[3.5] Got the books, noticed a couple things...

[Li Shenron]

Re: Re: [3.5] Got the books, noticed a couple things...

Makes sense to me. Every other spellcaster got a power down, so no more Animal Growth for the druid's animal companion. The companions are powerful enough without it. As far as shared-spells, it just means that any human-only spells, or personal-only spells still work on the companion through Share Spells.

I cannot remember all the spells which affect Animals and the ones which affect Magical Beasts, but...

I think most of the Druidic spells vs Animals are Charm, Hold, Dominate, etc. that is something you cast on dangerous animals, not your own companion. But yes, there are still spells like Animal Growth which will not be useful anymore.

On the other side, the enemy spellcasters will have a harder times against a PC's companion, since THEY won't be able to cast animal-affecting spells on them. I think generally Animals are designed to be a weaker creature type than Magical Beasts, in the sense that every negative spell which affects MB will also affect Animals but not the other way around.

 

[Madfox]

Well, the druid can always cast animal growth on himself...

Ploymorph: "The subject's creature type and subtype (if any) change to match the new form."

Combined with the feat natural spell and the druid can animal growth himself

It is an interesting error though because it will have a rather big impact whichever of the two is true.

 

[Barak]

Ok.. So a druid with Natural Shape can change himself into an animal, cast Animal Growth on himself and "share" it with his companion (since the creature type of the companion doesn't matter for shared spells), then change himself back (or not), but he can't just cast Animal Growth on his companion.

Duly noted.

 

[Nareau]

Of course, the druid could get his wizard friend to polymorph his (tiger) companion into a (tiger) animal, and *then* cast animal growth on it.

You know, if WotC had given my group a set of these books 2 weeks before they went to the printer, they wouldn't have these problems. It makes me mad to think that someone is actually getting paid to "edit" these book.

And as has already been spotted in another thread:
Scrying, PHB p274:
If the save fails, you can see (but not hear) the subject and the subject's immediate surroundings.

While I'm not a big fan of the "This sucks, let's all write angry letters to WotC!!!" technique, I'm thinking that we might want to go ahead and write up the errata files *for* them. No more asking the Sage, no more complaining about how badly edited these books are. Let's just do it ourselves, then mail it to them, and hope that they feel ashamed.

The very first monster I flipped to in the MM had a typo.

Spider

 

[Greatwyrm]

One thing I noticed last night in the DMG is actually good. The cohort rules now give complete and understandable rules on how much xp cohorts get and how it doesn't affect the xp the party gets.

 

[Pielorinho]

Another small typo: Dire Ape's rend damage is listed in its statblock as 2d6+9; in its description, it's listed as 2d6+12.

As I mentioned elsewhere, due to a loophole in the rules, you can charge through squares occupied by opponents (as long as they choose to step aside), but you cannot charge through squares occupied by allies (whether or not they choose to step aside).

Daniel

 

[Dimwhit]

Hey 47 (or anyone else with the books), if you're so inclined, I have a favor. I a little annoyed that a Druid can't cast spells that target "animals" on his animal companion. But as was pointed out, it may be that most animal-targeted spells are those you wouldn't typically cast on your companion. Care to check into that? I know GMF/MF isn't an animal targeted spell. Animal Growth is, of course, so there's one spell that can't be used on your companion. Any others?

If you don't feel like checking it out, no sweat. Just curious, really.

 

[der_kluge]

I got my books yesterday (well, not the MM yet, which I should get today), but the thing I noticed was that Wall of Iron and Wall of Stone still last forever. Dumb.

And Ice storm still sucks.

And I'm definitely house ruling spell penetration, and spell focus, and greater spell focus and greater spell penetration.

And the ability score spells add a flat +4 to an ability score, so that was actually really nice.

And haste is completely useless to wizards and sorcerers now. Completely useless.

And mass haste is gone.

And the rules for how many people a wizard can teleport make absolutely no sense. I read it three times and still couldn't understand it.

The speak language skill still makes no sense.

I noticed that bards and rangers both get 6 skill points per level, so that was good.

And they fixed Harm and Heal.

And they added a new spell "overland flight" to cover flying vast distances. (think improved fly)

And they made all the Bigby's spells (and Mordenkainen's Sword) [Force] based spells, so that was good.

So, in general, some of my house rules will go away, and I'll have to add some new rules.

 

[Dimwhit]

And I'm definitely house ruling spell penetration, and spell focus, and greater spell focus and greater spell penetration.

I was under the impression that spell penetration (and great SP) were the same as before. Is that not true? Are they +1/+1 now, as well?

And mass haste is gone.

I think that's because Haste now affects multiple targets. But it still sucks for Wizards. Mine isn't going to bother putting it in his spellbook.

 

[Hjorimir]

Oh I dunno...conjure a bunch of minions....haste...go get em' boyz!