Has anybody....(Earth Spell and AoFT)

[BeholderSlayer]

Has anybody ever used an Acorn of Far Travel to qualify for earth spell bonuses even while in flight? I've always found the "stuff dirt in your boots" thing to be a little iffy. The Acorn states you are treated as "standing under that oak tree's canopy." Typically an oak tree is on unworked earth....though it doesn't say you are standing on the ground, and only references the "casting in a forested area" for bonuses.

[McPoyo]

That would work.

[BeholderSlayer]

Thanks. I suppose a better place for this would have been the Q&A thread, but I was thinking it'd result in a little more commentary than this. Thanks though Mc.

[McPoyo]

AoFT is pretty open in terms of "how abusable is this?" Due to it's blanket wording.

[KellKheraptis]

My Shadowcraft Hathrans abuse this all the time.  In fact, if I'm abusing bloodlines, they are considered to be standing under a tree in a stormy frostfell area in the motherland, for bonus +3 CL to boot.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

My Shadowcraft Hathrans abuse this all the time.  In fact, if I'm abusing bloodlines, they are considered to be standing under a tree in a stormy frostfell area in the motherland, for bonus +3 CL to boot.

Sorry, Kell, but I'm afraid a lumberjack just ruined your character. 

[KellKheraptis]

My Shadowcraft Hathrans abuse this all the time.  In fact, if I'm abusing bloodlines, they are considered to be standing under a tree in a stormy frostfell area in the motherland, for bonus +3 CL to boot.

Sorry, Kell, but I'm afraid a lumberjack just ruined your character. 

Lmao...magically reinforced tree ftw

[Amechra]

Throw in Master Spellthief to double that.

Don't know why I'm telling you this, but...

[KellKheraptis]

Throw in Master Spellthief to double that.

Don't know why I'm telling you this, but...

I believe there is easily room for the three required levels of cheese to make an Incantathran into a TBS

Bard 1/Bardic Spellthief 1/Wizard 3/Incantatrix 10/Sublime Chord 1/Hathran 4.  Minus one Inca, plus one Hathran but I think they are Circle capable at 4th.

[Amechra]

Huh, and here I was using Stoneblessed to qualify a Red Wizard of Thay for Shadowcaster Mage, which also abused Earth Spell for something like a Cl of 100 on everything.

But your way is most probably better.

Oh, and I don't think Hathrans get Circle Capability until 5th...

Yeah, it would have to be

Bard 1/Bardic Spellthief 1/Wizard 3/Incantatrix 9/Sublime Chord 1/Hathran 5

Still better than the stuff I come up with, though.

[KellKheraptis]

Huh, and here I was using Stoneblessed to qualify a Red Wizard of Thay for Shadowcaster Mage, which also abused Earth Spell for something like a Cl of 100 on everything.

But your way is most probably better.

Oh, and I don't think Hathrans get Circle Capability until 5th...

Yeah, it would have to be

Bard 1/Bardic Spellthief 1/Wizard 3/Incantatrix 9/Sublime Chord 1/Hathran 5

Still better than the stuff I come up with, though.

If going SCM, go Bard 1/Bardic Spellthief 1/Wizard 3/Incantatrix 5/SCM 4/SC 1/Hathran 5.  Free extend, and still also gets metamagic effect and metamagic spell trigger.  You could even go Inca 4/SCM 5, for the extra reality, and still get the two free metamagic feats and MME.

[Suzerain]

Acorn of Far Travel

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Acorn of Far Travel

Sexy ninja dryad squads.

[Amechra]

Eh, at the power level Circle Magic is at in general, even just a Wizard 5/Red Wizard 5 is about 4 times better than a Wizard 10.

I'm basing that guess of the fact that Circle Magic was designed to supply a challenge against 4 same level PCs.

Besides, I already have Cl 100, before adding in Node bonuses, and can cast spells most people don't even know the name of, theoretically with any metamagic I want.

We are talking major overkill here.

Now, Kell, do you know a way of getting the Circle Magic benefit w/o the hour of prep time?

[KellKheraptis]

Eh, at the power level Circle Magic is at in general, even just a Wizard 5/Red Wizard 5 is about 4 times better than a Wizard 10.

I'm basing that guess of the fact that Circle Magic was designed to supply a challenge against 4 same level PCs.

Besides, I already have Cl 100, before adding in Node bonuses, and can cast spells most people don't even know the name of, theoretically with any metamagic I want.

We are talking major overkill here.

Now, Kell, do you know a way of getting the Circle Magic benefit w/o the hour of prep time?

Spell Engine trick + Genesis Spell to get all the time needed, plane shift as required to prep.  Install Ring Gates for easy access on the road, and have the Sims guard the other end while you're out and about.

EDIT : And I tip my black hat to you Amechra.  Now I must see what I can do to add to the TBS with Node Magic, and see if it can be applied to an Elan.  Also, 3 levels of Stoneblessed aren't needed with the adaptation section of the Shadowcraft Mage

Ok, here's Kell's next project : Getting circle magic onto a Bard base, with Sublime Chord, while keeping 16 natural BAB and usual IC/DFI shenanigans.  Should free up some stuff, since my usual fallbacks for buffs aren't needed, once I can figure out how to get the metamagic feats into the node.  Is that the part of it from DotU/FR's Underdark book?

Nevermind...Circle Magic requires 5 levels (possibly 4 but I doubt it) of suck BAB, SC requires at least 1, and SCM requires at least 3.  That's one too many unless Hathran gets it at 4th.

[Amechra]

Thank you Kell, that means a lot coming from you.

Now, what to replace Stoneblessed with...

[Echoes]

Quick Question: why do you want Rashemi Spirit Magic on a spontaneous caster base? That kinda defeats the power of it.

Off the top of my head: Cleric (or Archivist if Academic Priest is allowed) 7/ScM 3 (Grab Spontaneous Domain (Illusion or Gnome if Cleric)/Hathran 5/Exalted Arcanist 1/Incantatrix 3/X 1. Another level of either ScM or Incantatrix will work, or grab Sacred Exorcist if you're an Archivist for DMM cheese (dual persistification ftw! assuming you can find a spare feat somewhere). Archivist is honestly better, because it opens up other wonky spell lists for Rashemi Spirit Magic; you'll need the scrolls for 'em, but since you get planar binding and co. added to your spell list, you can just have efreeti wish you up stacks of scrolls until you run out of useful spells to copy down. ScM gives us Sor/Wiz evocations and creation/summoning, so not too shabby there. This does require you to swim in a dragonsblood pool prior to Exalted Arcanist. After that, you should self-qualify so you're good.

The feats kinda suck, since you'll need the usual Earth Spell setup, plus Consecrate Spell and Purify Spell on top of Ethran and SF Illusion, but really, we'll assume we have flaws to work with here.

So, real rough build sketch: Cleric (Trickery, Spontaneous Illusion) 7/ScM 3/Hathran 5/Exalted Arcanist 1/Incantatrix 4
1) Earth Sense, Heighten Spell, Earth Spell, Ethran
3) SF: Illusion
6) Leadership
9) Consecrate Spell
12) Purify Spell
15) Extend Spell
17) Persistent Spell
18) DMM Persist
20) Sanctum Spell

Yeah, it's not really pretty, especially since we dump a lot into just getting into Incantatrix, but what else are we gonna do? Besides, you've got the whole Rashemi schtick down from level 11 on (get an unlimited use item of AoFT maybe?), and you're still a Cleric ScM, so you rock face anyhow.

Archivist is rougher ... let's see. Archivist 7/ScM 3/Sacred Exorcist 1/Hathran 5/Exalted Arcanist 1/Incantatrix 3
1) Earth Sense, Heighten Spell, Ethran, Academic Priest
3) SF Illusion
6) Leadership
9) Earth Spell
12) Consecrated Spell
15) Purify Spell
18) Extend Spell, Persist Spell

No DMM, so Sacred Exorcist is kind of a waste, but whatever. If you can snag another feat from somewhere, that'll work.

I'm sure these can be refined, and Exalted Arcanist can be dropped if you're willing to go swimming in the dragonsblood pool every year, but frankly I was never comfortable with being dependent on a location for part of my power when we built Algernon. Yeah, this uses it to qualify for EA, but once it gets in it self-qualifies.

So ... yeah, some random off-the-cuff build ideas for ya. If you can scrounge yet more feats, toss on Node Spellcasting + Node Metamagic for more BS.

[KellKheraptis]

Here's what I've whipped up over the last half hour.  Also, this makes the TBS posted on page four here look tame.  The build part will be in the spoiler box, gear below it, and tactics below that.

The Red Wizard from Hell
[spoiler]1-Wizard 1-Familiar, Improved Initiative, Node Spellcasting, Tattoo Focus
2-Wizard 2-
3-Wizard 3-Spell Focus (Illusion)
4-Wizard 4-
5-Wizard 5-Metanode Spell
6-Red Wizard 1-Enhanced Specialization, Specialist Defence +1, Shadow Weave Magic
7-Red Wizard 2-Spell Power +1
8-Red Wizard 3-Specialist Defense +2
9-Red Wizard 4-Spell Power +2, Arcane Disciple (Luck)
10-Red Wizard 5-Circle Leader, Feat : Extend Spell
11-Shadowcraft Mage 1-Cloak of Shadow
12-Shadowcraft Mage 2-Silent Shadow, Earth Sense
13-Shadowcraft Mage 3-Shadow Illusion
14-Tainted Sorcerer 1-Blood Component, Taint Suppression, Tainted Metamagic, Tainted Spellcasting
15-Mindbender 1-Telepathy 100', Heighten Spell
16-Shadow Adept 1-Insidious Magic, Pernicious Magic, Tenacious Magic
17-Incantatrix 1-Feat : Earth Spell
18-Incantatrix 2-Cooperative Metamagic, Arcane Thesis (Silent Image)
19-Incantatrix 3-Metamagic Effect
20-Incantatrix 4-Feat : Persistent Spell

Bonus Taint Feats (2): Arcane Manipulation, Mindsight
Bought Iron Will
Spellgifted (Illusion) Trait
Bought Access to Metamagic Storm (Ocular Spell)[/spoiler]

Gear
-Ring of Arcane Might (+1)
-Orange Ioun Stone (+1)
-Bead of Karma (+4 for 10 minutes, UMD to activate)
-Robe of Arcane Might (+1 Illusion)

Spells and other CL boosters
-Create Magical Tattoo spell (+1)
-Adept Spirit (+1 insight)
-Spell Enhancer (+2)
-Spell Power (+2)
-Arcane Thesis (+2)

And last but not least, our base CL is 61, due to Earth Spell being teh awesomesauce.  Running total so far of CL 77.  We now will emulate Greater Consumptive Field to turn that into CL 115.  Note we've already now trounced the 10^100 and TBoS challenges, and probably the gish challenge as well, just as afterthoughts.  A CL of 115 produces a Node with a diameter of 2300 ft.  That is a Class 14 Node.  Let GCF lapse (i.e. dismiss it...it'll last forever, and we've got shit to do), then recast it using Node Spellcasting, at a base CL now of 91.  CL 136  

Now, for what I'd like to do further :
-Increase Node Class ; I want my own Spellpool!
-Work in the familiar trick Amechra noted...why not have a pet Simbul Hummingbird?
-Snag Doc Rock's link again to his googledoc that showed the bonus spells for a Taint Score of 120 (yeah, we have that many spell slots, and a base DC of 120+spell level)
-Laugh maniacally at the rest of Faerun
-Ponder if this has been banned from The Iron Siege, and if not, see to it the full magical might of this dude can be brought to bear in Dis.

I think I've done enough damage for now

EDIT : Screw that, this beast may get his own thread.  The Improved Simulacrum Familiar trick I posted on the Circle Magic Batteries thread just now can be added to this guy, for sped up Circle Magic, that Node will be on our own demiplane (which can be as small as a single room or bigger than Jupiter, since we can Shadow Miracle all day and night for a month and still have half our arsenal to spare), his CL I know can go higher, and with an Item Familiar we can snag 10 bonus feats, +1 to 3 stats, more CL, and +2 Spellcraft from a custom Major Bloodline.  Helps with both Node magic and Metamagic Effect (which is ironically now mostly redundant), and of course Epic Spellcasting, once we start playing with the REAL nukes, assuming we don't Dusk Giant our way in early.  Further thoughts or ideas welcome!  

EDIT #2 : Modified feat selection, due to missing Metanode Spell.  Quicken will be subbed with Persistent, with Metanode taken where Extend was at 5th.  We cast spontaneously with Silent Image anyhow, so no loss of spammage, and actually it increases our spell weight, since we can now nova like a Sorc using celerity chains.  I'm currently working on the bloodlined version of him.  I expect a result akin to the kind of destruction Jaerom Darkwind's version of Mystra/Midnight could lay down with spellfire

[McPoyo]

Here's what I've whipped up over the last half hour.  Also, this makes the TBS posted on page four here look tame.  The build part will be in the spoiler box, gear below it, and tactics below that.

The Red Wizard from Hell
[spoiler]1-Wizard 1-Familiar, Improved Initiative, Node Spellcasting, Tattoo Focus
2-Wizard 2-
3-Wizard 3-Spell Focus (Illusion)
4-Wizard 4-
5-Wizard 5-Metanode Spell
6-Red Wizard 1-Enhanced Specialization, Specialist Defence +1, Shadow Weave Magic
7-Red Wizard 2-Spell Power +1
8-Red Wizard 3-Specialist Defense +2
9-Red Wizard 4-Spell Power +2, Arcane Disciple (Luck)
10-Red Wizard 5-Circle Leader, Feat : Extend Spell
11-Shadowcraft Mage 1-Cloak of Shadow
12-Shadowcraft Mage 2-Silent Shadow, Earth Sense
13-Shadowcraft Mage 3-Shadow Illusion
14-Tainted Sorcerer 1-Blood Component, Taint Suppression, Tainted Metamagic, Tainted Spellcasting
15-Mindbender 1-Telepathy 100', Heighten Spell
16-Shadow Adept 1-Insidious Magic, Pernicious Magic, Tenacious Magic
17-Incantatrix 1-Feat : Earth Spell
18-Incantatrix 2-Cooperative Metamagic, Arcane Thesis (Silent Image)
19-Incantatrix 3-Metamagic Effect
20-Incantatrix 4-Feat : Persistent Spell

Bonus Taint Feats (2): Arcane Manipulation, Mindsight
Bought Iron Will
Spellgifted (Illusion) Trait
Bought Access to Metamagic Storm (Ocular Spell)[/spoiler]

Gear
-Ring of Arcane Might (+1)
-Orange Ioun Stone (+1)
-Bead of Karma (+4 for 10 minutes, UMD to activate)
-Robe of Arcane Might (+1 Illusion)

Spells and other CL boosters
-Create Magical Tattoo spell (+1)
-Adept Spirit (+1 insight)
-Spell Enhancer (+2)
-Spell Power (+2)
-Arcane Thesis (+2)

And last but not least, our base CL is 61, due to Earth Spell being teh awesomesauce.  Running total so far of CL 77.  We now will emulate Greater Consumptive Field to turn that into CL 115.  Note we've already now trounced the 10^100 and TBoS challenges, and probably the gish challenge as well, just as afterthoughts.  A CL of 115 produces a Node with a diameter of 2300 ft.  That is a Class 14 Node.  Let GCF lapse (i.e. dismiss it...it'll last forever, and we've got shit to do), then recast it using Node Spellcasting, at a base CL now of 91.  CL 136  

Now, for what I'd like to do further :
-Increase Node Class ; I want my own Spellpool!
-Work in the familiar trick Amechra noted...why not have a pet Simbul Hummingbird?
-Snag Doc Rock's link again to his googledoc that showed the bonus spells for a Taint Score of 120 (yeah, we have that many spell slots, and a base DC of 120+spell level)
-Laugh maniacally at the rest of Faerun
-Ponder if this has been banned from The Iron Siege, and if not, see to it the full magical might of this dude can be brought to bear in Dis.

I think I've done enough damage for now

EDIT : Screw that, this beast may get his own thread.  The Improved Simulacrum Familiar trick I posted on the Circle Magic Batteries thread just now can be added to this guy, for sped up Circle Magic, that Node will be on our own demiplane (which can be as small as a single room or bigger than Jupiter, since we can Shadow Miracle all day and night for a month and still have half our arsenal to spare), his CL I know can go higher, and with an Item Familiar we can snag 10 bonus feats, +1 to 3 stats, more CL, and +2 Spellcraft from a custom Major Bloodline.  Helps with both Node magic and Metamagic Effect (which is ironically now mostly redundant), and of course Epic Spellcasting, once we start playing with the REAL nukes, assuming we don't Dusk Giant our way in early.  Further thoughts or ideas welcome! 

EDIT #2 : Modified feat selection, due to missing Metanode Spell.  Quicken will be subbed with Persistent, with Metanode taken where Extend was at 5th.  We cast spontaneously with Silent Image anyhow, so no loss of spammage, and actually it increases our spell weight, since we can now nova like a Sorc using celerity chains.  I'm currently working on the bloodlined version of him.  I expect a result akin to the kind of destruction Jaerom Darkwind's version of Mystra/Midnight could lay down with spellfire

Your node math is wrong. 2320 feet is what CL 115 would net you, and that is a 11th level node. Nodes "Class up" at a rate of Current Class*40 feet. A Class 10 node is 1800 ft radius minimum, 11 would be 2200, Class 12 would start at 2640, 13 at 3120, etc.

Now if you spliced in a Widen spell via circle magic to the initial node casting, you'd get a lot more versatility out of it (4620 foot radius), netting a total of Rank 14 1/2.

[KellKheraptis]

Consider it done.  Also, I've found that chopping out Shadow Adept and Mindbender actually strengthens the build, adding a level each of Red Wizard and SCM in their places.  With the two feats saved, Persist is back out of Taint limbo and you can snag Widen Spell with one.  This still leaves one open for the familiar trick, or for Extraordinary Spell Aim, since now you'll just be itching to AftS a planet

EDIT : Greater Rod of Widen if they exist would work, too, allowing for Spell-linked Familiar.  And at CL 100 they get 8th's, so imagine the little critter with his own AftS