Daremeto's optimization nuggets #1

[daremetoidareyo]

I've been toying around with character schemes and have found nuggets along that rabbit hole that I think are worthy of further consideration. So I'm posting them here to see if ya'll might have some fun extrapolating these oddities.



Arcane mastery

Arcane mastery
Prerequisite Ability to cast arcane spells or use spelllike abilities (including invocations)
Benefit You can take 10 on caster level checks (as if the caster level check was a skill check). You can use this feat even while under stress.

Do you think that you can reason that you can apply a luck reroll for a skill to an arcane mastery spell that you take 10 on?

Do you think that you can apply a generic bonus to skill checks (from a spell or something) to your caster level take 10 check?


Wildmage + arcane mastery


Wild Magic: A wild mage casts spells differently from any other arcane spellcaster. She reduces her caster level by 3 for all spells she casts from now on. However, every time she casts a spell, her use of wild magic adds 1d6 to her adjusted caster level. For example, an 8th-level sorcerer/1st-level wild mage has a base caster level of 6th, not 9th, but her actual caster level varies from 7th to 12th for every spell she casts. Caster level affects all level-based variables of a spell, including spell penetration checks.

Do you think you can reason that the d6 you roll to determine your caster level of a spell can be a "caster level check"? (thereby adding 10 to your caster level?)

What type of ability is Wild Magic? Does it qualify for ability focus feats, or spell like or supernatural boosting feats?

Ship's Mage

Ship's Mage
You form a potent supernatural bond with a ship. Your spells have a more potent effect when cast aboard this ship. Those spellcasters who possess this feat are greatly favored as ship crew.
Prerequisite Spellcraft 4 ranks, Profession (sailor) 2 ranks
Benefit Add +1 to the caster level of all spells cast while you are aboard a ship that is familiar to you. In addition, spells you cast while aboard a ship that is familiar to you deal no damage to that ship. It takes one week of living and working aboard a ship to become familiar with it. You can only be familiar with one ship at a time; the familiarity with a particular ship fades should you become familiar with another ship. Additionally, should you remain away from the ship you are familiar with for more than a month, that familiarity fades as well.

How do get a "ship" on land to carry me around in? What can I do with that?

Transmuter 5 ACF

Spell Versatility (Ex) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#spellVersatility)
A 5th-level transmuter using this variant can adapt magic of other schools to his own style of spellcasting. For every five class levels that the transmuter gains, he can select one spell of any spell level that he has access to and treat it as if it were a transmutation spell. This means, for example, that the specialist can learn the spell normally and even prepare it as a bonus spell from the transmutation school. This spell can even be from a school that he has chosen as a prohibited school. Once a spell is chosen to be affected by this ability, it cannot be changed.

For example, a transmutation specialist using this variant has selected abjuration and necromancy as his prohibited schools. At 5th level, he gains access to 3rd-level spells. He chooses dispel magic and forever after treats dispel magic as if were a transmutation spell.


If applied to an abjuration spell, you can push warding spells against a creature to repel them because that prohibition only exists for abjuration spells. What spells work best?
I found hand of the faithful, which is nice. what else.

Do schools keep their subschool?

If applied to a illusion spell, they can't disbelieve it. I don't know if the the subschools further interact with this. What can we do with this?

If applied to an enchantment charm spell, it isn't mind effecting unless the charm spell specifically claims that it is. What can we do with this?

Transmuter 5 + hand of the faithful

You create an immobile zone of warding that is permeable to those of your religion but repels all others. Creatures that have the same deity as you, or are wearing the holy symbol of your deity, can enter and move within the warded area unhindered. Other creatures that try to enter or move within the area must make a Fortitude save each round or be stunned for 1 round. If the creature's only action is to try to move completely out of the area, the ward does not hinder it. Once a creature succeeds on its saving throw, it is no longer affected by that casting of hand of the faithful.

If you get your caster level up there, you can chase people around the field. How can we use this?

Elder Giant Magic + PC of the giant type

Creatures of the giant type can also use this feat to improve spell-like abilities, and they gain a + 4 competence bonus on Concentration cheeks made to use the feat.

The earliest that you can take the feat is level 6. ...And psilike abilities count as spell like abilities. What giant race available has the coolest use of this ability?

Mastery of Madness


Whenever you summon a celestial or fiendish creature with a spell, spell-like ability, or magic item, you can choose instead to summon a pseudonatural version of that creature (see the pseudonatural template in Complete Arcane, reproduced in abbreviated form below). When you use this ability, you must succeed on a caster level check (DC 15 + spell level) to avoid opening a small temporary rift to Xoriat, which affects the spell as if it were cast on a plane with the wild magic trait (roll d% on the table on page 150 in the Dungeon Master's Guide to determine the effect).

Can you take a 1 on a caster level check to open that rift on purpose?
Is there any way to get the celestial or fiendish creature template onto a summon ability? Does calling your familiar count?\

[Vaz]

Regarding taking 10, no. "Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check" is specified within the Taking 10, and adding D6 to your Caster level is not a caster level check anyway.

A ship on land could just well be a standard wind powered ship, but with wheels. Or a Hovercraft, without being a true flying ship.

Transmuter doesn't actually remove the Abjuration, but allows the caster (and only the caster) to treat it as a Transmutation spell. It is still subject to all the other effects and limitations of the Abjuration spell (for example), except for those that are listed within the ability. If you had an ability that for example increased your Caster Level when casting a Transmutation spell, it would be cast at +1 level, but another caster would see that as an Abjuration spell. It is still an Enchantment spell, and thus an Immune to Mind Affecting creature is still unaffected.

[chimaeraUndying]

I think these would be appropriate to the Fun Finds threads, but they seem sorta dead right now.

Are you implicitly opening this to other forumites posting optimization nuggets?

[daremetoidareyo]

I think these would be appropriate to the Fun Finds threads, but they seem sorta dead right now.

Are you implicitly opening this to other forumites posting optimization nuggets?

I mean, if you got them, sure.

[chimaeraUndying]

Laborious Training (General):


Your selfless dedication to study and the long hours you have spent training for your craft have given you an increased capacity for learning. Prerequisites: Int 13, Knowledge (any one) 5 ranks.
Prerequisites: none.
Benefit: Your maximum rank in any Intelligence- based skill equals 5 + your character level. Normal: A character’s maximum rank in any skill equals 3 + character level.


Seems like you can cheese your way into PrCs with this.

Magical Lineage + Stack Metamagic:


Pick one spell when you choose this trait. When you apply metamagic feats to this spell that add at least 1 level to the spell, treat its actual level as 1 lower for determining the spell’s final adjusted level.




You can add some metamagic feats to a spell more than once. Only spells that increase one of the numeric values of a spell by a set amount can be stacked. Thus you can stack multiple Defensive Spell, Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Profane Spell, Sanctified Spell, and Widen Spell feats onto the same spell. Each additional use of the metamagic feat adds the same total amount to the numeric value of the spell effected. Thus an “extended extended” spell has triple the duration of a normal spell (each Extend Spell adding a duration equal to the spell’s original value), and a “profane profane” spell deals all unholy damage, and good creatures are at a –2 penalty to saves against it.

When stacking metamagic feats, the spell uses up a spell slot equal to its normal spell level + the total number of levels added by the metamagic feats +1. Thus an “extended extended” spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell’s actual level (+2 for the two uses of Extend Spell +1).


My read on these is that combining these two lets you stack an arbitrary number of +1 metamagic feats onto a spell, and have it only take up a spell slot a single level higher than the base spell.

[Khedrac]

Arcane mastery
Sorry, those are a straight "No" - it never says that the caster level check is a skill check for any purpose whatsoever, it merely says that you can take 10 as if it was a skill check.

Wildmage + arcane mastery
Again "No", a caster level check is D20 + caster level. That said there are fun tricks once can pull with Wildmage, just not this one.

Ship's Mage
This has potential.

Transmuter 5 ACF
The transmuter treats the spell as a transmutation spell, the other creatures do not and the spell itself is still not transmutation, therefore attempting to push an abjuration spell against another creature will still cause the spell to fail.

Do schools keep their subschool?
- Yes - no reason for them not to.

If applied to a illusion spell, they can't disbelieve it. I don't know if the the subschools further interact with this. What can we do with this?
- Wrong - opponents can still disbelieve it, however the transmuter no longer automatically disbelieves it - so this could prove useful.

If applied to an enchantment charm spell, it isn't mind effecting unless the charm spell specifically claims that it is. What can we do with this?
- Isn't that true anyway?

[WhamBamSam]

Primordial Giant is another bit of Giant type cheese, and adds +1 to SLA caster levels as well. I actually sort of like Primordial Half-Giant Mountebank 4 (Alter Self 2+Cha/day) to start off a build. The Stomp PLA eventually gets a high enough ML to qualify for Metamorphic Transfer. Giant Alter Self forms generally don't have the greatest (Su) abilities, but the Ogre Mage's Change Shape is pretty spiffy and can springboard you up to more interesting stuff.

There are also Cyclopeans, two LA+0 Giant races from some Dragon Magazine or other. It wouldn't surprise me if one or the other had some weird SLA or other.

Really though, I doubt we're going to get much from race choice, as it's hard to imagine there being a giant with a remotely acceptable ECL having anything all that interesting as an innate SLA. Instead, you should probably look through classes that grant SLAs for ones that scale with CL and can be conveniently cast at +3 rounds of casting time, and use a Half-Giant (or Cyclopean with Dragon Magazine available).

[thethird]

Primordial Giant is another bit of Giant type cheese, and adds +1 to SLA caster levels as well. I actually sort of like Primordial Half-Giant Mountebank 4 (Alter Self 2+Cha/day) to start off a build. The Stomp PLA eventually gets a high enough ML to qualify for Metamorphic Transfer. Giant Alter Self forms generally don't have the greatest (Su) abilities, but the Ogre Mage's Change Shape is pretty spiffy and can springboard you up to more interesting stuff.

There are also Cyclopeans, two LA+0 Giant races from some Dragon Magazine or other. It wouldn't surprise me if one or the other had some weird SLA or other.

Really though, I doubt we're going to get much from race choice, as it's hard to imagine there being a giant with a remotely acceptable ECL having anything all that interesting as an innate SLA. Instead, you should probably look through classes that grant SLAs for ones that scale with CL and can be conveniently cast at +3 rounds of casting time, and use a Half-Giant (or Cyclopean with Dragon Magazine available).

There is a la+0 version of half giant in complete psionic.

[WhamBamSam]

There is a la+0 version of half giant in complete psionic.I don't think you can just use the base race for the Half-Giant racial class. It looks to me like that locks you into the racial class progression, which means you do have to eat the point of LA at ECL 2.

Regarding Mastery of Madness, I'm not sure if you can voluntarily fail the CL check, but you can cast spells at their minimum caster level (and the CL on the spell being cast should be the CL used on the check). Demonologists can treat Summon Monster spells as up to 4 levels higher for the purposes of summoning CE creatures (which includes some of the fiendish ones), and get 4th level spells at 4th level due to wonky casting progression. So you can effectively cast Summon Monster VIII at a CL of 4, meaning you're rolling 1d20+4 with a DC of 23. Get another -2 penalty from somewhere, and you're opening portals to Xoriat on a 20.

[thorr-kan]

Laborious Training (General):


Seems like you can cheese your way into PrCs with this.

Except p91 of Legacy of the Blood says you have to be a member of the Mordenheim family to use these feats. But DM fiat that requirement away, and you're cooking with gas.

[Darrin]

I don't think you can just use the base race for the Half-Giant racial class. It looks to me like that locks you into the racial class progression, which means you do have to eat the point of LA at ECL 2.


Pretty much. Basically it tells you what a half-giant's "base traits" would look like if it didn't have the LA +1 (Con +2, Dex -2, giant type). If there was a Savage Progression for half-giant, then the rest of the traits would be in a template class that you could take whenever. However... the Half-Giant Racial Class locks you into taking those LA +1 traits at 2nd level, and there is no official Savage Progression Template Class. We could kitbash the Template Class together based on the traits listed in the Racial Class, but that's still pretty much "dipping a toe" into Homebrew. Assuming a DM allowed an LA +0 half-giant, you're still missing their most distinctive feature: Powerful Build.

[chimaeraUndying]

Except p91 of Legacy of the Blood says you have to be a member of the Mordenheim family to use these feats.

"My great aunt twice-removed was a member of the Mordenheim family and therefore so am I."

You're right, though.

[thorr-kan]

"My great aunt twice-removed was a member of the Mordenheim family and therefore so am I."

You're right, though.
Dee Am Fee Aat Mordenheim.

Sounds legit. :)

[Hellpyre]

The New Bedford Mordenheim's, specifically, but close enough for me.

[thorr-kan]

The New Bedford Mordenheim's, specifically, but close enough for me.
Hey, New Bedford! Maybe you know my Cousin Hal...

Laborious Training, if allowed, stacks nicely with Favored and Primary Contact feats from Cityscape. You can now have 5+character level skill ranks in Int-based class skills and +1 skill rank in one special skill, for 6+character level for one Int-based class skill. That's gotta be worth something for some build.

[Akal Saris]

For ship's mage, you could get a land-based ship if you make a ship your stronghold through stronghold builder's guide and add the correct magical travel options (swimming, walking, tunnelling, etc.) Add in the Legendary Captain prestige class as well.