Recruitment Thread for Pell's D&D 3.5 Game

[spiderwrangler]

Kastrail would be a fit for a token follower of the natural independence deity if you'd rather I take that.

[Synch]

Will, do you own or are we able to use Complete Warrior?

http://dndtools.eu/rulebooks/supplement ... rrior--61/

[Amara]

...on that note, if anyone needs them, I have access to what I think are all of the class books.

[spiderwrangler]

I have zero books, that's why my references are all online databases. I'd take access to any offered however...

[Synch]

Would Hide Armor +2, a Ring of protection +1 and an Amulet of Natural Armor +1 all stack? Or does one negate the other?

EDIT: Nvm, just figured it stacks. Armor bonus + deflection bonus + natural armour bonus.

[willpell]

I saw a short film today about the Octopus, and find myself angrier than ever that the Tako was never converted to 3.5 rules. If anyone knows of a fan conversion for these classic creatures, please let me know.

I'm looking into maybe adding a template to my character..is this allowed as long as I make the appropriate level adjustment?

It is allowed, but it's a terrible idea for two reasons:

1. Primary "casters" (properly "manifesters" in this case, but here we're just speaking anyone who uses something akin to Vancian magic) do NOT want to ever lose even a single caster level if they can avoid it. You've already got a +1 LA as a not-Kobold, but that can be bought off at level 3, and by our level it has essentially ceased to affect your XP total, so you get nine full levels of psion. If you had nine full levels of, say, Warblade (a vaguely "caster-like" version of Fighter), you might conceivably choose to give up a couple of those levels in exchange for a template that gives you huge bonuses to Strength and Constitution - but there's nothing that any template can offer a Wizard, Cleric, or Psion in exchange for taking away even one level worth of the spells/powers which are their bread and butter. At most, if they started out human, they might take a +1 LA template in order to get rid of it quickly, as you've done for being a "kobold"...but adding a +1 LA template to someone who already has +1 LA does not merely double the delay, it triples it (because you have to take six levels to buy your +2 LA down to +1, and then three more to remove it entirely). So if you had +2 LA, you'd be able to get it removed by now, but you'd be down a huge quantity of XP compared to the rest of the party, meaning you'd level later than everyone else, and you wouldn't get higher-level Powers at a time that would correspond to the CR of monsters you'd face. It'd leave you constantly struggling to keep up.

2. There's also the fact that you have d4 hit dice, and that going without any of them would leave you even squishier than you already are. Vigor can only do so much in terms of keeping you alive.

Will, do you own or are we able to use Complete Warrior?

http://dndtools.eu/rulebooks/supplement ... rrior--61/

I have it, but I haven't reviewed it incredibly extensively. If you want things from it, you can probably have them, but I'm not entirely prepared to deal with them, so please have mercy and keep it within reason, as I barely know any of the contents. (By way of contrast, there are supplements such as Races of Destiny, Complete Divine, the XPH, PHB2, or the BOExD which I've damn near read backwards and forwards, except generally for the spell sections. Anyone asks to reference one of these, I will probably know exactly what they're talking about, and even if I don't recognize the subject itself, I'll be very comfortable with going and looking it up. This is why I pretty much rubber-stamped Zaks; I don't know all his powers, but psionics in general is something I understand very well, whereas for example the Tactical feats in CW, though nowhere near as useful, are strange and puzzling to me and I've only barely begun to poke at them.)

Kastrail would be a fit for a token follower of the natural independence deity if you'd rather I take that.

Sigh...nobody ever wants to play the Good guys in my game....

[spiderwrangler]

I saw a short film today about the Octopus, and find myself angrier than ever that the Tako was never converted to 3.5 rules. If anyone knows of a fan conversion for these classic creatures, please let me know.

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Tako_(3.5e_creature) ?

Kastrail would be a fit for a token follower of the natural independence deity if you'd rather I take that.

Sigh...nobody ever wants to play the Good guys in my game....

Well, given Kast's social status, Fenmarel is a fairly good fit.

" Fenmarel Mestarine is the elven deity of feral elves, outcast elves, scapegoats and solitude."

They share a CN alignment with CG leanings, but if your natural independence deity is preferable to you than F.M., I'm fine with that. Kast's religious alignment would be minimal at most.

Also, the goody goody paladin last time out got locked into bearform for the entire outing.

[Synch]

Will, do you own or are we able to use Complete Warrior?

http://dndtools.eu/rulebooks/supplement ... rrior--61/

I have it, but I haven't reviewed it incredibly extensively. If you want things from it, you can probably have them, but I'm not entirely prepared to deal with them, so please have mercy and keep it within reason, as I barely know any of the contents. (By way of contrast, there are supplements such as Races of Destiny, Complete Divine, the XPH, PHB2, or the BOExD which I've damn near read backwards and forwards, except generally for the spell sections. Anyone asks to reference one of these, I will probably know exactly what they're talking about, and even if I don't recognize the subject itself, I'll be very comfortable with going and looking it up. This is why I pretty much rubber-stamped Zaks; I don't know all his powers, but psionics in general is something I understand very well, whereas for example the Tactical feats in CW, though nowhere near as useful, are strange and puzzling to me and I've only barely begun to poke at them.)

I ask because I was looking at Three Mountains and ShockTrooper feats.
Coupled with Brutal Strike, and Improved Trip (as well as prerequisites), I could potentially leave an opponent prone, sickened and nauseated in a single round

[Arch Lich Burns]

I hope I got this right....

Name : Quinton
Race : Ghost Human
Class : Bard Sage 4
ECL : 9
Align : NG
Affiliation: None

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A transparent ghost of a man.
Age : 24
Gender : Male
Height : 5ÔÇÖ9ÔÇØ
Weight : NONE
Skin: Pale as a ghost
Hair : white
Eyes : white

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STR: 8 (-1)
DEX: 14 (+2)
CON: -
INT: 19 (+4)
WIS: 8 (-1)
CHA: 20 (+5)

HP :48
HD: 1d12
Size : Medium
Speed : 30 ft. Perfect Fly

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*Melodic casting
*Flyby Attack
*skill focus (preform oratory)

Abilities
Bardic Knowledge +12
Bardic spellbream
Bardic Facinate
Inspire Courage +1
Inspire Competence +2 for one ally on a skill check
Draining touch: drain ine score by 1d4,heal 5 hp
Telekenisis: Use telekenisis every 1d4 rounds standard action
Maleviolence: can magic jar a creature on material plane
Manifistation: Can manifest on the material plane
Rejuvination: Ghost can come back from the dead 1d20+ ghost hd
Turn resistance: Ghost have +4 turn resistance

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Languages
Common, Draconic, Undercommon, Elven, celestrial, abyssal

6+INT per level
Appraise:
Bluff: 12=7 rank+5 mod
Diplomacy: 16=7 rank+5 mod+4 syrengy
Disguise: 12: 7 rank + 5 mod
Gather Information: 12=7 rank+5 mod
Hide: 17=2 mod + 8 racial+7 rank
Know dungeonenginering: 11: 7rank +4mod
Knowledge History: 9=5 rank+4 mod
Know: nobles: 9=5 rank +4 mod
Listen: 7= -1 mod+8 racial
Preform: Oratory 15: 7 rank + 5 mod+ 3 feat
Search: 12=4 mod+8 racial
Language: 1 rank
Sense Motive: -1: -1mod
Spellcraft: 11: 7 ranks + 4 mod
Spot: 7: -1 mod + 8 racial
Tumble: 6: 2 mod+ 4 rank
Use Magic Device: 12: 7 ranks+ 5 mod

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0 ÔÇô 6 3/day
1-3 4/day
2-2 2/day

Cantrips
Dancing Lights
Ghost Sound
Presigitation
Mage Hand
Read Magic
Detect Magic
Lullaby

Level 1
Charm Person
Grease
Hideous Laughter
Detect Evil

Level 2
Hold Person
Suggestion
Tongues

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Alignment: LG
Int: 18; Wis: 18; Cha: 10
Languages: Common, Draconic, Infernal, Abyssal, Orc

Lesser abilities:
Hold Person 3/day
Zone of Truth 3/day
Sense Motive 10 ranks

Greater Abilities:
Magic Circle against Evil (at will)
Haste

Special Purpose:
Defeat the cultists that are making super powerful magic items using souls and sacrifices

Weapon Abilities:
Ghost Touch (allows ghost to wield it)
Holy (+2d6 against evil)

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Ghostly Mitheral Chain Shirt (+4 ac)
Ghostly Masterwork Book of Legends (+2 perform: olfary)
Ghostly spellcomponet pouch

[willpell]

I saw a short film today about the Octopus, and find myself angrier than ever that the Tako was never converted to 3.5 rules. If anyone knows of a fan conversion for these classic creatures, please let me know.

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Tako_(3.5e_creature) ?

Okay...well, D&D wiki is questionable at times, but I guess this will do for now. Although I don't know why they made it an Aberration...Magical Beast would probably have been better, since it's basically just a normal (if oversized) octopus with intelligence.

I ask because I was looking at Three Mountains and ShockTrooper feats.
Coupled with Brutal Strike, and Improved Trip (as well as prerequisites), I could potentially leave an opponent prone, sickened and nauseated in a single round

Three Mountains looks fine; Shock Trooper is the one of the Tactical feats that everyone seems to mention as "one of the few things that can make a Fighter good" or words to that effect, but it (specifically the last clause, where you can Power Attack and not suffer the hit-roll penalty) strikes me as being rather broken. I'll have to think about it.

[spiderwrangler]

I generally steer away from the wiki as it seems to mostly be homebrewed stuff, but since you were asking about them...

[Quarg]

More edits as I work through items list....
Elieen's Stat Sheets

I just don't feel like constantly re posting it and then having old copies running about...

Oh and what I found on the background for this story as requested earlier...

Subject: The Forest - Chapter One

► Show Spoiler

Sprawling across some thirteen million acres of land in the south-central heartland of the Tradespeak Empire, the Transylvaine Imperial Wilderness Preserve is widely (though inaccurately) reputed as being the largest contiguous forested region in the world. To walk completely through it from any one side to the other would take an average of six days - assuming you were permitted through at all. Surrounded on three sides by seven provinces of the Imperium, each with its own reasons for wanting to harvest its resources and neutralize its guardians, Transylvaine owes its continued existence mostly to the thriving power of Imperial law, but also in large part to the tireless vigilance of the many agencies devoted to ensuring its protection. Each of you is associated somehow with one of those groups, all pursuing different agendas in one or another of the 13 Wards into which the cyclopean park has been officially divided by Imperial surveyors, under advisement from local authorities who know the lay of the land. Now, each of you has independently been ordered, steered, or impelled toward the centermost Alder Ward, not knowing the details of the mission you are about to collectively undertake...a matter of critical importance to the entire forest.

* Kastrail, you live in a particularly dense and rainy section of the Willow Ward, and have never been outside the Preserve, nor do you routinely think of the Preserve or the Ward, these just being human terms for the place your offshoot of the Sylvasetharsai have lived for fifteen thousand years. Ancient records tell how the once-great nation of elfkind fractured long ago, and your ancestors turned what had originally been a remote border outpost into their own self-sufficient kingdom, microscopic by comparison to the regime which is known to still survive in the Elvenwood far to the north. ....

[willpell]

Alright, I've I had completed the exhaustive review of Zaks (and I kind of want to play him myself now - damn some of these powers look like fun). There are just quite a few details to straighten out and we should be good to go.

The setup for this adventure assumes that the characters are hanging out in a tavern when The Call To Adventure(TM) comes in. Figure out what it takes for Zaks to spend several hours within a large and prestigious mostly-human establishment without causing enough mayhem to get him run out of town at spearpoint. If being told to behave himself would only make him act out more, then nobody told him that. Somehow, due to however much serendipity is required, he IS keeping it on the down-low, even if that's unusual for him. (If necessary I'd be more than willing to have him infected with some reptile-specific disease that makes him feel atypically meek and compliant.) Once we're in the swing of things, you can roleplay him as a little psychopath if you wish to, but you at least need to let me get through the initial setup before you start derailing the game.

Incidentally, I have an idea for the psicrystal, if you're willing to go along with it - this is strictly up to you, as I think it makes for interesting roleplaying complications, but if you'd rather not have such things we can skip it. Normally, a psicrystal is made from the owner's brain, and shares his Alignment, but in the case if your backstory it seems to be an external catalyst for your developing powers, and with five different personality-fragments in it, it might well make for a good foil to your character's intentions. Thusly, it might be fun to give it a different alignment, and have you intermittently get in ethical disagreements with it. Since it's grown into your forehead and can't move independently, there'd be no question that you remain dominant in the relationship (which might come to resemble spousal abuse if you wanted to go in that direction), but it would still add some dramatic tension that I think might help drive the game, and would be a great vehicle for me to provide story hooks (imagine the Coward personality recognizing a seemingly featureless landform as a source of great terror - you might investigate and discover a monster so cleverly concealed that not one person has spotted it and survived - but you found it because you remembered not surviving it).

Attack (Missile): +9

I make this as +10 actually - +4 BAB for a level 9 Psion, +5 for your 20 Dexterity with the gloves, and +1 for Small size.

Portable Hole (5,000 g)

I'm still thinking about this; I'm more likely to settle on 10,000.

Goggles of night: Normal vision & Darkvision (12,000g)

Noted, but you do know that your species already has Darkvision, right? 12K is an awful lot to pay just to correct for your light sensitivity. The Goggles of Day in Magic Item Compendium will do it for just 4,500 gp. (This is probably another case of them charging too much for some items in the DMG.)

(Sneaky, Resolved, Liar, Meticulous)

You had previously said Sneaky, Coward, Nimble, Meticulous - but since you bought four copies of Improved Psicrystal, you actually get five personalities, as it has one by default. So of the six named between these two versions, pick one to lose. (Note that Nimble is the one which gives you +2 to your already impressive Initiative; that's certainly one I'd keep if he were my character.)
Incidentally, what language can the psicrystal speak in? The logical choice would be either Common or Draconic, but it could be any of the other languages you know - it can understand them all, but is supernaturally endowed with speech in only one. Granted it's got Telepathy, so it probably doesn't actually matter, but just for the record pick one that it can use in case Telepathy isn't applicable for some reason.

*All Knowledge Skill[Int] 6 = +5 Int +1 Rank (I took them all)

There are actually several extra ones, and a few that I homebrewed which are not rules-functional at the moment, so please clarify exactly how many ranks you spent. For example, did you think to take Knowledge: Psionics, which isn't in the corebook? How about Knowledge: Ghost Lore, from Ghostwalk, which applies in my game to normal undead spirits (such as Quinton), even though I'm not currently using the version of ghosts that book describes? Besides these, the corebook lists 10 that I can think of, not all of them equally useful.

Autohypnosis[Wis] (3) = +0 Wis +1 Rank +2 Concentration

This works off of Intelligence actually, so you have a total check of 8 for just 1 rank. Not a bad deal there.

Conceal Thoughts - You conceal your motives. (+10 to Bluff check) (1hr/lvl = 9 hours)
Skate - Subject slides skillfully along the ground. (+15 to speed) (1min/lvl = 9 mins)

Okay, so you got rid of Control Object as well as Catfall. Note that Conceal Thoughts is NOT a flat +10 to bluff checks as your Skill section suggests; the bonus only applies when you're opposing someone's Sense Motive, not to active uses of Bluff. For instance, if you're trying to convince someone that you're secretly a polymorphed dragon, they're not especially likely to believe that's true; they'll just believe that you sincerely believe it, and are more likely to react with pity than awe.

Psionic Knock - Opens locked or psionically sealed door.

Urg....I won't begrudge you this power, but it's one of the ones that just annoys me, for how easily it can take all the drama and interesting challenge out of a game.

Telekinetic Thrust: Hurl objects with the force of your mind [Concentration]. (limit: 250 lbs, 20 distance, # of objects/creatures = ML; Max 15) (Augment: +1 PP = +25 lbs)

TK Thrust does NOT have a Concentration duration; it's instantaneous. Also I should make you aware that per my houserules (really more like a common-sense clarification), this won't benefit from Maximize metapsi; the thrown objects rather than your mind are dealing the damage, so you can't throw a 250-pound boulder and have it do exactly 60 damage, the way you could with a power that directly dealt 10d6 damage for 5 power points (there is no such power, obviously). Also, I may houserule the power at some point to make it more beneficial for hurling creatures; currently it only ever deals 1d6 damage that way, and this is a shame because telekinetically throwing an opponent around like a ragdoll ought to be encouraged.

Empathic Feedback: When you are hit in melee, your attacker takes damage. (Augment: +1 PP = +1 Damage Potential [base=5])

Boy, you really shuffled your powers around, just as I had finished reviewing and approving all the ones you had before. I'll need to come back later and deal with these too. Please don't make any more changes without alerting me in advance that you wish to.

Psychic Reformation: Subject can choose skills, feats, and powers anew for previous levels. (Cost 50xp per lvl down from current effected)

I am not certain I'm willing to allow this power at all, as it's one of the ones classically most prone to abuse. (I was going to complain tentatively about Fiery Discorporation, but this is even worse.) I definitely have to think about whether I'm cool with what this is capable of doing.

Dimension Door, Psionic:Teleports you short distance. (Augment: +6 PP = Move Action instead of standard)

You can't use that augmentation option for two more levels, but in case you weren't aware, Complete Psionic does give a few extra variations on this power - you can manifest it for as little as 3 pp if you're making a very short hop as a full-round action (just to get through a wall or something), or for the full 9 pp you can vanish in a flash of light and dazzle everyone who was in range of where you teleported from.

Okay, I'll conduct another, hopefully final review of Zaks the next time I have time; for now I'm tapped out for the day. Hopefully I can at least manage to get one other person done over the weekend, and maybe then we'll start with however many PCs I'm ready for, while waiting to get the others up to speed.

[spiderwrangler]

Figure out what it takes for Zaks to spend several hours within a large and prestigious mostly-human establishment without causing enough mayhem to get him run out of town at spearpoint. If being told to behave himself would only make him act out more, then nobody told him that. Somehow, due to however much serendipity is required, he IS keeping it on the down-low, even if that's unusual for him. (If necessary I'd be more than willing to have him infected with some reptile-specific disease that makes him feel atypically meek and compliant.)

He can be hiding in Kast's backpack while in social situations where he'd just screw things up for the group.

[Quarg]

Celebration for the task just completed...

[Amara]

Man, a rapier of unerring direction would have been fantastic if I'd thought about it sooner. But, I didn't.
I have this up, now, and will continue editing it. Wound up having to grab the gauntlets or just having a bag + armor would have sent me teetering toward medium encumbrance. Still looking for a good weapon. I'm likely going to default to a paired shock melee + crossbow if I can't find anything better out of the specific items (which I'd rather swing for since honestly, you get way more for the price usually with the specific/unique items.) Would it be possible to make a sort of more expensive, enhanced spectral dagger? I love the item, and what it does is very strong, but a DC11 fort/will really means nothing by the time you're 9th level, and there's no higher leveled version of it. :b (Base item is 6k, so it'd be easy to ramp up, if you're willing.)

I'll just default to the shock weapons if I don't find anything better by the time I turn in my research paper tomorrow. Guess who had four research papers due this week?

[BadgeAddict]

Again, thank you willpell for your time and patience and I apologize for changing things underneath you, I will withhold any changes again before I pass them by you first here.
1. I like the idea of the psicrystal being a different alignment then Zaks, as this would help in situations like you described for the beginning of the adventure. I can imagine Zaks growing impatience and wanting to wreck havoc, but the other personalities convincing him not to by "somehow" strongly exerting their will over him, though this might tax them later. This allows me to let Zaks be destructive in general circumstances, but calmer when the situation demands it. So, If Zaks if Neutral Evil, then, perhaps the crystal is either Neutral good. (Zaks approach would be NE in that killing someone for something you "need" is acceptable, while the psicrystal would be NG in that doing something good for someone in the instance of the immediate circumstances...like giving a purse back their wallet that they just dropped.....begin inner turmoil. Due to the relative good nature of the psicrystal, Zaks tends to try to avoid civilization as much as possible as the crystal tries to do more good, the more chances that it has to do good. Whereas in the middle of nowhere, Zaks is able to exert his will over the crystal and do whatever he wants. The crystal is a balancing act because, it gives Zaks the powers to do what he wants, but also is annoying to him. oh the possibilities.

2. I am accepting (not like i have a choice), of the portable hole being 10k instead of 5g and then getting goggles of day for the cheaper price. If you alllow it, I will make those changes as well as the attack (missle) +10.

3. ahh, 5 personalities, you are correct, so I will add Nimble back into the mix of things. However understand that I plan on continuing to add personalities every extra feat I'm allowed to pick. Explained in a way of...Another personality among the mass of the crystal brings itself to the surface and begins exerting its will..this allows the collective will of the psicrystal to have more and more dominance at the same time that Zaks is also growing more and more dominant, essentially..a balancing act.

4. As for knowledge skills, if you will tell me the exact number of knowledges that exist, then i will actually take all of them and subtract from my skills by that number. otherwise im tempted to take only a very few so i don't have to deal with it...so, all or nothing mostly (this is because im lazy and i don't want to write them all out) <-- i admit it...

5. Will fix autohypnosis, if that's okay

6. The way you explained Conceal thoughts make me sound insane...thus i will keep it and go around telling people crazy things...hehe...

7. I accept and understand your thoughts on TK thrust

8. I'm okay with not having these two: Psychic Reformation & Empathic Feedback,...(will replace with Death Urge & Wall of Ectoplasm)

9. I'm okay with the dimension door thing too.

[willpell]

Amara, your questions are way over my head, I don't think I recognized a single one of the magic items you mentioned. (In general I'm more focused on stuff that's part of characters than I am on the transferrable potential brokenness of "lewt"; I'm getting there slowly but in general I've paid more attention to spells, powers and feats, and I don't even have all of those yet.) I have no answers to provide at this time.

Again, thank you willpell for your time and patience and I apologize for changing things underneath you, I will withhold any changes again before I pass them by you first here.
1. I like the idea of the psicrystal being a different alignment then Zaks, as this would help in situations like you described for the beginning of the adventure. I can imagine Zaks growing impatience and wanting to wreck havoc, but the other personalities convincing him not to by "somehow" strongly exerting their will over him, though this might tax them later. This allows me to let Zaks be destructive in general circumstances, but calmer when the situation demands it. So, If Zaks if Neutral Evil, then, perhaps the crystal is either Neutral good. (Zaks approach would be NE in that killing someone for something you "need" is acceptable, while the psicrystal would be NG in that doing something good for someone in the instance of the immediate circumstances...like giving a purse back their wallet that they just dropped.....begin inner turmoil. Due to the relative good nature of the psicrystal, Zaks tends to try to avoid civilization as much as possible as the crystal tries to do more good, the more chances that it has to do good. Whereas in the middle of nowhere, Zaks is able to exert his will over the crystal and do whatever he wants. The crystal is a balancing act because, it gives Zaks the powers to do what he wants, but also is annoying to him. oh the possibilities.

All of this sounds absolutely magnificent. I'm glad we had this talk.

3. ahh, 5 personalities, you are correct, so I will add Nimble back into the mix of things. However understand that I plan on continuing to add personalities every extra feat I'm allowed to pick. Explained in a way of...Another personality among the mass of the crystal brings itself to the surface and begins exerting its will..this allows the collective will of the psicrystal to have more and more dominance at the same time that Zaks is also growing more and more dominant, essentially..a balancing act.

Sounds good, although if we keep playing until level 15 or so, eventually the benefit of Improved Psicrystal will taper off since I don't think they provided a table for psicrystal abilities beyond 20th level. Maybe once we get there I'll let you Dark Chaos the feats into other feats, though in general I don't allow this particular shenanigan. Maybe there's one extremely elusive NPC who's capable of it and he'll appear at the proper time.

4. As for knowledge skills, if you will tell me the exact number of knowledges that exist, then i will actually take all of them and subtract from my skills by that number. otherwise im tempted to take only a very few so i don't have to deal with it...so, all or nothing mostly (this is because im lazy and i don't want to write them all out) <-- i admit it...

Here are all the Knowledges that have currently supported game effects. "Synergy" refers to the benefit of taking 5 ranks which I know you probably won't do, but I'll list it for reference anyway.

Knowledge: Arcana (magic and dragons and things, highly fitting for a "kobold"; +2 synergy to Spellcraft)
Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering (+2 synergy to Search checks related to hidden compartments)
Knowledge: Dungeoneering (underground environments and aberrations and such; +2 synergy to Survival underground)
Knowledge: Geography (+2 synergy to Survival checks when getting around, also allows you to know something about what little mapping I've done)
Knowledge: History (assorted gameworld lore which I may or may not have figured out, but am doubtless eager to talk about if I have; no synergy that I can think of unless you're a Bard, but useful for other reasons)
Knowledge: Local (identify humanoids and be familiar with regional culture; +2 synergy to Gather Information)
Knowledge: Nature (identify animals and plants, generally figure out the wilderness; +2 synergy to Survival anywhere but in cities or underground, as long as you're still on the Material Plane, and to a druid or ranger's Wild Empathy class feature)
Knowledge: Nobility & Royalty (know the names of regional figures of importance; I should perhaps rename this to "Knowledge: Celebrity" since many of the luminaries aren't part of a feudal system per se; +2 synergy to Diplomacy)
Knowledge: Psionics (the absolute must-have; +2 synergy to Psicraft)
Knowledge: Religion (identify undead, be familiar with particular churches - note that Whiteleaf has over 300 active deities, though only 75 or so have major influence - and have general knowledge of the state of the sentient soul after death; +2 synergy to a cleric's Turn Undead class feature)
Knowledge: The Planes (know of the other planes in the multiverse and the denizens thereof; +2 synergy to Survival checks when not on the Material Plane)

Honorable mention: Knowledge: Ghost Lore (from Ghostwalk where it applies to that setting's special, non-Undead ghosts; this has been introduced into my campaign for flavor reasons, but is largely redundant with K:Religion at the moment)

And here are some of the ones that I've dreamed up which currently have no real effect, though I may houserule them in any day now. (I'm open to suggestions as to how they can be used.)

Knowledge: Art
Knowledge: Espionage
Knowledge: Humor
Knowledge: Legal
Knowledge: Mathematics
Knowledge: Piracy
Knowledge: Science!
Knowledge: Sexuality
Knowledge: Storytelling
Knowledge: Underworld (this is in the sense of the world's criminal sub-society, not the physical system of caves under the earth)
Knowledge: Where He Left His Keys (obviously this one is simply a joke)

5. Will fix autohypnosis, if that's okay

Go for it. (You are allowed to make changes I explicitly told you to make, without asking whether I really meant it.)

6. The way you explained Conceal thoughts make me sound insane...thus i will keep it and go around telling people crazy things...hehe...

It does seem in-character somehow....

8. I'm okay with not having these two: Psychic Reformation & Empathic Feedback,...(will replace with Death Urge & Wall of Ectoplasm)

I'm not sure I had any problem with Empathic Feedback. Get rid of Reformation for now, take Death Urge (not exactly a nice power, but I'm sure it'll prove useful and entertaining as one of your many, many ways of killing people). We'll come back to Wall of Ectoplasm, which is a fine power if you want it, but there are plenty of other options (and I can always give you psionic items for the powers you didn't take as your own).

[Amara]

Fair enough! Cementing down character details is more important, anyway. Is there anything more you needed for me?

Oh, the rapier of unerring direction was basically just Fharlanghn's "special" magic item, but to unlock its full potential you have to either be a cleric of Fharlanghn or...take a special feat that has prerequisites I certainly could not have made without planning the character around them. Amazing item, though!
The spectral dagger is... basically it just casts chill touch when you stab something with it. It's a touch attack, but they still get the will and fort save, apparently? DC11... so effectively they have two chances to not get hit, which is my only concern. Base price in the compendium is 6k, though its price can go as 20k depending on setting. ._. I'm assuming the magic item compendium price is okay. Fluff has the dagger's hilt being made from the bone of a creature that "died quite violently," but I was hoping to perhaps reflavor it as a "broken" dagger that once belonged to Traern.

Edit: as for the knowledges erm

Knowledge: Art Well, there's craft: (insert art skill here,) and appraise is used otherwise for value, with local/nobility for subject content...
Knowledge: Espionage Isn't this covered under a combination of sense motive, History, Local, and gather information/forgery?
Knowledge: Humor Yup, perform:comedy
Knowledge: Legal That'd fall under forgery/Knowledge (local) and decipher script for all that legalese! (Ok last one was a joke.)
Knowledge: Mathematics Knowledge: engineering covers this.
Knowledge: Piracy Hmmm... I suppose this'd be local? But a more specialized interest might be interesting.
Knowledge: Science! I've used this one in my own games. Seems to fit in well. It allows a crossover where Alchemy and Engineering just aren't enough.
Knowledge: Sexuality Er
Knowledge: Storytelling Perform: Storytelling exists :0
Knowledge: Underworld (this is in the sense of the world's criminal sub-society, not the physical system of caves under the earth) Wouldn't that fall under local and gather information again?

[Arch Lich Burns]

Know art: can be part of know history, unless it is making art, which then it will be craft (whatever type of art you want to work on)
Know espionage-hmm not sure about this one
Know: humour-what is this the 1000 uncle joke book? Preform comedy covers this
Know legal: this actually might be important
Know math: helps with some crafts and engineering
Know piracy: not sure what you are going for here
Know science: should be splut in multiple categories, physics, biology, chemistry, neroscience, electronis/mechinal, ect
Know sexuality: no. Just no
Know underworld: why not know: black market instead? Or underdark?
Know keys: now if only this can find that damned remote too.

[Nerre]

Hi Willpell. Is there still the chance to get in or did you already chose the players, if there is a limit?

[willpell]

Hi Willpell. Is there still the chance to get in or did you already chose the players, if there is a limit?

I'm a bit up to my neck with the six I have; maybe once things get rolling I can introduce more players (eventually I wouldn't mind having a mega-campaign with several different parties crossing paths intermittently, but I'm a long way from the requisite number of ranks in Spin Plates).

Fair enough! Cementing down character details is more important, anyway. Is there anything more you needed for me?

As far as I know I've approved pretty much everything about your character. If you've updated anything since that post, like your magic items, I'll take another look and be sure.

The spectral dagger is... basically it just casts chill touch when you stab something with it. It's a touch attack, but they still get the will and fort save, apparently? DC11... so effectively they have two chances to not get hit, which is my only concern.

Is Chill Touch the corebook thing that like gives someone a small penalty on saves or skill rolls or something, or is it the famously potent dragon-killing spell in Frostburn that deals 3d6 Dexterity damage or something ridiculous like that?

Fluff has the dagger's hilt being made from the bone of a creature that "died quite violently," but I was hoping to perhaps reflavor it as a "broken" dagger that once belonged to Traern.

Broken in what sense?

Knowledge: Art Well, there's craft: (insert art skill here,) and appraise is used otherwise for value, with local/nobility for subject content...

Craft is the ability to make art (and the character for whom I invented K:Art had only a few ranks in that, with his Craft: Sculpture being maxed); this was intended to be more like knowing about a variety of techniques, whether or not you can work in them, as well as the local and national art communities and various other such things. Appraise...I'm not even sure why that's a skill, it's like they're assuming the players haven't read the purchase lists and committed the value of everything to memory.

Knowledge: Espionage Isn't this covered under a combination of sense motive, History, Local, and gather information/forgery?

Maybe...but who would ever think to combine all those?

Knowledge: Humor Yup, perform:comedy

Again, the character had that too, and a lot more of it since it was mechanical. But it seems to me there should always be a way to distinguish between knowing how to do something, and knowing about the general subject of that something being done.

Knowledge: Legal That'd fall under forgery/Knowledge (local) and decipher script for all that legalese! (Ok last one was a joke.)

But a good one, IMO. Decipher Script gets used infrequently enough, after all.

Knowledge: Mathematics Knowledge: engineering covers this.

Only for practical applications. K:Math would also cover theoretical mathematics. Whiteleaf is exactly the kind of fantasy world that contains people bored enough to reinvent such wheels, despite largely lacking the kind of academic or professional support network that the real world's Eulers and Riemanns might have needed.

Knowledge: Piracy Hmmm... I suppose this'd be local? But a more specialized interest might be interesting.

Having quite a few pirates in the part of my gameworld that are near the coasts, I figure this pretty definitely deserves its own skill, but not sure what it might synergize with. The pirates in question are at least as likely to be "gentlemanly" sorts rather than cutthroats, so Intimidation or the like is definitely not right. Maybe Prof:Sailor, but that could be dangerously efficient.

Knowledge: Sexuality Er

I'm not expecting this to come up in the kind of game we'll be running here. (We already know Kastrail isn't interested in such things, after all....)

Knowledge: Storytelling Perform: Storytelling exists :0

This is true. I am less sure of this than probably any of the other (serious) entries on the list.

Knowledge: Underworld (this is in the sense of the world's criminal sub-society, not the physical system of caves under the earth) Wouldn't that fall under local and gather information again?

I don't like to overload those skills with too many applications. IMO it's bad enough that K:Local no longer has to be specialized to particular locations, as it was in 3.0.

Know science: should be splut in multiple categories, physics, biology, chemistry, neroscience, electronis/mechinal, ect

You're talking about the game where there's only one K:the Planes to cover sixteen different Outer Planes, four Inner planes, three Demiplanes and possibly oddments like the Far Realm. Science just plain isn't advanced enough, even on Whiteleaf, to justify this level of detail. Besides, it wasn't "science", it was "Science!" The character was a bit of a loon; this was just extra flavor.

Know sexuality: no. Just no

Very much "yes" in the larger cosmic sense; it's a huge part of the thematic underpinnings of the setting. But it needn't have much influence on the game. If someone had a few ranks in this, they would know more about what people do in their bedrooms than the average Mormon third-grader; they wouldn't mistake a tribal priestess's hand-whittled wooden sex toy for a Wand of Control Plants, and they'd know what a venereal disease is and how their friendly local druid is working to prevent such infections from spreading in the community. With a LOT of ranks, they'd be capable of infiltrating a succubus cult or attending a conference of high-level mages employed by the government to do community outreach aimed at preventing rape, that kind of thing. All of it is definitely a valid option for a campaign in this setting (which I guess I might as well go ahead and admit is named Whiteleaf, since I already mentioned it once in the game thread).

And in case you were wondering, yes I've read the Book of Erotic Fantasy, and no, I'm not using pretty much any of it (maybe a few very small things, like the basic item tables, but overall it's not even remotely worth it). I could homebrew a better attempt at covering the topic in my sleep; I got it pretty cheap, but it was still wasted money. If we did want our game to go in this direction, I'd be inventing what few mechanics were necessary to do it justice; for the most part it would just come down to roleplaying.

Know underworld: why not know: black market instead? Or underdark?

It's definitely not the Underdark, as I explained in parentheses. It maybe ought to be renamed to avoid such confusion, but "black market" is a little too restrictive, as it doesn't also imply knowing about the Code of Omerta and the name of the local "Don" and so forth.

Know keys: now if only this can find that damned remote too.

You're almost making me wonder if it should become a real skill - more generic, of course, something like "personal organization". People whose residences seem like mountains of clutter, but who can always find everything they own, are enough of a trope that this almost deserves to be its own skill, although ranks in Search are probably sufficient to represent it, even if that's mostly about sorting through other peoples' mountains of clutter. But you have to admit, this is a germane topic to a LOT of D&D situations.

[spiderwrangler]

Knowledge: Sexuality Er

I'm not expecting this to come up in the kind of game we'll be running here. (We already know Kastrail isn't interested in such things, after all....)

Or at least too flustered and socially inept to follow through on even the most blatant come ons, much less initiated his own.

[Amara]

Chill Touch is a level 1 necromancy spell that does 1d6 points of negative energy damage (will save negates) and 1 point of strength damage (which a fort save negates.)

You'll be pleased to know I cannot, in fact, repeatedly stab the ghost with this to heal them, I suppose, as it specifies "An undead creature you touch takes no damage of either sort, but it must make a successful Will saving throw or flee as if panicked for 1d4 rounds +1 round per caster level. " I thought I should mention that, because a DM did once give a party I was in a negative energy sword, and we did in fact repeatedly stab a vampire back to full health with it.

And I meant broken in the literal sense. Blade snapped off, etc, but the spectral blade still forms. It does mention trauma as integral to the item's creation, after all.


I see skills the opposite way in 3.5, I suppose. I feel it's inherently bogged down by too many redundant skills that SHOULD be combined in to one with the simple logic that if you're good at one, you're good at the other. (For example; why would a perceptive character be very good at spotting and listening, but very poor at searching? It really makes no sense.) Though as far as skill systems go, I do feel WoD did it better, there. (Since rolls were two skills working together, so skill in one department helped in others, but you weren't necessarily as specialized. Synergies sort of replicate that, but not well.)

As for appraise, I perhaps took the advice of the Arms and Equipment guide to heart a bit too well. The prices things sold at were very rarely the flat base prices given in the book. Scarcity of materials, city size, etc, would all have percentile increases and decreases as they traveled, so appraise was a handy way of letting them know the baseline for an area, so that they wouldn't be scammed. Of course, I also had two artificers in that game, so they never had an issue with appraise rolls..

[willpell]

STR: 8 (-1)
DEX: 18(+5) +2 Gloves of Dex
CON: 12(+1)
INT: 20(+5) +2 Headband of Int
WIS: 10(+0)
CHA: 8(-1)

One of the bolded lines cannot be right. The last I heard, you had 20 in both Dex and Int, counting the item boost. Here's what your stats look like in the more detailed statblock I use for my records:

- - - Base - - Level - - Racial - - Magic - - Misc - - Ability
- - - - - - - - Bonus - - Bonus - - Item - - Bonus - - Score / Modifier
STR : 12..................-4..............................08/ -1 (4)
DEX : 16..................+2..........+2.................20 / +5 (10)
CON : 14..................-2..............................12 / +1 (6)
INT : 16........+2....................+2*................20 / +5* (10)
WIS : 10..................................................10 / +0 (2)
CHA : 08..................................................-08 / -1 (0)

The left column shows the values you purchased with your point-buy, as shown in parentheses on the right (10 point-buy gets you a 16 INT, 6 gets you a 14 CON, 4 gets you a 12 Strength, and so forth; your Charisma alone remains at the starting . The +2 next to Intelligence is the level-up bonuses you get at 4th and 8th levels; those would obviously go into your primary stat. (Starting your primary stat at 18 is possible, but not without dumping pretty much all the others; this is the most efficient way of getting it done.) Meanwhile, Dexterity got a bonus from your species, so both of them total 18 before the item bonus is applied. (The asterisks next to the item bonus and the final total for INT are a reminder that this bonus doesn't apply to your skill points total. I'm still uncertain whether it does to your power points.)

{+4 Inertial Armor 9Hrs per use, assume always in use}

Does that "always" include when he's sleeping? That'd come to a total of 3 pp per day, whereas he can get away with 2 if he only uses it while adventuring. (Getting ambushed while sleeping is conceivable, so it depends on whether he's that paranoid.) Also, you are aware that you can augment it, right? You can get as much as +8 to AC by spending 9 power points when you manifest it. (I'll never assume you're spending that much unless you specifically say so, whereas I can assume you spent 1 for the regular armor anytime he's not sleeping, or even then if you prefer.)

By the way, you seem to still be listing 35 HP, whereas I have you at 45 (1d4+1 per level x 9 levels = 9d4+9 = 5x9 = 45)

Languages: Common, Draconic, Undercommon, Dwarven, Gnome, Goblin[/spoiler]

Oh, that probably shouldn't count the Headband either, but I'll say that you only know Gnome while wearing it (since, flavorwise, a Zh'klet probably wouldn't willingly learn Gnome anyway). Gnome is explicitly similar to both Dwarven and Elven, so we'll say that it lets you "translate" Gnome to Dwarven in your mind...if you can get it up to a +4 headband, it'll then "translate" Elven to Gnome the same way, even though you don't normally get free languages after character creation).

► Show Spoiler

3,300g on person (or rather in portable hole, part of trap?)

With the adjusted prices of the hole and the goggles, I make your current cash total as 6800, unless you want one or two more items? Psionic Lenses of 1st-level powers are really cheap, just 750 GP for 50 uses of the power - you could get Control Object back on your character sheet that way, even if you wouldn't have unlimited use of it. (It's not the most useful power, but I'm fond of it; there's just something about making a chair run across the floor and stomp on someone's foot for 1d6 damage plus your Intelligence bonus.) If you wanted Wall of Ectoplasm (which I just realized is a different power than Energy Wall) that way, a fully charged Lens is way out of your price range (21K), but I could get you one which is mostly depleted and has just a few charges left.

So, on your skills, you are correct that you received 62 skill points (congrats on getting the changing INT values right), and I count your current expenditures as 10 for the 5 ranks in Bluff since it's cross-class (if you'd been a Telepath it would have been in-class, but that would have denied you several of the Powers you've chosen), then 12 more for 6 ranks in Move Silently, leaving 40. You're showing 7 ranks in Sleight of Hand, which is impossible, as 6 ranks is your current cross-class maximum; correcting for that, you've spent another 12 points, leaving 28. Search costs you 12 more, leaving 16, and 12 of that is devoted to maxing out Concentration (rightly so). Thusly, you have only 4 skill points left, which have gone into Autohypnosis, Psicraft, Disable Device, and a single Knowledge skill (probably Psionics); your cross-class Open Lock rank has to get dropped unless you want to lower something else to pay for it. And if you wanted to have a bunch of different Knowledges, you'll have to drop one cross-class rank for every two Knowledges you put one rank in.

My suggestion would be that you ditch the six ranks in Search; while it is certainly nice to have a total of +16 to that skill, you could manage with just the +10 you have without any ranks (thanks to high Intelligence, a racial bonus and your psicrystal), and I don't think it's worth the immense investment to get more than that. If you completely drop Skill ranks, you can pay for everything else your sheet currently shows.

Energy Missile - Up to five creatures or objects; no two targets can be more than 15 ft. apart. (Augment: +1 PP = +1d6 & +1 DC)

This was errata'ed - it's actually +1 DC per 2 pp spent to increase the damage dice. So you can fire un-augmented 3d6 Missiles for 3 pp, missiles that do 4d6 for 4 pp, or missiles that do 5d6 and are slightly harder to avoid for 5 pp, on up to a maximum of 9d6 per missile and +3 to the save DC, not +6. After you level up, the missiles will be able to do 10d6, but they won't get any more accurate until the level after that.

Empathic Feedback: When you are hit in melee, your attacker takes damage. (Augment: +1 PP = +1 Damage Potential [base=5])

This power is fine if you still want it, but you dropped Inertial Barrier to get it. I want to make you aware that while Biofeedback is a better power in the early game (when you can't get Inertial Barrier yet) or the late game (when you can augment Biofeedback four or more times), Inertial Barrier is better than Biofeedback anywhere from psion level 7 thru 14 (unless you just want a tiny amount of DR for a small number of pp), because it gives you as much or more DR and always costs just 7 pp, while Biofeedback costs a whopping 12 pp to get the same 5 DR. It's up to you, but I'd say it's fairly unlikely that I'll manage to keep the game going long enough for you to reach level 15, when you have the option of paying twice as many pp for a Biofeedback which protects you slightly better than Inertial Barrier does. If I were you, I'd keep the Barrier and drop Biofeedback (getting back Detect Hostile Intent, which seems like something any self-respecting Kobold would want). As an added bonus, Inertial Barrier also gives you yet another way of protecting yourself from falls (I could see "Zaks get thrown off a tower / out a window / from an airship / etc. and lands safely" as a running joke in the campaign), apart from the Ring of Feather Falling and possibly the Catfall power (which you've currently crossed off your list, and that's probably correct, but still, the idea of a 35-pound Kobold having three different ways to protect himself from falling damage is pretty funny).

Incarnate: Make some Powers Permanent. (See cost table)

This will have extremely limited usefulness, but I'm probably happier with you not having Fiery Discorporation, so I'll go with it. Note that while it would make some sense to assume you've Permanencied your Conceal Thoughts, doing so would result in you starting out with less than 9 full levels and we'd have to revise your whole sheet, so let's just assume you haven't gotten around to it, and may do so as soon as you've collected 500 spare XP (this should only take 1 or 2 encounters). That way, you might delay your next level up, but you'll also get to take advantage of the "river of XP", and thereby force me to do more math.
(It's weird that Detect Hostile Intent isn't listed among the options for Psionic Permanency. Indeed, Conceal Thoughts is the only one you have. I'm strongly learning towards houseruling in your favor, but I'll have to think hard about the precedent I'm setting. Or else have a Dispel Psionics monster come along and ruin your day, which would not be great GMing.)

Okay, once we get all these relatively minor issues straightened out, Zaks will officially be set. Tomorrow for real, I'll start looking at another character.

Chill Touch is a level 1 necromancy spell that does 1d6 points of negative energy damage (will save negates) and 1 point of strength damage (which a fort save negates.)

Okay that's the one I was thinking of, and it's completely fine.

I thought I should mention that, because a DM did once give a party I was in a negative energy sword, and we did in fact repeatedly stab a vampire back to full health with it.[/size]

Heh. Well Vampire is a +8 LA template, for all that it deserves to be more, so at least the abuse potential there is a bit limited; a Necropolitan Wizard benefits far more from such shenanigans. And kind of deserves the help, what with not having those extra 10 HP of "at least I'm not dead(er) yet" that the living enjoy. (Constructs of course are just screwed.)

And I meant broken in the literal sense. Blade snapped off, etc, but the spectral blade still forms. It does mention trauma as integral to the item's creation, after all.

Ooh, I like it.

I see skills the opposite way in 3.5, I suppose. I feel it's inherently bogged down by too many redundant skills that SHOULD be combined in to one with the simple logic that if you're good at one, you're good at the other.

Well, they made Pathfinder for people who agree with you, but the entire reason I still play 3.5, and am constantly revising it to try and fix its issues, rather than switching to Pathfinder, is that I like being able to flavor my characters by having them better at Spot than at Listen, but better at Move Silently than at Hide, or vice versa. (Also the +3 bonus to trained skills instead of x4 skill points at first level punishes you for trying to make a more diverse "dabbler" kind of character who just takes 1 rank each in all the "trained only" skills, so he can at least try rolling them.)

(For example; why would a perceptive character be very good at spotting and listening, but very poor at searching? It really makes no sense.)

Actually it makes perfect sense. Search is Intelligence-based because it represents intensely focusing on small aspects of a mostly-static sensory tableau; it's the skill of a forensic pathologist who CSIs a crime scene, figuring out that the killer was a male standing about 6'2" because of the depth of his shoe prints, etc. Wisdom represents attunement to the outside world, so Spot and Listen are the skills of those who are twitchily alert, constantly scanning the horizon for danger; it's actually very reasonable to think that the better a person is at Search's narrowly focused concentration, the worse he should be at noticing a sudden flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye which indicates an ambush in progress, and conversely that a character who's constantly Listening for trouble tends to dismiss anything which isn't obviously important, making him poor at Searching. When you throw in the skill-based Feats and Traits and such, you can do even more to finesse the skills in order to better represent your character concept.

(Come to think of it, the Skill system is one of the things I like best about D&D, even though it's not the best game for skill-based play. That distinction belongs to Call of Cthulhu, which has virtually nothing but a skill system, and a magnificent one at that. D&D would be better if your access to Skills was not restricted by such an artificial notion as "character level", but at least it has a reasonably robust and diverse set of skills to choose from; I only see it as requiring a few improvements.)

The one case where I have combined skills is in the case of Use Magic Device and Use Psionic Device - despite the fact that psioncs and magic are very different things in my setting, I didn't see the point of having separate abilities representing the ability to "cheat" at one or the other. So if you can figure out how to jury-rig a magic wand or a scroll to think you're a wizard, you can use the same techniques to get a Lens or Cameo to activate despite not being a Psion. (After all, literally only class and one version of another class, in the whole history of the game, had Use Psionic Device on their class list; this would make magic seem kind of pathetic, if every bored Rogue could figure out how to make a Staff of the Magi work, but psions's trinkets remained inviolable to all non-psionic characters.) The combined skill is called Use Mystic Device, and it's available to anyone who had UMD (or UPD) on their class skill list before.

Though as far as skill systems go, I do feel WoD did it better, there. (Since rolls were two skills working together, so skill in one department helped in others, but you weren't necessarily as specialized. Synergies sort of replicate that, but not well.)

WOD did NOT generally have you roll two skills, but rather a Skill and an Attribute, which is much the same as what you're doing in D&D, except the Attribute and Skill are both fixed bonuses to a single random result, rather than both providing a number of random results. Which of those is preferable is debatable IMO, so I just stick with whatever game I'm playing and figure that the statistical anomalies can be regarded as part of the milieu. (Yes, no matter how awesome you are at combat, you always have a 5% chance of missing with your attack against even the softest of targets. Par for the course in a world where actual pagan deities are constantly watching over you, and get bored if you succeed too easily.)

I do like the WOD skill system for its elegant simplicity, but only because they drew a hard line where they said "these 30 skills represent the sum total of everything that a human or inhuman being can possibly know or do", and fit everything else into that framework. Bluntly, with the way WotCo works, that was never going to happen with their game - every damn book comes out with new blocks of text for you to try and integrate into the existing manuscript (now I'm picturing a single gigantic tome with every single 3E book cut up and sorted into correct order in it, with all the spells and all the magic items and everything - the thing would be the size of a house and you'd need a forklift to turn the pages).

As for appraise, I perhaps took the advice of the Arms and Equipment guide to heart a bit too well.

The players are perhaps fortunate that I've not gotten around to re-reading that thing lately.

Of course, I also had two artificers in that game, so they never had an issue with appraise rolls..

For the record, the Artificer class is very definitely not in my game. I wanted to like it, really I did, but the way it treats magic items as being easily reducible to formula is the precise opposite of the atmosphere I want to invoke in my game. People who have the flavor of being Artificers are certainly welcome in Whiteleaf, but the way they approach the subject very definitely cannot be "I pour this bottle of oil on your belt and now it gives Giant Strength, but for some reason I couldn't just pour the oil on you instead". No, absolutely not, no way. I like a lot of things about Eberron, but that ain't one of them.