Arena Tournament, Round 67: Ford Prefect vs. Chuck E. Cheese

[madtinker]

Okay, I'll take your word for it. Buuuut...
I hope you don't mind, but since there is no way to avoid death from FDMM, I looked at your readied action (and only your readied action) from immediatly before you blasted me. As far as I know "blast the snot" is not a legal spell, and readied actions have been overturned for not naming the specific spell to be cast. I argue that your readied action was not valid, and you must now succede an opposed grapple check or die.

If it was improper of me to check your readied action in such a manner, I will concede the match without further argument.

[Schism]

...Right. Now go check my other readied actions where I do name the spell, and realize that they're all the same. Humorous readied actions are an arena tradition. *facepalm*

Edit: And what else would I "blast the snot out of you" with, exactly? It's not like I prepared another offensive spell.

Editedit: There are several feats that can negate/ignore/save vs a negative level, by the way.

[madtinker]

Well, cheesy is cheesy, and this one technicality is all I got, so... ask a ref?

[Schism]

*facepalm* Fine.

[Sallera]

Saying that it wasn't a specific spell when it was previously named in the same readied actions is rather akin to claiming that when we were slinging 'stones' at each other that we should have done the damage for improvised sling ammo because we didn't say 'bullets'.

[Schism]

Come to think on it, I might have won if we were using improvised weapons in Rusty v Quork.

Edit: But yes, it really is taking lawyering to a whole new level, here.

[hustlertwo]

On the one hand, it's a pretty cheap tactic. On the other, so is Fell Drain. I highly doubt this works though, but I won't call it until there's a ruling.

[Kyeudo]

GM Kyeudo

While it would have been better for him to mention the Fell Drained Magic Missile in his "blast the snot out of him", I don't believe that there is enough reason to invalidate his readied action. After all, what else would he have cast?

As such:
Chuck E. Cheese is the Winner!

[Schism]

Thanks, Kyeudo.

No hard feelings, mad. FDMM really is cheap enough to warrant pulling that kind of trick. In the future I'll just make sure to clearer in my readied actions, just in case.

[madtinker]

One more question: does fell drain work like a metamagic in that it increases casting time or anything, making it more than a standard action and thus unreadiable? If not, thanks for the thorough nasal cleansing, and I'll see you in the finals.

[Schism]

Only sorcerers have casting time increased by using metamagic, and metamagic specialists don't even have that 3 times a day. Even if Chuck was one of those - which he isn't - Midnight Metamagic specifically states that the metamagic it takes the place of does not increase casting time.

[madtinker]

Good enough for me. See you in the finals.