The Order of the Stick: Rules Discussion

The majority of prestige classes have skill rank prerequisites. For example, Sublime Chord, one of the game's most powerful prestige classes, requires 13 ranks in Knowledge (arcana) and Listen, 10 ranks in Perform, and 6 ranks in Spellcraft and Profession (astrologer). Your maximum skill ranks are capped based on your hit dice (maximum rank is HD + 3, or half that number for a cross-class skill), so under normal circumstances, it is impossible to take levels of Sublime Chord without having at least 10 other hit dice first. (The expected entry is ten levels of Bard.)

However, with the lycanthrope trick, a 7th level Bard could become a wereboar to get additional skill ranks in Listen and Knowledge (arcana), gain Sublime Chord levels, then have the lycanthrope cured, ending up as a Bard 7/Sublime Chord X.

Base attack bonus prerequisites can be cheated in a similar manner.

edited 12th Feb '16 3:31:08 PM by troacctid

I was fairly certain that the skill rank limit was based on class levels rather than hit dice, otherwise I don't understand how the class/non-class distinction would work with multiclassing.

The higher skill rank cap applies to each skill that was ever a class skill for any of your classes. However, when you assign skill points when leveling up, the class you take at that level determines whether you have to spend double the skill points to gain a rank in a cross-class skill.

So, for example, say I start out with a level of Rogue and put 4 ranks in Disable Device. Next level, I take a level of Fighter. My skill rank maximum for Disable Device goes up to 5, because it's a class skill for Rogue, but if I want to keep it maxed, I have to spend 2 skill points instead of 1, because it's not a class skill for Fighter.

So looking at an old strip there's a bit where one spell takes up seven pages of Vaarsuvius' spellbook even though it's just one word, because it's a seventh level spell. Is that how it actually works in the real D&D?

Yes, but V is being a bit hyperbolic. The spell's activation — the action that releases the stored magical energy that its caster has prepared — may be a single word, but the magical formula for the spell itself is fairly lengthy.

A typical spellbook has 100 pages, and a spell takes up one page per level.

edited 12th Feb '16 7:02:01 PM by Fighteer

Yeah, there are ways around it, but generally speaking, higher-level spells take up more space to scribe. Even if you use an alternate method of scribing your spells, like, say you engrave your spells onto human skulls, you can only fit six spell levels' worth of spells onto a single skull. If you had a 7th level spell, you'd have to go find a bigger skull, or use multiple skulls. Or, say you tattoo your spells onto your body—your hands could only hold one spell level each, while your arms could hold six, and your upper back could hold ten.

edited 12th Feb '16 8:04:28 PM by troacctid

That sounds like it would be annoying to keep track of. And what happens when your spellbook is full? Can you not learn new spells until you get a new one? Can you even get a new one?

A fresh blank spellbook is only 15 gp, so it's usually not a problem to buy more.

I think that's one of those things that most people don't care much about (and therefore the DM doesn't care about). Like how V's familiar appeared and disappeared in earlier strips, it's just assumed that a wizard has their spellbook.

Also, you can buy magic spellbooks - the D20 SRD details the Blessed Book, which is a moderately expensive magic item at 12,500 GP, but holds 1,000 pages of spells in a 1" x 8" x 12" book weighing 1 lb. It's also waterproof, and you don't have to pay the "expensive material component" cost to fill it with spells (100 GP per page for a regular spellbook).

Alternately, you can just buy a Bag of Holding and fill it with regular spellbooks.

edited 12th Feb '16 10:43:10 PM by Shinziril

Your bag of libraries, with your spellbook, your backup spellbook, your backup-backup spellbook and a scroll to teleport you back home to your backup-backup-backup spellbook.

And a miniature figurine of a chest, which serves as the focus component for a Leomund's Secret Chest spell containing even more backup spellbooks.

And just to be safe, use a Hoard Gullet spell instead of a bag of holding, so that there's no chance any of it gets lost or stolen.

edited 13th Feb '16 1:08:53 AM by troacctid

"Spellbooks" no longer looks like a word to me now.

@troacctid: Thanks for the explanation.

Or you could assume that it really is just a single word, but one so powerful that it takes seven pages of containment runes to safely keep written down...

But, if you assume spells consist simply of a single word, you run into the problem discussed a few pages back of "why is it so hard for a professional wizard to remember how to pronounce the word "fireball"?"

Assuming that remembering spells consists of more than just learning them once, and preparing them is more complicated still, explains (to some extent) why wizards are limited in the ways they are.

The actual words and gestures are just the final activation. Like pulling the trigger on a gun. Trying all the words and whatnot without preparing the spell beforehand is like shooting someone with finger guns. It vaguely resembles the real thing, but it's just not going to work.

See also: V not actually preparing Shout, so she couldn't cast it just by yelling.

Actually, they just yelled "Sonic!" and it was funny.

Yes? That's my point. Well, I didn't remember the spell name properly. She hadn't actually prepared the spell and you have to do more than just yell to cast it.

edited 13th Feb '16 12:05:40 PM by Arha

Being a Wizard seems like more hassle than I'd be willing to put up with if I actually played D&D.

Also, it seems once you get to a certain point the distinction between Wizard and Sorcerer seems a bit meaningless.

Going back to the Wereboar exploit, I'm not 100% sure, but isn't there some rule somewhere that if you cease being qualified for a prestige class (or any other class) you're no longer able to take levels in it?

Base classes with alignment requirements say it explicitly so maybe not.

I'm pretty sure that if you stop qualifying for a class (prestige or otherwise) you can't advance, yeah, but that does nothing to get rid of the levels you've already taken in it.

(Unless you're a paladin and stop qualifying for new levels because you fell from a good alignment. At this point you take a level of rogue or something for five ranks in Hide, have a brief chat with a friendly quasit or something, and trade in paladin levels for blackguard ones.)

edited 13th Feb '16 12:54:37 PM by CountDorku

There is such a rule, but notice that once you take 3 levels of Sublime Chord, you now have the requisite skill ranks even after curing your lycanthrope.

But you have to level up 3 times with + however much ECL, while not really having much increase in character effectiveness, so it's kind of a wash.

I can't remember the details of the strip, but I believe the spell in question was a Power Word spell, which as the name implies can be cast simply by shouting the magic word. The point being that it requires no other material or gestural components, like most other spells do.