The Gaming Den

There are tons of known, readily usable combinations of feats/spells/items and such that have seeped into the collective knowledge of players through the years of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition. However, there are still some pretty awesome combos that I've never heard anyone talking about and can't find on Google. This thread is dedicated to sharing your favorite lesser known combinations so that people can either try something new or tell you why you're wrong and your shit doesn't work. I'll go first since I'm already here.

1. Bands of Blood Rage (MIC page 201) and magic missile (PH 251). The bands grant you a +5 morale bonus on all spell damage when you activate it as a swift action, lasting for 5 rounds. You also grant offensively-minded teammates a +5 bonus on their weapon damage, all for taking 5 damage a round yourselves. Not usually a great trade, but a magic missile slaps people for 43 damage on average from a level 1 slot with no metamagic at level 9, making it a worthwhile spell to use. This is a good option when you don't want to overshadow your less optimized buddies or to let your two weapon fighting fighter friend feel like someone who isn't a waste of space, by damaging a monster and letting him finish it off with actual bonus damage.

2. Wall of smoke and dungeoncrasher fighter. Cast a wall of smoke in front of an actual wall. The fighter can crash someone into the wall, and they have to make a fort save or can't retaliate next turn. Rinse and repeat for low-level killing grounds.

Any others out there? They don't have to be game-breaking or anything, just fun tricks you don't see anyone else talking about.

So, stuff that was clever-fun and that nobody talked about for 15 years?

Hrm. That's a pretty tight niche. I don't reckon I have anything that I secreted away and didn't think was worth sharing until now.

Best I can offer is to link things that were posted here that amused.

Knight of the Dinner Table

Amber pokemon

I always thought the Conjuration Creation spell Kelpstrand, plus the swift action spell that turns you into a Beholder (but used on your Animal Companion instead) was a baddass combo. Kelpstrand has absurd scaling on number of grapples it can initiate and strength of the grapple check. Beholder vision turns off FoM, or teleport escapes. So you can completely trap outsiders and such, pretty much anything that isn't a Dragon. Pretty absurd but fun.

Wouldn't the Kelpstrand be made to go away by the beholder antimagic, too?

Fwib wrote:Wouldn't the Kelpstrand be made to go away by the beholder antimagic, too?

No, because it is Conjuration Creation.

Kaelik wrote:

Fwib wrote:Wouldn't the Kelpstrand be made to go away by the beholder antimagic, too?

No, because it is Conjuration Creation.

A creation spell manipulates matter to create an object or creature in the place the spellcaster designates (subject to the limits noted above). If the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, magic holds the creation together, and when the spell ends, the conjured creature or object vanishes without a trace. If the spell has an instantaneous duration, the created object or creature is merely assembled through magic. It lasts indefinitely and does not depend on magic for its existence.

Is Kelpstrand instantaneous? Otherwise it sounds like the magic holds the creation together and an AMF would make it wink out.

So I am desperately trying to make a wizard who attacks people with Vampiric Touch rays (don't laugh) and I noticed that Enervate spell adds 50% to spell damage, regardless of maximization or whether some of the damage is sneak attack. As no one ever will let me use incantatrix, this might be an option.

Frank and I mentioned that the Morphic Familiar trait is actually really decent if used in conjunction with Improved Familiar, because you can cycle through familiars with spell-like abilities.

Yeah, I really want to play a Changeling Wizard with Improved Familiar and Shadow Familiar at some point. Maybe chuck in Celestial Familiar, Draconic Familiar and so on just for the lulz.

Sandblast + Spellwarp sniper. You now have 1st level spells that no-save stun on a touch attack. Add quicken or split ray to taste.

Don't forget the undead familiar feat from Libris Mortis. I think there's also a familiar focused PRC from eberron too, but I may be wrong. Or thinking of a special feature of the living spell focused PRC

There's the Fleshwarper PrCl from Calamari Cookbook that lets your familiar change in weird ways, but the requirements are kind of borked for it and you have to be really keen on the idea of crafting flesh grafts.

Divine Metamagic: Fell Animate for a skeleton army starting at level 1.

One of my favorite modifications to Drunken Master is Controlled Immolation; you start each combat by setting yourself on fire and running at your opponents.

I suppose this isn't a combo, but rather an under-appreciated prestige class: Bonded Summoner

You get a Medium elemental familiar who eventually levels up into an Elder Elemental (level 14). From character level 8 onwards the (now large) elemental kind of becomes your main character and the caster becomes a cohort that buffs the elemental who natively has a fistfull of immunities and nice stats before you even start laying spells and equipment on it. If the elemental dies then you take some ability damage and HP which you can heal pretty easily, and then respawn in 24 hours- so, easy resurrections. My preference is Earth Elemental since Earth Glide comes in handy so often.

It is sort of a combo in the sense that you can lay various buffs on it.
• Master's Touch to let it wield a huge weapon at iterative attacks with two-handed power attack, and have 30' reach if desired.
• Chain of Eyes when you want to send it in stealth mode to scout for you
• Heroics to fill out any gaps with fighter feats like Combat Brute (at level 12)
• And all the usual buffs you'd want to put on a fighter

It basically lets you play a melee brute in the upper levels without it being total ass since you have a pocket cohort and special abilities and immunities to keep your fighter relevant.

Prak wrote:I think there's also a familiar focused PRC from eberron too, but I may be wrong. Or thinking of a special feature of the living spell focused PRC

You're probably thinking of Daelkyr Half-Bloods (and their special class Impure Prince) and their symbionts. I remember there was some bullshit someone found you could do with them.
Can't remember or find online what it was though.

If you're willing to suck Mister Cavern's cock hard enough, there's a variant Ranger in Unearthed Arcana that gives wildshape. Interesting enough, but if you combine it with Lords of Madness and the Aberration Blood feats, you can wildshape into small and medium-sized aberrations - of which there are a surprising number. Which isn't much of a hack, granted, because HD limits coupled with size limits, but aberrations tend to have some really nifty Extraordinary abilities if you comb through the monster manuals.

Mmmm, I do have a few.

The ones that amuse me most are these:

1. I have one where an Eberron arcane caster can get unlimited spells per day by 10th level. It's two PrCs and a spell.

2. Not one, but two actual ways for a Wiz/Sorc to escape a no-magic plane.

K wrote:Mmmm, I do have a few.

The ones that amuse me most are these:

1. I have one where an Eberron arcane caster can get unlimited spells per day by 10th level. It's two PrCs and a spell.

2. Not one, but two actual ways for a Wiz/Sorc to escape a no-magic plane.

Surprisingly, Control has not heard this story. Please elaborate.

Game On,
fbmf

Eberron specific apparently. Is one of the PRCs Primal Scholar? And is the spell Unfettered Heroism?

One of the less-common combinations: Blood Magus and Master Alchemist, which lets you use Blood Draught to brew potions in your own blood of spells up to 9th level. I also had a player that combined Blood Magus with some Dragon magazine prestige class (Osteomancer?) that let them pop bone blades; he'd create oil of greater magic weapon as he popped his clogs and coat the blades.

Primal Scholar + unfeterred heroism lets you get back a fifth level spell or spell levels of up to fifth (assuming you maxed out the PrC) more or less for free, which isn't quite unlimited casting. No idea what the second PrC could be, or the feat.

I have used the bloodstorm blade (or whatever that throwing prestige class is from Tome of Battle) and pierce magical concealment / protection as a mage slayer type character.

The PMP/PMC have stipulations of being a melee attack, and the prestige class allow you to treat thrown weapons as melee attacks.

@Ancient History
That is kind of awesome.
Wolverine in Medival times!

erik wrote:• Master's Touch to let it wield a huge weapon at iterative attacks with two-handed power attack, and have 30' reach if desired.

Wait, what