If a player wants to interrupt a spell caster casting a spell, they can do him damage so that he has to make a concentration check.
My question is .... what damage counts?
Is it all damage done to him during the round up to his initiative? eg
Warrior 1 moves on initiative 20 and hits him for 4
Warrior 2 moves on initiative 19 and hits him for 8
Wizard on initiative 17 has to make a concentration check taking 12 points of damage into account.
Or is it only damage done by readying an action to strike him if he casts?
Warrior 1 moves on initiative 20 and hits him for 4
Warrior 2 moves on initiative 19 and Readies an action to attack the wizard if he casts a spell.
Wizard on initiative 17 starts to cast.
Warrior 2's readied action is triggered and he hits him for 8
Wizard has to make a concentration check taking 8 points of damage into account.
I have run combats the second way for years and recently took part in game where a player argued they had always done it the first way.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
The rules for the Concentration skill can be found here.
Among other things, it says a check must be made for each distraction -- which would mean each separate attack (any attack before his initiative) in this case.
Hope it helps with your question :)
Jack
The rules for the Concentration skill can be found here.
Among other things, it says a check must be made for each distraction -- which would mean each separate attack (any attack before his initiative) in this case.
Hope it helps with your question :)
Jack
That seems wrong as why would he have to make a Concentration check if he not even casting a spell at that time?
What it actually says in the SRD is: You must make a Concentration check whenever you might potentially be distracted (by taking damage, by harsh weather, and so on) while engaged in some action that requires your full attention.
If you run it as you suggest, it kind of makes the Readying tactic redundant, as you could just fire at any time in the round instead of waiting for the character to cast.
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That seems wrong as why would he have to make a Concentration check if he not even casting a spell at that time?
What it actually says in the SRD is: You must make a Concentration check whenever you might potentially be distracted (by taking damage, by harsh weather, and so on) while engaged in some action that requires your full attention.
If you run it as you suggest, it kind of makes the Readying tactic redundant, as you could just fire at any time in the round instead of waiting for the character to cast.
You are correct, Orcwort. You only use damage done to the caster during HIS TURN to determine the DC for the concentration check, whether from an AoO or a readied action (or any other circumstances like continuous environmental damage, taking a 5'step and triggering a trap, etc.)
Yay!
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There are 3 circumstances in which a caster would have to make a concentration check for taking damage while casting.
1. Spell is interrupted by an AoO, readied action, or immediate action. That's a separate check for each such attack.
2. Spell with casting time of 1 round or greater. The caster has to make a check each time he takes damage while casting. If, while casting Summon Nature's Ally, a druid is hit once for 4 damage and once for 8 damage during the intervening round (1 round casting time) he has to make a concentration check each time, once for the 4 dmg attack and once for the 8 dmg.
3. Caster is taking continuous damage (from Melf's Acid Arrow or similar). The rules for that are listed in the PHB, I don't remember the specifics, but it's its own check.