Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 keyes2k4 Jul 17, 2008 13:28:37	I recently rolled up this character for a campaign my friend is running, and I’d like to simply post it and its history here for your entertainment. I figure I should probably just start with a little background on the house-rules of character creation and such for the campaign. Here is what our DM let us know: • Hot desert setting (he owns a “Sandstorm” book and wants to use it!). • Races restricted to non-Ebberon races • We will be serving a dragon (type unknown, likely sand or something similar, not evil) • We get to start at ECL 5 with 12,000 g.p. and may buy stuff from any book, after consulting him of course to verify its possible. (I’m seriously thinking of buying a decanter of endless water) I personally am not willing to drop a couple levels for a level adjusted race, so I decided to visit the character optimization board for a little help in picking a non-LA race (as well as consulting a book which I carry around all the time, Races of the Dragon). I decided to play a Kobold, which I am using the variant from Unearthed Arcana of desert kobold, which switches my constitution penalty for a wisdom penalty and allows me to not be blind most of the time because of the bright sunlight. I decided to pile on some cheese and take the feat Dragonwraught kobold and set my starting age to venerable (as a kobold its about 130 years) this gives me an additional +3 to intelligence, wisdom, and charisma but with no penalties to str, dex, or con because of my dragon subtype. I also decided to be a sorcerer because I want to play an arcane spellcaster type, but I lack the patience to optimize a focused specialist Wizard, and it seemed a bit too cheesy to try and justify an ancient (among his people) kobold with access to the libraries of a wizard. I cheesed in the rite of draconic passage to get an additional first level spell 1/day which I decided to use to give myself a mount spell. I’m hoping that my DM will allow me to use the web enhancement to get the greater rite of draconic passage and thus allow me a bonus level of sorcerer spells to offset the prestige class I am planning on using (the Dracolexi from Races of the Dragon). I took two feats, non-combatant and inattentive, which give me a -2 to melee attack rolls (I don’t plan to go polymorph power-housing) and inattentive for RP flare because there is a lot of cheese in taking the venerable+dragonwraught combination. SO here is the final product: Race: Desert Kobold (Sand Dragonwraught) Age: 131 (venerable) Ability mods (we haven’t been allowed to roll the actual scores yet) STR -4 DEX +2 INT +3 WIS +1 CHA +3 (and +1 at 4th level) Feats: Dragonwraught Kobold (RoD, Sand Dragon type), Eschew Materials (PHB), Draconic wings (RoD), Force of Pesonality (3rd level, CAdv), Spells: Cantrips: Read Magic, Mage Hand, Detect Magic, prestidignation, Detect Poison (I think I get one more as well) 1: Enlarge Person, Reduce Person, shield, summon monster 1 2: Alter Self (I can turn into dragons for fast flight/natural armor), rope trick Special: 1/day Mount (CL=Sorc Lvl, convincing the DM to make it a sand lizard or camel or something more likely for the setting, also likely for a small kobold). Inventory: Everlasting wand of Endure elements (MIC) 450(ish) gold Decanter of Endless Water (DMG) 8500(ish) gold Desert gear (~300 gold for the protective stuff I am assuming) Endless rations (MIC) 350 gold. Additional costs: 100g for rite of draconic passage. 1000g for gem for greater rite of draconic passage (next level) Remaining gold to spend or save: 1300 (suggestions for this gold are welcome) Alrighty, with the statistics of my character sheet out of the way here are my intentions for the actual character conceptualization: Physical description: Yllanda Kear the venerable female Kobold stands at 2’ 4” tall, her skin a light brown, the texture of sandstone to the touch. Her face shows the lines of aging, crow’s feet on the outside edges of her eyes, wrinkles on her cheeks, and a wistful, even tired look in her eyes, although their intensity shows an inner fierceness that comes from years of dealing with young ones. She has wings on her back, and they stay there, folded, under a protective cape, unless she needs to use them. She wears light desert wrappings, and upon her head she has a thick pair of goggles, fitted for a kobold, for protection from the bright desert sun and the glare off of the sand. She looks very tough, for a kobold, and doesn’t stand with a hunch, like most others of her age. History: In her youth, she was assumed to have gigantic potential because of her Dragonwraught birth, a rare condition where she was born with more characteristics of a sand dragon than that of a kobold. She was expected as soon as she hatched to become a great sorceress, but she never bloomed. It was probably because of the extra attention she received from being dragonwraught that this never became the case. She did, over quite a long time for a kobold, become a minor sorcerer amongst her people, but she didn’t receive her rite of draconic passage until she was finished siring countless eggs and raising many young kobolds, watching many of them grow old and die before she had even aged. She endured, though, for years, becoming the oldest kobold in her tribe, and serving her dragon in the best way she could, by increasing the number of kobolds in her tribe. An incident two years prior to today rendered her unable to lay more eggs, and so she has instead focused on improving her position as a sorcerer for the last period of her life. And she has, thus far, improved greatly, and recently received the draconic rite of passage, a great honor among kobolds, and an acknowledgement of skill in the art of sorcery. Her renown has even allowed her a personal audience with her tribe’s dragon. (This is where the campaign starts as far as I can tell) What do you guys think, Too cheesy? Too short? Any suggestions on how I could make this character even more awesome? I’m too psyched about this campaign!
#2 phoenix00 Jul 17, 2008 13:59:33	Do rope trick as a wand (eventually, right now your wbl isn't high enough.) Rope trick is a great spell to do as a wizard, but as a sorcerer it takes one of your precious spells known. Right now just have a scroll or two of rope trick.
#3 keyes2k4 Jul 17, 2008 14:09:43	my intention is to use it as an escape during combat situations or even a survival tool (hot desert sun=painful), but I can see a wand of rope trick being better for utility purposes like resting or hiding out but you would need a rather high caster level scroll or wand to last the whole night, or day (8 for a full rest), I suppose I could just take it once I get to 8th level and substitute in something else in the meantime, thanks for the reply.
#4 nunkuruji Jul 17, 2008 14:22:26	Either Sorcerer Alternate Class Features Metamagic Specialist -> PHB2 Dragonblood Sorcerer -> Races of the Dragon
#5 keyes2k4 Jul 17, 2008 14:31:59	It also came up in conversation the other day that there is a viable substitute to the decanter of endless water in the MIC which only costs 1000 gold, which I will be taking instead of the decanter because I can think of many better uses for the 7500 remaining gold. My friend suggested a pair of boots from the MIC which provides endure elements as well as some other perks which run about 3500 gp (and would also replace the everlasting wand in my inventory, bringing the cost down to about 3000 gp).
#6 lormador Jul 17, 2008 14:44:52	Maybe trade out Reduce Person or Summon Monster I for Lesser Orb of Cold or Ray of Enfeeblement? Maybe Invisibility, Glitterdust, or Cloud of Bewilderment instead of Rope Trick? What about dropping Draconic Wings? Alter Self can get you a fly speed when you need it. How about Versatile Spellcaster instead? How do you want to develop your attack magic suite in the future? With flaws allowed, you can start off strong with the right foundation for heavy metamagic use. There are a number of amusing configurations, but I've always liked: Ocular Spell + Practical Metamagic(Ocular Spell) Ocular Spell is like a cheap Twin spell, with no MM feat prerequisite. You can be all fiery and scary with: Ocular Spell, Practical Metamagic (Ocular Spell), Arcane Thesis (Scorching Ray), Energy Substitution (Cold), Followed eventually by Lord of the Uttercold. P.S. Instead of Force of Personality, Iron Will will serve you well as a prerequisite for Incantatrix.
#7 phoenix00 Jul 17, 2008 15:17:21	You can get Iron Will as a feat for some gold and some role playing due to the magical location
#8 cycada Jul 17, 2008 15:22:46	I'm going to point you to my recent (if not probably flawed thread) called Song of World Undone. In it, a feat is mentioned called Loredrake. It allows to be considered a higher level sorcerer in exchange for a lowered racial hit die. Now, you don't have any racial hit die so this point is moot, but just in case you become a lich.....anyway, it's a nice piece of cheddar for the already cheesy kobold trick. Edit: Phoenix, what magical location are you talking about? And what book is it found in? EditEdit: Found it, it's Otyugh's hole from CS
#9 keyes2k4 Jul 17, 2008 16:17:20	Loredrake sounds like something I would greatly benefit from, however I must see if we have that book. We have a house rule where we must physically own a book to use materials from it, also, it is an eberron book which may be a problem because our DM has already said no to eberron races, so it is likely he'll deny it for that reason too. I'm trying to avoid metamagic feats because they take away from my spells/day, I have to look into what Arcane Thesis and Energy substitution (frost) have to do with each other. what book is Ocular spell, arcane thesis, and the iron will you guys are talking about from. I thought iron will just increased your will save by 2 (from PHB). . .
#10 lormador Jul 17, 2008 19:31:03	Arcane Thesis lowers the cost of applying metamagic to a given spell. It has nothing to do with Energy Substitution (Cold) other than my personal opinion that if you're going to be energy blasting stuff, it might as well be with Uttercold. Look up Lord of the Uttercold from Complete Arcane. It's fun. I think Arcane Thesis is from PHB2, and Ocular Spell is from Lords of Madness. Iron Will not only increases your Will save by 2, but it allows you to enter Incantatrix! What a great deal! What are you talking about metamagic feats taking away from your spells/day? Are you complaining about the cost of applying the feats? That's what Practical Metamagic and Arcane Thesis are for...
#11 cycada Jul 17, 2008 23:28:52	Arcane Thesis lowers the cost of applying metamagic to a given spell. It has nothing to do with Energy Substitution (Cold) other than my personal opinion that if you're going to be energy blasting stuff, it might as well be with Uttercold. Look up Lord of the Uttercold from Complete Arcane. It's fun. I think Arcane Thesis is from PHB2, and Ocular Spell is from Lords of Madness. Iron Will not only increases your Will save by 2, but it allows you to enter Incantatrix! What a great deal! What are you talking about metamagic feats taking away from your spells/day? Are you complaining about the cost of applying the feats? That's what Practical Metamagic and Arcane Thesis are for... I can't seem to find this PrC, could it possibly be in the Complete Mage? Edit: I feel stupid....it's a feat....Is there any reason this feat is so good, besides the fact that most things can't resist negative energy?
#12 panserbjorn_x Jul 18, 2008 0:34:21	Lord of the Uttercold + Summoned/Animated Skeletons = Good Idea!! ~P_X~
#13 phoenix00 Jul 18, 2008 7:17:00	I can't seem to find this PrC, could it possibly be in the Complete Mage? Edit: I feel stupid....it's a feat....Is there any reason this feat is so good, besides the fact that most things can't resist negative energy? I am not a big fan of this feat chain for it really needs "two people" or more to pull it off well. This is because it is very feat heavy, and you have the opportunity cost of not improving your skeletons with corpse crafter or doing better ways to improve your direct damage. If you have two people, a blaster wizard and a cleric or dread necro who focuses on corpse crafting it is very nice. ---- 1) Energy damage is now half cold half negative energy. Thus undead are healed by it (since most undead are also immune to cold damage.) If your party members take the feat that allows them to be healed by negative energy they don't take any damage or they are healed by it somewhat (depending on their energy resistance and/or immunity.) Less Resistance for Enemies Healing without sacrificing actions Can have allies in the middle of the blast radius 2) Combine with Arcane Thesis, Energy Subsitution+Lord of the Uttercold yields a -2 in metamagic levels. You need 1 more metamagic feat though to take advantage of the spell reduce metamagic level. At level 9 a Energy Subbed, Lord of the Uttercold Empowered Twin Fireball will do 3+0+0+2+4-4=5th level spell. Doing 10d6*1.5*2=70 average damage. 35 of which is cold 35 of which is negative energy. ------ Or course to do all that feats at level 9 you need an incantatrix build with the magical location Otyugh hole. Oh and if you are a sorcerer you are adding more feats to not take extra time of casting, or you are giving up your familar, and you are a spell level behind unless you spend more feats and chose the right race. Nice, but opportunity costs.
#14 lormador Jul 18, 2008 8:32:53	Yes, Lord of the Uttercold isn't free, but it's not a waste of a feat chain either. I was putting it forward merely as an example of an attack magic feat tree that our friend might wish to avail himself of. I also brought forward the Ray Attack tree based on Ocular Spell. Just add Split Ray and the MM discount feats to your favorite ray spell. Or, instead of metamagic, why not try the Draconic Aura: Cold, Eschew Materials, Snowcasting, and Cold Focus, Greater Cold Focus route? Then he could just play conjurer with Grease/Glitterdust/Cloud of Bewilderment. We are going to need some plan of development for this kobold. It seems to me there are basically two ways to go with a sorcerer. 1) Attack using metamagic feats, or other feats designed to improve the deadliness of his spells. This involves carefully constructing a feat chain and knowing what spells are going to be used with it from the outset. 2) Choose feats which are individually powerful but which do not synergize with the other feats. For example, Dragonwrought or Loredrake.
#15 keyes2k4 Jul 18, 2008 15:06:54	I do like some of the ideas presented, but there are a few practical application issues I'd like to sort out here. It's a hot, dry desert campaign, so the likelyhood that my character will have even heard of snow is about as low as her taking snowcasting as a feat. However focusing on cold damage spells to lower the metamagic cost is viable as cold is a relief to heat, and thus would be seen as a very useful thing in a hot desert. I've decided to keep rope trick because of its flexibility in the setting. Sandstorm? Rope trick protects you. Dying of heat? Rope trick protects you. Sunburn? Rope trick protects you. On top of which, its a great way to hide stuff, as only the caster can open the door. I may only have to use it once per day to rest, but that doesn't mean I won't find uses for it other places. I just like the spell really, so I'm taking it. Back to the feat selections. I may have misread it when I had my books with me I was peeking through the comple arcane and I could've sworn energy admixture said it essentially doubled the damage of any energy spell, but did half one energy type and half another, but didn't raise the spell level of the spell being used. Energy substitution (prereq for admixture) requires a metamagic feat before I can take it, so perhaps going the way of metamagic specialist sorcerer with lord of uttercold, energy substitution (cold), dragonwraught (for venerable bonuses), and energy admixture at 3rd level will allow me a double damage ice/lightening spell. Another route I may take would be the uttercold/practical metamagic route, just so I can do an empowered or ocular (I am just assuming this is split ray without the metamagic prerequisite) frost spell without using any higher-level spell slots for it (another place where metamagic specialist may be the best route because then it won't take a full-round action to apply the metamagic.). Oh yeah, and I'm dropping draconic wings. I like the RP application for them (rawr I'm a dragon) but their practical application, especially in a desert setting, is limited. Also, the aforementioned loredrake feat isn't accepted by our group because we don't own a copy of dragons of ebberron, so that route is out of the question.
#16 panserbjorn_x Jul 19, 2008 4:01:34	Also, the aforementioned loredrake feat isn't accepted by our group because we don't own a copy of dragons of ebberron, so that route is out of the question. Loredrake is not a feat. It's a draconic archetype. That aside, not having a copy of the book does pose a problem to utilizing the effectiveness it presents. ~P_X~
#17 lormador Jul 19, 2008 9:30:31	Ocular Spell doesn't work like Split Ray. It converts a spell to an "Ocular Spell" which you then store in one of your eyes. Later on, as a full-round action, you can fire your Ocular Spell as a ray to target(s) within 60'. And, it's only +2 spell levels. You can store 2 Ocular Spells in your 2 eyes, then launch them simultaneously, which is advantageous compared with spending two rounds to launch those two spells.
#18 keyes2k4 Jul 21, 2008 14:43:00	After some digging, I was able to find this "Ocular Spell" feat in a forum post. This doesn't appear to be an officially published feat, so I don't think I will use it. I was also wrong about energy admixture, and after simply reading the second paragraph in its description, it uses a spell slot 4 levels higher (so I pass on it.) After a chat with my DM, he will not allow me to start at a venerable age, however I am choosing to keep dragonwraught so I have a dragon type and can alter self into dragons as I wish. My new build looks like this Sorcerer 1: Dragonwraught kobold, Arcane Preparation (CArc, to meet prereq for Wyrm Wizard), Eschew Materials (flaws: noncombatant and inattentive) Sorcerer 2 Sorcerer 3: Draconic Wings (I plan to use these as a portable parasol when I'm not using them) Sorcerer 4 Sorcerer 5 (taking rite of draconic passage at this level to start with it in the campaign) Sorcerer 6: Draconic Resivoir (a pre-requisite for greater rite of draconic passage), also taking greater rite of draconic passage for +1 level in sorcerer spells sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 1 ( Dragon Magic) Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 2 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 3: (still under consideration) Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 4 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 5 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 6: (still under consideration) Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 7 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 8 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 9: (still under consideration) Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 10 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 10/Incantatrix? 1 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 10/Incantatrix 2 (still under consideration) Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 10/Incantatrix 3 Sorcerer 6/Wyrm wizard 10/Incantatrix 4 I really doubt that we'll get to 20, or even level 10 in this campaign, so the last 10 levels or so don't matter very much.
#19 nunkuruji Jul 21, 2008 15:24:44	Wyrm Wizard requires 1st level arcane spell prep. Is your DM letting you bend that one too?
#20 keyes2k4 Jul 21, 2008 16:13:07	The feat, arcane preparation from Complete Arcane, allows spontaneous casters to prepare spells which they can cast. the prepared spells can be cast using metamagic feats without increasing the casting time. the other benefit is that they are prepare-able.
#21 nunkuruji Jul 21, 2008 16:43:09	Excellent, I missed that
#22 dawnmor Jul 22, 2008 19:35:54	Just buy a RING OF SUSTENCE (DMG). You save like 7k gold you can use on other stuff. The ring, allows you to get only 2 hours of sleep a night, no food, no water. Get Hewards bedroll (Complete mage), you get your spells back within 2 hours and your set for the rest of the night. Cheers.
#23 keyes2k4 Jul 23, 2008 13:40:57	Oh, I didn't know about Heward's Bed Roll, our copy of Complete Mage is hoarded by one of our group members, I like it! Also it is assumed that the dragon which we work for is outfitting us (but our limitation as to how outfitted we are is based on gold we own). So the finances of the said kobold look like this: Boots of the Desert: 3500 GP Ring of Sustanance: (2000? I will check price once I'm done with work) Heward's Handy Bedroll: (2000? I plan to purchase complete mage soon, my friend needs to share) Desert Gear: ~1000gp Rite and Greater Rite of Draconic Passage: Assume 2 attempts at each, 2200 GP Total spent: ~10,200, which leaves me with 1800ish in pocket. Hey if I don't fail the save on Greater rite this leaves me with enough to get a heward's handy haversack to substitute for my lowish strength score. And I think I will end up NOT taking the draconic wings feat, maybe just dropping the noncombatant flaw and taking eschew materials at 3rd level instead of first. Sixth level I plan to take assume supernatural ability (shadow dragon breath weapon) so I can give things negative levels, bwahaha. This leads me to another cunundrum, Are there any rules against transforming a dragon typed character into a small (we're talking tiny) dragon via alter self? RAW it looks like I'm restricted only to dragons with 5 or less HD, tiny to medium sized, which allows me quite a list. I'm just wondering, is there a rule somewhere which I overlooked which may prevent such a transformation from being legal? I could likely pick any one dragon to transform into by simply picking it as my heritage dragon, or maybe my knowledges of dragon types could come from my character's interests in dragons and years of studying them via books and talks with our dragon ruler.
#24 dawnmor Jul 23, 2008 16:34:25	Hewards fortifying bedroll (Forgot the full name till I looked it up), costs 3k gold. You can sleep 1 hour instead of the full 8 hours to recover spells Now you can go on watch for 6 of the 8 hours heh.
#25 keyes2004 Jul 28, 2008 14:42:59	OK so the campaign started yesterday and I was forced to roll the character. To anyone interested this is what I came up with Race: kobold (classic, the DM wouldn't allow desert variant from UA, lame) Class: Sorcerer 5 (no variant, considering taking kobold sorcerer because I haven't recorded familiar stuff yet) Age: 22 (DM didn't let me go venerable or even old, lame.) Ability scores (after modifiers/4th level point): Strength 10 Dexterity 16 Constitution 14 Intelligence 14 wisdom 12 charisma 17 HP: 25 Skills: Bluff 8 ranks Concentration 8 ranks Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks spellcraft 8 ranks Flaws: Non-combatant and Innatentive Feats: 1: Dragonwraught kobold (sand) fl 1: Daylight adaptation (removes light sensitivity) fl 1: Extend Spell 3: Arcane Preparation Spells: 0: Prestidignation, detect magic, read magic, detect poison, mage hand 1: Shield, Power Word Pain, Enlarge Person, Summon Monster 1 2: Rope Trick, Alter Self Spell-like ability: Mount 1/day (caster level=character level) Equipment: Mundane: Desert Outfit, sun lenses, sand tube, breath masks (10), spell component pouch, parasol, backpack, Gem (of 1000gp value), scroll case, parchment Magical: Sandles of the Shifting Sands Ring of Sustenance Hewards Foritfying Bedroll scroll of mirror image (x2) wand of knock Gold: 1442 Future plans: Sorcerer 6/ Wyrm Wizard 10/ Incantatrix 3 Feats: 6. Draconic Resivoir, 9. Iron Will, 12. energy substitution Spells: Polymorph.. haven't really planned these too well. all I know is that Wyrm Wizard gets 2 from ANY spell list so it's kind of a big deal That's about it, I'm keeping the extra gold just in case. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions for improvements! I'll keep posting here perhaps as a character diary.
#26 panserbjorn_x Jul 28, 2008 23:06:10	This leads me to another cunundrum, Are there any rules against transforming a dragon typed character into a small (we're talking tiny) dragon via alter self? RAW it looks like I'm restricted only to dragons with 5 or less HD, tiny to medium sized, which allows me quite a list. I'm just wondering, is there a rule somewhere which I overlooked which may prevent such a transformation from being legal? I could likely pick any one dragon to transform into by simply picking it as my heritage dragon, or maybe my knowledges of dragon types could come from my character's interests in dragons and years of studying them via books and talks with our dragon ruler. There's nothing RAW that states your character needs to be familiar with the chosen form. EDIT: Don't waste a feat on Daylight Adaptation. Use the Sundark Goggles from Races of the Dragon. Worried about Sunder, buy as many as you like. They are only 10 gp each. ~P_X~