The Gaming Den

Alright. Lets compare this to a human monk for comparison. For now I'll ignore the claim that monk is too weak.[br][br]Ten levels gives us +7 BAB, +7 to all saves, +2 to AC, 60ft base speed, a bonus unarmed attack at 1d10+Str damage, improved evasion, and a few tidy things like slow fall, bonus feat...

Ugh. Don't they do any editing on web enhancements? Looking just at the "Cambions as Characters" here:[br][br]- Odd numberered ability score bonuses. There's no precedent for this in all of third edition.[br][br]- Forty foot base speed without any explanation. Are they longer-legged than h...

What about the problem of inheriting the no-templates clause from Alter Self?[br][br]I thought that FAQ didn't actuallly override rules. [br][br]Indeed, any sensible DM would read Polymorph to inherit all limitations from Alter Self, since handing out a free template is at least a shade broken. Tha...

One of Monte Cook's concerns with the Warlock was that having too few abilities might make it too repetetive. Previously in 2nd Edition there were no spontaneous casters (sorcerers didn't exist and bards kept a spellbook), so when the sorcerer was added to third edition, Monte was worried that even ...

Suppose a DM were to allow a player to take Warlock, knowing that +6 to Bluff all day is nice and balanced. Now suppose that the player, having read on the Internet of this nigh-infinite bluff bonus bug, proceeds to cast it for an hour, and when the DM questions it, he tells his DM that it's perfect...

It's another of those letter-of-the-rule literal readings. The kind that make it legal warlock to buff himself to add +900 to Bluff checks each morning.

Mr Troll Man wrote:Again, I disagree.

Frank wrote:In most games, if you find a "bug", you can exploit it - once.

Most games don't have me at the helm.

It's general because spell-like innates are not limited to monsters. Gnomes, tieflings and aasimars have innate spell-like abilities. Monstrous simply designates a feat which shouldn't be available to regular humans-and-elves characters, and rather, is exclusive to monster characters.[br][br]The des...

Agreed, the word 'innate' is ill-defined by D&D standards. And yes, the Archmage was what I had in mind when I said that powerful learned spell-likes are "almost" unheard of. I would, however, have assumed there to be no such thing as "innate to a class", given the meaning of...

The warlock introduces something to D&D that's almost never seen in the game, which is learned spell-like abilities. My own gut instinct would make me think that an innate spell-like ability would refer to a racial ability, for example:[br][br] In addition, a gnome can speak with a burrowing mam...

Oh, and I completely forgot about the obvious cheese, which Frank touched on: Savage Species' Supernatural Transformation feat applied to your Eldritch Blast. Henceforth,[br][br] Its use cannot be disrupted, does not require concentration, and does not provoke attacks of opportunity. [br]and [br] Su...

I have to admit that I do like the ability to take 10 on Use Magic Device - by level 4 he can be walking around casting the spells of every class, limited only by the depth of his pockets. With some elementary powerplay, a level 4 human warlock can have an automatic 27 on all UMD checks, automatical...

I like the improvements to dwarves and TWF, but that's got an awful lot to do with the fact that I like dwarves so much. A race with +2 Con and -2 Cha is a popular enough choice as it is. I think a problem with having any one person as The Sage is that any individual will be prone to mistakes unless...

Yeah, I know you are. I'm guessing you're also going to dispute what Skip told me yesterday, that elemental wild shape allows only the fire elementals, earth elementals, etc, and not merely elementals of the required subtype - because Skip's always wrong, right?[br][br]PAO was originally based on Po...

That's a plausible spell, although it is defeating the point of Polymorph. The ability of magicians to turn one person or creature into another is a staple of fantasy fiction. As a D&D spell, it's inevitable that some munchkin will find a way to minmax the hell out of Polymorph by turning into t...

That'd require editing every monster in the book. Preferable would be a rewrite or revision of the Polymorph spells which clears all confusion up for good. For example, it should specify whether or not PAO breaks Polymorph's size limit, whether or not Polymorph allows templates, whether or not Polym...

I'm not familiar with this Drow Hunter ability.

Ah, I see your point.

Well, agree to disagree, I say, as neither of us are likely to convince each other any time soon.

(I still think half-elemental is an outsider and not an elemental, though.

With regards Polymorph Any Object's lack of a size limitation override, t'is a very good point. Polymorph Any Object fails to explicitly state that it allows forms larger than one-size-larger, and only states it by inference (the examples it gives include shrew-to-manticore and pebble-to-human). Pur...

Because there is no clause that you cannot become a Dragon! There is a clause that you can only become a creature of your own type. [br][br]Let me rephrase that than.[br][br]Alter Self limits you to your own type. Polymorph changes this so that you may become your own type, or any of a number of ty...

When it says that you can turn into a Dragon, that doesn't mean "subject to the restrictions of Alter Self" - it means that you can turn into a frickin Dragon. Any Dragon at all ... At that point, any and all restrictions of Alter Self that would prevent you from turning into a Dragon are...

I see. So where we are contending is as follows. I believe that the text of Polymorph is badly written and should be interpreted in a way that makes sense, especially considering that it's how Polymorph Self/Other used to work in 3.0. (e.g., a 15HD limit would be a dumb thing to include if the 5HD l...

Either the whole text of Polymorph simply ignores any parts of Alter Self which restrict it (sucha as the size, hit die, and template restrictions) - or it carries over all the restrictions. Not both. And not some bastard combination of the two. [br][br]As per the text "as alter self, except&q...

If you won't agree with my stance that Polymorph's clearly stated 15HD limit implies that the 5HD limit is lifted, or that a Construct named "Dragon Killer" is not a dragon in any way, then perhaps I can do no more to attempt to convince you. We'll have to agree to disagree on these points...

I should point out that as per the earlier discussion, a half-elemental is not an elemental and a displacer beast is not a beast, despite their names.[br] [br]That's horse shit. [br][br]How so? Half-elemental is Outsider, displacer beast is a Magical Beast (even in 3.0 when we still had the plain &...