Jonathan Drain

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Obey the slaw!

	7,472 reputation	bio	website	d20source.com	visits	member for	2 years, 8 months
21453 badges		location			seen	Apr 28 at 22:13

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46 Comments

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Mar 29	comment	Can Bluff be used to emulate an alignment? @JeorMattan: Not for feats, prestige classes, etc, because you're only disguising your alignment, not changing it. It could fool a magic item, perhaps. You can also fake your alignment with a DC 30 Use Magic Device check.
Feb 7	comment	Is the banshee's wail a death attack? I think there's a slight difference between things with an effect of "death", and things with other effects that can cause death (e.g. damage). Related question here: Is the assassin's death attack, a death attack?
Dec 22	comment	Can a Specialist Wizard multiclass to cast spells from his prohibited schools? A neat edge case: In a one-shot level 2 game, play a Sorcerer1/Wizard1 (any specialist). Total spells per day: nine level 0, seven level 1.
Dec 21	comment	Should PCs be limited to choosing forms into which to polymorph (or wild shape, etc.) that the PCs have previously encountered? Verisimilitude, right. The quality of seeming real, rather than being true to the real world.
Dec 16	comment	How is Polymorph “broken”? This is a big issue with the druid's wild shape, which lasts for an hour per level. A high level druid with the Natural Spell feat can spend most of his time in alternate form with no major drawback. The polymorph spell only lasts 1 min./level, so it's harder to keep that form all day.
Dec 14	comment	Is there a working adaptation of Skyrim's Dragon Shouts to DnD3.x? I like this approach. To calculate the price, the magic item pricing guidelines in the DMG may be useful. For shouts with an equivalent D&D spell, it's straightforward.
Nov 3	comment	Is there any information on how exactly verbal spell components must be phrased? I'd allow a Bluff check or such to cast a spell surreptitiously; opposed Sense Motive or Spellcraft perhaps to notice it.
Sep 23	comment	What kind of character is unique for Eberron? Journalist, there's an interesting character idea. Sort of like a modern war correspondent. It's very Eberron, because regular fantasy doesn't normally don't have newspapers.
Sep 18	comment	Are there any large monsters with a small corpse? We once had a guy who kept two oxen and a wagon in his bag of holding, then emptied it during a fight. It saved his life because the wagon granted cover, so the lich couldn't get line-of-sight to use any targeted spells. Never did work out how he got the wagon into the bag of holding.
Sep 15	comment	Can a D&D Necromancer be of a good alignment? Deuteronomy 18:10-11 comes to mind: "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer."
Sep 14	comment	Can the spells used to bind elementals in Eberron's airships/galleons/etc be dispelled? @starwed Bind Elemental is an item creation feat, yes. It's required for elemental-bound items, including airships, lightning rail, and certain magical weapons and armour.
Sep 14	comment	Can the spells used to bind elementals in Eberron's airships/galleons/etc be dispelled? @Cat Binding is a mind-affecting compulsion of the enchantment school that affects one living creature within close range, whereas planar binding is a conjuration which calls an extraplanar being. Planar binding specifically says it doesn't block escape by dimensional travel, so it probably doesn't block dismissal like binding does.
Aug 23	comment	Crit Fighter in DnD 3.5 @MaurycyZarzycki In practice, 15-20 is the maximum you can get using only Player's Handbook material (e.g. keen scimitar), but the rules don't actually put a cap on threat range.
May 27	comment	How do hit points work? @ObliviousSage Surge value is defined as 1/4 of max HP, not 1/2 bloodied value. From the Compendium under Healing Surge: When you spend a healing surge, you regain one-quarter of your maximum hit points (rounded down).
May 24	comment	Impact of removing Dragonborn from Khorvaire For an answer to your second question, this question might be helpful: What changed in Eberron between 3.5e and 4e?
May 24	comment	Old School Holy Avenger in 4e? If I understand the question correctly, the key difference is that he's looking for 100% magic resistance as well. Unfortunately, that kind of power doesn't mesh with 4e. Attack powers are no longer classified into magical and non-magical, as they were in 3e, and complete immunity to a certain damage type is considered far too powerful for even a high-level 4e item. The closest equivalent ability in a 4e weapon is resist 30 to one element (e.g. Chill Wind weapon, or Icingdeath).
May 18	comment	Can you use Shrink Item on a living creature? I like your line of thinking.
May 14	comment	Why do characters with a high prime requisite gain bonus XP? @Badmike Thanks! I'd be really interested to hear what you find out.
Mar 12	comment	Does precision damage effect incorporeal creatures? @KyleWilley Thanks for spotting the error. I've updated my answer to correct it.
Mar 6	comment	Why does the “insubstantial” quality exist? D&D 4e also tends to protect PCs from wasting their best powers to a frustrating random miss. Daily powers deal half damage on a Miss, or are Reliable. Monsters no longer have abilities like 50% miss chance or spell resistance. It's reasonable that Insubstantial exists because it's an improvement over 3e's Incorporeal, rather than filling some new design role.