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I think next time I run this I am going to have her play at being claustrophobic and having light deprivation sickness. Gives her a bit more of a pitiable appearance. Have her fight with one of her cronies about whether or not the PCs are dangerous and out to get them. If the PCs decide that she should wait a few moments she can suggest someone can come outside and watch them, while the rest check on her friends. It's going to involve lying, but I can't figure out how to do it without lying, and not look suspicious.
Apparently I described her wasting sickness in a way that the PCs thought she might be undead, which would have added to the suspicion. My idea was that she had peeling skin that would burn off every time she cast a fire spell. It sounded cool to me, but it didn't help her look inconsequential.
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I ran this one the last weekend, and with Kyle's advice and use of the third person was able to run it without Alarka ever making any statements that would be lies.
In running the final combat with the flame oracle, despite great placement, I had the wall of fire dispelled and the bandits split while a grappler character was able to approach and begin a grapple on the oracle.
With a nigh impossible CMD for her to escape, she was left with two choices - user her supernatural firestorm, or melee attack from within the grapple against the grappler (who in addition to having a high 30s CMD to beat, also had a high 30s AC to hit). Long story short, I quickly saw her tactics were invalidated with little option to cast any spells without somatic/material components.
I went ahead and used the firestorm ability to give this group something resembling a challenge, but noticed that firestorm doesn't have a lot of text in how it's written to adjudicate when exactly you take damage from it.
All it gives is:
Firestorm (Su): As a standard action, you can cause fire to erupt around you. You can create one 10-foot cube of fire per oracle level. These cubes can be arranged in any pattern you desire, but each cube must be adjacent to another and one must be adjacent to you. Any creature caught in these flames takes 1d6 points of fire damage per oracle level, with a Reflex save resulting in half damage. This fire lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. You can use this ability once per day. You must be at least 11th level to select this revelation.
Now, I figured this was essentially like a wall of fire. You'd take damage on the oracle's turn when they cast it. And on your initiative if you are "in the effect", you would take damage again. But that makes this a brutal ability as a PC could be hit with the damage twice before acting.
To try to determine what exactly to do here though, I looked at the fact that this is a 1X/day ability that requires 11th level, which means it should be roughly as powerful as a 6th if not 7th level spell. It does allow a saving throw and is easily countered by characters with fire resistance (the most common type) at this level of play, so maybe it can be this brutal for a reason?
So my question to many of you GMs who have run this multiple times -- how do you handle when firestorm does its damage?
1. If it recurs on the caster's initiative, does this mean a PC can enter the firestorm and leave it (passing through it) and take no damage because the storm isn't doing any damage on their initiative as it's only done on the caster's?
2. Does any contact on someone's initiative cause the damage? And if so does this mean the damage doubles up if the oracle casts the spell, you take the damage immediately and then you take your turn while inside of it before the oracle's initiative happens again?
3. If you answered #2 above that the damage happens only on the target's turn when they are in it, does that mean someone could do a reposition/drag maneuver to take you out of the firestorm that's cast on you, and you take no damage because you were ejected from it prior to your initiative?
TLDR: When does firestorm do it's damage? When the caster casts it? Recurs on caster init? Recurs on character init if exposed to it? If repositioned into it, at that point?
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TLDR: When does firestorm do it's damage? When the caster casts it? Recurs on caster init? Recurs on character init if exposed to it? If repositioned into it, at that point?
It's been awhile since this was posted, but since I'm prepping for it tomorrow, thought I'd chime in.
Persisting effects deal damage on the casters turn. Generally you should not be taking multiple instances of damage from things like Firestorm and Wall of Fire. (I'm not sure that there is actual text in the rules addressing this, but it is how I treat things.) The oracle evokes the storm, you take damage. If you don't get out of it, on the oracle's next turn, you take it again. If you weren't in the area and cross into it after the oracles turn, willingly or no, you take the damage for that turn. But only once per round. (In the case of repositions or moving into it, I would deal the damage then, count that damage for that turn, and if the character does not move out of it on their next turn, deal damage on the oracle's turn.) Generally speaking, I only deal the second instance of damage if the character has had a chance to escape first, as letting the oracle deal on their turn and then at the start of the victims turn isn't in keeping with the intent of the ability.