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[My Name is Immaterial]

What's a good general use ring? I was looking through the MIC, and only Ring of the Forcewall stood out to me.

[Flying Dice]

Ring of Freedom of Movement, for one. 40k for Freedom of Movement all day, every day.
If you really want the best in flight, a Ring of Solar Wings grants 150' fly speed (good) while worn and Featherfalls you if it is removed.
A Ring of Mental Fortitude grants immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities (though not scrying of various sorts).

Those are the big three, and they're all on the list for a good reason (though you can get flight in other, cheaper forms, that's one of the best item-based forms of flight out there).

Frankly, there are much better things to do with your ring slots. You can take care of all of your food+water+shelter concerns for a measly 5k gp with a Survival Pouch, which also gives you rope, loot transportation, and fire, all without wasting a slot.

He has a Hand of Glory.

Herp, skimmed right over that.

Still going to maintain that there are plenty of better things to get. Out of combat healing and food/water are trivial, item slots are valuable. The Ring of Sustenance I suppose could fly, given how cheap it is and the third slot, but 90k for increased natural healing when we've got ways to handle that and wands of CLW is a tremendous waste. Unless we're going to be repeatedly dismembered, I suppose. 

[My Name is Immaterial]

Thanks! Now, I get Light Armor Proficiency. What should I gear up with?

Spoiler: Current Gear (click to show/hide)

Sundark Goggles
Tentacle Rod (Greater?)
Artificer's Monocle?
Shax's Indispensable Haversack IV
Headband of Intellect +6
Cloak of Charisma +6
Cloudwalker Anklets
Goodberry Bracelet
Storm Gauntlets
Amulet of the Silver Tongue, Greater (Used as Item Familiar)
Ring of the Solar Wings
Ring of Freedom of Movement

[Flying Dice]

Go through the list of things you want immunities/counters for, and keep in mind that if you run into a high-level enemy with a save-or-X you don't have a counter for, you can get splatted fairly easily. Pick up either a Soulfire or Death Ward enchantment on your armor, for one. The former is much more costly, but the latter is limited to 1/day -- with the reduced cost there's basically no reason not to take Soulfire, given that it gives blanket immunity to a lot of really nasty stuff. Basically just go over all the things that could be done to your character, and try to cover as many bases as possible.

--

Okay, I reread the relevant stuff and the 50% range increase to weaponlike spells and SLAs from Goggles of the Horizon definitely does apply to Eldritch Spear, pushing it to 375'. Given the wording of the text for Eldritch Chain, specifically in that the player 'jumps' the chain in order to make more ranged touch attacks on additional targets, my judgement is that it's a continuation of the same principle, and that as the range for those additional attacks is 30', the goggles would increase it to 45'. Of course Tawa has the final call, but I think the reasoning is sound.

[Harbingerjm]

How are you affording so much LA without level loss from Buyoff?

Taw labeled Truenamers as Tier 6.

That strikes me as exceedingly unwise of him, given you have Conjunctive Gate on your known Utterances.

[My Name is Immaterial]

How are you affording so much LA without level loss from Buyoff?

Taw labeled Truenamers as Tier 6.

That strikes me as exceedingly unwise of him, given you have Conjunctive Gate on your known Utterances.

Please. One "Good" level does not make up for 19 shitty ones.

[Harbingerjm]

What 19 shitty ones? You start at 20.

[My Name is Immaterial]

What I'm trying to say is that a class isn't just what it gets at a level, but what it can do at that level. So I can Gate once a minute without paying the XP cost. Yippie. I've still got to pay the cash cost. If Taw lays down a Dimensional Lock or hits me with a Dimensional Anchor, I've got to go back to the other 19 levels of Truenamer.

[Harbingerjm]

What I'm trying to say is that a class isn't just what it gets at a level, but what it can do at that level. So I can Gate once a minute without paying the XP cost. Yippie. I've still got to pay the cash cost. If Taw lays down a Dimensional Lock or hits me with a Dimensional Anchor, I've got to go back to the other 19 levels of Truenamer.

...There is no cash cost unless you request an extended service, and the once-a-minute thing is both not that important for Gate and easily bypassable with different CL boosted versions.

[My Name is Immaterial]

What I'm trying to say is that a class isn't just what it gets at a level, but what it can do at that level. So I can Gate once a minute without paying the XP cost. Yippie. I've still got to pay the cash cost. If Taw lays down a Dimensional Lock or hits me with a Dimensional Anchor, I've got to go back to the other 19 levels of Truenamer.

...There is no cash cost unless you request an extended service

Ohhhhh. I thought the main complaint was with service. And I see that I missed a paragraph. Oops.

easily bypassable with different CL boosted versions.

That would be true, but that's not how Truenamers work. Also, there's literally no way to increase a Truenamer's 'CL', except for leveling.

[Harbingerjm]

What I'm trying to say is that a class isn't just what it gets at a level, but what it can do at that level. So I can Gate once a minute without paying the XP cost. Yippie. I've still got to pay the cash cost. If Taw lays down a Dimensional Lock or hits me with a Dimensional Anchor, I've got to go back to the other 19 levels of Truenamer.

...There is no cash cost unless you request an extended service

Ohhhhh. I thought the main complaint was with service. And I see that I missed a paragraph. Oops.

Yeah, um, that's... kind of most of the point of the spell, so missing that paragraph is a bit... misleading.

easily bypassable with different CL boosted versions.

That would be true, but that's not how Truenamers work. Also, there's literally no way to increase a Truenamer's 'CL', except for leveling.

Er, Spell Level, not CL. My bad. However, yes, that is how Truenamers work.

However, you can increase the effective spell level of an utterance by increasing the DC of your Truespeak check. For every spell level you increase the utterance by, increase the DC of your Truespeak check by 4.

It’s okay to use a different utterance while the first is still active, however. It’s also okay to use a higher-level version of an utterance while a lower-level version is active, or vice versa, because these constitute different utterances. The reverse of an utterance is treated as the same utterance for the purpose of the Law of Sequence.

[Flying Dice]

Regarding the item familiar:

Whenever a character with an item familiar gains skill points, he may choose to put some or all of those skill points into his item familiar. He assigns the skill points normally, but notes that they now reside in the item familiar. For every 3 ranks he assigns to the item familiar, he gains a +1 bonus that he can apply to any single skill. This bonus can be applied to a skill in which he already has maximum ranks. He can apply multiple bonuses to the same skill, but he may not have more points of bonus in a skill than he has ranks.

Truespeak :: Int :: +110 total bonus | +9 AbMod | +23 Ranks | +78 Misc

3 ranks in the familiar = +1 skill bonus, and you can have a maximum of [# of Ranks in skill] bonus points in a given skill. In this case, the familiar would be able to give you at most +23. Add Skill Focus for +3, Guildmaster for +2, Favored in Guild for +2... and that's all I can find, for a total of +30 on the Misc modifier. How'd you make it from there to +78? o.0

Just an impression from the math involved, but what it looks like is [(23 * 3) +3+2+2] = 76, so I probably missed a +2 modifier somewhere and you misread how the skill point investment works. That, or you dug up some obscure items and haven't put them on your sheet yet. Or I could be completely off-base here. 

---

Re: Gate:

There are a couple ways to make it fit for play, other than just not using it, given that it's one of the only decent parts of a class which is thoroughly mediocre after getting things to counter the scaling that breaks it. Probably one of the simplest which is also thematically interesting (as opposed to banning the spell or drawing up a list of banned summons) is to remove the mind-control aspect of it.

That, or to explicitly play by what the rules suggest, and don't allow the caller to include some sort of clause preventing the creature from coming back and getting revenge.

It's a spell which feels suitable impressive for this level of play, and all that it takes is remembering that when you're yanking incredibly powerful creatures out of their homes and forcing them to perform (often rather menial) services for you, you're also making incredibly powerful enemies. Who's to say that that Solar you've been using as a Wish-dispenser isn't going to come back and wish away whatever you got (which, I think, would be a completely acceptable interpretation of the rules -- anything positive which can be wished for can also have the opposite wished for)? Clearly you've got the potential to be quite Evil, given that you used another sentient being as a tool to further your goals. That that Balor you called up to fight your enemies isn't going to be sore over being used and won't hunt you down?

So yeah. Two solutions:

1. Remove the automatic mind control and force players to either persuade or manually gain control over what they've gated in (either way is much more interesting and decidedly more dangerous).

2. Make beings that have been gated in not be terminally retarded tools that cease to exist once they're released.

Either way preserves the awesome feeling of gating in something big, while also introducing an element of risk which could potentially really screw the players over, as well as fitting more firmly with general perceptions and presentations of how this sort of summoning tends to work.

[Harbingerjm]

10. This is, more or less, a test run for insanely high-level campaigns. Plan accordingly.

A question: does this mean that the campaign will be continuing up into 30+ territory, or is "insanely high level" referring to low-epic (which is rather insanely high by PbP standards )?

Re: Gate:

There are a couple ways to make it fit for play, other than just not using it, given that it's one of the only decent parts of a class which is thoroughly mediocre after getting things to counter the scaling that breaks it. Probably one of the simplest which is also thematically interesting (as opposed to banning the spell or drawing up a list of banned summons) is to remove the mind-control aspect of it.

That, or to explicitly play by what the rules suggest, and don't allow the caller to include some sort of clause preventing the creature from coming back and getting revenge.

It's a spell which feels suitable impressive for this level of play, and all that it takes is remembering that when you're yanking incredibly powerful creatures out of their homes and forcing them to perform (often rather menial) services for you, you're also making incredibly powerful enemies. Who's to say that that Solar you've been using as a Wish-dispenser isn't going to come back and wish away whatever you got (which, I think, would be a completely acceptable interpretation of the rules -- anything positive which can be wished for can also have the opposite wished for)? Clearly you've got the potential to be quite Evil, given that you used another sentient being as a tool to further your goals. That that Balor you called up to fight your enemies isn't going to be sore over being used and won't hunt you down?

So yeah. Two solutions:

1. Remove the automatic mind control and force players to either persuade or manually gain control over what they've gated in (either way is much more interesting and decidedly more dangerous).

2. Make beings that have been gated in not be terminally retarded tools that cease to exist once they're released.

Either way preserves the awesome feeling of gating in something big, while also introducing an element of risk which could potentially really screw the players over, as well as fitting more firmly with general perceptions and presentations of how this sort of summoning tends to work.

The problem here is that none of this is all that much of a hindrance, especially for a Lawful Good character. It's not like a Solar is likely to be particularly put out about being asked to provide some assistance to a Good character, particularly if you take a couple of minutes to scry+telepathy till you find a willing one first. Now, that might sound like it makes it useless for combat, but a) in-combat use really isn't the big deal with freely calling in Solars and b) once you scry&chat the first time, you can set up agreements about who will be happy to help smite evil and even timeslots when.
Also, it's not like there's a shortage of unintelligent but powerful targets to Gate in.
To illustrate just how useful the ability is... MNiI can start with a +5 Inherent bonus to all Attributes, because Gating in 5 Solars and asking them to Wish him an Ability bonus is trivially easy.

[Flying Dice]

Fair enough. Might be best to just outright ban the use of Gate for generating Wishes, which would retain other purposes. Maybe add a DC to successfully creating the Gate which increases with each consecutive use (just random ballpark numbers here, first Gate use adds a 40 DC Truespeak check, and each use after that adds +15 to the DC, with the DC being removed 6 months/a year/some other time frame after the last use), with effects from failing the check ranging from it just whiffing to summoning something hostile of equivalent CR to the intended summon, to being reverse-gated into the plane you were trying to summon on, to being reverse-gated onto a random plane, to... &c. -- call it the natural form of the universe reasserting itself or whatever in resistance to external manipulation.

What would you think of that? It outright removes the possibilities of Wish shenanigans and prevents us from calling in Celestial cavalry whenever we're in trouble with things they'd oppose, but still allows the use of it for situations of extreme danger. Seems like that would remove the potential for free infinite wishes and a constant get-out-of-jail-free card while retaining the power of the ability for dire circumstances. In short, allow it, but add heavy downsides to spamming it; try to call up a Solar one too many times and you might end up with a CR23 Evil Outsider trying to stomp your face in instead.

Alternatively, do you have any ideas of your own for how to fix it short of a long list of banned summons or DM fiat just saying "No." to Gate as a whole? It's one of the more broken high-level magics, especially with no XP cost, but it's also one of the thematically interesting ones if it could be balanced properly.

In short: free infinite wishes is a no-go. Free infinite backup from Good Outsiders is fairly boring. Occasionally calling in/persuading aid from other planes for really bad situations could be an interesting addition to the mix, helping to create the feeling of an Epic game, especially by reinforcing the feeling that even as 20th level PCs we're not the only high-end force for our corner of the alignment cross.

[Harbingerjm]

Fair enough. Might be best to just outright ban the use of Gate for generating Wishes, which would retain other purposes. Maybe add a DC to successfully creating the Gate which increases with each consecutive use (just random ballpark numbers here, first Gate use adds a 40 DC Truespeak check, and each use after that adds +15 to the DC, with the DC being removed 6 months/a year/some other time frame after the last use), with effects from failing the check ranging from it just whiffing to summoning something hostile of equivalent CR to the intended summon, to being reverse-gated into the plane you were trying to summon on, to being reverse-gated onto a random plane, to... &c. -- call it the natural form of the universe reasserting itself or whatever in resistance to external manipulation.

While the Truenamer section of the book is badly written enough to make it difficult to be sure, I believe there's already a DC to use it; 15+(2*CR of target), +2 per use of that level of Gate per day, +4 for each boosted level, a few other DC boosts. The problem is those checks are utterly trivial to hit consistently quite a number of times per day. Frankly, deciding Truenamer is tier 6 for this game is utterly misplacing it; with poor optimisation, its class feature just doesn't work and Tier 6 is about right (if nothing else, they'll outfight a commoner), but with a decent level of optimisation it goes up to 3/4, and once it hits 20 and takes Conjunctive Gate it's basically Tier 1.

Alternatively, do you have any ideas of your own for how to fix it short of a long list of banned summons or DM fiat just saying "No." to Gate as a whole? It's one of the more broken high-level magics, especially with no XP cost, but it's also one of the thematically interesting ones if it could be balanced properly.

I don't see any reason to bother; the DM has already banned every other Tier 1 class, so I would suggest just either removing Truenamer as Tier 1, or allowing Truenamer as Tier... 4, say, and banning Conjunctive Gate.