Simple Q&A 16: Has Anyone Really Been Far Even As ...

[wotmaniac]

Q 35. Where do I post for help with building characters? I know carns workshop... any other good threads? I dont want to make a new topic every time I want help with a character/npc/monster which is alot.

unless I'm mistaken, carn's workshop is for his stuff. (and likewise for others who have similar threads).
people start new threads all the time for build help.  unless you just want to start a "help dna1" thread ... then just load up all your questions their.  

 'ed

[Vinom]

Q 36: Is there any good 3.5 splat material for orcs out there?

[Rebel7284]

Q 36: Is there any good 3.5 splat material for orcs out there?

Unearthed Arcana, Races of Destiny, and whatever book has heedless change are all great resources for building orc characters.  Nothing really dedicated to orcs though.

[Vinom]

Drat... I guess I'll be creating orcish culture from scratch then.... *mutters to himself* Spirit shamen as the primary caster in their society....

[kevin_video]

Q 37 Where can I find the "death" variant where you only take 20d6 instead of actually having a character die? Is there a variant on that? I just saw a wizard spell that does up to 40d6. Something tells me I'd much rather take a finger of death for 20d6 than a 40d6 from a black blade of disaster.

[Zebu]

Q 38 On the Fighter's Dragonscale Husk ACF, from the Dragon Magic book: Does the Husk have an arcane spell failure chance?

[kevin_video]

Q 38 On the Fighter's Dragonscale Husk ACF, from the Dragon Magic book: Does the Husk have an arcane spell failure chance?

No it does not, but the trade off is you can't cast spells on it to improve it either.

[Garryl]

Q 37 Where can I find the "death" variant where you only take 20d6 instead of actually having a character die? Is there a variant on that? I just saw a wizard spell that does up to 40d6. Something tells me I'd much rather take a finger of death for 20d6 than a 40d6 from a black blade of disaster.

A 37 Epic Variant: No "Save or Die" Spells. Most of them are actually 20d6 + 1d6/level rather than a flat 20d6, though. Also it's from 3.0 so some of the basic spells being modified are slightly different. I think Disintegrate was save or die rather than save or take 2d6/level, for instance. Similarly, Heal and Harm were healing/dealing all but 1d4 hp or so instead of the current version.



Q 39 Has anyone noticed this little line in the Soulbow Excerpt from CPsi?

Likewise, these enhancement bonuses also improve your soulknife base attack bonus.

Specifically, this is in the Mind Arrow ability and is referring to the enhancement bonuses gained at levels 3 and 7. Is this a typo or the first case of an Enhancement bonus to BaB?

[Vinom]

Q 40: What's this Belt of Magnificense I've been hearing so much about and where can I get one?

[kevin_video]

Q 40: What's this Belt of Magnificense I've been hearing so much about and where can I get one?

It's in the Miniatures Handbook. It increases all of your stats at once for +2 (25,000), +4 (100,000), and +6 (200,000) for one item slot.

[kevin_video]

Q 41 A while back when I was looking at the Cleric handbook, I saw either a feat, or an ACF, that let you switch out the original ability of a domain (if it was useless like +1 to lawful spells) for something else. I think it might be Divine Restoration, but I'm not sure. Is having the Evil Domain's power worth keeping? I mean, the spells that casts are all evil so +1 sounds good, but having restoration would be nice too.

[Aharon]

bump

Q16 What happens when you cast a prismatic sphere while inside a prismatic shpere, if a) the spheres overlap exactly and b) the spheres don't overlap exactly?

[Suzerain]

bump

Q16 What happens when you cast a prismatic sphere while inside a prismatic shpere, if a) the spheres overlap exactly and b) the spheres don't overlap exactly?

It's not exactly clear to me either; I'd treat it exactly like a force effect. The problem being, I can't find anything that prevents force effects (e.g. walls of force) to intersect and such (it just says no creature or object can be in the way. a force wall is a spell effect... is it also an object?). I think it hinges on that question. If anyone knows whether force walls can cross each other? ...

[something random]

Q 42: Is there an easy way of determining if you should be power attacking or a guild to help with the number crunching?

[snakeman830]

Q 42: Is there an easy way of determining if you should be power attacking or a guild to help with the number crunching?

If you're not hitting, you're probably power attacking for too much.

If you are hitting, you can try upping the amount you Power Attack by.

That's about all there is to it.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Q 41 A while back when I was looking at the Cleric handbook, I saw either a feat, or an ACF, that let you switch out the original ability of a domain (if it was useless like +1 to lawful spells) for something else. I think it might be Divine Restoration, but I'm not sure. Is having the Evil Domain's power worth keeping? I mean, the spells that casts are all evil so +1 sounds good, but having restoration would be nice too.

Divine restoration isn't particularly good (just prepare restoration spells yourself).  If you have a way of casting [evil] spells predominantly, the evil domain is rather better.  Plus, I think divine restoration requires positive energy channeling.

[Felix Underwood]

Create (Greater) Undead can be used with contingency by RAW and RAI... so yeah, I would.

Unfortunately, the spell Contingency has a cap:  1/3rd your caster level, Max 6th.

Create Undead is 6th, Create Greater Undead is 8th.

I'm not sure that Craft Contingent Spell should work with corpsecrafter...  I guess it probably should:  "(similar to the effect created by a contingency spell)"

...Now imagine that on a Necropolitan.

I know... I am..  :

I allow it because it takes a lot of valuable Feat slots sunk into it.  When compared to other powerful examples like Persisitant/Divine Metamagic, Knowledge Devotion, etc.. it doesn't seem so bad to me.

Also, I house rule that the +2 Natural Armor is an enhancement bonus (otherwise, it wouldn't stack with pretty much every corporeal undead I can think of that already has a base Natural Armor).  That being said, this and the other enhancement bonuses (str + dex) are great at low levels, but wouldn't stack with +5 or +6 items that a higher level character is likely to want.

Also, also, I love undead.   

[Maat_Mons]

Q 41 A while back when I was looking at the Cleric handbook, I saw either a feat, or an ACF, that let you switch out the original ability of a domain (if it was useless like +1 to lawful spells) for something else.

A cleric can trade the granted power of a domain for the devotion feat associated with that domain.  If you go into ordained champion, you can trade the granted power of up to two domains for a fighter feat each. 

[Zebu]

Q 41 A while back when I was looking at the Cleric handbook, I saw either a feat, or an ACF, that let you switch out the original ability of a domain (if it was useless like +1 to lawful spells) for something else.

A cleric can trade the granted power of a domain for the devotion feat associated with that domain.  If you go into ordained champion, you can trade the granted power of up to two domains for a fighter feat each. 

Actually, a cleric can trade the Domain (including granted spells) for the associated Devotion feat (rules in Complete Champion).  But yes, the Ordained Champion lets you swap granted powers for fighter feats and keep the spells.

[Maat_Mons]

Q 42: Is there an easy way of determining if you should be power attacking or a guild to help with the number crunching?

Here's a rule of thumb:

P=10H-D/(2M)

P = What you should power attack for (round to the nearest integer). 
H = Your average (across all attacks you'll make this round) chance of hitting with an attack with no power attack penalty. 
D = Your average (non-critical) damage per attack with no power attack bonus. 
M = What you multiply your power attack penalty by to get your extra damage (typically 2 for a two-handed weapon). 

There are corner cases where this isn't quite right, but it's generally good. 

You can also use this or one of the many other tools available.