NEW GAME IDEAS!

[Nephrite]

Oh, nice. If anyone has any other items they might suggest for me then I'll be happy to take a look.

[Anastasia]

Sorry about the delay. Also, thanks for including page numbers, saves me some time.

Vetting items and spells

Items
MIC p177, Runestaff of Conjuration
MIC p178, Runestaff of Evocation

Short version: Nah.

Long version: Nah. While I'm sympathetic to the complaint that sorcerers have a too-limited spell list, I don't really agree with buying more spells per day. I'm all for things like bloodlines and other character investments that help a sorcerer's spell selection, but I don't think it should be something solved by throwing money at it.

SRD, Lesser Rod of Extend Spell
MIC p165, Lesser Rod of Chain Spell

Both are fine. Generally, I'll allow a metamagic rod of almost anything, save for quicken or epic metamagic. Run them by me first, but you can operate from the assumption I'll say yes.

MIC p155, Conduit Rod

Nifty item. I approve completely.

MIC p159, Eternal Wand

I can't find a ruling on this, though I swear I've made one. I'll say yes for now. At worst, you won't see any past chargen in case I change my mind.

Spells
SC p178, Ruin Delver's Fortune, http://dndtools.eu/spells/spell-compendium--86/ruin-delvers-fortune--4115/

No.

RotD, Wings of Cover, http://dndtools.eu/spells/races-of-the-dragon--83/wings-of-cover--3100/
RotD, Wings of Flurry, http://dndtools.eu/spells/races-of-the-dragon--83/wings-of-flurry--3101/

Wings of Flurry's banned in houserules. I'd allow a version capped at 10d6 damage rather than uncapped damage.

Let me get back to you on wings of cover. I need to sit down and read it carefully.

[Anastasia]

Question:

Do all bard songs require a standard action per round to maintain, or just the ones that specify they require concentration?

EDIT:

Do we know how much money we're starting with, and are there any items that are off limits besides ones from banned books?

From the SRD:

Starting a bardic music effect is a standard action. Some bardic music abilities require concentration, which means the bard must take a standard action each round to maintain the ability. Even while using bardic music that doesn't require concentration, a bard cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), spell trigger (such as wands), or command word. Just as for casting a spell with a verbal component, a deaf bard has a 20% chance to fail when attempting to use bardic music. If he fails, the attempt still counts against his daily limit.

So it varies from song to song. Check them, and if it's unclear, ask one of us to help.

[Anastasia]

Also, Neph mentioned using perform(motivational speech) or whatever. That would just be perform(oratory). Same thing with a different name. Not a big deal and no difference in execution, I'd just rather use the already-defined category for it.

It fits neatly into prerequisites plus it gives you a little more versatility with the skill.

[Anastasia]

Okay, I'll tentatively allow Wings of Cover, see how that one works out. I strongly suspect it's too good for what it does, but we'll give it a try and see how it works out.

[Nephrite]

Since we're vetting items, I will ask about the following:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding

Regalia of the Hero (3 items), Page 207 of Magic Item Compendium

EDIT: Also Charm of Countersong, page 85.

[Anastasia]

Since we're vetting items, I will ask about the following:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding

Regalia of the Hero (3 items), Page 207 of Magic Item Compendium

EDIT: Also Charm of Countersong, page 85.

Lyre's fine.

Wow, that set is like made for bard/marshal. Go figure. They're fine.

Charm's fine. I'm not sure I've ever seen countersong used in game, but maybe this time it will be.

[Nephrite]

Okay, fantastic. How do I calculate how much armor would be? Cor suggested a Mithral Breastplate or something similar.

[Anastasia]

Okay, fantastic. How do I calculate how much armor would be? Cor suggested a Mithral Breastplate or something similar.

Sure. Take the base price of masterwork breastplate (SRD) and look up how much more making it out of mithral costs. The relevant links are as follows.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/armor.htm For base armor price.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/armor.htm#masterworkArmor - For masterwork armor's price addition.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialMaterials.htm#mithral - For mithral.

[Nephrite]

I decided on Chainmail since Breastplate comes with a helmet that I won't wear due to the other items.

So Chainmail is 150 + 150 for Masterwork + 4000 for Medium Mithral for a total of 4300, I believe?

I never had to fuss with the the Armor bonus and Armor check stuff before, so what exactly do I end up with? I'm also not sure if I incur a spellcasting penalty. I understand Mithral is considered to have 10% less of one, but I don't know if I have to incur it at all since Medium armor is considered Light.

[Corwin]

I want a clarification for metamagic, please. I realize that applying a metamagic feat slows the casting down to a full round for sorcs (unless the spell is prepared, or I rely on something like the metamagic specialist). What about those metamagic feats that are at +0 like energy substitution? They don't adjust the level for wizards, so do they extend the casting time for sorcs?

[Ebiris]

http://dndtools.eu/classes/cerebrex/ <-- thoughts on this? (assuming psionics qualify). What I'd actually like to do is have my psion side continue while the other side of the gestalt (with a few warlock levels) goes into this thing on the back of my ability to manifest 3rd level powers.

[Corwin]

Which skills do we care about? Which are meaningless? Fly? Knowlege: Planes? How would concentration be handled, the PF way? Knowledge: Local?

How about giving mages unlimited cantrips?

[Anastasia]

I decided on Chainmail since Breastplate comes with a helmet that I won't wear due to the other items.

So Chainmail is 150 + 150 for Masterwork + 4000 for Medium Mithral for a total of 4300, I believe?

Yes.

I never had to fuss with the the Armor bonus and Armor check stuff before, so what exactly do I end up with? I'm also not sure if I incur a spellcasting penalty. I understand Mithral is considered to have 10% less of one, but I don't know if I have to incur it at all since Medium armor is considered Light.

Armor bonus is the bonus the armor gives to armor class. For example, a +4 armor bonus means a +4 armor bonus to AC.

Armor check penalty is as follows.

Any armor heavier than leather hurts a character's ability to use some skills. An armor check penalty number is the penalty that applies to Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand, and Tumble checks by a character wearing a certain kind of armor. Double the normal armor check penalty is applied to Swim checks. A character's encumbrance (the amount of gear carried, including armor) may also apply an armor check penalty.

Maximum dexterity is as follows.

Arcane Spell Failure

Armor interferes with the gestures that a spellcaster must make to cast an arcane spell that has a somatic component. Arcane spellcasters face the possibility of arcane spell failure if they're wearing armor. Bards can wear light armor without incurring any arcane spell failure chance for their bard spells.

As you're wearing medium armor made of mithral, it counts as light armor instead. So you have no arcane spell failure to worry about.

[Anastasia]

I want a clarification for metamagic, please. I realize that applying a metamagic feat slows the casting down to a full round for sorcs (unless the spell is prepared, or I rely on something like the metamagic specialist). What about those metamagic feats that are at +0 like energy substitution? They don't adjust the level for wizards, so do they extend the casting time for sorcs?

If you have to apply the metamagic to the spell, it increases the casting time. If it's automatic (such as battle blessing, automatic metamagic and so forth), it doesn't. I usually have sorcerers grab metamagic specialist, as it generally alleviates the problem. There's the rapid metamagic feat from Complete Mage, which removes the issue altogether.

Thing is, the metamagic doesn't adjust the spell slot/charge needed for the spell. But it still needs to be applied.

To be honest, I've always thought this rule is rather dumb, but it's never come up to be changed.