OK, this is the situation: pirate ship attacking PC's ship. Both are moving at the same rate, the pirates have tossed over grapples and are preparing to board.
The cleric wanted to cast blade barrier on the pirate ship's deck so they would have to pass through it to board the PC's ship.
Now, the spell description calls it 'an immobile, vertical curtain'. Is it therefore anchored to the deck or to the spot over the ocean where it was cast?
In the first case, it moves with the ship, forming a lasting damage wall to those pirates.
In the second, they just wait until the ship moves out of range and the barrier falls into the ocean.
We weren't sure how to rule, so she cast Flame Strike instead. I don't think those pirates like us very much.
OK, this is the situation: pirate ship attacking PC's ship. Both are moving at the same rate, the pirates have tossed over grapples and are preparing to board.
The cleric wanted to cast blade barrier on the pirate ship's deck so they would have to pass through it to board the PC's ship.
Now, the spell description calls it 'an immobile, vertical curtain'. Is it therefore anchored to the deck or to the spot over the ocean where it was cast?
In the first case, it moves with the ship, forming a lasting damage wall to those pirates.
In the second, they just wait until the ship moves out of range and the barrier falls into the ocean.
We weren't sure how to rule, so she cast Flame Strike instead. I don't think those pirates like us very much.
It's up to the GM.
My ruling would be, it's up to the caster. If she targets it at the railing of the ship, then it's 'anchored' to the ship. Afterall, the planet is spinning and moving through space (if the world is earth like), so stationary should be relative to it's target.
If she targeted it between the ships, I'd rule it was targeted to that spot in space and the ships would sail on without it.
That could still be nasty, think about casting the blade barrier 10 feet in front of the ship at deck level, and then letting the ship's momentum shove everyone through the wall as it slowly chews deck, ropes, sails, crew etc as they float through it. :)
That could still be nasty, think about casting the blade barrier 10 feet in front of the ship at deck level, and then letting the ship's momentum shove everyone through the wall as it slowly chews deck, ropes, sails, crew etc as they float through it. :)
Freakin awesome!
For simplicity's sake, I would make any such effect relative to whatever planet or plane you happen to be inhabiting at the time of the casting.
If you allow it to move relative to the ship, or make it stationary relative to the entire universe, you open the game up to abuse.
Congratulations, your cleric just invented the wood chipper.
The item is fixed in space, on a set spot. If the cleric is moving on a ship, he effectively moves away from the blade barrier.
As a DM ruling, its something i might inform the players of: I'm sure in priest school they covered things like that for the character if not the player. At worst i'd let the cleric make a spellcraft roll to realize that's how it worked and give them a second or two to decide.
Congratulations, your cleric just invented the wood chipper.
The item is fixed in space, on a set spot. If the cleric is moving on a ship, he effectively moves away from the blade barrier.
As a DM ruling, its something i might inform the players of: I'm sure in priest school they covered things like that for the character if not the player. At worst i'd let the cleric make a spellcraft roll to realize that's how it worked and give them a second or two to decide.
Hehe yeah, The Shredder!
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For simplicity's sake, I would make any such effect relative to whatever planet or plane you happen to be inhabiting at the time of the casting.
If you allow it to move relative to the ship, or make it stationary relative to the entire universe, you open the game up to abuse.
Truth,
Otherwise you could cast it on a rock and then use any one of a dozen spells to make the rock fly around the battlefield, tearing through countless foes.
Thanks for all the responses.
mdt & GeraintElberion, I actually haden't thought of the 'Princess Bride/Holocaust cloak delivery system' mode. Ow.
Some clarification: this is a one-on-one game I run for my husband. The cleric was actually the npc patron and the highest level person on the ship. I wanted her to be doing something appropriately tactical, yet not overshadow the 4th level pc. My husband was the one who said he didn't think it would work that way, but thought it was a nice idea. So I switched spells and we agreed to ask for opinions here.
His interpretation is that of Ravingdork and BigNorseWolf, whereas I thought it just needed to be fixed to a solid surface as large as the spell surface, allowing the 'holocaust cloak' option but not the 'hovering wood chipper' option.
The spell effect/surface, btw, is a wall of whirling blades up to 20'/level, or a ringed wall of whirling blades with a radius of up to 5'/2 levels; either form being 20' high.
Thanks for all the responses.
mdt & GeraintElberion, I actually haden't thought of the 'Princess Bride/Holocaust cloak delivery system' mode. Ow.
Some clarification: this is a one-on-one game I run for my husband. The cleric was actually the npc patron and the highest level person on the ship. I wanted her to be doing something appropriately tactical, yet not overshadow the 4th level pc. My husband was the one who said he didn't think it would work that way, but thought it was a nice idea. So I switched spells and we agreed to ask for opinions here.
His interpretation is that of Ravingdork and BigNorseWolf, whereas I thought it just needed to be fixed to a solid surface as large as the spell surface, allowing the 'holocaust cloak' option but not the 'hovering wood chipper' option.
The spell effect/surface, btw, is a wall of whirling blades up to 20'/level, or a ringed wall of whirling blades with a radius of up to 5'/2 levels; either form being 20' high.
Ouch,
Just realized. If the ship is 30 feet across (not unusual), then a 12th level cleric could put the wall into a 30 foot circle in front of the ship and do the 'wood chipper' option so that the boat has to pass through the wall twice. :)Yeah, it's not really covered by the rules, so it's really up to the GM and group to decide what they want to do regarding walls on ships and such.
Also, I could be wrong, but I think there is a rule somewhere that if an object or creature is hit by a spell and is still within its effects, it doesn't take damage again from the same spell unless specified... though I'm definitely fuzzy on where I'm remembering that from, so please correct me if I'm wrong. Example from above: A 30' wide ship passing through a 30' radius blade barrier only takes damage once if any part of the ship is still being effected by any part of the spell, which it would always be because of its girth. A second example would be a 10 ft wide ship that is 40' long, that ship could pass through the blade barrier on one side completely before encountering it on the far side of the spell, and would therefore take damage 2x.
True enough, but I was more thinking about the people on the deck getting hit twice. It also depends on how you rule it. For example, it could be perfectly reasonable to treat different parts of the ship as just that, different. So for example, a sail is quite easily identified as a piece of something just tied to the ship, and get's hit twice. A mast perhaps, since it contacts the wall, then loses contact, then gains contact again. The people, cannons sitting on the deck (not that they'd take much damage).
As to it only damaging people... I don't see anything in the spell itself that would not damage objects. It's whirling metal blades. I could see it not damaging thrown knives, or even arrows (the blades are too far apart to hit the arrow reliably when it passes through). I think that rule was to keep you from putting a blade barrier against a wall and damaging it. It's easier to just require a clear space, so you can't set the blade so it's sawing through the castle's doors, for example.
Thanks Stubs.
So, I'd say that if a wall provides cover, and it's a force effect, then pushing a physical object through the wall would cause damage to the physical object. The whole point of providing cover is that the attack could hit the wall instead of the target. Which it can't do if it doesn't affect physical objects.
OK, this is the situation: pirate ship attacking PC's ship. Both are moving at the same rate, but in opposite directions. PC casts blade barrier on nose of his ship with the intent of ramming pirate ship, which is at this point 300 feet away. If pirate ship begins to head hard starboard, and PC's ship turns to port to intercept, on which round will they collide, with the expected result of pirate ship being turned to sawdust?
Rework problem if pirate ship were travelling at 30 knots and PC's ship were travelling at 35 knots.
Edited for clarity...