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

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 670 "correction"

One move action for the donator and two for the recipient. Dropping an item is explicitly a free action, and a dropped item should be catchable by the same move action required to take it from a hand.

This isn't a "correction" at all. The question was "What kind of an action is it to remove a necklace and give it to them", not drop it where they might reach it. While dropping the item would be an optimization of the action economy, it would also leave open the possibility of an enemy (with initiative superior to the second character) either grabbing or attacking the unattended object dropped on the ground. A dropped item is not catchable without using a readied move action (or possibly an immediate action which would allow catching, though I don't know of any such), and a readied action would then preclude using another move action the same turn. Excepting actions which interrupt the first character's turn, the dropped item will be on the ground before the next person's turn begins.

Drop an Item
Dropping an item in your space or into an adjacent square is a free action.

Drop Prone
Dropping to a prone position in your space is a free action.

Disarm
As a melee attack, you may attempt to disarm your opponent. If you do so with a weapon, you knock the opponent’s weapon out of his hands and to the ground.

A free action or an attack completes during the turn of the character who takes the action. If dropping from the character's height to the ground starts and finishes during that free action, and a disarmed item drops to the ground within the space of a single attack, dropping an item from equivalent altitude starts and finishes (with the item on the ground) in the same free action. (The drop time is less than 1/10th of a round, so that makes sense.) The D&D turn-based action model requires special initiative options to model most interactions with events lasting less than a round.

A 672

No, the wording doesn't preclude using pounce; however, the benefit of Shield Slam is a single Fortitude saving throw if you hit. If the defender makes that saving throw on the first attack of the full attack enabled by pounce, they don't need to make any other saves regardless of how many times you hit them.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Q 673

What is the base unarmed damage of a colossal-sized Monk 20?

[justiceforall]

So A 672 now has two contradictory answers. Which is correct?

[Curmudgeon]

A 673 12d8.

Use Table 2–2: Increasing Weapon Damage by Size (Dungeon Master's Guide, page 28) to increase from a Medium Monk's 2d10 by 4 size steps to get the answer.

[HeadlessMermaid]

Q 674

a) Do you keep your inherent bonuses to physical stats when you alter self/polymorph/shapechange? What about when you wild shape?

b) When you shapechange, do you lose the extraordinary qualities and supernatural abilities of your templates? Does it matter whether they are inherited or acquired?

c) When you shapechange, you gain the type of the assumed form. Do you also gain the subtypes, and do you lose your own?

d) A ghost shapechanges to a living creature. As I understand it, it's not undead any more for the duration of the spell. But is it incorporeal?

[justiceforall]

Q 675

Continuing on the theme from the Shield Slam questions:

a) does using the Hurling Charge feat preclude the use of pounce?

b) does using the Hurling Charge feat preclude the use of Shield Slam?

[Curmudgeon]

A 674 a) Yes, and yes.

Inherent bonuses are to the character, not the form.

A 674 b)-d) N/A.

"Ghost" is an acquired template that can be added to any aberration, animal, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or plant.

This spell functions like polymorph, except that it enables you to assume the form of any single nonunique creature (of any type) from Fine to Colossal size.

This spell functions like alter self, except that you change the willing subject into another form of living creature.

You can change into a member of your own kind or even into yourself.
...
You cannot take the form of any creature with a template, even if that template doesn’t change the creature type or subtype.

Following the embedded spell references, we get to the crux of the issue: You can change into yourself with Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange, except with the restriction that you cannot change into a form with a template. Consequently, if your original form has a template, you fail to abide by this condition of the spell and it fails.

Spell Failure

If you ever try to cast a spell in conditions where the characteristics of the spell cannot be made to conform, the casting fails and the spell is wasted.

[Sith_Happens]

She's not asking about turning into yourself, though.

A 674 (b)

Yes.

...you lose your own supernatural abilities.

You keep all extraordinary special attacks and qualities derived from class levels, but you lose any from your normal form that are not derived from class levels.

A 674 (c)

You gain all of the assumed form's types and subtypes and lose all of your own.

The subject’s creature type and subtype (if any) change to match the new form.

A 674 (d)

No. See above; the incorporeal subtype is lost upon assuming a form that doesn't normally have it.

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 674

She's not asking about turning into yourself, though.

That intent doesn't matter; the spell fails because the possibility is disallowed.

[Sian]

Q 676
Ability scores for Racial hit dice, yes or no? ... seem to find reasons for both, Racial hit dice counts as Character level which the ability score raises goes by, yet I see some people stating that Savage Species (which is 3.0(?) or at least not fully 3.5) says that Racial hit dice doesn't count.

[Chronos]

Quoth Curmudgeon:

That intent doesn't matter; the spell fails because the possibility is disallowed.

To clarify, you're saying that a creature with a template can never use Alter Self/Polymorph at all?

[Curmudgeon]

To clarify, you're saying that a creature with a template can never use Alter Self/Polymorph at all?

That's correct. The spell fails at the time of attempted casting.

[Duke of Urrel]

A 674 a) Yes, and yes.

Inherent bonuses are to the character, not the form.

A 674 a Clarification request

This judgement intrigues me. What is its foundation in the rules? I can find inherent bonuses applied to "characters" on page 21 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, but I can also find them applied to "creatures" on page 21 of the Rules Compendium.

It's possible to say that inherent bonuses belong to a character's class features, but why? Why not say that an inherent bonus simply belongs to a creature's ability score and that polymorphing simply replaces it with the unmodified "average" ability score of the target form?

This leads me to ask two more related questions.

Q 677

What about modifiers to one's physical ability scores as the result of experience? Are these class features and therefore retained when you use any spell derived from the Polymorph spell? Or are they simply changed, because polymorphing replaces them with those of the target form?

Q 678

And what about modifiers to one's physical ability scores as the result of aging? Are these class features and therefore retained when you use any spell derived from the Polymorph spell? Or are they simply changed, because polymorphing replaces them with those of the target form?

[Chronos]

Quoth Curmudgeon:

That's correct. The spell fails at the time of attempted casting.

So, how is it possible that a lich (who is always a templated creature) can use polymorph effects on itself?

[Andezzar]

So, how is it possible that a lich (who is always a templated creature) can use polymorph effects on itself?

Templated creatures can use polymorph normally. No one (including non-templated creatures) can use polymorph to turn into a templated creature. This means that liches and other templated creatures cannot use polymorph to turn into themselves.

[HeadlessMermaid]

Q 679

When a subtype is granted by a class or a feat (such as Dragonfire Adept or the Dragontouched feat), do you lose it when you polymorph or shapechange?

[TuggyNE]

Re: A674: Alter self does not forbid a templated creature from casting it; it only forbids them from attempting to assume a templated form, including their own. Therefore, such a creature must take a new, non-templated form: that is, their options are restricted when casting.

You cannot take the form of any creature with a template, even if that template doesn’t change the creature type or subtype.

A674b: Yes and no respectively.

[Curmudgeon]

So, how is it possible that a lich (who is always a templated creature) can use polymorph effects on itself?

Immunities (Ex): Liches have immunity to cold, electricity, polymorph (though they can use polymorph effects on themselves), and mind-affecting attacks.

An explicit exception is granted to the creature, overriding the usual rule.

Templated creatures can use polymorph normally. No one (including non-templated creatures) can use polymorph to turn into a templated creature. This means that liches and other templated creatures cannot use polymorph to turn into themselves.

Templated creatures cannot use Polymorph (barring explicit exceptions like the Lich's) at all, because a spell fails at casting if the characteristics of the spell cannot be made to conform. The inherited proviso of Alter Self (that a creature can use Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange to change into itself) cannot conform to the restriction that you cannot change into any templated form. Shapechange allows multiple forms to be adopted during the spell. There is no provision for the spell to fail later, after successful casting, when you attempt to apply the mandated option that states you can turn into yourself. The spell failure rules stipulate that any nonconforming spell fails at attempted casting.

[heavyfuel]

Q 680-A

Can something like the Dwarven martial (instead of exotic) proficiency with the dwarven battle axe be substituted with the Warblade's weapon aptitude for, say, spiked chain martial proficiency?

Q 680-B

Is there a similar weapon, but for halflings?

Q 681

Does Craven damage get multiplied by crits?

Edit: it seems everytime I post fom my phone I get the number count wrong... anyway, it's fixed now.

[TuggyNE]

Re: A674:

Templated creatures cannot use Polymorph (barring explicit exceptions like the Lich's) at all, because a spell fails at casting if the characteristics of the spell cannot be made to conform. The inherited proviso of Alter Self (that a creature can use Alter Self/Polymorph/Shapechange to change into itself) cannot conform to the restriction that you cannot change into any templated form. Shapechange allows multiple forms to be adopted during the spell. There is no provision for the spell to fail later, after successful casting, when you attempt to apply the mandated option that states you can turn into yourself. The spell failure rules stipulate that any nonconforming spell fails at attempted casting.

The spell can, however, be made to conform (especially at the time of casting, which in context is the only valid timeframe, not some hypothetical future use one or more rounds after casting), and rather easily: the initial shape taken is not allowed to be a templated creature, and neither is any subsequent shape. This is at least as specific as the usual provision that one's own shape is allowable, so both rules are in effect, without contradiction. Therefore, the clause on spell failure has no reason to come into effect.

Put another way, if the characteristics of the spell were that you must take on your own form, then it would inevitably fail, because there is no way for the spell to work by its own rules. But it is unreasonable to say that it fails because an option normally available is not available in this case, since it is still perfectly possible to use the spell in any of the other available ways.

I stand by my answer.

---

A664681: Yes. Craven does not add bonus damage dice; as such, it is included just as damage from high Str, weapon enhancements, or other static damage modifiers are included.

[Xaroth]

Q 682

How exactly does cohort levelling work in relation to the Leadership feat? I can't make heads or tails of what it says on the wiki.

If it'll help, please use a dragon cohort of any kind and assume the base character has an ECL of 65 for an example.

EDIT: I just remembered that Diplomacy apparently affects it, so assume a Diplomacy of 50.

[Andezzar]

A 682

First of all diplomacy is irrelevant.

The Dragon Cohort feat lets you select a dragon three levels higher than you would be allowed with the leadership feat but there are no rules how this creature would level up later. The cohort does not explicitly inherit the leveling from the leadership feat.
Additionally such a cohort cannot be better than those in table 3-14 on p. 139 of Draconomicon.

If you are talking about an ECL 65 character, any cohort Leadership or Dragon Cohort can provide will be ridiculously weak in comparison. you might want to look at Epic Leadership instead. This expands the level of possible cohorts.

How the cohort level relates to dragons is up to the DM.

Once the cohort is gained (from Leadership or Epic Leadership) it gains XP in the following way: Owner XP*cohort Level/Owner Level. It can never gain so much XP that its level would be greater than the owner's level -2.

[omniangel]

Q683 OK, two dieties, both level 40, SDR 6. One casts a custom spell that shows the victim that while a god, he is simply the product of a bunch of geeks sitting around a table rolling dice. Spell is divination. How in the hell do I counter spell it? Will greater arcane sight and instant counter spell SDA do it? Also another spell where he sits in the middle of a bunch of fire weed.....

Any ideas?

[Andezzar]

A 683

Custom spells are beyond the purview of this thread, please open your own thread for the question. Also warping a target's perception or thinking is more Illusion than divination.

[omniangel]

A 683

Custom spells are beyond the purview of this thread, please open your own thread for the question. Also warping a target's perception or thinking is more Illusion than divination.

Ah OK, sorry. And DM says since it using divination to show someone a true reality, which is the fact that I created the character that is being targeted.

Also, can I just modify the question to ask of there is a way to immediately identify a spell and then counter spell it?

[Andezzar]

Also, can I just modify the question to ask of there is a way to immediately identify a spell and then counter spell it?

The identification is a necessary part of Counterspelling.

[Xaroth]

Q 684

So I have a character that is Huge size but can wield colossal weapons (Powerful Build + Wield Oversized Weapon for those curious). Going by this chart would my character - wielding colossal scimitars - have a range of 10 ft. long or 20 ft. long?

[Urpriest]

Q 684

So I have a character that is Huge size but can wield colossal weapons (Powerful Build + Wield Oversized Weapon for those curious). Going by this chart would my character - wielding colossal scimitars - have a range of 10 ft. long or 20 ft. long?

A 684

The size of weapons has nothing to do with their reach, only the size of the wielder and whether they have the reach property.

[Urpriest]

A 674 a Clarification request

This judgement intrigues me. What is its foundation in the rules? I can find inherent bonuses applied to "characters" on page 21 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, but I can also find them applied to "creatures" on page 21 of the Rules Compendium.

It's possible to say that inherent bonuses belong to a character's class features, but why? Why not say that an inherent bonus simply belongs to a creature's ability score and that polymorphing simply replaces it with the unmodified "average" ability score of the target form?

This leads me to ask two more related questions.

A 674 partial

Creature and character are synonymous.

[Xaroth]

A 684

The size of weapons has nothing to do with their reach, only the size of the wielder and whether they have the reach property.

Right, I just thought that the size of the weapon may change what the wielder's size is treated as for the purpose of determining reach. On that note...

Q 685

What feats extend reach the most? I have a build where anything within range of me will die if I want it to.