Out of Character -- Technical Discussion

[amalcon]

holy crap amalcon that is a great build!

Thanks!

otherwise, i've got nuthin to say, other than watcha think about the song of creation tie in?

I like it.  It fits well with some of the background stuff.

- note that we're doing a modified version of fractional saves (see Character creation). The maximum you can get at level is +9.

You're right -- I was calculating them correctly; I just had them for the wrong level.

- I think you referred to Crystal Helm as making your attacks bypass DR in the past. As far as I can see, it doesn't work: your attacks gain the force descriptor but the damage is not converted to force damage so it's still reduced by DR.

You're right about that too.  Oh well, it was a nice idea.  That at least frees up the Shape Soulmeld feat.  Lots of options there, I'll look at a few of them.  Maybe Practiced Spellcaster would be a good bet.

- Are you not missing some spellcasting levels ? I see Druid 5, Cleric 1, +10 from Hierarch, +some for Daggerspell Shaper, +some for Nature's Warrior... Druid has to cap at 11 but you could increase your Cleric CL more, no ?

The l20 breakdown is:
- 5 druid from druid levels
- 2 druid from nature's warrior levels
- 1 cleric from cleric levels
- 10 whatever from Hierarch levels
- 4 whatever from Daggerspell Shaper levels
so, 22 total -- pretty convenient
which totals 22
- 4 whatever from daggerspell shaper levels
totaling 22 levels, just enough to get level 6 spells both ways

As always, feel free to ignore me.
[/quote]

[fil kearney]

The maximum you can get at level is +9.
I think you referred to Crystal Helm

:review

how did i miss that?
 :rolleyes

[AlisAtAn]

General question. I love the concept of grafts, but they suck. All the published ones are ridiculously expensive. A +2 str bonus for 110k? Come on... Would you be willing to work with me to create some worthwhile ones for my char specifically? Could always work them into the storyline later on if you prefer... 

[Omen of Peace]

Well, the Silthilar grafts give untyped permanent bonuses. A +2 inherent is 55k so they doubled it. I agree it's too much, but untyped bonuses shouldn't be cheap either. If you're ok with enhancement bonuses you can reflavor, say, a Belt of Strength as a grafts of muscles from beast X. With the MIC rules you wouldn't even need to increase the price for making it slotless (since +Str can be added to several slots without extra cost).

edit: that reminds I'll probably go for some elemental grafts - but later on.

To reduce the number of magic items, I think I'll combine items: for instance, bracers+gloves go into the gloves slot without an extra cost but the arms slot has to remain empty. It's just reflavoring.

[fil kearney]

To reduce the number of magic items, I think I'll combine items: for instance, bracers+gloves go into the gloves slot without an extra cost but the arms slot has to remain empty. It's just reflavoring.

I encourage this.  as long as you are tracking what "slots" are actually being used to "pay" for an item, I don't care what the flavor is.. this is good for you incarnum users.  you could have a monks belt AND a belt of strength, for instance, and just designate one of them as another slot, like neck, or boots.  whatever. 
I was thinking of this this morning... thanks for posting.

[DaveTheMagicWeasel]

General question. I love the concept of grafts, but they suck. All the published ones are ridiculously expensive. A +2 str bonus for 110k? Come on... Would you be willing to work with me to create some worthwhile ones for my char specifically? Could always work them into the storyline later on if you prefer... 

The Dragonstar books had something called Spellware - which were a kind of hybrid magic/tech graft.

They were pretty reasonably priced, and could easily be reflavoured to fantasy, fil permitting obviously.

[fil kearney]

oh, man.  Dragonstar.  I remember that.  neat idea.

I honestly think just using an enhancement bonus in a designated slot is the most affordable, SRD way to go about it.

were you trying to achieve an inherent (sp???) bonus?

[AlisAtAn]

Well,  there wasnt anything particular I wanted. I just like the flavor. I might end up just buying something from the published books. But some upgraded skin would be nice... Fluffy way to get AC. Most of them count as armor though, which I suspect makes me loose all my class abilities permanently. DM`s call. If not admantine skin from faiths of eberron would be fun.

[fil kearney]

Well,  there wasnt anything particular I wanted. I just like the flavor. I might end up just buying something from the published books. But some upgraded skin would be nice... Fluffy way to get AC. Most of them count as armor though, which I suspect makes me loose all my class abilities permanently. DM`s call. If not admantine skin from faiths of eberron would be fun.

hell, spell advancement is slow enough to make acolyte of the skin viable... can't get more flavorful than that.
Even GreenStarAdept becomes viable in this game.

[AlisAtAn]

Nah, my path is pretty set.  I wont change the direction of the char for 10lvls to get some skin... But does skingrafts count as armor when it comes to class abilities that demands no armor?

[fil kearney]

AFB... a page reference is always appreciated for later, but for now....

bracers of armour are a slotted item.  and do not count as armour for class abilities.
As long as grafts are more expensive than the bracer equivalent, I will say they do not mess up class abilities.
On that note, you can just as easily acquire bracers of +x (scaling as you level) and burn whatever slot you want.

your choice, really... I'll want to look at em anyway when I'm at my books tonight.

[Omen of Peace]

Adamantine Skin does counts as armor - it says so. If a graft doesn't say anything then it doesn't count as armor...  Pfew, for once the rules are easy to understand.
Before you worry too much about your AC... remember that we're supposed to end up in the same ballpark and I suspect even without items yours is much higher than ours. I could be wrong.

[AlisAtAn]

11,000gp. Faith, p. 157

It grants +5ac, DR 2\adamantine, light fortification (I already have full from warshaper), -3 armor check penalty, 25% asf, and counts as medium armor for things like movement.

Hmm. One issue with grafts are that they are all from different sources. Would I be allowed to mix and match(RAW you cant), or reflavor all the ones I like into one type?

[AlisAtAn]

Adamantine Skin does counts as armor - it says so. If a graft doesn't say anything then it doesn't count as armor...  Pfew, for once the rules are easy to understand.
Before you worry too much about your AC... remember that we're supposed to end up in the same ballpark and I suspect even without items yours is much higher than ours. I could be wrong.

Yup. Thought I made it clear that I was fishing for some houseruling to be done. Aaanyways.

Regarding my ballpark beating your ballpark, I doubt I`ll be able to beat anyone in the team at there own game. I can morph, but not as good as amalcon. If I can he made a bad build, not the other way around. Same goes for everything else. Granted I`m pretty good at most things, but not more than a lvl14 gestalt skillmonkey, kearney style, should be...

Not that armor is much of a problem. Bracers could give me the same bonus without 25asf, but I kinda like the idea of metal skin for some reason. And I could always use Archivist for my chameleon spells. That leaves Factotum for arcane...

Also, Inspiration points. They get renewed for every "encounter". Does that mean every fight? Or every time I have to do some dicing?

[DaveTheMagicWeasel]

Per encounter is every fight - I can't remember the page reference, but iirc it was defined as needing at least 5 mins between fights to constitute a new encounter.

[Omen of Peace]

Yup. Thought I made it clear that I was fishing for some houseruling to be done. Aaanyways.

Oops. Er... ignore me ?

Also, Inspiration points. They get renewed for every "encounter". Does that mean every fight? Or every time I have to do some dicing?

Like Dave, I think the recharge happens after 5 min of rest. At least ToB maneuvers work like that.

[AlisAtAn]

But I get IP to things like skills too. Can I keep spamming IP on everything I do as long as I take a 5min break once in a while? Sounds like fun. 

[Omen of Peace]

Er... *takes the "bad news" voice*  :-\

The +level to skill (Cunning Inspiration) is only once per skill per day. I did see some people homebrewing feats to allow it to be used more - you can work something out with fil.

The rest of the IP stuff is very much for combat (SA, +atk, +dmg, +saves, extra actions... well, actually the bonus to saves can be helpful over long periods of time for dangerous environments too).

[AlisAtAn]

That works. I dont see us jumping over huge pits several times a day anyway.

[Omen of Peace]

Don't tempt Fil !!