Scenario 1
A moderately high level group entirely made out of 1 Paladin and 3 Clerics decides to send the toughest of them (the paladin) to take on a clan of trolls. Before going too far in the troll lair Cleric A casts shield other on the paladin and cleric B casts shield other on cleric A and cleric C casts shield other on Cleric B.
Paladin(50%) <<Cleric A(25%)<<Cleric B(12.5%)<<Cleric C(6.25%)
In the description of the spell it specifically says hit point damage so whatever damage is take by the paladin half of it gets transfereed to cleric A and half of that hit point damage gets transfered to cleric B and so on.
As well during combat the clerics heal each other to keep themselves from dying especially cleric A who is taking the brunt of the damage even though it is only 25% of the damage.
Scenario 2
All three cleric cast shield other on the paladin directly.
How much damage would the paladin take?
Does anyone think the spell needs some revising?
Aside: In scenario 2 I don't think the deflection bonus would stack
Do the Resistance (untyped) bonuses provided by the shield other stack?
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Interesting situation.
First, just to correct your first example, it would read:
Paladin(50%) <<Cleric A(25%)<<Cleric B(12.5%)<<Cleric C(12.5%).
RE; scenario 2:
Although a bonus may be untyped, and stack with other modifiers (typed or untyped), from other sources, it is a major core rule that no spell effect can stack with multiple instances of itself.
So, no stacking.
As to what would happen to the damage suffered by the paladin in scenario 2, the spell allows half the rolled damage (after any DR) to be siphoned away, and half to be suffered as normal.
Doesn't matter if there's two castings, three, four, or a hundred, the spell effect remains the same. Paladin takes half, sends half somewhere else.
Now, if you want to rule that the siphoned half can be split between all the allied casters, that's your call.
In which case [Paladin 50%, Cleric1 16%, Cleric2 16%, Cleric3 16%].
Speaking of Shield other conundrums, what would happen if two or more clerics were to chain-Shield other?
If Cleric A casts shield other on cleric B and vice versa and one of them takes damage?
It should be possible since it's not actually stacking with it self just two two identical spells working in different directions.
What would you do?
Speaking of Shield other conundrums, what would happen if two or more clerics were to chain-Shield other?
If Cleric A casts shield other on cleric B and vice versa and one of them takes damage?
It should be possible since it's not actually stacking with it self just two two identical spells working in different directions.
What would you do?
Well, Cleric would recieve half the damage at first (A=50%). Then Cleric B would recieve half of the rest (B=25%), the A gets half of the remaining damage, and on and on:
A=50%+12.5%+3.125%+0.75625%+.... = 66%
B=25%+6.25%+1.5125%+... = 33%
To avoid abuse (and I've seen one player try) only let DR apply to the initial damage.
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Haha yes this is classic. So the range of the spell is close so everyone has to stay within 40ft or so of each other or the spells end. Once a few area effect spells go off on the party bunched together like that, they'll figure it out, after a couple of the clerics die (taking full damage from a fireball plus half or quarter from shield other target).
Casting more than one Shield Other on the Paladin is a bad idea since the Paladin takes 50% damage and all clerics with Shield Other cast on the Paladin also take 50% damage each. Congrats, the clerics have successful multiplied the damage taken by the party! Not such a good idea. So only one Shield Other spell per target really works.
Nothing wrong with having chained-Shield Other cast between the group like that. Snorter has it correct with:
Paladin (50%) > Cleric 1 (25%) > Cleric 2 (12.5%) > Cleric 3 (12.5%)
So they've all cast spells to spread the damage amongst the party. The drawback is they will have to be sure to stick relatively close together (which can limit their tactical options - no flying around, teleports, etc.) and have made themselves somewhat vulnerable to area of effects for that day. If they want to do anything else they will have to break the spell and recast.
Its certainly a fair tactic for a holy group like that. I'd applaud their efforts and wouldn't punish them for their class choices and ingenuity. Instead steer the stories and adventures towards things a special (and rare!) holy squad would get sent on by their church(es) (i.e. all the nastiest evil places). The occasional long trek to recover a holy relic, etc.
Your run of the mill adventurer fair they'll be able to handle pretty well with their massive healing power. But such a rare group won't likely be doing those will they? The powers that be will snag that holy power group up and send them on important holy missions, ya know, close the rift to the Abyss in the north, hunt down and destroy the balor in the south, sent on a mission to negotiate with a good outsider for an alliance, or get political and even have them be involved with a growing schism in the church that leads to armed conflict! Good stuff.
Your run of the mill adventurer fair they'll be able to handle pretty well with their massive healing power. But such a rare group won't likely be doing those will they? The powers that be will snag that holy power group up and send them on important holy missions, ya know, close the rift to the Abyss in the north, hunt down and destroy the balor in the south, sent on a mission to negotiate with a good outsider...
Devils' advocate time:
With a higher level group say around 16th levelWell how about a fighter a cleric and a rogue and a sorcerer
Cleric casts shield other at 130 feet (with Metamagic Enlarge) on the fighter =>the rogue uses Use Magic Device with a scroll (Metmagic Enlarge: scribed by cleric) and casts it on the Cleric and the sorcerer doing the same who has a Shield Guardian (specialty golem pg. 158 Pathfinder Bestiary) which casts the same within 100 feet and defending the sorcerer (don't forget most AE spells are subject to Spell Resistance which means the golem is most likely immune to those).
Truth is my level 16 Fighter had headband of intellect with the Use magic Device skill on it and we had two fighters in the group for a large party.
This biggest arguments against this which was "if it's good for the goose it's good for the gander".... We elected to disallow chaining like that since the DM would then present us with a host of 10000 hp mobs ;)