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[size=+1]Welcome to a series of short articles dedicated to sharing optimization concepts and combos from my personal playbook. While not as ground-shaking as my larger projects like the 100^10 Elite Optimization Challenge, Nanobots, the Twice-Betrayer of Shar, etc, I hope you enjoy these Dirty Tricks for what they are -- carefully explored pathways to optimization power.[/size]


[size=+2]Dirty Trick #4: The Nasty Gentlemen[/size]

Summary
[indent]Symbiont's "Share Spell" ability and capability of taking actions allows for the wild synergetic multiplication of many spells' effects.[/indent]
Ingredients

• Symbionts (creatures) [Magic of Eberron, pg 153-158]
  
• Cerebral Symbionts (creatures) [Fiend Folio, pg 216-218]
  
• Fiendish Symbionts (creatures) [Fiend Folio, pg 218-222]
  
• Impure Prince (prestige class) [Magic of Eberron, pg 73-76]
  
• Symbiont Master (feat) [Magic of Eberron, pg 51]
  
• Spontaneous Summoner (feat) [Complete Divine, pg 85]

[size=+1]The Trick[/size]

Symbionts are handy. Err, "tentacle-y." They're entirely portable, have few, if any, formal limitations on the amount that can bond with a single host, and provide a host of minor benefits to careful users, including minor stat boosts, increased hit points, and spell-like abilities. Nice, but hardly impressive.

Now let's go back to an often-overlooked aspect of symbionts: each symbiont has the "symbiont" subtype. Old news. Now add this: the symbiont subtype includes the "Share Spells" ability. Huh, has potential. Let's throw in the fact that this Share Spells ability is better than the familiar ability by the same name AND you can have as many of these buggers as you can find/buy/etc. Getting somewhere. Next, realize that a good portion of the symbionts retain their ability to take independent (though directed) actions, including attacks. Neat, now only if they could do something with all of these actions. Enter spellcasting.

There is a host of powerful spells which give a character some capability which requires action to activate. These spells are shared with all of a character's symbionts, who can use their own actions (attacks, move actions, full-round-actions, standard actions, swift actions, etc) to gain offensive, defensive, or general-utility benefit. The result is that a single casting of a spell intended to be used only once a round can be multiplied hundreds of times over.

[size=+1]The Possibilities[/size]

It keeps getting better.

Obtaining Symbionts:
Amazingly easy to do. As Magic of Eberron suggests, players can essentially consider symbionts as treasure for the purpose of wealth calculation. The base prices range from 1,000 to 8,000 gp, reasonably accessible at all levels. For the more economically-minded or particularly outrageous symbiont-using gentleperson, the Impure Prince prestige class allows you to lure symbionts for only 100 gp a pop. If a Princely character is willing to spend all of their cash on becoming a tentacle monster, this translates to 7,600 symbionts by level 20.

Alternately, a riskier manuever would be to Polymorph any Object objects or followers into symbionts for an additional boost in your ranks. Dispelling/disjunctioning would be a real risk, but until then, the sky's the limit.

Gaining Benefit (boring title, crazy implications)
The reason for the title of this Dirty Trick comes from the mental image of a character truly taking advantage of its implications: a perfectly sophisticated and dignified-looking spellcaster who erupts into a mass of churning tentacles, grasping claws, spikes, spewing gouts of fire and brimstone, and striking with uncanny potency at a moment's notice.

Imagery aside, the best spells to pick for this trick are the ones which have a range of "Personal" and/or a target of "You." These spells are the ones easiest to share with your hundreds of glorified tapeworm buddies, and even better, are easily persistified through the usual metamagic routes. Out of this broad category, go for spells which add natural attacks, enable action-activated ranged abilities, enhance existing attack modes, or have a limited number of times which each individual "you" can use the spell. Alternately, if you're not concerned with repeatability, non-personal-range spells are also permitted and can be shared just as easily, if not for all day long.

Remember kids, the surgeon general says that playing with symbionts can be hazardous to your health, so stock up on ability-damage immunity, or at least make certain to befriend at least one divine spellcaster with a bucketfull of restoration handy. Sheltered Vitality from Libris Mortis, the Restoration and Heal chains, Construct Essence, and miscellaneous class/creature abilities are all WotC-approved methods of safe symbiosis.

I've compiled a basic list of good spells to consider below, but I'm wide open for any other options. Remember that if a spell produces negative side-effects (such as limiting spellcasting), you can always choose to have the spell affect your symbionts and not your Nasty Gentleman himself. This makes Nightstalker's Transformation, Tenser's Transformation, and Mental Pinnacle all excellent choices to produce a hyperdeadly, multi-talented mass of options.

[size=+1]Symbiont Synergetic Spells[/size]

Ranged Awesome Spells:

• Dragon Breath (Wiz, Clr) [the Complete Divine version]
  
• Righteous Glare (Wiz, Clr)
  
• Lightning Ring (Wiz)
  
• Undermaster (Wiz, Druid)
  
• Nimbus of Light (Clr)
  
• Darkfire (Clr)
  
• Skull Eyes (Initiate of Cyric)
  
• Holy Star (Initiate of Mystra)
  
• Stormrage (Clr, Druid)
  
• Produce Flame (Druid)
  
• Blinding Beauty (Druid, Clr)
  
• Unearthly Beauty (Druid)
  
• Cast in Stone (Druid)

Melee-Based Spells:

• Fist of Stone (Wiz)
  
• Flame Dagger (Wiz)
  
• Claw of Darkness (Wiz)
  
• Gutsnake (Wiz)
  
• Body Blades (Clr)
  
• Black Talon (Initiate of Cyric)
  
• Death Dragon (Clr)
  
• Snakebite (Druid)
  
• Spore Cloak (Druid)
  
• Toothed Tentacle (Wiz)
  
• Venomfire (Clr, Druid)

Meta-Enhancements:

• Critical Strike (Wiz)
  
• Grave Strike (Wiz, Clr)
  
• Vine Strike (Druid)
  
• Nightstalker's Transformation (Wiz)
  
• Mental Pinnacle (Wiz)
  
• Bladeweave (Wiz)
  
• Wraithstrike (Wiz)
  
• Tenser's Transformation (Wiz)
  
• Divine Favor (Clr)
  
• War Cry (Bard)
  
• Kiss of the Vampire (Wiz)
  
• Improvisation (Bard)
  
• Divine Sacrifice (Paladin)
  
• Swift Haste
  
• Touch of Jorasco (Clr)
  
• Dispel Evil/Good/Law/Chaos (Clr)
  
  
• Arms of Plenty (Wiz)

[size=+1]Sample Builds[/size]

The Arcane Nasty Gentleman: Wizard 5/Incantrix 10/Impure Prince 5
This chap sneaks into Impure Prince using Extra Spell to gain Summon Nature's Ally, then Spontaneous Summoner to qualify for Gatekeeper Initiate, the final pre-req. Impure Prince costs a single level of casting progression, but having top-notch metamagic and cheap symbionts is worth the dip.

The Unnatural Gentleman: Druid 14/Master of Radiance 1/Impure Prince 5
Venomfire. Extra Spell: Divine Power. Divine Metamagic. Energy Admixture and Twin. The Tentacle Whip symbiont has a built-in poison attack. 76d6 per attack times 4 attacks per tentacle times 7,600 tentacles. We're averaging 8 million damage a round, and that's not even optimized.

The Double-Aberrent-Ironic Gentleman:
Psychic Warrior 5/Ranger 1/Beholder Mage 1/Impure Prince 5/Ur-Priest 2/Mystic Theurge 6
Lotsa spell options. Lotsa self-hatred. Lotsa awesome.

[size=+1]FAQ[/size]

Q: Oh. Em. Eff. Gee. 8 million damage a round. At very least.
A: Damn straight.

Q: Thousands of tentacles? That's just nasty.
A: I know, I know. Don't blame me, blame Keith Baker. And maybe anime.

Q: Um. What about BoB Cloning with this? Or Nanotech?
A: You don't even want to get me started... :D

Q: But doesn't the Impure Prince's "Lure Symbiont" ability limit a character to one symbiont at a time?
A: Nope. The ability specifies that you can obtain a new symbiont whenever your old one "gets killed or lost." It says nothing about your old one staying dead or lost. Thus, a suitably nasty gentleman can kill or maze his original symbiont, only to raise or retrieve the little guy after obtaining a new friend to play with.

Q: What if all of your symbionts don't want to do what you tell them? Wouldn't you need some way to control them to prevent continually having to make Will saves to keep doing the things you want to do?
A: Yep. Gotta keep them in line somehow, unless you're playing a LE Aberration-minded truly Ungentle Nastyman. Here are some good methods of symbiont-taming:

• In-Character Role-Playing Jibber-Jabber
  
• Necrotic Tumor
  
• Geas/Quest and Lesser Geas
  
• Planar Ally (Lesser, Standard, Greater)
  
• Planar Binding (Lesser, Standard, Greater)
  
• Custom Summoning Variant + Halaster's Fetch
  
• Polymorph / Polymorph any Object
  
• Undead Control (Rebuking, Spell-Based Control, Direct Raising)

The very last one is new. I noticed that the Zombie and Skeleton templates allow raised creatures to keep their old subtypes. Therefore, the most easily available undead symbionts retain the all-important Share Spells ability. So, lure/purchase a symbiont, kill it, and raise it as a loyal undead minion. Combined with General of Undeath and Undead Lieutenant, being a Nasty Necromancer Gentleman has never been better!

Impressive.

Now, if the Share Spells ability could work for Psionics too due to overlap, that opens up a few options, especially the always-impressive Form of Doom power. You might be able to argue this further with the presence of the psionic symbionts in the FF.

One problem I see though is with the wording of the Impure Prince's Lure Symbiont ability. This is in the beginning of the second paragraph:

Magic of Eberron]If this symbiont is lost or killed, you can gain another one using the same method.

The way that I read this, you only get the 100 gp cost as a one-time discount until you are no longer in possession of your symbiont gained due to the a wrote:

Khan the Destroyer]Would the effects of multiple Ring of Blades spells stack? Or End to Strife for that matter?

Ring of Blades should work, having a target of 'You' and extending to 5ft around yourself. This effectively makes you a magical blender. (1d6 +10 damage for you and every symbiont.)

I don't think End to Strife works. It creates an Area, meaning it doesn't have a target of 'You' and I'm not sure that it counts as being cast on yourself. Assuming that I'm interpreting this wrong and it does, anyone who decided to attack anything would be vaporized wrote: