Can you gain temporary HD?

[firruna]

So, my group is starting a game, and my friend and I are trying to pull off a crazy combo. However, we need more HD. We're level 8, and willing to poor all our GP into it.

Rules for Characters:

Level 8
No Racial hit die
no lv adjustment
Up to 2 traits
up to 2 flaws
No evil
Anything wizards 3.0/3.5 is okay, but we have to run 3.0 things by the DM.


We are looking for anything and everything you can give us.
Thanks.

[InvisibleBison]

The standard trick is to get a bard to use inspire greatness (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/bard.htm#inspireGreatness), which will grant you two bonus hit dice. Alternatively, you can turn yourself into a barghest (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/barghest.htm) and make use of the feed ability, though you'd need some way to get a supernatural ability (the metamorphic transfer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#metamorphicTransfer) feat works, and I think there's a magic-based version as well).

[Doctor Despair]

1. Inspire Greatness

2. Bloodlines (has the benefit of not raising ECL)

3. Contract every strain of lycanthropy for some arbitrarily high amount of HD and cure it later

4. SHENANIGANS

4a. Polymorph into a Dusk Giant

4b. Consume some arbitrarily high amount of low-HD creatures like worms or something. Any bait shop should be able to oblige, if fishing exists in your universe.

4c. Do whatever you need your HD for. Psychic Reformation lets you put skills wherever you want. Remember that you still need to mee tthe prereqs for any feats you take after the HD leave.

4d. Drain off the HD or wait some huge amount of time for them to fade away on their own

[firruna]

So here's the thing, this is my first time writing a truly broken character, which the DM has allowed for fun. I am making a 8th level planar shepherd using three feats worth on Assume supernatural ability. I hired the services of a high level wizard and bard to cast polymorph on me and inspire greatness, respectively. I am also a changeling so I qualify for the feat at level one but am saving it for when I can temporarily maximize the amount of hit dice I have to assume stronger forms in the polymorph spell. This allows me to pick from a larger and more powerful list of supernatural abilities.

[Doctor Despair]

The dusk giant trick gives you NI HD, or to put it another way, as many HD as you can find worms, bugs, and other easy things to eat. All it costs is a polymorph.

[firruna]

The dusk giant trick gives you NI HD, or to put it another way, as many HD as you can find worms, bugs, and other easy things to eat. All it costs is a polymorph.

Does the dusk giant trick work for when you are out of polymorph, do you retain those hit dice? Even if temporary?

[Gusmo]

Here's the dusk giant ability in question, whether it's useful to your purposes I leave to you:


Cannibalize (Ex): Dusk giants gain power—Strength,
Constitution, even size and mystical abilities—by consuming
other creatures. For every 5 Hit Dice of sentient (Intelligence
3+) living creatures or every 20 Hit Dice of nonsentient living
creatures that a dusk giant consumes, it gains 1 Hit Die.
These additional Hit Dice grant the dusk giant the following
special benefit:
Dusk giant
Illus. by S. Prescott149
CHAPTER 6
CREATURES OF
THE NIGHT
• With every additional Hit Die, the dusk giant gains +1
Strength.
• With every 2 additional Hit Dice, the dusk giant gains +1
Constitution and +1 natural armor.
This special benefit is in addition to the benefit the dusk giant
gains when changing category (least to lesser, lesser to greater),
to the benefit all creatures gain when increasing in size, and
the standard benefit for increasing Hit Dice (extra hit points,
improved base attack bonus and saves, and additional feats).
All these changes have already been taken into account in the
stats for different dusk giant categories presented above.
When a least dusk giant’s Hit Dice reach 12, it becomes a lesser
dusk giant. Its size increases from Medium to Large (with the
usual size adjustments; see page 314 of the Monster Manual), it
grows stronger of purpose and will (represented in an increase
to Charisma), and it gains several potent new abilities. A similar
advancement occurs at 18 Hit Dice, when a lesser dusk giant
becomes a greater dusk giant and its size increases from Large
to Huge. Dusk giants never grow larger than Huge, but they
can continue to gain Hit Dice, and the benefit that comes
with them, to a maximum of 24 Hit Dice.
Unfortunately for the giant, these gains are not permanent.
A dusk giant must continue to consume the flesh of other
creatures to maintain its current status. For every day that
passes in which a dusk giant does not consume at least 2
Hit Dice worth of sentient creatures, or 8 Hit Dice-worth of
nonsentient creatures, its own Hit Dice decrease by 1, with a
corresponding loss of all associated benefits. Thus, even the
most potent greater giant can weaken and revert to a least
giant in times of hardship. Dusk giants hate being weak,
and losing Hit Dice is a painful process to them, so they do
whatever they must to avoid this circumstance. They cannot
weaken beyond 6 Hit Dice; any further starvation beyond
that follows normal starvation rules.
Note that the stats presented here represent the weakest
form of dusk giant in each given category.

[Doctor Despair]

Cannibalize (Ex): Dusk giants gain power—Strength,
Constitution, even size and mystical abilities—by consuming
other creatures. For every 5 Hit Dice of sentient (Intelligence
3+) living creatures or every 20 Hit Dice of nonsentient living
creatures that a dusk giant consumes, it gains 1 Hit Die.
These additional Hit Dice grant the dusk giant the following
special benefit:

• With every additional Hit Die, the dusk giant gains +1
Strength.
• With every 2 additional Hit Dice, the dusk giant gains +1
Constitution and +1 natural armor.
This special benefi t is in addition to the benefi t the dusk giant
gains when changing category (least to lesser, lesser to greater),
to the benefi t all creatures gain when increasing in size, and
the standard benefi t for increasing Hit Dice (extra hit points,
improved base attack bonus and saves, and additional feats).
All these changes have already been taken into account in the
stats for different dusk giant categories presented above.
When a least dusk giant’s Hit Dice reach 12, it becomes a lesser
dusk giant. Its size increases from Medium to Large (with the
usual size adjustments; see page 314 of the Monster Manual), it
grows stronger of purpose and will (represented in an increase
to Charisma), and it gains several potent new abilities. A similar
advancement occurs at 18 Hit Dice, when a lesser dusk giant
becomes a greater dusk giant and its size increases from Large
to Huge. Dusk giants never grow larger than Huge, but they
can continue to gain Hit Dice, and the benefi t that comes
with them, to a maximum of 24 Hit Dice.
Unfortunately for the giant, these gains are not permanent.
A dusk giant must continue to consume the fl esh of other
creatures to maintain its current status. For every day that
passes in which a dusk giant does not consume at least 2
Hit Dice worth of sentient creatures, or 8 Hit Dice-worth of
nonsentient creatures, its own Hit Dice decrease by 1, with a
corresponding loss of all associated benefi ts. Thus, even the
most potent greater giant can weaken and revert to a least
giant in times of hardship. Dusk giants hate being weak,
and losing Hit Dice is a painful process to them, so they do
whatever they must to avoid this circumstance. They cannot
weaken beyond 6 Hit Dice; any further starvation beyond
that follows normal starvation rules

Hm, I guess it's not permanent, but there's no rules saying that you lose the HD when you change back, so you don't. In fact, you might not be able to lose with HD without having them level-drained by an undead creature or something, but you could just pay the wizard to polymorph himself and do that, so that's not too much trouble.

24 HD from Dusk Giant
3 HD from bloodlines
6 from Inspire Greatness ((2 + 1 (Song of the Heart)) x 2 (Words of Creation))
18 HD from Barghest

So 51 plus NI from various types of lycanthropy. You can apply the template as many times as you want, for as many carnivorous animals as there are in DND, and gain the base animals HD every time you apply it. Then, cure it once you don't need the HD anymore.

Edit: Swordsaged :p

What do you need the HD for again, if you don't mind me asking?

[Razuul]

I am also in there group and am looking for ways to cast polymorph before 7th level to qualify for the master transmorgrifist prc. Any advice?

[Tiri]

I am also in there group and am looking for ways to cast polymorph before 7th level to qualify for the master transmorgrifist prc. Any advice?

Make a separate thread for this.