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At 4th level, a warrior of the holy light learns to use the power of her faith to bolster her defenses and aid her allies. This class feature replaces the paladin’s spells class feature. A warrior of the holy light does not gain any spells or spellcasting abilities, does not have a caster level, and cannot use spell trigger or spell completion magic items.
At 4th level, the warrior of the holy light gains one additional use of her lay on hands ability per day. She gains one additional use of lay on hands per day for every four levels she attains beyond 4th. She can spend a use of her lay on hands ability to call upon the power of her faith as a standard action. This causes a nimbus of light to emanate from the warrior of the holy light in a 30-foot radius. All allies in this area (including the warrior of the holy light) receive a +1 morale bonus to AC and on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws against fear as long as they remain in the area of light. This power lasts for 1 minute.
At 8th level, the nimbus of light heals the paladin and her allies, curing of them of 1d4 points of ability damage, as per the spell lesser restoration. A creature can only be healed in this way once per day.
I am playing a WoHL, and last night got tapped by a shadow, and later poisoned by a gargantuan spider. As I read this, this ability will come into effect when needed, as it is a continuous emanation. Either immediately when someone within it takes ability damage, or at worst, on my turn.
My GM had a different opinion, saying that it comes into effect only on the round I start it up.
Not only is this next to useless for anything but post-combat use, as it both bars me from being able to heal when needed, instead demanding I either wait until people have taken ability damage, forfeiting the use of the aura as a buff until that happens, or wasting even more Lay on Hands and standard actions. And depletes even more of a limited resource that the paladin relies on for survival. Sure, he gets a couple of more uses, but nowhere near enough to spam them on lesser restoration.
It just does not measure up power-wise in my mind. A regular paladin can get a relatively cheap wand of Lesser Restoration for post-combat use, or cast it as a lv1 spell. The power doesn't even mimic the spell, as it only restores 1d4 ability damage, but not fatigue.
So could anyone shed some clarity on this? Preferably a developer, but close to unanimous reinforcement of one side should likely decide as well.
My GM had a different opinion, saying that it comes into effect only on the round I start it up.
How does he justify this?
The ability clearly states that lasts for a minute and the 8th level improvement doesn't say otherwise.Does he realise that the effect just works once per day?
It's not like anyone inside the bubble is immune to ability damage, just 1d4, per day!
I'm not a Dev, but for what is worth, I think your GM should take into account that you are already forfeiting other abilities(spellcasting no less) by using the archetype.
You have my support.
My GM had a different opinion, saying that it comes into effect only on the round I start it up.
How does he justify this?
The ability clearly states that lasts for a minute and the 8th level improvement doesn't say otherwise.Does he realise that the effect just works once per day?
It's not like anyone inside the bubble is immune to ability damage, just 1d4, per day!I'm not a Dev, but for what is worth, I think your GM should take into account that you are already forfeiting other abilities(spellcasting no less) by using the archetype.
You have my support.
+1
He did not justify it.
I know I am in the right, I just need enough third parties to confirm it. All buffs function in one of the following four categories:
Target: (Any spell with the Creature Touched or Personal descriptor)
Easy to understand, no confusion to be had.
Burst: (Holy Aura, Bless, Prayer, most other spells that affect an area)
This is most spells, which has an effect that may LAST over several rounds, but has no continuous emanation that restricts the effectiveness of the effect.
X targets of which no two can be more than 30 feet apart: (Haste, Slow and similar spells)
Spell starts, as with burst, but you have control over targets of the spell.
Emanation: (Magic Circle, Antiplant Shell, Antimagic Field, Consecrate etc)
Continuous emanation means it affects when entering the area of the emanation. If you enter a Magic Circle Against Evil, you get the benefits of the spell even if you were not there when the cleric cast the spell. There is a specific clause in the Magic Circle that if you leave, you do not gain it upon re-entry. This is what they call an exception to the rule, and thus warrants a clause in the spell description.
For the Warrior of Holy Light aura's lv8 ability to be different from the normal rule for emanations, there would need to be a written exception.