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Yeah, sorry, I realised I'd put a slash in there but I couldn't move it afterwards. Also, the link on the roster page appears to be broken.

Cheers.

Fred is fine. I think I actually typoed and it gave me a lower case.  Which is annoying because I always judge people for stuff like that...

I think I saw this group mentioned on some page or other on one of the boards I ended up on. It might even been one of your sigs. The dangers of carefree browsing...

I have to say that getting going was a little intimidating, the character sheet needs a lot of filling out when you take into account the nuances of the house rules and stuff (things like the skill packages and things, I have to keep re-reading that stuff). I think partially it's just because I'm not familiar with things like Psionics, though. I also find grubby goblin snipers kind of intimidating but there you go.

I don't know of anyone else I'd recommend it too but I'd surely mention it if I thought someone would be interested. I think I'm getting the idea now, though I'll have to see how this fight goes (I think I have some passable tactics here). I think my first concept might be rather improvable on but I've got a few other ideas if it doesn't work out.

There are a couple of things I wasn't sure about but there were mostly rule nuances and things which aren't really relevant right now... but since you asked...

Just to clarify, the Unearthed Arcana stuff. I thought I read it was OK, but then I read it wasn't allowed. Well I see some people have gotten it via the Black Market - is that the case for all of it?

There's no LA buyoff, is there?

You need to do a quest to get a PrC, right?

These are two rules points really but I notice for the first time the bashing property for shields (never bothered with shield bashing before) - well items need to have a +1 enhancement to have any special abilities, but a Bashing Shield (Shield of Bashing?) counts as a +1 weapon so does that get excepted? Using shields as weapons is just something I've never really looked into. Secondly do you guys treat the Pyrokineticist's Flame Lash as an actual whip (and can you trip or disarm with it)? I always thought it was but apparently it's a bit of a grey area.

Sorry to inundate you with questions, but what may seem like minor points could make or break a Flame Lash Shield Tripper build! 
Thanks for all the help!

(Incidentally if there's a rules thread or something which I've missed I'll take those sorts of things there in future if that's helpful - maybe in the Curses forum?)

Jan 5, 2012 -- 5:45PM, TelinArtho wrote:

3. For PrC's - you need to do at least a miniquest for Blackguard (peaceful outsider), Assassin (kill someone), Pyrokineticist (burn something), Warmind (talaric texts or other warmind).

Oh, OK. That makes sense, just thought I'd double-check.

Jan 5, 2012 -- 5:45PM, TelinArtho wrote:

4. +1 shield to make it both +1 enhancement to AC and a +1 enhancement to hit/damage. Beyond that - you can enchant it separately as a weapon or armor (so boosting it to a +2 weapon would be an additional 6kgp). If you want a good example of shield basher - I'll get you a link to Sdentch the Angelic (here is the original Sdentch)

Thanks for the link. However, the SRD says "Shield enhancement bonuses do not act as attack or damage bonuses when the shield is used in a bash" so even a +1 shield does not count as a +1 weapon (though it might count as magical for DR purposes, etc?). Therefore would you need to make the shield a +1 shield AND a +1 weapon to get the Bashing property? And would this make it a +3 item or a +1 shield and a +2 weapon, i.e. 9k cost)?

Confusingly the rules seem to say that armour spikes can be made into magical weapons in their own rights, but only that spiked shields (not shield spikes themselves) can be made into magical weapons, otherwise you could just enchant the spikes separately.

The way I read it the Bashing property is a property of a shield, not a weapon, so you need a +1 shield which can then be given that property, and becomes a +2-equivalent shield which acts as a +1 weapon. The only thing is that if one wants to give it weapon enhancements too, does it need to have a +1 separately (making the +1 from Bashing redundant)?

Sorry, I've just never actually looked at the bashing rules before, and they seem a bit mixed up.

Jan 5, 2012 -- 5:45PM, TelinArtho wrote:

5. For the flame lash - we have a pretty extensive thread in the courtroom you might want to read through.

Wow, OK. I thought it was ambiguous, but I never even thought of using Weapon Afire on the whip itself. I would have thought that it was treated in all ways except those noted as a whip (doesn't threaten, does provoke, but can trip/disarm) though it doesn't actually say that. Even so, ranged touch attacks are ranged attacks and so should provoke, and I'm not sure if you can threaten with them. However if I might play one of these guys, I'll happily take a more favourable ruling. Does it allow trip and disarm, though? As a whip I would have thought yes, but from a common sense point of view it doesn't make much sense (it's a touch attack because it's insubstantial, after all).

Also, are things like Mind's Eye and other web enhancements excluded from "core"? I presume so but it occured to me to ask since I saw an interesting Pyrokineticist variant when I was looking up the flame lash.

One other question, regarding Metamorphic Transfer. The court decisions say it can only only be used for "use" powers, but what about something like the Ogre Mage's Flight ability. Its description says he can cease or resume as a free action, which by the description of what's allowed by MT might be OK, but I would have thought not.

Cheers. 

Ah I see, so a Bashing shield must already be a +1 shield, but then counts as a +1 weapon too (including for price purposes)? Presumably you could get a normal +1 shield which is a +1 weapon for only 3k, but you may as well get a +1 Bashing Shield for 4k since you get the size increases. So one could get, say, a +1 Bashing/Flaming Shield for 10k without it needing to be a +1 Bashing/+1 Flaming Shield? (That would make sense).

I had thought about using Alter Self as a Half-Giant and Metamorphic Transfer to get a cheap Flight, effectively. It seems like a bit of a bending of the rules, but you would need some Psionics to get MT and some way of using AS, i.e. either multiclass (and you have a +1 LA) or Wild Talent (otherwise a waste) or something, so I don't think it would be overpowered.

These were just some ideas I had bouncing around, I'll probably still try out a melee sneak toucher or something next but I get a bit carried away theorycrafting sometimes.