3.5 Amateur DM Questions

[vartan]

1. Is there anywhere that describes a Ring of Disguise Self?

2. I see a Chosen of Mystra template applied to some in FR books, but are there any other 'chosens' available (i.e. Tempus or Uthgar)?

3. One of my players wants to be a mindflayer? How can we do this?

[Gamerlord]

1. Make one yourself, its rather simple
2.not sure
3. DON'T allow him. If you feel the need, check the MM, it has statistics for the race, just remember that LA.

[Saph]

1. Is there anywhere that describes a Ring of Disguise Self?

Yeah, it's called the Hat of Disguise. Change 'hat' for 'ring' if you like.

2. I see a Chosen of Mystra template applied to some in FR books, but are there any other 'chosens' available (i.e. Tempus or Uthgar)?

Yes, there's Chosen of Bane that I know of. But you basically have to work each one out from scratch, as every god grants different powers.

3. One of my players wants to be a mindflayer? How can we do this?

Generally you don't. If the LA + RHD doesn't kill him, the population of every nonevil town he enters will. That's without even starting on party conflict issues and his dietary requirements. There's a reason Mind Flayers aren't recommended as PC races.

If you insist, the MM gives a LA of +7 and 8 RHD, meaning a 1st-level Mind Flayer will be the equivalent of a 16th-level character. Good luck.

[Starbuck_II]

Agreed, Rings are any slot. Basically they are their own slot.

[drengnikrafe]

If a PC actually wants to play a Mind Flayer, here's what I would do...

Give him a ring of disguise (that grants a huge bonus to disguise), and have him always disguised as a Mind Flayer. Then have something cast programmed amnesia on him, and make him think he's a mind flayer. Then, have him deal with all the Role-Playing applications of the race. If he can actually handle that for a whole campaign, you can start to consider giving him the actual race. As an amateur DM, though? That's almost never a good idea. And by almost never, I mean never.

[Raewyn]

There's also the Ring of Chameleon Power, but that's quite a bit more expensive (+10 to Hide Checks though).

[Xzeno]

Mindflayer thing: I'm played a campaign with a mindflayer PC. Here's how we do it: Racial hit die don't affect character level. They still exist, they just don't change what you are equivalent to. That is, a 1st level mindflayer has one class level, eight aberration level and +7 LA, making him the equivalent of an 9th level character. You might also want to make the mindblast not be usable against a single target more than once in twenty four hours. In fact, in our party, the mindflayer only has a +5 level adjustment because the mindblast was nerfed, as above, and he's playing a core only monk. So, to re-iterate, he's a monk3/aberration8, making him equivalent to an 8th level character. As for the towns wanting your blood, we solve that by being mass murderers.

I know this would be no where close to balanced and that it wouldn't work for everyone, I'm just saying that mindflayers can be played if the issue is given enough attention. It's a lot of work with little reward and (in our case) the mindflayer easily out-classed the rest of the party, but that was one of the most fun campaigns I have ever played.

[sofawall]

Wait, you give him saves, HP and BAB for the HD, but don't count them against his character level?

[drengnikrafe]

Can you do that with Gestalt? First set of levels is class, second is race?

[AslanCross]

Can you do that with Gestalt? First set of levels is class, second is race?

The DM could probably rule this, but IMO it's a rather lame way of doing gestalt. Gestalting two classes would be far more impressive.

I generally ban monster PCs---I find them to be more of a headache than they're worth.

[sofawall]

Can you do that with Gestalt? First set of levels is class, second is race?

Yes, but then you just have Dragon HD on the race side. :P

EDIT: No class abilities, but if it must be an HD, d12, full BAB and all good saves, as well as fairly awesome skills per level make it pretty hard to beat. Outsider is roughly as good, but most Outsiders have much lower HD and much higher LA.

[Choco]

If he REALLY wants to be a mindflayer from lvl 1, you can get Savage Species. Shows how to progress a mindflayer all the way up to where it hits the LA.

[Xzeno]

Wait, you give him saves, HP and BAB for the HD, but don't count them against his character level?

That's exactly what we do. Once again, this is in no way fair and the player makes up for it by avoiding useful combos like the plague.

When I DM, I ban monster PCs and I would suggest anyone else do the same. It's just not the sort of thing you can do in a regular game.

[Fishy]

There's the Illithid Heritage chain of feats from Complete Psionic, and the Flayerspawn Psychic prestige class. He won't be a mindflayer, but he'll have tentacles, a mind blast, and brain-eating if he wants it.