Day of Discovery (Problem child)

[Trogdor1992]

Oh wow this guy is clearly in need of help

 

[Grogg of the North]

Twilight armor is also listed in the Book of Exalted Deeds and Player's Handbook 2. Are either of those allowed sources?

Weapon Focus (Ray) is printed, or at least discussed, in Complete Arcane. I think you can even use that to pick up Weapon Specialization (Ray) or (Touch Spell). If he's using Complete Arcane for Elemental Savant than it's most likely he pulled the WF(Ray) from there, too.

 

[Greenfield]

I have no problem with the Weapon Focus - Ray. My concern was that he was labeling his Short Bow as a Ray, as if he could apply his WF to the bow.

Doesn't Weapon Specialization require four Fighter levels?

As for the armor: He writes it as Githcraft in one place and Twilight in another.

What's funny is that he could have gone with Feycraft. It's from the same source as Githcraft (DMG II) but was far more likely to have been accepted. (We have Fey in our campaign, but no Psionics, therefore no Psionic creatures like the Gith'.)

It's been suggested that he needs help. He has help. He has a character generator program to help him with the math. He's apparently ignoring or overriding it.

Mistakes happen. When those mistakes are deliberate, well, there's another word for that.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I'm sorry, it's not Weapon Specialization (Ray) but Ranged / Touch Spell Specialization (CArc 82-83) and require the appropriate Weapon Focus and Caster Level 4. Those feats act, in all other ways, like Weapon Specialization.

 

[delericho]

That's not what it says in the hardcopy DMG. There it says, "May be one point off", not "one on each axis". And though I find the SRD very useful, at the table I use the printed rules.

Are you sure? My copy reads "The spellcaster may choose a familiar with an alignment up to one step away on each of the alignment axes". Indeed, one of the examples given is exactly that of a CG caster and a N familiar. (p.200)

(Sorry for doubting you. But although I know there are a few differences, I'm always surprised by discrepancies between the SRD and the books, so felt the need to double check.)

 

[Greenfield]

Suddenly I'm not sure.

I have the PDF with me, but not the hard copy.

The PDF says you're right, so I'm probably fouling up again.

 

[Dandu]

I have no problem with the Weapon Focus - Ray. My concern was that he was labeling his Short Bow as a Ray, as if he could apply his WF to the bow.

Doesn't Weapon Specialization require four Fighter levels?

As for the armor: He writes it as Githcraft in one place and Twilight in another.

What's funny is that he could have gone with Feycraft. It's from the same source as Githcraft (DMG II) but was far more likely to have been accepted. (We have Fey in our campaign, but no Psionics, therefore no Psionic creatures like the Gith'.)

It's been suggested that he needs help. He has help. He has a character generator program to help him with the math. He's apparently ignoring or overriding it.

Mistakes happen. When those mistakes are deliberate, well, there's another word for that.

There's another layer of comedy for me; the fact that he's trying to powergame, but doing so very badly.

 

[N'raac]

To my surprise, he sent the character today. For the record (because someone asked) he's using Mythweaver as his character generator.

He corrected the Dex issue, but still spent 34 of his 32 stat buy points (and yes, I accounted for the stat boosts from level bumps).

Math is hard! Does he note his boosts from level bumps, or are you assuming the most expensive two stat points and he's still over? I suspect the latter, which might be due to a screwup when he corrected the DEX issue.

He had two of the three Lightning spells needed as prerequisites for Elemental Savant. One is the Cantrip called Lightningl Jolt, which may be from a disallowed sourcebook. (I have to check that one).

Well, he wasn't going to get the PrC next level anyway, I suppose

He's spent 102 of the 90 Skill points a character of his level should have, and I haven't even started to check for cross class penalties.

Maybe he has a learning disability re math? And so does his SW, apparently. This is why I prefer an excel spreadsheet - I will set the math so I can see if it is getting the results I expect.

He still lists Githcrafted armor, even though he was told that was out. The front page of his sheet says Twilight instead, though, which come from Magic Item Compendium, a disallowed source book.

I'd assume the intent was to change it and he missed an update at one spot. Someone else noted other possible sources for the item. What about specifically requiring character sheets indicate the source book and page for things like spells, feats, items and properties (a general rule, not just for him). Seems like this would be handy in play, not just for character reviews, especially if a character needs to be referenced when the player is absent.

He still lists his rase as Human - Aquatic, while claiming to be brother of an Aventi.

That's a RP/background thing to me, and his backstory needs to explain why he views the former PC as a sister. Which has, I believe, been raised to him before with no actual result. Maybe his character is just delusional...how about "if he doesn't explain it, the DM gets to impose any explanation that fits, subject to group vote override"? We once wrote an extensive background for a PC whose player consistently refused to come up with one, ending with his becoming amnesiac, so everyone in the game except that player knew his backstory (he was away when we wrote it).

He has his Short Bow marked with the notation "(Ray)". He took Weapon Focus - Ray as his Focus feat from Stalwart Sorcerer, so that's suspicious.

Simple answer - "short bows are not rays". Pretty sucky underwater weapon too. Sounds like an outcast kind of background, between the air elemental, the bow and a focus on electrical spells.

He has two Hooded Lanterns listed, one with Continual Light and one with Continual Darkness, spells that don't exist in D&D 3.5. There is a Continual Flame, so he might have that one, but there is no corresponding Darkness spell.

Oh, and he has no Darkness spell on his spell list, so his "Approach under darkness" wasn't possible.

That's explained by the Lantern/Cont Dark error, though. Under cover of night works. It also highlights the "why was the character not reviewed before he entered play" question, possibly for setting a group policy going forward.

As a moment of pure fun, I observed that he had listed a skill, "Knowledge - Dung". I guess his character knows a lot of... stuff. Pretty sure he meant Dungeoneering.

Love abbreviations, acronyms and spelling errors. My favorite from years back was the character with poisoned arrows. Except he spelled it "poisson". For those who know a bit of French, the visual of him firing fish at people was quite amusing.

The sheer volume of error again causes me to ask "Why is he allowed to start play with an unreviewed character"? And why is anyone, for that matter? People make mistakes - he's just a volume provider.

 

[cmad1977]

How old is this person? I'd guess... 14... But I expect, sadly, closer to... 22

 

[Greenfield]

He's a military veteran from Desert Storm, which was the 1st gulf war. That was in 1991, so he's probably in his mid 40s.

He does, however, write at something below a 6th grade level.

As to his stats: I presumed that he had put his level based bumps into the most expensive points.

He argued that he was legal because he had created the character with two 15s that he turned into 16s, rather than a 16 and a 14, which he then bought up to a pair of 16s. The cost is the same.

He cited some incomprehensible garble of pseudo-math to explain why his character had 103 skill points to spend.

Someone check my math please:

The character is Human, so that's a +1. Int is 14, so that's a +2.

1st level was Rogue, which is 8. Add Human and Int to total 11, times 4 is 44.
2nd level is Rogue, for another 11, bringing the total to 55.
3rd through 9th levels were Stalward Sorcerer, which are 2 each, plus Human and Int for a total of 5. Seven levels of that are 35. Add to 55 and I get 90. He gets 103. He spent 105, when you include languages.

He argued that the Bow and the ray spells use the same to-hit, so the Specialization in Rays should apply to the bow.

Oh, and the sheet he sent said it was a clone of some other character of his, so he's made these same mistakes before.

And I think I understand why he's so insistent on making the new character the old one's brother, despite having a different family name and different race: He knows that the party will try to bring his old character back. He's planning to have his old character give all her wealth to her "brother", then retire the character. He is bound and determined to bypass that house rule and pass the wealth on to the new character.

If he does, this DM will declare a thaumo-nuclear implosion that sucks both characters into the void, gone forever. Start character #3. The first two sucked anyway.