Fun Finds!

[Bauglir]

The above post can be described only as fucking win. THE BEST LOOPHOLE.

[Kuroimaken]

The above post can be described only as fucking win. THE BEST LOOPHOLE.

I can only imagine his expression as he fell in maniacal laughter.

[zook1shoe]

Wow.... good job, Nox_Noctis

[The_Mad_Linguist]

First Scroll Affiliation: Dragon Magic, 142.

Pretty excellent benefits.

Benefits are a little difficult to qualify for unless you're an old, established member (the +1 affilliation score/10 years of membership and  +1 / two arcane caster/DFA levels helps a lot).

The fact that you can switch which affiliation is active each day, losing your previous benefits and gaining those of the new affiliation (PHBII, 165) gives you a pretty cool advantage - it looks like you can switch to knowledge affiliation on Monday (losing your freebie spell known and bonus feat), and then switch back to First Scroll affiliation on Tuesday, selecting a different highest level spell/invocation to know and a new floating draconic feat. 

I don't think it lets you pick off list spells/invocations, but that's an arguable option as well.

[NeverGetDrunkButStaySober]

The fact that you can switch which affiliation is active each day, losing your previous benefits and gaining those of the new affiliation (PHBII, 165) gives you a pretty cool advantage - it looks like you can switch to knowledge affiliation on Monday (losing your freebie spell known and bonus feat), and then switch back to First Scroll affiliation on Tuesday, selecting a different highest level spell/invocation to know and a new floating draconic feat.

Where's this rule about only one applying at once mentioned? (I wouldn't be surprised if it were but I don't recall seeing it.)

On the topic of third-party stuff...I'm working on something for an arena that uses a handful of such books. One of them is Wild Spellcraft, by Natural 20 Press (apparently some imprint of ENWorld). Its shtick is of wild magic, and naturally there are mechanics for triggering spell "mishaps". If you have a mishap, you roll percentile dice and look over some twenty-entry table for the result. Sounds like all those shitty critical hit/fumble charts, right? Not quite - the last entry's insanely good, actually, allowing the spell to defeat SR and allow no save. Oh, and you add your Will save modifier to the d100 check. So if you can garner yourself a +95 modifier, you can use a +0 metamagic from the same book to automatically mishap and fuck over whatever you're targeting.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

The fact that you can switch which affiliation is active each day, losing your previous benefits and gaining those of the new affiliation (PHBII, 165) gives you a pretty cool advantage - it looks like you can switch to knowledge affiliation on Monday (losing your freebie spell known and bonus feat), and then switch back to First Scroll affiliation on Tuesday, selecting a different highest level spell/invocation to know and a new floating draconic feat.

Where's this rule about only one applying at once mentioned? (I wouldn't be surprised if it were but I don't recall seeing it.)

PHBII 165.  

[Bastian]

Maybe you've heard of Dragondoom. But if you haven't, or even if you have, let me tell you a tale. It all started when I was, once again bored, looking at the Vitality and Wound Point system. Damn, those Kaorti weapons were looking nice, and Dispater was surely having a cold laugh in Hell. So I began to search for more ways to increase critical multipliers and expand threat ranges, and I happened upon Dragondoom. Woe, that my eyes should ever have fallen on its form! I became consumed by its allure so much that it blinded me to its limitations; I sought any way to make every enemy count as a dragon but found none. The feat, I said, was worthless; perhaps, if you knew you were in a dragon-heavy campaign, it might have merit. And so I discarded this wrathful object - what a fool!

In biding my time and fighting the nagging whispers of my mind that, like the trumpets of Heaven, drew me forward and, like the sirens, drove me mad and disoriented, I fell into an obsession with the paladin mount. How could I optimize it for E6? Was it worth it? These thoughts consumed me and I delved deep into my piled tomes in the late hours of the night. I could count as a Paladin 9 and a Druid 6, but surely there was more! I could even make case to count as a Druid 10, Paladin 9, Ashworm Dragoon 1, but I needed more. By now, you see, I was not simply enraptured; I was crazed, a slavering fiend who scorned sustenance for knowledge - that Mephistopheles might have sprung forth, had I only the secrets of Faustus to call him beside!

I turned to the ancient beasts of the World's great origin to slake my unbodily thirst. These earth-splintering fire-hearts would satisfy my desire - but no, I was still so foolish. Had that I had turned back in my great pursuit! The mighty dragons still could not sate my curiosity and as I feverishly shred pages in rising desperation, I happened to glance upon that old object of my madness. Perhaps it was my fiendish state that gave me such exceptional insight; perhaps I had discovered Faust's dark sorcery here, that his magic books were but one gate through which the human mind could pass with such indiscriminate and total devotion. For it said plainly on the page how the critical multiplier of the weapon improves but gave no duration or clause of specification. Oh, piteous reader, tell me I was wrong! If any sliver of my fragile mind is to be saved, tell me those are not its words, for I would be better consoled to know I had struck such delirium that the visions in my head were of nether than that that ominous feat read as I beheld. But if my lunatic words portend its nature, do not go down this dark road after me.

And for extra awesomeness this feat stacks with Kaorti resin weapons since it being a resin weapon is not an "ability or effect that alters a weapon's critical multiplier" as the weapon itself is constructed as a resin weapon, you are not changing it into one.

[SorO_Lost]

I happened upon Dragondoom. ... For it said plainly on the page how the critical multiplier of the weapon improves but gave no duration or clause of specification. ... that that ominous feat read as I beheld. But if my lunatic words portend its nature,

Huge block of text my newly acquired ADD refused to understand aside. Are you saying Dragondoom is clause free? o.O

[zook1shoe]

yes, he did...... just attack a dragon and your weapon's crit jumps.

i know the feeling, it took me like 3-4 times of reading it for my ADD to comprehend it too. i think i just focused on one or two sentences near the end, and it helped

[SorO_Lost]

yes, he did...... just attack a dragon and your weapon's crit jumps.

i know the feeling, it took me like 3-4 times of reading it for my ADD to comprehend it too. i think i just focused on one or two sentences near the end, and it helped

It is a twisted reading of the feat, but a lot less so than what people are using still convinced of these days on other subjects.

Hell, compared out of context reading of a single word that shares the same spelling as a keyword in various interpretations for personal benefit. That is positively great. I'd canonize it for no other reason that impressing me if I could.

[zook1shoe]

What convinced me about that feat, was that most feats would instead read something like "against dragons"

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Hell, compared out of context reading of a single word that shares the same spelling as a keyword in various interpretations for personal benefit. That is positively great. I'd canonize it for no other reason that impressing me if I could.

Talkin' 'bout inherent, I assume?


Anyone have an affiliations handbook?  Now that I know there's more than one that's actually worth taking, I'm curious if there are other ones hidden in obscure splats.

[McPoyo]

Hell, compared out of context reading of a single word that shares the same spelling as a keyword in various interpretations for personal benefit. That is positively great. I'd canonize it for no other reason that impressing me if I could.

Talkin' 'bout inherent, I assume?


Anyone have an affiliations handbook?  Now that I know there's more than one that's actually worth taking, I'm curious if there are other ones hidden in obscure splats.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=6624.0

[Nox_Noctis]

And for extra awesomeness this feat stacks with Kaorti resin weapons since it being a resin weapon is not an "ability or effect that alters a weapon's critical multiplier" as the weapon itself is constructed as a resin weapon, you are not changing it into one.

Yes, between DCFS or just hunting down someone with the feat and threatening them or persuading them to attack a dragon with your weapon, there is no reason for any weapon not to have a x7 critical multiplier.

On Vitality and Wound Points, for What They're Worth
[spoiler]
With a weapon that naturally has an 18-20 threat range, you have a 12-20 critical threat range. Improved Critical makes the threat range 3-20. As long as you're hitting, you're dealing direct wound damage. Thus you get incredibly easy kills against every creature with a constitution score, while other creatures die just as quickly as normal (exception: size huge and larger creatures with no constitution score, some others). Additionally, all of your attacks against creatures with constitution scores (except rolls of 2) stun for 1d4 rounds (Fort DC [5+damage taken] negates). Also your first hit on a creature makes it fatigued.[/spoiler]

[Sinfire Titan]

Man, joining the Pentifex Order has one funny little benefit:

Goods: The Pentifex Order has few material resources to spare, especially for affiliate members. For initiates into the higher ranks of the order, however, they provide armor and weapons of a peculiar brushed-gold color that carries hints of red and brown. These serve as a badge of membership and authority within the order. These weapons and armor are made of a metal called pentifex, which is functionally equivalent to steel, distinguished only by its unique appearance. The order trades pentifex magic weapons and armor for otherwise identical steel ones at no cost to the initiate

RAW, they will exchange Legacy Weapons, possibly even Warforged. Cloning Glitch!

[CrimsonDeath]

hunting down someone with the feat and threatening them or persuading them to attack a dragon with your weapon

Dragonwrought Kobold Fighter named Tyler Durden?

[SorO_Lost]

Hell, compared out of context reading of a single word that shares the same spelling as a keyword in various interpretations for personal benefit. That is positively great. I'd canonize it for no other reason that impressing me if I could.

Talkin' 'bout inherent, I assume?

Any of them. Caster level =/= caster level. Inherent =/= inherent. Dragon =/= dragon. Spells =/= spells.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Man, joining the Pentifex Order has one funny little benefit:

Goods: The Pentifex Order has few material resources to spare, especially for affiliate members. For initiates into the higher ranks of the order, however, they provide armor and weapons of a peculiar brushed-gold color that carries hints of red and brown. These serve as a badge of membership and authority within the order. These weapons and armor are made of a metal called pentifex, which is functionally equivalent to steel, distinguished only by its unique appearance. The order trades pentifex magic weapons and armor for otherwise identical steel ones at no cost to the initiate

RAW, they will exchange Legacy Weapons, possibly even Warforged. Cloning Glitch!

I'm pretty sure they just have a kobold in the back who slaps on a coating of that colored metal from RotD.  Then they call it "pentifex" and are all mysteeeerious. 

Basically, it's the mystic topaz of armors.

[zook1shoe]

Isn't there some enhancement or spell that gets you back your items?

[McPoyo]

Calling