typhoidX's random game ideas:
Recently I have been messing around with the potentials of an arcane trickster (reference: DMG 3.5 page 177). I figured out a spell combination that would be quite useful, this combo could be done by an arcane trickster of character level 10th or above:
1. cast sadism (reference: book of vile darkness page 103).
2. cast evard's black tentacles, or some kind of grappling spell/power (reference: PHB 3.5 page 228) against foe(s).
3. sneak attack the grappled foe(s) with ranged touch spells like ray of enfeeblement, ray of exhaustion & melf's acid arrow (reference: PHB 3.5 pages 269 and 253 respectively).
here's the break down on this combo:
1. sadism will give you a +1 luck bonus to attacks & saves of your next round for every 10 hp damage you deal (IE if you do a total of 36 points of damage to multiple opponents with a fireball, you get a +3 luck bonus to attacks, saves & skill checks on your next round). this spell works great with area effect spells that deal damage to multiple foes.
2. evard's black tentacles is an area effect spell that attempts to grapple all within an area. all grappled foes take 1d6+4 points of bludgeoning damage per round from constriction. thus if your arcane trickster grapples your enemies (the more the better), you'll get luck bonuses to attack the following round depending on how many foes you grapple & how much accumulated damage you deal.
3. now that your enemies are grappled, & thus lose their dex bonus to AC, your arcane trickster can sneak attack with ranged touch spells. hitting a flatfooted opponent with a touch spell is fairly easy, especially now that you've had sadism cast upon yourself & got the luck bonuses to hit. so i would suggest starting off with a ray of enfeeblement or ray of exhaustion, these spells will reduce the grappled enemies strength & therefore reduce their chances of breaking grapple in subsequent rounds. these rays will also do negative energy sneak attack damage (reference: Complete Arcane page 86). you can follow up with melf's acid arrows repeatedly, so that not only are you doing normal spell damage & sneak attack damage, you're also doing lingering acid damage every round.
so every round you'll get luck bonuses to attack AND saving throws from the constricting damage of the black tentacles and lingering acid damage from melf's acid arrow, in addition to the sneak attack damage & the regular spell damage. meanwhile, you're opponent will be trapped by the tentacles, and the chances of breaking grapple will be greatly reduced if rays of enfeeblement & exhaustion are cast on him.
1. cast sadism (reference: book of vile darkness page 103).
2. cast evard's black tentacles, or some kind of grappling spell/power (reference: PHB 3.5 page 228) against foe(s).
3. sneak attack the grappled foe(s) with ranged touch spells like ray of enfeeblement, ray of exhaustion & melf's acid arrow (reference: PHB 3.5 pages 269 and 253 respectively).
here's the break down on this combo:
1. sadism will give you a +1 luck bonus to attacks & saves of your next round for every 10 hp damage you deal (IE if you do a total of 36 points of damage to multiple opponents with a fireball, you get a +3 luck bonus to attacks, saves & skill checks on your next round). this spell works great with area effect spells that deal damage to multiple foes.
2. evard's black tentacles is an area effect spell that attempts to grapple all within an area. all grappled foes take 1d6+4 points of bludgeoning damage per round from constriction. thus if your arcane trickster grapples your enemies (the more the better), you'll get luck bonuses to attack the following round depending on how many foes you grapple & how much accumulated damage you deal.
3. now that your enemies are grappled, & thus lose their dex bonus to AC, your arcane trickster can sneak attack with ranged touch spells. hitting a flatfooted opponent with a touch spell is fairly easy, especially now that you've had sadism cast upon yourself & got the luck bonuses to hit. so i would suggest starting off with a ray of enfeeblement or ray of exhaustion, these spells will reduce the grappled enemies strength & therefore reduce their chances of breaking grapple in subsequent rounds. these rays will also do negative energy sneak attack damage (reference: Complete Arcane page 86). you can follow up with melf's acid arrows repeatedly, so that not only are you doing normal spell damage & sneak attack damage, you're also doing lingering acid damage every round.
so every round you'll get luck bonuses to attack AND saving throws from the constricting damage of the black tentacles and lingering acid damage from melf's acid arrow, in addition to the sneak attack damage & the regular spell damage. meanwhile, you're opponent will be trapped by the tentacles, and the chances of breaking grapple will be greatly reduced if rays of enfeeblement & exhaustion are cast on him.
posted by Anonymous at
4:28 PM
2 Comments:
The complete arcane says that you can deal HP (sneak Attack) damage with an ability damage spell? That doesn't sound right, the sneak attack would work with the melf's acid arrow (ranged touch that deals hp damage) but not ray of exhaustion or enfeeblement. But that combo does rock. Also you would keep the highest bonuses you earned until the duration of sadism. (ie. melf's acid arrow 2d4 + (roughly) 5d6 sneak attack / 10 would possibly give you higher bonuses). I like the combo
I read the complete arcane, I probably wouldn't house rule the effect, but that combination of Sneak Attack with ability damage can get really lethal. A spell that deals Con damage + Sneak Attack will do a lot of damage. As for Sadism, if you gain deal higher damage because of Sneak Attack then you have a higher luck bonus next round, so spells like the orb spells, and other ranged and melee touch spells garuntee a higher bonus each round than the 1d6+4.
And infact you are dealing more damage because you are dealing 1d6+4, with the sneak attack damage, and spell damage if you hit (roll higher than a 1)Heck you could use a light crossbow when you don't want to use anymore spells.
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