Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Hmm... anyone else have Monday off?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I have monday mostly off, yes. Why?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Well, we've been missing a fair number of sessions of late (mostly because of me) and it just struck me as a possible opportunity to play.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I don't get summer breaks, but the advantage of being homeschooled is that I can take a vacation whenever I want to.

Violist still needs to come, though.

On a completely different note, I found out why dragons have such a high ECL. Point buy plus dragons equal really REALLY high stats.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Well, ECL is an imperfect measure of how useful a creature is over the long haul when in the hands of a skilled player; Immunity to Sleep, Paralysis, 60-foot blindsense, 120 foot darkvision, flight (and other movement forms), natural weapons, monk-perfect saves, spell-like abilities, and a breath weapon that'll function once or twice per combat is rather valuable - even disregarding the stats.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Oops, didn't check the forum. Wouldn't have worked anyways - I'm doing a duet performance at the end-of-year concert on Wednesday so I spent most of today rehearsing and getting coaching. I'll try to check the forums more frequently.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

You know, I wish I had worked on Monday, woulda gotten extra money for it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Everyone on for tomorrow?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I should be, if nothing extraordinary happens.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Or Supernatural or Spell-like?

Ok, that was a total D&D geek joke.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I have an anti-magic field for those two.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

It's 6/2/2007; Server online

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Server closed.

One baby Ogre Mage defeated (barely - Yay rogue-enabling Grappling! Yay rogue-restoring Healing! Yay Me-saving Invisibility! Yay Haste!), one young man from the sky rescued, 1,000 platinum pieces discovered.

XP?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Hmm.... in town, recent infusion of cash ... I suppose now would be a good time to stop and craft some scrolls of Cure Light Wounds.

Crafting 20 scrolls of Cure Light Wounds at caster level 1 would run 250 gp and 20 xp, as well as 20 days - and probably a good idea, provided the plot decides to wait that long.

Hmm... do I want Craft Wondrous Item or Craft Wand at 6th? Decisions, decisions....

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Wands of cure light wounds are apparently, statistically, the best at healing.

Of course, they're not the fastest, just the most efficient on a healing to gold ratio.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Core, they are the most gold-effecient for charged items. A caster level 1 Cure Light Wounds costs 15 gp/charge from a wand (750 gp per wand, 50 charges per wand). Each charge heals 1d8+1 HP (average 5.5), for 2.7272... gp/hp (on average).

I don't have Craft Wand, however. It costs 12.5 gp and 1 xp to scribe a caster level 1 scroll of Cure Light Wounds - marginally less than the cost of buying a charge from a Wand (if you ignore the XP cost).

If you branch out to Complete Divine, though, the ubiquitous Wand of Cure Light Wounds loses it's place. See, it costs the same amount to make/buy a Wand of Lesser Vigor as it does to make/buy a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. Lesser Vigor at caster level 1 grants fast healing 1 for 11 rounds. At 15 gp/charge, that's 1.3636... gp/hp (flat rate, although some will get wasted towards the end of the duration).

If you want to go really long-haul, the (very small handful) of x/day items that do healing are even better - although not for the why you want a Wand of Cure Light (lots of healing over the next five minutes). A Bead of Healing, for instance, is valued at 9,000 gp, and can cast Cure Serious Wounds once per day. At caster level 5, that's 3d8+5 (average 18.5) healing per use. After 500 uses (500 days), you've gotten the expected average cost per HP below 1 gp/hp. Likewise, a minimally intelligent Cloak of Resistance +1 with a single lesser power of Cure Moderate Wounds (2d8+3) 3/day costs 8,500 gp, market, and heals an average of 36 hp/day; after about 240 days, you've gotten the expected average cost per HP below 1 gp/hp.

If you sleep for a day, you gain twice your HD in HP, at the cost of a day's rations (5 sp). At our level (5th) that's 0.05 gp/hp. Less, if we skip rations and use Survival (or Goodberry) like I've got listed on my character sheet.

Edit:
Null - you posted, but not noted; delay approved? I'll assume so for now and mark it on my character sheet.

Oh, and any XP from the session?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

The plot can wait, yes. It's not time-sensitive... yet.

Falling block trap is encounter level of 5, and ogre mage was listed as being CR 5.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

So book-value 1500 xp each. Nifty.

320 xp to go (for me) until 6th.

Mwhahahaha....

Hmm.... Craft Wand or Craft Wondrous Item? Decisions, decisions.... ah well, I've got a few weeks before it matters.

Ah, now that I have scrolls of Cure Light wounds on hand, re-doing Typical spells prepared; swapping out 2* Cure Light Wounds for a Speak With Animals and a Faerie Fire.

Edit:
Violist, if you had Use Magic Device, I'd Craft you a scroll of Invisibility. If you had Brew Potion, I'd collaberate on a Potion of Invisibility. Sure, you can get a couple of rounds from your Ki Points... but that won't help your Ape (once he's re-Summoned and re-trained; 1 day plus Six Weeks for Combat Riding; 43 days). If you stop and do so now, I'll go ahead and spend the time Crafting another 23 scrolls of Cure Light; no rush yet, and stored healing is always handy.

Edit 2:
Well, maybe 20 more scrolls of Cure Light Wounds and a few scrolls of other utility spells ... if you decide to stop and retrieve the spirit of your companion now, that is, Violist.

Edit 3:
Hmm... you know, in light of recent events, I think that I will have my character's Ape pick up Improved Grapple. Just because so far Grappling's been the most effective tactic. And hey - that'll make for a fairly sweet grapple check at 6th - the "base" +12 Grapple from the Ape, +1 BAB from the extra HD, +1 Strength from the Druid strength boost (21 +1 -> 22, +5 Mod to a +6 Mod), and the +4 from the Improved Grapple Feat itself brings the ape to a +18 Grapple Modifier. Which'll do fairly well for 6th, 7th, and 8th level, I think.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I wouldn't mind resting for 1.5 months to pick up a new animal companion. UMD is a class skill and I've got skill points to spare, so I could put some ranks into that easily at 6th level.

Whoa, lesser vigor is on the Druid list. Guess I'll buy some wands of lesser vigor soon then, although that CLW has been useful in combat situations to restore people quickly http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Can we use the Magic Item Compendium? There's some sweet items there, like the Healing belt... +2 on Heal checks, 3 charges/day. 1 charge: 2d8 heal, 2 charges 3d8, 3 charges 4d8 points of healing as a standard action, could be quite useful given our tendency to take first strikes.

Also, Improved Grapple looks like an excellently useful choice given how helpful that is for piling on damage.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

No magic item compendium, mainly to me not having it.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Okay.

Another 20 xp and 250 gp (and 20 days) on another 20 scrolls of Cure Light Wounds.

Also crafting three scrolls of Invisibility (6 xp, 75 gp each; 18 xp, 225 gp for three).

Which brings me to the 43 days for Violist's calling and training.

Also taking the time and 50 gp to cast Continual Flame on the blade of my dagger (so I can sheath it when I don't want light, draw when I do).

All noted on OpenRPG node of my character sheet, unless there's any objections from the DM (e.g., interrupted sometime in that 43 days).

Edit: And with a permanent light source, dropping all the Light spells (4 of them) in favor of 2*Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Poison, and Mending.

Edit Again:
Violist:
Bear in mind, to use a simple Scroll of Invisibility, you'll need to be able to make a DC 23 skill check (20 + Caster level of the scroll). I'd advise Read Magic (it's on the Druid list, too) beforehand so you get to skip the DC 28 UMD check. Also, what's your Int? You may need to make a secondary check, DC 17, to emulate an Int of 12. When you think you have a reasonable chance of pulling it off, though, just ask for the scroll.

Also, Violist: Do you already have your build planned out for future levels? If not, I'd like to request that at 6th you take either Craft Wand or Craft Wondrous Item, and let me know, so I can take the other. Between the two of us, that permits collaberation on about 80-90% of the items we'll actually use.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

You know that a third of magic weapons automatically give off light in a 20 foot radius? For no extra cost?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Yeah, but those are pricy (a simple +1 dagger costs 2,302 gp, market); I don't intend to actually buy a magic weapon - at least not for a long, long time. And there's also the nifty about countering Darkness - the 2nd level spell, Continual Flame, is not suppressed by the 2nd level spell, Darkness. It's also not unaffected. The light crossbow and dagger are primarily for when I can't really think of anything better to do. As such, they don't get a meaningful investment of recources.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I wouldn't mind picking up Craft Wondrous Item next level... then I could shunt more money into upgrading crossbows. Bah! Have to wait 300 XP for that.

At 9th level I'd like to grab Improved Two-Weapon Fighting for the dual-crossbow invisibility strike, but 6th level is open as far as I can tell.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

My feat choices are cast, then.

Umm... you realize that you can't use Improved Two-Weapon fighting effectively with crossbows due to the requirement that you have both hands available to reload them, right? Worse, it's a move action to reload without the Rapid Reload feat, and you can't normally full attack to get the benefits of Two-Weapon fighting without having the full round available to Full Attack, right?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I was thinking of getting another pair of masterwork hand crossbows so that I'd be able to squeeze two rounds out of full attack, but I hadn't thought about the crossbows. Thanks for pointing that out, I'd completely spaced that.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

You might actually find your two-weapon fighting goes better with some Druid effect spells - you only need one hand to manipulate components, and the spell takes effect after the casting, so if you cast, say, Flame Blade (Druid-2, 1 min/level duration, touch attack deals 1d8 (+1/two levels, max +10) damage (no strength bonus, though) and Produce Flame (touch attack at range or melee deals 1d6 (+1/level, max +5) damage, 1 min/level, each attack reduces duration by 1 minute) in opposite hands, you can have both active, and two-weapon fight with them. You're a bit more limited on a per-day basis, but as they're only 1st and 2nd level spells, you can load up on them (or talk to my character, and colaberate on some scrolls - or wands, in another level) so you can use them at whim. The duration on both is high enough that you can cast it when you think combat might happen soon (e.g., just before opening a door), and be covered.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Actually, can you take Craft Wand instead of Craft Wondrous? My character will be perfectly happy to collaberate on anything you'll want to make (as it is the point of coordinating item crafting feat selection), and I'm looking at maybe taking Craft Construct eventually - which requires both Craft Wondrous Item and Craft Magic Arms and Armor. If you'll take Craft Wand (to cover the expendable recources - Cure Light Wounds, Invisibility, and the like) I can take Craft Wondrous this time, Craft Magic Arms and Armor at 9th, then Craft Construct at 10th (as a Wizard Bonus feat).

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Sure, makes no difference to me.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

So are you making your sixth level sheets already?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Planning it, haven't written mine up. I will of course need to roll HP, select skills, choose new Wizard spells and regularly prepared spells per day - but it doesn't hurt much if I don't coordinate those. Crafting Feats? It's better not to duplicate them.

I may never pick up Natural Spell - Craft Wondrous at 6th, Craft Magic Arms and Armor at 9th, then Craft Construct at 10th, in time to make a nice ....

Hmm. There's not a single golem you can make that doesn't require a 7th level spell. A Clay Golem requires Ressurection. A Flesh Golem requires Limited Wish. An Iron Golem requires Limited Wish. A Stone Golem requires Symbol of Stunning. A Shield Guardian requires Limited Wish (and Discern Location, 8th). Okay, there's the Homunculus, but it's kinda pointless and rather dangerous to use. Well, there goes that plan. Still taking Craft Wondrous at 6th, though.

Edit: Maybe Quicken Spell at 9th (when it becomes useful - 5th level spell slots), Craft Magic Arms and Armor at 10th, and Craft Construct at 12th (for making actual golems at 13th, when 7th level spells become available). Natural Spell will just have to wait. I suppose I have very little reason to pick up Polymorph (Alter Self, on the other hand...).

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

So, everyone up for the session in about 12 hours, 42 minutes?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Should be.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Server online this 6/16/2007.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Server closed.

A bunch of unusually bright skeletons and zombies defeated (I lost count - there were a large number of them). Made peace with the rest at the point of a claw on their leader. Four encounters, essentially. No rest yet. 600 gp found in a house. I'm fairly sure we would have won a stright-up fight at the end; but I wanted the information; got most of it, too. I was also basically out of spells - had my Extended Rope Trick, one more Shield spell, Speak With Animals, Faeire Fire, and a bunch of cantrips. That, and having the leader order everyone stand down is usually going to work out better than hoping you got them all. Especially if they have a natural desire to feed on intelligent living things. This might eventually come back to bite us, but it'll do well for the moment.

Hmm... should be a reasonable amount of XP, even though they were probably in the range of 1/2 to 2 on the CR (except for the priestess - I don't have any benchmark to judge her CR, as she didn't get to act, but it was probably higher). Thankfully, rolled well where it mattered. How much XP, anyway?

Very good session, by the way.

As to the reason for the three things I'm checking; two incidents don't make a pattern - pretty much ever. At least, not as far as locating the next is concerned. Three points will be easier to work with, but it's like a mass murderer - on the one hand, you want it to stop, so you don't want it to happen again; on the other, you want to find the next victim so you can have more in the way of clues to track down the perpetrator.

I'm checking three things:
1) Straight-line location. Large natural phenomina tend to follow this type of pattern over the short run (a hundred miles or so) - storms, for example. If there's a likely spot that follows the straight-line (or close to it), that's my next choice of destination (although I will consult with Amaki first)
2) Circular distribution. People usually have a base of operations of some kind, and do stuff in a radius from there. Going with the mass-murderer example, above, murders will usually not think about it too much, and go a random distance in a random direction from their home to commit their murder. The more they do so, though, the more you can find the center of it, and get a good idea where it's coming from. The same thing happens with certain types of natural events - huge gobs of lava belched from the mouth of a volcano land in essentially random points in a radius; but when there's a lot of them, you can get a pretty good idea where the volcano is located from where the huge gobs of lava landed. Failing a settlement that is a close fit to a straight line, the next thing to check is inside a circular distribution, using either known incident as a center point. I'm hoping it won't come to this type of progressively narrowing down the location, especially as it is possible to fake out by someone who knows about it, but I'm going to continue to track it.
3) Nearest town distribution: this is for the traveling villian who isn't yet aware someone's on his tail, who is "simply" looking for the next suitable set of experimental subjects. Failing any settlements that fall into 1 or 2, this is the next best bet.

Of course, if I find a settlement on the map that fits two or more of those, that's my next stop (well, after a rest - exhausted, you know).

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

For simplicities sake, I think I'm going to put all of the encounters at an average CR of 5. I kind of homebrewed those creatures up on the fly to fit my idea of the adventure(basically intelligent, non-shambling zombies), and the CR of 1 didn't really seem to work quite right.

Tip: Always give NPC spellcasters improved initiative, or some way of escaping a grapple. It would have been a lot harder had it had the chance to use a DC 16 ghoul touch....

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Yeah, probably would have won the fight... the zombies looked like more common ones, and the leader was busy being Grappled. Information is more valuable though.

I like your plan for finding the next spot.

Can we level tonight or should we wait for a significant amount of down time?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Null: Grease is a 1st level Sor/Wiz spell; you might want to look it up. Then have it prepared Stilled. And use Eschew Materials.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

There was the SLIGHT problem with only being able to use standard action spells. Otherwise Alever would have been blasted with a stilled eschew materials Cause Fear. That would have solved her grapple problems quite well.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Ah, so she was a Sorcerer (in part, at least).

Yeah, Wizards, when the prepare for it (Agean hasn't - and can't, from the Wizard perspective, not without Still Spell, which will be a while; hmm... could get a Wand of Grease, those aren't a problem, save for drawing them in the first place) do better in grapples than do Sorcerers, for exactly that reason.

Grappling is THE anti-caster tactic, at least before Dimension Door (Sor/Wiz 4; requires a 7th level character, minimum). I'm kinda surprised you haven't used it on me, yet; Small size, stregth as a dump stat; I'm staring down a negative grapple modifier. Escape Artist, untrained, of +3. Whop de do.

Which reminds me - I need to look up a Medium Animal with a good Grapple check.... what's got the best Strength score.... Black Bear at 19? Crocadile ties; hmm... which is better... oh, a Deinonychus looks interesting, same strength, too... right number of HP, reasonable dex, good speed, and more natural armor! We have a winner (until 8th level, for Large wild shape). After Wildshape, that's a grapple modifier of +8. Not too bad.

I didn't leave you twitching too badly, did I? I could tone it down if you'd prefer. Then again, I am keeping things as core as possible, except for the Gestalt aspect....

Edit:
Let's see... 4 CR 5's for 2 ECL 5 characters is ... 3,000 xp each. Nifty. That's next level. Level now or later?

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Nah. Just need counters to grapple.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

If it's any consolation, Alever would have been toast if the other bright zombies had figured out what was up.

Push Ageun away (surely they could have figured out there was some significance to ALWAYS being within five feet) then start pounding on Alever - in a grapple, so loses Dex; he would have been working with an AC of roughtly 12-14, haven't statted it out just yet. And he has lower HP than Ageun. And, when grappling, Alever doesn't have that much of a damage output - one attack at a d6+a bit.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

I'm not too up to date on tactics like that yet.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

It's called debuffing. Granted, without ranks in Knoweledge(Nature) or Knoweledge(Religion) it's unlikely that they'd have known exactly what the effect would be; likewise, it's not unreasonable to assume that the little gnome just likes to stay close to the big ape for protection; that specific counter is highly specific to the situation at hand, and potentially needed some metagame knowelege. The normal method of debuffing is with specific debuff spells (Ray of Enfeeblement and Enervation to name two) that reduce a character with no save or with Dispel Magic. There's also a lot of overlap with Save or Suck spells (Glitterdust, Stinking Cloud) which can often mean the difference between victory and failure.

Hmm... need to get a Wand of Grease...

Also - Level now (we are in what is - currently - a relatively safe place) or later (in a living town).

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

You can level right now if you want. Generally if you have the XP, you can level up at any time you choose.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Hello all. Thanks for letting me lurk the game the other day.

I'm interested in joining the game. After yesterday, it appears I'd be welcome too. I've created a PC (with Violist's input) which I hope meets with everyone's approval. I'm still tweaking things, so the gold-in-purse is most likely off.

Renmai's character sheet can be found here:
http://www.thetangledweb.net/profiler/view.php?id=17137

All critiques are welcome.

-cdi

[Edit: done tweaking now]

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Cdi:
One thing to be aware of in D&D is class power curves by level.

We're about in the middle ground of most of them at the moment, so it doesn't matter too much, but in general....

A Warrior (of Core: Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger) has higher than average "power" at lower levels, and lower than average "power" at higher levels (ignoring Tome of Battle, for the moment - it can change this).
A Sneak (of Core: Rogue primarily, but also Bard and to a slightly lesser extent, the Ranger) has reasonably average "power" at all levels.
A Full Caster (of Core: Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, Druid) has below average "power" at lower levels, and higher than average "power" at higher levels.

In Gestalt, you get to take the best of the power curves for your two classes (and add them to a degree - synergy, basically). You're working with a Warrior/Warrior, with a small portion of sneak thrown in. Just speaking from a power perspective, you'll want a full caster on one side eventually.

However, we're just getting into the middle zone of power levels, where most classes are basically equal in "power", so that aspect doesn't matter too much for about the next three to five levels.

It looks like a good character, which will very likely fit in (Nature theme) and fill a niche in the party (we don't currently have much, if anything, in the way of ranged combatants). You've got a higher unbuffed AC than just about anyone else in the party at the moment, the best HP, and you're liable to do a fair amount of damage each round, every round. You're also unlikely to find something who's DR you can't beat (due to the various special material arrows), and you've got backup melee weapons for when someone closes. You'll have something useful to do in basically any situation. Good job.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Jack,

Thanks for the comments, very very helpful.

I was hoping to craft a character that would fit the established theme and didn't rely heavily on spells. It appeared (while lurking) that the party had the spellcasting side covered and needed more "wombat-smash".

-cdi

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

To a goodly extent, yes.

The two big Apes get a power boost at 6th, bringing them to 6 HD and improving their AC (+2 Natural armor, +1 Str/Dex, and they have, by default, odd Strength and Dexterity scores - this is a threshold level for them), as well as directly improving their attack (+1 BAB, and a feat). +3 AC (putting mine at a "normal" ac of 21, the other at a "normal" ac of 19 - mine gets a Shared Extended Mage Armor, lasts 10 hours (all day, usually), in addition to the leather barding (which is overlapped by the Mage Armor), while the other just gets the leather barding. They will remain effective melee combatants for this level and probably the next. This is, however, the peak of their relative usefulness. Past this point, the opposition grows in power faster than the animal companions do. They'll likely have a brief stay of execution at 9th (when they get 2 more HD, and associated druid bonuses), but mechancially I do not see them as much more than baggage handlers, mounts, and occasional grapplers (anti-spellcasters) after about 10th-11th level. For now, though, they are effective at melee. I do worry about their Will saves, though.

Personally, if I wanted to make a ranged combatant for this party, I would probably go either Ranger/Cleric (any diety will work, just about, but one of the nature dieties would be ideal), Fighter/Druid, or Fighter/Cleric (nature diety).

Ranger/Cleric: gets most the archery line for free, as well as the nifty clerical buff spells. Also has all good saves and 6 skill points per level. With a nature diety, you'll fit right in - and be able to use the good light armors (no restriction about metals). Spend money to boost Wisdom, and save money by way of Greater Magic Weapon and Magic Vestments.

Fighter/Druid: has feats coming out the wazoo (just because the Fighter has feats coming out the wazoo). As you'll want the Dex for the archery to-hit anyway, there's no problem qualifying for them all. Downside: Only 4 skill points per level, can't use the good armors, only two good saves.

Fighter/Cleric: Fighter feats, cleric buffs, can use the best armors; but only 2 skill points per level (unless you can convince Null to let you use the Cloistered Cleric variant - in which case, it's wonderful all around, except for the poor reflex save - everything the Cloistered Cleric class removes from the Cleric, the Fighter puts back).

For a melee combatant, I would go with Fighter/Cleric (again, with Cloistered Cleric if possible), Fighter/Druid, or Monk/Druid - mostly for the same basic reasons. The Monk/Druid is in there for the Wisdom synergy, and the reduced MAD that afflicts the monk - Wildshape lets you ignore Strength and Dex.

But that's just me; you've got a solid build.

Re: OT: Null has gone looney and wants to GM.
 

Hmm... Null, you've been letting me get away without it, but I probably ought to use the extra bonus trick on a Grapple command, now that I've got one anyway.