Confuzzled ???

[nighttree]

I was just looking at a spell from Occult origins...
The spell is called "Mantle of doubt".

It states "When a creature within the mantle’s radius attacks you or attempts to affect you with a harmful effect, it must succeed at a Will save as these spectres of uncertainty force themselves into its mind."

But the range is personal, and no radius is given ???

[Mantle of Doubt]

Or is it?

[Lost In Limbo]

After reading the spell myself I concur. It needs to have some sort of aura radius but none is given. It's in need of errata/house-ruling.

[Tacticslion]

My impression is that they are forced to make a will save when they attack you, but it needs to be a melee or contact effect.

So, for example, swinging a sword, grappling, or a non-mindless swarm would be affected, but not an archer.

[Pizza Lord]

Unfortunately, as written the spell doesn't seem to work at all. The only indication of a radius is the wording 'you wrap your mind in...' Must often that would be viewed as flavor-text, but it appears to be the only text indicating an area covered by your protective phantasms.

As such, it doesn't even protect against mental attacks unless the attacker was literally in your mind, since it specifies they must be within the radius. At best, you could claim it's personal so it might be ruled that any creature inside your body, not just you mind, counts.

This statement is obviously not the intent of the spell, so I am sure someone will fix it quickly. Unless psychic spells have their own rules set that says somewhere that they have a variable radius (based of the psychic's level or something) as written... it does not work unless there's a flesh grub worm in your brain trying to kill you or possibly a magic jar effect since that is a life force trying to take over you body and mind. Even if the radius of the mantle is You, an attacker swinging or contacting you still isn't within the radius.

Again, not saying that's how it's meant to be run... but I also see nothing about a radius of protection other than a note about it protecting your mind. If I had to guess, errata will say remove the words 'within the mantle's radius' from the sentence 'When a creature within the mantle's radius attacks you or attempts to affect you with a harmful effect'.

[CampinCarl9127]

Yup, looks like they forgot to include a radius. Throw out a houserule. Due to the high level of the spell and it's relatively minor effects, I would give it a fairly decent radius, 30 feet at the least.

[Pizza Lord]

And that's inherently the problem. Even when people agree that it isn't working and what exactly the problem is... trying to fix it is going to vary. Maybe they forgot the radius or maybe they were initially going to go with a radius but then changed it to Personal and forgot to fix the spell text during final polish. Who's to say?

CampinCarl9127 thinks it should be 30' and he gives his reasons. I actually agree with all his reasons, yet my advice would have the spell effect any attack regardless of the attacker's distance.

Someone else might suggest a flat 5-foot radius because it's a 'mantle' which implies it should be close to the 'wearer'. Others might say it should be 5-feet per CL or even 5 per 2/CL. No one is wrong and that's all good advice.

Obviously you can go with whatever works in your game but ultimately... officially... it doesn't DO anything (except in some extreme case of an attacker literally in your brain or body.)

[CampinCarl9127]

For the record, 30 feet was a very conservative estimate. I would be much more likely to go with a much larger radius, probably 60 feet.

But yeah, it's definitely a problem. Hopefully an errata catches up with it.

[nighttree]

So do I just hit the FAQ button to flag it for consideration ?

[CampinCarl9127]

Yup.