Wandering Star Motes -- how does it work?

[Hobit of Bree]

My confusion with the spell is that there is an initial save and then one on each round.

If the initial save succeeds, does the spell just end or does the spell jump? If the initial save fails, I believe it can take no action on its next turn, and then rolls a save for the turn after that.

But if it jumps, it seems like the creature would be making a save to be able to act on the current turn.

That reading seems unlikely, but I can't figure anything else out. Help?

Also, does the spell end if the current target dies?

[Melkiador]

Quote:

The target must make a successful Will save. If the target fails its save, it is dazed for 1 round and must make another save on its next turn or be dazed again for 1 round. The target must continue making Will saves each round. If a target makes its Will save, the wandering star motes jump to the nearest enemy within 30 feet, who must now make Will saves every round or be dazed. Any time a target makes its Will save, the wandering star motes jump to the next nearest enemy within 30 feet. A given creature can only be affected by the wandering star motes once; once a target has successfully saved against the spell, it cannot be affected again. If there are no new targets within 30 feet of a target that has successfully made its save, the spell immediately ends. The spell only affects enemy creatures; your allies are not affected.

The spell jumps until it can't find a valid target.

Even if the creature makes its second save, it is still dazed on its current turn. The second save is for seeing if it's dazed "again".

You can't make a save when dead, so the spell would just sit there until its duration ran out. I suppose if the creature came back to life while the duration still lasted, it'd go back to needing to make its save.

[Hobit of Bree]

So when does the new target make its save? As soon as it gets jumped to? That does make a lot more sense, but seems really powerful someone is almost certainly getting dazed as it keeps jumping until someone is affected. I realize reality will vary and there may not be many folks to jump to. But it seems quite good with that reading.

Thoughts? Is that reading correct?

Thanks!

[Quentin Coldwater]

When I used it in PFS, my GMs ruled it as such, yeah. If someone resists (or upon casting), it immediately hops from target to target until someone fails. It's frighteningly efficient, yeah. Do note that once people save, they're immune, so it can't hop back and forth. In my experience, it'll only affect one or two people before combat it over, because either people have a good Will save, or there aren't enough enemies to reliably make use of it.

I'm not sure what happens when you're dead. I've always thought it immediately jumps to a new target, as the previous target isn't a valid target anymore. but I'm not sure. But, even worse is when an enemy is unconscious. They automatically fail their save, meaning your mote might be stuck on the first target it lands on until duration runs out. While it certainly helps, it feels a bit sucky to have wasted a fourth-level spell on.

[Melkiador]

It’s really not “that” powerful of a spell. It’s 4th level. It’s mind effecting. And it is pretty easily dodged by smart enemies.

Compare it to confusion, which can get the job done faster and deadlier.

[Hobit of Bree]

Oh, I have confusion--I picked it first for my witch. But this *seems* pretty good too. Better than when I'd first read it. Especially if you have invisible enemies running around.

Thanks everyone.