Miss Disaster
2014-09-16, 05:21 PM
For most of the spellcasters I've run, I've always been a big fan of the Ventriloquism (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/ventriloquism.htm) spell and its intended tactics and flavor. Granted, its game mechanics have always required a lot of DM interaction/adjudication, but that's common with most figment spells anyway. The big problem with the spell is that as a first level spell and the way the Illusion Interaction rules work with hearing-based spells (like this one and Ghost Sound) ... the spell doesn't scale well and it gets quickly left behind as an effective combat option once you enter the middle to higher levels. Unlike Silent Image which can still force many higher level foes into wasting an action or 2 to interact with it - or avoiding it altogether. And I'll be damned if I have to get the Heighten metamagic feat and waste a higher level spell slot to boost my save DC for Ventriloquism.
That all said, I've always wanted to create a magic item of some sort that actually gives Ventriloquism some respectable scaleability and Save DC boosting into the middle ... and maybe ... higher levels. But I'm not quite sure how to craft or commission such an item and keep it reasonable priced.
After all, this spell will rarely win you encounters. It's more a flavor spell and one that can occasionally cause some enemy dischord and action advantage. Yet I'd love to be able to have it occasionally bamboozle some CR 13 and higher foes and give the party an opportunity to better position themselves from enemies chasing non-existing voices. :-)
So to you Giants in the Playground, I would love some help engineering a Ventriloquism magic item that accomplished the above objectives. Any help or brainsparks?
Other Objectives To Note:
1. It can be any kind of 3.5 magic item.
2. Usage should be either continuous Ventriloquism or 1-2 uses a day (for cheap cost) and triggered silently for stealth reasons.
3. Keep cost low. Preferably under 8K.
4. Scaling DC if at all possible. Thankfully, Ventriloquism is SR=NO.
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The reason I'm not posting this to the Homebrew Forum is because I wanted to collaboratively work on this item (and I'll post some suggestion later on). Also, I'd like to open up the thread to discussion on how to maximize this highly under-used and under-appreciated spell. Thank you!
That all said, I've always wanted to create a magic item of some sort that actually gives Ventriloquism some respectable scaleability and Save DC boosting into the middle ... and maybe ... higher levels. But I'm not quite sure how to craft or commission such an item and keep it reasonable priced.
After all, this spell will rarely win you encounters. It's more a flavor spell and one that can occasionally cause some enemy dischord and action advantage. Yet I'd love to be able to have it occasionally bamboozle some CR 13 and higher foes and give the party an opportunity to better position themselves from enemies chasing non-existing voices. :-)
So to you Giants in the Playground, I would love some help engineering a Ventriloquism magic item that accomplished the above objectives. Any help or brainsparks?
Other Objectives To Note:
1. It can be any kind of 3.5 magic item.
2. Usage should be either continuous Ventriloquism or 1-2 uses a day (for cheap cost) and triggered silently for stealth reasons.
3. Keep cost low. Preferably under 8K.
4. Scaling DC if at all possible. Thankfully, Ventriloquism is SR=NO.
******
The reason I'm not posting this to the Homebrew Forum is because I wanted to collaboratively work on this item (and I'll post some suggestion later on). Also, I'd like to open up the thread to discussion on how to maximize this highly under-used and under-appreciated spell. Thank you!