Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lichtouch 01-20-08, 05:47 PM	I'm just curious - I want to know what I will need in order to get the highest Escape Artist check possible by Level 20. Let me start first by adding in the basics. +23 from 23 Ranks +4 from Abberation Blood (Slimy Skin) feat [Lords of Madness sourcebook] +2 from Agile feat +15 from Slick, Greater enchantment on Armour This results in +44. So already, we're pretty high. But what else can you come up with?
Kouk 01-21-08, 06:34 AM	Skill Focus (Escape Artist)?
DastardlyDan 01-21-08, 11:11 PM	What's your dexterity score? Increase that. Buy the most expensive Manual of Quickness of Action (I believe that's the correct one) you can afford...adds a bonus of +1 to +5 to your Dex score, depending on what strength of book you buy. Pay for 5 Wish spells to be cast on you. Each one allows you to increase a singled stat by 1 point. You'd get another +5. Gloves of Dexterity +6. These would all increase your Dex score by a max of 16, which is another 8 points to your Escape Artist check. Skill Focus was already mentioned. What about your synergies? At the beginning of the Skills chapter in the Player's Handbook (in case you don't know where to find it; most players do), you can see what skills provide a synergy bonus of +2 when they have 5 ranks in themselves. I know Use Rope is one of them, even though it only applies to Escape Artist checks involving rope. Along those lines, somewhere I remember reading an article or an entry in a book about more ranks providing a greater synergy bonus. Something like an additional +1 for every 5 ranks past the initial 5 I think. (10 ranks gives +3, 15 gives +4, etc.) If you can find that and your DM allows it, that can help. Also, you can have a magic item custom made that gives you a bonus to a particular skill. Would work like Boots and Cloaks of Elvenkind. The rules for the cost of making one are in the DMG, something like page 285. Keep in mind that Competence bonuses stack with themselves, so you can have multiple items all adding Competence bonuses to a single skill (so long as the DM allows you to do so, some don't.) Good luck!
zeratulcraft 01-21-08, 11:27 PM	The books of stats (Quickness of Action and the like), don't stack with the bonus granted by Wish spells. Since they both grant inherent bonuses and the Books require Wish to be made anyway. Competence bonuses also don't stack. As they're the same bonus type. Only unnamed from different sources and Dodge bonuses stack with themselves.
Sinfire Titan 01-22-08, 01:36 AM	Search the CO boards, there was a recent thread on using Escape Artist to hide one of your friends inside yourself. Don't ask how, but it is possible.
DastardlyDan 01-25-08, 01:01 PM	The books of stats (Quickness of Action and the like), don't stack with the bonus granted by Wish spells. Since they both grant inherent bonuses and the Books require Wish to be made anyway. You're right, I confirmed it. My bad. Competence bonuses also don't stack. As they're the same bonus type. Only unnamed from different sources and Dodge bonuses stack with themselves. DMG 3.5, pg. 21, Bonus Types: Circumstance: This is a bonus or penalty based on situational factors, which may apply to either a check or the DC for that check. Circumstance modifiers stack with each other, unless they arise from essentially the same circumstance. The part that I bolded is what I was referring to. Although, after rereading it, the second part supports your comment without hindering mine. You'd have to make sure that the different circumstance bonuses you are getting derive from different things. Slick armor is one kind...If you had another item that made you more flexible without directly applying a Dex bonus, then that might be a circumstance bonus to Escape Artist. Or something that makes you thinner, for example, making it easier for you to squeeze out of things. That would net a circumstance bonus that would stack with Slick, I would think.
Jay_Ibero_911 01-25-08, 04:51 PM	Nevermind...
forrestfire15 01-26-08, 10:13 PM	Getting a Masterwork escape artist tool would help... so you'd have +23 (23 skill ranks) +2 (Masterwork escape artist tool) +3 (Skill focus [Escape artist]) +2 (Agile feat) +4 (Abberation Blood [Slimy Skin] feat) +2 (Deformity [Gaunt] feat; Book of Vile Darkness) +15 (Greater Slick armor enchantment) and you get a +51 total, not including Dexterity modifier with 25 point buy, assuming you start out with 16 points put into Dexterity, you have: 18 +2 (halfling) +2 (Deformity [Gaunt] feat) +5 (Manual of Quickness of Action +5) +6 (gloves of dexterity +6) +5 (leveling) total: 38 (+14 Modifier) for a total Escape artist check of +65, without any class levels for the build, I would go Halfling rogue 19/Exemplar 1 (complete adventurer), swapping out rogue levels for levels in classes that give escape artist bonuses. Your escape artist modifier is: +23 (23 skill ranks) +2 (Masterwork escape artist tool) +3 (Skill focus [Escape artist]) +2 (Agile feat) +4 (Abberation Blood [Slimy Skin] feat) +2 (Deformity [Gaunt] feat; Book of Vile Darkness) +15 (Greater Slick armor enchantment) +14 (Dexterity Modifier) +4 (Exemplar's Skill Artistry ability) for a grand total of +69, or, because of exemplar, you can always take ten on escape artist, for a constant roll of 79 with a bonus of +69, you can squeeze through a space that is one inch wide with a roll of eleven or higher, and if you can find a way to raise your escape artist check by one point, tren you can do it without rolling. to achieve this, you need to spend: 50gp (Masterwork escape artist tool) +34,760gp (+1 Greater Slick leather armor) +137,500gp (Manual of Quickness of Action +5) +36,000gp (Gloves of Dexterity +6) total money spent: 208,310gp