Questions tagged [dnd-3.5e]
For questions about Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition, a revision of D&D Third Edition, published in 2003.
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What are the most effective ways to protect a character against critical hits?
My DM has some evil dice. These dice seem to roll a much higher than average number of 20s, resulting in a much higher than average critical hit rate against the party. What are some ways a character ...
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Can you take 10 when creating an item?
You can take 10 when you make a skill roll "When your character is not in immediate danger or distracted".
Would this include when a character is making a magical item?
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Guide to convert a 3.5e DM to a 4e DM
I have never played fourth ed, I have read most of the new books, but it is so different as to be quite foreign to my play style. Is there a primer or guide out to help 3.5 DMs switch to 4th smoothly? ...
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How many Astral Constructs may exist at one time, created from the same manifester?
I can find nothing in the Expanded Psionics Handbook mentioning a limit on the number of astral constructs that can be manifested at one time. The duration of the Astral Construct power is 1 round / ...
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Can a character know Druidic without having any levels of druid?
Related to my answer here.
Druidic is a special language in that no race can take it as a bonus language (even those who can choose any language specifically say except Druidic) and cannot be learned ...
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Can a wizard use wands and scrolls of spells from his prohibited schools of magic?
Can a wizard use wands and scrolls of spells from his prohibited schools of magic?
i.e: Can an abjurer who banned evocation and enchantment use a wand or scroll of fireball (an evocation spell) ...
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Anything I should keep in mind before I start mixing and matching between D&D 3.5e and Pathfinder?
Anything I should keep in mind before I start mixing and matching between D&D 3.5e and Pathfinder?
Off the top of my head, the biggest difference is feats every 2/3 levels. Would it affect ...
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Is there any monk-compatible light armor?
I'm searching for armor that does not prevent a monk from getting his bonuses. I do not care if the armor has 0 armor bonus, because I'm interested only in enchantments. It should contain some kind of ...
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Rules for hybrid dragons? (mixed colors)
I run a campaign (Pathfinder mostly, with several house rules) in which I had an idea to incorporate a shadow/red dragon hybrid. It goes well with the story and the entire concept of the setting, but ...
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Multiple Standard Actions With High Base Attack Bonus
A friend and myself were having a discussion and we had a small disagreement about a rule. He says that if he has a high base attack bonus, say 20/15/10/5, and has a special ability that is activated ...
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Do creatures get an attack of opportunity against targets with soft cover?
Let's say that, in completely open ground (i.e., no actual physical cover anywhere nearby), a creature with reach is immediately adjacent to a foe. That foe's ally is immediately behind the foe, ...
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Do simulacra have biological functions?
Assuming a simulacrum, created by the simulacrum spell, of a creature that has all the below biological needs (example: a human peasant):
Do simulacra age?
Even if their apparent age doesn't change, ...
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How much can you fit into a portable hole?
A Portable Hole (DMG I p.264) is described as being 6' in diameter and 10' deep, which translates to over 282 cubic feet or just over 8000 liters of empty space. But unlike the Bag of Holding (DMG I p....
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Have the requirements for building a portal changed?
The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is the only source I'm aware of for the feat Create Portal (34). The feat is untouched by errata and has as its only prerequisite the feat Craft Wondrous Item (PH ...
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How does a magma mephit turn back into its original form?
The Magma Mephit has a neat little ability called Change Shape:
Change Shape (Su)
Once per hour, a magma mephit can assume the form of a pool of lava 3 feet in diameter and 6 inches deep. The mephit’...
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What's the shape of a burst if the burst extends beyond a confined area?
The description of the area of a burst says that
A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, even including creatures that you can’t see. It can’t affect creatures with total cover from ...
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Can a Wizard learn to cast Cure Light Wounds from a bard scroll?
If a bard were to scribe Cure Light Wounds into a scroll, would it be possible for a Wizard to write it into his spellbook given that it's the arcane version of the spell?
I know about Can a Sorcerer ...
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Are negative levels necessarily energy drain?
As far as I can find in the rules, negative levels are always described in conjunction with energy drain, and are even listed together as one special ability in some cases. Usually there will be a ...
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Can I cast two swift spells in a round, or otherwise trade a move action for a swift?
Can you use a move action to make a swift action?
What if you have 2 swift spells and a standard one, can you cast them all in one round?
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Does Wild Shape actually allow [Monster] feats?
Background
I have never had a problem with Druids in my games take things such as, Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, and Improved Natural Attack. However, I reached a 'scratch my head' moment ...
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How much can/should a single owned item be worth at most?
How much can any single possession take up a character's wealth? For this question, I'd like answers that operate under the presumption that wealth-by-level isn't a minimum but instead a target.
I've ...
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What happens when you trip a flying target with Good or Perfect maneuverability?
According to the Rule Compendium, "A winged creature can be tripped, and if it is, it falls as if it didn’t maintain its minimum forward speed." (P. 145) But if the target has good or perfect ...
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When do spells expire?
When casting spells with a duration longer than instantaneous, at what point in the round does the effect expire?
Say, for example, you cast a spell with a duration of 1 round. Does that mean the ...
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High-difficulty / technical character build suggestions
I have always been a huge fan of D&D-style derivatives, but I have never actually played D&D itself. (Baldur's Gate (I & II), Final Fantasy VII+, Magic the Gathering, Oblivion, Fallout 3+)....
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I want to run a trial in D&D 3.5, but how can I avoid invalidation by magic?
The Background
I'm a pretty new DM, and I'm running a casual game of D&D 3.5 (with some rulings from Pathfinder added to the mix, for practical reasons) and I like doing special things for my ...
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Any way to activate a spell-trigger item in a rage?
While raging, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that ...
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Does an intelligence boost retroactively give skill points?
If I add my bonus ability point gaining by achieving the 12th level, to an odd intelligence score, should I gain retroactively a skill point for each past level?
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How does a dire toad's tongue attack work?
An upcoming encounter with a dire toad (Monster Manual II 74, 76) has me concerned with its tongue attack. The stat block lists the creature's tongue Attack as tongue +5 ranged and the creature's ...
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What does increased caster level affect?
A orange ioun stone adds +1 caster level, what does this affect?
Damage from spells? (Like fireball)
Duration and area of effect?
"Amount" of effect (Like number of missiles from magic missile)
...
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Does Lycanthropy give you XP?
Does a template that grants HD (lycanthropy, but also multi-headed, zombie, etc.) necessarily give XP to be at that new character level? Is there some requirement somewhere that one has to have enough ...
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A Ranger build that is close to Tier 3 classes
As the title suggests, I am looking for a Ranger dual wielder build that can compete with Tier 3 classes.
Our party is quite imbalanced as it is composed of a Druid, a Wizard, a Dread Necro, a ...
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How do you make a wizard who doesn't need a spellbook?
I know what you're thinking: "Dude, just play a Sorcerer". Well, I ask this question because of two main reasons. Wizards get some extra spells for specializing, and my DM says sorcerers are rare.
I ...
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Can a Psion become a Thrallherd, then drop Diplomacy with Psychic Reformation?
I have a Psion(Egoist)/Thrallherd with Psychic Reformation. I'm wondering whether I can use Psychic Reformation to drop the points in Diplomacy and the Inquisitor feat, and reassign the points to ...
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Just how immune to paralysis is a creature that's immune to paralysis?
Is there a distinction between paralysis and a paralysis effect? The Monster Manual Glossary on paralysis says, "Unlike hold person and similar effects, a paralysis effect does not allow a new save ...
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What is the benefit of the Monkey Grip feat?
The Monkey Grip feat enables you to wield a larger weapon at the cost of -2 to attack.
In the best case, a larger weapon gives you 3.5 extra damage: Greatsword 2d6 -> large Greatsword 3d6. The ...
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Can a creature choose to inflict less damage?
The Player's Handbook says in the section about Damage
When your attack succeeds, you deal damage. The type of weapon used (see Table 7–5: Weapons, page 116) determines the amount of damage you deal. ...
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Gauntlet that provides benefits of Monkey Grip?
I remember reading about gauntlets that had an effect what somewhat like Monkey Grip (Complete Warrior feat). The thing was that the wording was off just a bit. How I read it, and my DM agreed, was ...
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Can a leshay employ Power Attack with its leshay weapons?
The leShay (originally Epic Level Handbook 202-3) was overhauled during the 3.5 revision, but its supernatural ability leshay weapons remained unchanged:
Each leShay carries two personal melee ...
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Can invisibility be put in a glyph seal to get effectively free casting?
A glyph seal (Magic Item Compendium 161) allows you to cast a spell into it, creating an effect like a glyph of warding as a spell glyph.
Can you put a spell like invisibility in it, put the glyph ...
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Do druid animal companions get ability points due to high HD?
I'm not sure about that one, and I can't find any explicit text in the rules.
I know that regular HD for improved monsters also improves one ability by one point every four Hit-dices, but is it also ...
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Can I browbeat a vampire?
The Player's Handbook on the skill Intimidate says, "A character immune to fear… can’t be intimidated" (77). The Monster Manual on Fear says, "All fear attacks are mind-affecting fear effects" (309 ...
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Minor Creation and food
So, a hungry wizard walks into a bar... And then gets kicked out before he's able to get any food in his stomach. He throws some curses and then remembers - he has some olives left, as well as a Minor ...
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How can my undead reattach his arm?
My character is a necropolitan, and he just lost his arm. Regenerate doesn't work on undead, and I don't have the regeneration special ability. How could I reattach my arm?
My character lost his arm ...
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Wondrous Effects: What Are the Durations?
The rod of wonder (DMG 237) creates Wondrous Effects that have printed durations, creates Wondrous Effects that mimic spell effects yet don't include printed durations, and creates Wondrous Effects ...
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Can metamagic be acquired at first level?
In D&D 3.5, can I acquire a metamagic feat at lvl 1? I'm wondering this because I am playing a cleric and would like to get Empower spell to increase my healing to my party
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Are there any rules for PCs to create intelligent items?
Intelligent Items [SRD] & DMG 3.5 mention: "In general, less than 1% of magic items have intelligence."
Like artifacts, intelligent items are never encountered as random treasure [d%] AFAIK.
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Self only teleportation with characters inside extra-dimensional storage
Can you teleport with a teleport self only spell if you have the other character inside of an extra-dimensional storage in your possession?
For example a Hound Archon tries to teleport with 4 PC's ...
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What is the effect of being dragged by a burrower and buried alive?
I'll be DMing an encounter in a couple of weeks that involves the party of PCs invading a den full of Asabi. The PCs are lvl 9-10, and the Asabi commander is similar level (RHD 3 / Rogue 3 / Hexblade ...
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Breaking size limitation for lycanthropy
I'm trying to find any way to get around the whole "you can only choose an animal up to 1 size category different than yourself" rule for Lycanthropes, Shifters who are going Weretouched Master, and ...
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Do you always get a Will save?
In D&D is there any situation where a player character could not be given a will save? Such as unconscious, insane, already under a previous illusion? If you are not in control of your mental ...