Oracle's Life Link and Shield Other / Unwilling Shield Question.

[Elias Darrowphayne]

Ok so this question is something that I don't expect to come up much because it was rather strange that I found myself in the situation but i need a little bit of a rules clerification. (:P)

So, I'm playing an eldrich Godling out of SSG's Guide to Mystic Godlings.
I have picked sorcerer casting as my spell list and just got to level 13 and picked up Unwilling Shield as a spell known as its on the sorcerer list. Now I picked up Divine Portfolio I at level 12 using the human godling favored class option which gives me a divine trait rank at every even level and Chose the Life Link ability of the Life domain.

I planned on being able to use the life link ability on my party and then once a big baddy comes around cast Unwilling Shield on it.

This brings up a number of questions for me.

I: at the start of my turn i take 5 damage per ally that has Life Link on them and is under Max HP -5. Since I have Unwilling shield active do I half this damage and give it to the enemy? And in what order do I half it? As each 5 comes in or as a total as it all happens at once. As Unwilling Shield states you transfer any Hp damage as a result of an attack or special ability so I figured this would work.

II: Life Link is very vague on if a creature can be effected by it more then once. The ability states you can have a number of active bonds equal to your Oracle level (Godling level for me), but is silent on if a creature can be affected by a bond more then once.

III: What happens when I have the life link active and the party's cleric casts Shield Other on me? And what if the cleric tries to cast it on me while i have an unwilling shield active?

IV: What happens when you have two Unwilling sheilds active at one time? Ex: Fighting two frost giants and I cast Unwilling shield on A and use my rod of Quickening to cast it on B, and on A's turn he smacks me for 20. Do I take 10 and they both take 10? 5?

Any help on this would be very much appreciated as I feel i've found a dreadful combo, hope i didn't as my dm might ban my character just for having the ability to do this. I mean it would be fricken cool but I don't want to get my godling banned.

[Elias Darrowphayne]

Bump for relevance.

[Rocky Williams 530]

Ok, this is just my gut. I've no clue if it's right according to the rules but...

I: Yes, you halve the damage. I would say you halve each 5 point of damage, that way if the creature drops dead, all the way dead not dying, all remaining damage is taken by the character.

II: I would say one bond per creature. If it doesn't say multiple bonds per creature, I'd say it's meant to be one per one. Though I suppose you could also argue the opposite, the first way just seems more right.

III: If you just have shield other, it's halved like Unwilling shield would do. If it's Shield Other and Unwilling Shield... I guess you halve the half?

IV: I would say no to two unwilling shields being active. Based on.. Gut feeling? And flimsy rules-lawyering of you can't stack the same bonus. Since you can't stack the AC bonus of the two unwilling shields, you can't stack the affects.

If those reasons don't work, I'd say, were it my game, I'm the DM, that's the way it's gonna work, deal with it. :)

If you're worried about your DM banning the character, go to him/her with your concerns, and just explain you want to play the character, but would like to come up with a reasonable way of doing it, and not breaking the game.

[Elias Darrowphayne]

Thanks Rocky, i appreciate the input. it does seem like you are right for two unwilling shields, as the ac bonus doesnt stack so why would the damage absorbe effect? The only hole i can point in this is the spell from Faiths of corruption that asmodeous made, think its mutual sacrifice? Its like unwilling shield but you dont get the ac bounus, its a 2nd level cleric/summoner, inquisitor spell. And there is no Ac bonus to use as a reference for stacking. The reason this comes up as I have a metamagic rod of Chaining.

I'd appreciate other people's opinions as well.

[Rocky Williams 530]

Are you wanting to use this potentially banning combo? Or are you trying to get someone to say officially it won't work? If you're worried your character could be banned, tell the DM about the combo worries, and promise not to do it, or work out a set of reasonable rules regarding the abilities. Like mine for example ;)

I don't know your DM, but I had a similar thing once with. I said something before he had the chance, offered what I felt was a reasonable alternative, and he went with it. You might have the same luck.