Ask the Sage: Quick Rules Questions volume 6 - DnD 3.5 and Pathfinder)

[Teemu]

There's the falling objects entry in the SRD for the levitation trick, http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environmen...fallingObjects

[GeneralOfDarkness]

What SLA?
Is it diferrent than LA, which is "level adjustment?"

[NEON725]

I used levitation incorrectly, Chuck's Telekinesis suggestion answered the question. Thanks for the falling objects table also.

On a slightly unrelated note, who says kobolds are as smart a humans? A medieval KKK would be a fairly interesting campaign.

[ArcaneLizard]

They meant that kobolds do not have any inteligence racial bonus or penality.
Any given kobold or human can be as smart or as dumb as you want, but the template is equal, and their respective species would average to the same.

A medieval kkk would be the Holy Inquisition (specially the spanish one - the longest and cruelest by far). But I feel a d&d racist group would be more against half-somethings.

[Teemu]

Originally Posted by GeneralOfDarkness

What SLA?
Is it diferrent than LA, which is "level adjustment?"

I think it means Spell-Like Ability.

[Sorator]

SLA does indeed refer to spell-like ability (while LA refers to level adjustment); for a meaning of SLA see here.

[Sedracus]

SLA can also refer to Spell-Level Adjustment, the amount of levels a metamagic feat adjusts the spell.

[jj_wolven]

Kobolds - its as ALizard said. The "average" kobold has an intelligence of 10, as does a human/elf/dwarf/etc.

-me

[ArcaneLizard]

Funny, I could have sworn Elves had an intelligence bonus. At any rate, I have a crafty question:

Craft. Craft apparently is a skill, but all specific forms of crafting are feats. So, do you just use an universal crafting skill for the check and the feats for mere access? Or do you have to get specific Craft ranks in addition to the appropiate feat?

[Naresh]

Grey Elves have a bonus to Intelligence

Craft (the skill) refers to mundane items, like alchemy, fletching, sail making etc

Craft (the feats) are for magic item creation

Magic item creation can require a skill check, this is usually spellcraft, but an appropriate craft check can be made in it's place

[ArcaneLizard]

Very well, that's very good to know, thanks.

Here comes another question, one I cannot believe I am just asking now.
If you are a spellcaster of several different spellcasting classes, all of them asking you to rest/study/meditate/whatever for an hour a day to regain your spells, can you regain them all at once? Or does it take a separate hour per class?

[Asztirejan]

Well, it's important to make a disctinction between the rest period required to regain spells and the actual spell preparation time.

Hmm..after re-reading I think I missed your point.

Although I can't remember there ever being an official clarification, I'm certain that you have to study/meditate/pray for spells of different classes individually. For example, in my opinion, a cleric/wizard would need to pray for his cleric spells for an hour and then study for his wizard spells independently.

That's just my opinion though. To me, it's not only nonsensical but also much too easy to do it all at one period. After all, with the dual-caster PrCs like Mystic Theurge, multiclasss spellcasters are very high-powered characters--and having to spend more downtime to access that power is only fair.

[Sorator]

I actually always assumed that you could prepare all your spells in a single hour. The biggest loss of dual-casting progressions is that while you can cast more spells, you lose at least one spell level. You also lose all your class features if you go for a dual progression, and usually if your PrC offers dual progression you lose even more caster levels and possibly spell levels as well.

But now that I think of it, I don't know that it's really clarified anywhere.

(Obviously you only need to rest 8 hours regardless of your classes; anything else is simply insane for multiclass spellcasters.)

[Asztirejan]

Originally Posted by Sorator

you lose at least one spell level

I'm not sure where you're getting that from...for instance, I used the example of the Mystic Theurge, which loses no spellcasting ability from either class.

Originally Posted by Sorator

You also lose all your class features

Well, yeah...but who cares about not having a familiar when you can cast spells like a cleric; who cares about not being able to turn undead when you can cast arcane spells? In my experience, it's pretty well agreed that a class like Mystic Theurge is powerful to the point of broken; losing the fluff class features is nothing in the overall scheme of dual spellcasting might.

Disregarding any rules-based argument (if there even is an official rule for this), it's just logical and intuitive for, say, the cleric/wizard to spend an hour preparing spells for each class. The basic idea behind needing to spend time to get your spells (well, the non-rules based idea, at any rate) is that you need to entirely devote your mind to the matter at hand. Think about all the conditions necessary for a wizard to memorize her spells: relative silence, complete lack of activity, etc. Conversely, a cleric spends her hour in fervent prayer to her deity; how honest can such prayer and contemplation be if she's reading a spellbook at the same time? To me it just seems impossible to entirely focus your mind on channeling arcane magic while simultaneously imploring your god for divine spells. In D&D, arcane and divine magic are designed to be two wholly different and completely independent systems, and the idea of being able to prepare spells of both different types at the same time just doesn't make sense.

Just my opinion, at any rate...in all reality, I don't really ever remember thinking about this in the past, and it's honestly nothing more than a nitpicky topic for debate. I'm pretty sure any mystic theurges in my games just spent an hour on spell preparation, because I never really thought about this.

Originally Posted by Sorator

Obviously you only need to rest 8 hours regardless of your classes; anything else is simply insane for multiclass spellcasters

Wholeheartedly agreed. At first I thought this was what ArcaneLizard was talking about, and then I realized it was probably the actual preparation time. But yeah--8 hours of rest per class makes even less sense than 1 hour of spell preparation for both classes .

As an afterthought: While typing the part about "mystic theurges in my games", I started thinking about a cerebremancer that a friend played, and thus I started thinking about dual-"caster" classes that aren't necessarily spellcasters or, similarly, spontaneous arcane casters (and, just because I can: there was a spontaneous-casting cleric variant in a Dragon mag called the evangelist). What about when "one side" of the "equation" is a class that doesn't need to prepare? For example, a psion/wizard cerebremancer, or a cleric/sorcerer mystic theurge.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, other than that I feel like the solution to this problem (whatever it is) needs to be one that treats such a character by the same general rule as it treats a character of dual preparation classes.

[gatherer818]

I'm not a Sage by any stretch, but as a long-time DM I'll take a shot.

In my own campaigns, I've never hit this question, but I would likely rule that you can recover all your spells that are recovered via the same method in a single hour. Thus, if you have two classes that need to pray for spells, then assuming they're both devoted to the same deity you could recover them both in one hour. If one class prays and one class reads a spellbook, you would need a separate hour for each activity. If one class regenerates them just off the 8-hour rest and the other takes an hour to prepare, then one regens after the rest and the other takes an hour, end of story.

BUT, it's really more about the theme of your campaign and the level of detail you want. More of a house-rule situation than a rule question. If your players like tracking the minutae, let the MT spend an hour praying and then another hour reading. If they just want to get to the next door to kick down, roll it together.