Simple Q&A D&D 3.5 (by RAW) XXII

[rockdeworld]

As an example someone is looking at a LN Cleric of Heironeous. With Detect Law he would get the Aura of Law of a cleric of appropriate level and possibly the aura of law of a lawful character (as per a). What happens with Detect good? Would that cleric still have the aura of good of a cleric of his level even though he himself is not of good alignment?

A715 continued

Yes. Detect Law would detect the aura of a lawful creature, and Detect Good would detect the aura of a cleric of a good deity. Strength given on the chart.

[Duke of Urrel]

Q 733 concerning the acquisition of feats:

Q 733a

If one of the prerequisites of a feat (for example the Weapon Specialization feat) is that you belong to a certain class (for example the fighter class), must you advance a level in that class in order to acquire the feat, or is it enough that you have at least one level in this class already?

Q 733b

Suppose the answer to the above question is "Yes (you must advance a level in the fighter class) and No (it is not enough that you have one level in fighter already)," and suppose one of the prerequisites of a feat is having another feat whose prerequisite is that you belong to a certain class. For example, suppose I advanced one level as a fighter in order to acquire the Weapon Specialization feat. Must I advance another level as a fighter in order to acquire the Mêlée Weapon Mastery feat (and all other feats farther up this tree), or is it enough that I have the Weapon Specialization feat already?

[Curmudgeon]

A 733a

You need to meet the stated minimum prerequisites of the feat. Unless the feat specifies that you must acquire it at the same level when you advance a particular class, there is no such requirement. Weapon Specialization requires that you have at least four levels of the Fighter class. As long as you have that number of levels or more, the class you're advancing when the select the feat is irrelevant. Because the prerequisite includes "fighter level 4th", having only one level of Fighter is inadequate.

A 733b N/A.

[Andezzar]

A 733 Addendum

Since the selection of a class comes before the selection of feats, you can take such feats even on the level that gives you the required class levels. A first level swordsage for example could select Extra Readied Maneuver as his first level feat.

[Kred]

Q 734
If i take human race and become a psionic, should i take Wild Talent to take feats?

[Urpriest]

Q 734
If i take human race and become a psionic, should i take Wild Talent to take feats?

A 734

Depends.

"Become a psionic" is not a game-term, and may not even be correct grammar, considering that D&D typically uses psionic as an adjective. The Wild Talent feat will make you psionic, but so will taking levels in the Psion class, or the Psychic Warrior class, or taking the Hidden Talent feat, or anything else that gives you a pool of power points.

[ACSherman]

Q 735

If you take the feat wandstrike and get a wand chamber installed within a weapon, can they be used in conjunction? Would they get the both damage from the weapon and the spell damage?

[Curmudgeon]

A 735 No.

Benefit: As a standard action, you can make a melee touch attack with a wand, expending one charge to deal 1d6 points of damage to the creature struck.

Because you must use a standard action specifically to use Wandstrike, this is incompatible with any other attack.

Wand Chamber (Weapon or Shield): A wand chamber is a thin, cylindrical slot on the handle of a weapon or the edge of a shield that can hold a single wand. When a wand is loaded in the chamber, it is considered ready and can be activated without having to drop the weapon or shield.

A wand chamber lets you activate a wand normally, without needing to take it out of a weapon. However, Wandstrike doesn't use normal activation, but requires physically touching the target with the wand. A wand in a Wand Chamber is not exposed as is required for this use, and Wandstrike provides no benefit for touching with a weapon instead of a wand.

[alanek2002]

Q 736
what happens when someone attempts an immediate action in response to an immediate action?

[Sith_Happens]

Q 737

When casting Alter Self or one of its derivatives, does your equipment change to match the size of your new form if it would otherwise be usable in that form?

[AdInfinitum]

Q738
Is there any way for an archivist to get the Daylight spell requirement for Master of Radiance before spell level three? Does the SLA of the Asimaar count?

[Curmudgeon]

A 737 No.

When the change occurs, your equipment, if any, either remains worn or held by the new form (if it is capable of wearing or holding the item), or melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When you revert to your true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on your body they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items you wore in the assumed form and can’t wear in your normal form fall off and land at your feet; any that you could wear in either form or carry in a body part common to both forms at the time of reversion are still held in the same way. Any part of the body or piece of equipment that is separated from the whole reverts to its true form.

There are no changes to any clothing or gear, other than them melding into the new form if they are not usable. If you change size you'll probably end up naked, excepting perhaps a necklace with a long chain; most clothing and gear will either be too small or too big to be worn.

A 738 partial

Spells: Able to cast daylight as a divine spell.

That's very explicit; a spell-like ability will not suffice to enter Master of Radiance.

[Arkusus]

Q739

The Deepwarden class lets you use your Con modifier in place of your Dex modifier for calculating AC. Is this modifier still subject to the same armor penalties as Dex? Specifically the normal "Maximum Dexterity" penalty. There's a little less specificity than I'd like from what I read. I would guess the same penalty applies though, as you lose the bonus when you're caught flat-footed.

[Phelix-Mu]

Q740

Please correct any of the following statements.

A character is going to multiclass into swordsage at high level. With an initiator level of 11, this opens up 6th level maneuvers to the x/x/swordsage1.

Can any/all of the maneuvers known be chosen from any level of maneuver less than or equal to 6? For instance, ignoring the need for pre-requisites, can all of the maneuvers be level 6?

[Curmudgeon]

A 740

With no prior martial class, your starting maneuvers are restricted by initiator level, the number allowed (6), and the disciplines available to a Swordsage: Desert Wind, Diamond Mind, Setting Sun, Shadow Hand, Stone Dragon, and Tiger Claw. Your Swordsage level 1 stance selection is limited to a single one at level 1, again from these specified disciplines.

[Muktidata]

Q741: If you're TWF'ing with a Heavy Spiked Shield with two hands and your Armor Spikes as your off-hand attack, do you get the 1.5 STR on your Shield Spike Attacks for wielding it two-handed?

[Dude_Here]

Q742

Does a character with a ranged attack receive the -4 penalty for firing into melee if the target he or she is firing at is using a reach weapon and the target's opponent is not adjacent to him? And what if the target is only threatening his opponent and not actually attacking him; does that count as being in melee?

[Curmudgeon]

A 741 No.

You don't have that option.

Shield Spikes

When added to your shield, these spikes turn it into a martial piercing weapon that increases the damage dealt by a shield bash as if the shield were designed for a creature one size category larger than you. You can’t put spikes on a buckler or a tower shield. Otherwise, attacking with a spiked shield is like making a shield bash attack.

Shield Bash Attacks

You can bash an opponent with a light shield or heavy shield, using it as an off-hand weapon. See Table: Weapons for the damage dealt by a shield bash. Used this way, a shield is a martial bludgeoning weapon. For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a heavy shield as a one-handed weapon and a light shield as a light weapon.

According to the RAW, a shield used offensively is an off hand weapon. You can use armor spikes as your main weapon with this combination.

Armor Spikes

You can have spikes added to your armor, which allow you to deal extra piercing damage (see Table: Weapons) on a successful grapple attack. The spikes count as a martial weapon. If you are not proficient with them, you take a -4 penalty on grapple checks when you try to use them. You can also make a regular melee attack (or off-hand attack) with the spikes, and they count as a light weapon in this case. (You can’t also make an attack with armor spikes if you have already made an attack with another off-hand weapon, and vice versa.)

You'll take the penalties for TWF with a non-light off hand weapon, and of course there is no two-handed bonus when using a light main hand weapon.

A 742

Your questions can be answered by this Glossary definition

melee

Melee combat consists of physical blows exchanged by opponents close enough to threaten one another's space, as opposed to ranged combat.

Adjacent squares aren't required to be in melee. However, one of the involved characters does need to have at least tried to deliver a physical blow (which would also include a touch attack) for them to be in melee combat.

[Laharal]

Q743

I'm preparing myself for a future argument with friends of mine:
If you want a +2 (disprution) or +3 (implacable) special ability on a magic weapon, does it have to be a +2 or +3 enhanced weapon or do you just need a +1?

According to the rules A weapon with a special ability must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus. But maybe I missed another rule. Thanks.

[Khedrac]

A743
To put special abilities on a weapon it only needs to have a +1 enhancement bonus in addition to the other abilities.

A +1 disrupting weapon is priced as a +3 weapon, similarly +1 implacable prices at +4 and +1 disrupting implacable at +6.
The total bonus equivalent cannot exceed +10 pre-epic.
The +1 must be from enchanting the weapon as a +1 weapon - other sources of a +1 enhancement bonus on the weapon do not count for the minimum +1 rule.

[HurinTheCursed]

Q744, answered
I'm currently playing in DragonLance setting. Our group has fought several ghost-templated creatures so far, all have the Horrific Appearance (SRD) ability as the template.

Spoiler

Show

Horrific Appearance (Su)

Any living creature within 60 feet that views a ghost must succeed on a Fortitude save or immediately take 1d4 points of Strength damage, 1d4 points of Dexterity damage, and 1d4 points of Constitution damage. A creature that successfully saves against this effect cannot be affected by the same ghost’s horrific appearance for 24 hours.

In the campaign book (showed be the DM since I was in disbelief), the ability is printed as "Horrific Appearance (SU), fortitude DC XX half" while I believe the ability description means "Horrific Appearance (SU), fortitude DC XX negates". It is an automatic 3-stats damage for each ghost met, for the whole group, even if the save is made.
Is the book wrong everytime (no erratum for that) or is it normal and specific to the universe or am I fully wrong ?

Thanks by advance

[Douglas]

A744

I assume your second quoted part was intended to be "Horrific Appearance (SU), fortitude DC XX negates".

I just checked the Dragonlance Campaign Setting book and could not find anything about ghosts. The Bestiary of Krynn, meanwhile, simply has a note that "all of the Monster Manual undead are suitable for use in adventures." Also "Ghosts are encountered in many forms, kept back on Krynn for wrongs left unrighted, love unresolved, or perhaps desires left unpursued."

I suspect the writer of the campaign either misunderstood the ability or assumed without bothering to check that saves against damaging abilities are always for half damage. There are lots of people who write modules, they make mistakes, and they generally don't have the resources to get the kind of exhaustive proofreading that would catch things like this.

As per the Monster Manual, a successful save is supposed to prevent all damage from the ability. If this were an intentional change by the module writer rather than a mistake, I would expect something more than a single word in the ability summary to indicate it.

Bottom line: the module writer made a mistake.

[HurinTheCursed]

Thank you
- you understood my question despite my minor mistake (that I'll edit)
- it was very specific and yet you answered fast
- your answer couldn't be clearer given the problem is module-specific

[Curmudgeon]

Re: Q 744

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. There are no errata for the Monster Manual related to the Ghost template; the ability functions as stated, with a successful saving throw negating the Horrific Appearance.

Your reference to "the campaign book" is confusing. The only Dragonlance book which is part of the 3.5 D&D rules set is the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. In checking the table of contents and flipping through the "Creatures of Ansalon" chapter of that book I didn't see any ghost characters. If you're referring to some non-D&D Dragonlance books I'm afraid this isn't actually the right forum for your question, though you might get some people to try to help you anyway.

Edit: Way too slow on the response, spending time flipping through books.

[Andezzar]

Q 745

Is there a sorc/wiz spell or combination of such spells to allow the caster to interact (verbal communication, visibility) with other people at a distance (need not breach plane barriers)? I'm looking for something similar to a videophone but with a (quasi)holographic projection.

Found it myself:

A 745

Project Image does the trick.

[AdInfinitum]

Q746
Can a cleric cast metamagic-ed versions of cure spells via Spontaneous Casting?

[Andezzar]

Q 747

If a character wears two spiked gauntlets, can he still make somatic components?

Q 748

are there ways to cast spells with two daggers in hand that do not increase the spell level (i.e. not still spell)?

[Douglas]

A746

Yes. A cleric spontaneously casting a cure or inflict spell can cast a metamagic version of it instead.

[Claudius Maximus]

Q742

Does a character with a ranged attack receive the -4 penalty for firing into melee if the target he or she is firing at is using a reach weapon and the target's opponent is not adjacent to him? And what if the target is only threatening his opponent and not actually attacking him; does that count as being in melee?

A 742

Your questions can be answered by this Glossary definition
Quote:

melee

Melee combat consists of physical blows exchanged by opponents close enough to threaten one another's space, as opposed to ranged combat.

Adjacent squares aren't required to be in melee. However, one of the involved characters does need to have at least tried to deliver a physical blow (which would also include a touch attack) for them to be in melee combat.

A 742 Correction

The involved creatures don't have to have actually attacked one another for it to count as a melee for purposes of firing a ranged weapon at one of them. They only have to threaten the other. Furthermore, firing into a melee involving characters with reach usually does not impose the penalty, since they are typically at least 10 feet from one another.

Shooting or Throwing into a Melee

If you shoot or throw a ranged weapon at a target engaged in melee with a friendly character, you take a -4 penalty on your attack roll. Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other. (An unconscious or otherwise immobilized character is not considered engaged unless he is actually being attacked.)

If your target (or the part of your target you’re aiming at, if it’s a big target) is at least 10 feet away from the nearest friendly character, you can avoid the -4 penalty, even if the creature you’re aiming at is engaged in melee with a friendly character.

Emphasis mine.

Q 749

How does a readied action to move when attacked work out? If you're in melee, and the enemy takes a swing at you, and you move out of reach, does he automatically miss (ignore AoOs for the moment - assume the person has tumble if necessary)? Can he choose to target someone else with the action? What if you move but you're still within melee reach? How does it all work for ranged attacks, or targeted spells?

[Andezzar]

Q 750

a) Is there a spell with an effect similar to Project Image but without the Line of Effect requirement?

b) Can the LoE requirement be metamagiced away or removed with another sorc/wiz spell?

Q 751

Can Psychic Warriors take fighter bonus feats that are not in the PHB in their bonus feat slots?