Melvin the Mediocre's page

Thoughts I have had are:
1 ghost sound flatulence
2 change self, commit crimes looking like that person
3 silent image, pee stains on pants
4 silent image of person dancing badly in moonlight while wearing a diaper
5 animate rope to tie shoe strings to things so they constantly trip and look like a baffoon

Does and aquatic elf count as elf for FCB? I'm pretty sure it does not, but I remember reading that half elves can take human FCB, so I figured I would toss the idea out. Maybe somebody knows of a rule that would help me out.

My idea is pretty strait forward. I know it will not be as powerful as some dedicated fighter or paladin builds, but I think it will be very versatile and fun. It is a wayang dragoon 1 / druid 19. Any advice from someone who has used a lot of mounted characters, especially flying mounted characters, would be very welcome. This sort of character build is way outside my wheel house.

At first level I will take a druid with a roc companion. I will take the fighter dip at either 2nd or 3rd level, and then go druid all the way after that. I will use ant haul on the roc so that I can ride it at 1st level.

My character feats are something like this:
1 - Martial Weapon: Lance
2 - (from fighter/dragoon) heavy armor prof, all martial weapons, mounted combat, skill focus, ride
retrain my first level feat to ride by attack
3 - spirited charge
5 - natural spell
7 - improved overrun
9 - trample
11 - trick riding (or power attack if I am hitting easily)
13 - craft magic arms and armor (probably as far as this campaign will go)

My animal companion feats will be something like this:
1 - fly by attack
3 - toughness
6 - weapon focus, beak
9 - power attack
11 - hover

The main idea of this guy is to stay small and maneuverable. He will be using wild shape to get strength bonuses so he lances well. I expect him to be an armored chimp for a great deal of his low to mid level career. But he will also be a full caster so that he can buff, summon, and control the battlefield. This campaign will be a big dungeon crawl, so I think I will let my mount grow to large size, but then use reduce animal to keep him maneuverable.

I will admit I am hazy on the charging mount rules, but I think I will be able to use trample to power though mooks and lance the BBEG. What I would really like to figure out how to do is get the right feats so that my mount can shoot past 2 or 3 enemies and let me lance each one with my iterative attacks. I have not found a way to do that.

I was trying to make a player character for king maker that would adventure well but form a faerie court between adventures. I went back and forth between wizard and druid a few times, but ultimately found neither to be very satisfying.

Just to fill everyone in as to where I am coming from, I have played D&D/Pathfinder for DECADES and have never once cast a 9th level spell as a player. I understand that King Maker will tap out at a max of 17th level, so that means witch, cleric, druid, or wizard if I want to finally hit that milestone (wands and scrolls don't count.)

I see the fey queen as having power of plants, animals, and magic beasts (like a druid) but with a strong strain of trickery magic built in via charms and illusions. I looked at the wood school for wizard, and it was not bad, but not as druidic as I would like. I also saw the alternate wizard class spell sage and it looks very interesting, but I am afraid my character will be to weak to survive the first few levels.

race: Gathlain
alt race traits: bower born and symbiotic imbalance
this gives me a fey character with entangle and bonuses to diplomacy and handle animal, a little faerie feel right from the start (but no int bonus)

class: wizard / spell sage
focused spells - less spells will hurt but having one damage spell upped by 4 levels will give me a once a day bang that will make me not be worthless
spell study: This is the appeal of the class. All bard and druid spells, though not often and really only out of combat. This is the real fey queen feel to the build.

skills:
knowledge, arcane
knowledge, nature
spellcaraft
diplomacy (not a class skill, but with bower born and student of philosophy trait I should be pretty good.)
perception
handle animal/use magic device
(eventually)
engineering
bluff

Feats:
1 wasp familiar
1 scribe scroll
3 spell focus, enchant
5 craft wondrous item
5 spell pen
7 improved familiar
9 greater spell focus, ench (or craft rods)
10 time stutter
11 infectious charms
13 greater spell pen
15 forests blessing
15 resilient illusions

What I don't like about it is that not having a school robs me of my use 3+int abilities plus my bonus spell. Adding that starting with an 18 int instead of 20 due to race means I will only have 2 1st level spells to start with as opposed to 4 + my school powers if I don't go spell sage.

I've looked at all sorts of alternate wizard classes that use shaman / adept / sorcerer traits thinking something would give me a good druid or nature based spell cross over, but I can't find anything. Anyone have better ideas?

I am hoping somebody can help me come up with something cool for a character that is about to be raised. The party is LE and 11th level. The game is pretty deadly and low treasure so I have used this to increase the PC power a bit to compensate.

Once character has been by far the weakest in party, so when he died while the group was opening a gate to Abaddon, he used hero (villain) points to escape death. I had him come back as a deamon host, but allowed his daily hit point drain to be healed along with other damage when he witnessed a death caused by disease he spread.

The party cleric died and had no villain points left. The party stoll a scroll of raise dead, but mishapped on the use magic device roll so I had him come back as a ghoul (sans the ability to spawn more ghouls.)

Now the wizard died, used villain points to come back (in a cool but non altering fashion) got plane shifted to the negative energy plane, and was killed in 1 round there (by the same creature that killed him on the material plane 1 day earlier.)

The party is ...acquiring... the material components for the cleric to raise him, but I am trying to think of some little quirk to add as a memento of where he died. This is the most effective party member, so I am not trying to give them anymore ammo, but they are a glass cannon so some survivability would not be a bad thing. I'm more looking for cool and fun than power increase for this guy.

Can anyone tell me where I can get a bundle of premade battle mats? I don't care if they are free, pay, print your own, or already printed. But I would like to have something I can pull out on the fly for all the common rpg scenerios; graveyards, temples, ruins, etc.

Running a module, an adversary cast magic missiles that did fire damage and had scorching ray. Her target has fire resistance 5.

I believe that the magic missile spell was considered a single attack and therefor all missile damage was added up and resistance applied once. The scorching ray consisted of multiple attacks, each ray had damage rolled separately and resistance was applied separately.

I'm not sure if that is correct; should each missile have had resistance applied separately effectively giving the target immunity to her magic missile spell?

My villians are at the Horn of Abbadon and have filled out a number of guards and sentries. In came the moon dogs.

1st night, the tried to slip past two outdoor bugbear sentries but were spotted. One of the bugbears made it to the base of the stairs to level 2 screaming for help, but the moon dogs dropped both bugbears then plane shifted away. Players thought it was a random encounter and did nothing but put 1 bugbear back as sentry.

2nd night, moon dogs got inside to level 2, snooped around, took out 2 minions. PCs found those bodies, realized they were being snooped and assinated, and took up guard duty themselves.

3rd night, moon dogs came up the same path, got spotted by pcs. There was a big battle, 1 villain was killed (saved by hero points), two PCs were feared away, 1 moon dog was at 1 hp, the other couldnot stand up to the remaining pc. Discovering they could not plane shift out of the horn, both dogs fled.

What will the moon dogs do next? I'm thinking they will take a few days to heal, then try exploring on the first floor. Here they will encounter a LOT more minions, and possible some prisoners. They could also go down to the caves where the boggards are. One of the PCs stays down there and has dropped and alarm spell. Should they start trying to kill everything they find? Or should they try to take out the PCs one at a time as they sleep?

So I'm running an evil campaign, so naturally the PC's often elect to steal rather than purchase. What I could use are some quick ideas that I can throw out to make the larceny fun and interesting with out taking up hours of time or derailing the story line. Especially when only one party member is doing the thievery and everyone else is waiting.

I've used magic mouth and alarm spell traps. Money or small items might be in puzzle boxes / safes. Guard dog, animals, homunculous, or small pet monsters I have not used yet but can.

A surprise chance encounter of another burglar robbing the same joint at the same time might be entertaining once (actually thats how I met my wife.)

Any other ideas? Small interesting obstacles that add risk but can be resolved quickly would be appreciated.

If there was a trap that cast a wizard mark on the infiltrator, would it be hidden by a hat of disguise?

Has anybody who ran or played in a Way of the Wicked campaign any suggestions on making the 7th knot come alive? I have just run the first session, so my group will be meeting them next session. For the most part, none of them really get into character and interact with NPC though several of them would like to try. To that end, I would really like the group to come alive quickly, but not in a way that will be inconsistent with what is coming in book 2 (or later.)

I am starting a way of the wicked game in about 3 weeks. The cleric is going to be an unhholy barrister which means that he can use his channels to heal, but if anyone who accepted that healing dies with in the next few minutes, their soul is bound to Asmodeus.

If that happens, I thought it would be cool for Asmodeus to send them back as an undead. I'm looking for suggestions that won't be overpowering at low levels, but will still give a neato factor at higher levels. Any thoughts?

If a familiar fails both the fort and will save vs baleful polymorph, is it still a familiar and what is its intelligence?

In our group my arcane archer went through a trap which cast baleful polymorph on every creature in the area. My character made the save, but his familiar did not. None of us knew what should have happened in regards to its intelligence score nor the familiar bond.

Baleful Polymorph
Duration permanent
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates, Will partial, see text; Spell Resistance: yes
DESCRIPTION
If the spell succeeds, the subject must also make a Will save. If this second save fails, the creature loses its extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities, loses its ability to cast spells (if it had the ability), and gains the alignment, special abilities, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores of its new form in place of its own. It still retains its class and level (or HD), as well as all benefits deriving therefrom (such as base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points). It retains any class features (other than spellcasting) that aren't extraordinary, supernatural, or spell-like abilities.

Familiar
All familiars have special abilities (or impart abilities to their masters) depending on the master's combined level in classes that grant familiars, as shown on the table below. The abilities are cumulative.

I think the central point is that the intelligence of the target is to be changed to an animal intelligence, but the familiar's intelligence is a special ability which does not seem to be affected by the spell. Lets say a raven familiar was turned into a hamster. A hamster could very well be a familiar, in which case its intelligence would be set by the master's caster level. So yea... thats kind of where we were stuck. DM made a call and the game moved on, but it left that lingering curiosity.

My poor little imaginary dude had his +3 bow sundered by a surprise attack weapon chomping demon. We are a 14th level party and have found there are no 20th level casters in the world to cast a make whole for us. So, what is the cheapest way to replace the weapon (we are quite poor you see.)

Thoughts I had:
Buy a new one
limited wish
attempt to craft a scroll of a higher level and UMD it
go to the forums and troll advice from some one more clever than I

I am finally prepping to run a much anticipated Way of the Wicked campaign. One of my players wants to play a kobold arcane trickster. Generally I am all for this, but as I have only read the first 1 1/2 books, I'm curious if there will be any trouble getting him involved in the story line or finding good campaign hooks? He wanted to take the public dueling trait which I thought might be a bit of a stretch, but slavery or some other back ground crimes could set him up for wanting some say in how the kingdom is run.

I mostly need help with traits and gear, never played a pally before and don't have time to figure out the last bits, especially gear.

Nagaji Paladin, sacred servant / oath of vengeance

str 20
dex 12
con 12
int 5
wis 14
cha 16

Worships Ithreia - The Order of the Gyrfalcon is dedicated to the Queen of the Blinding Wind and is composed of paladins and mounted warriors who serve as agents of her tests as well as her displeasure. They monitor proper use of birds and animals, and also serve as advisors to chieftains, or guardians of revered oracles or pilgrims of Ithreia. Her temples and monasteries are built of native rock painted white.

detect evil
smite evil 2/day
divine grace
lay on hands 8/day
aura of courage
divine health
mercy - sickened
channel wrath
divine bond 2/day select 3 bonuses (+1 cl to a spell or +1 lay on hands per day)
mercy - dazed
call celestial ally
mercy - nauseated
powerful justice

Nagaji
speaks common and draconic
+1 natural armor
+2 vs mind affecting and poison
+2 perception
+2 handle animal

spells, 3+1, 2+1, 1+1
oath spells, + father domain
eyes of the hawk (level -3)/2 bonus to perception, +2 to init if acting in the surprise round
animal companion (level - 6)

feats:
fey foundling
power attack
boon companion
mounted combat
ride by attack
spirited charge

skills: ride (11 ranks) perception (11 ranks)

roc (as 9th level druid companion)
str 23
dex 20
con 14
int 3
wis 13
cha 11
ac 18
speed 20 (fly 80)
attack: 2 claws +12 d6+6 and grab, 1 bite +9 d8+6
feats: multi attack, hover, weapon focus claws, toughness, flyby attack

HD 8, bab 6, fort +8, refl +11, will 3 (+4 vs enchantment)
skills: fly (8)
link, share spells, evation

So I thought I'd like to get an Expedition Pavilion and make it intelligent so that it can act as guard all night. At first I thought I would give it the ability to cast the Alarm spell, but if you think about it, once the people are in the tent, any manner of raccoons, squirrels, and possums will come creeping around making that spell useless. Is there another low level spell that would be better for keeping guard?

Any personality traits that would be good for a tent? So far I can only think of a butler.

What happens if you try to refold a folding ship that is not empty?
If it folds up with the ship. what happens to a living creature that is trapped inside?

I am playing a seeker sorcerer with a blood line familiar. So is it fair for my familiar to take 10 to aid me on skills like perception and disable device?

for example at 4th level I would roll:
perception =
+4 (ranks)
+3 (class skill bonus)
+4 (wis)
+2 (from trap finding)
+2 (alertness from familiar)
+2 (assist other from familiar)
--------------------------------
+17 Total

Has anyone found that WotW goes a little to far for any players enjoyment? I asked my group if they would enjoy playing it, and I got the idea one person said okay just to go along with the group.

They asked a few questions like were you supposed to just kill people for the heck of it. Since I have not purchased the AP yet, I really didn't know but I said you might have to kill innocents on orders and they all seemed okay with that.

These seem like a great idea. Shoot some evasive little ne'r do well with a hooked arrow attached to a rope, then reel them back to the fight. They are really affordable, at 20 for 2 gp. But is their use actually possible in game?

There are no rules I am aware of for how long it takes to attach a rope to one. I think it is safe to say no DM would allow it to happen in less than a move action. That is not to big of a problem for a single arrow, you can attach it ahead of time. But how many barbed arrows can you have prepped? Certainly you can't have 20 coils of rope neatly attached to arrows and ready to let fly. But this is important because, if I am reading correctly, the grapple is only allowed after a critical hit. For arrows that is a natural 20 followed by a confirmation. So VERY rarely. If you only have 1 arrow ready to go, the odds of it grappling are almost non existent.

I actually used one to impale an imp that was giving our 2nd level party fits. I fired and missed, then the dm let me pull the arrow back as a move action (a questionable ruling, truthfully) and the next round I actually confirmed a crit. BUT... I had forgotten to roll a chance that the arrow broke.

So am I missing something huge? Or if my understanding of the use is correct, has anybody found a way to actually make these practical?

I have spliced together a character with so many options, it is almost laughable. However, I am curious if anyone can figure out to add the last piece I would like to have - a familiar.

I am playing a zen archer / Qinggong Monk. At level 4 I will take a single level dip into sorcerer to qualify for Arcane Archer. I am taking the Seeker archetype to get trap finding, and am taking the Mutated Bloodline / Empyreal to get wisdom as a casting stat (of course.) Neither the Mutated Bloodline nor Seeker archetypes are compatible with tattooed sorc., which is sort of a shame because I really like familiars.

Does anyone know of any trick I can use to get this last little piece hobbled into my quilt of a character? I've quite nearly resigned to this 5 cha dwarf being his only friend.

I have a friend who said he is trying to decide between a summoner (the class) or a dedicated healing character. I suggested he might want to go with a character that can do both. I looked first at a cleric with the void domain and sacred summons/summon good creatures, but it looks like that would be pretty restrictive.

I'm not very strong on witches, but it looks like a hedge witch with a healing patron would take care of the healing. Then taking the acadamae graduate trait for standard action summons and all the great summoning feats and it should be really good summoner. Alignment restrictions won't harm the versatility. He can still take summon good creatures for extra options/power. outside of the normal feats, are there any tricks a witch has to boost summons? Are there any tricks they need to make sure they heal well outside of the patron, healing hex, and cauldron hex?

Or is there another class I am over looking that will do this better? I know a summoner can use wands via UMD, but I don't think that is what he is looking for.

Would it be hard to adjust Rise of the Runelord for gestalt characters? The party would have 4 experienced players. The GM is interested in trying gestalt for the first time, but we don't want to just run rampant right over the encounters.

I've seen thread's on this, but they are many year's old. Does anybody know if there are relevant rulings that discuss using a zen archer's Reflexive shot ability in place of the Snap Shot feat to continue that chain and picking up Improved Snap Shot and Greater Snap Shot?

My group has been using the Pathfinder rules with homebrew worlds for quite some time, but we are finally going to play Rise of the Runelords. Since I don't know much about the world, I wanted some help getting my character to the starting location.

I plan to play an oread zen archer from Jalmeray. I'm not dead sold on that, but I like the feel of how the race, class, and location seem to gel from my little knowledge of the world. But I have no idea of how to get him to the starting point with any actual hooks to the adventure.

Since he is going to have a high wisdom but a charisma in the crapper, I wanted to have a lot of just mind achingly dumb sounding stuff come out of his mouth. I am gathering a collection of Confucius says lines, and "insightful" dingle berries of wisdom like the Sphinx from Mystery Men liked to spout. If you have any to drop here, I would like to hear them.

And finally, I plan to take a trait that will boost init, and then I may take rich parents so that I can start with a good masterwork mighty bow. But is there another trait I should consider for a zen archer? I mostly play casters, so I don't know what a fighter type really needs to succeed.

I'm planning a one shot game for tonight. I'm not going to tell the players what they are, just start the game by telling them they find themselves imprisoned in a tight leather bag. They have no memories of how they got there.

In fact they will begin play as a clutch of black dragon eggs. They are going to be driven by an overpowering hunger, and as they hatch, they will fall upon the other hatchlings and the first combat will be fighting each other for cannibalistic purposes. During the fight, they should easily figure out that they are black dragons in an underwater lair. In this combat, it doesn't matter who lives or dies. Once the brawl is down to one dragon per pc, the fight will stop, the wyrmlings will gorge themselves, and drop off into a torpid hibernation.

During the hibernation, they will connect with a stream of magic and pick their skills and feats. They will then be awakened by a disturbance in their waters. I'm not sure what I want the disturbance to be. It could be the water dropping as kobolds are diverting the head waters into their lair. It could be the approach of a party of skum who have been driven from their old home. After this fight, the dragons should learn that the stream of magic they connected to is reliant on their horde. They will drop off into another hibernation, years will pass, and they will awaken needing to molt. They will have been able to completely pick a new set of skills and feats. They will also know that they most grow their horde to increase the magic and choose better skills and feats as they age.

Over the years, a demihuman settlement will have been built up on the edge of the swamp. The dragons can go and plunder it for wealth and food. The attack will bring the retribution of an adventuring party, which will likely be the final combat for the game.

So what I'm looking for is any advice on what little adventures or combats would be fun to throw in or add to what I have listed above. They all need to be short/easy. This is just going to be a one shot game, and a short one at that.

Is there any small playable race with a bonus to strength? Or any other small race besides the wayang that does not have a penalty to strength?

Having just defeated a colossal scorpion, I thought it would be cool to use Fabricate to crank out a unique set of armor for our fighter. So I checked out the special materials to see if it would work and made some interesting realizations.

1) The size of a creature and the amount of armor produced from it vary dramatically. IE from one huge bulette, we can get 2 suites of plate mail AND 4 sides of leather. However to get 1 single set of platemail from a dragon, it must be colossal.

2) The AC of the base creature does not seem to have much impact on the quality of the armor crafted from it. In other words a colossal red dragon with natural armor + 39 makes the same quality armor as you get from an old white dragon whose natural ac bonus is only +23.

I guess what I am saying is I would like to see more rules for natural armors. I'd like to see a more consistent base line for how much armor can be harvested, and I'd like to see better armors being crafted from truly powerful monserous adversaries. Am I the only one to have ever felt this way?

A single adult male bulette has enough armor plating and hide to produce two sets of Medium bulette plate mail and four sets of Medium leather or studded leather armor... crafted bulette armor may be normal or masterwork quality. A set of bulette plate is functionally similar to metal full plate... Bulette full plate is slightly heavier (65 pounds) than regular steel plate, but is more flexible and durable (max Dex bonus +2, hardness 12).

One dragon produces enough hide for a single suit of masterwork hide armor for a creature one size category smaller than the dragon. By selecting only choice scales and bits of hide, an armorsmith can produce one suit of masterwork banded mail for a creature two sizes smaller, one suit of masterwork half-plate for a creature three sizes smaller, or one masterwork breastplate or suit of full plate for a creature four sizes smaller. In each case, enough hide is available to produce a light or heavy masterwork shield in addition to the armor, provided that the dragon is Large or larger.

So the great archwizard Joe goes adventuring and before seeing whats behind door #2, he casts Spell Turning. Upon opening the door, the Grand Horrific Monster Bob casts dominate monster.

The spell is successfully turned back on Bob, so Bob is dominated. But who dominates him? Does he dominate himself since he cast the spell, or does Joe dominate him because he turned the spell back? Or did I forget some really useful part of the spell that keeps this from happening?

So given spells like calcific touch and flesh to stone, what wizard doesn't decorate his home with the petrified remains of smitten enemies? But my character wants to take it to an extreme level. As a 14th level cleric/wizard mystic theurge he is trying to hop around the world via greater teleport and bring all his old enemies home.

Using treasure stitching (and two very stron companions) has proven useful for getting a statue home if it was no more than a large size creature, but I keep hoping to find a way along the lines of shrink item and permanency to turn even larger creatures into cute little monster toys to keep on the book shelf.

At my level, shrink item can deal with 38 cubic feet, or roughly a 3 foot cube. Lets face it, that isn't going to help with bringing a charybdis home. So I tried to turn to limited wish, but to be fair the spell can replicate lower level spells, but says nothing about enhancing lower level spells.

This doesn't seem like it should be out of the realm of the game. Can anyone think of a way that I have not figured out? While I will not outright break the rules to do it, I will pretty unabashedly engage in silly cheese when it is just a personal side quest and not really affecting the game. For example I have no problem using blood money and fabricate to create the components needed for permanency even though I would not do that if I were casting permanency and arcane sight on myself.

Let's say a wizard creates a simulacrum of a solar. Then they polymorph any object to simulate alter self making the solar look like themselves. Now the wizard uses magic jar to posses the solar, puts o. A headband of +6 wis/int, stuffs their real body in a portable hole, and goes adventuring.

Assuming the wizard started with int 22, wis 14, and cha 10, what do you think the wizards stats are now. Include, in your best ruling, regeneration, resisrances, powers, etc.

I know it is an unimportant and random question, but I just started wondering if they are ageless or not. I would tend to think so as they don't heal and are formed from the illusion school.

The rules for create demiplane, lesser states:

"As a standard action, you may eject a creature from your demiplane. The creature may resist with a Will saving throw. An ejected creature goes to the closest plane to your demiplane (usually the Astral Plane or the Ethereal Plane, but if you cast this spell on the Material Plane, the creature is sent to the Material Plane)."

So where exactly does an ejected creature go?

a) point from which the creature entered the plane
b) point at which the spell was cast
c) ejector's choice
d) Disney Land

So my mystic theurge has a wad of gold just burning a hole in his pocket. Next level, when he can cast it, I thought just for the heck of it he should make a permanent lesser demiplane. The favorite camping spell would then be plane shift, and maybe follow it up with mage's mansion when more spell slots abound.

As I started to think about that I figured he should make it homey, and so I thought it should be formed like a pyramid with a decanter of endless water shooting a 20 foot geyser strait into the air in the 30 foot tall center. That water could be formed into a happy little stream and a pond, except I was wondering if there would be anyway to destroy the water when it gets to a certain location. Anyone have ideas?

Then I'd like to do some of the normal mage stuff there, like wall of stone in some happy little houses and such. I'll put in a summoning circle that won't be interrupted by careless janitors and such. If I can get the water situation figured out I would like to have fish, birds, and small mammals.

What else should a theurgist do to his own personal plane? Thoughts, ideas, past experiences? What is the fastest food source he could plant there? I should be able to have just about anything there through shrink item, treasure stitching, and fabricate spells.

I thought about having a false history by moving some wreckage and such there, but the whole plane will be 50 x 50 feet across unless/until I extend it with more castings. But that is more money than I want to throw at it right now.

So our party just managed to flesh to stone to efreetis. Thanks to treasure stitching, we don't expect to much trouble getting them home. So the big question is what to do with them.

Obviously the first thought is to take trap them and try to force them into granting wishes. The problem I see is how to keep them trapped while still allowing them to cast the wish. I can stop the plane shift, its the gaseous form I am stuck on.

Since planar binding would give me more power over what I bring, I am thinking I would be better off just using stone shape to scramble their brains, and leave them as statues on each side of my front door.

Any counter thoughts? Is the captured wishes just to fun to pass up?

The description of a fire elemental includes the following:

A fire elemental cannot enter water or any other nonflammable liquid. A body of water is an impassible barrier unless the fire elemental can step or jump over it or the water is covered with a flammable material (such as a layer of oil).

So if a fire elemental is dropped into a pit of acid, what happens? It seems to me that the elemental is snuffed out, or extinguished and instantly dies. But the rules don't say that. It could boil away the acid, or it could just be stuck as it can not move to the side. Any thoughts, opinions, or especially specific rules to help on this one? It may start coming up a lot in our campaign.

We recently had a summoned air elemental in whirlwind form. When enemies shot at it with arrows, we could find no rule stating it would not work. It seems that a whirlwind form grants no protection from arrows. Did we miss something?

My mystic theurge should make caster level 11 in both cleric and wizard next session. Contingency is already in his spell book. In addition he has armor of spell storing and a spiked gauntlet of spell storing. I'm hoping some one can come up with some thing really clever to help me fill those slots. I have intensify spell and next level I will pick up empower spell. My int is substantially higher than my wisdom, so cleric spells that allow saving throws are gimpier.

My plan is to have a gauntlet I can use to finish off helpless opponents. My armor would hopefully keep an adversary from getting a full attack, ideally make them go away. I don't know what to do with my contingency at low levels. At high level it will teleport me home at death where a breath of life glyph and my followers will have me sound as a pound in no time.

Currently I have put an intensified shocking grasp in my armor, but I would like a better suggestion. I think a stun or bull rush would be a great effect if they were likely to work, I'm just not thinking of a good spell to use.

My gauntlet has a battering blast in it right now. I *think* that is legal, but I am not sure. Again, a better/more clever use for the slot would be welcomed.

For my contingency, I think my best use at this level is just to turn 1 spell a day into a fee action. Maybe activate mirror image when I thump my chin. I'm not convinced that using a 6th level slot is practical for this, but I find I almost never raise defenses in play as I am far to eager to start my battlefield sculpting and debuffing. Since my control methods are largely defenses, this tends to work pretty well, but has occasionally bit me in the butt.

The description of magic circle against evil states:

When focused inward, the spell binds a non-good called creature (such as those called by the lesser planar binding, planar binding, and greater planar binding spells) for a maximum of 24 hours per caster level, provided that you cast the spell that calls the creature within 1 round of casting the magic circle.

The casting time of planar binding is 10 minutes. I would assume, since magic circle against evil specifically liststhe binding spells, that this actually means you must begin casting planar binding with in one round of casting magic circle. Has anyone ever seen a different ruling? If I was the DM I would allow it to work, however I am asking because I want to use this as a player.

Are there rules for locating a wizard who will let you copy a spell from his book? Like if a wizard wants to learn fireball and is in a large city, is it just assumed he can find a wizard that will let him copy it, or is there a roll involved?

How about a more unusual spell like blood money?

If there is no rule, does anybody feel they have a good system? We are trying to work something out for a prestige class wizard in our game who has no spells for their highest level slots, and very few for lower levels.

I was looking at a caster's shield because I want to keep Breath of Life handy w/o preparing it every day. I don't really need a +3 shield, so I wanted to see what the price of the scroll ability was.

The caster's shield can hold a third level spell and costs 31153 gold indicating that the scroll ability is 2,000 gold for up to a 3rd level spell. The greater caster's shield is 10,153 indicating that the cost for a 5th level scroll is only 1,000 gp.

Am I missing something obvious, or was this a completely arbitrary pricing set to the shield?