Simple RAW Thread for 3.5: 30. Really? 30?

[Thurbane]

Q 136

Is there any reason a Druidic Avenger couldn't swap out Wild Empathy for the Voice of the City ACF? (Druidic Avengers take a -4 penalty to Wild Empathy checks).

[Brova]

A 136

Depends if that's a swap on wild empathy for any class that gets it, or if it's a Druid ACF that replaces wild empathy. If it's a Druid ACF, the Druidic Avenger cannot take it, as she is not technically a Druid. If it's an ACF for anyone with wild empathy (note: not just a list of classes, it has to specifically replace wild empathy for any class that gets it), the Druidic Avenger can.

[Afgncaap5]

Q 137

Does a rogue's Sneak Attack damage or other similar "precision damage" effects get nullified if the initial attack is nullified by DR as poison is? Or is it grouped with the "regular" damage being dealt?

[Curmudgeon]

A 137

Sneak attack damage is of the same type as the regular attack most of the time^*; it's just one attack and one big pile of damage, as opposed to magical enhancements which are only triggered after the primary attack is successful. Add all the damage together, then reduce for DR once.

^* - The exception is sneak attacks when the regular attacks deal energy drain or ability damage; in those cases sneak attacks instead deal negative energy damage, not extra negative levels or ability damage.

[Venger]

Q138 If a character grapples an enemy with telekinetic maneuver, can he use natural attacks against the enemy, since it says to adjudicate the grapple "as normal?"

[heavyfuel]

A 138

Yes, but there are some hoops.

Telekinesis requires concetration, which will consume your Standard Action each turn. Without a standard/full round action, you can't make attacks. If you have some way of getting around that (eg. Swift Concentration skill trick) you might be able to.

Secondly, you can only make melee attacks (such as with a natural weapon) against creatures within your reach, and Telekinesis doesn't have an exception to this rule. This attack takes the usual -4.

[HurinTheCursed]

Q.139
Terrifying Strike (Drow of the Underdark, p. 54) explicitly "doesn't stack with any other fear effects".
I understand it doesn't cause an existing fear effect to worsen on the target but can the shaken condition induced by terrifying strike be worsened by other subsequent fear effects ?

[Curmudgeon]

A 139

Terrifying Strike has no ability to prevent escalation of subsequent fear effects as long as they're not also from Terrifying Strike. However, its duration of just 1 round means any escalated fear condition will also de-escalate when Terrifying Strike quickly expires.

[Aplostor]

Q 140

The spell Sun Scepter (Lost Empires of Faerun) says "The sun scepter functions as a physical weapon that deals 2d6 points of bludgeoning damage" and "You can strike with it as a melee touch attack". When I make this melee touch attack, do I add my Strength bonus to damage?

[Curmudgeon]

A 140 No.

While you can strike with it as a melee touch attack, you don't add any STR bonus for merely touching your opponent. You also can strike with the Scepter as a normal (not touch) melee attack, and add your STR bonus on any successful hit.

[ben-zayb]

Q141
Can a sleeping creature under the effects of Telepathic Bond receive and/or send message via the spell?

Q142
Where can I find the ruling on stacking non-numerical, non-spell, magical effects? I tried looking for it in the SRD, but the section related to stacking seems to only reference spells and numerical bonuses.

[No brains]

A142

It's on page 171 of the PHB. If you don't have one and need to use the SRD, you can find it here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverv...MagicalEffects

[Curmudgeon]

A 141 No.

There is no special capability granted by Telepathic Bond to communicate while sleeping, so the sleeping character can communicate telepathically only as well as they can communicate verbally in that state.

A 142

The rules for COMBINING MAGICAL EFFECTS are in Player's Handbook on pages 171-172. Note that removing the examples and condensing the text in the SRD has also removed much of the clarity from that section of the text, so I suggest ignoring the SRD for this part of the game rules.

[marphod]

Q 143 Crawling Eye/Disembodied Hand Invocations (Complete Mage) and Dispel Magic.

These two invocations allow a Warlock to detach the corresponding body part and let it wander. It has a set number of hit points, and AC. Explicitly, if the wandering part gets destroyed, it will regrow in 1d4 hours.

a Where does it regrow? Where it was destroyed, or re-attached?
b What if it the effect is dispelled, rather than the part destroyed? Does the eye or hand still exists, just no longer attached to the warlocks body and no longer magical (which would suck)? Does dispelling the effect make it return immediately? Is it effectively destroyed?

[Troacctid]

A 143

a. Neither. You grow a new one in your eye socket (for Crawling Eye) or at the end of your wrist (for Disembodied Hand). The old one doesn't reattach itself.
b. The invocations in question don't have a duration; they're instantaneous effects. As such, they cannot be dispelled.

[heavyfuel]

Q 144

Are exalted feats (Ex) by nature? I'm AFB and can't check.


Q 145

I read somewhere that when readying an action to melee attack an enemy as they melee attack you means you can attack them even if you can't reach them. I didn't find any such rule in the SRD. Does it exist?

[Andezzar]

A 144

No, they are Supernatural:

These feats are thus supernatural in nature (rather than being extraordinary abilities, as most feats are).

A 145

There is no such rule. Targets generally must be in reach (melee attacks) or range (ranged attacks) to have a chance of succeeding. The rules for readying actions do not say anything overriding that.

[Flame of Anor]

Q 146

If a character loses a Level Adjustment by having a template removed, does that character immediately level up?

[KillianHawkeye]

Re: 146

I am 95% certain that general rules for what happens when a level adjustment is removed do not exist. There is an optional ruleset regarding reducing one's level adjustment found in Unearthed Arcana (which involves also losing a commensurate number of experience points), but I don't think those rules lend themselves very well to generalization.

[Curmudgeon]

A 146 Possibly.

Assuming the LA-adding characteristic is removed and the character's XP total is now higher than the minimum to advance to their next level, that's what happens. From page 58 of Player's Handbook, under EXPERIENCE AND LEVELS:

Advancing a Level: When your character’s XP total reaches at least the minimum XP needed for a new character level (see Table 3–2), he or she “goes up a level.”

If the character has enough XP to advance 2 or more levels, they would instead sacrifice experience points.

A character can advance only one level at a time. If, for some extraordinary reason, a character’s XP reward from a single adventure would be enough to advance two or more levels at once, he or she instead advances one level and gains just enough XP to be 1 XP short of the next level.

As KillianHawkeye noted, there are no general rules for what happens when any LA is removed (whether an effect that removes level adjustment also affects your XP total, for instance). However, there are general rules for level advancement based on how much XP you have at any given time. This answer is conditional on having 1+ level's worth of excess XP after the change ("reward") in their adventure. If that is not the case, no level advancement can occur.

[Nohwl]

Q 147

The goal is to be a malconvoker with the corrupt summoning feat from dragon magazine 347. Problem is that malconvoker requires non evil alignment and the feat requires evil alignment. Would I be able to qualify for both by being lawful neutral or something and picking up the evil subtype with a ritual of alignment from savage species? If this doesn't work, any idea how I could qualify for both?

[No brains]

A 145 supplementary
What you might be thinking of is a rule regarding incorporeal creatures and their ability to phase into solid objects. Normally they have total cover, but they need to reduce this to plain cover to melee attack creatures adjacent to the object they are phasing into. A creature so attacked can ready an action to strike an incorporeal creature as it strikes out at them to "reach it where they normally could not". That is the closest analogue I could find to your situation.

[Story]

Q148 Can you summon a vestige and make a pact within the area of an AMF?

The manifestation of a vestige vanishes in an AMF and the powers of a bound vestige are suppressed in an AMF, but I can't find anything that says pact making itself is impossible.

[Wacky89]

Q148
If I wild shape into a human as a Master of Many Forms to gain a human bonus feat granting me Assume Supernatural Ability, then I wild shape into the form with the SU ability I chose. Will I be able to use that supernatural ability?

[Curmudgeon]

A 148 No.

Pact Magic is magic.

Soul Binding (Su): Through special methods known only to binders, you can contact a vestige and make a pact with it.

Supernatural Abilities (Su)
Supernatural abilities are magical and go away in an antimagic field but are not subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or to being dispelled by dispel magic.

An antimagic field suppresses any spell or magical effect used within, brought into, or cast into the area, but does not dispel it.

Your ability to summon a vestige or make a pact goes away (is suppressed) inside an Antimagic Field.

A 149 N/A.

HUMAN RACIAL TRAITS

• 1 extra feat at 1st level, because humans are quick to master specialized tasks and varied in their talents.

Human bonus feats are selected as part of the 1st-level character creation process (Player's Handbook, page 6). While you may assume Human form, you don't become a 1st-level character and go through character creation, and thus don't get to make choices that are part of character creation. Even assuming that Wild Shape would grant you a Human bonus feat, you are unable to make 1st-level-only selections at any other level.

[Mehangel]

Q 150: Is there any alchemical item that is particularly useful against Abberations? For example Holy Water vs Undead.

[KrimsonNekros]

Q151

Do multiclass feats like Swift Hunter and Swift Ambusher stack at all? E.g. would a Ranger 5/ Rogue 4/ Scout 4 have Favored Enemies as a 9th level ranger, Sneak Attack as an 8th level rogue, and Skirmish as a 13th level scout, or Favored Enemies as a 9th level ranger, Sneak Attack as an 8th level rogue, and Skirmish as a 9th level scout?

[Curmudgeon]

A 151

Because the sources of stacking are different feats, these will combine where they affect the same class feature. Swift Hunter and Swift Ambusher both sum class levels for skirmish progression, so you would have the skirmish of a 13th level Scout (all class levels). Swift Hunter combines Scout and Ranger levels for favored enemy progression, so you would have the effect of 9th level Ranger for that class feature. Swift Ambusher does not progress sneak attack for anything other than qualifying for [Ambush] feats, so you would have only the sneak attack of your 4 Rogue levels.

[Niwrad]

Q 152: Does a hellfire blast cast by a hellfire warlock count as a fire-based attack for the purposes of being subject to the half damage clause of fireshield?

"Chill Shield
The flames are cool to the touch. You take only half damage from fire-based attacks. If such an attack allows a Reflex save for half damage, you take no damage on a successful save."

[Andezzar]

Q 153

Does a Wall of Fire block LoS and/or LoE?