Fun Finds v5.0

[Sinfire Titan]

Question: How many useful arcane PrCs require ranks in two or more of the following skills?

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• Appraise
• Bluff
• Disguise
• Diplomacy
• Escape Artist
• Gather Information
• Heal
• Hide
• Knowledge (Local)
• Listen
• Move Silently
• Perform
• Spot
• Survival
• Swim

And how many of those PrCs screw the Sorcerer due to the entry requirements? CArc gave us Dragonic Heritage, which allowed Sorcerers to pick up one of the above skills at the cost of a feat. Not very efficient. RotD expanded the list, but it also gave us this gem:

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Rite of Draconic Affinity

The Rite of Draconic Affinity changes your draconic heritage from one kind to another.

Changing one’s draconic heritage is rarely a difficult decision. Most dragon-descended creatures never think of doing so, but a few decide their ethos doesn’t match their heritage. For instance, a half-dragon paladin may decide that his black dragon father’s blood is too much of an obstacle to overcome. On the other hand, a backbiting sorcerer might feel his gold dragon mother’s blood keeps him from being all he can be.

When the rite begins, the participant spends 24 hours fasting and meditating, all the while anointing himself with the distilled essence of the dragon type he wishes to take on (see Cost).

Prerequisites: Only half-dragons or other characters with a defined draconic heritage (such as those who select the Draconic Heritage feat, described on page 102) can undergo the Rite of Draconic Affinity. A dragon or half- dragon of the kind the recipient wishes to acquire must perform the ritual, and that creature must have 10 ranks in Knowledge (arcana).

During the last minute of the ritual, the participant stands and is subjected once to the breath weapon of the performer of the rite. After feeling the breath and taking damage from it, the participant sheds his old heritage for the chosen new one.

Benefit: You change the kind of dragon in your heritage to a different kind of dragon. The new kind of dragon must have an alignment no more than one step away from yours. For example, a chaotic evil half-red dragon can choose from among black, brown, chaos, crystal, deep, fang, howling, pyroclastic, sand, shadow, song, Styx, Tarterian, topaz, tun mi ling, and white. A character with the Draconic Heritage feat replaces the original heritage with the new one.

All manifestations of your draconic heritage change to match the new dragon kind, including physical appearance, breath weapon type, and all other benefits. For example, a half-dragon who removes red dragon and replaces it with blue dragon loses immunity to fire and gains immunity to electricity. His breath weapon changes from a cone of fire to a line of electricity.

If your class skill list changes (usually due to the change in your Draconic Heritage feat), previously purchased skill ranks remain but future ranks are purchased using your new class skill list.

If you no longer qualify for a feat due to the transformation, you lose the feat and immediately select a new feat for which you qualify in its place. If the lost feat is a prerequisite for another feat, you must also replace that feat.
If you no longer qualify for a prestige class, you lose the benefit of any class features or other special abilities granted by the class, gaining nothing in return. You retain Hit Dice, base attack bonus, and saving throw bonuses gained from advancing in the class.

Time: The Rite of Draconic Affinity requires 24 hours of fasting and meditation. If the rite is interrupted, it is spoiled and must be started again.

Cost: This rite requires special oils costing 5,000 gp.

So, with a little investment in Int and a few manifestations of Psychic Reformation, you can completely sculpt your skill ranks to qualify for those PrCs.

And for the elephant in the room: Using PR to change your Dragonic Heritage choice can arguably change the ranks to cross-class. This doesn't.

[zook1shoe]

The Sha'ir can take Mystic Theurge starting 4th level and gains both progressions.

[Nytemare3701]

The Sha'ir can take Mystic Theurge starting 4th level and gains both progressions.

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=12747.0

[Keldar]

The Sha'ir can take Mystic Theurge starting 4th level and gains both progressions.

No.  Bad.

[Jackinthegreen]

The Red Avenger class in Sword and Fist page 34 has an interesting BAB progression.  Basically it's a 3/4 progression, but moved up a level, so it goes 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, and so on.  The Halfling Outrider on page 22 is likewise a bumped up, but is a 1/2 progression.  Thankfully it got updated in CW to have full BAB.

[deadkitten]

The Red Avenger class in Sword and Fist page 34 has an interesting BAB progression.  Basically it's a 3/4 progression, but moved up a level, so it goes 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, and so on.  The Halfling Outrider on page 22 is likewise a bumped up, but is a 1/2 progression.  Thankfully it got updated in CW to have full BAB.

I was actually about to mention that in the thread I started in ask a question, but it seems you beat me to it. 
I am not aware of many classes that progress in BAB strangely, so I am inclined to think it is a typo.
The class seems fantastic for wisdom synergy though.

[zook1shoe]

@Kelder and Nyghtmare

I agree that it should not be allowed, since its 100% not the intent of the rules, a horrible loophole.

But otherwise I see nothing stopping the class qualifying alone from the PrC.

kind of like Dragonwrought true dragon cheese being against the intent, but is pretty black and white.

[Kethrian]

kind of like Dragonwrought true dragon cheese being against the intent, but is pretty black and white.

You mean other than that whole clear-as-day list of all true dragons that has no mention of DWKs?  Or the part where DWKs do not gain HD from their age categories?  Or how they don't have breath weapons, or ...
Yeah, gonna have to strongly disagree on the part about RAWtarded rule interpretations to try and declare DWKs as true dragons being "black and white".

As for the Sha'ir/Mystic Theurge cheese, it's on par with my TO only interpretation (made in a previous Fun Finds thread, no need to argue it further!) that Maximize Spell and Empower Spell affect spell attack rolls because they're random rolls mentioned right in the spell descriptions.  Again, RAWtarded.

[Garryl]

The Red Avenger class in Sword and Fist page 34 has an interesting BAB progression.  Basically it's a 3/4 progression, but moved up a level, so it goes 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, and so on.  The Halfling Outrider on page 22 is likewise a bumped up, but is a 1/2 progression.  Thankfully it got updated in CW to have full BAB.

Along those same lines, most of the 3/4 BaB PrC from the Mind's Eye articles have only +2 BaB at level 4 instead of +3.

[FBT]

A variant on the Sha'ir stuff:

Take the Spontaneous Divination ACF as a wizard, and now you both can prepare spells from a spellbook and cast (certain) spells spontaneously. Thus, you qualify for Ultimate Magus. (This part I think is fairly unambiguous. The cheesy part is what comes next.)

By a really permissive reading of the rules, Ultimate Magus would advance your Wizard spellcasting twice, for the same reasons as with the Sha'ir. But this way you get Tier 1 spellcasting double advances, not the Sha'ir's inferior spellcasting, and you get the other perks of  Ultimate Magus.

Of course, neither this nor the Sha'ir trick actually works, I think. And even if it did, it would be to unbearably cheesy for words.

Despite the cheese, it's a fun thought experiment though. And it almost works, if you look at it sideways and squint. What it really boils down to is the lack of a clear definition of what is meant by  an arcane/spontaneous arcane/divine spellcasting class at all. (Which, strangely enough, is a really big oversight to leave undefined.)

[zook1shoe]

kind of like Dragonwrought true dragon cheese being against the intent, but is pretty black and white.

You mean other than that whole clear-as-day list of all true dragons that has no mention of DWKs?  Or the part where DWKs do not gain HD from their age categories?  Or how they don't have breath weapons, or ...
Yeah, gonna have to strongly disagree on the part about RAWtarded rule interpretations to try and declare DWKs as true dragons being "black and white".

what list? Draconomicon pg144 ? Races of the Dragon pg103 ?

both are missing several true dragons (Drac more than RotDr), unless you don't want to count Mercury, Steel, and Mist Dragons as a true dragons, or the Obsidian or Ectoplasmic Dragons.

[phaedrusxy]

The Red Avenger class in Sword and Fist page 34 has an interesting BAB progression.  Basically it's a 3/4 progression, but moved up a level, so it goes 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, and so on.  The Halfling Outrider on page 22 is likewise a bumped up, but is a 1/2 progression.  Thankfully it got updated in CW to have full BAB.

Along those same lines, most of the 3/4 BaB PrC from the Mind's Eye articles have only +2 BaB at level 4 instead of +3.

I think all of these are likely mistakes.

[sirpercival]

kind of like Dragonwrought true dragon cheese being against the intent, but is pretty black and white.

You mean other than that whole clear-as-day list of all true dragons that has no mention of DWKs?  Or the part where DWKs do not gain HD from their age categories?  Or how they don't have breath weapons, or ...
Yeah, gonna have to strongly disagree on the part about RAWtarded rule interpretations to try and declare DWKs as true dragons being "black and white".

what list? Draconomicon pg144 ? Races of the Dragon pg103 ?

both are missing several true dragons (Drac more than RotDr), unless you don't want to count Mercury, Steel, and Mist Dragons as a true dragons, or the Obsidian or Ectoplasmic Dragons.

Can we not do this again? pretty pretty please?

[Sinfire Titan]

Saying it now; if you want to continue the DWK debate, please do so in another thread.

No one's in trouble, just want to pre-empt a massive derailment (as this thread may never recover from it).

[ksbsnowowl]

The Molydeus demon from FC1 gets Trap the Soul as an SLA 1/day.
Remember how SLA's don't require any components?

Material Component
Before the actual casting of trap the soul, you must procure a gem of at least 1,000 gp value for every Hit Die possessed by the creature to be trapped. If the gem is not valuable enough, it shatters when the entrapment is attempted. (While creatures have no concept of level or Hit Dice as such, the value of the gem needed to trap an individual can be researched. Remember that this value can change over time as creatures gain more Hit Dice.)

Yeah, he doesn't need the expensive gem.  Interestingly, among his listed possessions is 1,000 gp worth of gems.  Every single one of those gems is going to have a trapped soul in it when my PC's face one of these...

[zook1shoe]

Won't continue that argument here

the only thing I can think of is the demon needs some kind of gem to trap the souls, they just don't need to be that expensive. You could use a quartz worth 1cp

[ksbsnowowl]

Won't continue that argument here

the only thing I can think of is the demon needs some kind of gem to trap the souls, they just don't need to be that expensive. You could use a quartz worth 1cp

That's my take on it too.  He's supposed to have a lot of gems on him anyway; I'm just going to say that they ALL have souls trapped in them.  When the PC's have to rescue someone who was kidnapped.... Have fun figuring out which gem holds their friend.

[Sinfire Titan]

The Molydeus demon from FC1 gets Trap the Soul as an SLA 1/day.
Remember how SLA's don't require any components?

Material Component
Before the actual casting of trap the soul, you must procure a gem of at least 1,000 gp value for every Hit Die possessed by the creature to be trapped. If the gem is not valuable enough, it shatters when the entrapment is attempted. (While creatures have no concept of level or Hit Dice as such, the value of the gem needed to trap an individual can be researched. Remember that this value can change over time as creatures gain more Hit Dice.)

Yeah, he doesn't need the expensive gem.  Interestingly, among his listed possessions is 1,000 gp worth of gems.  Every single one of those gems is going to have a trapped soul in it when my PC's face one of these...

His axe also has a guaranteed 20K gemstone in the hilt.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

It's almost like ...  ... they didn't know what the crunch and the fluff said.
 

[SorO_Lost]

The Molydeus demon from FC1 gets Trap the Soul as an SLA 1/day.
Remember how SLA's don't require any Material components?
And how Trap the Soul has a Focus Component?
I guess I'm just saying this demon runs around with the souls of failed adventurers. Still cool huh?

fify.