Simple Q&A D&D 3.5 (by RAW) XXVI

[Curmudgeon]

A 619 No Yes.

Activating a magic item is not on the list of actions allowed if you're grappling.

Answer corrected. I apologize for the error.

[CRtwenty]

Q620

The description of a Water Elemental states they can't venture further than 180 ft from the pool they were summoned in. However a pool of water is not listed as a necessary component when casting a spell that can summon a Water Elemental such as Summon Nature's Ally II. Does this mean you can summon a Water Elemental without a pool? Would this allow it to wander freely?

[Curmudgeon]

A 620 No.

This requirement is stated for the entire school of magic, not just in individual spells.

A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it.

If you have no pool of water, your attempt at summoning a Water Elemental fails and the spell is wasted.

[Tlehmann23]

Q 776
Is there a weight for gold pieces?
I couldn't find it in the DM's Guide

[Sith_Happens]

A 776

1/50 lb.

[Tlehmann23]

A 776

1/50 lb.

Where did you find it?

[Sith_Happens]

Where did you find it?

PHB equipment section, under "Wealth and Money."

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Q 622
A psion manifests Control Body on herself. Said psion normally has a lot of things that enhance/modify attacks, damage and AC, like a +1 weapon, knowledge devotion, a flanking buddy, Power Attack, a monk dip with Kung Fu Genius, and so forth. But Control Body specifically says:

If you force the subject to engage in combat, its attack bonus is equal to your base attack bonus + your Intelligence bonus, and its bonus on damage rolls is equal to your Intelligence bonus.

So, what bonuses can the psion apply, if any? Can the psion use Power Attack or other feats? Class features?

In short, what can and can't a controlled body use to modify its attacks, damage and AC? My inclination is to say that most effects and abilities help.

[Curmudgeon]

A 622 N/A.

You psychokinetically control the actions of any humanoid (including undead or outsiders with a humanoid physiology) that is within range and to which you have line of sight.

line of sight

Two creatures can see each other if they have line of sight to each other. To determine line of sight, draw an imaginary line between your space and the target's space. If any such line is clear (not blocked), then you have line of sight to the creature (and it has line of sight to you). The line is clear if it doesn't intersect or even touch squares that block line of sight. If you can't see the target (for instance, if you're blind or the target is invisible), you can't have line of sight to it even if you could draw an unblocked line between your space and the target's.

It is not possible to have line of sight to yourself; attempting to draw a line from the center of your own space to your own space does not result in any line, but just a point. Consequently, you cannot manifest Control Body on yourself; attempting to do so simply fails.
See below. I apologize for the confusion.

[unseenmage]

Q623

a) If a Spellthief uses Steal Spell Effect on an Animated Object would the spell Animate Objects be suppressed since it cannot be taken?

b) If the above happens and it is a Permanency-ed Animated Object could the permanency spell be randomly suppressed instead?

c) If the above happens and the Permanency spell is suppressed would the Animate Objects spell suddenly realize it's duration was long since expired and cease? (Assuming for the sake of this question it's duration would have in fact long since expired of course.)

Edit: Our DM Googled and didn't find this already discussed anywhere so if it needs it's own thread just gimmie a heads up. Thanks. Always appreciate you folk and your superior grasp of the rules interactions.

[TuggyNE]

A622 dispute:

A 622 N/A. It is not possible to have line of sight to yourself; attempting to draw a line from the center of your own space to your own space does not result in any line, but just a point. Consequently, you cannot manifest Control Body on yourself; attempting to do so simply fails.

The citation contains an important word: "any line". Very similar language is found in Combat Modifiers for determining cover and concealment, but there it is clearer, allowing any line drawn from any corner of your space to any corner of the target space. This parallel means that "any" here should be taken seriously, and it is trivial to draw a line from some part of your space to some other part of your space that would, indeed, be an unbroken line segment in the formal sense. (D&D clearly does not use "line" in the geometric sense, and therefore distinguishing geometric lines from geometric points, while perhaps amusing, is not particularly appropriate.) Therefore, yes, you do have line of sight to yourself, barring unusual circumstances such as being within a square that itself blocks line of sight.

A622 partial: The wording is poor, but seems to closely parallel that in Combat Statistics. Neither explicitly limit the bonuses that can be applied, but only implicitly limit applicable bonuses to those listed and any others that explicitly add themselves to the list.

Therefore, although this is not made entirely clear, it is best to assume that the wording of the power replaces that in Combat Statistics, and that therefore, instead of subject BAB + subject Str + subject size + misc, its attack roll is caster BAB + caster Int + subject size + (intersection of applicable caster/subject misc bonuses).

Exactly how large this last group is intended to be is quite murky by RAW, but a rough rule of thumb would be that anything the subject possesses that requires no thought to use, or anything the caster possesses that requires no muscle memory or direct physical action to use, would both qualify. Effects that require thought or muscle memory to use (when such fundamentals are actually available, as here) are not explicitly blocked by the power, however, only implicitly for cases where such cannot function.

[Arael666]

Q624

In the leadership feat, does character level limit number of followers as it limits the cohort level?

[Tanuki Tales]

Q. 625

Did they ever give an age distribution for settlements or was there only the level distribution?

[AlanBruce]

Q. 626

A creature that fails it's save versus Hideous Laughter falls prone and can take no actions for the duration of the spell.

Can they, however, make AoO?

[Dharack]

A 619 No.

Activating a magic item is not on the list of actions allowed if you're grappling.

I've brought up this case after I was told by you, that activating a Magic Item is no allowed action and then was shown this quote:

"Activate a Magic Item
You can activate a magic item, as long as the item doesn’t require spell completion activation. You don’t need to make a grapple check to activate the item. "

Which would mean any Magic Item, aside from scrolls, would be activateable? Apparently it's from the SRD, what is true now?

[Kryx]

A 615 No.
using a Spell-like ability isn't on the list of actions allowed if you're grappling; your DM might simply say it can't happen.

Wizards post makes this quite clear: "A spell-like ability has no verbal, somatic, material, focus, or XP components, so you can use one while grappling. To do so, you must succeed on a Concentration check; the DC for the check is exactly the same as it would be if you were casting a spell. See Rules of the Game for more information on spell-like abilities."

Source: https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050308a

[Kryx]

A 619 No.

Activating a magic item is not on the list of actions allowed if you're grappling.

This is wrong:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/spe...ks.htm#grapple

When you are grappling (regardless of who started the grapple), you can perform any of the following actions

Activate a Magic Item
You can activate a magic item, as long as the item doesn’t require spell completion activation. You don’t need to make a grapple check to activate the item.

Meaning no scrolls and some other things.

[NoACWarrior]

Q623

a) If a Spellthief uses Steal Spell Effect on an Animated Object would the spell Animate Objects be suppressed since it cannot be taken?

b) If the above happens and it is a Permanency-ed Animated Object could the permanency spell be randomly suppressed instead?

c) If the above happens and the Permanency spell is suppressed would the Animate Objects spell suddenly realize it's duration was long since expired and cease? (Assuming for the sake of this question it's duration would have in fact long since expired of course.)

Edit: Our DM Googled and didn't find this already discussed anywhere so if it needs it's own thread just gimmie a heads up. Thanks. Always appreciate you folk and your superior grasp of the rules interactions.

A 623
A) Correct, assuming you actually can sneak attack the animated object (requiring something like golemstrike).
B) Correct, permanency can be randomly suppressed.
C) By RAW, the removal or suppression of permanency does not do anything to the original spell, as permanency has no suppression or ending clause, and only modifies the previous "qualified spell" cast to have a duration of "permanent". In the case of Animate Objects, suppressing Permanency would have no effect on the duration of Animate Objects.

There are cases where you would want to first strip permanency - so you could dispel the other personal range spells permanency would otherwise protect.

Q. 626

A creature that fails it's save versus Hideous Laughter falls prone and can take no actions for the duration of the spell.

Can they, however, make AoO?

A 626 By RAW AoOs are not actions, but occur automatically as a result of another's action which provokes an AoO. You cannot perform an AoO when flatfooted (including a loss of dex bonus to AC as a result of a condition), and you must threaten the squares in question (being able to attack a square with a melee weapon). Since Hideous Laughter denies you the ability to use your melee weapon to attack a square, it also denies the ability to utilize an AoO (even though an AoO isn't an action).

[NoACWarrior]

Q599
Can an Artificer use higher level slots to cast lower level Infusions?

A 599 While an Artificer's infusions function just like spells and follow all the rules for spells, but it is not mentioned later in the preparation section that the Artificer prepares them just like spells, only nothing that they can only use a certain number of infusions per level per day. By RAW this means that higher level infusion slots cannot be used for lower level infusions via normal preparation.

[NoACWarrior]

Q624
In the leadership feat, does character level limit number of followers as it limits the cohort level?

A 624 Yes, sort of. The leadership score is what limits both cohort level and number of 1st - 6th level followers. Leadership score is based on level plus charisma modifier. Thus with a fixed charisma, a PC Leader may only have a certain amount of followers directly correlated to the PC's level as the PC gains levels. Refer to page 106 in the DMG for the leadership table.

[Andezzar]

A 624 Addendum

I think Arael666 wanted to know whether there is a hard limit for followers like for cohorts:

Regardless of a character’s Leadership score, he can only recruit a cohort who is two or more levels lower than himself.

Followers are not limited in a similar fashion. So any character with a leadership score of 10 would have 5 level 1 followers regardless of his own level.

[kkplx]

Q 626

By RAW, are Spellcraft checks handled analogous to to Listen&Spot, as passive (hidden rolls) checks, or do they only happen on as a reaction (on prompt of the player) and analogous to Knowledge checks.

Every GM I've played with handled spellcraft and knowledge as "you ask you get to roll" checks, and Spot and Listen at least to a degree as hidden (or "granted") checks, but a thread on this forum recently made me reconsider how it's intended to be used.

[Andezzar]

A 626

As far as I can tell it is not RAW for the DM to roll any checks by the PCs, even though it is done sometimes. At best it is a guideline. This goes for all the skills you mentioned.

[Lord Haart]

Q627.

What action is it to use (spread on the ground in a target square):
A) Caltrops?
B) Marbles (Arms and Equipment guide)?

Q628.

Is using caltrops/marbles limited to squares adjacent to the character using them? If not, how far may the target square be?

[flamewolf393]

Q629

Can you exceed normal magic item slot limits if the items are all use/command activated rather than continuous effects? Like wearing 10 rings, that all have a once per day activated effect? As long as only an appropriate number of active effects are active at a time, seems to me this should work.

[Sith_Happens]

A 629

Sort of. As long as none of the items have a "must be worn for X amount of time to function" requirement, you can swap them out over the course of the day. Wearing them all simultaneously is not possible, though.

[Thorvaldr]

A627

As Drawing a hidden weapon or attacking is a Standard Action, I would say a Standard Action.

A628

As Caltrops need to be clustered to work correctly, I would say they need to be in adjacent squares. (Throwing them would scatter them.) I have not seen any RAW for this though.

[heavyfuel]

Q 630

Actually a series of questions on how Snap Kick, AoOs, Decisive Strike, and the Monk's Unarmed Strike interact with each other.

Assuming a Monk 2 dip:

Q 630-A
Snap Kick says that it's an unarmed strike that deals Base damage + 1/2 Str, however, the monk's Unarmed Strike state that " There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.". Which takes precedence?

Q 630-B
When using the Decisive Strike ACF with Snap Kick, do I still make a single attack at 2x damage, an attack a 2x + a normal Snap Kick, or both attacks at 2x damage?

Q 630-C
When I hit someone during an AoO, do I use my Snap Kick? It is an unarmed attack after all.

[Tlehmann23]

Q 631

If you are wearing a magical vest can you wear armor over it and still get the benefits from the vest?

[Andezzar]

A 630

A) Ask your DM. I'm inclined to say that snap kick is more specific than the Monk's Unarmed Strike ability, but that's just me.

B) Both attacks deal double damage:

If the attack hits, it deals double damage (as does any other attack you make before the start of your next turn).

C) You get two attacks:

When you make a melee attack with one or more melee weapons (including a standard attack, full attack, or even a strike maneuver), you can make an additional attack at your highest attack bonus.

An AoO is always an attack with a melee weapon.

A 631

Yes, vests and armor cover different body slots. Robes and armor however go in the same slot.

Q 632

There are several abilities that give you "an additional attack at your highest attack bonus" (haste, snap kick etc.). Does that mean, that if you are affected by such an ability the extra attack also gets the +20 of True Strike?