Dazing Icy Prison?


Rules Questions


I'm wondering how Dazing Spell metamagic would work with the spell Icy Prison. Icy Prison does cold damage every round to the target even if the target succeeds its initial reflex saving throw. There is no save to avoid this cold damage.

According to Dazing Spell, "When a creature takes damage from this spell, they become dazed for a number of rounds equal to the original level of the spell. If the spell allows a saving throw, a successful save negates the daze effect. If the spell does not allow a save, the target can make a Will save to negate the daze effect."

A) Would the target have to make a save every time it takes damage from the spell, regardless of if it saved the initial saving throw?
B) Would that save be a reflex save, since that's the saving throw allowed by the spell, or a will save, since the thing they are saving against (the cold damage) doesn't allow a save?

To clarify, I'm mostly interested in what people think the RAW would say for this, rather than what people think the most balanced thing would be, or what they would personally rule in their games.


I think the intent would be to save once, not every round. The save for the damage should be a will save in my opinion, since the reflex save is for something entirely different.

I really think this is something that there is no actual rule for since it is a corner case, but that is how I would run it.

RAW did not give me enough info to make a "read by robot" statement so I just gave my interpretation of what I thought the PDT would say.

edit: After reading again since it says "When a creature takes damage from this spell.." then that would mean every time the spell does damage the save would be made<----- most literal interpretation


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The initial reflex save of the spell is not for the cold damage, it's to avoid be encased in the ice.

So the Dazing effect would be negated with a will save.

While I don't think it's balanced, the effect would occur every time the creature is damaged (which is every round).

This is about like using a Dazing Flaming Sphere.

The ultimate point here is that Dazing Spell is the most overpowered metamagic ever, and GMs should really have a discussion with their players about what it does to the game and why it isn't a lot of fun (for the GM and other players).


I only allow dazing to apply once. It's simply too powerful on spells that cause damage every round, especially AoE spells.


Claxon wrote:

The initial reflex save of the spell is not for the cold damage, it's to avoid be encased in the ice.

So the Dazing effect would be negated with a will save.

While I don't think it's balanced, the effect would occur every time the creature is damaged (which is every round).

This is about like using a Dazing Flaming Sphere.

The ultimate point here is that Dazing Spell is the most overpowered metamagic ever, and GMs should really have a discussion with their players about what it does to the game and why it isn't a lot of fun (for the GM and other players).

I agree. I misread the spell the before.

Scarab Sages

Luke Gehman wrote:

I'm wondering how Dazing Spell metamagic would work with the spell Icy Prison. Icy Prison does cold damage every round to the target even if the target succeeds its initial reflex saving throw. There is no save to avoid this cold damage.

According to Dazing Spell, "When a creature takes damage from this spell, they become dazed for a number of rounds equal to the original level of the spell. If the spell allows a saving throw, a successful save negates the daze effect. If the spell does not allow a save, the target can make a Will save to negate the daze effect."

A) Would the target have to make a save every time it takes damage from the spell, regardless of if it saved the initial saving throw?
B) Would that save be a reflex save, since that's the saving throw allowed by the spell, or a will save, since the thing they are saving against (the cold damage) doesn't allow a save?

To clarify, I'm mostly interested in what people think the RAW would say for this, rather than what people think the most balanced thing would be, or what they would personally rule in their games.

As I read it, you'd take a will save for the Daze seperately. I don't think the partial save is enough a save against the spell to qualify as the save for dazing spell.

So you'd get an initial save against the daze and resolve the spell effects independently. I'd only apply the daze effect once.

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