Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!

[littha]

Random Question: What is it going to take to have people go to the MetaCompendium (in my sig) first before trying any other D&D 3.5 resource? I literally just searched inside the folders for 'jordain.' It was in the unsorted area that I had to personally grab, but still.

To answer your question (at least for me): It's going to take not having to download it.

Pretty much this

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Random Question: What is it going to take to have people go to the MetaCompendium (in my sig) first before trying any other D&D 3.5 resource? I literally just searched inside the folders for 'jordain.' It was in the unsorted area that I had to personally grab, but still.

To answer your question (at least for me): It's going to take not having to download it.

Pretty much this

Yup.

[Nytemare3701]

Random Question: What is it going to take to have people go to the MetaCompendium (in my sig) first before trying any other D&D 3.5 resource? I literally just searched inside the folders for 'jordain.' It was in the unsorted area that I had to personally grab, but still.

To answer your question (at least for me): It's going to take not having to download it.

Pretty much this

Yup.

Better awareness for me. I tend to ignore sigs after a while. Whenevery you answer a question, cite the book/page/index/whatever from your thing, instead of the actual rulebooks. Either people will start habitually using it, or they won't bother checking the source.

[geniussavant]

Im the same way, so it wasn't until note that I had seen it.

[Unbeliever]

Random Question: What is it going to take to have people go to the MetaCompendium (in my sig) first before trying any other D&D 3.5 resource? I literally just searched inside the folders for 'jordain.' It was in the unsorted area that I had to personally grab, but still.

I'm confused.  So, following this post, I clicked on the sig and it took me to the Meta-Compendium thread.  It's not entirely clear what's in it.  Is it D&D Tools plus handbooks? 

[SorO_Lost]

I'm confused.  So, following this post, I clicked on the sig and it took me to the Meta-Compendium thread.  It's not entirely clear what's in it.  Is it D&D Tools plus handbooks?

Based on the name I'd say it's a collection of metadata, but WotC already provides consolidation lists and Crystalkeep's pdfs already provide basic information so I've never bothered because I don't need either of those.

And then there is this:

Seriously though, today I considered adding nerfs onto the Truenamer class after taking into account the MetaCompendium's 3.5 fixes.

It's also apparently a homebrew 3.5 fix. 

[IlPazzo]

I'm sure this is nothing new, but my google-fu indicates this next fun find as rarely mentioned.

The Belt of the Reinforced Form from Drow of the Underdark lets you quicken a trasmutation targeted on yourself once a day at 5.4k gp. It also provides an untyped +4 bonus to saves against trasmutation spells and spell-likes and any other form-altering ability.

Also, RAW bracers of murder from the same book, same page, grants you reroll 1s on any dice if you have sneak attack or sudden strike, not just sneak attack dice as is clearly the intent.

[SorO_Lost]

Also, RAW bracers of murder from the same book, same page, grants you reroll 1s on any dice if you have sneak attack or sudden strike, not just sneak attack dice as is clearly the intent.

Actually "RAW" doesn't say any dice, it says the dice.

Like "I went to Burger King and ordered the fries" doesn't at all mean I also tried stopping at Chucky Cheese's for fried potatoes as well.

[IlPazzo]

I think I fail to see your point due to english not being my first language.
Well, whatever. It's not like I'm trying to get that item to work that way in a game.

[SorO_Lost]

I think I fail to see your point due to english not being my first language.

And I'd make a terrible English teacher so I'm not sure I could explain it. Luckily through, google can help.
The (determiner)
1. denoting one or more people or things already mentioned or assumed to be common knowledge.
Like in my example, going to Burger King and ordering the fries doesn't mean I also ordered fries from someone where else because the the part of "the fries" directly links back to the food service previously mentioned.

In DotU the Bracers of Murder say "If you have sneak attack or sudden strike, reroll any result of 1 on the dice". You have taken the determiner of the dice as it can mean any die, or in other words dropped the thing previously mentioned in favor of partially reading the sentence as "reroll the dice" and how it can really equal all the dice. It's not what the bracers actually say.

And if you're even more confused, I warned you that I'd suck at explaining it.

[IlPazzo]

You don't suck at all, I got it now.

You [...] dropped the thing previously mentioned in favor of partially reading the sentence

In fact I actually did read it as if the two were separate sentences, as in "if A then B". Lack of fluency led me to excess of strict logic, a generally flawed practice in spoken language.

[Kerrus]

Raggamoffyns (Monsters of Faerun) can dominate a target, infesting it and granting it the Construct Type via the Captured One template, which has LA of 0.

This lets you qualify any race for the Incarnate Construct template. Because of spell targeting rules, after you turn them back into a fleshbag, you can remove the Raggamoffyn with no consequence. You now have a race with whatever your racial stat bonuses were before, whatever movement modes you had before, and basically nothing else- but you also have -2 LA.

So if you've always wanted a Half Water Elemental Lesser Planetouched Sharin, now you can have it!

Type: Humanoid (Aquatic, Planetouched, Water)
Stat Bonuses: +6 Strength, +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Con, +2 Cha
Natural Armor: +1
Speed: 30 ft land, 40 ft swim
Immunities: Disease, [Water] effects.
Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day (HD): Obscuring Mist (1), Fog Cloud (3), Water Breathing (5), Control Water (7), Ice Storm (9), Cone of Cold (11), Acid Fog (13), Horrid Wilting (15), Elemental Swarm (17), Plane Shift (19)

If you want to give your DM an Aneurysm, there's nothing preventing you from re-applying the Raggamoffyn to the target, turning them BACK into a construct, then casting Incarnate Construct on them again, to give them another -2 LA and letting you basically apply all the templates ever.

[Quillwraith]

If you want to give your DM an Aneurysm, there's nothing preventing you from re-applying the Raggamoffyn to the target, turning them BACK into a construct, then casting Incarnate Construct on them again, to give them another -2 LA and letting you basically apply all the templates ever.

Does negative LA from the same source stack?

[Kerrus]

If you want to give your DM an Aneurysm, there's nothing preventing you from re-applying the Raggamoffyn to the target, turning them BACK into a construct, then casting Incarnate Construct on them again, to give them another -2 LA and letting you basically apply all the templates ever.

Does negative LA from the same source stack?

I don't see why it wouldn't when the template is acquired through the casting of a spell on a legal target. The description of the LA seems to suggest that they're floating points and not genuine negative LA, which might make a difference. (ie: you have an effective minimum value of 0, but your actual value is -2, any templates with +LA eat into the -2).

Given  how template stacking works, I generally would not assume you can just apply a template more than once unless it is conferred via some repeatable ability.

So you can't be a 50xHalf-Celestial, but if you want to perform the Ritual of Blooding on yourself a couple times in a row, that's something you could do.

[SorO_Lost]

Does negative LA from the same source stack?

Pretty much nothing form the same source stacks unless it's an unnamed bonus in the game's terms. +X or even -X may be mathematical but unless it can be proven to be an unnamed bonus in a game that says treated as having an four extra levels is an effect it's not an unnamed bonus.

More technically, Raggamoffyn's Control Host ability works like Dominate Monster & Constructs are immune to Mind-Affecting effects. Without some heavy RAI the creature doesn't even work. The MMII is quite possibly the worst written books in all of D&D, and yes I am familiar with Complete Psionic.

[Kerrus]

Does negative LA from the same source stack?

Pretty much nothing form the same source stacks unless it's an unnamed bonus in the game's terms. +X or even -X may be mathematical but unless it can be proven to be an unnamed bonus in a game that says treated as having an four extra levels is an effect it's not an unnamed bonus.

More technically, Raggamoffyn's Control Host ability works like Dominate Monster & Constructs are immune to Mind-Affecting effects. Without some heavy RAI the creature doesn't even work. The MMII is quite possibly the worst written books in all of D&D, and yes I am familiar with Complete Psionic.

What even happens if a creature gains immunity to mind-affecting after, having previously been affected by a permanent duration mind-affecting effect?

I mean, I know the usual charop thing is that effects only care about legality during targeting, it's why haunt shift works. Would a creature gaining the construct type after being dominated break that hold? Or is its wording of 'as though it were dominated' be a strong enough example of specific vs general to override that immunity?

Generally I just assume it works, or it's something like timestamp order. Otherwise we get things like the class that turns you into a dragon that breaks the universe if you hit level 10.

[linklord231]

Does negative LA from the same source stack?

Pretty much nothing form the same source stacks unless it's an unnamed bonus in the game's terms. +X or even -X may be mathematical but unless it can be proven to be an unnamed bonus in a game that says treated as having an four extra levels is an effect it's not an unnamed bonus.

This is not strictly true.  The stacking rules apply to bonuses.  It says so right in the header - "Bonuses" if you're looking in the RC, or "Bonus Types" if you're looking in the DMG (in an amusing coincidence, both sections happen to fall on page 21 in their respective books).  If something isn't a bonus, then the stacking rules never come in to play.  So what's a bonus?  Conveniently, the PHB gives us a definition:  A positive modifier to a die roll.  Level Adjustment is not a positive modifier to a die roll, so it's not a bonus, and so the stacking rules do not apply. 

To flip this question around, does taking the same template over and over again give you higher LA each time?  The answer is obviously yes.  Why then wouldn't it work this way for negative LA?

[Kerrus]

That's a very good point. Because if it worked otherwise, then nothing would work. Can't hit an enemy more than once with your sword because damage from the same source doesn't apply more than once.

Oops, the universe.

EDIT: Although that could make for an interesting setting- where a given specific discrete application of a weapon only works once to inflict damage on a specific enemy.

So rogues are festooned in daggers they cycle through until an enemy dies, monsters are all multiattackers or use AoE SLA stuff that doesn't play by those rules. Big dumb fighters have some sort of versatile attack style in which they never hit the same way with the same weapon twice- slash, stab, flat of the blade, deflect, other physical combat.

Could be interesting, but rather more than likely to just be annoying.

[Kethrian]

Is there a rule stating that templates can be taken multiple times unless the template states otherwise?  Or is it the reverse, where templates cannot be taken multiple times unless the template expressly says so?  Because if the latter is true, then you already have the template and cannot acquire it again, unless you lose the template (and therefore its -2 LA) beforehand.

I checked the MM, which says that you can add multiple templates, but does NOT say you can add a template multiple times.  Which strongly supports the concept that a template cannot be added more than once, unless the template says otherwise.

[geniussavant]

Iirc the entry for evolved undead calls this out. Specifically that evolved undead is an exception to the (otherwise unwritten) rule that you can only take a template once.