Alienist (from Complete Arcane) - worth it ?

[frankthedm]

No. Pseudonatural creatures don't take any extra time, but simply benefit from the +20 on their first attack.

An attack, not guarenteed to be the first actually. Specificly, it works like a smite evil.

True Strike (Su): Once per day, a pseudonatural creature can gain a +20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. In addition, the creature suffers no miss chance against a target that has concealment or total concealment when making this attack.

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per paladin level. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

 

[Notmousse]

The modified Alienist we use eschews toughness (because it's screamingly lame) and instead gets DR 1/- and DR 2/-. Dunno if that helps out any or not, since I never got into melee



That's only 1/day though. Still better off just casting it yourself.

Eh. I'd love to see the Summons reworked in a modular way...I wonder if you could take the example provided by the PHB2's Druid Shapeshift (you get these certain abilities and we don't care what it looks like) and apply that to the Summon lists?

Koewn

True, but it's far from their only power, and summoning them in multiples can make for interesting combats.

Cast any spell that causes terrain modifiers, add stinking cloud to rob the enemy of attacks, and then have your poo mephits use Acid Arrow for super easy hits.

 

[bestone]

Lots of options from the complete mage, some of the equipment really makes summoners nice imho, check it out, alienist gooooood

 

[shilsen]

An attack, not guarenteed to be the first actually. Specificly, it works like a smite evil.

Thanks for the catch. I meant to write "the first attack that they choose."

 

[starwed]

It seems like letting the Alienest get Astral Constructs of the appropriate level for each Summon Monster spell would be a reasonable idea, especially if you don't use psionics in the rest of the game.

Then it becomes something strange and otherwordly, and you can easily describe the constructs in a way that makes them very Lovecraftian.

 

[Rerednaw]

The first edition Dieties and Demigods had chapters on the Nehwon, Cthulu, and Melnibonean pantheons. The Cthulu and Melnibonean sections were pulled in later printings due to license issues.

And Cimmerian. The DD book was nerfed twice. And I agree, unless you are making a specialist bad guy, alienist is serious power down. Especially if you are in a game where characteristics are at a premium. (25 or 28 point buy). A couple Allips and it's all over.

 

[Nifft]

It seems like letting the Alienest get Astral Constructs of the appropriate level for each Summon Monster spell would be a reasonable idea, especially if you don't use psionics in the rest of the game.

Then it becomes something strange and otherwordly, and you can easily describe the constructs in a way that makes them very Lovecraftian.

That is a good idea. Since both Constructs and Oozes are immune to crits & sneak attack...

It would kinda make their Augmented Summoning pre-req a waste, though.

-- N

 

[Cheiromancer]

An attack, not guarenteed to be the first actually. Specificly, it works like a smite evil.

True Strike (Su): Once per day, a pseudonatural creature can gain a +20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. In addition, the creature suffers no miss chance against a target that has concealment or total concealment when making this attack.

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per paladin level. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

Well, I learned something new today!

How do you tell if a (Su) is going to take extra time? Does the ability have to specify that it takes a standard action (or whatever)? In the SRD entry it says "Using a supernatural ability is a standard action unless noted otherwise" and the two passages you cite don't seem to have that note.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I just want to know how to make the right ruling in other cases.

 

[frankthedm]

Well, I learned something new today!

How do you tell if a (Su) is going to take extra time? Does the ability have to specify that it takes a standard action (or whatever)? In the SRD entry it says "Using a supernatural ability is a standard action unless noted otherwise" and the two passages you cite don't seem to have that note.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I just want to know how to make the right ruling in other cases.

Did you notice I specified it worked like the paladin smite evil? It is because of that [Su] reading that Paladins and cleric might have to make that Smite as a standard action. But since it seems many DMs allow Players to smite while charging or as part of a full attack, pseudonatural's enjoy that same treatment for their truestrike.

But i do think it is meant to be part of the attack.

...may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack.

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

Sorry to hijack the thread but I would like to make an alienist PC one day.

I was looking at the wu jen class and thought (with a flavour change, ie: taboos and spirits based around going mental and listening to the far realms echoing inside your head) it would be really cool.

Would it make a good viable choice power wise?