I’m hoping for some help in understanding how to apply spell resistance generally and in some specific cases from a Pathfinder RAW perspective. I’ve read the information in the rulebook from pages 217-218 and the glossary.
Still I’m not sure how to resolve “The Spell Resistance entry and the descriptive text of a spell description tell you whether spell resistance protects creatures from the spell”, “Spell resistance has no effect unless the energy created or released by the spell actually goes to work on the resistant creature's mind or body. If the spell acts on anything else and the creature is affected as a consequence, no roll is required”, and “Spell resistance prevents a spell or a spell-like ability from affecting or harming the resistant creature, but it never removes a magical effect from another creature or negates a spell's effect on another creature.”
There are some spells which have “spell resistance: yes” in the spell stat block without clarifying information in the descriptive text so I want to check how these statements interact with some specific spells.
For example wall of ice allows spell resistance. This spell has variable effects and I’m not sure if or how spell resistance applies to each – the ice plane and the hemisphere. Given a situation where a caster creates a wall of ice plane between the party and some monsters with spell resistance. Is there a spell resistance check to allow the monsters to pass through the wall as if it weren’t there? Is there a spell resistance check only when the SR creatures might take damage? What about the hemisphere form again to enclose the party? This form of the spell deals no damage so I’m not clear if the spell is affecting the spell resistant creatures’ minds or bodies if they’re not enclosed in the hemisphere.
For the spell shillelagh, the spell lists spell resistance: yes (object). Does this mean the caster must beat the object’s spell resistance for the spell to take effect? (The valid target is a nonmagical club or quarterstaff.) When a druid uses this transformed weapon against a creature with spell resistance, is there a spell resistance check to see if the weapon acts as its original form thereby losing its enhancement bonus and deals its pre-shillelagh damage?
The spell shield of faith lists spell resistance: yes (harmless.) When a spell resistant monster attacks a character who is under the effect of shied of faith, is there a spell resistance check? If so, what does the result mean?
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and respond.
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I hope that some of this helps. First you have to understand that SR (Spell Resistance) is always active unless suppressed by the creature who has it, which means when you cast a spell on an ally with SR you have to bypass it to affect them, even if it is harmless. Now a character can lower their SR but doing so leaves them vulnerable for a while.
Wall of Ice: The SR would be done at the time the creature touches the wall. In which case the creature would either ignore the effect if you fail your SR check or still be affected if you pass.
Shillelagh: The spell targets an object not a creature, so the SR would only apply if the target of the spell (the object) has SR not the creature struck by the object. Think of this as if you are just using a magical weapon, which isn't affected by SR.
Shield of Faith: This spell states that it is harmless, which usually means that you would only cast it on an yourself or an ally, and that is where the SR comes into effect. So with SoF you don't have to worry about SR against the attacking enemy, it only applies if the target of the spell has SR.
Just remember this: If the spell directly affects a creature you have to bypass their SR but not if the spell affects something else that is used against the creature.
Thank you for the reply. That makes sense for the spells shillelagh and shield of faith.
Wall of ice in my original example still confuses me. Based on the rules for spell resistance, I had thought the spell resistance applied after breaking through the wall when the potential damage takes place for the ice plane form.
For the hemisphere form to shelter the party, I had thought there would be no spell resistance check. I thought it fell under the case “spell resistance has no effect unless the energy created or released by the spell actually goes to work on the resistant creature's mind or body. If the spell acts on anything else and the creature is affected as a consequence, no roll is required.”
Instead, for both forms of the spell failing to beat a spell resistant creature’s SR means the spell does nothing (it doesn’t have to break through the ice for example) with respect to that creature. Is that correct?
Thank you for the reply. That makes sense for the spells shillelagh and shield of faith.
Wall of ice in my original example still confuses me. Based on the rules for spell resistance, I had thought the spell resistance applied after breaking through the wall when the potential damage takes place for the ice plane form.
For the hemisphere form to shelter the party, I had thought there would be no spell resistance check. I thought it fell under the case “spell resistance has no effect unless the energy created or released by the spell actually goes to work on the resistant creature's mind or body. If the spell acts on anything else and the creature is affected as a consequence, no roll is required.”
Instead, for both forms of the spell failing to beat a spell resistant creature’s SR means the spell does nothing (it doesn’t have to break through the ice for example) with respect to that creature. Is that correct?
Wall of Ice is a confusing example. The hemisphere form of the spell would NOT allow a SR roll, as the SR creature is not affected by the spell at that juncture. The wonky part may be where the SR creature attempts to move through the wall, in which case the interaction between the spell and the SR creature incurs an SR check to avoid damage, but I don't think it allows an SR check to ignore the physical/blocking nature of the wall. Compare with Wall of Force (also an evocation spell), where the physical/blocking nature of the wall itself is not subject to SR.
Thank you both for the replies. I’ve almost got a handle on spell resistance. I did have one follow up question that goes into what for me is a gray area - the shadow conjuration spells.
Say a spellcaster used shadow conjuration to mimic mage armor. During the spell's duration that caster is attacked by a creature with spell resistance, would the GM role an SR check? If so, what would a failure to beat the SR mean?
I think that the best answer to your question on the Shadow Conjuration spell has already been answered here:
Shield of Faith: This spell states that it is harmless, which usually means that you would only cast it on an yourself or an ally, and that is where the SR comes into effect. So with SoF you don't have to worry about SR against the attacking enemy, it only applies if the target of the spell has SR.
Just remember this: If the spell directly affects a creature you have to bypass their SR but not if the spell affects something else that is used against the creature.
Since a Shadow Conjured Mage Armor affects another creature to protect it, this particular effect would not interact with SR (unless you try to protect an ally with SR, in which case it would have to overcome his SR in order to function on him).
Effectively, you could use the description of Target, Saving Throw and SR baseline of the Shield of Faith spell and superimpose over the Mage Armor spell - as you can see, the only difference here is that a Mage Armor spell (being from the Conjuration school) has no SR. However, a Shadow Conjured Mage Armor has one; the question is, which kind of SR effect ? Since all the other descriptions among Shield of Faith and Mage Armor are the same (and even the effect is very similar), you could simply substitute the entry for a S.C. Mage Armor with a SR:Yes (harmless).
Please note however that a Shadow Conjuration used to emulate a Summon Monster spell would create a quasi-real illusion that tries to harm the creature with SR, and so it would have to overcome his SR in order to do that - a failure to bypass SR should not destroy the quasi-real illusion (all right, this can be debated), but it would surely prevent the quasi-real illusion to harm the creature with SR.
Just my 2c.
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That is exactly what would happen. It is similar to the effects of fireball, say you cast a fireball on a group and only one has SR. Now you would have to bypass the SR for the spell to effect that creature but the spell still happens and affects all the other creature regardless of how you do on the SR check. If you fail the SR check then that creature is immune to the effects of the fireball. The same would apply with a summon monster spell, web, etc.
Great! That makes sense. Thank you all!