Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Vanigo 08-31-06, 12:13 AM	Planar Touchstone, a feat from the Planar Handbook, strikes me as extraordinarily useful. It lets you connect to a special site somewhere on the planes, which grants you a pair of abilities. The abilities you get depend on which site you visit; one is a constant bonus and the other has a limited number of charges before you have to go back and recharge it. It's extremely versatile, and some of the abilities are very nice - get an extra attack against anyone denied their dex bonus (constant), or the Shadowdancer's hide in plain sight once a day (5 charges), or heal 90 damage with a touch once a day (4 charges), or give an undead creature some task it must complete with no save or spell resistance once a day (5 charges), or get automatically resurrected if you die (one charge)... The real standout in my mind, though, is the abilities granted by the Catalogues of Enlightenment: the granted power of one domain, and the ability to cast a spell from that domain once a day (3 charges). The possibilities for this are tremendous. Need stonecunning? It'll cost you a feat. Need immunity to fear? One feat. Uncanny dodge? Reroll any natural 1 you get on a save? +4 to dispel checks? One feat. A Paladin's ability to smite evil, or maybe the ability to see perfectly in darkness? There's nothing stopping you from picking Planar domans, so it's still just one feat. The higher-order ability has some real potential, too - need shapechange or PAO for your melee build? No problem! (Well, no problem as long as you can get him 19 wisdom, anyway.) The only real catch is that you have to get access to the touchstone to get the ability, which requires you to win an opposed Knowledge check against a philosopher with a +18 mod. What's more, the type of Knowledge check needed is randomly selected from four possibilities.
SigmaJargon 08-31-06, 01:28 AM	I think you're thinking too small. You could also use the Catalogues to qualify for things - your character actually casts the spells in question. You could use it to qualify warlocks for arcane PrC's requiring you cast Xth level spells, for example.
DavidWL 08-31-06, 02:15 AM	I agree -- it is phenomenally useful. One of my favorites.
Surreal 08-31-06, 03:02 AM	I think you're thinking too small. You could also use the Catalogues to qualify for things - your character actually casts the spells in question. You could use it to qualify warlocks for arcane PrC's requiring you cast Xth level spells, for example. Holy schmolee, I never even thought about that. It becomes an option for Artificers as well. Think of the dual caster possibilities now that we don't have to "waste" levels...
catharz 08-31-06, 03:20 AM	Holy schmolee, I never even thought about that. It becomes an option for Artificers as well. Think of the dual caster possibilities now that we don't have to "waste" levels... You still have to waste levels, unless you're planning on doing something like Wizard 9, followed by cleric 1/mystic theurge 10. The high level necessary to get the touchstone precludes abusing it at low levels.
DavidWL 08-31-06, 03:30 AM	There's a very cool use of planar touchstone here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=680255 Best, David
Vanigo 09-01-06, 12:00 AM	I think you're thinking too small. You could also use the Catalogues to qualify for things - your character actually casts the spells in question. You could use it to qualify warlocks for arcane PrC's requiring you cast Xth level spells, for example. Ooh, you're right. With this and Precocious Apprentice, you get a Wiz 1/Clr 1/ anything 1 qualified for Mystic Theurge... (Or, for that matter, a Wiz 1/anything 2, but then you'd have no divine spellcasting class to advance.) Same with Geomancer, which might actually be handy... Hmm. It's not as useful as you might think; it's really only good for classes that either require high-level divine spellcasting or require divine spellcasting but don't increase it. Oh, or require a specific spell. I'm sure there's something useful to do with it, though... You could make an arcane Dracolyte, for what that's worth... Ooh, you could use this and Sacred Exorcist to get an arcane caster into into Eye of Horus-Re to raise the effective spell level of your [light] spells by one; pump up the Extra Slot trick a little more! Well, sort of; it requires an iffy ruling about the Sun domain prerequisite. Hmm... get into Hammer of Moradin more easily... Fist of Raziel for classes without divine favor... Get into Arcane Heirophant with only a single arcane caster level lost... Hmm. I'm not finding anything that really cries out to be used, here...