Fun Finds v4.0

[zook1shoe]

sorry was going off memory... yeah it looks like the negative level part only requires them to be an enemy of your homeland, the bane they have to be an enemy of and in your homeland

[SorO_Lost]

You know, looking at the Spell. What's seen cannot be unseen.

(click to show/hide)

As long as you carry the acorn (and as long as the acorn is not stored in an extradimensional space like a bag of holding), you are considered to be standing under that oak tree's canopy (and thus within an area of forested terrain).
Is the aytpical quoted text. Which is amazing that it is a complete sentence as far as stupid RAW goes. But what really happened was bad pacing. The lines above explain you additional requirements on what you can cast this Spell on and what happens to the object when you do. This sentence then introduces the following information giving you a generalized, but not specific, idea of the Acorn's Effects.

Whenever you cast a spell that has additional effects when cast in forested terrain (such as deadfall, creaking cacophony, fey ring, or splinterbolt), you can choose to use the acorn as an additional material component for that spell. Doing so consumes the acorn immediately, but the spell's effects manifest as if you stood in forested terrain no matter what your actual location.
If the Spell really meant that you were standing under the Tree, thus in Forested Terrain, then this additional information explaining exactly how it should be used would never have been written up.

Dryads gain an additional benefit from this spell. If a dryad spellcaster casts this spell on an acorn harvested from her bonded oak tree, she is considered to be in contact with her tree at all times, despite the actual distance between her and the tree. A dryad spellcaster can thus use this spell to travel great distances from her tree without growing sick.
And there again, if the Spell really meant that you were standing under the Tree this would not be an additional benefit but a causality of being treated as standing under the tree. What's more, is notice the specific mentions there. The acorn must be harvested from the Dryad's Tree, not a tree. Even a Redwood that has grown over the Dryad's Tree doesn't count. Like consuming the acorn as a Material Component only grants the benefit of being in Forested Terrain, this additional bonus does care or acknowledge what really is under the tree the acorn came from. Its fluff.

Sure people are underlining and emboldening a whole sentence this time, but it's still ignoring the the rest of the entry to understand what the Spell really does. It's a stupid RAW trick created from personal interpretation rather than reading the message.

[snakeman830]

The acorn must be harvested from the Dryad's Tree, not a tree. Even a Redwood that has grown over the Dryad's Tree doesn't count.

To be fair, good luck harvesting an acorn from a Redwood.  Acorns are Oak only.

On another note, a Major Dragon bloodline grants an Extraordinary breath weapon dependent on the dragon type.  No notes are given for how often this may be used, so a logical fallback is the 1d4 round recharge for normal dragons.  Still, the ability to use Entangling Exhalation in an AMF should not be overlooked.

[zook1shoe]

thats pretty cool!

nice find, kind of like the Titan uber weapon trick

[linklord231]

You know, looking at the Spell. What's seen cannot be unseen.

(click to show/hide)

As long as you carry the acorn (and as long as the acorn is not stored in an extradimensional space like a bag of holding), you are considered to be standing under that oak tree's canopy (and thus within an area of forested terrain).
Is the aytpical quoted text. Which is amazing that it is a complete sentence as far as stupid RAW goes. But what really happened was bad pacing. The lines above explain you additional requirements on what you can cast this Spell on and what happens to the object when you do. This sentence then introduces the following information giving you a generalized, but not specific, idea of the Acorn's Effects.

Whenever you cast a spell that has additional effects when cast in forested terrain (such as deadfall, creaking cacophony, fey ring, or splinterbolt), you can choose to use the acorn as an additional material component for that spell. Doing so consumes the acorn immediately, but the spell's effects manifest as if you stood in forested terrain no matter what your actual location.
If the Spell really meant that you were standing under the Tree, thus in Forested Terrain, then this additional information explaining exactly how it should be used would never have been written up.

Dryads gain an additional benefit from this spell. If a dryad spellcaster casts this spell on an acorn harvested from her bonded oak tree, she is considered to be in contact with her tree at all times, despite the actual distance between her and the tree. A dryad spellcaster can thus use this spell to travel great distances from her tree without growing sick.
And there again, if the Spell really meant that you were standing under the Tree this would not be an additional benefit but a causality of being treated as standing under the tree. What's more, is notice the specific mentions there. The acorn must be harvested from the Dryad's Tree, not a tree. Even a Redwood that has grown over the Dryad's Tree doesn't count. Like consuming the acorn as a Material Component only grants the benefit of being in Forested Terrain, this additional bonus does care or acknowledge what really is under the tree the acorn came from. Its fluff.

Sure people are underlining and emboldening a whole sentence this time, but it's still ignoring the the rest of the entry to understand what the Spell really does. It's a stupid RAW trick created from personal interpretation rather than reading the message.

So WotC wrote an ability that puts limitations on something that was already established to not have limitations.  Wouldn't be the first time - see the Divine Oracale's Prescient Sense or the Eternal Blade's Armored Uncanny Dodge. 

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Soro, you'll have to parse your objections better. The additional benefit clause is for touching, not just being under the tree.

Speaking of DragMag315, page 34 seems to give infinite metamagic if you assume a defiler score? Am I missing something or did they forget to print what happens with a defiler score?

[SorO_Lost]

Soro, you'll have to parse your objections better. The additional benefit clause is for touching, not just being under the tree.

So I should have mentioned there is no differance between a Dryad sitting on her tree and a Dryad standing two hundred and ninety nine feet away. Got it.

Also redwoods and lack of acorns? lol. I skipped the forestry merit badge, can you tell?

[snakeman830]

I can tell

So yeah, does anyone know what the recharge is actually supposed to be on the Major Dragon bloodline breath weapon?  Not sure if there was eratta on it or not, I just know it is explicitly (Ex), which is odd for a breath weapon.

[Jackinthegreen]

The 3.5 version of Unearthed Arcana never got errata.  However, one of the big things about the book is it was given as-is with the publishers knowing it wasn't fully fleshed out.  It is up to the players to fill in the blanks.

If you're trying to use RAW on it, you're entirely missing the point of the book.

[brujon]

The 3.5 version of Unearthed Arcana never got errata.  However, one of the big things about the book is it was given as-is with the publishers knowing it wasn't fully fleshed out.  It is up to the players to fill in the blanks.

If you're trying to use RAW on it, you're entirely missing the point of the book.

Makes sense... It's effectively a Rulesbook full of House Rules.

STILL.. Unfinished books seems like lazy work... hell, we have people here on these forums that have piles and piles of homebrew, and they double check their stuff. Rarely do i see a homebrew from Bhu or SirP with glaring errors and missing information such as this. I may disagree on the balance stuff, but most of the time, text and table agree, few grammatical errors, etc...

Is it much to ask the same standard of paid publishers? o.O

[Jackinthegreen]

Makes sense... It's effectively a Rulesbook full of House Rules.

STILL.. Unfinished books seems like lazy work... hell, we have people here on these forums that have piles and piles of homebrew, and they double check their stuff. Rarely do i see a homebrew from Bhu or SirP with glaring errors and missing information such as this. I may disagree on the balance stuff, but most of the time, text and table agree, few grammatical errors, etc...

Is it much to ask the same standard of paid publishers? o.O

Apparently so.  Though I suspect that things turned out shitty because the publishers didn't collaborate properly and thus there were too many hands in the pot to keep it together.  I still have to wonder how in the hell the CM errata got added to the ToB errata though.

[SorO_Lost]

I suspect it was a giant middle finger to someone.

The presentation is actually pretty normal. The author of the ToB Errata opened CM's Errata and started editing the document. This is a quick and easy way to match font type & size for content that spans multiple files, when you are ready to finish your work you simply use Save As and save it as a new, renamed, file. However, CM's entries were not cleaned up prior to being published.

Either the guy working on that is making a point out of being told to immediately stop working on 3.5 and move to 4.0, or was fired during the Gleemax BS that hit the 339 (a consequence of such spawned these MMX boards btw), or perhaps the worst element it was a ploy by WotC to tell you 3.5 ended NOW. Either way, it was published to appear like someone had to save it and upload it without so much as being able to proof read it. So it's a middle finger to someone, either a worker-to-WotC or WotC-to-us for not moving onto and buying their shitty 4.0 products.

[SorO_Lost]

More Ring of Mystic Fire/Lightning abuse.

Obtain immunity to Electricity & Fire, such as a Mechanatrix with Mantle of the Raging Flame, and abuse Discordant Malediction. You'd deal a bonus 12d6 damage every time you cast a Spell (and maybe heal 7hp).

(click to show/hide)

For those who don't know what I'm talking about. Take a standard Fireball, it deals Fire damage.
Energy Substitution(cold) replaces that Fire damage with Cold.
Energy Admixture(cold) duplicates that Fire damage with Cold damage.
Admix is noted as stacking with Sub, even if it's the same element so the above can be combined to deal double Cold damage (the converted fire base + duped amount as cold). The *trick* is to take Energy Substitution twice allowing you to change the element and admix in a different one so your Spell deals two different elements and has both Subtypes allowing it to benefit from all kinds of bonuses.

Along comes the MiC's Ring of Mystic Fire & Ring of Mystic Lightning. For 7,500gp each these Rings come with 3 charges per day and can be expended to add dice to any Spell that deals damage of the same element. It's generally too expensive for single nukes. Longer duration Spells, particularly Persistable ones, are a better usage. Now, Admixture states it adds equal to normal amount which means the Ring bonuses shouldn't be included in the initial double effect, however since the Spell is both types you can add both Rings which are indeed different Magical providing different, yet similar, effects which gets around Stacking issues.

Notably examples of abuse is Fire Shield and Wrath of Flames. Fire Shield hits anyone that attacks you with a melee weapon for 1d6+15 (or 8d6+30, 58 avg) for some nice vengeance. Wrath of Flames on the other hand is a level lower and is offense focused, dealing it's 2d6 (12d6, 42 avg) damage to anyone adjacent to you at the end of your turn and with each melee attack. Of course, while Wrath of Flames is pretty abusive (but not on the scale of dragonfire inspiration or the durd's acid spell) these are not all that helpful to a pure Spellcaster who doesn't plan on out melee'ing a Fighter. Discordant Malediction provides an excellent opportunity to really squeeze those dice in, dealing up to 12d6 every single time you cast a Spell with a Verbal Component, provided you can obtain a means to negate damage dealt to your self or even absorb it (eg be a mechanatrix). Maybe by such means as Spellguard Rings (can't check my self). An unaltered Fireball for instance would deal it's normal 10d6 damage, plus potentially 12d6 just for casting it. Casting Grease both trips foes and you blast them for 12d6 damage. So nice.

This can be done with most of the typical Metamagic tricks. The Spell it's self lacks an area so no Explosive Spell but augments like Fiery Spell would add an additional +12 damage for +1 Spell level while the Fell line from LM would additionally debuff enemies. Because who says you can't have your CC and deal damage too?

[Amechra]

A fun little feat:

Dungeoneer's Intuition: +Wis to my Trapsense bonus and I add that to my AC on surprise rounds? Sounds good to me!

[Lo77o]

More Ring of Mystic Fire/Lightning abuse.

Obtain immunity to Electricity & Fire, such as a Mechanatrix with Mantle of the Raging Flame, and abuse Discordant Malediction. You'd deal a bonus 12d6 damage every time you cast a Spell (and maybe heal 7hp).

(click to show/hide)

For those who don't know what I'm talking about. Take a standard Fireball, it deals Fire damage.
Energy Substitution(cold) replaces that Fire damage with Cold.
Energy Admixture(cold) duplicates that Fire damage with Cold damage.
Admix is noted as stacking with Sub, even if it's the same element so the above can be combined to deal double Cold damage (the converted fire base + duped amount as cold). The *trick* is to take Energy Substitution twice allowing you to change the element and admix in a different one so your Spell deals two different elements and has both Subtypes allowing it to benefit from all kinds of bonuses.

Along comes the MiC's Ring of Mystic Fire & Ring of Mystic Lightning. For 7,500gp each these Rings come with 3 charges per day and can be expended to add dice to any Spell that deals damage of the same element. It's generally too expensive for single nukes. Longer duration Spells, particularly Persistable ones, are a better usage. Now, Admixture states it adds equal to normal amount which means the Ring bonuses shouldn't be included in the initial double effect, however since the Spell is both types you can add both Rings which are indeed different Magical providing different, yet similar, effects which gets around Stacking issues.

Notably examples of abuse is Fire Shield and Wrath of Flames. Fire Shield hits anyone that attacks you with a melee weapon for 1d6+15 (or 8d6+30, 58 avg) for some nice vengeance. Wrath of Flames on the other hand is a level lower and is offense focused, dealing it's 2d6 (12d6, 42 avg) damage to anyone adjacent to you at the end of your turn and with each melee attack. Of course, while Wrath of Flames is pretty abusive (but not on the scale of dragonfire inspiration or the durd's acid spell) these are not all that helpful to a pure Spellcaster who doesn't plan on out melee'ing a Fighter. Discordant Malediction provides an excellent opportunity to really squeeze those dice in, dealing up to 12d6 every single time you cast a Spell with a Verbal Component, provided you can obtain a means to negate damage dealt to your self or even absorb it (eg be a mechanatrix). Maybe by such means as Spellguard Rings (can't check my self). An unaltered Fireball for instance would deal it's normal 10d6 damage, plus potentially 12d6 just for casting it. Casting Grease both trips foes and you blast them for 12d6 damage. So nice.

This can be done with most of the typical Metamagic tricks. The Spell it's self lacks an area so no Explosive Spell but augments like Fiery Spell would add an additional +12 damage for +1 Spell level while the Fell line from LM would additionally debuff enemies. Because who says you can't have your CC and deal damage too?

Wont you be forced to make huge concentration checks then to avoid loosing your spell?

[Nytemare3701]

More Ring of Mystic Fire/Lightning abuse.

Obtain immunity to Electricity & Fire, such as a Mechanatrix with Mantle of the Raging Flame, and abuse Discordant Malediction. You'd deal a bonus 12d6 damage every time you cast a Spell (and maybe heal 7hp).

(click to show/hide)

For those who don't know what I'm talking about. Take a standard Fireball, it deals Fire damage.
Energy Substitution(cold) replaces that Fire damage with Cold.
Energy Admixture(cold) duplicates that Fire damage with Cold damage.
Admix is noted as stacking with Sub, even if it's the same element so the above can be combined to deal double Cold damage (the converted fire base + duped amount as cold). The *trick* is to take Energy Substitution twice allowing you to change the element and admix in a different one so your Spell deals two different elements and has both Subtypes allowing it to benefit from all kinds of bonuses.

Along comes the MiC's Ring of Mystic Fire & Ring of Mystic Lightning. For 7,500gp each these Rings come with 3 charges per day and can be expended to add dice to any Spell that deals damage of the same element. It's generally too expensive for single nukes. Longer duration Spells, particularly Persistable ones, are a better usage. Now, Admixture states it adds equal to normal amount which means the Ring bonuses shouldn't be included in the initial double effect, however since the Spell is both types you can add both Rings which are indeed different Magical providing different, yet similar, effects which gets around Stacking issues.

Notably examples of abuse is Fire Shield and Wrath of Flames. Fire Shield hits anyone that attacks you with a melee weapon for 1d6+15 (or 8d6+30, 58 avg) for some nice vengeance. Wrath of Flames on the other hand is a level lower and is offense focused, dealing it's 2d6 (12d6, 42 avg) damage to anyone adjacent to you at the end of your turn and with each melee attack. Of course, while Wrath of Flames is pretty abusive (but not on the scale of dragonfire inspiration or the durd's acid spell) these are not all that helpful to a pure Spellcaster who doesn't plan on out melee'ing a Fighter. Discordant Malediction provides an excellent opportunity to really squeeze those dice in, dealing up to 12d6 every single time you cast a Spell with a Verbal Component, provided you can obtain a means to negate damage dealt to your self or even absorb it (eg be a mechanatrix). Maybe by such means as Spellguard Rings (can't check my self). An unaltered Fireball for instance would deal it's normal 10d6 damage, plus potentially 12d6 just for casting it. Casting Grease both trips foes and you blast them for 12d6 damage. So nice.

This can be done with most of the typical Metamagic tricks. The Spell it's self lacks an area so no Explosive Spell but augments like Fiery Spell would add an additional +12 damage for +1 Spell level while the Fell line from LM would additionally debuff enemies. Because who says you can't have your CC and deal damage too?

Wont you be forced to make huge concentration checks then to avoid loosing your spell?

Indeed. Concentration is one of the easiest checks for a caster though.

[Lo77o]

More Ring of Mystic Fire/Lightning abuse.

Obtain immunity to Electricity & Fire, such as a Mechanatrix with Mantle of the Raging Flame, and abuse Discordant Malediction. You'd deal a bonus 12d6 damage every time you cast a Spell (and maybe heal 7hp).

(click to show/hide)

For those who don't know what I'm talking about. Take a standard Fireball, it deals Fire damage.
Energy Substitution(cold) replaces that Fire damage with Cold.
Energy Admixture(cold) duplicates that Fire damage with Cold damage.
Admix is noted as stacking with Sub, even if it's the same element so the above can be combined to deal double Cold damage (the converted fire base + duped amount as cold). The *trick* is to take Energy Substitution twice allowing you to change the element and admix in a different one so your Spell deals two different elements and has both Subtypes allowing it to benefit from all kinds of bonuses.

Along comes the MiC's Ring of Mystic Fire & Ring of Mystic Lightning. For 7,500gp each these Rings come with 3 charges per day and can be expended to add dice to any Spell that deals damage of the same element. It's generally too expensive for single nukes. Longer duration Spells, particularly Persistable ones, are a better usage. Now, Admixture states it adds equal to normal amount which means the Ring bonuses shouldn't be included in the initial double effect, however since the Spell is both types you can add both Rings which are indeed different Magical providing different, yet similar, effects which gets around Stacking issues.

Notably examples of abuse is Fire Shield and Wrath of Flames. Fire Shield hits anyone that attacks you with a melee weapon for 1d6+15 (or 8d6+30, 58 avg) for some nice vengeance. Wrath of Flames on the other hand is a level lower and is offense focused, dealing it's 2d6 (12d6, 42 avg) damage to anyone adjacent to you at the end of your turn and with each melee attack. Of course, while Wrath of Flames is pretty abusive (but not on the scale of dragonfire inspiration or the durd's acid spell) these are not all that helpful to a pure Spellcaster who doesn't plan on out melee'ing a Fighter. Discordant Malediction provides an excellent opportunity to really squeeze those dice in, dealing up to 12d6 every single time you cast a Spell with a Verbal Component, provided you can obtain a means to negate damage dealt to your self or even absorb it (eg be a mechanatrix). Maybe by such means as Spellguard Rings (can't check my self). An unaltered Fireball for instance would deal it's normal 10d6 damage, plus potentially 12d6 just for casting it. Casting Grease both trips foes and you blast them for 12d6 damage. So nice.

This can be done with most of the typical Metamagic tricks. The Spell it's self lacks an area so no Explosive Spell but augments like Fiery Spell would add an additional +12 damage for +1 Spell level while the Fell line from LM would additionally debuff enemies. Because who says you can't have your CC and deal damage too?

Wont you be forced to make huge concentration checks then to avoid loosing your spell?

Indeed. Concentration is one of the easiest checks for a caster though.

Yes i know.. but it can run up into several hundreds with the whole mystic fire/lightning abuse that he wrote about.

[linklord231]

More Ring of Mystic Fire/Lightning abuse.

Obtain immunity to Electricity & Fire, such as a Mechanatrix with Mantle of the Raging Flame, and abuse Discordant Malediction. You'd deal a bonus 12d6 damage every time you cast a Spell (and maybe heal 7hp).

(click to show/hide)

For those who don't know what I'm talking about. Take a standard Fireball, it deals Fire damage.
Energy Substitution(cold) replaces that Fire damage with Cold.
Energy Admixture(cold) duplicates that Fire damage with Cold damage.
Admix is noted as stacking with Sub, even if it's the same element so the above can be combined to deal double Cold damage (the converted fire base + duped amount as cold). The *trick* is to take Energy Substitution twice allowing you to change the element and admix in a different one so your Spell deals two different elements and has both Subtypes allowing it to benefit from all kinds of bonuses.

Along comes the MiC's Ring of Mystic Fire & Ring of Mystic Lightning. For 7,500gp each these Rings come with 3 charges per day and can be expended to add dice to any Spell that deals damage of the same element. It's generally too expensive for single nukes. Longer duration Spells, particularly Persistable ones, are a better usage. Now, Admixture states it adds equal to normal amount which means the Ring bonuses shouldn't be included in the initial double effect, however since the Spell is both types you can add both Rings which are indeed different Magical providing different, yet similar, effects which gets around Stacking issues.

Notably examples of abuse is Fire Shield and Wrath of Flames. Fire Shield hits anyone that attacks you with a melee weapon for 1d6+15 (or 8d6+30, 58 avg) for some nice vengeance. Wrath of Flames on the other hand is a level lower and is offense focused, dealing it's 2d6 (12d6, 42 avg) damage to anyone adjacent to you at the end of your turn and with each melee attack. Of course, while Wrath of Flames is pretty abusive (but not on the scale of dragonfire inspiration or the durd's acid spell) these are not all that helpful to a pure Spellcaster who doesn't plan on out melee'ing a Fighter. Discordant Malediction provides an excellent opportunity to really squeeze those dice in, dealing up to 12d6 every single time you cast a Spell with a Verbal Component, provided you can obtain a means to negate damage dealt to your self or even absorb it (eg be a mechanatrix). Maybe by such means as Spellguard Rings (can't check my self). An unaltered Fireball for instance would deal it's normal 10d6 damage, plus potentially 12d6 just for casting it. Casting Grease both trips foes and you blast them for 12d6 damage. So nice.

This can be done with most of the typical Metamagic tricks. The Spell it's self lacks an area so no Explosive Spell but augments like Fiery Spell would add an additional +12 damage for +1 Spell level while the Fell line from LM would additionally debuff enemies. Because who says you can't have your CC and deal damage too?

Wont you be forced to make huge concentration checks then to avoid loosing your spell?

Indeed. Concentration is one of the easiest checks for a caster though.

Yes i know.. but it can run up into several hundreds with the whole mystic fire/lightning abuse that he wrote about.

Only if you're not immune to Electricity and Fire, which was Step 1 in his combo.  You'd only be taking 2d6 sonic (maybe, unless you energy sub'd it out).  The spell still requires a concentration check even if no damage is dealt, but that's a flat 15 + spell level - should be no problem.

[Gazzien]

Some fun finds in the Author's Notes of this fic.

D&D Tip #1: You know how Milo can Shatter wands and render wizards helpless? You can do that in D&D, too! If you destroy or steal (say by Shatter, Sunder, or Sleight of Hand) a Cleric's Holy Symbol, a Wizard's Spell Component Pouch, or a Druid's Holly and Mistletoe, that caster is now an Expert, Commoner, or Grizzly Bear, respectively.

D&D Tip #2: Speaking of Sleight of Hand, it's a DC 20 check to swipe something from another character. This is a fixed DC. That means that pick-pocketing Pelor is just as easy as pick-pocketing the city watch (caveat the first: the higher the target's level, the harder it is to get away with that without getting caught. So if you pick pocket Pelor, hope you have your smite-resistant pants on). You can take a -20 penalty to make a pick pocket attempt as a free action. You can do infinite free actions per round, so, if you can make a DC 40 Sleight of Hand check (even if it's only on a 20) then you can brute force every single item off of your mark on your turn. Curiously, this doesn't include 'sheathed weapons,' which have an insane DC of 50 (70 as a free action). You also can't steal held items, which takes a Disarm attempt. However, you can probably steal:

-Clothes, armour, etc.

-Wands, potions, etc.

-Many, many coins

-Holy symbols, spell component pouches, and the like

-Artifacts of Doom

(caveat the second: don't actually use this trick. It breaks the game in an un-fun way, and in any case, the 'infinite free actions' thing is kind of a myth—the rule is that you have a 'reasonable' number of free actions.)

D&D Tip: Complete Scoundrel's Nimble Charge skill trick (CS 83,87) allows you to charge or run over "a difficult surface" without needing to make a Balance check once per encounter. Consult your DM for the limits of that ability, but by a strict (ie, unrealistic) reading of the rule, it lets you run across clouds (DC 120) once a combat at level 2.

Under more realistic interpretations, you can still do really, really cool things with 100% reliability, such as charge across ropes, rigging, and (with Tumble) the weapons of your enemies. Combine with a Grapple-Firing Crossbow for extreme awesome.

Happy gaming, folks!

[SorO_Lost]

Only if you're not immune to Electricity and Fire, which was Step 1 in his combo.  You'd only be taking 2d6 sonic (maybe, unless you energy sub'd it out).  The spell still requires a concentration check even if no damage is dealt, but that's a flat 15 + spell level - should be no problem.

Indeed, as a 5th level Bard Spell you could say this combo is 13th level and higher, by then you simply cannot fail (16 ranks, no natural 1 fail).

Provided you obtain immunity or mitigate the damage of course.