Re: What can you do with... (Current topic: BRISTLE)

[Unbeliever]

Still, as a 1st level, swift action spell to provide cover, it seems really good. It's comparable to Wings of Cover, Immediate Magic Conjurer, a Shadow Cloak, etc. (especially with Invisible Spell) except you have to prepare in advance, anticipating your opponent. That shouldn't be a terribly difficult thing to accomplish, so the spell is very attractive to me if I'm playing a Wizard with Invisible Spell.

Isn't it only half cover?  I suppose you could drop down behind it. 

[Kethrian]

Still, as a 1st level, swift action spell to provide cover, it seems really good. It's comparable to Wings of Cover, Immediate Magic Conjurer, a Shadow Cloak, etc. (especially with Invisible Spell) except you have to prepare in advance, anticipating your opponent. That shouldn't be a terribly difficult thing to accomplish, so the spell is very attractive to me if I'm playing a Wizard with Invisible Spell.

Isn't it only half cover?  I suppose you could drop down behind it. 

There's cover, improved cover, and total cover.  Half would be cover.

[Bauglir]

It's 5 feet on a side, so if your opponent is Medium or smaller and on a direct line with you, it would grant you total cover, no?

[StreamOfTheSky]

Primary use of Blockade was to give a "wall" to a dungeoncrasher fighter, I thought?

[Jackinthegreen]

A medium or smaller creature can hide behind a Blockade for Total Cover, yes.

Assuming the bashed creature is medium or smaller (or maybe large or smaller) then blockade would probably work as a solid obstruction.  For a huge or larger creature it'd probably just count as a minor trip-up.

[ClayQ]

Had a friend put sorc levels into his hulking hurler build, just for this spell, instant throwing objects.

[Risada]

Primary use of Blockade was to give a "wall" to a dungeoncrasher fighter, I thought?

I second this.

Or total cover.

[Unbeliever]

Primary use of Blockade was to give a "wall" to a dungeoncrasher fighter, I thought?

That was always my thought.  Although a flying dungeon crasher has little need of one I suppose.

[Jackinthegreen]

Primary use of Blockade was to give a "wall" to a dungeoncrasher fighter, I thought?

That was always my thought.  Although a flying dungeon crasher has little need of one I suppose.

Depends on whether the DM has changed a couple things.  For instance, trip a creature.  Where do you bull rush it to now? TO THE GROUND!

[Captnq]

VAMPIRIC TOUCH

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- PLAYER’S HANDBOOK (3.0)
- PLAYER’S HANDBOOK 1 (3.5)
Necromancy
Level: Blighter 3, Bone Collector (3.0) 3, Corrupt Avenger 2, Dread Necromancer 3, Duskblade 3, Envy Domain 4, Hexblade 3, Gluttony Domain 4, Maho-Tsukai (3.0) 3, Sorcerer/Wizard 3, Spite Domain 3, Telflammar Shadowlord 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous/1 hour; see text
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes
You must succeed on a melee touch attack. Your touch deals 1d6 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 10d6). You gain temporary hit points equal to the damage you deal. However, you can’t gain more than the subject’s current hit points +10, which is enough to kill the subject. The temporary hit points disappear 1 hour later.
Alternate Material Component: Specially prepared vampire’s fang [Maximized] (2,550 gp)
Editor (Blaster/Buff): You touch your enemy, they hurt, you get hit points. By itself, not the best spell. Channeled through a weapon, it starts to look better. As it reads, if you add this to another attack, you get the hit points from that weapon as well. That means Black lore of moil adds damage that you get hit points from. Sneak attack also gives you hit points. Also, it has a single target on the target line. That means you can reach/chain this spell. In an off itself, the spell isn’t that impressive because the slow damage progression. Combined with metamagic feats, it can get disgusting. Oh, and don’t forget Spectral Hand. Even if you don’t have reach spell, spectral hand allows you to make touch attacks at range.

Metamagic

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Black Lore of Moil: YES! YES! YES! Pile it on!
 
Reach/Chain: A Total +5 level adjustment. You could potentially do upwards of 500 hit points of damage to a crowd of commoners and become a punching bag, laughing at the town guard as they try to poke you to death with their pig stickers.
 
Empower: Empower doesn’t lend itself well to low damage spells, but every little bit counts when you start stacking the multipliers.
 
Enervate: Keep piling it on.
 
Extend: If for some reason you need the hit points to last two hours, then you need this feet. Not sure why you would need it for that long, but it is an option.
 
Fell Animate: It certainly would look cool, but, alas, you are unlikely to kill someone in one shot with this spell. In fact, you most likely want to aim for the healthiest target, so you get the maximum amount of temporary hit points.
 
Fell Drain: I like this feet, but for a +2 adjustment, there are better metamagic feats.
 
Maximize: Expensive as all heck, but you get what you pay for. It’d be far better in a rod, mind you.
 
Smiting: A way to get around the range limitation is to put this in a smiting spell, then cast it on an arrow you hand off to the archer. The archer does extra damage and you get the hit points.

Wands

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Vampiric Touch (SL2/CL4): 6000 gp
                HP Damage: 2d6 = Avg 7 hp (17.14 gp/hp)
                Only available from a Telflammar Shadowlord or a corrupt avenger, it is base line spell in a wand.
 
Vampiric Touch BLoM (SL2/CL4): 8500 gp
                HP Damage: 2d6 +2d6 = Avg 14 hp (12.14 gp/hp)
                Only available from a Telflammar Shadowlord or a corrupt avenger, it is the most cost effective wand you can buy.
 
Vampiric Touch Reach (SL4/CL8): 30000 gp
                HP Damage: 4d6 = Avg 14  hp (42.86 gp/hp)
                Only available from a Telflammar Shadowlord or a corrupt avenger, this wand has reach to it, making it much more useful for a wizard.
 
Vampiric Touch BLoM/Reach (SL4/CL8): 32500 gp
                HP Damage: 4d6 + 2d6 = Avg 21 hp (30.95 gp/hp)
                Very expensive, but possibly the best you can fit in a wand. Again, only available from a Telflammar Shadowlord or a corrupt avenger.

Scrolls

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Vampiric Touch Reach/Chain (SL8/CL16): 3250 gp
                HP Damage: 8d6 + 2d6 = Avg 35 hp (92.85 gp/hp)
                Targets: 16 (5.80 gp/hp)
                And here we see the reason why reach chain and vampiric touch is so scary. A potential for 560 temp hit points for an hour. You can become the punching bag, as long as you are willing to suck the life out of a crowd of people.
 
Vampiric Touch BLoM/Heighten+1/Reach/Chain (SL9/CL20): 4575 gp
                HP Damage: 10d6 + 3d6 = Avg 45.5 hp (100.55 gp/hp)
                Targets: 20 (5.03 gp/hp)
                And this is the ultimate in temp hit point gathering. On average, you could harvest 910 hit points. Then you could walk through a hail of arrows, jump off a cliff and celebrate by drinking lava.
 
Vampiric Touch BLoM/Empower (SL5/CL10): 1300 gp
                HP Damage: 5d6 + 2d6 x 1.5 = Avg 36.5 hp (35.61 gp/hp)
                Not the most cost effective way to cause damage, but the temp hit points will help you to weather the blows you are about to take from touching someone.
 
Vampiric Touch BLoM/Empower/Enervate  (SL7/CL14): 2500 gp
                HP Damage: 7d6 + 2d6 x 2 = Avg 47 hp (53.19 gp/hp)
                While adding enervate does add quite a bit of damage, the additional cost makes it seem less then impressive.
 
Vampiric Touch BLoM/Empower/Maximize  (SL8/CL16): 3250 gp
                HP Damage: 60 hp (54.17 gp/hp)
                This combo will net you a hefty amount of hit points. Still, for 8th level, there are far more impressive spells. The range/chain version springs to mind.
 
Vampiric Touch BLoM/Empower/Reach/Split Ray (SL9/CL20): 4550 gp
                HP Damage: 10d6 + 2d6 x 1.5 x 2 = Avg 125.5 hp (36.25 gp/hp)
                If your DM does not allow a reach/chain spell, then this combo is the best you are going to get. You can drain from on target or two, depending on the strength of your enemies.

And that's it for this analysis. Hope this brings new life to this old spell.

[skydragonknight]

Duskblades with Bloodstone weapons come to mind. I forget if for Full Attack Arcane Channel it counts as a single instance of the spell or multiple instances for the purposes of figuring out temporary hit points.

[zioth]

Yeah. Duskblade is the reason to have this spell, and this spell is the reason to be a Duskblade. Even with no metamagic and no special weapons, you're constantly giving yourself a HP buffer, and adding a significant amount of damage to your weapon (more than most weapon enhancements). Yeah, the temporary HP don't stack, but you're taking the best of four attempts (7 attempts with TWF, 8 if you also have a level of monk, 9 if you also have Exotic Weapon Master, 10 with haste. At epic levels with pTWF, that can go up to 13 attacks depending on how you interpret the feat).

[Endarire]

Vampiric Touch: Mwuahahah!

[Captnq]

Rather then repost this in all relevant threads, I forward you to this post for details.

[Jackinthegreen]

Something random I just thought about: A Spectral Hand can be attacked.  Turn it invisible to give it a bit more use.

[Jackinthegreen]

What can you do with: Frost Nova (Diablo 2 - Diablerie page 40)

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Frost Nova (Cold)
Evocation [Cold]
Level: Sos2 (Sor/Wiz2)
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action (Uses 3.0 rules, change to standard for 3.5)
Range: Emanates 20 ft. from caster
Effect: Ring, see text
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes
An icy version of nova, this spell creates a ring of freezing vapors that forms 10 feet away from you in all directions and blasts outward to a radius of 20 feet. Each creature within the affected area takes 1d4+ 1 points of cold damage per caster level (maximum 5d4+5) . A Reflex save reduces this damage to half, but those taking any frost nova damage must make a Fortitude save or be paralyzed with cold and helpless for Id3 rounds.

Metamagic:

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Energy Substitution: Due to low base damage you'll want to be able to change the damage type on this since negating the damage also negates the Fort save to be paralyzed.  Going for something like City Magic or Consecrate Spell will definitely help.

Lord of the Uttercold: Sets up the spell for Black Lore of Moil.

Fell Drain: Great on an area effect spell, although the somewhat limited range on Frost Nova is a bit of a pain.

Heighten Spell: Pump that DC up!

Lingering Spell: The wording about "those taking any frost nova damage must make a fort save..." means this is essentially a cheaper repeat spell.  Very nice, especially if this interpretation allows for Extend and thus Persist.

Piercing Cold: Helpful against resistant targets but still doesn't let the spell work on monsters with the Cold subtype.

Sculpt Spell:  Get around that dead zone and nova the area you really want to.

Widen Spell: Changes the spell to work at 20 to 40 feet away.  Sculpt is better but combining them has great options.

Explosive Spell:  Pushing things to the edge and knocking them down is nice for BFC, but at +2 levels might not be worth it on this one unless you also sculpt it.

Quicken Spell:  Due to the dead zone you can't CdC an opponent if you paralyze it with this, but saving on the action economy is nice.

Flash Frost Spell:  Deal some extra damage and make a ring of slippery frost in the area? Definitely worth the +1.

[muktidata]

I normally wouldn't mention Pathfinder stuff here, but the Rime Spell metamagic feat works so well with that.

[SorO_Lost]

If a rogue delivered a sneak attack with the vampiric touch spell, would the extra damage from the sneak attack also give her extra hit points? And could the sneak attack dice allow her to exceed the maximum damage allowed by the spell?
Yes and yes. The spell simply says that you “gain temporary hit points equal to the damage you deal.” The spell doesn’t seem to care how you get to that value (Empower Spell, sneak attack, and so on), so a rogue who delivered 50 points of damage with vampiric touch would gain 50 temporary hit points. The maximum damage listed for the spell only applies to the damage gained by your caster level; it doesn’t take into account any other benefits the character might have, such as sneak attack damage.

Enough said, unless you're playing PF.

[Jackinthegreen]

Just tossing this out there for potential further review: Mindless Rage.  It certainly has use for a caster with something like Robilar's Gambit or plenty of miss chances, but it also works when the caster uses it at a decent enough distance that a party member with a control AoO setup could essentially get free whacks as the creature continues attempting to move in to hit the caster.

[Captnq]

Ya know, I got to get back to this thread. Most likely after I finish the Weapon Ability Handbook.