Nemquae
2014-01-10, 03:21 PM
Haven't seen either of these in fun finds or any of the dirty tricks:
The first trick makes a woman (or man) "all but impossible to destroy while she lives, requiring the intervention of a deity, contact with an artifact, or similar unusual circumstances to smash [her]."
Have the "Kissed by the Ages" Spell (Dragon Mag #354) cast on you and target a tiny-sized or smaller worn item as the linked object. Lets use a belt. This belt now has the clause above, as per the spell, but you do not (yet).
Create an Eldritch Haunt (Dragonlance: Towers of High Sorcery) Raggomoffyn (MMII) with the belt as the original item/form. This creature has all the qualities of the original item (and it is indeed their true form), so it gets the indestructible clause and its size is tiny. Since most templates lack the rules for how to create such things, let's just assume that we found some of these in the wild and managed to incorporate the belt into a developing Eldritch Haunt Raggomoffyn. In the Mournland or Plaguewrought Land these things might as well be native animals, so let's give them the Feral Rearing feat (Ravenloft: Champions of Darkness) so their type changes to Animal (technically RAW, arguably RAI). If none of this works we'll just use wishes to make it happen.
Form a symbiotic relationship (see Symbiotic Template in Savage Species) with the Feral Reared Eldritch Haunt Raggomoffyn. Alternatively, become a Captured One of the Raggomoffyn. Mindswitch as appropriate. One way or the other, you should both count as wearing the belt (retaining your ageless quality) while also being the belt (retaining the indestructibility clause). Congrats! You're immortal! Become an item of legend and go to town!
The second trick is a bit more complicated, but it can be combo'd with the above for invulnerability to all magical and mundane attacks (if my calculations are correct).
Let's apply some metamagic to Energy Transformation Field via the Incantatrix's Metamagic Effect... but in an unconventional way. First though, let's assume that the phrase "spell effect" can refer to any given effect of a spell (including down-stream effects), giving us some choice as to how we apply our metamagic. Now, normally, we don't have much of a choice on this because metamagic feats must be explicitly applied to spells, and almost all spells directly target creatures, so the only "spell effect" that we can choose as the target of our metamagic is the original persistent spell. But Energy Transformation Field explicitly affects other spells (plus other forms of magic), and my argument is that the effect it has on these other spells is itself a "spell effect", that is: the ETF => spell effect => other spells => other spell effects (to which we may apply metamagic). I'll use this in a second.
First let's cast Energy Transformation Field. Next Persist it with Metamagic Effect. Then apply Snowcasting. Then Flash Frost. Then Fell Frighten. Those last three are pretty standard TO tricks that I'm sure almost all of you have seen before, but at least the last one I'd like to apply differently. Notice the line in the spell, "Ongoing magical effects that enter the area, including spells cast from outside the area... are often visibly reduced, but do not have their actual effects hindered." I propose applying Fell Frighten to spells (and spell-likes, and supernatural abilities) with that effect. That's right, I want to buff my enemy's spells/abilities with a fear effect.
Why? Because once everything magical that they can throw at me has the mind-affecting descriptor, I can gain immunity to it through a simple mindblank (or a variety of other means). Granted, this requires a generous reading of the applicability of Metamagic Effect, but I think we can all agree that the "dampening" effect above is a spell effect and that the target of our metamagic (the affected spells) are indeed spells. There's an argument that non-area, non-damage spells (or spell-likes and supernatural abilities) wouldn't be affected by the particular metamagic feats I listed above, but what's important is that Disjunction, Wish, and similar spells can be made mind-affecting through this sort of enemy buffing technique and those are the only spells which can explicitly counter Energy Transformation Field.
ETF is an especially strong candidate for this for a few other reasons, namely the line: "an antimagic field prevents it from absorbing magical energy within the field but does not otherwise hamper this spell." Meaning that the "dampening" effect to which we applied our Fell Frightened is still active in an antimagic field. If we select Disjunction as our spell triggered by ETF, we can go toe-to-toe with Initiates of Mystra - they can cast in antimagic, but they can't cast in the Energy Transformation Field and even if they cast from the outside-in, their spells become mind-affecting, opening up lots of options for counters.
Just thought of this tonight, so I'm sure you guys will find problems, but I've yet to see an application of Metamagic Effect like this, so maybe there's a way around them?
I'm imagining a three-way symbiosis between three monstrosities a few generations removed from "a wizard did it":
Symbiotic (Host) Feral-Reared Incarnate Construct Effigy Lloth-touched Half-Minotaur Arctic Water Orc
Captured One Dungeonbred Feral-Reared Living Spell (Greater Consumptive Field + Energy Transformation Field (Disjunction))
Symbiotic (Guest) Warbeast Magebred Feral-Reared Spellwarped Corrupted Eldritch Haunt Raggoffyn
... And ideally with the Meditant's Prepared Mind ability, since I feel like that's as good or better than Mindblank for a build like this.
Comments/feedback welcome, but I gotta sleep.
The first trick makes a woman (or man) "all but impossible to destroy while she lives, requiring the intervention of a deity, contact with an artifact, or similar unusual circumstances to smash [her]."
Have the "Kissed by the Ages" Spell (Dragon Mag #354) cast on you and target a tiny-sized or smaller worn item as the linked object. Lets use a belt. This belt now has the clause above, as per the spell, but you do not (yet).
Create an Eldritch Haunt (Dragonlance: Towers of High Sorcery) Raggomoffyn (MMII) with the belt as the original item/form. This creature has all the qualities of the original item (and it is indeed their true form), so it gets the indestructible clause and its size is tiny. Since most templates lack the rules for how to create such things, let's just assume that we found some of these in the wild and managed to incorporate the belt into a developing Eldritch Haunt Raggomoffyn. In the Mournland or Plaguewrought Land these things might as well be native animals, so let's give them the Feral Rearing feat (Ravenloft: Champions of Darkness) so their type changes to Animal (technically RAW, arguably RAI). If none of this works we'll just use wishes to make it happen.
Form a symbiotic relationship (see Symbiotic Template in Savage Species) with the Feral Reared Eldritch Haunt Raggomoffyn. Alternatively, become a Captured One of the Raggomoffyn. Mindswitch as appropriate. One way or the other, you should both count as wearing the belt (retaining your ageless quality) while also being the belt (retaining the indestructibility clause). Congrats! You're immortal! Become an item of legend and go to town!
The second trick is a bit more complicated, but it can be combo'd with the above for invulnerability to all magical and mundane attacks (if my calculations are correct).
Let's apply some metamagic to Energy Transformation Field via the Incantatrix's Metamagic Effect... but in an unconventional way. First though, let's assume that the phrase "spell effect" can refer to any given effect of a spell (including down-stream effects), giving us some choice as to how we apply our metamagic. Now, normally, we don't have much of a choice on this because metamagic feats must be explicitly applied to spells, and almost all spells directly target creatures, so the only "spell effect" that we can choose as the target of our metamagic is the original persistent spell. But Energy Transformation Field explicitly affects other spells (plus other forms of magic), and my argument is that the effect it has on these other spells is itself a "spell effect", that is: the ETF => spell effect => other spells => other spell effects (to which we may apply metamagic). I'll use this in a second.
First let's cast Energy Transformation Field. Next Persist it with Metamagic Effect. Then apply Snowcasting. Then Flash Frost. Then Fell Frighten. Those last three are pretty standard TO tricks that I'm sure almost all of you have seen before, but at least the last one I'd like to apply differently. Notice the line in the spell, "Ongoing magical effects that enter the area, including spells cast from outside the area... are often visibly reduced, but do not have their actual effects hindered." I propose applying Fell Frighten to spells (and spell-likes, and supernatural abilities) with that effect. That's right, I want to buff my enemy's spells/abilities with a fear effect.
Why? Because once everything magical that they can throw at me has the mind-affecting descriptor, I can gain immunity to it through a simple mindblank (or a variety of other means). Granted, this requires a generous reading of the applicability of Metamagic Effect, but I think we can all agree that the "dampening" effect above is a spell effect and that the target of our metamagic (the affected spells) are indeed spells. There's an argument that non-area, non-damage spells (or spell-likes and supernatural abilities) wouldn't be affected by the particular metamagic feats I listed above, but what's important is that Disjunction, Wish, and similar spells can be made mind-affecting through this sort of enemy buffing technique and those are the only spells which can explicitly counter Energy Transformation Field.
ETF is an especially strong candidate for this for a few other reasons, namely the line: "an antimagic field prevents it from absorbing magical energy within the field but does not otherwise hamper this spell." Meaning that the "dampening" effect to which we applied our Fell Frightened is still active in an antimagic field. If we select Disjunction as our spell triggered by ETF, we can go toe-to-toe with Initiates of Mystra - they can cast in antimagic, but they can't cast in the Energy Transformation Field and even if they cast from the outside-in, their spells become mind-affecting, opening up lots of options for counters.
Just thought of this tonight, so I'm sure you guys will find problems, but I've yet to see an application of Metamagic Effect like this, so maybe there's a way around them?
I'm imagining a three-way symbiosis between three monstrosities a few generations removed from "a wizard did it":
Symbiotic (Host) Feral-Reared Incarnate Construct Effigy Lloth-touched Half-Minotaur Arctic Water Orc
Captured One Dungeonbred Feral-Reared Living Spell (Greater Consumptive Field + Energy Transformation Field (Disjunction))
Symbiotic (Guest) Warbeast Magebred Feral-Reared Spellwarped Corrupted Eldritch Haunt Raggoffyn
... And ideally with the Meditant's Prepared Mind ability, since I feel like that's as good or better than Mindblank for a build like this.
Comments/feedback welcome, but I gotta sleep.