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

[Lateral]

Q 468 A
Animated objects keep the hardness they had before being animated. Does this still apply to energy damage?

Q 468 B
If so, is the damage for fire, electricity, and cold still reduced by half (or 75%) before applying hardness?

[Flame of Anor]

A 467 No.

The duration of Hardening (Spell Compendium, page 109) is permanent, not instantaneous; it lasts only until dispelled. The standard spell stacking rules apply. You get the best improvement of all instances of Hardening rather than adding them.

Would you cite those "spell stacking rules" please?

[Curmudgeon]

A 468 A Yes.

A 468 B Yes.

Hardness always applies in the same fashion, whether it's a creature or an object: if the damage is reduced by some amount (for electricity, fire, and cold) compute the amount remaining; after any necessary adjustments you subtract hardness from all damage which would otherwise apply.

[Lateral]

A 468 A Yes.

A 468 B Yes.

Hardness always applies in the same fashion, whether it's a creature or an object: if the damage is reduced by some amount (for electricity, fire, and cold) compute the amount remaining; after any necessary adjustments you subtract hardness from all damage which would otherwise apply.

But for (B), the question is specifically whether the damage for electricity, fire, and cold is reduced by half or 3/4 before hardness, as it is for objects, or if they apply normally before hardness, as for other creatures without hardness.

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 467

Would you cite those "spell stacking rules" please?

The section in Player's Handbook titled COMBINING MAGICAL EFFECTS on pages 171-172. The short version is:

Stacking Effects: Spells that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves.

Hardness falls under "other attributes".

Re: A 468 B

But for (B), the question is specifically whether the damage for electricity, fire, and cold is reduced by half or 3/4 before hardness, as it is for objects, or if they apply normally before hardness, as for other creatures without hardness.

The bolded part is incorrect. The hardness rules work the same for objects and creatures. (Only a few creatures (of the Construct type) have hardness, but that's all it takes.) Electricity and fire divide the damage by 2 before subtracting hardness. Cold divides the damage by 4 before subtracting hardness. Other energy types (acid and sonic) simply subtract the hardness without other adjustment.

[Phelix-Mu]

Q469
Can summoning be done during "apparent time," via either time stop spell or temporal acceleration power? The specific instance in question is summoning an astral construct during temporal acceleration (and possibly an augmented, multi-round period of said TA), but I'd be interested in the broader issue of SM or SNA during time stop as well.

[Curmudgeon]

A 469 No.

While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell.

While your temporal acceleration is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and powers.

You can't summon or otherwise affect any creatures.

[Thurbane]

Q 470

Effective initiator level = 1/2 of all other levels/HD, plus your level in the class you are taking maneuvers/stances in, right? If I have 4 racial hit dice and take my first class level as Warblade, my initiator level is 3. Does this mean I can take 2nd level maneuvers with my first level of Warbalde (assuming I meet the reqs), or is there a rule that you can only take 1st level maneuvers at 1st Martial Adept level?

[Urpriest]

A 469 No. You can't summon or otherwise affect any creatures.

Q 471

In what way does invulnerability prevent oneself from being created? Alternatively, in what way is the capacity to be created a vulnerability?

[Curmudgeon]

A 470 No.

I'm afraid your reading of the rule is at odds with the text.

If you are a single-class character, your initiator level equals your level in the class that provides access to martial maneuvers (crusader, swordsage, or warblade). If you lack any martial adept levels, your initiator level is equal to 1/2 your character level.

You're still a single-class character; racial hit dice are excluded from this calculation. (It doesn't necessarily make sense; it's just the RAW.) 4 RHD + 1 class level of Warblade gives you an IL of 1. If you had 4 class levels instead, you would be able to select higher-level maneuvers (but not stances) at Warblade 1. Only if you lacked any martial adept levels entirely would the IL calculation use your character level (including RHD) rather than just class levels.

A 471

Your question doesn't make sense.

Conjuration

Each conjuration spell belongs to one of five subschools. Conjurations bring manifestations of objects, creatures, or some form of energy to you (the summoning subschool), actually transport creatures from another plane of existence to your plane (calling), heal (healing), transport creatures or objects over great distances (teleportation), or create objects or effects on the spot (creation).

You're confusing summoning and creation subschools.

[AugustNights]

Q 472

A 469 No. You can't summon or otherwise affect any creatures.

For sake of my own curiosity, would the Astral Construct power function during a Time Stop? (In which the creature in question *is* created, rather than summoned.)

Q 473
Is there any item that allows for mundane armor modifications (such as Armor Spikes), that is not actually armor or a shield?

Q 474
Does the monk AC Bonus special ability cease to function when a monk employs a shield? (Does employing a shield break the "When unarmored and unencumbered," clause?)

[Curmudgeon]

A 472 No.

Whether you can create any creature would be up to your DM, since "invulnerable" doesn't specifically address creating a new creature. What is certain is that Temporal Acceleration would prevent the Astral Construct from acting "immediately, on your turn". So even if the creation itself worked, while time is sped up so "all other creatures seem frozen" the rest of the spell could not work.

A 474

Yes, the AC Bonus ceases to operate. This is stated explicitly:

AC Bonus (Ex)

When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC. In addition, a monk gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five monk levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).

These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the monk is flat-footed. She loses these bonuses when she is immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

The Monk doesn't even need to have the shield readied; simply carrying it in a pack will cause AC Bonus to fail.

[Thurbane]

Q 475

Would a Monk using an Animated Shield still count as "carrying" it in relation to losing his AC bonus? Animated says you still take armor check penalty, arcane spell failure and non-proficiency penalties, but by the wording of the Monk ability, would you lose your Monk AC bonus, as you are technically not carrying it?

[TuggyNE]

A 471

Your question doesn't make sense. You're confusing summoning and creation subschools.

A471 clarification: Unlike the calling subschool, summoning does not deal in fully-real creatures, only their "manifestations"; these manifestations cannot really die and may or may not be created by the summoning spell. As such, it is unclear whether time stop prevents their use, since it is not obvious that the spells actually target any specific creature.

Furthermore, because time stop includes the sentence "Most spellcasters use the additional time to improve their defenses, summon allies, or flee from combat", it is quite clear that "summoning", as such, is allowed and expected by the time stop spell itself.

[Curmudgeon]

A 475 Yes.

A character with an animated shield still takes any penalties associated with shield use, such as armor check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, and nonproficiency.

The Monk's AC Bonus penalty for using a shield still applies.

[Chronos]

A 470 correction:
Racial hit dice are considered a class, for purposes of the rules. So a monster with 4 RHD and 1 level of Warblade does in fact have a Warblade initiator level of 3.

A 470 continued:
You can certainly take second-level maneuvers with your first level of Warblade in such a situation (as long as you meet the prerequisite), since what level of maneuver you can take is limited only by your initiator level.

Stances are a bit fuzzier, though: There is text in the ToB class descriptions that specifically says that you gain a first-level stance with your first level in the class (no other level is thus limited). Many DMs regard this as an editing error, and argue that the writers were not considering multiclass characters when they wrote that, but per RAW, your first stance must be 1st-level.

[Andezzar]

Q 476

The darkstalker feat says:

When you hide, creatures with blindsense, blindsight, scent, or tremorsense must make a Listen check or a Spot check (whichever DC is higher) to notice you, just as sighted creatures would make Spot checks to detect you.

What does the underlined part mean? How can the DC for an opposed test vary? There aren't fixed DCs there anyways and special abilities of the detector effect their roll, not the DC.

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 470 correction [correction]

Racial hit dice are considered a class, for purposes of the rules.

I'm afraid you've got that backward: hit dice include all class levels, but class levels do not include all hit dice.

racial Hit Die

The Hit Dice a monster has by virtue of what type of creature it is. Hit Dice gained from taking class levels are not racial Hit Dice.

class level

A character's level in a single class. Class features generally depend on class level rather than character level.

character level

A character's total level. For a character with levels in only one class, class level and character level are the same thing.

If you are a single-class character, your initiator level equals your level in the class that provides access to martial maneuvers (crusader, swordsage, or warblade).

A single-class character with racial hit dice is still entirely dependent on their class levels for IL computation.

[Keegan__D]

Q 437:With Improved Grab and a Spiked Chain, after striking a target and succeeding on the grapple check, do you automatically move into their space? Or do they automatically movr into yours? Or do you have to spend the action to move into their space?

Poating my question again.

[Curmudgeon]

A 476

There are fixed DCs for the Spot skill:

A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Spot check. The observer gains a hunch that “something’s there” but can’t see it or target it accurately with an attack. A creature who is holding still is very hard to notice (DC 30). An inanimate object, an unliving creature holding still, or a completely immobile creature is even harder to spot (DC 40). It’s practically impossible (+20 DC) to pinpoint an invisible creature’s location with a Spot check, and even if a character succeeds on such a check, the invisible creature still benefits from total concealment (50% miss chance).

Darkstalker's language just lumps together the checks which use DCs and those which are opposed. As for the "how" part of your question, the nature of feats is to provide exceptions to the rules. Thus a feat can specify a non-standard game mechanic, and Darkstalker provides an example of just that.

[Andezzar]

A 476

A 476

There are fixed DCs for the Spot skill: Darkstalker's language just lumps together the checks which use DCs and those which are opposed. As for the "how" part of your question, the nature of feats is to provide exceptions to the rules. Thus a feat can specify a non-standard game mechanic, and Darkstalker provides an example of just that.

Well here is the problem: the character with darkstalker (and either concealment or HiPS) hides, which is required for the feat to work, from a creature with the appropriate senses. Now the result of the hide check is the DC for spotting the character. How can you decide if the DC for the creature's spot or listen check is higher? Shouldn't they be the same? And if they are the same, can the player of the creature choose what to roll?

Additionally the part you quoted is about invisible creatures. Is a successfully hiding creature invisible (as in impossible to be seen) or is it only not seen by the observer?

The text you quoted brings up another question:

Q 477

Can you always know the number of any hidden object or creature within 30 ft, if you have a spot bonus of 42 or more (DC40 + a maximum of 3 for distance)? Can you pinpoint them with a spot bonus of 62+? Is this regardless of their hide check?

[Curmudgeon]

A 477 No.

A creature who is invisible can also be hiding.

Special: If you are invisible, you gain a +40 bonus on Hide checks if you are immobile, or a +20 bonus on Hide checks if you’re moving.

However, the checks to detect an invisible creature do not work against someone who is only hiding; for those there is no fixed DC but instead Spot is always opposed by their Hide check.

[Khedrac]

A 437
Improved Grab is quite clear that the targeted creature moves into your space, unlike a "regular" grapple. Whether you use a natural attack or a melee weapon to initiate the grab makes no difference.

When a creature gets a hold after an improved grab attack, it pulls the opponent into its space.

[Chronos]

A single-class character with racial hit dice is still entirely dependent on their class levels for IL computation.

A single-class character with racial hit dice doesn't have a base class yet, just their monster class. From the SRD:

Monsters And Class Levels

If a creature acquires a character class, it follows the rules for multiclass characters.

The creature’s Hit Dice equal the number of class levels it has plus its racial Hit Dice. A creature’s "monster class" is always a favored class, and the creature never takes XP penalties for having it.

So, the racial HD are considered a class.

[Curmudgeon]

So, the racial HD are considered a class.

Because of the scare quotes:

A creature’s "monster class" is always a favored class

it's clear that there is no actual class involved. Only actual class levels count for initiator level.

[Phelix-Mu]

Because of the scare quotes: it's clear that there is no actual class involved. Only actual class levels count for initiator level.

I'm not sure that anything definitive can be concluded from the use of those quote marks though. This use of quote marks is usually informal, and, IMHO, doesn't constitute a concrete RAW definition of anything, as you can't define something by briefly stating what it isn't.

"Monster class" could have been meant to imply any of several things, which is why such usage of quotation marks is usually informal. More specifically, monster classes are a thing with splatbooks, but back in MM, they were not, so the quotes may simply be establishing that it is something like monster classes, but since those aren't a thing, obviously not monster classes.

In short, extremely unclear language is unclear, and in my view, unsuitable for RAW rulings.

[lvl-26-hobo]

Q 478

Is there any official Necromancer class? Google searches don't yield many results for me.

If not, whats the best way to go about creating a 3.5 Necro?

[Mr.Bookworm]

A 478

Yes. The Dread Necromancer from Heroes of Horror.

[Sith_Happens]

A 478 (additional)

There are also the Pale Master and True Necromancer prestige classes in Libris Mortis, though the latter is a horrible, horrible trap.

[Andezzar]

A 478 Additional

Don't forget the obvious: Specialist wizards specializing in Necromancy are also called Necromancers.

Part two of the question is beyond the scope of this thread.