Author Topic: [3.5] Delay death + Diehard.  (Read 1929 times)

Offline Hades

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 118
  • Stop Time, Thou art so beautiful!
    • View Profile
[3.5] Delay death + Diehard.
« on: February 19, 2020, 09:17:14 AM »
I need a small clarification for an Ordained Champion of Hextor that will fight the PCs soon in my campaign.

The combo "delay death" from Spell Compendium and Diehard Feat allow a character to act as disabled until the spell ends, right? Of course, if at the end of the spell the NPC has -10 hp or less, it's instant death.

IIrc the disabled state allows for the "partial charge", right? I'm talking about "If you are able to take only a standard action or a move action on your turn, you can still charge, but you are only allowed to move up to your speed (instead of up to double your speed). You can’t use this option unless you are restricted to taking only a standard action or move action on your turn."

The character also has Faith Unswerving feat. Looking at the wording of the tactical option "one last strike" (you must be the subject of an attack, spell, or ability that reduces you to 0 or fewer hit points) it means that each round the NPC is at negative hps but disabled thanks to Diehard, if he's attacked it "triggers" the immediate action attack?

Ty in advance


« Last Edit: February 19, 2020, 09:21:11 AM by Hades »

Offline naelick

  • Newbie
  • Posts: 1
  • I'm new!
    • View Profile
Re: [3.5] Delay death + Diehard.
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2020, 10:40:29 AM »

The combo "delay death" from Spell Compendium and Diehard Feat allow a character to act as disabled until the spell ends, right? Of course, if at the end of the spell the NPC has -10 hp or less, it's instant death.

This is a classic combo, but it has one major issue, which is that diehard and similar effects allow you to act specifically between -9 and -1 hp. It's completely undefined what your state is below -10, but delay death explicitly says it doesn't prevent you from entering the dying state, so likely what happens when you reach -10 or below is that you fall unconscious and are dying, though of course you can't actually die. To get the effect you want you would need to rule that delay death also extends diehard's range, but it's not clear that it does just based on the text.

IIrc the disabled state allows for the "partial charge", right? I'm talking about "If you are able to take only a standard action or a move action on your turn, you can still charge, but you are only allowed to move up to your speed (instead of up to double your speed). You can’t use this option unless you are restricted to taking only a standard action or move action on your turn."

Yes, that works

The character also has Faith Unswerving feat. Looking at the wording of the tactical option "one last strike" (you must be the subject of an attack, spell, or ability that reduces you to 0 or fewer hit points) it means that each round the NPC is at negative hps but disabled thanks to Diehard, if he's attacked it "triggers" the immediate action attack?

It depends on what "reduced"' means. I could see a good argument either way that if your hp is already at 0 or below, further attacks can't reduce it to 0 or below. Like if you had a thermometer, and the temperature dropped from -10 to -20, it would be confusing to say the temperature fell below 0; it was below 0 when you started.

Or, equally arguable, you could say, the hp was reduced, and the resulting hp was below 0, so the hp was reduced to 0 or below. I think either reading of the text is valid