Cymond's page

Unless I've misunderstood something, Ray of Frost can be very useful to a rogue. Rays are considered 'weapon-like spells' so I think you can make sneak attacks with them. Making your sneak attacks as touch attacks is advantageous at any level.

I don't know if it's true, but I once saw a chart that indicated that average AC increases at higher levels while average touch AC barely increases and occasionally decreases at high levels. If so, then using Ray of Frost to deliver sneak attacks actually gets better at higher levels.

I have opposing views on this idea.

Pro: Craft currently takes so long that it is impractical for PCs. Instead of spending a week crafting a longsword, they could earn a hundred times more cash in half the time by adventuring. I would like to see Craft raised to become a valid skill for PC's.

Con: Realistically, crafting items takes a long time. If crafting takes less time, then crafters can make more money in less time. Alternatively, raising the material cost of crafting and decreasing the crafting time will maintain the same profit level. However, that also means that the town blacksmith must sell 1 longsword every DAY instead of 1 sword every week. Is there enough demand to support that level of supply? This could have some big picture economic implications.

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On a related note, I do have a problem with 3.5's Magic Item Creation times. Creation takes 1 day per 1000 gold of the base price with a minimum of one day. This means that a scroll of M.Missile (CL1, 25gp) takes as long to craft as a scroll of Fireball (CL5, 375gp). Like mundane item creation, this slows PCs down.

I've house-ruled that items with a base price of less than 1000gp take less than 1 day to craft. That way, the wizard can either craft [2 scrolls of Fireball and 10 scrolls of M. Missile] OR [40 scrolls of M. Missile] in one day. In either case, they've spent 500 gp and 40 xp to create a pile of scrolls worth 1000 gp.

It was previously advantageous to craft big-ticket items and buy the little stuff. Under 3.5 rules, a time-conscious character could Craft a single item worth 1000 gp in 1 day and exchange it for all of the little stuff he/she needed. My house-rule merely makes crafting multiple minor magic items a viable option.

I have a thought on monk weapons. There are several possible uses. First, a monk may occaisonally want to use slashing or piercing damage instead of bludgeoning. Second, a monk's fists can't be enchanted the same way that a weapon can (unless I'm mistaken ...) - In those cases, maybe the monk really wants a +1 flaming keen kama or a +2 knockback quarterstaff. Also, you can freely interchange attacks with the 2 heads of a quarterstaff and a monk can interchange attacks between a monk weapon and unarmed strikes. So a monk holding a quarterstaff can freely interchange attacks among 3 different weapons!

I agree! HP and Harness should be easily accessible.

On the subject of special materials, I also say that they should be in the equipment chapter.

As a final note, Craft DC's may not fit in the weapon and armor charts, but they at least need to be published somewhere in the books. My archer (fighter) is headed into Order of the Bow Initiate and is therefore required to have ranks in Craft [Bow]. It seems logical that he can also make arrows, but I don't know the DC's and there are SO many varieties of arrows. I mean, what is the DC to craft arrows? Blunt arrows? Alchemist's Arrows? Signal Arrows? Having a DC for standard arrows will provide a baseline for the specialty arrows.

The m-t-m subscription is the only item in my cart. Why is it showing up with a subtotal of 7.14? That's practically the news stand price. I don't think shipping is included in the subtotal.

Is the news stand date fixed? I bought my at Borders on the 22nd.