Using Baleful Utterance on Creatures

[WhiteMorphious]

I have a player in a game I am involved in who is trying to argue that Baleful Utterance/Shatter can be used on creatures as it says "a single solid object weighing up to 10 pounds per level can be shattered." as well as the portion saying "or damages a crystalline creature." saying it even uses a creature as an example. Can anybody clarify this? I am almost 100% sure that this is not how the spell works but am having difficulty explaining it. Thanks everyone!

[Troacctid]

"Object" has a definition in the rules. Living creatures are excluded from that definition. Shatter/Baleful Utterance can target crystalline creatures because the spell specifically says it can; note its "target" line.

[Tommy2255]

If it's a Crystalline creature, then it's affected by shatter. Creatures and objects are distinct and separate categories under the rules. In order to be affected, a thing must be either a) a crystalline creature or b) not a creature, but rather an object.

Baleful Utterance, however, doesn't say "Has all of the effects of the Shatter spell". It says "You speak a single syllable of the Dark Speech (described in Book of Vile Darkness), affecting an object or area as if by a shatter spell". You can *explicitly* only affect an object or area with Baleful Utterance, according to the rules for using the shatter spell against an object or area, but not the rules for using shatter against a crystalline creature. It's not that big of a nerf though. How often do crystalline creatures come up really?

[DeltaEmil]

Wisdom
Any creature that can perceive its environment in any fashion has at least 1 point of Wisdom. Anything with no Wisdom score is an object, not a creature. Anything without a Wisdom score also has no Charisma score.

Charisma
Any creature capable of telling the difference between itself and things that are not itself has at least 1 point of Charisma. Anything with no Charisma score is an object, not a creature. Anything without a Charisma score also has no Wisdom score.

A creature is not an object, and an object is not a creature. If the spell shatter however says that it can target crystalline creatures, then that's a specific exception that the spell mentions. Only crystalline creatures can be affected by shatter. Any other creature cannot be affected by that spell effect.

[WhiteMorphious]

Thanks a ton everyone! This was exactly what I was looking for!