A few questions came up in tonight's session, and I figured I should know the answers before reporting back to my players, so:
1. Enthrall has a somatic component. In my head, the evil bad guy was going through his evil guy monologue, casting enthrall, and favorably positioning himself for combat. I tell the party, at the end of the monologue, that they noticed the bad guy moving into position, but were enthralled and the action didn't register with them. Do the PCs get to make Spellcraft checks to identify the spell as it's being cast? Does Enthrall have an actual verbal component beyond the full round of speaking required to cast it? Can an evil caster hide the somatic component behind a facade of Italian style hand gesturing?
2. Druid summoned some stirges, that have no reach at all, meaning they have to be in the space of the creature they attack. Can the druid summon them into the space of a creature, or do they have to be summoned on an empty space and then moved? Can stirges use a 5-foot fly to avoid AoO?
3. I thought I read somewhere that animals or any other creature with an Int of 2 or less didn't register illusion spells. Therefore spells like Mirror Image or Major Image or Phantasmal Killer didn't effect creatures of animal intelligence. I can't find that anywhere, but I know it's come up in the past. Am I imagining things?
Shameless bump in hopes my questions will be answered.
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A few questions came up in tonight's session, and I figured I should know the answers before reporting back to my players, so:
1. Enthrall has a somatic component. In my head, the evil bad guy was going through his evil guy monologue, casting enthrall, and favorably positioning himself for combat. I tell the party, at the end of the monologue, that they noticed the bad guy moving into position, but were enthralled and the action didn't register with them. Do the PCs get to make Spellcraft checks to identify the spell as it's being cast? Does Enthrall have an actual verbal component beyond the full round of speaking required to cast it? Can an evil caster hide the somatic component behind a facade of Italian style hand gesturing?
2. Druid summoned some stirges, that have no reach at all, meaning they have to be in the space of the creature they attack. Can the druid summon them into the space of a creature, or do they have to be summoned on an empty space and then moved? Can stirges use a 5-foot fly to avoid AoO?
3. I thought I read somewhere that animals or any other creature with an Int of 2 or less didn't register illusion spells. Therefore spells like Mirror Image or Major Image or Phantasmal Killer didn't effect creatures of animal intelligence. I can't find that anywhere, but I know it's come up in the past. Am I imagining things?
1.)[It's my opinion that...] In addition to speaking, there is Somatic component, a clever eye may have noticed this. But the speaking part is just that, you're guy is 'talking' not intoning mystical things and mumbo jumbo! The spell is Language Dependant, meaning if you speak in Giant, to commoners, it will fail.
Using the rules for Spellcraft, yes, they probably should of gotten a save as they were in fact paying attention, or else how did they get enthralled in the first place? ID'ing a spell requires no action, if you see it you should get the check (spellcraft DC is 15 + Spell Level)
2.) [Opinion] Hrm. Never ran into this scenario, I don't think I like the idea of using summons to summon into an occupied area however. And would lean no, you can't do that. I got no rules that I can quote about that though right now. As far as making a 5' adjustment while flying, I think your best answer is to read the flying skill for rules on minimum distance traveled, hover, etc. Not 100% on that one, but Probably no 5' fly step. I don't see that though anywhere, I could be wrong.
3.) I never heard of that rule. Nor can I find any supporting text under the magic rules for illusions and low int. I'd assume they work just fine on animals that are not immune to mind-affecting spells.
Thanks for the feedback. Didn't think anyone would pay attention.
1. I think in the future I will allow a check to notice the spellcasting. I can't imagine it'll come up again, as this was the first time I've used Enthrall in a game, but it does kill the imagery I was going for. Plus, these spellcraft checks have such low DCs, it'd be nice if there was a way for spellcasters to disguise the fact they're casting a spell. Not to mention that we're talking a druid and a sorcerer in the party. Neither can actually cast Enthrall, nor have probably ever seen Enthrall cast. It's like, how would they know what the spell was? I think these rules are silly.
2. I think I agree with the no summoning into an enemy's space, even if the creature is tiny with no reach. And the question really is whether a creature with no reach can 5-foot step into an enemy's space to attack them without provoking the attack of opportunity. I know that this is a frequent tactic in our group, summoning hordes of stirges to drain the Con of large enemies. I think it's cheap, and this would balance it a lot.
3. Yeah, it's weird. Maybe I'm thinking of a different system, or perhaps I'm thinking of an entirely different medium. Or maybe I'm thinking of vermin or something.