Simple Q&A D&D 3.5 (by RAW) XXI

[Endelehia]

A 933

For 53 int,+21 mod you get 6/5/5/5/5/4/4/4/4 extra spells per day.The easiest way to calculate this is to find your ability modifier (+21), abstract 4, (+17) and on that line add 1 spell on each level.If your modifier is too high abstract 8, and add 2 spells etc.

Spoiler

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The more complicated answer is that starting at +1 mod,you get 1 extra 1st level spell.Every 4 increases in the modifier you gain one more.
Having the 1st level spells as a guide,you calculate the progression of higher level spells by delaying their increase by one per spell level.(so it looks like stairs )

A 934

Yes, and most likely yes.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Q934 Do monstrous hit dice give you a bonus to ability scores every 4 levels like player levels do? Is this bonus already included in the stat-block?

A 934: Yes, they count towards the total for gaining feats and ability score bonuses. It's less that they're already included in stat blocks for monsters and more that they aren't given to monsters at all, unless they're advanced.

[Winfred]

Q 910

Second time posting. It is a few pages back.

Does Changeling qualify for OA shapeshifter?

Thanks for the answer! I was hoping the differences between Minor change shape and disguise self was enough. :\ Hengeyokai it is then.

[Curmudgeon]

A 910 No.

Special: Alternate Form—Must either know polymorph self or have a natural alternate form, alter self, polymorph self, or shapechange ability.

The culmination of the 3.0 Oriental Adventurers Errata and the 3.5 updates is that 3.0 Polymorph Self is 3.5 Polymorph, but otherwise this special entry requirement for the Shapeshifter class is unchanged. Changeling Minor Change Shape does not match any of these entry options, nor does the Disguise Self spell which it emulates.

[willpell]

Q935
Is there a template that can be applied to Native Outsiders which makes them Neutral? I'm looking to build a Half-Fiend Half-Celestial, which is difficult since HF inputs "nongood" and outputs "evil" while HC starts out "nonevil" and ends up "good". So I need a template I can apply in between the two which "bridges" them. The end result will be that whichever template I apply last will determine the final aligment, while the creature keeps both powersets.

[Andezzar]

A 935

There is another problem with that idea. Half-Celestials and Half-Fiends are the result of a good/evil outsider mating with some other creature. So you cannot apply both templates to the same base creature.

Unfortunately you cannot apply the half-fiend/half-celestial template to a good/evil outsider because of alignment restrictions.

What you could do is apply the Half-fiend template to an Aasimar or the Half-Celestial template to a Tiefling, but then one side would be dominant.

[Runestar]

A 935

There is another problem with that idea. Half-Celestials and Half-Fiends are the result of a good/evil outsider mating with some other creature. So you cannot apply both templates to the same base creature.

Unfortunately you cannot apply the half-fiend/half-celestial template to a good/evil outsider because of alignment restrictions.

What you could do is apply the Half-fiend template to an Aasimar or the Half-Celestial template to a Tiefling, but then one side would be dominant.

Not forgetting that each template changes your type to outsider, and neither template can be applied to outsider. So either template would automatically disqualify you for the other.

[Randomguy]

A935

If you somehow manage to get around the above problem, then the Voidmind template can be applied to outsiders and changes alignment. The problem is that you take on the alignment of your illithid masters, so you'd need to have been enslaved by 3 LN illithids (which are possible but very rare). Also, the sequence would have to be very convoluted: You'd have to start off as a half-something, then be turned voidmind, and then somehow be turned into the other half-something (Are there rituals for that in SS?) and then be freed of Voidmind (assuming you want your character to have free will).
Of course, it's possible that this could all have been orchestrated by a powerful wizard.

[danzibr]

Q936

I think I know the answer, but... is it true that you can only take a feat twice if it's explicitly in the text? For example, you can't take Boost Construct twice.

Clarification: It appears that you can take it twice but you don't get the benefit twice. Just checkin'.

[Andezzar]

Q 937

Is there any mention what "unspeakably evil" acts a character has to commit to become a lich?

Q 938

Can you make undead under your control command/control undead in your name?

Q 939

To use a maneuver in a crown of the white ravens (or variants of that item), what prerequisites do you have to fulfil? Do you only have to fulfil what's listed under prerequisites in the description of the maneuver or do you also have to have a sufficient initiator level and class levels in the appropriate initiator classes? More specifically can a warblade 3 use the shadow hands with the shadow jaunt maneuver or can't he because that maneuver is swordsage 2?

[The Dark Fiddler]

Q 937

Is there any mention what "unspeakably evil" acts a character has to commit to become a lich?

A 937: They're unspeakable.

Q 938

Can you make undead under your control command/control undead in your name?

A 938:Yes. However, the undead controlled by the undead you directly control have no loyalty to you; if the creatures under you direct control break away or are killed, the ones they controlled are free to do whatever they want.

Q 939

To use a maneuver in a crown of the white ravens (or variants of that item), what prerequisites do you have to fulfil? Do you only have to fulfil what's listed under prerequisites in the description of the maneuver or do you also have to have a sufficient initiator level and class levels in the appropriate initiator classes? More specifically can a warblade 3 use the shadow hands with the shadow jaunt maneuver or can't he because that maneuver is swordsage 2?

A 939: All that the item says is that you need to meet the prerequisites. As such, you must have the proper initiator level and must know the proper amount of maneuvers from the school. In your example, a Warblade 3 would indeed be able to use Shadow Jaunt; he has the proper initiator level (3, and SJ is a 2nd level maneuver), and the maneuver does not require other Shadow Hand maneuvers to be known. Initiator levels in a specific class (your question about his Swordsage initiator level) are irrelevant, because levels in a specific class are not a prerequisite.

[Andezzar]

Q 940

Does the initiator need to ready the maneuver granted by the crown of white ravens? Does the maneuver count as one of the initiator's readied maneuvers? Does the initiator recover that maneuver in the usual fashion?

A 937 Follow up

Ha ha. Are there any guidelines how to achieve lichdom? The template does have an LA so it should not be off-limits to PCs.

Q 941

Can Summon monster fuel a lot of reserve feats or none of them? If you use that spell to summon an earth, air, fire, water etc. creature the spell gets that descriptor. So does this qualify Summon Monster for the reserve feats requiring earth, air, fire, water etc. spells?

[Silvanoshei]

Q 942

When putting spells into a Minor Ring of Spell Storing, do you put them into the ring at the minimum you can cast the ring or your caster level?

9th lv wizard would put it a magic missile with 1d4+1 or 5d4+5?

[Silvanoshei]

A 936

Of course.

Spoiler

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Toughness [General]

Benefit:

You gain +3 hit points.

Special:

A character may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

[Blue1005]

Q943

Is the class necromancer in any printed books? and if so where? I can only use printed materials and really want to use it.


Q944

What is the minimum level that a dragon or dragon like creater can become a lich? Not of their own magic but in a deal with someone else?

[Endelehia]

A 943

There is the Dread Necromancer base class in Heroes of Horror.
True Necromancer prestige in Libris Mortis.
Necromancer is not a class per se,but a wizard specialized in necromancy,there are some variants of that class in Unearthed Arcana.

[Andezzar]

A 944

A dragon cannot become a lich, because it is not a humanoid. It could however become a dracolich (Draconomicon p. 146). There is no minimum level for that, if it has help. To craft the required items (dracolich brew, dracolich phylactery) you need a caster level of 13.

Additionally dragons do not have levels. They have hit dice and a challenge rating.

[Blue1005]

Q 945

How do npcs gain levels? If you have an arch villian that is an aristocrat I doubt they are out slaying dragons. But after several years they would have to progress somehow...

[Andezzar]

A 945

By GM Fiat. NPCs work differently. NPC Craftsmen don't lose XPs when they craft stuff either. The D&D rules don't work well for simulating a world, they work better for telling a story revolving around a couple of PCs.

[Nonsense]Lvl 1 commoners should level pretty quickly. After 7 one on one encounters both are Level 2. After another seven they are level 3... Leveling will become even quicker, if one commoner encounters several commoners.[/Nonsense]

[Ammutseba]

Q 946

Taking the Baator domain requires a character to be Lawful Evil. Becoming Lolth-touched makes a character Chaotic Evil. If I use the Ritual of Alignment to give a character the (Lawful) subtype, can it have both?

[Duke of Urrel]

A 942

According to the description of the Minor Ring of Spell Storing, "Each spell [stored in the ring] has a caster level equal to the minimum level needed to cast that spell." If we interpret that sentence strictly, "each" implies "must." This means that you are probably better off storing a single 3rd-level spell in the ring rather than three 1st-level spells, because the latter must all have a CL of 1.

Even if we try to interpret that sentence less strictly, the Minor Ring of Spell Storing itself has a CL of 5, so I don't think it could ever store a spell with a CL of 9.

[Duke of Urrel]

Q 947

Can Illusion spells of the Figment or Glamer subschools create light?

And if so, how does purely illusory light interact with the real world, given that basic illusions of these two subschools (unlike Patterns, Phantasms, or Shadows) cannot have any real effects?

Or would it be better for me to ask these questions in a thread other than this one?

[Eliana Solange]

Q948

Is the spell Ethereal Mount only usable if you are already on the Ethereal Plane, or does it take you into that plane to move (and then back to the Material Plane?)

[Curmudgeon]

A 941

A summoning spell of 4th level or higher can enable the Summon Elemental reserve feat. However, an uncast Summon Monster spell does not have any descriptors and thus can never be used to enable any descriptor-specific reserve feats.

When you use a summoning spell to summon an air, chaotic, earth, evil, fire, good, lawful, or water creature, it is a spell of that type.

A 946 No.

Lawful Subtype

A subtype usually applied only to outsiders native to the lawful-aligned Outer Planes. Most creatures that have this subtype also have lawful alignments; however, if their alignments change, they still retain the subtype. Any effect that depends on alignment affects a creature with this subtype as if the creature has a lawful alignment, no matter what its alignment actually is. The creature also suffers effects according to its actual alignment. A creature with the lawful subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any weapons it wields were lawful-aligned (see Damage Reduction, above).

While the Lawful subtype in many ways causes the character to be treated as if they had Lawful alignment, the subtype cannot be used to qualify for domains, prestige classes, and other things requiring actual Lawful alignment beyond those capabilities listed above.

[KillianHawkeye]

A 948 Neither.

The conjured mounts have a fixed speed of 240' if on the ethereal plane, but otherwise they function the same as phantom steeds (i.e., riding one does not enable interplanar travel).

NOTE: The 3.0 version of the spell in Manual of the Planes did not reference the phantom steed spell and was only usable on the ethereal plane. That is no longer the case for the 3.5 version.

[Silvanoshei]

A 947

Q 947

Can Illusion spells of the Figment or Glamer subschools create light?

Yes.

And if so, how does purely illusory light interact with the real world, given that basic illusions of these two subschools (unlike Patterns, Phantasms, or Shadows) cannot have any real effects?

Well... lets look at the glossary for some help.

Because figments and glamers (see below) are unreal, they cannot produce real effects the way that other types of illusions can. They cannot cause damage to objects or creatures, support weight, provide nutrition, or provide protection from the elements.

Consequently, these spells are useful for confounding or delaying foes, but useless for attacking them directly. For example, it is possible to use a silent image spell to create an illusory cottage, but the cottage offers no protection from rain.

So we can answer you question with... the illusion of light does have a confusing aspect to it. However, it would not produce heat (from the sun) or nutrition (vitamin D). Just like all illusionary spells, it's to disorient.

Or would it be better for me to ask these questions in a thread other than this one?

Of course not.

[willpell]

Q949a
When you establish a hold in a grapple, you "deal damage as if with an unarmed strike". If a creature has natural attacks, such as claws, does it still deal only 1d3 nonlethal for an unarmed strike when it establishes a hold?

Q949b
If someone triggers an AoO by moving in a space you threaten with your unarmed strikes, can you use the AoO for an attempt to grapple them? If not, and you have claws or the like, can you intentionally perform an unarmed strike to deal nonlethal damage to them, instead of attacking with your claws?

Q 945

How do npcs gain levels? If you have an arch villian that is an aristocrat I doubt they are out slaying dragons. But after several years they would have to progress somehow...

Figure that their nonexistent GM gives them a pittance of roleplaying XP every day for doing their job and hanging out with their friends and such.

[Curmudgeon]

A 949a

Other natural attacks have no bearing on unarmed strike, which is a form of natural attack with special rules. You must use your unarmed strike damage as per the RAW.

A 949b

Yes, you may use an unarmed melee touch attack to try to start a grapple on an attack of opportunity if you threaten unarmed. The Improved Grab ability lets you use natural attack forms like claws or bites to grab your opponent and start a grapple, in place of an unarmed touch attack.

[willpell]

Q950
Does a Large Monstrous Humanoid have different unarmed strike damage than a Medium Humanoid?

[KillianHawkeye]

Re: 949a

The only way to use your natural weapons during a grapple is to choose the "Attack Your Opponent" action on subsequent rounds after the grapple has already begun.



A 950

Creature type has no bearing on unarmed strike damage. You would have the damage value of any Large creature (1d4).