Tons of questions part 2


Rules Questions


Most of these rules questions came up during an encounter against a Lycanthrope druid by a bridge between two big boulders, which I GM'd.

General questions:

1A) Damage Resistance: Lycanthrope has 10 DR/Silver, does that only apply for weapon type damage? What about magic damage inflicted by weapons?
What about "energy type damage, such as fire and acid?
I told my players that fire acid bypassed DR. (My logic was that resist energy was a different category)

1B) What about the Spiritual Weapon spell that deals force damage?

2) The party faced an Owlbear and a grizzly bear, both of them having the grab ability, which gives them a free grapple action that does not provoke an AoO. A couple of questions arised, despite that we used the famous grapple table (I know, we are such noobs).

2A) Does grab action (grapple) the same for every creature? What about the grizzly bear? Does he hold the creature down prone? What about attacks after someone is grappled? Does the owlbear and grizzly bear have to use their standard action to maintain grapple as everyone else? Or can they maintain grapple and use bite?

I hope I am being clear, because I couldn't see the immediate advantage of a creature grappling someone (the exception being that the creature being grappled gets -4 Dex bonus and -2 atk rating, and that he has to use his turn to get out of the grappled condition).

2B) One of the player was holding a two handed weapon, would the grapple condition make him use the weapon one handed? (What penalty would that give?)

Spells and Magic, how do they work?

3A) Entangle, if the creature was able to dodge the initial effect (reflex), does the player have to roll the next round to avoid being entangled again? (He remained still and attacked nearby enemies).
3B) What if he tries to move out of the entangled area and hasn't been entangled so far?
3C) If one tries to move through the entangled area (from outside) does one check suffice?
3D) I might have screwed up the DC, but I came up with DC20 for a level 6 druid lycanthrope, does that seem a bit high?

4A) Call Lightning, if I have read correctly.
The caster must use one full round to prepare the spell, after that round, he can unleash a lightning bolt once every round.
What kind of action does that require? How many rounds?

4B) The druid got hit by a player in melee, was I right that he needed to do a concentration check?

5A) Heat Metal, can it be dispelled by a witch hunters spellbane, does it have to be lethal damage? (one of the PCs got hit by Heat Metal, can the Witch Hunter dispel it?)
Was I fair in saying that create water did not remove the effect of heat metal?

5B) Does the damage stack if you are using a metal weapon, armor and shield? Does the damage get reduced if he drops his weapon and/or shield. Does the spell only target one piece of metal on the target?

6) Storm Burst, are there any particular point of this spell?
The only use I saw was that it would increase the lightning bolt if the target was dumb enough to stay inside that area?

I have a feeling some of these questions are dumb, but I couldn't find any quick answers to these during the session, so I house ruled most of them. And I want to learn them properly for the next group's session.

Thanks again Paizo Community!


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1.Unless the magic does weapon type damage such as, slashing damage, then it bypasses DR.

2A. Rule X works the same for every creature unless otherwise stated. Grapple also does not make you prone. They still have to use a standard action to maintain the grapple, but if you make the check to maintain the grapple then you apply the damage from whatever appendage you are using to establish the grapple with.

2B. He can not use a two-handed weapon while grappled

Spells and Magic, how do they work?

3A) Yes he has to roll again.

3B) He had to make it out of the area on the round he makes the save to not be affected.

3C) If you move into the area then you must make a save.

3D) It is not too high, but the DC is dependent upon the druid's wisdom modifier so I can't tell you if the DC is correct or not.

The formula is 10+spell level+relevant casting modifier.

4A) You made me go to the book for this one. :)
You must use a standard action in the following rounds

PRD wrote:
Each round after the first you may use a standard action (concentrating on the spell) to call a bolt.

4B) Yes

5A) The only spellbane I found was for the inquisitor class. What is the name of the witch archetype that has spellbane?

Create water does not counter heat metal.

5B) The spell only targets one item.

6) The only storm burst I can find is this one.

Spoiler:
As a standard action, you can create a storm burst targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The storm burst deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage + 1 point for every two cleric levels you possess. In addition, the target is buffeted by winds and rain, causing it to take a –2 penalty on attack rolls for 1 round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

That is a ranged attack, not an area attack, which means it requires an attack roll and only affects one person. It does not fill an entire area. If there is another ability with the same name could you provide the source for it?


1) Thanks for clarifying :) I might houserule the high weapon enhancement that bypasses DR (I am aware that there is a scale)

2B) Does the grappled creature lose all his weapons/items he was currently holding? Thanks for clarifying the damage, I didn't see the big point about grab at first.

3D) I am so stupid, the DC was 15... The NPC card actually specifically said that...

4A) sorry about that, hehe :)
I reckon if he skips one/two rounds, he can still cast a lightning bolt as a standard action?

5A) Witch Class 3rd Party

Spellbane:
At 5th level the witch hunter can attempt to use the spellbane power as a standard action. The witch hunter makes a melee touch attack. If it is successful, the target is affected by the spellbane and this counts as a successful use of the ability. Spellbane functions as the targeted dispel ability of the dispel magic spell. A witch hunter may have a number of successful uses of spellbane per day equal to 3 + his Wisdom modifier.

5B) Thanks for the clarification, makes more sense now.

6) I misread on the "target any withing 30 feet".
So I guess the only use of this spell is to spam it at one person to make him become unconscious? If I remember correctly, one has to do nonlethal damage equal to the amount of the Total HP (not current) and he will become unconscious? Even if that wasn't the case, it is not worth the standard action it requires. If the penalty to atk rolls lasted longer and buffed the lightning bolt damage (I know it doesn't, I am only thinking out loud :P) it might have been worth it.

Anyways, if you could answer my follow up questions, that would be great. Also thank you very much for taking your time to answer my questions, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get the rules right by Wednesday (I have two different groups that more or less play the same encounter each group)


2B. The grappled creature does not lose he weapons, he just can't use any two-handed weapons.

4. Yes he has until the duration of the spell expires.

5A. It can be dispelled. Any spell that has a duration can be dispelled, even permanent spells unless the spell itself says otherwise.

6.It is just a 1st level ability for when you have nothing better to do really. Maybe the victory is 99% in hand so you don't want to waste any spells, or maybe your ranged weapon is out of ammo.

With nolethal damage you only have to meet their current hp, not max hp. Both of them should be tracked seperately. What I do is count down with normal hp, and I count up with nonlethal damage. If they meet the the victim is unconscious.


amir90 wrote:

2) The party faced an Owlbear and a grizzly bear, both of them having the grab ability, which gives them a free grapple action that does not provoke an AoO. A couple of questions arised, despite that we used the famous grapple table (I know, we are such noobs).

2A) Does grab action (grapple) the same for every creature? What about the grizzly bear? Does he hold the creature down prone? What about attacks after someone is grappled? Does the owlbear and grizzly bear have to use their standard action to maintain grapple as everyone else? Or can they maintain grapple and use bite?

I hope I am being clear, because I couldn't see the immediate advantage of a creature grappling someone (the exception being that the creature being grappled gets -4 Dex bonus and -2 atk rating, and that he has to use his turn to get out of the grappled condition).

You're right that an owlbear (for instance) doesn't get much out of continuing to grapple one opponent when there are a bunch of other opponents attacking it; it does much more damage with a claw/claw/bite. One thing it can do, however, is hold on to its opponent (with Grab) until next round and then when its turn comes up again it can stop the grapple and continue claw/claw/biting.

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