Simple RAW thread for 3.5 #31. By now, your question has probably been answered.

[flamewolf393]

Q702

Does untyped damage over come troll regeneration? I think not based on the wording, but I want to make sure

"Damage dealt to the creature is treated as nonlethal damage.... Certain attack forms, typically fire and acid, deal lethal damage to the creature"

Since untyped is not of one of those types, it should be treated as non-lethal right?

[Andezzar]

A 702

Yes. You answered the question yourself. Unless damage is of the mentioned type (acid or fire in case of a troll) the damage is treated as non-lethal damage.

[St Fan]

Two questions about Uncanny Dodge, and another more generic about sneak attacks.

Q 703:
Uncanny Dodge specify you keep your Dex bonus to AC even when flat-footed or attacked by an invisible opponent, but not when immobilized. That still leaves some grey areas.

A: Does the character keep his Dex bonus to AC when blinded? The penalties are mostly the same as with an invisible opponent, but with some specific to it.

B: Does the character keep his Dex bonus to AC when stunned? It's not specified, and I don't think it counts as immobilized.

Q 704:
The Penetrating Strike ACF from Dungeonscape allows a rogue to inflict half his usual sneak attack dice damage to creatures usually immune to it, as long as they are flanked.

If the rogue has another ability adding some effect to the normal sneak attack damage, does Penetrating Strike also allows it to apply? For example, the Strength damage of the Crippling Strike rogue special ability, spell stealing (with levels in spellthief), or a Death Attack (with levels in Assassin)?

[drmy]

Q705
How is calculated the DC of Half-Fiend/Half-Celestial creatures spell-like ability ?

Just as a brief note, I do know it should be something like 10 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier (in this case it's CHA based) as for most monsters, but as a thorough (and kinda new) DM, I always do the calculation on the sample creature too.
In both cases, in the MM1 (p. 145-148) the numbers don't add up. In the former, for a 7 HD Human Cleric with 12 CHA, the DCs are 15 (which should be 14 by the formula), and in the latter, there are multiple DCs for different spell-like abilities (labeled specifically the "half-celestial" spell-like abilities) ranging from 17 to 19. The sample there is a 9 HD Human Paladin with 18 CHA (for DCs of 18, no ?)
I did look around the Errata to see for any typos or whatevs, without any luck
Now I know this question might look big for such a thread, but since the answer should be short (the good formula ?) and really, the question is simple, just detailed, I thought I'd give it a go here.

Thanks in advance, and if ever you guys want me to do a thread for that instead, just notice me !

[Troacctid]

Q 701

If a creature brought to the material plane via Planar Binding/Planar Ally/Dragon Ally is slain during its task, does the body and therefore its gear remain to be looted by its killers?

Called creatures die when they are killed, unlike summoned creatures, who disappear. Generally the creature's body will remain, unless the spell description says otherwise.

Two questions about Uncanny Dodge, and another more generic about sneak attacks.

Q 703:
Uncanny Dodge specify you keep your Dex bonus to AC even when flat-footed or attacked by an invisible opponent, but not when immobilized. That still leaves some grey areas.

That depends on the specific text of the uncanny dodge ability in question, because different versions of the ability may be worded differently. Assuming you're talking about the ability as it appears for a rogue, and not, say, a scout...

A: Does the character keep his Dex bonus to AC when blinded? The penalties are mostly the same as with an invisible opponent, but with some specific to it.

Yes. When you are blinded, all opponents are invisible to you.

B: Does the character keep his Dex bonus to AC when stunned? It's not specified, and I don't think it counts as immobilized.

No.

Q 704:
The Penetrating Strike ACF from Dungeonscape allows a rogue to inflict half his usual sneak attack dice damage to creatures usually immune to it, as long as they are flanked.

If the rogue has another ability adding some effect to the normal sneak attack damage, does Penetrating Strike also allows it to apply? For example, the Strength damage of the Crippling Strike rogue special ability, spell stealing (with levels in spellthief), or a Death Attack (with levels in Assassin)?

No. An attack that deals extra damage equal to half your sneak attack dice is not the same as a sneak attack.

Q705
How is calculated the DC of Half-Fiend/Half-Celestial creatures spell-like ability ?

Just as a brief note, I do know it should be something like 10 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier (in this case it's CHA based) as for most monsters, but as a thorough (and kinda new) DM, I always do the calculation on the sample creature too.
In both cases, in the MM1 (p. 145-148) the numbers don't add up. In the former, for a 7 HD Human Cleric with 12 CHA, the DCs are 15 (which should be 14 by the formula), and in the latter, there are multiple DCs for different spell-like abilities (labeled specifically the "half-celestial" spell-like abilities) ranging from 17 to 19. The sample there is a 9 HD Human Paladin with 18 CHA (for DCs of 18, no ?)
I did look around the Errata to see for any typos or whatevs, without any luck
Now I know this question might look big for such a thread, but since the answer should be short (the good formula ?) and really, the question is simple, just detailed, I thought I'd give it a go here.

Thanks in advance, and if ever you guys want me to do a thread for that instead, just notice me !

It is equal to 10 + spell level + Charisma modifier, unless otherwise stated. Unholy blight is a 4th level spell, so its save DC is 14 + CHA. Destruction is a 7th level spell, so its save DC is 17 + CHA. Poison is a 3rd level spell, but its specific text gives it a special save DC equal to 10 + half your caster level + WIS, which takes precedence over the general rule.

[FearlessGnome]

Q 706: What's up with the Couatl's Spells Known? The entry says "Typical Spells Known (6/7/7/7/4; save DC 13 + spell level)" and then lists a bunch of spells. Does that mean it knows 6/7/7/7/4 spells, or have they just put the spells per day info right in the middle of spells known?

Q 707: A Couatl has 9 rhd and casts spells as a 9th level sorcerer. When it advances in hd, do the sorcerer spells keep up, or are they locked at the level of the not advaned base creature?

[Troacctid]

Q 706: What's up with the Couatl's Spells Known? The entry says "Typical Spells Known (6/7/7/7/4; save DC 13 + spell level)" and then lists a bunch of spells. Does that mean it knows 6/7/7/7/4 spells, or have they just put the spells per day info right in the middle of spells known?

Those are its spells per day—same as any other 9th level sorcerer with a +3 Charisma modifier.

Q 707: A Couatl has 9 rhd and casts spells as a 9th level sorcerer. When it advances in hd, do the sorcerer spells keep up, or are they locked at the level of the not advaned base creature?

It continues to cast as a 9th level sorcerer, even if it is advanced by HD.

[Thurbane]

A 707 extra

Troacctid is 100% correct.

However, just in case you didn't already know:
- additional Sorcerer levels WILL stack with the creature's innate casting (i.e. a Couatl with 3 levels in Sorcerer is treated as a 12th level Sorcerer for spells known, spells/day and most other variables)
- if it advances by HD, the Practiced Spellcaster feat can boost it's Sorcerer CL by up to +4, but no higher than the Couatl's HD. This does not increase spells known or spells/day, however

[ksbsnowowl]

Q 708: How does the Unicorn from the MM1 get its +11 attack bonus with its horn? It is a Large (-1) 4 HD Magical Beast (+4) with a Str of 20 (+5). It has no feats to alter the attack bonus, so the total should only come to +8, right?

[Jon_Dahl]

Q 709

How many spikes can a Fang Golem release at once and to how many targets?

[AlanBruce]

Q. 710

Can a cleric with the Magic Domain who has had his Intelligence dropped to 8 due to Touch of Idiocy use arcane wands like Benign Transposition?

What about if his Wisdom drops below 10. Can he use divine wands, like CLW or Lesser Vigor?

I know the spell states that prepared spells or spontaneous spell slots may become unaccessible to targets of the spell, but I wanted to check if this extended to wands, runestaves, scrolls and staves.

[Bronk]

Q 708: How does the Unicorn from the MM1 get its +11 attack bonus with its horn? It is a Large (-1) 4 HD Magical Beast (+4) with a Str of 20 (+5). It has no feats to alter the attack bonus, so the total should only come to +8, right?

A 708

The unicorn's entry describes its horn as a +3 magical weapon, which accounts for the extra attack and damage bonuses.

Q. 710

Can a cleric with the Magic Domain who has had his Intelligence dropped to 8 due to Touch of Idiocy use arcane wands like Benign Transposition?

What about if his Wisdom drops below 10. Can he use divine wands, like CLW or Lesser Vigor?

I know the spell states that prepared spells or spontaneous spell slots may become unaccessible to targets of the spell, but I wanted to check if this extended to wands, runestaves, scrolls and staves.

A 710

Yes for wands and staffs (both arcane and divine), generally no for scrolls, and no for runestaves.

Wands and staffs are spell trigger items that just require the spell to be on your spell list and a command word.

Scrolls require a high enough applicable ability score, although this can be overcome with a Use Magic Device check.

Runestaves grant access to additional spells, but then those spells follow the same rules as for regularly obtained spells.

[Bronk]

Q 709

How many spikes can a Fang Golem release at once and to how many targets?

A 709

The number of spikes is unspecified, but at least two per target (the attack is pluralized) and with no upper limit listed. It also doesn't specify where the spikes come from - they aren't part of its body, because they're made of 'claws, fangs and tusks'. Or how big they are.

The number of targets only specifies that they're within 30' of each other, so could be any number of targets that can fit in that area. Depending on size and how closely packed they are, and whether or not they count as a swarm (which would be immune to individual weapon attacks) this number could vary widely.

[No brains]

Q 708: How does the Unicorn from the MM1 get its +11 attack bonus with its horn? It is a Large (-1) 4 HD Magical Beast (+4) with a Str of 20 (+5). It has no feats to alter the attack bonus, so the total should only come to +8, right?

A 708
In the creature's text it specifies that its horn counts as a +3 magic weapon.

[Fuzzy McCoy]

Q711:

Is there anyway for an azurin werebear (brown) to get improved grab to work on same size creature or larger?

[Debatra]

Q 712

Someone mixes a single dose of ingested poison into a bottle of wine. The bottle is poured into six different glasses, each drunk by a different person. None of them are immune to poison.

What happens?

[Troacctid]

Q 712

Someone mixes a single dose of ingested poison into a bottle of wine. The bottle is poured into six different glasses, each drunk by a different person. None of them are immune to poison.

What happens?

Each person who ingested a dose of the poison is subject to its effects and must make a Fortitude saving throw to resist it. If no one receives a full dose, the poison is not applied.

It isn’t possible to use or apply poison in any quantity smaller than one dose.

[kkplx]

Q 713

A character has both a familiar and a wild cohort (or purchased animal) he uses as a mount.
The familiar has share spells, the cohort/animal, obviously, does not.
The character then takes the "Share Soulmeld"-Feat.
Can the character share soulmelds with both companions, or only the familiar?
RAI I'd say only the familiar, but RAW might allow both?

[Faielyn]

Q714

I am looking at both the Husk from Dragon Magic and Vow of Poverty from Book of Exalted Deeds Do these stack and at level 1 you have a +10 to AC or is Husk as useless as I believe it to be and you can't stack anything with it

[Debatra]

Each person who ingested a dose of the poison is subject to its effects and must make a Fortitude saving throw to resist it. If no one receives a full dose, the poison is not applied.

And how is it determined who gets how much poison?

[No brains]

A 712 extra

The implication of the answer is that when the poison is mixed with the wine and split, it is diluted into a harmless concentration beneath one dose.

Depending on some potentially dubious logic, it could be decided that the poison is either lighter or heavier than the wine and whomever gets the first or last drink would be the one exposed to a full dose of poison. What poison are we talking about?

[Debatra]

A 712 extra

The implication of the answer is that when the poison is mixed with the wine and split, it is diluted into a harmless concentration beneath one dose.

Depending on some potentially dubious logic, it could be decided that the poison is either lighter or heavier than the wine and whomever gets the first or last drink would be the one exposed to a full dose of poison. What poison are we talking about?

Nothing specific. It's purely hypothetical.

[torrasque666]

Q715: Does selecting Fist of Zuoken as the psionic class for Tashlatora mean that FoZ levels are counted twice for a monk's unarmed damage?

[KillianHawkeye]

Q714

I am looking at both the Husk from Dragon Magic and Vow of Poverty from Book of Exalted Deeds Do these stack and at level 1 you have a +10 to AC or is Husk as useless as I believe it to be and you can't stack anything with it

A 714

This bonus doesn't stack with any feat, racial trait, or other special ability that would grant you a bonus to Armor Class.

As ridiculous and unfortunately worded as it may be, that is the RAW and there doesn't appear to be any errata available to change it. The bonus from the husk doesn't even stack with Dodge or a dwarf's racial bonus to AC against giants.

I'm 99.999% certain that this isn't the way the ability is supposed to function (and I hope your DM agrees with me), but for the purposes of a RAW-only discussion it just doesn't stack with anything.

[Troacctid]

Q 713

A character has both a familiar and a wild cohort (or purchased animal) he uses as a mount.
The familiar has share spells, the cohort/animal, obviously, does not.
The character then takes the "Share Soulmeld"-Feat.
Can the character share soulmelds with both companions, or only the familiar?
RAI I'd say only the familiar, but RAW might allow both?

RAW allows you to share soulmelds with your familiar, mount, and animal companion. The animal is neither a familiar nor an animal companion, but if you are riding it as a mount, it can gain the bonus.

Q714

I am looking at both the Husk from Dragon Magic and Vow of Poverty from Book of Exalted Deeds Do these stack and at level 1 you have a +10 to AC or is Husk as useless as I believe it to be and you can't stack anything with it

It can stack with anything as long as the thing isn't a feat, racial trait, or special ability. Unfortunately, Vow of Poverty is a feat, so it does not stack.

Q715: Does selecting Fist of Zuoken as the psionic class for Tashlatora mean that FoZ levels are counted twice for a monk's unarmed damage?

No. The class already stacks for unarmed damage, so the feat is redundant.

[Bronk]

Q711:

Is there anyway for an azurin werebear (brown) to get improved grab to work on same size creature or larger?

A 711

No, not directly. However, you could get the same or similar benefits by:

1: Temporarily becoming larger via magic.

2: Finding a way to become an octopus, a giant octopus, a squid, a giant squid, a dung snake, a whipsnake, or a were or anthropomorphic version of any of these, since they all have Improved Grab without a size limit.

3: Gaining a similar effect with the 'Scorpion's Grasp' feat, which requires Improved Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple as prerequisites.

[Kuu Lightwing]

Q716: Readying actions. Which one is correct

"When I see an enemy I cast a spell" or "When I see an enemy I cast Scorching Ray targeting said enemy"? Basically when should I decide which spell exactly (or power) do I cast if I ready an action?

Same question about Synchronicity - if I manifest it, should I ready an action "I manifest a power" or should I chose what power I manifest with which augmentations, and what is the target?

EDIT: While we're at it...
Q717: Does Metapower feat still allow you to manifest an unmodified version of the power?

[Geigan]

Q718: This seemed pretty straight forward to me, but it was relatively specific and I wasn't 100% on it so I thought I'd get a second opinion before I brought it up in play. Does the Binding weapon property (MIC pg218) and for that matter any similar effects that work "as [x spell]" require checks to overcome spell resistance from the item in question? I assume spell storing would have to worry about such things, but I wasn't sure about weapon properties that replicate the effects of certain spells without specifying that they "cast" them. I assumed they wouldn't have to up to now, but it's never actually come up in game and I wanted to get out in front of this one before I tried to use it.

[Andezzar]

A 716 Partial

You can ready a standard action, a move action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it.

The specific (Standard) Action in your case is Cast a Spell. There is no rule saying you must specify it further.

I cannot find the Synchronicity power so I cannot answer that part.

A 717

If you mean the various metapsionic feats the answer is yes.

[Troacctid]

A 716 Partial

The specific (Standard) Action in your case is Cast a Spell. There is no rule saying you must specify it further.

I cannot find the Synchronicity power so I cannot answer that part.

Correction: This rule was clarified in the Rules Compendium (page 110) with an updated wording.

You can ready a standard action, a move action, a swift action, or a free action. To do so, you must specify what you want to do and the conditions under which you will do so.

You must decide what you want to do as you ready the action, not when you take the readied action.

As for synchronicity, the same applies: unless you augment the power, you have to decide what you want to do when you ready the action, not when you take it. If you do augment the power, then you can wait to decide.

Q717: Does Metapower feat still allow you to manifest an unmodified version of the power?

Unclear, but the use of the phrase "permanently modify" suggests the answer may be no. On the other hand, that interpretation may result in dysfunctions, e.g. being unable to manifest the power without expending psionic focus. Consult your DM.

Q718: This seemed pretty straight forward to me, but it was relatively specific and I wasn't 100% on it so I thought I'd get a second opinion before I brought it up in play. Does the Binding weapon property (MIC pg218) and for that matter any similar effects that work "as [x spell]" require checks to overcome spell resistance from the item in question? I assume spell storing would have to worry about such things, but I wasn't sure about weapon properties that replicate the effects of certain spells without specifying that they "cast" them. I assumed they wouldn't have to up to now, but it's never actually come up in game and I wanted to get out in front of this one before I tried to use it.

It depends on the item, but generally, if the effect refers only to part of a spell's effect, it's only referring to that part of the spell's effect. In your example of the binding weapon, it prevents extradimensional travel as if the target were affected by dimensional anchor, but it doesn't duplicate any other aspects of dimensional anchor—you do not need to make a touch attack roll or a spell penetration check. Another example is the granted ability of the Travel domain, which allows you to ignore magical impediments as if you were under the effect of freedom of movement, but does not grant you any other benefits of the spell, such as the ability to automatically resist grapples or move normally underwater.