Useful Dragon Magazine option

[AvatarVecna]

Is there a list anywhere of the most useful stuff from Dragon Magazine? I've had a DM blanket-approve Dragon Mag stuff, and I'm curious of what high-op options exist.

[GilesTheCleric]

It's funny you should mention this, because Jowgen just started a thread to collect all of that. Are you two in the same game?

In terms of specific options, Faerie Mysteries Initiate is always popular, and there was a whole article devoted to theurgy that's quite useful in some builds. I mentioned Nexus Method (spontaneous summons) in another recent thread. What sorts of things are you looking for in particular?

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, I think a lot of pretty good options are in the Dragon Compendium, including incredibly abusable things like Sha'ir and Dvati.

[unseenmage]

Is there a list anywhere of the most useful stuff from Dragon Magazine? I've had a DM blanket-approve Dragon Mag stuff, and I'm curious of what high-op options exist.

Check out the War Spells thread in my sig for some cheesey options for spellcasting.

[Dromuthra]

This thread over on MinMax is probably what you're looking for: Link here. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1583.0)

[Xervous]

Easy Metamagic is pretty much a no-prereqs Practical Metamagic, great for those builds that can't screw a dragon into their ancestry.

Minmax boards list for reference (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1583.0) EDIT: Swordsaged

There was an interesting template I'm still wracking my brains for...

[GilesTheCleric]

There was an interesting template I'm still wracking my brains for...

If "above-average" equates to "interesting", then perhaps it's half-minotaur, or the chosen of mystra?

[AvatarVecna]

It's funny you should mention this, because Jowgen just started a thread to collect all of that. Are you two in the same game?

In terms of specific options, Faerie Mysteries Initiate is always popular, and there was a whole article devoted to theurgy that's quite useful in some builds. I mentioned Nexus Method (spontaneous summons) in another recent thread. What sorts of things are you looking for in particular?

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, I think a lot of pretty good options are in the Dragon Compendium, including incredibly abusable things like Sha'ir and Dvati.

I don't think he is, but he might be; I haven't seen him in that thread. It's a lvl 8 octo-stalt game, and I'm playing what is basically Raven from Teen Titans built as a cheesy Shadowcraft Mage (among many other things). Early entry into ScM, War Weaver, and Incantatrix are alongside the more standard cheese that is the Killer Gnome.


This thread over on MinMax is probably what you're looking for: Link here. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1583.0)
Easy Metamagic is pretty much a no-prereqs Practical Metamagic, great for those builds that can't screw a dragon into their ancestry.

Minmax boards list for reference (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1583.0) EDIT: Swordsaged

There was an interesting template I'm still wracking my brains for...

Ooh, thanks you guys! This looks very useful...

[GilesTheCleric]

It's a lvl 8 octo-stalt game


octo-stalt


octo-stalt

Oh my. Well, I don't have any idea on what to suggest, then. Dvati is pretty devious and could do well with illusions...? Sorry I can't help more.

[AvatarVecna]

Oh my. Well, I don't have any idea on what to suggest, then. Dvati is pretty devious and could do well with illusions...? Sorry I can't help more.

It's understandable. The character has a lot going on, so Ifugred rather than posting my WIP buold and asking for relevant DM stuff, I'd just ask for a list of DM stuff and browse it for relevant stuff.

[Xervous]

Skimmed a handful of dragonmags and no luck. It's the template that prevents healing outside of absorbing magical energies, grants SR, and has a feature that lets you recharge spell slots with whatever fails to beat your SR. I can't recall what the listed LA was.

[GilesTheCleric]

Skimmed a handful of dragonmags and no luck. It's the template that prevents healing outside of absorbing magical energies, grants SR, and has a feature that lets you recharge spell slots with whatever fails to beat your SR. I can't recall what the listed LA was.
That's definitely the chosen of mystra template. I think it was in an issue with Elminster, and the name might be slightly different. I know exactly the one you're talking about, though.

Edit: Yup, Chosen of Mystra, FRCS 247. It was probably in a dragon magazine before that. I think it has no LA? My clipping from the book doesn't show any. It also says that only mary sues characters from the lore have the template, though.

[Âmesang]

I once attempted to stat out Raven (https://www.schadenfreudestudios.com/dnd/npcs_titans_3.htm), though as a far more low-powered cleric/thaumaturgist with one or two alternate class features. :smalltongue: I can't remember why I had her banish/destroy lawful outsiders instead of chaotic, though.

'Twas a very raw, loosely-designed, low character wealth variation. I never did get around to fully finishing her or statting out the rest of the team (I may have some notes here or there regarding Cyborg having a gauntlet that could turn into a magic missile or searing light "cannon").

Otherwise I've mentioned what (little) Dragon Magazine material I've used (so far) in Jowgen's thread. :smallsmile:

[Darrin]

My list from an older thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=12640978&postcount=17).

[Jowgen]

It's funny you should mention this, because Jowgen just started a thread to collect all of that. Are you two in the same game?

AvatarVecna and I have not had the pleasure of sharing a game I'm afraid, and the aforementioned thread is actually meant to be Dungeon Mag rather than Dragon Mag; but as fortune will have it I also play under a blanket-approval of Dragon Mag stuff and have looked into it quite a bit.

One of the best issues, I find, is 310. It has a metric load of variant classes that make playing a non-caster far more feasible. I believe they, and others, are indexed in the Dragon mag alternate class feature (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=9028.0) list

There are a lot of good templates in there, ranging from the horrible half-minotaur to the generally handy +0 Spark. Those can all be found in unseenmage's list (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?401132-Lists-of-Every-Playable-Monster&p=18888380)

For feats, flaws and items; comprehensive lists are rather hard to come by. The "power for a price", "items of the Zodiac", "Wizard's workshop" and "Arsenal of the Warmages" articles, I recall, have the greatest interesting item density. Best low cost items, imo, are the Speaker's Trumpet and Thaumatoscope. I personally am big on things that grant extra feats, so all the Dragon mag things that do that can be found in my dedicated list, link in sig.

Beyond that, Dragondex (http://www.aeolia.net/dragondex/)is probably your best bet. It rather annoyingly includes everything including weird setting stuff and older editions, but if you're decent at formatting spread-sheets, copying everything over and mass-deleting the irrelevant stuff isn't too hard (that's what I use).

[MisterKaws]

Octo-stalt?

... Just get, wizard 3+druid 3+arcane hierophant 2, then choose other 7 ARCANE classes(beguiller, dread necromancer, duskblade, sorcerer, warlock, warmage, wu-jen),Go dragon 325 page 62, grab theurgic bond for your lvl 1 feat, your animal companion now stacks with all arcane classes, then get obtain familiar feat as your lvl 3 feat, your familiar level just skyrocketed to a wizard's lvl 61 familiar, cool, now it's ALSO treated as a lvl 66 animal companion. As a lvl 61 familiar, it has 9 uses of familiar spell, and a crapton of feats, with which you can do lots of soulmelding and binding to get lots of extra abilities do some polymorphing to change into human form, make yourself a background character, play this machine of destruction as raven, there's no need to optimize further than this, the familiar is something close to lvl 40, maybe even higher if you do other stuff.

You really shouldn't let people octo-stalt.

[Âmesang]

Suddenly I want to play as Dr. Octagonapus with a d20 damage "shoop da whoop" spell.

[Talya]

For Charisma-based characters, the +0 level adjust template "Magic Blooded (Spark)" is awesome.

[RolkFlameraven]

Octo-stalt?

... Just get, wizard 3+druid 3+arcane hierophant 2, then choose other 7 ARCANE classes(beguiller, dread necromancer, duskblade, sorcerer, warlock, warmage, wu-jen),Go dragon 325 page 62, grab theurgic bond for your lvl 1 feat, your animal companion now stacks with all arcane classes, then get obtain familiar feat as your lvl 3 feat, your familiar level just skyrocketed to a wizard's lvl 61 familiar, cool, now it's ALSO treated as a lvl 66 animal companion. As a lvl 61 familiar, it has 9 uses of familiar spell, and a crapton of feats, with which you can do lots of soulmelding and binding to get lots of extra abilities do some polymorphing to change into human form, make yourself a background character, play this machine of destruction as raven, there's no need to optimize further than this, the familiar is something close to lvl 40, maybe even higher if you do other stuff.

You really shouldn't let people octo-stalt.

Sounds more like Klarion *bum bum bum* the Witch Boy then Raven but damn.

[Xervous]

That's definitely the chosen of mystra template. I think it was in an issue with Elminster, and the name might be slightly different. I know exactly the one you're talking about, though.

Edit: Yup, Chosen of Mystra, FRCS 247. It was probably in a dragon magazine before that. I think it has no LA? My clipping from the book doesn't show any. It also says that only mary sues characters from the lore have the template, though.

That's 100% not what I'm thinking of... Chosen of Mystra doesn't have the SR that overrides preexisting SR, SR absorbed spells to healing, nor SR absorbed spells to refreshing spell slots. Now if only I could find the specific article =/

[GilesTheCleric]

That's 100% not what I'm thinking of... it doesn't have the SR that overrides preexisting SR, SR absorbed spells to healing, nor SR absorbed spells to refreshing spell slots.

Ah, I'm sorry. That was the only one I have in my templates folder.

[Xervous]

Ah, I'm sorry. That was the only one I have in my templates folder.

Silly me, it's a prestige class not a template. Not as grand as my memory made it out to be but there's certainly potential for abuse.

-Lose a casting level every even level, but it's only worth taking for three levels
-GP and XP cost to enter, 120000gp, 4800xp
-can only heal by absorbing spells
-Earliest Entry Level 12 barring skill ranks cheese
~SR = class level +20
+Metamagic Feat at Level 2
+Level 3 permits you to refresh spell slots when a spell or SLA fails to overcome your SR. Infinite spell refreshing with the right level of cheese.

[Bronk]

That's 100% not what I'm thinking of... Chosen of Mystra doesn't have the SR that overrides preexisting SR, SR absorbed spells to healing, nor SR absorbed spells to refreshing spell slots. Now if only I could find the specific article =/

That sounds more like Spellfire (or silver fire, or being a spellfire wielder) to me. There's a feat for that, and probably a few other methods to obtain it.

[Twurps]

Octo-stalt?

... Just get, wizard 3+druid 3+arcane hierophant 2, then choose other 7 ARCANE classes(beguiller, dread necromancer, duskblade, sorcerer, warlock, warmage, wu-jen),Go dragon 325 page 62, grab theurgic bond for your lvl 1 feat, your animal companion now stacks with all arcane classes, then get obtain familiar feat as your lvl 3 feat, your familiar level just skyrocketed to a wizard's lvl 61 familiar, cool, now it's ALSO treated as a lvl 66 animal companion. As a lvl 61 familiar, it has 9 uses of familiar spell, and a crapton of feats, with which you can do lots of soulmelding and binding to get lots of extra abilities do some polymorphing to change into human form, make yourself a background character, play this machine of destruction as raven, there's no need to optimize further than this, the familiar is something close to lvl 40, maybe even higher if you do other stuff.

You really shouldn't let people octo-stalt.

Dragon325 is very nice indead for playing around with companions and familiars. If you combine 'theurgic mount' from this issue with 'ranger knight of furondy' from dragon317 (prestige class ECL6 with 'mount as a 6th level paladin' at lvl1), you can stack paladin mount progression onto the mix as well.

[Beheld]

Int Based Casters:
Congrats, you based HP off of Int now. Revel in more Hp than the fighter (Faerie Mysteries Innate). Also you can get Int to will saves, and spot. You can spot nearly as well as Druid!

Charisma Based Caster: You can magic blooded Unseelie Fey version of a charisma bonus race and for the low low cost of zero LA, you get +6 Charisma, maybe a fly speed, Some DR that scales with HD, and either a -Cha bonus morale penalty to saves to people adjacent to you, the ability to remove daze, nausea, fatigue, and exhaustion with a standard action touch, or a permanent supernatural magic circle effect.

Also if you are Dread Necro or Beguiler, or even a Sorcerer, slap on a bloodline for an extra spell known of every level.

Anyone who doesn't cast spells or has other powerful standard action attacks: Be a Dvati, buy off LA. Get double actions.

Sha'ir class is either pretty damn good or terrible depending on how your DM rules the spellcasting works. If you lose spell slots for preparing spells but not casting them, then you suck, if you don't then it's a pretty neat class.

[MisterKaws]

Dragon325 is very nice indead for playing around with companions and familiars. If you combine 'theurgic mount' from this issue with 'ranger knight of furondy' from dragon317 (prestige class ECL6 with 'mount as a 6th level paladin' at lvl1), you can stack paladin mount progression onto the mix as well.

The number of feats required doesn't let it happen at lvl 8, unless you spam feat-related classes.


Int Based Casters:
Congrats, you based HP off of Int now. Revel in more Hp than the fighter (Faerie Mysteries Innate). Also you can get Int to will saves, and spot. You can spot nearly as well as Druid!

Charisma Based Caster: You can magic blooded Unseelie Fey version of a charisma bonus race and for the low low cost of zero LA, you get +6 Charisma, maybe a fly speed, Some DR that scales with HD, and either a -Cha bonus morale penalty to saves to people adjacent to you, the ability to remove daze, nausea, fatigue, and exhaustion with a standard action touch, or a permanent supernatural magic circle effect.

Also if you are Dread Necro or Beguiler, or even a Sorcerer, slap on a bloodline for an extra spell known of every level.

Anyone who doesn't cast spells or has other powerful standard action attacks: Be a Dvati, buy off LA. Get double actions.

Sha'ir class is either pretty damn good or terrible depending on how your DM rules the spellcasting works. If you lose spell slots for preparing spells but not casting them, then you suck, if you don't then it's a pretty neat class.

Doesn't Dvati specifically say that magic must be cast simultaneously by both twins for it to take effect only once?

[AvatarVecna]

The number of feats required doesn't let it happen at lvl 8, unless you spam feat-related classes.

Which, to be fair, I'm doing, but I'm doing it to get my early entry into PrCs, not for a super-companion.

[Beheld]

Doesn't Dvati specifically say that magic must be cast simultaneously by both twins for it to take effect only once?

It specifically says that they can't concentrate enough to cast spells in the same round. So if one guy casts a spell, the other can't.

[Tarvus]

Is there a list anywhere of the most useful stuff from Dragon Magazine? I've had a DM blanket-approve Dragon Mag stuff, and I'm curious of what high-op options exist.

Well part of the problem with asking for the most "useful" stuff is that utility requires synergy. So outside of the broken/always good things, it might totally depend on what you're doing as to whether its useful or not.

So besides the threads mentioned, and the DragonDex, I'd also suggest scrolling through the Crystal Keep Indices. Provides a pretty great summary of each item/feat/whatever so you can decide whats useful and a source so you can go find the full details. It includes most of the 3.5 sources in the same files though, not just Dragon but you can just search for "(DR" in the source lines.

[ben-zayb]

Eldritch Master, depending on how much cheese the game already allows

[Blackhawk748]

Silly me, it's a prestige class not a template. Not as grand as my memory made it out to be but there's certainly potential for abuse.

-Lose a casting level every even level, but it's only worth taking for three levels
-GP and XP cost to enter, 120000gp, 4800xp
-can only heal by absorbing spells
-Earliest Entry Level 12 barring skill ranks cheese
~SR = class level +20
+Metamagic Feat at Level 2
+Level 3 permits you to refresh spell slots when a spell or SLA fails to overcome your SR. Infinite spell refreshing with the right level of cheese.

What is this PrC called??

[Xervous]

What is this PrC called??

Incantifier, Dragonmag 339, page 38

To further elaborate on the noteworthy ability for those who are interested:

At 3rd level, an incantifier can channel absorbed arcane energy back into his own magic. If an arcane spell or spell-like ability does not beat the incantifier's spell resistance, the incantifier regains a spell of the absorbed spell's level that he has already cast that day or regains a used spell slot of the appropriate level. If the incantifier has his full compliment of spells and thus has no cast spells or used spell slots he cannot benefit from this ability... ...when a spell is negated by the incantifier's spell resistance he may choose to use either the spell eater (healing) or spell leech ability, not both.

[Beheld]

Incantifier, Dragonmag 339, page 38

To further elaborate on the noteworthy ability for those who are interested:

So the plan is to planar bind something with the levels you want at will, and have them spam at you over and over? Buff spells would be ideal, but you could get by on giving yourself the Fire subtype and then spamming fire SLAs, or protection from evil + repeated dominates.