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

[daremetoidareyo]

Q263
Would returning weapon enchantment on a harpoon make it deal the same damage as when it went in?
Like if they pulled it out normally..
Edit: If I return a harpoon, are they still affected by the harpoon effect?

Spoiler: RAW

Show

If it deals damage, the harpoon lodges in an opponent who fails a Reflex saving throw (DC 10 + the damage dealt). A harpooned creature moves at only half speed and cannot charge or run. If you control the trailing rope by succeeding on an opposed Strength check while holding it, the harpooned creature can move only within the limits that the rope allows (the trailing rope is 30 feet long). If the harpooned creature attempts to cast a spell, it must succeed on a DC 15 Concentration check or lose the spell.
The harpooned creature can pull the harpoon from its wound if it has two free hands and takes a full-round action to do so, but it deals damage to itself equal to the initial damage the harpoon dealt. A character who succeeds on a DC 15 Heal check can remove a harpoon without further damage.

This special ability can only be placed on a weapon that can be thrown. A returning weapon flies through the air back to the creature that threw it. It returns to the thrower just before the creature’s next turn (and is therefore ready to use again in that turn). Catching a returning weapon when it comes back is a free action. If the character can’t catch it, or if the character has moved since throwing it, the weapon drops to the ground in the square from which it was thrown.

It looks to me that you cannot control the creature with the tail rope if your harpoon returns to you. (pro tip, Savage species has a bangin material for trail ropes, cable on page 46).

The following clauses are the ones that need to be parsed from a practical standpoint.

"The harpooned creature can pull the harpoon from its wound if it has two free hands and takes a full-round action to do so, but it deals damage to itself equal to the initial damage the harpoon dealt. A character who succeeds on a DC 15 Heal check can remove a harpoon without further damage."

It says that a heal check can remove the harpoon with no extra damage. This also implies that another creature can remove the harpoon in such a way to cause damage. Removing the harpoon is, therefor, not solely within the domain of the harpoon victim. Other creatures can remove them, heck, even an intelligent magic item with ranks in heal can remove them... It would be logical to assume then, that a returning harpoon deals the removal damage upon returning to the throwers hand, thus freeing the victim from all of the harpooned creature problems.

However, RAW read super literally would allow only for two options, ever, if something is harpooned. 1.) the creature removes it, wasting a full round action. 2.) someone else with heal can remove it, but if they fail, they do removal damage. In this super RAW reading then, even a returning harpoon will continue to affect the creature as if they had been stabbed, and the only way to fix it is to blow that full round action "removing" a harpoon that isn't there.

[Thurbane]

Q 264

Imbue With Spell Ability says "Once you cast imbue with spell ability, you cannot prepare a new 4th-level spell to replace it until the recipient uses the imbued spells or is slain, or until you dismiss the imbue with spell ability spell.".

If I cast it as a Magic Domain spell, I assume the slot lost is the Domain slot from which I cast it, as opposed to my other Cleric spell slots?

[.Drake]

Q 265

Can a character wield two weapons at the same time without penalty without Two Weapon Fighting, as long as they aren't using both weapons in a single attack? For example, a character wields a longsword in one hand and a light crossbow in the other, but attacks an adjacent enemy with only the longsword. Would he still take Two Weapon Fighting penalties?

[Andezzar]

A 264

Yes. It it is a domain slot and you are unable to replace it, the domain slot is blocked.

A 265

No. You only take the penalty, if you want to get an extra attack. If the character only uses the attacks given by his BAB and other abilities, he is not fighting with two weapons.

[Shnigda]

Q 266

How does extra land speed interact when wearing armour with reduced land speed?

eg. A character has base land speed of 30ft. They wear a Breastplate which reduces their land speed to 20ft. They then choose a class that grants them extra movement (say barbarian for fast movement (+10ft land speed)). What is the base land speed of this character?

Q 266 Follow-on

What would be the case if the character wears heavy armour made of Mithral? (say mithral full-plate?)

[Traitoreous]

Q 267

Do ranger and/or druids need divine focus? I heard that they might need branches and stuff.

Q 268

Can druids animal companion dog take improved unarmed strike and then fill the prerequisites for multiattack?

[Andezzar]

A 266

a) It depends. Base land speed does not change unless an ability says so. Arour for example only changes the land speed, not the base land speed.
How armour and weight modifies speed other than 30ft can be found in the Table: Carrying Loads here. It does not mater if you are encumbered by a heavy load or a heavy armor. The speed reduction is the same.

b)A Mithral Full Plate behaves exactly like any other medium armor.

A 267

If the spell requires that component, yes.

A 268

No, you need three natural attacks to qualify for multiattack.

[Debatra]

A 268

IUS has no prerequisites, so a dog could technically take it. However, an unarmed strike is not normally a natural weapon. Taking IUS also doesn't give anyone new attacks, so the dog in question would still only have its Bite.

[Andezzar]

A 268

IUS has no prerequisites, so a dog could technically take it. However, an unarmed strike is not normally a natural weapon. Taking IUS also doesn't give anyone new attacks, so the dog in question would still only have its Bite.

Actually the Unarmed strike is one natural weapon, no matter how many attacks the creature's BAB allows it to make. The Unarmed Strike just has a couple of rules that differentiate it from other natural weapons (extra attacks from BAB, no threatened squares without IUS etc.). Multiattack still requires three natural weapons, a bite and an unarmed strike are only two.

[Chronos]

A 267 continued:

A druid uses a piece of holly or mistletoe instead of a holy symbol as a divine focus. This may also be the case for rangers, but I'm unable to find a clear statement in the SRD.

[Andezzar]

A 267 Addendum

It has to be an item of spiritual significance. If the rules don't tell you what that is (as with the cleric) make something up.

[Kesnit]

Q 269

Does Superior Unarmed Strike feat stack with a Monk's Belt to give the unarmed damage of Monk level +9?

If so, would an unarmed Swordsage get the same benefit? (i.e. a 6th level SS with the unarmed damage of a 15th lvl Monk)

[Andezzar]

A 269

No. Both the item and the feat set the unarmed damage a specified number of levels higher than the character's actual monk level. They do not add a number to the monk levels. So they do not stack.

A Swordsage, even an unarmed one does not have monk levels. You may want to houserule that though.

[Debatra]

Actually the Unarmed strike is one natural weapon, no matter how many attacks the creature's BAB allows it to make. The Unarmed Strike just has a couple of rules that differentiate it from other natural attacks (extra attacks from BAB, no threatened squares without IUS etc.) Multiattack still requires three natural weapons, a bit and an unarmed strike are only two.

An unarmed strike is absolutely not a natural weapon.

[Andezzar]

An unarmed strike is absolutely not a natural weapon.

How about you look at the actual rules instead of some articles that often directly contradict the rulebooks:

Natural weapons are weapons that are physically a part of a creature.

Are you telling me an unarmed strike is not part of the creature?

You can’t cast this spell on a natural weapon, such as an unarmed strike (instead, see magic fang).

So there you have it. An Unarmed Strike is a natural weapon.

But that does not matter anyways because the dog only has one other natural weapon.

[Shnigda]

Q 270

Can a rogue do sneak attack while blinded without blind-sight or similar?
(Haven't been able to find an answer, only found articles relating to when the enemy is blind...

Q 271

Can you take an immediate action (that would be some sort of reaction) while blinded?
eg. Character gets blinded, enemy attacks, character uses immediate action from Shadow Cloak to teleport away.

EDIT: clarification

[Troacctid]

Q 270

Can a rogue do sneak attack while blinded without blind-sight or similar?
(Haven't been able to find an answer, only found articles relating to when the enemy is blind...

No. If you are blinded, everyone else has total concealment against you. You cannot sneak attack a concealed target. (You also cannot attack a totally concealed target.)

Q 271

Can you take an immediate action (that would be some sort of reaction) while blinded?
eg. Character gets blinded, enemy attacks, character uses immediate action from Shadow Cloak to teleport away.

Yes. If you are flat-footed, you cannot take immediate actions. However, while blindness does deny you your Dexterity bonus to AC, it does not make you flat-footed. You can take immediate actions normally.

[St Fan]

Q 272

I have a doubt about the Chameleon prestige class and its Ability Boon ability. It says you get a competence bonus on the ability score of your choice, which can change as you change your Aptitude Focus.

At 7th level, you also gain Double Aptitude, which allows you to have two Aptitude Focus at the same time. That doesn't mean you can take the Ability Boon on two separate ability scores, right?

[Andezzar]

A 272

No, you get the ability boost to one ability score when you choose the focus. At 7th level you are just allowed to choose two focuses at the same time.

[tsj]

Q273

The wizard variant called "simple wizard"
http://www.systemreferencedocuments....#simple-wizard

What does it mean that the wizard looses wizard bonus feats?

He doesn't get any bonus feats in the first place? Except for scribe scroll and gain familiar?

Does he loose the ability to take wizard bonus feats or what's the deal?

I'm sorry if this has already been answered. I have searched the forum but not found this mentioned anywhere.

[Troacctid]

Q273

The wizard variant called "simple wizard"
http://www.systemreferencedocuments....#simple-wizard

What does it mean that the wizard looses wizard bonus feats?

He doesn't get any bonus feats in the first place? Except for scribe scroll and gain familiar?

Does he loose the ability to take wizard bonus feats or what's the deal?

I'm sorry if this has already been answered. I have searched the forum but not found this mentioned anywhere.

Instead of gaining Scribe Scroll at 1st level and a Wizard bonus feat at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, you gain a Fighter bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level.

[Laharal]

Q274
Factotum's cunning strike.

Cunning Strike (Ex): With a quick study of a vulnerable opponent’s defenses, you can spot the precise area you need to hit to score a telling blow. Starting at 4th level, you can spend 1 inspiration point to gain 1d6 points of sneak attack damage. You must spend the inspiration point to activate this ability before making the attack roll. When determining if you can use sneak attack against a target that has uncanny dodge, use your factotum level as your rogue level.

In order to gain sneak attack damage, do I just need to spend an inspiration point or do I also need to have my target flanked or flat-footed like for a rogue?

[KillianHawkeye]

A 274

You still need to qualify for Sneak Attack like normal.

[ben-zayb]

Q275
Since Alternate Form explicitly changes physical ability scores, would a Vampire using Alternate Form gain the critter-form's CON score? How about a Vampire using Wild Shape* to become an animal?

* Corrupted Wild Shape states that Wild Shape is based on Polymorph, but IIRC it is based on Alternate Form

[KillianHawkeye]

A 275

I believe the answer would be yes.

As an aside, Wild Shape originally was based on Polymorph until it was errata'd.

[Desmorto]

Q 276

Are there other forms to get Weapon Specialization without being a 4th-level Fighter?

[Debatra]

A 276

A Warblade is treated as a Fighter of two levels lower.

[Troacctid]

Q 276

Are there other forms to get Weapon Specialization without being a 4th-level Fighter?

Divine Crusader, Favored Soul, Justice of Weald and Woe, Pious Templar, Revenant Blade, and Warblade can all do this.

[St Fan]

Q 276

Are there other forms to get Weapon Specialization without being a 4th-level Fighter?

Also, all of the Scion prestige classes can pick the specialization relevant to their Legendary Weapon.

[St Fan]

Q 277
A Chameleon who takes the Arcane Focus can prepare spells from a spellbook like a wizard. Now, imagine the character also has Wizard levels from before taking the prestige class. How long will it take him to prepare a full allotment of spells? Does it takes 2 hours (not counting the 1 hour needed to pick Aptitude Focus) or can he prepares all spells from his spellbook (both Chameleon's and Wizard's) in 1 hour?

Likewise, a Chameleon who pick Divine Focus can prepare divine spells at sunrise. If he also has levels of Cleric, does it takes 1 or 2 hours of meditation to get a full allotment? And is it even possible if the Cleric side also prepare spells at sunrise?