The Gaming Den

...Don't you have blindsense 5' whenever you take a ten on a listen check or search check?

-Crissa

Huh, I guess so... But doesn't that take an action?

Oh, and probably the most overpowered items in the book: Amber amulets of vermin. They're 1/day items which summon a big bug for a minute.

For 700 gp you can get a HUGE MONSTEROUS SCORPION!!!!!

For 800 gp you ca get a giant wasp to fly around on while your monsterous scorpions kill everything in sight.

Catharz at [unixtime wrote:1176431417[/unixtime]]Huh, I guess so... But doesn't that take an action?

Oh, and probably the most overpowered items in the book: Amber amulets of vermin. They're 1/day items which summon a big bug for a minute.

For 700 gp you can get a HUGE MONSTEROUS SCORPION!!!!!

For 800 gp you ca get a giant wasp to fly around on while your monsterous scorpions kill everything in sight.

That's deeply upsetting.

Seriously, I don't even understand the impetus to make the 2100 gp combo platter that makes you win all encounters until 11th level. I mean seriously, it's a a 1/day amulet. It doesn't even really use up a slot because you just swap it for one of the others in your pockets between encounters.

-Username17

Don't care; WotC supplied, I'm presenting it to my Eberron DM as 'core' and abusing it to all hell.

Teach him to nerf my diplomancer...

*snicker* Diplomancers rock.

Ok, a prize for rogues (aside from runestaves, which are godly): The talon scepter, of the phoenix regalia. 1d6 fire damage 30' range ray at will. As a swift action

Extra sneak attack to everyone in 30 feet? And all I have to trade is the action that I only ever use to activate Gravestrike? Sign me up for one of those babies!

So I was looking through the weapon qualities section in the vain hope that maybe some of them would need to be ported into Book of Gears Rules. It's like stabbing myself in the eye.

It's not just that the Eager quality still exists (it gives an initiative bonus when you're wielding it, but you actually make your initiative check before you even decide whether you're wielding it or not). The Hideaway quality really bugs me.

It folds the weapon up into an object 2 sizes smaller than you. Hold the phone. That's right, if you act now, you can pay 40 pounds of gold so that your sword can fold up into a total package that is the size of a large cat.

We aren't talking about some Transformers bullshit, this special ability seriously shrinks a 4 pound metal longsword until it is no bigger than a 10 pound cat. I hope you're as puzzled by this as I am.

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God damnit. When will Andy Collins admit that his whole tirade about weapon sizes was a shit idea? The moment things start talking about weapon sizes and object sizes together the world fills up with retarded.

-Username17

It's obviously intended for giants or whatever.

Cielingcat at [unixtime wrote:1176594550[/unixtime]]It's obviously intended for giants or whatever.

But it doesn't even work at that. See, when an Ogre uses it, it becomes an object two sizes smaller than the ogre - so it's halfling sized.

While it is possible to conceal an object two sizes smaller than yourself on your person, it's nothing like easy. A medium creature collapses his weapon into a tiny object. A huge creature collapses his weapon into a medium object.

Seriously, open your PHB to page 150 and imagine any of the creatures paying money in order to make their weapons more concealable by having them be the size of the creature two places to the right.

-Username17

Edit:

So here's the stuff that WotC actually produces to display the difference in sizes. If any model represented the size of the collapsed weapon, it would have been wielded by the creature two models to the right.

So it's shrinking items... bigger? Is that anything like falling up stairs?

Or you can use the Sizing enhancement, which for 3k more will make your greatsword "fine" if you like. Plus you can use if after you've been disarmed while enlarged.

Overall there are an absurd number of items which do almost exactly the same things at seemingly random prices.

FrankTrollman at [unixtime wrote:1176596260[/unixtime]]

Cielingcat at [unixtime wrote:1176594550[/unixtime]]It's obviously intended for giants or whatever.

But it doesn't even work at that. See, when an Ogre uses it, it becomes an object two sizes smaller than the ogre - so it's halfling sized.

It's so bad that even jokes aren't true...

Also, gauntlets which have weapon enhancements don't occupy the "hands" magic item slot. You "hold" them (no slot).

Oh, and you can't use two gloves of storing at the same time anymore.

The ring of Arming is also interesting. Gauntlets are part of a suit of armor, so you should be able to swap two gauntlets around using it.

Object size /= creature size

Nowhere that I know of do the rules say that a large object and a large creature ar ethe same size. Indeed, a medium creature can, IIRC, wield a medium object, which suggests to me that a medium object is smaller than a medium creature.

Guest (Unregistered) at [unixtime wrote:1176604367[/unixtime]]Object size /= creature size

Nowhere that I know of do the rules say that a large object and a large creature ar ethe same size. Indeed, a medium creature can, IIRC, wield a medium object, which suggests to me that a medium object is smaller than a medium creature.

Object size and creature size are the same. Weapon size is different, because a creature wields best weapons 'sized' for it. However, a weapon is still an object of whatever size it actually is.

So if you say a "medium shorsword," it's ambiguous as to whether you mean 'medium object' or 'weapon sized for medium creature.' Usually the second, because a medium object shortsword is sized for a gargantuan creature.

The great thing about the weapon enhancement is that the "bundle" is a "X sized object", and therefore unambiguously goes by object sizes.

God, why does WotC suck so much?

FrankTrollman at [unixtime wrote:1176592372[/unixtime]]
It's not just that the Eager quality still exists (it gives an initiative bonus when you're wielding it, but you actually make your initiative check before you even decide whether you're wielding it or not).

Oh, and there's also the "warning" quality, which means that every wizard will be running around with a +3 dagger which gives him a handy +7 bonus to initiative.

I can't wait to see what the Rules Compendium is going to be like.

Re: Eager enhancement.

SRD wrote:Initiative Checks

At the start of a battle, each combatant makes an initiative check. An initiative check is a Dexterity check. Each character applies his or her Dexterity modifier to the roll. Characters act in order, counting down from highest result to lowest. In every round that follows, the characters act in the same order (unless a character takes an action that results in his or her initiative changing; see Special Initiative Actions).

OK, we already know that changing your initiative can result in acting twice in a round (White Raven Tactics) so juggling an Eager weapon ought to be able to also give you that...

Fwib wrote:OK, we already know that changing your initiative can result in acting twice in a round (White Raven Tactics) so juggling an Eager weapon ought to be able to also give you that...

Dagger Chucks Yo! Just get yourself two daggers, one with warning, and one with eager. Then attach them both to yourself with rope or light chain and get Quickdraw.

Run around with both daggers in your hand, and take your first action at Initiative count +7, then at the conclusion of the action drop the eager weapon as a free action. Your initiative count is now +5, so take your next action when that comes up. At the conclusion of your second action, draw the eager blade and drop the warning blade, putting your initiative count to +2 and take your third action then. At the conclusion of your third action, drop the second blade so your intitiative is at +0, and take your fourth and final action at that point. And of course, at the conclusion of your fourth action, draw both blades as a free action and go back to a +7 for your next round.

And since you're only going to have both hands filled with daggers on the first initiative pass of each round, you don't want or need to take levels of Daggerspell Mage even though that class was apparently designed to fight this way.

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Either that or the enhancements don't do anything at all - because they only affect your initiative check and that only gets made once, and is checked before you are wielding or not wielding your dagger since you're out of combat.

Either way you rule it, the enhancement doesn't work the way Andy thinks it does.

-Username17

White Raven Tactics specifically is a power that both changes your initiative and lets you act again in the same round if the new initiative is lower. As far as i can tell, it doesn't change, errata, update, or clarify the existing initiative rules.

So nice try, but changing your initiative order many times in a round won't give you extra actions. Even using White Raven tactics with the Magic Item Compendium enhancements won't get you more than one extra set of actions per round.

Cielingcat at [unixtime wrote:1176617995[/unixtime]]I can't wait to see what the Rules Compendium is going to be like.

Trust me, you don't have to worry about the Rules Compendium. Worst case it will be a hardbound version of the D20 HTML SRD, plus a number of rules from already-existing suppliments, plus some designer house-rules which are explicitly house-rules.

BTW, the "warning" enhancement works while you "hold" the weapon, while the "eager" enhancement (as Frank said) works when you "wield" it.

So you get one gauntlet with the warning enchantment, and another with the eager enchantment. +7 to init for only 8k or so, and you give up absolutely nothing for it.

Failing that, you could enchant armor or shield spikes, I suppose. Those two enchantments became pretty much everyone's best friend.

Just like even THFers wield bucklers now to get ungodly bonuses against ranged attacks from the shield crystal of arrow deflection. Seriously, for a total investment of 1,650 gp you can have a +7 (untyped!) against ranged attacks. Just incredible.

And did anyone notice the true strike gauntlets?