What things does xykon "need"

[Alcore]

If there was a way to give a lich the ability to taste, I really think it would be a total game changer.

Maybe... there is a debuff in "Libris Mortis" (a 3.5 supplement) that removes a number immunities that undead are known for. There are also spells out there to add flesh to a skeleton and to preserve dead flesh. Add them all up and he might be able to taste.

[WolvesbaneIII]

can xykon transform into something else and acquire those "abilities"?

by that, I mean can he polymorph or whatever into a dragon like V did and eat his opponent? Could he as the 3 spirits cited "taste like victory"?

could he therefore turn into a dwarf and drink beer, tasting it?

what about becoming a human and drinking coffee, supposing the transformation spell he casts on himself were to do that?

What are the limits of magic in the base game?

[InvisibleBison]

can xykon transform into something else and acquire those "abilities"?

by that, I mean can he polymorph or whatever into a dragon like V did and eat his opponent? Could he as the 3 spirits cited "taste like victory"?

could he therefore turn into a dwarf and drink beer, tasting it?

what about becoming a human and drinking coffee, supposing the transformation spell he casts on himself were to do that?

Yes, he absolutely could. Liches are only immune to polymorphing effects cast by others; they can transform themselves just fine. We don't know if Xykon knows any polymorph spells, but even if he doesn't, that just means he needs to obtain a magic item of some sort, which shouldn't be too hard.

What are the limits of magic in the base game?

D&D doesn't have a coherent system of magic. Magic can do whatever the various spells and magical abilities say it can do, and can't do anything else. There are no hard rules as to what is or isn't possible.

[Fyraltari]

can xykon transform into something else and acquire those "abilities"?

by that, I mean can he polymorph or whatever into a dragon like V did and eat his opponent? Could he as the 3 spirits cited "taste like victory"?

could he therefore turn into a dwarf and drink beer, tasting it?

what about becoming a human and drinking coffee, supposing the transformation spell he casts on himself were to do that?

What are the limits of magic in the base game?

There are spells that allows a Sorcer like Xykon to transform into something else, like this one:

Shapechange

Transmutation
Level: Animal 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9 Components: V, S, F Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: 10 min./level (D)

This spell functions like polymorph, except that it enables you to assume the form of any single nonunique creature (of any type) from Fine to Colossal size. The assumed form cannot have more than your caster level in Hit Dice (to a maximum of 25 HD). Unlike polymorph, this spell allows incorporeal or gaseous forms to be assumed.

You gain all extraordinary and supernatural abilities (both attacks and qualities) of the assumed form, but you lose your own supernatural abilities. You also gain the type of the new form in place of your own. The new form does not disorient you. Parts of your body or pieces of equipment that are separated from you do not revert to their original forms.

You can become just about anything you are familiar with. You can change form once each round as a free action. The change takes place either immediately before your regular action or immediately after it, but not during the action. If you use this spell to create a disguise, you get a +10 bonus on your Disguise check.

Focus: A jade circlet worth no less than 1,500 gp, which you must place on your head when casting the spell. (The focus melds into your new form when you change shape.)

But Xykon only has access to specific spells if he's chosen to learn them when going up a level and he doesn't get that many new spell with each level.

[WolvesbaneIII]

Yes, he absolutely could. Liches are only immune to polymorphing effects cast by others; they can transform themselves just fine. We don't know if Xykon knows any polymorph spells, but even if he doesn't, that just means he needs to obtain a magic item of some sort, which shouldn't be too hard.



D&D doesn't have a coherent system of magic. Magic can do whatever the various spells and magical abilities say it can do, and can't do anything else. There are no hard rules as to what is or isn't possible.

interesting. but would a lich who is polymorphed gain the sense of taste and smell?

dear god, I swear at least 11% of xykons murders could be prevented with a spell making him able to eat and drink. but thats all. the rest are just a slightly less angry xykon.

[KorvinStarmast]

can xykon transform into something else and acquire those "abilities"?

He doesn't want to, because for him Power is what it's about.

[InvisibleBison]

interesting. but would a lich who is polymorphed gain the sense of taste and smell?

I would say he would, yes. Alter self, which is the basis for all shape-changing spells in 3.5, doesn't explicitly say that you gain the senses of the form you assume, but it does say that you gain the "physical qualities" of the form, and that you don't get any extraordinary sensory abilities. It's not an airtight case, but I'd say that the spell should give normal senses.

[WolvesbaneIII]

He doesn't want to, because for him Power is what it's about.

well, power in this case is the power to drink a cup of coffee, which he was quite mad about.

so, I would imagine the ability to drink coffee and taste it would be something he might do to keep busy when he isn't making magic items and killing people.

he does get bored easily, and I would imagine it would keep him busy for like an hour if he takes the time to enjoy a few cups.

now this is up to the writer, in this case the giant, but I would imagine he would enjoy a cup of joe after a killing spree. and then turn back.

He did take time for leisure activities, like drawing RC getting the boot, so some other leisure activities aren't out of the question.

[Dame_Mechanus]

well, power in this case is the power to drink a cup of coffee, which he was quite mad about.

so, I would imagine the ability to drink coffee and taste it would be something he might do to keep busy when he isn't making magic items and killing people.

he does get bored easily, and I would imagine it would keep him busy for like an hour if he takes the time to enjoy a few cups.

now this is up to the writer, in this case the giant, but I would imagine he would enjoy a cup of joe after a killing spree. and then turn back.

He did take time for leisure activities, like drawing RC getting the boot, so some other leisure activities aren't out of the question.

Yeah, but that takes spell slots he could be using for more fun stuff. Xykon is absolutely not the sort of person to whom "creature comforts" are a priority; he wants to be entertained, and what entertains him the most is hurting people or things. It makes him laugh, even more if someone else is taking everything really seriously and it just doesn't bother him. Insulting allies who can't afford to be without him and/or can't stop him even if they want to, wrecking things, killing living beings, flexing his power... he's not hard to understand. He's the kid who thinks it's funny to sprinkle a ring of salt around a slug and watch it suffer, except to him everything is a slug.

Or to put it another way - yes, he's no doubt powerful enough to shapeshift into a form that could enjoy a nice cup of coffee. But if he were the sort of person who would consider that a worthwhile use of his power, he wouldn't have allied with Redcloak and become a lich in order to gain more power in the first place.

[WolvesbaneIII]

Yeah, but that takes spell slots he could be using for more fun stuff. Xykon is absolutely not the sort of person to whom "creature comforts" are a priority; he wants to be entertained, and what entertains him the most is hurting people or things. It makes him laugh, even more if someone else is taking everything really seriously and it just doesn't bother him. Insulting allies who can't afford to be without him and/or can't stop him even if they want to, wrecking things, killing living beings, flexing his power... he's not hard to understand. He's the kid who thinks it's funny to sprinkle a ring of salt around a slug and watch it suffer, except to him everything is a slug.

Or to put it another way - yes, he's no doubt powerful enough to shapeshift into a form that could enjoy a nice cup of coffee. But if he were the sort of person who would consider that a worthwhile use of his power, he wouldn't have allied with Redcloak and become a lich in order to gain more power in the first place.

I guess my question is, if he has the slots to spare, he might cast the spell on a slow killing day. He spent how many hours torturing ochul in azure city. how many slots does he need to spend on torture, and how many on coffee?

I'm guessing he could become "human" or whatever, with 1 spell, then dismiss it at his leisure.

I don't think xykon uses all his spells on a casual tuesday. Maybe dungeon crawling he won't have spells to spare, but he did waste 1 on some art drawing him kicking RC's butt.

so instead of drawing tasteful art, he could just use the spell to drink coffee instead.

But he already wasted a spell drawing RC being kicked, so maybe coffee can wait tomorrow.

[woweedd]

I guess my question is, if he has the slots to spare, he might cast the spell on a slow killing day. He spent how many hours torturing ochul in azure city. how many slots does he need to spend on torture, and how many on coffee?

I'm guessing he could become "human" or whatever, with 1 spell, then dismiss it at his leisure.

I don't think xykon uses all his spells on a casual tuesday. Maybe dungeon crawling he won't have spells to spare, but he did waste 1 on some art drawing him kicking RC's butt.

so instead of drawing tasteful art, he could just use the spell to drink coffee instead.

But he already wasted a spell drawing RC being kicked, so maybe coffee can wait tomorrow.

To be clare: Xykon does not have spell slots, in the traditional sense. He has a list of spells he knows, and he can cast any spell of a given level a certain number of times, until he can't cast any more spells of that level until he recharges. But he has access to his full spell list (for the levels he hasn't used up) at all times, no slots needed. That's how sorcerers work. The downside is that his pool of spells is much more limited: Even at Level 20, you only get 3 9th-level spells. Meanwhile, a Wizard can have as many spells as will fit in his spellbook, but has to prepare them ahead of time from that pool, rather then just having them on tap, and gets far less uses per day, usually only getting one of each spell a day, but having room for more spells per level then Xykon. For Xykon to learn Shapechange, he'd have to either have chosen it as one of his 3 9th-level spells, or swap one of those spells for it at one of his even-numbered levels. Alter Self, meanwhile, would have taken one of his 5 2nd-level slots. Clearly, he did not.

[Dame_Mechanus]

I guess my question is, if he has the slots to spare, he might cast the spell on a slow killing day. He spent how many hours torturing ochul in azure city. how many slots does he need to spend on torture, and how many on coffee?

Based on what we saw him casting? Zero; Ray of Frost is a cantrip. (I don't think he was using Scorching Ray for his Redcloak art, because I think there's a flame-based cantrip that he could have been using instead. You will hopefully forgive me for not going searching.)

But even that is kind of talking around the point you're asking. It's not that anyone thinks Xykon couldn't do this. He is capable of it. The question is why Xykon specifically would want to. There's no indication that he's the sort of person who would go out of his way for any sort of creature comfort, and so either he doesn't know the spell and finds the idea of searching for it too time-consuming or he just doesn't care.

This was what I was trying to get at before. The sort of person who thinks "I can shapeshift back into a living form and enjoy the sublime taste of a well-brewed cup of coffee to ease my mind" is not the sort of person who tells a goblin "yeah, cut out my heart and turn me into an undead spellcasting monstrosity." It might be possible for there to be a lich who actually (un)lives that way, but that is not Xykon. There are a lot of narrative and characterization reasons why this is the case, and those are probably more pertinent than whether or not it is strictly something Xykon is capable of doing.

[Peelee]

To be clare: Xykon does not have spell slots, in the traditional sense.

Sorcerers have spell slots. They just don't need to prepare spells i their spell slots.

Based on what we saw him casting? Zero; Ray of Frost is a cantrip.

Cantrips still need spell slots in 3.5.

[Dame_Mechanus]

Cantrips still need spell slots in 3.5.

Fair enough! So that answer would be moved from "zero" to "one."

[WolvesbaneIII]

Based on what we saw him casting? Zero; Ray of Frost is a cantrip. (I don't think he was using Scorching Ray for his Redcloak art, because I think there's a flame-based cantrip that he could have been using instead. You will hopefully forgive me for not going searching.)

But even that is kind of talking around the point you're asking. It's not that anyone thinks Xykon couldn't do this. He is capable of it. The question is why Xykon specifically would want to. There's no indication that he's the sort of person who would go out of his way for any sort of creature comfort, and so either he doesn't know the spell and finds the idea of searching for it too time-consuming or he just doesn't care.

This was what I was trying to get at before. The sort of person who thinks "I can shapeshift back into a living form and enjoy the sublime taste of a well-brewed cup of coffee to ease my mind" is not the sort of person who tells a goblin "yeah, cut out my heart and turn me into an undead spellcasting monstrosity." It might be possible for there to be a lich who actually (un)lives that way, but that is not Xykon. There are a lot of narrative and characterization reasons why this is the case, and those are probably more pertinent than whether or not it is strictly something Xykon is capable of doing.

this is actually a plot point in a past book. he didn't know he'd lose his sense of taste.

This made xykon angry, as if he was looking forward to the taste of coffee specifically.

The spell to polymorph would be a way to bypass that, but maybe it won't work or he didn't think of that.