aaron Ellis's page

Hello all. I have concerns about the Irradiate spell. The spell's entry seems to be incomplete as written. Specifically regarding what happens on a successful save and to a lesser extent what happens on a failed save. The spell says the save is Fortitude partial - see below, but the spell description never actually details the partial save effects.

As a player, my last party got wiped out by a couple of Druids spamming the spell. As played at the table, targeted creatures who made their saves against the spell still took half damage from it. At CL 10 spells we were looking at between 1d4 and 2d4 CON *drain* every time the spell hit us.

After the TPK, I started GMing Iron Gods for the same group of players. I will likely be throwing Irradiate spells at the PCs in the near future and would like a bit of clarification before I use the spell in my game.

So my multiple-choice question to the community and/or the devs is as follows:

What are the Irradiate spell's effects if targeted creatures succeed on their saving throws against it?
A) targeted creatures take no CON drain and no STR damage
B) targeted creatures take full CON drain but no STR damage
C) targeted creatures take no CON drain but full STR damage
D) targeted creatures take half CON drain and half STR damage
E) targeted creatures take half CON drain and no STR damage
F) something else happens _________________________

On paper, Irradiate looks overpowered when compared to other spells at the same level (Fireball, for example). There is no easy remedy for the ability score drain and no good defense against it.

Ideas? Suggestions?

My players have recently stumbled upon an army of intellect devourers inhabiting the brain cavities of a tribe of morlocks..

Also, the Hexcrafter Magus in the party has recently gained the Ice Tomb hex (and I thought Slumber was bad).

Last session, the magus encased a morlock vessel in ice, trapping both it and the intellect devourer still in its cranium. The next round he CDG'd the morlock with an adamantine x4 crit weapon to its head.

At the table, I ruled that half of the CDG damage went to the morlock and half applied to the intellect devourer. Both creatures still failed their Fort saves and died.

I'm looking for advice on other ways I could have handled the situation. Any ideas out there?

Hi all,

A player of a Hexcrafter Magus with the Healing hex wants to know if his character can use a Cure Light Wounds wand without needing to make a UMD skill check. I haven't seen anything in the rules that allows Su abilities to count as spells for wand activation.

I'm on the fence about it. Is there a ruling I've missed that discusses this use and its legality?

If nothing official has been said about it by the Devs, what are your opinions on the matter?

While we're at it, what about wands of Levitation, Fly, Feather Fall, Disguise Self, Tongues, Comprehend Languages, etc.?

I'm really enjoying Ultimate Campaign. Still trying to absorb it all, though. I'm currently obsessing over the new retraining rules, specifically, can simulacra retrain existing skills, feats and even class levels?

The existing rules for simulacra and power are . . .

"A simulacrum has no ability to become more powerful. It cannot increase its level or abilities. If reduced to 0 hit points or otherwise destroyed, it reverts to snow and melts instantly into nothingness. A complex process requiring at least 24 hours, 100 gp per hit point, and a fully equipped magical laboratory can repair damage to a simulacrum."

It's clear that simulacra can't increase their power, but can they swap skills? Change classes? Can they fiddle with feats? The rules as written seem to permit all of these.

What are your opinions? How would you rule on this?

Since the Plane Shift spell is capable of sending unwilling targets to other planes on a successful touch attack and a failed will save, this seems to be a viable in-combat option.

A few levels ago, I got grief when I declared that my chaotic good Barbarian 1/Oracle of Lore 14 was going to send a captured enemy to the Ethereal plane. The general consensus at the table was that it would be an evil act.

I didn't agree with the group, but retracted the action anyway. The character now keeps a demiplane in existence to use as a dumping ground for certain enemies, but I'm still curious about the morality of the originally planned action.

So what is your opinion of exiling an enemy to the Ethereal plane? Would your opinion of the act change depending on the destination plane?