Warpable spells for a spellwarp sniper [Archive] - Wizards Community

Warpable spells for a spellwarp sniper [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
lostpike
04-26-07, 11:31 PM Does anyone have a list of warpable spells for a spellwarp sniper. Also is it possible to warp any of the reserve feats effects?
Hariman
04-28-07, 10:24 PM This isn't a complete list, just a list of some of the better spellwarpable spells with SR = NO or particularly good effects.

Spell Compendium: (I think these are open)

Snowball Swarm, (2nd),
Blast of Fire (4TH),
Arc of Lightning (5th)
Vitriolic Sphere (5th) This spell will always do 18d6 (Initial hit plus 2 rounds, 6d6 for each.) damage when spellwarped, as the reflex save is removed when warped into a ray.

Sandstorm: (Both of these spells require finding access.)
Parboil (4th) Limited damage, but automatically does intelligence damage when spellwarped. Great for BDF killing, animals, and wizards.
Blast of Sand (4th) Untyped damage, no SR, very few enemies are immune to untyped damage from a spell. Might be subject to Damage Reduction, depending on the DM.

Player's Handbook: (Probably an incomplete list.)
Lightning bolt,
Fireball,
Burning hands, (meh)
Cone of Cold,

The warpable spells are mainly the ranged area attack spells.

Just to note: You CAN'T warp Fireburst/Greater Fireburst. They are "effect" spells not area spells.

Hariman

PS: I know there are more spells. These are just the ones that I know.
copper_wyrmling
04-28-07, 10:54 PM Snowball Swarm, (2nd)

I don't think this one is Open.

Parboil (4th) Limited damage, but automatically does intelligence damage when spellwarped. Great for BDF killing, animals, and wizards.

Sadly, no: spellwarp only removes Ref saves, and Parboil has a Fort save.

Blast of Sand (4th) Untyped damage, no SR, very few enemies are immune to untyped damage from a spell. Might be subject to Damage Reduction, depending on the DM.

Spell damage is never subject to damage reduction - see the FAQ. The examples it uses are Evard's and Ice Storm: if they're not reduced, I really can't see why Blast of Sand would be...

Now, I almost feel bad pointing out the following two spells (because combining them with spellwarp falls into the category of Stuff That Would Upset Me If An Author Did It), but I'm sure I'm not the only one to have spotted this...

Take a look at Frost Breath (NONC) and Sandblast (Open) from the Spell Compendium. Both have a nasty status effect attached to a failed Ref save (daze for Frost Breath, stun for Sandblast). Spellwarp removes the chance to make a Ref save, unless I've missed something. Of course, you do need to be a druid to use Sandblast - is Spellwarp Sniper arcane-only?
Hariman
04-29-07, 01:23 AM I don't think this one is Open.

Sadly, no: spellwarp only removes Ref saves, and Parboil has a Fort save.

Crud. Getting access to them is iffy, unless you get a special mission approved. Although, I'd rather just prep Blast of Force instead. It's open, it's a ray, and it's force damage.

I missed that. It'll be useful as a ray from time to time. I recently saw a mod with commoners around the big bads at the end, which precluded area effects.

Spell damage is never subject to damage reduction - see the FAQ. The examples it uses are Evard's and Ice Storm: if they're not reduced, I really can't see why Blast of Sand would be...

Kickass. Although I have seen specific spells that are reduced by damage reduction, they ALWAYS say that in the spell description.

It's definitely a great anti-almost anything spell then. Even animated objects, as the damage isn't reduced against objects.

Now, I almost feel bad pointing out the following two spells (because combining them with spellwarp falls into the category of Stuff That Would Upset Me If An Author Did It), but I'm sure I'm not the only one to have spotted this...

Take a look at Frost Breath (NONC) and Sandblast (Open) from the Spell Compendium. Both have a nasty status effect attached to a failed Ref save (daze for Frost Breath, stun for Sandblast). Spellwarp removes the chance to make a Ref save, unless I've missed something. Of course, you do need to be a druid to use Sandblast - is Spellwarp Sniper arcane-only?

I'm pretty sure that Spellwarp Sniper is Arcane only.

Frost Breath would be great to spellwarp. BUT, you can only daze one target, and the ranged touch attack can miss. I should know. I've missed a decent number of ranged touch attacks recently. Low rolls, natural ones, and high touch ACs can negate the change to save = none.

But I'd still jump at the chance to auto daze the BBEG with a second level spell. All it would cost me is a level of rogue, a decent number of skill points, two feats, and two levels of Spellwarp Sniper.
copper_wyrmling
04-29-07, 04:02 AM I'm pretty sure that Spellwarp Sniper is Arcane only.

I just checked. It's not... it has a prereq of "ability to cast 3rd-level spells", and it advances "existing spellcasting class". The prereqs are Spellcraft and Concentration ranks, which all spellcasters get. The flavor text even mentions that divine casters sometimes take it. The skill list is pretty bad for a druid, but still... being able to no-save-stun a target with a L1 spell (or two targets with Split Ray as a L3 spell) is pretty powerful. Druids don't have a bad selection of higher-level spells to warp, either (arc of lightning is L4 for them), and Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot would be decent low-level feats for the Produce Flame blaster builds people were discussing on another thread.

Frost Breath would be great to spellwarp. BUT, you can only daze one target, and the ranged touch attack can miss. I should know. I've missed a decent number of ranged touch attacks recently. Low rolls, natural ones, and high touch ACs can negate the change to save = none.

My second PC, currently L12, is a human sorcerer who started with Dex 16, Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. She also picked up gloves of fortunate striking fairly early on. I think she's missed ranged touch attacks twice in the last seven levels - once was a super-advanced dread wraith with touch AC ~30, the other time she rolled a nat 1 and then got a second nat 1 on the reroll. I can usually just assume that everything will hit, when weighing up which actions to take. Even at low levels, she didn't miss often.
Hariman
04-30-07, 12:58 PM I just checked. It's not... it has a prereq of "ability to cast 3rd-level spells", and it advances "existing spellcasting class". The prereqs are Spellcraft and Concentration ranks, which all spellcasters get. The flavor text even mentions that divine casters sometimes take it. The skill list is pretty bad for a druid, but still... being able to no-save-stun a target with a L1 spell (or two targets with Split Ray as a L3 spell) is pretty powerful. Druids don't have a bad selection of higher-level spells to warp, either (arc of lightning is L4 for them), and Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot would be decent low-level feats for the Produce Flame blaster builds people were discussing on another thread.

Oops. I wonder if clerics get any decent spells to spellwarp...

My second PC, currently L12, is a human sorcerer who started with Dex 16, Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. She also picked up gloves of fortunate striking fairly early on. I think she's missed ranged touch attacks twice in the last seven levels - once was a super-advanced dread wraith with touch AC ~30, the other time she rolled a nat 1 and then got a second nat 1 on the reroll. I can usually just assume that everything will hit, when weighing up which actions to take. Even at low levels, she didn't miss often.

You're luckier than I have been. (And you've already got Ranged Recall) I've been rolling low way too much recently. And my ranged touch character got hit with a blanket -2 penalty to attacks, saves and skill checks for a few mods. So my low rolls have connected less often. My character is currently level 5 with a +7 to RTAs, although for the next few mods, it'll be a +5.

On a side note: One great thing about being able to warp spells is that you need no longer fear swarms as much.
jstorrie
04-30-07, 06:48 PM I'm assuming you only want to know about Reflex-save spells and/or damage spells, here, since there's no real reason to warp a nondamaging Will or Fort save area efffect that I can think of. The list is:

Arc of Lightning
Blast of Flame*
Briar Web
Burning Hands*
Castigate
Chaos Hammer
Cone of Cold (Warmage)*
Energy Vortex*
Entangle
Fireball*
Flame Strike*
Ice Storm
Lightning Bolt*
Order's Wrath
Resonating Bolt
Sandblast*
Shout
Spike Growth
Spike Stones
Vitriolic Sphere*

Expect crazy table variation on how spellwarp interacts with Entangle and Entangle-esque area effects. Some spells are significantly worse when warped, like Ice Storm. I've marked with an asterisk the ones I think may be useful. The main use for Spellwarping seems to be 'focusing' your area effect spells for when you only have one foe–so you can prep/learn a slew of AOEs but still be at full power if you end up facing one big bad instead of six medium-bads.

The Sandblast idea is great, and I'm going to steeeeal it. Thank you.
Jay_Ibero_911
04-30-07, 08:07 PM Here's an annoying little build for an NPC harasser...

Race:Human
Alignment:Chaotic Neutral

STR-10 (2)
DEX-14 (6)
CON-14 (6)
INT-12 (4)
WIS-15 (8)
CHA-10 (2)

Lv1(Rogue)Point Blank Shot, Extend Spell
Lv2(Druid)
Lv3(Druid)Split Ray
Lv4(Druid)+1 WIS
Lv5(Druid)
Lv6(Druid)Natural Spell
Lv7(Spellwarp Sniper)

Start in Eagle wild shape, and fly around zapping people with the sandblast rays, while some other thugs take advantage of the situation...
copper_wyrmling
04-30-07, 08:14 PM Nice list, jstorrie, but I think you've overlooked an important point: you can only warp spells with duration: instantaneous. That leaves:

Arc of Lightning
Blast of Flame*
Burning Hands*
Castigate
Chaos Hammer - this one is debatable, since it effectively has two duration entries
Cone of Cold (Warmage)*
Energy Vortex*
Fireball*
Flame Strike*
Lightning Bolt*
Order's Wrath - debatable for the same reason as Chaos Hammer
Resonating Bolt
Sandblast*
Shout
Vitriolic Sphere* - debatable for the same reason as Chaos Hammer / Order's Wrath, although to a lesser degree (it just says "instantaneous; see text" rather than listing two durations)

I'm not sure why Holy Smite isn't on the list - or alternatively, why Chaos Hammer and Order's Wrath are there, since they're Will-based.

The Sandblast idea is great, and I'm going to steeeeal it. Thank you.

It's a silly cheesy idea, imho :P You shouldn't able to auto-stun a dragon by squirting sand at it. Have fun, and just be careful not to build in such a way that you're utterly reliant on the Sandblast trick (I have learned to my cost that relying on a single non-PHB spell in LG is a Really Bad Idea :weep:)
copper_wyrmling
04-30-07, 08:20 PM Here's an annoying little build for an NPC harasser...

Race:Human
Alignment:Chaotic Neutral

STR-10 (2)
DEX-14 (6)
CON-14 (6)
INT-12 (4)
WIS-15 (8)
CHA-10 (2)

Lv1(Rogue)Point Blank Shot, Extend Spell
Lv2(Druid)
Lv3(Druid)Split Ray
Lv4(Druid)+1 WIS
Lv5(Druid)
Lv6(Druid)Natural Spell
Lv7(Spellwarp Sniper)

Start in Eagle wild shape, and fly around zapping people with the sandblast rays, while some other thugs take advantage of the situation...

Other thugs? You're a druid! Just let your animal companion chew on them...

Incidentally, three of these guys is an EL 10 encounter :( Three druids = six rays of auto-stun / round (for three rounds each) + three animal companions.

It's kinda like balors playing Blasphemy Lockdown (which I have seen in an LG mod, albeit one that capped at APL 18 - one Balor casts Blasphemy every round keeping the PCs auto-dazed, the other goes to town - if they manage to get it started, it's rather hard to stop) - only EL 10 instead of EL 22 :weep:
Lomiat
04-30-07, 08:40 PM I smell errata/Closed access...

...smells like cheeze. ;)
Hariman
05-01-07, 01:36 AM I smell errata/Closed access...

...smells like cheeze. ;)

Blasphemy auto stunning a party is cheese.

A druid using a level one spell to "Auto Daze" his enemies is imitation cheese like non dairy product.

Blasphemy is written with no save. Sandblast requires levels in a prestige class.

Blasphemy can auto daze (and worse) an entire party. Sandblast works on ONE target, unless split with Split Ray. (Taking a third level spell slot.)

Blasphemy is level 7. Sandblast is level 1 and subject to a Globe Of Invulnerability.

There is a major difference between the two. Besides, it's not like there aren't any monsters out there who can do worse. Sea Hags come to mind.
jstorrie
05-01-07, 05:10 PM You can't Split Ray Sandblast in any that I can figure out, since druid spells are prep, not spontaneous, and Spellwarping only applies at time of casting. The best you could do is quicken it.
copper_wyrmling
05-01-07, 05:19 PM You can't Split Ray Sandblast in any that I can figure out, since druid spells are prep, not spontaneous, and Spellwarping only applies at time of casting. The best you could do is quicken it.

Well... Complete Scoundrel does say that "you can apply metamagic feats as normal to the spell, as long as they can affect ray spells". This may be a table variation issue.

I think the warped sandblast trick is asking to be banned, frankly (either the spell or the PrC) - it's emulating a L7 spell, Stun Ray, using a L1 spell. Comparing it to HD >> CR Blasphemy is not a point in its favor, since that's widely acknowledged to be one of the most broken mechanics around. Also, Blasphemy is a L7 spell, Sandblast is L1 and the warped version becomes available at character level 7... the two should not be remotely comparable.
Lomiat
05-01-07, 06:05 PM Well... Complete Scoundrel does say that "you can apply metamagic feats as normal to the spell, as long as they can affect ray spells". This may be a table variation issue.

I think the warped sandblast trick is asking to be banned, frankly (either the spell or the PrC) - it's emulating a L7 spell, Stun Ray, using a L1 spell. Comparing it to HD >> CR Blasphemy is not a point in its favor, since that's widely acknowledged to be one of the most broken mechanics around. Also, Blasphemy is a L7 spell, Sandblast is L1 and the warped version becomes available at character level 7... the two should not be remotely comparable.

Yeah. Saves me the effort of having to write exactly the same argument.

This doesn't mean I don't sometimes miss Ray of Stupidity.
Hariman
05-02-07, 02:01 AM Yeah. Saves me the effort of having to write exactly the same argument.

This doesn't mean I don't sometimes miss Ray of Stupidity.

At a range of, get this, TEN FEET!!!

Admittedly, any spellcaster should have ranks in concentration, and not all enemies will have reach. But still, ten feet is withing the "Oh, S***! I'M TOO CLOSE! range of most enemies. It's also subject to spell resistance.

I know that I'm already going for Arcane Spellwarp Sniper, to Unseen Seer, to Arcane Trickster. So sandblast won't be an issue for me.

I'm not going to worry about Spellwarp Sniper (Or sandblast) being banned unless we see a rash of Druid's using Sandblast. I, personally, wouldn't put it into a mod because it's cheap. It's designed to kill a party, not challenge the party and make the experience fun.

But that won't stop me from using Spellwarp Sniper to blast single targets with rays of spells that weren't originally rays. And enjoying the versatility it offers my character. Swarms be damned, I'll be able to prep area effects and still have my ranged touch attack fun.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
lostpike 04-26-07, 11:31 PM	Does anyone have a list of warpable spells for a spellwarp sniper. Also is it possible to warp any of the reserve feats effects?
Hariman 04-28-07, 10:24 PM	This isn't a complete list, just a list of some of the better spellwarpable spells with SR = NO or particularly good effects. Spell Compendium: (I think these are open) Snowball Swarm, (2nd), Blast of Fire (4TH), Arc of Lightning (5th) Vitriolic Sphere (5th) This spell will always do 18d6 (Initial hit plus 2 rounds, 6d6 for each.) damage when spellwarped, as the reflex save is removed when warped into a ray. Sandstorm: (Both of these spells require finding access.) Parboil (4th) Limited damage, but automatically does intelligence damage when spellwarped. Great for BDF killing, animals, and wizards. Blast of Sand (4th) Untyped damage, no SR, very few enemies are immune to untyped damage from a spell. Might be subject to Damage Reduction, depending on the DM. Player's Handbook: (Probably an incomplete list.) Lightning bolt, Fireball, Burning hands, (meh) Cone of Cold, The warpable spells are mainly the ranged area attack spells. Just to note: You CAN'T warp Fireburst/Greater Fireburst. They are "effect" spells not area spells. Hariman PS: I know there are more spells. These are just the ones that I know.
copper_wyrmling 04-28-07, 10:54 PM	Snowball Swarm, (2nd) I don't think this one is Open. Parboil (4th) Limited damage, but automatically does intelligence damage when spellwarped. Great for BDF killing, animals, and wizards. Sadly, no: spellwarp only removes Ref saves, and Parboil has a Fort save. Blast of Sand (4th) Untyped damage, no SR, very few enemies are immune to untyped damage from a spell. Might be subject to Damage Reduction, depending on the DM. Spell damage is never subject to damage reduction - see the FAQ. The examples it uses are Evard's and Ice Storm: if they're not reduced, I really can't see why Blast of Sand would be... Now, I almost feel bad pointing out the following two spells (because combining them with spellwarp falls into the category of Stuff That Would Upset Me If An Author Did It), but I'm sure I'm not the only one to have spotted this... Take a look at Frost Breath (NONC) and Sandblast (Open) from the Spell Compendium. Both have a nasty status effect attached to a failed Ref save (daze for Frost Breath, stun for Sandblast). Spellwarp removes the chance to make a Ref save, unless I've missed something. Of course, you do need to be a druid to use Sandblast - is Spellwarp Sniper arcane-only?
Hariman 04-29-07, 01:23 AM	I don't think this one is Open. Sadly, no: spellwarp only removes Ref saves, and Parboil has a Fort save. Crud. Getting access to them is iffy, unless you get a special mission approved. Although, I'd rather just prep Blast of Force instead. It's open, it's a ray, and it's force damage. I missed that. It'll be useful as a ray from time to time. I recently saw a mod with commoners around the big bads at the end, which precluded area effects. Spell damage is never subject to damage reduction - see the FAQ. The examples it uses are Evard's and Ice Storm: if they're not reduced, I really can't see why Blast of Sand would be... Kickass. Although I have seen specific spells that are reduced by damage reduction, they ALWAYS say that in the spell description. It's definitely a great anti-almost anything spell then. Even animated objects, as the damage isn't reduced against objects. Now, I almost feel bad pointing out the following two spells (because combining them with spellwarp falls into the category of Stuff That Would Upset Me If An Author Did It), but I'm sure I'm not the only one to have spotted this... Take a look at Frost Breath (NONC) and Sandblast (Open) from the Spell Compendium. Both have a nasty status effect attached to a failed Ref save (daze for Frost Breath, stun for Sandblast). Spellwarp removes the chance to make a Ref save, unless I've missed something. Of course, you do need to be a druid to use Sandblast - is Spellwarp Sniper arcane-only? I'm pretty sure that Spellwarp Sniper is Arcane only. Frost Breath would be great to spellwarp. BUT, you can only daze one target, and the ranged touch attack can miss. I should know. I've missed a decent number of ranged touch attacks recently. Low rolls, natural ones, and high touch ACs can negate the change to save = none. But I'd still jump at the chance to auto daze the BBEG with a second level spell. All it would cost me is a level of rogue, a decent number of skill points, two feats, and two levels of Spellwarp Sniper.
copper_wyrmling 04-29-07, 04:02 AM	I'm pretty sure that Spellwarp Sniper is Arcane only. I just checked. It's not... it has a prereq of "ability to cast 3rd-level spells", and it advances "existing spellcasting class". The prereqs are Spellcraft and Concentration ranks, which all spellcasters get. The flavor text even mentions that divine casters sometimes take it. The skill list is pretty bad for a druid, but still... being able to no-save-stun a target with a L1 spell (or two targets with Split Ray as a L3 spell) is pretty powerful. Druids don't have a bad selection of higher-level spells to warp, either (arc of lightning is L4 for them), and Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot would be decent low-level feats for the Produce Flame blaster builds people were discussing on another thread. Frost Breath would be great to spellwarp. BUT, you can only daze one target, and the ranged touch attack can miss. I should know. I've missed a decent number of ranged touch attacks recently. Low rolls, natural ones, and high touch ACs can negate the change to save = none. My second PC, currently L12, is a human sorcerer who started with Dex 16, Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. She also picked up gloves of fortunate striking fairly early on. I think she's missed ranged touch attacks twice in the last seven levels - once was a super-advanced dread wraith with touch AC ~30, the other time she rolled a nat 1 and then got a second nat 1 on the reroll. I can usually just assume that everything will hit, when weighing up which actions to take. Even at low levels, she didn't miss often.
Hariman 04-30-07, 12:58 PM	I just checked. It's not... it has a prereq of "ability to cast 3rd-level spells", and it advances "existing spellcasting class". The prereqs are Spellcraft and Concentration ranks, which all spellcasters get. The flavor text even mentions that divine casters sometimes take it. The skill list is pretty bad for a druid, but still... being able to no-save-stun a target with a L1 spell (or two targets with Split Ray as a L3 spell) is pretty powerful. Druids don't have a bad selection of higher-level spells to warp, either (arc of lightning is L4 for them), and Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot would be decent low-level feats for the Produce Flame blaster builds people were discussing on another thread. Oops. I wonder if clerics get any decent spells to spellwarp... My second PC, currently L12, is a human sorcerer who started with Dex 16, Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. She also picked up gloves of fortunate striking fairly early on. I think she's missed ranged touch attacks twice in the last seven levels - once was a super-advanced dread wraith with touch AC ~30, the other time she rolled a nat 1 and then got a second nat 1 on the reroll. I can usually just assume that everything will hit, when weighing up which actions to take. Even at low levels, she didn't miss often. You're luckier than I have been. (And you've already got Ranged Recall) I've been rolling low way too much recently. And my ranged touch character got hit with a blanket -2 penalty to attacks, saves and skill checks for a few mods. So my low rolls have connected less often. My character is currently level 5 with a +7 to RTAs, although for the next few mods, it'll be a +5. On a side note: One great thing about being able to warp spells is that you need no longer fear swarms as much.
jstorrie 04-30-07, 06:48 PM	I'm assuming you only want to know about Reflex-save spells and/or damage spells, here, since there's no real reason to warp a nondamaging Will or Fort save area efffect that I can think of. The list is: Arc of Lightning Blast of Flame* Briar Web Burning Hands* Castigate Chaos Hammer Cone of Cold (Warmage)* Energy Vortex* Entangle Fireball* Flame Strike* Ice Storm Lightning Bolt* Order's Wrath Resonating Bolt Sandblast* Shout Spike Growth Spike Stones Vitriolic Sphere* Expect crazy table variation on how spellwarp interacts with Entangle and Entangle-esque area effects. Some spells are significantly worse when warped, like Ice Storm. I've marked with an asterisk the ones I think may be useful. The main use for Spellwarping seems to be 'focusing' your area effect spells for when you only have one foe–so you can prep/learn a slew of AOEs but still be at full power if you end up facing one big bad instead of six medium-bads. The Sandblast idea is great, and I'm going to steeeeal it. Thank you.
Jay_Ibero_911 04-30-07, 08:07 PM	Here's an annoying little build for an NPC harasser... Race:Human Alignment:Chaotic Neutral STR-10 (2) DEX-14 (6) CON-14 (6) INT-12 (4) WIS-15 (8) CHA-10 (2) Lv1(Rogue)Point Blank Shot, Extend Spell Lv2(Druid) Lv3(Druid)Split Ray Lv4(Druid)+1 WIS Lv5(Druid) Lv6(Druid)Natural Spell Lv7(Spellwarp Sniper) Start in Eagle wild shape, and fly around zapping people with the sandblast rays, while some other thugs take advantage of the situation...
copper_wyrmling 04-30-07, 08:14 PM	Nice list, jstorrie, but I think you've overlooked an important point: you can only warp spells with duration: instantaneous. That leaves: Arc of Lightning Blast of Flame* Burning Hands* Castigate Chaos Hammer - this one is debatable, since it effectively has two duration entries Cone of Cold (Warmage)* Energy Vortex* Fireball* Flame Strike* Lightning Bolt* Order's Wrath - debatable for the same reason as Chaos Hammer Resonating Bolt Sandblast* Shout Vitriolic Sphere* - debatable for the same reason as Chaos Hammer / Order's Wrath, although to a lesser degree (it just says "instantaneous; see text" rather than listing two durations) I'm not sure why Holy Smite isn't on the list - or alternatively, why Chaos Hammer and Order's Wrath are there, since they're Will-based. The Sandblast idea is great, and I'm going to steeeeal it. Thank you. It's a silly cheesy idea, imho :P You shouldn't able to auto-stun a dragon by squirting sand at it. Have fun, and just be careful not to build in such a way that you're utterly reliant on the Sandblast trick (I have learned to my cost that relying on a single non-PHB spell in LG is a Really Bad Idea :weep:)
copper_wyrmling 04-30-07, 08:20 PM	Here's an annoying little build for an NPC harasser... Race:Human Alignment:Chaotic Neutral STR-10 (2) DEX-14 (6) CON-14 (6) INT-12 (4) WIS-15 (8) CHA-10 (2) Lv1(Rogue)Point Blank Shot, Extend Spell Lv2(Druid) Lv3(Druid)Split Ray Lv4(Druid)+1 WIS Lv5(Druid) Lv6(Druid)Natural Spell Lv7(Spellwarp Sniper) Start in Eagle wild shape, and fly around zapping people with the sandblast rays, while some other thugs take advantage of the situation... Other thugs? You're a druid! Just let your animal companion chew on them... Incidentally, three of these guys is an EL 10 encounter :( Three druids = six rays of auto-stun / round (for three rounds each) + three animal companions. It's kinda like balors playing Blasphemy Lockdown (which I have seen in an LG mod, albeit one that capped at APL 18 - one Balor casts Blasphemy every round keeping the PCs auto-dazed, the other goes to town - if they manage to get it started, it's rather hard to stop) - only EL 10 instead of EL 22 :weep:
Lomiat 04-30-07, 08:40 PM	I smell errata/Closed access... ...smells like cheeze. ;)
Hariman 05-01-07, 01:36 AM	I smell errata/Closed access... ...smells like cheeze. ;) Blasphemy auto stunning a party is cheese. A druid using a level one spell to "Auto Daze" his enemies is imitation cheese like non dairy product. Blasphemy is written with no save. Sandblast requires levels in a prestige class. Blasphemy can auto daze (and worse) an entire party. Sandblast works on ONE target, unless split with Split Ray. (Taking a third level spell slot.) Blasphemy is level 7. Sandblast is level 1 and subject to a Globe Of Invulnerability. There is a major difference between the two. Besides, it's not like there aren't any monsters out there who can do worse. Sea Hags come to mind.
jstorrie 05-01-07, 05:10 PM	You can't Split Ray Sandblast in any that I can figure out, since druid spells are prep, not spontaneous, and Spellwarping only applies at time of casting. The best you could do is quicken it.
copper_wyrmling 05-01-07, 05:19 PM	You can't Split Ray Sandblast in any that I can figure out, since druid spells are prep, not spontaneous, and Spellwarping only applies at time of casting. The best you could do is quicken it. Well... Complete Scoundrel does say that "you can apply metamagic feats as normal to the spell, as long as they can affect ray spells". This may be a table variation issue. I think the warped sandblast trick is asking to be banned, frankly (either the spell or the PrC) - it's emulating a L7 spell, Stun Ray, using a L1 spell. Comparing it to HD >> CR Blasphemy is not a point in its favor, since that's widely acknowledged to be one of the most broken mechanics around. Also, Blasphemy is a L7 spell, Sandblast is L1 and the warped version becomes available at character level 7... the two should not be remotely comparable.
Lomiat 05-01-07, 06:05 PM	Well... Complete Scoundrel does say that "you can apply metamagic feats as normal to the spell, as long as they can affect ray spells". This may be a table variation issue. I think the warped sandblast trick is asking to be banned, frankly (either the spell or the PrC) - it's emulating a L7 spell, Stun Ray, using a L1 spell. Comparing it to HD >> CR Blasphemy is not a point in its favor, since that's widely acknowledged to be one of the most broken mechanics around. Also, Blasphemy is a L7 spell, Sandblast is L1 and the warped version becomes available at character level 7... the two should not be remotely comparable. Yeah. Saves me the effort of having to write exactly the same argument. This doesn't mean I don't sometimes miss Ray of Stupidity.
Hariman 05-02-07, 02:01 AM	Yeah. Saves me the effort of having to write exactly the same argument. This doesn't mean I don't sometimes miss Ray of Stupidity. At a range of, get this, TEN FEET!!! Admittedly, any spellcaster should have ranks in concentration, and not all enemies will have reach. But still, ten feet is withing the "Oh, S***! I'M TOO CLOSE! range of most enemies. It's also subject to spell resistance. I know that I'm already going for Arcane Spellwarp Sniper, to Unseen Seer, to Arcane Trickster. So sandblast won't be an issue for me. I'm not going to worry about Spellwarp Sniper (Or sandblast) being banned unless we see a rash of Druid's using Sandblast. I, personally, wouldn't put it into a mod because it's cheap. It's designed to kill a party, not challenge the party and make the experience fun. But that won't stop me from using Spellwarp Sniper to blast single targets with rays of spells that weren't originally rays. And enjoying the versatility it offers my character. Swarms be damned, I'll be able to prep area effects and still have my ranged touch attack fun.