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

[Metahuman1]

Q 301

What page and book is the contingency spell found on?

[Sith_Happens]

A300

No, they cannot. Reference (third paragraph, second sentence).

Huh, how'd I miss that?

[JaronK]

Q 301

What page and book is the contingency spell found on?

PHB, and as a core spell you can find it here as well http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Contingency

JaronK

[Curmudgeon]

A 301

Contingency is found in Player's Handbook on page 213.

[DeltaEmil]

Q 302

a) Can you use the Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige feats to enter the Anima Mage prestige class found in Tome of Magic without using the Binder class?

b) If you use the Retrain option from Player's Handbook 2 to retrain the Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige feats, can you still use the Soulbinding class feature from the Anima Mage?

[DangerDanger]

Q 303

IL progression is a bit confusing. I see it as Shadow Hand, Devoted Spirit, etc progressing while others see it as the class progressing.

Ex. I'd say a warblade 2/Swordsage 6 would be IL 8 for Diamond Mind, while others would say Diamond Mind is IL 5 for warblade and IL 7 for swordsage .

Is there a specific ruling on this?

[JaronK]

Q 303

IL progression is a bit confusing. I see it as Shadow Hand, Devoted Spirit, etc progressing while others see it as the class progressing.

Others are right.

Ex. I'd say a warblade 2/Swordsage 6 would be IL 8 for Diamond Mind, while others would say Diamond Mind is IL 5 for warblade and IL 7 for swordsage .

Is there a specific ruling on this?

No, because it's clear in the books. It says classes. It never says anything about schools. A Warblade 2/Swordsage 6 has an IL of 5 for all maneuvers learned via the Warblade, and 7 for those learned via Swordsage.

JaronK

[Nettlekid]

Q304

Staying on ToB, a question about Martial Study. Let's say you have a few levels in Crusader, and take the Martial Study feat to get the Iron Heart maneuver Steel Wind. Would it refresh with the Crusader's recovery method? If you took Martial Study a second time for Iron Heart Surge, would it refresh the same way? (I know that seems redundant, but if you say yes then it is pertinent for my next question.)

If you took levels in Crusader, and then one in Warblade then took the Martial Study feat and took Iron Heart Surge (using the Iron Heart maneuvers you got from Warblade as a prereq) could you apply the Martial Study feat to Crusader, and thus get Iron Heart Surge recycling with the Crusader's recovery method? What about something like White Raven Tactics, which is of a school common to both of the classes?

[DeltaEmil]

A 304

Yes. Yes. Yes. But...

Keep in mind that a multiclass crusader/warblade has different Initiator levels for his crusader class and his warblade class, and you might not be able to apply a maneuver known to one class, because it's initiator level is not high enough.

In your Iron Heart with Crusader recovery method example, the initiator level of your crusader class must be at least 5 to be allowed to have Iron Heart Surge with the Martial Study feat, despite the Initiator Level of your warblade side possibly being high enough to normally have Iron Heart Surge.

A crusader 1 / warblade 5 for example has an Initiator level of 3 (crusader level + half the warblade levels) for crusader and an Initiator level of 5 (half crusader level equals 0 + warblade levels) with warblade, and could not give Iron Heart Surge gained through Martial Study to its crusader side, because Iron Heart Surge is a 3rd-level maneuver and needs at least 5 Initiator levels, and you couldn't select Iron Heart Surge with your Crusader level, despite fulfilling every other condition.

[Curmudgeon]

A 302 a) Yes.

Note, however, that you will probably be disappointed with the result. Soul Binding Bonus has no benefit at all if you do not have the Soul Binding class feature.

A 302 b) N/A.

Anima Mage has no Soul Binding ability.

[Nettlekid]

A 302 a) Yes.

Note, however, that you will probably be disappointed with the result. Soul Binding Bonus has no benefit at all if you do not have the Soul Binding class feature.

A 302 b) N/A.

Anima Mage has no Soul Binding ability.

Re: Q 302

I'm not so sure about that. RAW, Anima Mage states that your binding ability improves as if you had gained a level in Binder. That implies that if you have one level in Anima Mage and no levels in Binder, treat your binding ability as that of a 1st level Binder. Most PrC in which your previous class's abilities are improved state that you act as though you had gained a level in a "previous spellcasting class", which means you do indeed need to have a previous spellcasting class to apply that to. But to say that it is treated as though you gained a level in Binder means, RAW, with X levels in Anima Mage, treat yourself as a Binder Level X (without a Binder's other class features). And by that, you would indeed have binding ability, so if you lost the initial means of binding powers that granted access to Anima Mage, it would not necessarily remove your PrC benefits. Now, since Anima Mage is now qualifying for itself, if you lost it at all then you couldn't regain it. But since there's no moment that you don't have that binding ability, I don't think you would lose it.

[killem2]

Q 305: Precocious Apprentice states:

Spoiler

Show

Choose one 2nd-level spell from a school of magic you have access to. You gain an extra 2nd-level spell slot that must be used initially to cast only the chosen spell. Until your level is high enough to allow you to cast 2nd-level spells, you must succeed on a DC 8 caster level check to successfully cast this spell; if you fail, the spell is miscast to no effect. Your caster level with the chosen spell is your normal caster level, even if this level is insufficient to cast the spell under normal circumstances. When you become able to cast 2nd-level spells, you lose the benefit described above but retain the extra 2nd-level spell slot, which you can use to prepare or spontaneously cast a spell of 2nd level or lower as you normally would. Finally, you gain a +2 bonus on all Spellcraft checks.

If using the spell point system with Unearthed Arcana, and a sorcerer, would this mean I can cast this 2nd level spell, as much as I want as long as I have the spell points to cast it and make the DC 8 caster check?

[willpell]

Q306
Have the Mercanes from the 3.0 book Manual of the Planes ever been updated to 3.5?

[cd4]

Q307 If a creature goes to another plane and gains the extraplanar subtype do you use Knowledge (The Planes) to identify it or whatever it's original type is?

[KillianHawkeye]

A 306 Yes.

The Manual of the Planes 3.5 update booklet can be found here.



A 307

Changing a creature's location has no effect on what skill is used to identify it. Knowledge checks to identify a creature are always based on its creature type, not subtype.

[rockdeworld]

A305
Yes, exactly.

With this variant, spellcasters still prepare spells as normal (assuming they normally prepare spells). In effect, casters who prepare spells are setting their list of “spells known” for the day. They need not prepare multiple copies of the same spell, since they can cast any combination of their prepared spells each day (up to the limit of their spell points).

[killem2]

A305
Yes, exactly.

And if you didn't use spell points? Do you only get to cast it once, or as much as you want as long as you make the DC caster check?

[rockdeworld]

And if you didn't use spell points? Do you only get to cast it once, or as much as you want as long as you make the DC caster check?

A308 (Please label your questions)
Only once.

Choose one 2nd-level spell from a school of magic you have access to. You gain an extra 2nd-level spell slot that must be used initially to cast only the chosen spell.

"an" means 1.

[Andezzar]

Q 309

Are there Fear effects that are not mind-affecting?

Q 310

Do you get the benefit of the Craven feat, if you are immune to mind-affecting effects?

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 302

I'm not so sure about that. RAW, Anima Mage states that your binding ability improves as if you had gained a level in Binder. That implies that if you have one level in Anima Mage and no levels in Binder, treat your binding ability as that of a 1st level Binder.

When granting an improvement in an existing class ability elsewhere in the rules, the standard pattern is to use the same name. Contrast the following examples:

Sneak Attack: This is exactly like the rogue ability of the same name. ... If an assassin gets a sneak attack bonus from another source (such as rogue levels) the bonuses on damage stack.

Trap Sense (Ex): ... Trap sense bonuses gained from multiple classes stack.

Soul Binding Bonus: At each anima mage level, your soul binding ability improves as if you had also gained a level in the binder class. ... You do not, however, gain any other benefit a binder would have gained.

As I see it, by labeling the Anima Mage class ability with a different name, Soul Binding Bonus will improve an existing Soul Binding ability, but would need explicit language to actually grant the Soul Binding ability. Lacking such explicit language, this should be read consistently with the D&D treatment of nonabilities as different from a 0 value in those abilities: an improvement in Soul Binding does nothing if you have no Soul Binding ability.

A 309 Yes.

An example is the Mummy's Despair ability. This isn't an attack per the RAW definition (i.e., it does not use an attack roll), but rather operates on sight of the Mummy. (All fear attacks are categorized as mind-affecting.)

A 310

If you're not immune to visceral fear effects such as Despair, but just the mind-affecting ones, you still qualify for Craven.

[Kumori]

Q 311 A spontaneous caster can gain the benefit of the Automatic Quicken epic feat, correct?

[ManInOrange]

Q312 Does a Swashbuckler's insightful strike bonus apply to damage rolls from thrown daggers?
These are the two lines that are throwing me off:

At 3rd level, a swashbuckler becomes able to place her finesse attacks where they deal greater damage.

Next sentence:

She applies her Intelligence bonus (if any) as a bonus on damage rolls (in addition to any Strength bonus she may have) with any light weapon, as well as any other weapon that can be used with Weapon Finesse...

[mattie_p]

A 311: Yes. Note the following comment in the SRD:

This feat doesn’t increase the casting time for those spells that normally become full-round actions when cast in metamagic form.

The Epic Level Handbook explicitly clarifies this as affecting sorcerer, bard, and even spontaneously cast cleric spells.

[Nettlekid]

Q313

Does a Lich/Dry Lich/Demilich have to spend money to create all their phylacteries? It says that a Lich's phylactery costs 120,000 gp, each of the Dry Lich's Canopic Jars costs 20,000 gp (100,000 total) and each of a Demilich's Soul Gems costs 120,000 gp (960,000 total). If you were a Lich that turned Demilich, your collective phylacteries would cost 1,180,000 gold, which is a good chunk of your WBL at any epic level! How can anyone afford to be a lich?

Does that price still apply in the case of Dread Necromancer or Walker in the Waste, in which a class feature turns you into the lich as opposed to working to make yourself one?

[Curmudgeon]

A 312 No.

You already quoted the relevant parts of Insightful Strike (light weapon, Weapon Finesse); you just need the details of how these terms apply in the game.

Light, One-Handed, and Two-Handed Melee Weapons

This designation is a measure of how much effort it takes to wield a weapon in combat. It indicates whether a melee weapon, when wielded by a character of the weapon’s size category, is considered a light weapon, a one-handed weapon, or a two-handed weapon.

A dagger ceases to be a light weapon (a melee-only designation) when you throw it.

Benefit: With a light weapon, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls.

Attack Bonus

Your attack bonus with a melee weapon is:

Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + size modifier

With a ranged weapon, your attack bonus is:

Base attack bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier + range penalty

You don't use Strength modifier with ranged weapon attack rolls, so Weapon Finesse cannot be used. The dagger may be a melee weapon or a ranged weapon, but it cannot be both at once. Insightful Strike necessarily only applies to melee attacks.

[rockdeworld]

A312 Dispute
A dagger doesn't stop being a melee weapon just because it's thrown, so it is still a light melee weapon.

Melee weapons are used for making melee attacks, though some of them can be thrown as well.

So you can use Insightful Strike when you throw it.

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 312 Dispute

A dagger doesn't stop being a melee weapon just because it's thrown, so it is still a light melee weapon.

So you can use Insightful Strike when you throw it.

While I obviously disagree with the highlighted part, being a light weapon alone is insufficient to qualify for Insightful Strike:

... with any light weapon, as well as any other weapon that can be used with Weapon Finesse ...

A thrown dagger isn't a weapon that can be used with Weapon Finesse. Weapon Finesse requires a weapon which uses your Strength modifier for the attack roll; it can be used with a dagger for melee attacks, but cannot be used with a dagger for ranged attacks. A qualification for Weapon Finesse in some other context (melee attacks) does not continue to apply when you use the dagger in a non-qualifying context (ranged attacks).

[ManInOrange]

Q313
Is there a +0 LA race with:

1. a bonus to INT and NOT a penalty to STR?
2. a bonus to STR and NOT a penalty to INT?

[willpell]

Q313
Is there a +0 LA race with:

1. a bonus to INT and NOT a penalty to STR?
2. a bonus to STR and NOT a penalty to INT?

A313
There are probably many such races, but off the top of my head:
* Intelligent and not weak: Sun Elf (Forgotten Realms campaign setting). +2 INT, -2 CON, but their strength is no better or worse than human. Identical to standard elves (fluff aside) except that they trade INT for DEX. In Faerun they're the "high elves" who built the ancient cities with mythals and stuff; by default they don't exist in other settings, but it shouldn't be hard to talk the DM into letting them replace or supplement the Gray Elves of the Monster Manual, as they have the same general persona.
* Strong and not stupid: This one's harder, but at least one exists: the Skarn (Magic of Incarnum). +2 STR, -2 DEX, Reptilian subtype, and have a natural attack in the form of spines on their arms and legs. A cool race even if there's no Incarnum in your game, as long as you can talk the DM into accepting the idea that a reptilian race in the CW's past experimented on humans in an attempt to create physical perfection.

[Jon_Dahl]

Q314

What is the unarmed damage for a 1st-level half-giant monk?

(the half-giant is this: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/ps...htm#halfGiants)