For the purpose of spell-casting, what constitutes an ally - obviously party members and friendly NPC's... but what about Animal Companions, familiars and eidolons? What about summoned creatures? Temporarily charmed or dominated creatures?
I've been unable to find an official definition for the term 'ally' as it relates to who is included in spells cast.
It's not officially defined, so we've always played it as targets that the caster believes are allies.
I believe the "whoever the caster of the spell views as an ally" is the answer that most people use - our group included. Just my 2cp to combine with SlimGauge's to make 4cp towards the "discretion of the caster" answer.
I believe the "whoever the caster of the spell views as an ally" is the answer that most people use - our group included. Just my 2cp to combine with SlimGauge's to make 4cp towards the "discretion of the caster" answer.
That was how I had intended to play it... just wondered if there was a prohibition against 'temporary' allies like summoned or charmed creatures.
So allies basically means 'creatures the caster wants to target', regardless of the circumstance - if he believes they are allies then they are.
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Agreed that it's up to the caster who their allies are.
However, be sure that whatever's affected actually qualifies to be affected. For instance, a buff that only affects humanoids wouldn't apply to most summoned critters. And some spells, like Bless as an obvious example, only apply to allies who were within range at the time the spell was cast. So new allies summoned into the party after the Bless was cast don't get the Bless bonus, while allies who were affected and then move out of range do still get the bonus.
I agree with the "whoever the caster of the spell views as an ally" and have played that way.
The only concern that I'm thinking of is, could this method lead to a "selective targeting" issue in area effect spells? For example: a player casts an area effect spell that targets allies, and for some reason does not want it to apply to certain party members. Choosing to see those omitted characters as "enemies" instead of "allies" at a convenient time for the spellcaster.
Or, vice versa. Choosing not to include "enemies" in an area effect spell that targets "all enemies". I don't know why a player would want to exclude a harmful spell from any enemy, but I'm sure a specific situation could arise.
Isn't that what the feat Selective Spell is for? Maybe Selective Spell feat doesn't apply because there are no spells that fit the spell prerequisite of the feat for the above situations. I haven't really checked.
So, just a minor concern...
Selective spell is mostly there for "don't hit the fighter with your fireball", not, I believe, ally/enemy effects like bless/bane.
I'm just saying IF there were a spell that targeted a group of allies or enemies with an instantaneous duration, you wouldn't need the Selective Spell feat if you could just pick and choose who was going to be affected anyways.
I don't know if such a spell exists to have any significant effect concerning the feat, so it's probably a moot point anyways.
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You wouldn't need the feat for that spell. Spells that target allies or enemies are already always "selective." However, many blast spells do not have Selective built in. The metamagic feat allows you to add Selective to those spells for a slightly higher spell slot. If you use a lot of blast spells, it's very worth it.
As an analogy, Shout has no somatic components. It is essentially always "Stilled." Applying the feat Still Spell to Shout is meaningless. Does this mean that Still Spell is a meaningless feat?