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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 3, 2003 21:42:49 GMT -5
I know... <sigh> It's really cool watching all of you evolve into solid tabletop gamers. You, OW, Arryk... ppl with no experience who have meshed a very diverse party into a really cohesive unit. It's certainly impressive, to say the least. {{hugs}} But now I'm wondering where that leaves me. It's kind of the same situation we had when we had the other DM... the party just evolved in a manner where my character was the odd-man-out. It's not that anyone has done anything wrong or bad, it's just natural selection, I guess.
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 3, 2003 14:30:49 GMT -5
Ok, I have a bit of a dilemma. The PC I'm currently playing in one of my tabletops has finally grated on my last nerve. He's not a bad character, don't get me wrong, but it seems that he is an experiment which hasn't worked... 1. He's a 3E psi reworked to fit into our 1/2E game. MjolnirH was pretty cool about trying this out. He, as DM, has always been really careful about making sure my character isn't too overpowered and that he fits in the game, but I'm finding that he doesn't really seem to have a place in the party. He's just kind of there. The rest of the party is as follows: half-elf druid elven ftr/wiz elven rgr/archer dwarven ftr (x2) human cleric (x2) gnome thf The dwarves are best buds, and the elves and half elves get along pretty well. The one human cleric is kinda aloof and too new to get a reading on (the Player has been around for a while even though the Char is new), and the other is well, kinda nose in the air and secretive, not exactly friendly (the char, not the player). He's a human psi, and truthfully, he doesn't have any friends in the party. What's worse, now that the fighters have leveled up since we started playing and are much more combat effective, my guy has lost his role as a front-line character. And since our magic users have leveled up, he's not really needed for that much any more. 2. He's getting kinda dull. I feel like I've played him as far as he can go, and now he's pretty much "the guy who throws around fireballs". That's it. That's his whole identity... a Walking Zippo. It was kinda fun for a while, but now it's tedious. And since the party is beginning to get to higher levels, and the challenges are increasing accordingly, he's not very useful as a combat character... not like he used to be. So not only does he not fit in, in terms of race and class, but now all of his roles seem to have comfortably shifted to other party members. 3. Although MH may disagree, I feel as though he's far surpassed the rest of the party to the point that it's hampering the other characters. He's just too darn powerful, but cutting him back really doesn't seem to be a solution since he'll just level up again at some point, and we'll be back here again with the same problem. Honestly, the fondest memory I have of this character is when we were in a local town and my PC won a Strongman competition. Otherwise, that's it. Maybe I'm just evolving in terms of what I want in a character... <sigh> I'm at my wits end over here at this point. Like I said, good experiment, but I feel as though now that the party has matured, and the players have matured, he really doesn't serve much of a purpose anymore. I really want to approach my DM about this and ask to just retire the character before it gets any worse... we're gaming this weekend, and it's so bad I'm half tempted to skip out. My thinking is that I need a new character who will (a) fit better into the party racially and in terms of class, (b) not get so powerful that he unbalances things, which he has IMO, and (c) who will actually have a role to play now that everyone seems to be on the same scale in terms of being able to play. He was kinda the leader, but that was only b/c the two most experienced ppl in the party were myself and the DM. Now that everyone has figured out the game mechanics and gained experience as both characters and players, it's time to create a character who will mesh with that, know what I mean? Advice, please... ??
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Oct 13, 2003 15:26:59 GMT -5
w00t! 85% pure... WHO HOO, I have a life outside of gaming!!!!
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Nov 30, 2003 7:55:54 GMT -5
Dax sat near the back of the dojo watching the other students. Well, sort of watching, anyway....
Dax was blind. It was obvious that he was a mutant from birth. He was born with a thin membrane covering his face, and his eyes had the milky white color of a cataract. His parents dumped him real quick, didn't want to raise a freak. He was taken in by a group of folks who raised him as one of their own, but it wasn't a family in the traditional sense of the word. They were all expert fighters, had an excellent knowledge of weapons and street lore, and were all low-level mutants. Didn't matter that Dax was blind, he learned to fight just as well as everyone else, mainly because once he hit puberty, his powers emerged.
Dax was probably one of the more powerful psychics around. Unlike most psis, his power wasn't telepathy or telekinesis (thankfully). Dax had a keenly honed ESP: clairvoyance, clairaudience, postcognition, limited precognition, and object reading. Made it real easy to gather info on the street or find a mark. Also made it pretty easy to ace school.
Dax didn't really want to be at Mutant High, but oh well. His "family" thought it was for the best that he try to learn to control his powers and fit in; he was smart, good-looking, athletic, and had a knack for languages. As long as he didn't take off his sunglasses, he could easily pass for a language arts teacher later on in life. Or he could get colored contacts and do whatever he wanted, and no one would even know he was blind...
Clad in his usual outfit of a tight-fitting tee, camouflage pants, combat boots and sunglasses, Dax went back to working in his own world... If either instructor wanted him, they'd come get him.
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Mar 6, 2004 9:12:22 GMT -5
Name: Tsuntari Lagolis Race: Elf Class: Cleric Hair: Blue-Black Eyes: Violet Skin: Pale Age: 21 STR: 15 INT: 14 DEX: 18 WIS: 13 CON:7 CHA: 11 Any help in further developement of this character would help. Why is your character a cleric? What deity does he worship? What are his domains? Favoured Weapons? What about alignment? What kind of elf is he? High, Wild, Drow, Aquatic, etc? Do you want him to be a tank, a healer, shaman, distance fighter? What kinds of skills and feats do you want to develop? There's a lot of info you need to give us; writing up a good PC that you'll be happy with takes a lot of work! Also, why is his Dex 18 and his Wis only 13? You need to put points into Wisdom for better spells and Cha for better better turning. And why did you put a 9 into Con when an elf gets a -2 penalty to Con? I would have assigned the scores as follows: Str: 13 Dex: 13 (11 +2 for Elf) Con: 12 (14 -2/Elf) Int: 9 Wis: 16 Cha: 15 This way you get bonus spells, a better Will Save, access to higher spells, and a better chance to turn undead. This also gives you the chance to up the Dex score with your +1 ability mod/4 levels, and Wisdom should be ok until you hit 10th level or so, and by then you should have an item which will increae your Wis by 1 or 2 points. Also, now you get bonus HP with a 12 Con.
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Mar 4, 2004 13:44:40 GMT -5
Let's see....
A healer type I have as a PC in the party I run has he Fire and Fury domains. I don't think she's ever casted a healing spell.... btw, she's CG
I play an amazon-ish type cleric dedicated to Wee Jas. She's very judgmental, much into magic attack spells, and won't cast a healing spell on a woman until she's proven herself, and won't cast a healing spell on any non-regional guy. So in our party, the only male she will heal is the fighter who is a former gladiator since he comes from her part of the world. The other guys get to be healed by our other party cleric. She usually only prepares 1 cure light and 1 cure moderate. That's it. And since she likes melee, she generally uses them on herself <g>. ALN: LN
I've also played a Cleric dedicated to Kord, and he wouldn't heal anyone unless they proved that they were physically able to handle themselves. He got along really well with the dwarves in the party, and never healed an elf as they were archers or mages and never went into direct melee. ALN: CG
I think the huge misconception is that all clerics do is heal. Clerics are storehouses on: Spellcraft, Knowledge (most fields), fighting the undead, etc. They can wear all types of armour, use shileds, and can wield a huge array of weapons. They have a very balanced selection of healing, combat, defense, and miscellaneous spells, IMO. People forget that!
Part of it is that players always expect the clerics to heal; play a LN "judge" type character or a CN cleric and see how fast the party cries when the cleric says "nah".
Also it's the DM's fault, partially. Many DM's expect parties to have clerics, but do not always give the clerics anything to do with their strengths. If you're in a campaign where that is happening, talk to the DM. S/he should be crafting adventures around the abilities of all the PCs. If there's a lot of melee for the fighter, many opportunities for spell use by the mage, and lots of traps for the rogue. Ask for situations where there are undead or outsiders, opponents against which you have an edge. Without the chance to turn and use other clerical skills, you're reduced to a lesser-grade fighter with healing spells.
I guess the point here is be creative. Don't run right to the Healing domain. Pick others. Get funky powers and skills. And most importantly...
IF YOU DON'T STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE PREPARING HEALING SPELLS AND NOTHING ELSE. IF YOU ACT LIKE A DOORMAT, EXPECT TO GET WALKED ON!
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Feb 28, 2004 16:26:58 GMT -5
From the Book of Vile Darkness:
General Corrupt Spells (Any Arcane caster), keeping your ideas in mind:
Level 3: Absorb Mind: 25% chance of learning info from a brain which is eaten by the caster
Love's Pain: deals 1d6/2 level's to target's loved one
5th Level:
Forbidden Speech: subject forbidden from speaking of a certain topic
Power Leech: drains an ability score at 1 pt/rd, gains +1 on own
Bard Specific Spells, BoVD:
Level 1:
Cheat: reroll when determining outcome of game of chance
Corrupt Weapon: confirms crit vs good foe
Extract Drug: creates a drug from an inanimate object
No Light: prevents normal light from illuminating
Sorrow: subject takes -3 penalty on att/saves/checks
Level 2:
Addiction: causes subject to become addicted to a drug
Dance of Ruin: Nondemons take 2d20 damage
Song of Festering Death: Subject takes 2d6/rd while caster concentrates
Wave of Grief: All w/in cone take -3 attacks/saves/checks
Level 3:
Curse of the Putrid Husk: subject unconscious for 1d10 minutes
Sadism: for every 10 hp caster deals, add +1 to all att/save/chack
Stunning Screech: all w/in 30 ft, stun 1rd
5th level:
Morality Undone: subject becomes evil
Soul Shackles: Imprisons sould of dead in talisman. Can be questioned by caster
6th level:
Bestow Greater Curse: -6 penalty on 2 abilities OR -8 on att/save/check OR 75% chance of taking no action
Wave of Pain: Stuns all w/in cone for 1rd/2 levels
I'll give details on whichever one you want
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Jan 28, 2004 15:09:03 GMT -5
1. Extra turning. Depending on your alignment, you can either zap the undead away, or make em your friends. Either way, keep the Cha score at a decent level.
2. Who's your Diety? When I see Death and Magic, I immediately think of Wee Jas. Either way, this may impact your weapon of choice, since to give more flavor to the game each Deity has a weapon of choice, and hers would be a dagger.
3. Consider going with light or medium armour and get some ranks in Hide and Move Silently. Great for tossing around the touch attack spells such as inflict wounds on the sly. I know that clerics can get the best armour, but it may be worth the sacrifice to have a bit of fun.
4. Speaking of which, what is your cleric's flavor? Is it a gruesome, dead raising type or is the death domain related to your role as a cleric (ie: presiding over funerals, running rituals to honour the dearly departed and cataloguing their knowledge)? Thats certainly going to have an impact. Or is it an undead hunter? Again, lots of different flavors here for a cleric with these domains to play...
Skills: the basics: Spellcraft, Concentration, Heal (depending on if the char is not a dead raising freak), Kn (Religion), Kn (Arcana). Perhaps Kn (Planes), focusing on the Negative Energy Plane.
Feats: Extra Turning. Perhaps an Item Creation Feat to help protect against the undead. No matter what the flavor, you'll be the one dealing with the undead the most, so it's worth investing the time and money at higherlevels to craft a ring, for example, to protect you from negative energy. Or a wand of [insert spell] to help zap the suckers. I think you see where I'm going with this one...
Please give more info on what you want this character to be, and I can give more details back
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Jan 18, 2004 7:38:38 GMT -5
Actually, there's are pretty simple answers to this:
1. Assuming that your PC's fighter levels came first before you took levels in monk, you can NEVER level up in Monk classes again if you level up in something else. Because the monk is so uber-powerful, the PHB specifically states that a monk PC may never take levels in another class. EVER. (OK, except for PrC in Sword and Fist or OA). SO, you actually cannot take any more levels in any more classes per the rules.
2. You gonna monitor your XP, right? If you keep taking a level here and a level there, you're guaranteed to run into major XP bonus snags.
3. If you keep taking one level here and another there, what exactly is the point of your character? First off, abilities are a waste; you'll become so bogged down in keepin the XP straight, you'll never actually get any fun ones. Secondly, from an RP perspective, this taking of multiple classes is senseless... why would anyone do that?
AA, don't blame the monk class dude, blame the munchkins and powergamers.
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 28, 2003 11:36:23 GMT -5
I would be more than happy to provide some "hooks" that I've used/plan on using:
a. My OA 3.0 adventure just had the characters recover an important suit of armour and daisho. It was mostly dungeon stuff, but it certainly can provide some interesting dilemmas both before the PCs go off to find it and after the PCs have found it; I cannot wait to see what happens when they waltz back into the city and try to explain why they have this stuff, as well as the ramifications of their success, which will be played out in later adventures.
b. One of my online games involves a kidnapping ring. Each PC had a little bit of info, and they all had to put it together. It's not a lot of combat, but it involves a lot of roleplay. Until you find the "mastermind", of course, then all hell will break loose, lol.
The great thing about both is that they can play on after the quest/mission is completed... who stole the items/kidnapped the Mayor's brat. Why? And who do they answer to? The great thing is that the PCs never know if something that happens later is totally random or related to something they accomplished in the past.
c. There's always the straightforward "capture the villian". And the 3.0 Masters of the Wild Handbook has some great ideas on how to incorporate the Ranger into a city campaign... for example:
Swich out Animal Empathy and Knowledge (Nature) for Gather Information and Knowledge (local).
Switch the Track Feat for Shadow Feat. Shadow: you have a better chance of following trailing someone unnoticed. Benefit: +2 on Hide and Spot checks. Also, Hide can be used to track/follow someone...
Create an organization for the Ranger to take as a favored enemy instead of the standard favored enemies.
Switch some Ranger spells for Bard spells: detect snares and pits for detect detect secret doors, speak with animals becomes message, speak with plants for detect thoughts, plant growth for phantom steed, and tree stride for dimension door.
These are all suggestions from the book.
Obviously certain classes work better for an urban campaign than others. Barbarians, Druids, Rangers (without the above urban modifications) will probably be out of place in a large city, and a monk, although not out of it because of abilities, may be out of place culturally (although the Diplomacy skill should help). Obvioulsy Bards, Fighters, Clerics, and Rogues would prosper in a city; Wizards would do well in a city with a high mage population or Wizardry School, although Soreror prolly wouldn't get along with the schools, since they share a number of traits with the bard, they wouldn't be too uncomfortable.
Also keep in mind that demi-humans would prolly be at a disadvantage unless the city has a peaceful and large demi-human population. For example, a city plagued by constant orc attacks probably wouldn't welcome a half-orc PC with open arms.
Watch shows like CSI, Law and Order, etc. Although the focus of these shows is always the same, they can help with interesting city hooks. I also drew a lot of inspiration from the Book of Vile Darkness; I find that a lot of the material covered in that book is more applicable to city life than the wild...
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 23, 2003 12:01:04 GMT -5
Agreed Hussar, but I suspect that the Church would be much happier with a repentant. If you look at the Book of Exalted Deeds, it constantly stresses the idea that good folks, especially LG paladin folks, should make every effort to redeem the bad guys as opposed to just slaughtering them. I think that although there may be a certain level of discomfort, the truly devout would not question the will of the Gods and would probably celebrate the conversion of one so evil to the side of good.
On a related note, if a Paladin can trade in levels of her class to become a Blackguard, would the Celestial Hierarchy recognize levels of Blackguard? If the Infernal powers cut a break to one so devout and take such joy in her fall by allowing her to "trade in" levels, would it be far off the mark to assume that the Celestial powers would do the same for a Blackguard, or would they, through redemption, insist that all infernal powers be renounced? I suspect the latter...
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 21, 2003 7:34:40 GMT -5
I personally don't see why not. If a Paladin who has been LG all of his/her life can "fall from grace" and become a Blackguard, why can't someone who has devoted his/her life to evil "return to grace"?
Jim Butcher actually tackled a topic similar to this in his "Dresden Files" series. In the most recent instrallment, "Death's Mask", IIRC, all three Knights Templar were introduced (until then, we had seen only one). Each Knight has a holy sword containing a nail from the One True Cross that Christ was crucified on. Obviously only someone special, like, say, called by the Gods to fight for the forces of good, could wield these swords.
And guess what? One Knight was the stereotype: deeply religious, strong moral convictions, yadda, yadda, yadda. One was a Buddhist-type. And the third? An Agnostic former demon. Yup, he was evil and nasty, managed to get his hands on one of the 30 silver coins given to Judas to betray Christ, became a demon, returned to human after a while, and is now a Chosen of God.
This is just an example, but I think it addresses what you're asking... someone who is utterly evil most certainly may repent and become a holy warrior.
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 15, 2003 14:15:19 GMT -5
You need to understand that my psion was a high level character. At earlier levels, it was difficult, but what can you do? All the classes have issues at early levels. I just lucked out with good STR and Dex, which actually make the psion a very effective fighter. And that's the point of the disciplines. If you don't want to have to roll to hits, then you don't take Psychometabolism or Psychokenisis, you focus on Telepathy or Metacreativity, possibly Psychoportation. Clairsentience is cool if you want to play an oracle, but not many attack powers.
Remeber that the Wizard and Sorceror get spells that don't need to hits to make up for the crappy Strength and mediocre DEX. A psion focusing on Psychometabolic powers will be dumping his points into STR, DEX, and CON to make up for that. Add Inertial Armour, some claw powers, lesser natural armour, verve, etc, and you can do ok long enough to get the flashy powers... Dissolving Touch. AHHH... on a full grapple, does something like 11d6, IIRC? It's the same deal that all chars have... you have to play smart and work hard. And if you wnt to do combat, then be prepared to focus on the physical stuff. If you wanna play like a wizzie or sorc, then be prepared to focus on different powers.
It's all in the skills, feats, and powers you choose... and by the way, in your powwer count, did you take into account the bonus powers for high ability scores? I don't think so...
As for your assesment of Dissolving Touch... reread the handbook. A full grapple brings it up to about 11d6? Possibly more? And IIRC, isn't Dissolving Touch a touch attack? Which means you get to ignore many types of armour? That's pretty powerful, IMO. Take a char who's focus is STR, and you're doing a heck of a lot of damage.
Just curious, have you ever played a psion or just looked at it on paper? 'Cuz with the char I just retired, he carried the party a lot, especially at beginning levels, aided only by inertial armour and his dex bonus. <shrug>
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 13, 2003 8:03:59 GMT -5
My beef with the Druid being able to spontaneously cast is this:
The Cleric gets Turn/Rebuke undead, Spells, and better arnour/weapons than the Druid, but that's it (unless 3.5 gave the a feat progression like Wizards and Fighters). Spontaneous casting made them a bit different from the other divine spellcasters. and by 20th level, the spell table is 6, 5+1/4+1.
The Druid has a very steady progression of abilities at each level: nature sense, animal companion, woodland stride, trackless step, resist nature's lure, wild shape, venom immunity, more wild shape, a thousand faces, more wild shape, timelss body, more wild shape, and a spell progression very similar to that of the cleric: 6/5+1/4+1. There's about 3 levels where the Druid gets no "new" ability.
Now 3.5 has added ADDITIONAL abilities to the Druid. What did it do for the Cleric? My understanding is some pretty minor changes? Did they balance out the character with more feats? New spells? What?
Many of the core classes got a change of some sort in 3.5, but I don't know how many, if any changes the Cleric got. I just feel as though the Druid was powerful enough as is, and the ability for Druids to do spontaneous casting was not necessary. They have enough abilities as it is, why do they need more?
Monks were also a pretty powerful class. Now they can use thier ki stikes as serious magic weapons, correct? 3.5 made the monk character even less likely to fit into a DnD game, and I'm a huge proponent of the Monk! With the way they changed it, it seems as though it got even more powerful instead of less. And a well-played Monk was dangerous enough to begin with!
Psionics <sigh>. I never really saw the psion as a hamstrung Sorceror. Having played one, I liked the mechanics of the class, and the abilities were pretty evenly distributed (and anything was better than the horrid mechanics of the 1E psionics, IMHO.) I'm almost afraid to see what they plan to do with the 3.5 psi... <shudder> I mean Vampire Touch, Polymorph Self, Disintegrate, Acid Touch; there are some seriously heavy duty powers as is, how are they gonna change the class?!? What do you think is wrong with it as I'm not 100% certain what you mean by a "hamstrung sorceror". My psion for example, with no armour, was up to an AC of 20, IIRC? Inertial Amour gives a +4 to AC, and the only requirement is that you have 1 power point to spare. Any sane psion would have a lot more than that in reserve at any given time anyway. Add bracers of Natural Armour, Rings of Protection, etc, and AC isn't a concern. If you want to be a front-line fighter, take the Psychometabolic path, and not only will you increase your AC, but you'll have a ridiculous number of combat-related powers. I always felt that Psionics were pretty well-balanced and varied....
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Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 12, 2003 13:39:23 GMT -5
they totally played with the monk's feat progression. iirc, the monk now gets to choose from a list of feats where s/he would have normally been given one. for example, the monk can take deflect arrows or feat "x" at 2nd level, whereas in 3.0 s/he would have been assigned deflect arrows as a class feature. the ranger and the rogue are in the same situation. where they would normall have been assigned a feat in 3.0, now they get to choose from 2 feats, presumably to help "personalize" each different PC.
I'm not sure I like it for Rogues and Monks. They had a good amount of power already. Rangers aren't a class I play often, so I'll reserve my comments, but what I've read has been relatively positive in terms of the changes to that class.
other 3.5 gripes:
a lot of the PrC have already been published, as were a lot of the "new" skills and feats, so I don't plan on buying 3.5 any time soon. I have like 90% of them already...
I know they changed several skills. Pick Pockets and something else are now "Prestidigitation", and I know that Wilderness Lore has been changed as well. They add in all of those feats that enhance some such skill or another and it gets too messy, imo. Do we really need all these extra points and whatnot? certainly isn't helping 3.5's status as a "roll" playing game!
and now I hear that they're redoing the psionics handbook too. <grumble>
and what about the druid? spontaneous casting? totally unnecessary, IMHO. that was there for the cleric so that he wouldn't be a walking band-aid. he could prepare his combat/scrying/protection spells, not constantly have to prepare healing spells, but still had them in a pinch. it has to do with religion and the cleric's role. i cannot fathom a good reason why a druid needs spontaneous casting. they took a really cool and thoughtful character trait of the cleric and twisted it to no end for no reason. druids are powerful enough, and it helped separate clerics from all the other spellcasters.
On the positive side:
man, some of the arcane spells were outrageous in duration. Bull's Strength was what, 7 hours? Same with cat's grace, mage armour (iirc) and shield gave a +7 bonus? they've been taken down a few notches, which is good. they were lasting far too long.
Scorching Ray? 4d6/4 levels? are they insane? that's awful powerful for a 2nd level spell...
from what I've read, I like the bard and the sorceror better, actually. what i like best about the new sorceror is the fact that he can swap spells as he gets higher in level. who the hell needs sleep at 15th level anyway?!?
that's my initial take after reading everything i have thus far. 2 of my PCs have the 3.5 handbook, while I'm running a 3.0 campaign. maybe I'll have to borrow it next session so i can look at it more in-depth. fortunately i run an oriental adventures/l5r/rokugan tabletop, so 3.5 hasn't has a huger impact yet as most of my PCs feats come from the oa/l5r/rokugan books anyway
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