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Topics - JaronK

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1
Min/Max 3.x / Let's have fun with Kalamar!
« on: October 08, 2013, 01:28:15 PM »
So, it was recently claimed that Kingdoms of Kalamar is a super powerful setting, so let's raid it for optimization material!  Personally, I couldn't find much, but maybe other folks can.  Here's what I've found so far:

Holy/Unholy Defense:  1st level spell, lasts hour/CL, grants a deflection bonus to AC (4 + 2/3CL, max 10).  Also gives a penalty to hide checks and concealment.  Awesome.

A Moment Ago:  A 1st level spell, but it has the [Scalable] tag, which means you can cast it at any level you want.  Duplicates any one spell just cast last round as long as that spell is a level or more lower than A Moment Ago.  It's awesome for ignoring material components and exp costs on the second casting.

Mule's Enlightenment:  Well, here's the whole spell:
Divination
Level: Cleric 5
Components: V, F
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 hour / level
    Mule's enlightenment has one of the three following effects, determined at the time of casting.
    * The caster gains the use of any single feat, provided he has the prerequisites, for the duration of the spell. Because this feat is not permanent, any such use of the spell cannot be used to satisfy the prerequisites for a prestige class or other feat.
    * The caster gains a +20 insight bonus to a single skill for the duration of the spell.
    * The caster gains a +6 insight bonus to all Will saves for the duration of the spell.
    The enlightenment bestowed by this spell can be dispelled, or removed with a limited wish, miracle or wish spell.

Note this is 3.0, hence the massive skill boost (which should probably be reduced for 3.5).  But the feat that lasts for hours is amazing for things like item crafting... and for an Archivist you can use this with Extra Spell to gain more spells.  Neat.

Pike:  It's a 15' reach martial weapon pole arm.  Nothing else fancy about it, but if you're army building it's appropriate to have exists.  Only costs 11gp, so it's solid for building your phallanxes.

Potion of Blood:  Count as any one other race, permanently, for purposes of magic items only.  Making yourself count as a horse can be really handy in conjunction with one specific magic item from Arms and Equipment Guide... and this only costs 750gp. 

Anyone got anything else?

JaronK

2
Min/Max 3.x / Stereotypical E6 Gestalts
« on: September 30, 2013, 02:58:18 PM »
So, just to play with this idea, our current gaming group is playing a stereotypes game, where everybody plays as a D&D racial stereotype.  I'll list a few that we're using here... anyone else want to try their hand making a few?  The rules are that you are gestalt, 6th level, and you have to aim for as much of a stereotype as possible... the most iconic of your race.  Try to fit in as many racial substitutions and racial items as you can.

1: Dwarfiest Dwarf:

Earth Dwarf:  Dwarf Cleric 6 (Artifice and Earth Domains)//Dwarf Fighter 1/Dwarf Paragon 3/Crusader 2.   Wields Dwarvencraft Dwarven War Axe and Dwarvencraft Heavy Shield, wears Dwarvencraft Spiked Mechanicus Gear.   ACFs:  Dwarf Cleric 1 & 4, Dwarf Fighter 1.  All skill points put into craft (smithing, masonry, etc) and knowledge (dungeoneering, architecture and engineering, religion).

2:  Gnomiest Gnome:

Gnome Illusionist 6//Gnome Bard 3/Gnome Paragon 3.  Wears Gnome Twistcloth and Gnomish Quickrazor along with a Gnomish Tortoise Shell Shield.  ACFs:  Gnome Illusionist, Gnome Bard.  Skill points put into Bluff, Perform, Spellcraft, Hide, and Move Silently.

3:  Elfiest Elf:

Elf Generalist Wizard 3/Elf Paragon 3//Warblade 5/Elf Wizard +1.  Wields Elvish Thinblade and Elvencraft Longbow.  Wears Twilight Feycraft Mithral Chain Shirt with Thistledown Padding.  Constantly called "starflower moonchild" by Dwarf.  Name in elvish means something pretty close to that.  ACFs:  Elf Wizard.

4:  Koboldiest Kobold:

Dragonborn Dragonwrought Kobold Sorcerer 3/Kobold Paragon 3//Kobold Rogue 5/Kobold Sorcerer +1.  Wields Longspear.  Makes lots of traps.  Constantly babbles about how awesome dragons are.  All spells are dragon themed (Manyjaws, Wings of Cover, Alter Self, Hoard Gullet, Etc).  Feats include Improved Dragon Wings.  ACFs:  Dragonblood Sorcerer, Kobold Rogue.

Anyone else have fun ideas?

4
This originally started as something of a joke, but it's a heck of a powerful option if allowed, so I'm going to leave it here.  The Shuriken is enchanted like ammunition (so a single Shuriken costs 1/50th the normal magic item cost), and of course breaks if you throw it... but why throw it?  There's so many good enchantments to put on such a weapon if you're just going to hold it in your hand.  Consider the fact that a +1 Shurkien with 9 points of magic item mods costs just 4kgp.  This is absolutely amazing for anyone who might normally have a hand free, such as most arcane casters.  In fact, the bonuses are so good it makes fighting with a single one handed weapon a decent plan.

Note that for any ability that requires actually hitting something in melee (such as Spell Storing) you'll actually need to use Crossbow Bolts, which allow melee attacks but are not as cool as Shuriken.  If your DM says they'll break even when used to poke yourself in melee, make them out of Aurorum (a metal that recombines after a full round when broken).  Congrats, you have magic syringes!  If the DM says this still destroys the magic, just don't use those options... I've labeled them.  Or put them on Morphing Shuriken so you can morph them into Kukris first, then attack with them.

Note that many DMs will find this to be TO, especially when dealing with unique weapons refashioned as Shurikens.  By RAW this all definitely works for non unique weapons, but it's unclear if you're allowed to put the enchantment of the Luckblade (for example) on a ranged weapon.  I've included all special weapons whose effects aren't obviously thematically tied to their shape... use them at your peril, and I have noted which of these are unique weapons.  Also, I'm assuming here that any effect that triggers on attacks or says "when you attack" such as Dragondoom only works if you attack with the weapon (so I'm mostly not using it except where a melee with an improvised weapon would be acceptable, such as vs friendly folks and objects).

Some of the fun mods to play with, spoilered due to huge size:

(click to show/hide)

Some example combo items:

The protector:  +5 Defending Spellstrike Parrying Shuriken of Warning.  For 4kgp, you get +5 Initiative when it's held, and your choice of +5 AC or +5 to saves vs spells and spell like abilities.  You get an additional +1 Insight to AC and +1 Insight to Saves too.

Knowledge Charms:  Fine sized +1 Bane [Creature Type] Fiercebane Manifester Shuriken.  Designed to be sewn on to a psionic character's sleeve, you can have one for every creature type.  When they glow, there's a creature of that type within 60'.  Also, you get +5 power points per day for every one of these you have (just grab one to use 5 power points off it).  They're 850gp each.

Spellbreakers:  Dispelling/Greater Dispelling +1 Crossbow Bolt of Illusion Bane/Theft.  Just tap one of these bolts on anything with a spell effect on it... if it's an illusion you'll steal it for later use, if not you just destroy the spell.  You get three uses of Dispel Magic, three of Greater Dispel Magic, and plenty of illusion specific dispelling.  And it's only around 2kgp.  Every Rogue should have one.  Take that Arcane Lock!

Medivac Syringe:  Spell Storing Vanishing Crossbow Bolt.  Have the party Cleric cast an appropriate healing spell or protective buff into the bolt to charge it.  Now you can stab yourself with it to get an emergency heal and a 60 foot teleport to somewhere perhaps a touch safer.  If you've got Tomb Tainted Soul, use Consumptive instead and now you don't need the Cleric... and can keep stabbing yourself for more healing (but the teleport move is once per day).

Shuriken of the Duelist:  A +5 Parrying Displacement Defending Shuriken of Initiative and Warning makes a great offhand item for a one handed melee character.  +6 AC, +1 to all saves, and 50% miss chance, along with +7 initiative?  Yeah, I'll take it.  It's around 6kgp.

Ultimate two weapon fighting blades: A pair of Feycraft Life Drinker Prismatic Burst Lifestealing Keen Aptitude +5 Morphing Abyssal Bloodiron Kukris for around 8kgp.  Gah. 

Discussion goes here:  http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=10420.0

JaronK

5
Min/Max 3.x / Fun Higher Level Pre Gen Adventures
« on: June 07, 2013, 06:03:22 PM »
Since my DM's having trouble finding any, does anyone know of some fun higher level pregen adventures that are available free online?  Level 11-15 is roughly the right level band.  And to be clear... this is for optimized characters.  Like... really optimized.

JaronK

6
Just a spot for discussing good ideas for advanced learning options for Dread Necromancers.  I find that when playing one, that's the one thing I really want to know.

JaronK

7
Handbooks / Dread Necromancer Advanced Learning Handbook
« on: May 12, 2013, 05:17:29 PM »
Dread Necromancers have a few chances to add any Cleric or Wizard/Sorcerer Necromancy spell to their spell list via Advanced Learning.  At each opportunity, they get one spell of their choice, but the spell level they can cast or lower.  The following is a list of solid Dread Necromancer Advanced Learning spells to grab.  As for the rest of how to play a Dread Necromancer, you'll have to look elsewhere.

#1 (level 2-):

Ghoul Glyph.   A handy spell out of Spell Compendium that does something none of your other spells do.  This one leaves a permanent glyph that, if anyone but you gets to close to it, paralyzes a victem for a few rounds.  The glyph can't move though.  Combined with water filled pit traps you've got yourself a very lethal trap.  Also, nothing stops you from placing multiples of these on such traps... enemies might make one save, but they won't make 5.  This is also a great way to burn unused spellslots at the end of the day, creating rings around you for safety.  It's obviously handy in ambushes, and it's especially useful if you want to start casting Planar Binding (remember, you don't have Magic Circle spells, so anything you Bind must be killed and reanimated to be useful.  This is much easier if they get instantly paralyzed on the way in).   

Kelgor's Grave Mist.  Players Handbook 2 has this gem, which is a long range AoE that fatigues enemies and deals 1d6 cold damage per turn.  Remember that skeletons are immune to both fatigue and cold damage, making this a great one to throw into a fight.  No save, too.  Just create an area of the battlefield that keeps enemies from charging.  It's a wonderful way to slow down an enemy Frenzied Berserker. 

#2 (level 4-):

Black Sand.  This spell out of Sandstorm is absolutely incredible.  It's an AoE effect that deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage to everyone in the area per round for caster level rounds.  Also, it creates a darkness effect.  Thus, it heals your minions and hurts enemies.  More importantly, however, anyone killed by it permanently turns into Black Sand.  As such, you can now put this generated sand in the boots/body of any of your minions (and maybe in your boots if you have Tomb Tainted Soul) to gain fast healing 1d6, permanently.  Awesome.  Also, the spell itself can be made permanent if you lack bodies to turn into the stuff, and this is great for making fortifications.

Consumptive Field:  Get a huge caster level the fun way.  Combine this with Kelgor's Grave Mist or Black Sand to kill off a bag's worth of rats and go to town.  Libris Mortis and Spell Compendium have this one.

Delay Death:  A buff that lets an ally simply not die.  Very useful in general.  The duration isn't very long, though.

Shivering Touch:  An old favorite from Frostburn, this lovely spell deals 3d6 dex damage on a touch attack with no save.  Brilliant!  Teach those dragons a lesson.  Combine it with Black Sand (above) to take out the now helpless enemy and congratulations, you have permanent black sand.

Skull Watch:  Tired of DMs sending enemies to jump you when you're trying to covert your party into Necropolitans or researching new monstrosities to create?  Then this spell is for you.  It's permanent, and it'll warn you when enemies show up.  Just make a bunch of these and set them out when you need to establish a safe perimeter.  It's found in the Spell Compendium.

Undead Torch:  Originally from Ghostwalk, this spell is a one round per level buff of an undead critter that causes the critter to deal an extra 2d4 damage to with all melee attacks, and if the critter dies, people passing through the space take damage.  Generally, this is unimpressive, but on a hydra the extra 5 damage per hit adds up fast.  I'd have a tough time taking this over Black Sand for the purposes of buffing undead, though.

#3 (level 6-)

Animate Dread Warrior:  Endless source of intelligent undead that still have their abilities from life?  Yes please!  The Exp cost stinks though, so this is a good choice for Spell Stitching if you have that option.  Unapproachable East has this spell.

Door of Decay:  From Complete Champion, this spell lets you teleport from one of your undead to another.  It's great if you have a home base... just leave one skeleton back home to use as a gateway.  It definitely adds something new to the list.

Haunt Shift:  This gem from Libris Mortis is wonderful for anyone with a good imagination.  Getting tired of enemies using Turn Undead?  Create a statue of a skeletal warrior out of adamantine, then use Haunt Shift to animate the thing and send it into battle.  It's a construct now with a Hardness of 20.  No one ever expects that.  Great for making ultra tough tanks... or traveling around in a haunted carriage for pure style points (note: a Porpoise skeleton has very few HD and a movement speed of 80, making it perfect for haunting your carriage).  Note, if you're creating battle minions with this spell through the use of statues, take note of the spells Shrink Item (Permanent!), Invisibility (which can be made Permanent on objects), Augment Object, and Hardness, as well as the psionic power Matter Manipulation.  You can't have these spells, but a friendly Wizard, Archivist or Psion might, and this can create all sorts of fun involving invisible size changing minions with a hardess in the hundreds. 

Touch of Vecna:  This one from Complete Mage is certainly fun.  A touch attack deals 1d8+10 damage and makes the target shaken for one round, and then if they fail a fort save they're paralyzed permenantly.  Okay, seriously?  Shaken with no save is awesome, and now if your fear aura hits them (at -2 saves) they're frightened for a good long time, so even passing their save on this spell leaves them pretty screwed.   Also, you did take Sickening Grasp as a feat, right?  So they're at -4 saves after this?  Yeah, good times.  Plus now your familiar can paralyze them if you have a Ghostly Visage.  This spell combined with your other Dread Necromancer abilities is just incredible as a nearly gaurenteed killer.  Throw in some armour with the Fearsome enchantment so you can intimidate as a move action and you can now get them even more afraid when you cast this.  Very fun.  Of course, if they do fail the fort save then yay, your castle has a brand new statue.  Or you can kill them with Black Sand to get more of the stuff.  Or sacrifice their soul for crafting exp, and then raise their body in service to your evil whims.  Or construct a catapult and chuck them back at their friends with an Explosive Runes parchment shoved in their mouth.  Whatever.  Point being, they're your toy and you're a necromancer.  Whee!  Note: this sort of behavior is not appreciated by the party Paladin.  You may have to use this spell on him next.

#4 (Level 8-)

Arrow of Bone:  This one from Spell Compendium is handy if you're in a party with an archer or assassin.  Just enchant a few arrows with this spell ahead of time (heck, do it the day before, by the time you have this spell it lasts a minimum of 16 hours!).  Now you can shoot down any one enemy from long range, and they're GOING to fail one fort save if you make them take four or five.  But really, this is a bit situational, so it's only appropriate if you need to drop BBEGs or otherwise assassinate targets.

Avascular Mass:  Another Spell Compendium bit of fun.  A ranged touch attack which, with no save, halves enemy hitpoints and leaves the target entangled.  Also, the target must fort save or be stunned for one round, and people nearby must reflex save or be entangled, plus even if you pass the save you have to make strength or escape artists checks to move.   REALLY nasty and a great way to take a lot of enemies out of the fight for a while... just blast the BBEG and he's screwed even if he makes his save, and you'll handle his melee mooks in the same shot.  And you just ripped the blood vessels out of the enemy and tangled up their mooks in the ripped out body bits.  Style, baby.  Oh, and don't forget to cast Cloudkill on the now entangled target.  One warning though: you can't see through the mass well, so the target will have total cover.  Then again, so will you... to the target.  That could help or hurt.

Avasculate:  A weaker version of Avascular Mass, this spell doesn't entangle or have AoE effects, but it's one level lower.  Personally, I prefer the mass version since the added debuff and AoE is awfully nice, but this way the total cover issue goes away.

Awaken Undead:  Spell Compendium brings us this lovely little thing.  Remember, the undead are still under your control, so this is a great way to have hordes of intelligent minions.  Very nice!

Blackfire:  Out of Spell Compendium, this spell is a medium range ray that deals con damage.  Not bad, and the damage can be quite high, up to 1d4 per caster level (though enemies will make some of the saves).  Note that the duration of the spell is limited by caster level only, so the damage is actually uncapped, making this a hilarious one to combine with Consumptive Field, making it a great potencial necromancer assassin tool.  Just pump your caster level with a CF loop to insane levels (50, let's say?), then snipe the target with Blackfire (at that caster level, your range is 600 feet).  The target now takes 1d4 con damage per round (fort save each round, on success they're sickened that round instead of taking damage), and it won't stop until they die or dispel, the latter of which just won't happen (though three saves in a row will put it out... but those are fort saves and you're doing con damage!).  Plus, when dead they need a True Resurrection or Wish to come back, with a high caster level check.  Yehaw.  Also, anyone adjacent has the Blackfire spread to them, which is nifty... you can take out large packs this way.  Very stylish.

Consumptive Field, Greater:  Everything I said about the earlier version applies here, but this one lets you kill swarms of rats for massive power very quickly.  If you've got a way to persist this, you become a god, basically.

Evil Glare:  Another Spell Compendium spell, this one gives you a standard action gaze attack for one round per level, will save or be paralyzed for 1d8 rounds (can't hit the same target twice).  This means for just one spell slot you can take out tons of enemies... and it works great with a Ghostly Visage and some undead that hits hard.  You both stare at the target, and it must make two will saves... if either is failed, it's Coup de Gras time, just order the minion to coup de gras any paralyzed target.  Also, with Fearsome armour you can intimidate as a move action if you like, so you can defeat your enemies by being REALLY creepy and staring at them and then if they get close you can leave them cowering (you DO have Imperious Command by now, right?).  The range is a bit poor though.

Horrid Wilting:  Out of the PHB, this spell offers something few Dread Necromancer spells have: very long range.  Plus, it hits a lot of targets (everyone within a 60ft area) without hitting friendly types.  So, if you wanted to be a blaster, this would be the spell for you.  That said, 75 damage (on average) rarely is worth while at this level, but it's great for clearing out low level enemies or enemies already weakened by other effects, and a Greater Wand of Maximize would get this thing up to 120 damage per target, which isn't too shabby.  A second blast would finish off the lot of them.

Kiss of the Vampyre:  Another Spell Compendium find, this guy has a lot of potencial for Dread Necromancers.  You're already nasty as all heck up close with your Fear Aura, Charnel Touch, and various other touch effects.  This one gives you Enervate on all your touch attacks... nifty when combined with your level draining touch attacks that you get anyway as a DN.  Also, Gaseous Form is nice for utility, and DR 10/Magic is cute (though pretty worthless at the level you get this).  Sadly, the duration is too short for the charm to be of much use.

Necrotic Curse:  This Complete Mage spell is hilarious.  For 1 hour/level, all positive energy spells within range of you instead deal damage equal to the caster level of the caster.  You'll need a high caster level for this to work (hi there, Consumptive Field!) but the results can be hilarious.  Cast this spell at the beginning of the day (after the CF power up, of course) so enemies don't see you casting it and don't know it's there.  When a big fight starts, launch a Maximized Horrid Wilting (see above).  What comes next?  The enemy healer fires off a Mass Heal.  Heh heh heh.  A second Maximized Horrid Wilting should end the encounter.  This is also nice in long drawn out fights when your forces are being regenerated by Necrosis Carnexes and Black Sand, while theirs slowly melt away without any ability to heal... but then again, how often does that happen?  Still, this spell may be worth it just for the confusion it causes. 

JaronK

8
Min/Max 3.x / I Never Want to Roll a 1
« on: May 09, 2013, 01:15:32 AM »
So, my current DM (who is great in everything else) loves critical fumbles.  Like, really loves them.  And they can be absolutely devastating.  Obviously the mitigation to use for me is just to cast spells that don't require rolls to hit, but sometimes you need to roll a D20.  So... what options are there for avoiding it?  Feats are handy but we need those for other things.  Items would be wonderful.  Any thoughts?

JaronK

9
Handbooks / Leadership Mechanics in D&D
« on: May 07, 2013, 05:40:48 AM »
Rescued from BG, the following is half way between a handbook and a thesis on the mechanics of leadership in D&D.  It's intended to be useful to players who want to create characters who are supposed to be leaders, as well as to homebrewers who plan to make leading classes.

So, let's talk about what mechanical leadership is.  I'm going to ignore the parts that are non mechanical, as this is about classes, which are mechanical constructs.  Anything that's not mechanical is not related to classes, and thus not appropriate for this thread.  This includes things like whether or not a player wants to lead, player skill, and so on.  I'm also going to mostly ignore things which are the same for all classes.  Yes, you could get people to follow your decisions if the DM says "the king has given you these followers!" but that's true regardless of whether you're a Fighter, a Bard, or a classless monster race.

And of course, I'll be refering to the books in great detail, especially those books that talk most about leadership and command.

Leadership

Leadership can, I believe, be broken into three basic parts.  Ability to make correct decisions, ability to get people to follow along with your decisions, and ability to help those who want to follow your decisions actually do so.  Each of these of course can be broken down further, so I'll get into each one of these in turn.  And of course, no one aspect of leadership is critically necessary, but the more you have the better a leader you are.

Ability to Make Correct Decisions

A leader who cannot make a correct decision is not leading at all.  He may be a figurehead, but if he's not the one doing the deciding, he's not really leading.  Heroes of Battle page 75 makes it clear that higher ranking people (i.e. those who lead more people) should be the ones who make the decisions.  The description of the Leadership feat in the DMG makes it clear that you get to make the orders.  Plus, I'd imagine it's pretty obvious to most people that yes, if you're leading, you make the decisions.  And obviously, a big difference between good leadership and bad leadership is that a good leader makes good decisions, while a bad leader makes bad decisions.  

So, what are the mechanics and rules behind good decision making?  First of all, there's stats.  

Wisdom

Page 9 of the PHB says that Wisdom represents "willpower, common sense, perception, and intuition" as well as "being in tune with and aware of one's surroundings."  Assuming you don't metagame and do in fact try to roleplay your stats, a character with a higher Wisdom will be a better decision maker than the same character with a lower Wisdom, because he will have better common sense and intuition, and will be in tune with what's going on around him.  Note also that Wisdom works for will saves, which helps with resisting fear, so a character with higher Wisdom will be more courageous in the face of danger, thus helping him keep his cool and be able to make correct decisions even with a dragon breathing down his back.  And of course it's the related stat for Sense Motive, meaning you're less likely to get suckered.  Additionally, Wisdom helps you resist charms and other enchantments, so you're even less likely to be tricked into making poor decisions.  In this aspect of leadership, Clerics, Druids and other classes with strong Wisdom synergy will generally be good, whereas Fighters, Barbarians, and other classes with weak Wisdom synergy will generally be poor.

Intelligence

Again from PHB 9, "Intelligence determines how well your character learns and reasons."  It's also the related stat for all knowledge skills, which I'll get to later.  Once again, if you roleplay your stats, a higher intelligence character will be better able to make correct decisions due to your greater knowledge and reasoning capacity.  And of course Intelligence gives you more skill points, helping you get more of the various skills that help out with decision making.  Classes with high Intelligence synergy such as Wizards and Archivists will be strong in this area, while classes with weak Intelligence synergy will be poor in this area, such as Barbarians and Monks.

And now, skills.  One thing to consider is number of skill points available, which helps you get the various useful skills.

Knowledge

Knowledge skills represent your, well, knowledge of "some body of lore, possible an academic or even scientific discipline." (PHB 78) Basically, they're how much you know about a topic.  And of course, informed decision making is important if you want to make correct decisions.  Since most PCs, when leading, are of a more military bent, I'm going to focus on the skills that deal with that, but of course for other kinds of leadership, other skills are needed.   Knowledge skills, first of all, help you identify the traits and weaknesses of possible opponents (and allies).  Knowing the difference between an Ogre Mage and a Troll would be very important for tactical decision making when facing one of those creatures, as the tactics to use against one are very different from the tactics best used against the other.  Nearly all knowledge skills are useful in this respect (though not quite all).

And then you've got good ole' Knowledge History.  This represents "Wars" (PHB 78).  Now, some may say "oh, that's just historical wars" but this is not in fact true.  It's just "Wars."  Note that other Knowledges similarly have topics in them that don't quite fit their names.  Knowledge Dungeoneering covers Aberrations, including those not normally found in dungeons.  Knowledge Local covers humanoids, including knowledge of humanoids who are not from your local area.  Knowledge Religion covers undead, including undead who are not created by Clerics and who are not religeous.  And Knowledge History, following the same pattern, covers your knowledge of Wars, not just ones in ancient history.  So, a character with a great deal of ranks in Knowledge History knows a great deal about Wars.  Just as someone with a lot of Knowledge Nature might know the best way to attack a Troll or how fierce a particular sort of Dire Animal is, someone with a lot of Knowledge History might know that the best way to attack a archers located in a fortified position or how to use divide and conquer tactics effectively.  

  And of course we've got page 95 of HoB, which states "a character with knowledge (history) will be well versed in military history and know something of military tactics used in past wars."  It then refers to the guidelines on page 70 for dealing with Strategic Advantages, but since PCs are rarely in charge of such large scale units, that's not really my focus here.  Having any ranks at all makes you "know something of military tactics used in past wars."  Clearly, then "military tactics" is one of the things Knowledge History covers, so a character with ranks in the skill knows about military tactics.  Now, some might say "hey, it said past wars!"  Yes, that's true... but the past is everything other than the future (and that tiny little bit called the present), so really this part simply means that it's a knowledge skill, not a future divination.  Obviously, you can only know about stuff that's actually happened.  The point is, "military tactics" is part of what you know about if you have ranks in Knowledge History, and if you've got a lot of ranks in the skill, then among other things you know a lot about military tactics, and if you have no ranks, you cannot answer even basic questions about military tactics (PHB 78, the DC is 15 for that, and you can't make untrained checks with a DC higher than 10 with any Knowledge skill).  Note that Knowledge History is the only knowledge skill to be specially called out in the section of Heroes of Battle dedicated to what skills are useful in battle, though the Strategic Advantage section does mention all of them equally.  This, in my mind, makes it somewhat special for military campaigns... it's the only skill to be called out twice like that.

Something that will also come up:  yes, in real life it's possible to know about military tactics and wars without knowing about the rest of history.  That's fine.  But in D&D, these things are innately connected.  If you know about Fey, you also know about weather.  If you know about gods and goddesses, you also know about undead.  And if you know about wars and military tactics, then you also know about the founding dates of cities and the like.  It's just an inhearent generalization in a game that didn't want to have hundreds of knowledge skills (something I for one appreciate).

So, it might be asked, how do you use this knowledge, mechanically?  Well, the answer is right there on page 78, under "Check."  Let's say your character is supposed to be a veteran soldier, so you dutifully put 10 ranks into Knowledge History, representing the fact that your soldier knows a great deal about wars and military tactics.  You find yourself looking down into a narrow pass in the mountains where you see three or four soldiers standing around what looks to be a wagon loaded with weapons, and the axle is broken.  One of the soldiers is fixing the axle.  You say, "I think we'll go take out those soldiers and steal the weapons!"  The DM subtly rolls a Knowledge (History) check for you, using a DC based on the guidelines on page 78 of the PHB (or page 64 of the PHB, there are two sets of guidelines available).  He decides that it's a pretty basic bit of knowledge that this is a classic ambush scenario, so it's DC 15 to recognize that.  He rolls the die, and gets a 20.  So he says "you recognize that this looks like a standard ambush often used against enemy raiders."  Suddenly you stop, and decide it's wise to check out that ridge above the wagon first, where there might be enemy soldiers lurking.

Or, the inverse.  Barbarian raiders and bandits have been stealing from local caravans.  The player might ask "what's a standard tactic for dealing with this situation?"  And the DM could then roll the dice and say "usually, you'd create a decoy caravan that's broken down somewhere to draw them out, then spring an ambush."  Of course, the exact DC is determined by the DM, but there are guidelines on pages 64 and 78 of the PHB for what exactly that DC might be.

As always, this is not saying you absolutely need Knowledge History to utilize tactics.  Rather, someone with a strong knowledge of existing military tactics will generally make better tactical decisions due to simply being appropriately trained than someone who has no such knowledge.  If you play a character who always has the exact right tactic for the combat situation and is constantly coming up with clever tactics, and yet has low intelligence and no ranks in the skill, that's metagaming, just as playing a character with Int 6 being very clever is metagaming.  

Characters with all knowledge skills as class skills and strong Int synergy, such as Wizards, Archivists, and Factotums will be good in this area.  Special note goes to Archivists, due to having special class skills related to knowledge combined with the ability to cast spells like Divine Insight and Lore of the Gods.  Classes with weak Int synergy and no knowledge skills as class skills, such as Fighters and Barbarians, are poor in this area.

Sense Motive

No one likes to follow around a sucker.  If you're getting manipulated all the time because you can't identify who's on your side and who's betraying you, what kind of a leader are you?  You may be following someone else without even realizing it.  Sense Motive (and a good will save) helps with this.  It's not critical, but it's handy.  Wisdom based classes with Sense Motive as a class skill are good at this, while classes without it as a class skill and poor Wisdom synergy are bad at it.

Divinations

One aspect of making good decisions that's available to characters in D&D but not real world people is Divination.  Simple divinations such as Augery can be incredibly good... a second level spell slot could tell you if it's a tactically sound idea to charge a particular fortification, for example.  Really, that spell works to confirm the usefulness of any of your decisions which will reach a resolution within 30 minutes.  More powerful divinations such as Legend Lore, Discern Location or Contact other Plane can help you guide your party to the right locations to find great riches.  Spellcasters are good in this area, non casters generally aren't.

Class Abilities

There are, out there, a few class abilities that help you in the decision making process.  Bardic Knowledge, for example (which Cloistered Clerics also have), gives you more information about what's out there and helps you make decisions correctly.  Or a Marshal might use his Motivate Intelligence aura to boost his own knowledge checks and the knowledge of everyone around him.  Bards, Archivists, and Cloistered Clerics are examples of classes that are good at this.  

Advisers

This one works almost regardless of class, but it gets brought up so it bears discussing.  Obviously a leader can make good decisions using the advice of those around him.  This works incredibly well when you've got time to sit down and plan things out, and can be sure you trust your advisers.  Some classes even get bonuses to this... for example, a Marshal can use Motivate Intelligence to boost his advisers, who can then assist him, and an Exemplar can use a similar trick with Lend Talent.  With that said, there are some issues to consider.  First, in the end you're making the decision, and that's easier when you at least have some knowledge of the subject at hand, especially in cases where your advisers might conflict with each other.  Second, you can't get advice on the fly nearly as easily.  This matters a great deal when suddenly a new monster pops into a combat just before your turn to act.  Third, advisers can't always be trusted.  Sure, you might hire an expert on dragons when you go hunting for dragons, but if the dragon was clever, perhaps he planted that expert in town so he'd know when adventurers were coming.  Or, someone could secretly dominate your adviser... since you're just doing what the adviser says it the thing to do, this can be like dominating two people with one spell.  And fourth, the obvious question is "if that guy knows what we should do every time, why shouldn't we just make him the leader?"

Gather Information

This skill obviously has its uses when making informed decisions.  However, because of how long it takes to get the information, this isn't something you do on the fly anyway, and as such works nearly as well on an adviser as it does on the leader himself.  After all, it takes hours, so it's not like you're going to be in the middle of a battle and say "man, if I had Gather Information, that would really help me decide what to do right now!"  Still, it's a handy skill.  Rogues and other scouty types tend to be best at this, while people without the class skill or charisma synergy are poor at it.

Area Awareness

Much like knowledge skills, area awareness lets you make better decisions by better understanding what's around you.  The most obvious things that help with Area Awareness are Spot and Listen, which can be very handy, but since everyone can see and hear, it's not the hugest deal (and usually the scouts have this ability anyway).  However, there are a few very useful area awareness tricks.  Mindsight, usually gained after taking one level of Mindbender, is amazingly good for this.  Lifesight, if you're playing as a Necropolitan, is similarly useful.  Permanent Arcane Sight is also a big one.  Instantly getting this information during combat or in dangerous situations is exceptionally helpful when making critical decisions.  For example, in a recent gaming session our party's Beguiler/Mindbender with Mindsight stood on the roof top of a building coordinating our stealthers as they infiltrated the building.  He telepathically updated them with the locations of all enemies in the build as he directed them towards the goal.  Later, we saw a phallanx of enemy soldiers ahead of us.  Our Beguiler/Mindbender saw them and, because they weren't registering on Mindsight, knew that they were either undead or illusions and acted accordingly.  Knowing that you should attack the casters first is useful information, but that information is a lot more helpful if you can also see the spellcasting ability of every enemy in the field (and thus know exactly what you're facing).

Getting People to Follow Your Decisions

"A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him." - Napoleon Bonaparte

A leader without followers is not a leader at all.  Somehow, then if you wish to lead you must get followers.  Clearly, D&D talks about this very thing.  The name of the Leadership feat is a dead giveaway (and so is the name of the Undead Leadership feat... that one is certainly a dead giveaway).  So, let's get into the ways you can convince people to follow you.  First, the attribute:

Charisma

PHB 9 says that "Charisma measures a character's force of personality, persuasiveness, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness."  Emphasis mine of course.  For any who would claim there are no mechanics for leadership, read that line over and over until it sinks in.  Of course, what's being talked about when the book says "ability to lead" is of course "ability to make men follow."  It's not talking about decision making (which is more about ability to lead well) but rather about the simple ability to get someone to follow you.  Charisma is tied to a series of other leadership abilities, and most classes that are actually designed around the concept of the role "leader" have at least some decent charisma synergy.  You can also use an untrained charisma check to influence anyone if you don't have appropriate skills.  Charisma is also used for rally checks, and page 75 of HoB makes it clear that rallying one's troops is a responsibility of any military leader.   Assuming you are not metagaming and are in fact roleplaying your character according to his or her mental stats, a more charismatic character should better be able to persuade others to do what he wants and convince them to follow him than a character with less charisma, all other things being equal.  Classes with strong Charisma synergy, such as Marshals and Bards, are strong in this area of leadership, while classes with no Charisma synergy, such as Barbarians and Fighters, are weak in this area.

Level

This one comes up quite a bit.  Obviously, it's not related to any one class, but the books regularly mention level as helping you get people to follow you.  Leadership, for example, is tied as much to level as it is to charisma.

Money

Hey, money talks.  There are rules for buying hirelings to help you out.  Generally, this isn't efficient in the long term, but it works, and you can even raise your command rating (see HoB) by donating money to the cause.

Leadership, Epic Leadership and Undead Leadership

These three feats are obvious.  The all give you a cohort and, assuming your leadership score is high enough, give you some followers.  This is probably the most straightforward and obvious mechanic for getting people to follow you, but it's restricted in that you can only have a (comparitively) small number of followers... not enough for an army, certainly.  And everyone except your cohort is of pathetically low level compared to you.  Leadership (and Epic Leadership, and Undead Leadership) is primarily influenced by Charisma and Level, with each giving about an equal contribution (your cohort is limited by your level, but virtually all the feats that chain off leadership, such as Extra Followers, Improved Cohort, and Inspirational Leadership, require prerequisite Charisma scores.

Diplomacy

By far the most powerful method of gaining followers, the Diplomacy skill is in fact so strong that there are arguements about it being broken.  And, with enough of the skill, it can be.  None the less, some have argued that Diplomacy is not, in fact, a leadership skill, so here's a few quotes to set their minds at ease.  HoB 95:  "Diplomacy: Those skilled at swaying the opinions of others can find great success leading troops on the battlefield."  PHB 71: "This skill represents the ability... to influence others."  And then there's the whole Fanatic thing, but we'll get into that later.  Diplomacy is also the associated skill for White Raven, which is the school of inspirational leadership, but more on that later.  And of course many classes designed as leadership classes give bonuses to the skill or have abilities based on the skill, such as Marshals, Dread Pirates, and so on.

If you look at the definition of "Friendly" vs "Helpful" in the PHB (on page 72), you'll see that Friendly isn't enough to be a proper follower.  It says "offer limited help" for example.  They like you, they're kinda on your side, but they're not going off adventuring with you.  Now look at helpful.  "Protect, Back up, Heal, Aid" and "Will take risks to help you."  That's getting much closer to what we might call a follower.  That may in fact be enough right there, though you'll still likely need to make it worth that person's while to help you, perhaps with some payment or an insistance that helping you is the only way to stop the barbarian horde from overrunning their homelands (which could well be true).  If that doesn't do it, certainly "Fanatic" will... the information about that can be found here.  "Will die for you" pretty much counts as a follower.

Thus, Diplomacy can, at high enough levels, give you as many followers as is possible for your situation.  Unlike Leadership, you can actually recruit a whole army if you need to, and the levels of that army are not limited at all.  Yes, in theory this could be game breaking when you were expected to bring 100 level 1 soldiers to the fight and instead you show up with a small army of Solars.  However, there are a few restrictions to consider.  First, Diplomacy only works if the target is listening to you and capable of understanding you.  Second, the creature can't be mindless.  Third, Diplomacy doesn't change the creature's opinion about anyone else, so just walking in and using Diplomacy to convince the Illithids that actually they like you may be fun, but they still might eat the rest of your party.  Until you get to Fanatic, it's not actually dominate monster (and remember that Fanatic only lasts a certain number of days, after which you have to reset it).  It's closer to charm with an endless duration and no save.    Fourth, there's a pretty nasty penalty for doing it in one round, otherwise it takes a full minute.  

Still, it's potent, and it can indeed get you an entire army.  And if you go Diplomancer (which basically means making a character designed entirely for Diplomacy who supercharges the skill to insane levels), then yes, you can pretty much end up leading absolutely everyone and creating world peace through your benevolent dictatorship.  Having the ability to lead anyone you meet is VERY powerful.  But there's no need to go to such extremes.

Classes that are good at Diplomacy include Clerics, Archivists, Favoured Souls, and Marshals.  Classes that are bad at it include Barbarians, Fighters, and Rangers.

Class abilities

Certain classes get you followers or get your more followers if you already had leadership.  As a quick summary, UA varient Enchanters, Thrallherds, Orc Warlords, and Dread Pirates all do this, and there's more out there as well.  These generally function much like the Leadership feat, with similar restrictions.

Magic

Dominate Monster, Charm Person, and similar effects can all get you followers, but this tends to be relatively inefficient, requiring repeated castings over time for each follower.  Usually this isn't worthwhile, but it bears mentioning.  Keeping a leader dominated can give you effective control over anyone he's leading (a good arguement for leaders having a decent will save!), so that method works if you don't mind being a bit behind the scenes.  

Necromancy

This is slightly different from the magic section, because undead are so much more susceptable to magical control.  Rebuke Undead, though much maligned, can in fact give you a sizeable number of troops under your control, mostly by making use of items that grant negative turn resistance or items that grant negative levels to undead (such as Holy Arrows, which should get around the normal immunity).  The rules are written in such a way as to strongly suggest that Turn Resistance is only checked at the moment you use Rebuke Undead, and not dynamically checked later (so if a creature counts as having 1 HD for rebuking, then jumps to 5 HD after you control him, you still count as having used only 1 HD from your rebuke pool).  Feats like Necromantic Presence would actually be a bad thing if this were not so.  As such, you can, for example, wield a Rod of Defiance (-4 turn resistance to all nearby undead) while a minion plays a Lyre of the Restful Soul (-4 turn resistance to all undead who can hear it nearby) and rebuke 10 9 HD creatures at level 10.  Then put away the Rod and the Lyre and you've got a decent set of minions.  If you want, you can get better undead by controlling them temporarily with control undead, then ordering them to hold enough holy arrows to reduce their HD to 1, and rebuking them.  Thus, you can control as many undead minions as your level.  Not too shabby.  Some DMs may not like this, but then again, it's not that huge of a deal, as it's limited to a number of undead equal to your level.  But then you can add in Animate Dead and Animate Dread Warrior for even more minions.

In fact, the Animate Dread Warrior spell is unlimited, letting you, if you want, raise every enemy you kill.  It has an Exp cost, but this can be removed by spell stitching it to a controlled undead and having that do the castings.  As a warning, your undead creature controls the Dread Warriors, not you, so be careful not to lose your new sub commander.  Either that, or turn into a Necropolitan and spell stitch yourself.  The point is, you can have a lot of minions through Necromancy.  Make sure to create a few Necrosis Carnexes to keep your new little friends healed.

Obviously, this is only appropriate in evil campaigns.

To be continued due to long post length...

10
Handbooks / A Guide to Proper Scouting
« on: May 07, 2013, 03:40:41 AM »
The Scout's Handbook


To be clear, this is a handbook on how to properly scout for your party.  It is not a handbook for the Scout class (though that class will be touched upon).  We'll cover the basic philosophy and tactics, as well as various possible builds, useful items, and so on.

The first question is this: what is a scout?  The simple answer: a scout is a character who can detect enemies before they detect the party.  This could mean a sneaky Rogue staying a bit ahead of the party and keeping a sharp eye out, an arcanist using mindsight with telepathy and similar effects to notice enemies like a magical radar system, or even a Binder sending little birds to be his eyes and ears.  However you do it, it's your job to make sure that your party is ready to act before any threat even knows you're there.

And the second question is: why have a scout in the party?  It's an iconic role, usually built into the "skillmonkey" of the classic Tank, Healer, Arcanist, Skillmonkey team up, but what's the point?

This is a game where actions are everything, and a single standard action can screw your entire party.  If a fight starts with a hidden Beguiler casting Glitterdust on the party in the surprise round, you could be looking at a TPK.  If it instead starts with your party landing the Glitterdust and revealing the Beguiler as well as his little Rogue friends, this is going to be a trivially easy fight.  Plus, in a game full of monsters with various immunities and vulnerabilities, strengths and weaknesses, knowing your enemy in advance and knowing how to fight him is critical.  Far better to avoid wasting attacks that do nothing against a creature that was immune, or to use AoEs and hit the hidden ambushers instead of single target effects that only hit the bait.  Thus, what the scout gives the party is actions, and lots of them.  Surprise rounds to destroy enemies instead of having those same surprise rounds used against you, and fewer wasted actions when a player fails to account for what's actually against him.  And in a game where battles are effectively over after the first round or so (which is often the case when save or lose and crowd control spells start dropping), that's critical.  It also can thwart traps, which at lower levels are virtual guaranteed kills against party members if you don't protect against this.

In this first section, we'll cover the basics of how to scout.  Scouting requires four basic things: be as hard to detect as possible, detect as effectively as possible, chose the proper range to scout at, and have appropriate ablative defenses for when things go wrong.  Cover all these things appropriately and you should never be in serious danger of dying while scouting.

1)  Be invisible to as many things as possible. 

(click to show/hide)

2)  Have better detection than your enemies.

(click to show/hide)

3)  Be at the right range.   

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4)  Have ablative defenses. 

(click to show/hide)

As a final note, don't spend everything on scouting.  You should still be able to do other stuff.  Most scouts are actually assassins or diplomats or combat archers or something that's very helpful even when not scouting.  There's no requirement to spend huge resources on being a scout... you should still be very effective for the party in general.

JaronK

11
So, in my current campaign I find myself converting an old asylum into a combined orphanage and school... and as an Archivist I've got a lot of magic at my disposal.  I've also got the Landlord feat with 250kgp to spend.  So... what spells and items are best for this?

So far, I've got Unseen Crafter (day/level, creates a craftsman that builds things for you) and Wall of Stone/Iron (provides free stone and Iron) as my primary building sources.    Divine Insight and Guidance of the Avatar provide skill bonuses for buying things.  Stone Metamorphosis lets me turn my rock into Slipstone and Rock Gourds and other special rock.  Improved Arcane Lock lets me secure the place quite safely while still letting minions handle the doors in general.

As for magic items, a custom magic item of Scholar's Touch allows students to read books instantly... great for their studies!  A Pool of Scrying helps our party find enemies, and an Everful Larder means feeding people isn't an issue.  But what else am I missing?

One important trick: having a portal that leads from the base to an Enveloping Pit I keep on me, so the party can adventure and get back quick.

JaronK

12
Introduce Yourself / I'm a Man of Wealth and Taste
« on: November 11, 2011, 03:17:20 PM »
 I've been around for a long, long year.

JaronK

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