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

[kkplx]

Q81

A (medium) creature is covered head to toe in contact poison. Which interactions with it expose you to the poison, and how many interactions would it take to use up all the "doses" of poison on said creature?

Some cases i am curious about:
non-reach melee strikes (by an opponent)
unarmed combat (by either the creature or an opponent)
natural weapons (by an opponent)
grappling (by either the creature or an opponent)
touch attacks (by either the creature or an opponent)
touch spells (by either the creature or an opponent)
bull rush (by either the creature or an opponent)

[Curmudgeon]

A 081

When a character takes damage from an attack with a poisoned weapon, touches an item smeared with contact poison, consumes poisoned food or drink, or is otherwise poisoned, he must make a Fortitude saving throw.
...
One dose of poison smeared on a weapon or some other object affects just a single target.

Regardless of how much poison you use, you're limited to one dose of effect. Weapon strikes by an opponent do not involve their body touching the poisoned target. One attack which involves touching the target (a regular attack unarmed or with some other natural weapon, or a touch attack) by either party will impart one dose of poison, after which no more poison may be transferred to that single target. Grappling starts with a melee attack roll, so that would also transfer the one dose of contact poison.

When you make a bull rush, you attempt to push an opponent straight back instead of damaging him.

A Bull Rush attack is stipulated to move the opponent without damaging them, so your DM might decide that insufficient contact is made to deliver the poison.

[marphod]

A 81

This is really a situation outside of the rules.

I agree with Curmudgeon, in as much as when the contact is made, one dose is transferred.

More than one dose could have been applied to the initial creature/object initially, though. You can apply a single dose of poison to a weapon. So, using an animated statue of a Girallon with a helmet granting a gore attack (as an example of something immune to the poison), you could conceivable apply 6 doses to discrete weapons/body parts (4 arms, 1 bite, 1 gore).

Regardless of the attack used, one dose will be transferred. What happens to the others? It isn't addressed on point by the existing rules. If you start a grapple, it might be that one dose is transferred, and the poison on the other hands are ruined. Or they could remain viable for another attack -- this all comes down to a DM call.

(I'd also find it reasonable in this case to use multiple doses of the poison, which could result in save-twice-or-more-or-suck or a raised DC. But that's a judgement call.)

[VisitingDaGulag]

Q82:

A creature falling 1000' successfully casts resilient sphere while in the air. Does this stop them mid-air (as a suddenly grabbed hamster ball), or does the sphere fall with them (and soon crash into the ground)?

[Curmudgeon]

A 082

If the creature is falling, and the Sphere is formed around them, there's nothing in the spell description to cause that movement to cease.

The subject may struggle, but the sphere cannot be physically moved either by people outside it or by the struggles of those within.

Gravity is neither people outside nor the struggles of those within. The enclosed creature(s) will continue to fall with the Sphere centered around the target creature. When they reach the ground the Sphere will stop abruptly (because the ground cannot pass through the Sphere) where it will take no damage from the impact; however, falling will cause the usual damage to the creature(s) inside.

[Morcleon]

Q 083: The SRD states "A character has a 5% chance of exposing himself to a poison whenever he applies it to a weapon or otherwise readies it for use." When using an injury poison, would the character be actually poisoned, since injury poisons require damage to be dealt to be effective?

[Curmudgeon]

A 083 Yes.

The mechanism for the accidental exposure is not documented, but this rule is independent of the type of poison.

[marphod]

Q 084

Martial Discipline Weapon Enhancement
Paraphrased: +1 enhancement. If you know a Maneuver from the school, you get an additional +1 to attacks. if you are using a Maneuver from the school, this increases to +3.

aIs there any requirement that the weapon be one of the discipline's preferred weapons? I don't see it in the text, but there might be errata or similar.

bIf there is no requirement for (a), does this make the weapon 'associated' with the Discipline, with respect to Feats and other abilities? associated, to the best of my knowledge, is not defined in game terms.

[Andezzar]

A 84

a) No. There is no such rule and one of the example weapons is not a preferred weapon for both disciplines.

b) No. p. 40-42 of ToB tells us which weapon is associated with which discipline. If the weapon is not on that list, the WSA dos not change that.

[heavyfuel]

Q 85

Two Paladins with Cha 14 and Stand Fast ACF staning next to each other. Would they benefit from each other's Stand Fast?

[Curmudgeon]

A 085 No.

Stacking

In most cases, modifiers to a given check or roll stack (combine for a cumulative effect) if they come from different sources and have different types (or no type at all), but do not stack if they have the same type or come from the same source (such as the same spell cast twice in succession). If the modifiers to a particular roll do not stack, only the best bonus and worst penalty applies.

Stand Fast adds the Paladin's Charisma modifier to the saving throws of allies within 20'. Because Stand Fast does not provide an exception to the stacking rule, only the better of the two Paladins' Charisma modifiers would apply.

[Andezzar]

A 85 Addendum

What Curmudgeon says is only the case if both uses of Stand Fast apply to the same save. They could each boost a different save and so benefit from both uses.

[heavyfuel]

Q 85

Sorry, I didn't really get my point across before.

Would the paladins get the benefit from each other's Stand Fast as well as Divine Grace?

Say, Pally A choses Fort and B choses Will. Now both have +4 to Fort and Will and +2 to Refx. Is this right?

[Uncle Pine]

Q86

Spontaneous Casting
A druid can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that she hasn’t prepared ahead of time. She can "lose" a prepared spell in order to cast any summon nature’s ally spell of the same level or lower.

Can a Druid "lose" a prepared Sanctum SNA III in order to cast a SNA IV spell while inside her sanctum? To the best of my knowledge yes because Sanctum Spell raises the spell's effective level, but I'd like to be sure before using it at a table.

EDIT: I started a new thread for this question.

[Curmudgeon]

A 085 (continued) Yes.

Bonuses to different checks or rolls don't have any stacking issues. Divine Grace and Stand Fast are different sources (different named class abilities), both untyped. Again, there is no stacking issue.

[torrasque666]

Q 87: Are there any Charisma-based Prepared Arcane Casters? (Not including using the Arcane Preparation feat)

[erok0809]

Q88

Can you simultaneously have two frightful presences? Specific example being the frightful presence granted by the feat in draconomicon and the one granted by the dreadful wrath feat from one of the forgotten realms books, I forget which. They have different radii and the feat one doesn't work on dragons, but I'm not sure if that's enough to differentiate them.

[heavyfuel]

A 87

Sha'ir from Dragon Compendium sort of is.

[Curmudgeon]

A 088 Yes.

The limitation is that if they've got the same name, their effects will overlap rather than stack.

[erok0809]

Thanks for the quick answer Curmudgeon.

Q89

Can a Nightmare Spinner who has Spirit Chill apply Fell Frighten to a non-damaging fear-inducing spell, since if the enemies fail the save and are affected by the fear they also take some amount of nonlethal damage, thus allowing Fell Frighten to function?

[heavyfuel]

A 89
No. The spell must deal damage for fell frighten to work

[Thurbane]

Q 090

If a character is suffering a penalty to saves (say, from a Paladin of Tyranny's Aura of Despair), does that penalty still apply if the character uses a martial maneuver or Headband of Conscious Effort to make a Concentration check instead of a save?


Q 091

Ring of Mystic Healing (MIC, p.126): if you use it with a Cuire Light Wounds, Mass, does every creature affected by the spell get the bonus healing dice?

[heavyfuel]

A 90

No. What you're making is a skill check in place of a saving throw. Rules for saving throws are no longer in play (for example, auto failing/succeeding on a nat 1/20). A penalty to skill checks would affect that, however.

A 91

No. The "damage healed by the spell" isn't "damage healed for each target". The spell would heal 1d8+CL for each creature + Xd6. How these Xd6 are distributed isn't specified. Ask your DM.



Q 92

How does DR interact with the Crusader's Steely Resolve? If my delayed pool maximun is 10, and I have DR 10, and an opponent deals 15 damage to me. Do I shave off 10 from DR, and the remaining 5 are delayed?

Or is DR applied afterwards? I'm dealt 15, 10 are delayed, and 5 are nulified by DR?

Or even, since the damage is merely being delayed, can I even apply my DR to it twice? As in, I'm dealt 15, some of is stopped by DR, some is delayed. Then when the damage is no longer delayed, it's once again stopped by my DR since they were two instances of damage.

[Curmudgeon]

A 092

Damage Reduction applies to weapon and natural attacks. It does not apply to damage coming out of your delayed damage pool.

When you are attacked, any hit point damage the blow deals is added to your delayed damage pool.

DR reduces the HP damage the blow deals. The reduced damage total goes into your delayed damage pool, up to the maximum allowed.

[GuyLSmith]

Q93

If a PC and an NPC are having a casual conversation, and the PC suddenly attacks the NPC, is there a surprise round or does the NPC get to roll initiative and possibly attack the PC first?

Forgive me if this has been asked already.

[Curmudgeon]

A 093

According to the Dungeon Master's Guide, there is no surprise round if both sides are aware of the other. If either side starts to attack, initiative is rolled and the quicker character acts first.

[Thurbane]

A 093 continued

Surely a Sense Motive vs. Bluff check would come into play, similarly to a successful Spot check avoiding a surprise round from a hidden opponent?

[Curmudgeon]

Re: A 093 continued

There's no RAW requirement for use of Bluff in this scenario, though there's also nothing preventing a DM from calling for a Bluff check if the conversation is long enough for an elaborate setup. However, while Bluff can con another character, it doesn't provide a RAW advantage in initiating combat. The DM can grant circumstance modifiers to initiative to represent an intent to initiate hostilities, but this is independent of any skill checks.

[Seto]

Q094 :
If I understand correctly, a character wearing manacles is helpless (since a "bound" character is helpless). What kind of actions can such a character take ?

[Andezzar]

A 94

The helpless condition is a bit tricky. It says

A helpless character is paralyzed, held, bound, sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise completely at an opponent’s mercy.

So a character is helpless if and only if being bound means that he is completely at an opponent's mercy. However the rules for manacles and escape artist give the character with manacles options. So he is not completely at someone's mercy, thus he is not helpless.