@Lord_Gareth The comment on your NPC Potential question makes a good point; I think your question talks more about why you decided to make the Q&A than what it's actually about.
@KRyan While you're integrating the comments into your answer, you might want to remember that you've already spent a few paragraphs on the topic. A link to this question might be more efficient, as part of your current answer to Cobalt's question isn't quite germane.
Are Masterwork weapons limited to a +1 bonus, or can the bonus go all the way to +5? The reason i ask is the books usually refer to items with a bonus as magical items, but the books also say that all magic weapons and armor are masterwork.
So we have a monsters tag. I recently asked a question that’s explicitly about Animal Companions, and it strikes me that it may not be obvious that animals should be tagged as Monsters. Is the tag intended to cover them? If so, should the title be broader (e.g. creatures)? If it’s not...
POSSESSION: When a monster possesses a target, its mini is removed from the field. A monster with this ability has powers with the possession keyword. While possessing a target the monster can only use powers with this keyword.
It has the normal complement of actions (Standard, Move, Minor, opportunity and immediate actions), which it may use with any possession power which uses those action types.
When the target shakes off the possessed effect (as described in the power which imposed the effect), the monster appears in a space of its choice adjacent to the target.
Lash Out (possession) - standard action, at-will Effect: The possessed creature makes a melee basic attack against a target of your choice.
Entranced Movement - move action, at-will Effect: You slide the possessed creature up to its speed.
Great Jumping Ghosts - immediate reaction, encounter Trigger: The possessed creature targets or is targeted by another creature with a healing power. Target: The other creature Effect: The `possessed` condition is transfered from its current target to the new target.
Issues: 1. The possessed creature ends up running around a lot - it has double the actions. 2. No way for PCs to fight it/do damage to it while it's inside. 3. In an encounter against just these things, the party is left alone on the battlefield, attacking each other
And gets all his opportunity actions and everything too.
It's just that the monster is using the PC's body to perform its actions also.
My idea is to make it kinda like dominate, but a) not cause the players to lose their actions b) not give the monster effective extra actions either and c) be cool.
You'll notice I made the movement power a slide, so it can't provoke OAs on the target to be mean.
Yeah, dominate is tricky. In my own take on it, I allowed players to pick their action, as long as they attacked the target I specified. Which meant they could AoE other enemies "accidentally", or attack the strongest defence of their target, etc. To creatively resist the compulsion.
Hm. Far as I recall, the existing monster with similar mechanic took half the damage the creature it was possessing took, as it was, essentially, in the same space while insubstantial and phasing
I'd say... the possessor gets expelled when it's bloodied, and again when it's dead (duh). It takes half of all the damage the possessed takes, or full damage dealt by the possessed (to themselves). Very Evil Dead.
The scenario here is that a cult of Tiamat is raising the angry spirits of the dead dragons from the Dragon War to attack a Bahamut-worshipping city, and only the party can stop it. The possession mechanic is largely so that I can say that's how the city's gonna go: by killing each other.
If they choose to fight the dragon first, I'll give them a small bonus that'll help them against the other fight and vice versa, but the second fight will also be beefed up: more spirits, or the dragon will have put on his armor of undead bone.
Yeah, that sounds good. As long as you don't have drednaught "i take 10 damage and succeed on a save" fighters or charismatic "my teeth shine and you get +9 to your save" paladins ;)
You could optionally tell them: "You're going to get one of three buffs. Would you rather have lightning splash damage, a teleport that lets you deal a line of damage between your former location and where you teleport to, or +5 to saves?"
SevenSidedDie made this comment on my answer. Is it fair game if I go and edit that into my post? It's true, they would make great magic weapons, and I could say more about them.
@JonathanHobbs always edit stuff into your posts and mark comments as obsolete. Someone should never have to read a comment to understand your [answer|question].
@BrianBallsun-Stanton "Someone should never have to read a comment to understand your [answer|question]." It's not that kind of situation, it's just extra information which is very useful.
Does 3.5e have magical damage types?
I'm sure it does but I actually can't find anywhere detailing what they are.
@Brian I incorporated the useful part of SevenSidedDie's comment, though the rest is just mentioning they'd be handy in Return to the Barrier Peaks, which seems to just be for AD&D or d20 modern. I'm not sure what is supposed to be done with it at this point.
@BESW - I finally found the comment you were talking about and left a comment addressing it. Optimization in 3.5 is mostly done in character creation, and since monsters are generally speaking made ALREADY, using them is a vitally different skill set.
@BrianBallsun-Stanton I'm glad it flew over well, I was sorta worried that I was being preachy or that I'd chosen a bad question. I posted that one on @BESW's suggestion
Yes, but from a strict reading they work like action points: you can't stockpile them between extended rests so you don't have three of them unless you get into six fights in a row.
@vi... You around? Just as a note, your questions about "help, my 4e character needs argbleblarghe." will be closed unless you show evidence of research and or make them answerable.
I strongly strongly urge you to workshop questions here in chat before posting them
@BrianBallsun-Stanton Essentially, all I want to do is pick good feats that would work well with a heroic-level Hexblade who deals a lot of fire and ice damage. The thing is that I am looking through feat lists but there are literally thousands of these things and I don't have access to insider.
Cause the generic response is "go read the handbook"
If you're trying to pick through options in the handbook, or need to know why rod expertise is a required feat, or why most heritage feats are traps... those are kernels of a question
@BrianBallsun-Stanton Ah project staging, nice. I assume validation stage is when they get beaten around the head by the 10 standardised testing kobolds? ;)
@BrianBallsun-Stanton I wasn't really looking for narrative stuff, I just saw that some of them seemed to have cool bonus powers and so I started looking at them specifically.
@BrianBallsun-Stanton My character is level 1 currently and I was looking for a level 2 feat that would give him more longevity or let him hit better. I can't remember the name but there is one that gives you a couple of extra healing surges
@BrianBallsun-Stanton His GM wanted him to just be able to summon the hexblade sword and use it as an implement. I pointed out this meant he wasn't going to be buying an enhancement bonuses, so changes have happened.
@BrianBallsun-Stanton Well, I'm not sure that this is too bad since I'm going to argue that the bolt he gets is identical to the warlock blast and so gets feats
@Vi It sounds like before you get to brass tacks about feats and features and what you want, you need to figure out what you think is important to the character. And I get the impression you're having trouble with that because you feel you don't know the game's theorycraft well enough yet.
@BESW Well yes, that is the case. And I do feel that you guys aren't telling me exactly what you mean since it was my understanding that a 1st level fey Hexblade only gets to pick their daily power and first level feats....
But to do that, we need to get into your head about your priorities for the character's mechanics. And you're on uncertain ground about those because you're not sure you understand what's important to the game yet.
@BrianBallsun-Stanton This. In my massively inferior experience, not taking an Expertise feat at level 1 requires significant justification.
@BrianBallsun-Stanton I'm sorry if I've been a bit short with you, but thanks, I will look into that and see what's there. I'll certainly take the expertise feat, especially if I can get some sort of sword expertise feat too.
@Vi I feel ya. It's always a little shaky getting into a system, and the Internet is filled with people who understand it so well that it's hard for them to figure out you don't.
Brian really wants to help, but his strategy starts with the person he's building for being able to articulate their desires in quantifiable ways and you're not comfortable doing that in this system yet.
@Vi (I haven't finished reading it yet. Don't tell Brian.)
@Vi I'm not hip-deep in theory and maths, but I play in the shallow end of that pool, so I might be able to help you hash some things out about your goals and priorities as you read.
Those are priorities, or you'd be more comfortable changing them.
One of the first things that I learned as a GM helping people make PCs was that even the ability to identify that what you want is what you want? Is a learned skill.
@BESW Well, since this is the third class I have fielded to my DM and I've said it's definite and we are actually fighting a load of goblins right now... they might not be thrilled if I start agian. XD
Just that they are criteria for you, and need to be acknowledged as such or anyone trying to build this PC (you or anyone else) will be frustrated.
@Vi No, we get that. We're just trying to understand as fully as possible what you are after, and part of that is your being able to recognize and articulate it yourself. This is something you will learn over time.
Arcane Fire Heroic Tier Prerequisite: Int 13, any arcane class Benefit: When you hit a target with an arcane fire power, that target gains vulnerable 5 cold against the first arcane attack power you use against it before the end of your next turn.
It's not optimal, but it's exactly what you described: alternating fire and ice to blast targets away.
But you just have to try harder to achieve most objectives.
Silvery Glow Heroic Tier Prerequisite: Must worship Sehanine Benefit: You gain a +2 feat bonus to damage rolls with cold powers and radiant powers. Increase this bonus to +3 at 11th level and +4 at 21st level.
White Lotus Evasion or Riposte might also be work looking it.
Are Masterwork weapons limited to a +1 bonus, or can the bonus go all the way to +5? The reason i ask is the books usually refer to items with a bonus as magical items, but the books also say that all magic weapons and armor are masterwork.
So we have a monsters tag. I recently asked a question that’s explicitly about Animal Companions, and it strikes me that it may not be obvious that animals should be tagged as Monsters. Is the tag intended to cover them? If so, should the title be broader (e.g. creatures)? If it’s not...
