DnD 3.5 Unlimited: Legendary Monsters Recruitment part2!

Started by Zaer Darkwail, January 07, 2016, 09:02:00 PM

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ReijiTabibito

I'm not sure we're talking about the same item.  The Necklace of Natural Attacks is from Savage Species, and can function LIKE the Amulet of Mighty Fists, but it isn't.  The Necklace of Natural Attacks basically lets you enchant one or more natural attacks of your choice with the various numeric bonuses or weapon properties that melee weapons can carry.

It's also not hideously expensive like the Amulet of Mighty Fists, and caps at the normal +10 (5 for bonuses and 5 for properties) rather than the +5 cap in both Pathfinder and 3.5's Amulet.

The Amulet of Mighty Fists (I just looked up the Pathfinder variant) is really only good if you A: have more than 2 natural attacks, B: plan on using them both regularly, and C: don't mind missing out on weapon properties.  The Monk doesn't really suffer from that last drawback because of their Ki Strike ability, which gives their Unarmed Attack the ability to be treated as magical, lawful, and adamantine for DR purposes.

The Necklace in Savage Species is basically the enchantment cost of the item, plus 600 gp, times the number of natural attacks you want the Necklace to affect.

Zaer Darkwail

Well, point being is that we do use amulet of mighty fists as a base (as in pathfinder) as I am pretty sure you can add weapon enchants on amulet of mighty fist but it applies only if amulet has +1 or higher enchant (as in weapon) and it applies to all natural attacks person has (unarmed strike, hoofs, bite, horns etc). Even if you do not have ton of natural attack types, with unarmed strike which can benefit from haste or ways multiply attacks (like blade avalanche maneuver from diamond mind) it makes valuable asset.

TheGlyphstone

Quote from: ReijiTabibito on February 25, 2016, 01:02:33 AM
I'm not sure we're talking about the same item.  The Necklace of Natural Attacks is from Savage Species, and can function LIKE the Amulet of Mighty Fists, but it isn't.  The Necklace of Natural Attacks basically lets you enchant one or more natural attacks of your choice with the various numeric bonuses or weapon properties that melee weapons can carry.

It's also not hideously expensive like the Amulet of Mighty Fists, and caps at the normal +10 (5 for bonuses and 5 for properties) rather than the +5 cap in both Pathfinder and 3.5's Amulet.

The Amulet of Mighty Fists (I just looked up the Pathfinder variant) is really only good if you A: have more than 2 natural attacks, B: plan on using them both regularly, and C: don't mind missing out on weapon properties.  The Monk doesn't really suffer from that last drawback because of their Ki Strike ability, which gives their Unarmed Attack the ability to be treated as magical, lawful, and adamantine for DR purposes.

The Necklace in Savage Species is basically the enchantment cost of the item, plus 600 gp, times the number of natural attacks you want the Necklace to affect.


You can enchant a PF Amulet of Mighty Fists like it was a magic weapon, that's the major thing they changed about it. Though I suppose the AoNA is still valid if you want to buy it instead for some reason.

ReijiTabibito

Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on February 25, 2016, 02:02:34 AM
Well, point being is that we do use amulet of mighty fists as a base (as in pathfinder) as I am pretty sure you can add weapon enchants on amulet of mighty fist but it applies only if amulet has +1 or higher enchant (as in weapon) and it applies to all natural attacks person has (unarmed strike, hoofs, bite, horns etc). Even if you do not have ton of natural attack types, with unarmed strike which can benefit from haste or ways multiply attacks (like blade avalanche maneuver from diamond mind) it makes valuable asset.

I'm not sure where you're going with this.

Quote from: TheGlyphstone on February 25, 2016, 02:12:21 AM

You can enchant a PF Amulet of Mighty Fists like it was a magic weapon, that's the major thing they changed about it. Though I suppose the AoNA is still valid if you want to buy it instead for some reason.

Except a PF Amulet is still overpriced compared to the Necklace.  If I wanted a +3 Necklace of Natural Attacks, that would cost me the standard 18k for +3 enchantment.  If I wanted that for the PF Amulet, that's 36k - twice what I would have to pay otherwise.  The guides I've looked up on the item (they'll be linked hereafter) summed it up this way:

"Necklace of Natural Attacks is for Unarmed Strike users; Amulet of Mighty Fists is for natural attack users, if you have three or more natural attacks."

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?99215-Necklace-of-Natural-Weapons-%28D-amp-D-3-5%29
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=482.0

Zaer Darkwail

Hmmm, not 100% but how I did rule the amulet? Did I rule we use pathfinder amulet but use 3.5 amulet prices for it's enchantment bonus (special enchants cost the extra usual for similar weapon enchanted expect base enchant is more costly). Or did I rule necklace costed same as crafted weapons?

Sain

I think we have used the PF price thus far.

Wouldn't worry too much about starting items though. Money becomes pretty largely irrelevant pretty soon after your character meets up with Ao and these kinds of mundane little items equally trivial to obtain (depending on your character's alignment of course, I guess LG would have big problems with stealing).
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ReijiTabibito

If you want to say that the necklace cost the same as crafted weapons (2k for +1, 8k for +2, 18k for +3...and so on), I'm not going to object to that (as that was the pricing guide I used when allotting out the money that the necklace would cost).  I do think that the Pathfinder price is a little bit high, but my concern is largely 2 things.

1: Enhancement bonus limit.  For a 3.5 weapon, as noted before, the limit is +10 - halfway divided between numeric bonuses and properties.  So if I wanted to have a +5 Anarchic Keen Magebane Defending Longsword, I could do that.  From the entry I'm reading on the Pathfinder SRD for their Amulet of Mighty Fists (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/amulet-of-mighty-fists), that limit is +5.  I don't think it's fair to halve someone's capacity to develop their weapon simply because their weapon is their fist and not 3 feet of steel.

2: Both versions of the Amulet of Mighty Fists - 3.5 and Pathfinder - boost the output of all unarmed attacks and natural weapons.  This is really good for those who have 5-6 different natural weapons, and less good for those who have just 1 or 2.  I'm only wanting to focus on boosting the Unicorn's unarmed strike.  That's it.  Not any other natural attack, other than the unarmed strike provided by unarmed swordsage variant.

Zaer Darkwail

Well, assume we use the 3.5 amulet of fist but with pathfinder pricing on it. When going past +5 simply double the price of next enchant after it (so +6 version costs 200,000gp and +7 costs 400,000gp). What comes to amulet benefit more people with multiple natural attacks vs 1-2 ones, then is your choice do you get item (despite expensive) to enchance your natural attacks or not. But read; in pathfinder version reads you do not need +1 or higher enchant to have weapon enchants on it.

Considering as paragon your natural attacks already count as epic (having +6 enchant) for DR bypass purposes. Then you can use enchant natural weapon spell/scroll (or even item which holds charges of said spell) on yourself to get +5 bonus which may be cheaper option to get raw +hit and dmg numbers up while use amulet purely to get special qualities to your unarmed strike (ghost touch would be top on the list as sacred watcher).

Heck, you can pick Extra Spell feat and learn magic fang spell from druid list to your sorcerer list and treat it as arcane spell you learned.

Lockepick

Arguably -- you could always just take two Amulets*: One that gives you +5 Enhancement, and one that gives you +5 in magical properties. Even with the 2x cost levied to Amulet of Mighty Fists in pathfinder -- you're paying the same as some other guy who builds a +10 sword -- and it effects your normal unarmed AND your unicorn horn.

*Obviously not literally wearing two amulets -- but either merging them with the rules for combining magic items, or one using another slot (belt and gloves would both be easy arguments).
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Zaer Darkwail

Yeah, getting pair of gloves could cover either +5 base enchant or weapon enchantment part.

ReijiTabibito

#285
Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on February 25, 2016, 09:03:23 AM
Well, assume we use the 3.5 amulet of fist but with pathfinder pricing on it. When going past +5 simply double the price of next enchant after it (so +6 version costs 200,000gp and +7 costs 400,000gp). What comes to amulet benefit more people with multiple natural attacks vs 1-2 ones, then is your choice do you get item (despite expensive) to enchance your natural attacks or not. But read; in pathfinder version reads you do not need +1 or higher enchant to have weapon enchants on it.

Well, just to clarify - the PF version of Amulet of Mighty Fists costs 2x what a normal magic weapon would cost in 3.5 - +1 costs 4k (vs 2k in 3.5), +2 costs 16k (vs 8k), and so on.  If you follow that logic, then a +6 weapon - which costs 72k in 3.5 - would cost 144k in PF.

Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on February 25, 2016, 09:03:23 AM
Considering as paragon your natural attacks already count as epic (having +6 enchant) for DR bypass purposes. Then you can use enchant natural weapon spell/scroll (or even item which holds charges of said spell) on yourself to get +5 bonus which may be cheaper option to get raw +hit and dmg numbers up while use amulet purely to get special qualities to your unarmed strike (ghost touch would be top on the list as sacred watcher).

Wait.  Back up.  Where does it say that?  That was one of the major concerns I had, being able to bypass DR/magic.  Also, I'm guessing you're suggesting Ghost Touch because Sacred Watchers are incorporeal, and thus cannot interact with non-Ghost Touch items?  I took a feat for that:

http://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/feat/Ghostly_Grasp

If there's another reason I should be taking Ghost Touch...?

Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on February 25, 2016, 09:03:23 AM
Heck, you can pick Extra Spell feat and learn magic fang spell from druid list to your sorcerer list and treat it as arcane spell you learned.

Actually, if you read the Unarmed Strike entry under Monk, it says a Monk's unarmed strike counts as both natural weapon and manufactured weapon for the purposes of spells and effects - so both Magic Weapon and Magic Fang can enhance it.

The problem with those spells is that they merely confer the numeric bonus, which is the lesser of the two things I want - I'm mainly aiming for weapon properties.  The big two I'm going for right now are the Stunning Surge property (from MIC) and the Martial Discipline Weapon property (this from ToB).

Quote from: lockepick on February 25, 2016, 09:12:10 AM
Arguably -- you could always just take two Amulets*: One that gives you +5 Enhancement, and one that gives you +5 in magical properties. Even with the 2x cost levied to Amulet of Mighty Fists in pathfinder -- you're paying the same as some other guy who builds a +10 sword -- and it effects your normal unarmed AND your unicorn horn.

*Obviously not literally wearing two amulets -- but either merging them with the rules for combining magic items, or one using another slot (belt and gloves would both be easy arguments).

Yes, but even if you go with the fact that you are paying the same price, two things.

A: the rules that Zaer has stated for combining magic items say that you can combine any two or more by paying double the cost of the most expensive item to cover the merger - so if I want to combine 2 100k items, that ends up costing 300k (100k x 2 + 100k), whereas the +10 weapon would simply cost 200k, because it's only 1 item.  You could theoretically solve this by having 2 different items in 2 different slots, but that doesn't solve the bigger issue...

B: You can't have a magic weapon of just straight properties.  You require at least +1 in enhancement bonus in order for the properties to function.  So you can't stack +5 of weapon properties onto one of the items, you can stack a maximum of +4.  Now, you can divide up the bonuses however you like, but the fact remains that you need that basic +1.

I still don't quite understand why it is we can't just use the Necklace of Natural Weapons from Savage Species as-is...it costs the same as a 3.5 magical weapon.

Lockepick

While personally I don't see any reason to avoid allowing AoNA to allow Magical Properties...

The fact that combining it into one item would cost 300K is also outweighed by the fact that it's actually multiple weapons: your unarmed strike (which, with flurry, is effective 'dual wielding') + your horn... plus anything else you pick up. If you want another comparison: a dual wielder would have to pay 400K to get two +10 weapons. Plus you have the options of paying less by using multiple slots.

Have you also done the math that you could kind of screw with this system even further? If you wanted a: Ghost Touch, Flaming, Keen, Defending, and Vicious Amulet. That's a total of +5. Which would either be 100K as a single item -- or if you turn that into one item made up of five smaller +1 Amulets -- that costs you a whopping 24K. If you combine that also with a flat +5 Enhancement Amulet -- that's 200K + 20K -- you're paying 20,000gp more than a normal one handed person, also effecting your natural weapons, your 'off hand' via flurry, and you can continue to add additional benefits...

The same math, assuming a +3 and +2 Property -- as an individual item (relying upon another slot of your +5 enhancement, or a spell) would cost: 88,000. Not a huge discount under the 100K -- but the fact that adding additional +3 (or less) properties would be possible, and cheap, is the trade off. Adding additional +1 effects for 4K a piece...

I understand how it could be an issue to need to use multiple slots... but is it? Most of the sheets I've seen, including my own, had LOTS of empty slots for magic items.
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Zaer Darkwail

Ghost Touch is for able hit stuff physically while incorporeal. Also the pathfinder amulet of mighty fist does not need base enchantment to get weapon enchants. Meaning you can have in pathfinder amulet a 'amulet of mighty flaming defending impact dragonbane fists' without +1 bonus. Only pay for amulet for having +5 worth of weapon enchants in them. So if you concern only for weapon enchants, just use pathfinder amulet and stack up to +5 what weapon enchants you want (or even up to +10 if can afford it).

Anycase paragon creature natural attacks are epic and epic DR is listed as 'bypassed by weapons of +6 or greater enchantment'. So in short your fists ignores epic DR and magic DR.

ReijiTabibito

Quote from: lockepick on February 25, 2016, 02:37:27 PM
While personally I don't see any reason to avoid allowing AoNA to allow Magical Properties...

For me, it's about just simplifying a whole bunch of questions and basically heading off a potentially-endless discussion like this one.  You treat the Necklace as a magic weapon for purposes of enchantment and weapon properties, that bypasses the whole discussion we're having on the Amulets and pricing and such.

Quote from: lockepick on February 25, 2016, 02:37:27 PMThe fact that combining it into one item would cost 300K is also outweighed by the fact that it's actually multiple weapons: your unarmed strike (which, with flurry, is effective 'dual wielding') + your horn... plus anything else you pick up. If you want another comparison: a dual wielder would have to pay 400K to get two +10 weapons. Plus you have the options of paying less by using multiple slots.

I don't get Flurry - I get Unarmed Strike, those are two different Monk class abilities.  You are right in that the Amulet would affect both my unarmed attack and my horn, but my horn gets a fixed damage code.  My Unarmed Strike is going to keep going up.

Quote from: lockepick on February 25, 2016, 02:37:27 PMHave you also done the math that you could kind of screw with this system even further? If you wanted a: Ghost Touch, Flaming, Keen, Defending, and Vicious Amulet. That's a total of +5. Which would either be 100K as a single item -- or if you turn that into one item made up of five smaller +1 Amulets -- that costs you a whopping 24K. If you combine that also with a flat +5 Enhancement Amulet -- that's 200K + 20K -- you're paying 20,000gp more than a normal one handed person, also effecting your natural weapons, your 'off hand' via flurry, and you can continue to add additional benefits...

The same math, assuming a +3 and +2 Property -- as an individual item (relying upon another slot of your +5 enhancement, or a spell) would cost: 88,000. Not a huge discount under the 100K -- but the fact that adding additional +3 (or less) properties would be possible, and cheap, is the trade off. Adding additional +1 effects for 4K a piece...

That's another reason why I would just prefer the Necklace - it prevents someone from cheesing the system like this.  Also, it involves a lot, lot less math.

Quote from: Zaer Darkwail on February 25, 2016, 03:12:04 PM
Ghost Touch is for able hit stuff physically while incorporeal. Also the pathfinder amulet of mighty fist does not need base enchantment to get weapon enchants. Meaning you can have in pathfinder amulet a 'amulet of mighty flaming defending impact dragonbane fists' without +1 bonus. Only pay for amulet for having +5 worth of weapon enchants in them. So if you concern only for weapon enchants, just use pathfinder amulet and stack up to +5 what weapon enchants you want (or even up to +10 if can afford it).

Anycase paragon creature natural attacks are epic and epic DR is listed as 'bypassed by weapons of +6 or greater enchantment'. So in short your fists ignores epic DR and magic DR.

The Ghostly Grasp feat says that you can pick up, use, and wield corporeal items as though I was not incorporeal.  That doesn't cover attacking?  It seems kind of a BS move to force an incorporeal character to pick up a feat and a weapon property just to be able to interact normally in the real world.  Also, check the entry on this ability conferred by the Sacred Watcher template.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
Manifestation (Su): Every sacred watcher has this ability. A sacred watcher dwells on the Ethereal Plane and as an ethereal creature, it cannot affect or be affected by anything in the material world. When a sacred watcher manifests it partly enters the Material plane and becomes visible but incorporeal on the Material plane. The manifested sacred watcher can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, +1 or better magic weapons, or magic, with a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source. The manifested sacred watcher can pass through solid objects at will, and its own attacks pass through armor. The manifested sacred watcher can always move silently.

A manifested sacred watcher can strike with its touch attack or a ghost touch weapon. If it has a weapon with at least a +1 enhancement bonus, it can use this weapon against material creatures, but any such attack has a 50% chance to fail unless the weapon is a ghost touch weapon (just as magical weapons can fail to harm the ghost). A manifested sacred watcher remains partially on the Ethereal Plane, where is it not incorporeal. Opponents on either the Material or Ethereal planes can attack a manifested sacred watcher. The sacred watcher's incorporeality helps protect it from foes on the Material plane, but not against foes on the Ethereal plane.

When a spellcasting sacred watcher is not manifested and is on the Ethereal Plane, its spells cannot affect targets on the Material Plane, but they work normally against ethereal targets. When a spellcasting sacred watcher manifests, its spells continue to affect ethereal targets and can affect targets on the Material Plane normally unless the spells rely on touch. A manifested sacred watcher's touch spells don't work on material targets.

A sacred watcher has two home planes, the Material and the Ethereal, and it is not considered extraplanar on either plane.

This doesn't cover being able to attack?

TheGlyphstone

The big benefit of Ghost Touch is that it's incorporeal or corporeal at the same time, whatever's beneficial to you. With Ghostly Grasp, you can pick up and carry corporeal items, but you could not, say, bring them through a wall with you because they aren't Ghost Touch.

As-written, Ghostly Grasp does not allow incorporeal creatures to make Unarmed Strikes or natural weapon attacks against corporeal targets. It would, however, be an excellent candidate to ask the GM to make an exception/houserule on the point, because there is a very solid argument in favor of it.

(The Sacred Watcher ability does allow attacking, specifically with its touch attack or a Ghost Touch weapon. See above.)

ReijiTabibito

You'll have to forgive me, dealing with the complexities of incorporeality is not something I usually handle in 3.5 on a regular basis.  (Says the man who picks the Sacred Watcher...)  Though there are a couple of things I do remember - if I have them misunderstood, please feel free to chime in.  Isn't one of the rules for incorporeality is that anything the creature picks up - the creature's possessiions - becomes incorporeal?

Well, considering that I don't see a lot of difference between an unarmed strike and a natural touch attack...one is 'I stick my finger in your face' and the other is 'I punch you in the face...'

GM?  What do you think?  Can I equate my unarmed strike with a touch attack for the purposes of Ghostly Grasp?

TheGlyphstone

The rules for the Ghost template specifically mention that any possessions the being had when they died manifest with their ghost as incorporeal items. A magical spell that temporarily turns someone incorporeal does the same to any items they are carrying on them. But neither makes anything the creature/character picks up incorporeal after the effect/template is applied, that is not a default portion of the Incorporeal subtype.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#incorporealSubtype

ReijiTabibito

Mm.  So noted.  Okay, quick question to ask the thread - normal paladins can only be LG, right?  And since Unicorns are always CG (see MM1), they can't be a regular paladin, but can qualify for the Freedom variant...I'm asking because Unicorns get Immunity to Compulsions as part of their racial abilities, which the Freedom Paladin gets at 3rd level in place of the normal Paladin's fear immunity...

Lockepick

There are a lot of Paladin ACFs -- maybe you can find one that removes a normal paladin's Fear Immunity -- which would apply to the Freedom Paladin's immunity to compulsions.
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ReijiTabibito

Mm.  I'll look into that.  Though, I would also be interested in, perhaps, trading one aura for another - trade Freedom's compulsion immunity for standard Fear immunity.

Though, there should be an item for that, right?

TheGlyphstone

All Fear effects are also Mind-Affecting effects, so anything that gives you Mind Blank will cover Fear as well. And Mind Blank is definitely something you want at this weight category.

ReijiTabibito

Mm.  The Unicorn has a constant Magic Circle Against Evil ability as part of its package.  If memory serves, that would allow for Mind-Blank protection from Evil sources, right?

TheGlyphstone

Quote from: ReijiTabibito on February 25, 2016, 11:08:17 PM
Mm.  The Unicorn has a constant Magic Circle Against Evil ability as part of its package.  If memory serves, that would allow for Mind-Blank protection from Evil sources, right?

Only versus charms/compulsions - there's a lot of other [Mind-Affecting] effects that can screw you over without being a Charm or Compulsion.

ReijiTabibito

Mm.  Just as a check, I looked up Magic Circle vs Evil, and it provides a continuous, permanent Protection vs Evil spell to the unicorn, which, according to the spell description, blocks any attempt to possess the creature, or to exercise mental control over the creature (including enchantment - charm and compulsion - effects).  That sounds like mind blank to me.  If it's not, how would I get it?

TheGlyphstone

#299
Quote from: ReijiTabibito on February 25, 2016, 11:14:05 PM
Mm.  Just as a check, I looked up Magic Circle vs Evil, and it provides a continuous, permanent Protection vs Evil spell to the unicorn, which, according to the spell description, blocks any attempt to possess the creature, or to exercise mental control over the creature (including enchantment - charm and compulsion - effects).  That sounds like mind blank to me.  If it's not, how would I get it?

The problem is that if you look at Protection from Evil, it's more specific. It blocks "effects that exercise mental control over the creature (including enchantment (charm) effects and enchantment (compulsion) effects that grant the caster ongoing control over the subject, such as dominate person)."

So it'd block Dominate or Charm. But it wouldn't block, say, Power Word: Stun, because while it is a Mind-Affecting Compulsion, it does not control the creature, it simply removes your ability to act (letting them walk up and slit your throat or whatever). Extrapolate that to the vast number of other Mind-Affecting spells that disable you, and simply being immune to mind control isn't going to cut it.

Comparatively, your Paladin of Freedom Aura (unlike Magic Circle/Protection) just flatly blocks all compulsions, which make up about 90% of hostile Mind-Affecting magic (most of the rest are Illusions, including Phantasms). Since you can't afford the Third Eye Conceal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#conceal) out of the gate, I'd get a Gem of True Seeing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#gemofSeeing), re-flavored as a monocle or something you like the aesthetics of better. Things with the Compulsion tag are the worst and you're safe from them - innately, even, so it can't be dispelled or suppressed. Illusions are the next-worst and you'd be well equipped to handle them as well. You're still vulnerable to Fear (where this whole thing started), but the number of incapacitating Fear effects are very, very small. 95% coverage against dangerous stuff is good enough till you can pillage a tomb or something for loot to get a Third Eye item.