Making a theif of abilities?

[The Vagabond]

So, let's say a character wants to be able to steal the abilities of another character- Can you make it? Let's say someone wanted to steal a monsters Swollow Whole ability- Can they do that? Is there any way how to?

[Callin]

I remeber reading a 3rd party pathfinder class that did this. I was not impressed with it though.

[Raishoiken]

So, let's say a character wants to be able to steal the abilities of another character- Can you make it? Let's say someone wanted to steal a monsters Swollow Whole ability- Can they do that? Is there any way how to?

The only thing that comes immediately to mind is illithid savant fron savage species. It's a mind flayer prestige class that lets them grab an ability every few levels from brains that have been eaten. If you Wanna do it without taking on the rest of an illithid's baggage just be one and only take one level of their racial progression (pleaaase correct if I'm wrong). If you're in to third party Alderac Feats has a first level feat for elves that allows them to ignore the racial prerequisite for prestige classes. There's a way to enter at level 3 but that's too much cheese for this pizza

[FocusWolf413]

If you ask your DM, maybe you can modify a spellthief.

[mabriss lethe]

Both spellthief and ur-priest have some similar abilities but nothing like what you're asking about.

[Aegis013]

It's a little bit high level, but I have a way for you to do something like this.

Use Ordained Champion's (Complete Champion) Channel Spell ability to turn the 7th level Sor/Wiz spell Ability Rip (Serpent Kingdoms) from an hour cast time to a move action, and smack your foe to take their ability.

Issue is getting both Ordained Champion level 3, and 7th level Sor/Wiz spell available to cast.

[Theodred theOld]

You could just be a druid/planar shepard. They get to use all sorts of fun abilities. Short of that I believe spellthief would be your best option for this.

[Dread_Head]

Spellthief, Ur Priest and Hellbreaker all get various versions of stealing spells, SLAs and/or Supernatural abilities. Nothing I'm aware of lets you steal Extraordinary or Natural abilities but there are plenty of ways to change into forms with them (polymorph line of spells, Wild Shape / MoMF and Assume Supernatural Ability or Enhance Wild Shape).

[Uncle Pine]

There's also Mind Switch + Astral Seed to get a hold of nice Ex and natural abilities your enemies might possess.

[Rubik]

There's also Mind Switch + Astral Seed to get a hold of nice Ex and natural abilities your enemies might possess.The Fusion power works in lieu of Mind Switch.

[Uncle Pine]

The Fusion power works in lieu of Mind Switch.

In case of unwilling target, break its mind first (Charme, Dominate, etc.).

[Der_DWSage]

Unrelated to everything:Why is it that only bandit-type professions seem to have their names misspelled on a regular basis? I've seen Theif and Rouge more often than their correctly spelled counterparts, and it saddens me.

[Rubik]

Unrelated to everything:Why is it that only bandit-type professions seem to have their names misspelled on a regular basis? I've seen Theif and Rouge more often than their correctly spelled counterparts, and it saddens me.It's getting to the point where I have to double-check to ensure that I'm actually not misspelling them. "Wait, which one is correct, again?"

[Psyren]

While you're not actually "stealing" anything, Sha'ir can learn spells from its enemies by seeing them in action - it then knows what to send its gen out for. The end result has a rather Blue Mage feel to it.

[Jack_Simth]

Ablity Rip can be duplicated via Miracle to bypass the casting time. When doing so, one quick way to gain supernatural abilities to trade is other divine spells - Holy Transformation gives you the Archon Subtype (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#archonSubtype), which comes with four Supernatural abilities. Likewise, (Lesser) Infernal Transformation grants the Baatezu Subtype (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_baatezusubtype&alpha=), which comes with one Supernatural ability.

[Rubik]

Ablity Rip can be duplicated via Miracle to bypass the casting time. When doing so, one quick way to gain supernatural abilities to trade is other divine spells - Holy Transformation gives you the Archon Subtype (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#archonSubtype), which comes with four Supernatural abilities. Likewise, (Lesser) Infernal Transformation grants the Baatezu Subtype (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_baatezusubtype&alpha=), which comes with one Supernatural ability.So, Holy Transformation is a level 7 spell that gives you a whole bunch of really nice abilities, including the ability to cast a 7th level spell at will for 1 round/lvl?

Nice.

[Jack_Simth]

So, Holy Transformation is a level 7 spell that gives you a whole bunch of really nice abilities, including the ability to cast a 7th level spell at will for 1 round/lvl?

Nice.It's a limited version of a 7th level Sor/Wiz spell (the real thing lets you take a few passengers and as much as you and they can carry, while the Archon version is self-only and a fixed 50 pounds of stuff), but yes. On the plus side, it's also a supernatural ability, which means no AoOs for using it.

[Rubik]

It's a limited version of a 7th level Sor/Wiz spell (the real thing lets you take a few passengers and as much as you and they can carry, while the Archon version is self-only and a fixed 50 pounds of stuff), but yes. On the plus side, it's also a supernatural ability, which means no AoOs for using it.This is why you stuff your party and everything else you've got into a portable hole. You're level 13, at least; extradimensional storage is a definite go.

[Jack_Simth]

This is why you stuff your party and everything else you've got into a portable hole. You're level 13, at least; extradimensional storage is a definite go.
If you're using it for Scry & Fry, stuffing people into portable holes doesn't help due to the action cost in getting them back out, so it effectively only helps the caster, and the party Wizard will be taking everyone else along via an actual Greater Teleport spell anyway.

If you're using it for travel, you might as well have the party Wizard (if you have one) cast the real thing, and not bother with the extra steps, as it's the same spell slot cost.

So unless you're lacking a Wizard (or the Wizard banned Conjouration for some strange reason), you're persisting the buff, or some other such bit of strangeness... it's hardly worth the bother of the workaround in a party. Works OK for Divine Villian Transport, though (it's a Good spell, though... BBGG? I suppose people do play Evil campaigns on occasion)

[Rubik]

If you're using it for Scry & Fry, stuffing people into portable holes doesn't help due to the action cost in getting them back out, so it effectively only helps the caster, and the party Wizard will be taking everyone else along via an actual Greater Teleport spell anyway.Hoard Gullet? Cast Holy Transformation, Polymorph into something Gargantuan sized, eat your party, Greater Teleport the following round, and vomit everyone up as a full-round action, after which they can all take the actions they readied before being swallowed.

[Jack_Simth]

Hoard Gullet? Cast Holy Transformation, Polymorph into something Gargantuan sized, eat your party, Greater Teleport the following round, and vomit everyone up as a full-round action, after which they can all take the actions they readied before being swallowed.
Regardless of initiative results, that's one full round on site in which your opponent can do pretty much anything to the courier, but the courier has their actions already accounted for (the full round action to vomit everyone up must, of necessity, be taken on-site ... but the courier used the standard action to get there in the first place). Oh yes, and you're adding extra spells into the mix, so it's no longer a 7th level vs. a 7th level, it's a 7th level and a 4th level and a 1st level vs. a 7th level ... and the Holy Transformation setup requires spells from multiple spell lists (doable, but adds a degree of complexity).

Yes, there's ways around the limitations... but a standard Greater Teleport Spell is superior for Scry & Fry tactics.

[Uncle Pine]

Ablity Rip can be duplicated via Miracle to bypass the casting time. When doing so, one quick way to gain supernatural abilities to trade is other divine spells - Holy Transformation gives you the Archon Subtype (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#archonSubtype), which comes with four Supernatural abilities. Likewise, (Lesser) Infernal Transformation grants the Baatezu Subtype (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_baatezusubtype&alpha=), which comes with one Supernatural ability.

Uncanny Forethought also bypasses Ability Rip's original casting time.

[Psyren]

This is why you stuff your party and everything else you've got into a portable hole. You're level 13, at least; extradimensional storage is a definite go.


If you're using it for Scry & Fry, stuffing people into portable holes doesn't help due to the action cost in getting them back out, so it effectively only helps the caster, and the party Wizard will be taking everyone else along via an actual Greater Teleport spell anyway.

If you're using it for travel, you might as well have the party Wizard (if you have one) cast the real thing, and not bother with the extra steps, as it's the same spell slot cost.

So unless you're lacking a Wizard (or the Wizard banned Conjouration for some strange reason), you're persisting the buff, or some other such bit of strangeness... it's hardly worth the bother of the workaround in a party. Works OK for Divine Villian Transport, though (it's a Good spell, though... BBGG? I suppose people do play Evil campaigns on occasion)

Seems to me that it would be a lot less effort to just get a Lantern Archon to taxi you around via LPA. You get it much earlier, and if you need it just to drop you off and come pick you up a few hours later it would also only cost 500gp (or a mere 250 if your goals coincide with Law and Good, or possibly even nothing at all.) If you pay 1000, you can get it to hang around for an entire week and ferry the portable hole wherever you need it to be, which a chance for half or no fee there too.

[Jack_Simth]

Seems to me that it would be a lot less effort to just get a Lantern Archon to taxi you around via LPA. You get it much earlier, and if you need it just to drop you off and come pick you up a few hours later it would also only cost 500gp (or a mere 250 if your goals coincide with Law and Good, or possibly even nothing at all.) If you pay 1000, you can get it to hang around for an entire week and ferry the portable hole wherever you need it to be, which a chance for half or no fee there too.
For a full party without a Wizard, sure. At lower levels, maybe. However, Lesser Planar Ally has an XP cost in addition to the GP cost, so it's not people's first choice, in general.