Afgncaap5
2012-06-18, 05:48 PM
Hey, I ran into a weird situation that's made me think that I don't actually understand how Artificer infusions work, specifically not Armor Enhancement, Greater. I was going through a custom campaign world with our DM, and we were level 5. The DM included Ravenloft (based on the 3.5 book) and so we eventually wound up meeting Strahd in his castle, and he made himself look extra scary (not to mention having two of his zombies at the ready.)
I panicked and decided to use the Armor Enhancement, Greater infusion to give another party member's armor the "Undead Controlling" ability. I expected her to be able to minimize the effectiveness of Strahd's zombies (maybe even get them to turn on him), but surprise of surprises, Strahd failed a Will save and the DM ruled that he was under that character's control (and that, apparently, the two zombies and Strahd combined to exactly the number of Hit Dice that Undead Controlling armor could influence.)
Now, while we had some fun controlling Strahd and looting his castle (though we didn't take the chance to just murder him then and there) the thing seemed off to me, and to the DM as well. The length of time that Strahd could have been controlled (if some minions hadn't broken him out first) was an issue of some concern, and the DM and I have talked about it at length (I've decided that I won't be using that infusion again while in Ravenloft so that the undead in that area aren't robbed of their thematic story purpose entirely, though that's more my decision than the DM's.) Anyway, as far as we can see there are three determining factors here:
-The length of time that Undead Controlling Armor works is set as being Until Sunrise.
-The duration of the Armor Enhancement, Greater infusion is listed as ten minutes per caster level (so, fifty minutes for my level 5 Artificer.)
-The casting time of Control Undead is 1 minute per level (so 5 minutes) with up to two HD/level undead controlled (so, ten HD if you're just casting it as a spell.)
Now, by the rules as I understand them, imbuing an armor with an armor ability confers that particular ability as it exists on the armor, so "50 minutes or sunrise, whichever comes first." However, that still seems way overpowered, especially considering what happened.
However, the DM says he found a note in a Dragon or Dungeon magazine where the Sage suggested (paraphrasing his paraphrase from memory here) that the ability will only last as long as if the artificer had cast the spell, so one minute per caster level. This seems fair for that particular infusion, but it also seems like it would just about nullify the effectiveness of armor enhancement infusions (and make the suggestion that they can last for ten minutes per level almost absurd.)
The answer that I'm going to be using for now is that I'll treat the infusion as if it's an Item Creation in progress, meaning that I treat infusion effects as having a caster level as equal to the item. As such, making Undead Controlling Armor under this theory would require a caster level of 13 (or 11 thanks to the Artificer's +2 bonus). This *feels* right, and while I'll probably be missing out on some fun armor/weapon abilities it won't ridiculously overpower me accidentally. My one issue with this, though, is that I have no idea how this would affect +1 or +4 weapon/armor bonuses (I think it means that imbuing a +3 bonus on some armor would require an artificer to be level 7.)
Anyway, this is all very specific, but I'm just trying to make sure I get it right. ;-)
(Oh, and as a final question: does it say somewhere if Bolster Undead makes undead creatures more resistant to the Control Undead spell? I've done some quick poking around but I'm not sure where I'd look, really.)
I panicked and decided to use the Armor Enhancement, Greater infusion to give another party member's armor the "Undead Controlling" ability. I expected her to be able to minimize the effectiveness of Strahd's zombies (maybe even get them to turn on him), but surprise of surprises, Strahd failed a Will save and the DM ruled that he was under that character's control (and that, apparently, the two zombies and Strahd combined to exactly the number of Hit Dice that Undead Controlling armor could influence.)
Now, while we had some fun controlling Strahd and looting his castle (though we didn't take the chance to just murder him then and there) the thing seemed off to me, and to the DM as well. The length of time that Strahd could have been controlled (if some minions hadn't broken him out first) was an issue of some concern, and the DM and I have talked about it at length (I've decided that I won't be using that infusion again while in Ravenloft so that the undead in that area aren't robbed of their thematic story purpose entirely, though that's more my decision than the DM's.) Anyway, as far as we can see there are three determining factors here:
-The length of time that Undead Controlling Armor works is set as being Until Sunrise.
-The duration of the Armor Enhancement, Greater infusion is listed as ten minutes per caster level (so, fifty minutes for my level 5 Artificer.)
-The casting time of Control Undead is 1 minute per level (so 5 minutes) with up to two HD/level undead controlled (so, ten HD if you're just casting it as a spell.)
Now, by the rules as I understand them, imbuing an armor with an armor ability confers that particular ability as it exists on the armor, so "50 minutes or sunrise, whichever comes first." However, that still seems way overpowered, especially considering what happened.
However, the DM says he found a note in a Dragon or Dungeon magazine where the Sage suggested (paraphrasing his paraphrase from memory here) that the ability will only last as long as if the artificer had cast the spell, so one minute per caster level. This seems fair for that particular infusion, but it also seems like it would just about nullify the effectiveness of armor enhancement infusions (and make the suggestion that they can last for ten minutes per level almost absurd.)
The answer that I'm going to be using for now is that I'll treat the infusion as if it's an Item Creation in progress, meaning that I treat infusion effects as having a caster level as equal to the item. As such, making Undead Controlling Armor under this theory would require a caster level of 13 (or 11 thanks to the Artificer's +2 bonus). This *feels* right, and while I'll probably be missing out on some fun armor/weapon abilities it won't ridiculously overpower me accidentally. My one issue with this, though, is that I have no idea how this would affect +1 or +4 weapon/armor bonuses (I think it means that imbuing a +3 bonus on some armor would require an artificer to be level 7.)
Anyway, this is all very specific, but I'm just trying to make sure I get it right. ;-)
(Oh, and as a final question: does it say somewhere if Bolster Undead makes undead creatures more resistant to the Control Undead spell? I've done some quick poking around but I'm not sure where I'd look, really.)