The Order of the Stick: T-Rex, Troll Sex and Will Checks

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greatn: Nov 15, 2006; by Lowtax

Didn't it translate to 3.5 in strip one?

# ? Sep 13, 2016 01:39

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# ? May 25, 2024 20:58

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Rich said, I think somewhere on the forums, that V being a blasty wizard with the two most useful schools banned was a deliberate plot decision, because it brought them down (somewhat) from the overwhelming caster supremacy, and because "teleport anywhere, at any time" is a pretty difficult ability to plot around.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 01:47

Taciturn Tactician: Jan 27, 2011; The secret to good health is a balanced diet and unstable healing radiation; Lipstick Apathy

Poison Mushroom posted:

Rich said, I think somewhere on the forums, that V being a blasty wizard with the two most useful schools banned was a deliberate plot decision, because it brought them down (somewhat) from the overwhelming caster supremacy, and because "teleport anywhere, at any time" is a pretty difficult ability to plot around.

Wait, why would you choose to nix Necromancy instead of Divination if you wanted to remove story pitfalls?

# ? Sep 13, 2016 01:54

ikanreed: Sep 25, 2009; I honestly I have no idea who cannibal[SIC] is and I do not know why I should know.

syq dude, just syq!

Taciturn Tactician posted:

Wait, why would you choose to nix Necromancy instead of Divination if you wanted to remove story pitfalls?

He specifically created an epic level spell to gently caress with divination for the sake of the story. He had an out.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 02:00

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Also, IIRC, you can't choose Divination as a banned school?

# ? Sep 13, 2016 02:07

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

Poison Mushroom posted:

Also, IIRC, you can't choose Divination as a banned school?

I think it's that Divination only has to pick one banned school? But you're possibly right too.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 02:50

greatn: Nov 15, 2006; by Lowtax

I think it's because every wizard has to know read magic.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 02:51

Rygar201: Jan 26, 2011; I AM A TERRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT.

Please Condescend to me like this again.

Oh yeah condescend to me ALL DAY condescend daddy.

lmao, why isn't Read Magic Universal? Was Universal even a thing in 3.5?

# ? Sep 13, 2016 02:59

AriadneThread: Feb 17, 2011; The Devil sounds like smoke and honey. We cannot move. It is too beautiful.

a wizard that doesn't know how to read magic: rincewind

# ? Sep 13, 2016 03:50

Gwyneth Palpate: Jun 7, 2010; Do you want your breadcrumbs highlighted?

~SMcD

also isn't one of the gimmicks of the order is that they're all PCs with really sub-optimal builds

like roy having an intelligence stat or belkar being a ranger at all

# ? Sep 13, 2016 04:07

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Glory of Arioch posted:

also isn't one of the gimmicks of the order is that they're all PCs with really sub-optimal builds

like roy having an intelligence stat or belkar being a ranger at all

To be fair to Roy "two-handed Power Attacker" is about the best you can do with a pure Fighter without getting into funky prestige class builds.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 04:19

jsoh: Mar 24, 2007; O Muhammad, I seek your intercession with my Lord for the return of my eyesight

except for elan yeah

# ? Sep 13, 2016 04:20

Zonekeeper: Oct 27, 2007

jsoh posted:

except for elan yeah

Yep, Elan is surprisingly the most optimized character of the bunch (though that's mainly due to having a broken splatbook prestige class).

# ? Sep 13, 2016 04:24

AnoHito: May 8, 2014

Zonekeeper posted:

Yep, Elan is surprisingly the most optimized character of the bunch (though that's mainly due to having a broken splatbook prestige class).

He also seems pretty good as just a bard. Which makes sense considering if there's anything Elam knows it's how to be a bard.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 04:34

Taerkar: Dec 7, 2002; kind of into it, really

Glory of Arioch posted:

also isn't one of the gimmicks of the order is that they're all PCs with really sub-optimal builds

like roy having an intelligence stat or belkar being a ranger at all

Roy supposedly has really good stats all around.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 04:49

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

Taerkar posted:

Roy supposedly has really good stats all around.

Yeah, I think the deva who was judging him actually asked him why he wasn't a Cleric, since he had decent Wisdom and Charisma scores.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 04:50

Colonel Cool: Dec 24, 2006

Roy's the nice guy experienced D&D player who rolled good stats for everything and then made a fighter so he wouldn't overshadow the party.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 05:45

MikeJF: Dec 20, 2003

Poison Mushroom posted:

Yeah, I think the deva who was judging him actually asked him why he wasn't a Cleric, since he had decent Wisdom and Charisma scores.

I think his charisma's probably okay but middling - as is evident in his personality. I do like how their stats are actually depicted in their personalities and interactions.

Elan's natural 20 charisma excepted.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 10:13

girl dick energy: Sep 30, 2009; You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?

MikeJF posted:

I think his charisma's probably okay but middling - as is evident in his personality. I do like how their stats are actually depicted in their personalities and interactions.

Elan's natural 20 charisma excepted.

He's just charmingly inept enough that people put up with the 'inept' part.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 10:52

Raenir Salazar: Nov 5, 2010; College Slice

Evoker in purely the Player Hand Book is actually legitimately a powerful class; the problem is when you add in Complete Mage, Magic Compedium, etc, another 400 spells really dampen its power and utility.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 12:20

Cat Mattress: Jul 14, 2012; by Cyrano4747

Raenir Salazar posted:

Evoker in purely the Player Hand Book is actually legitimately a powerful class; the problem is when you add in Complete Mage, Magic Compedium, etc, another 400 spells really dampen its power and utility.

"Here are conjuration spells that conjure elemental energies, so they do the same damage as evocation spells, except the energy once conjured is really there so there's no spell resistance so it's better than evocation."

# ? Sep 13, 2016 12:37

Rygar201: Jan 26, 2011; I AM A TERRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT.

Please Condescend to me like this again.

Oh yeah condescend to me ALL DAY condescend daddy.

Raenir Salazar posted:

Evoker in purely the Player Hand Book is actually legitimately a powerful class; the problem is when you add in Complete Mage, Magic Compedium, etc, another 400 spells really dampen its power and utility.

Even in the base PHB you'll get a lot of mileage out of Conjuration (summoning) and Transmutation (enhancement). Much of what V has cast since their epiphany are PHB spells, with some metamagic. Blasting is really only what best use when you've got the right damage types and reasonable odds your save DC is high enough that your targets will probably take damage.

Orb of XXX spells were such bs. The attack roll part was interesting, but it kind of undermined the school classification, hah

Rygar201 fucked around with this message at 12:41 on Sep 13, 2016

# ? Sep 13, 2016 12:38

Raenir Salazar: Nov 5, 2010; College Slice

Yeah even in only vanilla core D&D 3.5 Evoker isn't as powerful/broken as Conjuration (Though I think barring Necromancy is usually not The Worst decision) but the point is before you go into the other books Evoker isn't a terrible or inoptimal choice because THE HAND spells, Force Cage, Contingency!!!!!! are all viably powerful to put into that extra slot specializing gets you.

But once you do go into the splat books that start really adding spells then you get the problem of like, making even succeeding illusion saves makes you burn for half damage etc and other broken cheese.

My favourite semi-justifiable option is the Specialized Focused Conjuror who gets the free Int Modifier Times a Day 10' teleport because whenever I know I have a dick DM I can just Shunpo to safety BECAUSE ITS A FREE ACTION!

And then you have things like Icantatrix or Master of the Seven Veils or whatever its called with the free action barriers to anything ever.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 12:56

Taciturn Tactician: Jan 27, 2011; The secret to good health is a balanced diet and unstable healing radiation; Lipstick Apathy

Raenir Salazar posted:

But once you do go into the splat books that start really adding spells then you get the problem of like, making even succeeding illusion saves makes you burn for half damage etc and other broken cheese.

It's in the Murphy thread somewhere but if you stack enough modifiers on that shadow illusion nonsense you can actually end up doing more damage if they save.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 13:33

The Question IRL: Jun 8, 2013; Only two contestants left! Here is Doom's chance for revenge...

Taciturn Tactician posted:

It's in the Murphy thread somewhere but if you stack enough modifiers on that shadow illusion nonsense you can actually end up doing more damage if they save.

Yeah basically the person goes "Wait a second. That spell caster is an Illusionist. So that fireball he is throwing at me will safely pass through me."

Then they get hit in the face by an illusionary fireball with part shadow magic and it hurts even more because you weren't prepped for it.

Illusion is such a great magic school.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 15:40

Who What Now: Sep 10, 2006; by Azathoth

The Question IRL posted:

Yeah basically the person goes "Wait a second. That spell caster is an Illusionist. So that fireball he is throwing at me will safely pass through me."

Then they get hit in the face by an illusionary fireball with part shadow magic and it hurts even more because you weren't prepped for it.

Illusion is such a great magic school.

Which splatbooks were these?

# ? Sep 13, 2016 17:51

Rygar201: Jan 26, 2011; I AM A TERRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT.

Please Condescend to me like this again.

Oh yeah condescend to me ALL DAY condescend daddy.

Who What Now posted:

Which splatbooks were these?

Bad ones

# ? Sep 13, 2016 18:29

Who What Now: Sep 10, 2006; by Azathoth

So... all of them?

# ? Sep 13, 2016 18:31

Rygar201: Jan 26, 2011; I AM A TERRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT.

Please Condescend to me like this again.

Oh yeah condescend to me ALL DAY condescend daddy.

Who What Now posted:

So... all of them?

I feel like the Book of Nine Swords was good via Negative integer Overflow

# ? Sep 13, 2016 18:34

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Who What Now posted:

So... all of them?

Honestly, most of the splatbooks were better than the core rule books.

People claim the splats were broken but uh, the core rules by themselves had 3/5 of the most powerful classes in the game and a huge chunk of the worst (monks, Fighters, Rangers, Barbarians). Also the most powerful feat (Druids can cast spells in wildshape) and poo poo like Toughness (+3 hp).

If you throw out the PHB except for like Rogues, Barbarians and Bards and throw in all the splatbooks in existence you get a pretty grounded and decent game.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 18:52

Zonekeeper: Oct 27, 2007

Rygar201 posted:

I feel like the Book of Nine Swords was good via Negative integer Overflow

Still my favorite 3.5 book, and I'm so glad 5th decided to integrate maneuvers as an option when making Fighters.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 19:03

Who What Now: Sep 10, 2006; by Azathoth

Zore posted:

Honestly, most of the splatbooks were better than the core rule books.

I was joking.

And I'd still like to know what the build is that makes blaster-illusionists.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 19:27

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Who What Now posted:

I was joking.

And I'd still like to know what the build is that makes blaster-illusionists.

A very ill thought-out class feature for Shadowcraft Mages from Races of Stone.

[Races of Stone]: Shadow Illusion (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a shadowcraft mage is able to
infuse some of his figments (see the list below) with material from the Plane
of Shadow, making them partially real. The subschool of these spells changes
from figment to shadow. A shadowcraft mage can use the altered spell to
mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning), conjuration (creation),
or evocation spell at least one level lower than the illusion spell. The
altered spell functions identically to the shadow conjuration or shadow
evocation spell, except that the spell's strength equals 10% per level of
the figment spell used.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 19:34

Rygar201: Jan 26, 2011; I AM A TERRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT.

Please Condescend to me like this again.

Oh yeah condescend to me ALL DAY condescend daddy.

Zonekeeper posted:

Still my favorite 3.5 book, and I'm so glad 5th decided to integrate maneuvers as an option when making Fighters.

I liked it, I just felt that it outright designed for a different game, hah

# ? Sep 13, 2016 19:48

NGDBSS: Dec 30, 2009

So far as I recall it got even worse with:

Metamagic shenanigans with Heighten Spell such that you got an effectively free spell level or two.
Shadowcraft Mage (only five levels long) also has the capstone feature of Powerful Shadow Magic, which gives +20% to the "realness" of such shadow-typed effects.
Shadowcrafter (ten levels long, from Underdark) gives +10% -> +20% to shadow conjurations and evocations, which Shadow Illusion explicitly mimics.

The goofy result was that any targets would potentially be affected more greatly if they succeeded on a saving throw than if they failed, to the tune of perhaps 150% realness at maximum.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 19:52

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Once I found out about the metamagic Invisible Spell, no extra cost and makes the effect invisible, I've always wanted to combine it with the grease spell and a staircase.

There sure are some great feats in dnd:

quote:

Blessed by Tem-Et-Nu
( Sandstorm, p. 49)

[General]

Tem-Et-Nu has marked you as having an important destiny in her temple.

Prerequisite
must have defeated a hippopotamus in single combat, Patron deity Tem-Et-Nu,

Benefit
Hippopotami cannot attack you unless they are magically compelled. In addition, if you possess the turn or rebuke undead class feature, you can rebuke and command hippopotami as an evil cleric rebukes or commands undead. You gain a +2 sacred bonus to your Armor Class against chaotic-aligned creatures with the fire subtype. Cleric is now an additional favored class for you; the cleric class does not count when determining whether you take an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Special
Your aura radiates law with a strength equal to your character level (see detect law, page 219 of the Player's Handbook). If you ever lose favor with Tem-Et-Nu, or change your patron deity to another deity, you lose all benefits of this feat and take damage as if you were bitten by a hippopotamus. You do not gain a replacement feat. If you later return to Tem-Et-Nu's faithful and receive an atonement spell, you regain the benefit of this feat.

Tell me this isn't the best feat. :allears:

# ? Sep 13, 2016 20:20

A.o.D.: Jan 15, 2006

Poil posted:

Once I found out about the metamagic Invisible Spell, no extra cost and makes the effect invisible, I've always wanted to combine it with the grease spell and a staircase.

There sure are some great feats in dnd:

Tell me this isn't the best feat.

And yet it mentions no benefits wrt Giff. This is bullshit.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 23:37

Otherkinsey Scale: Jul 17, 2012; Just a little bit of sunshine!

quote:

Hippo Blood (Ex): For all effects related to hippopotami, a giff is considered a hippopotamus. Giff, for example, are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect hippopotami as their hippopotamus ancestors are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by hippopotami.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 23:58

Raenir Salazar: Nov 5, 2010; College Slice

Zore posted:

Honestly, most of the splatbooks were better than the core rule books.

People claim the splats were broken but uh, the core rules by themselves had 3/5 of the most powerful classes in the game and a huge chunk of the worst (monks, Fighters, Rangers, Barbarians). Also the most powerful feat (Druids can cast spells in wildshape) and poo poo like Toughness (+3 hp).

If you throw out the PHB except for like Rogues, Barbarians and Bards and throw in all the splatbooks in existence you get a pretty grounded and decent game.

I feel like the terrible ones like Toughness were meant to be factored in by your DM for other things.

# ? Sep 14, 2016 00:08

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# ? May 25, 2024 20:58

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

quote:

magic items that are only usable by hippopotami

Does this come up often?

# ? Sep 14, 2016 00:18

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