Simple RAW for 3.5: 38 pages, and I still don't know how to play D&D

[St Fan]

Do note that the lack of corrupt spell restriction is probably an oversight, and that the flavor of sanctified spells ("characters who devote themselves wholly to good") may be reason enough to forbid casting both with the same character.

I've seen it not so much considered an oversight than a feature: evil corrupts, and as such allowing good character to still cast those spells is part of the whole "temptation of evil" thematic. Good characters who use too many corrupt spells would see their alignment slip toward evil; that's the whole point.

[lehp]

Q60:

Can a caster choose to intentionally fail a dispel check with dispel magic? To avoid, for example, dispelling a buff from an ally while trying to dispel a harmful effect. Assume the buff was cast by someone other than the caster attempting to dispel. If this is correct, disregard the rest.

In case the "dispeller" in question is also the one who cast the spell to be dispelled, dispel magic states:

For Targeted Dispel:
You automatically succeed on your dispel check against any spell that you cast yourself.

For Area Dispel:
You may choose to automatically succeed on dispel checks against any spell that you have cast.

Does this mean that:

• A. If you cast a Targeted dispel, you always dispel your own spells with no option to avoid it. If you cast Area dispel, you may choose to either guaranteed dispel or make a caster level check.
• B. If you cast a Targeted or Area dispel, you may choose whether or not to dispel your own spells.
• C. If you cast a Targeted dispel, you always dispel your own spells with no option to avoid it. If you cast Area dispel, you may choose whether or not to dispel.

[ShurikVch]

Q 61

So, let's say we cast on some object:
1. Animate Objects
2. Greater Humanoid Essence
3. Nar Fiendbond (please, don't argue there about the "1 hour" casting time vs "1 round/level" duration of previous spells - I'm pretty sure it can be resolved in some RAW-legal ways)
So, we got a Half-Fiendish Animated Object
But we don't used Permanency - thus, at some point, Animate Objects would run out of duration
In that case - what would happen with this Half-Fiendish formerly-Animated object? What would it keep from its "Animated" period?

[Chronos]

A 60:

Absent a houserule, nothing gives you the ability to choose to fail on a dispel check. Your interpretation A is correct.

A 61:

Spells only check that their target is valid at time of casting. In your situation, you would have an object with the Half-Fiend template. This would mostly be made irrelevant by the object's lack of actions, but some objects, for instance, have some ability scores, which would continue to be modified by the template, and objects can have alignments, so it would continue to be evil. Cosmetic changes would also remain. And if another effect animated it again, it would be a half-fiend animated object again.

[Beni-Kujaku]

A 61 discussion : First, casting Nar Fiendbond wouldn't work since it requires Int 4 and animated objects are mindless, but barring that, I'd argue that reanimating the object would not keep the half-fiend template. Animate Object creates a whole new statblock based on the object's size instead of modifying anything. I'd say it's similar to polymorphing a creature with the half-dragon template: when the physical stats are set to a specific value, the template does not apply afterwards.

[Vaern]

Do note that the lack of corrupt spell restriction is probably an oversight, and that the flavor of sanctified spells ("characters who devote themselves wholly to good") may be reason enough to forbid casting both with the same character.

Since sanctified magic is described as being an option for characters willing to utterly devote themselves to good, it might also be reason enough to forbid casting as a neutral character even without the added context of also attempting to cast corrupt spells.

The lack of restriction on corrupt spells may also simply be appropriate flavor for evil. Celestials and good deities generally only offer greater power to good people who want to do good. On the other side of the coin, devils don't limit themselves to making pacts with only evil people - the souls of neutral and good characters who have been corrupted and turned to the dark side are more valuable, and offering them evil power and feeding them dreams that they can use it to do good is a classic way to go about it. Corrupt spells being an option to all, always looming within reach and tempting with a taste of dark magic if you were to simply choose to reach out and take it, is perfectly in line with a general fiendish desire to corrupt otherwise innocent creatures.

[edit] Whoops, didn't realize I wasn't on the last page of the thread xD

[Cygnia]

Q62 Is there a Natural Spell equivalent feat for using invocations if one was a lycanthrope in animal form (and happened to be a warlock or DFA)?

[Condé]

Q63

Are Taint rules from Dragon Magazine #302 ever explained?

Page 32 they talk about the Tainted Class but... That's it. They talk about Fiend Points but it seems there is not much presented here, no clear rules of what happen if you reach a certain threshold except... "...alignment changes to the alignment of the fiend inhabiting his soul".

Taint rules from UA do not seem to be related, neither OA and even less HoH. And it is very hard to find anything about this PrC since... It's from Dragon Mag.

[St Fan]

Q 64
The Bonding Rituals rule from Dungeon Master's Guide II allows the creation of magic items through a ritual. The powers of such items only work for the one who performed the ritual, however, and said powers fade away if the character perform another ritual with a different item.

A) What does an identify spell tell you about such an item? Does the caster know all the powers of the item, but also that they won't work for anybody other than the creator? And is said creator identified in any way by the spell? Or is the specific ritual named?

B) What would be the market price of such an item? Are they worth anything to people beyond its creator?

C) In particular, what would be value used for the item when sacrificed through the Ancestral Relic feat? Can someone who is not the creator benefit of the item's full value through the ceremony to empower her ancestral relic? And can the creator of a bonded item sacrifice it for an ancestral relic (a different item, of course) before performing a new ritual with another item, which would technically render the previous sacrifice worthless (retroactively...)?

[ciopo]

Q65

Does a player character (lesser or not) chaond/zenythri have resistance 5 to acid/cold/sonic ?

[ShurikVch]

A 62

There is no need: technically, Invocations are Spell-Like Abilities - thus, don't have any Verbal components
Truenamer may have this problem with their Utterances - but Warlock and DFA are free of this restriction
(Although, it may be slightly questionable for Baleful Utterance and Word of Change - because their fluff includes "saying a word" - but it's just fluff...)


A 63

Well, firstly, forced alignment change already can wreck your RP (let alone - invalidate some prerequisites, and cause possible unfavorable reactions from other characters)
Also, note the Dream Haunting, Hallucinations, and Craving class features: all of them are include Fiend Points checks, and failure means character is Shaken for arbitrary time, Confused for 1d4 rounds, or must kill/destroy number of creatures with HD = Tainted class level


A 65

Yes. Why not?


Q 66

If Daggerspell Mage of 2+ level craft - say, Flaming weapon: would half of those 1d6 fire damage be slashing damage (i. e. by the Invocation of the Knife class feature)?

[Chronos]

Re 62:
Invocations are spell-like abilities, but unlike most spell-like abilities, they [i]do/i] have somatic components. So your form would have to include something suitably hand-like to perform the somatic components. I don't think the rules ever explicitly say whether paws or the like are close enough.

[ShurikVch]

Re 62:
Invocations are spell-like abilities, but unlike most spell-like abilities, they [i]do/i] have somatic components. So your form would have to include something suitably hand-like to perform the somatic components. I don't think the rules ever explicitly say whether paws or the like are close enough.

Surrogate Spellcasting (Savage Species)?

[Condé]

Q67

You have a darklantern from tome of Magic or some darklight from Secrets of Sarlona.
You have a Ring of Darkhidden equipped.

You now are invisible to Darkvision. But most Monster/character have normal or even low light vision. So you have concealment but you are not invisible to anyone.

Am I missing something here?

[Troacctid]

Q 66

If Daggerspell Mage of 2+ level craft - say, Flaming weapon: would half of those 1d6 fire damage be slashing damage (i. e. by the Invocation of the Knife class feature)?

No.

Q67

You have a darklantern from tome of Magic or some darklight from Secrets of Sarlona.
You have a Ring of Darkhidden equipped.

You now are invisible to Darkvision. But most Monster/character have normal or even low light vision. So you have concealment but you are not invisible to anyone.

Am I missing something here?

You are correct.

[St Fan]

Q 68
A) When you take a move action, you can decide of your movement square by square, right? It's not pre-determined at its start... (Well, with the exception of a charge which require line of sight to the target at the start of the turn.)

B) For example, if a character has very limited sight range (because she's using darkvision or blindsight, for example) and start moving toward several enemies she can hear, but can't see yet, as soon as they're visible she can swerve toward the opponent of her choice, right?

C) In the above case, can the character even decide at that moment between...
- using Spring Attack on an opponent close enough (despite not knowing whether it was possible yet at the start of the move)
- or moving up to her full speed before taking a standard action?

[Khedrac]

A 68 A) Correct
[B]B) Also correct
C) Yes to both.

[ciopo]

Q69

the srd on alternate form says : "Any gear worn or carried by the creature that can’t be worn or carried in its new form instead falls to the ground in its space. If the creature changes size, any gear it wears or carries that can be worn or carried in its new form changes size to match the new size. (Nonhumanoid-shaped creatures can’t wear armor designed for humanoid-shaped creatures, and vice versa.) Gear returns to normal size if dropped."

Where is that part from? on the glossary definition of alternate form in the monster manual I, that part about what happens to gear is missing, I'd like to know the actual paper source, book and page number would be much appreciated, thank you!

[Duke of Urrel]

Q69

the srd on alternate form says : "Any gear worn or carried by the creature that can’t be worn or carried in its new form instead falls to the ground in its space. If the creature changes size, any gear it wears or carries that can be worn or carried in its new form changes size to match the new size. (Nonhumanoid-shaped creatures can’t wear armor designed for humanoid-shaped creatures, and vice versa.) Gear returns to normal size if dropped."

Where is that part from? on the glossary definition of alternate form in the monster manual I, that part about what happens to gear is missing, I'd like to know the actual paper source, book and page number would be much appreciated, thank you!

A 69

The full text, exactly as you have quoted it, appears on page 305 of 2012 edition of the Monster Manual v. 3.5.

[Tohron]

Q70
I've heard people mention that items that give enhancement bonuses to ability scores can't go above +6 pre-epic, but I haven't been able to find anything stating this in the SRD (only the CL/3 restriction for enhancement bonuses to weapons and armor). Where is the restriction from, and what is the text?

And on a related note:
Q71
Is there a restriction on how large (competence) skill bonuses from items can be? If so, where is this stated?

Thanks!

[Duke of Urrel]

Q70
I've heard people mention that items that give enhancement bonuses to ability scores can't go above +6 pre-epic, but I haven't been able to find anything stating this in the SRD (only the CL/3 restriction for enhancement bonuses to weapons and armor). Where is the restriction from, and what is the text?

And on a related note:
Q71
Is there a restriction on how large (competence) skill bonuses from items can be? If so, where is this stated?

Thanks!

A 70

According to the basic rules for epic magic items, any magic item that grants an enhancement bonus higher than +6 to an ability score is, generally speaking, an epic magic item.

(Possibly an artifact could also grant an enhancement bonus higher than +6 to an ability score, because I know of nothing that prevents an artifact from being as powerful as an epic magic item.)



A 71

As far as I know, no general rule exists that places an upper limit on the competence bonus that a magic item may bestow.

However, the description of NPC hireling specialists on page 155 of the DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE II does imply that +5 is the highest magically bestowed competence bonus that is commonly available. A specialist is understood to be an NPC who maximizes and magically enhances one skill as much as possible, but the highest magically bestowed competence bonus that any specialist acquires, according to the DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE II, is +5.

[St Fan]

Q 72
I have little doubt about this one, but just to make sure...

The Racial Paragon Classes from Unearthed Arcana are NOT prestige classes, right?

Sure, they do use some of the mechanics of prestige classes (like, no XP penalty for multiclassed characters, or the +1 level in a spellcasting class), but at no point they are described as prestige classes... (and can be taken at first level, unlike prestige classes).

So, a Gestalt character (limited to one prestige class and one base class at each level) can take a level in a racial paragon class at the same time as a level in a prestige class... am I correct?

[H_H_F_F]

Q 72
I have little doubt about this one, but just to make sure...

The Racial Paragon Classes from Unearthed Arcana are NOT prestige classes, right?

Sure, they do use some of the mechanics of prestige classes (like, no XP penalty for multiclassed characters, or the +1 level in a spellcasting class), but at no point they are described as prestige classes... (and can be taken at first level, unlike prestige classes).

So, a Gestalt character (limited to one prestige class and one base class at each level) can take a level in a racial paragon class at the same time as a level in a prestige class... am I correct?

A 72

They aren't prestige classes.

It should be noted that they aren't base classes, either, but I don't think the language for gestalt actually mentions base classes.

[Vaern]

(Possibly an artifact could also grant an enhancement bonus higher than +6 to an ability score, because I know of nothing that prevents an artifact from being as powerful as an epic magic item.)

As far as I know there aren't really any rules restricting what an artifact can and can't do. I The Saint's Mace on the SRD looks like it has an effective enhancement bonus of +11 (+5 base with another +6 in special abilities) , which puts it into the epic category. They do come with the caveat of being obtainable only via DM fiat, though.

[Chronos]

Re 71:

Plenty of magic items in the DMG (such as rings of jumping, climbing, or swimming) give a +5 competence bonus to a skill for the basic item, and a +10 competence bonus for a greater version. This is certainly evidence that a +10 competence bonus is at least possible pre-epic.

Many, but not all, such items also have as a prerequisite that the creator have that many ranks in the skill. This would suggest a pre-epic limit of +23.

All that said, it seems to me that I have somewhere seen an item that granted +20 or even +30 to a skill, without requiring 20 or 30 ranks to craft it, but I can't remember what it was.

There are also ordinary (non-epic) spells which give larger competence bonuses to a skill or enhancement bonus to an ability score, and items could of course be crafted which cast those spells.

[Jon_Dahl]

Q 73

Give me the CR of a satyr who is an 11th-level barbarian, please.

[Beni-Kujaku]

A 73 the CR of a creature with class levels depends on whether you consider the class to be associated (building on the monster's strengths) or non-associated (ill-adapted to the monster). There is no RAW definition of class association (it's not the same as favored classes) but since Fey creatures have bad BAB and HD‚ a melee class like Barbarian is pretty sure to be considered non-associated. Thus‚ the 5 first levels (as many as a satyr's original number of RHD) only count for half a CR and the rest count for a full point of CR per level.
Thus the CR of a pipeless satyr barbarian 11 is 2 (original satyr CR)+2 (Half of the 5 first barbarian levels)+6 (the 6 remaining barbarian levels)= CR10.
If the satyr had its pipes‚ then the official CR would be 12. If for some reason you consider barbarian to be an associated class‚ then the CR would be 13 (counting fully each barbarian level) or 15 with pipes.

The CR system was designed with only the slightest of care for monsters with class levels. The result may be a bit wonky. CR 10 seems like a decent approximation here‚ though.

[Jon_Dahl]

Q 74

If a hill giant dire wereboar bites a humanoid, is the humanoid in subject to contract dire wereboar lycantrope that gives you +16 STR or wereboar lycantrope that gives you +4 STR?

[Beni-Kujaku]

A 74 Boar and dire boar are functionally two wholly different animals. Being bitten by a dire wereboar means you can become a dire wereboar, not a regular wereboar, the same way being bitten by a were-brown bear will not make you a were-black bear.

[St Fan]

Q 75

The embrace the dark chaos spell includes the text: "Once the subject has the Abyssal heritor feat, only a miracle, shun the dark chaos, or wish spell can reverse the change."

Likewise, shun the dark chaos mentions: "The subject can regain its original Abyssal heritor feat (and lose the replacement feat) by means of embrace the dark chaos, miracle, or wish."

I've always interpreted this as meaning that such a feat can no longer be retrained by the standard rules (nor be the subject of a psychic reformation) and you'd need another "dark chaos shuffle" to ever change it. Is that RAW?