Exploratory Thread: Mercenaries (3.5e)

[Pinoy]

No traits.

Yehey.. I understand that this is the only not agreeable change of Farris. I can live with that.

[Ben Zwycky]

Question: the sun blade description says:
This sword is the size of a bastard sword. However, a sun blade is wielded as if it were a short sword with respect to weight and ease of use. (In other words, the weapon appears to all viewers to be a bastard sword, and deals bastard sword damage, but the wielder feels and reacts as if the weapon were a short sword.)

So i thought this means that even with shield (one hand use) the damage is still based on the bastard sword. The damage should not become short sword.

It's not short sword damage, it's the difference betwen wielding a one-handed weapon in one hand versus in two hands. Wielding a weapon in your one-handed means your full strength bonus is added to damage, wielding it with both hands then one and a half times your strength bonus applies. When wielding two weapons (in your case when shield bashing), your full strength bonus is added to damage done with the weapon in your primary hand, and half of your strength bonus applies to the weapon in your off hand. That's the difference.

The sun blade is a special kind of bastard sword that can be wielded as easily as a short sword, so you can treat it as a light weapon, one-handed weapon or two-handed weapon, whichever suits your current situation best, without sacrificing damage. With a conventional bastard sword, you'd need to take an additional feat to use it proficiently one-handed (so none of your bastard sword feats would work without taking exotic weapon proficiency first {or only ever using it two-handed}, with my character I got around this by taking weapon focus and improved critical with a short sword instead of a bastard sword. If you changed all of your bastard-sword-related feats to be for short swords instead, then this problem would disappear, but it's only a problem for conventional bastard swords, not for your sun blade.)

Without the uses per day restriction, the shield's ranged attack is exactly the same as that of a heavy crossbow +1, but with unlimited ammunition and easy to fire, so you could almost do without a bow altogether. I wasn't sure how to go about costing any further enhancements to it (e.g. launching two or more spines at once, adding the seeking ability or the adamantine material), since it's not completely clear whether it should be treated as a spell or a weapon.

What do you think, Carrik? It's listed as being based on magic missile, so multiple missiles at once (or the seeking ability) would be in keeping with that. Would it be doable to, say, treat it as a spell and double the cost of that aspect (i.e. another 7,400 gp to reach caster level 12) to launch two spikes at once, or alternatively to treat it as a ranged weapon and added 6000 or 10000 gp to add the seeking ability (as if going from a +1 weapon to a +2 weapon, or a +2 to a +3) and another 3000 gp to make the launched spines of adamantine? Or should we just leave it as it is and say no further enhancement is possible? That'd also be fine.

Another thing for CV to consider would be metamagic rods.

I'm fine with no traits, I'll have to take off the trait I had on my LL rogue.

[Carrikature]

What do you think, Carrik? It's listed as being based on magic missile, so multiple missiles at once (or the seeking ability) would be in keeping with that. Would it be doable to, say, treat it as a spell and double the cost of that aspect (i.e. another 7,400 gp to reach caster level 12) to launch two spikes at once, or alternatively to treat it as a ranged weapon and added 6000 or 10000 gp to add the seeking ability (as if going from a +1 weapon to a +2 weapon, or a +2 to a +3) and another 3000 gp to make the launched spines of adamantine? Or should we just leave it as it is and say no further enhancement is possible? That'd also be fine.

Adamantine is fine. Two spikes at once doesn't work without some sort of aiming penalty. You're talking about a pointed object protruding from a convex surface; the two spikes won't be pointed the same way. I'd say no on multiple spikes at once. You could increase the uses per day, but I think the max would be 6. I'd have a hard time believing more spikes than that actually fit on one shield. Seeking would be ok to add only because the spikes become projectiles.

[Pinoy]

Thanks for taking time to teach me.

[Pinoy]

Weapon damage (including strength , weapon enhancement and weapon specialisation):

Gain gloves of dexterity +6, amulet of spell resistance 21, shirt of strength+6, helm of resilient wisdom (+6 wisdom and iron will feat) eyes of the eagle +5

I read the spell resistance description and noted "Spell resistance is the extraordinary ability to avoid being affected by spells". Does this mean that i am also not affected by cure spell by another?

I also noted "A creature can voluntarily lower its spell resistance. Doing so is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity." Is lowering the spell resistance need a "command word"?

I know i choose the spell resistance. I just did not think it through before.

[Pinoy]

What do you think, Carrik? It's listed as being based on magic missile, so multiple missiles at once (or the seeking ability) would be in keeping with that. Would it be doable to, say, treat it as a spell and double the cost of that aspect (i.e. another 7,400 gp to reach caster level 12) to launch two spikes at once, or alternatively to treat it as a ranged weapon and added 6000 or 10000 gp to add the seeking ability (as if going from a +1 weapon to a +2 weapon, or a +2 to a +3) and another 3000 gp to make the launched spines of adamantine? Or should we just leave it as it is and say no further enhancement is possible? That'd also be fine.

Another thing for CV to consider would be metamagic rods.

I'm fine with no traits, I'll have to take off the trait I had on my LL rogue.

Adamantine is fine. Two spikes at once doesn't work without some sort of aiming penalty. You're talking about a pointed object protruding from a convex surface; the two spikes won't be pointed the same way. I'd say no on multiple spikes at once. You could increase the uses per day, but I think the max would be 6. I'd have a hard time believing more spikes than that actually fit on one shield. Seeking would be ok to add only because the spikes become projectiles.

So i can only use 6 spikes but the features listed below are still available right
- A fired spine has a +1 enhancement bonus, a range increment of 120 feet, and deals 1d10 points of damage (19-20/×2).
- Fired spines regenerate each day.

I am also adding seeking and admit to the spikes. Thanks carrik. (also thanks Ben for helping me out).

[Ben Zwycky]

Yep, but bear in mind that you'll need to add another 16,400 gp to the cost of the shield to do that (7,400 for the extra uses per day, 3,000 for adamantium and 6,000 for seeking. This is okay if you go for celestial armor +5 with moderate fortification (effectively +8) instead of celestial armor +4 with heavy fortification (effectively +9), because doing that will save you 17,000 gp, so you have an extra 600 gp left.

[Ben Zwycky]

I read the spell resistance description and noted "Spell resistance is the extraordinary ability to avoid being affected by spells". Does this mean that i am also not affected by cure spell by another?

I also noted "A creature can voluntarily lower its spell resistance. Doing so is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity." Is lowering the spell resistance need a "command word"?

I know i choose the spell resistance. I just did not think it through before.

If it doesn't say command word, then you just want it to happen and it happens. With all these 'command words' it's not a list of actual words you need to know, you just tell Carrik that you want to activate the given item or ability. It's just a description of the in-game mechanism for how it occurs. e.g. You can't speak a command word if you're in an area of magical silence.

[Pinoy]

Here is the updated equipments of Farris (please check for the cost i think i am over the limit)

Celestial Armor - heavy fortification (+9AC +8 dec) 94,400
Gloves of Dexterity (+6dex) 36,000
Sun blade (+4/+6) 98,335
Mirthal Spined Shield (spined adamantium, 6 ranged spine per day/regenerate daily, with seeking,
attacked 1d10, crit 19-20/x2, seeking 40,980
Cloak of Resistance with enlarge (+5 saves) 33,100
Amulet of Resistance 21 90,000
Belt of Dwarvenking +6 con 46,900
Shirt of Strength + 6 36,000
Ring of Protection + 5 50,000
Ring of Blink 27,000
Helm of Wisdom + 6 36,000
See Invisibility 5,630
Total 594,345

I am over by 14,345gp.

If i make my fortification at 75%, i am thinking this will save me 16,000gp. With this i will only have 1,655 extra gp for potion and some gear (rope, explorer outfit, potion bag, bow without enhancement).

Also, I remove intimidate feat and initiate feat. changed it to two-weapon fighting and improve two-weapon fighting.

which is better: short sword or bastard sword for my weapon feats.

[Pinoy]

If i only have 6 spine for range, i think the adamantium for the spine is not necessary. This will give me 3000 more gold. I can buy more potion and better bow with this

Also, i think i will also remove the seeking since in is only 6 spines. contemplating on going 3 rather than 6 spine for range (i will just used the spine sparingly). maybe i just have bow seeking instead.

I will think of the additional enhancement of the shield and the bow. coz' will be more on melee.

[Ben Zwycky]

Sorry, I miscalculated, it should only be another 4,400 gp, another 3000 gp less

heavy fortification is +5 bonus, moderate fortification is +3 bonus, so the difference between +4 armor with heavy fortification and +5 with moderate is 17,000 gp, +4 with moderate would be another 15,000 gp less. Let's go for that to enable us to do something good (see below)

Short sword feats are better, because they can then be used with normal short swords.

I think we're overcomplicating this, CV's solution is better. Forget about shield bashing altogether, drop the spined shield and get a normal +5 animated shield (49170 gp). You can command that to protect you by itself, freeing up both your hands to either wield your sun blade two-handed, use your bow or use two weapons (e.g. a short sword +1 for your off-hand, it's always better to have a light weapon in your off hand, and all your short sword feats will apply again). You can then drop your improved shield bashing feat and get greater two-weapon fighting instead. We could reduce the duration on the enlarge person to 2 minutes to save us another 2700 gp, then we can afford the +1 seeking composite longbow SR5

equipment becomes:

celestial armor +4 with moderate fortification 62400 gp
gloves of dex +6 36000 gp
sun blade +4/+6 98335 gp
animated shield +5 49170 gp
cloak of resistance +5 with enlarge CL2 30400 gp
amulet of spell resistance 21 90000 gp
belt of dwarvenkind+6 con 46900 gp
shirt of strength +6 36000 gp
ring of protection+5 50000 gp
ring of blinking 27000 gp
helm of wisdom+6 36000 gp
see invisibility with permanence 5630 gp
seeking composite longbow +1 SR 5 8900 gp
30 normal arrows 3 gp
10 silver-tipped arrows 20 gp
10 cold-iron-tipped arrows 2 gp
5 adamantine-tipped arrows 300 gp
short sword +1 2310 gp
4 x potion CLW 200 gp
2 x antitoxin 100 gp

total 579,670
leaving you 330 gp for miscellaneous equipment (climber's kit, clothing etc)

That looks a bit better, doesn't it?

I also had a look at your classes, you only get a bonus feat at every even-numbered level of fighter, but you get additional abilities (and more hit points and skill points) with each level of barbarian, so what would happen if you went for barbarian 8 fighter 12 instead of barbarian 7, fighter 13? You'd get

one d12 hit die instead of a d10 hit die (on average one extra hp, so just add one hp for simplicity)
two extra skill points
rage 3/day instead of 2/day
fortitude save 1 higher (saves also go up on even-numbered class levels)

You'd lose:

nothing

So let's go for that, shall we?

[Carrikature]

I think we're overcomplicating this

[Ben Zwycky]

Ok, I'm overcomplicating this, as is my nature, just trying to get Pinoy the most bang for his buck.

[Pinoy]

Is the animated shield is still mirthal shield?

[Pinoy]

or is it a heavy shield