Agénor's page

A thread recently raised from the depths made me think. The villain in one the campaigns I am playing is an outsider. Maybe then, it would be possible to prevent him from doing harm by locking him up using Planar Binding, especially since it seems to be turning into a race against him to prevent him to execute his evil plan.

However, this plans seems a little to straightforward to me. Yes, the spell itself can fail at several points but the odds of success are far from negligible, in which case, this evil outsider will be held, prevented from guiding his cronies while we wreck havock amongst them.
Am I missing something?

We aren't at the level where we can cast Greater Planar Binding, we'd have to find someone able to do so but we are at a level where powerful people that would be strongly negatively affected should the evil outsider accomplish his plan would listen to us.

Hence I turn to you, savvy people. Do you think Planar Binding is a doable way to suppress an outsider? If so, how would you go about it?
If not, how would you go about it?^^

[I am on purpose not giving too much details because I want to keep the discussion general given that I don't want to get spoilt, the campaign being rather known.]

Is there a repository or a list of most small uses of Paragon Surge ?

By "small", I mean that the mechanical build of the character isn't around this.
An example of what I am looking for on this list are feats such as Bless Equipment, things that have niche uses, situational but useful indeed when the relevent situation arises.

As another example, there are many Traits I read then think I should make a note of so it can be obtained from P.S. with Additional Traits but never come around to doing it.

What have you used Paragon Surge for - that wasn't access to more spells as a Sorcerer or an Oracle - ?
Are there ways to use it to make a roll in a skill that is "Trained Only"?

I like the idea of the spell, it is a Swiss knife when we already carry a sword, a dagger and a screwdriver, sometimes it is handy, most of the time it isn't as using it is too cumbersome - such as in combat when action economy makes it inefficient - but learning how and when to use it is interesting.

What do you think is a sufficient modifier to the d20 to beat encountered Spell Resistance at a given level?

I am trying to assess how much is overkill.
I am in a campaign where I will likely encounter a few outsiders and I like to plan ahead.

Is Sacred Summons implemented if, while multiple different creatures are summoned, at least one of them has its alignment subtype(s) matching the caster's aura or does it have to be the case for all of the summoned creatures?

- how come different creatures are summoned together isn't relevant here, assume a magic item allows to add one creature of a fixed kind to the summoning which isn't of the kind the caster has selected from the summoning list for this instance of the spell -

Shared Training is a spell that allows the caster to grant a Teamwork feat he has to allies.

1/ What happens if the spell is cast and then a bit later, while Shared Training still has a good while before it lapses, the caster loses the feat?
- for the sake of the example, let's say a previous casting of Shared Training by someone else having included our current caster as a target then -

The way I understand it, the conditions are only checked during spellcasting, not later. The spellcaster could be slain that the targets would still benefit from the feat until the regular end of the duration of Shared Training.

2/ Can the caster be targetting himself? In this case, would he then retain the feat for the duration of the spell even if he had lost it from the original source?

A cleric/druid often leaves a few spell slots open when preparing their spells to be able to adapt to the threats encountered during the adventuring day by preparing them later on, with more insight.

Can those unprepared spell slots be used to spontaneously cast cure / inflict / summon nature's ally spells?

The wording in the entry of spontaneous conversion says "prepared spells" but it seems to fly the face of the idea of spontaneous casting like spontaneous casting classes do. Now, I know this is spontaneous conversion, not casting yet it feels like the idea behind it is to have those spells handled like a spontaneous caster would.

Sanctuary is a spell that breaks if its subject attacks.
A rules states "All offensive combat actions, even those that don’t damage opponents, are considered attacks."

1/ What happens if a character under Sanctuary casts a harmless spell at an enemy? For example, use a Cleric casting a Cure Light Wounds spell, which has the harmless tag, using Reach metamagics on a living opponent that isn't at full H.P. who is engaged in a combat to the death with the party, including the Cleric.
- the goal isn't to debate the wisdom of such an act^^, maybe the player absolutely wants to make use of the trait Insistent Benefactor while no one in the party has Spell Resistance, cf. infra -
I understand Sanctuary will not break in this case as this isn't an attack.

2/ What if Reach metamagics aren't used, the range is back to touch? Is a touch attack necessary? Assuming the opponent doesn't know any spellcraft and doesn't want to be touched by the Cleric he has just seen cast something, I understand a touch attack is necessary. Does such an attack break Sanctuary?
My understanding is that it does break as trying to touch the opponent is an attack.

3.a/ Now the main case, assume once again Reach metamagics and this time the opponent has Spell Resistance. Does the Caster Level Check break Sanctuary?
My understanding is that it does break on the ground that this is clearly an offensive action even though Caster Level Checks are not attack rolls.

3.b/ [Included in the case where my understanding of 3.a is incorrect] Same as 3.a but Spell Resistance isn't a trap for a P.C. who has it, as it can be decided on the fly to lower just for a specific spell, much like deciding to fail a save on purpose.
In this case, I understand Sanctuary would break.

There are hence cases where having to perform a Caster Level Check is an attack yet they are not attack rolls. This doesn't sit well with me so I turn to you. What are your thoughts on the matter?