Stupid question: When do auras take effect?


Rules Questions

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

On the aura wielders turn?
On the victim's turn
whenever the victim comes into range and again on one of the above?
If one of the first two, at the beginning of turn or end of turn?

I can't even find where the mechanics for aura get defined, because every time I try to search one of my sources, I get buried in a thousand different references to spells that create auras, detectable alignment auras, etc.


Most damage auras come into effect when a creature ends its turn in the aura, but generally this is specified. Passive auras, like the paladin, apply while the creature is within the area of effect at all time points.

Grand Lodge

I was thinking of things like:

Vespergaunt - aura of madness

(Not the creature in question, but the mechanic is virtually identical)

Aura of Madness (Su):

Any creature within a 60-foot radius of the vespergaunt must succeed at a DC 21 save or be confused for 1d4 rounds. Once a creature successfully saves, it cannot be affected by the same vespergaunt's aura again for 24 hours. As a free action, the vespergaunt can suppress its aura. This is a mind-affecting effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

On the players turn, they move to within 60 feet. At that point, do they need to save? If it was the ooze's turn, and it moved to within 60 feet, would they need a save then? If the confusion wore off after one round, would they need to save again? On their turn? On it's turn?

Edit, for that matter, if they are still confused, do they have to save again, and if they fail do they take the longer of the remaining durations?


I can't find any universal aura rules, but I think I understand how this ability works. The first save happens whenever the creature enters the aura or the aura moves onto the creature. If they save, hooray, they are immune for 24 hrs. If they fail, they are confused. On the turn they become unconfused, if they are still in the aura, they make a save at the start of their turn. If its a success, hooray again, if not, they are immediately confused again. This repeats until they save or not exposed to the aura when the confusion expires.

That seems reasonable, but the rules really are unclear, because you could easily argue that you make a save every round even if you are confused, or every time you enter/exit the aura. I think it would be very useful to have a base universal monster rule for auras, especially condition applying auras.

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