options for scout.

[krupintupple]

i'm curious as to why more scouts don't use 'shape soulmeld' to get dissolving spittle? it seems like it'd be worth the feat spent, as it'd net you a continuous, undisarmable 1d6 acid of ranged touch goodness. if you've a way to get incarnum, like being an auzurin, it can get pretty decent when combined with skirmish.

so, what am i missing here?

 

[stonegod]

i'm curious as to why more scouts don't use 'shape soulmeld' to get dissolving spittle? it seems like it'd be worth the feat spent, as it'd net you a continuous, undisarmable 1d6 acid of ranged touch goodness. if you've a way to get incarnum, like being an auzurin, it can get pretty decent when combined with skirmish.

so, what am i missing here?

Not enough folks w/ BoI?

 

[Kurashu]

Incarnate 1/Scout 3/Ranger 16 would be a good start. Don't waste a feat on shape soulmeld when you could spend it on swift hunter and improved skirmish. +9d6/+9AC at 20th level. There's other ways to abuse this though. Totemist would probably offer better options.

 

[krupintupple]

that's a good point actually. i suppose we don't play in a high-powered game, or it could be that i've never formally DM'd a 3e game much past 3rd or 4th level, but maybe i was just surprised how effective i thought this combo was; especially since at 6th you could pick up improved skirmish and then be doing 2d6 acid, from dissolving spittle plus 4d6 skirmish on any round you move 20' or more, which'd be every round, i'd imagine.

is 6d6 ranged touch acid per round a little much for a 6th level character? no need to flame, or anything of the sort, but i was just curious.

also, the rest of the party is a psion - i realize he's going to be getting big pretty soon - a cleric and a warlock.

 

[blargney the second]

It'd be good at low levels, okay through to 10 or so, then almost useless after that.

 

[krupintupple]

blarg,

if you could expand on that reply, i'd be very appreciative. maybe i'm still thinking in the lower realms of the campaign, but i don't see how it'd become useless after 10th. although, i suspect that it has something to do with the dawning powers of the cleric and psion.

 

[blargney the second]

1) Energy resistance becomes remarkably prevalent in mid- to high-levels, and acid in particular is a fairly common one for evil creatures. The resist energy spell becomes cheaper and cheaper as you go up in levels.

2) Because it's a standard action to use, you're limiting yourself to an absolute maximum of one attack, and it can't even be used with feats like shot on the run and spring attack.

3) It's a fixed 1d6. No enhancement bonuses, no special effects, the crits are 20/x2, no ability bonus to damage - in short no other source of bonus damage.


All that being said, it could be fairly effective through the low levels and an okay backup weapon through mid levels. If your DM allows retraining then retrain it out for something better when its usefulness fades.
-blarg

 

[blargney the second]

Oh yeah, one other thing: whatever you do don't take a level of an incarnum class to get it. Take the Shape Soulmeld feat.

 

[krupintupple]

1)

2) Because it's a standard action to use, you're limiting yourself to an absolute maximum of one attack, and it can't even be used with feats like shot on the run and spring attack.

3) It's a fixed 1d6. No enhancement bonuses, no special effects, the crits are 20/x2, no ability bonus to damage - in short no other source of bonus damage.

@2 - it seems it could be used with shot on the run, as it is a ranged weapon, is it not?:

When using the attack action with a ranged weapon, you can move both before and after the attack, provided that your total distance moved is not greater than your speed.

@3: well, with the addition of a point of essentia, it's 2d6+skirmish, which isn't bad, but i was just curious.

i'm not trying to get in a fight, i just really want to understand why it may be a bad idea. the commonality of energy resist and the limitation of a single attack are excellent points though!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Similarly, if you go into Psionics, a Scout with a naturally psionic race or who took Wild Talent can qualify for the Kineticist PrCl. With the ability to enhance their weapons with energy, fire pure energy and so forth, they can really increase their potency.

OTOH, a little different path gets the scout into the Elocator PrCl, which is chock full of movement abilities- could be handy for a skirmishing scout.