Ask a Simple Question part 19: Titan-Bloodline Pixie Ubercharger edition

[ksbsnowowl]

Q280: How do I meet the Wild Shape requirement of Planar Shepard without taking a bunch of levels of druid?

Can't help with the others. But can help with the last one.

A280: The Divine Minion template gets Wild Shape as an 11th level druid at will into deity-specific forms.

Do GMs usually let this fly since it is A) Not a Class feature B) Technically is called Fast Wild Shape and not Wild Shape?  It's still a good idea, I'm just curious.  I think it wouldn't be too hard to convince someone that was fine (no harder than convincing someone that Planar Shepards are fine...)

Even better answer:
A 280: Dip one level of Abolisher from Lords of Madness.  Req's are pretty easy too (Track, some skills [Know Nature, Dungeon, etc], not being an aberration, maybe wild empathy).  Gets wildshape at first level, but only medium animals.

Q 269: What base classes are there that have a good Fort save and Full BAB?

Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Crusader, Warblade, Swashbuckler, and Samurai.  Any others?

Hexblade, and Duskblade.

Actually, Hexblade is a good Will save, not Fort.  But I had forgotten Duskblade.

[kevin_video]

Actually, Hexblade is a good Will save, not Fort.  But I had forgotten Duskblade.

Not 100% true. It completely depends on your DM, and whether or not they allow the Mike Mearls Update that was done how ever long ago.

Before moving on, it is more than obvious that hexblade is an underpowered class. This is because, in the early days of 3.5 (the hexblade class is from complete warrior, an early 3.5 supplement), the R&D thought that a class which could wear armor, grab martial feats and use magic would be potentially broken. Unfortunately, the contrary is true, but the hexblade still suffers from the punishment of early armored mages. For example compare the hexblade class with her sister class, the duskblade from player's handbook II, a much more mature gish. Several years ago, one of the creators of the class, Mike Mearls, made some suggestions of boosting up the hexblade. His post is quoted below from here:

The hexblade suffers a little because he came on the scene relatively early in 3.5's life. As R&D pushes the boundaries of the game, we learn that some things we thought were risky or potentially broken aren't. Other times, we learn things that look fine don't actually work in play. Armored mages fall into the first category. Them seem really powerful, but in the long run they aren't. Spells and magic items allow an unarmored mage to build great defenses. The spell mage armor is as good as medium armor, and its duration allows most mages to keep it active at all times. If you compare the hexblade to the duskblade from PH 2, you can see how the thinking has changed. If you want to boost the hexblade, I'd try the following changes:

• Good Fortitude save
• Curse ability usable 1 + the hexblade's Cha modifier per day
• Curse ability usable as a swift action
• Curse ability does not count as used if the target makes his saving throw
• Ability to cast in light or medium armor and while carrying a light shield or buckler
• At 6th level, the hexblade can cast one hexblade spell per day as a swift action, as long as its original casting time is a standard action or faster. He gains an additional use of this power at levels 8, 11, 14, and 18.

The key to the hexblade is his curse ability, but it's a little un-fun to have it so limited in use. The hexblade also has trouble casting spells and using his melee attacks, so shifting spells to swift actions fits in with the idea of an armored mage. (These are by no means official. They're just off the top of my head changes I'd consider making.)

[Sobolev]

Wild Shape Ranger is an option, if you don't care about spells at all.

Has the same problem as Druid, requiring a bunch of class levels.  Might be time to stop pursuing this line.  Even if I get Divine Minion to work I need to be able to Spontaneous Summon Nature's Ally too for Greensinger Initiate which I also can't do (yet).  It's sad, Sha'ir has a lot of synergy with Planar Shepard (who doesn't have synergy with 10 rounds to your opponent's one round).

CD has spontaneous summoner.

Just need a few ranks in Knowledge (Nature) to access it.

Requires you to be able to cast Summon Nature's Ally normally, also requires a Wisdom bonus.  All in all, not going to work for me.

[Epimetheus]

Q 285 If a spell says that its effect produces a 'wall' of some length, and the spell does not explicitly say that the wall be straight, can the wall actually become a spiral? In other words, is the only requirement continuity?

Instead of forming a straight wall like this: 0123456789ABCDEF
could you make a spiral wall, like this?

FEDC
432B
501A
6789

Examples: Wall of Stone specifically says that it does not need to be a straight wall. Wall of Iron explicitly states that it must be a straight wall.

Important Case: Blade Barrier does not specify whether the wall must be straight or not. If it doesn't..., clerics just got their first real damaging zone spell. (The blade wall is 20' long per level. At lvl 11, that's 220' of blades, which means it can cover a 44 (~7x6) square patch of the battlefield.

Q 286 Is it alright to use 'pushing' effects to force enemies through the Blade Barrier? Would they take damage each time they went through the barrier or just once? [If it's the former, the solid spiral case could lead to quite a bit of damage when combined with a pushing spell like Rejection. Would this be considered 'evil'? Or just good tactics?]

[Amechra]

Q280: How do I meet the Wild Shape requirement of Planar Shepard without taking a bunch of levels of druid?

Can't help with the others. But can help with the last one.

A280: The Divine Minion template gets Wild Shape as an 11th level druid at will into deity-specific forms.

Do GMs usually let this fly since it is A) Not a Class feature B) Technically is called Fast Wild Shape and not Wild Shape?  It's still a good idea, I'm just curious.  I think it wouldn't be too hard to convince someone that was fine (no harder than convincing someone that Planar Shepards are fine...)

I seem to remember that divine minion was used in the early Pun-pun Incarnations,or is my memory completely failing me?
[/quote]

Past Lives in the DMG II. It's +5 LA, but it gives as one of the option wildshaping as an 11th level Druid 1/day.

Only downside is the freakin' LA.

[Echoes]

Q 285 If a spell says that its effect produces a 'wall' of some length, and the spell does not explicitly say that the wall be straight, can the wall actually become a spiral? In other words, is the only requirement continuity?

Instead of forming a straight wall like this: 0123456789ABCDEF
could you make a spiral wall, like this?

FEDC
432B
501A
6789

Examples: Wall of Stone specifically says that it does not need to be a straight wall. Wall of Iron explicitly states that it must be a straight wall.

Important Case: Blade Barrier does not specify whether the wall must be straight or not. If it doesn't..., clerics just got their first real damaging zone spell. (The blade wall is 20' long per level. At lvl 11, that's 220' of blades, which means it can cover a 44 (~7x6) square patch of the battlefield.

A285: Any spell whose area is shapeable has the notation (S) in it's area (Player's Handbook, pg. 176). As an example, wall of stone has this notation, while blade barrier does not. Therefore, blade barrier cannot be shaped.

Q 286 Is it alright to use 'pushing' effects to force enemies through the Blade Barrier? Would they take damage each time they went through the barrier or just once? [If it's the former, the solid spiral case could lead to quite a bit of damage when combined with a pushing spell like Rejection. Would this be considered 'evil'? Or just good tactics?]

A286: You can definitely push a target through a blade barrier to force them to take damage, since blade barrier's damage conditional only refers to when targets pass through the wall.

[Mixster]

Q281 What is the source on the two-weapon fighting swashbuckler variant?

Bumping this

[kevin_video]

Q281 What is the source on the two-weapon fighting swashbuckler variant?

Bumping this

Are you talking about the Shield of Blades variant from PHB2? Instead of a Dodge bonus you get a shield bonus for attacking with two light weapons.

[Ramaloke]

Q281 What is the source on the two-weapon fighting swashbuckler variant?

Bumping this

Are you talking about the Shield of Blades variant from PHB2? Instead of a Dodge bonus you get a shield bonus for attacking with two light weapons.

Thats a stupid trade, Dodge Bonuses stack, Shield Bonuses do not, and everybody should have an animated large steel shield (or mithril if you need it) anyway. Just stick to normal TWF if thats the alternative.

[kevin_video]

Q281 What is the source on the two-weapon fighting swashbuckler variant?

Bumping this

Are you talking about the Shield of Blades variant from PHB2? Instead of a Dodge bonus you get a shield bonus for attacking with two light weapons.

Thats a stupid trade, Dodge Bonuses stack, Shield Bonuses do not, and everybody should have an animated large steel shield (or mithril if you need it) anyway. Just stick to normal TWF if thats the alternative.

I have no idea of that's the one he's talking about. Just answering a question with a question.

And unfortunately not everyone can have an animated large steel shield like a fighter can. Namely, those that use light armor or no armor. They tend to not have any shield proficiencies. There are a couple of exceptions, but not many.

[Ramaloke]

Q281 What is the source on the two-weapon fighting swashbuckler variant?

Bumping this

Are you talking about the Shield of Blades variant from PHB2? Instead of a Dodge bonus you get a shield bonus for attacking with two light weapons.

Thats a stupid trade, Dodge Bonuses stack, Shield Bonuses do not, and everybody should have an animated large steel shield (or mithril if you need it) anyway. Just stick to normal TWF if thats the alternative.

I have no idea of that's the one he's talking about. Just answering a question with a question.

And unfortunately not everyone can have an animated large steel shield like a fighter can. Namely, those that use light armor or no armor. They tend to not have any shield proficiencies. There are a couple of exceptions, but not many.

Im just saying the tradeoff is a bad one, and everybody can use a large mithral shield, it has no Armor Check Penalty, so theres no penalty for non-proficiency.

[Hitoshura]

Q 287. How does Psychic Reformation work for Familiars?

Let's say i'm a 15th level Wizard with an Imp and i use Psychic Reformation... Will i remake 15 Hit Dices or the 3 standard for Imps? Is there any trick in that case?

[kevin_video]

Im just saying the tradeoff is a bad one

Even so, the question needed an answer. If it's not the right answer, hopefully someone else can come up with what is needed.

[Ramaloke]

Q 287. How does Psychic Reformation work for Familiars?

Let's say i'm a 15th level Wizard with an Imp and i use Psychic Reformation... Will i remake 15 Hit Dices or the 3 standard for Imps? Is there any trick in that case?

A287: You would redo the imps 3 hd, letting you pick 2 feats for him.

[kevin_video]

Q 288 Is there a Marshal handbook?

[Maat_Mons]

Q 289: Treebark carapace (Magic of Eberron 136) gives a bonus to saves against “polymorph effects.”  Is there anything other than baleful polymorph and polymorph any object that this would apply to? 

Q 290: Cat's-eye brooch (Magic Item Compendium 84) gives “a +1 luck bonus on all saving throws and an additional +4 bonus on saving throws against disease.”  Is the +4 an increase to the normal luck bonus or a separate, untyped bonus? 

[Integral]

Q 289: Treebark carapace (Magic of Eberron 136) gives a bonus to saves against “polymorph effects.”  Is there anything other than baleful polymorph and polymorph any object that this would apply to?    

Maybe something like a Chaos Beast's http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/chaosBeast.htm Corporeal Instability?

Q 291: How does a Spellguard of Silverymoon's (PGtF) Selective Spell ability interact with a spell like Freezing Fog (SpC)? Would creatures unaffected be able to move and see through the cloud normally?

[PhaedrusXY]

Q284: Assuming you are using normal Polymorph rules, and not one of the 9 kajillion erratas Polymorph changes your HP, correct?

Yes because it changes your Constitution so it also changes your hp...

It's still debatable even without Errata, because the spell specifically says your hit points don't change. The question is whether that is all-inclusive and includes the changes due to Con, or not. And I think it was the FAQ that originally clarified that you don't get hit points due to Con change, anyway, and not an Errata.

[Agita]

Q 292

What was that build that replaced basically all rolls with a Perform (usually Breakdance) check called again?

[Kuroimaken]

Q 292

What was that build that replaced basically all rolls with a Perform (usually Breakdance) check called again?

The Lord of the Dance. It basically consisted of making everything rely on Concentration and then swapping it for Perform via a Bard spell (the name escapes me at the moment, though).