I'm A level 5 Druid with a +3 BAB

I think anyway

Yup +3

hmm.

If I wanted to Magically Enhance My scythe what would I put on it......Besides the +1 required to put other stuff on it

Wait Im a Druid.....I should have some way magically incapacitate a foe

hmm

Hmm if I were the nefarious sort I would(If my wolf Died) Reincarnate it as a Dire Wolf. But I am not

@Novian for scythes i like the Jagged enchantment, which gives +1d4 untyped damage and increases the critical multiplier by 1

What book?

or source

arms & equipment guide, i think?

will look when i get home

.....Damn

gotta find it then

It would be pending aproval of my GM

sooo 3d4 x5 on crit?

soo Coup de Grace is all the more painful'

Flashy Numbers are always nice

Arent Called Shots Crits too?

A Wand of True Strike or Quickened True Strike Would negate the penalty If I Ever Felt like Doing Front Line Melee Cripling

@Novian wand.

... ::sigh:: Just how cheesy would you like to be, sir?

Baconator please

well, okay, true strike on items can be variably broken depending on how silly you make it.

I was of Course Kidding

@Novian so, worst case is a use-activated widget of true strike.

Use, of course, being "I prepare to swing my weapon."

??

beyond that, there are activation problems with items and true strike.

hmm

cause the minimum activation time tends to be longer than the duration of the spell.

Activation time is Standard and Duration of TS is On next attack but i see your point

could get messy'

but it could be extremely cheesy for a Scythe weilding War Wizard

or fighter

hmm is a Frontline Wizard even Possible?

@Novian frankly, as a wizzy using a scythe? A ring of true strike makes you "barely compoetent?"

sure. Just not recommended.

hmm. better off as a fighter wizard hybrid

look up the optimization potential on term "gish"

Ive seen fighters with enough magic to be a problem used to great effect

Frontline pure wizards rely on polymorph effects, usually

Otherwise, PrCs are usually involved

Abjurant Champion, Swiftblade, and Jade Phoenix Mage are the best

@Novian though, if oyu want to be a frontline wizard, be a druid?

It's just easier to deal with?

As a Druid though, you have Wild Shape. Why are you wasting time with a mere weapon?

I am. Im just looking for other wacky combo's

Because sometimes Being a Bear in a Demon fight isnt the best idea

Never bring a bear to a demon fight

That's... not really true

tell that to the disintegrated bear

There is Wild Shape for everything

@KRyan which bit? Beardemon? or frontline wizzy?

Frontline wizard does work. You just need to become less God.

Being wild shaped in ANY combat really

Is always a good idea

at my level I save My wildshape for emergencies

Ive only got one use

That lasts a long time

Just stay shaped

Anyway bbiab

5 hours hmm

8th level I can Use it to become some fun stuff

If I wanted to Make a Wildshapercentric Druid there is a lot to work with

@Novian: found jagged, unfortunately it's from a 3rd party book, Arms and Armor by Bastion Press

@Novian the trick with Druid is that you do not make a "wild shape centric" or "animal companion centric" or "spellcasting centric" Druid – you make a Druid who does all of the above, all the time. That's what Natural Spell is so important for Druids, so they can cast spells while wild shaped

@ObliviousSage Not surprised; I was shocked when I saw the stats you said it had; it didn't sound like something WotC would publish. Which is not to say I think it's overpowered, mind you, just that I think WotC would think that

@KRyan: i personally think it's a little UNDER-powered, since it's a +3 enchant and it isn't compatible with Keen

oh jeez +**3**? I was thinking +2 at most

and nixing Keen in combo is dumb

mind you, it's far more balanced that a Kaorti-resin Scythe

and that is Wizards'

actually, Kaorti-resin Scythe is stupid

make that Kaorti-resin Rapier

no, i can understand nixing keen; the right build can get scimitars a 12-20 crit range, and improving the crit multiplier then would probably be worth MORE than a +3

12-20 crit range in 3.5 takes a lot of resources

and no, it probably wouldn't

the only way I know of to get that range is to abuse 3.0 PrCs that haven't been updated

like the Disciple of Dispater

i was thinking of weaponmaster or whatever

that got updated as Exotic Weapon Master even though they're totally different

officially the weapon master is not 3.5-legal

huh, didnt know that

not that i ever used it anyway when my group was doing 3.5

i always preferred the psychic focus feat combo for giving wizards free metamagic

I'm not aware of any way of using Psionic Focus to get Metamagic

though there are plenty of ways to do it, of course

very quick way to break the game, that is

it goes thru incarnum

you need feats, plus you have to be a psionic character (so waste a level or burn a 3rd feat on Wild Talent)

ok, Midnight Metamagic is definitely one of the ways to get free metamagic

Midnight Metamagic + Psycarnum Infusion

but I'm not sure how Psionic Focus comes in

ah

don't recall what Psycarnum Infusion does

Midnight Augmentation is awesome though

psycarnum infusion = expend your psionic focus to treat a soulmeld, incarnum feat, class feature, or other incarnum receptacle as if it had max essentia invested until start of your next turn

ah.

yeah

that would definitely do it

but why burn a level or a feat when you could just be a Naturally Psionic race?

true

Elan and Kalashtar are both quite good

didnt work in our campaign, we had a strict list of races allowed by the DM

though you could do the reverse and be a Azurin and take Wild Talent

or a Duskling

Dusklings don't get a bonus feat, but they're awesome

though griffons were on that list, ironically (you got a free human rider NPC as a follower)

hah, that's... weird

I don't see much point in 3.5 if the DM is going to limit things though

the only thing the system has going for it is the ridiculous amount of available material

agreed

if you're not going to use that, might as well play a better system

the only thing the DM limited was races, though

most other stuff was actually MORE open than normal

well, races aren't too big a deal

and people pick human 90% of the time anyway

yay bonus feat!

like, there was only 1 caster class; it used spell points and had access to every spell list

owut.

that sounds horrendously overpowered

so yeah, that was broken as all get out

actually, forget sounds, that is

I type too fast for this chat

by level 14 i was running around with greater a tjcjl

bah

atlatl?

with the following spells always up: greater anticipate teleportation, superior resistance, armor of darkness, detect scrying, dragonskin, and greater mage armor

hah

i was like 4 levels ahead of the rest of the party due to good look with the deck of many things

which i will keep using until forcibly prevented from doing so

I assume you had a contingency, and had celerity, nerveskitter, and warn ready?

good luck*

oh god Deck of Many Things

nah, i had evocation banned as a diviner, so i needed one more level to get shadow evocation

I think the existence of a Deck of Many Things anywhere within a campaign that's not intended as a joke or one-shot is a reason to leave it

yeah, eventually the DM gave up and used DM fiat to take it away from us

frankly, you were absurdly lucky that you had a party left

but not before i got 4 free levels, lost every material possession i had, and earned the enmity of a powerful outsider

god, how does one even run that?

a level 14 character in an otherwise-level-10 group, but with no items?

what happens to WBL?

so many kinds of awful.

DM muddled through somehow

i think we just stuck with level 10 on the WBL chart

this actually sorta coincides with my problems with LA: it's not just bad, it skews things in unanticipated ways

i've always personally felt that any system that allows party members to be different levels is poorly designed

your levels are too good, but your items are missing, and that means... what?

yeah, I agree

it means you really, REALLY need that free metamagic so you can give yourself extended buffs

heh, yeah, guess so

and the powerful outsider bit actually provided a useful plot hook for the DM

you were, at least, in an excellent position to replace magic items

oh, of course; things that give you an enemy are usually a good thing for you

though it took not 1, not 2, but THREE encounters that were intended to be way too much for us to win for the powerful outsider to actually capture me

because it's a plot hook and it's interesting

plus there's another dude whose stuff you might get to take, and if it's specifically a powerful enemy...

mainly because Phantom Steed has a 240' speed by that level and can fly

yeah, phantom steed is insane

do you know the Knight Phantom?

one of the coolest PrCs out there, it's got full BAB, 9/10 spellcasting, and revolves around phantom steed

it's not really worth the 9/10 spellcasting, but you'd be a gish so you care a tiny bit less

it was actually kind of hilarious, one friend who had just joined the party died on the first of those encounters; i was riding my phantom steed, the other PCs were griffons, and we all just flew away leaving his drunken master to die horribly

it's way better than Eldritch Knight, anyway

i havent seen that one, what book is it in?

Five Nations

which setting is that?

Eberron

huh, i do have that book

i guess i never got around to reading it

and unlike most stuff from a setting specific book, the Knight Phantom is fairly specific, though of course you could adapt it easily

they're basically the Brelish Secret Service

there are some really cool gish PrCs out there, honestly

Abjurant Champion, Jade Phoenix Mage, Swiftblade

on the divine side there's the Bone Knight and the Ruby Knight Vindicator

i've never been a gish fan, but yeah, they did rack up some good support as 3.5 went on

anywho, off to write some papers, catch you all later

see ya

I wonder if the DM in my group has planned for the unbalancing nature of summon Spells

Should I warn him?

Hmm....

summoning... isn't that bad

it can be bad

Yes but

but there are scarier things you can do

Extra Party members can unbalance an encounter

Scarier?

How so? Explain.

shapechanging, especially into the more powerful types (aberration, dragon, outsider), and especially especially when you get the Su abilities

Calling effects

are Summons on steroids

metamagic abuse

Calling?

planar ally, planar ally, gate

planar binding

rather than repeating myself with planar ally

ah

you get them longer, so you don't have to waste in-combat actions to get them

arent those wizard?

and they are much freer to do absurd things

cuz Summons have limitations

planar ally is Cleric, planar binding is sor/wiz, gate is both

for a druid specifically, summoning is definitely up there

but the druid's real strength is his "everything" ness

he's got summons out the wazoo, not to mention the AC he starts all combats with

he's a terrifying melee warrior himself

and he's a full-caster

A Druid is the natural world and all the forces in it is what i belive sums up your point

pretty much

I Like the Call Lightning spell myself. Dont know why.

optimizing a Druid pretty much goes like this: take Natural Spell, find the nastiest thing available as a companion, and then track down several different nasty things to turn into

call lightning is very cool, but pretty weak

Well I make a point of asking what the weather is like.

Its a shame Controll Weather is useless as an in combat spell as it takes 10 minutes to work

Ever had combat that lasted 60 rounds?

wait

that math cannot be right

hmm...

10 rounds in a minute soo 600 rounds?

combats only extremely rarely last 6 rounds in my experience

yup

soo Cast it at the beginning of the day and hope it works as a utility

ultimately, even with the storm bonus, call lightning isn't really that hot

its Ok for a third level damage spell.

...ok, but... damage spells in general aren't that hot

but then again. We've got a wizard

who shouldn't be doing much damage either

damage is for the chumps with swords

they can do more of it and don't need spell slots

spell slots are for the things they can't do

...which is pretty much everything else

/spellcaster superiority cliche

but it's still very true, at least so far as 3.5 goes

I think we have a Swordmonkey but I cant remember

We have a ranger

I think

Its been a week and it was the first session

my memory is so horrid

I know I have to double as Healer on occasion

get a wand of lesser vigor

Lesser Vigor?

hmm

Fast Healing 1 for 10+CL rounds

really how much

a CL 1 wand of it heals 11 HP per charge, 50 charges, 750 gp

that's 550 HP for 750 gp

that's by-far the best ratio you're going to find

it's too slow for combat, but honestly everything that isn't heal or mass heal is too slow for combat

Hmm A wand of Vigor and perhapse a Wand of Heal

Far better than CMW

heal is too high-level and it's not on your spell list IIRC

aww

I hate playing healer

cure light wounds is the only cure spell worth using

everything else is too inefficient

3.5 really does not require a healer

as long as there's someone with cure light wounds or lesser vigor on their spell list, a wand of either should be good enough for between-combat healing

....youve never met our DM

in-combat healing is a waste of actions 90% of the time, again unless you're talking about heal or mass heal

He once made Rats Feindish and put them up against level 2 characters

healing belts are great for burst or emergency healing

wand of CLW, wand of LV, and healing belt are all 750 gp

this coincidence amuses me

they're pretty much the go-to healing options

Fiendish Rats are... about CR 2

Ill see about Availability when the next session starts

there were like 12

all at once

let's see, that's roughly an ECL 6-7 encounter?

yeah, he's basically not really playing by the rules

I kept shooting people in my party on acciddent

which isn't really bad mind you

because the CR system is horrid

no we still won but nearly died

but the players have to be up to snuff

then it sounds like he's probably got an OK sense of encounter balancing

cuz that's usually the goal

well, sort of

I did die temporarily until DM Reroll

We get one a session

"almost died" means you should be done for the day; an average day has, in theory, 4 encounters that drain 20% of your resources

if you only have one encounter, though

it should use up roughly 80% of your resources

this was one

and It sucked

eh

he could have put That Damn Crab in front of you

that would be really bad

I was Nat 1ing almost every roll that was ranged

the natural 1 is an evil concept

and that's just CR 3, though it may be the worst CR-rating job this side of the Adamantine Horror

created to balance out luck

...do you have critical fumbles?

yes

yeah, see

that's when I find a new group

He isnt our Full time DM

just for this one campaign

We also have Natural 20's

I never get them

critical fumbles are a horrid addition to 3.5, which was not designed with them in mind. In systems where they're an expected part of the system, they can work, but in 3.5 they're just incredibly stupid. In all honesty, "doing nothing" is more than penalty enough for roll a 1; having a chance of stabbing yourself or whatever is idiotic; no trained warrior has a 5% chance of stabbing himself

worse still, it means a Fighter 20 is stabbing himself 400% more than a Fighter 1

which makes absolutely no sense

of course the one campaign we didnt use the Nat1/Nat20 we had an encounter where I couldent Hit a Damn thing

Well the way I like to explain Crit Fail/Success is Luck or Lack thereof

But i see your point

I agree too

wait, are we talking about "nat-1 = auto fail, nat-20 = auto-succeed" or something more than that?

well yes and no

no meaning the more option

depending on the GM

that's a default rule

For this one its the It can make you drop your weapon

I was talking about houserules that cause natural-1s to make you stab yourself or ... or yeah, that

Actually I found out it isnt really

that's idiotic