Hi. I ordered a butt ton of pawns- am very excited. Saw that orders usually ship in 7-14 days.
Still pending at 14 days . . . just wanted to make some noise in case I should be concerned.
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I've got a cleric with the darkness alternate channeling. Basically cast darkness with every channel, even says in the description it works as the spell 'Darkness.' Unsure if darkness negates non magical sources of light in the area or not. Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness. Magical light sources only increase the light level in an area if they are of a higher spell level than darkness. Now, is this saying that these sources can't increase it from what it would be naturally in an area of darkness? Meaning that if there is no natural light (ie night, underground or no moon) the light level is actually 'dark' and the torches can't increase it (and darkness then drops it one lower which does nothing). or this phrased incorrectly and they do increase the light level, but it was intended for you to apply darkness afterwards. Dark, + torch = normal, - darkness = dim.
I'm finding the wording... vague. Have a neutral cleric channeling negative energy. Decided, make it interesting with alternate channel: darkness. Darkness alternate channel:
Darkness: Heal—Creatures gain low-light vision until the end of your next turn. At cleric level 5, they gain darkvision 30 feet as well, increasing this range by 30 feet for every 5 cleric levels thereafter.
Harm—The illumination level in the area drops by 1 step, as darkness, for 1 minute. At cleric level 10, the light level drops by 2 steps. At cleric level 15, it drops by 3 steps, and areas of dim light or darkness become supernaturally dark (even creatures with darkvision cannot see within it). So, normal variant rules: Always half damage, will save to negate the secondary effect. I would think this means, half damage, fail the save the channeled area appears dark. Make save, isn't dark. Similar to the darkness 1st level domain power, touch of darkness. But the 'as darkness' part concerns me. Darkness just makes darkness, in an area, no saves for anyone. Is the channel area just getting a darkness spell cast on it? In which case, even with selective channeling I'm blinding my allies? And come level 15, even with dark vision, I'll blind myself? Fire's alternate channeling doesn't effectively throw a fireball at his feet... so why would darkness?
Read the rules, but seems a bit... extreme. Some drowning rules:
Drowning
Any character can hold her breath for a number of rounds equal to twice her Constitution score. If a character takes a standard or full-round action, the remaining duration that the character can hold her breath is reduced by 1 round. After this period of time, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution check every round in order to continue holding her breath. Each round, the DC increases by 1. When the character finally fails her Constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hp). In the following round, she drops to –1 hit points and is dying. In the third round, she drowns. Unconscious characters must begin making Constitution checks immediately upon being submerged (or upon becoming unconscious if the character was conscious when submerged). Once she fails one of these checks, she immediately drops to –1 (or loses 1 additional hit point, if her total is below –1). On the following round, she drowns. If you fall unconscious while submerged, or in water (as I can't see you passing swim checks unconscious), you immediately take a constitution check. If you fail you lose a hit point (whatever). Next round, if you fail the check you drown. It's DC 10 con, +1 each round. Seems a little... nuts that you can get knocked out and drown in 6 seconds. Odds are that you'll drown in about 12 seconds. Corner issue: if you heal someone that's negative, and drowning, do they stop drowning? Or do they just wake up making con checks in a near drowned state?
Recent points on the forums have noticed some things, curious what everyone else's take on it is. Mine is that animated objects are both objects and creatures: 1) objects take half damage from energy attacks and apply hardness:
Animated objects in effect have 'improved evasion,' because they take half damage from energy attacks, and if they make their save, no damage. (I'm thinking 0 damage and not 1/4th damage because all multipliers/dividers are done as additions or subtractions of the base value, not actual multiplication, like x2 a x2 makes it a x3, not x4, so inversely it's .5x - .5x, not 1/2 times 1/2 X). Actually, it's better than improved evasion since it takes half on all energy, say rays or flaming enchantments, etc. Some may argue that no, animate objects are creatures so they lose their special object energy resistance. I personally don't see why a statue suddenly becomes more flammable if it was to move. Animated objects gain the broken condition when they fall to half hit points or less. Golems and other constructs are not subject to this oddness. Only animated objects, because they are objects. On objects in Additional rules: Energy Attacks: Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.
Ranged Weapon Damage: Objects take half damage from ranged weapons (unless the weapon is a siege engine or something similar). Divide the damage dealt by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Ineffective Weapons: Certain weapons just can't effectively deal damage to certain objects. For example, a bludgeoning weapon cannot be used to damage a rope. Likewise, most melee weapons have little effect on stone walls and doors, unless they are designed for breaking up stone, such as a pick or hammer. Immunities: Objects are immune to nonlethal damage and to critical hits. Even animated objects, which are otherwise considered creatures, have these immunities.
So, If I were to throw a merciful metamagic fireball inside of a building, the damage type is both non-lethal and fire. Fireball states that it sets combustibles aflame, melts certain metals, etc. Now the question is, what happens when my merciful fireball is thrown into a building with a cluster of guards? Does it knock out the guards and leave the building and the various furniture and papers untouched? Maybe just knocked around from the force of the blast? Or does the fireball still blast out the walls, lighting fires, but leaves the guards unconscious, singed, but unkilled? (assuming I don't do too much nonlethal damage).
It looks like while a character can get craft construct at level 5, he cannot successfully make a construct until much later. So I've got this level 5 Wizard (human) with 20 int. Actually went and got Craft Wondrous Item at lvl 3 (who wouldn't?!) and for the sheer amusement factor, Craft Magical Arms and Armor and yes, Craft Construct with my bonus wizard feat. However the rules for crafting constructs are quite ... scattered. I'm not looking into making golems, just construct animated objects. Half the rules are in Animated Objects in the bestiary and the rest, including the information on price and components, didn't show up until Building and Modifying Constructs in Ultimate Magic. Making construct animated objects is the easiest... but even they require: Requirements: Craft Construct, animate objects, permanency; Skill Spellcraft or appropriate Craft skill (established earlier as CL 11) So, the check to make the construct starts at 16, (CL 11 +5). I'm not meeting the CL requirement, so +5 again, to 21. I don't have permanency yet, as it's a level 5 spell, +5 to 26. And I can never get animate objects as a spell, since it's not on the wizard's list so +5 again to a total of 31. Doesn't appear to matter how big or small the animated object is, it's (right now) a DC 31 spellcraft to make it. My spellcraft right now is a base +13 (+5 int, 5 ranks, +3 class skill bonus). So to pull off making a construct, I'd have to roll an 18. Did I do this correctly? It's that hard? If so, any clever ways to get my wizard safely into the take 10 category so I can craft my terracotta foo dogs? Right now, I'm resigning myself to first making an arcane tool kit (wondrous item, competence bonus to spellcraft) to get the job done.
So playing an empty handed monk (for the luls) and finding that one of my most effective tactics to the team has been to grapple big dangerous things and pin them. Even got the pleasure of chucking an advanced troll off of a cliff... Anyway, big bossy creature fight in an adventure module. Large creature with 4 claws and rend nearly KO'd the fighter in one round. I (somehow) managed to grapple the sucker. We both gain the grappled condition... Grappled: A grappled creature is restrained by a creature, trap, or effect. Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple. In addition, grappled creatures can take no action that requires two hands to perform... [abridged] 1) So does this mean that it can't make a full round action to attack the heck out of the fighter? 2) Or does the wording simply imply that it can't take any action that requires 2 hands to work in unison (such as fire a bow). In which case it could full round attack... but I would prevent the use of its rend... 3) A thematic interpretation would imply I disable one of its hand/combat appendages, meaning that it could full round attack... but only with 3 claws (and not being able to get rend). Ie, monk on the back bending back one arm and holding onto its neck as it savages the other combatants. 4) Or would you always disable all hands but 1? (somewhat nonsensical) 5) A literal interpretation would imply that grappling has no effect on non-hand appendages. So if I were to grapple an octopus it'd still have 8 tentacles to do whatever it willed. (personally, not in favor of illogical rules lawyer interpretations). Now discuss, internets. |