Holding a charge and spell conditions

[underfoot007ct]

There's a trick that was explicitly legal in 1st/2nd edition, and implied legal in 3.*: The "cursed" scroll.

In earlier editions there was a specific price increase that had to be paid to prepare a cursed scroll. 3rd is a bit vague on this, so your Dm may refuse to allow it.

The idea is a scroll whose spell effects go off the moment you read the title. This function is normally used to prematurely trigger a harmful spell on whoever is examining it, but the same mechanism can be used to create what is in effect a "quickened" spell scroll, limited to spells that affect the reader only.

Such as Polymorph. You'd need to designate the form when the scroll was scribed, and pulling a scroll from something like a Handy Haversack uses a Move action, but for this one the activation becomes a Free Action.

It's a bit cheesy, I admit, but it sounds like your DM deserves a bit of cheese.

As for the Haste: Normally you can Haste a number of people in your party. If your only concern is casting it on yourself, cover your nakedness with a pair of Boots of Speed. Activation is a free action, and you get 10 rounds of Hasted action per day, which can be broken up as you see fit.

Maybe I am confused, but does "cursed" mean "bad" effects happen. Creating "cursed" scrolls might be vaguely legal, that was never the intent for cursed scrolled to grant beneficial effects. So lets just call "cheese" for what it is.

 

[Greenfield]

I did, in fact, call it cheese. I never said that it was anything but cheese. It is, however, legal cheese.

If you read the section on "cursed" items you'll see that it says that the problems aren't necessarily bad. Items that only work for certain races, classes or alignments are built under the "cursed item" rules, for example.

Now some "defective" or limited items used to rate a discount on creation costs under 3.0. In 1st and 2nd Ed "cursed" items were generally listed as worthless (though I do know a guy who kicked ass in a PVP tournament by investing in the "free" Dust of Choking and Sneezing.) Cursed scrolls, on the other hand, specifically cost 15% more to create.

Now consider a cursed scroll of Fireball. It goes off right on the person reading it just as soon as they read the title. In 1st and 2nd Edition, wands could be used by anyone, as could Protection scrolls. Because of that last part, just about anyone might pick up that scroll to see what it is.

What if a spell caster orders his Iron Golem to "read" the titles on every scroll he finds? Cursed scrolls go off when the titles are read, so you don't want to stand too close.

In that case, the Fireball wouldn't be a bad thing. Fire heals Iron Golems.

We could pick other spells and other examples of creatures reading them. Cause Light Wounds being read by an undead, for example.

Whether the effect is good or bad really depends on who ends up triggering the curse.

The mechanic for making the cursed scroll is the same never the less, and is quite legal.

Whether the DM will allow it to be used in this way, premeditatedly as it were, is the key question.

And of course, there's the basic problem that the character in question is Sorcerer based instead of Wizard, so he may or may not have Scribe Scroll. That may render the entire discussion academic.

So, is it cheesy? Yeah, it is. Is it against the rules? No, not really.

Will it work as desired? That's the key question, and the answer has to come from the DM.

 

[Faskill]

Also, multiple magical effects that alter your size do NOT stack. You can't Enlarge yourself to qualify for a huge Polymorph form. Size changing spells and effects only work off your base size, not your altered size. If you aren't large naturally, you can't Polymorph into a huge form. Shapechange would work, but...that's a 9th level spell.

If I am not mistaken, what poster #2 (Nebten) said is that you dont need to be large to qualify for a huge polymorph.

In the 2008 FAQ I we can read :

Alter self (PH 197), the base spell in the polymorph chain, says that the new form must be within one size category of your normal size. Is the same true of other spells in the chain?

Not necessarily, although the rules aren’t as clear as they could be. Polymorph, and any spell that refers back to it (such as polymorph any object), allows the new form to be of any size of Fine or greater.

So if I read this right, I automatically qualify for a huge Polymorph spell, don't I ?

Also, there's NO WAY IN HELL my GM would allow me to create a cursed scroll !!! He'd rather blast my character with lightning than let me access any magical item (the same goes for Boots of Speed sadly...) What's more, we're not allowed to use any "addons" books except for CD, CAdv, CArc and CW so the only feat that I had access which allows me to multiclass between Sorc and Monk is "Ascetic Mage" (which is, one must say, pretty awesome).

Delivering a touch spell in a round OTHER than the round you cast it is ALWAYS a standard action unless you do it was part of another action, like making an unarmed strike against a foe.

May I know where that comes from? I've looked around in the rules and nothing indicates that delivering a touch spell TO YOURSELF is anything but a free action. It shouldn't take a standard action just to lay one hand on your body should it? It is just a guess based on common sense but well nothing I've read indicates the contrary.

 

[Greenfield]

Your Dm is going to deny you access to *any* magic items?

Pardon me for asking the obvious, but why are you gaming with this guy?

You're running a spell caster, but he won't let you use spell casting items? At all?

I'd ask what the hole is wrong with him, but I think you've already made the answer pretty clear: He's afraid of you.

 

[Faskill]

Well actually we're a gaming group where I like the players (including the GM) it's just that he's bitching a lot with this game... He's not the only one who's GMing either I GM some games too

The thing is, we've only played 6-7 sessions (we began lvl 10) and at the beginning he allowed us to pick "magic items" from a very restricted list (1 magic armor, 1 shield , 1 weapon and 2 rings). He won't listen to me when I ask for something custom instead of this BS equipment I can't use (except for the rings ) and is telling me it's not his problem, which is seriously pissing me off.

Anyone know what type of action applying an already cast touch spell to yourself would be?

Also, let's say I'd like to craft Boots of Speed, how would I be able to do that? We've never actually used crafting in our games

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Anyone know what type of action applying an already cast touch spell to yourself would be?

A touch spell takes the same amount of time touching yourself as it does touching anyone else. I get how conceptually, it seems like you shouldn't have to take the time to "reach my hand and place it upon myself" but think of it more as the amount of time it takes to focus upon discharging the spell, not the time it takes to swing your hand.

 

[Empirate]

Every DM has to listen to a player who isn't having fun for some reason. "Listen Dave, I like you and I like the other guys, but I'm just not having fun with our game. The reasons are simple, you know them, but you refuse to do anything about them. That, dear Dave, sucks. Because, you know, I do believe I'm entitled to having fun, too. Please, Dave, don't be a douche and let me have my fun."
Putting it that way, instead of going on and on about game balance, may open a rigid person's eyes: it's not about the game itself that you're talking anymore, it's about your personal relations and emotions.

But I can see how that might not help. Not a few DMs are like that, especially if they haven't been the regular DM for a few years.



To answer your other questions:

Discharging a touch spell from a held charge, even on yourself, is a standard action unless you can persuade your DM otherwise (yeah, that's gonna happen...).

Crafting Boots of Speed requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat, the Haste spell, a caster level of 10, a pair of nice boots, 6,000 gp and 480 XP. It takes 12 days of uninterrupted work (8 hours per day, no other strenuous activity).

 

[Faskill]

Actually I've tried explaining him that I wanna have fun too... He inevitably answers that the rules are what they are and that it's not his problem which, as you can guess, is seriously pissing me off

 

[Empirate]

Well, it IS his problem. His job as a DM is not to enforce the rules (and arbitrary extensions thereof that HE came up with!), but to ensure you all have fun roleplaying. What a douchebag, hiding behind that kind of flimsy shield! Whenever I (long-standing DM that I am) hear stuff like this, I want to whip out that old +5 Mace of Sense-Seeing and bludgeon some people over the head a few times...

If he gets on your nerves too much, there is nothing to do but call him out on not doing his job, and either quitting, or appointing a different DM. If you can still enjoy the game even though he remains intransigent, on the other hand, then there is nothing to do but enduring it for the sake of what fun is left to you in this game.

Have you considered playing somebody not as item-dependent? I dig that you love your character, but it would seem a Druid could do better in this game.

 

[Faskill]

Hi, even if I wanna smash his head with the mace too I'd rather play the game than quitting it because there is some fun in it for me.

I really like my char and I don't find him very item dependant because I can use Polymorph all the time (5/day), which is basically my main strategy right now.

The annoying thing is that polymorphing is both getting on the DM's nerves (so he tries to counter it using dispelling/fire using mages) and mine because it's kinda boring to always morph into a Treant at the beginning of each fight... It is my only way to counter my otherwise very low Hit scores/survability...

But well, it seems like I don't really have a choice there if I wanna carry on playing this game. For what it's worth, I'll ask him if he'd allow me to craft wondrous items myself but I don't see him accepting so... What's more, it's really giving me a headache to always ask him for things...