I've got a player interested in learning Master's Mutation, from the Monster Summoner’s Handbook, to apply adjustments to her summoned creatures. Reviewing the spell, it seems to have not been fully fleshed out for the Poison and Constrict adjustments, so I'm soliciting opinions on how those would work.
Master's Mutation:
You can mold the ephemeral substance of the Outer Planes, mutating one summoned creature that you control to better suit your needs. Select up to two of the following abilities and grant them to the target for the spell's duration: burrow 30 feet, climb 40 feet, constrict, darkvision 90 feet, ferocity, fly 60 feet (average maneuverability), grab, jet, low-light vision, poison, rake, scent, swim 60 feet, trample, trip, or water breathing.
Additionally, instead of selecting an ability, you can replace one of the target's primary natural attacks with another natural attack that deals the same amount of damage, such as replacing a Medium target's bite attack (1d6) with a gore attack (1d6). If you choose to alter a creature's natural attacks, all attacks of the chosen type are altered. A summoner can target his eidolon with this spell.
Constrict: Would you allow it to apply to only one natural weapon, to one type (bite vs claw), or to all natural weapons of the creature? I'm leaning towards one type, but would like input. Note that Master's Mutation also allows you to grant Grab, Rake & Trip - with the same question resulting in each case.
Poison: First question is same as above - single, type or all? I'm leaning towards single here. The second question is, while the Poison ability identifies the general rules for the DC, the spell neglects to identify the effect. What's most common? STR, CON or other damage? I'd like to give the player some general guidelines, like "adding poison to any mammal gets you Poison with the bite & it's 1/round for 6 rounds, effect 1d3 Con, cure 2 consecutive saves; Elementals, same but effect is 1d3 Str, ..." Any suggestions on a framework for this?
A creature with this ability can poison those it attacks. The effects of the poison, including its save, frequency, and cure, are included in the creature’s description. The saving throw to resist a poison is usually a Fort save (DC 10 + 1/2 the poisoning creature’s racial HD + the creature’s Con modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature’s descriptive text). Poisons can be removed through neutralize poison and similar effects.
I'm puzzling over some potential interactions & could use some RAW input.
First, Spell Resistance. Spell Resistance states that "A creature's spell resistance never interferes with its own spells, items, or abilities." Does this allow a spellcaster with Spell Resistance to cast haste on multiple targets, including herself, and have it affect herself without an SR check?
I ask because we've always played that casting on self caused an SR check unless you drop SR for the round. We've always taken the quote above to indicate it doesn't interfere with existing spells, items & abilities, but not newly cast ones.
Second, Lavender and Green Ellipsoid Ioun Stone. While the description of this stone doesn't indicate what type of action it is to absorb a spell, the Wayfinder resonance entry for this stone indicates "If the bearer is holding the wayfinder, he may use the stone's absorption ability as an immediate action instead of a readied action." In the case of this ioun stone being used by a creature with Spell Resistance, does you first check SR, then absorb (assuming you had the action to do so), or does absorption come first?
Lastly, my search-fu hasn't turned up any errata entries for the ioun stone, but if it's a readied action to use it without a wayfinder, it's value goes down dramatically. Is there any errata out there that changes the type of action?
My Sorcerer found himself on the wrong end of a Prismatic Spray and is now on one of the levels of Hell, trying to find his way home.
Sorcerer 6/DD 8 - but as a non-optimized Fire specialist, I don't have a lot of spells that will affect Devils. I really don't want to get in any 1-on-1 combats, but it's likely that at some point it will happen. Summon Monster VI and Enervation seem to be my best spells for dealing with 1-on-1 combat.
I'm wondering people's opinions on the efficacy of Feeblemind to reduce a Devil's use of offensive SLAs. I know the SLAs still work, as they're not spells, but would you expect a creature with an Int of 1 to do anything other than approach (possibly using Teleport or Fly to get there) and melee? Would you think they'd not use their Summon SLAs or offensive SLAs like Scorching Ray, etcetera?
What happens when a Flying creature is affected by Terrible Remorse? Does it keep flying, do a controlled glide landing or fall (possibly taking falling damage)?
Terrible Remorse:
Show:
You fill a target with such profound remorse that it begins to harm itself. Each round, the target must save or deal 1d8 points of damage + its Strength modifier to itself using an item held in its hand or with unarmed attacks. If the creature saves, it is instead frozen with sorrow, can take no actions, and takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class.
My reading of RAI is that since the completed save results in one round of no actions, then during the preceding failed save round or rounds the only thing the target can do is damage itself, not move. Also, my impression is that a target's concentration is broken upon a successful casting of the spell on the target.
Does that then imply that a target using a Fly spell would stop flying? The Fly spell would not be cancelled, so the effect of the end of spell (float down to ground) wouldn't occur, but without conscious direction, would the flying creature fall? Hovering is a specific maneuver requiring a fly skill check - so I'm pretty sure that's not a valid option.
I'm of the opinion that a flyer (either magical or natural) that fails it's first save would fall, but looking for arguments both for and against this point of view.
Note: I'm not looking for discussions of the overpowering nature of Terrible Remorse's 1 round/level RAW issue. That's already been resolved in a separate thread -
Jason Buhlman wrote:
Hmm..
This one has a bit of an error in it. The spell was meant to end after the "do nothing round" if you made your save, not continue on, round after round.
