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Messages - spacemonkey555

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Cats were entirely lethal for the average npc human in 1st and 2nd edition, that's where the meme originated. 3e peasants got a huge boost but it's still an unreasonably dangerous encounter, due to this:

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Damage from an attack is always at least 1 point, even if a subtraction from a die roll reduces the result to 0 or lower.

There should be an alternative system for low risk attackers, something like roll an x-sided die, if you roll the highest #, do 1 point of damage. Use a smaller die for the strongest of the less than lethal creatures, a larger die for the wimpy ones. Instead we have housecats killing humans through attrition.

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Great elixir from Shining South, minor artifact that can grant a wide range of effects. If you can acquire it and rig percentile rolls it would be pretty nifty.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Wish & Tomes/Manuals
« on: March 21, 2014, 06:18:06 PM »
I'm not sure how you'd pervert wish into a literal but undesirable fulfillment of 'more X'.

'more x' for 1 round rather than permanent, 'more x' as a permanent dispellable effect, promptly dispelled.

If the player asks for an instantaneous non inherent bonus, have it be truly instantaneous, IE expired before the player can regret being a munchkin wasted their wish. Another option is belanced buff/debuff, they get +1 and -1.

Another option, crazy nonstandard wishes are based on the idea of infinite power to produce the reward, the wish isn't a standard balanced, listed effect, it's ANYTHING, which is infinite pre-definition. Use that against them. So... the universe was created by the wizard primeval, with a nearly perfectly worded wish, which bans other wishes in certain circumstances (especially ones that provide bonuses) either as a result of a programming error in clause h874-m (how to handle bonus pay for mercenary work), or because the wizard was a refugee from another reality where wishes weren't so capped, and lived in terror of the idea of wishes to destroy the universe/make gods/etc. No, you can't ever know what the wording of the wish primeval is, you can't even comprehend its existence, clause a003-a (how to prevent the destruction of the universe).


tl:dr: If wishes can do anything, you live in a pocket wish-created universe where certain wishes have been preempted by wish.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Default assumtion on bonus feat prerequisites
« on: March 20, 2014, 08:53:22 AM »
PHB:
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Some feats have prerequisites. Your character must have the indicated ability score, class feature, feat, skill, base attack bonus, or other quality designated in order to select or use that feat.

So you can't select a feat you don't qualify for, bonus or not, and if it's assigned to you as a bonus feat, you still can't even use it, per the RAW. If the bonus feat grant language specifies that prerequisites aren't needed that would trump this, but only for that feat.

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Gaming Advice / Re: [3.P] Ignoring immunity to polymorph
« on: March 14, 2014, 05:58:39 PM »
Don't know if it will help but there's knowledge affiliation from Complete Champion, negate an ability 1/day for 1 minute, fort save, have to learn of the ability with a knowledge check.

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Gaming Advice / Re: It's raining Monks?
« on: March 12, 2014, 05:58:14 PM »
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creature: A living or otherwise active being, not an object. The terms “creature” and “character” are sometimes used interchangeably.

Creatures are not objects per phb.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 12, 2014, 01:57:14 PM »
It's much easier to enumerate every legal action in a cRPG and assign a boolean value to it than to do so in a tabletop RPG, because you can control the possible actions in a cRPG much more easily.  Unless you want to write out a stupidly long list for every spell or effect ("Fireball used to burn one or more creatures: Attack.  Fireball used as a signal flare: Not an attack.  Fireball used to make a hole in a wall: Not an attack.  Fireball used to make a hole in a wall that secretly contains an incorporeal undead: Attack" and so on), it's much better to define invisibility-breaking conditions taking context into account and let the players' brains do the heavy lifting rather than the rules.

That would be silly. I meant banning entire classes of actions, like all spellcasting, maneuvers, etc.

You're saying the definition of attack has to be contextual, I'm saying it can be simplified to be noncontextual since context complicates the issue. I played several games back in the day that modeled their invis on dnd, they couldn't spend the months of coding and server resources on figuring out context, so they made the action break invis regardless of result. Invis was a sneaking and ambush power, you could set something up with it, or get somewhere, but once there you knew it would drop the instant you clicked a spell or started your attack. Worked fine. For them an attack (wrt invis) was turning on attack or spellcasting.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 12, 2014, 05:47:57 AM »
If you cast a fireball into the air as a glorified 20-foot-radius flare, would that be an attack?  If you cast a cloudkill over an empty lake and just let it float there until it dissipated, is that an attack?  Defining an attack has to be contextual.

No, it doesn't. It works perfectly fine as a boolean in plenty of games, it has to since they're computer games, but it neatly eliminates the problem of context, intent and perception. Eliminate context and assign a true/false value to each type of action as far as breaking invis goes. It's not really redefining "attack" for 3.5 dnd, it's redefining the failure mechanism of invisibility for 3.5 dnd.

The only thing I'd do other than barring spells and such is let npc creatures use racial abilities while using racial invis if imo they aren't attacks. Some of them need every little thing to justify their cr and make for a fun encounter, while pc casters don't need strong invis to rule the game.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 10, 2014, 11:56:57 AM »
Let me see if I have your stance on this right:
Code: [Select]
•If you cast a spell, and nobody is hit, it is not an attack.
•If you cast a spell that does damage based on battlefield conditions, and somebody is in the path of the it, it IS an attack as soon as it reaches them.
•If you cast a spell, nobody is in the path, but then someone walks in front of it, it becomes an attack because they are now part of the AoE, meaning it's now a viable tactic to dive in front of AoEs to dispel invisibility

If you cast a spell, and it doesn't fulfill the spell clause in invisibility, it isn't an attack as far as maintaining invisibility is concerned. It seems that requires someone to be targeted or affected, though perhaps not hit.

Not sure what you mean by battlefield conditions, unless you're implying that after cast, cloudkill is a perfectly natural cloud of poison. If you cast an instantaneous spell that turns the floor to lava, then someone jumps in, I'd say the spell is over before the harm is done and the invisibility survives. That's setting a trap that does indirect harm. Cloudkill is pure magic start to finish, after it expires it can't kill a microbe. If it travels for 10 minutes and finally reaches a town the wizard cast it at, it's now including foes in its continuing effect, fulfilling the clause.

Technically yes, RAW a creature diving into the cloud fulfills the clause. I could see dms ruling both ways, if you cast an area spell on the battlefield you're obviously hoping it hits someone (or trying to do area denial, but you're still aware you can do harm with your action). Alternatively, you didn't mean to harm that specific creature, even though you deployed a weapon that did so. I see it as attacking every square the spell affects, regardless of what you can see or intend, for simplicity. Don't want to lose invis? Don't cast aoes.

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Second, I disagree with summons being different than a cloudkill.

"Effect: Cloud spreads in 20-ft. radius, 20 ft. high"
vs
"Effect: One summoned creature"

The secondary effects of the spell (that the summoned creature is eating your face and that cloudkills are effected by D&D pseudo-physics) either have to be considered equally or considered specific exemptions with a rule to back them up.

Can you be in a cloud? Pretty obvious answer. You could make an argument about a summon swallowing someone whole, but summoned monsters are specifically exempted anyways. Summon Monster spells cannot qualify for the spell clause the way I look at them, they don't target foes, and they don't have an area or effect that includes foes. A summon monster spell is a transport/control spell, it's a debuff on the affected target (a preexisting being from another plane) not a targeted or area spell that could affect a foe. Cloudkill creates a magic attack that exists precisely as long as the spell does. It's obviously qualified if it lands on an opponent in the round it's cast, I don't think anyone is disagreeing with that, so how is it disqualified 6 seconds later when it arrives where the caster wanted it?

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(If this post seems aggressive, I apologize. I do not intend to put words in your mouth. I only wish to state my perspective of your stance, and seek confirmation)

It's all good.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 09, 2014, 04:54:01 AM »
an attack includes any spell targeting a foe or whose area or effect includes a foe (Cloudkill does neither when cast in empty space. Strike 1).

On casting in an empty square it doesn't affect any foes, but the invisibility test is on the spell itself, not an immediate result of casting the spell. When it affects a foe 3 rounds after casting, the condition is satisfied, the spell has included a foe in its effect. Yes, cloudkill can affect a foe even when cast on an empty space.

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Actions directed at unattended objects do not break the spell. (Like casting cloudkill in an empty square? Strike 2.)

An empty square is not an unattended object. A reasonable person knows the spell is directed at the foe especially, as well as everything else in its path, regardless of where it originates, and its funny how you're willing to mince words about directing an action, considering what follows. This rule you quoted is pretty obviously just saying that you can smash inanimate objects without losing invisibility.

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Causing harm indirectly is not an attack.(We can mince words all day about causing harm directly or indirectly, but as that's entirely subjective and CANNOT be actually defined in the certain terms you are looking for, I'm staying out of it.)

That's the crux of the matter on your side of the argument, and utterly irrelevant to me, doesn't look like you're "staying out of it" though since you're already rationalizing about other clauses about directing the spell as justification for your pov. I read the rules and understand spells are attacks if they affect a foe. You read the rules and understand that an indirect attack is not an attack, so the delay in the spell affecting the target becomes relevant to you. Without interpreting the indirect attack clause, you have no argument that makes sense, because it's the only thing that conflicts with the direct statement that spells that include foes are attacks.

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Thus, an invisible being can open doors, talk, eat, climb stairs, summon monsters and have them attack This is a big one. Both spells create a dangerous spell effect, directed in part by the caster. If directing a summoned monster to rip someone's face off doesn't end invisibility, then the argument of "intent of the caster" doesn't hold up.

The summon spell isn't the attacker, the summoned monster is. If you cast a burning hands spell at an oil slick 50 yards wide and it catches fire, you aren't casting burning hands on the people at the opposite end of the oil slick, even though they are harmed. Likewise if you buff or transport an ally, you don't inherit their actions.

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In fact, cloudkill isn't directed beyond the initial target location.),

Incorrect, though that is probably rai. The cloud moves away from you (the caster), not the casting location or any other fixed location. If you move, the cloudkill still moves away from you, by the raw. Directed if the caster cares to pay attention and move.

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cut the ropes holding a rope bridge while enemies are on the bridge (While not a spell, this is a far more direct example of expressing intent to kill.), remotely trigger traps, open a portcullis to release attack dogs, and so forth.

Spells (and only spells) have a separate test specifically calling out perceptions about the target. Perception/intent to kill a foe is only relevant for spells. For everything else it's attack a creature directly y/n?

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Cloudkill fits none of the criteria for removing invisibility, except a completely ambiguous (and frankly unresolvable with this crowd) statement about direct vs indirect damage. As the rest of the spell gives examples to the contrary though, our group ruled that delayed effects are not attacks. This means pushing a boulder off a cliff on someone. This also means casting a cloudkill with no targets inside and letting it roll across the street.

It does fit the criteria of being a spell that includes a foe in its effect at some point during its existence, else its a pretty useless spell.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 07, 2014, 05:53:57 PM »
If you're not casting the spell directly on an enemy, then it's not a direct attack (this seems like it should be a truism). If it's not a direct attack, it must be an indirect attack, or a non-attack. Neither indirect attacks nor non-attacks break invisibility.

If you get ridiculous with indirect, you could claim a spell that doesn't have to travel in a straight line is ok, because its "indirect". That's the problem here, one word with 3 meanings that could all apply. Given indirect path, indirect chronology, or indirect methodology, I'm thinking the author meant methodology, as that's the examples given.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 07, 2014, 10:33:05 AM »
I'm actually kind of on the fence on this one. Let me give an example that is pretty similar:

I make a Permanent (Invisible spell) Wall of Fire, then years later while I'm on another plane of existence, some hapless fool blunders into it. I happen to be Invisible at the time. Is my Invisibility canceled? I think clearly in this case it is not, but fundamentally this isn't actually very different at all than with the Cloudkill situation described. Does intent actually factor into this at all? If not, then the Cloudkill shouldn't make him become visible either. It's simpler to not factor intent. If you do, it makes things a LOT messier at the table. So I'm kind of leaning towards the invisibility not being canceled... but I still think it feels dirty. :P

It's not dirty at all, it's 100% legit. You can't perceive a person as a foe if you aren't aware of them.
Now wait just a minute... So you're saying you can stab your friend and remain invisible?

Edit: Another line from the spell. Friend/foe doesn't matter.
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The spell ends if the subject attacks any creature.

So it is entirely predicated on whether something is a direct attack or not. The spell says you can trigger traps remotely (think roadside bomb with a detonator). If that doesn't break invisibility, I think it's pretty clear that someone walking into a Cloudkill wouldn't either. Neither would the spell expanding after cast to encompass them.

So yeah, I agree that the Cloudkill example given in the OP would not break invisibility (ignoring the part about not being able to summon it mid-air).

Stabbing a friend invokes the first clause, it's attacking a creature. It's well understood. It's spells that require friend or foe determination, and that specify that a spell is an attack if it includes a foe in its effect. It doesn't say original area, or starting area, or area of effect when the spell is cast, or any other temporal limitation, nor does it specify that the spell has to be hamful, which is pretty absurd.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 07, 2014, 10:10:49 AM »
I'm actually kind of on the fence on this one. Let me give an example that is pretty similar:

I make a Permanent (Invisible spell) Wall of Fire, then years later while I'm on another plane of existence, some hapless fool blunders into it. I happen to be Invisible at the time. Is my Invisibility canceled? I think clearly in this case it is not, but fundamentally this isn't actually very different at all than with the Cloudkill situation described. Does intent actually factor into this at all? If not, then the Cloudkill shouldn't make him become visible either. It's simpler to not factor intent. If you do, it makes things a LOT messier at the table. So I'm kind of leaning towards the invisibility not being canceled... but I still think it feels dirty. :P

It's not dirty at all, it's 100% legit. You can't perceive a person as a foe if you aren't aware of them.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: 3.5e invisibility and collatoral damage
« on: March 07, 2014, 09:25:33 AM »
Casting a Cloudkill with no enemies in its area is not the subject attacking a foe nor is there a foe in its area or effect.  If an enemy happens to blunder in to your Cloudkill, that's his own problem. 

You are claiming that Invisibility continues to care about whether your actions might be considered an "attack," even once you've finished acting.  I am claiming that this is not the case.  Otherwise, the Detect Magic that you Permanencied on yourself 6 months ago will break your Invisibility as soon as you look at an enemy, because you've included him in an area of effect.

Slippery slope fallacy. RPG rules do in fact suck, and that often leads to strange and unintended consequences. If that wasn't the case this site would be much less interesting.

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Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v5.0
« on: March 05, 2014, 10:32:24 AM »
In case the DM rules that "suffocation/drowning can't heal you

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If damage or a spell effect would normally render you disabled, dying, or dead, you ignore the usual effects.

Wouldn't transparency apply?
To the disabled part, but it also sets your HP to -1, no?

I see it as one effect, but you ignore the usual effects, not the singular effect.

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Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v5.0
« on: March 05, 2014, 01:28:59 AM »
In case the DM rules that "suffocation/drowning can't heal you

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If damage or a spell effect would normally render you disabled, dying, or dead, you ignore the usual effects.

Wouldn't transparency apply?

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Gaming Advice / Re: How does one imprison a psion?
« on: March 04, 2014, 11:16:14 PM »
In the Wheel of time series, they just fed captives a certain tea, harmless for nonpsis, gave psis a bad headache and rendered them incapable of performing psi for awhile. Are there any anti psi drugs or poisons in 3.5?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#psionicRestraints

tame http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/brainMole.htm
or tame http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/grayGlutton.htm
or http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/thoughtEater.htm

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Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v5.0
« on: February 20, 2014, 06:34:24 PM »
The hydra entry in d20srd doesn't have the head*2 regen goodie listed as (ex) or (su) or Special Attack or Special Quality.
Fast Healing (Ex)
Each round, a hydra heals damage equal to 10 + the number of its original heads.
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Each time a head is severed, two new heads spring from the stump in 1d4 rounds. A hydra can never have more than twice its original number of heads at any one time, and any extra heads it gains beyond its original number wither and die within a day.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Spell storing gem (Spellpearl)
« on: February 17, 2014, 10:41:14 AM »
You might let him have a lower level version of Shalantha's Delicate Disk, maybe 2nd level that could store a 1st level spell, it can do a 5th level spell for 200 gold normally, so you could extrapolate a cheaper price from that. That would let everyone in the party contribute or use the stored spells.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Spell storing gem (Spellpearl)
« on: February 17, 2014, 09:06:07 AM »
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#spellStoringMinor

but even more minor, limited to one spell level instead of three, and unslotted.

Spellgem price is 66% of a level 1 wand, and a minor ss ring costs 50% more than a level 3 wand, so the price is probably too low at 500. Pearls of power for level 1 spells are also more expensive at 1000.

Using wands to figure the difference between a third level spell and first level spell gives a factor of 15. Apply that to ring of minor SS gives a price of 1200 for a 1st level ring, 2400 since it's unslotted. 1200 is for a spellgem that takes up a gear slot, like a ring. That's more gentle than basing the price on extrapolation from the rings of spell storing, 10,000 is a bit too much for a level 1 spell storing item.

If based on ring of SS, the caster level will always be 1, the minimum to cast a level 1 spell.

Are Spellgems supposed to only cast spells on the user, like potions? Or can you store a magic missile or charm spell in one?

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