3.5 leomunds secure shelter gamebreak

[Frostthehero]

I have a couple of questions about wizardry.

1. Ice assassin is supposed to be incredibly powerful right? As far as I can tell, you need a piece of the person to be mimicked. This works really well for something you can easily get a sample of, but even a slightly paranoid wizard would know not to leave hair and fingernails around. How do I (or another wizard) get by this?

2. Does this sound plausible?
archmage high arcana: shape spell. Cast antimagic field, shape an area around yourself, and polymorph into a hydra. The hydra's fire breath ability is not counted as a spell like or supernatural ability, so it can be used inside the AMF. Short of disjunction, there is no way to get rid of the field, granting you near invulnerability and massive damage output.

I do understand that the aforementioned combo is not as fantastic as some others that can be done, but in a campaign where your DM is already pissed at you for breaking the game several times, isn't that nice?

3. I have come up with a massive gamebreak for leomund's secure shelter, assuming that your DM rules in your favor on your contentions.

It begins with a chunk of osmium, and casting LSS on it (my DM allows the house to be formed of whatever it is cast on). Assuming walls one foot thick (the thickness of average masonry), this comes out to an area of 1200 cubic feet, or about 34 million cubic centimeters. multiplied by Osmium's density, this results in about 767 thousand kilograms.

brought into space and dropped, the house accelerates enough that landing causes approximately a 1 kiloton explosion, obliderating everything within 1.2 miles

[Red Fel]

I have a couple of questions about wizardry.

1. Ice assassin is supposed to be incredibly powerful right? As far as I can tell, you need a piece of the person to be mimicked. This works really well for something you can easily get a sample of, but even a slightly paranoid wizard would know not to leave hair and fingernails around. How do I (or another wizard) get by this?

If you can cast Ice Assassin, you can cast Wish. If you can cast Wish, you can Wish for a piece of the target of your Ice Assassin spell.


2. Does this sound plausible?
archmage high arcana: shape spell. Cast antimagic field, shape an area around yourself, and polymorph into a hydra. The hydra's fire breath ability is not counted as a spell like or supernatural ability, so it can be used inside the AMF. Short of disjunction, there is no way to get rid of the field, granting you near invulnerability and massive damage output.

I do understand that the aforementioned combo is not as fantastic as some others that can be done, but in a campaign where your DM is already pissed at you for breaking the game several times, isn't that nice?

It's not the most powerful thing you can do; there are ways to kill a Hydra, after all. But sure, if that's what you want.


3. I have come up with a massive gamebreak for leomund's secure shelter, assuming that your DM rules in your favor on your contentions.

It begins with a chunk of osmium, and casting LSS on it (my DM allows the house to be formed of whatever it is cast on). Assuming walls one foot thick (the thickness of average masonry), this comes out to an area of 1200 cubic feet, or about 34 million cubic centimeters. multiplied by Osmium's density, this results in about 767 thousand kilograms.

brought into space and dropped, the house accelerates enough that landing causes approximately a 1 kiloton explosion, obliderating everything within 1.2 miles

Except that there's a cap on damage caused by falling objects (20d6). Keep your real-world physics out of my D&D, if you please.

[Frostthehero]

Except that there's a cap on damage caused by falling objects (20d6). Keep your real-world physics out of my D&D, if you please.

The falling damage is not what actually deals the damage, it's the massive pressure wave and heat blast. I would call it a saveless no SR disintegrate on anything within 1.2 miles

[Phelix-Mu]

The falling damage is not what actually deals the damage, it's the massive pressure wave and heat blast. I would call it a saveless no SR disintegrate on anything within 1.2 miles

Except the game provides no basis for a shockwave emanating from a falling object. The DM may rule that it makes sense, or the DM may rule that it doesn't. Or the DM may rule that it only affects people within 30' for exactly the same amount of damage as a person directly struck (20d6). As a player, your best strategies will work independent on lucky rulings by the DM.

Speaking of which, how does your character know about osmium? That doesn't seem to be a thing that is easy to know about given the rules.

[eggynack]

1. Ice assassin is supposed to be incredibly powerful right? As far as I can tell, you need a piece of the person to be mimicked. This works really well for something you can easily get a sample of, but even a slightly paranoid wizard would know not to leave hair and fingernails around. How do I (or another wizard) get by this?
A piece of a being is costless, and is a material component of this spell. Thus, you can find it in a material component pouch. Alternatively, you can just wish up a scroll of ice assassin tuned to the creature in question, preferably through zodar form.

2. Does this sound plausible?
archmage high arcana: shape spell. Cast antimagic field, shape an area around yourself, and polymorph into a hydra. The hydra's fire breath ability is not counted as a spell like or supernatural ability, so it can be used inside the AMF. Short of disjunction, there is no way to get rid of the field, granting you near invulnerability and massive damage output.

I do understand that the aforementioned combo is not as fantastic as some others that can be done, but in a campaign where your DM is already pissed at you for breaking the game several times, isn't that nice?
You might deal good damage, but you're not invulnerable at all. The AMF is necessarily shaped in a way that doesn't include you, so opponents can just toss spells at you. Such is the way an AMF works.


3. I have come up with a massive gamebreak for leomund's secure shelter, assuming that your DM rules in your favor on your contentions.

It begins with a chunk of osmium, and casting LSS on it (my DM allows the house to be formed of whatever it is cast on). Assuming walls one foot thick (the thickness of average masonry), this comes out to an area of 1200 cubic feet, or about 34 million cubic centimeters. multiplied by Osmium's density, this results in about 767 thousand kilograms.

brought into space and dropped, the house accelerates enough that landing causes approximately a 1 kiloton explosion, obliderating everything within 1.2 miles
With the listed house rule listed here, combined with the one you listed in your most recent post, I'd hesitate to call this a game breaker. You can break anything if you can just houserule things however you want.

Edit: Selective spell can pull off the AMF thing though. Really not about hydras at that point.

[Scorponok]

archmage high arcana: shape spell. Cast antimagic field, shape an area around yourself, and polymorph into a hydra. The hydra's fire breath ability is not counted as a spell like or supernatural ability, so it can be used inside the AMF. Short of disjunction, there is no way to get rid of the field, granting you near invulnerability and massive damage output.



How is this near invulnerable? Can't Fighters and Barbarians still walk up and beatstick your Hydra?

[eggynack]

How is this near invulnerable? Can't Fighters and Barbarians still walk up and beatstick your Hydra?
Well, stopping magic would mean a whole lot. Stopping melee folk is a lot easier if you have that covered. This doesn't stop magic though. At least not much magic. A hollow dome AMF would stop stuff like summons perfectly well.

[Bronk]

3. I have come up with a massive gamebreak for leomund's secure shelter, assuming that your DM rules in your favor on your contentions.

It begins with a chunk of osmium, and casting LSS on it (my DM allows the house to be formed of whatever it is cast on). Assuming walls one foot thick (the thickness of average masonry), this comes out to an area of 1200 cubic feet, or about 34 million cubic centimeters. multiplied by Osmium's density, this results in about 767 thousand kilograms.

brought into space and dropped, the house accelerates enough that landing causes approximately a 1 kiloton explosion, obliderating everything within 1.2 miles

Well, Osmium is dense but stable... at best irl you'd get something like a meteorite.

In 3.5, you'd get an average falling object of whatever weight in pounds you can get your DM to agree to with all those house rules. It can do a lot of damage if it hits - 20d6 per 200 pounds - but you can't aim it. You can only drop it in a square, and any creature you're trying to hit would get a DC15 reflex save to avoid the damage.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

1. As has been mentioned, Ice Assassin has a no-cost material component. There's this thing called Eschew Materials (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#eschewMaterials)...

2. A (pyro/cryo) Hydra's jets of fire/frost are identical to a breath weapon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#breathWeapon), which is indeed supernatural. While it RAW is not specified and thus extraordinary, it's also entirely plausible that every DM ever would rule it to be supernatural just like a breath weapon.

Furthermore, per the Rules Compendium an Antimagic Field does not block line of effect for magical effects. If your character is not actually within the AMF's effect and thus affected by it, any spells cast from outside the AMF can still target him completely unhindered. Only spells targeted within the AMF's effect, on creatures within the AMF's effect, and whose area falls within the AMF's effect will be affected by the AMF. A spell targeted at a non-AMF hole in the AMF or at a creature in such a hole can completely ignore the AMF's presence, as it blocks nothing.

3. "A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#conjuration)" You cannot drop this onto anything, it appears on a surface capable of supporting it, or the spell doesn't conjure anything at all.