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Animate Dead allows a caster to control up to 4 HD of undead per caster level. Assume a 5th level cleric uses an Orange Prism Ioun stone when casting Animate Dead. His caster level is 6 when he casts the spell. He increases his total HD of controlled undead to 24. He goes to sleep and stows the ioun stone, removing the +1 to caster level. Now, his caster level is 5. Does he immediately lose control of 4 HD of undead? What happens if a rogue attempts to Use Magic Device on a scroll of Animate Dead? Since he has no actual caster level, does he immediately lose control of any undead he animates?

Alternately, is caster level only checked when the spell is cast? If that is the case, could a caster theoretically boost his caster level through the roof before casting Animate Dead in order to get the cap as high as possible?

Let's say that a Jermlaine (from MM II 3.5) wants to ride atop his Dire Rat friend. He wants a Riding Saddle. The Riding Saddle in the equipment section doesn't seem to change size with the size of the mount. Is the riding saddle for a Dire Rat still 25 lbs? Or since it would be an exotic saddle (so that the Jermlaine could strap himself on while the rat climbs) would it be 30 lbs? I don't think a dire rat can move 30 lbs... I mean, it is a small creature. That seems a bit exorbitant to me...

Even 25 lbs for a riding dog seems too much for a medium-sized saddle. Is there any ruling on this? It is the same in 3.5, although I had never played a medium-sized mounted character before, so I never knew about it.

Any support for this? Or are people generally happy with the various craft skills? I would really like to see guidelines to help determining what can be made through crafting mundane items, including alchemy. I would also like to see scalable alchemy. Currently, alchemy is barely useful at low levels. At high levels, it is practically completely useless.

And you know, now that I think about it, allowing DMs to design their own diseases by picking from lists to create their own custom disease effects could be fun. Honestly, the more customizable these things are, the more interesting they can become. And what about Profession: Apothecary? Any way there can be generic descriptions on the costs for various bonuses to heal checks? I mean, if a society comes up with chewing on a particular bark that happens to have a mineral similar to acetaminophen in it, that should give a nice bonus to heal checks to relieve pain or whatever. But, rather than come up with a list of specific items that can be found, make it generic. For each DC 10 Craft: Apothecary item worth x gp, you get a +1 on Heal checks. The item crafted is for a specific heal check, not for a generic one. It would be used to find a cure for a specific ailment.

The idea would be, an important NPC gets sick. The party tries everything, even complete bed rest, aiding another, and the best apothecary supplies. The best they have accomplished is keeping them alive. So, one of the PCs decides to craft some Apothecary item to help out. They research the disease with Knowledge: Nature, and based on that check, it sets the maximum DC apothecary item they can make to try to aid their heal check. So, the DM decides they need a gizzard from a beast (not in the rules, just something to make the rules work) and x gp to create their apothecary item. They go hunting, get the gizzard and the gold, create their potion, and it works!

Ok, I had an interesting happening the other day. My light armor fighter found himself facing a phalanx-fighting group, all wielding heavy shields. After the mage provided some well-place fireballs and other area of effect spells, the archers eventually took him down. The healer was being grappled by their commander's wartiger. The next phalanx was approaching, and would require some cunning on the part of myself and the rogue. So, I grabbed a random potion, and hoped it was a potion of some cure spell. Downing it, however, I discovered it was a potion of Girallon's Blessing (Spell Compendium spell granting an additional two arms; the DM does not use the restriction for potions that they cannot be personal range spells). With my new two arms, I had an idea. I quickly grabbed two tower shields. Reading the description, they grant partial cover against three sides, but not all four. So, I grabbed two, placing them at opposite squares. I figured, that grants me four-way protection. Since attacks of opportunity cannot be made against a target who has cover, I figured I could move indiscriminately.

So now, to move! I quickly downed one more potion: Expeditious Retreat (I have two more arms, so it wasn't a problem). Then, I rushed around the enemy phalanx while the rogue held action for me to get into position. Once I was there, I attacked from behind. Since I was attacking with two tower shields, I had a -4 to hit (penalties stack). The rogue had done something clever. He held his action for the phalanx-fighter to move his shield. Being attacked from behind, the fighter did just that, positioning his shield towards me, instead. This activated the rogue's held action. The rogue had held his action to charge (this is a contended rule in 3.5, and my DM has decided that it is perfectly acceptable to hold an action to charge, but you can only make a single move action). The rogue slashed and killed the target. Anyway, as we began picking apart the phalanx, it came to bear that I needed to make a jump check. This is where the trouble started... what was my armor check penalty? -10 or -19? (-1 from magical chain shirt, -9 from each MW tower shield, or is it -1 from magical chain shirt, -9 from one MW tower shield?)

The DM rules -19, which was just funny. Still, I am curious.