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Wings of Peace
2010-02-18, 04:25 AM
Be it a class feature, poorly worded item, or a single rule what is your favorite mechanic from D&D 3.0/3.5 to abuse and then send to the kitchen to make you a sandwich while you sip your ale?

My personal favorite has been for a long time Taint. Not a hard one to abuse really but I'm a sucker for the flavor behind it.

Also, Saph touched on something a few posts down that I feel is worth bringing up.


If you're halfway competent you don't need to abuse mechanics to make a extremely powerful character.

Now, do not take this as my calling her out. I very much agree with her statement. Rather, I feel it is evidence that I am failing to convey a message about this thread and I am going to make an effort to convey that message with the following rant/whatever you like to call wordy things.

This is not a thread about creating powerful characters. They can certainly be a byproduct of the knowledge that has already and with luck will continue to be shared here but that is not the purpose of this thread.

This thread is at it's core meant to be a celebration of sorts. I am a great fan of the mechanics of rpgs. Without going to in depth there is a great beauty I find to the way all of the rules interact with each other like gears to create a functioning system. On a personal level I find abuses, exploits, tricks etc. to be equally elegant in their own right and to celebrate that elegance I have created this thread for people to share their enthusiasm for this elegance by contributing to it.

Grumman
2010-02-18, 04:32 AM
Halfling Outrider levels stacking with paladin, druid and ranger levels for the benefit of your special mount or animal companion.

illyrus
2010-02-18, 04:44 AM
Shrink item

- Throw it as a weapon

- Stick it into a lock

- Write small on a large sheet of paper, shrink it and turn it into cloth and then put some gold in it and tie it up, time delayed message

- Slip a shrunk bit of liquid or solid in someone's drink or food

- Shrink a dangerous item into harmless cloth then use it as a trap

etc.

Kurald Galain
2010-02-18, 04:48 AM
Be it a class feature, poorly worded item, or a single rule what is your favorite mechanic from D&D 3.0/3.5 to abuse and then send to the kitchen to make you a sandwich while you sip your ale?

...none of them.

KellKheraptis
2010-02-18, 05:17 AM
Metamagic Effect, by far. You can apply metamagic to any "persistent magical effect." Let that sink in. Now...what sort of nasty stuff can you spawn from that? Persistent Veils? Chained Crushing Fist of Spite? Heh, Chained Maw of Chaos? Just imagine any buff you'd love to have all day, or any unpleasant magical effect you'd love to not have, and then 3+Int times per day, make it happen. Magic, pure and simple, at it's core. Love it.

Ernir
2010-02-18, 05:23 AM
Arcane spellcasting.

Oops.

Saph
2010-02-18, 05:27 AM
...none of them.

This. If you're halfway competent you don't need to abuse mechanics to make a extremely powerful character.

AslanCross
2010-02-18, 05:32 AM
My personal favorite has been for a long time Taint. Not a hard one to abuse really but I'm a sucker for the flavor behind it.

I've owned Heroes of Horror for a while but only really read up on Taint in the last few days.

Tainted Scholar is INSANE. Effective Int for bonus spells = 10+Depravity score?! Seriously.

Cyclocone
2010-02-18, 05:34 AM
Probably Circle Magic. Everything is better with Circle Magic.

Wings of Peace
2010-02-18, 06:29 AM
I've owned Heroes of Horror for a while but only really read up on Taint in the last few days.

Tainted Scholar is INSANE. Effective Int for bonus spells = 10+Depravity score?! Seriously.

Take Tainted Meta-Magic. Note that it's limited by the highest level spell you can cast. Now add Divine Metamagic, Heighten Spell, Nightsticks, and whatever arbitrary method of Constitution Damage immunity you like.

potatocubed
2010-02-18, 06:47 AM
Rule 0

tenzeroes

Iceforge
2010-02-18, 07:10 AM
A twist of 4 mechanics in VtM is cruel:

2 disciplines: Vicissitude + Potens, combined with dual attack Clinch and Bite

3 ranks in Vicissitude = Bone craft = Lethal damage with Clinch, basicly doubling the damage it usually gives.

X ranks in Potens (the more, the merrier) and you can X automatic extra damage with each attack.

To explain: In VtM, there is 3 types of damage, Bashing, Lethal and Aggrevated.

Bashing is punches, gunshots and other easily ignored things (yes, gunshots aint that bad in VtM)

Lethal is double of Bashing, basicly.

Aggrevated is not soakable unless you got special abilities, take over a day to heal each damage you gain, and your precious 7 health levels means you get hindered as soon as you got 2 of these.

So you split your action up to clinch and bite.

You get a 2 dice penalty on clinch, but use 1pt of Willpower to get an automatic success to even that out.

If you get a hold, you can follow up with a bite, where you also get a 2 dice penalty (usually 3, but bite has +1 accuracy to make up for that), your opponent might already have a penalty to his dodge from the damage done by the clinch and the bite deals aggrevated damage, so if you got 3 potens (you can start with 3 in both Vicissitude and Potens) you first deal 3 automatic lethal damage, which will most likely put your opponent into -2, evening out the playing field for your bite, which the deals 3 automatic aggrevated, which is not soakable unless he got fortitude, putting him at -5 penalty and at your mercy

magic9mushroom
2010-02-18, 07:52 AM
Taint. Just look at my sig.

Optimystik
2010-02-18, 08:27 AM
I don't like to "abuse" anything. Some of them are interesting to read about (like Invisible Spell illusions to defeat True Seeing, 120% real Shadow spells, and of course Taint), but like Saph said, none of these have any place at the gaming table unless you want to enter an arms race with your DM.

If I did have a favorite, it would be PP recovery, simply because I enjoy psionics so much.

SurlySeraph
2010-02-18, 09:00 AM
Metamagic level reducers. There are better ways to defeat opponents, but "The touch attack hits? OK, you take 93 negative levels!" is just so much fun. Plus you can do party-friendly things with it if you want, llike Chained Persistent Divine Power on the party and a half-dozen of their closest friends.

Starbuck_II
2010-02-18, 09:06 AM
I don't really abuse, but if I did use an abuse.
Bloodlines don't use up a level to go up a level in them by RAW. Since they don't affect your ECL you are still a lower level so you can gain a level.
Which means you can take a free level in them when ever you can take a level (like equal 3000 XP at level 2).

Weezer
2010-02-18, 11:05 AM
Full spellcasting, if you need more you aren't trying hard enough.

TheCountAlucard
2010-02-18, 11:17 AM
I rather like Heaven Thunder Hammer myself, but I think that's just because I don't have Horizon-Hurling Tactic yet. :smallbiggrin:

With Heaven Thunder Hammer, I can punch an Abyssal twenty yards. With Horizon-Hurling Tactic, that would become twenty miles. Mechanically, Horizon-Hurling Tactic is a tad sucky, but I love the idea of it nonetheless. The foe travels 20 miles over the course of 5 minutes as a result of the attack. That's an average travel speed of 240 mph. Wherever that Abyssal lands, he's not gonna be happy!

Kaerou
2010-02-18, 11:24 AM
Druids.

Wizards.

.... Y'know, straight out of the books, raw.