Glimmerskins.

[Metahuman1]

So, I was skimming different monster manuals looking for cool stuff for summonings and the like, and I stumbled on these things on page 114 and 115 of the Monster Manual 2.

These strike me as a good buff option if you can scrape the Knowledge: The Planes check needed to know the in's and out's of them, and a Diplomacy check to get them to agree straight up to play by your terms. (Accept Surrenders you want to accept, use tactical options, ext.).


The only real flaw I see with them is that they have that nasty Fort Save effect if you start aquaring Temp Hit Points over a certain total.



So, I come to the play ground, curious as to what there thoughts are on using a group of these things to buff the party before a big boss battle?

[Cruiser1]

using a group of these things to buff the party before a big boss battle?
Bad idea! The problem is the line that "the host shares half of any earned experience points with the glimmerskin". In other words, buffing yourself with a Glimmerskin means you only earn half XP from any source, which is usually a very bad thing.

The way to properly take advantage of a Glimmerskin is to use the above behavior to allow one character to share XP with another. Character #1 Shapechanges into a Glimmerskin, then attaches to Character #2. Character #2 defeats a few encounters, giving Character #1 half the XP they earn (and it's a direct transfer, which doesn't get reduced based on level difference).

For example, a high level character can gain XP from low level monsters that it's ordinarily too high level to gain XP from anymore (by attaching to a lower level character and letting it kill the monsters). This is a great way for epic characters to continually have a way to quickly gain XP, even if they're level 100 and the only monsters left to fight in the world are Orcs.

[Eloel]

Can that be used to set up an arena of orcs and leech xp off the arena?

[Metahuman1]

Cruiser1: I see. Crud. (My party has a tough boss battle that I'm reasonably sure were not gonna be able to win coming up in 1-2 sessions, so I'm looking for anything I can find to bolster our chances.).

That said, I might keep that trick in mind as yet another easy way to get disposable crafting XP on the caster.


Eloel: I'd imagine so.

[Crake]

Can that be used to set up an arena of orcs and leech xp off the arena?

Set it up with liquid pain creators for even more crafting xp goodness, and ambrosia for the crowd, plus you can charge entry fee. I am stealing this idea for my game.

[Tvtyrant]

Just give the Glimmerskin to your cohort, or make one your cohort. Problem solved, they can't get XP so they can't take half of yours.

[The Viscount]

If you read the Fort save effect carefully, you see it's not as bad as it may seem. You don't die when you explode (since it doesn't say you die) so you just take the same damage as everyone else, which is enough to knock you down to MAX-12. Unless something is very wrong with you that's not enough to kill anyone, so it's just like having been hit by a mild blow.

[Rijan_Sai]

What's really fun is to cast Planar Bubble on one! For 10 min/level (so minimum 130 minutes) you get a 10 ft radius area of Positive Energy Plane (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm#positiveDominant) goodness!

Have your BBEG lich/vampire/ use this on his [I]Planar Bound (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planarBindingGreater.htm) Glimmerskin, (which, BTW brings up the minimum time for PB to 150 minutes,) and any minions in close range get the extra HP, too! Also has the benefit of resting the "timer" on the GS before it has to return home!
(Basically, have the heros bust in right as s/he's giving hir team a true PEP talk!)