The Gaming Den

What specifically do you want to be able to do? Colossal monsters are all outside the purview of Polymorph (due to HD limits and no colossal monster having fewer than 20 HD). You could polymorph into an Ibrandlin, which is a gargantuan dragon with 10 HD. You can do this at 7th level (when you get Polymorph) if you can find a +3 bonus to CL. Or just a wand of Polymorph with CL 10. Unfortunately, advancing an Ibrandlin does not increase its size.

Next option would be Polymorph Any Object which does not have a HD limit (that I can see). Assuming you don't mind the Int hit, you could PAO yourself into a Mountain Giant (Int 6) which at least has a humanoid body plan. If you are a human (or rather, if the GM rules that giants are the same "class" as whatever race you are, ie, usually mammal), this change can be permanent. If you are reptilian with Int 15 or more, and don't mind arguing about dragons and opposable thumbs, you could permanently PAO into a Dread Linnorm.

Oh, and note that, technically, the rules allow for you to just hire a spellcaster to cast Polymorph Any Object on you for 1200gp.

Prak wrote:What specifically do you want to be able to do? Colossal monsters are all outside the purview of Polymorph (due to HD limits and no colossal monster having fewer than 20 HD). You could polymorph into an Ibrandlin, which is a gargantuan dragon with 10 HD. You can do this at 7th level (when you get Polymorph) if you can find a +3 bonus to CL. Or just a wand of Polymorph with CL 10. Unfortunately, advancing an Ibrandlin does not increase its size.

"The assumed form can’t have more Hit Dice than your caster level (or the subject’s HD, whichever is lower)"

CL increases are useless for polymorphing yourself.

Your best bet is to pay someone to PAO you twice. Though of course, be ware random DMs trying to rule -3 (FUCK YOU PCS YOU CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS) or Rule -2 Polymorph Any Object to not be able to turn Shrews into Manticores or Pebbles into People, and to just be Polymorph spell with a different duration, and keep the dumb HD limitations, including subject HD ones because they are "inherited" from Polymorph.

Ah, ok, this is what I get for skimming.

Prak wrote:What specifically do you want to be able to do?

To have an absurdly large grapple bonus and run around wearing a silver Luchador mask body slamming everyone.

Oh, you can do that super easily without being colossal. I made a sixth level elf wizard with a +26 grapple.

You actually don't want to be Colossal. Find the bonus somewhere else mostly, because Colossal creatures literally cannot adventure as PCs.

Also, being colossal comes with a large penalty to attack rolls, which kind of matter when trying to initiate a grapple.

Prak wrote:Also, being colossal comes with a large penalty to attack rolls, which kind of matter when trying to initiate a grapple.

It's a touch attack. You don't need a terribly high attack roll to hit essentially everything. Not fitting into streets or castles or dungeons would be the bigger issue.

My anecdotal experience with the aforementioned wizard tells me otherwise, but then I roll shitty, too, so there's that.

who did "noble savage" orcs first, and when did it become popular?

Star Trek, frankly. Playing orcs as Klingons is the next most obvious thing after playing them like Uruk-Hai.

I don't know when people started going all Last of the Mahicans on them, but the release of Warcraft III marked an enormous surge in that kind of interpretation.

It's kind of the only way to go with orcs if you want to keep the original fluff, but make them less dumb and one-dimensional.

So, the Dragonstar game switched DMs, I'm now going to play, because I have too much stress on me in my life to prep games and run.

I want to play a spellware* surgeon, and it seems to me the best** way to do that is the much-maligned Artificer and take the extra feat I need for implanting spellware.

Is there a better class for playing Magic Ripper Doc who can also fill in for rogue stuff?

*magic cybernetics. They differ from normal items in that the person getting them pays the XP.
**most versatile. The ability to meet item prereqs with UMD is awesome.

Based on my current experience playing an Artificer, and zero knowledge of Dragonstar and Spellware past what you said in that post, it sounds like a good fit. Things to confirm before you finalize: Will your party be buying things from you at price, at cost, or somewhere in between? That one's apparently a source of an impressive amount of contention. Also: how does your DM feel about cost reductions, how do they stack, and how far can you take it before things start getting antagonistic? Since spellware apparently doesn't cost xp from the person crafting it (and thus the person with the feat), does Legendary Artisan apply?

Past that, just make sure you sandbag enough ("enough" obviously depends on your table) and that you're not too miserly with your cash (you have two attributes that matter: UMD and GP) and you'll be fine.

The Artificer is pretty well panned here, because it starts weak but quickly ramps up to crazy over powered with built in infinite power combos.

Uh, yeah. That's why I didn't say "you might have to sandbag" and instead said "make sure you sandbag enough".

Right, I was kind of explaining why I was asking the den for other options. The Artificer fits great, I'm just curious if anyone here can come up with a better class that still fits.

Oh. Right, then.

Uh, from what I can find, there's both Spellware and Divine Spellware. The few pieces I could find details on seem to be similar to Wondrous Items in their prerequisites, which means that the spells needed will be all over the map, and, like any crafter, you're better off with unlimited spells known. I suspect Divine Spellware has divine spells as prereqs? So you'll want access to those too.

None of this leads to any notable results that I know, but I'm putting the information there in case anyone else can do anything with it. As far as I can tell the answer to a flexible magic crafter beyond Artificer is "Wizard, or Cleric I guess, and if you really want to drop extensive resources into being a Rogue, well, you can probably afford it". But I don't have a huge amount of background so maybe there's something else.

What's a good alternative to the name "Monk" for a "uses kungfu qigong powers" class?

Shadowrun has the Adept next to the Shaman and Mage, but 'Adept' doesn't quite do it for me.

Martial Artist
Kung Fu Master

If it's oriental martial arts, you can use Sifu/Shifu (or Sensei).

I'll be running an After Sundown campaign soon, and I have some questions about movement and combat. How does the game handle blocking people's movement and overrun attempts?

For example, suppose a necromancer Khaibit and his shamblers are under attack by a werewolf. At the start of the round, the zombies are between the werewolf and the necromancer, and the necromancer orders them to stop the werewolf. If the werewolf decides to ignore the zombies and just charge the necromancer I don't see anything they could actually do to stop him - his movement will be completed regardless.

Is navigating through the zombie horde actually automatic, or does the werewolf have to make some kind of stunt to pass them?

On a related note, can Shamblers have advantages and disadvantages? They seem like natural candidates for Swarming and Conspicuous Consumption.

Shamblers are NPCs. Technically they can have whatever shit you want. That said I'm surprised they don't start with Conspicuous Consumption anyway as fricking zombies.

Prak wrote:Dragonstar

I haven't yet been able to check the Player's Companion, but assuming there's nothing applicable then Artificer is the fastest choice. Taking the Implant Spellware feat requires a 5th level spellcaster (3rd level Artificer), the non-feat Technical Proficiency (which a character could have from level 1), and the ability to make up to a DC 20 Profession(surgeon) check. Dragonstar wizards are allowed to take Implant Spellware as a bonus feat, and so could start implanting at 5th level, while other spellcasters would have to wait until 6th.

All the PCs have technical prof. for free, and we're doing a feat per level, which, if anything, just means Artificer is even faster. The big benefit of Artificer is being able to make items based on literally any spell.