Inject Nanobots and Confusion


Rules Questions


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Inject Nanobots can cause the Confused state.

Inject Nanobots, pg. 361:
INJECT NANOBOTS 2

School necromancy
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch
Targets one living creature or construct
Duration instantaneous and 1 round/level; see text
Saving Throw Fortitude partial and Will partial, see text;
Spell Resistance yes

You concentrate key particles in your blood into tiny biological nanobots that you can inject into a foe with a touch, disrupting and damaging its natural processes. Make a melee attack against the target's EAC; if you hit, the nanobots deal 4d8 damage and swarm through the target's biological or mechanical systems, causing the creature to be confused, as per confusion, for 1 round per your caster level. If the target succeeds at a Fortitude save, it takes only half damage and negates the confusion effect. A confused target can attempt a Will saving throw at the beginning of its turn each round to end the confusion effect.

Casting this spell doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity.

Confused, pg. 273-4:
Confused
You are mentally befuddled and can't act normally. You can't tell the difference between ally and foe, and thus you treat all creatures as enemies, even your closest friends and family, if applicable. An ally who wishes to cast a beneficial spell on you with a range of touch must succeed at an attack roll against your Energy Armor Class, since you cannot be considered a willing target. If you are attacked while you're confused, you always attack the creature that last attacked you until that creature is dead or out of sight, unless it is otherwise impossible for you to attack it that round.

While confused, you can't make attacks of opportunity against any creature or thing that you aren't already committed to attacking. If you are not devoted to attacking a target, roll on the following table at the beginning of your turn each round to see what you do in that round.

D% BEHAVIOR
1–25 Act normally.
26–50 Do nothing but babble incoherently.
51–75 Deal 1d8 + Str modifier damage to self with item in hand.
76–100 Attack nearest creature.

If you can't carry out the indicated action, you do nothing but babble incoherently. Attackers are not at any special advantage when attacking you.

So I have a few questions about this.

Saving throws against Confusion
By my reading, in most cases a person would get two saves before acting confused: one when hit and another at the start of their turn. The only way to not give the second check would be to hit with an Attack of Opportunity or have a Readied Attack.

Is that correct?

Order of operation, spell damage and confusion
Would the spell damage happen before they become confused?

Normally a confused creature will attack the last one who last did damage to it. A Technomancer generally doesn’t want a creature to focus their attacks on them. If the spell causes the creature to always focus on the one who cast the spell, that seems like a problem.


Yep, you're reading it right about the two saves (One FORT, one WILL). Using this as a readied action or discharging the touch spell on an attack of opportunity seems to be a bit of a (mostly harmless IMO) exploit, as its clear that Paizo attempted to balance the powerful confusion effect by tossing multiple saves on it.

As for your second question, I wouldn't read it any other way than damage first, then confusion is applied. The spell is so weak already, that an additional nerf in the form of the target going after you immediately is unnecessary. But this is one where its vague enough that its probably up to your GM.


Yeah, the spell does damage, then there's a fort save. If the fort save is failed, then the target is confused. So the damage from your spell won't make the target attack you, since it happens before the confuse effect.

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