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

[Nytemare3701]

Found a neat trick with the old gish standby of Whirling Blade.

As you cast this spell, you hurl a single slashing weapon at your foes, magically striking at all enemies along a line to the extent of the spell's range. You make a normal melee attack, just as if you attacked with the weapon in melee, against each foe in the weapon's path, but you can choose to substitute your Intelligence or Charisma modifier (as appropriate for your spellcasting class) for your Strength modifier on the weapon's attack rolls and damage rolls. Even if your base attack bonus would normally give you multiple attack rolls, a whirling blade gets only one attack (at your best attack bonus) against each target. The weapon deals damage just as if you had swung it in melee, including any bonuses you might have from ability scores or feats.

No matter how many targets your weapon hits or misses, it instantly and unerringly returns to your hand after attempting the last of its attacks.

+

If you attack a flat-footed opponent immediately after drawing a melee weapon, you can deal extra damage, based on the result of an Iaijutsu Focus check.

That bumps Whirling Blade up from "might clear a few mooks" to "Skillmonkey is FIRIN HIS LAZOR"

[magic9mushroom]

Found a neat trick with the old gish standby of Whirling Blade.

As you cast this spell, you hurl a single slashing weapon at your foes, magically striking at all enemies along a line to the extent of the spell's range. You make a normal melee attack, just as if you attacked with the weapon in melee, against each foe in the weapon's path, but you can choose to substitute your Intelligence or Charisma modifier (as appropriate for your spellcasting class) for your Strength modifier on the weapon's attack rolls and damage rolls. Even if your base attack bonus would normally give you multiple attack rolls, a whirling blade gets only one attack (at your best attack bonus) against each target. The weapon deals damage just as if you had swung it in melee, including any bonuses you might have from ability scores or feats.

No matter how many targets your weapon hits or misses, it instantly and unerringly returns to your hand after attempting the last of its attacks.

+

If you attack a flat-footed opponent immediately after drawing a melee weapon, you can deal extra damage, based on the result of an Iaijutsu Focus check.

That bumps Whirling Blade up from "might clear a few mooks" to "Skillmonkey is FIRIN HIS LAZOR"

Do remember that "flat-footed" =/= "denied Dex to AC". Iaijutsu Focus really is situational.

(Actually, now that I look at it, there's nothing actually saying you have to attack in melee, or with the weapon you drew. So you could just draw a dagger and then shoot someone with a crossbow, or throw the dagger - with Quick Draw you could actually full-attack by drawing and throwing a bunch of daggers. Flat-footed is still a major limiter, though.)

[Nytemare3701]

Still a good trick for an archetype normally limited to single target spike damage.

[Nytemare3701]

I just noticed the duration of "Trance of the Verdant Domain" is "instantaneous". I don't know if they intended the secondary effect to only be active as long as the fascinate effect is up, or if you leave a lingering mindfuck FOREVER.

You project an instantaneous surge of mental energy that overwhelms a weak-minded foe.
The target stops and stares blankly, fascinated for 3 rounds.
In addition, any creature under the effect of this spell takes a -2 penalty on saves against mind-affecting effects you create.

[magic9mushroom]

I just noticed the duration of "Trance of the Verdant Domain" is "instantaneous". I don't know if they intended the secondary effect to only be active as long as the fascinate effect is up, or if you leave a lingering mindfuck FOREVER.

You project an instantaneous surge of mental energy that overwhelms a weak-minded foe.
The target stops and stares blankly, fascinated for 3 rounds.
In addition, any creature under the effect of this spell takes a -2 penalty on saves against mind-affecting effects you create.

Actually, since it says "under the effect of this spell", and they're only under its effect for its duration, there's a decent argument that the secondary effect does nothing.

In any case, since it's only the caster's mind-affecting effects, murder's always a solution.

[magic9mushroom]

I'm reading my way through all of 3.5 Dragon, and the Exiled Dwarves in Dragon 320 are pretty interesting. They lose a lot of what makes dwarves so good, certainly, but +2 Con/-2 Cha and a bonus feat is pretty good all by itself, and they get even bigger bonuses vs. specific enemies and keep weapon familiarity.

[Jackinthegreen]

Found a neat trick with the old gish standby of Whirling Blade.

As you cast this spell, you hurl a single slashing weapon at your foes, magically striking at all enemies along a line to the extent of the spell's range. You make a normal melee attack, just as if you attacked with the weapon in melee, against each foe in the weapon's path, but you can choose to substitute your Intelligence or Charisma modifier (as appropriate for your spellcasting class) for your Strength modifier on the weapon's attack rolls and damage rolls. Even if your base attack bonus would normally give you multiple attack rolls, a whirling blade gets only one attack (at your best attack bonus) against each target. The weapon deals damage just as if you had swung it in melee, including any bonuses you might have from ability scores or feats.

No matter how many targets your weapon hits or misses, it instantly and unerringly returns to your hand after attempting the last of its attacks.

+

If you attack a flat-footed opponent immediately after drawing a melee weapon, you can deal extra damage, based on the result of an Iaijutsu Focus check.

That bumps Whirling Blade up from "might clear a few mooks" to "Skillmonkey is FIRIN HIS LAZOR"

Do remember that "flat-footed" =/= "denied Dex to AC". Iaijutsu Focus really is situational.

(Actually, now that I look at it, there's nothing actually saying you have to attack in melee, or with the weapon you drew. So you could just draw a dagger and then shoot someone with a crossbow, or throw the dagger - with Quick Draw you could actually full-attack by drawing and throwing a bunch of daggers. Flat-footed is still a major limiter, though.)

Requires a slashing weapon, so crossbow bolts are out unless they do that.  I seem to recall a netcutter variant or something along those lines.

Anyway, getting stuff flat-footed en masse can be quite the pain it seems.

Courtesy of http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=8741 it requires:

Going before them in initiative (first round only)
Paralyzing the enemy (much better things to do vs a paralyzed enemy)
Making it balance if the enemy has less than 5 ranks of Balance (use a Sculpted Grease I suppose?)

And that's mostly it against any decent number of enemies.  There are plenty of ways to make a single target FF but they simply wouldn't work against multiple targets in a 60 foot line.  So I guess it requires setup, but there's one oddity I found:

Rules Compendium pg 92 adds in this part to the Hide skill that applies in other circumstances:

"If you’re successfully hidden with respect to another
creature, that creature is flat-footed with respect to you. That
creature treats you as if you were invisible (see page 76)."

But Invisible says nothing about flat-footed, just denied dex to AC.  So this might be a case of the RC being "errata" again.

I stumbled upon an interesting discussion about Whirling Blade over at ENWorld though: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?170081-Whirling-Blade-Area-effect-or-just-Effect

One big oddity of Whirling Blade is it says "Effect: 60-ft. line."  Not Area.  It's apparently the only spell like this that's instantaneous but the fact that it doesn't have an area means it can't be Sculpted for example.  But being able to Sculpt it would open up some more interesting options.

[magic9mushroom]

Requires a slashing weapon, so crossbow bolts are out unless they do that.  I seem to recall a netcutter variant or something along those lines.

I was mentioning it for Iaijutsu Focus in general, not specifically Whirling Blade.

The Compendia are full of weird shit. They imported HoH's fear stacking despite HoH not being intended for non-horror campaigns, and made a concerted effort to make Identify and item slots redundant but did it in a really roundabout way. Not sure if Baleful Polymorph's massive buff was imported from somewhere or a RC "innovation", but that's weird too.

[magic9mushroom]

Wild Touch from Dragon 326 is one hell of a weird feat. 1/day, whenever a magic item requires a random roll or random draw from a deck, you can roll or draw twice and pick which one actually happens.

It seems to be intended for hacking Rods of Wonder, Warpswords and Decks of Many Things, but RAW it should work on damage rolls too. There's also prismatic effects, if you're so inclined.

Doesn't work on Olidammara's Dice, because they have an anti-tampering clause.

[nijineko]

Considered official material due to being licensed, the Legacy of the Blood sourcebook for Ravenloft produced by the now defunct imprint Sword and Sorcery Studios owned by White Wolf has some fun finds; I'll share one that struck me as interesting:

Create Device, a crafting feat that allows one to duplicate magic (and presumably psionic) effects via an explicitly non-magical "device". Despite being described as a "family feat" specific to a certain bloodline (Chapter Seven for those who can find the book), the feat itself is tagged as [General] allowing anybody to take it. Accompanied by a Scientist prestige class loaded with various Weird Science™ effects, as well as new alchemical items.

It costs the same as crafting the equivalent magic/psionic item, however "power sources" must also be crafted which is an additional cost. Devices also burn out (run out of charges) at the same rate as the equivalent magic items, requiring replacement.

More interesting stuff to be found, but I'll let others excavate.

[Nytemare3701]

Considered official material due to being licensed, the Legacy of the Blood sourcebook for Ravenloft produced by the now defunct imprint Sword and Sorcery Studios owned by White Wolf has some fun finds; I'll share one that struck me as interesting:

Create Device, a crafting feat that allows one to duplicate magic (and presumably psionic) effects via an explicitly non-magical "device". Despite being described as a "family feat" specific to a certain bloodline (Chapter Seven for those who can find the book), the feat itself is tagged as [General] allowing anybody to take it. Accompanied by a Scientist prestige class loaded with various Weird Science™ effects, as well as new alchemical items.

It costs the same as crafting the equivalent magic/psionic item, however "power sources" must also be crafted which is an additional cost. Devices also burn out (run out of charges) at the same rate as the equivalent magic items, requiring replacement.

More interesting stuff to be found, but I'll let others excavate.

Do they work in an Antimagic field?

[magic9mushroom]

Dragon 328 has the Bard 4 spell Fugue of Tvash Prull. Medium-range, 30ft-spread save-or-suck with effects that scale based on your Perform check hitting each round. The nasty ones are "attacks nearest target" at DC 45 (presumably for the duration of the spell, which is concentration up to 1 round/level), Feeblemind at DC 55 and death at DC 60. Also, if they make the save they still get a -2 to attack rolls and skill checks.

Note that this is [Sonic], but not [Mind-Affecting] or [Death]. Weird, eat your heart out.

EDIT: Ah, it got whacked with the nerf-bat in Spell Compendium. You could make an argument that it doesn't override due to changing the spell name, but eh.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

couple of DMag #305 feats


Good Neighbor [General]
You have developed positive relations within your community, and its members are willing to offer you assistance when you need it.
Prerequisites: Cha 12+.
Benefits: When in your chosen city, the initial attitudes of regular members of the community toward you never begin worse than indifferent. You also gain a +4 circumstance bonus to Charisma checks for the purpose of influencing the attitudes of members of the community.
Note: You must specify one city or town in which this feat applies.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new city or town.

  Dust off your diplomancer stuff, go run a city.  Even better go to Sigil.


Line of Credit [General]
Your reputation for trustworthiness is such that members of your community are willing to sell you goods and services on credit.
Prerequisites: Cha 12+, Good Neighbor.
Benefits: When purchasing an item or service in your chosen city, you can have a line of credit for a number of gold pieces equal to your Charisma score x 100. (This value can not be higher than one-half the town’s GP Limit based on table 4-40: Random Town Generation in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.)
Once you use this ability, you have one month in which to repay the money owed. If you fail to repay the money owed in one month, while within your chosen city you suffer a –5 penalty to all Charisma-based skill checks. This penalty increases by –5 every month (-10 after two months, -15 after three months, and so on).
After you use a line of credit for any amount, you may not use it again until you repay the outstanding balance.
Note: You must specify one city or town in which this feat applies.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new city or town, but you must also have taken the Good Neighbor feat for the appropriate community first.

  Easy enough to crank your Charisma up.  But the real oomph is borrowing money for Spellcasting Services, go adventure, get loot, pay back the money.  It's Finance.  Like the modern kind.  Does someone with a legit (real life) MBA who knows that level of Finance, wanna chime in on simplified basics ?!  Even without any of that, it's quite delicious.

[Skyrock]

That feat chain makes the Mister Rogers superpower of being the good neighbor everyone wants to have finally official

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

couple of DMag #305 feats


Good Neighbor [General]
You have developed positive relations within your community, and its members are willing to offer you assistance when you need it.
Prerequisites: Cha 12+.
Benefits: When in your chosen city, the initial attitudes of regular members of the community toward you never begin worse than indifferent. You also gain a +4 circumstance bonus to Charisma checks for the purpose of influencing the attitudes of members of the community.
Note: You must specify one city or town in which this feat applies.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new city or town.

  Dust off your diplomancer stuff, go run a city.  Even better go to Sigil.


Line of Credit [General]
Your reputation for trustworthiness is such that members of your community are willing to sell you goods and services on credit.
Prerequisites: Cha 12+, Good Neighbor.
Benefits: When purchasing an item or service in your chosen city, you can have a line of credit for a number of gold pieces equal to your Charisma score x 100. (This value can not be higher than one-half the town’s GP Limit based on table 4-40: Random Town Generation in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.)
Once you use this ability, you have one month in which to repay the money owed. If you fail to repay the money owed in one month, while within your chosen city you suffer a –5 penalty to all Charisma-based skill checks. This penalty increases by –5 every month (-10 after two months, -15 after three months, and so on).
After you use a line of credit for any amount, you may not use it again until you repay the outstanding balance.
Note: You must specify one city or town in which this feat applies.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new city or town, but you must also have taken the Good Neighbor feat for the appropriate community first.

  Easy enough to crank your Charisma up.  But the real oomph is borrowing money for Spellcasting Services, go adventure, get loot, pay back the money.  It's Finance.  Like the modern kind.  Does someone with a legit (real life) MBA who knows that level of Finance, wanna chime in on simplified basics ?!  Even without any of that, it's quite delicious.

I require this for my Merchant Build

[magic9mushroom]

Heeeeey, remember the Talenta Sharrash from ECS, and how it got nerfed in errata because 19-20/x4 crit was kinda ridiculous?

It got reprinted in Dragon 331's article on polearms. Without the errata.

[Nanashi]

Not sure if it counts, but a trio of interesting spells from d20 Modern. Most d20 Modern exclusive spells aren't all that useful in D&D (teleporting through telephone lines in a world without telephones) or are just variants of D&D spells, but these three are neat. (All of these are in the modern SRD. As far as I'm aware only non-OGL spells in Modern are Bless Water in Critical Locations, Shaman spells in D20 Past, Create Crawling Claw in Menace Manual and some in Dark Matter). Urban Arcana actually words the mention of using spells from D&D in Modern in a way that it's considered an alternate campaign setting rather than an actual conversion, though that is more from bringing D&D spells to Modern than the other way around.

Transmutation
Level: Mage 1; Components: V, S; Casting Time; Attack action Range: Touch; Effect: Powers one electrical or mechanical device; Duration: 10 minutes/level; Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: No

This spell provides power to an electrical or mechanical device that does not have a power source but is otherwise functional. The device functions exactly as it normally would if it had conventional power.

This spell can affect any household or handheld device, scratch-built robot, or general-purpose vehicle. Larger or more intricate devices cannot be powered with this spell.

"Mechanical device" includes a lot you'd find in a fantasy world. Mount is better for animal power or transport most of the time, but some fun uses. How powerful this mechanical power is isn't clear though, though I'd go with 14 strength quadruped and 60 speed (equivalent to a light horse from Mount). (In Modern you can get some fun out of this with a bicycle.)

Transmutation
Level: Arcane 1, Divine 1; Components: V, S, M; Casting Time: Full-round action; Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels); Target: One creature, object of up to 1,000 lb./level, or room of up to 100 square feet/level; Duration: Instantaneous; Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless); Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

The clean spell completely eliminates grime, dirt, and bacterial contaminants from the target. Smooth surfaces gain a faint shine, as if they had been polished.

If cast on a room or object, the clean spell destroys dirt, dust, and anything else that would ordinarily be wiped away with a thorough mundane cleaning. The room or object retains no fingerprints, and even the smallest hairs, skin cells, and garment fibers are cleaned away—rendering most evidence collection impossible, for example.

If cast on a creature, the clean spell disinfects wounds (doubling the natural healing rate for that day) and renders the creature scentless for 1 minute. This means that creatures with the scent extraordinary ability won’t be able to detect the subject by scent alone.

Material Component: Bar of soap.

One of Prestidigitation's uses, but supersized.

Conjuration (Summoning)
Level: Arcane 4; Components: V, S, F; Casting Time: 1 minute; Range: 0 ft.; Effect: Extradimensional space within an enclosed vehicle capable of holding one creature per caster level; Duration: 1 hour/level; Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: No

You create a temporary extradimensional space within an enclosed passenger compartment of a vehicle. The spell cannot be cast on vehicles without enclosed passenger compartments, such as motorcycles. The extradimensional space allows the vehicle to hold a number of additional passengers equal to the caster’s level. A passenger may be up to Large size and can bring up to a medium load into the extradimensional space; creatures with more than a medium load cannot enter the extradimensional space.

Creatures that enter the extradimensional space cannot interact with anything outside of the vehicle, nor can creatures outside the vehicle perceive or interact with the occupants and contents of the extradimensional space (or even see the extradimensional space itself). Creatures within the extradimensional space effectively occupy the same 5-footsquare and are incapable of making attacks while so contained.

Exiting the extradimensional space requires the passengers to physically exit the vehicle as well. If the vehicle is destroyed or the extradimensional space is successfully dispelled, the extradimensional space collapses. Any creatures or objects within the extradimensional space are ejected before the space implodes. Ejected creatures fall prone in squares adjacent to the vehicle.

Focus: A klaxon, which must be honked when the spell is cast.

Essentially a larger Rope Trick that can only be cast on an enclosed vehicle but can be moved.

Edit: One from Dark Matter (rest are uninteresting or variants of D&D spells like Swift Flight)

Evocation [Electricity]
Level: Mage 2; Components: V, S; Casting Time: Attack action;
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level); Target: One creature or
object; Duration: Instantaneous; Saving Throw: Reflex half
(see text); Spell Resistance: Yes
A lightning bolt from above strikes the target for 1d6 points of electricity damage per caster level (maximum 5d6). If the target is a creature, it is knocked prone if it fails its Reflex save. If the target succeeds on its Reflex save, it takes half damage and is not knocked prone. You must cast this spell in an area with at least 20 feet of vertical space above the target. If you don’t have 20 feet of space above the target, the spell fails.

An OK blast with a rider. The weird thing is this spell could have been dropped in most 3E splatbooks and not been noticed but as far as I can tell doesn't exist in D&D.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

The Ollam prc in Complete Adventurer is not well regarded , being 3/5 casting and all.

... BUT ...

"If an ollam had no levels in a spellcasting class before taking the prestige class, at 2nd level she gains the spellcasting abilities of a cleric whose caster level is one lower than her class level."

Can someone verify? 
And what the heck does this mean?
Let alone what r.a.i. might be.

If it does what I think it does (i.e. the plain speech of it)
there should be any number of early entry
or multicaster tricks available.

[magic9mushroom]

what the heck does this mean?

Well, usually a cleric's caster level = their class level, so it would seem that the Ollam gets cleric casting equal to a cleric with one less level than the Ollam has Ollam levels. Interestingly, it seems to be 4/5 in that case, although this still isn't anywhere near good.

I mean, yes, "her" is imprecise, but it's pretty obvious that "her" is the Ollam and not the hypothetical cleric.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Ah, Ollam class level, not what I had in mind.
That makes it an Un-Fun Find.
Strictly worse than dipping Cleric.