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When exactly in the next round does Detonate occur?
One round after completing the casting of the spell, the energy explodes from your body.
Say, for instance, that an elemental sorcerer takes a move action then casts Detonate. Next round he casts Elemental Blast, then twiddles his thumbs (this is a move equivalent action doncha know). Does the Elemental Blast occur before or after the damage from Detonate? The point of course is, does the vulnerability of Elemental Blast happen before or after the Detonate damage.
I'd like to "shock and awe" my PCs with a lower level NPC, and wanted to make sure that this potentially powerful one/two punch is kosher. I don't see any reason it wouldn't be, but just making sure.
I have to wonder why the designers made the spell timing so unusual.
I'm trying to think of uses for this, and so far can only think of one thing: Star Trek!
"The Enterprise has initiated a self-destruct sequence. All friendly vessels have x minutes to get away before she blows and takes out the nearby bad guys!"
Also, the timing is going to make it a little bit of a pain to figure out when the spell goes off, depending on when you cast it:
Scenario 1:
Round 1
1. Move Action: move
2. Std.Action: cast Detonate
Round 2
1. Move Action then Standard Action OR Standard Action then Move Action OR Full round action
2. Detonate goes off
Scenario 2:
Round 1
1. Std.Action: cast Detonate
2. Move Action: move
Round 2
1. Move Action OR Standard Action (OR full round action)
2. Detonate goes off in middle of round (either after your first action or in the middle of your full round action?)
Gah... help me out here....
generally, 1 round after is considered at the start of your next turn. residual damage from acid effects happen then, as would the execution of the blast on a delayed blast fireball.
I would say that unfortunately, you couldn't perform the above example, but that's IMO.
I would normally agree with Archmagi1 but typically spells with a casting time of 1 round (for example, Summon Monster) go off at the start of your next turn because you spent the entire round casting it.
However, Detonate has a casting time of 1 standard action (just like Fireball), except that the designers went out of their way to specify that it goes off 1 round after completing the casting of the spell. So it seems we have a different situation here.
generally, 1 round after is considered at the start of your next turn. residual damage from acid effects happen then, as would the execution of the blast on a delayed blast fireball.
I would say that unfortunately, you couldn't perform the above example, but that's IMO.
I would normally agree with Archmagi1 but typically spells with a casting time of 1 round (for example, Summon Monster) go off at the start of your next turn because you spent the entire round casting it.
However, Detonate has a casting time of 1 standard action (just like Fireball), except that the designers went out of their way to specify that it goes off 1 round after completing the casting of the spell. So it seems we have a different situation here.
....what about the residual acid effect argument? you have not addressed that.. a damage effect caused by a standard action casting time spell that happens at the beginning of the turn. i would think that the detonate wording is close enough to delayed blast fireball that it would be ruled to go off whenever a delayed blast fireball goes off. i think it would be cooler to be able to do something on that round, before the detonate goes off, but frankly i'm not sure when a delayed blast fireball is supposed to go off....still looking for that one. i know its on these boards somewhere.