Fun Finds v6.0

[SorO_Lost]

I keep seeing that order of operations & rocket tag thread title and keep thinking of a super mailman.

So I guess recycled fun find, Hellfire Warlock Adaptation can be entered and advanced as an Arcane Spellcaster, it grants +1d6 damage with Evocation Spells. So Primary Contact for early entry, little word abuse for "per level" on PrCs, and something like Kobold Arcane 5 / Tainted Sorcerer 1 / Uncanny Trickster 1 / Legacy Champion 1 / Hellfire Warlock 3 / UT +2 / LC +4 / Major Bloodline 3 is (probably) possible. 144 Magic Missile Spells after Twin/Repeat with +18d6 damage each. Pewpewpew.

You'll need a lot of Restoration Wands.

[Wingboner]

Hellfire Warlock Adaptation can be entered and advanced as an Arcane Spellcaster, it grants +1d6 damage with Evocation Spells.

It also gains Hellfire Shield, which does damage... Based on the Eldritch Blast damage. RAW that looks like that's zero?

[nijineko]

I'm probably suffering from forum impotency.

Think they make a pill for that?

i don't think so, but i bet there's an app for that. ^^

[Amechra]

The Scion of Legend (CC 110) has a couple potent tricks for a party buffer. Specifically, those that follow Reikhardt get the following three benefits over the course of three levels:

1. 1/day, you may spend some of your own actions to give a similar action to an ally. Yes, you can pass your Standard action to the party spellcaster.

2. 1/day, you can give an ally an additional daily use of an Extraordinary or Supernatural ability that can normally only be used 1/day. There are probably ways to abuse this.

3. 1/day, you can increase the radius of an Extraordinary, Spell-like, or Supernatural ability used by an ally that affects all allies within "a given number of feet" by 50%. There are definitely ways to abuse this, given that it doesn't specify that the effect has to be a good one, or that it affects only allies...

You also get the ability to transfer your Reflex save bonus to an adjacent ally, which is only exceptional since you can give really massive bonuses to an ally's save bonus (you have a Base Reflex Save of +10? Give 'em a +10 bonus to that one save!)

Of the other Paragons, the only other ones that really stand out are Sunyarti (negate a crit, hand someone True Strike, and hand out a reroll on an attack) and Ktolemagne (whose third-level feature lets you take over concentration for an ally).

It's designed for cohorts, and it shows - however, I can see a Scion of Legend (Reikhardt) being used for a bodyguard character in a low-op game. Faithful Companion (the Reflex-save transfer ability) is hilarious if you've got a Action Before Thought - take a massive penalty to your Reflex save, and don't care because you are making a Concentration check instead.

[Keldar]

You mean Squire of Legend?  Or did it get a different name in differing publications?
I like Mythic Exemplar (Reikhardt) too.  (CC 87)

Reikhardt: You gain +1 level of class-based extraordinary ability to grant bonuses to allies (such as marshal's auras.)

Note the lack of the word existing, which the PrC uses several other times.  Such as with Inspire Courage.  There must be some shenanigans you could pull off being able to add 4 levels of something without ever taking a level in its origin class.  And if not, 14 levels of Inspire Courage in just 10 levels isn't bad either.

[Amechra]

I mistyped. Damn it, I had it open in another tab, too!

I... never thought about using it to double-time your Inspire Courage. That's clever.

You can arguably use it to advance your Knight level for Knight's Challenge (the level 8 ability lets you give someone a bonus equal to your Charisma as a bonus to a re-rolled Will save against Fear.) I always liked Knights, regardless of the fact that they aren't actually very good.

We... might need to make a handbook for Mythic Exemplar. It's complex enough.

EDIT: Squire of Legend is an amazing class for followers. The burst potential of getting 4 extra Standard actions split among the entire party is hilarious.

EDIT EDIT: Mythic Exemplar (Orsos) is one of the fastest Favored Enemy progressions I've seen - you can get a +8 to your Favored Enemy bonus against Evil Outsiders or Aberrations over ten levels.

REVENGE OF THE EDIT: Mythic Exemplar (Reikhardt)'s Inspire Courage is usable once per day, and it doesn't actually stack with your Bard levels for Bardic Music uses. It also is capped to lasting a number of rounds equal to your Mythic Exemplar level. Stupid wrapper class features...

[Kazyan]

Blade of Pain and Fear already has its uses for stuff like Fell Frighten and Power Attack, but it has a few more handy properties: you make melee touch attacks, apparently every batch of damage forces the save, and Strength modifiers don't apply. Which makes it great for Share Spell on your familiar that you forgot had Weapon Finesse, terrible Strength, and a good size modifier on their to-hit.

[phaedrusxy]

Blade of Pain and Fear already has its uses for stuff like Fell Frighten and Power Attack, but it has a few more handy properties: you make melee touch attacks, apparently every batch of damage forces the save, and Strength modifiers don't apply. Which makes it great for Share Spell on your familiar that you forgot had Weapon Finesse, terrible Strength, and a good size modifier on their to-hit.

I don't think this is actually a legal use of Share Spell, as this isn't a personal spell. It produces an effect and has a range of "0 feet". It is debatable, I guess.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

You mean Squire of Legend?  Or did it get a different name in differing publications?
I like Mythic Exemplar (Reikhardt) too.  (CC 87)

Reikhardt: You gain +1 level of class-based extraordinary ability to grant bonuses to allies (such as marshal's auras.)

Note the lack of the word existing, which the PrC uses several other times.  Such as with Inspire Courage.  There must be some shenanigans you could pull off being able to add 4 levels of something without ever taking a level in its origin class.  And if not, 14 levels of Inspire Courage in just 10 levels isn't bad either.

I think that's like the 3rd prc that works with Divine Mind.
So if some specifics could be figured out for it,
getting The Planes aura going at ~10' (?) would
be rather decent without going Divine Mind 1.

[Nifft]

Uncanny Forethought (EoE) is well-loved, but Spell Mastery is not.

I was looking into how to get the former without the latter.

Mother Cyst (LM) provides this benefit:

You grow an internal cyst of undead flesh called a mother cyst. The cyst may be noticeable as a discolored swelling on your skin, if desired. The mother cyst is slightly painful, but otherwise isn't harmful. The mother cyst grants you access to a selection of cyst-related spells listed below (and described in Chapter 4 of this book). You cast these spells like any other spell you can cast, once you host a mother cyst (if you are a caster who prepares spells, you can prepare all necrotic cyst spells without referring to a spellbook, as if you had the Spell Mastery feat for each such spell).

(emphasis mine)

Is Mother Cyst sufficient to qualify for Uncanny Forethought?

[Gazzien]

Uncanny Forethought (EoE) is well-loved, but Spell Mastery is not.

I was looking into how to get the former without the latter.

Mother Cyst (LM) provides this benefit:

You grow an internal cyst of undead flesh called a mother cyst. The cyst may be noticeable as a discolored swelling on your skin, if desired. The mother cyst is slightly painful, but otherwise isn't harmful. The mother cyst grants you access to a selection of cyst-related spells listed below (and described in Chapter 4 of this book). You cast these spells like any other spell you can cast, once you host a mother cyst (if you are a caster who prepares spells, you can prepare all necrotic cyst spells without referring to a spellbook, as if you had the Spell Mastery feat for each such spell).

(emphasis mine)

Is Mother Cyst sufficient to qualify for Uncanny Forethought?

I think no, because it's talking about being able to prepare those spells as if you had Spell Mastery.

[Amechra]

Darn it - if they had worded that slightly differently, there could be some... interesting builds involving Magelord.

[IlPazzo]

I... never thought about using it to double-time your Inspire Courage. That's clever.

For that purpose you could instead gain +3 levels of (honorable) Dread Pirate's Rally The Crew (ex) to get a +1 that stacks with Inspire Courage and still have a free use of the last +1 equivalent level from Mythic Exemplar.

Look at the boost we can get without even trying hard.

[Keldar]

Don't you wish they had left out the word 'existing' more often?   

[TiaC]

You mean Squire of Legend?  Or did it get a different name in differing publications?
I like Mythic Exemplar (Reikhardt) too.  (CC 87)

Reikhardt: You gain +1 level of class-based extraordinary ability to grant bonuses to allies (such as marshal's auras.)

Note the lack of the word existing, which the PrC uses several other times.  Such as with Inspire Courage.  There must be some shenanigans you could pull off being able to add 4 levels of something without ever taking a level in its origin class.  And if not, 14 levels of Inspire Courage in just 10 levels isn't bad either.

I went through the Epic PrCs, in hope that there would be something cool in them, but I forgot how terrible they all are. 

[Keldar]

Considering the only 3.5 Epic PrC I can think of is Nethrese Arcanist* and they didn't stop trying to deter you from taking a PrC till after Complete Arcane or so (in 3.5), I'm not surprised that well was dry.

*Which, of course, gets no caster level increases.  Because getting +1 caster level after you've maxed out your spell progression would be too powerful!   

[Prime32]

Darn it - if they had worded that slightly differently, there could be some... interesting builds involving Magelord.

It still helps to expand your options though.

Hmm... the magewright NPC class from the Eberron Campaign Setting prepares all its spells via Spell Mastery instead of a spellbook. Does that mean if they dipped Sand Shaper...

Desert Insight: As a member of this class, you gain knowledge of additional spells (see the list below). If you were a caster who previously prepared spells (such as a wizard), you can prepare these spells like any other spell to which you have access. If you are a spontaneous caster (such as a sorcerer), these spells are available to you like any other spell you know. You cannot cast a spell of higher level than the maximum spell level you can cast. These spells become options for you when you gain access to the appropriate spell level.

...then they would gain the benefits of Spell Mastery for all those spells?

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Seems like it. NPC classes ftw!

[SorO_Lost]

I... never thought about using it to double-time your Inspire Courage. That's clever.

Considering it's not double time, I don't blame you for never thinking that.

Dread Pirate is overrated, it doesn't stack levels to determine Inspire's bonus, it stacks bonuses. So apply it before going googly eyed.
* For example, a pure Class Bard cannot enter until 6th level and a + Inspire is just around the corner.
* So Bard 8 / Dread Pirate 3, it's Bard 8 with a +3 Inspire Bonus and TWF.
* It enters Mythic Exemplar, 1st level sucks, 2nd applies stacking to Rally but nothing yet.
* At ECL 14 it takes it's 3rd level of Mythic Exemplar bringing it's virtual levels in Dread Pirate to 7, +4 Inspire!
And Rally is capped at +2 so that's it. So at ECL 14 you spellcasting level an eighth level Bard for 3rd level Spells and have 8/day uses of Bardic Music but totally have a +4 Inspire bonus! nd pure Classed Bard of the 14th level has 5th level Spells, fourteen uses of Bardic Music with a +3 Inspire Bonus and he has Inspire Greatness. And Greatness is kind of a big deal, specially with Song of Heart & Words of Creation for +5 Hit Dice.

And a 20th level build, Bard 14 / Dread Pirate 3 / Mythic Exemplar 3 would have a +5 Inspire and Greatness only affects two people. But a pure Classed Bard would still have +4, his Greatness affects four people, he gets his capstone 6th level Spells which freaking rock. Like Emperal Ecstasy's 1/2 damage & mass Mind-Blank that doesn't remove an already-in-place Bardic Music effect, and he has room to dip Crusader for Song of the White Raven and use White Raven Tactics.

If you're willing to sacrifice anything for a single +1 bonus to Inspire, it totally has a use. But if you want to build an optimized character, it's sacrificing too much for so little gain.

[muktidata]

Epic Legacy feat, Weapons of Legacy p.219.

You need to have leveled up your item of legacy to max. Cherry pick an ability on either the Y or Z menu. The Y menu abilities costs 150,000g. Among them? Cast a 9th level spell as a SLA 3/day. Maybe gives mundanes something interesting to do at high levels. Wish is what I'm looking at.