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

[awaken_D_M_golem]

A Core find in the Helm of Brilliance.

Among all the fire spells and explodey bits everyone knows about, there's one line that's a bit of a gem:

The wearer may command any weapon he wields to become a flaming weapon. This is in addition to whatever abilities the weapon may already have (unless the weapon already is a flaming weapon). The command takes 1 round to take effect.

That's it.  Notice that there is no cost and, more importantly, no duration listed.  Sure, 1d6 fire damage on a weapon doesn't mean much at the point you have a 125k gp item, but being able to apply that to the weapons of an entire army is a pretty good deal.

I'll be crossposting this to Pathfinder fun finds because not only did they not change this bit, but they made a far cheaper version of the helm that still has this ability!  18k for applying the Flaming weapon quality to as many weapons as you want on top of the items other abilities is nuts.

Schweeeeeeet.
(reads)

Hey, you can use it as a really big Nuke too.

"If a creature wearing the helm is damaged by magical fire (after the fire protection is taken into account) and fails an additional DC 15 Will save, the remaining gems on the helm overload and detonate. Remaining diamonds become prismatic sprays that each randomly target a creature within range (possibly the wearer), rubies become straight-line walls of fire extending outward in a random direction from the helm wearer, and fire opals become fireballs centered on the helm wearer. The opals and the helm itself are destroyed."

1hp commoner + takes 31 fire damage + fails dc 15 will = 

[ketaro]

As some one who likes to grab necklaces of fireball and toss em like grenades, making these helms cost effective seems right up my alley.

Also do note that you don't have to activate the helm to blow it up and that's important because you only get the fire resist when the helm is activated. So you could set these off with an alchemist fire and a willingly failed will save.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Y'know ... this is so big , I'm surprised no one spotted it before.
(googles)

PhaedrusXY mentions post #4 ---> http://secretsofthearchmages.net/Threads/WOTC/2008/D20_Design_Character_Optimization/763667.html
Kreselak recalls it a little earlier ---> http://secretsofthearchmages.net/Threads/WOTC/2008/D20_Design_Character_Optimization/563694.html
Byakugan01 (idk this guy at all) post #35 ---> http://secretsofthearchmages.net/Threads/Wotc/2015/DND_Adventurers_League/4198961.htm

raistlin_devreault probably the original , '03 and wasn't c.o. ---> http://secretsofthearchmages.net/Threads/WOTC/2008/Magic_and_Spells/133806.html

Maybe this was the inspiration for the Orog suiciding the hole in Helm's Deep.

9d6 average damage sub-fireball = I get to be king for a day ... (boom)

[widow]

"Expedition to the Demonweb Pits" has planar traits on page 54 that include doubling your caster level with evil and chaotic spells. 

The embassy rod from the Arms and equipment guide make you count as being on your home plane.  Each rod has its own realm it is keyed to.  Now you don't gain this benefit if you are not from that realm.

UMD has emulate race and you could polymorph into say, a envoy of lolth which is native to that plane.  Corrupt spell makes any spell evil.

A lot of work, but would be useful for doubling your buffs caster level.

My current character accidently happens to be a native, has a rod, and corrupt spell so it was a happy accident.

[SorO_Lost]

Sounds like an Acorn deal to me and UMD only works with activate items, how about we just replace with one of the two Wizard ACFs that make every Spell they cast Evil without Metamagic costs and use Planar Bubble instead? That way it becomes a Spell option that you can add to a generic Focused Abyssal Specialist build.

[SorO_Lost]

Snakeman mentioned a spell in chat today, I figured I'd just try to optimize it a little bit as I try to swap my hours for tomorrow's shift.

The STFU Caster Class: Eclectic Learning Warmage 4 / Warlock 3 / Eldritch Theurge 6 / Warmage 2 / Eldritch Theurge +4 / Any 1 Skills: K-Arcana 8, K-Planes 8. Feats: Snowcasting, Energy Substitution(fire), Energy Admixture, Searing Spell. Spells: Streamers, (Deeper) Darkness. Innovations: Vitriolic Blast. Items: Anything that helps result in a CL of 19 or higher.

Silence is golden but duct tape is silver.

Eldritch Spellweave allows you to apply an Eldritch Essence to a Spell so long as the Spell's level is equal or greater than the Essence's Level. By using Eclectic Learning (PHBII pg66), which can be used to learn Evocation Spells, the Warmage can learn Streamers (FR:SS pg50) as a 6th level Spell instead of 5th. This allows you to apply the 6th level Essence Vitriolic Blast to it since Streamers does technically targets Creatures and it does require melee Touch Attacks. Since you can choose the order of benefits you'll apply Snowcasting to give it the [Cold] Descriptor followed by Energy Substitution(fire) to reset the Acid damage to Fire and to change the Descriptor to [Fire] allowing Searing Spell to be applied to it.

The result is 3+ChaMod/day you can cast a Snowcasted Energy Sub Vitriolic Streamer that deals 5d10+2d6 Fire with lingering effects. It ignores Resistance and still deals 1/2 damage if they would be immune to the damage. It is also a Conjuration Effect that ignores Spell Resistance and assault Magic-Immune creatures like Golems. Unless your target is wielding a weapon, Natural Weapons that count as Magical for bypassing DR are not Magical outside of discussing DR, they are also unable to destroy the Streamers. Their only defense is their Touch AC which by effectively blinding them to the Streamers sets them up to be Flat-Footed against the attacks.

The effect produces four Streamers at once and each time your target takes an Action, any Action, each one of them attacks the target potentially dealing an average of 138 damage. This can literately force a creature with the Fire Subtype to take 69 damage for talking.

[snakeman830]

I didn't mention Streamers.  That was Nytemare.

Also, since it's not an Instantaneous effect, Antimagic Field still suppresses it like most spells.  It's only Instantaneous Conjurations that get to bypass AMF.

[Nytemare3701]

The effect produces four Streamers at once and each time your target takes an Action, any Action, each one of them attacks the target potentially dealing an average of 138 damage. This can literately force a creature with the Fire Subtype to take 69 damage for talking.

Only one streamer can trigger per target per action, so subsequent streamers trigger on subsequent actions.
NEVERMIND I was going from memory. They seem to be able to pile on.

[SorO_Lost]

Also, since it's not an Instantaneous effect, Antimagic Field still suppresses it like most spells.

Rechecked and yeah it should probably be handled like a Summon or something causing it to wink out in Antimagic.

Only one streamer can trigger per target per action, so subsequent streamers trigger on subsequent actions.
NEVERMIND I was going from memory. They seem to be able to pile on.

Yeah, but you do only hit them once for the entire monologue. Still kind of nice, and you can pile on other Metamagic Effects into this too.

[SorO_Lost]

Activate Class Ability
A character can spend 1 action point to gain another use of a class ability that has a limited number of uses per day. For example, a monk might spend an action point to gain another use of her stunning fist ability, or a paladin might spend an action point to make an additional smite attack.

Unlike Eberron, UA's Action Points works on anything and only costs one point.

Imagine a Fate Spinner with Unfettered Heroism using this. 

[Shadowhunter]

I'm not sure this is a new find, but I've not seen it mentioned anywhere during the years. I came up with this idea quite some time ago, but I'm neither sure it's new nor that it's water tight as far as rules go. Regardless, it involves Cooperative Metamagic and a ring of spell storing.

Here's the gist of it: Incantatrix puts Wraithstrike/Bite of the Wereboar/Greater Blink or something to that effect into a ring of spell storing. Gives it to an ally, let's say a Barbarian. Readies an action to use Cooperative Metamagic to apply Persist to the spell when it's cast from the ring. Barbarian casts the spell out of the ring and you now have a shot at making the effect persistent.

You can apply the same basic principle behind Metamagic Effect as well, though I think you only have one shot at attempting to Persist Wraithstrike since it only lasts 1 round, either via Coop or Effect.

An upside to this is that now you can get full usage of both your 3+INT per day abilities, even if there are no allied spellcasters or a lack of spells they want to persist (Warmage or Beguiler and their lack of buffs comes to min).

The only question of legality comes down to technicalities if a character casting a spell out of the ring makes them a spellcaster at that specific point or not. Metamagic Effect only cares about ongoing spells, so that's all fine, but Cooperative might not work, depending on your DM's interpretation.

So have your party all chip in and pool a Ring of Spell Storing, preferably a Major one by the time you can cast 8th level spells. They'll all enjoy it.

[SorO_Lost]

The only question of legality comes down to technicalities if a character casting a spell out of the ring makes them a spellcaster at that specific point or not.

Better question to ask your self is would you allow that Barbarian to enter the Incantatrix PrC because they have two of those rings?

But as a base rule you cannot apply your Feats to any Magic Item that Stores or Duplicates a Spell Effect and the Incantatrix's Cooperative Metamagic applies to Spell cast by a willing Spellcaster and these two areas don't actually overlap. But still, consider how a Wizard would need to supply some licorice which is consumed as part of casting Haste before he can even store it, but the wearer doesn't need to supply anything. It's almost like he's throwing something out of the ring that someone else stored, it's a shame the author's didn't have a thesaurus to describe that without using the word "cast" through.

But speaking of Eberron/Unearthed's Action Points, they apply to the Incantatrix's abilities too.
And if you really want to get into it.
* Unfettered Heroism: The gateway, +1 Action Point per Round.
* Wand Surge: Spend 1AP to reduce charge expenditure by -1.
* Wand of Metamagic Item: Apply Persist to any Spell Trigger (Sic wand) item.
* Wand of Wand Modulation: make a wand cast any other spell with a level lower than the wand's normal state.
By adding any 4th level Wand into the mix you can use Unfettered to power Metamagic/Modulation and reduce the increased cost. Net gain is after casting Unfettered, you expend 1 Charge off a Wand to Persist any valid 3rd level Spell you like. You could do lower level Spell too, but it's cheaper to by a 3rd & 2nd level Wand and expend those. And you can pass the altered Wand around too, through without Unfettered it consumes two charges for them to benefit from a Persisted Spell.

[Shadowhunter]

Yeah, I was never sure it held water properly. When your core argument turns into "Do they need to be a spellcaster, or did the writers just assume that anyone casting a spell would be one" it's on thin ice. Oh well, Metamagic Effect still works (doesn't care who cast the spell, just that it is present). Leaves you with only one shot at Persisting 1 round spells like Wraithstrike, but it'll work. Have to save Co-op for an actual spellcaster.

Interesting about the Wand modulation. It never occurred to me that you could make a item holding an infusion, what a simple thing to overlook. Huh. I've read the handbooks countless times, I'm now amazed at my own ability to avoid realizing this until now. Artificer really is the person who says "screw the rules, I have money" when you start mixing all these ingredients already mentioned.

Unfettered Heroism is such a silly spell. Like, not in itself and not within the context of using it for the basic functions listed in the ECS. But combined with everything else keyed to it... Wand surge working with Staves is probably high up on that list. Then there's Primordial Scholar as well, practically giving you infinite 1st-5th spells.

My idea actually came from trying to figure out a way to have a Blade of Orien that could be very liberal with their teleportations and looking to UH combined with Unlock Dragonmark. Unfortunately, Orien's Fury is keyed to whenever you use your Dimensional Jump as a swift action, and using Unlock Dragonmark is a standard action.

I wonder if there's any substance to a Decisive Strike Monk using UH and Dragonmarked Fist.

[SorO_Lost]

Artificer really is the person who says "screw the rules, I have money" when you start mixing all these ingredients already mentioned.

Anyone can buy access to Infusions. 

Then there's Primordial Scholar as well, practically giving you infinite 1st-5th spells.

I never understood why people bring that Class up. It takes 2ap to recover a Spell Slot, not 1, so you are limited unless you tap into a real loop like a Mongoose with Raging Luck (assuming it works). Also if your DM allows the UA's version of Action Points.

Spell Recall
Spellcasters who prepare their spells in advance can spend 1 action point to recall any spell just cast. The spell can be cast again later with no effect on other prepared spells. This use of an action point is a free action and can only be done in the same round that the spell is cast. Spontaneous spellcasters such as sorcerers and bards can spend 1 action point to cast a spell without using one of their daily spell slots. This use of an action point is a free action and can only be done as the spell is being cast.

Check out Emulate Feat while you're there too for your Blade of Orien, Martial Study is pretty awesome.

I wonder if there's any substance to a Decisive Strike Monk using UH and Dragonmarked Fist.

Probably, there is an inherent problem with a Monk's Unarmed damage is it's probably even more broken than the existence of charge multipliers but at least there are more ways to play with it. Like you could spam attacks, or hit hard on AoOs while taunting your foe as an expression of awesomeness, or you could just ramp the damage up so high you never need more than a Standard Action to kill your opponent One-Punch Man style.

[Shadowhunter]

Then there's Primordial Scholar as well, practically giving you infinite 1st-5th spells.

I never understood why people bring that Class up. It takes 2ap to recover a Spell Slot, not 1, so you are limited unless you tap into a real loop like a Mongoose with Raging Luck (assuming it works).

I think you are thinking of:

Mystery of Xen'drik
Choose one of your known spells, of a level equal to your class level or lower, (only characters with a spellbook or a spells known list can choose this option:) You can spend 2 action points to cast that spell without counting it against your daily limit. If you normally prepare spells, you need not have prepared a spell to cast it in this way.

while I am referring:

Secret of Power
Spend 1 action point to regain a number of spells (or spell slots, if you cast spontaneously) that you have already cast today. The total levels of the spells or spell slots regained can't exceed your class level.

[SorO_Lost]

I could be blind, of course given both those things accomplish the same end result but one is higher level and requires 2ap and only works on one spell instead of all of them it could just be really terribly written or incorrectly interpreted. They really should have just bought my Facebook information and hired me to create their errata/FAQ.

[Shadowhunter]

I think the only thing about Mystery of Xen'drik that is worth considering is that for a prepared caster, they needn't have prepared it ahead of time, while Secret of Power can only reclaim spells you've prepped. So another tool alongside Uncanny Foresight and Alacritous Cogitation. Maybe they thought that was worth the higher price.

Still means it's pointless for Sorcerers/Bards though so... it could do with a bit of quality assurance, that's for certain. Then again, it's 3.5 so that applies to a lot of things, and in the end it doesn't matter much what's theoretically possible, as much as what your DM allows. But it does make it wonky for those of us that enjoy crafting builds in a vacuum just to tinker with the tools, that's for sure.

[SorO_Lost]

I think the only thing about Mystery of Xen'drik that is worth considering is that for a prepared caster,

*Ahem* Echoing Spell.

I also love the extra Magic Item Effects, heck those count as a Fun Find on their own. Page 157, some of the effects are simply flavorful like your footsteps are on fire briefly. But there are some useful minor things like for +50gp your Cloak of Charisma also makes your eyes glow and you gain a +1 circumstantial bonus to Intimidate or adding a +2 bonus to Concentration Check when trying to use the Magical Item for +100gp. +50gp for +1 Cold damage with Unarmed Strike isn't bad either and adds the ability to cool your drink down by punching it. There is also a strange everyone within 10ft tastes honey and you gain a +1 moral bonus to Diplomacy one too, but hey it only costs 50gp and it can be added to any Magic Item so why not.

[Nanshork]

Mystery of Xen'drik is the name of the more expensive class ability.  It is not the name of the book.   

[SorO_Lost]

Mystery of Xen'drik is the name of the more expensive class ability.  It is not the name of the book.   

Pretty close through.