[Any] Overlooked But Awesome Miscellany

[Person_Man]

Inspired by the overlooked spells (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155999&page=4) and overlooked class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155517) threads. What equipment, feats, psionic powers, soulmelds, vestiges, maneuvers, templates, and other random stuff is there that is awesome, but does not get enough love from the community.

I'm interested not only in 3.0/3.5 D&D stuff (which will no doubt be 90% of this thread) but also awesome game mechanics from other systems (1st, 2nd, and 4th editions of D&D, Gurps, World of Darkness, whatever) that we might want to import via homebrew to 3.5.


I'll get the ball started with the Zceryll vestige (Class Chronicles web article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070718)). THIS is the reason to play a Binder build. Zceryll grants:

Psuedonatural template, which gives you SR, DR, Energy Resistance, the Outsider type, an Alternate Form, Outsider type, and other moderate perks.
Bolts of Madness: A Daze effect that lasts 1d3 rounds (Will negates).
Telepathy and Mindsight (blindsight)
Summon Alien: Lets you summon as a Sorcerer of your Binder level, and everything you summon gets the psuedonatural template for free. Take some time to look the SRD and all the splat books at everything you can Summon, and you’ll learn that you now have access to dozens of different spell-like and other abilities, including infinite healing and a wide variety of Save or Lose effects.


What can you think of?

[Caliphbubba]

I remember an item from the Iron Kingdoms campaign setting called an Armored Greatcoat that seemed really freaking awesome.

From what I remember it counted as light armor, that stacked with any other light armor you had on AND it gave you DR 3/bludgeoning for like 50g or something crazy.

[gallagher]

for the fighter who has a slashing weapon (seriously, who doesnt love the greatsword?) but doesnt have enough attacks to hit everyone around him, and has the tendancy to find himself surrounded by enemies, having a +1 Whirling Greatsword is the thing to have. coupled with knockdown or standstill (feats, for those not in the know) and you are the bell of the ball!

[Another_Poet]

I remember an item from the Iron Kingdoms campaign setting called an Armored Greatcoat that seemed really freaking awesome.

It's DR 5/Bludgeoning and is worn over armour. However, it is from a setting where healing is hard to come by. It is not meant to be mixed with other D&D settings because it is overpowered in other settings. Nearly free DR5 at 1st level? Not exactly going to stack up with the normal item pricing.

ap

[Caliphbubba]

It's DR 5/Bludgeoning and is worn over armour. However, it is from a setting where healing is hard to come by. It is not meant to be mixed with other D&D settings because it is overpowered in other settings. Nearly free DR5 at 1st level? Not exactly going to stack up with the normal item pricing.

ap

Ah you're right, we House Ruled it to DR/3 because it was just too good even in Iron Kingdoms. Frankly a lot of their stuff was poorly balanced against itself, let alone other settings. Loved the world, but yeah they needed some more play testing.

[Escheton]

Wow, crunchwise Zceryll is awesome. The fluff however is horrific.
Then again, binders are already pretty weird and possibly mad.

Shadow creature is a pretty nifty +2 LA templete. Found in Lords of Madness it grants lowlight, darkvision, stat and skillbuffs, nigh constant full misschance and a special ability every 4 hd, such as fast healing...


A spellthief and a warlock are good teammates. With the warlock giving up a minute of use of his all day spell-likes and the spellthief can fly and be invisible untill he attacks. And any other non blast related invocations the warlock chose.

[Darrin]

Planar Touchstone: Oxyrhynchus. Extra attack at -5 BAB... not sure why I don't see more of this on TWF/sneak attack builds.

Torch Bug Paste. Splash weapon, completely negate concealment for only 25 GP.

I think Shapesand is getting a little more love... haven't heard much about Aboleth Mucus or Chaos Flasks.

Figurine of Wondrous Power: Limestone Crab (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040320a). Yes, that crab (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a), plus hardness 3, 2/week a TPK you can hold in your hand, only 10000 GP.

Spell: Fey Ring (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a), sort of like Planar Binding but for Fey instead of Outsiders. If you take the time to look, you can find a lot of weird fey creatures with interesting SLAs, particularly in Oriental Adventures.


Kauper's Quickblast (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20050112a)? Guidance of the Avatar (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a)?

You already know about Chaos Roc Span... the Psionic/Incarnum soulmelds (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a) are pretty obscure. Astral Vambraces bound to your hand chakra gives you two slam attacks, you usually don't see that anywhere except on a totem chakra.

Cityscape has a lot of bizarre little oddities tucked away in its web enhancements... such as, the Mighty Lutebow (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070314a)! And vestiges/shadow mysteries (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307a).

Saurials (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20040717a): the only non-erratified Large Humanoid still in print. Also, a small-sized humanoid with a 50' fly speed.

[Fax Celestis]

You already know about Chaos Roc Span... the Psionic/Incarnum soulmelds (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a) are pretty obscure. Astral Vambraces bound to your hand chakra gives you two slam attacks, you usually don't see that anywhere except on a totem chakra.
It also gives DR 2+2e/magic (that is, 2 plus twice the essentia invested). This is a godsend at lower levels for the DR, and remains relevant higher since it also makes your natural attacks (and arguably your unarmed strikes) into magic weapons.


Some monsters are vulnerable to magic weapons. Any weapon with at least a +1 magical enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls overcomes the damage reduction of these monsters. Such creatures’ natural weapons (but not their attacks with weapons) are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

[JeminiZero]

Dragon Wings/Improved Dragon Wings (RoD). Flight at the cost of 2-3 feats (requires Dragonblood subtype which some races naturally have, or you can buy it with a feat as well).

As a feat, it is specifically retained when you polymorph, making it useful for classes with Polymorphing, but without flight from spell/power. So Druids/Wildshape Rangers can take this and transform into a WINGED BEARS! :smallbiggrin: Also useful for PsyWars thinking of taking Metamorph from Expanded Knowledge, or mundane folks relying on Psychoactive Skin of Protean.

[PId6]

Arcane Preparation (CA) - Mostly seen (and probably intended) as a crappier version of Rapid Metamagic. However, it has the nice side benefit of allowing sorcerers and other spontaneous casters to prepare Sanctified (and Corrupt) spells. The best use of this is for allowing Sorcerer/Abjurant Champions to cast Greater Luminous Armor, but it also helps spontaneous casters expand versatility a lot. And it still acts as a crappy Rapid Metamagic when needed.

[Zaq]

Faerie Fire is a nice way of negating concealment, but since it's confined to the Druid spell list, a lot of people don't pay it a lot of heed (what? Druids have 1st level spells that aren't Entangle? Madness!). What many people don't realize is that the MIC has the Stormfire Ring tucked away in the Item Sets chapter, which gives Faerie Fire 5/day for only 4,000 GP, which is pocket change at mid-levels and higher. It's a must-have if you have anyone fond of slinging around concealment (such as the various Cloud/Fog spells) in your party, or if you happen to be that person.

From Eberron, Quori Implanted Shards are usually ignored because they can only be implanted in Kalashtar. However, a DC 25 UPD check lets you pretend to be a Kalashtar for long enough to jam a crystal into your flesh, and it's a common houserule to allow UMD to stand in for UPD. (They do require you to have a manifester level, but that too can be imitated with UPD.) Since they're slotless, they're pretty nice, even though they do cost one HP per shard. My favorite is the 2,500 GP one which gives Know Direction and Location at-will, which is invaluable if you ever have to explore a desert or similar place where you can get lost. I also like the one that basically embeds an additional eye into your skin, which eventually grants the relatively rare (for PCs) all-around vision ability if you get enough of them. I vaguely recall one in another book (Magic of Eberron, most likely) that does strange things to power points, but I don't have it in front of me right now.

[Tytalus]

Arcane Preparation (CA) - Mostly seen (and probably intended) as a crappier version of Rapid Metamagic. However, it has the nice side benefit of allowing sorcerers and other spontaneous casters to prepare Sanctified (and Corrupt) spells. The best use of this is for allowing Sorcerer/Abjurant Champions to cast Greater Luminous Armor, but it also helps spontaneous casters expand versatility a lot. And it still acts as a crappy Rapid Metamagic when needed.

It also grants them access to Mage of the Arcane Order and, thus, to a Spellpool - a very nice ability to have for a sorcerer.

[Darrin]

Faerie Fire is a nice way of negating concealment, but since it's confined to the Druid spell list, a lot of people don't pay it a lot of heed (what? Druids have 1st level spells that aren't Entangle? Madness!). What many people don't realize is that the MIC has the Stormfire Ring tucked away in the Item Sets chapter, which gives Faerie Fire 5/day for only 4,000 GP, which is pocket change at mid-levels and higher. It's a must-have if you have anyone fond of slinging around concealment (such as the various Cloud/Fog spells) in your party, or if you happen to be that person.


Also does 1d6 electricity damage for the next 5 rounds, no attack roll, no save, up to 25d6 electricity damage per day. I'm a huge fan of the Stormfire Ring, great bargain for only 4000 GP. (If all you want is faerie fire, though, torch bug paste is cheaper, only 25 GP per tube.)

Also, for all those jealous druids scowling at greased wizards and ice-slicked clerics, path of frost in Dragon Magic = grease for druids.

Another spell tucked away in the Far Corners articles: fengut (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20030706a). At 1st level, this *pwns* enemy spellcasters/creatures with weak Fort saves. After that... eh, not so much pwnage. A spellcaster should have at least one spell that targets each save category, and this was one of the best Fort-based saves I could find at 1st level.

[Escheton]

Ring of nullification from ToM. 3600gp.
Declare an attacktype and it will absorb the attack 1/day. Damage cap of 20hp or 2 abilitypoint
So you could have it `stop the next crit`, `stop the next damagespell`,`stop the next condmg` or `stop the next firedmg`

[jiriku]

Healthful rest and periapt of wound closure + wilding clasp. Both double your rate of natural healing (the periapt has several other minor benefits as well). Wild shape and polymorph heal you as if from a night's rest.

IMC, a player's 14th-level druid uses feats to wild shape as a move action or swift action. When he's taking hits and needs to go on the defensive, he can wild shape into a dire bat, healing 42 damage and gaining flight and a considerable AC boost. When he's ready to attack, he wild shapes again into a dire tiger, healing another 42 damage before he charges and pounces. Healing 84 damage without spending any extra actions to do so isn't bad.