Author Topic: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff  (Read 45161 times)

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KellKheraptis

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #40 on: October 05, 2010, 06:31:34 PM »
Dragon 324 - Flaws for Bards (p. 98)
-Arcane Performer : Requires arcane casting without preparation, and Perform 1 rank.  Must make a Perform check (DC 10+spell level) to cast any spell, and if you fail you lose the spell.  Sooo many ways to take advantage of this for a free feat...

I'm beginning to think we have differing opinions on the word 'useful'...


And what SF said.

Well, what bard won't have maxed ranks in Perform?  And further, if you don't care about Still/Silent Spell, you're either vocalizing or moving regardless, so nothing really changes, just getting a bonus feat to make one more roll against a trivial DC.
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The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #41 on: October 05, 2010, 07:49:10 PM »
Odds are in combat you won't be able to take 10, and getting +10 bonus to perform is nontrivial at lower levels.
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KellKheraptis

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #42 on: October 05, 2010, 08:07:25 PM »
Odds are in combat you won't be able to take 10, and getting +10 bonus to perform is nontrivial at lower levels.

Cha 20, 4 ranks, absolutely anything else that grants +1 (synergy, masterwork tool, racial bonus)?  Seems pretty trivial to me so long as Cha is your focus.
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Bozwevial

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #43 on: October 05, 2010, 09:50:40 PM »
Assuming no masterwork instruments and the bare minimum Charisma necessary to cast each spell level:

0th level: Starts at 75%.
1st level: Starts at 80% (either you hit 2nd level with a Charisma of 12 to get your bonus spell slot, or you hit third level with a Charisma of 11)
2nd level: Starts at 90% (as above, either have a Charisma of 14 at 4th level or wait until 5th level)
3rd level and upwards: You'll always make the check, since this is where your ranks start to outstrip the DC.

Toss in a masterwork tool and a decent Charisma, you should be good. If you have absolutely no use for the free feat? Take Skill Focus (Perform). You just got a free +3 bonus to Perform. A lousy use of the feat? Yes, but it's essentially free.

The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #44 on: October 05, 2010, 09:56:10 PM »
I dunno, it just strikes me that allowing skill debuffs to hit your casting is a bad idea.`
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KellKheraptis

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #45 on: October 05, 2010, 09:59:53 PM »
I dunno, it just strikes me that allowing skill debuffs to hit your casting is a bad idea.`


True.  Though the best "debuff" in this case is no save anyhow and shuts down anyone.  Granted, it also triggers any decent paranoid tippy's contingent "get me the fuck out of here!" too :P (Knowledge Affiliation)
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Bozwevial

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #46 on: October 05, 2010, 10:02:17 PM »
I dunno, it just strikes me that allowing skill debuffs to hit your casting is a bad idea.
Yeah, true, but how often do you run across someone who intentionally debuffs your Perform skill? (Granted, more often once your DM realizes how ineffective that flaw is.)

The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #47 on: October 05, 2010, 10:13:29 PM »
Well, IIRC, mass debuffs just hit everything including skills.
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Bozwevial

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #48 on: October 05, 2010, 10:40:08 PM »
Negative levels do, I remember that much. Anything hitting your Charisma would, too, but that would affect your casting in any case. Item Familiar makes the point moot, though, as anything that would debuff you enough for the skill check to actually start mattering again would already seriously threaten you.

BeholderSlayer

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #49 on: October 06, 2010, 02:12:06 PM »
Found a nice one, Dragon 314, Gauntlets of the Heartfelt Blows. Deal charisma modifier in fire damage with a melee weapon.
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Benly

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #50 on: October 07, 2010, 06:34:00 AM »
The class sucks harder than a Warmage (it's like playing 1E, only your spells known reset in under 4 hours for certain ones, meaning you spend half a day learning it and never get to cast it).

It's honestly not that bad, but it's not mindbogglingly awesome. I think you're getting some if its features/problems confused. You keep any spell you retrieve for one hour per sha'ir level no matter what, which is nearly as good as all day after a few levels. You seem to be confusing this with the "time to prepare", which is d4+spell level rounds for a sorc/wiz spell you know, d6+spell level minutes for a sorc/wiz spell you don't know, and d6+spell level hours for spells that aren't on the sorc/wiz list only. For spells they know they'll prepare faster than a wizard, and for spells they don't "know" it'll take about the same time as a wizard. For divine spells, you might as well not bother. I guess if you have all day and really want Find The Path? Otherwise, ignore their access to divine spells and they're not much worse than other arcane casters in that regard.

It's not clear from the text whether letting a spell expire from your memory actually expends the spell slot for the day, either; "the power to cast the spell dissipates harmlessly" could mean that "the energy of the spell dissipates harmlessly" or "the sha'ir's ability to cast the spell dissipates harmlessly" equally well depending on whether they mean power as energy or power as an ability. The actual Spellcasting ability of the sha'ir refers to a limit on spells cast per day rather than spells retrieved per day, which seems to lean towards not expending the spell if you don't cast it. If it does expend the spell, being a sha'ir will be miserable for the first five levels or so until your spells stick in memory long enough to last out the adventuring day, after which it'll be pretty much like being any other caster unless you get ambushed in the middle of the night. At which point it sucks hard.

Now, all that said, you'll notice I've been saying "okay, it's not much worse than the wizard". Which raises the quite reasonable question: why be at all worse than the wizard when you could be a wizard? Given that their divine spellcasting ability is, as noted, pretty shitty, this is an entirely valid question. I've figured out two reasons you might pick.

 First: if you are the kind of guy who leaves spell slots open for the wizard to prep situational spells into, the sha'ir is even better at that than the wizard: he can prep any spell from the sorc/wiz list in less time than a wizard takes to prep it without needing to actually learn the spell. A wizard can theoretically, with enough time and money, accumulate a spellbook with every spell in it; a sha'ir has that spellbook as a class feature. I'm pretty sure this is intended to be the sha'ir's big deal as an advantage, and in the right campaign it's actually a pretty good one.

Second: as magnificently crappy as its divine casting is, the sha'ir is nonetheless both a divine spellcasting class and an arcane spellcasting class. This means it qualifies for and is advanced by divine prestige classes without having to multiclass. You can go sha'ir -> contemplative -> dweomerkeeper without multiclassing or any shenanigans beyond those required to get the necessary K: Religion in the first place. I'm pretty sure this is not actually intended to be an advantage of the sha'ir, but it's better than the actual divine spellcasting itself.


So, yeah. It does have its problems and you'll end up juggling timers a lot. Worse than a warmage? Haha, no.

...oh, yeah, and you have to make a Diplomacy check to prep your spells. Annoying, but we all know how hard it is to get your Diplomacy check decently high, and there's no "cannot take 10" disclaimer. :)

Edit: Just got bored and checked how long it would take to prep every slot for a level 20 sha'ir at once. Average of 33 minutes if they're known spells. 6 hours 20 or so if none of them are spells from his known list, but if that's the case either you're preparing for some kind of bizarre stunt or you picked absolutely terrible spells known.

Edit 2: Ran some more numbers out of boredom, if you take 5 levels before PrCing out, keep diplomacy maxed and get 5 ranks each of Bluff and Sense Motive it is literally impossible to fail the diplomacy check to get any sorc/wiz spell you are capable of casting with up to two levels of metamagic on it. Spells known get an extra two points of leeway, and this is disregarding Charisma bonus on a Charisma-based caster, so it seems reasonable to say you're just not going to fail the diplomacy check. I would recommend sticking in the class longer than that if the DM rules uncast spells are expended, but if not you'll just need to spend a few minutes re-prepping at worst.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2010, 07:11:01 PM by Benly »

Mixster

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #51 on: October 07, 2010, 12:46:09 PM »
You all forgot the Wild monk, which arguably makes the monk into a Tier 4 class, possibly higher.

Shame on you for doing so.
Monks are pretty much the best designed class ever.

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Littha

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #52 on: February 12, 2011, 11:57:12 PM »
Secret of the Firebrands from dragon 306 gives you the ability to wield and create firearms even if they don't exist in the campaign.
Paladin only though (requires divine grace) and getting the crafting DCs for making the things will be a pain on a paladin.


Also:
Arcane Disiple from dragon 311, alternate cleric. Trades domains and turn undead for the ability to add one arcane spell to your spell list every level and bonus feats every 5 levels.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 12:17:01 AM by Littha »

Suzerain

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #53 on: February 13, 2011, 02:09:51 AM »
Found a nice one, Dragon 314, Gauntlets of the Heartfelt Blows. Deal charisma modifier in fire damage with a melee weapon.
I swear I meant to attend to this sooner. Though honestly I don't know who'd use them. 12K is too much for low level, and by mid level you probably want to spend it on something that isn't as easily negated (chances are, any amount of fire resistance makes this void). If you got 12K lying around uselessly at higher levels, I guess it's a consideration...


Secret of the Firebrands from dragon 306 gives you the ability to wield and create firearms even if they don't exist in the campaign.
Paladin only though (requires divine grace) and getting the crafting DCs for making the things will be a pain on a paladin.
This has been added, if only for the novelty. Thanks.


Also:
Arcane Disiple from dragon 311, alternate cleric. Trades domains and turn undead for the ability to add one arcane spell to your spell list every level and bonus feats every 5 levels.
I already knew about this one (used to be on crystalkeep), but I didn't think it worth mentioning. It's crap because you give up nice things, domains and turning, and gain 2 feats (metamagic or item creation) and 3 low-level spells (2x 1st, 1x 2nd, plus cantrips). If you plan on PrCing out after 5th level, anyway... and I'm assuming you do. Even if you stuck with it for 17-20 levels, you'd not gain 9th level arcane spells.
In short, it removes the front-loadedness of the Cleric... which may be a good thing balance-wise, but doesn't really help with builds.

The Divine Magician ACF (CM), for comparison, gives you 9 spells which you can pick however you want and gain them even when PrCing out. It's only for 3 of the least powerful schools, to be sure (abjuration, divination, necromancy), but it still retains one domain, turning, and meshes well with PrCs.

Another option would be the Customize Domain feat (DR #325). You spend one of your mid-level feats on this one and get to exchange crappy spells for good spells for one domain. You really want to use it to nab some very useful and exclusive spells, though, I imagine (Giant Size, Wings of Flurry, Choose Destiny, Celerity, Draconic Polymorph, Shapechange). This meshes well with PrCs, but it uses up domain slots. I'm considering on adding this feat.

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #54 on: February 13, 2011, 02:41:13 AM »
I think customize domain is pretty nifty, and worth adding ...
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Suzerain

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #55 on: February 13, 2011, 04:13:40 AM »
I think customize domain is pretty nifty, and worth adding ...
I just did so, and I added some suggestions for substitutions (by no means exhaustive). Suffice to say, you get to be the most creative with non-standard domains.

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #56 on: February 13, 2011, 05:02:07 AM »
I think customize domain is pretty nifty, and worth adding ...
I just did so, and I added some suggestions for substitutions (by no means exhaustive). Suffice to say, you get to be the most creative with non-standard domains.

You are aware it only lets you pick spells from spell lists you can already access, yes? No picking spells from Wizards and other Domains... It's a powerful feat, but it does have limits.
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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #57 on: February 13, 2011, 05:06:25 AM »
I think customize domain is pretty nifty, and worth adding ...
I just did so, and I added some suggestions for substitutions (by no means exhaustive). Suffice to say, you get to be the most creative with non-standard domains.

You are aware it only lets you pick spells from spell lists you can already access, yes? No picking spells from Wizards and other Domains... It's a powerful feat, but it does have limits.

time for a 1 level wizard dip?

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #58 on: February 13, 2011, 09:30:55 AM »
Arcane Disciple should be mentioned not for Clerics, but for Archivists.  Hey look, that's every Wiz/Sor spell 8th level or below as divine spells.  Yum. 

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Re: Useful Dragon Magazine Stuff
« Reply #59 on: February 13, 2011, 12:32:00 PM »
I think customize domain is pretty nifty, and worth adding ...
I just did so, and I added some suggestions for substitutions (by no means exhaustive). Suffice to say, you get to be the most creative with non-standard domains.

You are aware it only lets you pick spells from spell lists you can already access, yes? No picking spells from Wizards and other Domains... It's a powerful feat, but it does have limits.
Good catch. I noted that on my first pass over the feat... sadly I forgot when I decided to write it up. Seems like in order to use this, you really do need a wizard/wujen dip etc. making this feat much less useful than I thought.
I've updated the first post to reflect this.

With the substitute domain spell, it's still possible to steal from other domains... if your deity offers them or if you don't worship a deity. But that's a much more complicated, if not impractical, trick.

Arcane Disciple should be mentioned not for Clerics, but for Archivists.  Hey look, that's every Wiz/Sor spell 8th level or below as divine spells.  Yum.  

JaronK
There's Geomancer and Alternative Source Spell, too. The limits on an archivist's spell selection are DM-dependent, anyway.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 12:58:05 PM by Suzerain »