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So that's how a monk's flurry of blows looks.

Edit: Damn it, ninja!

Naivatkal wrote:

I have a question regarding darkvision and 'special writing'. I recall reading somewhere (I might have made this up in my fantastical delusions, too) that there is something that shows up only to people with darkvision. I think it was a special kind of writing (ie ink or something), or maybe it was just a spell? I'm not referring to arcane writing, but something that people without darkvision specifically cannot see. I think I read it in some place about drow, but I would imagine any darkvision-based race could read it, too.

Darkvision Powder in Drow of the Underdark

Code:

Darkvision Powder
This plain gray powder clings to surfaces and cannot be seen with normal vision from more than 10 feet away. It glows brightly when viewed with darkvision, and thus is useful for creatures that have darkvision and wish to write messages that other creatures cannot read. Each vial contains enough powder for a message of up to 25 words. By adding a mixture of spider silk oil, an ink can be created with the same properties as the powder.

Darkvision powder can be created with a DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check.

Interestingly enough, the opposite exists : "darkvision-invisible paint" in Underdark p.67

Code:

Darkvision-Invisible Paint
This special alchemical substance is designed to match the shading and color contrasts of the surface to which it is applied. This property renders the paint invisible to creatures that depend on darkvision, but it can easily be seen with normal or low-light vision. Races requiring light to navigate use this paint to warn other such folk of dangers and threats. A single jar contains enough paint to produce twenty large warning symbols, or two smaller messages of up to 100 words each.

Ooooooh thanks! I was actually just reading Drow of the Underdark (3.5e) the day I posted that question and couldn't see it. Wrong edition or I'm blind, hahaha.

Thanks a lot, totally using this

Who's the current "Resolution DM" since Lally retired, anyway?

Yeah I need them too, as Letum harasses me constantly.

I think it's the Hackface? Or so it seems anyway.

Hackums is good for it, even if it's not his job.

NinjaClarinet wrote:

Lizzie wrote:

Can we pretend I'm stupid for a short moment, and someone explain to me what the problem with Chultans is? If the only issue is that Ubtao isn't mechanically available in game, isn't the better fix just adding Ubtao?

in lore, Ubtao is contractually forbidden from giving anyone divine power outside the borders of Chultan.

I used to play an Ubtao Druid in Amia long ago, he joined DM events and all. From what I gathered from reading on Ubtao (which could have been wrongly understood) the contract was that Ubtao would not interfere in anything outside of Chult, but I found nothing about Mazewalkers, etc not having divine powers outside of Chult. Why they would leave Chult is another matter, and of course Amia DM Team > FR books. Just thought I would add that.

I'll handle resolution stuff, since Lally hopped on down.

And what if we have a problem with Hackuma?

If you have a problem with Hackums you probably need to contemplate ending yourself, because the guy is so nice that the only conclusion I can possibly draw is that you are a Son of Sam waiting to happen.

Totally right?

Bwaha!

But for real, if anyone -does- have a problem with the guy who tries to solve problems, please feel free to do one of two things:

If you're worried about retribution or anything of the sort, feel free to send a complaint to some of the other DM's. It'll get sorted, and if you want, it can remain anonymous. (Though, bear in mind that it becomes harder to make references to specifics if its all anonymous!)

If you're interested in a discussion with me, or not worried about me responding in a biting manner, I'm open to criticism myself. Reflection is a cool thing.

Yeah, I have some criticism. Your avatar gives me the jibblies.

Liz wrote:

Yeah, I have some criticism. Your avatar gives me the jibblies.

Yeah, that batman looks like he just realized he has to poop.

Sort of a general range/druid/nature sort of question:

I have a new character that is an elven ranger going AA. He's supposed to be very nature-y and such, though not to the point of a druid or heavy-ranger based character (he's going 9 Ranger I think. Or something.). I wanted him to be a bowyer at least and I was thinking of doing Lumberjack so he can get materials, but I was wondering just how to make that work in the RP.

Would a nature-y ranger chop down a tree (or more likely prune limbs suitable for a bow)? His main deity is Solonor Thelandria, though he pays respect to Rillifane Rallathil and Corellon as well.

Sure he would. There's nothing un-naturey about cutting down trees, it doesn't really harm the ecosystem and it's extremely natural for humans to do. I imagine it's large-scale cutting of valuable forests and destroying entire spheres of life that he would oppose. But I feel the archetypical ranger is specifically someone who's learned to survive in nature and make the most of it, not someone who enshrines nature above civilization. (Some rangers can be like that too, of course.)

I would say the racial culture is a bigger factor here. Many elven settlements use magic to manipulate wood rather than cut it down. But that's really more relevant in highly magical elven havens, not just any old settlement out there.

Eh, a decent druid or ranger isn't going to flip out over using natural resources unless they are balls to the walls zealous. It's more a matter of being wasteful/inefficient with the harvesting. My druid lives in a wooden house, eats meat and drinks brandy, but that's just my take.

Yup. Obviously deadfall would be a popular choice when possible, but pruning or even felling of trees in a sustainable or restorable manner, that won't cause undue damage to the surrounding ecosystem, would be acceptable as well.

Elves make bows too.

Thanks you three. I was 99% sure it wouldn't be an issue, I just wanted to be sure. You all pretty much enumerated what I was thinking, so that's good!

I know the general policy is no custom summons, but I'm curious as to what the implications of that are. I imagine it goes without saying that a whole new creature is not going to be added to the palette for a request, as that'd be quite the fiasco, but I'm wondering if one can draw from the existing summonable creatures in the palette for a custom spell or otherwise. For instance say someone is playing a character with a PrC not available in vanilla NwN, such as a thaumaturgist with summoning class features. To represent these features would it be viable for the thaumaturgist to request a custom ability or spell that summons the same, preexisting creature of a standard spell (say the thaumaturgist requests a planar cohort custom ability which will summon the Warden Archon from the level 22-26 gate)?

Sorry if that was garrulous, but I wanted to be especially clear about my wee question.

Naivatkal wrote:

Tree question

Evn if this has been answered i'd like a shot, being my actual job...
Cutting down certain tree's actualy helps the eco system (Look at Australia, it lives on burning down some of it's forests to clear undergrowth and spouting new) Ontop of that, Coppicing is a option, as technically the tree doesn't die when cut down and a lot of variety's can survive it. I would guess it depends on the location of druid forest or glade as to what ecosystem and the allowing of what can be done, but to my knowledge it's not being wasteful with what nature offers or too greedy.(Hell's some of the longest living tree's are coppiced. It helps extend life.) Coppicing is a technique been around for a long time and used for making bows due to it's ability to let tree's grow straighter. (As it competes with itself for light)

Pruning could be done n some bigger tree's as well to harvest bits of wood. Though if you are pruning, and your character knows his stuff, Try to take stuff on all sides of the tree to not try and shift its balance. (Tree's grow up in balance even if they don't look like they do, all through compressing and putting parts of it in tension) It's kind of hard to judge though. Again if yor character knows these bits in a simple form or not is up to you though.

speedgrab wrote:

tree answers

That is awesome. Every lore question that comes from RL stuff should be like that. Expertise FTW.

Bini wrote:

I know the general policy is no custom summons, but...<snip>

That example would be fine, yes. It's newly created summons we don't allow.

Glim wrote:

Yup. Obviously deadfall would be a popular choice when possible, but pruning or even felling of trees in a sustainable or restorable manner, that won't cause undue damage to the surrounding ecosystem, would be acceptable as well.

Elves make bows too.

Riol, my Ranger of Silvanus, had the Lumberjack job. Part of the reasoning was to instruct others in the proper way to responsibly collect wood.

Liz wrote:

speedgrab wrote:

tree answers

That is awesome. Every lore question that comes from RL stuff should be like that. Expertise FTW.

Agreed!

And maglorine, that's kind of what I was thinking, too. Or at least that he would be doing it in a more profound way when lumberjacking around.

PaladinOfSune wrote:

Bini wrote:

I know the general policy is no custom summons, but...<snip>

That example would be fine, yes. It's newly created summons we don't allow.

That's neat! Thanks for the response.

Can you purposefully extend the casting time of a spell? For example if you have a spell that takes sec seconds (one round) to cast can you take twelve seconds to cast it? I'm not talking about starting it, pausing, and finishing; rather more like drawing out the spell incantation itself.

Or does that fall under the jurisdiction of 'failing to concentrate'?

I don't believe so, no. Might be horribly wrong, but I don't remember having read anything about that in any rulebook.

Yeah I couldn't find anything on it. My gut says it wouldn't work or could foul things up, but you never know.

Yeah, I'd expect it wouldn't work either.

Simply based on the fact that things such as fast spell and quicken spell exist it would imply that changing overall casting time (withought altering that timing) is in fact possible and thus making it longer would be as well, as long as the timing of it all was still right (Meaning you likely couldn't just do one section of the spell slower or pause and then resume the spell.) But if for some odd reason you wished to take half an hour to cast a spell that usually takes 10 minutes it seems doable.

I don't know, when I look at casting time, I see a "must get it done in X amount of time". Let's assume a standard action is half a round, or three seconds. If a spell requires three seconds to be cast, it means that you have a very narrow timeframe to get your reagent out, perform the gestures and speak the words (where applicable for each). You can, of course, do so in less than the three seconds under the right circumstances (quicken spell), but taking longer? I'd assume the spell just fizzles after you missed your opportunity to complete it. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but it just makes sense to me.

Well, in P&P sorcs have to take longer to cast spells when using metamagic (possibly aside from quicken, I forget how that bit works) in addition to using a higher spell slot. This seems to indicate at least a degree of mutability when it comes to the spellcasting itself.

A longer casting might take more concentration though I guess, because it's a complicated procedure and you need to remember what parts you've already done etc. A lot of spellcasting, especially for sorcs, is probably semi-automatic in that it relies on "muscle memory" so to speak. At least that's how I see it. Still... it seems possible. Especially with the level of mastery we're talking here.

Ahhh well really I assume that they key factor is simply maintaining the right timing and actions, meaning every part would have to be slowed down to the same amount. It would likely be more taxing as you have to hold onto the spell for longer however I cannot see it as being overly more difficult that casting it faster and having to do everything perfectly while doing it far faster.

It is much like a song to me if you were to write out the sheet music and then look at it. If you change the time signature it can be faster or slower but is the same song however if you go in and change the timing on specific sections it changes the sound far more (Delectably making it a different song entirely).

Sorcerer spells to which one applies metamagic feats have a casting time of one full round, instead of a standard action. As for sorcs and quicken, here's what is said in the feat's description: "This feat can’t be applied to any spell cast spontaneously (including sorcerer spells, bard spells, and cleric or druid spells cast spontaneously), since applying a metamagic feat to a spontaneously cast spell automatically increases the casting time to a full-round action."

So while it is possible to lengthen the casting time, you still can't go over one round with it? Except spells which take longer to cast from the get-go. So to the original question of "can you cast a spell in two rounds", I'd still say no.

The right question to ask is "why not".

If it isn't explicitly prohibited and there's no reason to prohibit it, I don't see why not. There's no real advantage. You can stand still for two rounds and then cast the spell in one round, or you can spend three rounds casting. The latter has no benefit over the former and only carries additional risk. There's no mechanical balance reason it shouldn't be possible, and I find it hard to find a categorical lore explanation for something as diverse and arbitrary as casting a spell. At least in my mind, Nihilus has it the wrong way around: it's not that you have six seconds to fumble around for a spell component and finish the incantation before it fizzles. It's that six seconds is simply the time it takes you to do that, at minimum.

Entirely possible I do have it backwards. But I've always pictured magic in D&D as this really strict discipline. You can't add a flourish to a spell's somatic component, lest you summon Dagon instead of casting Mend. You can't substitute guano for other fecal matter and still get a fireball. I don't see why casting time should be an exception. And to "why not" I'd answer back with "what evidence is there to it being possible". There's nothing written saying it can be done, nor anything saying it can't be done. It's up to each person to interpret it as they see fit.

Question: Is there a big-ass-lore thread for Drow, just as there is for Kobolds and Fey? I'm considering making my first Drow character, something I've been avoiding due to the rather large risk of stuffing up lore-wise, and a thread similar to one of those two would help immensely.

Oddly enough, it's hidden here.

Bini wrote:

Oddly enough, it's hidden here.

Ah, I guess that explains why I couldn't find it in the lore forum. Cheers for that!

Followup question: Are free-rebuilds still a thing? As in, the yearly ones?

They are no longer a thing, no. You can still opt to self-rebuild for free, though.

Bini wrote:

They are no longer a thing, no. You can still opt to self-rebuild for free, though.

Well that certainly makes things more difficult... I'll have to think about this. 20 levels is a big time investment.

Garnith wrote:

Bini wrote:

They are no longer a thing, no. You can still opt to self-rebuild for free, though.

Well that certainly makes things more difficult... I'll have to think about this. 20 levels is a big time investment.

It took me two weeks or less to get to about 20 on one of my recent characters. Granted, that was with doing a bunch of quests and with having at least three others in party. He is a fighter build, too, so that helped. But it doesn't have to take a long time.

If you play Euro times, I have two PCs I wouldn't mind grinding to the late teens with and I doubt I'm the only one. With a good party, a few levels a day should be easy. The Party Balls help (as long as you're not in high epics like Joon).

If Joon is in range of 29, he could run with Salema. Two clerics forging a path in the wilderness, should be epic. Of course... one's a Sharessin whore. Maybe she can make Joon be more social :mrgreen:

Others have tried, to poor effect! But yes, that sounds like a plan.

DC requests: is there still a flat price for swapping one item power for another, equivalent one? That is, if I want to change an ability bonus to another on an existing item, will it work like that or be priced as a new item?

Nope. Would be a new item.

Naivatkal wrote:

Garnith wrote:

Bini wrote:

They are no longer a thing, no. You can still opt to self-rebuild for free, though.

Well that certainly makes things more difficult... I'll have to think about this. 20 levels is a big time investment.

It took me two weeks or less to get to about 20 on one of my recent characters. Granted, that was with doing a bunch of quests and with having at least three others in party. He is a fighter build, too, so that helped. But it doesn't have to take a long time.

He's probably referring to his Shifter Fey. The bane of my life in terms of levelling (Minus Pixie sub-race) and I don't doubt others find them a pain to level too, though the changes no doubt make it easier than before in some way(s), or a number of ways may be more accurate/fair to say, even.

Anubis wrote:

He's probably referring to his Shifter Fey.

Yup. The one that does, at level 20, about 4 damage a round. Actually fighting things isn't really his forte, he's more about dodging and flying away. Though the actual issue I'm concerned with is the possible implications for RP, etc. I could have him hit a crux, but with no reason? And I rather like his current cynosure; I doubt there would be any other that would allow him to remain even slightly similar to how he currently is. That, and until he gets back up, he'd actually have to avoid people to not be caught. It's a lot of prickly issues to dive into for the sake of only adjusting a few stats.

Naivatkal wrote:

It took me two weeks or less to get to about 20 on one of my recent characters. Granted, that was with doing a bunch of quests and with having at least three others in party. He is a fighter build, too, so that helped. But it doesn't have to take a long time.

IronAngel wrote:

If you play Euro times, I have two PCs I wouldn't mind grinding to the late teens with and I doubt I'm the only one. With a good party, a few levels a day should be easy. The Party Balls help (as long as you're not in high epics like Joon).

Thanks for the offers! If I end up doing it, I may just have to take you up on them.

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