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According to the PRD the Aura is constant centered on the creature with a DC to avoid the effect.

1) If you leave the aura, do you lose the benefit?
2) Is the aura a EX, SU or SP?

Thanks

An Aura can be of many different type and you must read the creature, spell or ability description to know what it is. For example:

Clerics, Paladin, Inquisitors and many other classes gain auras from their domains. Of the many divine domains I looked at (I didn't look at them all) they where listed as SU. And all that I saw had words in their descriptions like: While in the Aura, While within the area of affect, effects end once leaving the Aura/Area of Affect, etc. They also usually stated they only last a number of rounds based on level.

Most creatures with Auras seem to be typed SU as well. But not all.

An example of an Aura that is EX is a Dragon's Frightful Prescence (EX). Its description in part reads... Opponents within range who witness the action may become frightened or shaken. The range is usually 30 feet, and the duration is usually 5d6 rounds. So in this example the effect of the Aura Persists for 5d6 rounds even if you leave the area of affect of the aura.

And example of a creatue with an Aura that is typed (Sp) would be the Azata, Ghaele and its Aura of Holy Aura. That ability would seem to be covered under the rules for Spell Like Abilities where it says in part:

Spell-Like Abilities (Sp) Spell-like abilities are magical and work just like spells (though they are not spells and so have no verbal, somatic, focus, or material components). They go away in an antimagic field and are subject to spell resistance if the spell the ability is based on would be subject to spell resistance.

A spell-like ability usually has a limit on how often it can be used. A constant spell-like ability or one that can be used at will has no use limit; unless otherwise stated, a creature can only use a constant spell-like ability on itself...

I believe, "A constant spell-like ability or one that can be used at will has no use limit;" to be an adjective descriptor to the Ghaele's Constant Holy Aura (SP) and not meaning to include also its At Will Abilities.

If so that would mean its : At will—aid, charm monster (DC 17), continual flame, cure light wounds, dancing lights, detect thoughts (DC 15), disguise self, dispel magic, hold monster (DC 18), greater invisibility (self only), major image (DC 16), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only)

Would all only be useable on its self and not on other creatures. And that would make no sense for the attack powers and the Greater Invisibility and Teleport already labeled as (self only) being redundant

So I have a couple questions that came up during a gaming session that I am looking to get an official answer on. My cleric of Desna used Greater Planar Ally to temporarily gain the services of an Azata Ghaele for our party. The questions concerns the Ghaele’s Holy Aura ability.

In the creature’s stat block it lists it having: Aura Holy Aura And then lower after that it lists Spell Like Abilities: (CL 13th) Constant - Holy Aura.

In our back and forth debate by email, one of our players said:

A creature's aura is not the spell. If you are in the radius of the aura, you are under its effects; there is no maximum number of creatures effected. Once you leave the aura, you no longer have any effects from the buff, as it does not persist outside the aura. So, he (the Ghaele) can effect limitless amounts of creatures within his aura radius, but once they step outside of it (or he turns into light form), they no longer have the buff. If they step back in, they have it.

So the first question I had was:

Does the AURA work or if you will; affect the real world when the Ghaele is Incorporeal in his light form?

My contention is that his Aura will work. The Light form in its description says other than the form being of Light it is the same as the Bralani Azata’s Wind Form. When you read the Bralani Wind Form it specifically states it can use its Spell Like Abilities in both his Wind and Physical form.

The description goes on to further describe the Wind Form as being like Wind Walk, which itself goes on to say it is like Gaseous Form. Both of which give a type of an Incorporeal form… and Incorporeal has its own entry. All 4 entries are consistent and to me definitively state that Spell Like Abilities can be used and also affect beings that are Incorporeal. So in my mind its clear, when the Ghaele is in his Light Form his Spell Like Ability AURA of Holy Aura affects the real world.

Question two is the Aura Holy Aura as per the Cleric spell, which all the same number of targets and duration? Or do Auras work a little differently than spells, so their effects do not persist, but end immediately when you leave the area of effect of the Aura?

My contention of what an AURA is and means is: A Spell Like Ability that is Constant or Always On. And that it DOES function as the spell. On the Official Paizo PRD web site in the Ghaele stat block immediately after Aura it says Holy Aura as a hyper link. And when you click on it, it directs you to the spell description which says it affects up to 1/ per caster level and has a duration of 1 round/ per Caster Level. Then below that in the Ghaele stat block under Spell Like Abilities it says Holy Aura is at Caster Level 13.

So I read it as the Ghaele can affect 13 creatures… Not Unlimited or as Many Creatures as are in the area of affect as my friend said.

I also read it as the effect continues to persist 13 Rounds once you leave the AURA as listed in the Spell Duration and DOES not end immediately as my friend said as well.

I believe the Ghaele’s ability is like a Ghast’s Stench ability. Once you walk into the area of that ability, you are affected. And even if it moves away or you move out of the Stench, you are still affected for the duration of the effect of the Stench.

I also found several other examples of monsters in their stat block that had AURAs; that when they referred to an existing spell of the same name the links all directed to the actual spell description. I did not find any that said anything like: This Aura is similar to the spell (fill in the blank) but is only in effect while creatures remain within the area of affect and end immediately once you leave the area… Or any other words similar to that.

I also couldn’t find any specific section of any published rules describing an Aura to be something different than the spell. I would think if Auras were different then there should probably be some kind of general description or mechanic that you can look up… Like if a creature has say the Rend or Pounce ability you can go and specifically look up their description.

I also stated that when I went to Hero Lab and looked at the character sheet I made up for my Ghaele; there it lists in the description the same as for the spell… The Duration and Number affected as 1/ per caster level.

So for all these reasons I believe AURA to mean a Spell Like Ability that is Constant or always on. So once you move into the area of effect of that Spell or Spell like ability you apply its power as per its description and so Holy Aura should persist for 13 rounds after you leave the Ghaele’s aura.

So on those two points of contention, I would like to find out which of the interpretations on the two questions is correct.

I personally think a check should be made individually after every event that occurs that would require a concentration check. As soon as a concentration check fails, the spell is interrupted and at that point its over... Or as long as the caster continues to make the checks he/she can continue casting.

I think waiting till the end of the spell completion and totaling all the cumulative effects at the end is just plainly wrong. And let me give a somewhat exaggerated example to illustrate my point of view.

The big bad guy is surrounded by his loyal henchmen who are protecting him as he begins to cast a VERY long spell to destroy a town. As he begins to chant the words to a Greater Planar Ally Spell (casting time 10 minutes) to summon a Demon; a hero who has managed to infiltrate his henchmen in disguise, sees what may be his only opportunity to save the helpless town. He stabs the big bad guy with his dagger 1 minute into the spell hoping to interrupt the casting. He succeeds in wounding the caster before he, himself is cut down by the henchmen...

So, do we have to wait 9 more minutes before we see if he interrupted the spell? (assuming the Big Bad Guy takes no more damage in that time.)

Or do you roll a caster check right there and then?

I would think as the Big Bad Guy who can cast that level of a spell he would know weather or not his spell was ruined or not... Or maybe you as a GM might only give him a Spellcraft Check; while he is continuing to cast for him to determine that. But certainly if he knows his spell is ruined he's not going to stand there another 9 minutes, casting for no reason and risk more possible attacks.

Granted this is about the most extreme case possible, but any casting that takes extra time like a summoning spell or applying some meta magic feats can result in a similar micro scenario. Once a spell is ruined the caster is going to stop casting and do something else. They are not going to continue wasting their actions till the end of what would have been the ruined spell's completion.

As for multiple smaller attacks not likely to disrupt a spell now; well that is not that unreasonable. Hitting a caster with a couple small, stinging attacks might not be enough to stop them. That caster's life might literally depend on getting that spell off to preserve their own life by destroying their enemies, healing themselves, allowing them to flee or whatever. But if that raging barbarian who's power attacking shoves 3 feet of steel through that wizard's stomach... Well that's usually enough to disrupt a spell.

There are just tradeoffs. Having a readied wand of magic missiles to disrupt a caster... it might work... You won't miss... You don't have to worry about that pesky mirror image like the Barbarian does. You just have to hope you get some good rolls on those d4s and hope the caster in turn rolls low on his concentration check.

Now if you had multiple people, all with readied actions, that say snuck up on the wizard as he is in the middle of his nasty summoning spell... And on a signal they all launched at once... the Wizard firing his wand of magic missile who was cloaked in invisibility, at the same time the Ranger and Rogue who both stealthed up fire a bow and throw a dagger... Assuming all hit due to surprise and catching the wizard flat-footed, then all that damage I would say should be added together to determine the Concentration Check DC. In that case a couple of small attacks could easily equal one massive hit.

A friend and I were talking about the Pages of Spell Knowledge and we can see a potentially big problem with them. The thing that makes the sorcerer powerful is versatility; they can cast any spell known, anytime they want, and can cast more spells per day than other equal level caster. This was balanced by not knowing many spells.

I can see issues in the future, especially at higher levels, with Pages of Knowledge totally ruining that balance and make selecting a Sorcerer (or other Spontaneous Caster) a no-brainer decision when it comes to selecting a caster class to play.

Of course, Wealth by Level guidelines will help with balance; if adhered to, since PAGEs are not cheap. But I am proposing a NERF that may seem severe on the surface, but really isn't so bad on close examination.

First: PAGEs become another one of those items that are sort of bonded to the character. You have to have them in your possession for 24 hours to attune to you before you can use them.

Second: You are limited to Caster Modifier x 1/2 Caster Level in total spell levels of PAGEs attuned to you at any one time. This is in keeping with other Pathfinder Item rules and limits the amount of extra spells you can have, without completely gimping the item.

So for example a Sorcerer with a 20 Cha (+5) at Level 20 could have 5 x 1/2(20) = 50 Levels in Spells from PAGEs. That still provides massive versatility. They could have several level 9 spells if they wanted, or a whole lot more spells of lower levels... I can already hear some people complaining bitterly at even this NERF; but its really not much of one. If your GM adheres anywhere closely to the Wealth by Level Guidelines, a Level 9 spell PAGE is 81K... If you bought 5 Level 9 PAGEs, that would be half your total wealth. So in reality its a very mild NERF, that still allows this item to provide the tremendous versatility that is truly a gift from the gods.

On a side note, a Scroll should be sufficient for a spontaneous caster like a Sorcerer to create a Page. A Sorcerer already knows how to channel and release magical energy naturally and would need no instruction on that. The scroll would only provide the template, circuitry, pattern, what have you... which is imprinted into the PAGE for the spontaneous caster's energy to follow and create the desired effect. Otherwise a spontaneous caster would be limited to creating only PAGEs for spells they already knew; which would be virtually useless for their own use... Maybe they could create a PAGE of a spell they know and plan to swap out later when they level. But that would be about it. And with the rules of selling magical items they couldn't even sell the PAGES for a profit.

I believe its intended a spontaneous caster with the Craft Wondrous Item Feat and able to meet the appropriate Crafting requirements be able to create a Page of Spell Knowledge for a spell on their class list; but that they do not know in this fashion.

I know I am late to the discussion, but here are my own 2 CPs on Pages of Spell Knowledge on almost every issue raised in this thread.

With a simple analogy I think of the difference in Arcane and Divine Magic as similar to Alternating Current and Direct Current (AC/DC). Both are essential the same energy but they differ in how they are transmitted. And taking the analogy further the differences in sub-types of Arcane and Divine energies can be further differentiated like the electrical systems in different countries are by frequencies... 50 hz, 60hz, etc... Wizard Frequency, Bard Frequency, etc.

Page of Spell Knowledge: ... It contains the knowledge of a single
arcane or divine spell (chosen by the creator when the item is crafted).

So if found as a random piece of treasure its type; Arcane or Divine must first be determined... if its not part of gear on a specific caster class; then which you can reasonably assume it would be of that type.

I think the rule on UMD on the Ring of Revelation makes perfect sense. A Sorcerer trying to use a Divine Page of Spell Knowledge to cast a Cure Light Wounds could trick the item into working... But without spell slots of DC (Divine Current), the Knowledge on how to cast the spell contained in the Item are simply non aplicable and it wouldn't work.

If the Sorcerer does have levels of a Divine Caster of a high enough level then he could operate the item... Which would make the whole use of UMD likely pointless since they could just use it with their Divine Casting ability anyway... Alternately if they were a Mystic Theurge and had a Class ability to essentially convert AC (Arcane Current) to DC (Divine Current) then I would say they could use their Arcane Casting slot to power the item... if for some reason their Divine Casting was not of sufficiently high level to do so, or they had already expended those spell levels for the day and they were not available for use at the moment.

Now if the PAGE were created as a Bard spell of Cure Light Wounds I do not think a Sorcerer should be able to activate it. Yes, they both use AC (Arcane Current) but they could be said to differ in the frequency, cycles per second analogy. But I would say the Sorcerer could use UMD to duplicate a Bard's casting and on a success be able to momentarily modify the energy of his spell slot to that of a Bard's and allow the PAGE to operate. But the Sorcerer could not activate the PAGE directly with out UMD and just using his spell slots to power the item.

Vice versa, a Page containing the Knowledge of say Magic Missile; a spell not on a Bard's Spell list, but using AC (Arcane Current)... Then a Bard using UMD could also attempt to make use of the item and power the Page with their available spell slots.

In a related question on another forum here: On Pages of Spell Knowledge

For the sake of simplicity, there is no difference between an arcane and divine scroll or wand in Pathfinder Society Organized play. Thus a bard and cleric may both use the same scroll of cure moderate wounds.

Note the part, the page of spell knowledge is not a scroll or wand.

This makes sense to me. Pages are NOT scrolls or wands. The energy for those items are already provided in their creation; all that is required is a magical ability to "Flip the On Switch". For a PAGE you must provide the power and hence the difference. UMD allows you use... "turn on" a device powered by its own self contained power source. But it does not allow you to power it... Some items may allow you to "Power" them with the spell energy you possess, but that would be a function of the item, not UMD. Even though you may be using UMD to operate said item.

In regards to constructing a PAGE; from APG P. 282 the requirements... include feats, spells, and miscellaneous prerequisites such as level, alignment, and race or kind... etc.

A non caster with the Master Craftsman feat might be able to make one of these, but most likely not with out some assistance with all the penalties they are going to have.

+5 for not having the spell... I would argue having a scroll wouldn't cut it. It would provide the magical power in creating an item, but a PAGE specifically provides KNOWLEDGE so you can channel your energy to power the item. Other Wondrous Items, Wands, Rods, Staves, Scrolls, etc., are fully self contained ready to go items. PAGES are instructions in Do It Yourself.

The Master Craftsman NPC is also going to have more penalties if not a high enough Level and I would add also; not of the right Class, since they are not a caster class at all... This on top of the final line of the Master Craftsman description: You cannot use this feat to create any spell-trigger or spell-activation item... Which I would contend PAGES are.

So if its even possible for a non-caster to create a PAGE, its not going to be easy. Not without having assistance to overcome all those penalties. An NPC is not going to be cranking these out solo without a lot of failures; greatly increasing their material costs and thereby selling price or creating cursed items instead.

That said a scenario like this could occur: A party's Cleric with Craft Wondrous Item could construct a PAGE of Spell Knowledge of Cure Light Wounds for the party's Sorcerer. But it would have to be a Bard's version, and the Sorcerer would have to use UMD to activate it since no such spell exists on the Wiz/Sor list.

Having the Creation Feat already makes the Cleric high enough level, so no penalty. But they are not a Bard, so a penalty there in the conversion; unless they have a Bard to help them in the creation. Also that PAGE would now be a BARD version of Cure Light Wounds and thereby only useable by Bards... or an Arcane Caster using UMD to fake the requirements. Or possibly a Mystic Theurge or Divine Caster with a similar Theurge like ability where they can convert Divine to Arcane energy casting.

Similarly a Sorcerer could make a PAGE of Magic Missiles for a Bard that they could use with UMD... but again no such spell exists for a Cleric. So unless the Cleric has Arcane Casting Ability as well, that PAGE would be useless for them even if they had UMD.

As for the Spell-Fetch (SU) ability to power a PAGE of a spell you can't normally cast: I think that should work. But why would you? Just have the Genie bring you the spell. You don't even need a PAGE at that point... Sorcerer's with that ability can already cast such a spell for the next 24 hours as if they knew it. A Wizard might gain a slight benefit by not having to memorize it multiple times.

Mystic Past Life (SU) and Esoteric Magic (EX) seem to be a variation to a lesser degree of the Theurge ability. They give you the ability to convert the type of spell energy you posses to the opposite (AC/DC) for that SINGLE spell. If you selected such a spell and added it to your list, you don't really need the PAGE, since you can already do that without a PAGE... If you're a caster that prepares spells and you either used the spell already or didn't Memorize it for the day but now want to cast it, then a PAGE could be beneficial. But in any case, I would say you meet the qualifications to use a PAGE of that one single Spell, since it is on your Spell List. And its not overly powerful. In the case of a spell you already used a Pearl of Power would do the same thing as a PAGE in this case; albeit only once per day.

And my final thought is on concerning the use of PAGEs. I believe most everyone agrees you need them in your possession for them to work; but I would say inside a Handy Haversack, Glove of Storing, Portable Hole, etc. would not qualify. Those are extra dimensional spaces and the effect of the PAGE is not specifically stated to have transdimensional capabilities. Just as any other continuously operating item placed in such a space does not penetrate into the real world; or can be activated once inside... That said, I would definitely invest in a water-tight Mithral scroll case, sealed book or like item to protect these incredibly valuable items from damage.

So basically I would split the difference of the arguments down the middle; likely making neither side happy, but none the less a fair and rationalized compromise I believe.