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

[Kafana]

Q 475

If a paladin is mounted, has all the necessary mounted combat feats he can get by level 6 and a descent ride (about 10) do both he and his mounts get all their attacks as a full round action (2 paladin hits + 2 hoof and 1 bite from horse)? Also, during a ride-by attack, is the paladin saved from AoO of the creature he is riding by, even if said creature has a reach weapon?

[Kamaei]

Q476
If I am not a caster and I want a 3rd level spell cast on me with permanency, but at a higher caster level, caster level 16, and going off the table here, for spellcasting and services, what price would I be paying for?
CL16*(30gp(1500exp)) => 16*45000 = 720000gp?!

[Kafana]

Q 477

Can someone name the book that talks about the orc race in greater detail (their organization, beliefs, etc., similar like we have the dwarf in races of stone and the elf in the races of wild)? I'm looking to have the orc play a quarter of the population on one of my continents, and I need some organization (which means either chaotic neutral or neutral evil). Obviously these won't be cities but large tribal settlements.

[NoACWarrior]

Q 477
Can someone name the book that talks about the orc race in greater detail (their organization, beliefs, etc., similar like we have the dwarf in races of stone and the elf in the races of wild)? I'm looking to have the orc play a quarter of the population on one of my continents, and I need some organization (which means either chaotic neutral or neutral evil). Obviously these won't be cities but large tribal settlements.

A 477 The races book you are looking for is Races of Destiny.

Q476
If I am not a caster and I want a 3rd level spell cast on me with permanency, but at a higher caster level, caster level 16, and going off the table here, for spellcasting and services, what price would I be paying for?
CL16*(30gp(1500exp)) => 16*45000 = 720000gp?!

A 476 The pricing for the 3rd level spell by a 16th level caster would be 16*30 or 480gp, but you also must pay for permanency to be cast on you as well (assume another caster with appropriate caster level) which is another 9*50 or 450gp. Total for both spells you are spending 930gp on the spellcasting services. You would also need to add in the gold to cover the XP cost of the 3rd level spell cast (which you say is 1500 EXP) at a rate of 5 gp per XP which is another 7500gp. Your total cost for the 3rd level 16 CL permanancied spell would be 8430gp.

Alternatively you could shave some money off of the cost by simply hiring the NPCs who could cast the spells, but it is subject to availability of the NPCs. Rules for hiring Adventuring NPCs are located in DMGII page 154 and cite the non-combat price of the NPC level squared in gold as the daily cost (with dangerous missions requiring more pay and a share of the loot when spelunking).

Note that the rules for transferring XP was taken from the PHBII web enhancement.

[NoACWarrior]

Q 475
If a paladin is mounted, has all the necessary mounted combat feats he can get by level 6 and a descent ride (about 10) do both he and his mounts get all their attacks as a full round action (2 paladin hits + 2 hoof and 1 bite from horse)? Also, during a ride-by attack, is the paladin saved from AoO of the creature he is riding by, even if said creature has a reach weapon?

A 475 So long as your horse (or mount) is a trained war mount you can direct the mount to attack in battle as a free action with a Ride Check of DC 10. If your mount moves more than 5 ft in the same turn, you can only make 1 melee attack at the end of the move (thus you wouldn't get your full attacks when wielding a melee weapon). If your mount makes a 5ft move / adjust, you could take your full round action, as well as your mount (again so long as the mount is a trained war mount) if you were to succeed on your Ride Check to direct the mount to attack in battle.

When a mounted PC/NPC uses Ride-By Attack, the mount and the rider do not provoke an AoO from the opponent that the rider attacks in this way. The mount and rider using Ride-By Attack still provoke AoOs as normal for other creatures that were not attacked in this way.

[NoACWarrior]

Q 471:
Does adding an acquired template that grants additional HD increase a creature's size? Eg. Warbeast template (MM2 219). MM1 291-293 should say, but it's not clear to me.

A 471 It would normally depend on the creature and the template being added. With that said, your example is affected by the advancement of HD causing a creature to become larger (if they can go up a size category as a result of gaining 1 HD). As per page 294 in MMI, you can advance a monster by adding HD, noting that by doing so will affect the size of the monster (as denoted in the monster listing for "advancement"). Normally, this would mean that the monster would change size as a result for the racial / monster HD being increased, with any applied template's RHD not being factored in due to being "different" HD and the monster not "advancing" normally as the natural monster. The Warbeast template, however, explicitly states that the type remains the same with the HD of the monster being increased by 1 as a part of applying this template. This increase does count as advancement for the purposes of increasing monster size.

[Zombimode]

Q 478

Can a creature with Hide in Plain Sight (ie. from the Dark template) use the concealment granted by the Child of Shadow stance use to hide itself?

I'm aware that the Child of Shadow Stance says that you cant use it to hide, but this line could be seen as a reminder text because normally concealment alone is not a sufficient condition for hiding. Since HiPS removes the other condition (being unobserved), one could argue that you can indeed use Child of Shadow to hide yourself.

Any opinions on that?

[Andezzar]

A 478

Opinions are beyond the scope of this thread, please open a new one, if you want opinions.

The rules however are pretty clear:

You also gain the standard benefits of concealment, but you cannot use this stance to hide in plain sight;

The stance does not forbid you from using the Hide skill, it does not allow you to use hide in playin sight.

If however you had some form of HiPS that obviates the need for concealment (like from Shadowdancer or the Dark Creature Template from Cormyr Tearing of the Weave) you could use HiPS regardless of being in that stance.

You may also note that the stance does not grant the character concealment, but concealment only against attacks. So before and after an attack is performed the character is not concealed anyways.

you gain concealment against all melee and ranged attacks until the start of your next turn.

[Kafana]

Q 479

What are some exotic crops I can have my villagers harvest in a wild rainforest land based somewhat on Eberron (Xen'drik)? They don't neccesarily have to have a game mechanic effect when consumed (though some could), but they need to have a great reason for being grown. Short descriptions would be highly appreciated.

[Man on Fire]

Q480
Can I add armor spikes to non-metal armor like padded or leather?

[Andezzar]

A 480

Yes.

[Chronos]

A 472:

Yes. Astaroth, from the Cityscape web enhancement, lets you take an item creation feat of your choice as a temporary bonus feat. You must still provide all the spells and meet other requirements to craft an item, such as by being an Anima Mage, or by collaborating with a caster.

[Oddman80]

Q 481
If my barbarian fighter becomes an Eidolon (ghost), armed with ghost touched weapons/armor...

1) Will he still be able to utilize the corporeal level feats he acquired prior to becoming a ghost (i.e., power attack, combat reflexes, improved bull rush, shock trooper, etc.)?

2) Will he have access to class abilities from corporeal levels (pounce, whirling frenzy/rage)?

3) Upon resurrection, do I keep feats gained while a ghost, so long as they are not "[Ghost]" type feats?

[thethird]

Q 482 Dragon Magazine Compendium has the poison ring. How many of those can I carry at the same time? One per finger? (even if only one is used at a time per hand)

[Andezzar]

A 481

Ghostwalk is 3.0 and has not been updated to 3.5 AFAIK, so take anything I say with a grain of salt as the DM is expected to make adjustments to 3.0 material to make it fit with 3.5.

1) Yes, unless being a ghost removes a prerequisite E.g. a feat that can only be taken by humanoids.

2) Yes

3) Ask your DM. AFAIK there are no rules how the XP accrued by an undead creature are handled if that creature is destroyed and resurrected. If you keep them you will have a lot of unusable feats from the Eidolon levels.
Found it, ghost walk says that resurrecting ghosts works like resurrection other creatures.

A 482

Ask your DM. Since the rings are not magic items, there is no real limit how many of them you can wear and use. One per finger sounds reasonable.

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 481

You can find the Ghostwalk v.3.5 Update by Sean K. Reynolds here.

[GilesTheCleric]

Q 483: If a creature gains an intelligence score (such as a monstrous spider becoming a paladin's special mount, DMG 204), does it gain the ability to learn tricks, and does it receive feats for all of its racial HD? Or would it only receive feats for bonus HD, such as those granted by the special mount ability?

Also, would it lose its creature type, since vermin have the mindless Ex trait? And, would it gain languages, an alignment, and other things related to having an int score?

Q 484: Would the Vermin Trainer feat (DotU 53) provide the same benefits, if the creature was not a special mount?

Q 485: Would an intelligent vermin or one trained with Vermin Trainer not be subject to the Warbeast template's (MM2 219) restriction on vermin gaining the Combative Mount Ex ability?

[qwertyu63]

Q486:

How does Detect Magic interact with Supernatural abilities and Spell-like abilities; that is can it see them? My first guess would be "no and yes, in that order", but I'm not sure.

[Curmudgeon]

A 483

A paladin’s mount is treated as a magical beast, not an animal, for the purpose of all effects that depend on its type (though it retains an animal’s HD, base attack bonus, saves, skill points, and feats).

The mount gains additional skill points or feats for bonus HD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice.

No, the Paladin's mount does not gain the ability to learn tricks. Tricks require using the Handle Animal skill with a creature having an Intelligence of 1 or 2, and the minimum INT of a Paladin's mount is 6. For everything other than HD, base attack bonus, saves, skill points, and feats the mount is treated as a Magical Beast; it no longer has the Mindless trait. The mount has feats, skills, and languages appropriate to its HD and Intelligence, all determined by your DM. All Vermin have Neutral alignment, and none of the Paladin mount changes alter that alignment.

A 484 No.

Because a Large Monstrous Spider Paladin mount cannot learn tricks, a way of teaching a Large Monstrous Spider tricks obviously does not provide the same benefits.

A 486

Your guess is correct.

Usually, a spell-like ability works just like the spell of that name.

Detect Magic detects magical auras, and (unless stated otherwise) Supernatural abilities do not create auras.

[Nettlekid]

Q487
A Fiend of Corruption gets to use Wish as a SLA, but pays XP for it as normal. If the feat Supernatural Transformation is applied to it, does that delete the XP cost of the Wish?

[NoACWarrior]

Q 485: Would an intelligent vermin or one trained with Vermin Trainer not be subject to the Warbeast template's (MM2 219) restriction on vermin gaining the Combative Mount Ex ability?

A 485 It depends on how the Warbeast vermin is obtained. If simply applying the template, the vermin warbeast does NOT get the Combative Mount ability. If the trainer who "trains" the vermin to become a warbeast, then it is possible for a vermin to gain the Combative Mount ability. The feat "Vermin Trainer" must be known by the trainer during the process of training a vermin to become a warbeast, and the trainer uses the training process as if the vermin was a wild animal. The feat allows the user to treat the vermin as trainable with handle animal checks only, and the warbeast template when obtained through training requires handle animal checks to succeed.

Q487
A Fiend of Corruption gets to use Wish as a SLA, but pays XP for it as normal. If the feat Supernatural Transformation is applied to it, does that delete the XP cost of the Wish?

A 487 The Supernatural Transformation feat doesn't otherwise remove costs of using the ability regardless of its change to Su from an SLA. By RAW the only thing that really changes is that you go from using the ability as an SLA to using the ability as a Su (Su don't provoke AoOs as normal).

[Dude_Here]

Q488
When a character is prone what is his movement rate and can he still use the Withraw full round action while prone?

[Curmudgeon]

A 488

Prone movement is crawling.

Crawl
You can crawl 5 feet as a move action. You can’t take a 5-foot step, because your speed is effectively 5 feet. Crawling provokes attacks of opportunity.

If a creature, such as a snake, uses no limbs to move its land speed, that creature can crawl at its normal speed, provoking attacks of opportunity as it would for regular movement.

You may not withdraw using a form of movement for which you don’t have a listed speed.

Unless you're limbless and crawling is your normal land movement, you can't use Withdraw while prone.

[TrueJordan]

Q 489
If I have natural spell, then wild shape and use Shapechange, can I cast spells even in a form that wouldn't allow you to normally cast spells (like a dragony one)

[Curmudgeon]

A 489 No.

What you've described is categorized as One Effect Makes Another Irrelevant (Player's Handbook, page 172) in the list of magical effect stacking limits. Using Shapechange makes Wild Shape irrelevant, and you would not receive any benefit of Natural Spell while Wild Shape has been made irrelevant to your form. The feat's benefits are limited to "while in a wild shape", which does not include while in a Shapechange form.

[heavyfuel]

Q 490

What happens if I use both Craven and Penetrating Strike?

[Curmudgeon]

A 490

The combination of Craven feat and Penetrating Strike ACF from Dungeonscape (page 13) is up to your DM. That ACF specifies that you deal extra damage, of unspecified type, when flanking a sneak-immune foe. Craven only provides a bonus to sneak attack damage. If your DM decides that the Penetrating Strike damage is simply untyped bonus damage, you would receive no benefit from Craven or any other options dependent on sneak attack (such as Ambush feats).

As an alternative, you might instead consider Lightbringer Penetrating Strike ACF (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, page 208). That ACF deals sneak attack damage, with ½ the regular dice. (It does require joining the Lightbringer organization, which entails paying an initiation fee and annual dues. It would also exclude Undead Rogues, as the Undead are the sworn enemies of Lightbringers.) Craven bonus would apply whenever you use Lightbringer Penetrating Strike. As these two ACFs have different names, you can choose either for your Rogue.

[GilesTheCleric]

Q 491: The Phrenic template (XPH 205) lists "Blast" as a PLA, but I can't seem to find a power called blast, and it's not in the errata. What is this? There's several similar things it might be, so I'm not sure.

[Flame of Anor]

Neither Enhance Spell nor Empower Spell actually increase the spell's level

Yes, I do know that. I was speaking inexactly.

To get the benefits of either feat however, you need to either prepare that spell in a higher slot or expend a higher slot (in case of spontaneous casters). You can find those rules in the description of the feat type.

Except that those rules are not universal. Specific trumps general, and we already have multiple instances of this very rule being overridden by a specific metamagic feat: Substitute Energy is just one of the metamagic feats which explicitly does not require a higher-level slot.

[Andezzar]

Yes, but such an exception must be written out explicitly. The general rule is that the benefits of a [metamagic] feat only apply if the spell is prepared/cast differently (usually in a higher slot). Not repeating that restriction in a specific feat with the [metamagic] tag does not make an exception.