Simple Raw Thread for 3.5 #28

[ShurikVch]

Q 126

Fiend of Blasphemy (Fiend Folio) required

Special: Must have at least one spell-like ability that duplicates a spell effect of 4th level or higher.

But 4th in which class?

For example, Soul Reaper (Dr#312, p.34) get Speak with Dead (Sp), 1/day, at the very 1st level
Speak with Dead is usually a 3rd level spell, except for Divine Bard (4th) and Wu Jen (6th)
So, will 1 level dip in Soul Reaper be enough to qualifying for FoB?

[Andezzar]

A 126

No:

Some spell-like abilities duplicate spells that work differently when cast by characters of different classes. A monster’s spell-like abilities are presumed to be the sorcerer/wizard versions. If the spell in question is not a sorcerer/wizard spell, then default to cleric, druid, bard, paladin, and ranger, in that order.

[Tryxx]

Q 127

So, 12th level Warlock with a Strength of 20 and the following feats (items disregarded): Improved Unarmed Strike, Eldritch Claws, Superior Unarmed Strike, Improved Natural Attack, and Beast Strike. Please help me clarify the claw damage.

Here's what I think: Start out with 1d3 as normal, changed to 1d10 from Superior Unarmed Strike (character level 12), and changed to 2d8 via Improved Natural Attack. Beast Strike adds claw damage twice, so it would appear as: Eldritch claw +14 melee (4d8+10 plus eldritch blast) or Eldritch claw +14 melee (2d8+5 plus 2d8+5 plus eldritch blast). Is this correct?

[Curmudgeon]

A 127 No.

Your character doesn't qualify for Beast Strike with Eldritch Claws.

Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +5, Improved Unarmed Strike, claw or slam attack

Once you form your eldritch claws they remain until just before the beginning of your next turn.

Level advancement is immediate when your DM awards the XP (see Player's Handbook on page 58: EXPERIENCE AND LEVELS), but that's dependent on a challenge being overcome (see Dungeon Master's Guide on pages 36-37: EXPERIENCE AWARDS). When a combat challenge is overcome the game is no longer on combat timing and conditions dependent on combat timing "until just before the beginning of your next turn" are no longer in effect.

turn

The point in the round at which you take your action(s). On your turn, you may perform one or more actions, as dictated by your current circumstances.

round

A 6-second unit of game time used to manage combat.

Because your Eldritch Claws don't exist when you advance a level, you do not qualify to take Beast Strike.

While your eldritch claws exist you may make up to two claw attacks as natural weapons. You are automatically proficient with your eldritch claws. On a successful attack with an eldritch claw, you deal your normal amount of unarmed strike damage plus your eldritch blast damage.

Unless your creature description specifies a primary natural weapon attack, all natural weapons are secondary (iterative attacks based on BAB are primary) and take a -5 secondary natural attack penalty.

Normal: Without this feat, the creature’s secondary attacks with natural weapons take a -5 penalty.

Both claw attacks would be at +9 (+9 BAB, +5 STR, -5 secondary); damage would be +6d6 eldritch blast +2d8 +2 STR. Secondary attacks add only 1/2 the creature’s Strength bonus (see Monster Manual, page 6).

[Tryxx]

A 127 No.
Unless your creature description specifies a primary natural weapon attack, all natural weapons are secondary (iterative attacks based on BAB are primary) and take a -5 secondary natural attack penalty.
Both claw attacks would be at +9 (+9 BAB, +5 STR, -5 secondary); damage would be +6d6 eldritch blast +2d8 +2 STR. Secondary attacks add only 1/2 the creature’s Strength bonus (see Monster Manual, page 6).

Thank you. The Warlock in question will be a Vampire BBEG, so qualifying for Beast Strike shouldn't be a problem, however my misunderstanding of natural attacks was. In that particular instance, I assume the vampire's slam attack is the primary, and that would make the claws always take the -5 penalty, even on a standard attack, correct?

[zergling.exe]

A 127 Cont.

A vampire would indeed qualify for Beast Strike with no problem (with the vampire's natural slam), this however nullifies the majority of Curmudgeon's answer.

Beast Strike requires you to make either unarmed strikes or grapple attacks, you would be making no natural attacks and thus incur no 'secondary attack' penalties.

Damage would be your unarmed strike damage (2d8+5), plus your vampire's slam damage, plus Eldritch Blast damage (6d6).

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 127

In that particular instance, I assume the vampire's slam attack is the primary, and that would make the claws always take the -5 penalty, even on a standard attack, correct?

Almost right; claws would always take the secondary natural attack penalty. However, the slam attack is also secondary. Vampire is an acquired template, and it adds a slam attack on top of whatever attacks (primary and secondary) the creature already had. Vampire Spawn are creatures which start with a slam as their primary attack, but that's not the case for Vampires.

Beast Strike requires you to make either unarmed strikes or grapple attacks, you would be making no natural attacks and thus incur no 'secondary attack' penalties.

Damage would be your unarmed strike damage (2d8+5), plus your vampire's slam damage, plus Eldritch Blast damage (6d6).

That's not right.

While your eldritch claws exist you may make up to two claw attacks as natural weapons. ... On a successful attack with an eldritch claw, you deal your normal amount of unarmed strike damage plus your eldritch blast damage.

Benefit: When you make an unarmed strike or grapple check to deal damage, you may add your claw or slam damage to your unarmed trike or grapple damage.

You cannot combine these feats. Either you're making a natural weapon (claw) attack and you're adding your unarmed damage plus Eldritch Blast (Eldritch Claws), or you're making an unarmed strike and adding your claw or slam damage (Beast Strike). You can't get unarmed + Eldritch Blast + slam in one attack. Eldritch Claws is explicit about making those "claw attacks as natural weapons". You have zero claw damage unless you follow the stipulations of Eldritch Claws; the damage is a feat benefit, and does not exist except in accordance with the stipulations of that feat.

[snailgosh]

Q 128

Does an attack using the Intimidating Strike feat (Player's Handbook II, p. 79) deal damage?

[Curmudgeon]

A 128 Yes.

When your attack succeeds, you deal damage.

This general rule for a successful attack is not countermanded by Intimidating Strike.

[Crake]

Q 129

Do multiple, different, bane abilities stack? So for example, would using Outsider (Evil) Bane, Outsider (Chaotic) Bane and Magebane deal +6d6 damage and increase my weapon's enhancement bonus by +6 as long as I hit an outsider with the evil and chaotic subtypes and had either spellcasting or SLAs (aka pretty much any demon ever)?

[KillianHawkeye]

Q 130

Do Illumians gain a new power sigil every time they gain the second level of any class, or only the first time they gain the second level in a class? In other words, are they limited to only two power sigils?

[Andezzar]

A 129

Not quite. The enhancement bonuses do not stack, because they never stack, but the extra damage does, because it comes from different source.

[Crake]

A 129

Not quite. The enhancement bonuses do not stack, because they never stack, but the extra damage does, because it comes from different source.

Q129 clarification

Well, it's not an enhancement bonus itself, it's a bonus to the enhancement bonus, and an untyped one at that, unless you're saying that a +1 bane weapon becomes +2 if it hits the appropriate target, and not +3, and that +2 or higher weapons recieve no bonus from it?

Since bane is not giving the weapon an enhancement bonus, but improving the already existing one, and that the bonus to the bonus is untyped, I don't see why they wouldn't stack but the damage would?

[Khedrac]

A 130 No, No, Yes
Illumians gain their second and last power sigil when they take their second character level. This can be in any class, and is not necessarily the same as their first level.

So an Illumian Ftr1/Rogue1 has 2 sigils, the same number as an Illumian Wizard 20.

Edit: Oops - seems I was wrong (afb so going from memory) on the 1/1 part. Interesting twist I had not noticed. Anyway the cap of two symbols stands. I'm glad I helped with that part anyway.

[Thurbane]

Q 131

How about an Illumian with an inherited template - say, Werewolf? Do the racial HD count as "levels" for when they gain their power sigils?

[KillianHawkeye]

A 130 No, No, Yes
Illumians gain their second and last power sigil when they take their second character level. This can be in any class, and is not necessarily the same as their first level.

So an Illumian Ftr1/Rogue1 has 2 sigils, the same number as an Illumian Wizard 20.

Re: 130

Check the wording again.

On attaining 2nd level in any class, an illumian gains a second different power sigil, and the bonus granted by each power sigil increases to +2.

It's clearly saying second level in a particular class, not their second character level.

But... I think you managed to answer my question regardless.

[Andezzar]

A 131

No. RHD are similar to class levels but not the same. Ability explicitly calls out the second level in any class. It might work with the monster class variant, but that depends on whether you decide that monster class levels are a subset of class levels.

[Sian]

Q132:

Is it possible to be a Savage Divine Bard (taking both Savage and Divine from Unearthed Arcana) at the same time or are they mutually exclusive, such as Savage and Sage would be (given their conflicting Alignment requirements)

[Fax Celestis]

A129Cont

A bane weapon excels at attacking one type or subtype of creature. Against its designated foe, its effective enhancement bonus is +2 better than its normal enhancement bonus. It deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against the foe. Bows, crossbows, and slings so crafted bestow the bane quality upon their ammunition. To randomly determine a weapon’s designated foe, roll on the following table.

Because of the terminology here, the effective bonus only applies once (sort of how like "treated as one size category larger" language doesn't stack). A chaotic-outsider-bane evil-outsider-bane longsword +1 is a +3 weapon against chaotic evil outsiders, but deals an extra 4d6 (well 4d6+2 to be precise, because of the increase enhancement bonus) damage.

To put this in semi-programming terms, take a look here:

OnAttack

Is the target an evil outsider?

Yes: Set "Total Enhancement Bonus" = "Normal Enhancement Bonus" +2, increase damage by 2d6

No: Do nothing

Is the target a chaotic outsider?

Yes: Set "Total Enhancement Bonus" = "Normal Enhancement Bonus" +2, increase damage by 2d6

No: Do nothing

[Curmudgeon]

A 132 No.

The divine bard has all the standard bard class features, except as noted below.

The savage bard has all the standard bard class features, except as noted below.

You cannot have anything except the standard Bard class features as the baseline for either Divine Bard or Savage Bard.

[snailgosh]

Q 133
Does throwing a two-handed weapon with stated range increment take a full-round action?

The SRD states:

Daggers, clubs, shortspears, spears, darts, javelins, throwing axes, light hammers, tridents, shuriken, and nets are thrown weapons. The wielder applies his or her Strength modifier to damage dealt by thrown weapons (except for splash weapons). It is possible to throw a weapon that isn’t designed to be thrown (that is, a melee weapon that doesn’t have a numeric entry in the Range Increment column on Table: Weapons), but a character who does so takes a -4 penalty on the attack roll. Throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action, while throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action. Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat only on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.

Does the bolded part refer specifically to weapons without range increment as the following phrase about crit range etc. implies?

[Fax Celestis]

A133 Unclear, but the format of the phrasing there heavily implies it is in reference to improvised weapons. Let's take your quote and remove the first two sentences:

It is possible to throw a weapon that isn’t designed to be thrown (that is, a melee weapon that doesn’t have a numeric entry in the Range Increment column on Table: Weapons), but a character who does so takes a -4 penalty on the attack roll. Throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action, while throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action. Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat only on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.

This statement still makes grammatical and rules-legal sense, and as such we can determine that their intent was to limit this to only improvised thrown weaponry.

[Bronk]

Q129 clarification

Well, it's not an enhancement bonus itself, it's a bonus to the enhancement bonus, and an untyped one at that, unless you're saying that a +1 bane weapon becomes +2 if it hits the appropriate target, and not +3, and that +2 or higher weapons recieve no bonus from it?

Since bane is not giving the weapon an enhancement bonus, but improving the already existing one, and that the bonus to the bonus is untyped, I don't see why they wouldn't stack but the damage would?

The reason the enhancement bonuses from the various bane properties don't stack even though they come from different named sources is that the wording for the bane property says that the bonus is for the weapon is "+2 better than its normal enhancement bonus".

The normal bonus is the weapon's original enhancement bonus, and since all bane abilities refer back to that, then add two, the static bonus never rises above +2.

[heavyfuel]

A133

It is as Fax Celestis said. The full round action (and standard action instead of attack) applies only to weapons not made to be thrown. This can be known because of the sentences that follow the statement:

Throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action, while throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action. Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat only on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.

"Such" this, "such" that can't apply to all thrown weapons because regular Thrown Weapons can have better threat ranges, better crit multiplier and better range increment.

While I do think the designer should've made this clearer, the way the phrasal construction is indicates that the higher action cost is for improvised weapons only

[Dmdork]

Q134"I'm blinded. How do I fight?" Can I:

1.make a dc20 listen check (as a free action, or move action, heard both) to pinpoint an adjacent creature and attack (although with a 50% miss chance)?
2. take a standard action to pinpoint an adjacent enemy using a melee weapon or just reaching out (if youre unarmed it provokes AOO)?
3. close to melee an enemy somehow if that enemy is not adjacent ?
4. Locate an enemy for a possible missile attack?

[Fax Celestis]

A134

Blinded
The character cannot see. He takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class, loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), moves at half speed, and takes a -4 penalty on Search checks and on most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Spot checks) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) to the blinded character. Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.

1. No. That is not a function of the Listen skill.
2. Sort of. You can attack a square, unknowing what is in that square specifically, in much the same way you can attempt to locate an invisible creature.
3. Sort of. You can move to a specific location at half speed, but you have no way of knowing if you end up adjacent to an opponent or not.
4. Sort of. You can attack a square, unknowing what is in that square specifically, in much the same way you can attempt to locate an invisible creature.

[heavyfuel]

A 134

1. It can be both, depending on the situation:

Varies. Every time you have a chance to hear something in a reactive manner (such as when someone makes a noise or you move into a new area), you can make a Listen check without using an action. Trying to hear something you failed to hear previously is a move action.

So if you don't already know where he is, you need to spend a move action to make the check. Note that you don't need to be adjacent, just beat his Move Silently DC by 20, and if you do, you still have 50% miss chance.

A blinded creature pinpoints targets and deals damage to them as if those targets were invisible.

A character can use Listen to notice the presence of an invisible creature (generally opposed by a Move Silently check). If the character beats the DC by 20 or more, he or she can pinpoint the location of the invisible creature, though it still maintains total concealment from the character (50% miss chance).

2. If you don't know where an enemy is, you need to guess his 5ft square. If you choose the right one, and your attack roll beats the AC, and you pass the 50% miss chance, your attack hits as usual. Note that you if only beat the touch AC, you won't deal any damage, but now you know the creature is there. I do not think there is a rule for reaching out or pinpointing with a standard action.

3. Like I said in answer "1." you don't need to be in melee to attack if you're blinded. You just need to know what square he is, and attack that square.

4. By missile attack do you mean a ranged attack? If so, it follows the rules for regular attacks. Pinpoint/Guess, if it's the right square you still have beat his AC and you have 50% miss chance. If you meant an attack like Magic Missile, then you can't do it as you need line of sight to do so.

[Dmdork]

re 134 so what you're saying is you can't use listen or spot to locate an enemy if you're blind.

1. Can't use listen cuz that's not a part of the listen skill
2. Can't use spot since all to checks automatically fail if you're blind.

So basically we're talkin about a total 'shot in the dark'

[heavyfuel]

A 134

re 134 so what you're saying is you can't use listen or spot to locate an enemy if you're blind.

1. Can't use listen cuz that's not a part of the listen skill
2. Can't use spot since all to checks automatically fail if you're blind.

So basically we're talkin about a total 'shot in the dark'

Fax is mistaken, it is part of the Listen skill, as I pointed out above. You need to beat the creature's Move Silently by 20 to pinpoint it

[Fax Celestis]

A134C Nothing in the Listen skill indicates you can pinpoint a creature with it.

Check
Your Listen check is either made against a DC that reflects how quiet the noise is that you might hear, or it is opposed by your target’s Move Silently check.

In the case of people trying to be quiet, the DCs given on the table could be replaced by Move Silently checks, in which case the indicated DC would be their average check result.

See also: epic usages of Listen.

Action
Varies. Every time you have a chance to hear something in a reactive manner (such as when someone makes a noise or you move into a new area), you can make a Listen check without using an action. Trying to hear something you failed to hear previously is a move action.

Try Again
Yes. You can try to hear something that you failed to hear previously with no penalty.

All it does is allow you to know that someone is there.