Shape Soulmeld

Sometimes, to try and keep things fresh, Wizards would introduce a new system as an option for players to tack onto their game. Rather than simply having every splatbook just be new feats, new prestige classes, new spells and new items, they would try to coax players via a whole new subsystem. You've got your psionics, your invocations, your weaboo fighting magic. In subsequent years, said systems would get varying degrees of support.... seemingly at random. But the crack team at Wizards would be canny enough to recognize that at any given time, many enfranchised players were elbows-deep in some big campaign, and they're not going to simply fire up a brand new character to accommodate this whole new concept being presented! Thus, there would often be a compromise for those who came late: a feat that lets a character dip their toe in the new subsystem and at least sample one of the many new flavours on offer. Psionics have Wild Talent, maneuvers have Martial Study, and incarnum - perhaps the most opaque system of them all - can be sampled via the Shape Soulmeld feat.

Magic of Incarnum is rather notorious for being difficult to understand (Vecna knows I didn't grasp it on my first or second reading.) This is owing both to the complex nuances of the mechanic as well as... regrettably poor editing. Having said that, you of course need not understand every aspect of the system if you're just dipping your toe in via Shape Soulmeld! This article will be written with the assumption that you are not piloting a dedicated meldshaper, but rather have a more standard character build that's just window shopping with a single feat slot to spare. Having said that, the possibilities available from the Shape Soulmeld feat mean it's very much worth considering on any build with the slot to spare. Thought Planar Touchstone was versatile? Shape Soulmeld probably has it beaten handily!

Planar Touchstone

It can be agonizing selecting the right feats. Never mind the fact that the average character gets a mere seven of them over the course of a full adventuring career - you also have to worry about when their payoff is. What's better: the feat that's useful now but negligible at high level? Or the feat that's useless because it's just a prerequisite for something really juicy down the line? Neither sounds particularly attractive, and while you might recall that a casting of heroics or mirror move can score you bonus feats at a moment's notice, not all of us can cast wizard spells, thank you very much. Is there some feat that can not only be tooled to virtually any build, spellcaster or not, but also can be swapped out or updated so there's no point in the campaign in which it loses its luster?

You might be expecting you'll have to look pretty far afield to find such a lofty feat. You'd be right - in fact, you're going to have to look on whole other planes of existence. Today we're discussing Planar Touchstone, the feat that asks of you more than most, but may well be worth it in return.

Fling Ally

Convinced that the Book of Nine Swords is the only place where you might find obscene, cartoonish maneuvers that prioritize Rule of Cool over practicality? Races of Stone gives us the feat "Fling Ally" for the fans of the Fastball Special, which lets you hurl an ally smaller than you as though that ally was a ranged weapon with an incredibly terrible range. Funny imagery, but not very practical. Where do we go from here?

Well, the Epic Level Handbook contains Distant Shot, an epic level feat that lets you perform the epic level task of throwing or firing a ranged weapon against any target within line of sight. See where I'm going with this now?

Spell Component Pouch of Holding

A spell component pouch contains an infinite number of live spiders.

Phantom Trap

No matter how long you've been playing this game, no matter how many times you've reread the Player's Handbook, I find there's always some obtuse spell you've never seen before. Case in point: I recently stumbled across a core spell called phantom trap that I swear I've never laid eyes on. Unlike a lot of these obscure and worthless spells that crop up now and then, however... this one I kind of wish I had. It's strange, so strange that I'm having trouble thinking of any real, practical applications for such a spell. That said, it is worth investigating by virtue of how unique it is - and likely more for the DM than any of the players. The text for phantom trap is as follows:

Art Object Database

"Satisfied with a job well done at the end of an arduous dungeon, you pry open the old treasure chest to find... uh... seven +1 longswords!"

This is extending an olive branch to all of those DMs out there. When you're selecting (or rolling up) treasure for the party, do things not feel a little too... unrealistic? Using the tables provided in the Dungeon Master's Guide, and other published books, will lead to player characters mostly finding coins and gems, with some magic items when you're feeling generous. Who are all these dungeon-dwellers that mindlessly stockpile wealth in amounts perfectly divisible by 4, though? Wouldn't it make more sense to spend some of that coin? That said, it's never been the case for the wealthy to only spend on practical items. Not every one of someone's possessions are going to be potions, oils and magic weapons. Having egregious shows of wealth is the whole point of being wealthy!

In comes the second problem, though. The DMG does have a tidy table of art objects that can be found as part of treasure, for a neat alternative to raw monetary units. Said table, however, is woefully sparse - especially as a party approaches the higher levels, where the only pieces of art in circulation are gold rings and gold cups. Just how many nonmagical gold rings could one guy be reasonably expected to have?

Here then, I have an answer to your sparse and unrealistic treasure woes.

The One-Man Party

Dungeons & Dragons is a social game built around the core concept of the adventuring party. To that end, the various threats and obstacles throughout an adventuring day necessitate a variety of skill sets. One party member can bash down doors and cross swords with burly foes, another can pick locks and disable traps, a third can cast spells and, uh... do everything the first two do as well as much more. Nonetheless, the point stands: if you want to get far in this world, you'll need some friends with different class features before long.

Such is the conventional wisdom, anyway. But we here are all about bucking trends. Wouldn't it be exciting to try and have a single character be as versatile as possible to try and fill every party role? I'm not saying he or she has to be just as good at doing everything a complete party is, merely well enough to have a fair shot at any demand the adventuring world may throw at him. There's a certain tidiness (and thrill) to running a one-man party: how different does the D&D game feel when it's just one player and the DM? Imagine not having to share any loot from a treasure horde or XP from a fight. Imagine never having to argue about where to go or what needs to be done. Plus, it's the only way to experience one of my favourite adventure modules from a conceptual viewpoint: Jacob's Well.

So what sort of class is suited to take on such a demanding role? Perhaps it's tempting to take one or two levels of several different classes, hoping to score the most fundamental aspects of their class features and thus being able to do a little of everything. Your base attack bonus, spell progressions and general effectiveness at any one thing are going to suffer mightily for it, though. Surely it would be more elegant (and no doubt effective) to try and tick all the boxes while still staying in one base class!