Mmmm...Libris Mortis.

[BryonD]

I gotta agree with Sean this time.

A mechanic to do extra damage to undead is fine, but tying it directly to sneak attack is pretty wacked.

Maybe you could do something cool like limit the number of d6s to the attacker's effective cleric level with regard to turning undead. But now it is an overly complicated mechanic that still does not explain why you need to flanking (or other) to do it... Oh well.

 

[jester47]

Edited my post above to include a simple fix and a list of justifications for this fix. All should know now that SKR kicked my butt and made me see the light. Ghost Strike causes problems as written.

Also, I hope that WotC has a big red phone is Seans cave in San Diego so they can call him and get design advice.

Aaron.

 

[Felon]

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).

Actually, the description of Piercing Cold states that creatures with the cold subtype notice that the spell is uber-cold, but remain unaffected. That means the aforementioned white dragon wouldn't be affected.

True, creatures normally immune to cold take half-damage, but cold immunity doesn't necessarily impart the cold subtype (although the inverse is true). Ghouls and vampires, for instance, can be affected by spells boosted by the piercing cold feat.

 

[PeterDonis]

Pete,

However you should take into consideration that your HS latin teacher and my HS latin teacher and College Latin professor all teach Classical Latin. Medieval latin, church latin, and the latin of the people durring roman times, all have different rules. Classical (the one everyone learns in HS and college) is almost exclusivly (so I have been told) derived from the surviving works of Cicero and some of his contemporaries. Basicly its very very propper latin.

Still the title does not make sense. But I think their explanation is pretty good. Goes from Ex Libris Mortium to Libris Mortium, to Libris Mortis through the ages... Its a clever CYA.

Aaron.

Yes, the Latin I learned in school (and in the dictionary I referred to to check my memory on 3rd declension nouns) is classical Latin, but I don't think the actual grammar and inflections changed much between that and medieval or modern church Latin. The pronunciation did, but I don't think the grammar did. After all, grammar is the main reason pedants have continued to learn Latin through the ages.

That said, although I haven't read their explanation, it sounds like it was intended to convey the impression that the title isn't "real" Latin, just whatever "fake" Latin the "scholars" who assembled the work used. If so, I agree it's a fairly good way of framing the work.

 

[Gez]

You're thinking of mere cold. Piercing Cold deals with COLD. The kind of cold that can freeze-dry a white dragon. We're talking Kelvin Scale cold. The kind of stuff that, at the lower end, gives us metallic hydrogen and Helium II. Now, true, it's doubtful Piercing Cold ever gets that bad, but you can still produce temperatures so low even creatures unaffected by normal cold are harmed. So in that area Piercing Cold is not broken.

And similarly, you could do plasma fire, temperatures so hot, energy so intense, that the bonds between electrons and nucleons break, and all matter becomes a sort of ion soup. And then, you can crank up the temperature even higher, and get nucleus to break as well, and finally to dissolve everything into quarks. And maybe with another order of magnitude, you can "dissolve" quarks as well.

I'm sure an actual physicist would be more precise than me about that and give the actual estimated temperatures for those phenomenons.

 

[Staffan]

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

Agreed. If something is immune to cold, it's immune. If you want something that's colder, make it do more damage - that'll help against creatures with cold resistance, at least.

 

[Signum]

I havent seen anyone mention yet that the cover and exterior for the book looks slightly different, and possibly better, than the picture seen on the wizards site. Am I the only one?

 

[Pants]

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).

Okay. Yep, that is stupid!

 

[Jolly Giant]

Actually, the description of Piercing Cold states that creatures with the cold subtype notice that the spell is uber-cold, but remain unaffected. That means the aforementioned white dragon wouldn't be affected.

Ok, this makes Piercing Cold a whole lot less silly. Event with the feat, you still can't harm creatures with the cold subtype with a cold spell; only undead and other creatures normally immune to cold...

 

[Vocenoctum]

Piercing Cold (metamagic +1 spell level, only to spells with cold descriptor)
if creature has cold resistance, the resistance doesn't apply
if creature has cold immunity, they take half damage (save as normal for 1/4)
cold subtype: still unaffected by the spell
fire subtype: double normal damage instead of +50%