Various minor help needed

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I just completed my first "campaign". The one where you defeat four golbins and rescue a unicorn.

Now i'm in the next one fighting some dire rats and i've already leveled up(i'm playing alone).
And now i've had an idea to use animal friendship spell (i'm a druid) on the dire rat.
PHB says a 3 level druid can have 6HD of animal companions. I presume that for level 2 druid i can have 4HD total animals.
But that seems a bit excessive. I think that's a little overpowered. I cast 2 level1 druid spells, so i could gain two dire rats on my side and kill the other two.
And having 2 extra hit rolls (even if for low damage) certainly at least doubles my chances of succes at such a low level.

So how does this works?


Oh, yeah another question... As i'm a druid i cant use a bow which i would like to very much. So i've been thinking... if i take a level of barbarian or ranger(roleplay choice ) will i be able to use it?
I've done that at IWD2 but i dont know if its defferent there.

[ August 24, 2003, 21:59: Message edited by: Gothmog4230 ]

 

Well, dire rats may succeed in will save against your spell. And spell description says that "You win the loyalty of an animal, provided that your heart is true. The spell functions only if you actually wish to be the animal's friend" So, do you really want to be animal's friend, if you use it to kill other animals of its kind.

And about bows... again from PHB: "Their spiritual oaths prohibit them from using other weapons than these" So, I say, it depends from DM. One DM may think that using bow breaks the oath, while other DM allows druids to use bows, as long they are made from wood.

 

Well, i'm both DM and the player su guess what it'll be .
Though i think i'll only use bows and nothing else barbarian(or ranger) could use. I cant imagine a full plate greatsword druid

I belive that the loyality of animals is absolute once you get them charmed. I think that only applies when trying to charm it. I'm going to read the description again.

 

At most you can have animal friends whose HD total no more than twice your caster level. A third level druid can indeed have animals with a total of 6 HD, unless the druid is adventuring, which limits the total to 3 HD. So, an adventuring level 2 druid can have 2 HD of animal friends and because every player is probably an adventurer, you can only get animal friends with 2 HD (at level two). With the animal friendship spell, you don't charm the animal, it's loyalty is natural and not magical.

You should be careful with chosing one level of another class, for you will gain a XP penalty when your druid class is level 4 or higher. But since you are the DM and the only player (what fun is that BTW), why not bend the rules a bit. But if you (as DM) think that you (as player) can use bows, without breaking druids oaths, then why multiclass.

 

I looked it up in my PHB (3ed.) and the way i understand the spell can fail only when you try to win it's loyality.

It says nothing about traveling druids having animals total HD same level as they instead of double. I only read the spell desciption and nothing else about this yet.

And for the ranger it says a level 5 ranger can have 4HD animal... why so?
The spell description says will negates. The way i understand this i make DC of 10 + spell level + wisdom modifier. This is right, yes??


Well i'm DM(at least trying to be one ) and the only player(so far) becouse i've only got this two days ago.

 

If you go around taking wolves to jungles, deserts, and dungeons, they wont' like it. So they leave you, and you can thus only have so many. Says so in Masters of the Wild (Druid/Ranger/Barbarian splatbook). And in the name of game balance.

Level 5 Ranger is treated as casting spells at half its real level.

So it's a 2nd level caster. 4 HD worth of animals buddies, max. Should be 2 HD if you're adventuring, as stated previously.

You're dead right on spell DCs, but don't forget to add other things like Spell Focus (school) and other things if applicable.

By the way, if you're playing in FR, druids can use bows if they worship Mielikki. I think her favored weapon is the bow. Me, I'm still looking for a nature deity with a machine gun as a favored weapon.

From the SRD (which officially overrides the core books, because they have the errata included).

(Man, I hope you're not going around wasting friendly Barbazus with your dire rats. Show the Devils some mercy!)

[ May 11, 2003, 21:18: Message edited by: Oaz ]

 

Righto, a little rezz here. No level loss


I'm wondering about hide armor. I remembered it as light armor equivalent to studded leather only without metal. And here i find it listed under medium armor, and chain shirt under light. My PHB says so. I recall the other way around.
Is this just a typo?


Another thing. I recently discovered scythe is cool. Not all that strong, but cool.
My PHB again says it is a martial weapon. In NwN i remember it was an exotic weapon. Which is correct?


Also scythe is a quite versatile weapon. It can deliver piercing, slashing and even blunt damage(though less efficiently). I suppose both slashing and piercing have same damage die? 2d4 would that be. PHB doesnt specify.

IMO scythe can easily deliver blunt damage as well... just swing it in another direction and you have smash weapon
But i'm considering giving it a small penality to hit becouse it is not designed for swinging with the blunt side on. A -1 or perhaps -2 ?
And for blunt damage i'd have to just invent a damage die no? mmm... i think d4 is too less and d6 too much

 

Hide armor: Medium weight. In practically all respects worse than scale armor or chain shirt, but cheaper, wearable by Druids, and not subject to Heat Metal.

Scythe: Martial Weapon. I believe it does P/S damage. IMO, if you want to let it do blunt damage, assign a -4 penalty. That's the same way it is with subdual damage and non-proficient weapons. -4 is fine with me. -1 or -2 is a bit too low - it would allow you to hit creatures like skeletons and Clay Golems with more effeciently. But that's why you also have a club or a mace.

[ August 25, 2003, 01:29: Message edited by: Oaz ]

 

I've been thinking about this for quite a whole now....
First off know that all my knowledge of 2ed is from BG and IWD.


It seems to me that 2ed favours many attacks when 3ed favours multitude of attacks.
The first thing would be Stoneskin spell. In 2ed you just had to hit as many times as you could in shortest time. Only then could you hit the caster.
But in 3ed you can breach it rather easily. And the more damage you do the greater your chance to disrupt any other spells cast. Here a subtle, weapon finesse dualwielding shortswords warrior has almost no chance to breach it until he excedes its damage reduction (10/caster level).
And a greatsword (or any twohanded weapon) with great strenght goes right through it.


Second is damage reduction.
Many, many baddies posses it later on. How can a previously mentioned sword dancer hope to win? Even if its rather low - 5 it still takes over half of his damage away. Solution is, of course a better enchanted weapon. But any twohanded weapon can do the same, whereas it still makes damage even without the necessary enchantment bonus.

Damage resistance would solve the problem, but unfortunately (at least that I know) it isnt used often. Damage reduction is more or less common. (big humps of steaming meat for example - *whispers* dragons *winks*)

Whats the catch?

 

Damage reduction is overhauled in 3.5E. I think it's a better system with that.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with damage resistance. Are you referring to some like DR 5/-?

 

I have to ask... what is a golbin?

 

Mostly i was talking about damage reduction, like 5/-, 10/+3,...

But iirc there's also damage resistance that reduces the damage dealt by percent. So anyone possesing DR30% would take only 70% of damage, it would receive otherwise.


@Arabwel... Golbin is a crossbreed between a goblin and a Tanarri With streaks of dragonblood in them

 

I'm not familiar with anything such as damage resistance in the 3E/3.5E corebooks. Maybe you're thinking energy resistance (in which you subtract the number from the damage dealt).

 

May I ask you something? How do you play alone at a D&D game?! it's like playing chess alone!

 

It would probably be like making up a story, only with rules. Simple really.

 

Well, i just got the books then and i tried to play, to see just how it goes. I have neither played nor seen before how PnP is played so i had to try it out
Twasnt much fun really, knowing all in advance.

 

Why don't you try playing with other people then?

 

I have.

One of them would still play (he played BG a bit ).
But the other wasnt fascinated one little bit. And she wasnt interested a bit in any next session. So i left it there Certainly she hasnt played BG even little. And she wont either.

One option i see is to fascinate her with fantasy in general.... IMO.

The bad thing is that school's started its a curse i say!

 

What about finding some other people to play with?
I use to have a realy big problem finding people to play with here in New Zealand, but I've found that playing online is great.

 

Same thing here... not any people to play with.

So.. how can you play online? With what i mean
The nearest i got to actual playing is ALFA (NwN). And its quite cool i must say