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I'm confused about this ability. Specifically, why does the stonelord get it? Is it only to heal his earth elemental summon? Or is it also used to heal the stonelord himself, since starting at level 2 he starts to become stone like. Nowhere does it say (until level 20) that he is considered of the earth element type. I just don't see the benefit of this channel if it is only used on his summon elemental, which is weaker than it should be at the levels he gets it. He even gets channel earth before the elemental, you think that would be reversed.
So if it is only for the summoned elemental healing, or of course the channel against stone creatures, may as well pick an alternate channel ability instead that would be more useful.
The earth channel ability is, indeed, of little use apart from healing the stone servant.
As you don't have channel energy you can't take any feats modifying it. You can't use equipment using/modifying channel energy and, as variant channel is effectively an archetype that changes channel energy which your archetype stonelord already changed you can't even take that.
In the end you are right. Earth channel is an ability that you can only use to heal or harm earth creatures. And your stone servant is that squishy that it will seldom survive one attack until higher levels. Because of that healing him isn't relevant most of the time.
Stonelord is a really cool and flavorful archetype that, sadly, is vastly inferior to the vanilla paladin in terms of power/utility.
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Stonelord is a really cool and flavorful archetype that, sadly, is vastly inferior to the vanilla paladin in terms of power/utility.
This is completely untrue. The Earth Channel/Earth Elemental companion is pretty useless...but Defensive Stance is just great and many of the other abilities are solid. In particular, the built-in ability to Stance-cycle at 6th via Lay on Hands is very nice.
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Hmmm. I was hoping that I had just overlooked something and that this ability would be more awesome than I thought. I mean, just to heal my elemental (which costs 2 LOH) or channel against a stone creature(uncommon), seems hardly worth it. I'm not sure if my GM would be opposed to me taking an alternative channel instead, but I feel at this point if I can, I will. My LOH's are better served to stance-cycle as mentioned, which is one of the Stonelords best options early game.
So now about his Stonestrike ability. It says that the weapon counts as both magic, and adamantine, and that it also will ignore hardness equal to double his level. Does this mean that the weapon would bypass DR since it is counted as both magic and adamantine?
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Hmmm. I was hoping that I had just overlooked something and that this ability would be more awesome than I thought. I mean, just to heal my elemental (which costs 2 LOH) or channel against a stone creature(uncommon), seems hardly worth it. I'm not sure if my GM would be opposed to me taking an alternative channel instead, but I feel at this point if I can, I will. My LOH's are better served to stance-cycle as mentioned, which is one of the Stonelords best options early game.
So now about his Stonestrike ability. It says that the weapon counts as both magic, and adamantine, and that it also will ignore hardness equal to double his level. Does this mean that the weapon would bypass DR since it is counted as both magic and adamantine?
It would bypass DR/Magic and DR/adamantine. It would not bypass DR/Silver, DR/Cold Iron, DR/Alignment, or DR/-.
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So now about his Stonestrike ability. It says that the weapon counts as both magic, and adamantine, and that it also will ignore hardness equal to double his level. Does this mean that the weapon would bypass DR since it is counted as both magic and adamantine?
Yes, it would. Well, any DR that magic or adamantine would pierce. Which is nice.
EDIT: Ninja'd.
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Stonelord is a really cool and flavorful archetype that, sadly, is vastly inferior to the vanilla paladin in terms of power/utility.This is completely untrue. The Earth Channel/Earth Elemental companion is pretty useless...but Defensive Stance is just great and many of the other abilities are solid. In particular, the built-in ability to Stance-cycle at 6th via Lay on Hands is very nice.
This. Besides, it's not like any Paladin is going to actually use channel energy except for Hospitalars anyway. It's not worth giving up LoH uses for it.
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Ok so, let me see if this is correct then. Since the magic bonus of a given weapon helps it to defeat DR of different types depending on its total bonus. According to this chart,
+1 overcomes DR/magic
+3 overcomes DR/silver and cold iron
+4 overcomes DR/adamantine (does not bypass hardness though)
+5 overcomes DR/alignment (chaotic, evil, good, lawful)
+6 overcomes DR/epic
At +1 and +2 Stonestrike, I still only overcome DR/Magic and Adamantine. But starting at +3 (Level 10), I would overcome DR/Magic, Adamantine, Silver, and Coldiron. Is this correct? And as my weapon bonus increases I ignore more DR types.
That brings on the question then, what happens when my weapon is made +2 and I use Stonestrike +3 with it, for example. Does it become +5 total and there ignore up to +5 listed DR's?
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The stonelord bonus to hit and damage on a stonestrike is not listed as an enhancement bonus, but rather is unnamed. This is good and bad. It's good in that it will stack with anything. It is bad in that it will not count as an enhancement bonus for bypassing DR.
I don't understand. Do you mean it would count for stacking with the weapons enhancement for both to hit and damage bonus, but not be included in overcoming DR? Or that the higher of the two would only count towards DR?
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Slight derail, but Stonelord changes the Paladin so much it should be a separate class IMO. There are more differences between a Stonelord and core Paladin than a Cavalier and Samurai.
It does. But man it really gets some nice things. It is definitely the way to go for a dwarf paladin type. I am going to be using one in a mythic ROTRL game, can't wait. I'm just trying to get a good handle on understanding it in case my GM has questions and I can intelligently answer them. I know it's not a class people see everyday.
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I don't understand. Do you mean it would count for stacking with the weapons enhancement for both to hit and damage bonus, but not be included in overcoming DR? Or that the higher of the two would only count towards DR?The stonelord bonus to hit and damage on a stonestrike is not listed as an enhancement bonus, but rather is unnamed. This is good and bad. It's good in that it will stack with anything. It is bad in that it will not count as an enhancement bonus for bypassing DR.
Sorry. The +x to hit and damage from stonestrike is not an enhancement bonus. That means that it a flat +x to hit and damage on top of any other modifiers you have on an attack.
It does not allow you to bypass any DR other than magic or adamantine by nature of that bonus.
The chart you posted only applies to a weapons enhancement bonus.
In your example of a +2 weapon, you would only overcome DR/Magic and DR/Adamantine because your weapon is only a +2, even though you are getting an additional unnamed +3 bonus to your hit and damage.
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Sorry to keep bothering you, but thanks so much for being helpful. Ok, so to beat coldiron and silver the weapon itself would need to be +3. And with stonestrike activated it would also defeat magic and adamantine.
Final question, then I will leave you in peace lol. Is the limit of stacking the weapons bonus and my stonestrike bonus on to hit and damage +6? Or could it go over +6 at higher levels?
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Sorry to keep bothering you, but thanks so much for being helpful. Ok, so to beat coldiron and silver the weapon itself would need to be +3. And with stonestrike activated it would also defeat magic and adamantine.
Final question, then I will leave you in peace lol. Is the limit of stacking the weapons bonus and my stonestrike bonus on to hit and damage +6? Or could it go over +6 at higher levels?
Because Stonestrike is untyped it stacks with everything, as high as you'd like. It won't help with DR/Epic, though.
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The stonestrike bonus to hit and damage caps at +5 at level 20. Again, this stacks with any other bonus you may have. Stone strike is not actually enchanting your weapon, it's just giving you a bonus to hit and damage and letting you bypass some DR and Hardness. If you had a +5 weapon, you would be at a total +10 to hit and damage. It will also stack with any defensive stance powers, competence or morale bonuses and so on.
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The stonestrike bonus to hit and damage caps at +5 at level 20. Again, this stacks with any other bonus you may have. Stone strike is not actually enchanting your weapon, it's just giving you a bonus to hit and damage and letting you bypass some DR and Hardness. If you had a +5 weapon, you would be at a total +10 to hit and damage. It will also stack with any defensive stance powers, competence or morale bonuses and so on.
Great, thank you. This is actually better than I thought! I appreciate your time to answer, and I really look forward to playing the class in the campaign. Wish me luck! I have a feeling I will need it!
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Also, remember to pick up a courageous weapon enhancement as soon as you can. Defensive Stance bonuses to STR and CON are Morale bonuses.
This is true. Though it really only starts being useful after the weapon is +2, and only really useful once it's +4...so "as soon as you can" is something of an overstatement IMO.
And good luck, Ellestil. Hope you have fun. :)
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Also, remember to pick up a courageous weapon enhancement as soon as you can. Defensive Stance bonuses to STR and CON are Morale bonuses.This is true. Though it really only starts being useful after the weapon is +2, and only really useful once it's +4...so "as soon as you can" is something of an overstatement IMO.
It's a minimum +1 bonus to morale effect even at +1, and level 4 is about the time that you would be able to get one, which is the point when you'll likely have an odd STR score, so that becomes very useful then.
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I rewrote the D&D3.5 Stonelord Prestige Class, to help a player of mine, who wanted the flavour, but I (GM) thought the abilities were lacking.
I understand why the concept became a base class archetype, for those who wanted the flavour from level 1, but still feel there's a place for a prestige class, and associated mystic dwarven organisation that can be petitioned for entry.
I'll have to see if I can find my notes and dust it off, but now the name's been poached for an archetype, I'll have to rename the prestige class...confusion ahoy!