failed spell. Speed: The spellwarped creature’s base speed increases bya number of feet equal to 5 × the level of the failed spell. Resistance: The spellwarped creature gains resistance 10 to one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, ﬁre, or sonic)

While Might, Agility, and Endurance give durations for their bonus, Speed does not. Does this mean if I cast spells at it, and its resistance blocked all those spells, it could just continue gaining speed?

Also, out of curiosity, how would the Resistance option interact with existing energy resistance? Just use the better value, right?

17

Legends of the Heroes / Help stocking a gift shop's wares.

« on: December 06, 2012, 11:05:45 PM »

Right. In the radio campaign Parties and Parodies, my character is the head of a nation of communist kobolds (even have a flag.). Greyhawk recently got hit by Apocalypse from the Sky, and taken over by orcs. We've figured out several ways to clean them out, but the question I want to ask you comes later.

After the orcs are gone from Greyhawk, the kobold nation is annexing it. We're going to use effigy creature Purple Worms to dig from the capital of the Kobold empire to Greyhawk, and build a network of subway tunnels. Said tunnels will be priced to undercut the profits of the Wayfarer's Guild and will have stations every so many miles of track. Complete with gift shops.

The question is, what should these gift shops sell? We've had various suggestions from listeners.

"You could always go the gas station bathroom condom dispenser rout. Commemorative plates, food in the shapes of things, robes with gods' names on them like soccer jerseys, any of those sound good?"
Plushies of the gods of various religions.
Bookstores with low-level spellbooks, as well as joke books and mystery novels and travel editions of the holy texts of the local gods.
Trading cards with famous adventurers on them, as well as stats.
Dungeons and Dining starter boxes.
"Sell trading cards with adventurers on them. 'Dammit, nothing but bards again!'"

Personally, I like the trading cards idea. But I figured you guys would have plenty of suggestions.

18

Min/Max 3.x / Wait, you can play a spider?

« on: November 26, 2012, 07:34:42 AM »

As of the 3.5 update for Monsters of Faerun, apparently you can. Fine size category, great dexterity, mindless, vermin type, all sorts of things. My only question is, how could it be optimized? A Wilderness Rogue with Hide in Plain Sight maybe? Some magic items to up the damage on that bite attack? This is more a bit of curiosity than anything, so take it as you will.

19

Legends of the Heroes / Dungeons and Dining/Wizard Needs Food Badly: D&D meets Toriko

« on: November 23, 2012, 08:39:14 AM »

The idea for this setting came to me after a friend showed me a cartoon called "Toriko," a Funimation property about a manly man punching things and then eating them. The first creature was a tremendous alligator, and then the friend said that eating delicious things made him stronger, and that stronger creatures were tastier.

Kind of like how D&D creatures give more experience when they're tougher.

So I had an idea- a setting in which people hunted for monsters not only for treasure, but because they're considered gourmet food. Some monsters actually popped up immediately when I discussed this with other friends, but so far it's just been creatures and fluff things- every city has a regenerating creature (like a hydra or tendriculos) they cut up for food. Dragons are effing delicious, but still sentient and prone to vengeance. Outsiders are tasty as well, and don't mind if people eat their body after their business on the Material Plane is concluded. The catch to these new, delicious monsters is that you only get experience from them if you eat them. You still get experience for constructs, undead, and other things you can't eat, but a major part of the setting is the fact that you're hunting the monsters for food.

As far as organizations, there's an order of knights called the "Iron Chefs" who work with hazardous ingredients, as well as an organization of Druids dedicated to making sure none of the animals are overhunted.

Oozes are naturally sweetly flavored due to being liquid creatures that feed by absorption. Oozes break down the body of their prey, using the sugars to make themselves larger and tastier to attract more prey, splitting in two to avoid getting sweet enough to attract predators themselves. The larger an ooze, the more prey it's consumed.

(click to show/hide)

So, can anyone help me flesh it out and improve the setting? I had some ideas regarding cuisine for different species, but I'd like a general opinion of the idea before I move on with it.

20

Introduce Yourself / Hello there, everyone!

« on: November 22, 2012, 09:55:44 PM »

Hi all! My name's Clanjos, as far as I'm willing to divulge. Favorite tabletop game is 3.5, but it's really the only one I have much experience with. I'm from Athens, Georgia (the state, not the country) and go to UGA.

I've had a long history of minmaxed characters, and was surprised to find a community based around it.

Kribnefka the First, a Dragonborn sorcerer who started a religion and world peace with his fantastic bluff score. He started adventuring to pay the dowry for his marriage to a Paladin.