I'm thinking my wizard is soon going to learn the resilient sphere spell (RS hereafter), and while I've read lots of threads that discuss this spell, I've got a bunch of questions I haven't found answers to. Which include:
1. Does sound pass through the sphere? If someone is trapped inside a RS, can people outside it hear him yelling? If the sphere blocks things from moving through it, why not sound waves?
2. If you cast the sphere inside a medium other than air, does it create a bubble of air inside it, or does it surround whatever other medium it was cast inside of along with the target it was cast at? For instance, is a RS cast inside water filled with water? A RS cast inside fog filled with fog? A RS cast inside lava filled with lava?
3. If the sphere is invisible like a wall of force is, what happens if something runs into it at speed? (Same question for Wall of Force, really.) For instance, if I readied an action to cast RS (or Wall of Force) just in front of a flying creature as it dove toward me, would it have a chance to avoid slamming into it? What would be the results of such a collision?
4. Can a single RS trap more than one creature inside it? Say I'm a 10th level caster and so can generate a 10' diameter sphere; If I aim it at an intersection on a grid which has 4 Medium or smaller creatures in the 4 spaces around the point, do they all have to make saves or be trapped?
5. If I cast the spell at an enemy who makes the save, does the spell fail to happen at all, or does the RS still come into being, with the target outside of it? Does it thus effectively deny anyone passage into the relevant squares, whatever else may happen?
Any responses people have to any of these questions would be most welcome. Thanks!
1. Can't say for certain. Up to GM discretion.
2. It doesn't say that the sphere displaces anything that is inside of it so I'm leaning toward it not creating an air bubble inside it
3. It is invisible so yea it looks like you could drop a wall of force in front of a flying creature. It still gets a DC 25 fly check to avoid falling to the ground.
4. You can't aim the sphere at a grid intersection, it has to be centered on a creature
5. If they save, the spell fails completely, no sphere forms.
Those seem like reasonable answers to me, thanks!
Where sound is concerned, if I were ruling as DM, I think I'd say that it muffles sound, but doesn't completely silence the person inside. The spell description specifically says that the spell doesn't suffocate the person inside, which suggests that the field is air-permeable, and that would suggest to me that sound waves could get through it, at least a little. But I'd probably rule that any sounds the person inside made would be a lot harder to hear.
I agree with you about the sphere not displacing stuff it manifests around. (In my mind, when the sphere comes into being it doesn't pop into existence already complete, but sort of descends from its top-most point to surround everything inside. That also explains the role of the Reflex save -- to interpose oneself in the descending sphere in order to spoil the spell. Though by that reasoning, should one even be able to create a sphere in a continuous substance like a liquid at all? Should the spell work only in air, other gasses, or vacuum?) If one can trap something inside the sphere with another medium - water, poisonous gas, lava, etc. - that opens up some interesting tactical possibilities.
I really like the idea of plunking an invisible force field in front of a dragon just as it's about to strafe with its breath weapon; going to have to try that. (Although a dragon's blindsense will probably matter.)
I think you're right about targeting a grid intersection. But still, does that mean that you only get 1 creature inside a sphere no matter the size of the sphere and the creatures' location? If you're a 20th level wizard making a 20' diameter sphere, it's conceivable that sphere could grab a lot of creatures. How do we explain it only grabbing one?
5 sounds right too, though it's kind of a shame. It would be nice to have some battlefield control even when the spell didn't catch its target.