Simple Q&A Stumpers

[Fax Celestis]

Been digging back through old Simple Q&A threads and have come across a few questions that have not been answered, presumably because no one has any idea.

So here they are: can we answer them?

Q1 If an Artificer powers his 2 Spare Hands (MoE, 111, rare variant) with a lvl 3 infusion each, has Two-Weapon Fighting and is using both a main- and off-hand weapon in his normal hands, how many attacks will he be able to make and at which bonuses, assuming he's lvl 14 with a BAB of +10/+5?

Q2 Is there a way to gain both turn and rebuke undead without losing Caster Levels, while also being non-good?

Q3 How would Mystic Ranger, Shooting Star Ranger, Sword of the Arcane Order, and Master Spellthief interact when placed in an optimal order for caster level on a Spellthief 1/Wizard 1/Ranger 7?

Q4 If I am a single classed Warblade, can I take Martial Stance at level 12 and take Aura of Perfect Aura? (Having picked up Two Devoted Spirit Maneuvers with Martial Study earlier)

Q5 Masters of Many Forms eventually acquire all the extraordinary SQs from the monsters they turn into. Since Wild Shape is keyed off Alternate Form in 3.5 and not polymorph as it was in 3.0, a MoMF keeps his original type even if he wild shapes into something of a different type. If a MoMF were to Wild Shape into a type that had immunities or other traits from type (such as a plant's immunity to crits), would Extraordinary Wild Shape impart these traits to the MoMF or not?

Q6 How exactly does the Rune Magic (Ex) ability interact with spontaneous spellcasting, such as that granted by a sorcerer? A sorcerer can meet the prerequisites of the class, and the class's flavor text even specifically mentions dwarven sorcerers taking levels in the class. The ability speaks about preparing spells as runestones--do those who do not prepare spells normally have to prepare spells in order to gain the benefit of Rune Magic? Do they benefit in spite of not preparing spells? Are they simply unable to benefit unless they somehow gain the ability to prepare spells (such as from a feat or another class)? Hypothetically, I am a wizard, and defeat a runesmith in battle. Would I be able to gain any benefit from looting his store of unspent rune spells? For example, would I be able to use those spells myself? Would I be able to use the stones to scribe the spell they contain into my spellbook? What about for a wizard/runesmith?

Q7 Do Shiba Warrior's class feature and Intuitive Attack's effects stack, allowing me to add Wisdom to attack rolls twice?

Q8 A Swiftblade 9 gives up their bonus attack from haste in exchange for their bonus standard action. If they were to use a weapon with the speed enhancement (which grants an extra attack that does not stack with haste), would they get it back?

Q9 Does the familiar granted by Dragon Familiar use your skill ranks and saves like a normal familiar would?

Q10 If a character takes the Item Familiar Feat at level 3 (or 6), does he have to have a magic item to make his familiar at hand, or can he do so at any time after selecting the feat?

Q11 Does the effect of the Ice Troll Berserker feat (natural armor bonus to AC) stack with an enhancement bonus to natural armor?

Q12 Does freedom of movement interact with non-magical effects that restrict movement, such as tanglefoot bags or nets, and if so, how?

Q13 Oath of blood modifies the geas/quest spell so it will raise the target as an undead if they die before completing their task. What happens if the undead is destroyed? Do they raise again and again till the duration wears off or the task is completed? Or are they released then like dying would have originally done anyway?

Q14 Can I make a contingent spell of sufficient price (a la Craft Contingent Spell) my Item Familiar?

Q15 If a psion manifests synchronicity and has a psicrystal, does the psicrystal also get a readied action due to shared powers? Does it have to be the same readied action? If yes, what if the psion augments synchronicity so that he doesn't have to specify an action?

Q16 Can psicrystal pinpoint a foe/any items?

Q17 When using the Incarnum/Magic-transparency. What exactly does Spell Resistance apply to and why? Claw Attacks from Landshark Boots? Manticore Spikes from Manticore Belt? Fire damage from Mantle of Fire? Frost attacks from Frost Helm?

Q18 While wearing an amulet of retributive healing and casting a cure spell on an enemy which is healed, do you get healed in return? What about casting a cure spell on an undead enemy which is harmed: do you get healed in return?

Q19 Can a quill of scribing be used to keep making a scroll (with possibly up to 1d6 spells) while a crafter/his Dedicated Wright works on a different magical item, if the quill's order has been given before the work on the other item begins?

Q20 If two creatures are grappling, and one of the creatures is knocked out of the other's square (say, by an attack with the Awesome Blow feat, or a bull rush), what happens? Does the grapple end automatically? What if they're only partially knocked out of another's square (say, if they're knocked back 5 feet and the grapplers are both Large)? What happens then?

Q21 I know that cursts lose their spellcasting abilities upon becoming Cursts, but would they be able to start over once they have become undead?

Q22 Can cursts use spell-like abilities they gain from the Spell-Stitched template?



More questions as I find more.

[FullStop]

A5: to my understanding when you take martial study when you have levels in a martial adept, regardless of school, you're taking the maneuver as one of your known maneuvers as your martial adept class, and thus get full IL for determining max level you can take(and if you have more than one, you choose which adept class gets it as a maneuver known, which also determines your effective IL for the purpose of determining max maneuver level).

[mabriss lethe]

A17: It would appear that all soulmelds are SR: Yes, and that a meldshaper would roll d20 + their meldshaper level for a level check to overcome it.


Spell resistance is effective against any soulmeld used to affect a creature other than the meldshaper. A meldshaper’s
spell resistance (if any) is automatically overcome by his
own soulmelds.

[Alabenson]

A4: Assuming you have used Martial Study twice to pick up the necessary prerequisites, yes you may.

[Jade_Tarem]

A12: Feedom of Movement does interact with nonmagical movement restriction by completely negating nonmagical movement restriction (just like magical movement restriction). You can't even be grappled while you have Freedom of Movement running; a nonmagical entangle effect or puddle of superglue isn't going to slow you down.

The exception is walls, or anything that would stop you cold that isn't being done to you directly. If it wasn't a legal square for you to move into or a legal line between squares for you to cross, you still can't go there, so Wall of Force or Forcecage can still stop you.

[Telok]

A8
Since the extra attack of the haste spell and the extra attack of the speed weapon overlap, I would say that by losing the extra attack from haste the extra attack form the speed weapon would function as printed.

The speed enchantment isn't negated by the haste spell. It is the extra attacks that do not stack. With one of the extra attacks being converted into something else the second extra attack remains. And with only one extra attack there is no queston of stacking.

A20
The grapple probably ends. I do not think that the designers foresaw that interaction, so there is not an explicit rule that I am aware of to cover the situation. This will be a DM ruling sort of situation unless someone can call out a rule in one of the books.

[Curmudgeon]

A 10
Choose a permanent magic item that you possess. That's an easy one: no waiting allowed.

A 14 No.
You know how to attach semipermanent spells to a creature and set them to activate under certain conditions. I'm not sure which question you're asking here, so I'll answer them both. A contingent spell isn't an item. You also can't attach a contingent spell to an item familiar, because it isn't a creature.

[Silva Stormrage]

A 18 Amulet of Retributive Amulet states that when the amulet heals another creature you are healed as well. Thus if you heal an enemy you are still healed but if you damage a creature with a cure spell it won't heal you since you didn't actually heal any damage with the spell.

A 21 & 22 The Curst template just says that they lose all spellcasting ability. There is nothing that says they can't gain spells or spell like abilities from future levels or templates. Future wizard levels and the spell stich template should work.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Q2

Two ways, with varying degrees of DM acceptance;

Necromantic Bloodline + Kin Mastery (both in Dragon Compendium). Grants turn undead 1/day, but requires about six levels of sorcerer
God-Touched + Divine Channeler (Dragon #305). Also grants turn undead 1/day. Doesn't require any spellcasting, the only prereq is to worship a deity.


I really wished that there was some way to use either Sovereign Archetype cheese (Lightbringer kobolds) or Heretic of the Faith, but it's remarkably hard to grant TU without a Good alignment (and I so wanted to make a cleric of the Burning Hate that could do this).

[lunar2]

A 10 That's an easy one: no waiting allowed.

A 14 No. I'm not sure which question you're asking here, so I'll answer them both. A contingent spell isn't an item. You also can't attach a contingent spell to an item familiar, because it isn't a creature.

actually, a sentient item familiar is a creature. anything with a wisdom and charisma score is a creature, and intelligent items have both. they are constructs.

[Darrin]

Q2
Two ways, with varying degrees of DM acceptance;

Necromantic Bloodline + Kin Mastery (both in Dragon Compendium). Grants turn undead 1/day, but requires about six levels of sorcerer
God-Touched + Divine Channeler (Dragon #305). Also grants turn undead 1/day. Doesn't require any spellcasting, the only prereq is to worship a deity.



Magical Training, Precocious Apprentice, and some sort of Heighten trick (Sanctum Spell, Improved Krau Sigil) could allow you to skip the six levels of Sorcerer.


There are some other methods to get TU on a not-so-good chassis.


Bone Talisman spell from the Earthmother's Weapons (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a) article.
Shroudcrown (Player's Guide to Faerun p. 124) lets anyone turn undead as a 10th level cleric. Not cheap, though... 113600 GP.
Domain Wizard who takes one of the "turn elemental/plant/hippo" domains at 5th level can then take Planar Touchstone -> Catalogues of Enlightenment -> Sun Domain and convert his "turn whatever" into a Greater Turn Undead 1/day, which counts as TU.
Mystic who takes the Sun domain (Dragonlance Campaign Setting) can TU as a good cleric, even if they are evil.
Planar Touchstone -> Catalogues of Enlightenment -> Sun domain from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. If you go by publication date, the Dragonlance version supercedes the PHB version.
Domain Drought created by a Dragonlance Myst.. ok, you get the idea.

[jaydubs]

Q2 Is there a way to gain both turn and rebuke undead without losing Caster Levels, while also being non-good?



Another option:

AEG had an undead book with the Wasteland Druid PrC, which stacks with druid levels for spellcasting and that also grants rebuke undead. Combine with the bone talisman spell that allows a druid to turn undead.

No loss in caster level, alignment requirement is neutral evil, and the ability to turn and rebuke at cleric level equal to druid + PrC level.

Involves 3rd party material, doesn't actually include any cleric levels, and the turning likely can't be used to fuel DMM. But technically correct - the best kind of correct.

[Curmudgeon]

actually, a sentient item familiar is a creature. anything with a wisdom and charisma score is a creature, and intelligent items have both. they are constructs.
You're assuming the item familiar is sapient, which was not stated in the question.
Intelligent Items

This variant system does not depend on the item in question being intelligent, but any item familiar created eventually becomes intelligent.
...
Sapience

If a character with an item familiar is at least 7th level, the item gains rudimentary sapience. It gains Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. The actual question asked was if the contingent spell can become the item familiar, which is clearly not possible.

[Darrin]

Q1 If an Artificer powers his 2 Spare Hands (MoE, 111, rare variant) with a lvl 3 infusion each, has Two-Weapon Fighting and is using both a main- and off-hand weapon in his normal hands, how many attacks will he be able to make and at which bonuses, assuming he's lvl 14 with a BAB of +10/+5?


A1

He would get three attacks: two primary attacks, and one offhand attack. With TWF and assuming his offhand was light, his attack progression would look like:

+8 primary/+8 offhand/+3 primary

But that has nothing to do with whether or not he has any Spare Hands. In the original question, it was never stated if the Artificer was using the Spare Hands to wield anything. I believe the question you were trying to ask was, if an Artificer is using the rare variant "double" Spare Hands along with his normal hands, and he's wielding a weapon in each hand, how many attacks does he get?

First, once the Artificer has more than two hands and is wielding a weapon in each, Two-Weapon Fighting is replaced by Multiweapon Fighting. The rules in the MM don't say if this replacement is instantaneous, or what happens when the infusion stored in the Spare Hands runs out, but for the sake of argument we'll assume TWF and MWF just automatically replace each other whenever the number of hands on a creature changes.

Second, we'll assume all of the Artificer's offhand weapons are light. He gets five attacks: two primaries, and three offhand attacks:

+8 primary/+8 offhand#1/+8 offhand#2/+8 offhand#3/+3 primary

[Eurus]

Q15: The psicrystal definitely gets a readied action, since share power allows the psicrystal to get the full effect. It's a little hard to tell whether you and your psicrystal would both have to ready the same action. It looks to me like you don't; the power's effect seems to be "this turn you may ready an action for free", and all subjects could ready different things, in the same way that a Mass Snake's Swiftness spell doesn't force everyone to attack the same target. That's my reading, anyway.

But you might argue that the power's effect is the readied action, and so all decisions for it must be made as part of manifesting and must be the same for you and your psicrystal. I don't know that there's an absolute 100% obviously right answer, so interpretation applies.

Q14: I'm almost sure the answer is no. Regardless of whether you believe a crafted contingent spell should count as a magic item (and I'm thinking no, since it's never referred to as one directly), Item Familiar specifies a permanent magic item.

[lunar2]

You're assuming the item familiar is sapient, which was not stated in the question. The actual question asked was if the contingent spell can become the item familiar, which is clearly not possible.

yeah, contingent spells aren't permanent items (although they are explicitly items by RAW), so they can't be made into item familiars. but i was responding to the other part of your post, where you stated that item familiars aren't creatures. they are if they are sentient.

[Jade_Tarem]

A5: A Master of Many Forms does (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-general/threads/1060931) get the immunities of his/her chosen form, even if they are technically derived from creature type, once he or she attains Extraordinary Wild Shape.

[Anxe]

Hurray! My Curst question finally got answered! Thanks so much!

[mabriss lethe]

Q21&22: I'm looking at the template in Lost Empires of Faerun. I don't see any reference to them losing the ability to cast spells. (aside from taking a hit to all mental stats.) Am I missing something, or was the template updated from the version in LEoF?

EDIT: The curst version mentioned is the 3.0 version presented in Monsters of Faerun. (published 2001) It should be supplanted by the version presented in Lost Empires, which lacks the reference to lost casting (published 2005).

[Psyren]

A16 Psicrystals can see "as well as a creature with normal vision and hearing." Creatures with normal vision and hearing can pinpoint objects and other creatures, so psicrystals can as well.

Note: I used the verb "see" because the ability is called "Sighted."

[Chronos]

A 16 continued:

I think the question was actually asking "Can a psicrystal communicate a creature's location to its master well enough for the master to pinpoint the creature, if the psicrystal can see it but the master can't?". Like, say, if you're in darkness, or if the psicrystal has Lifesense or Mindsight.

But pinpointing just means getting the right square, and that can be done via language ("Ten feet in front of you and five to the right"), so should also be doable via the crystal's telepathy.

[IronFist]

Q3: How would Mystic Ranger, Shooting Star Ranger, Sword of the Arcane Order, and Master Spellthief interact when placed in an optimal order for caster level on a Spellthief 1/Wizard 1/Ranger 7?

A3: You can't combine most of Shooting Star Ranger with Mystic Ranger. Shooting Star Ranger needs Endurance at level 3, Mystic Ranger gets it at level 4. Shooting Star Ranger gives up an animal companion at level 4, but Mystic Ranger has already given it up. The one thing you can get from Shooting Star Ranger is the 8th level ability, Expanded Spell List, getting Word of Recall and See Invisibility in your class list. Since sub levels are explicitly on a case by case basis, you can take that 8th level, drop swift tracker and add these spells to your spell list.
As for how Sword of the Arcane Order and Master Spellthief interact - they don't. Mystic Ranger is still a divine caster, Sword of the Arcane Order or not, and Master Spellthief only works on arcane classes.

If you houserule all of that as working, your spellcaster level would be 3 (normal for a level 7 Ranger) + 2 (Shooting Star Ranger) + 2 (Master Spellthief) = 7. Which is also the same spellcaster level you would get from Practiced Spellcaster, with no houserules at all.

Also notice you could take the Magical Training feat instead of dipping wizard to get a spellbook. It's a regional feat, but then again Shooting Star Ranger and Sword of the Arcane Order are also setting-specific and it's all the same setting.

[Psyren]

A 16 continued:

I think the question was actually asking "Can a psicrystal communicate a creature's location to its master well enough for the master to pinpoint the creature, if the psicrystal can see it but the master can't?". Like, say, if you're in darkness, or if the psicrystal has Lifesense or Mindsight.

But pinpointing just means getting the right square, and that can be done via language ("Ten feet in front of you and five to the right"), so should also be doable via the crystal's telepathy.

Yes, this is correct - if the question was "can a psicrystal negate concealment for its master using its senses" then the answer is no. But it can relay the square an unseen attacker is hiding in, if it is capable of perceiving it while the master is not.

The Sense Link power will work however (because it treats the psicrystal's senses "as an independent sensory organ") provided you can find some way to get a mind-affecting power onto it.

[Darrin]

Q7 Do Shiba Warrior's class feature and Intuitive Attack's effects stack, allowing me to add Wisdom to attack rolls twice?


A7

Yes. These are two different abilities from two different sources.

No Thought (Ex) adds the Shiba Protector's Wis bonus (if positive) to all attacks and damage with any weapon, melee or ranged. This is added on top of whatever Str or Dex bonus they would normally receive on a melee or ranged attack.

Intuitive Attack replaces the Str bonus you receive on melee attacks/damage (and some thrown weapon damage), but it only works with simple or natural weapons. When attacking with a simple/natural melee weapon, a Shiba Protector with Intuitive Attack would get his Wis bonus twice on attacks both attack and damage.

[Silva Stormrage]

A7

Yes. These are two different abilities from two different sources.

No Thought (Ex) adds the Shiba Protector's Wis bonus (if positive) to all attacks and damage with any weapon, melee or ranged. This is added on top of whatever Str or Dex bonus they would normally receive on a melee or ranged attack.

Intuitive Attack replaces the Str bonus you receive on melee attacks/damage (and some thrown weapon damage), but it only works with simple or natural weapons. When attacking with a simple/natural melee weapon, a Shiba Protector with Intuitive Attack would get his Wis bonus twice on both attack and damage.

While 99% true a Shiba Protector with Intuitive attack gets wisdom bonus twice to attack rolls and his wisdom modifier plus his strength modifier to damage rolls. Intuitive attack only replaces strength for attack rolls not damage rolls. Unless there is a different version from the BoED feat I am currently looking at.

[IronFist]

While 99% true a Shiba Protector with Intuitive attack gets wisdom bonus twice to attack rolls and his wisdom modifier plus his strength modifier to damage rolls. Intuitive attack only replaces strength for attack rolls not damage rolls. Unless there is a different version from the BoED feat I am currently looking at.
Yeah, Intuitive Attack is for attack rolls only. I had a player using that in a Swordsage/Paladin build. Badass.

[Alabenson]

Q9 Does the familiar granted by Dragon Familiar use your skill ranks and saves like a normal familiar would?


Yes, however, if the dragon familiar has better skill ranks or base saves than the you, then it uses it's own skill ranks/base saves instead, as is normal for a familiar.

[Darrin]

While 99% true a Shiba Protector with Intuitive attack gets wisdom bonus twice to attack rolls and his wisdom modifier plus his strength modifier to damage rolls. Intuitive attack only replaces strength for attack rolls not damage rolls. Unless there is a different version from the BoED feat I am currently looking at.

Whoops! Good catch. Sorry, should have reread that before I hit "post".