Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Dungeon Mag #100 has a level 8 spell Dire Reincarnation.
I googled and found only this 1 mention of it

Um. It's in the Dungeon Mag find thread that I made years ago...

I even used it in my ultimate Beary Bear bear build.

Didn't both Bhu and PLZ take on something to do with " LA: -- " templates?

I gave a serious inquiry to a difference between those without an LA line and those with an LA:-- line by trying to actually give fair integer numbers. No one else was up to the challenge.

[SorO_Lost]

I gave a serious inquiry to a difference between those without an LA line and those with an LA:-- line by trying to actually give fair integer numbers. No one else was up to the challenge.

I maintain that the designers were just too scared to assign reasonable LA to many of the LA: -- templates. It haunts their dreams along with casters in heavy armor and other over powered munchkinry.
I'd like to remedy this.
If you want to critique an LA, please do!

Here's a critique, I don't think after bitching about how the designers decided the list of monsters were not suitable for PCs you provided homebrew that apparently no one was interested in should offered as some kind of unchallenged rule breakdown over how missing a number is different than missing a number and one of those is totally a number is the kind of plug you should be selling for that thread.

[Garryl]

Shockwave and Force Hammer (both from Sharn, City of Towers) are low-level Save or Daze. Shockwave is a 3rd level 20ft radius out to close range (ideal for Sculpting), and Force Hammer is a 2nd level ray (metamagic the hell out of it). Unfortunately neither affects Constructs or Undead, but getting a little (nonlethal) damage in and dazing multiple targets is good for a pair of Evocation spells.

Along those lines, Sound Burst in core is worth a mention as a 2nd-level spell for Bards and Clerics. Only a 10-foot radius and the damage is fixed at 1d8 (sonic, rather than nonlethal), but it stuns instead of dazing. Given that the other two don't affect nonliving creatures anyways, the difference in stunnable foes vs. dazable foes isn't all that huge, especially at low levels (constructs and undead are out for both, and elementals, oozes, and plants are the only creature type difference), although it doesn't stun creatures that can't hear either. Still, stunning is even better than dazing against the creatures it affects, as it adds in an AC reduction and an automatic disarm on top of the action loss.

Edit: Neat, this is my 4000th post!

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Dungeon Mag #100 has a level 8 spell Dire Reincarnation.
I googled and found only this 1 mention of it

Um. It's in the Dungeon Mag find thread that I made years ago...

I even used it in my ultimate Beary Bear bear build.

Googled s'more to find that 1 over at BG.
Ah, a true singleton.
Sorry PLZ appearances to the contrary, my kitty avatar's Tail don't follow you around like a puppy.
 

[awaken_D_M_golem]

I also think Holy Warrior is a pretty nice feat for spontaneous casters with access to the War Domain. Then it's essentially "your weapon attacks deal bonus damage equal to the highest unexpended spell slot you have."

hmm ... could value that at a 1st level spell + persist meta.  Cheap or very cheap, depending on how Gishy the gish.

[linklord231]

I also think Holy Warrior is a pretty nice feat for spontaneous casters with access to the War Domain. Then it's essentially "your weapon attacks deal bonus damage equal to the highest unexpended spell slot you have."

I had a Four Horsemen themed cleric that I played for a while who made good use of this feat.  Start out with the Hunger and Pestilence domains, dip Ordained Champion to get War, then Contemplative for Death, and 2 levels of Prestige Paladin for the horse (required some DM leniency, but the concept was awesome enough). 

Holy Warrior + Chaos Devotion + Collision weapon made for some pretty heavy swings.  Even more so when comboing it with Cloud of Knives and other sorts of free-action weapon attacks. 

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

I don't think after bitching about how the designers decided the list of monsters were not suitable for PCs you provided
... apparently no one was interested in should offered as some kind of unchallenged rule breakdown...

I understand your opinion. But I still find the designers not adventurous enough there and still I do find it a challenge

You'll find tons of new homebrew material that no one is interested in. Go try to rain on their parade. They are better trolling targets anyways than dead end discussions about existing printed material. I don't find integer assignment that ... controversial?

[Jowgen]

I got something that (according to a quick site search) appears to be genuinely novel/fun/useful.

DMG2 has Bonding Rituals, which let a character ignore the normal prerequisites for creating an item (such as the ability to cast a certain spell), the exception being non-item-creation feats and caster level, which must either be met otherwise or be equal or less to current character level. The character must still expend the GP and EXP, meet the prequesites of the ritual (can be met by 3rd level), and they can only have one Bonded Item at a time.

The fun part: the Ritual of Faith (pre: Knowledge Religion (3 ranks), 2nd level divine spells) specifically mentions that it can be applied to phylacteries. This means that any character capable of casting 2nd level divine spells that has the means to boost his CL to at least 11 (e.g. Ghostwalk Circle Magic) can construct themselves a Lich's Phylactery, if he has enouch exp/cash to burn.

tl;dr: Ritual of Faith theoretically allows 3rd level Clerics to acquire the Lich template without wasting permanent resources.

[Amechra]

Is it just me, or does the wording of the Anarchic Initiate's Chaotic Surge allow Wilders with Overchannel to effectively double-dip? After all, it modifies either Wild Surge or Overchannel, and you can technically use both on the same power...

EDIT: Derp, I checked the Overchannel feat and not Wild Surge. Yeah, you can't combo them.

In apology for wasting everyone's time, the Knight of the Iron Glacier is... interesting. That capstone essentially translates to "you have DR 3/- and +2 on AC and saves vs. non-mooks" by the time you get it.

Shame about the copious dead levels!

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Well, Wilder into Anarchic Initiate is a standard way to reduce Psychic Enervation chances. 

[awaken_D_M_golem]

I got something that (according to a quick site search) appears to be genuinely novel/fun/useful.

DMG2 has Bonding Rituals, which let a character ignore the normal prerequisites for creating an item (such as the ability to cast a certain spell), the exception being non-item-creation feats and caster level, which must either be met otherwise or be equal or less to current character level. The character must still expend the GP and EXP, meet the prequesites of the ritual (can be met by 3rd level), and they can only have one Bonded Item at a time.

The fun part: the Ritual of Faith (pre: Knowledge Religion (3 ranks), 2nd level divine spells) specifically mentions that it can be applied to phylacteries. This means that any character capable of casting 2nd level divine spells that has the means to boost his CL to at least 11 (e.g. Ghostwalk Circle Magic) can construct themselves a Lich's Phylactery, if he has enouch exp/cash to burn.

tl;dr: Ritual of Faith theoretically allows 3rd level Clerics to acquire the Lich template without wasting permanent resources.

hmm ... both of those ideas are very interesting and worth a solid look.

[Sinfire Titan]

Well, Wilder into Anarchic Initiate is a standard way to reduce Psychic Enervation chances.

Except Wilder lacks Knowledge (The Planes), so you need a feat tax or a dip into another PrC to qualify.

[nijineko]

Didn't both Bhu and PLZ take on something to do with " LA: -- " templates?

I gave a serious inquiry to a difference between those without an LA line and those with an LA:-- line by trying to actually give fair integer numbers. No one else was up to the challenge.

"--" has specific rules meaning, it equals non-ability. the monsters without an LA line could be assumed to be the same, but that is not stated anywhere i'm aware of.

[SorO_Lost]

"--" has specific rules meaning, it equals non-ability. the monsters without an LA line could be assumed to be the same, but that is not stated anywhere i'm aware of.

Basically per MM1 the line is included if it's meant to be playable Race, reverse cast would be any entries that omits it is not. An no value entry (the dash) is a second way to say it's not a playable Race. The second is a technically better filing system because you have to confirm 'no' rather than imply it and relaying on if the entry was missing or not can cause all sorts of problems.

Like Unseelie Fey is a great example, the Template lacked a LA entry because it's not for PCs outside of Cohorts (with I think a +2 adjustment) & Summons but it's highly erroneous example did because Gnome contains an LA entry. Had the Template simply used the dash expression instead of omitance there would have been no ambiguity.

[snakeman830]

Although I will say that certain acquired templates that can be applied to characters (especially by the character's action) really should have had actual LA lines.

Spellstitched, I'm looking at you.

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

In other news, Page 32 of RotD gives specific rules on lost prereqs. Its in a sidebar, so one could try to look at it from a limited perspective by RAI, but the RAW plainly says "In general, you lose any special ability for which you no longer qualify, and nothing is gained in its place." It goes on to repeat the familiar chassis benefits from CW.

[SorO_Lost]

In other news, Page 32 of RotD gives specific rules on lost prereqs. Its in a sidebar, so one could try to look at it from a limited perspective by RAI, but the RAW plainly says "In general, you lose any special ability for which you no longer qualify, and nothing is gained in its place." It goes on to repeat the familiar chassis benefits from CW.

Funny thing about RAW is Feats and many Class Features are not Special Abilities and

The technical details of giving up your previous race and taking on the aspects of the spellscale race are different from those for a character who assumes a creature template.

One can also argue that those rules "in general" expressly apply to Races and Templates do not use those rules.

More on point through, CW, RotD, and SS all agree a change of Race can cause loss of PrC Class Features (not just special abilities) and Templates do not alter actually alter your Race which is the real reason they are exempt when discussing racial changes (through type may be a concern for some).

[Amechra]

So here's a random one:

For pretty much forever, I've assumed that armor doesn't have a listed HP (because you can't sunder it normally). Pretty much every thread I've looked at gives the same answer.

That answer is actually wrong. If you check the SRD here, you can see that armor has HP equal to 5 x the AC bonus.

[Amechra]

Here's one that's... unique, as far as I can tell.

The Knight Protector of the Great Kingdom has a feature called No Mercy:

No Mercy: At 6th level, the Knight Protector gains the ability to make extra attacks of opportunity. The knight protector may make a number of extra attacks of opportunity against opponents equal to the number of the bonus and use the Knight's full attack bonus.

If I'm reading that right, does that mean that a Knight Protector of 6th level could make two attacks of opportunity against anyone who provokes one from them? Or is it just a really clumsy way of saying "Yeah, you can make another attack of opportunity each round. Woo."

[Nanshork]

Here's one that's... unique, as far as I can tell.

The Knight Protector of the Great Kingdom has a feature called No Mercy:

No Mercy: At 6th level, the Knight Protector gains the ability to make extra attacks of opportunity. The knight protector may make a number of extra attacks of opportunity against opponents equal to the number of the bonus and use the Knight's full attack bonus.

If I'm reading that right, does that mean that a Knight Protector of 6th level could make two attacks of opportunity against anyone who provokes one from them? Or is it just a really clumsy way of saying "Yeah, you can make another attack of opportunity each round. Woo."

My guess is that it's the second one, someone didn't like standardized language when they wrote that...