Equipment question

I had my Ranger all prepped and primed to make a pin cushion out any and all foes .... Then she got hit with a Hezrou Stench and, well .... At least she looked good just standing there.

 

say hello to elementals and undead. and if troika hadn't failed at including useful armor enchantments, all humanoids would be immune to crits and sneak attack, too. on top of that, for setting up a sneak attack you have to be within a 30' range (huge creatures have a natural reach of 15' -> give them a reach weapon and you're toast) which kind of defeats the purpose of using a ranged weapon in the first place. i'd say fighting with two weapons to cash in on the bonus damage is more effective.

 

Toast? If you're attacking them while they're flat-footed (i.e. to gain sneak attack damage), they can't make attacks of opportunity. Even if they can for some reason, you're trading however many arrows you can fire for one attack of opportunity. I'd make that trade.

 

Zugchef- I have other tactics against undead and elementals. A bit of variety makes it more interesting. You'll no doubt be hugely impressed that another current favourite is a level 19 monk who (because flurry of blows is all at full BAB) actually does a reasonable amount of damage. Why bother? I've never really 'got' monks before, so I thought I'd have a look. I'm fully aware that, as you posted on another thread, stinking cloud then cloudkill wins 90% of the fights in the game, and if I'd only optimise properly then I'd only ever take full casters and never risk losing again. Another way not to lose would be to throw the game in the bin, but where's the point of that?
I'm also a little puzzled by your assertion that ranged combat and mundane characters are 'hard mode', but that somehow being an 'advanced player' (lol) means that hard mode is less satisfying than the exalted difficulty of all wizards, clerics and druids.
I still contend that 2 feats is cheap for the ability to fire into melee with no penalty (special forces practice for years to do this), especially when other first level options include 'gain 3hp' and 'plus 2 to 2 separate skills'. Regardless of what goodies full casters (widely recognised to be overpowered) get at mid to high levels.

 

Daryk- 26 Dex and maxed out tumble? I think I might just risk it too...

 

Found the "Robes of Midnight" in my current game and wonder about the description:

As they improve the armor class of a character by 2 the text about offering no protection seems off. Perhaps change to "offer no PHYSICAL protection from attacks" to make it clear that it´s no armor bonus but a deflection bonus?

 

OK then question: what exactly is the game referring to by 'deflection'? Is it a near miss or an attack that hits but doesn't penetrate the AC of the attacked player? Or does deflection simply refer to missile attacks?

 

It doesn´t go that far into detail for D&D.

A "Deflection" bonus simply raises the armor class of a character.
The difference to an armor bonus (e.g. from armor, shields) is just that armor and deflection bonus stack and the deflection bonus should work against touch attacks.

+AC from two sources of deflection bonus (e.g. Robe of Midnight and Ring of Protection) does however not stack and only the higher of the two is used.
So when you equip the Robe of Midnight +2 AC and the Ring of Protection +1 AC the charcter does not get +3 AC but only +2.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm

 

Here is what The PHB says about Deflection Bonus:

A bonus to Armor Class granted by a spell or magic effect that makes attacks veer off harmlessly. Deflection bonuses stack with all other bonuses to AC except other deflection bonuses. A deflection bonus applies against touch attacks.

 

It is RAW and it's not an exploit, it's exactly how it works and is intended to work in 3.5e. Wizards can wear mithral chain shirts and if they can deal with the 10%asf (or get rid of it via adding 4000gp enchantments or such) they basically get a free Mage Armor spell that lasts forever, no penalties. Same with mithral bucklers; the Elven wooden shields in TOEE are a bit problematic in that they are both better (zero asf) and cheaper than mithral heavy shields.

 

Iolo´s joy, long description is that of a light crossbow - shouldn´t it be:

 

In my current game I upgraded the holy longsword +1 (from Melany´s father) to a
holy lawful longsword +2 and the weapon´s colour changed from bright white to *pink*.

Now my stalwart fighter runs around with a glowing pink blade... :roll:

Does equipment change colour always according to the last enchantment placed on it?

Can that be disabled somehow so that those colours would only be visible if someone casts detect magic?

 

I realize I come to the 'firing into melee'/Precise Shot question a little late. It appears to me that there are two different penalties being discussed. 1) firing into melee (-4 to hit), and 2) firing at someone with Cover -- which is actually +4 AC bonus (deflection?) for the defender. The 'firing into melee' penalty applies appropriately, unless one has Precise Shot -- which sole purpose is to overcome this penalty. The second issue is Cover. This AC bonus may or may not apply, depending on how clear the path to the target is. I've seen the Cover bonus apply in both melee and missle attacks. For example, firing an arrow over someones shoulder (whether friend or foe) at a target gives the AC bonus. But the same AC bonus occurs when using a reach weapon to attack a target positioned behind the first rank ... no matter whether the first rank position is filled by friend or foe.
I disagree that Precise Shot should overcome both penalty and defender AC bonus, although I suppose that is exactly the purpose of Improved Precise Shot. The Cover AC bonus is strictly a matter of positioning. There are lots of creative ways to overcome Cover. Besides, I often solo, and I use Cover against enemy archers to my advantage after I discovered how it works.

As for complaints of how many proficiency slots it takes to make an uber-archer --If you need more proficiency slots, use the Fighter class to create an Archer. Ten proficiency slots by level 10 is nothing to sneeze at, and will allow you to get every archery proficiency toee even offers, including movement like Shot on the Run.

Just sayin'...

 

What is going on with when the engine applies the cover bonus? On the first round of combat in the Greater Temple, Otis took a shot at the bottom-left ettin, which was flat-footed, with no one else nearby, and it got a cover bonus. Is it applied because there is an ally near Otis? Should I view ranged attacks like that blue line when casting lightning bolt, and if there is any creature in between there is a cover issue?

Edit: It is true! If you are shooting a lone enemy at a distance from behind your buddy, the enemy gets a cover bonus. And damn! @Ted can't get Improved Precise Shot working. What a pity! Archers must move around a lot more in battle, thus reducing the benefit of rapid shot and increasing the benefit of Manyshot.

Also, the in-game help mentions about holding down the left click on the mouse when attacking to see if there is a cover issue. The creature will have a red circle under it. Is this nonsense? They all have red circles when they are hostile!