All the Concentration!!

[m149307]

Ok, so I was wondering how would I increase the concentration skill to be as high as I can get it? Is there any items that I can buy to boost it, or is it only stat/feat based?

If there are items, can you please state the book that it comes from? Thank you.

[Curmudgeon]

Steady Concentration feat (Races of Stone) lets you "take 10" always on Concentration checks.

[noob]

The GM might allow you to craft a custom +20 standard kind of bonus concentration item(probably with the head slot)
Then take a lucky stone(+1 luck bonus) GM manual
And the ioun stone who gives yet another kind of bonus to all skills. GM manual

[m149307]

@Curmudgeon I was hoping to use it in battle, need it for ToB maneuvers.

@Noob I'm looking for something already made if possible since I don't know crafting rules and also would like to not lose xp

[Renen]

You can take 10 in battle if an ability specifically says you can "always take 10"

[Masakan]

@Curmudgeon I was hoping to use it in battle, need it for ToB maneuvers.

@Noob I'm looking for something already made if possible since I don't know crafting rules and also would like to not lose xp


Yeah you can use Steady Concentration to take 10 on Concentration at any time. Including Battle.

[noob]

A +20 item costs a least 40000 gold to make an artisan build and it takes at the maximum 40 days(but it might be a lot shorter if you have a talented artisan who took feats(like it could take only one day if you have a legendary artisan)) if you want a wizard in your team to build it it costs 20000 gold and 1600 px and 40 days of continuous labor but if you have an artisan in your team it is a lot faster and cheaper to build(because of their feats).
But the GM can rule that you can not craft such item.
I found this thread it might help you.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?198181-Diamond-Mind-Optimization

[Extra Anchovies]

Item familiar lets you gain a bonus to Concentration equal to your ranks in the skill as long as you have three or more skill points per level and are sure you won't lose the item.

[noob]

Yes and do disjunction destroys the item?
And do being teleported in the sun make you loose the item?
Else here is a site about item creation rules if you want
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm
The only kind of bonus a custom item can give to skills is competence bonus.

[Troacctid]

One of the Third Eyes from Magic Item Compendium gives a +10 to Concentration, IIRC. The Vitality Belt soulmeld gives +4. A masterwork tool gives +2.

[Telonius]

I'm imagining Elan using Bardic Music to "help" a Concentration check...

[Stegyre]

One of the Third Eyes from Magic Item Compendium gives a +10 to Concentration, IIRC.
It's actually in the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#concentrate). (Edit to clarify: it's in MIC, as well, nothing wrong with that statement, but the SRD is even more readily available.)

Also, if you have at least one power point, so you can achieve psionic focus, you can expend your focus to take 15 on a concentration check (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/concentration.htm#gainPsionicFocus).

These two, alone, give you a guaranteed 25 + actual skill levels, which should be more than sufficient for any DCs you're likely to encounter at low- to mid-levels (although you'll also probably want [urhttp://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#psionicMeditation]Psionic Meditation[/url] to regain focus faster).

[Renen]

I think the reason he might have stated MiC instead of SRD is because some DM's only allow certain books regardless of the fact that SRD might have the content (which I find silly)

[Twurps]

there's also the 'tunic of steady spellcasting' (MIC p144, 2500GP) for +5 competence bonus.
And of course if you have class levels to spare there's always the 1 level dip in Marshal.

[Troacctid]

I think the reason he might have stated MiC instead of SRD is because some DM's only allow certain books regardless of the fact that SRD might have the content (which I find silly)

Naw, I just forgot what book it was originally from.

[Inevitability]

The Deepsong spell lets you use Perform for Concentration checks, which may or may not be easier to boost for your character.

[Darrin]

Shape Soulmeld: Vitality Belt gives you a +4 morale bonus on Constitution-based checks (except Fort saves). Tunic of Steady Spellcasting has already been mentioned.

Githcraft armor (DMGII) gives an untyped +1 bonus to Concentration. Ask your DM if you can stack multiple githcraft armor pieces together for a higher bonus (chain shirt + dastana + chahar-aina + buckler-axe + buckler-axe + etc.).

[PersonMan]

Yes and do disjunction destroys the item?

Disjunction basically never happens, though.


And do being teleported in the sun make you loose the item?

Well, since it'd never happen and kill you, I don't see it being an issue worth devoting time to solving. :smalltongue:

[noob]

I know one GM which was very disjunction happy.(that was not a problem since the wizard disjuncting you had cool items)
And disjunction ends up being balanced if buying magic items is easy.
"Well, since it'd never happen and kill you, I don't see it being an issue worth devoting time to solving. "
It happens(some circle of teleport traps do this) and you resurrect since true resurrection does not needs your body and so dying is not an issue but loosing the item is one.
Basically any time you are killed and that the rest of the team is not near your body and wants to flee you will loose your item familiar(or even if you are eaten(and die) and that your team defeats the monster the item is probably digested).
Getting killed individually is super common(approx every 1.5 encounters of your group fp +2 to +4 one adventurer will die(we fight an awful lot of lvl17 wizards casting level 9 spells like wail of the banshee and they are still giving us a lot of trouble even if your team is on average level 18))

[PersonMan]

I know one GM which was very disjunction happy.(that was not a problem since the wizard disjuncting you had cool items)
And disjunction ends up being balanced if buying magic items is easy.
"Well, since it'd never happen and kill you, I don't see it being an issue worth devoting time to solving. "
It happens(some circle of teleport traps do this) and you resurrect since true resurrection does not needs your body and so dying is not an issue but loosing the item is one.
Basically any time you are killed and that the rest of the team is not near your body and wants to flee you will loose your item familiar(or even if you are eaten(and die) and that your team defeats the monster the item is probably digested).
Getting killed individually is super common(approx every 1.5 encounters of your group fp +2 to +4 one adventurer will die(we fight an awful lot of lvl17 wizards casting level 9 spells like wail of the banshee and they are still giving us a lot of trouble even if your team is on average level 18))

Honestly, if you're burning through lives and items at that (frankly absurd) rate, I don't think 'but it could be destroyed' is a special issue. You just build something entirely unreliant on gear, or accept that you will occasionally be utterly screwed because someone went and explored the surface of the sun ("you must have at least a reliable description of the place to which you are teleporting") and made a trap that leads to it.

Your game sounds incredibly different from any that I've ever played in, and I wouldn't consider it normal at all. Who would use a tactic that wipes out the majority of their earthly possessions, anyways?

[noob]

"Your game sounds incredibly different from any that I've ever played in, and I wouldn't consider it normal at all. Who would use a tactic that wipes out the majority of their earthly possessions, anyways? "
A wizard who does not have a priest friend do care more about victory than about loot and so disjunction is a good tactic since it weakens opponents a lot(is is one of the best spells for this role) because it dispels all spells and it remove a good part of the opponents equipment so those wizards who disjunction us were all right and had statistically made the good choice for saving their life.

[marphod]

A wizard who does not have a priest friend do care more about victory than about loot and so disjunction is a good tactic since it weakens opponents a lot(is is one of the best spells for this role) because it dispels all spells and it remove a good part of the opponents equipment so those wizards who disjunction us were all right and had statistically made the good choice for saving their life.

Yes and no.

Throwing Disjunctions around like that will lead to disjucting [which is, in fact, a word as far as I can tell] an Artifact. Which is a good way to piss off a major power and potentially lose all spellcasting abilities permanently. If I were going up against a wizard known for disjoining everything under the sun, I'd be sure to find as many minor artifacts as possible (Saint's Finger Bone? Sure. Splinter from a sacred tree? Don't mind if I do) and a bunch of relic items (which the god may or may not notice, but it doesn't hurt) and keep them on me and disjoinable.

Plus there are options like the Spellblade Weapon Enhancement (... which REALLY should have a level limit, but doesn't ... ) which will just stop a Disjunction, and any character high enough level to have opponents with 9th level arcane spells should have access to something like Reactive Counterspell to ignore the Disjunction, or some other means of handling it.

Besides, why is someone within 115' feet (the edge of the 40' burst, if cast at a 20th level 75 feet) of the mage, without having someone with Mage Slayer adjacent to the mage? And why is someone that close to the mage, but not engaged with an ally of the mage? This seems like really poor battlefield control.

[Zaq]

Illumians (Races of Destiny) with the Hoon sigil get a +2 on all WIS- and CON-based checks, including Concentration. I may be mistaken, but I don't think there are any other races that offer a bonus on Concentration, so that's pretty cool (especially considering that you also get another sigil, so that's another +2 to all the checks tied to a stat of your choice).

[noob]

"but only if it is directly targeted at the wielder" is written in spellblade meaning that disjunction is not counter able since is does not target people but target an area.
This GM mostly did never spoke of artifacts and never had one in his scenarios and you can obtain one only if the GM wants so players will not have them.
Also let us imagine you fight someone carrying 8 artifacts one clearly obvious thing is that he have a risk of killing you now and you have no way of resurrecting and you know you are going in hell then You do not care even the slightest about potential gods revenge if you disjunct the target because if you do not do you die right now definitively!!!!!!!!!!!!(also the will save is fairly low so if you got some rerolls since you succed automatically on anything which is not a 1 you will need tons and tons of relics for making the magician fail his save(in addition there is only a small probability to break an artifact and in addition the wearer make a save))
in addition Splinter from a sacred tree will rather fall in the relic category than in the artifact category and there is no penalty for disjuncting relics(except that the corresponding god is not going to be very happy but gods are so lazy they will mostly not do anything for relics since they are cheap and super common).
Also the gods will hate even more the guy who walked around only so that his artifacts could be disjuncted and he will be killed first since he was the one who wanted the disjunction of artifacts to happen the one casting the spell did not wanted to disjunct artifacts and so the artifacts carrier is 999 times more responsible of the destruction of the artifact.
Also for reactive counter spell it means that you prepare a spell of the same school than disjunction and of level 9 every day and that if your opponant cast two disjunctions you are messed up.
as for mage killer the gm considers it is mostly a cheating feat as it does better than an epic feat made for the same task while being pre epic(also you know there is a feat allowing to cast spells without opportunity attacks nor casting on the defensive when you have a shield).

[Troacctid]

Wait, how is Mage Slayer better than Spellcasting Harrier? Spellcasting Harrier does the same thing except a. they're not aware that they can't cast defensively, b. you don't take a penalty to caster level, and c. you get a +4 bonus on the opportunity attack. All it requires is Combat Reflexes, which a non-caster AoO build is probably taking anyway.

[noob]

1: Untyped bonus of one to all will saves
2: Absolutely no prerecs for it except 3 bba and 4 skill points(assuming it is cross class)
3: A wizard pretty much knows an epic fighter is going to be an harrier so he is going to know he will take an attack
4: the -4 to spellcasting is mostly not a malus for any true fighter centered build(your frenetic berseker did not relied about spellcasting) and in fact it will not be a problem most of the time
5: in epic progression unless the spellcasters have access to epic spells(and other sheanigans) they are not going to have lots of armor and since attack increase faster than defense you end up capping your power attack and still be sure of hitting the spellcaster and so the +4 attack is hardly feel able.
6: epic feats costs a lot more than non epic ones because you could be taking other cool things with that feat.
7: you have it super soon.
spellcaster harrier is better in two cases: you are sneaking or you are a spellcaster.

[Jormengand]

Also, technically there's nothing stopping you using a masterwork tool for concentration to get a +2 bonus.

The Illiterate trait will give you +1 to a skill of your choice. Its drawback is counteracted by being an illumian (see zaq's post for more good reasons to be one) or spending 2 skill points.

If you can get the custom item rules okayed, grab an item of use-activated Guidance of the Avatar (http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a) and laugh maniacally at your +20 to all skill checks.

[noob]

The custom item rules says that stuff like true strike should not be use activated so of course it is probably true for guidance of the avatar.(because it is exactly the same kind of one use spell giving a bonus to one dice throw)
Except if you pay the cost of an item giving +20 to all skills which is possible in fact thanks to reverse engineering of the lucky stone I deduced that giving a bonus to all skills cost the cost of a bonus to one skill*80.