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I found this thread, but I'm not sure what the OP means when he refers to metamagic mastery feats.

What I'm trying to determine, is if I could use a metamagic feat to bolster a spell I cast from a staff. If so, how do you treat the part about the metamagic'd spell taking up a higher spell slot?

Also, what if I hold a rod of maximize spell (greater) in one hand, and a staff of evocation in the other hand? Could I use the rod of maximize, and dish out a maximized chain lightning?

At first, I figured they would. Then, a buddy announced that he wants to run a summoner on a campaign I'm going to be running, and asked me the subject question.

Now I'm not sure. I searched the forum, and only found one thread where this was discussed, with answers saying yes, and other answers saying no.

Do any of you guys know for sure, if there's any reason why augment summoning wouldn't benefit an eidolon, since the summoner's description says that they're treated as summoned creatures?

I have "fireball" as a domain spell. Does that qualify as being on my spell list, for the purpose of using either a staff of evocation, or a staff of fire?

Edit: Let's just pretend for this question, that ice storm wasn't on the druid's spell list.

I saw that there was a post about Sympathy, back in September, but that it was stickied for FAQ. Did that ever get a FAQ response?

I'm trying to figure out a few things about antipathy. Basically, I'm thinking of sympathy as being the effect exhibited by the one true ring, in the Lord of the Rings books, with antipathy being the exact opposite. Here's what I'm wondering, though:

1) Does the item you cast it on receive a saving throw? More specifically, what if that item is an artifact?

2) If the item receives a save, and/or if an artifact would be an ineligible target for antipathy, then what would be the strategic alternatives?

Let's say that instead of casting antipathy on said artifact, I cast it on a cloth that we're wrapping the artifact in for transport. Instead of naming a creature type, I name chaotic evil as the alignment to be repelled. Would that be a viable alternative?

I dug through some old threads on this, and still couldn't see a clear answer.

Does heighten spell essentially allow you to make your other metamagic spells have a spell level/DC on par with their spell slot (i.e. heightened quickened magic missile becoming a 5th level spell, with a base 15 DC)?

If I had an awakened demilich, who's base caster was (in life) a 20th level sorcerer, with a 30 Cha, what would the save DC be for his Devour Soul?

I'm figuring he'd be a CR 25 creature (lich CR 22 + CR 3 for awakened demilich), and that his devour soul save DC would be 32 (base (10) plus half hit dice (10) plus Cha mod (10) plus ability focus (2)).

Am I figuring that correctly?

Since I've never seen, nor heard of a "vestment" in real life, what the heck is the difference between these two?

Obviously, a vest is an lighter garment than a vestment, but what makes a vestment a vestment?

Armor: suits of armor.
Belts: belts and girdles.
Body: robes and vestments.
Chest: mantles, shirts, and vests.
Eyes: eyes, glasses, and goggles.
Feet: boots, shoes, and slippers.
Hands: gauntlets and gloves.
Head: circlets, crowns, hats, helms, and masks.
Headband: headbands and phylacteries.
Neck: amulets, brooches, medallions, necklaces, periapts, and scarabs.
Ring (up to two): rings.
Shield: shields.
Shoulders: capes and cloaks.
Wrist: bracelets and bracers.

Has anyone tried to incorporate quasi elementals as usable wild shape forms in their games?

At first glance, it seems like it could be easily broken, if you didn't carfully select which abilities you would and wouldn't have.

Link to Elementals on the SRD

Call me dense, but I can't seem to find the rules for how natural attacks are advanced for monsters. Like, an elder elemental has two slam attacks, even though their BAB would allow for three iterative attacks, if they were a PC wielding a weapon.

More specifically, what I'm trying to determine, is the following:

1) When I wildshape into critter forms, how do I determine how many natural attacks I have? (Read: "Critter" = anything I can wildshape into)

2) Am I limited to the natural attacks of the form I choose (let's focus on huge earth elemental), or can I swap to iterative attacks, if, say, I ripped up a tree and wanted to use it as a huge club?

3) How is it determined whether an elemental would have one, two, or more slam attacks?

I'm sure this would have had to have had some errata, but I just noticed that the Core Rulebook, in the polymorph rules, states that polymorph spells grant a +20 bonus to disguise checks.

However, under the description of the disguise skill, it states that the bonus is +10.

For now, I'm playing it as +10, but was there some official errata on this one?

For a druid taking the fire domain, instead of an animal companion, the 7th level fire domain spell, Elemental Body IV (fire only), seems sort of... useless.

I know it's good, in a pinch, if you run out of wild shapes, but how do the following seem, as houserule alternates to elemental body, for druids taking the fire domain?

- Fire Storm (already a 7th level druid spell - would simply let fire clerics get it as a 7th level domain spell)

- Delayed Blast Fireball (Sor/Wiz 7 - fireball is already on the fire domain list)

The feat description refers to light weapons, but are unarmed attacks considered light? I'm pretty sure they are, but wanted to verify.

What I'm trying to determine, is if I take weapon finesse, if my druid would do better on attack rolls, when wild shaping into fire and air elemental forms. As it is, a +13 to attack, when in fire elemental form, is pretty weak, for a 16th level toon.

The basic idea here is buying a set of +2, wild, glamered, shadow, blue dragonhide full plate for my half-elf druid.

Dragonhide...

...Because dragonhide armor isn't made of metal, druids can wear it without penalty...

...Cost Dragonhide armor costs twice as much as masterwork armor of the same type, but it takes no longer to make than ordinary armor of that type (double all Craft results). If the armor or shield is later given the ability to protect the wearer against that energy type, the cost to add such protection is reduced by 25%.

1) I think this is a no-brainer, but I'm analytical, and just wanted to clarify:

A set of +2 wild, shadow, glamered dragonhide full plate would cost 34,750 gp:

- MW Dragonhide full plate = 3,300 gp
- +2 wild (+5 effective) = 25,000 gp
- glamered = 2,700 gp
- shadow = 3,750 gp

2) I went with glamered on the armor, since the polymorph rules state that your gear melds, if you change form into animal, dragon, elemental, magical beast, plant, or vermin forms, but nothing about humanoid (via alter self). My read on that, is that if you're wearing this armor, and using thousand faces (alter self) to disguise yourself, means that you either need to remove your armor, or else get the armor glamered.

3) When the dragonhide description refers to druid's wearing dragonhide armor without penalty, I have to presume that the text simply refers to druids being able to wear dragonhide full plate, for example, and still wild shape. I presume that the text is not implying that the dragonhide armor has no armor check penalty.

4) Is the armor still considered heavy, requiring me to take heavy armor proficiency to avoid those penalties?

5) Does my speed still drop to 20 ft? For both #4 and #5, this makes me think that I need heavy armor proficiency, for dragonhide full plate.

6) If I use thousand faces to take the form of a dwarf, do I move at 20' or 30' per round? I know you gain the base movement speed of the creature you polymorph into, but I don't know if the dwarven racial bonus for armor applies in this case.

7) Should I just take one level of fighter, to bypass the armor proficiency, as well as gain an extra feat?

I know this is old, but I thought I heard of some errata or nerf, that this perhaps used to work, but doesn't now??

Assuming no actual armor when wildshaped, but only bracers of armor, ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, etc., does the druid still get his Wis mod as a bonus to AC when wildshaping, if he takes one level of monk?

If he's wearing a monk's robe, does that effectively give him an additional +1 to AC, per a 6th level monk?

What about the improved unarmed attacks? i.e., if the druid wildshapes into a huge earth elemental, then what?

Lastly, would the monk's robes take up the same item slot as druid vestments? (or do the robes go over the vestments?) WTH is a vestment, anyway? I have yet to see them on the rack at Sears.

From the PRD:

To complete the action, you must then cast an appropriate spell. As a general rule, a spell can only counter itself. If you are able to cast the same spell and you have it prepared (or have a slot of the appropriate level available), you cast it, creating a counterspell effect. If the target is within range, both spells automatically negate each other with no other results.

The bolded part is what is confusing me.

Do you, or don't you, have to both know the spell you're countering, and have it prepared? What is the deal with the "or have a slot of the appropriate level available" bit?

I hate to be dense, but I'm not getting it.

From the PRD:

Casting a Metamagic Spell

Sorcerers and bards must take more time to cast a metamagic spell (one enhanced by a metamagic feat) than a regular spell. If a spell's normal casting time is 1 standard action, casting a metamagic version of the spell is a full-round action for a sorcerer or bard (except for spells modified by the Quicken Spell feat, which take 1 swift action to cast). Note that this isn't the same as a spell with a 1-round casting time. Spells that take a full-round action to cast take effect in the same round that you begin casting, and you are not required to continue the invocations, gestures, and concentration until your next turn. For spells with a longer casting time, it takes an extra full-round action to cast the metamagic spell.

Clerics and druids must take more time to spontaneously cast a metamagic version of a cure, inflict, or summon spell. Spontaneously casting a metamagic version of a spell with a casting time of 1 standard action is a full-round action, and spells with longer casting times take an extra full-round action to cast.

The bolded bit is confusing me, as it's either erroneous, or I'm completely misreading and not getting the concept.

How long does it take for a bard or sorcerer to cast a metamagic spell, other than a quickened spell?

Also, if I'm reading this correctly, my druid can start a spontaneous summon nature's ally on round one of combat, which will come into effect just before the start of his turn in round two. He can command his summoned creatures to attack as a free action on round two, and then immediately start another summons (non-metamagic), which will come into being just before the start of his turn on round three. In this manner, he can be a summoning battery, and keep popping out summoned creatures every round. Granted, he can't move, other than a 5 ft. step, but if he's floating above the field as an air elemental, who cares, right?

However, if I were to cast a metamagic (say, maximized) summon nature's ally on round one, then it wouldn't come into being until just before the start of my turn on round three.

On the subject of attacks of opportunity, it seems that the rules are also stating that I'd provoke an AoO at the moment I start casting, but I wouldn't continue to provoke further AoO's throughout the casting of that spell. (Regardless of being susceptible to normal attacks on my enemies' turns)

Yes/No?

I was a huge fan of 3.0 and 3.5 psionics, even though I felt that psionics as a whole, was underpowered, when compared to magic. I know there were some horribly broken things that were legit per RAW, but I never used those. 3.5 fixed many of them, but still seemed like magic's red-headed step child, in terms of power equivalency.

Thematically, I love all of the psionic classes. I love the concept of psicrystals, crystal weapons, astral constructs, etc. I also believe that for psionics to work, you have to use the psionics = magic rule. Toward that end, I'd like to see psionics as being on par with magic. Perhaps one is better than the other in some areas, but don't give me a third-level psionic power fireball, and make it do 10d4 damage. That's just stupid.

That being said, for you guys who have purchased Psionics Unleashed, how have you found it to be, in terms of balance, enjoyability, and ease of integration? I'm hoping it's roughly equal to magic, but not overpowered or broken.