Fun Finds v5.0

[Jackinthegreen]

Complete Adventurer added a few exotic weapons that improve upon regular weapons, and noted that they are treated as the regular weapons for certain feats (though I'd personally just say they're treated as the regular weapon for all effects).  Of note though is it also has a list for some Complete Warrior exotic weapons that are also improvements over regular weapons and says they should be treated just like their non-exotic counterparts when it comes to some feats.  Said weapons and what they should be treated as are:

Blowgun, greater > Blowgun
Bolas, barbed > Bolas (bolas themselves are exotic)
Greatbow > Longbow
Greatspear > Longspear
Pick, dire > Pick, heavy
Poleaxe, heavy > Halberd
Warmace > Mace, heavy

[Garryl]

Anyone familiar enough with 3.0 psionics and power chains to convert the quanak lizardfolk to 3.5? The LA +0 and Poison Use is already notable enough.

Combat Precognition was a 1 hour/level +1 insight to AC, so you can replace it with Defensive Precognition, which is the nearest equivalent. Body Adjustment and Metaphysical Weapon in 3.5 are basically what their equivalent power chains in 3.0 did (3.0's Body Adjustment also let you boost one save vs. poison and disease, or cure some ability damage like Body Purification, rather than just healing). The various psionic attack and defense modes were transformed into standard powers in 3.5, rather than the crazy tables of stuff that they were in 3.0 and AD&D. The Inertial Armor feat became a power in 3.5, but it's a feat the creature selected rather than a racial thing, and it doesn't even qualify for it due to not having any PP. So I'd just give the 5 powers (Defensive Precognition, Body Adjustment, Metaphysical Weapon, Mind Thrust, and Thought Shield) each as PLAs 3/day (and at ML = level or level/2, rather than a fixed ML 12) and 1 or 2 bonus PP to be psionically focused. Maybe only 1/day for Mind Thrust and Thought shield if you want. You could also add Inertial Armor 1/day if you wanted as well, but it's not necessary. The rest of the race (ie: the non-psionic part) translates directly to 3.5.

[Keldar]

Also note: Its LA is listed as 2.  Though the rest of that paragraph doesn't seem to notice it has 2 racial HD not 1 Warrior HD.

[Garryl]

No, it's ECL +2, which, since it includes 2 RHD, is equivalent to LA +0. That's how it was written in 3.0. Races didn't differentiate between RHD and LA, they just gave it to you as one lump sum. I remember seeing some races somewhere that even had ECL modifiers less than their total RHD, which would mean a negative LA in 3.5 terms.

[Meiliken]

No, it's ECL +2, which, since it includes 2 RHD, is equivalent to LA +0. That's how it was written in 3.0. Races didn't differentiate between RHD and LA, they just gave it to you as one lump sum. I remember seeing some races somewhere that even had ECL modifiers less than their total RHD, which would mean a negative LA in 3.5 terms.

Personally I always thought the differences between LA and RHD never did make sense.  Like one that takes half dragon with LA +3 but no RHD.  Yeah they have all these nifty abilities, but oh no, you sneeze in their direction and they're dead.  Starting ECL of 4th, but as a lvl 1 character, means you've pathetic HD.  I've always ruled it as being whatever the LA is, that's how many RHD they get, otherwise, the entire LA/RHD system is broken in a bad way, not a good way.

[Nytemare3701]

No, it's ECL +2, which, since it includes 2 RHD, is equivalent to LA +0. That's how it was written in 3.0. Races didn't differentiate between RHD and LA, they just gave it to you as one lump sum. I remember seeing some races somewhere that even had ECL modifiers less than their total RHD, which would mean a negative LA in 3.5 terms.

Personally I always thought the differences between LA and RHD never did make sense.  Like one that takes half dragon with LA +3 but no RHD.  Yeah they have all these nifty abilities, but oh no, you sneeze in their direction and they're dead.  Starting ECL of 4th, but as a lvl 1 character, means you've pathetic HD.  I've always ruled it as being whatever the LA is, that's how many RHD they get, otherwise, the entire LA/RHD system is broken in a bad way, not a good way.

I like this idea. How does it work normally? (My group has a running ban on anything with RHD since nobody understood them)

[Garryl]

No, it's ECL +2, which, since it includes 2 RHD, is equivalent to LA +0. That's how it was written in 3.0. Races didn't differentiate between RHD and LA, they just gave it to you as one lump sum. I remember seeing some races somewhere that even had ECL modifiers less than their total RHD, which would mean a negative LA in 3.5 terms.

Personally I always thought the differences between LA and RHD never did make sense.  Like one that takes half dragon with LA +3 but no RHD.  Yeah they have all these nifty abilities, but oh no, you sneeze in their direction and they're dead.  Starting ECL of 4th, but as a lvl 1 character, means you've pathetic HD.  I've always ruled it as being whatever the LA is, that's how many RHD they get, otherwise, the entire LA/RHD system is broken in a bad way, not a good way.

I like this idea. How does it work normally? (My group has a running ban on anything with RHD since nobody understood them)

Normally, both RHD and LA count towards your character level when determining your ECL (and thus how much xp you earn and how much it takes to level up). However, RHD are like actual character levels in a class with no class features (you get HP, skills, BAB, and saves according to your creature type, and they count towards feats, skill rank maximums, not dying to Cloudkill, etc.). If you only have 1 RHD at character creation, you can even trade it in for a full-fledged class level. However, if you have more than that (2+ RHD), you're stuck with them, and they come first before any class levels so your low level feats can't use your class features for prerequisites (since you won't have them yet), and it's your RHD's skill points that are multiplied by 4 at 1st level, not your first class's skill points. Some things with enough RHD can get you high enough level to meet the prerequisites for some PrCs, letting you skip taking base classes entirely.

LA is just a blank, where you get nothing (no HP, skills, BAB, saves, feats, max ranks, etc.). On the other hand, you can buy off your LA if you use the rules in Unearthed Arcana, which involves spending extra experience points at certain levels (the exact nature of which I kinda understand, sort of, but not well enough to explain).

Neither LA nor RHD count against you for multiclass penalties if you use them. You could have, say, 10 RHD, +5 LA, and 1 level each of Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard (not that you should ever do this), and you'll still get your full experience, albeit only the experience that a level 18 character would earn.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Wow that wasn't borkt in 3e, now was it?
 

The 3.5e updated "No Adjective" Lizardfolk got that
LA+2 added, and certainly the Quarnaks by itself
deserve a bump, even if they officially don't get it.

Garryl's conversion is +1.
That ML=12 is ridiculous, and a reasonable houserule
is to reduce it to something more ~civilized.
But I really like that ML=12 ... really really like it.
+2 to the 4 base stats is juicy.

Mind Thrust + Thought Shield, are still fodder for
that 3rd level feat that turns 5 modes into feats.
Me , I'd rather have the feats than the conversion.


Any of the very old pre-'04 psi board 3.0e guys around to comment ??
 
And shouldn't this find be an addenda to the Duergar thread (wink).

[ksbsnowowl]

Any of the very old pre-'04 psi board 3.0e guys around to comment ??

I followed the Psi stuff back then.  Played a ~13th level telepath in a game for a few months.  I got kicked out of the game for three things:
1) Making comments like "that's not right" when the DM told a player that a Ring of Protection we found did not stack with armor.
2) The whole party was captured, I Mind Switched into one of the Mind Flayer captors, and proceeded to kamikaze the other Mind Flayers by using Body Fuel to drop my "host's" Strength score to 0 while inflicting damage on the others.  The DM said I had killed the host Mind Flayer by dropping its Str to 0.  I retorted that only dropping Con to 0 killed something, normally.
3) Mind Switching into a dwarf that was attacking us, and basically assuming his body (I think the party captured or killed him in mine).

I also routinely walked around as a Stone Giant via Metamorphosis, and used Schism all the time.

This is when I developed my severe disdain for DM's that don't even know the common basics of the rules; I've only had one other terrible DM experience since then (though I've BEEN the DM for the majority of those years.)

Sadly, I've not paid much attention to Psionics since then, and don't really have a comment about the psionic Lizardfolk.

[/off_topic]

[Nytemare3701]

No, it's ECL +2, which, since it includes 2 RHD, is equivalent to LA +0. That's how it was written in 3.0. Races didn't differentiate between RHD and LA, they just gave it to you as one lump sum. I remember seeing some races somewhere that even had ECL modifiers less than their total RHD, which would mean a negative LA in 3.5 terms.

Personally I always thought the differences between LA and RHD never did make sense.  Like one that takes half dragon with LA +3 but no RHD.  Yeah they have all these nifty abilities, but oh no, you sneeze in their direction and they're dead.  Starting ECL of 4th, but as a lvl 1 character, means you've pathetic HD.  I've always ruled it as being whatever the LA is, that's how many RHD they get, otherwise, the entire LA/RHD system is broken in a bad way, not a good way.

I like this idea. How does it work normally? (My group has a running ban on anything with RHD since nobody understood them)

Normally, both RHD and LA count towards your character level when determining your ECL (and thus how much xp you earn and how much it takes to level up). However, RHD are like actual character levels in a class with no class features (you get HP, skills, BAB, and saves according to your creature type, and they count towards feats, skill rank maximums, not dying to Cloudkill, etc.). If you only have 1 RHD at character creation, you can even trade it in for a full-fledged class level. However, if you have more than that (2+ RHD), you're stuck with them, and they come first before any class levels so your low level feats can't use your class features for prerequisites (since you won't have them yet), and it's your RHD's skill points that are multiplied by 4 at 1st level, not your first class's skill points. Some things with enough RHD can get you high enough level to meet the prerequisites for some PrCs, letting you skip taking base classes entirely.

LA is just a blank, where you get nothing (no HP, skills, BAB, saves, feats, max ranks, etc.). On the other hand, you can buy off your LA if you use the rules in Unearthed Arcana, which involves spending extra experience points at certain levels (the exact nature of which I kinda understand, sort of, but not well enough to explain).

Neither LA nor RHD count against you for multiclass penalties if you use them. You could have, say, 10 RHD, +5 LA, and 1 level each of Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard (not that you should ever do this), and you'll still get your full experience, albeit only the experience that a level 18 character would earn.

Ok, so we WERE doing it right, it just sucked that hard.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

The epic leadership feat has a bunch of special cohorts.
They get an ECL assigned, where their normal MM entry
does not have one.  'Course these are epic so they don't
matter all that much.  But they don't have the "Cohort Only"
tag that the Petal has.  I think an ECL is an ECL, yes?

Look on the right-hand side  ---> http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#epicReflexes
Dragons, Storm+Cloud Giants, Ice Devil, Glabrezu, etc

[zook1shoe]

That gives the roc an LA, the second 1st party source to play an animal

[123456789blaaa]

A creepy "fluff" fun find that i posted on Gitp:

Daelkyr half-bloods are a race that come from unborn babies corrupted in the womb by Daelkyr (lovecraftian entities trapped beneath the world of Eberron).

Quotes from Magic of Eberron explain how they're created:

Daelkyr half-bloods are born of pregnant mothers who were either influenced by close proximity to a daelkyr confinement cylinder or infected by a breed leech (see page 154).

Breed leeches are an extraordinary leap in daelkyr corruption magic. Instilled in each leech is a terrible infection that corrupts a regular pregnancy if allowed to run its course. The resulting child is born a daelkyr halfblood (see page 37).

Now as I said before, Half-Bloods are a race (not a template) that look almost exactly like humans except for the aberrant symbiotes that are attached to them.

What's creepy is that the above quotes do not specify the mother has to be humanoid. As long as it's pregnant and a mother, the baby can be corrupted. Attach a breed leech to a pregnant dog and a human-looking baby with a slimy thing attached to it will come out. A very unpleasant surprise for owners watching a dog birth 

EDIT: For those not familiar with Eberron, let me specify that the Daelkyr Half-Blood is an LA 0 playable race (with no RHD). You can play a character whose parents are literally dogs.

[Amechra]

Desert Binding is a fun spell. Just take a look at Wind in the Waste.

If you just need to get someone out of your hair for a bit, turning them into a wind that can do nothing but just howl along for the next 15+ years seems like a good bet.

[ksbsnowowl]

Desert Binding is a fun spell. Just take a look at Wind in the Waste.

If you just need to get someone out of your hair for a bit, turning them into a wind that can do nothing but just howl along for the next 15+ years seems like a good bet.

Fifteen?  Blow a Limited Wish to aid that puppy with a Consumptive Field!  Binding's casting time is only one minute. 

Binding is rather expensive, though.

[Amechra]

"I'M SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE HOWLING WIND I JUST TURNED YOU INTO, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

 

[altpersona]

cast it on yourself? to take an extended vacation?

[ksbsnowowl]

cast it on yourself? to take an extended vacation?

Not a bad way to escape death by assassins from all the BBEG's you've pissed off.  Just drop off the face of the planet for a few decades.

Assuming you don't go insane in the interim, of course.

[zook1shoe]

It doesn't seem to remove the creature's age. Wouldn't the target potentially die of old age?

[Mithril Leaf]

So, here's a fun one for warlocks. The Carnevus Demon from Expedition to the Demonweb Pits has an ability that lets it cast two spells per round as an (Ex) special attack (the type that polymorph grants). It also has maximize for free on all spells it casts. However, since it doesn't actually have any spells, only spell like abilities, and all the examples refer to those, it's fairly safe to infer that you get to use the ability on SLAs. So you could get off two maximized Eldritch Blasts per round all day long. Another great part about the Carnevus is that is is a medium sized outsider, and thus you could (arguably) get permanent duration PAO into it as a Neraphim.