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[Surreal]

A 554: I don't think anyone's mentioned Gauntlets of the Talon yet (relic, Complete Divine, p.91). Increases your effective monk level by 5 for unarmed damage. You can also check my "lists of stuff" for more ways in increase damage.

[Sunic_Flames]

Q557: Is there a way to get Improved Natural Attack other than taking the feat? Note: This is NOT for unarmed strike, so Fanged Ring doesn't do what I want it to do sadly. Ideally it would give INA: all natural attacks, though INA: any natural attack (bite, claw, wing, tail slap) would also suffice.

[Tshern]

A557: Is there a specific attack you want it to apply to? An item of Greater mighty wallop would do it in case of bludgeoning damage and an item of Heroics at all cases. Probably not what you are looking for though.

[CannibalSmith]

A557: Quori embedded shard in Eberron Campaign Setting increases your unarmed damage by one step as if you've taken Improved Natural Attack. It stacks with the feat too. If you're warforged, there's battlefist that increases your slam/unarmed the same way.

[Kuroimaken]

Q557: Just getting a bit of clarification on this one... would a Morphing Sizing weapon be possible to change into ANY melee or thrown weapon?

[CannibalSmith]

A557b: Sure! All the way from fine dart to colossal greatsword.

[Sunic_Flames]

A557: Is there a specific attack you want it to apply to? An item of Greater mighty wallop would do it in case of bludgeoning damage and an item of Heroics at all cases. Probably not what you are looking for though.

As stated, any/all of the following: Bite/claw/wing/tail slap. Greater Mighty Whallop would affect the last two, but would probably be too good because it's more than one size increase.

Which brings us to the next part.

Q558: A creature with no Monk levels has a Monk's Belt and Superior Unarmed Strike. Does he use the appropriate line on Superior Unarmed Strike, the appropriate line on SUS + 5, or just do unarmed combat as a 9th level Monk? Does the data for SUS go above level 20 anywhere or rather, is it supposed to to allow for easy extrapolation?

[Tshern]

Bite attacks are actually piercing, slashing and bludgeoning, so GMW ought to effect it.

[Agita]

As stated, any/all of the following: Bite/claw/wing/tail slap. Greater Mighty Whallop would affect the last two, but would probably be too good because it's more than one size increase.

So take normal Mighty Wallop. That's level 1 and only increases size by 1.

[dman11235]

A 554: I don't think anyone's mentioned Gauntlets of the Talon yet (relic, Complete Divine, p.91). Increases your effective monk level by 5 for unarmed damage. You can also check my "lists of stuff" for more ways in increase damage.

I'm pretty sure I took all of the monk level increasing stuff and put it in my handbook (I did use your list for it).  If not: bingo.  Also: my handbook lists many good ways to effectively increase base damage.

An item of Greater mighty wallop would do it in case of bludgeoning damage...

I believe there is a spell that makes weapons effectively bludgeoning weapons (Earth Hammer maybe?), so that+GMW would work.  Wait.....it's.....Dolorous Blow.  It also does something else good.

A558: The rules aren't clear, so I would say whatever is best.  So SUS unless you got above monk level....14?, so you'd need Monk's Tattoo and something else (I wouldn't bother, 2d6 isn't all that far off 2d10).

So take normal Mighty Wallop. That's level 1 and only increases size by 1.

Or GMW at a low CL (10 does well, and is only 2 or 3 increases: 2d6-3d6-4d6...-6d6-8d6, so why not do all the way?), because MW is only 1 min/level, iirc.

[Sunic_Flames]

Is there rules text for that somewhere Tshern?

Ok, so Monk's Belt doesn't boost unarmed damage but still gives Wis to AC + 1 and other stuff.

Dolorous blow... doubles crit range and allows auto confirms, but doesn't work on natural weapons and doesn't do anything about effectively bludgeoning. Is there another one aside from the SC one?

The reason I don't do it all the way is because it's already a freakin' optimized dragon, and I don't want to overdo it. After all, just SUS means 4d6 + many other things on an unarmed strike sequence in addition to the full set of natural attacks. It has a CL of 11th right out of the gate, but would probably have Practiced Spellcaster to not be so much Dispel bait.

[Tshern]

Sunic: SRD on natural attacks. The first one is about bites.

Bite

The creature attacks with its mouth, dealing piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning damage.

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Q559: Could someone please point me to the text in core that specificies that a spell cast above 1st level requires a specific caster level? For instance it appears 9th level spells would fail automatically if the caster was somehow reduced to a caster level of 16... it seems the mechanics should be able to support a higher level spell cast at a caster level of 1, atleast the way I see it.

[Sunic_Flames]

Q559: Could someone please point me to the text in core that specificies that a spell cast above 1st level requires a specific caster level? For instance it appears 9th level spells would fail automatically if the caster was somehow reduced to a caster level of 16... it seems the mechanics should be able to support a higher level spell cast at a caster level of 1, atleast the way I see it.

Semi related:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm

You cannot lower the caster level to below the point you would need to cast the spell in question, which also is saying that there is a minimum caster level.

Q560: Corollary: A 10th level Wizard has Practiced Spellcaster, despite his lack of CL loss. He gets hit by 1 or more negative levels. Does the Practiced Spellcaster offset the appropriate energy drain penalties?

[Rebel7284]

A560: No, Practiced Spellcaster can only improve you CL to your HD and negative levels lower your effective HD.

[Arcane-surge]

Q560: Where would I find a battle fan or somesuch? I know there is one somewhere, possibly in 3.5 D&D, but cannot remember where.

[woodenbandman]

Q 561: Can I apply divine metamagic to scrolls? Can I use divine metamagic with residual magic? Could I use divine metamagic to persist a spell duplicated with a wish/miracle? Could I then use residual magic to persist a second, different spell, using another casting of wish? I.E, Use wish to imitate prestidigitation, DMM persist it, and then use wish to imitate shapechange, would the imitated shapechange be persisted? Also, can I do this with a shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell, even if they're imitating different spells?

[Agita]

Q560: Where would I find a battle fan or somesuch? I know there is one somewhere, possibly in 3.5 D&D, but cannot remember where.

A 560

There's one in Oriental Adventures, and I think it's also in the Arms and Equipment Guide. I don't know if it was updated to 3.5, though.

[JaronK]

Q 561: Can I apply divine metamagic to scrolls? Can I use divine metamagic with residual magic? Could I use divine metamagic to persist a spell duplicated with a wish/miracle? Could I then use residual magic to persist a second, different spell, using another casting of wish? I.E, Use wish to imitate prestidigitation, DMM persist it, and then use wish to imitate shapechange, would the imitated shapechange be persisted? Also, can I do this with a shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell, even if they're imitating different spells?

Doubtful but I'm not sure, absolutely, I believe so as long as the original miracle or wish is divine.  Certainly, it's an old SCM trick.

The SCM version of this is to use Residual Metamagic, Heighten Spell (with Earth Spell), and Echoing Spell.  Cast Silent Image hightened to level X.  Next round, cast Echoing Silent Image (3rd level slot due to subsitution level) which is heightened to X due to Residual Metamagic.  Next round, cast Heightened Silent Image, which is residually echoing.  Repeat, blasting away with as many spells as you want, all shadow spells.  In one hour, all but the first spell comes back.  Neat.

JaronK

[woodenbandman]

wow that's incredible. So could you theoretically cast a spell level X from a silent image, and then cast a spell level (level of silent image) + X*2? Like heighten it to a 9th level spell and then heighten another next turn to get an epic spellslot? I have no idea what the fuck you'd do with it, but could you do it?