Has anyone successfully run a 3.5e open table? At FLGS or online, either one. As a west marches game, ideally. What kind of rules did you have? How did you structure it? Was it E6? E10? How did you make sure every session ended in town? How did you keep the game from getting cheesed?

>>98558588
>TQ
September 2024.
Yeah, really.

>>98558588
>When's the last time you actually rolled a Swim check? Be honest.
I remember DMing for my dad and brother and my dad's barbarian had to swim down to retrieve a key to unlock a door. Then he got attacked by a crocodile and took 1d12 damage from it's tail slap, before getting back above water and critting it with his great sword.

>>98558655
What did he roll on the check

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Is there a compilation of 'free' feats anywhere, like the otyughs hole or froggod's fane, or faustian pacts as was mentioned last thread, etc?

>>98559819
As is often the case for questions of this ilk, gitp forum is typically your best bet - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?400840-List-of-Feat-Granting-Items-Locations-Grafts

>>98559221
I figured just swimming down and grabbing something under 15 feet of water would be just a DC 15 check. Most of the croc fight was when he was wading in shallow water near the dock in the underground smugglers cove.

Is it just me, or is archmage kind of bad? Arcane fire should probably be a reserve feat, and while burning five spell slots is not as rough as incantrix making you piss off a third school, or maybe the prismatic jew ability of io7v being resistable or dispellable, those have better rewards by a whisker and a bomb threat.

>>98558588
A couple sessions ago
We're playing Savage Tide and someone fell overboard

>>98560689
Some of their abilities are shitty but the class is overall better than base classes, if not up to the standards of Red Wizard Iot7V or Incantatrix. Spell Power is good, SLA is great, Shaping can be used for annoying cheese with AMF. Elements is alright.

>>98560689
AF remains as is but is now a level 1 feature for free. The abilities don't cost spell slots and the arcana don't change because you're still going to pick shaping 1, touch 1, spell power 3 (or spell power 2+sla wish) no matter what.

There, we've fixed it.

>>98562064
I dunno, having to eat school focus twice (less skill focus, but still) is pretty iffy.

>>98564100
1 feat for those isn't a bad trade.

My handwriting is dogshit and I recently grabbed a digital writing pad to work on d&d stuff on my PC and my handwriting is even worse now. Incredible

>>98558588
>TQ
A few months ago, actually!
I was still on the hunt to prove I am the King of All Werewolves, and dove in to water to combat an adult black dragon in it's lair.
I dealt it several mighty blows, and it returned them in kind. I retreated with good prudence, and when it crested, my party fell upon it with great wrath.

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How does using a Point Buy system work / how do you think it works with nontraditional Player races? I would just do the buy and then add any racial adjustment. I could see people -2 any stats you didn't improve though. Like a Pegasus with a 25-Point Buy;
Standard Pegasus: Str 18, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 13
Starting: Str 8, Dex 8, Con 8, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 8
Point Buy: Str 8 (-2), Dex 8 (-2), Con 8 (-2), Int 18 (+10), Wis 11 (+3), Cha 14 (+6)

Theoretical 1 / Add Point Buy to Standard:
Str 18, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 19

Theoretical 2 / -10 then +Point Buy:
Str 16, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 14

>>98560689
I feel like archmage is a class characters take for personal fulfillment and bragging rights instead of actual power. Think how snooty Mialee is in all her quotes throughout the splatbooks. She'd definitely bean archmage and brag about it while running out of spell slots and not preparing any of the buff spells Regdar asked for.

>>98560689
The ability to manipulate Arcane Fire < Silver Fire < Spellfire in the lore is actually extremely prestigious, and can lead to other abilities or forms of magical mastery. Mystra in particular seems to favor Archmages for this reason. IIRC, Silver Fire and Spellfire can restore Dead Magic zones, and maybe with enough study Arcane Fire could too.

>>98562170
>spell power 5
>Quick, archmage! Only your baleful polymorph can save the realms now!
>Sorry, I can't actually cast 5th level spells.

>>98547034
Since the archmage had me checking Larloch's int to determine spell slots (34), maybe he runs an evil wizard school. If he thinks you have talent you wake up in the dorms one day. Collegiate wizard feat, an otyughs hole equivalent experience and call the 2k gold the hole feat usually 'costs'/is equivalent to your tuition fee that he generously extends you credit for. If you die, your soul is enslaved to work it off. If you survive long enough to graduate you do so as a level 1 wizard with Collegiate Wizard, a lovely little certificate and a firm handshake. Just don't stiff him on the tuition. Larloch might well actually appear to drag you screaming to the tomb if he decides you're not making your student loan payments, which would be a hell of a night at the in a country road inn.

He probably sends bragging letters to Blackstaff academy about what his students are getting up to and how much better his foundlings are than theirs. The Red Wizards probably dream of the evil atmosphere of Warlock's Tomb School of The Art, and its graduates are probably geased to be as homicidal about being called warlocks ad Larloch is.

>>98566822
>Collegiate wizard
Holy shit, how am I only learning about this now

>>98566885
Given some of the posts lately, I think someone is dialling up to play a game using the easy bake wizard guide on giantitp which gives like 6 or 7 free spells at level up and means you don't need a spell book. Check it out, it's pretty good. And it's even more absurd if you take extra feats or affiliations.

>>98565253
I don't know why you would do this desu, seems destined to be extremely junky at the very best

Are Illumians human enough to qualify for Red Wizards or are they filthy subhumans deserving only of slave collars?

Are there tables that show the optimal power attack usage against various armor classes?

>>98570541
Having the [Human] subtype, Illumians are legally human, and meet prerequisites (for feats) and entry requirements (for prestige classes) of "human," as well as being subject to targeted effects like Favored Enemy: Humanoid (human).

>>98570853
Excellent. It's mainly for a backstory thing. Just glad to know I won't have to do too much convincing.

>>98569755
Because it could be _fun_. My working model is theory 2. -10, start from 8, do the Point Buy, and then add the Point Buy to the minus'd Ability Score.

>>98570808
That is a simple head math.
So long as you can hit on a 10+, you are good.
Anything lower than that is beating the odds.

>>98570541
I know like half of them have red hair, Anon, but they are Human.

>>98558588
>TQ
Literally never as a player and never as a GM. By the time any of my players in any of my campaigns were anywhere near large bodies of water they had abilities that made it irrelevant.

>>98571850
Surely pumping damage until every attack is a coin flip is not optimal dps/round mathematically

I've been thinking about running some 3.5 online, and recruiting for players over on startplaying with a free game. However, I'd probably limit the books and therefore build options for players to the PHB.

Is there anything I should know about recruiting via a free free game on start playing or about limiting player options to the PHB that I should know beforehand?

So I'm gonna be starting a campaign soon with a unique premise and I wanted to get your opinions.

The basic situation is that there are going to be Champions of each of the skills, and the idea behind Champions is that for each of the type of skills that exist there is one person who is SO proficient at that skill that nobody in the world is capable of surpassing them. They're always considered max skill ranks regardless of their HD, they get a crazy high flat bonus (as well as getting Skill Focus as a bonus feat just for the flavor) to that skill, can Take 10 or 20 at will, and if they ever are in a situation where they're asked to make an opposed check, they win, period.

This will be a PF1e game, but I'm planning on taking inspiration from a lot of the Epic Skill uses that 3.5 had (as well as native high level PF abilities like Mythic material), stuff like how you could Balance on a cloud with a high enough check.

The main caveat to this will be that the extraordinary skill-based talents the Champions have is the ONLY above average thing about them, outside of that they have completely normal class and skill progression. You could have a Champion of UMD that's a level 2 Fighter who can activate any magical item in existence, but otherwise is still stymied by a particularly sturdy mundane lock.

In addition, a wrinkle about the existence of Champions (and why the players should care) is that when Champions exist, they sort of naturally pull the ability for everyone else within a large radius to perform that skill and makes them worse. Things like people trying to successfully Intimidate others just straight up has a chance to fail if the Intimidate Champion draws too much power to fuel his abilities.

As for the players themselves, I'm thinking of offering to them the option of playing as the actual Heralds of the gods, who for some reason are having their ability to influence the Champions mysteriously blocked.

>>98573704
Sounds neat but unfortunately Skills are at their least interesting mechanically when players try to force everything through that niche, and rather than using the skill creatively you end up in situations like "how many ranks in Use Rope do I need to grab the threads of fate and change what just happened". Neat and evocative the first time, rapidly devolving into cheese strats afterwards.

>>98574036
That's why the main focus of the game will be that the people doing all of the crazy, mind bending skill applications will be the bosses, not the players. That way each one can be unique and a bit of a puzzle fight, or in some cases with skills that are less directly combat focused, just getting to the Champion in and of itself is the challenge (the Survival Champion comes to mind), and then getting to thrash them afterwards is the reward.

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So a Chronotyryn can cast 4 spells in a round because they can make two rounds worth of actions in a single round. That's probably the best version of that sort of thing, right? Even a Spell Weaver isn't doing that.

>>98574676
A Beholder Mage can cast an extra nine spells per turn as a free action, but that's not very flexible. If you're just asking for Shapechange shenanigans, that's indeed one of the most powerful forms available.

>>98573583
phb only is the most busted way to play 3.5.
There arent any builds available really. Especially after a certain level. And it doesnt even feature stuff for the higher levels. So for the love of god at least include phb2.
The only reason i can see to do it is to play a game without prestige classes, dips and all those shenanigans, but you can explicitly ban that from others and include more books.
What i am saying is that including a book doesnt mean you must accept anything in it. It's your game

I unashamedly say I prefer spontaneous casting over prepared casting. I'd rather have slightly fewer spell slots and spells known than mess around with preparing spells.

>>98575479
I ashamedly say one time I was running a long and high level 3.5 campaign and we did a short interlude halfway to play 5e, and after we were back to 3.5 the shock from the difference in convenience was so powerful we made a houserule to make it work like in 5e.

>>98575479
i find this to be the best solution for curbing the power of full casters and to make the spell selection in each situation easier for the players as well

>>98575583
What do you do about sorcerers in your game? You just took away their only benefit compared to wizards and made wizards the only good choice.

>>98575591
Erudite cerebromancer, maybe?

>>98575591
Erudite cerebromancer, maybe? They're basically wizards if I remember right.

>>98575615
I didn't do anything really, and there was a warmage and a bard in that campaign but they didn't complain because the houserule meant they didn't have to wait as long for the druid to optimize the slots for the day. The only drawback for regular casters was that the alternative method had small numbers, but I don't remember what it was exactly, might have been 8 or 10 + spellcasting modifier. The exact houserule was at the beginning of the day they could select the number of prepared spells, or alternatively prepare all of them slot-by-slot. I realize it made the class even stronger but it was sacrifice I was willing to make for the sheet convenience of everyone.

>>98575615
Not everyone who plays 3.5 is some autist on /tg/ that has been kicked out of every group.

>>98576878
You don't have to be That Guy to ask that question. PF's vastly stronger Sorcerer got the same questions when Arcanist came out, for the same reason.

>>98575648
Warmages work off of a better casting mechanic than even Wizards have and Bards have half their power in their songs, so it's not quite the same. I'd probably bump spontaneous spell level progression back on par with prepared, give them 1 extra spell known/level, and give Sorcs bonus feats every 5, if I was worried.

>>98577674
>I'd probably bump spontaneous spell level progression back on par with prepared
Frankly, I'd suggest doing that regardless. There isn't any legitimate reason to retard them.

>>98577745
The inflexibility of prepared casting means you can end up in situations where you don't use all your spell slots because they aren't germane. If spontaneous casting matches that total volume it further undermines the concept of attrition. I get that it's a joke trying to balance casters by having enough encounters that the reliability of martials evens things out, but it's better than nothing.

>>98577766
They have a built in solution to that problem in preparing empty slots mid-day to better tailor them to what you're dealing with.

>>98577390
I've never played PF. What's the difference?

>>98578617
Sorcerers got bloodlines which gave them very large benefits to stay in class. An extra class skill, 1 extra spell known per spell level that's assigned by bloodline, 3 bonus feats at 7, 13, and 19 from bloodline list, a bloodline arcana which is a passive ability at level 1, and bloodline powers at 1, 3, 9, 15, and 20. It would normally be annoying bloat, but the 3.5 Sorcerer has no class features beyond their familiar.

>>98573583
Peak 3.5e is:
PHB I & II plus Complete Adventurer
Druid is allowed only with alternate wild shape from PHB II
Scout gets skirmish progression like a rogue's sneak attack (AC bonuses stay the same)
Ban wizards and clerics.

>>98576878
lol
lmao, even
Nigger rubbed his three brain cells together to act like using a watered-down trash version is superior

P.S. just use spell points retard

>>98579950
This guy got filtered by the spellcasting captcha

>>98579950
The whole point of playing 3.x over 5e is that there are insane amounts of options and that you are enough of an adult to have rule 0 conversations about power level and campaign intention. I can't imagine wanting to play 3.x without the splat library

>>98573583
>>98579950
>>98581480
I was brainstorming about running 3.5 again for some random dudes on the internet, but I didn't want to bother manually checking characters for super broken bullshit, so I was considering something along the lines of PHB + up to 1 or 2 or 3 books of players' choice, Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium banned. Maybe allow ToB for free if you create the character with ToB classes.

>>98582053
I'll be your random dude on the internet broski. I'm the powergamer so I'll prolly be the worst offender, but I self-limit and I can help you check the others.

>>98582053
just say no to dips or bulshit races, templates etc
our casual game was always up to 2 base classes and 1 prestige class so people would just make a semi decent character expecting to face some monster manual stuff and the occasional juiced up important encounter and it worked mostly fine without the dm giving much of a fuck honestly

>>98583416
>just say no to dips or bulshit races, templates etc
But I do like dips, bullshit races and templates (okay maybe I'm not a fan of templates for PCs but that's about it). Even as DM I vicariously enjoy players' powergaming, just that there's a point at which it gets difficult to mitigate.
PHB+1 book would shoot down a lot of broken combinations, for example you could no longer do Divine Metamagic + Persist Spell because one is Complete Divine, the other Complete Arcane.
>>98582171
At the moment I'm way too busy to run a live game anyway. I was entertaining the idea of some discord-based play-by-post but I've never ever ever ever once in my life managed to have a full succesful scenario in a pbp despite trying many times.

>>98583633
then i guess i misunderstood you. your best choice would be to take the 5-10 feats or prestige classes that you find problematic and just say these are no go but the rest of the completes are in for example. Dont ban an entire book because you wanna ban one feat

>>98583633
>Even as DM I vicariously enjoy players' powergaming, just that there's a point at which it gets difficult to mitigate.
You sound like our DM. Only he allows everything and trusts us to not go overboard, which we don't for the most part.

> I was entertaining the idea of some discord-based play-by-post but I've never ever ever ever once in my life managed to have a full succesful scenario in a pbp despite trying many times.
Play by post is underrated as hell.

>>98583685
Overrated*
It sucks shit

>>98583685
>Only he allows everything and trusts us to not go overboard, which we don't for the most part.
That's more or less how I run with my permanent home group, back when I was running 3.5 I would immediately ban the few most egregious offenders (for example Shivering Touch) and then it was just a gentlemanly contract to not break the game too much. In one case we didn't foresee a druid got so fucking overpowered that I allowed him to respec a few details to take things down a notch.
>>98583661
But I don't want to ban entire books, I want to force restrictions on players to see how they would work around them. And then I would have to also work around these restrictions, because for example with this rule I wouldn't ban Shivering Touch and if somebody does pick Frostburn for their splatbook of choice for chargen, I would just have to work around it, probably by giving every dragon an army of kobolds with wands of dispel magic or lesser restoration.

>>98581480
>The whole point of playing 3.x over 5e is that there are insane amounts of options and that you are enough of an adult to have rule 0 conversations about power level and campaign intention. I can't imagine wanting to play 3.x without the splat library
I meant to say, add in splats as you feel like, but I forgot.

Interesting low level magical items? The magic bedroll, for example, or that floating lantern that purges invisibility in its light.

I even saw a blatantly xianxia 'ring of holding' here once, though the weight was msybe 30 pounds. Funny stuff.

>>98584563
Shapesand and the collar of perpetual attendance are both really cool. Check Shax's Haversack on GITP for some neat ideas.

>>98584563
It's a bit outside your level range but I'm a big fan of the decanter of endless water.

The Magic Item Compendium also has a variety of neat stuff that's usually too niche to be worth the item slot but is at least cool.

>>98584563
Talisman of the Disk.

>>98579950
Unless you're doing cheese strats Cleric is merely very good. Still head and shoulders above most things because they're a full caster but the party having a healer isn't a bad thing.

Am I reading the spell resistance rules wrong? I think if I were to take a defiant 10 and ur priest 10, his innate SR would be something his own spells ignore since that's mentioned in the SR rules. Or does the ability supercede those?

>>98589250
If something conflicts with the base rules, it supersedes them. The downside of a Defiant's Spell Resistance, being unable to drop it for beneficial divine spells, is an intentional downside and not a misprint; it indeed applies to divine spells you'd cast on yourself. Defiant 10 and Ur-Priest 10 would give you undropable SR 25 against Divine spells, and droppable SR 20 against Divine spells (and outsider spell-like abilities). As the Defiant's ability description states, SR doesn't stack and you have to use the highest value, so you have to use the Defiant SR ability and not the Ur-Priest SR ability. You could stop at Defiant 9 so that this SR only applies to mind-affecting Divine spells, but I'd think that a Defiant 9's Divine Interference would apply to your own Ur-Priest spellcasting well.

>>98589665
Not too worried about interference because while it'd be tricky, getting your concentration high enough to hit 34 on a 1 isn't as iffy as other ideas.

Mostly tooling around trying to figure out a full 10 levels of ur priest with something that isn't just cleric.

>>98584563
I really really love the healing belt. It's mandatory for every low level game.

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I wish this had been named like anything else. Fiery Fire Ball is retarded

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The DMG declaring that Rangers are HD10 must have been a funny meme 20 years ago

>>98593170
as they should have been you mean. fighter paladin and ranger all had the same hd in adnd so it makes sense that this stayed the same in 3rd edition but i guess something was lost in translation between the editions

>>98593170
That's because they had a d10 HD in 3.0.

>>98593252
>>98593243
I wonder if this actually had anything to do with balance playtesting or if somebody just thought it was odd that the primary Core archery class was a fighterman meatball

>>98593358
I don't know if Ranger was ever considered the archery class so much as the Aragorn class.

>>98593410
Where is Aragorns pet Leopard is a much better question than anything regarding tax policy

>>98593418
The Third Age was a regressive time, strictly speaking Pippin was his animal companion

>>98593434
Lmao

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>>98593170
I dont know if these numbers already exist in a chart somewhere and I also don't know if this information is actually useful considering 3.5 is Multiclassing : The Game. But here are the base health values through level 20 that I just bounced out while doing something extremely boring at work

>>98593358
It was a balance thing, a very retarded one. Rangers in 3.0 were pure TWF, d10 HD, 4 skill points per level. They had to source their animal companion through the Animal Friendship spell. In 3.5 they're TWF or archery, 6 skill points per level and had a built in animal companion, so of course they had to lose something somewhere, ignore how the original class sucked ass.

>>98593358
as said before by other anons it wasnt even the archery class in the first place.
the balancing team for 3rd edition and 3.5 was notoriously bad at grasping the relative power of classes and their abilities and so you get many such egregious stuff all over the edition

>>98593410
>>98593508
I feel the need to point out that if Ranger is not "the archery class" then there simply is not an archery class in Core which I don't know if I accept. Sneaky fighter with free archery feats and an interceding pet gorilla

>>98593535
dnd never had an archery class before 3.5. You were absolutely supposed to play an archer as a fighter and just get the relevant feats.

I've become mildly obsessed with the spell Chill Touch. And before anyone says it, no, it doesn't do cold damage, it inflicts negative energy damage with a caveat saying it CANNOT heal undead and instead acts like a fear spell for them, forcing a save for every attack that connects. Anyway, the reason I've become fascinated by it is due to a few strange oversights in its function:
First, it is a touch spell with an instantaneous duration and multiple attacks, gaining one attack per caster level. Reading it you'd rightly think "ah, I can cast the spell and use these touches at my leisure" and if it were a PERSONAL spell you'd be 100% right, but touch spells have special, stupid rules attached to them, like...

>Rules Compendium p136
>If a spell allows its caster to make multiple attacks and has a casting time of 1 standard action, all those attacks occur during that standard action. The caster uses the highest applicable attack bonus for each attack in such a case.

Chill Touch clearly qualifies for this rule, meaning that you cannot "hold the charge" as with other offensive touch spells (they nearly all have actual durations, not instantaneous), so suddenly (and clearly in opposition to what the designer intended) it should, by the rules, be a 1st level spell that dumps Xd6 damage into anyone foolish enough to go into melee range with nearly any spellcaster. Furthermore, because they're individual attacks with individual attacks rolls they can all potentially crit, and all benefit from flat damage bonuses like Knowledge Devotion or Favored Enemy, and if you take Tomb Tainted Soul and have a way to shrug off incoming strength damage (there's both a soulmeld and a vestige that will prevent/heal stat damage, and the chaotic evil version of the Soulborn class is completely immune to it) you can ALSO use it as a way to heal truly immense amounts of damage at essentially no cost.

1/2

>>98593641
Now normally I'd just say "that's nifty, never gonna use it cause it's bullshit" because regular casters are already ridiculous and don't need this added to them, HOWEVER, it's possible for a paladin to get this spell on his list (Winter's Champion feat) and it's also possible for a paladin to ramp up his caster level to an absurd amount (Mystic Fire Knight variant plus 1 level dips in wizard, sorcerer, maybe war mage, then taking the Practiced Spellcaster feat to add +4 caster level each time because all arcane caster level contributes to paladin caster level) and can take Battle Blessing to cast his standard action spells as a swift action. This would be absolutely amazing to run as either a player or a DM, a holy warrior going Fist of the North Star on any enemy that starts giving him trouble without caring about the action economy.

tl;dr I finally found a way to make a neat paladin and I wanted to share it

>>98593653
Oh, and obviously you'd want to take the caster dips first so you can grab Practiced Spellcaster right away for each of them. Conceptually this is a talented magic man who found religion, presumably from the frozen north or something. Vague but workable, seems like it'd be really fun to have as a recurring enemy to players; I'm pretty sure it's possible to turn spell damage non-lethal so that he can be threatening but not a guaranteed party wipe, may have to fudge the build a bit for that but fuck it, that's the DM's privilege.

>>98593641
That's amusing but ultimately I don't think it's worth making an entire character around this gimmick as it would be too weak. It does make Chill Touch actually worth preparing though if you don't have any other plans.

>>98593418
No, the better question is what is the tax policy in asoiaf. ANSWER ME GEORGE.

WHY DO DRAGONS HAVE NO FORELEGS BUT GRIFFONS DO. WHY GEORGE. FUCKING TELL ME.

>>98593788
If you deliver all the touches at once, it becomes hellaciously powerful with something like the PF1E Magus' channel spell shenanigans where delivering a touch spell gives you a free weapon attack (though it goes against normal rather than touch AC. 20 greatsword hits + chill touch damage for a standard/swift action is vicious as fuck.

I have a (huge) dragon who likes going around in a small humanoid form through change shape. What can he do if he's in a confined space (inside a cave, maybe?) and his change shape is removed via an antimagic field?

>>98590236
Cleric would be a waste anyway - the Ur-Priest doesn't progress their spells beyond level 10. I don't know if you can get the additional cleric 'trade in' buffs from Defiant later on, so either go for Cleric 10 and trade it in or don't bother. Even with a generous reading of how to qualify for Contemplative, you have the same problem. Cleric to 10, then Defiant or go 10 levels of warblade/fighter. It's not like an ur-priest gets many spells and your caster level can't go higher than 15 anyway, might as well lean into the paladin-aspect.

>>98595425
Wouldn't that forcibly revert him to his original form, crushing everyone in the room?

>>98595522
yes, but the idea is that he gets stuck in a cramped space without magic, so he can't move and people can just stab him until he dies.

>>98593788
There's other things you can do to expand the offensive use of it, boosting the damage for cheap with Black Lore of Moil for instance. CT is one of the few non-evil necromancy spells, too, so there's no issues for a paladin.
>>98595348
Even with the pally build I presented you're getting +15 touch attacks on a full BAB chassis delivered as a swift at level 7. Very accurate, basically guaranteed damage, you can even stick the smite in there if you want to, BUT, there's a half orc paladin variant that gets scaling damage against ALL types of foes for a duration instead of smite evil, which I think is more promising. Fits with the "punching" too. Also there's a pally variant that gets favored enemy, for added nonsense. I think this has some legs.

>>98595745
Correction, it's a swift at 9th level due to when you'd get your feats. I've been toying with too many paladin builds trying to come up with ones that are actually interesting and not shit, got my wires crossed for a minute there.

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I need your recommendations on standalone modules. So far I've found these standouts:
>Escape from Meenlock Prison (1st)
>Wreck Ashore (1st)
>Dark and Stormy Knight (1st)
>Temple of the Gleaming Sands (5th)
>Legend of the Silver Skeleton (6th)
>The Last Breaths of Ashenport (6th)
>Lest Darkness Rise (7th)

>>98599847
Something's Cooking and The Burning Plague are my favorite free WotC modules.

>>98601250
Thanks!

>>98595512
Actually, is the prc actually useful for anything other than bizarre dip combinations that advance spell level in prcs? Seems like it'd be easier to use a planescape athar cleric.

This is a bit of a longshot, but I'm writing a story (comission) and a character in it plays DnD, 3.5 specifically. I've not played it myself since I was a teenager and I've forgotten pretty much everything. For a character moment I've been asked to have the protagonist and some others play a game of DnD, and infer things about the characters through the game. Real basic stuff, the cleric player is friendly and supportive, the barbarian player is brash and blunt etc. But a story antagonist is a powergamer, and I've never been that, so I have to ask, what's the strongest and most powergamey options available in the corebook to make a character? If someone showed up to a table with this sheet, you'd know they're trouble.

And conversely, so that the protagonist looks good and I can get paid, what're the more altruistic options available to have our self-insert build around everyone else at the table?

>>98605294
I assume you don't really want to go into the weeds. Core only your best option is probably Cleric, especially because the most infamous cheese strat involves an item from an uncommon splatbook (Nightsticks from the book Libris Mortis) and having the DM interpret its effect in a generous way. Having the antagonist both playing the class that's the most "support" coded at a surface level in a selfish manner and also pressuring the DM to allow more items and more spells to fuel his munchkin behavior dovetails nicely.

For a self-insert that's trying to be reactive to the party, bard is the classic jack-of-all-trades. They can heal a bit if the healers aren't pulling their weight. They're enough of a skill monkey to supplement a rogue, have a couple spells if the arcane casters are focused on a narrow niche, and as a fallback have a bunch of support abilities that help everyone. In a smaller party the lack of specialization can be a liability but as the fifth party member picking up everyone else's slack they're reasonable. If your client is trying wants to feel like a suave everyman who is always the underdog but also always able to find a way to contribute, then you're golden.

>>98605715
I don't want to get real indepth, but is there some subclass or particular combinations I could allude to that'll tickle their fancy? I appreciate the response, I had figured Bard would be a safe bet for the self-insert, but I assumed Wizard would work for the powergamer just from casual memetic exposure.

If I can pull off a "I choose to roll a Cleric of X, focussing on Y spells/domains then I'll be the best guy ever :)" and offset it with a "that dastardly powergamer, choosing X class and Y race with Z spells? Don't they care about fun?" then the client will be stoked as all hell.

>>98605294
The full caster classes are always the most powerful. For a villain I'd say Cleric is a strong competitor because while they don't have much in the way of attack and control spells, they are probably the best undead makers around (arcane necromancy is more on instant death or debuffs) so they can shit out tons of minions on deman. That gives your barb dude a lot of fodder to kill, sets up an ideological conflict between your cleric, etc.

Druid is arguably even nastier since they have a more offensive skillset and the ability to shapeshift. Imagine an evil Doric from the Honor Among Thieves movie, now imagine her summoning packs of twisted animals and elementals as well.

>>98605764
You can always mention Planning and Undeath (the domains), because they give very useful abilities (free extend spell and free extra turning, which are used to keep long duration buffs running on you). More importantly, they do not come naturally together on any deity I remember, which means that particular combo is specifically for powergaming (people usually get them through prestige class options or feats which let you pick alternate domains, like Heretic of the Faith).

You can also mention something like "so he's a cloistered cleric who traded his knowledge domain away for knowledge devotion? AND he persisted divine power on himself? I can smell the gouda from here."

>>98605294
Marshal is one of the most support-y classes in the game since it revolves around adding Cha mod to people via auras. It's also fluffed as a leader of men, so it dovetails nicely with being the protagonist.

I do not care for damage reduction. I played through the first through rooms of The Sunless Citadel last night and the Skeletons and Water Mephit just served to sideline half the party for the duration of the encounter which was hard to justify to my players (casuals) in the moment

>>98608760
It's designed to give tanks much more sustained survivability against low-damage shitters, it's just sometimes the PCs are the low-damage shitters

>>98608760
They didn't have bludgeoning backups?

Been slowly buying an entire 3.5e Library. Just passed another huge milestone. I now own all the physical copies of dragon magazine that ran during the games life (and to the end of the physical magazines being printed)

Combined with thenow 80 books I own including all the non setting specific source books I feel like my collection is in a good state. Going to slow down and buy like one book a month as I finish out by buying the remaining Ebberon and Faerun rule books

>>98610875
Why would you unless you knew beforehand? In a meta sense the move would have been to have the wizard give his quarterstaff to the barbarian mid encounter but the Cleric high rolled his turning attempt so most of the encounter was walking around smacking fleeing skeletons

>>98610889
That's very impressive, damn.

>>98610905
Why didn't the barbarian just pick up something as an improvised club and start smacking? Hell, Samson got one hell of a killstreak with a jawbone, grab a tibia and start some bone-on-bone violence.

>>98610889
Holy fuck I'm jelly.
Post some pics.

>>98610905
Because it's good procedure to make sure you can't get fucked by DR at random? Never hurts to have a morningstar and a sling and a sickle almost no matter who you are.

>>98611016
I'll need a moment I'm a bit of retard with transferring pictures from my phone to my laptop since I avoid linking devices.

>>98610905
Just pick up a rock 5head

>>98611207
He doesn't have the rock fighter feat from the Sandstorm errata in the bootleg Dragon Magazine forums. It's impossible.

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>>98611016
damn I forgot I cant slam 9 pictures into one post here this is going to be slow

>>98611241
You might need a stronger bookshelf, that particleboard is going to snap under that much weight.

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>>98611241

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>>98611254
>26

>>98611241
>>98611271
>>98611283
I'm in awe.
Cool shit anon.

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>>98611283

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>>98611293
ebay is a blessing

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>>98611319

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>>98611333

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>>98611338

>>98611338
>>98611333
>>98611319
>>98611313
Badass. A few years back I bought all the Omni anthologies for my dad but that was just seven volumes.

>>98611344
Final image of the set. Dragon Magazines had such Kino covers. Big titties everywhere

>>98611352
There is a CD on Ebay with all dragon and dungeon magazines. I've toyed with buying it since it's only 20$ but I'm unsure

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>>98611359
duurrrr forgot to post the image

>>98611365
The Dragon magazines are impressive for sure.

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My first encounter with Dragon Magazine was 297, which had epic material in it and that one elf druid girl in it.

>>98610889
Fuck, man. I see a bunch in there that I've used heavily over the years and never even seen the physical copy. Those are all in great condition too. I'm extremely jealous.

>>98582053
>>98582171
Hit me up if the timeslot suits you >>98615045

>>98613348
Pretty good. One thing I've relaly grown to apprecaite is the evolution of D&D's art style from it's rudimertary roots on AD&D to it's (IMO) peak in 3rd/3.5e Dragon magazine covers alone are all pretty great, outside of a very stinkers that scream "we ran out of time this cover"

>>98565253
personally i hate point buy for one simple reason.
A friend fetishised over it and we played with it for a couple years in uni and every character archetype would have the same stats. All there were 2-3 small variations for each character type and it eventually annoyed the hell out of me.
It made all characters feel the same without any upside besides hunting for balance in 3.5 of all games which is the most seriously unbalanced game i ve ever play.
I could get behind it for something like making a quick character in something osr style but that random high into or charisma literally makes characters unique if players lean on it.

>>98616797
I see what you mean, but I was just trying to lay a base set of rules in case a player wanted to do something weird. I also like applying a Point Buy to encounters because it lets me switch stats around for NPCs and threats. I play it more like the given stats are the average for a race. Kind of like how Alignment usually applies only to the majority of a race.

>>98616797
I prefer point buy because the resentment of rolling low when others roll high outweighs the boredom of everyone having the same stats (and I don't even look at others' stats that much anyway).

>>98619817
Yeah, much like rolling HP being above average is good but being below average is fucking miserable to the point of making the game less fun for the entire party.

>>98619184
i can understand what you re getting at and it makes sense especially as a dm tool

>>98619817
i dont get this. any time we ve played with rolled stats we would roll till we got a good enough list so they character would be either average or good. Any list below point buy 32 would get rerolled. I ve heard of others change the lowest roll to a free 15 or 16 if the list is good enough either wise but you got one super shitty roll instead of rerolling everything.
Either way do people really play with shitty rolled stats? In 3.5 it's so punishing because early especially your modifiers are half your character. I would probably do it if i were to ever play 2e again since the modifiers are whatever.

>>98619897
Taking the average is the most common house rule for hp i agree, but after trying to go with rolled only we eventually ended up on rolling hp with advantage (even though we didnt use the 5e term for it) so roll 2 dice and keep the highest. Never had seriously low hp after that

>>98619817
>>98619897
>>98619941
I just default to giving a strong array of stats and or high point buy, and max hp every level. Sane people enjoy playing strong characters and I think even the odd psychopath would rather their shitter character is a shitter because of their build choices rather than terrible rolls.

>>98620047
isnt the game a slog with max hp every level?
do you do the same for encounters?
i dont think people are insane if they want their game to be less of a power fantasy and more of a roleplaying experience in dnd

>>98620067
>isnt the game a slog with max hp every level?
Hardly, it's typically a difference of surviving an extra hit or two, or not immediately wiping from being brought to -10. Also completely removed the occasional drama of a martial having to eat shit because they rolled a 2 on their d10/d12.
>do you do the same for encounters?
Nah, I prefer to give enemies average or even below average hp and instead field more of them. Also, stronger PCs get to fight intense and interesting encounters faster.

>>98615069
God damnit. That timeslot fucks me whyyyyyyyyyyyy

>>98620067
I reject that you must choose between power fantasy and RP experience. Obviously you can have and do both. I do not fail to identify with Superman because he is deific, and it is not hard for me to immerse myself in an rpg because at first level it takes 2 strokes of a longsword to kill me instead of 1.

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Rate Freerent's new and improved adventuring party in Icewind Dale 2 with bonus very special guests /our Le Petit Princessa/ Chanhinachansan along with new friend Zukssan. Watch out Freerent is concealing her mana pool.

>Cake - monk 3 + cleric X
>Somi - paladin
>Freerent - rogue 2 + wizard X
>Miyu - bard 11 + sorceress X
>Reichama - sorceress
>May-san - fighter 4 + ranger X

rotating characters:
>Chanhinachansan - paladin 2 + sorceress X
>Zukssan - fighter 4 + sorceress X

Theme song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Ee6PJvek4

Note: /our Le Petit Princessa/ Chanhinachansan is Slytherin and Zukssan is Ravenclaw but kept original battle armor's colour.

>>98622745
I'm not sure if this is what anon is alluding to but there's a lot of people that treat chargen almost like a roguelike; the character is intrinsically disposable and their strengths and flaws and incongruities are mechanical texture that leads organically to story. It's the entire appeal of 3d6 down the line. While this can lead to massive discrepancies in efficacy and a bit of the "brave Sir Harold the Lame throws himself off a cliff because he has no stats higher than 8", if someone likes rolls to matter to that degree then yeah they're going to find above-average pointbuy or 5d6 drop two to be boring.

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Is there any RAW difference in CR increase between adding PC class levels to a monster and NPC class levels? I can't find anything that says there is a difference

>>98628875
Last sentence.

>>98628965
Dude idk if I'm dyslexic or what, thank you

>>98626789
3d6 down the line was called out as a really fucking stupid idea in the 70s, for what it's worth.

>>98628974
Oh yeah it plays like ass, did it for a one-shot as a teenager. I still get the appeal even if you need to be doing an absolute woodchipper of a campaign for it to not just result in someone playing as a do-nothing shitter for six months.

>>98628875
Just curious but what NPC levels are you thinking of adding and to what?

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>>98629223
Boring core stuff, like Orcs with extra warrior levels and such. I like to try to compile really shitty reference images to make certain systems easier to work on in one sitting

>>98629284
One thing that'll trip you up is that class level advancement hits epic when ECL hits 21. This actually makes the NPC classes way more powerful than they look on big HD monsters, because you could be fighting a CR 13 monster with several epic feats, because the calculation to determine that is HD+LA+class levels, but it also pushes you into the epic AB and saves rules.

Does anybody have an index of all of the dungeon/adventure modules printed in the magazines?

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>>98630743
Based based based

>>98611359
>>98611365
Do you have all of the inserts for the magazines? Some of the inserts seem to be basically lost media and in need of a new scan for posterity

>>98631952
Is there even a good way to scan magazines that doesn't involve removing the binding?

>>98629616
But they still only count for half, hour are you getting ECL that high without 16 levels of warrior or whatever?

Any sort of ritual casting equivalent, for casters or otherwise? Trying to figure out how to do a Faerun character who treats with celestials or devils as a regular thing and while I'd prefer to play something else I can't think of a way to do it except as a wizard using summon monster.

>>98638384
Best you're gonna get RAW is to just ask your GM to have there be a particularly weak region of space where creatures can slip into our realm more easily than most, because the way the game is built they generally don't want any caster having regular access to Outsiders until at least the early teens in level.

>>98638426
Shame. Was hoping to do the world's most schizophrenic 'free agent' Thanks.

>>98638182
CR isn't fully related to ECL. Like take an Ettin from MM1. It's a 10 HD Giant with LA +5, CR 6. If you wanted to push it up to a CR 11 threat, you could take 10 levels of Warrior or 5 levels of Fighter.

>>98638384
maybe reflavor a Sha'ir a bit?
The class as is is basically about having small genie familiar go to elemental planes to negotigate with other genies on your behalf and get you spells.
It would be a minor thing to make it less specific and have it treat with all kinds of outsiders instead.

Alternatively you could be a binder and flavor the vestiges you bind to be celestials or fiends instead.
I am pretty sure that possibility is even mentioned in the adaption section

>>98640475
You'd think after 20 years navigating this nonsense I'd remember how all the parts intersect and yet here we are.

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>>98630743
Not that I can find. I've only got these.

>>98645564
I made the mistake of asking before googling, they are all cataloged quite thoroughly on the big main wikis. I've been going through and clipping them out into their own little pdfs for funsies

>>98647655
My problem with those wikis is several of them will mix in homebrew without much warning and also don't have great references for where the content comes from.

>>98653366
I'm very sad that we couldn't have our weekly session two weeks in a row.
I think I'll fork
>https://github.com/red5h4d0w/Foundry-VTT-dnd35-system
and fill it out with non-srd content on a throwaway account.

>>98647811
One did have a nice uprade of the Planning domain homebrewed to actually add Contingency. Which you'd think would be essential to a PLANNING domain. Though going so far as to add Anyspell and Greater Anyspell is a bit much. Then again it's a nice way to get Control Undead on a cleric to control one mindless undead regardless of HD I suppose but very silly.

Has Netherese Arcanist ever been made into something that can work or was it too far gone?

>>98655359
Netherese Arcanist has shitty class features and the one worthwhile thing is something you'd already pick up long before entering the class. It also imposes arbitrary limitations on you. Taking it is a downgrade in all ways.

What is a good open source program for making dungeon maps/grids? I've been flipping through so many modules and dungeons lately I kinda want to try doodling one out

>>98656907
Dungeon Draft and their related products are actually fantastic, the biggest issue is finding good tilesets. And there's plenty of those.

>>98656924
Looks cool, I'll watch a few videos on it. Thanks anon

>>98656966
You're welcome. It can be a bit frustrating at first but I've made some beautiful little maps with it. There's other software from the same company which are nearly as good. Pirating it can be tricky but it's out there.

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You ever think about how WotC must sometimes desperately wish they never gave Greenwood the contract they did?

>>98659048
As a dragon fetishist, based.

>>98659048
Gonna make a note of that one.

>>98659048
Dragon cum is antifreeze confirmed

>>98659257
Definitely the White Dragon's.

>>98659048
I can't, man

>>98638447
Do you need to actually summon them mechanically for that to work? Seems like if your DM was on board you could get a lot of that done with fluff.

How would you go about being Santa Claus? More specifically, sending a toy to every Good-aligned child in a single night, with a year of prep-time.

>>98665856
From what starting point? A high level necromancer could probably get this done with a sufficiently large horde of skeletons

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>>98665856
Wizards made official stats a decade ago. I can't post the PDF but here's screenshots.

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>>98667370

Just poking around on Roll20 which I never do, its vaguely psychotic how no advertised games are ever for 4 players and a DM. 5-8 players seems to be the norm. I've played at tables like that before and it is always an annoying clusterfuck, cant imagine why anybody would prefer it to the actually intended player count

>>98668199
If it's anything like my table, it might be that they do that with the assumption that not everybody will be present every session.

>>98668238
Yeah I also have to imagine most online games with randos are going to be more casual beer-and-pretzel affairs where you're lucky if the wizard knows the rules for concentration checks and the barbarian is on his phone half the time

>>98666961
>Sin-tarr's skeleton army breaks into every house simultaneously, leaving behind toys carved from bone

>>98671201
we had a whole movie about why you shouldn't do this

>>98616797
>>98619817
in my games, the players (and any elite npcs) have the elite array
its plenty sufficient

>>98659048
im gonna pretend I didnt see that, or maybe just believe its an imposter

Is there a feat that is not Reserves of Strength which raises the HD cap on Shapechange?

>>98675234
Did some poking around, didn't find anything, but also is there really that much that falls into the 25-30 HD range and wouldn't already be accessible?

>>98675991
It's for a Jumpchain thing, wanted to turn into a Davana Titan (PF), specifically a Temporal Lord since those get the benefit of Time Stop before each turn. Meh, I'll just stick with Reserves of Strength.

>>98676048
If you're pulling in PF stuff you might as well see if you can get the 3.0 version of Shapechange that has a higher HD limit (though I'm not sure if the relative restriction on which abilities you get would interfere with your plan)

>>98676181
Actually, it doesn't. Thanks!

>>98677132
No problem. I also found a GITP thread with a google doc full of damn near every form that looks interesting, but you've got a specific plan so that might not be germane

>>98611241
>>98611271
>>98611283
>>98611313
>>98611319
>>98611333
>>98611338
>>98611344
>>98611365
I. Fucking. Kneel.

>>98680131
If it's the Shapechange handbook, I read that too. Very useful stuff.

Would it really cause that many problems to give every 3/4 BAB class full BAB?

>>98685487
Don't know why you would, every class can very easily hit 16 with the right multi/prestige classing, and if you aren't multiclassing into something more combat focused then what is the point in the first place

It's been nearly a month since we last played.
Fuck.
I'm not very good with the whole "bunch of people locked in an anti-magic mansion murder mystery" thing, but I'm itching to see what happens next.

>>98687468
Over a decade for me. My college group died and while I've done a few one-shots of various systems I haven't had a group since.

Anyone know any good homebrew/adaption for the Chameleon prestige class that includes stuff like invocations and maneuvers and the like?

Invocations in particular seem like something that would be difficult to balance.

>>98687929
Hey look, it's me....

>>98688630
>invocations
Poked around and a fair number of guides/posts just recommend using warlock as a base anyway.

>>98695169
Yeah using the floating feat to get an extra 'least' invocation as needed is the usual go to(unless you are mainly a warlock and just dipping 2 levels into chameleon to get any of various extra invocations and item creation feats as needed), but having an Invocation based aptitude focus that would allow you to select a certain number of invocations from the warlock or dragonfire adept lists would be a lot more useful and should be workable tot he chameleon class itself.

>>98689990
Yeah, it'd suck less if I liked online games but there is genuinely something about just being in a room rolling dice

>>98700056
>but there is genuinely something about just being in a room rolling dice
Playing in person is 100% a special experience that laying online can't replicate.
That said, I'm fine with playing online. It's not a question of choosing between one or the other after all.
I do whip out my dice and record myself rolling sometimes when the situation calls for it.
Lot's of "and the crowd goes crazy" moments doing that, really fun.

>>98700087
Honestly I think I may just need to fuck around with dice more in general. Get back into yahtzee or something. Dice are cool.

>>98665856
ive thought about it before, actually

I think good-aligned fey fits pretty well. Immortal, plenty of skills, some sneaky/detection SLAs, a few magical defenses. Summons celestial reindeer with overland flight. Bag(s) of holding, obviously.

I hate that so many celestials are furry.
I've decided that from now on, in my games, my angels are all going to be hot girls like they used to be in MTG when MTG was cool.
and all that animal stuff, also using MTG to fix - its going to be like Umbra enchantments. So when you meet a hound archon she is a sexy barbarian type girl with a big sword, you only know she is a hound archon because when she fights you, a phantom of a wolf head briefly manifests out of her body and bites you.

On a related note - would a hound archon called with Planar Ally line of spells grant a discount for its service if you gave it a cloak made of out of bargheist fur?

>>98687468
>>98687929
Pro tip:
>Breed
>Force your kids to play your game with you
> by your homebrew rules
> tell everyone its to teach them math and develop social skills
> Get them to drag their school mates in
> Give them marks for learning the rules
> Offer DM post as a prize to the one with best marks
>play with them until they leave you behind and go off on their own
>make a deal with a Hindu god to reincarnate as your own grandson
>kill self
>wait for your son/dad to continue the family tradition

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>>98706185
>I hate that so many celestials are furry.
>I've decided that from now on, in my games, my angels are all going to be hot girls like they used to be in MTG when MTG was cool.
>and all that animal stuff, also using MTG to fix - its going to be like Umbra enchantments. So when you meet a hound archon she is a sexy barbarian type girl with a big sword, you only know she is a hound archon because when she fights you, a phantom of a wolf head briefly manifests out of her body and bites you.

>>98706185
Your solution to too many things being furry is... to make them people in animal costumes? Do you hear yourself?