JTibbs's page

If you could get 2500GP of 'market worth' I would say that a ring of sustenance is pretty nifty.

lowers your encumberence (no food or water needs), and it greatly accelerates HP regen when you sleep.

2 hours of sleep counts as 8 hours for hp regen. a full nights sleep is like 4 days of healing.

Handy Haversacks are always useful.

A Hat of Disguise at 1800 gp is very useful too in a lot of campaigns. At will disguise self is very useful.

You can guess that I'm real big into non-combat utility items.

i like the idea of using Reach Spell on a magical lineaged Shocking Grasp.

Its basically a 1st level spell mimicking Emperor Palpatine.

5d6 damage at caster level 5 within 35 feet, AND you get +3 to attack rolls against people in armor? All in a lvl 1 spell?

hell yeah. make some wands of that.

Animate dead is always a great go-to for labor.

using those skeletons you could have a tireless workforce removing all stone and rock from the soil, stacking them up as dry stone walls.

I think a witch can get animate dead at 8th level.

In the Azores they had terrible soil, being largely rock and ash. after decades of labor, the farmers basically removed all the rocks from the soil and made a boatload of small rock walls. they then had great soil in which they grew everything from sugarcane to grapes.

of course they benefited from the rich volcanic ash, as well as the fact that the multitude of low stone walls created a microcomputer conducive to farming, trapping moisture close to the soil and moderating temperature extremes.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Vineyards_in_the_Azores_ with_rock_walls_to_protect_vines.jpg

Honestly though, a 5th level Neutral Wizard would be damned good at creating decent farmland.

Animate dead + Ash storm + Create Wondrous item (for making items like decanters of endless water). With those, you could make some really nice farmland.

32. Cleansing Washbasin This fine porcelain bowl, when filled with water, is self cleaning and bestows upon the water within it the cleaning abilities of the prestidigitation spell. Used to wash hands and faces in upper class households, the Cleansing Washbasin can remove even the grimiest messes. Items placed within the water of the basin are also cleaned, but when cast upon the floor or put into another basin, the water looses its cleaning abilities.

Cost: 250 GP

Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, Prestidigitation

30. Druids Pot These large, if simple clay pots, roughly 20 gallons in size, greatly accelerate the growth of seedling trees. an acorn, placed within the pot, will reach nearly 5 years of growth in a single week. After a week, growth will drop off sharply as the tree must be removed and replanted. Most often given to lumberjacks who work in forests occupied by druids, these pots help ensure peaceful relations as the lumberjacks reforest the land they clear with trees large and developed enough to survive. Even after being removed from the pots, the trees will continue to grow at an accelerated pace, though only roughly twice that of unaltered trees, for several years.

Greatly altering the AC values for shields.

A shield is the single most important defensive equipment the average dude could have. Armor like chainmail is kinda like 'second chance' armor. heres the new shield list:

buckler - 1 AC
Light shield - 3 AC
Heavy shield - 5 AC with max dexterity bonus of +4
Tower Shield - 7 AC with max dexterity penalty of +2

Its damned hard to even try to hit a guy hiding behind a tower shield after all...

Also, shields dont add an arcane failure bonus. You just can't cast with the hand the shields in. Your other hand is completely free after all, and can be used unobstructed...

How does one become immortal via polymorph any object?

Well if you transformed into a species with a natural lifespan thats indefinate, and the transformation was permanent, you technically shouldn't age for as long as you are that species of creature...

I think that if you changed from a human into an elf via polymorph any object you should have the elfs lifespan for the duration of the spell. Basically until someone hits you with a Dispel Magic, or you step into an antimagic field...

In 3.5 there was a bit of cheese people wanted to pull where you cast polymorph any object several times in a row to make the last form you were in your new 'base' form. Its a techincally correct reading of the wording for the spell, but at the same time its technically correct to say you can't do that. It was all up to individual interpretation. If you allowed this method, you could transform yourself into a dragon if you had a handful of scrolls, or some help.

I like it!

A necklace of Lesser Resist Aging would cost 28,000gp to buy, and 14,000gp to make.

A necklace of Resist Aging would cost 66,000gp to buy, and 33,000gp to make.

A necklace of Greater Resist Aging would be a whopping 120,000gp to buy and 60,000gp to make.

(please remember that spells with 24 hour durations or greater are half cost for constant effect)
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They certainly count as a damned expensive purchase, especially for a noncombat role-playing only item.

They would be an incredibly desirable item for the wealthy, nobility, and well essentially anyone.

Recovering a stolen necklace for a powerful merchant or something could be a major plot point... Or for a less than 'good' campaign, stealing it could be a major objective.

I personally think there should be a series of spells to slow aging. Something like:

Lesser Resist Aging

School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S
Range Personal
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes (harmless)

This spell halves your rate of aging for 24 hours following its casting. Creatures who perform this spell every day effectively double their remaining lifespan.
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Resist Aging

School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 6
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S
Range Personal
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes (harmless)

This spell thirds your rate of aging for 24 hours following its casting. Creatures who perform this spell every day effectively triple their remaining lifespan.
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Greater Resist Aging

School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 8
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S
Range Personal
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes (harmless)

This spell quarters your rate of aging for 24 hours following its casting. Creatures who perform this spell every day effectively quadruple their remaining lifespan.
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Basically as you get more powerful, your lifespan gets longer should you decide to extend it until you reach level 20, and take the Discovery that renders your lifespan 'indefinite'.

You could either sacrifice a high level spell slot each day dedicated to this, or you could get a wondrous item to have it constantly on you. An EXPENSIVE wondrous item. Constant effect 4th level spells aren't exactly cheap, let alone a 6th or 8th level one.

I don't particularly like the Vancian magic system, preferring Psionics, with Spells Known/Spells per Day mechanic a second.

While Save-or-die spells are greatly reduced, spells that pretty much end the encounter if the target fails his save are still far too common.

This one will be difficult to fix: the large imbalance between single-classing, true multi-classing (not the min-max level dipping), and prestige classing. 3.5 Ed favored the last too much, while Pathfinder favors the first too much.

I personally don't like the spell slot system due to its arbitrariness and illogical limitations. I think a modified spell point system would work a lot better. Not the regular spell point system due to its crazy exponential power growth.

Ideally I'd replace the spell slot system and the spell point system with this:

Spells take up their spell level in points. A magic missile takes up 1 point, a fireball 3 points. This is regardless of the caster level of the spell. A 10th level caster is just MUCH more efficient with the fireballs energy than a 5th level caster.

Instead of converting the vancian spell levels into points, that is completely scrapped.

Wizards/druid/clerics get 1+casting stat modifier spell points per level. a wizard with 18 INT would start with 5 spell points at lvl 1, and at level 5 would have 25 spell points. Sorcerers get 3+casting stat modifier spell points per level.

The wizard would, at low levels, have more spell points than the normal spell point system. This helps them not be essentially a spare set of hands to hold a crossbow.

At higher levels, a wizard would have significantly less spell points than the standard spell point system. A level 15 wizard would have 191 spell points with the standard system. Using the modified system here, the wizard would have 90 spell points.

Linear power growth is emphasized here, rather than exponential. It also rewards casting stats far more heavily than the traditional system.

Wizards would prepare any number of spells per day of any level they can cast, so long as total spell levels don't exceed their max amount. Said lvl 15 wizard could prepare 30 fireballs if she wanted to. or 11 lvl 8 spells and a single lvl 2 spell.

keep in mind prepared casters still have to prepare each and every one of their spells, and not prepare a selection of them to cast like a sorcerer like some spell point systems.

This system adds tons of flexibility and utility to wizards, while severely limiting power creep at high levels. Effectively reducing the quadratic equation of wizard power to a straight(er) curve.

This system also effectively rewards ability bonuses far more than the standard magic system. Oh, and ability point bonus spells per level are retroactive like normal FYI.

It also makes magic staves MUCH more useful. When a single staff has 40-50 spell points worth of charges in it (10 5th level spells anyone?), its going to a huge chunk of your total magic.

If you are a wizard, you probably are going to want a staff. Its your icon of power after all...

There are many things that torque me off, but one thing that gets my eye twitching in frustration are Shields.

shields grant an incredibly tiny AC bonus. WAY less than they should.

A decent shield is arguably more important for saving a persons life than a set of armor.

Chainmail is damned nice and all, but without a shield, you are going to be taking nonlethal damage with every hit..

A heavy steel shield should grant +5 AC. Yes, I'm totally serious about that number.

Here's a series of revised shields:

Buckler: +1 AC

Wooden Light Shield: +2 AC

Steel Light Shield: +3 AC

Wooden Heavy Shield: +4 AC

Steel Heavy Shield: +5 AC

Tower Shield: +6 AC (due to its much lower mobilty)

of course when flatfooted, the shields AC shouldn't apply.

People are going to say that those numbers are too high, but realistically they might be a bit LOW. For every hit a warriors armor takes, they are probably going to block 5 with their shield.

Reworked Armor:

I think armor should be piecemeal and give AC and DR (similar to some optional rules that already exist). A helmet would give 1 AC, and 1 DR. A suit of chainmail would give 3 AC, and 2 DR. gauntlets would give 1 AC, 1 DR. A breastplate would give 3 AC and 2 DR.

That would all add up to a suit of half plate equivalent, and give you +8 AC and +6 DR. crits would be a hit to a weak point and bypass DR in addition to the additional damage.

A shield would only give an AC bonus.

This would require re-stating a lot of armor weight wise to be more realistic. a breastplate (cuirass) IRL weighed in at ~15 pounds. pathfinder has it at 30 pounds for example thanks to legacy systems that 'Did Not Do The Research'...

I can't recall now how much Mithral cost in 2nd Edition, but throughout 3rd and 3.5 if you wanted a Mithral dagger, it was priced at 502gp.

If Pathfinder wishes to go the route of pricing items based on their newer, lesser weight, my only suggestion would be to still make Mithral weapons cost a minimum of 300gp+weapon cost, since Mithral is considered masterwork. That would eliminate the small-sized Mithral dagger costing 127gp, when a masterwork steel dagger costs 302gp.

That just highlights another problem. flat +300gp masterwork costs are utterly moronic as well.

The dagger that would take a RL smith ~4 hours to forge has the same premium cost as a sword that would take the same smith 40-50 hours.

stupid has hell is what it is.

The mundane crafting rules and subsequent costs are beyond broken, but for a long time no one has dared to touch them officially.

crafting times should be independent of value.

as far as 'masterwork' classification goes, the fix is pretty easy. 'Masterwork' weapons should merely be 20x the cost of the base weapon. So a masterwork dagger should cost 40GP, and a masterwork mithril dagger should cost 40GP, plus the material cost of 250GP. So 290 GP total.

For a longsword, a masterwork steel longsword would cost 300GP, and a mithril longsword would cost 1300GP (2 pounds of mithril @500GP a pound, and 300 for the masterwork). material costs should NOT factor into the time to craft either.

I'd actaully prefer it to be 10x the base weapon value to not be such a rediculous markup, but 20x puts the longsword closest to its orginal masterwork cost while still being a nice round number (rather than 21x).

mithril costs 500 per pound, exactly the same as platinum.

you only use half a pound for a dagger, thus its only 252GP.

enough people trip up on this, so i have to agree that it should be FAQ'd

Just makes sure its shaped like a snowflake, so your tavern can have a 14+ shadowy corners.

You'd get ALL the adventure hooks that way and starve out competing adventuring companies by taking all their jobs.

Simulacrum can't be used on a creature of higher HD than you.

So you can't use it on an Epic level 30 wizard, and get yourself a level 15 servant when you are level 15.

A paladin is Lawful Good, not Lawful Stupid.

Their duty is to do their best to protect innocents and combat evil. Going into a situation where they KNOW they will likely die and accomplish nothing protects no one and defeats no evil.

So literally the only thing they can do is retreat and come back later when they have a chance of winning against the enemy.

I've always disliked the exponential power progression of magic users, and the fact that very little benefit is derived from high stats, with most of it being from class level instead. I've also been annoyed at the magical UPS delivery truck that comes every 24 hours on the dot to return their magical powers in little brown wrapped parcels. This is my attempt to change it up a little.

Please let me know about anything that might work better, or your own ideas.

Wizards:

Use a spell point system, though scaling spells don't use more points. Spell points used are equivalent to spell slot level. so a magic missile cast at 9th level is still just 1 point.

Point progression is radically changed, however, to eliminate the exponential growth of power. Wizards get spell points pretty much identically to getting Skill points. 2+Tnt modifier per level.

I like this method because A: it removes exponential power growth from level (high level spells giving you more and more points), and it better rewards Int bonuses. The more brainymeats you have the better the wizard.

All of a sudden that Tome of Clear Thought +1 is looking pretty good to your 10th level wizard with 19 INT, since it means a 20% increase in spells memorized.

This method has the overall effect of raising the number of spells a low level wizard can cast, making them more than someone to carry an extra crossbow, and limiting the huge number of overpowerful spells a high level can cast. limiting the high level characters huge number of spells is meant to encourage the use and the utility of Wizard Staves, to increase their payload. A single staff with 10 charges of a 5th level can be a third or more of you total spell power (in spell points worth at least)!

Wizards, primarily limited by mental fatigue for spells, can however sleep and get back their spell capacity after a full nights rest. interrupted sleep nets you 1/2 your capacity, and half a nights sleep nets you 1/4 your capacity back.

So a wizard who blew their spells can take a nap, and get a little bit back, or sleep a third the day away and be ready to rumble again.
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Sorcerers change similarly, only they get 4+Cha bonus spells points per level. A 2nd level sorcerer with 18 Charisma is actually fairly dangerous, having 16 spell points.

Sorcerers change in one more way, similar to wizards. They don't gain back their spells every 24 hours, like a UPS truck comes to deliver them again. Instead they get 1/2 their sorcerer level (rounded down), plus half their casting stat modifier of spell points regenerated every hour. They are essentially magical creatures, and they generate their own magic, recharging themselves.

I'm only sorta happy with the Sorcerers recharge rate, so I'm open to suggestions on that.
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So basically, low level wizards and sorcerors are much more effective at BEING sorcerers and wizards, while high levels can't just point and say 'ha ha ha, i make your army go boom'.

Sorcerers arent quite as hurt as wizards are in spell allotment at high levels though. They can't however cheat with magical bedrolls and rings of sustenance though.

Ashiel wrote:

The best analog I've been able to find for money has actually be in dollars at $1 = 1 CP, $10 = 10 SP, $100 = 1 GP, etc.

This fits pretty well for my purposes. I came to this conclusion not based on the market value of items but based on services such as meals, lodging, etc. It's not perfect but it's much more usable than any other conversion or analog I've ever seen proposed for it (as most are based off things like the value of gold, whereas I've based it off the value of common living expenses and the like).

My group also finds this acceptable and they feel it really puts a lot of things into perspective for them.

People in D&D aren't generally poor however, unless you want to make them poor. Everyone has the option to take 10 on Profession or Craft checks, which means the average untrained laborer makes 5 gp per week, or 20 gp a month (even someone with a 3 in both Int AND Wis can make 3 gp per week). Paying your way is relatively easy, but not getting eaten by whatever is the BBEG this week is less easy. :P

I think that perhaps the costs listed in the Campaign book were thinking only of PCs and adventurers, creating a weird disconnect from verisimilitude (OR perhaps they just didn't get the measurements right). Alternatively, perhaps they are assuming that wheat is not the primary means of business and food for said farmers.

Waaaaayyyyyyy back when White Dwarf magazine included D&D articles, they had an article discussing economics based on the cost of a beer. After all, a laborer who works hard for his money is going to expect to be able to buy a beer at lunch or the end of the day.

In point of fact, the average peasant probably drinks a liter or two of beer a day. Watered down to extend it as well.

Its a major source of clean water and calories for workers. People don't drink the water. Drinking the water kills you. It's full of poop.

People drink weak alcoholic brews, because its A: Food, and B: boiled at some point, thus cleaning it.

A very large portion of grain goes not into bread or similar products, but into beer production.

A foamy, warm, yeasty loaf of bread in a mug. deliciousness.

Fromper wrote:

Two alch fires just aren't enough against the type of swarms you see at tier 8-9.

The last swarm I encountered was army ants. The DM decided to withhold the the fact that ants were still clinging to the players after they left the swarm, since nobody made the knowledge check. He just started assigning damage each round without any explanation as to source.

Elemental Aura is my response. Continuing damage as an emanation.

Thats one of those things that you don't have to make any checks to know.

The DM was being a dick there and screwed up.

Thats like a DM not informing you that a rabid squirrel is in your pants, delighted to find a new supply of nuts.

I think a fighter who uses a boar spear would be an excellent character.

The boar spear could be used single handed with a shield, but count as a single ended weapon doing 1d8 piercing, or as a double weapon WITHOUT a shield as 1d8 piercing/1d6 bludegeoning.

The rear end of the boar spear can be capped with a steel butt to keep from splintering and to give the spear a much better balance.

When wielded as a double weapon with both hands, the bars behind the blade that are there to prevent the boar from working its way up the haft can be used as a +1 shield bonus, catching and deflecting blades and other weapons.

The boar spear gives you a +2 defensive bonus when you use it against a charge already.

Just the standard two...

If you restrict the item so it can only be used be a certain class (i.e. wizard, fighter, monk)or alignment, it reduces the cost by 30%.

If you restrict the item so it requires a certain skill to use, it reduces the cost by 10%.

With the hedgemage 5% reduction, an item that requires someone to be a fighter who has handle animal skills would cost 55% of the full value, or 27.5% of the market value.

So a hypothetical Horseshoes of Speed made by a wizard for a mounted fighter friend of his to use can theoretically cost only 825 gold to make, rather than 1500.

These reductions can be kinda cheesy, as it allows you to make dirt cheap magic items if you are making them for yourself or fellow party members. Perfectly within the rules, and even probably common enough in the world, but still a bit cheesy.

they would probably be pretty hard to sell, and net you much less money than a normal set of horseshoes of speed.

combine it with taking an extra 5 DC crafting to double your crafting speed, you can easily get rather useful items completed in a single day.