Comments and questions on 3.5 from a Newbie

[Edena_of_Neith]

Kenobi, the rest of you ... if Divine Grace allows you to use your Charisma bonus for all your Saves, does that stack with your other attribute bonuses to Saves (Dexterity, Wisdom, possibly other stats.) ?

If you are allowed your Charisma bonus to Attack, does that stack with Strength and/or Dexterity bonuses?

-

So you are saying that, with the Spiked Chain, you can Trip an opponent.
If you have Improved Trip, you provoke no Attack of Opportunity for using Trip.
If the (hapless) opponent you tripped attempts to get back up, you get an immediate Attack of Opportunity on him.

And one of you says: That Attack of Opportunity can be another Trip attempt.
And one of you says: No, that's not right.

Since Trip is only one attack (out of all the attacks you are allowed) I am guessing that if you successfully Trip an opponent, you make all the rest of your attacks against a Prone Opponent, with the Attack Bonuses granted.

Thus:

(You declare Full Round Attack. You get 4 attacks, being high level.)

You win initiative. You attack with a Spiked Chain.

Your move:

1st attack: You successfully Trip the opponent.
2nd attack: You attack the Prone opponent with bonuses.
3rd attack: As 2nd attack.
4th attack: As 3rd attack.

Opponent's move: Opponent tries to get up. You get an Attack of Opportunity. Opponent cannot make Full Round Attack (took Standard Move to get up) but may make one attack (if he successfully stands up.)

1st Scenario:

Your Attack of Opportunity: You Trip the opponent again. He cannot attack you this round. He starts the next round Prone.

2nd Scenario:

Your Attack of Opportunity: You Attack (with bonuses?) and hit, doing damage.
Opponent stands and makes one attack on you.
Beginning of next round.

Is this right?
And if so, which of the scenarios above is right?

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

For the record:

That young woman on page 220 of the DMG is beautiful (the way elves should be.)
That elven chain mail she is wearing is beautiful (also, the way elven chain should be.)

Does anyone know the name of this Iconic young elven lady? Or what her classes are?

Just curious.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Comments on Feats (please consider any comment I make to be a question! )

Cleave: My blow is so powerful it goes clear through you and into the next guy ...

Combat Casting: A + 4 bonus to Concentration checks when Casting on the Defensive. Doesn't seem like much, but then in 3.5 + 4 is typically a big thing, so ...
(In my opinion, the best defense is a good offense.)

Combat Expertise: Great Feat for defense. Great Feat if you are a high level fighter surrounded by weak opponents. But isn't the best defense a good offense?

Combat Reflexes: So, you are caught Flat-Footed, but when the goblin runs by, you can still strike at him. You can't make more than one AOO on any one opponent per round, can you? If you can, how?

Craft Magical Arms and Armor: Standard from older editions. Sounds useful if you're wearing magical armor and/or arms in the wild.

Craft Rod: Standard from older editions.

Craft Staff: Standard from older editions.

Craft Wand: Standard from older editions.

Craft Wondrous Item: Not so standard. YOU can make anything in the DMG now?

Deceitful: Feats aren't so common you can afford to waste them. Why waste a Feat here?

Deflect Arrows: This one screams MONK.

Deft Hands: Another waste of a Feat. I mean, it's nice, but Feats are ... well ... Feats! You gotta pick and choose carefully.

Diehard: It seems to me that this Feat doubles, trebles, or quadruples the starting hit points of a character. It's a way for the low level rogue or wizard/sorcerer to survive in a hostile world. It allows a fighter, cleric, monk, or others a chance to retreat from otherwise sure death. In other words, this Feat sounds like one to take.

Diligent: A nice Feat, but why waste the Feat slot?

Dodge: It seems to me they force you to take this Feat, which isn't very useful in itself (giving only a + 1) in order to take more powerful, more useful Feats.

Empower Spell: Useless for a low level spellcaster. Great for a high level spellcaster, but how often do you play high level spellcasters?

Endurance: Don't leave home without it. This is the stuff of the Spartan soldier or Roman legionnaire. And of course, sleeping with armor on is uncomfortable, but it keeps you alive (the orcs jump out of the woods, and you wake up. 3 orcs attack. Do you A: fight back, or B: spend the next 10 rounds putting on your armor? LOL. The young elven lady on page 220 of the DMG could sleep in her armor with this Feat.) A Feat to take.

 

[Storm Raven]

Kenobi, the rest of you ... if Divine Grace allows you to use your Charisma bonus for all your Saves, does that stack with your other attribute bonuses to Saves (Dexterity, Wisdom, possibly other stats.)?

Yes.

If you are allowed your Charisma bonus to Attack, does that stack with Strength and/or Dexterity bonuses?

Yes. Note that this is normally only used as part of a paladin's smite evil ability, which is limited to a handful of uses per day.

So you are saying that, with the Spiked Chain, you can Trip an opponent.
If you have Improved Trip, you provoke no Attack of Opportunity for using Trip.
If the (hapless) opponent you tripped attempts to get back up, you get an immediate Attack of Opportunity on him.

Yes.

Since Trip is only one attack (out of all the attacks you are allowed) I am guessing that if you successfully Trip an opponent, you make all the rest of your attacks against a Prone Opponent, with the Attack Bonuses granted.

Yes.

Thus:

(You declare Full Round Attack. You get 4 attacks, being high level.)

At least 16th level by the way.

You win initiative. You attack with a Spiked Chain.

Your move:

1st attack: You successfully Trip the opponent.
2nd attack: You attack the Prone opponent with bonuses.
3rd attack: As 2nd attack.
4th attack: As 3rd attack.

After your 1st attack in which you trip your opponent, you get an immediate extra follow-up attack against them at the same attack bonus as a result of having the Improved Trip Feat, so you get a bonus attack between the 1st and 2nd attacks. Note also that your second attack is at -5, your third attack at -10, and your fourth at -15 when compared to your first attack.

Opponent's move: Opponent tries to get up. You get an Attack of Opportunity. Opponent cannot make Full Round Attack (took Standard Move to get up) but may make one attack (if he successfully stands up.)

1st Scenario:

Your Attack of Opportunity: You Trip the opponent again. He cannot attack you this round. He starts the next round Prone.

No. You cannot trip an opponent who is standing up. An attack of opportunity takes place immdeitaely before the action it is interrupting is resolved. Since his "standing up" action is interrupted before he stands up, he is still prone. You cannot trip a prone individual. Also, even if he is prone, he can still attack, he just suffers and attack penalty when doing so.

2nd Scenario:

Your Attack of Opportunity: You Attack (with bonuses?) and hit, doing damage.
Opponent stands and makes one attack on you.
Beginning of next round.

This is pretty much correct.

 

[CronoDekar]

It's interesting to be responding to these comments, since 3.0 was the first D&D I played.

The Cha bonus from Divine Grace does indeed stack with the other attribute scores for saves. Usually though the feat/ability will say if it stacks with other bonuses or it replaces the bonus. The Weapon Finesse feat, for example, says you may use your Dex mod instead of your Str mod for attack rolls with certain weapons.

Combat Casting was nice in 3.0, but in 3.5 it's not as good. Mainly because the bonus from Skill Focus was upped from +2 to +3, which means you can just take Skill Focus (Concentration) and get +3 to all concentration checks. Probably should be bumped up to +5 IMO.

Combat Expertise: True! But generally the expertiser hopes that even with his penalty to attack, he is able to make his attack roll.

Combat Reflexes: In 3.0 you could only make one AOO against an enemy each round, but that changed in 3.5. One example where you would get more than one AOO would be if he had two attacks and tried to disarm you with each one, and did not have the Improved Disarm feat. Each time you would get an AOO.

Though, when you get the AOO because of movement (the running goblin), you'll only be able to take that AOO once, no matter how many threatened spaces he moves past (if that makes sense!)

Craft Wonderous Item: The items often have spell prerequisites, but yeah, you can theoretically make any item in the DMG (even cursed items!).

Any of the +2/+2 feats (Deceitful, Deft Hands...): Yeah, they're of limited worth. Generally best when the character concept is focused around the skills. Or you're trying to seriously cheese out a skill and just a Skill Focus won't do it for you

Deflect Arrows: Monk even gets it as a possible bonus feat!

Diehard and Endurance: Diehard is nice, but the main reason you won't see a lot of people with it is that Endurance prerequisite. They made Endurance do more in 3.5, but most characters won't take it, particularly characters like monks and mages. Plus as far as the armor goes, it's one of those thats usefulness is dependant on how much your DM has you ambushed in the night. (For other unpopular situation-dependent feats, see Spell Mastery, which is only useful when the DM takes away your spellbook!)

Dodge: Yup.

Empower Spell: While I love spellcasters, I oddly haven't had a one that lasted long enough to be able to say much about this feat! Though a Lv10 BBEG mage casting an empowered fireball is quite deadly.

 

[BeauNiddle]

Combat Reflexes: So, you are caught Flat-Footed, but when the goblin runs by, you can still strike at him. You can't make more than one AOO on any one opponent per round, can you? If you can, how?

You get one AoO per opponent per TRIGGER. Normal people only get on AoO so it's usually moot. People with combat reflexes have the option of getting two (or more) AoO on a single person as long as they do different things.

If the person moves in your threat range you get one AoO only. If they then try to cast a spell you get another AoO.

Craft Wondrous Item: Not so standard. YOU can make anything in the DMG now?

You can make 'the other' magic items. You can't make epic kit or artifacts but things like pearl of power, etc. you can. They had to have come from somewhere

Deceitful: Feats aren't so common you can afford to waste them. Why waste a Feat here?

Some people like being the best. Good for NPCs. They are slightly better than Skill Focus (two +2s or one +3 - your choice)

Deflect Arrows: This one screams MONK.

Don't they get it automatically know (or at least as one of their choices)

Diehard: It seems to me that this Feat doubles, trebles, or quadruples the starting hit points of a character. It's a way for the low level rogue or wizard/sorcerer to survive in a hostile world. It allows a fighter, cleric, monk, or others a chance to retreat from otherwise sure death. In other words, this Feat sounds like one to take.

Nice but if your planning on surviving into the negatives your plan needs work

Some people will, some wont.

Dodge: It seems to me they force you to take this Feat, which isn't very useful in itself (giving only a + 1) in order to take more powerful, more useful Feats.

Yep feat chains pay off for dedication. Whirlwind attack by itself is a very powerful feat, linking it to other feats allows the game designers to put in really good abilities without breaking everything else.

Empower Spell: Useless for a low level spellcaster. Great for a high level spellcaster, but how often do you play high level spellcasters?

Says 'Mr 161st level'

Endurance: Don't leave home without it. This is the stuff of the Spartan soldier or Roman legionnaire. And of course, sleeping with armor on is uncomfortable, but it keeps you alive (the orcs jump out of the woods, and you wake up. 3 orcs attack. Do you A: fight back, or B: spend the next 10 rounds putting on your armor? LOL. The young elven lady on page 220 of the DMG could sleep in her armor with this Feat.) A Feat to take.

You can sleep in light armour anyway (anything below -4 penality IIRC). Endurance just gives you better armour to sleep in. Alternatively at medium / high level all characters can probably afford bracers of armour (or at least leave on rings of deflection, amulets of natural armour, etc.)

It's a nice feat if your DM is really into the details of overland travel, otherwise ...


Grrrr. I type too slow

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

On Combat Expertise:

The simple version:

You have a BAB of + 10 / + 5 / 0.
You can take anywhere from 1 to 10 from that and add it to your Armor Class as a Dodge Bonus. If you take 5 from it, your BAB does not change (it never does) but you are effectively at + 5 / 0 / - 5.

The complicated version:

You have a BAB of + 10 / + 5 / 0 with your good hand, and a BAB of + 10 / + 5 with your off-hand.
You have a Strength Bonus of + 4. (It's + 2 with your off-hand.)
You have a penalty of - 4 for fighting with two One Handed Melee Weapons (you have the Two Weapon Proficiency Feat, or it would have been - 6 / - 10.)

You take 5 for Combat Expertise. Your Armor Class gains a + 5 Dodge bonus (which stacks with other Dodge bonuses, an exception to the stacking rule.)

Your BAB does not change. It never does.
But, effectively, you are at + 5 / 0 / - 5, adjusted for Strength to + 9 / + 4 / - 1, and penalized to + 5 / 0 / - 5, for your good hand. Your final adjusted Attack Bonus is + 5 / 0 / - 5 with your good hand.
You are at + 5 / 0, adjusted for Strength to + 7 / + 2, and penalized to + 3 / - 2, for your off-hand. Your final adjusted Attack Bonus is + 3 / - 2 for your off-hand.

I'm guessing that you cannot use ANY (I repeat, ANY) bonuses other than Base Attack Bonus for Combat Expertise.

Is this right?

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Does anyone know the name of the young elven lady on page 220 of the DMG?
She is the Iconic Elf for real!

 

[kenobi65]

Does anyone know the name of the young elven lady on page 220 of the DMG?
She is the Iconic Elf for real!

I don't think it's meant to be a particular character (though you could ask Todd Lockwood for sure); unlike most of the rest of the DMG and PHB, the illustrations in the Magic Items section don't seem to be of iconic characters.

 

[kenobi65]

On Combat Expertise:

{snip}

I'm guessing that you cannot use ANY (I repeat, ANY) bonuses other than Base Attack Bonus for Combat Expertise.

Is this right?

No; you're making yourself nutty trying to figure out exclusions / inclusions. Either that, or your example was more complicated than I could follow.

With Combat Expertise, you take a penalty of anywhere from -1 to -5 (but the penalty cannot exceed your BAB) to all attack rolls, and add the same number as a Dodge bonus to your AC. Nowhere in the description of the feat does it say you can't apply any other bonuses to the attack; just figure out what the bonuses normally would be, then apply the Combat Expertise penalty.

So...

Let's say you have a 7th level fighter (BAB +7 / +2), with a 16 Strength (+3 bonus), Weapon Focus (longsword) (+1 bonus), and a +1 longsword. His "normal" attack bonus with the longsword would be +12 / +7.

If he chooses to use his Combat Expertise, he could apply (for example) a -4 penalty to his attack rolls, making his attack bonus for the round +8 / +3, and giving him a +4 dodge bonus to his AC. Note that he *still* gets his other bonuses (from Strength, a feat, the magic sword, etc.)

Make more sense now?