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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
    
 | | 02/03/2006 10:33 AM |
| Ok, so first time in my campaign the party found a Necklance of Pryaer beads. What a confusing description they included for this bad boy in the DMG (we're still using 3.0, so I'm not sure if it was improved in 3.5).
"at first this necklance appears to be ordinary" "This necklance will have 1d6+20 semiprecious stones of a value of 1000GP". Nothing ordinary about that.
Now, who can see the stones, just the caster? What if they found it on a dead cleric (who had obviously been casting divine spells), who could see teh stones in that case? Is their an illusion that shields the true look of the necklance for those that don't use it? Can the beads themselves been seen normally, or are they, like the semiprecious stones, only visible once the wearer casts a divine spells. Does the revealing nature of the necklance reconceal the stones after x period of time?
Anyone else looked at this thing? We're fine in the campaign (I just ignored the hidden characteristics part), but I'm curious what others have done with these things.
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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nyjastul69
Commander
2731 Posts
Rhode Island
| | 02/03/2006 10:53 AM |
| This is the description from the 3.0 SRD
Necklace of Prayer Beads
The necklace of prayer beads consists of 1d6+24 semiprecious stones (total value 1,000 gp) along with one special bead:
Bead of blessing: Wearer can cast bless.
Bead of healing: Wearer can cast remove blindness, remove disease, or cure serious wounds.
Bead of karma: Wearer can cast his or her spells at +4 caster level (with respect to range, duration, etc.). Effect lasts 10 minutes.
Bead of smiting: Wearer can cast holy smite, chaos hammer, order’s wrath, or unholy blight if appropriate to his or her alignment. (A neutral wearer can’t use this bead.)
Bead of summons: Calls the wearer’s deity (90% probability) to come to him or her in material form. (It had better be for a good reason.) Usable only once.
Bead of wind walking: Wearer can cast wind walk.
Each special bead can be used once per day, except for the bead of summons. If the wearer uses that bead to summon his or her deity frivolously, the deity takes the character’s items and places a geas upon the character as punishment at the very least. The power of a special bead is lost if it is removed from the necklace. Sometimes necklaces are found with multiple special beads.
Caster Level: 17th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, gate, wind walk, and one of the following spells: bless, cure blindness, cure disease, cure serious wounds, holy smite, chaos hammer, order’s wrath, or unholy blight (whichever is appropriate); Market Price: 500 gp (bead of blessing), 5,000 gp (bead of karma), 10,000 gp (bead of healing), 15,000 gp (bead of smiting), 30,000 gp (bead of wind walking), or 50,000 gp (bead of summons), plus 1,000 gp for the nonmagical beads for each necklace; Weight: -.
I don't see where it says 'at first this necklace appears...'
I can't find it at all in the 3.5 SRD
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Zenako
Commander
3472 Posts
| | 02/03/2006 11:08 AM |
| | Perhaps it was in the scenario descriptive text where the ordinary verbiage appeared. | |
Built the addition for this addiction, now on to the "gaming table" project....
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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
| | 02/03/2006 11:20 AM |
| the SRD removes most flavor text. Open up your 3.0 DMG, that is where i read that part of the description. In this case what confuses me is that as written it is MORE than just "flavor". It is fairly specific.
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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kestrel.ca
Underboss
1687 Posts
| | 02/03/2006 11:21 AM |
| 3.5 has changed the name to "Strand of Prayer Beads." Includes the following description:
This item appears to be a normal string of prayer beads until the owner casts a divine spell. Once that occurs, the owner instantly knows the powers of the prayer beads and how to activate them.
Hope that clears things up a little. | |
Completed Trades/Transactions: 94 || Bad Trades: 3 (Chaotic Good x2, MackeyV) | |
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PatEllis15
Commander
4463 Posts
| | 02/03/2006 11:28 AM |
|
quote:
This item appears to be a normal string of prayer beads until the owner casts a divine spell. Once that occurs, the owner instantly knows the powers of the prayer beads and how to activate them.
That's the text. It is different than the 3.0 test (which talks about it being a normal or ordinary necklace, until the owner casts....
It sounds as if 3.5 corrected the confusion. It always had beads, they always appeared to have some value. It also implies that the owners knows things about it that others won't.
I play with a group of guys that isn't ready to buy 3.5. I haven't forced them to, but we've adopted some of the changes. This looks like a clear example of where 3.5 claned things up, but it's so hard to know what minor things have been tweaked...
Pat E | |
"Games evolve. Otherwise we'd still be pushing rocks around the dirt. What do you think the cavemen said when some dude showed up with sticks?" - Chairman7w | |
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Elucidus
Skirmisher
30 Posts
| | 02/07/2006 10:18 AM |
| | They did change the beads some more. IIRC, the 3.5 strand of prayer beads now comes in three flavors, maybe four I don't remember. It has a combination of the special beads. The lowest contains a bead of blessing and a bead of healing. The nextg one has a bead of healing, a bead of karma, and a bead of smiting. That is all I remember. Each bead has a value and if one is missing you are supposed to deduct the value of that bead. | |
Everyday I think people can't get any stupider, and every day I am proven horribly wrong! | |
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taliesin
Underboss
1113 Posts
| | 02/08/2006 5:11 PM |
| And the bead of Karma is one of the reasons a buffed cleric build can pretty much wreck any other core class. Raising the caster level by 4 on long duration buff spells (or spells modified by extend or persistent spell) cast at the beginning of the day during the 10 minutes the pearl is active means having Divine Grace, Divine Power, Righteous Might, Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestment x 2(on armor and shield), Shield of Faith, et al going all day, every day, at higher potency than usual, making the effects harder to dispel.
Think about that, the cleric has an equal base attack bonus to the fighter, a +5 weapon with a luck bonus to damage on top, a +15 to AC, reach, DR, a boost to strength, and plenty of spells left over to provide healing, support, or artillery. And he hasn't spent much gold yet, either.
Just a word of caution, if your the DM, on allowing this game-wrecker into your campaign. | |
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IHawk
Underboss
1054 Posts
Lisle, Illinois
| | 02/08/2006 10:22 PM |
| It gets even worse at higher levels with level dependant effects
like holy word and blasphemy. Technically the +4 bonus to spell
caster stacks with the bonus for Divine metamagic feat so you
can add up to +4 more, not to mention the +1 for being good...uugh.
I have seen this used too many times to allow it unmodified
in my home game.
A simple modification is to allow the use of the karma bead without
allowing caster level stacking. plain and simple. | |
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Elucidus
Skirmisher
30 Posts
| | 02/09/2006 7:40 AM |
| | Well divine power, righteous might, & magic vestment persitent would make these epic level spells. Greater Magic Weapon 9th level, and shield of faith 8th. I don't know that I would allow those anyway, but I haven't really DM'd an epic campaign. I did a brief one a couple of years ago. Otherwise I would agree Caster level stacking might be too much. | |
Everyday I think people can't get any stupider, and every day I am proven horribly wrong! | |
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