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Topics - snakeman830

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1
Handbook Submission / Aegis Handbook [WIP]
« on: July 17, 2018, 03:13:16 AM »
The Aegis is a class from the Pathfinder book Ultimate Psionics.  At first glance, the Aegis is to armor what the Soulknife is to swords, creating equipment with a thought that basically turns out equal to normal gear you would have at that level anyway.

This is quite far from the truth.  An Aegis isn't just saving some money on a breastplate.

(click to show/hide)

The Astral Suit of an Aegis, their core class feature, is a toolbox of (mostly) physical enhancements, potent tools and, yes, protection you would expect from armor (but frequently better).

Why play an Aegis?

Despite not inherently having any manifesting ability (more on that later), an Aegis has more in common with prepared caster classes than other martial characters.  While most martial classes offer multiple templates to choose from, the Aegis dumps a box of Legos at your feet and says "Have fun."

The modular nature of the class is extensive and highly customizable to taste, campaign, or even situation.  Generally speaking, if you're not stuck in an anti-magic field, you can probably find something to contribute in just about any combat situation and most non-social encounters as well.

It also works well as a dip class for more martially minded characters, or even those that just want a bit of extra protection on-demand.  Even a Rogue can find significant use of the Harness Shard customization, which is available with a 1 level dip.

Finally, the class is almost NAD (No Ability Dependant).  You want an INT of at least 14 (more is useful, but unnecessary), but other than that, almost any stat spread can work.  You want STR and/or DEX to be good, and Wisdom doesn't fuel any class features or important class skills, but the class is flexible enough to even make a frailer high CHA build an option (albeit, not a great one).

Without further adieu, let's get into the class mechanics.  I'll be using the following color scheme for grading:

Awful The worst.  Avoid using this unless you're desperate to squeeze out every last bonus, or you really have nothing else you can use instead.  It's still better to have this than nothing at all.
Bad Not something you will want to take, but you will occasionally pick this up willingly.  Some items in the handbook will default to this category because they're situational in use, but in that situation, they may jump up multiple categories in rating (eg: water breathing for an underwater adventure).
Average General use stuff.  Not exciting, but you'll never feel punished for using it.
Good It's good!  You won't always use this, but it's usually on your mind when making your selections.
Fantastic If you're not using this, you really should have a good reason.

The Frame
D10 HD You're a martial character that gets free armor.  While you don't have to be on the front lines, a D10 is not going to leave you lacking in survival when you do take a hit.

Full Base Attack Bonus You don't have much (read: anything inherent) that doesn't need attack rolls to hurt people.  Thankfully, you're good at attack rolls.

Good Fortitude and Will saves The two most important saves and you are strong in both.

Poor Reflex Saves Obviously not a good thing, but your high HD helps make up for it, and with proper customization selection, a surprising number of other reflex saves become meaningless.

4 Skill Points/level The Aegis asks for some points in Intelligence, so this isn't as low as it first looks.  Even so, just 4 skill points covers basically all of the class skills you really need, so anything beyond that is gravy.

Use Magic Device as a class skill Most powerful skill in the game and you get it. While class skill vs. cross-class skill means much less in Pathfinder than 3.5, that free +3 bonus for having it as a class skill gets you to using wands reliably significantly sooner.

Proficient with all simple and martial weapons A wide range of proficiencies.  A pretty common set, but at
least you're not blowing feats just to get good weapon options.

Proficient with Light Armor and non-tower shields It's a good idea to have a set of light armor, just so you're not caught with your (ectoplasmic) pants down.  The lack of proficiency with heavier armors is mostly irrelevant, since your Astral Suit (which you are always proficient with) mimics the best medium and heavy armor anyway.

The Body
Power Points/day Although you don't have many, for most Aegis characters, you also don't have much to spend them on.  The Aegis only gets one class feature that spends power points to use, and it doesn't arrive until 4th level.  This pool is at the awkward size where it's either way more than you will use, or nowhere close to enough.  Thankfully, you do get bonus power points based off your INT score as though you were a Psion of your Aegis level.

Astral Repair (Ps) At-will object repairing is pretty niche, but it's on-theme and being able to repair anything so long as you have all the pieces given a bit of time can be useful.  This isn't even limited to non-magical items, but it will only repair physical damage, not restore spent charges.

Astral Suit (Su) The entire reason for taking the Aegis class.  To be more accurate, the reason is the customizations to your Astral Suit than the armor itself.  By default, this can take one of three forms: Astral Skin, which functions like a Psychoactive Skin and is created as a swift action, Astral Armor, which starts as masterwork chainmail, then gets upgraded to masterwork breastplate and is created as a move action, or Astral Juggernaut, which starts as masterwork half-plate and gets upgraded to masterwork full-plate and is created as a full-round action.  Each version has free customizations attached to it, but other than these, your selected customizations are shared between all three forms.  If you double-up on a customization that can only be taken once in this way, you have to deal with the wasted customization points.  Same with passing the cap on those that can be taken multiple times.  Still, this is easy to plan around.

All customizations can be re-assigned with 8 hours of concentration.  Planning ahead has significant payoffs.  All three varieties can be dismissed as a free action, which is especially handy for the heavier versions.

Craftsman Flavorful, but weak.  The bonus only ever reaches up to +5, making this by far the weakest class feature of the Aegis.

Damage Reduction Not only does it start at 2/-- and increase to 8/--, but you can spend customization points to raise it further.  Derugar can really pump this up with their favored class bonus, reaching a maximum of 17/--.  Always taking less damage from physical attacks is good, especially when they get more than barbarians.

Invigorating Suit (Su) Endurance feat while your astral suit is shaped.  Oh, except it never calls out the feat.  On the upside, this stacks with the feat.  On the downside, you still have to take Endurance if you want anything that requires it.

Reconfigure (Ex) As a standard action, reassign your INT mod in customization points.  When you find yourself needing particular customizations, this is the best way to get them, especially if you need them for more than a couple rounds.

Augment Suit (Su) The only class feature that uses power points, this allows you to temporarily gain an extra customization for your INT mod in rounds as a standard action.  You can only have one instance of this ability active at once, but there is no hard limit to the number of times you can use this, unlike Reconfigure.  This is perfect for things like the Ram customization to open a door or a swim speed when you get surprise-dropped into a river.

Master Craftsman You get master Craftsman as a bonus feat, which allows you to take and use Craft Magic Arms and Armor or Craft Wonderous Item.  Be careful, though, as RAW it's limited to only items made by a single Craft skill.  Don't discount it entirely, though, as it is an option for guaranteeing at least a couple pieces of gear for each party member, and you do get a freebie bonus to one Craft skill of your choice anyway.

Cannibalize Suit (Su) Dismiss your astral Suit to heal hit points equal to your total customization points.  This is some free post-combat healing (using it means you can't create your Astral Suit for 1 minute), and really nothing more.  I guess it's a couple fewer charges off the party's wands of Cure Light Wounds?

Perfect Merger (Su) Your Astral Suit can't be removed by anything but a Null Psionics Field (or Anti-magic Field) unless you want it to be.  In addition, you can completely reset all of your customizations by spending two uses of Reconfigure.  This is the best part of the ability.  Finally, you can use Cannibalize Suit once per day to restore all of your missing hit points (which, given this is after 20 levels of a D10 HD, can be quite a lot!,) at the cost of being unable to re-summon your suit for 10 minutes.  The first part of this ability is rarely going to matter, but the other two are going to be used much more often.

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General D&D Discussion / (Pathfinder) Aegis and Graft Armor
« on: November 02, 2017, 10:32:24 PM »
Graft Armor power
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/psionic-powers/g/graft-armor/

Aegis
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/aegis/

My question is this: If I were to use Graft Armor to meld (say, leather armor) to my body, then use the Astral Armor or Astral Juggernaut suits, would I still be able to benefit from any special properties of the leather armor?

3
Gaming Advice / Silver Flame & Fire damage PrC
« on: May 20, 2017, 10:41:49 AM »
I have heard that there is a prestige class associated with the Church of the Silver Flame that converts some of the fire damage you deal into Sacred damage.  Anyone know the name/source of this PrC?  I already looked at Silver Flame Exorcist and that doesn't appear to be it, as the only mention of "sacred damage" I saw was in relation to adding it to your bonded weapon.

4
Gaming Advice / Immunities and saving throws
« on: May 10, 2017, 11:16:27 PM »
I've come across a weird case where this actually matters, so I was wondering if a creature immune to a particular kind of effect is allowed to make a saving throw against it?

The item in question is the Magic-Eating armor quality from MIC.  It states that whenever you succeed on a saving throw against a spell that targets you, you heal hit points equal to the spell's level.

Now, let's say this quality is on a Warforged Juggernaut.  If a friendly Cleric included him in a Mass Cure Light Wounds spell, would he be able to make his saving throw and gain at least a few health, even if the spell has no effect on him if he fails his saving throw?

5
Gaming Advice / Matter Manipulation and Corpses
« on: February 13, 2017, 05:04:52 PM »
This is a dumb question that I had floating in my mind, but what happens if you manifest Matter Manipulation on a corpse and then either resurrect it or animate it as undead?

Does the resulting creature have Hardness?  Does it have increased HP?  Or is the body just more durable next time they die?

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Gaming Advice / Animate Dead and Dragonblood Subtype
« on: August 10, 2016, 02:13:13 PM »
So, I think I know the answer already, but I want to see what others think.

When using Animate Dead on a creature with the dragonblood subtype, can the skeletal dragon/skeletal zombie templates be applied, or just the regular skeleton/zombie templates?

7
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Handbook idea: Magnificent Mundanity
« on: September 22, 2015, 09:28:21 AM »
So, the idea I have for this handbook is to highlight the various hidden gems in 3.5 that don't stop working in an AMF.  It would largely comprise of items, but some particularly interesting abilities might make it in as well, such as the Shadow Jaunt line of maneuvers being Ex teleports.  Also, things I'm debating including are magical abilities that are Instantaneous duration, but have a lasting impact (like Mantle of the Firey Soul).

Her comes the problem: formatting.  There is just so much in the way of problems and solutions in D&D that to cover them would require waaaaay more than anyone here is willing to put out in effort.

So, anyone have any suggestions for how to organize everything?

8
Off Topic Fun / Lycanthromancer is in need of help
« on: September 16, 2015, 02:32:56 PM »
For those of you here who remember Lycanthromancer, I happen to be following him on another website as well.  I haven't heard from him in months, but today he posted the following:

Quote
Dear Readers.

Lately, things have taken a drastic turn for the worse.

I just lost my job, which was the only thing keeping me afloat, and I just don't know what to do anymore. I've been looking for a different, less stressful job for months, and there's nothing around here that I even remotely qualify for. I'm stuck in an extremely small town, with no car, no family, and no way out.

I don't know what to do anymore.

The stress of my situation has been building steadily, and I've worked myself to tatters trying to deal with it. I had a few months where things seemed to be getting better, but that was apparently the cliff-edge before the abyss. It's take a severe toll on my health.

Along with the mounting stress, I've been suffering from a steadily worse depression over the course of the last two years, along with declining physical health and a host of attendant problems, including headaches, anxiety, insomnia to the point where I go weeks without sleep, constant exhaustion, low blood pressure and bouts of stress-induced hypoglycemia, blackouts, and stabbing chest pains when my stress reaches a particularly high point.

Even doing the smallest things is extremely difficult. I feel like I've been drugged, and my ability to think has crashed and burned. It's so hard to try to dig yourself out of a hole when it takes everything you've got just to get out of bed in the morning or fix something to eat. I got an impossibly rare burst of motivation to even write this, and my brain is so doped up on its own stress chemicals that I'm not entirely sure if it's coherent. I'll have someone look over it so it at least makes sense.

Suicidal thoughts are nothing new, but I've always had enough strength to resist them. But it's getting to the point where they're actually starting to look attractive, and that scares the hell out of me.

I've tried going to see a doctor, but they want to dope me up with drugs, and I've had horrible reactions with every depression med I've ever tried, up to and including a coma that lasted three full days. But honestly? I don't need drugs, I need a break. Anyone subjected to enough stress will crumble, and stress is not a "disorder" that can be treated.

I've tried fixing this on my own, but it's just not enough. I just keep falling farther and farther behind.

I'm ashamed to have to do this, but I don't see any other way. I don't like handouts, but I don't want to become homeless (or worse), either, which is looking like a distinct possibility.

I'm desperate, and I really, really, really, really need your help.

I'll be frank. I need money. I need enough to pay off some old bills, enough to buy a car so I can get out of this tiny town, and enough to set up elsewhere and live on for awhile while I recuperate from the stress I've been under for the past few years, not to mention look for a job or alternative source of income.

I've set up a gofundme account at http://gofundme.com/d84a3tjs

With any luck (and lots of help), I'll be able to use this to get myself in a position to fix several things in my life that have been weighing me down for a long time. And that will make it easier to start building myself up again, rather than just bailing myself out of the hole I'm in that just keeps getting deeper.

Please spread the word to the people you know. Facebook, Twitter, whatever. Anyplace you think you can reach receptive ears.

Any ideas you have which might help my situation are appreciated, as well.

And no matter what else happens, thank you everyone, from the bottom of my heart. No matter how much or how little you give, it's definitely appreciated, even if it's just spreading the word.

So thank you. Thank you so much.

--Garrett

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General D&D Discussion / Roll20.net, tips?
« on: March 31, 2015, 07:44:01 PM »
I imagine I'm not the only one here to have played on Roll20.net, but now I'm about to DM a game on there and I'm having some issues.

Namely maps.  How the heck do you get maps to work as a DM?

10
General D&D Discussion / Lack of jungle adventure material
« on: October 01, 2014, 10:43:43 AM »
Recently, I've been planning a campaign for my tabletop group and have run into the obstacle that there is a surprising lack of material for running a game primarily set in jungle environments.  It's not like it's an uncommon trope.  If anything, it's more common than what Frostburn gave us.  Yet this environment had little coverage in published material.

Have any of you run into this obstacle before?  What did you decide to do about it?

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Gaming Advice / Forced Incorporeality?
« on: May 30, 2014, 08:58:05 PM »
Outside of Epic spells, is there a way to turn another creature incorporeal?  Preferably a method that could feasibly be used in-combat.

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Min/Max 3.x / Aiming for Shadowcraft Sorcerer
« on: May 01, 2014, 03:26:25 PM »
I'll be starting up a game with local friends soon, two of which have never played 3.5 before.  One had at least some knowledge of 3.0 and the other only knows AD&D, and not very well at that.  One is playing a Monk and the other chose Druid.  I have no idea what our fourth person will be playing.

I did strongly suggest that the Monk player go with Unarmed Swordsage instead, but for some reason, he decided against it.  At least he knew to put his highest score in Strength.

No houserules to my knowledge, other than starting gear is up to the DM to decide based on backgrounds (our Monk is starting with nothing.  I'll try and at least get him things like a bedroll).  PHB races only to reduce confusion on the new players, but any class seems to be open.  Starting level is 2.

In any case, I decided to play a Gnome Sorcerer heading for Shadowcraft Mage.  Something I want to do with this character is say he has a Shadow Dragon ancestor, and as his power grows, his connection to his ancestor grows, both in magical and personality.  It should be interesting to play someone slowly getting much darker and evil as he goes.  I'm considering Nightmare Spinner after Shadowcraft Mage as well.

Because why not, here are my stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 16
Con: 14
Int: 16
Wis: 14
Cha: 18

After racial modifiers.  I had a very good set of rolls.

My feat will either be Spell Focus (Illusion) or Draconic Heritage (Shadow) .  Leaning toward the former, as I don't plan much on taking more Draconic feats.  If the DM lets me use a flaw, I'll have both.

Current spells known:
0:
Detect Magic
Read Magic
Message
Mage Hand
Caltrops

1:
Silent Image
Color Spray

The big thing is getting in those prerequisite spells I need.  The (Shadow) spell in particular is not looking fun to choose.  Suggestions?

13
Gaming Advice / Signature Spell location?
« on: April 29, 2014, 10:58:16 AM »
I'm considering playing a Shadowcraft Mage in an upcoming game and I want to know where the feat Signature Spell is located.  I'm debating between Wizard and Sorcerer bases right now.

14
Min/Max 3.x / Necromancer||Necromancer/Master Necromancer
« on: January 22, 2014, 08:02:26 PM »
So, a while back, I posted a thread about a 20th level super-necromancer.  Now I have the chance to actually play it.

This is a Forgotten Realms game with a number of solo stories going on simultaneously.  Everyone is looking to rule the world in some way, shape, or form, but we are not working together (or even necessarily aware of each other yet).

The game starts at 10th level with an additional 5,000xp on a "use it or lose it" basis pre-game start.  No Dragon magazine, but most other things (including reasonable custom magic items) are on the table.

My character is an Illumian (Naenhoon) with a Major Fey bloodline Dread Necromancer 10||Necromancer 5/Master Specialist 5.  The Wizard side is using the Wizard of the Sun and Moon ACF from Dungeonscape and the Enhanced Undead ACF from the SRD.  If I had a good option to dump Scribe Scroll, I would.

The character has a front as a talented jeweler who occasionally leaves town to travel, both making sales and adventuring to acquire gemstones and other useful items to use in his craft.  Behind the scenes, though, he is slowly assembling an army and causing random bits of panic with undead and called outsiders all over the world.

Flaws: Vulnerable and Frail (I rolled well above average for HP)
Feats:
1. Tomb-tainted Soul
Corpsecrafter (Flaw bonus)
Mother Cyst (Flaw bonus)
Scribe Scroll (Wizard bonus)
3. Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Iron Will (Bloodline bonus)
Extend Spell (Wizard bonus)
6. Nimble Bones
Skill Focus (Spellcraft) (Master Specialist bonus)
Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy) (Master Specialist bonus)
9. Craft Wondrous Item

Retraining is allowed, so Craft Wondrous Item and Tomb-tainted Soul will be swapped out by levels 19 and 20 respectively.

What I am having issues with is choosing between familiars (Quasit, Imp, Ghostly Visage) and determining exactly what I want to buy with the 49k I have.  Crafting items requires I either give up my bloodline (which nicely uses the 5k extra), or a level.

I am planning on getting masterwork tools for all Knowledge skills, bare minimum, as well as setting aside some for black onyx.

15
Gaming Advice / Fabricate at-will?
« on: January 22, 2014, 12:21:19 AM »
I know I have seen a critter that has Fabricate as an at-will spell-like ability.  Does anyone know what it might have been?  I think it was an outsider, and I'm looking for it for binding purposes.

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Gaming Advice / Mohrg+Ring of 3 Wishes=Zombie Tarrasque?
« on: January 21, 2014, 05:17:24 PM »
Just wanted to make sure I had this right.  Let's say a Cleric or Dread Necromancer has Commanded a Mohrg, then defeated the Tarrasque.  The final step- actually killing the thing with Wish or Miracle- is performed via a Ring of 3 Wishes given to the Mohrg for that purpose.  Would this create a Zombie T via the Mohrg's create Spawn ability?  It seems like it would, since unlike many similar abilities, it's extremely open ended.

17
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Listing the best (and worst) skeletons/zombies
« on: January 20, 2014, 04:31:54 PM »
I'm rather surprised that nobody has come up with a good list of critters to reanimate with Animate Dead/Plague of Undead.  I would think such a list would be rather helpful to aspiring necromancers.

What I was thinking is a list of critters at each HD total for each of the following categories:  The Best, The Worst, and The Best You Can Realistically Expect.

For example, at 1 HD, you might have something along the lines of Githzeri for skeletons.  The Worst, probably along the lines of gnomes or some weak animal.  Realistically expect?  Elves.

Would anyone like to help on this?

18
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / If items scaled with character power...
« on: January 06, 2014, 12:55:38 PM »
One of the biggest complaints about the item system, especially in relation to mundanes, is that so much gold gets sunk into just getting the basics that usually can come from spells instead.  By this, I mean things like a +5 weapon, Cloak of Resistance, or Ring of Protection.

While some people advocate just building these sorts of things directly into characters, that brings up its own problems, namely the fact that so many of the items in the game replicate part of those bonuses among their other effects.  You could go through and reduce the price on hundreds of items, of course, but that's tedious.  You also run into odd issues like incorporeals and weapons.

Here is my suggestion.  Those basic magic effects are still in item form, but they scale with character level instead.  Lore-wise, the magic enchanting those items forms a conduit with the wielder's own energy, in a sense becoming a part of the circuit of energy that lows through the body.  The more powerful the wielder, the more powerful the item.

Spells granting these bonuses would continue to function as they do now.  Those benefits come from the caster's energy, not the wielder of the enhanced item.

This does a few things that I can see off the top of my head.  You only need to pay the base amount (2,000gp) to get a +1 weapon, but a high level character wielding it would instead have a +5 enhancement bonus.  This helps them be more independent of caster buffs as well as using their gold for other things.  It also neatly solves the issue of "must have a magic weapon to harm incorporeals" and does not change the current rules for enchanting a weapon.

Exact breakpoints for when these benefits scale up would need testing, but for now, I'm looking at them increasing every 4th level up to a maximum of +5 pre-epic (thus, +5 has a 5 level range from 16-20 instead of a 4 level)  +6 shows up at level 21, at which point a new progression should be worked out (every 5 levels?)

If anyone can see issues with this idea, please let me know.

19
Handbook Discussion / Proposed Handbook: Magnificent Mundanity
« on: October 18, 2013, 07:52:03 PM »
The idea behind this handbook is digging out the coolest tricks that can be pulled off easily and reliably in an AMF/Dead Magic Zone.  For now, race, class features and feats are outside of the purview of the handbook (unless it's an item/location that grants one of those).  This is more for items, grafts, skill uses, skill tricks, and locations, as well as anything else that may not fall into the categories I already listed.

And before anyone says it, no.  Invoke Magic + 4th level or lower spells does not count.

Anyone think this would be interesting?  Any contributions or suggestions?

20
Min/Max 3.x / Optimizing javelins?
« on: September 23, 2013, 03:48:54 PM »
More specifically, optimizing the Gloves of Endless Javelins (MIC page 194).  These gloves can create +1 javelins made of Force as a free action with unlimited use, for just 7k gp.

Now, the only method I know of to improve this is via the Stormlord PrC from Complete Divine.  Over the course of 9 levels, this upgrades them to +3 Shocking Burst Thundering javelins (as well as goodies like immunity to electricity and immunity to the natural effects of storms.

Vow of Poverty would technically work to make them +5 Holy javelins, but using the gloves breaks the Vow.

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