Hi all,
I'm DM'ing Pathfinder for the first time, we had our second session last night and two things came up that I realised I'm not 100% clear on. These might be stupid questions, but if someone could give me a quick answer or just direct me to the relevant part of the rulebook which I might have missed, it would be greatly appreciated.
1.) Does the spell Sleep discriminate between enemies and allies? When we played I ruled that it only affected enemies, and the party Sorcerer in one situation therefore cast it over a pretty dense combat situation, with only the enemies dropping slumbering to the ground. However, thinking about it after the game and rereading the spell, I am now leaning pretty heavily towards thinking I did that wrong, and that allies can also very well be affected by this spell (you just go by lowest HD first, followed by closest to spells origin to determine who takes a nap, be they friend or foe). Is that right?
2.) In one situation the Sorcerer's player asked if he could ready the Sleep spell, and wait for an enemy to show himself before casting it. I said it wasn't possible as casting Sleep is a full-round action, and you can only ready standard or move actions. Was that correct, or is there some other way to cast a spell like Sleep in advance, and then delay the effect until a given moment? As for other spells, with a standard action casting time, is it indeed possible to ready them and then cast them to interrupt an enemies action?
1) Spells are always clear about whether they affect allies, enemies, or creatures (which means of all types) by way of using those exact words in their descriptions.
2) The only way to ready a spell with a 1 round casting time would be to spend a standard action in one round to "start a full round action," and then in the next round use your standard action to ready the standard action of "complete a full round action," to finish the spell.
thenobledrake wrote: 1) Spells are always clear about whether they affect allies, enemies, or creatures (which means of all types) by way of using those exact words in their descriptions. OK, cool, that does make it absolutely crystal clear. Thanks!
Quote: 2) The only way to ready a spell with a 1 round casting time would be to spend a standard action in one round to "start a full round action," and then in the next round use your standard action to ready the standard action of "complete a full round action," to finish the spell. OK, this I would have missed. So then it is actually possible to set up a readied spell with a full round casting time like Sleep using this scheme (at least in an ambush type situation where you have several rounds or more to prepare, it might be less viable in an ongoing combat). Cool.
Also, using a readied action to cast a spell to disrupt an enemy's action is absolutely legal. Readied actions trigger as soon as the triggering condition is met, interrupting the current character's turn. If the fighter readies an action to charge the first enemy about to attack with a bow, as soon as an enemy starts to make an attack with a bow, the fighter charges. Before the bow attack. Readying a spell is no different. If your sorcerer readies magic missile with the same trigger as the fighter above, magic missile happens before the bow attack.
Thanks for the clarification darth gator, I feel more confident concerning the whole readied action thing now! My guess was that things would play out as you describe it, although I was only 99% sure that the casting of spells worked the same as other, "normal" actions in this regard, and I could not see how using a full round action spell could work by the rules (until thenobledrake explained it to me).
Just learning as I go here; thanks guys!
It's safe to assume area effect spells are indiscriminate in who they affect. The reason being you need to take the metamagic feat "Selective Spell" before your allies are safe.
As mentioned a closer read of the spell description will tell you specifically if it already ignores allies but if there's no mention then too bad teammates.
Quote: Benefit: When casting a selective spell with an area effect and a duration of instantaneous, you can choose a number of targets in the area equal to the ability score modifier used to determine bonus spells of the same type (Charisma for bards, oracles, paladins, sorcerers, and summoners; Intelligence for witches and wizards; Wisdom for clerics, druids, inquisitors, and rangers). These targets are excluded from the effects of your spell.
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