[3.x.x] The Jakeverse, A Traveler's Guide

[Doc Roc]

This will become a handbook.

Let me repeat. Will become.

Right now, it's a collection of my commonly used tricks, some of my more famously stupid ideas, and a few really interesting implications for world-building. While there are a lot of superficial resemblances to the Tippyverse in what I'm going to lay out, it's probably worth mentioning that this is a wildly more extreme articulation of it than the one that Tippy presented. It owes more to the Paranoid Wizard of the WotC CO boards than anything else.

Tricks You Should Know

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Many of these are early entry hacks. Some rules text may be reproduced but will be paraphrased to fall under the loopholes in the OGL\ICL.

Outline for now, attribution will be offered where possible:

1. Dragonsblood pool
   Magical locations are awesome. It's pretty simple.
   But the Dragonsblood pool in complete mage is something pretty special from a CO\TO standpoint. Why? Simple. It offers one arcane spell slot of 1st to 3rd level or the highest you can cast, whichever is lower. It offers this to any spontaneous caster of second level spells or higher. This includes favored souls and many similar divine casters, and does exactly what you are thinking it does.
   
2. Song And Dance Routine
   
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   {REDACTED} Song
   
   Prerequisite:
   {REDACTED}
   
   Benefit: By expending uses of your bardic music, you can
   heighten your illusion spells without using higher-level spell
   slots. For every daily use of your bardic music you expend during
   the casting of a spell, you can increase the effective level of that
   spell by +1. {REDACTED}
   You can’t raise a spell above 9th level with this feat.
   
   PG 170, Races of Faerun.
   No Errata.
   
   
   If this needs serious explanation, you need to get a better grasp of early entry tricks.
3. Versatile Spellcaster
   One level higher? Turns out that this is hilarious. It's never been errata'd, and while it clearly violated intent, it does basically work.
4. Sanctum Spell
   
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   SANCTUM SPELL [METAMAGIC]
   {REDACTED}
   Prerequisite: {REDACTED}
   Benefi t: A sanctum spell has an effective spell level 1
   higher than its normal level if cast in your sanctum (see
   below), but if not cast in the sanctum, the spell has an effective
   spell level 1 lower than normal. All effects dependent
   on spell level (including save DCs) are calculated according
   to the adjusted level.
   A sanctum spell uses a spell slot of the spell’s normal level.
   {REDACTED}
   
5. Magical Training
   This feat from PGtF page 41 gives anyone who takes it a minimum arcane caster level of 1. This is hilarious and awesome and stupidly useful.
6. Jacob's Ladder
   For this, I'll use the most extreme example.
   Imagine for a moment, that you are a human favored soul of third level with precocious apprentice, sanctum spell, and magical training. Now let us suppose that you made a specific Dragonsblood Pool your sanctum, or used an Acorn of Far Travel to treat it as such. So now, you can cast 3rd level arcane spells. So now you can get a third level arcane spell slot from the pool. This means that you, a third level favored soul, have third level spells. Third level arcane spells. If you can't break this, don't speak to me.
7. Drake-helms
   These allow you off-list spells, no ifs, ands, or buts. They are amazing, though expensive. Found in the Explorer's Guide, an eberron book.
8. The Illumian Dance
   Take a good close look at the Naenhoon rune word. There's a more complicated trick involving it, but for now, we'll just dance happily over non-****ty racial abilities. Unfortunately, it's never gotten any errata. This is.... a problem.
9. Tainted Scholar!?
   Casting based off taint. When the conservative readings produce a caster with up to 13 extra ninth level spell slots, you have a huge problem. Tainted Scholar, simply put, is one of the single strongest PrCs in the game. Oh and it also gets pretty good class abilities.
10. Glyph Seals
    They can store personal range spells, of the non-harmful variety. Many of these do not allow SR or Saving throws, and have hilariously detrimental effects. MiC for these.
11. Polymorph Any Object
    My standard trick is to get turned into a piece of planetar flesh, and then get turned into a planetar. Hilariously, inherent bonuses will still carry across, though aging bonuses will not. Lillends are also fantastic, due to the placement of their bardic music in its own section, making it an automatic or natural ability. This has, to my knowledge, never been errata'd.
12. Beholder Mage.
    It's in Lords of Madness, in the beholder's section. Go read it.
    Now understand that there are plenty of ways to become a beholder.
13. Restoration Shuffle
    Restoration is a spell with a problem. A big and real problem...
    "It also dispels negative levels and restores one experience level to a creature who has had a level drained"
    It doesn't give you your old levels back. It levels you back up. Enough said.
14. Inspire Greatness
    This is a really odd one. It's a ill-used and in fact largely useless class feature of bards. With a few exceptions. See, it offers extra hitdice, and we can, with the use of level drain, timing, and a well-placed restoration, place your levels "on top" of those bonus hitdice, and then hit you with psychic reformation. This allows early entry against skill requirements.
    In other cases, there are a few abilities that key off of hit-dice.
15. Spell Clocks
    Obviated material components with 100% repeatability and no cool-down.
16. Dusk Is Hungry
    Dusk giants have a problem. A big fat terrible problem. Well, actually, if I am honest, they have a few problems. One is that they like to eat people. Another is that their entry was poorly edited. These two problems come together when you realize that the cannibalize effect that allows them to gain hitdice and many good things....
    Well, it's an (ex) special attack. This means that a simple polymorph lets you get what you need for a variety of abusive early entry tricks combined with other stuff on this list.
17. Dragonblood Spell-pact
    So this is a really weird one. Dragons of Faerun has a couple of bizarre or good options, but this one really sticks out. Basically, you can pay xp to swap spells with another character. They have to be the same level, unfortunately, but they don't need to be on your spell list. Unfortunately, the XP cost is pretty high, but there are plenty of ways around that.
18. Thoughtbottle
    This item from complete arcane is easily one of the stupidest things ever printed. Just read it and weep. Banned in almost every campaign I've ever heard of.
19. Elemental Weirds And You
    Elemental weirds get powerful divinations, sorcerer casting and... wait. Back up. Those divinations appear to be at free action speed. That's right, weirds can make an infinite number of divinations per turn. Oops.
20. The Far Realm And You
    In certain cases, leaving the Far Realms doesn't put you back WHEN you entered, or when it is now. This is bad for obvious reasons of being extremely accessible time travel.
21. Time Regression And You
22. Time Regression And
23. Time Regression
24. Time
25. Fnord
26. The Sandwich Trick
    This was empty for too long. Originally devised by a good friend of mine, Tleilaxu_Ghola, this is possibly my favorite trick in D&D:
    1. Take one sandwich.
    2. Hire a wizard to cast Polymorph Any Object, turning the sandwich into a rabbit. Use a scroll, if you prefer.
    3. Manifest Astral Seed.
    4. Kill yourself.
    5. Use Mind Switch to possess the rabbit
    6. Use Metamorphosis/Astral Construct to smash the Astral Seed.
    7. Wait for polymorph to expire.
    You are now a sandwich. Of doom.
27. Savage Species Rituals
    There are a variety of type-granting and alignment subtyping rituals available in SS. Great for sneaking your way into certain classes. Interestingly, while most of them have huge prices associated with them, Savage Species also unfortunately defines a couple new abusive uses for Wish.
28. Assume Supernatural Ability
    This one just bears mention, not explanation. It's in Savage Species.
29. Dorfls
30. Psi-crystals. Psychic Reformation, and XPH pg. 67, Sidebar
    Go read it.
31. Spock
    Rary's Arcane Conversion merely requires that you know the spell, not that you be able to prepare it. Likewise with the Signature Spell hits from Halruaan Elder.
32. Hexer
    This PrC from masters of the wild is weirdly hard to get into, but rains joyous oddities on those who seek it. Great in a lot of respects excluding the intended one.
33. Primal Scholar
    Secret of Power + Unfettered Heroism = "Recharge Magic Just For You."

A World of Very Great Strangeness

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Imagine a world where many or most problems are decidable in nature. A medieval society with access to immense reaches of the modern technology we associate with computing, minus the physical limitations that shape our associations with it. This is the smallest part of the very odd things one might see in a properly RAW universe.

Imagine a world where dragons are hunted for their essence, where the sign of a leathery wing on the horizon is a cause to rejoice rather than panic. Where sorcerers are built, not born.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Don't Panic!

[Signmaker]

Bring a hardhat.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Bring a hardhat towel.

Fixed it for you.

[Adumbration]

Don't forget to grab that shovel with you.

[bosssmiley]

I'm feeling so iconographic right now.



@Doc Roc: Content first, then post. Tis customary.

[Zincorium]

Er, Doc Roc, you could at least give a one-sentence concept of what you're planning here.

Alternately, you could let the thread get overrun by off-topic banter and various suppositions while you write up the contents of an actual post. I don't think anyone will complain.

[Zeta Kai]

Alternately, you could let the thread get overrun by off-topic banter and various suppositions while you write up the contents of an actual post. I don't think anyone will complain.

Yeah, we won't be obtrusive. Not at all...

[Doc Roc]

I was really considering just never filling in the OP and using this as an informal banter thread as a joke, but you'll find that material is starting to filter into the OP.

[Doc Roc]

Just outlining the tricks I use is ridiculous.

[Signmaker]

Jake, do you mind if the ToS crew submits some of their ridiculous accomplishments? Stuff like Olo's bolt-spammer?

Regardless, I'd like if you mention the Ghost Skill EE.

[Doc Roc]

I'd be delighted. The list of stuff we've compiled, tested, recovered, or just scavenged from the titanic and leathery husk of 3.x CO is pretty incredible.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Jake, do you mind if the ToS crew submits some of their ridiculous accomplishments? Stuff like Olo's bolt-spammer multiple suicides?

Fixed it for you.

[Olo Demonsbane]

Someone called? *Commits Suicide in an Entertaining Way*

[Signmaker]

Fixed it for you.

You fix a lot of things I type.

I feel as though just about any ToS ban with a story behind it would probably qualify.

[Olo Demonsbane]

You fix a lot of things I type.

I feel as though just about any ToS ban with a story behind it would probably qualify.

Mortalbane was an entertaining one with another suicide. Can we just post stuff for you to add Tide?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Alita deserves a mention, just for being a better Tarrasque at 13 HD.

And for getting banned 3 times.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

You fix a lot of things I type.

It's not my fault that I am super special awesome.

[Signmaker]

Alita deserves a mention, just for being a better Tarrasque at 13 HD.

And for getting banned 3 times.

You mean Alita's 'immune to everything' mechanic? That was fun. I found Saph's method of victory against it especially amusing.

Wizard of High Sorcery - Black Robes - Magic of Hunger should probably receive some note for being able to generate an arbitrary amount of bonus spells for every spell level you can cast. And not even using any real tricks to do it.

[Olo Demonsbane]

Prestige Paladin definitely deserves a mention. Still my favorite breakage.

[Signmaker]

Do you suppose submissions should be specific outlineable tricks only, or more broad stuff too?

[ex cathedra]

Spelldancing + Persistent Spell + Immunity to Con damage, Fatigue, and Exhaustion.

Shape Soulmeld: Strongheart Vest + damn near anything, it seems, that exchanges ability damage for a benefit.

[Olo Demonsbane]

The Acorn of Far Travels + Hathran + Sanctum Spell combo could definitely be mentioned...

All of the Vorpal tricks that Sign and I had...

Warblade + RKV + WRT...

Hmmm...there are lots of them...

[Olo Demonsbane]

All right, a short list of some of my better tricks (that I could remember on the spur of the moment)...and my suicidal ones.

Olo's Tricks

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Prestige Paladin

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So you start off your build by taking levels in cleric. Maybe be a caster, a DMM-user...it doesn't matter.
Then, as soon as your build allows it, take a level in Prestige Paladin. It won't even reduce your caster level. This is all fine and dandy...doesn't look like anything really happened.
But now you can take feats that apply to paladin spellcasting and use them on your cleric spells. Two culprits present themselves: Battle Blessing and Sword of the Arcane Order.
Now your cleric can cast 2 spells a round and can prepare spells from the wizard and cleric lists.

Bolt Spammer

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Begin as some class that gets bonus feats and full BAB...probably a fighter. You dual wield hand crossbows, and make sure to get the following feats: EWP (Hand Crossbow), Round House Kick, Lightning Maces, Improved Critical, and Double Hit; make sure to get the prereqs as well. Now multiclass into Disciple of Disapater.
You're probably asking yourself, "What the heck is this guy thinking? These feats in no way go together!" But now we get into magic items. Buy yourself two +1 Aptitude Splitting Hand Crossbows. And something that gives you unlimited nonmagical ammo (Quiver of someone or other).
Now, you have a critical range of a good amount...13-20 or better. You'll have a lot of attacks, thanks to 2 splitting weapons. And every time you get a critical threat, you get 8 extra attacks! You have a chance to critical threat on them too. Think about it.
Effectively, you gain NI attacks...it never goes truly infinite, because of the fact that the chain can be ruined by a stroke of very bad luck.
However, beware of the psionic power Death Urge. It causes you to attack yourself, and automatically crit. Well, you crit, so you get 8 extra attacks...which all crit as well. Then you get 64 extra attacks...and so on. And atomize yourself.

Acorn Caster

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You are a Hathran. Aside from a few minor things, your build is irrelevant (I went with Wizard 1/Druid 1/Mystic Theurge 10/Hathran 1).
You have the Sanctum Spell feat, and your sanctum is in Rasheman. It contains an oak tree. Every few weeks, you teleport back, cast Acorn of Far Travels on it. Now, whenever you carry your acorn, you are standing under the oak tree: in your sanctum, in Rasheman. This gives you amazing versatility as a caster.
But that is not the most impressive part. In a first level slot, prepare "Sanctum (+0) Magic Missile". Now, you are in your sanctum, so it counts as a second level spell, despite being in a first level slot. Then use your Hathran powers to turn it into a second level spell...lets say "Heightened (+1) Magic Missile". Not too bad, right? Well, now you can turn that spell into "Heightened (+1) Sanctum (+0) Magic Missile". Then you change that into a 3rd level slot. And so on.
You can apply different metamagics, changing Heightened (+3) Magic Missile into Empowered (+2) Heightened (+1) Magic Missile, as long as the spell level + the amount heightened doesn't exceed 9th level. You can end up with quickened maximized persisted heightened 9th level spells at 8th level.

Mortalbane

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Mortalbane, from the Book of Vile Darkness, is a wonderful feat. 5 times a day, it lets you add 2d6 damage to an SLA. Doesn't sound too powerfull...
The thing is, it applies to all of your SLAs. This gives Truenamers a damage boost, lets Warlocks do extra damage, etc etc
The even more impressive thing is that you can stack it. So instead of doing +2d6 5 times a day, you instead can deal +10d6 1/day. Pretty cool, huh? Especially as you can do this at first level...
But wait! There's more! Apply Mortalbane (x5) to an SLA that deals damage each round (thunderhead), or one that gives you a weapon (flame blade). Or even the little baby kobold commoner 1s Draconic Ritual: Power Word Pain. 4d4 rounds of 11d6 damage from a CR 1/(4? 6? 2? 3? I forget what kobolds are these days...) creature.
My personal favorite use is to apply it to the DFAs Voracious Dispelling. for every spell effect you dispel, you deal 10d6+spell level damage. Not half bad on a fully buffed DMM-Persist Cleric

[9mm]

I guess I'll add my Bombing Run trick;

You are an Arcane Archer 2 on a flying mount; in your hand a splitting bow; and in your spellslots are meticulously meta-magiced area spells (see Olo's Acorn, Incanix, ect.) designed for the biggest bang you can muster. Imbue the arrow and let it fly, and watch as splitting turns one spell into a twined spell; bonus points if you twinned it beforehand too.

[IthilanorStPete]

aethernox's Wizard using Wings of Cover trick:
-A wizard's spells known are all the spells in his spellbook, and he can scribe any arcane spell into his spellbook.
-Take levels in Halruaan Elder (Shining South) to gain Signature Spell as a bonus feat. Choose a Sorceror-only spell like Wings of Cover/Flurry, and ta-da! You can spontaneously cast it by burning preared spells!

[Adumbration]

All right, a short list of some of my better tricks (that I could remember on the spur of the moment)...and my suicidal ones.



Bolt Spammer

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Begin as some class that gets bonus feats and full BAB...probably a fighter. You dual wield hand crossbows, and make sure to get the following feats: EWP (Hand Crossbow), Round House Kick, Lightning Maces, Improved Critical, and Double Hit; make sure to get the prereqs as well. Now multiclass into Disciple of Disapater.
You're probably asking yourself, "What the heck is this guy thinking? These feats in no way go together!" But now we get into magic items. Buy yourself two +1 Aptitude Splitting Hand Crossbows. And something that gives you unlimited nonmagical ammo (Quiver of someone or other).
Now, you have a critical range of a good amount...13-20 or better. You'll have a lot of attacks, thanks to 2 splitting weapons. And every time you get a critical threat, you get 8 extra attacks! You have a chance to critical threat on them too. Think about it.
Effectively, you gain NI attacks...it never goes truly infinite, because of the fact that the chain can be ruined by a stroke of very bad luck.
However, beware of the psionic power Death Urge. It causes you to attack yourself, and automatically crit. Well, you crit, so you get 8 extra attacks...which all crit as well. Then you get 64 extra attacks...and so on. And atomize yourself.

You know, you could get even more attacks if you used 2 light double crossbows. Takes a few more feats in form of Exotic WP, but still. Doubles your attacks again.

[HCL]

I have no idea what this thread is about so I am going to talk about feats that can get you early entry into a caster prestige class

1: Precocious Apprentice (Complete Arcane or Complete Mage, I forget). Gives you a second level slot which can be your ticket to entering things like Mystic Theurge and Anima Mage
2: Versatile Spellcaster (RotDragon). On its own, all this does is allow a spellcaster to fuse low level spell slots to gain spell slots of higher level spells they know. So you need to combine this with either precocioius apprentice above or Heighten Spell.
3: Improved Sigil Krau (RoDestiny). At second level, this Illumian racial feat lets you heighten 2 spells you know by one level for free. You can repick the heightened spells each time you level up.
4: Primitive Casting (Races of Faerun or Frostburn). Allows you to add material (herbs), somatic (waving your hands around), or verbal (primitive grunting noises) to a spell that does not already have them. If you do, for each one you add you increase the effective spell level and effective caster by 1.

[IthilanorStPete]

@Primitive casting: The Frostburn version only raises caster level, while the RoF version only raises SL.

[Olo Demonsbane]

@Versatile Spellcaster: Also for use with Beguiler, Warmage, and Dread Necro.