Compiled 3.5 Revisions

Happy Funball · Jul 8, 2003

l. The Solar, Tarrasque, and Happy Fun Ball have damage resistance that may only be bypassed by epic weapons.

Ha! Fear my 3.5 wickedness in all its splendor!

Happy Funball · Jul 8, 2003

Do not look directly at happy fun ball! (make a Fortitude Save)

Is that a taunt?!?

Shard O'Glase · Jul 8, 2003

greymarch said:
Wow. They severely nerfed the greater cloak of displacement. Since it takes a command word to activate, that means it will take a standard action to use the cloak. Anyone who gets a surprise round on you, or beats you on initiative wont have to suffer the effects of concealment. Guess I will have to ditch my greater cloak of displacement and find myself a cloak of protection instead.

Boots of Speed stunk in D&D 3.0, but in D&D 3.5 they will be wonderful.

Greater cloak of displacement was a fantastic item in D&D 3.0, now it stinks in D&D 3.5.

Looks like boots of speed and cloaks of displacement have traded places on the list of must have items.

Wow I missed that about the cloak. It just sucks now, 50,000 for 15 rounds of displacement a day, lame. Defense is one area that they didn't need to weaken the game in the revision. If this ends up being even more offense and less defense I'll be pissed. It was about as high offense/low defense as I could stand.

James McMurray · Jul 9, 2003

greymarch said:
Looks like boots of speed and cloaks of displacement have traded places on the list of must have items.

Except that the powering down of Haste lowers the effectiveness of the boots much more than the change to a free action raises it.

Lela · Jul 9, 2003

James McMurray said:
Except that the powering down of Haste lowers the effectiveness of the boots much more than the change to a free action raises it.

What about the Boots of S+S? I know they've been changed to a flat speed increase but what is the actual number?

Those took a hit too. No longer does the Monk run at super sonic speed.

kallisti_dk · Jul 9, 2003

Presumably Animal and Plant go with Knowledge (nature), and Undead with Knowledge (religion), but the other match-ups are less certain. What about the other monster types, viz. Elemental, Fey, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid, Outsider, and Vermin?

Arcana:
Constructs, Dragons and Magical Beasts

Dungeoneering:
Aberrations and Oozes

Nature:
Animals, Fey, Giant, Monstrous Humanoids, Plants and Vermin

Religion:
Undead

The Planes:
Outsiders and Elementals

There is no knowledge skill that covers humanoids as a whole. You could probably use Local, History or Geography, depending on the circumstances.

The DC to remeber a piece of useful information about a monster (powers and vulnerabilities) is 10 + the monsters HD. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you gain another piece of useful information.

Personally, I like this rule a lot. This can really help keep some veteran players in line regarding monster knowledge, and help new players that haven't memorized the MM.

Plane Sailing · Jul 9, 2003

I agree, its a great rule.

My players are average level about 10th at the moment, and they were asking me whether they know about fire to stop trolls regenerating - their characters have never actually met trolls, but they've been around the block a few times. This is a nice way of giving them a game mechanic for knowing.

I might make the initial roll give an idea of its offensive capabilities and the higher "secrets" let on to its defensive loopholes.

Tharizdun · Jul 9, 2003

3.5 Errata PHB

I don't know if this is the right place to post it, but there is an errata on the greater magic fang description in the druid spell list. The druid's 4th level spell list mentions a +1/three level bonus, while the spell states it to be +1/four levels.

drnuncheon · Jul 9, 2003

kallisti_dk said:
The DC to remeber a piece of useful information about a monster (powers and vulnerabilities) is 10 + the monsters HD. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you gain another piece of useful information.

What an...unusual roll. I think when I use it I'll base it on the rarity of the creature - which is by no means connected to its hit dice. It'll avoid the "red dragon? Never heard of it. Let me tell you all about the pseudodragon, though..." problem.

J

Pielorinho · Jul 9, 2003

I agree, it's a little bit weird as a roll. What person with the smallest amount of interest in monster stories doesn't know three different vulnerabilities of a vampire? And yet how many fantasy geeks know that a particular kind of small spotted lizard can send out a serious electrical jolt?

This mechanic makes it harder to know the vulnerabilities of your average vampire than to know the powers of a shocker lizard. That's a problem IMO.

Although I understand why they did it this way (part of D&D's philosophy is to make the DM a referee, not a judge, I think), I'll handle it differently, much closer to a bardic knowledge check. Famous monsters have a low initial DC: in order to remember that a black dragon breathes acid, we're talking DC 5. Somewhat well-known monsters have a moderate initial DC: a knowledge/INT check of 10+ will remind you that trolls are especially vulnerable to fire or acid. Lesser-known monsters have a higher initial DC: knowledge check 15, and you remember that the touch of a cockatrice is deadly. Obscure monsters have progressively higher DC: unless you make a check of 20+, you won't realize that a gibbering mouther can confuse people with its chatter.

I'll probably say that any check with a DC of 15 or below can be made by the untrained (using common knowledge in the world), but that DCs higher than 15 require at least one rank in the appropriate knowledge. This means that even the untrained may get the second snippet of important information on trolls (DC 15: they regenerate all wounds beyond fire and acid!), but only the trained will remember the third bit of information (DC 20 if you stand and fight them hand-to-hand, they'll grab you in both hands and rip you apart, so it's better to use hit-and-run tactics against them).

And obviously, different campaigns will consider different monsters famous, moderately-known, less-known, or obscure. That's okay by me.

Daniel