Mmmm...Libris Mortis.

[mangamuscle]

Introducing a game mechanic that lets you SA/crit undead is like introducing a new fire spell that is "so hot it even hurts creatures with the fire descriptor who would normally be immune to fire." See how that makes no sense? A fire elemental is immune to all fire damage, but this spell is "special" and its fire is "so cool" that it can hurt even a fire elemental, a creature made out of fire. An undead is immune to sneak attacks and critical hits because it has no vital spots, but this new weapon property is "special" and its damage is "so cool" that it can strike vital spots in a creature that doesn't have vital spots.

I think that was a bad example. Frostburn has a feat that makes cold spells so cold that they can harm even creatures with cold immunity. The inverse I saw once in the anime Bastard! where Dark Scneider managed to cast a fire spell so hot it damaged even a fire immune Efreeti. If you going to say "anime is non-cannon" then must have not read what Jeff Grub wrote "The heat here is so intense that even creatures immune to flame like fire elementals take 1d2 points of damage per turn unless protectyed by Kossuth" in 1the st edition Manual of the Planes, page 40.

 

[Samurai]

Anyone want to comment on the art? I was impressed by the art in Draconimicon, is it close to being as good?

I wouldn't put it in the same league as Draconomicon, but it has nice art by lots of WotC regulars, including Tom Baxa, Jeff Easley, Steve Ellis, Wayne England, Wayne Reynolds, Brian Snoddy, etc.

 

[Pants]

Isn't piercing cold the feat that deals Cold damage to undead when a character uses Turns? Or is this something completely different?

 

[Sammael]

It wasn't a bad example; rather, Frostburn's Piercing Cold feat is an example of extremely poor game design.

 

[JustKim]

Yes, it is a bad example. A fire elemental may not burn from fire damage, but a fire powerful enough will quickly burn away its fuel supply and leave the fire elemental weakened, if not extinguished, better than a sword ever could. Meanwhile earth and water elementals have no resistance to damage from spells that use earth or water as a weapon.

On another note, did anyone else notice the Master of Shrouds has gone from a minimum 8th level PrC to a minimum 4th level PrC?

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Isn't piercing cold the feat that deals Cold damage to undead when a character uses Turns? Or is this something completely different?

No, that's something else. Piercing Cold lets you modify a spell that deals cold damage so that it affects creatures of the cold subtype (which are normally immune to cold blah blah blah).

 

[devilish]

I can see Sean's point -- sneak attack is a core component of the system,
right at the basics, and everything that's come since then has
that assumption in it. Changing it with just a weapon (unless it
was very high, +5 or artifact level) unbalances a basic of the game.
IMO, You would almost have to re-engineer the rogue class to get something
like that to work -- or create a new class of Rogue/Undead Hunter, instead
of a weapon that anyone can wield.

However, I have experienced this personally and was extremely frustrated.
Played a WOTC-published module that was loaded with undead, and
with some of them having damage-reduction, the fighter couldn't get
decent damage in (and ended up getting in the face of a lich), and my BAB
as a rogue was nowhere near where I could attack, even with a nat 20.
And my usual crossbow maneuver was useless -- regular bolts!

The spellcasters, meanwhile, tore up the dungeon with heal spells, fire spells,
undeath-to-death, etc. While it was fun to watch like a movie, the
fighter and I ended up sitting out most of the game (and this mega-
adventure lasted months!)

In this case, how would you make an undead-prevalent game more balanced
for fighter/thieves?

-D

 

[Hjorimir]

As to follow-up books...

A serious book on fey (as said before, not cutsey fey)
A book on elementals (that really focuses on genies of all types)
A book on the baatezu
A book of the tanar'ri
A book on illithids and the giths

 

[Sammael]

A fire elemental may not burn from fire damage, but a fire powerful enough will quickly burn away its fuel supply and leave the fire elemental weakened, if not extinguished, better than a sword ever could.

Eh. A fire elemental does not have a fuel supply. It is composed of elemental fire, one of the "building blocks" of the D&D Multiverse, and thus not subject to laws of physics (or chemistry, as the case may be) in regard to transforming matter into energy.

 

[mangamuscle]

Isn't piercing cold the feat that deals Cold damage to undead when a character uses Turns? Or is this something completely different?

Piercing cold does full damage to cold resistant creatures and half damage to cold immune creatures (undead or otherwise).

edit: edited mistake