I think the point people are trying to make with the Phase Spiders is that you can't ready an action for something that you don't know is there.
That first surprise round of one or more Phase Spiders popping in and biting someone (who they'll be right next to) is likely to work right off the bat. Their poison is nothing to sneeze at either. Readying an action for the spider to pop back into the material plane means that you're not spending your standard action trying to help your party member (or members).
If this is the first time that the party (but not necessarily the players) has encountered phase spiders, then immediately readying actions on the 1st round of combat (after the initial surprise round) smacks of metagaming. Despite the thing being a Large-sized creature, it essentially pops in and out of existance in less than 6 seconds. I'd ask everyone who wasn't attacked to make a (relatively easy) perception check. Anyone who saw it gets to make a Knowledge roll to ID the critter, or spend a round describing it to someone who has the skill (while doing something else too if they want, since talking is free). Maybe it was an illusion? An unusual manifestation of a spell effect? Imagination? If they ID it right, or if it makes another attack, that's when the party should realize the particular nasty strategy of this critter and start making the appropriate readied actions.
If your idea of fixing slumber is to simply not use most of the monsters in the books, and/or only use them as hoards of mooks, ....Well, in general there's some give and take. A good DM would never go all the way here. Occassionally a DM has to give an encounter where the Witch's Hex will really work -- and some where it won't. Otherwise the DM would just be trumping the PC's good stuff. That's the same as a DM constantly using NPCs with Uncanny Dodge, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Fortification and such so the "Rogue-that's-broken-with-Sneak-Attack" isn't broken anymore. You gotta give the Enchanter the occassional monster with a low Will Save; you gotta give the Ranger his Favored Enemy, etc.
I remember a campaign where a friend of mine played a Dragon Shaman (Gold) and thus eventually got the immunity to fire, He threw an encounter with some fire based spiders and failed to realized that he had acquired the immunity, needless to say, we used him as an anti-firewall and dealt with the monsters much easier.
...After that encounter we never saw a mob that dealt fire damage...
Whenever something succeeds it's save, go down feigning sleep anyway. When they rush in for a Coup, hit them with something really nasty, like a huge Channel Neg, or Empd/Maxd AoE spell centered on you. You definitely shouldn't do that every time, but even once might make them a bit hesitant in the future.
Whenever something succeeds it's save, go down feigning sleep anyway. When they rush in for a Coup, hit them with something really nasty, like a huge Channel Neg, or Empd/Maxd AoE spell centered on you. You definitely shouldn't do that every time, but even once might make them a bit hesitant in the future.
When a targeting magical affect is made the "caster" for lack of a better word knows if you made the save or not. There is a feat in 3.5 that would allow you to fool casters though. It is in Unearth Arcana.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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When a targeting magical affect is made the "caster" for lack of a better word knows if you made the save or not.
This is specifically stated for Spells, but does it also apply to Supernatural abilities?
I'd probably rule it does, but unless there's some place I'm missing that says so, a rules lawyer type could argue otherwise.
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Whenever something succeeds it's save, go down feigning sleep anyway.
Yeah. I do this kinda stuff only when the BBEG (or whoever) learns about the PCs' favorite tactics, not when the monsters are dumb mooks or when they have no real knowledge of the PCs.
But yeah, it's a great trick I learned here on the Boards a few years back in a Thread that asked if a Vampire could Bluff being Turned even when it's not and then Dimension Door right behind the PCs after being out-of-sight-out-of-mind.
When a targeting magical affect is made the "caster" for lack of a better word knows if you made the save or not.This is specifically stated for Spells, but does it also apply to Supernatural abilities?
I'd probably rule it does, but unless there's some place I'm missing that says so, a rules lawyer type could argue otherwise.
No, but it is generally understood. The stacking rules for penalties are also under spells, but they would apply to supernatural abilities also. That is one section I wish they would have rewritten.