SorO's Enlightenment Series

[SorO_Lost]

Hello and welcome to my Enlightenment Series where I ramble on about stuff, good and bad, in relation to Classes under the pretenses I'm so damn awesome I'm enlightening you. For the most part I'm looking at Classes that prove contrary to their forum reputations or it's a well hidden and often overlooked Class that has a cool gimmick.

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One such foot note of a forum rep is Tiers. The guy who wrote them did it as a rebuttal to why his favorite Classes are better than the rest and because of that, he flip-flops validations on just about every other Class. Inconstant, incorrect, and misleading != Education.

The real Tiers of D&D is based on Spellcasting and access too it. Since spells are better than anything else in the game - They allow you to warp, alter, and screw reality in various ways - measuring the amount of access allows for quick categorization of ACFs, PrCs, Feat combinations, odd Racial Traits and even entire builds on the fly almost instantly.

Tier Rankings
6: Skill based. Commoner, Expert, Samurai.
5: Mundane warriors. Barbarian, Fighter, Monk.
4: Partial casters. Artificer, Adapt, Hexblade, Paladin, Ranger, Spelltheif.
3: Focused casters. Bard, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Martial Adapts, Warmage.
2: Full casters. Favored Soul, Psion, Sorcerer, Wu Jen.
1: Elitists. Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
0: Gods. StP Erudite, Illthid Savant, Pun-Pun, Rocks fall & you die.

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Tier 6 - Skill Based (NPCs not meant for tabletop play)
These guys are Skill/Feat dependent. They have next to nothing in way of Class Features and 100% relive on proper Feat choice to survive. Additionally, every other Class and volunteer choose to exhibit the same degree of Skill on top of having their own abilities.

Tier 5 - Mundane Warriors
They may lack magical powers to solve their problems but they focus on brute force tactics and can use Feats/Skills to round out their less than ideal edges. Unlike those 6ers, they have things like even more Feats or higher BAB/HD/AC to take things on.

Tier 4 - Partial Casters
Like 6/5 they have all the same available Skills & Feats, well and a couple dozen more Feats that require Spellcasting, but these guys also have a very limited scope of magic at their disposal. They are sword & sorcery type characters that use sword-skills to back up their very limited casting. A typically their 4th level access or so prevents them from altering things a bit too much, but some have some very nice Spell Lists that would try to pretend otherwise.

Tier 3 - Focused Casters
An unaltered T3 has a narrow range of magic that scales above the 5th level, typically clear up to 9th, and exactly how they break physics is often limited to their Class type. Their raw power of course can be expanded on and certain examples have thousands of Spells to choose from.

Tier 2 - Full Casters
The gold standard in spellcasting. Generic everymans, they don't *have* to expand on their Spell List for a wide range of options, it's just a good idea. A generic full-caster often tries to maintain a generic list that includes things like mass execution, minion creation, problem solving, survivability, and whatever their Player deems it cool enough to use as often as they can.

Tier 1 - Elitists
There is no mistaking it, these Classes are a league into their own and often combine the "bestof" traits from other Classes. The Druid has self healing, battlefield control, and climate altering spells on top of bearing able to turn into a bear, dinosaur, or a frigging dragon to bite faces off. The Cleric is what happens when you decide to load someone up in armor, give him weapons and the ability to fight, and the ability to pray for Jesus-wished-he-had-these-powers. The Wizard? He is 15 minutes away from filling an open Slot and solving your problem because unlike T2 (or even T3 on expansions), he does in fact know it all.

Tier 0 - Gods
They have everything in some form or another. StP Erudite has several tricks at his disposal for infinite Manifestations on top of full access to every "spell" printed. Illthid Savant can literately have whatever the DM wants him to whereas Pun-Pun has everything the Player wants him to. Their limitations are non-existent.

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Q: So, which is the best Tier?
A: Literately the one you enjoy playing and everyone else doesn't hate you for using.

Q: Why is my favorite class too low?
Ha just kidding. No one has asked me this, I presenting my concept with a sound reasoning rather than picking my favorites.

Q: I totally saw a [Class X] perform far better than a [Class Y] even though you list it as lower. What gives?
One was optimized quite a bit more than the other. There is no close-to fuzzy line here, if a Barbarian looks like it's out performing your Paladin, you should stop running around naked and read the Spell Compendium or one of our handy guides here at MMF. To follow up on this example, the Paladin has better armor, Saves, the ability to self-heal and his Spells allow him to increase his damage, raise fallen allies, grant outright immunity to certain forms of attack such as Fear or mental control. He's also one Feat away (sword of the arcane order) from accessing Spells like minion creation, battlefield control, problem solving, and so on.

Q: So what a minute, how can I use Tiering then?  My players all play differently.
Normally, you don't. D&D is not about competitive play so there is no use in preventing players from choosing Roy to smash people off the stages or Akuma for his unfair long list of specials and omfg damage ratings. This is just a quick summery ranking, the smartest player can use a Fighter to keep up with the poorest played Wizard and sometimes that's just what the group needs to function.

Q: Why didn't you rank this from best to worst, like Wizard first, Archivist second, and so on? Why tiers?
Because I'm lazy and not about to say things like the Barbarian is in the bottom of T5 while the Monk sits at the top just so my lower ranked favorite can get extra credit.

Q: So what exactly is this system measuring?
Spellcasting. And if the Spell Levels are equal, native Spell Access since everyone can buy Runestaffs or take Arcane Disciple.

Q: But what about dips?  I mean, I rarely see anyone playing single class characters. What would a Barbarian 1/Fighter 6 be, for example?
T5. Wizard 10 / Fighter 10? Well that 5th level Spell Access puts him at a Partial Caster level don't it? Barbarian 10 / Divine Crusader? Well, that very limited 9th level Spell access puts him at a Focused Caster level don't it?

Q: My players want to play classes of wildly different Tiers. What can I do about this?
Tell them that's great, but don't try to outshine each other or break your game. You're fundamentally there to have a great time and not a cockfight.

Q: My party mates all want to play classes of wildly different Tiers. What can I do about this?
Sounds like you have that CDO disorder (the letters are in the correct order because they should be!).

Q: Why does it matter if a class has broken abilities? Won't a DM just nerf that anyway? Shouldn't you just ignore broken abilities when ranking classes?
Where is the fun in that?

Q: What assumptions were used in making this system?
None. I'm not here you make an ass out of you or me. The more Spellcasting you have, the more doors you can open. And that's all there really is to it.

Q: Why Each Class is in its Tier?
Heh, never been asked this either. Simple explanations easily understood by people often leave little doubt.

Q: You make it sound like Tiers are useless.
That's because they are. My dad can beat up your dad debates have spawned countless heated debates producing hatred for your fellow community members, increased moderation work effort, and people made asses of them selves to a point where most people just wish their comments were buried and forgotten once they grew up a little. And the long lasting impact of this is forms of stigmata like mundanes can't use wands or buy spells and wizards are just too powerful to even see play. These stigmatas prevent us from exploring optimizing UMD or spell-buffed mundanes and convince DMs that classes break the game when in reality it's the Player which leads them to all sorts of terrible houserules.

Thread Index (if unlinked, means I'm working on it. Maybe)
1. Using The Omnislash (arcane dualist)
2. I know Kung Fu (monk)
3. Robots are cool, but costly and prone to breaking down (artificer)
4. The Superhero (divine crusader)
5. The ultimate insult (rules interpretation and faq)
6. Why the editors need to be fired (stuff that should never have been published)
7. Jedi Knights are playable too (arcane swordsage)
8. The most powerful Races in D&D.
9. What's next? I'll decide!

Be sure to check out my Discussion thread where people complain about me!

[SorO_Lost]

Hello and welcome to my little to no clue ramblings. Today's topic is the Arcane Duelist's Omnislash ability, or Flurry of Swords as it calls it's self. But before we go into that I'd like to run off on a tangent, off topic, out of focus, sidetracked, if you'll hear me out.

Preamble
Remember back in the 339 (that is WotC's forums pre-Gleemax) all the rave and attention the worthless Dervish from Complete Warrior got? If you are unfamiliar with the class allow me to enlighten you. The Dervish is primarily about an over glorified Spring Attack gone Bounding Assault PrC and that is about it. Srsly, it is. Dancing lets you attack while you move and the rest of the PrC gives Cleave, Spring Attack, Fast Movement, and you can use Scimitar's as a light weapon thus reduce your TWF penalty by 2. The class didn't get attention for those crummy abilities offered in feat form to the NPC warrior class but for it's 10th level capstone ability of the Dervish named Thousand Cuts. It is a 1/day ability to double the number of attacks you have but you must move around while doing so. This PrC had loads of threads dedicated to being able to deal 500~1,000 damage once per day in a full attack action. But! The little ole Arcane Duelist went unnoticed. Well if the dervish can get so much attention surly the Arcane Duelist can too.

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To provide highlights to the link offered above the Arcane Duelist, AD for short, offers stuff not granted in feat form. At first glance instead it offers stuff found in magic items, only worse. However it's capstone is quite possibly the coolest thing under the sun. Not just in looks but for optimization as well.

Here is the lowdown on it's abilities.

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Poor BAB, d8 HD (better than some others), two good saves, 4 skill points per level.
Requires: BAB 6, Dodge & Mobility, Perform & Tumble 5, 1st level arcane spells. Screams Bard doesn't it?

Chosen Weapon / Enchant Chosen Weapon
A seeming useless ability or is it? This class ability stacks with whatever you have enchanted on your weapon to begin with provided the weapon's total bonus does not exceed +10. You can use the raw bonus to make up for blowing your money on named enchantments or to push your numbered bonus into the epic range a half dozen or more levels before you should which is useful for some key high level monsters printed. Best use is to cover a weapon named enchantment I'll go into later on.

Apparent Defense
Cha to AC. Not bad at all. Very useful.

Dexterous Attack
Reduce damage to increase hit. Seems lame, but srsly this is D&D. What optimizer worth his login can't bump damage into the overkill range? Give up some of that over kill for a better hit chance. There is no notation weather or not this applies before or after a critical hit's multiplier. Also since the class gives poor BAB you better get used to using this. The good news of course when it comes to THF Power Attack + Dexterous Attack = Win. Combine with simple charge boosters to remain an effective damage dealer as you level up. From here on out though the PrC's usefulness is kinda crap. Hold in there for the next six levels and remember; anything you use you have an almost guarantee to hit now.

Blur
It's a horrible ability. It really is, since while it is unnoted we must assume it takes a standard action to use and theres a cloak that sells for pretty cheap that grants Blur 24/7.

False Keenness
Free Keen ability, imposes a penalty to your attack roll equal to the treat range. Useful I guess...

Mirror Image
Back to getting useful abilities. This time its an unlimited Mirror Image spell-like ability. Very useful for defense. Pop out 1d4+3 mirror images as presumably a standard action for up to a one in twelve shot of getting hit. Since you can use it any number of times you should recast it every minute to gain the benefit of having clones all the time.

Flurry of Swords, aka Omnislash
This ability single handedly puts the Dervish's Thousand Cuts ability to shame even *if* said ability worked every encounter. The omnislash can be used 10 times per day but only per to a single opponent. Using it requires a full-attack action and when used it gives an additional attack and 1d4+3 clones that attack the targeted foe(s) in the same way. Now the clones deal None-lethal damage, but that's fine, you can be a sheep and deal hundreds of damage, or you can lead the back and use the number of times you'll hit to debuff, control, and rape your opponent by other means than his HP. While you are limited to using this against a single foe once per day you are in no way limited to attacking one foe at a time while using this so it makes a great way to Full-Attack multiple opponents at once too.

***

Abusing the Omnislash

1. Ability Damage/Drain: Wounding(core) and/or Weakening(some Faerun book)
Say your chosen weapon is the Unarmed Strike as you have a monk dip. With a mere 22 str you can give up 6 points of possible damage for +6 to all your attack rolls, this almost single handedly pays for Furry of Blows, Snap Kick, and the Omnislash's penalties to attack all at once. And since you're not looking to deal HP damage you can give up even more to really hit your opponent. And if you combine those mentioned additional attacks that 6x(1d4+3) points of Ability Damage, 30 Constitution loss means a 20HD target loses 300HP that cannot be prevented or healed by things like Fast Healing or Regeneration. -30 Str means a lot of creatures become unable to hit you or even rendered helpless.

2. Negative Levels: Souldrinker(bovd) / Energy Drain(dotf)
Like Constitution Damage, Negative Levels remove HP as well. And like Strength damage you impose an ever increasing penalty to Attacks & Damage, but also Saves, Skills and Initiative.

3. Save or suck/die
Instead of aiming for a super high save DC you instead aim to pump out enough attacks your opponent rolls so poorly they fail. Clouting's stun effect is really nice but you'll have to back a foe into a wall first. Stunning Blow & Sudden Stunning, which is based on cha!, even if used once in your attack chain is repeated by each clone. Go Lich or so and spam your paralyzing touch. Poison interestingly becomes an option as each clone would employ a poisoned blade as well. Any touch attack spells can be used too if you cast them the round before and held the charge.

4. Other
Shattermantle lowers spell resistance by 2 per hit, Spell Thieves can drain huge amounts of spells if you need the caster alive but unable to surprise you as you haul him away. Spellstoring weapons really become useful since each clone would let the same spell loose too. I suppose there are others outside of that but I can't think of any.

The omnislash is a great ability to play with with very powerful outcomes. The six near dead levels of AD is a very steep price for it though. You have to have a base in your build capable of getting through the dead levels or start out around the 16th level to mitigate the cost.

Using the Omnislash
You have one of the coolest capstones ever, but getting there is a lonely empty road of disappointment. For this reason you need a good strong base to build from. Martial Adapt's 1/2 IL progression is a great thing to take advantage of, high powered yet near low level tricks can last through out leveling are great methods as well.

Bard 8 / Crusader 1 / Arcane Duelist 10 / ...
For the first few levels you'll play as a dragonfire inspiring bard, later on you'll take a level in crusader and pick up Song Of The White Raven and as asap as you can you'll enter Arcane Duelist. Eight times per day you'll Word of Creation up some dragonfire inspiration and Omnislash a foe to death. Simple and sweet. Thanks to it's bardic abilities it remains useful even with the very close to dead six levels of AD. And don't forget, Greatness awards HD and per Maneuvers 1/2 Initiator level per HD which lets use Maneuver granting items to access a higher level of Maneuvers than normal.

Hexblade 4 / Paladin of Tranny 2 / Arcane Duelist 10 / Marshal 1 / Iajutsu Master 2
Cha to saves twice (sort of), Cha to AC, Cha to Initiative using marshal, and also +9d6 damage on every attack. Not the strongest option but I'm sure you grasp the concept of what it tries to do. the more you can stack Cha to stuff the more simple leveling becomes useful.

Sorcerer 6 / Arcane Duelist 10 / Abjurant Champion 5 / ...
Take Arcane Disciple(diabolic domain) just for Devil's Ego and it's +4 profane to charisma. It's not a super powerful caster by any means but you can create a stack of +1 Spellstoring Gnome Quick Razors to use in your downtime too. Just use Dexterous Attack to cover the lack of proficiency.

Factotum 8 / Arcane Duelist 10 / Swordsage 2
Yes, even a factotum works. This one picked up Knowledge Devotion and Burning Blade for an extra boost to attack & damage. This my be the one case Cunning Strike's +1d6 per inspiration point becomes useful as each point spent gives a total of +5d6~+8d6 damage in total.

[SorO_Lost]

Hello and welcome to the second thread in this series where like every other franchise I attempt to use bigger explosions and butcher the first's concept so much the fans hate me. Today's topic is how to kick Agent Smith's ass.

Preamble
The Monk Class takes a lot of crap at times. Insults like Furry of Misses, MAD, and Unarmed Swordsage get tossed around a lot. But here is the thing, the Monk Class is loaded with Supernatural Abilities which means at a casual glance the Monk should out preform mundane Classes, and the interesting part is that it really does. Furry of "Misses" on paper makes a Monk more accurate than pars set forth by the Fighter or Barbarian, MAD allows for higher optimization plateau, and yeah the ToB kicks the crap out of everything else so that's a moot point. We know that, and love it for that. But when you look into the Monk's ACFs and not the default Class Feature list (sort of like how "lion totem whirling frenzy" has become synonymous with "barbarian") the Monk certainly pulls his own weight, and when you look even farther in some of his abilities are worded in ways you wouldn't expect. That just goes to show what a little research into a topic can do for you. So here is a Monk modified by several such options and I dub it the "Matrix Monk" to give it a bit of extra flavor.

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Here a quick lowdown on the Matrix Monk

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Alignment: Lawful Evil
Neo is a trust worthy kind of guy trying to bring down the system while killing Mrs #2. Just look at his facial expressions, the dude never once looks like he is lying either.

LE is one of the most powerful Alignments out there, secondary to GC selling his Alignment to become LE, and if you remain highly Lawful you can remain a party friendly pragmatist. In other words the party doesn't need to fear you because you gave your word to help them, through leaving you unattended around some humans to be sacrificed is probably a bad idea. Anyway, intended on walking on the darker side of the path will let you overcome some of the background flavor needed for some of the ACF options without a flavor rewrite.

Base Features: Good BAB, d8 HD, three good Saves, 4 Skill Points per level.
A good everyman hero can't stand out too much to start with, but he'd better live long enough to fulfill his destiny.

Unarmed Strike
You start your padawan digital training at the first level and are able to deal improved and lethal damage with your fists, feet, goatee, and penis. Yeah I said it. You were thinking it and I said it. Who is the real dirty person here?

The Monk can also semi-unique improve his Unarmed Strike as both as Manufactured Weapon and as a Natural Weapon allowing you to stack all kinds of things together which I'll cover later.

Flurry of Blows
FoB is a semi-unique trait that kicks a lot of ass. At low levels this allows a Monk to have a superior hit rate* and it always provides additional Attacks, it's like having Whirling Frenzy all the time!
* Example; CR1's avg AC = 15.
18 Str Fighter & Weapon Focus has +6 for a 60% chance to hit once (and only once).
18 Str FoB Monk has +2/+2 for a 65% chance to hit at least once, this includes the 16% chance for both to hit Math.

Bonus Feats
Thanks to Tank's awesome programs you can download new combat skills directly to your brain! That's right, people in a flying ship are in fact listening to your thoughts. But don't don that tinfoil hat yet, they like you!

You should check the more detailed ACF threads for more details. There are a ton of Monk ACFs and choices that expand on or alter your list of select-able Bonus Feats so you can typically take any major Feat chain that you like. Two that stand out are linked which are Overwhelming Attack's Power Attack & Improved Bullrush to qualify for Shock Trooper, or Passive Way's Combat Expertise & Improved Trip to qualify for Knock-Down.

Anti-virus Protection, aka Invisibility (exemplars of evil's invisible fist, replaces [improved] evasion)
This ability doubles up as both an offensive and defense boost. Once every few Rounds you can turn Invisible until your next turn as an Immediate Action and attacking doesn't break it. Invisibility helps defend you from retaliation from attacks (50% miss chance) and any targeted Spells. So you can avoid Trojens like Agent_Possession.exe, Norton can eat it's heart out.

Offensively, being invisible to your enemy gives you a +2 bonus to your attack rolls (which pays for FoB) and it also renders them Flat-Footed against your attack. This not only means they lose their Dex Bonus to AC, but they in turn cannot use an Immediate Action against you or respond to any Attacks of Opportunity you provoke. I suppose this is akin to some next level stealth technology but unfortunately it's locked in trial mode and you can't use it every round. Maybe Tank can get around to fixing that...

Cracked Fist (complete champion's holy strike, replaces ki strike[magic])
Hack your fist to deal +1d6 more damage to Good aligned targets and bypass those "Good" Agent Damage Reductions. To be honest Ki Strike(magic) is a joke since you'll just pick something up to magically enhance your Unarmed Strike anyway, might as well trade it out for an extra d6 when you can.

Wall Walker (dungeonscapes's wall walker, replaces slow fall)
I'm pretty sure the machines invented these stupid Gravity rules anyway, so break them and run on the walls doing cart wheels and flips. This also helps out a lot when triggers Feats like Battle Jump (double damage when charging) or Roof Jumper (+<10ft fell>d6 damage) for easy increases to damage. I suppose you could take Aquatic Monk to run on water but you already have enough Jesus parallels as is.

Backup & Restore (champions of valor's broken one, replaces still mind)
You gain Lay on Hands to help restore your default statsheet settings. Sure you probably tanked your Charisma but you can buy cheap items for it later and Still Mind isn't that great to begin with. Interestingly, this can be channeled through the Caduceus Bracers to self heal Fatigue/Exhaustion & Ability Damage and you can use this benefit on downed party members.

Purity of Body
OSHA does not approve of leaky nuclear powered death trap ships, but what's a hero to do when humanity has be beaten below New York's sewer system? Keep them off your case with a built in PPE that cures any disease like cancer. Because fuck cancer.

Shadow Blend (champions of ruin's web enhancement's dark moon disciple, replaces wholeness of body)
Tank upgraded your Antivirus, so it now attempts to firewall bulletstotheface. This protection is endless and allows you to sneak off to another, better, nightclub while the Merovingian is monologuing to have a good time.

Seriously through. True Sight and See Invisibility cannot overcome this ability. As long is you are not in direct sunlight, such as under a forest canopy, at an inn, dungeon delving, on the elemental plane of water, and so on, you gain Total-Concealment. Just like the SRD's Shadow Mastiff. So unless a monster has Blindsight (and excluding TDs they can be counted on one hand) you are super-invisible to them. Same +2 to attack, no Dex-to-AC, they cannot use immediate actions, can't be targeted by anything, 50% Miss if they even know what square you're in etc is now perpetual.

And it technically has an often forgotten about over abuse option. Unless a creature has Blindsense, Scent, epic Listen Checks, Tremorsense and the like once you move a creature has no idea where you are. They don't actually attack you, they attack the square they think you are in much like the Battleship game. So if you Full-Attack and have the option of a 5ft Step your opponent has a one-in-eight shot of targeting the right square and he only gets feedback for a successful hit if he A) targets the right square & B) Beats the 50% miss chance. That's roughly a 5% chance of finding your target, through 3D dimensional combat from flight/swimming and the option of moving up to 10ft using the training dummy can exponentially reduce the odds of you being hit.

Wireless Connection, aka Blink (exemplars of evil's invisible fist, replaces [improved] evasion)
And now you have an Immediate Action Blink, it has duration/cooldown but with a Wisdom score of 16 it has perpetual usage as long as you continue to expend your Immediate Action.

Blink makes you Incorporeal giving you a loose set of rules to dodge none-force effects and run through walls. So you don't have to give away your position to open a door, you can simply walk through it. Or the ceiling, it doesn't really matter. And that 20% chance to dodge a Spell also works against Area Spells that offer no save such as Word of Chaos or Iceberg. And in sticking to the theme here, since apparently being able to perform a dial up connection with your brain is a thing in the 3rd movie. I guess in this case your skull wrapped glucose battery can't pump enough watts to maintain a solid connection causing pathfinding to freak out over the desynchronized movement updates.

Reverse Agent Infection, aka Diamond Body
Immunity to poison, so call Tank to get you poison, lots of poison. And then just bath in it, sure you'll stink to high hell but machines are not even sure if smell exists and PCs never pay attention to it either.

Abundant Step (and the rest)
Oh god these things are still going on aren't they? Stop with the Class Abilities, Neo died two movies ago!

***

Abusing the Matrix Monk

1. There is no Medium.
Weapon Sizes are based on their intended wielder with no inherent cap on increase or imagination, so if you wanted a two-handed kama for a colossal+ force dragon you can. In the same vein effects increase a monk's damage without altering it's actual Size so there is no upper limitation to how far you can go. Greater Mighty Wallop is one such example instantly progressing your unarmed damage up to 12d8 (54 avg) damage per punch per the Rules Compendium. If your DM lets you stack Improved Natural Weapon or a Fanged Ring on top of that you'll hit 16d8 (72 avg) and you're starting to see how ridiculous this can get aren't you?

2. Shadow Blend & Blink
It's gamebreakingly insane. As previously mentioned Total-Concealment is an amazing condition to benefit from.
* Offensively you net a +2 Bonus to Attack Rolls and your opponent's are not just denied their Dex-to-AC, per the Hide Skill Update they are Flat-Footed against your attack. This means they cannot use Immediate Actions to counter you and you can easily apply even Sudden Strike damage.
* Defensively you cannot be directly targeted by anything such as Hold Monster, Fleshshiver, Grim Revenge, and so on. Anything with an Attack Roll has to accurately target which Square you are in and is still subject to a 50% Miss Chance.
* Area Spells can still hit you and you traded away Evasion. I'd pick up the Ring to reobtain it when you could but this is also where Blink comes in. You have a 20% chance to ignore any none-force effect, this includes Black Tentacles, Holy Word, Iceberg, & Gygax's Sphere of Destruction in a Snake's Mouth (cough spoiler alert).
* Blink also allows you to run through walls, doors, and... the air you're not breathing. Now just think your character is stepping on when he walks through a wall.
Like a ghost your limitations of movement are far and few and no one can see you anyway.

3. Mantis Leap

Prerequisite: Jump 5 ranks, Monk level 7
Benefit: Designate an opponent who is within the maximum distance you can reach with a successful Jump check. Make a normal Jump check; if your check is successful, you can make a normal charge attack against the opponent you designated as part of the same action. If your charge attack is successful, you inflict normal damage, plus your Strength modifier multiplied by 2.

Action: None. A Jump check is included in your movement, so it is part of a move action. If you run out of movement mid-jump, your next action (either on this turn or, if necessary, on your next turn) must be a move action to complete the jump.

So you've got no-action charging done part of a Move-Action. If you can't think how a Jump Check equals Charge can break the game then you're not trying.

4. Enhancements.
Monk is mostly unique in that any Spell or effect that improves a Manufactured or Natural Weapon improves his Unarmed Strike. You can synonymously benefit from Magic Fang or Magic Weapon. And some times oddities come out of this like Ghost Touch makes your Unarmed Strike but not you, your gear, or anything else count as being Incorporeal.

Unarmed Strike it's self can be Enhanced by a number of means and combined for abuse. For instance a +5 Necklace of Natural Weapons, and a +1 Holy Bracers of Striking, means your Unarmed Strike has both a +5 Enhancement Bonus & Holy, a +7 equivalent value which costs anyone else 98,000 gold, but because you've split it up between two items it only costs the Monk 68,000 gold, you saved thirty thousand gold pieces just by moving Holy off to your Bracers. And You can enhance your Gauntlet, Ward Cestus, Scorpion's Kama and if you're Warforged even a Battlefist to do much of the same. Even Epic Rules don't allow you to have an effective +40 Enhanced weapon, but the Monk does this off a 15th level or lower budget.

Using The Matrix Monk
You have the highest none-charge damage in the game that doesn't use a blasting Spell or a hurled Plutonium Ball, amazing defenses, and nearly unbeatable stealth but the problem is you're Keanu Reeves. In short, you are better than anyone incapable of hacking reality, like Fighters & Barbarians, and a great guy behind the scenes but the Internet hates you. So you need to keep things short and brief so people focus on your better moves.

Passive Way Monk 7 / Lion Totem Whirling Frenzy Barbarian 1 / Factotum 3 / ...
God of Trippers, free Improved Trip, Dex-to-Trip Checks, unique Monk-Only +4 Bonus, you can even Rage for Strength increases. Thanks to Monk you also qualify for Lightning Fists and Dragon's Broken Fist Mastery I & II for even more Trip attempts and bonuses.

Monk 9 / Swordsage 2 / ...
A basic unfocused Monk. Combines the three most powerful traits of a Monk and picks up up to 8th level Swordsage Maneuvers. Not to shabby for trading in 9th level Maneuvers.

Monk 2 / Psion 18 (or any manifester PrC)
You can take Monastic Training as a Monk Bonus Feat then use Tashalatora to advance your Unarmed Strike as a Psion. This really isn't a Monk so to speak but the next time someone throws Unarmed Swordsage at you remember to mention that that having 9th level Powers and being a Spell-to-Power Erudite is superior to their stupid suggestion but you are uninterested in both.

Monk 9 / Warlock 1 / Hellfire Warlock 3 / Uncanny Trickster(hellfire warlock) 3 / Legacy Champion(uncanny trickster) 4
Dragon #358:87 has a Feat called Eldritch Claws which gives you two Claws that deal your Eldritch Blase & Unarmed Strike Damage. And then Dragon #355:76 adds your Claw damage to every Unarmed Attack. Essentially you deal your Unarmed damage twice, Blast once, and +8d6 Hellfire per hit. Use the officially suggested variant of the Trickster (see adaption after the class features) to obtain lots of bonus Feats as well.

Passive Way Monk 7 / Shiba Protecter 1 / Fist of the Forest 3 / Paladin 2 / Swordsage 2 / ... Using Dragon Magazine
You'll hear the word "MAD" be tossed around a lot. Foolish people are quick to use it as a rebuttal but thanks to Point Buy, Item Prices, and such PrCs as the above well rounded attributed characters are significantly more powerful than their "SAD" counterparts, which is why they are so sad right? Anyway, Wisdom to AC, to Attack, to Damage, & to Saves via Dragon's Serenity Feat. Also Con to AC so really help make you attack immune. Plus you can get ticked off and grow long fingernails. Just like Meg! Wait... That's not cool man.

[SorO_Lost]

Hello again and welcome to the trilogy. Sticking to the trope it's time to go back to before the beginning to add backstory and pretend character depth. Today's topic goes back to an optimized classic the Artificer.

Preamble
I know what you're thinking. The Artificer is Tier 0, best of the best, omfg powerful, it's like a Wizard but stronger! How did this end up joining the ranks of the Arcane Duelist or the Monk? Well the Artificer is a heavily penalize PC that just doesn't compare to other Classes. while the Monk embodies the rewards of research, the Artificer is the exact opposite. In truth, I think the Class was initally designed for NPCs. Eberron it's self needed a Crafting oriented Class as part of it's Steampunk flavor and it must have half way through campaign design this background information of a Class was bumped to being PC material and given Infusions to expand on Player Options.

Some stuff to remember is that you're supposed to have and buy any Magic Item you want. Crafting has no inherent rewards nor is access to it in some way unique any Spellcasting Class can craft Magical Items and it's possible to do so for free (hello sacrifice).  Also there is this thing called Wealth-By-Level and it has a dual edge to it, on one hand it disallows something like a 5th level Character having 500,000gp in gear because they would be too powerful. And on the other WBL is a PC empowerment, 3rd Edition (Like 4th and every MMO ever) expects you to have the gear you want. Not just gear, the gear you want. What I'm trying to get across here is, "crafting" is not something to base a Class on and don't be fooled into thinking the Artificer does it better than full spellcasters.

(back on topic)

The low, low, low, way lowdown.

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Basic Features: Average BAB, d6 HD, one good Save, 4 Skill Points per Level.
The Artificer as you will soon learn is all about one step forward and two steps back. Every positive element it has is internally penalized in some fashion. The first of which is seen here, you are dependent on Use Magic Device1, Trapfinding is based off Search2 & Disable3, to make full usage of your crafting theme you need several Crafting Skills, Arms4 & Armor5 both for starters, plus Alchemy6 if you want to make potions and such, plus Bow-making7 if you want to make ranged weapons. With the long casting times on several Infusions the Skill Concentration8 is extremely useful. Knowledge(arcane9 & religion10) & Spellcraft11 go a long way into validating research for crafting new items as well. And... you get 4 base Skill Points per level.

Infusions
An Artificer is not a Spellcaster and Infusions are not Spells. Exceptions allow him to craft Potions, Magic Items, and qualify for +1 Existing Spellcasting PrCs using his pretend "caster level" with Infusions per the Magic of Eberron. By intent, you can consider this should extend to Feats otherwise he cannot qualify for Attune Weapon (one of his bonus feats).

Since the Artificer does not have Spells (or technically a cl). He cannot benefit from Spell Focus or Reserves of Strength, he can create a Ring of Spell Storing (not to be confused with his Infusion) but not cast a Spell in it. He'll never use Greenbound Summoning and cannot expand his "Spells" Known, he can only control 0*4 HD worth of Undead at any given time, and he'll never take levels in Mindbender for Mindsight. This also works in reverse too, no Infusion can be loaded into a Runestaff, your Spell Storing Power cannot be used to hold Infusions, and so on. Many of the Spellcasting tricks you take for granted are simply incompatible with the Artificer.

And there is more bad news. Infusions must be cast into Sunder/Disarm-able items (pro tip, armor is neither). Casting time trends towards full-round or more unless you spend Action Points and the durations are at best 10min/lvl preventing you from reliably "prebuffing". You'd have to cast the same Infusion four to eight times a day to full benefit from it. List wise, 90% of your Infusions offer boring numerical bonuses. You have no real crowd control, no charm/dominate effects, no ability to alter your form, no debuffs, no Save-or-Sucks, no Save-or-Dies, and no auto win buttons. You have stuff that wishes they were like Wall of Fire/Ice/Iron or Surpress Dragonmark but they are largely limited and don't fulfill those roles well enough.

It doesn't mean Infusions are totally worthless, but rather you'll only optimize the usage of three of them and they are so gamebreakingly powerful they pull the Artificer's weight. More on this later.

Artificer's Knowledge
The Artificer gains the ability to detect of an object has magical properties or not. You don't identify the School, the strength of the aura, or anything of such. Only if the item is magical. A Kender can do 100% better than this Class Feature and ten times faster, it's called Activate Blindly

Just buy Permanent Arcane Sight for Action Free magical detection that works on creatures as well as items or the Artificer's Monocle. It's located in the MiC and allows the Artificer (or anyone with a UMD check) to cast Identify on an item which tells you everything about it.

Artisan Bonus
You gain a +2 bonus to UMD Checks!
Ha, just kidding. You gain a +2 to UMD checks to use items, if you have the associated Crafting Feat so really an actual +2 to Charisma-based Spell Checks is better. It doesn't even help your Spell Storing Infusion, really who wrote this Class and why so much hate?

Disable Trap
Hey something useful!

Item Creation & Bonus Crafting Feats
Flavorful but mechanically worthless without houserules and homebrew and technically crotch punching.

Also the example, like many others, is wrong. The first is Magic Overview states you cannot cast a Spell lower than it's minimum CL. So unless otherwise specifically noted it's impossible for a Spell Completion item to cast a 3rd level Fireball with a CL of 3. Oh and it gets worse, if the item duplicates a Spell Effect (aka 90% of printed items) you don't get the +2 bonus in the first place. And your effective CL is based on your Artificer Level not your "caster level" meaning caster-progression PrCs don't even interact with it. And for the kick them while their down part, you must use the Artificer's pseudo CL rather than an item's Minimum CL meaning at higher levels an Artificer simply cannot craft a CL1 Wand of Lesser Vigor for example, he pays more gold per HP healer than any other craft-possible Class.

Do you dislike the Authors/Editors as much as me yet? This whole entry is total rubbish.

Craft Reserve
This does not help pay for your Infusion's XP costs which is a terrible terrible shame. And ignore those XP is a river fallacies, crafting gives you nothing the MiC already doesn't say you should already have but you'll pay for this zero benefit by running a level behind all the time. No one likes LA and let me ask you this. If you had to choose between casting 3rd level Spells or a new shiny wand of Scorching Ray, what would you choose? If it's the latter, like you should, then once this reserve is empty you're done crafting. Period.

Craft Alabaster
Finally, you first real unique bonus. You can craft you own Homunculus which compared to a real caster's Familiars has it's positives and negatives. The Familiar and such has a flat rate 100gp/1day in expenses and upgrades for free, but PrCs typically don't advance it. The Homunculus on the other hand costs Gold/XP/several_days to Summon/Upgrade but if you multiclass you can still continue it's gold-sucking-progression. It's nice if Artificer's were allowed to multiclass like everyone else, but ultimately it comes off like another throwing-gold-at-Encounters ability.

Now the main one to note is the Alabaster which is my favorite. Because if you wanted a little pack mate or someone to carry your stuff you'd hire Nordek right? It's a little animated Crossbow that can sit on your shoulder and shoot people without any Action on your part. You can Enhance it like a Weapon and it's also of course a Construct Creature so you can buff it with creature-targeting Spells too. So like a Monk it has the best of both worlds like getting someone else to cast both Heroics and Magic Weapon on it.

Metamagic Spell Trigger
The ultimate throw-gold-at-encounters ability obtained at the errata-corrected 7th level. Now you can burn an entire Wand in combat pretending to be useful, assuming you spent Feats on powering this ability.

It's not really unique, since Empower and such don't actually require Spellcasting even a Commoner with gold can buy a Metamagic Wand Grip and pretend. Real Spellcasters can also pick up the Metamagic Spell Trigger Feat. However, blowing more charges isn't the way to optimize Wands, it's highly inefficient. For instance a Twinned & Admixtured Scorching Ray deals 168 damage on average but consumes 9 charges off the Wand, had you expended them normally you would have dealt 378 damage. Additional Standard Actions are the real way to go so you should look into the Factotum if you want to use Wands.

Item Alteration
Finally, a huge payoff. And it's not even a Class Feature, but simply an Infusion.

***

Abusing this NPC Class

1. Item Alteration
The one and only claim an Artificer has is his Item Alteration Infusion. This allows him to swap the typeof bonus to another. For instance you could purchase the additions of three +6 Enhancement Bonuses to Intelligence into any magic item via the Magic Item Compendium then use Item Alteration to change their bonuses around thereby giving you +18 Int. And this works for so much more than just Ability Score bonuses. Change your Bracers of Armor to an Enhancement Bonus rather than Armor Bonus for a direct Enhancement Bonus to AC that stacks with your enchanted armor, change your Vest of Resistance +5 to an Insight Bonus and don a Cloak of Resistance, you name it. It's awesome. And best of all, it's only 1 Round for casting time. You can kick this thing out within a single turn.

2. Enhance Item
Let's face it, if you're doomed to be an NPC tossing gold at encounters you might as well be good at it. Enhance Item is buried deep in the Epic Level Handbook in a sidebar, it's a none-epic Feat that allows your Ability Bonus at the time of creation to be used instead of the typical minimum. This is a "for free" upgrade because as you would expect it makes no notation of cost increases to the item. Literally meaning if you claimed (for beginning of games) or sought out (for continued games) a crafter with this Feat you'd empower your gear without WBL rearing it's ugly head.

Notably examples would include stuff like Weapon Properties, like Stunning Surge can single handedly win Encounters for you, but what if you tanked your Charisma? Stunning is a DC 17 which stems from a 5th level Spell and the +2 Ability Bonus for the 15 minimum required. If you purchased this from a 20th level 34 Int Artificer the Save DC would be 27. +10 to the Save DC, for free. And DC 27 is holycrappowerful when you can only afford +2 Weapons. You can use this to improve the Save DC of any published Magical Item ever, awesome.

3. Wand Bonding and also Unfettering Heroism and Wand Surge
Wand optimization for an Artificer. Wand Surge burns an Action Point to reduce a charge spent off a Spell-Trigger Item (a wand for instance). Unfettering Heroism gives you a free Action Point each round. Awesome! Wand Bonding is an amazing gem buried in a sidebar in City of Stormreach, it improves a Wand's CL by +1 per five caster levels while it's in your hand and gives you the option of expending Spells or Infusions so by intent of the Feat it's self an Artificer can pick it up no matter which side of the CL argument you're on. Downsides? Must be Warforged (means no halfing) and it's kind of a Sorcerer thing since they can trade their Familiar for it.

4. Metamagic Item
This ultimately wins out over Spell Storing Item since the latter demands XP and it's lack of PrC support. This Infusion again takes a Full-Round to cast but in turn it applies any one Metamagic Feat to an Spell Trigger Item for free. This puts the possibility of Persisting Spells within the Artificer's Hands even through he is utterly dependent on buy/crafting Wands for the desired Spell. But because we're talking a Wand here, you can pass this Persist-powered buff around to the entire party. It means rather than just you, the entire party can chip in on say a Wand of Divine Power and in turn everyone benefits from it for the next several days.

...And then you use Item Alteration to retype their +6 Belts of Strength to Luck so it stacks with the Spell.
Item Alteration pwns.

Using this NPC Class
As previously noted, this Class has a lot of limitations. Pursuit in this career path takes dedication and the willingness to give up promises of shiny new toys now for problem solving with old toys today. Power plays will be your three most powerful Infusions and finding ways to keep that Artificer progression up or finding alternatives.

Artificer 5 / Uncanny Trickster(artificer) 3 / Legacy Champion 2(uncanny trickster) / Any none-caster 10
Uncanny Trickster and Legacy Champion are intended to provide additional virtual levels to your selected Class, it stands to reason Spells and such that check for levels in a set Class would also factor in those progressions. This allows you to advance the Spell Storing Infusion up to it's 4th level cap and then deliberately hedge your Artificer caster level increases to minimize it's cost. The Spell Storing Infusion is extremely valuable because it allows you to effectively prepare a Spell on the fly like a Wizard but it has a lot of downsides. Kind of like the Artificer's Class Features when you think about it. But as you get closer to the higher levels you'll all but ignore them and you'll effectively have dozens of 4th level Spells at your command. Oh, and you'll pick up three freebie Skill Tricks too.

Alchemical Savant + Master Alchemist
In the words of Arz you can craft 9th level Infusion Potions. Which is pretty impressive seeing how there isn't such a thing as 7th level or higher Infusions. And even as I repost this thing I still want to keep this in for what I'm going to claim is a fairly obvious reason seeing how this entire post is about facts being lower than expectations.

Artificer 5 / Chameleon 10 / Any 4
Chameleon can access any Arcane & Divine Spell for limitless Scroll Access and by the 14th level your CL is 18! So it's just a matter of casting the exact Spell, which per DMG you can use other Spellcasters or Magic Items. Hello Planar Ally/Binding! Oh, and Artificer 5 let's you make a Wight or something and suck XPs out of still useful items.

[SorO_Lost]

Hello and welcome to number four where I talk twice as much number two as normal. Today's subject is Completely Divine, or comes out of Complete Divine. One of the two. It's an accelerated Spellcasting PrC people often forget about.

Preamble
Divine Crusader is a nice PrC honestly. Very well balanced and if you read the very first post this is one such stigmata I was talking about, the auto-assumption that mundanes don't get nice things even through they do. By arbitrarily limiting mundanes to no-spells to perpetuate a worthless debate and fearmongerling high levels of play things like this PrC simply pass unnoticed.

One of the things I like about this is the limitation to one Domain. Heroes and such in comics, novels, shows and films don't "do it all" and instead of a limited repertoire of super powers. Hulk has strength and protection, Wolverine has claws and regeneration, Naruto has Shadow Clones and Rasengas, Jace the Planeswalker is limited to mind control and illusions. Chuck has downloaded government secrets for skill boosts. What can break the game is being able to rewrite reality and acquire information with no effort and this is a pain to narrate around and is the chief reasons people avoid high levels. A Divine Crusader on the other hand gains exactly 9 different Spells by ECL17 and these 9 "talents" or "powers" all share a set theme. Like Iceman a DC can create snow, cool people off, create ice, and even in full swing he can cause nearby blizzards. But without expanding his list, "Iceman" isn't summoning the angels from the book of Revelation one round and reversing gravity the next.

(back on topic)

Here is the lineup of your superhero resistances.

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Base Features: Good BAB, d8 HD, two good Saves, 2 Skill Points per level.
Pretty mediocre., nothing supergreat but nothing terrible either.

Aura
Standard par for the course as a Cleric-wannabe honestly.

Deity and Domain & Spells Per Day
Freebie Spells. 9th level Access by ECL 16 and Charisma based (paladin synergy!), awesome!

Resistance to Electricity/Resistance to Acid/Darkvision
Fits in theme with Angel Traits, 5/10 isn't a lot. I honestly suggest stacking another PrC on top of this.

Weapon Specialization
+2 to damage with your Deity's Favored Weapon, the great aspect of this is you gain the actual Weapon Specialization Feat. Entry required Weapon Focus, so you can take Melee Weapon Mastery for a further +2 to Attack & Damage. Honestly, that's pretty good for Attack/Damage Bonuses as far as Feats go. But that's a two Feat investment on top of a five Level investment into DC. It's not really worth it unless your DM limits books/builds.

Perfect Self
You become an Outsider and gain DR 10/Magic. As part of becoming an Outsider, you gain proficiency Martial Weapons & (probably) Shields which you probably already had. Meh unless you know some good Template abuse that could use an Outsider reset button.

***

Abusing the Superhero

1. Additional Domains
Contemplative (CD) grants an additional Domain, Ordained Champion (CC) grants the War Domain if you lacked it and is a prime perfect pick, Sovereign Speaker (EB:FoE) loses caster levels (not a big deal mr accelerated caster) but grants an additional Domain out of the Sovereign Host for each level taken. However, you cannot choose two Domains offered by the same Deity. Example concludes you cannot choose Strength, War, and Good all because Dol Dorn offers all three. So as you get up there in levels in this PrC you'll become intimately familiar with the Sovereign Host. Lastly, Domain Staffs (MiC) can substitute Divine Spell Slots for any Spell within the Staff.

2. Prestigious Classes
Your Class Features suck, so what? The Cleric gains nothing too. You have no reason not to PrC out for better Class Features. AS noted, you can obtain 9th level Spells by ECL 16 using this Class so you've even got some ley way if you want to choose PrCs that are not quite full-progression, of course until ECL 15 you're behind everyone else, but you don't play a DC to be a pure caster, you play an DC to be a seven level long competent combatant that picks up spellcasting.

3. Ordained Champion
I gotta be honest this bears a second and specific mention. Full-BAB 7 / ED 1 / Ordained Champion 5 / Anything +7. You pick up Turn-Undead & Spells (and more spells!) to Smite Creature, freebie access and Quickened War Domain. It's not "versatile game breaking spellcaster" expanding, rather I'm a meleer with special abilities and I can use magic to augment punching you in the face.

Using Superhero
Obliviously this is a more of a late game PrC so you'll need to define your background and be able to rely on it during low levels of play. Think of it as Lelouch vi Britannia was a brilliant leader and tactician prior to being able to dominate minds, Spawn was a highly skilled marksmen before getting his necrosuit, Captain America is just a reoided up jock with a moral compass and military training. These guys were heros before they were superheros (or anti- like the punisher/spawn). You'll be a Superhero that isn't defined entirely based on his super-powers.

Crusader 5 / Solder of Light 2 / Divine Crusader 1 / Ruby Knight Vindicator 10 / Contemplative 1 / Warblade 1
Cha to Saves, Crusader healing while attacking, full on RKV progression for stealth and Devoted Maneuvers, an additional Domain and Warblade polishes things off with 5th level Iron Heart & Tiger's Claw boosts.

Bard 4 / Crusader 4 / Divine Crusader 1 / Sublime Chord 1 / Mystic Theurge 9
Requires Mother Cyst so Sublime Chord has a 2nd level Spell to cast for Mystic Theurge. Overall, Dragonfire Crewsader with a late bloom of full Arcane/Divine access. Primarily meant to play catch up if everyone else is playing full casters.

Monk 9 / Divine Crusader 1 / Ordained Champion 5 / Contemplative 1 / Anything 4
An interesting downplay of things full of potential abuse. Perpetual Full-Concealment & Blink and enormous Unarmed Damage with +1d6 vs Evil (see matrix monk). Coupled with the ability to burn Spells for bonuses to Bonuses to damage, channel Spells/Turns for empowered attacks, you even apply Quickened to Divine Power for Free.

[SorO_Lost]

Welcome to the 5th post in this series. Here if I have not provoked you to troll my discussion thread I burn your bridges. That's right, I'm using this post as my own FAQ!

Preamble
First thing you need to understand is English 101. Language is an act of encoding expressions and decoding messages. I have a thought, idea, or experience I want to share and in turn I must pick and choose which words I feel can explain and express this. You in turn must take those words you have heard and/or read and change them back into thoughts, ideas and experiences. In typical communication this runs near flawless, occasionally someone may ask for clarification or their eyes will widen and they will say oh as the concept dawns on them.

Like the joke about about two drunks walk into a bar and the third one ducks. The joke's set up is "two drunks walk into a bar" is a lead into a joke about two drunks in a bar or tavern and they are about to do something stupid. The third one ducks tells the speaker has told you they have ran into a physical piece of metal impeding their way. It's unexpected and the human brain responds, possibly, thinking it's funny.

When arguing rules you often run into the problem of what does the passage mean vs what do you pretend it says. The writer encoded things the best they could but they are not around for further clarification, instead you have to work with what you have, can find, and how do similar cases work. This is where the false pretense "RAW" (rules are written) comes in, where you deliberately ignore the message and how English works to insert your syphilis coated penis into things rather than admit you misinterpreted things.

Anyway, I just feel I can never say that enough.

(back on topic)

Here are some common things I've seen and a quick rebuttal to them for you to use.

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Format
Q: Question.
A: Answer worded by me. ~Citation location or logical reasoning.

Q: Does Genesis let me create infinite time planes!?
A: No, unless otherwise noted in a description, every plane in the D&D cosmology has the normal time trait. ~DMG 148.

Q: Does Precarious Apprentice gives me the ability to cast 2nd level Spells?
A: No, PA contains a cause stating that when you gain the ability to cast 2nd level spells it does something else, logically the Feat does not to this. Also the FAQ targeted chance of != the ability. ~FAQ.

Q: Are Kobolds are True Dragons?
A: No, a True Dragon's LA varies by age and lessers, no matter how many mock virtual age categories they have, don't. ~Draconomicon 142~144.

Q: Is Spellcasting an Extraordinary Trait? MMI says all Special Qualities must be Ex, Sp, or Su and monster entries list Spells without type casting it and the PHB says all natural abilities are unmarked.
A: No, the RC updated the natural ability entry and it does not include unmarked abilities. The DMGII also updated monster entries and class granted spellcasting is not listed as a special ability. As a suggested alternative Shapechange into a creature with Arcane Talent which is marked Ex.

Q: Does a Monk 1 / Swordsage 2 adds his Wisdom Modifier to his AC twice?
A: They are not Bonuses to AC, they are allowances to add your Wisdom to AC. Two 'true' statements can only equal 'true'. Also just plain no. ~FAQ.

Q: Does Profession(any) let me exceed WBL?
A: No, WBL is a DM manged limitation to prevent low level character from obtaining powerful high level items and a DM managed empowerment to ensure higher level characters have high level items to survive. The item creation feats exist for two reasons. To explain how magic items come to exist in the world; and to allow PCs to create items they need but aren¹t able to find or purchase.[/i] ~DMG & Ask Wizards 03/03/2007.

Q: Can you use a weapon larger than Colossal?
A: Yes, a weapon's Sized is based on "for the intended wielder". By changing the size to another valid "hand size" (light, one-handed, two-handed) and applying a stacking -2 penalty to attack rolls you can wield weapons sized for other creatures. No maximum limitation is noted through a minimal size requirement of it must deal 1 damage is. This means a colossal creature can wield a colossal++ nunchuck as a two-handed weapon with a -4 penalty on attack rolls. ~PHB 113.

Q: Can a Wizard Spontaneously Cast Spells?
A: No, they obtain the ability to prepare specific Slots for dynamic Spell choices1 or the ability to sacrifice prepared Spells to cast another2. The RC says these "spontaneous" cast Spells are still the same as their normal Spellcasting and the Spontaneous entry states a Spontaneous Spell is not one that requires any form of Preparation. Prepared Spellcasters also do not consume Spell Slots or directly cast Spells using them3. ~RC 139, Examples; 1. Alacritous Cogitation, Uncanny Forethought. 2. Spontaneous Divination, Amulet of Spell Conversion. 3. Chaotic Spell Recall, Mage's Lubrication, Pearls of Power, etc..

Q: Can I use a Counter against an Invisible Attacker?
No. You cannot use Immediate Actions while Flat-Footed and you are considered Flat-Footed against hidden attackers ~RC 92

More coming as I'm reminded of them.

Other ways to tell people to drop it and move on

1. The FAQ
Ahh the good ole FAQ. 90% of the articles in here stem from people arguing on the forums leading to people sending a crap ton of messages to Ask Wizards. In an effort to reduce the number of complaints filling their inbox with stupid questions they printed and continued to update the FAQ so paid staff can get around to doing something productive.

As such, most of the topics in here are kill joys to certain cretins and because they have nothing better to do, they will refute anything that proves them wrong. Be it you, the source book, the FAQ, WotC, and Jesus descending form the sky. No matter their comments through, the FAQ is part of the Game Rules.

2. Supplements
D&D primarily updates it's rules using additional supplements. Such as the Miniature Handbook adding Swift & Immediate Actions and reconning Quicken Spell to be Swift Action based ir the fact virtually every single supplement after that also printed such. Tome of Battle and Libris Mortis both contain updates on the Incorporeal Subtype. Complete Warrior updated PrC rules, Complete ARcane further defined Spellcaster-related Feat/PrC Requirements, Heroes of Horror updated Oriental Adventure's Tainted rules. Complete Mage and such updated Polymorph. Dungeon Master's Guide II updated Monster Entries. The Magic Item Compendium updated all kinds of Magic Item related rules and specific items. The granddaddy of them all is the Rules Compendium which consolidated 99.1% of the rule updates into one manual and further added it's own. Always check for rules updates out of the RC at the bare minimum prior to initiating anything.

3. Inherited Rules
Often one such rule, area, or thing, is based on another set of governing rules. Like the Bard's Spellcasting entry states all Bard Spells have Verbal Components, this means even through Mislead it's self lacks a Verbal Component, the Bard will still need to sing as that is part of his means to cast the Spell. Other examples can include things like Strike of Righteous Vitality not working in an Antimagic Field as it is treated as if it were cast by a Cleric which means anything that prohibits Spells applies or not Feat can be taken twice or stack with it's self unless noted otherwise per PHB 87. Spells have a minimum caster level and Energy Drain can prevent Spell access PHB 171.

4. Errata
I bet you expected this to somehow have a lower number didn't you? Nope, the Errata's primary function is correcting printing errors, not updating or clarifying rules. Checking the Errata is still a good thing to do, sometimes a Spell slips past with a forgotten "; See text" or the example text baffles the crap out of everyone reading it. And sometimes, things are based on the misprint rather than what is supposed to be stamped on the page.

Using this FAQ
You know, I'm sure some ass out there will remind you I'm just a forum poster and the official rules trump everything I say.
And that guy is me.
Learn to read the manual, because if I gave you all the fish, you'd never learn how to chug beer (or something like that).

[SorO_Lost]

Hello and welcome to the 6th post in this series. Here were invoke the devil's name for wonderful prizes, now spin the wheel!

Preamble
Unless the other posts which focus on Classes we're focusing on character options available to everyone. Simply being powerful is not enough, it needs to invoke a knee jerk reaction upon being seen, a groan around the table when you mention it's name, and even Min/Max's Optimizers avoid it because seriously it's just that damn cheap.

This post also uses a different color scheme for it's text. Since everything is amazingly good there just is no point in using blue & red to rate things. Instead I've put the Evil related stuff in dark red and may use other colors a well later on.

(back on topic)

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TODO: Tainted Sorcerer, Incantatrix, Spelldancer.

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Initiate of Mystra (FR:PGtF)
With a successful Caster Level Check vs DC 20+Spell_Level your Spell can ignore Anti-Magic and Dead Magic effects & areas. Just buff up using this and then Persist Antimagic Field and watch a Wizard turn into a mundane Commoner while you're still CoDzilla Shapechanged into a Red Dragon smacking them with Flame Strike or w/e.

Undead Battery (DL:AoM)
As you see with Classes, free Metamagic is powerful and Undead Battery allows you to suck HD out of Undead, useful for killing annoying Liches and Zombies on it's own, to pay for Metamagic costs. Best looped with any free method of generating Undead like the Pale Master Class or the Nightcaller Item but you can get creative with Twinned Summon Undead loops.

Disturbing Spell (Dragon 332, pg44)
Not to be outdone, Dragon's take is 1 point of Wisdom damage per spell level adjustment. Try getting a Wand of Lesser Restoration or something.

Greenbound Summoning (FR:LEoF)
Even the word of god has come down claiming this Feat should have been printed as a +2 Metamagic so you know it has to be worth more than it's cost. All Animals summoned using Summon Nature's Ally can gain the Greenbound Template with this which changes their Type to Plant giving them d8s for HD, extra +6 Str & +4 Con/Cha, DR 10/magic & slashing, Fast Healing 3, Resistance to Cold/Electricity 10, +4 to Grapple Checks, Tremorsense 60ft, gets Entangle as an At-Will Spell-Like and Wall of Thorns 1/day. You can use this at level one to summon something capable of locking your targets in a wall that deals 25-Their_AC (dex/dodge don't count) damage and requires a Strength Check of 25 to even get that far. Oh, and yeah the summon is there to add Entangle too, and you know any ranged or area options it might have since several magical creatures can be summoned through Nature's Ally.

Enhance Item (ELH)
A 3.0 Feat buried in a side bar in the Epic Level Handbook that doesn't appear in the SRD. Any Magical Item crafted with this uses the crafter's ability score to calculate the Save DC rather than the minimum. No notation of how this affects cost, but if the DM rules free it's extremely powerful since even a CL1 1st level Wand goes from DC 11 to DC 25 (assuming 34 int/cha for creation).

Quicker than the Eye (song and silence)
While it's debatable on how you are supposed to update any Partial Actions not covered by the Conversion Guide the fact remains that this Feat states you use a Move Action to Bluff your opponent and one of the following options is to Attack them (and they lose their dex-to-ac). This makes this Feat one of the very few ways to convert a Move Action into a Standard Action. And it's Dex 19 Requirement can also be met depending on Racial choices at the first level giving you two attacks at your highest BAB fairly early on which is highly useful for archers who use Dexterity for attack rolls anyway. It effectively gives you a lesser version of the Factotum's entire reason for being mentioned in optimization threads eight levels early so if you're having problems thinking of how to abuse it just google that instead.

Skill Focus[speak language] (Core)
Skill Focus gives +3 to Skill Checks but Speak Language isn't a Skill Check. Wait for it... Now I broke your mind and that's why it's on the list.

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Lucid Dreaming (PlH)
This Skill allows you to interact with dreams. Your character goes to sleep at night and makes a DC 15 Skill Check to hop into anyone else's dream, kind of like Inception. But wait, it gets better. If, while in their dream, you successfully Grapple them and make a DC 25 Skill Check, you both move into the Dreamheart. Here, death is for realz. So how is this abusive you ask? You mean behind pulling the entire party in and the now minion free BBEG that *was* sitting behind an army for a little quick heart to heart. Your Spells and items are a copy of your currently sleeping self. It means you turn single use items into reusable once-per-encounter items, like a single Dust of Sneezing and Choking (below) through dream fighting lasts indefinitely.

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Planar Bubble (SpC)
This is a 7th level Spell that allows you to manifest planar traits inside a mobile 10ft area, fairly decent duration too (10min/cl). Seems innocent right? Hahahahahaha. Hell no. Dominate, Animate, Familiar/Companion, Rebuke, Bind, Play as, or even hire targets to use this on for a massive range of over powered benefits. For instance, both the Region of Dreams (default cosmology) and Dal Quor (eberron) have a 10:1 time ratio, or people within 10ft of the targeted creature get ten turns to everyone else's. And if you really want to go for broke. Crack open your Planar Handbook and look up The Temporal Energy Plane, it has a 29% chance to give you a 24:1 ratio depending on how insane your DM is. This effect also works in reverse. For example, by using Extraordinary Spell Aim you can carve out a 5ftx5ft hole in the effect then use the Outer Plane of Faerie for it's 1:7 ratio. Now anyone coming near you loses six turns per round to anyone standing either on your square or outside the area. And the peak, you Widen the debuff version and recast the buff version on creatures small enough to share your space like Animated Sporks. Anyone attempting to run into your fast time sphere must first pass through the slow time sphere which gives you a staggering two hundred and forty turns to their one. And you're not *limited* to increasing your actions tenfold. The Elemental Planes tend to give free Metamagics like Empower/Maximize to Subtyped Spells (sic Snowcasting anyone?) while others like Irian (eberron) under the correct circumstances are amazingly useful. This Spell single handedly depreciates the Planar Shepard Class, and that's hailed as one of the best Druid PrCs ever printed.

Ability Rip (FR:SK)
Clocking in and 7th level this hour long Spell lets you rip a Supernatural Ability form a conscious creature to permanently obtain it your self provided you give up one of your own Supernatural Abilities. Picture this, you took Assume Supernatural Ability(anything) and thus gain a Supernatural Ability to trade off every single time you use Polymorph. Then one day you're like you know what sounds great? Adding a Choker's Quickness Supernatural Ability to my favorite Polymorph form.

3.0 Mind Rape (BoVD) / 3.5 Programmed Amnesia (SpC)
Completely overwrite your target's memories permanently. Most people think friend or sex slave when they see this, but what about creating your own worshiper for divine ascension? A fanatic suicide bomber? Create the perfect assassin that can enter Magic Circles against Anything. You can delete memories too, such as the last 20 years of adventuring so the DM rules the Sorcerer is now a level 1 Commoner. Perfect nonlethal means to subdue the BBEG. Officially I don't think Mind Rape was replaced giving you a faster casting option but it's an Evil Spell while Programmed Amnesia isn't and offers several extra options but takes longer to cast and has a 500gp cost per casting. Either one works for this entry's purposes through.

Ice Assassin (FB)
Take a DNA sample and create a clone that has all the skills, abilities, and memories possessed by the original. Except it is under your absolute command you and wants to kill the original. How could you not abuse this? Forget Mind Rape for sex slaves, you can build your own harem that includes people like Cleopatra (she was mummified right?), Marilyn Monroe, & if those shroud people are right Jesus. Free wine! Or you know, D&D characters & deities, w/e.

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Abolth Mucus & Alchemical Sprayer (SS & A&E)
Abolth Mucus is a dirt cheap Alchemical Item (and not poison) that removes your ability to breath air on a failed DC 19 Save when ingested. Which means your targets die in minutes even with 100 Constitution, and this thing lasts for 3 hours for some reason (overkill?). The Alchemical Sprayer out of the Arms & Equipment Guide turns this highly potent food into a a cloud of doom affecting multiple targets in a single Standard Action and it's priced so low even 1st level characters can abuse it.

Crescent Knives (Dragon Mag #275)
How would you like to double the number of Attacks you have per round? Yeah, this does it and yeah, they printed it for the 3.0 rule set. It's Exotic & Light, 1d3 (20/x2) slashing, 1lb & 20gp, with the following text: "This weapon, which resembles a crescent-shaped blade affixed to a crossbar handle, allows its wielder to make two simultaneous attack rolls (using the same modifier) each time he attacks with it. Each attack is resolved separately." so go nuts.

Dust of Sneezing and Choking (Core)
3.5k gold is pretty expensive but never the less this is a Core Classic. On a successful Save you're opponents are Stunned for 5d4 rounds. A 10th level Party can kill a CR 23 Solar with this thing. It's pretty nasty.

Manyfanged Dagger (FR:SK)
All attacks with this dagger deal four times your normal damage, do I really need to try and sell this to you? Heck, this Unique Weapon's ability costs 30k, so imagine buying a +1 Morphing Manyfanged Dagger for less than 40k and turning it into a Crescent Knife.

Mirror of Opposition (Core)
There is a D&D forum out there that just can't shut up about Ice Assassin even through it takes a statue (unknown craft DC), biological material of your target (many bodyparts are expensive material components putting them out of eschew material's range), a 20,000gp gem, and 5,000 experience points per duplicate which is damn near impossible to heal and once it's a mile away from you it's duplicated hatred of you can make you the target of it's Ice Assassin Spell. Plus it's technically naked and without any Magical Items which we know is a huge source of power (try a wizard without any gear) and finally it takes 8 hours to cast the spell meaning it's only a Spell for preparation rather than combat.

But you can solve all of these problems by using this Magical Item found on the SRD and in your Dungeon Master's Guide. As a Standard Action you can activate it and carry it around, on your opponent's no-Action passive Spot Check a clone of them bursts forth and immediately gets a turn. Strangely, since D&D handles Immediate effects before their Trigger and allows you to invalidate the Trigger it results in this rules oddity of the duplicate potentially taking it's turn before your opponent even sees you. How's that for winning initiative? The duplicate has no limitations on self healing and purely exists to destroy the original, it even comes with a copy of your target's Magical Items and other possessions. Plus it can be used up to four times per day, potentially creating four copies in the middle of combat over the span of twenty four seconds without costing you 80,000gp & 20,000xp.

Starmantle Cloak & Negating Armor (BoED & ElH)
Starmantle Cloak is one of those wtf things from the Book of Exalted Deeds, it makes you immune to none-magical weapon attacks and even allows you a DC 15 Reflax Save to halve the damage on all magical weapon attacks. Negating Armor is a +5 enhancement, thus none-Epic, out of the ELH that attempt to Dispel weapons that strike you, effectively rendering you immune to weapon attacks on top of destroying your opponent's primary weapon. A Ring of Evasion doesn't, and really shouldn't, stack in there but some still persist the idea even through there is no need to given the number of ways to become immune to damage anyway.

Sickstone in a bullseye lantern
Not to be mistaken with the Sickstone entry in the Online Far Corner's articles which is decently balanced. The printed months later Underdark entry is DC 15, deals 1d6, and makes you Save every single round. More importantly, even on a successful Save you still take a point of Con Damage. Since it's illumination based, strap it into a Bullseye Lantern for a Yeek-like flashlight. Is 1 Con damage per round as broken as everything else on this list? Would it help if I said it costs less than 300gp and you can tape it to your chest so you can still Full-Attack thy foes?

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Faustian Pact: Pact Insidious (FCII)
You call in a Devil and sell your soul to them in exchange for some points. The direct pact awards 7 points to you which can be traded in for various rewards, it also kicks your Alignment into the Evil section immediately. Pact Insidious on the other hand can award up to 9 points and does not have immediate effects on your Alignment, to a point where you can remain Good-Aligned just fine. These points can buy up to two additional Feats or even an additional 9th level Spell Slot (if not for additional being used in there you could have some serious problems) and you'll have points left over, or you'd just be eight ninth's Evil *wink*.

Sacrifice (BoVD)
Once per day per Mordakin's Magnificent Mansion you can make a Knowledge(religion) check while finishing off an evil doer (or helpless orphan) to obtain a spiffy reward. You can choose stuff like a Persisted Divine Power, free Planar Ally to help out, Limited Wish for that must cast today Spell, and you can even rack up free XP for crafting in here (artificer eat your heart out!).

Pazuzu (FCI)
Say his name three times and he appears to cast Wish for you, provided you still have that tradable Good alignment of course. A DC 35 Knowledge check reveals this information to your character and it works up to three times. Now wish up an unused brand new fully charged Ring of Three Wishes!

***

Abusing these things
Just buy/choose them and use them as intended, enough said.

Using these things
It's in the rules, use it! Ha, just kidding. DMs & Players alike will hate you and you won't be invited back if you're a dick to them. Plus you risk rioting, for that reason I suggest the following.

1. Baseball Catcher's padding, glove and mask
These provide a modest level of protection from rioting. However the helmet is not fully cover your head and an unseen book slap to the back of the head will provoke Fort Saves vs Daze.

2. Full-Plate (or police riot gear)
A must for any home really. It provides serious protection against harm, including small arms fire. However some Players may attempt to drown you in thrown Cheetos and this does not prevent aspiration nor clear vomited materials from your airway.

3. Industrial Craft's Quantum Armor with GraviSuite's upgrade (or alternatively, ultimate cheat armor)
The ultimate munchkin protection. Convert sunlight into force field protection, enhanced speed and flight allow you to remain out of range of thrown salsa and you have your own self contained breathing apparatus "just in case". Ahh Minecraft references.

[SorO_Lost]

Gooooooooooood afteeeeeeeeernooooon dear readers. Welcome back to discussing classes. This time around we're talking about the Arcane variant of the Swordsage and how it's not as bad as you think. This kind of falls in line with the Divine Crusader post so you'll hear some repeats but honestly CD is about the hero that goes superhero while the Arcane Swordsage (ASS for short) starts out as the perfect gish from the start allowing us to indulge our sword & sorcery fantasies.

Preamble
The ASS is a suggested variant of the Swordsage found near the end of the class entry. It gets a lot of flak due to some bad assumptions and the knee jerk reaction of infinite casting is a bad thing. Likewise people think the ASS's CL is equal to his IL and somehow that means ASS 1 / Fighter 2 / Barbarian 2 has 2nd level Spells. This is just plain wrong on several levels. For one thing, while Maneuvers grant access based on IL, a 5th level Wizard with a CL of 50 still won't have 4th level Spells because Spellcasting does not.

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Here is what this sword & sorcery character has, including Jedi Knights and such.

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Base Features: Good BAB, d6 HD, two good Saves, 6 Skill Points per level.
Gishdom with Skills? Great!

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
All Simple (like a sorcerer) plus all Martial. Honestly, good for PrCs and you pick up Longbows.

Maneuvers Spells
ASS learn Spells in place of learning Maneuvers and cast them using Maneuvers Ready/Expended rules overlaying the spellcasting rules and that's all the entry really alludes to. So breaking it down.

* Stances Known and Maneuvers Known are two separate things but are the same system.
I am fully aware that the Stance entry contains the text that it's not a maneuver but here is the thing a Stance is a Maneuver. What the text means is that Stances are different, they "ready" differently, they active differently, they last differently, they are learned differently, and so on from other maneuver types such as Strikes & Boosts. But they still are a subset of the Maneuver system.

A long story short, an ASS gives up (all) Maneuvers to learn Spells in place of Maneuvers would also trade in his access to Stances. And even if he didn't he has no IL at the first level (more on that in a second) to even select a Stance let alone meet any possible Prerequisites of it such as knowing maneuvers from the same Discipline. And since learning Stances is separate from learning the other Maneuver types and you are given no method in the Adaption to fill your Stance options with Spells there is no imagine outcome that Stances are Persisted Spells. The entire Stance progression is depreciated.

* No Maneuver/Spell transparency is stated
You are learning Spells in place of Maneuvers and Cast them using Ready/Expended rules but you are not treating your Spells as Maneuvers. The material even uses 'were' over 'are' to further distance it's self. This is a very important distinction because if you were to gloss over this point you'd think the ASS is immune to Antimagic and can use Adapative Style to reReady. But you can't.

* Ready/Initiation & Spell Slots
You use the Ready & Initiation rules where applicable to trump over your inherited Spellcasting rules. Fundamentally this boils down to the Ready mechanic and the exception to Verbal Components & Initial Concentration Check. Also Ready is a binary state, since you cannot Ready a single Maneuver more than once the same holds true to Spells. This additional limitation will give you the expected downward slope as the Encounter goes on originally intended in the Swordsage. Another repercussion of this system however is you do not have Spell Slots. As Metamagic Feats are deeply tied to Spell Slots, you cannot make usage of them not do you have Slots to expend on stuff like Runestaffs or benefit from Slot increasing abilities like a Dragonpact.

* You do not have a full Initiative scale & your CL is found in the inherited rule set.
To find your values you have, ToB39:Initiative Level "initiator level equals your level in the class that provides access to martial maneuvers" & RC133:Caster Level "A spell’s power often depends on its caster level, which is usually equal to your class level in the class you’re using to cast the spell." The ASS doesn't provide access to Maneuvers meaning so it uses the 1/2 progression like any other non-Martial Class and the default is CL is equal to your Levels in the Spellcasting granting Class.

* Primary Ability Score
The Sword Sage's entry is of course silent. Spellcasting Rules delegate to your casting modifier. So this is kind of a big one as it does require a Houserule. So which one to use? Intelligence is typically prepared Spellcaster (outside of the mind based Beguiler) and doesn't fit, Charisma is for force of will and the default goto, Wisdom is typically a Divine thing and yet the Swordsage does use Wisdom as one of his primary ability scores. Choices choices choices. Personally, I'm in favor of Charisma. Wisdom based would mean lots of built in synergy (spell dcs, ac & damage) and the Paladin/Monk/Warblade/Swordsage are examples of splitting up your combat based abilities over Multiple Ability scores. Ultimately you will have to get some kind of DM permission here to finalize the outcome.

* Spell Level Access & Retraining
You learn Spells equivalent in level, which means you use the Wizard progression of new Spell Levels and stuff like Haste clocks in at the 5th level rather than the Sorcerer's 6th. You use the Swordsage's method of retraining Maneuvers on Spells. This allows you to replace lower level Spells in favor of higher level ones. However, watch retraining out those low level Spells and PrC Requirements.

* Arcane Spell Failure
ASF is an inherited part of Arcane Spellcasting found in general Spell rules and an ASS contains no text creating an exception otherwise. AC Bonus, thankfully, was Errata'ed to apply even if you are not wearing any spell-interrupting armor so you don't need to buy armor, but it's highly suggested you pick up 0 ASF/ACP armor anyways since you will be in direct battle.

* Your Class Spell List
You simply learn Arcane Spells. No list limitation like Sorcerer/Wizard Spells, simply "Arcane". This puts stuff like Bard, Wu Jen, Assassin, Duskblade, and Hexblade within reach. Through I wouldn't press you can learn anything simply because a Cleric exclusive Spell that can be learned as an Arcane per True Dragons. That requires a specific example and you're deviating from general rules at that point.

* You do not have a List of Spells Known
ASS has the ability to learn Spells in place of his ASS granted Maneuvers which means his list of Spells is actually his List of Maneuvers Known. Spellcasting PrCs have zero effect in expanding an ASS's List and unfortunately for you, Martial Study and Martial PrCs only directly improve a Marital Adept's List of Maneuvers Known. Non-Adept's are granted Maneuvers using a separate progression that never ties in. It's not that you can't increase your Maneuvers Known, but mechanically there is no printed method of doing such. So an ASS will never have the out of combat solution potential of a Wizard or Warmage/Rainbow Servant (it's a good thing!).

* School & Range Limitations
This suggested adaptation also suggests limiting ASS to Abjuration, Evocation, & Transmutation Spells with the Range of Personal or Touch. If you're not following the Supplement's suggestions, you don't have an ASS to begin with now do you? So follow the suggestion fully and don't pretend you can stop half-way through. The lack of Conjuration means no Gate, Planar Binding, Summon Monster, lack of Necromancy means no Animate Dead, lack Enchantment shuts down gathering minions, lack of Illusion removes your last hope with Ice Assassin being taken off the table. No Universal means no Wish and no Divination means no instant mystery solving either. Touch/Personal removes stuff like Fireball, Fabricate, Move Earth, and Walls of Iron and so on. It's a pretty limited list that's mostly about magical augmentation for combat (PCs need to survive to advance the plot) rather than gamebreaking magical solutions that'd piss your DM off.

* Prestigious Classes and Martial Adapts.
ASS meets most if not all Spellcasting requirements. He meets CL, Spellcaster Level, and can cast X Spell (if he learned it) just fine. Due to the lack of Spell Known/Slot some benefits may be inapplicable. Instancing also applies, for instance a Cleric/Wizard cannot spontaneous give up his Wizard-sided Grease Spell to cast Cure Light Wounds. An ASS can learn actual Maneuvers by multiclassing or even picking up the Martial Study Feat.

* The light at the tunnel
What you are left with is infinitely reusable Touch Attacks and tons of defensive/offensive buffs you can keep recasting throughout the day. Whereas other casters had to Spend a Feats or Levels to Persist their stuff for two days in a row, you start out with that ability if the DM doesn't backhand you for claiming your character takes a break to chant and dance every minute or so.

AC Bonus
You add your Wisdom Modifier to AC, nice. Works while wearing 0% ACF Light Armor, great!

Stances
As noted you give up Maneuvers to learn Spells. "Stances are not Maneuvers" is about how Stances are different from Maneuvers, not that they are not one.

Discipline Focus
Even through you do not gain Maneuvers, you still gain bonuses for Maneuver Schools. While you don't get Weapon Focus(touch attacks), you do at least get a Weapon Focus. As well as further rewards for using Strikes & Stances obtained by Multi-Classing, Feats, Items, or PrCs as if you needed an even bigger incentive to pick up them up.

Quick to Act
Initiative Bonuses are always welcome.

Sense Magic
At the 7th level you can ID Magic Items. In a Core-Only rule set this is something you sic the Wizard on during downtime prior to selling loot. Somewhere along the line WotC realized this is pretty f'ing trivial and started handing it out to Classes and selling infinite access for a couple thousand gold. Not great, but not a wasted Known Slot either.

(Improved) Evasion
Comes online at the 9th level and 17th levels but you've probably PrCed out by now. By it's self, not really a reason to remain in ASS. To help tempt you you would obtain Defensive Stance at the 8th level, but you obtain +2 increases to Good Saves when you take the 1st level in a PrC anyway.

Dual Boost
20th level 3/day Capstone of being able to use two Boosts at once. Your IL would be high enough to learn 5th level Boosts, or you could have gone Jade Phoenix Mage and learned to use stuff significantly higher.

Abusing the Gishking

1. Alter Self, Polymorph, and Shapechange
As Personal/Touch Transmutation Spells to can learn and abuse these endlessly. You can turn into which ever creature you need when ever you want, in this aspect you're like a Druid that traded Spell versatility for Wild Shape versatility. Unless you break your list

2. Blindsight, Fly, Heroics and Shadow Phase
Truly the breaking point of the ASS isn't Persisting Alter Self. Hell, a Cleric with the proper Domain can do that with Divine Metamagic. An ASS is capable of providing party buffs over and over again. Give the party stuff like Blindsight and Incorporeal Miss Chances. Heck Fly's several minute long duration even bypasses that running along and tagging everyone once a minute deal that your DM may prohibit during social encounters & exploration.

3. Creation
You don't get Fabricate but there are limited version of it such as Ice/Stone/Wood Shape and Shape Metal which does allow you to reshape entire terrains to fit your needs. Stone Metamorphosis for Sickstone, Water-To-Poison for a crappy ingested poison. ... Actually I could use some suggestions here. I mean Hidden Talent lets you conjure Black Lotus Poison by the bucket and Fabricate does everything those Shape Spells do, except its one Spell and allows fine details. We can't let normal casters show us up here.

4. Celerity, Contingency & Time Stop
All the action breakers. They are Personal Transmutation/Evocation Spells, a bit more limited than White Raven Tactics but we do have a nice break point. Time Stop's 1d4+1 Rounds give you the Full-Round Action to recover the Spell and recast. High rolls in turn yield multiple actions in instantaneous time. So this is something you'll have over everyone else, infinite Time Stop as desired.

Using the Gishking
You know even less Spells than the Sorcerer and are severally limited on type. Most of the game breaking Spells are simply out of your reach. But that doesn't mean you can't be powerful in your own right. Focus on a single good Transmutation buff and convincing the DM to let it slide, learn a couple long duration defensive buffs that you can Un-Ready yet still benefit from like Superior Resistance or Mage Armor while your at it. And don't be afraid to PrC out as soon as you can.

Arcane Swordsage 5 / Rainbow Servant 10 / Silver Pyromancer 1 / Anything 4
While you cannot increase the Spells Known of an ASS using Spellcaster PrCs, you can expand on their Class List to choose from. This little get up gets to choose from any Arcane, Cleric, or Paladin Spell. Think of endlessly spammed Miracles. Well, I mean there is the XP cost for certain uses but still a must know.

Arcane Swordsage 5 / Swiftblade 10 / Abjuration Champion 5
Did people complained Tome of Battle was too animaish? Pick up Swiftblade to Bankai their ass with Tensa Zangetsu. You lose a couple caster levels but let's be honest with each other. You didn't pick this Class to be Batman with ten thousand out of combat choices and the ability to spam the single best spell round after round after round. You choose this class to stack on buffs to make killing people easy and there is very little better than uber-Haste.

Arcane Swordsage 6 / Warblade 1 / Abjuration Champion 5 / Jade Phoenix Mage 5 / Anything 4
Spells, Maneuvers, Spells & Maneuvers. What's not to love? Consider more JPM or splitting it up for a higher IL depending on your target level of play.

[SorO_Lost]

Hhhheeeelllllllloooo readers in the far flung future! Welcome to the eighth article in my series where I talk circles around my self and pretend someone reads it. Today's subject is all about that master race. And no I'm not talking about your PC. D&D is about as racist as you can get while still legally having fun with your clothes on and today we're going to touch on a few of my favorites and the most game breaking ones to request in place of your gestated level choice. So let's get started shall we?

Preamble
When you start looking at monsters as Races you really get this feeling them some have unfair advantageous. Like your typical Illithid is a 9th level Psion except it also has a ton of At-Will Psi-Like Abilities and enhanced combat abilities piled on top of better HP/Skills and someone was like that's totally CR 8. 8? Am I kidding you? Nope, it's CR 8. Of course, for Players it's total Effective Character Level (ECL) is 14 and you won't be buying that Level Adjustment (LA) off. But it makes a great minion to add to your stock.

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P.S. We're doing this top 8 style!

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Clocking in as are last PC-intended Race is the might Kobold! There is something for everyone here, truly a Jack of all trades that can compete with the Human Race. Don't forget the Expanded Article.

For anyone you can perform the Draconic Rite and pick up a 1st level Spell as an SLA, it could be Grease, it could be Power Word Pain, it could be whatever you think will help you. It instantly adds utility to whatever you're building which can be pretty nice. You can invest Feats to bring this up to a full Sorcerer Level which is awesome. You can also take Dragonwrought and play as a Venerable Kobold for a +3 bonus to your mental scores and no penalty to your physical scores, plus you become immune to the Humanoid Spells like Charm/Dominate Humanoid, etc.

Slight Build also lets you be treated as a smaller Size when ever it'd be useful to you, so you'll net a total of a +8 Hide bonus and +2 to Attack rolls which is nice. Specially when you read the Double Crossbow which can fire two bolts off the same Attack Action with a -2 penalty. Then can even be used One-Handed and Quick-Drawn for a massive flurry of wooden spikes and Kobolds get a +2 bonus to Dexterity! Kobolds also get Craft(traps) as a Class Skill no matter what. As a normal meleer through Kobold doesn't offer a huge outstanding benefit. You do get three Natural Weapons which better synergy if you have Sneak Attack but the -4 Str & -Size penalties to damage really won't play into a THF with Power Attack. And get used to hearing this because Alter Self is a low level easily Wandable Spell, Kobolds can turn into a True Dragon for all four Movement Speeds and all kinds of Natural Weapons.

But around the mid-levels they can be a highly deadly Rogue or Sorcerer or combination there of.

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You might be asking your self why Elans made this list. They don't seem particularly powerful do they? Well that's where you are mistaken.

Alter Self
And the first is that Alter Self allows you to change into a few select Types but you can also change into any creature that shares the same type as you. For most races you are limited to Humanoid, maybe even the better Monstrous Humanoid type. Well Elans get immediate access to Aberrations which when combined with Assume Super Natural Ability let's you obtain some particularly powerful traits pretty early in the game.

Here is a very small list of examples.
* Choker (3HD), extra Standard Action per turn.
* Ethereal Fletcher (5HD), ethereal jaunt for stealth and spying.
* Symbionts from Eberron (mostly 2HD), share Personal Spells with another.
* Mindshredder Larva (2HD), 20ft Mindsight, Wisdom Drain, even body stealing.
* Runehound (5HD), 200ft Blindsight.
After that, you get of get into the limitations of the Spell, namely the 5HD and Polymorph already gives you access to Aberrations.

Resilience
It's not secret that there are a few ways to generate Power Points (PP), if you need some information on the subject just click here and scroll down to the Psionics section. As an Immediate Action an Elan can prevent damage or even increase his Saves. The damage prevention combined with the lowest level PP generation gives you a form of virtual immunity on the battlefield at these low levels when everyone's nuking options are limited and there are only a few effective Save-or-Dies.

Immorality
Elans are also naturally age-immune, they have no maximum life span. For RP this means you can invent any back story reaching as far back as you like which isn't that broken but it's a cool thing to play with. For TO on the other hand, by using an infinite PP loop an Elan can just keep Manifesting Temporal Acceleration for as he can without worrying about living six thousand years in the space of a single day to everyone else.

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Ahh the Warforged. They are pretty much an Elan++, heck they even have Immortality.

Alter Self & Polymorph
Just like an Elan being a Warforged extends your list of possible Alter Self forms, however while Polymorph grants access to Abjurations it isn't until the 17th level when you can access Shapechange does a normal caster obtain access to Constructs.

The Construct access isn't as great as Aberrations and Assume Supernatural Ability, however the main traits you'll want from other Constructs tend to be Extraordinary so you don't need a Feat just to access one ability. Two very common choices you'll find your self using is Magic Immunity which can be found in any Golem and Hardness from Animated Object, both give you a major defensive edge over a mundane or caster.

Peak abuse through is the Cadaver Golem out of Heroes of Horror. When your Warfoged caster gets Polymorph it can access the Golem and use it's Extraordinary Ability to assimilate any Supernatural Ability from a corpse. Naturally this only lasts as long as Polymorph can keep you within the form, but it's a very interesting way to play Megaman.

A Ton of Minor Stuff
* Components & Docents
So a few worth mentioning, Battlefist increases to Slam/Unarmed Damage by one Size and passes it's Enhancement Bonuses to both effectively buffing two weapons for the price of one. Somantic Cables allow you to cast Spells with both hands holding something and roll Arcane Spell Failure checks twice to avoid failure. Finger Picks costs 500gp and give a +4 unnamed bonus to Disable Trap & Open Lock. A Docent is basically an Intelligent Magical Item for Warforged-only. It can make it's own Spot/Listen Checks, you can buy Skill Ranks & Spell-Powers for you, etc. It's main benefit is on the fly translation since it can speak using your mouth.
* Racial Feats
The Warforged have a few Feats that are tempting to use in low levels. Characters can't afford Full-Plate until the 3rd level but Adamantine Body gives a Warforged a +8 Armor Bonus at the 1st level. Second Slam & Jaws of Death give a Warforged a total of three Natural Weapons and with Flaws you can have both. Add a Large Shield for AC 20+Dex & 3 Attacks per round at "CR 1". And Shocking Fist is also worthy of mention but it works for any level. By effectively taking 1 damage you get a +2.5 electricity damage bonus to your Slam's Damage. You have a once per Round and no more damage to your self than you have BAB limit but it allows you to play a very offensive Character and heal outside of combat to pay it off.
* Blade Communion Rituals
Often overlooked but a Warforged Cleric of the Lord of Blades that is at least 5th level or higher can put on an hour long Ritual once per month to hand out free benefits to any Warforged that can make a DC 15 Concentration Check. The rituals them selves are free they last one day per ECL of the ritual leader (sic the cleric). Handling gives you +1 damage with any weapon you have Weapon Focus for, Scribing gives you a free 1st level Infusion to use once if you don't have Infusions, Sentinal gives +2 Listen/Search/Spot if you have 11 Wisdom or more, & Warding bumps your DR up by +1 if you have any. Not bad because it's simply a free bonus.
Whew.

Prestigious Classes
Warforged get access to a few specific PrCs. Reforged for the most part lets do away all the downsides to WF (like healing) but you give up all Racial Feats and Components in exchange to increase any Moral Bonus by +1. Mostly "the suck" but it could make an interesting Bard, specially with a generous reading of Words of Creation. Warforged Juggernaut sounds awesome but other Charge-related effects are more powerful through so meh. Spellcarved Solider as a single level dip gives you a free Extend Spell effect on and Spell or Infusion cast on you and as a 4th level dip lets you wear three Rings.

The one worth noting is Landwalker. It is a 4/5 casting Class that gives you you a little extra defense which is nice. But it's 5th level ability is a Plant-based Wild Shape using your Effective Character Level. That's pretty nice, and lets you get away with adding a few Templates too. I don't want to go in dept on Plants but some of them are pretty nice, plus it opens up the usage of [Wild] Feats as a non-Druid.

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One of the iconic creatures of D&D, the Beholder. Now we're getting away from PC-style of Races here as the LA on these creatures are pretty high but they can be worth it.

Ocular Power
The Beholder can fly which is cool but it's iconic Eye Rays that make it so powerful. It can fire up to three per round as a Free Action in addition to whatever it may choose to do, several of these are potent Save-or-Dies that through their multitude can easily end Encounters on their own. Among them worth singling out Telekinesis for utility and Tomb-Tainted works great with Inflict. And for you Assume Supernatural Ability lovers out there, picking Eye Rays gives you all of them.

Beholders also get an Antimagic Cone that projects out in front of them controlled by their eyelid (it's a Free Action ok). This allows you to blink to smack your targets then relock them down. Negates most casters from using their Spells and strips mundanes of their much needed Enchanted gear. With this kind of power, Kishi could write a 15 year manga about it.

Prestigious Class
The Beholder gets one racially-exclusive PrC, the Beholder Mage. And holy crap. 

Beholder Mages lose their central, and thus antimagic, eye and slowly replace the abilities of their basic eye rays. The Class's claim to fame is it's both an accelerated caster (9th level spells by the 9th level) which is important since you have all that LA, and the fact that it combines the best of traits from the Wizard, the Sorcerer, and the Beholder. You get 1/round Free Action Spellcasting, total Spontaneous Spellcasting like a Sorcerer, and you learn Spells like a Wizard  "and there is no upper limit to the number of spells it can learn and know". Seriously, I'm not pulling your leg here. Basiccly freely Quickened Spontaneous Casting with a Wizard's Spellbook.

Oh, and you get unlimited Mage Hand & at the 10th level your capstone is SR (HD+5) that can be used to heal you.

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In case you haven't figured it out by now I'm assuming your reading through these things in order. So how the heck could I beat the Beholder Mage's Wizard+Sorcerer+Beholder trait? Answer: By stealing it.

Mind-Flayers (aka Illithids) as mentioned before are 8 HD (ELC 14) creatures with above HD-Manifesting which is pretty damn nice. They can also Grapple people and auto-kill them and Mindblast is a very nice Save-or-Die with no limitations on spamming it. Over all it's a very powerful Race.

Prestigious Class
But the real gem is the Illthid Savant. It can be entered as soon as you have 7 HD for DMs. For Players, with a little Energy Drain Abuse, ECL 14 will be when you take the first level.

Over the course of 10 levels you steal stuff from the creatures whose brains you have eaten. Including up to four bonus Feats through you still have to meet requirements. You can also set your Skill Ranks above cap four times, ie have 40 Ranks in Search by the 15th level.

But the make or break is three iterations of obtaining Class Features, you can choose anything and if you choose Spellcasting you get one Spell Slot per day and any applicable Bonus Spells. So there you go, 90% of the Beholder Mage as a single Class Feature of the Illithid Savant. You also get two choices of any Special Attack or Special Quality, which can include another Illithid Savant's Acquire Class Feature if you like. Interestingly the effects don't stack but copy instances of. Meaning you could have Beholder Mage + Bonus Spells x5, so if you have say 36 in your ability score you get fifteen 9th level Spells per day.

You also get Lore, a psudo-Bardic Knowledge. Because why not?

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You'd think it's impossible to beat the last one wouldn't you? Fifteen 9th level Spells per day chosen spontaneously from a Wizard's Spell book. Boy that would be hard to beat, except Epic Spells are better and being able to cast all of your Spells as SLAs (expressly noted to ignore somatic/verbal/material) is pretty freaking nice.

So next up is the Phaerimm. They are one of the very few Races in the game that have an alternative progression rate, meaning they advance according to their unique Age Categories. So growing older grants them additional Hit Dice which in turn grants better HP, BAB, Saves, Skills, Feats, Ability Scores and it also progresses their Spellcasting and their Spells function as SLAs which makes them Material Component-free. In the Book of Vile Darkness they added variant Bestow Curse effects and the all powerful Dying curse which provides RAW/RAI stacking Bestow Curses. One of the choices it aging the target into their next Age Category. Now think about that just for a moment...

Yep, a Phaerimm could hit it's self with Bestow Curse to increase it's Spellcasting powers. Even potentially trick a dying NPC into cursing them for multiple advancements. Plus, they look like condoms and no one wants to be beaten up by a tiny spiked condom.

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Sharn at the triple gestalted option in D&D without needing a DM to allow it. For a bit I considered listing Phaerimm after the Sharn, rather than before, but ultimately the Sharn just have a better overall package, specially when the DM is highlighting the fact that all Epic Spells need to be approved by him first.

For melees you have nine frigging arms and like a Nine-Headed Hydra you can attack with all of them as an Attack Action or AoO. Which is pretty important since you can freely move around up to three Hex Portals and additionally threaten an area from each (but opponents can't freely attack back without ready actions).

You also get Sorcerer Spellcasting ...And Favored Soul Spellcasting. ... And three heads. But you're totally like limited to one head using Sorcerer, the other using Favored Soul, and the other making 9 frigging attacks because that's supposed to be some kind of limitation. Sharn also start with 4 HD but have 6th level Spellcasting and their LA is paltry. For ECL 9 you could be a Sorcerer 4 / Favored Soul 4 / Mystic Theurge 1 with dual 5th level, or Sharn for dual 6th and nine arms.

Sharn also come with Regeneration 2 & DR 10/Cold Iron because apparently they need more stuff. They also get additional choice for Advancement called Incorporate Consciousness which is basically eat an unconscious creature for +1 permanent HD. HD granted this way provide +1 Int/Wis/Cha and for every two gained they gain a Spellcasting level in both classes which is ok but advancing a Theurgic class is better. And then there is this nifty ability called Inviolate Form. That handy little feature keeps anyone from using Shapechange or the like to turn into a Sharn.

One last thing to consider is the Ability Bonuses of these guys per MM to Monster Race. They have +8/+10/+10/+8/+8/+10 bonus set on their scores making them perfect to follow any sort of chosen progression even if it's not Theurgic, heck make a Monk out of one.

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True Dragons, you knew this was coming. Since it's the most wildly supported Race in all of D&D so I'm going to miss a lot of details and have to skim over some things. But like the Sharn one thing to remember is PCs can readily access these for 3/4 of the game so that's kind of nice.

The Basics
Dragons get the best of deal from just about everything. d12 for HP, full BAB progression, three good Saves, 6 Skill Points per level, up to six Natural Weapons, Breath Weapons, Spellcasting, flight, and a small number of SLAs dependent on type (dragon magic offers a few substitutions on these too). In addition to this, True Dragons can also have undebatable access to the Colossal+ Size Category. A special Size added from a supplements that's not part of the base rules and thus not counted n say the retelling of Sizes in the RC. This means even more damage with Natural Weapons and Breath Weapons

Aging
Like the Phaerimm the True Dragons can also advance using their Age Categories except they have more of them and thus can reach even higher HD totals.

Unlimited Growth
As long as the True Dragon avoids drying from Old Age they have an infinite progression. Much like Aging (see above) a TD can just keep accumulating extra Hit Dice. Besides the normal benefits of BAB, Saves, Feats, Skills, and such they gain extra Ability Score improvements above normal and extra Feats (improved spell capacity). Spellcasting of course continues to increase, Breath Weapon Damage, SR, Natural Armor all do too. It really puts the Evolved template to shame.

Sovereign Archetypes
Like the Sharn. The Archtypes grant you access to the Cleric Spell List (and two domains) to learn as Sorcerer Spells even if your TD type doesn't normally have access. And you can substitute that Cleric access for Druid (child of eberron), +2 Sorcerer Spellcasting Levels (loredrake), or you can learn Tiger Claw Maneuvers by sacrificing appropriately leveled Sorcerer Slots (wyrm of war). Maybe it's not dual progression, but it is dual learning with options. But speaking of Spell Slots...

Dragonpacts
Like the Illthids they can obtain a ton of 9th level Spell Slots. Pact making for Sorcerers is great because you can trade a Slot in for a bit more Spell verity. For True Dragons however, it's free money and the ability to convert 50HP into a 9th level Spell Slot. That seems like a lot, but from a DM prospective where you build Great Wyrms to challenge PCs, it's great. Imagine a GW Red that casts Hide Life, he can trade in 650HP for thirteen 9th level Spells per day.

Dragonic Auras
With all those Spell Slots feel free to dump one or two into an Aura. Like trade in an 8th level Slot to increase the Save DCs of, say [Cold], Spells by +4. Which is pretty useful with the Snowcast Feat since it adds the Cold descriptor to every Spell you cast. The option for another Initiative bonus is pretty nice if you went the route of Hide Life'ing away your HP for Spell Slots too.

Metabreath Feats
I'm not going to bore you too much here. Basically Metabreath Feats increase the recharge time but have a break point when using any effect that makes your Breath Weapon last multiple rounds. So like you swoop in and breath using Maximize + Clingingx2, it hits for 24d10, then 12d10, then 6d10 (420 total) with a 1d4+6 cooldown and you're allowed to tuck tail and run away hiding behind someone so no one can strike you while your Breath continues to tick. Compare to say 84 damage average per use, you'd have to remain in combat facing retaliation for fifteen rounds to deal the same amount.

Frightful Presence
Deeply buried in Dragon Magic is the option to replace your fear-based aura for something else. Including a -4 penalty on Will Saves (awesome), opposing Aligned creatures take one point of damage per Age Category and Blinded (celestial) or Sickened (fiendish), and while most of the Elemental ones only have an addon on effect if the target has 4HD or less Burning's blindness works just fine. Fatigued & Sickened are two other options too. Multiple True Dragons exploiting their aura choices can be pretty detrimental to a Party so you can potentially hit them up four or more effects on top of all the Dragon's Actions.

Prestigious Classes
All TD PrCs push way into the Epics so not much is known about them. But the Dragon Ascendant is the only way to become a type of deity without some special DM permission so that's kind of nice.

Templates
The Draconomicon's Zombie Template applies to Adult or older TDs and lets them keep their Breath Weapon (but half damage) which is pretty nice. The supplement also covers special TD versions of Liches and Vampires too in case you just want to add that Evil Undead element to things.

Overall
Maybe the theoretical power of an Illithid jumps out at you more. But D&D is a game about versatility & access, Dragons don't need to take levels and eat people to grow and can substitute many of their Special Abilities for other ones allowing them to specialize at the moment of sheet creation on top of accessing some of the widest exclusive content in the game.

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Abusing them

1. Dominate Monster
A dominated minion will follow all kinds of none self destroying commands and it can be used to instantly obtain them in combat. There isn't really much to be said here other than focus on increasing your Save DC and make sure you order them to never cast Protection From youralignment.

2. Programmed Amnesia
Find a monster, beat it nonlethally until it passes out, make it your pet, then use it to fight others. It's like being a Pokemon trainer! Programmed Amnesia (aka the 3.5 version of mind rape++) is a much more permanent solution for captivity since you can rebuild the creature's memories to being your best friend and owes you for saving it's life ten thousand times, oh and it's a Lawful Good kind of guy. It has some limits of course since it is a Mind-Affecting attack (kind of useless on undead) and severe changes can be undone with the lower level Break Enchantment Spell. For this reason I'd suggest picking monsters who are close to your own goals, like if you are killing bad guys try to snag a good-aligned Dragon with a strong sense of justice.

3. Ice Assassin
Oh this spell is so powerful. You can create a clone of any target you have a DNA sample of and it obeys your every command. But if left to it's own choices it'll try to murder the original it's copied from so use at your own risk for self-duplication. Obliviously the is an extremely powerful method of building the ranks of your all-powerful legion but if you need a lower level alternative check out Core's Simulacrum. The copy is 1/2 HD but several creatures have abilities far beyond the normal scope of their CR.